370 / 674
(
350
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DISCOURSE
II.
THE
WATCHFUL CHRISTIAN DYING
IN
PEACE.
OCPASIONED BY
THE
DECEASE OF MRS. SARAH ABNEY, DAUGH-
TER
OF THE LATE
SIR
THOMAS
ABNEY, KNT,
PREACHED APRIL
2,
1732.
Dedicated
to the
Lady
Àbney,
Mother
of
the
Deceased,
and
to
Mrs. Mary
and Mrs.
Elizabeth
Abney,
her
two
surviving Sisters.
MADAM,
I
Fsorrows
could
be diminished
in proportion to
the
multitude
of
those
who
share in
them,
the
spring of your tears
would have been
drawn
almost
dry,
and
the tide
of
grief
have sunk
low,
by
being divided
into
a
thousand
streams.
But.
though
this cannot
afford
perfect relief
to
your
ladyship,
yet it
must
be
some
consolation to
have been
blessed
with
a
daughter,
whose removal from
our
world could give occasion for
so
gene-
ral
a mourning.
I
confess,
Madam, the
wound which
was
made by
such a
smarting
stroke,
is
not to
be
healed
in a
day
or two, reason permits some risings
of
the
softer
and kinder
passions in
such
a season
;
it
shews,
at least,
that our
hearts
are not
marble, and
reveals
the tender ingredients that
are mould-
ed
up
in
our
frame;
nor
does
religion
permit
us to
be insensible, when á
God
afflicts,
though
he
dòth
it
with
the
hand
of
a
father
and
a
friend;
'Nature
and
love
are
full
of
these sensibilities,
and
incline
you
to
miss
her
presence
in
every place,
where she
was
Wont
to
attend
yon,
and where
you rejoiced in her,
as
one of
your
dearest
blessings. She
is
taken
"away
indeed
from
mortal sight, and
to follow
her
remains to
the
grave, and
to
dwell
there,
gives
but
a
dark and melancholy
view, till
the great
rising-
day. Faith
may
discern the distant prospect, and
exult
in
the
sight
of
that
glorious
futurity;
yet
I
think there
is
also a
nearer
relief,
Madam,
to
your
sorrows. By
the virtues,
which shone in
her
life, you
may trace
the
ascent
of
her spirit
to
the
world of immortality and
joy.
Could your
Ladyship
keep the eye
of your
soul
directed thither,
you would
find
it an
effectual balm
for a
heart
that
bleeds
at the
painful remembrance of her
death.
What
could
your Ladyship
have asked
as
a
higher
favour
of
heaven,
than
to
have bdrn and
trained
up
a
child
for
teat
glorious inhe-
ritance, and
to have her secured
bf the
possession
beyond
all possible fear
'or
danger of
losing it.
This, Madam,
is
your
own
divinest hope
for
'yourself, and
you
are
hastening
on
toward
that
blessed society,
as
fast
as
days
and
hours give
leave.
When your thoughts descend
to this lower world
again, there
are
.
two
living
comforts
near you,
of
the
same
kind
with
what
you have
lost
:
May
your
Ladyship
rejoice
in
them yet many
years, and
they
in
you!
And
when Jesus, who
hath
the keys of
death,
and the
-invisible
state,
shall appoint the hour
for your
ascent
-to
heaven, may you leave them
behind
to
bless
the
world.
with
fair
examples
of virtue and piety
among
men, and
a
long
train of
services
for
the interest of their Redeemer.
If
I
were
to
say
any
thin,
young Ladies,
to
you
in
particular,
it should
be
in
the language
of our Saviour,
and
his
beloved apostle,
"
Hold
fast
what you have till the
Lord
comes,
that
none
may deprive
you
of
your