The four last things viz. death, judgment, heaven, hell, practically considered and applied in…

Sin, of all Evils, the worst and most hateful, shall be abolished, and all Temptations that surround us and endanger our Innocence shall cease. Here the best Men lament the Weakness of the Flesh, and sometimes the violent Assaults of Spiritual Enemies. St. Paul himself breaks forth into a mournful Complaint, O wretched Man that I am, who shall deliver me from this Body of Death? And when harassed by the buffets of Satan, renews his most earnest Addresses to God to be freed from them. Here our Purity is not absolute, we must be always cleansing our selves from the Relics of that deep Defilement that cleaves to our Nature. Here our Peace is preserved with the Sword in our Hand, ⟨p. 279⟩by a continual warfare against Satan and the World. But in Heaven no Ignorance darkens the Mind, no Passions rebel against the sanctified Will, no Inherent Pollution remains. The Church is without Spot or Wrinkle, or any such thing. And all Temptations shall then cease. The Temper was cast out of Heaven, and none of his poisoned Arrows can reach that purified Company. Glorious Liberty! here ardently desired, but fully enjoyed by the Saints above. And as Sin, so all the penal Consequences of it are quite taken away. The present Life is a continual disease, and sometimes attended with that sharp sense, that Death is desired as a remedy, and accepted as a Benefit. And though the Saints have reviving Cordials, yet their Joys are mixed with Sorrows, nay caused […] Sorrows. The tears of Repentance are their sweetest refreshment. Here the living Stones are cut and wounded, and made fit by sufferings for a Temple unto God in the new Jerusalem. But as in building of Solomon's Temple, the noise of a Hammer was not heard, for all the parts were framed before with that exact ⟨p. 280⟩design and correspondence, that they firmly combined together. They were hewen in another place, and nothing remained but the putting them one upon another, and then as Sacred they became inviolable. So God the wise Architect, having prepared the Saints here, by many cutting Afflictions, places them in the eternal Building, where no Voice of Sorrow is heard. Of the innumerable Assembly above; is there any Eye that weeps, any Breast that sighs, any Tongue that complains, or any appearance of Grief? The Heavenly State is called Life, as only worthy of that Title.

Sin, of all Evils, the worst and most hateful, shall be abolish'd, and all Temptations that surround us and endanger our Innocence shall cease. Here the best Men lament the Weakness of the Flesh, and sometimes the violent Assaults of Spiritual Enemies. St. Paul himself breaks forth into a mournful Complaint, O wretched Man that I am, who shall deliver me from this Body of Death? And when harrass'd by the buffets of Satan, renews his most earnest Addresses to God to be freed from them. Here our Purity is not absolute, we must be always cleansing our selves from the Reliques of that deep Defilement that cleaves to our Nature. Here our Peace is preserv'd with the Sword in our Hand,