Chap. T Nay then (faith the Minifter) it is Time bourhood, Alliance, any Thing, will rejoice for us to part; fuch were your Invectives in the Execution of Divine Juftice. Oh the on Earth, and now they are, and will be Shrikes, and horrid Cries that now they your Language in Hell; But have I not an- make, filling the Air as they go! Oh the fwered thefe Cavils many a Time? Have not Wailings and Wringings of Hands! Oh the I told you that the Word would harden fome, defperate Roarings! Oh the hideous Yeland foften others, the Fault being in your lings, filling Heaven, and Earth, and Hell! felves? Have I not cleared it that the Seals But I fhall follow them no further; no fooner are not to be fet upon Blanks, and that Confir- do they fall into the Bottomless Pit, but preration could not be without a Work of Con- fently it fhuts her Mouth upon them, and verfion to lead it? And were we not comman- there I muft leave them. ded in the Name of our Lord Jefus Chrift to withdraw our felves from every Brother that walketh diforderly? 2 Thef. 3. 16. Did not the wife Man tell us, He that toucheth Pitch SECT. VII. ven, and of the End of this World. fball be defiled therewith, and he that bath of Chrift and bus Saints going up into Hea Fellowship with a proud Man fhall be like unto bim? Can a Man take Fire in bis Bofom, and bis Clothes not be burnt? Can a Man go upon 7. bot Coals, and his Feet not be burnt? Prov. 26. 27, 28. OR Chrift and his Saints going up Finto Heaven, and fo for the End of What As for other Gavils, the Lord this World: No fooner are the Reprobates be Judge betwixt you and us; nay, the Lord gone to their Place, but the Saints afcend; hath been Judge betwixt you and us: Le, now Chrift arifeth from his Judgment-Seat, here we ftand on the right Hand of Chrift; lo, and with all the glorious Company of Heaven, here we fit on our Thrones to judge you, and he marches towards the Heaven of Heavens. that World of wicked Men and Angels; let Oh! what a comely March is this? Chrift be glorious, and let his Sentence ftand, Songs of Triumph are here fung and warand let that Word of Judgment never be bled? Chrift leads the Way, the Cherubims reverfed; He that loveth Curfing, let it come attend, the Seraphims wait on, Angels, upon bim; and be that sleatbeth himself with Archangels, Principalities, Powers, Patri Curfing, as with a Garment, let it come into archs, Prophets, Priefts, Evangelifts, Marbis Bowels like Water, and like Oyl inte bis tyrs, Profeffors, and Confeffors of God's Law Bones. Pfal. 109. 17, 18. No more, but and Gofpel following, attend the Judge and adieu Souls, adieu Reprobates, adieu for e- King of Glory; finging with Meledy, as never; you must defcend, but we muft afcend. vei Ear hath heard; fhining with Majefty, Go you to Hell, whilft we mount upwards as never Eye hath feen; rejoicing without into Heaven and Glory. Meafure, as never Heart conceived. O blef At this laft Word, down they go; the e- fed Train of Souldiers! O goodly Troop of vil Angels falling like Lightning, and evil Captains! each one doth bear a Palm of Men haled, and pulled down with them from Victory in his Hand, each one doth wear a the Prefence of God, and Chrif, and An- Crown of Glory on his Head; the Church gels, and all the bleffed ones; even from Militant is now triumphant; with a final O their Fathers, Mothers, Wifes, Husbands, verthrow have they conquered Devils, Death, Children, Minifters, Servants, Lovers, Friends, and Hell; and now muft they enjoy God, Acquaintance; who fhall then jafily, and Life, and Heaven; fometimes I have, with defervedly abandon them with all Deteftation much Wonder and Admiration, beheld fome and Derifion; and forgetting all Nearness, Regiments paffing our Streets; but had I and deareft Obligations of Nature, Neigh- feen thofe Roman Armies, when they retur ned 2. The Poets grant this; Lucan Speaking of thofe whom Cafar left unburned at the Battel of Pharfalia; Hos Cafar Populos fi nunc non afferit Ignis, uret cum Terris. If Fire ball not now burn these, when Heaven, and Earth, and all shall burn, then must they burn. Ovid in like Manner, Effe quoque A Day of Wrath, a Day of Fire, ara ned Victors, and made their folemn Tri- (fays he ) whatsoever new shines in comely umphs in the Streets of Rome, Oh then how and decent Order, shall at last burn together in. fhould I have admired; never was the like one Fire. Sight to this of Chrift and his Army in this World. O the comely March they make, through the Sky, and through the Orbs, and through all the Heavens, till they come to the Heaven of Heavens was ever fo many gliftring Suns together in one Day? Was ever fo many Glories together on this Side the Kingdom of Glory? Not to speak of Christ, in fatis quo Mare, quo Tellusor his Angels, O who is the that looketh forth deat. A Time fall come, when Sea, and as the Morning, fair as the Moon, clear as Earth, and all the Frame of this great World the Sun, and terrible as an Army with Ban fhall be confumed in Flame. ners? Cant. 6. ro. Are not in the Head 3. The Sybills grant this, to which the Roof thofe Regiments, Adam, and Abel, and man Miffal feems to allude, joining them Noak, and Abraham, and Ifaac, and Jacob; with the Prophet David, though I know net and all the Patriarchs, and all the Prophets, by what Warrant. Dies Ira, Dies illa, fol. and all the Apoftles? And if thou art a vet faculum in favilla, teste David cum SySaint that readeft this ) art not thou one Sun bila: appointed by God amongft the Reft to follow Chrift? Here's enough to fill thy Heart with Joy before-hand; as fure as yonder Sun now fhines in the Firmament, Thalt thou that But to wave all thefe, one Text of Scripbelieveft pass through that Sun in its very ture is to me more than all these. Orb, and by Reafon of thy Glory it fhall lofe 2 Pet. 3. 10. The Heavens fhall pass away its Shine; Oh then what spreading of Beauty with a great Neife, and the Elements shall and Brightness will be in the Heavens as all melt with fervent Heat; the Earth alfo, and the Saints go along? What Lumps of Dark the Works that are therein, fhall be burnt nefs fhall thofe glittering Stars appear to be, up. Hence all our Divines agree; That a when all the Saints of God. fhall enter into Fire fhall feife on the Universe, only fome their feveral Orbs and Spheres? And thus Difference is amongft Divines, Whether as they march along higher and higher, till the World fhall be wholly annihilated, or they come to the Higheft, at laft Heaven o- renewed by Fire? ferome and Auguftin, pens unto them, and the Saints enter into and many after them fay, the End of this Fire their Mafter's Joy.. What is there done at is for purifying and refining of the Heaven their firft Entrance, I fhall difcover another and Earth; for all corruptible Qualities fhal! Time; only for a while let us look behind us, be burnt out of them, but they in their Suband fee what becomes of this, neather World. ftance hall remain ftill: If we ask them, No fooner Chrift and his Company in the To what End fhall this nea Imperial Heaven, but prefently this whole ther World be renewed? World is set on Fire: To this profane Au- Some fay, for an Habitacle of the restored Beafts : thors feem to affent; As, 1. Philofophers, efpecially the Stoicks, were thers, for a fitter Accommoof this Mind. Humor primedium, exitus ig- dation of Men, and the glonis, faid Seneca, Meifture was the Beginning, rified Saints Others, for and Fire fhall be the End of this World. And a perpetual Monument of fpeaking of the Sun, Moon, and Stars; Mark, God's Power and Glory. O fitter Accommo Mundus in me lius immutatus, aperte accommo dabitur hominibus in melius. immutatis, Auguft. de civit Dei. 1. 30. c,. 16. 6. c. 70. Polanus, and fome of our Moderns are of demand, whether Being no more, as fob; and. Opinion, That thefe Heavens, and this Earth, Perishing, as David; and Rolling together, when purified with thofe Fires, and falling down like a withered Leaf, as Polan. Syntag, and fuperinvefted with new Ifaiab;, and Paffing away, as our Saviour Endowments, they fhall be the and Peter; and Flying away, as Febn, do not everlafting Habitations of the include an utter Abolition? If to thefe Scripbleffed Saints. But on the Contrary, others tures I fhould add one Reafon, I would argue are of the other Opinion, That all the World, from the End of the World's Creation; was with all the Parts and Works (except Men, it not partly for the Glory of God, and partAngels, and Devils, Heaven and Hell, the ly for the Ufe of Man? Now for the Glory two Manfions for the Saved and Damned) of God, the Manifeftation of it is occafioned fhall be totally and finally diffolved and an- by the Manifeftation of the World unto nihilated. And of this Opinion were Hilary, Man; if Man therefore fhould be removed Clement, and all the Ancients before Ferome; out of the World, and no Creature in it and of our Moderns not a few. For my Part, be capable of fuch a Manifeftation, what I rather encline this Way, becaufe of the would become of his Glory? And for the many Scriptures that are fo exprefs, I fhall Ufe of Man, that is either to fupply his Nemention only thefe. Man lyetb down, ceffity in Matter of Diet, Phyfick, Building, and rifeth not till the Heavens be no more. Apparel; or for his Inftruction, Direction, Job. 14. 12. Of Old thou haft laid the Foun- Recreation, Comfort, Delight: Now, when dations of the Earth, and the Heavens are the he fhall attain that bleffed Eftate of enjoying Works of thy Hands; they fball perif, but thou God, and feeing God Face to Face, thefe fhalt endure. Pfal. 102, 25, 26. All the Ends, or the like, muft needs be fruftrate. Hofts of Heaven fhall be diffolved, and the This Argument is weighty, and we need ne Heaven fall be rolled together as a Scroll, and more. Only we fhall hear our Antagonifts all the Hosts fhall fall down, as the Leaf fal. Objections, and give them their Answers, leth from the Vine, and as a falling Fig from and fo conclude. the Fig-tree. Ifa. 34. 4. To which Prophe- The Texts more efpecially objected againft cy John feems to allude, And the Heavens de this Opinion, are Two; the Firft is that in parted as a Scroll when it is rolled together, Rom. 8. 21. The Creature it fell fhall be deand every Mountain and land were moved livered from Bondage of Corruption, into the gloout of their Places. Rev. 6. 14. Again, rious Liberty of the Sons of God. Here (fay Heaven and Earth hall pass away (faith they) is an earneft Expectation attributed to Chrift but my Word fhall not pass away. brute Creatures, that they shall be delivered Mat. 24. 36. The Day of the Lord will come from the Bondage of Corruption into the gloas a Thief in the Night, in the which the Hea- rious Liberty of the Children of God. But I vens hall pass away with a great Noife, and anfwer, That no immortal Being of the brute the Elements hall melt with fervent Heat, the Creatures is here promifed, but only a fimple Earth alfe, and the Works that are therein, Deliverence and Difmiffion from the Serfhall be burnt up. 2 Pet. 3. 10. vitude they were in, to ungrateful Men. And the World paffeth away, and the Lusts The Birds, Beafts, and Fishes, do now fufthereof; but be that doth the Will of God a fer for our Diet; Horfes, Mules, and Beats bideth for ever. 1 John 2. 17. of that Nature do now groan under the Bur And I faw a great white Threne, and him that dens of our Pleafures, or Neceffities; their fate on it, from whofe Face the Earth and the Annihilation therefore to them muft needs Heaven fled away, and there was found no be a Kind of Deliverance; and at laft they Place for them. Rev. 26. 11. Now I would fhall be delivered at the Time of the glori ous Liberty of *ois pro día, Rom. 8. 21. 1 Cor. 10. 2. as fometimes Sía pro tis, Rom. 4. 11. 1 Cor. 2. 15. So Chryfoftome expounds it, sis pro Six. the Sons of God; the Text fcending fometimes from the higheft Heavens will bear it thus, *is pro to folace themselves here below; are but Jia, The Creature fhall be de- groundless Surmifes, and deferve no Answer livered by the glorious Liberty at all. of the Sons of God. ( i, e. ) 2. Pofitively, by new Heavens, and new When fuch a Deliverance Earth, is meant the Heaven of Heavens, and comes to Men, these fhall be Place of Glory. Now, thefe Heavens are freed from their Servitude, termed new, not in Regard of their new by being not at all, having making, but of our new taking Poffeffion of done all the Business for them for our new Habitation; and they which they were ordained, or are called Heavens and Earth, because they created. come inftead of that heavenly Covering, and that earthly Habitation which we now enjoy ; The fecond Text is that in 2 Pet. 3. 13. fo that the Text may well bear this ParaWe look for new Heavens, and a new Earth, phrafe, We look for new Heavens, i, e. the wherein dwelleth Righteousness. Thefe Words fupreme Court of God's Prefence, and a new (fay fome) imply a Purging, rather than Earth, i. e. a new Habitation for us; which Abolishing; a taking off the corrupt Quali- fhall infinitely exceed the Commodities and ties only, not the Subftance. But I am of Happiness of thefe Heavens and Earth which another Mind, and if I must give my Sense we now enjoy: Thus John in his Revelations, of the Place, I fay, And I faw a new Heaven, and a new Earth; 1. Negatively, that by new Heavens and for the firft Heaven, and the firft Earth were new Earth, is not meant renewed Heavens paffed away, and there was no more Sea. Rev. and Earth; is it not punctually in the feventh 21. 1. This new Heaven, and new Earth, Verfe, That the Heavens and the Earth, which is the Place or Habitation prepared for the are now, are referved unto Fire against the bleffed Saints and People of God. A new Day of Judgment? And doth he not defcend Heaven, where the Moon is more glorious unte Particulars in the tenth Verfe, That than our Sun, and the Sun as glorious as he the Heavens which are now, fhall pass away that made it, for it is he himself, the Son of with a great Noife; that the Elements fhall God, the Sun of Righteoufnefs, the Sun of melt with fervent Heat, and that the Earth Glory; a new Earth, where all their Waalfo, and the Works therein foall be burnt up? ters are Milk, and all their Milk Honey; And doth he not infer thereupon in the ele- where all their Grafs is Corn, and all their venth and twelth Verfes, That all these Corn Manna; where all their Glebe and Things fhall be diffolved? And in the Thir- Clods of Earth are Gold, and all their Gold teenth Verle, that we are therefore to look of innumerable Carats; where all their Mifor new Heavens, and a new Earth? 2 Pet. nutes are Ages, and all their Ages Eternity; 3. 7, 10, 11, 12, 13. Diffolution mends not where every Thing is every Minute in the a Fabrick, but deftroys it; how then fhould higheft Exaltation as good as can be. Of that which is diffolved be laid to be referved, thefe new Heavens, and this new Earth, I and let ftand? Surely if Peter had thought can never fay enough, nor know enough, till. of this refining only, fome Words of his would I come thither to inhabit it. Something onhave intimated fo much. The End of thefe ly we fhall difcover of it in our next Secti Creatures was for Man's Ufe, and Man ufing ons; for now are the Saints entred in with them no more, to what End fhould they be Jefus Chrift. referved? To fay for a Monument of what hath been; or for the Habitation of the Saints; or for an Out-let for the Saints, de Uje. Only one Word of Ufe: Chriftians! what's the Matter that we are fo bufy about this World? Why, look about you, not one Iii i of SECT. VIII. of thefe vifible Objects fhall that Day remain, or have a Being; thofe Houses wherein we dwell, thefe Temples wherein we meet, this Town, this Country, this Ifle, of Chrift's furrendering and delivering up the and the Seas and Waters that furround it, Kingdom to God, even the Father. fhall be all on Fire, and confume to nothing; the Sea fhall no more, and Time be 8. furrendering and no more: Or if we look higher, yonder Sun, F. livering up the Kingdom to God, and Moon, and Stars, fhall be no more; that even the Father; no fooner is he in Heaven, glorious Heaven which rolls over our Heads, but thefe Things follow. fhall be rolled together as a Scroll, and all 1. He prefents the Elect unto his Father; the Hoft fall fall down as a Leaf falleth from of this the Apofile fpeaks, Tou bath be reconthe Wine, and as a falling Fig from the Fig- ciled in the Body of bis Flefb through Death, tree,Ifa. 34. 4. The Heavens fball to prefent you holy and unblameable, and unre vanish away like Smoke (faith Ifaiah) Ifa. proveable in bis Sight: Col. 1. 21, 22. To 51. 6. Comminuentur in nibilum (as Hierom this End Chrift died, that he might wash us, reads it) They shall be battered into nothing. and cleanfe us by his Blood, and then that he Alas! alas! what do we toiling all the Day might prefent us without Spot unto his Fa (it may be all our Life) for a Little of this ther. We may imagine Chrift, as going to Little, almoft nothing Earth? You his Father with his Bride in his Hand, and that have an Hundred, or two Hundred, or faying thus, O my Father, here is my a Thoufand Acres, if every Acre were a Church, my Spoufe, my Queen; here are Kingdom, all will be at laft burnt up; fo the Saints concerning whom I covenan that none fhall fay here was Prefton, or here ted with thee from Eternity, concerning was London, or here was England, or here whom I went down from Heaven, and died. was Europe, or here was the Globe of Earth on Earth, and afcending up, I have in on which Men trod; let others boat as terceded these many Hundred Years; conthey will of their Inheritances, but Lord give cerning whom I went down to judge the me an Inheritance above all thefe Vifibles; World, and having fentenced them to Life Heaven fhall remain, when Earth fhall va eternal, I now bring them in my Hand to nish that imperial Heaven, thofe Seats of give them the Poffeffion of thy felf. Thefe Saints, thofe Mansions above, prepared by are they whom thou gaveft me in the Begin Jefus Chrift, fhall never end; but for my ning of the World, and now I reftore them Riches, Lands, Poffeffions, Moveables, Goods to thy felf at the End of the World, for they real or perfonal, they will end in Smoke, in are thine. Thus he prefents them to his Fa Nothing What? Wilt thou fet thine Eyes ther. Indeed we read that Chrift prefents upon a Thing that is not? Prov. 23. 5. U the Saints to himself, as well as to his Fa pon this the primitive Chriftians took joyfully ther, Chrift loveth the Church, and gave him the spoiling of their Goods, it was but a Lofs felf for it,- that he might present it little before the Time, and they knew in them to himself a glorious Church, not having Spot felves that they had in Heaven a better, and an or Wrinkle Eph. 5. 25, 27. But this I enduring Subftante. Heb. 10. 34. Olet this take it was done before; when firft a Soul be our Care! here we have u abiding Ci- believes, it is contracted to Chrift, when the ty, but O let's feek one to come, even that Soul is fentenced to Glory, then is the Søone that will abide for ever and ever. A lemnity and Confummation of the Marriage, then doth Chrift prefent the Soul to himfelf men. and |