666 Chap. tq.. ef4n expofition upon the Book of J O B. Verf.zi. and dearer to them , their own Ions ; And as they have no knowledge of, fo no affe&ions to the world , the dead neither rejoice with nor mourn over thofe that live. Solomon! defcrip- tionof an Atheif , and of his falle conceits about death , may (though not in his fenfe) be applied for the illufiration of this truth (Eccl.9.5,6.) The living know theypall die. Atheifts freak thus not from a certaintyat knowledge cauling them to pre-, pare for death, but from a carelefl'enefl'e mixed with their know- Iedge', calling them to flight death : they know they muli die, and therefore care not though they die. Death (lay they) be- fals all, and thereforefhould not troubleany. This-is all the care they take about death, when they profeffe their kn::sw.. ledge of death. The living know they pall die, but the dead know not any thing. The Athiefi speaks it downright as ifwhen a man dies there were an end of him. He knows no more, that is, (in their divinity) he is no more. But though the dead in Chrifl; knowmany things, they know their own happinefle and eter- nal life ; and though the dead who die out of Chrifi knowma ny things, they know their own torment and mifery, they know alto the falfeneffe of this opinion , that the dead know nothing : yet there is a truth in what they fay , though not in what they mean. For the dead know not any thingof this prefent life, or of the things done here on earth. They know not any thing of there things , as knowing is taken for apprehending., and they know nothing of them, as knowing is taken for grieving at, or rejoicing in them ; fo the Preacher fpeaks at the fixthverfe, in the language of his Atheifi f ill : alfo their love, and their hatred, and their envy is nowperifhed, and they have no more portion for ever in all that is done under theInn. They therefore have no love nor hatred nor envy about thofe things that are doing under the Sun , becaufe they have no portion in all that is done under the Sun. When man dies he hath a portion, but it doth not lie under the Sun. Wieked men have their portion with hypocrites and unbelee- vers. The godlyhave a portion with Chrifj: ; and all the Saints in glory ; as for earthly things they are none of their portion, and therefore none of their care, and they have as little affection about them as they have ufe of them , their fons cometo honour and they rejoice not , their ions are made low and they grieve not The Prophet Efay praies 'carnally (chap.63. t6.) Look, down (OLord) from heaven , and behold from the habitation of my
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