distraction in Religion The Heaviness of heart for Christs departure caus'd the Disciples to sleep when they should have watched and pray'd St. Gregory breaks off his Comment on Ezekiel to write Epitaphs on his Son as Aaron omits the evening sacrifice or a great part of the Ceremonie at his Sons death 2 In regard of the object we are to mourn for sins first and then for afflictions sicknesses deaths as the Effects and Consequents of sin So that death and other evils are the improper and secondary objects of sorrow Sin the onely proper object of grief and just cause of tears Because 1st Sin is the only evil John 17.15 being the cause of all other evils and without which miseries themselves are not miserable but are turned to the innocent to Exercises of their graces and occasions of redoubled Rewards and Glories 2. Sorrow in other evils save in sins only is useless and brings no proper remedy but adds more disquiet to our troubles Our tears naturally fall upon our breasts as it were to wash the stains of that part and are not to be wasted over graves that may save souls Our tears 't was the complaint of St. Chrysâ—stome are most abus'd by us wee lavish and spend them where they are not availeable on outward evils or over the dead We seldom saith he weep in the right place But as sins first deserve our sorrow so affliction and misery the consequents of sin more sensibly provoke our griefs and are indeed the just but secondary cause and objects of Sorrow Whence Sicknesses and Deaths are to be considered look'd on as the wages nothing surer than the Hirelings wages the effects and consequents of Sin For first so Sin and Affliction in Scripture are both represented under the name of Death Open my eyes O Lord that I sleep not in death that is in Sin that leads unto Death Ps 13.3 Pray unto the Lord to take away this death only Exod. 10.17 that is the plague of Vermin that did not so much threaten to destroy as to disquiet Pharoabs life In the Prophet Ezek. 7. sword without and death within is threatned when Famine Plague and other messengers of death are denounced whereupon the wise man concludes safely Prov. 8.38 He that loves sin loves death 2. To look on Affliction otherwise as not sent by providence either to punish or to discipline us as the Fiery Tryal either to refine and purge to better us or to consume us as the Wind either to fanne or to scatter us utterly is to look on them no otherwise than the Heathen as Chances and the casual events of the Fates Thus to bear them as things of course without any thoughts of Sin is to say that afflictioÌ„ riseth out of the dust or what is a blasphemy God less endureth That God willingly grieveth the children of men Jupiter non nocet nisi ut prosit Sen. From this consideration that Death and all other evils are the effects and consequents of Sin will follow these father Inferences 1. Against security in health or youth that as Death came into the world by Sin so it came over all the world in that all have sinned that we may not wonder when we find Children conceived in Sin should have death bequeathed to them before they are well entred into life Whence they which are not marks large enough for any of Deaths darts for any wound are yet wounded so often by it and find their grave in the womb that even the Child that is not grown to Davids span is yet old enough to die No security in any place or state of life while we carry about us not a body only but a soule temper'd with contrary and corrupt humors and a body of sin and death as well as of flesh We may conclude with the Apostle Rom 8.10 The body is dead through sin VVhat wonder if so many are cut off in the flower of their strength e're they well know how to live and lesse how to die 'T is the sinner not the sick or aged person dies Paradice alone had the tree of Life in it when Adam was cast out of that into this our Farth he brought nothing but Death and the Emblemes of Mortality See him no sooner faln than cast out of Paradice a flaming sword and a destroying Angel driving him from the Tree of Life the skins of Beasts that is Mortality it self serving to cover him and at last he condemn'd to dig continually the earth and to prepare his own Grave His posterity ever since feeding their Luxury and sustaining their life with the death of birds and beasts mortibus vescimur doth not he seem to have planted in this our earth the tree of Death whereon all the fruits perish e'r they come to maturity some in the bud others in the growth VVe passe through so many deaths to Eternal life from the womb of the mother of the world of the earth to heaven In the midst of life we are in death and like sentenc'd persons under a reprieve however we are permitted to live yet to enjoy no certaintie of life as not knowing when we may be called forth to execution VVhile we walk upon earth we alwayes tread over our graves and know not whether our next step may bring us into it For our bed is made in the dark and our graves lie ready open for us but as pits covered with snow 2 Against impatience or Immoderat sorrow If sin brings forth death we are to coÌ„sider death as an evil not so much inflicted by God as drawn upon our selves by our own deserts as it were our own choice and therefore with more patience to be indured Wisd c. 1.13 16. God made not death adeo non est creatione sed ordinatione aut ultione in poenam peccati he fram'd it not he meant it not for a creature but ordain'd it for a punishment of his disobedient creature for then should the great work-man have destroy'd his own works which yet he allow'd to be good the Creator should have been the Abbaddon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Confounder of his own creature but death was the creature of Mans Invention and as his own brood makes way for its birth like the Viper by eating through the entrails of the Parent 3. Against fear of death as well as sorrow that as other Afflictions so death in its self is not simply evil and therefore not simply to be fear'd or mourn'd but in reference to sin the sting of death is sin Sin alone makes death deadly and miseries miserable Death like those creatures which take their colours from the place to which they cleave as the Polypus and Camaeleon becomes good or evill as the persons are to whom it happens It is the voice from Heaven could our dull earth be perswaded to hear it that they are blessed who die in the Lord What is it then we mourn for either our friends losse who is more
A SERMON PREACHED AT St. MARGARETS IN WESTMINSTER At the Funeral of M rs SUSANNA GRAY Daughter of Henry Gray Esq of Enfield in Staffordshire who on the 29 of October 1654. began her Eternal Sabbath Come Lord Iesus come quickly And it was a custom in Israel that the daughters of Israel went yeerly to lament the daughter of Jeptha the Gileadite four dayes in a year Judges 11. ult LONDON Printed by F. L. 1657. 2 Sam 12.15 to 24. v. 22 23. And he said while the Child was yet alive I fasted and wept For I said who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that the Child may live 23 But now he is dead wherefore should I fast can I bring him back again I shall goe to him but he shall not return to me IT is not only the wonder of of Davids Servants but of all that read the Story why David should fast and weep while the Child was yet alive and dry up his tears upon the first news of the Childs death why he should mourn and afflict himself while there was some hopes with the fear of that death which he mourn'd not when it happened This is so contrary to the Custom and Manners of most men that seek the chiefest relief and ease of their miseries from their complaints and sorrows and indulge the sad remembrance of their Losses as a kind of Reparation and Remedy while they recover them at least in their memories and find them represented in their tears and therefore at the death of friends they invite others to bear a part with them in their grief and lamentation Yet seeing David was a man after Gods own heart and therefore his Temper and very complexion more refin'd and purified with holy allayes and even his passions are more to be imitated by us for a good man is a living rule to others his example the best Sermon and most pleasing direction to us who are ever sociable sinners or Saints and regard more what we see others doe than what we ought to doe Let us Learn here from David not from the funeral Preacher how we are to behave our selves what we are to doe in the sicknesse and death of friends whether Children or other near Relations This one example leads us through all the Duties we owe to others in the saddest cases this directs us 1. How to behave our selves amidst the confusion of fears and hopes in the sicknesses of our friends 1st To seek to God before the Phisician to distill our Tears for Balm and apply our Prayers for their first Cure to lend them breath from our Petitions from our sobs and cryes before the sentence of death be pass'd Who can tell whether God will have mercy on us and not bereave us of so great content 2ly How to appease and moderate our grief after the death of others which we could not by our tears or prayers prevent But now he is dead wherefore should I fast should I mourn or afflict my self Can I bring him back again 3ly How to return to our selves having lost our Friends and from the death of others to prepare for our own I shall goe to him but he shall not return to me These 3 Considerations will best represent the Pattern in the most lively practical Lines for our imitation and serve best to turn this story into an usefull moral How we are to behave our selves in the sicknesses and visitations of others Here good nature will joyn with piety to enforce these duties We are to consider what ever present visitations as the effects and punishments of our sins as well as theirs who are visited particularly indeed This was manifest in this case of David where the Child being truly conceived in the sin of the Father and born in the iniquity of the Mother in adultery could have the shame and stain of his birth only blotted out by death and covered by the Grave But this may be a safe usefull and proper consideration in the visitation of any Friend to look upon his disease as bred from Gods anger against us his punishment of our sins as well as from his own distemper How know'st thou whether God takes him from thee as he did St. Austins friend to free him from thy corruptions who wert apter to delight in him as an associate or brother in Iniquity in Luxury as that friend in Minutius in erroribus socius in amoribus conscius as a partner in sins a ready assistant in unlawfull pleasures and confident in wild excesses endeared by mutual secrecy and society in vice then as that friend charactered by the Psalmist a friend with whom thou mightest take sweet counsell together and goe up together to the house of the Lord whence it is that God snatcheth him from thee as Lot out of Sodom to prevent his infection first and then his destruction by thy sins or else to free thee frō thy immoderate Love and Carnal Affection God removes the Object and thus with Iealousie courts thy affection he suffers thee to enjoy nothing over much which should share in that Love and Devotion which thou owest to God alone Thus looking on children on friends as greater stayes and contents of life as so many Pins to fasten your Tabernacle on the earth God loosens the Pins to loosen your affections from the earth and by degrees to bring you to a stricter dependance on him Out of the sence of this so affectionate design of our jealous God did the noble Matron Melania entertain the death of a Husband and two Sons at once with that pious Exclamation Expeditius tibi servitura sum Domine quia me tanto onere liberasti Thou hast O my Lord provided that I may henceforth serve thee more freely having released thy servant from so great incumbrances and distractions In this regard David here used the most proper Cure of Gods anger and his own carnal affections fasting weeping and praying Who can tell whether God will have mercy on me forgive me my sin and delinquency for which the Child is sentenc'd to death that the Child may live This Remedy of Praying and Fasting for our own sins in Another is like the weapon-salve that doth so strange and secret cures being apply'd to the putrify'd matter and the guilty weapon that made the wound not to the patient 2. This Consideration that sicknesses being but the Attachments and approaches of death are as death is said to be the wages of sin sets us on our first work To remove the Cause our sins before we may hope to take away the Effect the disease of our friend This Order the ancient Canons seem'd to point at which enjoyned the sick to send for his Confessor before his Physician Think then thy friends consumption proceeds from thy languishing towards God from the decay of holy heat and zeal in thee Think his Feaver but a just judgement on thy impure flames of Lust or Envy or Revenge or thy immoderate
blessed by dying in the Lord Rev. 14.13 who hath exchang'd the company of helpless friends for the society of Angels the Valley of Tears for the Regions of Joy and in a word Earth for Heaven or do we mourn which is the truth if we would put off out mourning Veil our own loss of a friend a loss of a content of an Instrument of Gods Providence which still remains the same and retains the same power and goodness to supply as great contents as it hath taken away Whence will follow the last consideration in this point of moderating our grief 4. Having ordered aright out sorrows the better to moderate them we are to learn from David how to dry up our Tears How to comfort our selves in the death of friends 1. From their happy Fate and condition the hope of a better life whereof we receive any signs or assurances at their death This was Davids main comfort here I shall goe to him c. the Child had got the Goal before him David that wept so impatiently for Absolon wept not at all for this his dear infant begot indeed in sin but dying in innocence David parricidam Absolonem mortuum flevit non Innocentem fletur sceleratus non fletur Dilectus Ambros de f. Res c. 4. Now the hopes of salvation are the surest and infallible in baptized children They are undoubtedly sav'd saith our Church And the Scripture assures by infinite arguments of it that to little children belongeth the Kingdom of Heaven For by Baptism having put on Christ having past the laver of Regeneration having drown'd the old man in Christs blood and death and rais'd the new man wash'd and cleans'd out of water as it were to present Resurrection seeing God saves by water the new world as he destroyed the old and that none could perish in the Ark whereof Baptism is the Antitype so St. Peter how can we doubt but that Christ receives them into his Arms in Heaven as well as on Earth and that they must needs be admitted into Paradice who bring that innocence thither which Adam lost Next to Children our Hopes are most comfortable of those who have come nearest those little ones and pass'd their days in a Child-like Innocence and simplicity having no opinions no affections of their own but what their Heavenly Father directs These we part with upon the easiest Terms Ut praemissos non amissos as only gone before Profectio est quam putas mortem cur moderatè feras abiisse quent mox subsequeris Tert. de pat Brevis vitaeususnec illi multum videtur eripuisse nec tibi distulisse Amb. Res c. 3. not taken away from us as one absent and retired to a warmer Clime and happier Region not lost not dead And why dost thou so impatiently bear his departure whom thou art ere long to follow For he whom thou persecutest thus with sad thoughts is but divided from thee by a short Isthmas the breadth of the Grave a narrow scantling and space of Time some fews dayes or moneths or at most some few years which are either taken from him or reserv'd to thee Conceive then the blessed Spirits departed in the Lord crying out from heaven to you Weep not for us but weep for your selves who yet live in the Regions of Death in the Borders of Sin and misery Why do ye parents forbid the Children to come unto Christ Can ye believe the Mothers embraces softer than the Arms of their Saviour Are they not much happier in Abrams Bosom than in the Parents Lapp If you have lost a Child on earth you have brought forth a Saint now in Heaven Ubertim fluentes lachrimas reprime ne grandis pietas in nepotem apud incredulas mentes desperatio put etur in Deum Desiderandus est â—ibi quasi absens non quasi mortuus c. Illum expectare non amisisse videaris Her Ep. 24. ad Hebrid Why do ye ô Friends put on Blacks for them who have put on their white Robes Why shed ye tears for them whose tears are wip'd from their eyes VVhy such Groans and Lamentations for theÌ„ whose mouthes are filled with songs and praises to him that sitteth on the Throne to the Lamb for ever and ever This is not kindnesse but Envy or some misapprehension or misbelief of their present condition You grieve not thus for a Friend preferr'd to another Kingdom Jacob turn'd his Tears into Joy when he received his Son Joseph as from the dead testor'd not to life only but to a Throne Gen. 45.27 2. A secondary Comfort from the state irrevocable unalterable remediless whereby David rather chides and reproves violently stifling and suppressing his grief as vain and unprofitable than lenifieth or healeth it Wherefore should I now fast Can I bring him again Can the consuming of my flesh restore his Can my prayer lend breath to the deceased Can my howlings like the Lioness revive the young One And if I beat my breast is there any Hopes that as the Pelican by piercing her breast I may restore to life How can tears that cannot make the strewed flowers grow again revive the interr'd Carkass No hopes now the Spirit is returned to God that gave it and no wresting it out of his hands The Plant dies in the ground and yet through the scent of the water buds again but Man dyeth and wasteth away without hopes of springing again till the earth be no more Jeh 14 8 9 10 c. Hee 's gone hee 's gone past recall No remedy VVe came not altogether we must not go away together what cannot be help d must be endured These are the Common Cordials of vulgar Comforters But what if your grief in the same Impatience with Augustus shall reply as he did to his Daughter Julia thus comforting him Sir Your Complaints cannot recall cannot help but trouble you all is past remedy that is it which grieves chiefly That there is no remedy no cure of the wound no Recovery of the Losse Add then to these uncertain Comforts of Reason which are as easily confuted by a more peevish and sullen Reason that is apt to dispute for its passions 3. A third comfort from a Religious submission to God For as Reason commands us to yield to Necessity So Religion bows us perfectly to stoop with willingness to this Necessity as it proceeds from Gods Providence and Mercy ordering even out Losses to our good Here is that forcible Masterer of our sorrow to a necessary submission to the power of the Almighty which we foolishly provoke while we resist 2. A voluntary Resignation shall I say to the Providence and mercifull disposing or even to the holy will of God now manifestly declared by the event for as his other will is revealed in his Word to be the rule of our life and actions so this Ordering Governing Over-ruling Will revelata factis discovers Gods secret purposes by the visible effects and issues of things to be
the rule of our passions and sufferings Do we dayly profess to God Thy will be done and now it appears to be particularly Gods will seeing nothing is brought to passe in Heaven or in Earth without the will of him that ruleth over all why doe we not give the Lord leave to do what he will in Heaven and Earth whom we so often standing professe the Maker of Heaven and Earth what Atheisme now possesseth us because Gods will crosseth ours to stick at last to pronounce with good Eli in as hard a case as great a loss as any we can complain of the utter ruine of his family and Excision from the Priesthood the loss of two sons and the Ark of God at once It is the Lord let him do what seemeth good unto him 3. There is yet a greater reason of thy Resignation in this Case in that God hath the propriety and right the Soveraign Dominion of all we only the short use If God recall but his own Gift what Injury what so great cause of complaint May not God as well take the Child away from the Mother to whom it was committed only to breed up in the fear of God as the Mother takes it home from the Nurse 'T is call'd to a better home what Relation or Title soever thou canst plead in the dear loss Whether thy Husband thy Child thy Father Brother or thy friend which is as thy own soul God pleads a nearer claim his Creature his Image his Member the price of his redemption c. his by many Titles his even before he was and his when he shall not be 3 Duty or Inquiry How we are from the present sense of anothers death to prepare for our own 1. Prepare by a tender and watchfull apprehension of all those Memento's and Remembrances of Mortality wherewith God and Nature dayly allarum us so that nothing is more frequently represented howsoever nothing be less thought on than death and we at last complain of a surprisal Like to the Man in the old story who had covenanted with death that he should before his last stroak give some warning with a Finger at least lift up and yet after many funerals of his friends and many parcel-funerals and decayes of his own body and senses being to die required some other Messengers and Fore-runners of his end and challenged Death for not knocking at the door before he entred only because he would not hear the knocks Amongst the many Remembrances of death So the Captain of fifty seeing the other Captains consum'd by strâ— foll upon his face with I pray thee let my life be precious in thy sight 2 Kings 1 13. the most sensible and sharp admonitions towards this preparation are sounded to us by the Last groans of our expiring friends as by the last Trump that Grave which buries part of our Souls with their bodies must needs call some of our thoughts that way And how few are there amongst us that have lived half the age of man that hath not out-lived half his Family or Acquaintance That continued Felicity of the Grecian Prince to pass an whole age without the losss of one Friend was a glory or boast not to be seconded by many Now the first preparative for death is the premeditation of it Death like the Basilisk losing its sting and force being first seen and viewed by us 2 Prepare not only by a weariness and contempt of life and of the world wherein you no longer find your Friend but by a more comfortable Thought of going to him and over-taking him Prepare to follow If this could so sweeten Socrates last deadly draught the Thought of passing to the society of Orpheus Homer and the ancient Sages How much more should it make us gladly embrace death that leads us to the society of Angels and takes us not away but restores us to our Friends and to the Spirits of Just men made perfect by the Vision of the most Holy One Especially if we consider that the Friends we go away to are much more than those we part from VVe are gatherd to our Fathers 3 Prepare by casting aside all that makes Death bitter or terrible unto us Now we fear death saith the Monk on Climacus for one of these two Causes either because we love this present Life or Distrust a better So Reuben Gad and Manasse did chuse their seat on this side Jordan because they saw the ground fit for pasture Num. 32 5. Some there are unwilling to leave their Pastures and Cattel for all the beasts and houses Divines or Astrologers talk of in heaven Some with St Peter confounded with the Glories and bright Honours of the world cry out in an Extasie It is good to be here let 's here fix our Tabernacle but the Text tells us He knew not what he said being dazled with the glorious light Luke 9.33 Others that with the Apostles betray a fear of storms and the danger of death though Christ be in the storm with them deserve Christs check O ye of little faith what are you afraid of So that our whole work of Preparation is reduc'd to these two points Contempt of this world Faith hopes of a better that we strive to leave the world its noise and vanities before we depart out of it Look on the earth and all his Comforts as passengers in swift streams still fleeting and parting from us or we from it and as Sojourners or Pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts never fix our delight in a pleasant way or Inne which is suddenly to be quitted And seeing no distance can hinder us more than the banish'd Jews from turning our faces towards the heavenly Jerusalem let us that we may be able with the Martyrs of old to refuse Life in hopes of a better Resurrection lay hold on Eternal life before this life fail us lay hold by a lively faith on the hands of our Saviour stretch'd out to receive us and lay that sure foundation for the time to come of Good Works that best preparative to a good death a good life Let us not rest till we have brought our Souls to that temper of the good Heathen Summan nec metuas diem nec optes neither to fear nor desire over-passionately the day of our change or rather to this Resolution of St. Paul Phil. 1.21 22 23 24. If I live I shall do well if I die I shall do better To me to live is Christ To die is Gain And now that we may with David rise from our sorrow and wash our faces with tears of Joy in the thought of this Virgin who is not lost but gone before us to that place whither we all strive to follow Let us reflect on that principal Comfort the hopes of that life however lost on earth to us yet recover'd in heaven being hid with Christ While your Eyes overflow with tears being fixed on the Corps on the Mantle here dropt below send your thoughts beyond