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I. Upon the first of thefe Heads, which is concerning the Certainty of Death, you have no Need that I fhould explain to you what I mean by Death, Ye all of you know, as well as I can tell you, that it is a Separation of Soul and Body; of which the natural Confequence is this, That whilft the Body is laid to molder in the Earth, and to turn to Duft from whence it was formed, the Soul returns (as the Wiseman speaks) to God who gave it, Ecclef. xii. 7. i. e. It lives no more in the prefent World, but enters upon a new and unknown State prepared for it by God, till it fhall be again united to it's old Companion at the Refurrection of the Dead, when both together must appear at the Judgment Seat of Chrift, there to be juftified or else condemned, and in Confequence of either one or the other, then to be received into everlasting Blifs, or fent away into eternal Mifery. This is a Defcription of the State of Death, even till Death shall be no more. But I don't propose to confider it in fo large a Senfe as I have here explained it: But only to fay what is requifite in relation to Death as it implies a Separation of Soul and Body, or a ceafing to live in the World

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we are in Which the Method I propofed S ERM. leads me in the firft Place to fhew to be the

common Fate of Men. It is appointed unto Men, faith the Text, once to die. The Word in the Original is very fignificant and expreffive: 'Arónea: It remains, it is reserved, and as it were laid up for them: It is a general Law from which none can be exempted, except those that shall be found alive at Chrift's fecond Coming. They in

deed, St. Paul tells us, fhall not die: The Time will not allow either that the Body fhall corrupt, or that the Soul fhall leave it: They will be fummoned in an Instant to appear before their Judge, who will not then defer his folemn Proceedings, till the Quick shall have Time to pass through the ordinary Forms of Mortality. However even these the Apostle affures us, muft undergo a very great fudden Change, which fhall be equal to Death, and inftantaneously put them into the fame State and Condition with those that have been dead and then rife again. For bebold, (faith he) I fhew you a Mystery, we Shall not all fleep, but we shall all be changed, in a Moment, in the Twinkling of an Eye, at the last Trump, (for the Trumpet shall found) and the Dead fhall be raised incorruptible, and

we,

XV.

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SERM. we, i.e. the Living, fhall be changed, 1 Cor.

XV.

XV. 51, 52.

The Hiftory of the Old Teftament indeed informs us of two that were never yet fubject to the Laws of Mortality, viz. Enoch and Elijah: the former of which was taken by God, or, as the Apostle explains it, by Faith was tranflated that he should not fee Death, Gen. v. 24. Heb. xi. 5. and the other also went up alive by a Whirlwind into Heaven, 2 Kings ii. 11. But now what, if even these are still to fubmit to the general Fate of all Mankind? What, if they are only removed for a Time, and fo referved to a further Miniftration, when they shall again appear in this lower World, and die at last like all Mankind? I affure you this is what many of the most ancient Fathers believed, who interpret that Paffage in the 11th Chapter of the Revelation of St. John, ver. 3, &c. concerning the two Witneffes that shall bear their Teftimony against Antichrift, but who at last shall be overcome and killed by him, of those two Prophets we are now speaking of, Enoch and Elias. And indeed this Notion has fo much Shew of Scripture on it's Side, that it should not too rafhly be pronounced * a Fable. Part of the Character

See Mede P. 99.

by

XV.

by which thefe Witneffes are defcribed is, SERM. that they have Power to deftroy their Enemies by Fire, and to fhut Heaven that it rain not in the Days of their Prophecy, Rev. xi. 5, 6. which exactly agrees with the Character of Elijah, who fhut up the Heavens from raining in the Days of Ahab, three Years and fix Months, 1 Kings xvii. 1. compared with Luke iv. 25. and James v. 17. (the very Period of Time which these Witneffes are to prophefy ;) and twice brought down Fire to destroy the Captains and their Fifties whom Abaziah King of Ifrael fent to apprehend him, 2 Kings i. 10, 12. And further that Elijah is to usher in our Saviour's Coming to Judgment is what the Holy Scriptures seem plainly to affert; particularly that famous Prophecy in Malachi, with which the whole Old Teftament concludes where speaking of that Day which shall burn like an Oven, and wherein all that do wickedly shall be burnt like Stubble; God promises to send Elijah the Prophet, (or, as the Septuagint reads it, Elijah the Tifhbite) before the Coming of that great and dreadful Day of the Lord, Mal. iv. I, 5. Now if the Day here described be not interpreted of the Day of Judgment; there is hardly any. Description of that Day in the

2

;

Old

SER M. Old Teftament but what may be evaded.

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But if it be; it is plain that the second Coming of our Lord is here intended, and consequently that Elijah the Prophet, or Elijah the Tifhbite is to make his Appearance before him.

If it be objected to what I advance that our Saviour exprefly affirms that Elias is come already, Matt. xvii. 12. and plainly points out that John the Baptift was He; it may be answered, that what our Saviour says of John the Baptift, may mean no more than what the Angel Gabriel told his Father Zacharias; viz. that he should go before the Lord in the SPIRIT and PowER of Elias, Luke i. 17. However that Elias should also come before the fecond Appearance of our Saviour, may be inferred from our Saviour's own Words juft before. He faid unto them, Elias truly SHALL first come and restore all Things, Matt. xvii. 11. Which Words being feemingly spoken of a future Coming, and not of one that was paft, can't be certainly applied to John the Baptift, who was both already come, and, when our Saviour fpake, dead and gone. Nor does the Reftoring of all Things, which our Saviour attributes to the Ministry of Elijah, seem to be

fully

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