friendship advis'd him to and when all those little arts and ignoble devices of entertaining him in his Palace and at his Table and making him drunk would not bring Vriah to his purpose then how basely and unworthily does he plot and contrive his Murder by giving Orders to his General to set him in the most dangerous place in the Front of the Battel which poor Innocent Vriah might possibly take for an Honour and interpret it an Argument and esteem of his greater Courage when in truth he was onely plac'd there as a mark to be shot at and to fall a Sacrifice to his Sovereigns Lust Which accordingly hapned Vriah being slain upon the spot and dying in that station where it was not likely he should live And when David had thus secretly in his heart designed Vriahs Death yet when news was brought to him that Vriah was dead he cunningly and slily pretends to look upon it as no other than a Casualty the misfortune of War saying with himself that such chances will come and bid the Messenger tell Joab that there was no reason why he should be troubled or concern'd at the Death of Vriah for there was no saving any mans life in Battel none could be priviledg'd from Death in Warlike Encounters and that the Arrows or Bullets made no distinction and that all are alike liable to destruction and that Vriah might as well fall and be slain as any other in the Army which is the sence of those very words which David caus'd to be return'd to Joab in the 25. ver of the foregoing Chapter Then David said unto the Messenger Thus shalt thou say unto Joab Let not this thing displease thee For the Sword devoureth one as well as another And lastly When David had thus dispatcht and caus'd the Innocent Husband to be made away he then takes the guilty Wife into his possession and marries her and expects to live many happy and pleasant days in mutual endearments But though David thought that the marrying her would legitimate their love and take off the old scandal of their former Embraces yet it was an act highly offensive to God and is so exprest in the last v. of the Chapter And when the mourning was past David sent and fet her to his House and she became his Wife and bare him a Son but the thing which David had done displeased the Lord. But then notwithstanding that David had committed those two horid sins of Adultery and Murder yet he had not any true sense and feeling of his guilt nor that remorse of Conscience which he should have had for sins of that Crimson die but he rubs on a considerable time without any regret or sign of repentance which insensibility and hardness of heart we may justly ascribe to his living in ease and enjoying the Charms of Bathsheba's Beauty which at first inticed him to sin and afterwards made him forget it whilst his Soul was steep'd in pleasure and triumphing in the injoyment of his new Spouse But whilst David was in his Nuptial jollity and swallowed up in fond Caresses and doting upon that Beauty which had formerly bewitcht him God stirs up his Prophet Nathan to give him some check and interruption in his solaces by propounding something that might bring his late horrid sins to his remembrance And accordingly the Prophet does his office and propounds to him the Parable of the poor man with his little Ewe-Lamb How that this was his only Companion his only Darling his Bosom Friend that he had nothing else to love and delight in nor that he could call his own but this one poor Innocent Creature and yet there was a rich man which had a numerous Flock and enough to make a Feast for any Friend or Stranger whatsoever and yet was guilty of so much incivility and injustice as to take away this single Lamb from a poor man with a pretence that he needed it to make an Entertainment which he might have done without the least wrong or detriment to himself as having such a number of his own and so many which he might well have spar'd Which Parable was no sooner propounded to David but he resents the Act with a great deal of indignation and delivers his opinion against him that should do such a fact as an unpardonable offender and that he was guilty of such a high piece of injustice that he was not fit to live For him that had enough of his own and yet to invade the right and property of a poor man and to rob him of his little All was in Davids Judgment an unsufferable wrong and injury and that he that did it deserv'd nothing less than Death for so are the words in the fifth ver of this Chapter And Davids anger was greatly kindled against the man And he said to Nathan As the Lord liveth the man that hath done this thing shall surely die And he shall restore the Lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity So just and severe was David in condemning the robbing of a poor man and taking away the small substance he had But then when the Prophet took upon him to make a nearer Representation of the case and to bring it home to himself and point-blank to charge him with the like injustice which he had so severely condemned in another saying Thou art the man We must needs think that David was much startled when the guilt recoil'd upon himself and that his own Conscience made the rebound But then when it was brought so close to him that there was no avoiding his own self-Condemnation David presently makes an ingenuous Confession saying I have sinned against the Lord. And such we may observe are the mercies of God that his pardon follows immediately upon his Confession And Nathan said unto David The Lord hath also put away thy sin thou shalt not die in the 13. v. Howbeit in the next v. says the Prophet Because thou hast by this deed given great occasion to the Enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the Child also that is born unto thee shall surely dy Where we may observe that although God was pleased to grant him the greatest pardon of his life yet he does not give him a general pardon from other Punishments but assures him at the same time that he granted him his life that he should have such a punishment wherein he might read the nature and deserts of his sins The Child that is born unto thee shall surely die From whence it may not be unuseful to observe that God is pleased sometimes to lay the Punishment due to the Parents sin upon their Children and so here David had sinned and the Child must die for it which may be of great use and moment to make people more wary and deliberate how they enter into the Holy State of Matrimony For though it be a Divine Institution and ordained of God in Paradise and the State of Mans Innocency
attend our Children and those great infirmities which they often labour under and the more reason to be humbled when we reflect upon our selves as the Authors of them The truth is we have laid a train of mischiefs in our Bodies by our Vices which will certainly ruine and blow up our Children we have Created Diseases in our Bodies by trespassing too much upon nature and offering great violencies to our Constitution we have broken and shattered our Bodies by great excess by hard and unseasonable Drinkings and that may be one reason why we deliver down such a weak and crasie Progeny We have turn'd our Bodies into Bogs of uncleanness and putrefaction by our lust and wantonness and that may be a very proper reason why our Children carry about them such an Hospital of Diseases We have made our Bodies Sepulchres and burying places of Wine and that may be another reason why our Children become Corpses so soon and go so early to their Graves we eat and drink destruction to our Children by our Gluttony and Drunkenness we dig their Graves as well as our own with our Teeth and by swallowing down over-much we prepare them for the devoration of the Worms and 't is not any whit probable or likely that our Children should prove sound and healthful when we distemper our Bodies and treasure up Diseases And we may consider that we do propagate Diseases many times as well as our nature and there are Diseases which our Posterity find by woful experience run in a blood And therefore it is the duty of all Parents who desire the good of their Posterity and have a regard to the welfare and happiness of their Children to be very strict and punctual in observing the Rules of temperance and sobriety and in keeping their Bodies pure and undefil'd forasmuch as by a vicious and debaucht life we store up Diseases for Posterity and transmit great evils to our Generation For 't is certain that by great excesses and impure mixtures we do corrupt our bloud and consequently must convey a taint to our Off-spring and a rotten Father seldom produces any other than a Consumptive Child and besides our Vices are as communicable to our Children as our Diseases and who knows but that God might determine to take away Davids Child for this very reason lest he should Patrissare take after his Father he being the Child of an Incontinent Father and the Issue of such unhallowed Embraces And therefore when David was devoting his Enemies he makes this one of his dreadful Curses Let the iniquity of his Father be remembred with the Lord and let not the sin of his Mother be blotted out in the 119. Ps and 14. v. And truly I fear that there are too many ungodly Fathers and Mothers in the World whose wickedness and folly is such as that their Children suffer for it deeply being cover'd with Sores and Boils and having such Diseases breaking forth as are plain marks and tokens of their Parents sins God visiting the iniquities of the Fathers upon the Children and not suffering the iniquity of the Father to be conceal'd nor the sin of the Mother to be blotted out And therefore those Parents that are conscious to themselves of any such great and foul sin as Davids was have very great reason to lament the Diseases and Death of their Children when they consider that they themselves were the great Instruments of bringing all those miseries upon their Children and that their sins have had the greatest hand in their destruction And 't is very well worth our observation that in the first Age of the World it was never seen that the Son died before the Father but the oldest always went first But then when the wickedness of men grew great and their Pride so great that they were too high for their Station and would needs be building Castles in the Air and climbing up to the Battlements of Heaven it hapned presently afterwards that Terahs Son died before his Father and there is a special note and mark set upon it as a kind of wonder in the 9. of Genesis and 28. v. And Haran died before his Father Terah in the Land of his Nativity From whence we may observe that the wickedness of a Father is enough to alter the course of nature and to shorten his Childrens days and to accelerate their Death and bring them to the dust before their time And thus I have been somewhat long on this Argument that I might represent to you the danger of a sinning Father and Mother and what a fatal mischief they do their Children by their wickedness in that they bring a Curse upon their Family and by their sin occasion the Death and ruin of an Innocent Child as is clear and manifest in this one instance of Davids Child being taken away for the sin of his Father And we may also remember what a greivous Curse God entailed upon old Eli's Family and Posterity that they should die in the Flower of their Age and be cut off in their very prime and that chiefly upon the account of old Eli. And therefore Parents had need take a care to please God and that they do commit no great offence and to keep from great transgressions that so their Children may not repent that ever they were born of them and suffer sadly for their miscarriages And indeed all Parents that desire it should be well with their Children and that they should live long and see good days are concern'd to live a pure and unspotted life to possess their Vessels in sanctification and honour not in the lust of Concupisence otherwise they may bring great miseries upon their Children and perhaps a sudden Death and if they are resolv'd to continue their debaucheries and lewd Amours they had even as good strangle their Children when they are newly born and it may be a mercy to tear them in pieces as Medea did her Brother Absyrtus rather than they should live to inherit their Phthisicks Consumptions and loathsome Diseases and to be plagu'd all their life long with the miserable effects of their Parents sins And truly all vitious and ungodly Parents have the same grounds that David had to lament over their Children when they shall see them sick of their Diseases consuming with their Lusts and expiring under the curse of their sins And therefore if Parents would but take care to live better and more vertuously possibly their Children would not prove so sickly and might live longer for 't is certain that Davids Child was sick and died so soon for the wickedness of the Father Secondly Davids great grief and mourning for his Child during the time of its sickness was very just and reasonable upon another account as being an expression of humanity and the result of a natural affection For our Religion has not like the Stoick seal'd up the fountain of tears and wip'd them away from our eyes whilst we are in this bitter Achor
us And if we do but look into the Proverbs we may be easily convinc't and observe how we read there that Children are not always such blessings that we should desire so much their living for they may be Curses as well as Blessings to us according as they shall prove A wise Son maketh a glad Father but a foolish Son is the heaviness of his Mother Prov. 10. 1. and in the 23. of Prov. and 24. v. The Father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice and he that begetteth a wise Child shall have joy of him and in the 17. ch and 21. v. He that begetteth a Fool doth it to his sorrow and the Father of a Fool hath no joy and in the 25. v. A foolish Son is a grief to his Father and a bitterness to her that bare him In all which expressions we may see that a man is much happier in having no Children than such as are foolish and vitious and that nothing can be a greater grief and dishonour to Parents than to have silly and wicked Children What comfort is there in having such lewd and profane Sons as old Eli's who brought a scandal upon their Father and a Curse upon their Family the whole Generation Oâ— what can be a greater grief to a Father than to have such a Son as Jeroboam the Son of Nebat who made Israel to sin that is one that shalâ— prove the pest of the Age and theâ— bane of Mankind And thereforâ— we need not be so greedy and desirous of Children or so loth to parâ— with them when we have them unless we could have a better prospect of their conditions and assuredly knew that they would prove Comforts and Ornaments to us by theiâ— wisdom and good conversation Anâ— therefore David might well comforâ— himself and take heart after the loâ—â— of his Child to think that though he had lost a Child yet it was aâ— Innocent Child one that had nâ— great sin if any to answer for onâ— that had not sullied its Soul with the least tincture of any actual sin or transgression and that it went as pure out of the World as it came into it whereas if it had liv'd to maturity it might have been like the rest of the World or died with some great sin upon it unrepented of as well as some of his Children had done And truly the same consideration may well be made use of by all Parents to bring them quietly to sustain the loss of their Children when they die in their nonage and very young And what can be a more comfortable consideration than for Parents under such losses to think that their Childrens Virtue if they had liv'd was very uncertain and that Vice was the most likely to prevail that sin reigned more in the World than goodness that the greater part of the World was stark naught and that but few continued in it but contracted some spot or stain and none that was perfectly Innocent And therefore it might be a mercy to their Children to be set out of the reach of sin and temptation and to have such an early translation to Heaven before they had done any thing to hazard their Salvation or to forfeit the love of God and title to Eternal Life and Happiness Well may Parents pronounce their Children blessed when they die in such a state of Innocency For of such says our Saviour is the Kingdom of Heaven Fourthly Another consideration which pacify'd Davids sorrows for the loss of his Child might very well be this That it was remov'd from the great Evils and Calamity of the World This World God knows is but a troublesome place at the best to live in and no man must think to go scot-free from troubles of one kind or other The Thracians as Cicero reports out of Herodotus were wont to weep at the Birth and Nativity of their Children to think what a sad and troublesome Theatre they entered upon and that they were born to know a great deal of sorrow and misery but to rejoice at their departure and going off the Stage to think that they then retired from the distracting cares and inquietudes of a troublesome World and were past the reach and grievance of all misfortunes This World is too low a Region to be free from storms and tempests and there is no expecting a perfect serenity but above the Clouds and there is no such happiness to be enjoy'd here as a freedom from all misery and trouble he being the happiest man at present that meets with the least trouble or perplexity and therefore no man of experience in the World needs to be told that all here is Vanity and vexation of Spirit and whoever shall consider the great changes of misery that are in the World from War to Pestilence from Pestilence to Fire from Fire to great Confusions which have hapned not only in the memory of many but in our days and within the compass of a few Years and moreover what great and terrible judgments are continually impending over our Heads and full upon the Inhabitants of the Earth because their wickedness is great and also the continual losses and crosses the sorrows and disappointments which come of course and happen according to the mutable condition of things below Whoever I say shall seriously consider this sad revolution and mixture of sorrows cannot judge it in reason good being here or look upon the World as a desirable place to live in much less think his Children or Relations the happier for being here And therefore David might well think it unreasonable to mourn for the loss of his Child when it was consider'd that it was gone out of a cross and troublesome World where the highest and most advantageous condition as himself had found by sad and woful experience could not exempt a man from great Calamities when he who was his Father and a King was forc'd from his Throne and put to his shifts and driven from Post to Pillar and perhaps was reduc'd to such great straits and extremities that he would have exchang'd his condition with the meanest of his Subjects How could he mourn for the Death of his Child when he considered that it was subject to the same Calamities as himself and perhaps might prove every whit as unfortunate in the World if it had liv'd to succeed him and might have Inherited his troubles as well as his Crown And therefore he lookt upon it as a kind Providence that God had so happily prevented the Childs seeing any of those miseries which the Father had felt and thought it a singular happiness and favour of Heaven that his Child went out of the World without knowing or being sensible what a trouble meant whereas himself had been sufficiently tossed up and down upon the waves of affliction and miserably broken with the cares and inquietudes of a troublesome World and knew the World better than to esteem it the best or happiest place that his Child could be
tears are in vain and ineffectual and that they may be spent as well upon a dead Tree as a dead Child and recover one as soon as the other may serve to suppress all the extravagant sorrowings of all persons for their Friends and Relations and make them argue with themselves the unreasonableness of all such desperate mourning saying with David now they are dead why should we fast and take on so grievously and refuse to be comforted as Rachel because our Children or our Friends are not For to what purpose is all our weeping and mourning and casting down our selves can we bring them back again no that 's utterly impossible we shall go to them very speedily and follow them close into their Graves but there is no expecting to see them any more they shall not return to us Thirdly Another thing which might well stop Davids sorrowing for his Child might be this Consideration That his Child died in its innocent time and before it came to the Age of sinning For though it be a great happiness to have our Children live and grow up to be Men and Women to see them ripen to the perfect use of reason and to arrive at years of discretion though it be a singular comfort and honour to Parents to see their Children grow eminent for Piety and Wisdom and to become the great Lights and Ornaments of their Generation yet the great unhappiness in breeding up Children is this that Parents are not sure of their Childrens Inclinations to vertue And they are not certain though they give them the best Education in the World but that they may make an ill use of it and turn the edge of their wits against God and Vertue and only prove more ingeniously wicked and great Criticks in Debauchery For good Education does not always and infallibly make good men and though our Children are sometimes very hopeful when they are young and give great presages and specimens of virtuous dispositions yet their inclinations are as uncertain as wind and as unstable as water in that slippery Age and 't is a thousand to one but that when they come from under the Discipline of the Rod and Ferula and are left more to their own liberty and have the reins laid loose upon their Necks 't is then I say very great odds but they will prove contrary to expectation and the byass of their inclinations be turn'd a wrong way For whoever shall consider the flexibility of youth and how easily it is seduced and led aside by bad Examples and great temptations which do every where abound in the World cannot but think it a Miracle of Grace for youth to keep upright and unspotted from the World It may indeed much fortify and preserve youth against the Assaults and flatteries of Vice to be season'd with good and vertuous Principles But if they are never so carefully Educated and religiously brought up yet when they come fresh and green into the World they are ready to be bent any way and most likely to lean to the wrong side and to stand according to the bent of corrupt nature But questionless good Education will go a great way in making a good man and has a great stroke and influence upon the succeeding part of our life But yet 't is but a common supposition that that Vertue which was so secure and flourishing when it was confin'd within Walls and out of the reach of temptations may be in great hazard and danger when it comes abroad and to live in the Air and within the breath of temptations For a Cloyster may secure that Vertue which perhaps would be lost if it walkt at large and a School may send forth a good Lad which perhaps Liberty and Company may corrupt and spoil So that there is no depending upon or assurance of our Childrens Vertue whilst they are young and before they come to the Regions of Choice and make some experiment of themselves how tenacious they are of Vertue and how much they can hold out against the great and suitable temptations that are in the World and therefore we are very fond and foolish to promise to our selves great matters from our Children or to build over-much upon their future Vertue and to please our selves with thinking what rare men they will make and what great Comforts they will prove to us whereas we know not what great alterations time may produce and what years may bring forth For although we may dote upon our Children when they are young as David did upon his Darling Adonijah and applaud their Inclinations yet they may get to head and grow Masterless and disobedient and incorrigible as Adonijah was they may grow worse and worse as they grow older and as Jacob said upon another account may by their great undutifulness and ill behaviour bring down our gray hairs with sorrow to the Grave We are apt too apt indeed to mutter and repine at the Providence of God when he takes away our Children when they are young and of great hopes as we think and presume but God knows what manner of persons they might have been if they had liv'd whether they might have prov'd good or bad a joy or grief unto us What if these hopeful Children had liv'd to imbibe ill Principles to scoff at Virtue to deride the Being of a God and to make a mock of sin what if they had liv'd to be profane and irreligious and to prove such youths as we have some in these days should we then have thought their life a Blessing and not rather a Curse unto us and who knows but there was a great mixture of mercy in Gods Judgment upon David in taking away and bereaving him of his Child lest he should have prov'd one of bad inclinations as being sprung of a vitious Stock and as the vulgar Proverb says that which is bred in the bone will hardly ever out of the flesh We see how ill his other Children prov'd Tamar was defil'd and asham'd of her self Amnon was incestuous and brought a great stain upon his Family and his Dearest Absolom was both a Murderer and a Rebel and died in such a state of wickedness that David was exceedingly troubled at his going out of the World in such an impenitent condition mightily deploring his untimely Death and wishing if God had so pleas'd that he had laid down his life in exchange for his Sons speaking it with the greatest ingemination as a sign of the deepest sorrow O my Son Absolom my Son my Son would God I had died for thee O Absolom my Son my Son And if these Children of David prov'd so bad who knows but the Child that died might have prov'd as bad as any of the rest in case it had liv'd Ah Beloved we know not what manner of persons our Children will prove what their qualities and conditions may be and therefore we know not well what we do when we murmur at Gods removing them from
Job and 8. v. O that I might have my request and that God would grant me the thing that I long for even that it would please God to destroy me that he would let loose his hand and cut me off and in the 3. ch and 20. v. He speaks much to the same purpose Saying Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery and life unto the bitter in soul Which long for death but it cometh not and dig for it more than for hid treasures Which rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave and in the 7. ch 3 4 and 5. vers He declares how uneasy and restless he was through the greatness and violence of his Diseases and how severely he was handled So am I made to possess months of vanity and wearisome nights are appointed to me When I lie down I say When shall I arise and the night be gone I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust my skin is broken and become loathsome and in the 13. ch and 14. v. He professes that he had so little joy and comfort in his life that he would esteem it a mercy to die saying My Soul chuseth Death and strangling rather than life Nay he goes further and says that he was quite out of conceit with living and would not be immortal on Earth for never so much they are his own words I loath it I would not live always let me alone for my days are vanity and in the 10. ch and the 1. v. His afflictions seem to have been so great and lasting that they almost wore out his patience and he could not endure them any longer which makes him speak like a man in great extremity and a desperate condition Saying My soul is weary of my life and so David in the 6. Ps and 6. v. utters himself in the same manner Saying I am weary with my groanings And therefore David might well cease sorrowing for the loss of his Child when he consider'd the manifold Diseases that mankind is liable unto and that it often happens and that he himself had so experienc'd it that men meet with such sorrows and afflictions that make them weary of the World and exceedingly imbitter their lives and why then should he be troubled at the death of his Child and that it did not live to be in danger of enduring all the Diseases in the Bill of Mortality And how did he know but that if it had liv'd it might have prov'd of a sickly and weak Constitution and perhaps might bring those Infirmities into the World with it as were past all Cure and might be a sorrow to the Parents and a misery to their Child as long as it liv'd And besides Children run many risques and hazards whilst they are young and come oftentimes to great mischances and either they contract a lameness by a fall or lose one Eye or both by the small Pox or are drown'd or burnt or kill'd unfortunately any of which would prove matter of greater sorrow to Parents than a bare natural Death And therefore seeing God was pleased to take it away so very young and that it dropt off with its first sickness there was a great mixture of mercy in this sad Providence and little reason to be griev'd at such an early Death when it was so natural and perhaps prevented the meeting many sad mischances and a Troop of Diseases which are incident to this frail and perishing life And truly all Parents have the same reason which we suppose David had to comfort up themselves after the loss of their Children when they die very young as considering that an early death may prevent a miserable life and that it is much better to die young than to live longer and have such Diseases grow and hang upon us as shall make life a burthen to us And indeed though we are extreamly desirous of living and are sad and melancholy when we think of dying yet we may live so long as that we may have enough of it and may meet with such sore Diseases as may rob us of all pleasure and comfort in living and spoil our taking any contentment in the greatest injoyments this World does afford us we know how the case stood with Job and how that afflictions crowded in so thick upon him that as he often professes they made him even weary of his life And there is none of us that has any priviledge or exemption or greater security from Diseases than Job nor have we Bodies of Brass or Sinews of Iron more than he but we have Bodies subject to the same Infirmities and liable to be invaded by the same Diseases if God to make an experiment of our patience shall think fit to handle us as severely as he did Job and to inflict the same Diseases upon us And therefore we need not so much desire long life and length of days as commonly we do Because it may so happen that before we run out half our race or come to the middle of our Course besides the troubles that are from without we may meet with such a numerous train of bodily afflictions that may make us more covetous of death than ever we were of life and we may live to know so much sorrow and pain before we die that like Job we may be ready to curse our Birth Day and wish that we had never been born And therefore we should not be so very unwilling to depart and leave the World at any time though never so soon because we may suppose that the longer we continue in it the worse it may be for us and although we are in health at present and enjoy our selves finely yet Diseases may within a little time overtake and grow upon us which may make our life a perfect torment to us and cause us to consume our days in misery To speak compendiously all Parents and others have little reason to ingulph themselves in sorrows for the Death of their Friends and Relations and more especially if it be early and natural because when they are taken away so soon they happily miss of those sore and grievous distempers which in running out the whole stage of life do seize upon oftentimes and render this present life extreamly bitter and unacceptable And indeed what comfort is there to see our Friends often sick or roaring with the Stone or the Gout or some acute pain or to have them of an ill habit of Body or of a broken health and to be ever crazy and lingring with some fixt and incurable Disease What pleasure is it to see our Relations rotten and unsound and patcht up with Medicines and supported with the Arts of Physick and kept alive by nice and superstitious observations of diet or what delight can we take in injoying our Friends when they cannot enjoy themselves And what reason then have we to lay so much
to heart the death of our Friends and Relations and to pine away meerly for sorrow that they are gone whereas they are now freed from all the sorrow and contagion of bodily distempers and have escaped those sore burthens which we are like to feel and suffer if we stay here Methinks we should rather comfort our selves as we may well suppose David did to think that our Relations when they are dead and gone are past the shock and fury of a Disease that they have endured one brunt for all that they have charg'd that Enemy home which we so much fear and must expect every day to encounter withal so that considering how we that are left behind are to run the Gantlet through Troops of sorrow and to pass the Pikes of a thousand Diseases 't is highly unreasonable to mourn and sorrow for the dead they being past all possibility of Diseases and far removed from this Climate of Sickness and Death Sixthly Another thing which might restrain Davids sorrowing for the loss of his Child might be this consideration That it was releas'd from the great pains and miseries which it lately felt and endured 'T is certain and indubitable that the Soul does not quit its Mansion of the Body without great strivings and reluctancy and though it be consider'd that the Child was but in its Infancy and newly in possession of life and that the Soul and Body had contracted but a late acquaintance and that the Friendship was very new yet where there is such a strict Conjunction as there is between the Soul and the Body though but for a moment of time the separation cannot be without great grief and sorrow where there is such a close union and intimacy there is no parting without pain and trouble and consequently though the Soul of the Child was now just enter'd into its New Tenement yet it was so firmly setled and had taken that deep rooting that it could not be remov'd or ejected out of possession without great disturbance And therefore to see a Child strugling for life and to have only breath enough to intitle it to life could not but wonderfully affect and produce great Agonies of sorrows in the hearts of the Spectators And we may observe that men have naturally that compassion as to pity even a Brute when it lies in pain and misery and look upon it as an act of mercy to dispatch it out of the way And therefore David seeing his Child in that extream anguish and distress in that sickness to Death and that there was no way to ease and relieve it could not but reflect upon it as a singular mercy of God to take away the Child and to put an end to such a painful and miserable life David could not forbear weeping and sadly lamenting over his Child when he saw it in the pangs of Death and in those frightful Convulsions which were precedaneous to its dissolution But when it pleas'd God to seal up its breath and to give it a happy Issue out of this troublesome World then David began to be better satisfied and to be somewhat comforted with the consideration that God had in mercy released his Child from that pain and misery which it lately underwent and the sight whereof would have pierc'd the hardest heart living So that all those that have the sad opportunity of standing by their Relations and Friends when they are upon their sick Beds and in the approaches of Death and there to observe what a tumult and commotion nature is in at that time and with what pain and trouble the Soul and Body take their leave one of the other must needs conclude their parting and separation to be a more dismal and amazing sight than a Divorce between the most desperate Lovers Let us but be present with our Friends in the heat and rage of their Distemper or in the ultimate efforts of life and we shall then see a tremendous and ghastly spectacle which is hardly to be related without tears and cannot be seen without horror and astonishment O the hollow sighs and the deep sobs and pierceing groans of our dying Friends which are enough to wound any heart living and to strike that dread upon us that the sound of their cries and groans shall never be forgotten and can we pretend to pity them when we see them in so much anguish and distress and in the depths of misery and shall we so contradict our pretences to sorrow and our compassion for them in the bitterness of Death as to be troubled when they are out of misery and to deplore their going to rest Shall we weep and mourn to see our Friends upon the Rack and in great torment and shall we take on the more when they are past the sense and feeling of any pain How can we reconcile this Posthumous Passion to common reason Or can we think to perswade people that we lov'd our Relations dearly when they see us grieve when they were in misery but to grieve more when they are stept into happiness In a word we may yield to the meltings of nature or the tenderness of our affections and gratify our compassions in mourning for our Friends when they are in great misery and the Agonies of Death For a compassionate grief is both natural and reasonable and if we have any spark of good nature we cannot but be mollify'd at the mournful accents of the most despicable Creature when 't is in pain and great extremities But then to mourn excessively for our Friends when they are out of pain and the bitterness of Death is past is both unreasonable and unchristian unreasonable because they have endured and pass'd the worst and are perfectly discharg'd from those troubles and sorrows which those that remain alive are subject unto and 't is unchristian because it gives occasion to people to suspect our belief of a Resurrection and a future Life and that we are not really perswaded that our Friends are removed for the better and much for their advantage And therefore the Apostle in the first to the Thessal 4. ch and 13. v. admonishes Christians not to grieve and take on for the dead as others which have no hope lest they should by that means scandalize their Religion and render their belief of a Resurrection suspected and dubitable so that we are concern'd as Christians and as we tender the reputation of our Christian Faith not to be lavish of our tears nor over profuse in our expences of sorrow for the dead lest we should be suspected of believing our Friends happier here than they will be hereafter But we should rather in a manner rejoice at the departure of those who have liv'd well and innocently and die in the Lord Forasmuch as the Apostle tells us they shall rest from their labours and have all tears wip't away from their Eyes Revel 7. 17. And we should as our Church wisely directs us in the office for the Burial of
the dead give hearty thanks to God that it hath pleased him to deliver our Dear Friends and Relations out of the miseries of this sinful World which may furnish us with another consideration that might possibly incur into Davids mind and help to suspend and allay his sorrowing for his dead Child and that is this That it was remov'd far above the power of sin and temptation We at present as the Apostle Paul complains carry about us a Body of sin and death We are subject to manifold sins and temptations and have brought with us into the World those corruptions which in time will ripen into and sally forth in great actual transgressions Job makes a kind of wonder at it that any man should think he can be perfectly pure and innocent in this body of flesh For what is man that he should be clean or he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous Job 15. 14. and so David tells us Psal 51. 5. That sin is the Inheritance of our Parents that we are infected with it in the Womb and that we are born with propensions to evil Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me So that the seeds of disobedience are lodged in our nature and the ground-work of sin is laid deep within us and there is nothing wanting but time and opportunity to make it bring forth in abundance So that when our Children die very young and go early to their Graves we may comfort our selves with this consideration that we lose them in good time and before they have added any actual to original sin and that if they had liv'd much longer they would have contracted a new and further guilt and perhaps have advanc'd in sin as they did in Years for 't is certain that the strength of nature gives strength to our sins too and 't is only Age that qualifies and fits us for great and notorious wickedness So that that sin which was only in Embryo in our infancy comes within a few years to a perfect shape and our propensions to evil in a small process of time are reduced to real and visible acts My meaning is that although there is a natural aptness and proclivity in Mankind to sin and err from the Laws of our Maker yet sin does lie hid and brooding in the time of our infancy and is only hatcht into perfection by the addition of longer time and although we have all the principles of wickedness inherent in us at the very first moment of our Nativity yet we are too impotent to commit evil and to offend God at that rate as when we come to a full stature in Years and knowledge We may be full of bad inclinations when we are young and Children but 't is only Age that can make us capable of doing mischief and to be workers of iniquity and we cannot so highly provoke God when we are ignorant and childish and know nothing of him as when we come to the perfect use of reason and to know his will and yet run Counter to it And therefore the Death of our Children may be a happy prevention of their sining and if they live so long as to receive the benefit of Baptism and to be regenerate and born anew of Water and the Holy Ghost and so be made lively members of Christs Church we are bound to thank God for the mercy of their Regeneration and that they had their sins wash'd away in the laver of Holy Baptism so as that they go much purer out of the World than they came into it whereas if they had liv'd longer in the World they would have contracted a greater guilt and had more sins to answer for they would have been continually liable to temptations and in danger of falling into great and grievous sins and to be corrupted by the bad examples which abound in all places of the World And therefore there is no reason why Parents should so much lament their Childrens leaving them so soon if they do seriously consider that 't is a naughty World we live in and that mens love and practice of wickedness is exceeding great and that 't is impossible to escape all the pollutions that are in it and if they do further consider how much humane nature is tainted with original sin and corruption which prompts us on to evil continually and what a subtile and vigilant Adversary we have who is always seeking to beguile and destroy us and how thick set the World is with snares and temptations I say if this consideration did but enter into our minds it would be of great force and power to asswage our Passion and to allay our sorrow for the death of our Friends and Relations it being a very comfortable thing to contemplate the happiness and priviledge of those that have shook of the clogs and fetters of the flesh and let fall their Bodies the troublesome Mantles of their Souls and are now expatiating in Regions of Bliss and Happiness and live in the pure Element of Goodness and where 't is impossible that any temptation should approach or sin have any Dominion over them Lastly Another thing which might stop Davids sorrowing for the loss of his Child might be this consideration that it was the will of God it should be so He considered that it was altogether foolish and in vain to enter into any controversie with God about his dealings with his Child or to stand expostulating the justice of God in taking it away For he was convinc'd that Gods will ought to be a Law unto us and that there is no need of disputing the Righteousness and Equity thereof it being always rul'd and determin'd by his wisdom and justice and goodness For though God be of an infinite and uncontroulable power and can do whatsoever he pleases both in Heaven and Earth yet there is a Maxime in Theology as well as Policy That the King of Heaven can do no wrong It must be acknowledg'd by us all that our life and being is the gift and blessing of God and so is the life of our Children too and therefore when God does in mercy give us Children so he may with justice take them away For may not he dispose of his gifts and do with his own as he pleases God lent us Children for a little time on purpose to please us shall we be troubled when he resumes them to himself or griev'd when he requires them back we are to observe that there is a great difference between Gods way of disposing his gifts and that of mens For though it be common with men to make a Deed of Gift and to transfer their own right to a thing wholly to another so as to lose all propriety in it yet God does not make the same disposition of his gifts in that absolute manner but when he gives us Riches or Honour or Children or any other gifts he does not make over to us all
reason should not do that which a little time will effect that it should not put a stop to our tears which within a little while will dry up of themselves Multum autem interest utrum tibi permittas moerere an imperes says the same Seneca 't is more honourable to suppress our passions than to let them run themselves out of breath and to sink of their own accord And in another place he tells Marcia that it is wisdom to husband our tears well and not to let them stream too plentifully but to be sparing of them and to reserve some against another time Lachrymae nobis deerunt antequam dolendi causae For if we live in the World we shall meet with many occasions to weep and mourn and shall never want matter of sorrow and trouble And therefore we should make it evident by our ceasing to mourn for the dead in just and convenient time that our reason has that ascendant over our Passion as not to let it run too far or spend it self quite at once whereas there may be great reason and occasion for it at some other time Lastly and to conclude all Let none suspect that this Discourse had any aim to promote or introduce a Stoical Apathy among Christians whose Religion is a compleat body of mercy and a perfect systeme of tender-heartedness and compassions and teaches men to be pitiful and compassionate and melting above the common standard of humanity Let none I say so misconstrue it as because it argues against excessive and immoderate mourning for the dead that therefore it intends to harden mens hearts and to bar them from paying a just tribute of tears and sorrow to the memory of their Deceased Friends or because it declares against effeminate weepings and lamentations that therefore it will not allow us the sense and feeling of men Nec verò credi velim sayes Cicero me quia dolori nimio repugnem idcirco dolorem omni ex parte improbare omnesque illius ex animo filias evellendas existimare c. But our design is chiefly to perswade men to curb and moderate their Passions and sorrows for the Dead by shewing that if they would but listen to the Counsels and Dictates of reason it would inform and convince them of the folly of grieving and afflicting themselves to no purpose and when all the sorrowing in the World will do no good Parcamus Lachrymis sayes Seneca nihil proficientibus and also how contradictory it is to the Faith of a Christian to continue mourning for the Dead as if they were irreversibly gone and lost to all intents and purposes of happiness as if Death were an utter extinction and annihilation of their beings and as if there were no immortality after this short and fading life is ended 'T is true that the Stoicks injoined their Disciples to dam up the current of their natural affections and passions and not to let them forth in the least degree upon any occasion whatsoever And this Apathy they pretended and boasted to be the aim and perfection of their Philosophy whereas the Christian Philosophy is not near so rigid but allows us to give way to our passions in some measure and upon just and solemn occasions We read of the Lamentations of Jeremiah and how that the Death of the good King Josiah was solemniz'd with great mournings and lamentations all Israel mourned for Josiah and Judah lamented Josiah 2 Chro. 35. 24. And that which doth more authorize our Mourning for our Friends is the carriage and practice of those devout men in the Gospel who carried Stephen to his Burial and made great Lamentation over him Acts 8. 2. Nay a further Confirmation of the lawfulness of mourning for our deceased Friends is the Example of our Saviour himself who wept over Lazarus's Grave as we may see John 11. 35. which the standers by made a great Argument of his love and concernment for the Death of Lazarus And 't is very well known that the Jews lookt upon tears and mourning to be so natural and proper at a Funeral that they hired Women called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jer. 9. 17. and so had the Romans their Praeficae for the very same purpose to weep at Burials for the greater solemnity so that rather than there should be any want of tears upon such sad occasions they Celebrated the Obsequies of their Friends with a mercenary sorrow and therefore it was a severe and unnatural Injunction of Tiberius to charge the Friends and Relations of those persons that he put to Death not to mourn for them or so much as shed a tear at their Execution upon pain of his highest displeasure Interdictum ne capite damnatos lugerent Suetonius Whereas our Religion does not require us to put off bowels of pity and compassion as the Philosophy of the Stoicks or the cruelty of the Tyrant did but only prohibits us to pluck up the Sluces or to open the Flood-gate of our Passions so as to let them run with a mighty Torrent and to over-flow the bounds of reason and moderation But then although we are permitted by the Example of our Saviour to sympathize with the sufferings of humane nature and to grieve according to the proportions of humanity for the loss of our Friends and Relations yet we are to have a special care that our sorrows are not unreasonable or immoderate for as no sorrow shews want of humanity so too much shews the want of Religion For by our immoderate grievings we seem to renounce our Creed or at least to distrust the truth of one of its prime and fundamental Articles which is the Resurrection of the Dead And therefore St. Paul seeing the Christians in his days were apt to grow exorbitant in their sorrowings for the Dead thinks fit to give them this instruction 1 Thess 4. 13. But I would not have you to be ignorant Brethren concerning them which are asleep that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him in which words he does plainly declare that we do in a manner confute and dissolve our Belief of the great Article of the Resurrection if we lay the loss of our Friends so much to heart and ingulph our selves in sorrows as those that have no hope And indeed what can be more unlike or contrary to the Faith and Belief of Christians than that unruly and excessive sorrow of Rachel for the loss of her Children whom the Scripture seems not only to note but to brand and stigmatize for her impatience in that she wept for her Children and would not be comforted because they were not Ah Lord what a sad thing is this to contradict our profession to say we believe a Resurrection and yet sorrow as if there were none But in short either we believe a Resurrection or we do not if we do