As a bullock, by wrestling and sweating in the furrow, makes his yoke to be more heavy, and galls his neck, and spends his strength the sooner, and no ways helps himself by that : Why thus stands the case ^rith thee ; if thou be as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, What Christ saith oi cai'ing^ we may say o£ g?'ieving, (Matth. vi. 27.) " Which of you, by taking thought can add one cubit to his ** stature .^"
Cares may break our sleep, yea, break our hearts, but they cannot add to our stature, either in a natural, or in a civil notion : So our sorrowing may sooner break our hearts, than the yoke God hath laid on you.
Alas ! what is all this but as the fluttering of a bird in the net, which, instead of freeins", doth but the more entanMe itself. It was therefore a wise resolution of David in this very case, when the will of God was signified in the death of his child, 2 Sam. xii. 23. " 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."
Can I bring him back again ? No ; I can no more alter the pur- pose and work of God, than 1 can change the seasons of the year, or alter the course of the sun, moon and stars, or disturb the order of the day and night ; which are all unalterably established by a firm constitution and ordinance of heaven.
As these seasons cannot be changed by man, so neither can this course and way of his providences be changed. Job xxiii. 13. " He •^' is of one mind, and who can turn him ? And what his soul desireth, " even that he doth." Indeed, while his pleasure and purpose are unknown to us, there is room for fastino- and prayer, to prevent the thing we fear : But when the purpose of God is manifested in the issue, and the stroke is given, then it is the vainest thing in the world to fret and vex ourselves, as David's servants tliought he would do, ji> soon as he shoul dhear the child was dead : But he was wiser than
so, bis tears and cries to God before bad tbe nature and use of means to prevent the affliction : but when it was come, and could not be prevented, then they were of no use, to no purpose in the world : " Wherefore should I fast?" Q. d. To what end, use, or purpose will it be now.
Well then, cast not away your strength and spirits to no advan- tage; reserve them for future exercises and trials: Time may come, that you may need all the strength you have, and much more, to supjx)rt greater burdens than this.
Consideration 12. TJieLord is able to restore all your lost comforts in relations double to you^ fyou meekly submit to him, and patiently wait upon him under the rod.
When Esau had lost his blessing, he said, " Hast thou but one " blessing, my father .''■" Gen. xxvii. 38. But your Father hath more blessings for you than one : his name is the " Father of mer- *' cies," 2 Cor. xiii. 11. He can beget and create as many mercies for you as he pleaseth ; relations, and the comforts of them, are at his command.
It is but a few months, or years past, and these comforts, whose loss you now lament were not in being; nor did you know whence they should arise to you, yet the Lord gave the word, and commanded them for you ; and, if he please, he can make the death of these but Hke a scythe to the meadow that is mown down, or a razor to the head that is shaved bare ; which, though it lay you under the present trouble and reproach of barrenness, yet doth but make way for a double increase, a second spring with advantage.
So that even as it was with the captive church, in respect of her special children, in the day of her captivity and reproach, the Lord made up all with advantage to her, even to her own astonishment. Isa. xlii. 20. " The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast " lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, the place is too strait ** for me ; Give place to me that I may dwell.""
Thus may he deal with you, as to your natural children, and rela- tions ; so that what the man of God said to Amaziah, 1 Chron. XXV. 9. may be applied to the case in hand. " Amaziah said to the *' man of God, but what shall we do for the hundred talents.? And " the man of God answered, the Lord is able to give thee much " more than this."
O say not, What shall I do for friends and relations.'' Death hath robbed me of all comfort in them. Why the Lord is able to give you much more. But then, as ever you expect to see your future blessings multiplied, look to it, and be careful that you neither dis- lionour God, nor grieve him, by your unsubmissive, and impatient carriage, under the present rod.
God took away all Job's children, and that at one stroke, and the stroke immediate and extraordinary, and that when they were grown up, and planted (at least some of them) in distinct families ; vea, Vol. V. S s
644) A TOKEN FOR MOUIIXERS.
whilst they were endearing each other by mutual expressions of af-^ fection. This must be yielded to be an extraordinary trial, yet he meekly receives, and patiently bears it from the hand of the Lord. You have heard of the patience of Job, (saith the apostle James v. 11.) "and seen the end of the Lord."" Not only the gracious end, or intention of the Lord in all his afflictions, but the happy end and issue the Lord gave to all his afflictions, of which you have the ac- count. Job xlii. 10. " The Lord gave Job twice as much as he had " before." The number of his children was not double to what he had, as all his other comforts were : But though the Lord only re- stored the same number to him again that he took away, yet it is likely the comfort he had in these latter children was double to what he had in the former. There is nothing lost by waiting pa- tiently, and submitting willingly to the Lord's dispose.
It is as easy with the Lord to revive, as it is to remove your com- forts in relations. There is a sweet expression to this purpose, in Psal. Ixxxi. 28. " For thou. Lord, will light my candle, the Lord " my God will enlighten my darkness.''
Every comfortable enjoyment, whether it be in relations, estate, health, or friends, is a candle lighted by providence for our comforts in this world, and they are but candles, which will not always last ; and those that last longest will be consumed and wasted at last ; but oftentimes it falls out with them as with candles, they are blown out before they are half consumed ; yea, almost as soon as lighted up, and then we are in darkness for the present.