FUNERAL SERMON ON THE DEATH OF LADY ROBERT MANNERS, PREACHED IN THE PARISH CHURCH OF SUTTON, ON THE 8th DAY OF MARCH, 1829. BY CHARLES GARDENER, D.D. RECTOR OF SUTTON, SURREY. LONDON: JOHN HATCHARD AND SON, 187, PICCADILLY. A FUNERAL SERMON. REV. xiv. 13. And I heard a voice from Heaven, saying, unto me, write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them. THE Evangelist John being banished from his country, and from those he had converted to Christianity, by a cruel persecuting tyrant, one of the emperors of Rome, into a solitary island, because he had been a preacher of the gospel, and had been spreading that gospel of peace and salvation among mankind; but though he was exiled from men, yet he could not be so from his Maker and Saviour. For, as we see in the Revelation, the blessed Jesus appeared to him, and often conversed with him, and revealed to him many things, that were to come to pass, respecting his church, even from that time, to the end of the world. Although the first of mankind sinned, fell, and died, and brought all their posterity into a sinful, miserable state: they lost the presence and converse of their Maker; they lost their original righteousness; they lost their joy and happiness, and all their comforts and blessings which God had bestowed on them, when he created them. And this was not all; for they brought not only the ills of mortality on themselves, but also death; not only a natural death, but also an eternal one. A natural death is the separation of the soul from the body, for a time; and an eternal death is the separation of the soul and body from God and heaven, and that for ever. This is now our sad and miserable state by nature; we come into this world, poor and helpless creatures, and we soon begin to feel the ills of mortality, in many ways; in pains and in sickness of body; in troubles, calamities, and afflictions! Our journey through life is called the wilderness of sorrow, and vale of tears; for we daily experience some ill or other; and this continues till we drop into the grave. The grave is our last resource here. This closes the last scene of our mortal life, and puts an end to all our sufferings here, both in body and mind. Now, O Christians, we are all on our way |