( 374 ) DISCOURSE II. THE HAPPINESS OF SEPARATE SPIRITS, &c. Attempted in a Funeral Discourse inMemory of Sir JOHN HARrorP, Bart. deceased. THE INTRODUCTION. IT is a solemn and mournful occasion that has brought me to this placé this day. m Divine Providence, and the will of surviving relatives, call me to pay the last sacred andpious respect to the memory ofthe deceased; a wörthy gentleman, and an excellent christian, who has lately left our world in a good old age. It is something more than ten years since I was engaged in the saine service to the memory of his honoured and pious lady, when by a double and painful stroke the mother and the daughter were joined in death ; when the two kindred families were smitten in the tenderest part, and each of them sustained a loss that could never be repaired. f This town was the place which they had all honoured with their habi- tation, and spent the largest part of their lives amongst you; but they are now become inhabitants of the heavenly city, they dwell in the world of blessed spirits, and I would lead your devoutest thoughts to follow them thither. Come then, let our meditations take their rise from those words of-the great apostle, in HEB. xü. 23. The Spirits of just Men made perfect. IT is a much sweeter employment to trace the souls of our departed friends into those upper and brighter re- gions, than to be ever dwelling upon the dark prospect, and fixing our eyes upon death, and dust, and the grave : and that not only because it gives us a comfortable view of the persons whom we mourn, and thus it relieves our most weighty and smarting sorrows; but because it leads us to consider our own best interest, and our highest hopes, and puts us in mind of the communion that we have with those blessed spirits in heaven, while we be-. * Sir John Hartopp died April 1, and the substance of this discourse was ton, April 15, following. t See a particular account, p. 371 margin. 1722, in the 85th year of his age ; delivered briefly at Stoke-Newing- of the foregoing discourse in the
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