him without vails and shadows, without the reflecting glass of his word and ordinances, which at best give us but a faint glimpse of him, either in his nature or wisdom, his power or goodness. You shall see him in himself and in his Son Jesus, the brightest and fairest image of the Father, and "shall know him as you are known," 1 Cor. xiii. 10, 12.

There is no more time for temptation and danger : when once you are got beyond the limits of this visible world, and all the enticing objects of flesh and sense, there shall be no more hazard of your salvation, no more doubting and distressing fears about your interest in your Father's love, or in the salvation of his beloved Son. There is no more time nor place for sin to inhabit in you: the lease of its habitation in your mortal body must end, when the body itself falls into the dust you shall feel no more of its powerful and defiling operations either in heart or life for ever.

The time of conflict with your spiritual adversaries is no longer. There is no more warfare betwixt the flesh and spirit, no more combat with the world and the devil, who by a thousand ways have attempted to deceive you and to bear you off from your heavenly hope. Your warfare is accomplished, your victory is complete, you are made overcomers through him that has loved you. Death is the last enemy to be overcome: the sting of it is already taken away, and you have now finished the conquest, and are assured of the crown. 1 Cor. xv. 56, 57.

The time of your distance and absence from God is no more: the time of coldness and indifference and the fearful danger of backsliding is no more: you shall be made as "pillars in the temple of your God, and shall go no more out:" he shall love you like a God, and kindle the flames of your love to so intense a degree as is only known to angels and to the spirits of the just made perfect.

There is no more time for you to be vexed with

the "society of sinful creatures:" your spirits within you shall be no more ruffled and disquieted with the teizing conversation of the wicked, nor shall you be interrupted in your holy and heavenly exercises by any of the enemies of God and his grace.IN

The time of your "painful labours and sufferings is no more," Rev. xiv. 13. "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, for they rest from all their labours" that carry toil or fatigue with them: there shall be no more complaints nor groans, no sorrow or crying: the springs of grief are for ever dried up, neither shall there be any more pain in the flesh or the spirit. "God shall wipe away all tears from your eyes, and death shall be no more, Rev. xxi. 4.

It is finished, said our blessed Lord on the cross : It is finished, may every one of his followers say at the hour of death and at the end of time: my sins and follies, my distresses and my sufferings are finished for ever, and the mighty angel swears to it that the time of these evils is no longer: they are vanished and shall never return. O happy souls, who have been so wise to count the short and uncertain number of your days on earth, as to make an early provision for a removal to heaven. Blest are you above all the powers of present thought and language. Days and months and years, and all these short and painful periods of time, shall be swallowed up in a long and blissful eternity; the stream of time which has run between the banks of this mortal life, and bore you along amidst many dangerous rocks of temptation, fear and sorrow shall launch you out into the ocean of pleasures which have no period; those felicities must be everlasting, for duration has no limit there, time with all its measures shall be no more. Amen.

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DISCOURSE II.

THE WATCHFUL CHRISTIAN DYING IN PEACE.

A FUNERAL SERMON.

On the death of Mrs. Sarah Abncy.

It is an young person well

is an awful providence which hath lately

known to most of you, whose agreeable temper and conduct had gained the esteem of all her acquaintance, whose constitution of body, together with the furniture of her mind and circumstances in the world, concurred to promise many future years of life and usefulness. But all that is born of the race of man is frail and mortal, and all that is done by the hand of God is wise and holy. We mourn, and we submit in silence. Yet the providence hath a voice in it, and the friends of the deceased are very solicitous that such an unexpected and instructive appearance of death might be religiously improved to the benefit of the living. For this end I am desired to entertain you at present with some meditations on those words of our Saviour, which you read in

LUKE XII. 37.

Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh shall find watching.

VARIOUS

ARIOUS and well-chosen are those parables, whereby our Saviour gave warning to his

disciples, that when he was departed from this world they should ever be upon their guard, and always in a readiness to receive him at his return; because he would come on a sudden and in such an hour as hey thought not, to demand an account of their behaviour, and to distribute his recompences according to their works. There are two of these parables in this chapter: but to enter into a detail of all the particular metaphors which relate to this one whence I have borrowed my text, would be too tedious here, and would spend too much of the present hour. Without any longer preface therefore, I shall apply myself to improve the words to our spiritual profit in the following method.

I. I shall inquire what is meant by the coming of Christ in the text, and how it may be properly applied to our present purpose, or the hour of death.

II. I shall consider what is implied in the watchfulness which our Saviour recommends.

III. I shall propose some considerations which will discover the blessedness of the watchful soul in a dying hour.

IV. I shall add some practical remarks.

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First, let us inquire what is meant by the coming of Christ in my text.

The coming of Christ in some of these parables, may have reference to his speedy appearance in the course of his providence in that very age, to judge and punish the Jewish nation, to destroy their city and put an end to their church and state, for their many heinous iniquities, and the most provoking