Discourse to The Greeks Concerning Hades | Page 5

at whose judgment-seat when all men, and angels, and demons shall stand, they
will send forth one voice, and say, Just Is Thy Judgment; the rejoinder to which will bring
a just sentence upon both parties, by giving justly to those that have done well an
everlasting fruition; but allotting to the lovers of wicked works eternal punishment. To
these belong the unquenchable fire, and that without end, and a certain fiery worm, never
dying, and not destroying the body, but continuing its eruption out of the body with
never-ceasing grief: neither will sleep give ease to these men, nor will the night afford
them comfort; death will not free them from their punishment, nor will the interceding
prayers of their kindred profit them; for the just are no longer seen by them, nor are they
thought worthy of remembrance. But the just shall remember only their righteous actions,
whereby they have attained the heavenly kingdom, in which there is no sleep, no sorrow,
no corruption, no care, no night, no day measured by time, no sun driven in his course
along the circle of heaven by necessity, and measuring out the bounds and conversions of
the seasons, for the better illumination of the life of men; no moon decreasing and
increasing, or introducing a variety of seasons, nor will she then moisten the earth; no
burning sun, no Bear turning round [the pole], no Orion to rise, no wandering of
innumerable stars. The earth will not then be difficult to be passed over, nor will it he
hard to find out the court of paradise, nor will there be any fearful roaring of the sea,
forbidding the passengers to walk on it; even that will be made easily passable to the just,
though it will not be void of moisture. Heaven will not then be uninhabitable by men, and
it will not be impossible to discover the way of ascending thither. The earth will not be
uncultivated, nor require too much labor of men, but will bring forth its fruits of its own
accord, and will be well adorned with them. There will be no more generations of wild
beasts, nor will the substance of the rest of the animals shoot out any more; for it will not
produce men, but the number of the righteous will continue, and never fail, together with
righteous angels, and spirits [of God], and with his word, as a choir of righteous men and
women that never grow old, and continue in an incorruptible state, singing hymns to God,
who hath advanced them to that happiness, by the means of a regular institution of life;
with whom the whole creation also will lift up a perpetual hymn from corruption, to
incorruption, as glorified by a splendid and pure spirit. It will not then be restrained by a
bond of necessity, but with a lively freedom shall offer up a voluntary hymn, and shall
praise him that made them, together with the angels, and spirits, and men now freed from
all bondage.

7. And now, if you Gentiles will be persuaded by these motives, and leave your vain
imaginations about your pedigrees, and gaining of riches, and philosophy, and will not
spend your time about subtleties of words, and thereby lead your minds into error, and if
you will apply your ears to the hearing of the inspired prophets, the interpreters both of
God and of his word, and will believe in God, you shall both be partakers of these things,
and obtain the good things that are to come; you shall see the ascent unto the immense
heaven plainly, and that kingdom which is there. For what God hath now concealed in
silence [will be then made manifest,] what neither eye hath seen, nor ear hath heard, nor
hath it entered into the heart of man, the things that God hath prepared for them that love
him.
8. In whatsoever ways I shall find you, in them shall I judge you entirely: so cries the End
of all things. And he who hath at first lived a virtuous lift, but towards the latter end falls
into vice, these labors by him before endured shall be altogether vain and unprofitable,
even as in a play, brought to an ill catastrophe. Whosoever shall have lived wickedly and
luxuriously may repent; however, there will be need of much time to conquer an evil
habit, and even after repentance his whole life must be guarded with great care and
diligence, after the manner of a body, which, after it hath been a long time afflicted with a
distemper, requires a stricter diet and method of living; for though it may be possible,
perhaps, to break off the chain of our irregular affections at once, yet our amendment
cannot