and consider that this depends upon our speeding or not speeding in Prayer we would with a holy violence wrestle with Almighty God we would neither give our selves nor God any rest but would lye at the feet of God as so many monuments of importunity resolving with Jacob not to let him go unless he bless us 8. It would render us more quiet and peaceable in our carriage one toward another it is some worldly interest that mainly causeth one man to bite and devour and act the part of a Devil toward another From whence come wars and fightings among you come they not hence even of your lusts (h) James 4. 1 4. and what lust it is chiefly is laid down Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God whereas the wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated (i) James 3. 17. There is a Fish which Aelian calleth the Adonis of the Sea because it meddleth with no living thing but preserveth a sweet peace with all the off-spring of the Sea for which cause it is loved and courted as the darling of the waters the heavenly minded Christian liveth on the earth as that Fish doth in the Sea pursuing the things that make for peace and as much as in him lyeth living peaceabâ—y with all men Nazianzen when there arose a contention in the Synod about his Bishoprick used this speech to those that were assembled It is an unbeseeming thing for us who preach peace to nourish contention I therefore entreat you by the sacred Trinity that you do all things in peace if I be the cause of this schism if I be the Jonah that hath caused this storm cast me into the Sea that the tempest may cease put me from my Bishoprick banish me the City do what you will with me so you love the truth and peace Bernard while some brethren were offended with him telleth them I will be at peace with you though you will not when you trouble me I will be at peace with you I will give place to wrath lest I give place to the Devil thus while such as drive on worldly interests imagine deceitful things against them that are quiet in the land those that mind heavenly Eternal things labour all they can to promote concord to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace 9. It would much elevate the mind Vision is of an assimilating nature Jocob's Ewes seeing the rods with white streaks brought forth Cattel ring-straked and speckled the Egyptians worshipped a pied Bull and whereas some thought it strange that when one dyed they should have another of the same colour Austin thinks the Devil to keep them in Idolatry might do with their Cows as Jacob did with the Ewes present to them when they conceived the likeness of such a Bull. Plutarch telleth of two deformed Persons who often looking upon beautiful pictures had beautiful children this which is sometimes true in naturals will hold more true in morals conversing with low objects maketh low and degenerate minds What the Psalmist speaketh of Idol-makers and Worshippers they that make them are like unto them so are all they that put their trust in them may be said here earthly objects make earthly minds whereas looking to things Eternal which are the highest objects would raise our mind to a suitable height and greatness Thoughts are the food of the soul (k) Pabulum animae the soul feedeth on them as the body upon meat Now you know such meat as men eat such blood and spirits they have and look what the objects are about which the soul is conversant such is the soul low objects debase the mind high objects such as things Eternal work in men high minds and raise up to a greatness of spirit becoming man so noble a creature I doubt not but you would look upon it as a fordid thing for men to busie themselves about such low things as some and they great ones have sometimes done As Artaxerexes in making hafts of knives Bias in making Lanthorns Domitian in stabbing Flies with a bodkin another in stabbing Froggs whereas if you make any thing your business below things Eternal it is exceedingly below that greatness of Spirit which should be in men who have reasonable souls especially Christians who should have higher aims than other men If children saith one play for Pins bigger boyes for Points men for shillings or pounds there is no great difference and truely whatsoever you busie your selves about short of Heaven and things Eternal it is but a more serious trifling and it is a shameful thing to be serious about trifles (l) Turpe est difficiles habere nugas If like Baruch you seek great things seek them which are greatest and highest things Eternal and this will be both an argument of a greatness of spirit becoming Christianity and a means to raise up your minds to a higher pitch of greatness 10. It would put the greatest honour upon us we count those the most famous Mountains that are highest those the goodliest Trees that are tallest those the stateliest Buildings whose tops reach nearer to Heaven accordingly they are the choicest Christians whose hearts are most taken up with heavenly things Remarkable is that which is spoken of Noah These are the Generations of Noah (m) Gen. 6. 9. but before any mention is made of his children the Scripture first saith Noah was a just man and perfect in his Generation and Noah walked with God â—nd then followeth Noah begat three Sons Sem Ham and Japhet Though it were an honour to Noah to be the Father of those Sons out of whose loyns came all after-Generations yet it was a greater honour to him to be a just-man and walk with God and therefore which Chrysostome calleth a strange kind of Genealogy after the Scripture had said These are the Generations of Noah It first saith He was a just man and walked with God and then Noah begat three Sons implying that it is a greater honour to be a good man and converse with God than to be a Father of the most numerous and illustrious progeny It is said Tâ—at Jabez was more honourable than his Brethren then followeth And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying Oh that thou wouldst bless me indeed and enlarge my Coast and that thine hand might be with me (n) 1 Chron. 4. 9 10. letting us understand that it was his piety and conversing with God in prayer that made him more honourable than his Brethren Let the blind besotted world count it a dishonour to walk with God and converse in Heaven yet this is it that will make men truly honourable in the esteem of God and Angels and all good men and will at last make them honourable in the eyes of them who now vilifie them When Michal scorned David for dancing before the Ark How glorious was the King of Israel
the night (d) Psalm â—0 â— Time past is to him as present therefore Christ tells the Jews Before Abraham was I am (e) John 8. 58. He doth not say before Abraham was I Was but I am being the Everlasting Father (f) Isa â— 6. so many hundred years past were as present to him and so it is in Eternity Though to us who live in time and motion a thousand years neither more nor less yet in eternity a thousand years and one day are all one Some of the School-men express it by this similitude a man that stands upon a Plain and seeth an Army marching seeth but a little of it at a time first one Troop then another some before others behind some coming some going others â—on whereas a man that stands upon the top of a high hill seeth all the Army at once though possibly one part may be many miles distant from another In like manner to us who stand in the low Valley of time there is a flux and succession and so a difference between time past and to come whereas in Eternity there is no difference no yesterday or to morrow they are the same they are all present and as in eternity all time is together â—f I may so speak so all things else are possessed together Boetius saith it is (g) Interminabilis tota simul perfecta possessio an interminable possession perfect and all together all things in eternity are collected into one the eternal happiness in Heaven is as if the quintessence of the several dishes of meat served up at a great Feast could be collected into one morsel as if the virtue and spirits of all the precious liquors in the world could be contracted and put into one glass there shall be as much happiness enjoyed at once as shall be through that infinite duration which hath no end and yet which makes it so wonderfully wonderfull there is such a sweetness and pleasant variety in the happiness enjoyed that after millions of years it will be as fresh and desirable as at the first enjoying it So in the eternity of Hell-sufferings all miseries are collected into one it is as if all the evils in the world could be put together and endured at once as if all the malignity of the several venomous creatures in the world could be squeezed into the same cup so in hâ—ll whatsoever flamings of Gods wrath whatsoever scorchings of that unquenchable fire whatsoever gnawings of that never dying worm whatsoever other sufferings are to be endured throughout all eternity they are all endured the same moment and article of time and yet which is as strange when all this hath been endured the vastest tract of time the enduring of it will be as grievous and unsufferable as it was at first 3. Eternity is without any wasting or spending while we are here (h) Quicquid temporis vivitur tantum de spatio vivendi â—â—llitur every part of time already spent cuts off so much of the time remaining (i) Isa 20. 10. The daies of our years are threescore years and ten When a man hath lived thirty or forty years there are so many years less to come and so it is with all things either enjoyed or endured in this life A man that takes a lease for one and twenty years when seven or twice seven of these years are expired there are so many years less remaining a man that is committed to prison for so many moneths or years when he hath endured that punishment half of that time he hath so much the lesser time to endure it but it is otherwise in Eternity after millions of Ages are past if I may speak so improperly there is not one moment nor if it could admit of a division one thousandth part of a moment wasted or elapsed nor a thousandth part of a moment less to come What some speak of a great Lake near Manubria that it is alwayes full put never so much water into it it never runneth over take never so much out of it it continueth full may be said of Eternity it is neither encreased by addition nor diminished by substraction add never so many thousands of years to it it is still the same it was before the addition take as many from it it is still as much as it was before the substraction the total summe saith Drexellius is neither more nor less but what it was in its self to wit Eternity as it admits of no succession so neither of any wasting or impairing Some obscure footsteps of this we have here Dost thou not see the Heavens saith Chrysostome how fair how spacious how bespangled with divers Constellations how long they have lasted and yet this long duration of time hath brought no old age upon them but they still retain the beauty and glory they had at first To the same purpose Alstedous Such is the duration and unmoveable stability of that heavenly Palace that being created above five thousand six hundred years since yet it so continueth to this day that we can espy nothing in it of change or waste or disorder The Sun that faithful witness in Heaven is in continual travel and motion fetcheth large circuits courseth about the world yet there is no wasting either in its substance or qualities his substance is the same his light as clear his heat as cherishing influence as operative motion as swift as ever it was doth the Psalmist compare the sun to a Bridegroom coming out of his Chamber and a Giant rejoycing to run his course This Bridegroom is still as fair and beautifull this Giant as strong and vigorous after the great labour and constant revolutions of above five thousand years the like is to be observed in the Sea all the Rivers run into the Sea From the place from whence they came thither they return again (k) Eccles 1. 7. Though it continually sendeth forth abundance of Rivers and hath done so from the Creation yet it continueth as full as it was at first as it sends out some it receiveth in other waters After they have encircled the earth and glided along through their several channels they at last empty themselves again into the Sea so that it is both as full and large as at first If it looseth in one place it gaineth in another and if after so long a tract of time there be no sensible decay in these great master-pieces of Nature much less in Eternity where all things continue in the same state and degree There is no wasting in the eternal happiness of the Saints Provide your selves bags which wax not old a treasure in the Heavens that faileth not it is an inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away (l) Luke 12. 33. 2 Pet. 1. 4. An incorruptible Crown (m) 1 Cor. 9. 25. A Crown of glory that fadeth not away (n) 1 Pet. 33. 7. and 29. 5. It is spoken of Moses as a
yet that which would be the portion but of one man would be far more grievous than all the cruel deaths and exquisite tortures which have been inflicted upon men ever since the world began But though they be thus dreadful in themselves yet that which mainly and indeed infinitely adds to the greatness of them is because they are eternal as one said If Hell were to be indured but a thousand years methinks I could bear it but for ever that amazeth me Bellarmine i out of Barocius tells of a learned man who after his death appeared to his friend complaining that he was adjudged to Hell-Torments which saith he were they to last but a thousand thousand years I should think it tolerable but alas they are eternal And as it is the eternity of these sufferings which chiefly maketh them so great so the greatness of them proveth them to be eternal otherwise they could not be so great as they are described e De arte bene moriendi 4. A fourth Argument to prove the point may be taken from man himself who is (k) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an immortal Creature (l) Wisd 2. 23. God created man to be immortal and made him an Image of his own eternity though he be not eternal and immortal as God is who is therefore said only to have immortality (m) 1. Tim. 6. 16. and therefore Divines distinguish between the eternity of God and the sempiternity of man God is a whole eternity both backwards and forwards from everlasting to everlasting man's onely a half eternity forwards but not backwards to not from everlasting God ' s is a simple eternity he can no way cease to be man's onely (n) secundum quid in some respect because he may be annihilated by Gods power God's is an uncreated man 's a created eternity God's causal mans derived God's independent being onely from himself man's dependent and limited but though he be not eternal as God is he is truely and properly an immortal Creature There are two essential parts of man the soul and the body and in regard of both these he is immortal First the soul is an immortal substance and that not onely (o) per gratiam by the grace and favour of God as the body of Adam was in the state of innocency and as the bodies of the Saints shall be at the Resurrection but (p) per naturam by its own nature having no internal principle of corruption so as it cannot (q) vi naturae suae by any thing from within it self cease to be neither can it be annihilated by any thing from without (r) Math. 10. 28. Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul Gregory observeth there are three sorts of Created Spirits the first of those whose dwelling is not with flesh or in fleshly bodies they are the Angels the Second of those which are wholly immersed in flesh the souls of beasts which rise out of the power of the flesh and perish together with it the third is of those which inhabite bodies of flesh but neither rise out of the Power of the flesh nor dye when the body dyeth and these are the souls of men when the body returneth to the earth as it was the Spirit shall return to God who gave it (s) Eccles 12. 7. From this immortality of the Soul we may infâ—rr the eternity of mans future condition (t) Quorsum animae immortalitas nisi ut immortaliter vivat aut immortaliter moriatur the soul being immortal it must be immortally happy or immortally miserable I shall not stand to enumerate those many arguments that are brought to prove the souls immortality but whatsoever Arguments are or may be used to prove this they will all undeniably conclude the eternity of mans future estate A further proof of it may be taken from the body which though it be subject to death yet not to dissolution Simo Stenius Professor of the Greek Tongue at Heidelberg being visited by the Minister lying upon his Death-bed amongst other Discourses the Minister asked him if he desired with Paul to be dissolved and to be with Christ rendering the word after the vulgar Translation he answered with some kind of indignation that that was not the proper signification of the word (u) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by the Apostle which properly signifies to depart to be unloosed not to be dissolved Death is only a change not an annihilation After a Creature is once in being it is never wholly annihilated Birth is a River saith Heraclytus which never drieth up but is continually supplyed by an accession of fresh waters though the Body be subject to death and after death to a thousand transmutations as men cast away at Sea may be devoured by Fishes those Fishes after eaten by men possibly some of those men devoured by wild Beasts those Beasts by Dogs those Dogs eaten up by Wormes those Wormes consumed to dust that dust scattered upon the Earth yet after all these resolutions and transmutations there is something remaining and God is able to make those dispersed pieces of dust like those scattered bones Ezek. 37. to come together one to another take twenty several sorts of seeds and mingle them together in the same vessel a skilful Gardiner is able to sever them one from another mingle the filings of Steel or Iron with so much dust that the filings are not perceived yet by the help of the Load-stone you may separate the filings from the dust according to their first quantity They say some exact Chymists are able out of the same herb to draw out the several elements by themselves That men can do this it is because God teacheth them as the Prophet speaketh of the Husbandman (w) Isa 28. 26. And he that teacheth man knowledge shall not he know (x) Psal 94. 10. He that first made man out of nothing can much more repair him out of that something yet remaining Augustine hath a good meditation to this purpose Think saith he with thy self how old thou art whether twenty or thirty years old before that time what wast thou Where wast thou In the Grave whither thou goest there will be dust or ashes or something to be found toward a man whereas before that time there was neither dust nor Ashes nor any thing to be found towards thy Nativity God who at first made the body out of nothing can and will remake it out of something pre-existent and when it is thus re-made it shall be made immortal and incorruptible So the Apostle (y) 1. Cor. 15. 42 53. It is sown in corruption it shall be raised in incorruption This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality We read Levit. 14. if the Plague of Leprosie were in a house they must scrape the walls and pull out the stones and plaister and put other
generations it is a boundless Sea the further we enter into it the deeper we find it the eternal happiness in Heaven is a deep Sea where the streams of life are ever flowing and re-flowing by a continued succession Hell is a deep sea of wrath and vengeance having neither bottom nor bank no bottom for any anchor of hope to fix on no bank that might set any limits to the inundations of Gods displeasure it is a Sun that never sets a Day that never ends a Taper that never burns out an End that hath no end an infinite unlimited duration where millions of years are but so many Cyphers signifying nothing it is a thing of the most amazing consideration able to swallow up our thoughts in stupor and astonishment 2. There is a knowledge of the measure of them and that is done either by Numeration by which we count how many things are or by ponderation by which we try how weighty things are or by mensuration by which we find out the dimensions of things but by none of these are we able to come to a clear knowledge of eternity The first way of knowing is by numbering thus we count how many years have been since the birth of Christ the Flood the Creation of the world Some undertake to tell how many Barly-corns would reach from Earth to Heaven but who is able to reckon the years and ages of Eternity Suppose saith à Lapide ten hundred thousand mîllions of millions of millions of years add to these all the thoughts of Angels and men from the first moment of their Being to eternity all the motions mutations changes of the several Creatures and things in the World and add to them â—ll the numbers of Arithmetick and fill with them so many numberless volumes of Paper as would reach from Earth to Heaven you are not yet come to the end not to the middle scarce to the beginning of Eternity and then adds how long shall eternity endure For ever when shall it end never So long as Heaven is Heaven so long as Hell is Hell so long as God is God so long shall be eternity So long shall Heaven contain the Saints and Hell torment the wicked there is no number either numbring or numbred which is able to set it forth no number numbring as when we say hundreds or thousands or millions Boetius saith well a minuit and a thousand years hold better proportion than a thousand years and Eternity an easie Arithmetician will tell you how many minuts there are in a thousand years but none can tell how many thousands or millions there are in Eternity the vastest numbers that can be reckoned are but so many cyphers signifying nothing and as no number numbring can reach it so no number numbred as when we say so many as there are stars in Heaven or piles of grass upon the earth or drops of water in the Sea any one of these would amount to a vast unconceivable number but none of these will hold parallel with eternity nay put all these together and a thousand times more you are not able to measure the duration of Eternity 2 By Ponderation and that is done either by the help of artificial weights when we put the thing we weigh into one ballance and the weight by which we weigh it in the other or else it is done without the help of such artificial weights when we poyse things in our hands or lift them up at the Arms end as Porters do their burdens to know their weight but there is no way by which we can find out the weight of eternity God is said to weigh the mountains in scales and the hills in ballances (e) Isa 40. 12. but there are no scales or ballances by which we may take the weight of an everlasting condition When we would know the weight of things we usually put something as heavy in the other end of the ballance but what may be laid in the ballance to preponderate Eternity The weight est things that can be brought are to it but as the drop of a bucket or the small dust of the ballance 3 By Mensuration by which we find out the height length breadth and depth of things but neither thus can we find out the dimensions of Eternity God is said to measure the waters in the hollow of his fist to mete out the Heavens like a Span to comprehend the dust of the earth in a measure but who beside God himself who inhabiteth Eternity is able to measure the height or span the breadth or fathom the depth of an infinite eternity there is neither measure that can reach it nor any thing to be measured that is commensurate to it Astronomers find out imaginary lines by which they measure the Heavens and the Earth Mathematicians have their Jacobs staff whereby they take the height of the sun and stars Marriners have their Plummet by which they sound the depth of the Sea but there are no engines or inventions by which we may reach the height or sound the depth or measure the length of an infinite unlimited Eternity I may say of it as Zophar doth of God (f) Job 11. 8 9. It is as high as heaven what canst thou do deeper than Hell what canst thou know the measure thereof is longer than the earth or broader than the sea By all this it appeareth that Eternity transcends all our knowledge and Understanding the knowledge of it is too wonderfull for us 3. Yet further Eternity transcends our conception and imagination we are not able to think or imagine what eternity is whether the eternity of happiness in Heaven or misery in Hell First we are not able to conceive what are those unseen eternal things in Heaven the temporal things in this life are more in imagination than in reality they come abundantly short of what we imagine to be in them men at a distance think there is a great deal of happiness and content in these things that they should live most contentedly if they had so much of Revenues coming in yearly or such and such places of preferment but if at any time such men do attain to what they so ambitiously desire they find in the issue that there is not that happiness in these things that they fancied that all these are but like the fruit of Sodom that seem to the eye to be beautifull apples but being touched turn to ashes like Oramazes his egg in which the Enchanter boasted was included all the happiness in the world but being broken there was nothing in it but wind and emptiness or like that feast which Corn. à Lapide reports [g] on Isa 55. 2. was made by a Magitian in Germany to which he invited many Noble Persons who while they sate at Table received good content and fared deliciously to their thinking but when they were departed found themeselves as hungry as if they had eaten nothing at all Suppose there were somewhere
perswaded that neither death nor life shall be able to separate us from the Love of God (e) Rom. 8. 38. Death is so far from separating from Gods Love and that Happiness the fruit of his Love that next to Jesus Christ it is the Believers greatest friend putting him into an everlasting possession of his desired Happiness On the other side There is no end of the sufferings of the damned in Hell Some indeed have contended for it Origen thought that after a thousand years both Devils and men should be released out of Hell-torments After him the Hereticks called the Aniti (f) L. 21. de cive Dei broached the same Doctrine Others that Augustine speaketh of contended that not all but some should be delivered out of their sufferings some that all Christians some all Catholicks some those that had received the Sacraments of the Faith some those onely who persevere to the end in the Catholick Faith others those who were addicted to works of Mercy and Charity But who are these who darken Counsel by words without knowledge These fond conceits are solidly refuted by Aquinas and others who prove by undeniable Arguments that these sufferings if nothing else yet Death puts an end to them in the Grave the Prisoners rest together and those who are weary are at rest but death shall not put any end to Hells punishment it is a death that never dyeth an end which hath no end a defect without any deficiency (g) Mors sine morte finis sine fine defectus sine defectu Greg. It is a death that ever liveth an end which ever beginneth a defect which never faileth we may well say of it as one doth Oh killing life Oh immortal death If it be life how doth it kill if death how doth it endure It is neither death nor life for both these have something of good in them Oh how happy would those poor miserable creatures think themselves if there might be any end of their misery they shall seek for death and dig for it as for his treasures but all in vain They shall seek death and shall not find it and desire to dye and death shall flee from them (i) Rev. 9. 6. They shall study plots and methods to dispatch themselves they shall cry to the Mountains to fall upon them and if possible to crush them to nothing they shall desire that the fire that burns them would consume them to nothing that the h Bellarm. de arte moriendi l. 2. c. 3. worm which feeds on them would gnaw them â—o nothing that the Devils which torment them would tear them to nothing They shall cry to God who first made them out of nothing to reduce them to that first nothing from whence they came but hâ— who made them will not have mercy on them he thaâ— formed them will not shew them so much favour When the Angel pleaded with God in behalf of Jerusalem Zech. 1. 12. How long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years It is said the Lord answered the Angel with good words and comfortable words (k) Zech. 1. 12. When the Souls under the Altar cryed How long Lord holy and true dost thou not avenge our blood upon them which dwell upon the Earth (l) Rev. 6. 10. Answer was returned how long they must stay and in the mean time were given them long white Robes but when those poor Creatures in Hell shall cry out How long Lord how long wilt thou Torment the workmanship of thy hands how long will it be e're thou put an end to our misery There is no answer to be expected which might give them any hopes of the ending of their suffering God here often called to them How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee (m) Prov. 1. 22. Jâ—r 4. 14 but they turned a deaf ear to Gods call and therefore it will be just with God when they cry how long not to hear them but to laugh at their destruction and mock when their fear cometh And that these sufferings are without any end or expiration this above all other things torments the damned and drives them to dispair were there to be any end of their misery though after the vastest tract of time there would be some hopes they would end at last Some of the Ancients have well improved their Meditations in setting for â—â— this One thus If they were to end after a little Bird should have emptied the Sea and only carry out her bill full once in a thousand years Another thus If the whole world from the lowest Earth to the highest Heavens were filled with grains of Sand and once in a thousand years an Angel should come and fetch away only one grain and so continue till the whole heap were spent A third to this purpose If one of the damned in Hell should weep after this manner that he should only let fall one tear in a hundred years and these should be kept together till such time as they should equal â—he drops of water in the Sea how many millions of ages would pass before they could make up one River much more a whole Sea and when that were done should he weep again after the same manner till he had filled a second a third a fourth Sea if then there should be an end of their miseries there would be some hope they would end at last but that they shall never never never end this is that which sinks them under horror and despair and fetcheth from them yellings and howlings able to rend Rocks and Marbles asunder CHAP. VI. Of Eternity without succession or without consumption ETernity is without succession it is all together (a) Tota simul this is one difference between Time and Eternity Time is a continued flux of hours dayes months and years so that in time there is a succession there is time past present and to come time present putteth an end to that which is past and this is soon swallowed up in time future but it is otherwise in Eternity There is no succession no time past or to come it is a duration alwayes present there is no yesterday nor to morrow it is one perpetual to day (b) annum perpetuum hodie no â—eginning and ending it is all beginning and alwayes but beginning there is no priority or posterâ—ority no first or last it is all together and at once no whence or whether no term from which or unto which it is One standing flow without any flux one indivisible point God being eternal there is no difference of time with him one day is with him as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day (c) 2 Pet. 3. 8. Time to come is to him as it were past A thousand years in his sight is but as yesterday and as a watch in