A state of glory for spirits of just men upon dissolution, demonstrated. A sermon…

That which further invited me to this place, was this phrase [The end of your Faith] especially upon the consideration that he speaks it unto, such Christians, who in those times were (as he foretells, ch. 4. v. 4.) shortly to be martyred, and at present were sorely tried (v. 7. of this Chapter) and in the last verse of the fourth, he thereupon instructeth and exhorteth them to commit their souls (when they come to die) to be kept by God: And so understood in a proper and literal sense, this salvation of their ⟨p. 27⟩souls is in all respects termed The end of their Faith.

That which further invited me to this place, was this phrase [The end of your Faith] especially upon the consideration that he speaks it unto, such Christians, who in those times were (as he foretels, ch. 4. v. 4.) shortly to be martyred, and at present were sorely tried (v. 7. of this Chapter) and in the last verse of the fourth, he thereupon instructeth and exhorteth them to commit their souls (when they come to die) to be kept by God: And so understood in a proper and literall sense, this salvation of their ⟨p. 27⟩souls is in all respects termed The end of their Faith.

First, in that it is the next and immediate event that Faith ends and determines in, as Death is said to be the end of life. So noting forth, that when Faith ends, this Salvation of the Soul begins and succeeds it. The end of a thing signifies the immediate event, issue, period thereof. As of wicked men it is said, whose end is destruction, Phil. 3. & Heb. 10. last v. Apostasy & unbelief are said to be a drawing back unto perdition. And on the contrary, there Faith is termed a believing to the salvation of the soul: And both note out the final event and consequent of each, and salvation of the soul to be the end of faith, when men continue and go on to believe, until their faith arriveth at, & attaineth this Salvation of the Soul. To this sense also,