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A54873 A funeral sermon upon the sad occasion of the death of Mordecai Abbott, Esq. preach'd the 17th of March 1699-1700 by John Piggott. Piggott, John, d. 1713.; Abbott, Mordecai, d. 1700? 1700 (1700) Wing P2220A; ESTC R28440 25,005 96

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the mutiny of our Passions sends up such Vapours as thicken into a Cloud which sitting on the Understanding do so confound the Apprehension both with regard to the actings of these Graces and the Objects upon which they are to terminate that they are like a musical Instrument that is unstrung and so unfit for use Indeed there is no time more proper for the acting our suffering Graces than a day of gloom and thick darkness But alas this cannot be perform'd while the Mind is under Confusion and Horror and the animal Spirits exhausted by continual sighing Therefore when we give so large a vent to our Sorrows as to impair the health of our Bodies and impede the exercise of our Graces we sorrow like those that have no hope 3. When our Grief for our deceased Friends is greater than for those Sins which might be the occasion of God's removing 'em so suddenly from us There is hardly any afflictive Providence but is properly a Reproof and Correction for Sin Now if the smart of our Afflictions gives a deeper accent to our Sorrow than the guilt of our Sins if we are more griev'd for the loss of our Friend than for the visible tokens of the Divine Anger then our mourning is criminal Indeed that Person must be very Stoical that can bear the loss of an agreeable Friend without dropping a few Tears and sending some Sighs after him but he is no less to blame that can conceive a greater Sorrow in his Soul for the loss of an outward Comfort than for Sin the sad cause of God's snatching it from him Moreover 't is a certain sign that God was not valu'd by such a one as the supreme all-comprehending Good if any temporal loss does more afflict his Soul than the Sins that occasion'd it 4. We sorrow as those without hope for our departed Friends when our Grief is more pungent and afflictive for the loss of them than for God's withdrawing his gracious and quickning Presence and hiding his Face from us in an angry Cloud The Smiles of God are better and more to be valued than the best Life of any Creature therefore to be less concern'd when he frowns upon our Souls than when he removes from us the Comforts of Life does not only discover the disorderly excess of our Grief but the defect of our Judgment in setting a higher value on a dying Creature than an everliving God But I hasten to the second Head Secondly They may be said to sorrow as those without hope that exceed in the continuance of their Sorrows rejecting all solid grounds of Comfort as did several whose Names are inrol'd in sacred Story I 'll instance in a few Good old Gen. 37. 34 35. Jacob upon the apprehension of Joseph's death rends his Clothes puts Sackcloth upon his Loins and mourn'd for his Son many days his Passion so got the start of his Reason that he refus'd to be comforted and resolv'd to mourn till he died abandoning himself to Jer. 31. 15. the most desperate Sorrow And thus Rachel is describ'd by the Prophet as weeping for her Children and refusing to be comforted because they were not And Rizpah continued 2 Sam. 21. 10. by the dead Bodies of her Sons and would not willingly be remov'd from ' em And there are not a few Christians who are too apt to slide into these Excesses upon the death of their near Relations as if all their Happiness was vanish'd and gone when the delight of their Eyes is sunk into a Grave out of their sight which immoderate Sorrow is a continu'd Reflection on the Divine Attributes as if a God of infinite Wisdom and immense Goodness were uncapable of making up the loss of a mutable mortal Creature Moreover let me remark that the invincible Patience and profound Submission of some Heathens under the most afflicting Providences condemn the Practice of those Christians who incessantly mourn for their departed Friends and refuse to be comforted I 'll mention but one in the room of several and 't is that of Stilpon the Philosopher who when the City where he liv'd was reduc'd to Ashes and his Wife and Children buried in the common Ruins himself escaping alone from the Fire being ask'd whether he had lost any thing replied * Senec. Epist 9. Omnia bona mea mecum sunt Justitia Virtus Temperantia Prudentia hoc ipsum nihil boni putare quod eripi possit All my Treasure 's with me Justice Virtue Temperance Prudence and this inviolable Principle not to esteem any thing as my proper Good that can be ravish'd from me An Instance that very much upbraids those Christians that are intemperate either in the degree or duration of their Grief Some time is necessary and decent for our funeral Sorrows but to walk softly all our days in deep mourning and anguish of Spirit because our Friends are taken from us and made more happy than ever they were with us is to grieve like stupid Jews or hopeless Heathens both which disbelieve the Resurrection of Christ which is the Foundation Model and Pledg of ours Therefore that this Disswasive of the Apostle may make a sutable Impression upon our Minds let us now consider the Arguments he uses to inforce it which is the III. General Head and here are two things to be insisted upon First The nature of their Death who die united to Christ 't is represented under the soft Character of a Sleep Secondly The great advantage that follows their Death such as sleep in Jesus will God bring with him First The nature of their Death who are united to Christ 't is call'd a Sleep Those that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him An excellent * Dr. Bates Author on this Text observes how the Apostle varies the Expression Jesus died but the Saints sleep in him for he sustained Death in all its Terrors that it might be a calm Sleep to his People Under the Old Testament we find the Death of the Saints frequently set forth by this soft and gentle Character David and Solomon Jehoshaphat and Hezekiah are represented at their Death to be fallen asleep And under the New Testament our Lord uses this Phrase upon the death of one whom he lov'd Our Friend Lazarus sleepeth Joh. 11. 11. And 't was St. Paul's usual Idiom to call Death a Sleep as appears from the Scriptures in the Margin * 1 Cor. 15. 6 18 20 51. Some indeed have been so weak as to imagine that this Sleep did equally seize Soul and Body and have asserted that at death the Soul passes into a state of Inactivity and sleepeth with the Body till the Resurrection an Opinion so repugnant to the true Principles of Philosophy and Divine Revelation that 't is seldom espous'd by any but Atheists Socinians and very ignorant Pretenders to Religion Our Souls are of an immortal nature they neither die nor sleep but immediately upon the death Eccles 12.
7. of our Bodies return to God that gave 'em and are fix'd in a state of Happiness or Misery Had not the Apostle believ'd this we cannot imagine that he would have esteem'd Death to be gain to him or that he would have been in any strait to determine and fix his choice for present Death or longer Life for the latter would have been much more eligible if he had believ'd that his Soul at death would have been as insensible and unactive as his Body and no doubt but he would rather have desir'd to continue in this World where he had enjoy'd Communion with Christ and often seen him by a steddy eye of Faith than to be hurried out of it by Death and render'd utterly incapable of any enjoyment of his Redeemer till the Resurrection But 't is yet more evident from another Expression of our Apostle that he was very far from the Opinion or rather Dream of the Soul 's sleeping with the Body till the Resurrection His words are these We 2 Cor. 5. 8. are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord. q. d. We have good courage and are well arm'd against the fears of Death being well assur'd that we shall have upon our Dissolution an immediate admittance into the Presence of our glorified Lord for the Apostle supposes not only that the Soul is capable of existing while separated from the Body and of exercising her Faculties and Powers in such a state but that so soon as she leaves the Body she shall enter into the presence of Christ and behold his Glory But I pass on and shall briefly represent the force of the Apostle's Arguments against immoderate Sorrow for the dead The first of which is taken from the nature of their Death who die in the Lord 't is describ'd by the soft Character of a Sleep which as you have heard refers only to the Body Now the death of the Righteous may be thus set forth on the following accounts 1. Because the Body is then eased of all its Pains and freed from all Fatigue and Toil to which it was expos'd while animated with the Soul And therefore as Death is compar'd to Sleep so the Grave is compar'd Isa 57. 2. to a Bed where the righteous are said to rest In this Life the best of Men are frequently made uneasy by acute Distempers and corroding Pains and Death is frequently sought for because Life is a burden You that have frequently visited the Chambers of the sick cannot surely have forgotten the sighs of those Prisoners who have groan'd upon Beds of Down as if every part of their Bodies had been violently extended on a Rack It would be endless to reckon up the vast number of Diseases that affect the Children of God in this World for being tainted with original Sin as well as the vilest of the People they may expect the same Distempers and tho they tarry here but a few days they are ordinarily full of trouble and if their Bodies are not often indispos'd yet thro the Malice of Enemies and the Miseries and Unkindnesses of their Friends they are frequently made to bow towards the Grave before they drop into it For indeed the best of our earthly Comforts have their hidden stings but they shall give us no more pain and uneasiness after we are fallen asleep in Job 3. 17 18. Jesus For in the Grave the wicked cease from troubling there the weary be at rest there the Prisoners rest together they hear not the voice of the Oppressor 2. In Sleep no labour is expected from the Body so when Believers are overtaken with a mortal slumber Christ expects no Service from their Bodies While the Soul continues united to the Body we are oblig'd to yield the Members of the one as well as the Faculties of the other Rom. 6. 13. as Instruments of Righteousness unto God but in a state of separation there is expected neither Service nor Suffering from the Body So that while we continue on the Stage of this World the Advice of the wise Man is very proper Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do Eccles 9. 10. it with thy might for there is no Work nor Device nor Knowledg nor Wisdom in the Grave whither thou goest All our vital and animal Operations shall cease when our Spirits return to God and our Bodies are reduc'd to Dust The one is fix'd in an unalterable state of Happiness or Misery and the other put into an incapacity for Action A middle place betwixt Heaven and Hell for departed Spirits is a groundless Imagination for it could not be said with truth that such as die in the Lord rest from Rev. 14. 13. their Labours if they were to pass into a refining Fire equally tormenting in degree but not in duration with that of Hell as those of the Roman Faction assert Therefore let us rather attend to the words of our Lord and follow Joh. 9. 4. his Example I must work the Works of him that sent me while it is day the night cometh when no Man can work 3. Death to the Righteous is disarm'd of its sting and being alter'd in its nature it may sutably be set forth by the notion of Sleep St. Paul tells us that 1 Cor. 15. 56. the sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law Death receives its destroying Power from Sin and Sin from the Law Sin being a Transgression of the Law which discovers its odious nature and denounces Damnation for it But Death approaches Believers without its sting Christ having yielded an indefective Obedience to the Law and suffer'd the penalty of it in the room and stead of Believers Hence says the Apostle There is therefore now no condemnation Rom. 8. 1. to them which are in Christ Jesus Christ hath redeem'd 'em from the Curse Gal. 3. 13. of the Law being made a Curse for ' em And the Apostle represents Believers as triumphing over Death in such terms as these O Death where is thy Sting O Grave 1 Cor. 15. 55 57. where is thy Victory Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Christ has remov'd the scandal of Death by dying and perfum'd the Grave by lying in it and passing through it 4. The Death of the Righteous is compar'd to a Sleep on the account of what shall follow thereupon for as men do awake after Sleep so they shall revive after Death as we are assur'd by a very remarkable Prophecy Hos 13. 14. and Promise I will ransom them from the Power of the Grave I will redeem them from Death O Death I will be thy Plagues O Grave I will be thy Destruction repentance shall be hid from mine eyes In which words we must consider the Prophet as personating of Christ and uttering the Triumphs of a mighty Conqueror which contain a glorious Promise