emptiness of all earthly concerns, the little

pleasure with which he now looks back on any worldly acquirements which he may have made, on any worldly accomplishments which he may have possessed; the recollection of having been regular and constant in the performance of his duty towards God-just and charitable according to his means, in his behaviour towards his fellow-creatures—and sober, chaste, and temperate, in his own personal conduct,— he will assure them, are now his only comforts; on the other hand, if unhappily he has not this to say, he may tell them, for he will full certainly experience it, of the remorse which he feels for the sins of which he has been guilty, and for the various virtues which he has omitted-and how very different a course of life he will pursue in future, if it should please God to restore him to health. Let him not fear to declare this resolution, from the

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SER M.

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XIX.

SERM. apprehension that if he recovers he shall disgrace himself by not adhering to it, since he cannot but know how deeply he is interested in it; and perhaps the having openly declared his intentious, may be one means of keeping him to them in case of his recovery.

They who are able may say much more than what I have recommended, but all may say this; all may say, how much pleasure the recollection of their good actions gives them, and how much concern and terror the remembrance of their vices ; all may recommend the former, and earnestly conjure those who are around them to avoid the latter. The good may thus confirm the virtuous impression which their lives have made on their friends, by this counsel at their deaths; and the wicked may in some measure (at least it is all which they can do) weaken the bad effects of the past vicious example which

they

they have set. I should now proceed to SERM. point out those duties of the dying person,

which have for their object God and the salvation of his own soul; but this I must reserve for a future opportunity.

XIX.

SERMON XX.

ON THE DUTIES OF THE SICK.

SECOND PART.

ISAIAH XXXVIII. LATTER PART OF V. I.

Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live.

In a late discourse on this text, I proposed SER M.

to point out the principal duties incumbent

on us in the hour of sickness. These, I observed, were of two kinds, temporal and spiritual; the first relating to our fellowcreatures, the latter to God and our own

XX.