ground, there should be no feeling, even of suspicion, that any terms are employed which cannot properly and suitably be addressed to the deity. It has been objected, that declaring God to have "taken to Himself the soul" of the departed, and expressing a "sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life," are words very improper at the burial of wicked men-to treat the objection with any feeling but that of the most serious reverence, would ill become any minister of the gospel; and it may be safely contended that some alteration would be an improvement, and chiefly in the words "sure and certain hope,"

short of belief, appear to

which, though

bespeak confi

1 No disputation is here intended, for the Author has been long convinced that controversy is not always propitious to truth, and is too often subversive of charity; all that he proposes is to shew how far he conceives the liturgical expressions to have the warrant of holy writ.

dence.

The expressions, however, as they now stand in our office, have been defended by many pious men, and many sound Christian ministers. It has been demanded, with reference to the first phrase, whether God does not take the souls of all men to His own most righteous and just judgment? When we say that God has taken a person to himself, we must not be understood to mean that the person is undoubtedly gone to heaven. The wise man says of men in general, and consequently of the wicked whose portion is not in heaven, that at their death the " spirit returns to God who gave it," Eccles. xii. 7. And if the spirits of all men go to God, then God certainly takes them to Himself— nor in the other phrase does the Church intend to assert, that the soul of every one over whose mortal remains the words

are pronounced, is certainly gone to a state of happiness-she expresses a sure and certain hope in general, but does not venture to express a certain belief that every one who receives Christian Burial, will be admitted to an eternity of happiness.1

The language of the church is full of kind wishes and merciful hopes; she of herself dares not condemn any before the time; when she affirms, as she does a little further on, in the very words of holy scripture, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." Rev. xiv. 13. She presumes not that all die so, and in a former part of the service assumes the possibility of falling from the Lord, even

1 It is rather the resurrection (indeed so expressed) than the resurrection of the person now interred, which is spoken of, nor do we go on to mention the change of his vile body, but of our vile body, which comprehends the bodies of all Christians in general.

at the last hour. The hope of the church rests only on this suppositionthat the departed may have died in the Lord, and in this there is agreement with the Spirit of the word of truth itself: "be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." Rev. ii. 10. And again: "he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." After all, in primitive times, when church discipline was preserved in vigour and activity, the burial service would only have been used in cases where there was considerable reason to think favourably of the spiritual state of the deceased person. The officiating minister is now bound to read the whole passage as he finds it in the appointed office, and no minister nor private person whatever, can venture to pronounce in any particular case (for a

miracle may yet be wrought) that there is absolutely no hope.

RUBRIC:

Then shall be said or sung:

"I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write, from henceforth blessed are the dead which die in the Lord: even so saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labours."-Rev. xiv. 13.

This noble passage from the book of Revelation is a special revelation made to St. John, and ordered to be recorded for ever by him, to be a perpetual consolation in relation to the state of departed saints; for since Jesus hath now conquered death, from henceforth "blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." They are no more to be lamented, but to be the subjects of our joy. The Spirit assures us that " they rest from their

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