z 12 The `Uffulnefr of Vol. IT. fuch invincible Objections to the contrary? Not only againft our inward Judg- ment and Confcience, but againft the general Senfe and Experience of Men in all Ages;. the conftant Declarations and Teilimonies of dying Men, both good and bad, when they are molt ferious, and their Words are thought to be of greateft Credit and Weight,; againft the belt and foberefi Reafon of Mankind, and their true Intereft and Happinefs ; againft the Health of Mens Bodies, and, which is the molt dear and valuable Thing in the World; the Peace and Quiet of their Minds; and that not only in the Time of Life and Health, but in the Hour of Death, when Men ftand molt in Need of Comfort and Sunport; in a Word, againft the Grain of humane Nature, and in defpite of Mens natural Pears of Divine Vengeance, and to the defeating of all our Hopes of a bleffed Immortality in another World, and againft the inflexible Nature and Rear ,n of Things, by no Art or Endeavour of Man, by no Colours of Wit, or Subtilty of Difcourfe, by no Pra&ice or Cuftom to the contrary, by no Confpiracyand Combination of Men, ever to be changed or altered ? So that we may fay with David, Have all the Workers ofWickednefs no Knowledge, noConfederation of them- felves, no Tendernefs and Regard to their prefent and future Interelt? Nay, if there were no Life after this, letting afide the Cafe of extream Suffering and Per- fecution, Religion and Virtue are certainly to be chofen, not only for our Con- tentment inLife, but for our Comfort in Death : And if there be a Stateof Hap- pinefsor Mifery remaining for Men after Death, as molt affuredly there is, much more in order to the attaining of that endlefs Happinefs, and the avoiding of that eternal and intolerable Mifery. 0 that Men were wife, that they underflood this, andworld confider their latter End ! S F. RM O N CXXXIV. The Ufefulnefs of confidering our latter End. PS A.L. XC. I2. So teach us to number our Days, that we may apply our Hearts unto Wifdom. g H E Title of this Pfalm tells us who was the Author of ir. It is call'd a g Prayer of Mofes, theMan of God ; or as the Chaldee Paraphrafe more ex- prefly, The Prayer which Mofes the Prophet of the Lord prayed, when the People of' the Houle of Ifrael finned in the Wildermfr. Upon which Provocation of theirs, God in great Difpleafure threatned, and was immutably refolved that they fhould all perifh irrthe Wildernefs, and that none of the Men that came out of Egypt, Caleb and yofhura only excepted, fhould enter into the promifed Land, but fhould all die in the Space of forty Years. Upon this'Occafion, Mofes made this Pfalrn or Prayer to God, being a devout Meditation upon the Shortnefs and Frailty of Humane Life, which was now brought into a much narrower Cornpafs, than in former Ages. But the Cafe of that People was different from that of the refit of Mankind, being limited and confined to forty rears. They might die fooner than that Time; but that was the utmoft Bound of their Lives, which none were to exceed, which feems to be the Ground andReafon of the Petition, which Mofes puts up to. God in the Text, So teach us, &e. For I do not think that Mof e does here beg of God, to reveal to every one cf
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