STATE IV. NAMELY, The ETERNAL STATE: or, State of confummate Happiness, or Mifery. HEAD I Of DEATH. JOB XXX. 23. For I know that thou wilt bring me to Death, and to the Houfe appointed for all Living. Come now to difcourfe of man's eternal state, into which he enters by death. Of this entrance, Job takes a folemn ferious view, in the words of the text; which contain a general truth, and a particular application of it. The general truth is fuppofed; namely, that all men muft, by death, remove out of this world: they muft die. But, whither must they, go? They muft go to the house appointed for all living: to the grave, that darkfome, gloomy, folitary house, in the land of forgetfulness. Where foever the body is laid up, till the refurrection; thither, as to a dwelling-houfe, death brings us home. While we are in the body, we are but in a lodging-house: in an inn, on our way home-ward. When we come to our grave, we come to our home, our long-home, Ecclef. xii. 5. All living must be inhabitants of this houfe, good and bad, old and young. Man's life is a ftream, running into death's devouring deeps. They, who now live in palaces, muft quit them, and go home to this houfe; and they, who have not where to lay their heads, fhall thus have a house at length. It is appointed for all. by him, whofe counfel fhall ftand. This appointment cannot be fhifted; it is a law, which mortals cannot tranfgrefs. Job's application of this general truth to himself, is expreffed in these words: I know that thou wilt bring me to death, &c. He knew, that he behoved to meet with death; that his foul and body behoved to part; that, God, who had fet the tryft, would certainly fee it kept. Sometimes Job was inviting death to come to him, and carry him home to his houfe; yea, he was in hazard of running to it be. before the time, Job vii. 15. "My foul choofeth ftrangling and death, "rather than my life." But here he confiders God would bring him to it; yea, bring him back to it, as the word imports. Whereby he feems to intimate, that we have no life in this world, but as runaways from death, which stretcheth out its cold arms, to receive us from the womb; but though we do then narrowly escape its clutches, we cannot efcape long; we will be brought back again to it Job knew this, he had laid his account with it, and was looking for it. DOCTRINE, All must die. Although this doctrine be confirmed by the experience of all former generations, ever fince Abel entered into the house appointed for all living and though the living know that they fhall die; yet it is needful to difcourfe of the certainty of death, that it may be impreffed on the mind, and duly confidered. Wherefore confider firft. There is an unalterable ftatute of death, under which men are concluded. "It is appointed unto (i men once to die," Heb. ix. 27. It is laid up for them, as parents lay up for their children: they may look for it, and cannot mifs, it; feeing God has defigned and referved it for them. There is no peradventure in it; we must needs die, 2 Sam. xjv. 14. Though fome men will not hear of death, yet every man muft fee death, Pial. Ixxxix. 48. Death is a champion all muft grapple with: we muft enter the lifts with it, and it will have the mattery, Ecclef, víii. 8. "There is no man that hath power over the fpirit, to retain the "fpirit, neither hath he power in the day of wrath." They indeed who are found alive at Chrift's coming, fhall all be changed, 1 Cor. xv. 51. But that change will be equivalent to death, will anfwer the purposes of it. All other perfons, must go, the com mon road, the way of all flesh. Secondly, Let us confult daily obfer vation. Every man feeth that wife men die, likewife the fool and brutish perfon, Pfal. xlix. 10. There is room enough, on this earth, for us; notwithstanding of the multitudes that were upon it before us; they are gone to make room for us; as we must depar to leave room for others. It is long fince death began to tranfport men into another world, and vaft hoals and multitudes are gone thitner already: yet the trade is going on ftill; death is carrying off new inhabitants, daily, to the house appointed for all living. Who could ever hear the grave fay, It is enough? Long has it been getting, but fill it afketh. This world is like a great fair or market, where fome are coming in, others going out: while the affembly that is in it is "confufed, and the more part know not wherefore they are 66 come together;" or like a town fituate on the road, to a great city, thro' which fonte travellers are paft, fome are paffing, while others are only coming in, Ecclef. iv. "One generation pafleth away, "and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. Death Death is an inexorable, irresistible meffenger; who cannot be diverted from executing his orders, by the force of the mighty, the bribes of the rich, nor the intreaties of the poor. It doth not reverence the hoary head, nor pity the harmless babe. The bold and daring cannot outbrave it: nor can the faint-hearted obtain a difcharge in this war. Thirdly, The human body confifts of perishing principles, Gen. iii. 19. "Duft thou art, and unto duft fhalt thou return.' The strongest are but brittle earthen veffels, eafily broken in fhivers. The foul is but meanly houfed, while in this mortal body, which is not a houfe of ftone, but a houfe of clay; the mud walls cannot but moulder away, especially feeing the foundation is not on a rock, but in the duft; they are crushed before the moth, though this infect be tender, that the gentle touch of a finger will dispatch it, Job iv, 19. Thefe principles are like gun-powder; a very small fpark, lighting on them, will fet them on fire, and blow up the houfe. The ftone of a raifin, or a hair in milk, have choaked men, and laid the houfe of clay in the duft. If we confider the frame and ftructure of our bodies, how fearfully and wonderfully we are made; and on how regular and exact a motion of the fluids, and balance of humours, our life depends; and that death has as, many doors to enter in by, as the body hath pores; and if we compare the foul and body together, we may juftly reckon, there is fomewhat more aftonishing in our life, than in our death; and that it is more flrange, to fee duft walking up and down on the duft, than lying down in it. Though the lamp of our life be not violently blown out; yet the flame must go out at length, for want of oil. And what are thofe diftempers and difeafes, we are liable to, but death's harbingers, that come to prepare its way? They meet us, as foon as we fet our foot on earth; to tell us at our entry, that we do but come into the world to go out again. Howbeit, fome are fnatched away in a moment, without being warned by fickness or difeafe. Fourthly, We have finful fouls, and therefore have dying bodies: death follows fin, as the fhadow follows the body. The wicked muft die, by virtue of the threatning of the covenant of works, Gen. ii. 17. In the day that thou eateft thereof, thou fhalt furely die." And the godly muft die too; that, as death entered by fin, fin may go out by death. Chrift has taken away the fting of death, as to theme albeit he has not as yet removed death itfelf. Wherefore, though it faften on them, as the viper did on Paul's hand, it fhall do them no harm: but because the leprofy of fin is in the walls of the house, it must be broken down, and all the materials thereof carried forth. Laftly, Man's life in this world, according to the feripture account of it, is but a few degrees removed from death. The feripture reprefents it as a vain and empty thing, fort in its continuance, and fwift in its paffing away. Firft, Man's life is a vain and empty thing, while it is: it vanisheth away: aud lo! it is not, Job viii. 6. My days are vainty. If ye fuf fufpect afflicted Job of partiality in this matter, hear the wife and profperous Solomon's character of the days of his life, Ecclef. viii. 15 All things have I seen in the days of my vanity, i. e. my vain days. Mofes, who was a very active man, compares our days to a fleep, Pfal. xc. 5 They are as a fleep, which is not noticed, till it be ended. The refemblance is pat: few men have right apprehenfions of life, until death awaken them; then we begin to know we were living. We spend our years as a tale that is told, ver. 9. When an idle tale is a-telling, it may affect a little; but when it is ended, it is forgot: and fo is man forgotten, when the fable of his life is ended. It is as a dream, or vision of the night, in which there is nothing folid: when one awakes, all evanifheth, Job xx. 8. "He fhall fly away as a dream, and fhall not be found; yea he shall be chafed away "as a vifion of the night." It is but a vain fhow or image, Pfal. xxxix. 6. "Surely every man walketh in a vain fhow," Man in this world, is but, as it were, a walking statue: his life is but an image of life; there is fo much of death in it. If we look on our life, in the feveral periods of it, we will find it a heap of vanities. Childhood and youth are vanity, Ecclef. xi. 10. We come into the world, the moft helpless of all animals: young birds and beasts can do fomething for themselves, but infant man is altogether unable to help himself. Our childhood is spent in piti ful trifling pleasures, which become the fcorn of our own after. thoughts. Youth is a flower that foon withereth; a blossom that quickly falls off; it is a space of time in which we are rash, foolith, and inconfiderate, pleating ourselves with a variety of vanities, and swimming, as it were, through a flood of them But ere we are aware, it is paft, and we are in middle age, encompaffed with a thick cloud of cares, through which we muft grope; and finding ourselves befet with pricking thorns of difficulties; through them we mult force our way, to accomplish the projects and contrivances of our riper thoughts, And the more we folace ourselves in any earthly enjoyment we attain to, the more bitterness do we find in parting with it. Then comes old age, attended with its own train of infirmities, labour and forrow, Pfal. xc. 10 and fets us down next door to the grave. In a word, All flefb is grafs, Ifa. xl. 6. Every ftage, or period in life, is vanity. Man at his beft ftate (middle age, when the heat of youth is fpent, and the forrows old age have not yet overtaken him) is altogether vanity, Pfal. xxxix. 5. Death carries off fome in the bud of childhood, others in the bloom of youth, and others when they are come to their fruit: few are left standing, till, like ripe corn, they forfake the ground: all die one time or other. Secondly, Man's life is a fhort thing: it is not only a vanity but 4 fbort-lived vanity: Confider, First, How the life of man is reckoned in the fcripture. It was indeed fometimes reckoned by hundreds of years: but no man ever arrived at a thoufand, which yet Ee bears 42 bears no proportion to eternity. Now, hundreds are brought down to fcores, threefcore and ten, or fourfcore is its utmoft length, Pfal. xc. id. But few men arrive at that length of life. Death does but rarely wait, till men be bowing down, by reafon of age, to meet the grave. Yet, as if years were too big a word, for fuch a small thing as the life of man on earth; we find it counted by months, Job xiv. 5. "The number of his months are with thee." Our courfe, like that of the moon, is run in a little time; we are always waxing or waneing, till we difappear. But frequently it is reckoned by days; and thefe but few, Job xiv. 1. "Man that is born of a woman is of few days." Nay, it is but one day in fcripture account; and that a bireling's day, who will precifely obferve when his day ends, and give over his work, ver. 6. Till he thall ac. complish as an hireling his day." Yea, the fcripture brings it down to the fhorteft fpace of time, and calls it a moment, 2 Cor. iv. 17. Our light affion (though it laft all our life long) is but for a moment. But eltewhere it is brought down to yet a lower pitch, farther than which one cannot carry it, Pfal. xxxix. 5. Mine age is nothing before thee. Agreeable to this, Solomon tells us, Ecclef. iii. 2. There is a time to be born, and a time to die; but makes no mention of a time to live, as if our life were but a fkip from the womb to the grave. Secondly, Confider the various fimilitudes by which the fcripture reprefents the fhortness of man's life. Hear Hezekiah, Ifa. xxxviii. 12. "Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a fhepherd's tent; I have cut off, like a weaver, my life." The fhepherd's tent is foon removed; for the flocks must not feed long in one place: fuch is a man's life on earth, quickly gone It is a web, he is inceffantly working; he is not idle fo much as one moment: in a fhort time it is wrought, and then it is cut off. Every breathing is a thread in this web, when the laft breath is drawn, the web is woven out, he expires and then it is cut off, he breathes no more. Man is like grafs and like a flower, Ifa. xl. 6 "All flefh (even the ftrongest and most heal y flesh) is grafs, and all the godliness thereof is as the flower of the field." The grafs is flourishing in the morning; but, in the evening, being cut down by the mowers, it is withered: fo man fometimes is walking up and down at eafe in the morning, and in the evening, is lying a corpfe, being knocked down by a fudden ftroke, with one or other of death's weapons. The flower, at beft, is but a weak and tender thing, of fhort continuance, where-ever it growes; but (obferve) man is not compared to the flower of the garden; but to the flower of the field, which the foot of every beaft may tread down at any time. Thus is our life liable to a thoufand accidents, every day; any of which may cut us off But though we fhould efcape all thefe, yet at length this grafs withereth, this flower fadeth of itself. It is carried off, "as the clouds is confumed and vanifheth away, Job vii. 9. It looks big as the morning cloud, which promifeth great |