eternal God himselfe who is goodnesse and perfection wholly incomprehensible shall be with them and will be their God their exceeding great reward their portion their heaven their life eternall their happinesse and their all in all with whom they will be fully satisfied and in whom they will comfortably acquiesce and contentedly rest to all eternity yea the Lord their God will rejoyce over them with joy and will rest in his love unto them Zeph 3. 17. O Sirs if the blessedness of the life to come be but revealed in part and if we who know but part of that part of it which is revealed and that thorow a glasse darkly do conceive the glory and bliss of it to be unspeakably great How unconceivably glorious and blessed will the Saints in heaven find it to be when they shall fully know it by comfortable experience In summe the happiness of heaven and of the blessed life to come called by Divines the state of glorification is such as that it will please and satisfy all who shall have a part in it it is infinitely greater and better then can be uttered or conceived therefore let us humbly leave the rest of the felicity of it to the future experience of such as shall enjoy it as we may hope we shall within a short time if our hearts be right in the sight of God It is reported of the Duke of Bovillon and his army that when they went to Jerusalem as soon as they saw the high Turrers they shouted for joy â—rying out Jerusalem Jerusalem what cause have we poor pilgrims strangers on the earth who are travelling towards the â—elestial Jerusalem our heavenly country to rejoyce with joy unspeakable as soon as we see by faith any glimpse of the exceeding glory and happinesse of it saying with a joyful noyse to God Hallelujah Hallelujah blessed and for ever blessed be the Lord that we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens An house yea a pallace of heavenly state and magnificence neither is it lesse then a kingdome that abides there for us a kingdome so much above these worldly Monarchies as heaven is above this â—lod of earth CHAP. V. Renders the principall Reasons why all mankinde after the day of judgement shall go in their bodies and soules into an everlasting condition either of felicity or misery THe great and important Truth of mans eternal state to come having been both proved and explained I shall now give you the Reasons of it which are principally these two First the Elect of God amongst all mankind who were interessed in Christ shall go in their bodies and soules after they have received their joyful sentence of absolution into an everlasting condition of happinesse for the everlasting glorifying of the mercy of God Rom. 9. 23. When Jesus Christ shall say to his Elect people in the sight and hearing of all the world Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world and when afterward he shall bring them triumphantly into the possession of the everlasting kingdome of glory Then and from thenceforth and for ever it will be fully knowne that God is essentially mercifull and that his mercy towards them whom he hath chosen in Christ to life eternal is infinite everlasting and immutable to the everlasting glory and honour of the mercy of the Lord and to the perpetuall praise of the glory of his grace Rom. 9. 23. Ephes. 1. 5 6. As now the best of Saints do but see the saving mercy of God towards them thorow a glasse darkly and do but weakly believe it so they do very imperfectly praise him for it but when they shall perfectly know at the day of 〈◊〉 compleat Redemption that it was the mercy of God and nothing but his â—ender mercy and free grace in Christ towards them that elected them that created them that redeemed them that called them that justified them that sanctified them and that hath compleatly saved them and all for this great end that they might for ever magnify him for it Then they will perfecty praise the Lord and give him the glory due to his name for this gracious and golden chain of mercy that reacheth from their everlasting predestination to their everlasting glorification Ephes. 1. 3 4 5 6. Rev. 4. 8 9 10 11 12. As the saved in heaven will know by joyful experience the â—â—â—at things the Lord hath done for them and that it is eternal love unto them in Christ that hath delivered them from the nether-most hell and that hath brought them to the highest heaven so they will affectionately praise him for it and will delight to give glory to the Lord their God who hath brought them unto his incomprehensible bliss and glory through the communication of his grace and glory unto them And as they will perfectly apprehend that the favour that God beareth unto them in Christ shall endure for ever and ever so they will glorify him for it for ever and ever and will sing without ceasing the high praises of God not as the Acaemets at Constantinople who sung day and night divine praises to God onely one company after another But all the Elect angels and Saints in heaven will unanimously and perpetually praise the everliving God Father Son and holy Ghost for the infinite felicity they shall enjoy together in his beatifical presence Psal. 84. 4. Rev. 7. 10 11 12. Secondly all the Reprobate of Mankinde who had no part in Christ shall go in their bodies and souls immediately after the dolefull sentence of condemnation hath been pronounced against them into an everlasting condition of misery for the everlasting glorifying of the justice of God Rom. 9. 22. When Jesus Christ shall say to the Reprobate in the presence of his elect Angels and Saints Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devill and his Angels and when he shall at that instant cast them into hell to be everlastingly punished then and ever after it will be absolutely known that God is essentially just and that his justice is infinite eternal and unchangeable to the everlasting glory and honour of the justice of God and to the eternal praise of his unalterable purpose to punish final impâ—nitent and unbelieving sinners according to the desert of their sins Rom. 9. 22. 2 Thes. 1. 7 8 The wicked in the world will not now believe the justice anger and displeasure of God against sin and impenitent sinners nor will they glorify it when it is executed upon secure sinners either in temporal or spiritual judgements But when the great day of the Lords wrath is come then they shall feel it by woful experience and shall be forced to know and acknowledge the Lord to be just and their damnation to
condition either of felicity or misery The souls of all those who die in the Lord in a believing and regenerate estate are by the mercy of God absolved and made perfect in holiness and are carried by good Angels into heaven there to live in a happy estate of joy and rest with their ever blessed God and Saviour and with all the holy Angels and with all those perfect and blessed souls who went to heaven before them waiting for the full redemption of their bodies which even in death and after they are returned to dust continue still united to Christ and rest in their graves as in their beds till at the last day they be again united to their souls Rom. 8. 23. Ps. 16. 9. Isai 57. 2. Job 19. 25 26. But the souls of all People who die out of Christ in an unbelieving and unregenerate condition are by the justice of God condemned to infernal misery and are haled away by evil Angels into hell there to remain in torments and utter darkness with the devil and his angels and with all those sad and miserabie souls who were before doomed to that place of torment and their bodies which return to dust and see corruption are kept in their graves as in their prisons till the resurrection and judgement of the great day Gen. 3. 19. 2 Pet. 2. 9. A Philosopher being asked by Alexander the great Whether there were more men alive then dead Answered That there were more alive because said he there are none dead in respect of their souls We are taught more plainly by Divinity then ever any where by Philosophy That the souls of all people are immortal and consequently that they who are dead in their bodies are alive in their souls either in heaven or hell besides these two places for souls separated from their bodies the Scripture acknowledgeth none Fourthly That the bodies of all mankind who have dyed from the beginning to the end of the world shall all be raised again at the last day and reunited to their ownsouls all the dead shall be raised again with the self-same bodies and none other yet so altered in quality as that then they shall be able to abide for ever The words of our Saviour are express and full The hour is comming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation And the words of the Apostle are clear and plain There shall be a Resurrection of the dead both of the just and unjust Acts 24. 15. And again The dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed for this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality 1 Cor. 15 52 53. Let not incredulous nature shrink at the possibility of Resurrection when the God of nature undertakes it 〈◊〉 Why should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead Is it not as possible for God Almighty with whom nothing is impossible to raise the dead out of their dust which is something as to make the world of nothing is it not as easie with the Lord for whom nothing is too hard to raise man out of his dust in the earth as to form man of the dust of the ground It is sufficient to me that the Lord Jesus Christ hath promised me that if I believe in him he will raise me up at the last day John 6. 40. Fifthly That all those of mankind who shall be raised from the dead together with the rest of mankind who shall be found alive at the second coming of Christ being changed in a moment they shall all personally appear before the judgement seat of Christ to give a publick account of their thoughts words and deeds whether they were good or evil and they shall all be judged by Jesus Christ to go in their bodies and souls into an everlasting condition either of happiness or misery Enoch the seventh from Adam Prophesied of the day of judgement Our Saviour in his Sermons often made mention of it and the Apostle Paul solemnly warnes us of it for saith he We must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad so then every one shall give an account of himself to God who will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to the Gospel and will reward them according to their works as their works or deeds were fruits and effects either of their faith or of their unbeliefe Mat. 16. 27. Rom. 2. 6 16. Again Saint Matthew tells us That Jesus Christ the Judge of quick and dead shall give this comfortable sentence of everlasting life and salvation to all the elect among Mankind who were righteous and such as had a part in him Come ye blessed of my father inherit the kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world Math. 25. 34. And again that Christ himself shall give this dreadfull sentence of eternall death and damnation to all the Reprobate of mankind who were wicked and such as had no interest in him Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels Mat. 25. 41. It seems that the proceedings of the general and last judgement shall be so ordered by the peculiar favour of God as that the Saints who were in Christ shall first be judged and acquitted and then with Christ they shall judge Reprobate men and angels not in an equal authority with Christ but as approvers of his righteous judgement Sixtly That all mankind shall certainly go into that everlasting condition that the Lord Jesus Christ shall doom them unto those whom Christ shall absolve and sentence to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven shall assuredly go into it to live eternally happy in it and those whom Christ shall condemn to go into everlasting fire shall certainly go into it to be everlastingly punished in it after the act of eternal judgement is past the execution of it will immediately follow this is proved and insisted upon in the next Chapter CHAP. II. Shews by many infallible proofs That all mankind in the end of this world shall go in their bodies and souls into an everlasting condition either of happiness or misery I Have now brought you within the sight of mans future Eternity unto that great Doctrine of Eternity chiefly aimed at which is this That all mankind at the end of this world shall go in their bodies and souls into an everlasting condition either of happiness or misery The wicked of all mankind who had no part in Christ shall go into hell to endure everlasting punishment and the righteous among all mankind who were interessed in Christ shall go into heaven
Philosophers were of this opinion That wicked people shal go after they depart hence into a horrible place called Tartarus where they shal be eternally tormented that good men shal go after their departure out of this life into a pleasant place called Elizium where they shal live happily for ever Which opinion of theirs clearly shews that they had some imperfect notions of Mans future Eternity either in torment or happiness Again they who write of the world tel us That the people of every Nation in the world are of some Religion and they who are of any Religion do hold That there is a life after this life where it shall go well with the good and ill with the bad of mankinde for ever Why else are they Religious Doubtless that must needs be a manifest Truth that appears to be so not onely by the light of the holy Scriptures but also by the Light of Nature and the common opinion almost of all people in the world Nay by the common practise of the Divel himself who as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour endeavouring by his temptations apparitions possessions and wiles with deâ—uded sinners to deprive as many of mankind of eternal salvation as possibly he can and to bring them at last unto everlasting damnation from which Good Lord deliver us CHAP. III. Describes the misery of that everlasting condition of woe and punishment that the wicked shall go into at the the end of the world HAving hitherto proved the Doctrine Of mans future Eternity I shall in the next place explain it and first of all I shall mournfully look downward towards the miserable Eternity of such as shall be damned and shew you so far as I know it by Scripture-Revelation wherein the misery of their everlasting punishment which is the punishment of punishments doth chiefly consist namely in these three particulars 1. In their punishment of loss 2. In their pain of sense 3 In the everlastingness of both these kinds of punishment First The misery of that everlasting cursed and damned condition that the wicked shal go into at the end of this world doth consist in their punishment of loss and that in these four respects 1. They shal be punished with the loss of the comfortable and beatisical presence of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost They shall depart and go away from the Lord in such a sort as that they shal never have any savour nor any refreshing from the presence of the ever-blessed and glorious Trinity God being the chief good and the greatest felicity and his loving kindness being better then life therefore to be punished with the loss of his favour will be as it were the everlasting death of the damned and their greatest loss and saddest misery 2. They shal be punished with the loss of heaven that place of celestial rest and blessedness where God is said to dwell whither Christ is ascended and where the Lord will manifest himself unto his people to their everlasting comfort and happinesse There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth saith our Saviour when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob all the Prophets in the kingdom of God and you your selves thrust out Luke 13. 28. 3. They shall be punished with the loss of the blessed Communion of all the holy Angels in heaven for seeing they shal be punished with the loss of the favourable presence of God with the loss of heaven it follows that they shal be punished with the loss of the joyful fellowship of all the holy angels who do alwaies behold the face of God in heaven Mat. 18. 10. 4. They shal be punished with the loss of the comfortable company of all the Saines in heaven and of all their glorious perfections heavenly priviledges for sith they shal depart from the Lord and shal be shut out of heaven and cast into hell where they shal for ever remain unpardoned and unsanctified retaining their vile hearts and sinful natures therefore it necessarily follows that they shal be deprived of the happy society of all the Saints and of all those celestial perfections and blessed priviledges that they shal enjoy when they shall be ever with the Lord in the kingdome of heaven Luko 16. 22 to 27. We think their loss to be very great who are punished with the loss of the temporal good things of this life but alas What is that to the loss of the eternal good things of the life to come A Godly Gentleman observing the gallant accommodations of a pious Noble man took occasion to speak to him after this Christian manner My Lord said he you had need make sure of heaven or else when you die you will be a great looser it infinitely concerns both great and small to make sure work about their Salvation otherwise when they die they will be great losers for they will lose not onely their comforts on earth but also the joyes of heaven and that without all hope of recovery Luke 16. 23 24. Secondly the misery of that wofull and cursed condition called The damnation of hell that the wicked shal go into after the day of Judgement doth consist in their pain of sense or in that sensible pain that they shall bee punished withall in hell that terrible place of torment and that in sundry particulars worthy of our most serious consideration 1. They shâ—l be punished universally with a sensible pain all over as in their bodies and in all the parts thereof and in their souls and in all the faculties thereof These shal go away into everlasting punishment it is spoken of the wicked after they were condemned to go in their bodies and souls into Everlasting fire prepared for the divel and his angels Mat. 25. 41 46. 2. They shall be punished extreamly with a grievous sensible torment in their whole man for They shall go into hell into the fire that never shall be quenched and into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone Mark 9. 46. Rev. 21. 8. Though fire and brimstone be terrible yet the thing thereby signified is more terrible indeed indeed the largest and most capacious heart alive cannot conceive how extream their pain and misery will be upon whom the total wrath of God shall abide for ever John 3. 36. Rev. 14 10. Iâ— â—aâ—n if Judas if Spira and others were so grievously tâ—rmented with despair and horrour of Conscience when the terrours of God were upon them and if the wrath of God upon Christ for a while caused his soul to be exceeding heavy and made his bodie sweat as it were great drops of blood how extreamly will the infinite fierce wrath of God torment the damned in hell when it shall abide on them for all Eternity 3. They shall be punished continually without having any ease intermission or freedom from pain throughout the infinite space of Eternity how can it be
the House of my God then to dwell in the Tents of wickedness If the enjoyment of God in his Ordinances be so unspeakably sweet and delightful how incomprehensibly comfortable and complacent wil the Saints perfect fruition of God in Heaven be I know not how to express it let your souls think of it but there is more yet For Thirdly The perfect blessedness of that happy condition of heavenly rest and glory called an eternal weight of glory that penâ—tent and pious believers shall go into at the last day consists in the Eternity of it their glorious conformity unto Christ and their blessed enjoyment of God in Christ will never end nor ever alter but will continue to be the same for ever ever Hear what sacred Writ saith concerning the Saints future Eternity They shall go into life eternal they shall have everlasting life they shall ever live and never dye they shall be ever with the Lord and shall reign with him for ever and ever in the Kingdom of Glory where they shall wear an incorruptible Crown of Life and Glory and where they shal possess an Eternal inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 1. 4. How clearly and fully do these words Eternal everlasting ever ever and ever prove that the blessed life or happy condition that the righteous shall go into at the last day will never end but ever continue ever ever and ever After the Saints in heaven have been happy in their glorious conformity unto Christ and in their blessed enjoyment of God in Christ as many years as there are stars in the heavens as there have been drops of water rained down from heaven since the begining of the world as there have been things thought upon words spoken and actions done by all mankind since the day that God created man and as there have been letters written and printed since letters writing and printing were found out in the world when they have lived with the Lord in heavenly glory and happiness so many years nay so many thousands of years their blessed life wil be no nearer an end for it will ever last and never end Because I live saith Christ to his disciples ye shall live also As Christ who is the head of his Church liveth for evermore so his people who are his members shal live for evermore and in this respect he wil satisfie them with long life even with everlasting Life which had indeed a beginning but shal never have an end Psalm 91. 16. John 10. 28. Their souls are immortal by creation and their bodies shall be immortal at their resurrection the heaven of heavens which they shall inhabit is eternal Their God whom they shal enjoy is everlasting their blessed Head and Saviour in whom they shall enjoy the Lord is ever-living Therefore their blessed life shall be everlasting everlasting What can I say more After the inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven have lived in Celestial Glory and Felicity as many millions of years as all mankind could ever number they will be as far off from the end of their everlasting blessedness as they were at the beginning of it for their blessed and eternal Eternity after they are once entred into it is like a Ring that hath no end at all and it shall be as an immortal Ring which they shall eternally wear in remembrance of the Lords everlasting Love unto them All our Earthly enjoyments are damped and made less comfortable to us because they are but temporal for a while we may leave them or they may leave us to day before tomorrow But the Heavenly enjoyments of the Saints in glory are heightned and made more happy and joyful because they are eternal and wil be altogether the same for ever and ever 1 Thes. 4. 17. Heb. 13. 8. If any now ask me what is the Saints Eternity in Heaven My answer is this It is the infinite length of their blessed life and heavenly happiness whereby it will never end but ever continue ever ever and ever O all ye blessed and thrice happy Saints see here in this blessed Eternity Eternity Eternity what the Lord hath prepared for them that wait upon him see Here where the narrow way of Humility Faith and Piety will end even within the strait gate of the great City of Heaven where are joyes unconceivable and pleasures for evermore Behold here how they that sow in tears shall reap in joy and how the Lord wil in mercy reward those with the enjoyment of himself who diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. And rejoice ye hapyy heirs of Heaven rejoine in the hope and expectation of this Heavenly glory and happiness to â—ome and comfort one another with these things and let the joy and recompence of reward which hath been set before you move you to go on unweariedly in the wayes of God alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Cor. 15. 58. Heb. 12. 2. Though all the Saints shall be members and fellow-Citizens of the Heavenly â—â—rusalem and shall be fully and everlastingly happy in their holy and glorious conformity unto Christ and in their blessed enjoyment of God in Christ Yet it is probable by how much any of them through the Grace of Christ have glorified God on earth more then others of them by so much their degrees of glory in Heaven will be the greater according to the Judgement of most Divines upon these places of Scripture Dan. 12. â— Matth. 10. 41 42. Ch. 19. 28. 1 Cor. 3. 8. 2 Cor. 4. 17. 2 Cor. 9. 6. It is the general Opinion of godly learned men that the Saints in Heaven will perfectly and personally know one another to the mutual comfort one of another This is usually proved by arguments taken from these Texts of Scripture Matt. 17. 1 2 3 4. Matth. 8. 11. Luke 16. 23. 1 Cor. 13. 12. After the resurrection the Saints will neither marry nor be given in marriage but shall be as the Angels of God in Heaven And their bodies being spiritual in quality they shall be freed from the necessities and imperfections of the animal life and upheld immediately by the Almighty power of God without the use of food and raiment and all other means that are requisite to the preservation of the life that now is 1 Cor. 15. 28. When all the Saints shall be like Christ and shall be brought to the blisful fruition of God in Christ in those eternal Mansions of heaven assigned for them then prophesying hearing and praying and all duties graces and actions that were used as meanes to that blessed end shall cease and then they shall have that everlasting rest that now remaineth for them which is the endlesse rest of rests and so they shall keep that everlasting Sabbath which is the Sabbath of Sabbaths and the