You were pleased to put me upon that sad service of Preaching at the Funeral of your worthy and dear Pastor; And shortly after that, upon another service of Printing what I then had publikely Preached; I confess that I never Preached a Sermon (in this kind) with more grief of heart, and never did I discern a Sermon heard and attended with more weeping eyes: certainly God had given in unto him the affections of many persons, who loved him in his life, and bitterly lamented him at his death. I was almost fallen out with the thoughts of publishing any occasional Sermons, as being most proper for scope, and use, and working, to the present Auditory: But your generall desire hath prevailed upon me to deny my own judgement; and since it must be so, here you have those sudden and weak fruits (such as they are) and the blessing of the Lord go with them. Of what other advantage they may be (besides the keeping up a while the name and memory of so pretious a servant of Christ) I know not; but yet I trust that God may intend them, and now doth send them abroad for the good of the living. Of this I am sure, that every personal change in the world is an effect of his providence; and that there is a doctrinal will for the living, in every providential will of God concerning the dead: and the greater that any person is in his relation of usefulness, and serviceableness to Christ and his Church, the more emphatical Selah doth the Lord (in the removal of him) print out for the children of men. There was honey found by Sampson in the carcase of the dead Lyon, so are there many sweet instructions and lessons to be gathered, not onely out of the lives, but also out of the deaths of the Ministers of Christ. The last Sermon which a people are to study, and diligently to peruse, is the death of their Godly Pastor; for in this God himself doth immediatly preach unto them. As when Ministers do live, it is but hypocrisie to give them onely a few good words: so when they dye, it is but a formality onely to shed over them a few sad tears. O that you your selves, (& the many other Congregations) who of late have carried their Faithful and laborious Ministers to the grave, would seriously remember that you must answer God for the quick and for the dead, for your living Ministers, & for your dead Ministers: there are living uses to be made out of dead instances: Live, and live the better, live up to the power of Truth and Godliness, live like such as are even parting with life, and in hazzard about a season: Live like such, who did enjoy, and who again would enjoy a choice servant to your Minister. Though Minsters dye, yet Christ lives, and he is present with you, & he observes all your heart & ways: therfore as you formerly have, so now especially strive to abound much more in heavenly wisdom, in sound Iudgement, in Faith and Love to our Lord Iesus, in meekness, and gentleness, and profitableness one towards another, and in all exactness of holy walking before your God; hereupon shall you find your late great loss gratiously supplied in the answer of your fervent prayers: hereupon shall you find the testimony of a good conscience; hereupon shall you find peace in death, and after that, the Crown of life, which God will give to all that love him. And for other People, let them Repent of the evil handling of their Faithful Ministers, and beseech the Lord to give them hearts in their day of Grace, yet to know the things which do concern their Peace; which that we all may do, shall be the prayer of Your Servant in the Faith of Christ Obadiah Sedgwick.
