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But I will not hold you longer here, I have only a few things to defire for, and from you, and I have done.

The things 1 defire, are,

First, That you will not be too hafty to get off the yoke which God hath put upon your neck. Remember when your child was in the womb, neither of you defired it should be delivered thence till God's appointed time was fully come; and now that you travail again with forrow for its death: O defire not to be delivered from your forrows one moment before God's time for your deliverance be fully come alfo. Let patience have its perfect work; that comfort which comes in God's way and feafon, will stick by you, and do you good indeed.

Secondly, I defire, that though you and your afflictions had a fad meeting, yet you and they may have a comfortable parting. If they effect that upon your hearts which God fent them for, I doubt not but you will give them a fair teftimony when they go off.

If they obtain God's bleffing upon them in their operation, furely they will have your bleffing too at their valediction. And what you entertained with fear, you will difmits with praise. How fweet is it to hear the afflicted foul fay, when God is loofing his hands, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted."

Thirdly, I heartily with that these fearching afflictions may make the more fatisfying difcoveries; that you may now fee more of the evil of fin, the vanity of the creature, and the fulnefs of Chrift, than ever you yet faw. Afflictions are fearchers, and put the foul upon searching and trying its ways, Lam. iii. When our fin find us out by affliction, happy are we, if, by the light of affliction, we find out fin. Bleffed is the man whom God chafteneth, and teacheth out of his law, Pfal. xciv. 12. There are unfeen caules, many times, of our troubles; you have an advantage now to fift out the feeds, and principle from which they fpring.

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Fourthly, I with that all the love and delight you bestowed on your little one, may now be placed, to your greater advantage, upon Jefus Chrift; and that the ftream of your affection to him may be fo much the ftronger, as there are now fewer channels for it to be divided into. If God will not have any part of your happiness to lie in children, then let it wholly lie in himself. If the jealoufy of the Lord hath removed that which drew away too much of your heart from him, and hath spoken by this rod, faying, Stand afide, child, thou art in my way, and fillest more room in thy parents hearts than belongs to thes

O then deliver up all to him, and fay, Lord, take the whole heart entirely, and undividedly, to thyself. Henceforth let there be no parting, fharing, or dividing of the affections betwixt God and the creature, let all the ftreams meet, and centre in thee, only.

Fifthly, That you may be strengthened with all might in the inner man; to all patience, that the peace of God may keep your hearts and minds. Labour to bring your hearts to a meek fubmiffion to the rod of your Father. We had fathers of the flesh, who corrected us, and we gave them reverence; fhall we not much more be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live? Is it comely for children to conteft, and firive with their father? Or is it the way to be freed from the yoke, by struggling under it? O that your hearts might be in a like frame with his that faid, Lord, thou shalt beat, and I will bear. It was a good observation that one made, Anima fedendo et quiefcendo fit fapiens: The foul grows wife by fitting still and quiet under the rod. And the apostle calls thofe excellent fruits which the faints gather from their fanctified afflictions," The peace"able fruits of righteoufnefs," Heb. xii. 11.

Laftly, My heart's defire, and prayer to God for you, is, that you may die daily to all vifible enjoyments, and by these frequent converfes with death in your family, you may be prepared for your own change and diffolution, when it fhall

come.

O friends! how many graves have you and I feen opened for our dear relations? How oft hath death come up into your windows, and fummoned the delight of your eyes? It is but a little while, and we fhall go to them; we and they are diftinguished but by short intervals.

Tranfivere patres, fimul hinc tranfibimus omnes.

Our dear parents are gone, our lovely and defirable children are gone, our bofom relations, that were as our own fouls, are gone; and do not all these warning-knocks at our doors acquaint us, that we must prepare to follow fhortly after them?

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O that by these things our own death might be both more eafy, and familiar to us; the oftner it vifits us, the better we fhould be acquainted with it; and the more of our beloved relations it removes before us, the lefs of either fnare or intanglement remains for us when our turn comes.

My dear friends, my flesh, and my blood, I befeech you, for religion's fake, for your own fake, and for my fake, whofe com

fort is, in great part, bound up in your profperity, and welfare, that you read frequently, ponder ferioufly, and apply believingly thefe fcripture confolations and directions, which, in fome hafte, I have gathered for your ufe; and the God of all confolation be with you.

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LUKE vii 13. And when the Lord faw her, he had compassion on her, and faid to her, Weep not.

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O be above the ftroke of paffion, is a condition equal to angels: to be in a state of forrow, without the fenfe of forrow, is a difpofition beneath beafts: but duly to regulate our forrows, and bound our paffions under the rod, is the wisdom, duty, and excellency of a Chriftian. He that is without natural affections, is defervedly ranked amongst the worft of heathens; and he that is able rightly to manage them, deferves to be numbered with the beft of Chriftians. Though, when we are fanctified we put on the divine nature, yet, till we are glorified, we put not off the infirmities of our human nas

ture.

Whilft we are within the reach of troubles, we cannot be without the danger, nor ought not to be without the fear of fin; and it is as hard for us to escape fin, being in adverfity, as becalming in profperity.

VOL. VII.

Ff

How apt are we to tranfgrefs the bounds, both of reafon and religion, under a fharp affliction, appears, as in mofl mens experience, fo in this woman's example, to whofe exceffive forrow Chrift puts a stop in the text: "He faw her, and had "compaflion on her, and faid to her, Weep not."

The lamentations and wailings of this diftreffed mother, moved the tender compaffions of the Lord in beholding them, and flirred up more pity in his heart for her, than could be in her heart for her dear, and only fon.

In the words we are to confider, both the condition of the woman, and the counsel of Chrift, with refpect unto it.

First, The condition of this woman, which appears to be very dolorous and diftreffed; her groans and tears moved and melted the very heart of Chrift to hear and behold them: "When he faw her, he had compassion on her."

How fad an hour it was with her when Chrift met,her,, appears by what is fo diftinaly remarked by the cvangelift, in ver. 12. where it is faid, "Now, when they came nigh to the

gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, "the only fon of his mother, and fhe was a widow, and much people of the city was with her."

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In this one verfe, divers heart piercing circumftances of this affliction are noted..

First, It was the death of a fon*. To bury a child, any 'child, muft needs rend the heart of a tender parent; for what are children but the parent multiplied? A child is a part of the parent made up in another skin: But to lay a fon in the grave, a fon who continues the name, and fupports the family; this was ever accounted a very great affli&ion.

Secondly, This fon was not carried from the craddle to the coilin, nor ftripped out of its fwathing, to be wrapped in its winding-cloth. Had he died in his infancy, before he had engaged affection, or raised expectation, the affliction had not been fo pungent, and cutting as now it was; death fmote the fon in the flower, and prime of his time. He was a man, (faith the evangelift) ver. 12. a young man, (as Chrift calls him) r. 14. he was now arrived † at that age which made him ca

ver.

Dis 150 dioμos el tenviov yovala i. e. To be parents to children, is the firmel tye of affection Graec, Com.

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He died in his youth, and was therefore the more to be lamented, because he was cut off in the flower of his age, unto which he was conducted from a child, by the great care and labour of his parents. Dion. Cat, on the place.

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pable of yielding his mother all that comfort which had been the expectation, and hope of many years, and the reward and fruit of many cares, and labours: yet then, when the endearments were greateft, and her hopes higheft, even in the flower of his age, he is cut off.

Thus Bafil bewailed the death of his fon: I once had a fon, who was a young man, my only fucceffor, the folace of my age, the glory of his kind, the prop of my family, arrived to the endearing age; then was he fnatched away from me by death, whofe lovely voice but a little before I heard, who lately was a pleasant fpectacle to his parent.'

Reader, if this hath been thine own condition, as it hath been his that writes it, I need fay no more to convince thee, that it was a forrowful state indeed, Chrift met this tendermother in.

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Thirdly, And which is yet more, he was not only a fon, but an only fon fo you find, in ver. 12. "He was the only fon "of his mother t" one in whom all her hopes and conforts, of that kind, were bound up. For, Omnis in Afcanio ftat chari cura parentis, Virgil. All her affections were contracted into this one object. If we have never fo many children, we know not which of them to fpare; if they ftand, like olive-plants, about our tables, it would grieve us to fee the leaft twig amongfl them broken down. But furely the death of one out of many, is much more tolerable than all in one ‡.

Hence it is noted in fcripture as the greateft of earthly forrows, Jer. vi. 26. "O daughter of my people, gird thee with "fackcloth, and wallow thyfelf in afhes. Make thee mourn❝ing as for an only fon, moft bitter lamentation." Yea, fo deep and penetrating is this grief, that the Holy Ghost borrows it to exprefs the deepest spiritual troubles by, it, Zech. Ff2

Filius mihi erat, adolefcens, folus vitae fucceffor, folatium fenectae, gloria generis, flos aequalium, fulcrum domus, aetatem gratiofifimam agebat; hic raptus periit, qui paulo ante jucundam' vocem edebat, et jucundiffimum spectaculum parentis oculis

crat.

+ She would have borne his death more patiently, had he no been an only fon; or if the had had but another left behind him to mitigate her forrow. Ambrofe.

As there is nothing dearer than an only fon, fo that grief upon the account of his death, must be the greatest of all. Garth, on the place.

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