First, We should take this occasion to mourn for our own sins ; miseries are but the effects of sin. You should labour to make sin
428 A FUNERAL SERMON. [1 CoR. VII. 30.
bitter by your present feeling. There should be, I say, a special renewing; of our repentance by such providences ; experience teacheth best. Now you see what sorrow sin bringeth ; if men would but im- prove their occasions of sorrow thus, their hearts would be more keen against sin. It is a great argument to make men continue in a course, when it never proveth evil to them : therefore God challengeth them : Jer. ii. 5, ' What iniquity have you found in me, that you depart from me?' Just as a martyr said, I have served Jesus Christ these many years, and should I deny him now P But if men would thus observe these experiences, sin cannot make this challenge. We can say of sin, Thou hast killed my husband or wife at such a time ; my daughter, my brother, at such a time, &o. ; consider and say, Have not I pro- voked God to remove the comfort of a parent or near relation from me ? It is said of Gideon, Judges viii. 16, that with briars and thorns he taught the men of Succoth. So God many times teaches us.
Secondly, We should take this occasion to weep for the public abominations. When Polus the tragedian was to act a mournful part, he brought in the urn, or the pot of ashes of his own dead son ; that drew real tears from him. We are all to act a mournful part now, even to mourn for our abominations before the Lord. It may be your grief is fiat and low ; awaken it by these [)rivate instances. But take heed, let it not stay there ; this is but to give the occasion ; some other thing must be the cause and the object of it. Oh, pour out a little water upon the public sins ; they are sparks that we have kindled ! As the prophet speaks : Isa, 1.11,' Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, and conijiass yourselves about with sparks.' It is meant of sins; not, as it is wrongly expounded, of walking in our own duties. Well, pour out this water upon these sparks. When a town is on fire every one will bi-ing his bucket. Why, when the whole kingdom is compassed about with these 8i)arks God giveth you these private occasions that you may bring your bucket to quench the common flame. So Luke xxiii. 2S, ' Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.' Alas ! who could choose butshetl tears to part with such a blessed com- panion as our Saviour ? Yet not for me, saith he, but for the survivors. Wee[) for your sins and calamities that are coming upon you ; let such an occasion open the floodgates, but then cut out a passage for them, that they may run this way.
Thirdly, For the public miseries. Private sorrows should be swallowed up in the public. Look, as private mercies are no mercies, unless it be well with Sion ; and therefore it is annexed as a special blessing, Ps. cxxviii. G, that they should ' see their children's children, and peace upon Israel.' Defensive love is strong always, but in these times more strong, because every one expected the Messiah to come of his race. But that is nothing without ])eace upon Israel ; it is not a consummate mercy without that. Private griefs are nothing in comparison of the miseries of Sion : 1 Sam. iv. 21, ' The glory is departed ! the glory is departed ! ' Though she lost a father, lost a husband, that was sad ; but .she reflects upon the principal cause of grief, the misery of the church of God. So see Jer. xxii. 10, ' Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him ; but weep sore for him that goeth away, for he shall return no more to his native country,' — not for good Josiah, but the
1 Cor. VII. 30.] a funeral sermon. 429
misery of wicked Shall nm. Thus it must be godly in respect to the end, to draw you to God those ways.
Use 1 . It condemneth that slightness of spirit that is in most persons. God cntereth into their families, and taketh hence a principal jiilhir, a husband or wife, but they are not affected with it ; they carelessly slight it, as if nothing had been done, or some chance had befallen them. AKoman bragged, Se nmiquam cum mafre, &c.l They may say they were never comforted, they never needed it ; they lay nothing to heart. Brethren, the use of divinity indeed is to compose and still the spirit, not to make it stupid. I am sorry that I am forced to speak anything to trouble you ; I had rather comfort ; but there is no true rest where there hatli not been a due trouble, therefore I must a little speak against this stoical patience and insensibleness. And because dis- covery of sin doth more wound the heart than all the forcibleness of expression we can use, I shall not cudgel it with barren invectives, but labour to discover this sinful careless insensibleness to the heart, and distinguish it from a holy patience. I have been often upon such like subjects, therefore shall say the less now. I shall difference it chiefly in their grounds.