earth as it was, and mingle with its original dust. How great and affecting the change! What was once animate, now becomes inanimate: What was once life and activity, becomes lifeless and inactive : What was once a regular organized body, becomes irregular, disarranged particles of dust: And what was once the beauty and delight of the eye, becomes deformity and a loathsome mass of corruption. The decree went forth against our first parents, Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. They were the subjects of its execution, and innumerable of their descendants have followed them. Abraham viewed himself as constantly liable to be turned to clay, for he says, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes. Job, who was once dear and lovely to his friends, became loathsome and offensive to them, even while life remained. His proclamation is, My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome. What a melancholy description! Our souls sicken at the disgusting recollection. Hear his interrogation concerning the human race: Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his Maker? Behold, he put no trust in his servants,' and his angels he charged with folly: How much less in them, that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth.

The declaration of Jehovah, is, All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again to the dust. The united voice of the inspired writers, every age and nation attest, It is appointed unto man once to die.

Two things are worthy of notice in relation to the human body. The first is its vast superiority over all the animal creation, in regard to the erectness of its form, the nobleness of its frame, the admirable texture, and wonderful arrangement of its animated particles. None of the creatures upon earth will

bear a comparison to its agreeable symmetry, its interesting aspect, and dignified structure. The second is its most loathsome situation, when turned to corruption. No animal, when in its highest state of putrefaction, is so loathsome and disgusting as the human body. Perhaps it becomes as much more putrid and nauseous, as it was once the more beautiful and lovely.

Doctor Dwight has the two following particulars, in regard to the things which immediately after death, respect the body.

1st. That the body is changed into a corpse.

Death is the termination of all the animal functions of our nature. So long as these continue, life the result of them, diffuses warmth, activity, and beauty throughout our frame. In this state, the body is a useful as well as pleasing habitation for the soul; and a necessary, as well as convenient instrument for accomplishing the purposes to which it is destined in the present world. But, when these functions cease, life also ceases. The body then becomes cold, motionless, deformed, and useless. The form which once gave pleasure to all around it, now creates only pain and sorrow. The limbs are stiffened; the face clouded with paleness; the eyes closed in darkness; the ears deaf; the voice dumb; and the whole appearance ghastly and dreadful. In the mean time, the spirit deserts it ruined habitation and wings its way into the unknown vast of being.

2d. The body is conveyed to the grave.

Necessity compels the living to remove this decayed frame from their sight. Different nations have pursued different modes of accomplishing this purpose. By some nations, the body has been consumed with fire. By others, it has been embalmed. By some it has been lodged in tombs, properly so called. By others it has been consigned to vaults and caverns; and by most has been buried in the grave. All nations, in whatever manner they have disposed of

the remains of their departed friends, have, with one consent, wished like Abraham, to remove their dead out of their sight.

In this situation, the body becomes the prey of corruption and the feast of worms. How humiliating an allotment is this to the pride of man! When the conquerour, returned from the slaughter of millions, enters his capitol in triumph; when the trumpet of fame proclaims his approach, and the shouts of mil-. lions announce his victories; surrounded by the spoils of subjugated nations, and followed by trains of vanquished kings and heroes; how must his haughty spirit be lowered to the dust by the remembrance that within a few days, himself would become the food of a worm, reigning over him with a more absolute controul than he ever exercised over his slave. Yet this will be the real end of all his achievements. To this humble level must descend the tenant of the throne, as well as of the cottage. Here wisdom and folly, learning and ignorance, refinement and vulgarity will lie down together. Hither moves with an unconscious, but regular step, the beauty that illumines the gay assembly's gayest room; that subdues the heart even of the conquerour himself; and says, I sit as queen and shall see no sorrow. All these may say, and ultimately must say to corruption, Thou art our father; and to the worm, Thou art our mother and our sister. But we are not yet at the end of the progress. The next stage in our humiliation, is to be changed into dust. This was our origin: this is our end. The very clods on which we tread, were once, not improbably, parts to a greater or less extent, of living beings like ourselves. Not a small part of the surface of this world has, in all probability, been animated and inhabited by human minds: And the remains of man, are daily, perhaps as well as insensibly, turned up by the plough and the spade.

2d. Let us attend to some reflections concerning the spirit or soul of man after death.

First. At death the soul quits the body to return to it no more, as an animal frame, for its companion.

At death, the animal functions cease; or rather the cessation of them, is death itself. Then the flexibility, the power of action, and the consequent usefulness to which they gave birth, are terminated also. The soul, of course, finds the body no longer fitted to be an instrument of its wishes or its duties. The limbs can no longer convey it from place to place; the tongue cannot communicate its thoughts, nor the hands execute its pleasure. Deprived of all its powers, the body becomes a useless and uncomfortable residence, for a being to whose nature activity is essential; and the purposes of whose creation, would be frustrated by a longer confinement to so unsuitable a mansion. We cannot wonder, therefore, that the Author of our being, should in his providence, remove the soul from a situation so contradictory in all respects to the design of its existence. Though the body was once its beloved partner, yet utility now demands an entire separation. And they are not only disunited, but their abodes are in different worlds. Whilst the one is consigned to the mansions of the dead, the other becomes an inhabitant of the world of spirits. And whilst the one is deprived of all sensation and enjoyment, the other is rendered more sensible and active, and its happiness or misery augmented.

Second. It certainly is possible for the soul thus to survive the body.

There is nothing absurd in the belief, that the soul exists in a state of perfect consciousness when the body is deprived of animal life and of all sense, and turned to dust; for they are essentially different in their natures. The one is a material substance, the other immaterial: The one is naturally sluggish, inactive, and unconscious; but the other is by nature, alert, active, and conscious. Moreover, the soul is the agent which actuates and governs the body in all

the various movements of life, in such a manner that the body is as it were a mere machine, performing all those things which the soul directs. It labours or rests; moves hastily or slowly; views distant or present objects at the discretion of this intelligent agent. Hence, it is the soul which denominates the person. Were we possessed of our present organized bodies, and endued with animal life without the soul, we should not be constituted human beings; but would be sunk to the grade of the animal creation. St. James remarks, The body without the spirit, is dead: This expression favours the sentiment that the soul is distinct and can exist separate from the body. St. Peter calls the soul himself, and the body the tabernacle for the soul. His words are, Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance, knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me.

There is no more difficulty in supposing the soul of man to be capable of existing in a conscious and active state, when separated from the body, than in supposing any other spirit to be capable of existing and acting without a body. Are angels unembodied? Why may not the spirits of deceased persons exist in a similar state? Surely such a thing is more than possible; and the belief of such existence is not inconsistent nor improbable.

Third. Evidence may be derived from the great desire and universal expectation of mankind, that the soul will exist, a conscious and active being, after it has forsaken the body.

In the human breast there is a secret and strong desire of immortality. The soul, so averse to annihilation, shrinks at the very thought. As it is capa ble of making constant improvements in useful knowledge, so with all the opportunities of life and of age, it only makes a beginning towards its perfection. Hence, there is an ardent desire for im