1789] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 267 



T789. His funeral proceeded from the house of Bishop White to 

 Christ Church; the clergy of all denominations in Philadelphia 

 being invited to attend it. The senior clerg -men of the deputa- 

 tion of each State attended as pall-bearers ; Bishop White and 

 Mr. Robert Andrews, lay deputy from Virginia, walking as chief 

 mourners and the other members of the Convention as mourners. 

 The sermon was from those well-known verses of the 5th chap- 

 ter of the 2d Epistle of Corinthians : 



1. For we know, that, if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we 

 have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 



2. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which 

 is from heaven. 



3. If so be that being clothed, we shall not Ije found naked. 



4. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened ; not for that we 

 would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. 



Dr. Smith thus opens his discourse: 



Brethren: Upon this sad and solemn occasion, which hath assem- 

 bled us at this place and tinie ; gloomy indeed would be oin- reflections, 

 and inconsolable our condition, were it not for the joyful assurance 

 which our text holds up for the renovation and support of our sickly 

 faith. 



Behold, in full view before us, that yawning grave! On its brink, is 

 deposited the breathless clay, the earthly house, of a venerable brother, 

 a servant and minister of Christ! It is for a moment deposited, to give 

 us pause for reflection, and vent for the tribute due to the memory of 

 virtue and worth. That pause ended, the steadfast grave will do its 

 part; and embracing, in firm hold, what we commit to its keeping, 

 would leave the awakened tear to flow forever, sorrowing over our 

 mortality, did not St. Paul come to our aid ; teaching us to wipe that 

 tear away, and to console ourselves with the joyful assurance, that the 

 earthly deposit before us, from a tabernacle of clay, shall yet rise up a 

 building of God, a house not made with hands, capacious of immortal 

 glory, honor and immortality ! 



Unprepared and disinclined, on the present sudden and interesting 

 occasion, to enter upon a critical explication of this difficult, yet com- 

 fortable, text (in whatsoever sense considered), I shall not detain you 

 to enquire from it. Whether the body or earthly house of our present 

 mortal tabernacle shall, upon its divorce from the soul by death, be 

 immediately clothed upon with some other more celestial and incor- 

 ruptible body; or whether it shall continue naked and unclothed upon, 

 till the morning of the resurrection. 



It was the doctrine of the illustrious Plato, who (without the external 

 and revealed light of Christianity) reasoned so well concerning immor- 



