upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices." May so fearful a passage of the divine word as this be the means of exciting the youngest, the healthiest, the strongest among you, to seek the Lord while he may be found, and to call upon him while he is near! (Isa. lv. 6.) May it induce you to employ the present time, the only time you can call your own, this your day, in the necessary consideration of your latter end! It is in this way, and in this way only, that you can hope to attain that wisdom, which has been justly described as "more precious than rubies." It is thus only that you can hope to be made, not only truly wise as to this present world, but wise also unto everlasting salvation.

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SERMON XIX.

THE HOPE OF THE RIGHTEOUS IN DEATH.

A FUNERAL SERMON,

Preached, on occasion of the death of Mrs. B—, in the Parish Church of St. Giles, Oxford, P.M. January 2nd,

1814.

PROV. XIV. 32.

"The righteous hath hope in his death."

HE, who described death as the most terrible of all terrible things, uttered a sentiment, the truth of which is acknowledged by the generality of mankind. Do we then hear of such a thing as hope in death? hope in the very wreck of human nature? Surely, if there be an inquiry which surpasses all others in point of importance, it is this: "How this hope may be attained, how we may make it our own?" A satisfactory an

swer to this inquiry will be afforded by a serious consideration of the words of the text.

In discoursing on these words I propose to lay before you,

I. A GENERAL illustration of the position contained in them; and,

II. A PARTICULAR exemplification of its truth. I proceed to lay before you,

I. A GENERAL illustration of the position contained in the words of the text. Under this part of the subject we have to notice,

1. The person here spoken of: he is "the righteous." And,

2. The declaration here made respecting him : it is said of him that he " hath hope in his death." Let us, then, consider,

I. The person here spoken of. And who is the righteous?

He would properly be called righteous, who should perfectly keep God's holy law; who should continue in all things written in the book of the law to do them. But the appellation, in this sense of the word, belongs to none of the mere children of Adam: "For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not." (Eccles. vii. 20.) In this sense, "there is none righteous, no, not one." (See Rom. iii. 10— 20.)

Those, too, may be said to be righteous, who are so merely in their own proud, and vain, and empty conceit respecting themselves. Such persons were meant by our Lord when he said, " I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Matt. ix. 13.) Those who were righteous in this sense of the word would not accept his salvation, and would, consequently, perish in their sins. Such clearly are not the righteous who have hope in their death.

So far, indeed, is this from being the case, that the person mentioned in the text is one who is deeply sensible that, naturally, he has no righteousness of his own. He is deeply sensible that his nature is essentially corrupt, that he was shapen in iniquity, and conceived in sin; that he is a child of disobedience, a transgressor from the womb, even as others. He is sensible, too, even though he may have maintained a most respectable exterior, and though he may be distinguished by much amiableness of temper and usefulness of life, that yet in ten thousand instances he has both left undone those things which he ought to have done, and done those things which he ought not to have done. He is deeply convinced of those manifold sins, and of that wickedness which he, from time to

time, has committed, by thought, word, and deed, against the Divine Majesty.

Being thus inexpressibly far from having continued in all things written in the book of the law to do them, he knows that he has richly deserved the tremendous curse of the law, that curse which will, at last, and for ever, fall on the wretched heads of those who shall persevere in refusing really and truly to apply by faith and prayer to him, who was made a curse for us to redeem us from the curse of the law.

But enough has been said to show how widely different a character the person mentioned in the text is from that righteous man whose righteousness consists only in his own empty conceit of it.

Since, then, we are all thus sinners by nature and practice, and exposed to the tremendous consequences of sin, how can any of us be made or constituted righteous? A more satisfactory answer to this question cannot be given than that which is contained in the eleventh Article of our church, where, in perfect conformity with the language of Scripture, we are taught that "we are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by faith, and not for our own works or deservings."