arguements 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 prepossess'd 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 and on the other side there are many threatnings of cutting short the days of the wicked Thus God promises length of days to obedient Children Ex. 20. 12. Honor thy Father 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 Commandments which I command thee this day that it may go well with thee with thy Children after thee that thou may'st prolong thy days upon the earth which the Lord thy god giveth thee particularly the Lord tells Solomon 1 King 3. 4. If thou wilt walk in my ways to keep my statutes my Commandments as thy father David did walk then I will lengthen thy days 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 keep him alive c. And upon this account 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. Religon 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 Gâ—od 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 burningague 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 rebel ye shall be devoured with the Sword for the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Isa 1. 20. And the wise-man concludes it as certain Prov. 10. 27. The years of the wicked shall be shortned 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 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 excess 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 theratens 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 Doctrin if they had repented of their wickedness within the space allowed to them they had not perished in the Deluge of Water Of repenting Nineveh we read That God saw their works that they turned from their evil may 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 seen thy tears behold I will add unto thy days fifteen years Isa 3. 8. 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 imagin 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 concerning a kingdom to pluck up to pull down and to destroy it If that Nation against whom I have pronounce 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 Jer. 11. 7 8 9 10 Methinks this is so plain an evidnce 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 an absolute and inconditionate decree Repentance could never alter the determination It is the Apostles
may suppose that Eight Hundred years was the common Period before the Flood But then after the Flood the mutability of this common Poriod 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. Although 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 diseases 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 multiplyed 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 although this be a perverse and corrupt generation 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 to anticipate his time in bringing judgments upon a nation or people to which I naswer it is very true but methinks men have no ground to think that in the present case God anticipates the time in bringing judgements upon them for we cannot think that Noah was compleat five Hundred years old when God threatned to distroy 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 quingentorum annorum esset Noah i. e. quadragintos octoginta vitae annos ageret 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 temperate 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 desend into battel and perish Though 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 smiting 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 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 Sometime 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 opinion 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 erroneus sentiments some men have unhappily embraced in their enquiry for satisfaction in this matter And that I may shun
external power in acting them And with this consideration they solace themselves as if they were as innocent as Fools or Mad-Men Be But let no Man deceive himself in arguing so foolishly the Apostle St. James very forcibly rejects this opinion Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any man But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed Jam. 2. 13 14. The wise Man in his sense after the certainty of things concludes his Seventh Chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes thus Lo this only have I found that God hath made man upright But they have sought out many inventions Pray then let us reject every opinion that teacheth God does necessitate Men to sin for nothing can be more injurious to God than this To think to palliat the business by saying God is under no Law is but a lawless and unreasonable pretext for the everlasting rectitude of his spotless nature is more than any external Law and pray what can truth and Justice do but what is holy and Just The distinction between the act and the pravity of the act the former of which God determins Man to but not to the latter is as vain and frivolous For the pravity of every wicked act is inseparable from it And farther the Divine commands particularly prohibit the act and I think upon no other ground but because the formality of Sin consists in the act it self It is indeed strange to consider those Platonick and imaginary notions some Men run to But I think it needless to take a particular view of such Dreams But as this opinion sadly reflects upon the holiness of God so it is highly inconsistent with the liberty of Mans Will in the choice of the means That there is a free principle in Man is so plain that he who denies this must engage himself against Experience and Reason There is no Man who does wickedly but he perceives he may do otherwise the sick man is not constrained to neglect the means for his recovery neither is the Physitian forced to prescribe this and no other remedy Men act not as Machines but they have a Free Principle whereby they may chuse what they think is best and most convenient It 's true the Will since Adam's Fall is corrupted and mostly enclined to that which is evil but yet the Fall did not destroy Man's Freedom it made no Physical change only the Faculties of the Soul are morally vitiated and corrupted But if the Will were Physically as they speak determined ad unum it were unreasonable to think that the Sick person who neglects the means could do otherwise And alas doth nor Experience convince us that Men of this perswasion neglect the use of lawful means which God hath appointed only because they Dream that if God has decreed that they shall dye then it is needless to use the means and if God has determined that they shall live whether they use or neglect the means they shall live But you 'l say God doth not only Decree the End but also the Means I answer this Plea doth not a whit diminish or remove the difficulty since they suppose that the Means are as absolutely decreed as the End which quite destroys the liberty of Mans Will and leaveth no place for any choice Thirdly This opinion leaves no place for praise to the Learned Physitian nor for dispraise to the unskilful Empyrick First The skilful Physitian can claim no praise for although it be grant'd that he hath wisely considered the condition of the Sick and the nature of the Disease though he hath prescribed apt Remedies and in all things behaved well yet since he did no other thing but what he was determined to do by an external force who can think he merits any praise If he could have done otherwise but would nor then he might in reason claim it but the case according to the present Hypothesis is quite opposite But Secondly neither can we in reason blame the unskilful Quack-Doctor who neither knows the nature of the Disease nor of those Medicines he prescribeth Alas poor man does no more than what he was forced to do and he could not do otherwise why then should he be blamed for any failure or mistake he commits Foutthly The natural and genuine Consequence of this Doctrine is to make men like Fools or Maâ—d-men expose themselves to any danger For instance What need we be afraid to run upon any Precipice if God hath determined the Period of every man's life there is no fear to encounter with any seeming danger men may safely enough leap into the fire or cast themselves into the deep for there is no fear that they shall be hurt or perish unless the Almighty hath determined it and if this be they may perswade themselves they could not do otherwise for the Decree is unalterable and cannot be repealed Nor is this true only in Theory Speculation but it may appear to have such bad effects by the sad experience of poor deluded Creatures Alas do we not hear the Vulgar frequently comfort any who are in trouble with this consideration that God hath decreed it should be so if these persons did only mean that God exerciseth a special Providence in the world and ruleth among the Children of men no body had ever blamed them but this is not their meaning for they plainly declare by such kind of speech that all things come to pass fatally I have heard some wretched Sinners who had committed great and scandalous sins excuse themselves by saying they were decreed to do so and God's will must be accomplished It were very easie to multiply many Absurdities which flow from this Doctrine by a natural Consequence but these few I have named may abundantly satisfie every considering man and shew him how pernicious and dangerous it is but before I conclude I shall consider the four Arguments I mentioned before which I said seemed to strengthen and confirm this Opinion as First There are many places of Scripture which seem to conclude That the Period of every Man's Life is determined I shall mention some of the most remarkable Texts of Scripture brought to defend this as first Psal 31. 15. My times are in thy hand deliver me from the hand of mine Enemies From hence some draw this unexpected Conclusion That God hath absolutely decreed the Period of every Man's Life Now I think no considering man should ever have guessed this to be the Psalmist's meaning for the Text only holds out the Divine care and Providence whereby he does superintendand continue every individual thing in the world in their Beings and therefore is it that David makes his application to God that he would deliver him from the hand of his Enemy which methinks had been a needless Petition if he had imagined that God had absolutely determined the period of his Life Secondly
Psal 39. 5. Lord make me to know mine end the measure of my days what it is that I may know how frail I am This place is strangely brought to confirm the former Opinion For the Psalmist doth not desire the knowledge of the Period of his life he does not ask when he shall die only he begs the Divine aid and assistance that he may wisely improve the short time he hath to live I cannot stand to consider such Texts of Scripture as these which are no ways acquainted with the Doctrin they are brought to defend There is only one Text that seems to favor this Opinion viz. Job 14. 5. Seeing his days are determined the number of his Months are with thee thou hast appointed his bonds that he cannot pass But I have considered this all along in this Discourse I confess some in return to this say that all Job's words are not approved of God therefore it is hard to conclude any thing from them but this is a very insufficient answer That which satisfieth me is this that Job here only says that our days are determined but he speaks nothing how they are determined now in what sense the Period of every Man's life may be said to be determined I have already considered Secondly There are many Examples in Scripture which shew that the Period of every Man's Life is bounded and limited by an absolute Decree The most remarkable is that Act. 4. 28. Both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles the people of Israel were gather'd together for to do whatsoever thy hand thy counsel determined before to be done The Scribes Pharisees frequently stirr'd up the multitude to lay hands upon Christ but their endeavours were always to no purpose and the account the Scripture gives for this is because his hout was not come In return to this I shall desire it may be considered that when we say the Period of every Man's Life may be extended or shortned the meaning is not that it is impossible that it can be otherwise we never doubted but the great Governor of the World may make what reserved Cases he pleases from the ordinary course of things and no wonder though the present Case which is upon all accounts so extraordinary be exempt from the general Rule and for such exempt Cases to which there ought to be allowance made no reasonable man can think they do any prejudce to the thing I have been proving Thirdly It is a common opinion that the futurition of things depend only upon the Divine will antecedently to which things are only possible In answer to which I easily grant that there is nothing that comes to pass contrary to the Divine will the most criminal actions are ordered by his Infinite Wisdom and permitted to be But yet we have no ground to think that he decrees every future action Else it were hard to vindicate the holiness of God upon which consideration many Learned Men have been induced to deny Gods immediate concurring with the Creature in all its operations and yet we need not run our selves upon this Rock for we may safely enough maintain that the Divine will is immediately efficatious for God who created man with a freedom of will designed that he should act without constraint and the reason why man acts freely is because God wills men to act so which plainly discovers that the most contingent actions depend immediatly upon the Divine will Fourthly We can never give a rational nor satisfying account how the Divine knowledg concerning the Period of Humane Life is infallible certain if it be not founded upon the sure Basis of an absolute decree This object I have partly removed already while I shewed that God knows whatsoever is true because his cognisance is Infinite wherefore it is unreasonable to think that God could not have a perfect comprehension of things if he had not decreed them absolutely Now to make this yet more plain I shall prove by instances from Scripture that God hath a certain knowledg of those things which he never decreed as absolutely future And First It is a very remarkable instance which we have 1 Sam. 23. 11 12. where David hearing that Saul was to come to Keilah he earnestly beseecheth God to tell him if the men of Keilah will deliver him and his men into the hand of Saul and if Saul will come down To both which he gets this answer That Saul will come down and that the Keilites will deliver him up And yet the Event shews that none of those came to pass because the fulfilling of both did depend upon Davids staying in Keilah And yet God certainly knew that if David had not depart'd from Keilah they should have delivered him into the hands of Saul And farther it is very evident that David was not inquiring what were the present propensions and inclinations of the Keilites but what should be the event of his staying and accordingly he receives an answer from God Another Instance we have 2 Kings 13. 19. where Elisha the Prophet is very wroth with Joash King of Israel because he did not smite upon the ground five or six times and the reason the Prophet adds is for then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it Which makes it as evident as any thing can be that God foreknew that Joash should have smiten Syria till he had consumed it if he had smitten upon the ground five or six times It were no difficult task to prove this by a multtude of instances from Scripture but I think I need add no more for the satisfaction of considering Man and for others a Million of demonstrations will be urged to no purpose And thus I have done with the Second thing I proposed that God hath not by any absolute or inconditionate Decree fatally determined the Period of every Mans Life I proceed to the Third thing proposed namely whether the Period of every Mans Life be mutable And before I prove it to be so I must premise two cautions First when we say the Period of every Mans Life is mutable we mean no more but that it may be shortned by our intemperance or neglect of the means and be extended by our good managery and religious manner of living Secondly When I say the Period of every Mans Life is moveable the meaning is not that it is necessarily so and that it cannot be otherwise for this would not be consistent with our dependent condition therefore there is allowance to be made to extraordinary cases The acts of Divine providence in the government of Humane affairs are sometimes extraordinary and therefore it must be left to his Infinite Wisdom and Goodness to make what reserved cases he thinks fit from the general rule Yet for ordinary the Period of Humane Life is mutable and God doth not exclude the power of second causes in governing the World These things being premised I doubt not but to offer such