The Life of Man Compared to a Cloud

    THE LIFE OF MAN COMPARED TO A CLOUD

    "As the Cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he goeth down to the grave, shall come up no more, he shall return no more to his house,"&c., Job 7:9.

    PABALLELS.

    I. As the Cloud, such a Cloud as you see hanging in the air, is consumed, or gradually spent: so the days, or Life of Man, by little and little is consumed.

    II. A Cloud comes to its height, and then is quickly dispersed, and vanisheth: so Man soon comes to his full strength, and presently is gone.

    III. A Cloud is like a bottle full of rain, or sponges full of water; God crushes these sponges, or unstops these b ottles, and they are emptied; and in emptying vanish away, and return no more: so Man being emptied of Life, vanisheth away, and returns not again.

    Objec. But why then doth Job say, that the Clouds return after their rain? Ec 12:2. How then doth Job say, that the Cloud vanisheth, so Man goeth to the grave, and returneth no more?

    Answ. Solomon in that place of Ecclesiastes gives a description of old age, and the sad condition of Man in it; he calleth it the evil day, and wishes men would consider their latter end, before those evil days overtake them: "Before the light of the sun, moon, and stars be darkened, and the Clouds return after the rain."In old age the Clouds return after the rain thus; as in some very wet time, when we think it hath rained so much, as might have spent and quite exhausted the Clouds, and drawn those bottles dry, yet you shall see them, return again, it will rain day after day as fast as ever: so in old age, when rheums distil so freely, that you would think an old Man had emptied himself of all, yet the Clouds will return again, and floods of watery humours overflow. Thus the Clouds of old age return, and in this sense the Clouds of the air return, after they are consumed and spent into rain.

    But how doth a Cloud return? not the same Cloud numerically, that Cloud which was dissolved doth not return; the same sun goes down and vanisheth out of our sight in the evening, and returneth in the morning, the same individual and numerical sun. But that numerical Cloud which vanished, comes not again. Thus Man vanisheth and returns as the Clouds return after the rain; that is, after one generation of Men are dead, they return again in their children; another generation springs up, but there is no other returning to Life till the resurrection; they that die shall not live again here; they shall not return to their house; their place shall know them no more.