friendship advis'd him to and when all those little arts and ignoble devices of entertaining him in his Palace and at his Table and making him drunk would not bring Vriah to his purpose then how basely and unworthily does he plot and contrive his Murder by giving Orders to his General to set him in the most dangerous place in the Front of the Battel which poor Innocent Vriah might possibly take for an Honour and interpret it an Argument and esteem of his greater Courage when in truth he was onely plac'd there as a mark to be shot at and to fall a Sacrifice to his Sovereigns Lust Which accordingly hapned Vriah being slain upon the spot and dying in that station where it was not likely he should live And when David had thus secretly in his heart designed Vriahs Death yet when news was brought to him that Vriah was dead he cunningly and slily pretends to look upon it as no other than a Casualty the misfortune of War saying with himself that such chances will come and bid the Messenger tell Joab that there was no reason why he should be troubled or concern'd at the Death of Vriah for there was no saving any mans life in Battel none could be priviledg'd from Death in Warlike Encounters and that the Arrows or Bullets made no distinction and that all are alike liable to destruction and that Vriah might as well fall and be slain as any other in the Army which is the sence of those very words which David caus'd to be return'd to Joab in the 25. ver of the foregoing Chapter Then David said unto the Messenger Thus shalt thou say unto Joab Let not this thing displease thee For the Sword devoureth one as well as another And lastly When David had thus dispatcht and caus'd the Innocent Husband to be made away he then takes the guilty Wife into his possession and marries her and expects to live many happy and pleasant days in mutual endearments But though David thought that the marrying her would legitimate their love and take off the old scandal of their former Embraces yet it was an act highly offensive to God and is so exprest in the last v. of the Chapter And when the mourning was past David sent and fet her to his House and she became his Wife and bare him a Son but the thing which David had done displeased the Lord. But then notwithstanding that David had committed those two horid sins of Adultery and Murder yet he had not any true sense and feeling of his guilt nor that remorse of Conscience which he should have had for sins of that Crimson die but he rubs on a considerable time without any regret or sign of repentance which insensibility and hardness of heart we may justly ascribe to his living in ease and enjoying the Charms of Bathsheba's Beauty which at first inticed him to sin and afterwards made him forget it whilst his Soul was steep'd in pleasure and triumphing in the injoyment of his new Spouse But whilst David was in his Nuptial jollity and swallowed up in fond Caresses and doting upon that Beauty which had formerly bewitcht him God stirs up his Prophet Nathan to give him some check and interruption in his solaces by propounding something that might bring his late horrid sins to his remembrance And accordingly the Prophet does his office and propounds to him the Parable of the poor man with his little Ewe-Lamb How that this was his only Companion his only Darling his Bosom Friend that he had nothing else to love and delight in nor that he could call his own but this one poor Innocent Creature and yet there was a rich man which had a numerous Flock and enough to make a Feast for any Friend or Stranger whatsoever and yet was guilty of so much incivility and injustice as to take away this single Lamb from a poor man with a pretence that he needed it to make an Entertainment which he might have done without the least wrong or detriment to himself as having such a number of his own and so many which he might well have spar'd Which Parable was no sooner propounded to David but he resents the Act with a great deal of indignation and delivers his opinion against him that should do such a fact as an unpardonable offender and that he was guilty of such a high piece of injustice that he was not fit to live For him that had enough of his own and yet to invade the right and property of a poor man and to rob him of his little All was in Davids Judgment an unsufferable wrong and injury and that he that did it deserv'd nothing less than Death for so are the words in the fifth ver of this Chapter And Davids anger was greatly kindled against the man And he said to Nathan As the Lord liveth the man that hath done this thing shall surely die And he shall restore the Lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity So just and severe was David in condemning the robbing of a poor man and taking away the small substance he had But then when the Prophet took upon him to make a nearer Representation of the case and to bring it home to himself and point-blank to charge him with the like injustice which he had so severely condemned in another saying Thou art the man We must needs think that David was much startled when the guilt recoil'd upon himself and that his own Conscience made the rebound But then when it was brought so close to him that there was no avoiding his own self-Condemnation David presently makes an ingenuous Confession saying I have sinned against the Lord. And such we may observe are the mercies of God that his pardon follows immediately upon his Confession And Nathan said unto David The Lord hath also put away thy sin thou shalt not die in the 13. v. Howbeit in the next v. says the Prophet Because thou hast by this deed given great occasion to the Enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the Child also that is born unto thee shall surely dy Where we may observe that although God was pleased to grant him the greatest pardon of his life yet he does not give him a general pardon from other Punishments but assures him at the same time that he granted him his life that he should have such a punishment wherein he might read the nature and deserts of his sins The Child that is born unto thee shall surely die From whence it may not be unuseful to observe that God is pleased sometimes to lay the Punishment due to the Parents sin upon their Children and so here David had sinned and the Child must die for it which may be of great use and moment to make people more wary and deliberate how they enter into the Holy State of Matrimony For though it be a Divine Institution and ordained of God in Paradise and the State of Mans Innocency
has perform'd greater Cures and greater Recoveries and done greater wonders than all the Elixirs or Proprietates or Nostrums of the most skilful and renown'd Physicians It was Prayer that restored Hezekiah from a dangerous sickness and prolong'd his Days it was Prayer which supported David under all his troubles and gave him ease in his greatest extremities it was Prayer that opened the eyes of the blind and ejected the Devils and did the most glorious things to all Admiration and therefore we must apply our selves to God and depend upon our Prayers as the most proper and specifick remedy in afflictions We must be fervent and frequent and importunate in Prayers to God on the behalf of our Friends and Relations and who can tell whether God will be gracious to us that our Friends may live But then may some reply and say it was in vain for David to use Prayer or any other means it was to no purpose for him to expect the recovery of his Child or that God should answer him though he pray'd never so much For he knew that God had decreed the Death of his Child and told him in as plain words as could be by his Prophet that the Child should surely die and why then should David flatter himself so as to imagine that he could do the Child any good by his Prayers or prevail with God for his Recovery Why should he use that dubious Language as who can tell 't is possible or it may be that the Lord will be gracious to me that the Child may live Why should he stand doubting or supposing a possibility of a thing when God had positively declared the contrary To which I Answer That God declared by his Prophet Jonah the destruction of the Ninevites and prefixt the time to just forty days and this was declared with as great positiveness as the Death of Davids Child by the Prophet Nathan and the Prophet Jonah try'd and said Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown in the 3. of Jonah and 4. v. and yet after the delivery and promulgation of this sentence the Ninevites did not despond or utterly despair of Gods mercy but fell to repentance and humbling themselves and put the success to the same venture that David did and much in the same Language saying in the 9. v. Who can tell if God will return and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not And what was the Issue of their Repentance and Humiliation and using the best means they could to divert Gods Judgments Why the Issue was that by their Repentance they stav'd off the judgment and put it back as we may see in the 10. and last ver And God saw their works that they turned from their evil ways and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them and did it not And so in the 20. Ch. of the 2. of Kings God ordered the Prophet Isaiah to go and carry to Hezekiah the same message of Death and to acquaint him that he must expect no other than Death Thus saith the Lord Set thine House in order for thou shalt die and not live Could any thing be more absolute and positive than these words and yet Hezekiah instead of melancholizing himself with the thoughts of Death or expecting it every hour turned his face to the Wall and prayed unto the Lord saying I beseech thee O Lord remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight and Hezekiah wept sore in the 3. ver And what good will you say could Hezekiah's praying and weeping and appealing to the Righteousness of his life do him Could that or any thing else save him and prevent his dying when God had so solemnly Decreed yes truly his Prayer and Repentance did him so much good as to prevail with God to grant him a longer Lease of his life and ordered the same Prophet that had just now told him of his Death to return forthwith and acquaint him also that he had reverst the fatal sentence Turn again and tell Hezekiah the Captain of my people Thus saith the Lord the God of David thy Father I have heard thy Prayer I have seen thy tears behold I will heal thee on the third day thou shalt go up unto the House of the Lord. And I will add unto thy days fifteen years What then shall we say that there is any change in the Divine Decrees or any inconstancy in God or that he is worse than his word when he thus positively denounces judgment and yet suspends it God forbid says the Apostle yea let God be true but every man a lyar as it is written that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings And therefore for the clearing of God from all imputation of falshood or mutability in these instances of his judgments denounced against sinners without any actual execution we are to understand that those threatnings of God in Scripture which run in an absolute form have a condition imply'd that is Nineveh shall be destroyed and Hezekiah shall die except they repent So that God does still reserve a power of revocation and puts in a conditional clause of repentance which though it be not exprest yet is always to be understood and therefore where Gods threatnings of death and destruction seem most peremptory and final we are yet to attempt the diverting and preventing them by our Prayers and repentance we are to use the means and as we say leave the success to God For who knows but the Lord may be gracious But if God will not hear our Prayers nor accept our Repentance as he did neither in the present Case of Davids Child yet we are to use the most proper means and to try all the ways imaginable to pacify Gods anger and to appease his wrath and still to go on praying and repenting as David did We are not to despond of mercy or to despair of success but at the very last push and the utmost extremity of affliction to say who can tell but the Lord will be gracious And thus I have delivered to you the just reasons why David mourn'd so exceedingly for his Child when it lay upon a Bed of sickness and languishing As first considering that his own sin was the chief and declared cause of his Child 's grievous and desperate sickness and secondly upon the account of that natural affection which is in all Parents toward their Children which moves their bowels to pity and bewail them when they are in misery and distress But then the great wonder is that the Father which was so much concern'd and deeply immerst in sorrow for the sickness of his Child should give over mourning upon the death and loss of it that his sorrow should expire and be at an end as soon as the Child was departed and had given up the Ghost But now he is dead why
and Valley of tears but has given us liberty to vent our sorrows and ease the inward griefs of our mind in a reasonable measure according to the proportions of humanity and so far as is consistent with and not contradictory to our Christian hope and therefore as to grieve immoderately is unlike a Christian so not to grieve at all is unlike a man so that Davids sorrowing for his Child when he saw it in pain and anguish was but a reasonable passion becoming him as a man in sympathizing with the sufferings of humane nature and much more becoming him as he stood in the relation of a Father whose Bowels if he had any must needs move and yearn over a sick and languishing Child And therefore it was no such real matter of wonder as the Spectators of Davids sorrows thought it to see him involv'd in tears and making his Bed on the ground and acting the part of a true Mourner whilst his Child was alive for he saw it restless and tumbling up and down for ease and could find none he saw it in great pain and anguish and that there was no helping of it he saw that Physicians were of no value and all they could do could do no good he saw the Child lie panting and heaving and bemoaning it self with sighs and groans that were unutterable he saw it in sore conflicts and strugling for life and in the pangs and Agonies of Death and how could a Father forbear weeping and making great Lamentations over a Child in such a deplorable and sad condition He saw also the Mother wringing of her hands and beating her Breast and with floods of tears running down her Cheeks and crying out What shall I do for my Child Lord spare my Child Lord be merciful to my Child He saw likewise the Attendants that stood about not well able to endure the room for the hollow sighs and sobs and the piercing groans of a Child that was drawing on and breathing out its last And lastly he saw the servants of his House very much clouded and hanging down and going mourning and heavily quis talia fando temperet à lachrymis Who can possibly forbear weeping almost at the rehearsal of such a large scene of sorrows How could a Father restrain his tears when he beheld his own flesh and blood and Bone of his Bone to be in such great affliction How could he endure to see his own Bowels torn from him without a deep and sorrowful resentment How could he look upon a Child an Innocent Child rowling about in so much pain and torment without being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heavy and sorrowful even to Death Would it not melt a heart of stone and draw tears from a marble to behold such a spectacle of pain and misery And therefore Davids taking on so heavily for his Child in the time of its sickness was very reasonable and justifiable too forasmuch as tears are the natural tribute which we pay to the sufferings of Mankind and much more do we owe them to our Friends and Relations and our dear Children and such as are part of our selves But then if David was such a man of sorrows and took on so grievously for his Child in the time of its sickness and whilst it was yet alive surely we may expect to find him in a desperate condition and ready to sink into the Grave with it when he heard of its departure Certainly he that was so much troubled to see his Child in pain must be in the greatest Agonies of sorrow when he hears it is dead He that could not endure to see it in misery how will he bear the loss of it He that was ready to kill himself with grief for his Child when he was sick surely cannot live when he is dead and gone and past all recovery This was that indeed which his Servants and all that were about him expected They supposed seeing their Master had laid the sickness of the Child so much to heart that he would be in strange confusions and refuse to be comforted when he heard of its Death But there was no such thing the Scene is much altered and chang'd and the expectation of his servants is much deceived for instead of extream mourning for the Child when it was dead he begins to revive and take heart and falls to his meat and takes those refreshments which he had lately refus'd Which action and carriage of David shew'd very strange and a wonder to his Servants in the 21. v. But he presently removes the wonder and tells them the reason why he mourn'd no longer but rather rejoyced at the news of the Childs Death And he said While the Child was yet alive I fasted and wept for I said Who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the Child may live but now he is dead wherefore should I fast can I bring him back again I shall go to him but he shall not return to me In which expressions David does signify and declare the reasons why his carriage upon the Death of his Child differ'd so much from what it was when it was sick and yet alive For I said who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the Child may live that is though the Child be desperately ill and past all hopes as to outward appearance yet who knows but God may hear my Prayers for him if they be made with true fervour and devotion with zeal and integrity Who can tell but upon my humble Petition and earnest Intercession for the Child God may spare him to me and give a further grant of his life and recal the black Sentence and Warrant for his Death if there be such a due application made to him For whilst there is life there is hopes and there is mercy always with God that he may be feared and supplicated unto and therefore it may be expedient and useful to continue my Prayers and to proceed in my penitential sorrows And thus did David argue the reasonableness of his sorrowing and humbling himself before God for the Child whilst it was yet alive And truly it would be an excellent and laudable thing in all Parents to follow this Example of David so as to betake themselves to Prayer and to use the deepest humiliation when their Relations and Children happen to be under the rod and hand of an afflicting Providence for there is no such effectual means for their recovery as a hearty and sincere Prayer For the effectual fervent Prayer of the righteous availeth much saith St. James in the 5. c. and 16. v. There is more vertue and efficacy in Prayer than we are ready to believe and they have a more soveraign power to cure all maladies than the best prescriptions This is the Panaceavera and the great Catholicon surpassing all those of humane Art and Invention which some have so vainly boasted to find out Prayer is the Universal Remedy and
appropriate to the future state would be the same fondness as to attempt to illustrate a Star with my Finger But yet for our great comfort and incouragement at present the Scripture gives us this plain notice and information of a glorious transformation as to our vile and terrestrial part How that then our vile Bodies shall be chang'd and made like unto Christs glorious Body that this mortal shall put on immortality and this corruptible incorruption How then can we that have this Hope faint in our mind or so much as shed a tear at the departure of our Friends out of this miserable Life seeing it will be so much for their advantage so very much for their preferment to leave us For they that are accounted worthy to obtain that World and the Resurrection from the Dead shall strangely exceed themselves and surpass all the excellencies of humane Nature at present and be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to the Angels and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bear the Image and Form of Christ himself And this equality to Angels and likeness to Christ is no more than what we have sure and certain grounds to hope for from the plain and positive words of Scripture and therefore we seem either not to believe or else to envy the happiness of those that depart this Life when we are in such extream Agonies of sorrow for their removal from us Wherefore let this Hope be always our support and comfort that Death is a certain advantage to our Friends that have so lived as to die the Death of the Righteous and that they are freed from the least touch or feeling of those sicknesses and pains and Diseases and Imperfections and from those toils and hardships which this mortal frail condition exposes us unto And having this Hope and belief of a better life hereafter Let us rather bless God for delivering our dearest Friends from this present evil World and taking them away from the evil to come Let us I say bless God for doing that singular favour to our Friends whom we lov'd so well as to translate them to Glory and Happiness before us and in giving them such an early possession of that Crown of Life which we all so much strive and pray to attain rather than repine at Gods Providence in not letting them stay any longer with us in this Valley of Tears Let us look upon Death rather as a mercy than a Judgment to our Friends which die in the Lord for they shall rest from their Labours and have all Tears wip't away from their Eyes and shall never know the meaning of a sorrow or trouble any more in a word Let us look upon Death as a Friend rather than an Enemy to our Relations which puts a period to the days of their Pilgrimage which are but few and evil at the best and esteem it a blessed change which is the term of their Bondage the end of their Cares the conclusion of their Sorrows and the beginning of endless Happiness and which passes them through the Gates of Death to the Kingdom of Glory FINIS * Deinde plus me habiturum autoritatis non dubitabam ad excitandum te si prius ipse consurrexissem Seneca ad Helviam * At filium unicum Q. Fabius praeterea Consularem qui jam magnas res gesserat majores cogitabat amisit neque solum non doluit quod fortissimus animus fuit sed etiam mortuo laudationem in foro dixit c. * Non enim vereor quin si minus in ipso Doloris aestu remediis utendum Homines censeant certè cùm modicè Dolor resederit ac se paulùm quasi remittere coeperit ad exstinguendas Doloris reliquias monita praeceptaque nostra adhibeantur Cicero de Consolatione Dolori tuo dum recens saeviret sciebam occurrendum non esse ne illum ipsa solatia irritarent accenderent Nam in morbis quoque nihil est magis periculosum nec perniciosum quà m immatura Medicina Seneca ad Helviam * Ita non est quod nos suspiciamus tanquam inter nostra positi mutuo accepimus Vsus fructus noster est cujus tempus ille arbiter muneris sui temperat Nos oportet in promptu habere quae in incertum diem data sunt appellatos sine querela reddere Pessimi est Debitoris Creditoris facere convitium Omnes ergo nostros quos superstites lege nascendi optamus quos praecedere justissimum ipsorum votum est sic amare debemus tanquam nihil nobis de perpetuitate immo nihil de diuturnitate eorum promissum est Sen. cap. x. ad Man
Immoderate MOURNING FOR THE DEAD Prov'd Unreasonable and Unchristian OR Some Considerations of general use to allay our sorrow for Deceased Friends and Relations But more especially intended for Comfort to PARENTS upon the Death of their CHILDREN By JOHN OWEN Chaplain to the Right Honourable Henry Lord Grey of Ruthen 2 Cor. 6. 8. As sorrowful yet always rejoycing Detestandae sunt illae lachrymae plenae Sacrilegio Infidelitate plenissimae quae non habent modum Hieron Epist ad Paulam LONDON Printed by J. Macock for John Williams at the Crown in S t Paul's Church-Yard 1680. To the Excellent and Virtuous Lady the LADY JANE MUSTERS of the Parish of Harnsey in the County of Middlesex MADAM WHen I first heard of the Death of your Dear Child and only Son I much deplored your Loss and was greatly concern'd to think how you would bear it as considering that your affections towards him were exceeding great and surpassing the common and ordinary Love of Women and that your Heart was set so much upon him that your Life seem'd to be wrapt up in his so that he could hardly die but his Death must go near to kill you too I knew indeed your Prudence and Religion to be very great yet I much feared that upon so severe a tryal your Passion might get the start of your Reason and so far over come it as to prove a great prejudice to all wise Considerations And as I feared so I was credibly inform'd by some that were Spectators of your sorrows that you laid the Death of your Son so much to Heart and was so deeply ingulph'd in sorrows that like Rachel you refused to be comforted And the truth is you had a singular loss and therefore might very well be afforded some grains of allowance in sorrowing more than ordinary for the loss of your only Son the most intense sorrow being described and represented in Scripture by Mourning as for an only Son And therefore when I understood that you took on so heavily and continued mourning and afflicting your self at such a great rate I thought it my duty to do my best endeavours as having received so many Obligations from your Family to support part of the foundation when it was sinking with the weight of overmuch sorrow And whilst I was studying for some Counsels that might be proper for one in your case it was my misfortune to meet with the like sad Providence in the death of one of my own Children which made me more sensible of the greatness of your loss who was bereav'd of your only Child so that I had now a new work to do which was to master my own Grief and to keep those sorrows within compass which naturally arise upon the loss of our nearest and dearest Relations whereupon immediately I consulted not with flesh and blood which I knew would lean more to the side of Passion than Reason but begg'd of God that he would endue me with wisdom from above and that whilst I shewed the resentments of a man I might behave my self like a Christian and not sorrow like others without hope And being by the Divine Assistance supply'd with the Considerations in the following Discourse which wrought effectually upon me towards the mitigating of my sorrows I thought that the same remedy which I found from them might very rationally be propounded to another and probably work the same Cure upon your Ladyship which they had done upon my self And so Cicero relates of himself that being in great affliction for the loss of his Dear Daughter Tullia he was forc'd to fly to the Precepts and Arguments of some famous Philosophers for comfort and relief and to propound to himself the Examples of some Eminent Persons who had behaved themselves with great temper and moderation under the like sorrowful circumstances And notwithstanding all the wise Precepts brave Examples of others he found it so hard to be reconciled to Providence and to conquer his Grief for the loss of such an Excellent and Virtuous Daughter that he was fain to set upon writing his Book of Consolation on purpose to divert his Melancholy and to beguile the tediousness of his Sorrows And praised be God I have had the happiness to find the same benefit by Consideration which Cicero did And hope that having experimented the benefit of my own Counsels I may be better qualifi'd to win both upon your Ladyships Reason and Judgment Indeed your Ladyship has had somewhat the greater tryal as losing a Son and an only Son Quid enim utilius filio quid jucundius unico Sayes Cicero de Consolatione What is more comfortable and useful than a Son and what is more pleasant and dearer to us than an only Son And yet he tells us of Q. Fabius who lost his only Son one that was in a place of great Dignity and Honour in the Common-wealth and had got a great reputation by doing brave and excellent things and would have been more famous if he had liv'd That he was so well reconcil'd to the Death of his only Son and bore it so bravely that he stood up and made a large speech and a very trim solid and even Oration in Commendation of his Son and recited his great Vertues without lamenting his Death And he makes further mention of one Q. Martius a King who lost his only Son and Heir Apparent to the Crown and of many others as Xenophon Cassius Pericles who had the misfortune to bury and lose their Sons when they were come to be men and were persons of great worth of singular prudence and piety and of a growing fame and reputation in the World who carried it with great prudence and moderation and shewed themselves great Masters of their Passion upon these sad occasions But perhaps these Examples of a Masculine patience may seem not to suit with the softness of your Ladyships temper nor agreeable to the natural tenderness of your Sex Men being always accounted the more hardy and invulnerable and less liable to the impressions of sorrow than Women whose very constitution does give a lift and advantage to their Passions for being the weaker Vessels they cannot so well contain their resentments and support their spirits in affliction as those that are stronger And although the Poets feign that Niobe was turn'd into a Statue because of her weeping so stifly for the death and slaughter of her Children yet they make no mention of her Husband Amphion that the he was any ways concern'd at loss of them And therefore some instances of the like patience and moderation in some of your own Sex are more likely to prevail with your Ladyship and to excite you to their imitation I crave leave therefore to produce the same Examples which Seneca did to Marcia upon the very same account Now the Examples which he produces are Octavia and Livia Each of which had the misfortune to lose a Son and they were a pair of
the title to and interest in them but reserves to himself a power of Revocation so as that he may demand them back at pleasure he only gives us the use and comfort of them for a time but never parts with the propriety or resigns up all his claim to them And besides we should consider that although God does put those Children into our power and under our jurisdiction which he is pleas'd to give us yet that Parents have not that absolute power over their Children that God has nor are they wholly at their disposal as to the great Issues of Life and Death which are only in Gods Hands And therefore though we may look upon our Children as our own as being flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone though we may appropriate them to our selves and reckon we have the best title to them of all our Possessions yet still God retains the supream right and has the first and oldest title to them and we are only deputed by God to be the Overseers and Guardians of our Children and therefore as God is pleased to commit our Children to our care for some time yet when he does not like they should be any longer under our tuition he does in mercy and kindness to them take them away when he sees it not good for them to continue with us he then to shew his Authority removes them from us and calls them home And therefore Parents would do well to consider that God has more right to their Children than themselves and that they are absolutely at his disposal but not at theirs that they have not that power of Life and Death over their Children which God has And therefore Parents have no reason to be in that Hurricane and storm of Passion upon the loss of their Children unless they are troubled that God should have his will more than they have theirs unless they are grieved that God should take upon him to dispose of their Children without their consent and liking which argues a great impiety of mind as if they thought that God was either unjust in taking away the Children from their right Owners or unmerciful in not sparing of their lives which was a greater comfort to them than all other enjoyments whereas it would be much better and tend to hush and silence all the sorrows of Parents for the loss of their Children to consider that they are but under-Proprietors of their Children and that they came first from God before they came to them and that as God is the donour of them so he may well be allow'd the disposal of them whether for Life or Death And besides it should be consider'd that Gods will is and ought to be supream and Master of ours and that we should patiently leave them to Gods will and pleasure when he does not think fit to leave them to ours It was an excellent saying and submissive speech of Jobs ch 1. 21. who when God was pleased to bereave him of all his Children by violent and unnatural Deaths and of all his Worldly goods too yet submitted to his great misfortunes with an invincible patience and mildness saying Naked came I out of my Mothers Womb and naked shall I return thither the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away Blessed be the name of the Lord. Here is an Example beyond Example of Patience and quiet submission to the will of God in one of the greatest and severest trials imaginable here indeed is an Example fit for our imitation and should be drawn into practice upon the like occasion And it would highly become Parents and others and indeed is the duty of all to lay themselves at the will of God and with all humble Prostrations resign up their wills to his and to resign up their Children and Relations freely to him who first gave them freely to them And to say in like manner with Job God has indeed blessed us with Children but has not thought fit to continue them to us and though we could have been well content to have enjoy'd them if God had so pleas'd yet we are content to want them being he has thought it better both for them and for us to take them away The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away Blessed be the name of the Lord. Seneca will teach us otherwise in words to this purpose that we ought not to reckon all that we enjoy our own or to look upon our Children as a sure Inheritance and entailed upon us but consider that they are of the same uncertain hold and tenure as other outward blessings are that they are given us but for an uncertain time and that we must not promise to our selves any long or certain enjoyment of them if we are allow'd the use and benefit and comfort of our Children for a time 't is not fitting that we should mutter or think much to part with them when God demands his own and requires back what he only committed to us by way of lone but rather be in a readiness to part with our Children and all other blessings when God will not trust us with them any longer Having thus shew'd upon what considerations David might well cease sorrowing for his dead Child and which may be of excellent use and service to support and comfort others under the like losses and to prevent all excessive mourning for the Death of their Friends and Relations especially when they die young I shall now winde up the whole Discourse with a word or two First By way of Reproof Secondly By way of Exhortation First By way of Reproof to all those that are apt to quarrel with Providence and to entertain hard thoughts of God as if he were either unjust or unmerciful when he takes away their nearest and dearest Relations from them and do often in the bitterness of their Souls and the great anguish of their spirits charge God foolishly and speak unadvisedly with their lips and think they do well like Jonah to fret against the Almighty in that he deals with them after such a manner and will not suffer them to enjoy the desire of their Eyes and the joy of their Hearts so long as they wish and desire They assert with a great deal of sorrow that their Soul was wrapt up in the life of such and such a Child that it was an Absolom for its Beauty and a Solomon for its Wisdom and a Moses for its meekness and good nature that it was very pregnant and a great Wit and gave great and lively Specimens of future Vertue and Wisdom and therefore for God to deprive them of a Child that had naturally such Charms and whose vertuous temper and disposition did presage so much comfort to themselves and so great a benefit to the World must needs make deep and melancholy impressions upon their Spirits and put them into an extream Passion And thus Parents and others are apt to clamour against and censure the