for the future; if I die with the foothing recollection of the many innocent and generous fatisfactions I have enjoyed, on time and abilities properly used, in the fure and certain expectation of a better everlasting life; if whether living or dying I acquiefce in the decrees of God, and revere them as the decrees of the wifeft, the tenderest father: what is there terrible in such a death? Nay, rather how pleasant must fuch a diffolution be, how bright, how brilliant the last moments of a man thus dying! And must not the transition from fuch a life to fuch a death, the departure of such a foul from its claybuilt tenement be no lefs gentle than the feparation of the withered leaf from its parent bough? Yes, live, o man, in conformity with thy nature and the ends for which thou waft created; waste and abridge not thy life in folly, or by fin; use and enjoy it with prudent moderation; mark it with many a good deed; ornament it with the rich flowers and fruits of wisdom and virtue: fo fhall the act of dying never be diftreffing to thee, it will be a pleasant paffage into life eternal.

Yet more. Do I perceive in the forfaken grove, now fingle leaves gently fall from their heights, and flowly flutter in circling eddies to the ground, now whole hosts of them fhaken by a stronger agitation of the air, break loofe and press in a more rapid descent to the earth, they call to me now in fofter then in louder accents: thus falls one of you flowly and unobferved and lays him foftly and quietly in

the

the lap of earth, while others are violently and fuddenly carried off by raging ftorms and plunged into the yawning grave; but there the dust of one mingles with the duft of the other, both that and these have reached their term, have fulfilled their deftinies, and it is not the manner how they left the world, but what they have tranfacted in it, the manner how they filled their poft, that decides their lot. Happy he, who is always ready for his departure, always prepared to give up the account that follows it, he is and continues happy and his end is the commencement of ftill greater felicity, whether death approach him with flow and filent step, or hurry him unexpectedly and rapidly from the land of the living!

The latter days of autumn yield me more inftruction still. Here I behold the lately robuft and fpreading tree, which gave harbour and nourishment to the choristers of the woods, and afforded shade and refreshment to the weary traveller, entirely ftripped of its leaves, expofed to the attacks of the inclement season, a lamentable fport to the raging winds, perhaps foon to become a prey to their fury. It now no longer can afford either fuftenance or fhelter to others, its vital fap as it were dried up, is often on the brink of total extinction, the extremities of its boughs and twigs already dead, and is itself in want of that protection which it lately lent to others. What a lively, speaking emblem of the last stage of mortal man! Separated from the friends

of

of his youth, from his fellow travellers in the fummer of life, he there ftands defolate and forlorn, emaciated by hard labour, fometimes with the additional burden of forrow and care, unable to ferve and affift others, he wants himself every fort of relief and kindness from them, can make no refistance to adversity, bends timid and trembling to every ruder gust of fortune, and is always ripe and mellow enough to be crushed under every stroke of affliction. No, to wish for fuch a prolongation of life is weaknefs, but it is no lefs a weakness anxiously to dread it. That is the wish of a foul entirely devoted to the objects of fenfe and cleaving to the ground; this the dread of a dejected mind bereft of reliance on God and his gracious fupport, and both are degrading and difgraceful to the man. No, this alone is wisdom, calmly to refign the difpenfation of life and death to him who has the command of both, and to accept them both from his hand in full affurance that both are nothing but means and ways to happiness. This alone is wisdom, fo to employ the best of our years and abilities in works of usefulness and beneficence, and in the spring and fummer of our lives to effect fo much good, to diffeminate so much fatisfaction and pleasure around us, that in our advanced years and with exhausted powers we may cheerfully accept the reward of our fervices done to mankind and be affured that it is conferred upon us by true gratitude and love.

If, in conclufion, my pious hearers, the spring

and

and the fummer incite us to activity, to generally useful industry, the unabated application of our faculties in promoting the welfare of all that lives, and particularly of our brethren; if they reprefent to us life, joy and happiness, as the final aim of all the decrees and arrangements of heaven, and call upon us to contribute as much as in us lies to that end; if they preach to us order, harmony, induftry, diligence, as the immutable laws of nature and humanity: the later feafon ftrikingly reminds us of the fragility and fugacioufnefs of our life, of the inconftancy and viciffitude of all that we here poffefs, enjoy, undertake of beautiful and good; of the various and fignal transformations brought about with us in death, on which however, as in nature, not total extinction, but renovated, fuperior life, greater activity and happiness, will enfue. Let us hearken to the voice of nature, my dear friends, and apply her falutary inftructions to our improvement; let us everywhere investigate the traces of a wife and benign providence, and with childlike docility eagerly attend to every suggestion of the creator and ruler of the univerfe: thus fhall we learn wisdom from the viciffitude of the feasons, and find in it not only no caufe of complaint, but the strongest reafons for content and fatisfaction. Thus may all of us who are fenfible to the charm of nature's works, hold converfe with the deity himself, grow day by day familiar with his conceptions, act upon his plan, and form the relifh of our fouls to his.

SERMON XVII.

God's Thoughts and Ways are not the Thoughts and Ways of Man.

GOD, Eternal, Infinite, First and Laft, Supreme,

Allperfect, who dwelleft in inacceffible light, whom no mortal has ever feen or can fee, what abyffes yawn before us, in what clouds and darkness are we involved, when we turn our thoughts on thee, when we strive to approach thee, when we prefume to cast a look into the fecrets of thy decrees, into the ways of thy all encircling providence and government! How fenfibly we at fuch times feel our ignorance and our imbecility! How foon we lofe fight of ouffelves and all that surrounds us. God, in profound humility the fublimeft fpirit adores thee as the Incomprehenfible, as the Unfearchable; and we, infants, we, who adhere to the earth, and are more flesh than fpirit, fhall we not fall proftrate on