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 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
the happiness of their life eternal and as it were the highest pitch of their heavenly felicity All the Elect people of God by whatsoever names and Religions they were called and distinguished here on earth they shal all have in heaven Communion one with another fellowship with the holy angels and a full fruition of the ever-blessed Godhead in Trinity of Persons and that in these three respects which I shal the rather express in Scripture-Language for the help of our weak understanding herein 1. They shall enjoy God in Christ in being present with him in the same Empyrean heaven and ever-blessed Eternity where he enjoys himself and where his glorious angels and the blessed souls of his people enjoy him Christ hath promised his people that he will receive them to himself that where he is there they may be also and therefore there they shall be in his appointed time Again the Apostle Paul plainly tells us that we shall be ever with the Lord so we shall partake of that fulness of joy that is in his presence and of those pleasures which are at his right hand for evermore Psal. 16. 11. This this is that which the Saints here on earth do so earnestly and ardently desire as that their souls are restless and unsatisfied until they come to the full fruition of God in the highest heaven which he hath prepared for their everlasting home and entertainment in the world to come 2. They shall enjoy God in seeing of him as he is For then saith Saint Paul we shall see face to face and know even as we are known 1 Cor. 13. 12. Again the Apostle John saith that then we shall see the Lord as he is and so we shal enjoy him by our immediate and blessed Vision of him 1 Joh. 3. 2. All the Saints shall behold the glory of their blessed Saviour in his heavenly kingdom with the eies of their glorified bodies and they shall see the blessed Deâ—ty in three glorious Persons with the eies of their understanding fully enlightened with the light of glory They shal all know the Lord apprehensively in all his admirable excellencies and perfections and they shall see him whom their soul loveth as it were face to face clearly and perfectly and so they shal have a full satisfactory knowledge of God who is the first Truth and of all Truths else which may conduce to their complete happiness Zuingerus was so fully perswaded of this as that he said at the point of death I am glad that the time is now come when the Lord will shew himself unto me face to face 3. They shall enjoy God in Christ in being perfectly one with the Father and Him as they are one after such a real manner as that they shal never be parted from him but shal be indissolubly joined unto him to their unspeakable comfort and happiness Jesus Christ who cannot but be heard hath prayed both for the beginning and the accomplishment of this blessed union His prayer is That all his people may be one with the Father and him as they are one They cannot therefore but be partakers of this blisful one-ness with the blessed Trinity and being partakers of it they will enjoy God by their happy conjunction and immediate communion with him All believers through the Holy Ghost are now inseperably united to the glorious Person of the Son of God as members to their Head and by Christ they are united to God the Father the Fountain of Grace and Glory whereby they are now made partakers of the Divine Light and Life of Grace 2 Pet. 1. 4. And this spiritual and mystical union begun here shall be perfected for ever hereafter whereby they shall partake of the everlasting Light and Life of glory immediately from the Lord of Glory in such a heavenly all-satisfying sort as that they shall be as fully happy as possibly they can wish or desire to be As all the Elect shall be beatifically united to God in Christ so they shall be perfectly united one to another in judgement wil and affection how much soever they differed on earth they shall all accord in Heaven in one scope and act of giving glory and praise to God and in one perpetual adoration and fruition of one infinite Deity in Trinity of Persons and so they wil be mutually happy in God in themselves and in each other Although it is the Soul which doth enjoy God or that doth partake of the good which is in God yet the body also shall have a share in the happiness of the souls enjoyment of God in the Kingdom of glory 1 Thes. 4. 16 17. Sith God is an infinite self-existing Spirit from Eternity in Eternity to Eternity and is his own happiness and the author and object of All happiness therefore the full enjoyment of God blessed for ever who is self-sufficient in his Being and all-sufficient in his Communications will be a satisfying felicity and as high an happiness as either Saints or Angels can desire to enjoy Ps. 73. 25 26. I could not but be affectionately taken with the judgement of a pious writer about this particular Enquire saith he of such as are yet militant upon earth wherein their happiness consists the answer will be In their having fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Let those who are triumphant be asked What it is that renders their heaven so glorious their glory so incomprehensible ye shal have no other account but this it is because they have now attained a compleat fruition of that all-sufficient all-satissying ever-blessed and ever-blessing Object God in Christ. It is the Doctrinal Observation of a worthy Preacher That God alone is more desirable then any thing then all things in heaven and earth and no wonder if we consider That the Lord is such a depth of Divine perfections as that he possesseth in one onely perfection the excellencie of all perfections in so excellent sort as that none is able to comprehend it but himself Therefore the everlasting enjoyment of him can be no other then perfect blessedness We may piously think according to the Scriptures that when the Saints shal partake of this heavenly fruition of God in Christ they wil have such a full sence and real experience of the everlasting love of God unto them as that they will be for ever affected with it and constrained by it perfectly to love the Lord their God perpetually to rejoyce in him and everlastingly to land him and praise him for their blessed enjoyment of him and so their Love to God joy in him thankfulness to him shal never cease because it is a part of that heavenly happiness which wil redound from their beatifical fruition of God in Christ. A day in thy Courts saith Sacred King David unto God is better then a thousand I had rather be a door-keeper in
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
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
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