to ourselves, without benefitting the deceased, and to turn our thoughts to a due care of our own souls, in order to our meeting again, with infinitely more joy than we now part with sorrow and grief. If the departed died in the faith and fear of God, we have indeed cause to express our thanks that he rests from his labours, that his warfare is accomplished. If we doubt his preparation for death and judgment, we may yet conclude that he is taken away in mercy. He might have continued to add sin to sin, or might have been an occasion of sin to others. It is the rule of the apostle, that in every thing we should give thanks, and we are repeatedly taught in scripture, that all the dispensations of God, however dark and inscrutable to us, are governed by mercy and goodness; yet to give "hearty thanks" so

soon, is considered by many, unnatural. 'It may be easy,' says Archdeacon Berens, in a chapter on Church Offices,

to convince the reason, that in every thing we should give thanks, but an address to the Almighty should proceed from the heart, and should not be made. in words to which as yet the heart can not respond;' and he expresses a wish that the expression of thanks could be changed into an expression of, or prayer for, resignation, and that the prayer to God 'shortly to accomplish the number of his elect,' were altered into a prayer for readiness to die, and that we who survive in this and similar daily spectacles of mortality, may see how frail and uncertain our own condition is, and may so number our days as to apply our hearts to heavenly wisdom. It would indeed be unnatural not to be affected by the

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death of a relation or friend; but while we feel as men, we should learn to bear it as Christians, and when we consider from what our departed friend is delivered, and what he has gained, not to be thankful for this, is an act of unkindness to him, and of ingratitude to God.

In beseeching God that it would please him of his gracious goodness shortly to accomplish the number of his elect, and hasten his kingdom; it should be remembered, that it is our daily prayer, that 'God's kingdom may come," and as we have been hitherto considering the miseries of this life, and the happy state of those that are religiously departed in peace, we cannot but wish ourselves in the same happy condition with those souls that are gone before us; at least, that we may happily meet each other in the kingdom of heaven, when God's good time

is come. We know that as long as this world endures, Satan will rage, and sin will strive to reign; enemies will oppress us, and miseries disquiet us, and all good people that live in it; wherefore we are not only willing, but desirous, that the last great day may come, when those that love God, and are beloved by him again, may be gathered together; that being the time which will unite the church militant and triumphant, and give unto all saints their perfect consummation of bliss both in body and soul.

RUBRIC:

The Collect.

"O merciful God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the resurrection and the life; in whom whosoever believeth shall live, though he die: and whosoever liveth, and believeth in him, shall not die eternally; who also hath

taught us, by his holy Apostle Saint Paul, not to be sorry, as men without hope, for them that sleep in him: We meekly beseech thee, O Father, to raise us from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness; that, when we shall depart this life, we may rest in him, as our hope is this our brother doth; and that, at the general Resurrection in the last day, we may be found acceptable in thy sight; and receive that blessing, which thy well-beloved Son shall then pronounce to all that love and fear thee, saying, Come, ye blessed children of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world: Grant this, we beseech thee, O merciful Father, through Jesus Christ, our Mediator and Redeemer." Amen.

The word Collect' may suitably be applied (as it is in the Rubric,) to this last address to Almighty God, because it is a collection of the choicest sentences in Scripture. There are intermingled such acts of hope concerning the deceased, and such a prospect of the means to make us happy with him, as being