An exposition with practical observations upon the three first chapters of the book of…

To perish, signifies first, not to be. A thing is said to perish, when it is annihilated, when it returns to nothing: As the Psalmist speaks, Man being in honour and understandeth not, is compared to the beasts that perish. The perishing of a beast, is the non-entity of a beast, when a beast dieth, it perisheth, it is not; A beast is no more, but vanisheth quite, and is gone for ever. Then, such mens likeness to a beast, is not in perishing, but in the want of true understanding: He doth not say, man perisheth like a beast, but he is like a beast, that perisheth. A wicked man how honourable soever, is a brutish man, ver. 10. For he knows nothing spiritually, and what he knows naturally, in that like a brute beast he corrupts himself, as the Apostle Jude speaks, ver. 10. of his Epistle. But between the perishing of a foolish man and a beast, there is a vast difference; A beasts perishing is a not-being, A foolish mans perishing is a miserable being.

To perish, signifies first, not to be. A thing is said to perish, when it is annihilated, when it returnes to nothing: As the Psalmist speakes, Man being in honour and understandeth not, is compared to the beasts that perish. The perishing of a beast, is the non-entity of a beast, when a beast dieth, it perisheth, it is not; A beast is no more, but vanisheth quite, and is gone for ever. Then, such mens likenesse to a beast, is not in perishing, but in the want of true understanding: He doth not say, man perisheth like a beast, but he is like a beast, that perisheth. A wicked man how honourable soever, is a bruitish man, ver. 10. For he knowes nothing spiritually, and what he knowes naturally, in that like a bruit beast he corrupts himselfe, as the Apostle Jude speakes, ver. 10. of his Epistle. But betweene the perishing of a foolish man and a beast, there is a vast difference; A beasts perishing is a not-being, A foolish mans perishing is a miserable being.

For secondly, To perish, signifies often a miserable being, as in Joh. 3.16. God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten s•n, that whosoever believeth, should not perish, &c. Not perish, the meaning of it is not, that all unbelievers shall loose their very beings, become a nothing, and with their existence part from their essence. Some wicked beastly men would be glad of this, that they might live here wickedly, and afterward die like beasts, in that sense eternally: If this were the perishing that is threatened unbelievers, many of them would be ready to say out of love and liking to their lusts, as Esther did out of love and zeal to the cause of God, If we perish we perish, If this be to perish, let us perish. But that perishing is of another nature; They that believe not shall perish, that is, they shall live and perish, they shall be, and be miserable for ever, the wrath of a displeased God, and the sting of a polluted conscience, shall torment them to all eternity.