good or whether it be bad But now because I would prove by the words whatever I would have others receive for a truth therefore I shall in few particulars prove the Resurrection of the wicked First then it is evident that the wicked shall rise from the very termes and names that the raised shall then go under which is the very same names that they did go under when they lived in this World They are called the Heathen the Nations the World the wicked and those that do iniquity they are called Men Women Sodom Sidon Bethsaida Capernaum and Tire The Men of Ninive shall rise up in Judgment the Queen of the South shall rise up in the Judgment and it shall be more tolerable for Sodom in the day of Judgment then for other sinners that have resisted more light The Heavens and the Earth that now are are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of Judgement and perdition of ungodly men 2 Pet. 3. 7. Mat. 12. 41 42. Mat. 11. 21 22 23 24. Luk. 10. 12 13 14. Joel 3. 12 13 14. Mat. 25. 32. Jud. 14. 15. Now these Termes or Names are not given to the spirits of the wicked onely but to them as consisting of Body and Soul Further Christ tells his adversaries when they had apprehended him and shamefully intreated him that yet they should see him sit on the right hand of power and coming in the Clouds of Heaven as John also doth testifie saying Behold he cometh with Clouds and every Eye shall see him and they also that pierced him and all the kinreds of the Earth shall wail because of him Mat. 26. 64. Revel 1. 7. Now none of these sayings are yet fulfilled neither shall they untill his second coming for though the Jews did many of them see him when he did hang upon the Cross yet then he was not coming in the Clouds of Heaven neither did then all kinreds of the Earth wail because of him No this is reserved till he comes to judge the World for then shall the ungodly be so put to it that gladly they would creep into the most invincible Rock or Mountain under Heaven to hide themselves from his Face and the Majesty of his Heavenly presence Rev. 6. 14 15 16 17. There shall therefore that this may be brought to passe be a Resurrection of the dead both of the just and unjust For though an opinion of no Resurrection may now lull men asleep in security and impiety yet the Lord when he comes will rouse them and cause them to awake not onely out of their security but out of their Graves to their doom that they may receive for their errour the recompence that is meet Secondly The Body of the ungodly must at the last arise out of the Grave because that Body and their Soul while they lived in the World were Co-partners in their lusts and wickedness God is a God of knowledge and by him actions are weighed 1 Sam. 2 3. Eccles. 12. 14. He will therefore bring every work into Judgement with every secret thing And as he will bring into Judgement every work so will he also the worker thereof Revel 20. 12 13 14. even the Dead small and great It is not in God to lay the punishment where the fault is not neither to punish a part of the damned for the whole With righteousness shall be judge the World and the People with Equity shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right Psal. 98. 9. Gen. 18. 25. As therefore the Body was Copartner with the Soul in sinning so shall every man receive the things done in his Body according to what he hath done Wherefore he saith in another place Behold I come quickly and my Reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be Rev. 22. 12. There shall therefore be a Resurrection of the Dead both of the just and unjust 3. The body of the wicked must rise again because as the whole man of the just also that is the Vessel of mercy glory so the whole man of the unjust is the Vessel of wrath and destruction There are saith Paul in a great House not onely Vessels of Gold and of Silver but also of Wood and of Earth and some to Honour and some to dishonour Now as he sheweth us these Vessels to honour they are good men and the vessels to dishonour are the bad 2 Tim. 2. 20 21. Now as these vessels to dishonour are called the vessels of wrath so it is said that God with much long suffering doth suffer them to be fitted to destruction Rom. 9. 22. how they are thus fitted he also further sheweth where he saith They do after their hardness and impenitent heart treasure up wrath against the day of wrath and the Revelation of the righteous Judgement of God Rom. 2. 5. Which treasures of wickedness James saith it is treasured up against the last dayes which is the time of Judgement and observe it He saith that then it shall eat their flesh as it were fire Jam. 5. 12. 3. Now then their Bodies being the vessels of the wrath of God and again seeing with this wrath they must be possessed at the last day that their flesh must with it be eaten it is evident that their body must rise again out of their Graves and before the Judgement Seat appear for it is from thence that each of them must go with his full load to their long and eternal home where their Worm dieth not and their fire is not quenched Mark 9. 47 48. Fourthly The severity of the hand of God towards his Children with his forbearance of his enemies doth clearly bespeak a Resurrection of the ungodly that they may receive the reward for their wickedness which they have committed in this World We know that while the eyes of the wicked start out with fatness the godly are plagued all the day long and chastned every morning Psal. 73. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. Wherefore it is evident that the place and time of the punishment of the ungodly it is another World If Judgement begin at the House of God what will the end of them be that obey not the Gospel of God and if the Righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and sinner appear 1 Pet. 4. 17 18. Alas poor Creatures they now plot against the Righteous and gnash upon them with their teeth but the Lord laugheth at them for he seeth their day is coming for as he saith the wicked is reserved or let alone in his wickedness to the day of destruction and shall then be brought forth to the day of wrath Psal. 37. 12 13. though in the mean time he may go to his Grave in his banner and rest within his Tomb. As Peter saith again Job 21. 29 30 31 32. the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation but to reserve the unjust to the day of Judgement
also will those severall thoughts that have passed through mans heart be a witness also against him As he said before their Conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to the Gospel Rom. 2. 14 15. The thoughts come in as a witness for God against the sinner upon the account of that unsteddiness and variety that was in them both touching God and their own selves Sometimes the man thinks there is no God but that every thing hath its rise of it self or by chance or fortune The fool hath said in his heart there is no God Psal. 14. 1. Sometimes again they think there is a God but yet they think and imagine of him falsly Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy self saith God but I will reprove thee Psal. 50. 21. Men think that because they can sin with delight that therefore God can let them esscape without punishment Nay oftentimes they think that God doth either quite forget their wickedness or else that he will be pleased with such satisfaction as they are pleased to give him even a few howling prayers fained and hypocritical tears and weepings which passe from them Hos. 7. 14. Mal. 2. 13. More for fear of the punishment of Hell-fire then because they have offended so holy so just and so glorious a God and so loving and so condescending a Jesus Sometimes again they have had right thoughts of something of God but not of him together either thinking so of his Justice as to drive them from him and also cause them to put him out of their mind Job 21. 14. or else so thinking of his mercy as that they quite forget his Holiness and Justice Now both these are but base thoughts of God and so erronious and sinful thoughts Sometimes also they have prety right thoughts of God both as to Justice and Mercy but then through the wretchedness of their unsatisfied nature they against this light and knowledge do with shut eyes and hardened hearts rush fiercely knowingly and willingly again into their sins and wickedness Heb. 6. 2 3 4. Heb. 10. 26. 2. Pet. 2. 20. Secondly As men have these various thoughts of God so also their thoughts are not steddy about themselves 1. Sometimes they think they are sinners and therefore they have need of mercy 2. Sometimes again they think they are righteous and so have not so much need mark and yet both alike rotten and base because as the last is altogether senseless so the first is not at all savingly senseable Mark 10. 17 18 19 20 21 22. Luk. 18. 11 12. 3. Sometime again they think they are Gods that they shall never die or that if they do die yet they shall never rise again or if they do rise again yet they shall be saved though they have lived vilely and in their sins all the dayes of their life Ezek. 28. 1 2 3 4 5 6. 1 Cor. 15. 12. Deut. 29. 18. 12. 20. Now I say every one of these thoughts with ten thousand more of the like nature will God bring in against the Rebels in the Judgment-day Which thoughts shall every one of them be brought forth in their distinct order He sheweth to man what is his thought And again I know that thou canst do every thing and that no thought can be hid from thee Amos 4. 13. Job 42. 2. We read that when the strangers at Jerusalem did but hear the Apostle speak to every one of them in their own Language how it amazed and confounded them Acts 2. 6 7 8. But I say how will they look and be amazed when God shall evidently clearly and fully speak out all their hearts and every thought they have had before them Now the reason and strength of this witness will lie here that God will by the variety and crossness that their thoughts had one to another and by the contradiction that was in them prove them sinners and ungodly because that I say sometimes they thought there was a God sometimes again they thought there was none Sometimes they thought that he was such a God and sometimes again they thought of him quite contrary Sometimes they thought he was worth regarding and sometimes they thought he was not As also sometimes they thought he would be faithful both to mercy and Justice and sinners and sometimes again they thought he would not What greater Argument now can there be to prove men vanity froth a lie sinners deluded by the Devil and such as had false apprehensions of God his wayeâ— his Word his Justice his Holiness of themselves their sins and every action Now they will indeed appear a very lump of confusion a mass of sin a bundle of ignorance of Atheism of unbelief and of all things that should lay them obnoxious to the Judgments of God This will God I say by mustering up the thoughts of man and by shewing of them that every imagination and thought of their heart was onely evill and that continually by shewing of them what staggering drunken wild and uncomely thoughts they have had both of him and of themselves convince them cast them and condemn them for sinners and transgressors against the Book of Creatures the Book of his Remembrance and the Book of the Law By the variety of their thoughts they shall be proved unstable ignorant wandring Stars Clouds carryed with a Tempest without order or guidance and taken Captive of the Devil at his will Now while the wicked are thus standing upon their tryal and lives before the Judgement-Seat and that in the view of Heaven and Hell they I say hearing and seeing such dreadful things both written and witnessed against every one of them and that by such Books and such Witnesses as do not onely talk but testifie and that with the whole strength of truth against them they will then begin though poorly and without any advantage to plead for themselves which plea will be to this effect Lord we did find in the Scriptures that thou didst send a Saviour into the World to deliver us from these sins and miseries We heard this Saviour also published and openly profered to such poor sinners as we are Lord Lord we also made profession of this Saviour and were many of us frequenters of his holy Ordinances We have eat and drunk in thy presence and thou hast taught in our streets Lord we have also some of us bin Preachers our selves we have prophecied in thy Name and in thy Name have we cast out Devils and done many wonderous works Nay Lord we did herd among thy People we forsook the profain and wicked World and carryed our shining Lamps before us in the face of all men Lord Lord open to us Mat. 7. 21 22 23. Luk. 13. 24 25 26 27. Mat. 25. 1 2. 10 11. And all the while they are thus pleading and
the like and cut off all opportunity of good leaving no place for mercy or amendment these shall go away into everlasting punishment c. Mat. 25. 40. This word depart c. is the last word the damned for ever are like to hear I say it is the last voice and therefore will stick longest and with most power on their slaughtered souls there is no calling of it back again it is the very wind-up of Eternall Judgement Thus then the judgement being over the Kingdom ceaseth to be any longer in the hand of the Man Christ Jesus for as the Judges here among men when they have gone their Circuit do deliver up their Commission to the King so Christ the Judge doth now deliver up his Kingdom to his Father And now all is swallowed up of Eternity Mat. 21. 8. The damned are swallowed up of eternal justice and wrath the saved of eternal life and felicity and the Son also delivereth up I say the Kingdom to the Father and subjects himself under him that did put all things under him that God may be all in all 1 Cor. 15. 24 25 26 27 28. For now is the end come and not before even the end of the reign of death it self for Death and Hell and sinners and Devils must now together into the Lake that burns with fire and Brimstone Rev. 20. 14 15. And now is the end of Christs Reign as the Son of Man and the end of the Reign of the Saints with him in this his Kingdom which he hath received of his Father for his work sake which he did for him and for his Elect. Then cometh the end faith Paul when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God the Father But when shall that be why he answers saying When he shall have put down all Rule and all Authority and Power for he must reign saith he untill he hath put all his enemies under his feet which will not be untill the finall Sentence and Judgment be over for the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death For God hath put all things under his feet but when he saith all things are put under him it is manifested he is accepted that did put all things under him And when all things shall be subdued unto him then shall the Son also himself be subject to him that did put all things under him that God may be all in all All things being now at this pass to wit every one being in its proper place God in his Christ in his the Saint in his and the Sinner in his I shall conclude with this brief touch upon both the state of the Good and Bad after this Eternal Judgment 1. The Righteous now shall never fear Death the Devill and Hell more And the Wicked shall never hope of life 2. The Just shall ever have the Victory over these things But the Wicked shall everlastingly be swallowed up of them 3. The Holy shall be in everlasting Light But the Sinner in everlasting Darkness Without light I say yet in Fire ever burning yet not consumed always afraid of death and hell vehemently desiring to be annihiâ—â—ted to nothing Continually fearing to stay long in Hell and yet certainly sure they shall never come out of it Ever desiring the Saints happiness and yet alwayes envying their felicity They would have it because it is easie and Comfortable yet cannot abide to think of it because they have lost it for ever Ever loaden with the delight of sin and yet that is the greatest torture alwayes desiring to put it out of their Mind and yet assuredly know they must for ever abide the guilt and torment thereof 4. The Saints are always inflamed with the Consideration of the Grace that once they imbraced but the Wicked most flamingly tormented with the thoughts of rejecting and refusing it 5. The Just when they think of their sins they are comforted with the thoughts of their being delivered from them but the Ungodly when they think of their righteousness will gnaw themselves to think that this would not deliver them from Hell 6. When the Godly think of Hell it will increase their Comfort but when the Wicked think of Heaven it will twinge them like a Serpent Oh this Eternal Judgment What would a damned Soul give that there might be though after Thousands and Hundreds of Thousands of Millions of Years an end put to this Eternal Judgment But their misery is they have sinned against a God that is Eternal they have offended that Justice that will never be satisfied and therefore they must abide the Fire that never shall be quenched Here is Judgment Just and Sad. Again As it will be thus with Good and Bad in general so again more particularly when the Wicked are thus adjudged and Condemned and also received of the Fiery Gulph then they shall find That as he that busieth himself to do good shall have more glory than others So they that have been more busie and active in sin than others they shall have more Wrath and Torment than others For as doing good abundantly doth inlarge the Heart to receive and hold more Glory So doing evil abundantly doth inlarge the Heart and Soul to receive Punishment so much the more And hence it is that you have such Sayings as these It shall be more tolerable in the Judgment for Sodome than for others that is then for those that had sinned against much greater Light and Mercy For these as he saith in another place shall receive greater Damnation Yea it standeth to reason that he who had most Light most Conviction most means of Conversion and that was highest towards Heaven he must needs have the greatest Fall and so sink deepest into the Jaws of Eternal Misery Luke 10. 12. Luke 20. 47. As one Star that is as one Saint differeth from another in Heaven so one damned Soul shall differ from another in Hell It is so among the Devils themselves they are some worse than others Matth. 9. 34. Mar. 3. 22. Belzebub is the Prince or the Chief of the Devils That is One that was most glorious in Heaven Chief among the reprobate Angels before his Fall Isa. 14. 2. and therefore sinned against the greater Light Mercy and Goodness and so became the Chief for wickedness and will also have as the wages thereof the Chief of Torments For that will be true of the damned in Hell which is prayed for against Babylon Revel 18. 7. How much she hath glorified her self and lived deliciously so much torment and sorrow give her Can it be imagined that Judas should have no more torment who betrayed the Prince of Life and Saviour of the World than others who never came near his Wickedness by ten thousand degrees He that know his Masters Will and prepared not himself neither did according to his Will shall be beaten with many stripes With many moâ—e stripes than others that through ignorance did commit sin worthy of many stripes But what should I thus discourse of the degrees of the Torments of the damned Souls in Hell For he that suffers least will the waters of a full Cup be wrung out to him The least measure of wrath it will be the Wrath of God eternal and fiery Wrath insupportable wrath it will lay the Soul in the Gulph of that Second Death which will for ever have the Mastery over the poor damned perishing Sinner And Death and Hell were cast into the Lake of Fire which is the Second Death And whosoever was not found in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of fire Rev. 20. 14 15. FINIS See more of this in their Judgement The first Book opened in its first part Mans nature is a Book or law to it self The Book of Gods Remembrance opened The Witnesses give in their Evidence The sinners plea for himself at the Judgment-Seat The Book of Life opened