behaved just as she did, we must have acknowledged,
that they had not sunk beneath the Dignity of their Character, nor
appear'd unworthy of our Applause, and our Imitation.

INDEED there may be some Reason to imagine, that it was with Design to
humble those who are in distinguish'd Stations of Life, and who have
peculiar Advantages and Obligations to excel in Religion, that GOD has
shewn us in Scripture, as well as in common Life, some bright Examples
of Piety, where they could hardly have been expected in so great a
Degree; and hath, as it were, _perfected Praise out of the Mouths of
Babes and Sucklings_[i]. Thus when _Zacharias_[k], an aged Priest,
doubted the Veracity of the Angel which appeared to assure him of the
Birth of his Child, which was to be produced in an ordinary Way;
_Mary,_ an obscure young Virgin, could believe a far more unexampled
Event, and said, with humble Faith and thankful Consent, _Behold the
Hand-maid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy Word_[l].
_Jonah_ the Prophet, tho' favour'd with such immediate Revelations,
and so lately delivered, in a miraculous Way, from the very _Belly of
Hell_[m], was thrown into a most indecent Transport of Passion, on the
withering of a Gourd; so that he presumed to tell the Almighty to his
Face, that _he did well to be angry even unto Death_[n]: Whereas this
pious Woman preserves the Calmness and Serenity of her Temper, when
she had lost a Child, a Son, an only Child, who had been given beyond
all natural Hope, and therefore to be sure was so much the dearer, and
the Expectation from him so much the higher. Yet are these
Expectations dash'd almost in a Moment; and this, when he was grown up
to an Age when Children are peculiarly entertaining; for he was old
enough to be with his Father in the Field, where no doubt he was
diverting him with his fond Prattle; yet he was not too big to be laid
_on his Mother's Knees_[o], when he came home complaining of his Head;
so that he was probably about five or six Years old. This amiable
Child was well in the Morning, and dead by Noon; a pale Corpse in his
Mother's Arms! and he now _lay dead in the House_; and yet they had the
Faith, and the Goodness to say, "_It is well._"

THIS good Woman had found the Prophet _Elisha_ grateful for all the
Favours he had received at her House; where she had from time to time
accommodated him in his Journies, and thought it an Honour rather than
an Incumbrance. She had experienced