ve 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 be 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
sh