XIX. to our children,-what then! it would be SERM. better that my son should beg his bread from door to door, than that he should live in the greatest affluence on the fruits of his father's dishonesty. The blessing of a just God cannot be expected on what has been unlawfully acquired; he himself has told us, that he visits the iniquities of the parents on the children, and more particularly, perhaps, where they have been enriched by their parents' crimes. In other cases the restitution may be impossible to be made, since what has been unjustly acquired is very often either dissipated in extravagance, or taken from us by God's withdrawing his protection from our concerns; when this happens, it is our duty to feel and to express sorrow and contrition, and to make all due acknowledgements to the parties injured. Next to the payment of our debts,, and restitution of what we wrongfully possess, follows SERM. follows the disposal of the remainder of our XIX. substance. And here permit me earnestly to exhort all those who have any worldly goods to dispose of,, not to drive off making their wills to the last, but to do what they know to be so necessary, in the time of health and strength, when their memory is unimpaired, and their judgment strong and sound. It may be, they know it may be, that the next moment may number them with the dead, and in what a distressed condi-: tion may they then leave those who are the nearest and dearest to them! But supposing that they should have some warning allowed them, the hour of sickness is not a proper hour for business of this kind; the terrors and wearisomeness, the pain, the anxiety, which that period usually brings with it, will find us sufficient employment. Besides, who knows but their faculties may be so weakened as to render them If, XIX. them incapable of determining what dis- SERM. posal is right for them to make; those who are the most proper and the most able to advise them may be absent at the time, or may be artfully kept out of the way, and they may be prevailed upon to do what justice and their own feelings (in their right judgments) would equally condemn. however, they should have omitted this necessary settlement of their affairs before, they must hasten to make up for it then, and to do what they can. Should they have any reason to suspect that the shock of disease has unsettled their understandings, they will do well to consult with some disinterested advisers, and not to trust en tirely to themselves, much less to those who are interested to mislead them. It is not practicable to give any general counsel on the manner in which your worldly substance should be disposed of- particular circumstances preclude any rules from reach XIX. SERM. reaching all cases: it is, however, obvious that those who are by blood and nature allied to us, those to whom we have designedly given expectations of profiting by us, and those with whom we have lived in mutual returns of kindness and friendship, have the fairest claims on our favour.Where we have children, perhaps, there is scarcely any thing which should exclude them. It may be observed further, that neither fanciful partiality nor resentment should be allowed to prevail to any considerable degree. It is high time, when we are leaving the world, to eradicate all those passions which have not a sound foundation; not what it would please us to do, but what justice and propriety demand from us, should regulate and govern our proceeding. They whose fortunes will allow it, after they have taken care of their own families, and have considered those who have reasonable expectations on them, will XIX. will do well, according to their circum- SER M. stances, to remember the poor: any bequests to public charities are peculiarly useful; but it is neither our duty, nor is it, I think, justifiable, to do this to the material injury of any very near connexions: we must be aware also how we think to atone, by profusion of charity at our deaths, for the neglect of it during our lives: the smallest sums taken from our own wants, while we are well, and able ourselves to enjoy them, and applied regularly to the relief of the distressed, carry with them infinitely more merit than thousands bestowed in the same way at our deaths. Another duty, which I mentioned as expected from the sick, is to ask pardon and to make all the atonement in their power, to those whom they know that they have injured. This, as at all times it is incumbent on us, is doubtless more peculiarly so at the approach of death, and under apprehensions |