The mourner comforted, a selection of extracts, consolatory on the death of relatives and friends, from the writtings of the most eminent divines & others, including Dr. Johnson's celebrated sermon on the death of his wife, together with prayers, suited to the various instances of mortality

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Dedication

TO THE

Members of the E])iscojpal Congregations

CHRIST CHURCH, ST. PETER's, AND ST. JAMES's.

Preface

To soot!i the anguish of a bleeding heart — to suppress the sigh of sorrow — and mitigate the pangs of a wounded spirit— or rather, to cheer the disconsolate and dejected Mourner, and direct his views to the only solid and certain source of comfort and of confidence, is an undertaking, equally congenial with the spirit of Christianity, and the dictates of a humane and benevolent mind. For, of ^^ the various ills that flesh is heir to,^' surely none is capable of exciting such bitter agony, of so deeply lacerating the most refined and delicate sensibilities of our nature, and of extinguishing even the deshe of existence, as the death of a beloved relative or friend * — a parent, a child, or companion — who was dear to us as our own souls — whose presence exhilarated us, whose converse delighted us, whose endearing qualities awakened into action every virtuous aifection, and who was hound to us by every tie of social intercourse; — ^every fibre of the human heart.

To produce this consolatory, this desirable effect, the wise, tiie pious, the humane, have, in various forms, exerted the powers of Genius, displayed the energies of Reason, and enforced the precepts, the promises of Christianity. The fascinating charms of Poetry, the persuasive deductions of Philos.ophy, and the soothing accents of " pure and undefiled Religion,'^ have been ofccasionally offered for the relief of the afflicted. A Blair, a Doddridge, a Young, a Milton, a Gray, and a Johnson, with n^iny olhers of equal celebrity, have y/i PREFACE.

exerted their best abilities, the noblest powers of human intellect, in endeavouring to assuage the bitterness of grief, to elicit from the infliction its proper effect, and thereby to render it a blessing in disguise.

A selection of the most interesting passages from the writings of such wise and good men, will, it is presumed, be peculiarly acceptable and useful to those who may be called upon to suffer the loss of relatives or friends, and who then stand most in need of spiritual consolation and advice. This conviction has operated, as the principal inducement with the editor, to make the compilation; and that more especially for the use of the three large congregations to which he has the privilege of administering.

** Our dying friends come o'er us like a cloud To damp our brainless ardours; and abate That glare of life, which often blinds the wise. Our djing friends are pioneers, to smooth Our rugged path to death, to break those bars Of terror and abhorrence. Nature throws Cross our obstructed way; and thus, to make Welcome as safe, our port from every storm.

Smitten friends Are angels sent on errands full of love; For us they languish, and for us they die. And shall they languish, shall they die in vain? Ungrateful shall we grieve their hov'ring shades, Which wait the revolution in our hearts.^ Shall we disdain their silent soft address; Their posthumous advice, and pious prayer; Senseless as herds which graze their hallowed graves, Tread under foot their agonies and groans. Frustrate tlieir anguisli, and destroy their deaths.^"

Voun^^'s J\right Thoughts, Sd B,