N29779:65
A prospect of eternity. Wherein is clearly proved, I. That there is an eternity…
A prospect of eternity. Wherein is clearly proved, I. That there is an eternity into which all men must enter, when they go out of time. II. That we should eye eternity, and look at eternal things. III. That this looking ought to have an influence upon us, in all that we do. / By Tho. Doolittle. ; [Two lines from Matthew]
Boston: printed by T. Fleet and T. Crump for Nicholas Buttolph, 1715
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
VI. The absurdities which follow the denial of an Eternal state, of men (though now unseen) demonstrate the certainty of it:
VI. The absurdities which follow the denyal of an Eternal state, of men (though now unseen) demonstrate the certainty of it:
1. For then the lives of men, even of the best, must needs be uncomfortable, and ⟨p. 29⟩the life of reason would (as such) be subject to more fears and terrors than the life of sense, which is against all sense & reason: for Beasts must dye, but do not foresee that they must dye; but that rational foresight of Death would embitter all his sweetest delights of Life; if there were no reason to hope for another after this; & the more the Life of Man as Man is more noble than the Life of Beasts, the more the foresight of the certain loss thereof without another after this, would affright, afflict, torment: Now it is not rational to think, that God who made Man the chiefest, and the choicest of all his visible works, should endue him with such powers and faculties, as understanding and Will to make his Life (as man) more burdensome, by being filled with fretting fears, wracking griefs, & tormenting terrors, more than any Beasts are able to, or capable of Nay & add, that the more any Man did improve exercise, and use his reason in the frequent Meditations of Death, the more bitter his Life would be, to consider that all the pleasant good he doth enjoy, must certainly and shortly be lost by Death, and he not capable of any good after ⟨p. 30⟩Death in the stead and room thereof.
1. For then the lives of men, even of the best, must needs be uncomfortable, and ⟨p. 29⟩the life of reason would (as such) be subject to more fears and terrors than the life of sense, which is against all sense & reason: for Beasts must dye, but do not foresee that they must dye; but that rational foresight of Death would imbitter all his sweetest delights of Life; if there were no reason to hope for another after this; & the more the Life of Man as Man is more noble than the Life of Beasts, the more the foresight of the certain loss thereof without another after this, would affright, afflict, torment: Now it is not rational to think, that God who made Man the chiefest, and the choicest of all his visible works, should endue him with such powers and faculties, as understanding and Will to make his Life (as man) more burdensom, by being filled with fretting fears, wracking griefs, & tormenting terrors, more than any Beasts are able to, or capable of Nay & add, that the more any Man did improve exercise, and use his reason in the frequent Meditations of Death, the more bitter his Life would be, to consider that all the pleasant good he doth enjoy, must certainly and shortly be lost by Death, and he not capable of any good after