Page:Reflections among the monuments.pdf/5

 if your bowels yearn over thoſe amiable pledges of conjugal endearment; ſpare no pains, give all diligence, I entreat you, to "bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the ." Then may you have joy in their life, or conſolation in their death. If their ſpan is prolonged, their unblameable and uſetul conduct will be the ſtaff of your age, and a balm for declining nature. Or, if the number of their years be cut off in the midſt, you may commit their remains to the duſt, with much the ſame comfortable expectations, and with infinitely more exalted views, than you ſend the ſurvivors to places of genteel education. You may commit them to the duſt with cheering hopes of receiving them again to your arms, inexpreſſibly improved in every noble and endearing accompliſhment.

It is certainly a ſevere trial, and much more afflictive than I am able to imagine, to reſign a lovely blooming creature, ſprung from your own loins, to the gloomy receſſes of corruption. But, O! how much more cutting to you, and confounding to the child, to have the ſoul ſeparated from God; and for ſhameful ignorance or early impiety conſigned over to places of eternal torment!

On this hand is lodged one, whoſe ſepulchral ſtone tells a moſt pitiable tale indeed! Well may the little images, reclined over the ſleeping aſhes, hang down their heads