many so hardned in stupidity that contrary unto nature they are not affected with or concerned at the Death or going to the Grave of almost any person Secondly There is a natural Obligation on the Living to Mourn for the Dead for that Death is the thing which every Man in the world hath deserved as being lineally descended from Adam who brought Death into the World and inslaved not only himself but all his posterity unto its power So saith the Apostle Rom. 5. ver 12. Wherefore as by one Man Sin entered into the World and Death by Sin and so Death passed upon all Men for that all have Sinned Had Adam never sinned Adam had never dyed but in illo die saith God in that day thou eatest the Fruit thereof thou shalt surely dye or as it is in the Original dying thou shalt dye And indeed as he devolved Guilt so he entailed death the sad consequence of that Guilt upon all that should come after him unto the end of the World Oh! therefore how natural would such a reflection as this be at the news of any Mortals fall by the stroke of Death or at the sight of any deceased person going to his Long Home I am a Child of Adam as well as he and in the guilt and pollution of his original Disobedience was I shaped and subjected to all the Miseries that attended that iniquity did my Mother conceive me and bring me forth And surely I have added to the stock of original Corruption multitudes innumerable multitudes of actual Transgressions and therefore I have every way merited Death and deserved to be imprisoned in the Dungeon of the Grave as much as he that hath past through it and is gone down before me into it Should not I then be concerned at and deeply affected with what hath befallen him The extremity of pain that he was in the weary some nights that he enjoyed the tumblings and tossings that he under-went the bitter distress and anguish that possessed his Soul which enforced those doleful sighs and sobs those heart-fetcht-groans and shrikes from his dying Breast are all things that I in the same if not in a greater measure have deserved Oh! then that my Head were Waters and my Eyes a Fountain of Tears that I could mourn and weep and truly lament at this Mournful Spectacle and that from this consideration that as he the object of Mortality before my Eyes is deprived of life and all the comforts of it as he is snatcht away from all his Friends and Relations as he of a living Man is become a lump of dead Clay a piece of rotten putrifying Flesh fit for nothing but to feed worms in the Grave even so have I most justly merited in the like manner to be nothing hath befallen him but what is due to me Thirdly There is a natural Obligation on the Living to Mourn for the Dead for that there is no living person but must come to it himself Death is a debt we must all pay to Nature Job speaks of Man indefinitely thereby including every Man in what capacity so ever he is Chap. 14. ver 2. He cometh forth like a flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not And we are elsewhere told that All flesh is grass and the glory thereof as the flower of the field the grass withereth the flower fladeth even so when the Hand of God is upon Man upon any Man he maketh his Beauty to consume away like a Moth for that every Man is Vanity Selah We have an Interrogation concerning this which implies a vehement Negation for so the Scripture often expresseth it self Psal 89. ver 48. What Man is he that liveth and shall not see Death shall he deliver his Soul from the hand of the Grave Selah That is there is no Man living but must see Death and come into the dominion of the Grave Now if Death be thus common to every Man then every Man ought certainly to be affected when he sees another under the power of it Would it not I pray you argue more than ordinary stupidity and sencelesness in that Malefactor that beholding a Partner in Guilt and Condemnation with himself dying a shameful painful Death according to the Sentence of the Law the which Death he himself must undergo the day following and yet not to be concerned at such a spectacle so much as to shed a Tear or manifest any meltings of Heart at so doleful a sight Oh! How unnaturally hard-hearted would you say this Man was Why Sirs this is our very case we are all real Malefactors before God condemned by him to death to the same death and sooner or later we must be laid on our sick Beds the common place of Execution and when we see any in pain and misery there before us Oh! we should remember it will be our turn ere long Do we see a dying Man in a languishing departing condition fetching his last sigh heaving for his last groan and giving up his last breath Oh! we should sadly reflect upon our selves as that Father of whom I have read did at the sight of any Coffin Ille hedie ego cras He is gone to day and so may I to morrow or to be sure must go one day or other then which nothing is more certain Fourthly It is not corrupted but refined Nature that especially enforces this duty of Mourning for the Dead and the more Nature is purged the more it is enlivened in the regular performance of this Work We find the Spirit of God inciting and calling upon Men solemnly to do it Jer. 9. ver 17 18. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts Consider ye and call for the mourning Women that they may come and send for cunning Women that they may come And let them make hast and take up a wailing for us that our Eyes may run down with Tears and our Eye-lids gush out with Water Why What is the matter what is the cause there should be such a great general Mourning ver 21. For Death is come up into our windows is entered into our palaces to cut off the Children from without and the young Men from the streets Oh! When Death is taking its range about the streets it is an especial time for Mourners to be there to manifest a real Mourning under such a dispensation to put on Ashes for Beauty and instead of the Garment of Joy to be cloathed with the Spirit of Heaviness Religion doth not hinder any natural act it only regulates the mode and refines the end of the performance It doth not hinder natural love it only teacheth us how to love innocently nor doth it hinder natural sorrow it only guides us how to sorrow profitably As Divines say Though Religion be above reason yet it is not contrary to reason so though it be an enemy to all vitious corrupt motions of nature yet it obligeth no person to be unnatural that is to fail in doing
which was the occasion of their Fall as some learned Writers have supposed And what God speaks of forming the World in general we way apply to the Creating of Man in particular with respect to the excellency of the Work when he was presented on the Theatre of the World How did the Morning Stars in that day sing together and how did all the Sons of God shout for joy And surely the Dissolution of Man affords as much cause of sorrow as his Making did of gladness especially considering that it is in Scripture called a destroying of him Thou turnest Man into destruction and then thou sayst Return again ye Children of Men. When Man is in the midst of his honour in the height of his glory in the greatest of his power in a moment in the twinckling of an Eye he may be dashed in pieces and be destroyed from off the Earth for by the blast of God he perisheth and by the breath of his Nostrils he is consumed One small puff blows him away and he is no more to be heard of as though he had never been And should not this be matter of grief and lamentation to the Living to see so excellent a Creature as Man deprived of his Being bereaved of his Breath stript of his Enjoyments and all his Glory to be laid in the Dust Ah! What Eye can behold such a sight what Ear can hear of such a thing and not be deeply affected with it and Heart-pricked with sorrow at it Oh! How was our blessed Lord Jesus concerned how Mournfully was he touched when he heard the tydings of Lazarus decease though he was determined very well knew how to raise him up and bring him to Life again Pray hear what is said of him John 11. ver 33. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping and the Jews also weeping which came with her he groaned in the Spirit and was troubled Here are two words in the Greek and both emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he roared or cried out in the Spirit That is he Mourned inwardly and Lamentably at the loss of Lazarus Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He vehemently troubled or disturbed himself He was mightily affected with the change Death had made in that Family which he had so great and peculiar a Love for Our Saviour shewed this great example of Morality that he might modestly and moderately express the sentiments of Grief which we ought to have at the departure of Man from the Land of the Living Secondly For that when a Man goes to his Long Home all the pleasure in his society is dead with him nothing remains of it but the remembrance which serves only to aggravate and heighten the Grief of the Surviver 'T was a true saying of one Aura secunda bonus socius A good companion is as a prosperous Gale carrying a Man pleasantly and with comfort through the Tempestuous Sea of this World And again Bonum sodalitium optimum solatium Good Company is the best solace Indeed suitable society is the comfort of Life the improvement of parts the joy of the Intellect the only distinguishing Priviledge that gives the Preference to Men above Beasts Take away this and what happiness is it to be a Man or what is humane Life any thing to be accounted of But when Man is dead there can be no more delight in him or comfort received by society with him There is no converse in the shades below no interlocution in those gloomy Regions The Grave is a silent house where the Eyes of all the Inhabitants are closed in the Dust and their Mouths filled with cold Clay And therefore this should cause Mourning in the Streets when we see a Man going to his Long Home especially such a Man whom we have had any intimacy with because we shall never have the opportunity of enjoying any pleasant hours with him or delighting our selves in the Spiknard of his friendship which was wont to send forth so fragrant a smell We must then bid farewel to all discoursing upon any subject to all advising about any difficulties to all profiting by any Polemick Notions started and improved in an amicable way In a word we must bid an eternal Adieu to any pleasure or satisfaction we received in communing with him for we shall enjoy no more of it for ever Oh! surely this cannot but cut deep in a generous Soul this cannot but greatly wound a spirit whose thoughts are drained from the dross of Plebeian conversation that has any esteem at all for the advantages of a rational Life Upon this account it was that the old Prophet in Bethel Lamented over the Man of God which came from Judah who was slain by a Lyon as he rode upon an Ass in the High-way He bitterly Bewailed and Mourned for his Death crying out Ah! alas my Brother As if he had said I have been extreamly refreshed by thy company in hearing the Word of the Lord from thy Mouth concerning the destruction of the Priests that burn Incense upon the Altar and the pulling down the House of Jereboam Oh! How have I been strengthned in my Courage confirmed in my Faith and the more resolved in the Ways of God by this thy Prophesy But now thou art gone I shall never have any more of this profitable and spiritual Discourse with thee This made him Weep over his torn Carcass and bitterly Lament his untimely Fall and to give a solemn Charge to his Sons that when he was Dead they should Bury him in the Sepulchre wherein this Man of God was Buried and lay his Bones close by the Bones of this Prophet Thirdly For that when a Man Dyes and goes to his Long Home he is past doing any more good or being any farther serviceable in his Generation There is no praising or praying in the Grave or any remembrance of God or Man As the Tree falls by Death it will lye till Judgment without bringing forth any fruit at all Whilst Man is in the Land of the Living he is capable of doing some good or being useful in that place and condition wherein God hath set him But when Death cuts him off his day of opportunity is at an end and the night is come upon him in which he cannot work nor do any more as he hath done And therefore there is just cause of Mourning and Lamenting at his Decease Thus the Widows of Joppa Bewailed the Death of Tabitha a Woman full of good Works and Alms-deeds which she had done Acts 9. ver 39. Then Peter arose and went with them when he was come they brought him into the upper Chamber and all the Widows stood by him Weeping and shewing the Coats and Garments which Dorcas made while she was with them By which they commended her Charity and bitterly Bewailed her fatal Exit The thoughts of parting with such a Woman who was so charitable so useful even broke their Hearts with Sorrow and dissolved their Eyes with Tears They brought the
when the Marriage-knot between the Soul and Body is dissolved when there is a Writ of Divorce issued from the Court of Heaven to separate them then the Body is laid up in the Grave and there it remains a long long time even till the day of the Resurrection The Apostle speaks of an Home in this World 2 Cor. 5. ver 6. Therefore we are always confident knowing that whilst we are at Home in the Body we are absent from the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here I conceive might be better rendred with than in and so the Sence will be supposing it as indeed we must the Breathings of the Spirit of Man we are here as strangers sojourning or dwelling with the Body as though we were at Home for a small time The Supersicies of the Earth is Man's Short Home the Bowels of it is his Long Home Now if we compare the time of the longest-lived-man that ever was upon the Earth which was Methuselah whose days amounted to Nine Hundred Sixty and Nine Years with the time that he hath since lived in the Grave we shall find the Grave to be his Long Home in comparison of the Earth notwithstanding his days were lengthened so exceedingly upon it Thus you see the Grave is a Long Home Comparatively But Secondly The Grave is a Long Home Really and Positivily The Time of Man's commoration in this dark Mansion is not for days or years but ages yea for many ages So that we may call it a small Branch of the vast Ocean of Eternity If we look at Abel the first Lord of this Mannor the first that took Possession of this retired Place how many Thousand Years hath he kept house in this gloomy Tabernacle of the Grave It hath been a long a very Long Home to him The Grave hath been an inhabited Tennament by Adam's posterity above Five Thousand Years And we that are yet alive waiting to go down into it how long our abode may be in it we are uncertain because We know not in what day or hour the Son of Man shall come to break open the Prison Doors of the Grave and to set us at liberty that are in the Prison-House Job speaks of the Grave as the House he was most certain to go unto and take up his dwelling in Chap. 30. vor 23. For I know that thou wilt bring me to Death and to the House appointed for all Living It is an House of a long standing and will be of long duration even as long as time it self it runs parallel with it The Creation of the World and the Resurrection of Man out of the Grave are the two Tropicks of time or the sacred boundaries that Heaven hath put to it A parte post a parte ante as the Philosopher speaks For as before the former it had no Existence so after the latter it shall have no longer continuance but be swallowed up in the fathomless Gulph of Eternity Time that now is always running Mobâ—li cursu with a swift pace will then be stopt in its motion and be no more But there are several things that must precede this Great and weighty Matters must be brought about by the hand of Divine Power before the End cometh as we may plainly see if we consult the sacred Oracles Anti-christ must be brought down with all his Usurpations and Idolatrys The Jews must be converted The number of the Gentiles must be brought in and the House of the Lord must be set upon the Mountains and exalted above the Hills that all Nations may flow unto it For out of Zion shall go forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem But till this be done the Grave is the appointed house for all Living and therefore it is a Long Home Having thus considered the Grave as to its Duration It is a Long Home We will now speak a little of the Grave with respect to its Qualification what kind of Home it is In the general it is Man 's designed and appointed Home In the Text but now quoted out of Job it is said to be the House appointed for all Living God hath appointed by a decree like the Laws of the Medes Persians which never can be changed or revoked that the Grave shall be the one Repository for all the Carcasses of Adams Children to be laid up in and kept till the day of the Resurrection The Apostle speaks of the appointment of Death Heb. 9. ver 27 And as it is appointed unto Men once to Dye but after this the Judgment Men are appointed to Dye that they may go to their appointed home the Grave God hath appointed Mans being and the time of his being in this World as Job stedfastly believed All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come And he hath appointed Man a place of resting after he goes out of this World and that is the Grave Oh! How should this suppress Fears and banish Cowardise from the Hearts of all timorous Christians that are slavishly afraid of the Paleness of Death and tremble to think of going down into the darkness of the Grave Why Sirs though it be never so dark and gloomy though it be an house of Rotterness a place of Putrefaction it is the home prepared and appointed by our Heavenly Father for us And therefore Why should we scruple to lye down in it Or why should we have any fearful apprehensions about it Such persons and lose all the comfort of their lives as an Heathen well observed Qui metuit Mortem quod vivit perdit id ipsum Oh! We should be always remembring it and rest satisfied in it that the Wise the Righteous the Holy the blessed GOD hath appointed the Grave for our Long Home First God hath appointed die Grave as Man's proper suitable home the home that doth naturally suite with his Complexion and Constitution When Adam by his Rebellion had shaken off the glorious Theocrasy he was under which would assuredly have protected him from the power of Death however Homogeneal to his body by reason of the contrariety of qualities in it God left him and that justly to Fall to Dye according to the perishing nature of that matter of which his Body was composed Gen. 3. ver 19. In the sweat of thy Face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground for out of it wast thou taken for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return As if he had said Hadst thou continued in thy Obedience and hadst kept thy self in thy Innocency sitting under the shadow of my immediate Government I would by my Almighty Power have preserved thy Body notwithstanding its Materiality from ever seeing corruption or being in the least tainted with putrefaction But now I 'le leave thee to go down to the caverns of the Earth where thy Body being dust naturally inclines with as much propensity as the Stone to its
a great truth which the Poet tells us In recto medecina valent data Tempore prosunt Et data non apto Tempore vina nocent The truth is he was Skilful in every thing that conduced to his Patients Good So that great is our Loss in this respect Indeed the whole of that Judgment is come upon us which God threatned his antient People with in the days of old Isa 3. ver 1 2 3. For behold the Lord the Lord of Hosts doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff the whale stay of Bread and the whole staff of Water The Mighty Man and the Man of War the Judge and the Prophet and the Prudent and the Antient The Captain of Fifty and the Honourable Man and the Counsellor and the Cunning Artificer and the Eloquent Orator Ah! verily our stay and our staff is gone He that was the stay of our Strength and the staff of our Lives He that was a cunning artificer and a skilful Operator in the concerns of our Bodies is now taken away therefore we ought to be Mourners about his Hearse Fourthly Consider we have Lost an Useful Man yea a Man of the greatest Use amongst us The variety of Distempers Men are afflicted with and subject to in these Hot Climates do sufficiently infer the Usefulness yea the Necessity of an able Physitian I know you look upon your Minister as a needless Person because you are unsensible of the worth of your Souls if he had gone you would not have accounted it any great loss Ah! but now Sirs God knew how to take that Mercy from you which you are most sensible of the worth and use of He knew where to prick the Vein that will most Bleed and therefore he has taken away the Physitian of your Bodies whom you may most dearly miss before you go home And surely this bespeaks your Mourning in a grievous and bitter manner for this so sharp a Stroke What Paul told the Colossians chap. 4 ver 14. Luke the beloved Physician and Demas greet you May be truly applyed to him who was indeed a beloved Physician and he deserved no other for his diligent care and pains towards the meanest Patient He was seldome sent for to any sick Person being so forward of himself to go as soon as he heard of it Most Applications he made use of went through his own hands though the Disease was never so loathsome or the Person never so mean How then may I bespeak your Mourning over his Hearse this day us David did the Mourning of Israel over Saul Ye Daughters of Israel weep over Saul who cloathed you in Scarlet and ether delights who put on ornaments of Gold on your Apparel So O ye Seamen and Officers of this Ship Weep over this Painful Diligent Affectionate Physitian who refreshed you with Cordials and other delights Who was day and night serviceable to you and Dyed in that service amongst you He is now gone to his Long Home who retrieved many of us when we were almost there He helped us but we could not help him Ah! how can we think of parting with such an Useful Faithful Affectionate Friend and not Mourn How can we think of throwing him who was the very delight of our Souls Over-board into the wide Ocean to be made a Prey to the devouring Fishes and not break forth into doleful Crys and Lamentations Thus you see the cause we have to Mourn from the Consideration of the greatness of our present Loss But the many aggravating circumstances of this Loss do yet call for our Farther Mourning and the scruing up our Sorrow one Peg higher Hence consider First He is taken away before our Voyage is done It would have been a very considerable Loss if he had Lived with us to England and then have been removed by Death It would then have called for Mourning at our hands I but it would not have been so dismal a providence so afflictive a stroke as now it is having so long a way to run and so many difficulties to go through before we see our several Homes This was the cause of Israel's so long and so great Mourning for Moses Deut. 34. ver 8. And the Children of Israel wept for Moses in the Plains of Moab Thirty days So the days of Weeping and Mourning for Moses were ended Mark it they were yet in the Plains of Moab had they been in quiet and full possession of the Land of Canaan the present dispensation of Moses his Death though at any time bitter enough had not been so dreadful and dismal to them But this highly heightned their Misery and consequently their Sorrow that he was taken from them before he had brought them to the promised Rest So now in this case Oh! what cause have we to Mourn in an exceeding great measure for that Death has removed our Physitian so long before the conclusion of the Voyage Secondly Consider he is taken away whilst the Judgment of God is upon us in retarding our Passage and threatning no less than a Winter Voyage We have staid so long in the Indies that there is little likelyhood of our going Home this Year And at present we are here scorching in an hot sultry Climate the Winds so cross to us that we can neither go backward or forward and what will become of us the Lord knows But sure I am the hand of his Displeasure is stretched out against us and we feel in part that terrible Word threatned Mat. 26. ver 31. Then said Jesus unto them All ye shall be offended because of me this night for it is written I will smite the Sheapherd and the Sheep of the Flock shall be scattered abroad Ah! Sirs Death has smitten our Physitian and we arc like to be scattered abroad God Almighty knows where we may be forced to Winter where we may be driven for shelter from the Furious Ocean we cannot as yet tell But the great yea certain likelyhood of our being Tossed up and down the World for several Months before we can get about Cape of good Hope makes this Loss the more considerable and our Condition the more lamentable Thirdly Consider he is taken away in his Youthful days yea in the very flower of his Youth in the height and excellency of his Strength We ought to be Mourners in the Street when we see any Man go to his Long Home but to see a Young Man go there that 's newly come into the World That is beginning as it were to live that is but blossoming in the early Spring of his Years to see such an one so immaturely seized upon by the griping paw of Death Oh! this must needs aggravate Sorrow very greatly Upon this account it was that there was made such an heavy Lamentation for the Death of Josiah that Famous King of Judah 2 Chron. 35. ver 24 25. His servants therefore took him out of that Chariot and put him in the second
Chariot that he had and they brought him to Jerusalem and he Dyed and was Buried in one of the Sepulchers of his Fathers and all Judah and Jerusalem Mourned for Josiah And Jeremiah Lamented for Josiah and all the Singing Men and the Singing Women spake of Josiah in their Lamentations to this day and made them an Ordinance in Israel and behold they are written in the Lamentations He had not Lived out half his days but was unexspectedly taken off from farther doing of Good and this made them Lament so sorely over him And the same cause have we to Lament this day for this our Deceased Friend who contrary to the thoughts and expectations of us all was on a sudden snatched from us before he had arrived to the Thirtyeth Year of his Age. He was an healthy strong Man I remember not above two days before he sickned he was Jocosely telling me he looked upon himself as the most healthy and likeliest Man to Live in the Ship Indeed I thought he was But Ah! how soon was he gone A little sickness carryed him away Lord How vain a thing is Man How subject to Fade and Perish in his strongest and most advantagious state I will not say of our Friend as Virgil said of his Mecenas Longius annoso vivere dignus avo But 't was pity had it been the Will of God that a few Years more had not been added to his Life And his being so untimely removed bespake our greater Lamentation Fourthly Consider he is taken away in the midst of desires and wishes for his Life If Prayers if Tears if Endeavors of all sorts could have laved his Life this Sorrowfull and Mournful day had not been 'T is a great Judgment for a Man to Live undesired and to Dye unlamented And hence when the Lord would express his Anger to Jchoiakim for his wickedness he threatens him with this Judgment Jer. 22. ver 18 19. Therefore thus saith the Lord converning Jchoiakim the Son of Josiah King of Judah they shall not Lament for him saying Ah! my Brother or Ah! my Sister they shall not Lament for him saying Ah! Lord or Ah! his Glory He shall be buryed with the Eurial of an Asse drawn and cast forth beyond the Gates of Jerusalem But it is not so with our Friend I am consident not a Person here but does really Lament his Death I see the Characters of Sorrow engraven in all your Faces I know you Loved him Living and now Dead you are Mourners for him And I â—aâ—e farther 〈◊〉 had your Sorrow been as Effectual as it was Cordial you had prevented his Decease So that Hand opus est Calearibus There 's no need of any Spurs to your Lamentation that Labor is happily obviated I have indeed been shewing you for your Satisfaction and Consolation the just grounds of your Sorrow to secure you from the imputation of Irrational I shall now conclude only with a few words to put your Sorrow in the right Channel that you may sorrow as the Apostle phrases it after a Godly sort First Mourn for this Loss by way of Reflection That is Reflect on the condition you might have been in if God had called you to an account for your manifold Sins Is a Man of such Use and Worth taken away so suddenly by Death from us Oh! How should we Fear and Tremble to think what will become of us who are of so little Use in the World who have lived unprositably and unfruitfully all our days who have done little or no good in the several Capacities we have been How should it also incite us to a speedy and unfeigned Repentance lest a worse Death come upon us according to the advice of our blessed Lord Luke 13. ver 2 3. And Jesus answering said unto them Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things I tell ye nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Oh! Sirs do you think that this our dear and worthy Brother was a Sinner above all of us because he is gone down into the shades of Death before us I tell you nay but except you and I repent we shall all likewise perish Oh! Therefore I beseech you let this sad providence be a loud call to Repentance and Reformation and to say with the Church Come let us turn to the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up Secondly Mourn for this Loss by way of Humiliation Oh! labor to be so sensible of this sad Stroke as to be humbled under it and to lye low before the Lord who hath so sorely visited us in this most grievous manner Humiliation is the great expected and designed End of Correction God led his antient People through the Wilderness and exercised them with manifold Temptations that he might humble them and consequently do them good in their latter end 'T is sign of an hardned and obdurate Heart induced when there is no humbling under the mighty Hand of God And Reprobate-Silver shall Men call them that are not Resined in the Fuâ—â—â—ce of Affliction 'T was spoken as an horrid Aggravation of Israels Iniquity and Impenitency that after all the Lashes and Scourges of God's Rod and all his proceedings in way of Judgment against them Yet says the Text they are not humbled even unto this day Ah! Sirs How Lamentably would our Sins be heightned how exceedingly would our Souls be ripened for Destruction if we should not be humbled under this present awful Dispensation For verily the Lord is risen up as in Mount Perizim He is Wroth as in the Valley of Gideon and is doing his Work his strange Work and is bringing to pass his Act his strange Act in visiting our Transgressions with this smarting Rod and our Iniquities with this wounding Stripe And shall we say the Shadow of the Mountain and make but a light thing of it Oh! God forbid But rather I beseech you let us whilst our Spirits are dejected by this Loss endeavor to have our hearts humbled in the Sence of the Lord's anger that he may not farther be provoked to bring worse evils and calamities upon us How was David humbled and melted at the News of the Death of Saul and Jonathan How did he brake forth into this bitter Lamentation 2 Sam. 1. ver 19. The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places how are the mighty fallen Truly we may justly take up the same Complaint in the same words The beauty of our society the glory of our company the excellency of our community is fallen and perished from among us this day which bespeaks not only Heart-contrition but Soul-humiliation Thirdly Mourn for this Loss by way of submission and resignation of your Wills to the good Will and Pleasure of Almighty God and ceasing to murmur or complain because that he has done it We should say of this Dispensation as the Magicians said of