by Benjamin Keach
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OR A WARNING TOUCHING APPROACHING MISERIES
In a Sermon Preached on the 20th of March, 1699. At the Funeral of Mrs.Elizabeth Westen, late Wife of Mr. John Westen, who departed this Life on the 17th of the said Month, in the 38th Year of Her Age.
Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your Children. - LUKE 23:28
Among the many motives to a holy and pious life, the sense of death and of eternity is one. Many live as if this world would never end; and as if the world to come would never begin; and though death makes so great a change, yet how little is it thought of by the generality of people.
Indeed, one of the greatest motives to holiness, is the mercy of God, and a lively sense of his infinite love in Jesus Christ. I beseech you by the mercy of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service (Rom 12:1).
God's wrath being over in Jesus Christ, our sins pardoned, and he fully reconciled, how should this move us to live to him, who died for us, and rose again. Shall we sin that grace may abound? God forbid (Rom 6:2). We being made free from sin (as the apostle shows) should have our fruit unto holiness, and so our end will be Everlasting Life.
One end, purpose, and design of God in that redemption we have by Jesus Christ, is, that we should be to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved (Eph 1:6). My brethren, as we were chosen in Christ to be holy, so to this end I say we were redeemed, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purchase to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works (Tit 2:14). Moreover God is holy, and we are called with an holy calling, therefore we should be holy. Likewise, another great motive hereunto, is those high privileges and precious promises made unto us in Jesus Christ; as the apostle shows (2 Cor 6:17-18). Wherefore come out from among them, and be separate says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. He says more, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Nay, he says, I will be a Father unto you, and you shall be my my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. And in chapter 7:1, Paul says, having these promises (dearly beloved) let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Many think the grand motive to holiness is our own happiness. They strive to lead a pious life that they may be saved, and it may be feared ‘tis that they trust to and rely upon. Whereas the argument to true piety with true Christians, because they are saved, ‘tis to glorify God. Our inherent holiness is not our title to eternal life, though it is that which tends to make us meet for it; yet notwithstanding, there are many other motives to stir us up to a most serious and pious life, and among them those taken from the consideration of death are none of the least. I have read that Philip king of Macedon commanded one of his pages to wake him every morning by crying at his chamber door, sir remember you are a man. He disdained not to be put in mind of his uncertain breath by his sorry page. We ought to consider the certainty of death, and yet the uncertainty of the time, everyone must say with Isaac, I know not the day of my death. Likewise, to consider, what the effects of death will be, to some it will be an hour of sorrow, though to others an hour of joy? Was it not a sad bill that was put up to me yesterday, of one that said, he was so sick he could not live, and so sinful he dare not die: to one the thoughts of death is cause of weeping, but to another a cause of rejoicing, which brings me to the words of my text.
Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.
These words were spoken by our Blessed Savior, when they were leading him to Golgotha to be crucified, and such was their cruelty, that they laid on him the ponderous cross, till (as it is thought) he fainting in the way, they compelled one Simon a Cyrenian to bear part of it, and so Matthew, Mark, and Luke may be reconciled with John, who says our Savior bore the cross.
Now the good women who loved him dearly, sorely wept to see what their blessed Lord had already suffered, and was further now likely to undergo by the rage of his bloody enemies; and this was the occasion of these words, daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, &c.