Happiness fhall have no End, tho' the Scene may change and vary: For over fuch men the fecond death bath no power. Or else this thoufand Years Reign with Christ must signify an eternal and unchangeable Kingdom, a thoufand Years being a certain Earnest of Immortality; but there is an unanswerable Objection against that, because we read of the expiring of thefe thousand Years, and what fhall come after them, even the final Judgment of all the World. But this is a great Mystery, which we must not hope perfectly to underftand, 'till we fee the bleffed Accomplishment of it.

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But though before the Flood fome Perfons lived very near the thousand Years, yet after the Flood the Term of Life was much fhorten'd: Some think this was done by God, when he pronounced that Sentence, Gen. vi. 3. And the Lord faid, My Spirit fhall not always ftrive with man, for that he alfo is flesh, yet his days fhall be an hundred and twenty years. if God had then decreed, that the Life of Man fhould not exceed an hundred and twenty Years. But this does not agree with that Account we have of Mens Lives after the Flood; for not only Noah and his Sons, who were with him in the Ark, lived much longer than this after the Flood; Arphaxad lived five hundred and thirty Years, Salah four hundred and three Years, Eber four hundred and thirty Years, and Abraham himself a hundred

a hundred feventy-five Years; and therefore this hundred and twenty Years cannot refer to the ordinary Term of Man's Life, but to the Continuance of God's Patience with that wicked World, before he would bring the Flood upon them to destroy that corrupt Generation of Men'; that is, That he would bear with them a hundred and twenty Years before he would fend the Flood to destroy them. But afterwards by degrees Life was fhorten'd, infomuch, that though Mofes himfelf lived a great deal longer, yet if the xcth Pfalm was compofed by him, as the Title tells us it was, the ordinary Term of Life in his Days was but threescore and ten, or fourfcore Years, ver. 10. The days of our years are threefcore years and ten; and if by reafon of Strength they be fourfcore years, yet is their Strength labour and forrow; fo foon paffeth it away, and it is gone. And this has continued the ordinary Measure of Life ever fince; which is fo very fhort, that David might well fay, Behold thou haft made my days as a bandbreadth, and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity. Pfal. xxxix. 5.

I fhall not fcrupulously enquire into the Reafon of this great Change, why our Lives are reduced into fo narrow a Compafs: Some will not believe that it was fo, but think that there is a Mistake in the Manner of the Account; that when they are faid 'to live eight

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or nine hundred Years, they computed their Years by the Moon, not by the Sun; that is, their Years were Months, twelve of which make but one of our Years; and then indeed the longest Livers of them did not live fo long as many Men do at this Day; for Methuselab himself, who lived nine hundred fixty-nine Years, according to this Computation of Months for Years, lived but fourfcore Years and five Months. But it is very absurd to imagine, that Mofes fhould use two fuch different Accounts of Time, that fometimes by a Year he fhould mean no more than a Month, and fometimes twelve Months, without giving the leaft Notice of it, which is unpardonable in any Hiftorian: And therefore others complain much that they were not born in those Days, when the Life of Man was prolonged for fo many hundred Years: There had been fome Comfort in living then, when they enjoyed all the Vigour and Gaiety of Youth, and could relish the Pleasures of Life for seven, eight, or nine hundred Years. A Bleffing which Men would purchase at any rate in our Days: But now we can fcarce turn ourselves about in the World, but we are admonished by grey Hairs, or the fenfible Decays of Nature, to prepare for our Winding-Sheet. And therefore, for the farther Improvement of this Argument, I fhall, 1. fhew you, What little Reason we have to complain of the Shortnefs of Life. 2. What what wife Ufe we are to make of it.

2

SECT.

SECT. II.

What little Reafon we have to complain of the Shortness of human Life.

I.

WH

HAT little Reafon we have to complain of the Shortnefs of Life, and the too hasty Approaches of Death to us; For, 1. Such a long Life is not reconcileable with the present State of the World. And, 2dly, Our Lives are long enough for all the wife Purposes of Living.

1. Such a long Life is not reconcileable with the prefent State of the World. What the State of the World was before the Flood, in what Manner they lived, and how they employed their Time, we cannot tell, for Mofes has given no Account of it; but taking the World as it is, and as we find it, I dare undertake to convince thofe Men who are moft apt to complain of the Shortnefs of Life, that it would not be for the general Happiness of Mankind to have it much longer: For, 1. The World is at prefent very unequally divided; fome have a large Share and Portion of it, others have nothing, but what they earn by very hard Labour, or extort from other Men's Charity by their restless Importunities, or gain by more ungodly Arts: Now, though the Rich and Profperous, who have the World at Command, and live in

Eafe

Eafe and Pleasure, would be very well contented to spend fome hundred Years in this World, yet I should think fifty or threefcore Years abundantly enough for Slaves and Beg gars; enough to spend in Hunger and Want, in a Goal and a Prifon. And thofe who are fo foolish as not to think this enough, owe a great deal to the Wisdom and Goodnefs of God, that he does: So that the greatest Part of Mankind have great Reason to be contented with the Shortnefs of Life, because they have no Temptation to wish it longer.

2dly, The prefent State of this World requires a more quick Succeffion: The World is pretty well peopled, and is divided among its prefent Inhabitants; and but very few, in comparison, as I obferved before, have any confiderable Share in the Divifion: Now let us but fuppofe that all our Ancestors, who lived an hundred, or two hundred Years ago, were alive still, and poffeffed their old Estates and Honours, what had become of this prefent Generation of Men, who have now taken their Places, and make as great a Show and Buftle in the World as they did? And if you look back three, or four, or five hundred Years, the Cafe is still so much the worse; the World would be over-peopled, and where there is one poor miferable Man now, there must have been five hundred, or the World must have been common, and all Men reduced to the fame Level; which I believe the

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