I-Je ad L Man's Life Vanity. 269 Secondly, Man's life is ajhort thing: it is n-ot ontya va– nity1 lmt a jhort lived vanity. Confider, Firfl, How the lif~ of m im is reckoned in the fcripture. I~ was indeed fometimes reckoned by hundredJ of;•ean· : bu,t no .man ~vel' ar r ived at a thoufmd, which yet bears no proportion toe– ternity. Now, hzi ndred1 are brought down to fcoreJ, threefte:re and ien, orfourfcore is its utmoft' length, Pj'id.xc.Io. · But fewmen arrive at that length oflife. Death does but ' rarely wait til'l men be bowing down by reafon of age to ~eet the grave. Yet, as ifyears were too big a word for .fuch a fmall thing as the life of man on earth; we find it counted by months, Job xiv. 5. The number of his months a r.e- <witb the-e. Our courfe, Jike t4at of th~ moon, .is run i·n a lit tle t ime; we are always waxing or waneing, till w~ . ~ i fctppear. But frequently it is reckoned by d.::y.t; and t laefe .but few, Job xiv.!. Man' that. iJ born of a '}JJ$man iJ . ofje'lJJ dap; nay, it is bat one·day in fcriptu·re account; ·and tha t a hireling's dtq , who .\vill precifely obferv~ when · h is day ends, and give ov~r l1is work, ver. 6. 7'i{lhejhall a-ccomplifo a1 an hire/in~ his fay .'_Yea, the fcriptu t e bri#gs - it down to the ibortefi:-fpace of time, and cali£> it a mome'!J; ·,cor.iv.I-7 OurfightaffJi.flion(~hoq.gh it la(l: aB ourHfe· long) if but for a moment. But eJfewhere it ' is brought down to a low~r pitch, farther than which <me cannot< Garry.it, Pf al. xxxix. 5. Mine age is 41 nothingbe!Ore the-e. Agreeable to this, Solomon tells us, Eah:f 'i~i. ~L there is ,a time to be born, and' a time to die; b\lt makes no men– tion-of a time to liv-e, as-ifaur life were but a !kip fr-o771 the womb to the grave ; Secondly., Confider the various , fimilitudes by which the fcripture ·repre.fents- th-ej};orlnefr~ of man's life. He·ar Heze!..iah, Ha. xxx~ii i=. r 2 ~- Mi.nf a ./Je i:f departed, a-nd it removed fr bm me af a JhephertJJ1J t~nt; I have cut offlik~. a' weaver my li/e . The fheph er.d 's tent ·i(;, foon removed; for the frocks mtlft not-fe~d long . in one · place: fuch.is -<.t man~s life on this earth, qu ick ly: ;2;one. f~- · is a web, he is incefTintly·working ·; he not i-dlefo ·muc h as ; ' on·e moment~ in a fhort time it is,wrought ;aml then it is cur , ~ff. Kv~ry.breat hing is a thread in this we-b, when ·the l a (b ~r~ath is drawn, the:web -is wov-en out, h~ expires , and.the1r lot 1s cut off, he breathes no more. M~n is likegrafs ,.and l rk:e a i. Ja~rA_.lfa•.xl. 6. All.ftejh (even the Jlroilg~il- and : mo ft~: z.· 3· healthy··
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