[L] Because otherwise our cairiage would be very dishonourable and derogatory to Jesus Christ, as if he wei-e not better to us than all the comforts that we lose : 1 Sam. i. 8, as Elkanah said to Hannah, ' AVhy weepest thou ? am not I better to thee than ten sons ? ' So why weepest thou ? Is not Christ better to thee than ten wives, ten chil- dren, ten i)arents, a thousand times as much as thou hast lost ? If we had but faith to see it, Christ is to a believer whatever he wanteth. The people of God in the wilderness wanted houses : Ps. xc. 1, ' Lord, thou art our habitation.' A Christian hath never more comfort than when he seeth that particular thing made up in Christ which was taken fi-om him by the providence of God. If a believer has lost her husband, she seeth Christ her husband. So for any other relation ; if a parent, seeth Christ his jjarent ; if a brother, Christ is a brother. We are to Christ instead of all these relations, and therefore why should not Christ be so to us ? See Mat. xii. 50, ' Whosoever doth the will of my Father, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother,' Mark, we are so to him, and therefore why should we not account Christ to l)e so to us ? Certainly it is a great dishonour and disparagement to him if we do not see all our losses abundantly made up in him.
[2.] It would be a dislionour to our profession. It is a credit to Christianity that the profess(jrs of it can be joyful in all conditions: Heb. X. 34, ' Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, 'apirdyrjv ; though all they had were snatched from them by rude hands, yet they were joyful. Let guilty Cains look with fallen countenances, Gen. iv. G. Let the phaiisees please themselves in their sour looks, Mat. vi. 16. A Christian's countenance should show him to be above his misery, sprightly and cheerful. Though you take away their coat, as Jo.sepli's mistress did, you cannot take away their comfort; they are glad they can escape with their conscience, though they should leave
1 Cor. VIL 30.] a funeral sermon. 433
their coat behind them. I remember Scaliger playeth the critic with Homer, because champion Achilles is brought in weeping ; his beloved Briscis was taken from him. So it is a disgrace to our high profes- sion when a Christian is brought in SaKpvcra<;, weeping ; it is beneath you. It is said in Acts v. 41, ' They departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christ.' Philpot's stocks in the Bishoj) of London's coal-house were but a pair of organs, as he saith. Nor is it true only in these honourable suffer- ings for the glory of our religion, but in the strokes of Providence in this very business of deceased friends. The apostle makes it the pro- perty of pagans to mourn excessively : 1 Thes. iv. 13, ' Sorrow not as those that have no hope,' i.e., as pagans ; they did abound in it : as see Gen. 1. 3, compared with ver. 10. Joseph mourned for Jacob but seven days, the Egyptians seventy, even ten times as much. Nay, j)agans err so much this way, that if they could not find grief they would force grief ; and therefore, at their funerals, if they had no sympathy, they would flash their faces and cut their flesh, that they might be sorrowful. And therefore God saith, Deut. xiv. 1, ' Ye shall not cut yourselves and make baldness in your eyes for the dead ; ye are the children of the Lord your God ; ' that is, you have higher principles, you know such sorrow needless. And hence was it that tlie primitive Christians were wont to sing triumphant psalms at funerals, as it appeareth out of many places of Chrysostom, to show they had higher hopes of their departed friends.
[3.] It is very prejudicial. You have no benefit, but a great deal of hurt by it, 2 Cor. vii. 10. There it is summed up in one word, ' Worldly sorrow worketh death ; ' that is, chiefly, sorrow for worldly things, that works death temporal and eternal in its desert ; temporal death as it exhausteth the spirits, wasteth the marrow. Worldly sor- row leaveth a very strong impression upon the body, as Solomon saith, Prov. xvii. 22, ' A broken spirit drieth the bones ; ' it dulleth and deadens the heart. If a man w^ould not save his tears, yet he should reserve them, keep them up for holy uses. God may give you many spiritual occasions to empty your bottle ; do not be over-free of them. Affections over-exercised are usually restrained against the next occa- sion. And as they procure death in respect of the vigour of the body and soul, so an eternal death too ; it deserve th it. And so the apostle is to be understood ; for he opposeth it to godly sorrow, which here- after you shall see you have no cause to repent of, as you have of worldly. Grief is a most serious passion ; and though a man may forget himself in his joy, he should not forget to think of the danger ; worldly sorrow worketh death.