A FUNERAL SERMON
IT is an awful providence, which hath lately removed from among us a young person, well known to most of you, whose agreeable temper and conduct had gained the esteem of all her acquaintance, whose constitution of body, together with the furniture of her mind, and circumstances in the world, concurred to promise many future years of life and usefulness. But all that is born of the race of man is frail and mortal, and all that is done by the hand of God is wise and holy. We mourn, and we submit in silence.—Yet the providence hath a voice in it, and the friends of the deceased are very solicitous, that such an unexpected and instructive appearance of death might be religiously improved to the benefit of the living. For this end I am desired to entertain you at present, with some meditations on those words of our Saviour, which you read in
Luke 12:37.—Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching.
VARIOUS, and well chosen are those parables, whereby our Saviour gave warning to his disciples, that, when he was departed from this world, they should ever be upon their guard, and always in a readiness to receive him at his return; because he would come on a sudden, and in such an hour as they thought not, to demand an account of their behaviour, and to distribute his recompences according to their works. There are two of these parables in this chapter: But to enter into a detail of all the particular metaphors, which relate to this one, whence I have borrowed my text, would be too tedious here, and would spend too much of the present hour. Without any longer preface, therefore I shall apply myself to improve the words, to our spiritual profit, in the following method:
I. I shall enquire what is meant by the coming of Christ, in the text, and how it may be properly applied to our present purpose, or the hour of death.
II. I shall consider what is implied in the watchfulness, which our Saviour recommends.
III. I shall propose some considerations, which will discover the blessedness of the watchful soul in a dying hour.
IV. I shall add some practical remarks.
First, Let us enquire, what is meant by the coming of Christ in my text.
The coming of Christ, in some of these parables, may have reference to his speedy appearance, in the course of his providence, in that very age, to judge and punish the Jewish nation, to destroy their city, and put an end to their church and state, for their many heinous iniquities, and the most provoking crime of rejecting and crucifying the Son of God.—But these words, in their supreme and most important sense, always point to the glorious appearance of Christ at the last day, when he shall come to shut up all the scenes of this frail life, to put an end to the present world, to finish all the works of this mortal state, and to decide and determine the eternal states of all mankind by the general judgment.
Yet Christ comes to each of us in the hour of death also, for he hath the keys of death and of hell, or of the invisible world; Rev. 1:18. It is he who appoints the very moment, when the soul shall be dismissed from this flesh, he opens the doors of the grave for the dying body, and he is Lord of the world of spirits, and lets in new inhabitants every minute into those unseen regions of immortal sorrow, or immortal peace. And, as Christ may be said to come to us by the message or summons of death, so the many solemn writings and commands of watchfulness, which attend these parables of Christ, have been usually, and with good reason applied to the hour of death also, for then the Lord comes to shut up the scene of each of our lives, our works are then finished, our last day is come, and the world is then at an end with us.
Let it be observed also, that there is a further parallel between the day of the general judgment, and that of our own death: The one will as certainly come as the other, but the time when Christ will come, in either of these senses, is unknown to us, and uncertain: And it is this, which renders the duty of perpetual watchfulness so necessary to all men. The parable assures us, that our Lord will certainly come, but whether at the second, or third watch, whether at midnight, or at cock-crowing, or near the morning, this is all uncertainty; yet whensoever he comes, he expects we should have our loins girded, like servants fit for business, and our lamps burning, to attend him at the door, and that we be ready to receive him as soon as he knocks.
Were the appointed hour of judgment, or of death, made known to us for months or years before-hand, we should be ready to think constant watchfulness a very needless thing.—Mankind would persuade themselves to indulge their foolish and sinful slumbers, and only take care to rub their eyes a little, and bestir themselves an hour or two before this awful event: But it is the suddenness and uncertainty of the coming of Christ to all mankind, for either of these purposes, that extends the charge of watchfulness to all men, as well as to the apostles; Mark 13:37. and that calls upon us aloud, to keep our souls ever awake, lest, as our Lord there expresses it, lest, coming suddenly, he should find us sleeping. And remember this, that if we are unprepared to meet the Lord at death, we can never be ready when he comes to judgment: Peace and blessedness attend the watchful christian, whensoever his Lord cometh. Blessed is that servant, whom, when his Lord cometh, he shall find watching. This leads me to the second general head.
Secondly, What is implied in watchfulness.
Answer. In general it is opposed to sleeping, as I have already hinted; in Mark. 13:35, 36. And, in the language of scriptures, as well as in common speech, sleep and slumber denote an unpreparedness to receive whatever comes, for this is the case with those who are asleep: On the other hand, watchfulness is a preparation and readiness for every event, and so it is expressed in some of these parables, verse 40. Be ye therefore ready. But to enter into a few particulars.
1. There is a sleep of death;
Ps. 13:3. Spiritual death, as well as natural, is sometimes called asleep. Such is the case of a soul dead in trespasses and sins; Eph. 5:14 compared with 2:1. Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
Watchfulness, therefore, implies life, a principle of spiritual life in the soul: Surely those, who are dead in sins, are not prepared to receive their Lord: He is a perfect stranger to them, they know him not, they love him not, they obey him not; and a terrible stranger he will be, if he come upon them before they are awake. But those, who are awakened by divine grace into a spiritual life, have seen something of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; they are acquainted with their Lord, they love him, and have some degree of preparation to meet their Saviour, when he summons them to leave this world. This is therefore, a matter of highest consequence, that we awake from a state of sin and death, that we be made alive to God, begin the christian life, and set upon religion, in good earnest, according to the rules of the gospel, before Christ calls us away. It is only the divine life begun in us, that can secure us from eternal death; though even christians may be found slumbering in other respects, and expose themselves to painful evils, if that hour surprize them at unawares.
2. There is a sleep of indolence and thoughtlessness:
When a man is insensible of his own circumstances, and too careless of the things which most concern him, we say, “the man is a sleep.” Such a sleep seems to be upon the church of Israel; Isai. 29:10, 11. a spirit of deep sleep, when the law, which contained the great things of God, and their salvation, was to them as a sealed book, they read it not, their eyes were closed, their spiritual senses were bound up. Many a christian, who hath been raised from a death in sin, has been seized with this criminal slumber, and has had the image of death come again upon him: He has grown too careless and unconcerned about his most important and eternal affairs; and, in this temper, he hardly knows what his state is toward God, nor keeps up a lively sense or notice of divine and eternal things upon his spirit. Watchfulness, in opposition to this sleep, implies a holy solicitude and diligence to know our own spiritual state; a consciousness of what we are; a keeping all the spiritual senses in proper exercise, and maintaining a lively perception of divine things. It implies an acute, painful sense of indwelling sin, and the irregular propensities of the heart, a delightful relish of heavenly objects, frequent thoughts of death and eternity, constant waiting for those awful events, with a quick apprehension and resentment of all things, that help or hinder the spiritual life. This is the character of a wakeful christian, and such an one as is ready to receive his returning Lord.
3. There is a sleep of security and foolish peace,
when a person is not apprehensive of imminent danger, and is much unguarded against it. Such was the sleep of Jonah in the storm, of Sampson on the lap of Delilah, when the Philistines were upon him, and of the disciples, when Judas, and the band of soldiers, were just ready to seize their master. This is the case of many a slumbering christian: He is not upon his guard against his inward lusts and passions, nor against those outward temptations and perils to which he is continually exposed, while he dwells in flesh and blood.
Watchfulness, in this respect, is when a christian hath his eyes open, and turns them round on every side, to foresee approaching evil, and prevent it; when he is prepared for every assault of every adversary, whether sin or the world, whether death or the devil; he hath his spiritual armour girt upon him, and is ready for the combat. He is every hour guarding against the powers of the flesh, and watching against its allurements and attractions, lest he be defiled thereby, and unfit to meet his returning Lord: He is daily loosening his heart from all sensual attachments, and weaning himself from the world and creatures, because he knows he must quickly take his long farewell, and part with them all, at the call and appointment of his great Master. He is like a centinel upon his watchtower, ever awake, because dangers stand thick round him.
4. There is a sleep of sloth and inactivity;
Prov. 19:15. Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep. A little more sleep, a little more slumber, saith the lazy christian, who turns upon his bed, as the door upon its hinges, and makes no progress or advance in his way to heaven. We are sleepy christians, when we do little for God, or our own souls, in comparison of the vast work, and important varieties of duty that lie upon us: When our zeal is cold, and our efforts of service slight and feeble: When the light of grace shines so dim, and the spark of holiness is so covered with ashes, that it is hard to say, whether it burn or no. As in natural things, so in spiritual, it is a difficult matter, sometimes, to distinguish between a dead man and a lethargic sleeper. Watchfulness, in opposition to this slumber, is a lively and vigorous exercise of every grace, and a diligent attendance on every duty, both toward God and man, a constant converse with heaven by daily devotion, an active zeal for God in the world, a steady faith in the promises, a joyful hope of heavenly blessedness, a longing expectation of the returning Saviour, which makes the soul stretch out the wings of desire and joy, as though it were going forth to meet him. This is the meaning of the apostle Peter’s expression; 2 Pet. 3:12. Looking for, and hastening to the coming of the day of God.
Put all these things together now, and they make up the character of a watchful christian: He is awake from the sleep of death, and made spiritually alive; he hath the work of vital religion begun in his heart. He is awake from the sleep of thoughtlessness and indolence, he is solicitous to know his own state, and hath good hope through grace, he lives in the view of heavenly things, and keeps his eye open to future and eternal glories. He is awake from the sleep of security, he is upon his guard against every danger, and ready to receive every alarm. He is awake from the sleep of slothfulness, and is active in the pursuit of the glory of his God, and his own eternal interest, and still pressing toward the mark to obtain the prize. This is the soul that is ready to meet a returning Saviour, and to receive his Lord when be comes, either at the hour of death, or to the general judgment.
Thirdly, Let me propose some special considerations, which discover the blessedness of the watchful christian at the hour of death.
Consideration I.
That moment dispossesses us of every enjoyment of flesh and blood, and divides us from the commerce of this visible world, but the wakeful christian is happy, for he is ready to be thus divided and dispossessed. Death breaks the band at once, between us and all the sensible things round about us, by dissolving the frame of this body, which had united us to them; and the watchful saint is content to have that bond broken, these unions dissolved. His heart and soul are not torn away from the dear delights of this mortal state with that pain, anguish, and horror that attend the sinner, when death summons him off the stage, and divides him from his fleshly idols. The christian hath been untying his heart, by degrees, from the dearest delights of sense, and disengaging it from all that is not immortal: With holy pleasure he can bid farewell to sun, moon and stars, and to all things, which their light can shew him, for he is going to a world, where the sun of righteousness ever shines in unclouded glory, and discovers such sights as are infinitely superior to all that the eyes of flesh can behold: He can part with friends and kindred with a composed spirit, for he is going to meet better friends, and diviner kindred, as we shall shew immediately: He can leave his dying flesh behind him, and commit it to the dust, in joyful hope of the great rising-day, and he hath a better mansion at present provided for him on high in his Father’s house, while he lives far separate from all earthly dwellings; 2 Cor. 5:1. We know that if this earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God,—not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
II. The moment of death finishes our state of trial,
and fixes us unchangeably in the state of sin or holiness, in which we are then found; and blessed is the watchful christian, for he is prepared to have his trial thus ended, and his state thus fixed; and made unchangeable. As the tree falls so it lies, whether to the north or the south; Ec. 11:3. As the soul parts from the body, so it remains, whether fitted for heaven or hell. It is therefore a matter of the last importance to be prepared, and ready for such an eternal sentence and unchangeable determination. Were any of us to be surprized some moment this day, and forced to continue all our lives in that very posture of body in which we are then found, should we not be awake, and keep ourselves in the most natural and easy gestures all that day, lest we be seized at once, and fixed in some distorted, painful, and uneasy situation all our months and years to come? Or, if we were to be bound down to one single thought or passion all the remnant of our life, in which we were found in any uncertain minute in this hour, should we not watch with utmost care, and guard against every unpleasing thought, and every fretful and vexing passion, lest it should be fixed upon us till we die?
Now this is the case at death: The almighty voice of God then pronounces, He that is unclean and unholy, must for ever be unholy and unclean; but he that is righteous, let him be righteous still, and he that is holy, shall be for ever holy. Rev. 22:11. I will not precisely determine, that this is the sense of that text, yet since the apostle speaks there concerning the coming of Christ, it may be very applicable to the present case. Now how dreadful soever this thought is to a guilty sinful creature, it is no terror to a wakeful christian: He is ready to have these words pronounced from heaven, for they will establish him in eternal holiness and eternal peace: He hath endeavoured to secure to himself an interest in the love of God through the faith and love of Jesus the blessed Mediator, and at death he is fixed for ever in their love. He hath loved God in time, and in this visible world, and there is nothing in all the unseen worlds, nothing through all the ages of eternity, shall ever separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus. The moment of death hath fixed him for ever a holy and beloved soul, beyond the power of creatures to change his temper, or his state. This is the blessedness of the watchful Christian.
III. Death sets us, in a more immediate and sensible manner,
in the presence of God, a glorious and holy God, God the Judge of all; and blessed is the watchful christian, for he is willing to stand before this God to be brought into his presence: This is what he hath longed and prayed for, to be for ever with God. It is the blessedness that he hath sought with incessant labours and tears, with holy diligence and daily devotion, and blessed is the pure in heart, who hath watched against the pollutions of the world, for he shall see God; Mat. 5:8.
It is certain, that when the soul departs from the body it returns to God who gave it; Ec. 12:7. And probably to God, as a Judge too; Heb. 9:27. after death, judgment. There is some sort of determination of the state of each single person at death before the great and general judgment-day, because that day is appointed rather for the public vindication of the equity of God, in his distribution of rewards and punishments, and is particularly put into the hands of our Lord Jesus: Now, since the separate soul returns to God, who gave it, it is of vast importance, that we be then prepared to come before him.
Some of us here would be mightily afraid of appearing before a prince, or a great and honourable person in an undress; but for our souls, in a naked state, or in a garment of sinful pollution, to be surprized by the great and holy God, to be set on a sudden in his presence, what terror is contained in this thought! Now the watchful christian hath this blessedness, that he is washed from his defilements, in the blood of the Lamb, he is clothed with the robe of righteousness, and the garments of salvation; Is. 61:10. He is prepared to appear before a God of infinite holiness without terror, for he is made like him, he bears his image, he appears as one of his children, and he is not afraid to see his Father.
However some commentators may confine and impoverish the sense of David, in the end of the 17 Psalm, yet I am persuaded, the Spirit of God in him designed to express his faith and joy, either at the hour of death, or in the morning of the resurrection, I shall behold thy face in righteousness, I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness: When the Psalmist had described what were the satisfactions of the men of this world in death, verse 14. viz. that they had filled their houses with children, and leave their substance, or riches to them, he then declares what was his support and hope in his dying hour, “As for me, saith he, I have other views: I am not afraid, O my God, to appear before thee in the other world, for I shall see thy face, not as a criminal, but as a person approved and accepted, and righteous in thy sight: I shall awake from this world of dreams and shadows into thy complete image, and perfect holiness; or I shall awake from the dust of death, and shall be fully satisfied; and rejoice to find myself made so like my God, and to dwell for ever in his presence.
IV. It is the Lord Jesus Christ that lets the soul out of the body,
for he hath the keys of death, and of the unseen world, and blessed is the watchful christian, who waits for the coming of his Lord, for he can meet him gladly when fulfilling this part of his glorious office. He shall be introduced by him into the presence of God his Father, and shall receive most condescending instances of mercy from Christ himself. See the text; Luke 12:36, 37. Be ye yourselves like men that wait for the Lord, that when he cometh, and knocketh, ye may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching: Verily, I say to you, he shall gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and come forth, and serve them. He shall condescend, as it were, even below the office of a steward, he shall bring out the heavenly provisions of his Father’s house, and make them sit down in his kingdom, and give them divine refreshments after their labours; he shall feed than as a shepherd, shall lead them to living fountains of waters, and afford them his presence for ever.
The watchful christian is blessed indeed, when he shall be absent from the body, and be at once present with the Lord; 2 Cor. 5:8. The Lord Jesus, whom he hath seen by faith in his gospel, whose voice he hath heard in his word, and obeyed it; Jesus, whom he hath touched, and tasted in the appointed emblems of his supper on earth, in whom he hath believed through the word of grace, and whom he hath loved before he saw him, shall now receive him into his presence, and the disciple shall rejoice for ever to meet his Lord with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
V. At the hour of death we are sent at once into an invisible world,
we shall find ourselves in the midst of holy or of unclean spirits; borne away at once into an unknown region, and into the midst of unknown inhabitants, the nations of the saved, or the crouds of damned souls; and blessed is the watchful christian, for he is ready to enter into the unseen regions: He knows he shall not be placed among those, whose company and whose character he never loved here on earth; “his soul shall not be gathered with sinners, nor his dwelling be with the workers of iniquity;” Ps. 16:3. but with the saints, the excellent in the earth, in whom was all his delight. 26:9. Every one when dismissed from the prison of this body, must go as the apostles did, when released from the prison of Jerusalem, to their own company; Acts 4:23. Judas the traitor went to his own place; Acts 1:25. And the watchful christian will be disposed among spirits of the just made perfect, he will find himself in that blessed society at his dismission from flesh and blood. Read and see, what a glorious society it is; Heb. 12:22, 23. To the innumerable company of angels, the general assembly and church of the first-born, who are written in heaven, to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant.
The apostle says, we are come to them already, that is, by the covenant of grace, as administered under the gospel, we are brought into a blessed union with them, in spirit and in temper, even in this life, we are members of the same body, we are united to the same head, and made parts of the same household, though we are not yet brought home: But at death we are actually present with them, and dwell and converse among them with holy familiarity, as citizens of the same heavenly Jerusalem, as parts of the same sacred family, and at home, as children of the same God, and in their Father’s house. The watchful christian is at once carried into the midst of the blessed world by ministering angels, the world where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob dwell, and made a speedy partaker of their blessedness: Luke 16:22.
VI. Death brings with it a most amazing and inconceivable change of all our present circumstances and thoughts,
our actions and pursuits, our sensations and enjoyments, I mean, all those that relate to this life only, such as eating, drinking, buying, selling, &c. It dislodges us from these bodies, and thereby finishes all those affections, concerns and troubles which belong to the body, and sends us into another sort of world, whose affairs and concerns are such only as belong to spirits, whether sinful or holy: A most delightful, or a most dreadful change! A world of unknown happiness! Luke 23:43. This day shalt thou be with me in paradise. Luke 16:22. The rich man died,—and in hell he lift up his eyes. And indeed, the change is so vast, that comparatively speaking, we know not what sorrow or happiness is till this day comes.
Now it is a very foolish and dangerous thing, at best, to pass into such an extreme change of states infinitely worse, or infinitely better, while we are asleep and at all uncertainties: What if it should be the miserable state, and we should awake in hell? But the watchful christian is blessed, for he is ready for this amazing change. He hath long lived upon it by faith and hope, though he knows not so well what the particular enjoyments of heaven are; and he is well satisfied, that he is prepared for that happy world by God himself. 2 Cor. 5:5. He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God: He is well-pleased to have his faith changed into sight, and his hope into fruition: He hath been long pained and burdened, in this sinful world, with the vain trifles, the poor low cares and amusements of it; the sins, and sorrows, and temptations that surround him in it, give him continual disquietudes, and he hath been training up in the school of Christ, by devotion and good works, for those higher services of heaven. Since he can trust the promises of the gospel, and has had some small foretaste of these pleasures, he knows that the actions and employments, the businesses and the joys of the upper world, are incomparably superior to any thing here on earth, and free from all the uneasy and defiling circumstances of this life. He is awake to receive this change: He rejoices in his removal from world to world: His vital and active powers are ready for the business of paradise, and he opens his heart to take in the joy.
VII. Death makes its approaches, oftentimes,and seizes us in such a manner as to give no room for prayers or repentance,
then the blessedness of the watchful soul appears, that if he is carried out of the world and time, in such a surprizing way, he is safe for eternity.
Sometimes the messenger of death stops all our thoughts and actions, at once, by a lethargic stroke, or confounds them all by the delirious rovings of a fever; the light of reason is eclipsed and darkened, the powers of the mind are all obstructed, or the languishings of nature have so enfeebled them, that either we cannot exercise them to any spiritual purposes, or we are forbid to do it, for fear of counter-working the physician, increasing the malady, and hastening our death. Thus we are not capable of making any new preparation for the important work of dying; we can make use of none of the means of grace, nor do any thing more to secure an interest in the love of God, the salvation of Christ, and the blessings of heaven.
This is a very dismal thought indeed. But the watchful christian hath this blessedness, that he is fit to receive the sentence of death in any form; nor lethargies, nor deliriums, nor languors of nature can destroy the seed of grace and religion in the heart, which were sown there in the days of health; nor can any of the formidable attendants of death cancel his former transactions with God and Christ about his immortal concerns. That great and momentous work was done before death appeared, or any of its attendants. He was not so unwise as to leave matters of infinite importance, at that dreadful hazard: He is not now to begin to seek after a lost God, nor to begin his repentance for past sins; He is not now a stranger at the throne of grace, nor beginning to learn to pray: He is not now commencing his acquaintance with Jesus Christ, his Saviour, in the midst of a tumult and hurry of thoughts and fears; nor are the works of faith, and love, and holiness to be now begun. Dreadful work indeed, and infinitely hazardous! To begin to be convinced of sin on the borders of death, and to make our first enquiries after God and heaven upon the very brink of hell! To begin to ask for pardon when we can live in sin no longer; to cry out, Jesus, save me, when the waves of the wrath of God are breaking in upon the drowning soul! Hopeless condition, and extreme wretchedness! To have all the hard work of conversion to go through under the sinkings of feeble nature, and to begin the exercises of virtue and godliness under the wild disorders of reason! What a madness is it to leave our infinite concerns at such a horrible uncertainty!
Part Two
But these are not thy circumstances, oh wakeful christian! Nor was this the case of our young departed friend, though her distemper soon discomposed her reasoning powers, and gave her very little opportunity to make a present preparation for dying. But she had heard the voice of Christ, in his gospel betimes, and awoke to righteousness at his call, that she might be always ready for his summons in death. Religion was her early care, a fear to offend God possessed and governed her thoughts and actions from her childhood, and heavenly things were her youthful choice. She had appeared, for some years, in the public profession of Christianity, and maintained the practice of godliness in the church and the world; but it began much more early in secret. Her beloved closet, and her retiring hours, were silent witnesses of her daily converse with God and her Saviour: There she devoted her soul to her Creator betimes, according to the encouragements and rules of the gospel of Christ, and there she found peace and salvation. It was there she made a conscientious recollection of the sermons she heard in public from her tender years, and left behind her these fruits of her memory, and her pen, to attest what improvements she gained in knowledge, by the ministrations of the word; and her cabinet has now discovered to us another set of memoirs, wherein she continually observed what advances she might make in real piety, by those weekly seasons of grace.
It was under these influences she maintained a most dutiful and affectionate behaviour to her honoured parents, and with filial fondness, mingled with esteem, submission and reverence, paid her constant regards to the lady, her mother, in her widowed estate. It was by the united principles of grace and nature, she lived with her younger sisters in uncommon harmony and friendship, as though one heart and soul animated them all. It was under these influences, she ever stood upon her guard, amongst all the innocent freedoms of life, and though she did not immure herself in the walls of a mother’s house, but indulged a just curiosity to learn some of the forms of the world, the magnificence of courts, and the grandeurs of life, yet she knew how far to appear among them, and when to retire. Nor did she forbid herself all the polite diversions of youth agreeable to her rank; nor did reason, or religion, or her superior relatives forbid her; yet she was still awake to secure all that belongs to honour and virtue, nor did she use to venture to the utmost bounds of what sobriety and religion might allow. Danger of guilt stands near the extreme limits of innocence.
Shall I let this paper inform the world, with what friendly decency she treated her young companions and acquaintance; how far from indulging the modish liberties of scandal on the absent; how much she hated those scornful and derisive airs, which persons, on higher ground, too often assume toward those who are seated in the inferior ranks of life? Is it proper I should say how much her behaviour won upon the esteem of all that knew her, though I could appeal to the general sorrow at her death, to confirm the truth of it? But who can forbear, on this occasion, to take notice how far she acquired that lovely character in her narrow and private sphere, which seems almost to have been derived to her, by inheritance, from her honoured father deceased, who had the tears of his country long dropping upon his tomb, and whose memory yet lives in a thousand hearts?
Such a conversation, and such a character, made up of piety and virtue were prepared for the attacks of a fever, with malignant and mortal symptoms. Slow and unsuspected were the advances of the disease, till the powers of reason began to faulter and retire, till the heralds of death had made their appearance, and spread on her bosom their purple ensigns. When these disorders began, her lucid intervals were longer, and while she thought no person was near, she could address herself to God, and say, how often she had given herself to him; she hoped she had done it sincerely, and found acceptance with him, and trusted that she was not deceived. The gleams of reason that broke in between the clouds, gave her light enough to discern her own evidences of piety, and refresh her hope. Then she repeated some of the last verses of the 139. Psalm in metre, viz.
“Lord, search my soul, try every thought:
Though my own heart accuse me not
Of walking in a false disguise,
I beg the trial of thy eyes.”
“Doth secret mischief lurk within?
Do I indulge some unknown sin?
O turn my feet whene’er I stray,
And lead me in thy perfect way.”
She was frequent and importunate in her requests for the psalm-book, that she might read that psalm, or at least, have it read to her throughout; and it was with some difficulty we persuaded her to be composed in silence; thus sincerely willing was she, that God might search and try her heart, still hoping well concerning her spiritual state, yet still solicitous about the assurance of her own sincerity, in her former transactions with heaven.
The next day among the rovings of her thoughts, she rehearsed all those verses of the 17. Psalm, which are paraphrased in the same book, with very little faultering in a line or two:
“Lord, I am thine; but thou wilt prove
My faith, my patience, and my love,” &c.
The traces of her thoughts under this confusion of animal nature, retained something in them divine and heavenly. O blesssed situation of soul, when we stand prepared for death, though it come with the formidable retinue of a disordered brain, and clouded reason! It would be too long at present to represent to you the sad consequences of being found asleep when Christ comes to call us away from this world, I shall therefore only make these three reflections:
I. “None can begin too early to awake to righteousness, and prepare for the call of Christ, since no one is too young to be sent for by his messenger of death.”
I do not here speak of the state of infancy, when persons can hardly be said to be in a personal state of trial: But when I say, none can awake too early to mind the things of religion, I mean, after reason begins its proper exercise, and this appears sometimes in early childhood. All our life in this world compared with heaven, is a sort of night, and season of darkness; and if our Lord summon us away in the first watch of the night, in the midst of youth and vigour, and the pleasing allurements of flesh and sense, we are in a deplorable state, if we are found sleeping, and hurried away from earth into the invisible world, in the midst of our foolish dreams of golden vanity. Dreadful indeed, to have a young thoughtless creature carried off the stage sleeping, and dead in trespasses and sins! Let those that are drunk with wine fall asleep upon the top of a mast in the middle of the sea, where the winds and the waves are tossing and roaring all around them; let a mad-man who has lost his reason, lie down to sleep upon the edge of a precipice, where a pit of fire and brimstone is burning beneath him, and ready to receive his fall; but let not young sinners, whose rational powers are in exercise, and whose life is every moment a mere uncertainty, venture to go on in their dangerous slumbers, while the wrath of God and eternal misery attend them, if they die before they are awake.
It is granted, that no power beneath that which is divine, can effectually quicken a dead soul, and awaken it into a divine life. It is the work of God, to quicken the dead; Rom. 4:17. Eph. 2:5. It is the Son of God, who is the light and life of the world; John 1:4. to whom the Father hath given this quickening power; John 5:26. He calls sinners to awaken them from their deadly sleep; Eph. 5:14. And they live by him, as he lives by the Father; John 6:57. He awakens dead souls to life by the same living Spirit, which shall quicken their mortal bodies, and raise them from the grave; Rom. 8:9, 11, 13. 2 Cor. 3:3. which Spirit he hath received from the Father; John 3:34. And on this account we are to seek the vital influences of this grace from heaven by constant and importunate prayer.
Yet in my text as well as in other scriptures, awaking out of sleep, and watching unto righteousness, is represented as our duty, and we are to exert all our natural powers with holy fervency for this end, while our daily petitions draw down from heaven the promised aids of grace. Our diligence in duty, and our dependence on the divine power and mercy, are happily and effectually joined in the command of our Saviour on this very occasion in one of his parables; Mark 13:33. Watch and pray, for ye know not when the time is, that the Lord will come. And again, chapter 14:38. Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation. Trust not in your own strength and sufficiency, for the glorious change to be wrought in your sinful hearts, and yet neglect not your own labours and restless endeavours under a pretence, that it is God’s work, and not yours. Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light; Eph. 5:14.
Nor should frail dying creatures in their youngest years, delay this work one day, nor one hour, since the consequences of being found asleep when Christ calls, are terrible indeed. We are beset with mortality all around us; the seeds of disease and dissolution are working within us from our very birth and cradle, ever since sin entered into our natures; and we should ever be in readiness to remove hence, since we are never secure from the summons of heaven, the stroke of death, and the demands of the grave.
There was a lovely boy, the son of the Shunamite, who was given to his mother in a miraculous way, and when he was in the field among the reapers, he cried out, My head, my head; he was carried home immediately, and in a few hours, died in his mother’s bosom; 2 Kings 4:18. Who would have imagined, that head-ache should have been death, and that in so short a time too? This is almost the case which we lament at present; the head-ache was sent but a few days before, nor was the pain very intense, nor the appearance dangerous, yet it became the fatal, though unexpected fore-runner of death.
This providence is an awful warning-piece to all her young acquaintance, to be ready for a sudden removal; for she was of a healthy make, and seemed to stand at as great distance from the gates of death as any of you: But the firmest constitution of human nature is born with death in it. From every age, and every spot of ground, and every moment of time, there are short and sudden ways of descent to the grave. Trap doors, if I may use so low a metaphor, are always under us, and a thousand unseen avenues to the regions of the dead. A malignant fever strikes the strongest nature, with a mortal blast, at the command of the great author and disposer of life. My youngest hearers may be called away from the earth by the next pain that seizes them. Nothing but religion, early religion and sincere godliness, can give you hope in youthful death, or leave a fragrant savour on your name, or memory, among those that survive.
II. If such blessedness as I have described, belong to every watchful christian at the hour of death, then it may not be improper here to take notice of “some peculiar advantages, which attend those who shake off the deadly sleep of sin in their younger years, and are awake early to God and religion.”
1. They have much fewer sins to mourn over on a death-bed,
and they prevent much bitter repentence for youthful iniquities. Holy Job was a man of distinguished piety, and God himself pronounces of him, that there was none like him in all the earth; Job. 1:18. but it is a question, whether his most early days were devoted to God, and whether be was so watchful over his behaviour in that dangerous season of life, for he makes a heavy complaint in his addresses to God; Job 13:26. Thou writest better things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth. The sooner we begin to be awake to holiness, the more of these follies and sorrows are prevented: Happy those who have the fewest of them to embitter their following lives, or make a death-bed painful!
2. Young persons have fewer attachments to the world,
and the persons and things of it, which are round about them, and are more ready to part with it when their souls are united to God by an early faith and love. They have not yet entered into so numerous engagements of life, nor dwelt long enough here to have their hearts grown so fast on to creatures, which usually make the parting-stroke so full of anguish and smarting sorrow. A child can much more easily ascend to heaven and leave a parent behind, without that tender and painful solicitude, which a dying parent has for the welfare of a surviving child. The surrender of all mortal interests at the call of God, is much more easy when our souls are not tied to them by so many strings, nor united by so many of the softer endearments of nature, and where grace has taught us to practise an early weaning from all temporal comforts, and a little loosened our hearts from them by the faith of things eternal.
3. Those that have been awake betimes to godliness,
give peculiar honours to the gospel at death, and leave this testimony to the divine religion of Jesus, that it was able to subdue passion and appetite in that season of life, when they are usually strongest and most unruly. They give peculiar credit and glory to the christian name, and the gospel, which has gained them so many victories over the enemies of their salvation, at that age wherein multitudes are the captives of sin, and slaves to folly and vanity.
4. Those christians who are awake to God in their early years,
leave more happy and powerful examples of living and dying to their young companions and acquaintance. It is the temper of every age of life, to be more influenced and affected by the practice of persons of the same years. Sin has fewer excuses to make in order to shield itself from the reproof of such examples, who have renounced it betimes; and virtue carries with it a more effectual motive to persuade young sinners to piety and goodness, when it can point to its votaries of the same age, and in the same circumstances of life. “Why may not this be practised by you, as well as by your companions round about you of the same age?” But I must hasten to the last reflection.
III. “When we mourn the death of friends who were prepared for an early summons, let their preparation be our support.”
Blessed be God, they were not found sleeping! While we drop our tears upon the grave of any young christian, who was awake and alive to God, that blessedness which Christ himself pronounces upon them, is a sweet cordial to mingle with our bitter sorrows, and will greatly assist to dry up the spring of them. The idea of their piety, and their approbation in the sight of God, is a balm to heal the wound, and give present ease to the heart-ache.
We are ready to run over their virtues, and spread abroad their amiable qualities in our thoughts, and then with seeming reason, we give a loose to the mournful passion; whereas all these, when set in a true light, are real ingredients towards our relief.
We lament the loss of our departed friend, when we review that capacious and uncommon power of memory which the God of nature had given her, and which was so well furnished with a variety of human and divine knowledge, and was stored with a rich treasure of the word of God, so that if providence had called her into a more public appearance, she might have stood up in the world as a burning and a shining light, so far as her sex and station required. This furniture of the mind seems indeed to be lost in death and buried in the grave; but we give in too much to the judgment of sense; did not this extensive knowledge lay a foundation for her early piety? And did it not by this means, prepare her for a more speedy removal to a higher school of improvement, and a world of sublimer devotion? And does she not shine there among brighter and better company?
We mourn again for our loss of a person so valuable, when we think of that general calmness and sedateness of soul which she possessed in a peculiar degree, so that she was not greatly elevated or depressed by common accidents or occurrences; but this secured her from the rise of unruly passions, those stormy powers of nature, which sometimes sink us into guilt and distress, and make us unwilling and afraid of the sudden summons of Christ, lest he should find us under these disorders.
We think of her firmness of spirit, and that steady resolution which joined with a natural reserve, was a happy guard against many of the forward follies and dangers of youth, and proved a successful defence against some of the allurements and temptations of the gayer years of life: And then we mourn afresh, that a person so well formed for growing prudence and virtue, should be so suddenly snatched away from amongst us. But this steady and dispassionate frame of soul, well improved by religion and divine grace, became an effectual means to preserve her youth more unblemished, and made her spirit fitter for the heavenly world, where nothing can enter that is defiled, and whose delights are not tumultuous as ours are on earth; but all is a calm and rational state of joy.
We lament yet further when we think of her native goodness and unwillingness to displease: But goodness is the very temper of that region to which she is gone, and she is the fitter companion for the inhabitants of a world of love.
We lament that such a pattern of early piety should be taken from the earth when there are so few practisers of it, especially among the youth of our degenerate age, and in plentiful circumstances of life. But it is a matter of high thankfulness to God, who endowed her with those valuable qualities, and trained her up so soon for a world so much better than ours is. Let our sorrow for the deceased be changed into devout praises to divine grace. Let us imitate the holy language of St. Paul to the Thessalonians and say, “We are comforted even at her grave, in all our afflictions and distress, by the remembrance of her faith and piety. What sufficient thanks can we render unto God, upon her account, for all the joy wherewith we rejoice, for her sake, before our God, night and day praying exceedingly, that we may see her face in the state of perfection? And may God himself even our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way to the happy world where she dwells,” 1 Thess. 3:7–12. The imitation of what was excellent in her life, and watchful readiness to follow her in death, are the best honours we can pay her memory, and the wisest improvement of the present providence. May the Spirit of grace teach us these lessons, and make us all learn them with power, that when our Lord Jesus shall come to call us hence by death, or shall appear with all his saints in the great rising-day, we may be found among his wakeful servants, and partake of the promised blessedness! Amen.
Isaac Watts, The Works of the Rev. Isaac Watts, (Leeds; London: William Baynes; Edward Baines; Thomas Williams and Son; Thomas Hamilton; Josiah Conder, 1813), 7:64–80.
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