I. From his long fleep in the chamber of the DISC. he will awake to behold the nevergrave, fading glories of a world, which "will "have no need of the fun, neither of the "another with these words." A view of the different materials of which man is composed, may teach us to form a proper estimate of him. He ftands between the two worlds, the natural and the spiritual, and partakes of both. His body is material, but its inhabitant descends from another fyftem. His foul, like z Rev. xxi. 23. the DISC. the world from which it comes, is immor I. tal; but his body, like the world to which it belongs, is frail and perishable. From it's birth it contains in it the feeds and principles of diffolution, towards which it tends every day and hour by the very means that nourish and maintain it, and which no art can protract beyond a certain term. In spite of precaution and medicine, "the evil days will come, and the years "draw nigh, when he shall fay, I have no pleasure in them." Pains and forrows will fucceed each other, as "the clouds "return after the rain," blackening the face of heaven, and darkening the fources of light and joy. The hands, those once active and vigorous "keepers of the house," grown paralytic, fhall" tremble;" and "the ftrong men," those firm and able columns which fupported it, shall "bow "themfelves," and fink under the weight. The external" grinders" of the food, the teeth, "shall cease because they are few," and the work of maftication fhall be imperfectly performed. Dim fuffufion shall I. veil the organs of fight," they that look DISC. "out of the windows fhall be darkened." "The doors," or valves, "fhall be fhut in "the streets," or alleys of the body, when the digeftive powers are weakened, and "the found of the" internal "grinding is "low." Sleep, if it light upon the eyelids of age, will quickly remove again, and " he will rife up" at the time when the first "voice of the bird" proclaims the approach of the morning. "All the daugh"ters of music shall be brought low;" he will hear no more the voice of finging men, and finging women. Timidity and distrust will predominate, and he will be alarmed at every thing; "he fhall be "afraid of that which is high, and fears "shall be in the way." As the early "al"mond tree," when it flourishes in full blossom, his hoary head fhall be confpicuous in the congregation, the fure prognostic not of spring, alas, but of winter; he who, like "the grafhopper," in the season of youth was fo fprightly in his motions, now scarce able to crawl upon the earth, DISC. earth, "fhall be a burden" to himself; and, I. the organs of fense being vitiated and impaired, "defire" and appetite "fhall fail." The spinal marrow, that "filver cord," with the infinite ramifications of the nerves, thence derived, will be relaxed, and lofe. it's tone;" and the golden bowl," the receptacle of the brain, from which it proceeds fhall be broken.' The veffel, by which, as a "pitcher," the blood is carried back to the heart for a fresh supply, "fhall "be broken at the fountain, and the "wheel," or inftrument of circulation, which throws it forth again to the extremities of the body, "fhall be broken at "the cistern ."—When this highly finished piece of mechanifm fhall be thus difjointed and diffolved, "then shall the duft," of which it was framed," return to the "earth as it was, and the spirit shall return "to God who gave it." Learn we from a a See the Portrait of Old Age, in a Paraphrafe on the fix former verfes of the xiith chapter of Ecclefiaftes, by JOHN SMITH, M. D. of the COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; reprinted in 1752 for E. WITHERS, at the Seven Stars, between the two Temple-Gates, Fleet-freet. hence I. hence, to bestow on each part of our com- DISC. pofition that proportion of time and attention, which, upon a due confideration of it's nature and importance, it fhall appear to claim at our hands. To ftamp on man his own image, was the defign of God in creating him; to restore that image, when loft, was the defign of God in redeeming him. Could greater honour have been done to human nature? Never may the guilt be ours of debafing our nature and obliterating "this image and 66 fuperfcription;" a fpecies furely of treafon against the majesty of heaven. Sloth will cfcure the fair impreffion; it's attendants, ignorance and vice, will deftroy it. Let diligence therefore be appointed to watch over it, and to retouch, from time to time, the lines that are faded; till, the whole ftanding confeffed in knowlege, righteoufnefs, and true holiness, men may glorify our father which is in heaven, while they behold his resemblance upon earth. So |