A funeral sermon on the death of that pious gentlewoman Mrs. Judith Hamond Late…

Her last Sickness did very little alter the temper of her Spirit, it was calm and sedate all along. Only so much does deserve a remark, That she was prepossessed with an Apprehension that she should dye suddenly; so much of Gods secret he was pleased to impart to her, as he sometimes does to more inward Friends; That discovery he vouchsafed to her, as to a Favourite, to let her have some kind of pre-signification, that her passage out of this World should be very quick, whensoever it came; and so it was, that sitting in her Chair, amidst familiar Discourse, in a dimidiated Sentence, she made a full stop, and life was ended, before that could have an end.

Her last Sickness did very little alter the temper of her Spirit, it was calm and sedate all along. Only so much does deserve a remark, That she was prepossest with an Apprehension that she should dye suddenly; so much of Gods secret he was pleased to impart to her, as he sometimes does to more inward Friends; That discovery he vouchsaf't to her, as to a Favourite, to let her have some kind of pre-signification, that her passage out of this World should be very quick, whensoever it came; and so it was, that sitting in her Chair, amidst familiar Discourse, in a dimidiated Sentence, she made a full stop, and life was ended, before that could have an end.

Now certainly the Decease of such a one ought not to be lamented with that bitter Sorrow, as if there were no such thing as this, that Death were certainly to be swallowed up in Victory, in an entire and complete Victory, with reference to such a one. It seems indeed in such Cases, as was said to you before, unto the judgment of our sense, that Death only overcomes, we see not beyond that; It turns a living Creature into a dead Clod, and so it is laid among such, it is buried in the Grave, our Sight goes ⟨p. 19⟩no further. But when we are persuaded by the Word of the Lord, that this mortal shall put on immortality, and this corruptible incorruption, and death be swallowed up in such a Victory, as you have heard; certainly this takes away the cause of all bitter and reliefless sorrow.