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A23713 A discourse concerning the period of humane life, whether mutable or immutable by the author of The duty of man laid down in express words of Scripture. Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.; R. E. 1677 (1677) Wing A1110; ESTC R7660 41,105 158

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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 meri●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
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 d●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
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 agere● 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
in this matter And that I may shun tediousness I shall reduce them to the two following heads 1. Some have foolishly imagined that the Period of Humane Life is fatal and necessary 2. Others upon the contrary extream have as groundlesly thought that it is altogether fortuitous and casual Amongst those who ascribe every thing to the dispensation of a sure and inevitable destiny the Stoicks have been been always reckoned the chiefest combatants It is well known that those stupid and senseless Philosophers did teach that all effects were necessarily produced by the natural order and series of causes which were from the outgoings of Eternity inseperably chained together so that neither Humane industry nor the Divine power could alter what such a conjunction of causes was to produce That humane Industry care and good menagery cannot alter the decree of Fate the Stoick moralist Seneca very fairly confesseth Fatis agimur cedite fatis Non solicitae possunt curae Mutare rati stamina fusi Seneca in Oedip. The same Seneca also affirms that the supreme being is so strictly tyeh to the Sempeternal series and order of Causes that he must follow but cannot gain-say what is thus established Quicquid est quod nos sic vivere jussit sic mori eadem necessitate Deos alligat irrevocabilis humana ac Divina pariter cursus vehit Sen. lib. de provid 5. There are two very dangerous Authors of great name and fame who amongst many other bad opinions have recalled this Stoical dream which was long since rejected the one is the famous Mr. Hobs the other the subtil author of that Book entituled Tractatus Theologico policitus Both which I may perhaps have occasion to examine more particularly But if all things were thus established by a fatal necessity sound reason would suggest to sober Men that it were a needless thing for the sick to call for the Physitians aid And indeed Cicero very ingeniously confesseth this Si fatum tibi est ex hoc morbo convalescere sive tu medicum adhibueris sive non adhibueris convalesces Si fatum tibi est non convalescere sive medicum adhibueris sive non non convalesces alterutrum fatum est medicum ergo ad hibere nihil valet Cic. lib. de fato And altho Seneca thinks he has fallen upon a very good answer yet it is truly never a whit better Cum sanitas inquit videatur de fato debetur et medico quia ad nos beneficium fati per hujus manus venit lib. 2. nat cap. 35. By which means the Physitian is as fatally determined to prescribe the cure as the sick mans recovery is destinated The ages in which these Men lived being dark and blind we ought as much to pity their case as correct and reprehend them It is our happiness that we are not left to the conduct of natural reason and would God our thankful acknowledgments were answerable to the greatness of this blessing I shall not need to stand in rejecting this Dream I think the hazards this speculation hath exposed some of its favorites to will be forcible enough to afright others from embracing it I remember I have read of some whom this conceit had so far distracted that they did cast away their Swords and other weapons when their Enemies approached saying If it be our Fate to dye to keep our weapons will never preserve us from Death 'T is also reported of the deluded Mahumetans that in battel they take courage from this that they are no sooner born than fate seals upon their foreheads how long they shall live and what death they shall dye Alas who would not pitty Men thus infatuated and bewitched surely as St. Augustin excellently speaks Si cor tuum non esset fatuum non crederes fatum Tract 37. in Joh. Next the Stoick stand the Star-gazers and Astrologers who attribute the shortness or extension of our lives to the bad or benign Aspect and Conjunction of the Stars in the time of our Nativity Now although I deny not that the Heavens have an influence upon inferior things yet surely this secret and occult dominion Star-gazers plead for is so manifestly cross to reason and dayly experiences that no man in his wit will affirm it The Prophet hath long since advised us not to be dismayed at the signs of Heaven adding the Heathen they are dismayed at them Ier. 10. 2. As if it had been only peculiar to the Heathen part of the World who were ignorant of Gods Providence to believe the vain predictions of Astrologers Babylon was upbraided for her trusting Astrologers Star-gazers and monthly prognosticators Isa. 47. 13. These men confidently presumed to foretell the time of Mens Death and the easlly deceived multitude gave a ready assent to whatever they speke so easie a matter it is to impose any thing upon the belief of the vulgar The Palmaster as foolishly pretendeth that God hath sealed upon every mans hand how long he shall live and that observing men as they would have us believe they are can understand this by the lines and draughts in the palme of the hand And or proof of this they aledg Job 37. 7. where it is said he sealeth up the hand of every man that all men may know his work But from this place no such thing can be collected for Elihu is there taken up in expressing the greatness of Gods works and the Divine power in commanding the Snow and the Rain small and great to be on the Earth and he addeth he sealeth up the hand of every man That is when Snow and Rain are upon the Earth men cannot labour and toil their hand is sealed up they cannot work Epicurus and his followers could never be reconciled to this opinion but yet the account they give of this matter is every whit as extravagant and irrational they being equally unhappy in the account they give of the begining and Period of beings The account these men give of the original of beings is so incredible that no rational man can have any temptation to believe it but this belongs not to the present discourse I shall therefore only consider what they say of the Period of beings and briefly their opinion is that it is no more but the casual and fortuitous separation of those particles of Matter that were united by a happy chance and hit This error is of an old date and had long ere now past prescription if it had not been so suitable to the humours of bad men The Saducees whose Religigion it was to contradict the Pharisees were very great sticklers for this dream some men have confined the Divine providence to the Stars and plucked our sublunary beings from his immediate Rule and Dominion Cicero could not be perswaded that God had any knowledg of things contingently future Some to mend the matter confess God may know the general kinds of things but they will not allow that he knows every particular
an absolute and inconditionate decree Repentance could never alter the determination It is the Apostles advice Jam. 5. 14. Is any sick among you let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him I know there are other means to be made use of in order to the procuring of health than repentance and prayer and of these we shall speak anon but yet this I think may be truly said that sometimes when all other remedies have been either ineffectual or not to be had repentance and prayer have done the business and compleated the cure And surely these are duties profitable at all times I know the Church of Rome tell us many extravagant Stories of the wonders and miracles that have been performed by the prayers of Holy Men those I shall not now mention only I shall say that altho it is not credible that the Prayers of Saints upon the Earth do either mitigate and alleviate the pains of those that are in Hell or free them from that miserable state as some men have confidently enough reported yet it is sufficiently credible that the effectual fervem prayer of the righteous availeth much Jam. 5. 16. A Third Argument to prove that our lives may be extended or shortned may be taken from the use of medicaments Common reason will teach Men that it is needless to prescribe any Medicine to those that are dead and truly the case would be much alike if the Period of every Mans Life were determined by an inconditionate Decree For altho men might then make use of medicaments yet I think I may truly say that their operation should be very ineffectual But that men may to good purpose employ the Physitian when they are sick and expect by the blessing of God benefit by the use of Medicaments applied by the art of Physick no reasonable man can doubt That the lives of many have been lengthned and prolonged by the excellent remedies applied by the expert and skilfull Physitian is a truth so obvious to common experience that I need not enlarge upon it And on the other side how many have died before their time only by their imploying ignorant Physitians It is a famous instance that we have recorded of one Manes the Father of the Manichees who having returned into Persia at that time when the Kings Son lay sick of a dangerous disease he amongst many other Physitians was present all the others plainly declared that the disease was dangerous but Manes who was only a pretended Physitian confidently desired that they might be all removed and he would take care of the Kings Son withall promised to restore him to health in a short space but the event was quite contrary for within a short time the Kings Son died which did so provoke the King of Persia that he instantly caused Manes to be put to a miserable Death What mischief has been done by unskilfull Physitians too many sad examples do daily attest but yet if the Period of every Mans Life were determin'd by an absolute and inconditionate decree no man could blame the ignorant Physitian nor needs any person be troubled if they neglect the means for God had determined they should do so Which indeed makes Marthas speech to our Lord Christ to be ridiculous if thou hadst been here my Brother had not died That Naaman the Syrian should wash himself in the River of Jordan seven times and then be clean of his Leprosie was indeed miraculous But yet it is plain that if he had not done so his Leprosie had remained Whether that custom in the primitive Christian Church of anointing the sick with Oyl was miraculous or not I shall not dispute but this is certain that it was then a mean used for the recovery of the Sick There is one objection which some men very impertinently urge against what I have been speaking and that is Asa his going to the Physicians which the Scripture seems to disallow To this I answer that King Asa is not therefore reprehended because he asked advice of the Physitians but because he trusted only in them and sought not the Lord as it is very plain from 2 Chron. 16. 12. And sure no reasonable man will have any doubt but this was a very culpable neglect in Asa. Fourthly Nothing is more evident than that there are several things which have a Physical efficacy in the shortning of Mens lives as all kinds of excess namely immoderate eating and drinking all inordinate passions of mind c. as also the bad and unwholesome constitution of a Kingdom And on the other side there are many things which effectually conduce to the lengthning of our days namely all kind of moderation and temperance the wholsomness of the region wherein we live and our good managery What kind of persons are those who for ordinary live longest are they not those who carefully moderate their sensual appetites and who govern their passions and who live in the wholesomest places We commonly say that Men who live in a Populous City are shorter-lived than those who live in the Country I have already shewed how some vices in their proper tendency shorten Mens Lives and that in some Nations and Kingdoms men live much longer than in others all which methinks plainly tells us the Period of every Mans Life is not Fatal but Mutable according as men are careful or negligent of themselves I shall only add another condesirable argument and so draw this discourse to a conclusion And that is don't we evidently perceive that many men had lived longer if they had notwretchedly and unreasonably exposed themselves to danger and is it not evident that many Millions who have died in battle would have had their days prolonged if they had never descended into battle That God hath from the outgoings of Eternity by an absolute and inconditionate decree determined both the time and manner of every mans death this is more than we can learn from Revelation and me thinks it is very inconsistent and irreconcilable with those many plain texts that shew it is lawful in time of eminent danger to flee for our safety in time of Famine and when any egregious contagion such as the Pestilence spreadeth in any place How many Hundreds prolonged their lives by their flight from battle If David and his Men had remained in Keilah it is certain they should have been delivered up into the hands of Saul and what the Event should have been we may easily conjecture if God by a special providence had not interposed for their safety But besides the many instances we might produce we have a positive precept to flee from any eminent danger Mat. 10. 23. When they persecute you in this City flee into another Which plainly shews that this is a lawful means of prolonging our lives in such cases It is a notable instance we have Jer. 27. 18 Thus saith the Lord behold I set before you the way of life and the