What I do thou knowest not now but thou shalt know hereafter Verily when we do hereafter know how God has at once Afflicted us and Amended us then we shall say He hath done all things well When we have got through the black Vallies out on the other side then we shall see what now we will hardly believe then we see that the Thoughts of God about us were Thoughts of Good and not of Evil then we see that the Aims of God were to do us Good in the latter end then do our Triumphing Souls declare as in Psal. 119. 71. It is good for me that I have been Afflicted Nothing is more common than to hear a Christian after many Afflictions professing I could not have been well without any one of all my Afflictions I had want of them all I have good by them all How much more will the Beauty and Benefit of all our Afflictions be thankfully acknowledged by us in the Land of light where every Labyrinth of providence will be explained for every one of our Afflictions in this we shall return a Million of Hallelujahs in another and a better World. The Improvement of these things remains VSE And now let these things incourage the people of the Saints of the most High unto a due Faith and Patience under the Afflictive Dispensations which their Heavenly Father tries them with Christians under all your Afflictions labour to say stedfastly to say joyfully not All these things are against me but rather Thanks be to God for his unspeakable Gifts The Language that best befits us under our Afflictions is that the frequent using of which gave unto a famous Jewish Rabbi the name of Rabbi Ganizoth namely This Affliction was for my good and This too and This too I am this day visited my self with the sudden Death of a dear and only Child Permit me to endeavour your Edification for you all have been and may be under some Affliction and most of you under such Affliction let me do it by tendering unto you such Considerations as I would this day quiet my own tempestuous Rebellious Heart withal As our Lord Jesus Christ himself was Tempted for this cause in part That he might know how to succour the Tempted thus the frail Men whom he employes for this among other that are worse causes are Afflicted even That they may more feelingly speak a word in season unto others in Affliction too ¶ There is First a General and then a Special Case which the following part of my Discourse must apply it self unto The General Case The more General Exhortation to be now Urged is Let us under no Affliction whatsoever be discomposed with any Apprehension as if it were utterly Against us I am speaking to many Children of Iacob that are Children of Affliction some of us are lamenting over our broken Estates like Naomi in Ruth 1. 21. saying I was Full but I am become Empty Some of us are Lamenting over our blasted Credits like David in Psal. 69. 20. saying Reproach hath broken my Heart and there are with us those who are Weeping over their Dead Children like the distressed Women of Bethlehom in Matth. 2. 18. Weeping for their Children and not willing to be comforted because they are not And many more such Griefs are the minds of devout Persons among us Wounded with That which Iacob sigh'd over his Ioseph and Simeon is by multitudes Mourned over their other Enjoyments also An Ezekiel as in Ezek. 24. 16. Sighs over the Desire of his Eyes She is not A Widow of one of the Sons of the Prophets as in 2 King 4. 1. Sighs My Husband is not An Isaac as in Gen. 24. 67. may Sigh over his Mother She is not An Israel as in Gen. 35. 29. may Sigh over his Father He is not And if a Ionah have had any Gourd which he has taken much contentment in he too as in Ion. 4. 8. is made to Sigh It is not But that which puts a Sting into all these Afflictions is that the Afflicted say All these things are against me Now O that there may be laid upon the thus talking Sorrow a charge of Silence Eternal Silence unto thee now O thou inordinate Passion before the Lord. Let this be as a Word upon the Wheels running into the very Souls of them that are of an heavy Heart Be entreated O Afflicted Christians to say no more All these things are against me No be Comforted be Refreshed with Sentiments that are quite contrary thereunto In your most cloudy hours O strive to say with him in Psal. 94. 19. In the multitude of my Thoughts within me O Lord thy comforts delight my Soul. COMFORTS It is the advice of the Wise Man in Eccl. 7. 14. In the day of Adversity consider Now there are these comfortable things which it is fit for you to consider in this day of your Adversity let me advise you with some Good and Comfortable Words Consider FIRST Those very things which your Affliction lies in the absence of might for ought you can say be very much unto your prejudice That very Ioseph that very Simeon that very Benjamin which you are Afflicted for the want of might do you more Hurt than Good. Even in outward Respects you canot determine what is best for you It were as much Arrogance in you to direct the Providence of God as it was Blasphemy in the well-known Prince to Correct the Creation of God when he said Had I been by at the Making of the World I could have shown how some things might have been better done Perhaps you are Afflicted because your Possessions about you are diminished but have you not read in Eccl. 5. 13. of Riches kept to the hurt of the Owners Many a Mans Cash has been his Crime his House has cost him his Head by his Land he has forfeited his Life the poor Heathen of old cursing of his Enemy wished that he might be a Rich man. Perhaps you are Afflicted because of a little Mud thrown upon your Reputations but have you not read in Prov. 27. 14. How pernicious a thing it is to have too much Applause in the World To be too well spoken of procures that Envy before which Who can stand The Breath in the Trumpet of Fame not rarely carries a Plague and a Bane to them whose Names it founds It may be your Affliction is the loss of Children well have you not read such a Message sent to a godly Man as that in 1 Sam. 2. 33. The Son of thine whom I shall not cut off shall be to consume thine Eyes and to grieve thine Heart T is possible that if thy Child had liv'd it might have made thee the Father of a Fool or that I may speak to the Sex that is most unable to bear this Trial the Mother of a Shame It is a very ordinary thing for one Living Child to occasion more trouble than seven Dead ones However in Spiritual Regards
you may be exceedingly harmed by the secular Delights which you desire you may have cause to Rue what you Wish because it may prove an Idol which will render your Souls like the Barren Heath in the Wilderness before the Lord. We do very Childishly often cry for a Knife that would cut the Fingers of our own Souls we pant after those things which may be to our Souls as bad as drink to the Thirsty craving Man in a Dropsie It was the very direful calamity of the ancient Israelites in Psal. 105. 15. The Lord gave them their Requests but sent leanness into their Soul. A Lean Soul a Wretched Soul a Soul pining away in its iniquities is oftentimes the effect of those fine things which we Dote upon It is a blasted banned Soul that sets up a Creature in the Room the Throne of the great God that gives unto a Creature those Loves and those Cares which are due unto the great God alone Such Idolatry the Soul is too frequently by Prosperity seduc'd unto We are told in Prov. 1. 32. The prosperity of Fools destroys them many a Fool is thus destroy'd O fearful case A full Table and a lean Soul A big Title and a lean Soul A numerous Posterity and a Soul e'n like the Kine in Pharaohs Dream Madness is in our Hearts if we tremble not at this Soul-calamities are sore Calamities Consider NEXT The benefit which the Lord intends you by your Afflictions is really very great and glorious The sweet Influences which your Afflictions are like to have upon you who can enough describe If you lose a Ioseph or a Simeon or a Benjamin behold these are Spiritual Blessings in Heavenly things with which God will abundantly make up your loss That very rule which the Lord has given us about the Nurture of our Children He observes in the Discipline of his own we are under our Heavenly Fathers executions of that Rule even then when the Death of our Children is the Affliction under which we labour Prov. 23. 14. Thou shalt beat thy Child with the Rod and shalt deliver his Soul from Hell. In this World you are like to be much the Wiser and much the Better for your Afflictions and much the more Blessed for them in the other World for evermore What And are these things against you God forbid you should imagine so I. Those things which you conclude to be against you are the things by which the most High designs to promote your KNOWLEDGE It is affirmed in Psal. 94. 12. That those Whom God chastens he also teaches out of his Law. The Almighty is now but putting of you to School and Schola Crucis est Schola Lucis you are in a School where the Lord will have you to learn many very notable and surprizing Lessons God will have Afflictions to be the Clay and Spittle that shall open those Eyes which Sin hath blinded horrible Cataracts have seized those Eyes which are by these means removed the Physician recites to you the names of some Bitter Herbs which the Eye-sight is relieved by We are indeed all of us a sort of Creatures which can see best in the Dark it was the Aphorism of Solomon the Wise in Prov. 29. 15. The Rod and Correction give Wisdom It usually comes to pass that Correction and Instruction go together You shall find that II 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Quae Nocent Docent that Maturant Aspera Mentem and that Vexatio dat Intellectum or as the Proverb of the Ancients hath it In Adversity Men find Eyes You shall now know more but hear of What § The Lord resolves to make you know more First of HIMSELF We have been miserably deficient in the knowledge of God we may say of our selves as Paul of some we may speak it unto our shame Our Ignorance of God hath been the cause of ours Sins Heu Prima haec scelerum causa est mortalibus aegris Naturam nescire Dei And our Knowledge of God will be the effect of our Sorrows for them The Lord is carrying of you into the Clifts of a cragged Rock and it is to make the Glory of his Attributes pass before you When Iob had gone through his weary Months he then said unto the Lord as in Iob. 42. 5. Now mine Eye sees thee It is by Affliction that we are brought to see the Soveraignty of God and to lie before him as Clay in the Hand of the Potter to see the Righteousness of God and to own that he punisheth us far less than our iniquities deserve to see the Holiness of God and to Reverence him as one that is of purer Eyes than to behold Evil to see the Power of God and to think that nothing is too hard for the Lord to see the Goodness of God and to find him a rewarder of them that diligently seek him in a word a little more Affliction will bring thee to say Lord I know thy Name and I will put my Trust in thee § The Lord resolves to make you know more Secondly of his SON What are all those Afflictions that make you groan Truly they are a few Chips and Splinters of a Redeemers Cross They are as 't is said in Col. 1. 24. That which is behind of the Afflictions of Christ some Vinegar and Gall was left by him for us to pledge him by tasting of God will thereby make you sensible a little of the Agonies and Anguishes that made him to Roar when there were Laid on him the Iniquities of us all We were never yet enough affected with the Kindness of our Lord Jesus in the dark doleful day when he endured the Cross despising the Shame which was due unto us all Art thou Poor God will have thee call to mind the Poverty which thy Redeemer underwent for thy sake the Poverty which when our Lord Inventoried his Estate rendred the Sum Total of it only this The Son of Man hath not where to lay his Head. Art thou Pained God will have thee mindful of the strong Pains which thy Redeemer felt when his Flesh was torn from his Bones when from Head to Foot bloody Wounds and Stripes and Stabs were to be seen upon him Art thou Fearful God will have thee bear in mind the horrible Consternation which caused thy Redeemer to Sweat clots of Blood tho' in a cold Night he were groveling on the cold Ground Art thou Disgraced God will have thee mindful of the Ignominy cast upon thy Saviour when he was used as a Traytor as all that was Vile and when the basest fellow in the City was counted a better Man than he Do thy Friends deal unworthily Thou shalt then learn what the Exercise of thy Redeemer was when even those of his own Family all forsook him and fled these things Affliction will make us Thoughtful of and Thankful for And as the Kindness of a Iesus so the Value of a Iesus comes to be
unto them we say O my Dead Infant or O my Lost Estate But Iob found cause to say in ch 21. 4. Is my complaint to Man If it were so Why should not my Spirit be Troubled Then let us not keep saying Have pity on me O ye my Friends But instead thereof let us be saying The Lord be Merciful unto me a Sinner Do's not thy Affliction put thee upon more Prayer than thou didst use before It is a sad sign that the Sower Cup arrives unto thee spiced with the dreadful Vengeance of God upon thy Soul. An Affliction will neither come in Mercy nor go in Mercy if much Prayer do not accompany it In Affliction Pray much As soon as ever any Affliction befalls us the First thing we do should be to fall down upon our knees to cry mightily unto the Lord that his Grace may be Sufficient for us And still as long as Gods hand is Lying in Tryals upon us our hand should be lifted in Prayers unto God. We should Pray that our Affliction may be Moderated that our Affliction may be Sanctified that our Affliction may be Removed The Pious Hannah of old found Prayer to be an Heart-ease Let this be your good Character your good Carriage Lord in Trouble have they visited thee and poured out a Prayer when thy Chastening was upon them The Third Counsel which you are to follow is declared in Job 34. 31. Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born Chastisement I will not offend any more Repentance of Sin should be the effect of Affliction on Men. The End of every Affiction in Sum is the same that the End of every Mercy is we may say of it as in Rom. 2. 4. O man it leads thee to Repentance God spoke by his Ten Iudgments unto Egypt as well as by his Ten Commandments unto Israel Every Affliction cries this in our Ears O Repent Reform Return to him that Smites thee We read of a gracious person who upon having a Child taken away by Death said in 1 King. 17. 18. My sins are brought unto Remembrance This is that which perhaps all thy Sickness all thy Reproach all thy Poverty and all thy Bereavments are sent upon God would have thee to remember some Sin with Grief and Shame and Wherein thou hast done Iniquity to do it no more It was a black brand set upon a bad Man in 2 Chron. 28. 22. In the time of his Distress did he Trespass yet more against the Lord. Shall God Prune thee and Cut thee and no good Fruit be found upon thee after all Shall God Prick thee and Lance thee and all thy bad Blood be still running in thy Veins Then indeed these things are Against thee Ieroboam's withered Hand was Against him because it rectify'd not his naughty Heart There hardly ever was a more lamentable sight in this World than A Thief on a Cross continuing to dishonour the Lord Iesus Christ. Art thou Afflicted Then take the course which the Church propounded in Lam. 3. 40. Let us search and try our ways O now First Petition thy God Lord shew me wherefore thou contendest with me And then Examine thy self Wherein have I transgressed and exceeded Endeavour to find out what Controversie there may be between God and Thee let thy impartial Conscience the Preacher in thy Bosom inform thee Whether thou hast not Overvalued or Vndervalued the things which thy Affliction is in the privation of Whether thou hast not injuriously procured unto some other person an Affliction like that which thou thy self now Smartest under or Whether no Circumstance of thy Affliction as the Time of it the Place of it do loudly proclaim Gods quarrel in it enquire thus and immediately comply with what the Lord shall Require Let thy Dead Friends cause thee to Repent of thy Dead works thou Mournest over a lost Child or a lost Name O be concerned about a lost Soul that is loding in thee Ask thy felf What have my past Behaviours been And ask What should my future Deportment be Bewail now and Amend all thy miscarriages in the sight of God. We are very ready to fall out with Creatures when any thing happens amiss unto us But O spend all thy Passion and all thy Indignation here Thou mayst look upon thy Sins and Curse them as the Authors of all thy Sorrows O look upon Sin and say Have I found thee O mine Enemy Man loath now and leave every Sin. 'T was that Sin that kill'd thy Child 'T was that Sin that burnt thy House that sunk thy Ship that robb'd thee of thy Delights Never after this be at peace with that mischievous Monster Sin. The Fourth Counsel big with which every Affliction saith unto us as Eliud unto Eglon I have a Message to thee from God we have specify'd in Job 13. 15. Tho' he slay me yet will I trust in him An Holy Resolution for God is to be maintained under every Afflicition from God. Afflictions will not be Against us if we Resolve under them to be still For him from whom they come To lay aside no Devotions for all Afflictions to serve a Smiting God as well as a Smiling God to seek a God that is Frowning on us as well as a God that is Owning of us this will argue An Israelite indeed We should after all our Afflictions be still able to make that Appeal unto the Lord in the Psal. 44. 17 18. All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee O Lord. Resolve never to Renounce the Truths of God Resolve never to Desert the Ways of God whatever your Afflictions are still With full purpose of Heart cleave unto the Lord. In Resolutions for God O be like an Iron Pillar and a Brasen Wall that cannot be prevailed against Resolve to be Holy tho' the Wrath of Man would molest you for it Suppose a wicked World should Abuse you and Oppress you yet say with Ioshua I and my House will serve the Lord. Continue Sacrificing to and Pleasing of your God tho' Cains bloody Club should be Cudgelling of you Resolve to be Holy tho' the Hand of God should distress you in it When you feel the Discouragements of the Narrow way still say with Paul None of these things move me Suppose God should inflict the stroke of his Displeasure on your outward Man still say Tho' my Life should be continually worn away with pining Sickness yet to me to Live it shall be Christ. Still say Tho' my Name should in the Reproach of the Drunkard have Cart-loads of Mud thrown upon it yet will I labour all I can to honour the Name of God. Still say Tho' I am Reduced to be among the Poor in this World yet will I study to be Rich in Good Works And still say Tho' I cannot have my Children like Olive-plants about my Table yet will endeavour to be my self a Dutiful Child of God and as a Fruitful Olive-tree in the Courts of
the Lord. Once more Suppose God should withdraw the light of his Countenance from your inward Man still say The Lord shall be my God my God even when he forsaketh me Still say I will fear the Lord and obey his Voice tho I walk in Darkness and shall see no Light. Happy is the Afflicted Man that is a thus Resolved Man. The followers of these Counsels may boldly and safely lay claim to all the Comforts which have this day been set before the Heirs of Consolation The special Case But there is a more special Exhortation to be pressed which may give a Period unto this Discourse Let not the loss of Children particularly as a thing Against us cause in us any irregular Discomposures The loss of Children did I say Nay let me recal so harsh a Word the Catachresis is a little too hard for the Language of a Christian. The Children which we count Lost are not so The Death of our Children is not the Loss of our Children when all the Losses of Iob were made up with Doublings yet the Number of his Children need not be doubled in the Restoration Our Children are not Lost but given back they are not Lost but sent before In such a Dialect have the Sager Heathen sometimes talked of this Affliction and shall the professors of Christianity with bitter Groans enter this among their Losses My Children are Dead O tell it not at Athens publish it not at Rome lest the Heathen Philosophers hiss at our weakness at our Folly Well this is the Calamity which many of you at some time or other have experience of The Death of Children this is a thing which the Children of Iacob seldome escape a resemblance of their Father in Many carry themselves under the tryal as if A Death of Vertue yea as if A Death of Reason had therewithal befallen them but recollect your selves O dejected Christians and be not like them that Mourn without Hope this day Let Bereaved Parents be yet Believing Parents the Voice of the great God that formed all things is unto them that in Ier. 31. 16. Refrain thy Voice from Weeping and thine Eyes from Tears for thy Work shall be Rewarded saith the Lord. Let the Thoughts which have been this day tendered unto our Improvement gloriously compose and settle our Royled minds under this Affliction Let us not say This thing is Against us but let us say The Lord that hath given hath also taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. It is indeed very true That this Affliction is none of the most easie to be born the Heart of a Parent will have peculiar Passions working in it and racking of it at such a time as this Thô there be greater Sorrows than those with which we follow a Child unto the Grave I bless God it is a more bitter thing to say My Sin is mighty or to say My Soul is guilty than it is to say My Child is Dead that moan I have pierced my Saviour is more Heart-wounding than to Mourn as one mourneth for a First-born Yet few outward Earthly Anguishes are equal unto these The Dying of a Child is like the Tearing off a Limb unto us But O remember That if ever we had any Grace in our Souls we have e're this willingly pluck'd out a Right Eye and cut off a Right Hand for the sake of God. Why should we not then at the Call of God readily part with a Limb and leave Him room to say Now I know that thou fearest me because thou hast not withheld thy Child when I called for it It was from God that we did Receive those dear Pledges our Children and it is to God that we Return them We cannot quarrel with our God if about those Loans he say unto us Give them up you have had them long enough We knew what they were when first we took them into our Arms We knew that they were Potsherds that they were Mortals that the Worms which usually do kill them or at least will eat them are but their Names-sakes and that a Dead Child is a sight no more surprizing than a broken Pitcher or a blasted Flower But we did not we do not know What they might be in case they were continued among the Living on the Earth We cannot tell whether our Sons would prove as Plants grown up in their Youth and our Daughters as Corner-stones polished after the similitude of a Palace or whether our Sons might not like Isaac's Son do those things that would be a grief of Mind unto us and our Daughters like Iephta's Daughter be of them that Trouble us Christians let us be content that our wise and good God should Carve our Portion for us he will appoint us none but a goodly Heritage Our Temptation is no more than what is common to Men yea and to good Men. The biggest part of those Humane Spirits that are now beholding the Face of God in Glory are such as dwelt in the Children of Pious people departed in their Infancy And what have we to say why we should not undergo it as well as they Was the Infant whose Decease we do deplore one that was very Pretty one that had pretty Features pretty Speeches pretty Actions Well at the Resurrection of the Iust we shall see the dear Lambs again the Lord Jesus will deal with our dead Children as the Prophets Elijah and Elisha did by those whom they Raised of Old he will bring them to us recovered from the pale Jaws of Death and how Amiable how Beautiful how Comely they will then be no Tongue is able to express or Heart conceive Tho' their Beauty do Consume in the Grave yet it shall be Restored it shall be Advanced when they shall put off their Bed-cloths in the Morning of the day of God. Again Was the Infant now lamented very suddenly snatch'd away and perhaps Awfully too not meerly by a Convulsion but by Scalding by Burning by Drowning by Shooting by Stabbing or by some unusual Harm Truly it is often so that the quicker the Death the better It is more desirable for our Children to feel but a few Minutes of Pain than it is for them to lye Groaning in those exquisite Agonies which would cause us even our selves to wish that the Lord would take them out of their Misery As for any more grievous and signal circumstance attending of our Dying Children our best course will be to have it said of us They ceased saying The Will of the Lord be done As the Love or Wrath of God is not certainly declared in so our Grief before him should not be too much augmented by such things as these And it is a favour if so much as one of our Children be left alive unto us Let not the sense of one Trouble swallow up the sense of a Thousand Mercies The Mother from whom a violent Death has taken one of her two Children may immediately Embrace the other and say Blessed