Advice to Mourners Under the Loss of Dear Relations, Paper 6
PAPER VI.
I Am willing to recount some of those many Mercies God hath been pleased to bestow upon me, to excite my Self to Thankfulness, and to incourage me still to trust in, and wait upon that good God, who hath bestowed so many Mercies upon me, the least of which I am altogether unworthy of. I may say with David, While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing Praises to my God while I have any Being; to that God who hath bestowed my Life, Health, my Strength, my Memory, my Reason, my Understanding, and all the Blessings of this Life upon me, and hath, through Grace, given me Hopes of dwelling with himself in Glory, when this miserable Life shall be ended. O my Soul, praise thou the Lord; O give Thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his Mercy endureth for ever. Remember the Goodness of God to thee, from the very Womb to this very Day; nay, before thou hadst a Being in this World, God was pleased to form thee, and write all thy Members in a Book; or else what an imperfect Creature might I have been, if there had been an Eye, or an Ear, or any part wanting? O that I could be truly thankful for these Mercies! I desire with Thankfulness to remember the Dealing of God to me in my Infancy and Childhood: How many Dangers and Accidents have I been liable and exposed to, and yet God hath been pleased to take Care of me, and preserved me from innumerable Mischiefs that have compassed me about? I look upon it as no small Blessing, that I was born of Christian, Religious, and Pious Parents, such as did truly fear God, and did what in them lay to instruct their Posterity in early Piety: they were those that frequently addressed themselves to the Throne of Grace, the Benefit of whose Prayers I hope to reap, both in Life and Death. I desire with Thankfulness to own the Goodness of God in taking Care of me, and providing for me when I was left motherless in my tender Age, when I was uncapable of minding my self; yet then was God pleased to raise me up Friends that were careful, kind and tender of me; some of which did instruct me in the best things, and were very solicitous for the Good of my poor Soul, and did daily counsel, instruct and admonish me, to mind my Creator in the Days of my Youth, and to live continually as one that must one Day give an Account of all the Good or Evil done in the Body. And that you may see how the Goodness of God hath followed me all my Days, I will endeavour to recollect those many comfortable Places of Scripture which have been of most excellent Use to me, to comfort, support and incourage me in many Difficulties and Troubles I have met with (some of which, I hope, will ever keep my Spirits from sinking.) In my younger Years being seized on by a severe Fit of Illness, that comfortable Place was a Support to me, Heb. 13. 5. Be content with such things as you have, for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. I was well satisfied with my present Condition, (though painful and sick enough) hoping that God would not leave me nor forsake me. Some time after, being in great Fear and Danger of some approaching Evil, that incouraging Place was brought to my Mind, Isa. 41. 10. Fear thou not, for I am with thee: be not dismayed, for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right Hand of my Righteousness. This Place vanished all my Fears, and caused me to put my Trust and Confidence in the Almighty God, who never faileth those that rely on him. Afterwards, when I came to part with Children, though this Affliction was very heavy, God was pleased to mitigate it by the Consideration, that there was a Name better than that of Sons and Daughters: and though God saw fit to deprive me of them, (for wise Reasons I doubt not) yet he was pleased to silence me under his Hand, by the Considerations of Heb. 12. 5, 6. My Son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth. I have sometimes thought, that if I were assured of the Love of my Heavenly Father, I could then bear any Affliction. Lord! I beg I may be truly humbled, that I have deserved so many severe Scourges, and yet, Lord, I would be thankful that thou art pleased (though by the Rod) to bring me home to thy Blessed Self.
When my dear Husband hath met with many Losses and Crosses, I have been apt to be desponding and cast down; but God hath mercifully composed me by the Consideration of Matth. 6. 25, 26, &c. There I see that God clothes the Grass, and feeds the Fowls, and hath bidden poor Creatures not to be anxious for these outward things, assuring us, that our Heavenly Father knoweth we have need of these things, and that he will graciously supply the Wants of those that seek to him. Phil. 4. 6. He hath bidden me to be careful for nothing, but in every thing by Prayer and Supplication, with Thanksgiving, to let my Request be made known unto him: and God hath incouraged poor Souls to cast their Care on him, letting them know he careth for them. What should I go to for Comfort, if I had not the Word of the Eternal God to fly to? It would be endless to reckon up the thousand Parts of those refreshing, comforting, and quickning Places that are to be had in the Word of God, to comfort poor disconsolate Souls in all Conditions of Life: and it ought to be took notice of how God is pleased to sute them to our present Conditions of Life. I was once so perplexed with groundless Fears of Troubles, that I was for some time unfit for any thing; but my good God was pleased to fix upon my Mind Psal 23. 1. The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. There was then no room left for any tormenting Fears, but they all vanished away at the Consideration of the Happiness of those that have so careful a Shepherd. It is my earnest Request that God will own me as one of his Flock, however he deal with me as to worldly Matters.
I was not a little comforted and refreshed also by the last Verse of that Psalm, which saith, Surely Goodness and Mercy shall follow me all the Days of my Life, and I will dwell in the House of the Lord for ever. I am sure Goodness and Mercy have followed me to this very Day, therefore I will not distrust the merciful Kindness of God to me to my Life's End. But if I should be stripp'd of earthly Blessings, I beg I may have the Liberty of God's House here, and the Happiness of dwelling with him for ever hereafter: If I should with Lazarus be clothed with Rags, and fed with Crumbs, all my Days; if my Body should be full of Sores, yet if God will own me, and approve me, and at Death receive me to himself, I may with tolerable Patience bear the Inconveniencies of my Pilgrimage-state, knowing that they will not last long.
And that I may with the more Confidence cast my poor fatherless Children upon God, I will call to mind those Places that did quiet me under the Loss of my dear, and loving, and tender Father, which were these; that God was pleased to promise to be a Father to the Fatherless; and that when Father and Mother forsake, then the Lord would take them up. God hath bidden poor Creatures to cast their Burden upon him, assuring them, that he takes Care of them, and sustains them. And the forementioned Place, Isa. 41. 10. is a sufficient Cordial to keep any Soul from fainting and sinking under any Distress whatsoever; therefore I hope, and trust, and believe, that the good God, who hath been so bountiful, so merciful, and so kind to me, to extend so many Favours to me, will also take pity of my fatherless Babes. With him the Fatherless find Mercy: Lord, I therefore commit them into thy Hands, as unto a faithful Creator and Redeemer, and beg that thou wouldst here guide them with thy Counsel, and afterwards receive them to Glory.
Sometimes when my Children have been taken very ill, so that there was no room for hope of Life, to outward Appearance, yet even then hath my good God supported me by some comfortable Portion of his Holy Word. Once one of my Children being given over, I was in great Perplexity of Mind; that Place came to my Thoughts, Call on me in the day of Trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. I was extremely revived at the Consideration of that Place, for that was then a Time of Trouble to me: And then being incouraged, that if I called upon God he would deliver me, I did then, with firm Hopes and Confidence, rely upon my merciful God and Father, whom I have found ready to help and deliver me out of many Distresses. Blessed, and for ever blessed be his Name, who was pleased to hear the Cries and Groans of his poor, unworthy, undeserving, ill-deserving, and Hell-deserving Creature.
And seeing God was pleased to deliver me from my great Fears, my next Inquiry should be, how I may glorify this good God: Lord, help me to make it the Care, and Business, and Study of my Life, how I may please thee, and honour thee, and serve thy Blessed Majesty the remaining part of my Days.
Amen. Amen.