A Token for Mourners

“To his dearly beloved brothir and sister, Mr, C. and Mrs, E. C, the Author ivjshes grace, mercy, and peace,

DEAR FRIENDS,

THE double tie of nature and grace, beside ] the many endearing passages that for so manyyears have linked and glewed our affections so intimately, cannot but beget a tender sympathy in me with you, under all your troubles, and make me say of every affliction which befals you, half’s min«. I find it is with our affections as with the strings of musical instruments exactly set at the same height, if one be touched, the other trembles, though it be at some distance.

Our affections are one, and so in a great measure have been our afflictions also. You cannot forget that in the years lately past, the Almighty visited my tabernacle with the rod, and in one year, cut off from it the root and the branch, the tender mother, and the only son. What the effects of those strokes, or rather of my own unmortified passions were, I have felt, and you and others have heard. Surely I was as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. Yea, I may say wish them, Lam. iii. 19, 20. Remem- “ber mine affliction and my misery, the worm-” wood and the gall, my soul hath them still in “remembrance, and is humbled in me.”

I dare not say that ever I felt my heart discontentedly rising and swelling against God; no, 1 could still justify him, when I most sensibly smarted by his hand: If he had plunged me into a sea of sorrow, yet I could say, in all that sea of sorrow, there is not a drop of injustice: but it was the over-heating, and over-acting of my fond and unmodified affections and passions that made so sad impressions upon my body, and cast me under those distempers which soon embittered ail my remaining comforts to me.

It was my earnest desire, so soon as I had strength and opportunity fer so great a journey, to visit you, that so, if the Lord had pleased, I might both refresh, and be refreshed by you, after all my sad and disconsolate days. And you cannot imagine what content and pleasure I projected in that visit; but it proved to us, as all other comforts of the same kind ordinarily do, more in expectation than in fruition: For how soon after our joyful meeting and embraces did the Lord overcast and darken our day, by sending death into your tabernacle, to take away the desire of your eyes with a stroke! To crop off that sweet and only bud from which we promised ourselves so much comfort. But no more of that, I fear I am gone too far already* It is not my design to exasperate your troubles, but to heal them; and for that purpose have I sent you these papers, which I hope may be of use to you and many others in your condition, since they are the after-fruits of my own troubles; things that I have not commended to you from another hand, but which I have, in some measure, proved and tasted in my o tm trials.

But I will not hold you longer here, I have only a few things to desire for, and from you, and I have done.

The things I desire, are,

First, That you will not be too hasty to get off the yoke which God hath put upon your neck. Remember when your child was in the womb, neither of you desired it should be delivered thence till God’s appointed time was fully come; and now that you travail again with sorrow for its death: O desire not to be delivered from your sorrows one moment before God’s

A time for your deliverance be fully come also. Let patience have its perfect work; that comfort which comes in God’s way and season, will stick by you, and do you good indeed.

Secondly, I desire, that though you and your afflictions had a sad meeting, yet you and they may have a comfortable parting. If they effect that upon your hearts which God sent them for, I doubi not but you will give them a fair testimony when they go off.

If they obtain God’s blessing upon them in their operation, surely they will have your bles? sing too at their valediction. And what you entt ained with fear, you will dismiss with praise. How sweet is it to hear the afflicted soul say, when God is loosing his hands, i( It is good for me that I have been afflicted.”

Thirdly, I heartily wish that these searching afflictions may make the more satisfying discoveries; that you may now see more of the evil of sin, the vanity of the creature, and the fullness of Christ, than ever you yet saw. Afflictions are searchers, and put the soul upon searching and trying its ways, Lam. lii. 14. When our sin finds us out by affliction, happy are we, if, fry the light of affliction, we find out sin. Blessed is the man whom God chasteneth, and teacho eth out of his law, Psal. xciv. 12. There are unseen causes, oany times, of our troubles; you have an advantage now to sift out the seeds, and principle from which they spring.

Fourthly, I wish that all the love and delight you bestowed on your little one, may now be placed, to your greater advantage, upon Jesus Christ; and that the stream of your affection to him may be so much the stronger, as there are now fewer channels for it to be divided into. If God will not have any part of your happiness to lie in children, then let it wholly lie in himself. If the jealousy of the L«rd hath removed that which drew away too much of your heart from him, and hath spoken by this rod, saying, Stand aside, child, thou art in my way, and fillest more room in thy parents hearts than belongs to thee, O then deliver up all to him, and say, Lord, take the whole heart entirely, and undivirledly, to thyself. Henceforth let there be no parting, sharing, or dividing of the affections betwixt God and the creature, let all the streams meet, and centre in thee, only.

Fifthly, That you may be strengthened with all might in the inner mm j to all patience, that the peace of God may keep your hearts and minds. Labor to bring your hearts to a meek submission to the rod of your Father. We had fathers of the flesh, who corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall Wv not much more be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live? Is it comely for children to contest, and strive with their father? Or is it the way to be freed from the yoke, by struggling under it? O that your hearts might be in a like frame with his that said, Lord, thou shalt beat, and I willbear. It was a good observation that one made, Anlma sedendo et quiescendo fit sapiens: The soul grows wise by sitting still and quiet under the rod. And the apostle calls those excellent fruits which the saints gather from their sanctified afflictions, “the peaceable fruits of righteousness,” Heb. xii. 11.

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