2 Peter 3:13

THere is no comfort that sticks longer to a man than Hope; none that more unwillingly leaves him: nay it never forsakes, unlesse it be forsaken. Non [deficit], nisi cùm reijciatur. And when it is desperately cast of, it leaves us desolate and destirute of all comfort. But for Hope, the heart would breake: and and when it departs, the heart is broken. Not broken by remorse; a fracture which the hand of mercy hath promised to heale: but broken by despayre; such a breach as will not suffer it selfe ever to be made up againe. Our soules are anguished with the sence of our sinnes: we ly under that unsupportable lode, panting, and groaning, and afflicting our selves with unconceiveable •angs; yet there is hope: A pardon from our offended king revives us, and wee looke up with comfort. Our bodies are sicke; they languish away in faint sweats, and painefull distempers: yet there is Hope. For God hath created both medicines to heale us, and Physitians to apply them: And there is something in the great world to helpe the little one: something in nature, to releeve man, if they can light upon it. Or if these faile, yet he hath prescribed us another method of Physicke: Eccl. 38.9. Pray unto the Lord, and he will make thee whole. But goe we further: Our friends die, our children die, our selves die: where is our hope now? yes; death may kill our life, not our hope. Still wee hope to finde those in Heaven, that have left us upon Earth: and wee patiently resigne our owne bodies to the grave, in the hope of a better resurrection. Still hope cleaves to the Soule, as Ruth to Naomi; Ruth. 1.16. Whither so ever thou goest, I will goe with thee. When we consider this goodly fabricke, the magnificent structure of Heaven and Earth; of so spatious a capacity, and of so specious a forme and beauty: it cannot but wonderfully astonish us, to thinke that this glorious All should bee reduced to nothing. If that were so dolefull a lamentation, Iam seges ubì Troja; corne growes in the streets of Troy. Luk. 19.44. Or if the foresight of Ierusalems downefall, drew teares from the Sonne of God: certainly, the thought of the worlds abolition, may iustly confound the hearts of the Sonnes of men.

But blessed be our God, that hath not left us without hope; even the cleare hope of a better renovation. This world shall perish, a more perfect one shall succeede. These Heavens, and this Earth shall passe away; but Hope hath comforted us with a restitution. For wee looke for new Heavens, and a new Earth. Neither have we a groundlesse or unwarranted expectation of this; but a confident hope; built on so sure a foundation, as the infallible promise of God: According to his promise. Nor shall there bee a blended confusion or mixture of good and bad, of order and disorder, of holinesse and sinne, in this new place: but justitia habitat; Righteousnesse dwelleth there; only righteousnesse, and that for ever.

Conceive the whole Verse to bee one intire building; and therein wee have 1. The foundation of it; The Promise of God. 2. The materiall parts of it; Heaven and Earth. 3. The quality of those parts; They are New: new Heaven, &c. 4. The inhabitant that dwels there; Righteousnesse. 5. The hope of it; for it is a reversion, a future inheritance: therefore there is a looking for it: and it is a thing worth our looking after: We looke for. 6. The heires that expect it: not all the world; for hell is ordained for some: ver. 11. but wee; all those that serve the Lord in all holy conversation and godlinesse. Before we come to these particulars, I intend to set downe certaine Theses, grounds, and positions in generall; to give the better light to the ensuing discourse.

1. There is a certaine infallible end and consummation determined to the world. Aristotle thus scoffed this opinion in his dayes: I was once afraid, sayes hee, that either tempest or time would overthrow my house: but now I have great cause to feare the ruine of my house, and of my selfe too: for there be some, that, in words, goe about to pull downe the world. But to bee serious, there is a twofold end, the one of corruption, the other of annihilation. The end of annihilation is, when a thing so loseth its present being, that no part of it, whether matter or forme, remaines in nature, but as of nothing it was framed, so it is turned into nothing: and such an end the world shall not have. The end of corruption is, when a thing is changed, not simply from a being to a not being, as if it altogether ceased to exist in nature; but into another being, which before it had not. As when fire hath turned wood into ashes, we say there is a corruption of the wood; for it ceaseth to bee wood, and is become ashes: But wee cannot say, there is an annihilation of it; for there is a substance remaining: and the matter, which was under the forme of wood, hath now put on the forme of ashes. Of wood corrupted are ashes generated: according to that worne axiome; Corruptio unius generatio alterius: And such an end the world shall have.

2. Creatures, of their naturall disposition, infused by God, doe not desire their owne corruption, much lesse annihilation: but rather they have a naturall love to be, and an innated hatred of destruction. Why else is there such a Sympathy, and Antipathy, even in things destitute of reason? The Lambe, though it never had experience of the Wolves cruelty, yet at the very first sight of him, doth tremble and flie for feare. Scaliger tels us of a tree, that at a mans approching, drawes in her large shoots and branches; and at his departure, spreads them out againe; which is therefore called the shame-fac’d tree. But this is not so much shame, as a naturall divination of some present or imminent danger, and and an uniting of the dispersed forces, for the stronger resistance. Rom. 8.19.22. That same groaning of the whole creation, and fervent expectation of the creature, must not be understood of any intent it hath to corruption, but to perfection: not being contented with the inherent forme, it affecteth a better. As the militant Saints, though they 2 Cor. 5.4. groane under their burden, doe not desire to bee unclothed, but to be clothed upon, that mortality may bee swallowed up of life. Like the childe, that cryes to put off the old coat; not that it would goe naked, but put on a new garment. The basest degree of being, is better than not to be at all. It is perfection therefore, not abolition, which is in the naturall appetite of Heaven and Earth.

3. It must be some higher power than nature, that can effect this renovation. For as Nature can not make something of nothing; so neither can She bring any matter from being to a not being; because She hath a finite and limited power. A naturall agent may change a forme, whether substantiall or accidentall; but never worke an utter extinction. Wee may turne a river, we cannot dry up the water. Tyrants may kill the living body of a man, and make it a carcase; they may burne it with fire, and bring it to ashes: and this is as neare to nothing, as all their power can possibly reduce it: But let them spend a thousand thousand woods, in the burning of one poore carcase; yet still ashes are ashes; the elements are elements: and they shall never bring this body to nothing. Much lesse can any naturall power annihilate the heavens. Yet an end they shall have; but such a one as man hath: whose body in death is not lost, but changed into the first matter; whose soule is not extinct, but passeth from time to eternitie. So the world is uncapable of Annihilation; but shall bee changed into a more glorious condition, in the Day of the Lord.

4. Concerning the Incorruptibility of the Heavens, some questions would be moved, and some errors removed. It hath not onely been the Tenet of Antiquity, but the observation of all ages, that there is an immutable estate of the heavenly bodies. In the sublunary Region of elementary bodies, we finde great variety, and almost a circular alteration: but not so in the Heavens. And if the heavens were capable of corruption, How could the Sphere of the Moone, being situated so neare to the Region of Fire, continue so long unconsumed? Chrysost. Hom. 14. in Epist. ad Rom. It is not right to say, that Ob previsum peccatum, by reason of sinne foreknowne, the Heavens were made corruptible: for, in propriety of speech, we cannot say so of any creature; much lesse of the Heavens. And when Iob saith, Iob 15.15. The heavens are not cleane in his sight; hee does not meane that they were uncleane; but that they have not so perfect a cleannesse as in God; and what cleannesse soever they have, is by the gift, and manutenency of his Providence. As Plato brings in the supreme God telling the inferiour ones; that they were [corruptibiles] per se, and onely kept from corruption by Him. The Trueth is, •n Tim••. that the Heavens are corruptible, for they shall be changed: unlesse we say, that this change shall be no more, but onely the staying of the wheeles of the clocke; the clocke still remaining the same: so there shall bee a cessation of motions in the Heavens, the use whereof serves for the generation and corruption of mixt bodies. Esai 34.4. They shall depart as a scroll that is rolled together, and the hoste of heaven shall be dissolved; as we shut up a booke when we have done reading it. The cleare Summe is this; The Heavens are capable of corruption; and they are onely kept so long in this constant and unchanged estate, by the same hand of God that shall hereafter change them. Heb. 1.12. They shall waxe old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed.

5. There is no impeachment of Gods Iustice, in this dissolving of the world. It was an old cavill; If God be infinitely good, and the world also good in its nature and degree, why should he destroy it? Shall one Good ruine another? If he destroy that which is good, how shall he continue good himselfe? If he pull it downe, because it is evill, how shall hee bee free from evill, that made it so? The answere is plaine and easie; The world in its originall state was good, for all things were very good, so allowed upon the Makers review; but doth it therefore follow, that it is so now? Doth not a man pull downe his house, when it is growne rotten and infected, that he may build up a new? But the Heavens were not infected, why should they perish? I answer; who can clearely prove, that the sinne of man hath not also infected them? Or if they were granted to bee cleane, yet they were made for some other end, hereafter to be revealed, and not for themselves. Therefore must they be dissolved, that that end might appeare for which they were ordained. An egge-shell is curiously framed, yet to manifest the end for which it was made, it must of necessity bee broken. So the present state of this world must bee dissolved, that the glorious Kingdome of Heaven may bee manifested. This degenerated condition must bee done away, that the state of incorruption and immortality may bee restored. This world shall have an end then; not of annihilation, but of corruption: not a destructive, but rather a perfective end. Esa. 30.26. The light of the Moone, shall bee as the light of the Sunne, and the light of the Sunne shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven daies. Not that this greater light shall emane from the glorified bodies in Heaven: Nor that it shall bee onely by the removall of those fogges, clouds and vapours, which formerly did obscure those lights. But certainely, those Luminaries have lost much of that clearnesse and splendor, which they had in the Creation, and which at the worlds end shall be restored to them. Not that there shall bee an augmentation of their heate, with their light: for as Heaven shall have no neede of their light; Rev. 21.23. (That City hath no neede of the Sunne, nor of the Moone to shine in it, for the glory of God doth enlighten it.) So nor Earth of their heate, when there is nothing to bee generated by it. This permutation of the world therefore, doth nothing derogate from the Divine Iustice.

6. Yea, it is the prayse of his mercy and goodnesse, to place perfection in the stead of imperfection; or for a lesse perfection, to give us a greater. Mat. 24.35. Heaven and Earth shall passe away, that better may succeed: Psal. 102.26. Lorin. Perituri, & veterandi sunt; they shall waxe old, and perish: Qua formula solam indicant accidentalem permutationem. The use of a garment is wearing: no wearing, no further use. when the number of the Elect is complete; and that there is no neede of the Heavens for more generation; they shall be no longer for garment, they may bee for ornament. Thus in a familiar phrase of speech, the world is said to perish; as we say, a man is past his Infancy, an old man hath lost his youth: these vanish, but in neither of these did the man himselfe perish. If the world should bee reduced to a Non esse; the Apostle would not have said, Novos caelos, new Heavens, but Alios caelos, other Heavens. But as in the resurrection, mens bodies shall bee of the same substance, though of a purer disposition: 1 Cor. 13.8.9. Or as our imperfect knowledge in the after-world shall bee abolished, that a more perfect knowledge of God may take place. So must the Scripture be understood, when it speakes of the worlds destruction: that it shall onely suffer a permutation, and the same substance bee endued with a more glorious condition. The Stoickes glance at the meanes of this dissolution, concluding the instrument to be fire. They thought that the Starres and the very Skies were fire; and that they had a wasting action upon the inferior Elements: so that their nourishing moisture, by little and little, decaying; when as neither the Aire can have power of procreation, nor the Earth receive further refection by the water; there should then remaine nothing but fire, to consume all: from whose ashes should arise a new world. This their opinion was something consonant to our Apostles doctrine; saving that they differ in this: The Philosopher ascribes all to a naturall necessity, the Apostle to a supernaturall destiny; even to the purpose of God at the first, and to the hand of God at the last. Yet this dissolution shall not reach, either to the seate of the blessed soules in Heaven, nor to the dungeon of the damned spirits in Hell: neither the joyes of the Saints, nor the torments of the damned, shall bee interrupted by it.

These conclusions being laid in generall, would not passe without some usefull application to our selves.

1. Let us never repine at any alteration of our being, which shall conduce to our better being. If the world must be dissolved, how shall man escape a dissolution? Location is inseparable to existence: therefore seeing the world, which is mans habitation and mansion-house, must bee changed; the principall inhabitant must needs have a joint and fellow-dissolution. The Heavens shall cease, not from being, but from motion. The ordering of things below, the continuance of generation, the propagation of the Species in living creatures; is the end of their motion: this end being ended, there is also an end of their motion. So the labour and trouble of mortall man, shall cease together with this motion of the Heavens. Yea, there is an end put to the travell of the Earth, to the working of the Sea, to the procreation of those elementary, livelesse and under-bodies. Not that we attribute all this onely to the quiet rest of the Heavens: For when at the prayer of Ioshua, the Sunne stood still in Gibeon, and the Moone in the valley of Aialon, and with them the rest of the celestiall bodies; there was not a cessation of the naturall actions of things below: for even then, the Israelites did fight, and their enemies did flie. But the true cause of all this rest from motion, is the will of the first cause; without whose adjuvant working, the second causes are not onely suspended, but disabled to performe their functions. As therefore when the Firmament, and other inferior Spheres together with the Elements, put off these accidents and affections of corruption, fitte for the continuall generation of naturall bodies; they doe not then cease to bee: but are endued with a farre more excellent condition, and receive other qualities fitte for that incorruptible estate of the future world: their substance remaines, howsoever they alter or better their qualities; whereat nature does not repine, but rather incessantly desire it. So is death to man: it may change him, it cannot destroy him. Nay, that permutation is In melius; as In cap. 1. Epist. ad Hebr. Ambrose speakes of the greater world. We may call both these dissolutions, a perishing: Quia pereunt ab eo quod sunt, dum immutantur in melius. They perish from what they are, by being converted into better.

Phil. 1.21. To die is gaine: this is a paradoxe, which the world will not beleeve. They thinke wealth the onely gaine, and life the onely time of this gaine: and death, not onely a losse of life, but of all things with it. But Death a gaine? Let them take this gaine, that have a minde to it: as for themselves, they will none of it. This some melancholy and miserable Christian may imagine a profit; who is so weary of his life, that he thinkes it an advantage to die. But rich men that are wise enough to refuse no gaines, would none of death by their wills. As Gueverra cites one of their Epitaphes.

Death did this rich man kill; Who lies here against his will.

But what doe the Heavens lose by their changing, or men by their dying? Esa. 9.10. Have wee not Cedar for mulbery, and for Bricke, marble? As it was said of the Temple, so is it true of the world after this destruction, and of man after his dissolution; Hag. 2.10. The glory of the second House shall bee much greater than the glory of the first. Death is the Sleepe: In the morning, after sleepe, the body riseth more fresh and full of vigour, than it was over night when it lay downe. 1 Cor. 15.42. Our bodies lie downe in weakenesse, dishonour, mortality: they are raised up againe in power, in honour, and to immortality: and, I pray you, What losse can you finde in this? But vivere damnum, to live is a losse; a double losse: Privative, because it hinders us from the joy and peace that is in Heaven: Positive, because it subjects us to miseries and judgements, and to, worse than all, sinnes. But in death there is a privative gaine; it frees us from all eares and troubles: and a positive, for it helpes us to all joyes and comforts. If my Landlord pull downe my sere, weather-beaten cottage; and build mee up a stately palace for it, I have no cause to complaine. Could the Physician turne my foule, crazy, rotten, aged body; into a vigorous and youthfull one; in reason, I should rather reward him, than blame him. Death, which is the end of the little world, man; and the last Day, which is the death of that great man, the World; are not workes of dissolution, so much as of absolution: The world shall be repolished, man immortalized, and in all God shall be glorified.

2. Seeing that a Dissolution is determined upon the world, and all these lower things are condemned to the Fire; Col. 3.2. Let us set our affections on things above, not on things below: Let us seeke heavenly things. Seek we will certainly, for something; and something there must bee for the minde of man to rest upon. If wee make this world our Center, that and our hopes must faile together: the Fire shall dispatch them both at once. Therefore it were wisedome for us, to seeke for somewhat without the extent of this combustion, and there to repose our hearts. The summe of mans naturall desire, is rest and glory: pleasure and riches, safety, health, and liberty, are but subordinate to them, and comprehended under them. Neither of them is to be found here. Not rest; what the Devill sought in envie, and Salomon in vanity, that all men seeke in curiosity: Matth. 12.43. Walking through these dry places, they seeke rest, but finde none. Here we all Psalm. 120.5. dwell in Mesek, and meet with nothing but disquietnesse. They that are tossed in a tempest, how doe they long for a good Haven or Harbour of rest? And the more our pilgrimage is prolonged, the more we seeke this rest, finde it how we may. But now the Heavens move; they have no rest: the Earth fructifies; she hath no rest: the Waters, Windes, Clouds, and all worke; they have no rest. Man least of all: no rest is allowed him, below. Let us not thinke to set up our rest here, in this tumultuous throng of troubles. Iam. 3.16. Where envying and strife is, there is confusion, and every evill worke. Upon this Wheele ever whirling about, wee are no sooner set downe, but some trouble or other rouseth us with a Surgite; Non habemus hîc requiem: Here we cannot have it; Mic. 2.10. This is not our rest.

Nor glory: we love rest well enough; yet for glory we are content to disquiet our selves. How many enter themselves into a restlesse course of life, for a little puffe of honour; which the Princes breath blowes up, and the peoples breath blowes away? This is not to bee here, Loco pulicum & culicum: In the garden of our delight wee find Wormes; and Spiders even in Kings Palaces: This is the Orbe of Wormes and Spiders; and can wee finde glory in dust and cobwebs? Yet if two such things, as Rest and Glory, might be had upon Earth; they can never be had together. The most honourable places afford not the quietest lives: and they that live in most quiet, are least glorious. Mortall rest is a thing inglorious, and secular glory a thing restlesse. Some men are of Issachars minde; Gen. 49.14. Rest is good, though it be betweene a paire of panniers: They bow their shoulders to beare, and become servants to tribute. If we would live unmolested, we must live ungraced; more for ease, than for honour. For reputation, like that Strumpet in the Proverbes, is alwaies gadding abroad, and meets with none but the stirring. But if wee will bee famous men, of place and credit, then farewell rest. The Fane is advanced above the house, but the winde will not let it bee in quiet. The obscure mans doore may stand safely open, but the Noble mans gate gets many a knocke.

Well, though these are not to bee had here, they are to bee had somewhere; even both of them, and both together, and that for ever. For rest; Psalm. 55.6. O that I bad wings like a Dove, then would I flee away, and be at rest. In Christ there is rest: and that not onely for the body, which sleepe may seeme to afford; but Matth. 11.29. you shall finde rest unto your soules. The rest of the soule is the very life and soule of rest. The soule is from above, and above is this rest, and there onely to bee found. Psalm. 216.7. Returne unto thy rest, O my soule: Where is that? In the land of the living. I, there, there’s the joy of it. Would it not grieve a man, that hath toiled and turmoiled out his whole life in this world, at his dissolution, when hee lookes for rest, to heare the Lord sweare, Non introibit in requiem meam: that Psalm. 95. hee shall not enter into my rest? How unhappily have they spent their labours, that at the end of these temporary paines, must begin everlasting paines? And for their working without thankes, bee rewarded with working without ease, where there is no rest day nor night? But it is blessednesse and comfort, to be called from our holy labours, to enter into Gods rest: for that is rest indeed. Glory also is his, and He gives it onely, there. It is but folly to be ambitious of it below: it were to seeke fresh water in the midst of the sea: or as the Angels said to the women; Luk. 24.51. Why seeke ye the living amongst the dead? After two yeares, Foelix is gone, Act. 24.27. Festus succeeds: the wheele turnes, places are changed: such is the case of all secular glory. Princes and Nobles are but great during their life, or at most the worlds life: then all those Titles and distinctions cease. Thus then for the rest and glory of Earth: either wee seeke and not finde them; or finde one separated from the other; or if both together, yet soone wee lose them againe: they are gone in a trice. Rom. 2 7. But to them that by patient continuance in weldoing, seeke for glory, and honour and immortality, shall bee eternall life. Onely in Heaven let us seeke them; there we shall be sure to finde them, and to finde them both together; and have good assurance to hold them both, and that unchangeably for ever.

Neverthelesse, we, according to his Promise] Of which, first, the materiall parts, the Heavens and Earth; next the quality of them, which is Novitas, or rather Renovatio; they are New: and then the manner or methode of this Renovation, which is a purgation by Fire: Of these having formerly treated, I will now onely give you the summe: and that for our plainer proceeding, by the resoluing of of certaine doubts or questions.

1 That the Apostle onely mentions heaven and earth in this dissolution, or renovation, without those media Elementa, it is no otherwise than Moses in the creation; In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Genes. 1.1. But the first question is, why the heavens should be purged, that never were corrupted. The Angels sinned in the highest Heaven, the glorious Court of the Deitie: yet this was never threatned, nor ever shall be punished with an Innovation. We answere, that the same reason holds not. First, because their abode in heaven was but short: Non steterunt in veritate: Ioh. •.44. They abode not in the truth. And as they fell presently into sinne, so they were presently cast out of heaven. But Man, and his sinne continued long in the World: so that this infection did soke into the graine of nature, and stained it quite thorow; and that so [foulely], that nothing can get it out but Fire. Secondly, that Heaven was the Presence-chamber of the omnipotent and most holy King; and his infinite Goodnesse was of force to keepe the roome from any contagion, which the sinne of those ambitious spirits could breathe into it. For if in nature, these bee antidotes and preservatives, to keepe a house or man from pestilent infection: much more could the immense Goodnesse of God preclude all accesse of contamination from his owne dwelling. But the divine Majesty did not dwell in this world so presentially; nor was He pleased to exercise his Grace so powerfully and extensively to us: so that the world was defiled by mans transgression, and therefore must undergoe this finall Repurgation.

So there bee some that exempt these Elements which have permission with other bodies and qualities, from this necessary Restauration: as the Fire under the Sphere of the Moone, and the Aire in his highest Region. But in vaine doth man dispute for the unnecessarinesse of that, which God hath decreed: whose Decree onely doth make a thing necessary. Whether compound or simple, whether Heaven or the Elements, the Maker and Owner of them all, hath determined them to a finall Renovation.

2. There is a wondrous mutiny amongst Popish Writers, the Souldiers of errour, What should become of those Infants that die without Baptisme, at the last Day: Where should they dwell? They are uncapable (say they) of Heaven, by reason of originall sinne: and they have not deserved Hell, because they were never guilty of actuall: What then shall become of them? Whither should they goe? Lord, what a puzzling thing is errour; and how many absurdities may be built upon the foundation of a false principle? Whether should they goe? Let me aske them, Where are they now? If they can demonstrate to me, where they are for the present, I can certifie them whether they shall goe at the last. There they shall bee then, in the same place wheresoever they are now. They point me to a Limbo Infantum: but where is that Limbo? Catharinus, Pighius, and divers other promise those unbaptized Children, a certaine naturall blessednesse, and a pleasant abode in some Paradise: that they shall have knowledge of God, and of separated substances, and the Revelation of Angels. De amiss. Grat. Lib. 6. cap. 2. & 3. Bellarmine is as hot on the other side, and reproves Catharinus for such an opinion: Affirming them to be the Children of wrath, forsaken of God, under the power of the devill; and that then there shall be but one place of punishment: they that are not in Heaven, must bee in Hell. Thus Bellarminus against Catharinus: Salmeron and Pineda differ from them both: Who will have them to bee in the same state, that man was in puris naturalibus; yet not free from all Satans molestations. Some say, this priviledge shall not bee to them at all: Others, that it shall bee, but they know not where; and others allow it, but they cannot tell how. For if the Elements should be reduced to their first order; then Omnia pontus erat; Gen. 1.•. The Waters covered the Earth, as being the lighter Element: and were restrained by Gods immediate Hand, for the conveniency of mans habitation. Now if those Waters shall returne to their first place, Where shall bee their Paradise for those unchristen’d Infants? Pineda so expoundeth Iob: Iob. 26.10. He hath compassed the Waters with bounds, untill the day and night come to an end: and concludeth, that after this vicissitude of day and night, when time shall bee no more, Antiquum locum obtinent, they shall returne to their first being. What then? Shall their Paradise be under Water? That were a drowned conceit. Shall it bee in the Orbe of the Moone? Or must the man in the Moone resigne his place, and in his stead, there be shall children in Moone? These be the fancies of Moonesicke braines. The trueth is plaine, and needs no evasions or starting holes. Why may not the Children of Christians, being within the Covenant, though they die without the seale of the Covenant, bee admitted through the bloud of the Covenant, into the place promised by the Covenant, the Kingdome of Heaven? What should be against it, when the Scripture is for it? Gen. 17.7. I will establish my Covenant the me and thee, and thy seed after thee [and] I will be a God unto thee, and to thy seed of h•• •••e. Who shall hinder them, whom Christ will receive? Suffer those little ones to come unto Him, a••d forbid 〈◊〉 not. In trueth; neither is there to nor , •••h shall be then, any third place, all men shall perish in Hell for their sins, that are not saved in Heaven by the merits of IESVS CHRIST.

3. To what end shall these new Heavens and Earth serve in the next world? What use shall be of them? The answer must be partly negative, and partly affirmative. Negatively; the Sunne and Moone shall not serve for times and seasons; to distinguish dayes, moneths and yeeres; for then there shall be neither winter nor summer: Time it selfe shall be no more. Nor by their motions and influences to cause a fructifying power in the earth: for then there are no creatures for whose use the Earth should being forth: Psal. 19.5. The Sunne shall not come as a bridegroome out of his chamber, nor rejoyce as a Giant to runne his course: His circuite shall no more be from one end of Heaven to the other. But rather it shall be as in the dayes of Ioshau, when The Sunne stood still in Gihean, and the Moone in the Valley of Aialon: there shall be an everlasting Solstice. Nor shall they serve to give light to the world, for then there shall bee no darkenesse at all. Not that their light shall bee diminished, much lesse extinguished; but Esa. 30.26. septupled and multiplied. The Sun may be left without heate and motion, because these qualities tend to generation; yet still the light may continue: Many things are lightsome, that give no heate, as the glistering and shining precious stones: Nor shall the earth labour of fruites in her pregnant wombe, waiting for the heat of the Sunne, and moisture from the Cloudes, her old midwives to deliver her of her burdens. The ministery and service of all things, such as it is now, shall cease: It shall bee a time of rest, the great yeere of universall jubilee to all creatures. Neither yet shall the new Earth be without inhabitants. Bellarmines conceite, that it shall be operta aquis, covered with the waters, and so unfit for habitation, may easily be refuted. First, Rev. 21 1. The first Heavens and first Earth are passed away; and there was no more Sea. If we take this literally, there shall be no more Sea; much lesse shall all be one universall Sea. Secondly, Mat. 5.5. Blessed are the meeke, for they shall inherite the Earth. This promise is not performed here, therefore we looke to have it fulfilled hereafter. Thirdly, The state of all things shall then be most perfect: not confused and mingled together, as it was in the first act of the creation: when the Earth was without forme and voide, darkenesse upon the face of the deepe, and the deepe covering the face of the Earth; untill God made a distinction and separation of things, reducing all to order, beauty and harmony; which harmony and beauty shall be restored at the great day, and blessed with an unchangeable perfection.

Nor yet shall the Saints so inhabite the earth, as to live in terrene delights; eating, drinking and sporting after the old manner. This was the heresie of Cerinthus, and the dreame of the carnall Iewes concerning a terrestriall Paradise: and the damnable doctrine of that jugling prophet Mahomet. For in the Turkish Histories, wee read of one Alahodinas, the founder of the Assassines; who with this strange imposture got many adherents, and made them the instruments of his bloody designes. He provided a garden most pleasantly situated; so secure, that there could be no looking over the sense. This abounded with all earthly delicacies; curious musicke, beauteous women, sumptuous cheare, delicious wines, fruites, junkets, and whatsoever might content a sensuall appetite. By an intoxicating drinke he would cast them into a dead sleepe, whom he meant to practise on: in which sleepe hee conveyed them to his garden: where waking, they found themselves encompassed with variety of pleasures. Having there solaced themselves a while, by the helpe of the same drinke, hee reported them to their former place: and these at their next waking, would give out with noise and confidence, that they had beene in Paradise. But corruptible pleasure is not for an incorruptible place. 1 Cor. 2.9. The eye hath not seene, nor the eare heard, nor can any heart of flesh comprehend those delights which are given to the Saints and Angels. Our joyes here, are meere toyes and vanities, in regard of those that are laid up for us, in this new World, the blessed Kingdome of IESVS CHRIST.

Thus negatively; now for the affirmative part of the question: To what end shall they serve then? If not for these purposes, yet for some other, sure. What are those? First, it is for the glory of God, that they should remaine. Psal. 148.4. Praise the Lord, ye Heavens: that cannot praise him, that hath no being. But how should they praise him? Man is occasioned to praise God, by the Heavens, and for the Heavens. Not onely now, but even then also: Psal. 19.1. The Heavens shall declare the glory of God, and the Firmament shew his handy worke. The cleare and perspicuous light of this new world, the perfect harmony, the glorious beauty, the wonderfull contexture of Heaven and Earth, shall present us with continuall occasion to magnifie the Creator of all. This is one end; and that were enough: there can be no higher, no greater, than the glory of God. All ends are swallowed up in this, as all rivers runne into the Sea. Secondly, the other end is for the use of man; not such an use as we have now: but as there is a new world, so a new use of that world. The Rev. 21.1. first Heavens and the first Earth are passed away: and the first use of them is gone with them. Heaven and Earth shall bee the seate of the blessed: not onely Heaven; for that is granted. All that wee sticke at, is the Earth: How should the Earth bee the habitation of the righteous? In the state of this question, I determine not: I speake nothing definitively, but by way of probability; and, I thinke, I have good reasons to proove what I say.

1. From the Text it selfe: Saint Peter speakes of both Heaven and Earth, and affirmeth that in them both dwelleth righteousnesse. What is this righteousnesse? It is a gracious quality: and every quality must have some subject to inhere in. This cannot be the matter of the Earth: for what righteousnesse can an insensible subject bee capable of? Wee doe not say, there is justice in Plants, or holinesse in stones, or religion in Beasts. And for the righteousnesse of God; that indeed filleth all places, Bucan. loc. 39. qu. 17. but properly dwelleth in himselfe. Therefore by righteousnesse, we understand the righteous: On Earth shall the righteous dwell, and in them dwelleth righteousnesse.

2. We may collect it from that promise of our Saviour: Mat. 5.5. Origen. Blessed are the meeke, for they shall inherit the Earth. They doe not now inherit it: they, of all men, have the lest share in it. 1 Cor. 15.19. If in this life onely wee have hope in Christ, we, of all men, are the most miserable. Nimrods, and tyrants, and oppressors, men of rapine and violence; these now divide the Earth amongst them. Whereas men of a meeke spirit are thrust Sedibus, aedibus, out of house and home. Innumerable are the places, where the godly are called Strangers, and Pilgrimes upon Earth: therefore they can have no inheritance there. Pilgrimage and Inheritance, are farre different things. The meeke have it not here, therefore they must have it hereafter; or how can they inherite the Earth? This old earth is a place for usurpers, and roarers, and those sonnes of violence; there is nothing but noise and disturbance in it. What Earth then should the meeke inherite? Sure it must be mansuetorum terra: this is not to be found here, therefore to be expected hereafter. Besides, Christ ascribes Blessednesse to the heires of the Earth: but millions have faire inheritances upon this corrupt Earth, that are farre from blessednesse. Some have whole countreies, large continents, yea, many kingdomes, yet without blessednesse. How vast dominions hath the Turke, yet (I am sure, you will say that) hee is not blessed. It must be the habitation of a new Earth, that affords blessednesse: therefore this new Earth shall be inherited by the righteous.

Aug. Civit. Dei. lib. 20. cap. 16. 3. As the Elements had corruptible qualities, fit for the generation of corruptible bodies: so, then, they shall be made answerable to the state of incorruption. But what needs this renovation and concord of the Elements, if the bodies of the Saints should not converse where this new Earth and Elements are? It is true that now Heaven is the receptacle of blessed soules; where Heb. 8.1. Christ sits in his Throne: yet this hinders not, but that both the new Heavens and Earth may bee the habitation of the Saints, after this life. Why may there not bee such an entercourse betweene Heaven and Earth then, as hath beene before? The Angels did often come from Heaven, and appeare in humane bodies upon the Earth. In the next world, the Elect shall be Mat. 22.30. Sicut Angeli, as the Angels of God: even their bodies shall be made 1 Cor. 15.44. Spirituall: and by the supernaturall property of a glorified body, may ascend and descend at their pleasure. Moses and Elias came downe from Heaven, to talke with Christ on the mount. Our Saviour himselfe, after his resurrection, was conversant with his Apostles upon the Earth 40. daies. Why may there not still bee such an entercourse betweene the circumference and the center, betwixt Heaven and Earth?

4. Further yet; 1 Thess. 4.17. The Saints shall bee ever with the Lord, wheresoever Hee is. Rev. 14.4. They shall follow the Lambe whither so ever He goeth. Now Christ is not bounded in Heaven: He hath liberty to goe where hee pleaseth; and certainely the Saints will waite upon him, with incomparably more diligence, than ever Courtiers did attend their King. The glorious presence of God can make a Heaven upon Earth: and wheresoever the Lambe is, the place is blessed, and all blessed with him.

5. Lastly, it is but reason, that God should be there glorified, where he was dishonoured. The Earth was witnesse of the offences done against him; let this new Earth beare witnesse of the praises given unto him. Besides this, all the combates and conflicts of the Saints were upon the Earth: therefore even there also let them weare their crownes. On Earth they were persecuted; give them leave in the same place to triumph. Here they suffered; here also let them be solaced: that the memory of their passed sorrowes, may bee an accidentall variation of their infinite and essentiall joies. When they shall thus revolve with themselves; Here we were derided, there oppressed: in this place wounded, in that martyred. Now those old Monuments of our paines, shall turne to Trophees of joy And that Earth, which was the land of the dead, is become Terra viventium, the land of the living. How spatious shall be the Kingdome of the Saints, when Heaven and Earth is within their dition.

But it is not safe wading without a bottome: this is one of those secrets, which shall be revealed, when this old world is dissolved. How the Elect shall bee disposed of; whither wholly to Heauen, or sometimes to Heaven, sometimes to Earth, at their owne choise; or how otherwise it pleaseth God to place them, is a great mystery not yet opened unto us. But that the Saints shall have the liberty of comming to the Earth, seemes very probable by good reason, gathered from the Scripture. And this is enough for us to beleeve, concerning this point. That there shall bee new Heavens, and a new Earth, prepared for the righteous; and that GOD shall have a glorious Church, the new Ierusalem, both in Heaven and Earth; for in them both dwelleth Righteousnesse. Wheresoever Gods glorified Children shall bee, they shall never want the beatificall vision, the fulnesse of Ioy, the brightnesse of Glory, the eternity of Peace, the society of Saints and Angels, and the blessed fruition of Iesus Christ.

4. The last question is, what Creatures shall bee restored in the next World. In the clearest likelyhood, though thereof wee can deliver no certainty, no living creatures shall bee restored, but onely men. That the unreasonable creatures, as Beasts, Fishes, Fowles, shall cease, there bee probable reasons.

Non sunt ad immortalitatem condita; as the rest, which shall remaine, were: such are the Heavens, Earth, Sunne and Moone. Neither yet were these later made by their constitution, apt to immortality: howsoever some Schoolemen have thought so, because they are a simple body, without qualities one repugnant to another. But immortality is the franke gift of God, and dependeth not à vi naturae: Bucan. Loc. 37. qu. 8. for naturally, as they had a beginning, so they must have an end. In the purpose of God, those creatures that shall remaine, were created to immortality, so were not the Beasts.

Those Creatures onely, besides Man, shall bee restored with Man, which immediately passe from their corruptible estate, into the glorious Liberty of the Sonnes of GOD. But the unreasonable Creatures, after they are dissolved, doe not enter into Glory: nay, they fall into corruption; their Life and Spirit is extinguished with them. Rom. 8.21. But the Heavens and Earth, in the same instant, shall both bee freed from corruption, and receive a glorious liberty. And herein appeares the Divine equity: The Heavens and Earth, for Mans cause, were subdued to vanity, almost from the beginning of the World, to the end. The other Creatures are but a while under this servitude of corruption: their time in the World is but short; and they are renewed and multiplyed by continuall Generation. Therefore it is just, that they who stood the whole tearme of Bondage, should at last bee restored to Liberty: whereas they that for a time onely suffered, vanish with time into nothing.

If the unreasonable Creatures should bee restored, then either the same that were before; (as the same individuall bodyes of Men shall rise againe) or some other of the same kinde newly Created. But not the former; for the parts of those Creatures die with them. Were it not absurd to thinke, that there shall bee a Resurrrection of Beasts; as if Balaams Asse, or Iobs Oxen should rise againe? Nor of the second; for in that day there shall bee no new Creation. Acts 3.21. It is a time of Restitution, not of Creation.

Martyr. No kinde of Creatures shall remaine, Nisi opus aliquod habiturae sint, unlesse they have something to doe: For it is against nature, to constitute any thing, Quod omnino sit otiosum. It is a trite axiome, that without necessity, wee must not imagine a plurality in nature; for shee abhorreth vanity. These irrationall Creatures now serve for the profit or pleasure of Man: There shall bee no such use of them, then; therefore, by consequence, no such Creatures. But in this point I confesse, with the Master of the Sentences: Se nescire, quod in sacris Scripturis se non meminerit legisse. Doubtlesse, nothing shall bee wanting, which may conduce to the perfecting of our joy in IESVS CHRIST.

For application of all: Seeing there shall bee a new Earth and Heavens; why doe not wee become new, that hope to dwell in them? As wee doe not Put new wine into old bottells, Grace into corruption: so neither will God admitte old Tennants into this new World, corruption into Glory. If hee therefore will pull downe Veterem mundum, the old World: shall not wee mortifie, destroy, and pull downe Veterem hominem, the old Man? Wee must put off the old Mun, before wee enter into that new Ierusalem. Wee have heard how the Heavens and Earth shall become new; by way of Purgation: the same must bee our way too. There is a way of purging the body, by letting it blood. So that corrupt blood, with which the ill dyet of wickednesse hath filled the veines of the Soule, must bee let out. Hebrewes. 4.12. The Word of GOD, is that sacrificeing knife, which opens the Veine where this ill blood lyes. The hearts of those Iewes were fowle, subject to the Pleurisie of presumption, till Acts 2.37. Peter pricked them: that punction cured them. There is a Veine of Covetousnesse in thee: humbly desire GOD to open that Veine, though by the knife of Poverty; rather bee content to lose thy wealth, than thy Soule. So could that Heathen conclude, when hee was put to the choyce: I had rather that poore Aristippus should lose his Wealth, than that rich Aristippus should loose his Life. Or indeede, save God the labour, and let thy selfe blood of thy redundant riches, by a charitable benificence. Cast away thy superfluities, thy health will be the better for it. Hast thou a veine of pride? Breath it out by humiliation. What sinnefull affection soever hath distempered thy Soule; doe not launce thy flesh, like a superstitious Priest of Baal; but rent thy heart, like a penitent Servant of Christ. If the Heavens cannot bee made new without a purging, much lesse shall we enter into those Heavens, but by a gracious renovation.

This is principally the worke of God upon us; even of the whole Trinity. Iohn 15.2. The Father purgeth the branches of the Vine: the Sonne washeth all those that have part in him: Tit. 3.5. The Holy Ghost reneweth us by regeneration. Iohn 13.8. Yet doth not God so minister all the ingredients, that hee leaves no Dos for our selves to put in. Lord, doe thou Psal. 51.7. Purge mee with Hysope, and I shall be cleane: wash mee and I shall bee whiter than snow. So also man, purge thy selfe: Ier. 4.14. Wash thy heart from iniquity, that thou mayest bee saved. And every one that hath this hope, 1 Iohn 3.3. Purifieth himselfe, even as He is pure. What bee our ingredients, and where shall wee finde them? The Apothecaries shoppe, is the store-house of Grace; the Physicians prescript, is the word of grace. There the good Samaritan hath both oile and wine: wine to search, and oile to supple: One handfull of the Law to humble us, and another of the Gospell to revive us. Let Moses cast thee downe, that Iesus may raise thee up. Physicians to swellings in the body, first apply fomentations, then cataplasmes: the former gentle and lenitive, the other, purging and sanative. Eli put in too much oile, not wine enough; Doe no more so my Sonnes. Iames and Iohn put in too much wine, not oile enough; when they would have commandes fire from Heaven upon the Samaritanes. Thunder without Raine, is a signe of much winde: they that onely thunder judgements, and never showre downe mercies, are but windy Preachers. You never found us so doing, to build judgement on the ruines of mercy. Neithey yet dare we handle your so gently, as not to bee felt. For whiles wee are no further than in your dead flesh, you can bee quiet: but if wee once touch the quicke, wee shall quickely heare of it. If I might teach you to make a spirituall purge, it should bee after this manner.

Take a bundle of Time, the consideration of the shortnesse of thy life: a scruple of the Law, to correct thy proud humour: a dramme of the Gospell, for a cordiall to thy fainting spirits: Take Humility, Temperance, Patience, of each a like quantity: Put in a great deale of Charity: and that Simple which is the carrier of all the rest, Faith; without which no Physicke will worke. Mingle all these in the liquour of thy owne teares: bee sure to steepe them in repentance; That is a constant ingredient in all our compositions: no recipe, with us, without a resipisce: There is no Bill, that hath not this in it, to which we dare underwrite a Fiat Potio. After this cleansing, the Patient must keepe a good diet; of holinesse and obedience: otherwise he will relapse into the same sickenesse by a misordered life. Iames 1.27. Hee must keepe himselfe unspotted of the world. But you will say; Heaven and Earth shall bee purged with fire: why are not wee put to such a purgation? Wee are, doubtlesse, not seldome. Therefore 1 Pet. 4.12. Thinke it not strange concerning the fiery triall: Thinke it not strange; for it is an usuall custome with GOD to bring his Children this way to Heaven. It is a fore tryall; yet better this fire to purge us, than Hell fire to burne us. Any way to Christ, how sharpe soever: Let mee bee 1 Cor. 3.15. saved, although it bee through Fire.

To conclude; wee looke for a new Earth, and new Heavens; and those new Heavens and Earth looke for new creatures. All men are greedy of newes: Concerning, newes abroad, or newes at home, is the universall question. Scarcely, two of acquaintance meete; but after salutation, and a a little complement, the next word is, What newes? Loe, my whole argument hath been of newes; of new Heavens, of a new Earth, of a new World, and of new things in that world: from the first to the last, here hath been nothing but newes. But there is yet one newes wanting; our being made new creatures in Christ: What joy would it bee for us to report, and for Heaven and Earth to heare this newes; That wee had left our old waies, our old workes, our old customes and sinnes, and were become new men; new borne to that new World, wherein are those new delights for ever.

According to his Promise] This is the foundation of the building. The foundation of our faith, the foundation of our hope, the foundation of our patience, the foundation of all our comfort, is the Promise of God.

1. But where shall we finde this Promise? What Evidence, what Record can we shew for it? Rev. 21.1. Hugo and Catharinus cite for it; Revel. 21. I saw a new Heaven, and a new earth. But our Apostle could not well have relation to that testimony: for in all likelihood, Peters Epistle was written before Iohns Revelation. He speakes of a Promise which they then had, not of a future one which they hope to receive. and in nature, a Promise must goe before the expectation of it. Thomas Anglicus referres us to Luk. 22.29. Luke 22.29. I appoint unto you a Kingdome, as my Father hath appointed unto me. There is a Promise indeed; and an effectuall one, and that of a kingdome: but there is no mention of the place. Christs glorious Kingdome is in the highest Heavens; But what is this to the Renovation of Heaven and Earth? Some clearer testimony therefore must be found out; and that we may doe without much difficulty. Esay 65.17. Esay 65.17. Behold, I create new Heavens and a new Earth, and the former shall not bee remembred. This is to purpose; What can be plainer? Neither does He speake of a future act, but de presenti; not I will create; but I doe create; for the more certainty of it, as if Hee were now doing it. This is Promise and assurance enough, that He will doe. Nor is this promise single: though one word from the mouth of God be sufficient: But Psalm. 62.11. Once hath God spoken; twice have I heard it: So that if it be not ex ore duorum, yet ex ore uno bis prolatum. Esay 66.22. As the new Heavens, and the new Earth which I will make, shall remaine before me, so shall your seed and your name remaine. The reason is drawne from the certainty: I will as surely save you, as I will make a new Heaven and Earth wherein you shall be saved. We may adde that, Esay 64.4. I am not ignorant, that divers interpreters understand by all these places, that restitution of things which the first comming of Christ should bring with it. 2 Cor. 5.17. Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And Rev. 21.5. I make all things new. As if it were onely meant, that there should be a new face and forme of the Church: and to this purpose (they farther alledge) Paul quotes that of Esay 64.4. in his 1 Cor. 2.9. Eye hath not seene, &c. But by their leaves, this exposition takes it off from the literall sense, and turnes it into a mystery: Nor yet doth this applying it to the time of grace, hinder the referring of it also to the day of glory. So the Fathers understand that of Esay, Hierom. in Esa. locis citatis. Aug. Civit. Lib. 20.21.26. Ambros. in cap. 1. ad Heb. Tertul. de Resurrect. carnis. concerning the beatificall vision; and those other places literally, of a new Heaven and Earth, and the Church triumphant in them. And indeed, if we make all this no Promise, Where shall wee finde it? Unlesse wee shall adde that Psalm. 102.26. They shall all waxe old as a garment; but thou art the same. The Maker is unchangeable, but these shall be changed: now this mutation shall not be impejus, certainely.

2. This Promise then we have: the Prophet delivers it, the Apostle repeats it, wee beleeve it, and Saint Iohn in a vision sees it; Rev. 22.1. I saw the new Ierusalem. The Heavens and the Earth, and the Elements betweene them, shall be restored into the glorious liberty of the sonnes of God. What the forme and fashion of those new Heavens and Earth shall bee, as it is not expressed, so it were curiosity for us to inquire. But that the Heavens and Earth shall bee new, of this the Scripture makes us certaine. It may bee expressed by this similitude: As a Nurse that brings up a Kings sonne, Chrys. is made Partaker of his preferment when that Prince comes to his kingdome. So the Heavens and Earth are now our Nurses, contributing their vertues to our preservation, and cherishing us with their best indulgence: therefore it is fitte, that when Christ shall advance us to our glory, they should also be made glorious with us. When God was about to make man, he provided an excellent dwelling for him; a beautifull roofe, and a fruitefull pavement: so when he is pleased to remove man from this lower tenement, into an everlasting mansion: he will make a new Heaven, and a new Earth for him: and this is his Promise.

3. The foundation of our Faith, is the Promise of God: without a promise there can be no Faith. Orationis fundamentum & basis est fides, Theophyl. fidei fundamentum est Dei promissio. Man hath diverse wayes or meanes of apprehending things. That which I know by sense, is my knowledge: that which I know by argument is my reason: that which I know by proofe and tryall, is my experience: that which I know by authority, is my Faith. The Sunne shines, and I see it: I am pained with griefe, and I feele it; this I know by my sense. The pillars of an house uphold it; take away those pillars, and it will fall: this I know by my reason. In my sickenesse or bodily distempers, I have found such and such things comfortable to me, and availeable to my recovery: therefore I conclude, they are good for mee: this I know by experience. In my wantonnesse I have often flien out and sinned: affliction hath humbled me, and brought me home againe by repentance: therefore experience makes me know, that it is good for me that I was afflicted. God hath promised eternall life to all them that are in Iesus Christ: this I know by authority, and it is my faith.

Now this faith is either Divine or Humane. The object of Divine faith is the Promise and Word of God onely: the object of humane faith is the report of men. That Saint Peter was at Rome, and Bishop there, is not Gods Word; therefore it does not binde my Divine faith. Yet see the wonder! Vpon this supposed foundarion all Popery depends. For thereby the Pope challengeth to be his right Successour; and under that title, obligeth men upon paine of damnation, to beleeve and obey whatsoever he decrees. Thus the authority of Popish faith is onely tradition, the report of men, and not the Word of God. Hence it comes that they have so much of their owne stuffe, and so little of Christs: Five Ave-maries, for one Pater-noster; more of our Ladies Psalter, than of our Lords. So they have seven Sacraments, whereas Christ ordained but two. As a grave Divine, expounding that miracle of the Mat. 14.1 seven loaves, and two fishes, wherewith Christ fed so many thousands; and finding some of the Pontifician writers, by a stranger kind of miracle to turne them into their seven Sacraments; and so to make a flourish as if they had gotten Scripture for it: wittily observed; that there was indeed some proportion or resemblance between them. For saith he, here be seven things in all; five loaves, and two fishes: Two of them were of Gods making, the two fishes; and the other five of mans making, the five loaves. So two of their seven Sacraments, Baptisme and the holy Supper, are of Christs institution; but the other five of mans invention. But Cor. 3.11. other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Iesus Christ. His Word is that wee build upon: his Promise is the rocke whereon wee fixe the trust of our hearts, the life of our hope, and the deare salvation of our soules. To make this usefull to us.

First, if God hath spoken it, this bindes us all to beleeve it: Shall wee call in question the truth of God, the God of Truth? •k. 21.33. Heaven and Earth shall faile, that his Word may stand: Heaven and Earth shall be restored, that his Word may not be infringed. Beleeve Gods Word, who doth not: You may speake this to Gentiles; but God is well knowne in Iury, and his Name is great in Israel. But here is the misery of it; our hands give our tongues the lie. Wee say, wee beleeve; and it may be, we beleeve what we say: But may wee not be deceived in both? Faith is a thing not seene, and Faith is of things not seene: yet there is a Faith that may bee seene: invisible in it selfe, visible in the fruits it produceth. Psalm. 48.8. In the City of our God, as wee have heard, so have we seene. Wee have not onely heard the profession of Faith, but seene the workes of it. Faith is a sparke, and a deluge of lusts may drowne it. There is an historicall Faith, which beleeves that there shall bee new Heavens and Earth: but this comes short of true blessednesse: And there is Fides salvifica, that beleeves our owne part in that new glory: that wee shall have a dwelling in those Heavens, prepared for us by Iesus Christ: and this is the Faith that shall doe us good. It was small comfort for the old world to see Noahs Arke a building, whiles themselves had no hope of preservation in it. But Noah beleeved that it was built for his safety; and rejoyced. The want of our Faith shall not disanull or frustrate the Promise of God, nor make his Word of none effect: That shall stand, though we perish. Lord, thou wilt make this new World for us, make us new for it: that we in it, and thou by us may be glorified for evermore.

Next, let us alwaies beare in minde the Promises of God: much good comfort is lost for want of memory. The troubles of a Christian heart be very great, for number, variety, and bitternesse: onely there is one Ingredient that sweetens them all; the Promise of God. I will be with thee in trouble; and Thou shalt not be tempted above thy strength: If we could but remember these Promises, when wee feele such assaults or pangs, How could we want courage? Why should we feare poverty, the losse of a little rubbish; or death, the breaking of a brittle glasse; that have Gods infallible Promise, both for a new World and a new Life in that World, never to be taken from us? The memory is Aerarium animae, the soules Exchequour or Teasury, the safest hold in her Citadell. All the Promises of God are Iewels, more precious than Gold or Rubies: Where should those Iewels be stored up, but in this Cabinet, the memory? This place is not built of Brasse, but fraile and brittle. Of all faculties in man it does first senescere, waxe old: Beauty, which is but a flower, doth often outlast it. Of all powers in man, it is least at command: a man may be the Master of his Invention, of his elocution: but who could ever boast himselfe to bee the Master of his memory, or promise himselfe that that should not faile? There is a Theefe still lurking at the doore of this Treasury: even hee that robbed us of our first estate, the innocencie of nature; and would also filch away our second, the happinesse of Grace. Therefore looke well to thy memory; keepe that Closset full of the divine Promises: that in all thy spirituall distempers, thou maiest have a Cordiall ready to revive thy fainting heart. But alas, our memory is more apt to lose, than to gaine: there is both land and sea in it: the losing part, that’s the sea: the keeping part is the land. Many heare the word, as a Tankard-bearer fetches water from the Conduit: all the way he hath it, carries it, feeles it: but at last he empties it into anothers Cisterne, and is never the better for it. We are harrowed with oppressions, hurried with persecutions; our estate is taken from us, death dissolves us: yet what can dishearten us, if we affie this Promise, that a new Heaven, new Earth, a new Life, and new Glory shall bee provided for us, and everlastingly abide with us?

We looke for new [Heavens]. When as God hath prepared this Inheritance, and promised it; built it, and given us the grant of it; it is fit wee should doe our part, and confidently expect to Expectation is the action of hope, a continuall action; as hope a even ceaseth looking, Till it be stated in possession. Hope is taken three waies: first, for the Doctrine of Faith: 1 Pet. 3.15 Render a reason of the hope that is in you, Next for the Object of Hope, the thing expected: Gal. 5. We wait for the hope of righteousnesse by faith, Lastly, for that holy affection of the minde, which lookes for the promised blessednesse. Faith and Hope differ three waies. First, Ordine; Faith goes before and begetteth Hope: Heb. 11.1. Faith is the Hypostasis or foundation of things hoped for. Yet not Faith, but the Spirit of God is the efficient Cause of Hope. Faith may be the Mother, but the holy Ghost is the Father of all gracious Hope. 1 Pet. 1.3• Hee begets us againe to a lively hope. There is Spes inflata, an Hope blowne into us, and as soone blowne from us: But this is Spes generata; and Generatio terminatur ad substantiam; it brings forth a substance. Secondly, Operatione; the proper office of Faith is to justifie us; of Hope, to support us. Thirdly, Subjecto; and this differs three waies; Modo, gradu, tempore. In the maner; for Faith relieth on the Promise, Hope resteth in the thing promised. August. Fides respicit verbum rei, Spes autem rem verbi. In the measure; our salvation begins in Faith, is perfected and made complete by Hope. In the time: Faith apprehendeth the remission of sinnes and justification in present: Hope is exercised in the expectation of Life to come.

We expect these things, we have them not yet. Rom. 8.24. We are saved by hope: but hope that is seene, is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth hee yet hope for? It may bee said, we now see Heaven, Why then doe we hope for it? There is one Heaven and Earth which we looke upon; another which we looke for: They bee old we looke upon, wee looke for new. But Act. 7.55. Stephen looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the Glory of God. Yes, he saw Dei gloriam, non suam: we looke for the things which concerne our selves. Stephen saw the glory which hee should have; yet untill his death hee did not enjoy it, but in Hope. But a man running in a race, may set his eye upon the prize which hee runnes for, and hopes to obtaine: so there is a an Hope seene. We answer, that there be two things in Hope; Materiale, the materiall part, which is the thing it selfe: and Formale, the formall part, which is the obtaining and fruition of it; The former may bee seene, not the latter but in Hope.

The future estate of the militant Saints is an inheritance, and that is properly a state of Expectancy, and so a fit Object for Hope. Our Hope is in this Life, our Inheritance in the Life to come. Hope we have here, in the state of Grace: Inheritance there, in the state of Glory. Vaine is the Hope which lookes no farther, than to the pleasure of a mortall condition: that hopes onely to bee rich, noble, happy here. The blame is not in Hope, but in our misplacing it. As that is we hope in, such is our Hope. Wee Esay 36.6. leane on a Reed, take hold by Iob 8.14. a Cobweb, catch at Ecclus. 34 2. a Shadow: wee put our hope in them that must die, and then our Hope must die with them. Psal. 146.4. Hope not in Princes: for if wee doe, to dust they turne, and there lyes our Hope in the dust with them. But a right Hope makes a man alive againe, that was halfe dead: when hee droopes, give him Hope, and his spirits will come a-fresh. As Iacob, when he was put in Hope to see Gen 45.24. Ioseph alive, revixit spiritus, he revived. The other Hope is but vigilantis [somnium], a waking dreame: but this 1 Thes 5.8. is the Helmet of hope, Heb. 6.19. the Anchor of of hope: things of substance; that will hold, that have metall in them. When breath, life, and all faile, this Hope failes not: but even then puts life into us, when our life is going from us. When we must forgoe our life, it bids, Let it goe: when it is gone, it presents us with a better; even an 2 Cor 5.2. eternall Mansion in the Heavens. Psalm. 27.13. My soule had fainted within me, but that I hoped to see the goodnesse of the Lord in the Land of the living.

That there is an Expectamus, it is granted; But who are they to whom it is granted? For as Saint Iames speaketh; Iam. 1.26. If any man seeme to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, that mans religion is in vaine. So if any man hopes for this new Inheritance above, and does not first become a new creature below, that mans expectation is in vaine. For shall a man engrosse this world, heape up riches, and glew his soule to them; and yet after all this present felicity, looke for a new Heaven and a new earth, to boot? No, that rich man heard otherwise from Abraham; Luke 16.25. Sonne remember, thou in thy life time received it good things, and Lazarus evill things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. To him that had all this plenty, all this pleasure; Post tantas divitias, post tantas delicias, is this spoken. But this expectation belongs to Gods afflicted ones; they that suffer so much misery in this old world, to them is promised a new. 1 Cor. 15.19. For if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we of all men are most miserable. But wee have a hope that can make us rich; and rich the poorest Christian may be, in three respects.

1. By propriety and right which he hath to an estate, though for the present it be out of his hands. The wealthy Merchant may bee sometimes out of cash; because his wealth lies in trafficke or commerce, or is intrusted out to others: yet in respect of the evidences and obligements hee hath to assure him his owne, he is still rich. Let a Saint be miserable, even to the want of bread, yet hee hath a right and evidence to infinite riches; the treasure of blessednesse laid up in this new world: confirmed to him under the hand and seale of God; a sure debter, that never broke his Word. Yea, hee hath already the earnest of this glorious estate; a heavenly peace in his heart: So that he may say to the richest worldling: Plus mihi in corde, quam tibi in arcâ. Wealthy Croesus had not so much riches in his coffers, as poore Iob had in his conscience. So long as Heaven hath any treasure in it, and that Christ himselfe does not breake, the beleever cannot bee poore. Well therefore may wee looke for these new Heavens, that have so little under the old. Here is one expectamus, of right it belongs to us.

2. By reversion. A man purchaseth a Lordship, endowed with faire revenewes, to fall unto him after the decease of some one in present possession of it. During this expectation he cannot be called poore: for before the expiration his credite is good, and at the expiration his state is good. We preferre the reversion of some great Mannor, before the present possession of a small Farme. This glorious new world is the militant Saints in reversion: though wee tarry for it, we shall have it. Temporall reversions waite the end of anothers life: for this we must waite untill the end of our owne life. This is another Expectamus for us, it is also ours by reversion.

3. By heritage. Gal. 4.1. The heire, so long as he is a childe, differeth nothing from a serservant, though he be Lord of all. The heire in his minority lives at his fathers finding; and must learne how to rule, by being first taught how to serve. Wee are heires, but yet in our non-age. And as the Law provides in some Tenures, that men shall not come to their lands, before they come to their wittes: so this inheritance is not given to us, till we be fitted for the inheritance. There is great difference betwixt a temporall, and this eternall heritage. Below, the inheritance comes not but by death of the party in possession: Above there is no prejudice to the Ancestor: hee dies not, for the heire to succeed him. Wee neede not feare to doe God any wrong, from whom it comes, by our comming to it. Below, the father must be dead, and the sonne living: but above, the Father is ever living, and the Sonne cannot inherite till first he be dead. Here wee come to inherite by the death of others: there wee come to it by our owne death. There is no Filius ante diem, patrios inquirit in annos. But rather Successio minorum, sine recessione majorum: a succession, as of lights: the second burnes cleare, yet the first goes not out, but burnes as cleare as it. Thus rich we are, though our purses be empty. Iam. 2.5. Hath not God chosen the poore of this world, rich in faith, to be heires of the Kingdome, which hee hath promised to them that love him? Wee say of a rich mans sonne, There goes a great heire, though for the time his meanes be short enough. 1 Ioh. 3.2. Wee are now the sonnes of God, but it doth not yet appeare what wee shall be, Wee are now the Children of grace, we shall be the Sonnes of glory. Wee confute our owne distrusting hearts, with what we are: and the disgracing world, with what wee shall be. Let them devoure this World, that have a minde to it: this rotten, perishing, troublesome habitation: We looke for new heavens and a new earth, full of peace and pleasure, and that for ever.

Wherein dwelleth righteousnesse.] A Heathen could say, Mallem virum sine pecucunia quam pecuniam sine viro: so a man without a house, or an house without an inhabitant, is an unhappy separation. To what purpose should God bee at such cost in the reparation, at such trouble in the repurgation of this great building, if at last there should be none to dwell in it? But hee that re-edifies the house, will be sure of a Tenant, and such a one as will pay him rent duely for it; even all he requires; Thankefulnesse and praises. But what doe you call this Tenant? Righteousnesse: which is a gracious quality, or rather an habite: but what is this to an inhabitant? Shall wee imagine a quality without a subject? Holinesse dwells in Gods materiall houses on Earth, as being consecrated to him, and hallowed by him: but yet doth any holinesse that is inherent to the walls or seats, praise him? Doe the stones set forth his glory? No, there must be some other nature, indued with life and understanding, that can bee capable of this office. Righteousnesse alone cannot doe it, nor can it bee done without righteousnesse. To what purpose is the Sunnes shining into an empty house? It might bee as well darke as light, if no body ever comes into it. We must therefore seeke out some capacities, wherein this righteousnesse may bee resident. Of this there bee divers interpretations: Vnusquisque abundat sensu suo.

1. Some understand by this righteousnesse, the cleare iustice of God, which shall pronounce a generall sentence upon all the world; rewarding every man according to his workes: Binding the ungodly with everlasting chaines of darkenesse, and crowning the Saints with a glorious peace. Then shall his righteousnesse shine forth; and it shall bee the universall acclamation of all creatures, The Lord is just. Here, men that live best, commonly speed worst: misery waites onely at the doore of Piety: None but Christians dwell at the signe of the Crosse. Pleasure courts the rich, and the rich court pleasure: All their things are Res secundae, fortunate; and Res facundae, fruitfull. They prosper with them, as if prosperity it selfe had sworne not to dwell without them. Is this thy righteousnesse, O Lord? (forgive our expostulation) Is this Iustice? that thornes should flourish, vines languish? That thy friend should mourne, while thine enemies are jocund? Is this the God you have served all this while, sayes Iobs wife to him? Curse him to his face, and die: But Loqueris ut stulta; shee had that for her labour. When trouble comes to a good man, one would thinke that the messenger were mistaken; and should bee told that hee knockes at the wrong doore. While the innocent suffer, and the guilty domineere, is this Iustice? Yes the Righteousnesse of God is beyond exception: All men shall finde it; they to their cost, that cavill against it. The Sunne of that Divine Iustice shines cleare now: but there is a mist before our eyes; wee doe not so well perceive it. In this renovation of the world, it shall be perspicuous and manifest: All men and Angels shall take full notice of it in that finall sentence of Come and Goe: Come ye blessed, and Goe ye cursed: And it shall be the acknowledgement of Heaven and Earth, and of all Creatures: Righteous art thou, O Lord, in all thy waies, and holy in all thy workes.

2. But if we thus understand it; the Iustice of God dwells every where: no place can exclude that which is infinite. Heaven is full of his Iustice; crowning those soules there, that are justified by the Righteousnesse of Christ. Hell is full of his Iustice; punishing those impenitent spirits with insufferable paines. The Earth is full of his Iustice: the wicked are often mette withall in their sinnes, and the innocent are delivered from their enemies. Michaiah is justified, Nabaoth is revenged, the Baalites confounded, and Ahab judged. Iustice keepes her circuit: yea, without deferring all matters to the last Assises; she walkes her round, and does Martiall law upon incorrigible offenders. Though the last day shall bee honoured with the full execution of Gods Iustice, yet it hath a dwelling in all places: in the highest Heavens, in the lowest Hell, and in the midst betweene both; Vbique habitat Iustitia. Therefore some make the opposition thus; in novo or be habitat Iustitia, in hoc misericordia. Now the mercy of God suffers evill men to live promiscuously among the good: in that new world there shall be a separation: the Goares shall be driven from the Sheepe, the Tares wedded from the wheate, the Chaffe sinned from the Corne, the dust and rubbish shall bee swept into Hell, and this new house shall be filled with nothing but righteousnesse.

There is no hope beyond mercy; and this is the time of it; the next is of Iustice. There is no hope of mercy without repentance, and this is the time of that too; the next is of judgement. All things are not in season at all times: Repentance is now in season: first, because there we weep for sin where we have done it: then because there we cease from sinne, where we might still continue in it. If the heart be broken now, mercy is ready to heale it: but if that day finde it obdurate, Iustice shall fearefully breake it. The teares we shed now, shall be dried up then: but if our eyes be dry till that day, they shall bee set a running for ever, without either ease or pitty. Repentance now seekes sinners, and they will not entertaine it: sinners shall then seeke repentance, and not finde it. If they could; yet in that world repentance shall doe them as little good without mercy, as in this world mercy will doe them without repentance. Now therefore let us embrace repentance for our sinnes, because here dwells mercy to pardon them: at that day it will be too late, for there dwells onely Iustice to punish them.

3. Others by this righteousnesse, conceive those new delights, and spirituall pleasures, which shall fill this new world. So they would have the opposition to stand betweene the sorrowes of the old, and ioyes of the new. This is the vale of miseries, that the mount of blessednesse. And why should not righteousnesse be taken for delight, as well as sinne is put for anguish? Never did man finde pleasure upon earth, like the sweet testimony of an appeased conscience; clensed by the blood of the Lambe, and quieted by the presence of the holy Ghost. It is a continuall feast: other feasts may be soone broken off, as was Adonjahs; or conclude in bitternesse as did Belshazzars: this is an everlasting banket.

What meet we with in this old world, but trouble and misery? If we travell into this little world man, we shall finde new discoveries. Let him be a world, and himselfe will be the land, and misery the Sea. Misery, like the Sea, swells above all the hills, and reacheth to the remotest parts of this Earth, Man. Wee are but dust, coagulated and kneaded into earth by teares: our matter is earth, our forme miserie. We may have one day in seven a holy-day of happinesse; but our whole weeke is miserie. We may have a breathing of happinesse; but our whole journy is miserie. If there be one greenswarth or faire medow to refresh us, yet the greater part of our pilgrimage is rough and dirty. There may bee a dramme of honey in the brimme of the cuppe, but the maine draught is bitternesse. Few and evill are our dayes: few in number, and those few evill in nature; not one of them named for good. Few and evill below, many and good above. Misery is our familiar, happinesse but a stranger to us. Of this worlds happinesse, man is the Tenant, of misery the Landlord: of happinesse the Farmer, of misery the Freeholder: of peace but the usu-fructuary, of trouble the proprietary. If wee have one dish of comfort, once in many meales; yet our continuall diet is sorrow: My teares are my meate day and night. The deluge of calamity overflowes this humane Earth, many cubites. Of this Earth, the highest ground, the loftiest hills are kings: and yet even they have not line enough to fadome this Sea, and to say, my misery is but thus deepe. Hodie quoque [suam Massah] habet, & [suam Meribah]: Bitter, bitter all. As the repining Iewes said of the bread of Heaven, We see nothing but Manna: so we may justly say of the bread of Earth, the bread of affliction, wee see nothing but misery. Misery in want, misery in abundance: in want, the misery of murmuring and impatience: in abundance, the misery of riot and unthankefulnesse. Misery in honour; pride and envie: misery in a low estate, nastinesse and drudgery. In health misery, misery in sickenesse: there wantonnesse, here painefulnesse: in the latter men cry, O their head: in the former they might cry, O their heart. The next world beginnes with happinesse, and with a happinesse that never ends. Therefore wee looke for new Heavens and a new Earth, Wherein dwelleth righteousnesse; that we might exchange our old woes, for new pleasures.

4. All these be faire expositions, and analogicall to the truth: they all beare a good sense. But why should wee not take righteousnesse here, in the literall acception? There dwelleth righteousnesse: that is, holinesse, purenesse, innocency, and the perfection of goodnesse. There dwelleth Christ, and hee is righteousnesse: The Lord our righteousnesse. So here is the full Antithesis of this new world to the old. Righteousnesse dwells there, unrighteousnesse here: Here, sinne and guiltinesse; there grace and holinesse: Below transgression, sanctification above. This world is the Orbe of sinne, which corrupted all: that new one, the Orbe of righteousnesse which restoreth all. This is the winter wherein all things wither; that is the spring which revives them. The world was made good, onely sinne depraved it. Satan was honourable before sinne, for an Angell: amiable before sinne, for a celestiall intelligence: His nature was good, his disposition good; but sinne, when that came, marred all. Good was before evill; before malice charity. Decay entred by sinne, dishonour by sinne, death by sinne. Call his name 1 Sam. 4.21. Ichabod, for the glory is departed. At the birth of Ichabod, sinne; the glory is gone, the Arke of God is removed. This is a constant incumbent of the earth; never non-resident, never out of businesse. No place can be rid of him, no time exclude him, no action escape him. He crept into Heaven with an Angell, into Paradise with a Divell, into mans nature with the roote of that nature. Where can we devise to keepe it out? At home in our houses hee is Famelicus, abroad Socius, in our Travels Conviator at our Feasts Conviva, in our Taverns Compotor, in our beds Consors, in our bosomes Tyrannus: ubique Inimicus. In Gods Temple sinne will not leave us: at our prayers it will be interrupting us: It insinuates it selfe into every action we doe: even our best is not without some touch of sinne, or at least some assault of sinne. It may get into our beneficence, and hee vaine glory; Into our devotions, and be hypocrisie: Into our friendship, and be flattery: Into our hope, and make it smell of presumption: Into our humility, and turne it into base dejection: Into our repentance, and worke it downe to desperation: Into our best workes, and there be an opinion of merite: which is a blow with the left heele that kickes downe all our milke.

Sinne is the epidemicall disease of the world: as the Aire is a common benefit, so sinne is a common mischiefe. Other Elements know their owne Lords: for the Earth, this peece of ground is one mans, that anothers: For the Water, this Well is mine, that my neighbours: for the Fire, every man sits by his owne harth: But the Aire is equally beneficiall to all: the Tenant hath as much Aire as the Landlord, the Foole as the Learned, the Begger as the Prince. So sinne is a common infection. Iam. 3.2. In many things we sinne all. One man languisheth of a consumption, another labours of a fever, a third is racked with the gowte, a fourth swollen with the dropsie: every one hath a severall disease, to bring him to the common end, death. But sinne is the universall disease of all: Rom. 5.12. Death passed upon all, for that all have sinned. The sinne of the world, is indeed a world of sinne.

As the assaults of sinne are incessant for continuance of time, so also innumerable for choice of place. There is no faculty of the soule, no member of the body, but is a speeding place for sinne; but especially it aimes at the heart. Let us watch and ward every where; the one an ocular, the other a manuall, martiall, presidiary defense; but especially keepe the heart. The tongue is an unruly member, yet it hath fewer barres: onely the teeth and the lippes are set to keepe in the tongue. But for the heart, there is an omni custodià, and all little enough to keepe the heart. Some men doth sinne shoote in the eye, and here his arrow is uncleannesse: thus hee wounded Dauid in the eye, by the beauty of Bathsheba: some in the hand, as Gehazi; and his shaft was bribery: Some in the tongue, as Ananias, by lying; and this is his common artillery for tradesmen: some in the gall, as Ioab; and they are all for blood; turning their embraces into embrocadoes: some in their foreheads; and they will carry the Rev. 13.16. marke of the beast to their graves: some in the foote, by prophanenesse; and they are not onely swift to shed blood, but ready to trample upon all religion and goodnesse: others in the head, with the frenzy of dissimulation: others in the heart by covetousnesse; and Satan shall have more service of them for an ounce of gold, than God shall have for the Kingdome of Heaven. Thus standeth man in the middest of the assaults of sinne, like the anatomized figure of him in the frontispice of an Almanacke: where Aries is discharging at his head, Taurus at his necke, cowardly Leo at his backe, Cancer is gnawing his stomach, Sagittarius is shooting at his thighes, and Pisces nibling on his toes. By this time you perceive, that this present world is the region of sinne: Sinne will dwell in us, so long as wee dwell in these Tabernacles: Let us now looke upon the condition of the next.

There dwelleth righteousnesse:] no sinne there, altogether righteousnesse. Here indeede we have some righteousnesse, but it is blended with sinne: In the most regenerate Saint on Earth, there is flesh as well as spirit; and it is a question sometimes, which of them shall get the predominance. We have a righteousnesse that is perfect, now; but that dwells in Heauen, in the person of Christ, and is onely imputed to us. This is a justifying righteousnesse, and it is absolute; but extra nos, without us. That same sanctifying righteousnesse, which is intra nos, inherent to our owne persons, is so unperfect, that sinne is joyned tenant with it in our mortall body: and there is a perpetuall contention betweene them, which shall have the superiority. They are like the land and sea within us: the one would keepe, the other would gaine, Michael and the Dragon, in one Heaven: Caesar and Pompey, in one Empire: Nehemiah and Samballat, in one citty: Isaac and Ishmael, in one family: Iacob and Esau in one wombe: the Arke and Dagon, in one Temple: Grace and corruption, in one Christian. Michael against the Dragon, Caesar against Pompey, Nehemiah against Samballat, Isaac against Ishmael, Iacob against Esau, the Arke against Dagon, Grace against corruption, shall prevaile: but Nondum, not yet. The flesh is vulnerata, non victa; or victa, non mortua. We are still mortifying it so fast as we can: but it hath a Serpents tricke, to keepe the head and taile safe and whole. Often it bites us, and not seldome stings us: till wee are full of Saint Pauls grone, Rom. 7.24. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver mee from the body of this death? Nothing will rid it out of us, but that which riddes us out of the world, Death it selfe.

Onely these new Heavens and Earth challenge this priviledge, that there shall dwell righteousnesse without sinne, life without paine, happinesse without feare, and joy without sorrow. Darkenesse (wee know) is compared to sinne: Opera tenebrarum: now sinne is as universally overspread this deformed world, as darkenesse was over that unformed world: untill God said, Let there bee light: and there was light, when as yet there was no Sun. Before the light was made, darkenesse was over all: afterwards, the light being formed, darkenesse was reduced to one place and season, the night. This light continued for three daies unfixed: on the fourth day God created the Sunne: and then it is likely that all the former dispersed light was gathered into that one body, and treasured up in that great luminary the Sunne. So shall it bee in the recreation of this world: now grace and sinne are scattered all over, as light and darkenesse in the twilight is confused throughout the Aire: it is twilight with us yet. But at the last day Christ shall make a separation; as the waters once were gathered into the sea, that the dry land might appeare: All darkenesse, all sinne and wickednesse; shall bee removed downe into Hell, and there bee confined, never to breake out. All light, that is, all Righteousnesse and holinesse shall be gathered into this new Heaven and Earth, and there bee concentred for ever. There dwelleth Righteousnesse, and happy they that dwell with it.

Wherein dwelleth Righteousnesse] As Travellers that have embarqued themselves for the discovery of some new land, unknowne, but not undesired, purposing to make a plantation there; when they are once arrived in it, labour to satisfie themselves of the particular commodities it affordeth: pretermitting no occasion or convenience, but throughly examining the site, the aire, the fertility, the strength and safety of it: no corner escapes unsearched, no pleasure unconsidered: and finding all according to their desire, they not onely resolve themselves, but also invite their friends to dwell there. So these foure Sabbaths together, our meditations have beene busie in surveying this new World, the Land of Promise, the Inheritance of the Saints, and the Habitation of Righteousnesse. And yet all wee have said is but è Theologiâ negativâ: and indeed, What other way is there to describe this future happinesse, than by removing from it such defects, as fill all temporall things with encombrances? One dayes journey more let us adde to our former discovery; that the glorious beauty of these new Heavens and Earth may both enflame our owne hearts, and kindle an holy Fire in others, to desire it. This present world is troubled with three diseases; a Contagion, a Consumption, and a Palsey. The Righteousnesse that dwels in this new World, as it is out of the reach and danger of these distempers, so it is diametrally opposed to them. First, Contagion or Infection, as in the pestilent Fever, is full of spots: but Righteousnesse is most pure. Secondly, the Consumption is a pining away, and languishing into death: but Wisd. 1.15. Righteousnesse is immortall. Thirdly, the Palsey is a shaking griefe; they that are troubled with it, can hold nothing steddily: but Righteousnesse is constant, inflexible, unalterable, and endures for ever. Thus by the present sicknesse of the old world, wee may guesse of the death of the new

1. This world is infected, yea, infection it selfe. Take it metaphorically, and what finde we in it but infection? Our evill deeds infect by their example: our evill words infect, by their persuasion: our lookes infect, by their allurement: wee breathe nothing but infection. Materially, this earth soiles us: in Summer wee are soiled with dust, in Winter with dirt. These bee those Inquinamenta mundi, which wee are evermore rubbing, or brushing, or washing, or wiping off. There is nothing in this lower region, but it is subject to soile: the very earth it selfe is a soile: our land wee call the soile; How can it then but soile us? Nothing undefiled below: what ever it is, where ever it is, it must needs savour of the nature of the soile. All foule, all blemished here: but in that new World dwels Righteousnesse; a pure and sincere being, without any forraine mixture: 1 Per. 1.4. an Inheritance undefiled, not capable of defilement. Nothing can come in to soile it. Rev. 21.27. Into that Citie shall enter no uncleane thing: all uncleannesse shall bee kept out for ever. Wee would have all things cleane here below; wee cannot: wee desire to have cleane houses, cleane waies, cleane diet, and cleane apparell. O how sweet will it be to dwell with Righteousnesse in those new Heavens, where all things are cleane! Chrystals and Diamonds, nay the Firmament and Stars be not now so pure. That same Galaxie or milken way, a bright circle of the Skie, which the Poets imagined to be a walke for their gods and goddesses in Summer evenings; but Philosophy better saies, is caused by the reflection of starres: it is but wan and duskish in comparison of the diaphanous clarity of all things in this new Kingdome.

2. This World is in a Consumption; the vitall parts of it are corrupted. The best estate of things doth not hold long: and if the substance remaines, yet the lustre is gone: and the first symptome or degree to a Consumption in a man, is the losing of his colour. Esay 40.6. The glory of all flesh is but as the flower of the grasse: Grasse, that’s for the substance; Flower, that’s the beautie of it. The Grasse it selfe lasts not long, but the Flower of the Grasse, nothing so long as the Grasse it selfe. Helen outlived her fairenesse, David his strength. Let no blasting change the flower, no canker eate it, no beast tread it downe with his foot; yet of it selfe will it fall off, and leave the stalke standing. The Rose will marcere, and the Violet livere, of themselves; though no violence bee done to them: the one will fade, the other waxe pale and wanne. A flourishing estate is not kept long; either by the flowers that are worne, or by us that weare them. Were the things of this World cleane, yet take them at their best, they are fading. Every yeere flowers and leaves too fall off; till the Spring comes and revives them. Of many things the substances themselves fade; and of this fading wee all complaine. Or if they fade not of themselves, to us they doe. We are hungry, and we eate; yet even that fades; and we are as weary of our fulnesse, as wee were of our fasting. We are weary, and we rest; yet even that fades; and we grow as weary of our rest, as ever we were of our wearinesse.

There is a melting tabe upon all temporarie things: but Righteonesse, the housholdstuffe of this new Mansion, knowes no Consumption. Decay and death are the effects of sinne: Above there is no sinne, therefore no decay: no decay, therefore no death. The Roses and flowers that make up the garland of Righteousnesse, never can wither: The Pearles and Diamonds, and stones more precious, set in that 2 Tim. 4.8. Crowne of Righteousnesse, can never be fullied. The songs of that triumph never cease. There is an eternall Spring; and as the glory is new to us at first, so old it cannot waxe: it shall bee new for ever. As the shewes made for the glory and state of some solemne day, are first seene of vulgar eyes, before they arrive at their sight for whom they were ordained. So the honour and bravery of this Earth is more in the spectators, than in the spectacle; more in the lookers on, than in the persons that weare it. Say they are gallant shewes, yet but shewes, transient things, Pageants wherewith the eye is soone glutted. After three or foure times beholding them, they grow old and stale, and wee looke upon them with an idle and carelesse eye. But the glory of these new Heavens, the splendor of Righteousnesse, those true and substantiall honours, as they are ever permanent, so they are ever new: as they are never fading, so never cloying: there is infinite variety, satiety none at all. Of vanity wee soone surfet grow weary and lothe it: but the joyes of Righteousnesse will be as everlasting in our desires, as they are in their owne sweetnesse.

3. The things of this World are taken with a Palsey; so shaking, that their joints cannot hold together. There is nothing certaine, nothing steddy: nor can we bee more certaine of any thing among them, than of the uncertainty of them. They tumble daily from man to man: one mans inheritance shakes into another mans purchase. From them that have riches, to them that are covetous, there is a continuall shaking. Much wealth is escheated for want of heires; or confiscated for some offences; or rioted and made away by unthriftinesse; or consumed with Fire, or drowned with Water: many a faire patrimony fals to the ground. Seges ubi Troia; yea, ubi oppidum, aqua. Or if riches bee not taken from us, yet wee are taken from them; which comes all to one passe. The choice is not great, whether I lose my servant, or my servant loseth me: either way he may be masterlesse, and I without a servant. Such a Palsey possesseth all secular things! Doe we not finde it true by proofe daily? When we feele the pulse of nature, by the hand of time, doe wee not complaine that it is sicke of a Palsey? Yet even in this unfaithfulnesse of the creatures, there is a kinde of faithfulnesse to us: they are our friends, in telling us their owne ficklenesse. As the Mechanicke that had a parcell of rich stuffe delivered to him, to make up a curious garment; told his Customer plainely, that for a small matter given him in courtesie, he would save him a great deale of monie: Put it to another, quoth hee, that hath more skill; for if you trust mee with the making of it, I shall certainely spoile it. So when wee are about to place our confidence in worldly things; they tell us really, experimentally, the downe-right truth: Wee are fickle creatures, and have paralyticke and trembling hands, that can hold nothing steddily for you: Set your mindes upon heavenly things: they are constant to you. Trust us with nothing, but what you give for lost, and meane to bee deceived of: This is plaine dealing. Not unto us, say they, not unto us, but to the Lord give your hearts and confidence. 1 Tim. 6.17. Charge them that are rich in this world, that they put not their trust in uncertaine riches. Not onely doth God charge Paul, to charge Timothy to charge us; but even the creatures themselves doe charge us, not to put our trust in their unstablenesse. They will not suffer us to set up our rest in them; not in any thing below: but they force us upon the Creatour of all; who hath provided an Inheritance for us, out of all danger; whereof we shall never bee disseized: Gold that shall never bee embased by any bad mixture: a Crowne without cares, without rivals, without envie, without end: There is a Treasure worth our heatrs.

It is an Inheritance, and all shall inherite; yet without prejudice to the right Heire; Christ. There shall be no wrong done, by Him to us, or by us to Him. Earthly inheritances are divided oftentimes with much inequality: and the priviledge of Primogeniture stretcheth farther in many places, than it did among the ancient Iewes: so that Minor servit majori. One carries it from all, and the rest goe without: or, if they haue any share, the patrimony of the eldest by so much is the lesse. In this new World it is not so: all the sonnes of God are heires, none underlings: and not heires under wardship and hope, but possessive inheritors: and not inheritors of a small pittance of land, but of a Kingdome: and that not of a temporary kingdome, subject to domesticall treasons, or forrain invasions: no murmuring, no conspiracy, no mutiny shall disturbe this Kingdome. There may bee dispar gloria singulorum, yet there is communis laetitia omnium. All shall have the same glory, though not the same degree of glory. August. It is of the nature of light, and such spirituall things; which he Omnibus una, and Singulis tota. So it is in sounds and smells: Let there bee a thousand together, when the bels ring; and they heare all alike. Let there bee multitudes in a garden of flowers, and every one smels as much sweetnesse, as if there were no more but himselfe. There is but one Heaven, and what roome soever wee have in it, wee shall finde peace without trouble, joy without sorrow, glory without envie, and pleasure without end.

1. For the application! If we would dwell with Righteousnesse, first, let Righteousnesse dwell with us: if we with that in the new World, that with us in the old. Many would dwell in Heaven, but they have no minde to Righteousnesse. We have three lives: Vitae, here; Famae, when we are dead: and Gloriae, in Heaven: but there is a fourth, which is the life of all these lives; Iustitiae, the life of grace and Righteousnesse: without which, not onely our bodies shall rot in the dust, but even our memories shall stinke above ground, and our soules perish in the lowest pit. Righteousnesse is life indeed. But doth Righteousnesse dwell with us? Where, O where shall wee finde it? If wee looke for it in the county; there it is ignorance and superstition: If in the city, there it is fraud and oppression: If in the Court, there it is pride and affectation. But you will say, it dwels in our hearts: Who can tell that? In mens lives wee doe not see it; onely in their lips we heare it. So then Righteousnesse is hard driven for habitation; when it can bee admitted no farther than the mouth, and have no other dwelling than in the lips. Into the chamber of our hearts it may not come: in the hall of conversation it is not seene: onely we allow it a little residence in the doore of our lips: a lip-righteousnesse; that’s all. It is in many mens courses or lives, as in some discourses or treatises: wee can see no fruit for leaves, nor matter for words. But I remember what answer a Statesman made to a frivolous petition: I may divide, saith he, your petition into two parts; Matter and Words: now your matter is naught; and with me, assure your selfe, your words shall not carry it. There bee two things respectible in a Christian; his Life, and his Profession: and if his life bee naught, let him never thinke that his profession shall carry it out with God.

Psal. 24.3, &c. Who shall ascend into the Hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in his holy place? Hee that hath cleane hands, and a pure heart, &c. Hee shall receive a blessing from the Lord, and righteousnesse from the God of his salvation. We must get Righteousnesse to dwell with us, or never looke to dwell with Righteousnesse. If we doe not entertaine it here, it will reject us there. Psal. 85.11. When Mercy and Truth have met together; and Righteousnesse and peace have kissed each other. Then shall Truth spring out of the earth, and Righteousnesse shall looke downe from Heaven. But alas, Terras Astraea reliquit: those holy-daies be gone: wee are nothing lesse than righteous. When we reade the Volumes of the Fathers, wee would thinke they did nothing else but write: when wee consider their devotions, wee might thinke they did nothing else but pray. But comming to these our daies, and marking the backes of men and women, wee may well thinke they study nothing but pride: observing their full tables, that they minde nothing but excesse and intemperance: looking upon their lives, that they regard nothing but sinnes: and minde no such thing as Righteousnesse.

2. The hope of this future life sweetens all the bitternesse of the present. There is nothing that so troubles a good heart, as sinne: To bee rid of sinne, it holds a great happinesse. All the epithites and attributes of this world, cannot make up so full a grievance, as this one; that it is sinfull. When we have called it, as it is, a vaine world, a false world, an unquiet world, a miserable world; one would thinke wee had said enough to disgrace it, and to make it loathed. But they all come short of this; a sinfull world, a wicked world: when wee have said that, wee have indeed hit it right: that alone is sufficient to make it detestable. Let us examine our owne hearts, if ever one drop of remorse hath entred into them; whether wee would not have given all the world, yea, even our owne life, to bee sure of the forgivenesse of one sinne that troubles us. And yet that being forgiven, and our heavenly Father pacified by the blood of his Sonne, drying up our penitent teares with the beames of mercie; after all this, wee are apt to fall into new sinne, and againe to trouble Heaven and Earth. O what peace can there bee in the region of sinne? But in this new World there shall dwell Righteousnesse; and her inseparable companions, Peace, Ioy, Glory, Happinesse, and eternall Life. Come ye blessed of my Father, inherite the Kingdome prepared for you: The hearing of which words in the the end, shall make us blessed without end. Amen.