more nor see his native Country And is there not a dreadful sound of troubles now in our ears Do not the clouds gather blackness Surely all things round about us seem to be preparing and disposing themselves for affliction The dayes may be nigh in which you shall say Blessed is the womb that never bare and the paps that never gave suck It was in the day wherein the faith and patience of the Saints were exercised that John heard a voice from heaven saying to him Write Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from benceforth Thy friend hy an Act of favour is disbanded by death whilst thou thy self art left to endure a great fight of affliction And now if troubles come thy cares and fears will be so much the less and thy own death so much the easier to thee when so much of thee is in heaven already In this case the Lord by a mercifull dispensation is providing both for their safety and thy own easier passage to them In removing thy friends before hand he seems to say to thee as he did to Peter Joh. 13. 7. What I do thou knowest not now but hereafter thou shalt know it The eye of Providence hath a prospect far beyond thine it would be in probability an harder task for thee to leave them behind than to follow them A tree that 's deeply rooted in the earth requires many strokes to fell it but when its roots are loosned before hand then an easie stroke layes it down upon the earth 6. Consid. A parting time must needs come and why is not this as good as another You knew before hand your child or friend was mortal and that the thred that linked you together must be cut If any one saith Basil had asked you when your child was born What is that which is born What would you have answered Would you not have said it is a man and if a man than a Mortal vanishing thing And why then are you surprized with wonder to see a dying thing dead He saith Seneca who complaines that one is dead complains that he was a man All men are under the same condition to whose share it falls to be born to him it remains to dye We are indeed distinguisht by intervalls but equalized in the Issue It is appointed to all men once to dye Heb. 9. 27. There is a statute Law of heaven in the case Possibly you think this is the worst time for parting that could be had you enjoyed it longer you could have parted easier but how are you deceiv'd in that The longer you had enjoyed it the lother still you would have been to leave it the deeper it would have rooted it self in your affection Had God given you such a priviledge as was once granted to the English Parliament that the union betwixt you and your friend should not be dissolved till you your self were willing it should be dissolved When think you would you have been willing it should be dissolved It s well for us and ours that our times are in Gods hand not in our own And how immature soever it seemed to be when it was cut down yet it came to the grave in a full age as a shock of corn in its season Job 5. 26. They that are in Christ and in the Covenant never dye unseasonably whensoever they dye Saith one upon the Text They dye in a good old age yea though they dye in the spring and flower of youth they dye in a good old age i. e. They are ripe for death when ever they dye When ever the godly dye its harvest time with him though in a natural capacity he be cut down while he is green and cropt in the bud or blossom yet in his spiritual capacity he never dyes before he is ripe God can ripen his speedily he can let out such warm rayes and beams of his spirit upon them as shall soon maturate the seeds of grace into a preparedness for glory It was doubtless the most fit and seasonable time for them that ever they could dye in and as it is a fit time for them so for you also Had it lived longer it might either have engaged you more and so your parting would have been harder or else have puzled and stumbled you more by discovering its natural corruption And then what a stinging aggravation of your sorrow would that have been Surely the Lord of time is the best Judge of time and in nothing do we more discover our folly and rashness then in presuming to fix the times either of our comforts or troubles as to our comforts we never think they can come to soon we would have them presently whether the season be fit or not as Numb 12. 13. Heal her now Lord. O let it be done speedily we are in post hast for our comforts and as for our afflictions we never think they come late enough not at this time Lord rather at any other time than now But it s good to leave the timing both of the one and other to him whose works are all beautiful in their seasons and never doth any thing in an improper time 7. Consid. Call to mind in this day of trouble the Covenant you have made with God and what you solemnly promised him in the day you took him for your God It will be very seasonable and useful for thee Christian at this time to reflect upon those transactions and the frame of thy heart in those dayes when an heavier load of Sorrow prest thy heart than thou now feelest In those your spiritual distresses when the burthen of sin lay heavy the curse of the Law the fear of hell the dread of death and eternity beset thee on every side and shut thee up to Christ the only door of hope Ah what good news wouldst thou then have accounted it to escape that danger with the loss of all earthly comforts Was not this thy cry in those dayes Lord give me Christ and deny me what ever else thou pleasest Pardon my sin save my soul and in order to both unite me with Christ and I will never repine or open my mouth Do what thou wilt with me let me be friendless let me be childless let me be poor let me be any thing rather than a Christless graceless hopeless soul. And when the Lord hearkned to thy cry and shewed thee mercy when he drew thee off from the world into thy closet and there treated with thee in secret when he was working up thy heart to the terms of his Covenant and made thee willing to accept Christ upon his own terms O then how heartily didst thou submit to his yoak as most reasonable and easie as at that time it seemed to thee Call to mind these dayes the secret places where Christ and you made the bargain Have not these words or words to this sense been whispered by thee into his ear with a dropping eye and melting heart
vain and useless complaints of our misery or the dirt of sinful and wicked complaints of the dealings of the Lord with us The rod of affliction goes round and visits all sorts of persons without difference It is upon the Tabernacles of the just and of the unjust the righteous and the wicked both are mourning under the rod. The godly are not so to be minded as that the other be wholly neglected they have as strong and tender though not as regular affections to their Relations and must not be wholly suffered to sink under their unrelieved burthens Here therefore I must have respect to two sorts of persons whom I find in tears upon the same account I mean the loss of their dear Relations the Regenerate and the unregenerate I am a debtor to both and shall endeavour their support and assistance for even the unregenerate call for our help and pitty and must not be neglected and wholly slighted in their afflictions We must pitty them that can't pitty themselves The Law of God commands us to help a beast if fallen under its burden How much more a man sinking under a load of sorrow I confess uses of comfort to the unregenerate are not ordinarily in use among us and it may seem strange whence any thing of support should be drawn for them that have no special interest in Christ or the promises I confess also I find my self under great disadvantages for this work I cannot offer them those reviving cordials that are contained in Christ and the covenant for Gods afflicted people but yet such is the goodness of God even to his enemies that they are not left wholly without supports or means to allay their Sorrow If this therefore be thy case who readest these lines afflicted and unsanctified mourning bitterly for thy dead friends and more cause to mourn for thy dead soul Christless and graceless as well as childless or friendless no comfort in hand nor yet in hope full of trouble and no vent by prayer or faith to ease thy heart Poor creature thy case is sad but yet do not wholly sink and suffer thy self to be swallowed up of grief thou hast laid thy dear one in the grave yet throw not thy self head-long into the grave after him that will not be the way to remedy thy misery but sit down a while and ponder these three things First That of all persons in the World thou hast most reason to be tender over thy life and health and careful to preserve it for if thy troubles destroy thee thou art eternally lost undone for ever Worldly sorrow saith the Apostle works death And if it works thy death it works thy damnation also for Hell follows that pale horse Revel 6. 8. If a believer dyes there 's no danger of Hell to him the second death hath no power over him but wo to thee if it overtake thee in thy sin beware therefore what thou dost against thy health and life Don't put the candle of sorrow too near that thread by which thou hangest over the mouth of Hell O its far better to be childless or friendless on earth than hopeless and remediless in hell Secondly Own and admire the bounty and goodness of God manifested to thee in this affliction that when death came into thy family to smite and carry off one it had not fallen to thy lot to be the person thy Husband Wife or Child is taken and thou art left Had thy name been in the Commission thou hadst been now past hope O the sparing mercy of God! the wonderful long suffering of God towards thee Possibly that poor creature that is gone never provoked God as thou hast done thy poor child never abused mercies neglected calls treasur'd up the thousandth part of that guilt thou hast done So that thou mightest well immagine it should rather have cut thee down that hadst so provoked God than thy poor little one But oh the admirable patience of God! Oh the riches of long suffering Thou art only warned not smitten by it Is there nothing in this worth thy thankful acknowledgement Is it not better to be in black for another on earth than in the blackness of darkness for ever Is it not easier to go to the grave with thy dead friend and weep there than to go to hell among the damned where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Thirdly This affliction for which thou mournest may be the greatest mercy to thee that ever yet befel thee in this world God hath now made thy heart soft by trouble shewed thee the vanity of this World and what a poor trifle it is which thou madest thy happiness There is now a dark cloud spread over all thy worldly comforts Now O now if the Lord would but strike in with this affliction and by it open thine eyes to see thy deplorable state and take off thy heart for ever from the vain world which thou now seest hath nothing in it and cause thee to chuse Christ the only abiding good for thy portion If now thy affliction may but bring thy sin to remembrance and thy dead friend may but bring thee to a sense of thy dead soul which is as cold to God and spiritual things as his body is to thee and more loathsome in his eyes than that corps is or shortly will be to the eyes of men Then this day is certainly a day of the greatest mercy that ever yet thou sawest O happy death that shall prove life to thy soul. Why this is sometimes the way of the Lord with men Job 36. 8 9. If they be bound in fetters and helden in cords of affliction then he sheweth them their work and their transgression that they have exceeded he openeth also their ear to discipline and commandeth them that they return from iniquity O Consider poor pensive creature that which stole away thy heart from God is now gone That which eat up thy time and thoughts that there was no room for God soul or eternity in them is gone All the vain expectations thou raisedst up to thy self from that poor creature which now lyes in the dust are in one day perished O what an advantage hast thou now for heaven beyond what ever thou yet hadst If God will but bless this rod thou wilt have cause to keep many a thanksgiving day for this day I pray let these three things be pondred by you I can bestow no more comforts upon you your condition bars the best comforts from you they belong to the people of God and you have yet nothing to do with them I shall therefore turn from you to them and present some choicer comforts to them to whom they properly belong which may be of great use to you in reading if it be but to convince you of the blessed priviledge and state of the people of God in the greatest plunges of troubles in this world and what advantages their interest in Christ gives
too much to them or rely too much on them The best means in the world are weak and ineffectual without Gods assistance and concurrence and they never have that his assistance or concurrence when his time is come and that it was fully come in your friends case is manifested now by the event So that if your friend had had the most excellent helps the world affords they would have avail'd nothing This consideration takes place only in your case who see what the will of God is by the issue and may not be pleaded by any whilst it remains dubious and uncertain as it generally doth in time of sickness 2. Answer Do you not unjustly charge and fault your selves for that which is not really your fault or neglect How far you are chargeable in this case will best appear by comparing the circumstances you are now in with those you were in when your Relation was only arrested by sickness and it was dubious to you what was your duty and best course to take Possibly you had observed so many to perish in Physitians hands and so many to recover without them that you judged it safer for your friend to be without those means than to be hazarded by them Or if diverse methods and courses were prescribed and perswaded to and you now see your error in preferring that which was most improper and neglecting what was more safe and probable yet as long as it did not so appear to your understanding at that time but you followed the best light you had to guide you at that time it were most unjust to charge the fault upon your selves for chusing that course that then seemed best to you whether it were so in it self or not To be angry with your selves for doing or omâ—tâ—ing what was then done or omitted according to your best discretion and judgment because you now see it by the light of the event far otherwise than you did before is to be troubled that you are but men or that you are not as God who only can foresee Issues and events and that you acted as all rational creatures are bound to do according to the best light they have at the time and season of action 3. Answer To conclude times of great affliction are ordinarily times of great temptation and it 's usual with Satan then to charge us with more sins than we are really guilty of and also to make those things seem to be sins which upon impartial examination will not be found to be so Indeed had your neglect or miscarriage been knowing and voluntary or had you really prefer'd a little money being able to give it before the life of your Relation so that you did deliberatly chuse to hazard this rather than part with that no doubt then but there had been much evil of sin mixed with your affliction and your Conscience may justly smite you for it as your sin But in the other case which is more common and I presume yours it 's a false charge and you ought not to abet the design of Satan in it Judg by the sorrow you now feel for your friend in what degree he was dear to you and what you could now be content to give to ransom his life if it could be done with money Judg I say by this how groundless the charge is that Satan now draws up against you and you are but too ready to yeild to the truth of it 8. Plea But my troubles are upon a higher score and account My child or friend is passed into Eternity and I know not how it is with its soul. Were I sure that my Relation were with Christ I should be quiet but the fears of the contrary are overwhelming O it 's terrible to think of the damnation of one so dear to me 1. Answer Admit what the objection supposes that you have real grounds to fear the eternal condition of your dear Relation yet it 's utterly unbeseeming you even in such a case as this to dispute with or repine against the Lord. I do confess it 's a sore and heavy tryal and that there is no case more sad and sinking to the spirit of a gracious person Their death is but a trifle to this but yet if you be such as fear the Lord methinks his indisputable Soveraignty over them and his distinguishing love and mercy to you should at least silence you in this matter First His indisputable Soveraignty over them Rom. 9. 20. Who art thou O man that disputest with God He speaks it in the matters of eternal election and reprobation What if the Lord will not be gracious to those that are so dear to us Is there any wrong done to them or us thereby Aarons two Sons were cut off in an act of sin by the Lords immediate hand and yet he held his peace Levit. 10. 3. God told Abraham plainly that the Covenant should not be established with Ishmael for whom he so earnestly pray'd O let Ishmael live before thee and he knew that there was no salvation out of the Covenant and yet he sits down silent under the word of the Lord. Secondly But if this do not quiet you yet methinks his distinguishing love and mercy to you should do it O what do you owe to God that root and branch had not been cast together into the fire that the Lord hath given you good hope through grace that it shall be well with you for ever Let this stop your mouth and quiet your spirit though you should have grounds for this fear 2. Answer But pray examine the grounds of your fear whether it may not proceed from the strength of your affections to the eternal welfare of your friend or from the subtilty of Satan designing hereby to over-whelm and swallow you up in sorrow as well as from just grounds and causes In two cases it 's very probable your fear may proceed only from your own affection or Satans temptation First If your Relation died young before it did any thing to destroy your hopes Or Secondly If grown and in some good degree hopeful only he did not in life or at death manifest and give evidence of grace with that clearness as you desired As to the case of Infants in general it 's none of our concern to judg their condition and as for those that sprang from Covenanted parents it becomes us to exercise Charity towards them the Scripture speaks very favourably of them And as for the more adult who have escaped the polutions of the world and made Conscience of sin and duty albeit they never manifested what you could desire they had yet in them as in young Abijah may be found some good thing towards the Lord which you never took notice of Reverence of your authority bashfulness and shamefac'dness reservedness of disposition and many other things may hide those small and weak beginnings of grace that are in children from the observations of the Parents God might see
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
them for peace and settlement beyond that state you are in And here I do with much more freedom and hope of success apply my sēlf to the work of councelling and comforting the afflicted You are the fearers of the Lord and tremble at his word the least sin is more formidable to you than the greatest affliction Doubtless you would rather chuse to bury all your children than provoke and grieve your heavenly Father Your Relations are dear but Christ is dearer to you by far Well then let me perswade you to retire a while into your closets redeem a little time from your unprofitable sorrows ease and empty your hearts before the Lord and beg his blessing upon the following quieting and heart composing considerations that follow some of which are more general and common some more particular and special but all of them such as through the blessing of God may be very useful at this time to your souls 1. Consid. Consider in this day of sorrow who is the framer and author of this rod by which you now smart Is it not the Lord and if the Lord have done it it becomes you meekly to submit Psal. 46. 10. Be still and know that I am God Man and man stand upon even ground if your fellow creature do any thing that displeases you you may not only enquire Who did it but Why he did it You may demand his grounds and reasons for what he hath done but you may not do so here It is expected that this one thing The Lord hath done it should without any farther disputes or contests silence and quiet you what ever it be that he hath done Job 33. 13. Why dost thou strive against him for he giveth not an account of any of his matters The supream being must needs be an unaccountable and uncontroulable being It s a shame for a child to strive with his Father a shame for a servant to contend with his Master but for a creature to quarrel and strive with the God that made him O how shameful is it Surely t is highly reasonable that you be subject to that will whence you proceeded and that he who formed you and yours should dispose of both as seemeth him good It is said 2 Sam. 3. 36. That whatsoever the King did pleased all the people and shall any thing the Lord doth displease you He can do no wrong If we pluck a Rose in the bud as we walk in our Gardens Who shall blame us for it it is our own and we may crop it off when we please Is not this the case Thy sweet bud which was cropt before it was fully blown was cropt off by him that owned it yea by him that formed it If his dominion be absolute sure his disposal should be acceptable It was so to good Eli 1 Sam. 3. 18. It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good And it was so to David Psal. 39. 9. I was dumb I opened not my mouth because thou didst it O let it be for ever remembred That he whose name alone is Jehovah is the most high over all the earth Psal. 83. 18. The glorious soveraignty of God is illustriously displayed in two things his decrees and his providences With respect to the first he saith Rom. 9. 15. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy Here is no ground of disputing with him for so it s said ver 20. Who art thou O man that replyest against God Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it Why hast thou made me thus Hath not the potter power over the clay And as to his Providences wherein his Soveraignty is also manifested It s said Zech. 2. 13. Be silent O all flesh before the Lord for he is raised up out of his habitation It s spoken of his providential working in the changes of Kingdoms and desolations that attend them Now seeing the case stands thus that Lord hath done it it is his pleasure to have it so and if it had not been his will it could never have been as it is He that gave thee rather lent thee thy Relation hath taken him O how quiet should this consideration leave thee If your Landlord who hath many years suffered you to dwell in his house do at last warn you out of it though he tell you not why you will not contend with him or say he hath done you wrong much less if he tell you it will be more for his profit and accommodation to take it into his own hand than let it to you any longer Doubtless reason will tell you you ought quietly to pack up and quit it It s your great Landlord from whom you hold at pleasure your own and your Relations lives that hath now warned you out from one of them it being more for his glory it may be to take it in hand by death And must you dispute the case with him Come Christian this no way becomes thee but rather The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken blessed be the name of the Lord. Look off from a dead creature lift up thine eyes to the Soveraign wise and holy pleasure that ordered this affliction Consider who he is and what thou art yea pursue this consideration till thou canst say I am filled with the will of God 2. Consid. Ponder well the quality of the comfort you are deprived of and remember that when you had it it stood but in the rank and order of common and inferiour comforts Children and all other Relations are but common blessings which God indifferently bestows upon his friends and enemies and by the having or losing of them no man knows either love or hatred It is said of the wicked Psal. 77. 14. That they are full of children yea and of children that do survive them too for They leave their substance to their babes Full of sin yet full of children and these children live to inherit their parents sins and estates together It is the mistaking of the quality and nature of our enjoyments that so plunges us into trouble when we lose them We think there is so necessary a connexion betwixt these creatures and our happiness that we are utterly undone when they fail us But this is our mistake there is no such necessary connection or dependance we may be happy without these things It is not father mother wife or child in which our chief good and felicity lyes we have higher better and more enduring things than these all these may perish and yet our soul secure and safe yea and our comfort in the way as well as end may be safe enough though these be gone God hath better things to comfort his people with than these and worse rods to afflict you with than the removal of these had God let your children live and flourish and given you ease and rest in your Tabernacle but in the mean time inflicted spiritual Judgements upon your souls How much more sad had
your case been But as long as your best mercies are all safe the things that have salvation in them remain and only the things that have vanity in them are removed you are not prejudiced or much hindred as to the attainment of your last end by the loss of these things Alas it was not Christs intent to purchase for you a sensual content in the enjoyment of these earthly comforts but to redeem you from all iniquity purge your corruptions sanctifie your natures wean your hearts from this vain world and so to dispose and order your present condition that finding no rest and content here you might the more ardently pant and sigh after the rest which remains for the people of God And are you not in as probable a way to attain this end now as you were before Do you think you are not as likely by these methods of providence to be weaned from the world as by more pleasant and prosperous ones Every wise man reckons that station and condition to be best for him which most promotes and secures his last end and great design Well then reckon you are as well without these things as with them yea and better too if they were but clogs and snares upon your affections you have really lost nothing if the things wherein your eternal happiness consisteth be yet safe Many of Gods dearest children have been denied such comforts as these and many have been deprived of them and yet never the farther from Christ and heaven for that 3. Consid. Alwaies remember that how soon and unexpected soever your parting with your Relations was yet your Lease was expired before you lost them and you enjoyed them every moment of the time that God intended them for you Before this Relation whose loss you lament was born the time of your enjoyment and separation was unalterably fixed and limited in heaven by the God of the spirits of all flesh and although it was a secret to you whilst your friend was with you yet now it is a plain and evident thing that this was the time of separation before appointed and that the life of your friend could by no means be protracted or abreviated but must keep you company just so far and then part with you This position wants not full and clear Scripture authority for its foundation how pregnant and full is that Text Job 24. 5 6. Seeing his dayes are determined the number of his moneths are with thee Thou hast appointed him his bounds which he cannot pass The time of our life as well as the place of our habitation was prefixed before we were born It will greatly conduce to your settlement and peace to be well established in this truth That the appointed time was fully come when you and your dear Relation parted for it will prevent and save a great deal of trouble which comes from our after Reflections O if this had been done or that omitted had it not been for such miscarriages and over-sights my dear husband wife or child had been alive at this day No no the Lords time was fully come and all things concurred and fell in together to bring about the pleasure of his will let that satisfie you had the ablest physitians in the world been there or had they that were there prescribed another course as it is now so it would have been when they had done all Only it must be precaution'd that the decree of God no way excuses any voluntary sinful neglects or miscarriages God over-rules these things to serve his own ends but no way approves them but it greatly relieves against all our involuntary and unavoydable oversights and mistakes about the use of means or the timing of them for it could not be otherwise than now it is Object But many things are alledged against this position and that with much seeming countenance from such Scriptures as these Psal. 54. 25. Blood thirsty men shall not live out half their dayes Eccles. 7. 18. Why shouldst thou dye before thy time Psal. 102. 24. O my God take me not away in the midst of my dayes Isa. 38. 10. I am deprived of the residue of my years And Prov. 10. 27. The fear of the Lord prolongeth dayes but the years of the wicked shall be shortened It is demanded what tollerable sense we can give these Scriptures whilest we assert an unalterable fixation of the term of death Sol. The sense of all these Scriptures will be clear'd up to full satisfaction by distinguishing death and the Terms of it First we must distinguish death into Natural and Violent The wicked and blood thirsty man shall not live out half his dayes i. e. half so long as he might live according to the course of nature or the vigour and soundness of his natural constitution for his wickedness either drowns nature in an excess of riot and luxury or exposes him to the hand of justice which cuts him off for his wickedness before he hath accomplished half his dayes Again we must distinguish of the Term or limit set for death which is either General or Special The general limit is now seventy or or eighty years Psal. 90. 10. The dayes of our years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow To this short limit the life of man is generally reduced since the flood and though there be some few exceptions yet the general rule is not thereby destroyed The special limit is that proportion of time which God by his own counsel and will hath alotted to every individual person and it is only known to us by the event This we affirm to be a fixed and unmovable term with it all things shall fall in and subserve the will of God in our dissolution at that time But because the general limit is known and this special limit is a secret hid in Gods own brest therefore man reckons by the former account and may be said when he dyes at thirty or forty years old to be cut off in the midst of his dayes for it is so reckoning by the general account though he be not cut off till the end of his dayes reckoning by his special limit Thus he that is wicked dies before his time i. e. the time he might attain to in an ordinary way but not before the time God had appointed And so in all the other objected Scripture It is not proper at all in a Subject of this nature to digress into a controversie Alas the poor Mourner overwhelmed with grief hath no pleasure in that it is not proper for him at this time and therefore I shall for present wave the controversie and wind up this consideration with an humble and serious motion to the afflicted that they will wisely consider the matter the Lords time was come Your Relations lived with you every moment that God intended them for you before you had them O Parents mind this