offenders, but as the common lot of all; and therefore from the time, manner, and circumstances of a man's death, we can conclude nothing concerning his character.

When we see one, by any means, or at any age, brought to the grave, we may properly make the same reflection which Job makes in our text-Every man shall draw after him, as there have been innumerable before him.

Such an event, however common, is very solIt admonishes us of the mortal condition of the human race, and of our own mortality in par ticular.

Job observes, that innumerable have already been brought to the grave. This was true in his day: It is more emphatically true now.

The numbers which have mingled with the dust, since man was first placed on the earth, exceed all computation. The human race has existed almost six thousand years. Before the flood the succession was less rapid, and probably the world less populous, than it is now. Procreation seems to have begun later in some proportion to the greater length of life. In the antediluvian genealogy no mention is made of a parent younger than sixty five years. But still, as the longevity of men, in that period, gave time for numerous families to spring from each progenitor, we must suppose, that the numbers, which were born and died, in the space of sixteen hundred years, were vastly great.

For a few generations after the flood, human life was still prolonged to a considerable extent. But it is now more than three thousand years, since it has been reduced to its present scanty measure. The earth is supposed to change its inhabitants, at a medium, three times in a century. The change, in this part of the world, is not so rapid; but applied to the world in general, perhaps the estimate

is not far from the truth. The number of people on the globe, at any one time, cannot possibly be ascertained to any degree of exactness. But it

must doubtless amount to many hundreds of millions. Some have reckoned about nine hundred millions. Probably this calculation does not exceed the truth. Now suppose so many souls passing off this stage, and as many coming on, thrice in the space of one hundred years, which will be nearly eighty thousand in a day; and suppose this to have been the rate of succession for several thousand years past, and you will easily conceive the propriety of the expression-innumerable have gone before us. The numbers, which have already lived and died, utterly surpass our comprehen

sion.

The fate of past generations will be the fate of the present, and the future. When we see a man go down to the grave, this is a natural thought— Every man will draw after him. Had we no other evidence of our mortality, but what arises from the multitudes which have died before us, this would be sufficient to put it beyond a doubt.

Our knowledge of future events, in the natural world, chiefly depends on observation and experience. That which has uniformly been the course of things, in former time, we expect will be their course in time to come. That the sun will rise again, after it has set, that summer will succeed to winter, that harvest will follow seed time, that fire will warm us, and our food will strengthen us, we conclude with a sufficient degree of certainty, because this has ever been the steady course of nature. And experience gives us the same evidence, that we must go down to the grave, for innumerable, have gone before us. For many thousand years there has not been an instance of a man's living to any considerable length of time, in this VOL. I.

world. When we look around, we find but here and there one, but who was born within seventy or eighty years; and much the greater part within half that time. To expect immortality here, would be as absurd, and as contradictory to all human experience, as to expect perpetual summer, or unchanging sunshine. And to conduct as if we were never to die is as irrational, as it would be to order our affairs in summer, on the presumption that there is never to be another winter.

Though no man needs evidence to convince him, yet every man needs warnings to remind him, of his mortality. Providence, therefore, so orders events as to give us continual admonitions of this serious and most interesting change. Every death which we see, though it can hardly be called a proof of what is already as evident as possible, yet is a fresh call from God to the sons of men, to think of, and prepare for, their own approaching death.

Admonitions of this kind are of all the most solemn and impressive, because they not only tell us, but shew us, that we must die. And that they may be suited to persons of every age and condition, may come with greater power, may strike the mind with some solemnity, and may not lose their ef fect by growing too familiar, God is pleased to send men to the grave by different means, in a variety of ways, in every period of life, and under the greatest imaginable diversity of circumstances. In almost every death, there is something new and affecting. Job observes in the preceding verses; One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet, his breasts are full of milk, and his bones moistened with marrow: Another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure. They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them.

To dwell on the proof of so obvious a truth, would be a mispense of time. More useful will it be to entertain and apply the instructions and reflections, which it suggests to us.

1. In the mortality of the human race, we have a clear demonstration of a future state.

The frame of our bodies, and the powers of our minds, speak forth the wisdom of the Creator; for we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Perfect wisdom has some worthy end in all that it does, some good design in every thing which it makes. But for what purpose could man be made, if death terminates his existence ? Here is a numerous race of creatures, which, in the present state, answer no end equal to the dignity, or suitable to the capacity of their nature. They have reason, memory, forethought, and reflection. They can look within and around, can contemplate the earth, and the heavens, can conceive immortal desires, and form eternal designs. They have fears of future evil, and hopes of future good. They can discern between right and wrong, approve the one and condemn the other. By study and application, they can improve their knowledge, enlarge their powers, and extend their prospects. But to what purpose is all this, if they have no existence beyond this poor, mortal state? Are their desires and hopes, their fears and apprehensions, merely imaginary? Are they made with a sense of good and evil, and with the powers of reflection and forethought, only to vex and torment them ?-Are they to be struck out of existence almost as soon as they come into it, without opportunity for their minds to open, spread, and reach their just perfection ?-Can it be suspected, that an allwise Creator would make a race of intelligent, moral beings, to come on this stage, and pass off again by millions, in such rapid suc

cession, for ages and ages together, when there is no rational or moral purpose to be answered ?Would he give an intellectual existence to creatures merely for an animal and momentary life; merely to sport for a day, like those swarms of insects, which play in a summer's sun, and then vanish into eternal non-existence? This is a supposition so contradictory to our ideas of creating wisdom, that we at once reject it. Let us then accustom ourselves to regard and improve this state as preparatory to another. Let every death, which we behold, remind us of a future world, and awaken us to make effectual provision for the important hour, when we must take our departure hence for an everlasting state.

2. What an evil and bitter thing is sin, which has brought into the world innumerable deaths!

Revelation teaches us, that by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passes upon all men, for that all have sinned.

Man was originally made for immortality. And though we cannot suppose, that, in case of innocence, he would always have lived in this world, in a state of continual increase, because then the earth must, in time, have been surcharged with inhabitants; yet his remove from this to a more perfect state, would certainly have been in a manner very different from death; perhaps by such an easy translation as that of Enoch and Elijah. It was by sin, that death made its gloomy entrance into the world, and gained its dreadful dominion over the human And the sin, by which it entered, was the first offence of the first human pair. It is not each man's personal transgression that subjects him to death; for death is common to all, to good and bad, to young and old, to them who have sinned, and to them who have not sinned by actual disobedience. Every man must go down to the grave,

race.