but with all them which ever departed in the fame faith with him, and that is with Chrift who fitteth at the right hand of God. This happiness which the Saints enjoy between the hour of their death and the laft day, is the partial Life eternal. Thirdly, I call that perfectional, which shall be conferred upon the Elect immediately after the bleffing pronounced by Christ, Matt. xxv. Come, ye blessed children of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

34.

▾ John v.

12.

This eternal life is to be confidered in the poffeffion, and in the duration; in the first, as it is life; in the second, as it is eternal. Now this Life is not only natural, that is, the union of the foul to the body, which is the life of the reprobate; but fpiritual, which confifteth in the (g) union of the foul to God, as our Saviour fpeaks, He that hath the Son, hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God, bath not life. And it is called after an especial manner Life, because of the (b) happiness which attendeth it and therefore to understand that Life is to know, fo far as it is revealed, in what that happiness doth confift.

To begin with that which is moft intelligible; the Bodies of the Saints after the Refurrection fhall be transformed into spiritual and incorruptible Bodies. I Cor. xv. The flesh is fown in corruption, raised in incorruption; 42, 43, 44. fown in difhonour, raised in glory; fown in weakness, raifed in power; fown a natural body, raised a fpiritual body. This perfective alteration fhall be made by Phil. iii. 21. the Son of God, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to fubdue all things unto himself. Thus when we come into that other world, the world of Spirits, even our Bodies shall be spiritual.

As for the better part of man, the Soul, it shall be highly exalted to the utmost perfection in all the parts or faculties thereof. The understanding shall be raised to the utmost capacity, and that capacity completely

filled.

filled. Now we fee through a glafs darkly, but then face 1 Cor. xiii to face; now we know but in part, but then fhall we 12.. know even as also we are known. And this even now we know, that when God fhall appear, we shall be like 1 John iii. him, for we shall fee him as he is. Our firft temptation was, that we should be like unto God in knowledge, and by that we fell; but being raised by Christ, we come to be truly like him, by knowing him as we are known, and by feeing him as he is. Our wills fhall be perfected with abfolute and indefective holiness, with exact conformity to the will of God, and perfect liberty from all fervitude of fin: they shall be troubled with no doubtful choice, but with their (i) radical and fundamental freedom fhall fully embrace the greatest good. Our affections fhall be all fet right by an unalterable regulation, and in that regularity fhall receive abfolute fatisfaction : and all this fhall be effected, that we may be thereby made capable, and then happy by a full fruition.

To this internal perfection is added a proportionately happy condition, confifting in an abfolute freedom from all pain, misery, labour and want; an impoffibility of finning and offending God; an hereditary poffeffion of all good, with an unspeakable complacency and joy flowing from it, and all this redounding from the vifion and fruition of God: this is the Life.

And now the duration of this life is as neceffary as the life itfelf, because to make all already mentioned amount unto a true felicity, there must be added an abfolute fecurity of the enjoyment, void of all fear of lofing it or being deprived of it. And this is added to complete our happiness, by the adjection of eternity. Now that this Life fhall be eternal, we are affured who have not yet obtained it, and they much more who do enjoy it. He which hath purchased it for us, and promifed it unto us, often calleth it eternal life; it is defcribed as a continuing city, as everlasting habitations, as an houfe eternal in the 14. heavens; it is expreffed by eternal glory, eternal falva- 2 Cor. v. 1.

Q94

tion,

Luke xvi. 9.

1 Pet. v. 10. tion, by an eternal inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, Heb. v. 9. and that fadeth not away; by the everlafting kingdom of Pet. i. 4. our Lord and Saviour Fefus Chrift. And left we 2 Pet. i. 11. fhould be difcouraged by any fhort or lame interpre

ix. 15.

tation of eternity, it is further explained in such terms as are liable to no miftake. For our Saviour John viii. hath faid, If any man keep my faying, he shall never see 51. xi. 26. death: and, Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall Rev. xxi. 4. never die. When God fhall wipe away all tears from

our eyes, there shall be no more death; and where there is life and no death, there must be everlasting life which is expreffed by St. Paul by way of 2 Tim. i. oppofition, calling it life and immortality, and that together with the abolition of death, faying that our Saviour Fefus Christ hath abolished death, and bath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

10.

23.

The belief of this Article is neceffary, (as to the eternity of torment) to deter us from committing fin, and to quicken us to holiness of life, and a speedy reRom. vi. pentance for fin committed. For, the wages of fin is death; nothing can bring us to thofe everlasting flames but fin, no fin but that which is unrepented of; nothing can fave that man from the neverdying worm, who dieth in his fins; and no other reafon can bring him thither, but because he finned and repented not. (k) They which imagine the pains inflicted for fin to be either finall or fhort, have but a flender motive to innocence or repentance; but fuch as firmly believe them sharp and endless, have by virtue of that faith within themselves a proper and natural fpur and incitement to avoid them: for Ifa. xxxiii. who can dwell in everlafting burnings?

14.

Secondly, The belief of eternal pains after death is neceffary to breed in us a fear and awe of the great God, a jealous God, a confuming fire, a God that will not be mocked; and to teach us to tremble at his word, to confider the infinity of his juftice, and the fierceness of his wrath, to meditate on the power of his menaces, the validity of his threats, to follow

that

that direction, to embrace that reduplicated advice of our Saviour, I will forewarn you whom ye fhall fear; Luke xii. 5. Fear him, which, after he hath killed, hath power to caft into hell; yea, I fay unto you, fear him. And that exclufively of fuch fear as concerns the greatest pains of this life, which the (1) Martyrs undervalued out of a belief of eternal torments.

Thirdly, This belief is neceffary to teach us to make a fit estimate of the price of Chrift's blood, to value fufficiently the work of our redemption, to acknowledge and admire the love of God to us in Christ. For he which believeth not the eternity of torments to come, can never fufficiently value that ranfom by which we were redeemed from them, or be proportionately thankful to his Redeemer, by whose intervention we have efcaped them. Whereas he who is fenfible of the lofs of Heaven, and the everlafting privation of the presence of God, of the torments of fire, the company of the Devil and his Angels, the vials of the wrath of an angry and never to be appeased God, and hopeth to escape all these by virtue of the death of his, Redeemer, cannot but highly value the price of that blood, and be proportionably thankful for fo plenteous a redemption.

Pfal. cxxx.

Again, As this Article followeth upon the Refur-7. rection of the juft, and containeth in it an eternal duration of infinite felicity belonging to them, it is neceffary to ftir us up to an earneft defire of the kingdom of Heaven, and that righteousness to which fuch a life is promifed. I will now turn afide and fee Exod. iii. 3. this great fight, faid Moses, when he faw the burning bufh; It is good for us to be here, faid St. Peter, when Matt. xvii. he faw our Saviour transfigured in the mount; how 4 much more ought we to be inflamed with a defire of the joys of Heaven, and that (m) length of days which only fatisfieth by its eternity, to a careful and conftant performance of thofe commands to which fuch a reward is graciously promised! For as all our

happiness

Col. iii. 2,

3.

happiness proceedeth from the vifion of God, fo we are certain that without holinefs no man fhall fee him.

Secondly, This belief is neceffary to take off our inclinations and defires from the pleasures and profits of this Life; to breed in us a (n) contempt of the world, and to teach us to defpife all things on this fide Heaven: to fet our affections on things above, not on things on the earth, confidering we are dead, and our Matt. vi. 21. life is hid with Chrift in God. For where our treasure is, there will our hearts be alfo. Therefore we must Phil. iii. forget those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto thofe things which are before, prefs toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Chrift Fefus.

13, 14.

Thirdly, An affent unto this truth is neceffary to encourage us to take up the cross of Chrift, and to fupport us under it, willingly and cheerfully to undergo the afflictions and tribulations of this life, reckoning with the Apostle, that the fufferings of this prefent time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us; and knowing that our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. And this knowledge is not to be obtained, this comfort is not to be expected, except we look not at the things which are feen, but at the things which are not feen; for the things which are feen are temporal, but the things which are not feen are eternal.

And now having thus fhewed the propriety, proved the verity, and declared the neceffity of this Article, we may fully inftruct every Christian how to exprefs his belief in the last object of his faith, which he may moft fitly thus pronounce: I do fully and freely affent unto this, as unto a moft neceffary and infallible truth, That the unjust after their refurrection and condemnation fhall be tormented for their fins in Hell, and fhall be fo continued in torments for ever, fo as neither the justice of God fhall ever

ceafe