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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
Almighty
Sovereign
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
dying
mushrooms,
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-
morrow
we
will
go
into
such a
city,
and continue there
5