onely live under evill and cruell Governours, but
have also for Enemy, the Eternall King of the Saints,
God Almighty. And amongst these bodily paines,
is to be reckoned also to every one of the wicked
a second Death. For though the Scripture bee
clear for an universall Resurrection; yet wee do not
read, that to any of the Reprobate is promised an Eternall
life. For whereas St. Paul (1 Cor. 15.42, 43.)
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
weaknesse, it is raised in power;” Glory and
Power cannot be applyed to the bodies of the wicked:
Nor can the name of Second Death, bee applyed to those
that can never die but once: And although in
Metaphoricall speech, a Calamitous life Everlasting,
may bee 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 hee who shall
be cast into that fire, or be tormented with those
torments, shall endure, and resist them so, as to 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 bee
an Eternall Life therein of any individuall person;
but on the contrary, an Everlasting Death, which is
the Second Death: (Apoc. 20. 13,14.) “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.” Whereby it is evident, that there
is to bee a Second Death of every one that shall bee
condemned at the day of Judgement, after which hee
shall die no more.
The Joyes Of Life Eternall, And Salvation The Same
Thing Salvation From Sin, And From Misery, All One
The joyes of Life Eternall, are in Scripture comprehended
all under the name of salvation, or Being Saved.
To be saved, is to be secured, either respectively,
against speciall Evills, or absolutely against all
Evill, comprehending Want, Sicknesse, and Death it
self. And because man was created in a condition
Immortall, not subject to corruption, and consequently
to nothing that tendeth to the dissolution of his
nature; and fell from that happinesse by the sin of
Adam; it followeth, that to be Saved From Sin, is
to be saved from all the Evill, and Calamities that
Sinne hath brought upon us. And therefore in
the Holy Scripture, Remission of Sinne, and Salvation
from Death and Misery, is the same thing, as it appears