3. The lively hope of this blessedness is powerful to support us under the greatest troubles can befall us in this our mortal condition.
142 mi manton's funeral sermon.
Here we are tossed upon the alternate waves of time, but hereafter we- shall arrive at the port, the blessed bosom of our Saviour, and enjoy a peaceful calm : * And so we shall ever be with the Lord.' Words of infinite sweetness ! This is the song of our prosperity and charm of our adversity : ' We shall ever be with the Lord.' Well might the apostle add immediately after, ' Therefore comfort one another with these words.'
More particularly, they are a lenitive to moderate our sorrows upon the departure of our dearest friends who die in the Lord ; for they ascend from this valley of tears to the happy land of the living. What father is so deserted of reason as to bear impatiently the parting with his son, that goes over a narrow part of the sea to a rich and pleasant country, and receives the investiture and peaceable possession of a kingdom ? Nay, by how much the stronger his love is, so much the more transporting is his joy ; especially if he expects shortly to be with him, to see him on the throne, in the state of a king, and to par- take of his happiness. If, then, it be impossible to nature to be- grieved at the felicity of one that is loved, according to what principle of nature or faith do believers so uncomfortably lament the death of friends, of whom they have assurance that, after their leaving our earth, they enter into an everlasting kingdom, to receive a crown of glory from Christ himself? Our Saviour tells the disciples, 'If ye loved me, ye would rejoice because I said I go to my Father,' to sib down at his right hand in majesty. A pure affection directly ter- minates in the happiness and exaltation of the person that is loved. I am not speaking against the exercise of tender affections on the loss of our dear friends, and the pensive feeling of God's hand in it, whicli is a natural and necessary duty. There is a great difference between stupidity and patience ; but violent passion or unremitting sorrow is most unbecoming the blessed hope assured to us in the gospel.
Chrysostom, treating of this argument, and reflecting upon the custom of those times, wherein at funeral solemnities a train of mourn- ing women attended the corpse, tearing their hair and face, and crying out with all the expressions of desperate soitow, breaks forth, ' Ah, christian faith and religion ! that was triumphant over thine enemies in so many battles and victories by the blood and death of the martyrs, how art thou contradicted by the practice of these who profess thee in words ! Is this not to be sorrowful as those that have no hope ? Are these the affections, the expressions of one that believes the blessedness of immortal life? What will the heathens say? How will they be induced to believe the promises of Christ to his servants of a glorious- kino-dom, when those who are so in title, behave themselves as if thev had no steadfast faith in them ? '
4. The hopes of this blessed state is able to free us from the fear of death. Tliis last enemy gives a hot alarm to mankind, both as it deprives them of all that is pleasant here, and for the terrible con- sequences that attend it. To the eye of sense, a dead body is a spectacle of fearful appearance. He that a little before heard and discoursed, and with a cheerful air conversed and enjoyed the world, now is dead, and all his senses in him ; the eyes are dead to light, and the ears to sounds, the tongue to words, the heart to feel any affections, and the-
Dii manton's funekal sermon. 14S
countenance to discover them ; nothing remains but silence, horror, and corruption. Besides, 'after death comes judgment,' and a state of unrelenting torments to the wicked. But a true believer, that has been obedient to his Saviour, sees things by another light than that of sense, and has living hopes in his dying agonies. He knows that death to the saints is but a sleep ; and while the body rests in the grave, the soul is, as it were, all act, continually exercising its most noble faculties on the best objects. Does the soul sleep in that all- enlightened world, that sees with o])en face the infinite beauty of God ? that hears and bears a part in the hymns of the angels and saints? encircling his throne ? that drinks of tlie rivers of pleasure that flo\v from his presence? that freely and joyfully converses with all the celestial courtiers, the princes of that kingdom, the favourites of God ? Then it truly lives. This reconciles death to a christian, who has nothing more in his wishes than to be with Christ, and knows that diseases and pains, the forerrunners of it, are but as breaking down the walls of this earthly dark prison, that the soul may take its flight to the happy region, and for ever enjoy the liberty of the sons of God. And for his body, that shall be reunited to the soul in glory. Me- thinks God speaks to a dying believer as he did to Jacob when he was to descend to Egypt, ' Fear not to go down into the grave ; I will go down with thee, and I will bring thee up again.' The same almighty voice that gave being to the world shall awake those who sleep in the dust, and reform them according to the example of Christ's glorified body. Oh, how should we long for that triumphant day, and with most ardent aspirings pray, ' Thy kingdom come in its full power and glory ? '