\'shl>v, near Faosley, in Northamptonshire, to enjoy the counsel and advii f the vener- able Mr John Dod. " A little before he died, he asked Mr Dod, Baying ' What will you say of him who is going out of the world, and can find no comfort? ' Whet will you say of oni Saviour Cbrisl V replied Mr Dod, ' who, when fa was going out of the world, found no comfort, hut cried, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?'" This adminis- tered consolation to Mr Throgmorton's troubled mind, and he departed soon after, re- joicing in the Lord.'— Clarke's ' Martyrologie, as before, p. 172.— G. J See this treatise in Vol. II. — G.
1 Peter I. 4.] a string of pearls. 465
If the best things are reserved for believers, then let not Christians mourn immoderately, 1 Thes. iv. 13, 14. Oh ! be not over-much afflicted and grieved for the death of husband, wife, child, sister, friend, who dies in the Lord ; for they are but gone to take possession of those great and glorious things that are reserved in heaven for them. This deceased saint is now gone to her home, to her heaven, to her God that hath loved her, to her Christ that hath died for her, and to her crown that was prepared for her. Abraham mourned moderately for his dear deceased Sarah, Gen. xxiii. 2, as is imported by a small caph in that Hebrew word that signifies to weep ; and that not because she was old and over-worn, as some Rabbins say, but because death to her was but an inlet into glory : death did but bring her to a happy fruition of all those glorious things that God hath laid up for them that love him. Death, that seems to dispossess a Christian of all, puts him into a pos- session of all ; of all joys, of all comforts, of all delights, of all contents, of all happiness, of all blessedness; and why then should our sorrow, our tears overflow the banks of moderation ? Sorrow is good for nothing but for sin. Now that the child is dead, wherefore should I fast and weep ? said David. Grief preceding evil, if it be used for a remedy, cannot be too much ; but that which follows an evil past, cannot be too little.
When Ezekiel lost his wife, the delight of his eyes, he must not weep, Ezek. xxiv. 15-17. When Mary the mother of Jesus stood by the cross of her only dear Son, she wept not, as Ambrose saith,- John xix. 25-27. We may say of our deceased friend, as the Jews of their father Jacob, Non est mortuus, he is not dead ; or as our Saviour of Lazarus, ' He is not dead, but sleepeth,' John xi. 1 1 ; and the maid, ' Why trouble you yourselves ? they are not dead, but sleep/ To die, in the prophet Isaiah's phrase, is but to lie down in our beds, Isa. xliii. 17 ; lvii. 1, 2. So Asa the king's coffin is called a bed, 2 Chron. xvi. 14. And when ' thy days shall be fulfilled,' saith Nathan to David, ' and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers ;' or, as the original hath it, ' and thou shalt lie down with thy fathers,' 2 Sam. vii. 12. Death is nothing but a sleeping with our fathers, or a lying down in the bed with our fathers and friends, who have lain down before us. And, therefore, when a friend, a wife, a child dies, and leaves this world, we are to bid them but good night, as the primitive Christians used to do, in sure and certain hope to meet them in the morning of the resurrection.
The ancients were wont to call the days of their death natalia, not dying days but birth-days. It hath been the custom, saith Haymo,1 when a child of God departed this life, to call it not the day of his death, but the day of his nativity. The Jews to this day stick not to call their Golgothas Batte Cajim, the houses or places of the living.
The Jews' ancient custom was, by the way as they went with their corpse, to pluck up every one the grass, as who should say, they were not sorry for the death of their friends and relations, as men without hope, for they were but so cropped off, and should spring up again in due season.2 Ah, friends ! if you will needs mourn, then mourn for
. 1 Bishop of Halberstat : see list of writings in Watt's Bib. Brit., sub nomine. — G. 2 The Persian kings would have no mournings, nor mourning apparel worn in their presence.
466 A STRING OF PEARLS. [1 PETER I. 4.
yourselves, mourn for your sins, mourn for the barrenness and baseness of your own hearts ; but do not mourn, at least excessively, for the death of any Christian friend or relation, seeing that death gives them a quiet and full possession of all that glory and happiness that is reserved in heaven for them.
The next use is cause of comfort and consolation to all the people of God. If it be so that the best things are reserved for believers till they come to heaven, then this may serve to comfort the people of God, and that,
(1.) First, against their poor, low, and mean condition in this world. Ah ! poor Christians, what though you have little in hand, yet you have much in hope; though you have little in possession, yet you have much in reversion. He that hath but little in present possession, yet if he hath a fair estate in reversion, he comforts himself, and solaces his spirit in the thoughts of it, that there will come a day when he shall live like a man, when he shall live bravely and sweetly ; and this makes him sing care and sorrow away. Why ! Christians, do you do so : you have a fine, a fair estate in reversion, though you have but little in posses- sion ; and therefore bear up bravely and live comfortably, James ii. 5 ; 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8 ! Ps. xvi. 6.