many changes and chances of this mor 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 ftructure, in appearance fo ftrongly built, fo pleafingly furrounded with every thing that could flatter his hopes and wishes, and beheld it all levelled with the ground in one moment, and the whole prospect vanish with it like the description of an inchantment ;-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 faid with Job in the words of the text, "That 66 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; 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.

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

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

And first, that he is of few days. The comparison which Job makes use of, That man cometh forth like a flower, is 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 strike us, and bring the impreffion home to ourselves in a more affecting

manner.

VOL. VI.

Man comes forth, fays Job, like a flower, and is cut down; he is fent into the world the fairest and nobleft part of God's works,-fashioned after the image of his Creator with refpect to 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 gayest ftage 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 progress 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 escapes the dangers which threaten his tender 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 acci dents, by his own folly and intempe rance-if he escapes thefe, he naturally decays of himself;-a period comes fast upon him, beyond which he was hot 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 them. felves; 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 preserve the other, beyond the periods to which their original frames and constitutions were made to extend. As God has ap pointed and determined the feveral growths and decays of the vegetable race, so he seems as evidently to have prescribed the fame laws to man, as well as all living creatures, in the first rudi

ments of which there are contained the specific powers of their growth, duration and extinction; and when the evolutions of those animal powers are exhaufted and run down, the creature expires and dies of itself, as ripe fruit falls from the tree, or a flower preferved beyond its bloom drops and perishes upon the ftalk.

Thus much for this comparison of Job's, which though it is very poetical, yet conveys a just idea of the thing referred to." That he fleeth alfo as a fhadow, and continueth not,"-is no less a faithful and fine reprefentation of the shortness and vanity of human life, of which one cannot give a better explanation, than by referring to the original, from whence the picture was taken.With how quick a fucceffion, do days, months and years pass over our heads? -how truly like a fhadow that departeth do they flee away infenfibly, and scarce leave an impreffion with us? when we endeavour to call them back by reflection, and confider in what