die of it self unlesse it wither by the command of a superiour power but of it self it cannot die for in its own nature it is immortall its essence is eternall One cals the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it is Eccles 12. 7. a bud of eternity the originall of the soul speakes it's immortall God still Mat. 10. 28. breaths into men living souls and our souls come from the father of lights God lights up souls in men they bubble 2 Cor. 5. 10. forth from the fountain of Spirits Act. 23. 8. that spirituall essence They are a Act. 7. 59. beam of the most glorious Sun Our Mors saepe somno in Scripturis comparatur Joh. 11. 11. 1 Thess 4. 13. sed sciendum quod hic somnus homini mortuo attribuatur non ratione animae quae est purus actus sed ratione corporis Chemn bodies were raised out of the dust but our souls are of a more noble descent and originall the soul runs parallel to all eternity There are strong and pregnant probabilities of the souls immortality to a naturall eye to a Philosophicall eye with common light And 2. To evidence the souls unperishablenesse we may but take notice how oftentimes in a languishing and consumed body you have a most vigorous well-complexioned and flourishing soul Sometimes the soul is so acute that it even cuts the sheath of the body in sunder the body is oft in the wane when the soul is in the full all which speakes the souls in mortality so that naturally the soul cannot die To this argument I might annex many more 3. As the testimony of conscience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys which discernes between good and evill and often rejoyceth in the one and trembles at the other even when there is no humane witnesse or fear of man to cause either What is the reason that oftentimes when the sinner hath committed some villanous act and the Sun it self hath not been conscious to it but it hath been perpretrated with admirable secresie yet then the sinner Multa argumenta probant animae immortalitatem 1. Dei cognitio qua imbuitur quia ad vitae sontem non pervenit vigor evanidus 2. Praeclaris dotibus quibus pollet anima divinum aliquid ei insculptum esse clamitat totidem essentiae immortalis testimonia quot recta justa honesta concipimus quae sensus corporis latent c. is broken upon the wheel and tortured upon the wrack of conscience doth not this clearly and pregnantly demonstrate that there is a future immortality and the soul shall be dragged to a fearfull tribunall why should the soul tremble at a sinfull if secret commission could it be ascertained of a safe impunity And happily the sin committed is a violation of Gods law and not mans or it may be so clancularly acted that the eye of man may be never privy to it This and many other arguments bring in their attestation for the souls immortality and that unfadingnesse is essentiall to it And therefore the assertion remaineth firme that there can be no conclusion in eternity by dissolution in reference to the soul for that is immortall And 2. Neither shall the body die after the resurrection this the Scriptures clearly affirme I shall only cast my eye upon one pregnant and full place 1 Cor. 15. 53. where the Apostle speaking of the manner of the Resurrection saith This corruptible must put on Memorandum est quod Apost dicit demonstrativè Hoc corruptibile hoc mortale sc corpus aperte sic indicans hoc non aliud sâ—bstantia corpus quod nunc mortale gestamus immortale tandem resurrecturum Par. incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality speaking of our bodies Then shall the persons of mankind be eternized in their subsistencies nor shall death or decay eat or worme out their beings But these shattered pieces of clay our bodies which here are but the sinke of diseases and have a thousand windowes in them for death to creep in after the resurrection shall fall asunder no more Gods decree shall infuse into them an essentiall immortality And if we consider the bodies of mankind after the resurrection as related to the Saints or sinners 1. As the rich cases of the soules Luk. 20. 36. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the glorified Saints they cannot die Let that clear text give in its verdict Phil. 3. 21. Who shall change our vil body that it may be fashioned like unto Cristus transfigurabit corpus in aliam figuram non essentialem sed accidentalem ut sc ex corruptibili faciat corpus incorruptibile ex passibili impassibile ex terrestri coeleste A Lap. his glorious body observe here a rare change indeed but no intimation of death the bodies of the Saints which here were the common subjects of pain torment and distemper when past the resurrection shall outvie the Sun in glory 2. Nor can the bodies of the damned die after the resurrection those deformed cages of more deformed soules shall never be blest with a dissolution Divine wrath shall make the bodies of the reprobates lapides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like those stones which naturalists speak of which do alwayes burn They shall be buts for the arrowes of Gods displeasure ever to be shot at the smoak of the lake shall not smother them nor the flames of hell consume them not the least member shall be turned into cinders by everlasting burnings The torments of hell are Mat. 25. 46. often called fire whether figurative or Mat. 3. 12. reall we shall not discusse the question Mat. 25. 41. but this we may conclude that the bodies of the damned are more proper fuell for fire then the souls Isa 33. 14. and everlasting burning will call for immortall bodies Nor shall eternity have an end by annihilation After the passage of millions of ages in eternity mans person shall not be annihilated the glorious Saints shall not be by divine power reduced into an empty nothing those crowned personages shall not be folded up in a confused Chaos Nor Poena infernalis est restis ex tribus câ—ntexta funiculis ex obscuritate tenebrarum acerbitate poenarum diuturnitate miseriarum Innoc. shall the tortured Hypocrites be reduced into their primitive and originall principles or blow themselves up into an aery conception a meer chimera for besides the absurdity of such a fond imâ—gination which hath no argument or reason to be founded or bottomed upon for what should cause the Lord to dash in pieces his vessels of honour or melt them into their materia prima their primitive vacuity heaven cannot harbour any sinfull provocation Or what should induce the Lord so Eph. 5. 5. far to draw out his pity to the damned as to command their torments to dispatch them or cause their souls to evaporate Hell is a Sodome which harbours no Lot in it it
be this Mans eternall condition admits of no changes or distinction of time There shall be no night in heaven nor any day in hell In the eternity of glory there shall be no full or wanes of the Moon no falling of the leaf or Autumnall declination that is a pregnant place Rev. 22. 5. And there shall be no light there and they need no candle neither light Rev. 22. 25. of the sun for the Lord giveth them light that is by his immediate presence c. In heaven the sun shall not set nor the morning star arise there shall be no clouds to vail the Saints happinesse no stormes nor tempests to be the shadow of a disturbance no frost to pinch or afflict the bodies of believers which shall be bespangled with glory no winters day to shorten the beatificall vision And so in the eternity of misery there shall be no spring nor pleasant resurrection from the dolefull grave of a winter That is very remarkable Mat. 25. 30. Cast ye the unprofitable servant into utter darknesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some render it abundant darknesse it may well be understood in tenebras circumferentes environing darknesse the mantle of darknesse In eternall calamity there shall be no chirping birds or green-livered fields to be the emblemes of an approaching Summer hell shall not be gilded with a sunshining day But eternity shall be an identicall condition simul semel the interchangeable seasons of the year shall cease in eternity the serenity and blacknesse of the skies the flourishing beauty and wither'd deformity of the earth the eclipses and changes of the celestiall bodies the dawning morning and the duskish evening shall all be unknown in eternity And an everlasting night shall overshadow the damned and an eternall morning shall refresh the blessed who shall be ever sunning themselves in the presence of God and the Sun shall be laid aside as uselesse in heaven for it would not be seen for the brightnesse of God Now there can be no distinctions of time in the eternity of the blessed and this method shall runne through the whole discourse Reas 1 For all changes in heaven would argue imperfection all mutability is imperfect and therefore God who is Solennis ibi festivitas festiva ibi aeternitas ibi nec est defectio sed optima refectio Alard infinitely perfect is immutable such transient changes would cause a wane in the Saints happinesse Now there is a double royall perfection in heaven 1. Of purity 2. Of felicity Imperfection is a weed which growes not there there shall no deficiencie Psal 17. 15. stain the celestiall beatitude When man hath attained to a perfection of excellency as infallibly he shall in glory there shall then be no defect to be the womb of dissatisfaction It would be tedious to the glorified Saints to tell the flying houres again Aeterna vita omni taediocaret Ambr. tom 3. and passe through a variety of seasons for the Saints to be incht again with the sharpnesse of a Winter or scorcht with the over kind beames of a Summers sun this is inconsistent with that delight they shall in heaven be ravished with so their comforts would grow as cold as the season Besides that of the Apostle is observable 2 Pet. 3. 12. Wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat this text abrogates such disturbance whether it be understood of a purgation or annihilation Unquestionably this may be asserted what ever may imply the least shadow of trouble or distast shall be banisht the court of glory the joyes of eternity shall not be eclipsed with the least vicissitude or unpleasantnesse And Gods immediate presence shall scatter all changes and distinctions of time when his glory is in the full what clouds can appear God is as immutable Ex visione Dei omnia beatorum bona unicè oriuntur dependent in his glory as in his nature and the Saints shall ever in heaven lie under his radiant appearancies see his face Mat. 5. 8. behold his glory Joh. 17. 24. and he will be an everlasting spring to his glorified ones Vicissitudes in time shall melt in the presence of the Lord the rivers of heavens pleasure shall admit of no doubts or decayes there shall no night vaile the day of eternall salvation Nor shall there be any distinction or change of times in the eternity of the damned For 1. Reas 1 This would alleviate and mitigate the miseries of the damned some variety would be the womb of some pleasure some light would be some refreshment Eccles 11. 7. Truly light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun But in hell there shall be all severity but no mercy there shall be no day-break to revive executed reprobates could there be changes of times or seasons in hell there might fall out a winter and Dives might meet with a showre to cool his tongue but pity visits not those dismall prisons what ever may contribute to the abatement of the damneds misery shall be everlastingly banisht In heaven there shall need no light Rev. 22. 5. In hell they shall have none they shall so far want the comfort of the sun as they shall not be blest with the light of a candle none of natures variety and embroydery in point of seasons not the sharpest and the harshest seasons shall shed the least refreshment on the tortur'd reprobate This would be some ground of comfort to the damned to tell their past miseries for alteration of seasons implyeth a succession which as I shall shew is impossible in hell they might then with some reflexion of joy recollect there are so many sharp winters or dark nights of misery blown over and this would be some satisfaction to suppose that some of their calamity was wasted Now misery is the only signe in hell nor shall one drop of mercy fall into a hell of fire there shall be no preterition in the torment of the damned but they shall alwayes be in actu moriendi in the act of execution August they shall hang in fiery chains and those chains shall never break or they die in those chains As our Saviour expresseth himself in that dolefull language Mat. 8. 48. Where the worme dieth not Sed semper corrodit nunquam satiatur which alwayes gnawes but never is satisfied which language might be a knell to awaken us from our most stupefied security But thus much of the 1. Conclusion CHAP. II. Concl. 2 Man 's eternall condition admits of no gradation THere shall be no degrees in eternity In heaven there shall be all perfection in hell all defection The buds of joy shall not blow in heaven there shal be no maturation of happinesse or ascension to superiour thrones Rev. 3. 21. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne No rising to greater dignity or more sublime
for the glory of God did lighten it and the Lambe is the light thereof I say God in whom there is no shadow of change There is no rising or setting Jam. 1. 17. Caelum lumine longâ— illustriore fulgebit luce increata Majestate dei immensa illustrabitur Par. no oblique or perpendicular beams in the divine Sun the immediate presence and glory of God shall be an everlasting noon-day And this naturall Sun at the resurrection shall either as some suppose as a taper be put out in the socket of the universall conflagration or else as others conceive be turned into a more glorious luminary analogicall to that of the Prophet * Isa 30. 26. yet not to amplifie but attend on the Saints glory Gods presence being universall happinesse Now the Sun being the gnomon of time that being removed from its office in eternity time can suffer no lapse or waste Could there be a waste in the eternity of the Saints there would be at last a conclusion The Summers day is overtaken with the shadowes of the night and its splendor is entombed in the grave of darknesse the longest Gen. 5. 27. ages of men have at last been coffin'd in death and dissolution and so there would be end of were there a waste in the Saints eternity but eternity admits no conclusion as shall be fully shewed hereafter And there shall be no waste or diminution in the eternity of the damned their time of execution shall not flie away their suffering spaces shall be ever filled up and never slide away or wear out And it must be so For. This would be reliefe to the damned that they have past so many ages in the burning oyle and scalding lead and devouring worme that some sparkes of their misery were blown over It is some consolation to the shipwrackt mariner that the barke is slipt off from the rock though he be cast upon a tempestuous Ocean As 1 Sam. 15. 32. the spruce Amalekite rejoyced the bitternesse of death was over though suddenly he was massacred by an unexpected slaughter It would be some relaxation to the tormented if they could be so happy in their Arithmetick as to reckon by the rule of substraction so many miseries are broak through and gone if they could say totidem poenae so many extremities are overpast What ease is it to the tortured patient when the fit is over not only that the disease is not still in the same rage but so many throwes of intolerable pain are past and fled away But alas there shall not the least shadow of comfort cool the flaming reprobate nothing that may be entitled or denominated relief No mixture of ease no arguments of comfort no consideration that may tast of satisfaction shall allay the damneds extremity Could any interposure of contentment be found in hell hell it self would lose its nature Luk. 16. 25. No time illapses or torment flies away but both multiply as fast as spend in miserable eternity The eternity of the damned is coexistent with Gods wrath and that shall not waste So Isa 33. The wrath of God like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it It is ira dei qui est aeteâ—nus the wrath of God who is eternall And it is a stream not a flood not a transient and sudden inundation but a continued and constant current So there shall be no waste in Gods wrath but that shall be a flame his justice shall be alwayes feeding And the damneds beings shall be stretcht out to Gods indignation which is inextinguishable fire Misery and duration shall no more die to the reprobate then wrath shall die in God or malice in Satan Thinke not presumptuous sinner when thou shalt fall upon the doome of a wofull eternity that thy tedious ages of imprisonment and execution shall abate the tale of thy future though future be an unknown phrase in eternity calamity No certainly the flames shall scorch as much the pincers burne as hot conscience corrode as deeply Gods wrath breake out as severely after the passage of millions of ages as the first moment of thy dolefull execution There shall be no waste in the reprobates eternity for eternity shall be commensurate to their sin which shall be without diminution For we must conceive that the damned carry all their sinfull inclinatious to hell with them all their corrupt and abominable propensions their hearts as full of gall and rancor their speeches as full of blasphemy their sins boyle up to as great an height nay greater in hell then here below as we see some prisoners rave more at the place of execution then when lockt up in the uncomfortable dungeon the reprobates shall sink Hacket in the reign of Q. Elizabeth into their everlasting condition more envenomed and impostumated with villanous and rancorous principles with more bloudy and malevolent disposition then when they were tenants to the world And therefore as there shall be no spending and diminution of sin so neither of time as their rebellion shall not waste so neither shall their duratition fade they could sinne here indefatigably with an unwearied carriere much more in hell especially these 3. things being weighed in the balance 1. In hell there shall be no examples of piety No pictures of a godly father to checke an exorbitant son No radiant grace of a famous preacher pretious believer pious Martyr to dash the countenance and bridle the insolency of an audacious miscreant and as the brightnesse of Moses his face to fetter the Josh 24. 15 16. enormous sinner with astonishment Exod. 30. 30. But in hell there is universall horrour and blasphemy nothing but a diabolicall concurrency of wickednesse and provocation and sin shall ever be in the feaver in the eternity of the reprobate 2. In eternity there is no means of piety all ordinances cease there the sun-shine of the Gospell shall not visit the coast of the reprobates eternity And although the Gospell Rev. 14. 6. be cald an everlasting Gospell yet this doth not import the use of the Gospell but the fruit of it the dispensations of it here Ejus authoritatem effectum constantiam asseret Par. in loc were of everlasting concernment its converts shall be crowned with everlasting glory and its enemies wrackt with everlasting torment But all the offers and overtures of the Gospell shall cease and be at an end in eternity and the tormented reprobate shall have no pretious promises to melt him righteous commands to guide him severe threats to restrain him faithfull Ministery to convert him or holy communion to refresh him all these fruits of Gospell love shall be to the damned buryed in eternall silence therefore sin cannot be abated in everlasting misery Let Dives his frustraneous prayer give Luk. 16. 24 25. verdict for the whole body of Gospel-exercise And 3. In hell there shall be no shame for impiety sinners shall not see Gen. 3. 7. their own
out this bottomlesse state then draw the effigies of a rationall soul 3. The Ring though it is not broken of it self but is an entire circumference yet it may be broken by a superiour power Man can break the circumference and deface the very forme of it But Gods promise and his past word hath made eternity indissoluble Eternity is a duration which neither will of it self crumble into pieces nor falls it within the verge of any created power to put a stop to it or melâ— it into a conclusion And that there shall be no end Heb. 6. 18. or impairing of it Gods word is irreversible the divine Majesty hath determined eternity both to the Saint and the sinner and it is he alone that can bury and dissolve eternity it self It is with the eternity of men as with Angels Christ is the Mediatour of their sustentation the shedding of his bloud hath purchas'd eternall joy for the Saints and cries aloud for eternall misery on the sinner God hath pawned his trust to support and supply eternity Joh. 3. 16. and therefore the indissolubility of eternity renders the Ring to be an imperfect embleme of it Sometimes the Antients have compared eternity to a Phoenix whose young one ariseth from the ashes of its fire so that there seems to be a specificall immortality the urne of one Phoenix being the womb of another and the ashes proving seminall Answ But this emblem likewise fals short of picturing out eternity there are many deficiencies in this emblematicall adumbration As 1. The Phoenix is immortalized by propagation the ashes of the damme is the originall of the young Occasus Nec mors in vita nec vita in morte aeterna unius est ortus alterius the ones ruine is the others rise But now eternity is a constant state not by propagation not by accumulation not by alteration but by an eternized duration New additions of times in eternity Isa 60. 15. do not flow from the preteritions and transiencies of former as 1 Pet. 5 10. if one past age should leave another its successour and eternity was nothing Omnium beatotorum felicitas erit continua nunquam interrumpenda sempitterna nunquam finienda Ger. but a family of ages in a lineall descent No but eternity is an uninterrupted perpetuity everlastingnesse without stop comma or intermission Eternity is not duration by multiplication but continuation the same person is everlastingly blessed or damned the same Saint in eternity becomes not a species by multiplication but the same individuall believer shall be clothed with personall happinesse for ever and his glory shall be a Phoenix for its rarity but not for its multiplication 2. The Phoenix is renewed by a Christus primitiae resurrectionis interruptibilitatis impassibilitatis nobis factus est Damasc passive alteration the living Phoenix is turned into ashes and the birth is produced from those ashes so that the death of the one is the generation of the other there is ashes and dying and budding all demonstrations of change and suffering But eternity is Corporibus sanctorum non adaequabitur aurum aut vitrum Greg. incapable of change as before Heaven shall not be the Saints urne nor the bosome of Christ their tomb nor shall the glorious bodies of the Saints crumble into ashes there shall be no passivenesse seize on the persons or the bodies of the Saints no decayes or fading deaths or damps glory shall be a Phoenix which shall never turn into ashes Nor on the other side shall infernall fire become funeral nor shall the scorcht bodies of the damned be incinerated or converted into ashes So that now the emblem of the Phoenix is too darke an hieroglyphicke of eternity Sometimes the Antients have compared eternity to the Sun which keeps a constant course and hath its uninterrupted revolutions which courses the world and every day returnes to its due and wonted station The Sun winds about and fetches its large and vast circuits and keeping an even though swift pace it returnes at such a term of time unto the same stage from whence it took its rise and therefore our predecessours observing the stedinesse and constancy of the Suns motion have made it the bright emblem of eternity But the Sun doth not paint out eternity Answ 1. The Sun hath its eclipses its clouds its various aspects So that I may say Mutability is one beam of the Sun The historian reports that Procopius and from him Pedro Mexia about An. 540. the Sun gave not more light then the Moon for almost one whole year in Italy the skie in the mean time being clear and without clouds or any thing to shadow the same Thus the Sun is an alterable body Nay in the very motion of it which is chiefly the embleme of eternity there hath been Josh 10. 13. stoppages and stayes and retrogradations And the Scripture hath pronounced Amos 8. 9. a doom upon its glorious Joel 2. 31. body that it shall it be turned into darknesse and be entombed in obscurity But now eternity is an unmixt invariable state as before there shall be no eclipse in glory nor suspension of happinesse joy in eternity shall never stand still or run retrograde God himself who is the Saints Sun in heaven is essentially immutable No beames of light shall visit hell nor clouds or eclipses darken heaven There is too much variation in the Sun so that it should paint out eternity 2. But further there are many things considerable in eternity besides the duration which the Suns motion seems to be the emblem of There is immutability superlativeness voydness of succession joy torment the aggravation and varieties of both Eternity compriseth more in the womb of it then duration let out for ever eternity is but as the cipher added to the sum of blessednesse or calamity it is alwayes predicate of felicity or misery It is not a naked abstractive duration but is a concrete in its significancy and there is a great difference between the state and duration of eternity What shall we be and how long we shall endure they are 2. Questions And all these emblemes do but paint out the bare continuance of eternity A line of ages that hath no end And this shall be a generall answer to all the emblemes considered complexively and together viz. That all these creature-representations they are at the great day dissoluble the heavens shall passe away and the 2 Pet. 3. 10. element shall melt with fervent heat The Phoenix ashes shall be scattered and the Ring shall be melted in the generall conflagration but the great assizes shall but open the curtaines and see the generall alarme of eternity Men Heb. 9. 27. dying before are gone to their particular eternities but after the grand and universall tryall when every thought shall be anatomized and chined up then nothing shall appear but eternity And all the rivers of
preferment there shall be no exaltation after a long enjoyment of honour the first enthronizing of the Saint after the resurrection is there ultimate honour their Crown shall have no new pearles set in it I speak after the manner of men there shall be no accumulative advancement or superadded happinesse in heaven Here the Saints grow in grace but they shall not grow in glory though sanctification 2 Pet. 3. 18. be yet glorification shall not be graduall no steps in heaven for the Saints to ascend the sight of God shall comprise all honour and happinesse And it is impossible there should be degrees of promotion in glory I mean secundum eundum in reference to the same person for that there should not be degrees of glory secundum diversos in reference to divers I dare not disavow because as Philosophers speak Eadem est ratio contrariorum contraries have the same reason If there shall be degrees of punishment in hell as our Saviour clearly asserts Mat. 10. 15. It shall be more tolerable for Sodome and Gomorrah c. then I suppose there may be degrees of glory in heaven especially there being interposed this consideration Mat. 5. 12. Great shall be your reward that is more great then others shall be crowned with but secundum eundem in reference to the same person there shall be no gradation in the eternity of the blessed 1. Reas 1 Because there would be nova causa honoris some new reason of promotion As Ahasuerus honoured Mordecai for the detecting of a conspiracy against his life so Gods justice would require it that there should be some new impulsive cause for further dignity But this cannot take place in glory when the Saints praises shall alwayes be in the same tune and their hallelujahs shall be wound up as high as their joyes nay their hallelujahs shall be part of their happinesse It is fancie nay misguided conception to suppose that the Saints in heaven could screw up their harps to a higher peg then they shall do for ever their desires to serve God in glory shall be-sublimated to the same superlativenesse as their rejoycing in God Their love being perfect and their power there shall surely be no decay in their triumphant obediencies 2. If there could be any gradation in heaven then God did not fully observe the state of the Saint before he came Psal 139. 12. there and therefore falling upon a more exact Survey he promotes him to greater dignities which would be most absurd and would not only impeach the indulgence of God who alwayes gives measure running over but also the omniscience of God who sees not only our visible actions but our most internall and retired motions those secrets that men most obumbrate and conceal And therefore the Saints shall alwayes be in the same state of glory and not rise as the Sun from a dauning to a noon-day But when once the soul after its long widowhood shall at the Resurrection be espoused again to its glorified body and shall clothe its self with that rich apparell then shall the believer ever shine in the same state of perfection and he shall flourish though in most glorious yet identicall excellencies 3. One thing more may be added further to illustrate this truth that secundum eundem in reference to the same person there can be no degrees of glory for then there would be imperfection in heaven comparatively because the Saints might be advanced to greater dignity Perfectum est cui nihil addi potest saith Aristotle quiequid potest recipere additionem est imperfectum that is perfect to which nothing can be added and whatsoever can receive any addition is imperfect But now the weakling of imperfection shall have no place in glory all teares and sins and defectivenesse all capability of further felicity shall be banisht heaven and the Saints shall be enthroned in consummated beatitude Nor shall there be any degrees in their eternity of misery no ascension to further ease or descension to further misery for the damned shall be fully miserable there shall be no slacking of the pullies or allaying of the flames surely those fires shall not decay in their force that have the wrath of God for their fuell and their bellowes Nebuchadnezzars fires Dan. 3. 19. may Isa 30. 33. be colder or hotter according to the degree of the Kings displeasure but the infernall flames shall alwayes scorch with the same intensive heat God wrathfully kindling them and the Divell and his Angels rigorously applying them In the primitive times the tormentors were wearied in the execution of the Martyrs but no such happinesse shall befall the damned the justice and power of God being his nature and so immutable now there can be no degrees in the eternity of misery 1. For the damned shall be punished according to their capacity they shall be full of torment the vessell of wrath shall be up to the brim in calamity As the Saints shall enjoy fulnesse of joy Psal 16. 11. So the reprobates shall be filled with fulnesse of wrath and the degrees of torment in hell shall not arise from this that any shall have a mitigation of their misery but every one shall be full of torture but their gradualnesse Their more tolerablenesse mentioned Mat. 10. 15. shall be according to the capacity of the damned some of their natures shall be stretcht wider then others to receive more in as a tun containes more then a firkin but their misery shall be coextentive to their capacity They shall be full of anguish and pain as the Ocean is with water as the Fountain is with streams and it must be so else there would be some alleviation in hell some comfort and mercy the reprobates are not in so dolefull a condition as they might be they might be worse and this would be some refreshment but alas mercies smile shall not be seen in hell Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire Mat. 25. 41. The sound of Gods bowels shall not be heard there In miserable eternity the Reprobate shall reape no more then the fruit of a divine execration 2. The damned shall be punished for ever according to demerit which is from adequate and proportionable justice and therefore there is mention made of many stripes Luk. 12. 47. where we may observe the justice and regular proceedings of God Now could there be degrees in the sufferings of the damned there would be a variation and mutability in Divine justice which is â—mpossible to Gods unchangeablenesse there would then be a rising and falling in the steddy and inalterable severity of God for hell is a place of pure justice Summi juris so there can be no declension or slacking of wrath there Now this gradation cannot be admitted upon this account it would cast an impeachment of mutation and change upon God Quod absit which let us not dare to affirme CHAP. III. Concl. 3 Man 's eternall cnodition admits
of no change THere shall be no telling of the quarters in heaven nor observation of the flitting hours in hell no transition or passage of time There shall be no time in eternity and durations Aeternitas nullam habet successionem Ambr. shall not be as the waves of the Sea one to follow upon the neck of another It is a pregnant description which Boetius layeth down though he describes only the happy eternity Aeternitas est interminabilis tota sunul ac perfecta possessio Eternity is an interminable possession perfect and all together And so the miserable eternity of the Aeternitas est indivisibilis non habet partes sibi juvicem succedentes necessario tota coexisti◠omnibus temporum differentiis ut asserunt Patres Scholastici Bonav damned is all together there is no division in eternity no priority or posterity it is a Sun that neither rises nor sets there is no lapsing of time one age doth not justle out another there shall be no maturity nor immaturity Eternity is time by the whole-sale here indeed our lifes are parcelled into so many years and retaild into so many months but eternity is an individuall indivisible possession Nulla est juventus senescentia in aeternitate there is no youth Aeternitas tota simul Scotus or declining age in eternity neither spring nor fall Time doth not slide away the duration is alwayes at the same length eternity admits only the present-tence the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is no clock in eternity the hour-glasse runs not there when we are set upon the shore of everlastingnesse there shall be no progresse or regresse Eternity is no complex duration to be compounded of so many particular ages in this it is unlike the sands of the Sea and that comparison will not hold because the vast sands are but multiplyed particulars Falsum est aeternitatem virtualiter habere partes cum id suae simplicitati immutabilitati repugnat non enim sequiillud esse in aeternitate prius quod est in priori temporis parte sed totum tempus simul continetur quantum est ex parte aeternitatis Sadreva in Thomam Time if I may use the terme for there is no such thing in eternity doth pullulate as fast as spend and it sprouts out as fast as it is lopt off in eternity The womb of eternity shall be alwayes big with duration and shall never be delivered of one moment No centuries or successions shall be found in the state of eternity All arithmetick numbers in eternity are ciphers In this it is no Ocean for the Ocean is but a Sea drops particular streams in a greater body Astronomers speak much of the slow motion of Saturne and other celestiall bodies but in eternity there is no motion known no in fieries motion and succession are pure Anomalies And it must be so for 1. Reas 1 Were their succession in eternity there would be wast the taper would spend and the same decline could one age succeed another the succeeded age were then past we might reckon those durations that were melted away but there shall be no waste in eternity eternity is not a Summers day that spends and flies away as more fully hereafter 2. All succession implies a motion and all motion supposes imperfection while things are in motu they are not arrived at perfection then motion ceaseth and there is no further tendency but now the state of eternity is a perfect state The blessed shall be perfectly happy Heaven is a place of superlative perfection and the damned shall be fully and perfectly miserable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there shall be no deficiency in their torment nor can there be further insufferably unhappy as before was hinted CHAP. IV. Concl. 4 Man 's eternall condition admits of no change or alteration THe throne of the Saints shall In aeternitate nulla est mutatio Aug. Nar. never be overturned the crown of glory shall not be changed into a Crown of thornes Nor shall the damneds bed of flames be altered into a bed of downe All things in eternity shall be everlastingly in the same state I exclude not the great change at the general assizes when the bodies both of Saints and sinners shall be reunited to their souls Eternity may well take up Q. Elizabeths In quo quemque invenerit suus novissimus dies in hoc eum comprehendit Mundi novissimus dies quoniam qualis in die ipso moritur quisque talis in die isto judicabitur August motto it is Semper eadem always the same As the tree falls so it shall lie for ever Taliter in every consideration and particular The darknesse of the damned shall never alter into day their groans shall never be transformed into smiles There shall be no impoverishment in glory and no enrichment in misery Here our state is the Chameleon of Providence the map of mutability but in eternity all things shall remain for ever in eodem gradu eodem statu in the same state and degree It was Origens opinion or rather dream that the damned at last should find a relaxation but this is an old exploded errour There is no variety or revolutions in eternity Identity is the characteristicall note of eternity In it neither teares shall be tuned into triumphs nor song turned into sorrowes All things for ever shall look with the same visage and aspect Weeping and wailing shall be the bitter and everlasting potion of the wicked triumph and honour the Mat. 8. 12. sweet and eternall portion of the blesed But more particularly There shall be no change in those persons who are set on the shoares of eternity the glorious bodies of the Saints after the resurrection shall no more be soyled with ragges or cover'd with soares those illustrious caskets of their souls shall never again endure Phil. 3. 15. either damp or disease those beautified and polished pieces shall no more be bloodied with wounds wrack'd with distempers or deformed with skarres Lazarus whose body here was but a lesser hospitall in eternity his body shall shine and be bespangled with glory which shall never be sullied or eclipsed with the least soare or disease Here Plato cals the body the soules prison Ergastulum animae Plato but in heaven in eternity the bodies of the Saints shall not be the curtaines but the rich cloaths of their soules their attire embroydered with glory which shall neither wear or soyle And so the souls of the Saints in glory they shall ever shine in the enamel of perfection without the least contrariant tincture It is only mans sin that distempers and incurvates the soul and Gods wrath the consequence of sin that as I may say maketh the soul look pale now neither of these have place in heaven The Israelites Deut. 29. 5. cloaths which wore not out in forty years together was a lively Embleme of this invariable felicity And so
on the contrary the bodies of the damned shall remain in their deformities not any spot shall be wiped away nor the least vaile thrown over their exulcerations They shall never throw off the ragges of their beleapered bodies but they shall ever be the darke prisons of their accursed souls the fires of hell shall wash away the paint of Absaloms beauty but his deformities shall never shed because the fountain of them shall never cease viz. sin as shall be shewed more fully And their souls those unclean birds in the unclean cages of their bodies shall wear the miserable livery of their sins to all eternity What should wash their souls Christs bloud they have no interest in it if so they had never been overwhelmed in their intolerable calamity and all their tears shall be but muddied water their wounded consciences their polluted hearts their impostumated souls shall lie in the sinke of their uncleannesses for ever So there shall be no change in the persons of those that are cast on the coast of eternity Nor shall there be any change of place in eternity The Saints shall be Joh. 17. 24. everlastingly resident at the Court of Rev. 3. 21. glory They shall never change their * Joh. 14. 2. Mansions where by the way Mansions not houses not tents to signifie the immutable duration of the Saints happinesse They shall be alwayes under the smiles and in the immediate presence of God They shall ever wait upon the Lord in the Presence-chamber and the Court shall never be removed And therefore heaven is call'd a Kingdome Luk. 12. 32. A City Heb. 12. 22. A Countrey Heb. 11. 13. To demonstrate the permanency of the Saints state in point of locality Heaven shall be the Jerusalem where shall be the perpetuall residence of glorified ones And so the dark dungeon of hell shall be the Reprobates everlasting gaole as the chaines shall never be loosned or filed off so neither shall they change their dolefull habitation but the same prison and wrack the same place as well as degrees of torment shall fetter them to all eternity They shall not change Mat. 18. 3â— their Tophet nor alter their bed of flames There shall be no change in the carriages of those persons who are cast upon the state of eternity the blessed shall be ever tuning their harpes in Hallelujahs they shall alwayes advance God and Christ in an uniforme joy Rev. 4. 11 12. Temptation the womb and sin the birth shall not be found in heaven There shall be nothing to prompt the Saints to stain their purity but they shall be ever breaking out into sacred admirations of God Here indeed there is a variablenesse and often a contradiction in the deportment of the Saints but in glory there shall not be the least titubation or fall Nor shall eternity Prov. 24. 16. dâ—â—ect the least eccentrick motion in a glorified Saint But Christ in Eph. 5. 27. heaven shall be Mediator sustentationis a Mediatour of sustentation to the Saints as well as Angels And so on the contrary there shall be as little alteration in the carriages of the damned they shall be ever belching out dishonours against the name of God and for ever be sick of the same surfet of blasphemy accusing the glorious attributes and holy name of God nor shall they in the midst of their woes weep out with a truly penitentiall frame the least retractation And the reason is because sin in hell shall be in the same and greater impetuousnesse then it was here Nor shall those punitive fires turne one lust into ashes those flames of misery shall not refine but exasperate the reprobate sinner shall irritate and feed not chase away sin Nor is hell a place for the influences of Gods operative grace nor can infernall fire be purificatory There shall be no change in the conditions of those who are in the state of eternity No promotions in misery no dejections in happinesse the same calamity shall be eternized to the caitiffe-wretch and the same glory entaild on the perfected Saint the wheele shall not turne in eternity No hopes of better times in hell nor Luk. 16. 26. feares of worse in heaven Mutation and change is obsolete in eternity And to shew you the impossibility of change in our everlasting condition First there can be none in reference to the blessed If there be any change it must either be First In meliorem partem for the better and then these inconsequences would follow 1. There were degrees of grace in heaven secundum eundem in reference to the same person contrary to Heb. 12. 22. the Spirits of just men made perfect For Gods justice is adequate and he rewards though not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for our works yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according Rom. 2. 6. to our workes and so that grace rising to an higher eminency it cals for a greater promotion Now this would argue a falling short of perfection which heaven is uncapable of Could the glorified Saints grow in grace as they must if they rise to higher happinesse according to Gods justice then was there a deficiency in their grace before which is anomalus to consummate perfection and glory signifies no more but grace maturated to perfection And therefore there can be no change for the better because there can be no cause for this change especially after the resurrection when the Grand assises are over And 2. This inconsequence would follow a change for the better an imperfection in happinesse for now the Saint is advanced to greater blessednesse which likewise is consistent to the perfection of beatitude which the glorified Saint is infall'd in Or Secondly This change must be in deteriorem partem for the worse there must be a fall in the Saints glory which would â—nforce these two absurdities 1. The Saints in glory were capable of defaulting for what can indammage them but sin God who is pure justice inferres no prejudice upon the Creature but as provoked by some criminall miscarriage if otherwise then Gods justice might be impeached which is most blasphemous Now that no impurity can stain heaven is most Hos 13. 9. clear as from the immediate presence of God which glorifies the Saints not only with perfection of happinesse but of purity also or else perfection was Rev. 21. 27. but a titular perfection it were but nominall were it not spotlesse and so likewise from that consummate condition which the Saints are arrived at in glory which cannot retreâ—â— backe again to any the least prevarication For herein lies the difference between created perfection that which Adam was enricht with before his fall and the perfection of glory the one includes the other rejects all mutability And 2. Could there be a change for the worse in glory then heaven would be a place of punitive justice for all Rev. 7. 16. deteriority and dammage that befals man is the issue of
As they are insupportable so they shall be innumerable and inconceivable Here indeed God corrects in measure both the wicked Jer. 10. 24. and the godly he seemes here to proportionate his bounds but what boundlesse calamity shall swallow up the reprobate in eternity God will then draw his arrow to the head and screw his wrath to an unconfin'd degree What shall limit or be a banke to the inundations of Gods everlasting displeasure Thou canst not tell how many drams of poison God will put into the cup of trembling which the wicked must be drinking off for evermore there is no ultimum aut maximum quod sic as Philos speaks no stated or terminated height in those anguishes the element of fire hath its stated heat which it cannot flame beyond and if all the fuell and materialls of the Creation were cast into one conflagration yet there would be a termination in those scorching flames but what bounds or rampires hath the Anger of the Lord in eternity Eternity is a boundlesse estate in the fountain of it which is God he Duobus modis aliquid aeternum esse potest uno modis ab intrinseco alio modo ex influxu alterius aeterno Suarez shall stretch the future condition of man out to eternity he that is bottomlesse in power and justice and love he shall support the beings of men for ever The incomprehensible God shall break down all banks in eternity The originall and efficient cause of eternity is the unlimited Jehovah the infinite Majesty shall add fuell to his wrath for ever to the damned and fill the cup of the Saints joy for everlasting In the space of it What Arithmetician can number the ages of eternity or by an exact multiplication can sum up the infinite centuries in it Who can cast up the severall millions of durations what thousands multiplied can fill up one moment of eternity the duration of eternity as it is indivisible so it is unlimited there is no terme bound or stop in it Could we reckon up as many ages in eternity as there hath past moments since the Creation yet then we are not within view of any stoppage or period In eternity our thoughts may range as into a bottomlesse sea and cease in a non-plust admiration Our Contemplations and enquiries may sail for ever and see no shoare There are no Anno Dominies or Epochees or Hegiraes in eternity no term to reckon from and no time to reckon in but it is an inimaginable unconfin'd condition CHAP. VI. Concl. 6 Man 's eternall condition admits of no decay or Consumption THere is no decay in eternity no Autumnes nor in eternity shall the dayes grow shorter There shall be no wast or wearing out or moth to eate out in eternity All things shall subsist in the same force and vigour in the same state and strength The Sun of eternity shall not decline Nothing shall moulder away towards a conclusion Here all things are in a constant tendency to ruine and devastation the most excellent and flourishing pieces of the Creation are continually posting to abolition There is a moth in the richest garments a worme in the tallest Cedars rust in the finest gold Nor can our greatest care shed an immotality on our choisest enjoyments but duration and time dampes and soyles the rarest excellencie◠and every thing yeilds to the force and fury of age Continued and numbred years wrinckle and deface the most pleasing beauty and leaves it to the surprisall of a necessary deformity the freshest youth whether it be appropriated to man or be predicate of inanimate creatures here soon it loseth its splendor and goeth upon the crutches of decay But in eternity all things shall subsist in the same vigor and vivacity not any thing shall be overtaken with hoary age Heraelitus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his axiome shall be inverted Nulla erit in aeternitate seneseentia the pillars in eternity shall never shake nor moulder There shall be no fading leas or falling fruit though no such thing may be found in eternity but every thing shall be preserved in its full maturity without the least perishing or putrefaction The Suns motions Aepyptian Pyramids and other lasting Monuments of Antiquity are but the darker hieroglyphickes of the unperishable and undecaying estate of eternity But more particularly There shall be no waste or decay of time in eternity time shall not slide away or spend but of this more at large in a particular conclusion There shall be no waste seize on the persons of them that are set upon the shoar of eternity The souls of the Saints shall not undergoe the least dotage by long duration nor be impaired in their blessednesse or capacities Millions of ages shall not enfeeble the strength of their memories or cloud the brightnesse of their minds or incurvate their ordinate wills or depresse their seraphick desires The souls of the Saints in eternity shall not contract any debilitation or crasiness but their intellectuals shall remain pure and perfect untainted by the largest tracts or circuits of ages Here indeed in this life the very minds of Gods people seem to languish with their bodies and to be subject to the force and tyranny of age there is a decay in their intellectualls and the eye of their understanding groweth dimme but in eternity no hesitancies or doubts shall distract nor clouds of ignorance darken and obnubilate the sun of their Mind And so the bodies of the Saints admit of no decay in eternity no weaknesse disease or distemper shall ever batter or surprize them but they shall be preserved in the same resplendency and beauty for ever all the issues of infirmity which beset the bodies of the Saints here shall be dryed up in illustrious radiancy and their bodies shall shine for ever in a greater glory then the Sun when blazoned in its most vigorous light and irradiations as before was suggested And so on the contrary The souls of the reprobates in eternity shall not saint away in their torments nor shall they ever be blest with the happinesse of temporary swoon but they shall continue in their beings and existencies for ever and shall be preserved in their miserable immortalities They shall be spending vitam morientem August as the Father speaks a dying life for ever and so their bodies those cooperating Mar. 9. 48. instruments of sin shall not be scorcht into ashes by the infernall flames but like cursed Salamanders shall ever live in those fires their bodies shall be immortall capacities of torment while Gods justice and Satans malice shall make everlasting depredations upon them There shall be no decay or waste in the losses or possessions of eternity the Saints blessednesse shall not be impaired by duration nor wither by vast continuances They shall be cloathed with happinesse and their Deut. 5. 29. cloaths shall not wear And therefore the eternall felicity of the blessed consists in a fulnesse of joy
When 3. Rev. 21. they have sate in the same throne with Christ for millions of centuries the entail of their honour shall be as firme as the first moment There shall no tediousnesse interruption or close deflowre or surprise their joyes for ever The smiles and light of God and of Christ gloriously arrayed with the humane nature shall spring everlasting Halelujahs in the saints And the Spirit The Comforter shall shed an eternall 14. Rev. 2. 5. Rev. 8. dew of refreshment and delight on them And the Angels shall joyn their harpes in their everlasting and sacred felicity In a word The saints shall enjoy their Being for ever They shall live for ever in the Armes 17. Hos 3. Quid vita illa beatius est quod illic pauperiem non metuas aut morbum Chrysost of Jesus Christ There are three things destroy the life of Man 1. Externall Violence 2. Internal distemper and 3. Sin in an extraordinary Manner as Herod and Aarons sons c. Now none of these shall surprise the glorified saint sin Satan sorrow that Cerberus of mischief shall be excluded the Bridechamber The saints in glory are confirmed in their existence and life nothing in misery shall Kill the damned nothing in Heaven shall destroy the blessed The Apostle ascribes incorruptibility to the bodies of the Blessed 1 Cor. 10. 53. And the soul claims right to immortality by descent upon the suit of its own Nature The life of the saints in glory John 17. 3. shall be an inextinguishable lamp The saints in heaven shall weep no more much Rev. 7. 16. less die no more The life of the saints is the stock on which all their felicity grows Resuscitati similes Angelis qua non nupturi quia nec morituri sed transituri in statum Angeli cum per indumentum incorruptibilitatis Tertul. Erimus similes Angelis fulgebimus sicut ipse sol And. and the main pillar of all their happiness by which it is supported and could that taper be put out all their enjoyments would be entomb'd in silence and darkness Their beings are the susceptive capacities of all their honours and beatifical fruitions and therefore they must be immortalized with a perpetual spring and Vivacity and in this the Saints shall run paralel with the Angels their lives shall be enriched with the same perpetuity and perennity The Saints the glorified Ones those Patterns of perfection shall inherit their joy for ever their ravishments The joys of the wicked here is like the crackling of thorns but the joy of the blessed hereafter Psalm 16. 11. shall be as the shining of the sunne excepting Eccles ◠6. its setting and eclipses It were not fulness but emptiness of joy was it not eternal The sight of God shall tune their hearts into everlasting rapsodies Their Revel 4. 8. praises and triumphancies shall be the births of their joy for ever The saints shall Psal 96. 10. rejoyce as long as God shall smile and ravish them with a pleasant countenance which shall be to eternity God shall be a perpetual spring of life and of joy to the Visio Dei omnium bonorum gaudiorum coelestium sons est Ger. Saints The Saints shall Everlastingly rejoyce for the indulgencies of God for the possession of the Husband for the society of the Angels those joyous and glorious Spirits for their escape from misery and Everlasting Calamity Every glance of Gods eye Every sight of his will every smile from Christs face every touch of the Angels harps every distillation of the Spirit 's Comforts shall spring fresh joys to the glorified ones And the joys of the Saints must be subscribed with Eternity if we either cast our eye on 1. the confirmation of the Elect in good Or 2. the duration of Gods mercy and love John 13. 1. Or 3. the perfection of their own Exultabunt Sancti in gloria videbunt Deum gaudebunt laetabuntur delectabuntur fru entur gloria in felicitate jucundabuntur aeternâ Non labescent non senescent non putrescent amplius Cypr. happiness which could not be attained unless the joys of the blessed were wound up to eternity Nay the very nature of our eternal condition which admits no succession no vicissitude no fading no wast speaks these joyes eternal and demonstrates them Everlasting The Saints shall enjoy their Father for ever John 14. 2. Christ saith he is going home to prepare us Mansions in our Fathers house And this is Enough we shall see our Father when we die as Jacob said concerning his sonne Joseph before he died we shall enjoy him for ever Elisha as Elijah was departing from him cries My 2 Kings 2. 12. Quando veniam apparebo ante faciem tuam O dies nesciens vesperam nuilum timens occasum Aug. Father my Father Now the saints shall ever lie in their Fathers bosome They shall see the father of all their mercies and they shall bee banisht his sight no more Then shall the Saints fully and perfectly see how tender the bowels of a Father are Isa 49. 19. how soft the compassion of their gracious wise indulgent careful and bountiful Father is And God shall unriddle to the Saints all the traverses and circuits of his own Providence and how fatherly his love and care was though often it had the mask of mysteriousness the reward of affliction before it And what a Ibi erit omne bonum non erit aliquid malum ibi erit quicquid voles non erit quicquid noles Erit gaudium super gaudium gandium vincens omne gaudium extra quod non gaudium fountain of blessedness will this be that the Saints shall no longer cry out Our Father in a penitential petition and prayer but shall everlastingly feed and prey upon Paternal Smiles and lie in Paternal Embraces They shall for ever converse with their Father not on their Knee in a strange Land but with their eye in their Fathers Court. The saints shall enjoy their husband for ever the bride shall eternally enjoy her Bridegroom the beloved of her soul 22 Rev. 17. here the saints were sick of love for Jesus Christ 5. Cant. 5. and that feavour shall be satisfied with his company for ever This life was an unkinde wall an injurious lattice between Christ and the Saint and death having broke down this discourteous wall of separation the saints shall alwayes bath themselves in the loves of 17. Jo. 24. Christs presence Eternity shall be the eternall wedding day of Christ and his spouse How doth the poor believer here Cant. 17. 3. complain 1. Sometimes of frownes and unkind looks the smile is clouded and vailed 2. Sometimes of absence Christ Cant. 5. 6. hath retired and withdrawn himself And 3. Very often of various and different behaviour now loves now distast But in Eternity Christ shall ever look pleasingly and ravish the