Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A45686
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A funeral sermon preached upon the death of Mrs. Rebecka Goddard, November the 13th. 1692 At Joyners-Hall. By Tho. Harrison.
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Harrison, Thomas, fl. 1700.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing H910A; ESTC R213017
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15,833
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28
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World let us as much as in us lies endeavour the Salvation of their Souls and let us strive to receive what good we can from them for we know not how speedily Death may make a separation between us and them Thirdly Hence I Inferr That when we enjoy any Outward Comforts we ought to be continually expecting and preparing for the loss of them Let us not think that we shall always enjoy them but look upon them as fading and uncertain let us endeavour to wean our selves from them to use them as if we used them not In this respect let those who have Wives and Children be as if they had none That Affliction which comes unlookt for usually comes unprepar'd for The more loose we sit from our outward Comforts when we have them the more easily shall we part with them Jacob could better part with his ten other Sons into the Land of Egypt than with his Benjamin that almost brought his grey Hairs with Sorrow to the Grave No wonder if we immoderately grieve for those things when absent which we immoderately Love when present By dying daily to them let us prepare to follow them to their Graves Fourthly I Inferr How unreasonable it is for us to be surprized when any of our outward Comforts are removed from us These fiery Tryals should not be thought strange of by us for no strange thing hath happened to us If we thought them durable we were mistaken about them and if we thought them uncertain and vanishing why should we be surprized when they disappear It was an excellent saying of a Heathen when one told him of his Son's Death Sciebam me genuisse mortales I knew that I begat Mortals O Parents did not ye know that your Daughter O Husband did not you know that your Wife was a Mortal be not then surprized at her Dissolution Fifthly and Lastly Hence I Inferr That we ought all of us to prepare for our own removal from our Relations As our Relations who are Comforts to us so we who are Comforts to them are fading Dying Creatures How soon our living Relations may walk the Streets in Mourning for us as we have done for those who are already gone to their long Home we know not The daily Instances of Humane Frailty which are given us should put us upon Considering and Preparing for our latter End that we may not be hurried from our Relations Embraces into everlasting Flames but may enter into Abraham's Bosom Let none of us deferr the great Work of Preparation for Death for we know not how soon we may enter into its gloomy shades Job's Children were snatcht away suddenly and so are many others Death is not always usher'd in with the formality of a long and lingring Sickness Our deceased Friend did not lye long upon her Bed of languishing but was quickly carried off the Stage by that Distemper which seized upon her It is not long since she was Worshipping God with us in this Assembly and now she is gone into the Congregation of the Dead Therefore be ye also ready for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh Matth. 24.44 Let not those who are Young put off this Business of highest Concernment to Old Age for young ones are often taken away by the stroke of Death Our Deceased Friend was like a pleasant Flower in her blooming Age blasted by the Wind of Death the Days of her appointed time were but few before her Change came Remember therefore your Creator Oh young Ones in the dayes of your Youth for it may be ye may not live 'till Old Age comes Your Maker may soon take you away Get an Interest in Christ who hath abolished Death and brought Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel So when you come to dye may ye chearfully resign your Souls to him and he will receive them into his Divine Embraces Whatever your Judgments are now when you come to lye upon a Death bed you will think an Interest in Christ more valuable than the whole World if you are not extreamly stupified The Hopes which our Deceased Friend had of this carried her comfortably through the Valley of the shadow of Death Thus much for the first Proposition Second Prop. That when we are deprived of any of our Outward Comforts we must acknowledge the Efficiency of God therein The Lord hath taken away Whoever is the Instrumental God is the Efficient Cause of all our Afflictions The Manichees of old tell us of two Beginnings or two Gods the one a good God and the other an evil God the former they asserted to be the Author of all Good and the latter to be the Author of all Evil the former they called A giving God and the latter A taking God But my Text will sufficiently confute that horrid Notion for Job ascribes the Donation and the Removal of his Outward Comforts to the same Divine Being as the first Cause of both and indeed it was necessary that he should do so because there is but one God Yea many Heathens taught better Doctrine than these Hereticks for they feigned that their great Jupiter had two great Vessels placed at the Entrance of his Palace whereof the one was filled with Good and the other with Evil and these he dispensed according to the Dictates of his own Will among the Children of Men. But not to trouble you with Poetical Fictions the Scriptures frequently assert this Truth says God Isa 45.9 I form the light and create darkness I make peace and create evil I the Lord do all these things Says the Church Lam. 3.38 Out of the mouth of the most high proceedeth not evil and good When any of our dear Relations are taken away by Death they fall by the stroke of God's Hand says God to the Prophet Ezekiel Son of Man behold I take away from thee the Desire of thine Eyes with a stroke Ch. 24. v. 16. The Diseases of which our Relations dye are only the means w hereby God brings about his designed End even their Dissolution These Winds God holds in the Hollow of his Hand and lets them loose at his pleasure to blow poor Mortals from the River of Time into the Ocean of Eternity and this is no Impeachment at all to Divine Goodness Punishments themselves are not Moral Evils in the Person that inflicts though they are Natural Evils in the Person that suffers them I need not insist farther upon the Proof of this Point but shall present you with some Inferences from it First Hence I Inferr That when we are Threatned with the Privation of any of our Outward Comforts it is our wisest and safest way to apply our selves to God for the Continuance of them We may allowably pray for and deprecate the removal of our Temporal Enjoyments provided we do it with Modesty and Humility with these necessary Limitations If it be agreeable to his Will If it may be for his Glory and our good to
bestow them upon us or continue them with us Though we may make use of all lawfull Means to obtain and preserve Temporal good things yet we must not forget to apply our selves unto God whose Blessing alone can render them effectual Physitians will be of no Value for the recovery of our languishing Relations unless God sends forth his Word and heals them Secondly Hence I Inferr That they deserve to be reproved who when they have sustained any Losses reflect upon perplex themselves about and ascribe those Losses solely or principally to second Causes We are very prone in such Cases to blame Instruments instead of eyeing the Providence of the principal Efficient to resolve all troublesome Events into the malignity of Second Causes This part of practical Atheism we are apt to be guilty of thô common Observation might be sufficient to Confute it The same second Cause which produces such an effect at one time or in one Person shall not produce the like at another time or upon another Person Why should we ascribe the Death of our Relations principally to the Malignity of the Distemper wherewith they were seized when we see others surviving the same Distemper when attended with the same dangerous Circumstances Thirdly I Inferr That when any of our Outward Comforts are taken away from us we should diligently enquire into the end and design of that separation which hath been made between us and them Tho' the Ends of Humane Acts are not always worthy of our search and enquiry yet the ends of Divine Acts are always so God hath Noble and Excellent Ends in all his Operations Let us therefore at such a time address our selves to God in the words of Holy Job 10. ch 2. v. Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me Fourthly I Inferr The Folly of those who put their Trust and place their Confidence in any thing as a security from Death Were they who go to their long Home only taken away by Men then there might be some probability of warding off the fatal blow but seeing they are taken away by God what can prevent it Can you think that the great Jehovah will be charm'd by your Beauty or overpower'd by your Strength Are there any Forts or Towers into which he cannot enter Can you flie into any remote Countrey where his Arm cannot reach you Will the Great God have any regard to your Worldly Riches or Temporal Grandure By none of these things can you deliver either your own or others Souls from Death or hinder them from going down to the Pit Thus much for the first part of the Words I now proceed to the second Secondly We have a Natural and Necessary Inference or Conclusion from both the forementioned Propositions Blessed be the Name of the Lord In which words we have two things contained viz. First An Object The Name of the Lord. This Phrase hath various acceptations in the Holy Scriptures But there are two things which I conceive may be intended by it in this place and indeed the latter is plainly included in the former First By the Name of the Lord is intended God himself The Name of a Person or Thing is often put for the Person or Thing named Thus 1 Acts 15. The number of the Names together were about an hundred and twenty i. e. the number of Persons they being numbered by their Names So 44 Psal 5. and several other places Secondly By the Name of the Lord are intended the Attributes and Perfections of God By them is his Nature discovered unto his Creatures and indeed all his Perfections are inseparable from his Essence Secondly We have an Act which was exerted upon this Object and that is Blessing By blessing God we are to understand either what we express in Words concerning God or what we think concerning him God is blessed by his Creatures when his glorious Perfections are published with Praise and Thanksgiving or when they have high great and glorious Thoughts of him when they inwardly reverence Honour and Love him The former is a Blessing with the Tongue the latter is a Blessing with the Heart the Tongue blessing without the Heart is but a tinkling Cymbal the Heart blessing without the Tongue makes sweet but still Musick both in Consort make that Harmony which fills and delights both Heaven and Earth When Job saith here Blessed be the Name of the Lord we are to understand it both ways Job speaks out the Blessing of God with his mouth and likewise had high and honourable Thoughts of him From these words I shall present you with the following Observation Doct. That it is the Duty and will be the Disposition of the People of God when in a right frame of Spirit to bless a taking as well as a giving God This is indeed a very hard Work but it is a very necessary Work God's People are not at all times engaged in it but they are so when in a right frame of Spirit In the Prosecution of this Point I shall take the following Method First I shall more particularly shew you what is intended by or implyed in our Blessing a taking God Secondly Endeavour the Proof and Demonstration of the Doctrine Thirdly Make some Improvement and Application of it First I shall more particularly shew you what is intended by or implyed in our blessing a taking God This I shall do by laying down the following Propositions First Prop. This is not exclusive of a holy mourning for the loss of our Outward Comforts At the same time that we bless God who hath taken away what we once enjoyed we may Mourn for our Loss These two as plainly appears from the Text and Context were joined together by Job and their Conjunction was approved by God as appears from the words following my Text In all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly Mourning is allowable if we exercise a Christian Moderation therein Second Prop. Our Afflictions are not in themselves the proper Subject of Thanksgiving Outward Comforts being in themselves good things the loss of them absolutely considered is an evil Now the proper Subject of Praise is something that is Good Third Prop. Blessing God is absolutely exclusive of being directly opposite to every thing that is implyed in Cursing him Blessing and Cursing are Opposites To Curse God is to Blaspheme him either in our thoughts or words to think or speak unworthily or unbecomingly of him there is a Cursing God with the Heart as well as a Cursing him with the Lips We Curse God when our Hearts are imbitter'd against him or our Tongues sharpen'd to wound his Honour Therefore they that Bless him will not either think or speak unbecomingly of him they will not either mentally or verbally Murmur and repine at him they will not Question his Justice Reproach his Goodness or Accuse his Providence Fourth Prop. Blessing God implies the Exercise of Patience and our thinking and speaking honourably of God under affliction The Soul who