that they, if God manifested it to them, might see that they themselves are beasts. For that which befalleth the sons of men, befalleth beasts ; even one thing befalleth them : as the one dieth, so dieth the other ; yea, they all have one breath : so that a man hath no pj-e-emijience above a beast : for all is vanity. All go unto one place ; all are of dust, and all turn to dust again ^."
But we must not confine our attention to the mere circum- stance of the mortality of each. The Psalmist had in liis mind the thoughtlessness of men respecting any thing beyond this life ; agreeably to what he says, in another psalm ; " A brutish man knoweth not, neither doth a fool understand this ; that when the wicked do spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is that they shall be destroyed for ever^." Here is their folly, their stupidity, their brutish- ness : an eternal world is revealed to them ; and they will not consider it: heaven and hell are opened to their view; and they will do nothing to avoid the one or obtain the other. Could they indeed die like the beasts, mthoutany future state of retribution, it were happy for them : and such is the state of mankind at large, that there are very few, comparatively, who would not welcome annihilation as a rich and acceptable boon. But to the bar of judgment every soul will be sum- moned ere long ; and " all must receive, at the hands of their Judge, according to what they have done in the body, whether it be good or evil." If in other things, then, they are reduced to a level with the beasts, in this they fall far below them ; inasmuch as, with an intellect capable of appreciating eternity, they act as if they had no more interest in it than the beasts themselves.]
See, then,
1. What a difference there is between an intelligent Christian and all others !
[T will take the one from the lowest, and the other from the highest, walks in life ; and say that the inteUigent Chris- tian, however mean, resembles God ; whilst the worldling, however elevated, is Uke the beasts that perish. In his under- standing, the regenerate man sees things as they really are, and knows that the things which are visible and temporal are not worthy of a thought in comparison of those which are unseen and eternal, /w his habits, too, he seeks not the things which are on earth, but those which are in heaven, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. And i7i his end, he goes to a world of blessedness and glory, where he shall abide for ever in the bosom of his God. His unenlightened
f Eccl. iii. 18—20. s Ps. xcii. 6, 7.