g Reasons to the Understanding: Yet who can
say, that they shalt be Reasons to the Heart? _Arise, O GOD, and plead
thine own Cause_[x] in the most effectual Manner! May thy powerful and
gracious Voice appease the swelling Billows of the Passions, and
produce a great and delightful Calm in our Souls, in which we may yet
enjoy thee and ourselves, tho' a Part of our Treasure be for the
present swallowed up!

I. THERE is surely Reason, in such a Case, to say _it is well_,--because
GOD doth it.

THIS pass'd for an unanswerable Reason with _David, I was dumb, I
opened not my Mouth, because thou didst it_[y], and with good old
_Eli,_ under a severer Tryal than ours, _It is the Lord, let him do as
seemeth good in his Sight_[z]. And shall We object against the Force
of it? Was it a Reason to _David_, and to _Eli_, and is it not equally
so to us? Or have We any new Right to _reply against GOD_[a], which
those eminent Saints had not?

_His kingdom ruleth over all_[b]; and there is _not_ so much as _a
Sparrow that falls to the Ground without our Father, but the very
Hairs of our Head are all number'd_[c] by him. Can we then imagine
that our dear Children fall into their Graves without his Notice or
Interposition? Did that watchful Eye that _keepeth Israel_, now, for
the first time, _slumber and sleep_[d], and an Enemy lay hold on that
fatal Moment to bear away these precious Spoils, and bury our Joys and
our Hopes in the Dust? Did some malignant Hand stop up the Avenues of
Life, and break its Springs, so as to baffle all the Tenderness of the
Parent, and all the Skill of the Physician? Whence does such a Thought
come, and whither would it lead? Diseases and Accidents are but second
Causes, which owe all their Operations to the continued Energy of the
great original Cause. Therefore GOD says, _I will bereave them of
Children_[e]; _I take away the Desire of thine Eyes with a
Stroke_[f]_. He changeth their Countenance, and sendeth them away_[g].
_Thou Lord turnest Man to Destruction, and sayest, Return ye Children
of Men_[h]. And what shall we say? Are not the Administrations of his
Providence wise and good? Can we _teach him Knowledge_[i]? Can we tax
him with Injustice? Shall the Most High GOD learn of us how to govern
the World, and be instructed by our Wisdom when to remove his
Creatures from one State of Being to another? Or do we imagine that
his Administration, in the general Right and Good, varies when he
comes to _touch