what it is; and how then can they tell, tho' they could bear up under all known Miferies, but that there may be fuch Punishments as they cannot bear? That they are unknown, argues that they are fomething more terrible than they are acquainted with in this World. They are reprefented indeed by the most dreadful and terrible Things; by Lakes of Fire and Brimftone, Blackness and Darkness, the Worm that never dieth, and the Fire that never goeth out. But 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 must believe that fome terrible Thing is fignified by everlasting Burnings; and if Fire and Brimftone ferve only for Metaphors to describe thofe Torments by, what will the real Sufferings of the Damned be! For the Spirit of God does not use to describe Things by fuch Metaphors as are greater than the Things themselves. 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 expect.

CHAP.

CHA P. II.

Concerning the Certainty of our Death.

H

Aving 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: aоTαι 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 fucceds 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 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 those 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 Chrift'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

in

but we fhall all be changed in a moment, 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 thofe 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.

B

UT before I fhew you what Use to make of this Confideration, That we must all certainly die; let us examine how Mankind comes to be mortal: This was no Dispute 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 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 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 Paradise, 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 eatest thereof, thou fhalt 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 dust 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, I 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 fo 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 Mofes, even over them who had not finned after the fimili

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 threatened 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 those 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 threatening 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 threatened Death, but to the Sin

of