1 John 3. 2. As for the better part of Man, the Soul, it fhall be highly exalted to the utmost perfection in all the parts or faculties thereof. The understanding fhall be railed to the utmoft capacity, and that capacity compleatly filled. Now I Cor. 13. 12. we fee 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. And this even now we know, that when God shall appear we shall be like him, for we fall fee him as he is. Our firft 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 feeing him as he is. Our wills fhall be perfected with abfolute and indefective holiness, with exact conformity to the will of God, and perfect liberty from all fervitude of Sin: They fhall be troubled with no doubtful choice, but with their * radical and fundamental freedom fhall fully embrace the greatest good. Our affections fhall be all fet right by an unalterable regulation, and in that regularity shall receive abfolute fatisfaction; and all this fhall be effected, that dit, poffe non we may be thereby made capable, and then happy by a full fruition. * Sicut prima immortalitas fuit quam peccando mori, novifli ma erit non poffe mori; ita primum liberum arbitrium, poffe non peccare, noviffimum non poffe peccare. Sic enim erit inamiflibilis voluntas pietatis & æquitatis quomodo eft felicitatis. Nam utique peccando nec pietatem nec felicitatem tenuimus, voluntatem verò felicitatis nec perditâ felicitate perdidimus. Certè Deus ipfe numquid quia peccare non poteft, ideo liberum arbitrium habere negandus eft? Erit ergo illius civitatis & una in omnibus & infeparabilis in fingulis voluntas libera, ab omni malo liberata, & impleta omni bono, fruens indeficienter æternorum jucun ditate gaudiorum, oblita culparum, oblita pœnarum, nec tamen ideo fuæ liberationis oblita, ut liberatori fuo non fit ingrata. S. Aug. de Civit. Dei, l. 22. c. 30. Vide eundem Tractatu de Epicuris & Stoicis, prope finem. Luke 16. 9. 2 Cor. 5. 1. Heb. 5. 9. To this internal perfection is added a proportionately happy condition, confifting in an abfolute freedom from all pain, mifery, labour and want; an impoffibility of finning and offending God; an hereditary poffeffion of all good, with an unfpeakable complacency and joy flowing from it, and all this redounding from the vifion and fruition of God: This is the Life. And now the duration of this life is as neceffary as the life it felf, because to make all already mentioned amount unto a true felicity, there must be added an abfolute fecurity of the enjoyment, void of all fear of lofing it or being deprived of it. And this is added to compleat our happiness, by the adjection of eternity. Now that this life fhall be eternal, we are affured who have not yet obtained it, and they much more who do enjoy it. He which hath purchased it for us, and promised it unto us, often calleth it eternal life; Heb. 13. 14. it is defcribed as a continuing city, as everlafting habitations, as an houfe eter. nal in the heavens; it is expreffed by eternal glory, eternal falvation, by 1 Pet. 5. 10. an eternal inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away; by the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift. And left we should be difcouraged by any fhort or lame interpretation of eternity, it 2 Pet. 1. 11. is further explained in fuch terms as are liable to no mistake. For our SaJohn 8. 51. viour hath faid, if any man keep my faying, he shall never fee death. And, Rev. 21.4.- whofoever liveth and believeth in me shall not die. 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 everlafting Life: Which is expreffed by St. Paul by way of oppofition, calling it life and immortality, and that to2 Tim. 1. 10. gether with the abolition of death, faying that our Saviour Jefus Christ bath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 9. 15. I-Pet. I. 4. 12. 26. The belief of this Article is neceffary, (as to the eternity of torment) to deter us from committing fin, and to quicken us to holiness of life, and a fpeedy repentance for fin committed. For, the wages of fin is death; nothing can bring us to those everlasting flames but fin, no fin but that which is unrepented of; nothing can fave that Man from the never-dying Worm, c. 45. recount who dieth in his Sins; and no other reafon can bring him thither, but because wards inno cence and ho linefs of life, which the Heathens had not. Recogitate etiam pro brevitate fupplicii cujuflibet, non tamen ultra mortem remanfuri Sic & Epicurus omnem cruciatum doloremque depretiat, modicum quidem contemptibilem pronunciando, magnum verò non diuturnum, Enimvero nos qui fub Deo omnium fpeculatore difpungimur, quique æternam ab eo pœnam providemus, meritò foli innocentiæ occurrimus, & pro fcientiæ plenitudine, & pro latebrarum difficultate, & pro magnitudine cruciatus, non diuturni, fed fempiterni, cum timentes quem timere debebit & ipfe qui timentes judi cat, Deum non Proconfulem timentes. Secondly, The belief of eternal pains after death is neceffary to breed in us a fear and awe of the great God, a jealous God, a confuming fire, a God that will not be mocked; and to teach us to tremble at his word, to confider the infinity of his juftice, and the fierceness of his wrath, to meditate on the power of his menaces, the validity of his threats, to follow that direction, to embrace that reduplicated advice of our Saviour, I will forewarn you whom Luke 12. 5. ye ball fear; Fear him, which after he hath killed, hath power to caft into hell; yea, I fay unto you, fear him. And that exclufively of fuch fear as concerns the greatest pains of this life, which the † Martyrs undervalued † So Polycarout of a belief of eternal torments. pus the Martyr answered the Proconful threarning to confume him with fire, Πᾶς ἀπειλεῖς τὸ πρὸς ὥραν κατόρθρον καὶ μετ' ὀλίγον (βεννύμθρον. Αγνοείς γδ τὸ τ μελλέσης κρίσεως και αιωνίας κολάσεως τοῖς ἀσεβέτι της έρρον τις. Epift. Smyrn. Ecclef. Thirdly, This belief is neceffary to teach us to make a fit eftimate of the price of Chrift's Blood, to value fufficiently the work of our redemption, to acknowledge and admire the love of God to us in Chrift. For he which believeth not the eternity of torments to come, can never fufficiently value that ransome by which we were redeemed from them, or be proportionately thankful to his Redeemer, by whofe intervention we have efcaped them. Whereas he who is fenfible of the lofs of Heaven, and the everlaffing privation of the prefence of God, of the torments of fire, the company of the Devil and his Angels, the vials of the wrath of an angry and never to be appeafed God, and hopeth to escape all these by virtue of the death of his Redeemer, cannot but highly value the price of that Blood, and be proportionably thankful for fo plenteous a redemption. Again, As this Article followeth upon the Refurrection of the just, and containeth in it an eternal duration of infinite felicity belonging to them, it is neceffary to ftir us up to an earnest defire of the kingdom of Heaven, and that righteousness to which fuch a life is promifed, I will now turn afide and fee this great fight, faid Mofes, when he faw the burning Bufh. It is good for us to be here, faid S. Peter, when he faw our Saviour transfigured in the Mount; how much more ought we to be inflamed with a defire of the joys of Heaven, and that ‡ length of days which only fatisfieth by its eternity, to a so s. Auftin careful and conftant performance of those commands to which fuch a reward upon those is graciously promised! For as all our happiness proceedeth from the vifion of words [LonGod, fo we are certain that without holinefs no Man fhall fee him. gitudine dierum replebo eum] in the 91ft Pfal. Quæ eft longitudo dierum? vita æterna eft. Fratres, nolite putare longitudinem dierum dici, ficut funt hyeme minores, æftate dies majores. Tales dies nobis habet dare? Longitudo illa eft quæ non habet finem, æterna vita quæ nobis promittitur in diebus longis. Et verè quia fufficit non fine caufa dixit, replebo eum. Non nobis fufficit quicquid longum eft in tempore fi habet finem, & ideo nec longum dicendum eft. Et fi avari fumus, vitæ æternæ debemus effe avari: talem vitam defiderate quæ non habet finem. Ecce ubi extendatur avaritia veftra, Argentum vis fine fine? Vitam æternam defidera fine fine. Non vis ut habeat finem poffeffio tua? Vitam æternam defidera. Secondly, * Nemo vi lem immor Secondly, This belief is necessary to take off our inclinations and defires from the pleasures and profits of this Life; to breed in us a b contempt of tam æternam, the World, and to teach us to despise all things on this fide Heaven; to fet incorruptibi- a our affections on things above, not on things on the earth, confidering we talemque de- are dead, and our life is hid with Chrift in God. For where our treasure fiderat, nifi is, there will our hearts be alfo Therefore we must forget those things eum vitæ hu- which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, press lis, corrupti- towards the mark, for the price of the high calling of God in Chrift Jefus. jus tempora bilis, morta lifque pœniteat. S. Aug. Hom. 50. C c Phil. 3. 13, 14. Thirdly, An affent unto this truth is necessary to encourage us to take up the Cross of Chrift, and to fupport us under it, willingly and chearfully to undergo the afflictions and tribulations of this life, reckoning with the Apostle, that the fufferings of this prefent time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us; and knowing that our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory. And this knowledge is not to be obtained, this comfort is not to be expected, except we look not at the things which are feen, but at the things which are not feen; for the things which are feen are temporal, but the things which are not feen are eternal. And now having thus fhewed the propriety, proved the verity, and declared the neceffity of this Article, we may fully inftruct every Christian how to exprefs his belief in the laft object of his Faith, which he may most fitly thus pronounce: I do fully and freely affent unto this, as unto a most neceffary and infallible Truth, That the unjust after their refurrection and condemnation fhall be tormented for their Sins in Hell, and fhall be fo continued in torments for ever, fo as neither the Justice of God fhall ever cease to inflict them, nor the perfons of the wicked cease to fubfift and fuffer them: And that the just after their refurrection and abfolution fhall as the blessed of the Father obtain the inheritance, and as the Servants of God enter into their Master's Joy, freed from all poffibility of Death, Sin and Sorrow, filled with all conceivable and inconceivable fulness of happiness, confirmed in an abfolute fecurity of an eternal enjoyment, and fo they fhall continue with God and with the Lamb for evermore. And thus I believe the Life everlasting. FINIS |