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
Garments to view which she had made to cloath the Backs of the Naked with and set them before Peter and the rest that accompanied him to justify the ground of their Mourning or rather to heighten the Passion of their Sorrow from this sadning consideration that she was ever uncapable of making any more that the Poor were never like to be the better for her again They could not but Mourn that she was so soon taken off from prosecuting the many good projects she had in her Head arid Heart of being useful to the Poor and them that were in Distress Ah Sirs when we see a Man going to his Grave we may sadly cry out He will never he can never do any more good His opportunity of glorifying his Creator or of serving his fellow-Creature is past and gone and will never return again It is impossible he should be any farther serviceable in Church or Common-Wealth And surely this should enforce a Mourning from all who take delight in or are capable of receiving Comfort from the doing good of others But it may be you will say there are many Men that do no good at all while they Live but a great deal of harm who are so far from being useful that they are wholly unprofitable yea very prejudicial to God's honour and Man's welfare in their Generation That are a Plague to the place where their abode is and a Curse to all whose unhappiness it is to be near them Now should we Mourn for them should we Grieve when they are taken out of the World should we go as Mourners about the Streets when such barren Trees are cut down and carried to their Long Home Yes verily we should because while a wicked Man is alive there is hope or at least a possibility of his Recovery from his wicked State of his being washed and sanctified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God But when he dyes there is no possibility of his reclaiming or being renewed to Repentance for there is no work no device no invention and I may add no reformation in the Grave whither we are going Fourthly For that when a Man Dyes and goes to his Long Home we shall never see him more he vanishes as it were out of our sight and we are never more to behold him or cast our Eyes upon him He is both actively and passively in an invisible state So Job Mournfully speaks of himself chap. 7. ver 7 8. Oh remember that my Life is wind my Eyes shall no more see good The Eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more thy Eyes are upon me and I am not What more cutting Expression what more sadning Inculcation what more provoking Incitation to Mourning can there be than the Sence of this that we shall behold the Face of our beloved Friend after his departure from us no more Were Man to Return though after never so many Years absence from his home or continuance in the Grave Were he to visit his habitation again and become the objective delight of his poor Mourning Friends and Relations it might be some alleviation to their Grief when he takes his journey to his Long Home But Oh! What a prick to the Heart what a stab to the Soul what a deadning to the Spirits what an inundation of Sorrow like the opening of Pandora's Box is this lamentable Thought to an ingenious Man that he must never never never more behold the Face of this or that Relation in this Region of Mortality nor have any converse with him on this side the Bank of Eternity What Husband can think so of his Wife and not melt what Wife can have such a thought of her Husband and not faint what Parent can consider this with respect to his Child and not mourn what Child can reflect upon the impossibility of ever seeing his Father or Mother more and not be overwhelmed with grief In a word What Friend or Relation can ponder on such an eternal Farewel as is then given and not be dissolved into Tears yea and not to Mourning like the Mourning of Hada-drimmon when Cloystered up in Megiddo's Vale It is the opinion of Divines That the chiefest of the Saints happiness consists in Vision or in the use of the visive faculty which will then be enlarged and made glorious to perfection for they shall see the Face of God in Righteousness and be satisfied with his likeness they shall be for ever with open Face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord and be changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Sure I am the Saints greatest comfort in this World consists in Vision or beholding God's Image in his People and that not only the work of his Power in their comely Features but the work of his Grace in the divine Characters of Wisdom engraven in their Souls and immediately reflected upon in all their Actions Therefore it cannot but cause Mourning when such delightful Objects are removed out of sight and never more to be beheld Fourthly Modifically There is a modifick Obligation upon the Living to Mourn for the Dead in respect of the manner of Mens Dying or the circumstances they are under in that great Hour First For that Sickness is the Prologue of it the Paleness of Death is generally ushered in with the Pains and Sorrows of Sickness Thus it was with the Child of the great Shunamite that had so courteously entertained Elisha and built a Chamber for him Furnishing it with those Utensils which she knew were most acceptable to a contemplative Man In requital of which kindness he promised her from God a Child and a Child she had but it Dyed but before it Dyed it fell Sick and was tormented with Pains So we are told 2 King chap. 4. ver 18 19. And when the Child was grown it fell on a day that he went out to his Father to the Reapers And he said unto his Father my Head my head and he said to a Lad carry him to his Mother And when he had taken him and brought him to his Mother he sate on her Knees till Noon and then Dyed His Head first Aked before his Breath Departed And this is the usual way of Men's Dying first to complain of some Disease in their Bodies before there is a separation between that and their Souls One crys out of his Head another of his Bowels one is Sore-pained another is Heart-sick upon his taking his leave of the World And as the Apostle Peter speaks of the last times The Sun shall be turned into Darkness and the Moon into Blood before the great and notable Day of the Lord comes So it is most true in this case Health shall be turned into Sickness Strength into Weakness Pleasure into Pain Delight into Sadness before the great and notable Day of Death comes Which indeed in it self considered abstracted from the hopes of
and perish there For David personating him thus prophetically spake Thou wilt not leave my Soul taken here figuratively for the outward Man in Hell that is the Grave for so Sheol signifieth Neither wilt Thou suffer thy holy One to see Corruption Implying that all other bodies must see corruption under whatever circumstances they may be considered when they come to this common home this general receptacle of the Grave For as all must lye down and take up their dwelling there together so all must perish and rot and be consumed there and that from the same cause and after the same manner The Grave is a common home for the wicked in Judgment it is their Jail where they are kept safe till the great and general Assizes of the Day of Judgment when the last Trumpet will sound and the Eccho of it will be heard from the one end of the Earth to the other with this doleful Summons Arise ye Dead and come to Judgment When the Vision of John will be made good to a tittle And I saw a great white Throne and him that sate on it from whose Face the Earth and Heaven fled away and there was found no place for them And I saw the Dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the Book of Life and the Dead were judged out of those things that were written in the Book according to their Works And the Sea gave up the Dead which were in it and Death and Hell that is the Grave delivered up the Dead which were in them and thy were Judged every Man according to their Works And the effect of this great Tryal and dreadful Appearance will be the Bodies of the wicked shall be sent to Hell as well as their Souls and be Tormented there for ever God can and for the glorifying of his Justice he will Condemn both Body and Soul to Hell-fire at last Those Ears that have been always open to let in the Air of obscenity and tickled with delight in the hellish musick of prophane Language shall then be terrified with the doleful Howlings and Cryings and Gnashing of Teeth that will there be in an horrible manner among the wreached Miscreants Those Eyes that have been as Windows to let in Lust and all manner of wantonness and filthiness into the Soul shall then be punished with beholding the ghastly Looks of affrightning Devils that will be continually staring the damned in the Face Those Tongues that have been the Bellows of the Devil blown into from Hell always imploy'd in belching forth horrid Oaths blaspheming their Creator or thundring out direful Execrations cursing the Creature and that without either shame or remorse shall then be miserably scorched in that inextinquishable Fire which there burneth Day and Night In a word those Bodies that here have been vessels of uncleaness members of an harlot recepticles of all prophaness shall then be rowling on fiery Pillars in those everlasting Burnings in those devouring Flames which the Breath of the Lord hath kindled when that amazing and soul-confounding Sentence is pronounced upon them by the Month of the righteous Judge himself Depart from me ye Cursed into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels But now the Grave is a common home to the Saints and People of God in Mercy it is the place where their Bodies are clarify'd and refined from all dross and corruption and so made fit for Glory Oh! what a glorious Morning what a joyful blessed day will that of the Resurrection be to All that sleep in Christ For then with their bodily Eyes shall they behold their Saviour and in the re-union of their Bodies with their Souls shall they be for ever with him hearing him speaking in that soul-reviving soul-refreshing yea soul-ravishing Language to them Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the Foundation of the World Then the Body that is now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a body of meanness or a low abject vile Body by reason of its corruption shall in that day become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Body of Glory for it will be changed and made like unto the glorious Body of the Lord Jesus and in conformity to that Glory put on Stolam immortalitatis the Garment of immortality The dead bodies of Saints shall live yea together with the dead Body of Christ shall they arise They shall awake and sing though now they dwell in the Dust for their Dew is as the Dew of Herbs and the Earth shall give them up as the Lord 's Dead Now then if the Grave be Man's proper home his seltled home his confined home and his common home Ah! How should all of us whether rich or poor high or low old or young be familiarizing this home to our selves as that which we must all come to Oh Sirs Methinks you should have serious and awful thoughts of your ghastly paleness your loathsome blackness and your habitations in the dark And so I pass from the Dying Mar's Destiny He goes to his Long Home To the Living Man's Duty He ought to be a Mourner in the Street I told you in the Doctrine there was a Mourning due from the Survivers to the Deceased I shall now labour to make it appear and that upon a four-fould account First Naturally There is a natural Obligation to Mourn when any Man goes to his Long Home and surely they are very unnatural that do not pay it First For that they that Live are of the same Mould with them that Dye All are made and composed of the same perishing Earth Hence David speaks not only of himself but of all Men when he inscribes Vanity on them Psalm 39. ver 5 6. Behold thou hast made my Days as an hand 's breath and my Age is as nothing before Thee verily every Man at his best estate is altogether Vanity Surely every Man walketh in a vain show surely they are disquieted in vain He heapeth up Riches and knoweth not who shall enjoy them Here is a general Rule without any exception that every Man be he never so great or high or rich or wise or learned in the world and that in his best estate take him under what circumstances you will is Vanity yea altogether Vanity a poor crazy empty evanid thing Now when Man that is so vain so perishing in his own Nature sees one of the same Mould with himself carrying to the Grave to be placed in his Long Home the Law of Nature exacts a tribute of Tears from him though he had no particular acquaintance with or obligation to the person deceased because he beholds a crumbling away and a fading of that Earth whereof himself is made at which Nature cannot but have a reluctancy and vent its sympathetical Passion But as the Apostle speaks of some Monsters in filthiness and uncleaness that they did that which is against Nature so we may see
description of the Body when it is prepared for and carrying to the Grave It is a filthy polluted a base ignominious a frail impotent a rotting perishing Body This is the outward state of every man when Death has mow'd him down And therefore we should Mourn at so great and sudden a Change Though I confess our Mourning should be in hope with respect to the departure of the Godly For though their Bodys be Sown in corruption they will be Raised in incorruption though Sown in dishonor they will be Raised in glory though Sown in weakness they will be Raised in Power though Sown natural they will be Raised spiritual Bodys For their corruptible must put on incorruption and their mortal must put on immortality and then Death it self shall be swallowed up in Victory But the present change in their Bodies by Death calls for a due Mourning from their Survivors Fourthly For the great change and alteration Death makes in the place of the Deceased the great Vacuum there is when Man is removed and carried away to his Long Home Concerning which Job excellently speaks chap. 7. v. 9 10 11. As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth down to the Grave shall come up no more He shall return no more to his house neither shall his place know him any more Therefore I will not refrain my Mouth I will speak in the anguish of my Spirit I will complain in the bitterness of my Soul Oh! It is very sad to consider what a great change one stroke of Death may make A Wife Husbandless poor Children Fatherless Servants Masterless and many Friends Comfortless And so great is the alteration in the Family that the whole House resents it and seems silently to Mourn for it There is as it were a Face of sadness in every place he was wont to be conversant in Look in his Parlour where he used to sit with his Wife and Children about him and there is nothing but a profound silence his voice is not to be heard Look at his Table where he used to sit with chearfulness eating his Bread with joy among his Relations and the dull demeaner and sorrowful posture of all the assessors do plainly yet dolefully speak Behold he is not here Look in his Shop where he used to be about his occasions and the disorder and confusion there proclaims aloud his being gone and not to be heard of In a word Look in every place where he us'd to be and you will find one mourning circumstance or other a legible Historian of his departure and being no more among them So that if you seek him you will not find him if you ask for him you will hear no news Now surely methinks the very miss of a Man in his Family the want of him in his place the great change immediately following his Departure in all his Affairs and Concerns should be cause enough to enforce a Mourning from his Survivors if there were no other consideration Thus I have shown you in what respects there is a Mourning due from the Surviving to the Deceased and why we ought to be Mourners in the Street when we see a Man going to his Long Home even from a Natural Relative Moral Modifical consideration obliging us thereunto I now pass from the Doctrinal to the Applicatory part of this sad and solemn Truth And the only use I shall make of it shall be a word of Exhortation to put this Duty in practise now in the day and season thereof Never was an occasion more doleful than that which has brought us hither this day Never was a Text more suitable than this which is now to be applyed to the Occasion So that what Application is to be made will be Verbum diei in die suo A word of day in its proper day Look Sirs in yonder Coffin lies a Man known unto us and beloved by us ready to go when we shall put our hands to carry him to his Long Home Oh! should not we this day be as Mourners in the Street Oh! that we could our selves as really evidence the Truth of the latter part of the words in being Mourners as our deceased Brother before us has done of the former part in going to his Long Home Verily Sirs This is the day the very day in which the Lord God of Hosts calls to Weeping and to Mourning to Baldness and to Girding with Sack-cloath And therefore I shall make use of the Apostles words for the pressing this Exhortation James 4. ver 9. Be Afflicted ana Mourn and Weep let your Laughter be turned to Mourning and your Joy to Heaviness Not a word here but has its Emphasis and deservies a special Notation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be touched with a sense of misery and that in your Hearts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mourn in an exceeding great measure expressed in some outward overt-Act 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Weep from a broken and tender Heath This Weeping is Natures priviledge forbiddon by none as the Poet intimates Quis matrem nisi mentis inops in funore nati flere vet at Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let you Laughter or loud Acclamations of Mirth and Jollity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be turned into Mourning or into a Funeral Elegy or Lamentation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Your Joy or the greatest Delight and Contentment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into Heaviness or into a Sorrow that dejects the Countenance and makes Men look down-ward upon the Earth Now Sirs put all this together that is it which I would press you to this day Oh! Be so Afflicted as to be touched with a sence of this awful dispensation of divine Providence in visiting us so sorely in this the day of his Anger And then Mourn in a visible real manner And Weep till your Hearts are even broken with Sorrow Let your Laughter or outward expressions of Mirth be turned into Mourning or grievous bursting forth into Tears And let your Joy or any thing of delight be turned into Heaviness or into a real dejectedness or calling down And the reason is very obvious this Coffin herd before us does justly call for it as containing one who was lately the Object of our Love and Esteem but now the deserved Subject of our Sighs and Tears It is not my principle nor usual practise to speak much on such occasions of the Person deceased The custom of some Predicants is rather to be bewailed than imitated who are inconsiderately Studious to hoise up the Names of those who they would stutter as high as Heaven when perhaps at the same time their Souls are roaring in the hottest Hell 'T is also of dangerous consequence to the Auditors Funeral Encomiasticks of the Dead prove often confections of poyson to the Living People may well grow careless of their Lives when custom layes an obligation upon the Preacher to Hackney them to Heaven in his Sermon when they Dye But here is something
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