And, lo! thou art unto them as a very lovely fong of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an inftrument; for they hear thy words, but they do them not.

Thus you recollect, that though pleasure may be made the vehicle of instruction, yet it must not be the end in which we are to acquiefce. The falutary draught may be fweetened, the health-reftoring pill may be gilded; but if we take nothing but the syrup and the gilding, our eye or our palate may be pleased, while our disease remains uncured. Come with an honeft and upright heart, and a sincere defire, not of being amused only, but of learning, in order to practise, your duty; and then, however mean the performance or the performer, you will not depart without a bleffing. God will open your ears, illuminate your understandings, and direct your inclinations to the things which belong unto your peace.

It evidently appears then, that both hearer and preacher may juftly exclaim, when they duly confider their duties, Who is fufficient for these things? What remains, but that they fupplicate the God of mercies to fupply their defects, to accept, after their earnest endeayours, the will for the deed, and to let his

mercy receive, what his juftice might reject and condemn.

Let us all, both hearers and preachers, remember with comfort, that though we are not fufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves, yet our fufficiency is of God, who, in "all our works begun, continued, and ended "in him, will affift us with his moft gracious "favour; that we may glorify his most holy name, and finally obtain everlasting sal"vation."

SERMON XXIII.*

On the BENEFITS to be derived from the SIGHT of a FUNERAL.

PSALM cii. 23.

He brought down my strength in my journey, and fhortened my days.—

IT

T was the particular manner of our blessed Saviour, when he had affembled the multitude, to derive topics of moral inftruction from the objects which were immediately before him, and which unavoidably obtruded themfelves on the eyes of his audience.

It was the spring season, when he gave them the fermon on the mount. Obferve it, and you will find almost all the allufions are to things which, at that time, and from that

*Preached at Tunbridge, (by defire,) on the death of a poor woman, the wife of a carrier, who was taken ill on one of her journies, and died foon after.

place, a mount, offered themselves to his view, and to the notice of those whom he addreffed.

Thus when he taught them to truft in God, he bade them behold the fowls of the air, which were then gayly on the wing, or melodiously chanting their carols around them, fed by divine Providence, though they did not fow, nor reap, like the husbandmen, who were probably sowing their fields in his fight at that moment. He defired them to notice the lilies, that is, all the gay flowers of the field, which were then blooming around them in the meadows, and were fo beautifully clothed by the Almighty; and yet toiled not, like the labourers in the field, who were then bufy in their vernal husbandry. You will find, in like manner, that on whatever fubject he difcourfed, he attended to the profpect immediately before him, or to the profeffion and circumftances of those who heard him. Thus were his inftructions better attended to; they became lively and picturefque; they entertained while they improved, and they had nothing of the dull manner of a formal harangue.

In humble imitation of our bleffed Saviour, the ministers of the Gospel endeavour to inftruct

ftruct their hearers from the paffing scene. A funeral is one of thofe fpectacles, which cannot

fail to afford a striking leffon. coffin, in which are depofited the

Look at that

poor

remains of a human being. Paufe, and reflect. It affords a fermon of itself, and, to a thinking mind, renders the admonitions of the pulpit entirely fuperfluous.

Yet the affectionate regard of furviving relations requires, on the occafion, a difcourfe from the pulpit. It is a wifh that does honour to the filial piety of those who entertain it. And it is the rather complied with, as it affords an opportunity of conveying some instruction, which might not rife fpontaneously in the minds of thofe who, from various motives, attend in crowds this funeral ceremony.

You who know the circumstances of the laft illness which brought our departed fifter to her end, will not be at a lofs to account for the choice of my text. He brought down my ftrength in my journey, and shortened my days. The cold hand of death first caught hold of her in one of those journies, which fhe ufually took, with her industrious partner, to gain an honeft maintenance. Death grafped her on her journey, nor let her go again till he had gained dominion over her; brought her in triumph, as you now fee,