Secondly, As a father's hand correcting thee in love and faithfulnefs. Prov. iii. 11. " Whom the Lord loveth he correcteth, as a "father the fon in whom he delighteth." O if once you could but fee affliction as a rod in a father's hand, proceeding from his love, and intended for your eternal good; how quiet would you then be?

And furely if it draws your heart nearer to God, and mortifies it more to this vain world, it is a rod in the hand of special love: If it end in your love to God, doubt not but it comes from God's love to you,

Thirdly, As a just and righteous hand. Haft not thou procured this to thyfelf by thy own folly? Yea, the Lord is juft in all that is come upon thee; whatever he hath done, yet he hath done thee no wrong.

Fourthly, Laftly, As a moderate and merciful hand that hath punifhed thee less than thine iniquities deferve: He that hath caft thee into affliction, might juftly have caft thee into hell. It is of the Lord's mercy that thou art not confumed. Why doth the living man complain?

Rule 5. If you will bear your affliction with moderation, compare it with the afflictions of other men, and that will greatly quiet your fpirits.

You have no caufe to fay God hath dealt bitterly with you, and that there is no forrow like your forrow: Look round about you, and impartially confider the condition that others are in; and they nothing inferior to you in any refpect. You had one dear child; Aaron had two at a stroke, Job all at one stroke; and both these by an immediate stroke from the hand of God. Some godly parents have lived to see their children die in their fin by the hand of justice, others have seen them live to the difhonour of God, and breaking of their own fpirits, and would have efteemed it a mercy if they had died from the womb, and given up the ghost when they came out of the belly, as Job fpeaks.

In what mifery have fome parents feen their children die! God holding them as fo many terrible fpectacles of mifery before their eyes; fo that they begged the Lord, with importunity, to let loose his hands, and cut them off; death being in their efteen, nothing to those continual agonies in which they have feen them lie weltering from day to day. O you little know what a bitter cup others have given them to drink? Surely, if you compare, you must fay, the Lord hath dealt gently and graciously with me.

Rule 6. Carefully fun and avoid whatsoever may renew your forrow, or provoke you to impatience.

Increase not your forrow by the fight of, or difcourfes about fad objects; and labour to avoid them, as occafions prefented by the enemy of your fouls, to draw forth the corruptions of your heart.

I told you before why Jacob would not have the child of which Rachel died, called after the name his wife had given, Benoni, the fon of my forrow; let it fhould prove a daily occafion of renewing

his trouble for the lofs of his dear wife; but he called his name Benjamin.

Your impatience is like tinder, or gun-powder, fo long as you can prevent the sparks from falling on it, there is no great danger; but you that carry fuch dangerous prepared matter in your own hearts, cannot be too careful to prevent them. Do by murmuring, as you do by blafphemous thoughts; think quite another way, and give no occafion.

Rule 7. In the day of your murmuring for the death of your friends, feriously confider your own death as approaching, and that you and your dead friend are diftinguished by a small interval and point of tine. 2 Sam. xi. 13. Ifball go to him. Surely the thoughts of your own death, as approaching alfo, will greatly allay your forrows for the dead that are gone before you.

We are apt to fancy a long life in the world, and then the lofs of thofe comforts which we promifed ourselves fo much of the sweetness and comforts of our lives from, feems an intolerable thing.

But would you realize your own deaths more, you would not be fo deeply concerned for their deaths as you are. Could you but look into your own graves more seriously, you would be able to look into your friend's grave more composedly.

And thus I have finished what I defigned from this fcripture. The Father of mercies, and God of all comforts, whofe fole prerogative it is to comfort them that are caft down, write all his truths upon your hearts, that they may abide there, and reduce your difordered affections to that frame which beft fuits the will of God, and the profeffion you make of subjection and refignation thereunto.

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