concluded that doubtless he was employed upon some great Design of Love to communicate from the Almighty Father some mighty Blessing to the World and accordingly we find that though the holy Angels did not comprehend the particular Intention and Mystery of Christ's Incarnation yet they concluded in the general that it was intended for some great Good to the World as is apparent by the Anthem they sung at his Nativity Glory be to God on high on Earth peace good will towards Men. Now the greatest Expression of God's good Will towards Men is to rescue them from all Iniquity and restore them to the Purity and Perfection of their Natures for without this all the Blessings of Heaven and Earth are not sufficient to make us happy While our Nature is debauch'd and overgrown with unreasonable Lusts and Passions we must be miserable notwithstanding all that an Omnipotent Goodness can do for us for Misery is so essential to Sin that we may as well be Men without being reasonable as sinful Men without being miserable Since therefore the End of Christ's coming into the World was to dispense God's greatest Blessings to Mankind and since the greatest Blessing that we can receive from God is to be redeemed by his Grace from our Iniquities and to be made Partakers of the Divine Nature we may reasonably conclude that this was his main Design in the World and the great End of that everlasting Gospel which he revealed to it And hence the name Iesus was given him by the Direction of an Angel because he should save his people from their Sins Matth. i. 21. and indeed I cannot imagine any Design whatsoever excepting this that could be worthy the Son of God's coming down into the World to live such a miserable Life and die such a shameful Death Had it been only to save us from a Plague or War or Famine it had been an Undertaking fit for the lowest Angel in the heavenly Hierarchy but to save us from our sins was an Enterprize so great and good as none in Heaven or Earth but the Son of God himself was thought worthy to be employed in This therefore was the Mark of all his Aims while he was upon Earth the Center in which all his Actions and Sufferings met to save us from our Sins and to inspire us with a divine Life and God-like Nature that thereby we might be disposed for the Enjoyment of Heaven and made to be meet Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light 'T is true he died to procure our Pardon too but it was with respect to a farther End namely that we might not grow desperate with the Sense of our Guilts but that by the Promise of Pardon which he hath purchased for us we might be encouraged to repent and amend But should he have procured a Pardon for our Sin whether we had repented of it or no he would have only skinned over a Wound which if it be not perfectly cured will rankle of its own accord into an incurable Gangrene Christ therefore by the offering of himself is said to purge our consciences from dead works that we might serve the living God Heb. ix 14. and the great Apostle makes the ultimate Intention of his giving himself for us to be this that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. ii 14. And until his Death hath had this Effect upon us it is not all the Merit of his Blood and Vertue of his Sacrifice that can release us from the direful Punishments of the other Life For unless he by his Death had so altered the Nature of Sin as that it might be in us without being a Plague to us it must necessarily if we carry it with us into the other World prove a perpetual Hell and Torment to us So that it is apparent that the great and ultimate Design of Christ was not to hide our filthy sores but to heal and cure them and for this End it was that he revealed to us the grace of God from Heaven to teach us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world Tit. ii 12. Let us not therefore cheat our own Souls by thinking that the Gospel requires nothing of us but only to be holy by Proxy righteous by being cloathed in the Garments of another's Righteousness as if its Design was not so much to cure as cover our filthy Sores not to make us whole but to make us accounted so For can any Man imagin that Christ would ever have undertaken such a mighty Design and made so great a noise of doing something which when it is all summed up is nothing but a Notion and doth not at last amount unto a Reality As if the great Design of his coming down from Heaven to live and die for us was only to make a Cloak for our sins wherein we might appear righteous before God without being so But do not deceive your selves it is not all the Innocence and Obedience of Christ's Life nor all the Virtue and Merit of his Death that can render you pure and holy in God's eyes unless you really are so and you may as well be Well with another's Health or wise with another's Wisdom as righteous before God with the Righteousness of Christ while you abide in your Sins For God sees you as you are and the most glorious Disguise you can appear in before him will never be able to delude his all-seeing Eye so as to make him account you righteous when you are not and if it were possible for you to impose upon God yet unless you could also impose upon the Nature of Things and by fancying them to be otherwise than they are make them to be what they are not it will be to no purpose For if you could be cloathed in Christ's Righteousness while you continue wicked it would signifie no more to your Happiness than it would to be cloathed in a most splendid Garment while you were pining with Famine or tortured with the Gout or Strangury Wherefore as we love our own Souls and would not betray our selves into an irrecoverable Ruin let us firmly conclude with our selves that the great Design of our Religion is internal Holiness and Righteousness and that without this all that Christ hath done and suffered for us will be so far from contributing to our Happiness that it will prove an eternal Aggravation to our Misery and that all that precious Blood which he shed in our behalf will be so far from obtaining Pardon and eternal Happiness for us that it will arise in Iudgment against us and like the innocent blood of Abel instead of interceeding for us will cry down Vengance from Heaven upon us For how can we imagine that the pure and holy Iesus who hated our Sins more than all the Pangs and Horrors of a woful Death should all of a
springing up in their Minds and arising higher and higher proportionably as their Progress is in Virtue and true Goodness Which is a plain Evidence that these Hopes and Desires are natural to us and that they are interwoven by the great Creator in the Frame and Constitution of our Souls Now how can it consist with the Goodness of God to implant such Desires and Hopes in our Natures and then to withhold from them the only Object that can suit and satisfie them As if it were a Recreation to him to sit above in the Heavens and behold the Work of his Hands spending it self in weary Strugglings towards him and gasping all the while it continues in Being after an Happiness it shall never enjoy As for other Beings we see they have no natural Desire in vain the good God having so ordered things that there are Objects in Nature apportioned to all their natural Appetites but if there be no State of Happiness reserved for good Men in the other World we are by a natural Principle most strongly inclined to that which we can never attain to As if God had purposely framed us with such Inclinations that we might be perpetually tormented between those two Passions Desire and Despair an earnest Propension after a future Happiness and an utter Incapacity of ever enjoying it as if Nature it self whereby all other Beings are disposed to their Perfection did serve only in Mankind to make them miserable and which is more considerable as if Virtue which is the Perfection of Nature did only contribute to our Infelicity by raising in us Desires and Expectations which without a future Happiness must be for ever baffled and disappointed For if there be no future Happiness either we may know it or we may not if we may not know it why should we think that which reflects so much Dishonor upon God viz. that he hath created in us Desires and Expectations only to mock and tantalize them But if we may know it then do these Desires and Expectations seem to be created in us on purpose to torment us For for what other End can we desire to be eternally happy who are only brought forth into the Light to be e'er long extinguished and shut up in everlasting Darkness The Consideration of which must needs be an exceeding Torture and Affliction to us III. THAT there is a future Happiness reserved for good Men is evident from the Iustice and Equity of the Divine Providence That God is a most just and righteous Governour is acknowledged by all that believe there is a God and that he rules and governs the World and if it be so then his Iustice must first or last discover it self in distributing Rewards and Punishments to men according as they obey or violate the Laws of his Government For what Iustice can he express in governing the World if he rules at random if he never makes any Difference between the Good and the Bad but rewards and punishes his Subjects promiscuously without any Distinction between the Loyal and Rebellious And yet in the ordinary Course of Divine Providence in this world we see little or no Distinction made between them but as the Wise Man hath observed Eccl. ix 2. All things come alike to all so that he cannot know God's Love or Hatred by any thing that is before us nay many times we see the wicked as the Psalmist describes them flourishing like a green Bay-tree Psal. xxxvii 35. whilst the righteous are sorely oppressed and crushed under the triumphal Chariots of their barbarous Enemies So that were there no other State of things but what we see before us it would be impossible for us to give any tolerable Account of the just Retributions of the Divine Providence For if when we have all acted our Parts upon this Stage of Time we were to lye down together and sleep for ever in the Dust how many millions of Good Men are there that have thought nothing too dear for God and have not only sacrificed their Lusts but their Lives and Fortunes to his Service who would have no other Recompence for so doing but a miserable Life and a woful Death and an obscure and dishonourable Grave And on the contrary how many millions of millions of Wicked Men are there whose whole Lives have been nothing but one continued Act of Rebellion against God who have blasphemed his Honour and affronted his Authority and openly contemned all the Laws of his Government and yet would undergoe no other Punishment for so doing but only to live prosperously to die quietly and then to be gloriously enshrined in Monuments of Marble And can we think this and at the same time believe that there is a righteous Providence which superintends the Affairs of the World Certainly if not to govern this material World and to put things into such a regular Course as may be suitable to their Natures and the Operations for which they are designed would argue some Defect of Wisdom in God then doubtless not to compensate Virtue and Vice and adjust things suitably to their Qualifications but thus crosly to couple Prosperity with Vice and Misery with Virtue would argue him deficient both in Wisdom and Goodness and Iustice. And perhaps it would be no less expedient with Epicurus to deny all Providence than to ascribe to it such Defects it being less unworthy of the Divine Nature to neglect the Universe altogether than to administer humane Affairs with so much Injustice and Irregularity So that either we must deny Providence or which is worse deny the Iustice of it or believe that there is a future State wherein all things shall be adjusted and good Men crowned with the Rewards of their Obedience and the Wicked undergo the Punishment of their own Follies For this we are sure of that the Judge of all the World will do righteously and that first or last he will distribute his Rewards and Punishments according to the Merit and Demerit of his Subjects and therefore because we see he doth not ordinarily do it in this World we have great Reason to conclude that he will do it effectually in the World to come Fourthly and Lastly THAT there is a State of future Happiness prepared for good Men is evident from the Revelation of his Will which God hath made to us by Iesus Christ. And this I confess is the most concluding Argument of all as for the former Arguments they render the Case so highly probable that this at least must be acknowledged that we have far more Reason to believe and expect a future Happiness than we have to doubt or despair of it but as for this last it puts all out of Question and leaves us no Pretence of Reason why we should doubt or suspect it For eternal Happiness and Salvation is the great Blessing which our Saviour hath promised us to encourage us to Perseverance in Well-doing and in that everlasting Gospel which he preached to the
casteth it self upon the tryal of our Reason exacting of us no further Assent than what the evidence claimeth upon which it is founded and is so far from exacting of us a blind-fold Assent to it without Examination that it readily exposeth it self to the severest Enquiry and asketh no other favour but to stand or fall by the impartial Sentence of our Reason It telleth us both what we are to believe and why and not only alloweth but requireth us to examine the grounds and reasons of it in all which there is not the least Shadow of imposing on Men's minds or usurping on their Rights of judging for themselves But alas 'T is not only the Church of Rome that is guilty of this unnatural Tyranny for how many are there of all Parties among our selves that cannot endure the least Contradiction but expect all Judgments should bow to theirs and receive their imperious Dictates for Oracles and are ready to censure all that dissent from them as Men of Reprobate Minds and to hate and persecute them because they cannot believe as fast as they As if no Man had a Right to carry his Eyes in his own Head but They and their Understandings were to be a Rule and Standard to the whole World If another Man differeth from me do not I differ as much from him And hath not He as much Right to judge for himself as I But He is mistaken you will say and I am not and possibly He is as confident that I am mistaken and not he and if I think I cannot be mistaken I am more mistaken than He but certainly it is neither Presumption for him to know more than I nor Sin to know less What then is to be done but to leave one another in the quiet Possession of each others Right and not to hector and swagger upon every difference in Opinion because he that differeth from me hath as much Right to judge for himself as I though he refuseth to prostrate his Understanding to mine which for any Man to expect is a most unjust Invasion of the common Rights of Humane Nature III. EVERY Man hath a Right not to be forced or impelled to act contrary to the Judgment of right Reason For right Reason is the natural Guide of all reasonable Creatures 't is the Light of their feet and the Lanthorn of their paths and the Star by which they ought to direct their courses And what can be more unjust than to force any Man to act against that which is the Law of his Nature For if He who gave me my Nature gave me right Reason for the Law and Guide of it I must necessarily have an undoubted Right to a full and free permission to follow it otherwise he hath given me a Law in vain And if I have Right to a full permission to follow the Law of right Reason then for any man to impel me to act counter to it either by hope or fear or any other motive is a high Injustice to my Nature For he who induceth me to do any wicked or unreasonable Action which I should not have done had not he induced me to it doth in so doing so far as in him lyeth not permit me to follow the eternal Laws of right Reason As for instance the Law of right Reason requireth me when I pretend to give Evidence to any matter of Fact to testifie nothing but the Truth to the best of my Knowledge he therefore who endeavoureth either by promises or threats to suborn me to testifie falsely doth thereby hinder me so far as in him lyeth from hearkning to the call of right Reason Again right Reason requireth me to make good my Promises whether they be to my Superiors Inferiours or Equals and much more when I confirm them with an Oath he therefore who by any means endeavoureth to persuade me to falsifie my Word or Oath doth in so doing so far as in him lyeth not permit me to follow what right Reason prescribeth Once more right Reason commandeth me to bridle my Appetite with Temperance and Sobriety he therefore that by force or persuasion endeavoureth to make me drunk doth to the utmost of his power with-hold and restrain me from following that which is the Law of my Nature In a word he who by command or threat promise or persuasion putteth me upon any sinful Action is not only guilty in the fight of God of the Sin which I commit by his inducement but also of doing a high Injustice to my Nature of putting it out of its true biass and not permitting it to move and act according to the Laws of Reason which is a piece of the most outragious Violence that can be offered to a rational Creature Besides that by inducing another Man to sin I do as far as in me lyeth betray him to eternal Punishment which is as barbarous an Injustice to his Soul as the Devil himself can be guilty of For should I not call that Man a treacherous Villain who while he pretendeth to embrace his Friend should secretly stab him to the heart And is it not a much more bloody Villany under a specious pretence of kindness and good fellowship to stab my Brother to the Soul and wound him to eternal Death But whilst like a heedless Wrastler I thus eagerly endeavour to give my Brother a fall it is a thousand to one but I fall with him and bear him company to eternal Torment IV. Fourthly and Lastly EVERY Man hath a Right as he is a reasonable Creature to be respected by every Man according to the dignity of his Nature For as in particular Kingdoms the King is the fountain of honour and every Man under him ought to be respected according to that Rank and Degree of dignity which the royal Stamp hath imprinted on him so in the universal Kingdom of the World God is the fountain of honour and every Being under him ought to be treated and respected according to the dignity of its Rank and suitably to that Character of Perfection which God hath imprinted on its Nature Since therefore Man is so highly advanced by God in the Scale of Beings as being not only a sensitive but a rational and immortal Creature he hath a Right to be treated as such by all that are of his Class and Order And for a Man to treat a Man otherwise is wrongfully to depose and degrade him from that noble Rank of Being wherein the God of Nature hath placed him For whatsoever his outward Condition may be I ought to consider him as a Man as One that is placed in the same rank of Being with my self though he be my Slave or Vassal I ought to respect him as an Individual of my own Kind and not use him rudely harshly or contemptuously like a Dog though he be poor and mean in his outward Circumstances yet I ought to regard him as a Branch that is sprung out of my own Stock and not to
repeat it and though the first injurious Act were transient and did expire and die in the Commission yet because it leaveth a permanent Evil behind it upon the good Name or Estate of my Neighbour I am as much obliged if I am able to remove the Evil from him as I was at first not to bring it upon him and all the while I neglect to remove it I wilfully continue the evil upon him and in so doing continue wilfully injurious to him As for instance when I wilfully asperse another Man's Reputation my Sin dies not with my slanderous Breath but survives in the evil effects of it and till I have endeavoured to purge his stained Reputation and to restore him his good Name again by a fair and ingenuous Vindication I am a Slanderer still and accountable for all those hard thoughts and injurious words which I have occasioned others to think or speak against him Again when I rob or defraud another Man of his Estate or any part of it the Sin doth not cease with the transient Act of Stealth or Couzenage or Violence which endeth and expireth in the Commission but continues so long as the Damage and evil Effect of it remains Whilst therefore he suffereth in his Estate by my injurious Act and 't is in my power to repair it I continue injuring him and till I have made him all the Restitution I am able I am a Cheat or a Thief or a Robber Since therefore Injustice is a damnable Sin as I shewed you before it necessarily followeth that whenever a Man deals unjustly by another he must at the same time either resolve to undo his own Act or to run the hazard of being undone for ever the former of which is a ridiculous Vanity and the latter a desperate Madness For what a Vanity is it for a Man to do what he resolveth to undoe to slander with a purpose to vindicate and cheat with a resolution to refund that is to do an evil thing with a purpose to be never the better for it If you resolve to restore what you wrongfully take from another why do you take it Is it so cheap a matter to be wicked that you should covet to be wicked for nothing That you should contract a Guilt which will bind you over to eternal Punishment with an intention to part with all that temporary Gain which tempted and invited you to it What is this but to weave a Penelope's Web to do and undo and build Castles of Cards to blow them down again and which is more vain and Nonsensical to swallow deadly Poison for our Health and Ease which we know will rack and convulse us with a purpose to vomit it up again without gaining either Health or Ease by it For he who wrongs another with a purpose to make him Restitution doth an evil Action with an intent to get nothing but Guilt by it You say you intend to restore to him what you wrong him of and if so for what end do you wrong him Unless it be to render your self more Criminal and Guilty For when you have restored to him what you have wrongfully deprived him of what can remain to you but only the Guilt of a wrongful and injurious Action So that for Men to deal unjustly by others with an Intent to make them Restitution is the greatest Vanity and Nonsense in the World but then to do it without such an Intent is the most desperate Madness For since every wilful Act of Injustice binds Men over to Eternal Punishment and since nothing but Restitution so far as they are able can release and absolve them from that dire Obligation it necessarily follows that he who deals unjustly by others without any Intent of making them Restitution doth by his own Act wilfully oblige himself to endure an Eternal Punishment For he knows that what he gaineth unjustly from another must be restored or his Soul must be lost and therefore if he resolve upon that Gain without any Intent to restore it he doth in effect stake his Soul to it and freely oblige himself to endure Hell-fire for ever in consideration of the present Gain he acquires by his unjust dealing For he who knows that such a Potion however sweetened and made palatable is compounded with the Juice of Deadly Nightshade and yet wilfully swallows it without any intent to disgorge it again doth thereby voluntarily murder and destroy himself and so He who knows that such an unjust Gain how tempting so ever it may look for the present hath an everlasting Horror and Anguish intermingled with it and yet wilfully seises it without any intent to refund it doth freely consent to undergo the Evil to enjoy the Good of it and shake hands upon this desperate Bargain that upon condition he may reap such an unlawful Profit he will freely surrender up his immortal Soul to the Pangs and Agonies of Eternal Death For in every Temptation to deal unjustly the Devil cheapens our immortal Soul and the unlawful Gain with which he tempts us is the Price he bids for it and though sometimes he bids exceeding low yet if we take his Price though it be but a Penny we thereby strike the fatal Bargain and by our own Act and Deed consign and deliver our Souls to him to be his Slaves here and his Martyrs hereafter And what greater madness can a Man be guilty of than to sell his Soul and all his Hopes of Happiness for ever for the trifling and momentary Gains of an unjust Action III. CONSIDER the manifest Inexcusableness of Injustice in it self For as I have shewed you at large all Justice between Man and Man is reducible to that general Rule Do as you would be done by i. e. Do all that good to others which you could reasonably expect they should do to you if you were in their Circumstances and they in yours and this is so plain a Rule that no Man can plead Ignorance of it who doth not wilfully shut his own Eyes 'T is true whilst Laws though never so plain and useful in themselves are yet obscure and perplex'd in their Promulgation or over-numerous they may prove a Snare rather than a Guide and make more Controversies than they can decide and lose much of their force by being spun out into nice and subtile Disputes they may fall short of their aim by not being able to reach the greater part of those Persons whom they designed to direct who either have not Leisure sufficient to attend to or Capacities to understand them or Sagacity to apply them in all opportunities of Action But as for this General Rule of Justice it is always at hand and we carry it about us in our own Breasts for this is the peculiar advantage of this Rule that by it we may very easily discern all the Specialities of our Duty without looking abroad or having recourse to external Instructions So that by it we may be perfect Lawgivers skilful
mortify them we shall live and that if we do not we shall be for ever excommunicated from the Regions of Life and Immortality II. THIS is also apparent from the Nature of the Thing For if God had not excluded those that live in their sins from eternal Life by his own free Ordination yet they must have been excluded the future Happiness being so inconsistent with a vicious State that it is impossible ever to reconcile them For the Thing it self implies a Contradiction and is not an Object of any Power no not of Omnipotence it self and God may as well make White to be Black while it is White as a vicious Soul to be happy while it is vicious For Happiness is a relative thing and doth in its own Nature imply a Correspondence and Agreement between the Faculty and the Object and be the Object never so good in it self yet if it doth not agree with the Faculty whereunto it is objected it is Misery and Affliction to it Though a Man should be entertained with all the delicate Relishes of Musick yet if he hath not a musical Ear it will be but a tedious ungrateful Din to him And though his Appetite should be courted with all the rich varieties in Nature yet if they do not agree with his coarse and homely Palate he will distaste and nauseate them And so if a Man should be placed in Heaven among all the Joys with which that blessed State abounds yet unless his Mind and Temper did suit and agree with them they would all be so many Miseries and Torments to him he would be afflicted even in Abraham's Bosom and grope for Heaven in the midst of Paradise and it would be impossible for him to be pleased with his Condition till the Genius and Temper of his Mind were alter'd and the Dispositions of his Soul were reconciled to that heavenly State So that if we can demonstrate that there is and must be Antipathy and Disagreement in wicked Souls to the future Happiness it will then be apparent from the Nature and Reason of the Thing that our Enjoyment of the future Happiness depends upon our ceasing to be wicked or which is all one upon our mortifying the Deeds of the Flesh. Now to evidence this Disagreement between wicked Souls and the heavenly State I shall do these three things First SHEW wherein the Felicities of the future State do consist Secondly WHAT the Temper and Disposition of wicked Souls will be in the future State Thirdly HOW contrary such a Temper and Disposition must be unto such Felicities I. I am to shew wherein the Felicities of the future State do consist And here I shall not presume to give you a particular Description of Heaven the Felicities whereof the Apostle tells us are ineffable but shall content my self to give you the general Account of it which I find in the Revelation of the Gospel In general therefore we may be secure of this that Heaven is such an Happiness as is most suitable to a Rational Nature it being designed and prepared for reasonable Beings to whom as I have shewed it would not be a Heaven if it were not agreeable to their Natures For should God have provided for us a Heaven of sensual Felicities to gratify the unbounded Licorishness of our carnal Appetites it would have been a Happiness fitter for Beasts than Men And whilst our sensual and bruitish Part had been feasted with everlasting Varieties of carnal Pleasures our intellectual Powers which are the noblest Ingredients of our Natures must have pined away a long Eternity for want of those Joys and Delights which alone are proper and agreeable to their Natures Now our proper Happiness as we are reasonable Beings consists in being perfectly Rational and in the Union of our Understandings Wills and Affections with such Objects as are most agreeable to our rational Natures And what is it to be perfectly rational but to reason truly according to the Nature of Things and to choose and refuse and love and hate according to the Dictates of true Reason And what is it to have our Understandings Wills and Affections united to such Objects as are most agreeable to our reasonable Natures but only to know that which is most worthy to be known and to choose and love that which is most worthy to be chosen and loved When therefore our Understanding is become so clear and vigorous as to reason aright and penetrate into the Natures of things and our Wills and Affections are perfectly compliant and harmonious with it and all these are in conjunction with God the Fountain of all Truth and Goodness we are then arrived to the heavenly State of reasonable Natures And therefore all that is positively affirmed of the heavenly Happiness in the Gospel is only this that it consists in our seeing God and loving and resembling him and being for ever associated with those blessed Spirits that see and love and resemble him as well as We. And this doubtless is such a Felicity as no mortal Language can express For how will my Understanding triumph when it is once emerged out of all the Mists and Clouds with which it is here surrounded into the clear Heaven of Vision where it shall have a free and uninterrupted Prospect throughout the whole Horizon of Truth when God and Heaven and all the Mysteries of the other World shall be always present to my ravished Thoughts How hail and sound how light and expedite will my Soul be when it is disentangled from all those unreasonable Passions which here do clog and disease her When all her jarring Faculties shall be reduced into a perfect Harmony what a Heaven of Content and Peace will there spring up within her own Bosom And when she is thus contempered to the Divine Perfection and inspired throughout with a God-like Nature in what Raptures of Love and Extasies of Ioys will she converse with God and blessed Spirits This doubtless if there were no more is enough to make the heavenly State unspeakably happy and blessed And this together with a perfect Freedom from Pains and Misery and Death is all of Heaven that God hath made known to us in his Gospel Here we are told that we shall be made perfect that we shall see as we are seen and know as we are known and behold him that is Invisible face to face For yet it doth not appear what we shall be saith St. Iohn but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is 1 Epist. iii. 2. There may be and doubtless are sundry additional Felicities to these but in these it is apparent the main of Heaven doth consist because these are all that God hath plainly revealed and made known to us II. THE next thing proposed was to shew what the Temper and Disposition of wicked Souls will be in the future State And this may be easily gathered by considering wherein a wicked