A Brief Discourse of Mans Estate, Title page – Synopsis
A BRIEF DISCOURSE OF MANS ESTATE In the firſt and ſecond ADAM.
Shewing theſe ſix Points,
I Man had a glorious beginning.
II Man is much varied from himſelf.
III Mans ſin was cauſed by himſelf.
IV Mans miſery followes his non-dependence on God.
V Man once off from God, and left to himſelf wanders irrecoverably.
VI Saints by Chriſt, are in a very happy eſtate.
Pſ. 8.5.
What is man that thou art mindfull of him, or the ſon of man that thou ſo viſiteſt him?
Pſal. 49.12.
Man being in honour abideth not: but is like the beaſts that periſh.
Pſal. 31.19.
Oh how great is thy goodneſſe which thou haſt laid up for them that fear thee; which thou haſt wrought for them that truſt in thee, before the ſons of men!
By ROBERT HARRIS once of Hanwell, now Preſident of Trinity College in Oxon, and Doctor of Divinity.
LONDON, Printed by J. Fleſher for John Bartlet the elder, and John Bartlet the younger, and are to be ſold at the Gilt Cup neer Auſtins Gate in the new Buildings. 1654.
TO Sir ANTHONY COPE Knight and Baronet.
SIR,
YOu are called to a place which I cannot but love, Hanwell, you are yet but young,Eccleſ. 11.10. and youth (God ſaith) is vanity, and vanity feeds upon it ſelf,Job 11.12. being empty and impatient of Counſell; we were wont to ſay of you in your Childhood, that you were a man, we now upon better grounds expect it from you; and do pray you ſeriouſly to minde your ſelf: Firſt, whether you are called: Secondly, and by whom. 'Tis true, you are called to a great eſtate, but that is made up of ſuch materials as do ſtand upon two lame feet:1. Tim. 6.7. the firſt is Uncertainty; firſt outward things are uncertain; 1. to us, they have wings,…ov. 23.5. and are now upon the wing, flying from houſe to houſe, and (as I may ſay to my coſt) from nation to nation; on the other ſide, 2. we are uncertain to them, ſometimes we play with them as children with birds and ſend them flying by unthrifty and ungodly meanes, at other times death ſeiſes us and ſequeſters them on the ſudden. You need not go from home to learn this, my dayes are not many, yet in them, I have buried three of your Fathers, with their reſpective wives, beſides branches, more then I can name; you are (within few years) the fourth heir of that ancient houſe; ſuch is our life, and ſo uncertain the ſupports thereof. But admit a certainty, yet halt theſe outwards, on another lame legge, and that's Unſufficiency, they will not ſecure us from any evill, they will not procure us any good, at leaſt they will not give us any full ſatisfaction, we read of ſome who had more Kingdomes then you have Mannors; who enlarged their deſires like hell, and yet were as unſatisfied as hell it ſelf: ſo true is Solomon (to ſay nothing of heathens) the eye is not ſatisfied with ſeeing,Ecceleſ. 5.10, &c. &c. and when all is done, all is but vanity, and the vanity of vanities: this (I confeſſe) is not eaſily beleived, till experience hath confuted us. I remember what your Father told me, upon his death bed, I have often heard you (ſaid he) ſpeak of creatures vanity, but I could never beleeve it till I had tryed, upon triall, he found me true. O that Sir Anthony in his youth, would appeal to Sir Anthony in his age, beleeve it (ſaid he to his heir, your Grand-father) all is vanity, meer vanity, ſo have I, ſo will you in time find it; but ſo much of that. In the next place, be pleaſed to conſider, 2. who hath brought you hither; ſurely preferment comes not by chance,Pſ. 75.6, 7. it is the Lord that ſets up, and puls down, now in mercy, now in wrath; the world may ſeem to run on wheeles, but thoſe wheeles are full of eyes,Ezek. …. and an eye of providence is moſt viſible in theſe revolutions which relate to you. When I firſt knew Hanwell, I found Sir Anthony Cope there, and there I leave him again, whileſt I leave the world, the wheel with eyes is come about, and ends where it began for my time; and truly it will be no ſmall comfort to me dying, may I leave the ſame Sir Anthony in the ſame place; the Sir Anthony that I found there, was not onelyonly morally good, temperate, ſober, continent, &c. but ſpiritually good, a man truly zealous for God in his day, worſhips, truths, a man who did much countenance all honeſt Preachers, and (which is not ordinary) his own moſt, a man terrible to the wicked, comfortable to the Godly, a lover of his Countrrey, and with Uzziah a lover of husbandry in that his Town, who made it his ſtudy (as he would ſay) to imploy the poor there, and to keep thence, ſuch as would either burden or blemiſh the place; This was the Sir Anthony that I found there, and my prayer unto heaven is, that the ſame name and man, may ſtill and ſtill there live, and be ever like ſelf, that his houſe may be farre from the curſe, Nah. 1.14. and be filled with the preſence of the God, who is both his own, and our bleſſedneſſe; and here I muſt now end, having exceeded my purpoſe, I ſay but thus much more, and I have done. The longer I lived in thoſe parts, the more need I found of laying principles well, theſe few are ſome of thoſe many delivered in a ſhorter and plainer way, theſe thus preſerv'd and enlarged, I tender to you as an expreſſion of my true obſervance of that Honourable houſe, and honeſt Town, where I ſpent moſt of my ſtrength, and which I commend to the word of grace to be further built up in the faith of Chriſt, in whom I would be whileſt I am, Sir,
Your ready ſervant and faithfull remembrancer, Robert Harris. Trinity College Oxf. Octob. 13. 1653.
A Table of the Texts and Doctrines contained in this Treatiſe.
A brief diſcourſe of the threefold ſtate of man. Page 1.
Eccleſ. 7.29.
Loe this onelyonly have I found, that God hath made man upright: but they have ſought out many inventions.
Doct. 1. MAn at firſt was a very excellent and deſirable creature. p. 2.
2 Man is not what he was, hee was not what he is, but now there is a vaſt diſtance between himſelf and himſelf, betwixt this and that eſtate. p. 24.
3 Mans ſin is from mans ſelf. p. 50.
4 Mans undoing, is from his nondependnce on God. p. 76.
5 When a man is once looſe from God, and left to himſelf, he becomes reſtleſſe and endleſſe in his wayes. p. 97.
Rom. 8.1.
There is therfore now no condemnation to them which are in Chriſt Ieſus, &c. 30.
Doct. Saints in Chriſt, are in a very happy eſtate and condition. p. 118.