ter, defcended with him to his retirement, to enliven his devotion, and to prompt his benevolence. Attached to the ordinances of religion, and active in his duty as a member of the church, he was ftudious to give you, in this holy place, an example of that public reverence which is due from all to the Father of their fpirits. Hofpitable in his difpofition, attentive in his manner, lively in his conver fation, and steady in his friendships, he was peculiarly formed to fecure the esteem of his acquaintance, and to promote the intercourse of focial life. The poor who mourn for his lofs, and his domeftics who have grown old in his fervice, teftify the general humanity of his mind. But his family alone knew the warmth of his paternal affections; his family alone, and those who have seen him mingling. with them in the tenderness of domeftic en. dearment, who have marked his eye fwimming with a parent's fondnefs, while he furveyed the numerous progeny fent by Heaven to blifs the evening of his day, and to tranfmit the memory and the image of his virtues to their fucceeding race. These were affections which he laboured to conceal. But they were marked by those who studied his conduct: they are recorded in the register of heaven, and will meet their reward.

Such were the qualities that adorned the illuftrious Judge whofe death we now deplore. If he had his failings, (and the lot of huma

nity, alas! was alfo his), they were the failings of a great mind, and sprang from the fame impetuofity of temper which was the fource of his nobleft virtues. But they are now gone to the drear abode of forgetfulness; while his better qualities live in the hearts of the good, and will defcend in the records of fame to roufe the emulation of diftant ages. He has gone himself to his deftined habitation, to appear before the Great Judge of all, and to receive according to his deeds. Let us, my Brethren, prepare to follow him. For though we be ftill permitted to prolong the term of our probation, and to enjoy the fociety of our friends on earth, yet we also muft foon enter the narrow houfe, and mingle our bones with the afhes of our fathers. God alone knows the hour that is appointed to lay us with the dead. To fome, he grants a term of many years, and enables them to rejoice in them all; while others fcarcely open their eyes to the light of heaven, when he commands them to withdraw again into darkness and disappear. Of those who joined us in paying funeral honours to the deceased, one illuftrious fhade has gone already to vifit him in the land of fouls *. Our lot will follow in its turn. The prefent day alone is ours. Even before it has reached its clofe,

John Earl of Hyndford, who died fuddenly on the third day after the interment of his friend the Lord Prefident.

the

the angel of death may have raised his hand to heaven, and fworn by Him that liveth for ever, that time, with regard to us, fhall be no more. If, at this folemn moment, he were to defcend in the terrors of his wrath, and,. standing visibly before us, to fummon us away to the affembly of our fathers, what would. be the feelings of our hearts! and that awful moment is fast approaching to us all. Let us prepare to meet it with the composure and the confidence of Chriftians. Let us live the life of the righteous, and our laft end fhall be like his. Then when we fall, we fhall fall lamented by the good; and while our bodies fleep in the filence of the tomb, our names fhall be in everlasting remembrance, and our. fpirits fhall rife to the habitations of the juft.. Amen.

SERMON IX.

The Advantages of fearching the Scrip

tures.

By GEORGE HILL, D. D. one of the Ministers of the City, and Profeffor of Greek in the Univerfity, of St Andrew's, and Dean of the Order of the Thistle..

Preached before the Society in Scotland for pro pagating Chriftian Knowledge, at the Anniver fary Meeting in the High Church of Edinburgh, on Thursday, June 7. 1787.

JOHN V. 39..

Search the Scriptures...

HE books of the Old and New Tefta

THE ment are received with reverence by:

the whole Chriftian world. All in every land, who name the name of Jefus, agree in acknowledging them to be the Scriptures given by infpiration of God: but they differ in the method of teftifying their reverence.. The Church of Rome, profeffing to confider

this treasure as too facred, and too liable to abuse, to be committed to ordinary hands, lock it up in a tranflation which is now understood only by the learned; and they communicate to the people fuch parcels, with fuch interpretations as they judge expedient. That great body of Chriftians, on the other hand, who have separated from the Church of Rome, adopting this precept of our Lord as the principle of their feparation, have been careful to diftribute copies of the Scriptures in a known tongue. For more than two centuries the Scriptures have been published in that language which is most generally spoken in Great Britain. There is no book fo univerfally fpread amongst us: none of the fame fize that may be fo cheaply purchased. It is put into the hands of the people in their childhood; it continues their companion through life; and all the authority which they are accustomed to refpect concurs in en joining the fearch of the Scriptures.

While the greater part of the inhabitants of this ifland thus found eafy access to the Scriptures in their native tongue, while the progrefs of improvement in the low countries was daily increafing the number of thofe who, even in the humbler ranks of life, receive that education which qualifies them to read the Scriptures, the Society, before whom I now fpeak, directed their attention to those corners of the inland where the fituation of the natives was

much