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tural and acquired, in order to fee, whether there be any figns that these are now difpens'd in a lefs liberal way than formerly; or whether the reverfe is not more probable.

As to the Fruitfulness of the Earth, and Clemency of Seafons, the Temperature of the Air, and Influence of Heavenly Bodies, the vulgar mistake of their Decay, and tendency to Diffolution, has, I think, long fince been exploded1.

Whatever might have been the employment of Man, had he continued innocent, (which yet we fee was not exempted from the Care of dreffing, and keeping that spot of Ground in which Adam was placed;) upon his Fall, a State of Toil and Labour became neceffary; in order to fecure the Virtue, Health, and Quiet of the Species, in any tolerable degree: on which account the Earth is reprefented as lying under an extraordinary Curfe, of Barrennefs, which has been generally thought to have continued, and received confiderable addition at the Deluge; and very philosophical Rea fons were affigned for this Opinion; till of late a learned Prelated fhew'd us, from the Circumstances of the Hiftory, that the direct contrary

• A fufficient Confutation of it may be seen in Hakewill Apol. paffim. There's a Book wrote on the fame Subject by fo. Fonftonus, de Naturæ conftantia, Ed. Amftel. 1632. a Gen. 2.15.

b See King's Origin of Evil, p. 192. Note 33. 3 Ed. and the Authors there referr'd to. To which add Worthington's Effay on Man's Redemption, who has treated this point more particularly, p. 64, &c.

See them collected in Univerf. Hift. V.1. p. 106, &c. Bp. Sherlock, Ufe and Intent of P. Difc. 4. comp. Mr. Worthington on the fame Subject, Eff. p. 84, &c.

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was fact. For fome time after, the Longevity of Mankind was very neceffary, for peopling the World, and learning Arts; though I should think it difficult to point out the Natural Caufes of this Longevity, and the following Change; at least, fuch as can be confiftent with the fore-mention'd opinion. Since, if the Earth was corrupted to fuch a degree at the univerfal Deluge, as to lay a foundation for the fhortening the Period of Human Life thereby; this effect, one would imagine, fhould have been moft evident, while thefe fame Caufes must be fresh, and operate moft ftrongly not to repeat that this fuppofed Corruption is a vulgar Error. This great Change therefore, feems to have been owing to a pofitive Appointment of the Deity, diftinct from, and

e See Hakewill, p.42. Joseph. L. 1. c.3. Winder, p. 78, 79. Le Clerc on Gen. 5.27. Cum pauci effent homines in terris, neceffe erat Parentes diu vivere, ut liberis fuis auxilio effent, et fe contra feras aliaque vitæ incommoda una tutarentur: alioqui fi parentes fæpe liberos impuberes orbos reliquiffent, aut ea ætate interiiffent, qua liberi rudiores nondum fibi fatis profpicere poterant, de multis familiis actum fuiffet. Cum omnia experientia difcerentur, neque ea poffet in liberos adolefcentes tranfmitti; ut ea pofteris ufui effet, diu cum illis parentes vivere oportuit. Hæc certe longævitas in rudi ætate et fcribendi imperitia, ad Hiftoriæ et annorum certam memoriam fervandam plane neceffaria erat; cum ne fic quidem fatis incolumis ad nos pervenerit.' Id. ib.

£ Some of the supposed ones are set down by the last mentioned Writer, who after all is forced to recur to Providence for the Event. Comp. Buddei Hift. Eccl. Vol. 1. p. 151. Mr. Worthington fuppofes a decay in the Conftitution of Noah's Sons immediately occafion'd by the Rains and Waters of the Deluge, Eff. p. 74, &c. Had fuch a Caufe been adequate to the Effect, would there not have been fome appearance of its taking place much fooner? and not by halves, at fuch a diftance; as in the following Note?

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fubfequent to that of Noah's Flood, and introduced for Reasons which took place fome Ages after it; and may be conceiv'd as a New Difpenfation, neceflary for the future Government of. the World, in every age. However, fo early as

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& See Taylor on Orig. Sin, p. 67. When God had de'termined in himself, and promised to Noah, never to deftroy the World again by fuch an univerfal Deftruction, till the laft and final Judgment, it was neceffary by Degrees 'to fhorten the Lives of Men; which was the most effectual ' means to make them more governable, and to remove bad Examples out of the World; which would hinder the fpreading of the infection, and people and reform the world again by new Examples of Piety and Virtue: for when 'there are fuch quick fucceffions of Men, there are few A'ges, but have fome great and brave Examples, which give a new and better Spirit to the World.' Sherlock on Death. C. 3. S. 2. p. 138. Sin brought Death in first, and yet Man lived almost a thousand years. But he finned more, and 'then Death came nearer to him: for when all the World was firft drowned in Wickedness, and then in Water, God 'cut him fhorter by one half; and five hundred years was his ordinary Period. And Man finned ftill, and had strange Imaginations, and built Towers in the Air; and then a'bout Peleg's Time, God cut him fhorter by one half yet, 'two hundred and odd years was his determination. And ' yet the Generations of the World returned not unanimoufly to God; and God cut him off another half yet, and reduced him to a hundred and twenty years. And by • Mofes's Time one half of the final remanent Portion was pared away, reducing him to threefcore years and ten. But if God had gone on ftill in the fame method, and 'fhorten'd our Days as we multiplied our Sins, we should have been but as an Ephemeron; Man fhould have lived 'the Life of a Fly, or a Gourd.-But God feeing Man's Thoughts were only evil continually, he was refolved no longer fo to ftrive with him, nor deftroy the Kind, but punish Individuals only, and fingle Perfons; and if they finned, or if they did obey, regularly their Life fhould be proportionable.' Taylor, Life of Chrift, p. 305. 1 fhall here add the obfervation of a learned and ingenious Friend, which is connected with the prefent Subject. It is very plain by the

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Mofes's days, we find the Life of Man fix'd to the fame length in general that it has at present ; (for his Defcription of it feems not capable of being wholly restrain'd to the particular Cafe at that time in the Wilderness;) and ever fince, so far as the Accounts of ancient Times can be rely'd on, we have reafon to believe, that the Conftitution of Mankind in general, as well as the State of the Earth, and Heavens, whereon that must depend, have at all times been much the fame as we now find them; and may reft fatisfied, that the original Promife, has been, and will amply be made

unoccupy'd Spaces and fuperfluous produce of the Earth, that it was intended to be inhabited by many Myriads more than ever exifted upon it, and whofe existence has only been prevented or cut fhort by the unrighteous Inventions of men: this complete replenishing of the Earth would probably have been the confequence of Adam's Obedience; but his Fall having broken in upon this Scheme, it became the wife and good Providence of God to limit the Generations of Men to a certain proportion, and to keep the balance in fuch fort, that, maugre all the Inventions of Men themfelves to prolong human Life, or to increafe the Species, the Earth fhould never be ftock'd with Inhabitants beyond fuch a proportion, till they were duly difpofed to apply the Aids and Expedi ents of Religion to their prefervation and Felicity. To multiply Mankind, while Iniquity abounds, and the love of fo large a Majority is waxen cold; or in other words, to replenifh the Earth whilft the Appetites of its inhabitants are fo inflamed, would only be to multiply new Generations of Cut-throats and Oppreffors, whofe engroffing Maw would quickly reduce the Species to [perhaps far below] the ordinary proportion.

*Pf.90. 10. If Mofes be the Author of that Pfalm, as its Title fets forth.

h See Sir W. Temple's Works, V. 1. p. 276, &c. Sir T. P. Blount, Eff.4. p. 188, 192, &c. or Ld. Bacon's Hift. of Life and Death.

That the Stature of Man in this Age is the fame as it was near three thousand years ago, appears from Greaves's ac

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good, that while the Earth remaineth, Seed-time and Harveft, and Cold and Heat, and Summer and Winter, and Day and Night, shall not ceafe*; and therefore may conclude, that the Diftribution, and Enjoyment of, what I call, the Natural Advantages of Life, is fo far from a conftant gradual Decline, that these have been at all Times in themselves pretty equal; and rather improving, as they receive affiftance, which they do very much, from the acquired ones; which we are in the next place to confider.

The late Invention of Arts and Sciences is ufually infifted on, and very justly, in our Difputes with Atheists, against the Eternity of the World; and their continual Progress, though perhaps feldom attended to, feems to be a Point no lefs neceffary to complete the Argument. For if it can be fhewn, either that these which we now have, or others of equal Ufe and Importance, were discover'd fooner; and dropt again, and subject to their feveral Revolutions, as has lately been afferted'; count of the Monument in the Egyptian Pyramid. Derham, Phyf. Theol. B. 5. c.4. N. 4. That we have had several very late inftances of Perfons, whofe Longevity exceeded that of the Patriarchal Age, may be feen in Worthington's Effay, P.417. comp. Huet. Alnet. Queft. L. 2. c. 12. S. 4.

* Gen. 8.22.

a Arts and Sciences grow up, florifh, decay, die, and return again under the fame or other forms, after Periods which appear long to us, however fhort they may be, compared with the immenfe duration of the Systems of created being. Thefe Periods are fo difproportionate to all human. means of preferving the memory of things, that when the 'fame things return, we take frequently for a new discovery, the revival of an Art or Science long before known.' Ld. Bolingbroke, Eff. 3. p. 236. See alfo his Letter occafioned by one of Abp. Tilletfon's Sermons, Works V. 3. p. 265, &c.

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