the Gospel answers this also, though it will be but of little consideration with wise men; for what are these lumps of clay, without the animating principle, more to be valued than the comely garments of a beautiful person? The soul was the true subject of those excellent and sweet dispositions, for which we once so admired them.

And yet even this flesh rests in hope of a blessed resurrection: the great REDEEMER is the guardian of their dust; for "this is the FATHER'S will which sent him, that of all which was given him he should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day," (John vi. 39.) Nay, he "will change their vile bodies, and will fashion them like to his own glorious body," (Phil. iii. 21.) He will one day visit their sepulchres with mighty power, when his SPIRIT shall enter those dry bones, and make them to live. He will bring their separated spirits out of that state of widowhood, and reunite them to the body; but not such a corruptible body as we saw it here. We knew it in weakness and frailty, but he will raise it in power, (1 Cor. xv. 43.) We knew it in dishonour, base and vile; but he will raise it in glory. We knew it a natural or sensual body, but he will raise it a spiritual one: it had not the glory of a star here, but then it shall have the beauty and brightness of the sun, (Matt. xiii. 43.) O sweet contemplation, to think how that corruptible shall put on incorruption, and that mortal, so beloved, shall put on immortality! And therefore we do not throw it away carelessly, as a thing never to be looked after more, but we lay it up in the safe repository of the grave with solemnity and care, as a treasure in store; "Because the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the SON OF GOD, and come forth and live;" (John v. 28;) and then some use will be made of these deposited remains.

And is this the account the gospel gives of those who die in the LORD? Is this the case of our deceased holy friends? Then, "O death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory?" Thanks be to GOD for this Gospel; that we and our friends have lived under it, and can die more easily for it. O what a black gulf is death both to the dying and surviving friend, when they see nothing certain beyond the grave and dry bones! But to Christians, who see light shining beyond the clouds, there is comfort! there is hope! We part awhile, but it is as they who bid good night, only for a little interval of rest. Thus has the Gospel abolished and quite annulled death.

2. How much more may a well-prepared Christian rejoice in his own death, because he has a far greater concern in its advantages than his loving friends! Indeed death is so solemn a business, so important a crisis, the turning point of eternal happiness, or eternal misery, which leads to a judgment so accu

rate and searching, (the requisite preparation for which is so strict, and human frailties so many,) the doom is so dreadful, and the sentence so decisive and irreversible, that no frame is more beseeming or safe for poor sinful creatures to be found in, than that of a penitent humility, and a serious anxiety about the issue of so momentous a concern.

But when a Christian hath deliberately settled the grounds of his hope, and upon impartial search finds in his own case the scriptural characters of an heir of glory; why should he not rejoice with his trembling, even when he is stepping over the border of time into a boundless eternity? Surely it should be a joyful thing to die and go to the FATHER! And doubtless it would be so, if men were certain of that; they who are apt to cry, LORD, spare us a little, would then welcome death with speed. As for a well-prepared and assured Christian, who knows that, if he were absent from the body, he should be present with the LORD; how can he but desire it? Why should he, like others, be hanging back, and craving more delay? Why should he loiter, when a messenger from heaven calls him out of this Sodom? Rather, he ought to desire to be dissolved, avaλusai, to loose from this port, and to go with full sails into the haven of eternal rest. It is indeed a rough passage, in which he is sure of the shipwreck of the earthly vessel; but the soul shall land safely in Paradise. It is a dark step through the valley of death's shadow, but he is led through it by a sure Guide, who will shew him the path of life; (Psal. xvi. 11;) why then should he fear any ill? Rather let him say, as ZUINGLIUS, when he received the mortal wound, Ecquid hoc infortunii? What harm is this to me? Indeed nature shrinks and shivers at the thoughts of untried agonies and groans, which we have sometimes seen others labour under. But what though it cost us a few sighs and pangs, who would not break his way through one half hour's pangs into everlasting joys, to have that great sight, viz. the presence of the Gon of glory? This is enough to make the Christian at once both to fight and triumph, while he bids his sorrowful friends rejoice, because he goes to the FATHER.

But, alas! it is astonishing to see how little of this holy welcoming of death is found amongst Christians! I fear the most that the generality of men, esteemed religious, attain to, is only to be unwillingly content with heaven, when ungrateful death will no longer suffer them to stay on earth. How few court his approaches in calm desires! When they have suffered an unwelcome shipwreck, they are content indeed to land on the celestial shore, rather than perish; but they had much rather put off the voyage. When therefore they are arrested with sickness or danger, what do we hear, but craving more delay, hanging back, and crying, LORD, spare me a little longer? Where do we find the spirit of

those pilgrims, who having heaven in their eye, embraced the promise with joyful arms, and with insatiable desires hastened to arrive there? They valued not their own country; ever since they heard of heaven, they would hear of no home on earth. Where are these children of ABRAHAM, these seed of JACOB, that stand so affected towards heaven, as to rejoice in quitting their kindred and native earth at GOD's call? (Heb. xi. 13, 16.) And how should our friends rejoice for us, in what is so unwelcome to ourselves? Let us not act so inconsistently with our principles, as to extol the felicity of our departed christian friends, and yet be so averse to have their lot. Can we rejoice for them, and yet bemoan ourselves under the same fate? Or is it so well for them, and can it be ill for us, to go to the FATHER? Nay, our desires should be so much the greater, because our LORD is gone before, and so many of our holy friends also. The departure of every amiable relation or friend to heaven is a fresh invitation to our desires to follow, since it is at once to go both to the FATHER, and to them too, of which we perhaps have more sensible conceptions. Were our friends in hell with DIVES, the Scripture tells us they would have us entreated not to come to that place of torment; but being in Paradise, no doubt, they as earnestly wish us a share in their joys; and shall not our desires be the same? Let us learn then to converse with death as a friendly thing, which, as the philosopher said of his enemy, may kill us but cannot hurt us. We know where, and to whom, it sends the good man: it makes him absent from the body, but present with the LORD; an exchange which he should be most willing to make!

3. Let this give a check to our inordinate grief for the death of holy friends. Here is the difficulty, to put this in practice in a time of trial: our love is usually so carnal and sensual, that we know not how to raise it to so rational and spiritual an exercise as this. When death has unclasped those mutual embraces of our friends and us, (which nothing but death could do,) our passions are soon in such a tumult as DAVID'S: "O my son ABSALOM! my son, my son ABSALOM! would GOD I had died for thee, O ABSALOM, my son, my son !" (2 Sam. xviii. 33.) It is a time when our bowels will sound like a harp within us; when nature can frame itself to no voice but that of lamentation and weeping, and we refuse to be comforted: we cannot forbear JACOB's sorrowful moan, "JOSEPH is not, and SIMEON is not, and all these things are against me!" (Gen. xxxii. 36.) We have much ado to restrain ourselves from DAVID's passionate exclamation, "I am distressed for thee, my brother JONATHAN; very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women," (2 Sam. i. 26.) We can hardly suppress our inward wishes with JoB, "Oh that it were with me as in months past, when my children were about me !" (Job

xxix. 2, 5.) This then is the time when we have need to call in all the aids of our christian faith and hope, for calming our disquieted minds: and surely these should signify something with Christians. To what purpose have we the revelation of immortal life, if it be of no use on such occasions? Why have we more hope than others, if we have not less sorrow? Make not the world believe you think so meanly of heaven, by mourning for those who are gone thither, as though this world were better. Rebuke these unreasonable passions; it is their birth-day into glory; though there was sorrow when the hour of travail came, (when we saw our beloved friends in their pangs and agonies, when we saw pale death changing their countenances, and sending them away; then we stood round them with sorrow and tears, as if we shared in their agonies, and died with them;) yet now that they are delivered, and remember their anguish no more, we should carry it as sharers in their joy, and believing admirers of their felicity. Thus DAVID washed and anointed himself, when it was said, The child is dead. PHILO the Jew tells us, that the great veneration which the Hittites expressed to ABRAHAM in that honourable salutation, Thou art a mighty prince, &c. (Gen. xxiii. 6,) was because they saw him bear the death of his wife SARAH with more magnanimity and moderation, than was usual among them.

Philosophy itself has often laid these storms, and taught the wise Pagans to triumph over these infirmities of nature; and shall Christians be baffled with them? PLUTARCH tells us of his wife, that tidings having met him on the road that his son was dead, when the company with him came home, they saw all things so serene and easy, that they concluded that it was a false report, so calmly and indifferently had she managed herself. Nay, the poor barbarous Americans will sing over the remains of their friends, who, as they believe, are gone to the region of spit its, while they recount with joy the little instances of their valour: and shall not we with more reason rejoice over ours, while we rehearse the evidences of their piety, the fruits of their faith and charity, and their victory over the world? It is SENECA's suppo sition (and may be our firm conclusion,) of a good man, Fortasse quem nos periisse putamus, præmissus est; He is not lost at death, but only is sent before.

Upon how little a business of this life do we contentedly and patiently part from our dear associates for some weeks or months; and it suffices us to hear that they are well, though absent: and shall we take it so very ill, when they are gone (perhaps not much longer,) upon so great a business as taking possession of an everlasting kingdom? Can we love them, and not wish their happiness? Or can they be happy, and not die?

Epist. 64.

It may be, they are taken away from evil to come; such times may happen as shall make us say, "Blessed are the dead in the LORD, for they are at rest:"-times when we shall interpret God's meaning in their removal by those words, "Come, my people, enter into your chambers, and hide yourselves, till the indignation be overpast," (Is xxvi. 20., However, let there be ever so great prosperity in view, they are gainers by the change in the best times, and the day of their death is better than the day of their birth; for they have left a good name for piety and virtue, which is better than precious ointment, (Eccl. vii. 1,) or more fragrant than those beds of spices and perfumes, in which persons of eminent worth were laid at their death, or those aromatic ointments with which they were embalmed, (2 Chron. xvi. 14,) to which, it is probable, SOLOMON alludes in that expression; intimating that he dies with most honour, whose memory is embalmed with the savoury fruits of a virtuous life.

All this is most true, when we can say of our deceased friends, that they are gone to the FATHER, and this on solid grounds. When we have known them by divine grace [led to true repentance and faith in CHRIST, born again of the SPIRIT, and] powerfully biassed towards GoD, holiness, and heaven, as the great centre of all their desires and aims; when we have seen them shine with the REDEEMER'S image in great meekness and humility, great inoffensiveness, and tender goodness towards all; (for let me tell you by the way, this sweet and quiet temper does not endear us to men only, but to GOD; it is of great price, says the Apostle, in the sight of GOD, so that when GOD comes to value a person, he makes high account of this meek and peaceable spirit, as being the great ornament of our profession, of which the whole family and others feel the comfortable charms;) when we have found them possessed and governed by a conscientious dread of offending GoD or man, and diligent also in the daily duties of secret piety and devotion; when we have seen them faithful in all their relative capacities, as therein serving the LORD, as well as men'; when they have been eminently mortified to this vain world, to all the gaiety and bravery, the interests, diversions, and pleasures of this life, (and that in years and circumstances very capable of such temptations,) because they rather chose the better part, which shall never be taken away; when we have beheld them exercising patience, and christian resignation to God, under misery, and, after all, discovering great humility in an abasing sense of their unworthiness and need of mercy, but yet supporting their faith by honourable thoughts of the divine goodness, [and by a scriptural dependence on the atonement and intercession, the merit and grace, of an Almighty SAVIOUR,] breathing out their departing souls into their REDEEMER'S hands, and welcoming his approaches with, Come, LORD JESUS, come