FUNERAL SERMON
A CHARACTER
OF THE REVEREND AUTHOR,
Mr. MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH,
PREACHED AT MALDEN, JUNE 24, 1705.
BY THE REVEREND DR. COTTON MATHER.
He was Descended of Eminently Religious Parents, who were Sufferers for that which was then The Cause of God and of New-England. While he was yet a youth, he was marvellously concerned that he might have an Heart filled with the Spirit of God. This Concernment upon his mind appeared especially in his watchful Endeavors to have Spiritual Sins chased out of his cleansed Heart. Pride, the Sin of Young Men, yea, of all Men; Pride, the Sin which few Men try or trouble themselves about; this Devout Youth was full of Holy and Watchful Trouble about it: And he then wrote a very Savoury Discourse, Entituled, Considerations against Pride, and another, Entituled, Considerations against Delighting more in the Creature than in God. This was to Mortify in himself the Sins rarely minded by the most of men.
Having had a Pious and a Learned Education, the first Publick Station wherein I find him, was that of a Fellow and a Tutor in Harvard Colledge. With a rare Faithfulness did he adorn that Station! He used all means imaginable to make his Pupils not only good Scholars, but also good Christians, and instil into them those things which might render them rich Blessings unto the Churches of God. Unto his Watchful and Painful Essays to keep them close under their Academical Exercises, he added Serious Admonitions unto them about their Interior State; and he Employed his Prayers and Tears to God for them, and had such a flaming zeal to make them worthy Men, that upon Reflection he was afraid Lest his cares for their Good, and his affection to them, should so drink up his very Spirit, as to steal away his Heart from God.
From Cambridge he made his remove to Malden, and was their Faithful Pastor for about a Jubilee of years together.
It was not long after his coming to Malden that a sickly Constitution so prevailed upon him, as to confine him from his Publick Work for some whole seven of Years. His Faithfulness continued when his Ministry was thus interrupted. The Kindness of his Tender Flock unto him was answered in his Kind Concern to have them served by other Hands. He took a short voyage unto another Country for the Recovery of his Health; which, though he recovered not, yet at his Return I find him comforting himself with inserting of this Passage in his Reserved Papers:
Peradventure the Lord Removed me for a season that he might set a better Watchman over his Flock, and a more painful Laborer in his Vineyard. This was one thing that I aimed at in Removing (to help the People's Modesty in the case), and I believe the Lord aimed at it, in Removing me for a season.
His Faithfulness now appeared in his Edifying Discourses to those that came near him; much bewailing the want of a Profitable and Religious conversation in so many that profess Religion. And that yet he might more Faithfully set himself to do Good, when he could not Preach he Wrote several Composures, wherein he proposed the edification of such Readers as are for plain Truths, dressed up in a Plain Meeter. These Composures have had their Acceptance and Advantage among that sort of Readers; and one of them, the Day of Doom, which has been often Reprinted in both Englands, may find our Children till the Day itself arrive.
It pleased God, when the distress of the Church in Malden did extremely call for it, wondrously to restore his Faithful Servant. He that had been for near Twenty Years almost Buried Alive, comes abroad again, and for as many years more, must, in Publick Usefulness, receive the Answer and Harvest of the Thousands of Supplications with which the God of his Health had favoured him.
How Faithfully did he now Deliver the Whole Counsel of God!
How Faithfully did he Rebuke Sin, both in his Ministry and Discipline!
How Faithful was he to the Work of God in the Churches of New-England, and grieved at every thing that he thought had any Tendency to incommode that Glorious Work! But how Patient, how Loving, how Charitable to such as in lesser Matters differed from him!
How Faithful was he in the Education of his Family! A very Abraham for his Commands unto them, to Keep the Way of the Lord! A very David for his charge unto them to Know the God of their Father and Serve Him!
His long Weakness and Illness made him an able Physician for the Body as well the Soul.
As he was Faithful to the Death, so he was Lively to the Death.
It was a surprise to us to see a little, feeble Shadow of a Man, beyond Seventy, preaching usually twice or thrice in a week, Visiting, Comforting the Afflicted, Encouraging the Private Meetings, Catechising the Children of the Flock, and managing the Government of the Church, and attending the Sick, not only as a Pastor, but as a Physician too; and this not only in his own Town, but also in all those of the Vicinity. Thus he did unto the Last; and he was but one Lord's-Day taken off before his Last. But in the Last Week of his Life, how full of Resignation! How full of Satisfaction!
From his Exemplary Life I will single out one thing, his EARLY RELIGION. Our Wigglesworth was a Godly child, and he held on living to God and Christ until the Seventy-Fourth Year of his Age.
When he lay a Dying, some one spoke to him about his having secured his Interest in the Favor of Heaven, and his Assurance of that Interest. He Replyed, [Me-thoughts like my Polycarp,]
I bless God I began that Work betimes, and ere I was Twenty Years Old I had made thorow work of it. Ever since then I have been pressing after the Power of Godliness, the Power of Godliness! For more than Fifty Years together I have been Laboring to uphold a Life of Communion with God; and I thank the Lord I now find the Comfort of it!
Words that contain in them A History of a Life more Valuable than I have seen a Volume in Folio.