time for recollection and penitence. That she had no failing cannot be supposed: but she has now appeared before the Almighty Judge; and it would ill become beings like us, weak and sinful as herself, to remember those faults which, we trust, eternal purity has pardoned.

Let us. therefore, preserve her memory for no other end but to imitate her virtues; and let us add her example to the motives to piety which this solemnity was, secondly, instituted to enforce.

It would not, indeed, be reasonable to expect, did we not know the inattention and perverseness of mankind, that any one who had followed a funeral could fail to return home without new resolutions of a holy life; for who can see the final period of all human schemes and undertakings, without conviction of the vanity of all that terminates in the present state? For who can see the wise, the brave, the powerful, or the beauteous, carried to the grave, without reflection on the emptiness of all those distinctions which set us here in opposition to each other? And who, when he sees the vanity of all terrestrial advantages, can forbear to wish for a more permanent and certain happiness? Such wishes, perhaps, often arise, and such

resolutions are often formed; but, before the resolution can be exerted, before the wish can regulate the conduct, new prospects open before us, new impressions are receiv ed, the temptations of the world solicit, the passions of the heart are put into commotion; we plunge again into the tumult, engage again in the contest, and forget that what we gain cannot be kept, and that the life for which we are thus busy to provide, must be quickly at an end.

But let us not be thus shamefully deluded! Let us not thus idly perish in our folly by neglecting the loudest call of Providence; nor, when we have followed our friends and our enemies to the tomb, suffer ourselves to be surprised by the dreadful summons, and die, at last, amazed and unprepared! Let every one, whose eye glances on this bier, examine what would have been his condition if the same hour had called him to judgment; and remember, that though he is now spared, he may, perhaps, be to-mor row among separate spirits. The present moment is in our power: let us, therefore, from the present moment begin our repen tance! Let us not any longer harden our hearts, but hear this day the voice of our Saviour and our God, and begin to do, with

all our powers, whatever we shall wish to have done when the grave shall open before us! Let those who came hither weeping and lamenting, reflect, that they have not time for useless sorrow; that their own salvation is to be secured, and that "the day is fär spent, and the night cometh, when no man can work;" that tears are of no value to the dead, and that their own danger may justly claim their whole attention! Let those who entered this place unaffected and indifferent, and whose only purpose was to behold this funeral spectacle, consider that she whom they thus behold with negligence and pass by, was lately partaker of the same nature with themselves; and that they, likewise, are hastening to their end, and must soon, by others equally negligent, be buried and forgotten! Let all remember that the day of life is short, and that the day of grace may be much shorter; that this may be the last warning which God will grant us, and that, perhaps, he who looks on this grave unalarmed, may sink unreformed into his own!

Let it, therefore, be our care, when we retire from this solemnity, that we immediately turn from our wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right; that whenever disease or violence shall dissolve our bodies, 28

VOL. VIII.

our souls may be saved alive, and received into everlasting babitations; where, with angels and archangels, and all the glorious host of heaven, they shall sing glory to God on high, and the Lamb, for ever and ever!

- XX. On the Folly and Wickedness of Religious Scoffers 337

XXI. On the Goodness of God

348

XXII. Ou the State of Mind necessary for the Reception

of the Lord's Supper

360

XXIII. On Strife

374

XXIV. On the Happiness which a Nation may derive

from righteous Governors

303

XXV. On the Funeral of his Wife

410

END.