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Funeral Consolatioixs :

OR, A

DISCOURSE

FROM

joHiNf xiv. 28.

if ye loved me ye tvoiild rejoice, because I said, I go to the Father,

BEING THE

FIRST SERMON

Preached by the Author after the Death of his Wife,

MRS. ESTHER EMLYN^

Who died, Oct. 13, 1701, in the 30th year of her Age.

There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest ^'ob iii. 17.

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FUNERAL CONSOLATIONS.

JOHN xiv. 28. If ye loved me ye would rejoice^ because I said, I go to the Father : For my Father is greater than I,

I PRESUME it is unknown to very few of this assembly, under what mournful circumstances I now appear in this place ; or what that sorrowful occasion is, which in the choice of these words I have regard to, and ivhich (by a due consideration of them) I desire to be relieved under.

The words are a very proper lenitive for assuaging the immoderate sorrow of christians, upon the death of their lamented ^lous friends ; a time when nature 7nelts into tears, overwhelmed with a swelling tide of grief, which is hardly kept within the bounds either of rea- son or of grace, Alas ! when our withering gourds are smitten of God, especially if with a sudden and early stroke, we are ready to think with Jonah, we do well to be angry^ or to fret and pine : On this grievous occasion "we hear little else but the voice in Ramah^ lamentation and weeping^ Rachel weeping for her children^ (or friends) and refusing to be comforted^ because they are not. So that it must be a very powerful argument indeed, that can charm the tumultuous spirit of a deep mourner in- to a calm moderation of his anguish.

And if there be any argument in the world sufficient in the case, no doubt but our Saviour has chosen it here, v;ho urges his disciples with a mighty dissuasive from too much grief : and this taken from that which was the very root and spring of it, viz. their unfeigned love to him.

The case was in short this : our Lord Jesus was now about to die, and was taking his farewell of his disci-

4 Funeral Consolations,

pies ; Yei-f says hCj a little tvhile, and ye shall not see '/re ; and again, ivhither I go ye cannot come,* Upon these melancholy tidings, their hearts were sore troub- led : no "wonder if they were loth to part with so kind a friend, or to lose so dear a Master ; such a wise guide tiud profitable teacher j especially since they were hke to be left in a very forlorn case, as a poor naked prey to tlie rage and hatred of a blind and malicious generation. They seemed content to die along Nvith him, if that might be ; Why cannot I follo%v thee ? I will lay doivn my life for thee-^ was the language of one and all of them ; but they could not bear the thoughts of a disconsolate separation.

Our Lord, seeing them thus dejected, endeavours to t;heer and hearttn ihtm : Let not your hearts be troiib' ted \\ or do not take on and grieve so, but hearken to Vthat 1 have to say for your consolation : And then he applies several arguments to this purpose, -viz. from his desipn in going to jirefiare a place^ where he and they might forever live together ; / go to prepare a place for you ; I loill come again^ and receive you to myself, that where I am, there ye may be a/so. || A reviving con- sideration I that they should one day meet their dear friend again, and that their separation was to be but for a while. Weil, but for all this, death makes such a vast distance between friends, and we know so little of anoth- er state, that the disciples seemed to doubt, whether ev- er they should meet again if once they parted : They knew not whither he was going, nor the way to follow him : Thomas saith unto him, Lord, iv.e knoiv not ivhith- er thou goest, and how can ive know the way ?% In answer to this Christ tells them, he was the Way, Truth, and Life ; i e. that the sure way to follow him to heaven, was by a due observance of his doctrine and precepts, as being the Ambassador and Representative of God to men, to deliver his mind on earth : For this he desires their belief ; at least, if they would not take his word, they might be satisfied from his works, which shewed

* John xiii. 33. t Jo^'^ ^iii 37. i John xiv. i. U John xiv. 3. If John siv. 5.

Funeral Consolations, 5

the Father did dwell in him. Then* he argues from the great advantage they would reap by his removing to heaven, to intercede for them, and to send down the Holy Spirit upon them.

But, lest all this should not quiet them, he has one argument more in reserve, in these words of my text^ and that the most moving that can be ; in which he de- sires them, if they loved him, that they would not so much mourn as rejoice at his departure : intimating, that he would take it for a proof of their love to him, if they would mourn less. They thought, doubtless, they shewed love to him in grieving for his death ; and it may seem strange, that Christ should put such a con- trary interpretation upon their friendly sorrow, or should require so unnatural a thing of them, as to re- joice for his departure : What, (might they think) shall •we rejoice at so amiable a friend's removal from us ? Or can we 6e glad that we shall see his face here no more ? No, it is impossible ; we have no heart, no dis- position to be glad in this sad season : therefore he adds a reason to back this great fiaradox ; viz. because he was going to the Father ; that is, to be rewarded and glwified by him who was greater than himself, and so •was able to exalt him ; which could not be -without leaving them : Therefore, says he. If ye love me, ye should rejoice, because I told you, / ivas going to the Fa- ther, Hence I lay down this proposition,

7'hat true love to our departed pious friends, should prompt us to rejoice at their translation hence to heaven,

I know indeed there were peculiar reasons why the disciples should rejoice at Christ's departure to the Father, viz because by it he should do them more bene- ficial service, than by his stay. It is expedient, says he, that I go away : For if I go not, the Comforter ivill not come unto you ; but if I depart, I 'mil send him unto you t But these are not the motives our Lord Jesus ar- gues from in the text ; this were to argue from their own interest, or love to themselves ; whereas he argues

* John xiv. 11. -j- John xvi. 7.

A 2

6, funeral Consolations.

here from theli' pure love to him : supposing them- selves were to receive no advantage, but present loss by his death, yet for his sake, they should rejoice at his happiness in going to the Father, So that it is an ar-- gument as truly applicable to the case of any other ho- ly friend's departure, when on our part there is real love and affection to them, as the spring ; and on their parti it can be said truly, that they go to the Father, as the ground and matter of this joy.

In speaking to this point, I shall, First^ Shew the meaning of our Saviour's words. Secondly, The force of his argument.

First. I shall consider the meaning of our Saviour in these words, both negatively, and positively.

First, JSfegatively-. 1. It was not Christ's meaning, by these words, to say, that there was no real love at the bottom of his disciples' great sorrow for his death ; or that there was no true love, where there was not visi- ble joy on this occasion. That would have been an^ hard interpretation indeed of ihe'iv friendly grief: They knew it was from love that their grief sprang ; that if they had not loved much, they had sorrowed less ; they "were ready to make the appeal to him. Thou knowest that ive love thee. Indeed he saw so much love in their sorrow, that it made him argue thus with them ; If, or seeing, ye love me, Sec. q. d. I see you love me, and are expressing your tender affection to me, by your mournful countenance and words, which shew your re- gret of my departure ; since then love so prevails anil works, let me argue with you from that prevailing pas- sion : without extinguishing or discouraging it, let me direct it into a right course, and then that love which now makes you grieve, shall much more make you to rejoice. He does not question but supposes their love, in these words.

In like manner, neither must it be said, that there is no love to our departed friends whose decease we la- ment with a flood of tears : it is past the power of any man in the world to convince us of that ; for we feel our love as plainly as we do our grief : And indeed our grief is nothing but our disappointed unsatisiied love ;

J/uneral ConsoUidons. 7

nay, it was from our Lord's own weepint^ over dead JLazarus that it was said. Behold^ hotu he loved him,* It is love makes us feel the pain of an heart-rending sepa- ration, between us and an amiable friend : It is love makes us miss the wonted desire of our eyes, its once so pleasant object : Why else do men weep chiefly for relations and friends whom they love, if love do not in- fluence grief ?

2. Nor does our Lord intend to intimate, that all such sorrow for our holy friends' departure is an unlaw- ful, or unbecoming expression of our love. Doubtless he was not displeased to see his disciples tenderly affect- ed with his removal, and that he was like to die. lament- ed of some* He who shed tears at Lazarus^ grave, with sighs and deep groans, cannot be thought to forbid them wholly at his own : therefore he does not chide his dis- ciples with angry reproaches, as though they were wholly in the wrong, but softly and tenderly reasons the matter with them in gentle persuasions ; Let not your hearts be troubled ; as rather pitying their sorrow, than altogether condemning it. He who knows our frame will indulge the weakness of our frail natures a little in this thing, and will- allow us to pay a small tribute of tears to the precious memory of an endeared friend ; and to utter our ^2iV\\n^ farewell with an unusual accent of sorrow. Why should we not weep, when we are sure we shall see their faces no more ? Since for that very reason the christians oi Asia \nq.^X. sore at Paul's leaving them ; and they of Cassarea^^ on the prospect of his dying, (though somewhat remote) did weep, both to the breaking of their own hearts and his also. Indeed that same apostle, who seems to speak most against sorrow for the death of christian friends, aims not at more than to make some abatement of the usual ex- cesses of grief among the Pagans. Sorrow not as oth- ers^ that have no hop.e.\ How that was we may learn in Deut.-^iv. 12. it was with violent rage, like mad-men under the tyr nny of a passion to whose excesses they abandoned themselves without check.

* John si. ^6. f Acts xxi. 13. ± 1 Thes. iv. 13.

8 Funeral Consolations.

Especially where the relation is nearest, (I mean the conjugal) and the separation most violent, there God will periiiit us to shew the 4peper sorrow because he allows greater affection. He that requires such love to the wife of our bosom, especially, when the ivife of our youth too, as to bid us, rejoice with the wife of thy youth, let her be as the loving hind, and pleasant roe ; be thou ravished with her love always. "* Again, husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved his church f.* And again. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He, I say, knows well that so much love can- not (according to the make of human nature) but end in great grief, at the dissolution of that near relation.

And though the ancient patriarchs were men very re- nowned for their mortification to the comforts of this world, being truly pilgrims on the earth ; yet methinks, I find holy Jacob expressing such a sensible sorrow for the death of his Rachel, many years after, as shews that wound was not yet quite healed to his dying day : ^s for me, says he, when I came from Padan-Aram, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan by the way^ when yet there was but a little way to Ephrath, and I buried her there.% He bemoans himself under the sense of his loss, as for me, or that which sticks by me, in a very sen- sible remembrance still ; that which I am greatly con- cerned at, and cannot forget, is'c. as for me, or as to my sorrowful part, Rachel died by me ; and there I buried my greatest earthly delight. It is no unusual thing with good men, to lament under such circumstances : Ezekiel's case was particular ; he was forbid§ to mourn for his wife, on purpose to amaze the people with his strange carriage ; that they might ask the meaning of so monstrous and unusual a thing, as not to mourn for the taking away the desire of his eyes : And it was to represent the greatness of their approaching calamity, that would be so great as to swallow up all private oc- casions of grief.

More especially may it quicken our sorrow, when we apprehend such a stroke lo be UiQ punishment of our

* Prov. V. 18. f Eph v. ^5, 28.

^ Gen. xlviii. 7. § Ezek. xxiv. 16, 21>22.

Wuneral Consolations, §

iniquitiesj which withhold and withdraw good things from us ; when we have reason to put that interpreta- tion upon God*s hand in the death of our dear relations, which she did on the death of her child, that it was to bj'ing our sins to re7nemb)'ance :* In this case, gracti falls in with nature^ and, by uniting their two streams, the torrent of grief becomes the more violent : For who can look upon his dear friend whom he has pierced and slain, and not mourn bitterly ? But,

Secondly, Positively, That which Christ intends here, is,

1. That at least his disciples should mix some joy with their sorrow for his death ; he does not say, If ye loved jne, ye would not grieve, but, ye would rejoice ;

' there should be some joy to allay and moderate their sorrov/. And indeed, as these two easily consist in the same breast, so there is a proper occasion for this mixture and confusion of our passions, in the death of our pious friends ; because in such dispensations, there is both a bright and cloudy side ; the one in their gain, the other in our great loss : so that in the muUi- tude of our troubled thoughts within us, there are com- forts that may delight our souls ;t and with David v/e should have our hearts tuned to sing of mercy and judgment at once4

2. He intends to intimate, that their rejoicing should be more than their sorrow upon this occasion : for though he speaks not exclusively, in requiring them to rejoice, yet he speaks com/iaratively at least, that they should rather rejoice than mourn : joy should be our principal exercise, so that if it be inquired what our frame and carriage is, under such a Providence, it may be said we rather rejoice and triumph, than are deject- ed. True indeed, an external wanton mirth in jollity and laughter, would be a monstrous deformity ; but rational joy and satisfaction is a comely christian tem- per, that Vv'ell comports with the gravity of such an occasion.

* i Kings xyU. 18. f Psalm xciy. 19. * Psalm ci. t.

iO Funeral Consolations,

3. He suggests further, that to rejoice on such occa- sions is the most regular and noble exercise of leve to such departed friends ; it is the most genuine^ and reg- ular exercise of love ; since the nature of love is to incline us to a joyful congratulation of the prosperity of its endeared object : and it is then it carries most evidences of a love unfeigned, when we rejoice in our friend's welfare, though no benefit (but rather damage) redounds to us thereby.

To say the truth, inordinate grief for the translation of a friend to heaven, is no proof at all of any love we bear to them, because it is not their case affects us, but our own : so that all v.hich can be said of us in justice is, that we love ourselves very well, whatever we do our friends ; yea, much better than we love them, since our own lesser loss causes a trouble, which the thoughts of their much greater gain cannot balance ; so that we are liable to that reproachful challenge, Is this thy kindness to thy friend ? Our cheerful satisfaction will better de- clare that.

And it is far the most noble, as well as most genuine exercise of love ; it is a poor ordinary frame to mourn for our dead, as arising from mere sensitive nature : one needs no improvement of mind in order to this ; there needs neither fihilosojihy nor Christianity^ virtue nor religion, to teach us this low lesson ; but to rejoice in their happy change, to be glad that they are laid in a bed of everlasting rest, whilst we suffer the loss of their pleasant society, this is generous and truly noble love ; this is such an ingenuous greatness of mind, as is only the product of divine faith and christian hope ; which regulates our love, and raises it to so high a pitch, as nothing below the grace of God and the light of the gospel can advance it to. So much for the explication.

II. I come next, under the second general, to she v/ the force of our Saviour's reason, by which he justifies his inference, viz, that if they loved him they would re- joice. Now the reason on which he grounds this, is in these viovds,because I go to the Father, nvho is greater than J ; i. e, to one who would and could exalt and reward him I q. d. 1 am going to be happy and glorious, to ^

Funeral Consolations, \\

blessed place, and blessed company, where I shall have no need of your pity or sorrow, and therefore on this con- sideration you should greatly abate it.

Now allowing for the difference in the glorious re- wards and exaltation of our Master, and of his servants, the reason may be extended to others, and has its force in the death of any pious friend : for they also go So the Father ; the spirit goes to God ivho g-ave it ; not only as the spirits of the wicked, viz. to be disposed of by him, but the holy christians' spirit goes to him, as to his liberal reiutarder, to see him, and enjoy him, to dwell and converse with him, in that blessed acquaint' janccy which shall never be broken off to eternity ; for they go to the same place with their Saviour, tvhere I am, there shall ye also be,* and shall have a mansion in the same Father's house.

Now let us consider what there is implied in all this, that should raise joy upon the departure of our holy friends, in all that rightly love them. Now there are three arguments or grounds of joy which arise hence. First, This implies that our pious and dear friends, though dead, are not utterly extinct and lost : for they only go to the Father : they pass from one place and company to another, but are not sunk into ttie black abyss of non-existence. It was but a slender consola- tion which the heathen philosophers often offered to their mourners, in telling them, that dead men, indeed, enjoy no good, but neither do they feel any evil. In- deed, supposing them lost in an utter extinction, it is all the comfort we have left concerning the best men ; whereas we can only allow that to be true of the body ; this having lost the active animating principle, is neither miserable nor happy ; noiv like an useless idol^ it has eyes but cannot see, ears but cannot hear, andy^e^ but cannot walk ; it has lost its beautiful air and regular motions, and all its sensations of pleasure and pain. But we believe better than so of the invisible princifile, that this has still the pleasure of life and activity about nobler objects ; that immortal tenant is only removed ,from a

* John xiv. 3.

\2 Funeral Consolations,

crazy cottage of clay, to a more excellent dwelling not made ivirh hands. This indeed is better tidings than what sense reports ; that represents them as lost forev- er, but faith tells us, they are but translated : the one says, Joseph is utterly devoured by an evil beast, and now is not ; by the other^ we understand he is safe and well in another land. This is so mighty a lenitive to our grief (which we owe chiefly to the gospel of Jesus Christ) that the aposile sticks not to say, that he has even abolished death^* by making this discovery of a future life. Here is then matter of joy, to think that our friends are not perished in the frightful shipwreck ; but as we have sometimes seen the same boisterous waves that break the vessel, do but waft the passenger over to the safe shore ; so death has landed them safe on another coast, whose frail bodily vessel is dashed into pieces. No wonder if Rachel refuse to be com- forted, if she think her dead children are not in being ; but blessed be God, it is not so, for all, even the dead,t live to Godf though not with us ; they live^ yea, and they act, and think, and love more busily than ever.

It is with them as with the sun^ who at evening leaves our horizon under disconsolate darkness, and some very foolish persons may think its glory buried and extin-^ guished, when it is only gone to the other hemisphere, and there shines with as much beauty and brightness as ever. Methinks this consideration should make us say ©s old Jacob, when on good tidings of Joseph's welfare he began to revive : It is ewmgh^ he (or she) alive is j\ it is enough to put us into a transport of joy, to read what our blessed lord said for the support of Martha, when grieved for her brother Lazarus* death, lam the resurrection and the life ; he that believes i?i me, though he were dead^ yet shall he live ; and whosoever llveth and believeth m me, shall never die.^ Well then, we learn from our Saviour's argument here, that the surviving christian has this to say for his comfort, that his dead friend is not rased out ot bein^ ; he has shot the gulf?

* 2 Tim. i. 10. . t Liike xx. 38.

i Gen. xlv..28. § John xi. 25, 26,

Funeral Consolations, 13

but is not lost in it. Be not then terrified at their death ; it has killed their body, but could not kill their soul.

Secondly, This consideration, that they are gone to the Father, implies, that they are unspeakably more happy, where they now are, than they were, or would have been, if they had continued here. This Christ plainly intends in the words, viz. that he should change for the better. It is better being with God above, than with their friends on earth ; because,

1. They are hereby delivered from our (and once their) troubles. They who pass out of our Fgyfit do certainly go out of a place of great bondage, and shake off a mighty load of cares and fears, and many uneasy burdens, which, being in this tabernacle, they groaned under. The occasions of grief here are so many, eith- er originally, or by sympathy, our own, that of most who are departed hence may that account be given, These are they who came out of great tribulation : they are gone off from an accursed earth, doomed to bear briers and thorns Jto the torment of man. Their life was but a tragedy filled with sighs and groans, not counterfeit but real ; how many provocations to grief or anger fill- ed their eyes with tears, and their mouths with com- plaints ? One while crying with the Shuna7nite*s child, My Head / my Head ! and a?2o« with the prophet, O my Bowels J my Bowels ! I am pained at my very heart.*' But now there are no thorns in the flesh to disquiet them ; they are no longer harassed with fiainful diseases or feeble sickness, with faintings or weariness, or with ungrateful remedies, that could neither prevent the fre- quent alarms, nor the one fatal stroke of death. Nay, it is a great part of their deliverance, that they have now no frightful views of approaching dreadful death ; the king of terrors, with his train of black attendants, will return to them no more ; they are got out of his dominion, they have felt his sting, they have shot the amazing gulf have no more dying groans and scbs to fetch, nor parting agonies to fear, which terrify us mor-

♦ Jer. iv. 19. B

14 JFimeral Consolations,

tals, who have that tonflict yet to go through. These melancholy things with thetn are over and past ; now the weary body is at rest in its bed ; the grave is a qui- et sleeping filace^ where all is /ms/i and still, peace ahd silence ; t/ie clods of that -valley are sweet unto them* There they have found a quiet harbour^ where they have unladen all their burdens and sorrows ; there they have buried their cares and anxieties ; there they have lodg- ed an aching head^ or tortured bowels, or pained limbs ; that was the goal at which their wearisome race and pilgrimage had its happy end.

Nor are they liable now to those spiritual sorrows which once disquieted their tender souls ; they have no doubts of the love of God, for they know and feel it abundantly ; no more an aching heart about their eter- ?ial condition, saying, What shall i do to be saved ? for they have heard, Well done^ good and faithful servanty enter into thy Master*sjoy, They have no more des- pondent suspicion of their own sincerity towards God, no lamented indispositions to his holy service, no spots nor wrinkles to render them a shame or burden to themselves ; they fetch no more such deep sighs as that, Oh wretched man that I ain, who shall deliver me from the body of this death /f They have no more such bitter challenges as those, Why art thou cast down, O my soul ? and why so disquieted within me ?\ They are satisfied with God's likeness.

They see no abominations in that holy land, to cause them to sigh and mourn ; the evil serpent enters not their paradise, to tempt any to sin : their righteous souls are not vexed, with seeing or hearing any filthy

. or miserable thing : no groans of the oppressed, nor

I cries of the persecuted ; no tragical relations from our Aceldama ; no reports of this great slaughter, and that mighty desolation, which make up the history of this

I ^earth, and gain the applauses of the theatre ; no such doleful tidi?igs, nor mournful spectacles, disturb their

' cjuiet felicity.

* Job xxi. 33. t Rom. vii. 24. \ Psal. xlii. 11.

tl-L

Funeral Consolations, 15

Mirch less are they grieved for those consequences of their death, that now trouble us ; it grieves not them that they have quitted our world, or comfiany ; they are not sorry they have left their worldly possessions and es- tates, that the pleasant /z/flces of their habitation must know thera no more ; it wounds not them, that they have left tlitiir once dearest friends in mournful sorrow, crying after them. My Father ! my Father I* It trou- bles not them, that their once so beloved offsfiring are become exposed orphans in the world ; no, as their sons may come to honour., and they know it not ; so may they be brought low, and they perceive it not.-\ They mind not these petty troubles of ours ; it grieves not them (however it may us) that their comely countenance is turned to ghastliness and deformity, and their flesh become an habitation of worms, that once had a more noble inhabitant : they are not moved at lying in the dark and solitary vaults among the dead, nor at the gnaw- ing of those worms that will die. We mention these things, or ruminate upon them with melancholy thoughts, but so do not they.

Nor have they any other sorrows, in exchange for these of the lower world ; no, they have no more any pain, or sorrow, or crying ; they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, Iffc. for the hamb shall feed them, and lead them to the fountain of living waters : and God shall wipe all tears from their eyes.\ In a word, it is their Jubilee, it is the year of their eternal release from all evil, in which they have not only cast off their bonds and fetters, but have also put off their armour ; have laid by the shield of faith and helmet of hope, and are sat down in everlasting per- fect peace, in the land of praise and joy, into which they have carried no discordant complaints. Is not this a great motive to our joy when they are gone ? why should we grieve much for them, who grieve not at all themselves ? or, why should rivers oi tears run down our eyes, when God has wiped away all tears from theirs forever ?

* 2 Kings ii. 12. f Job xiv. 21, ^ Rev. xxi. 4.— vii. 16, 17.

1.6 Funeral Consolatio?is,

2. By going to the Father they enter into exceeding great joy ; they have not only left Egyfit^ but they have got into the good land of promise : they have not, indeed, all the felicity intended for them ; there are some ornaments and glories which they must not put on nor wear, till the marriagC'day of the Lamb ; but yet the lines are fallen to them in pleasant places, and they have already a goodly heritage ; enough to warrant us to say, that henceforth they are blessed^* because some reward of their works has followed them at present. They are got into their Father's house, to their best and dearest friend ; he, who at their penitent return to him, (when ihey said, / "^ill go to my Father^ feT'c.t) was so ready to meet them with compassionate embraces, to call for the ring and fatted calf and to assure them of his gracious acceptance on earth, has, doubtless, with inexpressible kindness welcomed them to their everlasting home. He who before gave them the earnest, has now given part of the inheritance ; in his good pleasure he has given them the kingdom : their master has bid them enter into his joy ^ and they liave put on the garments of firaiscy for the spirit of heaviness.

They are gone to a blessed filace, to a paradise o-f eternal delights ; are got nearer to the heaven of heavens, the royal palace of the King of glory, where the high and lofty One dwells in inaccessible light, and fills that tem/ile with his magnificent train ; where he has erected a throne on which infinite Majesty forever resides, at whose dazzling brightness the serafihima hide their faces, and pay their homage with the great- est veneration ; where infinite beauty unveils its face to open view, where it amazes, ravishes, and overcomes myriads of attentive spectators ; its attractive charms draw and fasten all their eyes so, that they never look off from that amiable object^ they always behold him ;\ where they need no books of devotion to warm their hearts, one view of his ineffable glory being instead of

* Rev, xiv. 13. t Luke xv. + Matt, xviii. IQ.

Puneral Consolations, 17

a thousand arguments, and wraps them up in the flames of ardent admiring love.

They are gone to blessed comfiany^ where all are most holy^ most wise^ good and happy ; a society made up of the choicest and most excellent of the earthy whom God has been gathering together out of all the generations past, and has made much more excellent than they were ; all of them Kings and PHesta^ and sons of God ; all knit together in the indissoluble bands of truest love^ which is ever cherished by the engaging charms of intimate endearing converse ; so that they are dearer to each other, than ever owv friends were to us, or we to ihem on earth. Oh ! what a surprising change is this to them, who, from a world made desolate by prevailing rage and malignity, find themselves gotten into the very element of love ! How then can it be but well with them ! for they are gone to Mount Sion^ the city of the living God^ to the heaven' ly Jerusale?n^ to an innumerable comjiany of angels^ to the general assembly and church of the first ~born^ to God the Judge of all, to the sjiirits of the Just made perfect^ and Jesus the Mediator of the neiv-covenant* They are witi) the Redeemer in his kingdom, and in a noble concert of sfiirits sing the song of Moses and the Lamb, Hallelujah, salvation and glory to our God. They, blessed souls, have all their wants supplied, all their needful desires satisfied, and their hofies fulfilled or well secured 1 They inherit all things, for God is their portion forever : Him they now see and k7ioiv in clear light, and if their faith did not satisfy them, their sight now does, which has cured all their deadness and cold- ness toward him, and has set all right forever.

They are gone to a state of perfect knowledge, and unstained purity : They are in a near conjunction with the Father of lights, that eternal fountain of all truth ; from hhn Xhoiv elevated understandings receive those vigorous rays of divine wisdom, which do both beauti- fy and refresh ; the greatest philosophers, who have

* Heb. xii. 22, 23 H 2

18 Funeral Consolations,

mude the most successful essays upon all the theories of nature, nay, Solomon himself, who had wisdom enough to reach from the cedar in Lebanon, to the /lysso/i on the wall, in all the glory of his wisdom, wasi not like to one of these ; he that is least in that king- dom above, is greater than he ; there they are, truly, as wise as the angels of God; all their imperfect fiartial knowledge is done away, because that ivhich is perfect is come. They have found the way out of those labyrinths, in which we are mazed and lost ; and found their joyful victory over a thousand doubts and difficul- ties, which, after all our laborious disquisitions, do pose and confound us mortals : they have found the happy way o{ increasing knonvledge, \\\x\\q\xX increasing sorrow ; how many doubts are with them resolved I how many mistakes corrected ! how many unknown secrets revealed ! O glorious and ample prospect, that from the Mount Moriah, the Mount of Vision, has opened itself to their clear and satisfying view I Truly their light is sweet, and it is a pleasant thing to behold it.

No less is the pleasure of their perfect holiness, or the exercise of consummate love. There is even now a very sweet relish in the exercises of a devout mind, while with David he is but panting after God, as the hart after the ivater-brooks ; the soul feels an hidden pleasure in that divine ivarmth ; it is marrow and fatness to it, and renders a day in God*s courts better than a thousand : but it is a much more noble thing to love as those blessed do, who enjoy and see the God of love, and clasp about that infinite eternal good, with the brightest flames of ardent, unwearied zeal. How de- lightful is it to exercise that love in high admirations, and io give it vent in the transports of endless praise I How pleasant to serve so endeared an object, with a mind cured of all its infirmities, and disentangled from all impediments ! and above all, how satisfying to behold in themselves so lively a conformity to him, whose matchless excellencies have so many myriads of delightful admirers !

And is not here great reason why we should rejoice for them ? Does not love teach us to be glad at our

Funeral Consolations. I9

friend's felicity ? Oh, my brethren^ can we indeed with seriousness contemplate the heavenly glory of the saints, so amazing, so unspeakable glory, and not be transported, to think and hope that our beloved dear friends are there I Sure, if with Paul we had ever been taken up into the third heaven^ and had heard things not to be uttered ; or if, with St. John, we had in vision surveyed the J^Tew Jerusalem in all its glory, and heard the charminsj melody of the Hallelujahs sung in her streets ; or had ever beheld triumphant saints walking in white robes, with palms in their hands, I say, sure we should be ashamed to weep for them who are there. Look up, christians^ and see if these be objects of lamentation. What ? they that have a paradise to dwell in I that have a kingdom to enrich them ! They that have angels to converse with, and an infinite God to enjoy ! are these to be condoled ? No, no, the more we loved them, the more we shall rejoice, because it is so very well with them. Would we indeed recal them from all this bliss and joy, unto a partnership of our tears and groans, our sins and darkness ? What I from the possession of all those great things, beyond what our eye ever saw, or heart conceived^ but yet their eyes do see, and their hearts do rejoice in ? Have we such a grief as would dispossess our friends of heaven? Verily, whatever we pretend, this is not from real love, for that principle is not so injurious.

When they were on earth, they often wished for a release from this vain life ; had they had wings as a dove, they had flown" away sooner, and been at rest. They often went up to Mount Pisgah, as Moses, and gave many a longing look towards the promised land ; desires and groans were the harbingers they sent before their arrival : and now that they have ob- tained their wishes, we ought rather to congratulate than bewail them : but by no means to wish them back again into the estate that was once so uneasy to them.

We have no reason to think that they look back in their hearts to our Egyfit, for v/e ourselves find many- temptations to desire a discharge, and be gone ; and

20 Funeral Consolaiions.

should we be so unkind to our delivered friends* as to ■\vish them a burden which ourselves would throw off?

The truth, in short, is, we quite forget whither they are gone, (either through unbelief or inconsideration) and so, like Jiicob. we nourn ior Joseph as lost, when, at tne same time, he is Lord over all Egijpt ; or we think of them only with relation to ourselves, and our own want ot them, without a regard to iheir good, else it would not be so bard to rejoice for them : for why should wc lament their great deliverance ? or, why should we hang our harps on the mournful willow, when they have taken theirs into their hands, into the joyful choir of blessed spirits ?

3 This consideration, that they are gone to the Father^ affords us another ground of joy, in that they are gone to the same place, where we ourselves (if such as they) are hastening to. This is what Christ inti- mated more than once to his disciples, that they shortly should go to the same place.^* and same Father.^ to possess the mansions prepared for them in his great house : and here it was that their, love might find matter of great joy. It is the separation of our friends from us that grieves us ; that we and they must divide into such a distance^ as admits no more sweet and delightful converses : We are ready to say with Thomas, Let us also go, that we may die with him ;t or, with Ruth to JSTaomi, where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried ; as being loth to be parted by death itself. Let us but have their amiable society, whatever it costs us : this our desire is in great meas- ure granted ; God will indeed remove them from us, but then it is to that country and city, where we our- selves design to settle forever. They are gone, but it is to the same harbour which we are bound to, and are upon our voyage for ; nay, where we ourselves have already cast anchor, by a stedlast hope, though we are not yet landed, as they are. Do we not profess our- selves to be pilgrims on this earth, and that heaven is our only home ? Is it not your real hope that you

* John xiv. 3. t John si. 16. Ruth i. 17.

Funeral Consolations, 21

shall one day take up your rest in that city of God ? If so, whither then could we wish our friends to be gone but where they are ? Would we not have them to be there, where we may hope to find them again ? We are leaving this world ourselves, and if they leave it not too, how should we hope to dwell together again ? Were they always to have continued here, we could not have staid to enjoy them long ; but where they are, we hope to find them again, and to enjoy them forever. That is the place, to which God, the great Arbiter of our lot, has adjourned our next meet' ing, where there are mansions (not tabernacles) enough ; one for Moses, one for Elias, and another for us, I mean for our holy friends and ourselves too, which our com- mon Master has prepared.

So then we have this to comfort us, that we know whither they are gone, and the ivay we know^ to follow them ; so that there is nothing else to trouble us, but only that we removed not together : and yet if we and they were in a foreign country on earth, how easily could we send them home some weeks before us, and be glad to hear of their safe arrival ? It is much the same case, when they go to God before us, while we are following them ; so that we are hoping heaven shall bring us together again : there we shall soon meet our dear and pious relations, like the meeting of Joseph and his brethren in Pharaoh's court, with joy and love enough ; we shall surely find them some- where, among the multitudes, coming either east or west,* to sit down wiih Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of God, whither ourselves hope to be admitted : And this ought to revive our hearts, as something like it did very much affect the heathen orator, t when he cried out as one in an extasy, O / praclarum diem J Is'c, " Oh / glorious day indeed, when I shall come to that assembly of divine s/iirits I" If a pagan could, with so lofty a rapture, think and speak of that blessed day, when he expected to meet with the souls of the famous heroes, and wise fihilosQ^

* Luke xiii. 29. f Cicero.

22 Funeral Consolations,

pherSi (when yet his expectation was only supported by probable conjecture) how much more should it ele- vate the heart of an assured christian, into the warmest transport of gladness, to think of the day wlitn be shall meet with the patriarchs and prophets, ai^ all the members of the church of the first born, arid his oivn endeared friends amono: them ?

And the rather^ because that last mentwied text seems to suppose a particular knowledge, who those blessed are that we shall then converse with, and what relations they stood in, in this present world ; for if Abraham^ Isaac, and Jacob, shall be then so distinctly known, why not others also ? And if they are known to others, surely, it is known to themselves that they were grandfather, father, and son, who once dwelt together as heirs of the promise, in the same tabernacles on earth ; no knowledge, nor love shall be lost^ but what is imper- fect and useless.

We sliall not indeed (in all probability) carry with us any sensitive ideas of face or features into another world, but shall put off these with the body, because they seem useless, since there will be no cou?iterpart of these to answer them, hy which to know our friends again in that world ; no, not at the resurrection itself; because their bodies will be wonderfully transformed, not to be known by what they w eve formerly on earth, in their vile condition : I only say this is probable, be- cause 1 will not pretend to certainty in so dark a case, or to see into the shadow of death ; for I know not what subtle vehicle, or fine clothing, the soul may carry away from the body, according to msiny philosophers both pa- gan and christian ; nor whether those vehicles have or- gans of sight, or be objects thereof, nor what^^'wre they will have, nor what ideas or memory we shall retain of past objects to compare them by j but yet I see no war- rant that ancient christian writer Irenaus had, to assert, that separate souls carry the likeness and figure of their bodies, so that they may be still known thereby in another world,* However we may justly hope for a knowledge

* Con. H»r. J. ii. c. 62.

Fu7ierai Consolations, SiS

of them some other ivay^ by Revelation, information, or mutual discourse, <Jfc. '''• I must profess^ from the experi- ence of my soul, (says the excellent Mr. Baxter) that it is my belief that I shall love my friends in heaven^ that princifially kindles my love to them on earth ; and if I thought I should never knoto them more^ and consequently not love them aft^r deaths I should now love them compara- tively little^ as I do other transitory things^ but now I conx'erse with the?n with delight, as believing I shall con- verse with them forever.'^ No doubt but they who dwelt together here, " as heirs of the same grace of life," joining their prayers, shall dwell together there, as joint inheritors of that life, joining their praises. Some not unfitly compare the saints of all ages to a fleet of mariners, all bound for the same port, though some arrive sooner, and some later ; and they who have been first there, welcome those that come after- ward with joy and great affection : and what though our friends have outsailed us ? it is likely wc may come in with the next fleet, and meet at home, and then our love will be satisfied again. Perhaps, ere it be long, we may mingle our own ashes with their beloved dust ; however that be, our souls hope to join in the same choir, and work with theirs forever, and therefore should rejoice now in this hope.

True, indeed, we shall no more know them ajter the fesh, in the relation they once stood in, in this world : There «hall be no more marriage, nor giving in mar- riage,^ except it be the marriage of the Lamb, which they are waiting for, and for which, The Lamb^s wife is making herself ready. \ When not we, my brethren, not we, but Jesus Christ himself shall be their glorious everlasting Bridegroom 1 And as the bridegroom re- joices over his bride, so will he rejoice over them.^ Therefore it should greatly pacify us, as it did David, to say, we shall go to them ; which is much better than their return to us : " They have departed from us for a season, that we might receive them again for- ever."

* Converse with God, &c. pag-e 79. f Luke xx. 35. t Rev. xix. 7. § Isaiah Ixii. 5.

3't Funeral Consolations,

I may add, that this is the most effectual considera- tion m the world, from whence an affectionate mourner can receive full satisfaction ; because it rather sup- ports than suppresses his love to his deceased friend. True love, above all ihings, has a strong principle of self-preservation ; it resists all things that would ex- tinguish it, and abhors forgetfulness ; no waters can quench it, it is stronger than death, and will survive its object. Now this consideration of seeing them again^ relieves and revives our love ; it tells us we may cher- ish and keep it still, and that it shall have a fresh gratification, in the presence of its restored object ; we may love on upon a just ground, and may anticipate the pleasures of that eternal society with our dear friends expected above. So that upon this account, in midst of our anguish, we may imagine the angels* ad- dress to the disciples, to be (with some alteration) made to us : " Why gaze ye so, and stand looking after them who are ascended ? These same persons which are taken up from you into heaven, shall ye see coming again.'* Oh I that we could, like Abraham, by faith, so see that darj, though afar off, as to rejoice ! This is the way to perpetuate our memory of them, when they re- turn with dehght on our minds, and not as a frightful torment. If there be nothing but sadness and terror, it will soon weary us, and make us study some arts of oblivion, whereas we shall very freely repeat a grateful and welcome remembrance.

The useful inferences from this doctrine, are as follow :

1. This shews us the excellency of Christianity, or, how great a blessing the gospel is, that furnishes us with such an antidote, against these temptations to deep sorrow. Indeed it is a comfortable doctrine, which brings life and immortality to light ; which tells us they are but sleefiing in Jesus, who have died in him, and helps us to put so mild an interpretation on so grievous a calamity. What a soft notion of dying is this, viz. ^ going to the Father^^ our gracious, com- passionate heavenly Father ! Whatever dubious glances this way we find among some of the sagacious

funeral Consolations. 25

heathen writers, who confess they rather desired, than were able to prove it, (as Seneca owns ;) it is certain, they had so httle of an assured persuasion of eternal bHss after deatli, prevailing among them, that the apos- tle (in this respect opposing them to christians) sticks not to describe them thus, viz. those who have no hofie ;* but where they had no clear hope, christians have per- fect assurance.

And whereas we are apt to be concerned for the out- ward tabernacle^ those amiable bodies that were the de- aire of our eyes, and the instruments of conversation, (whose very pleasing idea makes many a ivelcome return to our grieved minds, and which we love to cherish and preserve in a lively remembrance) the gospel answers this also, though it will be but of little consideration with wise men ; for what are these lumps of clay, with- out the animating firincifile, more to be valued than the comely garments of a beautiful person ? The soul was the true subject of those excellent and sweet dispositions for which we once so admired them.

And yet even this flesh rests in hojie of a blessed resurrection ; the great Redeemer is the Guardian of their dust ; for this is the Father^s will which sent him, that of all which was given him, he should lose nothing, but should raise it ufi again at the last day.-f Nay, he will change their vile bodies, and will fashion them like to his own glorious body.% He will one day visit their sepulchres with mighty power, when his spirit shall enter those dry bones, and make them to live. He will bring their separated spirits out of that state of widowhood, and reunite them to the body ; but not such a corrufitible body as we saw them have here. We knew them in weakness and frailty, but he will raise them in iiower. We knew them in dishonour,^ base and vile ; but he will raise them in glory. We knew it a natural or sensual body, but he will raise it a spiritual : It had not the glory of a star here, but then it shall have the beauty and brightness of the sun.\\ O

* 1 Thess. iv. 13. f John vl. 39. ^ Phil. iii. 21. § 1 Cor. xv. 43. ff Matt. xiii. 43. G

26 Funeral Consolations.

sweet contemfilation / to think how that corruptible shall put on incorruption, and that mortal, so beloved, shall put on immortality ! And therefore we do not throw them away carelessly, as things never to be look- ed after more ; but we lay them up in the safe reposi- tory of the grave, with solemnity and care, as a treas- ure in store ; " Because the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and come forth and live ;"* and then some use will be made of these deposited remains.

And is this the account the gospel gives of them who die in the Lord ? Is this the case of our deceased holy friends ? Then, " O death ! where is thy sting ? O grave ! where is thy victory V* Thanks be to God for this gospel ; that we and our friends have lived under it, and can die more easily for it. O I what a black gulf is death, both to the dying and surviving friend, when they see nothing certain, beyond the grave, and dry bones I but to christians who see it shine beyond the clouds, there is comfort I there is hope ! We part awhile, but it is as they who bid good night, only for a little interval of rest. Thus has the gospel abolished and quite annulled death.

2. How much more may a well prepared christian rejoice in his own death ? Because he has k far greater concern in its advantages than his loving friends- In- deed death is so solemn a business, so imfiortant a crisis, the turning point of eternal happiness, or eternal mise- ry, that leads to a judgment so accurate and searching, (the requisite preparation for which is so strict, and human frailties so many) the doom is so dreadful, and thesentence sodccisive and irreversible, that no frame is more beseeming or safe for poor sinful creatures to be found in, than that of a/ieni£eni humility^ and a serious awful anxiety about the issue of so momentous a concern.

But when a christian hath deliberately settled the grounds of his hope, and upon impartial search finds the characters of an heir of glory ,* and the uncorrupted tes-» timony of his conscience, concerning his integrity of

* John V. 28.

Funeral Consolations, 27

heart and life ; why should he not rejoice %vith his trem- blings even ^vhen he is stepping over the border of time into a boundless eternity ? Sure it should be a joyful thing to die and ^o to the Father 1 And no doubt but it would be so, if he were certain of that ; they who are through humble jealousy apt to cry, Lord, s/iare us a little s would then welcome death with speed. As for a well prepared and assured christian, who knows, if he were absent from the body, he should l* present ivith the Lord how can he but desire it ? Why should he, like others, be hanging back and craving more delay ? Why should he loiter, when a messenger from heaven calls him out of this Sodom ? Rather, he ought to desire to be dissolved, and to loose from this port, and to go with full sails into the haven of eternal rest. It is indeed a rough passage, in which he is sure of the shipwreck of the earthly vessel ; but the soul shall land safe in paradise. It is a dark step through the valley of death's shadow, but he is led through it by a sure guide, who will shew them the path of life ;* why then should he fear any ill ? Rather let him say as Zuinglius, v,'hen he received the mortal wound, Ecquid hoc infortunii ? " What harm is this to me ?" Indeed, nature shrinks and shivers at the thoughts of untried agonies and groans, which we have sometimes seen others labour under. But what though it costs us a few sighs and pangs ? Who would not break his way through one half hour's pangs, into everlasting joys, to have that great sight, viz. the presence of the God oj glory ? This is enough to make the christian at once both to fight and triumph, while he bids his sorrowful ^ friends rejoice, because he goes to the Father. |

But alas ! it is astonishing to see how little of thi; j holy welcome death finds among christians I I doub the most that the generality of men, esteemed relig ious, attain to, is only to be unwillingly content witl heaven, when ungrateful death will no longer suffe them to stay. How few court his approaches in calii desires ! when they have suffered an unwelcome ship

* Psalm xvi. 11.

28 JFuneral Consolations.

-wreck, they are content indeed to land on the celestial shore, rather than perish ; but they had much rather put ofif the voyage. When therefore they are arrested with sickness or danger, what do we hear, but craving more delay, hanging back, and crying. Lord, spare me a little longer ? Where do we find the spirit of those pilgrims, who, having heaven in their eye, embraced ilie promise with joyful arms, and with insatiable desires hastened to arrive there ? They valued not their own country ; ever since they heard of heaven, they would hear of no home on earth. Where are these chil- dren of Abraham, these seed of Jacoh^ that stand so affected towards heaven, as to rejoice in quitting theif kindred and native earth at God's call ? And how should our friends rejoice for us, in what is so unwel- come to ourselves ? Let us not act so inconsistently to our principles, as to extol the felicity of our departed christian friends, and yet be so averse to have their lot. Can we rejoice for them, and yet bemoan ourselves un- der the same fate ? Or is it so well ior them, and can it be ill for us to go to the Father ? Nay, our desires :^houJd be so much the greater, because our dear Lord is gone before, and so many of our holy friends also. I'iie departure of every amiable relation or friend to lieaven is a fresh invitation to our desires to follow, since it is at once to go both to the Father, and to thera too which we perhaps have more sensible conceptions of. Were our friends in hell with Dives, the scripture tells us they would have us entreated not to come to AYaX place of torment ; but being in paradise, no doubt, ':hey as earnestly wish us a share in their joys ; and >hall not our desires be the same ? Let us learn then o converse with death as a friendly thing, which, as the )hilosopher said of his enemy, may kill us but cannot Rirt us. We know where, and to whom, it sends the rood man ; it makes him absent from the body, but pre-

cnt ivith the Lord : an exchange to which he should

le most willing ! 3. Let this give a check to our inordinate grief for

le death of holy friends. Here is the difficulty to put

* Heb. si. 13, 16.

Funeral Consolations. 29

this in practice in a time of trial : Our love is usually so carnal and sensual, that we know not how to raise it to so rational and spiritual an exercise as this. When death has unclasped those mutual embraces of our friends and us, (which nothing but death could do) our passions are soon in such a tumult as David's : " Oh ! my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom : would God I had died for thee, O Absalom my son, my son !"* It is a time when our bowels will sound like an harfi within us ; when nature can frame itself to no voice but that of lamentation and weeping, and we refuse to be comforted : we cannot forbear Jacob's sorrowful moan, " Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and all these things are against me l*'t We have much ado to re- strain ourselves from David's passionate exclamation, " I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan ; very pleasant hast thou been to me ; thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women "| We can hardly suppress our inward wishes, with Job, " O ! that it were with me as in months past, when my children were about me !"§ This then is the time when we have need to call in all the aids of our christian faith and hope, for calming our disquieted minds : and sure- ly these should signify something with christians- To what puqxDse have we the revelation of immortal life, if it be of no use on such occasions ? Why have we more hope than others, if we have not less sorrow ? Make not the world believe you think so meanly of heaven, by mourning for those who are gone thither, as though this world were better. Rebuke these un- reasonable passions ; it is their birth-day into glory ; though there was sorrow when the hour of travail came, (z. e. when we saw our beloved friends in their pangs and agonies, when we saw pale death changing their coun- tenances^ and sending them aivay ; then w'e stood round them with sorrow and tears, as if we shared in their agonies, and died with them ;) yet now that they are delivered, and remember their anguish no more, wCj

* 2 Sam. xviii. ^o. f Gen. xxxii. 36. % 2 Sam. i, 26. § Job xsix. 2. 5. C 2

30 Funeral Co7i8olatio7is,

should carry it as sharers in their joy, and believing ad- mirers of their felicity : Thus David washed and anointed himself, when it was said, the child is dead. Philo the Jew tells us. That the great veneration which the Hittites expressed to Abram, in that honourable salutation, thou art a mighty prince,^ 2cc. was because they saw him bear the death of his wife Sarah, with more magnanimity and moderation than v/as usual among them.

Philosophy itself has often laid these storms, and taught the wise Pagans to triumph over these infirmi- ties of nature ; and shall Christianity be baffled with them ? Plutarch tells us of his wife, that when tidings met him on the road that his son was dead, and the company with him came home, they saw ail things so serene and easy, that they concluded it was a false re- port ; so calmly and indifferently had she managed herself. Nay, the poor barbarous Americans will sing over the remains of their friends, wha they believe are gone to the region of spirits, while they recount with joy the little instances of their valour : And shall not we with more reason rejoice over ours, while we re- hearse the evidences of their piety, and the fruits of their faith, and charity, and victory over the world ? It is Seneca's supposition, (and may be our firm conclu- sion of a good man,) *' He is not lost at death, but only is sent before."!

Upon how little a business of this life, do we con- tentedly and patiently part from our dear associates for some weeks or months ? And it suffices us to hear ihey are well, though absent ; and shall we take it so Very ill, when they are gone (perhaps not much long- er) upon so great a business as taking possession of n everlasting kingdom ? Can we love them, and not vish their happiness ? Or can they be happy, and not 'tie ?

It may be they are taken away from evil to come ; uch times may happen as shall make us say, " Bless-

* Gen. xxiii. 6. \ Ep, ixiy.

Funeral Consolations. 31

ed are the dead in the Lord, for they are at rest." When we shall interpretGod's meaning in their remov- al by those words, '* Come, my people, enter into your chambers, and hide yourselves, till the indignation be overpast."* However, let there be never so great pros- perity in view, they are gainers by the change in the best times ; and the day of their death is better than the day of their birth yf for they have left a good name for piety and virtue, which is better than precious oint- ment, or more fragrant than those beds of sfiices and perfumes^X in which persons of eminent worth were laid at their death, or those aromatic ointments with which they were embalmed. To which, it is like, Solomon alludes, in that expression, intimating, that he dies with most honour, whose memory is embalmed with the savory fruits of a virtuous life.

All this is most true, when we can say of our deceas- ed friends, that they are gone to the Father^ and this on solid grounds : when we have known them by di- vine grace, powerfully biassed toward God, holiness and heaven, as the great centre of all their desires and aims ; when we have seen them shine with the Re- deemer's image in great meekness and humility, great inofiPensiveness, and tender goodness towards all ; (for let me tell you, by the way, this sweet and quiet temper does not only endear us to men, but to God ; " It is of great price," says the apostle, " in the sight of God ;"|| so that when God comes to value a person, he makes high account of this meek and peaceable spirit, as being the great ornament of our profession ; of which the whole family, and others feel the com- fortable charms :) when we have found them possess- ed and governed with a conscientious dread of offend- ing God or man, (perhaps in some instances too scru- pulous) diligent also in the daily duties of secret piety and devotion, with reverence and great seriousness : when we have seen them faithful in all their relative capacity, as therein serving the Lord, as well as men :

* Isa. xxtL 20. I Eccl. vii. 1, % 2 Chron. xvi. 14 fl 1 Pet. iii. 4.

5^ Funeral Consolations,

when they have been eminently mortified to this vain "world, to all the gaiety ynrl bravery, the interests, di- vertisements, and pleasures of this life ; and that in years and rjrcumsiances very capable of such tempta- tioriss ; and this because they rather chose the better fiart^ which shall never be tiiken away : when we have beheld tlieir sjibmUsrve patience^ and christian resigna- tion to God under misery ; and after all, great humili- ty in an abasing sense of their unworthiness, and need of mercy ; but yet supporting their faith with honoura- ble thoughts of divine goodness^ and a sense of their 01V71 sincerUy ; so as with hope and strong desires to breathe out their departing souls into their Redeemer's hands ; welcoming his approaches, with, come^ Lord Jesut:^ come quickhj. When we can thus describe our friends, (and I know very well whom I could thus im- perfectly describe) why should we not conclude theij are gone to the Father ? And why should we not re- joice in all the comforts of thjit consideration ? How unreasonable is our immoderate sorrow, when all the res/ of their friends rejoice ? For, as themselves re- joice to go to the Father, so the blessed God their Father has welcomed them with joy to their everlasting home : Jesus Christ has presented them as his crown and joy, nvithoiit sfiot or bltmiah ; holy angels and spir- its congratulate their arrival to their society ; and can- not be supposed to rejoice less at the consummation of their victorious warfare, than at its be.c;inning, in their conversion ; and shall we alone be swallowed up in sorrow I Rather let us comfort one another with these ivords, and ascend after them in holy desires to be in the same state and place.

For I must add, That we can never receive the com- fort of this argument, unless ourselves be in earnest bent towards the same heaven, and can truly hope to meet our friends there. All who part here do not meet again in heaven ; and though they who are departed may be happy, yet if we never see them again, we lose the com- fort of such a thought. If we must be separated from them by a dreadful unpassable gulf; ifofusandour

funeral Consolations, 33

friends, us and our yoke-fellows, us and our children, it be found true here, that one is to be taken, and the oth- er I ejft ; they admitted) and we shut out from heaven : This will make their death to be the beginning of an everlasting separation, never to be healed ; only it may be prevented by our serious preparation for the same happy end and state.

Now the account given of that state (here described by going to the Father) sufficiently points out to us, what that requisite preparation is. Since it is to dwell and converse with God as our Father, how necessary is it to such an end, that we here love and serve him as our Father, with all filial respects ? that we bear a lively conformity to his holy nature, in our correspon- dent wills and affections ? that we walk and converse with him ? that we relish the thoughts of him ? and that, by frequent ap.p.roaches to him in acts of holy devo- tion, we 7nay begin the acquaintance which Heaven is to perfect ! Then may we speak freely of meeting them again, when ourselves are by faith and patience /o//ow- ing them who are now inheriting the promises.

4. Finally, Let this excite near relations so to live tegether, as to afford this ground of consolation to their surviving friends at their own death. Though at pres- ent I may seem to have been speaking what concerns myself only, yet it concerns you to hearken for the time to come, when the like case may be yours. How surely will death dissolve all your relations, and part you and your beloved friends ? The time is coming, when the now desire of your eyes shall become the terror of them ; when with great anguish of soul, you shall see all your mutual endearing love, all your de- lightful and pleasant converses, ending in dying ago- nies and ghastly looks ; and yourselves lamenting over their expiring groans and struggles. Oh ! Sirs, what can comfort you then but this consideration in my text ? or, what shall comfort your poor relatives whom you leave behind you but this, that they hope you are gone to the F'ather ? iVIethinks, I pity them who sor- row v/ithout hope, who mourn for rebellious prodigalsj

34 Funeral Consolations.

for wicked, though near relations, who they fear are lost in the horrors of an endless night of darkness and misery, and that the lamp of their life, with that of their hopes, are both gone out together.

Oh ! that therefore none of you would, by your neg- ligent, carnal, irreligious lives, be such a terror to your friends, nor make such a sword to pass through their souls ! When you are sick they tremble and are in pain ; and that for two lives at once, that of the body, and the more important life of the soul too. And when you shall die in that case, they will refuse to be comforted ; they will count themselves undone, through fear that you are so : whereas, did they see you work- ing out your own salvation, and seeking God's king- dom and righteousness in the first place ; could they perceive your penitent return to God, after your long estrangement from him ; and that you are for nothing so concerned, as how you may be saved ; couid they be confident of your pardon and acceptance with God in Christ , O I how^ secure and easy would they be ! When you shall be smitten with sickness, they will then go comfortably, as the sisters of Lazarus did to Christ, saying, JLord^ he whom thou lovest is sick :* and when you die, they can cheerfully resign you into his safe hands. When it w-iil comfort their hearts, to hear you say, *' My heart and my flesh fail, but God is my portion forever :" and to hear such a comfortable fare- well from you, as Christ sent to his disciples, " I am going ; but it is to my God and to your God ; to my Father, and to your Father."! So mighty a difference is it to our friends, (much more to our own souls) in what condition we live and die.

I beseech you, therefore, to live together as the heirs of eternal life] provoking one another to good works, joining your prayers, and giving mutual examples of piety ; that so you may fit each other for heaven, and may leave a testimony in one another's bosoms, of your sincerity towards God, and your meetness for eternal glory ; that so, whether husbands or wives, parents or

* John si. 3. f John sx. 17.

Funeral Consolations. o5

children, brethren or sisters, die first, your surviving friends may trace you to heaven in their refreshing thoU;^hts, and lodge you there. For " verily they will faint then, unless they can believe you are gone to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.*" So that when they have laid you in the dark grave, and the curtains of the night are drawn about you, they may en- tertain themselves with pleasant hopes, that your souls are arnoog the saints in lights wrapt up in the embraces of endless love and joy ; that you are standing with the Lamb ufion Mount Sion above^ where all his redeemed multitudes shall shortly convene, in order to that great marrtage-day of the Lamb ; when the glorious bride- groom shall put on all his beautiful ornaments, and ap- pear in his brightest robes ; not only witli his own, but with his leather's glory ^-^ and then shall they also a/i/iear with him in glory. When heaven shall empty itself of its blessed inhabitants, who shall all come down to be the spectators of this great solemnity ; ambitious to adorn the triumphs of the mighty Jesus, and to aug- ment the magnificence of his appearance. When tne spoils of the devouring grave shall be rescued by that triumphant conqueror, and the dead start forth at tlie sound of his thundering voice, and mighty trumpet. When all nations, high and low, shall answer the sum- mons to his awful tribunal, and all wiih attentive silence wait to hear their final doom. When, " Come, ye blessed, and go, ye cursed," shall send all to their eter- nal homes ; these to everlasting punishment, but the righteous into lije eternal. When death and hell, and all such frightful things, shall be cast inio the bottomless lake forever. Oh, most glorious hope I Oh, more glo- rious sight I when it shall once be, as it surely shall, When "" the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion, \tiih songs, aud everlasting joy shall be on their heads ; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away ."| Wnerefore, let us agam comfort one another witn these words. Amen, Even so come, Lord Jesus. * Psalm, xxvii lo, f Luke ix. 26. it Isaiah xxxv. 10.

J HYMJsr, Submission under bereaving Providences.

PEACE, 'tis the Lord, Jehovah's hand, That blasts our joys in death ;

Changes the visage once so dear, And gathers back the breath.

'Tis he the potentate supreme

Of all the worlds above. Whose steady council wisely rule,

Nor from their purpose move.

'Tis he whose justice might demand

Our souls a sacrifice ; Yet scatters with unwearied hand,

A thousand rich supplies.

Our covenant God and Father he In Christ, our bleeding Lord ;

Whose grace can heal the bursting heart, With one reviving word.

Fair garlands of immortal bliss.

He weaves for every brow ; And shall rebellious passions rise,

When he corrects us now ?

Silent we own Jehovah's name.

We kiss the scourging hand ; And yield our comforts and our life

To thy supreme command.

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