The Text Opened
Luke vii. 13. And when the Lord
faw herp he had compajjion on her,
and laid to her. Weep not.
TO be above the stroke of passion, is a condition equal to angels; to be in a state of sorrow, without the sense of sorrow, is a disposition beneath beasts: but duly to regulate our sorrows, and bound our passions under the rod, is the wisdom, duty, and excellency of a Christian, He that is without natural affections, is deservedly ranked amongst the worst of heathens; and he that is able rightly to manage them, deserves to be numbered with the best of Christians. Though, when we are sanctified, we put on the divine nature, yet, till we are glorified, we put not off the infirmities of our human nature.
Whilst we are within the reach of troubles, we cannot be without the danger, nor ought not to bj without the fear of sin; and it is as hard for us to escape sin, being in adversity, as becalming in prosperity.
How apt are we to transgress the bounds, both of reason and religion, under a sharp affliction, appears, as in most men’s experience, so in this woman’s example, to whosa excessive sorrow Christ puts a stop in the text: “He saw “her, and had compassion on her, and said to her, Weep not.”
The lamentations and wailings of this distressed mother, moved the tender compassions of the Lord in beholding them, and stirred up more pity in his heart for her, than could be in her heart for her dear and only son.
In the words we are to consider, both the condition of the woman, and the counsel of Christ, with respect unto it.
First, The condition of this woman, which appears to be very dolorous and distressed; her groans and tears melted the very heart of Christ to hear and behold them: -4 When he saw her, he had compassion on her.”
How sad an hour it was with her when
Christ met her, appears by what is so distinct!/ remarked by the evangelist, in ver. 12, where it is said,
“Now, when they came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and much people of the city was with her.”
In this one verse, divers heart-piercing circumstances of this affliction are noted.
Fmt, It was the death of a son.* To bury a child, any child, must needs rend the heart of a tender parent; for what are children but the parent multiplied? A child is a part of the par- #rit made up in another skin; but to lay a son in the grave, a son who continues the name, and supports the family; this was ever accounted a very great affliction.
Secondly, This son was not carried from the c; .idle to the coflin, nor stripped out of its swathing, to be wrapped in its winding-cloth. Had he died in his infancy, before h@ had engaged affection, or raised expectation, the affliction had not been so pungent, and cutting as now it
* To be parents to children, is the firmest tie W affection. Grace* Com* was; death smote the son in the flower, in the prime of his time. He was a tnan, (saith the evangelist) ver. 12, a young man, (as Christ calls him) ver. 14, he was now arrived* at that age which made him capable of yielding his mother all that comfort which had been the expectation, and hope of many years, and the reward and fruit of many cares and labors; yet then, when the endearments were greatest, and her hopes highest, even in the flower of his age, he is cut off.
Thus Basil bewailed the death of his son :f” I once had a son, who was a young man, my only successor, the solace of my age, the glory of his kind, the prop of my family, arrived to the endearing age; then was he snatched away
* He died in his youth, and was therefore the more to be lamented, because he was cut off in the flower of his age, unto which he was conducted from a child, by the great care and labor of his parents. Dion. Cat. on the place,
t Films mthi erat adolescent, solus vitae successor
solatium senectae, gloria generis, J!os aequalium doiuus,
aet atem gratioslssimam agcbat; h)c raftus per’zit, qui
faulo ante jucundam vocem edebcdjet jucundhswum
spectaculwn parentis oculis ex at.
is
from me by death, whose lively voice but a lit* tie before I heard, who lately was a pleasant spectacle to his parent.”
Reader, if this hath been thine own condition, as it hath been his that writes it, I need say no more to convince thee that it was a sorrowful state indeed, Christ met this tender mother in.
Thirdly* And which is yet more, he was not only a son, but an only son: so you find, in ver. 12,” He was the only son of his mother ;*** one in whom all her hopes and comforts, of that kind, were bound up. For, Omnis in Ascanh stat chart cur a parentis, Virgil. All her affections were contracted into this one object. If we have never so many children, we know not which of them to spare; if they stand, like olive-plants, about our tables, it would grieve us to see the least twig amongst them broken down* But surely the death of one out of many, is much more tolerable than all in one.f
* She would have borne his death more patiently, had he not peen an only son; or if she had had but another left behind him to mitigate her sorrow. Ambrose.
t As there is nothing dearer than an only
Hence it is noted in scripture as the greatest of earthly sorrows, Jer. vi. 26. “O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes- Make thee mourning i for an only son, most bitter lamentations.” — Yea, so deep and penetrating is this grief, that the Holy Ghost borrows it to express the deepest spiritual troubles by it, Zech. xii, 1 0.” They shall mourn for him, (namely Christ, whom they pierced) as one mourneth for an only
son.”
Fourthly, And yet, to heighten the affliction, it is superadded, ver 12. “And she was a. widow.” So that the staff of her age, on which she leaned, was broken ;* she had now none left to comfort or assist her, in her helpless, comfortless state of widowhood; which is a condition not only void of comfort, but exposed to oppression and contempt.
Yea, being a widow, the whole burthen lay
son, so that grief upon the account of his death, must be the greatest of all. Carth. on the place.
* He was most dear to her, on a twofold account, both because he was her only son, and that he was the comfort and support of her wide w hood. Piscator on the place.
Upon her alone; she had not an husband to comfort her, as Elkanah did Hannah, in I Sam, i. 8. “Why weepest thou, and why is thy heart grieved? Am I not better to thee than ten sons?” This would have been a great relief; but her husband was dead, as well as her son, both gone, and she only surviving, to lament the loss of those comforts that once she had. Her calamities came not single, but one after another, and this reviving, and aggravating the former. This was her case, and condition, when the Lord met her.
Secondly, Let us consider the counsel which Christ gives her, with respect to this her sad and sorrowful case; “And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, “Weep not.” Relieving and supporting words; wherein we shall consider,
1. The occasion.
2. The motive.
3. The counsel itself.
1. The occasion of it, and that was his seeing of her. This meeting at the gate of the city, how accidental, and occasional soever it seems, yet, without doubt, it was providentially suited to the work intended to be wrought: The eye IB
of his omniscience foresaw her, and this meeting ‘was by him designee), as an occasion of that famous miracle which he wrought upon the voung man. Christ hath a quick eye to discern poor, mourning, and disconsolate creatures: And though he be now in heaven, and stands out of our sight, so that we see him not; yet he sees us, and his eye (which is upon all our troubles) still affects his heart, and moves his bowels for us.
2. The motive stirring him up to give this relieving, and comfortable counsel to her, was his own compassion: She neither expected, nor desired it from him; but so full of tender pity was the Lord towards her, that he prevents her with unexpected consolation: her heart was nothing so full of compassion for her son y as Christ was for her; he bore our infirmities, even natural, as well as moral ones, in the days of his flesh; and though he be now exalted to the highest glory, yet still he continues as merciful as ever, and as apt to be touched with the Sense of our miseries, Heb. iv. 15.
Lastly, The counsel itself, Weep net; herein
fulfilling the office of a comforter to them that
f mourn, whejeunto he was anointed, Isa. xvi. I,
2, 3. Yet the words are not an absolute prohibition of tears, and sorrow; he doth not condemn all mourning as sinful, or all expressions of grief for dead relations, as uncomely; no, Christ would not have his people stupid, and insensate; he only prohibits the excesses, and extravagancies of our sorrows for the dead, that it should not be such a mourning for the dead as is founct among the heathen, who sorrow without measure, because without hope, being ignorant of that grand relief by the resurrection, which the gospel reveals.
The resurrection of her son from the dead, is the ground upon which Christ builds her consolation, and relief; well might he say, Weep not, when he intended quickly to remove the cause of her tears, by restoring him again to life.
Now, though there be somewhat in this case extraordinary, and peculiar, for few or none that carry their dead children to the grave, may expect to receive them again from the dead immediately, by a special resurrection, as she did; I say, this is not to be expected by any that now lose their relations; the occasion and reason of such miraculous, special resurrections, being removed, by a sufficient and full evidence, mi confirmation of Christ’s divine power and Gj$* head; yet those that now bury their relations, if they be such as die in Christ, have as good and sufficient reason to moderate their passions, as this mourner had, and do as truly come within the reach and compass of this Christ’s comfortable, and supporting counsel, Weep not, as she did; for do but consider, what of support or comfort can a particular and present resurrection from the dead gives us, more than that it is, and as it is, a specimen, handsel, or pledge of the general resurrection? It is not the returning of the soul to its body, to 11 ve an animal life again f in this world of sin and sorrow, and shortly after to undergo the agonies, and pains of death again, that is in itself any such privilege as may afford much comfort to the person raised, or his relations: It is no privilege to the person raised, for it returns him from rest to trouble, from the harbor back again into the ocean. It is matter of trouble to many dying saints, to hear of the likelihood of their returning again, when they are got so nigh to heaven.
It was once the case of a godly minister of this nation, who was much troubled at his return, and said, I am like a sheep driven out of the storm almost to the fold, and then driven back into the storm again; or a weary traveller that is come near his home, and then must go back to fetch somewhat he had forgotten; or an apprentice, whose time is almost expired, and then must begin a new term.
But to die, and then return again from the dead, hath less of privilege, than to return only from the brink of the grave; for the sick have not yet felt the agonies and last struggles, or paags of death; but sach have felt them once, and must feel them again; they must die twice, before they can be happy once; and, besides, during the little time they spend on earth her twixt the first and second dissolution, there is a perfect forgetfulness, and insensibleness, of all that which they saw, or enjoyed, in their estate of separation; it being necessary, that they may be content to live, and endure the time of separation, from that blessed and ineffable state, quietly and patiently ;* and for others, that they may live by faith, and not by sense; and build
* Victurosqueducelant, ut where durent.
How long or short men live is kept a mystery, To make us both live well and less afraid to die.
upon divine, and n:>t human authority and report.
So that here you see, their agonies, and pangs are doubled, and yet their lives not sweetened by any sense of their happiness, which returns and remains with them; and therefore it can be no such privilege to them.
And for their relations: though it be some somfort to receive them again from the dead; yet the consideration that they are returned to them into the stormy sea, to partake of newsorrows and troubles, from which they were lately free i And in a short time they must part with them again, and feel the double sorrows of a parting pull, which others feel but once; surely such a particular resurrection, considered in itself, is no such ground of eomibrt as at first we might imagine it to be.
It remains, then, that the ground of all solid comfort and relief, against the death of our relations, lies in the general and last resurrection, and what is in a particular one, is but, as it were, a specimen* and evidence of the general; and there the apostle placet our relief, i Thess.
* Therein we have a noble specimen of the future resurrection. Cafoin on the flace.
iv. 17, that we shall see, and enjoy them again* at the Lord’s coming. And sarely this is more than if (with this mother in the text) we should presently receive them from the dead, as she did her son: And if we judge not so, it is because our hearts are carnal, and measure things rather by time and sense, than by faith and eternity.
Thus you .see the counsel, with its ground, which, for the most part, is common to other Christian mourners with her.; the difference being but inconsiderable, and of little advantage.
Here, then, you find many aggravations of sorrow meeting together; a son, an only son, is carrying to the grave; yet Christ commands the pensive mother, not to mourn. Hence we note, Doct. That Christians ought to moderate their sor-S&rrmvs for their dead relations, ho*w many afflicting circumstances, and aggravations soever meet together in their death. It is common with men, yea, with good men, to exceed in ther sorrows for dead relations,* as it is to exceed in their love and de-
* Whatever we love ardently while we have it, we lament bitterly when we lose it. Greg. mor.
lights to living relations; and both of the one, and the other, we may say, as they say of waters, it is hard to confine them within their bounds. It is therefore grave advice which the apostle delivers in this case, 1 Cor. vii. 29, 30. u But this I say, brethren, the time is short; it remaineth that both they that have wives, be as though they had none; and those that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not.” As if he had said, the floating world is near its port f God hath contracted the sails of man’s life; it is but a point of time we have to live, and shortly it will not be a point to chuse whether we had wives or not, children or not. All these are time-eaten things, and before the expected fruit of these comforts be ripe, we ourselves may be rotten. It is therefore an high point of wisdom to look upon things which shortly will not be, as if already they were not, and to behave ourselves, in the loss of these carnal enjoyments, as the natural man behaves himself in the use of spiritual ordinances; he hears as if he had not, and we should weep as if we wept not; their affections are a little moved, sometimes by
* The time is contracted.
spiritual things, but they never lay them so to heart, as to be broken-hearted for the sin they hear of, or deeply affected with the glory revealed. We also ought to be sensible of the stroke of God upon our dear relations; but yet still we must weep, as if we wept not; this is, we must keep due bounds, and moderation in our sorrows, and not be too deeply concerned for these dying, short-lived things.
To this purpose the apostle exhorts, Heb. xii. 5. “My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither faint when thou art rebuked of him.” These are two extremes, despising, and fainting: when God is correcting, to say, I do not regard it, let God take all, if he will; if my estate must go, let it* go: if my children die, let them die; this is to despise the Lord’s chastening; and God cannot bear it, that we should bear it thus lightly.
There is also another extreme, and that is fainting: if, when goods are taken away, the heart be taken away, and when children die, then the spirit of the parent dies also; this is fainting under the rod. Thou lamentest, saith Seneca, thy deceased friend; but I would not
* have thee grieve beyond what is meet: ‘’that
thou shouldst not grieve at all, I dare not require thee; tears may be excused, if they do not exceed. Let thine eyes, therefore, be neither wholly dry, nor let them overflow; weep thou mayest, but wail thou must not.
Happy man, that still keeps the golden bridle of moderation upon his passions, and affections, and still keeps the possession of himself, whatsoever he lose the possession of.
Now the method in which 1 propose to proceed, shall be,
1. To discover the signs.
2. To dissuade from the sin.
3. To remove the pleas.
4. To propose the cure of immoderate sorrow.