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A46952 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. Jackson, John. 1661 (1661) Wing J83; ESTC R24082 38,904 150

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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 ●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-fi●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
be just to the eternal praise and glory of the soveraign justice and wrath of God against final unconverted sinners Rom. 3. 8. Revelat. 6. 17. It is the opinion of sundry of our English Divines that God intends the glorifying of the 2 great attributes of his mercy and justice most eminently at the day of judgement and in the world to come And surely the vessels of mercy and the vessels of wrath will find it so at the last day and from thenceforth to all eternity Job 21. 29 30 31. 1 Pet. 1. 4. 2 Pet. 2. 9. 17. Ah Christians Christians I who write and ye who read and hear these things must not onely be spectators of the praise of Gods mercy and justice but parties also upon whom either the infinite mercy or the infinite justice of God shall be everlastingly glorified but whether of these I cannot tell God knoweth In the name of Christ Let us work out our salvation with fear and trembling for our God is a consuming fire presumptuous sinners who go on impenitently in their sins shall at length find to their costs that they have treasured up wrath to themselves against the day of wrath and that the justice of God as well as his mercy endures for ever none more terrible then God provoked wo and again wo to them all against whom mercy it self shall rise up in judgement Now consider this ye that forget God lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver Psal. 50. 22. 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 HAving done with the explication of the doctrine concerning the great state of mans future eternity I shall in this last Chapter apply it unto you and that by way of exhortation unto these two duties 1. Believe it in the generall That mans future condition shall be eternal either in happiness or misery 2. Provide in particular for your own future condition that it may not be miserable but happy to all eternity First believe it in the general that the condition of all mankind in the world to come shal be everlasting and endless either in felicity or misery Though you cannot see any thing beyond the Grave with the eyes of your body yet with the eyes of your understanding thorow the perspective glass of the Word by the grace of Faith you may see beyond this world the great prospect of Man's Eternity i● the world to come both that of glory and that other of torment and how blessed the one and how miserable the other Hence one faith that man is a future creature the eye of his soul looks beyond this life towards Eternity and hence it is that Faith is described to be the evidence of things not seen the nature and use of Faith is to be as it were in stead of sight or to make the unseen and eternal things of hell and heaven which God hath revealed to be in existence as if our bodily eyes beheld them therefore that you may believe this universal received Truth as verily as if you saw it fulfilled meditate pray and confer about it 1. Meditate of the certainty of this Doctrine 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 and consider you have as plain places of Scripture and as strong Scripture Arguments to prove it as you have to prove any Doctrine contained in the Bible as appears by what hath been already said in our second Chapter Again consider how that this Doctrine hath been received for a Truth in all ages of the world not only by Jews Christians but also by Gentiles and Heathens and therefore if you do not believe it you are worse then Infidels and Pagans because they have onely the twilight of Nature and you have the clear light of the sacred Scriptures to convince you of the verity of it Mat 25. 46. Although none can have good hope to go to heaven to enjoy that happiness there which they would not believe here yet it is to be feared that many go to hell to feel that misery there which they would not believe here 2. Pray to God to give you grace to believe it and by faith to foresee what the Scripture hath so plainly foreshewn● who knows but that the Lord may perswade you of the truth of it whilest you are praying to him to incline your hearts to believe it Dan. 9. 21 22 Mat. 7. 7. 3. Confer about it if need be with some able Minister of the Gospel to the end that you may be strengthened and confirmed in your belief of it Mal. 2. 7. Acts 10. 5. 6. One told Bishop Hooper after he was in Queen Mary's days condemned to be burned That life was sweet and that death was bitter thinking thereby to have disswaded him from suffering for righteousness sake But the good B●shop replyed The life to come is more sweet and death to come is more bitter Surely such as mens belief is of heaven and life eternal to come and of hell and everlasting punishment to come such will be their desires and endeavours to escape the one and to obtain the other And this let al men know for certain That the wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment and the righteous into life eternal at the last day whether the generality of the world do now believe it yea or no Mat. 25. 46. Secondly Provide in particular for your own condition in the world to come that it may not be miserable but happy to all eternity That you ought first and above all to provide for your own eternal salvation and that it is rare Christian Policy so to do these places of Scripture do fully prove it Seek yee first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you Mat. 6. 33. Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able Luke 13 24. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure for so an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 2 Pet. 1. 10 11. Da●nescene makes mention of a certain Countrey where they choose their King of the meanest of the people and such was their detestable disloyalty as that upon any dislike taken they would depose him and banish him into an Island where he should be starved to death one of their Kings more wise then the rest considering hereof sent money before hand into the Island into which he feared he should be banished which coming to pass the Islanders received him with joy and he lived in plenty amongst them till his dying day If men be so wise and careful