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with the consent of the parties interested, been often obtained, appropriating to any person and his heirs a vault, or a place of burial in a church for ever. Impropriators likewise have, in some parish churches, the sole and exclusive right of burying in the chancel, or vault formed under the chancel,—but since all cannot purchase the privilege, nor the churches contain all, ground round the church, or a church-yard, was inclosed, where the parishioners are intitled to burial by the civil law of common right. Wherever the grave is, however, the minister is to go before, to conduct, and introduce, as it were, the corpse of the deceased into the house of rest.

A SHORT EXPOSITION

OF THE BURIAL SERVICE.

RUBRIC:

The Priest and Clerks meeting the Corpse at the entrance of the Church-yard, and going before it, either into the Church, or towards the grave, shall say or sing,

"I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die."-St. John xi. 25, 26.

These words were spoken at first by the blessed Jesus as He was going to the grave of a beloved friend, with intent to comfort a pious mourner. Poor Martha's affection and sorrow for her brother had almost swallowed up her faith in Jesus,

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and it is not unusual for the same passions still to prevail to the same excessive degree; but our Lord here comforts both her and us, by reminding us of His omnipotence and absolute power, to raise the dead and restore them to life, as well in a natural as spiritual sense. If, then,

we can but recover the exercise of our faith, we shall be much more at ease, as remembering that the soul of our deceased friend, though parted from the body, is still alive, and that even his corpse which we follow, shall live again as soon as Christ shall call it. In Him, and through His mediation, all the dead shall rise again: he is the Author of the Resurrection-it will be effected by His power-and His salvation alone will render it a blessing. He is also the Fountain and Giver of life, temporal, spiritual, and eternal, and no man can have it but by Him, and

from Him. He, therefore, that by virtue of his union with Christ believes in Him, though he be dead, yet shall he ere long live again, and his reanimated body shall be again united to that soul which in its separate state continues its dependence on Christ's power and faithfulness: and every one that thus lives and believes shall never die, death shall be so disarmed and transformed, that it shall hardly deserve that name; the body only resting in the grave till Christ comes to awaken it to life and vigour. Let then the consideration that the departed are to arise in the resurrection at the last day, moderate our sorrow for their removal, and forbid our mourning as others that have no hope. Let us trust our friends with Him who is the resurrection and the life, believing that the separations He appoints are kind and

merciful; and let our pain and regret be so attempered as to improve the heart. True, we must seek the Lord in behalf of our friends and relations, when they are sick and afflicted, but we must leave the event, in humble submission and implicit faith, to His unerring wisdom. In one way or other, the sicknesses of those whom He loves will be to the glory of God, and their own good.

In truth we ought to be willing to live or die, to pass through any temporal suffering, or to part with our dearest relatives when God's glory requires it; for that cannot be separated from the real and enduring advantage of those whom he loves, any more than the glory of the Father can be separated from that of his beloved Son. But we cannot judge of his love to us by outward dispensations, his ways are not as our ways,

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