f it, labour to turn your
Eyes from so dark a Prospect, to those better Hopes which GOD is
setting before _you_. For surely you still have abundant Reason to
rejoice in that Grace, which gives your own _Lives to you as a Prey_,
and has brought you so near to that blessed World, where, hard as it
is now to conceive it, you will have laid aside every Affection of
Nature, which interferes with the Interests of GOD, and prevents your
most chearful Acquiescence in every Particular of his wise and
gracious Determinations.

2. FROM what we have heard, let us learn not to think of the Loss of
our Children with a slavish Dread.

IT is to a Parent indeed such a cutting Stroke, that I wonder not if
Nature shrink back at the very Mention of it: And, perhaps, it would
make those to whom GOD hath denied Children more easy, if they knew
what some of the happiest Parents feel in an uncertain Apprehension of
the Loss of theirs: An Apprehension which strikes with peculiar Force
on the Mind, when Experience hath taught us the Anguish of such an
Affliction in former Instances. But let us not anticipate Evils:
Perhaps all our Children, who are hitherto spared, may follow us to
the Grave Or, if otherwise, we _sorrow not as those who have no
Hope_[p]. We may have Reason still to say; _It is well_, and, thro'
Divine Grace, we may also have Hearts to say it. Whatever we lose, if
we be the Children of GOD, we shall never lose our Heavenly Father, He
will still be our Support, and our Joy. And therefore let us turn all
our Anxiety about uncertain, future Events, into a holy Solicitude to
please him, and to promote religious Impressions in the Hearts of our
dear Offspring; that if GOD should see fit to take them away, we may
have a Claim to the full Consolations, which I have been representing
in the preceding Discourse.

3. LET us not sink in hopeless Sorrow, or break out into clamorous
Complaints, if GOD has brought this heavy Affliction upon us.

A STUPID Indifference would be absurd and unnatural: GOD and Man might
look upon us as acting a most unworthy Part, should we be like _the
Ostrich in the Wilderness, which hardeneth herself against her young
ones, as if they were not hers; because GOD hath deprived her of
Wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her Understanding_[q]. Let us
sorrow like Men, and like Parents; but let us not, in the mean time,
forget that we are Christians. Let us remember how common the Calamity
is; few Parents