Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

"(Politeuma) was in Heaven, Phil. iii. whilft they were bodily here on Earth. Therefore Heaven is as well under as above the Firmament; yea it is in very deed in his People's • Hearts, in every humble, broken and contrite Spirit.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

AND whereas ye afk, Whether a Creature must wait to know it in himself only, and not otherwife? I fay, not fo neither; for Heaven fhall be manifeft, and known not only inwardly in their Hearts, who wait for it; but outwardly alfo, to fuch as wait not for it within them• felves (as Lazarus in Abraham's Bofom was to ⚫ the rich Man's Sight afar off) fo far only as fhall tend to the Aggravation of their Anguish, who • shall see themselves fhut out everlastingly from fharing in it. To conclude, the Heaven which • is God's Throne, God's Houfe, God's Tabernacle, and the Place of his Reft; where no Lion, nor any ravenous Beaft fhall be; where no Liar, nor unclean one that works Abomination, hath any Place; where none of the proud, prying, vulturous Eyes, can pierce far enough to difcern the Glory of it; where no haughty Fowls of the Air, that are lifted up with the windy Wings of their own lofty Notions; no high climbing Capernaites, nor Thieves and Robbers, that are flying about aloft above the Door, which is the Light within, can ever foar high enough to enter, is not only that high Place locally fituated above the Skies, but that high and holy Place alfo, of a low and humble Heart, and a broken and a contrite Spirit that trembles at his Word, there he de⚫ lights to manifeft himself, who is the High and Lofty One, who inhabiteth Eternity, and to make his Abode, even in them who are meek

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

• and

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

and lowly, who dwell on high with him in the Hill which he hath chofen, whofe Hill is the highest above all the Hills, whofe Jerufalem is his Throne, when all the Earth befides it, that are Foes to him and it, muft be as the Footftool, and as no more than Ashes under the • Soles of their Feet; the Mountain of whofe House is now establishing on the Top of the Mountains, & exalting it self above all the Hills, fo that all Nations fhall go up unto it; while the Proud and Lofty dwell down below in a low Place: The Way of Life is above, where ⚫ the Upright walk, who are to have Dominion over the Wicked (in the Morning that is ap⚫pearing) who dwell in Hell which is beneath, and lie in the Grave and in the Duft of the Earth, where Death gnaweth upon their Entrails, and feedeth upon them as his Prey.

[ocr errors]

To the latter he replies,

(y)

HELL is the Valley of Jehoshaphat, i. e. of the Lord's Judgment, (as the Word is in • English) where with Fire and his Sword he pleadeth with all Flesh, where he easeth himself of • his Adverfaries, and maketh his Indignation ⚫ known to his Enemles, whither the Lord comes ' with a Whirlwind, to render his Anger with Fury, and his Rebukes with Flames of Fire; where the Worm that eats in the Entrails of the • Wicked never dies, and the Fire is never to be quenched; the Place that is ordained of old by the Lord, yea for the King it is prepared, i. e. ⚫ for the Devil and his Angels, the King of all the devouring crowned Locufts, which come A a 3

1

• up

(y) Ibid. p. 852.

.

[ocr errors]

6

[ocr errors]

up in that Smoke that afcends out of the Bottomlefs Pit, and darkens the Sun and the Air, whofe Name is Abaddon and Apollyon, i. e. in English, the Destroyer:

THE Valley which is also called Fophet, or the Valley of the Land of(z) Benbinnom, typified by that which was of old about Jerufalem, and is its Figure, where Men facrificed their Friends through the Fire to the Idol Molech, which was their God; the Pile whereof is Fire and much Wood, and the Breath of the Lord, which is his Spirit in Men's own evil Confciences, like a River of Brimstone, doth feed and kindle it: This is that Valley of Jehoshaphat, to which (as much a Riddle and Mystery as it may feem to be to fay, come up to the Valley) all the Heathen muft be awakened and fummoned to come up to • Account, out of the dark Cells of their own ⚫ deceitful and defperately wicked Hearts, even to that Light, which is the leaft of Seeds, and lies loweft under the Luft of the World, which is got above it in Men's Hearts; yet is in Truth the greateft and highest Power and Seat of Judicature, which whoever refift and rebel againft, receive to themselves Damnation: This is a burning within, kindled under all Men's fleshly Glory, of which (mean while not denying it to be alfo a certain local Place, as ye fpeak) we affirm that it is within the Confcience of every Malefactor, or impenitent Rebel against the Light, where the Wrath of God, is manifefted againft Sin, and on the Creature

[ocr errors]

'

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

for

(2) Therefore is Hell called by Chrift, Mat. v. 29, 30. and by fames, James iii. 6. in Greek evva ex & D vallis Hinnom quæ alias in Topherb dicitur, Feremiah vii. 31. Ifaiab xxx. 33.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

for its Difobedience, when heathenish People not liking to retain God in their Knowledge, nor glorifying him according to what Knowledge they have of him, but giving themselves over to vile Affections, and to act Things that are unfeemly, receive [mark] within themselves, (as'tis said Rom. i.) the juft Recompence of Reward that is meet for their Works; whereas every one, whofe Work is found approved by the Light that proves it, hath his Rejoicing, (with that Joy which the Stranger intermeddles not withal) in himself alone, and not in another, Galat. v. So every one, whofe Work is reprov'ed by the fame, muft bear his own Burden, which none can eafe him of, or take off from ← him, whosoever he is: And this is Hell, which is the second Death, where the Fearful, Unbe; lieving, and Abominable have their Part, who have no Part nor Portion in God's holy City.'

.

[ocr errors]

HENCE it appears, that though the Quakers fay, as the Vicar does, p. 242. There is a Divine and Heavenly Enjoyment of God's Pre'fence in good Men here, by his Gifts and Graces and Spiritual Comforts and Confolations, in which Respect Heaven may be faid to be in 'fome Measure begun in good Men here.' And that Hell, or the Wrath of God, is manifefted against Sin, in the Confcience of every one that doth Evil while here; yet they deny not the Localay of Heaven and Hell, nor that there is a State of more compleat Joy for the Righteous, and of more exquifite Torment to the Wicked hereafter, for as W. P. well obferves, (a) Tho' we own the Beginning of Heaven and Hell to

6

A a 4

(a) His Works, Vol. II. p. 442.

6

[merged small][ocr errors]

'be in this World, yet that they are but Earnefts of that compleat Joy or Torment which Men fhall receive as their Eternal Reward or Recompence hereafter."

SECT. XIX.

Of Abusing the QUAKERS.

THAT the Vicar is either touch'd in Confcience for mifreprefenting the Quakers through the preceding Part of his Book, and would therefore guard against their just Complaints, or else is fo far blinded in his Judgment, by a vicious Habit contracted through long abufing them, as to make him really doubt whether they, of all Mankind, have any Right or Title to common Juftice, appears by feveral Queries he proposes in this his laft Section, which begins thus, p. 246.

• Quest. MAY not the Quakers juftly com• plain of their being mifreprefented, when they bring contrary Teftimonies to those that are objected against them out of their Books? To which he answers, No. And gives this Reason for it, Their feeming contrary Teftimonies may not be really contrary in their Senfe and Meaning, but in their Words only By this Rule, having once luckily hit on a Paffage either mifprinted, or otherwife capable of an Heterodox Construction, he has the Quakers faft, fince. whatever they fhall have otherwise spoken may be in Words only, and contrary to their Senfe and Meaning, which is folely to be determined by that Heterodox Paffage. All the reft is with him but a Popish Trick of fmoothing their

Principles

« PreviousContinue »