That first brought Life and Immortality to Light. By This he refcu'd Us from that perpetual Slavery, in which the Apprehenfions of Death fo long held Captive the Spirits of Mankind, and as the Apostle to the Hebrews ch. 2. fpeaks, Deliver'd them, who thro' fear of Death, were all their Life-time fubject to Bondage. What a confus'd and wretched State was Life, while the greatest part of it was spent in groping in the dark, to find what was to follow after? What Comfort could be fincere, what Enjoyment not fowr'd by reflecting, that every Moment of Enjoyment was one Step farther, never to be trod back again, towards a dark Precipice, prepar'd for all things Living, from whence there was never yet a Return, or an Account? To heal thefe Natural Fears and Difquiets, which stuck so close, and stung fo deep, not the vulgar Minds only, but often the most Brave, and chiefly the most Thinking and Wife, what weak Remedies did Natural Wifdom or Philofophy fupply? There is no folid Comfort to be found, but in Truth only; and doubtless Seneca, or Socrates, have nothing that can perfwade, or fatisfy upon these Occafions. They were in the Ignorance, that Blinded all Men at firft: They knew not, that Death was a Punishment for the Sin of Man, impos'd upon him to expiate his Crime, neceffary to cleanfe

him from Sin, and which alone can deliver the Soul from the Lufts of the Flesh, which even Saints are subject to, whilft they live in this World: They, I fay, knew not this, but thought thatDeath was Natural to Man, and all the Discourses, they grounded upon this falle Principle, are fo vain and empty, that they only ferve to fhew in the general, how Weak Man is; feeing the greatest Productions of the Wifeft Men,are fo mean and childifh. For what faint Glimmerings had the most Virtuous Livers, or moft Searching Philofophers, concerning Immortality? Some of them had indeed, most noble and elevated Thoughts concerning it; and from the Excellencies and Perfections, which they found the Soul endu'd with, from the Celerity of its Motion, the Extent of its Comprehenfion, the Subtilty of its Reasoning, and all its other admirable Operations and Faculties, were very defirous to believe, that whatever was of fo Divine a Nature could never dye; and extremely loath they were, to think this beft Part of themselves, lefs than. Immortal. But all this was only a pleafing Amusement, a Dream of Fancy, that the more they confider'd and study'd, left them the more amaz'd and confounded. For what was to become of this active Inhabitant, that led them into all these fublime Speculations, if it had been certain, that

after

after its Diffolution it should survive, Whether it was to be cloath'd with Air, or fome finer Body, and fly about the Earth at its Will, or retire to fome happy Fields, and pleasant Gardens; or inhabit fome Star, or whatever other Place or Office, the Fancies of the Poets, or Philofophers ever affign'd the Soul after Death, that was ftill altogether uncertain, and in the dark.

Nay, the Jews themfelves, the peculiar People of God, diftinguish'd from the rest of Mankind, by a more immediate Revelation, and a Law given 'em from Heaven, written by the Finger of God himself, feem to have had but a very imperfect and faint Apprehenfion of this future Life and Immortality, which our Saviour first brought to Light. Indeed fome few of the Beft and Wifeft among 'em, had learn'd from Scripture, That the Soul of Man fhould afcend into the hands of God that gave it: But the generality were fo wholly taken up with the temporal Bleffings, and worldly Goods, that were the only Rewards, that their Law promis'd to the Performers of it, that they refted there, and had no further Profpect of a Bleffed Immortality. But then, as for a Life of the Body after Death, that That alfo could be rais'd, and fo glorify'd as to be Immortal, that the scatter'd Particles of all that Duft, which for so many thousand Years has made

up

up fo many Millions of Men, into whatfoever Shapes or Forms fince converted, whether in Earth, or Air, or Sea, or Fire', fhould be again united and compofe diftinctly and severally each the fame Body which it did before, and from thenceforth become no longer fubject to Change, Corruption, or Mortality; This, I fay, was such a Myftery, as no wonder that it never fo much as enter'd into the most speculative Brain of all the Philofophers, nor so much as by any far diftant or doubtful beam difcover'd itself. No, this glorious Exaltation of our Nature was referv'd from all Ages by our Saviour, that He might declare it first Himself, and give both the first Experimental Proof and Example of it in Himself.

Being then thus rais'd above whatever Dignity our Nature was ever thought, or could be conceiv'd, capable of; thus freed from that anxious Torment of Mind, which for ever would have accompany'd the dark Notions which the World before had of a Future State, thus rescu'd from the Slavish Fears that debas'd our Spirits, afferted into Liberty from the Power of Death, a Way fhewnUs to the fame Place whither our Saviour Chrift is gone before; can we do lefs in Gratitude to this Captain of our Salvation, than to ftrive to follow him, to rife with him, and feek thofe things that are above?

I

above? Can we do less than endeavour, with the most intense Zeal and fervent Devotion, to entertain the Memory of this great Victory of our Lord's? Efpecially at and about the time of that great Festival instituted for that Purpose, This chiefest of all the Church's Festivals; This that St. Chryfoftom calls, ἑορτίω οὐ γῆς μόνον ἀλλὰ κ over, a Feftival celebrated not on Earth only, but in the Highett Heavens. For, as that Holy Father goes on, if there be Joy in Heaven for the Converfion of one Sinner only, How much greater the Exultation, for the whole Race of Mankind being fnatch'd out of the Hands of Satan and Death? and what more proper or seasonable Meditation can we entertain, than to admire and adore the Glory and the Divine Might of our Saviour, triumphing in their own King. doms, over all the Baffled Powers of Death and Hell, breaking afunder it's strongest Bars, and, as the true Samfon, of whom the other was but a Type and Shadow, bearing away the very Gates of it, and opening from thence a Paffage for all Mankind to Life and Immortality. For tho' we dare not prefume, as fome of the Church of Rome have done, to give a punctual Jour. nal of our Saviour's Infernal Expedition, nor follow him thro' all the gloomy Man fions of Hell, defcribing all its Territories

and