Where is the promise of his coming To me it seems that all refer to the same matter The second thing which seems to contradict the Doctor 's Interpretation is the Apostles citing for the instruction and confirmation of the Believers and in Answer to the Atheists Objection Where is the promise of his coming that place of the Psalmist Psal. 90. 4. That one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day For the Apostle seems to suppose that the time of Christ's coming might possibly be a thousand years off and that they were not to think much or distruct the Promise if it were so for though it were predicted as a thing shortly to come yet they were to consider that a thousand years in God's sight is but a very short time so that it might be foretold as shortly to come though it were a thousand years off Whereas it might seem improper to mention a thousand years to support them in expectation of an Event that was not twenty years to come Another place where mention is made of Christ's coming to Judgment and the Dissolution of the World is Matth. 24. to which may be added as parallel Mark 13. and Luke 21. In which places you have considerable 1. The Suddenness of Christ's coming verse 27. As the lightning comes out of the East and shineth even unto the West so shall the coming of the Son of Man be 2. The Signs of his coming verse 29. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the Sun be darkned and the Moon shall not give her light and the Stars shall fall from Heaven and the powers of Heaven shall be shaken 3. The manner of his coming verse 30. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven and then shall all the Tribes of the Earth mourn when they shall see the Son of Man coming in the Clouds of Heaven with power and great glory And he shall send his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet and they shall gather together his Elect from the four Winds from one end of Heaven to the other 4. The uncertainty of the time of his coming and this dissolution as to us But of that day and hour knoweth no man no not the Angels in Heaven and Mark adds neither the Son but the Father only All this Prophecy Dr. Hammond understands of the destruction of the City and Temple of Ierusalem and whole Nation of the Iews as may be seen in his Paraphrase and Annotations upon this place And indeed our Saviour himself seems to limit it to this saying verse 24. Verily I say unto you this generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled For if these Prophecies look further than the destruction of Ierusalem even to Christ's coming to Judgment how could it be true that that generation should not pass away till all those things were fulfilled Whereas we see that that generation is long since passed away and yet the end is not come And indeed Expositors that understand them of the end of the World and Christ's second coming to Judgment are hard put to it to answer this Objection S. Chrysostom will have this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be understood not of the Generation of Men then living but of the Generation of the Faithful which should not fail till the end of the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He denominates a Generation not only from living together in the same time but from having the same form and manner of religious Worship and Polity as in that place This is the generation of them that seek thee that seek thy face O Jacob. Beza understands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the present Age and will have it to be of the same valor with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hebrew and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to refer not to all particulars mentioned in this Chapter but only to those which are spoken of the destruction of the City and Nation of the Iews But saith he if any one urgeth the universal Particle Vertere licebit Fiant omnia viz quae ultimam illam diem praâ—cessura dixit Nam ab illo tempore coeperunt fieri adhuc perseverant ill signa suo demum tempore Filio hominis venturo But on the other side 1. Some passages there are in this Chapter which are hardly applicable to the destruction of Ierusalem and the Dissolution of the Iewish Common-wealth as the appearing of the Sign of the Son of Man in Heaven and the Tribes seeing the Son of Man coming in the Clouds of Heaven with power and great glory And his sending his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet 2. The coming of Christ is in like manner described in places which undoubtedly speak of his coming to Judgment at the end of the World As in 1 Cor. 15. 52. mention is made of the Trumpets sounding at the time of the Christ's coming and 1 Thess. 4. 16. it is said The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God and verse 17. We that are alive shall be caught up together with them that are risen in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air. All which places are perfectly parallel and seem manifestly to allude to the fore-mentioned words Matth. 24. 30 31. I am apt to think that these Prophecies may have a double respect one to the City Temple and Nation of the Iews another to the whole World at the great Day of Doom and that the former is indeed typical of the latter and so they have a double completion the first in the destruction of Ierusalem and the Iewish Polity In reference to which it is truly said This Generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled The second in the final Dissolution of the World which is yet to come But to proceed Another place which is usually understood of the Dissolution of the World by fire is 2 Thess. 1. 7 8. When the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire c. Other parallel places may be seen Rev. 6. 12. 13 14. Rev. 10. 6. Rev. 21. 1. And I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth for the first Heaven and the first Earth were passed away and there was no more Sea Hebr. 12. 26 27. These places speak more directly of the Dissolution of the World and the coming of Christ to Judgment Others there are that speak only concerning the time of it 1 Pet. 4. 7. But the end of all things is at hand James 5. 9. Behold the Iudge standeth before the door 1 John 2. 18. Little Children it is the last time or as some translate it the last hour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebr. 10. 37. Yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
a new Earth and the former shall not be remembred nor come into mind Isa. 66. 22. As the new Heavens and new Earth which I shall make shall remain before me To which places the Apostle Peter seems to refer in those words 2 Pet. 3. 13. Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth righteousness This new Heaven and new Earth we have also mentioned Rev. 12. 1. And I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth for the first Heaven and the first Earth were passed away and there was no more Sea These places I confess may admit of an Answer or Solution by those who are of a contrary Opinion and are answered by Doctor Hakewil yet all together especially being back'd by ancient Tradition amount to a high degree of probability I omit that place Rom. 8. 21 22. The creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God tho' it be accounted the strongest proof of our Opinion because of the obscurity and ambiguity thereof 2. For Antiquity I have already given many Testimonies of the ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Church and could if need were produce many more the whole stream of them running this way And tho' Dr. Hakewill saith That if we look back to higher times before S. Hierome we shall not easily find any one who maintained the World's Renovation yet hath he but two Testimonies to alledge for its Abolition the one out of Hilary upon the Psalms and the other out of Clemens his Recognitions To this Restitution of the World after the Conflagration many also of the Heathen Philosophers bear witness whose Testimonies Mr. Burnet hath exhibited in his Theory of the Earth lib. 4. cap. 5. Of the Stoicks Chrysippus de Providentia speaking of the Renovation of the World saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We after death certain Periods of time being come about shall be restored to the form we now have To Chrysippus Stobaeus adds Zeno and Cleanthes and comprehends together with Men all natural things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zeno and Cleanthes and Chrysippus were of Opinion That the Nature or Substance of Things changes into Fire as it were into a Seed and out of this again such a World or Frame of Things is effected as was before This Revolution of Nature â—ntoninus in his Meditations often calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Periodical Regeneration of all things And Origen against Celsus â—aith of the Stoicks in general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Stoicks say That at certain Periods of time there is a Conflagration of the Vniverse and after that a Restitution thereof having exactly the same Disposition and Furniture the former World had More to the like purpose concerning the Stoicks we have in Eusebius out of Numenius Nature faith he returns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Resurrection which makes the Great Year wherein there is again a restitution made from it self alone to it self For returning according to the order wherein it began first to frame and dispose things as reason would it again observes the same Oeconomy or Administration the like Periods returning etâ—rnally without ceasing He that desires more Authorities of the Heathen Philosophers and Poets in consirmation of the World's Restitution after the Conflagration may consult the same Mr. Burnet in the place forequoted where he also shews that this Doctrine of the Mundane Periods was received by the Grecians from the Nations they call barbarous Pythagoras saith Porphyry brought it first into Greece and Origen witnesseth of the Egyptian Wise Men that it was delivered by them Laertius out of Theopompus relates That the Persian Magi had the same Tradition and Berosus saith that the Chaldeans also In fine among all the barbarous Nations who had among them any Person or Sect and Order of Men noted for Wisdom or Philosophy this Tradition was current The Reader may consult the Book we refer to where is a notable passage taken out of Plutarch's Tractate Di Iside Osiride concerning a War between Oromazes and Arimanius somewhat parallel to that mentioned in the Revelation between Michael and the Dragon 3. The Restitution of the World seems more consonant to Reason than its Abolition For if the World were to be annihilated what needed a Conflagration Fire doth not destroy or bring things to nothing but only separate their parts The World cannot be abolished by it and therefore had better been annihilated without it Wherefore the Scripture mentioning no other Dissolution than is to be effected by the Instrumentality of Fire its clear we are not to understand any utter Abolition or Annihilation of the World but only a Mutation and Renovation by those phrases of perishing passing away dissolving â—eing no more c. They are to be no more in that state and condition they are now in 2. There must be a material Heaven and a material Hell left A place for the glorified Bodies of the Blessed to inhabit and converse in and a place for the Bodies of the Damned a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Prison for them to be shut up in Now if the place of the Blessed be an Empyreal Heaven far above these visible Heavens as Divines generally hold and the place of the Damned be beneath about the middle of the Earth as is the Opinion of the School-men and the Church of Rome and as the name Inferi imports and as the ancient Heathen described their Tartarus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then when all the intermediate Bodies shall be annihilated what a strange Universe shall we have Consisting of an immense Ring of Matter having in the middle a vast vacuity or space void of all Body save only one small point for an infernal Dungeon Those that are of this Opinion have too narrow and mean thoughts of the Greatness I had almost said Immensity of the Universe the glorious and magnisick Products of the Creator's Almighty Power and are too partial to themselves to think the whole World was created for no other end but to be serviceable to Mankind But of this I have said somewhat in a former Discourse and therefore shall not at present enlarge upon it But let us hear what they have to say for the Abolition Their first and most weighty Argument is taken from the End of the World's Creation which was partly and chieâ—ly the Glory of the Creater and partly the use of Man the Lord Depâ—ty as it were or Viceroy thereof Now for the Glory of the Creator it being by the admirable Frame of the World manifested unto Man Man being removed out of the World and no Creature being capable of such a Manifestation besides him we cannot imagine to what purpose the Frame itself should be left and restored to a more perfect Estate The other End being for Man's Vse either to supply his
ordinary and insignificant Accidents Dormire in utramque aurem sleep securely till the last Trump awaken them Or it may be answered That these Prophecies do belong to the Destruction of Ierusalem only and so we are not concerned to answer that Objection CHAP. IX The Fifth Question answered At what Period of Time shall the World be dissolved 5. THE Fifth Question is At what Period of Time shall the World be dissolved I answer This is absolutely uncertain and indeterminable For since this Dissolution shall be effected by the extraordinary Interposition of Providence it cannot be to any Man known unless extraordinarily revealed And our Saviour tells us That of that Day and Hour knows no Man no not the Angels of Heaven c. Matth. 24. 36. And again Acts 1. 17. It is not for us to know the Times and the Seasons which the Father hath placed in his own power And this Dr. Hakewill brings as an Argument that the World decays not neither tends to Corruption because if it did the time of its actual Dissolution might be collected and foretold which saith he the Scripture denies We may invert this Argumentation and infer Because the World doth not decay therefore the time of its Dissolution cannot be known But yet notwithstanding this many have ventured to foretel the Time of the End of the World of whom some are already confuted the Term prefixt being past and the World still standing Lactantius in his time said Institut lib. 7. cap. 15. Omnis expectatio non amplius quà m ducentorum videtur annorum The longest expectation extends not further than two hundred years The continuance of the World more than a Thousand years since convinces him of a gross Mistake Paulus Grebnerus a high Pretender to a Spirit of Prophesie sets it in the Year 1613. induced thereto by a fond Conceit of the Numeral Letters in the Latin Word Iudicium Other Enthusiastical Persons of our own Countrey have placed it in the Years 1646. and 1656. The event shews how ungroundedly and erroneously Others there are whose Term is not yet expired and so they remain still to be confuted As those who conceit that the end of the World shall be when the Pole-Star shall come to touch the Pole of the Equator which say they ever since the time of Hipparchus hath approached nearer and nearer to it That it doth so I am not satisfied but if it doth it is meerly accidental and hath no Connexion with the End of the World But the most famous Opinion and which hath found most Patrons and Followers even amongst the Learned and Pious is that of the Worlds duration for Six thousand years For the strengthening of which Conceit they tell us That as the World was created in six days and then followed the Sabbath so shall it remain six thousand years and then shall succeed the Eternal Sabbath Hebr. 4. 9. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. There remains therefore a Rest or Sabbath to the People of God Here we see that the Apostle institutes a Comparison between the Heavenly Rest and the Sabbath Therefore as God rested upon the Seventh Day so shall all the World of the Godly rest after the Six Thousandth year For â—he that hath entred into his rest ceaseth from all his Works as God did from his Of this Opinion were many of the Ancient Faâ—â—ers as I shewed before grounding themselves upon this Analogy between the six days of the Creation and the Sabbath and the six thousand years of the Worlds duration and the Eternal Rest For saith Irenoeus in the place before quoted Hoc autem that is the History of the six days Creation and succeeding Sabbath est proeteritorum narratio futurorum prophetia Dies enim unus mille annos significat sicut Scriptura testatur 2 Pet. 3. 8. Psal. 90. 4. the Scriptures reckoning days of One thousand years long as in Verse 8. of this Chapter and in Psal. 90. 4. This is likewise a received Tradition of the Iewish Rabbins registred in the Talmud in the Treatise Sanhedrim delivered as they pretend by the Prophet Elias the Tishbite to the Son of the Woman of Sarepta whom he raised from the Dead and by him handed down to Posterity I rather think with Reuterus that the Author of it was some Rabbi of that Name The Tradition is Sex millia annorum erit mundus uno millenario vastatio i. e. Sabbathum Dei Duo millia inane Duo millia Lex Duo millia dies Messioe Two thousand years vacuity Two thousand years of the Law Two thousand years the days of the Messiah But they shoot far wide For according to the least account there passed a far greater number of years before the Law was given 2513. saith Reuterus and on the contrary less time from the Law to the Exhibition of the Messiah All these Proofs laid together do scarce suffice to make up a probability Neither do those Rabbinical Collections from the six Letters in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first word of Genesis or from the six Alephs in the first Verse of that Book each signifying a thousand years or from the six first Patriarchs in the order of the Genealogy to Enoch who was caught up to Heaven and found no more add much weight to this Opinion S. Austin very modestly concludes after a Discussion of this Point concerning the Worlds duration Ego tempora dinumerare non audeo nec aliquem Prophetam de hac re numerum annorum existimo praefinivisse Nos ergo quod scire nos Dominus noluit libentèr nesciamus I dare not calculate determine times neither do I think that concerning this matter any Prophet hath predicted and defined the number of years What therefore the Lord would not have us to know let us willingly be ignorant of But though none but presumptuous persons have undertaken peremptorily to determine that time yet was it the common and received Opinion and Perswasion of the Ancient Christians that that day was not far off and had they been to limit it they would hardly have been induced to set the term so forward and remote from their own Age as by experience we find it proves to be but in their own times or shortly after and many places of Scripture seem to favour that Opinion so that some have presumed to say that the Apostles themselves were at first mistaken in this particular till after further illumination they were better informed But though this be too bold a Conceit yet that the Churches at least some of them did at first mistake the Apostles meaning in their Sermons and Epistles concerning this Point and so understand them as to think that the End of the World and final Judgment was at hand appears from 2 Thess. 2. 2. I beseech you Brethren that ye be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by Spirit nor by Word nor by Letter as from us as that the day of Christ
be over-charged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life and so that day come upon you unawares For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the whole earth Parallel whereto are Matth. 24. 42. and Mark 13. 33 35. That it shall come is certain when it shall come is uncertain and it every day draws nearer and nearer therefore it is not wisdom to remove the evil day far from us and as in reference to the day of Death it is an usual and prudent advice so to live every day as if it were our last day or at least as we would not be afraid to do should it be so because we are sure that one day will be our last and for ought we know the present may be it so likewise it is rational Counsel in respect of the End of the World so to prepare our selves for it by a holy Conversation that we may get above the terror and dread which will otherwise attend the apprehension of the approach of it and that we may be provided against the worst that may follow and be secure come what can come Secondly It concerns us should it be a thousand Years to come Because then is the general Resurrection both of the just and unjust Acts 24. 15. and the general Judgment When we must all appear before the dreadful tribunal of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2. Cor. 5. 10. which Rom. 2. 5. is called the revelation of the righteous judgment of God Who will render to every man according to his deeds c. Upon this account I say it concerns us much how we have our Conversation here First As we hope to be acquitted at that day and to enter into those new Heavens in which dwells righteousness Holiness is a necessary condition and antecedent to happiness Necessary I say 1. By God's appointment Heb. 12. 14. Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Rom. 6. 22. Have your fruit unto holiness and the end eternal life Psal. 50. ult To him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God Eternal Life is the Gift of God He is not obliged to bestow it upon any Man He may make what Condition he pleases for the obtaining of it No Man hath any Right to it No Man can lay any claim to it but from this Donation and from the performance of these Conditions Rev. 22. 14. Blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city For without are dogs and whoremongers and sorcerers c. All the Right they have depends upon God's Promise which is conditionate and accrues to them by the performance of the Condition which is the doing of his Commandments 2 Necessary not only by God's appointment but in the very nature of the thing Holiness is the very quality and complexion of Heaven No Man without it is qualified to be a subject of that Kingdom For thereinto nothing that is impure or unclean can enter Revel 21. 27. And there shall in no wise enter into it the New Jerusalem any thing that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination In this new Heaven dwelleth righteousness 2 Pet. 3. 15. Therefore 1 John 3. 3. Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself as he is pure Heaven would naturally spue out and eject a wicked Person as one heterogeneous to it Heaven and Hell are not more distant in Place than they are in Nature There is not more antipathy between fire and water between light and darkness between streight and crooked neither are they more incompatible or do more naturally resist and expel one another than holiness which is the quality of Heaven and wickedness which is the disposition and temper of Hell Some do think Heaven to be rather a state than a place and that he that is partaker of the Divine Nature hath Heaven within him This is true but this is not all The whole Notion of Heaven comprehends both a state and a place A Man must be in a heavenly state before the local Heaven can receive him or he brook it Heaven without him would be no Heaven to the Man who hath not Heaven within him A wicked Person could find no business or employment in Heaven nothing to satisfie his corrupt and depraved affections inclinations and appetites He would there meet with no suitable company no persons whose conversation he could take any delight and complacency in but rather hate and abhor For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness or what communion hath light with darkness 2 Cor. 6. 14. Like naturally loves like and unites with it and doth refuse resist and hate that which is unlike it For every thing is made to love itself and consequently whatsoever resembles and comes near it and is as it were a replication of it and to hate the contrary As therefore we would be glad to be Partakers of the blessedness of the local Heaven so let us endeavour to get into our Minds and Spirits the qualities and conditions of Heaven that so we may be fit Subjects for that Kingdom sit Companions for that Society This is the time allotted us to purifie our selves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit and to perfect holiness in the fear of God There is no invention in the Grave whither we are going Eccles. 9. 10. Vpon this moment depends eternity As the tree falls so it it lies Eccles. And as Death leaves so will Judgment find us Quando isthinc excessum fuerit nullus jam locus poenitentiae est Hîc vita aut amittitur aut tenetur Hîc saluti aeternae cultu Dei fructu fidei providetur Cyprian Serm. de Immortal After we shall depart hence there remains no more place for repentance Eternal life is here either lost or won Here provision is made for everlasting salvation by the worship of God and fruit of faith We must work while it is day the night of death cometh wherein no man can work John 9. 4. And therefore the time our Bodies shall rest in the Grave should it be a thousand Years will little avail us for if the Soul be mean while awake the certain and dreadful expectation of the Sentence of Condemnation to an eternal Hell at the Day of Judgment will be little less afflictive than the Torments thereof themselves I might add by way of Digression that Sin and Wickedness is naturally productive of Hell in the Soul A wicked Man carries Hell in his Breast Sin necessarily infers Misery It is contrary to the nature of the Soul and whatsoever is so must needs be grievous Diversion and Non-Attention to his Condition is the wicked Man's only Security I have heard it often from a great Divine in
everlasting 〈◊〉 and Happiness when this Life shall be ended But here the Epicureans and sensual Persons will be ready to object and argue Here are Pleasures and Delights in this World which are very inviting and taking and do highly gratifie my Senses and Appetites I hear likewise of future Rewards and Punishments for those that deny or fulfil their carnal Lusts and Desires These sensual Pleasures I see and taste and feel and am sure of the other I do but only hear of and therefore they do not they cannot so strongly affect me Were Heaven and the Happiness thereof set before my eyes and did I see it as plainly and clearly as I do these things below then indeed I should not need many motives to provoke me to endeavour the obtaining of it But alas that is far above out of our sight the Joys of Heaven are by the Apostle termed things not seen Again these outward and temporal enjoyments are present and easily obtainable the other at a great distance future and besides very hard to come by and I love my ease Vt est ingenium hominum à labore proclive ad libidinem Should I deny my self Good in this Life and then perchance cease to be and so have no Reward for my pains nay on the contrary expose my self to the hazard of many afflictions and sufferings which are the portion of the Godly in this Life how unnecessarily shall I make my self miserable Miserable I say because by the Apostle's own confession Christians If in this life only they had hope would be of all men the most miserable 1 Cor. 15. 19 Had I not better make sure of what is before me Why have I these Appetites within me and such Objects about me the one being so suitable to the other is it not more natural and reasonable to fulfil than deny them Surely it cannot be Wisdom to lose a certain Good for an uncertain Hope and for an ungrounded fear of Hell hereafter to undergo a Purgatory here To this Argumentation upon the false Foundation of the uncertainty of a Future Estate of endless Happiness or Misery accordingly as we have behaved our selves in this Life I answer That for the futurity of such an estate we have the best Authority in the World to wit the holy Scriptures and universal Tradition 1. The Holy Scriptures whose Authority to be more than humane hath been by many so clearly and convincingly demonstrated that I shall take it for granted and not waste time to prove it The Testimonies herein contained concerning eternal Happiness and Misery are so clear and full that it seems to me impossible without manifest distortion to elude or evade the force of them Some we have already recited and might produce many more Isa. 33. 14. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings Dan. 12. 2. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt 2. Thess. 1. 9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord c. speaking of them who know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Isa. 66. 24. For their worm shall not die neither shall their fire be quenched The Origenists and others that cannot be reconciled to the Catholick Doctâ—ine of the Eternity of the Punishments of the Damned make the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from which the Latin aevum is derived to signifie sometimes a determinate time as might say they easily be proved by many examples and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate for ever signifies when applied to this matter a long indeed but yet a finite time and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render for ever and ever may likewise signifie not an eternal duration but a time to which some term may be set by God though to us unknown In the same sense they accept the Adjective 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a long but finite time But I am of S. Augustine's Opinion that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth in the New Testament signifie the same with aeternus in Latin and is appropriated to things that have no end and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for ever and ever doth in like manner always denote eternal or endless duration That the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when applied to the state of the Damned doth signifie eternal S. Augustine well demonstrates from the Antithesis in that place of Matth. 25. 46. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternal Where it is in the same sense attributed to that Life which is the Reward of the Righteous and that Fire which is the Punishment of the Damned there being no reason to believe that the same word in the same Verse when applied to opposites should be taken in a different sense But by the confent of all Christians it is granted that the Life of the Blessed shall be eternal therefore so must the Punishment of the Damned be too This acception of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for eternal or endless when it refers to the state of those miserable Persons receives a further and strong confirmation from the Second Particular we proposed that is Vniversal Tradition It being a received Opinion among the Heathen which must needs descend down to them by Tradition from the Ancients that Eternal Punishments awaited the Wicked after Death What more common Notion among the Grecians and Romans than of an Elysium and Tartarus the former to reward good Men the latter to punish wicked And those too esteemed to be Eternal States Of this the Epicurean Poet Lucretius is a sufficient and unexceptionable Witness For he makes the fear of these Punishments to be the cause of all the Miseries of Humane Life and the Foundation of all Religion Aeternas quoniam poenas in morte timendum Now that he could derive this from no other source but Tradition is clear because he lived a good while before our Saviour's time and the divulgation of the Scripture among the Heathen And because it may be objected that Aeternas may signifie only of long continuance to put the Matter out of all doubt in another place he saith Nam si nullum finem esse putarent Aerumnarum homines nulla ratione valerent Relligionibus atque minis obsistere vatum But if it once appear That after Death there 's neither Hope nor Fear Then Men might freely triumph then disdain The Poet's Tales and scorn their fancy'd Pain But now we must submit since Pains we fear Eternal after Death we know not where And that this Opinion and Belief generally prevailed among the People before Epicurus his time the same Lucretius testifies in the beginning of his first Book Humana ante oculos foedè cum vita jaceret In terris oppressa gravi sub
Relligione c. Primùm Graius homo c. Long time Men lay opprest with slavish fear Religion's Tyranny did domineer Which being plac'd in Heaven look'd proudly down And frighted abject Spirits at her frown At last a Mighty One of Greece began T'assert the Natural Liberty of Man By senceless Terrours and vain Fancy led To Slavery streight the conquer'd Fantoms fled for he makes as we saw before the Fear of Eternal Pain and Misery to be the Foundation of all Religion 1. Now because these Objectors do represent Religion to themselves and others as a melancholick and disconsolate thing and think and say that those that enter into this state must bid adieu to all the Pleasures of Sence and tast no sweetness in any worldly Object I shall endeavour to remove this prejudice I say therefore That our gracious God doth not envy us any real Good that the Creatures can afford us and therefore hath not denied us a moderate use and fruition of any of them And seeing he hath annexed Pleasure to those Actions that are necessary for the support of life and continuation of kind as a bait to invite us to the performance of them it seems to me highly absurd and contradictious to affirm that he hath forbidden us to partake or taste those Enjoyments which himself has appointed as effectual means for the security of those great Ends and which are so necessary Consequents of those Actions that we cannot but partake them Where the Appetite is eager God hath indulged I might say commanded a moderate and regular satisfaction And we know nay the blindness of Atheism cannot deny that the greatest pleasure results from a moderate and well circumstantiated use of Pleasures Voluptates commendat rarior usus Now a Religious Man enjoys all the Pleasures of these worldly and sensible Goods without any of the pain which is annexed to the excessive and irregular use or indeed abuse of them and besides his Pleasure is enhansed in that he beholds and receives them as Blessings of God and Tokens of his Favour and Affection and is without all fear of a future sad Reckoning for his participation of them Howbeit a denial of our selves for God's sake and cause in any thing which we might otherwise lawfully enjoy though it be not commanded yet is accepted and shall be rewarded by him Others there are who grant That these words grammatically signifie as we contend and that Eternal Punishments are indeed threatned to the wicked but say they these Threatnings are intended only as Terriculamenta or Bug-bears to Children to terrifie and keep People in awe and to preserve the World in some tolerable condition of quietness And Origen himself tho' he be of opinion that these Threatnings signifie only temporary Pains yet he saith that such Mysteries are to be sealed up and concealed from the Vulgar left wicked Men should rush into sin with all fury and licentiousness if this Bridle were taken off who by the opinion and fear of eternal and endless Punishments can scarce be deterred and restrained from it To this I answer 1. That it seems to me indecorous and unsuitable to the Person and Majesty of God to make use of such sorry and weak means to bring about his ends as grave Men can hardly condescend to 2. I do not see how it can consist with his Veracity in plain terms absolutely to threaten and affirm what he never intends to do Indeed it is questionable Whether it be allowable in Man it being a best but an officious Lye for it is a speaking what we do not think and that with an intention to deceive Secondly I proceed now to a second Objection against the Eternity of the Pains and Sufferings of the Damned and that is its inconsistency with the Justice of God What proportion can there be between a transient and temporary act and an eternal Punishment The most rigid Justice can exact no more than a Talio to suffer as I have done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If I have hurt or grieved or injured any Man to be punished with the same or an equivalent suffering if I have taken any unreasonable Pleasure to compensate it with an answerable Pain Indeed the enormities of my Life cannot well deserve so much if it be considered that I have been strongly instigated and inclined and as it were fatally driven upon all the Evils which I have committed by those Affections and Appetites which I made not for my self but found in my self and have been exposed to strong and almost inexpugnable Temptations from without beset with Snares encompassed about with innumerable Evils To this I answer First That every sin injury or offence is aggravated and enhansed by the dignity or merit of the Person against whom it is committed So Parricide is esteemed a greater Crime than ordinary Murther and by the Laws of all Nations avenged with a sorer Punishment The like may be said of Laesa Majestas or Treason Now God is an infinite Person and Sin being an injury and affront to him as being a violation of his Law an infinite Punishment must be due to it This answer Dr. Hammond in his Practical Catechism lib. 5. sect 4. accounts a Nicety and unsatisfactory as also that other common answer That if we should live infinitely we would sin infinitely and therefore gives us another which in his Discourse of the Reasonableness of Christian Religion he thus briefly summs up 2. That the choice being referred to us to take of the two which we best like eternal Death set before us on the one hand to make eternal Life the more infinitely reasonable for us to chuse on the other hand and the eternal Hell whensoever we fall into it being perfectly our own Act neither forced on us by any absolute Decree of God nor irresistible temptation of the Devil or our own Flesh but as truly our wish and choice and mad purchase nay much more truly and properly than eternal Heaven is when our Obedience is first wrought by God's Grace and yet after that so abundantly rewarded by the Doner it is certain if there be any thing irrational it is in us unkind and perverse Creatures so obstinate to chuse what God so passionately warns us to take heed of so wilfully to die when God swears he wills not our death and not in him who hath done all that is imaginable to be done to reasonable Creatures here in their way or course to the rescuing or saving of us But to this may be replied If the thing itself be unjust how can our chusing of it make it just How can it be just to annex such a Penalty as eternal Hell to a short and transient offence Suppose a Prince should make a Law that whosoever did not rise up and bow himself before an Old Man should be put to Death with Torments and one of his Subjects knowingly should transgress this Law upon some great temptation would it not be
accounted Cruelty in the Prince to execute this Law upon him Laws may be unjust upon account of disproportionate Penalties Neither doth our Choice much help the Matter for that is but an effect of our Error or Folly or if you will Madness which doth as little deserve eternal Death as the Sin committed doth If any Man be dissatisfied with the precedent Answers all that I have to add further is that before this Sentence adjudging to eternal Death be pronounced against him and executed upon him there shall be such a revelation made as shall convince and satisfie him of the Righteousness thereof And this the Apostle seems to intimate Rom. 2. 5. when he calls the Great Day of Doom the Day of the Revelation of the righteous Judgment of God Then shall be made appear what now to our dim-sighted Reason is not penetrable how the Justice of God can consist with the Eternal Damnation of the wicked As for Man's being as it were fatally determined to Evil by the strength of Temptation and the violence of unruly and head-strong Passions and Appetites I answer That there are motives and considerations sufficient to enable a Man to resist and repel to conquer and overcome the most alluring and fascinating Temptations the most urging and importunate Appetites or Affections such are certain Shame and Disgrace and that not long to come eternal Infamy and Dishonour present Death strong fear and dread of approaching Death or sad and intolerable Pains or Calamities Now the Divine Threatnings are of the greatest and most formidable Evils and Miseries that Humane Nature is capable of suffering and therefore were they but firmly beheved and apprehended they would be of force sufficient to stir up in us such strong Passions of Fear and Terror as would easily chase away all Temptations and embitter all the Baits of Sensual Pleasure 3. There remains yet a third Objection against an eternal Hell and that is that it is inconsistent with the Divine Goodness For the Unbeliever will say It 's contrary to all the Notions and Ideas I have of God to conceive him to be so angry and furious a Being How can it stand with Infinite Goodness to make a Creature that he fore knew would be eternally miserable We Men account it a piece of goodness to pardon offences And all Punishments are intended either for the reformation and amendment of the Offender or if it be unreclaimable to prevent the Mischief which he might otherwise do or for an Example to others to deter them from the like Enormities but I do not see for what such end any Man can be eternally tormented So that of such inflictions one may rationally demand Cui bono What Good comes of them How then can they come from God who by all Mens confession is infinitely Good To which I answer First That God is just as well as good You will say what is Justice It is an equal weighing of Actions and rendring to every one his Right or Due A setting streight again what was perverted by the sins and extravagancies of Men. Now that the breaking of order and equality in the World this usurping and encroaching upon others Rights is a great Evil and ought to be rectified some may take an Argument from the strong inclination and desire to revenge Injuries that is implanted in the Nature of Man and of all Creatures You 'll say all desire of Revenge is absolutely sinful and unlawful I answer I am no Patron of Revenge I know the very Heathen by the Light of Nature condemned it Infirmi est animi exiguâ—que voluptas Vltio Revenge is the pleasure of a poor and weak Spirit Yet let us hear what they have to say 1. It is hard to affirm that any innate Appetite or Desire is in itself simply and absolutely and in all Circumstances whatsoever unlawful for this seems to reflect upon the Author of Nature To which may be answered that a well circumstantiated Desire of Revenge may not be in itself unlawful yet for the evil Consequents of it it may be and is prohibited by a positive Law 2. Divine Persons have prayed to God to avenge them as David and the Prophets And S. Paul himself 2. Tim. 4. 14. prays God to reward Alexander the Coppersmith according to his works To which may be answered that those Expressions are rather Predictions of what should befal their Enemies than desires that they might Again whereas it is said Revel 6. 9 10. That the souls of them under the altar that were slain for the word of God and the testimony which they held cried with a loud voice saying How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our Blood on them that dwell on the earth Doctor Hammond saith It signifies no more than that their Blood cries to God for Vengeance as Abel's is said to do 3. The Nature of Forgiveness seems to imply the Lawfulness of some desire of Revenge For what is Forgiveness but a parting with and as renouncing the Right I have to be avenged and therefore before I forgive I do retain at least some will to be revenged And I am not obliged by our Saviour to forgive absolutely but upon condition of Repentance Luke 17. 3 4. If thy brother sin against thee rebuke him and if he repent forgive him c. And in the Lord's Prayer one Petition is Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us But God forgives not without Repentance To which may be answered That before Repentance I may retain a will of punishing an Offender for his own Good and Reformation but with no respect of avenging what is past And if his Repentance prevents his Punishment then I am to forgive him that is cease to desire his Punishment But all allow Vengeance to be just in God whose Actions are not to be scanned by our Measures 2. If it be just with God to propose to us such a choice as Heaven upon condition of our Obedience to his Law or Hell in case of Disobedience as we see some wise Men make no scruple to grant then it cannot be injustice in him to inflict the Punishments of Hell upon them that make it their choice Nay I cannot see how it can consist with his Veracity not to do it why then should any Argument from his Goodness move us to distrust his Veracity To which I shall add That the very being of Sin and Misery in the World is as great an Argument against the Goodness of God as the eternal Punishment of it Sith we must needs grant that God Almighty Blessed for ever could if he had pleased have prevented it If any Man shall say This was not possible without changing the very Nature of Man and taking away the Liberty of his Will To him I reply How then can he confirm the Blessed reserving their Liberty Or must we say with Oriegn That they are in a mutable state too and