Use IV. A word of consolation to your dejected and drooping hearts, upon this sad and mournful occas

watchfulness ordinarily go before them, conflicts and resistance accompany them, and shame, grief, and renewed care, usually follow them, 2 Cor. 7:11. By these things (which deserves a more copious discourse than my present design can allow) we may be helped to clear our interest in the covenant of grace: And that being done, it should be out of the power of all the afflictions in the world to sink your spirits. Let me therefore in the last place add,

USE IV. A word of consolation to your dejected and drooping hearts, upon this sad and mournful occasion. Why are you so troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your hearts?

Methinks there hath been so much of support and comfort already discovered to you in this blessed covenant, that could your faith but once fix upon it, and realize and apply it, I might lay down my pen at this period, and say, The work is done, there needs no more; but knowing how obstinate deep sorrows are, and how difficult a task the comforting of an afflicted mind is, I will, for a close, superadd a few considerations more, to all that hath been urged and argued before.

Consideration I. Consider how small and trivial the comforts, whose loss you bewail, are in comparison with Jesus Christ, who is still your own, under the bond of a sure covenant. A son, an only and promising son, is a great thing, when he stands in comparison with other creature-comforts, but surely he will seem a small thing, and next to nothing, when set by, or compared with Jesus Christ. Behold the Father, Son, and Spirit! Pardon and eternal salvation are this day presented in the covenant of grace before your souls, as your own.

"God, even our own God, shall bless," Psal. 67:6. When you feel your hearts wounded with such a thought as this, I cannot embrace my children in my arms, they are now out of my reach; then bless and admire God, that the arms of your faith can embrace so great, so

glorious a Saviour, and that you can say, "My beloved is mine, and I am his."

Consid. II. Consider what evil days are coming on, and what a mercy it is to your dead, that God hath taken them away from the evil to come, Isa. 57:1, 2. There are two sorts of evils to come, viz. Evils of sin, and evils of sufferings; and it is no small favour to be set out of the way of both. The grave is the hiding-place where God secures some from the dangers of both.

We are apt to promise ourselves times of tranquillity, and then it cuts us to think that our dear ones shall not partake with us in that felicity: But if we wisely consider the sins or the signs of the times, we have more cause to rejoice that God hath set them out of harm's way.

All things seem to conspire and work towards a day of great temptation and tribulation. Now as Christ told his disciples, who were so dejected, because he was to leave them, John 14:28. "If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go to the Father:" So truly you would much better express and manifest your love to your children, in your satisfaction in the will and appointment of God, in taking them into rest and safety, than in your dejections and sorrows for their removal. Surely they are better where they are, than where they were, whom God hath housed in heaven out of the storm and tempest. And could your deaf friends that are with Christ, have any more intercourse with this world, and see your tears, and hear your sighs for them, they would say to you, as Christ did to those that followed him wailing and mourning, Weep not for us, but for yourselves, and such as remain in the world with you, to see and feel the calamities that are coming on it.

Consid. III. Consider how near you are to that blesed state yourselves, where God shall be all in all, and you shall feel no want of any creature-comfort, 1 Cor. 15:28.

Creature-comforts are only accommodated comforts to this animal life we now live, but shortly there will be no need of them: for God will be all in all: That is, all the saints shall be abundantly satisfied in and with God alone. As there is water enough in one sea to fill all the rivers, lakes, and springs in the world: And light enough in one sun to enlighten all the inhabitants of the world: So there is enough in one God eternally to fill and satisfy all the blessed souls in heaven, without the addition of any creature-comfort. God is complete satisfaction to all the saints in the absence (I cannot say want) of wives and children, meats and drinks, estates and sensitive pleasures; There will be no more need of these things, than of candles at noon-day. You shall be as the angels of God, who have no concernment for relations.

Your fulness of years, infirmities of body, and I hope, I may add, your improvements in grace, speak you not far short of this blessed state:

And though you may seem to need these comforts in the way, your God shall supply all your wants.

Consid. IV. To conclude, Whatsoever your troubles, wants, fears, or dangers are, or may be in your passage to this blessed state, the covenant of grace is your security, and by virtue thereof your troubles shall open and divide, as Jordan did, to give you a safe passage into your eternal rest.

Look, as when the Israelites came near the land of promise, there was a swelling Jordan betwixt it and them, which seemed to forbid their farther passage and progress; but is is said, Josh. 3:17. "The priests that bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, stood firm on

the ground in the midst of Jordan; and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan."

Just so it is here: The covenant of grace stands on firm ground, in the midst of all the deep waters of tribulation you are to pass through, to secure unto you a safe passage through them all. Rejoice, therefore, and triumph in the fulness and firmness of this blessed covenant, and whatsoever affliction your God shall please to lay upon you, or whatsoever comfort he shall please to remove from you, still comfort and encourage yourselves, as David here doth. "Yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: For this is all my salvation, and and all my desire; although he make it not to grow."

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