We must know therefore, that Man ⟨p. 20⟩at his first Creation being made up of a Body and a Soul, was neither in his own nature so unchangeable and immortal as the Angels, nor so frail and weak as other creatures below. Not so unchangeable, I say, in his own nature; for having a body that was to be continually supplied with food, that is, repaired, it follows that, that which needs repair, is liable to decay; but yet while the sweet harmony, wherein it was first formed, was not disturbed, the frame might well have endured for a long time; especially, if the Tree of Life in Eden were intended, as some of the Learned *thought, to support, strengthen, and perpetuate Life. But the dismal Fall of our first Parents did so crush the Body, and wound the Soul, that neither of them can be recovered in this Life. For immediately that Death, which was threatened to him, by degrees seized upon his Body; and fear, shame and sorrow entered into his Soul. And though the divine Providence permitted Him and divers of his posterity to live many hundreds of years, that the naked world might be peopled, and that Religion with all other useful knowledge might be procured, preserved and propagated ⟨p. 21⟩in the world; yet we date his decaying and dying state from that word, Gen. 3. 19. For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. That righteous Sentence brings our hoary hairs upon us. Thou turnest man to destruction, and sayest, Return ye children of men—In the morning they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up, in the evening it is cut down and withereth. Psal. 90. 3, 6. If you inquire therefore into the ruins of humane nature, the answer will be, that Sin is the moth, which, being bred therein, hath fretted the garment, withers the man, and lays his honour in the dust. Every decay therefore of our Strength should mind us of our Apostasy from God by the Fall, and should renew our grief for the same. Whether Adam wept as oft as he looked towards Paradise, is uncertain; but surely when we find our Eye-sight fail us, our Skin to wrinkle, and the pillars of the house to tremble, we should mourn for that woeful Disobedience and Ingratitude, which was the Original cause of the decays of Nature. When your Eyes cannot do you service in Seeing, let them do it in Weeping for this root of sin and misery.
We must know therefore, that Man ⟨p. 20⟩at his first Creation being made up of a Body and a Soul, was neither in his own nature so unchangeable and immortal as the Angels, nor so frail and weak as other creatures below. Not so unchangeable, I say, in his own nature; for having a body that was to be continually supplied with food, that is, repair'd, it follows that, that which needs repair, is liable to decay; but yet while the sweet harmony, wherein it was first form'd, was not disturb'd, the frame might well have indured for a long time; especially, if the Tree of Life in Eden were intended, as some of the Learned *thought, to support, strengthen, and perpetuate Life. But the dismal Fall of our first Parents did so crush the Body, and wound the Soul, that neither of them can be recovered in this Life. For immediately that Death, which was threatned to him, by degrees seized upon his Body; and fear, shame and sorrow entred into his Soul. And though the divine Providence permitted Him and divers of his posterity to live many hundreds of years, that the naked world might be peopled, and that Religion with all other useful knowledge might be procur'd, preserv'd and propagated ⟨p. 21⟩in the world; yet we date his decaying and dying state from that word, Gen. 3. 19. For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. That righteous Sentence brings our hoary hairs upon us. Thou turnest man to destruction, and sayest, Return ye children of men—In the morning they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up, in the evening it is cut down and withereth. Psal. 90. 3, 6. If you inquire therefore into the ruines of humane nature, the answer will be, that Sin is the moth, which, being bred therein, hath fretted the garment, withers the man, and layes his honour in the dust. Every decay therefore of our Strength should mind us of our Apostacy from God by the Fall, and should renew our grief for the same. Whether Adam wept as oft as he looked towards Paradise, is uncertain; but surely when we find our Eye-sight fail us, our Skin to wrinkle, and the pillars of the house to tremble, we should mourn for that woful Disobedience and Ingratitude, which was the Original cause of the decayes of Nature. When your Eyes cannot do you service in Seeing, let them do it in Weeping for this root of sin and misery.
- *Viv•bat homo in Paradiso sicut volebat; quam diu volebat quod Deus jusserat: cibus aderat, ne esuriret; potus ne sitiret, lignum vitae ne illum senectus dissolveret. August de Civ. Dei. c: 26.
