days of refreshment, who are cast into perpetual burnings. One part of their misery is the horror of despair; and it were not perfect hell, if any hope could lodge in it. The favor of God is not to be obtained where there is no means left to obtain it; but in the world to come there is no place for faith, nor virtue in repentance. If there be now such a vast distance between the tormenting flames and Abraham's bosom, that none could pass from one to the other, what impossibility must there be when the final sentence is passed upon all! As certainly as no person once received into the heavenly mansions shall ever be cast into outer darkness, so certainly none who is once cast into the fire prepared for the Devil and his angels shall ever enter into their Master's joy. As the tree falleth, so it lieth. There is no change to be wrought in man within those flames, no purgation of his sin, no sanctification of his nature, no justification of his person, and therefore no salvation of him. Without the mediation of Christ no man shall ever enter into heaven, and when he hath "delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father," then shall the office of the Mediator cease.

So groundless was the opinion of Origen, who conceived that after some number of years the damned should be released from their torments, and made partakers of the joys of heaven, or at least try their fortunes in such regions of the world as he conceived should be reserved for their habitation. For he may as well imagine that Christ shall be born and die again, who, being risen, dieth no more, as that any person, being condemned to the flames for contemning of his death, should ever come to live again, and by believing in the death of Christ to be after saved. For certainly their condition is unalterable, their condemnation is irreversible, their torments inevitable, their miseries eternal. As they shall not be taken from their punishment by annihilation of themselves, which is our first; so the punishment shall not be taken off them by any compassion upon them, which is our second assertion.

To conclude this branch of the Article, I conceive these certain and infallible doctrines in Christianity-

that the wicked after this life shall be punished for their sins, so that in their punishment there shall be a demonstration of the justice of God revealed against all unrighteousness of men-that to this end they shall be raised again to life, and shall be judged and condemned by Christ, and delivered up under the curse, to be tormented with the Devil and his angels-that the punishment which shall be inflicted on them shall be proportionate to their sins, as a recompence of their demerits, so that no man shall suffer more than he hath deserved -that they shall be tormented with a pain of loss, the loss from God, from whose presence they are cast out, the pain from themselves, in a despair of enjoying him, and regret for losing him-that they farther shall be tormented with the pain of sense inflicted on them by the wrath of God which abideth upon them, represented unto us by a lake of fire-that their persons shall continue for ever in this remediless condition, under an everlasting pain of loss, because there is no hope of heaven, under an eternal pain of sense, because there is no means to appease the wrath of God which abideth on them. Thus the Athanasian Creed; "They that have done good shall go into life everlasting, and they that have done evil into everlasting fire."

The next relation of this Article to the former is in reference to the resurrection of the just; and then the life everlasting is not to be taken in a vulgar and ordinary sense, but raised to the constant language of the scriptures, in which it signifieth all which God hath promised, which Christ hath purchased, and with which man shall be rewarded in the world to come.

Now this life eternal may be looked upon under three considerations; as initial, as partial, and as perfectional. I call that eternal life initial, which is obtained in this life, and is as it were an earnest of that which is to follow of which our Saviour spake, "He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life," John v. 24. I call that partial, which belongeth, though to the nobler, yet but a

part of man, that is, the soul of the just separated from the body. I dispute not whether the joys be partial as to the soul; I am sure they are but partial as to the man. For that life consisteth in the happiness which is conferred on the soul departed in the fear, and admitted to the presence of God. St. Paul had "a desire to depart and to be with Christ;" he was willing rather to travel and be absent from the body, and to be present and at home with the Lord. And certainly where St. Paul desired to be when he departed, there he then was, and there now is, and that not alone, but with all them who ever departed in the same faith with him, and that is with Christ who sitteth at the right hand of God. This happiness which the saints enjoy between the hour of their death and the last day, is the partial life eternal. Thirdly; I call that perfectional, which shall be conferred upon the elect immediately after the blessing pronounced by Christ," Come, ye blessed children of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world," Matt. xxv. 34.

This eternal life is to be considered in the possession, and in the duration; in the first, as it is life, in the second, as it is eternal. Now this life is not only natural, that is, the union of the soul to the body, which is the life of the reprobate; but spiritual, which consisteth in the union of the soul to God, as the apostle speaks, "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life," 1 John v. 12. And it is called after an especial manner life, because of the happiness which attendeth it: and therefore to understand that life is to know, so far as it is revealed, in what that happiness doth consist.

To begin with that which is most intelligible; the bodies of the saints after the resurrection shall be transformed into spiritual and incorruptible bodies. The flesh is sown in corruption, raised in incorruption ; sown in dishonor, raised in glory; sown in weakness, raised in power; sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body," 1 Cor. xv. 42. This perfective alteration shall be made by the Son of God, "who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious

body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself," Phil. iii. 21. Thus when we come into that other world, the world of spirits, even our bodies shall be spiritual.

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As for the better part of man, the soul, it shall be highly exalted to the utmost perfection in all the parts or faculties thereof. The understanding shall be raised to the utmost capacity, and that capacity completely filled. "Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face; now we know but in part, but then shall we know even as also we are known," 1 Cor. xiii. 12. And this even now we know, that when God shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is," 1 John iii. 2. Our first temptation was, that we should be like unto God in knowledge, and by that we fell; but being raised by Christ, we come to be truly like him, by knowing him as we are known, and by seeing him as he is. Our wills shall be perfected with absolute and indefective holiness, with exact conformity to the will of God, and perfect liberty from all servitude of sin : they shall be troubled with no doubtful choice, but with their radical and fundamental freedom shall fully embrace the greatest good. Our affections shall be all set right by an unalterable regulation, and in that regularity shall receive absolute satisfaction; and all this shall be effected, that we may be thereby made capable, and then happy by a full fruition.

To this internal perfection is added a proportionately happy condition, consisting in an absolute freedom from all pain, misery, labor, and want; an impossibility of sinning and offending God; an hereditary possession of all good, with an unspeakable complacency and joy flowing from it, and all this redounding from the vision and fruition of God: this is the life.

And now the duration of this life is as necessary as the life itself, because to make all already mentioned amount unto a true felicity, there must be added an absolute security of the enjoyment, void of all fear of losing it, or being deprived of it. And this is added to complete our happiness, by the adjection of eternity. Now that this life shall be eternal, we are assured who have

not yet obtained it, and they much more who do enjoy it. He who hath purchased it for us, and promised it unto us, often calleth it eternal life; it is described as "a continuing city," as "everlasting habitations," as "a house eternal in the heavens;" it is expressed by 66 eternal glory, eternal salvation," by "an eternal inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away;" by "the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." And lest we should be discouraged by any short or lame interpretation of eternity, it is further explained in such terms as are liable to no mistake. For our Saviour hath said, "If any man keep my saying, he shall never see death :" and, "Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die," John viii. 51; xi. 26. When "God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes, there shall be no more death;" and where there is life and no death, there must be everlasting life; which is expressed by St. Paul by way of apposition, calling it "life and immortality," and that together with the abolition of death, saying that "our Saviour Jesus Christ hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel," 2 Tim. i. 10.

The belief of this article is necessary, (as to the eternity of torment) to deter us from committing sin, and to quicken us to holiness of life, and a speedy repentance for sin committed. For "the wages of sin is death;" nothing can bring us to those everlasting flames but sin, no sin but that which is unrepented of; nothing can save that man from the never-dying worm, who dieth in his sins; and no other reason can bring him thither, but because he sinned and repented not. They who imagine the pains inflicted for sin to be either small or short, have but a slender motive to innocence or repentance; but such as firmly believe them sharp and endless, have by virtue of that faith within themselves a proper and natural spur and incitement to avoid them: for "who can dwell in everlasting burnings?"

Secondly; the belief of eternal pains after death is necessary to breed in us a fear and awe of the great God, a jealous God, a consuming fire, a God that will not be Div. No XV.

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