to power, honour, intellectual endowments, SER M. and other distinguishing priviledges, which X. are esteemed among them very confiderable; but at laft death puts all upon a level, their breath goeth out, they return to their earth, and none has power over the spirit to retain. it, neither is there any discharge in that war. And as thus it appears in fact that all men die, fo they who believe a governing providence, muft attribute this event to unchangeable. appointment. For the good pleasure of God mankind were created, by, the fame good: pleasure they fubfift upon the earth, which was given them to dwell in, not all at once (for that end it would not be fufficient) but in fucceffion, and it is evidently as much the course and law of nature that we should die, as be born. This immutable decree of hea ven concerning the humane race, is fully declared to us in fcripture, where we meet with only two exceptions to it in the cafe of Enoch and Elias, both attributed to a divine miraculous interposition. And St. Paul reveals this mystery, that they who shall be alive upon the earth at Chrift's fecond coming, fhall not indeed die, but undergo a change equivalent to that, which fhall be effected in others by death and the refurrection

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SERM.rection; for flesh and blood, or the prefent X. animal conftitution of our nature, cannot in-s herit the kingdom of God, neither can corruption inherit incorruption; but for the reft of mankind we are expreffly told it is ap pointed for them all once to die.

Secondly, death is the end of all men in this fenfe, that it finally and for ever terminates their state in this world, tranflating them into a quite different, and entirely new: ftage of being: It puts an end to their la bours and enjoyments, to their various relations in life, and in the very day of death their thoughts perish, their defires, their hopes, their fears, their forrows, their love and hatred, as Solomon says elsewhere in this book, their projects for good or evil to themselves or others; thefe fhall all ceafe; and, which is of all the most important confideration, their ftate of difcipline shall ceafe, and where death leaves them, judgment: fhall find them. The life of man is a cu rious and wonderful piece of the divine. workmanship, it contains a beautiful variety of powers and affections, of bufiness and enjoyment'; there are united in it two beings of effentially different kinds, a particular fyftem of matter, consisting of a numberless multitude

multitude of parts admirably put together, SERM. and disposed with the clear evidence of a X. mazing wisdom, fo as to ferve their feveral ufeful purposes; and a fpiritual fubstance, the regent of the body, indued with powers of a very high nature, the spring of thought and various operation, felf confcious and capable of pleasure and pain in a great variety. Between these two, however different, there is fo intimate a relation (we know nothing parallel to it) as to constitute one person, or one living intelligent agent, fuch is their mutual dependence, that the mind perceives for the whole body, cares for all its mem→ bers, and directs all their motions; and, on the other hand, the corporeal organs. convey to the mind the knowledge of external objects, and are the fit inftruments of its active powers. By this union the human life is related to, and interested in, the affairs both of the intellectual and material world: It is capable of rational and moral, and also of fenfitive happiness; and it is capable of the contrary fufferings. But there is a fubordination of its parts and. of their affections, exercises, pleasures and pains; those which are purely mental, are

SERM. of a vaftly higher nature and confideration X. to the main ends of our being, than those

of the body, and the former fhall endure, when the others are quite perifhed. The principal defign of providence in this whole constitution, is, that the foul fhould be put into the natural body for a time, short, when compared with the whole of its duration, under difcipline, that acting a good part in this firft ftage, improving its own intellectual and moral powers, maintaining its fuperiority over the animal nature, and practifing virtue, in oppofition to infirmities and temptations, it might be prepared for another state, a ftate of perfection and happiness. What an important change then doth death make? It finishes all the advantages and difadvantages of our prefent condition. The light of the living is withdrawn, and we are removed into the land of forgetfulness. No more pleasure is conveyed by the eyes, or any other organs of fenfation, no more fatisfaction arifes from the conveniencies and ornaments of life, from friendships, relations, or focial communication with any of mankind in this world; no more opportunity of fighting, what the fcripture calls the good fight, of working out our falvation, and'

of

of feeking glory, honour, and immortality, SERM. by a patient continuance in well-doing, for X. there is no labour, nor wisdom, nor device, nor knowledge in the grave."

It must therefore be our wisdom, and greatly for our advantage, to enter into an affecting confideration of this important fubject, that we may act the part becoming us with refpect to it, and make the necessary preparation for our inevitable fate. This is one reafon by which Solomon enforces his advice, to choose going to the house of mourning, or habituating our minds to a ferious and deliberate reflection on mortality, for, fays he, the living will lay it to his heart; which expreffion imports fomething more than barely confidering it. The fame object, it is certain, may appear to the mind in very different lights; the understanding may enquire into it, even accurately, may examine its nature, its various properties and relations, yet with the utmost coldness and indifference; it is the affections, and a particular application to ourselves, that determine the importance of things, excite emotion, and have an influence on the temper and practice. How calmly and unconcernedly do men think and fpeak of objects and.