too much to them or rely too much on them The best means in the world are weak and ineffectual without Gods assistance and concurrence and they never have that his assistance or concurrence when his time is come and that it was fully come in your friends case is manifested now by the event So that if your friend had had the most excellent helps the world affords they would have avail'd nothing This consideration takes place only in your case who see what the will of God is by the issue and may not be pleaded by any whilst it remains dubious and uncertain as it generally doth in time of sickness 2. Answer Do you not unjustly charge and fault your selves for that which is not really your fault or neglect How far you are chargeable in this case will best appear by comparing the circumstances you are now in with those you were in when your Relation was only arrested by sickness and it was dubious to you what was your duty and best course to take Possibly you had observed so many to perish in Physitians hands and so many to recover without them that you judged it safer for your friend to be without those means than to be hazarded by them Or if diverse methods and courses were prescribed and perswaded to and you now see your error in preferring that which was most improper and neglecting what was more safe and probable yet as long as it did not so appear to your understanding at that time but you followed the best light you had to guide you at that time it were most unjust to charge the fault upon your selves for chusing that course that then seemed best to you whether it were so in it self or not To be angry with your selves for doing or omâ—tâ—ing what was then done or omitted according to your best discretion and judgment because you now see it by the light of the event far otherwise than you did before is to be troubled that you are but men or that you are not as God who only can foresee Issues and events and that you acted as all rational creatures are bound to do according to the best light they have at the time and season of action 3. Answer To conclude times of great affliction are ordinarily times of great temptation and it 's usual with Satan then to charge us with more sins than we are really guilty of and also to make those things seem to be sins which upon impartial examination will not be found to be so Indeed had your neglect or miscarriage been knowing and voluntary or had you really prefer'd a little money being able to give it before the life of your Relation so that you did deliberatly chuse to hazard this rather than part with that no doubt then but there had been much evil of sin mixed with your affliction and your Conscience may justly smite you for it as your sin But in the other case which is more common and I presume yours it 's a false charge and you ought not to abet the design of Satan in it Judg by the sorrow you now feel for your friend in what degree he was dear to you and what you could now be content to give to ransom his life if it could be done with money Judg I say by this how groundless the charge is that Satan now draws up against you and you are but too ready to yeild to the truth of it 8. Plea But my troubles are upon a higher score and account My child or friend is passed into Eternity and I know not how it is with its soul. Were I sure that my Relation were with Christ I should be quiet but the fears of the contrary are overwhelming O it 's terrible to think of the damnation of one so dear to me 1. Answer Admit what the objection supposes that you have real grounds to fear the eternal condition of your dear Relation yet it 's utterly unbeseeming you even in such a case as this to dispute with or repine against the Lord. I do confess it 's a sore and heavy tryal and that there is no case more sad and sinking to the spirit of a gracious person Their death is but a trifle to this but yet if you be such as fear the Lord methinks his indisputable Soveraignty over them and his distinguishing love and mercy to you should at least silence you in this matter First His indisputable Soveraignty over them Rom. 9. 20. Who art thou O man that disputest with God He speaks it in the matters of eternal election and reprobation What if the Lord will not be gracious to those that are so dear to us Is there any wrong done to them or us thereby Aarons two Sons were cut off in an act of sin by the Lords immediate hand and yet he held his peace Levit. 10. 3. God told Abraham plainly that the Covenant should not be established with Ishmael for whom he so earnestly pray'd O let Ishmael live before thee and he knew that there was no salvation out of the Covenant and yet he sits down silent under the word of the Lord. Secondly But if this do not quiet you yet methinks his distinguishing love and mercy to you should do it O what do you owe to God that root and branch had not been cast together into the fire that the Lord hath given you good hope through grace that it shall be well with you for ever Let this stop your mouth and quiet your spirit though you should have grounds for this fear 2. Answer But pray examine the grounds of your fear whether it may not proceed from the strength of your affections to the eternal welfare of your friend or from the subtilty of Satan designing hereby to over-whelm and swallow you up in sorrow as well as from just grounds and causes In two cases it 's very probable your fear may proceed only from your own affection or Satans temptation First If your Relation died young before it did any thing to destroy your hopes Or Secondly If grown and in some good degree hopeful only he did not in life or at death manifest and give evidence of grace with that clearness as you desired As to the case of Infants in general it 's none of our concern to judg their condition and as for those that sprang from Covenanted parents it becomes us to exercise Charity towards them the Scripture speaks very favourably of them And as for the more adult who have escaped the polutions of the world and made Conscience of sin and duty albeit they never manifested what you could desire they had yet in them as in young Abijah may be found some good thing towards the Lord which you never took notice of Reverence of your authority bashfulness and shamefac'dness reservedness of disposition and many other things may hide those small and weak beginnings of grace that are in children from the observations of the Parents God might see
them for peace and settlement beyond that state you are in And here I do with much more freedom and hope of success apply my sēlf to the work of councelling and comforting the afflicted You are the fearers of the Lord and tremble at his word the least sin is more formidable to you than the greatest affliction Doubtless you would rather chuse to bury all your children than provoke and grieve your heavenly Father Your Relations are dear but Christ is dearer to you by far Well then let me perswade you to retire a while into your closets redeem a little time from your unprofitable sorrows ease and empty your hearts before the Lord and beg his blessing upon the following quieting and heart composing considerations that follow some of which are more general and common some more particular and special but all of them such as through the blessing of God may be very useful at this time to your souls 1. Consid. Consider in this day of sorrow who is the framer and author of this rod by which you now smart Is it not the Lord and if the Lord have done it it becomes you meekly to submit Psal. 46. 10. Be still and know that I am God Man and man stand upon even ground if your fellow creature do any thing that displeases you you may not only enquire Who did it but Why he did it You may demand his grounds and reasons for what he hath done but you may not do so here It is expected that this one thing The Lord hath done it should without any farther disputes or contests silence and quiet you what ever it be that he hath done Job 33. 13. Why dost thou strive against him for he giveth not an account of any of his matters The supream being must needs be an unaccountable and uncontroulable being It s a shame for a child to strive with his Father a shame for a servant to contend with his Master but for a creature to quarrel and strive with the God that made him O how shameful is it Surely t is highly reasonable that you be subject to that will whence you proceeded and that he who formed you and yours should dispose of both as seemeth him good It is said 2 Sam. 3. 36. That whatsoever the King did pleased all the people and shall any thing the Lord doth displease you He can do no wrong If we pluck a Rose in the bud as we walk in our Gardens Who shall blame us for it it is our own and we may crop it off when we please Is not this the case Thy sweet bud which was cropt before it was fully blown was cropt off by him that owned it yea by him that formed it If his dominion be absolute sure his disposal should be acceptable It was so to good Eli 1 Sam. 3. 18. It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good And it was so to David Psal. 39. 9. I was dumb I opened not my mouth because thou didst it O let it be for ever remembred That he whose name alone is Jehovah is the most high over all the earth Psal. 83. 18. The glorious soveraignty of God is illustriously displayed in two things his decrees and his providences With respect to the first he saith Rom. 9. 15. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy Here is no ground of disputing with him for so it s said ver 20. Who art thou O man that replyest against God Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it Why hast thou made me thus Hath not the potter power over the clay And as to his Providences wherein his Soveraignty is also manifested It s said Zech. 2. 13. Be silent O all flesh before the Lord for he is raised up out of his habitation It s spoken of his providential working in the changes of Kingdoms and desolations that attend them Now seeing the case stands thus that Lord hath done it it is his pleasure to have it so and 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 taken him O how quiet should this consideration leave thee If your Landlord who hath many years suffered you to dwell in his house do at last warn you out of it though he tell you not why you will not contend with him or say he hath done you wrong much less if he tell 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 s 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 hand by death And must you dispute the case with him Come Christian this no way becomes thee but rather The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken blessed be the name of the Lord. Look off from a dead creature lift up thine eyes to the Soveraign wise and holy pleasure that ordered this affliction Consider who he is and what thou art yea pursue this consideration till thou canst say I am filled with the will of God 2. Consid. Ponder well the quality of the comfort you are deprived of and remember that when you had it it stood but in the rank and order of common and inferiour comforts Children and all other Relations are but common blessings which God indifferently bestows upon his friends and enemies and by the having or losing of them no man knows either love or hatred It is said of the wicked Psal. 77. 14. That they are full of children yea and of children that do survive them too for They leave their substance to their babes Full of sin yet full of children and these children live to inherit their parents sins and estates together It is the mistaking of the quality and nature of our enjoyments that so plunges us into trouble when we lose them We think there is so necessary a connexion betwixt these creatures and our happiness that we are utterly undone when they fail us But this is our mistake there is no such necessary connection or dependance we may be happy without these things It is not father mother wife or child in which our chief good and felicity lyes we have higher better and more enduring things than these all these may perish and yet our soul secure and safe yea and our comfort in the way as well as end may be safe enough though these be gone God hath better things to comfort his people with than these and worse rods to afflict you with than the removal of these had God let your children live and flourish and given you ease and rest in your Tabernacle but in the mean time inflicted spiritual Judgements upon your souls How much more sad had
more nor see his native Country And is there not a dreadful sound of troubles now in our ears Do not the clouds gather blackness Surely all things round about us seem to be preparing and disposing themselves for affliction The dayes may be nigh in which you shall say Blessed is the womb that never bare and the paps that never gave suck It was in the day wherein the faith and patience of the Saints were exercised that John heard a voice from heaven saying to him Write Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from benceforth Thy friend hy an Act of favour is disbanded by death whilst thou thy self art left to endure a great fight of affliction And now if troubles come thy cares and fears will be so much the less and thy own death so much the easier to thee when so much of thee is in heaven already In this case the Lord by a mercifull dispensation is providing both for their safety and thy own easier passage to them In removing thy friends before hand he seems to say to thee as he did to Peter Joh. 13. 7. What I do thou knowest not now but hereafter thou shalt know it The eye of Providence hath a prospect far beyond thine it would be in probability an harder task for thee to leave them behind than to follow them A tree that 's deeply rooted in the earth requires many strokes to fell it but when its roots are loosned before hand then an easie stroke layes it down upon the earth 6. Consid. A parting time must needs come and why is not this as good as another You knew before hand your child or friend was mortal and that the thred that linked you together must be cut If any one saith Basil had asked you when your child was born What is that which is born What would you have answered Would you not have said it is a man and if a man than a Mortal vanishing thing And why then are you surprized with wonder to see a dying thing dead He saith Seneca who complaines that one is dead complains that he was a man All men are under the same condition to whose share it falls to be born to him it remains to dye We are indeed distinguisht by intervalls but equalized in the Issue It is appointed to all men once to dye Heb. 9. 27. There is a statute Law of heaven in the case Possibly you think this is the worst time for parting that could be had you enjoyed it longer you could have parted easier but how are you deceiv'd in that The longer you had enjoyed it the lother still you would have been to leave it the deeper it would have rooted it self in your affection Had God given you such a priviledge as was once granted to the English Parliament that the union betwixt you and your friend should not be dissolved till you your self were willing it should be dissolved When think you would you have been willing it should be dissolved It s well for us and ours that our times are in Gods hand not in our own And how immature soever it seemed to be when it was cut down yet it came to the grave in a full age as a shock of corn in its season Job 5. 26. They that are in Christ and in the Covenant never dye unseasonably whensoever they dye Saith one upon the Text They dye in a good old age yea though they dye in the spring and flower of youth they dye in a good old age i. e. They are ripe for death when ever they dye When ever the godly dye its harvest time with him though in a natural capacity he be cut down while he is green and cropt in the bud or blossom yet in his spiritual capacity he never dyes before he is ripe God can ripen his speedily he can let out such warm rayes and beams of his spirit upon them as shall soon maturate the seeds of grace into a preparedness for glory It was doubtless the most fit and seasonable time for them that ever they could dye in and as it is a fit time for them so for you also Had it lived longer it might either have engaged you more and so your parting would have been harder or else have puzled and stumbled you more by discovering its natural corruption And then what a stinging aggravation of your sorrow would that have been Surely the Lord of time is the best Judge of time and in nothing do we more discover our folly and rashness then in presuming to fix the times either of our comforts or troubles as to our comforts we never think they can come to soon we would have them presently whether the season be fit or not as Numb 12. 13. Heal her now Lord. O let it be done speedily we are in post hast for our comforts and as for our afflictions we never think they come late enough not at this time Lord rather at any other time than now But it s good to leave the timing both of the one and other to him whose works are all beautiful in their seasons and never doth any thing in an improper time 7. Consid. Call to mind in this day of trouble the Covenant you have made with God and what you solemnly promised him in the day you took him for your God It will be very seasonable and useful for thee Christian at this time to reflect upon those transactions and the frame of thy heart in those dayes when an heavier load of Sorrow prest thy heart than thou now feelest In those your spiritual distresses when the burthen of sin lay heavy the curse of the Law the fear of hell the dread of death and eternity beset thee on every side and shut thee up to Christ the only door of hope Ah what good news wouldst thou then have accounted it to escape that danger with the loss of all earthly comforts Was not this thy cry in those dayes Lord give me Christ and deny me what ever else thou pleasest Pardon my sin save my soul and in order to both unite me with Christ and I will never repine or open my mouth Do what thou wilt with me let me be friendless let me be childless let me be poor let me be any thing rather than a Christless graceless hopeless soul. And when the Lord hearkned to thy cry and shewed thee mercy when he drew thee off from the world into thy closet and there treated with thee in secret when he was working up thy heart to the terms of his Covenant and made thee willing to accept Christ upon his own terms O then how heartily didst thou submit to his yoak as most reasonable and easie as at that time it seemed to thee Call to mind these dayes the secret places where Christ and you made the bargain Have not these words or words to this sense been whispered by thee into his ear with a dropping eye and melting heart
Lord Jesus here am I a poor guilty sinner deeply laden with sin fear and trouble upon one hand and there is a just God a severe Law and everlasting burnings on the other hand but blessed be God O blessed be God for Jesus the Mediator who interposeth betwixt me and it Thou art the only door of hope at which I can escape thy blood the only means of my pardon and salvation Thou hast said Come unto me all ye that Labor and are heavy Laden Thou hast promised that he that cometh to thee shall in no wise be cast out Blessed Jesus thy poor creature cometh to thee upon these encouragements I come O but it is with many staggerings with many doubts and fears of the Issue yet I am willing to come and make a Covenant with thee this day I take thee this day to be my Lord and submit heartily to all thy disposals Do what thou wilt with me or with mine let me be rich or poor any thing or nothing in this world I am willing to be as thou wouldst have me And I do likewise give my self to thee this day to be thine all I am all I have shall be thine thine to serve thee and thine to be disposed at thy pleasure Thou shalt henceforth be my highest Lord my chiefest good my last end Now Christian make good to Christ what thou so solemnly promisedst him He I say He hath disposed of this thy dear Relation as pleased him and is thereby trying thy uprightness in the Covenant which thou madest with him Now where is the satisfaction and content thou promisedst to take in all his disposals Where is that Covenanted submission to his Will Didst thou except this affliction that is come upon thee Didst tell him Lord I will be content thou shalt when thou pleasest take any thing I have save only this Husband this Wife or this dear child I reserve this out of the bargain I shall never endure that thou shouldst kill this comfort If so thou didst in all this but prove thy self an hypocrite If thou wast sincere in thy Covenant as Christ had no reserves on his part so thou hadst none on thine It was all without any exception thou then resignedst to him and now wilt thou go back from thy word as one that had out promised himself and repents the bargain Or at least as one that hath forgotten these solemn transactions in the dayes of thy distress Wherein hath Christ failed in one tittle that he promised thee Charge him if thou canst with the least unfaithfulness He hath been faithful to a tittle on his part O be thou so upon thine this day its put to the proof remember what thou hast promised him 8. Consid. But if thy Covenant with God will not quiet thee yet methinks Gods Covenant with thee might be presumed to do it Is thy family which was lately hopeful and flourishing a peaceful Tabernacle now broken up and scattered Thy posterity from which thou raisedst up to thy self great expectations of comfort in old age cut off So that thou art now like neither to have a name or memorial left thee in the earth Dost thou sit alone and mourn to think whitherto thy hopes and comforts are now come Dost read over these words of Job Chap. 29. 1 2 3 4 5. and comment upon them with many tears O that I were as in months past as in the day when God preserved me when his candle shined upon my head and when by his light I walked through darkness As I was in the dayes of my youth when the secret of God was upon my Tabernacle when the Almighty was yet with me when my children were about me Yet let the Covenant God hath made with thee comfort thee in this thy desolate condition You know what domestick troubles holy David met with in a sad succession not only from the death of children but which was much worse from the wicked lives of his children There was Incest Murder and Rebellion in his Family a far sorer tryal than death in their infancy could have been And yet see how sweetly he relieves himself from the Covenant of grace in 2 Sam. 23. 5. Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and my desire although he make it not to grow I know this place principally refers to Christ who was to spring out of Davids Family according to Gods Covenant made with him in that behalf And yet I doubt not but it hath another though less principal aspect upon his own family over all the afflictions and troubles whereof the Covenant of God with him did abundantly comfort him And as it comforted him although his house did not increase and those that were left were not such as he desired So it may abundantly comfort you also whatever troubles or deaths be upon your families who have an interest in the Covenant For First If you be Gods Covenant people though he may afflict yet he will never forget you Psal. 3. 5. He is ever mindful of his Covenant You are as much upon his heart in your deepest afflictions as in the greatest flourish of your prosperity You find it hard to forget your child though it be now turned to an heap of corruption and loathsome rottenness O how doth your mind run upon it night and day your thoughts tire not upon that object Why surely its much more easie for you to forget your dear child whilst living and most endearing much more when dead and undesireable than it is for your God to forget you Isa. 49. 15. Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion upon the son of her womb Yea they may forget yet will not I forget thee Can a woman the more affectionate sex forget her sucking child her own child and not a nursing child her own child whilst it hangs on the brest and together with the milk from the breast draws love from its mothers heart Can such a thing as this be in nature Possibly it may for creature love is fickle and variable But I will not forget thee it s an everlasting Covenant Secondly As he will never forget you in your troubles so he will order all your troubles for your good It s a well ordered Covenant or a Covenant orderly disposed So that every thing shall work together for your good The Covenant so orders all your tryals ranks and disposes your various troubles so as that they shall in their orders and places sweetly co-operate and joyn their united influences to make you happy Possibly you can't see how the present affliction should be for your good you are ready to say with Jacob Gen. 42. 36. Joseph is not and Simeon is not and ye will take Benjamin away all these things are against me But could you once see how sweetly and orderly all these afflictions