A FUNERAL SERMON.

HONORED LEGISLATORS,

You are assembled to deplore the loss, and to consecrate the memory, of your late associates in the services and honors of the State. It has pleased the ALMIGHTY to remove them from the busy scenes of life, and to consign them to the quiet house of death. This awful dispensation of Divine Providence announces to us the precarious tenure of life, and the alarming fragility of all its hopes, its labors, and its honors. Let us hear the warning voice of God! Let us learn our own destiny in the example of others! In the late afflictive visitation, you behold several members of this honorable Legislature, whose hopes were as strong, and whose prospects were as bright as your own; who shared with you the labors of the State; who equally with you enjoyed the public confidence and esteem; suddenly arrested in their course, and removed into the eternal world., While we magnify that divine forbearance which has spared us; and gratefully recognize that Divine Providence which has encircled us with blessings; let us adore that righteous and mysterious Sovereignty which disposes of all things on the earth and in the heavens; let us bow to that tremendous Majesty, before whom all human grandeur shrinks into nothing. But while we tremble before the great and everliving God, let us hope and rejoice; remembering that his goodness is as bound

less as his power; that whatever he creates he blesses; and that he does "not willingly grieve or afflict the children of men." -Though he has subjected us to death; yet he has rendered this, to all who embrace and obey the gospel, the means of increased felicity and glory. With only the light of nature for our guide, we can trace the progress of man no farther than the grave. Here he appears fallen and forever lost. But aided by revelation, we can follow him into a future world, and behold him surviving the stroke of death, and triumphing in immortal existence.

The sun of righteousness has poured his rays into the gloomy valley and brightened the region of disembodied spirits. He has abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light. It is the distinguishing attribute of Christianity, that it dispels the doubts of its votaries, and inspires them with confidence and hope. So strong and lively is this hope in the breast of the Christian, that the scripture describes it "as an anchor to the soul both sure and steadfast." To all who regard their future welfare, it becomes an object of the deepest interest to ascertain the grounds on which a Christian builds his hope of existence and happiness beyond the grave. That we may view this subject in the light of divine truth, permit me to call your attention to those words of the apostle Paul, recorded in 2 Cor. v. 6. "Therefore, we are always confident, knowing, that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord."

The uncertainty in which we are involved with regard to futurity, is the principal circumstance which renders death an object of terror. Were our destiny after the present life fully unfolded, our happiness or our misery would be greatly augmented. God, no doubt, has furnished us with as much knowledge as is suitable to our state; and in a great degree, has wisely concealed from our view, the glories and terrors of a future world. Between these and our present state, the difference is so great, the contrast so tremendous and disproportionate, that a complete disclosure would overwhelm us with astonishment, suspend our powers, and totally disqualify us for the businesses and enjoyments of life. Though we see through a glass darkly, yet we see enough to excite our hopes and our fears; enough to

alarm the vicious and encourage the virtuous; enough to rouse up all our exertions to obtain the favor and avoid the displeasure of our Maker. While engrossed in the cares, the toils, and the pleasures of the present life, and regardless of God and futurity, "we walk by sight, and are children of disobedience;" but when the terrors of the Lord arrest us; when we realize that we must stand before the judgment-seat of Christ; we begin to walk by faith, and feel the power "of things invisible and eternal." Faith substantiates these to the mind, and gives them a governing influence over our conduct. Faith discharges the same office to the soul, that the eye does to the body, bringing near and displaying things distant and unseen; forming a medium of communication between the soul and the future world, and enabling it to rely on the testimony of God. It is the grand peculiarity of the Christian system, that all its great rewards lie in a future world; and that all its incentives to virtue and dissuasives from vice, are clothed with the weight and importance of eternity. Hence it is, that, in the Scriptures, such mighty virtue is attributed to the principle of faith. It operates as a new sense, which reaches forward beyond life, and lays hold on things distant and unseen, giving them a powerful and decisive influence on the heart and conduct. Christianity, in this point of view, is of incalculable value to society and government. Faith is the governor and director of the Christian. It forms his sentiments, aud animates his actions. How powerful, how conspicuous, was its influence on the primitive believers; especially on the apostle Paul! Such was his persuasion of the reality of things eternal, that he esteemed all the evils, labors and sufferings of the present world, as of no consideration, in comparison of that eternal weight of glory which is to come. Such was his hope and confidence in God, that he could say, as in the words preceding our text, "we know that if this earthly house of our tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." His confidence was greatly increased by the consideration, that God was its author, and had strengthened it by the testimony of his Spirit. Now," says he, "he that hath wrought us for this self-same thing, is God, who also hath given us the earnest

of the Spirit." "Therefore we are always confident, knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord."

The following important doctrines are contained in these words:

I. That the soul survives the dissolution of the body.

II. That Christians at death are received into heaven, where Christ their Lord is, in his glorified body.

III. That Christians have sufficient reasons to be always con fident that they shall exist after death, and be forever with Christ in glory.

These particulars I shall endeavor to illustrate and confirm. I shall then close the service, with a short address.

I. I am first to show that the soul survives the dissolution of the body.

On the subject of the immortality of the soul, the ancients entertained various and contradictory opinions. It is, however, apparent, that the predominant belief of the wisest and best philosophers was, that the soul is indestructible and immortal. Of this they seemed to have rather a strong persuasion, than a firm and stable conviction. They saw that man appeared not to answer any determinate and ultimate purpose in the present state. They discovered in his intellectual and moral nature, principles that seemed susceptible of unlimited improvement, desires boundless as eternity. Were these bestowed, merely to be destroyed? To the various desires and instincts of man they saw appropriate objects provided. Could it be supposed that the ardent desire of endless existence was bestowed without a possibility of gratification? Every feeling of the heart revolts at the thoughts of annihilation. It seemed inconsistent with the wisdom and goodness of God, to reduce to nonentity such a being as man, almost as soon as he began to exist, before his powers were evolved and carried to perfection. Besides, every thing here appeared confused and disproportionate: Vice often rode in triumph, while virtue grovelled in the dust; evil often pre

vailed over good, and injustice rioted in the spoils of innocence. A state of retribution or equalization appeared to be demanded or indicated, by the rectoral justice of God. Socrates, the greatest philosopher in all heathen antiquity, contended earnestly for the immortality of the soul. From this he considered man as deriving his principal dignity and worth. It is, however, very apparent from the last words of Socrates to his judges, that his belief in the immortality of the soul, was not unmixed with doubt and uncertainty. Cicero, with all his gigantic powers and lordly virtues, was greatly perplexed on this subject; and after adding to his own profound meditations, the lights of all his predecessors, seemed ardently to desire, rather than firmly to believe, the immortality of the soul. Thus inadequate appears the light of nature, even in the greatest men, on this most important subject.

Among the moderns who have expressed their opinions on it, Doctor Priestley is the most distinguished. The leading principle of his doctrine is, "That man is no more than we see him to be." He is a simple material being. What is called mind, is merely the result of animal organization. There is no foundation in nature for the usual distinction between soul and body, or mind and matter. Mind, or the power of thought, is a mere quality of the brain; resides in it as its proper organ, and by it exhibits all those phenomena that are denominated mental. When the human body is completely formed, organised, and combined, and all the senses operated on by their appropriate objects, the result is thought, or the power of thinking; in the same manner as music proceeds from a complete instrument when struck by a skilful hand. Thus, upon this scheme, mind can have no separate existence. Demolish the organization of the body, and the man ceases to exist; he is as if he never had been, and for his future life depends entirely on the resurrection. When this shall be accomplished, and the body re-organised and re-combined, the power of thought will re-appear; consciousness will resume her empire, and the man will find himself the same person that he was before his dissolution.

This doctrine appears to me equally repugnant to sound philosophy and the language of Scripture. To reject the distinc