bad Men think this cannot be true in a literal Senfe; that there can be no Fire to burn Souls, and torment them eternally. Now fuppofe it were fo; yet if they believe thefe Threatnings, they muft believe that fome terrible' Thing is fignified by everlafting Burnings; and if Fire and Brimftone ferve only as Metaphors to defcribe those Torments by, what will the real Sufferings of the Damned be! For the Spirit of God does not ufe to defcribe Things by fuch Metaphors as are greater than the Things themfelves. And therefore let no bad Man encourage himself in Sin, because he does not know what the Punishments of another World are. This fhould poffefs us with the greater Awe and Dread of them, fince every Thing in the other World, not only the Happiness, but the Miseries of it, will prove greater, not lefs than we

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CHA P. II.

Concerning the Certainty of our Death.

Smity

Having thus fhewed you under what Notions

we are to confider Death, and what Wisdom we fhould learn from them, I proceed to the Second Thing, the Certainty of Death: It is appointed unto Men once to die; añóxeral, 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 fees with his Eyes; one Generation fucceeds another, and those who live longeft, at last yield to the fatal Stroke. There were two Men indeed, Enoch and Elias, who did not die, as Death fignifies

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 Reafons, thinks fit to except; which have been but two fince the Creation, and will be no more till Christ comes to judge the World: For then St. Paul tells us, thofe who are alive at Chrift's fecond Coming, fhall not die, bur fhall be changed, I Cor. xv. 51, 52. Behold I fhew you a Mystery, we shall not all fleep, but we shall all be changed, in a Moment, in the twinkling of an Eye, at the laft Trump; for the Trumpet fhall found, and the Dead fhall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. This is fuch a Change as is equivalent to Death, it puts us in the fame State with thofe who are dead, and at the laft Judgment rife again.

SECT. I.

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

BU

UT before I fhew you what Ufe to make of this Confideration, That we must al! 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 fhould die, and diffolve again into Duft: It would be a much greater Wonder to fee a Body of Flesh and Blood preferved in perpetual Youth and Vigour, without any Decays of Nature, without being fick or growing old. But this is a Question among us; or if it may not be called a Queltion, yet it is what deferves our Confideration, fince we learn from the Hiftory of Mofes, that as frail and brittle as

thefe

these earthly Tabernacles are, yet if Man had not finned, he had not died.

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 Knowledge of Good and Evil thou shalt not eat of it; for in the Day thou tateft 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 1 muft 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 in this he does not only affert, but prove, Rom. v. 12, 13. 14. Wherefore by Man Sin entered into the World, and Death by Sin, and fo Death passed upon all Men, for that all have finned: For until the Law, Sin was in the World; but Sin is not imputed where there is no Law; nevertheless Death reigned from Adam till Mofes, even over them who had not finned after the Similitude 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 Apoftle proves by this Argument; becaufe though all Men, as well as Adam, have fin

ned

ned, 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 Paradise, which no Man elfe ever did, or ever could tranfgrefs, but he. Now Sin 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 Apoftle, 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 Similitude of Adam's Tranfgreffion; who had neither eaten the forbidden Fruit, nor finned against any other express 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 tho they were Sinners, yet that they died was not owing to their own Sins, because they had not finned against any Law which threatened Death, but to the Sin of Adam; and therefore in a proper Senfe, 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 present 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 obferve, 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

for otherwise, properly speaking, 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, those 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 is a great Difference between the natural Gift and Bounty of God, and what is fupernatural, or above the Nature of Things: What God makes by Nature immortal, fo that it has no Principles of Mortality in its Constitution, Immortality may be faid to be its natural Right, because it is by Nature immortal, as Spirits and the Souls of Men are. And in this Cafe it would be thought very hard, that a whole Race of immortal Beings fhould be made mortal for the Sin of one; which would be to deprive them of their natural Right to Immortality, without their own Fault. But when any Creature is immortal, not by Nature, but by fupernatural Grace, God may beftow this fupernatural Immortality upon what Conditions he pleafes, and take the Forfeiture of it when he fees fit. And this was the Cafe of Man in Innocence: His Body was not by Nature immortal; for a Body made of Duft will naturally refolve into Duft again; and therefore without a fupernatural Power, an earthly Body must die; for which Reafon God provided a Remedy againft Mortality, the Tree of Life, which he planted in Paradife, and without which Man could not be immortal: So that Mortality was a neceffary

Confe