fretting, weary not of them, nor grudge at the trouble they put you to; for thortly you yourselves may be in the like cafe, when you fhall be as great a trouble to others, as your friends are now to you.

Again, it is neceffary to employ physicians, and use the best means for the recovery of your friend's health. The means indeed must not be trusted to instead of God, but ufed in fubferviency to him, who hath ap pointed them, and can only give fuccefs to them. We muft beware of Afa's fin that fought to the phyficians, and not to the Lord. Let us neither take food nor phyfic without prayer to God for his bleffing there

upon.

DIRECT. VII. When the ficknefs of your Relations or Neighbours doth iffue in death, ftudy a Chriftian and fuitable behaviour under fuch a difpenfation.

WHEN a parent lofeth a promifing child or a child lofeth a loving parent, or when death deprives us of any near relation, it is a fpeaking and trying Providence; and we have much need of grace and counfel from God to carry aright under it. Let us obferve thefe advices.

1. It is neceffary, in fuch a cafe, that we have a tender fenfe and feeling of God's afflicting hand. There are two extremes which we must equally avoid; viz. to make light of the death of relations, and to be exceffively grieved on that account. God will have us neither to defpife his rod, nor faint under it, Heb. xii. 5. God is difpleafed with thofe that are ftupid and infenfible under fuch afflictions. Why? They defpife his rod, and make light of his corrections. Hence he complains of these, Jer. v, 3. "I have finitten them, but they have not grieved." God will have us to feel his hand, to enquire into the meaning of the rod, and fearch for those fins that have provoked God to fmite us. It is a fign of a naughty, felfith and unchriftian fpirit, to be unconcerned for the death of friends; and much more is it fo in those children, who have a fecret fatisfaction

Ff 2

fatisfaction in the death of parents, because of the worldly riches or liberty which they get thereby. God ufeth to follow this wicked temper with his heavy judgments even in this life.

II. Confider that God is calling you, by the death of others, to keep up lively and lafting, impreffions of death and eternity upon your fpirits. God knoweth how advantageous it would be for men fo to do; and therefore he fets frequent fpectacles of mortality be-^ fore their eyes for this end. But fuch is the corruption and earthlinefs of our minds, that we foon forget the thoughts of death. When we fee our friends in the pangs of death, or laid in the grave, it ftrikes us with fome fear and concern, to think that one day this will be our own case: but no fooner is the dead interred, and the grave filled up again, than all thofe ferious thoughts begin to vanish, and men return to their fins and pleafures as before. Ah, what folly is this! fhould not men always keep alive the ferious thoughts of death and a future ftate? are we not always alike mortal? are we not as liable to death's arrest at other times, as when examples are before our eyes?

III. When God takes away your children or relations, let it draw your heart and affections more toward God and things above. As when a fhepherd taketh up in his arms a lamb of the flock, the ewe followeth him of her own accord, and will not leave him ; fo, when the great Shepherd of the fheep taketh a child or friend from you, it should cause you to follow after him, and defire to be with him. But one may fay, that is not the cafe with me; I fear the wolf hath got the ftrayed theep, and devoured it. Then even that fufpicion fhould make you run to the good Shepherd, abide with him and keep close by the footsteps of the flock, and beware of ftraying in thofe paths wherein deftroyers go. When God taketh from you thofe relations whom you dearly loved, he calls you to take your love off the fading creatures, and to fet it on the eternal Creator: when the weak branch is taken off, then clafp to the body of the tree, which will not fail you.

IV. In fuch trials, ftudy a humble and patient fubmiffion to the will of God, who in his fovereign wisdom and pleasure hath taken your child or friend from you. Remember who hath done it, even he who gave all men their lives, and hath the abfolute power and right to difpofe of mens lives as he thinks beft. If your fellow-creature do any thing that difpleafeth you, you may both afk who did it, and why he did fo? But, when God doth any thing to you, you must remember he is the potter and you are the clay; and that he may make or mar his clay veffels; yea, break them in pieces at his pleafure; " and there is none that can stay his hand, or fay to him, what doft thou? be ftill, and know that I am God," Pfal. xlvi. 10. The master of a family gathers at his pleasure the flowers and fruits of his gar dens; fometimes he cuts off the buds, fometimes he fuffers them to bloffom; fometimes he gathers the green fruit, fometimes he stays till it be ripe; and every body thinks he may do with his own what he pleafeth; and, fhall not the Almighty God have liberty much more to difpofe of all that grows in his own territories at his pleafure? The mafter of the family hath not created the trees and plants of his garden; but God hath made and fashioned all the children of men with his Almighty hand.

It is the fenfe of this fovereign right and dominion of God over his creatures, that hath made his people to be filent under the greatest loffes. Hence Aaron, when he loft his two fons by a sudden and extraordinary ftroke, it is faid of him, Lev. x. 3. “And Aaron held his peace. He opened not his mouth, because it was a fovereign God that did it. So holy Job, when he loft all his children by one blow, patiently fubmits to this abfolute Lord, Job. i. 21. " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; bleffed be the name of the Lord." Job knew that God's relation to them was far nearer than his, and his right to difpofe of them was indifputable. It was a holy and excellent fpeech of that honourable perfon Lord Dupleffis, at the death of his only fon; "I could not have born this from a man, but I can from God.”

V Guard

V. Guard againft immoderate grief and exceffive forrow for the death of children or near relations; for this is finful and offenfive to God. Now, grief is finful and immoderate, when it makes you grudge at God's dif penfation, murmur at his will, turn unthankful to him for the mercies you enjoy, overlook all bypast favours, and lament a temporal more than a fpiritual lofs. A. las! there are many who can bewail a dead friend far more than a dead heart, and the lofs of a child more than the lofs of God's countenance. Now, for ing this exceffive forrow, confider these things.

prevent

1. If you be Chriftlefs and impenitent, you have reafon to blefs God that the ftroke was not at your own life, for then you had been eternally miferable and withcut hope. What is the temporal lofs of a child, to be eternal lofs of your own foul? O it is far better to be childiefs and friendlefs on earth, than to be hopeless and remedilefs in hell.

I.

2. Confider how little ground you have to complain of any lofs or ftroke you meet with on earth. If you eye God's fovereignty and power over you, you have cause to be thankful that he hath not annihilated you ani your relations both long ere now, feeing he hath as full a dominion to reduce you to nothing, as to bring you from nothing. Though God fhould dafh us against the walls, as a potter doth his veffel, no man could have reafon to fay, What deft thou; or, Why doft thou ufe me fo? Jer xviii. 6. "O house of Ifrael, cau not I do with you as this potter? faith the Lord." Nay, he hath a greater right to deal fo with us, than a potter with his veffel, for God hath contributed all to his creature, that it hath, but the potter never made the clay which is the fubitance of the veffel, nor the water that is needful fo make it tractable. All that the potter doth is only to mould the clay into fuch a fhape; befides, the pot ter's body is no better than the clay he makes his veffel of; nay, perhaps that very clay might once have been fome part of the body of a man as good as the potter himself. Now, fhall the potter have fuch abfolute power over that which is fo near and like to him, and fhall not God have it over that which is infinitely diftant from him?

That

That word, Dan. iv. 34. 35.

"The Most High doth

according to his will," is enough to filence the murmurings of all men under ftrokes and loffes.

2. If you eye the hand of God as most just and righ teous in what you have met with, you have no ground to complain. Have you not procured all this to yourfelf? Is not God most just in all that hath come upon you? Nay, if you confider your fins and God's abfolute dominion over you, you must own he might have dealt with you in a smarter manner than he hath done; intead of one affliction you might have had a thoufand.

3. Look to the mercy that is mixed with the rod. It is a wonder that this great Sovereign, who is fo provok ed by us, should allow us any mercy at all, and yet we receive innumerable benefits from him. Whatever be our afflictions, furely they are far lefs than our iniquities deferve. Hath he caft your child into the grave? He might juftly have thrown your foul into hell. is of the Lord's mercy you are not confumed. Why fhould a living man complain? A man out of a grave, and out of hell likewife, hath furely no reafon.

It

4. If you compare your affliction with the trials of others of God's people; yea, and thofe faints who have been moft eminent, you have no reafon to grudge at your lofs. You have one child dead, but Aaron (who is called the faint of the Lord, Pfal. cvi. 16.) had two at a stroke; nay, Job, whom God commends above all the faints in his day, had all his children flain by one blow, and both thefe eminent faints had thefe lofies by an immediate and extraordinary ftroke from God. Some godly parents have feen their children live to prove fcandals to religion, and a grief of mind to themfelves, and would have thought it a mercy if God had taken them away when young. Say not then, that there is no forrow like your forrow; for the cup which many others have drunk, hath had more bitter ingredients in it than yours.

3dly, Confider that exceffive grief cannot better your cafe, it may well make it worse. If you ftruggle and contend under God's hand, you act a foolish part; as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, that by his ftrüg

gling