as for the positive wrong done to the person, whom the voice of nature, or the institutions of the community point out as the proper individual on whom the inheritance should devolve. It is an injury of no trifling consequence, and he who rashly inflicts it, will assuredly find it classed among those things of which he will be required to give an account before that tribunal where all our actions and all our motives will be seen in the true light, and be recompensed as they deserve. I would confirm my own observations on this point with the sentiments of an excellent Prelate' of our Church. "This," says he, speaking on the point in question, "is very hard and wrong; that a groundless dislike, or a trifling offence, or even very great offence, should change a reasonable disposition of things; above all, when expectations have been given, and the world made acquainted with them, and steps in life taken in consequence of them. Whatever right they may plead to do as they will with their own, they are not at liberty to act thus; but ought to look on the proper disposal of their fortunes as a matter of conscience; and take into serious consideration every circumstance that should naturally have weight in the case. Nearness of relation is a ground of preference, which should never be disregarded without the strongest motives to the contrary; motives which not only we ourselves think sufficient, but

other good and wise persons, uninterested in the case, allow to be such. Further claims, never to be overlooked when we have ability for. taking notice of them, are, kindnesses formerly received, promises given, length and faithfulness of service or attendance, merit, want. And all these demands the uncertainty of life admonishes every one to provide for paying as soon as he can; but the certain approach of death requires the old not to postpone it a single day. And performing this duty, as they ought, is one valuable instance of righteousness, which will give them comfort in their own breasts, procure them regard (so far as it is known) whilst they live, and do them lasting honour when they die."

The last of these vices which we may notice, as peculiarly requiring the attention of the aged, is avarice. It is a common remark, that a fondness for money, and a desire to hoard it without making it useful to themselves or others, frequently take possession of the heart, and burn with remarkable ardour when other passions and affections have become chilled, and almost extinguished. The elegant and acute writer', whose sentiments I have often had occasion to use in the compilation of these Sermons, on the several ages of human life, conceives that the prevalence of avarice in old age "can naturally be deduced from the sense of its

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feebleness and decay. In proportion as the vigour both of body and mind declines, timidity may be expected to increase; with anxious and fearful eye the aged look forward to the evils which threaten them, and to the changes which may befal them. Hence, they are sometimes apt to over-value riches, as the instrument of their defence against these dangers, and as the most certain means of securing them against solitude and disrespect." Even in this they may often be disappointed. But independently of any considerations of this kind, there is a point of far greater importance, namely, the light in which it will cause them to appear in the eyes of that great Judge of all, before whom, in the course of nature, they must be finally prepared to render up an account of their doings. They must not lose sight of this, while their trembling footsteps are upon the brink of the grave, and while the grave is the gate through which they must rise to judgment, they must look upon this propensity to avarice as one of their trials, one of those invitations to sin, presented by their corrupt nature, which they are bound to resist. They must remember, that to the old, as well as the young, the Gospel declares, "covetousness is as idolatry;" and that ye cannot 66 serve God and mammon."

In speaking of their vices, let it not be supposed that I judge them to be the vices of every aged person, or that they never take place at other periods of life; it is only meant that they are points,

in which, more than in others, the aged have been observed to display their weakness, and the varied power of their wily and spiritual foe. Many an aged man rises superior to the weakness alluded to, and displays the crown of glory. And let us now point out a few particulars, in which the aged should excel, and to which the circumstances of their time of life are peculiarly favourable, and in a more than ordinary degree required.

In doing this, as all points cannot be handled, and some selection is necessary, I cannot take a better class of examples than those which St. Paul thought worthy of particular mention to Titus, in his instructions respecting the several heads of exhortation, on which he was to enlarge. " But speak thou," said he, "the things which become sound doctrine, that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience."

1st. Sober, temperate, grave. On temperance I need not expatiate: there is such a glaring inconsistency with old age, in intemperance, that no arguments or descriptions can convey to the mind any additional disgust, beyond what it creates at first sight. A drunken, or a debauched old man, is a sight at which even the sense of the most thoughtless revolts; the very children mock him, the wicked themselves despise him, the good pity and shudder for him. He that cannot refrain from intemperance, even on the verge of the grave, when the passions have become chilled, when the powers

of the body have worn themselves out-he must, indeed, be debased, he must be devoted to sin, and enslaved to Satan; his is, indeed, an awful situation. But it is not mere freedom from intemperance which becomes the aged, he ought to be sober and grave. There is that which is due to the dignity of his grey hairs, which should lead him to preserve a consistency of character; there are circumstances in his season of life peculiarly favourable to seriousness; there are opportunities, from his incapability of bodily exertion, very inviting to the exercise of his reflection.

When the grave is close at hand; when infirmities, when pain, when feebleness of spirit, are sent, as harbingers of approaching dissolution, to forewarn the soul, that its frail tenement, this earthly tabernacle, hasteth to decay; what can tempt the aged man to levity, to pursue the frivolity and dissipation of the world, to imitate the manners, and even the follies, of youth? What, but that wretched vanity, which our corrupt heart fosters, which appears in numberless forms, but in none more common than in a desire to appear any thing but what we really are. Surely other, and more serious reflections, ought to occupy the heart of the aged; and for reflection he has abundant opportunities. He has, from his infirmities, many hours upon his hands, which he cannot employ in bodily exercise or in amusement of any kind. What a scope do these afford for study and reflection; and, in such