3.38. CHAP. XXXVIII
Of the Signification in Scripture of ETERNAL LIFE,
HELL, SALVATION, THE WORLD TO COME, and REDEMPTION
THE maintenance of civil society depending on justice, and justice
on the power of life and death, and other less rewards and punishments
residing in them that have the sovereignty of the Commonwealth; it
is impossible a Commonwealth should stand where any other than the
sovereign hath a power of giving greater rewards than life, and of
inflicting greater punishments than death. Now seeing eternal life
is a greater reward than the life present, and eternal torment a
greater punishment than the death of nature, it is a thing worthy to
be well considered of all men that desire, by obeying authority, to
avoid the calamities of confusion and civil war, what is meant in Holy
Scripture by life eternal and torment eternal; and for what
offences, and against whom committed, men are to be eternally
tormented; and for what actions they are to obtain eternal life.
And first we find that Adam was created in such a condition of
life as, had he not broken the commandment of God, he had enjoyed it
in the Paradise of Eden everlastingly. For there was the tree of life,
whereof he was so long allowed to eat as he should forbear to eat of
the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which was not allowed him. And
therefore as soon as he had eaten of it, God thrust him out of
Paradise, "lest he should put forth his hand, and take also of the
tree of life, and live forever."(1) By which it seemeth to me (with
submission nevertheless both in this, and in all questions whereof the
determination dependeth on the Scriptures, to the interpretation of
the Bible authorized by the Commonwealth whose subject I am) that
Adam, if he had not sinned, had had an eternal life on earth; and that
mortality entered upon himself, and his posterity, by his first sin.
Not that actual death then entered, for Adam then could never have had
children; whereas he lived long after, and saw a numerous posterity
ere he died. But where it is said, "In the day that thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die,"(2) it must needs be meant of his
mortality and certitude of death. Seeing then eternal life was lost by
Adam's forfeiture, in committing sin, he that should cancel that
forefeiture was to recover thereby that life again. Now Jesus Christ
hath satisfied for the sins of all that believe in him, and
therefore recovered to all believers that eternal life which was
lost by the sin of Adam. And in this sense it is that the comparison
of St. Paul holdeth: "As by the offence of one, judgement came upon
all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one, the free
gift came upon all men to justification of life."(3) Which is again
more perspicuously delivered in these words, "For since by man came
death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam
all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."(4)
Concerning the place wherein men shall enjoy that eternal life which
Christ hath obtained for them, the texts next before alleged seem to
make it on earth. For if, as in Adam, all die, that is, have forfeited
Paradise and eternal life on earth, even so in Christ all shall be
made alive; then all men shall be made to live on earth; for else
the comparison were not proper. Hereunto seemeth to agree that of
the Psalmist, "Upon Zion God commanded the blessing, even life for
evermore";(5) for Zion is in Jerusalem upon earth: as also that of St.
John, "To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of
life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God."(6) This was
the tree of Adam's eternal life; but his life was to have been on
earth. The same seemeth to be confirmed again by St. John, where he
saith, "I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from
God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband": and
again, verse 10, to the same effect; as if he should say, the new
Jerusalem, the Paradise of God, at the coming again of Christ,
should come down to God's people from heaven, and not they go up to it
from earth. And this differs nothing from that which the two men in
white clothing (that is, the two angels) said to the Apostles that
were looking upon Christ ascending: "This same Jesus, who is taken
up from you into heaven, shall so come, as you have seen him go up
into heaven." Which soundeth as if they had said he should come down
to govern them under his Father eternally here, and not take them up
to govern them in heaven; and is conformable to the restoration of the
kingdom of God, instituted under Moses, which was a political
government of the Jews on earth. Again, that saying of our Saviour,
"that in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in
marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven," is a description of
an eternal life, resembling that which we lost in Adam in the point of
marriage. For seeing Adam and Eve, if they had not sinned, had lived
on earth eternally in their individual persons, it is manifest they
should not continually have procreated their kind. For if immortals
should have generated, as mankind doth now, the earth in a small
time would not have been able to afford them place to stand on. The
Jews that asked our Saviour the question, whose wife the woman that
had married many brothers should be in the resurrection, knew not what
were the consequences of life eternal: and therefore our puts them
in mind of this consequence of immortality; that there shall be no
generation, and consequently no marriage, no more than there is
marriage or generation among the angels. The comparison between that
eternal life which Adam lost, and our Saviour by his victory over
death hath recovered, holdeth also in this, that as Adam lost
eternal life by his sin, and yet lived after it for a time, so the
faithful Christian hath recovered eternal life by Christ's passion,
though he die a natural death, and remain dead for a time; namely,
till the resurrection. For as death is reckoned from the
condemnation of Adam, not from the execution; so life is reckoned from
the absolution, not from the resurrection of them that are elected
in Christ.
That the place wherein men are to live eternally, after the
resurrection, is the heavens, meaning by heaven those parts of the
world which are the most remote from earth, as where the stars are, or
above the stars, in another higher heaven, called coelum empyreum
(whereof there is no mention in Scripture, nor ground in reason), is
not easily to be drawn from any text that I can find. By the Kingdom
of Heaven is meant the kingdom of the King that dwelleth in heaven;
and His kingdom was the people of Israel, whom He ruled by the
prophets, his lieutenants; first Moses, and after him Eleazar, and the
sovereign priests, till in the days of Samuel they rebelled, and would
have a mortal man for their king after the manner of other nations.
And when our Saviour Christ by the preaching of his ministers shall
have persuaded the Jews to return, and called the Gentiles to his
obedience, then shall there be a new king of heaven; because our
King shall then be God, whose throne is heaven, without any
necessity evident in the Scripture that man shall ascend to his
happiness any higher than God's footstool the earth. On the
contrary, we find written that "no man hath ascended into heaven,
but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, that is in
heaven." Where I observe, by the way, that these words are not, as
those which go immediately before, the words of our Saviour, but of
St. John himself; for Christ was then not in heaven, but upon the
earth. The like is said of David where St. Peter, to prove the
Ascension of Christ, using the words of the Psalmist, "Thou wilt not
leave my soul in hell, nor suffer thine Holy One to see corruption,"
saith they were spoken, not of David, but of Christ, and to prove
it, addeth this reason, "For David is not ascended into heaven." But
to this a man may easily answer and say that, though their bodies were
not to ascend till the general day of judgement, yet their souls
were in heaven as soon as they were departed from their bodies;
which also seemeth to be confirmed by the words of our Saviour, who,
proving the resurrection out of the words of Moses, saith thus,
"That the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he
calleth the Lord, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the
God of Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living;
for they all live to him."(7) But if these words be to be
understood only of the immortality of the soul, they prove not at
all that which our Saviour intended to prove, which was the
resurrection of the body, that is to say, the immortality of the
man. Therefore our Saviour meaneth that those patriarches were
immortal, not by a property consequent to the essence and nature of
mankind, but by the will of God, that was pleased of His mere grace to
bestow eternal life upon the faithful. And though at that time the
patriarchs and many other faithful men were dead, yet as it is in
the text, they "lived to God"; that is, they were written in the
Book of Life with them that were absolved of their sins, and
ordained to life eternal at the resurrection. That the soul of man
is in its own nature eternal, and a living creature independent on the
body; or that any mere man is immortal, otherwise than by the
resurrection in the last day, except Enos and Elias, is a doctrine not
apparent in Scripture. The whole fourteenth Chapter of Job, which is
the speech not of his friends, but of himself, is a complaint of
this mortality of nature; and yet no contradiction of the
immortality at the resurrection. "There is hope of a tree," saith
he, "if it be cast down. Though the root thereof wax old, and the
stock thereof die in the ground, yet when it scenteth the water it
will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant. But man dieth, and
wasteth away, yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?"(8) And,
verse 12, "man lieth down, riseth not, till the heavens be no more."
But when is it that the heavens shall be no more? St. Peter tells us
that it is at the general resurrection. For in his second Epistle,
third Chapter, verse 7, he saith that "the heavens and the earth
that are now, are reserved unto fire against the day of judgement, and
perdition of ungodly men," and, verse 12, "looking for and hasting
to the coming of God, wherein the heavens shall be on fire, and
shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.
Nevertheless, we according to the promise look for new heavens, and
a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." Therefore where Job
saith, "man riseth not till the heavens be no more"; it is all one, as
if he had said the immortal life (and soul and life in the Scripture
do usually signify the same thing) beginneth not in man till the
resurrection and day of judgement; and hath for cause, not his
specifical nature and generation, but the promise. For St. Peter
says not, "We look for new heavens, and a new earth," but "from
promise."
Lastly, seeing it hath been already proved out of diverse evident
places of Scripture, in the thirty-fifth Chapter of this book, that
the kingdom of God is a civil Commonwealth, where God Himself is
sovereign, by virtue first of the Old, and since of the New, Covenant,
wherein He reigneth by His vicar or lieutenant; the same places do
therefore also prove that after the coming again of our Saviour in his
majesty and glory to reign actually and eternally, the kingdom of
God is to be on earth. But because this doctrine, though proved out of
places of Scripture not few nor obscure, will appear to most men a
novelty, I do but propound it, maintaining nothing in this or any
other paradox of religion, but attending the end of that dispute of
the sword, concerning the authority (not yet amongst my countrymen
decided), by which all sorts of doctrine are to be approved or
rejected; and whose commands, both in speech and writing, whatsoever
be the opinions of private men, must by all men, that mean to be
protected by their laws, be obeyed. For the points of doctrine
concerning the kingdom of God have so great influence on the kingdom
of man as not to be determined but by them that under God have the
sovereign power.
As the kingdom of God, and eternal life, so also God's enemies,
and their torments after judgement, appear by the Scripture to have
their place on earth. The name of the place where all men remain
till the resurrection, that were either buried or swallowed up of
the earth, is usually called in Scripture by words that signify
under ground; which the Latins read generally infernus
and inferi, and the Greeks αδτς;
that is to say, a place where men cannot see; and containeth as well the
grave as any other deeper place. But for the place of the damned after
the resurrection, it is not determined, neither in the Old nor New Testament,
by any note of situation, but only by the company: as that it shall be where
such wicked men were, as God in former times in extraordinary and miraculous
manner had destroyed from off the face of the earth: as for example, that they
are in Inferno, in Tartarus, or in the bottomless pit; because
Corah, Dathan, and Abiram were swallowed up alive into the earth.
Not that the writers of the Scripture would have us believe there
could be in the globe of the earth, which is not only finite, but
also, compared to the height of the stars, of no considerable
magnitude, a pit without a bottom; that is, a hole of infinite
depth, such as the Greeks in their demonology (that is to say in their
doctrine concerning demons), and after them the Romans, called
Tartarus; of which Virgil says,
Bis patet in praeceps, tantum tenditque sub umbras,
Quantus ad aethereum coeli suspectus Olympum:
for that is a thing the proportion of earth to heaven cannot bear: but
that we should believe them there, indefinitely, where those men
are, on whom God inflicted that exemplary punishment.
Again, because those mighty men of the earth that lived in the
time of Noah, before the flood (which the Greeks called heroes, and
the Scripture giants, and both say were begotten by copulation of
the children of God with the children of men), were for their wicked
life destroyed by the general deluge, the place of the damned is
therefore also sometimes marked out by the company of those deceased
giants; as Proverbs, 21.16, "The man that wandereth out of the way of
understanding shall remain in the congregation of the giants," and
Job, 26.5, "Behold the giants groan under water, and they that
dwell with them." Here the place of the damned is under the water. And
Isaiah, 14.9, "Hell is troubled how to meet thee" (that is, the
King of Babylon) "and will displace the giants for thee": and here
again the place of the damned, if the sense be literal, is to be under
water.
Thirdly, because the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, by the
extraordinary wrath of God, were consumed for their wickedness with
fire and brimstone, and together with them the country about made a
stinking bituminous lake, the place of the damned is sometimes
expressed by fire, and a fiery lake: as in the Apocalypse, 21. 8, "But
the timorous, incredulous, and abominable, and murderers, and
whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall
have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone;
which is the second death." So that it is manifest that hell fire,
which is here expressed by metaphor, from the real fire of Sodom,
signifieth not any certain kind or place of torment, but is to be
taken indefinitely for destruction, as it is in Revelation, 20, at the
fourteenth verse, where it is said that "Death and hell were cast into
the lake of fire"; that is to say, were abolished and destroyed; as if
after the day of judgement there shall be no more dying, nor no more
going into hell; that is, no more going to Hades (from which word
perhaps our word hell is derived), which is the same with no more
dying.
Fourthly, from the plague of darkness inflicted on the Egyptians, of
which it is written, "They saw not one another, neither rose any man from his
place for three days; but all the children of Israel had light in their
dwellings";(9) the place of the wicked after
judgement is called utter darkness, or, as it is in the original, darkness without.
And so it is expressed where the king commandeth his servants, "to bind hand and
foot the man that had not on his wedding garment and to cast him into," εος
τα σκυτος τα οξυτερον
"external darkness,"(10) or "darkness without": which, though translated "utter darkness," does not signify
how great, but where that darkness is to be; namely, without the habitation of God's elect.
Lastly, whereas there was a place near Jerusalem called the Valley
of the Children of Hinnon in a part whereof called Tophet the Jews had
committed most grievous idolatry, sacrificing their children to the
idol Moloch; and wherein also God had afflicted His enemies with
most grievous punishments; and wherein Josiah had burnt the priests of
Moloch upon their own altars, as appeareth at large in II Kings,
Chapter 23; the place served afterwards to receive the filth and
garbage which was carried thither out of the city; and there used to
be fires made, from time to time, to purify the air and take away
the stench of carrion. From this abominable place, the Jews used
ever after to call the place of the damned by the name of Gehenna,
or Valley of Hinnon. And this Gehenna is that word which is usually
now translated hell; and from the fires from time to time there
burning, we have the notion of everlasting and unquenchable fire.
Seeing now there is none that so interprets the Scripture as that
after the day of judgement the wicked are all eternally to be punished
in the Valley of Hinnon; or that they shall so rise again as to be
ever after underground or underwater; or that after the resurrection
they shall no more see one another, nor stir from one place to
another; it followeth, methinks, very necessarily, that which is
thus said concerning hell fire is spoken metaphorically; and that
therefore there is a proper sense to be enquired after (for of all
metaphors there is some real ground, that may be expressed in proper
words), both of the place of hell, and the nature of hellish
torments and tormenters.
And first for the tormenters, we have their nature and properties
exactly and properly delivered by the names of the enemy, or Satan;
the Accuser, or Diabolus; the Destroyer, or Abaddon. Which significant
names, Satan, Devil, Abaddon, set not forth to us any individual
person, as proper names use to do, but only an office or quality;
and are therefore appellatives; which ought not to have been left
untranslated, as they are in the Latin and modern Bibles, because
thereby they seem to be the proper names of demons; and men are more
easily seduced to believe the doctrine of devils, which at that time
was the religion of the Gentiles, and contrary to that of Moses and of
Christ.
And because by the Enemy, the Accuser, and Destroyer is meant the
enemy of them that shall be in the kingdom of God; therefore if the
kingdom of God after the resurrection be upon the earth (as in the
former chapter I have shown by Scripture it seems to be), the enemy
and his kingdom must be on earth also. For so also was it in the
time before the Jews had deposed God. For God's kingdom was in
Palestine; and the nations round about were the kingdoms of the Enemy;
and consequently by Satan is meant any earthly enemy of the Church.
The torments of hell are expressed sometimes by "weeping, and
gnashing of teeth," as Matthew, 8.12; sometimes, by "the worm of
conscience," as Isaiah, 66.24, and Mark, 9.44, 46, 48; sometimes, by
fire, as in the place now quoted, "where the worm dieth not, and the
fire is not quenched," and many places besides: sometimes, by
"shame, and contempt," as, "And many of them that sleep in the dust of
the earth shall awake; some to everlasting life; and some to shame,
and everlasting contempt."(11) All which places design metaphorically a
grief and discontent of mind from the sight of that eternal felicity
in others which they themselves through their own incredulity and
disobedience have lost. And because such felicity in others is not
sensible but by comparison with their own actual miseries, it
followeth that they are to suffer such bodily pains and calamities
as are incident to those who not only live under evil and cruel
governors, but have also for enemy the eternal king of the saints, God
Almighty. And amongst these bodily pains is to be reckoned also to
every one of the wicked a second death. For though the Scripture be
clear for a universal resurrection, yet we do not read that to any
of the reprobate is promised an eternal life. For whereas St. Paul, to
the question concerning what bodies men shall rise with again, saith
that "the body is sown in corruption, and is raised in incorruption;
it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in
weakness, it is raised in power";(12) glory and power cannot be
applied to the bodies of the wicked: nor can the name of second
death be applied to those that can never die but once. And although in
metaphorical speech a calamitous life everlasting may be called an
everlasting death, yet it cannot well be understood of a second death.
The fire prepared for the wicked is an everlasting fire: that is to
say, the estate wherein no man can be without torture, both of body
and mind, after the resurrection, shall endure for ever; and in that
sense the fire shall be unquenchable, and the torments everlasting:
but it cannot thence be inferred that he who shall be cast into that
fire, or be tormented with those torments, shall endure and resist
them so as be eternally burnt and tortured, and yet never be destroyed
nor die. And though there be many places that affirm everlasting
fire and torments, into which men may be cast successively one after
another for ever, yet I find none that affirm there shall be an
eternal life therein of any individual person; but to the contrary, an
everlasting death, which is the second death: "For after death and the
grave shall have delivered up the dead which were in them, and every
man be judged according to his works; death and the grave shall also
be cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death."(13)
Whereby it is evident that there is to be a second death of every
one that shall be condemned at the day judgement, after which he shall
die no more.
The joys of life eternal are in Scripture comprehended all under the
name of salvation, or being saved. To be saved is to be secured,
either respectively, against special evils, or absolutely, against all
evil, comprehending want, sickness, and death itself. And because
man was created in a condition immortal, not subject to corruption,
and consequently to nothing that tendeth to the dissolution of his
nature; and fell from that happiness by the sin of Adam; it
followeth that to be saved from sin is to be saved from all the evil
and calamities that sin hath brought upon us. And therefore in the
Holy Scripture, remission of sin, and salvation from death and misery,
is the same thing, as it appears by the words of our Saviour, who,
having cured a man sick of the palsy, by saying, "Son be of good cheer
thy sins be forgiven thee";(14) and knowing that the scribes took for
blasphemy that a man should pretend to forgive sins, asked them
"whether it were easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or, Arise
and walk";(15) signifying thereby that it was all one, as to the
saving of the sick, to say, "Thy sins are forgiven," and "Arise and
walk"; and that he used that form of speech only to show he had
power to forgive sins. And it is besides evident in reason that
since death and misery were the punishments of sin, the discharge of
sin must also be a discharge of death and misery; that is to say,
salvation absolute, such as the faithful are to enjoy after the day of
judgement, by the power and favour of Jesus Christ, who that cause
is called our Saviour.
Concerning particular salvations, such as are understood, "as the
Lord liveth that saveth Israel,"(16) that is, from their temporary
enemies; and, "Thou art my Saviour, thou savest me from violence";(17)
and, "God gave the Israelites a Saviour, and so they were delivered
from the hand of the Assyrians,"(18) and the like, I need say nothing;
there being neither difficulty nor interest to corrupt the
interpretation of texts of that kind.
But concerning the general salvation, because it must be in the
kingdom of heaven, there is great difficulty concerning the place.
On one side, by kingdom, which is an estate ordained by men for
their perpetual security against enemies and want, it seemeth that
this salvation should be on earth. For by salvation is set forth
unto us a glorious reign of our king by conquest; not a safety by
escape: and therefore there where we look for salvation, we must
look also for triumph; and before triumph, for victory; and before
victory, for battle; which cannot well be supposed shall be in heaven.
But how good soever this reason may be, I will not trust to it without
very evident places of Scripture. The state of salvation is
described at large, Isaiah, 33. 20, 21, 22, 23, 24:
"Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities; thine eyes shall see
Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken
down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither
shall any of the cords thereof be broken.
"But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers
and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall
gallant ship pass thereby.
"For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is
our king, he will save us.
"Thy tacklings are loosed; they could not well strengthen their
mast; they could not spread the sail: then is the a great spoil
divided; the lame take the prey.
"And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick; the people that
shall dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity."
In which words we have the place from whence salvation is to
proceed, "Jerusalem, a quiet habitation"; the eternity of it, "a
tabernacle that shall not be taken down," etc.; the Saviour of it,
"the Lord, their judge, their lawgiver, their king, he will save
us"; the salvation, "the Lord shall be to them as a broad moat of
swift waters," etc.; the condition of their enemies, "their
tacklings are loose, their masts weak, the lame shall take the spoil
of them"; the condition of the saved, "The inhabitant shall not say, I
am sick"; and lastly, all this is comprehended in forgiveness of
sin, "the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity."
By which it is evident that salvation shall be on earth, then, when
God shall reign, at the coming again of Christ, in Jerusalem; and from
Jerusalem shall proceed the salvation of the Gentiles that shall be
received into God's kingdom: as is also more expressly declared by the
same prophet, "And they" (that is, the Gentiles who had any Jew in
bondage) "shall bring all your brethren for an offering to the Lord,
out of all nations, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters,
and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain, Jerusalem,
saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean
vessel into the house of the Lord. And I will also take of them for
priests and for Levites, saith the Lord":(19) whereby it is manifest that
the chief seat of God's kingdom, which is the place from whence the
salvation of us that were Gentiles shall proceed, shall be
Jerusalem: and the same is also confirmed by our Saviour, in his
discourse with the woman of Samaria concerning the place of God's
worship; to whom he saith that the Samaritans worshipped they knew not
what, but the Jews worshipped what they knew, "for salvation is of the
Jews"(20) (ex Judaeis, that is, begins at the Jews): as if he should
say, you worship God, but know not by whom He will save you, as we do,
that know it shall be by one of the tribe of Judah; a Jew, not a
Samaritan. And therefore also the woman not impertinently answered him
again, "We know the Messias shall come." So that which our Saviour
saith, "Salvation is from the Jews,: is the same that Paul says,
"The gospel is the power of God to salvation to every one that
believeth: to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the
righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith";(21) from the faith
of the Jew to the faith of the Gentile. In the like sense the
prophet Joel, describing the day of judgement, that God would "shew
wonders in heaven, and in earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of
smoke. The sun should be turned to darkness, and the moon into
blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come."(22) He
addeth, "and it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
shall be salvation."(23) And Obadiah, verse 17, saith the same,
"Upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance; and there shall be holiness,
and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions," that is,
the possessions of the heathen, which possessions he expresseth more
particularly in the following verses, by the mount of Esau, the land
of the Philistines, the fields of Ephraim, of Samaria, Gilead, and the
cities of the South, and concludes with these words, "the kingdom
shall be the Lord's." All these places are for salvation, and the
kingdom of God, after the day of judgement, upon earth. On the other
side, I have not found any text that can probably be drawn to prove
any ascension of the saints into heaven; that is to say, into any
coelum empyreum, or other ethereal region, saving that it is called
the kingdom of heaven: which name it may have because God, that was
king of the Jews, governed them by His commands sent to Moses by
angels from heaven; and after their revolt, sent His Son from heaven
to reduce them to their obedience; and shall send him thence again
to rule both them and all other faithful men from the day of
judgement, everlastingly: or from that, that the throne of this our
Great King is in heaven; whereas the earth is but His footstool. But
that the subjects of God should have any place as high as His
throne, or higher than His footstool, it seemeth not suitable to the
dignity of a king, nor can I find any evident text for it in Holy
Scripture.
From this that hath been said of the kingdom of God, and of
salvation, it is not hard to interpret what is meant by the world to
come. There are three worlds mentioned in the Scripture; the old
world, the present world, and the world to come. Of the first, St.
Peter speaks, "If God spared not the old world, but saved Noah the
eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing the flood upon
the world of the ungodly," etc.(24) So the first world was from Adam to
the general flood. Of the present world, our Saviour speaks, "My
kingdom is not of this world."(25) For He came only to teach men the
way of salvation, and to renew the kingdom of His Father by His
doctrine. Of the world to come, St. Peter speaks, "Nevertheless we
according to his promise look for new heavens, and a new earth."(26)
This is that world wherein Christ coming down from heaven in the
clouds, with great power and glory, shall send His angels, and shall
gather together his elect, from the four winds, and from the uttermost
parts of the earth, and thenceforth reign over them, under his Father,
everlastingly.
Salvation of a sinner supposeth a precedent redemption; for he
that is once guilty of sin is obnoxious to the penalty of the same;
and must pay, or some other for him, such ransom as he that is
offended, and has him in his power, shall require. And seeing the
person offended is Almighty God, in whose power are all things, such
ransom is to be paid before salvation can be acquired, as God hath
been pleased to require. By this ransom is not intended a satisfaction
for sin equivalent to the offence, which no sinner for himself, nor
righteous man can ever be able to make for another: the damage a man
does to another he may make amends for by restitution or recompense,
but sin cannot be taken away by recompense; for that were to make
the liberty to sin a thing vendible. But sins may be pardoned to the
repentant, either gratis or upon such penalty as God is pleased to
accept. That which God usually accepted, in the Old Testament, was
some sacrifice or oblation. To forgive sin is not an act of injustice,
though the punishment have been threatened. Even amongst men, though
the promise of good bind the promiser; yet threats, that is to say,
promises of evil, bind them not; much less shall they bind God, who is
infinitely more merciful than men. Our Saviour Christ therefore to
redeem us did not in that sense satisfy for the sins of men, as that
his death, of its own virtue, could make it unjust in God to punish
sinners with eternal death; but did make that sacrifice and oblation
of Himself, at His first coming, which God was pleased to require
for the salvation at His second coming, of such as in the meantime
should repent and believe in Him. And though this act of our
redemption be not always in Scripture called a sacrifice and oblation,
but sometimes a price; yet by price we are not to understand
anything by the value whereof He could claim to a pardon for us from
his offended Father; but that price which God the Father was pleased
in mercy to demand.
[(4)]
I Corinthians, 15.21, 22
[(12)]
I Corinthians, 15.42, 43
[(13)]
Revelation, 20.13, 14