I. In the Illuftration of the Glory of GOD, by the most lively demonstration of his Wifdom, Power, Juftice, and Mercy. The Wisdom of GOD is ma nifefted in this acknowledgment, by his diftinct and accurate comprehenfion of all the Particles and individual Dufts of all the Bodies of Mankind; his Power is declared to be no less infinite than that Knowledge, by incorporating them all again into the fame Flesh: His Mercy, by promifing Life after that Death, which we fo juftly deferved; his Juftice, in the reward of the Faithful, and punishment of the Disobedient. When ye fee this, fays the Prophet, your Hearts fhall rejoice, and your Bones hall flourish like an Herb; and the hand of the Lord fhall be known towards his Servants, and his Indignation towards his Enemies †.

+ Ifai. (xvi. 14.

Tim. i. 10.

Joh. xi. 25.

II. In our acknowledgment of the great and powerful work of our Redemption, by Him who bath abolished Death, and brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gofpel*. Chrift is the Re- 2 furrection and the Life: He that liveth and was dead, and is alive for evermore, hath the Keys of the Grave and of Death †; without whose affiftance we + Rev. i. 18. could neither break through the Barrs of the one, nor pass the Gates of the other. Death is Swallowed up in Victory: And, Thanks be to GOD who giveth us the Victory, through our Lord Jefus Christ *.

III. In ftrengthening us at once, against the fear of our own Death, by the comfortable affurance of a never-dying Life to follow; and against immoderate Grief at the Death of others : That not being ignorant concerning those which are afleep, we forrow not even as others which have no hope +.

IV. In the Government of this Life, by way of preparation for a better. St. Paul, who has fo fully delivered the Doctrine, has also taught us by

N 3

his

I Cor. XV. 54.

57.

ง

#1 Theff. iv. 15.

1

his Example the Influence and Effect it ought to work on our Souls: I have hope, fays he, towards GOD, that there (ball be a Resurrection of the Dead, both of the just, and unjust; and berein do I exercise my felf, to bave always a Conscience void of Offence toward GOD, and toward Man t. No Motive fo powerful to engage us to be ftedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the Work of the Lord, as our thus knowing, that our Labour is not in vain in the 1 Cor. xv. 58. Lord *.

+ At xxiv. 15,

16.

A R

ARTICLE XII.

And the Life everlafting.

Do fully and freely affent unto this, as unto a most neceffary and infallible Truth, that the Unjuft, after their Refurrection and Condemnation, shall be tormented for their Sins in Hell, and fhall fo be continued in Torments for ever, so as neither the Justice of GOD fhall ever cease to inflict them (a), nor the Persons of the Wicked cease to fubfift and suffer them (b); and that the Juft, after their Refurrection and Abfolution, fhall, as the Bleffed of the Father, receive the Inheritance, and, as the Servants of GOD, enter into their Master's Joy; freed from all poffibility of Death, Sin, and Sorrow, fill'd with all conceivable and inconceivable Fulness of Happiness, confirm'd in an abfolute Security of an Eternal Enjoyment, and fo they fhall continue with GOD and with the Lamb for evermore (c).

(a) They fhall never live to pay the uttermoft Farthing, who are caft into this outer Darkness, they Thall never come to the Days of Refreshment, who dwell with these everlafting Burnings, One part of their Mifery is the Horror of Defpair; and it were not perfect Hell, if any Hope cou'd lodge in it, In the World to come there is no place for Faith, no Vertue in Repentance; and therefore no means left to obtain the Favour of GOD. If there be now fo vaft a Distance, fo great a Gulph, between the tormenting Flames, and Abraham's Bofom, that none can pals from the one to the other, what Impoffibility muft there be, after the final Sentence has been pronounced upon all? As the Tree falleth, fo it lieth. Without the Mediation of Chrift no Man fhall enter into Heaven: But this Mediation ceaseth, when He fhall bave delivered up the Kingdom to GOD, even the Father. So groundless was the Opinion of Origen, who conceiv'd, that after fuch a number of Years, the Damn'd fhould be releas'd from their Torments, and either be made Partakers of the Joys of Heaven, or at leaft be permitted to try Fortunes in fuch Regions of the World, as he fancied were refery'd for their Habitation. For cer tainly their Condition is unalterable, their Condemnation irreverfible, their Torments inevitable, their Death eternal. As Chrift being rifen from the dead dieth no more, lo no Perfon who has been adjudg'd to eternal Flames, for denying, or contemning his Death and Refurrection, thall be fav'd by virtue of either.

The Socinians, whofe Mafter at fi ft delivered himself on this Subject wich to much Caution and Artinte,

(for fear of offending even his own Party,) that, as he himfelf confeffes,

in his 6th Epift. to Volkelius, he hoped his Readers would fooner fall into it,

and make it their own Perfuafion, than

they should even perceive it to be his

Intention.

(b) They † who of late oppofe the Eternal Subfifténce and Milery ofthe Wicked, proceed not, as fome of the Heathens did, on the fuppo fed Frinciples of Reafon, but strangely alledge the Authority of Scripture: As if all the Threats and Menaces of the Juftice and Wrath

of

of GOD were nothing elfe but what the fcoffing Atheist expects and defires; after Death never to be again; or, if he be, yet, as it were in a moment, to lofe that Being for ever. Because the Scripture fpeaks of the Wicked, as of those who fhall be deftroy'd, and perish, and die, therefore they will give that Comfort to them here, that tho' the Life, in which they fin be fhort, yet the time in which they fhall be tormented for their Sins, fhall be fhorter far. Thus they interpret thofe Words of our Saviour, fo full of Terror, Fear not them which kill the Body, but are not able to kill the Soul; but rather fear Him who is able to deftroy both Body and Soul in Hellt, of Per- + Mat. x. 28. dition only, not of Torment and Pain, and fo render it full of Comfort to the Wicked. But, as a Man may be faid to be destroy'd, to perish, to be loft for ever, to be dead, &c. who is rejected, feparated, and difjoin'd from GOD, the better and nobler Life of Man; fo no Language, Phrafe, or Expreffion of this kind, can be perverted to the fatal Hope and Encouragement of Reprobates, if we confider the frequent addition, the conftant affertion of never-dying Pains. Depart from me ye curfed into everlasting Fire*, is the * Mat. xxv. 4r. exprefs Sentence; and left any fhould imagine that the Fire fhould be eternal, yet the Torments not, it follows, and thefe fhall go away into everlafting Punishment, but the Righteous into Life eternal ‡ ‡ Mat. xxv. 46. Where the fame Epithet, in the Original, is applied to the Punishment and to the Life; fo that the latter may as well be affirm'd to have an end, as the former. He whofe Fan is in his hand, fhall burn up the Chaff with unquenchable Fire †: He hath taught us, + Mat, iii. 12. that it is better to enter into Life halt, or maimed, rather than, having two hands, or two feet, to be caft into everlasting Fire, to go into Hell, into the Fire, that never fall be quenched; and has farther yet ex-* Mat. xviii, 8. plain'd himself, by that unquestionable addition, and undeniable defcription of the place of Torment, Where their Worm dieth not, and the Fire is not quenched. That we may be ftill more fully affur'd, Mark ix. 44.

that this Fire fhall never be extinguish'd, we read,

that,