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
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
to inherit life eternal and so all the world shall go into one of these two places or states of Eternity after that time shall be no more The truth of this weighty point of Divinity may appear these two waies 1. By Divine Testimonie 2. By Humane Testimonie First This appeares to be so by the Divine Testimonie of the Spirit of God in the holy Scriptures who saith concerning the wicked that they shall go into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternal Mat. 25. 46. When Jesus Christ shall sit upon the Throne of his glory the people of all nations shall be gathered before him and he will distinguish them into two sorts namely into sheep and goates Mat. 25. 31. 32. By Goats are meant the Reprobate of all mankind who dyed in their sins and out of Christ though many of them did profess saith yet none of them had that Faith unfained which worketh by Love for when Christ in his poor Members was an hungred they gave him no meat and when he was naked they clothed him not and these are the unbelieving and the ungodly of the world who shal go away into everlasting punishment that is they shall go into hell to suffer everlasting punishment By Sheep are to be understood the Elect of God taken out of all sorts of mankind who were redeemed justified and sanctified by Jesus Christ many whereof had opportunity to shew forth their faith in Christ and their love unto Christ by their Charity to the poor people of Christ for when Christ in his poor Members was sick and in prison they visited him and when he was hungry and naked they fed him and clothed him And these are the righteous in Christ Jesus who shall go into Life Eternal that is they shall go into heaven to enjoy life eternal Mat. 25. 35 36 37 46. Again This is proved by the Parable of the tares of the field in the thirteenth chapter of Saint Matthews Gospel If you well observe our Saviours Exposition of this â—arable you will find that all people in the world are compared unto good Seed and Tares By Tares are meant the children of the wicked one who were of their Father the Divel for his lusts they would do though many of them were Christians by name and Believers by profession yet they were but formal Christians and feigned Believers being such as did offend and such as were workers of iniquity And these in the end of this world shall be cast into a Furnace of fire that is into Hell-fiâ—e where there is for ever wailing and gnashing of teeth Mat. 13 40 41 42. Rev. 16. 10 11. By good Seed is to be understood the children of the Kingdom who were joint-heirs with Christ of the Kingdome of Glory and these at the last day shall be received up into the third Heaven and shall shine forth as the Sun in the kingdom of their Father and that for evermore for of his Kingdom there shall be no end Mat. 13. 38 43. This Divine Doctrine may be further illustrated and yet more strongly confirmed by these two Scripture-Arguments First at the great Assizes of the whole world when all mankind shall so appear before the tribunal of Christ as that the secrets of their hearts shall be laid open they will be found either such as were ignorant and disobedient and out of Christ or such as were knowing obedient and interessed in Christ. They who shal be found at that notable day of discovery such as had no part in Christ such as knew not God and as obeyed not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ shal be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2 Thes. 1. 7. But they who shall be found at that great day of Trial such as were in Christ such as did know the onely true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent and such as did truly believe in Christ and sincerely obey him shall be saved with eternal salvation Heb. 5. 9. Therefore all mankind at the end of the world shal go into an everlasting condition either of wo or weal. Secondly either all mankind after the day of Judgment shall go into an everlasting condition either of happiness or misery or else some of mankind shall be turned into nothing or else some of mankind shall go into some third place or state But not any of mankind shall be turned into nothing for the wicked of all mankind shall go into everlasting punishment therefore they shall have an everlasting being otherwise there would be a punishment inflicted none indured which is a contradiction and the righteous among mankind shall go into life eternal and therefore they shal subsist live for ever and so none of mankind shall be annihilated or consumed and turned into nothing Nor shall any of mankind go into any third place or state because there is no place nor state to be found in the Word of God for any of mankind to go into after this world is ended besides hell and heaven besides the cursed condition of everlasting punishment and the blessed state of life eternal and how can any of mankind go into that which is not Therefore we may certainly conclude That all mankind at the end of this world shall go in their bodies and souls into an everlasting condition either of glory or misery The wicked shall go into an everlasting condition of pain and calamity and the righteous shal go into an everlasting condition of rest and glory and so all shall go into an eternal state either of felicity or misery after that time shall be no longer Here it might be shewed that the Doctrine Of Mans everlasting condition in the world to come hath been received for a Truth ever since this world began The holy Partriarchs Prophets and Apostles and the Old and New Testament Saints believed it and acknowledged it so did the ancient Fathers after them the greatest part of Christians in all ages and parts of the world And all the Reformed Churches now in Christendom do confess it and do earnestly contend for this Fundamental Article of the Catholick faith But I labour to be brief and therefore instead of insisting upon the Antiquity of this point I shall refer you to the Scriptures and Authors in the Margin and to the last Article of Athanasius's Creed of the Nicene Creed and of that ancient Creed commonly called The Apostles Creed whereby you may see with your own eyes that this is no new but an ancient Truth which hath been received in the Church of God in all ages of the world Secondly This infallible Doctrine may be proved if further proof be needful by humane testimony and as I may say with the Apostle Acts 17. 28. by certain of our own Poets for the wiser sort both of Poets and
otherwise sith they shall be cast into the Bottomless pit of hell where their worm dyeth not and the fire is not quenched where they have no rest day nor night but are tormented continually continually Rev. 14. 10 11. I have somtimes thought in my sickness What if the Lord should alwaies afflict me with such a pain as this is and should continue me to endure it to all eternity how miserable then wouâ—d my life be and yet saith a learned Author after a long sickness what is a sick-bed to hell What is a Fever to those everlasting burnings where the fit never goeth off the fire never goeth out the worm never dieth Mark 9. 44. 4. They shal be punished remedilâ—sly without ever having any remedy or any help or hope of remedie The Author to the Hebrews tels us That if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineâ—h no more sacrifice for sins but a certain fearfull looking for of judgement and â—iery indignation which shall devour the adversaries Hebrews 10. 26 27. The Sacrifice of Christ is the onely true Sacrifice if that be quite rejected it can be no more reiterated neither can there be any other found elsewhere and so nothing but remediless misery is to be expected they who shal finally refuse Jesus Christ our ever dear redeemer shal be condemned to hell without all possibility of being redeemed out of it and without all hope of having any comfort in it and so they will be left to utter desperation without either help or hope of remedy but here is not all for Thirdly The misery of that dâ—plorable punishment and fulness of all cursedness called The second death which impenitent unbelievers and ill-livers must endure in Hell at the end of the world consists in the everlastingness of it their punishment of loss and pain of sence will last throughout all-Eternity Hearken what the Scripture saith about the miserable Eternity of such as shal be damned They shall go away into everlasting punishment they shal suffer the vengeance of eternal fire the blackness of darkness is reserved for them for ever they shall be tormented for ever and ever Mat. 25. 46. Jude v. 7. 13. Rev. 20. 10. Oh these words Everlasting eternal ever ever ever how plainly and fully do they prove the everlastingness and the perpetuity of the punishment of the damned in Hell After they have been punished with the loss of the happiness of heaven and with the sense of the horrour of Hell as many years as there are grass piles upon the earth as there are drops of water in the sea as there are sands by the sea shoar as there are motes in the Sun as there have been leaves on all the trees that ever grew as there have been hairs upon the heads of all mankind from the first till the last born I say after they have been punished so many years â—ay more after they have been punished so many millions of years as it is possible for the mind of man to conceive their most fearful punishment will be no nearer an end for it will ever last and never end never never Their souls are immortal already and their bodies shal be raised everlasting the judgement that shal be passed upon them is eternal Hell that place of torment they shal be turned into continues for ever their worm of conscience is ever-living and the wrath of God which shal abide on them is everlasting therefore their punishment shal be everlasting everlasting Though we may look forward and forward towards their miserable eternity yet we shal never see the end of it and they will never find an end of it for after it is once begun it is like a circle that hath no end at all or like that Prison that whosoever were cast into it could never get out again In all the miseries mankind meet withall in this world they have this poor comfort they hope their misery will have an end but the wicked in Hell can have no such hope and therefore no such comfort for they wil know after Christ hath condemned them to go into everlasting fire that their punishment wil be everlasting and endless If any say unto me What is the Eternity of the Damned in Hell my reply is this It is the Everlastingness of their hellish pain and misery whereby it will ever last and never end never never O all ye careless sinners see here in this miserable eternity eternity eternity the great and abominable evil of sin and the sad fruit of it See here what that wrath to come is you ought to flee from and how much it concerns you to fear God who can cast both soul and body into hell See here where the broad way of affected ignorance unbelief and wickedness will end even within the wide gate of the dreadful prison of Hell from whence there is no return Behold here what your sins will bring you unto at last unless you truly repent of them and apply Christ by Faith for pardon of them and power against them And flatter not your selvs in hope of a tolerable hell as thinking that if you be damned that you may endure the torments of hell as well as others For verely verely no finite heart can conceive how great the pain and misery of the damned will be who shal be punished by an infinite God for an infinite guilt throughout the infinite space of Eternity One says wel We can go no further in comprehending that which is incomprehensible then to know it to be incomprehensible It is not for nothing that God hath ordained Tophet of old and that Christ hath so often threatned hell and everlasting punishment against impenitent and unbelieving sinners For for as sure as the promises of heaven and life eternal are true so sure the threatnings of hell and everlasting punishment are true and they shall be fulfilled in God's appointed time and way Mat. 5. 18. ch 25 46. Though Reprobate sinners are but finite Creatures and did sin but for a time yet because they sinned against an infinite good God and against the everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God and did never repent of their sins but would have sinned eternally if they had lived eternally therefore these offence is infinite and it will be just with God to punish them wiâ—h an everlasting punishment and so with an infinite punishment in respect of duration Rom. 3. 8 Rom. 6. 23. Although all the damned shal be everlastingly punished with the loss of the felicity of heaven and with the sence of the misery of Hell yet by how much any of them have been greater sinners then others of them by so much their degrees of punishment will be the greater according to the opinion of most expositors upon these Texts of Scripture Mat. 11. 22