Christianity for without the Belief of Jesus Christ there can no more be any such thing as Christianity than without the Belief of a God there can be such a Thing as Religion yet for all that it will be true that as a Religion grounded upon the Belief of the true God may however be a false Religion so a Christianity grounded upon the Belief of the true Christ may however be a false Christianity For as notwithstanding a Belief or which may be something more the Knowledge of the True God Men may fall into Idolatry See Rom. chap. 1. ver 21 22 23. So notwithstanding the Belief not only of the true Christ but of his Resurrection also Men may have no other Expectations from him but Wealth Power and Grandeur in this World See Acts ch 1. ver 6. And yet I do hardly think that a Faith either in the one Case or in the other will by that Author be thought a Saving Faith And if it be not then it will appear a good Conclusion That in the last Case that is in the Case of Christianity something more is necessary to be believed in order to our Salvation than barely that Jesus is the Christ But as I said before this by the bye That which is directly to our present Purpose is That if it be true that none shall be saved who do not believe in Jesus Christ the Saviour then how shall we account for the future Condition of those who in this Life never heard of Jesus Christ For tho' we may out of the Scriptures be taught That he who believeth shall be saved and that he who believeth not shall be damned Yet still we cannot but know that that Disbelief to which Damnation is allotted must be as contrary to that Belief to which Salvation is allotted as Damnation and Salvation are to each other Now because that Belief to which Salvation is allotted is an Act of the Will whatever the Schools teach of Faith being lodged only in the Understanding therefore we do conclude That that Disbelief to which Damnation is allotted must be an Act of the Will too And indeed since Damnation is confessedly the Reward of Unbelief and since this Reward is to come from the Hand of such Justice which cannot err we may from thence be assured that the Unbelief to which it is allotted must be Criminal and we are moreover assured that nothing can be so in which the Will is not at all concerned Now because it is most certain that those who in this World never heard of Jesus Christ do not therefore not believe in him because they will not but only because they cannot I say for that Reason it will be unjust to asign that Damnation to their Unbelief that is by them unavoidable which is by the Scriptures assigned only to that Unbelief which is therefore Criminal because it is Voluntary Tho' therefore Damnation be by the Scriptures pronounced against that Unbelief which refuses the Saviour made known and offered to Men yet we cannot from thence conclude that it shall be the Portion of that Unbelief which is only a Consequence of an unavoidable Ignorance of the same Saviour And as we cannot from the Scriptures conclude that they who never heard of the Saviour shall be damned for their Unbelief So neither can we from them conclude that they shall be saved notwithstanding their Unbelief For if a Faith in Jesus Christ be according to the Scriptures necessary to Salvation it will from thence follow that they who want that Faith must go without that Salvation to which it is necessary Now it may be presumed that far the greater Part of Mankind if not in all yet in most Ages and that therefore much the greater Part of Mankind in general never had the Saviour made known to them which if it be true as we have no reason to doubt the truth of it then it will follow That tho' God has provided a Saviour for all Men yet by making a Faith in that Saviour a necessary Condition for Man's obraining the provided Salvation he has thereby excluded the greater Part of Mankind from such Salvation because by having determined the Times before appointed and the Bounds of their Habitation he has by his Providence so placed them in the World that it is to them impossible to come to so much Knowledge of the Saviour as is necessary to their Belief in him And if this Conclusion be true it will afford us another which is That notwithstanding God has in a Saviour made sufficient Provision for the Salvation of all Men yet the greater Part of Men shall fall short of such Salvation and that too without their own Default Now it is freely confessed that our Lord Jesus Christ the Saviour laid the Design of extending that Salvation which he purchased as wide as was the Merit of his Purchase that is his Purchase was sufficient for the Salvation of all Men and he gave such Directions and Injunctions for the Propagating to all Men so much Knowledge of such his Purchase as might be sufficient to bring them to that Faith which might intitle them to the Benefit of it And therefore we find that he commanded his Apostles to go into all the World and to preach the Gospel to every Creature and that he gave them Abilities to obey such his Command by bestowing on them and many of those who should be instructed by them the Gift of Tongues and the Power of working Miracles By which Means there was Provision made for the Faith of all as well as for the Salvation of all for the Means as well as for the End But yet because 1. The Propagating the Means of Faith that is because the Propagating the Gospel to all Mankind was left in the Hand of Man and for that Reason was not likely to be performed according to the Will and Command of God insomuch that he who is both the Author and Finisher of our Faith does before his departure out of this World make it a Question Whether upon his Return he should find Faith in it Shall the son of man when he cometh find faith upon the earth And because 2. As it was likely that those Men who had the Means of Faith and Salvation themselves would not so it has been found by Experience that they have not at least they have not so industriously propagated such Means as that they should reach to all others And because 3. Tho' any Man may defeat the Counsel of God for his own Salvation and if he do so his Damnation will not only be just but necessary yet it is not agreeable to the Equity of the Divine Justice that it should be in the Power of any Man to defeat the Counsel of God for the Salvation of any other Man I say from these Things laid together it may seem no improbable Conclusion That God will by some way or other make known his Counsel to all Men for their
and Asseveration is in effect to say that he may start from his Veracity and that is the same as to say he may start from his Holiness or in other Words that he may himself break the first and principal Part of the Law by remitting the Penalty of the last and less principal For Holiness is so refined a Thing and so all of a Piece if I may so speak that he who transgresses its Rules in any one Case does by so doing forfeit his Title to the whole and therefore is truly called Unholy And therefore I cannot but wonder that Men after almost Six thousand Years Experience in the Case in which because all Men have been Sinners therefore all Men have died I say I cannot but wonder that after so long an Experience to the contrary any Man should now think that Men may be freed from the Curse of the Law before they have fulfilled the Directions of it For methinks by that Experience alone we may be instructed that Men should never be blessed with Impunity till they first return to their Duty and that they must first be obedient to the Law before they shall be freed from the Vengeance of it But because some Things under this Head may bear a Dispute and because some others may seem hard to be understood therefore to be more plain and open and to offer something which is so and which will as well conduce to my main Purpose and Design I lay it down 1. First That as it is asserted in the Gospel and is generally agreed among all Christians That an Eternal Life and Happiness is contained in that Salvation which the Gospel promises so is it That whosoever shall be made Partakers of such Happiness and such Life must be so perfectly Holy as to be eternally free from all Sin For as without Holiness no Man shall see the Lord so the Blessed in Glory are by all allowed as to be eternally without Misery so to be eternally without Sin And we do not question but that it may be made out and that too by Force of Reason without the Assistance of Revelation that compleat Happiness and an Happiness that is not eternal is not compleat and that too in the Nature of the Thing is inconsistent with Sin which does certainly and constantly bring Misery along with it wheresoever it is permitted to come And the Reason why I say I do not question it is because what has Been done already may be done again And we know very well that the Thing has been done already and that too beyond all possible Contradiction But because it is an allowed Thing That where the Seat of eternal Happiness is there nothing can either enter or remain but pure and unspotted Holiness therefore we shall spend no Time in the Proof of it but shall take it for granted and so proceed to our 2. Second Proposition which is That the Holiness of those who shall inherit eternal Life and Happiness does not come from themselves nor is either the Archievement or Fruit of their own Powers This we may be sure of because a clean Thing cannot come out of an unclean and all Men here are unclean because all Men are Sinners And since Man in his Innocence did not keep himself Holy it is unreasonable to expect that after the Fall when Mens Abilities are lessened that any Man should make himself so And we are moreover assured that no Man does make himself so because all Men do die And we are further assured that no Man can carry any more of his own Holiness with him into another World than what he was Owner of in this And lastly we are infallibly assured that no Man can secure to himself an Holiness to Eternity which he has not From which Things run over in short we may be satisfied that that Holiness which shall for ever attend those of Mankind who shall be made Partakers of eternal Happiness is not their own The Thing might be made out in more Words but it needs not And therefore 3. Since that Holiness with which Men shall be endowed in Heaven is not their own it must therefore be bestowed upon them by some other To which we may add That that other can be no other but God For it may be very well presumed that the very best of Creatures have no Holiness to spare upon a Supposition that one Creature could make over any of his own Holiness to another For upon such Supposition whatever they should contribute towards the perfecting of another Creatures Holiness would be so much pared off from their own and so a Defect of their own Holiness would be the Consequence of that other's Perfection and an Abatement at least if not the Loss of their own Happiness a Consequence of such Defect But then it is a vain Thing to conceive that one Creature can make over its own inherent Holiness to another and it is as vain a Thing to think that it can bestow on that other an Holiness which it has not to bestow and it is certain that it has no Holiness but it s own But neither shall I pursue this any farther because I shall at one View offer a short Prospect of all that has been already laid down in order to make it good That our Saviour has made Provision that Believers shall be endowed with an indefectible Holiness in a future and happy Life Take we notice therefore That as a Gospel-Salvation does imply in it not only the Pardon of Sin but the Reward of Righteousness too so the Reward of Righteousness as the Gospel and as he who is both the Author of that Gospel and of that Reward does set it forth is to be eternal and everlasting Now tho' it should be granted that Heaven and Happiness is in it self the just Reward of Duty and Obedience yet it cannot be so freely granted that an Eternity of Happiness is so unless that Duty or Obedience to which that Happiness is assigned be eternal also And the Reason why such a Thing cannot be granted is grounded upon Matter of Fact and that Matter of Fact authorized by God's own Judicial Proceedings For we may safely affirm that the faln Angels were once Holy and we may affirm it so much the more safely because being in their Nature Creatures capable of so noble a qualification there can no doubt be made but that they came forth such out of the Hands of their most Holy Creator Tho' therefore while they remained Holy that is while they did their Duty we do not question their Happiness yet we do maintain that that Happiness then ceased when their Holiness did so And from thence we do conclude that their Happiness was therefore not eternal because their Holiness was not so Now because such their Holiness which was not eternal was their Original or their Natural or their Personal Holiness for you may call it which you please therefore we do farther conclude that there
Common Sense that Immortality is a sure Fence for that Life If therefore God has graciously made Provision for the Gratification of this our most exalted Appetite by securing to us a future Immortality and if over and above he has engaged to secure that very Immortality from the Loads and Incumbrances of all those Miseries which do constantly attend our Mortal Life in this World I say if God has done so great Things for us we ought to look upon our selves to be obliged in Gratitude to endeavour a Return as far as our slender Abilities go in some measure proportionate to the Almighty Bounty For if ever our Thanks be due to any one whomsoever then most certainly they must be so to him who is willing and able and has promised to gratifie the utmost Pitch and the most exalted Desires of our own Self-love 2. Has God provided an Immortal and Secure Life for us in another World Then that should engage us not to set up for Happiness in this For tho' it be granted that the Good Things of this Life are present and at hand but that those of a better Life are lodged at a distance and so we are engaged in our Pursuit after the first by our Senses but we can only pursue the last by our Faith or Hope Yet because our Experience upon innumerable Repetitions has constantly convinced us that our Senses have alway deceived us for our highest and most exalted Enjoyments here do always determine in Emptiness and Dissatisfaction I say for this single Reason if yet there were no other we should for the future rather seek for the Happiness we desire there where our Faith tells us it may be had than to repeat our Disappointments by pursuing it there where our Experience has convinced us that it cannot Alas a very little consideration may satisfie us that in our Attempts after Happiness by the Pursuit of the Good Things of this Life we always blunder and that too whether we do or do not obtain those Good Things which we so pursue For if we do not then we lose our desired Happiness by our Disappointment But if we do then either they must leave us by reason of their slipperiness and uncertainty or we must leave them by reason of our Mortality And then be it one or be it t'other the Case is much one and the same for in both Cases the expected Happiness vanishes And because by this we may perceive that we cannot be made happy by any Thing in this Life therefore 3. Let us be exhorted to seek our Happiness in a future Life that is as has appeared to seek it there where it may be had For if Happiness be to be had any where undoubtedly it is to be had in the Favour and Presence of God who as he is the undoubted Author of all Things so for that Reason alone he is the undoubted Author of all that Happiness which we can possibly reap from the Enjoyment of any Good whatsoever Now because the same Revelations which have discovered to us a Future and Immortal Life have also acquainted us that that Life is lodged in the kind and favourable Presence of God that is in Heaven and because we know that no unholy or impure Thing shall come into the Presence of him who is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity Therefore to the present Exhortation let me add this Direction and that is That we pursue our future Glory and Immortality or Eternal Life hereafter by an holy Life here For the true and solid Reason why there is no Misery nor Death in Heaven is because there is no Sin nor Wickedness there For Death and Misery are so far forth the inseparable Companions of Sin and Wickedness that as where-ever we find the last there we are sure to find the first so where the first are not there we may be sure that the last are shut out And therefore because Mortality and Misery have no Place in Heaven we may for that Reason stand confirmed that Sin and Impiety have no Place there neither If therefore we do in good earnest design to be lodged in those Regions of Happiness we must first be sure to cast off our Sins and to leave them behind us For so sure as Death is the Wages of Sin so sure it is that Immortality and Happiness shall not be the Portion of the Impenitent And so long as God is in his own Nature Holy and that is so long as he is God so long he must be displeased with all those who are pleased with and make much of Sin the grand Enemy of such his Nature because the grand Enemy of such his Holiness CHAP. XIV Wherein the Happiness of Eternal Life does consist Several Reflections and Considerations on what has been said tending to promote an Holy Life HAving in the last Chapter shewed by what Means we are put into the Possession of an Happy and Eternal Life the Purchase of our Saviour's Merits We must in this according to our Promise inquire wherein the Happiness of such Life does consist And in answer to this Inquiry we lay it down in short That the Consummate Happiness of the Saints in Eternal Life does consist in that Joy Pleasure and full Satisfaction which results from their Loving the Lord their God with all their Heart with all their Soul with all their Strength and with all their Mind and from their Enjoyment of God the Party beloved and his Love I have chose to express the Love of the glorified Saints to God in the Words of Scripture because they seem to me to contain in them such an Intense Love under so large and comprehensive an Expression that had I delivered it in other Words I should more than have doubted that I should have fallen short of the Thing And I do believe that such Caution will then appear to be no scrupulous Nicety when we shall come seriously to weigh and consider those Things that follow 1. And first we take notice what every one may easily be satisfied of by their own Experience That we love our selves best that is before and beyond all other Persons and all Things whatsoever And there neither is nor can be any doubt but that such our Inclination is planted in us at our first Formation by the Hand of God himself And therefore neither does God ever require of us to slight or cast it away but by such Motives that will more than recompense all the Evil that we do or can suffer by our so doing And therefore he who in the Cause of God and Goodness shall so far undervalue his own Welfare as to part with that Welfare be it what it will for the sake of such Cause may be sure of a Compensation from God's Hand that shall repair his Damages with advantage and that too tho' what he so parts with be Life it self And therefore it was a fixed and undoubted Persuasion in the Primitive Christians that
afterwards shall go from hence with him and be with him where he is For they shall ever be with the Lord but the Earth shall fly away before his Face Rev. 20. ver 11. 7. That tho' the Righteous shall be Witnesses of because present at least at the Judgment passed upon the Reprobate yet that the Reprobate shall not be present at that Sentence by which the Righteous shall have their Reward assigned them For they shall not be raised till after such Sentence be passed and over Rev. 20. compare the Fourth Verse with the Eleventh and following Verses 8. Neither shall the Devil be present at the blessed Sentence and therefore shall not then be permitted to accuse the Righteous because he is bound and cast into the bottomless Pit before the Thrones are set in the Fourth Verse and is not loosed till the thousand Years are expired One Thing more we must remark upon this First Resurrection and that is that it shall not be brought to pass till the Last Day by which I understand the last Day of the Oeconomy of this World or the Day of our Saviour's first Coming to Judgment Consult St. John chap. 6. ver 39 40. At which Day as the Faithful whether dead and then raised or remaining or not yet dead shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the Air 1 Thess 4. ver 16. so in that Day the Earth and the Works that are therein shall be burnt up 2 Pet. chap. 3. ver 7 10 12. compared From whence we conclude That as the Faithful shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the Air so the Wicked and Unbelievers that remain in the Earth shall be destroyed by that general Conflagration From whence we have a plausible Argument for that which we have called the Second Resurrection which is the Resurrection of some Men whoever they be at present after the Resurrection of the Righteous Because after the Resurrection of the Faithful and the Destruction of all the rest by Fire as aforesaid and not only so but also a thousand Years after that Satan is let loose to deceive the Nations Now after the general Conflagration there could be no Nations to be deceived if there were no Resurrection They therefore whom he is to deceive are those who were raised in the Fifth Verse as was before said For he cannot deceive those of the First Resurrection for many obvious Reasons But farther to assert this Second Resurrection and to clear such Doubts as may arise concerning it we shall enquire into these following Particulars 1. Who those Men are that shall be raised by it 2. Why the Devil is let loose to deceive them 3. Why they are called the Nations 4. Who is Gog and Magog For as we shall see by and by Gog and Magog must come under this Second Resurrection 1. And for an Answer to the first Question viz. Who those are who shall be raised by the second Resurrection We must take notice that the Scriptures do tell us what it has been our Business in the foregoing Discourse to prove 1. That there is not Salvation in any other but in Jesus Christ alone 2. The same Scriptures do tell us That those Men who shall be saved by Jesus Christ must believe in him that is they must receive him for their Saviour and admit the Conditions of that Covenant which he established in order to their Salvation 3. The same Scriptures and our natural Reason do tell us That Men cannot believe in him of whom they have not heard 4. And we are assured by Experience not only that many Men but that many Nations of Men and that too through most if not all Ages of the World have not heard of Jesus Christ 5. And yet we know by the Scriptures that Jesus Christ came to save all Men that he died for all that God wills not that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and be saved with much more to the same purpose 6. And we are assured That where God wills the Salvation of all Men and where he has provided Means sufficient for the Salvation of all Men that there he will not we may perhaps say cannot in Truth Equity and Justice so order Things by his Providence that many nay the most part of those Men for whom as well as for the rest he provided and therefore designed Salvation should be put in such Circumstances and that without their own Fault as that it should be utterly impossible for them to come to the Knowledge of their Saviour and his Gospel and by consequence to a Possibility of obtaining Salvation Now from these Propositions so laid down we do infer 1. That at some time or other Jesus Christ shall be made known to all Men before they shall by him be called to Judgment to give an Account whether they have received and believed in him or not 2. That all those Men to whom Jesus Christ and his Gospel was never made known before their Death shall yet be made acquainted with them after their Resurrection And in order to our more full Satisfaction in these Conclusions we take notice farther 1. That all upon whom a final Judgment shall pass that is all Men are by the Scriptures ranged into Two Sorts Those who shall be saved and those who shall be damned 2. That those with whose Resurrection we are made acquainted from the Fifth to the Ninth Verse of the Twentieth of Revelations inclusive were raised after the Resurrection in the Fourth Verse is over and were raised and gone before the Resurrection in the Eleventh Twelfth and following Verses does commence which are expresly Resurrections of Remuneration whereas those of this second Resurrection are not during the Time that their Resurrection lasts called to any final Judgment for any Thing that they had done in this Life but are all that while treated much after the same manner as Men in this Life are And this will yet farther appear if we consider that Satan was let loose to tempt them For 1. They that are raised to Happiness and Glory and so are all they who have in this Life heard of and believed in the Saviour shall not after their Resurrection be tempted by him They have fought the good Fight they have kept the Faith they have finished their Course and from thenceforth are to obtain the Crown of Glory laid up for them 2. And all those who have in this Life been made acquainted with the Saviour and have rejected him have by that Means put away Salvation from themselves and therefore shall at their Resurrection be raised to Condemnation and so there will be no Occasion for the Devil to tempt them 3. To which we may add That when we are told that Satan is let loose to tempt the Nations it is implied that he will tempt them from something that is good to something that is evil for we know to what End his Temptations do drive and that he
the State of the Jewish Nation then when they were led Captive to Babylon yet it may for all that have a farther Prospect to their utter Extirpation when their whole Nation was rooted up after our Saviour's Crucifixion And then as God punished the Amorites the Moabites those of Mount Seir the Edomites the Philistins the Tyrians the Sidonians the Egyptians the Assyrians for their Cruelties to the Jews See Ezek. chap. 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32. and afterwards the Romans for theirs All which Nations and perhaps some others the Romans excepted are summed up under the Name of Gog and Magog in the Thirty eighth and Thirty ninth Chapters So the Destruction of those who were seduced under the Second Resurrection may be there described Allegorically by the Destruction of Gog and Magog That is the Destruction of those who shall then reject the Saviour and oppose his People after he is tendred to them upon the second Resurrection may because of the Parity of the Case be accounted for in such Terms in which the Enemies of the Jewish Church the Type of the Christian Church are recorded to have been destroyed by the Prophecies of the Old Testament Gog and Magog then in the Twentieth of Revelations are those People of the Second Resurrection who having been seduced by Satan to refuse and oppose the Saviour and them who dying in him rose first are for such their Refusal and Opposition destroyed by the Vengeance of Heaven So much for the Second Resurrection But before we quite leave it I must remark That the Reasons why there are not in the Scriptures any more express Revelations of a future Probation of those upon their Resurrection who knew nothing of a Saviour in this World seem to be these Two 1. Because their Resurrection and Probation upon such Resurrection neither does nor can concern those who have the Scriptures For by those Scriptures they may come to the Knowledge of the Saviour in this Life which is as much as concerns them And 2. Had this Resurrection and Probation been put into the Scriptures yet those who had not those Scriptures in this Life could for that Reason have known nothing of the Matter in this Life and so as to them as well as to the others it had been put into the Scriptures in vain But yet when the Account which the Scriptures give us of God's Dealing with Mankind draws towards a Conclusion that is when it comes to that Period where their Case ends who have in this Life had the Revelation of a Saviour and where their Case begins who shall have such Revelation after their Resurrection I say when the Scriptures do come to that Point they do by the Account that they then give us of the thousand Years of the City of the Saints of Gog and Magog c. compared with some other Texts give us some duskie Glimpses of such an Oeconomy and Proceeding 3. The Third and Last Resurrection is accounted for in the Eleventh and following Verses to the end of the Chapter In which we have an Account of the Last Judgment by the Description of the great White Throne and him that sat upon it c. And this Resurrection I take to be only the Resurrection of Gog and Magog and of all others who had refused the Saviour in this Life as Gog and Magog did after their Resurrection 1. For first The Faithful in this Life were raised in the Fourth Verse and died no more All then that were raised at the first Resurrection I take to be one Part of those who were written in the Book of Life For tho' the Description of those raised in the Fourth Verse may not seem and is not thought by some to extend to all the Faithful in this Life but only to Martyrs Yet because several other Texts do assure us that the Dead in Christ shall rise first therefore by the warrant of those Texts in conjunction with the Fourth Verse I do extend the first Resurrection to all who believed in this World Besides They who did not receive the Mark of the Beast nor of his Image in the Fourth Verse and they that did I say this Division does include all Believers and Unbelievers in this World And it is notorious that so it does through the whole Account that this Book of the Revelations gives us of the Beast and his Followers and of those who refused the Mark of the Beast 2. And we have already surmised That some of those who are raised by the Second Resurrection shall believe and be saved and that too before the great White Throne is set And indeed it is not to be thought that the Saviour should be made known to them unless some of them were to have received and believed in him And therefore I do entirely exclude both these Sorts of Believers that is in other Words I do exclude all who shall be saved out of this Third and last Resurrection And he who shall well weigh and consider the Account that is given of the Great Judgment mentioned in the Eleventh and following Verses will I believe be satisfied that it is only the Judgment passed upon Unbelievers For as the Books that were opened are mentioned as distinct from the Book of Life so it is expresly said that they were judged out of the Books If therefore the Book of Life did contain in it all that were saved as most notoriously so it did for besides the Import of the Phrase the Text tells us that whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire ver 15. Then those who were judged out of the Books distinct from the Book of Life can only be the Unbelievers and the Reprobate The third and last Resurrection therefore does only belong to such From which I would remark That God is slow in the Execution as of other his Judgments so more notoriously in this his last and heavy Judgment because we find that he has assigned the very last Place to this among all his Dealings with the Children of Men. FINIS