No one can be more clearly convinced than the preacher is, of the impropriety of making it a com. mon practice, upon occafions of this kind, to pass fome particular encomiums upon the character of the deceased. But, at the fame time, he thinks, that there are men of fingular worth, appearing now-andthen in the neighbourhood, whom we cannot fuffer to pass by unnoticed, without doing an injury to the cause of religion. These are men, whofe lives ought to be held up as objects of imitation; their examples being frequently, perhaps, of more importance to thofe who were connected with them than the examples of the worthies of antiquity. To the lives of the one we ourselves were probably eye witnesses ; but the lives of the other. we know nothing of, but by report and tradition.

It would be happy, my brethren, if we were properly affected by reviewing the life of the friend, whofe departure we now lament. Never did we

know a man, who hath exhibited a pattern more deferving our attention and imitation. Indeed, my friends, I feel myself utterly unequal to the task of giving you an adequate view of his character: and were I to attempt it, I fhould fear, that those whose acquaintance with him has been more perfect and of longer duration than mine, would fay that I had not done juftice to him. To fuch therefore, I would refer any who have not lived in habits of intimacy with him for information.

Afk

Afk thofe, who were fo happy as to form a part of his family; ask them what man he was in private? They will tell you, that he was perfectly regular in his deportment; that he was remarkably attentive to religious worship in his houfe; and uniformly ftudious to promote, by a cheerful temper and a kind demeanour, the peace and comfort of thofe with whom he was connected. Though he was ever forward, when it lay in his power, to do any thing for the benefit of others; he was always fingularly anxious to be as little troublesome as poffible himself. He never appeared to have a wifh of availing himself, in the leaft, of those marks of attention and respect, to which his age or his character, or his fituation, entitled him. All whom he favoured with his acquaintance, will tell us that he was the agreeable companion; and always the fincere, the open-hearted, the fleady friend. The man whom he called his friend in profperity, he called his friend in adverfity: for his attachments were withdrawn only by a change of difpofition or conduct in the objects of his regard.

man who dealt

They will teil

But afk not fuch as were his intimate and select afsociates merely: ask every one who had any dealings with him, if there were ever a with greater fairness and integrity. us that his honefty was always fuperior to a love of intereft that he hath confidered himself as bound by the laws of God, to act in oppofition to his own perfonal

E 3

fonal advantage in cafes, in which the lefs fcrupulous consciences of men of common probity would have fuffered them to confider themfelves as at perfect liberty. Yet it was never the difpofition of our amiable friend, to be fatisfied with a discharge of duties alone which are dictated by the principles of equity; for never did universal love glow with greater. ardour in the human breast.

In proof of this, we may appeal to the fons of for row, of every defcription. But, indeed, an appeal to them must be unneceffary. The men who have witneffed his pity, and experienced his liberality, are to be met with any where in this neighbourhood, and there are few before me, but have heard fome unfortunate man relate with what tenderness he has looked upon his diftrefles. his diftreffes. An object of pity never went to his door in vain. Nor did he wound the feelings of the humble fuppliant, with a long lift of harfh inquiries, before he granted the boon of charity. A deftitute appearance, and an honeft countenance, he thought, entitled any one to his regard. Some may, perhaps, imagine, that he granted relief with too indifcriminate an hand. But he had an idea prcbably, that by checking the emotions of pity, upon principles of prudence, there is imminent danger of weakening the power of that amiable affection, and that it therefore became him to give the rein to his humane feelings, though he regarded only the improvement

provement of his own mind. Certainly, then, this was a righteous man.

But his title to the appellation of a righteous man, could not be more clearly proved than by his conduct as a member of this religious fociety. It was such a conduct as I have the confidence to think that every christian present muft approve. For my own part, I fhould admire and respect the zeal of a liberal minded church-man, or Roman catholic, though not exerted in support of that particular form of worship, which is adopted by chriftians of our denomination : and I fhould be moft blameably deficient in charity, did I not believe, that any of you, my brethren, if any of our brethren of the Church of England, or of Rome*, be present, would feel an equal veneration for the religious zeal of a man, who ranked himself among the proteftant diffenters. Yes, my brethren of every fect, I believe that you have enough of the fpirit of the gospel, to esteem excellence, wherever it is found. Inquire, then, of the members of this christian society, if there were ever one of their number more active or more useful than our deceased friend? They will affure you as ftrongly as they can, that they never knew his equal. They will speak of him as the father of this congregation. They will tell you with what generofity he contributed to the support of their respectability as a religious fociety; how earneft he was in promoting any plan for their improve

* As I have been told is fometimes the cafe.

improvement in knowlege and in virtue, and for the maintenance of their peace and felicity. Indeed he had nothing more at heart, than to extingnish every fpark of difcord and animosity, and to fan the flame of brotherly love, that unity and harmony might univerfally prevail among us.

They will tell you, that he was equally exemplary in the regularity of his attendance upon public worfhip, and that, though for many years past, he might have pleaded his age, as an apology for more indulgence than he was accuftomed to in younger life, yet, he was as conftant as any one, to the day of his death. Though few men needed it less, none were more mindful of the means of improvement: for he never had an idea that because a man may, for the moft part, be already acquainted with thofe truths which are delivered from the pulpit, he is therefore, excufed from reforting to the place of public worship. But why do we mention these particulars? The fingle circumftance of his influence with this society of chriftians, is of itself a proof, that he was a respectable and useful member of the fociety. You, my brethren, will not fcruple to inform any stranger that may queftion you, that the opinion of Mr. Mort would have weighed more with you, than the opinion of any ten perfons in the congregation. You will at the fame time affure him, that this influence could never have been owing to our friend's poffeffing greater property than other perfons, or merely to the

liberality