and convey to us what comfort God is pleased to communicate to them and if the Cistern be broken or the pipe cut off so that no more comfort can be conveyed to us that way he hath other waies and mediums to do it by which we think not of and if he please he can convey his comforts to his people without any of them and if he do it more immediately we shall be no losers by that for no comforts in the world are so delectable and ravishingly sweet as those that flow immediately from the fountain And it is the sensuality of our hearts that causes us to affect them so inordinately and grieve for the loss of them so immoderately as if we had not enough in God without these creature-supplements Is the fulness of the Fountain yours and yet do ye cast down your selves be-because the broken Cistern is removed The best Creatures are no better Jer. 2. 13. Cisterns have nothing but what they receive and broken ones cannot hold what is put into them Why then do ye mourn as if your life were bound up in the creature You have as free an access to the Fountain as you had before It is the advice of an Heathen and let them take the comfort of it to repair by a new earthly comfort what we have lost in the former Thou hast carried forth him whom thou lovedst saith Seneca seek one whom thou maist love in his stead it 's better to repair than bemoan thy loss But if God never repair your loss in things of the same kind you know he can abundantly repair it in himself Ah Christian Is not one kiss of his mouth one glimpse of his countenance one seal of his spirit a more sweet and substantial comfort than the sweetest Relation in this world can afford you If the stream fail repair to the Fountain there 's enough still God is where he was and what he was though the creature be not 19. Consid. Though you may want a little comfort in your life yet surely it may be recompensed to you by a more easie death The removal of your friends before you may turn to your great advantage when your hour is come that you must follow them Oh how have many good souls been clog'd and ensnared in their dying hour by the loves cares and fears they have had about those they must leave behind them in a sinful evil world Your love to them might have proved a snare to you and caused you to hang back as loath to go hence for these are the things that make men loth to dye And thus it might have been with you except God had removed them before hand or should give you in that day such sights of Heaven and tasts of Divine love as should master and mortifie all your earthly affections to these things I knew a gracious person now in heaven who for many weeks in her last sickness complained that she found it hard to part with a dear Relation and that there was nothing proved a greater clog to her soul than this 'T is much more easie to think of going to our friends who are in heaven before us than of parting with them and leaving our desireable and dear ones behind us And who knows what cares and distracting thoughts you may then be pestred and distracted with upon their account What shall become of these when I am gone I am now to leave them God knows to what wants miseries temptations and afflictions in the midst of a deceitful defiling dangerous world I know it s our duty to leave our fatherless children and friendless Relations with God to trust them with him that gave them to us And some have been enabled chearfully to do so when they were parting from them Luther could say Lord thou hast given me a wife and children I have little to leave them nourish teach and keep them O thou Father of the fatherless and Judge of widows But every Christian hath not a Luthers faith Some find it an hard thing to disentangle their affections at such a time but now if God have sent all yours before you you have so much the less to do Death may be easier to you than others 20. Consid. But if nothing that hath been yet said will stick with you then Lastly remember that you are near that state and place which admits no sorrows nor sad reflections upon any such accounts as these Yet a little while and you shall not miss them you shall not need them but you shall live as the Angels of God We now live partly by faith partly by sense partly upon God and partly upon the creature Our state is mixed therefore our comforts are so too but when God shall be all in all and we shall be as the Angels of God in the way and manner of our living How much will the case be altered with us then from what it is now Angels neither marry nor are given in mariage neither shall the children of the Resurrection when the days of our sinning are ended the days of our mourning shall be so too No graves were opened till sin enter'd and no more shall be open'd when sin is excluded Our glorified Relations shall live with us for ever they shall complain no more dye no more yea this is the happiness of that state to which you are passing on that your souls being in the nearest conjunction with God the fountain of Joy you shall have no concernment out of him You shall not be put upon these exercises of patience nor subjected to such sorrows as now you feel any more It is but a little while and the end of all these things will come Oh therefore bear up as persons that expect such a day of Jubilee at hand And thus I have finished the second general Head of this Discourse which is a disswasive from the sin of immoderate sorrow 3. I now proceed to the third thing proposed namely to remove the Pleas and excuses for this immoderate grief It s natural to men yea to good men to justifie their excesses or at least extenuate them by pleading for their passions as if they wanted not cause and reason enough to excuse them If these be fully answered and the soul once convinced and left without Apology for its sin it is then in a fair way for its cure which is the last thing designed in this Treatise My present business therefore is to satisfie those Objections and answer those Reasons which are commonly pleaded in this case to justifie our excessive grief for lost Relations And though I shall carry it in that line of Relation to which the Text directs yet it s equally applicable to all other 1. Plea You press me by many great considerations to meekness and quiet submission under this heavy stroke of God but you little know what stings my soul feels now in it This child was a child of many prayers it was a Samuel
this rod for doth not all this sorrow at parting plainly speak how much your heart was set upon how fast your heart was glewed to this earthly comfort Now you see that your affections were sunk many degrees deeper into the creature than you were aware of and what should God do in this case by you Should he suffer you to cleave to the creature more and more Should he permit it to purloin and exhaust your love and delight and steal away your heart from himself This he could not do and love you The more impatient you are under this affliction the more need you had of it And what if by this stroke the Lord will awaken your drowzy soul and recover you out of that pleasant but dangerous spiritual slumber you were fallen into whilst you had pillowed your head upon this pleasant sensible creature-enjoyment Is not this really better for you than if he should say sleep on He is joyned to Idols let him alone he is departing from me the fountain to a broken Cistern let him go Yea What if by this stroke upon one of the pleasantest things you had in this world God will discover to you more sensibly and effectually than ever the vanity both of that and all other earthly comforts so as that you shall from henceforth never let forth your heart your hope your love and delight to any of them as you did before you could talk before of the creatures vanity but I question whether ever you had so clear and convincing a sight of its vanity as you have this day And is not this a considerable mercy in your eyes Now if ever God is weaning you from all fond opinions and vain expectations from this world by this your Judgment of the creatures is rectified and your affections to all other enjoyments on earth moderated And is this nothing O doubtless it 's a greater mercy to you than to have your friend alive again And what if by this rod your wandering gadding heart shall be whipt home to God Your neglected duties revived your decayed Communion with God restored a spiritual heavenly frame of heart recovered What will you say then Surely you will bless that merciful hand which removed the obstructions and adore the divine wisdom and goodness that by such a device as this recover'd you to himself Now you can pray more constantly more spiritually more affectionately than before Oh blessed rod which buds and blossoms with such fruits as these Let this be written among your best mercies for you shall have cause to adore and bless God eternally for this beneficial affliction 17. Consid. Suffer not your selves to be transported by impatience and swallowed up of grief because God hath excercised you under a smart rod for as smarting as it is it 's comparatively a gentle stroke to what others as good as your selves have felt Your dear Relation is dead be it so here is but a single death before you but others have seen many deaths contrived into one upon their Relations to which yours is nothing Zedekiah saw his children murdred before his eyes and then had those eyes alas too late put out The worthy Author of that excellent book foremention'd tells us of a choice and godly Gentlewomanin the North of Ireland who when the Rebellion brake out there fled with three children one of them upon the brest they had not gone far before they were stript naked by the Irish who to admiration spared their lives its like concluding that cold and hunger would kill them afterwards going on at the foot of a River which runs to Locheach others met them and will have them cast into the River but this godly woman not dismai'd asked a little liberty to pray and as she lay naked on the frozen ground got resolution not to go on her own feet to so unjust a death upon which having called her and she refusing was drag'd by the heels along that rugged way to be cast in with her little ones and company But she then turned and on her knees says you should I am sure be Christians and men I see you are in taking away our miserable lives you do us a pleasure But know that as we never wronged you nor yours you must remember to dye also your selves and one day give an account of this cruelty to the Judge of heaven and earth hereupon they resolved not to murder them with their own hands but turned them all naked upon a small Island in the River without any provision there to perish The next day the two boys having crept aside found the hide of a beast which had been killed at the root of a tree which the Mother cast over them lying upon the Snow The next day a little boat goes by unto whom she calls for Gods sake to take them out but they being Irish refused they desired a little bread but they said they had none then she begs a coal of fire which she obtained and thus with some fallen chips made a little fire and the children taking a piece of the hide laid it on the coals and began to gnaw the Leather but without an extraordinary divine support what could this do Thus they lived ten days without any visible means of help having no bread but ice and snow nor drink except water The two boys being near starved she pressed them to go out of her sight not able to see their death yet God delivered them as miraculously at last as he had supported them all that while But judge whether a natural death in an ordinary way be comparable to such a tryal as this And yet thus the Lord did by this choice and eminently gracious woman And Mr. Wall in his none-but-Christ relates as sad a passage of a poor Family in Germany who were driven to that extremity in the famine that at last the Parents made a motion one to the other to sell one of the children for bread to sustain themselves and the rest but when they came to consider which child it should be their hearts so relented and yerned upon every one that they resolved rather all to dye together Yea we read in Lam. 4. 10. The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children But what speak I of these extremities how many parents yea some godly ones too have lived to see their children dying in prophaneness and some by the hand of Justice lamenting their Rebellions with a rope about their necks Ah Reader little dost thou know what stings there are in the afflictions of others Surely you have no reason to think the Lord hath dealt more bitterly with you than any It 's a gentle stroke a merciful dispensation if you compare it with what others have felt 18. Consid. If God be your God you have really lost nothing by the removal of any creature-comfort God is the Fountain of all true comfort creatures the very best and sweetest are but Cisterns to receive
to restraine prayer and turn thy back upon God Or if thou darest not wholly neglect thy duty yet thy affliction spoyles the success and comfort of it thy heart is wandering dead distracted in prayer and meditation so that thou hast no relief or comfort from it Rouze up thy self Christian and consider This is not right Surely the rod works not kindly now What did thy love to God expire when thy friend expired Is thy heart as cold in duty as his body is in the grave Hath natural death seized him and spiritual deadness seized thee Sure then thou hast more reason to lament thy dead heart than thy dead friend Divert the stream of thy troubles speedily and labour to recover thy self out of this temper quickly least sad experience shortly tell thee that what thou now mournest for is but a trifle to that that thou shalt mourn for hereafter To loose the heavenly warmth and spiritual liveliness of thy affections is undoubtedly a far more considerable loss than to loose the wife of thy bosom or the sweetest child that ever a tender parent laid in the grave Reader If this be thy case Thou hast reason to challenge the first place among the mourners It s better for thee to bury ten sons than to remit one degree of love or delight in God The end of God in smiting was to win thy heart nearer to him by removing that which estranged it How then dost thou cross the very design of God in this dispensation Must God then lose his delight in thy fellowship because thou hast lost thine in the creature Surely when thy troubles thus accompany thee to thy closet they are sinful and extravagant troubles Fourthly Then you may also conclude your sorrows to be excessive and sinful When they so overload and oppress your bodies as to endanger your lives or render them useless and unfit for service Worldly Sorrow works death 2 Cor. 7. 10. that is Sorrow after the manner of worldly men sorrow in a meer carnal natural way which is not relieved by any spiritual reasonings and considerations This falls so heavysometimes upon the body that it sinks under the weight and is cast into such diseases as are never more wrought off or healed in this world Heaviness in the heart of a man makes it stoop saith Solomon Prov. 12. 25. The stoutest body must stoop under heart pressures It is with the mind of man saith one as with the stone Tyrhenus as long as its whole it swimeth but once broken it sinks presently Grief is a moth which getting into the mind will in short time make the body be it never so strong and well wrought a piece like an old seary garment Philosophers and Physitians generally reckon sorrow among the chief causes of shortning life Christ was a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefes and this some think was the reason that he appeared as a man of fifty when he was little more than thirty years old Joh. 8. 57. But his sorrows were of another kind Many a mans Soul is to his Body as a sharp knife to a thin sheath which easily cuts it through and what do we by poreing and pondering upon our troubles but whet the knife that it may cut the deeper and quicker Of all the Creatures that ever God made Devils only excepted man is the most able and apt to be his own tormentor How unmercifully do we load them in times of affliction How do we not only waste their strength by sorrow but deny relief and necessary refreshment They must carry the load but be allowed no refreshment If they can eat the bread of affliction and drink tears they may feed at full but no pleasant bread no quiet sleep is permitted them Surely you would not burden a beast as you do your own bodies you would pitty and relieve a bruit beast groaning and sinking under an heavy burden but you will noc pitty not relieve your own bodies Some mens souls have given such deep wounds to their bodies that they are never like to enjoy many easie or comfortable dayes more whilst they dwell in them Now this is very sinful and displeasing to God for if he have such a tender care for our bodies that he would not have us swallowed up of over much grief no though it be for sin 2 Cor. 2. 7. but even to that sorrow sets bounds How much less with outward sorrow for temporal losses May not your stock of natural strength be imployed to better purposes think you than these Time may come that you may earnestly wish you had that health and strength again to spend for God which you now so lavishly waste and prodigally cast away upon your troubles to no purpose or advantage It was therefore an high point of wisdom in David and Recorded no doubt for our immitation who when the child was dead ceased to mourn but arose washed himself and eat bread 2 Sam. 12. 20. Fifthly When affliction sowres the Spirit with discontent and makes it inwardly grudge against the hand of God then our trouble is full of sin and we ought to be humbled for it before the Lord. Whatever God doth with us or ours still we should maintain good thoughts of him A gracious heart cleaves nearer and nearer to God in affliction and can justifie God in his severest strokes acknowledging them to be all just and holy Psal. 119. 75 I know also that thy Judgements are right and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me And hereby the soul may comfortably evidence to it self its own uprightness and sincere love to God Yea it hath been of singular use to some souls to take right measures of their love to God in such tryals to have lovely and well pleased thoughts of God even when he smites us in our nearest and dearest comforts argues plainly that we love him for himself and not for his gifts only And that his interest in the heart is deeper than any creature interest is And such is the comfort that hath resulted to some from such discoveries of their own hearts by close smarting afflictions that they would not part with it to have their comforts whose removal occasioned them given back in lieu of it But to swell with secret discontent and have hard thoughts of God as if he had done us wrong or dealt more severely with us than any O this is a vile temper cursed fruit springing from an evil root a very carnal ignorant proud heart or at least from a very distempered if renewed heart So it was with Jonah when God smote his Gourd Tea saith he I do well to be angry even unto death Jonah 4. 9. Poor man he was highly distempered at this time and out of frame this was not his true temper or ordinary frame but a surprize the effect of a paroxisme of temptation in which his passions had been over-heated Few dare to vent it in such language But how many have their
can restore it yea double it in kind if he see it convenient for you And if not then 13. Consid. Consider though he should deny you any more comforts of that kind yet he hath far better to bestow upon you such as these deserve not to be named with You have an excellent Scripture to this purpose in Isa. 56. 4 5. For thus saith the Lord unto the Eunuchs that keep my Sabbaths and choose the things that please me and take hold of my Covenant even to them will I give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off Mens names are said to be continued in their Issue in their male Issue especially and consequently to fail in such as wanted Issue Numb 17. 4. And a numerous Issue is deemed no small honour Psal. 127. 4 5. God therefore promiseth here to supply and make good the want of Issue and of whatsoever either honour here or memorial hereafter might from it have accrued to them by bestowing upon them matter of far greater honour and more durable a name better or before the name of Sons and Daughters It 's a greater honour to be a child of God than to have the greatest honour or comfort that ever children afforded their parents in this world Poor heart thou art now dejected by this affliction that lyes upon thee as if all joy and comfort were now cut off from thee in this world A cloud dwells upon all other comforts this affliction hath so imbittered thy soul that thou tastest no more in any other earthly comfort than in the white of an egg O that thou didst but consider the consolations that are with God for such as answer his ends in affliction and patiently wait on him for their comfort He hath comforts for you far transcending the joy of children This some have found when their children have been cut off from them and that in so eminent a degree that they have little valued their comfort in children in comparison with this comfort I will here set down a pregnant instance of the point in hand as I find it recorded by the grave and worthy Author of that excellent book entitled The fulfilling of the Scripture Another notable instance of grace with a very remarkable passage in his condition I shall here mention One Patrick Mackewrath who lived in the West parts of Scotland whose heart in a remarkable way the Lord touched and after his conversion as he shewed to many Christian friends was in such a frame so affected with a new world wherein he was entred the discoveries of God and of a life to come that for some months together he did seldom sleep but was still taken up in wondering His life was very remarkable for tenderness and near converse with God in his walk and which was worthy to be noticed one day after a sharp tryal having his only Son suddenly taken away by death he retired alone for several hours and when he came forth did look so chearfully that to those who asked him the reason thereof and wondered at the same in such a time he told them He had got that in his retirement with the Lord that to have it afterwards renewed he would be content to lose a Son every day Oh what a sweet exchange had he made Surely he had Gold for brass a pearl for a pebble a treasure for a trifle for so great yea and far greater is the disproportion betwixt the sweet light of Gods Countenance and the faint dim light of the best creature-enjoyment Would it please the Lord to make this sun arise and shine upon you now when the stars that shined with a dim and borrowed light are gone down you would see such gain by the exchange as would quickly make you cast in your votes with him we now mentioned and say Lord let every day be such as this funeral day let all my hours be as this so that I may see and taste what I now do How gladly would I part with the dearest and nearest creature-comfort I own in this world The gracious and tender Lord hath his divine Cordials reserved on purpose for such sad hours these are sometimes given before some sharp tryal to prepare for it and sometimes after to support under it I have often heard it from the mouth and found it in the Diary of a sweet Christian now with God That a little before the Lord removed her dear husband by death there was such an abundant out-let of the love of God into her soul for several days and nights following that when the Lord took away her husband by death though he were a gracious sweet temper'd and by her most tenderly beloved husband she was scarce sensible of the stroke but carried quite above all earthly things their comforts and their troubles so that she had almost lost the thoughts of her husband in God And had not the Lord taken this course with her she concluded that blow had not been possible to be born by her she must have sunck without such a preparative A Husband a Wife a Child are great very great things as they stand by other creatures but surely they will seem little things and next to nothing when the Lord shall set himself by them before the soul. And how know you but God hath bid these earthly comforts stand aside this day to make way for heavenly ones It may be God is coming to communicate himself more sweetly more sensibly than evâ—r to your souls and these are the providences which must cast up and prepare the way of the Lord. Possibly Gods meaning in their death is but this Child stand aside thou art in my way and fillest my place in thy parents heart 14. Consid. Be careful you exceed not in your grief for the loss of earthly things considering that Satan takes the advantage of all extreams You cannot touch any extream but you will be touched by that enemy whose greatest advantages lye in assaulting you there Satan is called the Ruler of the darkness of this world Eph. 6. 12. i. e. his Kingdom is supported by darkness Now there is a twofold darkness which gives Satan great advantage the darkness of the mind viz. ignorance and the darkness of the condition viz. trouble and affliction Of the former the Apostle speaks chiefly in that Text but the latter also is by him often improved to carry on his designs upon us When it 's a dark hour of trouble with us then is his fittest season to tempt That cowardly spirit falls upon the people of God when they are down and low in spirit as well as state Satan would never have desired that the hand of God should have been stretched out upon Jobs Person Estate and children but that he promised himself a notable advantage therein to poyson his spirit with vile thoughts of
God Do this saith he and he will curse thee to thy face What the Psalmist observes of natural is as true of metaphorical darkness Psal. 104. 20. Thou makest darkness and it is night wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth the young Lions roar after their prey When its dark night with men its noon-day with Satan i. e. our suffering time is his busiest working time many a dismal suggestion he then plants and grafts upon our affliction which are much more dangerous to us than the affliction it self Sometimes he injects desponding thoughts into the afflicted soul. Then said I I am cut off from before thine eyes Psal. 31. 22. Lam. 3. 18 19. My hope is perished from the Lord remembring my affliction and my misery the wormwood and the gall Sometimes he suggests hard thoughts of God Ruth 1. 20. The Lord hath dealt very bitterly with me Yea that he hath dealt more severely with us than any other Lam. 1. 12. See and behold if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger And sometimes murmuring and repining thoughts against the Lord the soul is displeased at the hand of God upon it Jonah was angry at the hand of God and said I do well to be angry even unto death Jonah 4. 9. What dismal thoughts are these And how much more afflictive to a gracious soul than the loss of any outward enjoyment in this world And sometimes very irreligious and Atheistical thoughts as if there were no priviledge to be had by Religion and all our pains zeal and care about Duty were little better than lost labour Psal. 73. 13 14. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency for all the day long I have been plagued and chastened every morning By these things Satan gets no small advantage upon the afflicted Christian for albeit these thoughts are his burthen and God will not impute them to the condemnation of his people yet they rob the soul of peace and hinder it from duty and make it act uncomely under affliction to the stumbling and hardening of others in their sin beware therefore lest by your excesses of sorrow ye give place to the Devil we are not ignorant of his devices 15. Consid. Give not way to excessive sorrows upon the account of affliction if ye have any regard to the honour of God and Religion which will thereby be exposed to reproach If you slight your own honour don't slight the honour of God and Religion too Take heed how you carry it in a day of trouble many eyes are upon you It is a true observation that a late worthy Author hath made upon this case What will the Atheist and what will the prophane scoffer say when they shall see this So sottish and malicious they are that if they do but see you in affliction they are straightway scornefully demanding Where is your God But what will they say if they should hear you your selves unbelievingly cry out where is our God Will they not be ready to cry This is the Religion they make such boast of which you see how little it does for them in a day of extremity they talk of promises rich and precious promises but where are they now Or to what purpose do they serve They said they had a treasure in heaven What ails them to mourn so then if their Riches be there O beware what you do before the world they have eyes to see what you can do as well as ears to hear what you can say And as long as your carriage under troubles is so much like their own they will never think your principles are better than theirs Carnal worldlings will be drawn to think that whatever fine talk you might have about God and heaven your hearts were most upon the same things that theirs were since your grief for their removal is as great as theirs They know by experience what a stay it is to the heart to have an able faithful friend to depend upon or to have hopes of a great Estate shortly to fall to them and they 'le never be perswaded you have any such ground of comfort if they see you as much cast down as they that pretend to no such matter By this means the precepts of Christ to constancy and contentment in all Estates will come to be lookt upon like those of the Stoicks only as magnifica verba brave words but such as are impossible to be practised and the whole of the Gospel will be taken for an airey notion since they that profess greatest regard to it are no more helpt thereby O What a shame is it that Religion should in this case make no more difference betwixt man and man Wherefore shew to the world whatever their common censures are that it is not so much your care to differ from them in some opinions and little strictness as in humility meekness contempt of the world and heavenly mindedness and now let these graces display themselves by your chearful patient deportment under all your grievances Wherefore hath God planted those excellent graces in your souls but that he might be glorified and you benefited by the exercises of them in tribulation Should these be supprest and hid and nothing but the pride passion and unmortified earthliness of your hearts set on work and discovered in time of trouble what a slur what a wound will you give to the glorious name which is call'd upon by you And then if your hearts be truly gracious that will pierce you deeper than ever your affliction which occasioned it did I beseech you therefore be tender of the name of God if you will not be so of your own peace and comfort 16. Consid. Be quiet and hold your peace you little know how many mercies lye in the womb of this sharp affliction Great are the benefits of a sharp rouzing affliction to the people of God at sometimes and all might have them at all times were they more careful to improve them Holy David thankfully acknowledgeth Psal. 119. 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted And surely there 's as much good in them for you as for him if the Lord sanctifie them to such ends and uses as his were sanctified unto Such a smarting rod as this came not before there was need enough of it and possibly you saw the need of some awaking providence your selves but if not the Lord did he took not up the rod to smite you till his faithfulness and tender love to your souls called upon him to correct you You now sit pensive under the rod sadly lamenting and deploring the loss of some earthly comfort your heart is surcharged with sorrow your eyes run down upon every mention and remembrance of your dear friend Why if there were no more this alone may discover the need you had of
that in them that you never saw he despises not the day of small things However it be it 's now out of your watch your concernment rather is to improve the affliction to your own good than judge and determine their condition which belongs not to you but God 9. Plea O but I have sinned in this Relation and now God hath punisht my sin in dissolving it O saith one my heart was set too much upon it I even idoliz'd it that was my sin And saith another I wanted due affections and did not love my Relation at least not so spiritually as I ought that was my sin Now God is visiting me for all the neglects and defects that have been in me towards my Relation 1. Answer There is no man so throughly sanctified as not to fail and come short in many things pertaining to his relative duties And to speak as the thing is the corruptions of the holiest persons are as much discovered in this as in any other thing whatsoever And it 's a very common thing for Conscience not only to charge these failures upon us but to aggravate them to the uttermost when God hath made the separation So that this is no more than what is usual and very common with persons in your case 2. Answer Admit that which the Objection supposes that God hath afflicted you for your sin and removed that comfort from you which you Idolized and too much doted on yet there is no reason you should be so cast down under your affliction for all this may be and probably is the fruit of his love to and care over your soul. Rev. 3. 19. He tells the afflicted for their comfort Whom I love I rebuke and chasten How much better is it to have an Idolized enjoyment taken from you in mercy than if God should say concerning you as he did of Ephraim Hos. 4. 17. He is joyn'd to Idols let him alone O it 's better for you that your Father now reckons with you for your follies with the Rod in his hand than to say as he doth of some let them go on I will not hinder them in or rebuke them for their sinful courses but will reckon with them for all together in Hell at last 3. Answer And as to what you now charge upon your self that the neglect of duty did spring from the want of love to your Relation Your sorrows at parting may evidence that your Relation was rooted deep in your affection but if your love was not so spiritual and pure to love and enjoy them in God that was undoubtedly your sin and is the sin of most Christians for which both you and all others ought to be humbled 10. Plea God hath blessed me with an Estate and outward comforts in the world which I reckoned to have left to my posterity and now I have none to leave it with nor have I any comfort to think of it the purposes of my heart are broken off and the comfort of all my other enjoyments blasted by this stroke in one hour How are the pains and cares of many years perished 1. Answer How may are there in the world yea of your own acquaintance whom God hath either denyed or deprived both of the comforts of children and Estates too If he have left you those outward comforts you ought to acknowledge his goodness therein and not to slight these because he hath deprived you of the other 2. Answer Though your children be gone yet God hath many children left in the world whose bowels you may refresh with what he hath bestowed upon you and your charity to them will doubtless turn to a more comfortable account than if you had left a large Estate to your own posterity Surely we are not sent into this world to heap up great estates for our children and if you have been too eager in this design you may now read Gods just rebuke of your folly Bless God you have yet an opportunity to serve God eminently by your Charity and if God deny you other Executors let your own hands be your Executors to distribute to the necessity of the Saints that the blessings of them that are ready to perish may come upon you 11. Plea O but the remembrance of its witty words and pretty actions is wounding 1. Answer Let it rather lift up your heart to God in praise that gave you so desirable a child than fill your heart with discontent at his hand in removing it How many Parents are there in the world whose children God hath deprived of reason and understanding so that they only differ from Beasts in external shape and figure And how many shew betimes so perverse a temper that little comfort can be expected from them 2. Answer These are but small circumstances and trivial things in themselves but by these little things Satan manages a great design against your souls to deject or exasperate it And surely this is not your business at this time you have greater things than the words and actions of children to mind To search out Gods end in your affliction To mortifie the corruption it 's sent to rebuke to quiet your heart in the will of God This is your work 12. Plea Lastly It 's Objected O but God hides his face from me in my affliction it 's dark within as well as without and this makes my case most deplorable greatly afflicted and sadly deserted 1. Answer Though you want at present sensible comfort yet you have reason to be thankful for gracious supports Though the light of Gods countenance shine not upon you yet you find the everlasting arms are underneath you the care of God worketh for you when the consolations of God are withdrawn from you 2. Answer To have God hide his face in time of trouble is no new or unusual thing God's dearest Saints yea his own Son hath experienced it who in the deeps of inward and outward trouble when wave called unto wave felt not those sweet sensible influences of comfort from God which had alwaies fill'd his soul formerly If Christ cry in extremity My God my God why hast thou for saken me Then sure we need not wonder as if some strange thing had happened to us 3. Answer May not your unsubmissive carirage under the rod provoke God to hide his face from you Pray consider it well nothing is more probable than this to be the cause of Gods with-drawment from you Could you in meekness and quietness receive that cup your Father hath given you to drink accept the punishment of your iniquities say good is the word of the Lord it is the Lord let him do what he will You would soon find the case altered with you but the comforting spirit finds no delight nor rest in a turbulent and tumultuous breast And thus I have satisfied the most considerable Pleas urged in justification of our Excesses 4. I come now to the last thing proposed namely the means of curing