when the Marriage-knot between the Soul and Body is dissolved when there is a Writ of Divorce issued from the Court of Heaven to separate them then the Body is laid up in the Grave and there it remains a long long time even till the day of the Resurrection The Apostle speaks of an Home in this World 2 Cor. 5. ver 6. Therefore we are always confident knowing that whilst we are at Home in the Body we are absent from the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here I conceive might be better rendred with than in and so the Sence will be supposing it as indeed we must the Breathings of the Spirit of Man we are here as strangers sojourning or dwelling with the Body as though we were at Home for a small time The Supersicies of the Earth is Man's Short Home the Bowels of it is his Long Home Now if we compare the time of the longest-lived-man that ever was upon the Earth which was Methuselah whose days amounted to Nine Hundred Sixty and Nine Years with the time that he hath since lived in the Grave we shall find the Grave to be his Long Home in comparison of the Earth notwithstanding his days were lengthened so exceedingly upon it Thus you see the Grave is a Long Home Comparatively But Secondly The Grave is a Long Home Really and Positivily The Time of Man's commoration in this dark Mansion is not for days or years but ages yea for many ages So that we may call it a small Branch of the vast Ocean of Eternity If we look at Abel the first Lord of this Mannor the first that took Possession of this retired Place how many Thousand Years hath he kept house in this gloomy Tabernacle of the Grave It hath been a long a very Long Home to him The Grave hath been an inhabited Tennament by Adam's posterity above Five Thousand Years And we that are yet alive waiting to go down into it how long our abode may be in it we are uncertain because We know not in what day or hour the Son of Man shall come to break open the Prison Doors of the Grave and to set us at liberty that are in the Prison-House Job speaks of the Grave as the House he was most certain to go unto and take up his dwelling in Chap. 30. vor 23. For I know that thou wilt bring me to Death and to the House appointed for all Living It is an House of a long standing and will be of long duration even as long as time it self it runs parallel with it The Creation of the World and the Resurrection of Man out of the Grave are the two Tropicks of time or the sacred boundaries that Heaven hath put to it A parte post a parte ante as the Philosopher speaks For as before the former it had no Existence so after the latter it shall have no longer continuance but be swallowed up in the fathomless Gulph of Eternity Time that now is always running Mobâ—li cursu with a swift pace will then be stopt in its motion and be no more But there are several things that must precede this Great and weighty Matters must be brought about by the hand of Divine Power before the End cometh as we may plainly see if we consult the sacred Oracles Anti-christ must be brought down with all his Usurpations and Idolatrys The Jews must be converted The number of the Gentiles must be brought in and the House of the Lord must be set upon the Mountains and exalted above the Hills that all Nations may flow unto it For out of Zion shall go forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem But till this be done the Grave is the appointed house for all Living and therefore it is a Long Home Having thus considered the Grave as to its Duration It is a Long Home We will now speak a little of the Grave with respect to its Qualification what kind of Home it is In the general it is Man 's designed and appointed Home In the Text but now quoted out of Job it is said to be the House appointed for all Living God hath appointed by a decree like the Laws of the Medes Persians which never can be changed or revoked that the Grave shall be the one Repository for all the Carcasses of Adams Children to be laid up in and kept till the day of the Resurrection The Apostle speaks of the appointment of Death Heb. 9. ver 27 And as it is appointed unto Men once to Dye but after this the Judgment Men are appointed to Dye that they may go to their appointed home the Grave God hath appointed Mans being and the time of his being in this World as Job stedfastly believed All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come And he hath appointed Man a place of resting after he goes out of this World and that is the Grave Oh! How should this suppress Fears and banish Cowardise from the Hearts of all timorous Christians that are slavishly afraid of the Paleness of Death and tremble to think of going down into the darkness of the Grave Why Sirs though it be never so dark and gloomy though it be an house of Rotterness a place of Putrefaction it is the home prepared and appointed by our Heavenly Father for us And therefore Why should we scruple to lye down in it Or why should we have any fearful apprehensions about it Such persons and lose all the comfort of their lives as an Heathen well observed Qui metuit Mortem quod vivit perdit id ipsum Oh! We should be always remembring it and rest satisfied in it that the Wise the Righteous the Holy the blessed GOD hath appointed the Grave for our Long Home First God hath appointed die Grave as Man's proper suitable home the home that doth naturally suite with his Complexion and Constitution When Adam by his Rebellion had shaken off the glorious Theocrasy he was under which would assuredly have protected him from the power of Death however Homogeneal to his body by reason of the contrariety of qualities in it God left him and that justly to Fall to Dye according to the perishing nature of that matter of which his Body was composed Gen. 3. ver 19. In the sweat of thy Face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground for out of it wast thou taken for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return As if he had said Hadst thou continued in thy Obedience and hadst kept thy self in thy Innocency sitting under the shadow of my immediate Government I would by my Almighty Power have preserved thy Body notwithstanding its Materiality from ever seeing corruption or being in the least tainted with putrefaction But now I 'le leave thee to go down to the caverns of the Earth where thy Body being dust naturally inclines with as much propensity as the Stone to its
many so hardned in stupidity that contrary unto nature they are not affected with or concerned at the Death or going to the Grave of almost any person Secondly There is a natural Obligation on the Living to Mourn for the Dead for that Death is the thing which every Man in the world hath deserved as being lineally descended from Adam who brought Death into the World and inslaved not only himself but all his posterity unto its power So saith the Apostle Rom. 5. ver 12. Wherefore as by one Man Sin entered into the World and Death by Sin and so Death passed upon all Men for that all have Sinned Had Adam never sinned Adam had never dyed but in illo die saith God in that day thou eatest the Fruit thereof thou shalt surely dye or as it is in the Original dying thou shalt dye And indeed as he devolved Guilt so he entailed death the sad consequence of that Guilt upon all that should come after him unto the end of the World Oh! therefore how natural would such a reflection as this be at the news of any Mortals fall by the stroke of Death or at the sight of any deceased person going to his Long Home I am a Child of Adam as well as he and in the guilt and pollution of his original Disobedience was I shaped and subjected to all the Miseries that attended that iniquity did my Mother conceive me and bring me forth And surely I have added to the stock of original Corruption multitudes innumerable multitudes of actual Transgressions and therefore I have every way merited Death and deserved to be imprisoned in the Dungeon of the Grave as much as he that hath past through it and is gone down before me into it Should not I then be concerned at and deeply affected with what hath befallen him The extremity of pain that he was in the weary some nights that he enjoyed the tumblings and tossings that he under-went the bitter distress and anguish that possessed his Soul which enforced those doleful sighs and sobs those heart-fetcht-groans and shrikes from his dying Breast are all things that I in the same if not in a greater measure have deserved Oh! then that my Head were Waters and my Eyes a Fountain of Tears that I could mourn and weep and truly lament at this Mournful Spectacle and that from this consideration that as he the object of Mortality before my Eyes is deprived of life and all the comforts of it as he is snatcht away from all his Friends and Relations as he of a living Man is become a lump of dead Clay a piece of rotten putrifying Flesh fit for nothing but to feed worms in the Grave even so have I most justly merited in the like manner to be nothing hath befallen him but what is due to me Thirdly There is a natural Obligation on the Living to Mourn for the Dead for that there is no living person but must come to it himself Death is a debt we must all pay to Nature Job speaks of Man indefinitely thereby including every Man in what capacity so ever he is Chap. 14. ver 2. He cometh forth like a flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not And we are elsewhere told that All flesh is grass and the glory thereof as the flower of the field the grass withereth the flower fladeth even so when the Hand of God is upon Man upon any Man he maketh his Beauty to consume away like a Moth for that every Man is Vanity Selah We have an Interrogation concerning this which implies a vehement Negation for so the Scripture often expresseth it self Psal 89. ver 48. What Man is he that liveth and shall not see Death shall he deliver his Soul from the hand of the Grave Selah That is there is no Man living but must see Death and come into the dominion of the Grave Now if Death be thus common to every Man then every Man ought certainly to be affected when he sees another under the power of it Would it not I pray you argue more than ordinary stupidity and sencelesness in that Malefactor that beholding a Partner in Guilt and Condemnation with himself dying a shameful painful Death according to the Sentence of the Law the which Death he himself must undergo the day following and yet not to be concerned at such a spectacle so much as to shed a Tear or manifest any meltings of Heart at so doleful a sight Oh! How unnaturally hard-hearted would you say this Man was Why Sirs this is our very case we are all real Malefactors before God condemned by him to death to the same death and sooner or later we must be laid on our sick Beds the common place of Execution and when we see any in pain and misery there before us Oh! we should remember it will be our turn ere long Do we see a dying Man in a languishing departing condition fetching his last sigh heaving for his last groan and giving up his last breath Oh! we should sadly reflect upon our selves as that Father of whom I have read did at the sight of any Coffin Ille hedie ego cras He is gone to day and so may I to morrow or to be sure must go one day or other then which nothing is more certain Fourthly It is not corrupted but refined Nature that especially enforces this duty of Mourning for the Dead and the more Nature is purged the more it is enlivened in the regular performance of this Work We find the Spirit of God inciting and calling upon Men solemnly to do it Jer. 9. ver 17 18. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts Consider ye and call for the mourning Women that they may come and send for cunning Women that they may come And let them make hast and take up a wailing for us that our Eyes may run down with Tears and our Eye-lids gush out with Water Why What is the matter what is the cause there should be such a great general Mourning ver 21. For Death is come up into our windows is entered into our palaces to cut off the Children from without and the young Men from the streets Oh! When Death is taking its range about the streets it is an especial time for Mourners to be there to manifest a real Mourning under such a dispensation to put on Ashes for Beauty and instead of the Garment of Joy to be cloathed with the Spirit of Heaviness Religion doth not hinder any natural act it only regulates the mode and refines the end of the performance It doth not hinder natural love it only teacheth us how to love innocently nor doth it hinder natural sorrow it only guides us how to sorrow profitably As Divines say Though Religion be above reason yet it is not contrary to reason so though it be an enemy to all vitious corrupt motions of nature yet it obligeth no person to be unnatural that is to fail in doing
those things which the principals of natural being do require as necessary to the demonstration of its being but rather provokes to a lively and regular doing of them And surely this duty under our present consideration is that which the spirit of a Man dictates to him though in a dark mistaken way and the Spirit of God suggests to him in a right safe justifiable way That there is a time to Mourn is past dispute since the Word of Truth speaks it and that a Funeral Solemnity or seeing Man go to his Long Home is such a time is also out of doubt since the Word of Truth enjoyns it Hence we may warrantably and not uncharitably conclude That Man void of Reason or Religion of Nature or Grace yea of Love to God or Man that brings not a Mourning-heart along with him to the House of Mourning Secondly Relatively There is a relative obligation upon the living to Mourn for the dead which Relation either in a more large or strict sence takes in the whole Race of Mankind First For that all men are related in Adam as springing from his Loyns Though men are now distinguished into many sorts of Nations and divers Kinds and Manners of persons yet they all come from the same Root the same Off-spring all Children of the same Father of the same Mother So we are told Gen. 3. ver 20. And Adam called his Wives name Eve because she was the Mother of all Living All the vast numberless multitudes of People throughout the Universe that have been or still are in the World came originally from her Womb. She is the Parent from whence so many Millions of Souls may derive their pedigree The highest and most certain degree of Relation in natures Climax Methinks then we should not be so unmindful of our primitive Extraction as to be wholly unconcerned at the departure of one of the same Race with our selves There is none so remote from us in Country or Acquaintance but he is near to us yea related to us Secundum esse as he is a Son of Adam And can we afford never a tear never a sigh never a compassionate sob to accompany such an one be he who he will or what he will to his Long Home Ah! 'T is sign we are hardned against our own Flesh and that we shamefully forget the Father that begat us and the Mother of whom we are all Born Oh! what a debauched abominable Age do we live in wherein Men are so senceless and horridly stupid so intoxicated with Lusts and Vanities so bewitched to the Allurements of the World so feared in their evil ways and courses that Death though it be even at their doors is disregarded by them and the going to the Grave of others though their very Neighbours is a thing they take no notice of nor in the least Mourn for so long as they have their strength and health to drink and swear and indulge themselves in their lusts and pleasures they care not who are Sick or who Dye or who go to the Grave it is all one to them Truly such persons are so far from being like Christians that they are ten thousand times worse than Heathens Oh! how will the Egyptians rise up in Judgment against the Men of this Generation and condemn them for their melting and mourning Deportment at the Funeral of good old Jacob notwithstanding he was of another Nation and Religion when they came to the Threshing-floor of Arad which is beyond Jordan 't is said they Mourned with a very great and sore Lamentation insomuch that the place was called Abel-Mizraim the Mourning of the Egyptians But ah How little Mourning is there found amongst us upon such occasions Secondly As there is a Relation in the first Adam wherein all are concerned so there is a Relation in the second Adam wherein not a few are tied and obliged to be concerned one for another especially at so great a change as that of Death Now this Relation is either more Large or more Strict More Large and so all that own Jesus Christ the Son of God to be come in the Flesh are within the reach of it who are therefore called by one general and Catholick name Christians But more Strictly and so it is restrained peculiar to Believers who by the same work of Grace are made true Members of the Church-militant and by the same act of Faith are expecting the glory of the Church-triumphant Who are engaged in the same cause Souldiers under the same Banner Wrestlers against the same Enemy even Principalities and Powers and spiritual Wickednesses in high places Who are sighting the same Battle Runners of the same Race Pursuers after the same Crown even that which is incorruptible undefiled that fadeth not away Who are Inheritors of the same Promise Fellow-heirs of the same Kingdom Waiters for the same Adoption to wit the Redemption of the Body Who are Professors of the same Faith Believers in the same Christ Experiencers of the same happiness in the glimpses of Zion's glory and the fore-taste of the Joys of the Life to come In a word who are under the same Tye confirmed by the same Seals bound by the same Covenant to live according to the Rule and in the Fellowship of the Gospel This Relation is so near so great so obligatory that the Apostle calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Brotherhood or a company of Brothers As all Men are Brothers in Adam naturally so Believers are Brothers in Christ spiritually and this nearness in Relation should certainly cause a Mourning when Death makes a Separation Oh! when a Godly Man goes to his Long Home then Godly-Mourning should Go about the Streets for that there is a great Loss and will be a real want of his Prayers his Tears his Holy Converse and the good he might farther have done in the World Upon this account Elishah Mourned for Elijah and sent his loud Acclamations of Sorrow to Heaven after him when he was taken up from him My Father my Father the Chariots of Israel and the Horsemen thereof This made the Ephesians Mourn so dolefully at Paul's departure because they were never to see him again So saith the Text And they all wept sore and fellon Pauls Neck and kissed him Sorrowing most of all for the words that he spake that they should See his Face no more Paul was their spiritual Father that had begotten them to God and therefore they could not but Mourn to think of parting with so dear a Relation especially since it was to be an eternal Farewel How must they never see his Face more never hear the sound of that golden Trumpet more that had been so charming to their Ears yea so ravishing to their Souls Oh! This strained up their Sorrow to the highest Peg this made them Mourn with a Mourning truly Mournful And we read Acts 8. ver 2. And devout Men carried Stephen to his Burial and made great Lamentation over him
Steven was their brother and companion in the Faith Patience and Tribulation of the Gospel and therefore they looked on themselves obliged to Mourn bitterly and Lament sorely when he went to his Long Home But alas there is little of this Sorrow in these days wherein Iniquity doth so much abound and the Love of so many waxes cold to every good Work There is no Mourning in the Streets of our Jerusalem no Lamenting in the City of our Zion when the Godly Man ceaseth when the Faithful fail from among the Children of Men. The Prophets complaint was verily never more just and pertinent than now The Righteous perisheth and no Man layeth it to heart and Merciful Men are taken away none considering that the Righteous is taken away from the Evil to come Thirdly There is a Relation by Affinity which obligeth Men to Mourn at the Departure or going to their Long Home of any so Related to them This Relation is by Marriage or joyning Families that were remote and wholly unacquainted by Hymens bands together Thus Hamor and Shechem desired That themselves and all their Citizens might be Related to the Family of Jacob when they communed with him in the Gate These Men are peaceable with us therefore let them dwell in the land and trade therein for the land Behold it is large enough for them let us take their Daughters to us for Wives and let us give them our Daughters As if they had said Let us contract a Relation by making interchangeable Marriages that so we may be near to them and better acquainted with them And surely in the compass of this Relation it ought to be a sensible Affliction when Death is Marring the Glory of their Society and breaking the Hedge of their Unity by taking one away This was the cause of the Mourning of Orpah and Ruth at the parting with their Mother Naomy who was indeed their Mother but by Marriage Ruth 1. ver 14. And they lift up their voice and wept again and Orpah kissed her Mother but Ruth clave unto her They could not think of a Farewel without powering out floods of Tears Nay so strong were Ruth's Affections that when it came to the pinch she would not leave her But was resolved to accompany her in all her Travels and Troubles whatever she should undergo or meet with for it and therefore she told her Thy God shall be my God and thy People shall be my People where thou goest I will go where thou dyest I will dye and there will I be buried Now as Solomon sayes Go to the Aut thou sluggard consider her ways and be wise So I say in this case Go to this Moabitish-Woman thou hard-hearted Christian that canst with dry Eyes and a sottish Spirit behold a Relation entombed in the Earth consider the depth of her Affection the pureness of her Love the tenderness of her Heart and be Religiously Wise in knowing how to carry it under a parting-dispensation Oh! remember that as there may be an innocent and lawful Mirth when Relations first meet to begin their acquaintance or contract their proximity together so there ought to be a Mourning in a moderate way when there is any parting or separation by the hand of Death Fourthly There is a Relation by Consanguinity which not only obliges but enforces Tears from the Eyes of all persons unless unnatural bruits accompanying any so related to them to their Long Home This Relation comes not only by a general deduction from Adam but by a more near and immediate alliance and conjunction in Blood whereby they become Bone of one Bone and Flesh of one Flesh Such is the Relation between Husband and Wife Parents and Children Brothers and Sisters c. Now what Husband can forbear Tears when his dear Wife is snatched out of his Arms by Death when the delight of his Eyes is taken away with a stroak Who can then but imitate affectionate Abram of whom it is said Gen. 23. ver 2. And Sarah dyed in Kiriath-Arba the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan and Abram came to Mourn for Sarah and to Weep for her She was the companion of his youth the wife of his delights the mother of his Isaac yea the better half of himself and therefore he could not but Weep when she was gone from him What Wife can refrain Mourning when her beloved Husband is going down into the shades of Death and she to be left a poor desolate disconsolate Widow as Naomi and her two Daughters in the land of Moab were And how can poor Parents keep in Sorrow when they see Death preying upon the Children of their Bowels and confining their tender Limbs to the cold Grave Hence we find David giving vent to his passion for the Death of Absolom in this pathetical Exclamation 2 Sam. 18. ver 33. And the King was much moved and went up to the Chamber over the Gate and wept and as he went thus he said O my Son Absolom my Son my Son Absolom would God I had dyed for thee O Absolom my Son my Son Indeed Divines conjecture the reason of David's so great Mourning was the fear of Alsolom's miscarrying as to his eternal State his doubt that it was not well with his Soul he dying in a state of Rebellion both against his earthly and heavenly Father Though this might have some impression on David's Heart yet questionless 't was Nature it self drew out his Sorrow from this very consideration that he was his Son and there needs no other to enforce a Mourning From this sprung that Voice of Lamentation and Weeping and great Mourning which was heard in Ramah poor Rachels pittifully Weeping for their Children and refusing to be Comforted Because they were not And then reciprocally what Children can be so hard-hearted so stony-spirited as not to wait upon their Parents Coffins with Tears to the Grave When Jacob was gathered to his Fathers and had yielded up the Ghost in a good old Age we read that his Son Joseph fell upon his Face and wept upon him and kissed him And truly this Mourning is but an expression of Love and where it is not we may safely infer that those persons had no love no affection at all for their Relations when alive Thirdly Morally There is an obligation which none that pretend to any principles of Morality will disown upon the Living to Mourn for the Dead First For that a Man is lost by Death As to the enjoyment of him and society with him he is perished from among Men. Now Man being a sociable delightful Creature the Loss of him is considerable and ought to be laid to heart by all that survive him Man is to be lookt upon as the chief peice of Workmanship in the Creation the glory of all the Works of God in the lower Region So wonderfully was he made so strangely was he fashioned so excellently was he adorned that the good Angels admired him and the Bad envyed him
a future Being is a day of Wrath a day of Trouble and Distress a day of Wastness and Desolation a day of Darkness and Gloomyness a day of Clouds and thick Darkness a day of the Trumpet and Alarum against the senced Cities and against the high Tower Now who can behold a Friend in any pain or under the power of any Distemper upon a sick Bed and not Grieve at it What Object calls more for Pity and Commiseration yea for Grief and Lamentation than a pained Heart-sick-man who cannot help himself or receive Ease from any Application especially of that pain that precedes his Dissolution for Contra vim mortis non est medicamen in hortis And as Distempers are coroding and tormenting in their Natures so they are Multitudinous in their number There are innumerable Diseases that go before Death that are as pursivants in the same Livery warning the Sons of Men to be ready at Deaths approach according to the Poet Mille modis lethi miseros mors una fatigat And as another well expresseth it Mille modis Morimur miseri sed Nascimur uno There is but one way of our coming into the World but a Thousand of our going out 'T was a Curse upon Man after his Fall that he should live by the Sweat of his Brow and the same Curse hath entailed this misery upon him that he must Dye in the Anguish of his Soul As he Lives in Sweat so he Dyes in Pain and this Pain cannot but enforce Mourning from all tender-hearted Spectators that are about him Secondly For that a Dying-man is really himself a Mourning-man When Man is going to his Long Home his Soul is clad with Cypress his Spirits are drooping and in a sorrowful trembling posture he is waiting the finishing of Deaths last stroke He lies groaning and pitifully crying out on his sick-bed and with rowling-eyes lifted-up hands and panting breasts he sighs he sobs he dyes And from this condition good Men are no more exempted than wicked at their deaths nay we find the best of Men even buried in Sorrow in the day of his humiliation when he was going to his Death Matth. 26. ver 38. Then saith he unto them my Soul is exceeding Sorrowful even unto Death tarry ye here and watch with me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word signifies Fear on every side The faculties of his Soul were as it were beset and besieged with Grief Sorrow went round about him Indeed Aristotle would not own that a Man of Spirit could be capable of such a Sorrow but 't was his ignorance in the things of God which made him think so And our Saviour's sorrowful posture is a sufficient confutation of that Notion Verily Sirs when the terrors of Death notwithstanding the Sting of it is taken away takes hold upon the most Heroick-spirited yea upon the most gracious qualified among the Sons of Men it makes him presently hang his Harp upon the Willow-tree and hide his Face within the drawn Curtains converting his Songs into Sighs his Laughing into Mourning and all his Rejoycing into heavy Groans Emblematically be speaking to all that are round about him with a shaking head and ghastly look what Job did so passionately Have pity upon me Oh ye my Friends have pity upon me for the Hand of God yea the hand of Death hath touched mt Help help O Wife O Children What shall I do my Spirits are fainting my Breath is going my Soul is departing and I must leave you all And then turning sighs and sobs to that sorrowful Note of Jobs Oh that I were as in Months past as in the day when God preserved me When his Candle shined upon my Head and when by his Light I walked through Darkness as I was in the dayes of my Youth when the Secret of God was upon my Tabernacle Thus poor Man concludes the Tragick-Scene of his troublesome Life inbreathing out such doleful Epicediums He came into the World Crying and he goes out Sighing He Crys the first thing he does after he is Born and he Sobs the last thing he does before he Dyes Now what Heart can be so obdurate to behold Man expiring in the midst of his Sigh and not say as Thomas said of Lazarus Lord let its go that we may Dye with him So let me go and Sob with him and bear him company in the bitter Agony he is now in Thirdly For the great change Death makes in the person Deceased of an active lively Man he is become a dead lump of Clay so changed and wholly altered in the Physiognomy and outward appearance of the Body that we may say with the Poet Qui color albus erat nunc est contrarius albo The Man that a day or two ago lookt so fresh and fair Oh how pale how wan how ghastly how affrightning does he look now The Man that was so pleasant so every way desirable in his conversation a little while ago how loathsome and detestable does he appear now That it makes his dearest Relations say of him as Abraham said of Sarah Gen. 23. ver 4. I am a stranger and a sojourner with you give me a possession of a Burying place with you that I may Bury my Dead out of my sight Sad was the Change death made in Sarah which enforced this so seeming unnatural Resolution in Abraham to put her out of his sight He could no longer look upon her as his delightful Wife to sleep in his Bosom but as a rotten piece of Flesh that must be removed away Man in his Coffin is like a growing flower how splendidly does it look how fragrantly does it smell whilst upon the stalk but no sooner cropt but it presently fades and in a few hours is trodden under foot as dirt So that we may say of him as the Nations said of the King of Babylon His Pomp is brought down to the Grave and the noise of his Viols the Worm is spread under him and the Worms cover him Oh! Sirs All Man's Pomp his Beauty his Glory is then withered away And as it was said of our Redeemer in his state of humiliation There is no from or comeliness to look upon him nor no beauty in him that we should desire him His Body is then a contemptible despicable abominable thing Hence the Apostle makes use of these expressions of meanness and contemptibleness concerning man's going to his Long Home elegantly shewing thereby what his Body under those circumstances is It is sown in corruption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a state of filthiness and contamination Again It is sown in dishonor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a state of ignominy and contempt Again It is sown in weakness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a state of inability to withstand the Power of Death Once more It is sown a natural Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Body subjected to all the miseries appertaining to and entailed upon Apostate Nature From all this we may gather the proper
a great truth which the Poet tells us In recto medecina valent data Tempore prosunt Et data non apto Tempore vina nocent The truth is he was Skilful in every thing that conduced to his Patients Good So that great is our Loss in this respect Indeed the whole of that Judgment is come upon us which God threatned his antient People with in the days of old Isa 3. ver 1 2 3. For behold the Lord the Lord of Hosts doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff the whale stay of Bread and the whole staff of Water The Mighty Man and the Man of War the Judge and the Prophet and the Prudent and the Antient The Captain of Fifty and the Honourable Man and the Counsellor and the Cunning Artificer and the Eloquent Orator Ah! verily our stay and our staff is gone He that was the stay of our Strength and the staff of our Lives He that was a cunning artificer and a skilful Operator in the concerns of our Bodies is now taken away therefore we ought to be Mourners about his Hearse Fourthly Consider we have Lost an Useful Man yea a Man of the greatest Use amongst us The variety of Distempers Men are afflicted with and subject to in these Hot Climates do sufficiently infer the Usefulness yea the Necessity of an able Physitian I know you look upon your Minister as a needless Person because you are unsensible of the worth of your Souls if he had gone you would not have accounted it any great loss Ah! but now Sirs God knew how to take that Mercy from you which you are most sensible of the worth and use of He knew where to prick the Vein that will most Bleed and therefore he has taken away the Physitian of your Bodies whom you may most dearly miss before you go home And surely this bespeaks your Mourning in a grievous and bitter manner for this so sharp a Stroke What Paul told the Colossians chap. 4 ver 14. Luke the beloved Physician and Demas greet you May be truly applyed to him who was indeed a beloved Physician and he deserved no other for his diligent care and pains towards the meanest Patient He was seldome sent for to any sick Person being so forward of himself to go as soon as he heard of it Most Applications he made use of went through his own hands though the Disease was never so loathsome or the Person never so mean How then may I bespeak your Mourning over his Hearse this day us David did the Mourning of Israel over Saul Ye Daughters of Israel weep over Saul who cloathed you in Scarlet and ether delights who put on ornaments of Gold on your Apparel So O ye Seamen and Officers of this Ship Weep over this Painful Diligent Affectionate Physitian who refreshed you with Cordials and other delights Who was day and night serviceable to you and Dyed in that service amongst you He is now gone to his Long Home who retrieved many of us when we were almost there He helped us but we could not help him Ah! how can we think of parting with such an Useful Faithful Affectionate Friend and not Mourn How can we think of throwing him who was the very delight of our Souls Over-board into the wide Ocean to be made a Prey to the devouring Fishes and not break forth into doleful Crys and Lamentations Thus you see the cause we have to Mourn from the Consideration of the greatness of our present Loss But the many aggravating circumstances of this Loss do yet call for our Farther Mourning and the scruing up our Sorrow one Peg higher Hence consider First He is taken away before our Voyage is done It would have been a very considerable Loss if he had Lived with us to England and then have been removed by Death It would then have called for Mourning at our hands I but it would not have been so dismal a providence so afflictive a stroke as now it is having so long a way to run and so many difficulties to go through before we see our several Homes This was the cause of Israel's so long and so great Mourning for Moses Deut. 34. ver 8. And the Children of Israel wept for Moses in the Plains of Moab Thirty days So the days of Weeping and Mourning for Moses were ended Mark it they were yet in the Plains of Moab had they been in quiet and full possession of the Land of Canaan the present dispensation of Moses his Death though at any time bitter enough had not been so dreadful and dismal to them But this highly heightned their Misery and consequently their Sorrow that he was taken from them before he had brought them to the promised Rest So now in this case Oh! what cause have we to Mourn in an exceeding great measure for that Death has removed our Physitian so long before the conclusion of the Voyage Secondly Consider he is taken away whilst the Judgment of God is upon us in retarding our Passage and threatning no less than a Winter Voyage We have staid so long in the Indies that there is little likelyhood of our going Home this Year And at present we are here scorching in an hot sultry Climate the Winds so cross to us that we can neither go backward or forward and what will become of us the Lord knows But sure I am the hand of his Displeasure is stretched out against us and we feel in part that terrible Word threatned Mat. 26. ver 31. Then said Jesus unto them All ye shall be offended because of me this night for it is written I will smite the Sheapherd and the Sheep of the Flock shall be scattered abroad Ah! Sirs Death has smitten our Physitian and we arc like to be scattered abroad God Almighty knows where we may be forced to Winter where we may be driven for shelter from the Furious Ocean we cannot as yet tell But the great yea certain likelyhood of our being Tossed up and down the World for several Months before we can get about Cape of good Hope makes this Loss the more considerable and our Condition the more lamentable Thirdly Consider he is taken away in his Youthful days yea in the very flower of his Youth in the height and excellency of his Strength We ought to be Mourners in the Street when we see any Man go to his Long Home but to see a Young Man go there that 's newly come into the World That is beginning as it were to live that is but blossoming in the early Spring of his Years to see such an one so immaturely seized upon by the griping paw of Death Oh! this must needs aggravate Sorrow very greatly Upon this account it was that there was made such an heavy Lamentation for the Death of Josiah that Famous King of Judah 2 Chron. 35. ver 24 25. His servants therefore took him out of that Chariot and put him in the second
Chariot that he had and they brought him to Jerusalem and he Dyed and was Buried in one of the Sepulchers of his Fathers and all Judah and Jerusalem Mourned for Josiah And Jeremiah Lamented for Josiah and all the Singing Men and the Singing Women spake of Josiah in their Lamentations to this day and made them an Ordinance in Israel and behold they are written in the Lamentations He had not Lived out half his days but was unexspectedly taken off from farther doing of Good and this made them Lament so sorely over him And the same cause have we to Lament this day for this our Deceased Friend who contrary to the thoughts and expectations of us all was on a sudden snatched from us before he had arrived to the Thirtyeth Year of his Age. He was an healthy strong Man I remember not above two days before he sickned he was Jocosely telling me he looked upon himself as the most healthy and likeliest Man to Live in the Ship Indeed I thought he was But Ah! how soon was he gone A little sickness carryed him away Lord How vain a thing is Man How subject to Fade and Perish in his strongest and most advantagious state I will not say of our Friend as Virgil said of his Mecenas Longius annoso vivere dignus avo But 't was pity had it been the Will of God that a few Years more had not been added to his Life And his being so untimely removed bespake our greater Lamentation Fourthly Consider he is taken away in the midst of desires and wishes for his Life If Prayers if Tears if Endeavors of all sorts could have laved his Life this Sorrowfull and Mournful day had not been 'T is a great Judgment for a Man to Live undesired and to Dye unlamented And hence when the Lord would express his Anger to Jchoiakim for his wickedness he threatens him with this Judgment Jer. 22. ver 18 19. Therefore thus saith the Lord converning Jchoiakim the Son of Josiah King of Judah they shall not Lament for him saying Ah! my Brother or Ah! my Sister they shall not Lament for him saying Ah! Lord or Ah! his Glory He shall be buryed with the Eurial of an Asse drawn and cast forth beyond the Gates of Jerusalem But it is not so with our Friend I am consident not a Person here but does really Lament his Death I see the Characters of Sorrow engraven in all your Faces I know you Loved him Living and now Dead you are Mourners for him And I â—aâ—e farther 〈◊〉 had your Sorrow been as Effectual as it was Cordial you had prevented his Decease So that Hand opus est Calearibus There 's no need of any Spurs to your Lamentation that Labor is happily obviated I have indeed been shewing you for your Satisfaction and Consolation the just grounds of your Sorrow to secure you from the imputation of Irrational I shall now conclude only with a few words to put your Sorrow in the right Channel that you may sorrow as the Apostle phrases it after a Godly sort First Mourn for this Loss by way of Reflection That is Reflect on the condition you might have been in if God had called you to an account for your manifold Sins Is a Man of such Use and Worth taken away so suddenly by Death from us Oh! How should we Fear and Tremble to think what will become of us who are of so little Use in the World who have lived unprositably and unfruitfully all our days who have done little or no good in the several Capacities we have been How should it also incite us to a speedy and unfeigned Repentance lest a worse Death come upon us according to the advice of our blessed Lord Luke 13. ver 2 3. And Jesus answering said unto them Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things I tell ye nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Oh! Sirs do you think that this our dear and worthy Brother was a Sinner above all of us because he is gone down into the shades of Death before us I tell you nay but except you and I repent we shall all likewise perish Oh! Therefore I beseech you let this sad providence be a loud call to Repentance and Reformation and to say with the Church Come let us turn to the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up Secondly Mourn for this Loss by way of Humiliation Oh! labor to be so sensible of this sad Stroke as to be humbled under it and to lye low before the Lord who hath so sorely visited us in this most grievous manner Humiliation is the great expected and designed End of Correction God led his antient People through the Wilderness and exercised them with manifold Temptations that he might humble them and consequently do them good in their latter end 'T is sign of an hardned and obdurate Heart induced when there is no humbling under the mighty Hand of God And Reprobate-Silver shall Men call them that are not Resined in the Fuâ—â—â—ce of Affliction 'T was spoken as an horrid Aggravation of Israels Iniquity and Impenitency that after all the Lashes and Scourges of God's Rod and all his proceedings in way of Judgment against them Yet says the Text they are not humbled even unto this day Ah! Sirs How Lamentably would our Sins be heightned how exceedingly would our Souls be ripened for Destruction if we should not be humbled under this present awful Dispensation For verily the Lord is risen up as in Mount Perizim He is Wroth as in the Valley of Gideon and is doing his Work his strange Work and is bringing to pass his Act his strange Act in visiting our Transgressions with this smarting Rod and our Iniquities with this wounding Stripe And shall we say the Shadow of the Mountain and make but a light thing of it Oh! God forbid But rather I beseech you let us whilst our Spirits are dejected by this Loss endeavor to have our hearts humbled in the Sence of the Lord's anger that he may not farther be provoked to bring worse evils and calamities upon us How was David humbled and melted at the News of the Death of Saul and Jonathan How did he brake forth into this bitter Lamentation 2 Sam. 1. ver 19. The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places how are the mighty fallen Truly we may justly take up the same Complaint in the same words The beauty of our society the glory of our company the excellency of our community is fallen and perished from among us this day which bespeaks not only Heart-contrition but Soul-humiliation Thirdly Mourn for this Loss by way of submission and resignation of your Wills to the good Will and Pleasure of Almighty God and ceasing to murmur or complain because that he has done it We should say of this Dispensation as the Magicians said of