SERMON III,

Preached in the Parish Church of St. James, Westminster, November 27, 1737, being the Sunday after the Death of her Majesty the late Queen Caroline.

ECCLES. VII. 4.

The Heart of the Wife is in the House of

TH

Mourning.

HE Providence of God is one great Inftrument, which he uses for our Instruction: and every Dispensation of it is fitted to convey very useful Admonitions to Persons of attentive Minds. But the mournful Events of Things have a peculiar Force to excite Recollection and serious Thought: to place our Condition here, in a juft and strong Light before our Eyes; to awaken Sentiments within us, of Piety and Refignation, Humanity and Compaffion; and prompt us to make thefe the Rule of our Conduct. So long as nothing alarms us, we grow too commonly negligent and inconfiderate; forget our Dangers, forget our Mercies; give up our Hearts to every Paffion that feizes on them; and thus are of

ten

ten led to do great Harm, both to others and ourfelves. But when the Judgments of God are in the Earth, then the Inhabitants of the World learn Righteousness *. When the Voice of the Lord crieth unto the City, Hear ye the Rod, and who hath appointed it: then the Ears of them, that hear, fhall hearken; the Heart alfo of the Rafh fhall understand Knowledge. But of all the Strokes of God's Hand, that which carries the greatest Awe with it, is Death; the Sentence of the Lord over all Flesh. The Sight or the Thought of that important Change, from the Conftitution of our Nature, makes very strong Impreffions upon us: and the longer we revolve the Subject in our Minds, the more Reason we find to be deeply affected by it, and act with a continual View to it. Nothing therefore would influence us more effectually to apply our Hearts unto Wisdom §; if it were not for this one Circumstance, that being furrounded with daily Inftances of Mortality, they are familiarized to us in fuch a Manner by their Frequency, that though in Reason they ought to have the greater Effect upon us for their Number, yet in Fact they have usually little or none; unless there be fomething, either in their Nearness to us, or their publick Importance, to diftinguish them from common Cafes, and engage a more interefting Attention to them. We should therefore be very careful + Ifa. xxxii. 3, 4.

* Ifa. xxvi. 9.
+ Mic. vi. 9.
Ecclus xli. 3. § Pf. xc. 12.

never to mifs the Opportunity of improving ourselves within, by due Reflexions on fuch Deaths, as our own particular Concern in them, or the general one, makes confiderable : but, how great foever our Lofs be otherwise, refolve to gain this Advantage notwithstanding, that by the Sadness of the Countenance our Heart fhall become better *.

For fo valuable a Purpofe, it is well worth while to bear with all the Gloominefs of the Houfe of Mourning; to place ourselves. voluntarily in it, a while, and return thither from Time to Time; deliver ourselves up to fuch Meditations, as we find it fitted to infpire; and dwell upon them fomewhat longer, than the first unavoidable Impreffions oblige us. For most useful Leffons will the Heart of the Wife be able to learn there; and excellent Rules of Conduct, with respect to himfelf, to the Memory of thofe who are deceased, and to fuch as they have left behind them.

I. With respect to himself. Death is the End of all Men, and the Living will lay it to bis Heart. It is because we do not lay it to our Hearts, that we moft of us go on just as if we imagined there was to be no End at all: and though we do not indeed fpeculatively. think fo, yet we live and act upon that Sup-. pofition and our knowing it to be a falfe one hath no Manner of Influence, for want of re

Ecclus vii. 3. + Ecclef. vii. 2.

flecting

flecting upon it as fuch. Hence we indulge our Souls in vehement Defires, and fill our Days with endless Projects: every Point gained, opening an Inlet for more to be aimed at ; every Failure, redoubling our Earneftnefs to recover our loft Ground: and we never recollect, how Life is wafting under us all the while. Even to the Departure of others before our Eyes we attend, only as an Opportunity of framing and following new Schemes: and thus the Death of our Fellow-creatures proves an Occafion of our forgetting the more entirely, that we fhall ever die ourselves. This could not be, would we but ftop a little at the House of Mourning; and make the moft obvious of all Reflexions there, from contemplating the End of others, how very quickly our own End may come, and how foon it must. Such Thoughts will enliven our Diligence in performing our Duty here: in working, while it is Day, the Works of him, that fent us*. For how fuddenly foever the Night may overtake us thus employed; bleed is that Servant whom his Lord, when he comes, fhall find fo doing. But the fame Sort of Meditations muft furely moderate, beyond all Things, our Warmth in every other Pursuit and difpofe us, instead of plunging inconfiderately forwards, till in the Midt of our Buftle we drop unexpectedly into the Grave; rather to fecure the prefent Time, for recollecting, before we go out of + Matth. xxiv. 46.

• John ix. 4.

the World, what our Behaviour hath been hitherto in it: that fo we may endeavour to correct our Miftakes, fupply our Omiffions, perfect our Faith and Repentance; and through God's Grace, which alone can enable us, form ourselves into fuch a Temper of Mind, that we may be found of Him in Peace, without Spot and blameless *.

And as the Thoughts of Death are excellently fitted to compofe the Vehemence of our other Paffions, fo they are fitted particularly to check that very finful Kind of Vehemence, which we are exceedingly prone to express, one against another. Whoever will but confider of how short a Duration our Existence here is, and with how great a Number of unavoidable Sufferings it is filled, will be thoroughly convinced, that there is no manner of Need for us to load the few and evil Days † of our Fellow-creatures with additional Uneafineffes, but great Occafion to give one another all the Comfort we can; and live as friendly as poffible, whilft we stay together, with those from whom we are to part fo foon, and appear before the Father of all; who will treat us, as we have treated our Brethren.

Another Inftruction, which the Heart of the Wife will learn in the House of Mourning, is, never to flatter himself with Expectations of any lafting Good in a State fo uncertain as 2 Pet. iii. 14. + Gen. xlvii. 9.