his testimony is not finished, but remains speaking still. When Elijah was translated, it should seem he left a writing behind him for a remaining testimony, so some understand it, 2 Chronicles, xxi. 12. Five things there be which, being dead, he yet speaks to you. I shall mention them briefly, and so conclude.

1. He, being dead, yet speaks to you, to repent of your sins. Especially, the sin of your unfruitfulness under the means of grace. It was sin that was the procuring cause of this calamity; it is that which now corrects you and reproves you; that is it which hath quenched your coal, and put out your light. If conscience be any wise awakened under this sad providence, you cannot but say, -We are verily guilty. Your unprofitableness and unfruitfulness, your barrenness, your barrenness; your leanness, your leanness,though you have been fed in the fat pastures of the ordinances,was the sin that provoked God to remove your minister from you. Turn your tears, therefore, into the right channel, and weep not for him, but for yourselves, and for your sins. Now is a time to reflect on your management and improvement of the means of grace you have had, and to be by that humbled before the Lord for your carelessness and neglect. Now you ought to remember against yourselves your vanity and hypocrisy, and how often you have come before the Lord as his people came, and sat before him as his people, and heard his words, but your hearts in the meantime have gone after your covetousness. He hath been to you as a lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument, and, therefore, you have heard his words: but, have you done them? See Ezekiel, xxxiii. 31, 32, and compare the next words, 33. When this cometh to pass, such a providence as you are now under, then shall you know that a prophet hath been among you: so easy is it to us to see the worth of mercies when we feel the want of them. Let this conviction take hold on your consciences now, and endeavour, henceforth, by the grace of God, to be more fruitful.

2. Being dead, he yet speaks to you,-to adorn your holy profession by a suitable conversation. I have been told he preached his farewell sermon at Worthenbury, upon that text; Philippians, i. 27. Only let your conversation be as becometh the gospel of Christ. Will you take that Scripture as his farewell to you, which, being dead, he yet speaketh? I doubt not but you have all a respect for his name and memory, and could not contentedly hear him reproached, and evil spoken of. Then do not you reproach him by doing any thing that may give occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the name of Christ, and his doctrine. If any you leave your first love, and return, with the dog, to his vomit; if you do any ill thing at any time against the sacred laws of justice and sobriety, will it not be said, "This was one of Mr. Henry's disciples?"-And thus the just reproaches you bring upon yourselves, will unjustly fall upon him. Let the regard you have for his name be a bridle of restraint upon you. Many eyes are upon you, that

of

watch for your halting; therefore, see that ye walk circumspectly.

3. Being dead, he yet speaks to you,-to hold fast the profession of your faith without wavering. Remember what you have received and heard, and hold fast. Let it never be said concerning you of this congregation, that your faith, and religion were pinned upon your minister's sleeve, and that when he died, that died with him. God forbid; for we are built upon Christ, the chief corner stone. Ministers are the builders of the church, but not the foundation of it. Let me, therefore, exhort you all, in the words of Barnabas, that with purpose of heart you would cleave to the Lord. Acts, xi. 23. The shepherd is smitten, but it is only the under-shepherd of the sheep; the Great Shepherd is still the same, and will be with you while you are with him to him, therefore, you must resolutely adhere, with a firm and unshaken constancy. I believe that God, who hath the residue of the Spirit, hath also such mercy in store for the congregation, that he will not leave it altogether destitute. When God hath work to do, he will never want instruments to accomplish his designs. Be not you wanting to yourselves, and the power and grace of God will not be wanting to you. Nor will the promise of the faithful witness fail,-Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

4. Being dead, he yet speaks to you,-to prepare for death,* for sudden death. This is spoken plain enough if we do but consider the circumstances of his removal. For a man to be well and dead in fifteen or sixteen hours, may we not easily infer from hence, how much we are concerned to be always ready, that when our Master comes, we may cheerfully, upon the first intimation, go forth to meet him. We may, any of us, die as suddenly as he did, but are we prepared as he was? To him who was daily dying, it was but a short cut over a stormy sea; but if we continue unready, such a sudden death will to us have another aspect. It will be like the arrest of a traitor; a hurry out of the world, like the surprize of that wretched worldling,-Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee. Let it, therefore, be our daily care, as we observed it was his frequent prayer, to be ready for that which will come certainly, and may come suddenly.†

Lastly. He being dead, yet speaks,-comfort and encouragement to those of you who belong to Christ, and are faithful to him. Is there any honey in the carcase of a lion? Any sweetness to be extracted out of so sad a providence? Yes, there is. If Christ's leaving his disciples was (though then sorrow filled their hearts) matter of rejoicing to them, John, xiv. 28, why may not the removal

There is no real deliverance from death, but to be carried well through it. Dear father's frequent prayer was,-That God would go with us down to death, and up to glory. Mrs. Savage. Diary. Orig. MS.

See the Fading of the Flesh, &c. by the Rev. George Swinnock, pp. 34, 36, 4to. 1662.

of a faithful minister furnish us with some comfortable thoughts? He is gone before, as it were, to show you the way. His inheriting the promises is an engagement to those who (though they stay behind yet) have made those promises their heritage for ever. You that were his joy in this world, shall be his crown in the other. You know in his monthly lecture in this place, he was preaching over the four last things, viz. death, judgment, hell, and heaven: the three first of which he had spoken very largely and excellently to; and, in the course of his ministry, he was next to have preached concerning heaven; * and, it is likely, if God had continued him a while longer among you, you might have heard many good words and comfortable words from him on that subject. But, as if the great God should say,- "Come, my dear servant, you are not enough acquainted with that glory, you know but in part, and prophesy but in part; come up and see what it is; and leave your congregation to conclude what it is by the removal of one thither that was such a jewel in this lower world."-We may make some faint guesses at heaven's glory, when we consider that it is both the perfection and recompence of the holiness of the saints. That is certainly a blessed and glorious place, that is the receptacle of all those who were the blessings and glories of this earth. Being dead, he yet speaketh to you;-that he is gone before, and is arrived, at last, into a safe and quiet harbour, and you shall not be long at sea. Though now we have parted with him in a melancholy shower of tears, yet, blessed be God, we sorrow not as those who have no hope for we have good hope through grace, of meeting him again, and being for ever with him, and with all the saints, and, which is best of all, with the Lord. Those that live up to these hopes in close walking, may live upon these hopes in comfortable walking. They who now sow in tears shall shortly reap in joy; and those, who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, honour, and immortality, shall shortly return, as other the ransomed of the Lord, to the heavenly Sion, with songs of praise and triumph; and everlasting joy shall fill their hearts and crown their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. With which words let all who mourn in Zion comfort themselves, and one another.+

See a like record in the Life and Death of the Rev. R. Bolton, p. 30, ut supra. + From an authentick MS. in the possession of the Rev. T. Stedman. On comparing it with Mrs. Savage's MS. copy it appears to have had the benefit of the author's emendations; and it should seem, from their nature, for the press.