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
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
the state of being even since the fall to which that axiom has only respect is not so brittle as that the production of the Child infers the destruction of the parent Neither doth that curious query concerning the place for that supposed numerous off-spring carry with it more reason for First It is nor to be doubted but the wise Creator who gave being to Man knew well enough how to provide an Habitation for his off-spring Secondly the Precepts be Fruitful and Multiply carries with it a Limitation and replenish the Earth so that we can never well conclude from it that Generation should have continued after the replenishing of the Earth But Thirdly What suppose this little Map of Earth had not been able to contain so numerous an off-spring could not God have Translated Man after he had lived some space upon the Earth to some better Habitation as he did with Enoch and Elijah Consid 3 Though Man in the state of Innocency stood in need of Meat and Drink yet his nutriment was not noxious and hurtful to him as now it is It was for Mans disobedience that a Curse was upon the ground before which there was no fear of hurt from the Fruit of the Trees and the Herbs of the Field which were the only things granted to Men for Food in that state And indeed if we but consider that even in this fallen state there is a huge difference between the Lives of those who live upon wholsome Food and observe a moderate Diet and of those who are careless in their Diet and feed upon Husks we cannot but think the former Consideration reasonable especially since that blessed state excluded all manner of excess Consid 4. Great and Manifold are the blessed benefits that are conferred upon Mankind upon the account of his Redeemer now Man who was at odds with his Maker upon the account of his Rebellion is again taken into favor and the disobedient World is reconciled unto God And although the being of sin is not quite abolished yet the Curse is removed and Death is not properly now a punishment Consid 5. Immortality conjoyned with a state of perfect felicity is reserved for Heavens favourites In the state of Innocency our first Parents were liable to Death if they rebelled but the Saints above are confirmed in their Blessed state atd as our Lord Christ tells us they can dye no more But this much may suffice for the removing the former doubts The Third thing I premise is that 't is very usual in Scripture as it is in all Languages to put the Whole sometimes for the Part thus Man is said to dye to cease to be Mortal because the Boby is liable to Corruption and not that the whole Man or all the Essential constituent parts cease And thus when we dispute concerning the Period of every Mans Life we must not foolishly fancy that a Period is ut to the being of the Soul but only that its union with the body is dissolved otherwise a dismal stroke would be given to our Religion and what would become of the vertuous I confess it is very hard and difficult to demonstrate the Immortality of our Souls by natural reason 'T is true by reason I may prove that our Natures are spiritual and that we elicite acts which are beyond the power of matter but yet we could never be fully ascertained thar there is a Life after this if Revelation had not plainly discovered it The Heathen Philosophers very wisely entertained some hopes of a Life after this upon moral arguments taken from the goodness of God and his justice in distributing Rewards and Punishments but alas how doudtfull were their hopes and with how much hesitation did they discourse of it But by the help of Revelation these doubts are fully temoved and we now know that there is a Resurrection from the dead and that the Souls of Believers at death go immediately into glory Fourthly Because the explication of terms is very necessary for the unfolding of doubts I shall consider the twofold notion and acception the period of Humane Life is lyable to 1. Sometimes it is taken in a large sense for that common and ordinary Period which the Author of our natures hath setled which Men by the common course of nature arrive at Now many learned Men upon good grounds think that this is the determined bounds mentioned in Scripture 2 Sometimes it is taken for the last moment of every Mans Life at whatever time it happeneth whether 1. In the Beginning of Mans days or 2. In the midst of his days Thus the Psalmist prays that God would not cut him off in the midst of his days Or 3. When Men come to be of a good old Age and full of years as it is said of Abraham he died in a good Old Age an Old Man and full of years Gen. 25. 8. That there is such a Common Period of Humane Life seems to be certain and indubitable we evidently enough perceive that Men in the Age and place wherein we live exceed not unless rarely the bounds fixed upon Psal 90. 10. The days of our years are Threescore years and Ten and if by reason of more strength they be Fourscore years c. And if we shall descend to the Consideration of other Animals and Vegetables we will find it true enough that the individuals of every specifick nature have a common Period which doth not sensibly alter but where there is a manifest difference of the climate temperature and soil Again it is very unquestionable that this Common Period hath not been equally extended in all Ages and places 'T is true for many hundred years by-past it hath suffered very little alteration but sure from the beginning it was not so nor can we upon any good ground be ascertained that it will continue the same that it is now till the end of all flesh come Though I will not positively affirm that Mens Lives will be insensibly shortened till they become uncapable for procreation But to determine what hath been the common period of Humane Life in by-past ages of the World is a Theme very difficult and hard for 1. Although from Abrahams time till this present Age it hath altered but little or nothing as we may collect from Gen. 15. 13. and 16. where a generation is equalled to an Hundred years as the Vetses collated make it evident yet before the Flood and in some few Ages following it this common Term was not concluded within the short bounds it is now although then it was indeed exceedingly mutable Before the fatal Flood we read not of any who lived not above seven Hundred years unless Abel who was murdered and Enoch whom God took to himself nor of any who exceeded nine Hundred sixty and nine years Now the common Period not being so denominated from some few particular instances but from what happens to the most of Mankind in every Age who dye a natural death we