Concerning the Certainty of our Death.

Having thus fhewed you under what No

tions we are to confider Death, and what Wisdom we should learn from them, I proceed to the Second Thing, the Certainty of Death: It is appointed to men once to die; zóxera, it remains, it is referved, and as it were laid up for them.

I believe no Man will defire a Proof of this, which he sees with his Eyes; one Generation fucceeds another, and those who live longeft, at laft yield to the fatal Stroke. There were two Men indeed, Enoch and Elias, who did not die, as Death fignifies a Separation of Soul and Body, but were tranflated to Heaven without dying; but this is the . general Law for Mankind, from which none are excepted, but thofe whom God by his fovereign Authority, and for wife Reasons, thinks fit to except; which have been but two fince the Creation, and will be no more till Chrift comes to judge the World: For then St. Paul tells us, thofe who are alive at Christ's fecond Coming, fhall not die, but fhall be changed, 1 Cor. xv. 51, 52. Behold, I fhew you a mystery; we shall not all fleep,

but

but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet fhall found, and the dead fhall be raifed incorruptible, and we shall be changed, This is fuch a Change as is equivalent to Death, it puts us in the fame State with those who are dead, and at the last Judgment rife again.

SECT. I.

A Vindication of the Justice and Goodness of GOD, in appointing Death for all Men.

OUT before I fhew you what Use to make

BUT

of this Confideration, That we must all certainly die; let us examine how Mankind. comes to be Mortal: This was no Difpute among the Heathens, for it was no great Wonder that an earthly Body should die, and diffolve again into Duft: It would be a much greater Wonder to fee a Body of Flesh and Blood preserved in perpetual Youth and Vigor, without any Decays of Nature, without being fick or growing old. But this is a

Queftion among us; or if it may not be called a Question, yet it is what deferves our Confideration, fince we learn from the Hiftory of Mofes, that as frail and brittle as these earthly Tabernacles are, yet if Man had not finned, he had not died.

When

When God created Man, and placed him in Paradife, he forbad him to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil: Of every tree of the garden thou may'ft freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou fhalt not eat of it; for in the day thou eateft thereof, thou shalt furely die, Gen. ii. 16, 17. And when, notwithstanding this Threatning, our first Parents did eat of it, GoD confirms and ratifies the Sentence, Duft thou art, and to duft thou shalt return, Gen. iii. 19. What this Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was, is as great a Mystery to us, as what the Tree of Life was; for we understand neither of them; which makes fome Men, who would not be thought to be ignorant of any thing, to fly to allegorical Senfes: But tho' I would be glad to know this, if I could, yet I must be contented to leave it a Mystery, as I find it. That which we are concerned in is, That this Sentence of Death and Mortality, which was pronounced on Adam, fell on all his Pofterity: As St. Paul tells us, 1 Cor. xv. 21, 22. That by man came death; and in Adam all die. And this he does not only affert, but prove, Rom. v. 12, 13, 14. Wherefore by man fin entered into the world, and death by fin, and jo death paffed upon all men, for that all have finned: For until the law, fin was in the world; but fin is not imputed where there is no law nevertheless death reigned from Adam till MoJès, even over them who had not finned after the

;

fimilitude of Adam's tranfgreffion. The Defign of all which is to prove, that Men die, or are mortal, not for their own Sins, but for the Sin of Adam: Which the Apostle proves by this Argument; because though all Men, as well as Adam, have finned, yet till the giving the Law of Mofes, there was no Law which threatned Death against Sin, but only that Law given to Adam in Paradife, which no Man elfe ever did, or ever could tranfgrefs, but he. Now fin is not imputed where there is no law: That is, it is not imputed to any Man to Death, before there is any Law which threatens Death against it: That no Man can be reckoned to die for thofe Things, which no Law punishes with Death. Upon what Account then, fays the Apostle, could those Men die, who lived between Adam and Mofes, before the Law was given, which threatens Death? And yet die they all did, even those who had not finned after the fimilitude of Adam's tranfgreffion; who had neither eaten the forbidden Fruit, nor finned against any other exprefs Law threatning Death: This could be for no other Sin but Adam's; he finned, and brought Death into the World, and thus Death paffed upon all Men for his Sin, notwithstanding they themselves were Sinners; for though they were Sinners, yet that they died was not owing to their own Sins, because they had not finned against any Law which threatned Death, but to the Sin

of

of Adam; and therefore in a proper Sense, in Adam all die.

Now this is thought very hard, that the Sin of Adam fhould bring Death upon all his Pofterity; that one Man finned, and all Men muft die; and therefore, I fuppofe, no Man will think it improper to my prefent Argument, to give you fuch an Account of this Matter, as will evidently juftify the Wisdom and Goodness, as well as the Juftice of God in it.

I. In the first place then I observe, That an immortal Life in this World is not the Original Right of earthly Creatures, but was wholly owing to the Grace and Favour of God. I call that an Original Right which is founded in the Nature of Things; for otherwife, properly fpeaking, no Creatures have any Right, either to Being, or to Subfiftence, which is a Continuance in Being: It is the Goodness and the Power of God, which both made the World, and upholds and fuftains all Things in Being. And therefore Plato confeffes, That the inferior Gods, thofe immortal Spirits, which he thought worthy of Divine Honours, were both made by the Supreme God, and did fubfift by his Will: For he who made all Things, can annihilate them again when he pleases; and therefore their Subfiftence is as much owing to the Divine Goodness, as their Creation. But yet there