his great Industry in inftructing the Youth, and adapting himself to the tenderest Age, and meanest Capacity. As he executed this Work with great Pains and Diligence, fo did he allo fingle it out with good Judgment. Early Impreffions are known to be lasting. When the Field is once overrun with Briars and Thorns, it is often too late to attempt the Cultivation of it; after-Instructions are choaked and fruitless; he knew the most effectual Way to do Good was to begin foon, before the Mind is prepoffeffed and tainted. He finished his Catechetical Lectures the Sunday before he finished his Course, a Circumstance he thought remarkable, and which gave him no ordinary Comfort in his last Sickness. The other Particular was,

his great Zeal for the Lord's House. God had bleffed him with a plentiful Fortune, and given him a prudent and generous Heart to difpofe of it.

He

ᅥ

He may justly be faid in general not to be born for himself, or to have liv'd to himself. But his religious Bounty was most remarkable and extraordinary; He was barely a Steward of his Church Revenues for the Benefit of the Church; and could we know as much of his private Charities as we do of his publick, and had he lived to have accomplished his Design of augmenting the poor Vicarages of his Diocese, those especially of the Bishop's Patronage, it is highly probable He would have been impoverished by his Promotion. He would not offer unto the Lord of that which cost him nothing, but was a King and Priest unto God. Upon the whole, we may safely affirm, that Justice and Mercy, Complaifance and Sincerity, Generofity and Oeconomy, Piety and Power, never refided together in one Person in a sweeter Harmony.

Could

Could he now speak to us, he would with his usual Tenderness, lay to us in our Lord's Words, Weep not for me, ye Sons and Daughters of Ferufalem, but weep for your felves and for your Children.

But I fear, that in this short and very imperfect Recital of the Character of this Good Man, I have made those Wounds to bleed a-fresh, which it was my Intention to close up and heal. Let us therefore recollect the Doctrine of my Text; let us make this great and affecting Lofs, an Exercife and Improvement of our Patience and Refignation, of our Faith and Hope; fo fhall we extract from it the peaceable Fruits of Righteousness. Let us reverence his Memory, and follow his Example, and copy his Virtues, that where he is, there we may be alfo; where all Tears fhall be wiped away from our Eyes, and there fhall be no Sorrow nor any more Pain. D IS

1

DISCOURSE X.

The Duty and Advantage of bearing one another's Burdens.

GAL. vi. 2.

Bear ye one another's Burdens, and fo
fulfil the Law of Christ.

T is implied in these Words
Man has his Bur-

that every

dens; and it may be thought fufficient for every one to bear his own: and an Injunction upon Creatures, every one of whom are already weary and heavy laden, to bear not only their own, but other

Mens

Men's Burdens too, feems to carry in it, a great deal of Hardship and Severity: It looks more like the arbitrary Law of a cruel Tyrant, than the kind Direction of a tender and compaffionate Governor.

But as we are in general affured, that the Law of Chrift, is a Law of Love ; that he came into the World not to destroy, but to fave, not to add to the Miseries of Mankind, but to inlarge their Happiness, both in this World and the next, and that he even laid down his Life for this Purpose; so we need not be difcouraged in our Inquiries into the Meaning of any of his Precepts; feeing if we hit upon a right Interpretation of them, we are fecure of finding something very useful and advantageous to us. Every Interpretation of every Law of Chrift, which is not evidently promotive of the Perfection and Happiness of Mankind, must be a false Interpretation.

As