A Prospect OF ETERNITY: OR Mans Everlasting condition Opened and Applyed.

By JOHN WELLS Master of Arts, sometimes Fellow of St. Johns Colledge in Oxford, and now Pastour of Olaves Jewry LONDON.

[...]. Chrys. ad Theod. lapsum. paraen. Cap. 5. Edit Par.
Amanda est illa vita, ubi nullus labor est, ubi summa semper securitas, secura felicitas, felix libertas, libera beatitud [...]. Audoenus.
And these shall goe away into Everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life Eternall. Mat. 25. 46.

London, Printed by E. C. for Joseph Cranford at the Phoenix in St. Pauls-church-yard, 165 [...].

Septemb. 8. 1654.

Imprimatur

EDM. CALAMY.
[...]

To the right Worshipfull Alderman Foote, Alderman Fredericke, and the rest of his much Honoured and, dearly beloved Friends, the Inhabitants of Olaves Jewry, LONDON; John Wells their unworthy Pastor wisheth all increase of happinesse both here and to ETERNITY.

Dear and much Honoured Friends,

THis small Manuall had necessitated me to an Apology, to excuse my precipitance in adven­turing in publick, especi­ally [Page] in this age, which so many Learned and Able Pens hath visited; had not my passionate desire to serve you, not only in the Pulpit, but in the Presse, not only by Supplications and Prayers, but by Me­ditations, enforced this presumption. It hath been the tedious controversie and long dispute of my thoughts, what testimony of my Love and Thank­fulnesse to present you with, and at last the vote [Page] carried it, to present you with a Landskip of Eter­nity.

Indeed, I confesse, this small Treatise cals for as many Apologies, as it hath lines in it self, but the un­usualnesse of the subject, and your wonted favour and goodnesse, shall be my Apologeticall plea. And as the Painter who pictured Alexander with his finger on his defective eye, let your candidnesse cloud, and conceale all the imperfecti­ons [Page] of it. What it is let me intreat you to entertaine and accept, and now it is come abroad into the world, let it not wander up and down and no man own it, but let it be sheltred and received in the kind embra­ces of your patronage. This I must informe you, that my ambition to serve you was real and sincere, though this short Enchiridion be but a rude draught of that ambition. I shall not (my dear Friends and Flock) [Page] dilate, or digresse in the am­plifying of the seriousness, profoundness, necessity and sutableness of the argument, the great state of Eternity; lest I should anticipate and forestall my self, and leave the Treatise to be only a re­hearsall and repetition. On­ly let not this suggestion be troublesome and unwel­come to you; if I mind you that Eternity is the end of all our hopes, the stage of all our duties, the shoar of all our labours, the reward [Page] of all our prayers, and the consummation of all our happiness. Man himselfe was not created to live in a Cottage made up of lime and hair, of mud and dirt, to fix his thoughts or hopes upon fading and fainting enjoyments, but to be an inhabitant of and re­sidentiary in heaven where Eternity keeps the doore. The great Creatour of Heaven and Earth, is Mans only fit companion, and Eternity is essentiall to [Page] him, he is Deus aeternus & immutabilis; the com­forts of the Spirit are the souls onely refreshments, and everlastingness is en­tailed on them, Joh. 14. 16. Nay the soul it self, which is mans nobler and better part, which is life incorporate, and activi­ty wrapt in the winding­sheet of flesh, is immortall in its being, and onely rests satisfyed in the attain­ment Psal. 17. 15. of a glorious Eter­nity.

Let it not therefore (my endeared and Honoured Friends, and as the Apostle speaks, 1 Thess. 2. 20. My glory, my joy) seem a tedious impertinency, or long digression, to fasten your thoughts on Eter­nity: It may be (through grace, and it shall be my importunate prayer for you) some of you may blesse God for these few hints to all Eternity; Who Eccles. 12. 11. knowes what a word in season, if as a naile it be [Page] struck down to the head, by the Master of the Assem­blies, may produce in an ingenuous and serious Con­gregation? Only let Pray­er usher in, and accom­pany your Meditations on this Subject. I shall leave both the Treatise and You in the hands of the Lord, and intreat the God Psal. 65. 2. that heareth Prayer, that every line in it may be written upon your soules in the bloud of Christ, and with the point of a [Page] diamond, the Spirit of the Lord, and shall rest ex­pecting the longed for fruits of these inconsidera­ble labours, and shall beg that the blessing of the Lord would enliven and enrich every truth in them contained; and that this poor Tract of Eternity may in some measure con­duce to the landing of eve­ry one of your precious soules (whose welfare shall be the crown of my joy, both here and for ever) in [Page] a glorious, steddy, and joy­ous eternity.

But I will no longer de­tain you, onely let me tell you, I have endevoured in this Treatise, not onely to put my Sermons, but my Affections in Print. And if this weak birth (which only your disrespect, and misin­provement can render a­bortive,) shall put you upon more frequent thoughts of, and serious preparations for Eternity, my designe is accomplish­shed, [Page] and it will not only be an unspeakable joy unto, but an incompensable ob­ligation upon

Yours in all soul-service in Jesus Christ, John Wells.
From my Study in the Old Jewry, Sept. 7. 1654.

The EPISTLE TO THE READER.

Courteous Reader,

IT was the cursed and A­theisticall speech of Paul the third, who sat in the Pontificall chair, when lying on his death-bed he said, He should now make tryall of three things whereof he had doubted all his life;

  • [Page]1. Whether the soul was immortall.
    Dignum patella operculum. Eras. Pudet fari Ca­toniana, Chreste, quod facis, lin­gua. Mar.
  • 2. Whether there was a God. And
  • 3. Whether there was an Hell.

But however though most men will not so far play the Atheists, as to be Scep­tickes in these things in their discourse and language, yet in their lives and de­portments, they act the verification of all these en­quiries.

I have here (candid Rea­der) presented thee with a Subject of latitude enough to take up all thy thoughts with the Sea of Eternity, [Page] which may drown all that heat which boyles over in sinfull, and sensuall objects. Our age is the womb of multiplyed confusions, and every one is ready to barre up their own Cabbins, and lock up their earthly enjoy­ments in security; but who is it that makes it his enqui­ry how to ensure Eternity, and when death shall throw him overboard, that he may be swallowed up in the Ocean of a glorious Eter­nity?

In the following Treatise (kind Reader) you have the nature of our eternall estate unravelled; and so on ne­cessity [Page] the joyes of the bles­sed, and the woes of the damned unbowelled; and if either the one shall affright thee from thy sin, and why not, thy sin will ingulfe thee in eternall misery; or the other allure thee to God, methinkes it should, when God is the very life of eter­nall life: I say, if either physick work, it will abun­dantly compensate the poor and unworthy Author in what he hath contributed; nor will it be any losse to thee, on whom the Treatise hath tryed its experiment. It is strange to observe with what vain Speculations men [Page] misguide their zeal, and tire their own fervour and vi­vacity; with what overboyl­ing ambition do the Absa­loms of the world raise un­naturall rebellions to seat themselves in the throne: and others turn Curtizans to their voluptuous appetites, and spea [...] Epicurus himself to be illiterate in the sen­suall trade: And a third sort dig the golden mine by in­defatigable industry, and then bury themselves alive in it, by delight and compla­cency: Nor are there wan­ting a fourth generation, who drown themselves in the curious subtilties, trifling [Page] questions, and vain strifes and disputes of secular learning, (not that I disallow, but honour Learning bespangled with grace) and with ea­gernesse pursue the vanish­ing delicacies of a bet­ter tempered profanenesse. When in the mean time, the great and main prey of mans pursuits should be, how to lay claime to a rich eter­nity. How would the Saints triumphant who now bathe themselves in rivers of eter­nall pleasure, if such a passi­on could enter heaven, de­ride the folly and madnesse of most in the world? It is thy soul, thy God, thy life, [Page] thy eternity cals for thy most serious thoughts, preti­ous time, active graces, fer­vent prayers, and diligent inquisitions.

And let it not seem unto thee a tedious and troublesome impertinen­cy to glance thy eye on these short Meditations: I may say concerning this Manuall, what Lot said con­cerning Gen. 19. 20. Zoar, Is it not a little oned? Thou knowest not what thy reading this short Treatise, if the Spirit of the Lord give thee a meeting, may ingender; what heart­melting, sin-killing, grace-multiplying? Despise not Zech. 4. 10. [Page] the day of small things. But I commend It and Thee to the grace of the Lord, and rest

Thine in the Gospell of the Lord Jesus John Wells.
From my Study in the Old Jewry, Sept. 7. 1654.

A PROSPECT OF ETERNITY: The Introduction.

2 COR. 4. 18.‘The things which are not seen, are Eternal.’

THis Chapter in the aime and in­tention of it, is a Consolatorie reserve for suffering Saints; a Scri­pture-cordial for fainting Martyrs; and it may be parcelled into four princi­pall parts.

1. Here is Pauls vindication of his The first part of the Chapter. Ministery; and that in three regards.

[Page 2] 1. He advanceth his Ministery, by his call to it: by acknowledging free grace in calling him to so glorious a function. Paul chaines Ministery and Mercy together, and reads Gods com­passion in his own function: a practice unusuall with us, for we for the most part make the Ministery a cloth which will stain most, and esteem that sacred office, our misery, not our mercy, our burden, not our priviledge; while we reproach the persons, deride the qualifications, and dispute the office of the Ministery; but this great Apostle makes that his honour, which we re­pute our scorn, ver. 1.

2. The Apostle magnifies his office by his sincere carriage in it, and as he eyes Gods grace to him, in selecting him for this office, so he doth not over­passe Gods grace in him, in carrying him on in the office; he triumphs in Gods bounty and his own innocency. And truly sincerity sheds a glosse upon the Ministery, and dresses it in its ge­nuine attire; Ministers should no more want integrity in their office then qua­lifications for it: the first obstructing the prevalency, the latter underva­lanuing [Page 3] the dignity of the Ministery, vers. 2. &c. Paul was no daubing sophister, who made the mine, and gain his end: who did adulterate the truth, to get a reall gain; he did not daub with untempered morter, nor preach fucatam Ezek. 13. 11. Doctrinam, dissembled and painted Do­ctrine, or vent truth in a duskish light; but he would weigh his intentions and practices, not in the ballance of his opinion, but in the scales of other mens consciences: he preaches not himself, to make the Pulpit his pander; but Jesus Christ, and him crucified: and if his own name must be mentioned, it was but as the cypher to the figure, to make Christ the more glorious, vers. 2, 3, 4, 5.

3. Paul advanceth his office by ope­ning the trust, that glorious trust, that every Minister was entrusted withall, vers. 7. Ministers they are considerable caskets, which contain rare jewels, as the matter of the Lamp to the light of it. As Caesar said to the trembling ma­riner, Thy boat carries Caesar and all his fortunes: so the Ministers they are the heralds of divine truth; and every one of them may justly take up Isaiahs [Page 4] Apologie, Isa. 6. 5. Woe is me, for I am un­done, I am a man of unclean lips: pure truth drops from their unclean lips; and this is the first part.

11. And as the first part comprizeth The second part. the glory of the ministeriall office, so the second comprehends the trou­bles of the Ministeriall officers: they are not only earthen, but battered and broken vessels, vers. 8. Paul and others they flamed in zeal, but many stormes fell upon the fire of their zeal; they were burning lights, but there were many winds to blow these lights out; the dignity of the office did not pre­vent the misery of the person; in the former part Paul admires his function, and in the second he bewayles his con­dition; Ministers their calling is ho­norable, but oftentimes their conditi­on is deplorable; We are troubled, we are perplexed, vers. 8. Indeed their am­bassage is glorious, but their usage is often grievous, and Christs Ambassa­dors Rev. 1. 20. often finde the same welcome with Davids: they are sent out with renown, 2 Sam. 10. 4. though entertained with reproach; they are starres mustled in a cloud: [Page 5] though the misery mentioned ver. 8, 9. may be understood of the Saints in generall.

But thirdly, there is a lampe ap­pears The third part. in this night; the third part of the Chapter comprehends the rare in­dulgence of God, in providing planks for these shiprackt Ministers and people, harbours for weather-beaten Saints, there were yet back-dores for straight­ned professors, troubled but not distressed, vers. 8. 9. and the voice of despaire was not heard in the storme of their calamity, some twigs there were to keep them above weather; God hath either the castle of Providence, or the Act. 23. 17. arke of a Promise, or the alsufficiency of his own grace, for the retirement 2 Cor. 12. 8. of his people in the greatest stormes and tempests.

But lastly, here is mention made, of The fourth part. the glorious plot and designe that God hath in all the sufferings of his Ministers and people; and that is to bring them to glory at the last; the life of a Saint is a Tragicomedy; teares in the pilgrimage, but joy in the heritage; [Page 6] weeping in the bud, but glory in the flower; here persecution, but shortly coronation, vers. 15, 16, 17. The stripes of a Saint are easie, but the crown is weighty,

1. For the massinesse of it: much glory.

2. For the value of it, and so I have now brought you within view of the text.

And the whole verse is the close of the discourse of this Chapter: and it is a serious Aphorisme argumentatively used, to stay the minds of Gods people in all their infelicities, and to dry up all their tears: and the argument runs thus, That supposing our life here were spread with roses, yet they are marcessible; and if with thornes, yet they are dying; the jewels of the Crown will receive a damp, and the terrors of the Crosse will soon be at an end: groanes and joyes in this life are both expiring, our troubles and our triumphs have their setting, [...], for the things that are seen are temporall; the distresses of the world are a short and suddain tempest, and the delights of it are [Page 7] a shedding flower; and therefore the Apostles argument is, that there ought to be an indifferency in mens thoughts, for the outward passages of this world, wisdome and grace should make our judgments even, and we should be in an aequilibrio, whether we sway the scepter, or are cast upon the dunghill, for all things sublunary are [...], for a season: but the things that are not seen, are eternall; [...]. And now I have brought you within sight of the vast Ocean of eternity, and the text is a pregnant argument that the great Apostle useth why we should make it our inquiry, what our per­petuated estate should be; our future condition, when millions of years shall be as millions of cyphers, and signi­fie nothing: when the Crown and the Crosse shall be stretcht out to eternity, and there shall be neither fading in the one, nor waste in the other. Now before I traverse the doctrinall con­clusion that compriseth the subject of the treatise, I shall unmaske the text it selfe in a percursory explicati­on: and the question will be what the unseen things are in the text. And [Page 8] first I suppose these unseen things spoken of here, are principally those fruitions of glory, which free grace hath stretcht out to eternity, that unshaking and unshaken crown of eter­nity; that everlasting joy, that the Saints shall partake of; that unfading happinesse they shall flourish in, to all eternity; that eternall house for the security of it, 2 Cor 5. 1. that eternall glory for the renown of it, 2 Tim. 2. 10. that eternall inheritance for the riches of it, Heb. 9. 15. that eternall redempti­on for the love of it, Heb. 9. 12. that eternall salvation for the seasonable­nesse of it, Heb. 5. 9. These are those unseen things chiefly intended, those glorious beatitudes which are reserved for believers entertainment, which shall never receive either damp or death; those rivers of pleasure which run at Gods right hand for evermore. Psal. 36. 8. And there are two reasons which seem to enforce this interpretation:

1. 1 As the Text is a Cordiall: Some­thing laid in by the Apostle to refresh the fainting and languishing spirit of suffering Saints, and it is a rich one, and the argument will hold thus, In all [Page 9] your perplexities (suffering Brethren) do but weigh anchor, and sail into the Ocean of eternity; and consider, there your happinesse shall never be blasted, and the waste of ages shall not precipitate the conclusion of your joyes: let this single eternity, as it is put into the lease of your glory, revive your trembling and disconsolate spi­rits, when the storme of trouble beats most upon you; And surely this very argument being weighed in the bal­lance, might be bladders to bear up the believer in the deepest waters; it might as it were corke the soul, that it should not sink.

And 2. 2 this seems to be the genuine interpretation, because there is a preg­nant antithesis observable in the verse; temporals compared with eternals, fading sorrowes with fixed joyes; our visible martyrdoms are extinguishable fire, but our invisible blessednesse shall be an unperishable crown, and so this verse doth but second and amplifie the former. But however this chiefly may be the exposition of the text: yet I conceive that the unseen things men­tioned in the text may import and take in these two things.

[Page 10] 1. The interest of man, we see not what the claime of man is here, many here are but Mountebancks and cheats in Religion, Alchymie professors: mens spirituall estates are no more known by their outward profession, then their temporall estates are by their cloathes; wherefore our conjectures are often mistaken in our conclusion, what the interest of man is; whether their interest be laid up in Christ, or whether misery shall be their portion. This may be one of the invisibles in the text; but this unseen interest in man shall be eternall, the Saints interest in Christ is eternall, his membership, his relation, and the sinners losse is eternall: the impropriation of man is eternall, their damage or their gain.

2. The state of man is eternall; as the tree fals, so it shall lie to all eter­nity, there shall be no stoppage to, or breaking up of mans future condition. We see not what the condition of man is here: but his estate shall be ever­lastingly permanent; whether in the throne or on the wrack, estate of fe­licity or calamity; his condition, whe­ther [Page 11] grace hath inamel'd it with hap­pinesse, or sin inpoverisht it with misery, it shall be inalterably ever­lasting.

And now at last I am arived at that conclusion or observation which shall be the sum of the future discourse; and it is this, Mans future condition is an eter­nall condition; and I shall take in as well the groanes of hell, as the joyes of heaven; and now to unravell this bot­tomlesse knot, or to sound this fadom­lesse Ocean of eternity, hic labor hoc opus est. This indeed is a constellation of difficulties, here the choicest under­standing may be dazled; eternity being a probleme, that may rather astonish, then fit the understanding: we cannot faddome the Ocean of waters, much lesse that of eternity: but through the direction and by the guidance of the invisible and eternall Spirit, I shall endevour to draw a map of this unli­mited state, and give you a prospect of this boundlesse and bottomlesse Ocean. And this I shall do rather negatively, then positively; as Plato said concer­ning Plat. God, What he is (saith he) that I know not; but what he is not, that [Page 12] I know. And as Augustine describes August. the true beatitude of heaven by re­moving from it the very thoughts of all evill; so in reference to eternity, we must rather remove from it what it is not, then go about exactly and accurately to describe it; that we shall only do when we are cast upon the shoar of eternity. I shall set upon the enterprise in severall Propositions and conclusions.

Conclus. 1 And the first shall be this, Mans eter­nall condition admits of no changes or distinction of time. There shall be no night in heaven, nor any day in hell: In the eternity of glory, there shall be no full or wanes of the Moon, no falling of the leaf or Autumnall de­clination: that is a pregnant place, Rev. 22. 5. And there shall be no light there, and they need no candle, neither light Rev. 22. 25. of the sun: for the Lord giveth them light, (that is) by his immediate presence, &c. In heaven the sun shall not set, nor the morning star arise: there shall be no clouds to vail the Saints happi­nesse, no stormes nor tempests to be the shadow of a disturbance, no frost to pinch or afflict the bodies of believers, [Page 13] which shall be bespangled with glory; no winters day to shorten the beatifi­call vision. And so in the eternity of misery, there shall be no spring, nor pleasant resurrection from the dolefull grave of a winter. That is very re­markable, Mat. 25. 30. Cast ye the un­profitable servant into utter darknesse, [...], some render it a­bundant darknesse; it may well be understood in tenebras circumferentes, environing darknesse, the mantle of darknesse. In eternall calamity, there shall be no chirping birds, or green-livered fields to be the emblemes of an approaching Summer; hell shall not be gilded with a sunshining day. But eternity shall be an identicall conditi­on, simul & semel; the interchangeable seasons of the year shall cease in eter­nity: the serenity and blacknesse of the skies, the flourishing beauty and wither'd deformity of the earth, the eclipses and changes of the celestiall bodies, the dawning morning, and the duskish evening, shall all be unknown in eternity. And an everlasting night shall overshadow the damned; and an eternall morning shall refresh the [Page 14] blessed, who shall be ever sunning them­selves in the presence of God; and the Sun shall be laid aside as uselesse in heaven, for it would not be seen for the brightnesse of God. Now there can be no distinctions of time in the eter­nity of the blessed (and this method shall runne through the whole dis­course).

Reas. 1 For all changes in heaven would argue imperfection; all mutability is imperfect, and therefore God who is Solennis ibi festivitas, & festiva ibi aeter­nitas; ibi nec est defectio, sed op­tima refectio. Alard. infinitely perfect, is immutable; such transient changes would cause a wane in the Saints happinesse: Now there is a double royall perfection in hea­ven; 1. Of purity: 2. Of felicity. Imperfection is a weed which growes not there; there shall no deficiencie Psal. 17. 15. stain the celestiall beatitude. When man hath attained to a perfection of ex­cellency, as infallibly he shall in glory, there shall then be no defect, to be the womb of dissatisfaction.

2 It would be tedious to the glorifi­ed Saints to tell the flying houres a­gain; Aeterna vita omni taediocaret Ambr. tom. 3. and passe through a variety of seasons; for the Saints to be incht again with the sharpnesse of a Winter, [Page 15] or scorcht with the over kind beames of a Summers sun: this is inconsistent with that delight, they shall in heaven be ravished with; so their comforts would grow as cold as the season. Besides that of the Apostle is observa­ble, 2 Pet. 3. 12. Wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat: this text abrogates such disturbance, whe­ther it be understood of a purgation or annihilation. Unquestionably this may be asserted: what ever may imply the least shadow of trouble, or distast, shall be banisht the court of glory; the joyes of eternity shall not be eclip­sed with the least vicissitude or unplea­santnesse.

3 And Gods immediate presence shall scatter all changes and distinctions of time, when his glory is in the full, what clouds can appear? God is as im­mutable Ex visione Dei omnia beatorum bona unicè oriuntur, & de­pendent. in his glory as in his nature, and the Saints shall ever in heaven lie under his radiant appearancies; see his face, Mat. 5. 8. behold his glory, Joh. 17. 24. and he will be an ever­lasting spring to his glorified ones. Vicissitudes in time shall melt in the [Page 16] presence of the Lord, the rivers of heavens pleasure shall admit of no doubts or decayes, there shall no night vaile the day of eternall salva­tion.

Nor shall there be any distinction or change of times in the eternity of the damned. For

1. Reas. 1 This would alleviate and miti­gate the miseries of the damned, some variety would be the womb of some pleasure, some light would be some refreshment: Eccles. 11. 7. Truly light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun. But in hell there shall be all severity, but no mercy; there shall be no day-break, to revive execu­ted reprobates; could there be changes of times or seasons in hell, there might fall out a winter, and Dives might meet with a showre to cool his tongue; but pity visits not those dismall prisons, what ever may con­tribute to the abatement of the dam­neds misery, shall be everlastingly banisht. In heaven there shall need no light, Rev. 22. 5. In hell they shall have none, they shall so far want the comfort of the sun, as they shall not [Page 17] be blest with the light of a candle; none of natures variety and embroyde­ry in point of seasons, not the sharp­est and the harshest seasons shall shed the least refreshment on the tortur'd re­probate.

2 This would be some ground of comfort to the damned to tell their past miseries; for alteration of seasons implyeth a succession, (which as I shall shew is impossible in hell) they might then with some reflexion of joy recol­lect, there are so many sharp winters or dark nights of misery blown over, and this would be some satisfaction to suppose that some of their calamity was wasted. Now misery is the only signe in hell, nor shall one drop of mercy fall into a hell of fire; there shall be no preterition in the torment of the damned, but they shall alwayes be in actu moriendi, in the act of execu­tion; August. they shall hang in fiery chains, and those chains shall never break, or they die in those chains. As our Sa­viour expresseth himself in that dole­full language, Mat. 8. 48. Where the worme dieth not; Sed semper corrodit & nunquam satiatur, which alwayes gnawes, [Page 18] but never is satisfied: which language might be a knell to awaken us, from our most stupefied security. But thus much of the 1. Conclusion.

CHAP. II.

Concl. 2 Mans eternall condition admits of no gradation.

THere shall be no degrees in eter­nity. In heaven there shall be all perfection, in hell all defection. The buds of joy shall not blow in hea­ven, there shal be no maturation of hap­pinesse, or ascension to superiour thrones, Rev. 3. 21. To him that over­cometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne. No rising to greater dignity, or more sublime preferment: there shall be no exaltation after a long en­joyment of honour; the first enthro­nizing of the Saint, after the resur­rection, is there ultimate honour, their [Page 19] Crown shall have no new pearles set in it. I speak after the manner of men; there shall be no accumulative advancement, or superadded hap­pinesse in heaven. Here the Saints grow in grace, but they shall not grow in glory; though sanctificati­on 2 Pet. 3. 18. be, yet glorification shall not be graduall: no steps in heaven for the Saints to ascend, the sight of God shall comprise all honour and happi­nesse. And it is impossible there should be degrees of promotion in glory; (I mean secundum eundum, in reference to the same person) for that there should not be degrees of glory, secun­dum diversos, in reference to divers I dare not disavow, because as Phi­losophers speak, Eadem est ratio con­trariorum, contraries have the same reason. If there shall be degrees of punishment in hell, as our Saviour clearly asserts, Mat. 10. 15. It shall be more tolerable for Sodome and Gomorrah, &c. then I suppose there may be degrees of glory in heaven, especially there being interposed this consideration, Mat. 5. 12. Great shall be your reward; that is, more great, then others shall be [Page 20] crowned with; but secundum eundem, in reference to the same person there shall be no gradation in the eternity of the blessed.

1. Reas. 1 Because there would be nova causa honoris, some new reason of promotion. As Ahasuerus honou­red Mordecai for the detecting of a conspiracy against his life; so Gods justice would require it, that there should be some new impulsive cause for further dignity. But this cannot take place in glory, when the Saints praises shall alwayes be in the same tune, and their hallelujahs shall be wound up as high as their joyes; nay their hallelujahs shall be part of their happinesse. It is fancie, nay mis­guided conception, to suppose that the Saints in heaven could screw up their harps to a higher peg then they shall do for ever: their desires to serve God in glory, shall be-sublimated to the same superlativenesse as their rejoycing in God: Their love being perfect and their power, there shall surely be no decay in their triumphant obediencies.

2. 2 If there could be any gradation in heaven, then God did not fully ob­serve [Page 21] the state of the Saint before he came Psal. 139. 12. there; and therefore falling up­on a more exact Survey, he promotes him to greater dignities: which would be most absurd, and would not only impeach the indulgence of God, who alwayes gives measure running over; but also the omniscience of God, who sees not only our visible actions, but our most internall and retired mo­tions; those secrets that men most obumbrate and conceal. And therefore the Saints shall alwayes be in the same state of glory, and not rise, as the Sun, from a dauning to a noon-day. But when once the soul after its long widowhood shall at the Resurrection be espoused again to its glorified body, and shall clothe its self with that rich apparell, then shall the believer ever shine in the same state of perfection, and he shall flourish though in most glo­rious yet identicall excellencies.

3. 3 One thing more may be added further to illustrate this truth, that secundum eundem in reference to the same person, there can be no degrees of glory; for then there would be im­perfection in heaven comparatively, [Page 22] because the Saints might be advanced to greater dignity; Perfectum est cui nihil addi potest, saith Aristotle, & quiequid potest recipere additionem est im­perfectum; that is perfect to which no­thing can be added, and whatsoever can receive any addition is imperfect. But now the weakling of imperfecti­on shall have no place in glory; all teares, and sins, and defectivenesse, all capability of further felicity shall be banisht heaven, and the Saints shall be enthroned in consummated beati­tude.

Nor shall there be any degrees in their eternity of misery, no ascension to further ease, or descension to further misery; (for the damned shall be fully miserable) there shall be no slacking of the pullies or allaying of the flames; surely those fires shall not decay in their force, that have the wrath of God for their fuell, and their bellowes. Nebuchadnezzars fires, Dan. 3. 19. may Isa. 30. 33. be colder or hotter according to the degree of the Kings displeasure; but the infernall flames shall alwayes scorch with the same intensive heat, God wrathfully kindling them, and the [Page 23] Divell and his Angels rigorously ap­plying them. In the primitive times the tormentors were wearied in the execution of the Martyrs; but no such happinesse shall befall the damned, the justice and power of God being his nature, and so immutable; now there can be no degrees in the eternity of misery.

1. For the damned shall be punished according to their capacity, they shall be full of torment, the vessell of wrath shall be up to the brim in calamity. As the Saints shall enjoy fulnesse of joy, Psal. 16. 11. So the reprobates shall be filled with fulnesse of wrath and the degrees of torment in hell shall not arise from this, that any shall have a mitigation of their misery, but every one shall be full of torture, but their gradualnesse. Their more tolerable­nesse mentioned, Mat. 10. 15. shall be ac­cording to the capacity of the damned, some of their natures shall be stretcht wider then others to receive more in, as a tun containes more then a firkin, but their misery shall be coextentive to their capacity. They shall be full of anguish and pain, as the Ocean is with [Page 24] water, as the Fountain is with streams; and it must be so, else there would be some alleviation in hell, some comfort, and mercy; the reprobates are not in so dolefull a condition as they might be, they might be worse, and this would be some refreshment; but alas! mercies smile shall not be seen in hell: Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire, Mat. 25. 41. The sound of Gods bowels shall not be heard there. In miserable eternity the Reprobate shall reape no more, then the fruit of a divine execration.

2. The damned shall be punished for ever according to demerit, which is from adequate and proportionable justice; and therefore there is mention made of many stripes, Luk. 12. 47. where we may observe the justice, and regular proceedings of God. Now could there be degrees in the sufferings of the damned, there would be a varia­tion and mutability in Divine justice, which is [...]mpossible to Gods unchange­ablenesse; there would then be a rising and falling in the steddy and inaltera­ble severity of God; for hell is a place of pure justice: Summi juris: so [Page 25] there can be no declension or slacking of wrath there. Now this gradation cannot be admitted upon this account, it would cast an impeachment of mutation and change upon God; Quod absit; which let us not dare to affirme.

CHAP. III.

Concl. 3 Mans eternall cnodition admits of no change.

THere shall be no telling of the quarters in heaven, nor observa­tion of the flitting hours in hell; no transition or passage of time. There shall be no time in eternity, and dura­tions Aeternitas nullam habet successionem. Ambr. shall not be, as the waves of the Sea, one to follow upon the neck of another. It is a pregnant description which Boetius layeth down, though he describes only the happy eternity, Aeternitas est interminabilis tota sunul ac [Page 26] perfecta possessio, Eternity is an intermi­nable possession, perfect, and all together: And so the miserable eternity of the Aeternitas est indivisibilis, & non habet partes sibi juvicem suc­cedentes, & necessario tota coexisti [...] omni­bus temporum differentiis; ut asserunt Patres, & Scholastici. Bonav. damned, is all together; there is no division in eternity, no priority or posterity; it is a Sun that neither rises nor sets; there is no lapsing of time, one age doth not justle out ano­ther; there shall be no maturity, nor immaturity. Eternity is time by the whole-sale; here indeed our lifes are parcelled into so many years, and retaild into so many months; but eternity is an individuall, indi­visible possession. Nulla est juventus & senescentia in aeternitate, there is no youth Aeternitas tota simul. Scotus. or declining age in eternity: neither spring, nor fall: Time doth not slide away, the duration is alwayes at the same length; eternity admits only the present-tence, the [...], there is no clock in eternity, the hour-glasse runs not there; when we are set upon the shore of everlastingnesse, there shall be no progresse or regresse. Eternity is no complex duration, to be compounded of so many particular ages: in this it is unlike the sands of the Sea, and that comparison will not hold, because [Page 27] the vast sands are but multiplyed par­ticulars. Falsum est aeternitatem vir­tualiter habere partes, cum id suae simplicitati & immutabili­tati repugnat, non enim sequi­illud esse in ae­ternitate prius, quod est in pri­ori temporis parte, sed totum tempus simul continetur, quantum est ex parte aeternita­tis. Sadreva in Thomam. Time (if I may use the terme, for there is no such thing in eternity) doth pullulate as fast as spend, and it sprouts out as fast as it is lopt off in eternity. The womb of eternity, shall be alwayes big with duration, and shall never be delivered of one moment. No centuries or successions shall be found in the state of eternity. All arith­metick numbers in eternity are ciphers. In this it is no Ocean; for the Ocean is but a Sea drops, particular streams in a greater body. Astronomers speak much of the slow motion of Saturne, and other celestiall bodies; but in eternity there is no motion known; no in fieries, motion and succession are pure Anomalies. And it must be so, for

1. Reas. 1 Were their succession in eternity, there would be wast; the taper would spend, and the same decline, could one age succeed another: the succeeded age were then past; we might reckon, those durations that were melted away; but there shall be no waste in eternity: eternity is not a Summers day that spends and flies away (as more fully hereafter).

[Page 28] 2. All succession implies a motion, and all motion supposes imperfecti­on, while things are in motu, they are not arrived at perfection, then motion ceaseth, and there is no further ten­dency; but now the state of eternity is a perfect state. The blessed shall be perfectly happy. Heaven is a place of superlative perfection; and the dam­ned shall be fully and perfectly misera­ble, [...], there shall be no de­ficiency in their torment; nor can there be further insufferably unhappy, (as before was hinted).

CHAP. IV.

Concl. 4 Mans eternall condition admits of no change or alteration.

THe throne of the Saints shall In aeternitate nulla est mu­tatio. Aug. Nar. never be overturned; the crown of glory shall not be changed into a Crown of thornes. Nor shall the damneds bed of flames be altered [Page 29] into a bed of downe. All things in eternity shall be everlastingly in the same state: (I exclude not the great change at the general assizes, when the bodies both of Saints and sinners shall be reunited to their souls) Eternity may well take up Q. Eliza­beths In quo quem (que) invenerit suus novissimus dies, in hoc eum com­prehendit Mundi novissimus dies; quoniam qualis in die ipso mori­tur quis (que) talis in die isto judi­cabitur. August. motto, it is, Semper eadem, always the same. As the tree falls, so it shall lie for ever; Taliter, in every conside­ration and particular: The darknesse of the damned, shall never alter into day; their groans shall never be trans­formed into smiles. There shall be no impoverishment in glory, and no en­richment in misery. Here our state is the Chameleon of Providence, the map of mutability; but in eternity all things shall remain for ever in eodem gradu, & eodem statu, in the same state and degree. It was Origens opinion, or rather dream, that the damned at last should find a relaxation; but this is an old exploded errour. There is no variety or revolutions in eternity. Identity is the characteristicall note of eternity. In it neither teares shall be tuned into triumphs, nor song turned into sorrowes; All things for ever [Page 30] shall look with the same visage and aspect. Weeping and wailing shall be the bitter and everlasting potion of the wicked; triumph and honour the Mat. 8. 12. sweet and eternall portion of the ble­sed. But more particularly.

1 There shall be no change in those persons who are set on the shoares of eternity: the glorious bodies of the Saints after the resurrection, shall no more be soyled with ragges, or cover'd with soares: those illustrious caskets of their souls, shall never again endure Phil. 3. 15. either damp or disease, those beauti­fied and polished pieces, shall no more be bloodied with wounds, wrack'd with distempers, or deformed with skarres. Lazarus, whose body here was but a lesser hospitall; in eternity his body shall shine, and be bespangled with glory, which shall never be sullied or eclipsed with the least soare or disease. Here Plato cals the body the soules pri­son; Ergastulum animae. Plato. but in heaven, in eternity, the bodies of the Saints shall not be the curtaines, but the rich cloaths of their soules; their attire embroydered with glory, which shall neither wear or soyle. And so the souls of the Saints [Page 31] in glory, they shall ever shine in the enamel of perfection, without the least contrariant tincture. It is only mans sin that distempers, and incurvates the soul, and Gods wrath the consequence of sin, that as I may say, maketh the soul look pale; now neither of these have place in heaven. The Israelites Deut. 29. 5. cloaths, which wore not out in forty years together, was a lively Embleme of this invariable feli­city.

And so on the contrary, the bodies of the damned shall remain in their de­formities, not any spot shall be wiped away; nor the least vaile thrown over their exulcerations. They shall never throw off the ragges of their beleapered bodies; but they shall ever be the darke prisons of their accursed souls; the fires of hell shall wash away the paint of Absaloms beauty, but his de­formities shall never shed, because the fountain of them shall never cease, viz. sin: (as shall be shewed more fully). And their souls, those unclean birds in the unclean cages of their bodies, shall wear the miserable livery of their sins to all eternity. What should wash their [Page 32] souls? Christs bloud, they have no interest in it; if so, they had never been overwhelmed in their intolerable calamity; and all their tears shall be but muddied water: their wounded consciences, their polluted hearts, their impostumated souls shall lie in the sinke of their uncleannesses for ever. So there shall be no change in the per­sons of those that are cast on the coast of eternity.

2 Nor shall there be any change of place in eternity. The Saints shall be Joh. 17. 24. everlastingly resident at the Court of Rev. 3. 21. glory. They shall never change their Joh. 14. 2. Mansions: where by the way, Man­sions, not houses, not tents: to signifie the immutable duration of the Saints happinesse. They shall be alwayes un­der the smiles, and in the immediate presence of God. They shall ever wait upon the Lord in the Presence-cham­ber, and the Court shall never be re­moved. And therefore heaven is call'd a Kingdome, Luk. 12. 32. A City, Heb. 12. 22. A Countrey, Heb. 11. 13. To demonstrate the permanency of the Saints state in point of locality: Heaven shall be the Jerusalem, where [Page 33] shall be the perpetuall residence of glorified ones. And so the dark dun­geon of hell, shall be the Reprobates everlasting gaole; as the chaines shall never be loosned or filed off, so neither shall they change their dolefull habi­tation; but the same prison and wrack, the same place as well as degrees of torment, shall fetter them to all eternity: They shall not change Mat. 18. 3 [...]. their Tophet, nor alter their bed of flames.

3 There shall be no change in the car­riages of those persons who are cast upon the state of eternity: the blessed shall be ever tuning their harpes in Hallelujahs; they shall alwayes advance God and Christ in an uniforme joy. Rev. 4. 11, 12. Temptation the womb, and sin the birth shall not be found in heaven. There shall be nothing to prompt the Saints to stain their purity; but they shall be ever breaking out into sacred admirations of God. Here indeed there is a variablenesse, and often a contra­diction in the deportment of the Saints; but in glory there shall not be the least titubation or fall. Nor shall eter­nity Prov. 24. 16. d [...]ect the least eccentrick motion [Page 34] in a glorified Saint. But Christ in Eph. 5. 27. heaven shall be Mediator sustentationis, a Mediatour of sustentation to the Saints as well as Angels. And so on the con­trary, there shall be as little alteration in the carriages of the damned; they shall be ever belching out dishonours against the name of God, and for ever be sick of the same surfet of blasphe­my; accusing the glorious attributes and holy name of God; nor shall they in the midst of their woes, weep out with a truly penitentiall frame, the least retractation. And the reason is, because sin in hell shall be in the same, and greater impetuousnesse then it was here. Nor shall those punitive fires turne one lust into ashes, those flames of misery shall not refine, but exaspe­rate the reprobate sinner; shall irritate and feed, not chase away sin. Nor is hell a place for the influences of Gods operative grace; nor can infernall fire be purificatory.

4 There shall be no change in the conditions of those who are in the state of eternity. No promotions in misery; no dejections in happinesse; the same calamity shall be eternized [Page 35] to the caitiffe-wretch, and the same glory entaild on the perfected Saint; the wheele shall not turne in eternity. No hopes of better times in hell, nor Luk. 16. 26. feares of worse in heaven. Mutation, and change is obsolete in eternity. And to shew you the impossibility of change in our everlasting condition, First, there can be none in reference to the blessed.

If there be any change, it must either be,

First, In meliorem partem, for the bet­ter; and then these inconsequences would follow.

1. 1 There were degrees of grace in heaven, secundum eundem, in reference to the same person, contrary to Heb. 12. 22. the Spirits of just men made per­fect. For Gods justice is adequate, and he rewards though not [...], for our works; yet [...], according Rom. 2. 6. to our workes; and so that grace rising to an higher eminency, it cals for a greater promotion. Now this would argue a falling short of per­fection which heaven is uncapable of. Could the glorified Saints grow in grace, as they must if they rise to higher [Page 36] happinesse according to Gods justice; then was there a deficiency in their grace before, which is anomalus to con­summate perfection; and glory signifies no more but grace maturated to per­fection: And therefore there can be no change for the better; because there can be no cause for this change, especially after the resurrection, when the Grand assises are over. And

2. This inconsequence would fol­low, a change for the better, an imper­fection in happinesse; for now the Saint is advanced to greater blessednesse, which likewise is consistent to the per­fection of beatitude, which the glori­fied Saint is infall'd in. Or,

Secondly, This change must be in de­teriorem partem, for the worse; there must be a fall in the Saints glory: which would [...]nforce these two absurdities.

1. The Saints in glory were capa­ble of defaulting, for what can indam­mage them but sin? God who is pure justice inferres no prejudice upon the Creature, but as provoked by some criminall miscarriage; if otherwise, then Gods justice might be impeached, which is most blasphemous. Now that [Page 37] no impurity can stain heaven is most Hos. 13. 9. clear, as from the immediate presence of God, which glorifies the Saints, not only with perfection of happinesse, but of purity also; or else perfection was Rev. 21. 27. but a titular perfection, it were but nominall, were it not spotlesse; and so likewise from that consummate con­dition, which the Saints are arrived at in glory, which cannot retre [...] backe again to any the least preva­rication. For herein lies the difference between created perfection, that which Adam was enricht with before his fall, and the perfection of glory; the one includes, the other rejects all mutabi­lity. And

2. Could there be a change for the worse in glory, then heaven would be a place of punitive justice; for all Rev. 7. 16. deteriority and dammage that befals man, is the issue of Gods afflictive and castigatory justice; but that is impos­sible, for in eternall happinesse there shall be nothing appearing but smiles, love, and indulgence. And as in eter­nity the day of grace and favour is past to the reprobate sinner, so the day of correction and displeasure is blown [Page 38] over to the glorified Saint, In glory the least heat of anger shall not appear in the face of God; nor shall the sword of vindicative justice be bran­disht there: I speak after the manner of men.

And so on the contrary, there shall not be the least change in the eter­nity of the damned: For the worse they cannot, for they shall be fully mi­serable, (as before hath been demon­strated). Nor for the better: for this change would either proceed from Gods pity, or mans piety.

First, from Gods pity, now God will shew no pity in hell. For

1. Hell is a place of pure justice, and exact severity; no mitigation or favour in eternall misery; could one drop of mercy fall into hell, it would alter the very propriety of it. Dives Mat. 5 26. in hell begs a drop of water, but a Luk. 16. 24. drop, the smallest measure, and of water, the most common element, Natures common bounty; yet in hell, there is no concession to so reasonable a petition. Mercies sweet voyce shall not be heard among the damneds groanes. And

[Page 39] 2. The day of grace is past; when once the sinner is set on the shoare of eternity, offers and overtures of mer­cy and peace are then buried in silence. Sometimes the climacterical year of a Luk. 19. 42. Sinner is past before, but alwayes then. There shall be no mercy, after the sun­set of mercy, more then the shadowes of the night can counterfeit the light of the day; here is the day of salvation, which when once blown over, the day of love shall break no more. And

3. What should move Gods pity in hell?

1. The cries of the damned; they shall exalt his justice; not move his compassion; the horrours and the lamentations of the damned, shall be the very musicke of Gods justice, the Prov. 1. 26. heraulds of his righteous severity; Mat. 25. 12. here Ephraims moaning turnes Gods Jer. 31. 20. bowels within him; but the repro­bates groanes shall only tune his justice. Or

2. Shall the sinnes of the damned move God to compassion, and there­fore stir up pity, because they are great? Surely sin is the fuel of wrath, not the argument of commiseration, [Page 40] and grief and guilt shall be the repro­bates livery for ever. And

Secondly, as not from Gods pity, so neither from mans piety, shall any change arise in the eternity of the damned. They shall not be refresht with mercy, or their condition sweet­ned with an alleviating change, from any conversion to God, penitency for sin, &c. For

1. This piety, had it been true, or could it be so, it had never come to hell, nor could it lie there. True grace is no Salamander to live in the fire of hell, no flower to grow in that stench; the fruit of the Spirit shall not lie in the womb of eternall misery; that 2 Pet. 1. 4. grace which is honoured with the name of divine nature, cannot be the subject of eternall divine wrath. Had they been, or could they after death be really pious, they should not be eternally calamitous; the least degree of true grace seales Christ and heaven to the soul, Weak faith, saint love, &c. And

2. If this piety be false, as all tears in hell shall be; for the weeping of the damned cannot be ca [...]d a repentance, [Page 41] but only a watery desperation, an exe­cration of themselves steept in tears; then this dissembled mourning, is a provocation, not a mitigation, to in­flame not appease Gods wrath; and certainly all the self-condemnations of the miserable reprobate proceeds not from a detestation of sin, but a deploration of their torment. And therefore now, to sum up the whole, this remains unfallibly true, There shall not be the least alteration or change in our everlasting conditi­on. Ah! what might this considerati­on seriously weighed in the ballance, work upon our feared and unawakened consciences?

CHAP. V.

Concl. 5 Mans eternall condition admits of no measure or commen­suration.

ETernity is an Ocean without a shoare, a Sea without land, it hath neither bottome nor banks; it is an unlimited estate. As Boetius forementioned, Status interminabi­lis, an unconfin'd estate. What is said of eternall joy, 1 Cor. 2. 9. It hath not entred into the heart of man; is true likewise of eternall misery. Who can tell how eternity begins, or when it ends? who can divide or parcell out eternity? who can set landmarkes to measure, or find plummets to fadome it? It is nothing but the vast Ocean, the eye cannot see to the end of it, nor the understanding reach to the bottome of it. The most curious, and criti­call brain in the greatest abstractions, [Page 43] cannot comma, or put a stop in eterni­ty. Astronomers find out fictitious, and imaginary lines to measure the hea­vens and the earth, the Aequator, Me­ridian, Horizon, &c. but what imagi­nary circles shall compasse eternity? who can say, so much is gone, so many Centuries, so many Lustra, so many Olympiads, and so many ages are yet to come? Eternity is a boundlesse be­ing, Aeternitas nec tempus, nec tem­poris ulla pars est (nec e. in mensuram ca­dit) sed quod nobis tempus est, solis motu definitum, hoc aeternis aevum est. Greg. Naz. there is no infancy in it, no strength of years, no decrepitnesse, Nec efflorescentia, nec canescentia aetatis; no triumph or decay of age. There are no divisions, or subdivisions in it. Numbers and multiplications, are pa­radoxes in eternity. There is no lease or determinate time, time it self being a riddle (as before). But more parti­cularly, Eternity is unlimited,

1 In the possessions of it: the eternall joy of the Saints is said to be full, Psal. 16 11. In thy presence is fulnesse of joy; 1 Joh. 3. 2. but this is a faddomlesse fulnesse: who can tell the portion of everlasting hap­pinesse, or count it out? It is a summe that cannot be measured by number or figure. The blessednesse of the S [...]ints, shall be ineffable, inalterable, incon­ceivable. [Page 44] Who knowes how soft the down of the Saints rest is? how sweet the bosome of Christ? how pleasant the smile of God? who can tell how delightfull the taste of the rivers of pleasure in heaven is? There is no measuring or confining the Saints happinesse. How unspeakably sweet is communion with God here, that sometimes the S [...]int can set it out more by admiration then eloquence? how ravishing then are those extasies of joy, which the glorified ones shall be raised and sublimated with?

And so on the contrary, the mi­sery of the damned, how inintolera­ble? how incomprehensible? how un­measurable? who can tell how hot Gods wrath is, when turn'd into a flame? Or can any weigh the tor­ments of the damned, and say they rise to such an height? As they are insup­portable, so they shall be innumerable and inconceivable. Here indeed God corrects in measure, both the wicked Jer. 10. 24. and the godly; he seemes here to pro­portionate his bounds; but what boundlesse calamity shall swallow up the reprobate in eternity? God will [Page 45] then draw his arrow to the head, and screw his wrath to an unconfin'd degree. What shall limit, or be a banke to the inundations of Gods ever­lasting displeasure? Thou canst not tell how many drams of poison God will put into the cup of trembling, which the wicked must be drinking off for evermore; there is no ultimum, aut maximum quod sic. as Philos. speaks: no stated or terminated height in those an­guishes; the element of fire hath its sta­ted heat, which it cannot flame beyond; and if all the fuell and materialls of the Creation were cast into one conflagra­tion; yet there would be a termination in those scorching flames, but what bounds or rampires hath the Anger of the Lord in eternity?

2 Eternity is a boundlesse estate in the fountain of it, which is God, he Duobus modis aliquid aeter­num esse potest; uno modis ab in­trinseco, alio modo ex influxu alterius aeterno. Suarez. shall stretch the future condition of man out to eternity; he that is bot­tomlesse in power, and justice, and love, he shall support the beings of men for ever; The incomprehensible God shall break down all banks in eternity. The originall and efficient cause of eternity is the unlimited [Page 46] Jehovah, the infinite Majesty shall add fuell to his wrath for ever to the damned, and fill the cup of the Saints joy for everlasting.

3 In the space of it. What Arithme­tician can number the ages of eternity? or by an exact multiplication can sum up the infinite centuries in it? Who can cast up the severall millions of du­rations? what thousands multi­plied can fill up one moment of eter­nity? the duration of eternity as it is indivisible, so it is unlimited; there is no terme, bound or stop in it. Could we reckon up as many ages in eternity, as there hath past moments since the Crea­tion, yet then we are not within view of any stoppage or period. In eter­nity our thoughts may range, as into a bottomlesse sea, and cease in a non-plust admiration. Our Contem­plations and enquiries may sail for ever and see no shoare. There are no Anno Dominies, or Epochees, or He­giraes in eternity; no term to reckon from, and no time to reckon in; but it is an inimaginable, unconfin'd condi­tion.

CHAP. VI.

Concl. 6 Mans eternall condition admits of no decay or Consum­ption.

THere is no decay in eternity, no Autumnes; nor in eternity shall the dayes grow shorter. There shall be no wast, or wearing out or moth to eate out in eternity. All things shall subsist in the same force and vigour, in the same state and strength. The Sun of eternity shall not decline. Nothing shall moulder away towards a conclusion. Here all things are in a constant tendency to ruine and devastation; the most excellent and flourishing pieces of the Creation are continually posting to abolition. There is a moth in the richest gar­ments, a worme in the tallest Cedars, rust in the finest gold. Nor can our greatest care shed an immotality on our choisest enjoyments, but duration and [Page 48] time dampes and soyles the rarest ex­cellencie [...], and every thing yeilds to the force and fury of age. Continued and numbred years wrinckle and deface the most pleasing beauty, and leaves it to the surprisall of a necessary defor­mity; the freshest youth, whether it be appropriated to man, or be predi­cate of inanimate creatures, here soon it loseth its splendor, and goeth up­on the crutches of decay. But in eter­nity all things shall subsist in the same vigor and vivacity, not any thing shall be overtaken with hoary age. Heraelitus [...]. his axiome shall be inverted, Nulla erit in aeternitate seneseentia, the pillars in eternity shall never shake nor moulder. There shall be no fading leas, or falling fruit; (though no such thing may be found in eternity) but every thing shall be preserved in its full maturity, without the least perishing or putrefaction. The Suns motions, Aepyptian Pyramids, and other lasting Monuments of Antiquity, are but the darker hieroglyphickes of the unpe­rishable and undecaying estate of eter­nity. But more particularly,

There shall be no waste or decay of time in eternity, time shall not slide away or spend, (but of this more at large in a particular conclu­sion.)

2 There shall be no waste seize on the persons of them, that are set upon the shoar of eternity. The souls of the Saints shall not undergoe the least do­tage by long duration, nor be impaired in their blessednesse or capacities. Millions of ages shall not enfeeble the strength of their memories, or cloud the brightnesse of their minds, or in­curvate their ordinate wills, or depresse their seraphick desires. The souls of the Saints in eternity shall not contract any debilitation or crasiness; but their intel­lectuals shall remain pure and perfect, untainted by the largest tracts, or circuits of ages. Here indeed, in this life, the very minds of Gods people seem to languish with their bodies, and to be subject to the force and tyranny of age; there is a decay in their intellectualls, and the eye of their understanding groweth dimme: but in eternity no hesitancies or doubts shall distract; nor clouds of ignorance [Page 50] darken and obnubilate the sun of their Mind.

And so the bodies of the Saints ad­mit of no decay in eternity, no weaknesse, disease, or distemper shall ever batter or surprize them; but they shall be preserved in the same re­splendency and beauty for ever: all the issues of infirmity which beset the bodies of the Saints here, shall be dryed up in illustrious radiancy; and their bodies shall shine for ever in a greater glory, then the Sun when blazoned in its most vigorous light and irra­diations; (as before was suggested.)

And so on the contrary: The souls of the reprobates in eternity, shall not saint away in their torments; nor shall they ever be blest with the hap­pinesse of temporary swoon; but they shall continue in their beings and ex­istencies for ever, and shall be preser­ved in their miserable immortalities. They shall be spending, vitam morientem, August. as the Father speaks, a dying life for ever; and so their bodies, those coope­rating Mar. 9. 48. instruments of sin, shall not be scorcht into ashes by the infernall flames; but like cursed Salamanders [Page 51] shall ever live in those fires; their bodies shall be immortall capacities of torment, while Gods justice and Satans malice shall make everlasting depredations upon them.

2 There shall be no decay or waste, in the losses or possessions of eternity; the Saints blessednesse shall not be im­paired by duration, nor wither by vast continuances. They shall be cloathed with happinesse, and their Deut. 5. 29. cloaths shall not wear. And therefore the eternall felicity of the blessed consists in a fulnesse of joy, Psal. 16. 11. Not the fulnesse of the vessell; there may be an evaporation in that; but of an Ocean that admits no droughts, of a Spring that is continually fed: and to this fulnesse is added perpetuity, in the same verse, for evermore: that if we suppose this fulnesse may shed or spend; the holy Ghost tels us, it is an everlasting fulnesse: It is a bounty that continues for ever up to the brim. The Originall is very significant in this [...] place. There shall be a saturiry of joys. The souls of the blessed shall have their fill of happinesse. There shall be no want or deficiency, nor place for [Page 52] a request. And this satiety shall be Saturitas cum Hebraeis maxi­mam abundan­tiam significat. Gerard. eternized. And so the Prophet, Isa. 35. 10. speaking of the future glory of believers, he saith there shall be [...], Ever­lasting joyes on their heads, to shew the immarcessiblenesse of the Saints glory. Their sight of God, admirations of Christ, full draughts of the Spirits joyes, and those divine Raptures which shall flow from that communi­on they enjoy with unspotted Angels, and glorified Saints, shall never re­ceive the least abatement, or gra­duall decrease. Their felicities shall never decay, nor after millions of ages grow tedious; but their joy shall spring in the same vivacity for ever.

And so the miseries of the damned, they shall not be slackned or mitigated by continuance of time; their woes shall be as wearisome and painfull after many ages, as the first moment. Nor shall the accustomednesse of the damned to endure the fury of God, and the torments of Satan, so harden, or ease the persons, that they shall be any thing the more insensible, or in­apprehensive [Page 53] of the pain. That of the Prophet is very remarkable, and seriously to be considered, The * Isa. 30. 33. [...] flaming breath of God shall ever feed their torments. And therefore the same Prophet, Isa. 33. 14. makes mention of Everlasting burnings; the calamity shall ever be in the same impetuous fury. Nor shall one sparke of divine fury and displeasure die, or be blown [...]ver.

4 There shall be no decay or waste either in the love, or wrath of God towards those who are cast up­on eternity.

The love of God to the blessed shall be as vigorous, and full, after in­numerable centuries, as at the first enterview with the Saints. Duration in eternity, as it cannot inflame, so it shall not allay divine affe­ction. Gods heart shall be as much Jer. 31. 3. let out after numberlesse ages to his glorified ones, as at the first arri­vall at their heavenly Countrey. There shall no dampe seise on Gods inexpressible love. Indeed what should procure a decrease of Gods love to his people in glory? Sinne [Page 54] and deviation, and whatever may have Rev. 21. 27. the sent of the least irregularity, is banisht heaven; there will be no fail­ings or misdoings to wrincle the face of God into a frown, (to speak after the manner of men). And therefore as there shall not be any aversation in God to his glorified Saints; so nei­ther shall for ever the least faintnesse or abatement surprise divine af­fection.

And so neither shall the wrath of God to the damned ever wear away, or be allayed. The wrath of God to the reprobate is no passion; that time Heb. 12. 29. Apostolus hic Mosem secutus, non de gratia, sed de ultione dei loquitur. Corn. A lap. may quench, or moderate; but the ex­ecution of Gods just severity, which shall alwayes burn in an equall flame. And indeed, what can the damned pro­duce to mitigate or divert Gods wrath? Alas! neither their tears, nor their blasphemies, nor their cries can do it; all these are but the echoes of divine justice: Nothing but the bloud of Christ can allay this heat, and that fountain is dry to the dead sinner, that is cast upon eternity. No, surely Gods indignation as it is just, so it shall be ever full, nor shall eter­nity [Page 55] wast or spill one drop of the Vials of his wrath. Here indeed God Jer. 18. 8. makes frequent promises upon repen­tance Ezek. 33. 14. of turning away from his wrath, and laying aside his rod, but in eternity God shall whip the damned with Scorpions for ever, nor shall one sparke of his anger be quenched by multiplyed durations; there shall be no waste in his incensed, yet just fury.

CHAP. VII.

Concl. 7 Mans eternall condition admits of no future hopes or expe­ctations.

ETernity confines all the hopes both of the blessed and the re­probate: there is then an end of all the expectations of man. Here indeed the faith of a believer swels, [Page 56] and the sailes of hope are filled with future expectations of greater promo­tions Heb. 11. 25, 26. and blessednesse, having an eye to the recompence of reward. Nay of­tentimes 1 Cor. 15. 19. Meditation is sweetned, when enlarged in the thoughts of those transcendent possessions which shall crown eternity. How doth a believer here often pleasingly compute his riches he shall enjoy in the immedi­ate vision, and perpetuall smile of God? Nay, the very formall professour is raised and elevated in the hopes of future, although but fancied, glory. But eternity is the nil ultra, the stop of all expectation; the end and period of the souls anhelations. And this will appear more clearly, if we divide eternity into its usuall du­plicity.

For the hopes of the blessed they shall all run out in eternity.

1. 1 Because they enjoy all the end of their hopes; the fruit and issue of all their prayers, tears, sighs, and pa­tient Heb. 11. 13. expectations. After Jobs change there was an end of all his waiting. Job 14 14. Heaven is such an harbour, as will satisfie to the full all the curious in­quisitions, [Page 57] the fervent supplications, the vast, high, and boundlesse compu­tations of the Saints. It containes quicquid desiderabile, quicquid optabile, quiquid amabile, whatever is desirable, appetible, or lovely. Whatever was comprised in the large circuits of the Saints hopes, or fell within the tra­vailes of their most ambitious thoughts, is to be found in glory. There the glorified believers shall rejoyce in the supernumerary accomplish­ments of all the desires. Jacob said it is Gen. 45. 28. enough; I shall see Joseph before I die; but the glorified Saint shall say, it is 2 Cor. 12. 9. enough, I shall see God, and never die, Grace is sufficient, but glory is super­abundant. In eternity the Saint shall enjoy whatever his eye can glance at; there shall be a plenary satisfaction of all his hopes, of all the pantings and breathings of his soul.

2 There shall be no future or further expectation in the eternity of the blessed, because they have arrived at perfection; and to look for any thing beyond perfection is a vain contra­diction; if it could be surpassed and outvied, it were no longer perfection, [Page 58] but imperfection: what may be bet­ter'd, Perfectum est cui nihil addi potest. Arist. and cast into a nobler form, fals short of perfection. Now the Saints in glory enjoy a double perfection.

1. A perfection in their persons: They are perfect in all purity, holi­nesse, and unspotted transcendency, their beings are refulgent, with all rich and rare enoblements, in all excellent capacities; their natures shall shine with the diamonds of perfection, (as I may so say). And

2. A perfection of inheritance, the fulnesse of possession; and therefore 2 Tim. 4. 8. heaven is alwayes represented by the Luk. 12. 32. most sublime enjoyments. A Crown, Joh. 3. 16. a Kingdome, life, a throne. Now per­fection Rev. 3. 21. that is the bound and bank to As they said of Cyrus, Satia te sanguine Cyre: So I may say, Satia te gloria Sancte. limit all expectation. Our desires can­not sail beyond the pillar of perfection: Nor fly above an [...], the top: the fir­mament confines the eye of the body; and heaven the ambition of the soul.

3 And thirdly, There can be no fur­ther hopes in the blesseds eternity; because the Saints in eternity enjoy God immediately; which is, Summum bonum in summo gradu, the chiefest good in the highest degree: God is compre­hensively [Page 59] all inconceivable good. As the Sun containes more light, gradu eminentiori, in a more eminent degree and consideration, then all the candles in the world, when lighted. The beatificall vision is not all happinesse epitomized, but enlarged in the most incomprehensible latitudes. And when the Saints shall come to enjoy a free and full sight of God, without the interposure of cloud or curtain; then shall they say, as the Queen of Sheba concerning Solomons glory, 1 King. 10. 7. Behold, the one halfe was not told me. All the expectations of the glorified ones shall be swallowed up in inex­pressible admirations. How sweet those glorious intuitions shall be, that the Saints shall enjoy in heaven; our most vast conceptions are not able to comprehend; God being essentially whatever deserves the name of good. And I need not by way of amplifica­tion of the Argument, make mention of that glory, that the humane nature of Christ shall shine in, and how plea­sing that pretious sight will be to the redeemed ones, when arrived at the heavenly countrey. And therefore to [Page 60] look for further happinesse, is a sole­cisme in a blessed eternity.

2 And as eternity shall confine the hopes of the Saints, so it shall bury all expectations of the sinner. Hell shall be the grave of all the reprobates hopes. Here indeed all hope was not smoothered and evaporated; they had a reconcileable God. Gods bowels 2 Cor. 5. 19. were not totally restrained, but repen­tance might have enlarged them, the treasury-door of mercy and grace was not lockt up, but faith could have opened it, and the oyle of grace might have procured the oyle of gladnesse; and there was still a blanck in the lease for the sinners name to be put in upon conversion to God. Mat. 25. 1. But in the eternity of the damned, every door of hope is shut and lockt up, and all expectation of change or compassi­on shall be silenced. All longing for, or looking after, either

1. A totall extinction of the re­membrance of them that ever there were such caytiffes in the World might cease. Or

2. A releasment from their tortu­ring extremities. Or

[Page 61] 3. An advancement to happinesse, and change of the wrack into a throne. I say all these hopes shall cease and evaporate in the damneds eterni­ty. Nay further, the reprobates carnall hopes, which was their pleurisie here, and with which they were so elevated and rejoyced, their hopes of pleasure and profit; All their sinfull hopes, that cursed tympa­ny they did swell with here; their hopes to satisfie their lusts, the titilla­tion of their sinfull hearts: nay, all their formall hopes, that Christ would not blast a professed Christian, shall all die and fade in their eternity. And the damned shall be overwhelmed with cursed desperation, as full of torment, as void of comfort and hope for evermore; the wretched despaire of Judas, being the monster his exul­cerate conscience brought forth, was but a sad embleme of the Reprobates condition in eternity, when they shall lie in an hopelesse, helplesse, endlesse, easelesse condition of extre­mity to all everlasting. And it must be so,

1 Because the Reprobate never had [Page 62] any true hope, or rationall expecta­tion in this life. Indeed happily they were inflated with presumption here; and their hearts were deluded into a vain dream of future glory: but their soules were never winged with true hope, it may be with the blaze of hope, but not with the grace of hope. They never were raised with the Heb. 11. 1. expectation of faith; and the reason is, because they never had any interesse in Christ, which is objective, objective­ly the summe of all true hopes. Nor Col. 1. 27. was their hope fastned to, or fixed upon a promise; for they had no title to a Gospell-promise. Indeed all the hopes and expectations of a sinner here; they are but the ebullitions of fancy: an anchor in the water; both uselesse, and ridiculous. And if their hopes were but counterfeit coyne, and alchymie expectation here, what shall their hopes be in mise­rable eternity, when they shall be out of sight of the land of pro­mise?

2 And what should be a ground to the damned of hope?

1. The greatnesse of their torment; [Page 63] this is but commensurate to regular justice; their inexpressible miseries are but the execution of Gods justice, which is essentiall to the divine nature; and which after this life is inexorable; the very miseries of the reprobate shall be the glory of Gods righteous seve­rity, and the very flames of hell (as I may say) shall cast a light on divine justice; Gods compassions in eternity are seal'd up to reprobate ones. Or

2. Shall the duration of their tor­ments fill the reprobate with hope? Alas! every sin they have committed, deserves eternall calamity; and that propter infinitam Majestatem offensam, be­cause of an infinite Majesty offended: For sin being infinite ratione objecti, in reference to the object, the person incensed, and because no punishment can be adequate to the deserving of sin in the greatnesse of it: For how can a finite creature undergoe an infinite wrath? what is abated in greatnesse, shall be made up in the duration of the punish­ment. So that the duration of misery shall be no argument to suggest the least hopes to the damned; for eternall pain shall be proportionate to divine [Page 64] justice. So that hope, the last comforter of a wicked man, shall leave him in eter­nity; and everlasting despaire shall be as an ever corroding worme to him. The Prophet Daniel speakes of an Angell coming down from heaven, and saying, Hew the tree down and destroy it, cut off Dan. 4. 23. her boughs, shake off her leaves, and scatter her fruit abroad, yet leave the stumpe of the roots thereof in the earth: Upon which words, Ambrose descants elegantly, saying, the leaves and the fruit are shaken off, but the root is pre­served; that is, delights are taken from us here, and punishments are inflicted upon us; but yet hope is not taken a­way from us, the roote is preserved, hope remaines; but in hell it hath no Prov. 13. 12. rooting, there is no ground, no argu­ment, Mat. 4. 1. no object, no dawning or comfort of hope there; but the damned shall be ever giving up the ghost in the extre­mity of torment, and yet never die, or be coffin'd in insensible oblivion.

CHAP. VIII.

Concl. 8 Mans eternall condition admits of no service or performance of duty.

ALL our working is here, there is no working in eternity; our taske is here; our tale of Joh. 9. 3. brickes here: no sweating in our fu­ture condition. All our duties are ei­ther active or passive, acting or suffer­ing for God: now both these shall cease in eternity; Prayer shall cease, and hearing have an end; and suffer­ing reproach for Christ; the Saints quotidian Martyrdomes, shall be swal­lowed up in eternity. All the sighs, and weeping duties of Gods people, which with so much fervency and se­cresie have been acted, shall expire when the Saints shall be cast upon the shoare of eternity. Their holy ejacu­lations, and sweet contemplations, [Page 66] their summoning themselves to the bar of conscience; their communing with their own hearts; those conflicts and rugged contests with their irregular corruptions, those pious groanes, and bitter teares, those pretious expressions of wrath against themselves, shall all have an end in eternity; their closet moanes, and dovelike lamentations, for the losse of their mate, the Lord Jesus Cant 3. 1, 2. Christ; their criticall observations of Gods outgoings in his providence, and their frugall improvements of time; their extractions of good from the bitterness of afflictions, that holy Chy­mistry which the Saints are artists in; those pious artifices and rare strata­gems which believers often use for the repelling and undermining of temptation; and those criticall and curious observances of the severall and mysterious workings, windings, and waverings of their own hearts; their agonies and trembling sweats, lest they should fall into the ambu­scado of sin: All these and more shall be as a cloud dissolved into a showre of glory. Eternity is incapable of these services.

And on the contrary; all the dis­sembled and hypocriticall duties of wicked men, their Ahabs fasting, and Herods hearing, and Pharisaicall pray­ing; their formall approaches to ordi­nances; their fluent Rhetorick, and rich eloquence, with which their dis­courses are oftentimes fill'd, and glossed, about the concernments of Christ, glorious times, and unwonted Gospell-discoveries, and manifestati­ons; their frothy duties so dexterously embroydered with elegancy and hy­pocrisie, to cover and cloud their secret and internall impieties; and which are only acted to be the Arras hang­ings before their cursed designes; All these shall evaporate and cease in eter­nity. The formalists teares, and pre­tended heart-melting, commenced only to be the unhappy harbingers of some sinfull policy, or to captivate the opinion of the vulgar, and uncircum­spect generation; their Jehues zeal, and Jerebels fast; all their misguided charity, and vainglorious almes; their extrinsecall duties, those blazing Co­mets of their profession, shall all fall, and be swallowed up in eternity; and [Page 68] the remembrance of them, but only as they are the reflexion of guilt, shall cease for ever. Now to divide this par­ticular according to the usuall method.

1. 1 There cannot be any perfor­mance of duty in the eternity of the blessed.

Because, Duty is via ad regnum, the way to the Kingdome: It is sweat in the vineyard. It is motus ad finem, a ten­dency to the end; and while we are in Bona opera sunt via ad regnum, etsi non causa regnandi. service, we are still in motion, on this side rest. All duty hath an eye to reward. Prayer and Meditation are but their rowing towards heaven; but heaven is the reward its self: while we are upon the sea of Ordinances and Rev. 3. 21. Duties, we are not come to the shoare: but heaven is a place of wages, not worke; the wearing of the crown, not the bearing of the crosse. Here is 2 Tim. 4. 8. pugna, the fight; but above victoria, the conquest. Indeed the sweetest duties, and the most intimate, even close com­munion with God, is but the rise to the crown, but heaven is the crown it selfe. Ordinances and Duties are but the soules flight to glory, but heaven is the habitation of happi­nesse.

2 In all Duty there is imperfecti­on, aliquid infectivum, & aliquid defectivum; something polluted, and something de­fective. Our most sublime and spirituall Luk. 17. 10. duties are not wound up to command. They are all tainted with dispropor­tion to the rule. As the Moon it shines in a lower chamber inferiour to the Sun. And not only so, but our choy­sest Isa. 64. 6. services are beleapered with many spots; like the Moon in this regard too. But in heaven there is all purity, all fulnesse, all perfection. No inade­quatenesse or disproportion; no taint or pollution inhabits glory; and therefore duties are obsolete in eterni­ty. Heaven shuts out anomalies, and mutilated performances. It is true, here, the Saints double-refined duties are sent up to heaven with a gale of complaning sighs, but that such winds should blow in glory, is an absolute inconsistency.

3 All our duties and services, they are still looking upon God, e longinquo, a far off. They look on God at a dis­stance. Prayer looks up to a Majesty above; and hearing receives a disco­very from the Court above. All our [Page 70] duties are but traffique with heaven. But now in the eternity of the blessed, 1 Cor. 13. 12. the Saint lies in the embraces of God, hath him in his eye, in his full posses­sion: All our performances here, as emblems of subjection, look on God in a perspective, they are prostrations before a Majesty above. There is the distance of heaven between the smiling God, and the praying Saint; and though he stand on tiptoe on the mountain of meditation, yet God is infinitely above him. Indead in duty the soul is Heb. 10. 22. said to draw nigh to God, yet still there is a curtain between God and it, which death can only draw, and a vail which only the dissolution of the believer can take away. But in glory there shall be the clearest vision, the highest, and entirest fruition, without the interposure of darknesse or di­stance. And there all the applications of the Saints shall be inhanced into a beatificall vision.

4 All our duties and services imply a want and exigency. Prayer waites a return, and is the souls trade to heaven, for some commodity that is lockt up in Gods treasury. Nay [Page 71] when returnes do come, then new wants are created. Our dayly bread cals for dayly prayers. Every day sup­plyeth prayer with new matter of petition. But in eternity all wants are swallowed up in transcendent abundance: there shall be torrents of delight, and satisfaction, as the Ori­ginall [...] hath it, Rivers of pleasure, ful­nesse of joy, this is the language of Psal. 36. 9. heaven. And so likewise Sermons, Hearing, Meditation, they all imply a duskishnesse in the understanding; and that the scales of ignorance are not fallen from the eye of the mind. But there shall be in heaven a fulnesse of knowledge, as well as of joy; and the minde shall be as full of light, as the heart of joy.

5 All duties and services are to be re­gulated by precepts, and winged by promises; precepts must guide, and Isa. 8. 20. promises bribe duty. All our servi­ces are directed by the line of a Com­mand, Jer. 4. 14. and incouraged by the love of a promise. But in the eternity of the Saints, both precepts and promises cease; for in glory there can be no irregularity, and therefore no need of [Page 72] a precept; and all promises are turn'd into accomplishment. Commands they are the rules of unbridled nature; but they are superfluous to nature, per­fected in glory: to turn to God, wash our hearts, bath our selves in peniten­tiall tears; these are anomalies and absurdities in eternity. Promises they are spurs to sluggish nature: but to the Saint glorified, they are superva­caneous incentives. God in glory shall be in stead both of precept and pro­mise; he shall then guide us by his eye, not his scepter; and shall give us himself, not his bond in a way of promise. All rudiments and discipline shall be outdated in hea­ven.

And so likewise there shall be no performance of service or duty in the eternity of the damned. For▪

1 There is no reward for duty in hell, and therefore no duty; every duty eyes its compensation, though not ratione meriti, by the claime of merit; yet ratione promissi, in reference to the Psal. 50. 15. promise of God. And now if Esau Heb. 12. 17. cannot get the blessing if he seek it with teares here, what shall he do when [Page 73] death hath let down the trap door of eternity upon him? Promises which make the believer heavens creditour, all cease in the bottomlesse pit. And the cries of the damned, shall neither procure ease, or liberty; and their bitter lamentations shall returne upon them unpitied, there shall be no re­ward for all their moans; God hath seal'd up the sentence of death unto them, and it is irreversible. Now as Philos. speaks, Ʋbi cessat finis, cessant media, where the end ceaseth, all means cease; the reward of duty failing, there can be no service; the smile and command of God, the supplies and happinesse of the soul which are the great incentives to duty, are all obsolete and impossible in miserable eternity. God shall not illuminate Psal. 4. 6. hells darknesse with the light of his countenance. And therefore all ado­rations and services shall be a dreame in endlesse misery. Doest thou think wretched sinner, that when thou art swallowed up in eternall flames, thou shalt then repent, believe, wrestle with God in prayer, open thy condition to the Lord? shalt thou then with [Page 74] an inundation of teares, and an heart covered with mourning and sables flie to the armes of free grace, and as a prisoner by pleading guilty sue out thy pardon? No surely, God will not hear, nor answer, nor pity the soul lodged in flames. And all such services Mat. 25. 41. shall in the eternity of the wicked be buried in silence.

2 There is no such thing as duty in eternall calamity, in reference to the nature of it: for the cries, tears, com­plaints Joh. 9. 3. of the damned, deserve not the name or title of repentance and prayer. There is nothing of duty in Dives his Luk. 16. 24. petition; the tears of the damned shall be only the exertions, and ebullitions of torment; the fruit of their misery, not their love. It is their pain, not their pie [...]y; the horrour, not the dictate of their conscience suggests these moans; the damned abhorre duty more in hell, then they did upon earth. There is no faith, no melting of soul, no fixed hope in all their lamentations: and their violent importunities shall evi­dence their calamity, but not their duty; their most fervent prayers are but ficti­tious services; and the fires of hell, [Page 75] not the fire of zeal shall inflame their supplications; Nothing in the eternity of the wicked can be called duty.

3 Hell is no place for duty; Who can look for services to God, among the cries, scritches and extremities of the damned? Can any ordinate service, befitting the great God, be found there? the tortured frenzie of the reprobate how incapable of service? what me­thodiz'd prayer can a wrackt miscreant produce? Our diseases, and bodily torments here in this life, how do they stifle and smoother the duties of the patient; and turn the Saint into a frantick distemper? and what shall the infernall fires do? the gout, stone, strangury, how doe they inarticulate, and so shatter the services of Gods people here, that they all seem to be a distemper'd passion, and passionate mad­nesse? and therefore thinke not thou painted hypocrite thou shalt flow in thy usuall elegancy, when thou lyest on the wrack of eternall calamity. No, all the complaints of the damned, shall be fury, not fealty.

4 In the eternity of the wicked, there [Page 76] is no object of duty; God is the judge, not the father of the damned. God as reconcileable, and in the notion of a compassionate father, is the object of all duty; but he shall not be found in that notion to the caitiffe reprobates, Contemplation it implies a sweetnesse. Psal. 104. 34. Prayer begins with Our Father. Hearing supposes the discovery of our fathers will. And so all duties and perfor­mances wait on God in expectation of favour, answer, and indulgence; and so duty is cald communion with God: but after death God shall be to Psal. 63 2. the wicked a severe, inexplorable and implacable judge. And all the cries which the damned make are to God as their tormentour, not their Soveraign. They would cry as much to Satan, would he burne with a cold iron. Here indeed God is easily to be in­treated, but hereafter never to be en­treated; so that there is no object of duty in the damneds eternity. God sits, as to them, no more in the throne of grace, but in the judge­ment seat; he shall shine forth no more Psal. 80. 1. between the Cherubims; but break out 2 Thess. 1. 8. in flaming fire, in perpetuall vengeance and executions.

But here it may be replied,

1. Object. 1 Are not the Hallelujahs of the Saints in glory Duty and Ser­vice?

Answ. 1 It is answered, No.

They are the resultancies of ser­vice, not the performance; the rest at night is sweet because of the labour. They are as the honey after the toyle of the working Bee. They are the re­wards of service. Those holy re­joycings, they are but part of the glory, the Saints are crowned with. They are the pure vent, and sweet overflowing of their love to God, that then they shall be fill'd with. These Hallelu­jahs shall be the unlading of their af­fections.

They are triumph, not service; the [...]. souls everlasting ovation; there is nothing of toyle in those holy gra­tulations. They are the triumphant Rev. 4. 11. song, the musicke, the jubiles of the glorified ones. Cantus coronatus, crown'd harmony; these blessed praises are but the Saints wedding day.

3 These Hallelujahs of the Church triumphant proceed not so much from [Page 78] an enforcement of duty, as that beati­ficall vision. They are the ravisht acknowledgment of heavens Cour­tiers; the blessed sight of God extracts these pretious collaudations. The Lord saith, Exod. 33. 20. No man shall see me, and live: by reason of mans weaknesse, and sinfulnesse. But in heaven the sight of God shall not only be the fountain of life; but shall spring a vein of eter­nall praises and hallelujahs.

Object. 2 But seeing the Majesty and great­nesse of God is the same in heaven to the Saints, as it was on earth, why are not the Saints as full of service and humility?

Answ. 1 Now Majesty is sweetned into fami­liarity, and the Saints are now truly Kings and Priests advanced into a glo­rious Rev. 1. 6. dignity; and now God appeares purely as a father. No longer as a God among his creatures which resembles soveraignty and subjection; but as a father among his children. So that now duty is transformed into delight, and service is changed into satisfacti­on. God in heaven fits in his throne, not in his tribunall to his Saints, and so there shall be an unclouded familiarity. 1 Cor. 13. 12.

2 In glory the Lord shall not so much appear as a great God, as a great be­nefactour; great in his largesses, he shall be lovely in his bounty: all his attributes shall be remunerative. Ob­serve that rare place, 2 Tim. 4. 8. which [...], the righteous judge shall give. Even Gods justice shall be open handed, and overflow in donations. Indeed the Majesty of God in heaven shall not be abated, but more communicated. Moses was called Gods friend here: what shall Exod. 33. 11. he be in heaven, when his Majesty shall be seen unveyled?

CHAP. IX.

Concl. 9 Mans eternall condition admits of no waste or diminu­tion.

AND here lies the great riddle of eternity, that time never wasts (I say time, though it be an improper locution, there being no time in eternity) and that after millions of ages are past over, there is not the thousandth part of a moment spent; When there are as many cen­turies and ages spent, as there are drops in the Ocean, or starres in the hea­ven, or haires upon all the heads that are, or have been in the world since the Creation; yet then there is not one flying moment blown over; the taper of eternity spends not, nor doth duration shed or fade at all. As the Psalmist speaks of the Eagle, it renewes Psal. 103. 6. its strength; so there is a perpetuall [Page 81] renovation in eternity. One flying moment generates another. As the Sea is alwayes full of water, though the waves passe away. After the damned Mar. 9. 46. 48. have tumbled on flames a tedious night of ages, it is as far from morning, as the first moment. Could we sum up all those years which those Patriarchs of old spent, mentioned in the 5. of Genesis; when their lives were stretcht out to so many centuries; and their glasse was so long in running, and hoary age so slowly seized upon them; I say, could we digest so many thou­sand years into one totall sum: nay, Est enim aeter­nitas duratio quaedam perma­nens, & uni­cum nunc stans, & nunquam fluens. Cabrea. in Thomam. and cast in the time of all their poste­rities lives into the computation: yet this totall sum would be a cypher in eternity; when so many ages are elapsed, eternity is yet to spend, the clock hath not struck one hour. And let not the fond sinner, who is inebri­ated with the soft effeminacies, and dalliances of the world, imagine his future miseries, shall be as fleet as his downy pleasures here. Nay, eternity in this is like the Sun, that weares not out, nor wasts its substance by all its swift and constant travaile. Time [Page 82] sheds not (I say time for explications sake) nor failes in our everlasting condition; nor shall wrinckles ever sur­prise the face of eternity: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that holy triumvirate, are at this day in the spring of their sublime beatitude; nor shall their glory be blasted with the fear of an Autumne. In a word, eternity cannot be lessen'd, nor curtaild by the longest tracts, or circuits of duration. Time it self in e­ternity, is a pure anomaly. I say time, which is the Genus of moments, dayes, houres, years, those winged parcels of duration, is obsolete, and a cypher in our everlasting estate.

And there can be no diminution in the eternity of the blessed.

1 This would be an eclipse to their glory, that their joyes passe away, and their consummative happinesse should be capable of a waste: the Suns beauteous light, though it be recrea­tive, and refresh the earths inhabitants, yet as posting towards night, and being capable of declining, it leaves a dampe in the worlds joy. Could the Saints say so much of their happinesse was blown over, it would cloud their [Page 83] felicities with trouble and murmura­tion. It would be the wombe of grief, and leaven glory with sorrow. In Luke 20. 36. Christ saith, the glori­fied Saints shall be equall to the Angels; and those blessed Spirits, viz. the An­gels, never stained themselves with any crime, which might depopulate or waste, their happinesse. And in­deed, heaven it self must be hung with mourning, could the rivers of the Saints pleasures be capable of ebbing. Psal. 36. 8. This shall be Dives his misery in hell, to thinke of his past delicacies, and with a sad recordation to review the pleasant banquets that are now blown over. And now no sorrow shall veil glory, or benight heaven; no grief shall thrust into the Brides-chamber; nor shall any trouble Mat. 01. 52. overshadow the everlasting festivall of the glorified ones: Gods smile shall dry up all teares there. Rev. 7. 17. Nei­ther shall the Sun light on them, nor any heat: loco prius citato: the Saints shall not be interrupted by the overkind embraces of a warming Sun: the morn­ing of glory shall not spend; there shall be a fountain of happinesse, and [Page 84] Gods presence shall be a spring to this fountain. So there can be no waste in the Saints eternity.

2 All time wastes and spends accor­ding to the motion of the Sun. Its rising denominates the morning; its setting gives name to the evening; and its circuite includes the space of a year in its circumference; so that time flies after the chariot of the Sun, whose setting is the index of the transient hours. But now God himself shall be in stead of a Sun to his Saints in glory, Rev. 21. 23. And the City had no Isa. 60. 19. need of the Sun, nor of the Moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lambe is the light thereof. I say God, in whom there is no shadow of change. There is no rising or setting, Jam. 1. 17. Caelum lumine long [...] illustriore fulgebit, luce increata, Ma­jestate dei im­mensa illustrabi­tur. Par. no oblique, or perpendicular beams in the divine Sun: the immediate presence and glory of God, shall be an everlasting noon-day. And this na­turall Sun at the resurrection shall either, as some suppose, as a taper, be put out in the socket of the uni­versall conflagration; or else, as others conceive, be turned into a more glorious luminary; analogicall to that [Page 85] of the Prophet Isa. 30. 26., yet not to amplifie, but attend on the Saints glory; Gods pre­sence being universall happinesse. Now the Sun being the gnomon of time, that being removed from its office in e­ternity; time can suffer no lapse or waste.

3 Could there be a waste in the eter­nity of the Saints, there would be at last a conclusion. The Summers day is overtaken with the shadowes of the night, and its splendor is entombed in the grave of darknesse: the longest Gen. 5. 27. ages of men have at last been coffin'd in death and dissolution; and so there would be end of, were there a waste in the Saints eternity: but eternity ad­mits no conclusion, as shall be fully shewed hereafter.

And there shall be no waste or di­minution in the eternity of the dam­ned; their time of execution shall not flie away; their suffering spaces shall be ever filled up, and never slide a­way or wear out. And it must be so: For.

1 This would be reliefe to the damned, that they have past so many ages in the burning oyle and scalding lead, and devouring worme; that some [Page 86] sparkes of their misery were blown over: It is some consolation to the shipwrackt mariner, that the barke is slipt off from the rock, though he be cast upon a tempestuous Ocean. As 1 Sam. 15. 32. the spruce Amalekite rejoyced, the bitternesse of death was over, though suddenly he was massacred by an un­expected slaughter. It would be some relaxation to the tormented, if they could be so happy in their Arithme­tick, as to reckon by the rule of sub­straction, so many miseries are broak through and gone; if they could say, totidem poenae, so many extremities are overpast. What ease is it to the tortu­red patient, when the fit is over, not only that the disease is not still in the same rage; but so many throwes, of intolerable pain, are past and fled a­way. But alas! there shall not the least shadow of comfort cool the flaming reprobate, nothing that may be entitled or denominated relief. No mixture of ease, no arguments of comfort, no consideration that may tast of satisfaction, shall allay the damneds extremity. Could any inter­posure of contentment be found in [Page 87] hell, hell it self would lose its nature; Luk. 16. 25. No time illapses, or torment flies away, but both multiply, as fast as spend, in miserable eternity.

2 The eternity of the damned is co­existent with Gods wrath, and that shall not waste: So Isa. 33. The wrath of God like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it: It is, ira dei, qui est aete [...]nus, the wrath of God, who is eternall. And it is a stream, not a flood, not a transient and sudden inundation, but a continued and constant current. So there shall be no waste in Gods wrath; but that shall be a flame his justice shall be alwayes feeding. And the damneds beings shall be stretcht out to Gods indignation, which is inextinguishable fire. Misery and duration shall no more die to the reprobate, then wrath shall die in God, or malice in Satan. Thinke not presumptuous sinner, when thou shalt fall upon the doome of a wo­full eternity, that thy tedious ages of imprisonment, and execution shall abate the tale of thy future (though future be an unknown phrase in eternity) calamity: No certainly, the flames shall scorch as much, the [Page 88] pincers burne as hot, conscience corrode as deeply, Gods wrath breake out as severely, after the passage of millions of ages, as the first moment of thy dolefull execu­tion.

3 There shall be no waste in the re­probates eternity; for eternity shall be commensurate to their sin, which shall be without diminution. For we must conceive, that the damned carry all their sinfull inclinatious to hell with them, all their corrupt, and abominable propensions; their hearts as full of gall and rancor; their speeches as full of blasphemy, their sins boyle up to as great an height, nay greater in hell, then here below: as we see some prisoners, rave more at the place of execution, then when lockt up in the uncom­fortable dungeon: the reprobates shall sink Hacket in the reign of Q. Eli­zabeth. into their everlasting condition, more envenomed, and impostumated with villanous, and rancorous prin­ciples, with more bloudy and male­volent disposition, then when they were tenants to the world. And therefore as there shall be no spend­ing [Page 89] and diminution of sin, so neither of time; as their rebellion shall not waste, so neither shall their durati­tion fade; they could sinne here indefatigably, with an unwearied carriere, much more in hell; especi­ally these 3. things being weighed in the balance.

1. In hell there shall be no ex­amples of piety. No pictures of a godly father to checke an exorbitant son. No radiant grace of a famous preacher, pretious believer, pious Martyr, to dash the countenance, and bridle the insolency of an auda­cious miscreant, and as the bright­nesse of Moses his face to fetter the Josh. 24. 15, 16. enormous sinner with astonishment. Exod. 30. 30. But in hell there is universall hor­rour and blasphemy, nothing but a diabolicall concurrency of wickednesse and provocation, and sin shall ever be in the feaver in the eternity of the reprobate.

2. In eternity there is no means of piety; all ordinances cease there, the sun-shine of the Gospell shall not visit the coast of the reprobates eter­nity. And although the Gospell, [Page 90] Rev. 14. 6. be cald an everlasting Gospell, yet this doth not import the use of the Gospell, but the fruit of it; the dispensations of it here, Ejus authori­tatem, effectum, & constanti­am asseret, Par. in loc. were of everlasting concernment; its converts shall be crowned with ever­lasting glory, and its enemies wrackt with everlasting torment: But all the offers and overtures of the Gospell shall cease and be at an end in eternity; and the tormented repro­bate shall have no pretious promi­ses to melt him, righteous commands to guide him, severe threats to restrain him, faithfull Ministery to convert him, or holy communion to refresh him; all these fruits of Gospell love, shall be to the damned buryed in eter­nall silence: therefore sin cannot be abated in everlasting misery: Let Dives his frustraneous prayer give Luk. 16. 24, 25. verdict for the whole body of Gospel-exercise. And

3. In hell there shall be no shame for impiety: sinners shall not see Gen. 3. 7. their own nakednesse; but sin and blasphemy shall cover them as a gar­ment, hell shall be the stewes of wick­ednesse, as well as the prison of mi­sery. [Page 91] So that to close up this con­clusion; as the carriere and violence of sin, not abating, neither shall the terme or time of torment passe away in the reprobates eternity.

CHAP. X.

Concl. 10 Mans eternall condition admits of no mixture or modera­tion.

ALL things in eternity are in the superlative degree: Every thing is scrued up to the highest. No blended joyes in heaven, joyes dampt with tears; nor mitigated miseries in hell: when the joyes of heaven are described, how gloriously are they represented, 1 Cor. 2. 9. In heaven there shall be joy in its [...], its height, 1 Joh. 3. 2. in its fulnesse, and musick of glory in Isa. 64. 4. its sweetest harmony. Moderation here, [Page 92] is a vertue, in eternity it is an ano­maly, a meer impossibility. The hap­pinesse Quid quaeris ut ascendat in lin­guam, quod in cor non ascen­dit? Aug. in Psal. 85. of the Saints shall be as the Sun at noon-day, in its most sublime ascent. The beatificall vision can be no moderate or ordinary possessi­on, but joy in its ravishment, felicity in its glory. Perfection is the perpe­tuall signe in heaven. And so the mi­series of hell, are fire in its hottest in­flamations; no slak't or allayed flames. Here indeed David may sing, Psal. 101. 1. and we may feel mercy and judgment; we may observe black and white pro­vidences, the face of providence some­times looks pleasant with a smile, and sometimes clouded with a frowne, mixt together, the heat of indignati­on allayed with the waters of com­passion: but in heaven there is mercy, no judgement, and in hell judgement, no mercy. In eternity there is no blending by a composition of contra­rieties. Here is correction in judge­ment, Jer. 10. 24. afflictions weighed in the scales of pity, and commise­ration; but in the eternity of the reprobate there is judgement, no correction, pure flames of wrath, [Page 93] as Philos. speak, fire and heat, ad octo. Cogita homo, quoslibet mundi cruciatus, quas (que) secu­li poenas, intende animo, quos (que) tormen­torum dolores, quascun (que) dolo­rum acerbita­tes, compara hoc totum ge­hennae, & leve. Isid. Eternity is the wombe of extremity, either of delight in transcendency, or sorrow in extremity. The felicities of the blessed shall be alwayes in a full Sea, and the fit of the damneds paine shall be alwayes upon them in the greatest misery; the Saints happinesse shall be incomparable, and the sinners agonies shall be intolerable. Every thing in eternity, whether possession, or execution shall be stretcht out, and wound up to its superlative ca­pacity. De poenis ex­cogitari non potest, quod ibi non erit. Orig. All things shall be boyld up to the height. And it must be so. For there can be no mixture or mean in the eternity of the Saints.

1 It is inconsistent with the price of Christs bloud, which hath purchased the revenues of the Saints eternall happinesse; shall the bloud of him that is [...], God as well as man, procure or purchase an indif­ferent or mixt happinesse, glory that may be overmatcht, or that may be raised to an higher enjoyment? how would this stain the royalty of Christs bloud? Shall so few, (that is) compa­ratively, enjoy the Phaenix-glory [Page 94] that shall arise from the ashes of Christs sufferings, and shall that reve­nue be ordinary? or indeed capable of being surpassed? A moderate pos­session is not proportionate to Christs bleeding passion. Could we compute what the riches of his merits are; or how much value is contained in one groane of him, who was innocency it selfe; we might easily collect how su­perlative the joyes of the Saints must be, which flow from the fountain of Christs merit. Let Arithmeticians cast up what one drop of Christs bloud comes to at the rate, how much the Isa. 53. 11. travell of Christs soul comprehends; and then how exploded will the opi­nion be, if any such be, of a mixt or moderate possession in glory: what felicities must that bloud purchase, which can fetch out the staine of those scarlet sinnes, by which the infinite God hath been provoked? And there­fore Isa. 1. 18. Christs purchase speaks the Saints glory Superlative.

2 And so doth the magnificence of God himself, who gives eternall life to his people. If Alexander shall boast of Rom. 6. 23. donum Alexandri, Alexanders gift, what [Page 95] do the gifts of God weigh? what massie happinesse is included in them? Heaven as it is the price of Christs bloud, so it is the fruit of Gods boun­ty, which must needs be transcendent; especially these 3. things being seri­ously perpended.

1 Heaven is Gods last gift: his fa­therly donation, the Saints inheri­tance, not their pension, but their portion, their ultimate honour. In glory God gives like himself, gives Col. 1. 12. himselfe, the summe of all beati­tudes. In eternity the Saints have what they must trust to, and that is superlatively enough. This glory is Gods consummative bounty, Luk. 12. 31. [...], the Kingdome. And God in his last gift, will not, as I may speak, crown with a silver crown, I mean one that may be bet­tered, will not give comparative hap­pinesse, that may admit of a higher degree. Not like Herod, give halfe of Mar. 6. 23. a Kingdome. Gods magnificence in­vests the Saints with superlative glory.

2 Let it be considered whom doth God install in glory, not so much [Page 96] his creatures as his children, his [...], his little flocke, such as his heart yearns after. Can transcen­dent Isa. 49. 15. affection bestow a moderate fru­ition? Surely there will be a propor­tion between the fulnesse, and the fruite of Gods love; fulnesse of love, can give no lesse then fulnesse of Joy. It is [...], the love of a father, and the affection of a God; 1 Joh. 4. 16. of a father, whose love is his nature, and of a God, who hath all treasures of bounty by him; and his love is the key to these treasuries being oyled with the bloud of Christ; so Gods relation it amplifies the superabun­dancy of the Saints eternall possession: this addes to the account.

3 The fathers promise lies upon re­cord, and inrolled for the most glo­rious promotions to the glorified Saints. Let us but traverse that one text, Isa. 53. 11. He shall see the travell of his soul, and be satisfied. Ah, remem­ber the word, satisfied; what can satisfie the love of Jesus Christ to his Saints, but most transcendent glory? to those believers who are the re­deemed by his bloud, the birth of [Page 97] his travell; nay, and the travell of his soul, the agonies and sweats of his soul: [...] the Saints were born with the soarest travell, and therefore shall be crowned with sweetest felicitie: according to that Joh. 17. 24. That where I am, they may be also: As it were, installed in the same Coronation, according to Christs one phrase, Rev. 3. 21. in the same throne with himself. The very promises of God are assurance for transcendent glory and happinesse. God hath pawn'd his promise, his ir­reversible bond, and he will see Christ satisfied, he will abate him nothing of his agreement. Let the people of God Psal. 40. 7, 8. begin their triumphancies here, God will see their Husband satisfied for their everlasting portion and dowry.

And here can be no mixture or 3 mean in the eternity of the blessed; because they shall enjoy the close, sweet, ravishing, full, and immediate presence of God. And what more In hac vita mera calamitas, in aeterna mera felicitas. Ger. beatificall, then to see God unveil his glorious face, the open face of God? which phrase doth import these three things.

The distinct knowledge of God; we distinguish men by their faces; their countenances doth diversifie them: and we shall see God in Vita beatorum, visio, & cogni­tio beatae Trini­tatis. Hugo. glory distinctly; know him to be the great, glorious, omnipotent, infinite God. I shall not, as many do, debate the way of Gods communicating Deus videbitur in [...]gno coelorum paternaliter. Iren. himself unto us; but certain it is, we shall see him clearly and distinctly, without curtain or cloud: as the face is the characteristicall difference. We shall see him, as Irenaeus speaks, Pater­naliter, as a father is beheld by his child, with knowledge and delight. His glory shall appear to be the glory of God, infinitely above all the splendour and glory of the crea­ture, though cloathed with brightnesse and perfection.

2 This phrase implies a familiar knowledge. We shall see God in heaven, not as the Saints do, in an or­dinance Psal. 63. 2. by gratious influences and di­stillations: or as Abraham saw God, Gen. 32. 30. Gen. 18. 2. maskt in the veil of a body, as Divines speak symbolically, 1 King. 21. 19. speculo symbolico. Nor yet as Moses saw God, in his back parts; though [Page 99] that glorious vision, shed such a re­splendency on the face of Moses, as the Exod. 33. 23. Israelites could not behold the radiant Quatuor modis videmus deum; per fidem, per contemplatio­nem, per appa­ritionem, per apertam visio­nem. Biel. lustre of his countenance; but the Saints shall see God in heaven familiarly, as one friend beholds ano­ther; the Saints shall behold God in a friendly, close, and familiar way.

3 This phrase implies a pleasing and satisfactory knowledge of God; as Jacob beheld the face of Joseph his Son. He saw not his wagons only, but his Gen. 46. 2, 930. face. In eternity we shall see God not in ordinances, not by letters, as 1 Cor. 13. 12. here, but his face shall be visible to us, (i. e.) we shall see God fully, with transcendent and inexpressible satis­faction. And our Masters joy, which Mat. 25. 21. we shall inherit, shall spring from this, Angeli Sancti vino sapientiae inebriantur, dum ipsum deum facie ad faciem videntes omni voluptate satiantur spiri­tuali. Greg. M. that we see our Masters face. Now the beatificall vision, is infinitely a­bove all graduall, mixt, or ordinary possession: this is the transcendentcy of transcendency; in respect of which all excellencies and enjoyments, are but as a drop to the Ocean. And as the learned Father, This vision only can limit the vaste and compre­hensive [Page 100] desires of man, and put a Ille est finis de­sideriotum no­strorum; qui sine fine videbitur, sine fastidio a­mabitur, sine defatigatione laudabitur. Aug. de civ. dei. stop to the waves of his ambi­tion.

And there can be no mixture or moderation in the eternity of the wicked; every thing shall be super­lative, and in the extreme to them. There shall be no water in their fire, no correction in their judgement; No mercy in their misery, no propor­tion in their calamity. And it must be so,

1 In regard of Sin, which is the fountain of their misery, which is a superlative evill; could we squeese out the poyson of aspes, the venome of Serpents, and all those detested Creatures which are the abhorrency of mankind, into one draught, yet that venemous portion would yeild a pleasant tast to the bitternesse of sin. Sin is that which the Schoolmen say Ibi vidi omnia genera tormen­torum, quorum minimum majus omnibus. Hugo Victor. is totaliter malum, a comprehensive evill, that admits of no composition of good. And therefore as there is no moderation or mixture in the evill na­ture of sin; so neither in the everlasting punishment for sin. Sin is an unlimi­ted, boundlesse, and superlative evill, [Page 101] and then conceive all the reprobates Ibi dolor into­lerabilis, timor horribilis, foetor incomparabilis, & sic miseri motientur ut semper vivant, & sic vivent, ut semper morian­tur Bern. in Psal. sins digested into one lumpe, and wrapt up in one fardell; and what mode­ration can there be in hell? It is sin that is the flint from whence the fire of hell is struck; the wombe of the monstrous paine of the damned; the superlative cause of superlative misery: Extremes in moralls, breed extremity in punishment. Indeed here, in this life, God doth punish the wicked with moderated, and intermitted judg­ments; but this doth not arise from the nature of sin, which they are stained with, but this doth arise from the prevalency of Gods mercy, which here is exercised, to render the im­penitent sinner the more inexcusable; but in eternity all hopes and capaci­ties of mercy or compassion are out da­ted and obsolete.

2 In regard of the wrath of God, Nec dubium, quin ad forna­cem Babyloni­cam, Dan. cap. 3. deducamur, in­que typum oeter­ni illius ignis observemus Gerard. which shall ever be the signe and season in hell. It is a superlative flame, and there shall be wrath with­out the least mixture or allaying of mercy. One sparke of Gods wrath is hotter then Nebuchadnezzars furnace, [Page 102] were it 77. times hotter then it was. And so the Prophet, Isa. 33. 14. Who shall dwell with everlasting burnings? Burnings, not findgings, not scorchings; and burnings in the plu­rall number, and the everlasting is more terrible then the burnings. One drop of the vialls of Gods wrath, which he shall be ever powring out upon the damned, is multiplyed misery; a pullulation of calamity, insupportable anguish, and torturing perplexity. If God Orcus malorum omnium extre­mum. Plato. lay his hand upon a sinner here, either in the agonies of his mind, or wracking distempers of his body, with what fury and madnesse is he ready to turn his own executioner, and to quench his frenzie in his own bloud? Judas cannot here the scriches, Coelestis ira, quos premit, mi­seros facit. Sen. Herc. nor bear the throwes of his torment­ing conscience; but he must hasten his damnation by a self-dispatching murder. Thus if God do but powre out some drops of his indignation, and assault man primitiis irae, with the first fruits of his anger? And what then shall that wrath be which is unmixt, [Page 103] and consummate, whose flames are oyled with resolutions of shewing no further pity? and such wrath shall Rev. 19. 20. Infernus dicitur stagnum ignis, quia ut lapis mari, ita animae illic immergun­tur. Anselm. be the fuell of infernall torment; how miserable shall the caitiffe Re­probate be, when he shall be drow­ned in an Ocean of such displea­sure?

3 Moderated afflictions come from a gracious hand, from a mercifull correction, they are the souls peda­gogy, and Tutour. Oftentimes such afflictions are the looking-glasses for sin; we may see our workes in our wounds. And sometimes such gentle and milde castigations, they make sinne more nauseate and di­stastfull; when sinne seems to cor­rode and smart, being followed, and pursued by affliction. As Pharaoh Exod. 8. 8. himself distasted his own neglect to let Israel goe, being macerated with judgements. Nay sometimes miti­gated afflictions are seasonable chaines upon the offendour, to restraine Psal. 119. 6, 7. him from further wandering and gadding.

But the torments of the damned are sweetned with no gracious end, in reference to the Patient, but they proceed from a wrathfull God, whose indignation shall not be at­tempered with any bowels of mer­cy, which is a starre that shines not over the infernall house; no, but the damned shall lie in a Sea of tribulation, which shall not be corrected by one drop of compas­sion.

CHAP. XI.

Concl. 11 Mans eternall condition admits of no events or issues of Providence.

NOW to clear this propo­sition, Universalis Providentia est, qua Deus crea­turas omnes di­rigit secundum arcanum instin­ctum, quem sin­gulis in creatio­ne indidit, & ita naturae ordi­nem a se posi­tum conservat. Bucan. ye must conceive that I do not annihilate that universall providence, by which all created beings are supported in their natures, and subsistencies; for from such providentiall influxes, neither are the glorious Angels, nor the glo­rified Saints to be excluded; but they are preserved by a common susten­tation. In a word, there is a double Providence which ceaseth not for ever.

1. Providentia sustentationis, by which all created beings are sustained in their power and nature till the Almighty speak abolition, and command anni­hilation, and by which those essences [Page 106] which God hath determined for eter­nity Heb. 1. 3. Nisi deus im­pulsum suum ae­terna cura, & providentia prosequeretur, omnis natura rerum non con­sisteret. Pet. Martyr. are supported; as men and An­gels; for we must not, I say, exempt these renowned creatures from their dependence upon God; even when they shine in the most glorious sub­limities, and when illustrious in their richest excellencies: for this is an everlasting truth, That there is unum independens, one independent being, and all other beings have their totall reliance and dependence on him: and to assert the contrary is a most Ʋnum est pri­mum mobile. Arist. blasphemous reproach cast upon God himself. So that the most excellent creatures are maintained in their es­sence by the omnipotency and wisdome of God. And

2. There is Providentia operationis, a Providence of operation; by which Deum omnia qui­dem regere, nil aliud est quam rebus omnibus communem in­fluxum suppedi­tare. Pet. Mart. the Lord doth not only support, but guide and rule all created beings, ac­cording to their determinate natures; that all their actions or naturall pro­pensions shall end and issue in the glory of the Creatour. For as Divines Providentia non est nuda cog­nitio, sed effici­entia. Isid. observe, Gods providence both here, and so for ever, is not only a bare inspection of that variety he hath [Page 107] formed; but a continued and virtuall in­flux, Creatoris poten­tia, & virtus causa est subsi­stendi omni cre­aturae, quae vir­tus, si aliquando cessaret rerum creatarum cessa­ret species, & omnis natura concideret. by which the creature is enabled to move in the sphear of his own nature; for all beings would soon wither, and be dryed up, did they want the anima­tion of Gods providentiall influences. All humane actions receiving life and power from a distilled virtue of Gods universall providence; and so in hea­ven the most glorious inhabitants of it, shall be guided for ever, and main­tained in their felicity, and purity, and praises by the necessary providence of God. I make not mention of this di­vision of Gods providence, as if it argued a diversity of acts in God; and they were two distinct Provi­dences, but they are identicall and the same in God; his sustaining pro­vidence being operative, and his o­perative sustaining: but only for ex­plication sake, that we may view the varieties of the same perpetuated and eterniz'd providence; which shall not cease, while God himselfe is indepen­dent, and his nature continues; which is certainly eternall. I say, from this government, rule, and influence of Providence eternity is not freed; and [Page 108] it is impossible it should, considering the everlasting relation the creature Act. 17. 28. hath to the Creatour, the fountain of its life and being. But to pursue the present Conclusion. All events and issues of Providence shall be outdated in eternity, and Providence shall cease:

1 Ratione obscuritatis, in relation to the darknesse and obscurity of it. There shall be no mysteries of Pro­vidence in eternity. No want of prayer Ibi quicquid nos nunc latet, ma­nifestum erit. Aug. de trip. habit. for the unmasking of Providence, and the unveiling of Gods mind in his obnubilated dispensations. We shall not in eternity lie at Gods feet, and cry, Lord, what is thy meaning in Gen. 37. 11. this affliction, in this scourge, in this indulgence? what is the interpretati­on of the rods, or the roses of Pro­vidence? Providence in eternity shall Ezek. 1. 16. not be a sun in a cloud, a taper in a Quod beati hic crediderunt, ibi videbunt, sui creatoris sub­stantiam mun­dis cordibus contemplantes. Prosp. dark lanthorne. Eternity shall take away the maske from the face of Pro­vidence. We shall not turn questionists in the thoughts of God concerning us, when strange and unexpected Providences, like the Angels, Gen. 18. 1, 2. to Abraham, come to our door. [Page 109] The Saints in glory shall not turne Sceptickes, to observe the traces, Meanders, Labyrinths and bowers of Providence; but all things shall be cleare to the glorified and perfected Saint, who shall see the whole inten­tions 1 Cor. 13. 12. of God concerning Man, written in text and golden letters. In Gods O quanta felici­tas Deitatis vi­sioni inter An­gelorum choros adesse perpetuo, si tanta trans­figurata Christi humanitas duo­rumque socie­tas sanctorum ad punctum vi­sa delectat! Beda. face his mind shall be apparent: what­ever may amplifie the joy, perfect the understanding, or enrich the ap­prehensions of the glorious believer, shall be unridled to him; or else his happinesse was yet in its growth. And so the damned shall be fully ac­quainted with all the righteous, yet severe Providences concerning them; they shall now see, what Gods intent was to leave them to obduration and impenitency: when all his commands could not confine, nor his promise melt them, was it not for this, That Isa. 6. 9. their sins being ripe, they might be overwhelmed with everlasting calami­ty, and he might draw his arrowes to the head, and eternally shoote at them? Not that God delights to contrive, or bring about the ruine of his crea­ture; Ezek. 18. 23. but the damned shall see the justice, [Page 110] righteousnesse, and wisdome of God in their perpetuall executions; and they shall observe the clear designe of divine Providence in all the difficulties and abstruses of it; which they could not unravell in this life.

2 Providence shall cease ratione varie­tatis, in reference to its variety: the wheele of Providence shall not turne in eternity; the smiles and frownes of Providence shall cease, quod eundem, in reference to the same person; the upper nail shall not be lowermost. There shall be no inconstancy, flitting, and volubility in Providence. And as it is here, the Sunshines of Providence shall not be turned into a storme. Haman shall not be now in Court, and Est. 3. 1. & 7. 10. presently on the gallowes: the alter­nations and altercations of Providence shall cease. The changes, turnings, and embroydery of Providence shalll end in eternity. Providence in eternity shall not be as the Rainbow of change­able and divers colour; but it shall be a skie alwayes full of stormes or serenity; whose face is alwayes of the same complexion: The reprobates al­wayes lying under the frownes, and [Page 111] the blessed lying under the embraces of Providence.

3 Ratione disciplinae Providentiae, in re­ference to the discipline and instructi­on of Providence. The counsels of In gloria sapi­entia ex ipso fonte bibetur. Aug. Providence shall cease in eternity; those sacred suggestions which here are often pictured in the complexion of a providence, shall be at an end. Providence as a Schoolmaster shall Mic. 6. 9. cease. God here indeed makes Pro­vidence Psal. 119. 67. the Tutour of his people, and they are often bettered by doctrinall providences. God here educates his children in the School of Providence. Corrective Providences become corra­sives to their lusts, and bounteous are made incouragements to their graces. Providence is oft the bellowes of love, joy and thanksgiving, and not only cals for, but guides the exercise of the Saints graces: but in eternity provi­dentiall instructions shall be at an end. Nor shall the Saints in glory, who are arrived at perfection and incapable of miscarriage, stand in need of the gui­dance and tuition of Providence. Nor shall the damned be capable of providentiall directions, they be­ing [Page 112] past the happinesse and hopes of recovery.

4 Providence shall cease in eternity, ratione plenitudinis providentiae, in refe­rence to the accomplishments of Pro­vidence; which shall no more be as the midwife to bring forth Gods decrees; and to be the usher of Gods counsels. All the discoveries and executions of Providence shal be outdated in eternity. Providence in eternity shall not be the interpreter of Gods everlasting intentions; the womb to bring forth those determinations of God, which had their rise from eternity. Provi­dence in this life is the herald of Gods will, and denotes to us what his mind was from everlasting. Thus the Jews Act. 2. 23. and Judas conspire together in a [...]. Greg. Naz. cursed combination to deliver up our Lord Christ to death; which Pro­vidence did but explain to the world Gods eternal determination, that Christ should die for sinners, and is but the execution of Gods decree. Now exe­cutive Providence as it doth finish and unmaske the intentions of God, shall be at an end in eternity; and it shall be said of Gods decrees in [Page 113] our eternall estate, as Christ said when he was giving up the ghost, It is finished; Joh. 19. 30. so they are finshed. In a word, the Saints In futura vita, dei & divino­rum mysterio­rum perfecta cognitio succedet; tunc plene & perfecte intelligemus ea, ad quorum cla­ram intuitivam notitiam in hac vita penetrare non potuimus. Gerard. shall not fear the checkes or changes of Providence, tremble at the arrests of it; admire the quintos actus, the last acts of Providence, shall not labour to read the cypher of Providence, or take paines to trace the prints and footsteps of it; but all shall be serene and clear to a Saint in glory; all Gods decrees shall be legible in a faire Character. Providence is here oft a clouded firmament, but in eternity it shall be a clear skie. Nor shall the damned be capable of the smiles of Providence, which often here so cap­tivated the wicked, that they did pretend a title to God himself. These providentiall prizes, which often be­spangle the wicked in this life, shall cease and wear the mourning of eter­nall wrath. Nor shall the mistakes of providence finde place in eternity; Providence shall not be wrackt and tortured to speak the fancies of men, and made corrivall with, if not supe­riour to Scripture. It shall no more be the implicit faith of man, and pan­deriz'd [Page 114] to mens sinfull machinations: But all various, and uncertain issues and accomplishments of providence shall be at an end in eternity; now all providences, which are but the Alpha­bet of Gods will, must cease in our everlasting estate.

Reas. 1 Because the plot of all Providence is ended. All those interwoven, mixt, mysterious, yet efficacious Providences, which have been subservient to the conversion and happinesse of a believer in this life, they are all finisht in heaven. Manasses his prison, and the 2 Cron. 33. 12. brightnesse that shone about Paul; all Act. 9. 3, 37, 39, 40. these are consummate in glory. Josephs Providences, Peter Waldoes Providen­ces, Gen. 41. shall all have their plot in eter­nity. What God aimed at in the strange circumferences, and rare cir­cuits of Providence, for the advan­tage, and emolument of his people here, shall be all clear and visible in eternity; and the designe of all the artifices of Providence shall be eter­nized. And so those ripening provi­dences which fatten and sear the wicked for the slaughter of misery. Hamans Providences, and those Pro­dences [Page 115] which waited on the ruine and destruction of Herod, shall all be finished in eternity, and the designe of them consummate: those just, yet rare passages of Provi­dence which often with a convicti­on confute and confound the wicked, shall cease in eternity, when the inten­tion of them shall be eternally vi­sible.

2 God the fountain of all Provi­dences communicates himself immedia­tly Videbit Sanctus deum ad volun­tatem, habebit ad voluptatem, fruetur ad ju­cunditatem. Bern. in eternity: Providence is here mans prospective, the umbrage, and darke discovery of the minde of God; and poor man ghesseth at the will of God by reading Providence. But now God acts immediately in eterni­ty, Heb. 12. 29. without shewing his minde in the looking-glasse of Providence; God is an immediate flame of love to the Saints, and a flame of fire to the Re­probate. God useth in eternity no more the medium of Providence to ripen the sinner for ruine, or the Saint for glory; but all the Con­duit pipes and conveyances of Pro­vidence cease, those effluxes of his [Page 116] will, Gods bosome shall be open to the Saints: It is the face of God, not of Providence in glo­ry.

3 All Providences imply a mutabi­lity. We read of no Providences in this life, which have not been altera­ble and various, sometimes soured into a rod, and sometimes guilded with a smile. Now thus Josephs Pro­vidences which attended him, were the very embroydery of variation; we finde him now fettered in a dun­geon, Gen. 30. 20. not illustrious in the Chariot. Such Providences which encompassed Gen. 41. 33. Bellisarius that famous Captain, now Da obolum pau­peri Bellisario. the terrour of the world, and pre­sently interred alive in the coffin of poverty. Thus Providence in this life is the map of changes; the pi­cture of mutability. But all change ceaseth in eternity, (as fully before). Here indeed promises are sure, but Providences are most uncertain. Jeremiah, Moses, Daniel, Job and other Pillars and Patriots of Religion have been the very tennisbals of Pro­vidence. Our eternity shakes off both [Page 117] the feares, and the hopes of uncer­tainty.

4 The Word, which is the interpre­ter of Providence, shall cease in eter­nity; the more sure word, as the Apostle cals it, shall resigne up its 2 Pet. 1. 19. office, Verbum dei fiet visio dei, the Saints in glory shall not hear of God, but behold his face. They shall see verbum essentiale, the essentiall word. Joh. 1. 1. Indeed the Gospell, Rev. 14. 6. is called an Everlasting Gospell

1. In the Originall of it: the Ideaes which have been in the minde of God for ever concerning man, are written and recorded in the Go­spell.

2. In regard of the effect of it; the Gospell converts the soul to eter­nall life, and by the preaching of it, drawes the believer to heaven, the place of everlasting joy; it is ever­lasting in the fruites of it: But yet the Gospell shall cease in eter­nity. Tunc plene, & perfecte causas divinorum con­siliorum, & operum intelle­gemus. Gerard.

1. In reference to the instructi­ons of it, the blessed in glory shall not need the discoveries of it; nor [Page 118] shall the damned enjoy them: eter­nity shall draw the curtain of all difficulty to the glorified ones; and there shall need no Gospell-dispensa­tions, no Gospell-beams to scatter the cloud of ignorance.

2. The Gospell shall cease in the conversion of it. No soul-convert­ing Preaching in eternity, the trans­forming power of the Gospell shall be at end, the day of grace sets in the grave, and is buried in the night of death. And

3. The Gospell shall cease in the comforts and cordials of it; the refreshings of the Gospell shall be at an end in eternity, that honey that here is found in the strong, in the strength of a truth, or in the hive of a promise.

And now if the stable, studdy, immutable word, that Gospell which is the inalterable rule of Saints, Rom. 3. 2. the Oracles and irreversible counsels of God, if this word cease; how much more Providence which is of­tentimes coloured with so many va­rieties, and is the wombe of such [Page 119] multifarious uncertainty: So that we may reassume our former assertion, and say, that all issues, events, vari­eties and clouds of Providence shall all be swallowed up in immediate and clear appearances of immuta­ble love, and inalterable wrath in eternity.

CHAP. XII.

Concl. 12 Mans eternall condition admits of no comparison.

WEE may say of eternity, what our Saviour saith of the Kingdome of hea­ven, Luk. 13. 19. To what may we compare it, or whereunto shall we liken it? What ever nature or reason hath compared eternity to, fals short of representing that vast Ocean, that bottomlesse depth, that endlesse state. Nature in all its wardrobe, and reason in all its capacities cannot emble­matize eternity. What figure, globe, sphear, or Mathematicall device can adequate, or measure out this end­lesse and boundlesse state? It is like the day of judgment, unknown. And we may cry out concerning eternity, what the Apostle doth concerning the wisdome of God, [...], O depth! Rom. 11. 33. All those pictures which antiquity [Page 121] with so much care and industry have drawn of eternity, do not draw it to the life, nor fully paint out the thing pourtraid; and who shall look upon them shall hardly know eternities face. This endlesse estate, est naturae mysterium, & rationis opprobri­um; it is a riddle both to studious nature, and reason in its greatest in­tellectuall flowrish. Aristotle the inter­preter and secretary of nature, was so mistaken in fadoming eternity, that he makes the world eternall, which is but a body of perishing particulars. The Almighty asketh the question, Who can span the heavens, and tell the Isa. 40. 12. full latitude and breadth of their curtaines? And this question may be likewise proposed, Who can give a pregnant and full Hieroglyphck of eter­nity? Who can illustrate and expli­cate what it is, by some lively and full embleme? But not to wrong our serious Predecessours of their in­dustry this way; I shall only informe you, that there were many things, that they represented eternity by: the principall I shall onely cast my eye upon.

1 Sometimes they made a ring the embleme of eternity, that as the Ring hath neither beginning nor ending, so neither hath eternity.

Answ. But to this it may be re­plyed,

1. That only the eternity of God is Aeternitas est duplex; represented by this embleme; for mans eternity hath its rise, though not its 1. Perfecta, quae est a parte ante, & a parte post, sic Deus est aeternus. fall. But God is eternall, as neither being capable of a beginning, nor of ending, and therefore the Aegyptians used to signifie God by a circle; and the 2. Imperfecta, quae initium habet, sed non finem; sic Ani­ma, & Angeli sunt aeterni. So our Divines. Persians thought they honour'd God most, when going up to the top of the highest Tower, they called him the circle of heaven. And it was a custome among the Turkes (as Pierius teacheth at large) to cry out every morning Mercurius Trismegistus vocabat Deum sphaeram intel­lectualem, cujus centrum est ubi­que, & circum­ferentia nullibi. from an high Tower, God alwayes was, and alwayes will be, and so salute their Mahomet. Now therefore this emblem teacheth not mans eterni­ty. But

2. I answer, The Ring it self which represents eternity, is mortall; the golden Ring will shortly be a rusty ring; the ring is a fragill matter to represent eternity; that piece of dust [Page 123] will moulder into dust: the ring no more represents eternity, then the rude draught of a picture represents the vitality and beauty of vigorous man. We can no more by emblems paint out this bottomlesse state; then draw the effigies of a rationall soul.

3. The Ring though it is not broken of it self, but is an entire circumfe­rence, yet it may be broken by a supe­riour power: Man can break the circumference, and deface the very forme of it: But Gods promise, and his past word hath made eternity in­dissoluble. Eternity is a duration, which neither will of it self crumble into pieces; nor falls it within the verge of any created power, to put a stop to it, or mel [...] it into a conclu­sion. And that there shall be no end Heb. 6. 18. or impairing of it, Gods word is ir­reversible; the divine Majesty hath determined eternity both to the Saint and the sinner: and it is he alone that can bury and dissolve eternity it self. It is with the eternity of men, as with Angels; Christ is the Mediatour of their sustentation; the shedding of his bloud hath purchas'd eternall joy for [Page 124] the Saints, and cries aloud for eternall misery on the sinner: God hath pawned his trust to support and supply eter­nity; Joh. 3. 16. and therefore the indissolubi­lity of eternity renders the Ring to be an imperfect embleme of it.

2 Sometimes the Antients have com­pared eternity to a Phoenix; whose young one ariseth from the ashes of its fire, so that there seems to be a specificall immortality; the urne of one Phoenix being the womb of another, and the ashes proving seminall.

Answ. But this emblem likewise fals short of picturing out eternity, there are many deficiencies in this emblema­ticall adumbration. As

1. The Phoenix is immortalized by propagation, the ashes of the damme is the originall of the young: Occa­sus Nec mors in vita nec vita in morte aeterna. unius est ortus alterius, the ones ruine is the others rise. But now eternity is a constant state, not by propaga­tion, not by accumulation, not by alteration, but by an eternized dura­tion. New additions of times in eter­nity, Isa. 60. 15. do not flow from the preteri­tions, and transiencies of former, as 1 Pet. 5 10. if one past age should leave another [Page 125] its successour, and eternity was nothing Omnium beato­torum felicitas erit continua, nunquam inter­rumpenda, & sempitterna, nun­quam finienda. Ger. but a family of ages in a lineall de­scent. No, but eternity is an uninter­rupted perpetuity; everlastingnesse without stop, comma, or intermission. Eternity is not duration by multi­plication, but continuation; the same person is everlastingly blessed, or damned: the same Saint in eternity becomes not a species by multiplica­tion; but the same individuall be­liever shall be clothed with personall happinesse for ever, and his glory shall be a Phoenix for its rarity, but not for its multiplication.

2. The Phoenix is renewed by a Christus primi­tiae & resur­rectionis & in­terruptibilitatis & impassibili­tatis nobis factus est. Damasc. passive alteration; the living Phoenix is turned into ashes, and the birth is produced from those ashes, so that the death of the one is the generation of the other, there is ashes, and dying, and budding, all demonstrations of change and suffering. But eternity is Corporibus san­ctorum non adaequabitur aurum, aut vi­trum. Greg. incapable of change (as before). Hea­ven shall not be the Saints urne, nor the bosome of Christ their tomb; nor shall the glorious bodies of the Saints crumble into ashes, there shall be no passivenesse seize on the persons, or [Page 126] the bodies of the Saints, no decayes, or fading, deaths or damps; glory shall be a Phoenix which shall never turn into ashes. Nor on the other side shall infernall fire become funeral: nor shall the scorcht bodies of the damned be incinerated or converted into ashes. So that now the emblem of the Phoenix is too darke an hierogly­phicke of eternity.

3 Sometimes the Antients have com­pared eternity to the Sun, which keeps a constant course, and hath its unin­terrupted revolutions; which courses the world, and every day returnes to its due, and wonted station: The Sun winds about, and fetches its large and vast circuits; and keeping an even, though swift pace, it returnes at such a term of time unto the same stage from whence it took its rise: and therefore our predecessours observing the stedinesse and constancy of the Suns motion, have made it the bright em­blem of eternity.

But the Sun doth not paint out eternity.

Answ. 1. The Sun hath its eclipses, its clouds, its various aspects: So that I [Page 127] may say, Mutability is one beam of the Sun. The historian reports that Procopius, and from him Pedro Mexia about An. 540. the Sun gave not more light then the Moon, for almost one whole year in Italy, the skie in the mean time being clear and without clouds, or any thing to shadow the same. Thus the Sun is an alterable body. Nay in the very motion of it, which is chiefly the embleme of eternity, there hath been Josh. 10. 13. stoppages and stayes, and retrograda­tions. And the Scripture hath pro­nounced Amos 8. 9. a doom upon its glorious Joel 2. 31. body, that it shall it be turned into darknesse, and be entombed in ob­scurity. But now eternity, is an un­mixt, invariable state (as before): there shall be no eclipse in glory, nor suspension of happinesse; joy in eter­nity shall never stand still, or run re­trograde. God himself who is the Saints Sun in heaven, is essentially immutable. No beames of light shall visit hell: nor clouds or eclipses darken heaven. There is too much variation in the Sun, so that it should paint out eternity.

2. But further, there are many things considerable in eternity, be­sides [Page 128] the duration which the Suns mo­tion seems to be the emblem of. There is immutability, superlativeness, voydness of succession, joy, torment, the aggrava­tion and varieties of both. Eternity com­priseth more in the womb of it, then duration let out for ever, eternity is but as the cipher added to the sum of bles­sednesse or calamity, it is alwayes pre­dicate of felicity or misery. It is not a naked abstractive duration; but is a concrete, in its significancy; and there is a great difference between the state and duration of eternity; What shall we be, and how long we shall endure, they are 2. Questions. And all these emblemes do but paint out the bare continuance of eternity. A line of ages that hath no end.

And this shall be a generall answer to all the emblemes considered com­plexively, and together: viz. That all these creature-representations, they are at the great day dissoluble; the heavens shall passe away, and the 2 Pet. 3. 10. element shall melt with fervent heat. The Phoenix ashes shall be scattered, and the Ring shall be melted in the generall conflagration; but the great [Page 129] assizes shall but open the curtaines, and see the generall alarme of eternity: Men Heb. 9. 27. dying before are gone to their particu­lar eternities: but after the grand and universall tryall, when every thought shall be anatomized, and chined up, then nothing shall appear but eternity: And all the rivers of times shall be swallowed and drowned in that Ocean. All persons then shall sail for ever up­on the Sea of joyes, or calamitous eter­nity. After the day of judgement, all ages and centuries shall be fledged and leave the world, which shall be remaining; and the particular parcels of Time, shall be all summed up in the totall of Eternity. So that now these emblems which represent eternity, themselves shall have an end; so that they are rather the shadowes, then representati­ons of eternity.

CHAP. XIII.

Concl. 13 Mans eternall condition admits of no revocation.

THere is no sounding of a re­treat, after we are lanched into the Ocean of eternity; then there is no setting us a shoar a­gain, to re-act a new life in the world. When once the trap-door is let down upon us, there is no break­ing Fugit irrevoca­bile tempus. that prison-door; when we have once passed through that darke entry, and shot that inevitable gulf; there is then no more retirement back again from behind those darke hangings to visite the shoar of the world. Eternity locks up all back-doores against them that are cast upon that condition; and prevents all possibilities of flight or escape. Christ and his Apostles raised Joh. 11. 44. indeed many from the dead, but it was Act. 20. 12, in an extraordinary way, and their graves were forced open by the petarre [Page 131] and engine of a miracle. Eternity, whether it lands its passengers upon the shoar of glory, or locks them up in the dungeon of misery, it makes their condition equally irreversible. Death is not a dream or a swoon; Facilis descen­sus Averni; Sed revocare gra­dum, &c. Hic labor, hoc opus est. Virg. nor in this regard a sleep, to be awake­ned again in this life; but when once it hath closed the eyes of the depar­ted patient, the deccased bids an ever­lasting farewell to all things here below; and enters upon a new but never ending condition. Pythagoras and his disciples speake much of a [...], a transmigration of the same soul into many bodies; and that death only causeth the soul to change its tenement and habitation; but yet in this dream there is no mention made of the same body to be anima­ted again, and reflourish in this life by a new resurrection. When the soul in death takes its flight, and leaves its loving mate the body, it shall meet no more with it, till the day of the generall Assizes. The arrest of eterni­ty, as it will not take bale, so neither will it suffer any evasion. Let not the voluptuous sinner please himself with [Page 132] a vain dream, that after death he shall return again, and gratifie his sensuall luxuries; his palat shall be downe in the grave; and being thrown into the Ocean of eternity, he shall get up above water no more. We may meet with Dives in the flames of death; but no Luk. 16. 23. more at his banquets: the Zelanders Psal. 49. 19. motto, Luctor, & emergo, I strive, and get up, is a paradox in eternity. And what should make eternity cast its captives again upon the shoar of the world?

1. The sinners sinfulnesse cannot de­merit a relaxation, or a regaining of his liberty; when the soul by death, elapsed from the body, and fallen in­to torment, shall blaspheme God, ex­asperated by that misery it is tormen­ted in; how can justice it self give that damned soul a dispensation for a re-entry in its body again? And

2. So likewise the Saints, when death hath broken the fetters of all their miseries here, and the grave hath swallowed all their moans and feares: how shall they return, to react all those tragedies, and martyrdomes, they broak through in this life? Psal. 44. 22. [Page 133] Gods paternall indulgence will not suffer them to put to Sea again. No, Eternity is like that cave, that whoever Soles occidere, & redire pos­sunt, Nobis cum semei occidit brevis lux, Nox est perpetua una dormienda. entered into it, returned no more a­gain. When once we are within the gate of eternity, the key is turned upon us; and no ransome or price shall be available to turn the lock again. And it must be so,

1 In reference to the blessed.

Reas. 1 They shall return no more to this life, when once cast upon eternity; Because their errand is then done, and they have accomplished that taske, that God sent them into the world for. Indeed after death their workes shall follow them, but they shall re­turn no more to their work. They Rev. 14. 13. Sancti in coelo requiesoent a laboribus suis, nempe quia ex­exantla [...]i sunt in stadio hujus vitae. Par. have made all those prayers, and shed all those tears, performed all those services, and underwent all those re­proaches, they have suffered all those wounds, and broake through all those prisons, God had allotted for them in this life. The Israelites when they had undergone so many years of bondage, God then made way for them to enter Canaan: and [Page 134] the Saints, when like the Sunne, they have broak through so many clouds; then they set sail on the Ocean of a glorious eternity. And what Christ said, when he was gi­ving up the ghost; so may all the Saints say, It is finished. Their work Heb. 4. 9. is over, their taske is done, their toyle is past, and now eternity makes their bed in inexpressible glory and blessednesse: the grave closeth the worke of the Saints, and eternity gives them their wages; and when once they have (as when death seizeth upon them, they have) executed that message which their father hath sent them into the world to performe, have brought so much glory to the name of God, toyl'd so much with their own hearts, scattered so many perfumes Sancti in aeter­nitate sunt mi­lites emeriti. in the Church of Christ; then God gives them a dismission, and they shall lean their heads in the bosome of Christ for evermore. And therefore nothing Joh. 17. 24. can occasion the Saints re-entry into the world, after once they have bid farewell to it, when the very end and intention of their stay here is fully accomplished.

2 This would cast an insuffera­ble dampe and discouragement on the services, and sufferings of the Saints here; should there be a revocation in their blessed eternity. Should they be remanded to their prisons again, after they have escaped their goal by death; for indeed the world Hic via, super­ne Patria: as the Father speaks. is but the Saints prison, not his paradise, not his delight but his dungeon; and unkind lattice, or wall between Christ and him. Death is to the Saints, but as the Jaylour, to open the grate, and set them free in everlasting liberty. Now I say, for Heb. 11. 13. them to be shackled in the world a­gain after death had filed off their chaines; what is this but to cast a languour, and faintnesse on all their performances? Indeed that is a rationall plea of the Apostle, 1 Cor. 15. 19. If Sancti cuncta in hac vita patien­ter tolerant, & sustinent, spe­futurae compen­sationis, & glori­osae felicitatis, in coelis pro illis per Christum repositae. Par. in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most miserable. This life to a poor believer is but the stage of a diversified calamity, a den of Dragons, a place of trouble and amaze­ments; and it is the hopes of future enjoyment, that are the Saints crutches [Page 136] to walke by through his shady pil­grimage; and therefore could there be a possibility of the Saints return, after death, when sailing in the Sea of eter­nity, to this valley of tears a­gain; it would cast all their active and passive services into a dying con­sumption.

3 Nor will Christ himselfe suffer his Saints to lose his presence again, Rev. 3. 21. when once he enjoyes them in his everlasting embraces. After they are As Luther said to the threat­ning Empe­rour, Aut in­venies me sub coelo, aut in coelo; but if once in coelo, no more sub coelo. Luth. once courtiers in heaven, they shall no more be exiles on earth. The bottomlesse love of Christ to his people, which was written in the characters of his own bloud, and broke out at every vein of his massa­cred body, will not permit those be­lieuers, whom death brought with the veil, and ushered into the pre­sence of God, to be again banisht into a tempestuous world. John, the beloved disciple, who now lies in the bosome of Christ, shall no more see his Patmos. And suppose we, that heaven can harbour any thing, that can breed a discontent between Christ [Page 137] and his glorified ones; so that Christ 2 Cor. 5. 8. again should expose them to the crueltie of the world; what infinite solecismes would such an assertion be the womb of? If we finde Moses and Elias visiting the world again after their death, it is in a glorious transfigu­ration, to solemnize that rare ap­pearance. Mat. 17. 3.

And as there can be no revoca­tion in the eternity of the blessed, so neither in the eternity of the Re­probates.

1 Because their naturall day, and their spirituall ends together, death Joh. 9. 14. that closeth the eyes of their body, As the Psal­mist puts the Quest. Psal. 30. 9. likewise closeth the eyes of their un­derstanding, so far as it hath reference to their spirituall good; the grave bu­ries and entombs all their hopes and all their capacities. Now for what should the sinner be returned again into the world? His destruction is seal'd and irre­versible, Dies operandi tempus est, nox quiescendi. Musc. his death speaks it in loud lan­guage. And shall he break the prison of the grave, and react the part of a sinfull caitiffe in the world? This is one reason why God takes the sinner out [Page 138] of the world, and casts him upon eter­nity to stop his blasphemous mouth, and put a period to his carriere in wickednesse. No surely, when once the sinner is cast into the sea of eternity, he shall swim no more to shoar. God will not revive the dead sinner, to obnubilate his glory with further deeds of darknesse. Eternity shall not be, as Jonas his whale, when once it hath Jon. 2. 10. swallowed up the sinner, to cast him up again upon the shoare of the world.

2 Death which is the inlet to eternity, is but the Lords Sergeant to arrest the sinner to appear before him for his tryall. It is but the sinners citation to Heb. 9. give up his accounts: when once the sinner is cast upon eternity, his work it at an end, all the sinners deport­ments, and carriages, and conversation; now only the cause comes to be tried; first death, and then judgment: No reprieves or protracting: Death brings the sinner to the bar; and eternity finds him condemned. And therefore let all unawakened sinners fill their thoughts with this conside­ration, [Page 139] that when once death casts them on the state of eternity, they shall sail back again no more into the world. They shall never enjoy their possessions again; they shall never feed on their banquets again, nor wallow Prov. 9. 17. in their sins again; nor cry againe to their stolen morsels, they are sweet, nor be invited to Christ again, nor be capable of penitentiall brokennesse; Nor of Gospell-grace, of gospell op­portunities again. Eternity is an re­versible and irrevocable condition: the soul once lost, and death having drawn the curtaines, Redemption and restitution shall be a solecisme.

CHAP. XIV.

Concl. 14 Mans eternall condition admits of no conclusion.

ETernity is a Sun that shall never Non beatitudo esset sic ertum sancti non ha­berent, se ibi semper futures. Aug. de civit. dei. set; a taper that shall never fall into the socket; a terme without a vacation, a race without an end. When men in eternity have spent as many millions of ages, as there are atomes in all the beames of the Sun, Sicut Sancti in­cessabile habent gaudium, ita in­justi indesinen­tem poenam; dicuntur ergo ituri in sup­plicium aeter­num (i. e.) nun­quam finien­dum. Theoph. in Mat. or drops in all the water of the world; they are as far from a close, or an exit, as at the first moment of that state and condition. The Vestall fires are out; Methuselahs age is spent; the Sun shall either be annihilated, or else transformed; but the eyes of eter­nity shall never be closed. Eternity is an Ocean that we shall be ever sailing in, and never see land: Let us but Ignis infernalis qui semel accen­sus est, nunquam extinguetur. Gerard. illustrate the never-ending duration of eternity in a familiar way, as a Divine [Page 141] of late, hath gone before us; Con­sider, saith he, what is the length of eternity? How long shall God and his Saints reign? How long shall the Dan. 12. 2. damned burn in hell? For ever. How long is that? Imagine an hundred thousand years: Alas! that is nothing in respect of eternity. Imagine ten hundred thousand years, yea so many ages, yet that is nothing to eternity. Imagine a thousand millions of years, and yet all this is nothing, no e­spying of a close yet; imagine yet more, a thousand, thousand, thousand, thou­sand, thousand, thousand, thousand, thousand, thousand millions of years, and yet no sight of land. Imagine once more, so many mil­lions of millions of years, as there are drops in the Sea, and thou are not come to the very beginning of eter­nity. Such for continuance is the eternity of the joy the blessed shall enter into, and the eternity of the torments the damned shall be ever wrackt with. Gulielmus Peraldus Bishop Diaboli, & im­piorum omnium credimus aeternae tormenta. Hiers in Isa. of Lyons hath another manner of reckoning, meditating upon the innu­merable number of years, throughout [Page 142] which the damned shall be tormented. If the damned, saith he, should every day distill from their eyes but one small tear, and those teares should be added together day after day, they would at length far exceed the drops of the Ocean; for they have their number and their measure, and it is with God to say, so many are the drops of the Ocean, and no more; but the tears of the damned, exceed all number and measure. Alas! alas! How seldome do our thoughts cast anchor upon this serious meditation? how freely and willingly do we sin, and gratifie the noysome titillations, and temptations of corruption, and so make our selves guilty of eternall punishment; and in the mean time consider not, how im­mense, infinite, and incomprehensible a duration, eternity is. A word that is the fruitfull womb of bottomlesse mysteries. Some likewise have en­deavoured to explicate the infinite duration of eternity, by a vast moun­tain of sand, others by the Ocean, and a third sort by a schedule of parchment, which should be so long, as to encircle the whole earth, and [Page 143] this full of figures. But all these are but cloudy explanations of eternity; who can conceive our endlesse condi­tion, to be a clocke which being once wound up, shall never goe down again? Indeed eternity is like a fountain, which Hic habent tam jucunda quam tristia finem, eum (que) celerri­mum, illic secu­lis extenduntur utra (que) immorta­libus. Chrysost. is always overflowing, and yet loseth nothing of its fulnesie, or is dried up, or overtaken with emptinesse. Time is like a blziang Comet, which ama­zeth the world for a while with its light, but presently fals down, and disappears; but eternity is like a Aeternitas est una dies conti­nua, occasum non habens. Ger. fixed star, which is not worn out with motion; but rangeth about the firmament in a glittering perpetuity. Indeed eternity is a day, whether pleasant or gloomy, serene or stormy, the doome of the wicked, or the de­light of the Saints, which shall never be entombed in the grave of a night: In it, the passage of millions of ages do not precipitate or hasten an end. Astronomers observe concerning the Sun, that the nearer it is setting, the more speedy and swift its course is. But eternity admits not of either motion, speedinesse or setting. The poor mariner after vast circuits, [Page 144] and roving upon the wide Ocean; the Sea in all its cruelty, is at last so courteous to him, as to cast his wea­ther-beaten barke upon some coast or harbour; the unnaturall waves dashing Aeternae Deus [...]ss [...] jabet de­scendere poenae, Ire sub ardorem rabidae sine fine gehennae. Tert. de jud. dom. it upon some shoare. But the repro­bate after he is clapt under the hatches of eternall calamity; when he hath past through seas of Gods wrath, floods of Satans malice, stormes of torment, and tempests of misery, and this for millions of ages; yet then he is as far from a shoare to refresh him, a creek to shelter him, a night to hide him, or death (a miserable re­medy) to strangle him, as at the first moment. How clearly and fully do the Scriptures depaint the everlasting­nesse of our future condition; when the Scriptures informe us, how long the lease of future glory shall be? with what pregnant phrases do they explicate the thing intended? Some­times Rom. 2. 7. the future blessednesse of the Saints is called Everlasting life; some­times Joh. 3. 16. [...]. 1 Cor. 15. 53. a state of immortality; and some­times heavens glory is entituled, everlasting joy Isa. 35. 10. & 61. 7.; sometimes an everlasting Kingdome; and sometimes an eternall [Page 145] weight of glory, 2 Cor. 4. 17. And sometimes an eternall inheritance, Heb. 9. 15. So the Scriptures set out the 2 Pet. 1. 12. future condition of the Saints by an everlastingnesse; their glory being un­fading, and immarcessible for ever; and their happinesse being incapable and impossible to be overtaken, and smoothered with a night, conclusion or period.

And so the dolefull accent of the Scriptures rings the knell of everlasting Mat 25. 21. misery to the damned. Sometimes their future condition is called everlasting fire; Mat. 25. 46. sometimes everlasting punishment, as if fire were too cold a torture, therefore punishment, intimating all kinds, me­thods, Mar. 9, 46. [...]. and sizes of misery. Sometimes their future execution is called a never dying worme; a worm which will never end its gnawing, as the Origi­nall; Jud. v. 6. sometimes it is called evelasting 2 Thess. 1. 9. chaines; and lastly sometimes ever­lasting Post hanc morta­lem vitam, super est alia, in qua totus homo, cor­pore & anima, vel in aeternum gaudebit, vel in aeternum cruci­abitur. Chemn. destruction. Thus the Scriptures abrogate, and disavow all end, or conclusion of mans future condition. In our greatest prospects our sight is confined, and after the view of some few miles, we can see no farther, but [Page 146] there is a stop to our most acute quick­sightednesse. But in eternity we may look forward, and forward, and after multiplied ages, we can yet see no end. Imagination it self shall still row on, and never see any land. Those long lived Patriarchs, mentioned Genesis the 5. chapter, after their long and tedi­ous travels in this valley of teares, they at last fell down into their graves; and rottennesse and stench hath long since surprised them: But when death hath brought us within the arrests and surprisall of eternity; we shall then live more millions of ages then the Patriarchs did moments, and never finde the shrowd of a winding sheet, or thrust our selves into the darke cot­tage Qui semel illuc, sc. in infernum ingreditur, ulte­rius egredi non permittitur; non exibis, donec persolvas no­vissimum qua­drantem; quia semper erit sol­vendo, dum poenas sempiter­nas peccatorum luit peccator. Hier. of a grave. Eternity is incapable of wound, or mortality. The repro­bate, when death hath eterniz'd his con­dition, may be ever praying to God to annihilate him, and wooing Satan to assasinate him, may be ever studying wayes and methods to dispatch him­self, and work his own death, and ex­piration; but he shall never finde a cord to strangle his miserable immortality. And this shall be the triumphancy of [Page 147] the Saints happinesse; their throne shall Mat. 16. 26. never be transformed into a tomb. Ah! how should this cast the most con­tumacious, and stubborn sinner into a palsie, and shaking fit; till God set­led his trembling soul, with some token of a joyous eternity? Alas! for what a small parcell of time, and in­considerable a scantling of enjoyment; do most venture or lose their never­ending, but suddenly-surprising eter­nity.

But more particularly, to debate and ventilate this forementioned con­clusion: Could eternity at last have an end, in reference to man, (not to make any mention, or to speak of God or Angels) this end would be accomplished one of these two wayes, either by annihilation, or dissolution.

1 By dissolution: but this is immpos­sible in eternity. Scimus dei be­neficio animam quoad substan­tiam suam esse immortalem. Chemn.

1. The soul cannot die of it self, unlesse it wither by the command of a superiour power; but of it self it can­not die; for in its own nature, it is immortall; its essence is eternall. One cals the soul [...], and it is Eccles. 12. 7. [Page 148] a bud of eternity; the originall of the soul speakes it's immortall; God still Mat. 10. 28. breaths into men living souls, and our souls come from the father of lights; God lights up souls in men, they bub­ble 2 Cor. 5. 10. forth from the fountain of Spirits, Act. 23. 8. that spirituall essence. They are a Act. 7. 59. beam of the most glorious Sun. Our Mors saepe som­no in Scripturis comparatur, Joh. 11. 11. 1 Thess. 4. 13. sed sciendum quod hic somnus homini mortuo attribuatur, non ratione animae quae est purus actus, sed rati­one corporis. Chemn. bodies were raised out of the dust; but our souls are of a more noble de­scent and originall; the soul runs pa­rallel to all eternity. There are strong and pregnant probabilities of the souls immortality, to a naturall eye, to a Philosophicall eye with com­mon light. And

2. To evidence the souls unperish­ablenesse; we may but take notice, how oftentimes in a languishing and consumed body, you have a most vi­gorous, well-complexioned and flour­ishing soul. Sometimes the soul is so acute, that it even cuts the sheath of the body in sunder; the body is oft in the wane when the soul is in the full, all which speakes the souls in mortality; so that naturally the soul cannot die. To this argument I might annex many more.

[Page 149] 3. As the testimony of conscience, [...]. Chrys. which discernes between good and e­vill, and often rejoyceth in the one, and trembles at the other, even when there is no humane witnesse, or fear of man to cause either. What is the reason that oftentimes when the sinner hath committed some villanous act, and the Sun it self hath not been conscious to it, but it hath been perpretrated with admirable secresie; yet then the sinner Multa argumen­ta probant animae immortalitatem, 1. Dei cognitio, qua imbuitur, quia ad vitae sontem non per­venit vigor evanidus. 2. Praeclaris dotibus, quibus pollet anima, di­vinum aliquid ei insculptum esse clamitat, to­tidem essentiae immortalis testimonia, quot recta, justa, & honesta concipi­mus, quae sensus corporis latent, &c. is broken upon the wheel, and tortured upon the wrack of conscience: doth not this clearly and pregnantly demonstrate, that there is a future im­mortality, and the soul shall be drag­ged to a fearfull tribunall? why should the soul tremble at a sinfull, if secret commission, could it be ascer­tained of a safe impunity? And hap­pily the sin committed is a violation of Gods law, and not mans; or it may be so clancularly acted, that the eye of man may be never privy to it. This and many other arguments, bring in their attestation for the souls immortality, and that unfadingnesse is essentiall to it. And therefore the as­sertion remaineth firme, that there [Page 150] can be no conclusion in eternity by dissolution in reference to the soul, for that is immortall. And

2. Neither shall the body die, after the resurrection; this the Scriptures clearly affirme. I shall only cast my eye upon one pregnant and full place, 1 Cor. 15. 53. where the Apostle speak­ing of the manner of the Resurrecti­on, saith, This corruptible must put on Memorandum est, quod Apost dicit demon­strativè, Hoc corruptibile; hoc mortale, sc. corpus, aperte sic indicans, hoc & non aliud s [...]bstantia cor­pus, quod nunc mortale gestamus, immortale tandem resur­recturum. Par. incorruption, and this mortall must put on immortality, speaking of our bodies. Then shall the persons of mankind be eternized in their subsistencies; nor shall death, or decay, eat or worme out their beings. But these shattered pieces of clay, our bodies, which here are but the sinke of diseases, and have a thousand windowes in them for death to creep in, after the resurrection shall fall asunder no more; Gods decree shall infuse into them an essentiall immor­tality. And if we consider the bodies of mankind after the resurrecti­on, as related to the Saints or sin­ners,

1. As the rich cases of the soules Luk. 20. 36. [...]. of the glorified Saints; they cannot die. Let that clear text give in its [Page 151] verdict, Phil. 3. 21. Who shall change our vil body that it may be fashioned like unto Cristus transfi­gurabit corpus in aliam figuram, non essentialem, sed accidenta­lem, ut sc. ex corruptibili fa­ciat corpus in­corruptibile, ex passibili impas­sibile, ex ter­restri coeleste, A Lap. his glorious body: observe here a rare change indeed, but no intimation of death; the bodies of the Saints, which here were the common subjects of pain, torment, and distemper, when past the resurrection shall outvie the Sun in glory.

2. Nor can the bodies of the damned die after the resurrection; those de­formed cages of more deformed soules shall never be blest with a dissolution. Divine wrath shall make the bodies of the reprobates, lapides [...], like those stones, which naturalists speak of, which do alwayes burn. They shall be buts for the arrowes of Gods dis­pleasure ever to be shot at: the smoak of the lake shall not smother them, nor the flames of hell consume them: not the least member shall be turned into cinders by everlasting burnings. The torments of hell are Mat. 25. 46. often called fire; whether figurative or Mat. 3. 12. reall, we shall not discusse the questi­on, Mat. 25. 41. but this we may conclude, that the bodies of the damned are more proper fuell for fire then the souls, Isa. 33. 14. [Page 152] and everlasting burning will call for immortall bodies.

Nor shall eternity have an end by annihilation. After the passage of mil­lions of ages in eternity, mans person shall not be annihilated; the glorious Saints shall not be by divine pow­er reduced into an empty nothing, those crowned personages shall not be folded up in a confused Chaos. Nor Poena infernalis est restis ex tribus c [...]ntexta funiculis, ex obscuritate te­nebrarum, acer­bitate poenarum, & diuturnitate miseriarum. Innoc. shall the tortured Hypocrites be redu­ced into their primitive and originall principles, or blow themselves up in­to an aery conception; a meer chimera; for besides the absurdity of such a fond im [...]gination, which hath no argument or reason to be founded or bottomed upon; for what should cause the Lord to dash in pieces his vessels of honour, or melt them into their materia prima, their primitive vacuity? heaven can­not harbour any sinfull provocation. Or what should induce the Lord so Eph. 5. 5. far to draw out his pity to the damned, as to command their torments to di­spatch them, or cause their souls to evaporate? Hell is a Sodome which harbours no Lot in it, it is no place of pious inclination; among all the [Page 153] damneds cries, there is not one peni­tentiall groan. God may say to all the damned, what he said concerning Sodome, and yet yeeld no relief to them; to wit, if there be ten righte­ous among them, he will save the whole body of them. So that I say, there is no rationall foundation can be conceived, that annihilation should be found in eternity: but not only so, but if we peruse the Scriptures, which are the established rule of our faith; we shall not finde the least foot­steps, or prints give light to any such imagination. In Eccles. 12. 7. the wise­man The soul upon its separation must return to receive sen­tence and judgment; God sent it in­to the body, and he may re­call it, and judge it, for what it hath done in the bo­dy. Pemble. speaks of the souls return to God, but makes no mention of the soules returning to nothing. Death indeed opens the window of the cage, for the soul to flie up to her Crea­tour, to receive a sentence of abso­lution, or execution. But

That there should be a time when the persons that are cast upon eter­nity shall be buried in a totall abo­lition; or wither into a finall ex­tinction; the Scriptures are wholly silent. Arg. 1 Moreover how would this clip the wings of a Saints zeal, in [Page 154] his pious pursuites after the honour of God. And how would this prompt the presumptions of wicked men, in all sinfull abomination; should the Lord after the passage of some spaces of time, extinguish, and put out the beings of the glorious Saints, and calamitous sinners? The sinner would grow au­dacious upon this account, that his miseries shall be but pro tempore, for a certaine time and duration.

Arg. 2 Nor would this be a supervacaneous argument, should it be urged, that God in the very Originall copy of his intention in creating man, crea­ted him either to be his everlasting Creasti nos prop­ter te, & irre­quietum est cor nostrum, donec veniamus ad te. Aug. favorite, to be partaker of those ho­nours, and beatitudes he should shed upon him; or else to proclaime his justice in undergoing the torment, and woe of his eternall vengeance. It is inconsistent to the wisdome of God to create man, to communicate himselfe unto, and then annihilate him, to vote a designe and to crosse it; God is an eternall being, and must be enjoyed by an eternall being, which of all the creation, is Men or Angels. Nor is this to be overpast in silence,

Arg. 3 That this is one observable and specificall distinction, that God hath put between Man and other Creatures, Psal. 49. 20. that when other creatures die, and evaporate into nothing, Man only survives to all eternity. In Rev. 14. 13. the Spirit saith there, the Saints die, and their works follow them; what to do? unlesse as a Jury to give in their verdict for the Saints, that he may be enthroned in everlasting felicity. What need was there for the gracious actions and holy life of a Saint to follow him as a goodly train to Gods tribunall, if this glorious inhabitant in heaven shall be taken asunder into its primitive nothing? That is a very pregnant place, Dan. 12. 3. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightnesse of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousnesse, as the stars for ever and ever: observe, for ever and ever.

Arg. 4 And I might put the question with­out inpertinency;

What reason is there more for the annihilation of man, after the transi­ency of certain ages, then for the anni­hilation of Angels? the glorious Saints are as pure as the good Angels, [Page 156] shining in as much royall perfection: Luk. 20. 36. [...]. and the damned sinners cannot embrue themselves in more guilt, then evill Angels do. Now that the Angels shall be annihilated, in Scripture we find not the least conjecturall probability. And for the close of this Argument Jud. v. 6. we are now upon, let us but weigh that wish of Balaam, mentioned Num. 23. 10. O that I might die the death of the righteous, and that my latter end might be like his. Now I say, how vain, frivolous, and ridiculous would this wish be, should the curtaines of eternity be drawn by an act of annihilation, could extinction stop the breath of eternity? and the va­nity of this desire will appear in three things.

1 There would be no profit in this request; Annihilation will bury all joy, even the happinesse of millions of ages; should the glorified Saint be resolved into nothing, all his glory he did enjoy would be annihilated with him, annihilation would be the grave of all his former blessednesse, and what profit can there be in the death of the righteous, if anni­hilation [Page 157] shall be the Sepulcher of that felicity, that death ushers the Saint into?

2 There would be no wisdome in this request: For annihilation will smother all fears too. What need Balaam desire to shelter himself in the dissolution of the godly? Annihila­tion would strangle all those feares. Could an extinction befall eternity, the fires of hell would be but a sharpe supper, as the Martyr said in another case. And could we fall into the tombe of annihilation, trembling and fear would be buried with us.

3 This request would be ridiculous. For Balaam seemeth in this petition, to put a large distinction between the departure of the Saints and the sinner out of this world, death dealing with the hypocrite and the believer, as Pharaoh did with his Baker and his Butler, the one he restores, the other he executes. But now annihilation Gen. 40. 21, 22. puts no difference, but makes all even alike. Where was the difference be­tween righteous Abel and bloudy Cain, famous Sion, and filthy Sodome, before the Creation; when all things were [Page 158] abortive in an empty nothing? Colours differ not in the darke, the most orient are not distinguished from the most pe­dantique; and therefore some Philo­sophers make light to be the ratio formalis, the specificall difference of colour: And so all things are of the same value in the night of extinction, or annihilation.

But let me only subjoyne, at the foot of the argument, these two things.

1 It is inconsistent to the promise of Christ who hath signed all his pro­mises Fiet in resur­rectione ut in singulis beatis re­surgentibus, mors abolebitur, & vita aeterna efflorescet. Alap. which he hath made to his con­verts, and to believers, with the seal of everlastingnesse, that there should be any stop, or close in eternity: if Christ promise his Saints life, it is everlasting life, Joh. 3. 16. if an inheri­tance, it is an eternall inheritance, Hic est finis mortis, redempti­onis, & media­tionis Christi, totius (que) novi testamenti, a Christo institu­ti, ut sc. adi­piscamur aeter­nam haeredita­tem a Christo promissam. Id. Heb. 9. 15. Nay the Apostle ampli­fies this argument in a rare phrase, 2 Tim. 1. 10. Who hath brought life, and immortality to light though the Gospell, he hath brought [...], life and incorruptibility to light, which as learned men observe, is an Hendyadys, for life and incorruption in the text, [Page 159] is no more then an incorruptible life. All the promises of Christ, they are bonds for eternity. They are not for a lease of happinnesse, but they are for a free purchase, Eph. 1. 14. And by faith we are co-purchasers with Jesus Christ; co-heires saith the Apostle in another place, Rom. 8. 17. Christ hath bought glory not for us and our heires for ever, but for us and our souls for ever. The pretious, free, Haereditatem terrae Canaan acceperunt Pa­tres ex pacto le­gali. Haere dita­tem aeternam'ex morte Christi; est ergo hic alter effectus mortis Christi aeterna Patrum haere­ditas, per ter­ram Canaan adumbrata. Par. sacred, and superlative promises of Christ, they shall be ever performing, they shall be making good for evermore. All the promises of God are pretious and great, not only from the things promised, but from the duration of what is promised; this enamels Gods promise of life to believers, that it shall be everlasting.

And what I have said of the pro­mises of Christ, may also be averred of the threatnings of Christ. Promises and threatnings run parallel, they bear the same date, and they shall be of the same duration; the mercies and the menaces, the comminations and the consolations of Christ shall be both lengthened out to all eternity. So that [Page 160] there cannot be any conclusion in eter­nity, for a stoppage or a close, (whether by death or abolition) would benight the glory of Christs promises, and im­peach the justice and righteousnesse of his threatnings.

2 It is inconsistent to the merits of Christ. His merits are an unsutable price for a temporary happinesse, as they are unsutable for an ordina­ry, moderate possession, (as before hath been demonstrated) so like­wise for a temporary. Indeed as the least sin of man deserves eternall wrath; (for what can answer for the offence of an infinite God?) So the least drop of Christs bloud de­serves eternall love. Shall Christ buy us only a lease paroll of happi­nesse? And it may well be argued; that as no revenue or enjoyment can befall man, proportionable to the sufferings of Christ: for what can be Act. 20. 28. given answerable to the bloud of Patet salutem electorum aeter­nam merito & beneficio Christi mediatoris Sanctis obtinge­re. Ger. him that was God himself? and what comparison between an infinite merit, and a finite enjoyment? as all the en­joyments of man must be; he being a creature, and so finite; I speak ratione [Page 161] subjecti, in reference to the subject. So therefore the transcendency of the pos­session falling short of Christs merit, eternity is cast into the scale to make up weight. I say not, but ratione ob­jecti, in regard of the object, viz. God that is possessed, and whose face the Saints see, and shall see for ever, the 1 Cor. 13. 12. possession is infinite; but in reference Visio dei est tota vita aeterna. to man, whose nature, and capacities, and possibility is finite, limited and Aug. de Sp. & An. circumscribed, the inheritance cannot be but disproportionable to the price, and therefore it must be that everlasting­nesse of duration must come in to make up the sum. That which is the life of every enjoyment is perpetuity; grace is therefore the most considera­ble riches, because inamissible. Those revenues which are short-lived, and are capable of a flight; they are but no­minall, and titular advantages; the pictures and umbrages of enjoyment, the riches of the coffer; they are in­considerable, not only because they are inanimate, but because they are winged. As the wiseman saith, Prov. 23. 5. They have wings, and so are alwayes fledged, and ready to escape our em­braces. [Page 162] Those inheritances cannot be superlative, which are fugitive, all fading, are but fancied riches; eter­nity is the life of glory it self. There are two words best expresse the hap­pinesse of heaven, life, eternall; both Joh. 3. 16. which Christ hath bought for his. And faith in the bloud of a Saviour, crownes the believer with both; if duration (as certainly it doth) doth shed a glosse, and set the crown on the head of possession; what below eternity can be Heb. 1. 3. the purchase of the death of him, who is the expresse image of God the fa­ther himself? The German Emperours have a custome to be crowned with three Crownes, an Iron one at Millan, a Silver one at Aken, and a Golden one at Rome. And truly Christ shall crown all his glorified ones with three crowns; first with life, second­ly with glory, and thirdly with eter­nity; a perpetuity of subsistence, their beings shall be supported: their life shall be superlatively glorious, a glori­ousnesse of enjoyment; and eter­nity of both. So that the me­rit of Christ chases away all fond conceptions of a close in eternity.

And now there can be no con­clusion in the eternity of the bles­sed.

Reas. 1 Could there be an end in their eter­nity, there would be more fear then joy in heaven, more fear of a future losse, then joy of a present possession. What tremblings would it beget in the Saint in glory, lest he should fall out of Christs bosome? the thought of a departure would smother the Halle­lujahs of heaven; nay, the very variety and sweetnesse of celestiall happinesse, would make a farewell more intole­rable. What damps would the word farewell create in glory? what wounds would it make? When Christ was to leave his disciples, and re-inthrone himself in glory; how did the thoughts of his absence fill the disci­ples Joh. 16. 6. hearts with sorrow? Their thoughts of the misse of that pretious communion which they enjoyed with Christ, what griefs did they produce? what tears did they spring? So that Christ was fain to quiet their lamen­tations with the promise of a substi­tute; no other then his own Spirit; the glorious, divine, consolatory, [Page 164] holy Spirit of Christ. Now I say, If Christs departure from his disci­ples, Joh. 14. 2. which was but to make their way to the Crown, did spring such a fountain of sorrow; how would this inarticulate and smother the joyes of heaven, could the Saints lo [...]e the sight of Christ in glory, or be snatcht from his embraces? Death here is the more terrible, by how much the more sweet our enjoyments have been it robs us of: Ah! who can compute that losse, which drawes the curtain between Christ and the glorified Saint? Pessima poena, est poena damni. Divines say, that the worst punishment which the damned undergoes, is the punishment of losse: In that they shall not hear the musick, see the glory, enjoy the company, and be blest with the happinesse of heaven; they shall not smell the perfumes of the bride-chamber: Mat. 25. 10. But how would this losse be amplified, had they ever felt how Objectum divi­nae scientiae, sunt omnia quaecun (que) aliquam habent entitatem, aut quomodocun (que) veris entibus conveniunt. soft the embraces, how pleasant the smiles of Christ are in heaven? In 1 Cor. 13. 12. the Apostle saith, In heaven we shall know as we are known; that is, not only perfectly, but ever­lastingly; for as the Schoolmen say, [Page 165] God knows all things from eternity to eternity by one individuall act: So then the impossibility of any distast or unpleasantnesse in glory, clearly removes all conclusion in the Saints eternity.

2 And could there be a conclusion of the Saints joy in glory; it would proceed from one of these three rea­sons.

1. That some default of the Saints sh [...]uld disinherit them, and God in point of justice did shut up their eternity: (but that there can be any miscarriage in glory, I have at large shewed it is impossible.) Or

2. There was a deficiency in the power of Christ to stretch out the beings, and lengthen out the joyes of Joh. 5. 19. the Saints to eternity; but this is equally blasphemous and impossible. For by Christ all things were made, Col. 1. 17. and by the same power of h [...]s they are sustained in their beings, and formes they were cast in, in their creation; Omnia opera ad extra totam re­spiciunt Trini­tatem. and to question the omnipotency of Christ, is to rob him of his divinity; his omnipotence being an incommunicable [Page 166] property of the God-head. Now let him lay aside the profession of Christi­anity, Heb. 1. 3. who shall with any doubtful­nesse Opera ad extra sunt indivisa, seu omnibus personis communia. Wolleb. call in question the deity of our blessed Redeemer. Or

3. There was a defect in the love of Christ, and so their happinesse sunk into a conclusion, and was over-taken with a period. But to shew the inconsistency of this, that there should be any defect in the love of Christ to his glorified ones; let these three things be weighed in the ballance.

1. Let us but consider how tender the compassions of Christ are to his people Isa. 63. 9. here, how he commiserates their af­flictions, Heb. 4. 15. weighs their temptations, 1 Cor. 10. 13. orders and methodizeth his own di­spensations Jsa. 40. 11. to them: that all his Rom. 5. 10. transactions with them may breath nothing but love, and mercy, and in­dulgence. Ab aeternofuit erga nos ita aeffectus Christi, ut nos ad aeter­nam salutem elegerit, in tem­pore crearit, & redemerit, ac perpetuo regat, & s [...]rvet non sua, sec nostra causa. Zanch. How tender was Christ in leaving a Comforter when he must depart; making many promises to be on the file to support and relieve his fainting mambers, when need shall be? how doth Christ never take the rod in his hand, step behind the hangings, but when the offences and miscarri­ages [Page 167] of his people necessitate him un­to it? Now all these rarities are but branches from the same root of love. Ah! how tender, gratious, spirituall, pretious, superlative, constant and beatificall is the love of the Lord Jesus to his people in this life! And shall his love to his Saints in glory faint, or be eclipsed with a wane or decay; when now he hath his people in his own embraces? Can no miscar­riages, relapses, and failings quench the flames, or stop the ebullitions of Christs love to his people here, and shall a languor or dampe surprise it, when they are purged from all spot and wrinckle, and shine in the imma­culate Eph. 5. 27. beauty of purity and per­fection?

2. Let us consider, that in heaven Christ enjoyes the fruit of all his love; the birth of his death, the issue of his bloud, the result of his suffer­ings, and the musick of his groans, and that is, he sees his own spouse, his Saints enthroned in glory. The end of all his passions, and of all the Saints afflictions, the scourge he endured, and the rods they often lie under; was [Page 168] glory at the last. And now after the travell of his foul, and the tryall of theirs, they are arrived at heaven, shall the pulse of his affection beat faintly, or his loves be surprised with decay? In heaven our marriage with Rev. 19. 7. the Lambe is consummated when we are entred into the bride-chamber, and shall the wedding day, (for the felici­ties of glory, are but an eternall wed­ding day) slacken, or invalidate the transcendencies of Christs affecti­on?

3. And then let us take notice how clearly the Scriptures paint out the eternity of his love to his people. I shall only comprise one Scripture, Jer. 31. 3. within my consideration, Joh. 13. 1. Quid sibi vult illa particula, sc. in finem di­lexit eos: hoc est [...], semper dilexit, & hoc signum magnae dilectio­nis ponit. Chr. Having loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them unto the end; observe there, unto the end, that is, for ever, as the Hebrew hath it, [...] for ever, which is the same, as the learned observe, with [...] eternally: to the end, which hath no end, to the end, (i. e.) to perfection. Now per­fection supposes perpetuity; that can­not be perfect which is not everlasting, glory it selfe is perfect, because eter­nall. [Page 169] Christ loves his people to the end, that is, to the end of their capa­cities of enjoying his love, which is for ever; as long as they have beings Dilexit eos in sinem, (i. e.) in tantum eos di­lexit, ut eos dare voluerit, summum & maximū bonum quod dari potest homini, sc. vi­tam & be atitu­dinem aeternam. Carthus. to be sweetned with his love: and he loved his to the end, that is for ever, because he loved them; he that is all love; the fountain, and spring of sweet and divine affection, he loved them to the end, who knows not how to break off love from his people. Jesus Christ is the everlasting ori­ginall of love, and his love cannot suffer a diruption, or period, being planted in his breast. As Muscu­lus observes, Haec est vere divina, & germana dilectio, quae non flaccescit sed ad finem us (que) constans perseverat, & talis amoris origo, radix & causa in Christo est. In a word, the love of Jesus Christ when fixt upon, and centred in a believer, shall not be either allayed, or inter­mitted, but shall break forth into visi­ble, and reall expressions of it to all eternity.

And as there shall no period stop the processe, or put an end to the eter­nity of the blessed; so neither shall there be a conclusion in the eternity [Page 170] of the damned, they shall hang in chaines for ever, and never go away, or die in their fiery chaines. Their miseries shall never find a grave or be quenched in a long looked for expi­ration. Indeed their sins soon fade and wither in their sweetnesse, but never shall die in their torment: the rose of their sin shall soon shed; but the worme of their sin shall not so soon be strangled, they shall not be so happy as Saul was to fall upon their 1 Sam. 31. 4. own sword, but they shall cry out as the Roman Emperour in his torment, Jer. 8. 3. and Nero in his despair, for one to kill them, and none shall be found. It was an usuall saying of a bloudy Cremabit ad dictos ardens semper gehenna & vivacibus flammis vorax poena, nec erit unde habere tor­menta vel re­quiem aliquan­do possint, vel finem. Cypri­anus. Emperour, that when any had laid violent hands on themselves, to take away their own lives, whom he design­ed to torment; he usually said, They had escaped him; but there shall be no such way found for the damned to escape the eternall vengeance of God. They shall have no instruments by them to dispatch themselves. Death, which is here the horrour of the wicked, and the very thoughts of which fils them with trembling, and [Page 171] seizeth on them with palenesse, and clammie sweates, shall in hell be their courted advantage; and nothing shall be more pleasant, and desirable; but as sinners studied all wayes, and evasions to escape the stroake of death here: so all their artifices and contrivances shall not find death in eternity. This shall be poyson in their cup of trem­bling, they shall never see the bottome of it. The fit of their torment shall be intolerable; and yet they shall never give up the ghost in it. Pain shall wrack them, but not waste them, shall cor­rode and afflict them, but not consume them. The Saints that lie under the Rev. 6. 9, 10. altar, and cry, How long Lord, holy Servabuntur cum corporibus suis animae infi­nitis cruciatibus ad dolorem, & erit sine fructu dolor poenae, in­anis ploratio, & inefficax de­precatio. Cypr. and true? They shall be heard at last, and be clothed with white and glo­rious roabes; but the reprobates shall after millions of ages, cry, How long Lord, how long? pity our torments, slacken our misery, compassionate thy flaming creatures; but all their moans shall be nothing availeable, but Gods wrath shall break out afresh for ever­more, the burnings, let sinners remem­ber are everlasting, Isa. 33. 14. Diseases here in this life, and tortures they are [Page 172] but the harbingers of death; the stormings and violent assaults of those pieces of clay we carry about us: And this is oftentimes some relief to the afflicted patient; that the more vi­olent the distemper is; the more hopes he hath, that death will suddenly free him from the malice, and the violence of his disease. But in the misery of the damned, their torments are but the supplies of death, shall but feed their executions; they shall ever be torn with the pangs of death; but never be buried in the silence of it. Ah! how should this break the adamantine spirits of impenitent sinners, never to find ease or end, hope or help, conso­lation or conclusion? alwayes to be gasping, by reason of extremity, and yet never give up or breath out the last gaspe?

And it must be so,

Reas. 1 It is inconsistent with Gods justice, to cease punishing, while sinners cease Ibi sc. in coelo, nec est deformi­tas sed omnium conformitas, ibi nec est iniquitas sed una semper aequitas. A lard. sinning; now in hell they shall sinne eternally, curse themselves, cry out a­gainst Satan, blaspheme God, belch out their reproaches against all the attributes of the most high. As it is [Page 173] part of the blessednesse in heaven, never to sin, so it shall be part of the misery of hell, ever to sin; the fires of hell shall inflame their ulcerous hearts, not humble them, their sin shall eter­nize their torment. What should re­strain or check the ranco [...]us spirits of the damned: the heart-subjugating spirit of the Lord, shall never visit that stewes of sin, nec incubare inferno, nor more upon the fires of hell. It is reported of the Apostate Julian, that hellish enemy of the Gospell; that being wounded, he takes his bloud, and in contempt throwes it up towards heaven, and cries, Vicisti Gal aee, thou Galilean hast overcome. And this shall be the everlasting practise of the damn­ed to be throwing up dishonours even into the face of God himself: so that their constant blasphemy shall perpetuate their insupportable extremity.

2 It is inconsonant to the truth of God, that any end should befall mise­rable eternity; for he hath spoken it, nor can he recall it, that the miseries of the damned shall never be quenched. Mat. 25. 46. God hath enrold his decree of eternall [Page 174] doom to the wicked in his everlasting Gospell, Mat. 3. 12. and many other places; and his determinations are irre­versible; who can interline in Gods counsels; or blot out, or alter his ever­lasting resolutions? Not one title or iota Mat. 5. 18. of his wi [...] shall be obsolete or passe a­way. And there are two reasons, why God hath set down his decree of eter­nall misery to the damned.

1. For caution: the more dread­full any decree of God is, the more cautionary; great fires are more avoidable then sparks or smoothered flames; when all the Beacons flame together, we are more certain of, and so more prepared for the enemies approach. God records this sad de­termination; not that men should shipwracke themselves upon it; but that they might avoid it: sands are more dangerous, then rockes, because lesse visible; God hath registred this doom, that it might be a visible caveat.

2. For vindication of Gods own justice; that sinners might not think to cloud the name of God with disho­nours, and yet escape with a temporall [Page 175] execution; God hath decreed, they shall smart for their sinnes for ever, they shall be alwayes reaping the misera­ble fruits of their sinfull folly; the whole will amount to thus much: Let sinners by this consideration be fired out of their security; let them study what it is to lie on the wrack for ten thousand millions of ages; but what is is that to eternity? And let them speedily prevent their eternall misery, by a serious, reall, and tem­porall penitency.

CHAP. XV.

Concl. 15 Mans eternall condition admits of no conception.

MAN cannot fully conceive it, grace may believe it, but reason cannot fadome it. Man may apprehend it, but not com­prehend it. As Moses did the Lord, see Exod. 33. 23. the backparts of it; this is one of those things, that in this world we cannot bear. In the fadoming of eter­nity, acutenesse is but ignorance, in­genuity stupidnesse, and the largest latitudes of knowledge are but pur­blind. If all Aristotles reason could not Haec aeternae vitae faelicitas, nobis in hac vi­ta est incompre­hensibilis, si de accurata, quid­ditativa, & scientifica cognitione aga­tur. Gerard. finde the cause of the ebbing and flowing of the small river Euripus, what then can it do to sound the Ocean of Eternity? What the Apostle saith of the naturall man in reference to spi­rituall, 1 Cor. 2. 14. that all cannot receive them; may be well said in [Page 177] reference to eternity. It is with the Prospect of eternity, as with the eye to the Ocean, it may see the surface of Concipe animo statum vitae illi­us, quantum ho­mini concipere datur, nam juxta rei digni­tatem nobis ser­mo nullus a­desse potest, ex iis tamen quae audimus, seuper aenigmata con­jecturam quan­ [...]ulamcun (que) faeiemas. Chry. it, but not its bottome; some glim­mering knowledge we may have, sed quis intima vidit? who ever saw the inside, and end, and bottom of it? As the blind man, Mat. 8. 24. I see men as trees walking; so we may glance at eternity with an imperfect sight, ga­thering some few weak parcels of the knowledge of it. When the great A­postle Paul was carried up to the third heaven, to see a landskip of glory, and to take a view of those transcendencies heaven was enricht with; at his return, with what asto­nishment 2 Cor. 12. 2. &c. doth he make his relation, and tels us indeed, he can make no full relation; those beatificall sights he had been blessed with, were not to be drawn by the pencill of the most rare and fluent Oratory, he heard [...], such words as are not to be repeated. It is a great contest a­mong grave and learned writers, what these words should be, which neither Paul could expresse in his best ora­tory, nor yet would in point of duty, [Page 178] for [...], it was not convenient, saith the text. Gregory the great, supposeth that these secresies were many disco­veries of the nature, gifts, qualifica­tions, and glory of the Angels. Dionys. conjectures that Paul saw the glory of Christ, and heard many things here altogether unknown. Theod. saith, Paul saw the beauty of heaven, heard the musick, and the joys, numerosam, & modulatam hymnorum coelestium, of the inhabitants of glory. Others opi­nionate, he heard many things of Predestination, and the calling of the Gentiles. But what fell within the glorious view of the Apostle, or was suggested to him in this extraordinary revelation is uncertain, and shall not be discussed; Hic certo nibil dici potest, cum Paulus ipse ea siluerit, as the learned man observes. But from the whole this inference may be deduced, That the glories that do attend the Saints eternity are a sphear above the appre­hensions of humane understanding. Eternity to come, is like Providence Ezek. 1. 15. here, it is a wheel within a wheel; it is a state vaild with mysteries: like a Picture with the curtain drawn before [Page 179] it. I speak ratione nostri, in respect of us, who are in via, as the Father speaks, In vita aeterna dei essentia non quidem sensibus verum animo seu mente cognosee­tur a beatis. Martyr. in our travell to eternity. There is nothing in future eternity that lyeth liable to our consideration, which hath not brought forth many debates, differences, severall conjectures, and tremulous probabilities even among Divina essentia ab angelis, aut beatis videri non potest. Alcu­inus. Chrys. Theop. the most eminent Patriots of learning. How it is debated at this day, whether the Saints shall see the essence of God in heaven, or else some circumambient glory; whether we shall know one another in happinesse, and so our joyes receive a fresh tide from that per­petuall fellowship: whether we in heaven shall see God, oculis corporis, aut mentis, with a corporall vision, or Ignem gehennae corporeum esse non ambigo, in quo certum est corpora crucia­ri. Greg. [...]. Damasc. only with an intellectuall apprehen­sion.

And so on the contrary hand, how it is debated among learned men, whe­ther the fire of hell be materiall or metaphoricall; on the sad emblem of of the heat and force of Gods displea­sure; whether there be corporeal worms in hell or no. Basil and others say, they are [...], &c. A kind of wormes casting [Page 180] poyson, and eating flesh; and others interpret these wormes metaphorical­ly; and say, by wormes are understood, morsus conscientiae, the corroding tor­tures of conscience. And so there are multiplyed controversies which doe arise in mens apprehensions of our future eternity. Eternity it is the seed of difficulties, the womb of mysteries, the scandall of learning, and the very reproach of knowledge it self. Indeed some dawning knowledge of this fu­ture state seems to rise in the minds of men. But how to graspe scientiam quidditativam, as Gerard saith, the full, satisfactory and plenary knowledge of it; this is too large a circumference to be comprised in our intellectuall sphere; the tired thoughts of man can­not travell to the end of this know­ledge. We must do with eternity, as Geographers do with Countries, they describe in their Maps and Globes; for large and spacious Countries, they only set down the situation, and bare name of those Lands: so must we for a full apprehension of our eternall estate rest in a twilight speculation. What understanding furnished with all [Page 181] the auxiliary helps of learning, expe­rience, naturall vivacity, nay with grace it self, while in this life, can unriddle these things, viz.

That millions of ages should passe away in eternity, and yet not one moment wasted or elapsed. That in the passage of thousands of millions of years there should not be the least variety or mutation, no accidentall or unexpected occurrences; and which is most inccomprehensible, that there never fall out an end; no night, no grave, no breaking up, no conclusion; that eternity should never be termi­nated with a close or period. Here our diseases have their heights, termes and ends, either in the recovery and restorement, or else in the death of the patient; the grave buries all distem­pers. And so likewise our delights, harmonies, and musicks, they have their set times and periods; and they either vanish in themselves, or else are buried in our own apprehensions; and our lives which are the stage up­on 1 Joh. 2. 17. which both are acted, they after the transition of a few winged spaces of time, faint away, and are emtombed [Page 182] in the dust, and death draws the cur­tain between us and all our possessi­ons. But now in eternity the under­standing may be ever enquiring after, and searching for an end, a sun-set, some event, or issue to fix and anchor upon: but still the sea of everlasting­nesse opens wider and wider, and all period flyeth away, as death from the damned, and there is no bottome for the plummet to give a glace of any approaching Land. This is that which puts a maske and vail upon the face of the richest understanding, and turns that sun into darknesse.

That inscription which the vain and Idolatrous Athenians did engrave upon their altar, which they dedica­ted to their God, [...], to their Ʋnknown God, may in a great measure Act. 17. 23. be attributed to eternity; Aeternitati ignotae, to unknown eternity. Eternity is the amazement, not the prey of know­ledge; we may admire, believe, fore­tast, and prepare for it, but we shall not fadome or comprehend it, while we are lockt in the lower room of this world.

Nor are there some Reasons de­ficient, why eternity cannot be fully comprehended by us in this life.

Reas. 1 God hath expresly said, that the possessions of eternity are inconceivable so the Apostle, 1 Cor. 2. 9. Neither Isa. 64. 4. have entred into the heart of man, the [...]. Nilus. things which God hath prepared for them that love him. Those riches which are attendant upon the happinesse of the Saints; they are above the computa­tion of the most noble understand­ing; nor can the large conjectures of the mind sound the bottom of them. They are as the Apostle speaketh, divitiae imperserutabiles, unsearchable riches, Ephes. 3. 8. such riches as reason heightned with industry and grace cannot find out the value, not search to the end of them. And so the miseries of the wicked, they transcend all imaginati­on; the most serious, large, and well-composed thoughts cannot suppose the extremity of them; how much heat is inclosed in one spark of Gods wrath. God himself to stop the proud and presumptuous thoughts of man, hath himself given it in, that the loves [Page 184] and losses of eternity are above the reach of our most superlative concep­tions. Can we span the heavens, and give in the true dimensions of them, count the stars, and set down their number how many individuals they amount to; or tell how many drops the vast Ocean is composed of; how many waves the Sea is curled with; or can we give the exact number of all the atomes that are in all the beams of the Sun? And yet if all these im­possibilities of knowledge, fell within the verge of our understandings; the mysteries of eternity were still wise­domes riddle, the disgrace of all in­tellectuall capacities. Aristotle saith, Arist. Ethic. that the Will can velle impossibilia, will and desire impossibles, which how true [...]. Greg. Nys. that is I shall not dispute; but of this I am sure, and God himself hath af­firmed, that the understanding cannot intelligere aeternalia, understand the things of eternity, (I speak of a full and accurate knowledge). But the mind dressed with all ornaments of accu­mulative learning, and let holinesse be the Pilot of it, must strike sail, when eternity is the theam of it; God [Page 185] in this particular hath by his own word put a stop to mans curiosi­ty.

2 That eternity cannot be fully con­ceived and comprehended by us, doth not only arise from the mysterious­nesse and superlativenesse of that state, Eccles. 1. 8. the joyes and griefs of it being beyond our suppositions, but likewise that we only have a superficiall knowledge of it, ariseth from the weaknesse and obscuri­ty of mans understanding. Our poor purblind understandings cannot fadome such a depth. This candle of the Lord, Prov. 20. 27. as the wise man cals it, burns in the sock et, Adams fal hath put a theef in this candle, and our continuall sins dampe the light of it. Our intellectuals are like a star in a cloud, or a taper burn­ing De illa ineffabi­li laetitia, & mansione aeter­na, nunc ex parte narrantes tanto nobis evangeli­zavtmus, tan­quam si quis ex pelago maris aquae gustum digito suo potest auferre. Ephrem. behind the curtaines. What we might have done, had not Adams fall caused a perpetuall eclipse in our un­derstandings by the interposition of it, is uncertain; but what a faint and fallacious knowledge our minds are now possessed with, is sadly visible; the light of our understandings being but as the light of a gloworme: the Apostle saith, 1 Cor. 13. 12. We see [Page 186] but through a glasse, and darkely too, what a dimnesse, and duskishnesse sur­priseth, and in a catarix upon the choysest understanding? So that the mind of man is masked with mistake and imperfection. That eternity fals not within the view of our knowledg, is not only so objectivè, objectively, from the transcendency of it; but subjectivè, subjectively, from our own inability, there is a wearinesse in our intellectuals. Our understandings are to be considered in reference to eter­nity, as our eye in reference to the siars; that we see not those glorious Job 8. 9. bodies more clearly and according to their vaste proportion: this ariseth not from any disappearance of, or cloud before them, but from the weaknesse and faintnesse of our sight, there is an ocular inability. Eternity receives the greatest cloud from our shattered know­ledge. Let us but consider our under­standings;

1. As being darke, clouded and veiled with much ignorance.

2. As being fallacious, easie to be seduced, and miscarry in their appre­hensions. Prov. 3 5.

[Page 187] 3. As being imperfect, falling short of that glorious sight, they were crea­ted with.

4. As being capable of receiving continuall shadows, and being over­cast with the commission of new sins, and lastly as being finite, and so crow­ded into a small room: How impossi­ble then can these darke-lanthornes guide us to the full knowledge of eternity? No more then we can see the whole world, uno intuitu, in one view by the helpe of a perspective. Indeed grace and industry are the 2 Pet. 3. 18. best cure for our weak, and faint understandings; but while grace here is of so low a stature, how can knowledge be gigantique? grace and knowledge alwayes bearing a proportion.

3 God leaves eternity not fully visi­ble here, to excite and inflame grace in a believer: that faith and love might shine in a greater flourish. The be 1 Joh. 3. 2. liever in this life shall never know how great the Summer of his felicity shall be; there is more behind the curtain, then that Saint which is most acquain­ted with God can discern. Those that [Page 188] dig in a mine, their hopes of wealth Bona regni cae­lestis, dicere, vel cogitare, vel in­telligere ut sunt, nullus po­test carne vesti­tus; multo et majora & me­liora sunt, quam cogitentur, vel intelligantur. Regnum nam (que) dei omni fama majus, omni laude melius, omni scientia iunumerabilius, omni gloria, quae putatur, excellen­tius. Aug de trip. habit. and leasure whet and fleet their in­dustry. And there are many reserves in eternity, which are magnetick, to draw out the orient graces of the Saint; and these inflame the Saints in­quisitions. Faith and hope sail to eter­nity with a full carreer, as to rich, but yet not fully known beatitude; that which remains in the darke is but graces noble incentive. The desire after naturall knowledge so inflamed that ingenuous Roman, that he lost his life in searching after the cause of Vesuvius his sulphureous vomits, why that hill should be the wombe of such flaming ejections; and how doth this animate even grace it self, and supply it with more vigorous conquests and strength, that the believer cannot see the end of his happinesse, cannot sum up how much the interest of his glory comes to? This portion behind which our understandings cannot see to tell out, is a rare incouragement, and puts life Heb. 11. 1. into our vivacious grace; this plumes and inflames grace, and this makes faith to swell, to consider what eter­nity will bee, what felicities it will [Page 189] be the fruitfull wombe of. And so in­conceivable Hujus poenae po­tentiam, nulla vox exponerè, nullus poterit sermo explanare; nihil est in [...]ebus corruptibilibus quod conferri possit incorrup­tibilibus sive bonis, sive ma­lis. Non est dubi­um quin id quod nulla temporis mensura cir­cumscribitur, nulla etiam cre­ata mente com­prehenditur. Aug. miseries which the damned shall be overwhelmed with, naturally and genuinely, they are like beacons upon a hill, or lanthornes upon a watchtower, for caution and preven­tion; but however they aggravate the feares and amazements of wicked men, sinners here cannot fadome the tor­ments of their execution; how sharpe and smarting and penetrative their miseries shall be, they know not the worst of their punishment; this is a worme to the wicked here; there are bitter, but yet concealed calamities behind. Unbelievers in this life, cannot imagine, or in their most sorrowfull conceptions apprehend, what wounds, how sore, how deep, how intole­rable the scorpions of Gods eternall wrath shall make, when twisted into his scourge. There is more calamity reserved for the reprobate, then either he will believe, or can con­ceive.

4 This is one of those arcana divini im­perii, those secrets which God hath lockt up in his own knowledge, nor will communicate to inferiour [Page 190] beings. As the day of judgment is one Rom. 8. 18. of the times and seasons, which is not given us to know. Some things there Sicut infans in utero matris conclusus, de pulcritudine hujus lucis nihil novit; sic & in hu­jus vitae tenebris de aeternitate nil possumus perfecti, aut so­lidi scire. are, the knowledge whereof is shut up in the breast of God, nor shall his mind therein be opened, untill the accom­plishment and fulfilling of all things at the great and last day, wheraof the full knowledge of eternity is one great considerable counsell. Nor doth God in this cast a disrepute, or disrespect upon his people here below, as if they should wholly be shut out of his counsels, for this the Psalmist con­tradicts: Psal. 25. 14. But there are three rea­sons, why God is pleased to conceal some things from his people here.

1 God would alwayes leave his peo­ple in a longing posture, that the heat of their desires, and the fervour of their industry might not be dampt. God keepeth and reserves many myste­ries, to give fire to the prayers, and animation to the graces of his peo­ple. God will not give in to his Saints a full history of all his inten­tions and decrees that he may finde work for his people. This life is a [Page 191] Place of appetite not satiety. Could the Saints fill and quiet their ambiti­ons here, they would sail no fur­ther to seek another coast; but here is no place of satisfaction. God hath many things written in such a cypher and character, that here we may long to interpret, but cannot un­riddle them.

2 To keep his Saints humble, God hath his reserve of counsels: Could Quemadmodum imbecillior est visus quam ut ad stellas per­tingat, sic in­tellectus noster infirmior est, quam ut coe­lestia gaudia plene percipiat. Ger. the people of God see all with an open face, this would feed and foster their pride and presumption, as if they were the privy counsellours and secretaries of God himself: God covers many things in his own wisdome, to teach man the lesson of his own darknesse, and imperfection. The riddles of na­ture limit and keep down the boasts of Philosophy, and so God drawes the curtain in a great measure here, to fix mens eyes on the cloud of his own disability. Paul, when he was 2 Cor. 12. 6. acquainted in his rapture with in­expressible revelations, God sends him Satan, to be a thorne in the flesh to statuminate and confine his thoughts, that they might not exceed their due [Page 192] station. These mysteries which God keeps in his own breast doe but un­ravell mans weaknesse, and they are a clear demonstration, what an infant in knowledge our understanding is; God doth in this smother those thoughts of man, which otherwise would prove immoderate and exor­bitant.

3 God doth reserve many things from the full knowledge of man, to set a glosse on, and to inhaunce the future glory of his Saints. That though here there may be a filme upon the 1 Cor. 13. 12. eye of their understanding; yet in heaven God shall be a sun to chase away all clouds; and all Gods ever­lasting decrees, secret counsels, and Tum justi omnia scient, quae Deus fecit scienda, tam ea, quae prae­terita, quā post­modum sunt fu­tura. Anselm. sacred determinations shall be in a fair print, and Jesus Christ shall be the interpreter. This shall be one part of the Saints blessednesse hereafter, they shall be as free from the cloud of ignorance, as from the spot of im­piety. And in Gods concealing many things, whereof the full know­ledge of eternity is one, he doth but raise the market of glory it selfe.

And now at last, the imperfect Anatome of our eternall estate is fi­nisht, and in it hath been made good, what hath been asserted in this last conclusion; (to wit) that our know­ledge of eternity here in this life is but faint and faltring; and the unskilful­nesse of him that hath undertaken the description hath but thickened the cloud, and encompassed the argument in hand with greater difficulties. But if any light hath broke forth from the weake discussion of this point, so that eternity may be any thing more ap­parent or visible; his imperfections shall not wholly annihilate his hap­pinesse. But the sum of all shall be this, Eternity is a superlative, identi­call, never-ending condition; whether it set us upon the throne of glory, or see us fastned to the wracke of eternall cala­mity.

Applicat. And now lest the picture of eter­nity may be rased out of our thoughts, after it is drawn; let the memory of it be kept fresh and lively in a close Application, which shall run in two streams. The first part of the Appli­cation shall be more generall as taking [Page 194] in within its circuit the whole body and corporation of man; it shall be to all universally. But the second part shall be more particular, either as relating to the Saints being the ful­lest argument of their joy and triumph; or else referring to sinners, as being the saddest word in their doom. Eter­nity is the torture, and poyson of their highest extremity.

CHAP. XIII.

Ʋse of Ex­hortation. Branch 1 FIrst let this exhort us all, To fill our thoughts with Eternity. Let this word alwayes lie floa­ting on our meditations. It is recor­ded of Philip K. of Macedon, that he gave a pension to one, to come to him every day at dinner, and to cry to him, Memento te esse mortalem, Remember thou art but mortall; and this should alwayes ring in our ears, Memento te esse immor­talem, Remember thou art immortall: thou hast an eternity to spend; thou hast an everlasting condition to suc­ceed. All our thoughts should be al­wayes drawne as so many lines to this center. As the Psolmist he did ne­ver Psal. 139. 18. awake, but he was with God, his meditations fastned upon that infinite and pleasant object; and in the night Psal. 16. 7. which buries all things in a silent con­fusion, his heart bubbled forth holy Ejaculations towards heaven: Let us in this draw Davids picture, to make eternity the sphear of our thoughts, and the object of our meditations. [Page 196] There is no occurrence or passage that can befall us, which may not draw eternity into our thoughts; when we see the graves of others, we may con­clude, they have already hoysed saile upon the the Ocean of eternity; when we observe the prosperity of others, we may conceive they are but ripening for eternity, as the Sun when it is at the highest, it then posteth to a set­ting. Our lives here, let them be the pageants of never so many temporall felicities; they are but a short dying groan; and are always lanching into the vast Ocean of eternity. When we observe our own corporall distempers and in­dispositions, then death is but scaling the wals, which being broken down, the soul flieth to eternity; when we 2 Cor. 4. 17. observe the fleet pace and swift carreer of time, how the severall parcels of it slide away in an inobservable veloci­ty, one houre treading upon the heels of another; all these diversities of time are but so many streams running into the sea of eternity. There is no passage or Providence can knock at our doors, but eternity may be behind it. Therefore let our contemplations be [Page 197] alwayes preying upon our everlasting Luk. 12. 20. estate. It is not what I am here, whe­ther gorgeous or inglorious, filled with the good things of the earth, or covered with the reproaches of the Psal. 73. 6. world; but what shall do, for ever? where shall I take up my lodging in eternity? St. Hierome used to say, Nier. He could never go forth, but he al­wayes supposed he heard the sound of the last trumpet, and the Angell crying, Surgite mortui, & venite ad judi­cium, Arise ye dead, and come to judg­men. It is strange to consider how men rally up their thoughts, and muster them, to prosecute their base­nesse here below; with what eagernesse and studiousnesse they methodize their earthly affaires; how do they live and clog their reasons and understandings with a multiplicity of occurrences? how do they put judgment, and me­mory, and conscience it self upon the Act. 5. 2▪ wrack, to put to usury their advan­tages, and in the mean while seldome or never seriously, and practically put this one question to themselves, What shall I do, whither shall I fly, where shall my harbour be to all eternity? [Page 198] Insomuch that most men, like that dy­ing Heu vaga, ani­mula, blandula, quae nunc abi­bis in loca? Pope, when they come to lie on their death-beads, they then begin to enquire, where they are going, and which way their travels must be. So pleasingly and inconsiderately doth poor man delude and turn cheat to his own soul. But ah! let our con­templations, Mat. 24. 28. as the Eagle to the carkasse, flock to eternity, and there be always hovering and brooding till we get a sight of an eternall crown.

But now to set home this argument, and to invite your meditations to this necessary probleme and subject, to chain your thoughts to vast, bound­lesse eternity; a Sea we must all sail in, whether rough or pleasant: I say to further this designe, let me cast in these few considerable incen­tives.

1 That you may fill you thoughts with eternity, consider, It is the noblest study, it is most sublime and generous. Eternity compriseth all those noble enjoyments and subjects which are fit for the speculations of the soul of the Saint. God, and Christ, and glory, the souls chiefest possession, these [Page 199] are Contemplations fit to give the As he said, when he used to contemplate on God; Nun­quam minus so­sus, quam cum solus. studious soul entertainment; these are sutable company for our cogitations and thoughts. It is strange to take notice, how men for the most part, fill their thoughts with dirt, and the muddie profits of the world; how Psal. 63. 6. they disgrace and discredit their own souls, those pieces of divinity in their breasts, with frothy, carnall, and earthly contemplations. How many are there, who put only pibble in the beautifull casket of their understan­ding, study drosse, and dung, and that which the Apostle cals losse, are Phil. 3. 8. versed about their inaminate comforts, their corne, their wine, and their oil: what is this but to carry rubbish and ragges in a Chariot? But the most ade­quate and noble study of the soul is eternity; to be alwayes sounding and fa­doming that Ocean: how shall my soul fare for ever? what will be the por­tion of my eternity? what will God settle on me for everlasting? Platoes Treatise, De immortalitate animae, of the immortality of the soul, spake him divine. The understanding of man is the noblest faculty of the noblest [Page 200] part, (viz.) his soul; and what more proportionable for the encounters of this noble light, then eternity, and those things that are attendant up­on it?

What a low degeneracy is it, for men to corrupt and putrefie their thoughts with perishing and dying objects, and crowd into their most serious medita­tions nothing but earth, and the things of the world? How doth poor man, when wholly taken up in these drossie contemplations, but debase Nec in rebus caducis aeterni­tas complacere potest. Bern. himself into the vilenesse of an idoll, undervalue and uncoyne himself, blot out Gods image and superscrip­tion, and write in the image and in­scription of earth? he doth as it were turn himself into brasse, and iron, and reprobate silver; the soul whose heat and studies are vented and wasted up­on these sublunary things, doth but stain its originall, and cast a dampe upon the divinity of its own na­ture.

Now how low and sordid these me­ditations upon terrestriall and drossie vanities are, will appear in our view­ing of these three things.

1 It is a degeneracy to confine our thoughts to sublunaries; as they are the impertinency of our life, they are Rom. 14. 17. a meer parenthesis. These outward things they are nothing to our pur­pose. We are travelling towards eter­nity, and to fix our thoughts on these crackling thornes, is but a meer di­gression. It is strange to observe how Mat. 6. 33. men vex their own thoughts, plot, contrive, foster, and commence their de­signes for these outward things, which shall never fall into the account, no further then as they aggravate the guilt of a sinner, the joy of a Saint, in the improvement or mispending of them. The question is, whether thou hast gained an interest in Christ, got thy sins blotted out, or hast had the beatificall sight of a smile from God. For the trash and chaffe of the world, who required, will God say, these things at your hands? what are all these things to thy soul, thou studious worldling? It is eternity should take up all our Contemplations, how thou shouldest fare for ever; to spend our thoughts on these earthly enjoy­ments, is as to goe to law for another [Page 202] mans right, or intrude our selves into his controversie.

2 To fill our thoughts with these outward things, it is to stop our me­ditations from our home. The wise men followed the star, and we should pursue eternity, thy home O soul, thy mansion, thy portion for ever. This Mat. 2. 10. should be the Contemplation of a Christian, how soft Christs bosome, how glorious his face, how sweet Gods smile; what those felicities are that are reserved for the Saints? But to fill our cogitations with extrinse­cals, is but the alienation of our thoughts, an unnaturall diversion. When the poor travaller surveyes Heb. 11. 13. many Countries, his thoughts and contemplations, they are oft at home, and setled on his own coast. Our medita­tions should alwayes be sailing toward our home, and let not the world and its flatteries obstruct or stop our Carreer.

3 The thought of these outward things, unfit the soul for eternity; how unprepared is a worldly man for his eternall estate; how loath to leave the twig, and fall into the Ocean of eternity? As the rich man in the [Page 203] Gospell; with what regret, and re­luctancy Luk. 12. 20. of spirit, when he is casting upon eternity, doth he cry out, Fare­well my dear enjoyments, those plea­sant darlings of my soul; I say, with what reluctancy and contraction doth he then think of eternity, when he is entring upon it? how ghastly is the face, and how unwelcome the arrests of eternity? Nothing is more dreadfull to this imprudent miserable wretch, then to look from the mast of this life down into the Ocean of eternity. What clammy sweates, and sad affrightments doth now the thought of an everlasting condition create? These worldly and drossie medi­tations how do they unhindge the soul; and make it jarre and discompose it for its entrance upon eternity. But then man acts most nobly and in a genuine speare, when his contemplations flie forward to eternity, and are descrying that boundlesse Sea. Now to close this first particular, let us but observe a double proportion between eternity and the understanding of man.

1 Eternity it is vast, unmeasurable and incomprehensible, every con­siderable [Page 204] in it, is unlimited, and uncon­fined (as before hath been discovered), and so the understanding of man is filled with vast apprehensions, it only (the Angels excepted) can fadome what God is, survey the excellencies of his nature, attributes, glory, and can conceive what a rare creation the Angels are, how fine spun the Ange­licall nature, what a rare thread the soul; only mans understanding can read Gods counsels, and bottome his everlasting decrees, when revealed, and make holy and serious animadversi­ons on them; thus the understanding can raise it self, and call within its view the most noble and generous speculations. Now eternity which compriseth not only the transcen­dencies of beings but enjoyments; how exactly proportionable and ana­logicall to such a glorious lampe as mans understanding is, especi­ally when snuft and encreased by grace?

2 Eternity is such a state which is not fully intelligible in this life, but still leaves something within the vail, and behind the curtain; and how [Page 205] doth this fit the ambitions of mens understandings, which are alwayes Eccles. 1. 8. unsatisfied in their enquiries; but still are prying into more and more ab­struses. The wise man observes of the corporall eye that it is unsatisfied in this life, how much more the in­tellectuall? The mind of man is preg­nant and operative, and as the Bee of the soul is alwayes wandring for some prey of future knowledge. This then, (not further to amplifie the argu­ment) let it be a golden spur to us, to enrich our minds with constant and serious thoughts of eternity; as being the most sublime and sutable study of the soul.

2 The study of eternity, is a most seasonable study. Our lives here Initium hujus abitionis est in nativitatis nostra hora, & singulis momen­tis & horis pro­pius accedimus ad scopum, quem ipsa morte attin­gimus. Chemn. they are but as candles in the wind, which every blast may blow one; they are as glasses, that every knock may batter and break; what more fragill and brittle then the life and continu­ance of man in this world? Every affliction, every distemper, every day may see it entombed in death; and observe its funerals. And therefore what Jam. 4. 14. more proper, what more seasonable, [Page 206] then alwayes to fix our thoughts on eternity, which is our state behind the curtain? what more apposite then to be peeping within the vail? There is no stability in this life, no uncer­tainty in the other; we will descry the Sea we are to sail in; ah! why not eternity we are every moment entring upon? Thou knowest not how soon thou shall be cast on this shoare, yet a little while and eternity shall swallow thee up; therefore what more seasonable then alwayes to anchor our meditations here? It was a grave speech of him, who said, Tota vita est meditatio mortis, our whole life is but the meditation of death. But I say, Our whole life should be a meditation of eternity; this is alwayes seasonable to consider, What shall we do, whither shall we flie, what preparations are made, what enjoyments are provided, what shelter, what honour for the poor soul to eternity? It is not what we are here, whether we are wrapt up in sores or solaces, whether we act Jobs misery or felicity; but what shall we do, and what shall we be for ever? And can then the thoughts [Page 207] of eternity be at any time unseasona­ble? no more, then our prayers to God, and our visitations of the throne of Act. 12. 23. grace. Every moment may put a period to our possessions here, and see them all withered into nothing, and there­fore what fare is at home, how am I provided for eternity? what lands, what leases in glory? what treasures have I blanckt up in heaven? The poor tenant at will, waites still at his Land-lords door for a lease; that he may Vniversum vitae nostrae carricu­lum viae confe­ratur, & mors est ultima hujus vitae lin [...]a, quae nobis januam aperit ad aeter­ditatem. have something certain, some security he shall not be cast out of his dwelling the next hour: In this life we have no lease, nothing certain, therefore think on eternity. Ah! how few, amongst men, which are every moment rea­dy to be turned out of the tenements of their bodies, are looking after and con­templating of eternity? here should be that center of all our heat, animo­sities, studies, designes, and meditati­on. The poor traveller cares not for his Inne, but what is his home; and yet foolish men, more mind their Inne, this world, then their home. It is now thy day, sinner, to thinke of eternity, this day is declining, and [Page 208] when concluded, thou shalt ever feel, but never contemplate more on eter­nity: Heb. 9. 27. Here is our Terme, shortly comes an everlasting Vacation of misery or happinesse: Now is the season to ru­minate on, and revolve the state of eternity. Can it be ever unseasona­ble to mind thee of thy soul, of God, of the bloud of Christ, of the work of grace? All these things have a ten­dency to eternity.

Let us but take a short view of the foolishnesse of most men, how foolish creatures they are; how ready and easily willing to forfeit and lose their seasons. Man in his infancy saith, It is not yet time to thinke of eter­nity, I am but a bud newly visible in the blossome, in the immaturity of my age; I have taken newly a lease of this life, (Infant, let me tell thee, thou hast none) I am newly come upon the stage of the world, and therefore to vex or discompose my thoughts with a future eternity, is not a duty but a solecisme; thus man in his unripe years lockes out the thoughts of an everlasting condition. And man in the beauty of his youth, he suspends his [Page 209] thoughts of eternity; lest those grave and serious contemplations might em­bitter those pleasures he drenches him­self in; he shuts out those unwelcome Eccles. 11. 9. guests which would interrupt the harmony and musick of his mirth. The young man he conjectures that to think of eternity is a hysteron proteron, and so he looks on it as a vain anticipation; it is too soon in the morning of his age, to think of the evening of eterni­ty. And man in his full age, looks on himself, as too strong and vigorous to fall into eternity, and in his own vain presumption, supposeth that he could wrestle with, and foil death it self; his veins are full of bloud; his bones are full of marrow, his body is full of strength, and he prides himself in the encrasie and healthful temperament of his constitution; and therefore for him to think of eternity, is to cast himself upon an unseasonable and un­necessary toil: thus the strong man bolts all such meditations out of door. Nay man in his old and decrepit Avaritia sene­ctuti naturalis. Arist. age, when he feebly and faintly walks upon the crutches of decay; he is then more agglutinated and chained to [Page 210] the world, how tenacious are then his desires, ambitious his pursuites, and how close his embraces of the things of this life; and when his eter­nity Gen. 4. 7. as well as his sin lies at his door, how doth he banish eternity out of all his thoughts, and makes his brain but a Mine of dirty contemplations? Thus all ages of men look upon the serious, solemne and sober thoughts of eternity, but as a piece of unseasonable melancholy, and overbusie intrusion into their otherwise-imployed de­signes. And so poor man is swallowed up in eternity, before he hath seriously considered it: the poor Ant guided only by a sensuall instinct, thinks of a future winter, and so accordingly prepares and layes in for it; shall the Ant thinke on a winter, and not thou stupid man on eternity, the never sink­ing condition, never failing or ending estate of thy soul? as the wise man saith, Learn policy and wisdome from Prov. 6. 6. the poor Pismire. Nay let this know­ledge of the poor Ant condemne and check the imprudence of Christians, the Ant is not sure of Winter, but may die under some foot or other, [Page 211] and yet the Ant thinks of it; but thou art as sure of eternity, as thou art of thy soul in thy bosome, that must be cast upon, and was created for it. Is not this folly below the beasts, and the most inconsiderable of them too? Ah then, let the seasonablenesse of the study fix your thoughts on eter­nity.

3 Eternity is the most rationall study of man. We must conceive as the Phi­losopher [...]. saith, That man is an incor­ruptible creature, and therefore to be contemplating on that duration, which is most sutable to his being, is most proportionable. So many of the Philo­sophers have spoken darkly of eternity, that there should be such a state and being, but have been at a stand, what should attend that being. Man is created to eternity, and death is his change, not annihilation; and therefore it is against the nature of reason it self, to fix our thoughts on any object be­low eternity.

Arg. 1 How rationall is it, for our contem­plations and thoughts to be sailing on this Ocean, when all our gains or losses are to be weighed in the scales [Page 212] of eternity, that makes our losses in­tolerable, and that makes our gaines inconceivable? No losse is confiderable but as eternall, nor advantage remarka­ble but as everlasting. Eternity ponderates our losses, and enriches our gains. Why Mat. 16. 26. is the losse of the soul so amplified by Christ; but as it is created immor­tall; and its life cannot be taken away? Temporall disadvantages they are but a gentle blast; but eternall, are an insupportable storme. Job himselfe encompassed with so many losses, the losse of children, friends, goods, health, credit; insomucch that his poverty was proverbiall; I say, Job himself, who was the skeleton and anatome of misery, his right and entail to a blessed eternity being not cut off, cannot be denominated truly miserable. It is eter­nity that is the poyson of misery it self, and is the edge of all calami­ty.

What is the reason, that Christ pre­ferres the beauty of a flower, and that none of the most rare neither, a Lilly, before all glory of Solomon, Mat. 6. 26. which was so great that it was the worlds wonder, and the Queen of [Page 213] Shebaes amazement? I conceive, that this may be one among others, the fadingnesse and transiency of it. Solo­mons glory was but a blazing star, which making a glorious shew for a while, suddenly disappeares, and vanish­eth. It is eternity that maketh glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. it self weight, and which puts a sting into misery and infelicity.

2 Reason should guide our thoughts unto eternity, as that which is the rest and quietation of our thoughts. While mans thoughts and disquisiti­ons are after the satisfaction of their lusts or the things of the world, how full of restlesnesse and disturbance; how full of tumult and confusion? They are like the dreames of Pharaoh Gen. 41. 8. and Nebuchadnezzar, which distracted Dan. 2 3. and troubled the spirits of those Princes. Should we cast our eye only on that example of Ahab, 1 King. 21. 4 when he would graspe the Vine­yard of Naboth into his possession, and being denyed, with what anguish of spirit, and torture of mind doth he cast himself upon his bed, and there leaves himself a prey to the perplexities of his disquieted mind; he throwes [Page 214] himself upon the bed, which was his bed of thorns, and denies to eat, he refuseth the common commands of nature it self.

And indeed, Convulsion fits and agonies wrack the thoughts of cove­tous and ambitious men; how rest­lesse their designes? how unsatisfied their desires? there is a perpetuall tempest in their cogitations. Absalon and Achitophel those twines of ambi­tion, 2 Sam. 16. 21. with what amazement and hurry do they pursue their traitorous con­spiracy? Sin and earth, they are the quicksilver and disease of mens thoughts, they are the very earth­quake of mens meditations. But eter­nity Psal. 104. 34. is the center and rest of the souls Contemplations. As Dauid saith of God, that his meditations of him were sweet. In conversing with eternity, our thoughts meet with a harbour, there is something to stay, and stop, and satisfie the ambition of the soul; there is God the portion, Christ the rock, heaven the refuge, joy the mu­sick, and everlastinguesse the triumph of the believer.

Nay, there is some contentment in viewing and contemplating on the eternity of misery: As it is the tri­umph of Gods vengeance and wonder of his justice, the wofull reward of sin, the souls pregnant and lively caveat, the lanthorne to guide the soul to avoid the rock, and escape the bot­tomlesse gulfe of endlesse perdition; there is something in eternity to settle and compose the meditations of man. The world and lust they are but the Maze and Meander of mens thoughts. What care do men take? what hazards Eccles. 2. 22, 23. do they run? what paines of body, plotting of brain, conflicts of passi­ons, biting of conscience, disrepute among men? Any thing, and every thing will men undergoe to acquire the vain vexations of the world, or the filthy satisfactions of sin. Amnon 2 Sam. 7. 2. growes lean, is vexed and sick for his sister. Thus men torment their own minds for these outward or sin­full enjoyments, make themselves per­petuall drudges and servitours to the times, fawn, flatter, comply, couple, strike in with the instruments and authors of their hopes, hazard their [Page 216] salvation and consciences to swimme Adorare vulgus, jacere [...]scula, & omnia servili­ter pro imperio. Tacit. Hist. And I may too, pro peccato. through all to their adored haven, whether the paint of the creature, or the pleasure of a sin. These concussions and confusions attend the distempered thoughts of man, when they have either outward things, or lust for their ob­ject. But eternity allayes all tumults in our meditations, when the soul bethinks it self, Where shall I leane my head, where lodge my soul, where find my home, where build my nest for ever? these thoughts shed a serenity on the spirit of man. As Christ saith, Mat. 11. 28. that those that came to him shall find rest for their souls, and those that fix their contemplations on eter­nity shall find a bottome, shall find ground to anchor their thoughts upon; here is the Nil ultra, the pillar our me­ditations cannot sail beyond, therefore reason may attract our thoughts to be much on eternity.

4 Eternity it is the study of grace, more then of reason. All the graces of a believer, they have an eye to eternity. Repentance turne the soul to God to prevent and eternall losse of Gods presence; the eye of penitency [Page 217] is toward eternity; the eye weepes for sin here, that it may not weep by sin in eternity; here the penitent drenches himself in tears, that in his everlasting condition he may not be Mat. 8. 12. drowned in misery; here he is weeping Luk. 13. 28. with brokennesse of heart, that hereafter he may not be weeping with gnashing of teeth. And here in­deed he fils his eyes with tears; that here­after in eternity God may wipe away all tears from his eyes, Rev. 7. 16. And so love is inflamed upon the point of eternity, because the Saints shall lie Isa. 35. 10. everlastingly in the armes of Christ. Who will not love that husband, that shall crown his Spouse with everlasting joy? Indeed the love of a Saint to Christ, is but the imperfect relation, and darke picture of Christs love to a Saint; Christs love is eternall, Joh. 13. 1. and the Saints love breaks out towards Christ, because his love is eternall. Eternity as it is put into Saints portion, it is the bellowes of the Saints love, it fans and oyles those flames: What can be more in­centive to the believers affection, then that Christ shall endow him with everlasting possession? It is the Everlasting [Page 218] crowns the gift of Christ, and fires the love of a believer. For ever, for ever, to have his soul sweetned with the pleasant smiles of the Lord Jesus, Can. 5 7. and alwayes to lie in his soft and bea­tificall embrace, how sick of love, must this make the Saint! The grace of love likewise principally glan­ceth its eye upon our future eternity.

Faith acts immediately upon eter­nity, Heb. 11. 16. as the Apostle speaks, It is the [...]. Theod. evidence of things not seen, Heb. 11. 1. that is, those things that are within the vail of eternity. Faith it doth bring down, those felicities a believer shall inherit hereafter, to him here below, and puts the believing soul in perfect possession. Faith is the eye of the soul, by which we peep through the curtains of mortality, and take a view and foretaste of heavenly things. This glorious grace hath that rare power, that it can either sublimate the soul and carry it up into the bosome of Christ, or bring down Jesus Christ as a bundle of myrrhe into the bosome of a believer. Eternity is the very prospect of faith, it is usuall Pisgah sight. Faith takes the soul, as the Lord did Moses, and gives it a view Exod. 31. 1. [Page 219] of Canaan. Here lies the difference be­tween Fides est credere quod non vides, cujus veri­tas & mer­ces est, videre quod credidisti. Aug. in Joan. the eye of faith, and the eye of sense, the one is circumscribed by a present view, we see only what is before us; but faith can take a survey of eternity it self, and lay a present claim to a future inheritance. The Fides divina credit quae non videt; & quae nullo sensu asse­quitur, & credit infalli­biliter, sive prae­terita sunt, sive praesentia, sive futura. Par. excellency of this grace is remarkable in this, it can draw the Arras from before the glory of heaven it selfe. We sail upon the Ocean of eter­nity here, already, in the barke of faith.

In a word, this grace presentiates eter­nity, and looks on our future condition as already attained to, in all its conside­rables, it layes the soul in the ever­lasting armes of Christ by its vigorous and undaunted acts: thus faith is a grace that doth cast an immediate eye upon the S [...]a of eternity.

And Hope its tendency is wholly towards eternity, and the rare pos­sessions thereof. It is the rationall dispute of the Apostle, that hope must cast an eye upon a future condition, for saith he, Hope that is seen is not hope; Rom. 8. 24. that is sense, not the grace of hope. That is a pregnant place, Col. 1. 5. [Page 220] For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, observe heaven is made the proper place and seat of hope. And res sperandae, the things hoped for, are called hope, as in the before cited place. So glory is sometimes annexed to hope, Col. 1. 27. And sometimes salvation, 1 Thess. 5. 8. And hope is called a blessed hope, Heb. 6. 18. Tit. 2. 13. A hope of future beati­tude and blessednesse. And some­times hope is united to eternall life, Tit. 3. 7. The very center and stage of hope is eternity. It looks beyond this life, and being fledged by lively acts and exercise, it makes its nest in eter­nall felicity. Observe that reviving argument of the Apostle, 1 Cor. 15. 19. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most miserable. Observe, I say, hope flies beyond this Spes nostra pe­netrat & per­vadit ipsum coelum, ipsam (que) coelestem glori­am. A Lap. life, and treads down the limitations of it, if in this life only. Hope anchors upon eternity, casts its anchor with­in the vail, Heb. 6. 19. Pareus observes that this phrase, Alludit ad sanctuarium Interiora sunt ipsa dei visio omnis gloria, & beatorum opes. Id. templi, quod velo separatum a reliquo templo, coelum praefigurabat. Eternity is the prize of hope. Hope is here in the bud, but is blowne in eternity. Everlasting bles­sednesse [Page 221] is the shoare hope sailes to; the crown hope aimes at. It is that only which quiets the pati­ent, yet springing expectations of a Saint.

And so Joy, its triumph is in eternity, Ex beatifica dei visione, quae est summum beato­rum in vita aeterna praemium orietur in cordi­bus sanctor um ineffabilis lati­tia & exultatio. Ger. which is the noon-day of joy. The Saints joy is in its harvest in glory. And therefore the Apostles phrase is full, 1 Pet. 1. 8. Joy unspeakable and full of glory. Heaven is the palace of joy, and eternity is the day of the Saints everlasting nuptials. And the Apostle Jude couples the presence of Gods glory and joy together, Jude v. 24. Isa. 61. 7. In the presence of his glory with exceeding 1 Joh. 1. 4. joy. The believers joy here is but the Gaudebunt▪ e­lecti propter lo­ci amoenitatem; propter jucun­dam societatem, propter corporis glorificationem, propter mun­dum quem con­tempserunt, propter infer­num quem eva­serunt. Bonav. softer-musick, and his joy in heaven the fuller harmony. This joy of eternity, Mat. 25. 21. is called, The joy of our Lord, because God shall fill the souls of his people with this joy, by himself, not by his creatures, by his immediate presence, not by the interposition of creature-contributi­ons, riches, delights, &c. God being the highest and infinite good, the sweet­est pleasure, and the most pleasant sweetnesse shall spring to the Saints [Page 222] by his presence inexpressible joy. So the grace of joy it swels here, and is as a river posting to the sea of a joyous eternity.

Thus all graces have their designe Gaudebunt sancti infra se de coeli & crea­turarum pul­critudine; intra se de corporis & animi glorifica­tione; juxta se de hominum & Angelorum asso­ciatione. Lud. in eternity, they all hoyse sail on this Ocean. Every grace hath its peculiar relation to eternity, and it is in fieri till it be perfected in eternall glory; it is in the womb till it be delivered by eternity, which is the aime and the consummation of all grace. Doest thou study thy own grace, thou wilt be alwayes quoting eternity. In a word,

1 The thoughts of eternity establish grace; grace would seem a tedious and a burdensome thing, but that it is travelling towards eternity, glory is the seal of grace: this makes faith Jub. 19. 25, and hope resolute as shortly both to be landed in eternity, and there to be inhanced into a nobler forme, faith to be turned into vision, and hope into fruition: this settles the waverings of grace, of love, patience and zeal, that in eternity they shall be resolved into glory; and these divine qualifications 2 Tim. 4. 8. shall be transformed and nobilitated [Page 223] into perfection. Grace would be the trouble, not the triumph of a Christi­an, were it to be buryed for ever, and entombed in the dust; but the eternity to come melts away all the fears and hesitations of grace.

2 Thus the thoughts of eternity quicken grace; Men act faith and love lively and vigorously, as eying eternity: It is feathers to the arrow of grace. How doth the soul claspe about Christ with the kind and strong em­braces of faith; as knowing it shall Gal. 2. 20. be enthroned in his bosome for ever? It's Constantines motto, [...], In this overcome. This flings sparkes into a gracious heart, thy patience shall triumph in eternity. Grace and faith 1 Tim. 6. 12. fight undauntedly; eternity holding the crown before them; this is bel­lowes to the fire of grace, it shall be enshrined in eternall fruition. The sun of eternity doth shoote up the flower of grace, puts heat into the flames of zeal and love it self; to be­leeve on God by couragious faith, suffer for him with invincible patience, act for his glory with fired zeal, all this is but sutable; because the soul [Page 224] shall enjoy God for ever. It is the for ever, the long lease of heaven, (if glory may be stained with the name of lease) turnes every grace into a springing Psal. 103. 5. eagle; this for ever, puts spirits, ani­mation and life it self into the graces of a believer.

3 The thoughts of eternity render grace more lovely and amiable. A poor believer casting his thoughts on a future eternity more prizeth one dram, the least degree of grace, then as many worlds as omnipotency can create, then all the excellencies of the whole creation, could they be accu­mulated into one heap. One the the most imperfect degree of grace will secure the soul for ever; snatch it out of all the stormes of eternall wrath, will bolt hell gates, and keep down the trap-door of a miserable eternity, that the poor soul shall not be ingurgitated in endlesse cala­mity.

There are two things amplify the riches of grace, and ennoble it to an in­estimable value: The Divinity of its 2 Pet. 1. 4. nature; and the eternity of its be­ing; for grace cannot be annihilated, [Page 225] but melted, or rather raised into glory. The Philsopher Bias rejoyced in this very sentence, Omnia mea mecum porto, I carrie all about me. And so the poor believer rejoyceth in this, he carries faith, love and grace about him; which are the choysest riches, and which will be not only his rescue, but his renown to all eternity. The poor Saint concludes, all the excel­lencies 2 Pet. 3. 9, 10. of the creature shall crumble into the same dust with me, but one dram of grace shall not leave my soul to see corruption. If I am stript of Qui fidem & gratiam semel habet, eam amittere non potest. Benef. the cloaths I wear, and put on the same putrid garment which Job did on the dunghill, when he was cloathed with soares; yet having but the least measure of grace, I shall triumph for ever; my grace is my jewel, which I shall not lose for ever. Eternity sheds a beauty on grace it self. Grace is the fiery chariot to carry up the Eliahs to glory; and it is the glory, the eter­nall felicity that sets the price on the fiery chariot of grace. For could the same expiration stop the breath of grace and our lives together; how low would the market of grace be? [Page 226] I meane, versus hominem, in reference to us.

But again,

1 Eternity is the state of graces per­fection. Grace before it comes to eter­nity, is like silver before it is coyned. Eternity is the Mint to coyn grace with the most glorious image and superscription. Grace in heaven hath 1 Cor. 13. 12. its last hand, is flowred into perfection, is dissolved into the pearl of superla­tivenesse. We should alwayes think on eternity upon this account, as there our graces shall be refined into In coelo erit abs (que) nube amae­nitas, & abs (que) nocte claritas, & abs (que) labe puritas. Guliel. A lard. the highest power and purity; eter­nity is the proper study of a gracious heart, in the point of his graces. How sweet should this Contemplation be to the Saint! though here often his love hath its winter in his breast; yet in eternity it shall be fire ad octo, and a flame that hath neither the smoake of corruption blended with it, nor yet any allaying of imperfection. In eternity grace is drawn to the life, wants no degrees, no measures, no reflections, grace here is polisht with glory.

2 In eternity there shall be the coro­nation of grace; grace shall be crowned Rev. 3. 21. with glory. Every gracious soul shall be as Esther, made Queen in eternity. Gods everlasting smile shall recom­pense, and honour the grace of a Saint. All the graces of a Saint in Gen. 40. 43. eternity shall be as Joseph, advanced from a prison to a throne, from the darke prison of the body, to a place of pure and rare perfection. The graces of a Saint here are like a star impri­soned in a cloud; but in heaven shall be as a star, or rather the Sun in a clear and glorious skie. Eternity shall crown and inaugurate faith and love with the perfect sight of God, who was the sole and constant object of all their actings and exercise here.

3 Eternity is the explanation of grace. We shall never know fully the value, and power of grace; What were its designes here, what the mean­ing of it; how rare the beauty of holinesse is, till we come to eternity. (And if I could drag your thoughts from the lees they are setled upon, to center in eternity.)

Consider, in eternity the reason of [Page 228] the Saints patience under the shot of trouble; their zeal when flames were Dan. 3. 17, 18. their reward; their undaunted faith, winged hope, flaming love, their rowing against the stream, and sligh­ting the Comet of honour; their de­spising Heb. 11. 25, 26. the delicacies, and soft tem­ptations of pleasure; their repudiating the silver bait of riches, will fully be known in eternity: that will expound all this, and be the comment of the strange and vigorous acts and exer­cises of grace. In eternity we shall know why Job had rather abide his torment, then leave his faith: Why Abraham should rather destroy his Son, then displease his God; and Moses enter­tain affliction, then court temptation; eternity shall be the interpretation of all.

In eternity we shall know the rea­son why Daniel would rather incur Dan. 6. a Premunire, then lay aside his usuall oraisons and prayers, though but for a day or two; and why the Martyrs rather kisse their chaines with a Josephs kisse, then their Christ with a Judas his kisse; and why Paul would 2 Tim. 4. 6. rather be a Martyr for Christ, then Act. 13. 11. [Page 229] a God to the people: all this in eter­nity shall be unfolded in a plain ex­plication.

In a word, Eternity shall unriddle all the designes, intentions, exerci­ses, heights, fights, resolutions, am­bitions, and conquests of glorious grace. Thus eternity is a gracious, as well as a noble, rationall, and seasona­ble study. But

5 Fill your thoughts, designes, and meditations with eternity, which is the most profitable study; this serious study is the wombe of multifarious advantages. Could ye alwayes be glancing at, and thinking of eternity; ye would find the Philosophers stone, to turn all into gold. The solemne thoughts of eternity would cure the soul of many usuall distem­pers, which frequently doe attend it.

Advant. 1 This would be the checke of sin; were men more mindfull of eter­nity, they would be lesse passio­nate after iniquity. Would the soul once begin to reason, May not this Non tanti emam poenitere. Dem. sin damne my soul to eternity, and render me the subject of everlasting [Page 230] wrath? And will the sweetnesse of my present lust countervail scalding lead, burning pitch, boyling oyle, em­poysoned arrowes in my soul for ever? Those furies and torments, un­mixt calamities, and superlative mise­ries, that the damned scrietch and cry under for evermore? Will the poor helplesse thoughts of a transient lust or pleasure of an unconscionable or inordinate action, will these misera­ble comforters and naked shadowes any way solace me under the scorching wrath of God? Thoughts of eternity would strangle the thoughts of sin. Our corrupt nature is the poyson of temptation; but our meditations of eternity would be poyson to tempta­tion. Joseph makes the enquiry, when assaulted by his lascivious Mistresse, How can I do this and sin against God? Gen. 39. 9. And every tempted soul might make this answer to all temptations, How can I yeild to this, and murder, and assasinate my soul to eternity? The thoughts of eternity would divorce the soul from the lustfull embraces of sin; and look on those painted Jezabels as the everlasting troublers of [Page 231] the soul. Let the tempted patient al­wayes look upon sin in the multiply­ing glasse of eternity, and conclude, this sin, which my corrupt judge­ment perhaps cals veniall may blast my hopes, stop my ambitions, checke my desires, destroy my comforts, and ruine my soul for ever.

Could we, or did we set sail for eternity in our Contemplations; how much

1. Treachery, such as Absalom, Jo­ab, 2 Sam. 3. 27. Judases treason was inconsiderable 2 Sam. 16. 2. to it; Mat. 26. 49.

2. How much filthinesse;

3. How much guilt to condemn the soul for ever;

4. How much madnesse would be found in every sin: Surely could we paraphrase upon a future condition, pain without ease, and torment with­out end, it would make us sound a retreat to all our darling inchant­ments of sin. What benefit will it be to remember the amorous and adulte­rous bed, when we shall take up our lodgings, (not our rest) in a bed of eternall flames? Will Belteshazzers Dan. 5. 2, 3. riots, and sacrilegious prodigalities [Page 232] sweeten or purfume the stench and torments of hell to him? Nay the very thoughts of a blessed eter­nity would unriddle the poyson, unmaske the infinite evill, and chine up the multiplyed mischiefes of sin; glory it self would be a looking-glasse 1 Cor. 6. 9, 10. for us to see the deformity of sin in. Sin that monster of evils, which can shut heaven gates against, and dar­ken the beatificall vision to the soul; which can raise a wall of se­paration between the soul and God Isa. 59. 2. himself.

Indeed our future estate well weighed in the ballance of serious meditation, would be as an Angell in the way to stop transgressours from travelling in the road of sin. Ah! how would such thoughts as eternity Numb. 22. 25, 26. would engender, raise a nausea, and distast in the soul against the most pleasing cheates of sin. Let us but observe the dismall effects of the hand­writing on the wall, which sin pro­cures; sin which is now a rose in thy bosome, will be a dagger in thy heart for ever. Ah! remember the for ever.

Indeed sins sinfulnesse and conta­mination [...]. Chrysost. ad prop. Antioch. is best drawn by the pencill of eternity. In all thy overtures with sin, and pleas with temptation, let eternity be the umpire: What rage and holy passion would such thoughts produce and procreate? Put but thy finger into the fire of eternall wrath by sacred and serious Contemplation, and then sin if thou canst; thou wilt then either throw away thy faith, or thy sin. I conceive the sinner rockes these thoughts asleep, before he courts and embraces the offers of corruption. A poor sinner upon second thoughts, lest by sin he shall provoke an in­finite Majesty with a two-edged sword Psal. 7. 12. in his hand to make everlasting wounds Jer. 48. 2. in his soul, will hardly adventure the gratifying his sweetest lust: If thou wouldest at any time cast a chain upon thy corrupt heart, to restrain its liberty in sin, draw eternity into the counsels of thy soul.

2 Thoughts of eternity would allay and mitigate our inflamed desires af­ter the delights and delicacies of the creature. They would correct the inordinacy and distemper of our pas­sions [Page 234] after them; were these medita­tions greater inmates with us, we should not grow sick for Naboths Vine­yard; 1 King. 21. 4. and as Eve, lose a world to gain an Apple. Did we think of eternity, we should fall upon such reasonings as these, and plead with our souls in their strength; viz. What advantage doth Dives reap now of all his deli­cate morsels, his rich fare, the elixars of all his banquets? What taste hath Cleopatra of her dissolved jewels? Or Heliogabalus of all those vast and vari­ous preparations, those unheard of sensualities he drowned himself in? Doth the sensuall and effeminated sin­ner Fallax felicitas, ipsa est major infelicitas. Aug. who is shut under the hatches of eternity; relish any of those varieties which he sinfully pleased himself with here? doth any delightfull smatch re­fresh him from all his luxuries and profusenesse in this life? Do the rich Da domine, ut sic possideamus temporalia, ut non perdamus aeterna. Bern. mans barnes now relieve him in his eternall famine? How would such thoughts as these embitter the sweet dalliances of the world? When we turn sensuall in our pleasurous en­joyments, we remember not eternity. What teares did Davids Adultery, [Page 235] when he sinfully gratified his corrupt temptation, squeize from him here; how did he water his couch with his tears, that he had defiled with his lusts? The thoughts of eternity would Voluptatem vincere est vo­luptas maxi­ma, nec ulla est major victoria, quam ea quae a cupiditatibus refertur; qui enim hostem vincit, fortior est altero, qui cupidita­tes fortior est seipso. Cyp. de bono Pud. put a maske before all the beauties, and blend bitternesse with all the luxuries, and cast a rust on all the riches of the world; would sowre all creature-satisfactions, and take their tast from them; nay such solemne thoughts would wrincle temptation it self. Did we sometimes penetrate into the Sanctum sanctorum of such thoughts, how much art, paint, im­posture, witherednesse and fugacity should we see in the complexion of the most flourishing contentments? Then the very quintessence of the Qui amant vo­luptates non possunt affici dee, & rebus divinis: Voluptates enim spirituales quae animum erigunt ad coelestia, con­trariae sunt car­nalibus, quae ani­mum deprimunt. & effeminant. Theoph. creature, would grow stale and curdle into vanity. The Dagon of all created excellencies would fall down before the thoughts of eternity. These con­templations would anatomize the world in all its varieties; and finde out all the veins and arteries of its cheat and delusion; we should look then upon all our pleasures as what really they are, phantastick but dange­rous [Page 236] dreames. Eternity ruminated on would soile the colour of the fairest courtships of the world; it would draw off our hearts from all subluna­ry satisfactions. Ah! my eternity, my eternity; What shall become of me for ever? When the soul shall seriously aske it self, what reall advantage, what soul-satisfaction, what stable or solid comfort is wrapt up in these creature-possessions? but above all am I the more interessed in Gods favour, assu­red of sins pardon, or fitter for my eternity by these pleasing enjoyments? Or rather are not these delights I enjoy, the damps of my grace, the in­fections of my desires, the temptati­ons of my soul, the traitours without the wall of my heart, Satans weapons, and varnisht spies and obstructions to mysterious thoughts of eternity? how would, I say, such a question as this, put seriously and closely to the con­sciencience flat the taste of the most sweetned delicacies?

3 Serious and frequent thoughts of eter­nity, would be cordials and counsellours in all our troubles. This would sweeten 2 Cor. 4. 17. and take off the bitterest potion of [Page 237] affliction and calamity, there is an Isa. 54. 8. eternity to come. Those flames I am Mat. 10. 28. now scotcht by, shortly death will turn into a smoak, and then I shall sail upon the pleasant sea of a glori­ous eternity. This everlasting conditi­on Melior est modi­ca amaritudo in faucibus, quam aeternum tormentum in visceribus. to come, it takes out the core of every affliction: It doth as Edward the firsts Queen did to him, it suckes the poyson out of the wound of every trouble; it cuts every calamity of the stone. The poor Saint thinking of eter­nity concludes, I am passing through a sudden storme to an endlesse calme, through a tempest to an everlasting tranquillity, through a rough Sea to an eternall harbour.

There are three things sweeten af­fliction;

1. The pleasure of a promise, Isa. 43. 2. The promises are the believers blad­ders to swimme through the highest waters of Marah of miseries. They are 2 Pet. 1. 4. pretious, not only in their futurition, as they shall be dissolved and melted into reward; but as they are present balme in the wounds of affliction, pre­tious balsame to a groaning and trou­bled Saint.

[Page 238] 2. The smile of a God, that cannot only mitigate affliction, and allay the pain of it; but transforme the Ser­pent of misery into a blossoming rod of consolation; the favour and smile Psal. 119. 67. of Christ cannot only pare an afflicti­on, Psal. 23. 4. take off the noxious skin of it; and take out the sting the torment of it, but can change the nature of it, and turn a perplexity into a per­fume, into an advantage: Can make the melancholy face of trouble it self, look pleasant.

3. The thoughts of eternity; these con­templations Guttatim poend sumitur, liquan­do bibitur, per minutias transit: In re muncrati­one torrens est voluptatis, & fluminis impe­tus, inundans laetitiae, flumen gloriae, & flu­men pacis. Bern. can carry up the soul a­bove, and make it look beyond trou­ble. All the distresses of a Saint in the world, they are but as one fit of the stone, compared to eternity; they are a little foul weather, and plashie dirty way in his journey to a glorious eternity. One moments fruition of eternall joy shall take away the smell of all our troubles here; the very me­mory of these flashes of affliction shall not remain in eternity, unlesse it be to enlarge the extasie of joy. In all thy flames of trouble remember eter­nity: what is this teare, this sigh, [Page 239] this single groan of misery, to an Ocean of satisfaction? when I shall sail upon a sea of boundlesse and endlesse mercy. This moment, as the Prophet speaks, Isa. 54. 8. this flash of lightning to an endlesse state? When I have passed millions of ages in a blissefull everlastingnesse, will this tran­sient recollected? What darknesse or woe doth Jeremiahs dungeon, or Jobs Jer. 38. 6. dunghill cast upon their glorified souls; Job. 2. 8. now shipt upon the Ocean of a blessed eternity? or doth the stench of either offend those enthroned Spirits? Medi­tations on eternity would make the oil of gladnesse to swimme above the wa­ter of affliction.

There are four Questions one should aske his soul in the time of trou­ble.

1. Quest. 1 What is the spring of these bit­ter waters, where is the fountain head? Every one should then search for the Josh. 7. per tot. Achan. What causeth this earthquake, this perplexity, Christians in affliction Psal. 239. 23. should fadome their own hearts, search their own wayes; and observe what is it that jarres their pro­sperity, [Page 240] and the harmony of it. This is the first Question, What is it that springs a leake in my happi­nesse?

2. Quest. 2 What is the end of these thun­derbolts, these troubles which now are fallen upon me, and seised upon me as an armed man? What aime, what errand have these miseries? The rod speakes something, as the Prophet Mic. 6. 9. hath it; what is its language? Every one should read the superscri­ption of his trouble, see the contents of his affliction, and so answer Gods letter in it.

3. Quest. 3 What may be the improvement of this trouble, how shall I refine it, and make use of it to my spirituall good? How shall I make it ancillari gratiae, wait on my souls felicity? How shall I turn this misery into gold, by a rare Chymistry? This should be another question. As Ma­nasseh 2 Chron. 33. 13. who turned his fetters into golden chains by holy and serious re­pentance. But

4. Quest. 4 What is this trouble to eterni­ty, this evaporating sparke, to an everlasting condition? How incon­siderable [Page 241] this gentle and short gale to a perpetuall estate? Am I in Christ? Is my everlasting estate sure? Is the bond of God sealed to me? Am I enrolled in the new covenant? Hath Christ left me his bloud for a legacy? Have I searched his will, and found my name in it? Is my name written Luk. 10. 20. in the book of the Lamb, and tran­scribed in the volume of heaven? Then what is this transient fit of mi­sery, this short-breathed affliction, to my endlesse, boundlesse, and bottom­lesse felicity?

Nay, the very thoughts of eternity, would yeild some comfort to the wicked in their calamities here, in that they would re-inforce the industry of the sinner to get an interest in Christ, that being tortured in present cala­mities, he might find rest in eter­nity.

4 Thoughts of eternity would be Spirits in duty. I hear for eternity; I pray for eternity, if I pray not my self in­to the sweets of Christs bosome, I shall fall into the flames of Gods Joh. 9. 4. wrath, what heat would eternity be­get? what zeal, resolution, invincible [Page 242] and unanswerable buldnesse in all our duties? Now are my prayer-seasons, Sermon-seasons, and my everlasting estate depends on the good improve­ment of them. How would this fire animate and awaken our soules in all ordinances, and in all our servi­ces? I now wrestle, I now fight for eternity; Thalami in Sancta Ecclesia sunt illorum corda, in quibus animae per amorem sponsae invisibili conjungun­tur, ut ejus desiderio mens ardeat, praesentis vitae longitudinem poenam deputet. Mens ita (que) quae jam talis est, nullam praesentis seculi con­solationem recipit, sed ad illam quam diligit, medul litus suspi­rat, fervet, anhelar, anxiatur▪ Vilis & sit ipsa salus sui corporis, quia transfixa est vulnere Amoris. Greg. Hom. the crown lies at stake, my everlasting joy and rest. Mariners in a storme, how do they pump, work, sweat, throw overbord their lumber, nay their richest Merchandise, because their lives are concerned: When thou hearest or pray­est, remember, Thy eternity stands in com­petition Had those damned spirits, who have tasted of the miseries of eter­nity, but a renewed capacity of duty, to pray and hear again, how would they nail their eyes to heaven in holy contemplation, chain their knees to the earth in prayer; and turn their flesh into iron in a constant adora­tion? [Page 243] as one in the Primitive times. Eternity would make zeal leap in the wombe of duty. And it is worth our considerations, What a short breath, would our duties be, were our life but one constant service? Did we seriously thinke of our future eterni­ty, it would be a good cure for all our frothinesse, drowsinesse, careles­nesse, formality, coldnesse, indifferency, infrequency, extravagancy in duty: Such thoughts would inflame the heart, raise the minde, fire the spirit, set on worke the affection, nay spiritualize and sublimate the body it self in holy services. As Archimedes who was so intent on his Mathematicall studies, that he heard not the Souldiers when they came to his study-door to kill him. Ah! what intention, heat, bent and abstraction of minde would these contemplations produce? Doest thou complain poor soul, of thy cold­nesse and deadnesse in duty? cast thy thoughts on eternity; Canst thou sleep on the scaffold or on the block? remember, thou rowest and runnest for thy life; nay, for thy eternall life; if thou givest God any rest now, he [Page 244] will give thee no rest hereafter: what sedulity, diligence, holy passionatenesse, importunity, and violence would these serious meditations fill and bespangle duty with? Thou now actest (soul) for eternity, storm heaven now, or thou are undone for ever; yet a lit­tle while, and thou shalt pray no more for ever; the thoughts of our everlasting estate, would make us turne Anchorets in duty, and scale heaven it self, with holy and impetuons im­portunity.

There are four things are great spurres to duty.

1. Obedience to our liege Lord. Cant. 2. 4.

2. Communion with our dear hus­band.

3. Increase of our pretious gra­ces. And

4. Especially; the thoughts of our everlasting condition. These would wing our duties. Ah! what hours do we spend in vanity? But do we pray and cry as for our everlasting con­dition? Serious and cool thoughts of eternity would easily cut the vein, and wash off the paint of formality in our services: and let this come in [Page 245] to re-inforce the argument: Our com­munion with God in duty here, is but glory it self in the swadling-cloathes; and our enjoyment of God above, is but communion sublimate. With what irresistible force doth thirsty Samson Jud. 19. 18. send up his prayers to heaven, that God would quench his thirst, and not his life; his life, I say, which was but a twinkling taper that would soon fall into the socket, how should our prayers be plumed and fledged that wrestle for eternity? Why stand ye idle Christians? will not a few drops of holy sweat here, be sufficiently compensated with ever­lasting delight?

5 Eternity well studied will be an invincible argument to seriousnesse and circumspection in life. It is with men, as with Ma­riners in the Ocean, if they be thrown overboard; there is no recovery; here is a few paces to walk; and then we come to an endlesse condition. Ob­serve the serious phrase of the Apostle, Seeing then that all these things shall be 2 Pet. 3. 11. dissolved, what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godlinesse? [Page 246] observe, What manner of persons? Can Beatos vocat Christus homi­nes electos studio & zelo gloriae fervidos, ardore salutis flagran­tes. Par. in cap. 11. ver. 12. Mar. not we tread even for a few paces? now walke purely, now act zealously, now live fruitfully, ye are going to eternity; observe our lives, what a narrow passage they are to eternity; how narrow a ford, how small a river to lanch over; what not live piously a few houres?

I commend not the anchoret life of many, for man is, as the Philo­sopher saith, [...], a commu­nicative and sociable creature; and the capacities of doing good are especially to be found in a community; yet cer­tainly those deceived souls minded eternity; they were willing by au­sterity to prepare themselves for their everlasting condition. Ah! how se­verely should we live, we are going to a bottomlesse estate. Christ asketh the question to his drowsie disciples, Will not ye watch with me one houre? so Mark. 14. 37. may I say, Will ye not walke strictly for a few moments? ye shall present­ly be on the shoare of everlasting­nesse; what not keep close to God for a little little time? We walke not over a bridge but with great care [Page 247] and circumspection. What is our life but only the short narrow bridge to eternity?

Indeed eternity might bribe our sanctity and holinesse upon this ac­count, We shall finde all our prayers, and tears, holy and close walking with Rev. 14. 13. God put to usury in eternity. Our lives are but like candles in the socket; and cannot ye watch, worke, weep, pray, act and live holy, while this faint light is out. Our life is compared to a race, and those that run do neither stop, nor sleep, nor fall, nor step▪ aside, because the race is but once, the prize is for ever: our race is but once, and it is a short; Ah! So run that ye may obtain. The 1 Cor. 9. 24. thoughts of eternity, would cause us to make a covenant with our tongue, as David did, Psal. 39. 1. With our eyes, as Job did, Job 31. 1. with our palate and taste, as the wise man coun­selleth us, Prov. 23. 31. and summon the whole man to a grave, and solemn deportment. Our lives are but a short Winters day, which will soon be shut in; and cannot we a little follow the lanthorne of Gods word, the Sun Psal. 119. 105. [Page 248] of Gods glory, the guidance of Gods Spirit, the winter day will soon be buried in the darknesse of a night; but eternity knowes no evening. The poor sentinell watches carefully, un­dergoes the terrors of the night, the frightfulnesse of the darke, the fears of an alarme, the unkindnesse of the seasons cheerfully, because he knowes he shall soon be relieved; Ah! watch and pray, keep your Luk. 21. 36. guards, and shortly ye shall be relieved for ever, and be swallowed up in eter­nall victory. And this argument will receive strength, if we consider but three things.

1. If we miscarry, we are lost for ever; if we walke not holy, live pi­ously, tread evenly, non ratione per­fectionis, sed ratione sinceritatis, not in reference to perfection, but sincerity, we are thrown overboard into a sea of endlesse misery; and will the flames of eternall wrath and indignation, be proportionable to a few transient miscarriages? and let us remember we shall never react this life, Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be destroyed, saith the Prophet; yet a few moments Jon. 3. 4. [Page 249] and the miscarrying wombe of this life, may not only be abortive and barren, but in travell of pain and mi­sery for evermore. Now live according to rule, lest ye die for ever according to justice.

2. All our holinesse shall be re­warded for ever, non ratione meriti, sed ratione gratiae, not of merit, but of grace; and every tear in the bottle, every prayer on the file, every accepted ser­vice Rev. 14 13. and every perfumed duty shall be remunerated with advantage: the sa­crifices of believers washed cleane in the bloud of Christ, shall wear the laurell of everlasting felicity. Every sparke of zeal, every act of grace, every regular pace that the Saint takes, shall Psal. 56. 8. come in for a childs part in glory; why doth God bottle, if he would bury the teares of a believer?

3. In eternity we shall be incapable of unholinesse; there feares of errour, or fall shall be obsolute. There can be no by-paths in Paradise. In this life Erimus in coelo [...]. Naz. is the place of thy pious feares, holy cares, religious tremblings, lest tem­ptation draw thee into the snare of [Page 250] sin. In glory temptation it self is spu­rious In aeterna felici­tate similes deo erimus, haec si­militudo nunc incipit reforma­ri, quam diu ho­mo interior de die in diem renovatur, se­cundum imagi­nem ejus qui creavit eum, sed ad illius emi­nemiae perfecti­onem quae tunc futura est, quid hoc aut quan­tum? Aug. and reprobate, no sinfull sug­gestion lodges within the veil. Un­stained purity there is in an everlasting spring. And therefore now study ho­linesse, walke circumspectly, act grace, flame in love to Christ; contract that rare and salubrious sicknesse, to be sick of love with Jesus Christ, Cant. 5. 5. and re­member eternity is at the door, and then all regulation of steps is at an end. In hell there is no rectitude, in hea­ven no obliquity. In eternity there is no pendulousnesse, or wavering, or possibilities of this uneven walking; but the Saints enshrined in glory shall flourish for ever in an unspotted beauty. Now here (dear Christian) walke and watch till the Sun of this life be turned, and then eternity shall put an end to all ambiguity. What is one pace, one step to a mil­lion, ten hundred thousand millions of miles? or what one severe, modest, serious, pious glance to our whole life here? no more is our holy life here to eternity. A little short scene of piety here, and then for hea­ven, [Page 251] where Godlinesse shall put on the spotlesse and rich attire of glory for ever. Phil. 1. 27.

6 Thoughts of eternity will be our incou­ragement in conflicts against corruption. Now thou fightest for eternity, if this lust, that corruption reign, thou art undone for ever. Observe the phrase of our Saviour, Rev. 3. 21. To him that Rom. 6. 12. overcometh will I give to sit in the same throne with me; to him that overcomes. What life, vigour, rage against lust would eternity in the meditations of it infuse? How would the tempted patient cry out, Thou bloudy, trucu­lent lust, seekest the life, of my eternall soul; the poor assaulted pa­tient might (assisted with grace) strangle the most headstrong corrup­tion, with such meditations as these, This barbarous lust may lose me an immortall crown, maske Gods face to me for ever, may cause to be pro­nounced a sentence of everlasting: di­vorce 2. Tim. 1. 10. between Christ and my soul, clap me in fiery, and everlasting chains, and leave me a prey to the dilapida­tions of eternall wrath. Thou fightest [Page 252] (dear professour) against lust, and the 2 Tim. 4. 8. conquest is of an everlasting concern­ment; [...] R. J. Badresh. the throne, the crown, the life, the love, the kingdom of eternity is the prize. And now poor combatant is thy duel with lust, if thou get the victory, Gal. 5. 17 thou shalt wear the lawrel of blessed­nesse, and triumph for ever: thy losse, or thy conquest is eternall. It is with the battle between lust and the soul, as it was in the fight between Caesar and Pompey, Pompeyes losse was for ever, and Caesars victory set him in the throne. Let every fighting Christian remem­ber eternity lies at the stake; and let this be perpended, there is no recruiting in the grave, no rallying of thy scat­tered strength; the battle ends with thy life. What passion would the damned shew against those lusts, that are now wormes and Scorpions in their consciences, and shall be so for ever, were they again to enter and be­gin the fight? how would they as Samson in his anger against the Phi­listines, Jud. 17. 30. summon all their spirits, muster all their strength, and gather together all their vivacities, to pluck down the house upon the head of their cor­ruptions? [Page 253] The thoughts of eternity should be to a Christian, as despaire is to a coward, should make himself magnanimously puissant. The Histo­rian reports, that the Roman Souldi­ers, when they heard the word (Qui­rites) they received a kind of new life, and they doubled the files of their valour: the word eternity should double the guard of our force and wrath against corruption. Is it not more noble, manly, Christian, by a holy strength, and in a pious resolu­tion to tread down lust here, then in an effeminate desperation to weep over it, and curse it to eternity? Do but see how bloud-thirsty, and san­guisugous every lust is in the glasse of eternity. Lust in the soul is but the Devils spie, Satans ambush to betray the soul to a miserable eternity: one of the truest glasses of all sin is ever­lastingnesse, there ye may see it to be the Divels pander, a sparke of Gods wrath; Natures impostume; which if not broken, kills for ever, the souls harlot; and if not crusht, and cruci­cified, the wombe of never ending calamity. And let me recruit the ar­gument [Page 254] with these three considerations.

1. Lust, what a sordid prize for eternity? Our Saviour makes it a piece of impolitick weaknesse to ex­change the soul for the whole world, Mat. 16. 26. and yet the world is a systeme, and Quam stultus est qui cum aeterna jactura post hanc vitam, pauxillum bono­rum temporali­um corradit, & retinent, cum possessio rerum in hoc seculo ob­tentarum, nihil ipsi post hoc se­culum prodere, neque animam semel perditam ternents bonis re­dimere possit. Chemn. large body of Gods creatures, a masse of excellencies and varieties, how fragrant the roses, sweet the musickes, savoury the delicacies, glittering the honours, and ravishing the adulations and applauses of the world; and yet Christ brands this for in­exprimable folly to purchase this glo­rious world with the losse of an immor­tal soul. But how mean a prize for eter­nity is a base corruption, which is, as the Schoolmen speak, totaliter malum, all evill, more bitter then wormwood, destructive then poyson, terrible then death, tormenting then hell, more de­formed then deformity it self? One sin acted in a moment could destroy a world which God himself was six days in the creation of it. Wilt thou lose eternity for a lust, which is a firebrand of hell, the very incurvation of nature?

2. Observe the very remembrance of a satisfied lust, will adde torment [Page 255] to eternity: how cutting will that speech of Abraham to Dives be, Luk. 16. 25. Son thou haddest thy good things here. Sinner thou haddest thy lustfull satisfactions here, thy ambition, thy Prov. 28. 8. Avarice was surfetted here, thy sensu­alities were gratified here, thou haddest thy stolen morsels, and thy pleasant baits, thy beloved, checkred, bosome-corrptions here in this life, therefore now thou art tormented. This will be Luk. 16. 25. oyle in the sinners flames, the recol­lection of that poyson of Aspes, viz. sin, that they did so pleasantly and greedily drink up. This then will be gravell in their belly, a thorne in their eye, a dagger in their heart, and torment in their bones, and fire in their bosome. Olim haec meminisse do­lebit. Sin in the remembrance of it, will be an everlasting ghost to the re­probate, will keep the wound, raze the sore open, the corture quicke, the wrack in the extremity.

3. Consider what vast disproportion there is between the pleasure and mise­ry of a lust, its delightfulnesse is tran­sient, Rom. 5. 17. a perfume that quickly will eva­porate: how soon did our first Parents [Page 256] eat their fruit; but the world to this day cannot rid it self of the miserable consequence of that wofull banquet. As a lease is not writing an hour, but the tenour of it will not be worn out in many years: the satisfaction of sin is suddenly abortive, in the twinkling of an eye; but the weight, the guilt, the enditement, the condemnation, the torment of it, is eternall. Ah! how Act. 12. 23. marcessible the rose of sin; how sharpe and durable the rod, that will be turned into an everlasting Scorpi­on!

Now therefore, (not to spin out Quia deo nos totos & omni nostra debemus, certe in infini­tam ejus ma­jestatem injurii sunt, & aeternam mortem meren­tur, qui vel in minima re san­ctissimam ejus voluntatem transgrediuntur. the argument in hand any further) how should there be sudor & sanguis, sweat and bloud drawn out against every corruption; what prayers, sighs, teares, strugglings, wrestlings against the inhumanity of sin, and cruelty of lust? canst thou hang in chaines with flames scorching thee for ever?

Indeed the thoughts of eternity might put a stone into the sling to strike dead Goliah-lusts: What for sin to damne me for ever, totally and fi­nally to disinherit me, and exclude me my Fathers presence to all eternity? [Page 257] Never to see his face more? Rally such thoughts as these against the onsets of corruption. As Caesar said in a battel he fought against one of Pompeys sons, at other times he fought for honour, but then for his life. Ah soul! thou sightest for thy life, thy Christ, thy portion, thy God, thy soul, thy eternity. Now watch, cry, weep, contest against every sin, thy everlasting condition waites upon it.

Advant. 7 The thoughts of eternity would inflame our love to Jesus Curist. He hath brought immortality to light: What argu­ment 2 Tim. 1. 10. of love would this be to the believer; he will crown me with un­withering glory; with diamonds that Joh. 3. 16. shall never receive dampe; the River of his bloud shall bring me to an Ocean of joy. Eternity of joy is but the purchase of Christs death, he hath Luk. 22. 29. bought a lease of glory that will ne­ver expire; we may magnifie the Lord Jesus for our endlesse, bottomlesse happinesse that is to come, how sweet my Saviour who can immortalize my honour, and transforme it into a never­dying dignity. Every glance of eter­nity [Page 258] should spring new and more lively affections in us to Jesus Christ: should warme the heart with more impetuous love. Our blessed eternity Suscepit tristi­tiam nostram, ut nobis largiretur laetitiam suam. Aug. is the primogeniture of Christs merits, the rich result of his sufferings, the glorious master-piece of his philanthro­pie, his love to mankind. Joh. 3. 16. Christ saith there, God so loved the Omnia perpessus est, ut nos ab om­nibus liberaret; timuit, ut nos a timore liberare­mur; doluit, ut dolores a nobis abessent. Cyril. world; so, as to send Christ, his be­loved, to make a crown of immor­tality to set on the heads of his peo­ple. How should our hearts bubble forth in sacred adorations of, and di­vine affections to Christ, the great Patron of eternall happinesse, who hath found out for us a mint of glory, that shall enrich us for ever. If at any time thou find thy love to Christ decline, be in a swoone, or surprised with some cold distemper, look down upon the sea of eternity, and this ice will turne into a flame. Let all believers say, Thanks be to Jesus Christ for eter­nity.

And consider Christ hath bought eternity by temporall sufferings, and yet without any injustice,

1. For his sufferings were equiva­lent [Page 259] to eternity, though not in the duration, yet in the magnitude of them: what agony, what torment Isa. 63. 3. was our Saviour wrackt with, when he supposed his Father had forsaken him, My God, my God, &c. his soul Mar. 14. 33. was heavy to death; how deep were his Videmus quam graves dolores, & angores etiam piis, quandoque sen­sus irae divinae incutiat, cum tamen non pro aliorum, sed pro suis tantum peccatis doleant, & iram dei senti­ant, cum (que) in poenis illis deus non effundit totam iram suam, Isa. 78. 38. Infinitis ergo modis major fuit moestitia in Christo, in quem peccata mundi erant conjecta, & in quem totam iram suam Pater coelestis effuderat. Gerard. wounds, how weigh­ty his burden, how full of trembling his cup, when he lay un­der the mountains of the guilt of all the elect? Therefore what was wanting in time and duration, was made up abundantly in weight and measure; How bitter were his tears, how painfull his sweat, how sharpe his incounters, how dread­full his death, insomuch as he seems to decline the end of his coming in­to the world; and he supplicates his Father to take off the fine and release him from his ingagement; nature in Christ himself seems to sink under the future massacre, that God decreed, Act. 2. but man acted; so that easily ye may [Page 260] discerne the time of Christs suffering will be compensated with the terrour of it, do but compute how many vi­als of Gods inexpressible, insupportable wrath Christ drunk of, and the que­stion is at an end.

2. For a second reply to this questi­on, let it be considered, the bloud of him which was shed was the bloud of him that was God as well as man, Act. 20. 28. [...], the pure bloud Heb. 12. 24. of the omnipotent deity, so that the Eph. 1. 14. divinity of Christ sheds an unreckona­ble masse of merit on his bloud shed; which hath purchased; as many rare prerogatives for the Saints here, viz. justification, sanctification, adoption, grace, supports, strength, the Comfor­ter, &c. which are the precious pledges of future and greater happinesse; so likewise, which is the summe of all, Eternity of glory with himself. And Cant. 5. 5. how should this argument set our hearts on fire in love to the Lord Cant. 1. 13. Jesus, and make him lie as a bundle of Myrrhe and Camphire between our breasts? And we might well enquire, why might not heaven set with the Sun; and our glory be overshadowed with a suddain night?

[Page 261] 1. Our duties are short, momentary and transient, we are quickly weary Gal. 6. 9. of wel-doing: the golden chaines of duty, how soon do we shake them off as being burden some shackles, and un­pleasant to the delicate flesh?

2. Our affections to Christ are short-breathed, quickly cold, the pulse of our spirituall love soon beates faintly: and a suddain languour surpriseth our most divine Anhelations. And

3. Our life is short in which we act for God, fight against lust, serve Jesus Christ, Jam. 4. 4. and are as flaming torches of zeal Isa. 2. 22. and light in the world; and yet after Psal. 39. 6. this transient exhalation the Saints are Nemo tam Di­vos habuit fa­ventes, Crasti­num ut posset sibi polliceri: Res deus no­stras celeri ci­tatas turbine versat. Sen. in Thyest. crowned to eternity; Ʋnde bone Deus! All this must be scored on the account of Jesus Christ. He hath added eter­nity to our lease of happinesse: what exertions of divine love should these considerations procure, how should they melt and overcome the soul, dissolve it into affectionate admiration, & wound it with wonderfull affection, and make us not only his souldiers in magnani­mous puissance; but his spouses in conjugall embraces, to use the phrase of the holy Ghost? how should [Page 262] the thoughts of eternity makes us look on Christ as the fairest among women, Cant. 5. 9, 10, 11. the chiefest of ten thousand, whose head is as fine gold, whose eyes are as the eyes of Sane Christus solus, lacte lotus dici potest, quia solus candidus, & albus inse, & alios dealbans, & candidans, a nullo tamen nisi a seipso dealba­tus. Del-rio. in Cant. doves by the rivers of waters, whose cheeks are as the bed of spices, as sweet flowers, whose lips are like lillies, droping sweet­smelling myrrhe, &c. and so forward, as the Spouse there drawes the effigies and picture of our dearest, sweetest, most lovely, most loving Saviour. And always in the same beauty would Christ appear to our souls, did they make eternity their study and contemplation.

Advant. 8 The thoughts of eternity would swallow up our sollicitous care for the supplies of the creature. What shall we eat, or what Mat. 6. 31. shall we drinke, or what shall we put on? such thoughts, I say, would Quid sericum? quae regum par­pura? quae pi­ctura textricū? via haec flori­bus comparari possunt. Hier. drowne these impertinent questions; they would indeed bring men in a better esteeme and liking of Providence; for what are all our provisions here? they are but corn for the way, Gen. 42. supplies for travellers for to bring them to their journeyes end. But the great Question is, Am I provided for eternity? to spend here, and to starve for ever; to have wine here, and no water [Page 263] as Dives, to eternity, why do I wrack my spirit? my candle will go out, if not by want, yet by disease, and then comes eternity. Our Saviour in Mat. Job. 7. 1. 6. urgeth many rare arguments to Omnia si per­das, animam servare me­mento. stifle and smother the vain carking care of men; and to those may be superadded this one more; What are all these provisions to eternity? there is my life, this short breath here be­low is but a dying groan, a giving up the ghost. Man is in a consumpti­on from his birth, and all creature-comforts do but patch him up for a while, piece a ragged piece of flesh; and yet the frensie of men is strange, how Luk. 12. 33. do they torture their spirits to finde a Mine for the present supplies, but eye not, nor take care for provisions for eternity? Who layes up for the famine of the soul? Our heads are filled with cares in pinching, and necessitous times, how we should live in the world; when we should be more inquisitive how we should out of the world, when death hath landed us in eternity; for what matters it, how short the stock of our prepara­tions is here, where we are breaking [Page 264] up house and departing every moment? A man that cometh to an Inne, if he meet with hard fare, course lodging, harsh and churlish usage, he is not per­plexed nor disquieted, for it is but for a night, and he shall away next morning. Our securest and strongest habitations Jon. 4. 7. here below, they are but as Jonas his goard, but for a night. Aeternis inhi­anti, in fasti­dio sunt omnia transitoria. Bern.

But now the great question is, What glory we have banckt up in heaven, what treasures we have laid in there, what riches, what revenues we have stored up in unmouldring eter­nity? what doest thou lay in for a tottering life, or wrack thy thoughts to shoare up the falling sinking tem­ple of thy body? All thy cares are but as the putting in of a little pin into an inch of candle, which will suddenly fall into the socket. Carke for thy soul for an interest in Christ, how thou shalt live to eternity, that Mat. 6. 33. is a condition, that understands not Primo spiritu­alia, posterius temporalia, om­nes lahores, & actiones nostras a regno dei or­diamur. Par. the language of death or a Sepulchre. The life of man here is but a span long, short and swift, then turn the stream of all thy care to unmeasurable eter­nity. Here (in reference to eternity) [Page 265] care as much as thou wilt, summon all thy thoughts, use all means, con­trive all thy designes, torture thy in­tellectuals, be as solicitous, as studi­ous, as laborious, as full of holy fear, of spirituall tremblings, as thou may­est, rise as early, go to bed as late as thou pleasest; and all this is but rare policy and rich ingenuity. In this to eat the bread of carefulnesse, is the way to feed upon Manna for ever.

Did we but enlarge our Contem­plations on our everlasting estate; with what a holy indifferency would our souls be possessed, whether our cruse of oil run or no, no further then what might supplie our short journey, our short step to eternity; how light then would the heaviest gold weigh in the ballance of our judgments? we do not usually hang our Arbours with Arras or Tapestry, because the flourishing boughs which make them soon wither and decay. And why should we spend our choysest strength, our most vivacious spirits, our most pretious time, to preserve, enrich, and make delightfull that temporall life, which every moment may be extinct [Page 266] and blown out? All those creature-accommodations, riches, delights, &c. which are the bribes of our cares, the tormentours of our thoughts, the wracke of our mind, they are but as the diet, and the banquets of a con­demned prisoner, they only keep him alive till the sad day of his executi­on. Like Belshazzars riotous banquet, Dan. 5. 2, 3, &c. which was not so much the prepara­tions of his festivall, as of his funerall; for, as historians report, he was slain that very night. The thoughts of eternity would banish many un­necessary cares from the solicitous and unsatisfied soul. And let this double consideration surprise your thoughts.

1. Our care for the world, is nothing to our errand into the world. Thou wert not created to study the lumpe of clay thou carriest about thee, but to glorifie thy Creatour, to be the Gal. 2. 20. herald of his praise, the engine of his glory, the witnesse of his ho­nour, Psal. 17. 15. to execute his commands, live upon his promises, and to breath after Joh. 4. 32. his everlasting presence. This was the worke God sent thee into the [Page 267] world for, to advance the fame of his Majesty, adore the eternall being and to publish the transcendencie of all his glorious attributes. Ah con­sider! a piece of clay, thy body; a winged piece of duration, thy life; a Rom. 17. 17. few floating enjoyments, thy present inheritance, were never set out by God, to be the taske and the toil of thy care and animosities.

2. Nor is thy care for the world any thing to eternity. Thy eternall condi­to [...]n Ibi erit fames maxima, erit enim tanta ino­pia, ut damna­ti ne (que) guttam aquae poterunt habere. Bonav. in glory shall want no supplies; in misery shall finde none, not a drop of water to coole nor to cherish. The rich man shall not find his barnes in eternity, though happily with much care and sweat he obtained the filling of them. Nero shall not finde his Crown in his everlasting condition, though he tortured both brain and consci­ence to wear the imperiall lawrell. Eternity explodes all creature-enjoy­ments, the Saints in glory shall live at a higher rate then the mean and pe­rishing provisions of the world. 1 King. 17. 6. Elijah doth not want now a Raven to be both his cooke and his caterer. And the damned in their endlesse misery, [Page 268] shall want the crummes that fell from their own tables.

In a word, carke for thy soul, pro­fessour, thinke of the gulfe of eterni­ty. This mouldy bread thou carest for will be no food there. Our ever­lasting condition hath no to morrow, no yeares of famine or plenty; therefore pro­vide for thy everlasting soul; get thy name ingrossed in the lease of glory with Gods hand, and the Spirits seal to it; and then Providence will either spread thy table here, or bring thee to thy Fathers house, where thou shalt keep an everlasting festivall. And let this additionall consideration come into the account, viz. That those outward enjoyments, which mens cares are fixt upon, and many are so sollicitous to gain and atchieve, may occasionally prove the unhappy mur­therers of the soul, and drown it in everlasting perdition. How often do Joh. 14 2. Deut. 6. 12. the riches and delights of the world effascinate the minde, blind the under­standing, Dan 4. 30. 2 Chron. 26. 16. wantonize the spirit, in [...] ­briate Luk. 12. 21, 22. the affections, seare the consci­ence, Luk. 18. 23. and hearden the heart of the [Page 269] possessors of them, and open (quate­nus instrumenta, as instruments) the flood-gates of eternall wrath upon them? Then the whole amounts to thus much, that eternity well weighed will cure the frensie and distraction of mens spirits for sublunary con­tenements.

Advant. 9 The thoughts of eternity would make us admire Christianity. Only the Christi­an profession acknowledges the state, 2 Tim. 1. 10. and the way to eternity. What fan­cies and forgeries doe other pro­fessions hold forth and acknowledge? The Jewes look for a Messiah to come, as if the way to heaven were yet to be found out. The Turkes have a tradi­tion and frantick opinion, that wicked men at the great day, shall carry their sinnes in satchels after their Captaine Cain, and such like ridiculous inven­tions. Divers of the Pagans suppose another temporall life to succeed this, and therfore give their dead cloaths, and money and other appurtenances to bear their charges there. Only the Christian profession can unriddle the mystery of eternity. How many thou­sands shall tast of eternity of misery, that [Page 270] never heard of an eternity of being; this perpetuall estate is only written in a Christian character; the knowledge of Christ is our only conduct to the Mar. 16. 16. knowledge of eternity. Gospell know­ledge Purgatorium est duplex; unum, in quo est poena damni & sensus alterum in quo est poenadamni tantum. Bell. Nemo manet in purgatorio ul­tra decem annos Domin. a Soto. can only lead us to the mount to behold a future Canaan, and teach us how to escape a future Tophet. True Evangelicall profession brings us to the shoar, to view the Ocean of eternity. How do the Romanists them­selves defile and adulterate the do­ctrine of eternity, with their fiction of Limbus Patrum, Purgatory, Limbus Puerorum; and many of their guilefull Non est despera­tio, aut metus gehennae in purgatorio; est carentia divinae visionis. est poe­nasensus infli­cta: est poena ignis. Bell. yet gainfull inventions? Only the do­ctrine of the Gospell unmaskes the riddle of our boundlesse and bottome­lesse eternity, gives us a map of hea­ven, drawes a landskip of glory, opens to the believer the wardrobe of eter­nall beatitude, Rev. 21. 16, 17, 18, 19, &c. And in Evangelicall story how lively are the flames of hell de­scribed; how clearly the paines, hor­rours, despaires, everlasting doomes­day is set down, and at large deci­phered? And they said to the rockes, Rev. 6. 16. and mountaines, Fall on us, and hide us [Page 271] from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. Thus onely the Christian faith gives a prospect of evernity; which is one of the articles of its be­liefe.

Advant. 10 The thoughts of eternity would be a good pre­paration for death. Such thoughts would Observetur sua­vis mutatio, quod cadentibus mors non est mi­seria, aut perdi­tio, sed transi­tur ad vitam aeternam. Chemn. conduce much to cast us into such a frame, that death should not be the womb of our fears, but of our joys; not our affrightment, but our content­ment; our dying day should be rec­koned our wedding day; the day of our dissolution, the day of our co­ronation. The thoughts of eternity Tolle tunicam hanc graviorem, & da mihi levi­orem. Greg. would put us upon getting an inte­rest in eternity, which would fami­liarize, meet with, and sweeten death it self, and put the soul upon enquiries after it. How would our everlasting condition well studied, frame us to a serious, patient and joyfull embrace­ment of death? that the gracious ex­pectant having sent his heart to heaven before, looks on death but as a good wind to carry him to the Ocean of a joyous eternity. Now we may hoise sail upon that sea, he had been long [Page 272] in the meditation of. Nay, what wrestlings with God for assurance, Phil. 1. 23. for one smile upon the soul in the face of Christ, for God to open his pardon and let him read it? what de­sires that God would draw the cur­tain, and let the soul see Jesus Christ, what diving into, and searching after tokens of love, broken pieces of the ring, and former experiences would the thoughts of eternity produce? And all by way of preparation for death.

This endlesse state well ballanced in a serious, and continued medita­tion would make the soul restlesse, and in a constant motion till death, which originally is a curse as being the fruit of sin, were turned by God into a blessing, and had the stampe of Christ upon it; how would the soul be unsatisfied, till it saw death cloa­thed 2 Cor. 5. 8. with the armes of Christ, as his Herald to go before him into the Court of glory; till he observed death to be only the golden bark to bring the soul to the shoare of a blessed eter­nity. And such meditations would make the soul to keep Court every [Page 273] day, to call conscience to the bar, and to arraigne irregular thoughts, to put Job. 14. 14. the heart upon more recluse searches, and all to facilitate death, and to sweeten the approaches of it. When a soul seriously and in its coolest thoughts considers eternity, how doth it look on death as its greatest Crisis, Mors ultima linea rerum. that which will turn the scale one way or the other, either land the soul safe in an eternall rest or harbour, or shut it Psal. 49. 8. within the grate of everlasting impri­sonment, from whence there is no re­demption? Such seasonable contempla­tions Tota vita est meditatio mortis: would fill the soul with cares, solicitousnesse, preparations for, ex­pectations of, reckoning upon death; as the Swedish King before the day of battell, what ordering of his army, incouraging his Souldiers, multiply­ing his prayers, powring out his teares before God, he knew not but he might die the next day. So eternity well contemplated would make us weigh, dive into, study the nature of death, the originall, the sudden­nesse, the certainty, and above all the consequence of it, it kils or cures for ever.

In a word, the study of eternity will make death,

1 More familiar to us: we cannot study the Sea of eternity, but we must con­template on the wind of death, which is but the stile over which we goe either into the wildernesse of misery, or into the green pastures of happi­nesse. Our dayly Contemplations of our everlasting condition, would make death a houshold servant, which is the common road to eternity (as more hereafter). Death would not be strange in its stroake, were it not so in our meditations; thoughts of eternity step beyond death. And to famili­arize death, would be the wombe of these three great advantages.

1. Were death familiar to us, it [...]. Arist. would breake the force of death, and take away the horrour and terrour of it, the stroke would not be so grievous, so frightfull, so full of execution, dangers the more invisible the more in­tolerable, the burden is the lightest that is well poysed before-hand. Sinners that put farre off the evill Amos 6. 3. day, as the Prophet speakes, how [Page 275] tremblingly, and with what hor­hour do they behold the ghost of death?

2. Were death familiar to us, it would arme us against death; we pre­pare more rigorously for the enemy in the field, then for the enemy in the ambush. Men fight not a duell with­out a Second; nor should we meet death without our armour, a pardon in our bosome, an interest in Christ, the great seal for glory and heaven. Therefore men so little prepare for death, because they so little thinke of death; it is so little in their pro­visions, because it fals not in their contemplation. But did we meditate on eternity, those very thoughts would be a constant passing bell in our ears, a deaths head before our eyes, and alarme to our soules; the thoughts of death and eternity being inseparable. But this familiarizing of death it would u [...]ske the am­buscado of it, and for [...]e us against it. Have I found thee O my enemy, as the 1 King. 21. 20. King said. And

[Page 276] 3. Were death familiar to us, it would strangle many fruitlesse and frothy thoughts and designes; hear the passingbell; when thou lookest upon the gaudy picture of the world, cast an eye upon the deaths-head. Remember that sentence, Luk. 12. 20. This night thy soul may be taken from thee. Had we a deaths-head in our study, our coffin, our winding­sheet, it would smother many a carnall designe, sinfull contrivance, vain dream of the world, peevish resolution, and frothy Contem­plation.

2 The thoughts of eternity would make death more expected. We should not Mors sanctorum non interitus, sed introitus. Chrys. only thinke of death, but waite for it; as the Prisoner for his keeper to open the prison-door; as the Senti­nell for the morning, or the poor tyred watchman for the dawning of the day: such thoughts look on death, as the traveller doth on a muddy plash at the entrance of a famous City. Observe Jacobs speech, Gen. 49. 18. when waiting the good houre of death, I wait for thy salvati­on [Page 277] O Lord. This is the foord the Felix ante obi­tum nemo su­premaque fu­nera. Ovid. Christian is to passe over, the nar­row and slippery bridge. The con­templative Christian, whose medita­tions prey upon eternity, doth but wait when the clock will strike, when death will come, that is the alarum to eternity; Death is but a Watch with an Alarum. Death is but the Rev. 6. 8. pale horse which carries every one out of this world into an everlasting state. [...]. Dlato. So the confiderate Christian winding up his meditation to this bottomlesse state, is alwayes upon his watchtower, when the postern gate of death will open; as the passenger waites at the shoar side for the Packet boat, so is death to mankind.

3 The thought of eternity would make death more facil, and easie, and pleasant. 2 Cor. 5. 1. When mortall diseases batter this ta­bernacle of clay we carry about us, viz. our bodies; meditations of eter­nity, look on Christ now storming the body to take the soul. As one in an enemies Garrison rejoyceth to see his own party coming to storme the Town and release him. All death [Page 278] pangs (saith eternity well studied) doe but lanch the soul into the Ocean of eternity, these distempers open the gate to eternity; they rend the vail of the temple of the body, and let flie the soul to eternity; death to the contemplative Christian, is not so much his storme, as his stile; not so much his tempest, as his triumph; in death, the Saint cries Victoria. The wicked wretch, whose cogitations have 1 Cor. 15. fled from eternity, nor ever would sail on that sea; with what difficulty doth he wrestle and struggle with death? How is he dragged to disso­lution, as to execution; how would he bribe, stop, suspend, and divert the stroke of death, could all his Quando impii moriuntur, in inferno posi [...]i sunt, & mors depascit eos. Ger. strength, allies, greatnesse, and reve­nues purchase it? There is nothing more terrible, ghastly and frightfull to him, then the dreadfull app [...]riti­on of death; and the great reason is, because he hath set the skreen of sin and the world between him and eter­nity; this makes him he will not to the block, he is arrested by death, he is passively the patient of death; the [Page 279] sinner, I say, who hath not minded Psal. 49. 14. his everlasting condition, nor laid up for it, he fals into the arrests of death. But the Saints, whose word all his life time hath been eternity, and who hath been in all his conversati­on pronouncing this shibboleth, he fals into the embraces of it, he may be said, as Christ was, Joh. 10. 15. To lay Morte tabernas nostras pulsante non terremur. down his life, to lay down his head upon the cushion of the grave, and sweetly to sleep being rockt to it by death. Now what sweetens and facilitates death to a believer? only he hath studied eternity, and hath got the scarlet thread in the window, eternity Josh. 2. 18. is assured to them. The Saint whose heart is landed at the staires of eter­nity before, when he comes to die, he doth but as the Sun breake thorough a cloud to shine both gloriously and eternally; and indeed the body of a Saint is but the darke cloud, the cur­tain drawn before his shining soul. Rally therefore, and muster up all your thoughts, and let them meet with eternity; this is the way to perfume the winding sheet, to strow [Page 280] flowers on the coffin, and to make death it self smile, and become a plea­sing presage to a more pleasing crown.

4 The thoughts of eternity would make death more welcome. I long, saith the Saint, whose heart before is in heaven, to come to the stage of eternity; he Phil. 3. 20. is in a longing fit, impatient as the longing woman, and smiling with joy Rev. 22. 20. and triumph on approaching death; cries, welcome that parting blow that brings me into the everlasting embra­ces of my dear Redeemer.

CHAP. XVII.

Ʋse of Ex­hortation. Branch 2 The next branch of the Use shall be, That we would make sure of Eternity.

THere are two great ends, Why the wombe delivered us into the world; the one is to adore an eternall being; the other, to obtaine eternall life; and where the first is rightly performed, the second is infal­libly accomplished. It was a good question the young man proposed, What shall I do to inherit eternall life? Luk. 10. 25. And indeed the answering of this question cals for all our cares, feares, troubles, time, duties, industry and what ever fals within the verge of our highest and most extended capacities. Things that are most precious, we [Page 282] most secure, and expose to them to the least hazard, our jewels are lockt up in our cabinets, our gold seald up in the coffer. Now the excellency of man is his soul, the excellency of the soul is life, and the excellency of life is eternity, and with what ambitions should we graspe the diademe of a blessed eternity? What artifices did Si peccandum est, pro corona est peccandum. Absalon use to secure his Fathers throne to himself? he lies with his Fathers Concubines in the sight of the peo­ple, 2 Sam. 16. 22. a most odious practise. What 2 Sam. 13. 9. wayes did Ammon use to secure his beauteous Sister for his lustfull embra­ces? he bolted out all that might in­terrupt his unnaturall incest. What Luk. 12. 20, 21. thoughts did the Rich man take to secure his plenties, the overflowing abundance of his fruites? he erects new barnes, and leaves not his Corn ei­ther a prey for the birds, or a morsell for the Gleaners. And the Barbarous Turke he kils all his younger Bre­thren, and sacrifices them to his bloudy ambition, that he might secure the Crown to himself. And shall we be Omnia ei salva sunt cui salva est aeternitas. lesse solicitous in our fears, cares, our holy policies, and sacred stratagems [Page 283] to secure etetnity, that everlasting blessednesse which is the supreme gift of God, the reward of Saints, the ho­nour of Angels, the rich provisions of heaven, and the totall of all Christs merits and bloudy passion? How canst thou (dear Christian) be satisfied, or thy heat chilled, and ambitions sur­feted, till thou hast obtained the re­version of a glorious eternity, and God hath entailed on thee a crown of 2 Pet. 1. 10. immortality? Review with thy selfe the bowels of Gods pity, the voice of Christs bloud, the desperatenesse and activenesse of Satans malice, the shortnesse and uncertainty of thy own life, the accusations of thy guilt. Nay the very present glory of the tri­umphant Saints, all call upon thee to make sure of eternity. Canst thou sleep on the main mast, with the dreadfull Ocean under thee; or take up thy lodgings in the enemies field? What doest thou else, when thou hast nothing to shew for eternity? Consider thy danger and disadvan­tagein this. Those who can clear up no propriety in a blessed eternity, may be considered under a double notion.

I. As sinners; and with what a mul­titude of dangers is every Christlesse soul encompassed? He is but as a wanderer in the wildernesse, who may be a prey for every beast; he is out of all protection. God may suffer,

1. Satan to destroy him; had not Job been a righteous man, his disease Job 2. 4. probably had been his death, and Satan had not only been his tormen­tour, The danger that every wicked man is in. but his executioner; every wicked man is Satans prisoner, and who knowes how soon he may be his prey?

2. God may suffer the Creature to destroy him, as the Lyon did the Pro­phet, 1 King. 13. 24. the Bears the children, and the 2 King. 2. 24. wormes King Herod in all his magni­ficent Act. 12. 23. pompe. Every creature is up in armes against a wicked man, and wants only the word of commission to fall on and destroy him. Gods wrath, and his wretchlesnesse can turne the persumes of the world into pon­yards, as the Pope who died with joy.

3. God may suffer him to destroy himself, as Judas did, and to become [Page 285] his own assasinate. It is only the un­tired, boundlesse patience, and infinite long-suffering of God, that keeps the wicked mans knife from his own throat. Every sinner, did not Gods mercy throw a chaine over him, he would make his grave in his own wounds; he would with Saul fall on 1 Sam. 31. 4. his own sword, or like the Jaylour Act. 26. 27. be ready to fall a sacrifice to his own bloudy distemper. For God with­drawing his providentiall care from a sinner, what should hinder, but that nature it self should become a step­mother?

4. God himself may destroy a wicked man by an immediate execu­tion, as he did Aarons two sons; Lev. 10. 2. these unhappy brethren who were brethren not only in nature, but in iniquity and misery, who as they came from the same wombe, so they found the same death; I say, these brethren offered up strange fire but once; but a sinner is continu­ally offering the strange fire of his lusts, and therefore God himself may breake him in pieces as a Potters ves­sell.

[Page 286] 5. And lastly, God may suffer good men to destroy him. As Phinehas, who quenched the lust of that adulterous couple Zimri and Cosbi with their Numb. 25. 14. own bloud. The good mans zeal and the bad mans fury may either destroy the wicked man, he hath no security, his life is a prey for any that God will suffer to seize upon it. He is out­lawed, a condemned man; every tile on the house, every thiefe on the way may dispatch, him and this is to be considered, his death and his damna­tion go both together when he dies, he dies for good and all, he dies ever­lastingly, thus for the sinners danger.

2 And so for the disadvantage of a pendulous, doubtfull, wavering Chri­stian, that can shew nothing for eter­nity; how doth this ambiguity, and unsatisfiednesse discourage duty, di­stract his spirits, edge temptation, make way for Satan, and causeth him­self to be a burden to his own soul? What sighs doth this hesitancy raise, what sorrows doth it ingender, what teares doth spring, and veyle the heart with perpetuall mourning, especially, when the poor trembling soul consi­ders, [Page 287] That every moment he is ready to be disrobed of the flesh, turned out of the sinking cottage of his body, and to be disinherited of all his pa­trimonies here; and he knows not whether he may not beg with a vain importunity, a drop of water to all Luk. 16. 24. eternity. How then should every of us aske the question, as the Spouse in another case the, Spouse asketh, Did Cant. 3. 3. ye see my beloved? so our enquiry should alwayes be, Is my name written in heaven, have I an interest in Christ, will the Lord make over glory to me, did I ever enjoy the smile of God, which is the porch to a glorious eternity? I say, rest not, feast not, delight not thy self, sleep not till God hath morgag'd the lease of a joyous eterni­ty to thee. We should not sleep qui­etly, till God had put the crown of immortality under our pillow, till we were sure of an eternall rest. And now on the contrary, the assurance of eternity, did God deliver the deeds of glory into our possession, how would it wing duty, fill the sales of grace, of faith, love, joy, &c. sweeten affli­ction, Jam. 2. 2. put a comelinesse on the black­nesse Cant. 1. 5. [Page 288] of trouble, make Christs yoak not only easie, but pleasant and compla­centiall.

In a word, How would a certain­ty of eternall glory make the Saints condition here, even while he Gen. 47. 9. writes Pilgrime, to be truely Angeli­call?

Now to re-inforce this Argument, that I may bribe your industry, to get something under Gods hand for thy future eternity, let it not seem a digression to supply your thoughts with some few Considerations.

Arg. 1 Consider, Thou canst have assurance of nothing on this side eternity: Death will strip thee of all thy enjoyments, the grave shall find thee as bare, as the womb delivered thee, only with this Job. 1. 21. difference, the wombe delivered thee Quod dicitur nudus revertar illuc, intelli­gitur in il­lum statum quem habuit in utero matris. Aquin. in Job cap. 1. enricht with a life, landed thee alive in the world, but the grave shall re­ceive thee only a cold dead piece of clay, covered with a winding sheet. Death is called an uncloathing, 2 Cor. 5. 4. We that are in this tabernacle d [...] groan, being burdened; not that we would be uncloathed, that is, not that we would die. I say, Death is an uncloathing, because [Page 289] it pulleth off all outward things from a man, it puls off his rayment, his riches, his land, his honours; yea death uncloathes the very bones, our flesh quickly weares off in the grave. There was little difference between Job on the dunghill, and Job in the grave, in point of poverty, only that dunghil kept him a prisoner fettered with va­rious miseries, and the grave loosened him, and enfranchised him to eternall liberty. Death will rob and strip thee of all thy glittering titles, flourishing revenues, pleasing dalli­ances, and sweetest, most indeared re­lations, will impoverish thee of all thy claimes and fruitions thou didst sport and pride thy self with: the dust of the rich man and the poor, the ho­nourable and the ignoble promiscu­ously mingled, will take away all the distances, degrees, and differences be­tween them. Death will bury indif­ferently the Crowns of Kings, and the shackles of Prisoners, the roabs of Princes, and the rags of beggers, the Gallants bravery, and the peasants russet, and the Courtiers luxury, and shall cast them all into an equall [Page 290] denudation and poverty. Pliny in the Natura noverca unum hominem animantium cunctorum alie­nis velat opibus: caeteris veria tegumenta tri­buit, testas, cor­tices, coria, spi­nas, villos, setas, plumam, pennas squammas, pel­lem; trunceos etiam arboris cortice interdū gemino a frigo­ribus & calore tutata est: ho­minem tantum nudum, & in nuda humo, na­tali die abj ecit. Plin. Nat. Hist. Preface to the seventh book of his Naturall history, complaines, and doth as it were chide with nature it self, for turning man into the world in such a helplesse forlorne condition, as if men were dealt more hardly with, then any other creature, the birds of the aire, or the beasts of the field. I shall not commend the reluctancy of this Heathen against the Providence of God; but shall only say, the wombe doth not (as before was hinted) deliver us more helpelesse, naked, forlorne, then death doth make us, or the grave shall finde us. Death shall fully Absalons beauty, and spoile Herods bravery, shall destroy Agags delicacy, and put an end to all Solomons temporall feli­city; death is a worme that will consume all the felicities on this side 2 Sam. 18. 14. the veil; but only the riches within 1 Sam. 15. 31, 32. the veil, as they are unsearcheable, and admirable, so they are immar­cessible, Act. 12. 23. and inamissible. Therefore make sure of eternity, all other things are fledged, and will escape our em­braces; only the revenues of glo­ry, the Crown of Righteousnesse, 2 Tim. 4. 8. [Page 291] the honours of heaven we shall Et ibi vita sine morte, veritas sine eriore, feli­citas sine per­turbatione. finde for ever. Neither death nor confusion shall make the triumphant Saint look pale, or wither the magni­ficent preparations of a blessed eternity. Aug. Enchir.

Arg. 2 Consider in the next place, as an argument to provoke you to make sure of eternity; That a chief part of the Angels blessednesse consists in this, that they Mat. 18. 10. are confirmed in their eternall happinesse; Aeterna electio beatorum Ange­lorum, est prae­destinatio, qua deus ab aeterno Angelos quosdam ex gra­tia constituit in communione sui perpetuo conservare, & in bono in quo eos creaturus erat confirmare ad beatitatis sempi­ternae fruitio­nem. Polan. that Jesus Christ is their Mediator susten­tationis, as our Divines speak, and that they are incapable of following the cursed example of their fallen com­panions, but are setled for ever in their triumphancies; I say, this is one of the chiefest pearles in the Crown. Now let us strive after, and make it our great plot and designe to obtain this Angelicall happinesse. Let the noble­nesse of the argument be a golden spur to you to pursue this service. It is the Angels happinesse to be con­firmed in a glorious eternity; and let it be your sollicitousnesse; it is their felicity, let it be you duty. Those blessed Spirits, who never eclipsed Gods glory with one single offence, rejoyce in this, that they are sealed to [Page 292] a blessed eternity. And shall not we endevour after, pray for, draw out all our designes to attain the accomplish­ment of that happinesse, which runs 1 Tim 5. 21. parallel with the felicity of the unsin­ning Angels viz. to get a bond for Luk. 20. 36. heaven. This is, to wit; (to make sure of eternity) to be in an equality with the Angels.

Arg. 3 A third plea may be to promote this duty, To lose eternity is not only a naked privation, a meer losse, a disappoint­ment only of happiness. When we lose heaven; we do not onely as the ma­riner Mat. 25. 12. lose our good winde, which Mat. 16. 26. would bring us to the harbour, but the losse of eternity compriseth all Jon. 14 16. varieties of misery; privative miseries, the losse of God, of Christ, of the Poenae damnatis secundum cor­pus, & secun­dum animam infligentur. Cor­pus quidem poe­nis variis quo­ad omnes sensus afficietur, & anima secundum omnes suas po­tentias cruciabi­tur. Gerson. soul, of the Comforter, of the Saints company, of what we have enjoyed, of what we did enjoy, of what we might enjoy; positive miseries, torment of soul, anguish of mind, agonies of conscience, exquisite, dilacerating, corroding torture of body, (as more [...]ully hereafter). The losse of eterni­ty it comprehends accumulative, ex­aggerated, multiplied, pullulated cala­mity: [Page 293] Misery from God, from S [...]tan, from the good Angels, from our selves. As Condemnation doth not only deprive the Prisoner of the li­berty of his person, the credit of his name, the enjoyment of his possessions, the refreshing of his friends; but it exposes him to the burden of his chaines, the reproach of the world, and to the torment and shame of a suddain execution. And therefore let this fire your hearts to secure eternity, else ye will be exposed to as many varieties of misery, as there are sparks in the surnace, or wounds in your own conscience. The losse of e­ternity includes all possibilities of future misery. David complaines he Psal. 44. 22. was killed all the day long; but in losing eternity we shall be killed to all eternity.

Arg. 4 Let this incentive be added, The neglect of this duty of making sure our eter­nity: It disappoints the end of our creation, the offers of grace, the pro­mises of the Gospell, the voice of Christs bloud, the cals of heaven, and the constant courting and incitation of the Spirit within us: All these with [Page 294] an unanimous voice cry out to the soul, let your first worke be to secure your everlasting condition, the me­thods Luk. 19. 42. thods of divine Providence, the sweet Rev. 2. 10. yet severall varieties of Gospell dispen­sation, Joh. 3. 16. the striving, patience, waiting, Luk. 22. 29. importuning of God himself, cry out, Make sure eternity. The promises of God are nothing but bonds for eternity; the offers of grace invite us to eternall glory; the rules, counsels, directions by a holy manuduction lead us in the way to eternity: there­fore the Gospell it selfe is called eter­nall, Rev. 6. 14. And this omission of this duty will cast a reproach and de­famation on all the indulgence of di­vine compassion.

Arg. 5 And lastly consider, this duty of securing eternity, is not only plausible, but feasible. Smiles from God may be had, an interest in Christ may be gained, a worke of grace may be acquired, Rom. 8. 16. some token, some pledge of Gods love may be purchased, some internall Eph. 1. 4. testimony and witnesse may be suppe­na [...]d 2 Cor. 1. 22. by prayers, and tears, and ex­pectation, some privy seal, private bond for eternity may be found out; [Page 295] and therefore let all thy capacities be De electione sua unusquisque nostrum securus esto, securita e non carnis sed spiritus, non sensus & expe­rientiae, quae est alterius vitae, sed fidei qua pe [...]severamus in charitate Christi ad finem. Polan. Synt. wound up, heart, hand, time, talents, strenght, to get a bond for eternity. The Apostle, 2 Pet. 1. 10. cals upon us, to make our Calling and Election sure.

Now Election is our eternity a pri­ori, and Glory is our eternity a poste­riori, the one before the creation of world, and the other after the dissolu­tion of it. God, I say, imposeth it upon us as our duty, to make our election sure; and therefore our election to Psal. 84. 11. eternity, and our possession of it may be made sure: God layes not com­mands on us which imply impossi­bilities: No, but as election, so glory may be ascertained; the spring of mercy is in election, and it bubbles out in calling, and runs to and fro in obedience and faith, and at last it loseth it self in the Ocean of glory. So that its possi­bility of accomplishment should be a good inducement to duty, and how sweet a smile from God gained at last, (as most certainly it may be, unlesse the default lie in us) which God shall morgage to thy soul, for thy security of eternall [Page 296] blessednesse will be, I may ad­mire, but not depaint or de­scribe.

And that this branch of the exhorta­tion may not be incomplete, let me car­ry the torch before you in some few directions.

Dir. 1 Be earnest in prayer: Prayer perfumed in the bloud of Christ, hath the key of the Treasury door, where all bles­sings are stor'd up. It is an omnipo­tent duty, so God himself saith, Isa. 45. 11. Concerning the works of my hands command ye me. The Prayer of faith can draw the curtain from before Gods face, scatter the cloud between him and the soul, cause God to hold forth the scepter of grace, and can induce Rom. 5. 5. Jesus Christ to shed a dew of love upon the soul, fervent, invincible, im­portunate, believing, irrefistible prayer, can as it were take the ring from off Christs finger and put it upon the sup­pliants. This Protomartyr Stephen, Act. 7. 53. when he was breathing out his last breath in holy prayer, God drawes the curtaines of the heaven and shewes him his glory, and Christ at his right hand. Prayer as it can banish that [Page 297] scrupulous muntinie of the soul, so it can make way for a soul-satisfy­ing smile. And pray for these three things.

1. A soft heart. 1 Pet. 3. 16.

2. A serene conscience. And 1 Tim. 1. 5.

3. A spirit fired with zeal. This threefold cord hell it self cannot break: these three divine characters are Christs marke for glory; the pledges of that love he will be drawing out to eter­nity.

To assure thy eternity,

Dir. 2 Labour after a reall and rich faith, a faith which continually breaks out, and sparkles forth in vigorous acts, and the sparke of faith, will at last be turned into the flame of assurance, which is is only praemium fidei emeritae, the compensation of a long-fighting and experienced faith: Assurance it is the triumph of faith, its jubilee, its present hallelujah, its consummation, the Spirit at last, as the Philosophers stone, will turn the silver of faith in­to the gold of assurance. Faith is only assurance in incunabulis, in the cradle, and assurance is faith with the crown. Thus Job after all the conflicts, [Page 298] wrestlings, and exercises of his faith, with the losse of his estate, the malice of a Devill, the cursing and cursed temptations of his wife, the scoffes and hypocrisies of his friends; he at last breakes out into a triumphant assu­rance, I know my Redeemer lives, and Joh 19. 26. that with these eyes I shall see him, &c. Causa instru­mentalis fiduciae est fides, & fi­dei verbum. Faith will sprout out and bloffome forth into a greater certainty. And therefore pray, read, hear, and use all those means which usually generate and produce faith.

Dir. 3 That thou mayest finde some evidence for thy everlasting condition, study holinesse, and exactnesse of life. Thou canst not walke with a trembling heart, even foot, and watchfull eye, and yet mis­carry; I speak not of a morall un­blameablenesse, but of an evangeli­call holinesse, that is, when we study to tread surely, and walke in-offenfively upon a threefold ac­count.

  • 1. Obedience to God.
  • 2. Love to Christ. And
    Joh. 14. 15.
  • 3. Pity to our own souls.

Now Sanctification is the eccho of Election, Holinesse the blossoming [Page 299] of happinesse, and Piety the dawning Bona opera sunt via ad regnum. Nostra conversa­tio in coelis est per vitam coele­stem, quia in terris vitam a­gimus puram, qualem Angeli agunt in coelo. A Lap. of felicity; and therefore a holy con­versation is called a conversation in heaven, Phil. 3. 20. While we live pure­ly, and walke closely with God, we draw a map of heaven, we live more like Angels then Men, we are as corporeall Angels, we enjoy heaven upon earth two wayes:

1. In a pure conversation.

2. In spirituall consolation. 2. Pet. 1. 8. In a holy life, we follow Christ in the same tracke to glory. Thou 1 Cor. 11. 1. mayest read thy eternall life in thy Prov. 24. 16. spirituall, and see Vestigia beatitatis in vestigiis sanctitatis. I speak of holinesse ratione partium, non graduum, of parts, not degrees, else heaven door would be shut to all, but God expounds desires after perfection for the attainment of it. So you may see Gods smile, and your own crown in the glasse of a holy life, and so thou mayest assure eternity to thee, by beginning heaven before thou comest to heaven.

Dir. 4 If thou wouldest have something to shew for thy eternity, Often enter into the withdrawing room of thy own heart, and search for some tokens of love there. [Page 300] Thou mayest read the intentions of Coelum non tantum sit super nos, & juxta nos, & circa nos, sed & in­tra nos. Gods concerning thee, in the impressi­ons of thine. Men need not climbe up to heaven in a vain curiosity to search the records and register book, to see whether their names be pricked down for glory. They may dive into their own souls, and see Gods will concer­ning them in his worke upon them; as the Mariner in the darke night, that he may finde whether he be near land or no, throwes down his plummet, and happily he observes himself near the shoar, but it is not by his eye, but his plummet; throw down the plummet, make a curious, narrow, impartiall, diligent search into thy own soul, and see what humility, what self de­niall, what sin-abhorrency, what af­fectionatenesse to Christ, what ravish­ings of the Spirit, what love to the Ordinances, what zeal for Gods glory, what contempt of the world, what sympathy with the afflictions, and de­sires after the society of the Saints, &c. And if thou findest any impressions of grace, any spirituall work, any saving, savory, distinguishing operations up­on thy heart, that the Spirit hath been [Page 301] there with his cure, thou art in the port of a glorious eternity already, thou mayest see the face of God in the water of thine own heart. If Christ sit Eph. 3. 17. in the throne of thy heart here by a Confirmavit quasi sigillo promissiones suas deus, dan­do juxta eas pig­nus futurae hae­reditatis, gra­tiam sc. qua nos vexit, & signa­vit in filios dei. Chrys. Theod. worke of grace, thou shalt sit in the throne with him, and enjoy the weight of glory; the work of grace fore­runs the wayes of glory; grace and glory differ non specie, sed gradu, in degree not kind, as our Divines speak; here the Spirit is a refining spirit, above a ravishing; the Spirit doth seal, Eph. 1. 13. as well as sift it; doth win to Christ and so to glory, Col. 1. 27. as well as wean and winnow it from sin; the Spirit is the pawn, as well as the Eph. 1. 14. purifier of the soul; grace is but the dawning, heaven is the noon day, 2 Cor. 1. 22. death will blow the bud of grace into the flower of glory. So the Psalmist joynes grace and glory to­gether, as indeed they are individu­all and inseparable, Psal. 84. 11. grace doth but usher in glory, grace is but the greener fruit of hea­ven. So that to get security for hea­ven and eternall felicity, is to search for some privy token in thy own [Page 302] soul; see the prints of Jesus Christ there; and he will know his own hand, when death shall summon thee to him.

Dir. 5 That thou mayest get some oer­tainty of thy everlasting condition, Electionis nostra ad viram aeter­nam comes est crux & affli­ctio a mundo, sed ejusdem comes [...]st & victoria certa. Polan. Labour after not only a patience under, but a joyfulnesse in afflictions, and trouble. It is the Apostles advice, Jam. 1. 2. and the character of a Christian, the heir of the promises, to triumph in tribu­lation, to carry Christs Crosse with gladnesse, and not wearisome­nesse: therefore Martyrdome in the Absit mihi glo­riari nisi in cruce Christi, crux est scala heatae aeternita­tis. A Lap. primitive times was called Corona Martyrii, the Crown of Martyrdome, the Crosse going before Crown. It is the Apostles argument, Rom. 7. 18. If so be that we suffer with him, we shall also be glorified together; observe the toge­ther, inseparably, unquestionably. If we drinke of the cup of gall with him, we shall likewise drinke of the cup of gladnesse with him; if we fall into the Martyrs fire, we shall likewise enter into the Masters joy; when a believer is filled with alacrity in suffering, it is probable he sees the crown before him, as Paul, Col. 1. 24. Wherefore we rejoyce Col. 1. 24. [Page 303] in our sufferings; and why? one great Paulus ostendit quomodo se ge­rat in afflictio­nibus, non solum animo sorti, sed laeto & alacri. Dav. reason was, those Martyrdomes stormed heaven for him. The troubles and wounds of a Saint here, they are those skarres, which shall be his trophees for ever, and his sighs shall be turned into everlasting persumes. So that one means to secure eternity, is to labour after life, courage, magnanimity and alacrity in sufferings, which are those bloudy badges of Christ, which he will cure and crown with eternall felicity; if thou followest Christ in via arctiore in a rough way, thou wilt find him in patria uberiore, in a glorious home. Therefore do not decline, shift, find out methods for the evasion, and escape of necessary afflictions.

CHAP. XVIII.

Ʋse of Ex­hortation. Branch 3 The third branch of the Use will be, That you would entertaine a right notion of Death as an in-let to Eterni­ty.

WEE must look upon death, as the common passage, as the Posterne gate to eternity, the Straights to the Ocean; the Heathens they fancied con­cerning death, that after death there was Charon to waft them over the River Styx, &c. But this is most cer­tain, Mors est vehi­culum morien­tis. that death only lands the soul upon the coast and shoar of eternity, it is only the short bridge to an ever­lasting condition. It is but the twink­ling of eye when man dies, but he [Page 305] awakens either in eternall woe, or welcome. Death only is the dying Mors non est obitus sed abitus. patient, either Sledge or Chariot to carry the Prisoner, or Courtier to misery, or everlasting felicity.

Indeed, some mens passage is more rough then others; some men die with more torment, and pain, and distemper then others, but yet death is but the common road to eternity. It is strange to observe what notions most men have of death.

1 Some look upon death as the debt of nature, that common engagement Job 1. 1. which every one must discharge, and Job 14. 14. for which death will arrest every one of us. And so men suppose that having paid the debt, they are clear for ever, as if there were no eternity behind the hangings. And therefore they pant not after a Christ, nor search the rols of heaven for a pardon, nor wrestle with God for a smile; but conjecture that surrending according to deaths sum­mons, there is an end of all their trou­bles and triumphs; they confine all their care and heat to cocker and sup­ply a subsistence here, and when they come to die all their debts are paid. [Page 306] What stupid ignorance are most men infatuated with, to suppose that be­cause death gives them a discharge of their life, it should therefore give them a discharge of their sins? Let such de­sperate sinners conceive, that death immediately will clap up their souls in everlasting darknesse, and at the re­surrection their sins shall drag their worme-eaten bodies from the gaol of the grave to receive the sentence and doome of a miserable eternity; and Mat. 5. 26. they shall finde death, not to be the discharge, but the beginning of their debt, and that it shall deli­ver them into such pursevants hands, Mat. 18. 28. as will be plucking them by the throat to all eternity.

2 Others look on death as the grave of all their troubles, the very exit of all their perplexities; they wait for the good time, and do imagine that after Mors corporalis est privatio vi­tae corporis facta per animoe se pa­rationem ab illo propter pecca­tum. Polan. all their restlesnesse, heats, disturbances, disappointments and agonies in the world, they shall take up their Inne, or rather their home in the Sepulchre, and shall lie as free from trouble, as their marble statues, the coffin shall ent [...]mbe all their vexations; they sup­pose [Page 307] they shall goe to bed, and to rest in their winding sheet. Ah! do such vain men conjecture, the sin which is the great Promoter, Wolfe, Lyon, Tyger of the soul, will cease its pur­suites when the sinner comes to the grave, or will be bribed by the rheto­rick Heb. 9. 22. of a worme? Sin to a wicked man is like a tormenting disease to the poor helplesse patient, which will not be inchanted with good words, but will be at the heels of death, as the mes­senger of Gods wrath, to lay hold up­on the soul immediately, and non­suite it to everlasting losse and misery. These deluded sinners, who suppose that death will crucifie all their troubles, and obliterate all their calamities, doe but take up their rest in a shadow, death shall not rocke their souls asleepe, though it cast their bodies into a temporary swoon.

3 Others look on death, as a thing of course, and they cry, we must all die sooner or later. And it is the in­quiry of the world when any die, more what he hath left, then where is he gone; the inquest is rather after his [Page 308] wealth, then his soul. Most men look upon the setting of their lives, as we do upon the rising of the Sun, as a thing common and inobservable. And is this all, deluded Sinner? It is true, when the Modus moriendi, the way of dy­ing, is strange and prodigious, then greater impressions are made; but o­therwise the thing it self is but the subject of a talkative discourse. But let the Vulgar of the World steep their thoughts in this meditation; death determins us to the throne, or the wrack for ever. It is either Christs herald to proclaime concerning the deceased Saint, Thus shall it be done unto Esth. 6. 11. the man, whom the King delighteth to honour, as Haman cryed before Morde­cai: Or else it shall be the Sergeant of God sent to arrest the sinner without bail or mainprize to under goe the stroake of eternall venge­ance.

In a word, let us ralley up the follies of most men into these foure ranckes:

1. The sick patient, he cries out for death, to take him out of the furnace of his torment, that his disease [Page 309] and distemper may be at an end. But let me tell the Patient, if he is sick of sin, death will be a bad Physitian, it will heighten his disease: turne the rod into a Scorpion, will turn the mild soft distemper, imagine it in the highest torture the Patient undergoes, into a miscellany of all torments, let them be boyld to the height.

2. The discontented sinner, whose disappointments and losses in the world fill him with agonies and per­plexities, he hanging upon the Crosse, stretches out his armes to embrace death, and supposeth that it will ease him of all his pangs and vexati­ons; but fond sinner, death to the wicked, is but a Goale delivery, and how fretfull wilt thou be, when thy soul shall be disappointed to eter­nity?

3. And the old, decrepit, bed-rid sinner, whose body is a common ho­spitall; who hath a bundle of diseases, and a systeme of distempers about him, who hath more diseases then veins; so that if Galen had lost any disease to treat on, he might finde it in him; he courts and cals for death, and waits [Page 310] for one issue more, among all the rest, an issue out of the world. But doth such reumatique, flegmatique, decrepit, fran­tique sinners suppose death will be a crutch to keep them from falling in­to hell? Surely those diseases which attend nature in the socket, in the de­clension of it, if grace have not cured them, death shall turne them into in­supportable maladies.

4. And the tired worldling who hath gone himself out of breath in the pur­suance of world affaires, he looks up­on death as a quiet and retired chamber to rest in. But let such a one consider, if in all his pursuites he hath not followed an interest in Christ, and made that the object of his sweat, he shall take up his lodging in a bed of eternall flames.

Not to amplifie the argument fur­ther, Death doth not strangle the sin­ner, or stiffle the Saint, but only ser­ries them both over to eternity. But it shall land them at a different place, as may be manifest upon the review of these particulars.

And first let us observe what death is to a believer.

1 Death is the believers change, his alteration, not his execution, his trans­plantation, not his dissolution, When Job 14. 14. a believer dies, God doth but take a flower out of the wildernesse, and plant it in his Garden, or take a rose out of the field, and put it in his bosome. Josephs change from the Prison to the Gen. 42. 12. Throne, from being a Prisoner to be­come a Prince; and Jobs change from Job. 41. 39. the dunghill to a reduplicated condi­tion, were but the pregnant prefigu­rations of the Saints change by death. It doth only change the copy, the state, the countenance of a child of God, and make him who looked pale with trouble and misery here, look fresh with glory and beauty for ever. Death to a Saint only turnes the scale, 2 Cor. 4. 17. and makes it weigh down with a weight of eternall glory. As the Moon after its change comes to its full; so death it placeth the poor, inconsiderable, derided, scoft Saint, whose body it may be is covered with soares, and soul beleaguered with agonies, and name with re­proaches, and estate with losses, in the throne of boundlesse felicity, and [Page 312] sets the Crown of immortality on his head.

2 Death is the last day of a believers non-age; whilest the Saints live here, they live upon a Pension, the allow­ance of providence, they are under age; but death brings them to receive their portion, and therefore heaven is called an inheritance. Death is the last day Si tanta & tam suavis est a [...]ha, quam deus hic suis largitur, quanta erit ha­reditas ipsa, quam suo tem­pore praestabit? A Lap. of the Saints Apprentiship, it manu­mits the Saint to eternall liberty. Here all the Saints are like Jacob, they serve for their Ruchels, and death puts a period to their servitude, to all their longings, groanings, sighs, to all the harshnesse they endure, all the toyles they sustain, all the bread of ad­versity, Observa quod Christus non di­cit, ut serviant mihi Sancti, sed ut videant glo­riam meam. Musc. and water of affliction they feed upon.

In a word, Death frees the believer from all, not only his labours, but from his mean allowances, as he is an heir under age, an heir of promise (ob­serve the word promise) and puts him in possession of the full transcendent re­venues of everlasting, never-dying honour and glory. Death is the Saints Secretary to write his relea­ses.

3 Death brings the Saint into the same presence-Chamber with Jesus Christ; Joh. 17. 28. it opens the door for the Saint to come in to God, and a conclave of Angels: the life of a Saint here is but an unkind wall, an injurious lattice be­tween Christ and him; now death breaks down this wall, and opens the wall for the Saints entry to lie in the everlasting embraces of Jesus Christ, it Cant. 2. 14. plucks up the hedge that the Saint may Mors piorum nihil allud est, quam [...] ad Christum; laetabatur Patri­archa Jacobus, cum videret currum a filio Josepho missum; & nos contri­stabimur quan­do coelestis Joseph currum nobis mittit quo in coelum eveha­mur? Ger. goe over to his beloved, it draws the curtain that the believer may have a full view of the beauties of Christ, it doth as it were pluck the maske from the face of Christ, to present him in his sweetest lovelinesse to the Saint. Death takes away all obstructions and impediments of an absolute and entire fruition of the Lord Jesus; while we are here, we may receive a letter from Christ now and then in Gospell com­munion, but death lodges us in the bosome of our pretious friend. Death is the fiery chariot to bring us to the Court of Christ.

4 Death is the rest and cessation of a believer from all his disquieting, and tumultuous disturbances in the [Page 314] world, [...], the quiet­tation of a Saint. A learned man ob­serves, that [...], rest, is the same with that which the Hebrewes call [...] refrigeration or refreshment. And so death indeed, is nothing but the unlading of a Saint of all his burdens, the closing after the sun­set; it layes the body of a believer in a sweet sleep for a while, and brings his soul into the banqueting house of In altera vita deus sanctos ab omnibus mise­riis liberatos, in vera & prepetua quiete, laetitia, gaudio, & gloria constituet. Chemn. eternall felicity. Here the poor be­liever is scorcht sometimes with the heat of Gods wrath; sometimes with the storming of Saints malice, some­times with the boyling of his own corruptions, and sometimes with the toyles of the affairs of the world; but death takes the Saint out of the heat, Sed in Christo, iis qui in ipsum credunt, mors est somnus, quies & refocillatio. Id. and brings him into the chearing shade of endlesse happinesse. The Saints dissolution shall unchain him from all his distemperatures and oppressions he was fettered with here, and shall lay him at rest in the refreshing, ravishing bosome of Jesus Christ.

5 Death is the messenger of Christ, to bring the Saint newes of an eternall victory; the Herald Christ imployes [Page 315] to usher the Saint to the throne. Here lies the indulgence of the Lord Christ, and one pretious fruit of his bloud, That death which was the effect of sin, the monster from the womb, part of the curse which sin drew upon the head of mankind, is now blossomed into a rare blessing, and is under Christ the Saints best friend, the honourable Ambassa­dour of Christ to tell the Saint of an approaching crown.

But now let us traverse the darke side, and see under what wofull noti­ons we must paraphrase upon the death of the wicked.

1 Death to the wicked is an inlet to eternall wrath, it opens the sluces of divine indignation, it powres out and unstops the vials of Gods displeasure upon the reprobate soul; those drops of anger which here in this life, some­times blasted and scorcht the sinner, death turnes into a perpetuall storme, and sets the reprobate as a marke for God to shoot all his arrowes of displea­sure against him. Here indeed in this life, the fiercest anger God drawes out Hab. 3. 2. against a sinner, is full of mixtures of mercy and pity, is attempered with [Page 316] bowels and compassion; hath its inter­missions and breathing times, hath its pauses and stops; but death shall cast Rev. 6. 17. the sinner into the furnace, whose heat shall not be allayed by any miti­gation.

2 Death to the sinner is his particu­lar doomesday, the firstday of his dread­full account; as soon as ever death di­vorces Heb. 9. 27. vorces the soul from the body, and gives Seneca & Phi­losophi aiunt; Mors homini natura est non poena, immo ve­ro ipse dico; mors homini poena est, non natura. Corn. A Lap. the parting blow, God passeth an immediate sentence of eternall death up­on the widowed soul, and the Lord be­gins the execution of the deceased sinner, which shall never be overtaken with a close or end. Then the sinner shall begin to reape the fruit of all his evill wayes, and passively discharge every particular debt. Then all the wounds of a wicked mans conscience shall fester, and ranckle with intolerable pain, and Gods executions shall finde out every vaine thought, and die it in the bloud of the soul, death imme­diately Mors est peccati comes, filia, & stipendium. in its stroak summons the sinner to the bar to receive the sad sentence and doom, which shall be to all eternity in the execution; venge­ance doth but wait for a sinner till the [Page 117] clock of death strikes, and then it seizeth on him, as an everlasting prey.

Indeed the soul being the nobler part of man, and so the more blame­worthy as casting it self away upon the account of sin, and likewise being the principall agent in all offences, for the poor body is dragged and animated by the soul to all miscarriages, that gives life and will, and love to all cor­porcall iniquities, the body of it selfe being but a dead piece of clay. I say, the soul being thus the grand agent in all sin, it receives its doom first, and fals under its wofull execution, and death doth cast it upon the spikes of immediate and everlasting ruine.

3 Death to the sinner is the ultimate period of all his comforts, all his good As the Poet saith, Mors ul­timalinea re­rum; and I may in refe­rence to the wicked, sola­minum too. dayes are buried in the grave with him. No lightning of comfort followes the thunder of his death: when once the sinner dies, there is no hope left, of ever enjoying again a smile from God, applause from the world, refreshment from relations, supplies from the crea­ture, sweetnesse from ordinances, or ever lying in the shade of any relaxation. In dying the sinners sun is set, with all [Page 318] its beams of mercy and consolation, the darknesse of the night of death, as Joh. 9. [...]. death is called sometimes, shall bury all colour of satisfaction or ease to the sinner.

In a word, to close this Chapter, Death in the generall, is not mans con­clusion, but his initiation to joy or tor­ment, rather the budding then the withering of his being. In death the 2 Cor. 5. 8. soul is neither must out, nor rockt asleep; death is but the Alarum of the soul to triumph or tribulation. Death is not a gulfe, but a gale, not to drown the dying patient in, but for him to passe thorough; it can no more bury the soul, then the grave could detaine the body of Christ. Finally it is mans summons, which cites both Saints and sinners before God, the courtiers to attend and waite on his throne, and the prisoners to heer and undergoe their doom.

CHAP. XIX.

Ʋse 2. of Terrour. AND if our future condition be eternall, What terrour should it strike into the hearts of all wicked men? What do ye mean fond sinners? Can ye hang in fiery chains for ever? Remember your everlasting Mat. 3 12. condition, your eternity, the unquencha­ble fire. Can ye undergoe a fit of the stone for a thousand years? Or lie upon the wracke for a million of ages? Can ye lie upon the points of needles for more ages then there are atomes in the Sun, or drops in the Sea? Can ye suffer scalding lead in your wounds, in the raw gashes of your con­sciences for such a duration? And what is this cold picture of misery to the damneds eternity? Look with amaze­ment Eph. 3. 17. on your future calamity, unlesse by faith you hide your souls in the Mat. 25. 41. [Page 320] wounds of Christ. Pray consider, how dolefully will thae dismall voice sound, Go ye cursed into everlasting fire▪ The Martyrs fire turned them into Quam tristis▪ vox est, judex cum dixerit, Ite! ashes, but the damneds shall not, they shall be scorcht with everlasting flames, be ever in the act of execution. Can O aeternitas, aeternitas, tu sola ultra omnem modum suppli­cia damnato­rum exaggeras. ye endure, ye delicate, soft, effeminated sinners, who now cannot endure the buffeting of gentle blast of wind; I say, can ye endure to be stung with Serpents for as many ages as there are haires on your heads; or to drinke the poyson of Aspes, for as many centuries as there are sands on the shoar, if ye can goe on in your licentious vanities. Tell Quis dicere valeat, quae impiis, & male viventibus tor­menta sunt prae­parata. Cassi­anus. me sinner, when thou hast spent milli­ons of yeares in torment, what an agony will it be to recollect thou hast not spent a moment? Shouldest thou lie to eternity on a bed of down, how tedious, how wearisome would it be, how then canst thou lie on a bed of flames? How wretched sinner canst thou hear the dolefull knell of an Adesse intolera­bile, Abesse impossibile. everlasting funerall? And will those transient glances of sin and pleasure thou hast enjoyed here, make eternity [Page 321] spend the more delightfully; shall thy enjoyments, the bed and the banquet, thy lust and luxury, in rumination of them be any pastime in hell? Remem­ber if thou art Christlesse, thou art to be prest to death for ever, for ever. And therefore awaken, ye drowsy and secure sinners, lest suddenly ye fall into infinite death. Is it not more no­ble and plausible to swimme in tears, then melt in flames? The Saints un­der Potior est p [...]ni­tentia, quam poena. the Altar cry, How long Lord, holy and true, Rev. 6. 10, 11. But they shall wear white garments; but how dole­fully shall the damned cry, how long? Nec qui torquet, aliquando fati­gatur, nec qui torquetur, ali­quando moritur. Bern. Their tragedy shall never be acted, their painfull wounds shall increase as fast as they are made. Let those vo­luptuous sinners, who please them­selves with varieties of musicks and harmonies here, and as the Prophet speaks, who chant to the sound of the Viall, and invent to themselves instruments of musick, Amos 6. 5. aske themselves the question, Whether they can heare the scrietchings, roarings, and cursed blasphemies of a damned crew for ever.

Now to prosecute this particular [Page 322] use, I shall handle it under two gene­rall heads:

  • 1. I shall open the extremity.
  • 2. The eternity of the damneds tor­ment.

For the extremity of the sinners future misery, it will be demon­strated, if ye will cast your thoughts on these five things considerable.

1 Consider the universality of the damneds misery, and that under a Duplex damna­torum poena est in gehenna, nam & mentem urit tristitia, & cor­pus flamma. Bern. double notion. There is a twofold universality in the Reprobates cala­mity.

1 An universality of the Patient; every part of the damned shall under­goe insupportable torment, every ar­tery, and vein in their bodies, every faculty and power in the soul, shall be excoriated, and tortured with the pin­cers of Gods wrath.

2. The souls of the reprobate which have been chief in sinning, shall be chief in suffering; and as the joyes of the soul surpasse the pleasures of the body, so shall the misery of the soul, the calamity of the body. But let me give you a more particular anatomie of the souls torment.

[Page 323] 1. The understanding shall be cruci­ated Poenae damnatis secundum corpus & secundum a­nimam infligen­tur. Corpus poe­nis variis quoad omnes sensus afficietur, ani­ma secundum omnes suas po­tentias crucia­bitur. Gerson. and wrackt, in that now it more clearly sees its vanity, observes the sweetnesse of Gospel-mercy, and the pretiousnesse of the offers of grace. Now the understanding observes too late, how dreggish and drossie those lustfull embraces, sinfull dalliancies, worldly profits and delicacies were, he hath lost heaven and the soul for. Now it sees more clearly how beauti­full Christ was, how tender his bowels and melting his compassion, against which he spurned with so much re­fractory stubbornesse. Now it animad­verts how much of hell was wrapt up in the pill of the most plausible sin, too late it observes the hand of the Devill in every temptation; and God in wrath shall wipe all dust a­way from the glasse of the Re­probates understanding. And what Scorpions will such animadversions be to the perplexed and pained under­standing?

2. The Will too shall be upon the invill of misery; how will it then macerate the wils of the damned, that now it hath no pleasure to feed upon? [Page 324] No sinnes to cherish or pursue, no grace or favour to abuse or with­stand.

The will of the Reprobate that here was too free in its embraces of sin and vanity, in hell, in eternity shall be fettered and chained to a necessity of despaire and blasphemy. The dam­ned shall will nothing but self-de­struction and murder (which yet shall be impossible) and God-provocation, how to un throne Christ, crucifie the Angels, and if possible drown the Saints triumphant in the same deluge of horrour and confusion with them­selves. The wils of the Reprobates shall be as so many vultures to make every thing a prey.

3. The affections of the reprobates shall be tormented even in this, in ha­ving Affectus, animae pedes. nothing desirable, and they which have been the feet of the soul, shall be the fiends and furies of it. And although here they bathed themselves in the sweets of sin, and the creature (For ah! How did Ammon 2 Sam. 13. love his Tamar, Judas the bag, and 2 Sam. 16. 1, 2. Absalon the crown?) yet these very desires in eternall misery shall be the [Page 325] vermine, the plague, the horse­leeches of the soul. With what hor­rour shall the understanding behold its cursed and viperous affections, which drinke up the poyson, that now cau­seth so much smart?

4. And the memories of the damned, those wofull treasuries of all oppor­tunities lost, all mercies slighted, time mispent, sins committed, favours abu­sed, Infandum re­ginajubes reno­vare dolorem. Virg. shall be scorcht and wrackt with the wrath of God; those dismall re­gisters and records of Gods justice, and the souls owne folly, shall keep fresh, vigorous, and lively, the torments of the damned in a constant reviewing of the causes of them. And then all things acted in the flesh shall come into mind, and fall within the hold of this cursed repository, the me­mory. Nay those very sinnes that on course, without study or arti­fice had been forgotten by the sinner here.

5. So the conscience shall not only be a thousand witnesses, but a thou­sand Devils to the damned, shall be a perpetuall worme, corroding lacera­ting, Mark. 9. 48. and branding the reprobate; [Page 326] then its wounds, and checkes, and scrietches shall be scrued to the height. It shall in eternity be awakened from 2 Tim. 4. 2. all its searednesse, stupidity, and Continuus erit conscientiae re­morsus, & assi­dua peccatorum perpetratorum ruminatio in a­nima. Chemn. swoones, and shall feed its own tor­ments, it shall not sleep in hell. All those artifices, and wiles that the unconscionable sinner hath used to bribe, flatter, and smother conscience, shall cease and faile in eternity. There the pangs, agonies, convulsion fits, and Dan. 3. 19. perplexities of conscience, which here as firebrands were a present hell to the ghastly sinner, shall as Nebuchadnezzars furnace, be turned into a hotter flame. In the everlasting condition of the damned conscience shall neither be gagged nor charmed, but shall be Vermis rodens est morsus con­scientiae perpe­tuus & conti­nuus ex peccato­rum recordatione or tus, rabida quaedam displi­centia, & in­fructuosa poeni­tentia, angor cordis maximus, & nunquam in­terruptus. Ger. an ever-killing Basiliske to the re­probate, and its tempests shall never be blown over, as earthquakes never cease. The sinner which sinned away all conscience here, and seared it by habituall and constant wicked­nesses, shall finde it in hell, and it shall be sensible and tender enough, and the wounds of it shall be ever kept open to receive the impres­sions of divine wrath. It shall re­verberate [...] [Page 327] all the sins of the damned upon the raw soul.

And now here I am enforced necessa­rily to dilate my self something, and to open to you, what a corroding, painfull worme the conscience shall be to the tormented reprobate. I shall only paraphrase a little upon this morsus conscientiae, aking, tearing, gnawing, biting of conscience, and de­lineate this rigorous disease in some few particulars.

1 Conscience in hell, it shall remem­ber all its sins, those thousands and millions of evils, which here it may Omnia mala in memoriam reci­piet conscientia. Orig. be never fell within the glance or eye of our strictest observation, those thousands of ranks of guilt shall ap­pear; not only those internall corrup­tions, those vipers which lodged in our breasts here and never broak the prisons, but those extrinsecall abomi­nations, deeds of darknesse which clouded the sun it self. All then shall arraign the soul at the bar of a tortured Luk. 8. 17. conscience. Here the caitiffe miscreant is sometimes eased by oblivion, but then all his vanity and violence shall stand as so many ghosts before [Page 328] him. Conscience shall be but as the clear glasse to see all his deformities. One sin shall not be behind the cur­tain, shall not be annihilated or con­cealed; the Damned sinner shall not do to his sins, as Rachel did to her Gen. 31. 34. Gods, hide them with a lying excuse. No, conscience in eternity shall give up all, the whole beadroll of sinne. Those numberlesse numbers of evils, which would silence all Arithmetick to give the totall sum of them, shall particularly and singly not only be observed and animadverted by con­science, but give fresh and everlasting wounds to the tortured miscreant. Every wanton glance, proud look, loose gesture, vain thought, unpro­fitable word, every transient if unholy imagination, shall not on­ly be within the sad prospect of conscience, but be continuall tortures to it.

2 Conscience, in the damneds eternity, shall remember all its sins in their grea­test aggravations. Then conscience shall Luk. 19. 42. feel what it was to refuse Christ, to neglect heaven, to pride the body, and lose the soul. Every extravagant [Page 329] thought in ordinances, those Terme times for the soul, every mispent mi­nute shall be scrued to the highest. Then wil come in, what funshines, what Heb. 2. 3. showrs, what offers, what means, what manna the prodigal and frantick sinner hath trampled upon. The conscience shall see all its guilt in bloudy colours, in their just amplifications; not as here they are palliated by Satan, and misre­presented Gen. 3. 5. by the world, curiously and cunningly extenuated by the sinner self. Every sin [...] [...]ll then be known to the conscience to be able to damne the soul, dishonour the infinite God, and shut men out of glory; and sin shall then be aggravated with two dreadfull examples.

1. Of Satans Angels, how sin, and for ought we know, but [...] sin, dis­coloured their glory, and sanke them into perpetuall contempt and misery, and this will lash the conscience with Scorpions.

2. Of the misery of eating one ap­ple by Adam, and that it should in­gulf all posterity in one common de­solation, this likewise will fetch bloud from conscience.

Then indeed shall all sins against Scholastici docent morsum vermis, longe superare ustio­nem ignis. Ger. mercy, means, menaces, light, love, checkes, chidings, prayers, pro­testations, appeare in their genuine colours to the sacrificed and tortured conscience.

3 The Conscience, viz. in eternity, shall remember all its sins as mixt with Gods wrath. All the sins of the Repro­bate shall be as Samsons foxes having Jud. 15. 4, 5, &c. firebrands at their tailes. Here the sin­ner remembers sin notionally, and God seems to conniv [...] them, but in eternity every sin shal [...] [...] remembred, and it shall be big with vengeance. Every sin shall fall on and storme con­science fired with Gods indignation, shall be a granado, a fireball in the soul. All recollected sins, (as all the sins of [...]e damned shall be recol­lected) shall be envenomed with pu­nishment; every vain thought shall have its sting, its bullet in it, and every idle word edged with Gods wrath shall excoriate the soul.

4 Then conscience shall remember every sin as unpardonable, as being for ever in­capable of forgivenesse and remission. Conscience shall then look upon every [Page 331] sin as died in grain, that shall never Vermis conscien­tiae tripliciter lacer abit, affiget memoria; sera turbabit poenitentia, & to quebit angustia. Innoc. lose its colour, its blacknesse, its bloudinesse, as that guilt which shall never be entombed in oblivion. Of all the sins the consciences of the damned shall be burdened with, not one, the least of them shall either fall out of the remembrance, or the revenge of the Lord. The massacred conscience shall look upon all its guilt, as unre­moveable for ever. Not one sin of ignorance shall ever be overpassed; the close venereall sin shall never lose its poyson; but the conscience shall see its self ever to be tortured with the vultures of its own sins. Here indeed in this life, the awakening of conscience is a singular mercy, and a rich priviledge, and it doth accelerate and hasten the sinner to flie to the City of refuge, Phil. 3. 9. the bloud of Christ, whereby he may be freed from his stinging Serpents, his sins, and cured of the intolera­ble wounds of conscience; but the awakened conscience in the eternity of misery shall look on the deluge of its guilt, as that not one prop of it shall fall, or ever be dried up.

But I cannot yet put a stop to my Contemplation on this subject, viz. What a worme conscience will be in Animus aeger, & [...]ale sibi consci­ [...]s semper est [...]nfernus. Luth. [...]i diabolus non [...]aberet malam conscientiam [...]sset in coelo. Id. hell? and the rather, because it may be the discussion of the wofull misery of the conscience of the damned in eternity, may awaken the Conscience of some Reader here.

Further to amplifie the misery of the tormenting conscience of the Repro­bates, let be considered,

1 The intimacy of these gripes. The soul shall be put into an everlasting agony. Conscience is a bosome friend, Erinnys Et quantum spiritualia bona excedunt cor­poralia, tantum & spiritualia mala. in corde, a flame in the spirit. It is the fury in the closet. Oftentimes here the conscience is on the wracke, when none but God is the spectatour of that misery; but in eternity conscience shall be fire in the inward man, a soul torment; it is not supplicium carnis, but supplicium cordis, not the punishment of the skin, but of the soul. And this aggravates the torment of conscience, it shall cruciate, fester, and wrack the more noble, more spirituall, more capable, more sensible and apprehen­sive part of Man; the soul can drink [Page 133] in more punishment and more fully feel the burden and weight of it. Its capacities are more extensive, which is easily discernible in that it can enjoy the beatificall presence of God him­self. Ah! what measures of torture can this sublime piece of immortality take in?

2 The conscience of the damned is to be considered in the continuednesse of its torment. No sleeping moment. Nec mo [...]ur vermis, nec m [...] ­ratur, sed sem­per corrodit peccatorem. It shall be an ever awaking Lyon, al­wayes devouring, yet never killing. No rest, no ease, no slumber, no pause shall mitigate the pain of conscience in miserable eternity. These Scorpions of sin and guilt shall be ever torment­ing the conscience. No intermediate quiet; the storme is perpetuall, no vacation. In hell there shall be dark­nesse, Quocun (que) aspi­cias obviabit peccatum. Basil. but no sleep. Conscience shall be alwayes a flaming torch.

3 The conscience is to be conside­red in the justnesse of its torment. Ah faith conscience, I might have been in glory, installed in eternall beatitude, but my sins have righteously crusht me into these flames. And this will be the very poyson of conscience it self. [Page 334] The sinner suffers not as a Martyr, but as a malefactour; he is burnt in the hand as a thief. The Martyrs though they were the sacrifices of the cruelty and tyranny of men, yet how serene and calme, how full of peace and joy were their consciences? they were as crystall seas within them; and the reason was, because they dyed not for their sins, but their sanctity, as the witnesses of Gods truth, and not as Act. 24. 16. the staines of Christs Gospell; but this shall be the sting in the worme of conscience to the damned, they reap the miserable fruits of their own sinfull deserts. This will inflame the reckoning the losse of offered grace: And now the winde shall ever blow contrary, they die justly, as the prisoners of Gods wrath, and not as the heralds of their owne inno­cency.

4 The torments of the conscience of the damned are to be considered in the infinitenesse of them. The soul shall be lasht with sin and guilt, which is all venome and rancour. Sin is the sharp­est sword when edged with Gods wrath; the fire indeed scorches sorely, [Page 335] but it is a creature, there is something Conscientia ma­la, non solum recordationem, & scientiam perpetratisceleris & maleficia ob oculós ponit; sed etiam dolorem & anxietatem comitem habet. Chemn. of good in it, but sin is all deformity, all mischief, as the consciences of the damned shall be lasht with a scourge made up of the cords of innumerable sins. Ah! who knowes the torment that one sin sets home by the anger of the Lord, can create in the soul? How smarting the lash of one crime? What palenesse of face, anguish of spi­rit, trembling of knees, terrour of heart did the hand-writing on the Dan. 5. 2, 3, 4, &c. wall, the repercussion of an evill con­science cast Princely Belshazzar into? Ne (que) ullum erit peccatum quod non proprium suum ibi habeat cruciatum. Ger. what furies will the reflexions of conscience be, when awakened in everlasting and irrecoverable misery?

5 The conscience of the damned may be considered in the innumerablenesse of its torments, when every sin shall fetch bloud at the soul. Compute the evils of one day, how many thou­sands it is stained with, and what then are the sins of mans life? and yet every sin shall have its full blow, (as before was hinted). Every sin in specie, in the kind of it, Pride, Excesse, Covetous­nesse, Rom. 2. 9. Formality, &c. and every sin in individuo, individually considered, [Page 336] every act, ebullition, nay conceiving of Pride, Vanity, Hypocrifie, &c. shall strike upon the hot iron of consci­ence, and there shall be no warding of any one blow, the soul shall be na­ked to it, and God shall see the execu­tion done.

6 The consciences of the damned are to be considered in that torment which their envy shall produce; that shall likewise put conscience on the wrack. The Fathers make much mention of Livor damnatorum, the envy of the dam­ned, to see the Saints crownd and themselves wrackt, the Saints living in the embraces of Christ, and them­selves lying under the wrath of the Lambe, and it may be both lived un­der Mat. 8. 11, 12. the same means, enjoyed the same mercies, were wet with the same Go­spell showres; this likewise shall keep open the wound, that when others are arrived at the harbour, they are shipwrackt upon a wofull eter­nity.

7 The torments of the damneds con­sciences may be considered and inhan­ced upon this account, in the conside­ration of their own madnesse and folly, [Page 337] to come to be tortured by so many vultures, and for what? to please a Mat. 16. 20. piece of clay, for the spending of a few moments, and those interrupted by manifold afflictions, and imbittered with various troubles; the greatest jollities of this world are sowred and overtaken with many disturbances; our sweetest musicks jar, all delights below have their distastfull pauses; Prov. 13. 14. and how will this torture conscience to undergoe the frowns of a God, the losse of a Crown, the perishing of a soul, the divorce of a Christ, the malice of legions of devils, and the ex­ecutions of eternity, and all for the paint of a few specious, but fallacious, but fugacious satisfactions, and accom­modatious?

And thus you see what those tor­ments are, which shall torture the consciences of the damned to eter­nity.

2 And as the souls of the damned in all their faculties shall ever be upon the wrack; so likewise the bodies of the reprobates in all their parts, shall be scorcht in the flames of eternall venge­ance. Could I, as a skilfull Anatomist [Page 338] by a rare dissection open every con­siderable Patietur etiam corpus, non qua sentire quid sine carne non potest anima, sed qua necesse est, illam etiam carne sentire. Tertul. particular in the body, I might then fully describe the universality of its torments. There is not a vein, not an artery, not a muscle, not the least and most latent part of the bodies of the damned, but shall be torne with intolerable torments and anguish. Those curious pieces of workeman­ship, the bodies of the damned, (for so they were in point of formation) which the Psalmist looked upon as Psal. 139. 26. the subject of admiration and wonder, shall after their resurrection be but the common slaughter-houses of pain and punishment.

1. The heads of the damned shall then be fuller of pains, then here they were of plots, those forges of cove­tousnesse, Ad patiendum societatem car­nis expostulat anima ut tam plene per eam pati possit, quam sine ea plene agere non potu­it. Idem. lust, ambition, &c. which oftentimes in this life were tortured to beat out and accomplish wicked and facinorous designes, shall feel the inexpressible surprisals of Gods ever­lasting displeasure, and their sinfull im­postume which they laboured with here, shall break into eternall pain and agony. And all the paint of that ensna­ring beauty, their faces were comely [Page 339] with, shall melt away in inextinguish­able flames.

2. And so the hands of the damned, which it may be, here must not be Mat. 3. 12. besmeared or sullied with any soil, but must be sweetned with the perfumed glove, and enriched with the sparkling diamond, which here could not think to graspe corruption, shall be burnt with the hot iron of Gods eternall indignation. Those hands of the wick­ed, Isa. 33. 14. which here were the boysterous ex­ecutours of Will and Passion, the com­mon receivers of bribes and usury, the manuall instruments of mani­fold wickednesse, shall feel the corro­ding pain of eternall flames.

3. The feet of the reprobate, which here have been swift in running to mischief, as the wiseman saith; which Prov. 6. 18. have chaunted after the viall, as the Prophet speaks; which have often Amos. 6. 4. posted to execute the commands of the inordinate will and sinfull affections, which have pleased the wanton soul in its measures and dances, shall in eter­nity be fettered with the burning irons, and bear the shackles of ever­flaming wrath, and be copartners with [Page 340] the rest of the body in a common ex­ecution.

4. The heart of the reprobate, which here hath been desperately wicked, hereafter in eternity shall be intolera­bly tormented. Here it hath been the cage of uncleannesse, and hereafter it Jer. 17. 9. shall be the furnace of misery, and every lust it hath harboured, shall be Jer. 5. 27. turned into a Scorpion, an Aspe, a Mat. 15. 19. Fury; here it was the sink of all those venemous principles the sinner acted by; and hereafter it shall be the Sodome which shall be ever consuming Gen. 19. per tot. with fire and brimstone, and those very corruptions which here checkered the sinner, shall hereafter cruciate him; and what here was his pleasure, shall in hell be his torture. And so all parts of the body shall be wrackt in a per­petuall conflagration. Then all the haughty looks of a sinner shall be taken down. How little will the flames of hell respect the lovelinesse and beauty of those bodies which here they were painted with? but as death and the wormes did not reverence the feature of their delicate bodies, so neither will the flames of eternity spare [Page 341] their comelinesse. And let these three things be subjoyned to this Argu­ment.

1 All the parts, nerves, arteries, every parcell and member of the body of the damned after the resurrection, shall be all tortured together, not by way of succession, of priority or posteriority. Here indeed diseases run from one part of the body to another, and as some parts are full of, so others are free from pain: But no part of the bodies of the reprobate shall escape the seisure of Gods wrath, and hell flames; the vengeance of God shall be search­ing, Mat. 25. 41. and tear every vein of the damned. In ignem aeter­num est totali­ter, non tan­tum corpus, sed & totum cor­poris. All the members shall suffer in a com­mon destruction. There shall not be one sinew unstretcht, it shall not be with the members of the body, as with the sentinels, that one should relieve another; but as there shall be no relaxation, so no exemption.

All the parts of the body shall be tortured with the extremest pain. In­deed happily here some parts of the body have been more forward and froward in sin then others, but in eternity every part shall be pullied up, [Page 342] and scrued with the extreamest rigour, and in the most insufferable perplexi­ty. As the Father speaks, Adesse erit intolerabile. The most choise, tender, delicate parts of the body, which here, it may be, should not suffer the dis­courtesie of a gentle blast, shall in hell Nunquam dei oculos, memori­am, manus, effu­gere posset peca­tor. Theoph. be excoriated and unbowelled by un­speakable and inexorable severity. Those sost and curious parts of the body which the mimick Dames and proud Gallants of the world have in­dulged, and enshrined in so much bravery, shall in eternity suffer the most bloudy, tragicall and everlasting execution; nor shall the Ladies vail, or the Curtizans maske secure their beauty, when they shall have no other looking-glasse to see themselves in, but the glasse of Gods severe and eternall wrath, but the bodies of the most dis­solved and effeminated sinners shall be wrackt with a generall torture. Here age and diseases can wrinckle their lovelinesse, and in eternity wrath and vengeance shall take away all ease and mitigation.

3 All the parts and members of the bodies of the damned shall be tortu­red, [Page 343] without the least consumption of them: Miseries shall not wast them, shall corrode them, but not consume them. Here diseases do not only tire the spirits, but waste the body; the face loseth its colour, the stomach its ap­petite, the knees tremble with feeble­nesse, and the flesh melts away. But though every part of the body in eter­nity shall be parched and scorcht with consuming fire, yet nothing of its Heb. 12. 29. strength, or capacity to endure tor­ment shall for ever be abated; for could the parts of the body sinke, and gradually consume, the whole in time would fall into an extinction, which is a felicity, God will never give the grant of to the damned repro­bate.

3 And as all the parts of the bodies, and faculties of the souls of the dam­ned, shall be tortured with misery for ever: so all the senses shall bear their part in the inexpressible doom. Those galleries which men so delightfully walke in here, those windowes and perspectives of the soul, through which the sinner often espies the Bathsheba whose beauty enthrals him; those senses [Page 344] which sinners have so studied to bribe and gratifie, Esau his tast, Gen. 25. 30. Herod his eare, Act. 12. 23. Ammon his eye, 2 Sam. 13. 6. &c. I say, these senses, which have been the inlets of sin, the eye of Pride, the tast of drunkennesse, the hearing of curiosity, vanity and errour, &c. Those senses which have been the spies of temptation to finde out the bait, the panders of the heart to gratifie its lusts and ambitions; the Nihil est in in­tellectu, quod non prins fuit in sensu. Arist. & alii. false and treacherous sentinels of the soul, shall in the dungeon of eterni­ty not only be imprisoned from their pleasant liberty, and recreative sa­tisfactions they here enjoyed; but be filled and fed with those mise­ries and distasts which are most noysome and abominable to their sus­ceptible capacities: as more particu­larly,

1. The sight shall be cruciated and afflicted with many ghastly and di­stastfull objects, Nihil nisi tremendum, Oculi crucia­buntur Daemo­num aspectu. Ger. nihil nisi horrendum, nihil nisi eavendum, objectum erit visus. Nothing but tra­gedies and tragicall executions, the wounds and wasts, the torments and tribulations and terrous of them­selves [Page 345] and others, shall be the everlasting object of the damneds view. The row­ling Quoad visum, est ibi luminis privatio, quod delectabile est oculis videre. Gerson. eye of the wanton sinner, which often fed it self here with beautifull objects, whether complexioned in a face, or painted in the rarest prospects of the creature, shall see nothing but what shall be the fountain of horrour and amazement. And the bloudshot eye, which diseased, hath looked up­on every object with malignity and envy, shall see nothing but the perpe­tuall slaughters of doomed malefa­ctours. And

2. The hearing of the damned, which Quoad audi­tum, est ibi sonus horribilis, gemi­tus miserabilis, & blasphemia execrabilis. Id. it may be here, was often raised and ravished with exquisite musickes, and pleasing harmonies, which oftentimes committed sensuall idolatry with the the Viall and Lute; or happily the receptive of errours, and blasphemies, or other perturbant affaires, for which soul-work was laid aside, shall be everlastingly tortured with the groans, frights, cries, moanes, scrietches, revi­lings and blasphemies of a damned society. That delicate eare which was so curious in its musicall apprehen­sions, will then take up Jeremiahs wish, [Page 346] Jer. 9. 2. that it were in a wildernesse to hear nothing but the ruffling of a few leaves, or the murmuration of a few streames. How dolefully will those self-cursing accents of the reprobate crew sound? How mournfully the pitifull, yet fruitlesse lamentation of the cast and condemned sinner? How tragicall the roarings which shall be drawn from their inexpressible tor­ture? And

3. The smell of the Reprobates which here was so choyce in singling out its fragrancies, and oftentimes the nosegay was laid in the bosome; I say, that Rev. 14. 10. smell which sometimes perfumed it self in an odoriferous bed of flowers and roses, shall everlastingly be offended with the sent of sulphur and brimstone, and that distastfull and noysome smell which the imprisoned reprobates shall evaporate. Heliogabalus that Sardana­palus Petrod' Mexia in Imper. Hist. of Rome, who here could not bathe himself but in waters sweetned with perfumes; shall have nothing in eternity to refresh that sense, but the stench of Gods eternall wrath. And

4. So for the taste, the criticall pa­lat [Page 347] of sinners which here was so rare in its inventions, how to please and Quoad gustum, ab synthium, amarus cibus, Item fel draco­num potus, uva illorum uva fellis, & potus amarissimus fel draconum, vi­num eorum, & venenum aspi­dum insanabile. intoxicate it self, which often hath been non-plust which dish in the feast, which dainty in the banquet to seize and prey upon; which sometimes hath been at a controversie, whether it hath pleased the Drunkard or the Glutton most, shall in eternity drink and taste nothing but the cup of trembling, the vials of Gods wrath, the poyson of Aspes, the vomit of Serpents, and the spirits of Satans malice. And

5. The touch which here was grati­fied with softnesse and effeminacy, and was indulged with the finest coverlets, which could not endure the smart of a wound, the unkindnesse of a storme or the intolerablenesse of a spark, shall be tormented with the most pe­netrative Mar. 9. 48. and wracking torments, with Quoad tactum ibi est ignis urens, vermis corrodens, aestus insuperabilis, & frigor into­lerabilis, Gers. flames which have intolerable heat, but no light, and with all those tor­tures which with most exquisitenesse can afflict that sense. That sense which the Philosophers call the most com­mon, shall in the eternity of the damned be the common capacity of [Page 348] insupportable misery. And thus for the first universality, that of the Pa­tient.

But further to draw this Map of misery, I shall unfold and fall upon a second universality, viz. That of Pu­nishnent. Not only every artery of the body, every faculty of the soul, (I speak in reference to the damned) every exertion of the sense, shall live in an everlasting execution and Mar­tyrdome, (if I may use the word) But every imaginable misery, omni­genous, De poenis exco­gitari non potest quod ibi non erit. Greg. multifarious, innumerable ca­lamities shall seise upon every parti­cular. The soul in its full capacities shall drink in all soul-torment, and the body all corporeall tortures. Eve­ry division of both (if the soul may be parcelled) shall lie under multitu­dinous extremities. Ah! Consider this Psal. 10. 22. all ye that forget God.

But not to traverse only univer­sals, Non mihi si linguae centum essent, oraque centum, Omnia poenarum per­currere nomina possem. Virg. and to glance only at the torments of the damned in generall; the usu­all allotment and division of these pains are cast by Divines into three heads:

  • [Page 349]1. The punishment of losse.
  • 2. The punishment of sense.
  • 3. The punishment of separation.

But the first and the last, may seem to be coincident.

1 The punishment of losse, consists in the deprivall that the damned un­dergoe, Mille gehennas ponai, & nihil tale est, quale est excludi a gloria dei, & odio haberi a deo. Chrysost. in regard of the presence of God, and the unspeakable joys of hea­ven; and this Divines have called the worst punishment, and so indeed it must be, because the good the repro­bates are deprived of, is infinitely Absentia Christi quoad visionem, omnia alia tor­menta superat, & omnibus poenis intolera­bilior est. Aug. more valuable, then the paines the damned undergoe can be considerable. The losse of God is infinite, in refe­rence to the object; but the torments cannot be infinite, because a finite creature undergoes them. But only to touch on this sad particular, besides the losse of God, the damned shall lose,

1 The blessed society of Angels, those first essayes of creating power, the masterpieces of the whole fabrick of Ʋbi non habet locum dei gra­tia, ibi nec obti­net gratiosa An­gelorum praesen­tia. Luth. the world; those pieces of purity which never were deflowred with a sin, The Courtiers of heaven, Dan. 7. 10. The comforters of Christ himself, [Page 350] Mat. 4. 11. The ministring Spirits who Sicut fumus apes, & faetor columbas abigit, sic Angelos [...]. Basil. wait on the Saints here, as the Spouse of the Lord Jesus. And this is intolerable misery; and one particular of the damneds calamity. As the Angel was not here their ministration, so not in eternity shall he be their companion. Here the Angell did not officiate to them, nor hereafter shall he associate with them.

2 The rare and rich society of the glorified Saints. The damned shall not Mat. 8. 12. be blessed with that glorious associa­tion▪ Mat. 22. 13. The joyes, perfections and per­sons Justi in manu Dei erunt, pecca­tores in loco Di­aboli, justi cum Deo, peccatores cum Satana. Cyril. Alex. of the glorious Saints shall not yeild a happinesse to the imprisoned reprobates. The glorified Saints which here were the derisions; shall not in eternity be the companions of the wicked, which here was their scorne, shall not then be their society. Those pieces of immaculate perfection shall not be overshadowed with the sight, much more with the communion of one reprobate miscreant. The sinner that here avoided, shall not in eternity be blessed with the company of the Saints.

3 The joyes, rest and quietnesse of heaven, all those felicities which be­spangle [Page 351] glory it self; whatever blessed­nesse arches heaven, they shall be exclu­ded Mat. 21. 13. the feast, turned out of the Court, expelled the bride-chamber, shut out of Mat. 25. 12. Paradise; and the skreen of Gods Job 20. 26. wrath shall stand everlastingly between them and the festivities of glory. The reprobates shall never see Paradise in Nec sol, nec luna, nec stella videbitur una. Leon. the Landskip of a single glance, unlesse it be to accumulate their infelicity. Their souls shall not be refreshed with the dewes of celestiall happinesse. God in the full passage of eternity shall not once draw the curtain to refresh the damned with a transient view of that glory, which shall for ever encompasse his Saints.

4 I might here superadd, their exile and banishment from the harmonies and hallelujahs of heaven, those seraphi­call musicks which are the everlasting redundancies of the Angels obedience, and the Saints joy. And

5 I might likewise take notice of the damneds exclusion from the refreshment of common pitty and commiseration. The reprobates in eternity shall not Prov. 1. 26. have the Levits courtesie, the refresh­ment of a compassionate look; they [Page 352] shall eternally be banisht all moaning Psal. 92. 8. language, they shall never hear the Ipsimet damna­ti sese invicem odio prosequen­tur, ac miseriis suis mutuo in­sultabunt. Ger. sounding of the bowels of man, nor be indulged with the compassions of God. I say, these things might be en­larged, but this punishment of losse, which the damned shall be afflicted with, will more clearly appear, when the gain, the felicities of heaven shall come into debate and discussion.

I now fall upon the punishment of sense, consisting in all those actuall tor­ments which the damned shall under­goe, which as David speaks of Gods works, Psal. 40. 5. Many O Lord my God, [...]. Hom. are thy wonderfull works. And as Nestor spake of the miseries they endured at the siege of Troy, so I may say of those calamities, they are not more grievous for their nature, then numerous for the account. As the Father comprised all in one short sentence, Ibi nihil aderit boni, nihil aberit mali: But I shall com­prise those chief punishments which shall consume and torment the damned under these few heads.

1 They shall be tortured with the scorching heat of fire, mentioned in many places of Scripture, Mat. 18. 9. [Page 353] Mat. 3. 12. Mar. 9. 48. Luke 16. 24. &c.

Now for the handling of this par­ticular, I shall dispatch it in these three things;

1. Quest. Whether this infernall fire be ma­teriall or no?

Answ. Answ. There are many who seem to affirme it, and use many arguments Gehenna illa, quae etiam stag­num ignis & sulphuris dicta est, corporeus ignis erit, & cruciabit corpo­ra damnatorum. Aug. de civ. dei. for the assertion. As

1. In the articles of faith, we are to adhere to the letter, unlesse evident and necessary occasion draw us from a literall interpretation. Now these miseries are often called fire Mat. 15. 41, &c. And

2. To this fire is ascribed sulphur, flames, wood, Isa. 30. 33. Now the Word would not give such properties to immateriall fire.

3. The bodies of men cannot be more exquisitely tormented, then with fire: one spark is exceeding dolo­rous. And Nebuchadnezzars furnace, was but a type of hell, and there­fore there is no reason to recede from their opinion.

And then on the contrary part, it is urged,

1. That corporeall fire can make no impressions on a spirit, as the Devils and the souls of men are. All agents, Daemonas & animas [...]ationa­les, non aliter cruciari igne corporeo qui­dam asserunt, contra suam voluntatem quam quod in eo detinean­tur tanquam in perpetuo carcere. Thom. as Philosophers observe, doe act on a capable object; now spirituall substances are not so to materiall agents.

Now to this it is answered,

1 Our souls here are often afflicted in corporeall distempers, Et corpore afflicto anima ipsa dolet.

2. Although coporeall fire doe not act on the soul by a physicall and na­turall power; yet God can infuse a power into fire as the instrument of his wrath and vengeance, even to scorch and singe the souls of the damned. Though fire cannot do it, as Divines observe, Virtute physica, tamen virtute hyperphysica. And it is a good observati­o [...] a learned man, that Talis est cujus­que rei natura, & actio, qualem Deus creator Omnipotens eam vult esse; si corpora dam­natorum urantur, & non consumantur, nonne illud est miraculum? Et quomodo dicitur ignis contra naturam agere, cum agat vo­luntate Dei? that is, The nature and the action of every thing is such as the Almighty creator will have it, [Page 355] and commands it to be; if the bodies Alii dicunt, si ignis infernalis esset materialis, tum extingui posset; sed resp. sicut corpora damnatorum et­si comburuntur, tamen non con­sumuntur, sic & ignis inferni, et­si se exerit in damnatorum poena, tamen non extinguitur: Ʋtrum (que) ergo est per miraculam. of the damned are burned and not consumed, is not this a miracle? as the bush, Exod. 3. in the beginning. And then how can that fire be said to act against its own nature, that acts according to the will of the God of nature? and therefore it may be asserted, that the fire of hell may reach the souls of the damned if God give it a command, or impose on it a quality and power so to do.

Now to clear the whole in a word, The infernall fire may be considered two wayes;

1. Ratione sui, in reference to it self, and so it cannot have any power on a spirituall substance.

2. Ratione agentis principalis cujus est instrumentum, in regard of the princi­pall agent whose instrument it is: and so it can act upon spirituall beings, and make the same painfull impressi­ons, as it would do upon corporall. But not further to amplifie the con­troversie, that saying of St. Augustine is August. remarkable, Cujusmodi ignis infernalis est, hominem scire arbitror neminem, nisi forte cui Spiritus divinus ostendit; (i. e.) None [Page 356] can know what this fire is, of what kind, of what power, unlesse extraordi­narily the Spirit of God reveal it to him. And another piously, Let us earnestly importune the Lord, that this knowledge whether the fire of hell be materiall or not, be never manifested to us by experience.

Quest. 2 And it would not be any great digression, if we should examine the difference between our fire and infer­nall fire, wherein the vast diversity lies.

1 Our fire can be extinguisht; the hottest flames can be put out by the greatest streames; the holy fire of the heart, love, cannot be quenched, no not by many waters, Cant. 8. 7. but Job 20. 26. the fire of the hearth can be extinguish­ed, Deut. 32. 22. the greatest conflagrations will either die of themselves, or be quench­ed by an exterior power. But the fire of hell is an everlasting flame, tears cannot quench it, bloud cannot allay it. Could the damned weep an Ocean, they could not extinguish one sparke of this fire.

2 Our fire must be maintained by continuall supplies of fuell; take away [Page 357] the pile of wood and the fire goes out; but the fire of hell shall not be Isa. 30. 33. fed with wood, but with wrath, Gods indignation shall be an everlasting supply to hels conflagration; the breath of his mouth shall be both bel­lowes and fuell to the infernall fire.

3 Our fire it consumes and kils the body, and causeth the life of the patient to evaporate with its own smoakes; It turns flesh into ashes, and incinerates the Martys body; but in­fernall fire, urit & cruciat, sed non extin­guit, it shal burn but not bury, afflict but not annihilate, or change the nature of the bodies of the damned. Those flames as they shall be preserved by a miracle, so shall the bodies they torment not consume, nor smoak choak thed amned. Hic ignis nec extinguit, nec extinguitur; as he said.

4 Our fire cum vi [...], with its bur­ning and afflicting power, sheds and casts a light and illumination. Our flames are but burning torches, and scorching candles; they be objectivum Visus, as well as Tactus, the object of sight as well as feeling; the fire hath [Page 358] its beams as well as the sun, though it enlightens lumine tenebricosiore, with darker rayes. But the infernall fire Mat. 25. 30. is void of all light or brightnesse, Comburentur damnati igne urente, sed non lucente. there is utter darknesse. And the reason is; for light would be the womb of comfort, it brandisheth pleasure, to the beholder, how do we admire the Moon though it shines with a borrowed light? and with what wonder do we Eccles. 11. 7. gaze on the stars those illuminated diamonds, as being the bright tapers of heaven. Now could the tormen­ting flames of hell be radiant, and scatter that darknesse the damned shall be thrust into, they would pro­cure more happinesse then the repro­bate shall ever enjoy: light is a bles­sing that shall never visit the infernall coasts.

5 Our fire alwayes burns ad eundem modum, according to the quantity of the supply and the fuel it seeds upon; but the infernall fire shall burn diversi­mode, after a different kind according to the demerits of the reprobate, It shall be more tolerable for Sodome and Go­morrah Mat. 10. 15. then, &c.

6 Our fire differs from the infernall in the exquisitenesse of the heat: Noster ignis est est ignis pictus ad magnum. ignem Polyc. were all the combustibles of the whole creation turned into one flame and fire, they would not con­taine so much vehemency and servour Ʋna scintill [...] ignis infernalis magis affligit, quam si partu­rient mulier mille annos in suis continuaret cruciatibus. Bern. in them, as one sparke of infernall fire: and the reason is, our fire is fed and increased by the supply of inanimate creatures, wood, oyle, flax, pitch, &c. but the fire of hell is fed by the wrath of the living Almighty and eternall God. As fire in the chafindish, is not to be compared to fire in the fur­nace.

7 Our fire may be usefull for heat, for comfort, for the preparing of food, &c. but the infernall fire shall Act. 28. 1, 2. be purely, totally, everlastingly tor­menting. And to distinguish between our fire and the fire of hell, the Scri­pture alwayes addes some epithet and title to hell fire when it is mentioned; as sometimes it is called hell fire, Non propter pe [...]o [...]s combu­rentes, sed prop­ter eorum im­mortalitatem in igne. Isid. Mat. 5. 22. sometimes a furnace of fire, Mat. 13. 42. and sometimes it is resembled to the Babylonish furnace, Dan. 3. not for the persons that [Page 360] were in it, for they were holy and pretious, but for the immortality of those who were cast into it. Sometimes hell fire is called a lake of fire, Rev. 19. 20. where the abun­dance of it is denoted. So that the Scripture distinguisheth our fire from the infernall alwayes by some attribute or other. But

Quest. 3 Supposing this infernall fire should not be materiall, but metaphoricall, yet the phrase would import thus much:

1 To shew the exquisitenesse of the torments of the Reprobates: nothing more intolerable then fire, we can­not endure one sparke of it. If Martyrs have endured the flames not only with patience but ease, as it is reported Baynham and others did, this hath been miraculous. In fire every sparke is a single torment, and one flame is but a multiplied mise­ry. The height of Gods wrath is compared to fire; to torment with Heb. 12. 29. fire, is the extremity of mans ma­lice. And so the Marian persecuti­on was the most cruell, because it was fiery; We in our Land burne [Page 361] Wives which destroy their Husbands, that being one of the highest im­pieties. The rage of Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 3. per tot. was prosecuted with a fiery furnace that was prepared as the most tra­gicall instrument to pursue his dis­pleasure.

2 To shew the consumptivenesse of this misery. Fire is a devouring ele­ment, turnes the most beautifull fuell into ashes in a moment; so the tor­ments of hell shall eate, corrode, and consume, but yet never dispatch. They shall consume the hopes, the happinesse, the joyes and the very persons of the damned, yet not so as to kill, its consumptions shall be repaired again, as the wound in the flesh is stopt up when heald.

3 To shew the unnaturalnesse of the mi­sery. Fire how many wayes usefull, it is an element that is absolutely necessary, one of the supports of the world. How usefull was fire to the Israelites, Exod. 13. 21. when God went before them in a pillar of it? The Spirit it selfe is called fire, Luk. 3. 16. Fire is an antidote against the killing invasions of the sharpe Win­ter. [Page 362] It makes the dead flesh of the crea­tures, which otherwise would be noysomnesse to us, and not our food, to be genuine and savory dyet for man, and yet hels misery is called fire: here the servant becomes indeed the tyrant, the slave becomes executio­ner, what was for help is now for tor­ment.

4 To shew the penetrativenesse of the misery. Fire is of a penetrating na­ture, Lam. 1. 13. pierceth and windeth it self in­to the narrowest chinkes, and so these pains shall pierce us (que) ad ipsius animae essentiam, to the very nature and essence of the soul.

5 To shew the suteblenesse of the misery, the in [...]ernall fire of hell an­swering the internall fire of lust, these flames those fires. The wicked man Retaliatio est poenae ad for­mam culpae. here hath burnt with ambition, la­sciviousnesse, insatiable desires after the world and the creature, and there he Job. 4. 8. shall burne in everlasting miseries, in miseries which are called fire.

And thus much for the first torment, which shall seise on the Damned, shall be cast into inextinguishable fire, Mat. 3. 12.

2 I now fall upon the second great torment, which shall cruciate and afflict the damned, and that is, The Mat. 8. 12, 13. extremity of cold. Strange it is, yet most Mat. 13. 50. infallibly, Scripturally true, That the damned should be punished not only with diversities, with contrarieties of pains, is it not, because as Physitians observe, the pain is greater in the Antiperistasis; that as they say, when contrary humours meet and struggle together in the body as two meeting torrents, then the pain is most into­lerable. Surely this is one great rea­son, Mat. 25. 30. There Christ saith, In hell there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth; weeping from heat, the pain of fire; and gnashing of teeth, from the extremity of cold; so Haymo, Remigius, Hierome, and others.

Obj. But here it may be objected, That cold should be a mitigation of the for­mer pains, cold being a remedy against heat; Luk. 16. Dives petitions no more, Luk. 16. no better cure for his torment in the flame, then that Lazarus should dip the tip of his finger in water and touch his tongue to cool it.

Answ. But as for this, it is a parable, and [Page 364] therefore according to the rule in the Poenae damnato­rum erunt acer­bissimae, & into­lerabiles; erit ibi poena ignis, & secunda est vermis, tertia foetor, & quar­ta maximum frigus. Bonav. Schools, not argumentative, being stretcht beyond its scope and end. And to the other Aquinas answers, That it shall be no mitigation at all of the pain of the damned, in regard it shall not be by the changing and the transmutation of the body from its former disposition and passion, but by bringing a new passion upon it, the old remaining, which it doth, saith he, per actionem spiritualem, by a spirituall action; for by its naturall action, being contrary to heat, it quenches it and mitigates the pain of it, but by its spirituall action, which it hath from the principall a­gent, Gods justice, whereof it is the instrument, and whereby it doth act and prey upon the body, it doth not; so that learned and acute Schoolman. Indeed this shall be a great additionall to the Reprobates misery, they shall ever be parched in intolerable heat, and yet spend an eternall winter; and the misery of chilnesse and coldnesse is insupportable. Cold here how doth it benumme the joynts, dead the spirits, shrivell up the body? how [Page 365] doth it cast the body into an univer­sall swoon, it pains the members, and if rigorous, endangers the life; as in some Northerly nations in the world, the cold is a common distracti­on; and how shall the frosts of hell disjoynt and torture the bodies of the damned for ever?

3 The third intolerable punishment of the reprobates shall be famine and Luk. 6. 25. hunger, a most insufferable mise­ry▪ Quinta poena damnatorum erit fames maxima, in in­ferno nam (que) est tanta inopia, ut ne (que) guitam aquae damnati poterunt habere. Bonav. In the 24. of Jeremiah there are three great plagues mentioned, [...], Famine, Pestilence, and the Sword; Famine is enumerated as one of those soarest ca­lamities. And so Ezek. 14. 21. it is reckoned one of the four judgments there. Famine it wasts the strength, enfeebles the knees, soyles the beauty, alters the frame of nature; it makes the child look wrinckled, and fur­rowes the clearest complexion, it makes man a walking ghost, the picture of misery, the monster of deformity, and this is one cord in the overflowing, and everflowing Isa. 28. 15. scourge that shall scarifie and torment the damned. David, 2 Sam. 24. 13. [Page 366] when he was put to that sad choise, what punishment and rod to lie un­der, he rather casteth himself upon the dispatching destruction of the Plague, then the lingring calamity of Famine. Famine makes man his Lam. 4. 9. own homicide, assasinate and vulture. Mat. 23. 27. What our Saviour called the Pha­risees, [...]. Hom. Od. is most true of those whom famine hath surprised, they are but whited Sepulchers. And this is one of those vialls of wrath the damned shall be ever drinking of. Hunger and thirst like to wilde horses shall be alwayes tearing in pieces the tor­tured reprobates. Then shall they cry, ah for a drop of water, for one of those spare dishes that our nausea­ted stomachs did disdaine the sight of.

4 The fourth insufferable torment, shall be bonds and imprisonment, Mat. Impii in singu­lis membris igneis constrin­gentur catenis. 12. 13. And this punishment is not fuller of pain then shame, not more branded with anguish then reproach. The damned shall alwayes be the pri­soners of Gods wrath, roaring in their fetters, crying in their shackles, begging mercy with a fruitelesse im­portunity [Page 367] out of the grate of their eternall dungeons. Diogenes being asked what was the best thing in a mans life, answered liberty. And he in the Comedy, compares a Captive to a bird in a cage. Now the damned shall be deprived of that glorious privi­ledge liberty; they shall be chained to, and in their torments for ever. No Act. 12. 4. Angell shall open the iron gate for them, they shall live or rather die Vincula illa non ex ferro, sed ex igne sunt inextinguibili. Chrysost. the perpetuall slaves of Gods wrath. Here they abused their liberty, here­after they shall not enjoy it; their freedome in sin here, shall fetter them to misery herafter; there shall be no liberty, either for comfort or escape. Here they were chained to their lusts, and in eternity they shall be to their losses. They shall be bound hand and Luk. 16. foot: to omit the piercing torment of Catenis reprobi constringentur, [...] ad bene operandum demonstrare. their straightnesse, they shall be everlastingly incapable to helpe them­selves, or break their loathsome prison. The justice and wrath of God shall pi­nion them to the stake of execution for ever.

5 The fifth punishment shall be, that intolerable stench which shall for ever [Page 368] offend and afflict the damned, those sulphureous fumes and distastfull Rev. 19. 20. smoake which shall arise from the lake of fire, how shall they render the miseries of the damned, exquite­ly more miserable? Paradise it self was not more odoriferous in all the va­rieties of its fragrant plants, especi­ally when refreshed with the sweet waters of heavenly dew, (for before Adams fall, the dew was but pearly perfume) then the dungeon of hell that darke cage of the damned mis­creauts, shall be intolerably suligi­nous, and it shall be the sinke of all offensive sents and ejections, the com­mon dunghill of putrid evaporati­ons.

6 The sixth punishment is darknesse, that obscurity the damned shall for Job 20. 26. ever be buried alive in, they shall be Tunc coacti in tenebras exteri­ores mittentur, qui nunc interi­oribus volunta­rie delectantur. Greg. overwhelmed with the shadowes of an eternall night; they shall not see againe that Sun which here they clouded with their sins; their deeds of darknesse shall turn into the doom of darknesse. The Egyptian darknesse mentioned Exod. 10. 22. and the Cimmerian darknesse so famed by antient [Page 369] writers are but the dark hieroglyphckes of infernall darknesse; they shall lie, I mean the reprobates, in palpable darknesse.

In a word, the damned shall be punished with a threefold dark­nesse.

1. Tenebris privationis. They shall never see a glimpse, either of the light of the Creature, or of the brightnesse of glory▪ or of the irradiations of God himself; the curtain shall be drawn between them and the least dawning of light for ever. No star Diabolus prin­ceps tenebra­rum, infernum qui est regnum tenebrarum tanta obfuscat caligine, ut luci naturali ad eum non pateat adi­tus. Ger. shall arise or cloud break to shed any lustre; no gloworme light shall ap­pear, they shall not be blest with the dreadfull aspect of an eclipse.

2. Principe tenebrarum. The Prince of darknesse shall be their everlasting companion. He who hath traded in the dark, assaulted with dark temp­tations, who leads to darknesse, who dwels in the dark and abominates all light, shall for ever be a fury to the damned. And

3. Tenebris interioribus, with the darknesse of mind. The reprobates shall enjoy no more knowledge then [Page 370] what shall amplifie their torment, they shall be cursed with a blindnesse of mind, an ignorance of God, a spiri­tuall mist and cloud. The Sun of righteousnesse shall not rise upon them, nor blesse them with one beam. No pleasing knowledge shall be set up in their minds. No savoring discoveries or light. Damnati in extrema falutaris Damnati erunt merae tenebrae. [...] inopia versabuntur, destituentur luce cognitionis divinae. They shall not sparkle with any divine knowledge. Here their understandings were filled with errataes, and in eternity they shall be filled with blots.

I should further mention the hor­rours and griefs that shall perplex the damned for ever; but I will no fur­ther wade in these bitter waters, nor stretch the argument to a further terrour, but will leave these few beacons fired, to be a serious and an epidemicall caution to all prurient and unawakened sinners.

There is yet a third universality to amplifie the damneds misery, and that is, the universality of the persons tor­menting. And those are,

1 God, who shall scourge the Re­probates by immediate executions. He shall in reference to the damned, not only lay claime to revenge, and say, Vengeance is mine, but repay him­self Heb. 10. 30. the interest of all his patience and longsuffering. He shall be a consu­ming fire, Heb. 12. 29. Non tantum in­strumentaliter, not only by employing instruments, but shall strike with his own sword. More particularly, God shall torment the damned,

1. By masking his own face, and drawing the curtain between them and the beatificall vision; after the Cant. 3. 1. sentence of death is past in the dam­ned, they shall never see Jesus Christ more.

2. By shutting the door against them: they shall not only be deprived of the sight of the bridegroom, but they shall not enter into the bride­chamber; the door of all happinesse Mat. 25. 12. shall be lockt everlastingly against them, they shall never be made hap­py with the sight of an Angel, of a glorified Saint, it may be, one that here was flesh of their flesh, and bone of their bone.

[Page 372] 3. By powring contempt upon them; God shall deride their tears, Prov. 1. 26. reproach their cries, neglect their la­mentations; he shall laugh at their calamity, and despise their trembling feares; their moans shall be his musick, and their groanes his delight: he bids them farewell with a Goye cursed, Mat. 25. 41. and that shall be the language they shall have for ever.

4. By emptying the Vials of his severe vengeance upon them for ever. Wrath is terrible, but vengeance is implacable. God shall be powring out divine, unmixt, just yet dread­full, intolerable wrath upon them Rev. 14. 10. for ever; wrath not allayed with any pity, or mercy, suspence or mitigation, the least sparke of which could turn the whole world into a common flame.

2 Satan shall torment the damned; he that hath been their parasite, their pander, their Angell of light, who hath so often allured, courted, bribed and solicited them, by soft and gain­full, frequent and vigorous temptati­ons, shall be their everlasting Jaoler and executioner; he shall make and [Page 373] keep open their wounds for ever. And this is reward, he shall compensate them, for rejecting the commands of God, forsaking Christ, and slighting their souls, and it may be, at the suit of his temptations.

And Satan shall be to the Repro­bates,

1. A malicious enemy, their pain shall be Satans pleasure, their lamen­tation his satisfaction, (if he is capable of any.)

2. A powerfull enemy, who can fetch bloud at every stroake, he is a fallen Angel. And one Angel could destroy 185. thousand in a night, and Satans power for mischief is not a­bated.

3. An implacable enemy, whom nei­ther Heu, heu quales sunt Angeli in­fligendis poenis destinati, quam immites, & truculenti! Cyr. Alex. teares nor bloud can reconcile, who hath no pity, no bowels, no re­lenting; whom no rhetorick can soften.

And 4. An eternall enemy, who will never be wearied with managing his executions.

In Satan Silla and Caesar meet, chose famous Romans; the one was [...]alled the bloudy, the other the perpetuall Dictatour; Satan shall be [Page 374] a bloudy and a perpetuall tormen­tour.

3 The damned shall be their own tormentours. What passion, rage and frensie shall they expresse against them­selves! how shall they tear their own wounds! In what miserable despair shall they curse their own vanity, neglect, sinfulnesse, their wicked hearts and licentious companions, and madness in refusing Christ and a Crown offer­ed! how shall they turn Devils, Judases and Sauls to themselves! How shall they abominate and loath themselves as the spawn of folly and fanaticall frensie! Then shall their consciences lash and torture them, their under­standings burden them, their memo­ries cruciate them, in gathering up all the parcels of their sinfull precipi­tancy. They shall breath out revenge against none more then their own selves; and with what thirst shall they desire to massacre their own souls!

4 The damned shall be tormented by their companions in misery; thei [...] scrietches, and cries, and execrations how dolefully shall they sound! We [Page 375] cannot here endure the groanes of a tormented patient, whose disease wrings from him bitter lamentati­ons; how shall the Reprobates un­dergoe the bloudy blasphemies of the tortured miscreants! The damned Homo homini lupus, et homo homini daemon. shall be as Wolves and Devils one to another. Job in the middest of his calamity curseth the day of his birth. Job 3. 1. Blasphemy, yelling and cursing, shall be all the musick of hell; Shimei 2 Sam. 16. 7. shall finde cursing enough there. The tender and delicate sinner, which here could not endure the cry of an infant, or the moan of an afflicted Saint, in eternity shall be saluted with nothing but groans and terrible schricks to eternity.

And now I have done with the first part [...]f the extremity of the damneds torment, viz. the universa­lity of it. I now fall upon the se­cond part, the hight and exquisitenesse of it.

And this I shall demonstrate,

  • 1. Comparatively.
  • 2. Positively.

For the first, The Scripture hath emblematised and painted out the mi­series [Page 376] of the reprobate, by many sad, but full comparisons, I shal only glance at some few. And

I. Sometimes the Scriptures com­pare the pain and torment of the dam­ned, to the pain of a woman with child. And this pain is the most 1 Thess. 5. 3. intolerable, what scrietches, and Gravis est poena damnatorum, propter tormen­ti acerbitatem, gravior propter dolorum diver­sitatem, gravis­sima propter suppliciorum aeternitatem. Carthus. tears, and cries doth it wring from the travailing patient. It is most ex­quisite,

1. In the the Originall of it; It was the first curse of the female sex, Gen. 3. 16. Gerard cals these pains Dolores acutissimos, the most cutting pains. Nay

2. When the Lord would expresse the soarest paines and miseries, he com­pares them to the torment of this travell, Psal. 48. 6. Isa. 13. 8. God by this pain, would give us an instance, and a map of the soarest misery. And observe this pain,

3. In the suddennesse of it; it seiseth on the pregnant woman unexpectedly, sometimes before time, sometimes after time, someti [...]es in the middest of af­faires, and the greater the misery is, by how much the more suddain it is in the surprisall.

[Page 377] 4. Consider this pain, in the extre­mity of it, unspeakable; what strange roarings and cries it fetches from the Patient?

5. In the dangers of it, what dis­eases Gen. 35. 18. and deaths it brings forth? It Ʋna gehenna scintilla magis cruciat damna­tos, quam si faemina in do­lore, & partu, mille annos con­tinuo perdura­ret. was the saying of Hecuba, Mallem de­cies in acie stare, quam semel parere, She had rather stand ten times in the middest of a battell, then bring forth once; so great are the dangers this pain casts the patient on. But

II. Sometimes the Scripture com­pares the miseries of the damned to Torments, so Luk. 16. 23. a word full of horrour and amazement, a phrase which implies all misery boyled to the height; the wound in the pain of it, wrancled and festered cala­mities; this word torments seems to leave a piece of the sword in the open wound; they are misery scru­ed and pullied to the highest seve­rity. But

III. Sometimes the Scriptures compare the miseries of the damned, [...], Rev. 22. 18. to Luk. 12. 48. plagues and stripes. Stripes the punish­ment of a Slave. The most inconside­rable [Page 378] drudges and prisoners lie under the Strapado, stripes and scourgings; this is Non domini sed servi castigatio, not the punishment of the Prince but the Vassall.

2. The most exquisite torment, when every single stripe make the succeeding more tormenting: and so likewise plagues, not diseases, but the fruit of Gods sudden and saddest wrath.

There are many other compari­sons the Scriptures are fruitfull in, in which the miseries of the reprobate are lively depainted, which I purpose­ly omit.

2 But now, the exquisitenesse of these torments will further appear, if we consider them Positively. And here could we reckon up all those extremities of torture, that cruell Tyrants and the enraged enemy have executed upon those whom they have attached, and brought into their power; all those miseries were but the burning with a cold iron, if parallel'd with the dam­neds calamity. Should we peruse the Histories of the ten primitive persecu­tions, which were bloudied with so [Page 379] many deaths and tortures, they were a calm report to those executions the reprobates shall be overwhelmed with. These lingring deaths which barba­rous Tyrants inflicted on the magnani­mous Martyrs, when they did wiredraw their pains and extremities, and did embrue their ravine and malice in the tedious martyrdoms of those Sainted Angels, were but a rude draught and im­perfect map of the woes that shall crush the damned to eternity. All those trage­dies were but like the painting of a bloudy fight in a lively pi­cture.

Let us but a little particularise the births of mans cruelty as they have been wreaked on their fellow creatures, and it may something delineate the torment of the reprobate. Should we mention how some in this life have been wrackt upon a wheel, and beaten with soar stripes, as Machabeus was; observe the conjunction of the misery. Others bound about a Globe, and their skin flead off, as Machir was. Others broken in a morter. Others fryed in a pan. Others rosted. Others hanged and fleaed. Others their tongues [Page 380] cut out. Others sowed up in the skins Sic in Neronis persecutione. of wild beasts, and then worried to death with dogs. Others throwne to Lyons, and beares and Tygers. Others cast into a hot lime-kilne, and after­wards throwne into a scalding bath, as Phocas Bishop of Pontus was. Others hung by the haire of the head, and Heb. 11. 37. then scourged. Others prest, and Which is a ca­talogue of miseries, a short book of Mar­tyrs and Mar­tyrdomes. others stoned to death. Others throwne from rockes and broken in pieces. Others starved. Others choaked with smoake. Others their flesh torn with the clawes of wild beasts. Should we 2 Cor. 11. per initium. mention Lawrences gridiron, Paul and Peters Crucifixion, Isaiahs sawing in There is a map of Pauls cala­mities. sunder; or take notice of the impaling which the Turkes use, the lingring poy­sons which the Italians use, the scar­pins and breaking on the wheele which the French use, the smothering and strangling, a forme and barba­rous custome among us. Should we mention Ravilliackes torments; which Du Serres observes, came nearrest to Du Serres the miseries of hell; this intole­rable torment of some corporall diseases, the Stone, the Strangu­ry, &c. yet all these summed up [Page 381] in a totall summe, were but a cold representation of the damneds extre­mities.

And there are foure Reasons for it;

1. They are tortured by an infinite Heb. 12. 29. agent, by God. Omnipotentis justitia futuro­rum praescia, a mundi origine ignem inferni creavit. Greg.

2. They are punished for an infi­nite guilt.

3. They shall be tormented for an in­finite duration.

And 4. They shall have no comfort to allay, no hope to extenuate, no ease to mitigate their miseries.

And thus much for the second thing, viz. the height and exquisitenesse of the torments of the damned.

3 And that which in the next place may amplifie the extremity of the re­probates Illis ululatus & planctus, ge­mitus & mugi­tus continue sonant, simul (que) clamor ubi (que) confusus attolli­tur, quem dira vis tormento­rum exagitat, & incendii arsura extorquet. Cassianus. torments, may be the con­tinuednesse of them. In hell there shall be no intermission, no rest, no pause; the iron shall alwayes burn, the fit shall alwayes be on the reprobate; the execution shall neither be reprieved nor interrupted. The wrath of God shall be a stream, Isa. 33. 30. There was some intermission in the sinnes of the [...]icked here, but there shall be none [Page 382] in their sufferings. The painfull wound shall be everlastingly renewed. There shall be no abatement, or suspending, mitigation in the disease that shall wracke the reprobate, (as was hinted before concerning conscience in par­ticular). The furnace of their miserie shall alwayes burn with an equall heat. Gods wrath shall not in the least be pacified, nor Satan wearied, nay the damned shall not be tired in cursing and crucifying their own souls. They shall never be so happy as to say, we thank God we have now a little ease. But I shall dilate no fur­ther, only let this be considered. It is impossible it should be otherwise, when only the smile of God, and the bloud of Christ can alleviate and ex­tinguish those flames, which the damned shall be everlasting strangers unto.

4 That which further amplifies these infernall miseries, is the efficient cause of them, which is the Almighty, upon the enforcement of sin. And how doth this multiply the pain, that God which is so gracious and sweet,

1. In his name, which is spelle [...] Exod. 34. 6. [Page 383] with the golden letter of mercy and compassion, who is known by the title of Gracious, Longsuffering, Merci­full, Numb. 14. 17. &c.

2. So mild and good in his Attri­butes. Ʋbi not andum Deum irae suae terminum pone­re, Misericordiae nullum. Riv. in Exod. Only one attribute of justice among all the rest; he hath wisdome to contrive, Love to appoint, Power to perform, and faithfulnesse to renew happinesse to the creature that waits on him. His attributes all smile, un­lesse justice provoked; the justice of God is among his attributes, as the tree of knowledge of Good and Evill, Gen. 3. ivit. was among the trees of Paradise, which if ye touch not that one property to excite it, all the rest will yeeld plea­sant and savory viands; all the rest shall be the delight of the soul; there is but one sword, one rod among all the tutelary and beatificall proper­ties.

3. So good in his nature. God is essentially good. Love and goodnesse is not his qualification but his nature, as the Apostle, 1 Joh. 4. 16. God is love. Compassion and mercy are not so much the effects of God, as Dei ratio formalis, his essence.

[Page 384] 4. So sweet his workes [...] Eve­ry work of the Creation, every par­ticular action, every single determina­tion was filled with righteousnesse and goodnesses. God is essentially and communicatively good, ratione sui, ratione effectus, as one observes. And

5. How gracious is the Lord in his Son, who sacrificed himself for us, and Rom. 5. 10. bled love at every vein, who was mankinds Martyr, the common salva­tion of believers, and whether his affections to us, or sorrowes he under­went for us were more numerous, is very questionable! And

6. How sweet is God in his Spi­rit, who is, [...], the Ad­vocate, Joh. 14. 16. the Comforter, the Substi­tute of Christ, whose graces beau­tifie, Joh. 16. 7. influences purifie, supports strengthen, joyes refresh, and testimo­nies rejoyce the believing soul, and whose internall confirmation and at­tests cause the court of heaven to be­gin here.

Now all these particulars being summed up, and digested together, how intolerable will the miseries of [Page 385] the damned appeare to be, and all their ca­lamities shall spring from this God provo­ked, and shall be the repercussion of his in­flamed justice. A. It is the Lord to whom goodnesse and mercy is not only habitu­all but naturall, who, being incensed shall wreak his wrath in the blood of the Re­probate for ever.

And now having thus paraphrased up­on the extremity of the Infernall tor­ments, I now cast my eye upon their E­ternity.

Obj. Obj. But here the sinfull caltiffe objects. He cannot apprehend that the bowels of the Lord should be everlastingly restrain­ed, so as never to sound again, God hath not created them, eternally to destroy them. God will at last be entreated, They cannot fancy their miseries never to be shut up, and put out, they cannot see to the further end of them. Joseph though he Gen. 45. [...]. may for a while refrain his love, yet at last he must break out, and weep upon the necks of his brethren; and surely God is Dum satagunt Deum perhibe­re misericor­dem, non veren­tur praedicare fallacem. Greg. Mor. infinitely more compassionate and affe­ctionate then Joseph could be, and there­fore he cannot alwayes brand and torment his poor creatures with shame and confu­sion; He will at last remember that they [Page 386] are but dust, weak and frail. He will con­sider their souls are his own breath, 2 Gen. 7. and their flesh is not brasse nor their bones iron, God will surely remember his ancient loves at last.

Ans. Now to reply to this vain and frivolous objection, which the Misericordians, as some call them, flatter and deceive them­selves with; I shall though it be fully and learnedly performed by others, give this short and brief answer, if possibly by it undeceive these poor deluded Miscreants.

But first I must inform you, that these Objectours fortify themselves with many arguments, to indulge those hopes they conceive of a stop to their future miseries.

Arg. 1 They argue and reason from the great­nesse of Gods love, who, as he is infinite in power, so likewise in goodnesse; and Infinite love cannot destroy the poore creature for ever.

Ans. 1. I reply with Augustine; this Jam. 2. 13. goodnesse doth belong ad vasa misericor­dia Objecta divi­nae misericor­diae is futuro seculo non sunt damnati sed beati. Ger. non irae, to the vessels of mercy, not wrath. God is infinitely good, but this goodnesse shall be only extended to the sons of promise: Gods justice and his mer­cy must be harmonious, and not interfere; Mercy must be given to them, to whom it [Page 387] belongs, and judgement to whom it be­longs. 2. Arg. 2 It was this Infinite love wic­ked men despised.

God makes degrees of punishment, 12 Luk. 48. some shall be beaten with many stripes, others with few. Ans. It is true, our Saviour in this place, asserts a diversity of punishments in hell, but he doth not subvert the eternity of hell; though there may be degrees in reference to the measure, yet there shall be no diver­sity Illud (pancis) non sinem, sed diversitatem supplicii decla­rat. Basil. in regard of the duration. 2. As some answer, this is spoken non absolute, not ab­solutely, but comparatively, in reference to the Christ-rejecting, Ordinance-despi­sing, Grace-slighting sinner; Every sin­ner shall not drink equal draughts of Gods wrath, but all eternall.

The Objectour argues, Arg. 3 that his sinnes and miscarriages are pro tempore, not only small, but transient, for a few moneths, a little time, a shorth breath'd life; not the tenth part of one day with the Lord, which is a thousand yeares; as the Apostle observes, and therefore, saith the 2. Pet. 3. 8. sinner, to lie on the wrack for ever, for the transient glance of a little sinfull pleasure is such injustice, God cannot be charged with.

Ans. We are to conceive that crimes are not to be weighed according to the Non temporis longitudine, sed impietatis magnitudino peccata sunt punienda. time of the commission, but according to the nature of the crime it self, which is am­plified or extenuated according to the quality of the person offended. Even in temporall and civill courts of Men, few crimes but they deserve punishment of a longer continuance then the commission of them; to think therefore that the punish­ment of sinne should be proportioned ac­cording to the time wherein it is perpetra­ted, what greater folly? Some faults de­serve Dic quae De­mentia major Bapt. Vant. imprisonment, some proscription and banishment; Now how shall the party peccant be exiled, and remain in durance no longer then the sinne for which he was banished was in perpetration? Murder is soon committed, shall the punishment in respect of time be accordingly? And to bring it nearer to our purpose,; what infi­nite, intolerable, Everlasting calamities do so many thousand sinnes committed by a vassall, a subject, a worm, a grashop­per, a pure nothing, compared to God, against Almighty, Incomprehensible, In­finite, Independent Majesty deserve? E­ternity it self is too short a space for God to revenge himself on sinners, those petu­lant [Page 389] and contumacious shadowes. But I shall no longer wrestle with the vain ca­vils of fond sinners, who, because they cannot find Repose in the bosome of Christ; think to make their bed in a fan­cied indulgence, and build their hopes on a pleasing dream: But I shall draw up my thoughts in asserting the truth, viz. that the damned must necessarily be tor­mented to Eternity, in a few considera­tions.

1 The first confirmation shall be taken from the Scripture, 16. Luk. 26. And besides all this between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that they which would come from hence to you cannot, nei­ther Sed revocare gradum, En. Virg. can they passe to us that would come from thence, Here, in this scripture this truth is cleared; there is no shooting of the gulf to heaven, for the damned; there is no rising of the sunne in the Horizon of hell: that is an Everlasting stoppage be­tween the damned sinners and the glorifi­ed saints.

2 Let us consider the gate of blessednesse is ever shut against the reprobate, as Mat. 25. 12. God shall never unlock to them. 13. Luc. 25. Clausae erunt portae; per quas, aut consolatio, aut minima spes liberationis possit intrare. [Page 390] 1. The gate of grace. 2. The gate of mer­cy and pitty. 3. The gate of indulgence. 4. The gate of repentance. 5. The gate of Hope, 6. The gate of Comfort. All ease, rest or consolation shall be barr'd up for Ever.

3 Let us consider the perfect opposition between the saints and the sinners: Now the saints shall rest for ever. 4. Heb. 9. and so the sinners shall be on the wrack for Constat quod sicut finis non est gaudio bono­rum, ita nec tormento malo­rum. Greg. Dial. ever; the saints joyes and the sinners groanes shall both be without period: the saints pleasure and the sinners pains shall never be shut up; neither shall death bu­ry the one, nor extinction the other.

4 Consider how God hath coupled the damned with the fallen and sinfull An­gels. 25. Mat. 41. and their doom is e­ternall Jud. 6. Now as they shall make up one cursed company, and damned crew, so shall they for ever tast the same wrath from the sinne-revenging God: I shall not determine the measure, but assert the duration.

5 Observe the sinne of the damned cries for eternall vengeance, it is infinitae maliti­ae, of infinite evilnesse, and therefore it me­rits eternall punishment. Now finne is in­finitely evil many wayes.

1 In regard it is an offence against an in­finite God, to strike an inferiour Man is matter of arrest; to strike the King mat­ter of death: and how infinitely above a poor worm (as the greatest Potentate is no more) is the great God? How infi­nitely is Majesty above vanity? and so the supremest Magistrates are compared to Jehovah: Now every sinne is a fighting against God, and it being not infinitely punishable, because poor man cannot en­dure it, what is wanting in torment must be made up in time.

2 In its privation, by sinne the soul lo­seth an infinite good; sinne robs the soul 59. Isa. 2. Christi meri­tum est infini­ti valeris, si hoc perdit pec­cator. of God himself, sinne is the great thief, it shuts the soul out of the presence of God; it steales away the heart of God from a sinner, it makes him bankrupt of the most transcendent possession, which is God in Jesus Christ.

3 In reference to the infinite enlargement of it, for the desire of sinning remaines Nunquam vel­let peccare de­finire peccator, immo vivere vellei, u [...] sem­per posset. Bern. still in the sinner; Et si peccator in aeternum viveret in aeternum peccaret, the wicked man if he lived eternally, he would sinne eternally: Now the desire of sinning is sinne in Gods account, and therefore that being eternall, so must the punishment be. [Page 392] And as one observes, Homo semper pec­cavit in suo aeterno, ideò semper punietur in Dei aeterno. The sinner alwayes sinned in his eternity, therefore he shall be al­waies punished in Gods eternity.

4 Sinne is infinite in point of destruction, the sinne of the sinner destroys an immor­tall, an eternall soul; a soul created for e­ternity,, to be the Everlasting companion of God himself; to be crown'd as well as indu'd wirh immortality: and upon that account the sin shall be punished eternally. The destructive power of sinne is of ever­lasting concernment and it therefore shall subject the sinner to Everlasting punish­ment.

5 Wicked men must be punished eter­nally, because of the impenitence of the sinner. If repentance never be made then release can never be had: Penitence fore­runneth pardon, the teares of the sinner usher in the smiles of the Saviour: now repentance cannot befall the sinner in eter­nity.

1 Because Repentance turnes to a recon­cileable God, looks on an embracing Sa­viour; The Prodigall, The penitents pat­tern, runnes to a meeting Father: but in eternity all possibility of reconciliation [Page 393] with God escapes the damned: their day Quando istinc excessum fue­rit, nullus jam locus poeniten­tiae; hic Vita aut amittitur, aut tenetur, hic saluti aeterne providetur. Cypr. Ille judex sc. Deus, nec gra­tia praevecitur, nec misericor­dia flectitur, nec pecunia corrumpitur, nec poenitentiâ, aut satisfactio­ne mittigatur. August. is past, their terme is ended, and now they must for ever behold with amazement God, as an angry Judge, but never again as a reconciled Father: Christ who only can betroth God and Man together, was rejected by the sinner here; and he shall never offer himself again, after death hath shut up both the day of grace and nature together.

2. Repentance is a grace, Now all spiri­tual qualifications and habits, all grace is a star that shall never shine in the dark­ness of of Hell, in the shades of the Repro­bates eternity; the works of the Spirit shall not lie in the womb of misery, that is impossible (as before was suggested.)

3. Sin in hell shall be aggravated, not crucified, shall be envenomed by a more violent blasphemy, and not wounded and weakened by a serious and savory peni­tency. Now impenitency for sin leaves the sinner to eternity of misery. For

1 Sin is a wound, which if not cured is mortal,, or rather immortal, and will cause eternal death: the slightest wound if not healed, festers and wranckles and kills, and so doth unrepented sin for ever.

Sin is a Fall, in which if there be no ri­sing, [Page 394] it is perpetual; sin casteth the soul upon punishment, which if not removed, is everlasting.

3 Sin is a thief; It steals Gods love, Christs sufferings, heavens joys from the soul, now if their be no restitution, and no pardon be acquired for the theft, it deserves death; & that death for sin must needs be perpe­tual, because the guilt still remains unsatis­fied: Rom. 6. 13. Now if the theft of a peice of mo­ney deserves a temporal death; what death doth the theft of Gods glory demerit? Let us but cast up the Account.

4 Sin is a chain and a bond: And there­fore we read of Captivity and slavery of sin; of being led captive by lust: now if 2 Pet. 3. 6. the person that is bound be not loosed, he remains bound for ever: Can the chain Isa 6. 18. Vincula inso­luta manens. Bern. break it self, or the cord untwist it self, and ye know sins are called the Cords of Va­nity: Now onely Repentance can file of these chains, which is impossible to the damned in eternity, (as before).

5 Sin is a sale; by sin the soul sels it self to Hell, Satan and misery: Ahab sold him­self to sin, & sin sold Ahab to wrath: Now 1 King. 21. 20. if no ransome be made, then the sale re­mains for ever; and onely Christ can pay this ransome, in whose merits the Repro­bate [Page 395] shall never interest himself. And though the sale may be made in a mo­ment; for how few sinful dayes do the damned sell themselves, yet the force and the end of the sale is for ever. Thus yee see, sin must be eternally punished, in refe­rence to the impenitency of it.

6 The sinner must dy eternally, in respect of the ingratitude of sin: the obligation of every sinner is eternal; for as a creature he is obliged to serve God eternally; so God being the fountain of his being and sustentation, all mans service is but a small retribution, for this life which streams from God. Now every sin breaketh this obligation, and there can be no reparation for this breach; but onely in Christ, to whom the reprobate hath no title; Now therefore the obligation being forfeited, the punishment must be adequate to the obligation, which was eternal: And man once sinning, and so breaking this obliga­tion, he acts now no more as Gods crea­ture, but as Gods enemy, and so all his actions being sin, not duty, he is Everlast­ingly punishable.

7 The sinner shall not onely be everlast­ingly punished upon the account of his own sin, but in regard of God too.

[Page 396] 1. In regard of the dishonour, that one, the least sin casteth upon the glorious Name of God. Every sin casteth a treble dishonour upon God: 1. In its malignity, as being most contrary to the pure, unspot­ted, perfect nature of God; his justice, his righteousnes, his holines. Sin is as contrary to the Nature of God, as light to darkness, hell to heaven, nay infinitely More. 2. In its obstinacy, it opposeth the Commands of God, slights the will of God; contra­dicts the designes of God. And 3. prin­cipally in its choyce: the sinner in sinning, chooseth a base lust, a venomous sin, a crooked Way, a sordid corruption; before the glorious, precious, desireable good; the Lord himself; who is summum bonum, & summa felicitas.

2. In regard of the Magnificence of God. Shall a poor worm, a painted se­pulcher, a gaudy nothing, Annullity dres­sed with flesh, for so man is comparatively to the Almighty: I say, shall such a pe­dantique dream as man is, kick and rebell against the most glorious, incomprehensi­ble God? the Great Soveraigne of the U­niverse? and doth not this fasten the sinner to eternal torment?

3. In regard of the Justice of God, [Page 397] Pure Justice exacts and requires eternal punishment, and will pluck the sinner by the throat for ever: and in the eternity of the wicked; there shall be summum jus. Justice with the sowrest looks, the most dreadful frown, and the sharpest edge; there shall be justice inexorable, impla­cable in its greatest rigor, and severity, such as tears shall not mollifie, or blood satisfy.

8 And lastly the sinner shall be punisht to eternity; for the pleasure of the Saints, They shall be delighted to see the enemies of Christ overwhelmed with eternal Mi­sery: Gods justice in heaven shall be as Vide non indu­tum veste uup­tiali ex sponsali dome exem­plum, & nemi­pro illo interce­dentem; & sic de decem talen­tū habente, & quinque stultis. virginibus. Crysost. I [...]. 66. 24. pleasing to them, as any other Artribute: They shall behold with delight decorem divinae justiciae; the beauty of Gods ju­stice. How would the Saints here rejoyce, to see the Turk, the Pope, the bloody im­placable Enemies of the Gospel buried in ruine and confusion? much more when they shall be perfect, and lie in Christs bo­some: And as Gregory observes; Al­though the just in glory, by the goodness of their nature be mercifull; yet being con­joyned to the justice of God, in such a Cap. 20. rectitude, they cannot be moved with any compassion at all towards sinners: They shall rather loath and abhorre them.

CHAP. XX.

Ʋse 3. of consolation. AND now at last I fall upon the third and last improvement of the proposition our future eter­nity; and that is: This flowes with unparallel'd comfort and consolation to all the saints; this Truth is a mine, a masse, a spring of happiness to them: Their felicity to come shall be for ever. it shall Haec Haeredi­tas Sancti est vita, & incor­ruptio & reg­num, & coa­terna cum Deo babitatio. Hilar. never fade nor receive damp. Their spring shall know no autumne, nor falling of the leaf of glory; no declension or abatement No, not for ever. The sunne of their bles­sednesse shall never set, or be eclipsed: Let the saints remember with delight and complacency this one word Eternity. Duration is the life of Happinesse. A tottering crown is but an honourable mi­sery; the best flowers, are fond sweetnesses because dying. Gold is but drosse, because 1 Pet. 1. 18. corruptible, what is the lease of the great­est revenues, which will soon expire; but the [Page 399] saints happinesse shall be immarcessible, their crown is made of immortality: This shall be the blessedness of the glorified ones, that after they have past millions of ages in glory, one moment of their happi­ness is not shed; The saint shall ever spring with fresh felicities, and shine in an ever­lasting flourish and renown. The Ocean of their joy shall know no bottome. When 3. Rev. 21. they have sate in the same throne with Christ for millions of centuries, the entail of their honour shall be as firme as the first moment. There shall no tediousnesse, in­terruption, or close, deflowre or surprise their joyes for ever. The smiles and light of God, and of Christ gloriously arrayed with the humane nature, shall spring ever­lasting Halelujahs in the saints, And the Spirit, The Comforter, shall shed an eter­nall 14. Rev. 2. 5. Rev. 8. dew of refreshment and delight on them. And the Angels shall joyn their harpes in their everlasting and sacred feli­city. In a word,

1 The saints shall enjoy their Being for e­ver; They shall live for ever in the Armes 17. Hos. 3. Quid vita illa beatius est, quod illic pau­periem non me­tuas, aut mor­bum. Chrysost. of Jesus Christ. There are three things destroy the life of Man; 1. Externall Vi­olence; 2. Internal distemper; and 3. Sin in an extraordinary Manner; as Herod, and [Page 400] Aarons sons &c. Now none of these shall surprise the glorified saint; sin, Satan, sor­row that Cerberus of mischief shall be ex­cluded the Bridechamber. The saints in glory are confirmed in their existence and life: nothing in misery shall Kill the dam­ned, nothing in Heaven shall destroy the blessed. The Apostle ascribes incorrupti­bility to the bodies of the Blessed, 1 Cor. 10. 53. And the soul claims right to im­mortality by descent, upon the suit of its own Nature. The life of the saints in glo­ry John 17. 3. shall be an inextinguishable lamp. The saints in heaven shall weep no more, much Rev. 7. 16. less die no more. The life of the saints is the stock on which all their felicity grows, Resuscitati si­miles Angelis qua non nup­turi, quia nec morituri, sed transituri in statum Angeli cum per indu­mentum incor­ruptibilitatis. Tertul. Erimus similes Angelis, & ful­gebimus sicut ipse sol. And. and the main pillar of all their happiness, by which it is supported, and could that ta­per be put out, all their enjoyments would be entomb'd in silence and darkness. Their beings are the susceptive capacities of all their honours, and beatifical fruitions, and therefore they must be immortalized with a perpetual spring and Vivacity: and in this, the Saints shall run paralel with the Angels, their lives shall be enriched with the same perpetuity, and perennity.

2 The Saints, the glorified Ones; those Patterns of perfection, shall inherit their [Page 401] joy for ever, their ravishments. The joys of the wicked here, is like the crackling of thorns; but the joy of the blessed hereaf­ter Psalm 16. 11. shall be as the shining of the sunne, ex­cepting Eccles. [...]. 6. its setting and eclipses: It were not fulness, but emptiness of joy, was it not eternal. The sight of God shall tune their hearts into everlasting rapsodies. Their Revel. 4. 8. praises and triumphancies shall be the births of their joy for ever. The saints shall Psal. 96. 10. rejoyce, as long as God shall smile, and ravish them with a pleasant countenance, which shall be to eternity: God shall be a perpetual spring of life and of joy to the Visio. Dei om­nium bonorum, & gaudiorum coelestium sons est. Ger. Saints. The Saints shall Everlastingly re­joyce, for the indulgencies of God, for the possession of the Husband, for the society of the Angels, those joyous and glorious Spirits; for their escape from misery and Everlasting Calamity: Every glance of Gods eye, Every sight of his will, every smile from Christs face, every touch of the Angels harps, every distillation of the Spirit's Comforts shall spring fresh joys to the glorified ones. And the joys of the Saints must be subscribed with Eternity; if we either cast our eye on, 1. the confir­mation of the Elect in good. Or 2. the duration of Gods mercy and love, John [Page 402] 13. 1. Or 3. the perfection of their own Exultabunt Sancti in glo­ria, videbunt Deum & gau­debunt, laeta­buntur & dele­ctabuntur, & fru entur glo­ria, & in feli­citate jucun­dabuntur aeter­nâ: Non labes­cent, non senes­cent, non pu­trescent am­plius. Cypr. happiness, which could not be attained, un­less the joys of the blessed were wound up to eternity: Nay the very nature of our e­ternal condition, which admits no successi­on, no vicissitude, no fading, no wast, speaks these joyes eternal, and demonstrates them Everlasting.

The Saints shall enjoy their Father for ever, John 14. 2. Christ saith he, is going home, to prepare us Mansions in our Fa­thers house; And this is Enough; we shall see our Father when we die, as Jacob said concerning his sonne Joseph before he di­ed, we shall enjoy him for ever. Elisha as Elijah was departing from him, cries, My 2 Kings 2. 12. Quando veni­am & appare­bo ante faciem tuam. O dies nesciens vespe­ram, & nuilum timens occa­sum. Aug. Father, my Father. Now the saints shall ever lie in their Fathers bosome; They shall see the father of all their mercies, and they shall bee banisht his sight no more. Then shall the Saints fully and perfectly see how tender the bowels of a Father are, Isa. 49. 19. how soft the compassion of their gracious, wise, indulgent, careful and bountiful Father is: And God shall unrid­dle to the Saints all the traverses and cir­cuits of his own Providence, and how fa­therly his love and care was, though often it had the mask of mysteriousness, the re­ward [Page 403] of affliction before it. And what a Ibi erit omne bonum, & non erit aliquid malum, & ibi erit quicquid voles, & non erit quicquid noles. Erit gaudium super gaudium, gan­dium vincens omne gaudium extra quod non gaudium. fountain of blessedness will this be, that the Saints shall no longer cry out, Our Father in a penitential petition and prayer, but shall everlastingly feed and prey upon Paternal Smiles, and lie in Paternal Em­braces; They shall for ever converse with their Father, not on their Knee, in a strange Land, but with their eye in their Fathers Court.

4 The saints shall enjoy their husband for ever: the bride shall eternally enjoy her Bridegroom, the beloved of her soul: 22 Rev. 17. here the saints were sick of love for Jesus Christ, 5. Cant. 5. and that feavour shall be satisfied with his company for ever. This life was an unkinde wall, an injuri­ous lattice between Christ and the Saint, and death having broke down this discour­teous wall of separation, the saints shall alwayes bath themselves in the loves of 17. Jo. 24. Christs presence: Eternity shall be the e­ternall wedding day of Christ and his spouse. How doth the poor believer here Cant. 17. 3. complain, 1. Sometimes of frownes and unkind looks; the smile is clouded and vailed. 2. Sometimes of absence, Christ Cant. 5. 6. hath retired and withdrawn himself. And 3. Very often of various and different be­haviour, [Page 404] now loves, now distast. But in Eternity Christ shall ever look pleasingly and ravish the Saint with a gratefull countenance; There shall be no divorce, nor disunion, nor locall separation. Christ and his Members shall be ever together in the same Bride-chamber, the Saints shall enjoy eternall espousals: no fear of retiring or absence. And how pleasing a prospect will Christ be to his friends (for so the Jo. 15. 15. Saints are called;) when the Saints shall e­verlastingly see him wear his Incarnati­on-robes.

5 The Saints shall enjoy that purity for [...] ­ver. In heaven they shall not be subject to Nulla ibi ex­istit malitia, nulla carnis miseria, non inimici tenta­tio, non pec­candi libido, immo nec malè agendi facul­tas. And. the rape of a Temptation, nor to the as­sault of a sinfull onset. This shall be glory in its Noon-tide, the blessed shall ever shine in unblemisht perfection. Their gar­ments shall be as unspotted as their glory. In Eternity their hearts shall not be trai­tours; nor their eyes the panders of their treacherous hearts. Their perfection shall be fair as the Moon, as it was said of Christ, Cant. 6. 10. Untainted and un­deflowred for ever. No sinfull tincture or shadow of pollution shall bespecle their illustrious purity: No fear of apostacy, or the losse of uncontaminated perfection, and [Page 405] the reason may be, because heaven cannot lodge the least naturall or sinfull defile­ment. it being the sacred Court of Gods immediate presence, where the eyes of the Lord shall not nor can be offended with Eph. 5. 27. the rising of the least deformity. And du­ration shall not ingender temptation. Lot, though he lived long in Sodome without any taint, which is recorded; yet he could not long abide in the Cave without Incest. But the glorified Saint shall remain for e­ver, Gen. 19. and shall not be stained with the least degeneracy.

6 The blessed shall enjoy their Comforter for ever. That sweet spirit shall eternally refresh them, with constant diffusions of Jo. 14. 16. of joy and consolation, and refresh them with perfumed gales of unspeakable glad­nesse. Then, viz. in eternity the saints shall enjoy the Spirit in a more ample, he­roicall, and magnificent manner. 1. Ra­tione plenitudinis, in points of fulnesse; the Spirit shall bath the Saints arrived, with glory in seas of comfort; They shall drink at the spring head, and accept the gracious invitation of Christ, to drink a­bundantly, 5. Cant. 1. 2. Ratione im­mediatae praesentiae: The Saints in Eterni­ty shall not onely feel the operations, and [Page 406] rejoyce in the conduct and comfort of the Spirit; but shall with extasy en­joy Jo. 16. 13. and admire the glorious pre­sence of the Holy Ghost; and see him with delight and ravishment face to face, 1 Cor. 13. 12. and 3. Ratione perma­nentiae, the Blessed shall enjoy the Spirit, not as they do here, sometimes with full tides of comfort and lively impressions and increases of grace, and at other times as beating faintly in the soule, and casting an uncomfortable look on the impoverish'd believer; nay sometimes Eph. 4. 10. as chased away with grief, (though it cannot totally and finally leave the soul in point of grace, as might large­ly be demonstrated) but the saints in eternity shall enjoy the Spirit for ever, with rich redundancies and overflow­ings of peace, joy, comfort, and se­renity; nor shall that emplying spring abate. And all the corrasives, bondage, checks and smarts of the Spirit, which here were wholsome and necessary, shall wholly cease in the blessed E­tern [...]ty.

7 The Saints shall enjoy the Knowledge of what they desire, for ever. There shall be no imperfection or oblivion in eternity [Page 407] And the Blessed shall know what ever is adequate to, or fit for the sphere of hu­mane Capacity, not by discourse, but by intuition, intuitivè, as the School-men Omnis in hac vita [...], & Deo [...] est ver­bum defecti­vum, sed in vita fuiura est verbum per­fectivum. speak. And the Saints shall be acquainted with all Divine Mysteries; Christ doth, as some friends who re­serve secret things to a Meeting, not trusting them in a Letter. Indeed Christ opens much to his people here, he doth unbosome himself, as the Psalmist speakes, Psalm 25. verse 14. But in Eternity, all Maskes and Cloudes, and Curtains shall be drawn: Those Mysteries which here did rather raise, then fill the Apetite, shall be uncased to the Believer in eternity, and these secrecies may be ranked into three heads.

1. Those incomprehensible Mysteries, which are above, but not against nature, as the Mystery of the Trinity, the Incar­nation &c. These shall be no difficulties, nor Mysteries in heaven.

2. Those supernatural Miracles which had the object in the creature, as how God created the World, the Nature of those Miracles Christ and the Apostles wrought and effected; and all those [Page 408] wonders which are bounded in the creature.

3 The Miracles of love, which here are the Astonishments of Mankind; as, how Gods redeemed fallen and lost Man; all the wonders of Providence; all the most intimate effects and workings of Gods love shall be evidenced. In a word, the Blessed in heaven shall know all things cognoscible to man, not partially, not ob­scurely, Hic modicum è multo cog­noscimus. not at a distance, but perfectly, clearly, and closely: And in all these and infinitely more enquiries shall the Saints in glory be fully satisfied. The Saints shall see the will and heart of God with­out a perspective or looking-glass.

8 The Blessed shall enjoy, their company for ever: They shall for ever see the cour­tiers of heaven; the creature in its best at­tire, their godly relations, the Angelicall beauties: Nor shall that innumerable Heb. 12. 22. Ibi, sc in coelo, cum myriadi­bus Angelorum laetos & festos id agemus, in omni felicitate, gloriâ gaudio, jubilo, & tri­umpho. Alap. in Hebr. company of of glorious Angels, and glori­fied Saints, which do, as it were bespangle heaven it self, as they are perfected by the presence of God, ever be vailed or disturbed with sorrow, for the departure, funeral, or extinction of one of that rare society: No falling starres shall shine in glory: And, to draw up all, and close up [Page 409] the whole Treatise, Every particular Saint in Eternity shall receive Everlasting de­lights from that perpetual communion he shall have with the most perfect creatures, Gods Fiat, his Omnipotent Word pro­duced; and the Pure Angels and Blessed Saints incorporated into one Eternal so­ciety, as many starres joyned together, shall make one glorious and Everlasting Constellation.

[...].

BOOKS Printed for Jos. Cranford at the Phenix in S. Pauls Church-Yard.

THe Practice of CHRISTIAN PERFECTION wherein se­veral Considerations, Cautions, and Advices are set down for the Perfecting of the Saints and Compleating them in the Knowledge of Christ Jesus by Tho­mas White Minister of Gods Word at Anne Aldersgate. London.

[...], or the Summe of Practical DIVINITY Practiced in the Wilderness, and Delivered by our Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount being Observations on the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh Chapters of S. Matthew; to which is prefixed [Page] PROLEGOMENA or Preface, by way of Diologue; wherein the Per­fection and Perspicuity of the Scrip­ture is vindicated from the Calum­nies of Anabaptists and Papists: By Thomas White, Minister of Gods Word at Anne Aldersgate. London.

ANIMADVERSIONS, or the Rabinical Talmud of RABBI John Rogers: Wherein is Exammed his Doctrine, as of the Matter of a Church The Duty of Separation The Subjects of Church Power. Forme of a Church The Duty of Separation The Subjects of Church Power. &c. By Zach. Crofton, Minister of Gods Word at James Garlick Hythe, London.

A PRACTICALL DISCOURSE of PRAYER: Wherein is hand­led the Nature, the Duty, the Qua­lifications of Prayer, viz. Ejacula­torie, Publick, Private, and Se­cret Prayer; with the Necessity and Ingagements unto Prayer, together with sundry Cases of Conscience about [Page] it: By Thomas Cobbet, Minister of Gods Word at Lyn.

Refreshing STREAMS flowing from the Fulness of JESUS CHRIST: Held forth in severall Sermons; by William Colvill sometimes Preacher at Edenburg.

JUS DIVINUM Ministerii Evan­gelici; or the Divine Right of the Gospel-ministrey. Published by the Provinciall Assembly of LONDON.

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