that the Seed of the Woman fhall bruife the Serpent's Head, Gen. iii. 15. in his Curfe upon the Serpent, who beguiled Eve: I will put Enmity between thee and the Woman, and between thy Seed and her Seed; it shall bruise thy Head, and thou shalt bruise his Heel. Which contains the Promife of fending Chrift into the World, who by Death fhould destroy him who had the Power of Death, that is, the Devil; and deliver them, who through Fear of Death, were all their Life-time fubject to Bondage; Heb. ii. 14, 15. i. e. before he denounces the Sentence of Death against Man, he promifes a Saviour and Deliverer, who should triumph over Death, and raise our dead Bodies out of the Duft, immortal and glorious. Here is a moft admirable Mixture of Mercy and Judgment! Man had forfeited an earthly Immortality, and muft die; but before God would denounce the Sentence of Death againft him, he promifes to raise up his dead Body again, to a new and endless Life. And have we any Reafon to complain then, that God has dealt hardly with us, in involving us in the fad Confequences of Adam's Sin, and expofing us to a temporal Death, when he has promifed to raise us up from the Dead again, and to bestow a more glorious Immortality on us, which we shall never lofe? When Man had finned, it was neceffary that he fhould die, because he could never be compleatly and perfectly happy in this World,. as you have already heard: And the only poffible Way to make him happy, was to tranflate him into another World, and to beftow a better Immortality on him. This God has done, and that in a very ftupendous Way, by giving his own Son to die for us; and now we have little Reason to complain that we all die in Adam, fince we are made alive in Chrift. To have died in Adam, never to

have lived more, had indeed been very fevere upen Mankind, but when Death fignifies only a Neceffity of going out of thefe Bodies and living without them for fome Time, in order to re-affume them again immortal and glorious, we have no Reason to think this any great Hurt. Nay, indeed, if we confider Things rightly, the Divine Goodness has improved the Fall of Adam, to the raifing of Mankind to a more happy and perfect State. For though Paradife, where God placed Adam in Innocence, was a happier State of Life than this World, freed from all the Disorders of a mortal Body, and from all the necessary Cares and Troubles of this Life, yet you'll all grant that Heaven is a happier Place than an earthly Paradise and therefore it is more for our Happiness to be tranflated from Earth to Heaven, than to have lived always in an earthly Paradife. You will all grant, that the State of good Men, when they go out of thefe Bodies before the Refurrection, is a happier Life than Paradife was; for it is to be with Chrift, as St. Paul tells us, which is far better, Phil. i. 23. And when our Bodies rife again from the Dead, you will grant they will be more glorious Bodies than Adam's was in Innocence: For the first Man was of the Earth, earthy, but the fecond Man is the Lord from Heaven, 1 Cor. xv. 47. Adam had an earthly mortal Body, though it fhould have been immortal by Grace; but at the Refurrection our Bodies fhall be fashioned like unto Chrift's most glorious Body. The Righteous fhall shine forth like the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father: That as we have borne the Image of the Earthly, we shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly, 1 Cor. xv. 49. So that our Redemption by Chrift has infinitely the Advantage of Adam's Fall, and we have no Rea

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fon to complain, That by Man came Death, fince by Man also came the Refurrection of the Dead. That St. Paul might well magnify the Grace of God in our Redemption by Chrift, above his Juftice and Severity in punishing Adam's Sin with Death. Rom. v. 15, 16, 17. But not as the Offence, fo alfo is the Free Gift: For if thro' the Offence of one, many be dead; much more the Grace of God, and the Gift by Grace, which is by one Man, Jefus Chrift, bath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that finned, fo is the Gift: for the Judg: ment was by one to Condemnation; but the Free Gift is of many Offences_unto Juftification. For if by one Man's Offence, Death reigned by one; much more they which receive Abundance of Grace, and of the Gift of Righteousness, shall reign in Life by one, Jefus Christ. Where the Apoftle magnifies the Grace of God upon a fourfold Account. 1. That Death was the just Reward of Sin, it came by the Offence of one, and was an Act of Juftice in God: Whereas our Redemption by Chrift is the Gift of Grace, the free Gift, which we had no just Claim to. 2. That by Christ we are not only delivered from the Effects of Adam's Sin, but from the Guilt of our own: For though the Judgment was by one to Condemnation; the Free Gift is of many Offences unto Juftification. 3. That though we die in Adam, we are not barely made alive again in Christ, but shall reign in Life by one, Jefus Chrift; which is a much happier Life than what we loft in Adam. 4. That as we die by one Man's Offence, fo we live by one too; By the Righteoufness of one, the Free Gift comes upon all Men unto Juftification of Life. We have no Reafon to complain that the Sin of Adam is imputed to us to Death, if the Righteoufnefs of Chrift purchafe for us eternal

Life. The first was a neceffary Confequence o Adam's lofing Paradife; the fecond is wholly owing to the Grace of God.

Thus we fee what it is that makes us mortal: God did not make Death; he created us in a happy and immortal State; but by Man Sin entered into the World, and Death by Sin. Whatever Averfion then we have to Death, fhould beget in us a greater Horror of Sin, which did not only at firft make us mortal, but is to this Day both the Cause of Death, and the Sting of it. No Degree indeed of Virtue now can preferve us from dying; but yet Virtue may prolong our Lives, and make them happy, while Sin very often haftens us to the Grave, and cuts us off in the very midft of our Days. An intemperate and luftful Man destroys the most vigorous Conftitution of Body, dies of a Fever, or Dropfy, or Rottennefs and Confumptions; others fall a Sacrifice to private Revenge, or publick Juftice, or a Divine Vengeance; for the Wicked fhall not live out half their Days. However, fetting afide fome little natural Averfions, which are more easily conquered, and Death were a very innocent, harmless, nay, defirable Thing, did not Sin give a Sting to it, and terrify us with the Thoughts of that Judgment which is to follow. Quarrel not then at the Divine Justice in appointing Death; God is very good, as well as juft in it; but vent all your Indignation against Sin; pull out this Sting of Death, and then you will fee nothing but Smiles and Charms in it; then it is nothing but putting off these mortal Bodies; to re-affume them again with all the Advantage of an immortal Youth. It is certain indeed we must die, this is appointed for us; and the very Certainty of our Death will teach us that Wif F 4

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dom which may help us to regain a better Immortality than we have loft.

SECT. II.

How to improve this Confideration, That we muft certainly die.

FOR, 1. If it be certain that we muft die, this fhould teach us frequently to think of Death, to keep it always in our Eye and View, For, why should we caft off the Thoughts of that which will certainly come, especially when it is fo neceffary to the good Government of our Lives, to remember that we must die? If we muft die, I think it concerns us to take care, that we may die happily, and that depends upon our living well, and nothing has fuch a powerful Influence upon the good Government of our Lives, as the Thoughts of Death. I have already fhewed you what Wifdom Death will teach us; but no Man will learn this who does not confider what it is to die; and no Man will practise it, who does not often remember that he muft die: But he that lives under a conftant Sense of Death, has a perpetual Antidote against the Follies and Vanities of this World, and a perpetual Spur to Virtue.

When fuch a Man finds his Defires after this World enlarge beyond, not only the Wants, but the Conveniencies of Nature, Thou Fool, fays he to himself, What is the Meaning of all this? What kindles this infatiable Thirft of Riches? Why muft there be no End of adding Houfe to House, and Field to Field? Is this World thy Home? Is this thy abiding City? Doft thou hope to take up an eternal Reft here? Vain Man! thou must fhortly remove thy Dwelling, and then

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