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Funeral sermon

In all thy works remember thy last End (Ecclesiasticus 7:40) .

At the funeral of J. McDermot. August 2.

Man's greatest weakness consists in receiving too easily impressions from sensible objects. The cares & solicitudes of Life fill his Heart & its pleasures corrupt it by drawing it from God & the concerns of a future State. So that when an agreeable object presents it self, we naturally move toward it with affection & entertain it with Pleasure. It [* illeg.] the Imagination, it seizes the heart, & when the Place is thus taken up to our satisfaction, all serious thoughts are so much wormwood presented to Persons that are gratifying themselves with the most delicious wines. And we are so far from inviting them to us, that we usually reject them as envious Intruders that come to disturb or embitter all our Pleasures.

This easiness in our nature of receiving violent impressions from sensible objects, may be looked upon as the Root of all our Passions & by consequence of all the dis[?] of human Life & the best Remedy against the weakness is the frequent consideration of such truths as are our most proper to prevent the violence of those Impressions or give an early check to them, when they happen to surprise us. Now of all the truths of Christian Religion none are more proper to produce these happy Effects, then those which regard our last End & the consequences that attend our departing out of the world. O how little would this world appear if like the Royal prophet we always kept Eternity in view! how weak would all its charms become, if we considered & were convinced in our Hearts that they are the seeds of everlasting misery & torments! All Criminal Pleasures presented to a [* damage] penetrated with these truths would lose their relish,

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Innocence would find them an effectual Preservative against sin & the most corrupt temper would grow uneasy under the stings & terrors they would leave behind them.

Give me leave then [Dear Christians] on this mournful occasion to lead you to the serious consideration of death to the consequences that attend it. for if it be the indispensable duty of Every Christian to reflect often upon his last End, it is certainly a more pressing obligation when we assist at the funerals of our deceased friends, when going to the house of mourning (Ecclesiasticus 7:2-4) as Ecclesiasticus expresses it, we are admonished of the End of all men & see before our Eyes an instance of our frail mortality a moving example of what we must all soon come to, & much more proper ye upon these occasions then funeral Eulogiums on the deceased which are commonly but too justly suspected of flattery.

It is not my design to speak at present of the Infallible certainty of death, it being an article of our faith that it is appointed for all Men once to die: nor of the uncertainty of the time manner and Place of death, daily experience convincing us that nothing is more uncertain, tho these Reflections might be very profitable & edifying, since we behold but too many who live as if they persuaded themselves they were not to die at all, or at least had both the time & manner at their own disposal. I shall only consider death in itself or rather as to its Effects: first as it is a total separation from all things of the world. 2dly as it is an end of time. & 3dly as it gives us a clearer notion of God & heavenly things I shall endeavor to improve these Reflections

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truths, by drawing such instructive Inferences as may serve for your Edification here & eternal welfare hereafter.

The time will come, how soon god only knows when death will separate us from all these things in which now we wretchedly place our happiness; when we must bid an eternal adieu to Parents, Children, Friends, Riches, honors, Employments in fine to all things of this Life tho never so dear, tho never so much loved & esteemed. This we all believe, but alas it makes but little impression on our minds! The greatest part of Christians placing their only happiness in worldly enjoyments, here stop, & never reflect on that inexpressible Grief, that extremity of sorrow which will ensue from this Doleful separation. Oh! my dear Brethren it's impossible to express the anguish a worldly soul will feel, when it is thus entirely deprived of all that was the object of its happiness of its joy & consolation! In this world our grief tho never so great, finds some allay, meets with some comfort, by reason that the lively apprehension of the thing we have lost in times grows dull & is at length forgot: or if the cause of sorrow remains it is in great measure diverted by other objects, & yet we sometimes behold it increase to such an extremity as to deprive people of their Life & often of their reason: how great then must be the affliction of a soul separated from the body, when she clearly & distinctly perceives the loss of all things, ~~[all]~~ when she finds herself deprived of ~~all~~ every thing that can afford the least delight, that can yield the smallest consolation. It was this apprehension that made the wicked King Agog at the moment of death make this doleful complaint. Sicine separat amara Mors (1 Samuel 15:32) ?

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Oh! bitter death! dost thou thus separate us from all the darling objects of our Pleasures? It was for this reason that the wise man, cries out, Oh death how bitter is thy remembrance to those who have peace, who seek content in the deceitful riches, in the fleeting Pleasures of this world (Ecclesiasticus 41:1-2) . In fine this privation of all things in which the unfortunate soul heretofore placed its happiness, will cause it, as St. Augustine. says: to be never living; never Dead, but always dying for a whole Eternity. ¹ Ah Christians, how shall we be able to suffer this everlasting grief, we that are impatient at the least uneasiness? O Let us be wise in time, let us endeavor to prevent this sorrow that will otherwise certainly be the consequence of this separation from all things of this world, by dying daily to the world; by weaning our affections from all its sinful Pleasures; & empty amusements; Let use this world and all things in it, as St. Paul advises, as if we used it not (1 Corinthians 7:31) : then we shall experience but little sorrow in being separated from all transitory things, since as St. Augustine assures us, we shall easily part without grief, from what we possess without love. ²

But this total separation from all things is not the only dismal Effect of death: but it puts an End to time in respect of us, & gives us an entrance into Eternity. what the Angel will pronounce at the day of Judgment to all the world: Tempus non erit amplius: There will be no more time (Revelation 10:6) : will be said to each of in particular at the hour of our death. We shall then clearly perceive that our term is finished: that the time of mercy is at an End & that all opportunities of doing penance for Sins:

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& meriting by good works are past & over. Then, we shall make a right judgment of the immense difference betwixt the time past, & an Eternity to come: we shall have a just idea of the value of those precious moments, we have so foolishly squandered away: we shall perfectly understand the vanity & baseness of these transitory goods, in which we foolishly placed our happiness: & shall begin to have a right Estimate of those that are Eternal. These will be the Sentiments both of the Just & the Reprobate: but alas with far different effects: The just will not troubled to perceive the vileness of all earthly goods, they will not be afflicted to find them disappear at their Entrance into Eternity: because they always esteemed them base & trivial as they are & never placed their happiness or content in them.

But what tongue is able to express the horror, amazement, fury & despair of the Reprobate, when they shall see the difference betwixt time & Eternity: betwixt the goods of this Life & those of the next. Then they will be forced to their eternal confusion, to acknowledge that they have been deceived or rather have deceived themselves, crying in the extremity of their anguish & despair as the book of Wisdom excellently describes. Ergo erravimus. Therefore we have erred from the way of truth & the light of Justice did not shine upon us: We have been tired in the ways of Iniquity & Perdition: we have not known the way of our Lord. What profit has our pride brought us or what good have our riches in which we boasted & gloried done us (Wisdom 5:6-8) ? We fools, esteemed as madness the Life of the Just & their End without honor, behold how they are numbered among the Sons of God & have their portion with the Saints (Wisdom 5:4-5) .

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These will be the sentiments, these the fruitless complaints of the wicked at their death, which they will never give over for a whole Eternity. Let us now turn to our thoughts to ourselves & see how we may profit by their dreadful misfortune. To do this we must not imagine that these are vain speculations, the Rhetoric or exaggerations of a Preacher: alas! they are sad, but infallible truths. We shall all of us very soon find ourselves in one of these two States. We shall all have these thoughts as to the value of time: We shall be sensible that if we employ it well, a happy Eternity will be our reward: if we misspend it: eternal misery will be our lot. We shall all of us hear this Sentence pronounced to each of us at the hour of our Death. There will be no more time for You. Let us therefore not despise it, while we have it, to lament the ill use of it, when we shall have it no more.

At the same moment, that death separates us from all things in this world & put an End to time in respect to us: it likewise gives us a clearer understanding of God a knowledge quite different from that we have of him in this Life. For tho’ we know that by his omnipotency he created us: by his Immensity that he is in all Places & each moment present to us: by his mercy he preserves us from a thousand miseries & is continually heaping blessings upon us: in short that he is infinitely just to reward our virtues & punish our vices, infinitely amiable to deserve our love; infinitely dreadful to excite our fear; yet this knowledge makes but very little impression on us, we are so wholly taken up with Creatures so distracted with the pleasures, business & employments of the world, that we only frame to our selves a faint Idea of his greatness & Majesty, else how should we dare to offend & provoke him by our Sins?

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But it will not be so in the other Life. The very moment that the soul shall be delivered from the Prison of the body all the clouds which before darkened her understanding, will disappear: she will have a clear idea of the majesty, greatness, goodness & all the other divine Attributes of Almighty God: Then the Prophesy of Isaias will be accomplished in respect to us Exaltabitur dominus ~~solis~~ solus in illa die Our Lord shall be alone exalted in that day (Isaiah 2:11) . For then we shall acknowledge the Infinity of his greatness & the abyss of our own weakness & tho’ we had the presumption to contemn and despise him in this Life & to subtract ourselves as it were from his protection, yet then we shall clearly perceive our essential dependence on him, & that we cannot withdraw ourselves from his Power, but must remain eternally in the state in which his divine Justice will place us. This knowledge of God will cause an expressible joy in those who have faithfully served him in this Life, they will be absorbed in an ocean of bliss to behold clearly the divine Essence with all its boundless & infinite Perfections: will for ever love & praise his goodness & eternally bless the time, that they kept his holy commands that they lamented their offenses committed against so great a Majesty, & suffered some light afflictions for his sake. But my God! what dismal Effects will this knowledge cause in the Souls of the wicked? How will they be tormented to find themselves incapable of loving nay even forced to hate that charming beauty? how will they be confounded at their ingratitude, in slighting his unspeakable mercy? how will they tremble at the inflexibility of his Justice? At his infinite hatred he has for them & the unlimited power he has to punish them? Alas! they will then know God, but to their

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everlasting torment. They will behold God as St. Gregory says as a fire, because they would not behold him as a light. They will see him as an Enemy because they willfully rejected him as a friend. ³

Now [Dear Christians] Which of these States do we choose? Now it is in our power by the divine Assistance to determine whether we will then know Almighty God to our eternal happiness or misery. We shall certainly know & love him for Eternity, as we do in time. If then we desire to know, love & praise him for Ever, why do not we strive to do it now? If he is far from our thoughts & affections in this Life, we must not imagine that he will manifest himself to us in the next in such a manner as to make us happy; since as St. Augustine says No one is in a condition to enter into that blessed Life who has not exercised & prepared himself for it in this world. ⁴

Let us then seriously reflect what has been our behavior & Employment here; what place has God in our thoughts, in our discourses, in our actions? do we make him the ultimate End of them all? Do they all tend to his honor & glory? They must do so now, if we hope to be happy in the knowledge, love & enjoyment of him for ever. But if our thoughts, are wholly taken up with the concerns of this Life: if we never speak of God but to offend him; if scarce one action of the day be directed to his service, we must never expect to know him any otherwise than as a most rigorous Judge as a just revenger of our ungrateful forgetfulness our stupid neglect, our perfidious contempt of his infinite Majesty.

Thus [Dear Christians] in brief I have represented to your serious considerations some of those dreadful things which accompany death; I have touched upon some of those

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Sentiments we shall have at our separation from all things of this Life, at our entrance into Eternity, & which will follow from the knowledge we shall then begin to have of Almighty God, what remains but that I beg of you by the Passion of Jesus Christ that I conjure you in the name of God & exhort You as you sincerely tender the Salvation of your Souls, to think often now, upon the condition we shall all be reduced to at the dreadful hour of death: of the unspeakable joy we shall conceive if we have spent our lives faithfully in the service of God & the horror we shall be seized with, if we have slighted his mercy & contemned his holy commandments

Remember, nay let it never be out of your thoughts, that we can die but once, that we have but one soul to save, & that if once we miscarry, we are lost for ever: Let not our care & diligence in our worldly business, in our diversions, nay even in the contrivance & execution of our Crimes, rise up in Judgment & condemn us of Sloth & negligence in our great, our main, our only affair, the Salvation of our precious Souls. Methinks a rational Creature created to the Image of God, should blush & be confounded at the very thoughts of being more solicitous for his worldly concerns, than for his immortal soul redeemed by the sacred blood of Jesus Christ. But yet alas such is the lamentable frailty, misery, & blindness of the far greatest Part of mankind. Whence proceeds this deplorable misfortune? In great measure for want of serious reflection, for want of soberly, sedately, & seriously considering what it is to be eternally happy or miserable, What it is to burn for ever in unquenchable fire & with the devils to hate, curse & blaspheme almighty God,

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or to enjoy unspeakable Pleasures & in the company of the Angels to love, praise & bless him for a whole Eternity. Let us at least often reflect upon these truths, Let us frequently represent to ourselves that that death which will place in one of these states of happiness or misery treads every moment upon our heels let us make our whole Life a continual preparation for death: by this means we shall die the death of the Just, which is precious in god’s sight which God etc.

At Mrs. Frisby’s funeral the 7th of April 1752—

August the 19 1753 at Mr. Graeton’s funeral

At Mrs. Ungle’s funeral at Oxford the 27 of August 1754

At Mrs. Neal's funeral January the 2nd 1761

at Forest. March 1764

At the manor March 1765

At [Robert] White's July 1767

At St. Joseph's funeral of Mrs. Queen January 7, 1773

Funeral Sermon, Ecclesiasticus 7:40