rated from a part of ourselves; and, what remains, must launch out into a new and unknown state.

II. This feparation of the foul from the body is the fecond view of death which the text gives us ;"Yea, man giveth up the ghoft."

I will not take up your time in demonstrating, that there is a principle in man diftinct from the body, and endowed with nobler powers. This fact was acknowledged by the Heathens; it is capable of being proved by reafon; it is confirmed by experience; and it is put beyond all queftion by the fcriptures of truth. I have only to explain the view of death here given us.

It is the diffolution of that union which fubfifts between the foul and body. It unties the knot, so to fpeak, on which our prefent animal life depends. We have no reason to think, indeed, that the effential life of our nobler part is hereby extinguifhed; nay, we have the cleareft proof to the contrary. The foul is an immortal principle, that never dies. That diviner breath does not expire when the breath of our noftrils goes forth. Yet, if we confider human nature, as it is now compounded of foul and body, death may, in fome fenfe, be accounted the deftruc tion of it, as it reduces all that is visible of man to deplorable ruins. It tears down our earthly tabernacles, curiously framed by infinite wifdom; and renders them unfit for the rational foul to lodge and act in any more. And now, that perfon, whom we beheld a little before fo vigorous and active, fo full of bufy thoughts and reftlefs ambition, becomes to our view an inanimated lump, devoid of sense and of motion. That body, which was fo exactly proportioned in all its parts, fo fondly cherished, and which occupied fo much of our attention, is now left a hideous and ghaftly fpectacle, and fo offenfive, that we are obliged to hide it from the eyes of the living, and commit it to the cold and filent grave. Such is the visible contempt that death pours upon human na

ture;

ture; fuch the dark and black cloud, it draws over all its beauty and its glory." If I wait," fays Job, "the grave is my houfe; I have made my bed in the "darkness; I have faid to corruption, Thou art my "father; to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my fifter. Then does the duft return to the earth 66 as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave " it."

I acknowledge, indeed, that we are not able to fhow how the vital union is diffolved by death, and the unwelcome feparation made. None of thofe numberlefs fpirits, that have been diflodged from the body, ever came to inform us what it is to die: only, from daily experience, we know, that death, in its near approaches, offers confiderable violence to our nature and this union is feldom diffolved without fharp and violent conflicts. Hence we fo often read and hear of the pangs of death; and hence, when we attend the beds of our dying friends, what deep groans have we not fometimes heard! What painful Atruggles, when the fummons of removal was put into their hands, and the foul, as it were, torn from its intimate companion! In fome few, indeed, the fpark of life does almost infenfibly expire, like a taper, whofe light goes gently out. But there are innumerable other inftances, which give death a frightful afpect even to good men themselves, and reprefent him as the king of terrors. Hear to this purpose Hezekiah's mournful complaint. "He will cut me off "with pining fickness; from day, even to night, "wilt thou make an end of me. I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, fo will he break all my "bones (a)."

Such, then, is death, when we view it in itself, as a feparation of the foul from the body. Such is the difmal ruin it brings upon our meaner part: and, with respect to the foul, it is its laft farewell to this world, never again to return to the low purfuits of an animal life. "For, as the cloud is confumed, "and vanifheth away, fo, he that goeth down to

(a) Ifa. xxxviii. 12, 13.

"the

"the grave, fhall come up no more: He fhall return no more to his house, neither fhall his place "know him any more."

I fhall now fuggeft a few practical reflections on this fecond view of death.

What humble fentiments fhould we entertain of ourfelves, when we confider, that, in a few years, we shall be laid in the grave! How effectually fhould this hide pride from our eyes! What has man to fofter pride, who carries about with him fuch arguments and motives to humility? Should be boaft of his noble blood, and dignified ancestors, who may fay to corruption, Thou art my father? Why fhould any glory in the beauty and ftrength of their bodies, when, in a very little time, they will be defaced by the hand of death, and crumble into duft ? "Their beauty," fays the Pfalmift, "fhall confume "in the grave from their dwelling." In the grave, there is no diftinction between the remains of a prince, and the afhes of a peafant. The rich and the poor, the ignorant and the learned, the proud and the humble, enemies and friends, lie down together. Let these reflections, by the bleffing of God, cure us of pride and ambition.

Again: This fubject should teach us, not to be overfolicitous about the concerns of the body. Many take more care of the tottering houfe, which is ready every moment to moulder into duft, than of the precious and immortal being which inhabits it. How often do thefe questions, What shall I eat? what shall I drink? and wherewithal fhall I be clothed? fuperfede another, of infinitely more importance; What shall I do to be faved? We are anxiously concerned to keep up the battered cottage, while yet the valuable inhabitant is left to bleed to death of his wounds, unheeded and difregarded. We care for the body, which, in a little, we must put off by death; and we neglect the eternal happinefs of our immortal and better part. This is just as if a man should take

care

O!

care to preferve his garments, while he took none to fave his life: or, as if he fhould be very folicitous to fecure the cafket, while the jewel is caft away. that we would feriously reflect on the unaccountable madness and folly we are guilty of, in chiefly caring for the body, which fhall foon be thrown afide as an ufelefs lump, and difregarding the foul, the only part of us which fhall then survive! This is an inftance of ftupidity or madnefs, which no words are fufficient to exprefs, nor tears to deplore.

Another thing we may learn from this view of death, is the ineftimable dignity and worth of the foul. It continues to exift, unextinguifhed, after the feparation from the body. Hence the apostle Paul, fpeaking of his own death, calls it the time of his departure; and, in the text, it is reprefented as a giving up the ghoft or fpirit. The body, indeed, is reduced to its first principles; but the foul, being uncompounded, a thinking spiritual fubftance, cannot fuffer diffolution. "The duft returns to the earth

as it was; but the spirit returns to God who gave "it." There is no argument more effectual to inspire us with a true fenfe of religion, than a just efti mation of the dignity and worth of the foul; and there is no period of the foul's duration, which places this in so strong a light, as the period of its feparation from the body. The beautiful ftructure of the body is then taken to pieces; its animal life and pow ers expire; it crumbles into duft, and is preyed upon by the vileft reptiles: But the foul, remains unfhaken, and unhurt; all the attacks of the king of terrors cannot deftroy it; and the only effect that death has, is to make it change its habitation. And therefore,

In the last place, this fhows us, that our chief care, and most serious thoughts; our most precious moments, and greatest application; fhould be employed about our heaven-born and immortal fouls. Since we all acknowledge, that the foul is infinitely more valuable than the body, let us think of beautify

ing

ing and adorning it. This is an exercife worthy of a rational being. Now, the foul is adorned by knowledge, efpecially of divine things. Let us therefore labour to know God, the perfection of beauty and love. Let us contemplate his works; let us meditate on his word; and, chiefly, let us ftudy to know God as, in Chrift, reconciling the world to himself: "For this is life eternal, to know Thee, the only "true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou haft fent." Let it be our principal concern to attain that knowledge of God, and of divine things, which warms. the heart, which enlightens the mind, and which sheds abroad its enlivening influence on the temper

and life.

But the foul is adorned alfo by holy and pious difpofitions; for thefe are the image of God, after which it was at first created. Let us therefore endeavour, through grace, to have this image, which fin has in a great measure effaced, restored to our fouls; our wills conformed to the will of God, and our affections placed on noble and fublime objects, that fo the graces of the Spirit may abound in us, and the Holy Ghoft, the Comforter, dwell in our fouls. If this be your ferious concern, if this fanctifying change is wrought in you by renewing grace, and your fouls made thereby like to God in holiness; when they come to leave the body, they fhall not be found naked nor unfurnished, nor unfit for that state of glory and bleffednefs, in which alone they can be completely, and for ever happy.

SER