LifeApparitions, andMans T i fJolution. Where first the Apoftles phrafe he fpeaks in is worthy to be obferved, your hfe,not ours yours that make filch accounts and reckonings as thefe,promife to your feint' what you will do in following your worldly bulinefs, and incrcafe your worldly gain ; what isyourlife? The life ofWorldlingsthe Apoftle would secretly tax, as LomeExpofiters colleC-t,noting a difference and difparity betweenChriftiansin their wayes, and Worldlings in theirs ; Worldlings arealtogether for this Life, and the things of this Life, they never dreamof any other to come Poll mortem nihil, &c. as the Epicure in the Poet. Death that is an annihilation,and after death there comes nothing: Therefore all theirproje&s and pra&ices draw downwards,they projeO for a worldlyLife, their huyings and fèllings', andmarkettings, and profits ; these are the things theymindand leek after, all the thought of their,hearts are bent upon thelecares, allthedayesoftheirLivesarcfpentuponthe rethings: butthere isano- ther manner ofLifc that Chriftians look for : There is a lifehidwith (brill in rod ; they know there is another Life to come after this , therefore their hearts are set upon other manner ofobjeds. They arenot fuch as have their affeftions fet.upon the World, they make not account of themfelvesas men of this World. Plato being asked the queftion what Country-man he was, he Paid, he was a Citizen of the World ; a Chtiftian is not fo, he is no Citizen oftheWorld, but a CitizenofHea- ven therefore it is Paid, wehave our eonverfation in Heaven, Phil. 3.5o. The Creek word properly fignifieth Citizens,orBurgeffes ; therefore Saintproms in his Epitaph upon Neaporian renders it fo ; and Bezapertinent to the fenfe,though not proper to the Text, We carry and behave our (elves like Citizens, or Burgeffes, or Free-men of Heaven ; they have all their affe&ions, all their thoughtsand delires bent that way : if they canobtain that, they have as much as they desire to crovvn their wishes withal : they care for no other buyingbut of thetruth; they fear not felling but their-Soúls,theywifh nogainbut Heaven. Andindeed thisLifedoth only deferve tobecalleda Life:this Life which theSaints, which Chriftians live: the Life thatthey live toGod, and thisLife is that that muff prepare them for a better Life, the life in Heaven. Ofany other Life but this, we may ask the queftion in th'e words of the Apoftle,What u it? *'hat is it ? It deserves not fomuch asthename(as he faith) though inname it bea life,indeed it is a death but pretermit the difparity and difference between lives; force are comparatively, andother (iimplyconfrdered. TheLife simplyconfideredis the fubjeft of theApo- files queftion, what isyourlife ? Questionsalvvay in the Scripture are emphatical, whetherthey tend to magnifie and advance, or to the vilifyingand abafing ofwhat they aim at ; this here is molt emphatical, to thew us howpoor and bafea thingLife is, like that question in Job, to thew how poor and bale a thingman is, Yob7. r7. Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful of him, orfelted? thy heart upon him ? So David, Pfal. 8.4. Lord, what is man, thatthou art mindful ofhim, or thefon ofman, that thou defre(? him? He thews how poor and baleathing man is: and he himfelfgibes the anfwer to it, Pfal, 1 4. 6. Man is like to Vanity ? Nay ,.more plainly in Pfal. gg, 6. Surely man is vanity; nay, furely ( faith the Prophet) man in hie bell elfate is altogether vanity. What could have been more emphatically fpoken ? there is not a word there but it hath its force ; Maniavanity ; Every man is vanity; .Every man in his bett etlate if vanity ; Every man in his bell efface, is altogether vanity ;andAlen there is a word of- affevcration by which he feals andbuckles up all ;. Surely, every man inhis bell effate, is altogether vanity. If the Apoftle hadbut barely and nakedly what he had to fay concerning the uncertainty and fbortnefs ofmans life, it had been fitfhcient if he had laid thus: Tour life is avapour thatappears for a little while, &c, but he fetcheth it in with a Qere, he ,puts it to a queftion, as ifhe would demur, and haveus to pause and confider of it, he brings it in with a, what isyourhfe? By theApoftles leave wemaybebold to quit another queftion with him,what the Apoftle means toexprefs it thus? Surely it is to inculcate that intoasmore through- ly, and to makeus paufeupon that more feriouffy : fuch'queftions as tilde make a great flopin a mans way, as ílmao da body in zSam. ta. iz. it flopped the paffage o 293 Col. 3. 3.
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