ciety. By these therefore all the purposes of his temptations are more cheaply and effectually answered. He succeeds better by sapping the foundation of morality, than by making a partial breach in the walls and many who are armed against the open assaults of gross wickedness, may be ruined by that which is more refined, and of which they do not as yet foresee the natural consequences: but, according to the proverb of the ancients, wickedness proceedeth from the wicked *; wickedness of the manners from the wickedness of the mind; so that if the enemy can debauch the mind, his temptation is accomplished; because such a mind will never fail to corrupt the manners. 1 Sam. xxiv. 13. THREE DISSERTATIONS ON LIFE AND DEATH. VIZ. 1. A SURVEY OF THE BREVITY AND VANITY OF HUMAN Life; WITH THE CONSOLATION ADMINISTERED BY THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM AGAINST BOTH. II. CONSIDERATIONS ON ST. PAUL'S WISH, TO DEPART AND BE WITH CHRIST. WITH AN APPENDIX ON THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. AND III. A COMMENTARY ON REV. xiv. 13. IN WHICH THE NATURE OF DEATH IS FARTHER CONSIDERED. DISSERTATION I. A SURVEY OF THE BREVITY AND VANITY OF HUMAN LIFE WITH THE CONSOLATION ADMINISTERED BY THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM AGAINST BOTH. THE mortality of man is no where described with so much propriety and elegance of expression, as in that passage of the book of Job, which the Church hath adopted as a part of her burial-service; placing it in the front of those short and solemn sentences, which are repeated at the side of a Grave, and in which all the powers of language are summoned together, to strike the minds of the hearers with commiseration, devotion, and self-abasement.-Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble! He cometh forth as a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth as a shadow, and continueth not. Job xiv. 1, 2. It is generally easier to understand any thing in its image than in itself, provided the image is well adapted. This method presents a subject to us under a compendium, which, if loosely considered, would be too large for the mind to comprehend; and might also be weakened by being extended. In its effect it certainly exceeds all others; on which account, OraS VOL. II. |