ham faid, Son, remember that thou in thy Life-time receivedft thy good things, and likewife Lazarus evil things: But now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And befides all this, between us and you there is a great Gulph fixed, fo that they which would pafs from hence to you, cannot; neither can they pals to us, that would come from thence. Then he faid, I pray thee therefore, Father, that thou wouldst fend him to my Father's Houfe; for I have five Brethren, that he may testify unto them, left they alfo come into this Place of Torment. Abraham faith unto him, They have Mofes and the Prophets; let them hear them. And he faid, Nay, Fa

Brother, nor give to God a
Ranfom for him.

For the REDEMPTION of their Soul is precious, and it ceafeth for ever.

That he fhould ftill (e) LIVE for ever, and not fee CORRUPTION.

For he feeth that wife Men die, likewife the (f) FOOL and the brutifh Perfon perifh, and leave their Wealth to others.

Their inward Thought is, that their Houses fhall continue for ever, and their dwelling Places to all Generations; they call their Lands after their own Names.

Nevertheless, (g) Man being in Honour, ABIDETH not; he is like the Beasts

that PERISH.

This their Way is their FOLLY, yet their Pofterity approve their Sayings.

Like (b) SHEEP they are laid in their Grave, Death fhall FEED on them, and the Upright fhall have Dominion over them in the Morning; and their Beauty fhall CONSUME in the Grave from their Dwelling.

ther Abraham, but if one went unto them from the Dead they will repent: And he faid unto him, If they hear not Mofes and the Prophets, neither will they be perfuaded though one rofe from the Dead.

(e) Heb. 1x. 27. It is appointed unto Men once to DIE, but atter this the JUDGMENT.

(f) Ecclef. 11. 18, 19. I hated all my Labour which I had taken under the Sun, because I should LEAVE it unto the Man that fhall be after me. And who knoweth whether he fhall be a wISE Man or a Fool?

(g) Ecclef. vi. 1, 2. There is an EVIL which I have feen under the

Sun, and it is common among Men. A Man, to whom God hath given fo that he wanteth nothing for his RICHES, WEALTH, and HONOUR, Soul of all that he delireth, yet God giveth him not Power to eat thereof, but a Stranger eateth it: This is VANITY, and is an evil Difcafe.

(b) Ecclef. v111. 8, 12, 13. There SPIRIT to retain the Spirit, neither is no Man that hath Power over the

hath he Power in the day of Death: And there is no DISCHARGE in that War; neither fhall Wickedness DELIVER thofe that are given to it. Though a Sinner do EVIL an hundred times, and his Days be prolonged, yet furely I know that it God, which fear before him. But fhall be well with them that fear it fhall not be well with the Wicked, neither fhall he prolong his caufe he feareth not before God. Days, which are as a SHADOW; beChap. 1x. 5, 10. For the LIVING know that they fhall DIE: But the ther have they any more a Reward, DEAD know not any thing, neifor the Memory of them is forgot ten. Whatsoever thy Hand findeth to do, do it with thy Might; for there is no WORK, nor DEVICE, nor KNOWLEDGE, nor WISDOM, in the Grave whither thou goest.

But God will() REDEEM my Soul from the Power of

(1) 1 Pet. 1. 18. Ye know that ye were not REDEEMED with CORRUPTIBLE things, as Silver and Gold, from your VAIN Conversation, received by Tradition from your Fathers. I Cor. xv. 42,43,44. So allo is the RESURRECTION from the Dead; it is fown in CORRUPTION, it is raised in INCORRUPTION; it is fown in DISHONOUR, it is raised in GLORY; it is fown in WEAKNESS, it is raised in POWER; it is sown a NATURAL BODY, it is railed a SPIRITUAL BODY.

the

the Grave, for he fhall RE

CEIVE me.

Be not thou afraid when one is made (k) RICH, when the Glory of his Houfe is increased.

For when he DIETH, he fhall carry (1) NOTHING away; his Glory fhall not defcend after him.

Though, whilft he lived, he bleffed his Soul: And Men will praife thee, when thou doft well to thy felf. He fhall go to the Generation of his Fathers, they fhall never fee Light.

Man that is in Honour, and UNDERSTANDETH not, is like the Beasts that perifh. Lord, thou hast been our (m) DWELLING PLACE in all Generations,

Before the (n) MOUNTAINS were brought forth, or ever thou hadit formed the Earth and the World: Even from everlasting to everlafting, thou art God.

(k) James v. 1, 2, 3. Go to now, ye RICH Men, weep and howl for your Miferies that are come upon and your Garments are MOTH-EATyou; your Riches are CORRUPTED, EN; your Gold and Silver is CANKERED, and the Ruft of them fhall eat your Flesh as it were Fire; ye be a Witness againit you, and fhall have heaped TREASURE together for the laft Days.

We

(1) 1 Tim. v1. 7, 8, 9, 10. brought NOTHING into this World, and it is certain we can carry NoTHING out; and having Food and tent. But they that will be rich, RAIMENT, let us be therewith con

fall into TEMPTATION, and a

SNARE, and into many foolish and in Destruction and Perdition: For hurtful LUSTS, which drown Men the LOVE of Money is the Root of all EVIL; which while fome cothe FAITH, and pierced them elves veted after, they have erred from through with many SORROWS. Job 1. 21. Job faid, NAKED came

out of my Mother's Womb, and NAKED fhall I return thither: The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; Bieffed be the Name of the Lord. Ecclef. v. 13, 14, 15, 16. There

is a fore Evil which I have feen un

der the Sun, namely, RICHES kept for the Owners thereof, to their hurt: But thofe Riches perifh by evil travail; and he begetteth a Son, and there is NOTHING in his Hand. As he came forth of his Mother's Womb, NAKED fhall he return to go as he came, and fhall take nothing of his Labour which he may carry away in his Hand. And this alfo is a fore EVIL, that in all Points as he came, fo fhall he go: And what PROFIT hath he that hath laboured for the Wind?

(m) 2 Chron. VI. 18. Will God in very deed DWELL with Men on the Earth? Behold, Heaven, and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee. 2 Cor. vi. 16. Ye are the TEMPLE of the living God; as God hath faid, I will DWELL in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they fhall be my People.

(n) Heb. 1. 10. Thou, Lord, in the Beginning haft laid the Foundation of the EARTH, and the HEAVENS are the Works of thine Hands. Ifai. xL. 12. Who hath measured the Waters in the Hollow of his Hand, and meted the Heaven with the Span, and comprehended the Duft of the Earth in a Measure, and weighed the Mountains in Scales, and the Hills in a Balance ?

Pfalm xc. 1, to 12.

Thou

Thou turneft Man to Deftruction, and fayeft, Return ye Children of Men.

For (0) a thousand Years in thy Sight, are but as yef terday, when it is paft, and as a Watch in the Night. Thou carrieft them away as with a Flood, they are a fleep, in the Morning they are like Grafs which groweth up.

In the Morning it flourish eth, and groweth up, in the Evening it is cut down and withereth.

For we are confumed by thine Anger, and by thy Wrath are we troubled.

Thou haft fet our Iniquities before thee, our fecret Sins in the Light of thy Countenance.

For all our (p) DAYS are paft away in thy Wrath: We fpend our Years as a TALE that is told.

The Days of our † Years are threefcore Years and ten

and

(0) 2 Pet. 111. 8. Be not ignorant of this one thing, that one Day is with the Lord as a thousand Years, and a thoufand Years as one

Day. ver. 9. The Lord is not flack concerning his Promife (as fome Men count flackness) but is longthat any fhould PERISH, but that fuffering to us-ward; not willing all fhould come to REPENTANCE. Ecclef. x1. 8, 9. But if a Man live many Years, and REJOICE in them all; yet let him remember the Days of DARKNESS, for they fhall be many. All that cometh is VANITY. Rejoice, O young Man, in thy Youth, and let thy Heart chear thee in the Days of thy Youth, and walk in the Ways of thy Heart, and in the Sight of thine Eyes: But know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into JUDGMENT.

(p) Ecclef. vi. 12. Who knowLife, all the Days of his VAIN Life, eth what is good for Man in this which he fpendeth as SHADOW? for who can tell a Man, what fall be after him under the Sun ?

+ See Ld. C. J. Hales's Origination of Mankind, wherein he states the feveral Periods of human Life, page 170. "Touching the Decays of the Age of Man's Lite, we do indeed learn from the facred Scripture, (for no human Hiftory reacheth fo high) that the Lives of the Ancients were very long, efpecially before, and for fome time after the Flood: "And this the Divine Wifdom, Providence, and Goodness, ordered for "moft excellent Ends, namely, the Peopling of the new World; and "that without any other Means than his own Will, or at least by Means "unknown to us. In Arphaxad the Son of Shem, the great Age of the "Ancients was cut to halves, namely to 440 Years; and in his Grand"child Peleg, it was again cut to halves, for he lived but 242 Years; "and it is alfo true, that afterwards, gradually to the Days of Mofes, the "Lives of Men became fhorter and fhorter, till they fixed in that com"mon Period of the Life of Man, of 70 or 80 Years: And although it "be true that the Hiftorics of former times give us fome Account of lon"ger Lives of Men, as the Lives of Mofes, Aaron, Phinehas, and fome "others

and if by reafon of Strength they be fourfcore Years, yet is their Strength LABOUR and SORROW; for it is foon cut off, and we fly away.

Who knoweth the Power of thine Anger? Even according to thy Fear, fo is thy Wrath.

So teach us to number our DAYS, that we may apply our Hearts unto WISDOM.

Liked as a Father PITIETH his Children, fo the Lord PITIETH them that fear him.

For he knoweth our Frame; he remembreth that we are but Duft.

As for Man, his (q) Days are as GR Ass; as a FLOWER of the Field, fo he flourisheth. For the Wind paffeth over it, and it is gone, and the Place thereof shall know it

no more.

(9) James Iv. 13, 14. Go to now, ye that fay to-day, or to morrow, we tinue there a Year, and buy and fell, will go into fuch a City, and conand get Gain; whereas, ye know not what fhall be on the Morrow: For what is your LIFE? it is even a VAPOUR, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanifheth away.

But the Mercy of the Lord is from everlating to everlasting, upon them that fear him; and his Righteoufnefs unto Childrens Children. To fuch as keep his COVENANT, and to thofe that remember his COMMANDMENTS to do them.

d Pfalm c111. 13, to 18.

"others, and thofe mentioned by Pliny, Lib. v11. cap. 48. and fome in our own Experience: Yet Mofes himself ftates the ordinary Standard "of the Life of Man to be 70, or at molt 80 Years, Pfalm xc. 10. "2 Sam. xix. 32, 35. And this we fhall find true upon the Confidera"tion of the Chronological Account of the Years of the ancient Patriarchs "and Kings that ficceeded Mofes; as likewife of the Time that the If"raelites lived in the Wilderness, all which that were twenty Years old, " and upwards, at the coming into the Wilderness, when the Spies were "fent into Canaan, which was fhortly after their coming thither: all "thefe, I fay, except Joshua and Caleb, died within the 40 Years Peregri"nation in the Wilderness: And at this Stay, the ordinary Age of Men " hath been for thefe 4000 Years, abating thofe Cafualties, either of Dif"eafes, or other Accidents, that have fhortned the ordinary compleat Ages of Man's Life.

Ecclef. XII. 13, 14 Let us hear the Conclufion of the whole Matter: Fear God, and keep his Commandments; for this is the whole Duty of Man. For Golfhall bring every Work into Judgment, with every fecret thing, whether it be Good, or whether it be Evil.

M

2 Cor.

יד