to provide for this life which is but temporal how prudent and provident should they be for the life to come which is eternal If any say unto me What shall we do that we may escape everlasting punishment and inherit life eternal at the end of this life which is one of the best questions that ever was asked and my Answer unto it is this that you may be delivered from everlasting misery and that you may be provided for life eternal against the time your temporal life shall end and be no more take these three general directions 1. Learn necessary principles 2. Practise necessary duties 3. Use necessary means First if you would be saved from eternal damnation and with everlasting salvation after this life is ended then learn the fundamentall principles of the christian Religion that are most needfull to be known unto salvation as suppose those Articles of Faith contained in that famous Creed commonly called the Apostles Creed But more particularly labour rightly to understand these four principles which are the first things in the Christian Religion that every one ought to learn and believe First that there is one onely living and true God who is a spirit infinite in being and all perfection distinguished into three persons the Father the Son and the holy Ghost the Maker and Governour of all things who made man after his own Image in knowledge righteousnesse and holinesse and so in a happy condition Gen. 1. 27. with Col. 3. 10. and Eph. 4. 24. Secondly that our first parents Adam and Eve sinned in eating the forbidden fruit and thereby fell from their original righteousnesse and became dead in sin and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body and they being the root of all mankinde the guilt of their sin was imputed and the same death in sin and corrupted nature conveyed to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation so as that our first parents by their fall brought themselves and all mankind into a sinfull and damnable condition Rom. 5. 12. to 20. 1 Cor. 15. 21 22. Thirdly that Mankind thus fallen being unable to deliver themselves out of the estate of sin and misery God so loved the world that he sent forth his onely begotten son Jesus Christ who was conceived by the holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary of her substance and borne of her yet without sin and so became man and was and continueth to be God and man in two distinct natures and one person for ever who was made under the Law and was obedient to it and endured the misery which was due to man for breaking of it who died for our sins and suffered for our salvation and was buried and rose again the third day who ascended up into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God from whence he will come to judge both quick and dead Acts 10. 42. Fourthly that the Lord requires all people who would be saved through his mercy in Christ to repent of their sins to believe in his Sonne Jesus Christ to live a holy life and to wait upon him in his own Ordinances as the word prayer and Sacraments And they who by the grace of God sincerely obey these precepts shall be saved and they who wilfully and finally disobey them shall be damned in their souls after death and particular judgement and in their bodies also after their resurrection and at the general and last judgement Mark 16. 16. Rom. 8. 13. Matth. 25. 46. Though these are the main principles that are most needful to be known unto salvation yet I shall mind you not to rest here but to read and search the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise unto salvation and perfect unto all good works Jo. 5. 39. 2 Tim. 3. 15 16 17. Secondly if you would escape everlasting punishment and inherit life eternal at the end of this life then practise the fundamental duties of the christian Religion that are most necessary to be done unto salvation which are chiefly these four in respect of the acts and exercise of saving grace 1. Repent of all your sins 2. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ with all your hearts 3. Live a holy life according to the rule of all Gods commandements 4. Renew your repentance and faith all the dayes of your life as your sins are renewed First repent of all your sins both original and actual Repent saith our Saviour for the kingdome of God is at hand and again I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance and except ye repent ye shall perish Matth. 4. 17. Matth. 9. 13. Luke 13. 3. Now then that you may truly repent of all your sins observe these three rules 1. Search and try your wayes whereby you may find out your sinnes of all all sorts be not too hasty in this duty but ransack every corner of your heart and think of your sinnes till you find them out so farre as that you can remember no more and consider how you have deserved the wrath of God and the damnation of hell for your sins that so you may be truly affected and humbled with the sense of your sinfull and miserable condition Acts 2. 37. 2. Having found out your sins and considered the wrath and curse of God due to you for them fall down upon your knees and humbly confesse your sinnes to the Lord and be sorry for them chiefly as they are contrary to the holy nature and the righteous law of God and the gracious Gospel of Jesus Christ judging your selves for them and praying to God in the name of Christ for pardon of them and power against them Luke 11. 4. 3. Forsake your wicked waies and turn from all your sins unto God purposing and endeavouring for time to come to walk with him in all the waies of his commandments Ezek. 18. 21 22 30 31. 1 Thess. 1. 9. Next to impenitency take heed of late repentance If I had ten thousand souls saith an able Divine I would not adventure one of them upon a death-bed-repentance therefore repent betimes and lest your repentance should be too late let this be the day of your sincere conversion Deut. 29. 18 19 20. Hebr. 3. 7 8. Secondly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart and you shall be saved For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Bucholcerus did so descant upon this Text in his last Sermon before his death that he ravished the hearts of his hearers with the greatness of Gods love to believers Surely it cannot but be a taking thing with all people that Christ ever was and ever will be the Common salvation of all Believers Jude v. 3. Therefore that you may believe to life
everlasting endeavour these two things 1. Endeavour to understand how Christ is offered in the Gospel unto sinners namely to be Wisedom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption and all in all unto all sorts of sinners who see a need of him and who are willing to have him joyntly together for these holy and heavenly ends Mat. 11. 28. John 7. 37. 2. Endeavour to receive Christ and God in Christ and to rest upon him alone for salvation as he is offered unto you in the Gospel John 1. 12. Isai 26. 3 4. Chapter 50. 10. Say not I must not presume to accept of Christ because my sins are many and great and I am not humbled enough for them For verily verily Christ had not come into the world but to save sinners yea and the chief of sinners who come to him to be saved And Christ who is rich in grace exspects not to receive any thing from poor sinners but to be received by them Rev. 22. 17. Therefore defer not your believing or accepting of Christ but endeavour to come to him as God shall draw you and be willing to close with Christ and to believe on him as God shall make you willing and humbly put your selves upon Christ and wholly give up your selves unto Christ to be taught pardoned sanctified and saved by him in his own appointed time and way and then know for a certain that Christ will in no wise refuse you but will undertake to be the author of eternal salvation unto you and that God in Christ will be your God and portion for ever Psalm 73. 25 26. Thirdly Live a holy life according to the Rule of all Gods Commandments For the Scripture saith That without holiness none shall see the Lord and that godliness hath the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. And again That the grace of God which bringeth salvation doth teach us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Titus 2. 11 12. 2 Pet. 3. 11. 1 John 3. 3. For this end that you may live a holy life make use of these three helps 1. Apply by saith the death and resurrection of Christ and the particular Promises of Sanctification made to believers in Christ whereby you may be renewed in your whole man after the image of God and enabled more and more to dye to sin and to live to newness and holiness of life Rom. 6. 4 6 14. Galatians 5. 24. 2. Observe the summe of the ten Commandements which is To love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mindo and your neighbour as your selves Love thus exercised in sincerity of heart is the fulfilling of the Law and the Epitomy of a pious life 3. Get the ten Commandements by heart which are the Rule of a holy life that so your heart being the keeper of them you may ever remember to live according to them endeavouring by degrees in the use of reading hearing meditation and the like means to understand what sins are forbidden and what duties are required in every one of the the ten Commandements for that purpose that you may eschew the sins therein forbidden and perform the duties therein required having a special care to studie and to practise the duties of your relations and to strive most against your greatest sins and to watch over your thoughts words and wayes out of a holy fear of sinning the rather because your thoughts words and actions must be rewarded or punished for all eternity Rom. 2 6 7 8 9. 2 Cor. 5. 10. Whatsoever you do in the practise of godliness do all by the Rule of Gods Word in the strength of Christ through the help of his Spirit to the glory of God the adorning of the Gospel the strengthning of your own assurance and the good example of others and all this out of singular love and thankfulness to God for his unspeakable love unto you in Jesus Christ. Luke 1. 74 75. John 14. 15. 2. Cor. 5. 14. One Symelces Captain of the Guard to Emperour Adrian caused this inscription to be set over his Tomb Here lyeth Similis who saw many years and lived but seven Let all Christians take special notice of it that they live no longer then while they live so as becometh the Gospel of Christ. Philip. 1. 27. Ephes. 2. 1 2 5 1 Tim. 5. 6. In short let our Conversation be in heaven leâ— our discourse be on things above let our thoughts be on our future Eternity and so let us live to God on earth for Eternity as that we may live with God in heaven to Eternity 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. Phil. 3. 20. Coloss. 3. 2. Fourthly Renew your repentance and faith all the dayes of your life as your sins are renewed which that you may practise these three particulars 1. Commune with your own heart every morning and evening and consider how and in what respect you have sinned the day or night past either by Commission or Omission Psalm 4. 4. Haggai 1. 5. 2. Having thought of your sins and manifold failings repent and abhor your selves for them beseech God for Christ's sake to forgive them and to cleanse you from them and withall Remember that you have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous who is the propitiation for our sins and be not faithless but believing 1 John 2. 1 2. 3. Resolve with full purpose of heart through the grace of Jesus Christ to sin no more lest a worse thing befall you Job 34. 31 3â— Jo. 5. 14. Justine Martyr would say it is best of all not to sin and next to that after sinning to repent and amend Thirdly if you would avoid everlasting misery enjoy eternal felicity after your temporal life is ended then make use of the outward means and ordinances of God that are necessary to be used unto salvation and especially of these four sorts following 1. Hear the word of God publickly preached 2. Pray daily to God everlastingly to save you 3. Make use of the two â—ew Testament Sacraments Baptisme and the Lords Supper 4. Obey the Ministers of Gods word who are set over you in the Lord. First hear the word of God publickly preached as generally at all times when you have opportunity for it so especially upon the Saâ—bath day Hear saith the Prophet Isaiah and your soul shall live who hath eares to hear saith our Saviour let him hear Isai 55. 3. Matth. 13. 9. Again Christ informes us that hearing is the one thing needfull because not onely faith but also every other grace usually cometh by hearing yea and is confirmed and increased by hearing Acts 14. 21 22. 1 Pet 2. 2 3. Secondly pray daily to God in the name of Christ to
deliver you from everlasting punishment and to bring you to life eternal after this life is ended Math. 6. 10. 13. Luke 21. 36. Pray in your hearts with ejaculations to God pray in secret pray in your families pray in publick pray without ceasing 1 Thes. 5. 17. Our Saviour saith ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you Mat. 7. 7. And Saint Paul tells us that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved Rom. 10 13. Thirdly make use of the two New Testament Sacraments Baptisme and the Lords Supper which are to continue to the end of the world Mat. 28. 19 20. 1 Cor. 11. 26. Make use of your Baptisme by way of meditation as sure as you were baptized so sure you shall be pardoned and saved if you truly believe in Christ for Baptisme is not only a Signe but also a Seal thereof to all true believers Markâ—6 â—6 16. Rom. 4. 11. Again make use of the Lords Supper by your receiving of it as often as you may be called to it and prepared for it and as often as you receive do it in remembrance of the Lords death and of the great ends of his death which was to deliver all those who rightly believe in him from wrath to come and to purchase an heavenly inheritance for them As sure as you shall receive Christ by faith in this Sacrament so sure the blessed benefits of his death and passion shall be confirmed unto you in it Matth. 26. 28. Rom. 4. 11. Fourthly obey the Ministers of Gods word who are set over you in the Lord and submit your selves unto them for they watch for your soules as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief Hebr. 13. 17. Remember what Jesus Christ hath said in this case He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me Luke 10. 16. If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them and that you may be blessed in the practice of them consider these four motives First consider that if you think of these things so as to do thereafter then you may assuredly conclude that you shall escape everlasting punishment inherit life eternall at the end of this life and you may draw your conclusion of assurance into such a like Christian Syllogisme as this which may serve instead of an use of examination They who know those things that make them wise to salvation who repent of their sins and believe in Christ who sincerely live a holy life shall not perish but have everlasting life saith the Lord in his holy word But those who follow the afore mentioned directions may say we through grace have learned those things that make us wise to salvation we repent of our sinnes we believe in Christ and we sincerely desire and endeavour to live a holy life Therefore we shall escape everlasting punishment enjoy life eternal after our temporall life is ended And if so how happy will you be that ever you were borne consider of it as it is briefly expressed in these Scriptures when Christ shall appeare you shall be like him where he is there you shall be that you may behold his glory and see him as he is face to face you shall be ever with the Lord in whose presence is fulnesse of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore and so as perfectly happy as possibly you can be Secondly consider that if through carelesnesse you forget the duties you have been exhorted unto so as finally to neglect them then you may sadly fear that when the Lord shall weigh you in his ballance that you wil befound wanting and in the number of those who shall bee doomed at the last day to go away into everlasting punishment and then wo wo to you it had been good for you if you had never been born In the fear of God consider the miseries that will come upon you at the last day if you dye without repentance toward God and without faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ and seriously think with your selves how sad your condition will be if you be condemned with the wicked of the world to depart from the Lord and from heaven his dwelling place and to go into hell into the fire that never shall be quenched and into the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone And how can ye escape the damnation of hell if you walk in the broad way that leadeth to it and if you live and dye such ignorant and disobedient sinners as the Lord expresly threatens to punish with everlasting destruction from his presence and from the glory of his power 2 Thes. 1. 7 8 9. Hebr. 2. 3. Some have been moved with fear of hell fire to cause these words of the Prophet Isaiah Who amongst us shall dwel with everlasting burnings Isa. 33. 14. to be written in letters of gold over their Chimney-pieces O that you who read and hear these things would be so moved with fear of hell and fire eternal as to begin forthwith to prepare to escape it Thirdly consider What it is for which you neglect to provide for your own eternal well-fare Is it not either for sin it self which is altogether evil or else is it not for the love you bear to this present world either to the pleasures â—riches or honours of it all which are but casks of happiness and gilded emptiness yea they are not onely vain but vanity it self Vanity of vanities saith the Preacher vanity of vanities all is vanity and therefore they are no provisions for a blessed eternity And will you venture to neglect the great duties which concerns your eternal salvation either for so vile a thing as sin or for such vain things as cannot satisfie your immortal souls God forbid you should do so God forbid you should do so King Lysimachus being constrained through thirst to yield his Kingdom to the Scythians for a cup of cold water when he had drunk it said O for what a small pleasure have I parted with my great kingdom whosoever shall loose the eternal good things of the world to come to gain the temporal good things of this world will have cause to say when it is too late O for how small a matter have I lost the everlasting Kingdome of heaven For What is a man profited saith our Saviour if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shal a man give in exchange for his soul Mans eternal salvation is more worth yea infinitely more worth then the whole world Fourthly Consider that the time of your life is the onely time that you have to provide for your eternal condition if it be not done here there is no
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
help afterward for after death conâ—es judgement and after judgement Eternity either of comfort or torment Eccles. 11. 3. Heb. 9. 27. Aquinas was wont to say Make much of time in the matter of salvation and truly you had need to do so for the work of salvation is great and the time of your life is short and uncertain and yet your life-time such as it is is your Faire or market-day for heaven and your Seed-time for your harvest in the other world yea and the onely time that God hath lent you to provide for a blessed eternity if you do not make sure of heaven while you live it will be out of your reach when you are dead and then you cannot possibly avoid hell everlasting misery Luke 16. 26. Say not it will be time enough hereafter because you are not sure of that sudden deaths are common and for ought you know you may dye as sudden a death as ever any did and it may be to day before to morrow But suppose you should be delivered from sudden death yet remember that you are going a pace toward the Common death of all men and consequently towards Eternity either of comfort or torment therefore what you have to do about your eternal salvation do it speedily and with all your might least death come before you are ready for it Ecclesiastes 9. 10. John 9. 4. Sad is the story of Caesar Borgias who said on his sick bed While I was in health I provided for every thing but death and now death is come and I am not provided for it You may justly fear that this will be one day your complaint if you presume to put off the great concernments of your everlasting salvation till sickness or death Often consider of your latter end and how you must hereafter live for ever either in hell or heaven and seriously think with your self if you were to dye this day into whether of these two places of Eternity your soul would go into hell eternal or into heaven eternal and sith you know not the day of your death therefore dayly pray Lord Jesus if I should die this day then grant that this day my soul may be with thee in Paradise and that my body may be raised at the last day fashioned like to thy glorious body and reunited to my soul and that then I may be ever with thee both in body and soul. Luke 23. 42 43. Phil. 3. 21. 1 Thessal 4. 17. One of the Germane Princes took for his devise A Candle burning in a candlestick with this Motto A. S. M. C. Hoc est Aâ—â—is servio meipsum consumo I serve others and spend my self In this undertaking I have spent my self like a burning candle to give you light and to do you the best service I can for my life for the furthering of your eternal salvation hoping that the Lord will cause this Small Treatise to preach effectually when I cannot and which is more after I am dead and entered in my soul into my endless Eternity And now for a conclusion I shall be bold to tell you whoever you be that read and hear the things contained in this Book that though you know the Infallible doctrine of Mans future Eternity yet if you do not live answerable to it you may be for all that damned to all Eternity with a Lord have mercy upon us in your mouth for our blessed Saviour hath said Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven but he that doth the will of my father which is in heaven Mat. 7. 21. The Italian form of begging is as my Author tells me do good to your selves As I have been on my knees to beg Gods blessing upon my poor labours for you so I could be content to come on my knees from God unto you to beseech you To do good unto your selves For if you hear and learn and repent and believe and walk uprightly and so be eternally saved who will have the best of it but your selves And if you live and dye in ignorance disobedience so be everlastingly damned who is like to have the worst of it but your selves O that every Reader of this Book would think on these things O that my beloved parishoners and worthy friends in Essex would think on these things O that my ever dear Kindred and respected Countrey men in Lancashire would think on these things O that all England would think on these things O that all the world would think of these things O that all of you both small and great would remember these things That you must all dye and go into one of these two Eternities either into everlasting punishment or into life eternal in your souls after death and in your bodies also after the general Resurrection the day of judgement And that the great business you came into this world for is to provide for a blessed Eternity in the world to come O that these words were written upon some place in your closets or houses where you might daily see them or rather that they were written upon your hearts that having them in your minds you might be moved to prepare for your future Eternity by your frequent remembrance of it I say once more O that all of you would seriously think on these things and of the infinite importance of them not so as to trouble your heads or hearts with them but so as to be moved thereby in time and in this your day to prepare for your eternal salvation that as many of you as it is possible may be kept from perishing everlastingly Beloved my last words unto you are to tell you that I can call God and man to record that I have set before you the eternall recompences of hell and heaven â—f everlasting punishment and life eternall and have shewn you the condition of both states Behold I have told you before what is like to become of you for ever hereafter And now in the â—lose of all let me be importunate with you to make sure work about your everlasting salvation get it â—leared up unto you that Christ is your Lord and Saviour and you are made for ever Jo. 20. ver 28 29. Phil. 1. 21. What shall I say more â—horowly learn the necessary princilpes sincerely practise the necessary â—luties and diligently use the necessary meanes that I have exhorted you unto and rather suffers then refuse to do what the Lord hath commanded and further others in your calling and place to do likewise and then my soul for yours by the grace of God in Christ that you shall not perish but shall have everlasting life after this life is ended Now the most infinitel mercifull God for the infinite merits of Christ give 〈◊〉 grace to do whatsoever he hath commanded whereby we may be delivered from the infinite misery of Hell
the way to Blessed Eternity 2 Cor. 5. 1. Mat. 7. 14 A Treatise Concerning Mans Future ETERNITY By Iohn Iackson Mr of Arts of St. Iohns Colledge in Cambridge and Minister of Gods word at Leaden-Roding in Essex the way to miserable Eternity Mat. 7. 13 Mat. 25. 41 Mark 9. 44 W Faithorne fec A TREATISE Concerning Mans future Eternity WHEREIN The great Doctrine of the Eternity of all Mankind in the world to come either in happiness or misery is Proved Explained and Applyed By John Jackson M. A. of St. Johns Colledge in Cambridge and Minister of Gods word at Leaden-Roding in Essex And these shall go away into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternal Matth 25. 46. London Printed by M. Inman and are to be sold by Nath. Ranew at the Angel in S. Pauls Church-yard and by Tho. Forde at his shop in Chelmesford in Essex and by Iohn Greenwood at his shop in Lancaster 1661. To the onely HONOVR AND GLORY of GOD AND To the Use and Benefit of the People of England AND Especially of his Beloved Parishoners and Worthy Friends in Essex And of his Dear Kindred and respected Countrey-men in Lancashire JOHN JACKSON humbly dedicates this Treatise concerning Mans future Eternity THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. COntains six received principles about the Estate of all Mankind untill the end of this world by way of Preface to the proof of the Doctrine concerning Mans Eternity in the world to come Page 1. CHAP. II. Shews by manifold 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 p. 17. CHAP. III. Describes the misery of that everlasting condition of woe and punishment that the wicked shall go into at the end of the world p. 30. CHAP. IV. Explains the happiness of that eternal state of Glory and Rest that the Righteous shall go into at the last day p. 52. CHAP. V. Renders the principal reasons why all mankind after the day of Judgment shall go in their bodies and souls into an everlasting condition either of felicity or misery p 83. CHAP. VI. Directs you how to apply the great Doctrine of Mans Future Eternity whereby you may escape everlasting punishment and obtain life Eternal after this life is ended p. 92. ERRATA Page 23. line 15. read 2 Thes. 1. 8 9. p. 56. in marg ult r. Eph. 5. 27. p. 10â— in marg l. â— r. principle p. 124. l. 24. r. sincerely A TREATISE concerning Mans future Eternity CHAP. I. Contains six received Principles about the estate of all mankind until the end of this world by way of Preface to the proof of the Doctrine concerning Mans Eternity in the world to come THe most of us are so exceeding slow of heart to believe The great Doctrine of the Eternity of all mankind in the world to come either in happiness or misery and so extream backward to provide for our own eternal condition as that thereby it doth abundantly appear how necessary it is that this Fundamental Point of Divinity should be plainly proved clearly explained and powerfully applied unto us But before I handle the particulars of it I shall make an entrance to it by laying down six received Principles concerning the estate of all mankind until the end of the world for this purpose that we may all know our selves and that we may clearly see how this infallible Truth shall be fulfilled wherein we are all so nearly concerned First That every one of mankind doth consist of a body and a soul joyned together The Exhortation of Jesus Christ Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul doth plainly prove that every one of us have both a body and a soul. Mat. 10. 28. And these words of the Apostle Paul We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of Spirits do clearly imply that we had our bodies originally from our parents the fruit of whose bodies our bodies are and that we had our souls originally from our God who is said in Holy Scripture to be the giver of them and the God of the Spirits of all flesh Numb 16. 22. Eccles. 12. 7. It is probable that the Lord doth create every particular soul and that he infuseth it into the body of an Infant when in all essential parts it is a perfect body as Adams was when God gave him his Soul This is the Common opinion of Modern Writers about the Original of the soul and it is grounded upon those Scriptures where God is said to be the Creator of the soul and where the Lord is stiled the God which formeth the Spirit of man within him Isai. 57. 16 Zach. 12. 1. 1 Pet. 4. 19. Secondly That the body of every one of Mankind is mortal subject to die dayly and that many waies some are no sooner born but they die and they who have lived the longest lives have died as sure as we live in the body so sure we must die in the body and God knows how soon and how suddenly What man is he that liveth saith the Prophet David and shall not see death For what is our life It is even a vapour saith the Apostle James that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away Jam. 4. 14. As the finer the meâ—tal of any Glass or earthen Vessel is the more subject it is to breaking so the daintiest bodies are soonest gone and first or last we must all die because the Lord of life and death hath appointed it Hebrews 9. 27. Thirdly That the soul of every one of mankinde is immortal and no way lyable to be killed it neither dieth with the bodle nor sleepeth in it but immediately after the death of the body the soul goeth to God that gave it to give its particular account and to be adjudged either to go to heaven to be comforted or else to go to hell to be tormented so as that presently after death and particular judgement the soul doth enter into its endless Eternity either of comfort or torment Solomon saith when the body dies Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit unto God who gave it Eccles. 12. 7. Our Saviour saith Fear not them that kill the body but are not able to kill the soul. Matt. 10. 28. And Saint Paul saith It is appointed unto men once to die and after this the judgement after death judgement presenly follows as the Greek words do signifie and therefore by judgement here is meant at lest inclusively that particular judgement which the Lord doth pass upon every soul immediately after death for at that instant God pronounceth and the Conscience apprehendeth a sentence of blessing or cursing and accordingly the soul is estated in its Eternal
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
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