A HANDKERCHIEF FOR PARENTS WET EYES, UPON THE DEATH OF CHILDREN.  
A Consolatory Letter to a Friend.  
LONDON, Printed by E. A. for Michael Sparkes, dwelling at the blue Bible in Green Arbour. 1630.   

To the Reader that is, or may be exercised with this kind of Cross.  
GEntle Reader, I did not think that ever any Lines of mine should have looked in at a Printing-house. My Conceit is not wont to be in the Eaning Mood, as knowing that with jacobs' Ewes, it should bring forth but spotted and streaked Lambs.  
Yet now at the instance of a Pair of worthy Friends, that had equally drunk of this Cup of Sorrow, I have yielded to put the Press to a short affliction; and to communicate to All, what was first intended for the comfort of One.  
I might have sat still, with the finger on the lip, amidst those sage and faithful Counsellors and Companions (Good Books) or have sung to myself, and the Muses only; or to a well-known Friend, or Two, with whom every Thing should have received a favourable interpretation: But for thy sake, that I might not be uncharitable, I am fain to be imprudent, in adventuring to trench thus near upon the World's tuchy Censure.  
I may hap by this means, to be carried shortly into the Street, where they sell Frankincense, and Sweet Powders, and Pepper, and such Things as they use to clothe in weak and worthless Papers. No matter. It was not to my Pen any Herculean Labour; nor to Myself in the writing altogether ingrateful.  
And if in the vast Petegrination of Books, it may please God, that but one delected heart may by any good word in It, be a little lifted up; or Passion hasht, and calmed; or flowing Eye dried; or sorrow made happy, by being transverted to a righter Object; or any (yet entirely enjoying the fair Blessings of Marriage) fore-armed against a future storm, if God see good to send it; I shall hold myself abundantly rewarded from Heaven in that one Book, or Page, or Passage, or Line, though all the rest of these Leaves perish.  
I have only dipped the Tip of my finger in Comfort for thee; The God of all Consolation can give thee the fullness of it; which is His wish to Thee, that wisheth Ill to None.  
I. C.   

To my worthy Friend Master I. R.  
SIr, I know you do now feel what it is to be a Father; and therefore to bar you altogether from lamenting & sorrowing in such an Accident as this [The death of your beloved Son] were as unreasonable, as to chide a Man, for showing himself sensible, when a Tooth is drawn, or a Leg or an Arm is sawed off from his body. For if I should persuade you that these may be taken from you without feeling, or pain, you would say, I played the Mountebank.  
For mine own part, I was at the first unlooked for word of [Dead] like Niobe, Lapideus factus, Cold at the heart; and having recollected myself, found I was a sharer in your loss, and could not temper mine Eyes from running over as for a Kinsman of mine own. (For why should not I have an interest, nay a kind of affinity with His Son, who vouchsafed to be so kind a nourisher of My Daughter?)  
Had you lost him newborn, and but saluting the world; 

Junent. Sat. 7. — Primes incipientem  
Edere vagitus, & adhuc à matre rubentem;  
First squayling Cries from Infant Throat outstrayning,  
And from his Mother, yet the Red retaining;   
Or a Youngling first bestriding his Hobby-horse, or driving his Top, or new learning the way to School; the parting had not been so bitter. We do somewhat easily shake hands with green and slight Acquaintances.  
But he was Solidus Adolescens, A grown Man, arrived half way to the Solslice of his Age; Strong, active, well shaped, well-graced, faire-demeanord, studious, of an honest and virtuous disposition, yielding not only the blossoms, but the fruits of a good education.  
Grave, with the first appearing Down upon his Chin, yet without any grumnesse or sourness of manners.  
His by-studies and delights manly and generous, serving either to enable him for the service of his Prince & Country; As the exercise of Ames and Hardiment.  

Hor. ad Lol. Epist. 19 l. 1. — Add virilia, quod speciosius Arma,  
Non est qui tractet.  
His manly Arms none bears with better grace.  
Or by imparting their delight to others, to make the Vser thereof welcome. As Music, Dancing, History, Faire-writing, etc.  
To his God he was religious and devout, early remembering his Creator, wearing the Threshold of his House, & sitting attentive at the feet of this Ministers.  
To his Father and Mother observant and dutiful; To his Kindred loving; To his Elders reverend; To his Equals facile and sociable; To All courteous and pleasing; Which turned men's eyes and regards upon him, and made him accepted and desired, both of one and other.  
And for the main Study, whereunto he had addicted himself, he was by your conduct & training so good a proficient therein, for notion and understanding of the passages, if not for dexterity of Acting (which is acquired by Time and use) that he was in a manner fitted and prepared to have put his shoulders under your burden, and by inheriting at once both your place and toils, to have given your years at length their deserved Vacation.  

job 14.  But Man that is borne of a Woman, hath but a short time to live. He cometh up like a Flower, and is cropped off. He is plucked from the Stalk as an unripe Grape; and shaken down as the wind shaketh down the Olive blossoms.  
I know, you are not Stoical, without affections; 

Pers. — Neque enum tibi cornea fibra est.  
Your heartstrings are not so tough and horny.   

●onos vi●os facile solui in jachrymas.  I have noted your eyes sometimes to stand great with tears at others woes, 
* Chancer.  for pity runeth soon in Gentle heart. And therefore I blame you not to melt, yea, to ache, and be sore of such a wound and maim as this. This is not a slea-bite, or a scratch with a pin; nor a foreign hurt a great way distant, but Domestic and Concerning.  
If David thought his sorrow justifiable for his Son that was a Rebel, and almost a Parricide; your sorrow cannot but be just for so towardly, so dear, so precious a Son: A right Benjamin, the Son of your Right hand, the Staff and Prop of your old Age.  
Aegritudinem doloremque animi moderatum improbari non oportet. One must not be shent for moderate sorrow and grief of mind.  
But yet you must take heed of making your Grief unjust, by exceeding a just and regular measure in it. As we must not be doloris expertes, indolent and void of sorrow, for that's inhuman: So neither may we be perditè dolentes, immeasurable, obstinate, desperate grievers, for that's un-christian.  

Strangulat inclusus dolor atque●or aestuat intus, Cogitur & vires multiplicare su●s.  It must not be stopped too soon; for then the Tears turn back to drown the heart. jobs Friends said not a word to him for the first seven days, but let passion have his course, and tyre itself, themselves sitting sad and silent by him.  
But on the other side, you must not stay it too long; for than it plays the Tyrant, and kills and slays without mercy. 
● Cor. 7.  Worldly sorrow causeth death and disease.  
It's like a foreign power called in, to the Aid of a distressed Kingdom, which cannot be got out again, but proves a worse enemy then that it came to expel.  
You have already played the part of a loving Father, wept the Tears of Nature; you must now change your Copy, withdraw your finger from the sore, and play the part of a wise and constant man: And that is, either to prevent a mischief when it is approaching; or if it happen, to amend it, and labour to make it as little as may be: According to the old precept, Bona quàm maxima facere, mala contrahere atque imminuere. Extend and enlarge any Good to the utmost, 
Hebetant Rationis ●ciem miseriae. Omnes in monendo sapientes sumus, cum aure ipsi● liquid fa●mus, no intelligimu● Eru●mid  but contract and diminish (what you can) the evil.  
But because generally all succours fail us in adversity; passion sending up such Fogs, that the understanding is blinded, (though we have been (in our own wel-faring) never so able, to minister words of comfort to others in their distresses) give me leave at this Time, to take you by the hand, and only to set you in the way to the door of Consolation.  
Multa etiam ab Olitore, recte atque in loco proferri possunt.  
Even an Herbwife sometimes may  
Things right, and to the purpose say.  

CONSIDERATION. I.  
FIrst, call to your remembrance that great Statute, That all must once dye. And that doom for sin, 
Heb. 9.27 Gen. 3.  Dust thou art, and into Dust thou shalt return.  

Herod.  Omnibus una manet nox,  
Fit calcanda semel via lethi.  
One darksome night awaits each living wight,  
And Death's highway must once be trod (despite.)  
Nascimur, & morimur, is every one's Motto; We are all borne mortal.  
What marvel to see that cut asunder which may be cut asunder? That melted which is fusible and apt to melt? That burned which is combustible? The Son die as well as the Father, being borne under the same Condition of Mortality, that the Father was?  
All unions in this world must be dissolved: Fathers and Children must be severed; Friends & Friends, Husbands & Wives, as they had a Time to come together, so they must have a Time to part asunder.  
Sic Natura postulat, nec grave putandum, fieri quod necesse est.  
So Nature craves, nor think it much to see,  
The Thing so done, that needs so done must be.   

CONSIDERATION. 2.  
SEcondly, consider that it is the case of others with you. If you had been the first, or only Father that had lost a Son, and no other had drunk of this Cup before you; than you had some Colour to complain, and to continue and spin out your laments. But the worm is spread even under Royal Branches; Kings and Princes are deprived of their Children, as well as meaner men; yea those Children, that should keep their Kingdom from staggering.  
Histories are full of instances; Whence you (that are so conversant in those readings) can easily store yourself; let it be enough for me to reach you only three or four familiar Ones, within the reach & l●en of our own memory.  
That Noble Lord of the North lost three of his Sons, In florentissima aetate, in the very bloom of youth, and lustihood: One, before his aged Eyes, by the ruggedness of an unbroken Horse; and Two together out of a Boat passing over a rough Ferry.  
You know, but a little since, A worthy Knight of our Country lost one of his Sons, a lusty young Gentleman, in our own River, his Horse leaping with his Rider, plum over the Boats side.  
A Noble Gentlewoman, our neighbour, after the loss of a dear and excellent Husband, lost in the Circle of a few years, six of her Children, all grown Men and Women, three fair Daughters, and three brave Sons; the youngest in a Tempest of Bullets, at the assault of an unfortunate Island.  
The Prince Palatines loss of his Firstborn Son, by the unlucky running of a Ship with full sail over his Barge, is fresh in all minds.  
Perishing by misfortune is a greater Cut, then leaving the world by God's Visitation. So that your case being common with others, and more easy than diverse others, That may stifle some sighs, and calm a many repining complaints.  
Inter arma & lituos, 
Am. Mar. lib. 26. c. 13.  conditionis aequatio leviorafacit pericula. Even among weapons and sounding Trumpets, the equality of Condition makes the danger lighter, and less sensible.  
Who recks his life, or dreads death, when in the whirl and Din of war, he seethe not only his fellow-Soldiers knocked down beside him, but a many valiant young Nobles, resolute and hardy Knights, and Commanders, that erewhile cloven the crowds, and hewed themselves a way thorough the thickest Ranks of the Enemy, fallen to ground also, and lying breathless among Thousands of other dead bodies?  
What a Row might be presented of weeping Fathers and Mothers for their Sons, accomplished (at their no small charge) with learning and breeding, suddenly hurried out of the world upon a Sword or Rapier's point, in desperate quarrels, or Challenges and Duels, within the compass of half Your Time?  
Age, desine; intuonsque aliorum miserias,  
Tua lenius feres.  
Go to, give over, and by view  
Of others Griefs, your own subdue.   

CONSIDERATION. 3.  
THirdly, the impossibility of recovering your loss. 
Prorsus nö sunt tentäda impossibilia. Sopho.   Optimum est oblivisci, quodrecuperari non potest. 
The best salve for an irrecoverable loss, is Oblivion.  
Non placet istud factum, 
Terent. Adelph. Act. 4.5.8  si possem mutare; nunc cum non queo, aequo animo fero. This fact likes me not, if I knew how to help it; now that I cannot, what remedy but patience?  
If your Son were to be bought and brought to life again at a set price of sorrow, I believe, you would bid frankly for him. But, The Grave returns no Men. You shall go to him, he shall not come again to you.  
And therefore to sit day by day with folded arms, and dropping eyes, & a heart heavy as lead, for the Loss cannot possibly be regained; as it is unprofitable to the bemoaned, so 'tis a hurt to the bemoaner; yea of one harm to make Two. Nay it is to resist the high and heavenly Will, and to be found Strivers against God: In which number, I know, you would be loath to be ranked. You have not so learned Christ.   

CONSIDERATION. 4.  
FOurthly, Time itself may minister some Physic to your Affliction. A Prisoners Irons seem not so heavy to him the second day, as the first. No grief hath so much violence in the continuation, as in the first Access.  
Take the simplest Country-Mother, the weakest Nurse of a Village, that wrings her hands, and tears her hair, & laves the Ground (on which she wallows) with eye-water, and takes on never so impotently for her departed Child; and the space of a few days will slake the rage of her sorrow, and anon bury it in utter forgetfulness.  
That which Time worketh in the ignorant, shall not Time and Reason together effect as easily in the wise?   

CONSIDERATION 5.  
Fiftly, But you will say, your Son might have lived longer. And he might as well have died sooner. Who can show me a Lease of his life under Seal for one hour? Why may not every day prove our last day?  
Some are suffocated in the womb; others crowzed to death in the Birth. One is snatched away in the Cradle: Another mowed off in his May of youth; being only shown to the world like a curious picture finished, and strait the Curtain drawn and removed away again. It's the privilege but of few, to step down upon the Griece of Old Age. Our life, from the first hour to the last, gallops on towards death: And who seethe not, with what speed it conquers even the longest way in this journey?  
If Time then be the thing you stand on for your Son, how small a matter of Odds is a little more or less Time in so fugitive and swift a Race? It's scarce discernible.  
A Cart full of Prisoners are brought to execution; what skills it which is first, or third, or sixth, or tenth, or sixteenth? All must dye. What gets he that is delayed till the afternoon, above him that was executed in the morning? Perhaps to be superafflicted with longer expectance and pre-apprehension; sighing that his turn had not been with the foremost.  
(But the Prisoner may not appoint his own course, that is in the judge or the Sheriff to dispose of.)  
The whole world is but a Cart of condemned persons: God culls out every day some and some for Execution.  
This very Minute a Slave dies, foredone with toil and hardship. Instantly, a King or great Lord mounts the Scaffold. By and by a Mechanic, a Rustic, a Peasant, a Milkmaid, a Cowherd, a Schoolboy, or Girl, suffer.  
Strait after, a Royal Lady or Princess stoops her fair Neck to the Block.  
Anon, a fresh, lovely, active, vigorous Youth, a beauteous young Damsel (Ornaments to the world) are presented to the Axe.  
Behold now, a feeble old man is led up, having scarce life enough left, to be killed, etc.  
The oldest of these hath not lived a minute over his Time, nor the youngest a minute under: for neither might the one budge any sooner without summons & order; nor the other tarry any longer, being called away. But you will say, He had no cause to complain, that was respited to Old Age, which brings with it a satiety of living. Nor You, by the same reason. For when God hath decreed, I shall live no longer, This (fall it when it will) is my Old Age.  
We are not Carvers of our own Times. He only that predestinated the hour of our Birth from all Eternity, hath power to decree the hour of our Death.  
You neither could cause your Child to be borne sooner, or to dye later. Time's Maker knows the fittest Times for all his purposes.  
He hath not appointed all to live the same term of years. Some go before, 
Serius aut citius, metam properamus ad unam. Ouid.  some after. But first or last, all arrive at the same mark.  
The Husbandman reaps not all his Acres at once, but one sooner, another later, as they are sooner or later ripe. Let God alone, he knows (better then any Farmer) the number and condition of his Acres, & where he finds one forward, turned white betimes, (though but the other day green, and in the blade) there he puts in his Sickle, and carries it into the Heavenly Barn: A Place of safety.  
Which with longer standing might have spilt & shed, or been wansled, and come to nothing.  
Long lasting, even to the frostiest old Age is not the matter, 
Puer centum annotum. Esa. 65.  for there may be a Child of a hundred years old, that yet is not ready for Heaven.  
God hath reserved to himself alone, the sight of the running out of the Glass. Man knoweth not his Time and End: but unperceivingly slides into it, as the Fish into the Net, or the Bird into the Snare, God pushing on means, to us undreamt of, and unsuspected, to serve his Decree.  
It is with men in the world, as with the Vessels in a Potter's Shop. There are of all sorts, sizes, and fashions. That which to day is whole, & handsome, and useful: to morrow, with a knock, or a fall, may be broken to shards. Your Vessel was sheen and new, of a firm making, likely to have lasted many a fair year, even till it had flawed and moudred away of itself; but it stood in harmes-way, disease and sickness gave it a knock, and a crack, which could not be soldered. And indeed, the sleekest, the sweetest, the trimmest Dish of China, is but a China Dish; handle it, or set it up as charily as you can device.  
We would have our Candle burn down into the socket; but God hath a wind to blow it out, sometimes as soon as lighted; or a Thief to consume it with guttering, ere any Eye heed it. Few of our living Candles (not one amongst a Thousand) last burning to the last Inch.  
He that numbereth all our Times and hours, hath numbered your Sons also, and set him his day, beyond which he could not pass.  
Honour him with free yielding this preeminence to him, and let it stop your mouth, and stoop your heart. I held my peace, 
Psal. 1. Sam. job.  because thou didst it. It is the Lord, let him do whatsoever he pleaseth. He giveth, he taketh, blessed be the Name of the Lord.  
But he doth nothing but for the best to them that love him. Many times Life is not so much taken away, as Death given for a special Favour.  
Just and Merciful men are taken away from the Evils to come. 
Esay.  How many times over, have some died, by living long?  
Righteous Abel, the second Son of the sole Emperor of the whole Earth, was cut off in his Youth. The Eternal Son of God himself died a young Man.  
Our Estimate of Life is wrong, and false; quite odd and different from Gods. We measure it like Canvas, by the Ell; God like Gold, by the Grain. Our Examen is by the Tale, so many Scores; Gods by the Touch, so virtuous, so exemplary, of such an Alloy.  
Now, God having thus qualified Your Son with Grace, made him early ready for Heaven; he had attained his due, and true Seniority, and could not complain that he lacked Time, or had lived too little while.  
M. B. Hol. in Transtat. of Pers.  Action, not Time, does number Age. 
The Heathens have noted it for a blessing, to dye young.  

M●●●nd.  Aetate prima moritur, quem diy diligunt.  
Early to dye it him behooved,  
Whom gods above so dear loved. And again:  
— Nec illi,  
Quem Diwm Pater atque hominum, quem Phoebus  
Amabat ante omnes, sera licuit gaudere senecta.  
Nor might he (here) live to be old as other,  
Whom jove and Phoebus tendered as their brother.  
Cleobis and Biton, 
Cic. Tusc, quast.  when their Mother for their piety in drawing her Chariot to the Temple themselves, (in the absence of the Horses) prayed, that they might be rewarded with the greatest blessing that could possibly happen from God to Man; were both found dead next morning in their sleep.  
And when news hereof was brought to their Mother, as of a great misfortune: No (saith she) I will never count myself unfortunate, that was the Mother of such Sons, as the gods have guerdoned with immortality for their pious Act.  
Shall a Pagan Mother, having no other light but that of dusk nature, count it for a Divine Favour, that her excellent Sons have early quit this life and world; and a Christian Father enlightened with the Rays of the Sacred Truth breathed from the Holy Ghost, pule, and repine, and look sour upon Heaven, and God, when in mercy he hath done for ours, not what's most pleasing to us, but what's most fit and commodious for both? If we be truly penitent for our sins, and can persuade our hearts of our right and interest in the blood and merits of Christ jesus, what need we doubt of God's Favour?  
Hath he not told us in his Word assured us, proved, demonstrated to us, that he love's us; yea better than we can love ourselves?  
Charior est illis homo, quàm sibi. 
Innem.   
Dearer to him is Man,  
Then to himself he can.  
And will such a Cause produce any other then beneficial, and friendly effects?  
Was it not in love unspeakable, that he gave his own Son to Us? and can it be but in like love, that he takes our Sons and Daughters unto him?  
O think of it; and think withal, whether such a love, from Him so great, to Us so base, be not worthy reloving, above Sons, Daughters, Wines, Friends, Wealth, Lands, or whatsoever else the World holds most dear?  
May we not, having this left us (the love of God in Christ) fit us down as blessed Men and Women, with cheerful hearts and faces, though all things else be torn from us?  
This is the miraculous Philosopher's Stone, that turns any Metal it touches, into Gold.  
This turns Crosses into Comforts, Losses into Thrifts, Sorrows into Smiles, Wounds into Medicines, and Death itself of ourselves, or ours, into superlative Advantage and Bliss.   

CONSIDERATION 6.  
GOd may intent herein the Father's trial, as well as the Child's Benefit. You yourself have sometimes given one of your little Ones an Apple, and asked it again immediately, to try his love. So God gives us dear Pledges, and anon requires them from us again, to make proof which we love better, our Children or Him. 
Chora pignora, Charior Devi.  He allows us to hold them dear, but Himself must be dearer.  
Was't not enough, that God (who could have withheld that blessing of marriage) gave you such a Son, unless he would bargain with you to let him live forty years beyond you? would you rather be childless, than the Father of such a Son, as might outrun his Father in the race of Death?  
If you had a journey to go afoot thirty Miles, will you not say God a mercy to him will let you ride a Dozen of it, because he will not spare you his Horse the other Eighteen?  
A great Duke or Prince lends you a dainty sweet Picture, of exquisite Workmanship, to delight your Eyes withal; Will you powte, and snuff, and take on as injuried, when after diverse years use, he re-demaunds it from you, to be placed again among the Ornaments of his Gallery?  
Ah te, si flentem super aethera mox rapuisset jupiter.  
What could you say for yourself; how excuse such froward bearing, if God should instantly summon you to make you answer before him?   

CONSIDERATION 7.  
But you could have better brooked any Cross, than this. But we may not choose our Cross, but bear patiently that is laid on us. Shall we take upon us to curb, or direct, and give laws to God?  
You deceive yourself, and lay up but discomfort against the evil day, if you think no Thorn could prick, but this. God can quickly make you know, that he is able to set a point, and sting upon a Cross of wool.  

Exod.  He can make a few Flies as irksome and intolerable, as angry Botchos and blains all the body over. Darkness, which every night makes familiar to us, as uncomfortable and dreadful, as incessant Haile-stormes mingled with fire, and accompanied with Thunder-strokes able to shake the heart of a Mirmadon.  
That Rod shall smart, which God will set on, though it be but of Rushes.  
A little brown paper shot out of an Elder-Gun, is scarce felt against the hand of a Child; The same brown paper out of a Musket, is able to break the Ribs of a Giant.  
— Quid enim mirabile, si quis  
A lot percussius, non leue vuluns habet?  
What marvel if one be in bitterness, the stroke falling like a Talon of Lead, and the wound no light one, when the hand of God inflicts it?  
I know, loss of Children, Men of best Blood and Minds, take most to heart: and by the help of their sharp conceit, increase and sharpen their affliction: which made that saying scape from the Pen of One, In non sapiendo iucundissima vita. 
Sodho.  The sweetest life is in not being wise. And from another's, It's good sometimes to be a fool. 
Dulce est desipere in loco.   
Iners malorum Remedium ignorantia. The more of ignorance, the less of grievance. It's the downright, senseless Remedy of Evils. For Such a one cannot by his discourse aggravate a Loss.  
But me thinks, Wisdom should reach us as soft a Cushion to lean on, as Ignorance can: and Discretion forge an Armour of as good proof against Adversity, 
Jsocrat.  as Folly and doltishness. Qui memmit quid homo sit, propter nullum evenientem casum immodicè tristabitur. He that remembers well, what Man is, (the Butt against which so many shafts of disasters are aimed every hand-while) shall never be immoderátely hadded for any Chance obuersant to him in this world: he shall be able to say with job, 
job.  The thing I scared, is fallen upon me.  
If God had spared you from this affliction, do you think you should have been at rest from evils? Hath God but one Rod? Is his Storehouse so unfurnished? Is not the very place we live in, a place of toil, and turmoil, and bickering, and vexation? And shall we think to find Rest in that, whose composition is of Tumults?  
Nam nemini esse prorsus folici, licet. No man but finds a Pound of Woe, for a Dram of Content. God will not glut us with Felicities.  
His manner is eftsoons to vitiate the comforts he allows his Children with some unexpected Dash of sorrow, lest they should imagine that true & sincere Content might be found on Earth.  
I have heard you observe a like course held with yourself. For, speaking of some projects of yours for a retired Country life, how much you affected the sweetness and innocency thereof, and what please you could give yourself in it: God (you said) did by one means or other still cross and defeat your purposes, foreseeing how it might steal away your heart from heaven and him, and make you desire to more here, and set up your Rest in the things of this world. This use you made of that Cross then; do the like by this now. God hath taken your Darling from You, lest he should have taken your heart from Him.   

CONSIDERATION 8.  
POnder oft that saying, Sapit qui non tristatur propter absentia, sed gaudet praesentibus. He is wise that is not so much sorry for the absent, as joyous in the present Comforts.  
You look to what you have lost, but not to what you have left. As God hath Crosses more than one: So He hath Comforts & Blessings more than one. And he hath left you a great many of them, even children's Children; When others have nor Son, nor Daughter in their inheritance.  
Will you, because one is removed out of your sight, waywardly deprive Yourself of enjoying the Remainder, as not worth thankes, now one of the tale is diminished?  
That were leek little Children, if you catch up one of their Play-games, they presently cast away all the rest in a fume.  
If in a vast succourless Champion, or Down, the furious Wind should snatch off your Hat, and hurry it away beyond overtaking, (so much, as with you Eye,) would you strait in a Mood strip off your other Garments to your shirt, and dare the Wind to do his worst with those Parcels also? O take heed of such behaviour.  
'Tis not stouting, and stomach, and pettishness, but meekness, and patience, and humility, makes God propitious. What shall you get by standing and knocking your Fists at Him, that must be your only Comfort in your Anguishes; or you are like to have none at all, but scorn and derision?  
Set not God to School; appoint him not what to take, what to leave. He knows best which Branch of the Vine to prune off.  
Be thankful for them are reserved to you, and enjoy them as from a thrice friendly and gracious hand. Set your love on them as on another man's Loane, which you must restore upon demand.  
Think not that to be your own, that was but lent you; nor that to be too soon required again, which without injury might have been altogether kept from you.   

CONSIDERATION. 9  
O But, he was so hopeful, so towardly, so well disposed, such a Model of Goodness, etc. I grant you all this. But how know you, he would have held on so, if he had lived longer? How many godly Fathers have had their hearts broke with the lewdness and ill proof of their Children? 
Tacit.  Even many Good Princes came short of Nero's first 5. years.  
What Traps do we see set daily in the way of Virtue, to trip it, and make it fall?  
Occasions to many sins are presented, and taken hold of in tract of Time, which once we never dreamt of committing, or contracting the least acquaintance with them.  
He is gone, beginning to relish virtue, untainted of vicious inclinations; his soul had not yet dipped in the dish of voluptuousness; wickedness had not altered his heart. What hath he lost by that? By being Heavenly on Earth, he is now made Glorious in Heaven.  
Sic fuit utilius finiri ipsique, tibique.  
So was't most profit to exspire,  
Both to himself, and you (his Sire.)  
Besides; you will say, (for passion hath no ho in objecting) To you, he was so useful, so necessary, your finger next the Thumb, grown fit to advice with, to impart your Counsels to, to make a Friend and Companion of, etc. Hinc lachrymae. This smoke also makes your eyes run over. But let me tell you,  
To bewail the loss of your Child, because he was necessary to you, & you could ill miss him, is self-love, not the love of your Child. And to be sad for the welfare of your Child, being evaded all perils, and highly promoted, and dignified beside; is the part of an envious person, not of a Father or Kinsman.  
Would old jacob, or any truehearted Friend or acquaintance of josephs' be dressed in melancholy, to hear that the King of Egypt had released him out of prison, and sent for him to Court, to make him a great Lord, and Viceroy of the Kingdom?  
If you had been told a while agone of some extraordinary worldly preferment befallen your Son, above all that you could think or hope for, though in some fare remote place, whereby your former familiar Conuerses must be cut off; yet I suppose, that for his good, you would have entertained the news with gladness, and laid by your own particular respects:  
And now that he is exalted to the very Top and height of honour, and that in eternity; now that he is installed a Prince among Celestial Princes (for not any are less than Kings and Queens that are admitted thither) will you lower and be in dumps, as for a matter of special discomfort, and mishap?  
Will you be sorry for his joy? dejected for his advancement? sick of his happiness?  
Had you rather your Son should be without Heaven, than you without your Son? This is a plain degree of Madness.  
Shall we lament for them that laugh? mourn for them that feast and sing? hurt our health for them that are perfectly whole? Now that he is dead and buried, nay now that his life is indeed truly Vital and Living; will you for his sake go drown yourself in your own tears?  
Certè plus animi debet inesse viris.  
More wisdom ought to rest in them,  
That wear the only name of Men.  
He hath no sense of your sorrows for him, nor will thank you for hurting yourself, by the liberty you give to the Rage of Nature.   

CONSIDERATION. 10.  
GOd hath by death freed him, not only from the dangers and corruptions of the Age, wherein he might have been swallowed, but from the common evils which may fall upon his Suruivers, greater perhaps, and nearer than we imagine. The Condition of the Times is so bad, as punishments cannot be fare off.  
To be set in safety before their approaches, whilst the storm is but a thickening, is no small benefit.  

Comicus ●●t. ap. Plutar.  Si tu sciebas illum, vitae tempus hoc  
Ereptum ei quod est, habiturum prosperum,  
Mors eius immatura existimanda erit.  
Quid si molesta habuisset multa ac tristia?  
Haec finiens mors, non te benevolentior  
Illi fuit?  
If you were sure that he should have enjoyed  
The life rest from him free, and vn-annoyed,  
Then you might think his death t' have happed too rather;  
But what if now much Ruth were to ensue,  
And troublous storms, which Death prevented hath,  
Was't not in that, more kind to him than You?  
If ye loved me (saith our Lord to his Disciples) ye would verily rejoice, because I go to the Father; out of this troublesome and evil world.  
So if we loved our Children, and Friends departed, it would be a more regular course to express it, in gratulating their escape by Death from so manifold hazards and evils of life, and their estating thereby into so ample beatitude and happiness, then in giving scope to those effeminate plaints, and distaff lamentations.  
That which easeth us of all burdens and cares; Is the end and death of our miseries; The everlasting farewell to all smart and woes; Prevents our seeing, suffering, and doing of much evil; Cuts the Cords whereby we are hampered in the world, and hindered to go to God; Is the accomplishment of our sanctification; our Porter to Glory, rendering us into the Arms and Embrace of our Bridegroom Christ jesus, never more to be separated, or disjoined from him; doth it present us cause of pensiveness and mourning, or of jubilee and rejoicing rather?  
Is the tired Bondman sorry for the approach of night, that he may give over, and go to rest? Is the brute Ox grieved to be unyoked? was ever Mariner ill paid, that after long and doubtful tossing in a dreadful high-going Sea, he had recovered the safe & quiet Haven? Or banished man, that he was called home to his Country and Kindred? Or Prisoner, that he was brought out of a Dungeon, into the liberty and pleasures of a Palace? And will you still wear a Cloudy brow, and whither away in your Mournings for him, that is a sharer in all these Privileges and Blessings?   

CONSIDERATION. 11.  
Eleventh: You remember the saying; Schola crucis, Schola lucis. The School of Tribulation is the School of Edification. The Grecian Proverb is like it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Those things that trouble us, teach us. You may perhaps learn more out of this Affliction, than prosperity ever could teach you in all your life. This may make you look into your Conscience, examine the state of your soul, weep your own Deserve, and justify God in all his Do; and in this Particular, though the weight were doubled & trebled upon you. Pray that these effects may be wrought in you.  
These will prove salubres cogitationes, lacrymae beatae, verni imbres; wholesome Meditations, Tears of Grace, April showers, which will cause the flowers of Consolation to spring up in your heart.  
When I lost the better half of myself, (the Best of Wives, such a One, as even by wishing could hardly have been exceeded, the Country that bred her, being left poor of such another;) Pectore concepi nil nisi triste meo: You can judge (for your hand dropped the first Balsam into my wound) whether there were not cause for my Breast to be full fraught, bursting-ripe, with Anguish and Dolour?  
And how long had the wound been kept raw, if I had wilfully insisted here, and sat only plodding, and showering Tears upon my Loss?  
But when at length (almost too late) I turned away from Nature, and humane Reason, (ill advising Friends in this Time and Occasion) to Religion, and considered this Cross as the Rod of God for my many many sins; That it was not a beating upon the Coats, but laid on in good earnest, with a provoked angry hand; That he was constrained to run this rugged Race with me; Though my Grief were not lessened by this consideration, yet it began to be turned into a righter Channel.  
Recenti Malo, priorum quoque admonemur. The fresh Evil which I suffered, laid fresh before me former Evils I had done. And where before I grieved for the suffering, now my grief was to have deserved so to suffer.  
Here was sorrow changed into sorrow; worldly sorrow for a Precious, but Temporal Loss, into godly Sorrow to Repentance, never to be repent off. Dolour ipse iam voluptas erat. 
Plin.  There was now a kind of pleasure in these brinish drops.  
Now began Nature to be content to wipe her Eyes, and Reason, that suggested the value of such a jewel, to lay her hand upon her Mouth; and the golden Morn of Comfort to dawn to me.  
Now I found it true, That God will not always be chiding, nor keepeth his anger for ever. That his correcting is not to destruction, but to save us from being destroyed and condemned with the World. 
Cypr.  He chastens us, to amend us, and amends us, to save us. When we stoop, he is appeased. Discipline goes before, but pardon follows after.  
Now I willingly kissed the Rod, that beat me nearer to Heaven and God; and blessed the Occasion, that led me from sorrow to sorrow, that I might arrive at true and sound joy..  
O how good was it for me to be so afflicted! 
Psal. judg.  Out of the Eater came meat, and out of the Strong came sweetness. According to the measure of our sorrow, so is his Consolation.  
Finally, now I saw how grossly passion had made my thoughts overshoot before; not only in wronging her happy soul, by so often wishing her again in these Elements of sorrow, who walks arm in arm with Angels; but even in charging God foolishly, (pardon me, O blessed Fountain of long suffering and Goodness) as over-cruell and rigorous to his Creature, (ravishing our Comforts from us, then, when we had cause to hold them closest to our bosom; delighting, sporting in our un-resistable miseries and ill-turnes;) who indeed of very faithfulness had caused me to be troubled.  
O what a Fool, a Frantic, a wild prodigious thing is Man thus transported, till God vouchsafe his finger, to temper, and tune him right again!  
This End the Lord in his mercy made for Me; This was the Method of my Cure, the Crop and Harvest of my sowing in Tears; And my Wish & Hope is, that by his Blessing, Yours may be like.   

CONSIDERATION. 12.  
TWelfthly. And now, Sir, sum up these parcels, & see if the foot of the Account declare you not a Gainer.  
You have lost a Son, whom all that knew, loved living, and commend dead. One you had bred up for Heaven; and have now returned him to the true Owner, the Father of Spirits. Is he not well there? do you think he would be better here? would you have him change his glorious Eternal Mansion, for a ragged, reeling, mudwalld Hovel?  
Did you not aim at his being a Citizen there, instructing, preparing, fitting him for it? Can you wish a righter Season to be taken thither, then when the Age's viciousness, & infection's example had dropped least slubber and soil upon him?  
Are you sorry he is early there arrived, his Vessel safely landed before you thought he should?  
What though (in your esteem) others were nearer Land than he? Is it any disadvantage to a Merchant, that his Ship so fare behind the rest, while they lie still at Anchor, is flown to shore fraught with welcome lading?  
Pains have chased his soul out of this House of Earth: But is not Abraham's bosom, where Angels have lodged it, a joyful Receptacle? Come, wash your Cheeks, give no further passage nor indulgence to your passions, 
Vina bibe, & laetus vescere pane tuo.  Eat your bread with gladness: You thought you were hurt, and are benefited rather.  
He is not clean gone, 
Praemissus, non amissus.  but only gone before. His Mortality is ended, rather than his life. You have lost him for a Time, God hath found him for Ever.  
Rejoice and bless God, that you had such a Son. Had him, did I say? You have him still. Not one Child the fewer have you for his taking hence.  
When God turned the Captivity of job, the Text saith, he gave him twice so much Substance of every kind, as he had before.  
He had 7000. Sheep before, now he had 14000. Three thousand Camels before, now 6000. Five Hundred Yoke of Oxen before, now 1000 500 Shee-Asses before, now 1000 of them also. Why were not his Children doubled as his other Blessings? 
Gregor.  Having Ten Children before, why had he but Ten now? Because those in Heaven were his still.  
But oh! How much changed from that themselves were, or that their Brothers and Sisters are in their Father's House!  
jobs Children on Earth, though the prime Women of the Land for Beauty, would appear but Ethiopians, compared with the radiant glistering faces of Them in Glory. Their Festival Apparel here, though as rich as salomon's Royalest Mantles, would seem no better than Cannae, or Haircloth, being set in match with the Robes of Glory, and immortality, bright as the light itself, of those Heaven-dwellers.  
And as great Odds is there between your Immortal Son, and his Mortal Brethren and Sisters.  
You may, when you will, have him present with you in your mind and thought. You may see him as he was, A young Plant in your house; You may see him as he is; A blessed Soul in God's heavenly Palace.  
Live you mindful of your own Mortality, and Eternal life; and let your heart leap up into joy, that he hath already hit the White, whereat others are but levelling; And wears the Garland, for which others are doubtfully wrestling and contending.  
He sits aloft, and smiles at this Emmet-hill of Earth, with such a deal of Bustle and Garboil, and Vanity, & Foolery, and Mischief, & Wickedness left beneath him; Out of the Gunshot of Temptation, freed from sin, in safety from Foes, resting from labours, exempt from sighs, and tears, and cares; A Consort with Angels, and happy Spirits that see God's Face, and attend upon his Throne; laughing even Kings, and all their painted Glories and Pleasures here, to scorn.  
There you shall one day see him again face to face, in that very House of clay, which he laid down, when he left the World and You, (though altered in Quality:) And (if that may make to the increase of your Bliss) I am persuaded, know, and enjoy him, see Heaven the richer in your Seed, his joy augmented and made fuller by yours, and yours by his  
Let Sadduces deny this, and Gentiles deride it; This is the Hope of Israel.  
There you shall sing that Alleluïa with him, 
Reu.  to him that sits upon the Throne, and to the Lamb, that hath redeemed you from the earth, and made you Kings and Priests to God his Father; and to the blessed Spirit of Truth, and Comfort, proceeding from them both; the All-glorious, Ineffable, Eternal Trinity; To whom in the mean time, let us in earth with them in Heaven, (knees, faces, and hearts bending to the dust before Him.) render all Praise, Power, Majesty, and Dominion for evermore, Amen.  Soli Deo Trin-vni Gloria.  

FILIUS AD PARENTS.  
Vivo, 
Ex Epitaph cu iusdem nobilis Jwenis Germani, qui in Angliae inter peregrinandum occubuit, & in Ecclesia Sancti Olavi, Londini, in Fratribus Crucigeris sepultus iacet.  fruor tandem veris (ne fleet Parents)  
Delicijs, Coelo, Posteritate, Deo.  
Dear Parents weep not, I live, and have abode  
In Bliss; enjoying Heaven, posterity, and God.   
FINIS.