prepare its way? They meet us, as foon as we fet our foot on carth, to tell us at our entry, that we do but come into the world to go out again. Howbeit, fome are faatched away in a moment, without being warned by ficknefs or difeafe. Fourthly, We have finful fouls, and therefore have dying bodies death follows fin, as the fhadow follows the body. The wicked moft die, by virtue of the threatning of the cove- nant of works, Gèn. ii. 17. In the-day that thou eateft thereof, thou shalt furely die. And the godly must die top; that, as death entered by fin, fin may go out by death. Chrift has taken away the fting of death, as to them; albeit he has not as yet removed death itself. Wherefore though it faften on them, as the viper on Paul's hand, it fhall do them no harm: but because the leprofy of fin is in the walls of the house, it must be broken down, and all the materials thereof carried forth. Laftly, Man's life in this world, according to the fcripture-account of it, is but a few degrees removed from death. fcripture reprefents it, as a vain and empty thing, fhort in its continuance, and fwift in its paffing away..

The

while it is : it My days are

FIRST, Man's life is a vain and empty thing, vanifheth away; and lo! it is not. Job viii. 6. vanity. If ye fufpect afflicted Job of partiality in this matter, hear the wife and profperous Solomon's character of the days of his life, Ecclef. viii. 15. All things have I feen in the days of my vanity,' i. e. my vain days. Mofes who was a very active man, compares our days to a fleep, Pfal. xc. 5. They are as a fleep, which is not noticed, till it be ended.. The refemblance is pat: few men have right apprehenfions of life, until death awaken them; then we begin to know we were living. • We fpend our years as a tale that is told, ver. 9.. When an idle tale is a-telling, it may affect a little, but when it is ended, it is forgot and fo is man forgotten, when the fable of his life is ended. It is as a dream, or vifion of the night, in which there is nothing folid when one awakes, all evanifheth. Job xx: 8. He fhall fly away as a dream, and fhall not be found; yea, he fhall be chafed away as a vifion, of the night.'. I is buta vana! fhow, or image, Pfal. xxxix. 6. Surely every man waketh in a vain fhow. Man, in this world, is but, as it were, a walking ftatue his life is but, an image of life; there is fu much of death in it.

:

If we look on our life, in the feveral periods of it, we wilh find it a heap of vanities. Childhood and youth are vanity," Ecclef, xi. 10. We come into the world, the moft helpkfs of

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all animals young birds and beafts can do fomething for themfelves, but infant man is altogether unable to help himfelf. Our childhood is fpent in pitiful triding pleasures, which become the fcorn of our own after-thoughts. Youth is a flower that foon

withereth, a bloffom that quickly falls of it is a fpace of time in which we are rafh, foolish, and inconfiderate, pleafing ourfelves with a variety of vanities, and fwimming, as it were, through a flood of them. But ere we are aware, it is paft, and we are in middle-age, encompaffed with a thick cloud of cares, through which we muft grope; and finding ourselves befet with pricking thorns of difficulties, through them we must force our way, to accomplish the projects and contrivances of our riper thoughts. And the more we folace ourfelves in any earthly enjoyment we attain to, the more bitterness do we find in part ing with it. Then comes old age, attended with its own train of infirmities, labour and Torrow,' Pfal. xc. 10. and sets us down next door to the grave. In a word, All flesh is grafs," 1. xi. 6. Every stage, or period of life, is vanity. Man at his belt flate, this middle-age, when the heat of youth is spent, and the forrows of old age have not yet over-taken him) is altogether vanity,' Pfal. xxxix. 5. Death carries off fome in the bud of childhool, others in the bluffom of youth, and others when they are come to their fruit: few are left flanding, till, like ripe corn, they for fake the ground: all die one time or other.

SECONDLY, Man's life is a fhort thing: it is not only a vanity, but a fhort-lived vanity. Confider, Firft, How the life of man is reckoned in the scripture. It was indeed sometimes reckoned by hundreds of years: but no man ever arrived at a thoufand, which yet bears no proportion to eternity. Now, hundreds are brought down 10 fcores; three score and een, or four fcore, is its utmoft length, Pfal. xc. to. But few men arrive at that length of life. Death does but rarely wait till men be bowing down, by reafon of age, to meet the grave. Yet, as if years were too big a word for fuch a fmall thing as the life of man on earth; we find it counted by months, Job xiv. 5. The number of his months are with thee." Our course, like that of the moon, is run in a little time; we are alway's waxing or wancing, till we difappear. But frequently it is reckoned by days; and thefe but few. Job xiv. 1. • Man that is born of a woman, is of few days." Nay, it is but one day in feriptureaccount, and that a hireling's day, who will precifely obferve hen his day ends, and give over his work; ver. 6. Till he shall

accomplish as an hireling his day.' Yea, the feripture brings it down to the foreft fpace of time, and calls it a moment, 2 Cor. iv. 17. Our light affliction (though it laft all our life long,) is but for a moment.' But elfe where it is brought down to yet a lower pitch, farther than which one cannot carry it, Píal. xxxix. 5. Mine age is as nothing before thee.' Agreeable to this, Solomon tells us, Ecclef. iii. 2. There is a time to be born, and a time to die :' but makes no mention of a time to live; as if our life were but a fkip from the womb to the grave. S.condly, Confider the various fimilitudes by which the fcripture reprefents the fhortnefs of man's life. Hear Hezekiah, Ifa. xxxviii. 12. Mine age is departed, and is removed from me, as a fhepherd's tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life.' The hepherd's tent is foon removed; for the flocks must not feed long in one place: Such is a man's life on this earth, quick. ly gone. It is a web, he is inceffantly working; he is not idle fo much as one moment: in a fhort time it is wrought, and then it is cut off. Every breathing is a thread in this web, when the last breath is drawn, the web is woven out, he expires, and then it is cut off, he breathes no more. Man is like the grafs, and like a flower, Ifa. xl. 6. All fleth (even the strongest and most healthy flefh) is grafs, and all the goodlinefs thereof is as the flower of the field.' The grafs is flourishing in the morning; but, in the evening, being cut down by the mowers, it is withered: To man fometimes is walking up and down at eafe in the morning, and in the evening, is lying a corpfe, being knocked down by a fudden stroke, with one or other of death's wea "pons. The flower, at beft, is but a weak and tender thing, of fhort continuance, where-ever it grows but (obferve) man is not compared to the flower of the garden, but to the flower of the field, which the foot of every beaft may tread down at any time. Thus is our life liable to a thoufand accidents every day, any of which, may cut us off. But though we should efcape al theft, yet at length this grafs withereth, this flower fadeth of itself. It is carried off, as the cloud is confumed and vanifheth away, Job vii. It looks big as the morning cloud, which promifeth great things, and raifeth the expectations of the huf bandman: but the fun rifeth, and the cloud is fcattered: death. comes, and man evasitheth. The apostle James propofeth the queftion, What is your life? chap. iv. 14. Hear his own answer, It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then. vanifheth away. It is frail uncertain, and lasteth not. It is as fimoak, which goes out of the chimney, as if it would da ken

the

the face of the heavens: but quickly is feattered, and appears no more. Thus goeth man's life, and where is he? It is a wind, Job vii. 7. O remember that my life is wind.' It is but a paffing blaft, a fhort puff, a wind that paffeth away, and cometh not again,' Pfal. Ixxviii. 39. Our breath is in our nof trils, as it were always upon the wing to depart, ever paffing. and repaffing, like a traveller, until it go away for good and all, not to return, till the heavens be no more.

LASTLY, Man's life is a fwift thing: not only a paffing, but a flying vanity. Have you not obferved how fwiftly a fhadow hath run along the ground, in a cloudy and windy day, fuddenly darkening the places beautified before with the beams of the fun, but as fuddenly difappearing? Such is the life of man on the earth, for he fleeth as a fhadow, and continueth not," Job xiv. 2. A weaver's fhuttle is very fwift in its motion; in a moment it is thrown from one fide of the web to the other: yet our days are fwifter than a weaver's fhuttle, chap. vii. 6.. How quickly is man toffed through time into eternity! See how Job defcribes the fwifinefs of the time of life, chap. ix. 25. 'Now. my days are fwifter than a poft: they flee away, they fee no good.' Ver. 26. They are halted away as the fwift ships; as. the eagle that hafteth to the prey. He compares his days with a poft; a foot-poft; a runner, who runs fpeedily to carry tid-ings, and will make no ftay. But though the poft were like Ahimaaz, who aver ran Cushi; our days would be.fvifter than he, for they flee away, like a man fleeing for his life, before the purfuing enemy; he runs with his utmott vigour: yet our days run as faft as he. Howbeit; that is not all. Even he who is Aeeing for his life, cannot run always; he must needs fometimes ftand ftill, ly down, or run in fome where, as Sifera did into Jel's tent, to refresh himself; but our time never halts.. Therefore it is compared to fhips, which can fail night and day,, without intermiffion, till they be at their port; and fwift fhips, Ahips of defire, in which men quickly arrive at the desired haven ; or fhips of pleafure, that fail more fwiftly than fhips of burden. Yet the wind failing, the fhip's courfe is marred but our time always runs with a rapid courfe, These ic is compared to the eagle fiying not with his ordinary flight, for that is not fufficient to reprefent the fwiftnefs of our days; but when he Ales upon his prey, which is with an extraordinary fwiftnefs.. And thus, even thus, our days fly away.

Having thus difcourfed of death, let us improve it, in difcerning the vanity of the world; in bearing up, with Christian

con

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contentment and patience, under all troubles and difficulties in i ; in mortifying our lufts; in cleaving unto the Lord with purpofe of heart, on all hazards; and in preparing for death's approach. And, first, Let us hence, as in a looking glafs, behold the vanity of the world; and of all these things in it, which men fo much value and efteem, and therefore fet their hearts upon. The rich and the poor are equally intent upon this world; they bow the knee to it; yet it is but a clay god: they court the bulky vanity and run keenly to catch the fhadow; the rich man is hugged to death in its embraces; and the poor man wearies himself in the fruitless puriuit. (What wonder if the world's fmiles overcome us, when we parfue it fo eagerly, even while it frowns upon us?) But look into the grave, O man, confider and be wife; liften to the doctrine of death, and learn, (1.) That hold as fast as thou canft, thou shalt be forced to let go thy hold of the world at length. Though thou load thyself with the fruits of this earth; yet all fhall fall off, when thou comeft to creep into thy hole, the houfe, under ground, appointed for all living. When death comes, thou must bid an eternal farewell to thy enjoyments in this world: thou must leave thy goods to another: and whofe fhall thofe things be, which thou haft provided? Luke xii. 20. (2.) Thy portion of thefe things fhall be very little ere long. If thou ly down on the grafs, and ftretch thyself at full length, and obferve the print of thy body when thou rifeft, thou mayft fee how much of this earth will fall to thy fhare at laft. It may be thon fhalt get a coffin, and a winding fheet; but thou art not fure of that. Many who have had abundance of wealth, yet have not had fo much, when they took up their new house in the land of filence. But however that be, more ye cannot expect. It was a mortifying leon, Saladine, when dying, gave to his foldiers. He called for his ftandard-bearer, and ordered him to take his winding-sheet upon his pike, and go out to the camp, with it and tell them, That of all his conquefts, victories and triumphs, he had nothing now left him, but that piece of linen to wrap his body in for burial. Laftly, This world is a falfe friend, who leaves a man in time of greateft need; and flees from him when he has moft ado. When thou art lying on a death bed, all thy friends and relations cannot refcue thee; all thy fubftance cannot ranfom thee; nor procure thee a reprieve for one day, nay, not for one hour. Yea, the more thou poffeffeft of this world's goods, thy forrow, at death, is like to be the greater: for tho' one may live more commodiously in a palace, than in a cottage;

yet