Period to every Mans Life the primitive threatning runs thus in the day thou eatest 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. 4. 12. where it is plain that Death is a punishment inflicted for Sin so that if man had never sinned we have no reason ro 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 Conncil Can. 2. we read thus placuit ut quicunque dicit Adam primum hominem mortalem factum ita ut sive peccaret sive non peccaret moreretur in corpore hoc est de corpore exiret non peccati merito 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 fruitful 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 thus renewed and 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 doudted 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 and least regarded piece of rhe creation but in Man in a more eminent manner conspicnous It is almost impossible for us in this fallen state to conceive what those endowments were with which his innocent condition was blessed We have no reason to think that there was any jar or disagreement amongst his faculties or opposition and sight of one quality with another It was mans disobedience that disturbed the whole universe and disordered every part of it while he was at peace with his Maker he enjoyed a serene condition and needed not fear any hurt either External or Internal then all the parts of his Body entertained a sweet harmony and there could be nothing except Sin that should have made any failure in his constitution or made a separation between his Soul and Body But Sin having entred the World every part of the universe changed its face and Man who was Heavens favorite in his first mould is now condemned to eat his bread in the sweat of his face till he return unto the dust This is all that we can learn from Revelation concerning the introduction of Death to suppose any other account of it were to give up our selves to the dictates of our extravagant fancies and farther it is very unreasonable to infer mans mortality from his constitution and because he is earthly unless we think it also rational that perfected Bodies in the state of Glory are not Bodies or that they are even there mortal Both which seem to be plainly opposite to Scripture Consid 2. The Phrase Immortal may fall under a double notion for First sometimes it is taken absolutely implying a being most perfect which had no begining and can have no end and in this sense Immortality is solely the prerogative of our Maker and can never be attributed to any creature Secondly Sometimes it 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 although they had never eaten the forbidden Fruit. I know some men think that Sin only laid a necessary obligation upon men to obey 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 although 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 creat 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 although in some sense generatio unius est alterius corruptio yet
man than this now this particular quadrates very well with Jobs case and seems to make the meaning of Jobs words to run thus Lord thou hast given me a being and appointed me a work to accomplish but alas while I am thus excruciated with horror and pain I am unfitted for thy service the surplusage of misery measured out to me disinables me to go about thy work be entreated therefore O merciful Father to turn from thy displeasure remove the present heavy calamity I am overburdened with that I may yet accomplish the remainder of my time in thy work and service 2. This set and fixed day of the Hireling is full of pain labour and toil he is poor wretch both late and early at work and seldom has he any intervalls of rest unless his Master be more than ordinary gentle and benign and when he has thus indulged a little ease he must not with the sluggard say O si hoc esset laborare he must to his work again for upon this depends his payment no wages is the result of not working and in some cases stripes and whipping is the fruit of negligence And what is Mans Life At the best state it is but sorrow and trouble till mortality be swallowed up in Life Our pleasures upon which we put the highest value are either purchased or accompanied with pain and labor If we be in a prosperous state our minds are either distracted with care to make it more prosperous or with fears puzled and perplexed lest it be overclouded and if we be in a low and adverse state we grieve and repine nay knowledg the most excellent of earthly pleasures is yet in the judgment of the wisest of men but vexation of spirit For in much Wisdom there is much Grief and he that encreaseth Knowledg encreaseth Sorrow The life of Man is not unfitly compared to Ezekiels Roll which was full of woes If one misery or woe passeth behold another cometh as one Wave succeeds another And by all these calamites we may learn what an evil Sin is the fruit of which are all those calamities we meet with in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy Bread till thou return unto the Ground And upon this account Job may be supposed to plead with God thus Lord is not my time at best but lamentable and miserable And wilt thou superadd to this inevitable misery a surplusage of pain and affliction O deal kindly with thy servant who is devoted to thy fear Turn from me that I may rest till I shall accomplish as an Hireling my day Thirdly True it is that the Hirelings day is but Labor and Pain yet the brevity and shortness thereof makes him regard it the less It is but a day and that will quickly be over and gone and what is the Life of Man It is but as a hand breath of a small extension or like to a passing shadow which we scarce sooner perceive than it vanisheth Man that is Born of a woman is of few days he cometh forth like a Flower and is cut down his decaying is within some few minutes of his budding as the Poet speaketh of Roses dum nascuntur consenuisse Rosas Now from this reason Job may be supposed to argue thus Lord thou knowest how frail and brittle I am and if thou contend thus with me how quickly shall I return to the Dust I Beseech thee consider that my tâ—â—â— is however but short and let thy goodness appear in removing thy stroke away from me for I am consumed by the blow of thine hand O spare me that I may recover strenght before I go hence and be no more Fourthly The Rest and Wages the Hireling expecteth makes the accomplishing of his day more easie and tolerable The word rendred accomplish signifieth to will and delight in a thing earnestly donec optata veniat dies 'T is a day wished and longed for and much delighted in when it comes And indeed the strength of the comparison seems to lye in this which makes the meaning of Jobs words to be this Lord now my trouble and pain excruciats and torments me and my life is more wearisome to me than the Hirelings day can be to him therefore turn away thy wrath from me that in the finishing of my course I may be as jovial and cheerful as the Hireling is when his day is accomplished and thus I have done with the Explanation of these words The next thing I designed in this undertaking is to enquire how the days of every Mans Life may be said to be determined and whether the Period of every Mans Life were so fixed and bounded that by his care good managery and use of the means it cannot be extended nor shortned by his negligence intemperance or exposing of himself to the Famine Sword or Plague it is very certain from this plain Text of Scripture that the days of every Mans Life are determined but the manner how is left unexplained and this we do not learn from Scripture And it were to be wished that our curiosity would forbear any enquiry into things that are hid but alas our inclinations are so wicked and preverse that nitimur in vetitum we are always bent and eager in our enquiries 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 rectifie 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 promise 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 and 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 to Enoch 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
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