tal life;

when he confidered himfelf now ftripped and left deftitute of so many valuable bleffings which the moment before thy Providence had poured upon his head ;-when he reflected upon this gay delightfome structure, in appearance fo ftrongly built, fo pleasingly furrounded with every thing that could flatter his hopes and wishes, and behold it all levelled with the ground in one moment, and the whole prospect vanish with it like the defcription of an enchantment ;-who I fay that had feen and felt the fhock of fo fudden a revolution, would not have been furnished with juft and beautiful reflections upon the occafion, and said with Job in the words of the text, "That "man that is born of a woman, is of "few days, and full of mifery-that he "cometh forth like a flower, and is cut "down;

9

"down; he fleeth alfo as a fhadow, and "continueth not."

The words of the text are an epitome of the natural and moral vanity of man, and contain two diftinct declarations concerning his ftate and condition in each respect.

First, That he is a creature of few days; and fecondly, That thofe days are full of trouble.

I fhall make fome reflections upon each of these in their order, and conclude with a practical leffon from the whole.

And firft, That he is of few days. The comparison which Job makes ufe of, That man cometh forth like a flower, is extremely

VOL. II.

E

extremely beautiful, and more to the purpose than the most elaborate proof, which in truth the fubject will not eafily admit of;-the fhortness of life being a point fo generally complained of in all ages fince the flood, and fo univerfally felt and acknowledged by the whole fpecies, as to require no evidence beyond a fimilitude; the intent of which is not fo much to prove the fact, as to illustrate and place it in fuch a light as to ftrike us, and bring the impreffion home to ourselves in a more affecting.

manner.

Man comes forth, fays Job, like a flower, and is cut down;he is fent into the world the faireft and nobleft part of God's works,—fashioned after the image of his Creator with respect to reafon

reason and the great faculties of the mind; he cometh forth glorious as the flower of the field; as it furpaffes the vegetable world in beauty, fo does he the animal world in the glory and excellencies of his nature.

The one-if no untimely accident oppress it, foon arrives at the full period of its perfection,-is fuffered to triumph for a few moments, and is plucked up by the roots in the very pride and gayeft stage of its being:-or if it happens to escape the hands of violence, in a few days it neceffarily fickens of itself and dies away.

Man likewife, though his progrefs is flower, and his duration fomething longer, yet the periods of his growth and declenfion are nearly the fame both in the nature and manner of them.

If he efcapes the dangers which threaten his tenderer years, he is foon got into the full maturity and ftrength of life; and if he is fo fortunate as not to be hurried out of it then by accidents, by his own folly and intemperance-if he escapes thefe, he naturally decays of himself;-a period comes faft upon him, beyond which he was not made to laft.--Like a flower or fruit which may be plucked up by force before the time of their maturity, yet cannot be made to outgrow the period when they are to fade and drop of themfelves; when that comes, the hand of nature then plucks them both off, and no art of the botanist can uphold the one, or fkill of the phyfician preferve the other, beyond the periods to which their original frames and conftitutions were made to extend. As God has

3.

ap

pointed