ended. The refemblance is pat; few men have right appre henfions of life, until death awaken them; then we begin to know we were living. We spend our years as a tale that is told, ver. 6. When an idle tale is a telling, it may affect a little; but when it is ended, it is forgot; and fo is man for. gotten, when the fable of his life is ended. It is a dream, or vifion of the night, in which there is nothing folid; when one awakes, all evanisheth. Job. xx. 8. He fhall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found; yea he fhall be chafed away as a vifion of the night.' It is but a vain fhow or image, Pfal. xxxix.6. Surely every man walketh in a vain 'fhew,' Man in this world, is but, as it were, a walking fatue: his life is but an image of life; there is fo much of death in it.

If we look on our life, in the feveral periods ofit, we will find it a heap of vanities. Childhood and youth are vanity, Ecclef. xi 10. We come into the world, the moft helpless of all animals; young birds and beafts can do fomething for themselves,but infant man is altogether unable to help him felf. Our childhood is fpent in pitiful trifling pleasures, which become the fcorn of our own after-thoughts. Youth is a flower that foon withereth; a bloffom that quickly falls off; it is a space of time in which we are rath, foolish, and inconfiderate, pleafing ourselves with a variety of vanities, and fwimming, as it were, through a flood of them. But ere we are aware, it is past, 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 ourselves in any earthly enjoyment we attain to, the more bitterness do we find in parting with it. Then comes old age, attended with its own train of infirmities, labour and forrow, Pfal. xc. 10. and fets us down next door to the grave. In a word, All flesh is grafs, Ifa. xl. 6. Every stage, or period in life, is vanity. Man at his beft fate (his middle age, when the heat of youth is 1pent, and the forrows of old age have not yet overtaken him) is altogether vanity, Pfal. xxxix. 5. Death carries off fome in the bud af childhood, others in the bloom of youth, and others when they are come to their fruit: few are left

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State IV. ftanding, 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, Firf, How the life of man is reckoned in the fcripture. It was indeed fometimes reckoned by hundreds of years; but no man ever arrived at a thou fand, which yet bears no proportion to eternity. Now, hundreds are brought down to scores, threefcore and ten, or fout fcore is its utmoft length. Pfal.xc. 10. 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 always waxing or waneing, till we difappear, But frequently it is reckoned by days; and these but few, Job xiv. 1. Man that is born of a woman is of few days. Nay, it is but one day in fcripture account; and that a hireling's day, who will precifely obferve when his day ends, and give over his work, ver. 6. Till he shall accomplish as an hireling his day, 'Yea, the fcripture brings it down to the fhorteft fpace of time, and calls it a moment, 2 Cor. iv. 17. Our light affliction (though it laft all our lite long) is but for a moment. But elsewhere it is brought down to yet a lower pitch, farther than which one cannot carry it. Pfal. xxxix. 5. Mine age is as nothing before thee. Agreeable to this, Solomon tells us, Eccl. 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 skip from the womb to the grave. Secondly, Confider the various fimilitudes by which the fcripture reprefents the shortness 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 thepherd's tent is foon removed; for theflocks muft not feed long in one place; fuch is a man's life on this earth, quickly gone. It is a web, he is inceffantly working; he is not idle fo much as one moment; in a short time it is wrought, and then it is cut of 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

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cut off, he breathes no more. Man is like grafs and like a flower, Ifa. xl. 6. All fiefh' (even the ftrongest and most healthy flesh) is graf, and all the goodliness thereof is as ⚫ the flower of the field. 'The grafs is flourishing in the morring; but, in the evening, being cut down by the mowers, it is withered: fo 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 sudden ftroke, with one or other of death's weapons. The flower, at beft, is but a weak and tender thing, of short 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 thousand accidents, every day; any of which may cut us off. But though we should escape all thefe, yet at length this grafs withereth, this flower fadeth of itself. It is carried off, as the cloud is confumed and vanifheth away;'fob vii. 9. It looks big as the morning cloud, which promifeth great things, and raifeth the expectations of the hufbandman; but the fun rifeth, and the cloud is scattered; death comes, and man evanifheth. The Apostle James proposeth the question,' What is your life?' chap. iv. 14.Hear his own answer, It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.' It is frail, uncertain, and lafteth not. It is as fmoak, which goes out of the chimney, as if it would darken the face of the heavens; but quickly is scattered, 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 blast, a short puff,' a wind that paffeth away and cometh not again, Pfal.lxxviii. 39. Our breath is in our noftrils, 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.

Laftly, Man's life is a wift thing; not only a paffing, but a flying vanity, Have you not observed how swiftly a Shadow 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 huttle is very

fwift in its motion; in moment it is thrown from one fide of the web to the other: yet our days are swifter than a • weaver's fhuttle,' chap. vii. 6. He quickly is man toffed through time into eternity! See how Job defcribes the fwiftness of the time of life, chap. ix. 25. Now my days are fwifter than a post: they flee away, they fee no good. Ver.26. They are hafted away as the fwift fhips; as the eagle that hafteth to the prey.' He compares his days with a poft, a foot post; a runner, who runs speedily to carry tidings, and will make no stay. But, though the post were like Abimaaz, who over ran Cafhi; our days would be switter than he, for they flee away, like a man fleeing for his life, before the purfuing enemy; he runs with his utmost vigour yet our days run as faft as he. Howbeit, that is not all, Even he who is fleeing for his life, cannot run always; he muft needs fometimes ftand still, ly down, or run in fome where, as Sifera did into Jael's tent, to refresh himself; but our time never balts. Therefore it is compared to ships, which can fail night and day without intermiffion, till they be at their port; and fewift fhips, hips of defire, in which mea quickly arrive at the defired haven; or, fhips of pleaJure, that fail more fwiftly than fhips of burden. Yet the wind failing, the fhips courfe is marred: but our time always runs with a rapid courfe. Therefore it is compared to the eagle flying: not with his ordinary flight, for that is not fufficient to reprefent the fwiftnefs of our days; but when he flies 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 Chriftian contentment and patience, under all troubles and difficulties in it; in mortifying aur lufs; in cleaving unto the Lord with parpofe of heart, on all hazards; and in preparing for death's approach.

And first, Let us hence, as in a looking glass, behold the vanity of the world; and of all thefe 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;

embraces and the poor man wearies himself in the fruitless pursuit. (What wonder if the world's fimiles overcome us; when we purfue it fo eagerly, even while it frowns up. on us?) But look into the grave, O man, confider and be wife; liften to the doctrine of death; and learn. (1.) That bld as fast as thou canst, thou shalt be forced to let go thy bold of the world at length. Though thou load thyfelf with the fruits of this earth; yet all hall fall off when thou com. eft to creep into thy hole, the house, 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 those things be ⚫ which thou haft provided?' Luke xii. 20. (2.) Thy portion of these things fhall be very little ere long. It thou ly down on the grafs, and ftretch thyfelf 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 share at laft. It may be thou shalt get a coffin, and a winding sheet; 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 houje in the land of filence. But however that be, more ye cannot expect. It was a mortifying leffon, Saladine, when dying, gave to his foldiers, He called for his standard 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. Lastly, This world is a falfe friend, who leaves a man in time of greatest need; and flees from him when he has most ado. When thou art lying on a death-bed, all thy friends and relations cannot refcue thee; all thy fubitance 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 he may die more easily in the cottage, where he has very little to make him fond of life.

Secondly, It may ferve as a forehouse for Chriftian contentment and patience under worldly loffes and croffes. A clofe application of the doctrine of death is an excellent remedy

again!