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my difcourfe, being the principal occafion of our prefent rejoicing. But alas! there is never any great good "in this prefent evil world," without fome mixture of evil, at leaft of what feems to us to be fo. This is the cafe, even with refpect to that event, which is both fo great in itfelf, and fo happy in its probable confequences.Q untimely, tho' gloriously fallen! Mortal in thy body, but immortal all befide immortal in thy deeds, immortal in thy memory, immortal in thy fame!I can no longer forbear to mention his fall, which I have hitherto forborne with difficulty, even tho' it fhould caufe a general gloom, and occafion the clofing of this folemnity with less joy than it began. Immortal WOLFE! untimely, but gloriously fallen! Untimely in refpect of thy youth without an heir to hear of thy great actions, to enjoy thy renown, or to inherit thy name! Fallen far from thy native, beloved country, and every near relative! Untimely for thy country, which needs fuch as thou waft to conduct and infpire her armies, and lead them on to victory! But ftill fallen gloriously for thy felf, and for that country which gave birth to fuch a commander! Fallen in the fervice of thy king, and of that country, fo dear to thee, and for which thou wouldft readily have laid down more lives than one! Fallen, tho' in youthful ardor, yet not without the prudence and wisdom of age! Tho' without an heir; yet fuch as thou waft need not children to bear up, and immortalize their name! And thou haft here left at least one whole grateful country, where all, old as well as young, will honor thee as a father, and enjoy thy fame, as well as the fruit of thy toils! Tho' far from the country which gave thee birth, yet near one which would glory might it be faid, that this man was born here!" Tho' diftant from every near relative, yet near to thofe, whofe childrens children will rife up

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and call thee bleffed !" Fallen, tho' untimely for thy country ftill engaged in war; yet not till thou hadít, fav'd one country by conquering another! For tho' others ufe to couquer only while they lived, thou waft à conqueror even in death! Whofe fall, no lefs than whofe prefence while living, infpir'd the troops with a courage not to be refifted; and even turn'd what was before only fortitude, into fury, tho' not into madness!

WHEN I reflect upon thefe circumftances of his fall, am obliged to retract what I faid before: He that fell fo gloriously, did not fall untimely. No! He falls not untimely, who falls in the fervice of his King and country with fuch magnanimity, with the vigor of youth and the wisdom of age united; efpecially if he falls a conqueror, as this brave general did. Whoever falls thus in the difcharge of his duty; thus greatly, thus victoriously, and with fuch glorious circumftances attending his fall, being fuppofed to be an upright good man, falls not immaturely, but "in a good old age." Whether he had lived many years or few, is little to the point. Not he that draws and refpires this vital air the ofteneft; not he that fleeps the most nights, or wakes the moft days; not he that paffes thro the most summers and winters; in fine, not he that fees the most funs and feafons rolling over him in fucceffion; this is not he that lives the longeft, or that dies the most maturely. There is another, a far jufter standard of age, of life and death: And he who lives the most usefully, the moft to the proper ends and purposes of life, lives, both the moft honourably, and the longeft, and makes the moft mature, as well as glorious exit." Honourable age is not that which "ftandeth in length of time, or that is measured by "number of years: But wisdom is the GREY HAIR unto men, and an unfpotted life is OLD AGE!"

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My Brethren, tho' my heart relented when I began to fpeak of this British hero's fall in the vigor of his life; yet by means of fuch reflections as thefe, which are the fuggeftions, not of paffion, that erroneous guide, but of reason, which will not lead us aftray; by means of fuch reflections, I fay, I find my fpirits fo far returned, that I could now almoft congratulate you on his noble exit, inftead of condoling with you on it! However, not to carry this matter beyond just bounds: Who would not die as this brave commander died, to be both remembred and honored in future times, rather than live a while as fome others have lived, and then die to be forgotten; or if not entirely forgotten, yet remembered only as having in their day given the moft flagrant and inglorious proofs, that they were not in places adapted to their talents, when they were found at the head of armies !

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BUT ftill you will fay, that not only we, but the nation, has fuftained a great lofs in the fall of this excellent commander. Far be it from me to deny this! But bleffed be God, the nation has other wife, brave, and magnanimous commanders; One at least, perhaps feveral, now in America; and many more both at home and abroad. And he, on whom the command devolved at fo critical a juncture, † and under whom that great enterprize was brought to fo happy a conclufion, is doubtless another, to whom the like character justly belongs. Nor will Great-Britain ever be deftitute of fuch commanders, till either her happy government is fubverted, and her liberties loft; or till thofe glorious times fhall come, when inftead of "learning war any more," all the nations which have hitherto by their mutual enmity and violence, been as it were scourges in the hand of almighty God, to punish

Gen. Amherst.

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Brig. Gen. Townshend, on the fall of Gen. Wolfe.

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punith one another for their fins, fhall at length beat their fwords into plough-fhares, and their fpears into pruning-hooks; " being both too wife, and too virtuous, thus to "hurt and deftroy" each other. At deaft fuch commanders will never be wanting in Great-Britain, during a reign and adminiftration like the prefent, wherein fuperior merit is fo early observed, and fo gloriously distinguished !

LET us not therefore defpond under this lofs. We could not expect, according to the establish'd course of human affairs, even under the peculiar favour and fmiles of heaven, to do great things, or obtain great advantages againft our enemies, without fome circumftances attending them, which cannot be thought of but with regret. It becomes us, therefore, to fubmit with patience to what we could all with other wife, and to be heartily thankful for what is fo agreeable to our defires, fo great in itself, and fo important in its Confequences. For fhall we receive good at the hand of God, and fhall we not receive evil?"

Ir fuch reflexions as fome of thofe above, tho' I can hardly fuppofe it, fhould feem to any not fuitable to the prefent feafon,or to a day of general joy and thankf giving, I have only this apology to make That they were in a manner forced upon me by that great and happy event itself, which is the fpecial occafion of our rejoicing. For, to have taken no notice of the fall of that excellent general, by means of whofe almost unexampled bravery and good conduct, this important acquifition was made, would have been both ungrateful and

human. And if it were mentioned at all, not to have poken of it in a grave and ferious, but light and infferent manner, would have been still more ungrateful and inhuman, with the additional bad circumftances of being grofly abfurd and unnatural, not to

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fay impious. For, not only the fall of fuch diftinguished perfonages, but death itfelf, is a very grave and ferious fubject to be thought or fpoken of. Do any of you doubt it? You will foon be of the fame opinion: For, human life is fhort, and "after death the judgment !"

This further ferious reflexion would not have been added to the former, had not the speaker chofen to fee this affembly diffolve, each one with a grave and folemn brow, much rather than with an air and countenance of thoughtlefs levity, tho the occafion of our coming together was fo truly joyful. And indeed, they must be wholly ftrangers to virtuous and religious joy, far the nobleft and greatest of any, who think fobriety and gravity inconfiftent with it, which are in reality effential to it. Let us therefore, when we depart from the houfe of God, depart in his love and fear, with hearts thoroughly imprefs'd by a fenfe of his goodness, and the obligations which he hath laid us under to keep his commandments. Doing thus, we fhall ftill "walk in the light of his countenance," and still praise him while we dwell on earth. And when we depart this world, fo full of difcord,' ftrife and war, and even the moft profperous events whereof, have ftill fome difagreeable alloy, we shall depart, having our "hope full of immortality and our hearts, of that "PEACE OF GOD which paffeth all understanding." AMEN!

The end of the fecond Difcourfe.

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APPENDIX.

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