mankind, and it is the first proof of our fourth propofition: Mankind are equal in their last end. 2. The proximity of death is a fecond demon Atration, a fecond fource of demonflrations. The limits of our lives are equal. The life of the rich, as well as that of the poor, is reduced to an band-breadth, Pfal. xxxix. 5. Sixty, eighty, or a hundred years, is ufually the date of a long life. The fceptre hath no more privilege in this re fpect than the crook; nor is the palace at any greater diftance from the tomb, than the cottagefrom the grave. Heaps of filver and gold mayintercept the rich man's fight of death; but they can neither intercept death's fight of the rich man, nor prevent his forcing the feeble intrenchments, in which he may attempt to hide himself,

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3. The harbingers of death are a third demon firation, a third fource of demonftrations. The rich have the fame forerunners as the poor; both have fimilar dying agonies, violent fickneffes, difgufiful medicines, intolerable pains, and cruel mifgivings. Pafs, through thofe fuperb apartments, in which the rich man feems to defy the enemy, who lurks and threatens to feize him go through the croud of domeftics, who furround" him; caft your eyes on the bed, where nature and art have contributed to his eafe. In this grand edifice, amidst this affembly of courtiers, or, fhall I rather fay? amidst this troop of vile Alaves, you will find a moft mortifying and miferable object. You will fee a vifage all pale, livid, diforted; you will hear the fhrieks of a wretch tormented with the gravel, or the gɔut; you will fee a foul terrified with the fear of thofe eternal books, which are about to be opened, of that formidable tribunal, which is already erect-' ed, of the awful fentence, that is about to be denounced.

4. The ravages of death make a fourth dein- . onftiation; they are the fame with the rich as

with the poor. Death alike condemns their eyess to impenetrable night, their tongue to eternal fi. lence, their whole fyftem to total deftruction. I fee a fuperb monument. I approach this ftriking object. I fee magnificent infcriptions. I read the pompous titles of the most noble, the most puissant, general, prince, monarch, arbiter of peace, arbiter of war. I long to fee the infide of this elegant piece of workmanship, and I peep under the stone, that covers him, to whom all this pomp is confecrated; there I find, what a putrified carcafe devouring by worms. O vanity of human grandeur ! "Vanity of van-ities, all is vanity! Put not your truft in princes, nor in the fon of man, in whom is no help," ' Eccl. i. 2. "His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth, in that very day his thoughts perifh," Pfal. cxlvi. 3. 4. As for man, his

days are as grafs; as a flower of the field fo he flourisheth; for the wind paffeth over it, and it is gone and the place thereof fhall know it no more," Pfal. ciii. 15, 16.

5. Finally, the judgment, that follows death, Carries our propofition to the highest degree of evidence. "It is appointed unto men once to die; but after this the judgment," Heb. ix. 27. The rich and the poor muft alike appear before. that throne, which St. John defcribes in the revelation, and before that venerable perfonage, from whose face the beaven and the earth flee away, chap. xx. 11. If there be any difference between the rich and the poor, it is all, methink, in favour of the latter. The fummons, that must be one day addreffed to each of us, give an dccount of thy stewardship, Luke xvi. 2. this fummens is always terrible. You indigent people! whom God (to ufe the language of fcripture). hath set over a few things, an account of thefe few things will be required of you, and you will

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be as furely punished for hiding one talent, as if you had hidden more, Matt. xxv. 17.

But how terrible to me feems the account, that must be given of a great number of talents! If the rich man have fome advantages over the poor, (and who can doubt that he hath many?) how are his advantages counterpoifed by the thought' of the confequences of death! What a fummons, my brethren! is this, for a great man, Give an account of thy stewardship! give an account of thy riches. Didft thou acquire them lawfully? or were they the produce of unjuft dealings, of cruel extortions, of repeated frauds, of violated promifes, of perjuries and oaths? Didft thou diftribute them charitably, compaffionately, liberally? or didst thou referve them avariciously, meanly, barbarously Didft thou employ them

to found hofpitals, to procure inftruction for the ignorant, relief for the fick, confolations for the afflicted? or didst thou employ them to cherish thy pride, to difplay thy vanity, to immortalize thine ambition and arrogance ? Give an account of thy reputation. Didft thou employ it to relieve the oppreffed, to protect the widow and orphan, to maintain juftice, to diffufe truth, to propagate religion? or, on the contrary, didft thou ufe it to degrade others, to deify thy paffions, to render thy felf a fcourge to fociety, a plague to mankind? Give an account of thine bonours. Didft thou direct them to their true. end, by contributing all in thy power to the good of fociety, to the defence of thy country, to the profperity of trade, to the advantage of the public? or didft thou direct them only to thine own private intereft, to the establishing of thy fortune, to the elevation of thy family, to the infatiable avidity of glory, which gnawed and devoured thee? Ah! my brethren! if we enter very feriously into thefe reflections, we fhall not be fo much ftruck, as we ufually are,

with the diversity of men's conditions in this life; we shall not aspire very eagerly after the highest ranks in this world. The rich and poor meet together, the Lord is the maker of them all; that is to fay, he hath made them equal in their na➡ ture, equal in their privileges, equal in their def tination, and equal, as we have proved, in their laft end.

The inferences, that we intend to draw from what we have faid, are not inferences of fedition. and anarchy. We do not mean to disturb the order of fociety; nor, by affirming that all mens have an effential equality, to rebrobate that fubordination, without which fociety would be nothing but confufion, and the men, who compofe it, a lawlefs banditti. We affirm, that the fubject and the prince, the mafter and the fervant, are truly and properly equal; but far be it. from us to infer, that therefore the subject should withdraw his fubmiffion from his prince, or the fervant diminish his obedience to his master. On the contrary, fübjects and fervants would re nounce all, that is glorious in their conditions, if they entertained fuch wild ideas in their minds. That, which equals them to the fuperiors, whom providence hath fet over them, is the belief of their being capable, as well as their fuperiors, of answering the end that God propofeth in creating mankind. They would counteract this end, were they to refufe to difcharge thofe duties of theirs condition, to which providence calls them.

Nor would we derive from the truths, which we have affirmed, fanatical inferences. We en deavoured before to preclude all occafion for re-proach on this article, yet perhaps we may not: efcape it; for how often does an unfriendly au ditor, in order to enjoy the pleasure of decrying a difgufiful truth, affect to forget the corrective,. with which the preacher fweetens it? we repeat it, therefore, once more; we do not pretend to

affirm, that the conditions of all men are abfoJutely equal, by affirming that in fome fenfes all mankind are on a level. We do not fay, that the man, whom fociety agrees to contemn, is as happy as the man, whom fociety unites to revere. We do not fay, that the man, who hath no where to hide his head, is as happy as he, who is commodiously accommodated. We do not

fay, that a man, who is deftitute of all the neceffaries of life, is as happy as the man, whofe fortune is fufficient to procure him all the conveniences of it. No, my brethren! we have no inore defign to deduce inferences of fanaticifm from the doctrine of the text, than we have to infer maxims of anarchy and rebellion. But we infer juft conclufions, conformable to the precious gift of reafon, that the Creator bath beftowed on us, and to the incomparably more precious gift of religion, with which he hath enriched us. Derive then, my brethren, conclufions of these kinds, and let them be the application of this difcourfe.

Derive from our fubject conclufions of moderation. Labour, for it is allowable, and the morality of the gospel doth not condemn it, labour to render your name illuftrious, to augment your fortune, to establish your reputation, to contrib ute to the pleasure of your life; but labour no more than becomes you. Let efforts of this kind never make you lofe fight of the great end of life. Remember, as riches, grandeur, and reputation, are not the fupreme good, so obfcurity, meannefs,, and indigence, are not the fupreme evil. Let the care of avoiding the fupreme evil, and the defire of obtaining the fupreme good, be always the most ardent of our withes, and let others yield to that of arriving at the chief good.

Derive from our doctrine conclufions of acquiescence in the laws of providence. If it please providence to put an effential difference between you and the great men of the earth, let it be your