every age who dye a natural death we may suppose that Eight Hundred years was the common Period before the Flood But then after the Flood the mutability of this common Period is conspicuous for in the next age after the Flood it was cut short two hundred years and in the next three succeeding generations it was abridged to four hundred years and in the three succeeding ages to the former it was reduced to two hundred years and in Abrahams time it seems not to have been extended to an hundred years In reducing the Life of Mankind into shorter bounds now than it was in the infancy of the World the Divine wisdom and goodness do very plainly appear for 1. Altho it is true that Sin was the cause of Misery yet it is manifest that as Men began to multiply so they became more corrupted and as the Earth was replenished with Men so with multiplyed Miseries and those not only particular but common War and bloodshed slavery and toil pains and deseases were in the first ages of the World very rare and singular now these are ordinary and common and is it not then a great mercy that the days of our life are few since so full of evils But 2. If Men lived as long now as in the first ages of the World a Land would not be able to contain its inhabitants and this is a far greater inconvenience and disadvantage than the shortening the lease of our beings can be supposed to be In the first ages of the World the lives of Men were extended that the earth might be replenished and it is very plain that this common Period was shortened according as Man miultplyed I confess God threatens to destroy the inhabitants of a Land for their transgressions it was because Men had corrupted themselves that God brought a Flood of waters upon the World and yet the Divine Justice was accompanied with astonishing goodness for he did not as justly he might have instantly cut off that perverse generation but he gave them the space of an Hundred and Twenty years to repent Yet saith God his days shall be an Hundred and Twenty years Gen. 6. 3. That is altough this be a perverse and corrupt geueration yet because Man is but flesh I will give him this time to repent of his wickedness and if notwithstanding he will not after such warning mend his manners I will destroy him I know many learned Men think that God here only threatens to shorten the common Period of Mens lives and that it should be contracted within the bounds of an Hundred and twenty years but this exposition is not agreeable to the experiences of some ages next following the Flood in which Men lived much longer than an Hundred and Twenty years But they say God uses not toanticipate his time in bringing judgments upon a nation or people to which I answer it is very true but methinks men have no ground to think that in the present case God anticipates the time in bringing judgments upon them for we cannot think that Noah was compleat five Hundred years old when God threatned to destroy the World And indeed any Man who is but a little acquainted with the Jewish custom of reckoning of years knows how usual it is with them to name the greater part of any thing for the whole St. Austin is so clear in this I 'le rather set it down in his words than my own Intelligendum est hoc Deum dixisse cum circa finem quing entorum annorum esset Noah i. e. quadragintos octoginta vitae annos agereâ— quos more suo Scriptura quingentos vocat nomine totius maximam partem plerumque significans Aug. de Civ Dei lib. 15. c. 24. Thus much I have spoken of the common Period of Humane Life in respect of the ages of the World I shall now add a little concerning its changeableness in respect of places and I confess in this case it is so variable that it is a hard matter to pitch upon particulars only in the general it is certain that this common Period is not the same in all places in a temperat climate this common term is extended but where there is an excess of heat or an unconstancy of the weather in those places this common Period is shortned But passing this I come now to consider the particular Period of every mans life there be two ways it is commonly taken 1. As it implies the disunion of the parts by reason of the excess of some one quality or other or 2. as it implies the Period of Humane Life whatever way it is occasioned without any relation either to the defect or excess of any quality and thus the learned Episcopius states the case in his first Epistle to Jo. Beverovicius But to make this yet more plain I shall consider that text 1. Sam. 26. 10. As the Lord liveth the Lord shall smite him or his day shall come to dye or he shall descend into battel and perish Tho David was anointed King yet he durst not stretch forth his hand against the Lords anointed neither would he permit Abishai who inconsideratly offered to do it knowing none could do so and be guiltless Therefore he comforts and solaces himself with this consideration that God should rid him of Saul one of these three ways 1. By smiteing him with some disease and now to what a numberless number of diseases are our frail natures incident variety of maladies prey upon frail man and millions of miseries attend him the Pestilence walketh at noon-day and the Air which he breaths may blow out the spark of his life 2. Or his day will come that is or he will dye a natural Death now Saul was well-stricken in years and he knew that by the course of nature he could not live long 3 Or he shall descend into battel and perish That is if some disease cut him not off or if his day come not yet he shall be exposed to a violent Death or he shall descend into battel Sometimes a violent Death is purely casual thus it was with those eighteen upon whom the Tower in Siloam fell Luke 13. 4. Sometimes it is only improperly casual as when one of two equally exposed to danger is only killed and sometimes it is only and properly violent such was Sauls death such was Achitophels and Hamans The way to this discourse in hand being thus far cleared I shall now prosecute the design of it in this method 1. I shall set down those erroneous opinions into which some men have unhappily fallen in their enquiry for satisfaction in the present case 2. I shall lay down the two common opinions that offer fairest for solving this doubt 3. I shall attempt a full and satisfactory answer and lastly I shall conclude with some reflections upon the whole discourse I begin with the first to give an account of those erroneous sentiments some men have unhappily embraced in their inquiry for satisfaction
after things of a mysterious alloy and God knows how miserably some men have mistaken in their enquiries after a solution of the present doubt and if I could promise to my self to rectify those huge mistakes some men have fallen into this would be a sufficient justification of my present undertaking But in order to the unfolding of this doubt I shall premise four things which will contribute to the better understanding of it First There is no doubt that every mans life hath a Period It is appointed for all men once to dye this is a warfare from which there is no discharge what man is he that liveth and shall not see death as to this the Prince and Peasant stand upon even terms and as the wise-man tells us the rich poor meet together there is no justling in the Grave for precedency I confess it were not worth the pains to consider the trivial instances taken from the translation of Euoch and Elias to infringe this position For first we are not to debate what God may do he has a Soveraignty over his Creatures and must not be called to give a reason of his actions all whose ways are tracts of wisdom and goodness Secondly We know nothing of the manner of their translation he who will positively say that they did not undergo that which is equivalent to death will say more than he can prove I am apt to believe that no sober man will say that they entred their Heavenly habitation with their unrefined bodies no more than those who rise at the sound of the last Trumpet in the twinkling of an eye are carried into Heaven without any change Secondly It is also unquestionable that Sin introduced this Period to every mans life the primitive threatning runs thus in the day thou eats thou shalt dye And the Apostle hath as plainly exprest it as it can be wherefore as by one man sin entred into the World and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Rom. 5. 12. where it is plain that Death is a punishment inflicted for Sin so that if man had never sinned we have no reason to think he should have died I confess without Revelation we could never have guessed this to be the cause of Death The Heathen Philosophers were exceedingly confused in their notions concerning the origine of Sin and the cause of Death many of them thought that Death was a natural accident originally appurtenant to Humane Nature And indeed if Revelation had not declared the contrary I had been fully satisfied that Death had been no other thing but such a natural accident but it is strange that any man that has conversed with sacred writ should be of this opinion And yet we find the Pelagians of old were great sticklers for it hence is it that the ancient Fathers and Councils have condemned it with a Curse In the Milevitan Council Can. 2. we read thus Placuit ut quicunque dicit Adam primum hominem mortalem sactum ita ut sive peccaret sive non peccaret moreretur in corpore hoc est de corpore exiret non peccati meriâ—o sed necessitate naturae anathema sit In after-after-ages the Scotists the most subtil of all Scholastick writers inclined much to this opinion against whom the Thomists their irreconcilable Enemies took up the cudgels amongst modern writers the seemingly rational Socinians have owned this groundless conceit But I cannot stay to debate this at length only in brief if Death had been natural to man in the state of Innocency it behoved to have been because of these following reasons 1. Because Adams natural constitution implied mortality the Materials of his constitution were not so amicable as to entertain a lasting amity and friendship 2. It was the primitive precept be fruitfull and multiply now it is plain that procreation includes mortality in its notion and farther it seems to be unconceivable how this little Map of Earth should have contained a numerous multiplying and never-dying off-spring 3. Humane Nature in the state of Innocency did stand in need of Meat and Drink as is plain from Gen. 1. 19. now the end of eating and drinking is not only to hold up but to repair the decays of our Bodies which would sudenly return to dust if they were not this renewed strengthened 4. If Death were only the effect of Sin and the Devil were called a Murderer from the beginning because of his tempting our first parents to eat of the forbidden Fruit it will follow that since Christ came to take away the sins of the World and to destroy the works of the Devil that he also took away the wages of sin which is Death than which nothing is more contrary to daily experience 5. Immortality seems to be entailed only to the state of future Glory where Corruption shall put on Incorruption and Mortality shall be swallowed up in life and then there shall be no more death Rev. 21. 4. These are the most material reasons I can find for the proof of this opinion in answer to which I shall desire the Five following considerations may be weighed Consid. 1. It is not to be doubted that the Eternal wisdom furnished our first parents with all these accomplishments their specifick nature could suffer the signatures of Wisdom and Goodness were legible in the lowest least regarded piece of the creation but in Man in a more eminent manner conspicuous It is almost impossible for us in this fallen state to conceive what those endowments is taken Conditionally and so under various considerations it may be attributed either First To perfected Saints who are stated in Glory where the primitive Image lost by mans fall is renewed and perfected and of those our Saviour in the Gospel of Luke tells us that they can dye no more Luke 20. 36. or Secondly to our first parents in the State of Innocency For so long as they remained obedient to the Laws of Heaven Immortality was entailed upon their nature for the tenor of the primitive threatning is in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye where temporal Death seems to be threatned which had been idle and vain if men had died altho they had never eaten the forbidden Fruit. I know some men think that Sin only laid a necessary obligation upon men to dye and provoked God to remove that Supernatural and Superadded quality and gift which preserved them from Death With such sort of men I have no great quarrel altho I think that God could as easily have made mans constitution so lasting and the constituent parts of his fabrick so harmonious that he should have never dyed if he had not sinned as to create a superadded being to preserve him safe For reason would plead that that superadded gift required another and so in infinitum But farther 't is very unreasonable to infer mans corruption from that precept be fruitful and multiply for altho in some sense
generatio unius est alterius corruptio yet the state of being even since the fall to which that axiom has only respect is not so brittle as that the production of the Child infers the destruction of the Parent Neither doth that curious query concerning the place for that supposed numerous off-spring carry with it more reason for First It is not to be doubted but the Wise Creator who gave being to man knew well enough how to provide an habitation for his off-spring Secondly the precept be Fruitfull and Multiply carries with it a Limitation and replenish the Earth so that we can never well conclude from it that Generation should have continued after the replenishing of the Earth But Thirdly What suppose this little Map of Earth had not been able to contain so numerous an off-spring could not God have translated man after he had lived some space upon the Earth to some better habitation as he did with Enoch and Elijah Consid. 3. Though man in the state of Innocency stood in need of Meat and Drink yet his nutriment was not noxious and hurtfull to him as now it is It was for mans disobedience that a Curse was upon the ground before which there was no fear of hurt from the Fruit of the Trees and the Herbs of the Field which were the only things granted to men for food in that state And indeed if we but consider that even in this fallen state there is a huge difference between the lives of those who live upon wholsome food and observe a moderate diet and of those who are careless in their diet and feed upon husks we cannot but think the former consideration reasonable especially since that blessed state excluded all manner of excess Consid. 4. Great and Manifold are the blessed benefits that are conferred upon Mankind upon the account of his Redeemer now Man who was at odds with his Maker upon the account of his Rebellion is again taken into favour and the disobedient World is reconciled unto God And altho the being of sin is not quite abolished yet the Curse is removed and Death is not properly now a punishment Consid. 5. Immortality conjoyned with a state of perfect felicity is reserved for Heavens favourites in the state of Innocency our first parents were liable to Death if they rebelled but the Saints above are confirmed in their blessed state and as our Lord Christ tells us they can dye no more But this much may suffice for the removing the former doubts The Third thing I premise is that 't is very usual in Scripture as it is in all Languages to put the Whole sometimes for the Part thus Man is said to dye to cease to be mortal because the Body is liable to Corruption and not that the whole Man or all the Essential constituent parts cease And thus when we dispute concerning the Period of every Mans life we must not foolishly fancy that a Period is put to the being of the Soul but only that its union with the body is dissolved otherwise a dismal stroke would be given to our Religion and what would become of the vertuous I confess it is very hard and difficult to demonstrate the immortality of our Souls by natural reason 't is true by reason I may prove that our Natures are spiritual and that we elicite acts which are beyond the power of matter but yet we could never be fully ascertained that there is a Life after this if Revelation had not plainly discovered it The Heathen Philosophers very wisely entertained some hopes of a life after this upon moral arguments taken from the goodness of God and his justice in distributing Rewards and Punishments but alas how doubtfull were their hopes and with how much hesitation did they discourse of it But by the help of Revelation these doubts are fully removed and we now know that there is a Resurrection from the dead and that the Souls of Believers at death go immediatly into glory Fourthly Because the explication of terms is very necessary for the unfolding of doubts I shall consider the twofold notion and acception the Period of Humane Life is lyable to 1. Sometimes it is taken in a large sense for that common and ordinary Period which the Author of our natures hath settled which Men by the common course of nature arrive at now many learned men upon good grounds think that this is the determined bounds mentioned in Scripture 2. Sometimes it is taken for the last moment of every mans life at whatever time it happeneth whether 1. in the beginning of mans days or 2. in the midst of his days thus the Psalmist prays that God would not cut him off in the midst of his days or 3. When men come to be of a good old age and full of years as it is said of Abraham he died in a good old age an old man and full of years Gen. 25. 8. That there is such a common Period of Humane life seems to be certain and indubitable we evidently enough perceive that men in the age and place wherein we live exceed not unless rarely the bounds fixed upon Psal. 90. 10. The days of our years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of more strength they be fourscore years c. and if we shall descend to the consideration of other Animals and Vegetables we will find it true enough that the individuals of every specifick nature have a common Period which doth not sensibly alter but where there is a manifest difference of the climate temperature and soil Again it is very unquestionable that this common Period hath not been equally extended in all ages and places 'T is true for many hundred years by-past it hath suffered very little alteration but sure from the beginning it was not so nor can we upon any good ground be ascertained that it will continue the same that it is now till the end of all flesh come Tho I will not positive affirm that mens lives will be insensibly shortened till they become uncapable for procreation But to determine what hath been the common Period of Humane Life in by past-ages of the World is a Theme very difficult and hard for 1. Altho from Abrahams time till this present age it hath altered but little or nothing as we may collect from Gen. 15. 13 and 16. where a generation is equalled to an Hundred years as the verses collated make it evident yet before the Flood and in some few ages following it this common Term was not concluded within the short bounds it is now although then it was indeed exceedingly mutable Before the fatal Flood we read not of any who lived not above seven hundred years unless Abel who was murdered and Enoch whom God took to himself nor of any who exceeded nine Hundred sixty and nine years Now the common Period not being so denominated from some few particular instances but from what happens to the most of Mankind in