such a Promise as this of long Life And we cannot be so unreasonable as to desire it if it would tend to our Detriment 'T is therefore added Deut. 5.16 Honour thy Father c. that thy Days may be prolonged and that it may go well with thee It must also be considered that there were particular Reasons for the extraordinary long Lives of the Patriarchs and those before the Flood that will not reach to our Times Josephus * The concurrent Testimony of the Greeks and Barbarians concerning the Long Lives of Men in Antient Times is mentioned by Josephus Antiq. lib. 1. c. 3. gives this Account of it that they being Men beloved of God and newly made by him with a strong Constitution and excellent Temper of Body and using better Diet the Vigour of the Earth serving at first for the Production of better Fruits All these Things joyn'd with their Temperance constant Exercise moderate Labour a sweet Temper of Air c. might contribute much to the Length of their Lives Which was but necessary that the World might be the sooner Peopled * Which Reason is long since ceas'd and the shortning of Man's Life is as needful now as the prolonging it was in the first Ages of the World Humani Generis Incrementum Terra non caperet si omnes senescerent qui nascuntur Petrarch Knowledge and Religion more certainly propagated by the Authority of living Teachers and Arts and Sciences brought to greater Perfection Not that the Priviledge of living so long was peculiar to the Holy Patriarchs mention'd in Holy Scripture but that generally speaking it was true of all in those Times We read but of Seven Generations of the Descendants of the Race of Cain from the Death of Abel unto the Flood And if it had not been thus the Peopling of the World and the Increase of Mankind could not have been attained by the long Lives only of Five or Six of the Holy Patriarchs Nor could another End have been reached viz. the increase of Arts and Sciences and useful Knowledge for Humane Life because not only Good Men nor principally they but others who have little Religion are as well concerned in those matters * See this more largely treated of by Joh. H. Heidegerus Hist sacra Patriarch Tom. 1. 4o. Amstel 1667. exerc 14. de longaevitate Patriarcharum And Mons le Clerc Comment in Gen. cap. 5. v. 27. Fol. Amstel 1693. And B. Patrick on Gen. 5. and Hackwell 's Apology Fol. Sir W. Raleigh 's Hist of the World l. 1. c. 5. §. 5 6. 'T is true S. Cyprian and some of the Fathers thought that Mens Lives were now shorter because the World is grown old and declin'd and that Nature decays by degrees and that it is upon that Account that Men do not now live so long as formerly But then how comes it to pass that for so many Ages as from David's Time to ours there hath been little or no Change For he is called an Old Man and full of Days at Seventy 1 Chron. 23.1 We should now be in the decrepit Old Age of the World and hardly live Ten Years instead of Threescore and Ten if Nature decay'd so as Man's Life did proportionably decrease by reason of the old Age of the World We must therefore consider the determination of this matter to depend entirely on the Holy and Wise Providence of God to serve the Purposes of his Glory in Mercy and Justice and Wisdom past our finding out as to many things Tho' sometimes we discern a plain Reason As we may well suppose it was one principal Reason of the long Life of the Holy Patriarchs that they might propagate Religion in their Generations as Abraham and Noah and Enoch and the rest did There being no Scriptures written the Knowledge of God was convey'd from Parents to Children and God prolonged their Lives that they might be the Props and Pillars of Religion in their Families and transmit a true Account of the Creation of the World and of the Counsel of God to Adam concerning the promised Seed The Tradition of these Divine Revelations to our first Parents might have been continued by Three Men from Adam to the Israelites going into Egypt Adam being taught of God by Oracle he liv'd long enough to teach many others Methuselah liv'd Three Hundred Forty Three Years with Adam and with Noah Five Hundred and continued to the Flood Noah liv'd with Abraham Fifty Eight Years by whom it was not hard to pass by Isaac Jacob and his Posterity to Moses For Sem liv'd with Methuselah Ninety Eight Years and flourish'd about Five Hundred Years after the Flood And Isaac liv'd Fifty Years with Sem and dy'd about Ten Years before the Children of Israel went down into Egypt So that by the long Lives of the Patriarchs Methuselah Sem and Isaac might continue the Tradition of the Creation and the Truth and Purity of Religion from Adam to that time which was above Two Thousand Two Hundred Years But 't is sufficient in Answer to the Objection that Whenever a Good Man lives long 't is in Mercy to him But the Sinner a Hundred Years old is accursed Isa 65.20 If Wicked Men have their Lives prolonged as well as those that fear God yet there is a vast difference the one is a Gift of Divine Love and the Fruit of a Promise the other is only a common Benefit to serve some Ends of Providence For the sake it may be of some Good Men to whom such a one is Related or it may be as a Reward of some little Service that even a Wicked Man may be imploy'd to do in this World In the one Case long Life is in order to greater Mercy but the other will have a dismal End in his Eternal Ruine The former like a gentle River as one well expresseth it which hath run many Miles and watered and enrich'd the Neighbouring Grounds mingles at last with the vast Ocean of Glory The other though like the River Jordan it hath extended its Course a great way falls at last into the dead Sea into endless Howlings In the one Case 't is a sign that a great deal of further Mercy and Blessing is to be added to it In the other that after this all his Blessings are at an end and he shall have no more The Sinner of an Hundred Years old shall be accursed Some Sinners bring Age upon themselves by their Wickedness before the time and are an Hundred Years old at Forty Some commit the Sins of an Hundred Years in half that space of time and though they should live to that Age would continue to sin on And in Old Age their full Ears of Corn are blasted with a Mildew they are under the Curse of God And their longest Day shall shut up in Everlasting Darkness never to see Light or Comfort more Besides the Promise of long Life must be considered as made to such as are eminent for
not prove but it would be of great Advantage to consider it Dye we must as Men whose Souls dwell in such Earthly Tabernacles it is unavoidable And as Sinners we are under a Sentence of Death by a Divine Constitution and Appointment Which is a Kindness unto Good Men who cannot else have their promised Rest and Crown by the full Accomplishment of their Desires and Hopes They can't be perfectly freed from Evil nor partakers of compleat Felicity without Dying The Capacity of our Nature the Improvements we may attain to and the admirable means which God hath appointed to fit us for a nobler Life may easily convince us that he hath prepared another State and Life and World which it is now our Business to provide for It were well if the best Christians would consider it more to make them diligent to improve this Life wisely to imploy their Talents and carefully to do all the Good they can before the Night comes And it were well if others would consider it who are related to them who have Opportunity to converse with them and are capable of receiving Good by them if they would consider that such Useful Excellent Persons are not to stay always with us If you that are Younger should have many Years longer to stay your most valuable Friends who are advanc'd in Age must shortly be gone And let All seriously count upon it that 't is but a little while and every one of us shall be call'd away The oldest Man or Woman the longest Liver that we read of did not reach that which in comparison with God's Eternity is called one Day did not live a Thousand Years Methuselah is the longest Liver upon Record and yet 't is a much longer Time since he dyed than that was which he liv'd Before the Flood they liv'd nine or ten times as long as now we do yet all dyed Enos 905 Years Seth 912 Adam 930 Jared 962 Methuselah 969 yet all dyed They who tarried longest on the Stage were at length called off Moses speaks of the ordinary Duration of the Life of Man to be Seventy Years and reckons it a great matter if any attain to Fourscore as now and then there are Instances of some that do yet is the Strength of their Years but Labour and Sorrow But because Moses himself was Fourscore Years old when God made him a Captain and Aaron Eighty Three before he was made High Priest we may not conclude the Age of Eighty at that time to be a very decrepit old Age Therefore the Account given by * See Dr. Hammond on Psalm XC Moses may rather be understood either to refer to after Ages or to the particular Case of the Children of Israel in the Wilderness where multitudes were destroyed for their Murmuring and Unbelief so that in Forty Years time all the Males of Twenty Years old and upwards that were able to go forth to War were cut off except Caleb and Joshua The number of such as dyed under the Age of Eighty must be reckoned very great at least Three Hundred Thousand Men. But the longest Life of Man absolutely and in it self consider'd is very short Once in a Hundred Years the Scene of the World is shifted and all the Actors go off the Stage and others come in their room And how soon and suddenly are Individuals called away There is hardly any thing that is weak and withered that is vanishing and of no continuance that is movable and may be taken down at pleasure but the Life of Man is compar'd to it To a Vapour To the Flower of the Field To a Tabernacle To a Shepherd's Tent To a Shadow c. And in comparison with several other Creatures it is also short for we read of divers Animals that liv'd sometimes thrice as long as Man ordinarily hath done How little at longest is the measure of our Days that may be reckon'd up by one Figure and a Cypher What is this to Everlasting Life The Life to come will continue more Millions of Ages than there are Moments now in the longest Life of Man yea if it were Ten Thousand times longer than Methuselah's The present Life is to the future but as one Moment in the Apostle's Reckoning 2 Cor. 4.17 And 't is shorter yet if compar'd with God's Eternal Duration which hath neither Beginning nor End Mine Age is as nothing before thee Psal 39.5 and Psal 90.4 There is no Proportion between the greatest number of Years and an endless Life How certainly how soon will the little number of the Days of the Years of our Pilgrimage be ended Though we should be favour'd by Divine Providence more than others and flourish in outward Prosperity to a great Old Age yet what Man is he that liveth and shall not see Death let him live never so long and never so well Shall he deliver his Soul from the hand of the Grave Psal 89.49 Jacob was an 130 Years old when he said to Pharoah Few and Evil have the Days of the Years of my Life been and yet that time was short in comparison of the longer Lives of his Fathers But unconceivably shorter in comparison of the Everlasting Life which this is the passage to I have read of certain little Beasts on the Banks of the River Hypanis in Poland that never live above a Day they which dye at Eight a Clock in the Morning dye in their Youth they which dye at Five in the Evening of the same Day in their extremest Old Age. Who would put so small a Continuance into the Consideration of Good or Evil And yet the longest of our abode in this World in comparison with Eternity is much less than the Life of one of those Creatures compar'd with Methuselah II. It is a Mercy to dye in Peace so as to have a Grave and Burial To dye in Peace is sometimes opposed to an untimely violent Death 1 Kings 2.6 It was promised to Zedekiah that he should not dye by the Sword but dye in Peace Jer. 34.4 To do so and to be decently Interr'd is an additional Mercy which the best Men have desir'd and been concern'd for We read that Abraham purchased a Burying-place for his Dead God incourag'd Jacob by the Promise that his Son should take care of his Funeral And God expressed his Kindness to Moses in that particular that he buried him And Joseph of Arimathea is commended for his Care in the Burial of our Saviour And 't is threatned and inflicted as a Judgment to want a Sepulchre As in the Case of Baasha and Jezabel Jehojachim and others Jer. 22.19 Psal 143.11 It is threatned to this purpose Jer. 14.16 That the People should be cast out in the Streets and none to bury them and that the Bones of the Kings and Priests and Prophets should be taken out of the Grave and laid open to the Sun and Moon 'T is part of a very sad Complaint Psal 79.2 The dead Bodies of thy Servants have
and at Home by Sea and Land in one Country and another and compassed me about with thy Salvation How many Personal how many Relative Blessings How many Temporal how many Spiritual Mercies have I had How many Useful Excellent Exemplary Christians Ministers and Magistrates have I follow'd to the Grave and seen their Bodies laid in the Dust And yet God has spar'd and preserv'd me unto Old Age that I might be more ripe for Heaven And Oh that this may be the Fruit of all that I may be so And with the Consideration of what God has done for you you old Disciples should acquaint others that are younger with what you your selves have found and what their Children and Childrens Children will find to be true as to Religious and Civil Prudence In this especially Days should speak and multitudes of Years teach Knowledge Job 33.9 Admonish them to remember their Creator in the Days of their Youth charge them to be followers of you so far as you have been followers of Christ in hopes that among all your Children or Grand-Children there may not be one Son of Perdition nor one Daughter of Belial Thus David Come ye Children hearken unto me I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Psal 34.11 Thus Solomon at large Prov. 4.1 2. Hear ye Children the Instruction of a Father and attend to know Understanding Thus Timothy's Mother and Grand-Mother taught him Tell them of the Snares of Satan of the Deceitfulness of Sin of the certain Disappointment if we expect much from the World tho' it may be they will hardly now believe it Thirdly Let the last part of your Lives abound in the Fruits of Righteousness and be much imploy'd in serious Devotion Let more Time be spent in Prayer and Meditation and secret Converse with God In what a Frame doth the Psalmist speak when he was Old Psal 71.17 18. * Which Holy Rivet was wont to repeat every Day in his Old Age. O God thou hast taught me from my Youth and hitherto have I declared thy wonderous Works Now also when I am Old and Grey Headed O God forsake me not until I have shewed thy Strength unto this Generation and thy Power to every one that is to come Though in the Morning we must sow our Seed yet in the Evening we must not with-hold our hand we know not which shall prosper most Whether you may not please and honour God in your Old Age by suitable Fruits of Righteousness as much as ever heretofore in your Younger Years I have lost a world of time said the Learned Salmasius on his Death-Bed if I had One Year longer I would spend it in reading David 's Psalms and Paul 's Epistles I repent of all my Life said another on his Death-Bed but that part I have spent in Communion with God and in doing Good O Pray much for your selves and for your Children and for Theirs after them that none of them may be lost that none of them may dishonour their Parentage blemish their Family break the Fetters of their Education and cast off their Fathers God and their Mothers God Methinks 't is a Pleasant and Comfortable Passage Heb. 11.9 That Abraham dwelt in Tents with Isaac and Jacob That is they all did so though not in the same House and were all Heirs of the same Promise Father Son and Grand-Son All Heirs of the same Promise All Believers All within the Bond of the Covenant All pleasing God and accepted of him 'T is a singular Mercy to be able to say Lord I am thy Servant truly I am thy Servant the Son of thine Handmaid the Son of thy Servant I hope my Father's God my Grand-Father's and Grand-Mother's God is my God and shall be the God of mine And here I can hardly forbear something more particular of the Excellent Person Deceased who is now above our Praises Her Character and History is not to be summ'd up in the few Syllables of a Funeral Ring that she liv'd to such an Age and dy'd at such a Time I might say of her with strict Justice upon my own knowledge very many Things Great and Praise-worthy but that it was against her Desire nor is it His who hath a greater Power over me than that comes to There are Multitudes who knew her Example who are Mourners for her Death in City and in Country besides Relations Multitudes who by her Charity were enabled to praise God Who will tell one another of this and the other Particular which I shall not name And if any think that her dislike of a Funeral Commendation do add to her Character and really greaten it I cannot help or gainsay that Let me urge this a little further upon Elder Christians who have been for many Years planted in the House of the Lord that they would bring forth Fruit in their Old Age. Sirs Be not weary of Well-doing God is not weary of doing you Good he hath provided for you in Old Age that your Youth should be renewed like the Eagles God's Goodness to you doth not abate but increase He may say to you as to old Israel Isa 46.3 4. You were born by me from the Belly and carried from the Womb even unto Old Age I am he and even to Hoary Hairs will I carry you You have had a long Time to take deeper Root and to bring forth riper and better Fruit than Others and now you are preparing for a Remove within a near prospect of it you know it can't be long for Old Age is the next Condition to the Grave 'T was the Honour of Thyatira that her Last Works were better than her First and of Zacharias and Elizabeth both well stricken in Years that they were both Righteous before God walking in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord blameless And of Anna who was of a great Age that she departed not from the Temple but served God Day and Night Luke 2.36 They had need look to this who can't reasonably think to be many Years short of the Everlasting World who have no other Business now to mind but that they may finish their Course with Joy that they may have fresh Supplies of Spiritual Life and suitable actings of Grace to the very last that their Breaches may be repaired their Backslidings healed that what is weak may be strengthened and what is decayed may be recovered c. There is such a Thing as a Spring in Autumn a latter Spring and though it be inferiour to the first yet the Husbandman cannot spare it and 't is reckon'd a sign of barren Ground if there be no Attempts to put forth afresh towards the end of the Year God expects the like from Christians in their Old Age Especially from such who have made a great Appearance and Profession of Religion in their Younger Years 'T is dreadful for any such to be Dead and Cold and Worldly and Selfish and Earthly-minded Though the Fruit be somewhat different in