Right Thoughts in Sad Hours, Representing the COMFORTS and the DUTIES OF Good ●en under all their AFFLICTIONS; And Particularly, That one, the Untimely Death of CHILDREN IN A SERMON DELIVERED At Charls-town, New-England; under a fresh Experience of that Calamity.  Unto the Upright there ariseth LIGHT in Darkness. Mercatur a est Pauca amittere, ut majora Lucreris. Tertul. 
LONDON, Printed by james Astwood. 1689.   

TO My very Worthy Friend, Mr. S. S.  
Ever Honoured Sir,  
THE Ensuing Sermon, delivered in a Neighbour-Congregation, under Afflicting impressions from the sudden Death of an only Child, with a bestowal of some Correction and Enlargement since upon it; I know no fitter Person than Yourself, to Present unto; Yourself, I say, Who have had several Infants carried hence unto the Father of Spirits, in the Chariot of the same Distemper that fetched mine away. Books or Thoughts on such a Subject as that which is handled here, have been often offered by me unto others, that were Mourners; and being made a Mourner myself, I thought it a fit occasion for me, to Write as well as Think more particularly, the things that may be serviceable to the sorrowful. Nor have I many Friends in this Evil World, whose Edification I can pursue with more Alacrity and Activity, by such pains as these, than Yours. I have often felt the Power, and almost as often the Sweetness of that persuasion, My God will never hurt me. Unto Yourself, that I may recommend the entertainment of that Comfort and Cordial, under the Death of so many dear Children as you have been called unto the Resignation of, is the end of my putting these Meditations into your Hands. I cannot without some Affection read Gregory Nazianzen, in his Funeral Oration on the Death of his Brother, giving this account of his Aged and then Living Parents; My Father and Mother, (says he) who are both Lovers of their Children, but more Lovers of their Saviour, after they had in spite of all the Moths, and all the Thiefs, and all the Devils too in this World, laid up in a better World, a Rich Inheritance for their Children, they have now sent one of their Sons before, to take Possession of it. If your Modesty and Humility will not permit me to recite this as a Character of, let me however propound it as an Employment for Yourself, and your Virtuous Consort. You cannot use too much care to secure unto your Children an Inheritance among the Saints in Light; and for those which are departed, you may be joyfully assured, That they are made partakers of that Inheritance. What further possession of this Waste Wild America, the Lord jesus may take yet before the Time of the Restitution of all things, we cannot Positively say; only we may probably hope, that he has a Glorious Interest shortly to be erected and maintained in these utmost parts of the Earth. But this I am sure of, There are some rich plots of Ground in this Continent, which in the Approaching Day of God will yield no small Sheaves of pure Grain unto the Almighty Raiser of the Dead. This last Age has produced in these Western Indies, those Dormitories, which are filled with precious Dust, united unto the Son of God. Part of that Honour able Dust hath proceeded from your happy Loins; Your deceased Children are part of the Turf, with which the Lord jesus, as it were, takes a Livery and Seisin of this New World for himself. Sir, Be encouraged to go on, abounding in the Work of the Lord; and go on, to believe it your Felicity, That you shall go to your glorified Infants, and they shall not Return unto you.  
With these Testimonies of Respct, I am, Sir, Your Affectionate Friend and Servant, C. M.   

Right THOUGHTS IN Sad Hours,  Gen. XLII. 36. Me have ye bereft of my CHILDREN; Joseph is not, and Simeon is not— all these things are AGAINST me. 
THE common, but causeless mistake of Pious Men, under and about Afflictions, is represented in these Words; of which words the venerable Chrysostom in his Ancient Commentary on them, speaks truly, They are fit words to express the Relenting Bowels of a Parent; and yet we may without ill manners venture to add, The words do not altogether so well become the Grace, the Faith, the Patience of a Christian.  
In this Book of the World's Beginning, which contains an admirable Narrative of Transactions for above Three and twenty Hundred Years from the first Dawn of Time; the Revolutions which went over the Patriarch jacob, are not the least spoken of by Moses, the Inspired Historian; and there are especially Three Travels of that renowned Man, which the History of his Life and Death is Elegantly woven into: The last of those Journeys was of near Two hundred Miles, namely from Canaan unto Goshen, occasioned by his Son Ioseph's Advancement to be Viceroy of Egypt, and the Relief which that Honourable Viceroy had provided against the sore Famine then raging in the Countries round about.  
This Chapter entertains us with a very affecting story of some accidents preparatory thereunto; a story, How the Ten Brethren of joseph, by whose Villainy he had been Spirited away into Egypt, made their Humble Address unto him for Corn, while his Grandeur and his Policy concealed him from their knowledge: How by a contrivance he made one of them, Simeon by name, a Prisoner; in the mean time obliging the rest to return with another Brother of his, by name Benjamin, who was by them left behind as the chief solace of their Aged Father, and the only remaining Child of his deceased Mother. Old jacob was made acquainted with the true state of the Case, and in this Verse we have his grievous Resentment of it. In this Querimonious Lamentation of the good old Saint there are especially Two things intimated:  
First, Here seems to be a Suspecting of his children's Wickedness; his words are, Me have ye bereft of my Children, Joseph is not, Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away. Methinks the sorrow of his oppressed Heart seems thus to vent itself, q. d.  
This is a strange, and a very sad thing; I cannot trust you all together, but one or other of you, that you think I have a particular kindness for, must come short home. I am now confirmed in my doubts, that you were the Wild-beasts, the unnatural Tigers who tore my joseph to pieces. I am not without my Fears, that you are the jailors, Shall I say? or the Hangmen who have got my Simeon out of the way. And I am jealous that you have some ill design upon my best Darling Benjamin too. Never had any man such mishaps in his Children, as your miserable Father has.  
Next, Here seems to be a Bewailing of his Maker's providence: His words are, All these things are against me. Some render them, All these things are UPON me, q. d. As for you, you make light of these matters, as if they were no concernment of yours: For my part, I feel them, they go very near to me. But our Translation of it, seems more worthy of Approbation and Acceptation; All these things are AGAINST me: And then this Paraphrase will carry the sense of it, q. d.  
The things which have been my Trouble, will be my Ruin; they are a sort of things which I cannot conceive any advantage to myself consulted in, or accrueing by. When I look upon the dealings of the Lord, I cannot but be full of awful Apprehensions that I am utterly banished from the mercies of the Lord; these things render me an undone Man.  
Now, remember that the happy event proved him egregiously mistaken here; joseph is not, said he; yet, he was, and his Father had no cause to be sorry that he was what he was: Simeon is not, said he; yet he was, and his Father might have been starved, if he had not been where he was. Those things which he so fond counted against him, were the very things that not only tried his Grace, but also saved his Life. Let us admit the deplored Child himself, to correct the sad mistake; he said afterwards in Gen. 50. 20. God meant it unto Good.  
The Truth which from this Mistake we may raise for a Doctrine to be now insisted on, is therefore this:  

Doctrine.  
The People of God are apt very frequently, but not a little wrongfully to conclude, that the Afflictive Dispensations of the most High towards them, are very highly to their Prejudice, or but a little to their Benefit.  
The Propositions that may serve to state this Truth distinctly in your Thoughts, are such as these.  

Proposition I.  
The People of God are sure to be exercised with Afflictive Dispensations of the most High towards them in the World.  
There is in every Generation a Remnant, a Little little Flock of Men, who are effectually called from the Vanities which the biggest part of perishing Mankind is woefully drowned in, unto the service of the Living God; who have chosen God as their Best good, and their Last end; chosen Christ as their Lord Redeemer, and resolved to be for him and not for another. These renewed Children of Adam are the Mystical Children of Israel; they may with an Eye to a Spiritual relation, point at jacob, and say, A Syrian ready to perish was my Father. Now these must even in a peculiar manner expect to be like their Father jacob, who in the close of his days was forced to say, Gen. 47. 9 Evil have been the days of the years of my Life. In every Age and in every Place, we may see the most High God afflicting of a jacob in his Relations; of them, some are Churlish, others are Profane, and others are Taken away. We may behold the Lord afflicting of an Heman in his Mind; th● Man complains, Lord, Why dost thou cast off my Soul? While I suffer thy Terrors, I am distracted. We may behold the Lord Afflicting of a Timothy in his Body, he feels a weak Stomach, with often Infirmities. We may behold the Lord Afflicting of a Lazarus in his Estate, he is reduced unto Beggary at the Doors of a wicked Belly-God. We may behold the Lord Afflicting of an Elijah in his Esteem, he is Libelled as a Seditions Boutefeau, always Troubling of his Country. In a word, we may ordinarily behold a David, a job, a Paul, Afflicted in all, or most of these regards.  
The Christian that promises himself an Immunity from Afflictions in this Evil World, is indeed a Christian only in the Italian, wicked, scoffing usage of the Word, that is, a Fool. It is one of the Names put upon the People of God, in Isa. 54. 11. O thou Afflicted. Nor can any particular Believer escape this common Lot: No, every one that is of Israel, must look to say with Israel, in Psal. 129. 1. Many a time have they Afflicted me from my Youth. Indeed the People of God will at last arrive unto a Quiet Haven. — Sedes ubi Fata quietas Ostendunt—  
[Or in a better Dialect] Where all Tears shall be wiped from their Eyes: But where? But when? Truly, this Bliss-land is not on this side the Water; it is a Land a far off, and we shall not see it, until we put ashore on the Land flowing with Milk and Honey, beyond the Stars: We must Sail through a turbid Ocean full of horrible Tempest, here, and, — Vt Fluctus Fluctum sic Luctus Luctum— One Wave will follow upon another, the last Wave still seeming the tenth Wave, until we drop Anchor within the vail of Heaven itself. When the Ancient Martyr Ignatius was brought to have his Flesh torn from his Bones, and his Bones broken by the Teeth of Wild Beasts, he uttered such a speech as that, O now I begin to be a Christian! Thus our Lord hath laid down this as the A B C of Christianity, in Matth. 16. 24. If any man will come after me, he must take up his Cross, and follow me. This is the first Lesson for a Disciple in the School of the Lord Jesus, Look for Afflictions here! The Glorious God will lay over our Shoulders that ragged piece of Wood, a Cross; when once we are associated with his people, who all Travel through the Valley of Baca, that is, of Weeping, unto their Everlasting Happiness. This was the condition of our Illustrious Forerunner; he ran through a way all strowed with Briars and Thorns, as it is said in Luk. 24. 46. He must suffer, and enter into his glory; and all his followers are to drink of his Cup: We cannot escape treading in the Bloody Tracks which he hath left behind him; we have received this warning from our Lord himself, in joh. 16. 33. In the World you shall have Tribulation: We have received this Witness from his Apostles also, in Act. 14. 22. Through much Tribulation we must enter into the Kingdom of God; and the experience of above Five thousand Years, hath now set a Seal to that Observation, in Psal. 31. 19 Many are the Troubles of the Righteous.  

Question.  
But from whose Hands do the Afflictions of the Lords people come?  
This is that which we have said, They are the Dispensations of the most High. Indeed there may often be the Hand of joab in our Afflictions, there may be the Malice of Satan and his Instruments. Those fierce Natives of this dark Climate will be often as Thorns in the sides of the Pilgrims, that are Travelling to a better Country.  
But still these Rods are all in the Hand of God: We are told in Amos 3. 7. there is no such Evil in the City, and the Lord hath not done it. O that every Man would always remember this, the Griefs of thy Heart are all ordered by that God by whom the Hairs of thy Head are all numbered. Not so much as the Tongue of a Dog will ever stir against thee, unless managed by the Hand of the Lord. The King of Assyria himself, by whom a vast part of mankind may be Afflicted, is but a staff of Indignation in that all disposing Hand.    

Proposition II.  
The people of God are apt very frequently to conclude, that the Afflictive Dispensations of the most High towards them, are very highly to their prejudice.  
From the embittered Heart of a jacob in his exercises, there is often sobbed that melancholy Groan, All these things are against me. Alas! under Affliction we can usually speak no other Language but that in Lam. 3. 1. I have seen Affliction by the Rod of God's wrath; we see nothing but Wrath and Curse, and fiery Vengeance dispensed unto us in our Bitter things.  

Question.  
Whence does this come to pass?  
One reason of this Misprision is; The best people of God are not without bad remainders of Flesh: Now every Affliction will grate hard upon That; the galled Flesh of Afflicted Men, cannot forbear that shriek, I am hurt. This Flesh of ours will cloud our understandings, and beget in us very false Conceptions of our sharp Afflictions. The methods wherein the great God pursues our good, are very Certain, and very Glorious; but they are also very Obscure. Silly shallow Creatures, who dwell in Houses of Clay, cannot fathom the Mysterious proceedings of the God whose Way is in the Deep, and whose judgements are a great Deep; and when we go to Contemplate these deep things, than our Flesh offers unto us very injurious Glasses to view them in; listen to this misjudging Flesh, and it will tell us, If thou dost not live surrounded with the Pleasures, and Riches, and Honours of this World, and leave a good Portion of them unto Children of thy own; when thy time shall come to Die, thou art a Miserable Man. The moan of jacob in our Text is by some Englished so, All these things are Above me: Truly, 'tis above the Reach, above the ken of our Flesh to imagine, That what impairs our Worldly greatness and glory, is no real Detriment unto us; our Sense, our carnal perverse dim-sighted Sense, will not easily make sense of that Riddle, in judg. 14. 14. Out of the Eater came forth Meat.  
Another reason of this Error is; The people of God have been guilty of much Sin against God. In the dark doleful days of their Unregeneracy, how many, how mighty, were our doings against the Lord! Yea, and since the Lord made us know wisdom in the hidden Man; how crooked, how faulty have our ways before him been! The Psalmist complained in Psal. 49. 5. In the days of Evil, the iniquity of my heels doth compass me about: Our Heels formerly have stepped awry into dirty Iniquities, and those Iniquities we have been ready to lay at our Heels by our Impenitent forgetfulness: But in our Afflictions those Iniquities rising as it were out of their Grave, haunt us, dog us, and stare us full in the Face; our Hearts now condemn us, and thereupon they likewise condemn God: We are prone to think that God's designs cannot be good, because we know that our deserts are very bad. Sinful Man will not quickly believe that word of the Lord, My Thoughts are not as your Thoughts: Hence our own first misgiving, and then misjudging Hearts will in Affliction say, Now I feel the wounds of an Enemy: It is not possible that I should suffer these terrible things from one who is the God of my Salvation; the Lord proceeds to Afflict me thus, because he intends to destroy me for ever. When once a thinking Man comes to say, God is Angry, he will soon add, I am undone.  
A Third reason (to say no more) of it, is; The Devil of Hell often falls upon the people of God in their Afflictions, that soul Fiend falls foul on them, when he has them thus at a disadvantage. The Powers of Darkness take the Hours of Darkness therein to make their Assaults on the Faith of them that they would annoy. The Accuser of Men to God, is also an Accuser of God to Men; and when it is a Gloomy time without them, then will Satan suggest within them, Terribilia de Deo, very frightful Visions of their Almighty Saviour; he will pour in upon them those things which are called, in Eph. 6. 16. The fiery Darts of the Wicked one: He would have us entertain hard and Hellish thoughts of that God, whose Mercy endureth for Ever: Hence he will be still telling of us, God counts thee for his Enemy, and thy God hath forgotten thee, and the Mercy of the Lord is clean gone from thee for ever; thou art before thy Maker as a Vessel wherein he will have no pleasure for evermore; he will undo thee before he has done with thee.  
Now, What is the Result of all this? Alas! the people of God now frequently have cause to give that mean, that shameful, that pitiful account of themselves, in Psal. 77. 2. In the day of my trouble, my Soul refused to be comforted.    

Proposition III.  
The people of God conclude not a little wrongfully, when they think his Afflictive Dispensations to be but a little for their benefit.  
When jacob would surmise, All these things are against me, it might have been replied upon him, No, you are greatly deceived, you and yours must have perished, if these things had not happened. When the Afflicted people of God cry out, Undone! Undone! they have cause to eat that word, and rather to say, Periissem nisi periissem, I had been quite undone, if I had not been thus undone. Instead of concluding, All these things are against me, we do much wrong, if we do not admit that Thought, in Rom. 8. 28. All things shall work together for good.  

Question.  
How does this Appear?  
One piece of Injustice attending of that conclusion is; There is a wrong thereby done to the Kindness of God. With such a clap of Thunder as this may the Lord reprove your hard opinion of him, You think worse of me than I deserve! Our good God hath assured us, in Rev. 3. 19 Whom I love, I rebuke and chasten; why then shall we contradict him with such a vain imagination as this, I am Rebuked only that I may be ruined, I am Chastened only because I am abhorred by the Lord?  
Another Injustice expressed in that conclusion is; There is thereby a wrong done to the Wisdom of God. They of Old reflected hard, when they said, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Thus do they that say, Can any good thing come out of Affliction? Well, and I pray, Why not? What should hinder Good from coming out of that grievous thing? Is it impossible unto that God, who is wise in Counsel, and wonderful in Working? We are informed in 1 Pet. 1. 6. It is only if need be, that we are brought into Heaviness: The Lord would not let one Affliction give thee any Trouble, if some Occasion did not call for it, if much Advantage did not come by it.  
One more Evidence of unreasonableness in this conclusion is, The people of God at the Period of their Afflictions, will themselves confess, this conclusion to have been Unreasonable. What our Lord said unto the Inquisitive Peter, the same he says unto the Afflicted Christian, What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter: Verily, when we do hereafter know, how God has at once Afflicted us and Amended us, than we shall say, He hath done all things well. When we have got through the black Valleys, out on the other side, than we shall see what now we will hardly believe, than we see that the Thoughts of God about us were Thoughts of Good and not of Evil; then we see that the Aims of God were to do us Good in the latter end; then do our Triumphing Souls declare as in Psal. 119. 71. It is good for me, that I have been Afflicted. Nothing is more common than to hear a Christian after many Afflictions professing, I could not have been well without any one of all my Afflictions, I had want of them all, I have good by them all: How much more will the Beauty and Benefit of all our Afflictions be thankfully acknowledged by us in the Land of light, where every Labyrinth of providence will be explained; for every one of our Afflictions in this, we shall return a Million of Hallelujahs in another and a better World.  
The Improvement of these things remains.     

USE.  
And now let these things encourage the people of the Saints of the most High, unto a due Faith and Patience under the Afflictive Dispensations, which their Heavenly Father tries them with. Christians, under all your Afflictions, labour to say steadfastly, to say joyfully, not, All these things are against me, but rather, Thanks be to God for his unspeakable Gifts. The Language that best befits us under our Afflictions is that, the frequent using of which gave unto a famous Jewish Rabbi the name of Rabbi Ganizoth; namely, This Affliction was for my good; and This too, and This too.  
I am this day visited myself with the sudden Death of a dear and only Child: Permit me to endeavour your Edification, for you all have been and may be under some Affliction, and most of you under such Affliction; let me do it by tendering unto you such Considerations as I would this day quiet my own tempestuous Rebellious Heart withal. As our Lord Jesus Christ himself was Tempted for this cause in part, That he might know how to succour the Tempted; thus the frail Men whom he employs, for this, among other that are worse causes, are Afflicted, even That they may more feelingly speak a word in season unto others in Affliction too.  
¶ There is First a General and then a Special Case, which the following part of my Discourse must apply itself unto.  

The General Case.  
The more General Exhortation to be now Urged, is;  
Let us under no Affliction whatsoever, be discomposed with any Apprehension, as if it were utterly Against us.  
I am speaking to many Children of jacob that are Children of Affliction; some of us are lamenting over our broken Estates, like Naomi, in Ruth 1. 21. saying, I was Full, but I am become Empty. Some of us are Lamenting over our blasted Credits, like David, in Psal. 69. 20. saying, Reproach hath broken my Heart; and there are with us those who are Weeping over their Dead Children, like the distressed Women of Bethlehom, in Matth. 2. 18. Weeping for their Children, and not willing to be comforted, because they are not: And many more such Griefs are the minds of devout Persons among us Wounded with. That which jacob sighed over his joseph and Simeon, is by multitudes Mourned over their other Enjoyments also. An Ezekiel, as in Ezek. 24. 16. Sighs over the Desire of his Eyes, She is not! A Widow of one of the Sons of the Prophets, as in 2 King 4. 1. Sighs, My Husband is not. An Isaac, as in Gen. 24. 67. may Sigh over his Mother, She is not. An Israel, as in Gen. 35. 29. may Sigh over his Father, He is not. And if a jonah have had any Gourd which he has taken much contentment in, he too, as in jon. 4. 8. is made to Sigh, It is not. But that which puts a Sting into all these Afflictions, is, that the Afflicted say, All these things are against me. Now, O that there may be laid upon the thus talking Sorrow a charge of Silence; Eternal Silence unto thee now, O thou inordinate Passion, before the Lord. Let this be as a Word upon the Wheels, running into the very Souls of them that are of an heavy Heart. Be entreated, O Afflicted Christians, to say no more, All these things are against me. No, be Comforted; be Refreshed with Sentiments that are quite contrary thereunto. In your most cloudy hours, O strive to say with him in Psal. 94. 19 In the multitude of my Thoughts within me, O Lord, thy comforts delight my Soul.  

COMFORTS.  
It is the advice of the Wise Man, in Eccl. 7. 14. In the day of Adversity consider: Now there are these comfortable things, which it is fit for you to consider in this day of your Adversity; let me advise you with some Good and Comfortable Words.  

Consider FIRST,  
Those very things which your Affliction lies in the absence of, might for aught you can say, be very much unto your prejudice.  
That very joseph, that very Simeon, that very Benjamin, which you are Afflicted for the want of, might do you more Hurt than Good.  
Even in outward Respects, you cannot determine what is best for you: It were as much Arrogance in you to direct the Providence of God, as it was Blasphemy in the well-known Prince to Correct the Creation of God, when he said, Had I been by at the Making of the World, I could have shown how some things might have been better done. Perhaps you are Afflicted, because your Possessions about you are diminished; but have you not read in Eccl. 5. 13. of Riches kept to the hurt of the Owners: Many a Man's Cash has been his Crime; his House has cost him his Head, by his Land he has forfeited his Life; the poor Heathen of old, cursing of his Enemy, wished that he might be a Rich man. Perhaps you are Afflicted because of a little Mud thrown upon your Reputations; but have you not read in Prov. 27. 14. How pernicious a thing it is to have too much Applause in the World? To be too well spoken of, procures that Envy, before which, Who can stand? The Breath in the Trumpet of Fame not rarely carries a Plague, and a Bane to them whose Names it found'st. It may be, your Affliction is the loss of Children; well, have you not read such a Message sent to a godly Man, as that in 1 Sam. 2. 33. The Son of thine, whom I shall not cut off, shall be to consume thine Eyes, and to grieve thine Heart. 'tis possible, that if thy Child had lived, it might have made thee, the Father of a Fool, or (that I may speak to the Sex that is most unable to bear this Trial) the Mother of a Shame. It is a very ordinary thing for one Living Child to occasion more trouble than seven Dead ones.  
However, in Spiritual Regards, you may be exceedingly harmed by the secular Delights which you desire; you may have cause to Rue what you Wish, because it may prove an Idol which will render your Souls like the Barren Heath in the Wilderness before the Lord. We do very Childishly often cry for a Knife that would cut the Fingers of our own Souls; we pant after those things which may be to our Souls as bad as drink to the Thirsty craving Man in a Dropsy. It was the very direful calamity of the ancient Israelites, in Psal. 105. 15. The Lord gave them their Requests, but sent leanness into their Soul. A Lean Soul, a Wretched Soul, a Soul pining away in its iniquities, is oftentimes the effect of those fine things which we Dote upon. It is a blasted banned Soul that sets up a Creature in the Room, the Throne of the great God, that gives unto a Creature those Loves and those Cares which are due unto the great God alone: Such Idolatry the Soul is too frequently by Prosperity seduced unto. We are told in Prov. 1. 32. The prosperity of Fools destroys them; many a Fool is thus destroyed! O fearful case! A full Table, and a lean Soul! A big Title, and a lean Soul! A numerous Posterity, and a Soul e'en like the Kine in Pharaohs Dream! Madness is in our Hearts if we tremble not at this, Soul-calamities are sore Calamities.   

Consider NEXT,  
The benefit which the Lord intends you by your Afflictions, is really very great and glorious.  
The sweet Influences which your Afflictions are like to have upon you, who can enough describe? If you lose a joseph, or a Simeon, or a Benjamin, behold these are Spiritual Blessings in Heavenly things, with which God will abundantly make up your loss. That very rule which the Lord has given us about the Nurture of our Children, He observes in the Discipline of his own; we are under our Heavenly Father's executions of that Rule, even then when the Death of our Children is the Affliction under which we labour, Prov. 23. 14. Thou shalt beat thy Child with the Rod, and shalt deliver his Soul from Hell. In this World you are like to be much the Wiser and much the Better for your Afflictions, and much the more Blessed for them in the other World for evermore. What? And are these things against you? God forbid you should imagine so.  
I. Those things which you conclude to be against you, are the things, by which the most High designs to promote your KNOWLEDGE.  
It is affirmed in Psal. 94. 12. That those Whom God chastens, he also teaches out of his Law. The Almighty is now but putting of you to School, and [Schola Crucis est Schola Lucis;] you are in a School where the Lord will have you to learn many very notable and surprising Lessons: God will have Afflictions to be the Clay and spital that shall open those Eyes which Sin hath blinded; horrible Cataracts have seized those Eyes, which are by these means removed; the Physician recites to you the names of some Bitter Herbs, which the Eyesight is relieved by. We are indeed all of us a sort of Creatures which can see best in the Dark; it was the Aphorism of Solomon the Wise, in Prov. 29. 15. The Rod and Correction give Wisdom. It usually comes to pass that Correction and Instruction go together. You shall find that TWO 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that Quae Nocent Docent, that Maturant Aspera Mentem, and that Vexatio dat Intellectum; or as the Proverb of the Ancients hath it, In Adversity Men find Eyes. You shall now know more; but hear of What:  
§. The Lord resolves to make you know more, First of HIMSELF: We have been miserably deficient in the knowledge of God, (we may say of ourselves, as Paul of some) we may speak it unto our shame; Our Ignorance of God hath been the cause of ours Sins; Heu! Prima haec scelerum causa est mortalibus aegris Naturam nescire Dei— And our Knowledge of God will be the effect of our Sorrows for them: The Lord is carrying of you into the Cliffs of a cragged Rock, and it is to make the Glory of his Attributes pass before you. When job had gone through his weary Months, he then said unto the Lord, as in job. 42. 5. Now mine Eye sees thee! It is by Affliction that we are brought to see the Sovereignty of God, and to lie before him as Clay in the Hand of the Potter; to see the Righteousness of God, and to own that he punisheth us far less than our iniquities deserve; to see the Holiness of God, and to Reverence him as one that is of purer Eyes than to behold Evil; to see the Power of God, and to think, that nothing is too hard for the Lord; to see the Goodness of God, and to find him a rewarder of them that diligently seek him; in a word, a little more Affliction will bring thee to say, Lord, I know thy Name, and I will put my Trust in thee.  
§. The Lord resolves to make you know more, Secondly, of his SON: What are all those Afflictions that make you groan? Truly, they are a few Chips and Splinters of a Redeemers Cross: They are, as 'tis said, in Col. 1. 24. That which is behind of the Afflictions of Christ; some Vinegar and Gall was left by him for us to pledge him by tasting of: God will thereby make you sensible a little of the Agonies and Anguishes that made him to Roar, when there were Laid on him the Iniquities of us all. We were never yet enough affected with the Kindness of our Lord Jesus in the dark doleful day, when he endured the Cross, despising the Shame which was due unto us all. Art thou Poor? God will have thee call to mind the Poverty which thy Redeemer underwent for thy sake, the Poverty which when our Lord Inventoried his Estate, rendered the Sum Total of it only this, The Son of Man hath not where to lay his Head. Art thou Pained? God will have thee mindful of the strong Pains which thy Redeemer felt, when his Flesh was torn from his Bones, when from Head to Foot bloody Wounds and Stripes and Stabs were to be seen upon him. Art thou Fearful? God will have thee bear in mind, the horrible Consternation which caused thy Redeemer to Sweat clots of Blood, tho' in a cold Night he were grovelling on the cold Ground. Art thou Disgraced? God will have thee mindful of the Ignominy cast upon thy Saviour, when he was used as a Traitor, as all that was Vile, and when the basest fellow in the City was counted a better Man than he. Do thy Friends deal unworthily? Thou shalt then learn what the Exercise of thy Redeemer was, when even those of his own Family, all forsook him and fled: these things Affliction will make us Thoughtful of, and Thankful for: And as the Kindness of a jesus, so the Value of a jesus, comes to be duly rated by such means as these. The Afflicted man is driven to call every Creature, A lying Vanity, and from hence he comes to call a Christ, The Pearl of great Price: It hath been said, Unto you that are Believers he is Precious; we may add, He is Precious to you that are Afflicted also. The Afflicted man finds that Gold itself will do him no good; whereupon a Saviour becomes more desirable than whole Mountains of Ophirs Gold unto him.  
§. The Lord resolves to make you know more, Thirdly, Of his WORD. There is a Glorious Letter which the God of Heaven, hath sent from the Third Heaven unto the Children of Men. Foolish man often throws it by like Wast-paper, until Affliction puts him upon the due, the diligent study of it. David that had a lesser Bible than we, could say in Psal. 119. 23. Princes did sit and speak against me; but what was the issue of the Affliction which the Calumny and Obloquy of his Persecutors gave unto him? It follows, Thy Servant did Meditate on thy Statutes. Bad weather in the World makes Afflicted men to keep their Eyes much upon the Light shining in a Dark place unto them. To Meditate on a fit portion of the Bible, dwelling on every Verse, till at least one Observation and one Supplication be drawn from it; hath not seldomer been the Ease, than it hath been the Work of Afflicted Men: And God will hereby help you, as to a better Relish of, so to a fuller Comment on these Miraculous Lines than once you had: The bitter Tangle of Afflictions will bring you to a better Taste of that Book, whereof the Psalmist could say, How sweet are thy words unto my Taste! A Leaf of the Bible appears (as to Luther) not to be parted withal for all this whole World; chiefly unto those whom Affliction hath convinced of the Vanity and Vexation here. But this is not all; the best Expositors of not a few Assertions in the Bible are some sore Afflictions in the World. The Stars and the Scriptures are seen best in a Frosty Night. The Mysteries of a Well-ordered Covenant, the Maeanders of a Deceitful Heart, the worth and use of Great and Precious promises, you will best understand in your Afflicted Hours. Adversity makes a Verse of Scripture to be not like a Verse of Ovid, as it often is to them that are not in Trouble as other men.  
§ The Lord resolves to make you know more, Fourthly, of YOURSELVES. The Golden Rule, Know thyself, is that which our God will have us Learn, while we feel his Rod. A Wound will convince an Emperor that he is a Man. It was said unto Israel in Deut. 8. 2. The Lord Humbled them, that what was in their Hearts might be known: God will have us to see our own Follies and be Ashamed. God will have us to see our own Graces and be Refreshed; and in the Furnace of Affliction we must undergo a Fiery Trial in order thereunto. Scilicet ut Fulvum spectatur in Ignibus Aurum— Under Affliction, as God will bring you to say of yourselves, I have perverted that which is Right, so he will find occasion for you to hear him saying to you, Now I know that thou fearest me.  
§. But where shall I stop? About the advancements of Sight procured by Affliction, I may say as about the Instances of Faith, it is said by the Apostle, The time would fail me to mention them: Yet let me briefly add; By the Afflictions whereof you complain, God will bring you to Know what SIN is. You that formerly counted Stolen Waters are Sweet, shall now see Sin in a truer uglier dress; you shall see that it is as in jer. 44. 4. The abominable thing, which I hate, saith the Lord. God will also bring you to Know what RELIGION is: You that sometimes have said, It is in vain to serve the Lord, shall now be reduced unto better Sentiments; you will soon believe that in Psal. 111. 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom. Finally, God will bring you to Know what all Sublunary things are. You have had your too high Thoughts in your good Times; then your Song was, My Mountain is made strong. God will now show you what Creatures are, and give you cause to say of them, They are all Physicians of no value, and They are broken Cisterns that can hold no Water. Well then; say not, All these things are against me: It is a matchless Privilege to be thus Taught of God. We are told in Eccl. 1. 18. He that increaseth Knowledge, increaseth Sorrow: Behold, we may Invert the Words, and not Injure the Truth, Increase of Sorrow brings increase of Knowledge with it.  
TWO Those things which you conclude to be against you, are the things by which the most High designs to promote your VIRTUE also.  
The interest of Holiness will be marvellously befriended in your Souls and Lives, by the influence of Affliction; we are told in Heb. 12. 10. That God chastens us, to make us partakers of his Holiness; that Holiness which he does like, and which is like to himself: These Three will the Holy Effects of your Affliction be.  
§. Your Afflictions will, First, Help your Disorders. Your Souls are depraved with, or exposed to dangerous deadly Disorders and Distempers: By Afflictions your Heavenly Father will Prevent them; by Afflictions he will Redress them. What are you Afflicted for? See a short and a sweet account given of this Physic, in Isa. 27. 9 By this the iniquity of Jacob shall be purged, and all the Fruit shall be to take away his Sin. The first ways of David were his best ways. Why so? Truly, it was because the first days of David were his worst days: He doth himself assign this reason of it, Psal. 119. 67. Before I was Afflicted I went astray, but now I have kept thy word. Usually men Sin lest when they Suffer most. God will have thy ways too to be good ways; they shall therefore be ways Hedged with Thorns, that thy Soul may not step awry: Thy way must be incommoded by Thorns, that it may not be overrun with Weeds. There are great Sins which thy wild Lusts would hurry thee on unto; there is a Madness in thy Heart that would produce all manner of Mischief in thy Life, if restraint be not laid upon it; now the Iron Chains of Affliction are clapped upon thee to keep thee from thy Exorbitancies. What is said concerning the good Subjects of the Ancient Typical, Antiochal Perfecution, in Dan. 11. 35. is to be said concerning the good Subjects of any Affliction whatsoever, They are Purged and made White thereby. This more generally; but more particularly, I would add:  
§. Again, Your Afflictions will wean your Afflections from the wrong Objects of them. God will have you to look upon all things here below with such Affections as David had for a Kingdom in an Exile, and to say, I am as a weaned Child. To this end the Lord by Afflictions lays Wormwood on the Breasts which you have hung too much upon. He will cause Creatures to be our Grief that they may not be our God. Tertullian said very true of Idolatry, It is praecipuum crimen Humani generis, the grand Crime of Mankind: Affliction mortifies that Rebellion; therefore, David, are thy Children cut off: therefore, jacob, is the Wife of thy Bosom snatched out of it; therefore, Hezekiah, is thy Treasure blasted and wasted: It is that Idolatrous Affections may be recalled.  
§. Once more; both your Graces and your Duties will be quickened by your Afflictions. Afflictions will prove the Weights by the Hanging whereof upon you, you shall more flourish like Palm-trees in the Court-yards of the Lord: Afflictions will be the Feet which by treading upon you, will make you as the Chamomil, to grow the more. Afflictions will be the Fires, which like Viols, you shall make the better Music by being disposed near unto: Afflictions will be the Spurs which shall cause you to mend your pace in Running the Race which is set before you. Afflictions— But room for enlargement is denied— In short; God by Afflictions is as it were pounding or grinding of his rare Spices in your Souls, the scent of them will now become very Fragrant, very Glorious. We have heard in Eccl. 7. 3. By the sadness of the Countenance, the Heart is made better: God will make that Heart of thine very Serious, very Circumspect, very Spiritual, and very Heavenly by the Afflictions which thou art prone to quarrel at.  
O'then say not, All these things are against me; the price of these things is above Rubies. Well faith the sentence of the Ancient, O servum illum Beatum, cujus emendationi Deus instat, & cut dignatur (sic) Irasci.  
III. The most High designs likewise by the Afflictions to promote your HEAVEN for ever more.  
The Speech of the Apostle to this purpose is very Emphatical, 2 Cor. 4. 17. Our light Affliction here, which is but for a Moment, works for us a far more Exceeding and Eternal weight of Glory. O surprising connexion! Light Afflictions work a Weight of Glory! Afflictions for a Moment work a Glory Eternal; and this Glory shall be a far more Exceeding Glory; or, as the Original intimates, a Glory which no Hyperbole upon Hyperbole can give a too Glorious Character of! Your Afflictions do prepare you for, tho' they do not purchase for you, the Glories of the World to come. The Hebrew word for Glory signifies the same that your own sense of Affliction feels, a Weighty thing. Well, from the one Weight you shall pass to the other. Your Crown of Thorns will shortly be turned into a Crown of Glory; a Weighty, a Massy, a never-fading Crown. A Roman Emperor once rewarded one that wore an Iron Chain in a Prison for his sake, with a Golden Chain as heavy in a Preferment afterward: Such, and more than such at last will be thy Felicity. Art thou Afflicted? Be assured,— Dolour hic tibi proder it olim. After thy Sowing time in Tears, thou shalt have a Reaping time in joy; after thy Bread of Adversity, thou shalt come to Eat of the Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God; after thy Water of Affliction, thou shalt come to Drink of the River of Pleasures at Gods right Hand for evermore. Let me say to thee as the Martyr to his Friend, Thy Affliction will scour and rub thee bright, that thou mayst be fit to be set upon an high Shelf in Heaven for ever: or, let me say to thee as the Martyr to himself, Hold out Faith and Patience, Heaven will quickly make amends for all. Thou shalt have the more of Heaven for all thy past Heaviness; thou shalt e'er long be received into the place of Rest, and there all thy former Difficulties will but sweeten the Times of Refreshing which now come from the Presence of the Lord.  
Say now, O Believer, Are all these things Against thee? O what things can be for thy Good, if these are not so? Sat down then, and whatever thy Afflictions are, let these words of the Lord Jesus alloy thy Storms. Do not now practically say, These Consolations of God are small: Behold, thou art furnished with strong Consolations.    

Counsels.  
But that you may be able to apply these Consolations unto good purpose, under Affliction there are some Counsels to be set before you. In so many Scriptures you shall therefore have so many Counsels; they will be both best Received and best Remembered if they come unto you with a, Thus saith the Lord.  

The First Counsel proper for you, is intimated in  Eph. 1. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all Spiritual blessings in Heavenly matters in Christ. 
Count Spiritual Blessings the most Desirable Blessings. A sufferer should be a Solomon; under Affliction be of his temper who in 2 Chron. 1. 5. counted Wisdom preferable to Riches and Honours and Life itself. Count an Acquaintance with God, that thing by which Good will come unto you; than you will not count Afflictions from God, the thing which is Against you. On one side, be sure to judge so, If I lose in Temporals and get in Spirituals, I am an abundant Gainer. Be sure to judge so on the other side, If I lose in Spirituals and get in Temporals, it certainly fares very Ill with me. Souls, let SIN be the only thing of which you will absolutely say, It is Against me: But of every thing which makes you more conformed unto Jesus Christ, say, This is for me: O say, This is all my Salvation, and all my Desire.   

The Second Counsel pertaining to you, is expressed in  Jam. 5. 13. Is any among you Afflicted? Let him Pray. 
A time of Affliction should be a time of Supplication. It was the Precept of a good God, in Psal. 50. 15. Call upon me in the day of Trouble: And it was the Purpose of a good Man, in Psal. 86. 7. Lord, In the day of my Trouble, I will call upon thee. Has any remarkable Affliction befallen thee? I would seriously ask, Was not the Spirit of Prayer abated in thee before that Affliction came? Let me then a little alter the words of Deborah, and say, Awake, awake, O Soul, awake, awake, and utter a Prayer. The Title of the Hundred and second Psalm shows the Duty of all Afflicted men; there should be, A Prayer made by the Afflicted when he is overwhelmed, and he should pour out his complaint before the Lord. It was a very wise proposal of Eliphaz, in job 5. 6, 8. Affliction comes not forth of the Dust, nor doth Trouble spring out of the Ground: It may be thou hast lost a desirable piece of Dust, it may be one of thy Delights is put into the Ground: O look up, look above Chance, look beyond all second Causes: 'tis added, I would seek unto God; the most advisable thing in the World! We are in Affliction prone to make sad complaints unto our Fellow-worms; unto them we say, O my Dead Infant! or, O my Lost Estate! But job found cause to say, in ch. 21. 4. Is my complaint to Man? If it were so, Why should not my Spirit be Troubled? Then let us not keep saying, Have pity on me, O ye my Friends: But instead thereof let us be saying, The Lord be Merciful unto me a Sinner! Does not thy Affliction put thee upon more Prayer than thou didst use before? It is a sad sign that the Sour Cup arrives unto thee, spiced with the dreadful Vengeance of God upon thy Soul. An Affliction will neither come in Mercy, nor go in Mercy, if much Prayer do not accompany it. In Affliction, Pray much. As soon as ever any Affliction befalls us, the First thing we do, should be to fall down upon our knees, to cry mightily unto the Lord that his Grace may be Sufficient for us. And still, as long as God's hand is Lying in Trials upon us, our hand should be lifted in Prayers unto God. We should Pray that our Affliction may be Moderated, that our Affliction may be Sanctified, that our Affliction may be Removed. The Pious Hannah of old found Prayer to be an Heart-ease. Let this be your good Character, your good Carriage, Lord, in Trouble have they visited thee, and poured out a Prayer when thy Chastening was upon them.   

The Third Counsel which you are to follow, is declared in  Job 34. 31. Surely, it is meet to be said unto God, I have born Chastisement, I will not offend any more. 
Repentance of Sin should be the effect of Affliction on Men. The End of every Affliction in Sum, is the same that the End of every Mercy is; we may say of it, as in Rom. 2. 4. O man, it leads thee to Repentance. God spoke by his Ten judgements unto Egypt, as well as by his Ten Commandments unto Israel. Every Affliction cries this in our Ears, O Repent, Reform, Return to him that Smites thee. We read of a gracious person, who upon having a Child taken away by Death, said in 1 King. 17. 18. My sins are brought unto Remembrance. This is that which perhaps all thy Sickness, all thy Reproach, all thy Poverty, and all thy Bereauments are sent upon; God would have thee to remember some Sin with Grief and Shame, and Wherein thou hast done Iniquity, to do it no more. It was a black brand set upon a bad Man, in 2 Chron. 28. 22. In the time of his Distress, did he Trespass yet more against the Lord. Shall God Prune thee and Cut thee, and no good Fruit be found upon thee after all? Shall God Prick thee and Launce thee, and all thy bad Blood be still running in thy Veins? Then indeed, these things are Against thee. Ieroboam's withered Hand was Against him, because it rectified not his naughty Heart. There hardly ever was a more lamentable sight in this World, than, A Thief on a Cross continuing to dishonour the Lord jesus Christ. Art thou Afflicted? Then take the course which the Church propounded in Lam. 3. 40. Let us search and try our ways. O now, First Petition thy God; Lord, show me wherefore thou contendest with me! And then Examine thyself, Wherein have I transgressed and exceeded? Endeavour to find out what Controversy there may be between God and Thee; let thy impartial Conscience, the Preacher in thy Bosom, inform thee, Whether thou hast not Overvalued, or Vndervalued the things which thy Affliction is in the privation of; Whether thou hast not injuriously procured unto some other person, an Affliction like that which thou thyself now Smartest under; or Whether no Circumstance of thy Affliction, as the Time of it, the Place of it, do loudly proclaim God's quarrel in it. inquire thus, and immediately comply with what the Lord shall Require. Let thy Dead Friends cause thee to Repent of thy Dead works; thou Mournest over a lost Child, or a lost Name; O be concerned about a lost Soul that is loding in thee. Ask thy self, What have my past Behaviours been? And ask, What should my future Deportment be? Bewail now, and Amend all thy miscarriages in the sight of God. We are very ready to fall out with Creatures when any thing happens amiss unto us: But O spend all thy Passion and all thy Indignation here. Thou mayst look upon thy Sins, and Curse them as the Authors of all thy Sorrows. O look upon Sin and say, Have I found thee, O mine Enemy; Man, loathe now, and leave every Sin. 'Twas that Sin that killed thy Child; 'Twas that Sin that burned thy House, that sunk thy Ship, that robbed thee of thy Delights: Never after this be at peace with that mischievous Monster, Sin.   

The Fourth Counsel, big with which every Affliction saith unto us, as Eliud unto Eglon, I have a Message to thee from God; we have specified in  Job. 13. 15. Tho' he slay me, yet will I trust in him. 
An Holy Resolution for God is to be maintained under every Afflicition from God. Afflictions will not be Against us, if we Resolve under them to be still For him from whom they come. To lay aside no Devotions for all Afflictions, to serve a Smiting God as well as a Smiling God, to seek a God that is Frowning on us, as well as a God that is Owning of us, this will argue, An Israelite indeed. We should after all our Afflictions be still able to make that Appeal unto the Lord, in the Psal. 44. 17, 18. All this is come upon us, yet have we not forgotten thee, O Lord. Resolve never to Renounce the Truths of God, Resolve never to Desert the Ways of God, whatever your Afflictions are; still, With full purpose of Heart cleave unto the Lord. In Resolutions for God, O be like an Iron Pillar, and a Brazen Wall, that cannot be prevailed against.  
Resolve to be Holy tho' the Wrath of Man would molest you for it. Suppose a wicked World should Abuse you and Oppress you, yet say with joshua, I and my House will serve the Lord. Continue Sacrificing to, and Pleasing of your God tho' cain's bloody Club should be Cudgelling of you.  
Resolve to be Holy, tho' the Hand of God should distress you in it. When you feel the Discouragements of the Narrow way, still say with Paul, None of these things move me. Suppose God should inflict the stroke of his Displeasure on your outward Man, still say, Tho' my Life should be continually worn away with pining Sickness, yet to me to Live it shall be Christ. Still say, Tho' my Name should in the Reproach of the Drunkard have Cart-loads of Mud thrown upon it, yet will I labour all I can to honour the Name of God. Still say, Tho' I am Reduced to be among the Poor in this World, yet will I study to be Rich in Good Works. And still say, Tho' I cannot have my Children like Olive-plants about my Table, yet will endeavour to be myself a Dutiful Child of God, and as a Fruitful Olive-tree in the Courts of the Lord. Once more; Suppose God should withdraw the light of his Countenance from your inward Man; still say, The Lord shall be my God, my God, even when he forsaketh me. Still say, I will fear the Lord and obey his Voice, though I walk in Darkness, and shall see no Light. Happy is the Afflicted Man, that is a thus Resolved Man. The followers of these Counsels may boldly and safely lay claim to all the Comforts which have this day been set before the Heirs of Consolation.     

The special Case.  
But there is a more special Exhortation to be pressed, which may give a Period unto this Discourse.  
Let not the loss of Children particularly, as a thing Against us, cause in us any irregular Discomposures.  
The loss of Children, did I say? Nay, let me recall so harsh a Word; the Catachresis is a little too hard for the Language of a Christian. The Children which we count Lost, are not so. The Death of our Children is not the Loss of our Children; when all the Losses of job were made up with Doubling, yet the Number of his Children need not be doubled, in the Restoration. Our Children are not Lost, but given back, they are not Lost, but sent before. In such a Dialect have the Sager Heathen sometimes talked of this Affliction; and shall the professors of Christianity, with bitter Groans enter this among their Losses, My Children are Dead! O tell it not at Athens, publish it not at Rome; lest the Heathen Philosophers hiss at our weakness, at our Folly!  
Well, this is the Calamity which many of you at some time or other have experience of; The Death of Children, this is a thing which the Children of jacob seldom escape a resemblance of their Father in. Many carry themselves under the trial, as if, A Death of Virtue, yea as if, A Death of Reason, had therewithal befallen them; but recollect yourselves, O dejected Christians, and be not like them that Mourn without Hope this day. Let Bereft Parents be yet Believing Parents; the Voice of the great God that form all things is unto them that in jer. 31. 16. Refrain thy Voice from Weeping, and thine Eyes from Tears, for thy Work shall be Rewarded, saith the Lord.  
Let the Thoughts which have been this day tendered unto our Improvement, gloriously compose and settle our roiled minds under this Affliction. Let us not say, This thing is Against us; but let us say, The Lord that hath given hath also taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. It is indeed very true, That this Affliction is none of the most easy to be born; the Heart of a Parent will have peculiar Passions working in it, and racking of it, at such a time as this. Tho' there be greater Sorrows than those with which we follow a Child unto the Grave; I bless God, it is a more bitter thing to say, My Sin is mighty, or to say, My Soul is guilty, than it is to say, My Child is Dead; that moan, I have pierced my Saviour, is more Heart-wounding than to Mourn as one mourneth for a Firstborn. Yet few outward Earthly Anguishes are equal unto these. The Dying of a Child is like the Tearing off a Limb, unto us. But, O remember, That if ever we had any Grace in our Souls, we have e'er this willingly plucked out a Right Eye, and cut off a Right Hand, for the sake of God. Why should we not then at the Call of God readily part with a Limb, and leave Him room to say, Now I know that thou fearest me, because thou hast not withheld thy Child when I called for it! It was from God that we did Receive those dear Pledges our Children, and it is to God that we Return them. We cannot quarrel with our God, if about those Loans he say unto us, Give them up, you have had them long enough! We knew what they were, when first we took them into our Arms: We knew that they were Potsherds, that they were Mortals, that the Worms which usually do kill them, or at least will eat them, are but their Names-sakes, and that a Dead Child is a sight no more surprising than a broken Pitcher, or a blasted Flower.  
But we did not, we do not know, What they might be, in case they were continued among the Living on the Earth. We cannot tell whether our Sons would prove as Plants grown up in their Youth, and our Daughters as Corner-stones polished after the similitude of a Palace; or, whether our Sons might not, like Isaac's Son, do those things that would be a grief of Mind unto us, and our Daughters like Iephta's Daughter, be of them that Trouble us. Christians, let us be content that our wise and good God should Carve our Portion for us; he will appoint us none but a goodly Heritage. Our Temptation is no more than what is common to Men, yea, and to good Men. The biggest part of those Humane Spirits that are now beholding the Face of God in Glory, are such as dwelled in the Children of Pious people, departed in their Infancy. And what have we to say, why we should not undergo it as well as they! Was the Infant whose Decease we do deplore, one that was very Pretty, one that had pretty Features, pretty Speeches, pretty Actions? Well, at the Resurrection of the Just we shall see the dear Lambs again; the Lord Jesus will deal with our dead Children as the Prophets▪ Elijah and Elisha did by those whom they Raised of Old; he will bring them to us, recovered from the pale Jaws of Death; and how Amiable, how Beautiful, how Comely they will then be, no Tongue is able to express, or Heart conceive. Tho' their Beauty do Consume in the Grave, yet it shall be Restored, it shall be Advanced, when they shall put off their Bed-cloths in the Morning of the day of God. Again, Was the Infant now lamented, very suddenly snatched away? and perhaps Awfully too! not merely by a Convulsion, but by Scalding, by Burning, by Drowning, by Shooting, by Stabbing, or by some unusual Harm? Truly, it is often so, that the quicker the Death, the better. It is more desirable for our Children to feel but a few Minutes of Pain, than it is for them to lie Groaning in those exquisite Agonies which would cause us even ourselves to wish that the Lord would take them out of their Misery. As for any more grievous and signal circumstance attending of our Dying Children, our best course will be to have it said of us, They ceased, saying, The Will of the Lord be done! As the Love or Wrath of God is not certainly declared in, so, our Grief before him should not be too much augmented by such things as these. And it is a favour, if so much as one of our Children be left alive unto us. Let not the sense of one Trouble swallow up the sense of a Thousand Mercies. The Mother from whom a violent Death has taken one of her two Children, may immediately Embrace the other and say, Blessed be God that has left me this! But once more, Is the gone Infant an only Child? Are we now ready to sigh, All is gone! Nay, Thou hast but a poor All, if this were All. I hope, thy only Child is not thy only joy.. If thou hast ever passed through the New Birth, the sense of thy Soul is, One jesus is worth Ten Children; yea, One Christ is worth Ten Worlds. What tho' all thy Candles are put out! The Sun, the Sun of Righteousness is arising to thy Soul for ever. An undone Man art thou indeed! that hast thy little Glass of Water spilled or spoiled, while thou hast a Fountain, a Living Fountain running by thy Door! The blessed God calls thee, My Child; and that is infinitely better than, A Name of Sons and of Daughters.  
Finally, Have we any Doubts about the Eternal Salvation of the Children which we have Bur●ed out of our sight? Indeed, as to grown Children, there is often too sad cause of suspicion or solicitude; and yet here, the Sovereign disposals of God must be submitted unto. Besides, Tho' it may be, we could not see such plain Marks and Signs of Grace in our Adult Children as we could have wished for, nevertheless they might have the Root of the matter in them. There are many Serious, Gracious, Well-inclined young People, who conceal from every body, the Evidences of their Repentance, the Instances of their Devotion. You cannot tell what the Lord did for the Souls of your poor Children before he took them out of the World. Perhaps they sought, they found Mercy, between the Stirrup and the Ground. The Child of a Godly Parent, is not to be despaired of, though turned off the Gallows.  
But as to young Children, the Fear of God will take away all matter of Scruple in the Owners of them. Parents, Can you not sincerely say, That you have given, as yourselves, so your Children, unto God in a Covenant never to be forgotten? Can you not sincerely say, That you have chosen God in Christ for the Best Portion, as of yourselves, so of your Children? Answer to this: If your Children had been spared unto you, would it not have been your care to have brought them up in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord? Would you not have used all Prayers and Pains to have engaged them unto the Service of the Living God, and unto a just prejudice against all the vile Idols and vain courses of the World? Then, be of good cheer: Your Children are in a better place, a better state, than you yourselves are yet arrived unto. The Faithful God had promised, I will be their God, as well as thy God. O say, This is all my Desire, though the Lord suffer not my House to grow. Those dear Children are gone from your kind Arms into the sweet Bosom of Jesus, and this is, by far the best of all. To have Children this Day in Heaven! Truly this is an Honour which neither you nor I are worthy of. But so it is; The King of Kings hath sent for our Children to confer a Kingdom on them. They are gone from a dark Vale of Sin and Shame; they are gone into the Land of Light and Life and Love; there they are with the spirits of Just men made perfect; there they serve the Lord Day and Night in His Temple, having all Tears wiped from their Eyes; and from thence methinks, I hear them crying aloud unto us, As well as you love us, we would not be with you again; weep not for us, but for yourselves; and count not yourselves at Home till you come to be, as We, for ever with the Lord.  
I have done. The fit Epitaph of a Dead Infant, That, That alone is enough to be the Solace of a Sad Parent, Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.  
FINIS.     

Extract of a Letter.  
Westfield, 14th. 6 M. 1686.  
I Am sorry to hear that God hath laid you under that Exercise you spoke of in your first Letter, in the Death of Children. But if Heathenish Men could take their little Babes and burn them in the red Fire, in Love and Honour to their Idol-God, the Devil; how should we who have Hope in God, blush at the least Heart-rising against such Determinations as are made by his all-disposing Providence, whereby he picks and chooses what Flowers please him best. We have nothing too sweet for Him.  
I sometimes have been refreshed in like Cases by such Thoughts as these: Viz.  

I pausing on't, this sweet refreshed my thought,  
Christ would in Glory have a Flower sweet, prime,  
And having Choice, chose this my branch forth brought:  
Lord take't: I thank Thee, Thou tak'st aught of mine.  
It is my Pledge in Glory: Part of me  
Is glorified in it, now, Lord, with Thee.   

Grief o'er would flow, and Nature fault would find  
Were not thy Will my Spell, Charm, joy and Gem;  
That as I said, I say, Take Lord, they're thine:  
I piece-meal pass to Glory do in them.   
I joy, may I sweet flowers for Glory breed; Whether Thou get'st them fresh, or lettest them seed.  
E. T.