Had it

loveliness, the more self-denial, the more grace. been a thousand times more endearingly sweet than it was, it was not too good to deny for God. If therefore obedience to the will of God do indeed master natural affections, and that you look upon patience and contentment as much more beautiful than the sweetest and most desirable enjoyment on earth, it may turn to you for a testimony of the truth and strength of grace: that you can, like Abraham, part with a child whom you so dearly love in obedience to the will of your God, whom you love infinitely more.

Ans. 2. The loveliness and beauty of our children and relations, though it must be acknowledged a good gift from the hand of God; yet it is but a common gift, and oftentimes becomes a snare, and is, in its own nature, but a transitory, vanishing thing, and therefore no such great aggravation of the loss as is pretended.

I say, it is but a common gift; Eliab, Adonijah, and Absalom, had as lovely presences as any in their generation. Yea, it is not only common to the wicked, with the godly, but to brute animals, as well as men, and to most that excel in it, it becomes a temptation; the souls of some had been more beautiful and lovely, if their bodies had been less so. Besides, it is but a flower which nourishes in its month, and then fades. This therefore should not be reflected on as so great a circumstance to aggravate your trouble.

Ans. 3. But if your relation sleep in Jesus, he will appear ten thousand times more lovely in the morning of the resurrection, than ever he was in the world. What is the exactest, purest beauty of mortals, to the incomparable beauty of the saints in the resurrection? "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun, in the kingdom

of their Father," Matth. xiii. 43. in this hope you part with them, therefore act suitably to your hopes.

Plea 3. Oh! but my child was nipped off by death in the very bud; I did but see, and love and part: Had I enjoyed it longer, and had time to suck out the sweetness of such an enjoyment, I could have borne it easier; but its months or years with me were so few, that they only served to raise an expectation which was quickly, and therefore the more sadly disappointed.

Ans. 1. Did your friend die young, or was the bond of any other relation dissolved almost as soon as made? Let not this seem so intolerate a load for you; for if you have ground to hope they died in Christ, then they lived long enough in this world. It is truly said, he hath sailed long enough, that hath won the harbor; he hath fought long enough that hath obtained the victory; he hath run long enough that hath touched the goal; and he hath lived long enough upon earth, that hath won heaven, be his days here never so few.

Ans. 2. The sooner your relation died, the less sin hath been committed, and the less sorrow felt: What can you see in this word but sin or sorrow? A quick passage through it to glory, is a special privilege. Surely the world is not so desirable a place, that Christians should desire an hour's time longer in it for themselves, or theirs, than serves to fit them for a better.

Ans. 3. And whereas you imagine the parting would have been easier, if the enjoyment had been longer, it is a fond and groundless suspicion: The longer you had enjoyed them, the stronger would the endearments have been. A young and tender plant, may be easily drawn up by a single hand; but when it hath spread, and fixed its root many years in the earth, it will require many a

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strong blow, and hard tug to root it up. Affections, like those under ground roots, are fixed and strengthened by nothing more than constant and long possession it is much easier parting now, than it would be hereafter, whatever you think. However, this should satisfy you, that God's time is the best time.

Plea 4. O but I have lost all in one, it is my only one, I have none left in its room to repair the breach, and make up the loss: If God had given me other children to take comfort in, the loss had not been so great; but to lose all at one stroke, is insupportable.

Ans. 1. Religion allows not unto Christirns a liberty of expressing the death of their dear relations by so hard a word as the loss of them is; they are not lost, but sent before you. And it is a shameful thing for a Christian to be reproved for such an uncomely expression by a heathen; it is enough to make us blush to read what a heathen said in this case, 'Never say thou hast lost any thing (saith Epictetus) but that it is returned. Is thy son dead? He is only restored. Is thy inheritance taken from thee! it is also returned.' And a while after he adds, 'Let every thing be as the gods would have it.'

Ans. 2. It is no fit expression to say you have lost all in one, except that one be Christ; and he being once yours, can never be lost. Doubtless your meaning is, you have lost all your comfort of that kind; and what though you have? Are there not multitudes of comforts yet remaining, of a higher kind, and more precious and durable nature?

Ans. 3. You too much imitate the way of the world in this complaint; they know not how to repair the loss of one comfort but by another of the same nature, which must be put in its room to fill up the vacancy: But have

you no other way to supply your loss? Have you not a God to fill the place of any creature that leaves you? Surely this would better become a man whose portion is in this life, than one that professes God is his all in all.

Plea 5. O but my only one is not only taken away, but there remains no expectation, or probability of any more. I must now look upon myself as a dry tree, never to take comfort in children any more, which is a cutting thought.

Ans. 1. Suppose what you say, that you have no hope, nor expectation of another child remaining to you; yet if you have a hope of better things than children, you have no reason to be cast down: Bless God for higher and better hopes than these. The Lord comforts them that have no expectations of sons or daughters, with this; "That he will give unto them in his house, and within his wall, a place, and a name better than of sons or daughters; even an everlasting name that shall not be cut off." There are better mercies and higher hopes than these; though your hopes of children, or from children, should be cut off, yet if your eternal hopes are secure, and such as shall not make you ashamed, you should not be so cast down.

Ans. 2. If God will not have your comforts to lie any more in children, then resolve to place them in himself, and you shall never find cause to complain of loss by such an exchange: You will find that in God, which is not to be had in the creature; one hour's communion with him, shall give you that which the happiest parent never yet had from his children; you will exchange brass for gold, perishing vanity for solid and abiding excellency.

Plea 6. But the suddenness of the stroke is amazing, God gave little or no warning to prepare for this trial: Death executed its commission as soon as it opened it. My dear husband, wife, or child, was snatched unex

pectedly out of my arms, by a surprising stroke; and this makes my stroke heavier than my complaint.

Ans. 1. That the death of your relation was so sudden and surprising, was much your own fault, you ought to have lived in the daily sense of its vanity, and expectation of your separation from it; you knew it to be a dying comfort in its best estate, and it is no such wonderful thing to see that dead, which you knew before to be dying: Besides, you heard the changes ringing about you in other families; you frequently saw other parents, husbands, and wives carrying forth their dead; and what were all these but warnings given you to prepare for the like trials?

Ans. 2. There is much difference betwixt the sudden deaths of infants, and that of grown persons; the latter may have much work to do; many sins actually to repent of, and many evidences of their interest in Christ to examine and clear, in order to their more comfortable death; and so sudden death may be deprecated by them.

But in the case of infants, who exercise not their reason, it is far different; they have no such work to do, but are purely passive: All that is done in order to their salvation, is done by God immediately upon them, so it comes all to one, whether their death be more quick, or more slow.

Ans. 3. You complain of the suddenness of the stroke; but another will be ready to say, had my friend died in that manner, my affliction had been nothing to what now it is; I have seen many deaths contrived into one; I saw the gradual approaches of it upon my dear relation, who felt every thread of death as it came on towards him.

That which you reckon the sting of your affliction, others would have reckoned a favor and privilege. How many tender parents, and other relations, who loved their friends as dearly as yourselves, have been forced to their