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beatific vision and enjoyment of God the Father, as their faculties are more and more enlarged and expanded.

Under the Power and Efficacy of this Religion, the feeblest among true Christians will excel in Courage and Philosophy even the boasted Socrates! When all around him is Mourning and Weeping, and Sorrow and Wringing of Hands, thè dying Christian, on whom Heaven and Glory begin to shine, will be superlatively raised above all Mortal Weakness, and will comfort even his comforters!

With these Reflections, and on this Subject of Comfort in Death, I conclude with a grand description of the great and pious Dr. Young--

"As some tall Tower, or lofty Mountain's Brow,
"Detains the Sun illustrious from their height;
"While rising Vapours and descending Shades,
"With Damps and Darkness, drown the spacious Vale:
"Undampt by Doubt, undarken'd by Despair-
"The Good Man, dying, rears his Head, august,
"At that black Hour, which general Horror spreads
"On the low level of th' inglorious Throng.
"Sweet Peace and heavenly Hope and humble Joy,
"Divinely beam on his exalted Soul;

"Destruction gild, and crown him for the skies,
"With incommunicable lustre bright!

And now, O blessed God! Father, Son and Holy Ghost, guide and assist us in our Preparations for this Celestial Bliss; and be our Rock and Salvation through all the Scenes we have to pass towards its attainment. Amen!

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PREFACE.

THE respectable man, at whose Funeral this Sermon was preached, died September 4, 1772, having passed the 80th year of his age. He was of a very ancient family, the GREME'S of Bulgowan, where he was born, near Perth, in Scotland, the eldest branch of the noble family of Montrose. He was educated in the line of Physic, and came early into Pennsylvania, during the government of Sir William Keith, whose relation he married, and continued for many years a successful and highly respected Practitioner, in the line of his profession.

I was acquainted with him almost 20 years; that is from the first day of my coming to Philadelphia, until the day of his Death; and by a standing invitation spent every Sunday evening with him and his family, excepting in the Summer season, when they were at Græme-Park, his family seat, about 23 miles from Philadelphia.

At our meetings in the Winter season, I found him generally with five or six friends, besides the family, of co-genial sentiments, and among others, the Rev. Dr. Peters, Rector of Christ-Church and St. Peters, Philadelphia. As he advanced in years, a deafness to which he had been in part subject for many years, increased so much that it induced him to decline the practice of Physic, and to keep only a few medicines to be given gratis, to such poor as he thought wanted them, after examining their cases and circumstances. His understanding and mental faculties still remaining sound; the Hon. Penn family, with which he lived in great intimacy, when any of them visited or governed the [then] Province, bestowed upon him a lucrative office in the customs, wherein he conducted himself with such integrity as gave great satisfaction to the mercantile interest, without any sacrifice of his duty to the government. Of his family I shall give a short account, in the Appendix to this volume.

SERMON XII.

PROV. Chap. XVI, Ver. 31.

The hoary head is a Crown of Glory, if it be found in the way of Righteousness.

THE Old Age and Venerable Character of the Man whose corps now lies before us, led to the choice of this Text; for this Congregation, and every other Congregation however numerous, may be divided into two classes of People—either those whose Heads are already hoary, and silvered over by the Hand of Time; or those who hope and wish to arrive at that stage of life.

How to render our old age honourable in the eyes of the Young, and to render our hoary Hairs a crown of Glory to ourselves, if peradventure God should crown us with the patriarchal blessing of living to a good old age, is, therefore a matter of the most serious concern-especially in an age and country, when the petulance and forwardness of Youth, lead them to tread on the Heels of their Seniors, with such rude and rough steps, as if they wished to push them off the stage, before their short act of life is finished, in order to make room for themselves.

Certain it is that Providence hath not cast us into so bad a world, (bad however as we must confess it to be) but that old age may be rendered happy in itself, and respectable in the eyes of all that behold it; and Solomon, in the text, hath beautifully told us how it may be done;-namely, by "exercising it in the ways of Righteousness."

Righteousness is, indeed, an ornament to all stages of life; but it sits peculiarly graceful and glorious on old age and the boary head; and the reason is, because its opposite, Vice, is peculiarly disgraceful to years of Gravity and Discretion.

The young and unthinking generally find some excuse, though indeed a bad one, by pleading want of Experience, the Strength of Passion, and Rage of unsubdued Appetite, as an apology for their Imprudences, their Follies and Extravagances; but for the Aged-those whose Heads are boar; whose Brows are furrowed over by Time; whose limbs are tottering on the brink of the Grave and Eternity; whose gust for sensual Pleasure is palled and almost dead ;respecting them, I say, to retain the Inclination and shew a Disposition for Vice, after all its Temptations have left them-how enormously ridiculous' do they render themselves! and what fatal Stabs do they give to the Cause of Truth and Holiness! How grievously do they mistake all the laws of Propriety and Decorum; and how little do they consider the conduct that becomes them; and that an old age which is found in Sobriety and Righteousness, according to our text,―an old age which is exercised in Peace and Virtue; an old age which is become respectable

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