474 THE BLESSED ESTATE OF THEM [ReV. XIV. 13.
the widow's heart to sin?: for joy. When the Scots were shiit up and starved by thousands at Westminster, she very frequently visited them, and ministered to them ; yea, bought divers of them with her own money, <::;iacious good men, whom she led and clothed, and disposed of into families and ways wherein they live to this day very comfort- ably. When the Scotch ministers and others were under restraint in the Tower, she was not ashamed of their chain, but diligently sought them out as soon as she heard of them, and was all the time of their long confinement a great support and comfort to them. She had not only learned the heathen's lesson to lay up, but the Christian's lesson too, to lay out according as the necessities of the poor members of Jesus Christ called for it.
A true mourner, one that laid to heart, and was affected, deeply affected, with the sins and abominations of the times, with the miseries likewise and distresses of the church and people of God — made the church's sorrows her own sorrows — had bowels of com- passion in her to lament and mourn over the afflicted condition of the church, as if it were her own condition — remembered them in bonds, as bound with them, and them that suffered adversity, as being her- self also in the body. The heartbreaking miseries of poor Scotland broke her heart. She could not speak of them without many tears.
A fixed, established, grounded Christian ; not like those the apostle speaks of, EjjIi. iv. 14, that were KXvBcovi^o/jLevoc koI irepi^e- pufievoi, like clouds in the air, or like ships on the sea, tossed and hurried up and down with every wind and wave, driven to and fro, this way and that way, but like a house built upon a rock, like a tree firmly rooted, a fixed star ; no wandering star (wandering from one opinion to another, and from one way to another, but a fixed star), kept to her old principles and to her old practices, the good old way, the way the patriarchs and the prophets, and the apostles and the holy men and women in the old time (1 Peter iii. 5) went to heaven in — the way of sanctifying God's sabbaths, the way of frequenting public ordinances, the way of performing family and closet duties, the way of reading the scriptures, meditation, self-examination, &c. And for the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, she received it constantly, as oft as it was administered in the congregation whereof she was — never missed once.
One that filled up her relations to tlie very utmost that it is almost possible to do. One that did abound in love to God, to his ways, ordinances, truths, people. * Hereby shall all men know that you are my di.^ciples, if you love one another,' says Christ; and this evidence she had in visible cliaracters. Wherever she saw aliquod Cliristi, as Luther sj)eaks, there her love was fixed ; were it in rags or robes, poor or rich, all one for that. All that were dear to God were dear to her soul.
No wanderer from house to house, and idle squanderer away of her precious time in complimental visits. Had learned to keep at home; and that is the duty, the wisdom, the honour too of a woman. Sarah was found in her tent still, and Jael in her tent.
This I mention because she was much blamed by many for not going to christenings and burials, &c., as if she did it out of pride and
Rev. XIV. 13.] that die in the lord. 475
self-conceitedness, and contempt and disdain of others, or out of a sullen retiredness and affected privacy ; whereas she did it out of mere conscientiousness of her duty. And she had many reasons why she did it ; as, partly, because her eldest daughter dying in childbed, she and her child both, about eight years since, she found that such meet- ings renewed upon her afresh the remembrance of that very great loss ; partly because she saw so much gallantry and bravery in apparel, &c., at such meetings, as did not a little trouble her ; but especially be- cause she saw it to be so much a waster of much precious time, which she knew how to make a better improvement of.
What shall I say? In a word, she was a pattern of mortification, of self-denial, of contempt of the world, of strictness and holiness, and close walking with God, both in her general and particular calling, to all that were about her while she lived.
And in the time of her sickness, so patient, so contented, so willing to be at God's dispose, either for life or death, so fearful lest there should be so much as in her heart any the least risings against God's dispen- sations, so full of sweet, liolj^ heavenly instructions, exhortations, counsels to her husband, to her children, to her friends. Her lips were like a well of life, feeding many, as Solomon speaks, dropping like a honeycomb.
I might enlarge ; but shall conclude all with that of our Saviour (John xiv. 28), when his disciples sat blubbering and weeping and taking on, because he had told them he must now leave them in regard of his bodily presence, and go to heaven, go to his Father : ' If you loved me,' saith he, ' if you loved me, you would rejoice, because I go to the Father.' Oh, how well it were if you could do so ! And do it. You say you loved her, show it; and show it in this way — show it in rejoicing rather than in mourning — in rejoicing in her gain, rather than in mourn- ing in your own loss. It is true the loss is great. The family, the city, the nation, the whole world, indeed, has a loss. Good men and good women, such as have an interest in God, and a heart to improve that interest, as they are a public good whilst they live, so their loss is a public loss when they die ; and in that respect you have cause to mourn. But otherwise, in regard of her, no cause at all, but rather to rejoice. For why ? Though she is dead, she is dead in the Lord. And this blessed condition we have been speaking of all this while, it is undoubtedly her condition.