erned. Let me then, once for all, direct mine
Eyes to another and a better State. From these _broken Cisterns_, the
Fragments of which may hurt me indeed, but can no longer refresh me,
let me look to the _Fountain of living Waters_[d]. From these setting,
Stars, or rather these bright but vanishing Meteors, which make my
Darkness so much the more sensible, let me turn to the _Father of
Lights._ Oh Lord, _What wait I for? my Hope is in thee_[e], my Pure
Abode, my everlasting Confidence! My Gourds wither, my Children die;
but _the Lord liveth, and blessed be my Rock, and let the God of my
Salvation be exalted_[f]. I see, in one Instance more, the sad Effects
of having over-loved the Creature; let me endeavour for the future, by
the Divine Assistance, to fix my Affections there where they cannot
exceed; but where all the Ardor of them will be as much my Security
and my Happiness, as it is now my Snare and my Distress."

2. THE Removal of our Children by such awful Strokes may warn us of
the Approach of our own Death.

HEREBY GOD doth very sensibly shew us, and those around us, that _all
Flesh is as Grass, and all the Glory_ and Loveliness _of it like the
Flower of the Field_[g]. And when our own Habitations are made the
Houses of Mourning, and ourselves the Leaders in that sad Procession,
it may surely be expected that we should lay it to Heart, so as to be
quicken'd and improved by the View. "Have my Children died in the
Morning of their Days, and can I promise myself that I shall see the
Evening of mine? Now perhaps may I say, in a more literal Sense than
ever, _The Graves are ready for me_[h]. One of my Family, and some of
us may add, the Firft-born of it, is gone as it were to take
Possession of the Sepulchre in all our Names; and ere long I shall lie
down with my Child in the same Bed; yea perhaps many of the Feet that
followed it shall attend me thither. Our Dust shortly shall be blended
together; and who can tell but this Providence might chiefly be
intended as a Warning Blow to me, that these concluding Days of my
Life might be more regular, more spiritual, more useful than the
former?"

3. THE Providence before us may be farther improved to quicken us in
the Duties of Life, and especially in the Education of surviving
Children.

IT is, on the Principles I hinted above, an Engagement, that _whatever
our Hand findeth to do, we should do it with all our Might_, since it
so plainly shews us that we are _g