them; for God will be all in all: That is, all the faints (hall be abundantly fatisfied in and with God alone. As there is water enough in one fea to fill all the rivers, lakes, and (prings in the world: And light enough in one fun to enlighten all the inhabitants of the world: So there is enough in one God eternally to fill and fatisfy all the bleffed fouls in heaven, without the addition of any creature-comfort. God is complete fatisfaction to all the faints in the abfence (I cannot fay want) of wives and children, meats and drinks, eftates and fenfitive pleasures: There will be no more need of these things, than of candles at noon-day. You fhall be as the angels of God, who have no concernment for relations.

Your falnefs of years, infirmities of body, and, I hope, I may add, your improvements in grace, fpeak you not far fhort of this bleffed ftate: And though you may feem to need thefe comforts in the way, your God thall fupply all your wants.

Confid. IV. To conclude, Whatfoever your troubles, wants, fears, or dangers are, or may be in your paffage to this blessed flate, the covenant of grace is your fecurity, and by virtue thereof your troubles fhall open and divide, as Jordan did, to give you a fafe paffage into your eternal reft.

Look, as when the Ifraelites came near the land of promise, there was a fwelling Jordan betwixt it and them, which feemed to forbid their farther paffage and progrefs; but it is faid, Joh. jii. 17. "The priests that bore the ark of the covenant of the "Lord, flood firm on the ground in the midst of Jordan; and all the Ifraelites paffed over on dry ground, until all the peo "ple were paffed clean over Jordan." Juft fo it is here: The covenant of grace ftands on firm ground, in the midst of all the deep waters of tribulation you are to pafs through, to secure unto you a fafe paffage through them all. Rejoice, therefore, and triumph in the fulness and firmness of this bleffed covenant, and whatsoever affliction your God fhall pleafe to lay upon you, or whatsoever comfort he fhall pleafe to remove from you, ftill comfort and encourage yourselves, as David here doth," Yet "hath he made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and fure: For this is all my falvation, and all my de "fire; although he make it not to grow."

σε

A

SERMON

Preached for the FUNERAL of that Excellent and Religious GENTLEMAN,

JOHN UPTON OF LUPTON, Efq;

2 CHRON. XXXV. 24, 25.

His fervants therefore took him out of that chariot, and put him in the fecond chariot that he had; and they brought him to Jerufalem, and he died, and was buried in one of the fepulchres of his fathers: and all Judah and Jerufalem mourned for Jofiah. And Jeremiah lamented for Jofiah, and all the fing ing-men, and the finging-women pake of Fofiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Ifrael: and behold they are written in the lamentations.

'N this context we have the hiftory of the pious life, and tra

gives us an account of both what he was, and what he did. As to his perfonal endowments and qualifications, they were fingular and eximious, as appears by the fourfold character by which he is described in the context: For,

Firft, He efpoufed the intereft of religion betimes, even in his youth; chap. xxxiv. ver. 3. "For in the eighth year of his "reign, while he was yet young, he began to feek after the "God of David his father :" And that under the vantage of an ill education, fuch a morning promifed a glorious great difad day.

Secondly, He hated all corrupt mixtures in the worship of God, and was anfwerably zealous for reformation ; "And in "the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from "the high places, and the groves," &c. as knowing well he and his people might expect no more of God's bleffing on the ordinances, than there was of his prefence in them; and no more of his prefence can rationally be expected, than there is of his own order and inftitution.

Thirdly, He was of a very tender and impreffive heart, mourning for public fins and dangers; chap. xxxiv. 26, 27. "Because "thy heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, "when thou heardeft his words against this place, and against. "the inhabitants thereof; and humbledft thyfelf before me, and "didst rend thy cloaths and weep before me," &c. He was not fo intent upon his own pleafures, (though in the fprightly vigour of youth) nor on the weighty concerns of the kingdom, as to forget the intereft of God, and the greater concerns of his glory.

Fourthly, He was exceeding careful to propagate the interest of religion, and fpread it far and wide among his people. Though he could not infufe the inward principle, (that was the work of God) yet he did enjoin the external practice of it upon all his fubjects; which was his part and duty: chap. xxxiv. ver. 33. "He made all that were prefent in Ifrael to serve, even "not from the Lord their God. And all his days they departed "to ferve following the God of their fathers."

But yet good Jofiah had his mistakes and failings. The best of men are but men at beft: He was too rash and hafty in refolving, and too stiff and obftinate when resolved; and this was the occafion of his ruin. The cafe was thus:

Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt, was at that time making war upon Charchemish, a place that belonged to him, but was taken from him by the king of Affyria; fo the war of Necho was a just war; and Judah lying between him and Charchemish, and being at peace with Judah, he requests leave of Jofiah to march his army peaceably through his country to the feat of war: Jofiah takes an alarm from this meffage, and arms against him. Hereupon Necho fent ambaffadors to Jofiah, chap. xxxv. ver. 21. faying, "What have I to do with thee, thou king of Ju"dah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house "wherewith I have war: For God commanded me to make "hafte; forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not."

Expofitors conceive Necho had this discovery of the mind of God, from the prophet Jeremiah, Per oraculum non fcriptum, fed viva voce editum *: even by word of mouth. If so, no doubt Jeremiah alfo diffuaded Jofiah from going out against him: however, this is clear, Jofiah did not confult the mind of God about that expedition, as he ought, and was too hafty and refolute therein; chap. xxxv. 22. "Nevertheless Jofiah would not turn

Jerom. a Lapide, Juft. Mart,

"his face from him," &c. By this means this excellent man came to a tragical end, and that in the very flower of his days. He dies in that unhappy expedition, from which he would not be diverted; is brought home to Jerufalem in the fecond chariot; dies, and is buried in the fepulchre of his fathers, to the univertal forrow of all good men in Ifrael, as you read in the text; wherein we have thefe two parts to confider;

1. The nature and quality of the lamentation.

II. The caufe and ground of it.

1. For the lamentation here made, it was extraordinary; never fuch cries heard before in Ifrael at any funeral, whether we confider it either,

1. Extenfively,

2. Intensively, or,

3. Protenfively.

1. Extenfively, All Judah and Jerufalem, that is, city and country mourned that day; not every individual, but all that had any fenfe of the worth of the man, the good that he did, or the evils that followed upon his removal. No doubt the priests of Baal, their abettors and affociates, fecretly rejoiced at his fall; but all good men mourned. But among all the mourners, one is only fpecified by name, and that is Jeremiah the prophet, in whom all the faithful minifters of God were includ ed. To them he was a true and faithful friend; and in him they loft a father, and a famous inftrument of reformation.

2. Confider it Intensively, as to the degree of the forrow, it was a bitter lamentation; fo pungent, intenfe, and deep, that the mourning of the Jews for Chrift, at the time of their conver fion to him, is compared to this mourning for Jofiah, Zech. xii. 11." In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jeru "falem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon." This Hadadrimmon was a little town in the val ley of Megiddon near the place of this fatal battle, whofe inha bitants receiving the first tidings of the fall of Jofiah, made the town ring with doleful cries and lamentations.

46

t.

3. Laftly, Confider it Protenfively, in its continuance and duration, it was made an ordinance in Ifrael;" and accord ingly the finging-men and finging-women spake of Jofiah is "their lamentations to this day:" i. e. Whenever any folemn funeral or public calamity was folemnized in Ifrael, thofe perfons that were skilful in lamentations, brought in the ftory of Jofiah's death, as the burden of that doleful fong or funeral elegy.

I. Let us confider the cause and ground of this lamentation, which certainly was great and weighty enough to justify that forrow, as great and bitter as it was: for in him they loft a faithful, public, useful, zealous, and tender-hearted inftrument, whofe life had been eminently useful to the church of God, and whose death opened the gap to all the following calamities upon Judah.

Now, confidering Jofiah here, especially in his religious capacity, as fo faithful, induftrious, and ufeful an inftrument for the church of God, rather than in his political capacity as a king, the note from it will be this,

Doct. That faithful, active, and public-spirited men in the church of God, should not be laid in their graves without great lamentations.

When Jacob was buried, a man famous for religion, a great and fore lamentation was made for him, Gen. 1. 10. And when Aaron died, all the houfe of Ifrael mourned for him thirty days, Numb. xx. 29. When Stephen the proto-martyr died, devout men carried him to his grave with great lamentations, Acts viii. 2. and indeed for any good man to be laid in his grave without lamentation, is lamentable. The living faints have ever paid this refpect and honour to dead faints, as men fenfible of their worth, and how great a lofs the world fuftains by their removal.

I know the departed fouls of faints have no concernment in these things, yet refpect is due to their very bodies, as the temples wherein God hath been ferved and honoured, as they are related to Chrift, who will one day put great glory and honour upon them.

In the explication and confirmation of this point, I will fhew you,

1. Negatively, On what account the death of good men is not to be lamented.

2. Pofitively, On what account tears and lamentations are due to them, with the grounds and reasons thereof. 1. Negatively, There is not a tear or figh due to the death of any good man, upon the account of any real lofs or detriment that he fuftains thereby. No, no, in this cafe all tears are retrained, all forrow prohibited, by the principles and rules of Christianity, Theff. iv. 13, 14. Religion differences the forrows, as well as the joys of its profeffors, from the common joys and forrows of the world. Dead faints are better where they are, than where they were; to be with Chrift is far better; death to them is gain and infinite advantage, Phil. i. 21, 23. This world is the worst place that ever God defigned h