tant removes, and the building is diffolved; the tabernacle put off, which is our dying. The flesh, tho' now animated by a living foul, will not be always fo. My flesh faileth: And it may be faid to do fo.

1. Continually: My flesh faileth, or is failing. This is true of it from the first moment of life to the going forth of our breath, by which we die, There is no time or place in which it can be faid our flesh and heart is not failing, and tending to a diffolution. We die daily; are gradually decaying, and wearing away. All the pains and aches we feel; the infirmities that creep upon us; the dim eye, and trembling hand, tell us, that our flesh is failing, and has been fo from the firft moment of life.

2. Univerfally. The Pfalmift, here, speaks it of himself, but fhews what is true of every one. The life of every man and woman in the world is declining, the flesh failing; the breath going forth. And, taking in the compafs of the world, perhaps not an hour wherein fome or other are not actually dying; and fuch as furvive, are so much nearer following them as they have lived fince.

3. With great variety: In fome early, as foon as they begin to appear: In others, in their bloom; with others, not till the fhadows of the evening are Stretched out. In fome, the earthly tabernacle is gradually impaired; and it is taken down leifurely, and with a gentle hand; they are snatched away without any warning, and from an invifible caufe, which is like a houfe's being fuddenly

blown

blown up. Now the language of this is, therefore be ye alfo ready.

4. Flesh fails moft certainly, and without poffibility of prevention. No means or helps, whatever fuccefs we have seen of them, will always avail to preserve the most useful defireable life from coming to an end; or keep foul and body together. Ecclef. viii. 8.

5. Flesh fails fwiftly: 'Tis but a few days at longest that the foul will abide in it,

It may be faid to the youngest and strongest, now breathing, What is your life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little while, and then vanifheth away, James iv. 14. Job xiv. 1, 2.

6. The flesh is failing, and fhall actually fail, and our fouls remove, in the feafon God hath fixed. Our days are determined: The number of our months is with him; tho' wifely hid from us. Job xiv. 5. Ch. vii. 1. Tho' the body is continually wafting, and nature decaying, it shall hold out to the period fut, and beyond that none shall be allowed to go.

Laftly, In death the flesh fails irrecoverably, as to its being reftored to its former ftate upon earth. It is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgment; by which our eternity is fixed, as to joy or mifery, according as we well or ill improved the life we once enjoyed. This, how frail foever, is to be our all, in point of trial and preparation for another. The glass run is no more to be turned, nor life reftored. Thus their flesh have failed who are dead before; as it will with us when our hour comes: Suitably to

which death is called a going bence, fo as to be feen

no more.

So much for the first thing. The notion of death here mentioned, the failing of the flesh, as what fuch as are dear to God have experienced, and others must expect.

II. When the flesh faileth in a dying hour, the heart may be ready to fail too. This may proceed,

ft, From our putting far from us the day of our diffolution, and promifing ourselves a longer Stay upon earth than God has allowed.

Tho' a faint does not take up his rest upon earth, yet how little hafte do they make thither, when they conclude they have many years to fojourn below. The wife as well as the foolish virgins flumber and fleep; and when the cry is made at midnight, Behold the bridegroom cometh, no wonder they are put into fome confternation, to have the fummons given fo much fooner than was expected!

2. When we find our flesh failing, we may be in the dark as to our title to the life to come, or our meetnefs for it; and oh! how fad to think of going out of this world, when we have no evidence of a better?

If in this life only we have hope in Chrift, we are of all men the most miferable; and what concern muft it give to speak with hesitation whether our hope extends farther. There is a heaven provided, but I am not without my fears whether I fhall be received into it. I have had time to make my calling and election fure; but how am I now at a lofs about it!

3. When

3. When flesh is failing, the foul must remove into an unchangeable state: And oh! with what a weight doth that come upon the heart! be a

4. Confcience, in our last moments, may wakened to revive the sense of past fins; under a fense of which the heart may be ready to fail.

When they fearch their hearts, under the apprehenfion that they are going to appear before God, how much corruption may faints themfelves discover, and this of greater strength than they imagined; which may breed doubts whether it was ever mortified, and fears left it fhould not be pardoned: And who can think, without trembling, of going to appear before God, when matters are not clear between him and our own fouls ?

5. Satan may be fometimes permitted to add to the doubts of the departing faint. This, if let loofe, he is very ready to do. He knows he cannot follow them to heaven, and therefore endeavours to fend them mourning thither. If they escape him now, he knows that they are out of his reach for ever; and therefore the last conflict is often sharp. When the When the eye of confcience is open, he will paint fin in the blackest colours, to make the deeper wound.

Laftly, God may withdraw the light of kis countenance; and, in that cafe, when the flesh faileth, no wonder the heart is ready to fail too.

If God be for us, who can be against us. If he fpeak peace, who can give trouble? but when in a dying hour we apprehend him turning away his eye in difpleasure, or looking on with a frown, it can't but be hard to bear up. But this they

fhall

shall not be left under, without feasonable and fufficient grace. For,

III. Under the foreft trials God himself will be ftrength to the heart of every one of his faithful fervants.

This the Pfalmift could witness for him, and fhall be vouchfafed to others that ftand in the fame relation to him.

This may be concluded,

1. From his Ability to ftrengthen and help, Ifai. lix. 1.

2. From his intimate prefence with them, and acquaintance with their cafe. The eye of the Lord is upon the righteous, to fhew himself strong with reference to every one whose heart is upright with him. 2 Chron. xvi. 9.

3. From his love to them; pitying them, even as a father pitieth his children; knowing their frame and frailty, and how liable the spirit is to fail before him, and the foul which he hath · made.

4. From his faithfulness to his kind promises made to them, and on which he caufeth them to hope, Ifa. xliii. 1, 2, 3. ch. xli. 10.

This would lead us to the

IVth general, The comforts the people of God may fetch from him, in a dying hour, confidered as, the ftrength of their hearts and their portion for ever.

1. God is the ftrength of my heart, i. e. my better part, which, as of more worth than all the world, I can't but be most concerned for. My flesh faileth, but in the multitude of my thoughts within me, upon that account, thy comforts, O God, delight my foul.

2. In