a Flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not TO know who it is that these words of Job do describe in so mean and disparaging a Character we need but look back to the first verse of this Chapter where we shall find he is speaking of Man It is man that Cometh forth like a Flower and is cut down He fleeth as a shadow and continueth not It was his design to represent by this Expression the contemptible and wretched Condition of our present Life which we very foolishly and unreasonably dote upon and admire This Life on Earth was never intended to be our happiest State and by reason of the Sin of Mankind it is fallen much below that degree of Happiness which the Creatour had intended it should enjoy Yet this pitiful State is that the wretched Sons of Men are most extreamly fond of Here they would always be this takes up all their Thoughts and Care They know or at least mind no Heaven but Earth and think to heap up felicity as they gather worldly Enjoyments We study how to live happily till we die and dote upon fading Pleasures as if we were always to enjoy them We commonly live here as if after this Life we were to be no longer and there were no better things attainable than what this Life possesses And while we mind this World we neglect the other we do not seek the better Happiness of that and lose it for want of seeking it Yea we forfeit that Happiness which is to come and deserve and incur everlasting Misery by what our too great love of this Life and its Enjoyments does engage us in Very much of the wickedness of this World and the misery of the next is due to this unhappy Cause To render a temporal Life happy as we suppose we spoil an Eternal one or incur an Eternal Death we serve our Bodies to the Destruction of our Souls The great Folly of which our Saviour suggests by that Question Mark 8. 36. What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole World and lose his Soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul To meet with this unhappy and dangerous Errour as much as this Text without straining it will allow I shall employ the following Discourse about three things 1. I shall enquire and make it appear from other Scriptures what intimations concerning our present Life this Text affords us 2. I shall insist a little upon the Illustration of those Intimations 3. I shall add the due Improvement and Application of them In the first place let us compare this Text of Scripture with others that we may derive from it the more certainly and evidently the Instructions it contains In 1 Pet. 1. 24. 't is said All flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass The grass withereth and the flower falleth away And in the next verse he adds But the word of the Lord endureth for ever By this opposition of the Word that endureth to the Grass and the Flower of it which falleth away we may understand that by the Comparison of a Flower the Holy Spirit would teach us this Life is not of long continuance The Flower is the shortest liv'd part even of those Plants that have the shortest duration and is upon that account fit to mind us of the short continuance of this present Life Further in Ps 103. v. 15 16. we are told As for man his days are as grass as a Flower of the Field so he flourisheth For the wind passeth over it and it is gone This short liv'd Flower is exposed as the Flower of the Field 't is liable to many destructive and mortal Accidents yea if but the Wind passes over it it is gone 't is most easily destroyed 't is a thing may look fair and beautiful but has very little strength Thus it is with Man is the Psalmists meaning here He is as feeble as the Flower of the Field a small mischief may snatch him away in his prime Thus the Scripture teaches by this comparison the frailty and weakness as well as the shortness of human Life Again in Psal 102. v. 11. the Psalmist speaking of himself says My days are like a shadow that declineth which is as if he had said while my afflictions last and I hope for better days my Life declines apace it wasts continually away In Psal 144. v. 4. 't is said Man is like to Vanity his days are as a shadow that passeth away From these Scriptures we may learn that by the Comparison of a Shadow is taught us how transitory our present Life is It is continually passing away and spending it self And the rather may we be allow'd to conclude this from our present Text because 't is said of Man He fleeth as a shadow and then 't is added too He continueth not From this Text then it appears we may learn these three serious Intimations 1. The present Life of mortal Man is very short as is the continuance of a Flower 2. It is very feeble and frail is most easily cut off and destroyed and yet is exposed too as the Flower of the Field 3. This our present Life in this World is altogether transitory it is continually passing away As a shadow always moves and passes on till it is lost in the Nights Universal Darkness These are very obvious Truths and such as every Man's thoughts may easily suggest to him And they are very important and worth our considering and would be to those that would well consider them the Springs of much Peace and Wisedom But as obvious and useful as they are it appears they are much neglected and men commonly live as if they knew not these things At least 't is certain they seldom or never consider them Let us then not be unwilling to fix our minds upon them for a little while at present and let none fear any harm will follow if thereby they should make impression upon his mind and for the future so stay there as never to be forgotten again The next thing then that I proposed to do is to illustrate these particulars to express and speak of them in a few more words on purpose that our Thoughts may be detained a while upon them and that we may give them some advantage to make a due Impression 1. Let us consider that the present Life of mortal Man is very short They that live the greatest Number of Years have but a short Life on Earth A little time passes over the Innocence and Ease of our Infancy and Childhood A little more withers the flourishing Beauty and Gayety of Youth A little more weakens the Strength and spends the Usefulness of riper Manhood And if beyond this we live a little time more buries the decays and infirmities of Old-age The longest distance from the Cradle to the Grave is but a short one And the Wisedom of God would have
Were there nothing in the Constitution of Man but that he could not be worthy to be compared with the vast bigness of the Earth and Heavens with the constant Motion the brightness and durableness of the Heavenly Bodies But the Soul of Man is in a Sense vaster and larger than these as it is capable to comprehend them It is of more unwearied motion than they it moves its self it is brighter far and far more durable than any of them It is then upon the account of the Spirit in Man that the making of him is thus set together with those great operations of the Creating Power Upon these grounds we may conclude that the Prophet Zachary does in our Text intimate the great excellency and dignity of the Soul of Man It shall be the business of this Discourse to insist upon some Proof and Application of this Truth And let us now perswade our selves for a little while to turn our Thoughts inward to view and consider our selves to know what a sort of Being God has given us Of all knowledge this may be reckon'd some of the most useful and important Hereby we shall come to understand what it becomes us to do what our true Interest is what great things we are capable of and should therefore pursue them To demonstrate the Excellency of the Soul of Man I shall insist only upon these two Heads of Discourse as containing what is sufficient for the present purpose They are the Nature of the Soul and the Capacities of it which do arise from and are the Consequents of such a Nature In the first place Let us consider the Nature of the Soul of Man And this I shall represent to you briefly under two Particulars 1. It is a Spirit 2. It is Immortal 1. The Soul of Man is a Spirit and therein it is an Excellent Being It is Invisible A thing that cannot be seen by the Eyes of the Body through the Excellency of it It is said of God in Praise of him that he cannot be seen The Apostle Paul calls him by way of Eminency the Invisible God 1 Tim. 1. 17. This then is an Excellency and does greatly recommend the Soul It is too pure and sublime a thing to fall under the gross apprehension of Bodily Senses It is a Pure Uncompounded and Unmix'd thing It is all the same is not made up of worse and better Parts It is in a sort all Light and has no Darkness is a bright celestial Ray sprung from the Great Father of Lights and Spirits Or at least it was very full of light and brightness in its Original State and before it was sullied with sinful Pollution in the Fall of our first Parents It has not diversity of Parts designed for divers Actions so as that what one Part can do another cannot which is the usual disparagement of Bodies But all the Soul can do whatever the Soul can do It can all of it understand and will apprehend or remember it can all chuse or refuse It has not some parts heavy and some active some to move and others to be moved but is all full of Action and is always working and busie It knows no weariness it needs no rest or refreshment It knows its own Actions and chuses what it does and acts freely and from its own Motion These are the Properties and Advantages that belong to it as it is a Spirit That the Soul of Man is a Spirit the Holy Scripture does abundantly declare When a man dies it says of his Body The Dust shall return to the Earth as it was and of his Soul The Spirit shall return to God that gave it Eccles 12. 7. This is a thing distinct from the Body it was not raised from the Dust as that was but came from God immediately nor does it return to the Dust but returns to God at our Death The Apostle says What man knoweth the things of a man that is the purposes wishes designs save the spirit of man which is in him speaking of the Soul of Man 1 Cor. 2. 11. And in the Fifth Chapter of that Epistle at the 5th Verse he directs the Corinthians to excommunicate an Eminent Person among them who had been Incestuous for the destruction of the Flesh that the Spirit might be saved in the Day of the Lord meaning his Soul I shall add no more to this particular but proceed 2. To what was next mentioned as declaring the Excellent Nature of our Souls which was that they are Immortal These Beings have a beginning indeed as every thing else has but One who is the first Cause and Author of all others But the Souls of men shall never come to an End When a man dies there is only a separation made for a while of his Soul from his Body with a dissolution indeed of the Body but the Soul remains the same that it was That lives still though not here and continues to be though it has changed its Habitation Do not imagine said the dying Cyrus to his Children That when I depart from you I shall be no where nor any longer For whilst I was with you ye could not see my Soul only ye knew by the Actions ye observed that it was in my Body Be assured then that it is still the same tho ye do never see it Thus the Learned Heathen could speak of the Soul And it is in the Nature of this to be Immortal as it is a Spirit It has nothing in its self to put an end to its being as it is an uncompounded thing It cannot be destroyed by any thing else but only by God that made it The Soul of man knows no decay it admits of no encrease of its Substance It remains always the same and is herein a Noble Image of the Unchangeable God It shall out-last the strongest works of Humane Art It shall endure longer than the Heavens and the Earth It shall weary time and then run on with Eternity This is a very great and important Excellency of it That it shall never cease to be and certainly if we are in any respect Immortal this deserves our very serious consideration And this also the Holy Scripture that source of all Saving-Knowledge and Wisdom does sufficiently teach us When it speaks of our Being after this Life and even before the Resurrection of our Bodies As when Christ said to the penitent Thief when he was dying This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise He was to Be therefore his Soul was not to be dissolved with his Body and he was to be in Paradise in a happy State When the Scripture calls Death a Departure out of this World it seems to intimate this The Apostle Paul who was to leave his Body in this World as all other dying Persons do yet speaks of his Death as a Departure 1 Tim. 1. 6. And in Phil. 1. 23. He speaks of his Death as what he desired in these words I desire to
an Animal can have so great a sense of Pleasure or Happiness as a Spirit may if it be proper to say that it has any at all Matter the best of it is dull in comparison to a Spirit and must be moved but a Spirit is active and moves its self and what is most capable of Action is most capable of Happiness for all fruition consists in Action Further The Objects of our Happiness are all spiritual things By vertue of this Spirit in us we can delight in and enjoy such which are the noblest and most excellent things in themselves and are able to afford the greatest Pleasure Sensible Objects have not that force with them nor that Power to please which spiritual things have that are the delights and blissful enjoyments of wise and refined Spirits Hence it must be said that Mankind cannot fall into a greater or more unhappy mistake than to think that there is no pleasure but in gratifying the Senses and Appetites of their Bodies with sensual Enjoyments or that this is the greatest pleasure of any This in truth is not worthy the Name of Pleasure if it be compared with the delight which a rectified mind can take in spiritual Objects and Enjoyments Further it is doubtless the greatest thing in Happiness and that which adds much to it still how great soever it was before That the Being which enjoys it can reflect upon it and so can consider and know its self happy This the Soul of Man can do and none but a rational and spiritual Nature can do this But since I have spoken of spiritual Things as the chief Object of our Happiness I shall particularly mention some of them The Soul of Man can please its self highly in good and vertuous Actions In those which we do our selves and in those we see done by others It is incomparably pleasant to view and consider the reasonableness and the fitness of these to see how necessary and just they are to consider how much Gratitude towards God and the Obligations we have received from him do require them of Mankind to consider the wisdom and vast advantages of them Hence did a good man acknowledge to God Thy Law is sweet to my taste yea sweeter than hony to my mouth There is not any thing among men so pleasant and charming to a rectified Soul as are the vertuous and pious Actions and Behaviour of good Men while the sensual Minds of others dote on a fair outside and sine cloaths he sees and takes a more just and true delight in the glory that dwells within and darts out its rays in Religious and good Actions The Soul of Man can take delight in the converse of holy and wise and kind Angels those glorious Creatures that are the Beauty and Flower as we may say of the Creation It can delight in what they are in what they say and in what they do when it shall be admitted into their Society And it is mentioned in Scripture as a part of that Felicity to which our conformity to the Laws of the Gospel does intitle and will bring us That we shall enjoy hereafter the Society of an innumerable company of Angels as well as that of the spirits of just men made perfect and of God the judge of all Heb. 12. 22. And very delightful it must needs be to good men in this Life to consider these noble Creatures and to know that they are Ministring spirits upon all occasions sent forth to minister for the good of the Elect To consider that whilst he is holy and vertuous he is a delight to them they love to be about him and they have the charge of him to keep him in all his ways and he is accordingly the object of their continual Care and they are most willing to do for him all the Offices of kindness that he has occasion for Further the Soul can enjoy after a very pleasing and satisfying manner the ever-blessed God who is an infinite unmeasurable Good a boundless Ocean of Excellencies and Perfections It can delight in all the discover'd Glories of this Incomprehensible Being and in considering him it is transported with pleasure while it finds it self in the utmost stretch of its Faculties lost in the Infinite Incomprehensible Object And this Happiness the Enjoyment of God may in some measure begin in this Life A most ravishing Pleasure the Soul can take to consider what this Excellent Being has said of himself in Holy Scripture and what discoveries he daily makes of himself in his Works When it can view in some of these his wonderful Wisdom and Power in others large and bounteous Goodness in others awful and bright Justice and Righteousness And when to these Meditations it can add the sweet thought that this God is reconciled that it is a Favourite of Heaven then it must needs be as the Psalmist said My Meditation of him shall be sweet I will be glad in the Lord. And then if to all this we add that this great Object of the Soul's Happiness will endure for ever and so will also the lesser ones that have been mentioned that being spiritual in their Nature they are all of them Eternal and Unchangeable they will never cease to Be nor cease to be delightful and pleasing If we consider that the Soul its self by its Immortal Nature is capable to be for ever blest with the Enjoyment of these Objects we shall from hence see that we are capable of an Everlasting Happiness of that which shall never be interrupted never decay nor diminish never come to an end We are capable of living beyond all reach of Thought beyond all measure of duration amidst unfading Pleasures unspeakable Joys and a pure unmix'd and perfect Felicity Oh that Men were so wise as to consider these things Thus much and more than we can now conceive our Souls are made capable to enjoy And these things all of them together at least I think do sufficiently prove the great Worth and Excellency of the Soul of Man Application And certainly if the things which have been now said were duly considered if they had their just and due Influence upon Mankind they would exceedingly alter and amend the lives and actions of a great many Men. They would make us act more suitable to the dignity and worth of our Souls and with more regard to their Interests and Happiness than we commonly do And in particular these things following the Influence of them upon us would effect and cause They would make us very Pious towards God and thankful for what he has made us they would make us prefer our Souls before our Bodies and ambitious of attaining those Divine and honourable Accomplishments which we are in our Nature capable of they would make us very Industrious to gain that Happiness which we were Originally and in our Nature designed for In these things I shall set before you the due Use and Improvement of what has been