ORDINATIONS AND INSTALLATIONS. 1320, July 15, Installed REV. LAWRENCE P. HICKOсK, as Pastor of the Cong. Church in Litchfield, Conn. 1829, August 26, Ordained at Woodbury, Conn. Rev. Messrs. TALCOTT BATES, and JASON ATWATER, as Evangelists, and Rev. Messrs. ELDAD BARBER, WM. S PORTER, EVERTON JUDSON, JULIAN AL. STURTEVANT and THERON BALDWIN, as Missionaries to the West. 1829, August 27, Installed Rev. GEORGE CARRINGTON,as Pastor of the Cen. Church, North Goshen, Conn. 1829, August 27, Installed, Rev. GRANT POWERS, as Pastor of the Cong. Church, Goshen, Conn. 1829, Oct. 7, Ordained, Rev. AsA HIXAN, as Colleague Pastor of the Cong. Church in Oakham, Mass. 1829, Oct. 8, Ordained, at Belchertown, Mass. Rev. ELIJAH BRIDGEMAN, as Missionary to China. POETRY. THE WORLD WE HAVE NOT SEEN. There is a world we have not seen, THE HOPKINSIAN MAGAZINE. VOL. III. DECEMBER, 1829. NO. 24. SERMON FOR THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR. GENESIS XLVII. 8, 9.-And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou? And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers, in the days of their pilgrimage. Ir equally concerns men of all ages, of all characters, and of all conditions, to be well acquainted with the duration and circumstances of human life. And we have all abundant means of information upon this subject. We have seen many begin and end their days in this stage of existence. We have been most sensibly and solemnly admonished of the nature aud duration of our earthly pilgrimage. God has given us a register of mortality from the beginning of the world to the present day. And besides all this, he has enstamped upon all mankind, indelible and infallible marks of their different stages in life, from childhood to youth, from youth to manhood, and from manhood to old age. It is only for the young to look upon the old, and the old to look upon themselves, and they cannot resist the conviction, that they are all but short-lived creatures. The younger part of mankind are always struck with the marks of old age. This is fully exemplified in the passage selected for our text. When Joseph introduced his aged father to the young king of Egypt, there was nothing in Jacob's appearance, which so immediately and sensibly affected him, as his silver locks, his feeble limbs, and all the common marks of a dying creature. Under this impression, he could think of no other topic of conversation so proper, and so correspondent to his present feelings, as that of old age. "And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou? And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained to the days of the years of my fathers, in the days of their pilgrimage." This is a short and comprehensive history of Jacob's life. He had met with a great deal of trouble from his brother Esau, from his brother-in-law Laban, and from his own children. And though he had lived above an hundred years, yet he had not lived near so long, nor did he expect to live near so long, as his fathers and forefathers had done. But he was satisfied with living, and did not regret, that God had shortened the period of life. Ho was weary of this evil world, and entirely willing to be gathered with his fathers, who had finished their pilgrimage, and entered into everlasting rest. This discourse of the pious patriarch, teaches us : That good men are satisfied with the conduct of God, in shortening the period of human life. I shall, 1. Show that God has shortened the term of life. And, II. Show that good men are satisfied with his conduct. I. I am to show that God has shortened the period of human life. God, who at first breathed into man the breath of life, and united the soul and body, was able to preserve that union forever. And there is no room to doubt, that man in his formation, was fitted for immortality. Had he eaten of the tree of life, instead of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he would have effectually secured his own life, and the lives of all his posterity to all future ages in time and eternity. It is, indeed, uncertain how long mankind would have remained in this world, before they were removed to some other part of God's vast dominions; but if they ever had been removed, they would not have made their transition out of this into another world, through the dark valley of the shadow of death. Had they remained holy and happy, they might have gone from earth to heaven, in the same manner that angels come from heaven to earth. So that human life was never bounded by an original law of nature, but by a special act of divine providence. Accordingly we find no intimation in scripture, that the death of the body was to be the lot of mankind, until after the apostacy of our first parents. The original threatening, denounced against the first offence, did not comprise temporal death. Had that threatening been literally fulfilled, our first parents would have been made înstantly and completely miserable in both soul and body, without the medium of temporal death. They would not have died, but been ́ changed, as those wicked ones will be, that are found alive at the seeond coming of Christ. It appears from the history of the transactions in Eden, that the first transgressors were forgiven through the promised Messiah, before the sentence of temporal death was pronounced. It was then, and not before, that God expressly said to Adam, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." It was this solemn sentence, which first fixed the bounds of human life. Before this sentence was passed, mankind' were immortal; and there was nothing in the constitution of their frame, or in the laws of nature, which had any tendency to prevent their living forever, without seeing corruption. This sentence of mortality was immediately followed by the special agency of God upon the human body, by which its original constitution was altered, and it be-' came liable to dissolution. So that from this period, it was as natural¢ for men to die, as it was before natural for them to live. Here then we ought to observe, that the general sentence of mortality passed upon the father and representative of mankind, did not shorten, but only fix the bounds of human life. Before this sentence, the life of a man had no bounds; but after this sentence his bounds were fixed, cover which he could not pass. And now, if we look into the history 1 which God has given us of the first ages of the world, we shall find how long the first term of human life was, before it was shortened. It appears from the genealogy of mankind, from the creation to the flood, which was a space of sixteen hundred and fifty years, that it was en common for men to live from seven to eight or nine hundred years. di And we do not find but one man after these patriarchs, who was allowed such length of life, and that was Noah, the father of the new world. He lived nine hundred and fifty years. But though God did not shorten Noah's life, yet he began to shorten the lives of men,' immediately after the deluge. From that period, we find the lives of men more than four times shorter than they were before. For we do not read of any man's living to the age of two hundred years, after the death of Noah. Some have supposed that the deluge was the immediate cause of shortening human life. They imagine, that the flood made such an alteration in the atmosphere, and all the elements, that the human body was greatly affected by it. But this is hardly probable; because if the flood had such an effect to shorten life, it is natural to suppose, that it would have had the greatest tendency to shorten the lives of those who lived through it, and immediately after it. But the Bible assures us, that the lives of men were much longer then, than they are now. It is, therefore, more reasonable to suppose, that human life was shortened, by a special act of Providence, than by the operation of the laws of nature. It was a most singular and interesting event for God to reduce the lives of men in general from eight or nine hundred years, to the narrow space of less than two hundred years. This was the first and greatest change in the lives of men, and continued from the deluge to the days of Moses. Then again God reduced human life to a shorter period of “three score years and ten," which still continues the common age of man. We have the same evidence in scripture of this second shortening of human life, as of the first. For the sacred historian has recorded the ages of a great number of eminent men, from Noah to Moses. Abraham lived to what was considered as old age in his day. And we read, "These are the days of the years of Abraham's life, which he lived; an hundred three score and fifteen years. Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age; an old man, and full of years, and was gathered to his people." We read, "The days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years. And Isaac gave up the ghost and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days." We read, "Jacob lived seventeen years in Egypt, so the whole age of Jacob was an hun. dred forty and seven years." We read, "Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died." And again we read, that "Joshua the son of Nun the servant of the Lord died, being an hundred and te years old." These instances show, that men commonly lived between one and two hundred years, from the deluge to the days of Moses and Joshua. ~ But from the days of Moses to the present time, the common age of man is three score years and ten, which is more than ten times shorter than the first period of human life. It is true, Jehoiada lived ar hundred and thirty years, and some individuals in every age have been equally long-lived. But the ninetieth Psalm, which is said to have been written by Moses, gives us just ground to conclude, that the common age of man was then shortened to the period of seventy or "eighty years. And profane history confirms this conclusion. For all historians represent a man of seventy or eighty years old, as an old man, let him be a Jew or Gentile, and let him live in what part of the world he will. Thus God has, time after time, diminished the life of *man, until he has made his days as an hand-breadth, and our life as a vapour, which appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. But though some may complain of God for shortening their days, yet, II. Good men are satisfied with this part of the divine conduct. The good patriarch Jacob did not appear to be fond of living, but rather desired to be dismissed from his weary pilgrimage. Job said of "life, "I loathe it; I would not live alway." And again he said, “ All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.” David anticipated the day of his death with pleasure when he said w God, "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness." Good old Simeon wished for the close of life, when he said, "Now, Lord, lettest thou thy servant depart in peace." Paul was in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which was far better than to live. And the primitive Christians longed "to be absent from the body, that they might be present with the Lord." These are the feelings of all good men; they would choose to have their lives limited to eighty or ninety years, rather than to eight or nine hundred. And whilst they have such views and feelings with respect to life; they must be satisfied with the conduct of God, in bringing down the lives of men to the short period of seventy, or eighty, or ninety years. But here it may be proper to enquire why they are satisfied with this part of the divine conduct. And, 1. It is because they expect to be much happier in another life, than this. Here they find themselves born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward, and have no reason to expect an exemption from suffering, until they leave this present state of imperfection. Jacob said, "Few and evil have the days of my life been;" and he had no hope of seeing happier days, until he exchanged time for eternity. Then he expected to be put beyond the reach of all natural and moral evil, and enjoy perfect peace. And all the patriarchs lived in the exercise of that faith, which is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of |