But let us not loose sight of the righteous: Not only does he see nothing on the bed of death which surprises him, but he is likewise separated from nothing which he laments or regrets. For what can death separate him from, to occasion either regret or tears? From the world? Alas! from a world, in which he had always lived as an exile; in which he had found only shameful excesses, which grieved his faith; dangers at which his innocence trembled; attentions, which were troublesome to him; ties, which, in spite of himself, still divided him between heaven and the earth: We feel little regret for the loss of what we have never loved. From his riches and wealth? Alas! his treasure was in heaven: His riches had been the riches of the poor: He looses them not; he is only about to regain them for ever, in the bosom of God. From his titles and dignities? Alas! it is a yoke from which he is delivered: The only title dear to him, was the one he had received in baptism, which he now bears to the presence of God, and which constitutes his claim to the eternal promises. From his relations and friends? Alas! he knows that he only precedes them by a moment; that death cannot separate those whom piety had joined upon the earth ; and that, soon united together in the bosom of God, they shall again form the same church, and the same people, and shall enjoy the delights of an immortal society, From his children? He leaves to them the Lord as a father; his example and his instructions as an inheri tance; his good wishes and his blessing as a final consolation: And, like David, he expires in entreating for his son Solomon, not temporal prosperities, but a perfect heart, love of the law, and the fear of the God of his fathers. From his body? Alas! from that body which

he had always chastised and crucified; which he considered as his enemy; which kept him still dependent upon the senses and the flesh; which overwhelmed him under the weight of so many humiliating wants : from that house of clay, which confined him prisoner ; which prolonged the days of his banishment and his slavery, and retarded his union with Jesus Christ: Ah! like St. Paul, he earnestly wishes its dissolution: It is an irksome cloathing, from which he is delivered; it is a wall of separation from his God, which is destroyed; and which now leaves him free, and qualified to take his flight towards the eternal mountains. Thus death separates him from nothing, because faith had already separated him from all.

I might add, that the changes which take place on the bed of death, so full of despair to the sinner, change nothing in the faithful soul. His reason, it is true, decays; but for a long time past, he had subjected it to the yoke of faith, and extinguished its vain lights before the light of God, and the profundity of his mysteries. His expiring eyes become darkened, and are closed upon all visible objects; but long ago they had been fixed on the invisible alone. His tongue is immoveable; but he had long before planted the guard of circumspection on it, and meditated in silence the mercies of the God of his fathers. All his senses are blunted, and lose their natural use; but for a long time past, he had himself interdicted their influence. He had eyes, and saw not; ears, and heard not; taste, and relished only the things of heaven. Nothing is changed, therefore, to this soul, ou the bed of death. His body falls in pieces; all created beings vanish from his eyes; light retires; all nature re, turns to nothing; and, in the midst of all these changes, he alone changeth not; he alone is always the same.

How sublime, my brethren, does faith render the death of the righteous! How worthy of God, of angels, and of men, is the sight of the upright man in that last moment! It is then that the faithful heart appears master of the world, and of all created beings; it is then that, participating already in the greatness and the immutability of the God to whom he is on the eve of being united, he is elevated above all; in the world, without any connection with it; in a mortal body, without being chained to it; in the midst of his relations and friends, without seeing or knowing them; in the midst of the embarrassments and changes which his death opens to his sight, without the smallest interruption to his tranquility: He is already fixed in the bosom of God, while all things are destroyed. Once more, my brethren, how noble is it to have lived in the observance of the law of the Lord, and to die in his fear! With what dignity does not faith then display itself in the righteous! It is the moment of his glory and triumph; it is the centre at which the whole lustre of his life and of his virtues unite.

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How beautiful to see the righteous man, then, moving with a tranquil and majestic pace towards eternity! And with reason did the false prophet cry out when he saw the triumphal march of the Israelites entering into the land of promise, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my end be like his. Numb. xxiii 10. And behold, my brethren, in the last place, what completely fills with joy and consolation the faithful soul on the bed of death: It is the thought of futurity. The sinner, during health, looks forward to a future state with a tranquil eye: but in this last moment, beholding its approach, his tranquility is changed into shudder

ings and terror. The upright man, on the contrary, during the days of his mortal life, durst never regard, with a fixed eye, the depth and extent of God's judgments: He wrought out his salvation with fear and trembling; he shuddered at the very thought of that dreadful futurity, where even the just, if judged without mercy, shall hardly be saved: But, on the bed of death, the God of peace, who displays himself to him, calms his agitations; his fears immediately cease, and are changed into a soothing hope. He already pierces, with expiring eyes, through that cloud of mortality which still surrounds him, and sees the throne of glory, and the Son of man at his Father's right hand, ready to receive him; that immortal country, for which he had longed so much, and upon which his mind had always dwelt; that holy Zion, which the God of his fathers filleth with his glory and his presence; where he filleth the elect with a torrent of delights, and maketh them forever enjoy the incomprehensible riches which he hath prepared for those who love him; that city of the people of God, the residence of the saints, the habitation of the just, and of the prophets, where he shall again find his brethren, with whom charity had united him on the earth, and with whom he shall bless eternally the tender mercies of the Lord, and join with them in hallelujahs to his praise.

Then, when the ministers of the church shall also come to announce to this soul, that the hour is arrived, and that eternity approaches; they shall tell him, in the name of the church, which sends them, "Depart, Chris"tian soul; quit at last that earth, where you have so "long been a stranger and a captive: The time of trial " and tribulation is over; Behold, at last, the upright Vol. I.

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SERMON XI.

ON CHARITY.

JOHN vi. 11.

And Jesus took the loaves, and, when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down.

Ir was not without design that our Saviour employed his disciples, in the prodigy of multiplying the loaves; and that he made use of their ministry, in distributing the miraculous food among a people pressed with hunger and want. He might no doubt, have caused manna to pour again upon the desart, and saved his disciples the trouble of so painful a distribution.

But might He not, also, after having raised up Lazarus from the dead, have dispensed with their assistance in unloosing him? Could his Almighty voice, which had just broken asunder the chains of death, have found any assistance from the feeble bands which the