And as I desire that one of your eyes may be fixed upon her happi- ness, bo I desire that the other of your eyes may be fixed upon Christ's fulness. Though your brook be dried up, yet Christ the fountain of light, life, love, grace, glory, comfort, joy, goodness, sweetness, and satisfaction is still at hand, and always full and flowing, yea, overflowing, John i. 16, Col. i. 19, ii. 3.1 As the worth and value of many pieces of silver is contracted in one piece of gold, so all the sweetness, all the goodness, aD the excellencies that are in husbands, wives, children, friends, &c, are contracted in Christ; yea, all the whole volume of per- fections which is spread through heaven and earth, is epitomised in Christ ; Ipse unus erit tibi omnia, quia in ipso uno bono, bona sunt omnia, saith Augustine, one Christ will be to thee instead of all things else, because in him are all good things to be found.
Dear friends ! what wisdom, what knowledge, what love, what ten- derness, what sweetness, what goodness did you observe and find in this deceased and now glorified saint, that is not eminently, that is not per- fectly, to be enjoyed in Christ ? and if so, why do not you bear up sweetly and cheerfully, and let the world know, and let friends see, that though you have lost her corporally, yet you enjoy her spiritually in Jesus ? The apostle Paul was so much taken with Christ, that he was ever in his thoughts, always near his heart, and ever upon his tongue ; he names him sixteen or seventeen times in one chapter,2 1 Cor. i. Now, oh that your hearts and thoughts were thus busied about Christ, and taken up with Christ, and with those treasures of wisdom, knowledge, grace, goodness, sweetness, &c, that is in him ; this would very much allay your grief and sorrow, and keep your hearts quiet and silent before the Lord ; this would be like that tree which made the bitter waters of Marah sweet, Exod. xv. 23-25.
Plutarch, in the life of Phocion, tells us of a certain gentlewoman of Ionia, who shewed the wife of Phocion all the rich jewels and precious stones she had ; she answered her again, All my riches and jewels is my husband Phocion. So should Christians say, Christ is our riches, our jewels, our treasure, our heaven, our crown, our glory, our all. He is all comforts to us, and all contents to us, and all delights to us, and all relations to us. He is husband, wife, child, father, mother, brother, Bister. He is all these; yea, he is more than all these to us, 2 Cor. vi. 10, Eph. iii. 8, Cant. v. 10.
I have read of one [St Martin], who, walking in the fields by himself, of a sudden fell into loud cries and weeping, and being asked by one that passed by and overheard him, the cause of that his lamentation, I weep, saith he, to think that the Lord Jesus should do so much for us men, and yet not one man of a thousand so much as minds him, or thinks of him. But I hope better things of you ; yea, I hope and desire that this present counsel will take hold of your hearts, and work as counsel works, when it is set home by a hand of heaven.
Again, friends, it is your wisdom and your glory to mind more your present work, your present duty, than your loss, than your present cala- mity. David's passion was got above his wisdom, his discretion, when lie said, ' O my son Absalom ! my son, my son Absalom, would God I had died for thee, 0 Absalom, my son, my son!' 2 Sam. xviii. 33. Your
1 Omnc bonum in summo bono. * Clirysostoin.
EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 403
present work is not to cry, O my dear wife ! 0 my precious child ! O my loving sister ! but, 0 my soul, submit to God ! justify God, lie down in the will of God ; say amen to God's amen. O my soul ! think well of God, and speak well of God, and carry it well towards God, &c. This is your present work ; make it but your work, and then, though ' sor- row may abide for a night, yet joy will come in the morning,' Ps. xxx. 5.
Again, Observe how other saints have carried it under such a dispen- sation as you are under, and do you likewise.1 To that purpose read and compare these scriptures together : Gen. xxiii. 1, 2, 3, 4, 8 ; Ezek. xxiv. 16-18 ; 2 Sam. xii. 17-22 ; ] Sam. iii. 17-19 ; 2 Sam. xv. 25-27; Job i. 13-22. It is a more excellent, a more blessed thing to be good at imitating the pious examples of others, than to be good at praising of them. Stories speak of some that could not sleep when they thought of the trophies of other worthies that went before them.2 The best and highest examples should be very quickening and provoking. Pious ( examples usually are more wakening than precepts ; and they are more convincing and more encouraging ; and the reason is, because we see in them, that the exercise of the most difficult points of godliness is yet possible. Other saints' pious examples should be looking-glasses for us to dress ourselves by ; and happy are those that make such an improve- ment of them. Oh, happy husband ! oh, happy parents ! oh, happy brethren and sisters ! if you write after that blessed copy, that this glo- rified saint, wife, child, sister, hath set before you ; which that you may, I desire you seriously to dwell upon the following narrative.
One hint more, and then I have done. Augustine, in one of his epis- tles, hath this relation, that the very same day wherein Jerome died, he was in his study, and had got pen, ink, and paper, to write some- thing of the glory of heaven to Jerome. Suddenly he saw a light break- ing into his study, and a sweet smell that came unto him, and this voice he thought he heard, O Augustine ! what dost thou ? Dost think to put the sea into a little vessel ? When the heavens shall cease from their continual motion, then shalt thou be able to understand what the glory of heaven is, and not before, except thou come to feel it, as I now do.
A little before this glorified saint's translation from earth to heaven, 1 had thoughts and resolutions to write to her about this blessed state to which she was hastening, but was prevented ; however, in the follow- ing sermon you will find something of that glorious state glimpsed out unto you, which now she is in possession of. Now, dear friends, above all gettings, get an interest in that glory that she is filled with, and keep up the sense of that interest in your own souls and consciences ; and then you will be happy in life, and blessed in death, and assuredly meet her and know her, and for ever enjoy her in perfect happiness and blessedness ; which, that you may, is and shall be the constant desires and earnest prayers of
1 Bonus dux, bonus comes, a good leader makes a good follower, was Carus* the empe- ror's motto. Pnecepta docent, exempla movent, precepts may instruct, but examples do per- suade.— [* 'Carolus'? — G.]
2 As Themistocles of Miltiades, and Caesar of Alexander. — G.
404 A STRING OF PEARLS.
OR, THE BEST THINGS RESERVED TILL LAST.