(6.) Sixthly, and lastly, The loss of eternity is a greater loss than any, than all worldly losses. No worldly loss is to be mentioned in the day wherein the loss of eternity is named. The loss of eternity com- priseth all varieties of privative miseries, the loss of whatever we have enjoyed, and the loss of whatever we might have enjoyed ; as God, Christ, the Comforter, the society of saints, angels, the treasures and pleasures that be at his right hand. It was a notable saying of Am- brose, Cur ea quo3 ad usum diulurna esse non possunt, ad sujipli- cium diuturna deposces, Whj will you make that which cannot be eternal for use be eternal for punishment ?3 The loss of eternity is a comprehensive loss, a loss that takes in all losses; and therefore no loss to the loss of a happy eternity. And thus you see, beloved, that though your loss be very great, yet there be far greater losses than yours ; and this should bear up your spirits from fainting and sinking under this sad dispensation. Though I have a will, yet I have not skill to express your loss and your sorrows to the life. Sorrows for near and dear rela- tions are oftentimes so great, that they cannot be expressed.
Psammeticus, king of Egypt, being prisoner to Cambyses, king of Persia, seeing his own daughter passing before him in base array, being sent to draw water, at which sight his friends about him wept, but him- self wept not ; presently after his son was carried to execution before his face, neither did this move him to shew any passion ; but afterwards, when a friend of his was to suffer, then he wept, and tare his hair, and shewed great sorrow. Being demanded the reason of this his carriage, he answered that the loss of a friend might be expressed, but not the grief for the loss of a child.
I have read of a certain painter, who being to express the sorrow of
1 Ps. lxiii. 3, Mehhaiim.
2 ToLle conscientiam, tolle omnia, said the heathen. 3 Ambrose in Luc. iv. 5.
2S2 APPLES OF GOLD. [1 KlNGS XIV. 13.
a weeping father, and having spent his skill before in setting forth of the passions and affections of his children, he thought it best to present him upon his table to the beholders' view with his face covered, that so he might have that grief to be imagined by them which lie found him- self unable to set out to the full.1 1 know I am not able to paint out your grief and sorrow for your sad loss, yet having proved that this your loss is no loss compared with the fore-mentioned sad losses, I cannot but hope that you will labour to bear up like those whose hopes, whose hearts, whose treasures are in heaven, &c.
2. Consider all outward losses may be made up ; nay, God doth usually one way or another make up to his people all their outward losses. He did so to David, to Job, and many others ; nay, they were great gainers by their losses. And so were the disciples, who, for the loss of Christ's personal presence, had abundance of the Spirit's in- fluence. If he takes away a husband, and lies himself in his room, and fills up that relation, is not the loss made up ? Will not the light and heat of the sun make up the loss of the light and heat of a twinkling star ? If he take away a son, and give out more of himself, will you not say he is better than ten thousand sons ? 1 Sam. i. 8. If he take away your only son, and give out to you more of his only Son, will you not say, that though your loss be very great, yet the great God hath made it up, by giving out more of the light, life, love, and glory of his only Son unto you ? If, in the room of an only son, God shall give you a name that is better than sons and daughters, Isa. lvi. 5, will you not say, your loss is made up with advantage 1 Hujusmodi lucri dulcis odor, the smell of this gain is sweet to many. It was an apt saying of Tertullian,2 Negotiatio est aliquid amittere ut majora lucreris, that is right and good merchandise, when something is parted with to gain more. He applies it to the martyrs' sufferings, wherein though the flesh lost something, yet the spirit got much more. Ah ! dear friends, if your fleshly losses shall be made up in spiritual advantages, have you any cause to say, No loss to our loss, no sorrow to our sorrow ? Surely no. When that noble Zedislaus had lost his hand in the wars of the King of Poland, the king sent him a golden hand for it.
Ah, friends ! if God give you silver for brass, and gold for iron ; if he give you spirituals for temporals, have you not more cause of rejoicing than of mourning ?
When Paulinus Nolanus his city, was taken by the barbarians, he prayed thus to God : Lord ! let me not be troubled at the loss of my gold, silver, honour, &c, for thou art all, and much more than all, these unto me. There is nothing beyond remedy but the tears of the damned. Those that are in the way to paradise should not place themselves in the con- dition of a little hell ; and they that may or can hope for that great all, ought not to be dejected for any thing.
3. Thirdly, Consider that though your loss be great, yet his gain is greater: 'for him to live was Christ, and to die was gain,' Philip, i. 21. He hath exchanged mortality for immortality, the society of men for the society of angels, the sight of friends for the sight of God, a house made
1 The allusion is to Agamemnon, on the sacrifice of Iphigenia.— G.
2 Tertullian, in his hook to the martyrs.
3 The sooner 1 die, the sooner I shall be happy, said one.
1 Kings XIV. 13.] apples of gold. 283
with bands for one eternal in the heavens, the streams for the fountain, an earthly father for a heavenly Father; a careful, loving, sweet, suitable, tender-hearted, wise, yokefellow for to lie in the arms, the bosom, of a loving, gracious, tender-hearted Saviour. If you would but eye more his crown than your own cross, his gain than your own loss, you would divinely quench the burning flame of your passionate affections. It was a good saying of Francisco Soyit to his adversaries : You deprive me of this life, said he, and promote me to a better, which is as if you should rob me of counters, and furnish me with gold. Your deceased relation hath exchanged his counters for gold, his imperfection for perfection, and his earthly possession for a heavenly possession.
4. Fourthly and lastly, Consider how sweetly, how wisely, how bravely others have carried it, when the Lord hath passed the sentence of death upon their nearest and dearest relations; read the proofs in the margin,1 and then never leave pressing those golden examples upon your own hearts, till they are brought over sweetly and quietly to lie down in the will of God, and to say amen to God's amen. When it was told Anax- agoras that both his sons, which was all he had, were dead, he being nothing terrified therewith, answered, Sciebam me genuisse mortales, I knew I begat mortal creatures.