The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living and Dying V. OF VISITATION OF THE SICK Section I God, who has made no new covenant with dying persons, distinct from the covenant of the living, has also appointed no distinct sacraments for them, no other usages but such as are common to all the spiritual necessities of living and healthy persons. In all the days of our religion, from our baptism to the resignation of our soul, God has appointed his servants to minister to the necessities of souls, to bless, prudently to guide, and wisely to judge concerning them; and the Holy Spirit, that anointing from above, descends upon us in several effluxes, but ever by the ministries of the church. What the children of Israel begged of Moses, that God “would no more speak to them alone, but by his servant Moses,” lest they should be consumed, God, in compliance with our infirmities, has of his own goodness established as a perpetual law in all ages of Christianity, that God will speak to us by his servants, and our solemn prayers shall be made to him by their advocation, and his blessings descend from heaven by their hands, and our offices return there by their presidencies, and our repentance shall be managed by them, and our pardon in many degrees ministered by them. God comforts us by their sermons, and reproves us by their discipline, and cuts off some by their severity, and reconciles others by their gentleness, and relieves us by their prayers, and instructs us by their discourses, and heals our sicknesses by their intercessions presented to God, and united to Christ’s advocation. And in all this, they are no causes, but servants of the will of God, instruments of the divine grace, stewards and dispensers of the mysteries, and appointed to our souls to serve and lead, and to help in all dangers and necessities. And they who received us in our baptism are also to carry us to our grave, and to take care that our end be as our life was, or should have been; and therefore it is established as an apostolic rule, “Is any man sick among you? Let him send for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him” (James 5:14). Section II Rules for the Visitations of Sick Persons 1. Let the minister be sent for, not only against the agony of death, but be advised within the whole conduct of the sickness; for in sickness indefinitely, and therefore in every sickness, and therefore in such which are not mortal, St. James gives the advice; and the sick man being bound to require them, is also tied to do it when he can know them, and his own necessity. 2. The interactions of the minister with the sick man have so much variety in them that they are not to be transacted at once; and therefore they do not well who send once to see the good man with sorrow, and hear him pray, and thank him, and dismiss him civilly, and desire to see his face no more. To dress a person for his funeral is not a work to be dispatched at one meeting. At one time he needs comfort, and another something to make him willing to die; and by and by he is tempted to impatience, and that needs a special cure; and it is a great work to make his confessions well and with advantages; and it may be the man is careless and indifferent, and then he needs to be made acquainted with the evil of his sin, and the danger of his person. And his cases of conscience may be so many and so intricate, that he is not quickly to be reduced to peace; and one time the holy man must pray, and another time he must exhort, a third time administer the holy sacrament. And he who ought to watch all the periods and little portions of his life, lest he should be surprised and overcome, needs to be watched when he is sick, and assisted, and called upon, and reminded of the several parts of his duty, in every instant of his temptation. 3. When the ministers of religion have come, first let them do their ordinary offices; that is, pray for grace for the sick man, for patience, for resignation, for health (if it seems good to God in order to his great ends). For that is one of the ends of the advice of the apostle. And therefore the minister is to be sent for, not when the case is desperate, but before the sickness is come to its period. Let him discourse concerning the causes of sickness, and move him to consider concerning his condition. Let him call upon him to set his soul in order, to trim his lamp, to dress his soul; to renew acts of grace by way of prayer, to make amends in all the evils he has done; and to supply all the defects of duty, as much as his past condition requires, and his present can admit. When he has made this general entrance to the work of many days, he may descend to particulars by the following discourses. Section III Of Ministering in the Sick Man’s Confession of Sins and Repentance 1. The first necessity that is to be served is that of repentance, in which the ministers can in no way serve him, but by first exhorting him to confession of his sins, and declaration of the state of his soul. For unless they know the manner of his life, and the degrees of his restitution, either they can do nothing at all, or nothing of advantage and certainty. His discourses, like Jonathan’s arrows, may shoot short, or shoot over, but not wound where they should, nor open those humors that need a lancet or a cautery. To this purpose the sick man may be reminded that: Confession of sins is a proper act and introduction to repentance. When the Jews, being warned by the sermons of the Baptist, repented of their sins, they confessed their sins to John. The converts in the days of the apostles, returning to Christianity, instantly declared their faith and their repentance, by confession and declaration of their deeds, which they then renounced, abjured, and confessed to the apostles. Without confession it cannot easily be judged concerning the sick person, whether his conscience ought to be troubled or not, and therefore it cannot be certain that it is not necessary. There can be no reason against it but such as consults with flesh and blood, with infirmity and sin, to all which confession of sins is a direct enemy. The ministers of the gospel are the “ministers of reconciliation,” and are commanded “to restore such persons as are overtaken in a fault” (Gal. 6:1); and to that purpose they come to offer their ministry, if they may have cognizance of the fault and person. In the matter of prudence, it is not safe to trust a man’s self in the final condition of his soul; a man being no good judge in his own case and when a duty is so useful in all cases, so necessary in some, and encouraged by promises evangelical, by Scripture precedents, by the example of both testaments—he who for stubbornness, or sinful shamefacedness, or prejudice, or any other criminal weakness, shall decline to do it in the days of his danger, when the vanities of the world are worn off, and all affection to sin are wearied, this man, I say, is 2. The spiritual man will find in the conduct of his duty, many cases and varieties of accidents that will alter his course and forms of proceedings. Most men are of a rude indifference, apt to excuse themselves, ignorant of their condition, abused by evil principles, content with a general confession. And if you provoke them to it by the foregoing considerations, lest their spirits should be a little uneasy, or not secured in their own opinions, will be apt to say, “They are sinners, as every man has his infirmity, and they as well as others; but, God be thanked, they bear no ill-will to any man, or are not adulterers, or rebels, or they fought on the right side, and God be merciful to them, for they are sinners.” But you shall hardly open their breasts further, and to inquire beyond this would be to do the office of an accuser. 3. But, which is yet worse, there are very many persons who have been so used to a habitual course of a constant intemperance, or dissolution in any other instance, that the crime is made natural, and the conscience has digested all the trouble, and the man thinks himself in a good state. This happens in the cases of drunkenness and intemperate eating, idleness, mercilessness, lying, vain jesting, and particularly in spell evil which the laws do not punish, and public customs do not shame, but which are countenanced by potent sinners, or evil customs, or good nature, and mistaken civilities. Instruments by Way of Consideration, to Awaken a Careless Person, and a Stupid Conscience In these and the like cases the spiritual man must awaken the lethargy, and prick the conscience of the afflicted person, by representing to him that Christianity is a holy and a strict religion: That many are called but few are chosen. That the number of them who will be saved are but very few in respect of those who will descend into sorrow and everlasting darkness. That the measures of holiness in the Christian religion are not to be taken by the evil proportions of the multitude; because the multitude are those who do not enter into heaven, but the few, the elect, the holy servants of Jesus only. That every habitual sin amounts to a very great guilt in the whole, though it be but in a small instance. That if the righteous scarcely be saved, then there will be no place for the unrighteous and the sinner to appear in, but places of horror and amazement. That confidence has destroyed many souls, and many have had a sad portion who have reckoned themselves saints. That the promises of heaven are so great, that it is not reasonable to think that every man, and every kind of life, and an easy religion shall possess such infinite glories; that although heaven is a gift, yet there is a great severity and strict exacting of the conditions on our part to receive that gift. That we are commanded to work out our salvation with fear and trembling; and that this precept was given with very great reason, considering the thousand thousands of ways of miscarrying. That they who profess themselves servants of the institution, and servants of the law and discipline of Jesus, will find that they must judge themselves by the proportions of that law by which they were to rule themselves; that the laws of society and civility, and the voices of our company, are as ill judges as they are guides, but we are to stand or fall by his sentence who will not consider the talk of idle men, or the persuasion of willfully abused consciences; but of him who has felt our infirmity in all things but sin, and knows where our failings are unavoidable, and where and in what degree they are excusable; but never will endure a sin should seize upon any part of our love and deliberate choice. That nothing can be hid from the eyes of the Lord, to whom the day and the night, public and private words and thoughts, actions and designs, are equally discernible; that a lukewarm person is only secured in his own thoughts, but very unsafe in the event, and despised by God; that if he will cast up his accounts, even with a superficial eye, let him consider how few good works he has done, how inconsiderable is the relief which he gave to the poor, how little are the extraordinaries of his religion, and how inactive and lame, how polluted and disordered, were the ordinary parts and periods of it, and how many and great sins have stained his course of life; and until he enters into a particular scrutiny, let him only revolve in his mind what his general course has been, and in the way of prudence, let him say whether it was laudable and holy, or only indifferent and excusable; and if he can’ think it only excusable, then he cannot but think it very fit that he should search into his own state, and take a guide, that he may make his access fairer when he shall be called before the dreadful tribunal of Christ in the clouds. This is that which some spiritual persons call “awakening of the sinner by the terrors of the law”; but we have nothing to do with the terrors of the law; for, blessed be God, they concern us not. The terrors of the law were the curses upon all those who ever broke any of the least commandments, once, or in any instance; and to it the righteousness of faith is opposed. The terrors of the law admitted no repentance, no pardon, no abatement; and were so severe, that God never inflicted them at all according to the letter, because he admitted all to repentance who desired it with timely prayer, except in very few cases, as of Achan, Corah, or the like. But the state of threatening in the gospel is very fearful, because the conditions of avoiding them are easy, and they happen to evil persons after many warnings and frequent invitations to pardon and repentance. And in this sense it is necessary that such persons as we now deal with should be instructed concerning their danger. 4. When the sick man is either of himself, or by these considerations, set forward with purposes of repentance and confession of his sins in order to all its holy purposes, then the minister is to assist him in understanding the number of his sins, that is, the several kinds of them; for, as for the number of the particulars in every kind, he will need less help; and if he did, he can have it no where but in his own conscience, and from the witnesses of his conversation. Let this be done by prudent insinuation, by arts of remembrance, and secret notices, and propounding occasions and instruments of recalling such things to his mind, which either by public fame he is accused of, or by the temptations of his condition it is likely he might have contracted. 5. If the person is truly penitent, and forward to confess all things that are set before him or offered to his sight at a half face, then he may be complied with it in all his innocent circumstances, and his conscience be made placid and willing, and he may be drawn forward by kindness and civility, that his repentance in all the parts of it, and in every step of its progress, may be as voluntary and chosen as it can be. For by that means, if the sick person can be invited to do the work of religion, it enters by the door of his will, and will pass on toward consummation by the instrument of delight. 6. If the sick man is backward and without apprehension of the good-natured way, let the minister take care that by some way or other, the work of God be secured; and if he will not understand when he is secretly prompted, he must be asked in plain interrogatives concerning the crime of his life. He must be told of the evil things that are spoken of him in markets and exchanges, the proper temptations and accustomed evils of his calling and condition, of the action of scandal. And in all those actions which were public, or of which any notice has come abroad, let care be taken that the right side of the case of conscience be turned toward him, and the error truly represented to him, by which he was abused, as the injustice of his contracts, his oppressive bargains, his plunder and violence; and if he has persuaded himself to think well of a scandalous action, let him be advised of his folly and danger. 7. And it concerns the minister of religion to follow this advice without partiality, or fear, or interest; in much simplicity, and prudence, and hearty sincerity; having no other consideration, than that the interest of the man’s soul be preserved, and no caution used, but that the matter be represented with just circumstances, and civilities fitted to the person with prefaces of regard; so that nothing of the duty be diminished by it, that the introduction does not spoil the sermon, and both together ruin two souls, that of the speaker, and that of the hearer. For it may soon be considered, if the sick man is poor, yet his soul is equally dear to God, and was redeemed with the same price, and is therefore to be highly regarded. And there is no temptation, but that the spiritual man may speak freely without allaying interest, or fear, or mistaken civilities. But if the sick man is a prince, or a person of eminence or wealth, let it be remembered: it is an ill expression of reverence to his authority, or of regard to his person, to let him perish for the lack of an honest, and just, and free discourse. 8. Let the sick man in the scrutiny of his conscience and confession of his sins be carefully reminded to consider those sins which are only condemned in the court of conscience, and nowhere else. For there are certain secrecies, places of darkness and artificial veils, which the devil uses to hide our sins from us, and to incorporate them into our affections by a constant uninterrupted practice. Others are permitted by law; as usury in all countries. And because every excess of it is a certain sin, the permission of so suspected a matter makes it ready for us. Some things are not forbidden by human laws: as “lying in ordinary discourse, jeering, scoffing, intemperate eating, ingratitude, selling too dear, circumventing another in contracts, importunate entreaties, and temptation of persons to many instances of sin, pride, and ambition.” Some others do not reckon they sin against God, if the laws have seized upon the person; and many that are imprisoned for debt think themselves excused from payment; and when they pay the penalty, think they owe nothing for the scandal and disobedience. Some sins are thought not considerable, but go under the title of sins of infirmity; such as idle thoughts, impatience, and anger. Lastly, many things are thought not to be sins, such as misspending of time, whole days of useless and impertinent employment, winning men’s money, censuring men’s actions, curiosity, equivocating in the prices and secrets of buying and selling, rudeness, speaking truths enviously, and the like. Under the dark shadow of these unhappy and fruitless yew trees, the enemy of mankind makes very many to be hid from themselves, sewing before their nakedness the fig leaves of impunity, public permission, a temporal penalty, infirmity, prejudice, and ignorance. Now in all these cases the ministers are to be inquisitive and observant, lest the fallacy prevail upon the penitent to evil purposes; and that those things which in his life passed without observation, may now be brought forth and “pass under saws and harrows”; that is, the severity and censure of sorrow and condemnation. 9. To which I add, for the likeness of the thing, that the matter of omission be considered; for in them lies the bigger half of our failings. And yet in many instances they are undiscerned, because they very often sit down by the conscience, but never upon it. And they are usually looked upon as poor men look upon their not having coaches and horses. It will be hard to make them understand their ignorance; it requires knowledge to perceive it, and therefore he who can perceive it, has it not. 10. The ministers of religion must take care that the sick man’s confession be as minute and particular as it can be, and that as few sins as may be, be entrusted to the general prayer of pardon for all sins. For by being particular and enumerative of the variety of evils which disordered a man’s life, his repentance is disposed to be more afflictive, and therefore more salutary; it has in it more sincerity, and makes a better judgment of the final condition of the man; and from there it is certain that the hopes of the sick man can be more confident and reasonable. 11. The spiritual man who assists at the repentance of the sick must not be inquisitive into all the circumstances of the particular sins, but be content with those that are direct parts of the crime, and aggravation of the sorrow such as frequency, long abode, and earnest choice in acting them; violent desires, great expense, scandal of others; dishonor to religion, days of devotion, religious solemnities, and holy places; and the degrees of boldness and impudence, perfect resolution, and the habit. If the sick person be reminded or inquired into concerning these, it may prove a good instrument to increase his contrition. But the other circumstances, as of the relative person in the participation of the crime, the measures or circumstances of the impure action, the name of the injured man or woman, the quality or accidental condition, these, and all the like, are but questions springing from curiosity, and producing scruple, and apt to turn into many inconveniences. Section IV Of the Ministering to the Reconciliation of the Sick Person “If any man is overtaken in a fault, you who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness” (Gal. 6:1), that is the commission, and, “Let the elders of the church pray over the sick man . . . and if he has committed sins they shall be forgiven him” (James 5:14–15), that is the effect of his power and his ministry. But concerning this, some few things are to be considered. 1. In all cases of receiving confessions of sick men, and assisting to the advancement of repentance, the minister is to apportion to every kind of sin such spiritual remedies as are apt to mortify the sin; such as abstinence from their occasions and opportunities, to avoid temptations, to resist their beginnings, restitution of wrongs, satisfaction of injuries, and acts of virtue contrary to the crimes. And although in great and dangerous sicknesses they are not directly to be imposed unless they are direct matters of duty, yet where they are medicinal they are to be insinuated, and in a general way remarked to him, concerning which when he returns to health, he is to receive particular advices. 2. The proper temptations of sick men for which a remedy is not yet provided, are unreasonable fears and unreasonable confidences, which the minister is to cure by the following considerations: “That Christ came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). That God “delights not in the confusion and death of sinners” (Ezek. 18:32). That “in heaven there is great joy at the conversion of a sinner” (Luke 15:7). That Christ is a perpetual Advocate, daily interceding with his Father for our pardon. That God uses infinite arts, instruments, and devices to reconcile us to himself. That he sends angels to keep us from violence and evil company, from temptations and surprises, and his Holy Spirit to guide us in holy ways, and his servants to warn and remind us perpetually. And therefore since certainly he is so desirous to save us, as appears by his Word, by his oaths, by his very nature, and his daily artifices of mercy, it is not likely that he will condemn us without great provocations of his majesty, and perseverance in them. That the covenant of the gospel is a covenant of grace and of repentance, established with many great solemnities and miracles from heaven. That although forgiveness of sins is consigned to us in baptism, and that this baptism is but once, and cannot be repeated; yet forgiveness of sins is the grace of the gospel, which is perpetually free for us. That God in the old law, although he made a covenant of perfect obedience, and did not promise pardon at all after great sins; yet did give pardon, and declared it so to them for their own and for our sakes too. So he did to David, to Manasses, and to the whole nation of the Israelites ten times in the wilderness, even after their apostasies and idolatries. And in the prophets, the mercies of God and his remissions of sins were largely preached, though in the law God put on the robes of an angry Judge and a severe Lord. Therefore in the gospel, where he has established the whole sum of affairs upon faith and repentance, if God should not pardon great sinners who repent after baptism with a free dispensation, the gospel would be far harder than the intolerable covenant of the law. It was concerning baptized Christians that St. John said, “If any man sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, and he is the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:1–2). And concerning lapsed Christians, St. Paul gave instruction, thus, “If any man be overtaken in a fault, That God calls upon us to forgive our brother “seventy times seven times” (Matt. 18:22); and yet all that is but like the forgiving a hundred pence for his sake who forgives us ten thousand talents. That if we can forgive a hundred thousand times, it is certain God will do so to us; our blessed Lord having commanded us to pray for pardon, as we pardon our offending brother. That even in the case of very great sins, and great judgments inflicted upon the sinners, wise and good men have declared their sense to be, that God spent all his anger, and made it expire in that temporal misery; and so it was supposed to have been done in the case of Ananias. But that the hopes of any penitent man may not rely upon any uncertainty, we find in Holy Scripture that those Christians who had for their scandalous crimes deserved to be given over to Satan to be buffeted, yet had hopes to be saved in the day of the Lord. That God glories in the titles of mercy and forgiveness, and will not have his appellatives so finite and limited as to expire in one act or in a seldom pardon. But the minister must be infinitely careful that he does not go about to comfort vicious persons with the comforts belonging to God’s elect, lest he prostitute holy things, and make them common, and his sermons deceitful, and vices be encouraged in others, and the man himself find that he was deceived, when he descends into his house of sorrow. But because very few men are tempted with too great fears of failing, but very many are tempted by confidence and presumption, the ministers of religion had need be instructed with spiritual armor to resist this fiery dart of the devil. Section V Considerations against Presumption I have already enumerated many particulars to provoke a drowsy conscience to a scrutiny and a suspicion of himself, that by seeing cause to suspect his condition, he might more freely accuse himself. But if either before, or in his repentance, he should grow too big in his spirit, so as that either he does violence to humility, or abates his care and zeal of his repentance, the spiritual man must allay his forwardness by representing to him: 1. That a man cannot think too meanly of himself, but very easily he may think too highly. 2. That a wise man will always, in a matter of great consequence, think the worst, and a good man will condemn himself with a hearty sentence. 3. That a man’s heart is infinitely deceitful; unknown to itself, not certain in its own acts, praying one way, and desiring another, wandering and imperfect, loose and various, not understood of itself or anyone else, and deceitful beyond all the arts and numbers of observation. 4. That when we have done all that we can, we are unprofitable servants; and yet no man does all that he can do, and therefore is more to be despised and undervalued. 5. That the self-accusing publican was justified rather than the confident Pharisee. 6. That if Adam in paradise, and the angels in heaven, did fall, then it is prudent advice that we should not be high-minded, but fear; and when we stand most confidently, take heed lest we fall. And yet there is nothing so likely to make us fall as pride and great opinions—which ruined the angels, which God resists, which all men despise, and which betrays us into carelessness, and a wretched, undiscerning, and unwary spirit. Now the main parts of the ecclesiastical ministry are done, and that which remains is that the minister pray over him, and remind him to do good actions as he is capable: to call upon God for pardon, to put his whole trust in him, to resign himself to God’s disposing, to be patient and even; to renounce every ill word, or thought, or indecent action, which the violence of his sickness may cause in him; to beg of God to give him his Holy Spirit to guide him in his agony, and his holy angels to guard him in his passage. Section VI Concerning the Treating of Our Departed Friends after Death, in Order to Their Burial Solemn mourning is a good expression of our love to the departed soul, and of his worth, and our value of him, and it has its praise in public customs, but the praise of it is not in the gospel; that is, it has no direct and proper uses in religion. For if the dead died in the Lord, then there is joy to him; and it is an ill expression of our affection and our charity to weep uncomfortably at a change that has carried our friend to the state of a huge felicity. But if the man did perish in his folly and his sins, there is indeed cause to mourn, but no hopes of being comforted; for he shall never return to light, or to hopes of restitution. Therefore beware lest you also come into the same place of torment, and let your grief sit down and rest upon your own turf, and weep till a shower springs from your eyes to heal the wounds of your spirit. Turn your sorrow into caution, your grief for him who is dead to your care for yourself who are alive, lest you die and fall like one of the fools, whose life is worse than death. It is certainly a sad thing, to see a friend trembling with a palsy, or scorched with fevers, or dried up like a potsherd with immoderate heats, and rolling upon his uneasy bed without sleep, which cannot be invited with music, or pleasant murmurs, or a decent stillness. Nothing but the servants of cold death, poppy and weariness, can tempt the eyes to let their curtains down; and then they sleep only to taste of death, and make an essay of the shades below. And yet we weep not here. The opportunity for tears we choose when our friend is fallen asleep, when he has laid his neck upon the lap of his mother, and let his head down to be raised up to heaven. When you have wept a while, compose the body to burial; which that it be done gravely, decently, and charitably, we have the example of all nations to engage us, and of all ages of the world to warrant. So that it is against common honesty, and public fame and reputation, not to do this office. It is good that the body be kept veiled and secret, and not exposed to curious eyes, or the dishonors wrought by the changes of death, discerned and stared upon by impertinent persons. When Cyrus was dying, he called his sons and friends to take their leave, to touch his hand, to see him the last time; and gave a charge, that when he had put his veil over his face, no man should uncover it. Let it be interred after the manner of the country, and the laws of the place, and the dignity of the person. Nothing of this concerns the dead; but it is the duty of the living. For to them it is all one whether they are carried forth upon a chariot or a wooden bier; whether they rot in the air, or in the earth; whether they are devoured by fishes or by worms. When Criton asked Socrates how he would be buried, he told him, “I think I shall escape from you, and that you cannot catch me, but so much of me as you can apprehend, use it as you see cause for, and bury it; but, however, do it according to the laws.” Among Christians, the honor which is valued in behalf of the dead is that they be buried in places of religion, there where the field of God is sown with the seeds of the resurrection, that their bodies also may be among the Christians, with whom their hope and their portion is, and shall be forever. Concerning doing honor to the dead, the consideration is not long. Anciently the friends of the dead used to make their funeral orations, and what they spoke of greater commendation was pardoned upon the accounts of friendship. But when Christianity seized upon the possession of the world, this charge was devolved upon priests and bishops, and they first kept the custom of the world, and adorned it with the piety of truth and of religion. But they also so ordered it that it should not be cheap, for they made funeral sermons only at the death of princes, or of such holy persons who shall judge the angels. But that which is most considerable is that we should do something for the dead that is real and of advantage. That we perform their will, the laws oblige us, and will see to it; but that we do all those parts of personal duty which our dead left unperformed, and to which the laws do not oblige us, is an act of great charity. And it may redound to the advantage of our friends also, that their debts be paid even beyond the inventory of their belongings. Besides this, let us right their causes and assert their honor. David added this also, that he did kindness to Mephibosheth for Jonathan’s sake. And certainly it is the noblest thing in the world, to do an act of kindness to him whom we shall never see, but yet has deserved it of us, and to whom we would do it if he were present; and unless we do so, our charity is mercenary, and our friendships are direct merchandise. But what we do to the dead, or to the living for their sakes, is gratitude, and the noblest portion of humanity. And yet I remember that the most excellent prince Cyrus, in his last exhortation to his sons upon his deathbed, charms them into peace and union of hearts and desires, by telling them that his soul would be still alive, and therefore fit to be revered and accounted as awful and venerable as when he was alive. And what we do to our dead friends is not done to persons undiscerning, as a fallen tree, but to such who better attend to their relatives, and to greater purposes, though in another manner than they did here below. It is ten to one but when we die we shall find the state of affairs wholly differing from all our opinions here, and that no man or sect has guessed anything at all of it as it is. Here I intend not to dispute, but to persuade. And therefore in the general, if it be probable that they know or feel the benefits done to them, though but by a reflex revelation from God, or some other communication from an angel, it may the rather incline us to our charities or duties to them respectively. However it be, it is certain they are not dead; and though we no more see the souls of our dead friends than we did when they were alive, yet we have reason to believe them to know more things and better. And if our sleep be an image of death, we may also observe concerning it, that it is a state of life so separate from communications with the body, that it is one of the ways of oracle and prophecy by which the soul best declares her immortality, and the nobleness of her actions and powers, if she could get free from the body (as in the state of separation), or a clear dominion over it (as in the resurrection). I have no other end in this discourse, but that we may be engaged to do our duty to our dead; lest peradventure they should perceive our neglect, and be witnesses of our transient affections and forgetfulness. Dead persons have religion passed upon them, and a solemn reverence. And if we think a ghost beholds us, it may be we have upon us the impressions likely to be made by love, and fear, and religion. However, we are sure that God sees us, and the world sees us. And if it is matter of duty toward our dead, God will exact it; if it is matter of kindness, the world will. It remains, that we who are alive should so live, and attend the coming of the day of the Lord, that we may neither be surprised, nor leave our duties imperfect, nor our sins uncancelled, nor our persons unreconciled, nor God unappeased, but that when we descend to our graves we may rest in the bosom of the Lord, till the mansions be prepared, where we shall sing and feast eternally. Amen.