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A43796 The providence of God in sudden death ordinary and extraordinary vindicated and improved in a funeral sermon for Mrs. Mary Reve, wife to Mr. Nicholas Reve, merchant : first preached to the English Church in Rotterdam, January 14, 1685, and since enlarged / by Joseph Hill. Hill, Joseph, 1625-1707. 1685 (1685) Wing H2002; ESTC R12820 47,318 58

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ventilated they were not judged necessary at the interment there being neither precept nor precedent in Scripture for more than decent buriall with lamentations nor any reason why they should not be made for the godly poore of exemplary lives and deaths as well as the rich whose purses generally procure them Yet upon occasions it was judged very necessary on the Lord's day or in weekly lectures to admonish the living of their mortality direct the sorrowfull Relations in their duty and stir up all to immitate laudable examples and prepare for following those departed in the faith Seing then it is not material whether we have the corps in a coffin before our eyes according to the custome in England or it be coverd with earth as here so that we have but the Deceased's life and death in our minds and memories for our betterment I shall proceed to shew you the agreablenes of this portion of Scripture to the present occasion Vers. 16. Shews where Jacob and his family were viz. but a litle way from Eprath whither they were going How exactly doth God in his providence set the bounds of journeys as wel as habitations the places and times of our lives and deaths And what befel them there Rachel travailed and had hard labor The best of women may have the bitterest pains in child-birth and the saddest remembrance of God's sentence In sorrow thou shalt bring forth child'ren Gen. 3 16. Vers 17. The midwife incourages her in her pains and fears with having another son i. e. besides Joseph she had allready But all in vaine she regards it not as in the like case Phineas wife 1 Sam. 4 20. Earthly comforts signify litle to dieing persons Vers. 18. Rachel who was not satisfied with Joseph alone but desired another son Gen. 30 24. now when she haith him calls him Ben-oni the son of my sorrow It is dangerous not to rest contented with our present injoyments When we desire creature comforts immoderatly God may grant them so that they not only proove comfortles but bitternes to us Numb 11 4 33. and Ps 78 29 30 31. The time when she thus named him was as her soule was in departing whereby her death as all others is set forth to us which the following words for she died declare Souls die not with our bodies They goe to God that gave them to be judged by him Eccles. 12 7. The union of our souls and bodies being life and their parting againe death 1 Kings 17 21 22. therfore dieing Stephen prays Lord Jesus receive my spirit Act. 7 59. But Jacob lost that name should be a continual renovation of his sorrow calls him Benjamin the son of the right hand denoting his affection to him Ps 80 17. It is wisdom to suit names to occasional providences Vers 19. In the Text we have I. Rachel's death II. Burial III. Place of both I. Rachel died Beutiful Rachel Jacob's dearly beloved Rachel dies whilst blear-eyed Leah lives The more we love any creature person or thing the more danger we are in to lose it God often times crossing our inordinate affections for our good in taking away our beloved comforts and sparing those that are despised Rachel that so passionately desired children that she said unto Jacob give me children or else I die Gen. 30 1. now dies by having them Our immoderate desires many times cost us very deare II. And was buried The most beloved alive when they are dead we desire to have buried out of our sight as Abraham said of Sarah Gen. 23 4. A decent burial of the dead is the living Relations duty Yea somtimes memorials of the deceased may be expedient when free from ostentation and superstition as we see in the following verse Jacob sets a pillar upon her grave as a standing monument of his affection and her desert III. In the way to Ephrath which is Beth-lehem Renowned for our Savior's birth called Beth-lehem Ephratah Micah 5 2. and of Judea Math. 2 1 5 6. to distinguish it from that in Galilee and the city of David Luke 2 4 John 7 42. for his birth and education as Zion was for his building and habitation 2 Sam. 5 7 9. c. which is by interpretation a house of bread and so most fitting for Christ's birth who was the Son of David according to the flesh and the true bread of life as he inculcates at least 7 times on one occasion Iohn 6 About a mile as some say that have seen the place short of this Beth-lehem Rachel dies in the way distant from her own and husbands friends in an unsetled condition without habitation We all may know where we were born but none knows where or in what condition they shall die And is there buried If we live the life and die the death of the righteous it matters not much where we are buried nor at what distance from the rest of our friends How delicate soever the body may be the carcas is not curious in what bed of dust it sleeps and the souls of Gods people find as neare a way to heaven from any one place upon earth as other Many superstitious people now adays would think themselves happy to die so neare Beth-lehem that they might be buried there But Jacob well knew that burial places are not of religious consideration but any fit place pointed out by providence might serve well enough for the best of his family Thô he and his son Joseph likewise that died in Egypt would have their body and bones buried in Canaan yet that was to testify their dieing in the faith of God's promis of that land ●o their posterity and to assure them of their return thither and therfore is otherwise of no consideration to us It is but of later times that any were buried in Churches or cities but allways abroad as all scripture and other Histories and laws allso witnes When the opinion of Purgatory and holines of places prevailed at first men would be buried nigh the Churches that they might be remembred in the prayers and oblations of those that met there and afterwards in them because they thought them more sacred which tho opposed by * V. Durantus de ritib. Ecclesiae l. 1. c. 23. Gerhardus de morte §. 78-88 many laws civil and Ecclesiastical and writers ancient and modern by some as an innovation others as superstitious and many as dangerous to the health of the living especially in times and places of infection yet all in vaine the tyrant custom hath so prevailed that it s grown too strong for all contradiction But I have deteyned you too long from that I chiefly designe which is not so much to speake of death and mortality as such a surprising death as this Scripture speaks of clearly to the occasion and to vindicate God's providence therein and shew what improvement we should make thereof D. God takes from us our dearest Relations and creature comforts sometimes suddenly when we least exspect