thy name been in the commiffion, thou hadst been now past hope. O the fparing mercy of God! the wonderful long-suffering of God towards thee! Poffibly that poor creature that is gone never provoked God as thou haft done: thy poor child never abused mercies, neglected calls, treasured up the ten thousandth part of that guilt that thou haft done: fo that thou mighteft well imagine it should rather have cut thee down, that hadft fo provoked God, than thy poor lit

tle one.

But, O the admirable patience of God! O the riches of his longfuffering! Thou art only warned, not smitten by it: is there nothing in this worth thankful acknowledgment? Is it not better to be in black for another on earth, than in the blackness of darkness for ever? Is it not easier to go to the grave with thy dead friend, and weep there, than to go to hell among the damned, where there is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth?

Thirdly, This affliction for which thou mourneft, may be the greateft mercy to thee that ever yet befel thee in this world. God hath now made thy heart soft by trouble, fhewed thee the vanity of this world, and what a poor trifle it is which thou madeft thy happiness: there is now a dark cloud fpread over all thy worldly comforts. Now, O now! if the Lord would but ftrike in with this affliction, and by it open thine eyes to fee thy deplorable ftate, and take off thy heart for ever from the vain world, which thou now feeft hath nothing in it; and caufe thee to chufe Chrift, the only abiding good. for thy portion. If now thy affliction may but bring thy fin to remembrance, and thy dead friend may but bring thee to a sense of thy dead foul, which is as cold to God and spiritual things, as his body is to thee; and more loathfome in his eyes than that corpfe is, or fhortly will be to the eyes of men: then this day is certainly a day of the greatest mercy that ever yet thou faweft. O happy death, that shall prove life to thy foul.

Why this is fometimes the way of the Lord with men, Job xxxvi. 8,9. "If they be bound in fetters, and holden in cords of affliction, "then he fheweth them their work and their tranfgreffion, that "they have exceeded: he openeth also their ear to discipline, and "commandeth them that they fhall return from iniquity."

O confider, poor penfive creature, that which stole away thy heart from God is now gone; that which eat up thy time and thoughts, that there was no room for God, foul, or eternity in them, is gone : all the vain expectations that thou raifedt up unto thyfelf, from that poor creature which now lies in the dust, are in one day quite perished. O what an advantage haft thou now for heaven, beyond whatever thou yet hadft! if God will but blefs this rod, thou wilt have cause to keep many a thanksgiving day for this day.

I pray, let thefe three things be pondered by you. I can beftow no more comforts upon you, your condition bars the beft comforts.

from you, they belong to the people of God, and you have yet ñös thing to do with them.

I fhall therefore turn from you to them, and present some choicer comforts to them, to whom they properly belong, which may be of great ufe to you in reading, if it be but to convince you of the bleffed privilege and state of the people of God in the greatest plunges of troubles in this world, and what advantages their interest in Chrift gives them for peace and fettlement, beyond that ftate you are in.

And here I do with much more freedom and hope of fuccefs, apply myfelf to the work of counfelling and comforting the afflicted. You are the fearers of the Lord, and tremble at his word: the leaft fin is more formidable to you than the greateft affliction: doubtless you would rather chufe to bury all your children, than provoke and grieve your heavenly Father. Your relations are dear, but Chrift is dearer to you by far.

Well then, let me perfuade you to retire a while into your closets, redeem a little time from your unprofitable forrows, eafe and empty your hearts before the Lord, and beg his bleffing upon the relieving, quieting, and heart-compofing confiderations that follow; fome of which are more general and common, some more particular and fpecial; but all of them fuch as, through the bleffing of God, may be very useful at this time to your fouls.

Confideration 1. Confider, in this day of forrow, who is the framer and author of this rod by which you nor fmart; is it not the Lord? And if the Lord hath done it, it becomes you meekly to fubmit. Pfal. xlvi. 10. Be ftill, and know that I am God."

Man and man ftand upon even ground; if your fellow-creature does any thing that difpleases you, you may not only enquire who did it, but why he did it? You may demand his grounds and reafons for what he hath done; but you may not do fo here: It is expected that this one thing, The Lord hath done it, should, without any farther difputes or contefts, filence and quiet you, whatever it be that he hath done. Job xxxiii. 13. "Why doft thou ftrive against "him? For he giveth not an account of any of his matters." The Supreme Being muft needs be an unaccountable and uncontroulable Being.

It is a fhame for a child to ftrive with his father; a fhame for a fervant to contend with his mafter; but for a creature to quarrel and ftrive with the God that made him, O how thameful is it! Surely it is highly reasonable that you be fubject to that will whence you proceeded, and that he who formed you and yours fhould difpofe of both as feemeth him good. It is faid, 2 Sam. iii. 36. "That what"foever the king did pleafed all the people:" And shall any thing the Lord doth difpleafe you? He can do no wrong. If we pluck a rofe in the bud as we walk in our gardens, who fhall blame us for it? It is our own, and we may crop it off when we please: Is not this the cafe? Thy fweet bud, which was cropt off before it was fully blown,

was cropt off by him that owned it, yea, by him that formed it. If his dominion be abfolute, fure his difpofal fhould be acceptable.

It was fo to good Eli, i Sam. iii. 18 "It is the Lord, let him do "what feemeth him good :" And it was fo to David, Pfal. xxxix. 9. "I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; becaufe thou didst it." O let it be for ever remembered, "That he whofe name alone is Jeho"vah, is the Most High over all the earth," Pfalm lxxxiii. 18.

The glorious fovereignty of God, is illuftrioufly difplayed in two things, his decrees and his providences: With respect to the first he faith, Rom. ix. 15. "I will have mercy on whom I will have mer"cy." Here is no ground of difputing with him; for fo it is faid, ver. 20. "Who art thou, O man, that repliest against God? Shall "the thing formed fay to him that formed it, why haft thou made "me thus?" Hath not the potter power over the clay ?

And as to his providences, wherein his fovereignty is alfo manifefted; it is faid, Zech. ii. 14. "Be filent, O all flesh, before the Lord, "for he is raised up out of his habitation." It is spoken of his providential working in the changes of kingdoms and defolations that at tend them.

Now, feeing the cafe ftands thus, that the Lord hath done it; it is his pleasure to have it so, and that if it had not been his will, it could never have been as it is; he that gave thee (rather lent thee) thy relation hath alfo taken him: O how quiet fhould this confideration leave thee? If your landlord, who has many years fuffered you to dwell in his house, does at last warn you out of it, though he tells you not why; you will not contend with him, or fay he has done you wrong: Much less if he tells you it will be more for his profit and accommodation to take it into his own hand, than let it to you any longer.

Doubtless, reason will tell you, you ought quietly to pack up and quit it. It is your great landlord, from whom you hold (at pleasure) your own, and your relations lives, that hath now warned you out from one of them, it being more for his glory, it may be, to take. it in his own hands, by death; and must you dispute the cafe with him?

Come, Chriftian, this no way becomes thee, but rather, "The "Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, bleffed be the name "of the Lord." Look off from a dead creature, lift up thine eyes to the fovereign, wife, and holy pleasure that ordered this affliction : Confider who he is, and what thou art; yea, pursue this confideration till thou canft fay, I am now filled with the will of God.

Confideration 2. Ponder well the quality of the comfort you are de prived of, and remember, that when you had it, it flood but in the rank and order of common and inferior comforts.

Children, and all other relations are but common bleffings, which God indifferently beftows upon his friends and enemies and by the having or lofing of them, no man knows either love or hatred. It is VOL. V. 4 L

faid of the wicked, Pfal. lxxvii. 14. that they are full of children; yea, and of children that do furvive them too; for they leave their fubftance to their babes. Full of fin, yet full of children, and thefe children live to inherit their parents fins and eftates together.

It is the mistaking of the quality and nature of our enjoyments, that fo plunges us into trouble when we lofe them. We think there is fo neceffary a connection betwixt thefe creatures and our happiness that we are utterly undone when they fail us.

But this is our mistake; there is no fuch neceffàry connection or dependence; we may be happy without these things: It is not father, mother, wife, or child, in which our chief good and felicity lies; we have higher, better, and more enduring things than thefe; all these may perifh, and yet our foul be fecure and fafe; yea, and our comfort in the way, as well as end, may be fafe enough, though thefe are gone: God hath better things to comfort his people with than thefe, and worfe rods to afflict you with than the removal of thefe. Had God let your children live and flourish; and given you eafe and reft in your tabernacle, but in the mean time inflicted fpiritual judgments upon your fouls; how much more fad had your cafe been?

But as long as our beft mercies are all fafe, the things that have falvation in them remain, and only the things that have vanity in them are removed; you are not prejudiced, or much hindered as to the attainment of your lat end, by the lofs of these things.

Alas! it was not Chrift's intent to purchase for you a fenfual content in the enjoyment of thefe earthly comforts; but to redeem you from all iniquity, purge your corruptions, fanctify your natures, wean your hearts from this vain world, and fo to difpofe and order your prefent condition, that, finding no reft and content here, you might the more ardently pant and figh after the reft which remains for the people of God. And are you not in as probable a way to attain this end now, as you were before? Do you think you are not as likely, by thefe methods of providence, to be weaned from the world, as by more pleasant and profperous ones? Every wife man reckons that ftation and condition to be beft for him, which moft promotes and fecures his last end and great defign.

Well then, reckon you are as well without these things as with them; yea, and better too, if they were but clogs and frares upon your affections; you have really loft nothing if the things wherein your eternal happiness confifteth be yet fafe. Many of God's deareft children have been denied fuch comforts as thefe, and many have been deprived of them, and yet never the farther from Chrift and heaven for that.

Confideration 3. Always remember, that how foon and unexpected foever your parting with your relations was, yet your leafe was expired be fore you loft them, and you enjoyed them every moment of the time that God intended them for you.

Before this relation, whofe lofs you lament, was born, the time of your enjoyment and feparation was unalterably fixed and limited in heaven by the God of the fpirits of all flefh: And although it was a fecret to you whilft your friend was with you; yet now it is a plain and evident thing that this was the time of feparation before appointed; and that the life of your friend could by no means be protracted or abbreviated, but must keep your company juft fo far, and then part with you.

This pofition wants no full and clear fcripture authority for its foundation: How pregnant and full is that text, Job xxiv. 5, 6. "See

ing his days are determined, the number of his months are with "thee: thou haft appointed him his bounds, which he cannot pass." The time of our life, as well as the place of your habitation was prefixed before we were born.

It will greatly conduce to your fettlement and peace to be well eftablished in this truth; that the appointed time was fully come when you and your dear relation parted; for it will prevent and save a great deal of trouble which comes from our after-reflections.

O if this had been done, or that omitted; had it not been for fuch miscarriages and over-fights, my dear husband, wife, or child, had been alive at this day! No, the Lord's time was fully come, and all things concurred, and fell in together to bring about the pleasure ef his will; let that fatisfy you: Had the ableit phyficians in the world been there, or had they that were there prefcribed another course, as it is now, fo it would have been when they had done all. Only it must be precautioned, that the decree of God no way excufes any voluntary, or finful neglects or mifcarriages. God over-rules these things to serve his own ends, but no way approves them; but it greatly relieves, against all our involuntary and unavoidable overfights and mistakes about the use of means, or the timing of them; for it could not be otherwife than now it is.

Objection. But many things are alledged against this position, and that with much feeming countenance from fuch scriptures as these ; Pfal. liv. 25. "Blood-thirsty men fhall not live out half their days." Ecclef. vii. 18. "Why shouldft thou die before thy time." Pfal. cii. 24. 0 my God, take me not away in the midst of my days." Ifa. xxvii. 10. "I am deprived of the refidue of my years." And, Prov. X. 27. "The fear of the Lord prolongeth days, but the years of the "wicked fhall be shortened." It is demanded what tolerable sense we can give thefe fcriptures, whilft we affert an unalterable fixation of the term of death.

Solution. The fenfe of all these fcriptures will be cleared up to full fatisfaction, by diftinguishing death and the terms of it.

First, We muft diftinguifh death into Natural, and Violent. The wicked and blood-thirsty man fhall not live out half his days; i. e. half fo long as he might live, according to the course of nature,