The harmonie of Holie Scriptures vvith the seuerall sentences of sundry learned and vvorthy vvriters : collected for the comfort of all such as are desirous to seeke after theyr soules health / by I.B.

¶ Of the last Iudgement after death: com∣monly called the general iudgement, or Doomes day: When the body and soule of euerie Man departed out of this life, beeing (by the power of God) ioyned againe together, shall (with the rest of all mankind then liuing) receiue the finall sentence, either of eternall pleasure or paine.

§. 1.

AFter death (saith Esdras) shall the* 1.1 day of Iudgement come, vvhen we shall liue againe; and then shall the names of the righteous be made ma∣nifest, and the workes of the vngodly shall be declared.

And, many of them that sleepe in the* 1.2 dust of the earth, shall awake; Some, to euerlasting life: and som••, to shame and perpetuall contempt.

§. 2.

But, before the comming of this day, (saith Christ) there shall be great warres &* 1.3 troubles in the worlde: For, Nation shall rise against Nation, and Realme against

Realme. There shall also be great Earth∣quakes in diuers places, and pestilence, and hunger, and fearefull things appearing frō heauen; and many other great signes and wonders.

There shall be signes in the Sunne, and* 1.4 in the Moone, and in the starres: and vpon the earth trouble among the Nations with perplexitie. The Sea and the waters shall roare, and mens harts shall fayle them for feare, and for looking after those thinges which shall come on the World. For, the powers of heauen shall be shaken.

§. 3.

After this, shall appeare the signe of the* 1.5 sonne of man in heauen: and then shall all the kindreds of the earth mourne.

Then [also] shal the wicked goe into the* 1.6 holes of the Rockes, and into the Caues of the earth, frō before the feare of the Lord, and from the glory of his Maiestie, vvhen he shall rise to destroy the earth.

Then shall they beginne to say to the* 1.7 Mountaines, fall on vs; and to the Hils, co∣uer vs, & hide vs, from the presence of him that sitteth vpon the throne; and from the* 1.8 wrath of the Lambe: for, the great day of

his wrath is come, and who can stand?

In those dayes, men shall seeke death, and* 1.9 shall not finde it; and shall desire to die, & death shall flee from them.

And they shall see the Sonne of man* 1.10 come in the clowdes of heauē, with power and great glory. Who (beeing ordained of* 1.11 * God to be the Iudge both of the quicke and deade,) shall sende his Angels vvith a* 1.12 great sound of a trumpet, and they shal ga∣ther together his Elect, from the 4. windes, and from the one end of heauen vnto the other.

§. 4.

Then shall Christ sitte vpon the throne* 1.13 of his glory: and before him shall be gathe∣red all Nations; and he shall seperate them one from another, as a sheepheard sepera∣teth the sheepe from the goates. And hee shall set the sheepe on his right hand, and the goates on the left.

The shall the earth restore those that* 1.14 haue slept in her, and so shall the dust, those that dwell therein in silence: and the secret places shall deliuer the soules that were cō∣mitted vnto them.

And they shall come foorth that haue* 1.15 doone good, vnto the resurrection of life;

but they that haue done euill, vnto the re∣surrection of condemnation.

For, Christ our righteous Iudge, vvill* 1.16 then giue to euerie man according to his deedes. And reward euery one, according* 1.17 as his worke shall be.

Hee will then say to the righteous whom* 1.18 hee hath placed on his right hand; Come yee blessed of my Father, inherite yee the kingdom prepared for you from the foun∣dations of the world. For, I was hungry, & ye gaue mee meate; I was thirstie, and yee gaue me drinke; I was a stranger, and yee lodged mee; I was naked, and yee clothed mee; I was sick, and yee visited me; I was in prison, and yee came vnto mee.

Then shall the iust say, Lord, when haue we doone these things vnto thee? And the King shall answere; Verily, when you did them to the least of my bretheren, you did them to mee.

Then will he say to the wicked, standing* 1.19 on his left hand: Depart from me yee cur∣sed, into euerlasting fire, which is prepared for the deuill and his Angels. For, I vvas hungry, and ye fed mee not; I was thirstie, and ye gaue mee no drinke; I was a stran∣ger, and ye lodged mee not; I was naked,

and you clothed me not; I was sicke, & in prison, and ye visited me not.

Then shall they also aunswere, saying; When, ô Lord, haue wee seene thee hun∣gry, or thirstie, or a stranger, or naked, or sicke, or in prison, and haue not ministred vnto thee? And he shall aunswere; Truly, I tell you, inasmuch as yee haue not doone it to one of the least of these my bretheren, yee did it not to mee.

And these men shall goe into euerlasting paine; and the righteous into life eternall.

§. 5.

Miseries (saith Esdras) shal then vanish a∣way;* 1.20 and long suffering shall haue an end. Iustice onely shall cōtinue: the Truth shal remaine; and Faith shall be strong.

The worke shall follow, and the rewarde* 1.21 shall be shewed: the good deedes shall be of force; and vnrighteousnes shal beare no more rule.

For, the day of Iudgement, shall be the* 1.22 end of this world, and the beginning of the immortalitie to come; wherein all corrup∣tion shall cease.

Then shall no man bee able to saue him* 1.23 that is destroyed: nor oppresse him that hath gotten the victory.

§. 6.

VVe finde in the New Testament, that Saint Paule the Apostle, vvriting to the Corinthians, to prooue the resurrection of the dead, and the second cōming of Christ, vseth many arguments to expresse the same: and neere vnto the end of his chap∣ter he thus concludeth. * Behold, I shewe* 1.24 you a secret thing; vve shall not all sleepe, [or die,] but wee shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinckling of an eye at the last trumpet: for, the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised vp incorrupti∣ble, and we shall be changed. For this cor∣ruptible, must put on incorruption: And this mortall, must put on immortality. &c.

According also to the former part of the Apostles speech in the afore-saide chapter, (concerning the comming of Christ to iudgement; with the resurrection of mens bodies, and the immortality of the soule,) speaketh holy Iob, in the 19. of his booke, with a confident and perfect hope thereof, saying: * I am sure that my Redeemer li∣ueth,* 1.25 and that he shall stand the last on the earth. And though after my skin, wormes destroy this bodie, yet shall I see GOD in my flesh: whom I my selfe shall see, and

mine eyes shall behold, and none other for me; though my raines are consumed with∣in mee.

The aforesaide S. Paule likewise, com∣forting the Thessalonians, with the remē∣brance of the resurrection of the body, and last Iudgement, saith thus; * I vvould not* 1.26 Bretheren, haue you ignorant, concerning them that are a sleepe; that ye sorrow not, euen as other which haue no hope. For, if we beleeue that Iesus is deade, and is risen; euen so them which sleepe in Iesus, vvill God bring with him. For, this say we vnto you by the worde of the Lorde, that vvee which liue and are remaining at the com∣ming of the Lorde, shall not preuent them which sleepe. For, the Lord himselfe shall descend from heauen with a showte, and with the voyce of the Archangell: & with the trumpet of GOD: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then shall we which liue & remaine, be caught vp with them al∣so in the Clowdes, to meet the Lord in the ayre: and so shall wee euer be vvith the Lord.

By the testimony of vvhich places, it plainely appeareth, that at the last iudge∣ment, there shall not onely bee a generall

raysing vp of all mens bodies, (which from the beginning of the vvorld haue already departed out of this life,) but also, a suddain changing of all mens bodies then liuing on the earth: which change, shal be vnto them in sted of death. And then shal the saints of God, presently after the finall sentence frō Christ our Iudge pronounced, enter both body & soule into endlesse pleasure, & the wicked both body and soule into eternall paine.

Notes

• * 1.1

  2, Esdras, 14. 35.
• * 1.2

  Dan, 12, 2.
• * 1.3

  Luke, 21, 10, 11.
• * 1.4

  Luke, 21. 25, 26,
• * 1.5

  Math. 24, 30.
• * 1.6

  Esay, 2, 19,
• * 1.7

  Luke, 23, 30
• * 1.8

  Reue, 6, 16, 17,
• * 1.9

  Reue, 9, 6.
• * 1.10

  Math. 24. 30
• * 1.11

  Acts. 10, 42,
• * 1.12

  Mat. 24, 31.
• * 1.13

  Math, 25, 31 32, 33.
• * 1.14

  2, Esdr. 7, 3••.
• * 1.15

  Iohn, 5, 29.
• * 1.16

  Math. 16. 27
• * 1.17

  Reue, 22, 12
• * 1.18

  Math, 25. 34, 35, &c.
• * 1.19

  Math. 25, 41, 42, &c.
• * 1.20

  2, Esdr, 7▪ 33 34.
• * 1.21

  verse, 35,
• * 1.22

  2, Esdr. 7, 43.
• * 1.23

  2, Esdr. 7. 45,
• * 1.24

  1, Cor, 15, 51, 52, 53,
• * 1.25

  Iob, 19, 25, 26, 27,
• * 1.26

  1. Thes. 4, 13. 14. 15. 16, &c.