instances we are taught what a mere hand's breadth of being this life is, even in its utmost extent, and how soon our existence in this world will be terminated, even though it is protracted to its farthest limit. But when death, usurping, as it were, by violence the sickle from the decaying hands of time, cuts off persons in the bloom or in the prime of life, then is the vanity of the present state preached to us in the most striking, affecting manner. And if with the bloom of youth or prime of manhood, great intellectual abilities, and superior acquired accomplishments, distinguished piety, and most enlarged usefulness are cut off, then, in the most solemn awful accents, is the vanity of the present state proclaimed to us, and our ears receive the lesson not in soft whispers, not in a common voice, but in peals of thunder. Then we hear the cry sounding, as it were, in an overwhelming and irresistible energy, All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: the grass withers, the flower fades, because the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it. Isa. xl. 6, 7.—I see a man in the vigour and strength of constitution, a man ennobled beyond the common multitude by a bright and lively imagination, by a clear and pierc ing judgment, by a superior, manly, and commanding eloquence : I see a man superior to his fellow-christians and his fellow-ministers, by a most sublime, steady, rational, and uniform piety, and by an unextinguishable zeal, and unwearied labour for the glory of God, and the good of souls; this man, thus richly furnished and qualified, is taken away by a sudden stroke, or after but a few days' illness, and an end is put to all his lustre and benefit in our world. What inference results from all this, but that all is vanity here below? If the best we meet with on earth is thus fugitive and uncertain; if it may so soon be gone, forever gone from us, then verily every man at his best estate, and the best of men too, are altogether vanity.

Ps. xxxix. 5.-The pearls and jewels of our world may be as soon taken from it as the dirt and dross. There is mortality, there is death in my choicest enjoyments. I see that the tall cedar may be cut down as well as the humble plant.-Stars of the first magnitude, as well as the lesser orbs, may quit the skies, and vanish from my sight. Death makes no distinction between good and bad, between the greatest and the meanest, the best and worst. Now he strikes his dart at the poor peasant, and now he lanches it at the monarch on his throne. Now his shaft smites the christian in his private walks of life, and now his unerring stroke lays the eminent genius, scholar, and minister in the dust. All things, in this sense, come alike to all. Eccl. ix. 2. And is this the case, do the floods of death alike overwhelm the stately and richly freighted ship as the small barque or boat, then why should I doat upon the creature?—If I build my fond expectations of peace and comfort upon the best of men, I build upon the sand. My dearest friendships, and richest joys on earth may be dashed in pieces in an hour, in a moment. All on earth is shadow, and when I look even to the very best it can afford, I see the same

vanity and frailty there, which are common to lower and meaner things.

4. God may cut off the excellent of the earth in the flower or prime of their days, and in the height of their usefulness, to bring our hearts into a nearer and more intimate dependance upon himself. How pleased are we apt to be with our enjoyments here below, and especially with our pious friendships and connexions? And it may be that we are in such cases the less aware of danger, and the less upon our guard as to excess, as we are certain that it is no way sinful, but on the other hand acceptable in the sight of God, to value the excellent of the earth, and to be delighted with their conversation and company. But even here we may exceed, and by an inordinate regard to only creatures and instruments, we may be led astray from God; or may not so much consider, adore, and enjoy him in them as we ought. God has a right to our entire hearts: and, unless we look to him, and own him in all our best enjoyments, we may provoke him to remove them from us; and this he may do, that he may bring us into more intimate union with himself, and dependance upon him, that the creature may be shewn to be nothing better than a creature, and that he may be honoured and acknowledged as all in all. Peter, upon the mount of transfiguration, says, that it was good for them to be there, "and was for making three tabernacles, one for his Lord, one for Moses, and one for Elias; but it is told us he knew not what he said," Luke ix. 33, and the bright vision was soon concluded. God may righteously, and indeed graciously remove creatures, the best creatures from us, if they draw off too much of the current of our affections from himself. The cistern breaking may endear us to the living fountain. The reed sinking may recommend us to the rock of ages. God may take away this and the other created excellency that our weakness has set up a veil between him and our souls, that we may lie the more open to his immediate communications, and that we may better remember and practise our duty, to love the Lord God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength. Mark xii. 30.

5. As by the death of the excellent of the earth in the flower or prime of their days, we are taught that no strength of constitution, or eminency, or usefulness are securities from death, so we may hereby be excited the more diligently to attend to our work, and prepare for our dismission. If we see others taken away younger and stronger than ourselves, then what is the inference, but that we may be cut off as well as they, and indeed more easily than they? If we observe others more eminent and more serviceable than ourselves called away from life, if their brighter splendours and more extensive benefit to mankind were no protection from the arrest of death, then what may we their inferiors expect? We have no exemption from sickness, pain, or sudden death, or death in the midst of our days, any more than others. If we had the wisdom of Solomon, or the zeal and usefulness of

and counsel still. If clouds and darkness are round about him, yet righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. Ps. xcvii. 2. His works are truth and his ways judgment. Dan. iv. 37. The Almighty will not pervert judgment. Job xxxiv. 12. His ways are equal. Ezek. xviii. 25, directed by the straight unerring line of infinite wisdom. Be this then an established truth with us, that whatever perplexity and darkness may encompass the divine proceedings, there is nothing which God does, that God who works all things after the counsel of his own will, but what is just, and right, and good; and that his every action is no other than the birth of consummate counsel, or that the plan of wisdom is laid as the foundation of all his government. And particularly in such an event as we are now considering, the removal of such an excellent and worthy person as Mr. Davies from our world, in the prime of life, and at such a juncture as this, when there are so few surviving persons of such ability and character, we are to believe and own that, as the blow was unquestionably given by God, it was perfectly right, and that not the least shadow or suspicion of blame or wrong is to be ascribed to the most high, most holy, most wise, most faithful, and most merciful God. And even though we could not discern so much as one reason, one end of wisdom or goodness answered by such an awful Providence, yet nevertheless we are not to doubt but that the All-wise as well as the Almighty God has proceeded upon motives, though absolutely impenetrable by us, worthy of himself; that he dwells in the thickest darkness, and that the glories of his perfections are enthroned at the centre, though not a ray of them penetrates and breaks through the external veil. But perhaps, upon a careful and steady survey of this most afflictive Providence, we may attain to some discovery of the purposes or counsels of Deity, in the decease of such an excellent person as Mr. Davies in the prime of his days, and in the very height of his usefulness. And though we are not to call the Lord of all to our tribunal, yet perhaps we may not venture beyond our line, or deviate from the path of duty; nay, we may, on the other hand, be glorifying God as well as composing and comforting ourselves, if, with profound humility and reverence, we make the inquiry, Wherefore it is that God, who works all things after the counsel of his own will, is pleased to call away by death the excellent of the earth in the vigour of life, and in the meridian of their services for the glory of God, and the good of his church? These hard mysteries may not upon a diligent research be altogether inexplicable; and these dark passages of Providence upon a close survey may appear illuminated with evident and illustrious beams of wisdom and love. Accordingly I shall endeavour, I trust with a decency becoming a poor imperfect creature examining into the ways of the most high and glorious God, to resolve this problem of Providence, "Why the excellent of the earth should be taken away in the flower or prime of their age, and from the most enlarged spheres of usefulness, or what instructions and improvements we

may gather from such seemingly unkind and undesirable dispensations ?"

1. In the removal of the excellent of the earth in the flower or prime of their days, and in the height of their usefulness, we may be taught the wonderful majesty and independent glories of the great God over all blessed forever more. "God will have it known," says the venerable Mr. Howe, on an occasion not unlike that which has given rise to our discourse,*"that though he uses instruments, he needs them not. It is a piece of divine royalty and magnificence, that when he hath prepared and polished such an utensil, so as to be capable of great service, he can lay it by without loss."-God can maintain and carry on his own cause, and answer his counsels, without the interposition of his creatures, or, if he pleases, he may employ only meaner instruments, and call home from the vineyard the ablest and best of his servants, to shew his church he can accomplish his pleasure without them.

2. God may cut off the excellent of the earth in the flower or prime of their days, and in the height of their usefulness, to endear and magnify his power and grace in unexpectedly raising up others amidst the desponding fears and sorrows of his people. When God takes away the excellent of the earth, such as were most eminently formed for service, in the midst of their days, the church of God, the friends of Zion, are apt to sink into great anxiety and distress, and to say with Zion of old, The Lord has forsaken me, and my God hath forgotten me; Isa. xlix. 14; or with Jacob, All these things are against me. Gen. xlii. 36.-Now at the very juncture when the people of God are thus dejected, when their hearts are trembling for the ark of the Lord, for God then to arise and to make the time of his church's extremity the time of his mercy in raising up others, and pouring out his Spirit upon them in a plentiful effusion of gifts and graces, how does he hereby most wonderfully illustrate his power and love! His light, his favour towards Zion appears as it were with a double brightness, thus breaking out from amidst a night of thick darkness; and the people of God, with a most lively and powerful sense of the divine goodness, acknowledge that God has done great things for them, which they looked not for; and that nothing but his own arm and his own love could have helped them in such a distressing season. Hereby God is more eminently seen and glorified, and the work appears to be the Lord's, and is wonderful in his people's eyes.

3. God may take away the excellent of the earth in the flower or prime of their days, and in the meridian of their usefulness, to shew us more powerfully and affectingly the vanity of the present state. God shows us the vanity of the present state when he takes away persons in old age, when they have reached their threescore years and ten, to fourscore years; for by such

Howe's Redeemer's Dominion over the Invisible World, on the death of John Houghton, Esq.

St. Paul, still like them, we should be no better than mortals. Hear then the voice of God to you, speaking from the ashes of the young, the strong, the learned, the eminently pious and useful Stand with your loins girded, and your lamps burning. Give diligence, to make your calling and election sure. Work while it is day; the night comes when no man can work. Whatsoever thine

hand finds to do, do it with thy might. Do not think that because you are a tree, even a palm, or a vine, whose fruit cheers both God and man, Judges ix. 13, that therefore the order will not be issued out, "Hew down the tree, cut off its branches, and even pluck up its roots."-Flatter not yourself because you are a saint and servant of God, or a minister of some considerable influence and importance in the church, that death can have no power over you; dream not of an abiding place here; you dwell in a tabernacle that may be soon taken down, even though it is a tabernacle which is holiness to the Lord. Attend then to your work; every day look out for death, and view yourself as at the brink of the grave and at the door of eternity.

6. By the death of the excellent of the earth in the flower or prime of their days, and in the midst of their services to God and his church, we may be led to inquire, whether there is no anger expressed against us by their sudden, and in respect of the common age of man, untimely removal.

As (1.) We may do well to consider whether there may not be some judgments impending over us. If ambassadors are called home, it may become the nation, where they were, to consider whether a rupture is not likely to ensue. Every good man that is taken away from our world is a loss to it, a deduction from its worth, in proportion to his goodness. There is a loss of his instructions, his example, and his prayers. And if the best of men are cut off, the loss grows so much the greater, and our apprehensions of the divine resentment may very justly be so much the more awakened. Doves fly home to their windows at the coming storm. The righteous perishes, and no man lays it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. Isaiah lvii. 1. Lot leaves Sodom; and when he is gone the floodgates of vengeance are set open, and the city is turned into destruction. Do not let us think lightly of the matter, that we see the best of men, men that were holy wrestlers with God, and stood in the breach to plead with him to turn away his wrath, removed from our world in the midst of their days, especially when so few servants and saints of God remained behind, and the world is so generally filled with impiety, and all manner of wickedness. Good Hezekiah, and after him good Josiah, must go to their graves before the destruction comes upon Judah and Jerusalem.

(2.) And as we know not but the deaths of the excellent of the earth in the midst of their days, and in the midst of their usefulness, may portend some judgments from God coming upon us, so let us hence be excited the more earnestly to deprecate