be so it is plain there is no need of the Guide we are seeking for and then I doubt after all our searching we shall never be able to find him But there is one Argument above all that there is no such Guide viz. That Christ never Promised There should be one always in his Church And without a Promise from him we can never be certain that there is We know what is pretended in this matter and what Texts are produce for it but after the strictest and most deliberate Enquiry into the meaning of them we can find no evidence of any such Promise nor discern the least shadow or Footstep of a visible Infallible Guide We own indeed that God has Promised the Guidance of his Spirit to all that desire the Knowledg of his Ways but we the rather think that he has not promised any other Infallible Guide than this For what need is there of the Inward Direction of the Spirit in the Search of Truth when we have a Guide at hand that can lead us Infallibly into it and save us the labour of searching after it But did not our Saviour Promise to send his Spirit upon the Apostles and were not they Infallible Guides True but did he Promise to make their Successors in all Ages Infallible too If he did every Successor has an equal Claim And then how comes the Church of Rome to talk of but one Infallible Guidfe since the Death of the Apostles and to Appropriate that extraordinary favour to here self If he did not she must shew us a particular Charter or Promise that Infallibility should never depart from the See of Rome and when she does that we may allow her to be Infallible But supposing that Christ had promised an Infallible Guide it may be convenient to know 2. Whether or no he has given him Authourity to suspend the Judgment of all Christians in matters of Religion This we must say is a distinct Power from Infallibility unless we can imagin that our Saviour and his Apostles tho they were infallible did not know the extent of their Power For 't is plain they did not affect any such Authority or treat their Disciples in this manner but both required them to prove the Truths which they heard Act. 17.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and commended their Ingenuity in proving them by the Scriptures Besides a Guide whose Directions we must blindly follow without examinig the Grounds and Tendency of them seems to be a very improper means of bringing men to Heaven For surely God did design that in the exercise of our Religion we should act like men and not lay aside our Reasonand Judgment as things that are dangerous to our salvation 'T is true not to Judge at all is a certain way not to err but it is a very blind and unlikely way to bring men to the knowledge of the Truth without which their Obedience can never be a Reasonable Service And theresore if any Church or Person under colour of Infallibility shall assume an absolute Authority over the Consciences of men before I resign up my Judgment to them I must desire to be informed not only how they come to be infallible but what Commission they have to oblige me to believe as they please and to strangle my own Sense and Reason if they offer to oppose any Doctrine of theirs tho never so absurd or contradictory to them But suppose still there were Reasons to convince me that there is an infallible Judge and that there ought to be no Judge besides him yet because he cannot be useful to me till I know who he is there is another great Question to be resolved before I can prudently commit my self to him viz. How I may certainly know where to find him And here I meet with one vast Discouragement at the very entrance into this enquiry Namely that the same Church which alone pretends to this Infallible Guide is very uncer tain who he is Some chain Infallibility to St. Peter's Chair and place it in the Person of the Pope But this is the most Interessed Party as depending entirely upon the Pleasure of him whom they call Infallible Others send us to General Councils some of whcih have condemn'd the Pope for an Heretick and contradicted the Decrees of former Councils But then what think we of Oral Tradition Or the Doctrine of the Universal Churcvh conveighed by Father to Son from the Apostles Time down to the Present Age The General consent I confess of the Christian Church so far as it reaches is an excellent means to find out the sense of Scripture But we are not speaking now of Tradition or the Church as a Witness of Truth but of the Authority of any Church or Guide to prescribe a Rule of Faith and Practice by Vertue of an Insallible Assistance This is the thing we are enquiring after and where the Seat of this Authority is and all we can certainly learn hitherto is this That seeing there are so many controversies in the Church of Rome about it it will be a very hard thing to find it there And that in the Judgment of a considerable part of that Church a man may tire himself and be in quest of his Infallible guide all his Days and never come within sight of him at last For suppose he takes the Pope to be the infallible Oracle he is thought to be mistaken by all those that stand for a General council and if he go to a General council he is lost in the opinion of all that declare for single infallibility And the men for Oral tradition think they are all deceived that look for infallibility in any one Person or Party in the Church What must we do now that have so much choice of infallible guides and nothing to determine our choice Many we pick and choose at a venture But that cannot be safe because they have occasion sometimes to lead contrary to one another and therefore cannot be all infakubke and none of them speaks of more infallible guides than one Must we then weigh their Reasons and the Scriptures they produce for their several claims These we have often heard and considered and cannot but admire the confidence of men who pretend to sound the infallibility and other Prerogatives of the Bishop and Church of Rome upon Texts that speak not the least Syllable of them Whereas matters of this importance ought to be exprest in the easiest and plainnest Words that he that runs may read them If not only the Peace and Unity of the Church but every man's salvation depends as our Adversaries must say upon the Right understanding of there Texts we have that confidence in the Goodness of our Saviour that we certainly believe he would not expect we should find out a meaning in therm that by no good Rule of Interpretation can be collected from them And for this Reason we cannot think our selves obliged when any thing is said
commonly the Deepest most lasting and indelible And hence it is that Men are generally very apt to stick to their first Principles be they true or false and for want of due enquiry how they came by them to take them for Divine Impressions and Eternal Truths And thus an Erroneous Conscience Usurps the Authority of a Guide the ordinary effect of which is a zealous Opposition against all that standin its way or presume to Check and disturb the Dictates of it For what ever ought to be it is plain that Mens present Thoughts and Principles are and will be the Rule of their Actions and that the worse any Principles are and the Earlier they are Instilled into them under the Notion of Divine Truths the more strongly they Impregnate their Minds and excite them to pursue the Tendencies of them And therefore we need not much wonder at those who are bred up in a Religion contrary to the Truth as it is in Jesus and to his Commandments of Love Peace and Unity Who are taught from their Cradles to call us Hereticks and to speak the bitterest things against us to Break their Faith with us and to mark us out for Destruction if in process of time they grow expert in all the Arts of Confusion and with undaunted Courage Undertake the Boldest Crimes which their Party and Principles do Countenance the Practice of 'T is true the Prejudices of Education are not invincible if Men would take a right course to overcome them But this is a rare case and there are but few in Comparison of those that choose to enjoy their Errors that are willing to make a Tryal of it And indeed when our green and tender Minds are once warpt by false and Pernicious Principles it is no easy matter to bring them streight and to put them into a right Posture again It requires a great deal of Consideration and Impartial inquiry into the Reason and bottom of things which some Men want abilities of mind others Leisure Humility Patience and Integrity to carry them through And the want of any of these is enough to answer for their obstinate persisting in their First Errours and unreasonable Opposition to the Truth 2. Affected Ignorance of the Truth naturally hardens Men in their Evil Principles and disposes them to approve of any Rugged and violent Course to keep up the Reputation of them The Jews in our Saviour's time had the greatest Advantages that ever Men enjoyed of being delivered from the Chains and Fetters of an ill Education I Pet. 1.18 or as St. Peter calls it From their vain Conversation received by Tradition from their Fathers They had the Brightest Revelations of the Divine Nature and Will that ever came from Heaven And those delivered to them by their own Messiah whom they had long expected In whom all the Promises concerning that Infinite Blessing to Mankind were exactly fulfilled Who wrought the greatest and most Astonishing Miracles that ever the World beheld Who gave them a Perfect Comment on the Law which had been miserably Corrupted by the Glosses of their Scribes and Doctors and layed open their Hypocrisies to themselves and all the People and yet so Blind and Sottish were they as to reject all his Admonitions with Spight and Scorn to Love Darkness rather than Light to Admire their Deluders and to Crucify their Guide to Eternal Bliss and Happiness Our Saviour himself Testifies of them in the height of their Rage and Malice against him Luke 23.34 that they knew not what they did They had been Taught their Messiah should be a Glorious King and Conquerour and such an One they must have or none They had been long wonted to a Pompous and Ceremonious service And therefore could not bear the thoughts of having the Stately Fabrick of their Religion Erected by God himself and supported by Moses and the Prophets taken down by the Carpenters Son as they stiled our Lord. These were the Fatal Chains that held them fast in that Dungeon of Darkness and Ignorance which Paradise it self could not Tempt them nor the Son of God could not redeem them from And is not the same wilfull and Affected Ignorance still to be found amongst the Adversaries of our Religion Some think there ought to be an Infallible and Universal Head of the Church on Earth and such an one they will have what ever it costs them Others that are strongly perswaded of Christs Personal Reign upon Earth think they ought to Fight for King Jesus against all Opposers And why is Ignorance so much Cherisht and Applauded in the Church of Rome but that it gives the Guides of that Church a mighty advantage to Mis-lead the People and Embolden them to act any illthing they are pleased to Impose upon them And this is the very use they make of it they Teach them to call Evil Good and Good Evil to Invert the Nature of things and to Fix the Crossest Names they can devise upon them and then Prosecute them directly contrary to their intrinsick merit Just as the Heathens Cloth'd the Christians in Beasts Skins and then exposed them to be Worried by Wild Beasts to Death They first teach them to call our Religion on Heresie which naturally creates an Implacable Hatred of it And having gone thus far they easily perswade them they cannot be too Zealous to suppress it the next step to which Persuasion is to think any thing to be lawful that will do it or if that will not do it shall be Meritorious And then to destroy Hereticks follows of course to be a Glorious Work But surely St. Paul did not think so when he confest the contrariety of it to the Name of Jesus Nor did our Saviour think so when he reproved the Rash and Destructive zeal of his Disciples who would have consumed the Samaritans by Fire from Heaven telling them that they knew not what manner of Spirits they were of And after this Luke 9.55 should I presume to say that the Controversies between us and the Church of Rome have been managed with invincible strength and demonstration of the Truth on our side Or should I say that no cause since the sealing of the Scriptures unless that of our common Christianity was ever better Defended than our departure from that Church I should not be ashamed of this confidence of boasting 3. Secular Interests have great Power to distort the Judgments of men and to inflame their Passions against those that differ from them in matters of Religion What ever it is they place their chief satisfaction in whether they are bound for the Port of Gain or Honour or Liberty we commonly find they make all the Sail that ever they can to come speedily to it If the way to attain their ends be to appear stoutly for this or that Party or Persuasion they will readily do it and serve the cause to the Utmost if they happen to thrive by it Men of corrupt Minds and destitute
these Advantages they were so little the better for that He upbraided them for their Unparallel'd Infidelity and hardness of Heart representing them as more obstinate than the very Heathens about them More averse to their own Hppiness than their Neighbours of Tyre and Sidon who had nothing but the weak Light of Nature to guide them to it These Gentiles had no Prophets or Scriptures to Instruct them no Miracles to open their Eyes no promises of Pardon or Eternal Life to encourage their Repentance And yet our Saviour tells us they were in a better disposition to receive the Gospel and would much sooner have repented at the sight of his mighty Works than the Galileant that had all the proper means to dispose and Encline them to it And this was the great aggravation of the sin of these impenitent Jews and the ground of the Threatning here Denounc't against them Wo unto thee Chorazin Wo unto thee Bethsaida for if the mighty Works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they had Repented c. Tho' there seems to be no great Difficulty in the meaning of these Words yet what ever be the Reason of it there is a great Dispute amongst Interpreters about it viz Whether our Saviour means that the effect of his Miracles upon Tyre and Sidon would have been the Real Conversion of those Cities or whether by their Repenting in Sackcloth and Ashes we are to understand no more than a meer External or Counterfeit Repentance That the former of these is in several respects the more Natural Sense as will sufficiently appear if we Consider 1. The Scope and Tenour of our Saviour's Discourse in this place In the Verse before the Text the Evangelist tells us that he then began to Upbraid the Cities where most of his mighty Works were done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because they Repented not i. e. Truly and Heartily As is clear by the Current Usage of the Original Word in Scripture and the most proper and Genuine Importance of it Besides this was the only Repentance which Christ came to Convince the World of the absolute necessity of and this his Doctrine and Miracles were apt to produce in all that rightly weighed and observed them and therefore if Christ Reproved the Jews for want of any Repentance it must be for want of this And from hence it follows that when He Upbraids them with the Repentance of Tyre and Sidon in Sackcloth and Ashes his meaning must be that theirs would have proved a True Solemn and Unfeigned Repentance For where is otherwise the Upbraiding which the Evangelist speaks of If the Tyrians had continued Impenitent under the Preaching of the Gospel and in View of the mighty Works of our Saviour they would have done just as the Jews did and if they had made a shew of Repenting when they did not Put Sackcloth upon their Loins and Ashes upon their Heads when their Hearts were as hard and their Lusts were as Rampant as ever we may be sure Christ would never have call'd this Repentance which is all over Hypocrisie Nor could this be any Reproach to the Jews to hear that other Nations had they been in their Circumstances would have proved as Wicked or worse than they No man thinks it any shame to him to be told that others are every whit as Bad and Vicious as Himself This is not to Aggravate and Upbraid but rather to stroak and Extenuate his Crimes by shewing the Commonness of them and the great Aptitude of Humane Nature to fall into them Briefly our Saviour's saying to the Men of Galilee That it would be more Tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the Day of Judgment than for them plainly Refers to the good disposition of those Cities to Repent of their Lewdness and Idolatry and Embrace the Gospel To which may be added 2. That the Conversion of these very Nations began suddenly after the Death of our Saviour as appears by the Visits St. Paul made to the Disciples of Tyre and Sidon Acts 21.3 4 5.27.3 Shall we question now whether these were true Penitents and Disciples or not If not why should we think that Christ's own Preaching and Miracles might not have wrought the same Blessed effects upon them which his Apostles did Or what Reason have we to doubt the Truth of their Repentance at any time when the Gospel had been tender'd with the same advantage to them Especially since Christ himself tells us that they would have Repented long ago in Sackcloth and Ashes Than which it is not easy to find a more Proper Expression to signifie at once a very Solemn and Serious Repentance From the words thus explained we may observe 1st Obser That God is pleased to afford better means of Grace and Salvation to some Persons and Nations than to others 2d Obser That the same Means which are unprofitable to some Men would surely have been effectual to the Reformation of others if they had enjoyed them 3d. Obser That the Final Condition of those that Reject the Gospel and continue Impenitent under the ministration of it will be more grievous and intolerable than theirs that were never called to Repentance by it I begin with the first of these viz. 1. That God is pleased to afford better Means of Grace and Salvation to some Persons and Nations than to oothers In speaking to this Truth I shall 1. Clear it by some Undeniable Instances And 2. Endeavour to vindicate the Equity of Divine Providence in reference to this Particular Dispensation of it 1. For the First That God affords better Means of Grace and Salvation to some Persons and Nations than to others is clear to all that understand any thing of the state of Religion in the World When God began to distinguish his own People from the rest of Mankind he gave them better Means to improve and secure his Favour than the rest enjoyed He did not leave them mearly to the guidance of Natural Light as he left the greatest part of Mankind but revealed himself to them by the ministry of Angels and Prophets by Visions and Voices from Heaven He wrote down the Great Rules of their Obedience to him with his own Hand and encouraged them to the practice of them by special and ample Promises When God chose the Posterity of Abraham at first for his Peculiar People he made an Express Covenant with him to distinguish his Seed by Spiritual Blessings from all the Kindreds of the Earth While all the World about him lived in Ignorance and Idolatry worshipping the Gods which their own Fears and Phancies had made Abraham had the Priviledge to Converse with God and to behold the day of Christ afar off Gen. 18.19 He was taught the way of the Lord and taught his Children to walk in the same Paths to do Justice and Judgment that God might bring upon Abraham the great things which he had spoken of him And accordingly he did so He gave
but to treat of that which all the World are agreed is the meaning of it And the rather because the World has had time and it seems has been no ill husband of it to wear off some of the very deepest Impressions of this Ancient Commandment The Scribes and Pharisees had indeed run the people into many gross mistakes and concealed the best part of their Duty from them by their false and frigid Interpretations of the great Commandments of God But to do them right they were much better expounders of this Law than many of our Modern Christians who with Pens of Steel and in Letters of Bloud are ready to justify that Killing for Honour is no Murther And that it is rather an Act of Mercy and Prudence than of Cruelty and Disobedience when we are opprest with the Miseries of this Life to find the shortest Way we can into the next and to put an end to our Own Lives when they are less desirable than Death it self These are the Sentiments of Men of very different Complexion The former are generally Men of Flame and Spirit of a hot sanguine Temper which is seldom reckon'd the best Freind to a solid Judgment The latter for the most part are of a Melancholy Constitution and while their Understandings are clouded with that dark Humour must needs stand but in an Ill light to discern the Truth But what ever their Judgments are in other matters they seem to have clean forgot the Primary and most obvious meaning of what was said of Old time Thou shalt not Kill Which Precept being exprest in very few Words will require the larger Explication and the rather because it is undoubtedly lawful insome cases to Kill and these must be known before we can certainly Determine wherein thenature of the hainous Sin of Murther consists which all men agree to be forbidden in this Law For these Reasons in speaking to these Words I shall shew 1. In what cases it may be justly supposed that Killing is not forbidden is this law 2. What the Sin of Murther or the Killing here forbidden is 3. Wherein the Hainousness of this Sin consists And then I shall consider 4. Whether it be lawful or not to Kill a Rival in a Quarrel of Honour or to Kill our selves when we are grown weary of our lives 1. In what cases it may be justly supposed that Killing is not forbidden in this Law Life is the gift of God which he bestows upon us as a thing sacred to be preserved for his Use and not dispos'd of without his leave and pleasure Gen. 2.7 It is he that Breatheth into Man the breath of Life and being absolute Lord of it there is no Question but he may resume it when and by what Instruments he pleases And that there are Crimes worthy of Death both the Scriptures and Natural Reasons do assure us Yea such Crimes their are as were they not sometimes punisht with Death would suddenly dash all human Society in pieces and bring the World into such confusion that there would be no living amongst men And therefore it may be reasoanbly presumed that Killing is not prohibited in all cases For instance When a Magistrate puts an Offendor to Death that is worthy of it in a regular courses of Justice he is not to be charged with the Breach of this Law He has his Authority from God the Spreme Judge and Sovereign Lord of Life and Death He Acts as his Minister by express Commission from him and therefore is Innocent of all the Bloud that is shed by the Sword of Justice and hence St. Paul calls the Magistrate a Terrour to Evil Workers Rom. 13.3 4. because he beareth not the Sword in vain being the Minister of God a Revenger to execute Wrath upon him that doth Evil. Nor hath God only given a General Commission to Seize the forfeited Lives of great and haynous Offenders but in some cases as in that of the Murtherer himself He particularly Commands the Use of this severity as a standing Rule of of Equity and Justice Gen. 9.6 For who so shedeth mans Bloud by man shall his Bloud be shed And for the same reason Killing in the Wars when the cause is Just and the War necessary for the Preservation of the Publick is no part of the meaning of this Law For it is not to be supposed that God who sets up Kings and Governments for the Defence of the common Safety should restrain them from Drawing the Sword of War when there is no other means to preserve it The Swords of Princes are the greatest Instruments of Providence in the World and the best and Noblest Use of them is the Protection of their Subjects from Oppression and Violence in the Enjoyment of all the Blessings of this and the Advantages for a better Life which the Bounty of Heaven hath inricht them with And therefore our Saviour never went about to tye the hands of Sovereign Princes or States from the use of this sharp and last Remedy in a Just and Necessary Cause nor was the Gospel ever accused for being an Enemy to the Throne upon this account There being no Tribunal upon Earth high enough to decide the Quarrels between Independent Governments and Nations it is a natural and strong Presumption when all amicable ways of Peace and Reconciliation fail that God approves of the injured Party's Appealing to him in the Field of War as the supreme Judge and Guardian of Right and Innocence And by consequence a Souldier that serves in a lawful War is not forbid to Kill the Enemy of his Princes and Country he is in this Cases a Minister of Divine Justice being invested with Authority from him to whom vengeance belongeth These are Publick cases in which the Authority of God over the Life of Man is manifestly derived immediately to the Sovereign and by him to inferior Magistrates and dispensers of Justice Besides which It may be reasonably presumed that when a private Person is desperately Assaulted and in the necessary Defence of his own Life takes away the Invaders he hath done nothing against the Intent of this Law Every man hath a natural Right to defend the Life which God hath given him against him that shall attempt by unjust or Illegal Violence to wrest it from him This also as well as Life it self is the gift of God It is a Debt we owe to the Lord and giver of Life to keep it for his service till he is pleased to call for it which he never do's by the hand of a Murtherer And therefore when we are reduced to that Extremity that we can neither Fly to the Protection Protection of the Magistrate nor escape with our Lives with out taking away the Life of him that Assails us if he Perish in his wicked Enterprise his Bloud will not be Required at our hands 't is better for the Publick to lose a Bad than a Good and useful Member and when the case is such
proper and great ends of Living To assist you herein I shall do these two Things 1. I shall remind you of this certain and important Truth That the Life of Man in this World is very short and transitory And then 2. Shew you what Practical Inferences may be Drawn from the consideration of the shortness and instability of our Lives 1. The Life of Man in this World is very short and Transitory This is matter of sense and one of the most obvious Truths that ever Nature or Experience taught us The Grave every time it opens its mouth gives us a sensible Demonstration of it It shews us of what Mold we are made what we are and what we must shortly be As soon as the vigour and gaiety of Youth are gone before we come to the borders of Old-age we many times grow sensible of the the Decays of this drooping Life and begin to feel our selves Wearing and Dying And still the longer we live and the wiser and fitter we are to pass our Judgment upon things the more Apprehensive we are of the shortness and fallacy of Life Our first years indeed seem to pass slowly on because they are the years of discipline of curbing our Phansies and correcting our Errours we are then commonly very eager in pursuit of Vanity and we often meet with stops and interruptions in it from our Tutors and Governors and this makes us almost think that our time stands still the while and we shall never be our own Men i. e. have the command of our time and the liberty to squander and throw it away as we please But when once we have past the age of discipline have had some experience of Life and lived long enough to reflect upon the first Stage of it we certainly see our mistake and chide time no more for not mending its speed and passing away so heavily from us when we look upon the reverse of our Lives upon the years that are past we have almost nothing left in view but the greater Sins and Follies we committed in them Then they appear but as a few days then we are apt enough to say how soon are Twenty or Thirty years fled and gone How insensibly are they slipt away And were we to live twice as many more the Case would be the very same and as soon as they are gone we should be at our old complaint again that our time in this World is very short and be ready to saywith good Old Jacob when he had lived neare twice as long as the Long-livers of our days generally Few and evil have the days of the life do of my Pilgrimage been Gen. 47 9. When we come to the use of our reason and begin to look abroad into the World to observe the Monuments and peruse the Annals and Histories of ancient times we miss all the Generations of Men that peopled the World in former Ages Our Fathers where are they Zech. 1 5. and the Prophets do they live for ever Where are all the Founders and Inhabitants of ancient Kingdoms all the Great Princes and Philosophers the Shrewd Polititians the Mighty Generals and the Numerous Armies the Wise and the Foolish the Holy and Profane All that ever Lived and Breathed till this present Age Is there none left to Answer the Question Then considering the Age of the World at this day and the many Successions of Men that have been before us there is Nothing more Demonstrable than that the Days of Men are few upon the Earth One Generation passeth away Eccles 1.4 and another Generation cometh We are always upon the Remove making Room for our Successors and for new Scenes of Providence which wait for our Departure out of this World and the Coming of a better or a worse Generation into it We have but a short Part to Act and when that is done we must clear the Stage and give Place to those that are Coming after Us because a short Work will the Lord make upon the Earth Rom. 9.28 God has set us our Bounds which we cannot Pass and he has set them so near us that it is strange we should Overlook them or Dream of an Immortality here while they stand so fairly in our View The days of our Years saith the Psalmist are threescore Years and ten and if by reason of Strength they be fourscore Years yet is their Strength Labour and Sorrow for it is soon out off and we fly away Psal 90.10 This was a mighty Fall from the Age of the Patriarchs before the Flood after which the Life of Man shorten'd apace till it came so low as Seventy or Eighty Years which is now the ordinary Measure and probably was so ever since the Murmuring of the Israelites in the Wilderness at the Relation which the Spies brought them of the Land of Promise But when the Psalmist tells us that our Age is reduced to threescore and ten or fourscore Years we must not presently Reckon that so many Years will come to our shares We cannot promise our selves another day for we know not what shall be on the morrow and therefore can make no certain Reckoning of it All the time we can call our own is that which we hve lived already So much God has given us and so much we must answer for and we cannot be sure that he will give us a day more Nemo tain Divos habuit faventes Crastinum ut sibi possit polliceri Some are gone in a moment from the Cradle to the Grave and very many before they understand the consequence of Life and Death we Die many times when we think of nothing less in the flower and vigour of our Age before we have any Symptoms of Death upon us But because some there are that rub on to threescore and ten or fourscore Years and very few that exceed them seventy or eighty Years at a moderate computation may well pass for the utmost Period ofour Lives This we generally esteem a full Age and yet when we Draw towards it are ready to complain of the scantness and shortness of it And if we think it short when we see it drawn out to its utmost length what are we to Judge of it when it is cut shorter by forty or fifty Years than the ordinary Measure What is the life of Children who Die hanging at their Mothers Breasts How short is the Race of young Men who expire while their Blood boils in their Veins and yet have as deep an interest in Eternity as the longest Livers upon Earth But since the longest Life by our own Confession is short I need not ask how little the shortest is to be accounted of But you will say then what need is there of this Discourse Why must we be taught a Truth which we are ready to Seal with our Tears and every time we contemplate upon do sadly bewail the certainty of I answer Tho it is evident that our Lives are short