If they obtain God's blessing upon them in their operation, surely they will have your blessing too at their valediction. And what you entertained with fear, you will dismiss with praise. How sweet is it to hear the afflicted soul say, when God is loosing his hands, " It is " good for me that I have been afflicted."
Thirdly^ I heartily wish that these searching afflictions may make the more satisfying discoveries ; that you may now see more of the
606 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
evil of sin, the vanity of the creature, and the fulness of Christ, than ever you yet saw. Afflictions are searchers, and put the soul upon searching and trying its ways. Lam. iii. 14. When our sin finds us out by affliction, happy are we, if, by the light of affliction we find out sin. Blessed is the man whom God chasteneth, and teacheth out of his law, Psal. xciv. 12. There are unseen causes, many times, of our troubles ; you have an advantage now to sift out the seeds and principles from which they spring.
Fourthly, I wish that all the love and delight you bestowed on youv little one, may now be placed, to jour greater advantage, upon Jesus Christ ; and that the stream of your affection to him may be so much the stronger, as there are now fewer channels for it to be di- vided into. If God will not have any part of your happiness to lie in children, then let it wholly lie in himself. If tlie jealousy of the Lord hath removed that which drew away too much of your heart from him, and hath spoken by this rod, saying. Stand aside, child, thou art in my way, and fillest more room in thy parentis hearts than be- longs to thee : O then deliver up all to him, and say. Lord, take the whole heart entirely, and undividedly to thyself. Henceforth let there be no parting, sharing, or dividing of the affections betwixt God and the creature, let all the strearns meet, and centre in thee only.
F'lf'tJdij^ That you may be strengthened with all might in the inner man to all patience, that the peace of God may keep your hearty and minds, labour to bring your hearts to a meek submission to the rod of your Father. We had fathers of the flesh who corrected us, and we gave them reverence ; shall we not much more be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live ? Is it com.ely for chil- dren to contest and strive with their father ? Or is it the way to be freed from the yoke by struggling under it ? O that your hearts might be in a like frame with his that said, Lord, thou shalt beat, and I will bear. It was a good observation that one made, Anima sedendo (f quiescendo Jit sapiens ; The soul grows wise by sitting still and quiet under the rod. And the apostle calls those excellent fruits "which the saints gather from their sanctified afflictions, Tlie peace- ahle fruits of righteousness, Heb. xii. 11.
Lastly, My heart's desire and prayer to God for you, is, that you may die daily to all visible emjoyments, and by these frequent con- verses with death in your family, you may be prepared for your own change and dissolution, when it shall come.
O friends ! how many graves have you and I seen opened for our dear relations ? How oft hath death come up into your windows, and summoned the delight of your eyes .'' It is but a little while, and we shall go to them ; Me and they are distinguished but by short intervals.
Transivere patres, simid hinc transihimus omnes.
Our dear parents are gone, our lovely and desirable children are
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gone, our bosom relations, that were as our own souls, are gone ; and do not all these warning-knocks at our doors acquaint us, that we must prepare to follow shortly after them ?
O that by these things our own death might be both more easy and familiar to us ; the oftener it visits us, the better we should be acquainted with it ; and the more of our beloved relations it removes before us, the less of either snare or intanglement remains for us ti^hen our turn comes.
My dear friends, my flesh and my blood, I beseech you, for re- ligion"'s sake, for your own sake, and for my sake, whose comfort is in great part bound up in your prosperity and welfare, that you read frequently, ponder seriously, and apply believingly these scripture consolations and directions, which, in some haste, I have gathered for your use ; and the God of all consolation be with .you.
Your most endeared Brother,
And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said to
O be above the stroke of passion, is a condition equal to angels: to be in a state of sorrow without the sense of sorrow, is a disposi- tion beneath beasts : but duly to regulate our sorrows, and bound our passions under the rod, is the wisdom, duty, and excellency of a Christian. He that is without natural affections, is deservedly ranked amongst the worst of heathens ; and he that is able rightly to manage them, deserves to be numbered with the b&st of Christians. Though when we are sanctified we put on the Divine nature, yet, till we are glorified, we put not off the infirmities of our human nature.
Whilst we are within the reach of troubles, we cannot be without the danger, nor ought not to be without the fear of sin ; and it is as liard for us to escape sin, being in adversity, as becalming in prosperity.
How apt are we to transgress the bounds, both of reason and reli- gion, under a sharp affliction, appears, as in most men's experience, s«
608 A TOKEN FOR MOUllNERS.
in this woman's example, to whose excessive sorrow Christ puts a stop in the text : " lie saw her, and had compassion on her, and ^ said to her, " AVeep not."
The lamentations and wailings of this distressed mother, moved the tender compassions of the Lord in beholding them, and stirred up more pity in his heart for her, than could be in her heart lor her dear and only son.
In the words we are to consider both the condition of the woman^ and the counsel of Christ with respect unto it.
First, The condition of this woman, which appears to be very dolorous and distressed ; her groans and tears moved and melted the very heart of Christ to hear and behold them : " When he saw '* her, he had compassion on her.''"'
How sad an hour it was with her, when Christ met her, appears by what is so distinctly remarked by the evangelist, ver. 12. where it is said, " Now when they came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, *' there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and '' she was a widow, and much people of the city was with her."
In this one verse, divers heart-piercing circumstances of this affliction are noted.
First, It was the death of a son *. To bury a child, any child, must needs rend the heart of a tender parent ; for what are children but the parent multiplied ? A child is a part of the parent made up in another skin : But to lay a son in the grave, a son who continues the name, and supports the family ; this was ever accounted a very great affliction.