is to improve and to enforce maxims of government, hath a nobler object than that of a mechanic, whose business it is to improve the least necessary art. There is a nobler object in the station of a pastor called to publish the laws of religion, than in that of a school-master confined to teach the letters of the alphabet. But God will regulate our eternal state not according to the object of our pursuit; but according to the manner, in which we should have pursued it. In this point of light, all ranks are equal, every condition is the same. Mankind have, then, an equality of destination. The rich and the poor are placed in different ranks with the same view, both are to answer the great end, that God hath proposed to answer by creating and arranging mankind.

Hitherto we have had occasion for some little labor to prove our thesis, that all men are equal, notwithstanding the various conditions, in which God hath placed them. And you, my brethren, have had occasion for some docility to feel the force of our arguments. But in our fourth article the truth will establish itself, and its force will be felt by a recital, yea by a hint of our arguments.

We said, fourthly, that men are equal in their last end, that the same sentence of death is denounced on all, and that they must all alike submit to their fate. On which side can we view death, and not receive abundant evidence of this truth? Consider the certainty of death; the nearness of death; the harbingers of death; the ravages of death; so many sides by which death may be considered, so many proofs, so many demonstrations, so many sources of demonstrations of the truth of this sense of my text, the rich and the poor meet together, the Lord is the maker of them all.

1. Remark the certainty of death; Dust thou

art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Gen. iii. 19. It is appointed unto men once to die, Heb. ix. 27. The sentence is universal, its universality involves all the posterity of Adam: it includes all conditions, all professions, all stations, and every step of life ensures the execution of it.

Whither art thou going, Rich man! thou, who congratulatest thyself because thy fields bring forth plentifully, and who sayest to thy soul, Soul! thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry? To death. Whither art thou going, poor man! thou, who art toiling through a languishing life, who beggest thy bread from door to door, who art continually perplexed in finding out means of procuring bread to eat, and raiment to put on, always an object of the charity of some, and of the hard heartedness of others? To death. Whither goest thou, nobleman! thou, who deckest thyself with borrowed plumes, who puttest the renown of thine ancestors into the list of thy virtues, and who thinkest thyself formed of an earth more refined than that of the rest of mankind? To death. Whither goest thou, peasant, thou, who deridest the folly of a peer, and at the same time valuest thyself on something equally absurd? To death. Whither, soldier! art thou marching, thou, who talkest of nothing but glory and heroism, and who amid many voices sounding in thine ears, and incessantly crying, Remember thou art mortal, art dreaming of, I know not what, immortality? To death. Whither art thou going, merchant! thou, who breathest nothing but the increase of thy fortune, and who judgest of the happiness or misery of thy days, not by thine acquisition of knowledge and thy practice of virtue but by the gain or the loss of thy wealth? To death. Whither are we all going, my dear hearers? To death.

:

Does death

Do I exceed the truth, my brethren? regard titles, dignities, and riches? Where is Alexander? Where is Cæsar? Where are all they, whose names struck terror through the whole world? They were but they are no more. They fell before the voice, that cried, Return, ye children of men, Psal. xc. 3. I said, Ye are gods: but ye shall die like men, Psal. lxxxii. 6. I said, Ye are gods; this, ye great men of the earth! this is your title; this is the patent, that creates your dignity," that subjects us to your commands, and teacheth us to revere your characters: but ye shall die like men; this is the decree, that degrades you, and puts you on a level with us. Ye are Gods: I will, then, respect your authority, and consider you as images of him, by whom kings reign: but ye shall die: I will not, then suffer myself to be imposed on by your grandeur, and whatever homage I may yield to my king, I will always remember, that he is a man. The certainty of death is the first side, on which we may consider this murderer of mankind, and it is the first proof of our fourth proposition: Mankind are equal in their last end.

2. The proximity of death is a second demonstration, a second source of demonstrations. The limits of our lives are equal. The life of the rich as well as that of the poor is reduced to an handsbreadth, Psal. xxxix. 5. Sixty, eighty, or a hundred years, is usually the date of a long life. The sceptre hath no more privilege in this respect than the crook: nor is the palace at any greater distance from the tomb, than the cottage from the grave. Heaps of silver and gold may intercept the rich man's sight of death: but they can neither intercept death's sight of the rich man, nor prevent his forcing the feeble intrenchments, in which he may attempt to hide himself.

3. The harbingers of death are a third demonstration, a third source of demonstrations. The rich have the same forerunners as the poor; both have similar dying agonies, violent sicknesses, disgustful medicines, intolerable pains, and cruel misgivings. Pass through those superb apartments, in which the rich man seems to defy the enemy, who lurks and threatens to seize him; go through the croud of domestics, who surround him; cast your eyes on the bed, where nature and art have contributed to his ease. In this grand edifice, amidst this assembly of courtiers, or, shall I rather say? amidst this troop of vile slaves, you will find a most mortifying and miserable object. You will see a visage all pale, livid, distorted; you will hear the shrieks of a wretch tormented with the gravel, or the gout; you will see a soul terrified with the fear of those eternal books, which are about to be opened, of that formidable tribunal, which is already erected, of the awful sentence, that is about to be denounced.

4. The ravages of death make a fourth demonstration; they are the same with the rich as with the poor. Death alike condemns their eyes to impenetrable night, their tongue to eternal silence, their whole system to total destruction. I see a superb monument. I approach this striking object. I see magnificent inscriptions. I read the pompous titles of the most noble, the most puissant, general, prince, monarch, arbiter of peace, arbiter of war. I long to see the inside of this elegant piece of workmanship, and I peep under the stone that covers him, to whom all this pomp is consecrated; there I find, what

a

putrified carcase devouring by worms. O vanity of human grandeur! Vanity of vanities, all is vanity! Put not your trust in princes, nor in the

son of man, in whom is no help, Eccl. i. 2. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth, in that very day his thoughts perish, Psal. cxlvi. 3, 4. As for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field so he flourisheth; for the wind passeth over it, and it is gone: and the place thereof shall know it no more, Psal. ciii. 15, 16.

5. Finally, the judgment, that follows death, carries our proposition to the highest degree of evidence. It is appointed unto men once to die but after this the judgment, Heb. ix. 27. The rich and the poor must alike appear before that throne, which St. John describes in the revelation, and before that venerable personage, from whose face the heaven and the earth flee away, chap. xx. 11. If there be any difference between the rich and the poor, it is all, methinks, in favor of the latter. The summons, that must be one day addressed to each of us, give an account of thy stewardship, Luke xvi. 2. this summons, is always terrible. You indigent people! whom God (to use the language of scripture,) hath set over a few things, an account of these few things will be required of you, and you will be as surely punished for hiding one talent, as if you had hidden more, Matt. xx. 17.

But how terrible to me seems the account, that must be given of a great number of talents! If the rich man have some advantages over the poor, (and who can doubt that he hath many?) how are his advantages counterpoised by the thought of the consequences of death! What a summons, my brethren! is this for a great man, Give an account of thy stewardship! give an account of thy riches. Didst thou acquire them lawfully? or were they the produce of unjust dealings, of cruel extortions, of repeated frauds, of violated promises, of perjuries and oaths? Didst thou distribute them charitably,