the Lord Phil. 1.23 For I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Heb. 12.23 To the spirits of just men made perfect 2. Then why do we Mourn on Earth for those that are Rejoycing in Heaven Do we weep for their Joy Is that our Love unto them to have such Sorrow for them What if there be one or two or ten fewer in our Family on Earth if there be so many the more in Heaven What mean these bleared Eyes this pale and macerated Face what means this washing of your Cheeks with Tears these sighs and sobs and groans Are they got safe into the place they prayed hoped longed for and do we grieve they have their Prayers answered their Hope 's obtained and their Longing Souls are fully and for ever saâ—isfied What if as they went to Heaven they took Death in their way could they have gotten thither without dying Is dying a greater Evil than all the Joys and Happiness they are possessed of is good Would they leave that State above to choose to be here below as they were before Conceive if it be not beyond all your Conceptions what Joy and Praise and heavenly Delight and holy Triumph the separated Soul of your dear holy Relation was filled with at its first beholding the Lord Jesus Christ in his Majesty and Glory in the other World Who can tell its ravishing Pleasures its transporting Delights its fullness of Joy at the first view of its blessed Lord and Saviour Is this the Jesus that was bufâ—eted and scourged and spit upon that is thus Beautiful as now I behold him Is this that Blessed Lord that was falsly Accused unjustly Condemned and cruelly Crucified that I now do see sat down upon his Glorious Throne Is this he that was vilified more than any Man that I see thus exalted above all these Glorious Angels round about I heard of his Majesty and Beauty and Glory from Ministers in their Sermons but what they said was not equal to what I see O the Love the Love the Love that I do feel to him that dyed for me that Redeemed me by his Blood to bring me to this glorious â—lace this glorious place I never before was in I never saw such a glorious place such Glorious Company I heard of it but before I never saw the like the like there is not to be seen Christ in Heaven and I with him all these Angels in Heaven and I with them all these Prophets Apostles Martyrs and happy holy Souls in Heaven and I with them I see such things I never saw I hear such things I never heard I feel I feel such Love and Joy that doth transcend all the thoughts I had of Heaven before I came into it O happy day that I came hither O joyful hour I left my Body till it be raised and partake with me in what I do enjoy I am but newly come into this Glorious State I am but now entred into this triumphant Society and what praises are these What Songs and Hallelujahs what divine and heavenly melody do I hear And what is my delight and Love and Joy it is great it is great I never knew the like it is so exceeding great Love and never doubt whether I do love Be loved and never question whether I am beloved Question and Doubt here is no room for such doubtings Do I enjoy what I enjoy and can I doubt whether I do enjoy it it is so full I cannot doubt it is so sweet I cannot Question it O blessed Day in which I was made thus blessed O blessed be this God that chose me to this blessed place O Blessed Saviour that by thy Blood didst Redeem me and purchase this Glory for me O Blessed Eternal Spirit that didst fit me and prepare me for it and didst guide me to it and being here I shall be here for ever I am where I would be and do not desire to be but where I am And this I know that where I am I shall for ever be and this God I shall ever love with perfect love and the more is my love the more is my joy and because my Love shall be perfect for ever my Joy shall be compleat for ever Is this the Soul we are Mourning for because it is separated from its Body Is this the State and infinitely beyond this that the Souls of our departed Friends are gone unto and do we sit and sob as if we were undone Do we weep and wail and lay their absence from us to Heart so much that makes us look more like their Enemies than their Friends and more like Strangers to that State above than Expectants of it or as if we were rather Unbelievers than Believers of Christ his Word and of the happiness of Heaven Think O think but alas it is more than you can think what departed holy Souls enjoy from that moment or day that you saw them draw their last breath and rather desire to be with them than Mourn that they are gone from you CHAP. XIV The Resurrection of the Dead great ground of Comfort in our Sorrow for them As also the Qualities and Endowments of their Bodies when raised THE Third Remedy against Excessive Sorrow for the Dead is sure knowledge and firm belief of the Resurrection unto Life Death is opposed to Life as being the privation of it the Resurrection is opposed to Death as being a restoration to Life The one is the cause of our Sorrow the other is a solid ground of Christian Comfort It is a Doctrine unknown by the Light of Nature it is undeniably proved by the Holy Scripture The Heathens hearing Paul preach the Resurrection of the Dead did deride and mock Act 17.32 for they did judge it a thing incredible that the dead should be raised Act 26.8 This was the reason they sorrowed for their deâ—d so immoderately because they had no hope that they should live again and the Resurrection and Christian Hope are conjoyned the one being the Foundation of the other Act. 23.6 Of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called into question Act. 24.14 And have hope towards God which they themselves also allow that there shall be a Resurrection of the dead both of the just and unjust If the Resurrection be granted hope must be allowed and the more hope of this the more mitigation of sorrow for the Dead because they shall live again In this copious Subject I must omit many things and content my self with so much as is sufficient for my present design which may be done in these two things 1. That there is sufficient foundation for our Faith that the Dead shall surely live again 2. That their Bodies for which we mourn because dâ—ad and buried shall not only be the same for substance but in respect of Qualities shall far exceed what they were while they lived or when they dyed And the Faith
am Alas Lord forgive your unprofitable Servant tho studious as I can of your Spiritual and Eternal Good Thomas Doolittle The CONTENTS THE Mourners Complaint his Warning to others the Explication of the Text. pag. 1. to 9. Doct. I. The actings and workings of Sonrow in the Living for their Dead are allowed and lawâ—ull and ought to be The want of the workings of natural Affections in many upon this occasion calls for the handling of this doctrine 10 11 12 Proved by approved Examples and by Reasons p. 13 to 29 Use I. Of Reproof Where Eight Conclusions concerning Sorrow for the dead p. 31 I. This question What are the aggravations of want of Sorrow and sense of Gods hand in this Case answered in 10 particulars p. 35 to 46 Use II. Of Examination of the Kind of our Sorrow II. Quest When is our Sorrow for our dead Kindly and pleasing to God and when a turbulent Passion a Vexation of Spirit and provoking to God Ten Answers p 46 to 66 Use III. Of Caution p. 66 67 III. Quest When is our Sorrow for our dead spiritually defective thô it be naturally abundant Or when is it too little as we are Christians be it never so much as we are Men Eight Answers p. 69 to 83 Doct. II. Christians ought so to bound their sorrow for their dead that it be not Excessive and Immoderate p. 84 Ten Rules concerning the Kinds and Degrees of sorrow for the dead p. 87 c. Eight Questions propounded to such as sorrow with distracting sorrow for the death of Impenitent Relations for the composing of their minds p 101 c. Q. When is our sorrow for our dead excessive and Immoderate Twelve Answers 116 to 137 4 Remedies against excessive sorrow for our dead p. 137 c. I. Rem The consideration of the state of the Bodies of departed Believers that they sleep in Jesus 4 Notes of this Scripture expression of death as a sleep 142 c. 10 Meditations of Death as a sleep moderating our sorrow for them that sleep in Jesus 145 to 152 II Rem The knowledge and Belief of the glorious state of their separated Souls while their Bodies sleep in the Grave 152 to 158. Proved and Improved for the asswaging of our Sorrow III. Rem The Resurrection of those dead we mourn for to glorious Eternal Life Proved as a ground of great Comfort in our sorrow 158 to 165 Seven Properties or Endowments of their Bodies when raised as so many alleviations of our Sorrow 166 c. IV. Rem The Antecedents Concomitants Consequents Of their Resurrection 174 1. The Lord HIMSELF will come from Heaven and call them out of their Graves Our sorrow abated by the Certainty Nearness Publickness Of Christs coming for them 175 to 183. 2. The Shout and sounding Trumpet what it will be The Ministration of Angels about the dead in Christ 183 c. 3. The Priviledge of those that sleep in Jesus or their Preheminence before those that shall then be found alive 190 4. Our dead shall then meet the Lord in the Air. 191 5. They shall be with the Lord for Ever 192 Opened With whom they shall be With the Lord. Who shall be with him The dead in Christ whom we now sorrow for all Believers sound alive How long To all Eternity 193 c. Use Of Comfort 200 201 24 Questions added to the former grounds of Comfort for the quieting of our Minds and moderating our sorrow for our dear Relations now dead 201 to 211. The Mourners Soliloquy or Reasoning with himself about hâ— sorrow for his Dead that it might be kept within the bound of Moderntion 215 c THE Mourners Directory 1 THESS IV. 13. But I would not have you to be ignorant brethren concerning them which are asleep that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope CHAP. I. The Introduction and Explication of the Text. THe Survivor according to his Circumstances by sympathizing Persons will be allowed to unload his burthened heart by pouring out his Complaints in some such manner Hath God afflicted me Hath he chastised my Children both me and them with such a smarting Rod as Death bereaving me of the choicest outward Comfort of my Life and removing out of the World from them a tender Mother that brought them into it and thereby caused us all to drink deeply of the Waters of Marah and filled our Eyes with overflowing Tears and our Hearts with over-whelming Sorrow and is it not time to cast about what Remedy Scripture doth yield which Nature cannot afford Do I stand before you this day in such Circumstances as in Preaching for the space of almost forty years I never did and may I not borrow from you some hours in your hearing to speak to my self and them deprived of so great a Mercy Paul was in a great strait whether he should chuse to live or dye and I am in a strait how I should without sin Sorrow for my dead For if defect of Sense and Sorrow in this case be a Sin I will strive to Sorrow that through stupidity I might not Sin If regular Sorrow be my duty I will study and pray that it might be so regulated that whilest I Sorrow and not Sin I might please and delight my self in this Sorrow and take some comfort from my Sorrow If excess be my weakness without Divine Assistance I cannot remove it therefore bent my mind to muse upon these words I would not have you to be ignorant concerning them which are asleep that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope But may not that which is my Sorrow to day be some of yours to morrow Or within a little time will it not must it not be done to you and yours which at the present is done to me and mine Are not your Relations mortal as well as ours was And if you have not sinned so much as we yet have not you so much Sin as might call Death into your Houses Will not Death shortly knock at your doors and enquire who lives here upon this design that there they may die Will it not break through your strongest Gates scale your highest Walls climbe up to your Windows enter into your Chambers come into your very Beds and take the Wife out of your Bosome and the sucking Child from the Mothers Brest Will it not in a few Days and Nights more tear and rend from you the desire of your Eyes tho you would hold them fast in your Arms Shall not the shriekings be heard in your Houses as lately were in mine and the doleful cry go round while one Child begins saying My Mother alas my dear Mother is dead and another shall eccho to the voice of the former with weeping Eyes with wringing of Hands and bitterness of Soul shall say What shall I do what shall I do My tender loving Mother is dead my Mother is dead I could never say so before and the first time it is said
therefore Sorrow for your selves and not for us But Earth is a place for Sorrow which we must tast in handling the first Doctrine and after we have pleased our selves with it from love to them we will endeavour and seek for Comfort as to them in the second CHAP. II. The First Doctrine proved by Scripture Instances and Reasons Doct. I. THE Actings and Workings of Sorrow in the Living for the Dead are allowed and lawful and ought to be For he saith not Do not sorrow at all this defect or want of sorrow is so far from becoming Christians that it is unworthy of a Man as a Man How incongruous is it for a Man to sorrow for a dead Beast that lays not to Heart the Death of a Child or of some nearer and greater Relation There are too many Stoicks in practice in this point that are not so in Opinion At the Losses of the World sorrow fills their Hearts you may see their Tears you may hear their Groans and bitter Complaints I am undone this Loss is my Ruine And the sense of this and sorrow for it shall last long mâ—y â—hey will not stick â—o tell you they shall never get over it but it will break their Hearts But these that melt like Wax for a Worldly Loss are as hard and sensless as a Stone not regarding the Dâ—â—th of a Wife of their Bosom of a Child of their Loins or a Brother from the same Parents but have a secret gladness in their Hearts when their Children die because they have the fewer to maintain or a weak and sickly Wife by Death is taken away because the burden of the charge is thereby eased Lord what kind of Christians are these that have not so much value for an Humane Body nor an Immortal Soul as for the more ignoble things of this World without Life or Sense or Reason This horrid and unnatural Sin against the Lives of their Parents is in too many Children who expecting the Possession of their Goods and Estates at their Death think they live too long long for their Decease and though they may cloath themselves in Mourning to follow them to their Graves yet secretly please themselves that they are gone and their Riches come to them Neither may any please themselves with Stoical Apathy or want of grief and sorrow for the Death of Relations because they were wicked and ungodly lived and died in Sin which should rather increase than diminish their mourning for them for must not that Man have an Heart of Stone that is neither moved for the Death of the Body nor for the Damnation of the Soul of any so near in relation to him Is it nothing to such a Man that the Body is consumed in the Grave and the Soul tormented in Hell Is it nothing that the Body is meat for Worms and the Soul a prey to Devils As there is no greater alleviation of our sorrow for the dead than well-grounded hope that the Soul is lodged with God above so there can be no greater aggravation of sorrow for the death of the Impenitent than the Thoughts that the Soul is Damned before the Body can be Buried Who or what manner of Man is he that can forbear to grieve and sorrow for the death of a Wife or a Son because she was a froward graceless or a wicked Wife or because he was a disobedient Son yet was not the one a Wife and the other a Son and both had Immortal Souls And if you had no ground to hope at death they were received into Heaven must not you conclude they were then cast down to Hell And take on and say Ah my Son my Son how miserable for ever miserable art thou my Son my Son Did I beget thee to be a prey for Devils to be Fuel for the Flames of Hell The Son of my Loins a part of my self is for ever lost because he died in his Sin He sinned and never repented he went on in Sin to his dying day and never turned to the Lord and when he died was condemned Oh my Bowels my Bowels for thee my departed Son thy Death I could have better born if Damnation after death by dying in thy Sin had not been thy Portion What! gone from me to Devils What! from my House to Hell While thou in Hell and I on Earth I cannot but sorrow on Earth when I think thou art tormented in Hell I have lost thee and that is bad and thou hast lost God and that is worse infinitely worse because the God that thou hast lost is infinitely good If you cannot sorrow for the death of a Relation because he was bad that will be no proof that you your self are good And if you justifie your self though you sorrow not at all do you not condemn the practice of David in mourning so much for an Incestuous Murderous and Rebellious Son because he died in his Sin and unprepared for Death and a better state in another World 2 Sam. 18.33 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 died for thee O Absalom my son my son This is the first thing in the Survivers Carriage for the dead sorrow is allowed The defect is both their Sin and Shame That we may and ought to give a lodging to sorrow in our Breasts even for those whose Souls are lodged with God above and whose Bodies being lodged in the Grave do there sleep in Jesus will be apparent and justified by these Arguments pleading for it First The approved Practice and commendable Examples of Holy Persons Recorded in Sacred Scripture mourning and sorrowing for their deceased Relations Instances we find in the several respective Relations in which they stood while they did live together that the Surviving did mourn for not only in habit but in heart when death had parted â—hâ—â—â—â—â—der 1. 〈◊〉 Death had dissolved the Conjugal Vâ—â—â—â— be wixt â—usband and Wife the Surviving Husband that waâ— laâ—â—ly sâ—â— mourned for his deceased Wife So Abraham for Sarah Gen. 23.2 And Sarah died in Kiriath-arba the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her Tears for a departed Wife are not unworthy of a Man nor unbecoming but he that hath not a Tear to shed upon such a sorrowful occasion was unworthy of a Wife Abraham wept for Sarah So Wives for their Husbands The Tidings that Vriah was dead were grievous to Bathsheba and caused her to mourn 2 Sam. 11.26 When the wife of Vriah heard that her husband Vriah was dead she mourned for her husband Powerful Death hath made many sorrowful Hearts because it hath power to do that which all the Created Powers in Heaven and Earth could not do that is to separate those that God by his Institution had joined together This Knot of unfeigned Lovers
will be shortly yours and you may be to seek how to govern your sorrows as we are at present put to it to study and pray how we ought to rule and manage ours And for both you and us because it is a subject I have not read of and I suppose you seldom hear The Theme of moderating our sorrow for the dead is more usual and ordinary and an Vse of Consolation for the comforting of the Living at the Burial of their Dead is more frequent in Funeral Discourses And tho the Natural Affections of many need rather a Bridle to hold them in than a Spur to put them forwards yet it cannot be denied that some have so little sense and feeling of the death of near Relations that they are a shame to Humane Nature or if they do sorrow and mourn it is with a sinful passionate vexatious but not with a right and kindly sorrow Quest I. What are the Aggravations of defect or want of sorrow for our Dead In an Use of Reproof Quest II. When is our sorrowing for our Dead kindly and pleasing unto God and when turbulent Passion a meer vexation of Spirit and provoking to God In an Use of Examination of our selves concerning our sorrow Quest III. When is our sorrow Spiritually defective when it is naturally abundant Or when it is too little as we are Christians when it is never so much as we are Men In an Use of Caution VSE I. Tho some are to be blamed for sorrowing too much for the dead yet it cannot be denied but that there are those that are weary of their Relations while they live wish they were dead and rather please themselves because they are eased of them by death than sorrow because they are dead The death of a Child of a Wife of an Husband of a Father or Mother is an heavy stroke and as some lay it too much to heart and mourn as if they had no Grace to moderate their sorrow so some make so light of it as if they had no natural Affection to move them to mourn on such a mournful occasion O Lord are not thine Eyes upon the Truth thou hast stricken them but they have not grieved Jer. 5.3 These turn not to the Lord that smiteth them neither do they seek the Lord of Hosts Isa 9.13 But to prevent mistakes misinterpretations and misapplications I judge it necessary to premise these Conclusions 1. Sorrow for the Dead as such is no special Grace nor as such and in it self considered acceptable unto God because it hath been and may be in Heathens as much as in Christians 2. In this Discourse sorrow for the Dead is not to be separated from a sense of Gods afflicting Hand which should be in Christians more than in Heathens A Sparrow falls not to the ground nor a Body to the Grave without God's Hand which we should mind 3. Tho sorrow for the Dead as such be no Grace yet it becometh Christians and should be their care so to exercise their Grace in and about this sorrow that their sorrow might not be provoking but pleasing unto God Many Graces in our sorrow are to be drawn into Act as our Faith and Hope concerning their Resurrection to Eternal Glorious Life Patience under his Rod Love to God tho he doth afflict us Blessing God when he taketh from us as well as when he giveth to us and thankfulness to God for his Mercy and Grace to our departed Friends for their preparation for death and his assistance in inabling them to conquer the fears of death for the happy End that they did make and rejoicing in God for the receiving of their Souls to the Mansions in our Fathers House sorrow for the dead that is no Grace mixed with the Actings of these Graces and regulated by them is more becoming Christians than when it is alone and separated from them 4. Tho Loss of Relations befalls none but such as have sinned and thereby made a forfeiture of their Lives yet the death of Relations might not be inflicted for any Sin committed by the Survivors beyond the Case of others that have their Relations yet continued with them Job had seven Sons and three Daughters in one day removed by a strange and sudden Death and yet he had this Testimony from God himself that he was a perfect and an upright Man and one that feared God such a one that there was nor such another Job 1.8 18 19. Tho we have many Humane Infirmities come to our Thoughts after their Death which being bewailed for Christs sake shall be pardoned yet when no Sin above Saints in an imperfect state or no Conscience-wounding wasting Sin or but what is common to the good and is too often found in the best Men upon serious search under such a Loss hath been committed by them when joined in Life the Loss is more easily born than when some aggravated Sin remembred after they are parted by death and proves the sting of that Affliction Therefore be advised to live in Love with them discharging carefully and constantly all Relative Duties in Life that you may part with less stinging sorrow and more quieting comfort whoever in the Family be first taken from the rest by death It will be no small Comfort to the Surviving when the dying Relation shall give them thanks for all their Love to them while they lived with them and as great a Terrour to those whose Consciences are not past feeling if they leave a complaint behind them on a dying Bed My Husband to me hath been a bitter Husband or my Child to me hath been a disobedient Child and a grief unto my Heart or if they do not if an awakened reflecting accusing Conscience doth will cause sorrow at parting and when their Bodies are consuming in their Graves will be filling and loading your Hearts with griping grief 5. Persons might be filled with sorrow at the death of Relations when it is not for their death but for their own Self-interest in the World As when a Man had an Hundred Pound per Annum by the Life of his Wife and loved the Estate more than her doth sorrow for the loss of his Wife upon no other account but because by the loss of her he lost so much of the World Such selfish sorrow as this is base and might be in those that have no right sorrow for their dead 6. Sorrow for the Dead upon Spiritual Reasons because we are deprived of the Spiritual Good we might have got by their continued Life or are made more uncapable of doing good by their death tho it relate to our selves is to be cherished but the want of such sorrow is to be reproved 7. Whether we sorrow or not sorrow for our dead is easily known by our selves Such as do need not apply this reproof to themselves nor be offended at it Such as do not should take it to themselves for they are to be reproved tho they be offended
not you see he doth not mourn as he is a Child and stands in that Relation but as he hath Flesh that is pained by the strokes Might not he cry out under the Rod and yet be a stubborn Child a disobedient Child and not desire his Father's love in the way of his Duty nor lay to heart his Father's displeasure for the Evil he hath done Will you ask me Sir Are you sure God is displeased with me because by Death he hath removed my Relation from me I will ask you Are you sure that he is not Which doth it look most like Love or Displeasure And if you are not sure he is not displeased with you under such a Rod should not you sorrow lest he should be displeased Is the displeasure of God so small a thing in your Eye that the fear of it should not be ground of your Sorrow And say what if God should be angry with me in what he hath taken from me What if my Father should be displeased and the Death of this Relation be the fruit of it Is not here ground to sorrow as a Christian as well as a Man The loss of a good Husband or Wife Father Mother or Child is a burden heavy to be born but the loss of the favour of God is greater and his displeasure presseth more hard upon a Soul sensible of it and therefore prays O Lord if thou rebuke me let it not be in thine anger if thou chasten me let it not be in thy sore displeasure Psalm 6.1 The loss of a Relation is a Rebuke it is a chastening and it may be in anger and displeasure when it is so Sorrow for God's displeasure as Christians as for your own Affliction as Men. 3. When you Sorrow more for the loss of your Temporal Good by the Death of your Relation than for the Spiritual Advantage you might have gained by the continuance of their Lives You sorrow too much as Men but too liâ—tle as Christians You may sorrow for the one as well as for the other but you should not sorrow so much for the one as for the other because the one is better than the other and the loss of the one a greater loss than the other By their Death you sustain the loss of some outward Comforts for your Body and loss of some inward Advantages for your Soul as now they can instruct and teach you no more they can pray with you and for you no more they can help you to answer your doubts about your Spiritual State no more nor give you Arguments against your own Corruptions or Satan's Temptations any more nor reprove you for your Sin nor comfort you under your Afflictions nor exhort you to be making holy Preparations for Death nor direct you therein any more for ever nor by their continued Example stir you up to secret Prayer to maintain Communion with God all these were great Advantages you had by the Life of your holy Relations and by their Death they cease For this you do not sorrow saying My Godly Father my Holy Mother made many a Prayer shed many a Tear for me they pleaded with God for Grace and Mercy and Pardon for me but Death hath broken off the continuance of their Prayers and what a loser am I thereby They did observe and watch my Life and Actions what was Evil they reproved me for what was Good they did incâ—urage and countenance me in but Death hath closed their Eyes that they can now see neither Good nor Evil in me and hath tied their Tongue that they can speak no more to me concerning the one nor the other and who can tell the greatness of my loss for my Immortal Soul that I am under by their Death The like might be said concerning a Religious Husband an holy Zealous Wife Wherefore if you mourn never so much for your loss by their Death as to your Bodies and outward Estate and not so much as to your loss to your Soul and spiritual Condition it 's more like Men than Christians 4. When you Sorrow more for the want of their Company in Life than you do for want of a sanctified improvement of their Death you sorrow too much as Men and too little as Christians Nature helps you to the one but it must be Grace that must inable you to do the other Your Father or Mother Husband or Wife or Child is dead and you sit down and sorrow and say I shall never see these in my house any more they shall never sit with me at my Table any more they shall lodge in my Bed no more and dwell with me on Earth no more for ever I shall see them no more whom I did love to look upon when they were absent from me a Week or two a Month or two A Month a Day or two how glad was I at their return If their absence filled me with Sorrow their presence again did drive away my Sorrow and renewed my Joy If I parted with them when to go a Journey I did it with Tears of Grief but when they returned I received them with Tears of Joy If I sorrowed that they were gone yet the hopes of their safe return did asswage my Sorrow But now they are gone without return They have taken a long Journey and never to me will come back again They were use to take their leave and say farewel till I see you again but now they took their leave saying The Lord be with you for I shall be with you no more Oh this word no more doth even break my heart what my Father or Mother gone and shall I see them no more my Wife or Husband gone and shall I set mine Eyes on him or her no more My dear Child gone looking on whom did delight my Eyes and must I see him no more I look for my Relations at my Table but their place is empty and I cannot see them there I lock but I cannot see them I go to the Chamber where they did use to sit and Work or to the Closet where they did use to Pray but I cannot see them there I see the Work but them I cannot see I see their Hand-writing but them I cannot see I see their wearing Clothes but them that did use to wear them I cannot see to see these and not them doth renew and encrease my Sorrow when I can see these every day and no day can see them the more I multiply my Sorrow and methinks this Sorrrow is pleasent Sorrow and this Grief is delightful Grief and when I feel Sorrow added to Sorrow at the remembrance of them I must see no more methinks it pleaseth me to remember them tho it grieves me that I can not must not see them nor enjoy their Company nor my comfort in their Company any more for ever Is this your Sorrow And have you nothing else to do than to feed your Sorrow And please your self with this kind of Sorrow
you kill another and so bring in Death upon Death into your Family and invite and call it in to make Freach upon Breach Do you complain of Deaths doings and will you do as Death hath done do you grieve and sorrow for the death of another and by your grief and sorrow will you be your own death and yet not yield your sorrow is too much do you sorrow because yours are lodged in the Grave and do you thus hasten to go to them though God hath put an end to their lives yet hath not he bound you by all lawful means to preserve your own and to avoid whatsoever hath so great a tendency to cut it short or do not you know that excessive grief often is the cause of death Did you never read in the Bills of Mortality that some that many have died with grief and killed themselves with sorrow or did you never mind the difference given by the Apostle betwixt godly sorrow and sorrow of the World for worldly Losses and is not your sorrow such in thâ—s case 2 Cor. 7.10 for godly sorrow worketh râ—pentance to salvation not to be repented of but the sorrow of the world worketh death That sorrow that is for worldly losses and crosses proceeding from the over-much love of these Creature-Comforts doth huâ—â— the Body and hasten death temporal and doth wrong the Soul because sinful and doth deserve death eternal for the wages of every sin is death temporal and eternal Rom. 6.23 and will you so sorrow for another dead body as thereby to deserve the damnation of your own Soul and yet not say it is too much When your Spirit is broken your heart is broken how can you live and what will break it Prov. 15.13 By sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken Prov. 17.22 A broken spirit drieth the bones Psal 6.7 My eye is consumed because of grief Immoderate sorrow drieth the Bones breaks the Heart preys upon the Spirits consumeth the Vital Parts and by all hastens death and therefore not to be cherished but avoided Q. 2. Is not that sorrow that must be sorrowed for excâ—ssive sorrow See the strait you bring your self into You sorrow too much and because you do so you must sorrow more and so add sorrow to sorrow ' when it is and because it is too much already you have more than you ought and yet you have not so much as you should you must have sorrow for your sorrow and yet you want sorrow for your sorrow Your eyes run down with tears for your dead more than they should and when you should weep for your excessive sorrow you haâ—e not a tear to shed Why do you waste your tears for what and more than you should and then want tears for what you ought to shed them for Excessive sorrow is a sin because it is excessive and sinful sorrow must be sorrowed for and repented of or how will you else get the pardon of that known Sin What do you mean then by sorrow to draw on sorrow and so to weep that you must weep over your weeping and to shed tears over again for the tears that you have shed if you cannot bear this sorrow that you are filled with already why by this sorrow do you make way for more and fo depth of sorrow calling for depth of sorrow you at last must swim in tears where you cannot wade through Q 3. Is not that sorrow too much that doth hurt and no good is sorrow good in it self as sorrow Then all sorrow would be good Whereas much sorrow is often evil and too much is always evil because as such it doth hurt and not good Whom doth your sorrow do good unto not to your dead be it never so much not to your Relations that live for you grieve them by over grieving and makes your company a burthen and unprofitable to them not to your self neither to Body oâ— to Soul for it is prejudicial unto both as before was made manifest Q. 4. Is not that sorrow too much for your dead which would be too much for your sin Many are defective in sorrowing for sin few sorrow too much for sin yet men may be and some are excessive in their sorrow for sin insomuch that their sorrow for sin is turned into sinful sorrow as when they are so overwhelmed with sorrow for sin as unsits them for other Gospel Duties and drives them from Christ and sinks them into despair which sorrow is excessive and God gives caution and charge against such sorrow sor our sin 2 Cor 2.7 So that cantrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him and comfort him lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with ovâ—rmuch sorrow When sorrow for sin doth more hurt than good it is over-much and so is our sorrow for our dead Q. 5. Is not that sorrow too much for your dead which is more than you have for your sin Is not sorrow upon the account of some present evil that is upon us as joy is for some present good and should not the degree of our sorrow bear some proportion to the greatness of the evil that is the cause and reason of our sorrow Is not sin against God a greater evil than any besides sin doth fall upon us Is not your own dead heart and cold affections towards God a greater evil than the dead Corps and cold Flesh in the Grave which is the cause of all this sorrow Now when your sorrow is more for the lesser evil than it is for the greater judge if your sorrow for the greater is not too small and your sorrow for the lesserâ— over-much and excessive Q. 6. Is not that sorrow over-much which carries our thoughts down into the Grave to think of their Dead Corps but hinders them from ascending into Heaven to meditate upon the the Eternal Ever-living God What a shame and reproach is it to us that a dead Wife or a dead Child or a dead Father or Mother should have more of our Thoughts than God and Christ and things above and that the Bodies of our departed Relations consuming in their Graves should have more of our thoughts than their Souls triumphing in Heaven have that it is so our excessive sorrow doth testifie to our faces for we cannot say nor do pretend to sorrow for the Soul in Heaven is it not then for the Body in the Grave And why should not the Joy the Immortal part is filled with abate our Sorrow for the Corruptible part though it be consuming if our thoughts were as much with the Soul in Heaven as they are with the Body in the Grave Let these Excessive Mourners ingenuously confess if they have not twenty thoughts of the Dead Body for one serious heart affecting Thought they have of God and Christ and the living triumphant Soul above for would not the one cause Joy as others do Sorrow and so our Joy mitigate be equal to or exceed our Sorrow if it be
Tho maâ—y things might be had out of the whole Word of God which would much enlarge this Discourse yet I shall that I may Contract pick up the Apostles Arguments in the Text and following Verses of this Chapter as Alleviations of sorrow in this Case because therein he treats designedly upon this Subject Concerning which it is as if he had said Those that are ignorant of or do not believe the Resurrection of the Dâ—ad and a better Life hereafter have ever sorrowful Thoughts of those that are taken away by Death and mourn for them to excess But I would not have you to cherish and maintain such immoderate sorrows by Ignorance of their Case at present and hereafter The Helps against Immoderate Sorrow for our dead given in this Chapter might be reduced to these Four General Heads of Argument 1. The consideration of the state of the Bodies of departed Believers They are fallen asleep and if they sleep in Jesus as they do v. 14. they shall do well 2. The Knowledge and Belief of the state of the separated Soul Their Souls are with Christ Triumphant in Heaven while their Bodies are sleeping in the Grave and these Souls he will bring back with him when he comes 3. The certainty of the Resurrection of the Dead by the Re-union of the same Souls with the same Bodies and so Christ will bring the entire Man with him at the day of Judgment Thus the Hope in the Text is the Hope of the Resurrection of the Dead and confirmed by the next words 4. The Antecedent Concomitant and consequent Circumstances of the Resurrection That is what shall go before what shall accompany and what shall follow after the raising of the dead and all these are laid down in the following part of this Chapter which is a Spring and Fountain of Living Lively Comfort against excessive sorrow for the dead And methinks I feel it already to begin to work It warms my Heart it doth begin to burn within my Breast My Affections move and it seems to me that my sorrow is turning into joy and my heaviness into rejoicing and am put to a stand whether now I shall call my Tears for my dead Tears of Sorrow or of Joy Have we been sorrowing because she is dead Methinks I cannot but joy that she sleeps in Jesus Have we been mourning because the Body is in the Grave Oh how delightful is it to me to think upon such good grounds that the Precious and Immortal Soul is above in yonder glorious Heaven in the presence of the Father and Redeemer and Comforter and in the innumerable company of Angels and saved Souls perfectly Holy and Happy for ever Have we been so much troubled because the Body did fall at the parting stroke of death methinks my trouble is allayed when I am considering and certainly sure that it shall rise and fall no more Is it an aggravating sorrow to look back upon the Circumstances of the Funeral The Bearers carrying the Corps upon their Shoulders the Mourning Relations following and many sorrowful sympathizing Friends coming after to see the dead Body lodged in its long Home Methinks another Affection is ready to take its turn and to act its part even Delight and Joy when I look forward and foresee the Lord a coming and all his Holy Angels with him calling the dead to rise they hear and come forth from their sleeping places and after Judgment go with their Lord into the highest Heavens in Body and Soul not only to their long but last yea Everlasting Home to Live and Love and Joy in God to all Eternity Oh what difference is there between believing Thoughts of these great and glorious certain things and those that have been daily running to the Grave looking upon a consuming Body What wrong have I done my self in hastening to this part no more and coming to it no sooner Why have we been looking so long in the Grave in which as such we can see nothing but death and cry out as the Men to Elisha concerning their deadly Pottage O thou Man of God there is death in the Pot 2 Kings 4.40 So we there is death in the Grave But when Elisha said Then bring Meal and he cast it into the Pot and he said pour out for the people that they may eat and there was no harm in the Pot. So we should have looked upon the Grave as a place where Christ before had been laid and as a Bed for the Bodies of Believers to sleep in till the Lord shall come and we should have seen no such great harm in the Grave to fill us with excessive sorrow Concerning this representation of death by sleeping four things may be premised as to this manner of Scripture expression 1. Tho Beasts do die yet their death in Scripture that I know of is never called a Sleep for they die to live no more Death puts an end to their Life without a Resurrection to it any more They are only in this World and not to have Life in that World that Men are hastening too They are not capable here of Moral Government of Sin or Grace and so shall not be raised to undergo Eternal Punishments or to receive Eternal Rewards hereafter Tho they do sleep while they live yet their death is not a sleep because they shall die but never wake 2. The death of ungodly Men is sometimes in Scripture called a sleep tho more seldom The worst as well as the best all Mankind in general shall be raised at the last day As death is common to all so shall the Resurrection of the dead also be Tho as there is a difference in their death so shall there also be in their Resurrection but because they shall awake therefore to them death also is a sleep Tho they had better to sleep on than to awake and rise to be tormented Dan. 12.2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the Earth shall awake some to â—verlasting Life and some to Shame and Everlasting Contempt Expressed by Christ in these words John 5.28 All that are in their Graves shall hear his voice 29. And shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil to the Resurrection of Damnation 3. It is most frequently used concerning the death of holy and believing persons that they may familiarize it to themselâ—es and get as great a willingness to die as to go to Bed and sleep So God said to Moses he should sleep with his Fathers Deut. 31.16 So of David 2 Sam. 7.12 So Mat. 9.24 When Christ said our Friend Lazarus sleepeth the Disciples thought he spake of his taking natural rest in sleep but after explained his meaning saying he is dead John 11.11 12 13. So Acts 13.36 4. The Expression of sleeping in Jesus is to be understood peculiarly of the death of true Believers that shall be awaked to live with him in Eternal
Glory 1 Thes 4.15 Impenitent Persons go night after night to their Beds and sleep in their Sin and at last die in their Sin But it is peculiar to sanctified Persons to die in the Lord and sleep in Jesus Carnal unbelieving Men might laugh this Doctrine to Scorn as they did Jesus that taught it and say We know that they are dead And death is death whatsoever name you call it by and what Comfort can we have from Words and Names against such a real Evil as death is Luke 8.49 Thy daughter is dead trouble not the Master 52. And all wept and bewailed her but he said weep not she is not dead but sleepeth 53. And they laughed him to scorn knowing that she was dead But since the most Wise and Ever-living God hath called death so often by such a Name there is some supporting Comfort in it against the fears of our oâ—n and excessive sorrow for the death of otâ—ers Let 's search and try 1. Our Dead are sleeping therefore they are at rest from all Troubles from men Those that would not suffer them to rest in Life cannot hinder their rest in Death They that would not let them rest in their Beds in their Houses upon Earth will let them rest in the Bed of the Grave the house appointed for all the living in the Bowels of the Earth or if they should dig up their dry Bones yet they cannot hereby disturb their rest for they are not sensible of any more trouble To go to Bed and sleep and to go to Bed and take our rest are words importing the same thing Isa 57. 1. The Righteous are taken away from the evil to come 2. He shall enter into peace they shall rest in their Beds Job 3.11 Why dyed I not from the Womb 13. For now should I have lain still and been quiâ—t I should have slept then had I been at rest 17. There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest 18. There the Prisoners rest together they hear not the voice of the Oppressor 19. The small and great are there and the Servant is free from his Master 2. Death as a Sleep affords us the meditatiâ—n of that freedom that our Dead have from those pains and sense of them which they had before they fell Asleep Then they did complain of pain in one part and sometimes in another and another while that their pain was all over in every part Are not the sound of their words yet in our Ears You do not know what we do feel All their wearisome days are now over and their tedious nights are past and gone there is no more wishing in the Evening O that it were Morning nor in the Morning O that it were Evening There is no more complaining This Night is a long Night because it is a painful Night and this Day is a tedious Day because it is a Day of so great and sharp Affliction Their Life is gone and all their Sickness Pain and bodily Griefs are all gone As when a Person in his Sickness hath something given him to cause him to sleep in his sleep he is not sensible of his Sickness so those that are fallen asleep in that sleep are no more sensible of such Pains that with us they complained of 3. Death as a Sleep yields us these Thoughts that our Dead are freed from all worldly Cares and piercing Sorrows those Cares did bring along with them If Persons have had their Heads full of worldly Thoughts all the Day and have busied them in buying and selling and trading in contriving and projecting for their worldly Interest and Advantage yet when fast asleep in their Beds they mind none of all these things they matter not nor do they regard what others awake are doing nor whither they are going nor the Pleasures they are taking nor the Evil they are suffering nor the Sin they are committing All these things that took up their Thoughts when alive they are freed from when fallen asleep 2 Kings 22.20 Behold I will gather thee to thy Fathers and thou shalt be gathered into thy Grave in peace and thine eyes shall not see all the Evil that I will bring upon this place In this Sleep they are so quiet that they do not so much as dream of any of these things 4. Death as a sleep tho it be a deep sleep helps us to the Thoughts how easie it will be for God to awaken them They sleep so fast that no created power can raise them out of their sleep but it is more easie to Almighty Power to awaken those that are sleeping in their Graves than for you to awaken one that is sleeping in his Bed Lazarus was sleeping in his Grave Christ gave a call spoke the word Lazarus come forth and he that was dead came forth and tho' he was bound hand and foot with Grave-cloaths yet he came forth Joh. 11.43 44. So Christ with a word with a call waked Jairus his Daughter out of the sleep of Death Jesus called saying Maid arise and her Spirit came again and she arose straightway Luke 8.54 55. So also the Son of the Widow of Naim dead and carried out to be Buried Christ did but touch the Bier or Coffin and say Young man I say to thee arise and he that was dead sat up and began to speak Luk 7.14 15. If Death be a sleep this is our Comfort it is easie for God to awaken them 5. Death as a Sleep administers this comfortable matter to our minds that it will not be a perpetual sleep For being but a sleep they can be awakened and because it is a Sleep they shall be awakened for if your Child or Father or Mother or your self at Night go to Bed and sleep do not you reckon and suppose you shall wake in the Morning And you are not troubled to lay your Child asleep when you have hopes and expectation it will wake again When did you go to sleep without waking after sleep This Comfort this representation of Death doth bring unto us that as we saw the time when ours fell asleep so there will be a Day when they shall awake 6. Death as a Sleep suggests to our Thoughts that the Bodies of thâ—se that Sleep in Jesus shall be much altered for the best when they awake out of their sleep If you are weary with Working or Travelling all the Day you go to sleep at Night and in the Morning you say tho you went weary to Bed yet by Sleep you are greatly refreshed and as fit to Work or Travel as you were the Day before When your Child complains he is not well you hasten to have him to Bed and say go to sleep You will be better after you have slept Sure I am these Bodies that are sick and weak and weary when they fall Asleep in Jesus will be wonderfully refreshed and be much better when after this Sleep they shall awake 7. Death as a
him may assuredly satisfie us that such shall also be raised Firmly believe the one and you cannot or need not doubt of the other 1 Cor. 15.12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead how say some among you that there is no Resurrection of the dead 13. But if there be no Resurrection of the dead then Christ is not risen 15. Whom he raised not up if so be the dead rise not 16. For if the dead rise not then is not Christ raised 1 Thes 4.14 For if we believe that Jesus dyed and rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him Thirdly The gross Absurdities that unavoidably follow the denial of the Deads being raised may confirm us that they shall be raised They are such as these 1. Then Christ is not risen 1 Cor. 15.13 2. If Christ be not risen and so the Dead shall not be raised then Ministers preaching and Peoples believing is all in vain v. 14. 3. Then the Apostles were Liars and false for they affirmed both 1 Cor. 15.15 and in other Texts 4. Then those that are Dead in Christ are perished v. 18. 5. Then the best men are the most miserable v. 19. 6. Then a floodgate is opened to all wickedness v. 32. 7. Gods People then are weakened for doing or suffering v. 58. 8. Then Gods Covenant with his People is broke Mat. 22.39 c. Secondly Besides the certainty of the Resurrection of the Dead the consideration of the Properties Qualities and Endowments of their Bodies which shall arise administers more Comfort to us and consequently will be a further mitigation of our Sorrow God hath not only assured us that these dry Bones consumed Bodies shall live but also hath foretold us what manner of Bodies they then shall be far more noble and excellent than when they lived or died 1. They shall be raised Immortal and Incorruptible Bodies While they lived with us they were always mortal and did admiâ—ister matter of feâ—r unto us while we ofâ—en said 〈◊〉 thought What if my Husband should die or what iâ— my Father or Mother should die These were fretting fears and caused many distrâ—cting Cares or troubled us sitting at our Table or lying in our Beds because we knew they were always subject to Death and liâ—ble to its stroke and we knâ—w not how soon tho in Health they might be taken from us and so the feâ—rs of their dying abated our Comfort in th m while they were living because we looked upon thâ—m as dying Comforts and going from us whilst they were with us But when theâ— live again they shall die no more Death shâ—ll have no more dominion over them Then thâ—y shall be above the stroke of death and the fears thereof and it shall be no more a King of Terrors unto them But as Christ their Heâ—d hath said Rev. 1.18 I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen so all these his Members shall say We are they that live and were dead and behold we are alive for evermore Amen This is truth so it is When Death came in by Sin all mankind became subject unto Death When Sin was turned out by death and these Bodies shall be raised no more polluted with it they shall be as free from Death as they shall from Sin before they did die they were to die When they were dead and shall live again Death hath done its worst hath done its all and hath no more that it can do Death did conquer them and laid and kept them Prisoners in the Grave but when they shall be raised to Life and redeemed from the Grave they shâ—ll conquer Death and then this last Enemy shall be destroyed and in the morning of the Resurrection these revived Bodies united to their Souls shall sing that triumphant Song O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory Death and Grave did swallow us up but now the Destroyers are destroyed the Spoilers are spoiled and both are swallowed up in victory Thus the Bodies that were sown in corruption shall be raised in incorruption 1 Cor. 15.42.54 55. then Mortality shall be swallowed up of Life 2 Cor. 5.4 2. They shall be raised powerful and impassible Bodies While they lived here they were weak and suffering Bodies enduring hunger and cold and thirst crying out of Pains and Sickness or torments by Chollick Gout and Stone and Rheumatisms shaken by Agues and scorched by Feavors and swelling with Dropsie torn with Coughs overflowed with Catarrhs and liable to hundreds of Diseases insomuch that they died daily yea died many Deaths before they died and many Sicknesses put them to more and greater pains in time of Life than Death it self did put some of them to in the point of Death but when they shall live again as they shall die no mâ—re so they shall suffer no more nor be sick any more feel hunger and thirst no more and so shall grieve nor groan weep or sigh or sob no more for ever no more aking Heâ—ds no more pained Bowels no more Griefs of any sort whatsoever Indeed the Bodies of the Wicked shall be raised Immortal but subject to suffering they shall feel more pains and torments after they are raised than ever they did before they died and their Immortality shall be the aggravation of their misery for die again they would but cannot return to their Grave again where they felt nothing they would but must not because they must live for ever they must be tormented for ever Immortality of Bodies at the Resurrection to the Wicked is a Curse and Plague to the Godly it is a Blessing and a Favour conferred upon them for tho' they were sown in weakness they shall be raised in power 1 Cor. 15.43 3. They shall be raised Spiritual Bodies not turned into Spirits for then they would not be Bodies Spirits have not material Eyes with which Job said he should see his Redeemer at the last day with those he then had and not with others if it were not the same Bodies in substance it would not be a Resurrection but a new product on They shall then be Spiritual Bodies in this respect that their manner of Life shall be like the Life of Spirits having no need of Meat or Drink or Sleep or any such things whereby our Natural Bodies in this Life are supported and maintained In which respect Christ asserts that they shall be as the Angels Mat. 22.30 In the Resurrection they neither marry nor are given in Marriage but are as the Angels of God in Heaven This will be a great priviledge of Bodies raised from the dead at the last day for nâ—â— we spend a great part of our Life in Sleep for the refreshing of our Natural Bodies arâ— in that time we are not nor cannot be taken up with Admirations of God nor Contemplations of Divine things but after the Resurrection there shall be no
presentiate them unto us tho yet they are future that it may be the substance or subsistence or as it were the ready presence of such things hoped for and the evidence or convincing demonstration of things not yet seen as if we did now behold them with our Eyes which is the nature power and working of a lively Faith Heb. 11.1 then should we now wipe tears from our Eyes in the fore-believing views thereof as God will do then when we shall actually behold them then our Sorrow would now be turned into Joy and our Heaviness into Rejoycing now we know and say they are dead and therefore Sorrow filleth our Hearts but let us believe what is revealed concerning them that they shall be raised and what great and glorious things shall then be done to them and for them and let the Faith of the one make us as joyfull as the Knowledge of the other at present makes us sorrowfull These Remedies for the asswaging of our sorrow may be reduced to these five general Heads But remember it is not the bare Notion of them nor cursory talking of them nor superficial thinking of them but our serious pondering and powerful practical Believing of them and the Spirits effectual applying and laying them warm to our Hearts that must he the Cure to those that are deeply sorrowfull for their Dead 1. The Lord Himself will descend from Heaven to fetch them out of their Graves v. 16. 2. The Solemnity of his Coming and his Attendants waiting upon him and the Call that shall then be given to them to awake arise and come forth out of their Graves For he shall come with a shout with the Voice of the Archangel and of others and with the Trump of God v. 16. 3. The Prerogative of those that sleep in Jesus above those that then shall be found alive the Dead shall have the precedency of the Living that the Dead shall be raised before the then Living shall be changed V. 15. For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord that we which are alive and remain unto the Coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep V. 16. the Dead in Christ shall rise first 4. The Dead in Christ being raised first and after that the Living changed both shall be caught up together in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air. v. 17. Are our Hearts almost dead with sorrow Where is our Faith Here is the Word of the liâ—ing faithful God declaring Wonders that shall be done for the Dead in Christ but where is our Faith Here is our sorrow but where is our Faith Behold the Lord comes down from Heaven behold the Dead come up out of their Graves behold they that long lodged and slept under ground are caught up and carried from off this Earth into the Air where their Lord and they do meet O happy joyful meeting not only Bodies and Souls do now meet after so long a parting but which is more their Lord and they do meet after so long sleeping Lord here is our Faith and our sorrow is abated 5. The eternal Enjoyment of God and Christ in the highest Heavens V. 17. and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Now we see where they that are Lodged in the Grave sleeping in Jesus shall at last be Lodged rejoycing in Jesus and therefore now let us be the less sorrowfull And that our Faith concerning these may be encreased and thereby our sorrow may be diminished let us take them up and view them again I. Is it nothing for the asswaging of our sorrow that our Lord will come himself from Heaven to raise them up out of their Graves If you say Who can cause these dry Bones to live and cloath them with flesh and cover them both with skin and bring them out of these deep and dark sleeping places the Answer is ready the Lord can He can but the Question is whether he will he hath declared and promised that he will He will While he was on Earth he raised some but now he is gone to Heaven and there he doth abide and except he come from Heaven the Dead must abide in their Graves Say you so weep not for he HIMSELF will come and he will surely have them forth Did he at his first coming die for their Bodies as well as for their Souls and will he be content to have their Souls only with him in the Heavens and their Bodies to lie always in the Grave Did he purchase their Bodies as well as their Souls with the price of his own most precious Blood and will he for ever lose such a part of his purchase Are not the Bodies as well as the Souls of Believers Christs own by right of Redemption 1 Cor. 6.20 and will he lose his own so dearly bought for want of looking after them Hath he redeemed them from Sin and Hell and will not he redeem them from the Grave And is not the deliverance out of the Grave called the Redemption of the Body and do his People and Redeemed ones while they live wait believe and hope and like a Woman in Travel groan for Deliverance and long for the Blessed Inheritance and full possession of the Blessed State above both in Body and Soul at the Resurrection and will he suffer them to be disappointed Are they Adopted hereunto as well in their Bodies as in their Souls and did they here receive the Spirit of God as the Pledge and Earnest and First-fruits of Glory and shall he let them be for ever without it Rom. 8.23 Were they Sanctified in their Bodies as well as in their Souls and Spirits 1 Thes 5.23 and shall not their sanctified Bodies be glorified Bodies at the coming of Christ Did their Bodies partake with their Souls in the serving of their God in Hearing Praying and Religious Fasting and shall not they partake with the Souls in the heavenly and Eternal Reward thro' the Riches of his Grace Did they present their Bodies when alive a Living Sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God giving up their Bodies wholly to him to do and suffer what he did call them to tho' it were to Death Rom. 12.1 and will he suffer them to remain for ever as Prisoners of Death and not call them from thence to be partakers of Eternal Life Did both parts serve and yield Obedience to him and shall one only be saved and rewarded by him He was the Redeemer and Sanctifier of both and he will be the Saviour of both And if Angels sent from Heaven cannot deliver them out of their Graves he will come HIMSELF and bring them out When he would redeem Israel from the Bondage of Egypt he sent Moses but to Ransom Redeem and set the Bodies of those that died in him from the bonds of Death with which they are tyed hand and foot it being a Work too great for any meer Creature he will come himself and break these bonds that tho'
the Lords if I had not had it from him I could have told no such thing that we that are alive and remain unto the Coming of the Lord shall not prevent them that are asleep V. 16. The dead in Christ shall rise first The like Order and precedency he affirms 1 Cor. 15.52 The dead shall be raised Incorruptible and we those that shall be alive shall be changed We think that those that shall be found alive will have an advantage above those that are dead But they shall have this advantage above the then Living that they shall be first raised and be made immortal glorious and incorruptible Bodies sooner and before those that shall be alive As they put off the mortal and corruptible Body before them so they shall put on the Immortal and Incorruptibble Body sooner than they These died a Temporal Death which the other shall not but they shall live an Immortal Life sooner than those that are not to die a Temporal death The Living must wait for their Change till those that were changed from Life to Death shall be again changed from Death to Life Do you mourn because your holy Relations are dead and do not Live Rejoyce also that they shall Live and have the preeminence before those that shall not die but only be changed because God hath told you how mindfull and careful he will be of those that sleep in Jesus Forgotten by Men remembred by God IV. Is it nothing to moderate your sorrow that Christ and yours shall surely meet Death was a parting you and them and that parting day was a sorrowful day And you record the day of their Death and your parting and mention it with Grief and Tears Remember a meeting day will come not only when they and you shall meet but when they and Christ shall meet and let the Thoughts thereof cause you to rejoyce What tho you and they shall meet no more while you live yet Christ and they and you also if you believe shall meet and never part But where shall this Meeting be In the Air. But how shall they get up They shall be caught up by the Power of God or be such agile and nimble Bodies that they shall be as able to move upwards as now they are proue to fall downwards You follow them to the Grave and see them there let down and you are filled with Sorrow Think again as if you saw that Body raised again and mounting aloft as swiftly as any winged Bird into the Air to meet the Lord and let such a Foresight abate your present sorrow CHAP. XVII After their meeting with the Lord THEY shall be with HIM for EVER Comfort from all Recollected SHall not a believing Prospect that those that sleep in Jesus shall awake and live with the Lord for ever make some abatement of our sorrow or rather turn it into Joy in the hopes thereof This is the last and highest and most Soveraign Remedy the Apostle giveth in this place against Excessive Sorrow saying and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Short words but matter of lasting everlasting Joy Soon said but not so soon understood for indeed they contain more than we can conceive and none know so well as they that are with him Yet that we may have a relish of this Remedy and a taste of this Spiritual Comfort for the correcting of extravagant Sorrow let it be enquired 1. With whom it is that these must be with the Lord and what it is to be with him 2. Who they are here meant that shall be with the Lord We. 3. How long for ever Blessed shall they be whoever they be that thus shall be with the Lord for ever 1. It is the Lord himself with whom these shall be And to be with him is the summ of all our Hopes the end of all our Prayers and the top of all our Happiness The Misery of the Ungodly and Impenitent when raised judged and condemned is that they must depart from the Lord and be in flaming fire and then with Devils The Happiness of the Godly then acquitted and absolved will be to be called to come to the Lord and to go with him into Glory and there abide and remain with him Mat. 25.34 41 46. Then shall the King say to them on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World 41. Then shall he say also to them on the left hand Depart from me ye Cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Some are called to come to him the others commanded to depart from him some to be with Him the rest to be with Devils therefore those are declared to be blessed the other accursed for 46. These shall go away into everlasting Punishment but the Righteous into Life Eternal Do we believe these things or do we not All these things are spoken of Men when raised from the Dead and judged and sentenced and the Sentence put into Execution and do not you by Faith see with whom they shall have their abode that now do sleep in Jesus enjoying the beatisick Vision living in the comfortable glorious and immediate Presence of God the Father of Christ the Redeemer and of the Eternal Spirit their Sanctifier Now your Thoughts run to the Grave look down into it and you see them with Worms and with Rottenness and therefore sorrow Let your Thoughts run as far as the day of Christs coming and then suppose you look for them in the Graves you will not find them The Voice will be They are not here for they are risen come see the places where they lay Where are they Look up they are gone to meet the Lord in the Air and whither are they next to go to be with the Lord And is there nothing in the belief of all these things not only to asswage Sorrow but also to beget great Joy but because we are of so little Faith therefore we are of so much Sorrow 2. Who are these that are to be with the Lord What we doth the Apostle mean whom doth he say this great thing of of all those that shall be caught up in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air. Who are they those that shall be alive and remain when the Lord shall come Together with them Who are they the Dead in Christ that did rise first before the Living were changed so then it comprehends those that slept in Jesus and shall be raised and those Believers that shall be found alive and changed and caught up together into the Air to meet Christ who will adjudge them to Everlasting Life and so after that shall be with Christ in Glory Are these the Dead we Mourn for and why because they are dead in their Grâ—ves and with the dead but have we no Fâ—ith in this Word of the Lord. If we havâ— let us set their Resurrection over against their Death
had you to do to keep his Own from him when he would have them with him 7 Q. Is not God Soveraign Lord and absolute Disposer of all in the World Are not Kingdoms and Nations Princes Lords and Nobles at his disposal And what are you above all others in the World that you and yours should be exempted from the disposing Hand of God 8 Q. Did your Happiness lie in the Enjoyment of the Creatures you have lost In them or in God If in them you are miserable if in God tho they are dead yet he doth Live Why then do you thus mourn so long as your Happiness remains 9 Q. Tho your Relations are cut down and withered like Grass yet doth not the Word of the Lord stand and continue for your Support Isa 40.6 7 8. And cannot you find as much Comfort in all the standing Promises of God as you did in a withering Creature Go and try by reading believing applying of them as your Case requires and by turning Promises into Prayers 10 Q. Did not your Relation live out the Time appointed by God Job 14.5 Or did he not die when God did foreknow he would die And do you thus take on because Gods Purpose is performed Would you have a Child tarry in the Womb beyond its appointed time or in the World beyond what God intended it should 11 Q. Did not you know your Relations were mortal or do you sorrow because they were so Is not that to sorrow because they were Men or Women or Children Would you have had them to have been here Immortal that they might not have been subject to Death Did you ever see any Men Women or Children that were not mortal 12 Q. If so did not you know a parting time would come Was there not some Intimation and mention of Deaths separating you in your conjugal Covenant And do you now mourn as if something had befallen you that you never knew or heard of Is it so intolerable to you to see a dying Creature dead 13 Q. When would you have been willing to have parted with them If God had continued your Child ten years longer would not you have been more unwilling and so more sorrowful than now you are After Forty years would you be willing 14 Q. Hath any thing befallen you that hath not been the common Case of all the Generations before you will shortly be of all this Age and of following except those that shall be found alive at the Coming of Christ And would you have your State to be singular Or if it be not will you be sullen 15 Q. Could your Relations Souls have gone to Heaven if their Bodies had not died Or would you have had them never lodged there except as Enoch and Elias without seeing Death If the Soul could not have been happy above except the Body dyed and took the Grave in its way to Glory are you excessively troubled for a dead Body which must be for the greater advantage of the Immortal Soul 16 Q. Would not you have been as loth to leave them behind you as now you are sorrowful they are gone before you And will you be pleased neither way Would you have died all together You are sorrowing now for Wise and Children because removed by Death and if God had laid you upon a dying Bed then your trouble would be for them if alive because you are like to be taken from them and say What will my small Children do if I die And what will their Mother dâ— when their Father leaves the one â— Widow and the other Fatherless I could have been glad if God would have spared my Life to have seen them well brought up It is hard for you to say which would be less trouble to you to leave them behind you or have them go before you But if you have that which you had rather have why do you so sorrow when you have that which is best for the rest of your Family 17 Q. Do not you know that all your Family have sinned and that therefore they have all deserved to die Why then do you sorrow so much for one captivated by Death when you should be admiring the Patience of God and praising him for his Mercy that so many are continued in Life 18 Q. Is not this Ingratitude to God that the loss of one should make you unsensible of the many Mercies of your own Life Is all gone in one Look about you and you will see the abundant goodness of God to you in your outward Accommodations in this World many spiritual Blessings as Pledges of Eternal Glory and will you bury your Thankfulness for these in the Grave of your dead 19 Q. Do not you provoke God hy your sinful excessive Sorrow to go on to make more Breaches by Death that you might have something more to sorrow for Do you sorrow thus for one Might not God say There is another Child Death lay it dead and bring it out and lodge it by the other There is an Husband or a Father yet left Death go and seize him and have him away and if they are delighted in such discontented Sorrow let them havâ— more to sorrow for 20 Q. Have not they lived a long life before they die they enter into Eternal glorious life when they die Do you sit and sorrow and say if he had not died so soon if he had not died so young How soon if he lived to be Converted to be sanctified and prepared for Heaven did he not live longer than a Man at Sixty and then dies in Sin and is Damned at last Do you reckon length of Life by multitude of years or ripeness and fitness for Heaven When you Sorrow he died so soon Bless God he lived so long as to be saved when he died 21 Q. Will you compare with God in point of Wisdom in governing and disposing of his Creatures with all the circumstances of Life and Death Are you wiser than he dare you entertain such a Thought would you not resist it with abhorrence why then do you think it would have been better for you that your Relation should have lived longer Is not this to set your Folly against Gods Wisdom Doth not he best know what is the most fitting time for any to be born how long to live and when to die If so why do you oversorrow for that which is done with highest Wisdom 22 Q. Why hath God implanted such Graces in your Heart as are suitable for a time of Affliction but that you should exercise them in their season As Faith and Patience and Submissiveness of will to his holy Will and Pleasure Are not Habits given for Act and when will you act your Patience and Submission but when Tryals are upon you but doth your excessive Sorrow look like Patience under or fretting against the hand of God 23 Q. Do you say you did exceedingly desire their Eternal Good in Gods accepted time and excessively
sorrow for their Death and can you reconcile those Desires with this Sorrow If you did desire it when God should please to bestow it why do you so sorrow now by death the way of all Believers to it they have obtained what you did desire when without the one they were not to have the other 24 Q. Are not you your self being made men for Heaven near unto that Place and State where you shall sorrow no more neither for any thing concerning your self nor any other while you mourn and say This Husband or Wife Father or Mother that was mine now is no longer mine Seriously meditate and deeply consider and say Yet God is mine and Christ is mine and the Spirit is mine the Promises and Priviledges are mine and Heaven is mine and there I shall shortly be with God and Christ and the Eternal Spirit with Angels and saved Souls above where I shall love God with perfect Love and praise him and my Redeemer and Sanctifier with Eternal Praises and see and know and delight in the Company of those that are gone before for whom I am mourning upon Earth and joy and joyn with them in holy Hallelujahs and triumphant Songs of Praise where all sorrow shall be taken from my Heart and all tears wiped from mine Eyes and I and they shall know sorrow and grief and groans and sighs no no more I stand at the door of Eternity every day waiting looking hoping for Eternal Joys Therefore blessed Lord to all these reasonings of thy Ministers add the effectual working of thy Spirit that I might not sorrow as those that have no Hope Amen THE MOURNERS SOLILOQUY Concerning his Moderating His Sorrow For His DEAD THE Mourners Soliloquy CHAP. XIX Containing the Mourners Soliloquy or Reasoning with himself concerning his Sorrow for his Dead for the moderating of it DEad Alas wo is me my Father Mother dead my Wife or Husband or Child dead can I with Comfort live are not my comfortable days past and gone when he or she is dead and gone Gone no more to return to live with me on Earth Let me look upon the Body in the Coffin before it be lodged in the Grave for after that I shall look upon it no more mine Eyes shall see it no more Look behold it s pale Face its closed Eyes its Jaws tyed and muffled up these Eyes did see me but now Death bath shut them that they cannot This Tongue did use to talk with me to my great delight but now Death hath tied it and my Ears shall hear the sound thereof no more These Feet did often walk with me yea we went to the Ordinances of God together but now Death hath fettered them that they can move no more and must I follow it to the Grave and see it covered with Earth and there leave it and when returned home look for it at my Table but it is not there or in my Chamber but it is not there The Cloaths the Body was often dressed with are there but the Body is not there Now it is so many Weeks since it was buried she is gone but my Sorrow doth remain Remain it comes more and more and doth increase My Soul is grieved my Heart is loaded and my Spirit fails within me the more I muse the more I Mourn the more I think of mine thus captivated by Death and buried out of my sight the more my Sorrow is renewed Alas I can contradict that Old Proverb Out of Sight out of Mind for he or she hath been so long out of my sight but hath not been a a Day or Night out of my mind and the more and longer I remember the more and longer I do sorrow Sayest thou thus O my Soul is it God or a Creature the loss of whom thou mournest for If of God weep on and Sorrow and seek him till thou findest him for he is a living and Gracious God and may be found But if of a Creature forbear thy Tears and moderate thy Sorrow for if thou shouldest weep thy self blind and break thine heart with grief being dead and gone cannot be any more found wherever upon Earth thou seekest for it Wilt thou then examine thy Sorrow whether it be pleasing unto God or whether it be turbulent Passion and meer fruitless Self-vexation whether thou Mournest like a Christian or an Heathen whether thy sorrow be not sinful and excessive and therefore sinful because excessive Dost not thou know hast not thou read and learned that thou shouldst not sorrow as those do that have no Hope are thy tears more boundless than the Ocean for that hath bounds and shall thy Tears have none The Waves thereof go so far and then are stay'd and shall thy Tears continually drop and have no limits set unto them or wilt thou suffer them to run waste and shed enough to wash thy Dead when thou shouldst keep them to pour out before God upon thy bended Knees that by the Blood of Christ thy Sins might be wash'd away Have thy Tears so blear'd thine Eyes or thy Sorrow so disturb'd thy Reason that thou canst not see thy Sorrow to be Excessive Sorrow and thy Grief to pass all bounds of Christian Moderation Measure it by Reason and Religion And then tell me O my Soul if that Sorrow be not Excessive for thy Dead whereby thou hastenest the death of thy own Body and invitest Death to lay it dead Tho God by Death hath taken away the Life of thy Relation yet hath he not commanded thee to use all means lawful and to abstain from all those things amongst which Immoderate grief is one that doth endanger thine own Life and wilt thou thereby become guilty of thy own Death Besides is not that Sorrow too much that must be sorrowed for and those Tears too many that must be wept for and more follow them because they are so many Hast thou Sorrow too much already and must thou still have more because thou hast too much Dost thou not see what straits thou bringest thy self into that while thou dost abound in Sorrow thou wantest Sorrow because as yet thou hast not sorrowed for this too much abundant Sorrow For give me an answer O my Soul if that be not too much abundant Sorrow that doth more hurt than good and would be too much if it were for thy Sin which for Sin tho the greatest Evil would be too much when it doth more hurt than good and doth it not do so when it driveth to despair keeps off the Soul from Christ and from hoping in his Merits or God's Mercy and is it not too much when it is more for thy Dead than for thy Sin for when thy Sorrow should bear its proportion to the Evil thou sorrowest for and Sin is a greater Evil than the Death of thy nearest Relation be thou thy self the Judge if sorrow for the lesser evil be not too much when it is more than that which thou hast for the greatest Evil
Dead that shall so surely live and be with him Doth not some other Frame and Temper more become thee Dost thou believe the future happy State of their Bodies whose present death thou dost bewail yet canst thou not abate thy sorrow nor turn it yet into the actings of some other Affections nor into the exercises of some Grace which if thou dost will it not more tend to the Glory of God to thine own Comfort and to the Encouragement of thine own Relations which yet do live with thee and to the setting off the Power of the Christian Religion when thou shalt believe the Promises and Principles thereof and behave thy self as one that is endued with such Faith and hast such firm Foundation for thy Faith Blessed Lord by thine assistance now I can and by thy helping Spirit now I will endeavour that I might no longer sorrow as if I had no hope when the sincere dying Christian hath hope in his Death and after he or she is dead the Living have such grounds of hope that the Dead by Christ shall conquer Death and that the day will come when if they be looked for in the Grave there they shall not be found but may be said they are not here but are risen come see the place where they did lye but are not here but gone to meet the Lord and to be for ever with him in the highest Heavens Then Lord I will no longer droop but hope Awake my Hope and let my Sorrow give place to thee Hope Oh how sweet is this how pleasant and delightful If my Sorrow was as bitter as Gall this Hope is as sweet as Honey And this I do begin to feel the more lively is my Hope of their joyful glorious Resurrection the more my Sorrow doth abate tho now for the present they be the captives of Death Indeed had it not been that I had got this Hope my Heart would break with Grief but through Grace I have obtained this good hope and by it my Spirit is revived my Sorrow is more moderate And having this Hope my Sorrow is turned into desire and longing for the Day and Coming of my Lord that all that sleep in Jesus might awake and their Immortal Souls be cloathed with Immortal glorious Bodies Oh how much better do I find it to groan with desires that they might live and come up out of their Graves than to groan thro grief that they are dead and cast into them O Time make haste and flye with greater speed that this day of the Coming of the Lord and rising of the Dead may come It is approaching it is approaching it is nearer by every Day by every Night by every Hour that comes and passeth away As time doth wear away so let my Sorrow as to its excess wear off and that by my desiring instead of sorrowing Yet thou must wait patiently O my Soul tho thou dost so earnestly desire it and tho this Morning might not dawn before the night of Death doth overtake thy Body yet wait while thy Life doth last and leave thy Body in hope that thine and theirs that be already dead shall surely live again in a Glorious Blessed and Eternal Life For doth the Husbandman cast his Seed into the Ground and know that it shall rot yet patiently wait till it rise out of the Ground and grow untill the Harvest when it shall be gathered in with great advantage and canst not thou O my Soul be patient and wait for the Redemption of those Bodies that are rotting in the Grave till the Harvest-day shall come and they be gathered with so great Advantage into the Kingdom of their God And while thou dost desire and wait thou mightest also O my Soul rejoyce and be exceeding glad because that what thou waitest for and dost desire thou hast such well-grounded Hopes that it will surely be And tho the Object of Desire and Hope is good as absent and the Object of Joy is good as present and enjoyed yet let thy Faith make that as present which is yet to come that thou mayest rejoyce therein as if it were already present O Lord notwithstanding all my Sorrow while my Faith and Hope were sleeping yet now by thy good Spirit of Grace they are awake my Sorrow is turned into Joy thou hast put off my Sackcloth thou hast turned my Weeping into Hoping Desiring and Rejoycing in the firm Belief that my Dead shall rise to Glorious Life and being not ignorant of this Lord pardon my Sin that hath been in my Sorrow and let me sorrow no more as one that hath no hope FINIS Books printed for and sold by Thomas Cockeril at the Three Leggs in the Poultrey over against the Stocks-Market London 1. THE Morning Exercise at Cripplegate or several Cases of Conscience Resolved by sundry Ministers In Quarto 2. The Supplement to the Morning Exercise at Cripplegate being sundry more practical Cases of Conscience Resolved Quarto 3. Speculum Theologiae in Christo Or a View of some Divine Truths which are either practically Exemplified in Jesus Christ set forth in the Gospel or may be reasonably deduced from thence Quarto 4. Christus in Corde Or the Mystical Union between Christ and Believers Octavo 5. Precious Faith considered in its Nature Workings and Growth In Octavo These three last by Edward Polhill of Burwash in Sâ—ssex Esquire 6. A Discourse of Regeneration Faith and Repentance Octavo 7. A Discourse of Christian Religion in sundry Points Octavo 8. The Incomprehensibleness of Imputed Righteousness for Justification by Humane Reason till enlightned by the Spirit of God Twelves These three last by Thomas Cole Minister of the Gospel in London 9. A succinct and seasonable Discourse of the Occasions Causes Nature Rise Growth and Remedies of Mental Errors Whereunto is added 1. Vindiciarum Vindex Being an Answer to Mr. Cary about Infant Baptism 2. A Synopsis of Antinomian Errors 3. A Sermon about Unity In Octavo 10. The Reasonableness of Personal Reformation and the Necessity of Conversion 12o. 11. The Remains of Mr. John Flavel being Two Sermons one on the Day of Coronation of their Majesties K. William and Q. Mary the other at a Meeting of Minisâ—ers With some Account of his Life Octavo 12. An Exposition of the Assembly's Catechism with Practical Inferences from each Qâ—estion Octavo These four last by Mr. John Flavel late Minister of the Gospel at Dartmoutâ— Devon 13. A Practical Discourse of Gods Soverâ—ignty In Octavo 14. Instructions about Heart-work By Mr. Richard Allein Octavo 15. The Evidence of things not seen A Scriptural and Philosophical Discourse conceâ—ning the State of Good men after Death Oâ—tavo 16. A Discourse of Closet or Secret Prayer Twelves 17. Poems in Two Parts Twelves Both by Samuel Slaâ—er 18. Love to Christ Necessary for all By Thâ— Doolittle M. A. In Octavo 19. The Righteous Mâ—n's Hope at Death By Samuel Doolittle
THE MOURNERS DIRECTORY Guiding him to The Middle Way BETWIXT The Two Extreams DEFECT Of Sorrow for His Dead EXCESS Of Sorrow for His Dead To which is added The Mourners Soliloquy By THOMAS DOOLITTLE M. A. John 11.31 The Jews then which were in the house with her and comforted her when they saw Mary that she rose up hastily and went out followed her saying she goeth unto the Grave to weep there 33. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping and the Jews also weeping which came with her he groaned in the Spirit and was troubled 34. And said where have ye laid him they say unto him Lord come and see 35. Jesus wept 2 Cor. 1.3 Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all Comfort 4. VVho comforteth us in all our Tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God LONDON Printed by J. A. for Tho. Cockeril at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over against the Stocks Market 1693 THE EPISTLE To the Congregation Assembling in Mugwell-street London Beloved for Jesus sake DEath that by the God of Life for many Years had been restrained from my Family at last by a Commission from him brake in and hath taken from me One that was nearest to me the smallness of the Gift presented to you at her Funeral begs its Excuse from the greatness and necessity of the Subject LOVE TO CHRIST and from her Desire tâ—â—â— that Book might be the last Token of her Love to the followers of her Body to its long but blessed be God which is one of my great Supports not to its last Home being lodged there only till the Lord shall come and this one thing was all the Care she took about the Circumstances of her Funeral for your Spiritual good to beget and more and more to inflame your Love to the Lord Jesus both ours and yours Her Death was the Occasion of this ensuing Discourse first studied for my own use when my design was to labour after till I had attained these two things A lively sense of Gods afflicting Hand in the Death of one so dear and a quietness of Mind patiently submitting to his Wise Righteous and Holy Will next preached to you and because Death will also part you and yours now presented to your view for the Comfort Guidance and Support of those that shall be the sorrowful Survivors The reason of its delay so long was the holy Hand of God in Afflicting me with my usual painful Distemper shortly after her Decease which made interruptions in the preaching of it to you in which Sickness I thank you for the concernedness of your Spirits for me and the Prayers I understand you put up to God in your Families for me and when I heard it was your design to meet together among your selves to spend some time in Prayer upon my account it was no small refreshment to me in mine Affliction and when I desired it might be where I might have the benefit of hearing and joyning with you you readily consented The next Lords day following God healing of me contrary to the expectations of any except some few that visited me on Saturday brought me to my publick Work amongst you which I hope you will take notice of as an Encouragement to pray on aâ— Occasions since this late Experience you have had that God suffers not the Seed of Jacob to seek his Face and Favour in vain but is so ready to return answers to a praying People Amongst those that thus did meet some were such as were Catethized by me twenty years since whom now God hath made Masters of Families Religiously maintaining the holy Worship of God daily in your Houses and have often said to me you still bless God for the good you got then and for the foundation thereby was laid on which you still continue to build And tho there are now above fifty Youths and Young Men that twice every Lords-day usually present themselves as Catechumens yet considering the Ignorance of many Married and Ancient People I lately preached and urged such with many Arguments to get into their Memories the Catechism as the nearest and easiest way that I can think of to help them to the Knowledge of the first Principles of Christian Religion which alas they are yet unaccquainted with and offered them my Assistance by private Instructions at first to understand what they should this way commit to memory The effect it then had brought above fifty Persons from 24 to 70 years of Age to receive Catechisms from my hand making a promise one by one that they would learn them and come to me to explainâ—iâ— to them and this many of them did with many Tears bitterly bewailing they had lived so long in so much darkness and Ignorance of things so necessary to salvation these I have since publickly invited to come and receive what help I can yield them herein but some seem to have forgotten their promise which hereby I claim and mind them of and renew the offer of my assistance to them or if they refuse that this may be left in writing as a witness against them I am sensible I have but a little time to carry with you in my Grave whither I am going I can neither Preach nor Catechize nor do any thing for my self or you the daily Thoughts whereof are spurs and goads to me to put on and hasten to do all I can while I am with you Oh that I could preach every Sermon as a dying man and so near unto Eternity Oh that you might hear as those that stand upon the brink of the Grave and borders of another Eternal World not knowing which of you might pass out of Time into an everlasting State before you might have an opportunity to hear again that you and I might mind and practise what is preached and heard according to Gods Word With blushing I do acknowledge my inability for such grâ—at work but tho I have but half a â—alent the Lord knows I do desire to use it and improve it for his Glory and the advantage of Immortal Souls that shortly must be damned or saved and that my endeavours might be so watered with the blessing of God who can work by whom he will that they may issue in the Conviction Conversion Sanctification of the hearers that they may be saved and not damned and the account might be given at last by me and them with joy and not with grief For this I beseech you that you would constantly and importunately pray yea strive and labour in your Prayers that out of our Assembly as well as others some might be daily added to the Church that might at death be of the Church triumphant and therein sing eternal Praises to their glorious God powerful Redeemer and Sanctifier for which also my Prayers shall be added to yours who
it is a sorrowful saying May Sin invite Death into your Families saying Come in thou Messenger of the Lord come in here is one deserves to dye and there is another seize him and hale him out apprehend him and take him away he lives not as he should let him die as he ought May it shortly be said by you my Wife is dead my Husband is dead and is Grace and Nature in you so equally poized and have you such a just temperament and mixture of both as not to sorrow less or more than you ought that now your Relations are round about your Tables and no ones place is empty you might not at present hear for time so shortly to come what might be said concerning Sorrow for the dead and cure your ignorance concerning them which are asleep that you sorrow not as others which have no hope or tho they dye yet you sorrow not as such do not that have neither Faith nor Hope nor natural Affection Nature and Religion binding me to promote the temporal and spiritual Good of so near a Relation all a long pressed more hard upon me to give my utmost diligence to assist her in her last Sickness by Night and Day by Prayer and Discourse that she might and God through his rich Grace and Mercy in Christ to her Soul did enable her with abiding comfort and setled hope of Heaven look Death in the face overcome this King of Terrors and conquer the Fears thereof when Death by its stroke without a Sting did conquer her This Portion of Scripture from the Text to the end of this Chapter was the last I read and urged before she left her own to go to her Father's house which I do make the first to explain and apply in this place for my own and your sake Wherein are three generals 1. A Doctrinal Conclusion concerning Sorrow for such as sleep in Jesus or dye in the Lord v. 13. 2. The Confirmation of it by many argumentative Reasons and are helps against sinful Sorrow by excess from ver 14. to the 18. 3. The Application of this Doctrine so confirmed or the use of Comfort to be made of it against such Sorrows V. 18. Wherefore comfort one another with these words The Doctrinal Conclusion laid down in the Text consists of these particulars 1. A familiar Representation of Death that the thoughts of it might be more easy to our minds to dye sounds more harsh to sleep is a softer expression of Death Death and Grave you would every day avoid Sleep and Bed you every night desire yet Death is but as a Sleep and the Grave is but as a Bed and both so called in the Scripture 2. The Deportment and Behaviour of the Survivers in reference to such as sleep the sleep of Death which relates unto their Sorrow upon this occasion And in this these two things are couched in the Text. 1. A Sorrow supposed granted and allowed to the living for their dead For should the living be as senseless as the dead when Death hath taken away Life and Breath and Motion from them shall Sin take away all workings of natural Affections from us Shall Death snatch them out of our Bosoms force them out of our Arms and tear one piece of our selves from our selves take the one half away and leave the other behind and we stand and look on without a Tear in our Eyes without Sorrow in our Hearts as if we had neither sense of Gods heavy Hand nor love to them nor feeling of the stroke that thereby is laid upon our selves Sorrow we may tho not as others 2. Excess of Sorrow is corrected Lay not the Reins loose upon your Affections lest they carry you to Sin in your Sorrow Lavish not those Tears in washing your dead which should be kept for lamenting of your Sins Let there be a difference betwixt your Sorrow and the Sorrow of others as there should 〈◊〉 betwixt those that have hope and those that have no hope of a joyful Resurrection to Eternal Glorious Life The Heathens have no such hope for they are without Christ the cause of hope without the Church the place of hope without the Covenant the ground and reason of hope While you are allowed to mourn as Men do not exceed the bounds and limits becoming Christian Men. The Heathens mourn for their dead beyond all bounds of Moderation while they lament them as such that shall live no more But let Christians limit their Sorrow as for such that tho they be dead shall live again and after that shall die no more 3. In the Text is the Cause of excessive Sorrow for the dead that is Ignorance concerning the State of the Dead now and hereafter at the present and for ever both as to Body and to Soul 4. The cure of excessive Sorrow Knowledg Meditation and firm belief of the present and future State of those that dye in the Lord. I would not have you to be ignorant others are and therefore mourn to excess but I would not have you so to be that you may not sorrow as they do Did ye know think and believe that their Death is but a Sleep out of which they shall certainly awake their Graves their Beds out of which when the morning of the Resurrection shall come they shall arise and that their Souls in the mean time are with God and Christ and the Eternal Spirit admitted into that glorious Society of Angels and Saints above perfectly Loving constantly delighting perpetually Praising and Triumphing in that God that did chuse them in that Jesus that did redeem them with his Blood in that Holy Spirit that made them meet to be partakers of that Inheritance of yonder Saints in Light and Life and Love would you groan while they rejoyce Would you mourn while they sing Songs of Praise Are you grieved because they are exalted Do you take on as if they were for ever lost when by saving Mercy they are now for ever found in the glorious Presence of their Lord and Father and Redeemer Could you hear them speak to you they would say you are in daily Trouble we in everlasting Rest and Peace and Triumph you are in the Field we have got the Victory you are in danger of Sin and Satan we are freed from them for ever your love unto our Lord and yours is imperfect love while ours wanteth no degree you know not what we do know of God and Christ and Glory you see not what we do see nor enjoy so much as we enjoy therefore spend your Tears upon your selves and not for us weep for your selves and not for us lament your selves being yet in a sinful World and not us that are lodged in a pure spotless Place and Kingdom You pray and wait and hope to be where we are but we have no desire to be where you be We have a better House than you live in better Company and better Work and sweeter Imployment
removed from them Mary and Martha lamented the death of their Brother Lazarus John 11.19 Many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother 31. The Jews which were with her in the house and comforted her when they saw Mary that she rose up hastily and went out followed her saying she goeth to the Grave to weep there 32. When Mary was come where Jesus was and saw him she fell down at his feet saying unto him Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died 33. Jesus saw her weeping Can Brethren and Sisters that descended from the same Parents that were bred in the same Womb sucked the same Breasts brought up together in the same Family see any of them carried to the Grave before them and not follow with weeping Eyes and sorrowful Hearts 4. Ministers heretofore have not died unlamented nor followed to their Graves without Weeping and Sorrow They that watched over the People while they lived were bewailed by the People when they fell asleep When Death did tye their Tongues and silence them when the Seers eyes have been closed and the feet of them that brought the glad tidings of Salvation to lost Sinners are fettered by the bands of Death that they can come and bring no more When they that brake the Bread of Life became meat for Worms and could pray with them and for them and preach to them no more when they had done their work then the Peoples sorrows did begin The children of Israel wept for Moses thirty days Deut. 34.8 And for Aaron Numb 20.29 When all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead they mourned for Aaron thirty days even all the house of Israel When Samuel died all the Israelites were gathered together and lamented him 1 Sam. 25.1 Stephen was not buried without much sorrow Acts 8.2 Devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him But now Ministers Widows and Children might mourn when many others are not concerned for them living or dying 5. Tho now in our Iron Age some can scarce sorrow for departed Relations yet in former times they have greatly mourned for servants that have died out of their Families Deborah that was Rebecca's Nurse belonging to Isaac's house had her Funeral attended with Tears Gen. 53.8 Deborah Rebecca's nurse died and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak and the name of it was called Allon Buchuth that is the oak of weeping because of the many Tears that were shed at her burial 6. The compassionate Bowels the troubled Heart the weeping Eyes of our Lord Jesus for a departed Believer are significant Indications of the Sorrow there should be upon such Dispensations of Divine Providence When Lazarus was dead Mary and Martha wept the Jews wept and when Jesus came after he was buried he wept also he was troubled with them that were troubled and wept with them that wept for their dead on which occasion he was troubled he groaned he wept John 11.33 35. If all these did thus sorrow fo their dead may not we for ours Dear Jesus when thou didst not rebuke Martha and Mary weeping for their deceased Brother but didst weep with them didst not shew thine Anger but thy Pity to them in their Sorrow for the removal of a Brother from them keep us that are concerned because afflicted from sinful Sorrow and shew thy Compassion to us whilest we do case our burthened Hearts by venting of our Sorrow and weeping out our Grief Since we have so many approved Examples of Holy Men and Women that in the like case have sorrowed in the like manner Secondly Defect of Sorrow where there is true cause of Sorrow is a falling short of the exercise of those Affections which God himself hath implanted in our Hearts Why hath God given us the Affection of Love but that it may be set upon objâ—cts of Love And the Affection of Delight and Joy but that we may rejoyce when God affords us matter of Joy And why the Affection of Grief and Sorrow but that we should duly grieve when his dealings with us call aloud and provoke us to it And if Losses are causes of and calls to Sorrow what greater loss in things below than the loss of such as should be dearer to us than all things here below Religion doth not destroy Nature but rectify it Grace doth not abolish natural Affections but directs them to their Objects and keeps them in their due Proportion that as they should not be excessive so not defective in their measure Thirdly Love to and delight in Relations while they live must needs constrain our Sorrow when by death removed from us What is that which you truly and duly love and delight in the enjoyment of that you can forbear to sorrow for the loss of Nay if it be unduly loved as a worldly Man doth his Riches when lost can sorrow be concealed And shall not we be allowed to love near Relations more than worldly Riches and so to sorrow more for the loss of the one than of the other I do know what it is to meet with losses of the World but I do not know that they did break my Sleep but I cannot deny but my late loss of one so near hath kept mine Eyes waking in the deep silence of the Nights How any should have due due degrees of Love to Husband Wife Parents or Children while they live and not have equal Sorrow for them when they dye is not easy for me to give a rational Account of For if the Goodness of the Object beget love to it the Absence of it excites desires after it the loss of it must fill us with Sorrow for it Want of Sorrow when they are taken from us doth argue want of Love while they were continued with us If you groan not at their Death there is room for this question Were not you burdened with their Life Did you look upon that Relation when alive as one of your Enjoyments when you do not look upon the Death of such a one as one of your Afflictions When Husband and Wife are known not to live in love every one hath a Tongue to say Such will not mourn for her Death How should he afflict his heart with Grief when separated by Death when it was empty of Love when joyned in Life David's different Carriage at the death of his Son Absalom and of his young Child doth not shew that when he had so much Sorrow for the one he had no Sorrow for the other but that he had something to moderate his sorrow for the one which he had not for the other when he had hopes that the one was saved and fears that the other was damned Fourthly The want of lamentation and mourning is a punishment that God inflicts upon Sinners at their Death Job 27.13 This is the portion of a wicked man with God and the heritage of oppressors which they shall receive of
the Almighty 15. Those that remain of him shall be buried in death and his widows shall not weep That Husband was unkind while he lived or his Widow unnatural that cannot weep when he is dead Psalm 78.64 Their priests fell by the sword and their widows made no lamentation When God takes away his loving-kindness and Mercies from men for their great wickedness while they live as a token of his wrath he will not have them lamented when they die Jer. 16.3 Thus saith the Lord concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place and concerning their mothers that bare them and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land 4. They shall die of grievous deaths they shall not be lamented neither shall they be buried but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth and they shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven and for the beasts of the earth 5. For thus saith the Lord Enter not into the house of mourning neither go to lament nor bemoan them for I have taken away my peace from this people saith the Lord even loving-kindness and mercies 6. Both the great and the small shall die in this land they shall not be buried neither shall men lament for them nor cut themselves nor make themselves bald for them 7. Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning to comfort them for the dead neither shall men give the cup of consolation to drink for their father or their mother Dying by Sword and Famine denial of burial the Flesh of the dead lying as Dung upon the Earth devoured by the Beasts consumed by the Fowls and no Sorrow no Lamentation for them are Judgments of God upon wicked Men And should those that dye in the Lord be no more lamented than those that dye in their Sin and for their Sin deserve no Lamentation Tho the Name and Carcase of the wicked rot in the Grave together yet should not the name of the righteous be had in remembrance And can we remember their Name without Sorrow that we have not their Presence and Company and opportunity of getting good by their Counsel and Example Forms usual in Mourning for the dead as Ah my Brother or ah my Sister My Wife Ah my Husband are foretold by God should not be used concerning Persons by Name as a Judgment upon them for the wickedness of their Lives As concerning Jehojakim Jer. 22.17 Thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness and for to shed innocent blood and for oppression and for violence to do it 18. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Jehojakim 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 or Majesty 19. He shall be buried with the burial of an ass drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem Jehoram for his wickedness was punished by God in his Life his Person with an incurable disease in his Bowels pained therewith for the space of two years at the end of which time his Bowels fell out by reason of his Sickness at his Death in his Name and Reputation in that the People made no burning for him like the burning of his Father that is did not honour him at his burial by burning of precious and sweet-smelling Spices as they did for Asa 2 Chron. 16.14 But Jehoran departed without being desired 2 Chron. 21.18 19 20. And shall those that lived to the Lord and died in the Lord be no more sorrowed for than those that lived and died in their Sin Shall not leave be allowed that such that were desired in Life might be lamented at their Death Oh let not that saying be used of any that sell asleep in Jesus He or She lived undesired and died unlamented Fifthly Sorrowing and Lamentation for the death of others hath been appointed and commanded by God in Honour to them in whom real good and worth was found while they lived Jeroboam his Child being sick sends his Wife in a disguise to the Prophet to know what should become of the Child Who bid her return to her House and when her Feet entred into the the City said Her Child should die and that all Israel should mourn for him and bury him for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave because in him is found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam The Child died and they buried him and all Israel mourned for him according to the Word of the Lord which he spake by the hand of his servant Ahijah the Prophet 1 King 14.12 13 17 18. Josiah was buried and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him and Jeremiah lamented for Josiah and all the singing men and singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations and made them an ordinance in Israel and behold they are written in the Lamentations 2 Chron. 35.24 25. True and real goodness the Image of God in meaner Persons is precious and honourable tho in Persons of higher Rank is more honoured and might make them more useful while they live and so the more lamented when they die yet as Angels convoy the Souls of poorest Believers to Heaven and shew their Love and Respect to them in conducting them thither so those that live should lament and sorrow for the death of their Bodies as remaining still united to Christ Sixthly It is complained of by God and condemned as an Evil that Righteous Persons should be taken away by Death and those that live do not lay it to heart Isa 57.1 And can it be laid to heart without any sorrow in the Heart Some may sorrow without Tears but most shew the sorrow abiding in their Hearts by the Tears running from their Eyes Shall a godly Man an holy Woman be removed by Death and lamented by none Not by those of the Family from whence they were taken Lord let not this complaint be made by thee nor this charge brought against any of the Family more immediately concerned in thy late afflicting Providence that did befall all of them CHAP. III. Want of Sorrow blameable Conclusions premised IT being made manifest that the Apostle alloweth and taketh it for granted that sorrow for those that are fallen asleep may be should be in those that do survive for two Reasons I will study Answers to these Three Questions in this case in so many Uses to be made 1. For my own sake and the sake of my Children that when we hear we may sorrow and Natural Affections spurs us on thereto we may take heed of sinning in our sorrow and may turn our Natural sorrow to our Spiritual advantage that in much sorrow we might not be defective in our sorrow nor sorrow with sorrows displeasing to God 2. For your sakes because our case
it on God â—eâ—◠〈◊〉 one Child by Death and you â—ave â—o sens os the breach made in your Housâ— nor sorroâ— for it you do not feel the smarting 〈◊〉 God removes a second and yâ—t yâ—u do not fâ—â—l it God proceeds from a Child to a Wife and yet you do not feel it nâ—xt he comes unto your sels and then you feel and lays you dead also and makes you as to your Body till the Resurrection to be past feeling 9. Want of Sorrow in this Case makes you worse than many Heathens They sorrow too much and you too little They are excessive the Man called Christian is defective in his Sorrow They act more like men the Christian so called worse than the Bruits who shew their Sense and Sorrow when deprived of their young 10. Want of Sorrow in this Case fills Funerals with Dissemblers and they follow the Corps acting the Hypocrite openly in the Streets he walks with Mourning on his Head and Back and Hands without mourning in his Heart Others think he sorrows but he knows he doth not and yet he pretends he doth if People knew him as he knows himself would say either get a mourning Heart or put off your mourning Robes If I have said in your Judgment too much upon the want of Sorrow bear with me for I have said it out of a detestation in my heart of such more than brutish Temper in many towards their deceased Relations worthy to be lamented when yet the better they were by some are sorrowed for the less If you think there are none guilty in this Case it is a sign you are not much acquainted with People in the World CHAP. V. Resolves this Question When is our Sorrow for our Dead kindly and pleasing unto God and when a turbulent Passion and vexation of Spirit and provoking to God USE II. IF your hearts be filled with Sorrow for your Dead and with a Sense of God's hand upon you examine your Sorrow what manner of Sorrow it is For Sorrow meerly as Sorrow I have not been pleading for nor reproving the want of under such a smarting Dispensation of Divine Providence which may be the better managed by resolving the second Question propounded which is this When is our Sorrow for the Dead kindly and pleasing unto God And when a turbulent Passion a vâ—xation of Spirit and provoking to God Ans 1. Kindly Sorrow for our Dead and pleasing unto God is joyned with lively Prayer What is all our weeping for them in the Grave without praying to God in Heaven What is all our Lamentation for them without Supplication to God And the more kindly your Sorrow is the more your Heart will relent and melt and the more servent your Spirit in Prayer will be While they were in their Health with you it may be you tendered up Sick prayers to God when they did live your Prayers were dead and dull and slothful Prayers when they were waking with you you prayed with them in a drowsy sleepy manner when God roused you by their Death you prayed after with more Life when they fell asleep God awaked you to more earnest and importunate Pleadings with him at the Throne of Grace If fear lest Mother and Children should be put to death by Esau moved Jacob to mix his fearing and sorrowing with Prayer and Wrestling should not feeling of the stroke of Death upon a Mother a Wife a Child put us on to the like praying to and pleading with God If he when his case only was it may be they must die now should not we when we must say He or she is already dead If he did it to preserve life may not we for the loss of their Life He for the good of Preservation we under the sense of our Afâ—l ction Gen. 32.9 10 11 24 25 26. Hos 12.4 He wept and made supplication to him Job lost ten Children in one day to express his Sorrow he rent his mantle and shaved his head and fell down upon the ground all which he did not under all his former losses till the sad tidings of the Deatâ— of his Children were brought unto him And in all this great Sorrow what did he do He worshipped he bowed down before God and gave Divine Worship unto him by Prayer and Praise Job 1.19 20 21. in all this he pleased God for in all this he sinned not ver 22. What if we weep night and day but pray not neither night nor day What if we pour out our Tears but do not pour out a Prayer Could we weep our selves blind kill our selves with Sorrow or rent our Garments and wring our Hands and tear our Hair and never Worship all this is exorbitant Sorrow turbulent Passion neither profitable to our selves nor pleasing to God nor advantagiâ—us to the Dead Some Persons when one lieth dead in the House tho on a Lord's day will stay at home and weep but not go out and worship God in Holy Duties but when you have any dead it is better drop your Tears into God's Bottle than with them wash your own Faces or wet your Hankerchief from such turbulent Sorrow Ans 2. Kindly Sorrow in this Case will usher in Sorrow for our Sin especially such Sins as at such a time come to our Thoughts relating to the Persons wâ—ose Death we mourn for as neglect of our Duty to them unjust and ungrounded grieving of them or any sinful and unsutable Carriage towards them when they lived with us As do I mourn for the dead Corps I will shed my Tears for omission of my Duty for the good of the living Soul That I did not instruct them nor did I pray with them nor for them did not teach them how to live nor help them to prepare to die When Nathan came to David his Child died when David was convinced of his Sin for which his Child did dye David turns his Sorrow for his dead Child into Sorrow for his Sin and laments and weeps and wails for the one much more than for the other Psalm 51. Title and Psalm compared So you Shall I lament my dead child and not my dead heart shall I shed tears because it is under the power of natural Death and have not I one tear to drop because my Soul is under the power of spiritual Death Do I look upon its pale Face and feel its cold Flesh and thereby pierce my self through with many and bitter Sorrows And do I feel my own cold Affections to God and Christ and all that is good Do I see the deformity of my Soul by reason of Sin and am I more loathsome in the sight of a pure and holy God by reason of my sin and shall I be grieved more for the lesser than the greater evil Is it not sin that hath captivated my Soul worse than Death that hath taken my Wife or Husband my Father and Mother and carry them Prisoners to the Grave O my Soul correct thy Sorrow and
turn the stream of thy Tears into another Channel abate thy Sorrow for the Dead and increase thy Sorrow for thy Sin If thou Sorrow never so much thy Dead shall live here with thee no more but if thou Sorrow not for thy Sin thou must be shut out from living with God for evermore Natural Sorrow had almost swallowed me up and for want of Spiritual Sorrow I am in danger of being cast down into Eternal Misery Therefore tho I will sorrow for my Dead I will sorrow more for my Sins The loss of God and Christ and Heaven by my Sin will be a greater loss than the loss of my dearest Relation by Death infinitely greater The one by my Natural sorrow cannot be recovered the other by Penitent-gospel-sorrow may be prevented therefore while I do the one I will take special care that the other be not left undone But if your Sorrow be only turbulent Passion you add sin to sin in your Sorrow And instead of sorrowing for former Sins you will be falling into new and sorrow neither for new nor old You will vent your Passion by the actings of Corruptions saying Oh that I had never been born Since my Relation is dead Oh that I might also dye God hath dealt with none so bitterly as he hath dealt with me My Husband dead Hâ—w shall I be maintained My Father and Mother dead and I not disposed of in the World who is there to take care of me My Wise dead My bosem Companion dead the comfort of my Life fallen into the Grave When I am sick and in danger of Death who have I to take care of me now my meetest help is gone How is this your sorrowing for your Dead Do you thus mingle your Sin with your Tears and your Corruption with your Lamentation If your Father or Mother or both be dead in your Passion and turbulent Sorrow do you forget that God doth live If your Husband be dead cannot God provide for you without him that did provide for you by him If Children dye is not God more to you than many Children If your Wife be taken from you cannot God help as much as such a Creature did or could to bear your Burdens and Afflictions cannot he provide or prevent Oh let us bridle our turbulent Sorrows and vexatious Passions lest they hurry us from God and cause us to yield to great Temptations Ans 3. Kindly Sorrow for our Dead will move us to seek for relief and support in a regular way dispose us to râ—ceive Divine Impressions by the Word and Spirit of God and belief of the great Articles of Faith beyond the reach of Reason Lazarus was dead Mary and Martha mourned their Hearts were filled with Sorrow their Eyes with Tears and their Mouths with Lamentations What did they do Sit still and feed their Sorrow Give place to Grief and yield unto dejection and despondency of Spirit Or seek out for Counsel and Direction in their sorrowful Circumstances It was told Martha Christ was coming Is Christ coming I shall have some help from him he will teach me and instruct me He will say and do something for my succour and support Wherefore as soon as she heard that Jâ—sus was coming she did not stay till he came but immediately went out meet to him If Christ be coming to her she will be going to Christ When she met with him with Tears declared her Sorrow and the Ground and Reason of it Lord my Brother is dead but if thou hadst been here he had not died What Christ said to her she believed and received and declares her Faith concerning the Resurrection of the Dead at the last day concerning the Power and Will of God to give to Christ whatsoever he should ask of him Concerning his Person that he was the Christ the Son of God that was to come into the World When she had thus discoursed with Christ she returns to her Mourning Sister Mary saying The Master is come and calleth for thee As soon as she heard that Christ was near she rose up hastily to go out of the Town to meet him also falls down at his feet makes known to him the Death of her Brother and her Faith in his Power That if he had been present he could and would have prevented his Death for she said If thou hadst been here my brother had not died Christ asked Where have you laid him they and the Jews that mourned with them entreated him to go unto his Grave saying Lord come and see Jesus cometh to the Grave commands the Stone that lay upon it to be taken away Martha objâ—cts His Body is corrupted for he hath been dead four days Christ replies Did not I tell thee if thou wouldst beliâ—ve thou shouldst see the pâ—wer of God They that wept and mourned obeyed and did as Câ—rist commanded His words made an Impression upon them and they yiâ—ld Obedience to him and had Faith in him even to and for the raising of the Dead John 11.19 to 45. Kindly Sorrow leaves room for Faith and Obedience Faith and Obedience keeps Sorrow from degenerating into a turbulenc Passion which is nourished by Unbelief and Disobedience and in this Sorrow men can deride what they should believe Luke 8.49 Jairus his Daughter was dead 52. They wept and bewailed her Christ said Weep not she is not dead but sleepeth 53. They laughed him to scorn knowing that she was dead But Christ by his call and command to arise brought her Soul into her again to the astonishment of the Father and the Mother of the Maiden 54 55 56. who in their kindly Sorrow did believe what others in their turbulent Passion did deride Tho we have not Christ visibly corporally present with us in our Sorrow to go unto yet we have his Word to go unto and his Ministers to go unto and to hear the words of Christ opened and applied to us by his Servants and under such an Affliction what Impressions might be made under a Sermon when you hear of Sin the evil of it the aggravations of it the bitter effects of it how will you when Sorrow is already working be inclined and disposed to sorrow for your Sin The word of God doth tell me Sin is bitter and I do find it so That Sin brought in Death and I am mourning for such doings of Death by reason of Sin That the Life of man is short a vapour a shadow and quickly gone and I do find iâ— so what else mean these Tears that I do shed for my departed Friend What else doth mean this Sorrow in my Breast for my deceased Relation that t'other day was in my Bosom but now in the Bowels of the Earth When you are pressed to prepare for your own Death by the Necessity and Advantage of such holy Preparations you heart will more readily yield now than at another time when this will be the Language of your Heart Speak Lord and I will hear make known
What do you call it Natural Sorrow Sorrow of Men as Men But where is your Christian Sorrow And the Sorrow you should have as renewed sanctified Men Or should tend by the spiritual Improvement of the Death of your Relation to make you such Should you not say Is my Child dead and my Soul not mended by its Death My Heart as hard and as worldly as before Hath God been smiting me and cannot I feel Hath God been correcting me for my Sin and cannot I yet grieve and groan weep and sorrow for my Sin Hath Death separated me and my Relation and do I sorrow for that And hath not Sin separated God and me and do not I sorrow for this Do I sit and sorrow because I shall enjoy the company of this Relation no more and have I no grief and sorrow that by my Sin I have forfeited the enjoyment of God for ever Is not God better than the Creature and the Enjoyment of God better sweeter than the Enjoyment of the Creature and the lose of God a greater and more bitter loss than the loss of my Relation And yet have I so many Tears for the loss of the lesser and not one for the loss of the greater Good Did I take the Creature for my God that I sorrow more for the loss of it than I do for the real loss of him that is indeed the only True Living and Eternal God Hath God been laying Gall and Wormwood on the Creatures Breast to wean me from the Love of this present World and do not I improve his stroke to call off my Affections from it When my Children did live I then pretended that my worldly Cares was to make Provisions for them hath God taken them away and do my worldly care still remain as much as when I had them to provide for May I not see the deceitfulness of my heart and turn my sorrow from mourning for my Dead to mourning for making no better Improvement of their Death Did I give that Love to them which was due to God and now I have not them to lâ—ve should not God have my love and more of it Did I place so much comfort in their Life and should not I seek my comforts now from God when I find my Creature-comforts thus do fail me Did I take delight in conversing with them and now that delight is ceased and gone should not I improve this disappointment in seeking and endeavouring after and labouring for more Communion with God And if I cannot find this Affliction sanctified to me should not I sorrow less for the loss of my Relation and cease mourning so much as I am a Man and turn my mourning into sorrowing far want of an holy Improvement of my loss and at lost begin to sorrow as a Christian man in this case should sorrow 5. When you sorrow more for their Death than that you are yet so much unprepared for your own And that you have improved your time and means of Grace no more to get ready for Death and Judgment after Death and Heaven after Judgment Your Father or Mother Husband or Wife died with well-grounded hopes of Heaven on their Dying-bed conquered the Fears of Death and rejoyced in the hope of the Glory of God expressed their thankfulness to God that they had had that Communion with God the experience whereof did so much then delight them that they would not have been without for all the Riches of the World And you are yet under doubts and fears afraid to think of Death because you do not know whether then you shall be damned or saved because you cannot tell whether you have believed or repented and yet you sorrow for them as men go sorrow because of your own Fears and Dangers you are in 6. When you sorrow more for your own loss than you do for your discontent and impatient murmuring at the Hand of God because of your loss and do not sorrow for your excessive Sorrow Natural Sorrow when it is vitiated with the acting of corrupt Nature will soon work up to discontent and impatience to repining and harbouring of hard thoughts and sometimes blasphemous Thoughts against the blessed glorious God If God did love me why hath he dealt thus with me If he had a kindness for me why hath he taken his kindness from me If God govern the World by his Wisdom why doth he take away those that are a comfort to their Relations and continue those that are a cross and a curse and a plague unto them Forbear say no more think no more these Thoughts but if in your Sorrow you have such things unworthy of God arising in your mind cease sorrowing for your Dead and speedily begin and hold on to lament and bitterly bewail such abominable Motions in your hearts and spare your Tears to mourn for this great Wickedness and pray That these Thoughts of your heart may be forgiven you For should God's afflicting hand lay you down at his Foot and doth your corrupt heart let fly such sinful Actings in his Face Or will you mourn for your Affliction by the Instigation of natural Affection as a Man and not at all grieve and groan sigh and sob lament and bewail the Exorbitancy of your Passion tho it work to so great a Provocation of a Just and Powerful God and by such discontent risen to such an height shew your self a corrupt Man and by not sorrowing for these sinful workings of heart shew your self to be no Religious Man 7. When you sorrow more for your outward worldly loss by the Death of your Relation than you do for your distrust in the Promises and Providence of God to provide for you A Wife had a dependency upon her Husband and Children on their Father under God He dies and their trust in God dieth with him What shall we do now for a maintenance For supply of our wants Who shall give us Bread to eat and Raiment to put on Is not this to mourn more like an Heathen than a Christian Can God provide for you no way but one By no other means than by him that was an Husband or a Father to you You are short in your Christian Sorrow while you are excessive in your Turbulent Sorrow 8. When you sorrow more for the dead Body of your Relation than you do for the want of greater Faith and Hope and quieting thoughts of a joyful Resurrection which should be the Fruit of that Faith and Hope You see the dead Corps in the Coffin laid in the Grave thither your Thoughts run daily when you do not to mourn over them in the Grave fixing your thoughts how they putrify and rot how they consume and moulder away and this pierceth your heart But you do not meditate as one that believes they shall live again and be glorious Bodies and in this your sorrow is defective as you are a Christian CHAP. VII The Second Doctrine and the general Method propounded
Doct. II. THat Christians ought so to bound their Sorrow for the Dead that it be not excessive and immoderate Am I the first amongst you whom God by his Providence hath called to regulate my Sorrow for the Death of a dear Relation Not by many Shall I be the last among you that shall be thus exercised Not by many Many of you have followed Husbands or Wives Parents or Children to their Grave and more of you shortly shall and afrer that others shall follow you to your long home and see you lodged in the Dust And where there was Love in living together there will be Sorrow at your last parting asunder I understand the Communication of two Religious and Tender Mothers in this place since I began this sorrowful Subject that had buried some of their Children The one said I fear I sorrowed too much for my Child and sinned by excess of Sorrow The other said I buried mine and I doubt I was not sorrowful enough and I fear I sinned in being short in my sorrow To have a due sense of the Death of Relations and of the hand of God in taking them from us and yet to keep our Sorrow in due Bounds is an hard Task that lieth upon us Two things I have prayed for in my Affliction of this kind That I might not be unsensible of God's hand nor excessive in my Sorrow for the outward Comfort of my life removed thereby And for the helping of my self in both my thoughts have been so long working on this Text which I might have kept secret in my Study and not have brought them unto you but the Consideration of the common Case of all being mortal that Death will enter into your Houses and take your Living from you and that there are in all Affections common to Human Nature which being corrupted tend to Sin in over-loving of them and over-joying in them while they live and in over-sorrowing for them when they dye hath moved me to communicate to you what I thought for my self that in the like case it might also be a Guide and Direction and support unto you In treating on this Subject of Sorrow that it might be moderate as becometh Christians that have hope and not like Heathens that have no hope of a joyful Resurrection of the dead omitting many things in so copious a Subject endeavouring to contract as much as I can I shall cast my Mattter into this Method 1. I shall lay down some Rules concerning the kind and degrees of Sorrow for the Dead 2. I shall give you an account when our Sorrow for the Dead is excessive and immoderate 3. I shall shew you the Cure or bring you some Remedy against excess of Sorrow CHAP. VIII Contains Eight Rules concerning the degrees of Sorrow for the Dead First THe Rules concerning the kinds and degrees of our Sorrow for the dead are such as these Rule 1. Our Sorrow is not so much for the Death of a Stranger as for the Death of a suitable and intimate Acquaintance At the hearing of the Death of one whom we had no Conversation with we might entertain some Sorrow as he was one partaker of the same Humane Nature with us as he was one that became liable to Death by the Sin of Adam the common Parent of us all as Death is a penal Evil upon Mankind as Adam's Off-spring and which God would not remit nor except us from when he called Adam to an Account for the Sin he had committed and as he had a Rational and Immortal Soul that is passed into Eternity tho we know not to what State in that Eternity Rule 2. Our sorrom is not usually so much for an intimate Acquaintance when he dies as for the death of Relations excepr there be some other Circumstances that might alter the Case For an intimate Friend that dieth the sweet Converse the Affableness of his Carriage the Comfort in his Company the Kindnesses he hath done might oblige me to mourn for an evil as death is that hath befallen him for if it would have been matter of sorrow to me to hear he was Sick or cast into Prison would not the same Principle and Love bind me to sorrow when he is lodged in the Grave But all these and such like enumerated Circumstances there might be in a Relation and besides these some nearer natural Obligation as partakers of the same Flesh and Blood in a more immediate sense than all Mankind in Adom were and this might add degrees of sorrow to what is the sorrow for an intimate Friend when he dieth For being nearer by Bonds of Nature to us the greater the sorrow when by death those Bonds are broke asunder Rule 3. The nearer the Relation is usually the greater is our sorrow for the breach thereof by death So sorrow for those that are near us by Consanguinity ordinarily exceeds the sorrow upon the account of meer Affinity So also the sorrow of Pâ—rents for the death of Children and of Chilâ—ren for the death of their Parents being nearer in Blood ariseth to greater degrees than that for others more remote But the Conjugal Relation being the nearest whereby two become one Flesh and breeds the strongest Affection the dissolving thereof by death begets and feeds and maintains the greater grief pierceth deeper and is more hardly born For death cannot deprive us of a nearer Mercy than a part of our selves As Children are by Multiplication Husband and Wife that walk suitably to thâ—ir relation by such an Vnion that cannot be dissolved but by death Therefore that Relation that calls for the strongest Love of all others while it holds the dissolving of it calls for the greatest sorrow when death doth cause it If a Man must forsake his most Loving Father and his most Tender Mother to dwell with his Wife because of greater Love he ought to have to her then he should have greater sorrow for the death of this Relation than for the death of Father or Mother For proportionable to the Love and Joy in the Object injoyed must be our sorrow when we are totally and finally deprived of it Rule 4. The more persons did answer the obligation of a Conjugal Relation in mutual real constant Love to and care of each others Temporal and Spiritual and Eternal Welfare the greater degree of sorrow as to the loss of the Survivor there may and ought to be Though these may part at death with greater Comfort because they filled up their Relation with Duty in time of Life The more Fear and Love to God the more Love and Care concerning their Relations the more Conscientious performance of Relative Duties the more meekness of Spirit the more kind Carriage and Sweetness of Temper and Disposition the most suitableness in all respect there was in both the more grievous the separation by death to the Survivor must be And who can forbear to sorrow for so great a Loss when he doth sit solitary and ponder
deeply how great it is Rule 5. A Wicked Husband that is a constant Curse and a daily Cross unto his whole Family whose Wife is in a worse condition for Body and Soul than if she were a Widow and whose Children by reason of his want of Affection to them and Care for them are more exposed to Ruine than if they were Fatherless leaves little reason behind him why they should grieve and sorrow for his Death upon their own accounts For who can sorrow for a deliverance from a daily Cross Who can grieve for being eased of a Burden under which they so long did groan Who can sorrow upon their own account that one is gone that did rather Hate than Love them and filled their Hearts with daily sorrow their Eyes with flowing Tears and their Mouths with Heart-piercing Complaints And why should any dissemble sorrow for such by whose Wickedness and Sin against God and the Family God was dishonoured and the Family ruined when by death he is taken off from doing so upon Earth any more Do you ask who ever taught this Doctrine before Job did Job 27.13 This is the portion of a wicked Man with God and the Heritage of Oppressors which they shall receive of the Almighty 15. Those that remain of him shall be buried in death and his Widows shall not weep Were there â—ver any such Widows Yes Psal 78.64 Their Priests fell by the Sword and their Widows made no Lamentation Rule 6. In mourning for such Relations that neither did their Duty to God nor to their Family but lived to God's dishonour and their daily grief and died without Repentance for both our sorrow must be for their sakes and not our own For the ungodly and unnatural as dying impenitently in their Sins and for the Loss of their Souls and Misery in the other World as David did for Absolom for tho our grief for them cannot mitigate their Torments nor our Tears quench their Fire yet it cannot but be a grief to us that our Relations should live and die in their Rebellion against God and neglect of their Duties towards us but did dishonour God whom they should have glorified and overthrew the Family by their Sin and Wicked Lives which they should have built up and maintained And as for their Sin while they lived so dying impenitent for their Misery after death The death of some puts an end to those Troubles and Disquiet and Crosses which they caused in their Families while they lived that for their own sakes the Living cannot find a reason why they should mourn because they are dead But when they consider their death was the beginning of their Intolerable and Eternal Misery for their sakes they cannot but give place to sorrow â—or while these Thoughts are working my Husband is dead and his Soul is Damned it will be hard to keep sorrow from the Heart And tho such sorrow doth not profit the Damned Soul yet unaccountable sorrow is not easily cast off Nor can we always cease to sorrow when we cannot give a reason of any good that is the fruit of our sorrow But yet a reason will be here suggested it was my Husband or Wife or Son or Daughter that lived wickedly and died impenitently and the Soul of one so near is lost is for ever lost And Religion teaching us that the Souls of such are miserable Nature will be working in us to lament their Misery and this is sorrow for their sakes Rule 7. In mourning for those that lived holily towards God and Conscientiously in their Relative Duties towards us our sorrow is for our own sakes more than for theirs The common saying our Loss is their Gain teacheth that the sorrow is for the Loser and not for the Gainer And indeed if we search to the bottom of our sorrow to find the reason of our sorrow for those that lived to the Lord and died in the Lord and after death do live gloriously and happily with the Lord it will appear we are sorrowing more for our selves than for them We call it mourning for the dead when it is indeed mourning for our selves yet living for let us enquire 1. Do we mourn because their Souls are perfectly Holy and Happy with God and Christ above No this is matter of our Comfort Delight and Joy Did not we earnestly pray for them sick and well that when they left Earth they might be received up to Heaven And do we sorrow that God heard our Prayers and hath saved their Souls Do we thus take on for this Are our Tears shed because God hath Crowned their Grace with Glory Are we grieving on Earth because they are rejoicing in Heaven Are we groaning here because they are triumphing there For shame we cannot say this is the reason and ground of our sorrow and that in this respect it is plain we do not sorrow for their sakes 2. Do we mourn because they are fallen asleep in Jesus Because they are gone to rest in their Beds Because their Bodies in that state in which they are remain united to Christ Are these grounds of sorrow Should we weep and waste our Tears because these things are said of them Or is it not matter of Comfort and Joy unto us that it is so well with their very Bodies as these things declared by God himself do import unto us Is it not better to die in Christ than to live in Sin Is it not better to sleep in Jesus than to be naturally awake and spiritually asleep in Sin Is it not better for the Body to lye still and rest free from Actings of Sin than to be able to walk in a constant course of wickedness Is it not more matter of Comfort to have the Bodies of our Friends united to Christ in the Grave than to have our Relations above ground separated from Christ and not united to him If it be let us cease over-sorrowing for them with whom it is better tho in the Grave and begin to sorrow for those with whom it is worse tho they live with us Which is matter of greater sorrow a departed Saint or a living Sinner And shall we drop more Tears for one departed Saint than for twenty living wicked Relations Why so When all these wicked ones are in danger of Hell but the departed Saint is past that danger The ungodly that do live are in danger of Eternal Torments both as to Body and Soul The departed Saint is past the danger thereof both as to Body and Soul For when the Soul is once safe in Heaven the Body is for ever past all danger of Hell Is this it that we sorrow for No verily we do give thanks to God that the Body is in these Circumstances though in the Grave But you say you mourn because they are dead and taken from us Dead But are not we spâ—â—king to Believers that live concerning departâ—â—â—â—lievâ—rs And should not we beliâ—vâ— what God saith concerning them And think and
have none in that day tho others be condemned Do you think this Self-tormenting sorrow for the Damned proceeds from such Mercy in you to them in your imperfect state on Earth when you shall have no Mercy to them nor sorrow foâ— them in your perfect state in Heaven Q. 8. Should not your Zeal for Love to Desire after Delight in the Glory of God over-power and overcome all your passionate sorrow at the concernment of the Creature Is your own Salvation to be sought in subordination to the Gloâ—y of God And would you have the salvâ—tion of yours stand in competition with it or be prâ—ferred before it Would you have God lose his Glory in giving â—â—ing to your Relations If they did not anâ— indeed would not glorifie him by pâ—â—â—â—ent confâ—ssing of their Sin by serious tuâ—ning to him by thankful consenting to a Sâ—viour freeâ—y and frâ—quently offered to them but went on in Sin despised his Grace and slighted his Mercy and abused his Patience and finally refused the only Saviour and all this to his Dishonour in this World while they lived would you have God also to lose the Glory of his Justice Holiness Power and Truth in not punishing them for their Sin thus persistâ—d in when they died in the other World Should you so sorrow beyond all bounds when you mourn for their Death to mourn so much for their Damnation when God most righteously glorifieth himself in most just punishing them for their Sin who by their Sin did so wickedly dishonour him As for the Eternal state of Infants whom the sorrowful Religious Parents follow to the Grave and lodge them in the Dust I shall not now discourse it but think they are to hope well concerning them and tho they be their Parents not to take upon them to be their Judges and when they have passed a Sentence upon them according to their ungrounded fears next torment themselves and pierce themselves through with self-wracking Sorrows CHAP. X. The Ninth and Tenth Rule Five Reasons for great Sorrow for the Death of Ministers Rule 9. OVR sorrow for such as die full of Days and full of Grace and Hopes of Glory should not be so deep as for such that are holy but taken from us in the midst of their Days When an Holy Person Converted when Young hath led an Holy Conversation filled up his Duties in his General and Particular Calling been useful and serviceable in his respective Circumstances hath fought a good Fight hath kept the Faith and finished his Course when the Lease of Man's Life Seventy years is almost out is ripe for Heaven and Nature is worn parts of the Body decayed with Age and with such a Constitution in a Course of Nature could not live much longer but with grief and pains with aches and groans like ripe and mellow Fruit without violent shaking fall to the ground we have more cause to give thanks to God they lived so long served him so much were useful so many years and such a long-standing Comfort to Relations than to be bowed down with sorrow to be filled straitned and loaded with grief that they died at last Wherefore the Survivors of such should reckon up their Mercies take an account of their many Comforts and remember Blessings old and new had and received in the long Enjoyment of such a Relation in Life and then let thankfulness and sorrow joy and grief contend for Victory and strive which should exceed the other and when all is laid together and duly weighed by a Soul that is desirous that God should have the praise of his manifold Mercies in a Relative state almost for Forty years as well as himself have a sense of his loss if Nature prompt him to be sorrowful Grace would provoke him to be thankful but yet if the Contest remain as his Condition is mixt with Mercy and Affliction so let his frame of Heart be mixt with a Tincture of both and let them take their turns that one while he may be sorrowful for his loss another while be thankful for so many Mercies before that loss did befall him Rule 10. Our sorrow for the Death of Godly and Zealous Men that were in a Publick Station and Capacity admits of greater degrees than sorrow for our own Relations as private Persons Tho our sorrow for these may be more sensitive and passionate yet the sorrow for the other may exceed in degrees as more Judicious and Rational Sorrow for Godly Religious Zealous Magistrates for Able Holy and Laborious Ministers when taken away by Death should be more extensive and intensive than for others that did only live a private Life that is there should be more Mourners in number and all these should mourn with greater degrees at least of Rational sorrow for publick Persons than for private Thus all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah with a very great mourning 2 Chron. 35.24 25. When Samuel died all the Israelites were gathered together and lamented him 1 Sam. 25.1 The hearing that a Minister is Sick should fill many Hearts with much sorrow The hearing that he is recovered is matter of Joy Phil. 2.26 27 28. But the hearing that he is dead should multiply the sorrow of many And there are great Reasons of great sorrow for the death of such 1. The Death of such publick Persons is a publick loss And the more general the loss is the more general the sorrow should be When a private Person dieth that was godly as he was a Praying Christian many are losers by his death for he prayed for many while he lived yea for all Mankind in common and for the Church of God in special and therefore such a Man's death should be lamented by many but when a Publick Preacher dieth many do lose his Preaching Labours as well as the benefit of his fervent Prayers and all that are losers should be Mourners 2. The death of such is a Spiritual Loss Can we sorrow for the Temporal Losses that befall us by the death of private Persons and shall we not sorrow for our loss in Spirituals by the death of such that in their Life were helpers of our Souls in our way to Heaven Was he a Spiritual Father to many and might have been to more Is a Spiritual Birth a greater Mercy than our Natural Birth And shall our Natural Parents be lamented when they die and no sorrow for the other when they can Preach to us and Pray with us and for us no more How many Persons may one Minister instruct What a number might such a one at once and from day to day teach and direct in the way to Eternal Salvation And when such a one dieth what a loss would it be if God in Mâ—rcy did not raise up others when he falleth into his Grave 3. By the Life and Labours of such the Kingdom of Sin and Satan is battered and shaken and the Kingdom of Christ is encreased and carried on therefore all that are
desirous that the Devil's Kingdom should be destroyed and the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus should be promoted and propagated must be mourners in Heart tho not in Habit at the death of those that God did please to use for the one and for the other 4. Such sorrow argueth our selves to be of a publick Spirit and not to have such little narrow Souls as to be only concerned for our Carnal Self-interest You are afflicted in your own Person or in your own Family and you sorrow and mourn who will thank you for it What Grace or good Nature is manifested in your selfish sorrow Or who will call this good Nature in you when you are so selfish to sorrow only for Self-concerns 5. The Labours of Godly Ministers in their Life have immediate reference to your holy Living to your happy Dying and to your Well-being to all Eternity Is there any thing in this World concerns you more than to lead an holy Life to die an happy death and to be saved when you die Do they die that should direct you in all these And is there no cause of sorrow for the death of such which puts an end to all their Labours CHAP. IX Resolves this Question When is our Sorrow for our Dead excessive and immoderate THe Second Part of the propounded Method in treating of this sorrowful Subject is to shew When our Sorrow for our Dead is excessive and immoderate That in some it is Defective especially in Spiritual Respects hath been already shewed and wherein it doth come short of what it ought to be that it is excessive and immoderate in others the Practice of many deprived of their Relations by Death is a visible Proof and the Caution and Charge given in the Text doth suppose that some do exceed the bounds and that their Tears do overflow the Banks of Moderation and make a Land-stood in their Families So far as it hath already been discovered to be turbulent it is excessive which here should be reviewed to which some more might be added The Apostle's Golden Rule should be our Christian Directory for the moderating of our Joy and Sorrow in having or losing the outward Enjoyments of this Life 1 Cor. 7.29 But this I say Brethren the timt is short it remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none 33. And those that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoice as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away In which Rule we might note these things 1. Some have their Wives Husbands Parents Children yet continuing with them Others have none because by death taken from them 2. Those that have them are apt to â—ver-joy in them those that have lost them are prone to over-sorrow for them 3. Those that have them shall shortly be in the same circumstances as those that are by death deprived of them Ours are dead and yours shortly will be so Life is so short and the end of all so near and sure that there is little and no long difference betwixt the state of one and of the other 4. Those that have Wives and other Relations should sometimes suppose themselves to be in the Circumstances of those that have none that the thoughts that shortly they shall have none might correct their excessive joy while they have them for though you have them you should he as though you had them not looking upon Relations that shortly will not be as if now already they were not is a point of prudence for the moderating of our joy in them Those that have them not should suppose this will be the case of those that have for the allaying of their sorrow that now this is their present state 5. The reasons of this indifferency of our Spirits in these different Circumstances of our Life 1. The time is short those that have Fathers and Mothers Wife Husband or Children shall have them but for a short time Why then are your hearts transported with so much joy when you might stand and see the end of them those that are deprived of them have themselves but a little time to live Why then are you so much cast down for so short a want of them 2. All these things are but as a shadow or an appearance of good rather than that good wherein our happiness doth lie and the solid spiritual abiding comfort of our life doth consist it is but the fashion of this world an accidental and External Figure without substance the surface and outside What is all that is in this world that is of the world but a meer surface and vain outside why then do we joy so much or sorrow so much whether we have them or be without them 3. They are in continual change like Water in the River is continually every moment passing away What! are these things neither substantial nor continual and shall we be over-affected with the having or the losing of them Christians should do as to Temporals as Worldings do in Spirituals these pray as if they prayed not they can confess sin and neithâ—r weep without nor sorrow within they are under the loss of the favour of God and yet are as contented as if they were not they can ask for an interest in Christ pardon of sin and eternal Salvation and yet not be much troubled for the present though they go without them for ever they can sit and hear the threatnings of God and never fear nor grieve can sit and hear the glad tidings of the Gospel and never rejoice hear all as if they heard them not or if they have some movings of Affections they are not deep they reach not the heart they do not break their hearts for sin against God nor for the loss of God so much as some do for the loss of a Creature Let such as are immoderately weeping for their dead stop their Tears that they may read compose tâ—eir minds for a while at first that they may consider what is said and command their Sorrow to give place to Reason and Religion or if they have not such command over it should earnestly pray to God that hath that they might at last not sorrow with such excess of sorrow as if they had no hope of the blessed present and future state of those they thus do sorrow for Let me propound some Questions to you and let Reason and Conscience in your Sorrow give in their Answer if it be not sorrow in excess Q. 1. Is your sorrow for your Dead so much as in the degrees of it tends to the shortning of your own Life and is it not then too much Is your Relation dead and will you therefore kill your self hath death broken the Relation you had in the Fifth Commandment and will you go on to transgress the Sixth hath Death killed one and will
of this wiâ—â— be as much cause of Joy as their Death was of Sorrow and more abundant In the first of these three things give me full satisfaction 1. Taken from God 2. From Christ 3. The absurdities that must unavoidably follow the denial of the Resurrection of the Dead First in this Article of our Faith from whence I check my Sorrow for the Dead that it may be kept within bounds three things in God so considered by us tho one in him remove my Doubts confirm my Hopes in this Case 1. The Wisdom 2. The Power 3. The Will of God 1. God being Infinite in Wisdom and Knowledge I am fully satisfied that he knoweth the number of the dead and where their Bodies were buried or consumed and which are the bones and Skull and Dust of one and which of another for this is knowable in it self and therefore God knows these and all other circumstances of the Dead or else his Knowledge would be limited and finite Knowledge and not extended to every thing that may be known which is contrary to Natural Reason to Scripture and Religion and to the Infinite Perfection of the Divine Nature to deny this Knowledge in God is to Blaspheme him 2. God being Infinite in Power is able to raise all the Dead all which and every particle of all of them being thus known to him to raise the Dead is an Act of Power and not of weakness and is possible and not a contradiction Cannot the same Power that made all things out of nothing cause these dead-out of something to live again Cannot the same Power that at first formed Mans Body of the dust of the ground and caused it to live make these Bodies to live again thô they be turned into dust Cannot God do what he hath done Cannot he do all that is possible to be done Is not that which hath been done to some possible to be done to others Are there not many Examples in the Scripture that this hath been done Have not many Dead been raised to Life The Resurrection of the Dead being in the rank of things possible comes within the reach of Divine Almighty Power which to deny is to blaspheme these two being manifest to compleat the Argument add 3. God hath declared his Will and Purpose that the Dead shall live again We cannot argue from the Power of God that a thing shall be because he is able to do it because he doth not will to do all that he can do but we might argue from his Will that what he doth will to do shall be done because he hath Power to do whatsoever he will Men might have a will to do some things but they have not Power answerable to their Will and they often would but never can but tho' God be not Omnivolent to will every thing he can yet he is Omnipotent to do whatsoever he will Wherefore our reasoning issueth in this Whether it be the Will of God that the Dead shall be raised to life The fundamental Error of the Sadduces denying the Resurrection of the Dead Christ shews was in their Ignoronce of these two Principles the Power and the Will of God which is revealed in the Scripture Mat. 22.29 Jesus answered and said unto them Ye do err not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God The Scriptures do abound in this fully assuring us that it is his Will that all the Dead shall be raised the Wicked to Damnation the Righteous to Life everlasting If you doubt read these Texts Job 19.25 I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the Earth 26. And thô after my skin Worms destroy this body yet in my Flesh shall I see God 27. Whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another thô my reins be consumed within me Joh. 5.28 The hour is coming in the which all that are in the Graves shall hear his voice 29. And shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of life and they that have done evil to the Resurrection of damnation Joh. 6.38 For I came down from Heaven not to do my own will but the Will of him that sent me What 's that 39. And this is the Fathers will which hath sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day These are comfortable words of Christ to us What a strict Charge is here of the Father given to Christ My Son I give you so many men and charge you with them that you lose not any one of them but that you raise every one of them at the last day and set them before me in Body and Soul in my heavenly Kingdom Do you fear lest among so many millions to be raised any one of yours should be left in the Grave and never raised Would not then such be lost and is not that contrary to the Charge given to Christ and contrary to the Fathers Will Are not you satisfied that Christ hath and will do his Father's Will in every Point Hear his words 40. And this is the will of him that sent me that every one that seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day Are not you yet satisfied with these words of him that is able and can and faithful and will do what he saith reaching to every one without the losing of any one The Father that sent me hath declared his Will that I should and so I will raise every one of these at the last day Believe and sorrow for your Dead with no more degrees of Sorrow than becometh one that doth believe that Christ will raise them up at the last day John 11.24 Martha said to him I know that he shall rise again in the Resurrection at the last day 25. Jesus said unto her I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me thô he were dead yet shall he live John 6.44 No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day 54. Whoso eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood hath Eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day 1 Cor. 15. throughout Rev. 20.12 And I saw the Dead small and great stand before God 13. And the Sea gave up the dead which were in it and Death and Hell or the Grave delivered up the dâ—ad which were in them Now the Grave and Death hold your Relations that are under their Power fast so fast that now there is no help and you therefore sorrow but the day will come when Death and the Grave shall deliver them up and hold them no longer here is matter of Hope therefore do not sorrow as those that have no Hope Secondly The indissoluble connexion betwixt the Resurrection of Christ and Believers that sleep in
interruptions nor intermissions in our praising of God in our Loving of him and delighting in him Our Natural Bodies now require time to be fed in sitting at our Tables when they are empty we are pained with hunger when they are full we are indisposed for Holy Work and Heavenly Praises but a whole Eternity shall be filled with constant Hallelujahs and Spiritual Rejoycings when our Bodies shall be raised Spiritual Bodies and such they shall be 1 Cor. 15.44 It is sown a natural Body it is raised a spiritual Body There is a Natural Body and there is a Spiritual Body 4. They shall be raised glorious Bodies Now our bodies are vile Bodies Phil. 3.21 How full of ill Humours and loathsome Corruption Why should any be proud of a comely Face when he might think what he is within Now they are Cottages of Clay Tabernacles of Earth a Mass of breathing walking Mould God did mend the Matter else our Bodies are as vile as the Earth we tread upon for out of it they were taken and into it they are returning but this is wonderderful that Bodies so vile while they live and more loathsome when dead and rotting in the Grave should at last be raised as glorious as so many glittering Stars Dan. 12.3 Did I say as glittering Stars Christ saith as so many shining Suns Mat. 13.43 Then shall the Righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father Who can express the difference betwixt a dead Body in the Grave and the Sun shining in the Heavens Yet so much shall be the difference between the same Body in the Grave and raised at the last day 1 Cor. 15.43 It is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory 5. They shall be raised perfect and beautiful Bodiâ—s If they were maimed here they shall be entire then if blind now they shall have Sight to see the Lord Redeemer and the Glory of the Place above and of the Company in that Palace of the King of Glory if they were any way deformed here any part redundant any part exorbitant oâ— defective this deformity shall be removed and Beauty shall be their Cloathing all over for whatsoever came in by sin and is the Punishment and Effects of Sin in such respects upon the Body when the Cause is removed such Evils shall â—ot remain 6. They shall be raised holy and without the least spot or stain of Sin or inclinatiâ—n to it Now the Body is defiled with sin and the parts of it are too often the Instruments of Sin Eyes beholding Vanity and Windows to let in wickedness into the Heart and Thoughts our Tongues too often speak to Gods dishonour our Feet too often run into the wayes of Sin our Appetite too often over-rules our Reason and we have cause to cry out Who shall deliver us from this Body of Sin and Death Who shall God when he delivers our Bodies from Death and raiseth them out of their Graves will deliver them from all filthiness of the Flesh and Christ shall present them pure and spotless without wrinkle or any such thing â—ph 5.27 7. If I cannot say all let me say that which comprehends all they shall be raisâ—d like to Christs glorified Body Say our Souls in Heaven shall be like Christs Soul and our Bodies raised and taken thither shall be like Christs glorious Body If we cannot utter the Excellency of the heavenly Qualities and Endowments of the Bodies of those that sleep in Jesus when they shall be awaked say they shall be like to Christs glorious Body If you cannot conceive it in your Minds think they shall be like Christs glorious Body and if you cannot think how great that is do not mourn that your holy Friends are gone before in their Souls to see that glorious Jesus whose Glory is so great that it doth transcend all your thoughts and spend your time in holy preparing and earnest Looking for his coming than in excessive sinful Mourning for their dead Bodies that shall be made like his at his coming Phil. 3.20 For our conversation is in Heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ 21. Who sball change our vile Body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious Body Lord how can this be that such Clods of Earth and lumps of Clay when turned into Dust in the Grave should be made like to the Body of the glorious exalted Jesus How according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself There must be great ability and power to make this change a body so vile to be so glorious this Power must be Almighty Power even such as can do any thing as can subdue all things and this Power so mighty must be working Power to make such a Body that all the Power of all the Angels in Heaven is too weak to do Now let those that overmuch sorrow for their Dead that sleep in Jesus consider if they have any cause or reason so to do You look upon their dead Bodies in the Coffin before they are nailed up and your Eye is filled with tears and your Heart with sorrow You think of them as they are mouldring and rotting in the grave and you can scarce bear these thoughts Have you not another Eye Can you have no other thoughts Have not you an Eye of Faith to look beyond the Coffin and the Grave to a joyful glorious Resurrection and see what Bodies they shall be when they shall be raised They are in their Graves and you can see them no more but you can say Tho their Grave is filled up and I cannot set mine Eyes upon them yet methinks I see how there they lie and how they do consume and if you had an Eye of Faith which makes things to come as if they were present you might say Methinks I see their Bodies raised methinks I see how beautiful how powerful how glorious they be methinks I see them shining as the Sun if you did would not this delight your thoughts stop your excessive Tears and remove your immoderate sorrow but if you are purblind and cannot see afar off your sorrow will be nearer CHAP. XV. The Fourth Remedy against excessive Sorrow the Antecedents Concomitants and Consequâ—nts of the Resurrection of those that sleep in Jesus The First Christ Himsâ—lf will come for their Redemption from the Grave THE Fourth Argument for the mitigating of our Sorrow for our Deceased that sleep in Jesus brought by the Apostle is the Antecedents Concomitants and Consequents that is the things that shall go before accompany â—â—d follow after their being awaked out of their sleep and Resurrection from their Graves All of them exceeding wonderful and glorious and when known and believed firmly will be exceeding comfortable unto us as they are in themselves greatly desirable Oh that God would give us that Faith that might enable us to look upon them as sure and near at hand yea that may
judge the impenitent Transgressors of his Law 2. Some understand it figuratively alluding to the manner of Men who sound a Trumpet to gather Assemblies together Num. 10.2 God spake to Moses saying make thee two Trumpets of Silver that thou mayest use them for the calling of the Assembly and for the journeying of the Camp So when the year of Jubilee came the Trumpet of the Jubilee was to sound throughout all the Land Levit. 25.9 The Day of the coming of Christ and of the raising of them that sleep in Jesus will be to all Believers their Jubilee and the Trumpet shall sound throughout all the World 3. Some conceive this last Trumpet shall be Christs own audible Voice Calling and Commanding the Dead to arise and come forth of their Graves And they give these Reasons 1. The express Letter of the Word Joh. 5.28 The Hour is coming when all that are in the Graves shall hear his Voice and shall come forth The Lord Jesus shall utter his Voice and the Dead shall hear it and come at his Call 2. In raising of particular dead ones he usually used his Voice Luk. 7.14 And he said Young Man I say unto thee arise Joh. 11.43 And he cried with a loud voice Lazarus come forth At the last day when Christ shall say Arise all ye dead arise come forth they shall all hear and come out of their Graves But others say what the Sound of the Trumpet shall be no man can tell and so do not determine whether it shall be the one or the other but say The Lord himself coming down in his visible Humanity from Heaven shall call the World together as men call Assemblies by shout by Voice or by a Trumpet so shall Christ by his unknown way called the Voice of the Archangel and the Trumpet of God But when the Trumpet is sounded and the dead are raised the holy Angels of God shall be employed concerning them For they do not only come along with Christ as his Attendants to set forth the Greatness of his Majesty as Lords and Dukes and Earls waiting upon an Earthly King but also to execute Christs Commands concerning those that shall be raised for as they did attend them at their Death and were the Convoy of their separated Souls into the place of Rest and Joy so they shall also be serviceable to them at their Restoration unto Life I. In gathering the Elect of God together They died and were buried in distant places far remote each from other some in one part of the World and some in another and lie scattered far and near but God shall use the Ministration of Angels to gather them together Mat. 24.31 And he shall send his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet and they shall gather together his Elect from the four Winds from one end of the World to the other If you have one godly Relation dieth in England and another in the East and another in the West-Indies trouble not your thoughts hereat how shall they be brought together at last if some die at one end of the World and some at another God by his Angels will find out where they were buried and bring them together Mar. 13.27 And then shall he send his Angels and shall gather his Elect together from the four Winds from the uttermost part of the Earth to the uttermost part of Heaven None shall be lost or left behind this might be a stay and support to some that are mourning for their dead Relations with this Aggravation We know not where they died nor where they were buried Thô you do not God will find them tho they died in the uttermost parts of the Earth II. In separating those that died in the Lord from those that died in their sins Wâ—â—◠〈◊〉 buried promiscuously in common Bâ—â—â—-â—â—ces where the Bodies of the Worst aâ—â— Bâ—â— are laid together sometimes in one comâ—â— Grave and in succession of time a Wiâ—â— mans body laid in the same Grave where 〈◊〉 body of a Believer before was buried 〈◊〉 these are raised together shall not thâ— one be mistaken for the other No grouâ—d of such Fears for the Angels shall 〈…〉 â—he one from the other Mat. 13.49 So sâ—â—â— it be at the end of the World the Angels shaâ—â—â—â—â—e forth and sever the wicked from among thâ—â—ast But if thoughts arise in your Hearts tho Angels be perfect in Knowledge yet it is finite they are not the Knowers and the Searchers of Hearts and how can they distinguish an Hypocrite from one that was sincere You may be fully answered That God hath wayes that we know not of to direct them in making this separation However to remove all doubting thoughts we are assured that Christ himself that is God as well as Man and knows what every Man was as surely and as easily as a Shepherd knows a Sheep from a Goat doth he know an Hypocrite from one sincere he shall see and will take care that there be not one Impenitent person among all the Company of the holy Ones and that there shall not be one sanctified Person left among the great multitudes of Impenitent sinners that stand trembling to hear the Sentence of Condemnation to be past upon them Mat. 25.31 When the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all the holy Angels with him then shall he sit upon the Throne of his Glory 32. And before him shall be gathered all Nations and he shall separate them one from another as a Shepherd divideth his Sheep from his Goats Weigh all this and try what Comfort it will yield you When you hear the Sound of the Passing Bell and what others may ring on the Funeral Day the hearing of your Ear fills your Heart with Sorrow think then that the Sound of the Trumpet shall be heard for the raising of those that are lodging in the Dust and let that moderate your Grief especially when you consider your Dead heareth not the one and is not grieved at the sound thereof but He or She shall hear the other and hearing rejoyce When you see the common Bearers letting down their Corpses in a common Burial-place remember tho the Wicked were laid on every side yet when they shall be raised they shall be severed and those that slept in Jesus shall all be set at his right Hand without the mixture of one ungodly Person amongst them all And is it no Comfort to you that yours shall be amongst them III. May not the Priviledge that those that sleep in Jesus shall have above those that shall be found alive at the Coming of Christ be some alleviation of our Sorrow Why else doth the Apostle alledge it as a ground and Reason against excessive Sorrow when he designedly treats upon this Subject and doth Preface so solemnly before he delivers this Doctrine as ground of Comfort Ver. 15. For I say unto you by the Word of the Lord that which I am to say are not my words but
and Heaven over against their Grâ—vâ—s and their being with the Lord hereafter over against their present being with the Dead and try if a firm and lively acting Faith will not bring to us greater Joy than Sense now fills us with disquieting Sorrow Or shall we walk by Sense and not by Faith Sense tells us they are in the Grave there our Eyes saw them laid and doth not God tell us they shall be with him and have not we Faith to believe him and if we have cannot we rejoyce in the Hope thereof but sorâ—ow on as if we had no such Hope Do we sit and ponder upon the loathsomness and darkness of the Grave and weep while we ponder that our Dead are there and cannot we sit and meditate upon the holiness happiness and the shining Glory of Heaven and rejoyce that our dead shall live and dwell in that glorious Place hereafter especially when we consider they then shall be with the Lord so as before they never were Admit their Souls are now with Christ yet their Bodies are not It is but one part of them that now is Glorified but the Day is coming and it hasteneth that all Believers and all of every one the Body as well as the Soul shall be with the Lord. Did Paul judge it far better to depart that his Soul may be with Christ tho he left his Body to the Grave and was it the matter of his Desire Phil. 1.23 And shall not we judge it to be best that we and ours shall be with Christ both in Body and Soul and since it shall be so make it matter of our Joy tho for the present it is not so for tho it be to come and so is the Object of Desire and Hope yet Faith should look upon it as sure as if it were present and so make it the ground of our Joy As sure as their Bodies are now in the Grave so sure they shall be with the Lord in Heaven What ails us we cannot rejoyce in the one as sorrow for the other especially when the one is a greater Good than the other is an Evil 3. The Eternity of their abode with the Lord in Body and Soul from the Second Coming of Christ should asswage our Sorrow for the short space of time their Bodies are to remain in the Grave While Children Live we think how long is it since they were born When Persons in a Conjugal Relation continue together sometimes they reckon how many years since they were Married and these are pleasant Thoughts But alas Death comes and makes a Change and snatcheth away the Children and breaks the bond of Marriage and then after a while the Enquiry is How long hath my Child or Husband or Wife been dead and these are sorrowful Thoughts But is there no Remedy no relief against them What if you ask when our Dead that sleep in Jesus shall be raised how long shall they be with the Lord How long inconceivably longer than they shall be in the Grave How long shall they be in the Grave not for ever Blessed be God they shall not be there for ever How long shall they be with the Lord for Ever Eternal thanks unto our God they shall be with him for ever But we sit and think it will be a long a long a very long time that they shall be in their Graves and no man knows how long and for this Sorrow fills our Hearts Doth it think again when they shall be raised How long shall they be with the Lord a long a long a very long not time but Eternity and no Man can conceive how long it will be And when you have thought of as many years as you may imagine they may be in their Graves all of them will not amount to so much as one hour if compared with that Eternity in which they shall be with the Lord. Concerning their being in the Grave you may see an end for an end of their being there will be Concerning their being with the Lord you can conceive no end for there is no end to be conceived for they are to be with him for ever in the Grave for a time and after that with the Lord of Glory in a State of Glory for ever For ever O blessed word shall they come forth of their Graves after a while and be with the Lord for ever O happy happy for ever happy are their saved Souls above that shall live in the presence of their Lord for ever Blessed are the Dead that die in the Lord for when they shall live again which shâ—ll surely be in their Bodies united to their Souls they shall be with the Lord for ever This will be the Joy of their Joy that they shall enjoy their Lord for ever This will be the Life of their Life that with their Lord they shall have everlasting Life This shall be the Crown of their Crown that it shall be Incorruptible as they then shall be both in Body and Soul It will be the Hell of Hell that the Damned must be there for ever It will be the Heaven of Heaven that their being with the Lord therein shall be for ever without this their Joy would not be pure Joy but mixt with fears of losing of it without this their Joy would not be full for the Thoughts it would not always last would diminish their Joy and if diminished it could not be full without this their Joy would not be constant Joy but there would be stops and gaps and intermissions in their Joy and they would have their fits of Sorrow and turns of Grief Now they would rejoyce because they are with the Lord and anon they would grieve because they are not to be with him for ever and so they would be miserably happy and sorrowfully joyfull which is not the happiness and Joy of Heaven which for degrees is full for duration everlasting full because they are with the Lord everlasting because they shall be with the Lord for ever Methinks I hear their triumphant Songs their Holy Admirations O what is the difference betwixt these Bodies now and what once they were Behold the Glory of this Place how far different it is from those Graves where we did lye and are now delivered from We were in our Graves for a time that time is out its past and gone and we are with the Lord for ever we are with the Lord for ever O this is it that is she Crown of all we are with the Lord for ever In this Eternity there is no Nights and Days no Weeks and Months and Years here is no Death and Graves and end for we shall be with the Lord for ever VSE What is the Use of all what should it be but what the Apostle makes of it v. 18. Wherefore comfort one another with these words What words Review them and Recollect what hath been said upon them 1. As sure as Jesus Christ is risen from the dead
be the last that she shall sleep for when awaked she shall sleep no more for ever And yet is this the Body that thou thus bewailest and for this dost thou thus Night after Night break thy sleep and when she sleepeth quietly in the Lord and dreameth not of any of the things that are done in this World canst not thou rest nor sleep in thy Bed without dreaming of her that is so unconcernedly sleeping in the Bed of the Grave Let her quiet and resting Body rebuke O my Soul thy unquiet and restless thoughts Moreover consider O my Soul whose State thou hast more reason to lament and bewail thine own or the state of the Soul of thy Relation that was converted and sanctified that did repent and believe before Death made the separation betwixt thee and her or betwixt her Body and her Soul Dost thou not believe that her Soul being absent from her Body is now present with the Lord and being so is perfectly freed from all sin sorrow Temptation Inclination to sin and from a possibility of sinning and is possessed of all good filled with all Joy perfect in the Knowledge of God and Christ and in Love to and Delight in all the Persons in the to us unsearchable Trinity Whilest thou thy self art grieving groaning under the Burden of remaining sins conflicting with Satan and the Powers of Darkness clogged with the Flesh and ensnared with the Allurements and Affrightments of this evil and deluding World Thou in a state imperfect and Militant the Soul of thy Relation in a state perfect and Triumphant Is it not thy frequent Doubts and Fears whether thou lovest God and whether God loveth thee with a differencing special and peculiar Love Are they not thy often Complaints that thou hast but little Enjoyment of God and Communion with him in his Ordinances and sometimes none at all That thou seekest God but canst not see him and searchest for him but câ—nst not find him That thou goest from Meditation to Prayer from Praying to Hearing from Hearing to attending upon â—im at his Table and after all thy sorroâ—ful saying is I sought him whom my Soul loveth and longeth for I sought him but I could not find him That thy Sin had interposed betwixt thy God and thee and caused him to hide his Face from thee Were not these the Complaints also of thy Relation while with thee and didst not thou endeavour to satisfie her grieved and disconsolate Spirit by reason of Gods frequent withdrawings from her Soul and labouredst to resolve her Doubts to remove her Fears and to answer all the Objections she did make about the Sincerity of her Love to Christ And is her separated saved glorified Soul now above all these Doubts and Fears and Jealousies Is it now above Hope and Desire because possessed of what it hoped for and desired after Is it now perfectly Loving and delightfully Praising of its Lord and Saviour Is it now constantly beholding of Him and rejoycing in Him and can doubt no more and question his Love to it and its Love to Him no more for ever because it feels and is filled with the lively sense of both And dost thou sit here Mourning whilest it is eternally Rejoycing Cease sorrowing for her whose Soul is perfectly happy and triumphant and save thy Tears to bewail thine own Hazards Dangers and Sins in this Imperfect state and to pour them out before God in fervent Prayer that thou when separated from this Body mightest be received into that place of Light and Life and Love into that glorious Kingdom of the Ever-living God and all-sufficient Saviour to which her Soul is gone before and is now singing rejoycing and triumphing in But above all O my Soul why art thou troubled and disquieted most of all for what hath befallen the Body of thy dear Relation Why dost thou sit in thy Chamber where thou sawest her breathe her last Breath and give up the Ghost and â—use how thou sawest her pale and didst handle her cold Face when layd in her Coffin And while thou sittest here thy thoughts so often run unto the Grave and coâ—siderest how the Body is mouldring and consuming and turning into Rottenness and dust And while thou sayâ—st For this here is my sorrow let me ask theâ— in the mean time where is thy Faith Hast thou an Eye to see how the Body lyeth in the Grave and hast thou not another Eye to see how it shall be raised up Canst thou not look beyond the Coffin and the Grave to a joyful glorious Resurrection Wake O my Faith awake that I may firmly and steadfastly believe this great and comfortable Article of the Resurrection to Life Everlasting and joy more that it shall rise again than be cast down because it is cast into the Grave and for a while is lodged there Hast thou not O my Soul solid Foundation for thy Faith in this particular Doth not thy Lord that is infinite in Wisdom know where every one is buried or where the Body doth consume Doth not he know which Bones and Skull and Dust belong to this Body and which to that If this be knowable doth not he know it Or else is not his Knowledge limited and finite Knowledge because not extended to every thing that may be known And hath he not Almighty Power and so can do all acts of Power all things possible to be done Cannot he that made this great World and yonder larger Heavens out of Nothing out of something make these dry Bones to live Cannot he that formed the Body of Man at first of the Dust of the Ground and caused it to live New-make these Bodies tho turned into Dust Or doth this seem incredible to thee that God should raise the Dead Cannot he do what he hath done Did not he raise Lazarus and the Son of the Widow of Naim and Jairus his Daughter and himself when he had layn for a time in the Grave And as he can so hath he not declared that he will How often hath he spoken it How frequently hath he promised it Is not this the Fathers Will that sent his Son that of all that he had given him he should not lose any one but raise them up at the last Day And O my Soul dost thou not believe that the Son hath and will do the will of his Father in every point and particularly in this when he so often hath said he will raise them up at the last Day O be not Faithless but Believing and so cease thy excessive sorrowing Blessed Lord increase my Faith that my immoderate sorrow may decrease I have shewn my Unbelief by my excessive sorrow Now help me Lord to shew my Faith by my abating of my grief for my Dead because tho Dead yet shall certainly Live again Lord confirm my Faith in this That as sure as Christ is risen from the dead so surely shall my dead and all others be also raised because I read in
thy holy Word that if Christ be raised then those that slâ—ep in Jesus shall also rise and if these shall not then Christ is not risen and if Christ be not risen we are all in our sins and all Preaching Praying Believing and all Religion is in vain which being absurd and false the other must be certain and sure And by the belief of this thanks be to my God I find I feel my Sorrow is turned into lively Hope earnest Desire and comforting Joy Besides this O my Soul be further satisfied and quieted within me forasmuch as thy Lord hath not only said that those that sleep in Jesus shall rise again but hath also foretold what Bodies they shall then be tho the same for substance yet their Properties Qualities and Endowments far more excellent than when they lived or died Dost thou sorrow because her Body was Mortal and did die why dost thou not rejoyce because it shall be raised Immortal and then shall die no more Art thou grieved at the remembrance of its weakness sickness and pains why art thou not comforted at the believing Foresight that it shall be raised a Powerful and Impassible Body and shall be sick and pained no more for ever Or art thou cast down because that Natural Body by Food and Physick could no longer be supported nor maintained in Life Why doth not this raise thy Comfort that it shall be raised a Spiritual Body and need Food and Physick and Sleep no more than the Angels in Heaven Is it matter of thy trouble to coâ—sider how vile and loathsom Death hath made it why doth it not delight thee to believe it shall be raised in such Glory that it shall shine as a glittering Star yea as the Sun in the Kingdom of God and that Beauty shall be its Cloathing all over Why doth soâ—row daily fill thy Heart because the Soul is gone and left the Body a lifeless piece of Earth a mass of breathless Mould and dost not rejoyce that the Soul already is made like to Christs Glorious Soul and the day is coming and it hastens when the Body shall be fashioned like to Christs glorious Body Like to Christs Glorious Body Lord who that doth believe these words of thine may not cease to sorrow in excess because now the Body is so like the dust in which it lodgeth and begin to joy that in thine appointed time it shall be like the Glorious Body of an exalted Jesus Holy Lord how great is the difference betwixt the same Man as if he were not the same when he looks upon his Dead with an Eye of Sense and Carnal Reason and when with an Eye of Faith according to thy Word For when I sit and muse and say Methinks I see how the Body of my dead lyeth in the Grave and how it mouldreth and consumeth I am a sad and sorrowful Man and my Heart is grieved within me but when I sit and consider and believe and say Methinks I see it Redeemed from the Grave methinks I see it raised an Immortal Powerful Spiritual Beautiful Glorious Body shining as the Sun and like to Christs Glorious Body I am a chearful joyful Man and Comfort flows abundantly into my Soul Moreover O my Soul thy Sorrow might be turned into Joy when thou dost believingly consider that rather than the Dead should always be captivated by Death and ever held by the bonds thereof the Lord HIMSELF will come down from Heaven and fetch them forth Rejoyce and be exceeding glad that when the appointed day is come the Lord Jesus will not stay nor rest in Heaven till he hath opened their Graves and delivered them from the Power of death Blessed Jesus Help me to rejoyce in thy Mighty Power and abundant Love in that because the raising of the Dead is a work too great for all the Angels in Heaven thou wilt come thy self and cause them to live again Methinks I hear thy Voice Ye Dead arise Methinks I hear the mighty Shout and the Trumpet sounding methinks I see the Lord in his Glory coming down from Heaven and calling to the Dead and methinks I see them in great numbers coming up out of their Graves He calls they tho dead do hear and tho dead at his Command do Live Lord at thy pleasure they fell into the Grave and at thy Voice they do come forth O powerful Voice Oh joyful glorious sight Oh the difference betwixt a Funeral and the Resurrection day the one was a sorrowful the other will be a joyful day Especially O my Soul when the day of Death was a parting day the day of the Resurrection will be a meeting day Thou and thine at Death did part and that did fill thy Heart with sorrow but then thou and thine shall meet again and never part Thou and thine that 's not all thou and thine shall meet the Lord in the Air. Wondâ—rful Bodiâ—s but now in the bottom of the Grave anon the same mounting up into the Air there to be owned acknowledged and openly acquitted and from thence to go along with their Lord Redeemer into the highest Heavens to be for ever with the Lord. Once in the Grave and after that with the Lord A long time in the Grave and after that long time is out and over be with the Lord for ever which never will be out and over O blessed Day O desirable Day Lord when shall it be When shall it come Dear Jesus gather in the chosen of the Father effectually all the number that is ordained to be with thee for ever and then come yea come quickly that those of thine that are sleeping in their Graves may awake and meet thee and be with the Lord for ever Thus O my Soul hast thou followed thy Dead unto the Grave and dost know and believe that this Body shall rise again and be an happy and glorious Body prepare to follow cease excessively to sorrow rejoyce in Hope that the Lord will come when his shall be with him for ever Be with with him for ever Are they now dead amongst the Dead and shall live with him for ever that doth live for ever Is not this it that Christ did bleed and sweat and suffer and die for Is not this it that Christ did rise from the dead for that those that sleep in him might also rise Is not this it for which he ascended to Heaven to prepare a place for them Is not this it for which he intercedes that all those that the Father hath given him might be where he is that they may behold his Glory Is not this it for which he will come again and take the Quick and Dead in him all of them unto himself that where he is there they might be also Lord hast thou said it and shall I not believe it Lord I believe help thou my Unbelief And dost thou indeed believe these sayings of thy Lord O my Soul and yet sit sorrowing with excessive sorrow for thy