SER M. fent at the fad Solemnities of a Funeral, VI. than partake of those Festival Rejoycings,

which are usual in all Nations, but efpecially among the Jews, at the Birth of a Child.

Hard Doctrine this, to the Men of Liberty and Pleasure! who have said to themselves, Come on, let us enjoy the things that are prefent, let us fill our felves with cofily Wine and Ointments, and let no Flower of the Spring pass by us ; let us crown our felves with Rofe-buds before they be wither'd: Hard Doctrine, I fay, it is to fuch Men as these; and which will run the hazard of not being entertain'd by them. The Wife Man therefore hath condefcended to prove, as well as affert it, and to back the fevere Rule, he hath lay'd down, with very convincing Reasons : for that, faith he, is the End of all men, and the Living will lay it to heart. As if he had faid, This Dark and Melancholly State it will one day certainly come to Our share to try; and what must sometime or other be undergone, ought to be confider'd beforehand: this is the End of all

men;

VI.

men; and all Men therefore fhould have SERM. their Eye and their Thoughts upon it. And then farther

We are most of us

fo immers'd in the Pleasures, and fo taken up with the Follies of Life, that we need all methods of reducing our stragling Thoughts and Defires, and of giving our felves a serious Frame and Compofure of Mind and of all Methods, this of repairing to the House of Mourning is best adapted to that Good End, and will soonest and most effectually bring it about; The Living will lay it to heart.

I have largely explain'd the Connexion and Meaning of the Words, which have been pitched upon to employ Your Thoughts on this mournful Occafion. The next thing should be, to excite You to a compliance with the Direction there given, by the particular Arguments fuggested in the Text, and by several other powerful and moving Confiderations: to prove to You, the Folly and Emptiness of a Life led all in Mirth and Jollity, and Pleasure; the Wisdom and Reasonableness of shifting the Scene fometimes, of

turning

SERM-turning the Gloomy fide of things to

VI.

wards our felves, of exchanging the Houfe of Feafting for the Houfe of Mourn-ing, and of making a discreet and decent ufe of those fad Opportunities of Reflection, which God, mercifully fevere, is pleas'd to put into our Hands.

But I am prevented in this part of my Discourse, by the Pious Design of this present Affembly; You are already doing that which I should recommend to You from the Text; paying the Tribute of Your Tears to the Memory of One, whose Worth you knew, and whofe Lofs You fenfibly feel; and bewailing Her, under the different Characters She bore of a Wife, a Daughter, a Relation, a Miftrefs, a Friend.

All, therefore, I have to do, on this occafion, is, to fall in with Your Pious Grief, already rais'd, and to bear a part in it, by dwelling together with You a while on the Character of that Incompárable Lady, whose Death we lament; by aniting, as well as I am able, the scatter'd

parts

VI.

parts of it, and recalling to Your Thoughts SERM. at once the feveral Excellencies and Perfections of which it was compos'd: which made her belov❜d and reverenc'd by You while Living, and will make her Memory ever Dear and Defirable to You, now he is Dead; and which rais'd her above the greatest part of her Sex, much more than any Outward Marks of Rank and Distinction.

It is now, after her Decease, a fit time to speak of her in those Terms of Refpect which the deferv'd: for in her Life-time fhe would not fuffer it, and took fome pains to avoid it; hiding as many of her Virtues as she could from Publick Obfervation, and fo behaving herself in the practice of those fhe could not hide, as fhew'd, fhe had no mind to be told of them: discountenancing, as far as lay in her power, that odious and defigning Flattery, which, through the wicked Fashion of an Infincere World, is now thought to be a kind of Customary Debt due to her Sex, and almost a necessary part of good Breeding.

But,

SERM.

VI.

But tho' the Living can feldom be prais'd with Decency, yet the Dead certainly often may; especially fuch of the Dead, as had a very unusual Degree of indifference and unconcernedness for what was faid to their Advantage, while they were Living.

There is a publick Homage due to Defert, if we take a proper Season of paying it; and the Ministers of the Gofpel, who are entrusted with fo many Methods of promoting Piety in the World, are, among the rest, entrusted with This, of giving Honour where Honour is due; and of truly representing to the Minds of men fuch fhining Patterns of Virtue, as are most likely to engage their Attention, and provoke their Imitation: It is our immediate and particular Employment to Praise God; and it doth, no doubt, in some measure also belong to us, to praise those that are Like him.

And now how fhall I enter upon this fruitful Argument? What Particular of

her