Section 1138
II. I go on to shew the nature of that sorrow which is, or may be expressed on such an occasion.
1. When it is properly expressed, and kept within due bounds, it is not criminal, but lawful: it is not in the least suggested, that the persons in the text sinned in doing what they did, nor does the divine historian leave any censure upon them for it. Religion does not strip us of our affections, or destroy them, but regulates, and directs to the proper use of them; [5367] it does not teach us, or form us into, a Stoical apathy, a stupid indolence, and brutal insensibility: it is neither unmanly nor unchristian to weep for deceased friends and relations, or for any good man, and especially for the loss of a gospel-minister. The God of nature has placed the affections in us for proper uses, and christianity leads unto them, and assists in them; it is not counter-acting the man, or the christian, to express a proper degree of sorrow on such an occasion: persons of the most brave and heroic spirits, of the greatest firmness and resolution of mind, have shown a tenderness of spirit, and have been melted into tears on a like account. The apostle Paul, that man of spirit, and greatness of soul, suggests, that had Epaphroditus died, he should have had sorrow upon sorrow; such a load of it, as would be scarcely bearable; devout men carried out Stephen, when dead, to his grave, and lamented over him; and even our Lord Jesus Christ, when he saw the Jews and Mary weeping at the grave of Lazarus, not only groaned in spirit, and was troubled, but wept over him himself.
2. Such sorrow is not worldly, but spiritual; there is the sorrow of the world, which worketh death, a sorrow which worldly men have, and for the loss of worldly things; as for loss of trade, and loss in trade, and for the loss of a man that is a good neighbor, and a good customer; but of this nature is not the sorrow expressed in our text; there was no worldly loss sustained by parting with the apostle; but there was a spiritual one, and on that account the sorrow was: and so when a gospel-minister is removed by death, the sorrow for him is of a spiritual nature; it is because he has been a spiritual father to some, and has been of use for the spiritual welfare of others: and a sorrow on this account is not blame-worthy, when it does not hinder the exercise of spiritual graces, as faith, hope, patience, resignation, and submission to the will of God.
3. This sorrow was universal; as they all wept, they all sorrowed; there was not a dry eye in the whole assembly; it was a general loss, a loss to them all, and it occasioned a general lamentation: so the loss of a gospel-minister is a general loss, a loss not only to his family, and to that particular church, and every member of it to whom he ministered, but to the whole interest of Christ: when a great man is fallen in Israel, all Israel will be concerned for it; when a prophet dies, there will be a general weeping for him; when Samuel the prophet died, all the Israelites gathered together, and lamented him. (2 Samuel 2:32, 1 Samuel 25:1)
4. This sorrow was very painful; the elders found great pain and uneasiness in their breasts, when they were told by the apostle they should see his face no more. The word, by which it is here expressed, is used to set forth that anguish of spirit, and distress of mind, which were in Joseph and Mary, when they had lost, and were seeking for the young child Jesus; yea, it is used of the most excruciating torments: [5368] the sensation here felt, and the sorrow they were filled with, were like the pains and sorrow of a woman in travail; by which our Lord sets forth the sorrow of the disciples when he should be taken from them, and they should not see his face for awhile: (21) and such like furrow is occasioned by the death of a gospel-minister to his people; it is like separating the nearest relations, husband and wife, parents and children; it is like plucking the flesh from the bones, and rending one member from another; so exceeding afflicting and painful is it. But, I proceed,