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The vanity of such an excuse as this, I hope there will be little occasion to enlarge upon, after what I delivered on the subject, in a former discourse.

"A more convenient Season! To-morrow, and again to-morrow, or any succeeding portion of our time-these are not ours of a certain. Amidst the constant Monitors of the uncertainty of Things hereto keep, day after day, hanging on to-morrow; to behold our short Glass of Life ebbing and shaking to its last sands; Friend after Friend torn from our Bosoms; and yet we still defer our main chance-Oh! this is the height of all Infatuation!"

My next, or ninth Discourse will be in part a continuation and conclusion of this great Subject of a future Judgment, as treated of by sundry of the most eminent Divines of our Church, and some learned foreign writers.

SERMON IX.

FIRST PREACHED JANUARY 12, 1794.

1 THESS. Chap. IV. Ver. 13—18.

MARVELLOUS is our curiosity in the days of our ambition and worldly glory, to search into the Records of Time for our Pedigree and the History of our Ancestors; and to emblazon our Coat of Arms with every Ensign of their Renown and laudable Achievements. The Soul, in particular, bears its part high in this work; always hankering after something new, and to know what it did not. know before; especially concerning its own Origin, and the Origin of Unhappiness and Evil, in the Creation of God. Nor is this curiosity confined to what concerns itself only, but extends into the whole World of Spirits, and all that has befallen, or can possibly befal them! The sublime Burnett, has a stretch of Imagination on this subject, so bold, that I read it with a kind of trembling dread, which chills even Admiration!

"The History of Angels (says he), good or bad, "and the part they act in the Ministry of Heaven, "will engage our attention in another World; and "we even wish to pry into it while we sojourn in this

"World.-For my part, (continues he), I had rather "know the History of Lucifer himself, than of all "the Babylonian and Persian Kings; nay, than of "all the Kings of the earth. What was his Birth" right before his Rebellion and Fall? What were "his Dominions? Where stood his imperial Court "and where was his Residence? How was he van

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quished, dethroned, deposed, cast down? For "what Crime or Cause, and by what Power? What "were those Wars in Heaven, and how carried on, "concerning which the incomparable Milton has "expended such a fund of sublime Imagination, and

Eloquence? By what means does this Infernal

“Prince still uphold his Kingdom, and continue to "wage War against Heaven, even in his exiled state? "Who are his Confederates? What is his Power

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over Mankind, and how far limited? What Check, "Change or Damage, did he sustain by the Coming "of Christ? and how did it affect or alter the pos"ture of his affairs? What will be his last Fate and "final Doom; and whether he may ever hope for "Restoration, and a Re-instatement in the Favour "of God?"-On this last part Burnett ventures no decisive opinion of his own, in this place; but it may be gathered from his writings elsewhere, that he does not think such a Restitution impossible, or contradictory to the benevolent Plan of God, in the exercise of his creating and redeeming Love!

The Soul (from the arguments already delivered, Sermons V, VI, page 70, and elsewhere) being now persuaded, though with much reluctance, of the necessity of parting with her dear companion, her Mor

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tal Bride, the Body, consoles herself with the assurance that the separation will be but for a short time, a moment as it were, compared to endless Duration; and that, in the meanwhile the Body shall not be injured by its sleep in the dust, but shall come forth again, new-clothed and dressed in the rich embroideries of Heaven and Immortality; more beautiful and refulgent by absence; " being like unto that Chrystal, which purifying in its Bed of Dust, after "the Revolution of many Ages, is said to be turned "into the brightest Diamond." Nevertheless, the Soul, now left alone and without a Body, becomes greatly anxious, and inquisitive, concerning what may be its own Fate and Fortunes, during the mean or middle period, between Death and the Resurrection (the length of which it is not given man to know) for we must not believe in the Doctrine too commonly received, " of our Going Post from the Grave "to Heaven, because it is contrary to the Notion of "a Resurrection, and to the concurrent opinion of "all the Fathers; who, from Tradition, and from the "Conversation some of them had with our Saviour's

disciples, must have preserved some shadow of "this Doctrine, in their Writings, if it had been "spoken of or any way current, in their day."

This intermediate space of time, between the Grave and the Resurrection, when the Soul is to exist separate from its inhumed body, being allowed on all hands, the employment and place of abode of Souls during that Time can only admit of Two opinions, and be regulated by two kinds of LearningFirst, of those who are guided by the Light of Nature,

and the Strength of their own Reason, commonly called the Heathen or Gentile Nations; and secondly, of those called Christians, who seek to derive Aid from divine Revelation.

Among the former, I consider the ancient Romans as the chief, and their great Poet Virgil has pointed out, and described, fit mansions, and proper Employments for them, in what are called the Elysian Fields, (Æneid, book VI;) and Monsieur Simon, (in a memoir, read before the French Academy of Sciences, under the title, Dissertation sur les Lemures), tells us, that "the Romans, according to Ovid and Apuleius, gave the general name of Lemures to departed Souls of every degree; but that they were distinguished into two different Species; the one harmless, benevolent, innocent and joyous; taking Pleasure in their Services to good men, and especially to the surviving Families of those who had been their Friends and Benefactors in Life ;-whose houses they took under their Protection, and watched or guarded with particular care, by the name of Lares, or household Gods: The others were called Larve, a troublesome and mischievous kind of Sprites, who return from the grave only to make disturbances and excite quarrels among the Living.

As to the second, or more modern Class of Men, who seek aid from Divine Revelation, (and are generally called Christians), they are not very well agreed among themselves, and are also again subdivided into modern Romans, commonly called Catholics, and those called Protestants. The former have devised a place named Purgatory "for the

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