SEEM, X.L1.] THE DEATH OP MANKIND IMPROVED. 191 fix our thoughts on some special seasons or causes of mortality, when we think of a famine or a pestilence that sweeps away thousands in a few days, that empties whole streets in a night or two, and lays towns, or ci- ties desolate; when we read of wars and battles that overspread the mountains with 'slaughter, and cover vast plains with human carcases ; when we hear of storms at sea that drown many hundreds at once, and perhaps some thousands sink down to death in their floating ha- bitations, then we are more feelingly penetrated with a sense of our vanity, then we sigh and groan aloud and break out into this mournful language ; " O Lord ! hast thou made all mankind in vain ?" Ps. lxxxix. 47. How awful is thy government ! How terrible are thy judgments, thou AlmightySovereign of life and death ! The ancient saints have made such remarks often, and mixed these scenes of mortality with their pious thoughts, and turned them into devotion: They have drawn many serious and pathetic inferences from such meditations - on death, and vented their musings of thought in holy Ian-, guage. (1.) " Shall man compare himself with God ? Mortal man that dwelleth in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, and who is crushed before the moth ! Shall he set himself to contend with the eternal God his Ma- ker;" Job iv. 17-19. Again : (e.) " What little reason have we,to be proud and boastful ! Poor dyingmushrooms, who start up for a few hours, but cannot assure ourselves of to-morrow ! To-day we swell and look big among men, to-morrow we are a feast for worms. Our days are as a hand's breadth ; ve- rily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity ;" Ps. xxxix. 5. Again : (3.) " How vain and fruitless a thing is it to put our trust in princes, or in the .son of man in whom there is no help ? His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth, m that very day, his thoughts perish ; Ps. cxlvi.- 3, 4. Man is too weak a, thing to encourage or support our confidence." And : (4.) " What a necessary duty is it then to fix our con- stant dependance upon God, even in all the common affairs of life ! Let us not say therefore, that to-day or .to-morrowwe will go into such acity, and continue there 5
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