poverty, honour or disgrace; and the fulness, excellency, and everlasting nature of things unseen; and therefore prefer these before them."

(3.) To mark, observe, and take notice of: "Mark them which cause divisions among you." (Rom. xvi. 17.) "Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample." (Phil. iii. 17.) It is the observation that believers make, that all seen things are temporal; unseen, eternal; which worldly men take no notice of, to influence them in what they do.

(4.) To look: "Look not every man on his own things." (Phil. ii. 4.) "To look with a diligent eye," as the archer to the mark whereat he shoots; "to make a thing our scope and aim:" and so the substantive is used, Phil. iii. 14: "I press toward the mark." In this respect the sense is: "The thing that we do aim at in all we do is, to get a title to, and hereafter the possession of, eternal things; to secure our everlasting happy state; to have treasures, not for a while, but for ever; to have honour and glory and joy, not in hasty time, but in abiding eternity." Believers are lowly in heart; but they look high: the men of this world are of a haughty spirit; but they aim at low things.

ment.

:

and

2. "Temporal:" @poσxaipa.-Used four times in the New TestaTwice concerning temporary believers: "Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while." (Matt. xiii. 21.) "Who have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time." (Mark iv. 17.) Once concerning the pleasure of sin: "Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." (Heb. xi. 25.) And in the text comprehensively of all visible things. Take, then, a summary account of all that wicked, worldly men have; and all is "but for a while." What the richest among them have their grandeur dureth "but for a time; then is past and gone, and hath no more existence. What the merriest among them have,-pleasures, mirth, .carnal delights and joy and this is "but for a season; their merry bouts will be quickly over, and then succeeds weeping and wailing for ever. What the best among them have even their faith is "but for a time; and their hope but for a short time; at longest, till death shall close their eyes, and then [they shall] lie down in everlasting despair: [so] that all their comings-in-whether profits from the world, or pleasures from their sin, or supposed happiness from their supposed graces,-have their goings-out; that, upon all they have, you may write, "All is temporal." They had riches, but they are gone; honours and pleasures, but they are gone; many good things in time, but, at the end of time, all have an end; and then, when their endless misery comes, this will be their doleful tune, "All our good is past and

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3. "Eternal," aswvia, quasi ası wv, "always existing."-All duration (even time itself, taken metaphysically) is nothing else but the permanency of essence. Time external, in sensu physico, is but ens rationis, or "nothing." "nothing." Therefore, according to the manner of

beings must be the manner of their abidings. All beings may be ranked into three sorts; whence arise three sorts of duration :—

(1.) Some things have both beginning and end: as beasts and other corruptible creatures. And their duration is time, which hath both

beginning and end.

(2.) Some things have a beginning, and no end: as angels, and the souls of men, and the state of both in the other world. And the duration by which these are measured in philosophy, to distinguish it from time and eternity strictly taken, is called eviternity; which imports only an initial defectibility of the things in themselves. Though by the absolute power of God there might be a period put unto their being once begun, yet there is no principle of corruption in their own nature which should cause a cessation of their existing essence; nor is it in the verge of any created power or second cause to take that being from them, which was given to them by the First [Cause]. And these things, because they have no end, are eternal.

(3.) One only being hath neither beginning nor end, nor can have : and that is God. And his duration is eternity, properly and most strictly taken; which is a duration inferring simple interminability of essence, all at once existing without succession. "Eternity" in the most proper acceptation doth exclude not only actual beginning and end, but all possibility of both; and denotes indefectibility of essence a parte ante et a parte post,* existing all at once in one continued immovable instant, without consideration of any thing in it past or to come, though it always was and will be. Plainly to every capacity might this be thus adapted :-If you look backward, you cannot think of any one moment wherein God was not; if you look forward, you cannot think of any one moment when God shall not be. For if there had been one moment when God was not, nothing could ever have been, neither God nor creature: unless that which is nothing could make itself something; which is impossible, because working supposeth being; and a contradiction, because it infers the being of a thing before it was; for, in order of time or nature, the cause must be before the effect. Neither can you conceive any one moment beyond which God should cease to be; because you cannot imagine any thing in God, or distinct from him, that should be the cause of his ceasing to be.

The object, then, of believers' looking is the unseen, the eternal God, as their happiness objectively considered, which is so eternal as to be without beginning and end; and the enjoyment of this unseen, eternal God in the invisible heavens,-which fruition, being their happiness formally considered, hath a beginning, but no ending.

Should I follow the signification of the Greek word, as looking at" a mark [that] we aim at, or an end which we desire to obtain, I should limit my discourse only to unseen, eternal good things; but if it be taken in a more extended sense, "to take heed, to mark, and diligently consider," I might bring-in the unseen evils in the world to And, indeed, to keep our eye fixed upon invisible things, both

come.

"Both before and hereafter."-EDIT.

good and bad, that make men eternally miserable or everlastingly blessed, would have a powerful influence upon every step we take in our daily travels to the unseen, eternal world :-to look at unseen, eternal evil things, that we might not fall into them: to look at unseen, eternal good things, that we might not fall short of them. Which

is the design of the question propounded from this text; namely,

QUESTION.

How we should eye eternity, that it may have its due influence upon us in all we do.-Which question will be more distinctly answered by resolving these following questions contained in it.

QUESTION I. Whether there be an eternity, into which all men must enter, when they go out of time.-That we might not only suppose what too many deny, and more doubt of, and some are tempted to call into question, but have it proved that no man might rationally deny the eternity of that state in the unseen world: for, upon this lies the strength of the reason in the text, why believers look at things unseen, because they are eternal; and the object must be proved, before we can rationally urge the exerting of the act upon that object.

QUESTION II. How we should eye eternity, or look at eternal things. For if they be unseen, how shall we see them? And if they be to us in this world invisible, how shall we look at them?

QUESTION III. What influence will such a sight of and looking at eternity have upon our minds, consciences, wills, and affections in all we do?

QUESTION I. Whether there be an eternity of happiness that we should look at to obtain, and of misery to escape?

Doth any question this? Look at men's conversations; see their neglect of God and Christ; their frequent, yea, constant refusals of remedying grace; their leading a sensual, flesh-pleasing life; their seldom thoughts of death and judgment; their carelessness to make preparation for another world; their minding only things temporal; and then the question may be, "Who do indeed believe that there is such an eternal state?" Yet the real existence and certainty of eternal things may be evidently manifested by scripture and by arguments.

1. If you give assent to the divine authority of the scripture, you cannot deny the certainty of another world, nor the eternal state of souls therein, though this be now unseen to you. "Jesus said, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: but they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage : neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels." (Luke xx. 34-36.) Is not here plain mention of "this" and "that world," and the different state in both? In "this," men marry and die; in "that," they neither marry nor die; yea, Christ himself affirms, that in "that world" they cannot die. And whatsoever words the scripture borrows from the best things of this world to

help our conceptions of the glorious state of holy ones in the other world, some word denoting the eternal duration of it is annexed to them all. Is it called a "kingdom?" it is an "everlasting kingdom." (2 Peter i. 11.) "A crown?" it is "a crown incorruptible,' (1 Cor. ix. 25,) "that fadeth not away." (1 Peter v. 4.) Is it called "glory?" it is "eternal glory." (Verse 10; 2 Cor. iv. 17.) "An inheritance?" it is "incorruptible," (1 Peter i. 4,) "eternal." (Heb. ix. 15.) "A house?" it is "eternal in the heavens." (2 Cor. v. 1.) "Salvation?" it is "eternal salvation." (Heb. v. 9.) "Life?" it is "eternal life." (Matt. xxv. 46.)

No less certain is the eternity of the state of the damned, by the scriptures adding some note of everlasting duration to those dreadful things by which their misery is set forth. Is it by "a furnace of fire," (Matt. xiii. 42,) by "a lake of fire?" (Rev. xxi. 8;) it is "fire eternal and unquenchable." (Matt. iii. 12; xxv. 41.) By "a prison?" (1 Peter iii. 19;) from thence is no coming forth. (Matt. v. 25, 26.) By "darkness," and "blackness of darkness?" it is "for ever." (Jude 13.) By "burnings?" it is "everlasting burnings." (Isai. xxxiii. 14.) By " torments?" (Luke xvi. 23:) "The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever." (Rev. xiv. 11; xx. 10.) By "damnation?" it is "eternal damnation." (Mark iii. 29.) By "destruction?" it is "everlasting destruction." (2 Thess. i. 9.) By "punishment?" it is "everlasting punishment." (Matt. xxv. 46.) By the gnawings of the worm? it is such that never dieth. (Mark ix. 44, 46, 48.) By "wrath that is to come?" (Matt. iii. 7; 1 Thess. i. 10;) when it comes, it will "abide." (John iii. 36.)

Is any thing more fully and plainly asserted in the scripture, than that the things in the other world, now unseen, are eternal things? Those that enjoy the one in heaven, and those that now feel the other in hell, do not, cannot doubt of this; and a little while will put all those that are now in time quite out of all doubting of the certainty of the eternity of the state in the unseen world.

2. The eternity of the unseen things in heaven and hell, the everlasting happy or everlasting miserable state after this life, may be evidenced briefly, yet clearly, by these following arguments :

(1.) God did from eternity choose some to be fitted in time to partake of happiness to all eternity." According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy;" (Eph. i. 4;) and, being made holy, shall be happy in obtaining that salvation to which he chose us. "God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation." (2 Thess. ii. 13.) "For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation." (1 Thess. v. 9.) Which "salvation" doth include absence of all evil, and presence of all good; and this salvation, being "eternal," (Heb. v. 9,) infers the absence of all evil for ever, and the presence of all good for ever; and whosoever is delivered from all privative evils, and possessed of all positive everlasting good, and that for ever, cannot be denied to be happy for ever.

(2.) Christ hath redeemed some to be infallibly brought to eternal glory.-What reason can be given of the incarnation and death of the Son of God, if there be no eternal misery for men to be delivered from, nor any eternal happiness to be possessed of? For,

(i.) Did Christ die to deliver his followers from poverty and prisons, from sorrow and sufferings, from trouble and tribulation ?— What! and yet his holy, humble, and sincere people lie under these more than other men that are wicked and ungodly! Why was Paul, then," in stripes and imprisonments, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness, in perils and jeopardy" of his life continually? (2 Cor. xi. 23-27;) and such as Pilate, Felix, and Festus in great worldly prosperity? Or can it be imagined, that men persisting in sin should be more partakers of the fruits of Christ's death, than those that forsake their sin, repent, and turn, and follow him?

(ii.) Did Christ suffer and die to purchase only temporal good things, as riches, honours, for his disciples ?-Were these worth his precious blood? Whatever Christ died for, it cost him his most sacred blood. Was it, then, for temporal enjoyments only, which Turks and Pagans may and do possess more than thousands of his true and faithful followers? Did Christ intend the benefits of his death for these in more especial manner than for such as remain finally impenitent? and yet shall such reap the fruit of all his sufferings, and those that believe on him go without them? Sober reason doth abhor it, and all the scripture is against it. Would Christ have humbled himself to such a contemptible birth, miserable life, lamentable, painful, shameful death, only for transitory, temporal, fading mercies? If we consider the variety of his sufferings from God, men, and devils, the dignity of the Sufferer, I profess I cannot imagine any reason of all Christ's undertakings and performances, if there be not an eternal state of misery in suffering of evil things, by his death that believers might be delivered from; and of glory in enjoying of good things, to be brought unto.

(3.) The Spirit of God doth sanctify some, that they might be "made meet to be partakers of the" eternal "inheritance of the saints in light." (Col. i. 12.)-As all are not godly, so all are not ungodly; though most be as they were born, yet many there be that are born again: there is a wonderful difference betwixt men and men. The Spirit of God, infusing a principle of spiritual life, and making some all over new, working in them faith in Christ, holy fear and love, patience and hope, longing desires, renewing in them the holy image of God, is as the earnest and first-fruits, assuring them in due time of a plentiful harvest of everlasting happiness. Faith is in order to eternal life and salvation; (John iii. 16;) love hath the promise of it; (1 Cor. ii. 9; 2 Tim. iv. 8; James i. 12;) obedience ends in it; (Heb. v. 9;) hope waits for it; (Rom. viii. 25;) and because their hope shall never make them ashamed, (Rom. v. therefore there must be such an eternal blessed state [as] they hope for.

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