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DISCOURSE
II.
THE
HAPPINESS
OF SEPARATE SPIRITS,
&c.
Attempted
in a
Funeral
Discourse
in
Memory 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
and
pious
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