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-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
troubled thou takest away their Breath they dye and return to their dust Psal. 104. 29. 3. It is not inconsistent with Jobs former desires Chap. 3. and 6. Why died I not from the Womb why did I not give up the Ghost when I came out of the belly for now should I have lien still and been quiet I should have sleept then had I been at rest O that I might have my request even that it would please God to destroy me That the phrase can never admit the former gloss evidently appears from the words immediately following for if Job had been pleading for death why is that reason added that he might accomplish his day It is only then a cessation from his grievous affliction that he so earnestly intreateth as if he had said Lord thy afflicting hand is heavie and what am I but weak dust not able to bear thy heavy Chastisments my Soul is overburdened with grief and wilt thou set thy terrors before me to afright me hath not poor man in this lapsed state Troops of miseries attending him from which he may expect no freedom till Mortality be swallowed up in Life and are not his few days labour and sorrow pain and affliction and wilt thou to those inseparable evils superadd a burthen of pain more grievous and insufferable O do not measure out so dismal a Condition to thy silly Creature make me not the object of thy direful vengeance but in the midst of wrath remember mercy Art thou not Goodness it self and far more compassionate than the most tender parent and shall it be said thou hast measured out so acute torments to vex thy poor Creatures I confess Perfection is not the thing I plead yet may not I say it is not for my iniquity nor for my sin that thou hast afflicted me and let this Consideration also prevail with thee that my untender friends sadly mistake thy design in afflicting me they conclude it is for some secret heinous crime that thy judgments are upon me O that thou wouldst turn from thy wrath that I may enjoy some rest before I go whence I shall not return This phrase turn from him is sometimes taken in a very bad sense Thus we find the wicked sadly characterized as a people who desire God to depart from them but as it is uttered by the people of God under the pressure of afflictions it implies no more but a serious desire that God would be pleased to remove that burden Now in such innocent petitions there appeareth no crime for it is certain that afflictions simply considered are grievous even to the best of Mankind there is no affliction saith the Apostle for the present that is joyous but grievous 'T is true impatience under affliction is an excess which no excuse whatsoever can pardon there are some persons of such hasty complexions that they rise in passion against God if they meet with the least affliction just like that wretched man who said this evil is of the Lord why should we wait any longer upon him But those petitions of the Faithful in holy writ altho at the first view they seem to be peremptory and absolute yet they are truly qualified and submissive and at the most only express the harmless resentments of innocent nature that cannot but express how contrary afflictions are to it That he may rest ut quiescat sc. paululum that his affliction being removed he may yet enjoy a little space to solace himself till he accomplish his day I will purposely decline the answer of that querie Whether it is lawful to wish death when our condition is charged with a surplusage of calamity for the brevity I design will not suffer me to survey the difficulties of that case only in the general I shall add two things 1. If the affliction be violent fierce and seemingly durable rendering us uncapable of exercising any duty I question not but common reason will suggest to every sober man that in that case Death is more eligible than Life Yet 2. since we are ignorant what God designs to us by sending us such afflicti-ons it is our part to submit to the Lords will and say Good is the will of the Lord. Thus altho we may comparatively and submissively wish Death upon the account of some acute trials yet it is never lawful to be peremptory and absolute in such desires for frequently the happy event makes men conclude that it was good for them they were afflicted Rest c. Methinks the very sound of this word is full of ravishing sweetness and pleasure and yet to those who are stated in a condition of Woe and Misery it is bitter and harsh as the most ravishing and pleasant Musick is in the Ear of him who is sad those who never tasted the honey-comb know not its sweetness the men who have been always drudges and slaves have no discerning what Liberty is and those who from their birth have been accustomed to pain know not their misery so sensibly But to have once enjoyed blessings and on a sudden to be deprived of them not only the unexpected change but also their former happiness adds to their misery and makes their condition more unsufferable If man had been created to toil and labour his eating of bread in the sweat of his face had been no curse but to have been placed in a blessed and happy state and by his folly to be hurled into a state of misery and pain that compleats his calamity and makes him sensible how miserable a thing it is to have been happy This single consideration seems to add very much to Jobs misery his condition was once more than ordinary happy and the amission of the comforts he formerly enjoyed makes him pathetically cry out O that I were as in months past as in the days when God preserved me but now as he sadly complains they that are younger than I have me in derision If Job in this state of woe had been perswaded of the certain change of his condition and that his latter end should be more blessed than his beginning the expected hopes of this had served to allay and mitigate his sorrow and to render his case more sufferable and easie It is the hops of rest that puts strength in the wearied traveller it was the expected reward and assurance of a future blessedness and better resurrection which made those Worthies Heb. 11. so cheerfully undergo suffering What the happiness of the Saints rest is I am not able to represent it being so far above any thing we can in this imperfect state conceive or imagine The advantages that attend our present tranquillity and rest are many and great which to enumerate would be prolix and tedious but if from that we should frame to our selves an Idea of that Celestial Rest how imperfect would it be any Rest we enjoy here is uncertain an unthought-of causality may impair it but the Rest that remains for the people of God
These things being premised I doubt not but to offer such arguments for the proof of the mutability of the Period of every Mans Life as shall be sufficient for the conviction of any man who is not blinded by prejudice or prepossessed with some contrary notion And First Upon the observance of the Divine laws there are many promises in Scripture assuring us of length of days on the other side there are many threatnings of cuting short the days of the wicked Thus God promises length of days to obedient Children Exod. 20. 12. Honour thy Father and Mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee Deut. 4. 40. Thou shalt keep therefore his Statutes and his Commandements which I command thee this day that it may go well with thee and with thy Children after thee and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth which the Lord thy God giveth thee And particularly the Lord tells Solomon 1 King 3. 4. If thou wil walk in my ways to keep my Statutes and my Commandments as thy father David did walk then I will lengthen thy dâ—ys The Psalmist encourageth men to consider the case of the poor upon this Motive Psal 42. 1 2. Blessed is he that considereth the Poor the Lord will preserve him and keep him alive c. And upon this acount the Wise-Man also perswadeth men to observe and keep Gods laws Prov. 3. 1 2. My Son forget not my law but let thine heart keep my Commandments for length of days and long life and peace shall they add to thee How much the observance of the duties of Religion conduce to our health is a thing daily experience attests and therefore the Apostle very excellently exhorts Timothy to exercise himself unto Godliness for it is profitable unto all things having promise of the Life that now is and of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. Religion is as a bridle to keep men within due bounds in their eating and drinking it forbids all manner of excess which impares our bodily health and obliges men to make use of lawful means for their preservation and recovery If we consult experience we shall find these to be the men who for ordinary enjoy the longest lives it is true some good men may be naturally of a brittle constitution and others God may remove for secret ends known to himself yet for ordinary the Godly man whose natural temper is strong hath the advantage of the wicked man and certainly Religion in its due tendency prescribes the best rules for long life As Righteousness tendeth to life so he that pursueth evil as the Wise-Man tells us pursueth it to his own death Prov. 11. 19. We have a large Catalogue of the Punishments inflicted for sin Exod. 26. Where more particularly v. 16. the Lord threatens to appoint over those who obey not his Laws terror consumption and the burning ague that Men may not foolishly think all these are but threatnings which God intends not to inflict upon poor Man the Prophet Isaiah tells us if ye refuse and rebel ye shall be devoured with the Sword for the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Isa. 1. 20. And the wise-man concluds it as certain Prov. 10. 27. The years of the wicked shall be shortned and to conclude the Psalmist also tells us bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days Psal. 55. 23. which the Poet very well expresseth Ad Generum Cereris sine caede ac sanguine pauci Descendunt Reges et sicca morte Tyranni And the truth of this may be evident likewise from common Experience by which it will appear that no men are so obnoxious to Diseases as the wicked who spend their time in chambering and wantonness in riot and excesss Who hath woe who hath sorrow who hath wounds without cause they that tarry long at the wine Prov. 23. 29 30. What the Wise-man says of one kind of Vice may be said of all They lead down to the Chambers of death Prov. 7. 27. But these things are so obvious that I need not to enlarge upon them I shall conclude this Argument with this consideration that since God Almighty promises to extend and lengthen out or prolong their life who walk piously and observe his Statutes and threatens to shorten the days of the wicked who refuse to obey his Laws it cannot be rationally imagined that the Period of every Man's Life is absolutely determined Another Argument to confirm our Assertion may be taken from the pious devout prayers of the righteous and their turning from their sins by an hearty repentance both which conduce to the lengthening out of their days I put Repentance and Prayer together because of their near affinity to one another Now that both these may be the Moral Cause of extending our Lives may appear to be true from common Experience besides the many Assertions and Promises in Scripture to this purpose First The truth of this may be evident from Experience by which it will appear that if Men had hearkned to Noah's Doctrine if they had repented of their wickedness within the space allowed to them they had not perished in the Deluge of Water Of repenting Nineve we read That God saw their works that they turned from their evil way and God repented of the evil he had said that he would do unto them and he did it not Jonah 3. 10. It was Hezekiah's Prayers and Tears that prolonged his life Go saith the Lord to his Prophet Isaiah and say to Hezekiah Thus saith the Lord the God of David thy Father I have heard thy prayer I have seen thy tears behold I will add unto thy days fifteen years Isa. 38. 5. And if Prayer were of no force to what purpose were men so earnest in their sickness to beg the prayers of others on their behalf I confess if the Period of every Mans Life were fatally determined our Prayers should be very needless For can we be so sensless as to imagine that our Prayers can move God to change his unalterable Statutes and Decrees But besides common experience the truth of this is likewise attested by plain evidences from Scripture At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them And at what instant I shall speak concerning a kingdom to plant it If it do evil in my sight that it obey not my voice then will I repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them Ier. 18 7 8 9 10. Methinks this is so plain an evidence of the efficacy of repentance that no reasonable man can have any doubt concerning it But alas if God had from the outgoings of Eternity fatally determined the destruction of Nations and Kingdoms by