A prospect of eternity or Mans everlasting condition opened and applyed. By John Wells Master of Arts, sometimes Fellow of St. Johns Colledge in Oxford, and now Pastour of Olaves Jewry LONDON.

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To the right Worshipfull Alderman Foote, Alderman Fredericke, and the rest of his much Honoured and, dearly beloved Friends, the Inhabitants of Olaves Jewry, LONDON; John Wells their unworthy Pastor wisheth all increase of happinesse both here and to ETERNITY.

Dear and much Honoured Friends,

THis small Manuall had necessitated me to an Apology, to excuse my precipitance in adven∣turing in publick, especi∣ally

in this age, which so many Learned and Able Pens hath visited; had not my passionate desire to serve you, not only in the Pulpit, but in the Presse, not only by Supplications and Prayers, but by Me∣ditations, enforced this presumption. It hath been the tedious controversie and long dispute of my thoughts, what testimony of my Love and Thank∣fulnesse to present you with, and at last the vote

carried it, to present you with a Landskip of Eter∣nity.

Indeed, I confesse, this small Treatise cals for as many Apologies, as it hath lines in it self, but the un∣usualnesse of the subject, and your wonted favour and goodnesse, shall be my Apologeticall plea. And as the Painter who pictured Alexander with his finger on his defective eye, let your candidnesse cloud, and conceale all the imperfecti∣ons

of it. What it is let me intreat you to entertaine and accept, and now it is come abroad into the world, let it not wander up and down and no man own it, but let it be sheltred and received in the kind embra∣ces of your patronage. This I must informe you, that my ambition to serve you was real and sincere, though this short Enchiridion be but a rude draught of that ambition. I shall not (my dear Friends and Flock)

dilate, or digresse in the am∣plifying of the seriousness, profoundness, necessity and sutableness of the argument, the great state of Eternity; lest I should anticipate and forestall my self, and leave the Treatise to be only a re∣hearsall and repetition. On∣ly let not this suggestion be troublesome and unwel∣come to you; if I mind you that Eternity is the end of all our hopes, the stage of all our duties, the shoar of all our labours, the reward

of all our prayers, and the consummation of all our happiness. Man himselfe was not created to live in a Cottage made up of lime and hair, of mud and dirt, to fix his thoughts or hopes upon fading and fainting enjoyments, but to be an inhabitant of and re∣sidentiary in heaven where Eternity keeps the doore. The great Creatour of Heaven and Earth, is Mans only fit companion, and Eternity is essentiall to

him, he is Deus aeternus & immutabilis; the com∣forts of the Spirit are the souls onely refreshments, and everlastingness is en∣tailed on them, Joh. 14. 16. Nay the soul it self, which is mans nobler and better part, which is life incorporate, and activi∣ty wrapt in the winding∣sheet of flesh, is immortall in its being, and onely rests satisfyed in the attain∣ment * 1.1 of a glorious Eter∣nity.

Let it not therefore (my endeared and Honoured Friends, and as the Apostle speaks, 1 Thess. 2. 20. My glory, my joy) seem a tedious impertinency, or long digression, to fasten your thoughts on Eter∣nity: It may be (through grace, and it shall be my importunate prayer for you) some of you may blesse God for these few hints to all Eternity; Who * 1.2 knowes what a word in season, if as a naile it be

struck down to the head, by the Master of the Assem∣blies, may produce in an ingenuous and serious Con∣gregation? Only let Pray∣er usher in, and accom∣pany your Meditations on this Subject. I shall leave both the Treatise and You in the hands of the Lord, and intreat the God * 1.3 that heareth Prayer, that every line in it may be written upon your soules in the bloud of Christ, and with the point of a

diamond, the Spirit of the Lord, and shall rest ex∣pecting the longed for fruits of these inconsidera∣ble labours, and shall beg that the blessing of the Lord would enliven and enrich every truth in them contained; and that this poor Tract of Eternity may in some measure con∣duce to the landing of eve∣ry one of your precious soules (whose welfare shall be the crown of my joy, both here and for ever) in

a glorious, steddy, and joy∣ous eternity.

But I will no longer de∣tain you, onely let me tell you, I have endevoured in this Treatise, not onely to put my Sermons, but my Affections in Print. And if this weak birth (which only your disrespect, and misin∣provement can render a∣bortive,) shall put you upon more frequent thoughts of, and serious preparations for Eternity, my designe is accomplish∣shed,

and it will not only be an unspeakable joy unto, but an incompensable ob∣ligation upon

Yours in all soul-service in Jesus Christ, John Wells.

From my Study in the Old Jewry, Sept. 7. 1654.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Psal. 17. 15.
• * 1.2

  Eccles. 12. 11.
• * 1.3

  Psal. 65. 2.