])ISCOIIRSE II. The Happiness of Separate Spirits, Sie. Attempted in a Funeral Discourse in Memory of Sir John Hartopp, Bart deceased. THE INTRODUCTIOÑ. It is a solemn and mournful occasionthat has brought me to this place this day. Divine Providence, and the will of surviving relatives, call me topay the last sacred and pious respect to the memory of ,the deceased ; a worthygentleman, 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 same ser- vies to the memoryof his honouredandpious lady, whenby adouble and pain- ful stroke the mother and daughter werejoined in death ; when the two kin- dred families were smitten in the tenderest part, and each of them sustaineda loss that could never be repairedt. Thistown was the place which theyhad all honoured with their habitati- on, and spent the largest parts of their lives amongst you ; but they are nosy become inhabitants of-the heavenly city; they dwell in the world of blessed spirits, and I would lead your devouetst thoughts to follow them thither. cie ne then, let our meditationstake their rise from those words of the great apostle, in HEE. xii. 23. The Spirits of just men made perfect. IT is a much sweeter employment to trace the souls of our de- parted friends into those upper and brighter regions, 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 comfortableview of the persons whom wemourn, and thus it relieves our most weighty and smarting sorrows ; but be- cause it leads us to consider our own best interest, and our high- est hopes, and puts us in mind of the communion that we have with thoseblessed spiritsin heaven, while webelong to the church on earth. We are come, says the apostle, ver. 22. We in the ipsppel state, are come to mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem. tv the innumerablecompany ofangels, and to the spirits ofjust men made perfect. What sortofcommunion it is that good men here below maintain with those exalted spirits, is not mypresent busi- * Sir John Haltoppdied April I, 1722, in the 85th year ofhis age ; and the substanceof this discourse was delivered briefly at Stoke-Newington, April 15, following. j See a particular account, p, 371 if the foregoing discourse in tho *virgin,
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