Section 10
e Fhil. ii. 13.
i Heb. xiii. 17.
« Acts i. 3.
AN ORDINATION.
987 ful ma Aters of our basineas, and faithful, careful ministers to it We work for God; and therefore shouid see to it, that we do our work well. We work for Christ; who did his work for us with indefatigable industiy, and did not fail, nor was discouraged, nor gave it up, till he could say, / have finished the worh that was given me to do, Mr. Perkin's motto was, Minister Verhi es, hoc age-^ffwe be ministers of the word of God, we must mind our business; for it is a irorff that will be a savour either of life imto life, or of death tin/o death,
(2.) Our Master's eye is always upon us, where-ever we are, and whatever we are doing; whatever we say, whatever we think, he perfectly knows it, its principles, and all its circumstances. He sees us when we trifle, and do the work of the Lord deceitfully ; when we offer the torn, and the lame, and the sick, for sacrifice, how plausibly soever it may be palliated before men. If we aim at self, and at our own praise, when we should seek the honour of Christ, he is acquainted with those corrupt glances of an eye that goes astray from him.
Now if God has such an observing eye upon us, we ought to have a jealous eye upon ourselves, and upon the frame of our spirits. God's servants need not do better than to serve him with eye service, because they are always under his eye; ministers who are more immediately employed for him, are more immediately observed by him. Those who execute the priesfs ofl Sce, are said to walh before God, O that we could thus walk before him, as always in his sight, that that consideration may not only restrain us from every thing unbecoming us, but engage us to ^o on in oar work with the more cheerfulness and courage. As it is the terror of the slothful and wicked senrant, so it is the pleasure and encouragement of the good and faithful servant, to be under his master's eye. If we take pains in studying, be constant and lively in prayer in our closet, he sees oar secret services to his name, as he does also the secret springs of our public performances, which men cannot judge of; and if in these our hearts be right with him, and we approve ourselves to him, we may have the satisfaction of this, that He approves of us; and then we may reckon it a very small thing to be judged of man's judgment. He who judges as, is one who knows us, and we are sure that his judgment is according to truth.
(3.) Our time is very precious, and our day is hastening toward a period. When we see what a deal of work we have to do, and what a little time we ha¥e to do it in, we shall see how strongly we are bound, by a close application of mind, to do a double work in a single day, that our work may not be unfinished when our time is done, or (which perhaps may be much sooner) when our opportunity is done.
f John ix. 4.
r 3 PeL i. 13, 14.
We cannot but be conscious to ourselves, that we have lost a gnat deal of time: how many empty spaces are there in our best days, and how many more in our worst? What a great deal more good might we have done to the souls of others, and got to our own souls, than we have, if we had been busy! Now though the time that is lost cannot be recalled, yet it may be redeemed, may be bought bach, with a little self-denial and industry, in the improvement of the present time. Thus a spend-thrift, when he sees his folly, and begins to take up, knows he has no other way to recover his past losses, but by being so much the more frugal for the future. O that we would all learn this good husbandry, to be very sparing in our expenses of time, not to lavish away any of the precious moments of it in trifles. " An hour saved is an hour got," is a more valuable principle of good husbandry, than *' A penny saved is a penny got."
We know not how little time may yet be before us, nor how soon, and how suddenly, we may be sent for home. Our commission runs, durante bene placito — during pleasure; and we may be displaced at less than an hour's warning; may be commanded away by death, or rendered useless by sickness, or may be silenced and driven into corners; or, some way or other, laid aside as despised broken vessels; and therefore, we should be quickened to work the work of him that sent us, while it is day, because the night comes.' Peter stirs up himself, to stir up others, and by preaching and writing to be a remembrancer to the churches, with this consideration, that he must shortly put off this tabernacle,* If Christians must exhort one another, surely then ministers must exhort them, so much the more as they see the day approaching ;>> the day of trouble, the day of restraint, the day of death ; * and therefore, improve the day of opportunity. If we find death working in us, it concerns us to be so much the more busy in the work of life, and whatever our hand finds to do, let us do it with all our might; it will be time enough to rest when we come to heaven. It well he-comes us to abide by that resolution, Non propter vitam, Vivendi perdere causes — Not for the sake of life, to lose the intent of living,
(4.) If we obtain mercy of the Lord to be faithful, there is hope that we may obtain this further mercy of him, to be useful. It is true, there are many who faithfully do their duty, and yet are disappointed of the success: they toil all night, and catch nothing; they labour in vain, and spend their strength for nought; and go in the bitterness of their souls because of this. But yet, if we do not the good we wish, we may hope that, through grace, we shall be instrumental to do some service to Christ and the souls of men; and the prospect of that should quicken h Heb. X. 35.
t ba. liii. 10.
EXHORTATION AT
ns to dili)^ence. Oar Lord Jesus was animated to go on in his work, with an assurance that he should see hit teed ; should tee of the travail of hit toul and be tatitjied, and that the good pleasure of tlie Lord should prosper in his hands,^
Let this, therefore, quicken us, that we know on whose errand we go, and carry a word that shall not return void. St. Paul was quickened by this con-sideration, that he did not run as uncertainly nor fight a* one that heats the air} It is good work we are about, and we are not without hopes it may turn to a good account; that though we are the weakest and unworthiest of all our Master's servants, yet we may by his grace be instrumental to save some soul from death, to turn some sinners from darkness to light, and from the power .of Satan unto God; we may have some who may be our joy and crown of rejoicing in the day of the Lord. By a holy ambition of such an honour as this, let us be spurred on to the utmost diligence and courage in the service of Christ. The more we magnify our office though we have all the reason in the world to be ashamed of ourselves/^ the more we shall think it worth our while to take pains in it.
(5.) We must shortly give account of our ministry; either with joy or grief, according as we are, or are not, diligent and faithful in the ministry. O that we were filled with this, and influenced by it. That the talents, put into our hands to trade with for our Master's honour, must be reckoned for; after a long time it may be, but at the set time." And whether, upon inquiry, we shall be found among the good and faithful servants, or among the wicked and slothful servants, is now worth while to consider ; for it is what our everlasting weal or woe depends upon.
Blessed Paul stirred up himself to the utmost care and diligence in his work, with a holy fear, lest while he preached to others, he himself should be a castaway at last :** much more reason have we to quicken ourselves with such a consideration. We have souls of our own to save; and if we prove false to our trust, and the souls of men perish through our treachery and neglect, it will be a righteous doom upon us, Thg life shall go for his life; thy soul for theirs. We are watchmen ; and ought to watch for souls, as those who roust give account, and know not how soon. And woe to us if the blood of souls come to be required at our hand.c
Let us, therefore, be humble, diligent, and faithful in our work, and often calling ourselves to account whether we are so or no; and wherein we find we come short of our duty, let us judge ourselves, that we may not be judged of the Lord, and get our accounts balanced, by the satisfaction of Christ; k Isa. Hii. 10. 1 I Cor. ix. 38.
n Matt. XXV 19. o I Cor. ix.
qLiike xii. 43-46.
m Rom. xi. 13. P Heb. xiii. 17. rj Cor. ri. I.
then shall we lift up our heads, with joy in our hearts, when our Lord comes, and enter into his joy; when the servant, that because his Lord delayed his coming grew insolent and abusive, shall have his portion with the hypocrites.*! That work had need be done carefully, which will have this serious issue.
2. Let us also furnish ourselves with sucb considerations as are proper to encourage us in oar work, and to support and comfort us under the difficulties we meet with in it; that the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, may be strengthened and confirmed, and we may go on in our worii, not only with resolution, but with cheerfulness.
(1.) We are employed in work, wherein God is working with us, and we are workers together with him.' Nothing could be more encouraging to those, whom Christ has sent to preach and baptize in his name, than that parting promise of his, Zo, / em with you altoaytf you and your successors, even to the end of the world.* The tokens of his presence immediately appeared; for when the apostles went forth preaching, it was evident that the Lord was working with them, and confirming the word by signs fo Utnripg ;' which was an early specimen of the lasting fruits of that promised presence of his with his church and ministers, which they are encouraged to depend upon%
If Christ have sent us, he is with us; and his word in our mouth shall not return void, but, as the rain from heaven, shall accomplish that for which he sends it hj us, whether it be sent, as Elihn says of the rain,/or correction, or for his land, or for mercy;* and though Israel be not gathered, they who are faithful shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord;* and we shall be a sweet savour unto God in them that perish, as well as in them that are saved.* And if our labours have not the desired success, yet they shall have the designed success; our peace shall rest on the sons of peace; and if it find none to rest upon, yet we shall be no losers, it shall return to us again.
(2.) We shall find God's grace sufi Tcient for ns, if we be not wanting to ourselves in making use of it. It was with reference to the many difficulties and hardships Paul met with in his ministerial work, that Christ said to him, and in him to every faithful minister. My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness J He knows what measures of grace we and our work call for, and will be sure to give what is requisite; for not only all our supply is from him, but such a supply as is a sufficiency."
If we go about our work in the strength of Christ, depending upon it, and deriving from it, we shall find, that as our day so shall our strength
• Matt, xxviii. 90. t Mark xvi. 90. n Isa. W. to. li.
V Job XXXvii. 13. w Isa. xlix. 5. x 9 Cor. ti. 15.
r 2 Cor. xii. 9. ■ 9 Cor. ili. 5.
AN ORDINATION.
989 be, and we shall be enabled to do all things throagh Christ strengthening us;* all those things which Christ has appointed us to do for him. And the more humble the sense we have of our own insufficiency, the more confidently we may depend upon bis all-sufficiency. Whatever charge is given us, grace is promised with it, to enable us to discharge it, if we will but by faith fetch in that grace as we have occasion for it, and make use of it. The Spirit of Christ was sent, to assist the disciples as minis-lrs, to teach them who were to teach others, to lead them into all truth, who were to be the guides of the church, and to bring all things to their rc-niembrance, as they had occasion for them ; and it is a comfort to us, that that presence and power, that influence and operation, of the Spirit is to abide with the church and its faithful ministers always. If, therefore, we do not quench, and grieve, and resist the Spirit, and provoke him to withdraw; if we pray to God to give his Holy Spirit to us, as he has promised to give to them who ask him, and walk in the Spirit, and act in a believing dependence upon him; be will work all our works, in us and for us; and then, and then only, we shall be able to work for him.
(3.) We serve a Master, who, if our hearts be upright with him, is ready to pass by and pardon our many failings and defects. It is a great encouragement to all Christians, and to ministers particularly, that though our work be great and difficult, and our strength no way proportionable to it, yet we are under grace, and not under the law. The rule is strict, aad we must aim at perfection in our conformity to it; but though in many things we come short of the mle, and cannot do so well as we should, yet if with a willing mind we do as well as we can, we shall be graciously accepted through a Mediator, and what is amiss shall be passed by and pardoned upon our repentance.
Let not this comfortable word be abused to the indulgence of our sloth and negligence, but rather let it quicken and encourage us in the service of such a God, with whom there is forgiveness that he may be feared.'* Blessed Paul, the most active, zealous servant that ever our Master had, found cause to complain of a body of death he carried about with him, by reason of which he could not do the good that he would f and if that which was his complaint be ours, that which was his comfort may be ours too, nere is no condemnation to them that are in Christ JenuA
It was a strict charge which Christ gave his disciples, when he sent them forth. But we find them defective in many instances; in their faith, in their homility, and in the diligence of their attendance on him, witness their sleeping in the garden ; yet
» Phil. W. 13. b ps. cxxx. 4. e Rom. vli. 19.
d Rom. vili. I. • Matt xxvl 44.
because they truly loved and honoured him, and believed in him, he not only continued them in his fiimily, but favourably excused their infirmities, imputing them to the weakness of the flesh, while he knew the spirit was willing ;• and praised them, at parting, for con Unuing with him in his temptations.^
(4.) We have many encouraging examples set before us, of those who, in their day, experienced the grace of God, and his consolations bearing them up, and carrying them on cheerfully in their work. Our fathers bore their testimony to the goodness of God, and the truth of his promise, and the power of his Spirit; they received the same charge that we have done; laboured under the same infirmities, and struggled with the same difficulties, that we do; and yet they were enabled to go on in their work, to persevere to the end, to finish well, and to give up their account with joy : and they owned to the last, it was by the grace of God that they were what they were, and did what they did ; they were no better than that grace made them. Whenever they told us what God did for their souls, and what he did by their ministry, they were sure still to ascribe all the glory to free grace.
Now this is a comfort to us, that how weak soever we are, we have the God of our fathers to trust to, and depend upon; who did not fail them, and therefore, we hope, will not forsake us. He says to us, as he did to Joshua, when he was called to carry on that work which Moses had been long employed in. As I was with Moses, so I wilt be with thee,'
We who have had our hands for many years at this plough, can assure you from our own experience, if that will be any encouragement to you, brother, that we have all the reason in the world to speak well— of our Master; he is our best friend—and of his work; it is its own wages. We have cause enough to be ashamed of ourselves, that we have done our work no better; but the gospel of Christy which we are intrusted with the preaching of, we hope we shall never be ashamed of.^
(5.) Great will be our reward in heaven, if we be faithful. Though we can merit nothing at the hand of Christ, but when we have done all, must say we are unjtrofitahle servants} much more when we have done so little, nay, though there is so much sin and fol|y mingled with our best performances, as might justly cut us off from all hope of acceptance, yet, through Christ and his merit, we are encouraged to look for that crown of glory, which the chief-Shepherd, when he appears, shall bestow upon all the under shepherds who are faithful to him.''
Our Master himself had an eye to ihejoy set before him. And this enabled blessed Paul to triumph, when he was now ready to be offered, and the time of his departure was at hand, not only f Luke xxii. S8. i Luke xTii. lo.
V Josh. i. 5.
h Rom. i. IG. k I Pet. V. 4.
EXHORTATION AT AN ORDINATION.
that his warfare was accomplished, and his toilsome course finished, but that thenceforth there was laid up for him a crown of righteousness; and not for him only, but for all those who love both the first and second appearing of Jesus Christ J
Your success in your ministry will add to your comfort; the souls you win for Christ will be your joy and crown of rejoicing in the day of the Lord,"> which should engage you to aim at success in your work: but though you should not be honoured with much of that, God will not be unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, and if but little en> couraged here, it shall without fail be recompensed in the resurrection of the just
I 9 Tim. It. 6—a
n 1 Tbeas ti. 19.
You must count upon sufferings. When Christ i sent forth his disciples, he told them, not only what great things they should db, but what great things they should svff€r,farhis name's sake ;" persecution and opposition from without, contempt and contradiction from within. Suffering ill for doing well you may think hard of, but must not think ttraxge of; your Master is before-hand with you in his sufferings, and will not be behind-hand with you b his recompences ; your journey may be tedions, and your voyage perilous, but hold out with faith and patience, you will be at home shortly, and one hoot in hea Ten will make amends for all.
B Actsiz. I&
A SERMON
PREACHED AT THE
FUNERAL OF THE REV. JAMES OWEN,
MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL IN SHREWSBURY, APRIL 11, 1706.
Acts xx. 37, 38.
And they all wept sore and fell an PauTs neck, and kissed him; sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more.
My text is a short acconnt of the solemn farewell which was interchanged between St. Paul and the elders of Ephesus; and you see upon the reading of it, that it was a very monmfal farewell: no improper subject, therefore, for a mournful funeral, such a one as we have now been attending. For what are funerals but our farewells to our friends? And this farewell in the text being pronounced by the Spirit of prophecy a final farewell, it was a sort of funeral. And there is one circumstance of the story, which makes the resemblance the more lively and affecting; it is that which is added, (v. 38.) that they aeeom-panietl him unto his ship. For methinks, when we follow the remains of our deceased friends, who we trust sleep in Jesus, to the grave, and lodge and leave them in that close and dark cabin, we do in effect the same: we accompany them to their ship, so I would rather call it, than their prison, for the body, though confined to it for a time, is to pass through it to its glory. Let us, therefore, say concerning those whose earth we have committed to the earth, io hope of a resurrection to eternal life, that we have put them on ship-board; not to be tossed with tempests, for there the weary are at rest; but rather to be becalmed and wind-bound a while, till the embargo shall be taken off in the resurrection, and then, like the ship into which Christ was willa John yl. SI.
ingly received, it shall immediately land* its passengers in the desired harbour of endless bliss and joy. Or we will suppose, that we shut them up in such a ship as God shut up Noah in, not so much for passage as for preservation; in which they shall be safe from the waters of the flood, and kept secret till the appointed time comes for God to remember them,i> as he remembered Noah;' and then they shall be brought out with joy, and led forth with singing, Into a new worid.
How does this alter the property of death and the grave! Let the thought of it, therefore, give us quite another prospect of them, than that which we are apt to amuse ourselves with. The sanctified soul, after it is delivered from the burthen of the flesh, goes immediately to joy and felicity, under a convoy of blessed angels; and the deserted body too is taken care of, it is shipped off in a very good vessel, under the protection of a covenant with the dust, which shall be remembered; so that it is sure not to be lost; it is dust which shall never be the serpent's meat, but shall without fail meet its soul again in due time, in the better country, that is, the heavenly, to be separated no more for ever.
In the acconnt here given of this solemn farewell, it is observable, that St. Paul took leave of his friends with prayers, and they of him with tears. Prayers and tears are not only the church's artillery, with which her enemies, as there is occasion, are attacked and repulsed ; but they are likewise a part of the church's treasure, with which her friends are enriched and entertained.
1. St. Paul, as became him, took leave of them with prayer; so he concluded his farewell sermon.
b Job xiv. 13L
e Gen. vill. l.
A SERMON ON THE DEATH
When he liad thus spoken, with the utmost expressions of reverence and fervency, he hneeled down and prayed with them all; knowing, that what he had said to them would not edify them, as he desired, without the grace of God's working by it, he thus implored that grace. Being to leave them, in return for all their respects to him and his ministry, he thus left his blessing behind him, and a prophet's prayers will at any time amount to a prophet's reward.** He had told them, (v. 32.) he commended them to God, which he did effectually by this solemn prayer. If be must leave them, he will leave them in the best hands, and engage his gracious presence with them, who has promised never to leave nor forsake those who trust in him.* Our Lord Jesus concluded his farewell to his disciples with a prayer for them, (John xvii. I.) and at last was parted from them as he blessed them.
Many a prayer St Paul had put up for those Ephe-sians, which he gives them a specimen of once and again in his epistle to them ; nor would he, after his departure from them, cease to pray for them.' This is one way, by which the cQmmunion of saints is kept up in their present dispersion. But this prayer he prayed with them, partly for their instruction, and the riveting of the things he had said to them in their minds ; for which reason, in his epistles to the churches, he tells them particularly what it was that he asked of God for them, that they might study to answer the intention of his prayers, as well as of his preaching and writing; and partly for the alleviating of their griefs, which in this prayer he poured out before the Lord, and that, afterwards, they might reflect with some comfort and satisfaction upon this part at least of the sad solemnity.
It is good for friends to part with prayer, the rather, because when we part we are not sure that ever we shall meet together again; but here we may suppose, the duty was performed with the more affection, and warmth of devotion, because they knew it was to be the last prayer that blessed Paul was to pray with them: and it is very fit that at death we should take leave of our friends with prayer, because then we are to take leave of prayer itself; farewell prayer, and welcome praise, everlasting praise.
2. They, as became them, took leave of him with tears. They wept at prayer, and it was a very proper expression of their pious importunity. Jacob commenced Israel, a prince with God, when he wept and made supplication ;■ and our Lord Jesus himself, in the days of his flesh, offered up his prayers with strong crying and tears,** though he had no sin to lament in prayer as we have. They wept at parting with so good a friend. Paul had, in this discourse with them, more than once intimated how d Matt X. 41. fr Hos xil.4.
e Heb. xiii. 5. h Heb. vii. 7.
f Epb. i. ifib 1 Prov. xi. 25.
often he had wept over them; such was his tender affection to them, and hearty concern for their welfare; be had served the Lord among them with many tears, (Acts xx. 19.) and had warned them night and day with tears, v. 31. And now, in a jn5t and grateful return for his love, they weep over him: for he that watereth shall he watered also himself.^
Let us observe on this sad occasion,
(i.) Who the mourners were. They were the elders or presbyters of the church of Ephesas, whom Paul sent for to attend him at Miletas, r. 17. It appears by the scope of the foregoing discourse, that St. Paul now, in the clear foresight, and actual consideration, both of his own death, and of the rise of heresies and sects thereupon, was deliberately and solemnly committing the conduct and government of the renowned church of Epbesus to the presbyters, or presbytery of that church, for a pattern to other churches; plainly telling all these elders,^ and not any one more than the rest, than tbe HoIt Ghost tiTO tviotofTB — had made them overseers,^ or bishops of that church, and that therefore it was incumbent upon them to feed it; that is, not only to teach, but to rule it; committing the discipline as well as the doctrine of Christ to their ministration, without the least intimation of his doing it only pro tempore—for the time being, and with a purpose to alter the constitution afterwards. Accordingly, be charges them with the utmost diligence and application of mind, to set about the discharge of this great office, o. 28. Tahe heed to yourselves and to mil thefloch ; and plainly intimates, that they must not any longer expect the personal residence either of himself as an apostle, or of Timothy as an evangelist, among them, nor depend upon them for any further particular direction in the affairs of their church ; but under Christ, and in his streng, take the work into their own hands, and manage it according to the rules they had already received ; Take heed to yourselves. As the eagle stirreth up her nest, fiuttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taheth them, and beareth them on her wings,'^ to teach them to fly, as soon as she perceives they are fledged; so does St. Paul here, by these elders, patting some of his honour and spirit upon them, and exciting them now to do that themselves,*^ which hitherto himself or Timothy had done for them; andito make full proof of their ministry,° as hitherto they had under their direction made good proof of it.
Now though this was a great advancement to these elders, thus to come of age, and to be no longer under tutors and governors, yet they were so far from being pleased, or puffed up with the honour, that they fell a weeping at the thought of it; that they should never again have Paul to preside among them, and direct them. Thus the disciples k I Tim. iv. 14. I Acts XX, 28. n Numb. xi. 17.
n Deut. xxxit. Ik o S Tim. iv. A
OP MR. JAMES OWEN.
993 of Christy though he told them when he parted with them, that greater works than he did shoald they do,p yet sorrow filled their hearts, because they shoold want the advantage of his bodily presence. Those know not their own weakness, and the peril that attends the posts of honour, who are ambitious to stand in the front, and lead the van, to carry the standard, or give the word of command among the soldiers of Jesus Christ. Since it is so difficult to rule well, it is very desirable rather to be well ruled. But though the presbyters, or ministers only, are mentioned, as attending Paul at Miletus, yet it is probable that some of the people were with them, to pay their respects to that great apostle; for we find at another place, soon after this, that he was thus broaght on his journey after a godly sort,i and accompanied to the ship, by all the disciples with their wives and children, eh, xxi. 5.
(2.) Observe how they expressed their sorrow. We read of nothing they said on this occasion; but,
[1.] Thejf all wept tore ikovoq ii iytviro cXavl^/ivc rwrtiv — There wat an abundant weeping of them all; so the phrase is, perhaps in allusion to that saying of the Canaanites, concerning the lamentation that was made at Jacob's funeral. This u a grievetu mourning to the Egyptians J It was not one or two of them, whose spirits were more tender than the rest, that could not forbear weeping on this occasion, bat they all wept; there was not one dry eye among them. Nor were they women and children who mQomed thus passionately, but the elders of the church, who did not think it any diminution to their gravity, or dignity, in this way to give vent to their sorrows.
Our Lord Jesus was often in tears,* particularly at the grave of his friend Lazarus; and it is probable, his frequent weeping was that which made those, who fancied him to be one of the prophets risen from the dead, to conclude, that certainly he was Jeremias the weeping prophet.^ Our way lies through a vale of tears, and it becomes us to conform to the climate: Blessed are they that moum that sow in tears,
[2.] They fell on PauVs neck and hissed him; signifying hereby how dear he was to them, and how loth they were to part with him. They took him in their arms, and laid him in their bosoms, to show bow near he lay to their hearts, and that he was to them as their own souls. Thus they embraced at PHrting, as Jacob and Joseph did at meeting," with all the affection that can be supposed, between the tenderest father and the dearest children. Could they have detained him in the cords of love, and with those powerful bands constrained his stay, he had not left them; but there is no remedy, he must go. He loves them well, and would gladly abide with
9 John ziv. 1*^ • iohn xi. 3&
q 3 John & vMatt. xf i. 14. 3 s
r Gen. L 11. a Geo. xlvi. 29.
them, but he loves his Master better and must preach his kingdom in other cities also.*' Yet they will make it appear, it is with the utmost regret and reluctance imaginable that they bid him farewell; their life they think is bound up in his.
See here one fruit of the gospel of Christ; as far as it took possession of men's hearts, it not only slew all enmities, but strengthened all endearments. If the followers of Christ showed themselves thus mutually kind upon all occasions, well might they say among the heathen, See how these Christians love one another: and by this would all men know, that they were the disciples of him, who loved us first.* O that this fruit might revive, might remain! How happy is it, where there is such sincere and flaming affection as this between people and ministers, between Christians among themselves, and ministers likewise one to another; for where love thus reigns, the God of love no doubt conmiands the blessing, even life for evermore.''
(9.) Observe what was the matter of their sorrow, it was chiefly this, because he had said, and had said it with an observable air of assurance, that they should see his'face no more; which bid them to think that he was now ready to be offered, and that the time of his departure was at hand ;y and for this sorrow filled their heart. He could himself finish his course with joy, it was a pleasure to him to think of it, but to them nothing could be mentioned more painful; this put him into a dilemma between life and death, Phil. i. 22, 23. The joy and gain set before him made death desirable, and yet the grief and loss he should leave behind him, made him, with a noble self-denial, willing to live.
Yet whether he was to die quickly, or live a good while longer, he does not inform them, only that they for their parts should see his face no more ; this was the word which was as a sword in their bones. We have no reason to think, that St. Paul had any thing charming in his face above other men, it did not shine as the face of Moses did; but, on the contrary, we know that his bodily presence was weak and despicable; and it was probable, his visage, like his Master's, was marred more than any man's, furrowed with tears and toils. But it was not the show of his countenance that they looked at; they therefore loved to see his face, because then they were sure to hear his voice, and the voice of Christ speaking in him; then they were sure to have some spiritual gift' or other imparted to them, for their instruction and edification ; but now they must never expect that privilege again. It is true, after this they might hope to hear from him by letter, and did do so, and his very enemies owned that his letters were weighty and powerful; they had likewise his other epistles to the churches, besides that to them r tuke !▼. 43. V John xiii. 34. x Ps. cxxxiii. 3.
A SERMON ON THE DEATH
selves, to consult and convene with; yet it tnrabies them to think that they shall never see him in the pulpit, never hear him preach any more; and though that which is written remains, yet that which is delivered viva voce — with the living voice, is more likely to affect; and we cannot but desire with St John, if it may be, to see the voice that speake to iw.*
Bat why should they sorrow most of all for this word, that they should see his face no more ? There was another thing which he had said, for which, in my mind, they had more reason to be sorrowful than for this; for he had told them, that after hit departure grievout wolves should enter in among them ; nay, that some of themselves, it should seem, he means some of these very men he was now speaking to, should arise and preach perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them, v. 90. For this, me-thinks, they should have sorrowed most of all, as the disciples of Christ did, who are said to have been exceeding sorrowful, when their Master told them that one of them should betray him> But the truth is, the things of sense make deepest impressions upon us, and affect us most; we grieve for sin less than we ought, and for trouble moi. Or we may suppose, that therefore they thus lamented PauFs departure from them, because this would be the sad consequence of it, which they hoped might have been happily prevented, if he could but have tarried with them.
However, that it grieved them thus to part with him, was both his honour and their praise.
[I.] It was his honour. It was a sign he lived in esteem among them, as one who did good in Ephe-sus, (as Jehoiada had done in Israel,*) that he went away attended with so many unforced, undissembled tears.
It is a mark of disgrace to depart without being desired,' and as an evidence of that, without being lamented, none to say. Ah I lord I or. Ah his glory,^ but a branch of honour to be wept over, as Josiah was, and dismissed with the genuine and unbribed lamentations of those that are wise and good.
It is true, there have been those who have triumphed in the fall of the worthiest and best of men; when Christ's two witnesses are conquered and slain, the inhabitants of the earth will rejoice in it, and make merry ;' their lives were their torment, and therefore their deaths are their joy; they who took away their lives, cast out their names as evil, that they might make the world believe they had done God and their country good service. And, probably, the tnighty industry of the persecutors, to blemish the memory of the martyrs, might give occasion to their surviving friends so much the more to magnify them, and pay the greater respect to their names; even such as in after-ages degenerated (as good
Rev. i. 12. b Matt xxr\. 9S. 4 9 Chroii. nl. 90.
c s Chron. xxiv. is. • Jer. xxit 18.
things are apt to do) into superstition. But the removal of virtuous and useful men, though it may be the sport and joy of profaneness and bigotry, will be the grief of all wisdom's children. Though Stephen was cast out of the city and stoned, in a popular tumult, as one not fit to live, yet there were found devout men, (who, it should seem, were not as yet professed Christians, but proselytes of the gate, hearty well-wishers to religion in general,) and those carried Stephen to his grave, and made great lamentation over him.v
St Paul, for his part, was loaded as much as any man with disgrace and ignominy, wherever he went, and yet there were those of whom he* was had in honour.^ Thus did he pass by evil report and good report; some hated and vilified him, others loved and magnified him. Let none, therefore, be deterred from religion and godliness by the contempt put upon them; if they have their reproach, they have their praise: set the one, therefore, over against the other, balance the dishonour with the honour, and se the advantage unspeakably on religion's side; for the reproach is groundless and trifling, may be easily despised, and will quickly be rolled away, but the honour is just, and real, and weighty, and will lost to eternity.
[2.] It was their praise. It is upon record to the commendation of these elders, that they thus lamented St Paul's removal from them; it was a sign they loved him, and valued him, and had been edified by their conversation with him; a sign they judged of persons and things not by outward appearance, or according to the corrupt but common sentiment of a vain and inconsiderate world, that sits in darkness; but that they were governed by their believing regards to an eternal God, an immortal soul, and an everlasting state; for the sake of which they had- this mighty affection and esteem for blessed Paul. A citizen of Zion honours all his fellow-citisens,* but the priests, and the Nazaiites, those precious sons of Zion, are counted worthy of double honour: such was the honour those elders here generously and gratefully yielded to Paul.
We will, therefore, take it for granted, that these tears were truly pearls, pearls of en^^at price, and that in them part of a just debt was paid to St. Paul now at his going away; and so we may
Observe, That the removal of a good minister from v#, is a thing to he greatly lamented by us. Our parting with a faithful minister cannot but be, if we consider it aright, a very sorrowful parting.
I have already seen so many of tiie tears of this congregation upon this sad occasion, that I could not think of any subject more suitable, nor more pertinent to my purpose, than this. I wish I were able to improve the fair occasion it gives me, to acf Rev. xi. 10. h3Sam.vL9S.
ff AcUviii. 9. i P&ZV.4.
OF MR. JAMES OWEN.
995 coant for the justice of your tears, and to direct them ioto the right channel; to affect yoa with the pro-f idence yoa are under, and yet to reconcile you to it, and satisfy you in the will of God.
Had your aged pastor's voice (that least considerable of the qualifications of a minister) been but as good as his head and heart, now in his advanced years, and likely to have reached this great assembly, the work had been at this time in much better hands than mine ;* but after all our endeavours, the best part of the work, even the sanctifying of this sad event io the spiritual benefit of every one of you, and the fartherance of the life of your souls by the death of your minister, must by faith and prayer be humbly left to a better hand than any of ours; even to that of the blessed Spirit, who worketh all in all.
Tears for the dead carry with them their own justification; when the body is sown in corruption, it is fit it should be watered; we are allowed to sorrow, even for those that we have reason to hope sleep in Jesas, and are only cautioned not to sorrow as those who have no hope.^ The house where death is, is supposed to be a house of mourning,* and many a good lesson the man of wisdom will learn there.
Bat it is a particular case we are now to speak of, and to our gef it is a case in faith; it is that of a dead minister, whom we have special reason to weep oter; and oh! thai our heads were watersy and our ejfu founuins of tears, for this purpose! Mourning for the dead, even for a priest when he died, by the law of Moses contracted a ceremonial pollution;" because that law could not take away sin, which is the sting of death, so that that mourning was then attended with a conscience of guilt unremoved; but the gospel of Christ having abolished death, and altered the property of it, and so enabled us to tri-omph over it, our sorrow for the dead is now so far from defiling us, that, if it be duly improved, it may, by the grace of God, become a happy means of our cleansing: God grant ours may be so upon this occasion!
I shall endeavour briefly to show, 1. Who it is, whose removal is to be thus lamented; and, II. Who they are, from whom it is justly expected that they lament it; and both from the text and context, as God shall enable me.
I. I say, it is a good minister whose removal is to he thus lamented. Shall I give you, in short, the character of such a good minister, as is worthy of this double honour?" Honour while he lives, and honour when he is gone ? You here have lost one, who of his standing, was justly numbered among the first three, for eminent gifts and attainments, &nd a capacity of serving Christ and his church with
* The Rer. Mr. TaflentB, now in the snh year of his age, and a eonsttnt preadwr.
k 1 Thca.
them ; but thanks be to God, a man may coroe far short of him, and yet be found a good and able minister of the New Testament; and not to be parted with without sorrow. We will, therefore, draw the portraiture of this good minister, by his interest and fidelity, notby his learning, or the arts and languages he is master of; and we will borrow it from the testimony of St. Paul's conscience here, in the preceding discourse concerning himself; in which he did not intend to magnify himself as some great one, but only to justify himself against his accusers, as one who had obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful.
And here let me premise, (and yet, I hope, we are in this matter so manifest in your consciences, that I need not mention it,) that we abhor the thought of drawing into the character of a good minister, his being in every thing of our mind. Far be it, far be it from us, to monopolize Christianity, or the ministry, and confine either within the pale of our own particular opinion, in things that concern not the vitals and essentials of religion. We are not here seeking to advance the reputation of a party, nor appropriating the good characters to those of our own denomination; no, we take all occasions to protest against it, and while we walk according to what we have attained, endeavouring therein to approve ourselves to God in our integrity, we charitably believe that others do so too; and therefore we heartily love and honour good men, and good ministers, however, in the less weighty matters of the law, we differ from them in sentiment and apprehension, and practise accordingly; and we highly value all who cast out devils in Christ's name, though they follow not with us.* We have a spiritual communion with them in faith, hope, and holy love, we pray for their success, we rejoice in their usefulness, we would be helpers together with them, endeavouring as we are able to promote the common interests of Christ's kingdom, and the common salvation p of precious souls; we desire their lives, we lament their deaths; God forbid we should do otherwise, for without doubt, the kingdom of God is not meat and drinh, hut righteousness, and peace, and jog in the Holg Ghost: and he that m these things serveth Christ, is acceptable to Gody and should he approved ofusJ*
Who then is that good minister, whose removal is to be thus lamented by us.
1. He is one, who having entirely devoted himself to the glory and honour of God, makes it his business to serve him. Thus St Paul was among the Ephesians, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many UvnJ You call us your ministers, and we are very willing to be so called, for we are your servants for Jesus' sake; * but we
• 1 Tim. v. 17. p Jude 3. T Acta XX. 10.
o Luke is. 49, 50. q Rom. xiy. 17. I& • 9 Cor. It. 6.
A SERMON ON THE DEATH
rather look upon ourselves as ministers of God to you for good; Christ is our Master, and he is a good minister who seeks his master's favour, consults his master's interest, and makes it his business to do his master's will and work.
Nothing is more essentially necessary to the making a man a minister, than self-dedication to the glory of God; nor does any thing go further to denominate a man a good minister, than to act in pursuance of that self-dedication, by a diligent and serious attendance upon God in all instances of devotion, and a wise, faithful, and zealous activity for him, and for the interests of his kingdom; studying by all means possible to do good to the souls of men, and to advance religion in the power of it. He who thus waits on his Master, by waiting on his ministry,*^ shall he honoured.^
He is a good minister who seeks not his own glory, but his who sent him ;" who serves not his own belly, but the Lord Christ ;* who aims not at the applause of his fellow-servants, but at his Master's acceptance; for if we please men otherwise than for their edification, we are not the servants of Christ.* He is a faithful friend of the bridegroom, who seeks the bridegroom's honour, and does all he can to engage people's affections for him, that he alone maybe exalted. Let us be nothing, so that Christ may be all in all,
St. Paul was a great scholar, and a chief speaker; yet he reflects with more comfort and satisfaction upon the humility of mind, and the many tears, with which he had served the Lord, than upon the strength of his reasonings, and the eloquence of his discourses, with which he had served him. He is a good minister, and does good service to Christ and his church, who is humble and affectionate in the work of his ministry, though he do not excel in gifts. Knowledge'pnffeth up, but charity edijiethJ
2. He is one who faithfully preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ Thus St Paul, though bom at Tarsus, a Gentile academy, bred up at the feet of Gamaliel, a Jewish rabbi, yet in his preaching set aside all his learning, and testified the gospel of the grace of God;' pressed both upon Jews and Gentiles nothing else but repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ* Gospel grace and gospel duty were the subjects he dwelt upon at all seasons, both publicly, and from house to house; of these he kept back nothing,'* with these he mingled nothing, ministering the gospel both pure and entire.
And he is indeed a good minister who makes the gospel his oracle, the gospel his touchstone, the gospel his treasury and storehouse, out of which he furnishes himself for every good word and work. Who dares not preach another gospel, nor corrupt this; knowing it is only a dispensation that is com-
18. IT Rom. xvi. 18. I Acts x\. 24.
n Rom. xii. 7. X Gal. i. 10. ■ Acts XX. 21.
John vili. £0. 7 1 Cor. viii. l.
b Acts XX. 20.
mitted to him,^ for which he is accountable; who delights not in preaching any thing but the gospel, knowing nothing so entertaining, nothing so edifying, as that great summary of the gospel, Jesvt Christ, and him erudfied.^
He is a good minister, who fills not your heads vrith airy notions, nor troubles your minds with matters of doubtful disputation, who aflecta not to gratify a vain fancy with fine speculations, or an itching ear with the enticing words of man's vnsdom; but aims, by the plainness and simplicity of the gospel, to vrin your hearts to the faith and love of Jesus Christ We preach not ourselves, hU Christ Jesus the Lord.*
3. He is one who cares much for the state of precious souls. Concerning this, St Paul here appends to the elders of Ephesus, that he ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.' His care was extensive, he had an eye to every one under his charge, high and low, rich and poor, to those who were his gprief, as well as to those who were his crown; it was constant, he never ceased night or day, but filled up all his time, both of business and conversation, with that which tended to their edification ; and it was very affectionate, he warned with tears of love, and tenderness, and holy fear, lest thej should come short, and miscarry at last Thus zealous was blessed Paul, for the edification of the body of Christ, not seeking his own profit, or secular advantage, but the profit of many, and their spiritual advantage, that they might be saved;' for upon that was his heart fixed.
And he is a good minister, who has a tender and compassionate love for the souls of men, trembles at the thought of. their eternal ruin, and earnestly desires their eternal welfare; for the securing of which he would gladly spend and be spent ;^ who studies to find out acceptable words, by them to teach the people knowledge ;* who, in his preaching and converse, aims and endeavours to make those with whom he has to do, some way or other wiser and better; who even travails in hirth again, as it were with labouring pangs, to see Christ formed in them ;^ the height of whose ambition is, to be some way instrumental for the conviction and conversion of sinners, and the building up of saints in holiness and comfort; humbly subscribing to St Paul's protestation. We do all things, dearly helovedyfor yonr edifying:-
4. He is one who, by the grace of God, lires in some measure above this present world. This was St Paul's rejoicing here, even the testimony of his conscience, concerning the temper of his mind, / have coveted no mans silver, or gold, or apparel ^ he never desired to be as rich, and look as great as his e I Cor. ix. 17. d 1 Cor. ii. 2. •2 Cor. iv. &. f AcU xx. 31.
f I Cor. X. 33. b 2 Cor. xil. 15. i Reel xli. 9.
k Oal. iv. 19. I S Cor. xit. 19. m Acti xx.. 33.
OF MR. JAMES OWEN.
997 nei Iiboar; he was perfectly dead to worldly greatness and gaiety. He had likewise the testimony of his friends, eoncerning the course of his life; they knew very well he was so far from aiming to get wealth, that he laboared in an honest calling to get bread, rather than be burthensome to them, to the prejudice of his ministry; You yourselves know, thai these hands have ministered to my necessities, and not to mine only, hut to theirs that were with me." In his whole conversation, he discovered a generous contempt of this world, as became one who was so well acquainted with another world, and the great and everlasting things of that world.
And he is a good minister, whose life is in this, as in other instances, of a piece with his doctrine. Whose eyes are not dazzled with the glittering lustre of gold and silver, nor his heart drawn, or held, by the magnetic virtue of this earth: who seeks not jours for himself, but you ^ for Christ. Minds no high things, but heavenly things; no pleasure so much as that of doing his duty; no preferment in comparison with that of being accepted of God ;>* DO business in competition with the business of his ministry. Who having engaged and employed himself in the affairs of another life, entangles not himself in the affairs of this life. Whose conversation is in heaven,*! and in whose forehead, as well as his heart. Holiness to the Lord is engraven in legible and indelible characters. The apostles betimes taught gospel ministers the proper place for their worldly wealth, when they ordered the money that was brought them, to be laid not in their hands, much less in their bosoms, but at their feet.'
You see now who, and what manner of men, those ministers are, whose removal is so great a loss, and to be so much lamented. God grant that we all, who are called by this worthy name of ministers of the gospel, may answer these characters. How far our deceased brother did so, some of you know Tery well, and need not that any man should testify.
n. I come in the next place to show you who they are, who are concerned to lament the removal of such ministers as these, and what cause they have to do so.
They were the elders of Ephesus, elders in office, not in age, who here wept sore for the departure of Paul from among them: and they may be considered, 1. As ministers ; 2. As ministers just setting OQt in the work of the ministry; and, 3. As, at this time, and upon this occasion, the representatives of the people or church of Ephesus. And so,
1. We who are ministers, are taught to bewail the removal of our fathers and brethren from us, and that we shall see their faces no more in this world. Even Paul the aged speaks of the recovery of a yoang minister, Epaphroditos by name, from a dan-
Actf XX. 34. e 3 Cor. %\i. 14. p 2 Cor. v. 9. q Phil. iii. 80. ' Actsiv. 37. • Pldl. 11.37. t I Kings Kix. 10. a Joel ii. 17.
gerous fit of sickness, as a very great mercy of God to himself, lest (says he) 1 should have son*ow upon sorrow,* Though he had as little need of the help of others, as ever any minister, had, yet tlic death of Epaphroditus would have been a very great affliction to him, and would have added as much as any thing to his sorrows. Elijah lays very much to heart the death of the prophets, and himself being left alone, though he was so well able to stand alone.^
Let the priests, therefore, the Lord's ministers, weep on such sad occasions, between the porch and the altar," mingling their tears with their .sacrifices, and their prayers with their tears, saying. Spare thy people, O Lord, When the harvest is plenteous, and the labourers, the skilful, faithful labourers so few, our Master has appointed us to pray the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into the harvest;^ and are we not to lament it greatly, when some of the most industrious of the labourers are called out of the harvest, when they could so ill be spared ?
Our hands are this day weak ; and by such providences as these, they are much m6re weakened. God is contending with us ; our glory is waxen thin; the death of every good minister, (and we have parted with a great many of late, in the midst of their usefulness,) is as when a standard-bearer faint-eth ; and alas, the rest of the trees of our forest are so few, that a child may write them.^ It is time for us, with the prophet Ezekiel, to fall down on our faces, under a deep sense of God's displeasure, and to cry as he did, with a loud voice, Ah! Lord God, wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel ?* high time to cry, Help, Lord, when the faithful, the faithful helpers, cease and/at/.^
And by the sadness of our countenances upon such occasions as these, let our hearts be made better,* and let us be quickened with more care and diligence to work the works of him who sent as, while it is day, because the night comes, and before it comes, wherein no man can work,^ Let us not only be true to our trust, but busy at our work, because we must shortly give account of our stewardship, and be no longer stewards. By such a providence as this, God speaks aloud to us, as he did to Moses, (Numb, xxvii. IS.) Thou skalt he yatlured to thy people, as A aron thy brother was gathered. Whatsoever, therefore, our hand finds to do, let us do it with all our might ; not counting life itself dear to us, not being too tender of it, so we may finish our course withjoy
2. The sons of the prophets are, in a particular manner, taught by this instance to lament the removal of their master from their head. And it will be a good sign that they are genuine sons, and will be a good presage of their inheriting a child's r Matt ix. 38. w ba. X. 18,19. > Ezek. zi. 13. y Pa. xii. 1. « Ecci. vii. 3. ■ John ix. 4. b Actaxz. 24.
A SERMON ON THE DEATH
portion of their spirit, if with a filial afiection, they cry out as Elishadid, My father,my father, the cha Hot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof When Elisha had, in those words, erected a monument to the honour of his departed tutor, immediately he took up his manUe, and did wonders with it
Those who are setting out in the ministry, or setting their faces toward it, have great reason to lament the removal of the elder ministers, especially such an one as we are now particularly lamenting, whom God had eminently qualified for the committing of the treasure of the gospel to some of the earthen vessels of the rising generation, and the putting of the light into their hands; who did, not only as a minister, yenerare filioi — heyet tons to Christ by the gospel; but as a tutor, yenerarepatres — heyet nurses for those children, and fathers to bring others to Christ. We cannot express the greatness of the loss of such an one, which they, in a special manner, have reason to be sensible of, who sat down under his shadow.
When John Baptist was beheaded, it is said, his disciples tooh up the body and buried it, and then went and told JesusA Let those do so who were brought up at the feet of this well instructed scribe. Go and tell Jesus that you are orphans, and take him for your guardian, with whom the fatherless find mercy, and who has promised not to leave his disciples orphans.* Resolve, that from this time, more than ever, yon will cry unto him as your Father, and the guide of your youth,' and be assured he will never fail nor forsake those, who trust in the shadow of his wings.
3. The people that sat under the constant instruction and inspection of a good minister, ought to lament the removal of such an one from themt When our temporal comforts are removed from us, our relations, or friends, in whom we had sensible delight, or by whom we had secular advantage, our grief then has more need of a bridle than of a spur; but when those are taken from us by whom we had, and hoped for, benefit, to our souls only, then it is necessary something should be said to us, to make us sensible of our loss, and to stir us up to mourn for it; for this is an affliction, which, if not duly weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, we shall not be enough affected with; or at least the impressions of it are apt to wear off quickly, and are soon fprgotten and lost.
Let me, therefore, show you briefly what reason you of this congregation have to lament the loss of a faithful shepherd, though, thanks be to that God, who graciously continues his aged servant among you, labouring in the word of doctrine, you are not as sheep having no shepherd. I have reason to think you are very sensible of the breach made upon c a Kings ii. 12. d Matt xiv. 13. f Jer. iii. 4.
e John xiv. 18. maig. g Gen. xl. 7.
you; I desire you may be so upon right grounds, that you may sorrow after a godly sort; that joa may not, like children, cry for yon know not vbat, but may be able to give a rational answer to such a question, as that which Joseph put to his fellow-prisoners, Wherefore look ye so sadly to-day?* Yoa may reply to that question with such qaestions aa these:
(L) Should we not grieve to part with a near relation, to whom we are joined in a close alliance ? Ak! my brother, or Ah I sister; is mentioned as sofficient matter for lamentation, Jer. xxii. 18. And shall the bonds of kindred by blood and nature be stronger than those of kindred by the Spirit and grace ? Yoa have had fathers of your flesh, whom it may be joa have followed to the grave, and you gve them this reverence, you lamented them; yoa would ha?e reproached yourselves, as void of natural affection, if you had not done so; and will you not show this respect to your spiritual fathers, that thereby you may do honour to the Father of your spirits, and live.^
Ministers are yours, you have an interest in them, an interest by promise; Paul, and Apollos, end Cephas, are yours, 1 Cor. iii. 22. (It was one of the last subjects your deceased minister preached apon among you; I hope yon will not forget it; be told me of it when I visited him in his illness.) It follows, or life, or death, which may be understood particularly of the life and death of your ministers; their life is for your service, and their death too, if yoa make a due improvement of it, may be for yoor awakening and quickening, for whether they live or die, they are the Lord's,' and yours for his sake.
They are yours, for they are gifts which the exalted Redeemer gave unto men for the perfecting of the saints,'' which he gave unto you to be yoor guides, overseers, and rulers; not to have dominion over your faith, we do not in the least pretend to it, but to be the helpers of your joy,' and nurses to the new man in its infancy, till it comes to thepetfect man.
You see how nearly related your ministers are to you ; they are appointed to be friends to your sonls, and if, as you ought, you account them your best friends, it cannot but be a grief to you to part with thep.
(2.) Should we not grieve to part with those who have loved us, and been kind to us? As we are bound in duty & lament the departure of our relations ; so we are bound in gtitude to lament the departure of our benefactors; whom God by his grace has made blessings to us. Even the unthankful Israelites had so much sense of honour in them, as to mourn for Moses thirty days,* in consideration of the great things God had done for them by his h Heb. xii. 9. t Rom. xiv. & k Eph. iv. II, IS:
OF MR. JAMES OWEN.
009 band; and shall we be leas sensible of those invaluable benefits we enjoy by the mysteries of God, wich ministers are the stewards of?
My brethren, we have nothing in oorselyes to boast of, bat a great deal to be ashamed of, yet, we hope, we can appeal to God as our record, how sincerely we long after yon all in the bowels of Jesas Christ ;>* how dearly we love yon, how earnestly we desire yonr spiritual welfare, how jealous we are over yon with a godly jealousy; and as far as yon have perceived this Spirit to be working in your ministers toward you, that must certainly be a grief to you, to have them taken from you. Do you lie so near their hearts, and shall not their departures be laid near yours ?
There is something of a generous gratitude in these sorrows we are now calling for, such as well becomes those, who ask in sincerity, What shall we render ? and would be found, as they are able, rendering according to the benefit done to them. Thus the memory of the just should be precious to us, especially tiieirs, who, by the grace of God, turned many to righteoasness; thus should their names be preserved, and embalmed in tears. If for a good man,** a useful man, some would find in their hearts to die, to obtain a reprieve for them ; shall not all find in their hearts to mourn, when they are past reprieve ? Especially, since it is mentioned as a piece of gross stupidity, and a sad presage of approaching ruin to a people, when the righteous perish, and none consider it, or lay it to heart.p
(3.) Should we not grieve to part with those, who can very ill be spared, and that we shall certainly find the loss of? We shall see ourselves engaged to this, by a sense of interest, as well as duty and gratitude. The death of a good minister is a loss, a loss to yon, and as such is to be lamented; a loss which, it may be, you are not so sensible of now, as you will be hereafter, when you will know that a prophet AaM been among you ;'< hath been, but now is not; when yon will wish to see some of those days of the Son of man, which you have seen, and may not.
Alas, says the true mourner, if we be bereaved of oar ministers, we are indeed bereaved; we shall find more and more the want of their preaching and praying, their instructions of us, their intercessions for ns, their prudent counsels, their faithful reproofs, their directing and encouraging examples; we may have another minister, but not such another; or such another, but not such another to us; it is well if the gap be not too great to be filled up. Our soul detiretk the first ripe fruits,* but where are they.
It is a public loss, a loss to the town and country, to the land and nation; and public spirits cannot but hewail public losses. How ill can the church of God spare any of its good ministers! They are the
p laa. Ivii. 1. • S Kings ii. is.
chariots and horsemen* of the land; strip us of these and we are naked and defenceless. They are our treasure: rob us of these, and we are impoverished. They are the burning and shining lights: put out these, and we walk in darkness. They are our glory and joy: take away these, and our pleasant things are departed, our song are made to cease, our honour laid in the dust, and the crown fallen from the head. Woe unto us ; for we have sinned}
It is true, our God has the residue of the Spirit, nor is he tied to particular instruments; he can raise up a seed to serve him, as well qualified as those who went before; instead of the fathers, when he pleases, shall be the children,^ and will be so, if their spirit descend and rest upon us; with God all things are possible: but, alas, we have not this hopeful prospect to give you; we who are risen up, come too far short of those who are gone, and going off, into whose labours we are entered, to be able to excuse you from deep lamentations of the death of your elder ministers, and from sighing out your Ichabod, Where is the glory ? "
Is it nothing to yon, then, all ye who pass by, is it nothing to you, that the gold is thus become dirt, and the most fine gold changed ;^ that we have reason to fear such an alteration in the house of our God among us, as was in the temple of Jerusalem in Rehoboam's time, when the shields of gold were .carried away, and shields of brass were provided instead of them.' God look upon us, and prevent the fatal consequences of such a change as this! How far God may carry on his work by prerogative of power, even when he has removed such workmen, I cannot say; but this I am sure of, their removal is a very threatening omen, which we are all concerned to have awful apprehensions of.
It were now easy to draw a great many inferences from this melancholy subject; to reprove those who lay not to heart such sad dispensations, and much / more those who rejoice in the extinguishing of our lights, because they love darkness rather; to encourage ministers to diligence and fidelity in their work, that they may finish their course with honour, as well as joy; to quicken and engage yon all to a careful improvement of the labours of your faithful ministers, while they are continued with you, that you may not have tears for your own hardiness and unprofitabless, to mix with your tears for their removal; to inquire whether you have made a due improvement of the former afflictions of this kind you have been under, in the death both of good ministers, and good Christians, who have shone as lights among you, holding forth the word of life.
But it is time I apply myself more particularly to the sad occasion of our being together here this event Lam. V. le. V Lam iv. l.
« Pi. xlv. IS. V I Sam. iv. 21.
X 2 Chron. zii. 9,10.
A SERMON ON THE DEATH
ing. Though it is not a Paal, it is not an apostle, we have now parted with, and are now lamenting; we compare not our fir-trees with the cedars of Lebanon ; yet it is one who, I believe, was manifest in the consciences of many of you, to be a good minister of Jesus Christ, and one who had obtained mercy of the Lord to be found both skilful and faithful in that great woric.
The earthen vessel, now a broken vessel, we have lodged in the dust, with the expectation of its being raised shortly a vessel of honour; and now, what Improvements shall we make of this sad providence, and how shall we pay some part of that debt of respect we owe to the surviving name and memory ?
Were this a proper place and time for me to express my own sorrow on account of this breach made upon us, I could not find out better words, nor more apposite and expressive to do it in, than those of David, when he lamented the fall of one, who had been dear to him as his own soul; / am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan, very pleasant hast thou been unto me J If while I live I forget him, I must lie under the imputation of forgetting my own friend, and my father's friend.' A friend, with whom I have had an intimate acquaintance about seven or eight and twenty years, with whom I have many a time taken sweet counsel, and by whose conversation and correspondence, I either have been edified, or might have been; having always found him, not only well instructed unto the kingdom of heaven,* but ready to distribute, and willing to communicate.'' Such was the pleasantness of his life, and the distress by his death must be proportionable; Lover and friend hast thou put far from me f and my acquaintance into darhness. In our lives we were not much divided, either in time or place; how far, and how long, we may bo so in our deaths, he only knows ;n whose hands our breath and times are. God, by his grace, make me ready and willing to go after him!
But we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying ;** that is my design, that is my desire; and I hope, by the blessing of God, it will be some way edifying to you, if, 1.1 give you some short account of his character; 2. If I make some remarks upon his removal; and, 3. If I then briefly direct you to some of the work of this day in its day.
1. If I would expatiate upon his character, I have a very wide field before me, and am really sensible there is a justiqe owing to so good, so great a name. I confess I am not fond of making every fHend I love and honour a nonsuch; it must be left to him, to whom all hearts are open, to put that into any man's character, that there is none like him in the earth ;* yet, I think, that this is not to be deposited as common dust, nor his monument to be inscribed
J S Sam. 1.96. « Prov. xxvii. 10. • Matt. xiii. 69.
b 1 Tim. vl. 18. c Ps. Ixxxviii. 18. d 2 Cor. xii. 19. • Job i. 8.
with common characters; and yet, as an advocate for his honour, shall only make that very reasonable demand. Give him cf the fruit of his hands, and let his own worhs praise him in the gates J
But aiming, as I said, at your edification, tio things I shall suggest, which I think have a direct tendency that way, and may tarn to a good accoooL
(1.) Let that be observed concemiDg him, which will furnish us with matter for praise and thanksgiving to God. And a great deal of reason we have to give thanks, not only in general, for all the saints and servants of God, who are departed this life io ihe faith and fear of his holy name ; to the general assembly of whom, we are come in faith, hope, and love; but in a particular manner for those who haff been in their day the lights of the church, and justly accounted fathers in it; for who is their Father ? who but the Father of lights and spirits, the Lord God of the holy prophets .*'
What we call the endowments of nature, a great genius, a solid judgment, a clear head, a strong: memory, a quick fancy, a ready utterance, and the like, are all gifts from above; from his hand who formelh the Spirit of man within him. The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord has made even both of them,^ All souls are his, even the greatest, the largest souls are so.
What we ascribe to industry, and close application of mind, attainments in knowledge, and a great compass of learning, God must have the praise of; for he it is that giveth men power to get this wealth, and it is not got by their might, and the power of their hands.* He it is that giveth the tongue of the learned, and who, in order to that, openeth the ear to hear as the learned.^ He it is that lighteth the candles; and it is with a borrowed light that the church's stars shine, with a light reflected from the Sun of righteousness, that great light of the world.
It is to God, therefore, that we should give the praise of all those excellent gifts and graces, which we have observed in our deceased brother. Bless the Lord, who raised him out of a remote and obscure part of the kingdom, as a root out of a dry ground, to be so eminently serviceable to the interests of Christ's kingdom in his day, qualified him for service, called him to it, and signally owned him in it. Let us glorify the God of Israel, who has given such power unto men, and put such treasures into earthen vessels.
(2.) Let that be observed concerning him, which is proper for our imitation. What you have heard from him, and seen in him, that was virtuous and praiseworthy, transcribe it into your own hearts and lives, speak and do in like manner, and the God of peace shall be with you.^ Those who were exemplary while they lived, should be made use of as f Prov. xxxi. 31. I Deut Tiii. 17,18.
r 1 Sam. X. 19l k In. 1.4.
h Prof. XX. 11 1 Phil. if. 9.
OF MR. JAMES OWEN.
1001 examples when they are dead. It is required in general, that we be followers of all those, who are DOW thro Qgh faith and patience inheriting the pro-mises." Bat particularly, that we follow the faith and holiness of those who have been by office our ^ides in the good ways of the Lord, considering the end of their conversation ;■ yet with this necessary proviso and limitation, that we follow them as they followed Christ,® and blessed Paal himself, that great example, was to be followed no further.
Here let all who know him observe for themselves, and preach to themselves; his children, his pupils, bis familiar friends and acquaintance, let them recollect what they have taken notice of in him, that was fit to be imitated, and improve it for their own direction, caution, and quickening. I shall only mention two or three things, wherein I would, for my part, propose him to myself for a pattern, and endeavour to imitate him.
Marcus Antonius the Emperor, that great teacher and example of virtue, begins his celebrated book rwv IV icnt Toy — concerning himself that is, his diary, with an account of the particular good lessons, or rules of conversation, which he learned from his parents, tutors, and others, whom he names with respect, who were the guides and companions of his youth. Were I to draw up such an account, I should be unjust to him, if I should leave him out of it, in whom I have thought these things, among others, well worthy imitation:
[1.] That he was a good husband of precious time; and that is a piece of good husbandry, which I am sure is good divinity. I have always known him to be an indefatigable student, and one who took so much pleasure in his work, both as a scholar, and as a minister, that one might see he accounted it not only its own wages, but its own recreation.
Even till his Lord came he gave a constant attendance to reading, exhortation, and doctrine, not neglecting the gift that was in him, but continually meditating upon these things, giving himself wholly to them; so that his profiting (even in his early days) appeared unto all men.P His Lord having intrusted him with five talents, he continually occupied the same, and traded with them, till, by the grace of God, he had made them five talents more. When he was sometimes urged to abate of the constancy and intenseness of his studies, in consideration of his health, he would say, " You must excuse me, I have but a little time to be working in, and I must be busy." And teett thou a man thu diligent in his hvsiness, he shall stand brfore hings, and not he/ore vteen men.
It was often observed concerning him, how uneasy he would be, when forced and kept from his studies hj that conversation which was only entertaining,
and not edifying, and with what pleasure, as soon as possibly he could, he would retire from it to his work; that he might fill up time with something that would turn to a good account, according as the duty of every day required. This is in a happy sense living fast.
[2.] That he was ready and mighty in the Scriptures, and made them above any thing his meditation. His large acquaintance with other learning, did not at all abate his value and pursuit of Scripture learning, to which all his other studies were made subservient. As he lived a Scripture religion, so he preached a Scripture divinity. Scripture language was his eloquence, like that of Apollos, who was an eloquent man, because mighty in the Scrips tures f Scripture reasons were his arguments, like the same Apollos, who mightily convinced the Je»9y showing what he taught by the Scriptures.'
Thus he came to be such an excellent expositor as you know he was; opening the Scripture by itself, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, and speaking the things of God, as they ought to be spoken, in the words which the Holy Ghost teaches.*
Thus he was furnished with milk for babes, and pasture for the lambs of the flock, witness his great dexterity in explaining the catechism; and with strong meat also for strong men, witness his solid and substantial discourses, in which he set before you the geat things of God with admirable clearness, and in the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit, and with power.
Thus he adhered to the good old way, and testified the pure gospel of the grace of God, which exalts the Lord Jesus alone, as all in all, for strength as well as righteousness, and teaches us to cast every .crown at his feet; taking all occasions to witness against those notions, which set up man's sufficiency in competition with Christ.
[3.] That he was a faithful and wise reprover of sin, and bold in bearing his testimony against it. Though yon know, he was very courteous and obliging in all his behaviour, and not willing to make any man angry or sad, yet when there was a just occasion, he would admonish and rebuke with all authority, and yet with meekness and long-suffering.
Here he set his face as flint, and clad himself with zeal as with a cloak; as one who knew very well whose cause he pleaded, when he pleaded against sin; and how faithful and kind the wounds of a friend are, while the kisses of an enemy are deceitful ; and as one, who believed there was a truth in Solomon's observation, which amounts to a divine promise, Prov. xxviii. 23. He that rebuheth a man for his faults with wisdom and tenderness, though for the present he may incur his displeasure for his
4 Acu xvUI. SI
r Acts zviil. as.
A SERMON ON THE DEATH
plain dealing, yet afterwards he $hdU find more favour and be looked upon as a better friend, thai he thatfiatiereth with his tonfue,
[4.] That be was a man of trae catholic charity; though no man was clearer in his own judgment, better understood the grounds on which he went, nor was better able to give an account of the hope that was in him with meekness and fear, yet he maintained an extensive charity for those from whom he differed, and a temper of mind toward them that was truly Christian, and became a follower of the Prince of peace, and a servant of the God of \oye.
As he wrote, he thought and lived: moderation was his VIRTUE, it was still his virtue; and it is not long since he took an effectual course to let it be known unto all men, as if he had foreseen that the Lord was at hand. And this is a virtue which bas, and will have, its praise, with all those who know how to distinguish between the weighty and uncontested matters of the law and gospel,* judg ment mercy and the love of God and the matters of doubtful disputation,'^ such as the distinction of meats and days. This is the virtue, by which the unity of the Spirit is kept in the bond of peace; notwithstanding a diversity of opinion, and practice accordingly. The triumphs of this virtue over bigotry on all sides, will contribute abundantly to the peace of Zion's walls, and the prosperity of her palaces.
2. We are next to consider the end of his conversation,^ Mj3a<ny—the issue, or outlet of it. Having seen how he went on in the world, we are now to inquire how he went out of the world. Others had more of his life than you of this place had; but Gkid sent him hither about six or seven years ago, to finish bis testimony first, and then to finish his course among you; so that it is but a little time that you have had to improve by his life; God, by his grace, enable you to improve so much the more by his death: and a very improvable providence it is. It is a cloud mostly black and dark, yet not without its bright side.
(1.) We are here presented with a very'melancholy and al Hictive scene, which we ought to have very awful, serious thoughts of; something there is more than ordinary in this house of mourning, which the living should lay to heart
To see a man so well qualified with gifts and graces for the service of Christ and his church, as he was; so well furnished, by the blessing of God upon the many years* hard studies of an uncommon head, with all sorts of useful knowledge; so inquisitive after more knowledge; and withal so communicative of what he did know. To see such a man thus taken away, in the midst of his serviceableness to his generation, when he bad but little exceeded the fiftieth
« Matt xxiii. 23.
n Rom. xlv. ].
year of bis life; thongb his strong constitutioii of body, and prudent management of himself, gave encouragement to hope, that though these treasares were in an earthen' vessel, yet there were goods laid up for many years; and though his seal and unwearied industry promised us a great deal more of public service, and that be should long be a blessing to his generation, yet to have the number of socb months cut off in the midst, such a tongue silenced such a hand withered, such a bead laid in the dust, and at such a time as this, when it could so ill be spared: What shall we say to these things? What construction can we make of such a provideoce as this ? We must have recourse to our first principles, abide by them, and resolve to hold them fast, and not let them go, how difficult soever it may be to reconcile some particular events to them. HoweTcr it be, we are sure that God is neither unwise, nor unjust, nor unkind: he is not only an absolute Sovereign, who may do what be will; but a religious Ruler, wbo does no wrong to any of bis creatores; a tender father, who designs no hurt to any of his children. However it be, yet the Lord Jesus takes care of his church, secures its ioierests, and the glory of his own name; which, whatever becomes of us, will endure for ever, and his throne as the days of bea Tco. Under the threatenings of providence, we must flj to the promises of the word, and cast anchor there; God knows what he is doing, though we do not; and we are sure dwells in perfect light, though as to us he makes darkness bis pavilion. Thy way 0 God, is in the sea and thy path in the yreat wettn; such as cannot be fathomed, connot be tracked; but we are confident of this very thing, that thoa art righteous in all thy ways, and holy m all thy works.
Were we not certain that the soul is immortal, and that there is another life after this, we should be tempted to expostulate with our Maker, as the psalmist does. Lord, wherefore hast thou made all men, especially such men as these, in vain ? So \on in the making, so admirably well made; and yet so suddenly unmade, and so little use in comparison made of them ? Such a living temple reared, and jet the people of thy holiness to possess it sucb a little while ? Many continued wbo are the burthens of the earth. under which it groans, as sadly weary of them; and yet those removed who were the blessings of it, after which it groans, as sadly wanting them ? We nov are at a loss, and cannot expound sucb dispensations as these; but the resqrrection of the just, and the glories of the future state, will solve the problem, and clear up this seeming paradox; What I do thou know-est not now, but thou shalt know hereafter; when the mystery of God shall be finished. How those lights still shine to the praise of the Sun of Righteousness, which we count extinguished ; and how these ser-
THeb.xttj.7.
OF MR. JAMES OWEN.
1003 vants of Christ still senre bim in his temple, the period of whose asefulness we are here lamenting we cannot tell, nor how moch to their advantage, the tiflae that is lost on earth may be made up in heaven. Yet still, on ns it looks black, and is a very sad presage ; the Lord's voice by it cries in the city, cries in the coantry. Ood grant we may understand what it says, and may return a good answer, that oar God may not proceed in his controversy.
(2.) Yet even in this afl Sictive providence, the grace of God presents as with something very en-Goaragini and reviving to us; and that is, the great comfort and joy with which our deceased brother finished his course; which I ought to take notice of, to the glory of God, and for your instruction. Mark the perfect man, and behold the uprightf for the end of thai miin, though it be not always irapture and ecstasy, yet it is peace: the effect of righteoutness will be quieinesM and asturancefor ever.
I came short of being a witness of his translation, but those who were about him when he was taken up, saw with what a wonderful serenity and composure of mind he performed his dying work; that work which is to be done but once, and therefore bad need be well done. Ho had often prayed for grace to finish well, and it appeared that his prayer was answered, and that the grace of God in him was not in vain ; so cheerfully did he look the king of terrors in the face and bid his message welcome. Though he had as much reason as most men have, upon all accounts, to desire life, yet it appeared that to depart, and to be with Christ, was to him mach more desirable.
The strong pain of the stone, (that flagellum ttu-diotorum — acourge of the student as it has been called,) with which he was frequently exercised, he bore not with the senselessness and stupidity of a stoic, but with the humble patience and submissiveness of a Christian, who had learned of his master to take Dp his cross. And when upon the continuance of a threatening and fatal symptom, he received the sentence of death within himself, with what ease did be take leave of the world, as one well pleased to think of being no more in it.
His solemn farewell to his children and pupils, tbe good counsels he gave them, the blessing with which he blessed them in the name of the Lord, and tbe testimony be bore with his dying lips to the good ways of God wherein he had walked, I hope tbey wilh never forget; and that particularly, they and we will ever remember and practise what he said, after many other good counsels, should be the last and great thing he would recommend to them, and that was, humility ; '< It is" (said he) '' one of tbe brightest ornaments of a young minister to bo bomble/'
The words of God which he had made his songs in tbe house of his pilgrimage, were*his delightful entertainment when his tabernacle was in taking down. How pleasantly did he triumph then, in the words of blessed Paul, Ihnow wham I have believed and he is able to keep what I have committed unto him against that dag, 3 Tim. i. 12.
When he was asked in his illness, whether ho would have some of his friends sent for to keep him company, he answered, " My fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ, and he that is not satisfied with that company, does not deserve it"
Another time, being asked would he not be glad to see his brother from Warrington, for whom he had an entire affection, he replied, ** I know no man after the flesh ; my elder Brother is in heaven, who is the first-bom among many brethren.'^ Thus he seemed to be taken up with heaven, before he was taken up to heaven.
Coming to himself again once after a fit, in which those about him thought him departing, he asked, " Have I not finished yet? I thought I should have finished now." Thus did he, with the sucking child, play upon the hole of the asp, and, with the weaned child, put his band upon the cockatrice's den; knowing, that death itself cannot hurt or destroy in all the holy mountain, Isa. xi. 8, 9.
Overhearing his dear and affectionate yoke-fellow bemoaning herself, and saying, ** O this is a sad dag !*' being the Lord's day, and some few hours before he died; he replied, with some show of resentment, '* A sad day do you call it ? No, it is not a sad day, I thank God; it is a comfortable day to me." And it was observed that he departed with a smiling countenance.
As he found himself drawing near to his end, he. was ever and anon lifting up his heart to God, in such devout and pious breathings as these: *' Blessed be God for Jesus Christ. How long. Lord, holy and true ? Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit." And not long before he departed, <' Now let the blessed angels come and do their office."
Thus, my brethren, thus he finished his course; this was the end of his conversation. In sach a heavenly temper as this he removed to the world of spirits, as one who was already acquainted with that world, and longed to be better acquainted with it. Blessed be God, who thus crowned his own work in him, and brought forth the top-stone of that blessed building with shoutings, and let ns cry, Grace, grace to it.
Let this help to confirm our faith in the gospel of Christ, and to assure us that its original and tendency is divine and heavenly. That we see it furnishes the professors of it with effectual supports, and real solid joys, then when they roost need them, and when all other comforts fail, and are insufficient.
A SERMON ON THfi I>£ATH
The everlasting covenant, and particularly the pro mise of eternal life, you see is a fountain of living waters, which will refresh and make glad the heart, when all those things which the world offers us to be depended upon, and delighted in, will be dried up as the brooks in summer. I beseech you, sirs, build upon a foundation which will hold firm, when this deluge comes; treasure up comforts which will stand you in stead in a dying hour, and which will indeed make the clods of the valley sweet to you, 4it tibi terra levis — the very earth itself light to you.
Let this encourage us in our Christian race and warfare, that those who have fought this good fight with courage and constancy, have had the comforts of it in their last extremities; and having run their race with patience, have finished their course with joy. Christ's faithful soldiers die not only in the bed of honour, but in the bed of peace and rest. Let us hereby be quickened to make our calling and election sure, for so we shall have, not only an entrance, but an abundant entrance, ministered unto us into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
3.1 shall now close with a word of exhortation to you, my friends, who are here lamenting the loss of your faithful minister, that you may be sowing in your tears, doing your duty now you are bewailing your affliction. We will take it for granted that, like those Ephesian elders, you sorrow most of all because you shall see his face no more in this world; from that consideration, therefore, what I have now to say to you by way of counsel and direction shall take rise.
(1.) Now you shall see his face no more, thank God that ever you did see his face. When Job's comforts were taken away, he blessed God who gave them. Own yourselves indebted to the divine favour, for the setting up of such a burning and shining light here in your candlestick. There is a particular providence displayed in the removal and settlements of ministers. Be thankful for that providence which sent him hither, and that grace which, I trust, made him a blessing to you. Be thankful for what you have seen, and heard, and tasted of the word of life in his ministry, and that you have had reason to say, that God was with him of a truth.
Thank God for all the good ministers, whose faces you have seen to your comfort, and who were, in their day, the helpers of your faith and joy. Remember your guides, the guides of your youth, which have spoken to you the word of God; and remember to give God thanks for them, and for the good they were instrumental of to your souls. We do not desire you to build or garnish the sepulchres of the prophets, but here set up your Ebenezer to the honour of him who raised them up to you, saying. Hitherto the Lord hath helped us; helped us with good ministers, having never left himself without witness, nor yon without lelps for your souls, and directors of your way in this wilderness. Thanks be to God, wc never knew the meaning of a famine of the word, the heavenly manna; though it has been often despised, yet has never been withheld.
Thank God for those whose faces we yet see, for the remnant that is left of the messengers of the Lord, and that when so many are removed into graves, the rest are not removed into comers. Though your pulpit be in mourning, thanks be to God, it is not empty. You of this place have particular reason to be thankful for the lengthening out of the days of your aged minister, and for the fruit he still brings forth in his old age. I pray God that your profiting, in proportion to that and other your advantages, may appear unto all men.
(2.) In the hiding of his face, take notice of the hiding of God's face, and look upon it as a token of his displeasure. Hear it as the Lord's controversy, and inquire diligently, and beg of him to show you wherefore he contendeth with you. It b not seven years since God removed one faithful good minister by death, (Mr. Brian,) who had Jong laboured among you in the word and doctrine; and now another taken away from the midst of yon. Is not this an indication of God's anger? and ought not you to humble yourselves under his mighty band ? Let our brethren, the whole house of Israel bewail the burning, which the Lord has kindled; and by serious repentance help to quench the dame.
It was certainly in displeasure to the people, that God silenced Ezekiel, and told him, he should no more be to them a reprover, Ezek. iii. 26. and yon are now under such a rebuke. Now is a time for yon to look into your own hearts, and to inquire what you have done to provoke God thus to break you with breach upon breach. Lay not the blame on others, but each of you take it to yourselves, and give your consciences leave to deal faithfully with you. It is sin that separates between you and God, between you and your ministers. Find oat the sin that has done you this mischief, and mourn for that. Weep not so much for them who are gone, hot rather weep for yourselves, and for your own-sin and folly, which have forfeited the advantages you have lost. Ask seriously, have not I been a careless, trifling hearer of the word? Has not my heart gone after my covetousness, when I have come before God as his people come, and sitten before him as his people sit? Has not the word'been unprofitable to me, not being mixed with faith ? Has not my conversation been disagreeable to my profession, and my practice contrary to what I have heard, and been taught ? Have not I left my first love, and is not that the reason wherefore the candles are thus removed, and thereby the candlestick itself threatened ? How long has God come seeking fruit, but has found none or next none? And therefore, though he has not
OF MR. JAMES OWEN.
1006 yet cut down the barren tree, he has in displeasare removed one of the dressers of it.
O let this providence awaken yon to repentance, for your little proficiency under the means of grace; and set yourselves to mortify those lusts and corruptions, which have been the hinderances of your profiting ; and have made your hearts like the highway, or the rock, or the thorny ground, under the seed of the word. It is said, that when David lamented Saul and Jonathan, he took care to teach ike children of Judah the use of the bow, 2 Sam. i. 18. Which may be understood of the military bow; those great men being slain by the archers of the Philistines, 1 Sam. xxxi. 3. He endeavoured to make the men of Judah more expert archers, that they might revenge the death of their princes upon the Philistines. Let us meditate such a holy revenge this day, and resolve by the grace of God to be the death of oar sins; finding them to be the death of our friends, particularly of our ministers.
(3.) Now you must see his face no more, recollect what you have heard from him, and seen in him, for your edification. Now this faithful witness has finished his testimony, will you set yourselves to sum up the evidence, and do it faithfully. Review what you have seen, and give what you have heard a rehearing, to better purpose than before. Call to mind tbesubjects he has preached upon amongyou, the good truths he has taught you, and treasure them up, that they may be ready to you upon all occasions. The people who attended the ministry of John Baptist, after he was dead, remembered what they had heard from him, and improved it for the assistance of their faith in Jesus Christ; AU that John said of this man was true.
Remember, I beseech you, what yon have received and heard, and hold fast, continuing in the things which yoa have learned. His last sermon, particularly, I hope you will never forget; when in the midst of bis illness, God granted him such a reviving (which proved a lightening, as you call it, before death) that he thought himself able to preach. His love to his work and to your souls brought him hither. If it were to his own injury, as perhaps it was, let it be so much the more to your profit; live that life which he then taught you; get to be experimentally acquainted with that great mystery of godliness, which he then endeavoured to lead you into, from Rom. i. 17. The just shaU live by faith. Live by faith now, and you dhall live by sight for ever. Look back upon the years of his ministry with yoa, and the words you have heard from him which quickened you, never forget them. Now he must break the bread of life to you no more, gather up ike fragmenis which remain, that nothing mag be lost.
(4.) Now you must see his face no more in this world, seriously consider, how you will look him in the face in the great day. Believe it, sirs, that day will come, and we shall as sure see it as we see this: it concerns us to inquire whether we shall see it to our comfort, or to our confusion; whether it will be to us a day of trembling, or a day of triumph. It is certain, when our Lord Jesus shall come in the glory of his Father, he will be attended by the ten thousands of his saints. Enoch foresaw this, and foretold it. Among those holy myriads, no doubt, we shall meet our faithful ministers ; and if we shall know any of our relations in this day, as I see no reason to think but that we shall, sure we shall take particular notice of those, who were sent to us as ambassadors for Christ, ministering the gospel of the grace of God. Nay, they will then be to give account of the souls committed to them, and of the success of their negociation; the servant who was sent to invite to the marriage, came and showed his Lord all the slights that were put upon him; and by the word which you now hear, you will then be judged, according as our testimony is or is not believed.
Think then, with what shame and confusion those will see the faces of their ministers in that day, who lived and died in an unsanctified, unre-generate state, whom Christ, by his ministers, long and often invited to light and life, but they refused, and persisted in their refusal, loving death and darkness rather, and so will their doom be. Their ministers then will be called to appear as evidence against them, and dreadful to the condemned sinners will such a testimony as this be. Lord, we called them, but theg refused; we stretched out our handsf but no man regarded. We laid before them the terrors of the Lord, showed them his wrath revealed from heaven against their ungodliness and unrighteousness, but it prevailed not to startle and awaken them. We gave them warning, told them many a time what would be the end of their evil way, but they would not take the warning; we have delivered our own souls, but we could not deliver theirs. We invited them to Christ, and to the marriage supper of the Lamb; we told them often of the glories of redeeming love, the riches of gospel grace, the consolations of the new covenant, the pleasures of serious godliness, and the joys at God's right hand for evermore; but we could not win upon them, to give up themselves unto the Lord. We have piped unto them, but they have not danced ; we have mourned unto them, but they have not lamented. How will this aggravate the misery of those that perish, and bring oil to their flames!
But I hope better things of you, my brethren, and things that accompany salvation, though I thus speah ; the labour of your ministers among you, I trust, has not been in vain, and shall not be so. The apostle expresses, with a holy triumph, the prospect he had of meeting his friends with comfort in that day; /ot* what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing y which
A SERMON ON THE DEATH OF MR. JAMES OWEN.
'we have our eye much upon in oar present senrices and sufferings, are not even ye, not so much now in this imperfect state, but in the presence of our Lord JesHS Christ at his coming f O let us live so, that our ministers may thus give up their account of us with Joy, for that will be profitable and comfortable for us. Then how sorrowful Soever our parting with them is at death, our meeting with them again at the resurrection will be joyful; and under our present griefs, we may comfort ourselves and one another with the hopes and expectations of it
Lastly, Now you must see his face no more, look more by faith upon the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. All flesh, you see, is as grass, and all the gloiy of man; the greatest eminency of gifts and usefulness, is as the flower of grass, sullied, withered, and laid in the dust; but the glory of the Lord in the word endures for ever, and is liable to no decay.
Our deceased brother, when near his death, hearing one who stood by say, *' Alas! what shall we do if he be taken from us V answered,'' Be not concerned at that, The Lord liveth." Trust therefor in the living God, and in him secure to yourselves living comforts. Yon change your ministers, but you do not change your Master. The law made them priests who had infirmity, who, therefore, could not continue by reason of death, and the gospel does the same; but the Lord Jesus has an unchangeable priesthood, for he is consecrated for evermore. The blessed Spirit u given to abide with us for ever, and in him our Lord is, and will be, with his church always, even unto the end of the world. When yw have another minister, yon shall not baTo anotiier gospel, nor another Saviour, but still the same tret-sure, only in another earthen vessel. Let not yoni religion then die with your minister, not your faith, and love, and holy zeal be buried in his grave; for you are built not upon the apostles and prophets themselves, but upon their foundation, Jesus Christ himself, the everlasting foundation and the chief corner-stone.
Keep your eye, therefore, upon the Lord Jesos, and set your hearts on him; rejoice in him alwajs, and rely upon him, and that joy shall never be turned into sorrow, nor will that hope ever make you ashamed. Our candles are soon extinguished, and at the longest bum out of themselves, but the Sun of righteousness shines perpetaally. Welk, therefore, tn l/ie light of the Lord. Cisterns are dried up, but the fountain of life is ever full,—ever fiowing. You see the end of your minister's conversation, but Jesus Christ is the same yesterdayf to--day, and for ever ; and of the inerease of his gewent-ment and peace there shall be no end. To him I commend you all, and to the word of his grace; as blessed Paul did. Acts xx. 32. his mourning friends here; knowing very well, that that grace is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
A SERMON
PREACHED AT THE
FUNERAL OF DR. SAJVIUEL BENION,
MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL IN SHREWSBURY.
TO WHICH IS ADDED, A CONCISE MEMOIR OF HIS LIFE.
1 Peter i. 24, 26.
All flesh is as gnus, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereoffalleth away: hut the word of the Lord en-durethfar ever.
Sure I need not remind you, brethren, you cannot bat remember it, you cannot but be thinking of it at this time, that it is not full two years since we were upon a Uke sonrowful occasion met together in this place, to solemnize the funeral of a very able, faithful minister of this congpregation, whose me-moiy I hope is, and will be, precious among you, Mr. James Owen. If ^'yon and I had made a due improvement of that severe stroke, surely we had not felt the smart of this: but. Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, and men will not see, they shall see. If God judgeth, he will overcome. God grant, that this present dark dispensation of providence may so revive the impressions of that, as by both together we may be duly humbled under the mighty hand of God; that Elihu's complaint of old. Job xxxili. 14. may not be taken up against us, God speaheth once, y«a, twice, yet man pereeiveth not, does not understand the meaning, nor answer the ends of what he says; or that of the prophet, that the righteous, as to our world, perish, and no man lays it to heart, or is daly affected with it; nay, merciful, useful, good men are taken away, and none consider it O that we knew how rightly to expound, and that you knew how rightly to apprehend, such events as these.
He whom we have now followed to the silent grave, and left there, then followed with us, and was a deep sharer in our griefs on that occasion. But most the successor in the work of life so soon succeed in dying work too ? All who go before us, say to us, as Christ to Peter, You cannot follow me now, because your work is not done; but you shall follow me hereafter, John xiii. 36, But here is one, who soon followed to the grave his predecessor in this pulpit; for death is not tied up to the rules of proportion, or doe distances; every man must go in his own order, the order appointed by him in whose hand our times are.
Considering age, and bodily strength and vigour, we who are ministers must think, that he whom we have now laid in the dust was, a few days ago, likely enough, in a course of nature, to have seen most of us laid there. I thought concerning him,— This is the Joseph, that shall put his hand on my eyes. Gen. xlvi. 4. and do that office for me, which I am now doing for him: but living and dying, it seems, do not go by livelihoods: the Sovereign Lord of life has ordained otherwise, and the number of his months (which were far from being months of yanity) are cut off in the midst
Now, what shall we say to these things ? What is this that God hath done unto us f For my part, I am quite at a loss, am full of confusion, and know not what to say. The tidings astonished me, and made me cry out to God, as the prophet did, Ezek. xi. 13. Ah! Lord God f wilt thou mahe a full end of the remnant of Israel ? But what shall I say to you ? I wish I were better able to perform this service which your aged pastor has called me to. How to order the course before you I know not, and yet something I must say, both as a mourner vrith you, and as a monitor to you, that I might both soften the ground, and break it up.
I have something to say as a mourner Wifli you: I am willing to hope yon have no needto raise up
A SERMON ON THE DEATH
your mourning, of singing men, or singing women, to move yoor passions; you are sensible of your loss, and here is a grievous mourning for it; we are lamenting one, that I perceive is universally lamented, and have the tears of many mingled with ours on this occasion. But my business will be, to show you what reason we have thus to lay to heart this breach made upon us, that we may be able to give a good answer to that question, which, whenever we are of a sorrowful countenance, we should put to ourselves, Wherefore look we so sadly to-day ? Why art thou cast dottm, O my soul? That if there be no good reason for the grief, we may dismiss it; if there be, we may direct it aright
For my own part, I have all the reason in the world to bewail the loss of a very dear and affectionate friend, with whom I have many a time taken sweet counsel. You, for your part, have reason to bewail the loss of an able, faithful minister, from whom you have many a time received good counsel. And that we have of late lost so many such, cannot but aggravate the grief. O that our heads were waters, and our eyes fountains of tears, that we might sorrow after a godly sort; not for them who are gone; if we loved them we should rejoice rather in their joy, that joy of their Lord, into which tjiey are entered; but for ourselves, and for our children, who are left behind: and God give us grace to sow now in these tears for them, that we may hereafter reap in joy with them. And the truth is, as there are none of the afflictions of this present time that has more in them to justify our grief, nor over which we may more safely say, We do well to mourn, than the death of good people and good ministers; so there are none that (when the matter is considered entirely) has more in them to qualify our grief, and to balance it; for to them, whom to live was Christ, to die is gain, everlasting gain. By St. Stephen's death the church lost a minister, and therefore, justly, when they carried him to his burial, made great lamentation over him, which well became devout men. Acts viii. 2. and is recorded for our imitation; yet, at tlie same time, it gained a martyr. And, if I be offered (says St. Paul) upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice, not only myself, for my crown, but with you all, for the benefit which may accrue to you thereby.
The wise man recommends it to us as an excellent means of increase in wisdom, to frequent the house, of mourning, and to accommodate ourselves to the temper of it: there (says he) the heart of the wise is, and there it learns many a good lesson, while the heart of fools is in the house of mirth, and there learns many a bad one. Two houses of mourning this death, this so great a death, calls us to. Go to the house whence we fetched those dear remains we have now laid by, or laid up rather, in the dust, and ^hat is a house of mourning for its father, for its master, who was every way its glory and blessini; this IS a more common case, and what occars ofteo; but besides that, here is another house of mourning, this place of your religious assemblies. is so. The gates of the daughter of Sion are covered with a cloud; and justly, when one of the masters of the assembly is removed, his light to be seen, and his voice to be heard, no more among them. We find it made the character of those whom God will gather, gather with everlasting loving-kindness, that they are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, and that to them the reproach of it is a burthen. When the solemn assembly is thus deprived of its guides and glories, one after another, and broken with hreach upon breach, all who wish well to it ought to be sorrowful: and coming thus from one hoase of mourning to another, we are inexcusable, if by both together some good impressions be not made apon our souls, which will abide and command there, and if by the sadness of the countenance our hearts be not made some way better, God by his grace make them every way better.
I must say something also as a monitor to you; for the business of your watchmen is to give you warning, which you are to take at your peril. Believe it, sirs, this rod has a voice, a load Toice; whether you perceive it or no, the man of wisdom will. That you therefore may approve yourselves wisdom's children, hear ye the Lor£s controversy, and send us not to plead it with the rocks and the mountains, to as much purpose as with you; for a hearin^^ it will have, whether you will hear, or whether you will forbear. You are called to hearken to the soand of the trumpet, the alarm of war; for when ambassadors are recalled, heralds are sent: none of you, I hope, have said. We will not hearken.
God has a controversy with you of this place, of this congregation, from the head of which two such eminently useful men have been removed in so short a time, in both of whom you thought you had ^oods laid up for many years. He has a controversy with us who are ministers; for hereby our hands are Tery much weakened, and our glory is waxen thin. Lord, show us wherefore thou contendest with us. It highly concerns us, I am sure, to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, which is gone forth against us, and by earnest prayers to stand in the gap, at which our glory seems to be going out, and oar ruin to be breaking in, that we may make good the breach. The putting out of our candles is a bad omen of the removal of our candlestick; it is, at least, a call to us, to remember whence we are fallen, and repent, lest it be removed. We know what our sins have deserved, and what Providence threatens us with, and are concerned to meet God in the way of his judgments; in such a day as this, he may well wonder if there be no intercessor; for even the Jews themselves, when our Saviour spoke of taking the
OF DR. SAMUEL BENION.
1009 vineyard from tbem, and giving it to others, startled at the very mention of it, saying, God forbid,^ And shall we be less solicitous abont privileges more precious ?
The text I have read to yon, will lead os both to the lamentations we have to make, and to the admonitions we have to give, on this solemn occasion.
1. In the places from which it is quoted, it is the voice of one crying in the wilderness, who, that he might prepare the way of the Lord, even in the desert, is ordered to proclaim this, All JUih is grass, &c. Isa. xl. A—8. I need not tell you, John Baptist was that voice; ^ it is his testimony concerning himself, and a modest testimony. He was only the voice, God was the speaker. And I am apt to think, that as John was the voice crying, so he was the grass that was to wither, and the flower that was to fade, which he was to give notice of, that the people, which mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ or not,*' might be satisfied he was only his forerunner; for all his glory was to be done away, and would be no glory, in comparison with the glory of the Messiah, which excelled, and would remain. John's ministry and baptism soon came to an end, and gave way to him who was to come. He himself spoke of it to his disciples, when they were jealous of the growing honour of our Lord Jesus, and he spoke it with all possible satisfaction. He must inerease hut I must decrease.^ And Christ speaks of John's being but for a season, a burning and shining light* . His office was pro tempore-^for tke time being, an introduction of good things to come, and his brightness like the morning star, which disappears when the sun rises. This grass began to wither about eighteen Or nineteen months after his first showing unto Israel, when he was cast into prison by Herod, and was quite cut down, some time after, when he was beheaded: and his baptism did not long survive him, but Jiis followers soon became the followers of Christ, to whom he had justly and generously consigned them, and turned them over.
Ministers, who, like John Baptist, are friends and •ervants of the bridegroom, like him mnst wither as grass, and all their glory fade. But Christ their Master, the Word of the Lord, the essential, eternal Word, enifuretA/or ever, the Word of life J For though he also, like John Baptist, was cut off in the midst of his week,' yet he rose again, rose to die no more; Dtuth has no more, no longer, dominion over him. And of him it is witnessed that he liveth.^ This is he who by the gospel is preached unto us, as an everlasting Father, and overliving Priest: his word also, which he has spoken and delivered to us, as it is a quickening so it is a living word, the last revelation, and which shall last through all the revolutions of time to the endless ages of eternity.
2. Here it is brought in by way of instruction and encouragement to the young con verts, whom the apostle in the foregoing verses is exhorting to holiness and love. Be holy, and love one another,^ and so prepare yourselves for the blessedness of heaven, which consists in the perfection of holiness and love; for you are bom again, not of corruptible seed,*^ not of the Gentile learning, or the Jewish law, both which wither as grass, and will perish in the using, but by the word of the gy>spel, which is quick and powerful, and abides for ever; which will continue in the world while that stands, and in the sanctified soul while it lives-: in the former it has lighted a candle which all the devils in hell cannot blow out; in the latter it has opened a well of living water, springing up to life eternal.
This consideration is very proper, and should be very powerful to quicken and confirm those who have delivered themselves into the mould of the gospel, and are leavened by it, that the principles they go upon are not doubtful or mutable, but eternal truths that will never fail; and though their ministers die, (Christ's followers as well as his forerunners are as grass, and their glory as a flower,) yet their faith does not die with them, for it rests not on the testimony of mortal men, but of the immortal God: they are lights, but they are not that light ;' they seem to be pillars, but they are not our foundation ; we soon see the end, the exit, of their conversation, but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and for ever. To him therefore let us stedfastly adhere, and in him let us encourage ourselves and one another, on such a sorrowful occasion as that which brings us together at this time.
Two doctrines naturally arise from this text,
I. That man and his glory are fading and withering. Alljlesh is grass.
II. That God and his word are overliving, and everlasting. The word of the Lord endures. The former of these will furnish us with matter of lamentation, the latter of consolation; and God by his grace make both instructive, both to him that speaks and them that hear.
I. That man and his glory are fading and withering. We may truly say. This day is this Scripture fulfilled before our eyes, as we have heard so have we now seen, All flesh is as grass, and that grass withers. Nay, all the glory of man, all that which he is most valued and admired for, is as the flower of the grass, and that flower fadeth and falleth away.
1. Every funeral proves that all flesh is as grass, and that that grass withers. The body is here called flesh, because as flesh it is apt to putrify, it has no consistence, nor can any confidence be put in it; flesh is continually wasting, and would soon be consumed if not continually supplied, and, there-
« Luke xz. 16. i iobn Ui. 30.
b John i. 33. John V. 3A.
g Dan. Ix. 36, 97. h Heb. vii. & k Heb. Tii. S3.
i Heb. Tii. l&, S8. 1 John 1.7,8.
A SERMON ON THE DEATH
fore, from it rather than from the bones (which without the flesh are a skeleton, and the very image of death) the living body has its denomination. Flesh is sometimes put for the cormption and sinfulness of our nature, to which our frailty and mortality are owing: The body t> dead because of Wn, and therefore it is iitly called flesh when it is spoken of as withering.
Allfleih is grasSy that is,
(1.) It is weak, and low and little as gpnss. Mankind is indeed nnmerous as the grass of the field, multiplies, replenishes, and covereth the earth ; but Kke grass, it is of the earth, earthy, mean, and of small account. Alas, the kingdoms of men which make so great a noise, so great a figure, in this lower world, are but as so many fields of grass compared with the bright and glorious constellations of stars, made up of the holy and blessed inhabitants of the upper regions. Man in his present state looks great, when set in the scale against the beasts that perish; but very little, yea, less than nothing, and vanity, when compared with the angels, and spirits of just men made perfect.
Proud men think themselves like the strong and stately cedars, oaks, or pines, but they soon find themselves as grass, as the grass of the field, liable to be nipt with every frost, trampled on by eveiy foot, continually insulted by common calamities of human iife, which we can no more resist or guard ourselves against, than the grass can secure itself from the fatal blast, when the wind passeth over it, and it is gone.
(2.) It is withering, and fading, and dying as grass; having both its rise and maintenance out of the earth, it hastens to the earth, and retires to its root and foundation in the dust. It soon withers, and is gone ere we are aware. In the morning, perhaps, it is green and gwing up, its aspect pleasing, its prospect promising; but when we come to look upon it in our evening work, we find it cut down and withered. Nay, the grass upon the housetop, which seems advanced above its fellows, and proud of its advancement, withers first, and is least accounted of, withers before it grows up, and never fills the mower's hand; as if the nearer it came to the habitations of men, the greater impression of frailty it received, and the plainer instruction of frailty it gave.
If it be not cut down by disease or disaster, it will soon wither of itself; it has in it the principles of its own corruption.* Age will certainly wither it, and it shall not return to the days of its youth; it will be withered in the grave, there it will be mingled with, and not distinguished from, common dust The bones will there be unclothed presently, and the poor remains of this withered grass the worms
MoTB ula falttMf quanhila uM keminim rtfrp MciiAi.—Death only diaeovera the feebleness of the human (hime.-/«v.
shall feed sweetly on. Let but the earth open bet bosom a little, and it will appear like Ezekiel's vision, a vaiieyfuU of dead and dry bones ; very mnif they are, and lo, tftey are very dry :*" bat see, with an eye of faith, what they shall be shortly; these dry bones shall live, and shall again be clothed aod covered, not with corruptible flesh, bat with incsor-ruptible, when what is sown a natural body shall be raised a spiritual one.
Is all flesh grass ? all, without exception of the noble, or the fair, the young, or the strong, the well-bom, or well-built, the well-fed, or well-bred ? b all grass, weak and withering?
[1.] Then let us see ourselves to be grass; and humble and deny ourselves. Is the body grass! Then be not proud, be not presumptuous, be not confident of a long cOntinuanoe here; forget not that the foot may crush thee. Am I grass ? Then 1 must expect to vrither, and prepare accordingly, aod lay up my portion and happiness in none of the delights and accommodations of this animal life, which will all wither and perish with it, but in something suited to the nature of an immortal soal, and which will last as long as it lasts. Am I grass I Then I may wither suddenly, and know not how soon, and therefore must never be secure, nor adjourn the necessary preparations for my remoTa) hence to any further day ; but what I do, must do it quickly, before I wither, and it be too late. Grass falls; let me not be such a fool as to lay ap my treasure in it Stars fall not; let me therefore be so wise as to lay up my treasure aboYe them, wberr neither moth nor rust corrupt
Is the body grass? Then let us not indulge it too much, nor bestow too much time, and care, and pains about it, as many do, to the neglect of the better and immortal part. After all, we cannot keep it from withering, when its day shall come to fall; let us, therefore, be most solicitous to keep the sool from perishing, and to get that nourished up to life eternal; for that labour will not be in vain, but wilt turn to a good account.
[2.] Let us see others also to be as gvus aod cease from man, because he is no more than thus to be accounted of. If all flesh be grass, then let us not trust in an arm of flesh, for it will soon be a withered arm, and unable to support and protect as; aixi they who make it their arm, will be like the beatb in the desert, destitute and dejected. Grass is too short, too slender, to lean upon : the Egyptiaos are flesh, and not spirit, and therefore they shall help in vain. Let the Rock of Ages then be oar stay, and let our hope always be in the Lord our God.
This is given also as a reason why wc shoold not be afraid of the power of man, when it is most threatening, so as by it to be either driven from oor m Eaek. xxzvii. 2.
OF DR. SAMUEL BENION.
ion duty, or discoaraged and disquieted in it: Who art thoUf what a fool, to be itfraid of a man, that cannot only do no more but kill thy body, (which is our Saviour's argument,) but must himself die, and the son of man, that shall be made as grass? Sure, thou forgcttest the Lord thy Maker, whom thou oughtest to fear, and on whom thou hast all imaginable encouragement to depend: if he be for thee, what can a handful of grass do against thee?
Let this consideration also moderate our affections to all our creature comforts and enjoyments: If we set our hearts upon them, when they wither, where are we? What was too well beloved, will then be too much bewailed; and the flowers that are laid in the bosom, or much smelled to, will soonest go to decay. Let those, therefore, who have yoke-fellows, children, and friends who are dear to them, take heed of making them too dear; but labour to be as though they had none, because they are all grass, whose time is short, and the fashion of which pass-eth away.
Thus let this be read as the inscription on every grave, even the graves of the common people; let this be heard as the voice of every funeral knell, AllJUsk i* grass. But,
2. Sach a funeral as this we are now solemnizing, goes further into the text, and proves likewise, that all the glory of man is as the flower of grass, the beauty or yerdure of it, and that that flower falleth away. If the grass wither, it follows of course, that the flower thereof falleth away; so that the Ethiopic Tcrsion reads the text. When the grass is dried the flower thereof is shaken off. Life indeed may survive its beauties and joys, but take away that, and those fall of course.
We are now to consider, not common men, but men of distinction, and to see them withering and falling; which will bring us closer to this sad occasion. And here,
(1.) Let Qs inquire. What is the glory of man in this world ? and what of it may be found in the character of that man, that son of man, whose death we are this day lamenting, and whose mortal part we have just now laid in bed ?
There is indeed a glory of man, which is counterfeit, and mistaken for glory; Solomon says, For men to search their own ghry, is not glory, Prov. xxv. 27. The glory men commonly pursue and search for, is no glory at all; it is nothing to the weight, the snbstantial weight of glory, which all who are governed by the principles of divine revelation set their eyes and hearts upon; yet, because it is taken for gkvy, and is courted and caressed accordingly, we mast not pass it over without observing, that that also withers and falls away, as the flower of the grass, and leaves those ashamed of their pride, and
Matt. xzUi. 37.
3t2
o Luke xi. 44.
confidence, who called it glory, depend on it, and have nothing wherewith to balance the loss of it
Is beauty and comeliness of body the glory of man? So they pass with some, who judge by the sight of the eye; but at the best, they are only the goodliness of grass; they are deceitful, they are vain, they are a flower which death will certainly cut down: and commonly it is withered first: either time, or the end of time, will change the countenance ; either wrinkled age, or pale death. Look into the coffin and tell me, where is the rosy cheek, the ruddy lip, the sparkling eye, the charming air, and all the delicate features: they are all cut ofi", like the foam upon the water. The bubble is broke, and as the prophet speaks, Instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of well set hair baldness. We should therefore make sure the beauty of grace, the hidden man of the heart, which neither age nor death will sully.
Is wealth the glory of man ? Laban's sons thought so, when they said concerning Jacob, Of that which was our father's hath he gotten all this glory. Gen. xxxi. 1. But this also is a fading flower; riches make themselves wings, and sometimes flee away from us. However, when we take wing, we must be stripped of them, and go naked out of the world, as we came naked into it.
Is pomp and grandeur the glory of a man ? That also withers away: they who are advanced ever so high must come down to the grave, and their glory shall not descend after them. Great names and titles of honour are written in the dust. And if after death they be written on the dust, yet how is the inscription reproached by that which lies under! Pompous sepulchres, like the whited ones our Saviour speaks of, appear beautiful outward, but within are full of dead men's bones,** which yet they who go over them are not aware of.**
Let us therefore be dead to these glories, not value them, nor ourselves, or others, by them, in comparison with spiritual glory; let us not envy those who have these glories, nor fret at our want or loss of them; but always look upon them with a gracious and generous contempt and indifference, as those who know better things, and hope for a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, a glory that fadeth not away.
But besides these glories of men, which they who are wise can humbly put a slight upon, there is a glory, which is in this world truly the glory of man, and which they who are vdse justly put a value upon; and yet that, as to its bright reflections upon this world of ours, withers and fades, and falls at death as the flowers in the grass. The continuance of the best gifts is in the other world, when they are transplanted thither, not in this.
p BiBtt vi. 39, 30.
A SERMON ON THE DEATH
The flowers in the grass are most pleasant to the eye, and most taken notice of; those are the pride and pleasures of the spring. Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like that part of the grass of tiie field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the OYcn.p Yet the flower fades and falls away before the rest of the grass does, and the fairest is first cropt The choicest fruits keep the worst; and that we are least sure of, which we think we have reason to be most fond of. Witness this funeral. We have left in the dust, not only grass, but the flower of the grass; one who had very much of that which is really the gloiy of a man in this world, and was thereby distinguished and endeared. It is one of the lilies of the field that is withered in our hand, and dropt out of it Give me leave to show you in some instances what I think there was in him that was really the glory of a man, that yon may duly lament his fall, and be affected with it
[1.] Is a large capacity of mind the glory of a man? That he was blessed with above most I have known. Every soul is upon some account called the great soul of man; so high is it advanced above the beasts, and so nearly allied to the world of angels: but that soul which is now retired from the world, was in a peculiar manner a great soul; it was an extraordinary genius that presided in it, piercing in its searches, quick in its perceptions, and vastly extended to take in a great multitude and variety of ideas. God gave to him much of that largeness of heart which he gave to Solomon, that is, untdom and understanding exceeding mueh,'^
Those who knew him well, and sat down under his shadow, could not but observe in all his performances, both sacred and learned, such a compass of thought, and copiousness of expression, as showed him to have an uncommon constitution of mind, formed for something great, and likely out of its abundance to enrich many: it was a soul too great indeed to be long confined to a body, and pent up in a house of clay, which is such a cloud upon the prospects, and such a clog to the elevation, of a mind thus raised and enlarged. His soul, I confess, has sometimes seemed to me fluttering and struggling to get clear of its cage, and longing to fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven, to remove to the glorious light and glorious liberty of the children of God; ambitions to see that which is within the veil, and which cannot be seen in this land of darkness and mistake ; where, at the best, we know but in part, and prophesy but in part, and must be content to do so, till that which is perfect is come.
[2.] Is learning to be reckoned the glory of a man ? It is certainly so; for it is the elevation of that part of man which is most his honour: and the dust of a learned man we have now been mingling with the p Matt. tL ao Taoi common earth. His soul (that great and stately room) was. richly furnished with all manner of precious things, and there was no reason to complain either of confusion or of emptiness in it; it vras neither bare walls, nor set about with toys.
How early he began to gather, in the days of his youth, (and manna must be gathered in the morning,) we who knew him then, well remember; and were pleased to observe what great and good preparation he made for the temple, and the service of it; what a noble ofiering of dedicated things he brought int» it, when he devoted himself to the work of the ministry ; what a full stock he began to trade with, and how well able, with the good householder, to bring out of his treasury things new and old.
And while he has been trading with this stock, he has been manifestly adding to it; for there is who scatters, and yet increases; who scattera, and so increases. He sat not down content with what he had attained to, but was still eager and vigorous in the pursuit of knowledge, still pressing forward; and how greatly God prospered him in those parsnits they know very well, who for some years past have been under his tuition, and have lighted their candle at his taper; and to all others also that conversed with him, it recommended him as a lovely and pleasant flower, though the treasure being in an earthen vessel, it was but a flower of the grass, now withered and fallen away.
That part of his education which he had in the university of Glasgow, he often reflected npon with a great deal of pleasure; and took all occasions to mention with honour the learned professors at whose feet he sat there, and the great advantages he had by their instructions; which I thought myself obliged to take notice of, both in justice to them whom God made blessings to him, and to his praise likewise, that he always retained a grateful remembrance of those who were iht guides of his youth. It was a great refreshment and encouragement to St Paul, to hear that those whom he had had the teaching of, had good remembrance of him always, and that he was not out of mind when he was out of sight
[3.] Is tenderness and homility, modesty and sweetness of temper, the glory of a man ? They are so, and therefore we call compassion by the name of humanity, as if there were nothing that did better become a man than that, nor were more his ornament ; this is true manhood, though another disposition, very different from it, commonly goes ander that name. The roost mild are really the most manly. While the fierce show themselves brutes, the gentle, and easy to be entreated, show themselves men.
And this glory of a man was one of the glories of that man we have now parted with, and it made him a flower above the common grass. On the humble in spirit God looks with particular regard, and so q 1 Kings iv.S».
OF DR, SAMUEL BENION.
1013 sboold we. How often has he expressed to roe such a diffidence of himself, and sach a mean opinion of his own ahilities, and all his performances, as has really been an hinderance to his cheerfulness, and sometimes to his usefulness! I have seldom heard him speak of any thing he did, but as one a^^hamed of it, though he was, as much as most, a workman that needed not to be ashamed. Such an humble sense as this of our own defects, will contribute much to Oar impro Tcment. Those who never think tbey do well enough, will be striving (and not in i-ain) to do better; while those who always think they do well, are in danger of doing worse.
I have likewise observed in him a most tender concern for others, and for their comfort, and a care tbat all about him should be easy and pleased; his conversation was as endearing as it was edifying: herein he aimed to follow the great apostle, who made himself the servant of all, and became all things to all men, that he might recommend religion to their good opinion; and a greater than he, for even Christ pleased not himself, but taught us by his example, as well as by his doctrine, to deny oorselves.
His compassion for the sick and pained, the poor and needy, was tbat which first put him upon the study of physic, as his vaptpyov — hi* hy-business, in which how serviceable he was to the sons and daughters of affliction, and how sensibly he sympathized with them, many who have been the better for it will witness. Bowels of mercies well become the elect of God, who are holy and beloved.
[4.] Is the faithful discharge of the ministry of the gospel the glory of a man ? It is so, and it was his glory, and made him one of the flowers of the grass, a sweet savour to God in them who are saved and in them that perish. This earthen vessel, which is now broken and laid aside, had a treasure lodged in it of inestimable value, even the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
What greater glory can a man have on this side heaven, than to be employed as an ambassador for Christ, and an angel of the church, and to obtain mercy of the Lord, to be found faithful in that embassy, in that ministration. We have all the reason in the world to humble and abase ourselves; bat the office we are in we have reason to magnify. Let none be ashamed of it, but those who are a shame to it: then indeed we may blush to think that we are called by so worthy a name, when we walk unworthy of it, otherwise it is a high, because a holy, calling.
It is now about eleven years since, with an exemplary serioasness and humility, he laid his hand to that plough, immediately upon the death of my honoured father, who had been one of the guides of his youth ; how hardly he was persuaded to succeed him, and how modestly he preached his first sermon on Elihu's apology, Days should speak, and the nml-titude of years should teach wisdom, I well remember. How can I forget that ingenious and judicious confession of faith, which he made-some time after at his ordination, and with what a clear head, and fixed heart, he then solemnly devoted himself to the service of God in the work of the ministry, and with such a diffidence of himself, as was really a presage of something great; for before honour is humility.
How abundantly he laboured in the work of the Lord, and what pains he took in expounding, catechising, praying, preaching, visiting, as well as studying, many here can witness. I wish his dust were not a witness of it, fearing that his close application of mind to his work, his indefatigable prosecution of his several designs to do good, together with the tenderness of his spirit, and the too deep impresflons which his cares and griefs made upon it, contributed to the shortening his days. They talk of some who live fast, who hasten their own deaths by their intemperance; but truly, those who live ill, cannot be said to live fast; for they do not live at all to any purpose, they do not the work of life, nor answer the ends of it: rather say, they die fast; for those who live in pleasures are dead while they live.' But here was one who did indeed live fast, did spend and was spent i the business of life, and gave this reason why he took so much pains in his work, because he thought he had but a little time to be working in. His heart seemed to be much set on that Scripture, and it is not long since he preached upon it on occasion of the death of a worthy good friend of his at Whitchurch, / must work the work of him that sent me while it is day; the night comes when no man can work,
[6.] Is great usefulness the glory of a man? and a delight in doing good? No doubt it is so: it was the honour of our blessed Saviour himself, and is mentioned as one of the proofs of his divine mission-, that he went about not only working miraoles, but doing good; and it was the honour of our deceased brother, in his low and narrow sphere, and according to the grace given to him.
Besides the labours of his ministry ,whatpains did he take for some years of late in the education of youth, for which God had every way wonderfully qualified him, and what pleasure did he take in those pains, because he had reason to think he did good that way, not only to the few that he taught, but to the many who hereafter might be taught by them. And there are those who, I hope, viill, while they live, bless God for him, and for his happy care in that part of his work, in which he was as in his element,
» I Tim. V. e.
A SERMON ON THE DEATH
and by the fraits of which, being dead, he will yet speak.
And his spending his spare hours in caring for and ministering to the sick, and so doing good to the bodies of others, (perhaps to the prejudice of his own,) was a further instance of his delight in being useful, and a benefactor to mankind. And who is he that will harm us, or can, if we be thus ra ayaBu lufifirat—followers of him that is good* and doth good, in his goodness and beneficence ?
Well, here is the glory of man, of this man; let us be ambitious of this glory, and not of vain glory. See true honour in the paths of wisdom and virtue, and seek it there. This is honour that comes from God, and is in his sight of great price. • He who in humility, sincerity, and holy love and charity, lays out himself to serve Christ and his generation in his place, shall be accepted of God, which is what he aims at, and over and above, shall be approved of all wise and good men.
(2.) Having seen this flower flourishing, we are now to see it withering, and the glory of this man fallen away ; the black and dark side of that cloud which we have been taking a pleasant prospect of the bright side of. As to himself, this glory is not fallen, is not lost, is not stained, is not touched by death ; it is not like worldly honour, laid in the dust, and buried in the grave: no, this flower is transplanted from the garden on earth to the paradise in heaven, where it shall never fade, nor fall away, nor ever so much as close, or hang the head. This that was a star in the right hand of Christ, a star .that helped to show the way to Bethlehem, though withdrawn from our orb, shines as the sun in the firmament of the Father; shines to himself, to his Master, and the world of holy angels and glorified saints. This great soul is there filled, its capacities vastly enlarged, and yet replenished; his learning is there completed; his searches after knowledge all crowned, and all his longings satisfied; he who knew but in part, and prophesied but in pari, and was lamenting the deficiences of both, has now attained to that which is perfect, and that which is in part is done away, he having no more occasion for it. The candles are put out when the sun rises. His graces are perfected too, and all the remainders of corruption done away. Whatever men say, there are no consummate virtues on this side heaven, nor any finished man. The great good work in this world is in the doing. In the New Jerusalem it will be said, It is done.
But it is his usefulness that we want, that is it which we bewail the loss of; as to us and the world we are yet in, this grass is withered, this flower is faded and gone, this star is fallen. The works of good men follow them, but they forsake us, and we
1 Pet. iii. la are deprived of the benefit of them; and theiore, however in love to them we may see some cause to rejoice, for they are better where they are than where they were, yet as to ourselves, we aie losers by it; nor can we say of good ministers what was true of our Master, that it was expedient fw us that they should go away. No, their abiding in the flesh would certainly be more profitable for us. Onr Saviour considered that, when he said, conoeniing his disciples, 1 jpray not that thou shouldesi take tkemaut of the world.
This is the lamentation thereof, and shall be for a lamentation, that we have lost one whose continuance with us would have been a great blessiDg to our dark world. Over him we may moam in the ancient forms of mourning. Ah, my brother ! Ah my lord! and Ah, his glory!^ The flower we were pleased with the enjoyment of, we are now pained for the withering of; lehabod, where is the glory of it ? It is gone, it is fallen away.
[1.] We have lost an eminently good and mefal man, and one who was by the liberal hand both of nature and gce, that is, the God of nature and the God of grace, made truly valuable and desirable.
You of this congregation have lost a faithful guide in the things of God, an interpreter, one among a thousand, a master of your assembly, whose words were as goads to quicken, and as nails to fasten. May that fruit of them remain among you now he is gone. One whose profiting appeared onto all men, and who was likely to have been yet more and more serviceable to your faith and holiness, and longer the helper of your joy; who was far from any thing that savoured of faction or party-making, but was entirely governed by principles of catholic charity ; in the essentials of religion zealous, in things indifferent, and which are controverted among the wise and good, moderate; in both conscientious.
The loss his pupils have of him I cannot express, nor they neither, so admirably fitted was he writh a head and heart to serve them. What a tender con* cem he had for them and their welfare, was very evident, and how much he laid to heart the death of two of them who were very hopeful a little after he came to this town, and how long the impressions of that affliction stuck by him, those about him observed. They having been so dear to him, I hope his memory will always be precious to them, and they will not only do him honour at his death, by lamenting their loss of him, but do him honour after his death, by a diligent building upon the foundation he laid.
We who are ministers have lost one who was vety much our ornament and strength, and likely to be more and more so, and that is come upon us which St Paul dreaded in the death of Epaphroditus, t Jer. xsii. 18b
OF DR. SAMUEL BENION.
1015
Sorrow upon sorrowj"^ of this kind, we are hrok with breach upon bretteh.
As for hiA near and dear relations, when I €onie to pat my seal into their stead, I mast say, neir hurt knows its own bitterness; bnt a stranger cannot pretend to deacribe it Call them Mara, for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with them,^
[2.] We have lost him in the midst of his days, in the midst of his nsefalness, when he had not reached quite half way to that period of human life which Moses long since fixed at seventy. This is a veiy fjejki aggravation of onr loss, and makes the bar-then lie very heavy npon ns. When God woald make the land tremble, and every one monm, he threatens that he will caose the san to go down at noon; and so darken the earth in the clear day. This is our case; here is a san gone down at noon, eclipsed in its meridian lustre; a valuable life, to oor great surprise, cut off abruptly, without the previous notice of age, or any chronical distemper. At night the sun knows its going down, and we expect it; we are none of us so ignprant as to count upon an eternal day within the horizon of time; but till night we think ourselves sure of tle sun. What a confasion is it to us then if it go down at noon! So QDcertaln are all our enjoyments, and ao little do we know what a few days may bring forth concerning us or them, even the dearest
We looked that this had been he who should long have been a burning and shining light among us; that be should long have strengthened our hands, and adorned our interest, and that we and oars should have reaped much fruit from his labours; SQcb a workman we hoped might have been an instrument of gathering in a geat harvest of souls to Christ, might have been a spiritual father to many children, nay, to many fathers; but our expecta-tioDs are dashed, and laid in the dust We looked for Ught, but behold obscurity ; we forgot that the life we valued so was a vapour, which, as it proves, appears for a little while, and then vanishes away, and leaves us astonished. We said. Surely this life shall comfort us, concerning our work, and the toil of our hands; but behold his death does so much the more af Dict us. We were exceeding glad of the l!;oard, and said, under its shadow we shall live, but little thought it would so soon have withered! Lord, vkttt is man at his best estate ?