The Fathers Tears over his Daughters Remains

TO THE READER.

THE following Sermons, plain and simple as they are, for Mourning forbids Ornament, had been published sooner, if at all, after the Funeral of my dear Child, if the putting in Order some Memoirs of her short Exemplary Life had not obliged us to some Delay.

I hope both the Sermons and the Memoirs may be of good Use to Parents and Children, and to Ministers and their Children in particular, or I should not trouble the Public with them.

As the Father of the Deceased I owe this Respect unto her Memory, but more as a Minister I owe it to the Children of my Country and of the Town. It becomes Me now in Age to write for Those unto Whom I have been ministering these five and thirty Years; and I magnify my Office (to borrow the Words of the Great Apostle) if I may provoke to Emulation those that are my Flesh. I mean, If what is here published may serve to put Parents on more early and continued Endeavors for the Souls of their Children, and to inspire our Dau'ters in particular with Desires to improve in Knowlege and Goodness under the Instructions of their wise and gracious Parents. This, by the Will of God, ought to be to me a Joy next to any Saving Ministrations to my own Offspring, whereof the following Record gives me some humble Hope: Scil. That it has pleased God to make Me, together with my good Son Mr. Turell, a Spiritual Father to my loved Child, and that in Christ Jesus we have begotten her thro' the Gospel; (again to use the Apostle's most pleasant Words) — At least the Reader will charitably judge that I have with some Pains and Throws been travailing in Birth till Christ was formed in her. In which I beseech Others to be Followers of me, who yet am not worthy to be named among the Ministers of Christ.

For I have at last very poorly answered that first and great Commandment of God to all his People, Deut. vi. 4,—7. "Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God is one Lord! And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine Heart, and with all thy Soul, and with all thy Might: And these Words which I command thee this Day shall be in thine Heart, and THOU SHALT TEACH THEM DILIGENTLY UNTO THY CHILDREN, &c. See how much true Love to God lies & shows itself in our Care for the Souls of our Posterity! and how much He will account this in us Love to Himself.

My Deceased has it may be better answered the Commandment of God to Children, Prov. iv. 1. "Hear the Instruction of a Father, and attend to know Understanding"; and could with true Delight take up the following Words, "For I was my Father's—, tender and only beloved in the Sight of my Mother; He taught me also and said to me, Let thy Heart retain my Words, keep my Commandments and live: "Get Wisdom, get Understanding, forget it not, &c.

O might we see many, many of our Sons and Daughters answering to this Original in the Book of God, this wisest of the Sons of Men, in a much superior Measure to what my Deceased did in her Childhood and Youth!

The first of these Sermons was composed on the Sudden Death of her dear Mother, and she sat at my Feet and heard it in her great Mourning, with some Character of her loved Parent; whose Cares for her Soul she records with great Thankfulness to God in some of her Papers. And when Mr. Turell prevailed with me to come & weep with Him & his People, the Sabbath after the Funeral of his Wife, I chose to repeat that Sermon to my Self & Him; adapting it to the Communion which then fell in Curse.

The other Sermon I had preached at Home the Lord's Day before, and now I make the DEDICATION of both, first to the Beloved Children of my own Flock and Town, and then to the Beloved People of Medford, to Whom I gave away no small part of the Light of my Eyes in the Day I married her to their Pastor.

May They and their Sons and Daughters serve Themselves of these her living Remains, and whatsoever things are just, pure, lovely and of good Report, let 'em think to these things.— And while She being dead speaks to You in what is here published, after a short and silent Life among you; GOD grant her Surviving Spouse may be long continued to teach and feed You in the Name and Strength of the LORD GOD, and to carry many of You with him to Heaven.

An EPISTLE To the Reverend Mr. Ebenezer Turell, Occasioned by the Death Of his late Virtuous CONSORT. By the Reverend Mr. JOHN ADAMS.

Aaron 's Silence On the Death of his SONS.

VERY gracious and exemplary was this Silence of Aaron, and very awful was the Providence and Trial which made it so excellent and admirable in him. He and his Sons having been called of God unto the Priesthood, and solemnly consecrated to the service of the Sanctuary ; upon the first Execution of their Office the Glory of the Lord appeared unto all the People, and a Fire came from before the Lord and consumed the Burnt-Offering upon the Altar. This was a most open and glorious Testimony of the Lord's accepting of his Sanctuary and Altar, his Priests also and the worshipping People. Well might it fill them all with transports of Joy, and make them shout and fall on their Faces. So they adored and gave Thanks to the King Eternal and Invisible, who vouchsafed thus to manifest Himself to them, and show 'em His Glory.

But the Sin and Sudden Death of Nadab and Abihu (the two Sons of Aaron who had been dignified among the Elders of Israel, and by Name called up into the Mount, to see the God of Israel, and He laid not his Hand on them ; Exod. xxiv. 1, 11.) gave a dreadful Damp to the Joys of that glorious Day.

These young Priests, proud it may be of their Office, and half intoxicated with the Joy of the sacred Festival, took either of them his Censer, probably without the Divine Order to burn Incense at that Time; and whereas they should have taken of the Fire that was newly kindled on the Altar from before the Lord, they offered strange Fire, used common Fire, which He commanded them not.

This was a great piece of Rashness, Irreverence and Presumption in them; and being the first Profanation of God's House and Worship by the Priesthood, it pleased the Holy and Dreadful Majesty to strike 'em dead upon the spot. There went out Fire from the Lord and devoured 'em, and they died before the Lord.

This was such a kind of Bereavement as never but once happened, enough to swallow up all Words! and no doubt but Moses and Aaron and all the worshipping Assembly were struck with Astonishment at the terrible Execution. But Moses inspired of God, with a Presence of Mind as surprising as the present Event, immediately shown them that so it became the Holiness of God to sanctify Himself on them that came nigh Him, if they did not take care to sanctify his Name in their Approaches to Him and Ministrations before him: ver. 3. Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the People I will be glorified: And Aaron held his Peace.

So Aaron hearkened to the Word of God, from the Mouth of his Brother Moses, and was dumb because God had done it in his wise and righteous Severity: So he sanctified the Lord, and glorified Him before all the People, in adoring Silence and profound Submission.

This was as indeed became the High Priest of the Lord. What an Example did he give to the frighted gazing Congregation! But he did no more than was his Duty, nor all that neither. It was of God's great Grace and Mercy to him that he bare as he did. Let God have all the Glory, and Aaron his praise also; for God put Honor on him, glorified his Grace in him.

It is the Duty of all Men, more especially of Ministers, to be Silent under Divine Corrections.

The Doctrines I would briefly speak to are, 1. That there is a gracious Silence which may highly become us in our sorrowful Bereavements ; more especially when they are sudden & awful, and carry much of God's holy Anger and Displeasure in them. 2. That Ministers especially should be Instances and Examples hereof under such Bereavements.

I. There is a gracious Silence which may highly become us in our sorrowful Bereavements, more especially when they are sudden and awful, and carry much of God's Holy Anger & Displeasure in them.

Such was this of Aaron's in the Text: To have two Sons, just consecrated to the Service of God, suddenly struck Dead, as it were by Lightning, and that because the Holy God was not served by 'em in that reverend Manner which he required,—What could be more surprizing, more awful and expressive of Divine Displeasure?

The first Death, the first Bereavement of the first Parents of Mankind, was a very sudden and awful Breach upon them! And no doubt but Adam and Eve thought God very angry with them, when they saw one Son, and him a godly one, Murder'd by his ungodly Brother; because his Works were righteous and He accepted by God.

Job's Bereavement was the most sudden and tragical that we ever read of: His ten Children feasting together, and rejoicing in one another's Love; and on a sudden comes a fierce Wind from the Wilderness, & blows down the House, and buries 'em all together in a moment of Time; crushed to pieces in the mighty Ruines of some princely Fabric.

Jacob 's Bereavement in the Sudden Death of Rachel was very awful to him; as indeed all Deaths in Child-birth are, because of the joyful Hope therein frustrated of a new & double Life. We have not the like scarce, but in the dying of the Wife of Phineas. Read the moving, killing Stories: Gen. xxxv. 16,—20. Rachel travailed and she had hard Labor, and the Midwife said to her, Fear not, thou shalt have this Son also: And as her Soul was in departing She called his Name Benoni: The Son of my sorrow! And Jacob set a Pillar upon her Grave; it is the Pillar of Rachel's Grave unto this Day. But never was the holy and terrible Anger of God more testified against a Family of Religion, than in the united Deaths of Eli, his Sons, and his pious Daughter-in-law : 1 Sam. iv. 19,—22. And when she heard that the Ark of God was taken, and that her Father-in-law & her Husband were dead, She bowed herself and travailed: And about the Time of her Death, the Women said to her, Fear not, for thou hast born a Son! but she answered not, nor regarded it; only named the Child Ichabod, saying, The Glory is departed from Israel, for the Ark of God is taken.

The fair Naomi had a very awful sense of the Divine Anger, when she returned from the Land of Moab desolate and empty; having buried her two Sons and her Husband : Ruth i. 20. Call me not Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me, and testified against me.

David's Bereavement in the Death of his Child, was an express Testimony of the high Displeasure of God against him for his Sin. Nathan told him in way of Threatning and Punishment, The Child shall die. He fasted and wept therefore before the Lord. But the Death of Amnon for his Folly & Incest, and the Death of Absalem in his Rebellion, were much mor • sudden and awful Bereavements, and great • Testimonies of the Divine Anger.

The Widow of Zarephath, who was honor' • to nourish Elijah, (that is to say, he fed her b • the Power of God) had a most awful sense of th • bereaving Hand of God in the Death of her Son▪ She was even broken under the fearful Apprehen+sion of it. 1 Kin. xvii. 18. Ah, thou Man of God ▪ said she, art thou come to call my Sins to remem+brance? and to slay my Son?

And yet these awful, sudden and grievous B • +reavements were no always from the Divin • Displeasure, however well the Bereaved did • apprehend it, and fear & mourn & fall at God • foot. We cannot say that Rachel 's Death w •• from God's Displeasure with Jacob, who was • his way to Bethel, to pay his Vow. And we ce • +tainly know that Job 's Bereavements were 〈◊〉 for his Sin, nor from any Displeasure of God t • +ward him; but the Lord in the Sovereignty • his Grace gave Satan a Permission to try & pro •• those excelling Measures of Grace with which • had dignified him, and whereof He had spok • with the highest Pleasure and Esteem.

And so it seems to have been in the Death▪ the Prophet 's Wife, when the Desire of his 〈◊〉 was taken away with a Stroke, and behold I do • said the Lord to him, and forbad him to mo •• or weep, Ezek. xxiv. 16. Nor was there; • Anger of God in the Death of Lazarus or D • +cas ; but only Glory to Himself with Love • Favor both to the Dead and to the Livin • however bitterly the Survivors took both the • and the other.

Nevertheless 〈…〉 becomes us to appre •• nd and fear the • oly Anger of God in his be •• aving Providences; and the more suddenly •• ey come upon 〈◊〉 , the more awful they should • to us; and frequently the Displeasure of God • great in them, and we cannot certainly judge •• en it is not so. Wherefore in all such Cases a •• acious Silence may exceedingly become us. We •• ay well be struck dumb, and like Aaron hold •• r Peace, when the Hand of God suddenly •• uches us.

So the excellent Servants of God have be •• v'd, both before and since the days of Aaron, •• der a like eminent Government of the Spirit of •• ace. Job when he heard of the distastrous •• d of his seven, his ten, his all, fell down and • orshipped, in a few Words. But when the fu ••• us Devil had covered him with dolorous and • hy Ulcers, then he seems to have sat down • e silent and astonied, laying his Hand upon his • uth, and keeping it with a Bridle. His Friends • nd him in this Silence, and accompanied him • . Job ii. 13. So they sat down with him upon • Ground, seven Days and seven Nights, and none • e a Word unto Him; for they saw that his • f was very great. The Wife of Phineas died • Grief, and died silent. The wise and pious • amite told not her Husband of the Child's • th, and lay silent for a time at the Prophet 's • When David 's Sorrow was stirred, you read • Practice, his Victory over himself, Psal. xxxix. • was dumb with Silence, I held my Peace. Such • his gracious Silence at his Infant 's Death, • ot so at Absalom 's.

Such Mourners were 〈◊〉 •• sters of Lazarus ; they thought much and said little: Lord, said they when Jesus came, if thou hadst been here, my Brother had not died. Jesus himself mourned with them in like Silence: He wept, he sigh'd, he groaned within himself as he came to the Grave.

He bare our Sins and Sorrows silent, and went to his Cross as a Lamb to the Slaughter; so he opened not his Mouth, Isai. liii.7. At the Bar of Pilate, loaded with false Accusations, he answered nothing, insomuch that the Governor marvelled greatly . Mat. xxvii. 14. The Son of God, the Man of Sorrows has thus sanctified a gracious Silence under the stand of His Father. He agoniz'd in the Garden, in fervent Prayer, but in a very few Words. And those Words were full of adoring Silence; Father, if this Cup may not pass away from me, thy Will be done. He said little on the Cross, but there was very much in that little.

God has sometimes enjoin'd his sorrowful People Silence. Psal. xlvi. 10. Be still and know that I am God. My Context gives us the most singular Instance of it; Moses forbad Aaron and his Sons to bewail the Breach which the Lord had made on them, lest they died. So Ezekiel was commanded not to weep, when God took away his Wife, This was one Time and Way, when his Tongue was made to cleave to the Roof of his Mouth.

Now such gracious Silence may exceedingly become us under our awful and sudden Bereavements, because

1. To be sure then there is nothing said against the will of God, and his Doing: Nothing in way of Complaint against God, as if he were a hard Master : Nothing in way of Anger and Displeasure, as Job 's Wife would have provoked his Spirit: Nothing in way of Murmur as the Israelites of old spake against God. Far, far be from us, any Look or Appearance of Displicency at what God orders out to us or ours, and much less any Word from our Lips of that nature.— Yet David was displeased when God struck Uzzah, and Jonah was angry when his Gourd was blasted. But Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

2. This gracious Silence speaks much and aloud for God. It has its Voice and Language, and is easily heard and understood. There is no Speech nor Language where its Voice is not known.

It speaks Submission to the Sovereign Will of God: As a Son or Servant is silent under the Rebuke or Correction of a good Father or Master: Or as a Criminal is silent before his Judge ; or as a Subject before his Prince when he has displeased Him.

We justify God in his Judgment when we hold our Peace. We own Him just and righteous, not having a Word to say. We humble ourselves in his Sight, and accept of the Punishment of our Sin.

Silence in a Sinner is expressive of Penitence, Sorrow and Shame and Fear. We take Shame to ourselves, and are afraid before God, and lay our Hand upon our Mouth. As Job did, Chap. xl. 3, 4. Behold I am vile, what shall I answer Thee? Ones have I spoken, but I will proceed no further. xlii. 6. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in Dust and Ashes.

Silence before God under his afflicting Hand ascribes to Him all the Glories of his Sovereignty, Wisdom and Justice. It is mental Worship. The Mind thinks, considers and adores, while the Tongue is silent and the Lips move not. So devout Souls mean it, and so God hears and accepts it. So Aaron glorified the Holy One of Israel in the Presence of many Worshippers. There had not been, it may be, on that Solemn Day, a like Act of Worship, as this Silence of Aaron. O what a Sacrifice did he make to God, while he held his Peace! A sacred Reverence stopped his Mouth! Mark me, and be astonied, and lay your Hand upon your Mouth. The whole Assembly of Worshippers stood silent and adoring with him.

3. This gracious Silence under sudden & awful Bereavements highly becomes us in point of Prudence and Care; Caution & Guard upon ourselves. Now keep the Door of thy Lips, fear to speak in a surprise, lest it be unadvisedly; which even the meek Moses himself did, and smarted for it; and was enjoin'd Silence in his Suffering on that Account; "Speak no more to me (said God) of that matter.

Be not rash with thy Mouth, is not only a piece of wise Advice in the case of Worship and Vowing to God, but also in that of Suffering under his Holy Hand. Why shouldest thou speak suddenly, and then have cause to say, "It was an Error? Why should God be angry at thy Voice? Eccl. v. 2, 6.

Keep your Silence, said Moses to Aaron and Eleazar in my Context, lest ye die. Gracious Silence speaks a wise and reverend Fear of God, and a conscious Jealousy of our Selves. It shows a due Sense of our own Imperfection, Corruption and Sinfulness, that we dare not trust such a foolish Heart and Tongue. Our Affections are irregular, our Passions unruly; apt to break out at our Lips, when our Hearts are hot within us. We no sooner take fire within, but we blow up and burst to pieces. Out of the Abundance of the Affections the Mouth speaks; but Silence keeps them down from making Work for Repentance. It was therefore wisely resolved by David, Psal. xxxix 1, 2. I will take heed to my Heart, that I sin not with my Tongue; I will keep my Mouth with a Bridle while the Wicked is before me: I was dumb with Silence, I held my Peace. The Rein in the Mouth holds in the head-strong Passions, that would else run away with us. The Horse that has a hard Mouth, & too much Spirit, needs a hard Kirb, and a strong Hand. Moreover. Silence in a Surprise gives Time and Room for Thought, while he that speaks suddenly speaks without thinking; and when he thinks over what he has said is ready to bite his Tongue, & wishes he could eat his Words. And well may he be ready to gnaw his Tongue, who speaks hastily and foolishly of God or to Him. Therefore get alone, and keep Silence, and put thy Mouth in the Dust, when God rebukes and afflicts. The Prudence of the thing, as well as the Religion of it, so directs. And indeed Religion is evermore the highest Wisdom. But after all that has been said in Praise of gracious Silence before God, it must be added,

4. That wise and gracious Speaking, to God and of Him, in the Day of our Affliction, may be sometimes better than Silence ; more to the Glory of God, the Edification of Men, and our own Ease and Comfort. Let but Grace govern the Heart and the Tongue, and whether we speak or hold our Peace, there will be the same Adoration of God, Humiliation before Him, Submission to Him, and Prudence with respect to our Selves.

The Tongue was made to speak, as well in the Day of Grief as in the Day of Gladness; and in both to the Glory of God. Moses spake admirably to the Honor of God, while Aaron stood silent. Aaron 's Silence kept Time and Concert with Moses Words. There was perfect Harmony in both together.

Job in his Bereavement spake, — O how well at first! but afterward there was much amiss. It had been better to have kept Silent still, than to open his Mouth and curse his Day as he did. Yet in his after Speeches he showed a better Judgment, and as good Affections, as his pious Friends. God saw him right in his Principle, Aim and End. He and they meant fervently to honor Providence, but Satan tempted and at times irritated them all: so poor are we at our best Estate, and in our best Exercises compassed with Infirmity.

We must make the best of what is spoken, and piously meant in the Day of Sorrow. If the good Woman spake too passionately to Elijah on the Death of her Son, yet she spake penitently, and the Passion was overlooked. Did Elijah remember against her her Sins? or did he slay her Son? No; but she remembered her own Sins before God, and all was well. God considered that she was a Mother.

I might give some Directions here, and say

1. Under the surprising & awful Providences of God let our Words be few. God is in Heaven and we on Earth. We are dust and ashes before the most High God.

2. Let our Words be deliberate & well weighed, Think awfully and speak slowly, for it is before the Lord; to Him and of Him. Teach me what I shall speak, and how!

3. Speak humbly, abasing ourselves in the Sight of God. As Job answered the Lord and said, Behold I am vile, what shall I answer thee? I will lay my Hand upon my Mouth. The holy Son of God himself fell upon his Face and prayed, in the Hour of his Sorrows.

4. Speak adoring: fall down and worship: make Supplication, to thy Judge. What shall I say, He hath both spoken to me, and Himself hath done it.

5. Speak as a guilty & repenting Sinner. Confess Sin and justify God. Ascribe Righteousness and Mercy to thy Maker, and take Shame to thyself. Job 's last Words were the very best that he spake, Chap. xlii. 5. N • w mine Eye seeth Thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. The Lamentations of Jeremiah are the highest strains of penitential Humiliation under amazing Afflictions. The Yoke of my Transgressions is bound by his Hand; they are wreathed and come up upon my Neck: Remembering my Affliction and my Misery, the Wormwood and the Gall, my Soul hath them still in Remembrance & is humbled in me: —He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, he putteth his Mouth in the dust, he giveth his Cheek to him that smiteth him, he is filled full with Reproach.

6. We must speak our Trust in the Grace and Mercy of God thro' the Lord Jesus Christ. No Words of Despondency should fall from our Lips. We must speak unto God and of Him, as he speaks of Himself: Neh. ix. 17. But Thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to Anger and of great Kindness.

7. We must speak with profound and absolute Submissoin.

To close on this Head, — We must hold our Peace from Murmuring, or any Words of Discontent, Displeasure & Complaint at what God does; but we must open our Mouth to adore, confess, supplicate, bless and praise the wise, the holy, sovereign, good and faithful God. Our Sins may well stop our Mouth from complaining, but the Grace of God opens 'em in humble Confessions and Supplications to him: And to speak also unto others for their Instruction, Admonition, Direction, Excitation, Consolation, spiritual Edification and Establishment in Faith and Holiness. Such speaking is at any Time, and in every Case, better than Silence. And Silence, like Aaron 's in the Text, is then only great and good, when it speaks thus to the Eyes and Hearts of all about us.

But this for the first Doctrine, That there is a gracious Silence which may highly become us in our sorrowful Bereavements. I pass to the other Observation.

II. That the Ministers of Christ are more especially obliged to be Instances and Examples of a wise, gracious and reverend Deportment under the bereaving Hand of God.

Aaron was in my Text singled out for an Example to the whole Congregation of Israel. We read how well he behaved, and gave Glory to God. It highly became him to do so. God had set him over his House, and before his Worshippers. He was to go before 'em in bearing as well as doing. And we are bid to take him, among the Saints and Prophets, who have spoken in the Name of the Lord, for an Example of suffering Affliction, and Patience Jam. v. 10.

Aaron was both a Prophet and a Priest, the Mouth of God to Israel and their Mouth to God ; and he could speak well, yet was now Silent. He was now in Waiting, ministering in his Place, in the Sanctuary, when he gave this Illustrious Example of profound Submission: And so he stands a teaching and commanding Pattern to the Ministers of God forever, and to them especially. Every worshipping Israelite were to learn of him that awful Day, but the Priesthood and Levites, his own Family and Tribe, more than others.

I speak therefore more especially to myself, and to my dear Son, your honored and beloved Pastor, this Day; to charge myself and him, in the Name and Presence of the Great and Holy God, who is pleased to lay his bereaving Hand upon us ; that we fall down before Him and implore his Grace to help us to carry Our selves before You with that Silence and Humiliation that shall honor his Holy Name before You, and exemplify in some manner those Doctrines and Commandments of God our Savior, which we have been so often preaching to you in the Days of Death and Mourning that have passed over us.

Ministers have their Trials, and very awful ones as well as others. They are Sinners as well as others, and their Sins are greater, more aggravated and heinous then other Men's. And if they are like Aaron among the Saints of God, as by their special Consecration to Him they are peculiarly bound to be, they are the more likely to be exercised with Afflictions, for many are the Afflictions of the Righteous ; and they are the more meet to be so exercised, because they have Graces to exercise in this Way; according to what we read, Heb. x. 32. After ye were illuminated ye endured a great Fight of Afflictions Unto such it is given on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him but to suffer for his Name. Phil. i. 29. It is given to them to do so! Grace is given to them for this End, and it is a Favor done 'em, an honor put upon 'em, when by the help of Grace they bear and endure in an exemplary manner the Afflictions and Sufferings which it pleases their Holy Savior to call them to.

Ministers are under the common Bonds of all Christians, together with the superadded Charge of God. 2 Tim. iv. 5. Watch thou in all things, endure Afflictions, make full proof of thy Ministry. ii. 9. Thou therefore endure Hardness, as a good Soldier of Jesus Christ. We cannot fulfil the Ministry that we have received of the Lord Jesus, if we be not conformed to Him in suffering Affliction and Patience, as he calls us to it. This Commandment we have received from the Captain of our Salvation, who was made perfect thro' Sufferings.

Ministers bear Testimony and Witness to the Doctrine of the Cross, by bearing it themselves, after Christ and before the Flock. They honor Him and edify the Church while they do so. They follow Him and lead the Flock in his steps. Rev. i. 9 I John who am your Brother and Companion in Tribulation, and in the Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Christ. 1 Thes. i. 6. And became Followers of us and of the Lord, in much Affliction, and Joy of the Holy Ghost.

Brethren, pray for us, who though' we are called to minister to You in Holy Things, yet are compassed with Infirmity, and are not sufficient of our Selves to think a good Thoit, or to bear the least Burden in a becoming manner; so as to adorn the Doctrine of God our Savior, or bear about his Afflictions and Dying in our mortal Flesh Pray for us, that whether we be afflicted it may be for your Consolation and Salvation! that by the Blessing of the Holy Spirit it may be effectual in your enduring the same Sufferings! and that we may be comforted of God in all our Tribulation, so as to be able to comfort others in every Trouble, by the Comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. 2 Cor. i. 4, 6.

Yea, We have sometimes gladly learned, and been edified by some of you in your Sorrows, while we have been ministering unto you; and shall always rejoice to be taught by your humble and gracious Example.

Let Ministers and People be together looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our Faith, who for the Joy before Him endured the Cross. Of his Fulness, in whom it hath pleased the Father that all Fulness should dwell, we all may receive and Grace for Grace: Grace for the doing, and Grace for bearing and suffering, his holy Will. And He has said to his suffering Saints and Ministers, "My Grace is sufficient for you, for my Strength is made perfect in Weakness.

O seek that all-sufficient Grace for your Selves in all your Trials, and seek it for Me and mine now in the Sudden and awful Stroke of God upon us! that his Hand may be sanctified to us, and that His Name may be glorified in your Sight by our Silent Submission and Fear before Him.

God has been very gracious to me and mine in his sparing Mercy. For about Six and twenty Years there had been no Death in my Family, when God suddenly called for the M • there from my Arms, and now at the End of three Years and a half the Daughter follows. When Death has staid long from a House, yet come it must, and then it often strikes double. This is the necessary Fruit (as Judge Hale said on the Death of a Son ) of living long in a dying World. Bereavements multiply upon them that have numerous Relatives, and live to be old. And he that has but an only Child, must silently yield to the good Pleasure of God, if he be tried like Abraham with an Order from Heaven, "Take now thy only One and offer him up to Me.

The Lord is calling us this Morning to his Holy Table, in our Mourning over our Dead. It is meet for us to remember Christ's Sorrows, and show forth his Death, bearing our own before Him, and preparing for our own Dying. We may not excuse our Selves from eating of the Sin- • ffering in the Holy Place, because of our Mourning; as Aaron made excuse for his surviving Sons; C • ntext, ver. 19. Behold such things have befallen me, and would it have been accepted in the sight of the Lord? To be sure if we are going in holy Mourning and godly Sorrowing to the Table of Christ, we shall be accepted. The Ordinance calls for it, and is given to assist us in it. There let us be mourning for Sin, mourning after Christ, Pardon, Peace, and Communion with Christ in the Benefits of his Sufferings; and we shall find that the Lord hath anointed Him to give unto them that mourn in Zion, Beauty for Ashes, the Oil of Joy for Mourning, and the Garments of Praise for the Spirit of Heaviness.

We must be bearing about in our Bodies the Dying of our Lord Jesus, that the Life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal Flesh. He is the Example to us of holy Dying, and also the quickening Spirit for this blessed End. Let us learn of Him how to keep Death and Eternity always on our Hearts, in a lively Remembrance, and in the most awful effectual Consideration of it.

Is not the Lord's Table a Bond upon us to live as dying Men and Women? and also a Means appointed for this End unto Believers? And a well adapted Means this Representation and Memorial of the Dying of our Lord, to excite us greatly to be getting ready for our own, and to resign up ours to Death when He calls for them.

Our Consolation in the Death of our godly Relatives is founded on the Dying and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them that sleep in Jesus God will bring with Him. Therefore we cannot Sorrow as th • se that have no Hope. No but we have even Communion with the Dead in Christ at his Table, in the blessed Hope of being shortly with them at a better Table, in an Everlasting Sabbath, where the Days of Mourning shall be ended: According to those Soul-reviving Words, enough to quiet, silence and comfort us in all our Tribulations: Luk. xxii. 24, 29, 30. Ye are they which have continued with me in my Temptations, and I appoint unto you a Kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto Me; that ye may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdom.

David 's Words Upon the Death of his Child.

THEY are David 's calm and quieting Words upon the Death of his Child. He had been in great Sorrows, the Sorrows of Nature and also of Grace; the Sorrows of deep Humiliation and Repentance under the holy Anger and Hand of God.

Nathan the Prophet was sent by God to him to lay open before him his Sin, and to tell him that the Child should die. David humbled his Soul with Fasting, and lay all Night upon the Earth. The Elders of his House went to him to raise him up and constrain him to eat, but he would not be entreated by them. Therefore when the Child was dead they were afraid to let him know of it, lest his Sorrow (which was so great before) should quite overwhelm him. But to their Surprize he arose and washed himself, and went into the House of God & worshipped; and they set Bread before him and he did eat. His Servants humbly ask him the Reason of this his Conduct, and in the Meekness of Wisdom and Grace he answered & satisfied 'em.

The Soul of the Child was gone : gone from the Body which was therefore to turn into Dust, and gone to the World of Spirits, to the Spirits of the Just, (as David hoped) to the Bosom of Abraham ; according to the Prayers he had been pouring out for it, with strong Crying and Tears.

He could not think of a Resurrection from the State of the Dead, his Prayers and Tears could not bring him back again; he could not expect or desire it. God's Will was done, and it became him to submit; to make the best and get the Good of the Bereavement, to worship and behave agreeably. He turned his Thoughts therefore to his own Dying, to get himself more ready for his own Departure; and if his Child were happy to meet it in a better Life. "I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.

The Words present us with the following useful, but familiar and plain Observations.

1. That our Dead are gone from Us and this World of ours, no more to return to Us or it till the last Day.

2. That we are all going after 'em to the other World.

3. That we should seriously remember this in the Days of our Bereavements, and in our Sorrows over our Dead.

4. That Parents especially should think awfully of it, in their Mourning for dead Children.

I. The Dead are gone from this World of ours, no more to return to it till the last Day. The Spirit leaves the mortal Body, its earthly House and Tabernacle; and goes to the World of Spirits, the invisible World, into an eternal and unchangeable State. For there is an unseen future World whither the Soul goes at Death; and there is a twofold State in that World of Spirits; a State of Happiness for elect & sanctified Souls, and a Place of Misery and Torment for unholy and unclean Spirits.

For when the Dust returns to the Earth as it was, the Spirit returns to God that gave it. Eccl. xii. 7. And its everlasting State is then decided and fixed by Him, in a most righteous Judgment passed immediately upon everyone: Some go away into everlasting Punishment, but the Righteous into Life Eternal. Mat. xxv. ult.

There are the Spirits in Prison, i. e. Hell. 1 Pet. iii. 19. And broad is the Way, and wide the Gate, that leadeth to Destruction, and many there be which go in thereat, Mat. vii. 13. A whole World of precious Souls once went down together, into that Abyss of Misery, Eight only excepted. They went quick into Hell. The Depths covered 'em, they sank to the Bottom as a Stone. In what Sholes did they sink! as Fishes taken in the wide Net of God! how did the proud Waters go over their Souls! and the Floods overwhelm them! for Violence was in their Dwellings. — And what Multitudes from Age to Age have since gone to the Generation of their Fathers, never to see Light! Psal. xlix. ult. Tophet is large eno' to receive them all, and the many more that are still following their pernicious Ways. We are told of one of these many, roaring in the place of Torments as soon as out of the Body, and begging that his five surviving Brethren might be warned and prevented from coming after him. Luk. xvi. 28.

But there is a Remnant according to the Election of Grace that are gone to Heaven ; to Everlasting Life, Blessedness and Glory; and a few more chosen of God, and called by his Grace, are going after Them. There are Abel, Seth, Enoch, and the Antediluvian Patriarchs ; there Noah, Abraham, Moses, Prophets and Apostles ; and there the Spirits of all the Just, made perfect, Heb. xii. 23.

These happy Dead are entered into Life, are alive for evermore. In the Day they died they were taken up by Angels, and carried to the Paradise of God ; They are there with Christ, where He is, to behold his Glory, and to come with Him at the Resurrection of the Just. And blessed and holy are all they that have Part therein! on Them the Second Death has no Power.

Thus the Dead are gone! and whither they go we know, & the Way we know: Not as to Individuals, but considered Collectively as two vast Bodies of Godly & ungodly, in their unchangeable State.

For they must return no more to us, in this World. "Can I bring him back again? or shall he return to me? says my Text. O no! not all the Prayers and Tears of the Living ; nor all the Wishes & Cries of the miserable Dead, can obtain a Return for any One of them: and as for the pious and happy Deceased, they would not return if they might.

This Account and Idea of Death should be familiar to us. Job x. 21. I go whence I shall not return. vii. 8, 9, 10 The Eye of him that has seen me shall see me no more,—he that goes down to the Grave shall come up no more; he shall return no more to his House, neither shall his Place known him anymore. The dead are in a fixed State; they have bid a final Farewell to this World; so has the buried Body and so the departed Spirit till the Resurrection Day; then they will be again united, and share together in everlasting Sorrows or in everlasting Joys.

So Man lieth down and riseth not again till the Heavens be no more, Job xiv. 12. And then the dead shall rise only to be judged, everyone according to what he has been and done here in the Body, whether good or evil, 2 Cor. v. 10. How far is this from any Return to this animal and sensitive Life, to our present earthly Relations or worldly Possessions, or to any second Time of Probation, or further Opportunity for serving God and our Generation, and working out our own Salvation: the only worthy End and Work of our present Time and Life.

Upon all, An Existence somewhere, after we go hence, is supposed. Going and returning plainly imply this. We could not be said to go, if our Spirits were not in some Place or other after this Life is ended; and much less could we speak properly of not returning, if we did not indeed exist anywhere.

Yet neither can it be inferred from such a mode of Speech, that the Body shall never return to Life again, or that the Soul shall never return into the Body: It only means that the departed Spirit returns not hither, that we know of, till the Resurrection of the Dead at the last Day. 'Till that Day the Body will not return from the Grave, nor the Spirit from Hades, the invisible World: But then there will be a Re-union of Soul and Body.— This was an Article of Faith before Job 's Time, and has continued to be so down to our Days: Job xix. 25. For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter Day upon the Earth; and though' after my Skin worms destroy this Body, yet in my Flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for my Self and my Eyes shall behold, and not another: though' my Reins be consumed within me. 1 Cor. xv. 42. For this Corruptible shall put on Incorruption, and this Mortal Immortality.

In short, Going and not returning in our Text means, never to live again such a Life as this which we now do in the Body, either on bodily or spiritual Accounts: "He shall return no more to his H • use, as it is said in the Book of Job, to his present worldly Possessions or Enjoyments, Business or Delights: No, nor to the Worship here anymore, as Hezekiah bemoaned himself under the Sentence of Death; "I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord in the Land of the Living; I shall beheld man no more with the Inhabitants of the World. He must take leave forever of his Palace and Court, his princely State and Magnificence; but what was more than all this, he must see the Temple of God and his Courts no more; no more be among his Worshippers, in whom was all his Delight, as the most excellent on Earth.

And this is at last the awful meaning of going at Death, to return no more, "I must enter into a fixed and unchangeable State for Eternity, never to enjoy another Time of Probation & Trial. There is a great Gulf fixed betwixt this and the next World, as well as between the two infinitely distant States in that to come. Luk. xvi. 26, 27. Neither did miserable Dives ask to come back himself into this World; he knew it could not be granted. And when he prayed that Lazarus might be sent from his blissful Seat, upon the glorious Errand of converting his Brethren, a Work worthy of the highest Angel, the Answer is, "That there are living Ministers to preach the Gospel, and Saints departed have other Work.

The Sum of all is, Our present Life is the only Time and State of Probation to us; at Death we pass into the World of Reward or Punishment, which is eternal & unchangeable. This Life is the only Space granted us for Repentance, and for working out our Salvation with Fear and Trembling.

This World is not our Home. We are all leaving it. Time is of infinite price to mortal Man, and the shorter his Time is, it is of so much the more Price. Every Moment of it should be carefully redeemed, in observing the Seasons of particular Duties; to fill it up with Work and Spirit. Death, the Period of this Time, is a very awful and critical Moment. Let us see to it, that we all live as Those that are going hence, we know not how soon, never to return. And let it comfort the Godly, that they are going from, never again to return to, this State of Sin and Sorrow.

II. As our Dead are gone, no more to return to us, so We are going after them to the Grave, and to the World of Spirits, to the State of everlasting Happiness or everlasting Misery. This nearly concerns us, and should exceedingly affect us. Everyone must say to himself, as David here, "I shall go also! I am going, I must go, must soon be gone! and we should be able to add, Thro' Grace I am preparing, getting ready for my Departure, and am willing to be gone! — This we may think to be the Sense of David 's Heart, the Spirit with which he spake.

Within a very, very little Time we shall all be gone! gone hence for evermore! every Man Woman and Child! everyone in his Time and Order, which God has appointed. For is there not an appointed Time to Man upon Earth? are not his Days also like the Days of an Hireling? for now shall I sleep in the Dust, and thou shalt seek me in the Morning and I shall not be. Job vii. i. & ult. Thus our Days are determined by God, the Number of our Months are with Him, He has appointed our Bounds which we cannot pass. xiv. 5. For we are Strangers with Him and Sojourners, as all our Fathers were, and after them we go hence and are no more, Psal. xxxix. ult.

We know that God will bring us to Death, and to the House appointed for all the Living. We as surely know it, as that others are dead and buried before us. Every Man is drawing after as there are innumerable before him. We might have gone before many whom we have seen buried. We are, it may be, a Wonder to our Selves, that we did not go first; How soon we shall follow is unknown to us. We know not the Day of our Death; we know neither the Day nor the Hour. This we know, and should be saying to our Selves, the Young as well as the Old, "I go the Way of all the Earth. It is appointed for all Men once to die. We see that wise Men die, also the Fool and brutish Person perish. And what Man is he that liveth and shall not see Death? Shall he deliver his Soul from the Hand of the Grave? Or who can by any Means redeem his Brother, or give to God a Ransom for him? that he should still live forever and not see Corruption? Psal. xlix. 9, 10.

The Grave is one of the unsatisfied and insatiable things that cries, Give, give! and never says it has enough. One Generation goes down into it after another, yet is it not full. After the Thousands that are buried to Day, it craves and has as many more tomorrow. And if we wait a little longer it is our House, it is ready for us. Job xvii. 1.

Our Souls are also going to the same Places of Happiness or Misery that those before us are gone to. Souls are not mixed in the next World as they are in this: Here the Godly and the wicked dwell in the same House, eat at the same Table, sleep in the same Bed, worship together in one Family & in one Assembly. But Death makes a perfect and total Separation of the one from the other. The Godly are gathered to their People, as the Soul of Jacob to the Spirit of Abraham, and as the Soul of Lazarus to his Bosom; but the wicked and ungodly go to the Generation of their Fathers, never to see Light. — David, in the full Persuasion of his Child's Salvation, said, "I shall go to him. Gracious Parents will see again their Elect Children in everlasting Life. And there all pious Relations will meet again with Joy, and embrace for Evermore: But others shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God, and be themselves shut out, Luk. xiii. 28.

Put then the Question, everyone to himself, "To whom and whither am I going? Going we all are, and hasting out of Time into an awful Eternity; but to which State in the Eternal World are we hastening? Whither others are gone is not so much our Business to inquire, but whither we our Selves are going is a most important and necessary Consideration: O the happy few that are daily thinking of this! and upon good Grounds can say to themselves, as in 2 Cor. v. init. For we know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved, we have a Building of God, a House not made with Hands, eternal in the Heavens: For in this we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with our House which is from Heaven.— Now He that hath wroit us for this self-same thing is God, who also hath given to us the Earnest of the Spirit, Therefore we are always confident, knowing that while we are at Home in the Body we are absent from the Lord; (for we walk by Faith and not by Sight) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labor that whether present or absent we may be accepted of Him.

I come to the third Head,

III. We should seriously remember and consider these things in the Days of our Bereavement, in our Mourning over our Dead. Then it was that David said, "I shall go to my Dead, it shall not return to me."

This is a moving Season, wherein to muse and let the Fire kindle, and then speak to our Selves and others of our own and their Dying. Yea, and to speak to God and say, as in the xxxix Psalm, Lord! make me to know my End and the Measure of my Days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am! Behold thou hast made my Days a hand-breadth, and my Age is nothing before Thee! Verily every Man at his best Estate is altogether Vanity.

David the King, the Prophet and the Saint is a good Teacher, a great Example to us. Let us learn of Him to turn our Eyes off from our Dead, upon our Selves; upon our own Souls, their State, and Frame; and to say,

O that we were wise, that we understood this, that we were considering our latter End! This is God's Wish concerning us, and we cannot wish our Selves better than this wise and understanding Heart. Let us ask of God this Wisdom which we so greatly want, and which He is liberal to give. Psal. xc. 12. So teach us to number our Days, that we may apply our Hearts unto Wisdom. What an easy Numeration Table is this! So many of our few Days already past; but so many more at the utmost Bounds to come; and whether indeed one more of them remaining to us, altogether uncertain.

One would think that Flesh and Blood should teach men all this: And if not the Tokens of Death within our Selves, yet the pale and gastly Face of it on our nearest Relations, Friends and Nei'bours. But neither Flesh and Sense, nor natural Affection & Sorrow of Heart can make us to know our own End, and the Measure of our Days, how frail we are. God only can reach the Hearts of Sinners with an effectual saving Impression. Men see others go, and feel themselves going, and yet will not consider it. There is an Enmity and Aversion in mortal Man to the sober Consideration of Death, the realizing his own Death, & the Consequents thereon. Death passes by us, and touches us, and we are a little moved for the present, but presently forget it again. Sin which has brought Death on us, has taken away the Understanding, the Power and Heart to make a just and deliberate Reflection on the matter.

This Wisdom cometh down from the Father of Light, and is one of his most perfect Gifts. We are naturally all Darkness & Insensibility in our Way to the Grave, as well as when we are in it. We need Divine Teaching in this most plain and obvious matter, of which we are willingly ignorant. God must give us an Eye to see, and an Ear to hear, and a Heart to understand. The fault does not lie in the Head, but in the Heart. The Promise of God is, a new Heart will I give you. He gives it liberally to them that ask it. It is the Spirit & Practice of his Saints to think daily and seriously of Death and Eternity, and to be often saying to Themselves and before the Lord,

This is proper Discourse of a Soul to it self, and to God, in this mortal Body, and through this passing World. So let it muse, and • he Heart grow hot, and out of the Abundance of it the Tongue speak, "Lord make me to know my end. Light & Heat come thus together into the considering Heart, and the Sun of Righteousness arises over it with vital Influences; gives spiritual Life and sustains it in this Way. So Bodily Death serves to spiritual and eternal Life under the Power of the Holy Ghost. The Flames of Devotion kindle, are blown up, and kept burning, by daily Meditation on Death & Eternity. But as this ceases, so the other goes out.

It is in this Way, very much, that the Spirit of God works on Souls, and carries on his good Work in them. He works by Providences and Ordinances together to this End, and on this wise. He revives and renews his good Work hereby. He sends Death into our Windows, Chambers and Bosoms on this Errand; and he is the Minister of God to us for Good, a Messenger one of a thousand. David in our Text found Nathan & Death alike to him in the Hand of God. It was good for him that his Child died. (And in all Probability it had been ill for all Israel had it lived.) Death rung a Peal in his Ears, and he answered, "Lord I am coming! And as often as any die in our Families, this is the Lord's Voice to us,

This is the Will of God in Christ Jesus concerning us, for He has given us the Example. He kept his own Hour in Mind, and quickened Himself, "I must work the Work of Him that sent Me, while it is Day, the Night cometh. He retired upon the Death of his Friend the Baptist, and he wept and groaned in Spirit at the Grave of Lazarus ; for He was presently to die Himself, and how was He straitened till it was accomplished?

How great then is the Irreligion of Christians, and the Madness of mortal Men, in their Inconsideration of their own frail and dying State! Eccl. ix. 10. Man knoweth not his Time; but as the Fishes are taken in an evil Net, and as the Birds are caught in the Snare, so are the Sons of Men snared in an evil Time, when it cometh suddenly upon them. As if we were not made wiser than the Birds, or were made as stupid and insensible as the very Fish!

This Imprudence and Improvidence of the Children of Men is very provoking to God, and great Sin in them; being in Contempt of the Reason which God has given them, of the Souls that He has made them, and of his Word which He has written for them, and of all that is therein said to 'em of a future State and of the Eternal Judgment.

The Holy Ghost therefore interprets this senseless fearless Life to mean nothing less than those Words of profane Licence, which are so severely animadverted on & exposed in Scripture, "Let us eat and drink for to Morrow we die! And to Morrow shall be as this Day and much more abundant! Soul, thou hast Goods laid up for many Years, Eat Drink and be Merry. What is this but the God of this World blinding, stupefying and hardening Men to their own Destruction! They blow out the Candle of the Lord within them, and quench the Spirit of the Lord in his Convictions. Let him smite and wound us we do but half awake, and presently fall asleep again. Let Him lead us again and again to the Grave after our Friends, we go home and forget where we have been, what manner of Men, what corruptible Flesh we are, and that we ourselves may be next carried out and buried.

Let Relatives in their Sorrows over their Dead judge themselves by what has been said, and be thereby directed and quickened. Let us at least make this Improvement of the Dispensation,

But as my Text came from the Lips of a pious Parent in his Mourning, so I am led in a peculiar Manner to direct the present Truth to Them : Yet not to them only, but to Children also in the Death of Parents, and so in every other Relation. I go on therefore to say,

IV. Parents especially should think of this in their Bereavements, and in their Sorrows over their dead Children. The Words of David belong first to Them, "I shall go to it.

The Death of Children is the most common Case in the whole Course of Death. Parents often live to bury many Children, and sometimes all. They that live long in this World, as the Excellent Judge Hale said on the Death of a Son, must look for this Grief. And the Grief is usually great in this Case, for Natural Affection is like Water, flowing downward. The Love of Parents runs down in a Torrent, the Love of Children returns as in an Eddy, which is also caused by the Stream. When the Spirit of God would represent the most bitter Grief, He represents it by a Mourning for an Only Son, and for a first-born. Zech. xii. 10.

The first Mourning was of Parents for their Son. Abel 's Death was a bitter Grief to our first Parents. It called for Tears of Blood, and was as a Sword in the Bowels of Eve.

When God would prove Abraham it was in this most tender point. "Take now thy Son, thy only one, whom thou lovest, and offer him to me. The God of Abraham knew what of all earthly things lay nearest to his Heart, and was the utmost Test of his Love.

Jacob was able to see his beloved Rachel die, and when he had set a Pillar on her Grave he journeyed on. Gen. xxxv. 20, 21. But when he thought Joseph, the Son he had by her, torn from him by Death, how did he take on? Chap. xxxvii 33, 34, 35. It is my Son's Coat; an evil Beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in Pieces! And Jacob rent his Cloaths, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his Son many Days. And all his Sons, and all his Daughters rose up to comfort him; but be refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave after my Son, mourning: thus his Father wept for him. This was but a supposed Death, yet real to the tender Parent, undoubted and certain to him, and mourned accordingly.

In like manner the mighty Reverence and Strength of Aaron 's Grace was tried, as with Fire, in the Sight of all Israel, and he held his Peace. His profound Silence spake aloud his profound Grief.— Job had been long before tried in more awful manner than this of Aaron ; and he stands a prior Instance of Parental Tenderness & Constancy. No one had more Pleasure and Joy in a numerous Issue, none ever behaved more piously toward a pious Progeny, and never did Brethren and Sisters live more in mutual Love and Delight than they; yet when he was surprised with the heavy Tydings of their Sudden and tragical Death together in their eldest Brother's House, he prostrated himself on the Ground and worshipped; "Naked came I out of my Mothers Womb, and naked shall I return (into the Grave, the common Womb and Repository of the Dead) the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the Name of the Lord.

My Text relates how David behaved on the Death of his Child, but on more bitter Occasions of Grief he lost himself, when he should rather have kept the Possession of his Soul, and called in the Exercise of Reason and Grace: I mean more especially on the Death of Absalom ; unto Whom he could not wish to have his Soul gathered; though' he wished to have died for him, if he might have lived to repent.

The Love of Mothers is yet more tender. We read of two under a like Bereavement, but not in a like Passion of Grief; the Widow of Zidon and the Shunamite : When the one saw her Son dead she burst out, "O thou Man of God! art • hou come to call my Sins to Remembrance, and to slay my Son? But when the Son of the other died in her Arms, she silently laid him on her Bed, and in her bitterness fell at the Prophet's feet.

The Parent we should think will improve the Grief, behave and speak aright under it; speak unto God, to himself and his. He has Years, Experience and Wisdom; is a Father and has seen much of a dying World: And what is the Father's Lesson from his Child's Death, but this in my Text? This at least, this the least, "I shall go to it.

First then, Let Parents prepare to part with their Children. Look on them as dying Creatures, and accordingly care for their Souls. Look not upon them as yours, but God's, who may call for them when he will, having only given them to you in Trust and Charge, to educate them for him, for his Service here, and for Blessedness in Himself forever. Teach 'em betimes to know God and themselves; that they have precious immortal Souls, and that God is the Father, Lord and Judge of their Spirits; that they are made for another and far better Life, may very soon die, and must whenever God orders, who will surely bring them into Judgment.

2. Let Children think of and prepare for their going hence before their Parents. They are by no means sure of out-living them, much less should they expect it. Did not Job 's Sons and Daughters all die before hi • ? I mean his first Quiver full of them. So did Aaron 's two Sons die in the Presence of their Father; And Naomi buried her two Sons in the Land of Moab. Indeed Parents naturally desire that their Children may out-live them; and good Parents may let their Children hear 'em ask it of God in their daily Family Prayers; that theirs (by his holy Will) may live to serve Him when they are gone. With Reverence & great Submission Children may say Amen to such Prayers of their Parents; but they may not please themselves with the Expectation of surviving their loving and dear Parents; to come into their Estate, nor for any worse Ends. We read of One who wickedly expected to out-live his Father and said, The Days of Mourning for my Father are at Hand, and then I will kill my Brother. But pious Children, from the Day of Abel 's Death, think of dying before their Parents.

3. Let bereaved Parents be greatly quickened in their Preparations for their own Death. It is a sorrowful Case to need this Way of learning, by such a Providence. We should prepare for Death before we come to be Parents. Yet we need to learn it more and more, better and better, as long as we live. Live and Learn, learn to die as long as you live, and by all the Sorrows and Changes of Life especially. Learn betimes, learn in due Season, and yet learn in Age, out of due Time, if you have not learned before. Learn this Lesson over and over again, get it well by Heart, rivet it in your Memory, speak of it to your latest Breath, and practice it in your dying Moments.

4. Let Parents quiet and compose themselves in their Bereavements, by keeping in Mind their own Departure. Thus did David in the Text. He had done well to have had his own Death as much in Mind, and in a like manner, when he heard of Absalom 's; though' indeed he could not without horror have thought of going to him. Happy the Father and Mother, the Son or Daughter, that can look forward to their own Death, and quiet themselves in the Day of their Bereavement. O what need is there to be in a State of Grace and Peace with God for this End! and to have a well grounded Hope of such a State! of an Interest in Christ and a better Life.— A Parent should look on himself as so much nearer to Death than his Child, and should be able to hope, thro' Grace, that he is so much higher to a better Life, that he should feel the strong Attraction and Powers of the World to come. — As the most pious and venerable Mr. Richard Baxter, after his Advance in Life and Grace, and a sufficient Experience of the Vanity & Emptiness, the Afflictions and Sorrows of this World, wrote under his Picture two of the best Lines that were ever written,

5. Let those who have no Children, no Name and Posterity of their Bodies, to leave behind them, live so much the more mindful of and devoted to a better World, that is an Heavenly. Absalom for this Cause erected himself a Pillar upon Earth; but what an End did he come to? View him hung by his Pride, his flowing Locks, in the Oak, and there bleeding to Death for his unnatural Rebellion against his Father & his King; (his too indulgent Parent, who would have gladly died for him) and then look upon his Pillar, the Monument & Memorial of his Crime and Shame. Like the Wretch that burnt the Temple at Ephesus to make himself remembered for an execrable Villain. But there is an Everlasting Name, a Name written in Heaven, provided for and proposed to those Humble and Holy Souls in the Church of God, who neither have nor crave a Name (to leave behind 'em) upon Earth. Isai. lvi. 3, 4, 5. Neither let the Eunuch say, Behold I am a dry Tree! For thus saith the Lord unto the Eunuchs that keep my Sabbaths, and choose the Things that please me, and take hold of my Covenant; even unto Them will I give in my House and within my Walls, a Place and a Name better than of Sons and Daughters; I will give them an Everlasting Name, that shall not be cut off. They that leave behind them here a Number of pleasant Children, leave but a dying Name in them which must soon be cut off; but a Name among the Sons and Daughters of the Lord Almighty is to Everlasting, in the Presence, Glory, Vision, Love, and high Enjoyment of the living God to all Eternity. God himself has raised a Pillar for his Elect in all Ages, & written their Names on it, to be read by Angels forever and ever: Rev. iii. 12. Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God, and he shall go no more out; and I will write upon him the Name of my God, and the Name of the City of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of Heaven from my God; and I will write upon him my New Name.

6. Let us all be exhorted and taught of God, to live always mindful that we and ours must shortly take leave, a final everlasting leave of this World and all things in it. We are all going, as fast as we well can, fast to our own surprises from Year to Year, one after another, out of a vain World, into an awful Eternity! Lord! that we could live and act, from day today, under this View! What manner of Persons should we then be, and ought we therefore to be, in all holy Conversation and Godliness! in all Sobriety, Righteousness, Purity, Devotion, Heavenliness. It would make us look, not at the Things that are seen, but at the Things which are not seen; for the Things which are seen are temporal, but the Things which are not seen are Eternal. 2 Cor. iv. ult. One effectual Conviction of the temporary Nature of everything under the Sun, abiding on us, would cure our inordinate and criminal Fondness for earthly Possessions, our unjust Cravings and Endeavors after them, as not worth a dying Creature's doing an unjust thing to gain, nor worth a wrangle about, to recover (if wronged of) a due Portion in it. — We and our Families, we and our Children, are together hastening to the Grave, and it may be they before us; and what Portion have we under the Sun! Let the Words of the Apostle sink therefore into our Ears, and on every Occasion lie uppermost on our Hearts; 1 Cor. vii. 29, 30, 31. But this I say Brethren, the Time is short; It remaineth that both they that have Wives be as though' they had none, and they that weep as though' they wept not, and they that rejoice as though' they rejoiced not, and they that buy as though' they possessed not; and they that use this World as not abusing it, for the Fashion of this World passeth away.

7. And lastly, Pious Parents should even find a sacred Pleasure in thinking of going after and unto their pious Children deceased. They may follow them to the Grave with the consolatory and peaceful Thought, which our Venerable Eliot spake out aloud as he went, after his dead Son, This is the Way to Heaven! As Grace & Friendship wroit in the Apostle John, and he suddenly answered on his hearing of the Death of Lazarus, "Let us go and die with him! So a like Transport of Love and Desire, may be forgiven to a gracious Parent on the Death of a Child, in whom he has seen the ruling Grace of God from early Infancy. Jacob did not behave like Himself, when he refused to be comforted on the supposed Death of such a Son as Joseph, saying, "No, but I will go down to the Grave after my Son mournin! It becomes the Seed of Jacob rather in the Days of Mourning over their pious Deceased, to take to themselves that other and better Transport of the Aged Patriarch, when he heard of Joseph yet alive, and next to the Throne in Egypt, and to say,

It was in this Hope that Jacob gave Commandment concerning his Bones, that his Sons should bury Him with his Fathers ; and in the like Hope a believing Parent might desire to be laid with his Children.

Surely it cast some Light into the first Grave that was ever dug, that Abel, the Darling of Heaven as well as of Adam, was the Person buried; and it may seem to the Godly thro' all Ages a kind of sanctifying and sweetening the Grave forever. It is only and wholly the Grace of Christ in a Child before its Death, that can make it an Object of Desire after Death, in a religious Parent's Heart.

I hope I have in all your Hearts this Ground for Communion still with my dear deceased Child, in whom I think I saw the shining Grace of God before she came among you, and more since; though' always under the Veil of great Modesty and Reserve. In the several Relations of a Child, a Wife, a Mother, a Sister, a Mistress, and a Friend, she has found Grace to carry herself in a laudable and exemplary manner. You are Witnesses that she has lived blameless and without Offence among you, and we who have known more of her secret Walk with God, and Watch over herself in her Retirements, have this for our Rejoicing, That in Simplicity and godly Sincerity, not with fleshly Wisdom but by the Grace of God, she has had her Conversation in the World.

You will give me leave therefore openly to utter my great Thankfulness to God, that He has pleased to Honor me before You in being the Father of such a Child; and if I have any Hope of the Grace of God in my own Soul, I must have a Measure of holy Joy in the Hope of going to her at my Decease, which cannot be far off, and of coming with her in the Day of the Resurrection of the Just.

[The Sovereign God of our Spirits made her a pleasant Soul to her Parents from her Infancy. Thrice she received the Sentence of Death before she was Eighteen Months old, and it was a melancholy Time with us by reason of her great Weakness, and the mortal Symptoms returning on her. It kept us the more in constant & fervent Supplications for her Life, and in daily Resignations of it; and her second and third Recoveries were as surprising to her Physicians, and unto others who saw her in her low Estate, as unto her near Relations. I have the Sermons of Wonder and Gratitude to God, yet lying by me which I preached on those Occasions, when all Hopes of Life had been once and again taken away. And I can never forget the dark & fair Day, when the Beloved Physician having warned me that nothing now remained but to make the last Resignation of her into the Hands of her Savior, I called my Family together for that End, and did it in the most solemn manner I was able, wherein I found myself greatly enlarged, begging of God an easy Death by his holy Will: when on a sudden the Babes piercing shrieks ceased, for she lay in great Anguishes of pain, and the sleep of Death as we thought came on and filled us with Tears of Joy to see her expiring in Ease: but to our great Surprize we found it the next Morning to be the sleep of Life, for she wak'd free from every Sign of Danger, her great Weakness excepted: She half opened one of her sunk Eyes, and answered unto the Barrow in the Street, repeating what was cried there to be Sold. When the dear and Reverend Mr. Pemberton saw this strange Recovery, and had expressed a kind of Astonishment at it, he turned to me and said,

In the midst of this Bodily Weakness her Soul made uncommon Improvements for an Infant State; and it may be much the more for the weak State of the Body; for she had not Strength to run about and play like other Children, which was then our Grief. We made it therefore our daily Pleasure, and her Diversion, to learn her Letters, and Prayers to God her Maker, Redeemer and Sanctifier, and to fill her little Mind with the Stories of all the Holy Men on Sacred Record; to strike her Admiration and Affection with true Excellency and Perfection; for which End I took care to speak to her of everything in a just and proper Manner, if possible to convey regular Ideas into her, as of the Greatness and Goodness of God, so of all that relates to his Worship and Service. By this Means before she could go alone she had sucked in a little Treasure of Sacred Knowlege, and was nourished up from the Breast with the sincere Milk of the Word ; the Knowlege whereof became the humble Pride of her Childhood, for we taught her to value herself on it, as far better than bodily Ornaments.]

I early observed her daily Retirements to pray to her Father in Heaven, at five or six year old, or before; and thought it my Duty to praise her for it, and examine her how and for what she prayed? and whether she kept to Mr. Henry 's excellent Form for Children? but her Answer greatly pleased as well as surprised me, "that she found God gave her Words to speak when she began to pray. I cautioned and directed her, and gladly left her to the best Teacher.

The Spirit of God was moving upon her often in her following Youth. The Families she sometimes visited in the Country took Notice of her serious and good Inclinations, her chaste Conversation coupled with Fear, her meek and quiet Spirit, Prudence and sober Cheerfulness, her Love of Lettess and Solitude.

Her Heart was always above the Things of this World ; so far as I could perceive from first to last; and neither the Prospects of it elevated her, nor Injuries from it • oil'd or depressed her. With a View to a better Life she disposed of her Self in Marriage, and has (I trust) found the Benefit of doing so to her infinite Gain. None was more content with her Lot, and no one happier in a tender Husband, or in the Love of her Nei'bours. There never was an Instance of more filial Piety, nor a Child more dearly beloved of Parents.—I might speak of her great Ingenuity, and how well she used her Pen as well as her Lips, both which dropped as the H • ney-comb ; but her inward Adorning, of great Price in the Sight of God, was her Humiliation, Faith and Devotion before God, with Resignations to his blessed Will in all things; her Benevolence to all, and special Love to the Godly in Christ Jesus.

She early gave her Self up to God, but her timorous Disposition restrained her from proceeding early to the Lord's Table ; nor was it without much Conflict of Soul and great Distress, thro' Fear of coming unworthily, that she at last came into full Communion. She afterward exceeded, to her own and her Consort 's great Discomfort in her Preparations for Communion Days; which was her Infirmity, and I do not praise her for it. Good Christians should take more the Comforts of Religion in their Way to Heaven, in their Obedience to Christ, and in the Observation of his special Institutions. Isai. lxiv. 5. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh Righteousness, those that remember Thee in thy Ways.

Her Sister 's Soul was, next to her own, her chief Care, and she even travail'd in Birth for her, to see Christ formed in her: She wrote to her, and spake to her for this End, living and dying, with the greatest Concern and Endearment.

But yet more did her pious Soul travail and wrestle in Prayer for the Children of her own Bowels! Her many Papers on this Head, found since her Death, are a pregnant Proof hereof; how she prayed for them, dedicated and resigned them to God before they were born, as well as after it. — I can never forget the holy Fervours of Affections, and flowing Tears of Joy, with which she sent her first S • n to Baptism, and received him back from the House of God; and how I was instructed, charmed and reproved by her Example, that pleasant Day! But yet more so Eleven Days after, when God called for the Babe away, to see her resign him with a Silence and Calmness, like that of the Shunamite of old, and almost without a Tear ; for she had surrender'd and offered him up on the Day he was baptized.

[Her dear Cousins tell me that when they sometimes visited her, and made some abode with her, she would in the Afternoons slip away from them, and at an hours End return with a Smile and tell 'em how pleased she had been to hear 'em so merry. Alas! had we apprehended how soon we were to see her no more, we had all seen her oftener, and it may be had but kept her from her better Retirements.

Her Afflictions were many for the short Time she lived, in her own bodily Sicknesses and in the Burial of her Children; but her greatest Sorrow was in the Death of her Mother ; under all which she behaved with admirable Submission and Devotion, and the most fervent Repentance ; as it is written and required, Rev. iii. 19. As many as I love I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore and repent. ]

But after all it must be said, That her Temper was exceeding timorous, and her Distemper Hysteric, the Accidents of which all know to be a Swimming of the Head and Inquietude of Mind. This naturally both clouded & frighten'd her in her Sickness. She was then ready to Enquire, "Why is it thus with me? If I have in Sincerity given up and resigned my Self to God, as if I know my own Heart I have 〈◊〉 , and now do it again, why then am I so afraid? Nor could we more quiet and comfort her, than by laying before her the true and real Cause of it, from the Nature of her Illness. Nevertheless her Disorders would return and her Fears with them; and she had eno' to do to wrestle with them, by encouraging her Self in God, and making her Resignations to Him, to the last Moments of her Understanding.

This short Account of Her, living and dying, is both consolatory to us, and also monitory and exciting, (and to Young People in particular) to be instant and earnest in caring for our Souls, and getting ready for a dying Hour.— What a Joy should it be to me this day, to be able to move you from the Example of one of my Children? O might the pious Parents of this Flock, all of them, have the like and greater Consolation in the Burial of their Adult Children, if God call 'em to such a Sorrow! May your Daughters be, all of them, more polished Stones in the Temple of our God! the Similitude of a Palace for the King of Glory to dwell in.

But I forbear. — My Text admonishes us to prepare to follow, both the Elder & Younger, and her Father in particular. She will no more visit his house, nor he see her again in what was once her own ; it is eno' that there are Mansions in the Father's House above, whether She is gone. She must no more be seen in these Places of the H • lie, this House of Prayer which she loved, nor keep another Sabbath with us on Earth; but there's a better Everlasting Sabbatism and Places of more Holiness, the Rest which remains to the People of God after this Life: And what signify our Sabbaths, Sermons and Funerals, if we are not going thither!

Let our Souls therefore cleave to the Dead in Christ ; by Faith in Whom, and living to Him, we come into that Union to all Saints which Death can never dissolve.

I now leave my dying Prayers and Blessing, with You the dear Flock of Christ in this Place; and with your honored and Beloved Pastor, to whom God has made me doubly a Father. The Lord long continue Him to you, and increase your Joy in him, and his in you; and make You to each other a Crown of Rejoicing in the Day of Christ.

I thank you this Day for all the Love shown to my Child, while she was with You, and the Sorrow you express at her Death. She has lived desired, and died lamented by You.

I pray God to requite to the pious Sisters of the Flock, the tender Affection with which they have minister'd to the dear Deceased in her Sicknesses. May a merciful and faithful Savior put these Kindnesses of God into that Roll of Charities which He will call over in the last most blessed Day; and say of them,

I leave a grateful Record of my particular Obligation to the pious and beloved Physician of the Town, who to and even beyond his Power has always ministered gratis to the Pastor and his Family. The Lord show Kindness to the House of his Servant.

And now Brethren, "I commend You to God and to the Word of his Grace which is able to keep you, and to build you up unto the Inheritance of the Sanctified.

When, or whether ever, we shall again see one another's Faces in this Place is with God, and wholly uncertain to us; but absent in Body, let us be together in Spirit: And pray for Me in my Age, "That the few Days yet remaining to me on Earth, I may find Grace to be still serving the Lord with all Humility of Mind, whatever Tears and Temptations may befall me thro' the Residue of my Pilgrimage! that none of these things may move me from, but indeed quicken and excite me in the Discharge of the Duties of that Ministry which I have received of the Lord, to testify the Gospel of the Grace of God.

Peace be to the Brethren, and Love with Faith, from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ! Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in Sincerity. Amen.

Some MEMOIRS Of the Life and Death of Mrs. Jane Turell, Who Deceas'd at Medford, March 26. 1735. Aetat. 27. Chiefly collected from her own Manuscripts.

THERE is a Passage in Tully the Roman Orator to this purpose, "That if Virtue were incorporate, and to be seen with our bodily Eyes in a substantial Form, she would carry such Charms along with her as to ravish her Beholders; and command the Love and Admiration of all that saw her.— Alike beautiful and engaging (and more so) should the holy Life and shining Example of the Christian be, to all that are blest with the Sight and Knowlege of it; for herein we not only behold the godlike Image of it, but learn the Practicableness of the thing, and have our natural Ambition and Imitation mightily fired and excited.

That my Readers may be charmed into a Love and Admiration of Virtue and Holiness, I now place before their Eyes the Picture of my Dear Deceased: The Lines and Lineaments, Colours and Shades laid and drawn by her own lovely Hand, guided by the Spirit of Grace and Truth.

And I present it particularly and in the first Place to her dear & only surviving Sister ; and then to her nearest Relatives and Acquaintance, and to all the rising Daughters of New-England, that they may understand what true Beauty is, and what the brightest Ornaments of their Sex are, and seek them with their whole Desire; even the hidden Man of the Heart, in that which is not corruptible, the Ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit, which is in the sight of God of great Price. For Favor is deceitful, & Beauty is vain: but a Woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. — And such an one (with some additional Excellencies and Accomplishments) was Mrs. Jane Turell born in Boston, New-England, Feb. 25. A. D. 1708. of Parents Honorable and Religious.

Her Father the Reverend Dr. Benjamin Colman (thro' the gracious Favor of God) is still living among us, one universally acknowleg'd to be even from his younger Times (at Home and Abroad) a bright Ornament and Honor to his Country, and an Instrument in God 's Hand of bringing much Good to it.

Her Mother Mrs. Jane Colman was a truly gracious Woman, Daughter of Mr. Thomas Clark Gentleman.

Mrs. Turell was their third Child, graciously given them after they had mourned the Loss of the two former; and for seven Years their only one. Her Constitution from her early Infancy was wonderful weak and tender, yet the Organs of her Body so formed as not to obstruct the free Operations of the active and capacious Spirit within. The Buddings of Reason and Religion appeared on her sooner than usual. — Before her second Year was completed she could speak distinctly, knew her Letters, and could relate many Stories out of the Scriptures to the Satisfaction and Pleasure of the most Judicious. I have heard that Governor Dudley, with other Wise and Polite Gentlemen, have placed her on a Table and setting round it owned themselves diverted with her Stories. — Before she was four Years old (so strong and tenacious was her Memory) she could say the greater Part of the Assembly's Catechism, many of the Psalms, some hundred Lines of the best Poetry, read distinctly, and make pertinent Remarks on many things she read.—

She grew in Knowlege (the most useful) day by day, and had the Fear of God before her Eyes.

She prayed to God sometimes by excellent Forms (recommended to her by her Father and suited to her Age & Circumstances) and at other times ex cord, the Spirit of God helping her Infirmities. When her Father upon a Time inquired of her what Words she used in Prayer to God, she answered him,— "That when she was upon her Knees God gave her Expressions.

Even at the Age of four, five, & six she asked many astonishing Questions about divine Mysteries, and carefully laid up and hid the Answers she received to them, in her Heart.

Throughout her Childhood she discovered a very serious Spirit. Her Heart was tender, and her Conscience a well-informed faithful Guide, and Monitor.

The most that I am able to collect of her Life from six to ten is general (and from her) viz. That her Father daily instructed her, and enrich'd her Mind with the best Knowlege; and excited her to the due Performance of all Duty. And that her tender gracious Mother (who died about four years before her) often prayed for, and over her, and gave her the wisest Counsels, and most faithful Warnings; and that she was thankful and grew in Knowlege and (she hoped) in Grace under them.— That she loved the School and the Exercises of it, and made a laudable Progress in the various Kinds of Learning proper to her Age and Sex.

At nine or ten (if not before) she was able to write; for in the Year 1718, I find a Letter of her honor'd Father's to her wrote in Answer to one of her's, Dated Brookline —Which he expresses himself well pleased with. A Copy of it follows.

In this her Eleventh Year I find an Hymn fairly written by her, dated January 4. 1718. Which I give you Verbatim.

Her Father was pleased to encourage her in this feeble Essay she made at Verse: He condescended to return her Rhymes like her own, level to her present Capacity, with a special Aim to keep and fix her Mind on God and heavenly Things, with which she had begun. He therefore wrote and gave her the following Lines, which he permits me to insert.

These Condescentions of her Father were no doubt of great Use to her, and had in some measure the Effect proposed, to put her on thinking and writing more and better, and to gain more of his Esteem for Ingenuity and Piety, which she was wisely ambitious of; but above all to approve her Heart before God, her Heavenly Father who sees in secret.

And accordingly she early began a sort of Diary without the knowledge of any one, wherein in her fourteenth Year I find entered solemn and pertinent Prayers to God to deliver her and the Town from the Small Pox then threatening it; or to prepare her and his People for the Visitation: Also a Meditation and Prayers occasioned by the Death of a Friend, her Companion and Acquaintance , a few Months after of that Distemper ; filled with such Sentences as these —

"Gracious and merciful God and Father, pardon my Sins for Christ 's sake. Let my Soul be precious in thy sight. I fly to thee for Protection. Give me an entire Resignation to thy Will and Preparation for Death; and let me be found among thy Children at the Great Day.

"I this Day followed to the Grave a true and faithful Friend. Lord sanctify her Death to me: Awaken in me proper though'ts of my own Frailty and Mortality. I might have been taken away and she spared.— Lord let me see thy great Mercy in sparing me, and be fitted to live to Thee and to die to Thee. Spare and heal those that are visited in the Town, and bless it, and thy Churches in it, and all the Rulers of it; and forgive mine Enemies for Christ's sake.

In the same Book Octob. 25. 1721, I find her praising God, and exto •• ing his Goodness, in sparing her when so many Hundreds were swept away by this Judgment.— Also a particular Record of Dr. Noyes 's Death, with some Remarks and Prayers, entered March 29. 1721.—

"On the 11th. Instant died here Dr Noyes in the midst of his Days and Usefulness, one of the Ornaments of his Country; whilst God is sparing me a worthless & sinful Creature, who am unable to do him any Service. Lord affect my Heart with this and other such Dispensations of thine, and fit & prepare me for my great Change. Pour out of thy good Spirit upon me, and Seal my Pardon with thy Son's Blood, and make me thine forever. Amen.

Between these and her Eighteenth Year there are to be seen among her Composures many things considerable both in Verse and Prose.

(1) In Poetry, (among others) there are the following,

To her Honoured Father, on his being chosen President of Harvard College, a Poem of thirty Lines, Dated December 27. 1724. which begins thus,—

But I am not allowed to insert the other Lines, and but a small part of the next Poem to her Friend, on her return to Boston, which begins after this manner—

Her Father now a second time took notice of her Poetic Genius, and wrote her the following Lines, which I found in her Cabinet.

The forgoing Poem she sent to her Father from Reading. And it gained her the following Letter from him,

These were the early Essays of her Youth at Poetry, in which it must be freely owned that as there are many things good and ingenious, so there is a great deal low and juvenile; which the candid understanding Reader will be ready to excuse from that common Rule of a Child's speaking and writing as a Child. At the same time, the Turn of the Mind here evident to God and Religion, is what the Pious will esteem and praise, and it is to be wished that Children may be taken herewith and drawn to imitate.— It is eno' (as her honor'd Father elegantly expressed it to me) if they may be accepted as a green offering of First-fruits brought to the Door of the Sanctuary, the promising Earnest of a future Harvest: at least, as the first lisping of the Tongue at Words is a pleasing Music to the Ear of the Mother, and the first Efforts of the Mind at Reasoning delightful to a Father, so are the first Risings of a natural Genius unto a wise Observer.

(2.) In Prose there are also many Things.

1. Some Essay to write her own Life, which begins with Thanksgivings to God for distinguishing her from most in the World by the Blessings of Nature, Providence and Grace, which she specifies and enumerates in the following manner,

(1) I thank God for my Immortal Soul, and that Reason & Understanding which distinguishes me from the lower Creation.

(2) For my Birth in a Christian Country, in a Land of Light, where the true God and Jesus Christ are known.

(3) For pious and honorable Parents, whereby I am favor'd beyond many others.

(4) For faithful and godly Ministers, who are from time to time showing me the Way of Salvation.

(5) For a Polite as well as Christian Education.

(6) For restraining Grace, that I have been withheld from more open and gross Violations of God's holy Laws.

2. Her Thoughts on Matrimony, with the Rules whereby she resolved to guide her Self in that important Affair of Life.

She writes of the Wisdom and Goodness of God in making Man a Sociable Creature; of the Institution of Marriage in the paradisaical State, and the Happiness of the first Couple ; and what alone will render Persons happy in our fallen State; namely, a faithful Discharge of all the Duties of that Relation; and then particularises the Duties, and treats of the Mischiefs that follow upon the Neglect of them; Shows at large what their Duty is who are about to enter into that State, namely, to seek to God by humble Prayer for his Direction and Conduct, and that he would over-rule all the Circumstances of that momentous Affair in Mercy, on which so much of the Comfort and Pleasure of Life depends.—She carries her Thoughts to the Afflictions and Temptations of that Condition, and Prays for sufficient Grace to carry aright under all. And for her Assistance in making a right Choice she laid down a Number of Rules, from which she resolves never to start: Some of them are the following,

(1) I would admit the Addresses of no Person who is not descended of pious and credible Parents.

(2) Who has not the Character of a strict Moralist, sober, temperate, just and honest.

(3) Diligent in his Business, and prudent in Matters.

(4) Fixt in his Religion, a constant Attender on the public Worship, and who appears not in God's House with the Gravity becoming a Christian.

(5) Of a sweet and agreeable Temper ; for if he be Owner of all the former good Qualifications, and fails here, my Life will be still uncomfortable.

3. Many Letters to her honored Father on various Occasions.

I shall only present you with one dated June 11 th. 1725.

Before She had seen Eighteen, she had read, and (in some measure) digested all the English Poetry, and polite Pieces in Prose, printed and Manuscripts in her Father's well furnished Library, and much she borrowed of her Friends and Acquaintance. She had indeed such a Thirst after knowledge that the Leisure of the Day did not suffice, but she spent whole Nights in reading.

I find she was sometimes fired with a laudable Ambition of raising the honor of her Sex, who are therefore under Obligations to her; and all will be ready to own she had a fine Genius, and is to be placed among those who have excel'd.

When I was first indin'd (by the Motions of God's Providence and Spirit) to seek her Acquaintance (which was about the Time she entered her nineteenth Year) I was surprised and charmed to find her so accomplished. I found her in a good measure Mistress of the politest Writers and their Works; could point out the Beauties in them, and had made many of their best Thoughts her own: And as she went into more free Conversation, she discoursed how admirably on many Subjects!

I grew by Degrees into such an Opinion of her good Taste, that when she put me upon translating a Psalm or two, I was ready to excuse my Self, and if I had not feared to displease her should have denied her Request.

After her Marriage which was on August 11th. 1726, her Custom was once in a Month or two, to make some new Essay in Verse or Prose, and to read from Day to Day as much as a faithful Discharge of the Duties of her new Condition gave Leisure for: and I think I may with Truth say, that she made the writing of Poetry a Recreation and not a Business.

What greatly contributed to increase her Knowlege in Divinity, History, Physic, Controversy, as well as Poetry, was her attentive hearing most that I read upon those Heads thro' the long Evenings of the Winters as we sat together.

Some of the many remarkable things she wrote in her Marriage State are the following; some in Verse, and more in Prose.

Novemb. 1st 1731. She sent her Father the following Letter, with an Encomium on Sir Richard Blackmore 's Poetical Works.—She knew it would be pleasing eno' to her Father, to hear her sing in Praise of Sir Richard, of whom she always heard him speak with great Esteem; not as the first of Poets, but as one of the best; consecrating his Muse to the cause of Virtue & Religion, with a most noble Aim to inspire the Princes and Nobles of the Nation, with the true Sentiments of Glory and Usefulness; than which nothing could be more worthy of a Christian Poet and an English Patriot. And as such He is celebrated in the following Poem.

Her Father in his next Letter called this Poem a rich Present, and told her his Opinion that Sir Richard and his Works were worthy of her highest Esteem, and far above all her Praises. That he was properly the Christian Poet, and after the Reverend Dr. Watts the Laureat in the Church of Christ. That he knew it was his Purity and Virtue, his Piety and Devotion that charmed her Heart: And that this well became the Daughter and Wife of a Minister of the Gospel. He added, That Sir Richard had merited unspeakably of the Age he lived in, and that he hoped future Times would be more just to pay the Debt. —That he was pleased with her paying for his Family; That she had eno' of his Esteem, and on much better Accounts than her P • etic Genius ; even the ornament of a meek and gracious Spirit, which is of much greater Price in the Eyes of God and Man.—It is your shining Crown (says he) that you desire to be a Blessing. God make you so more and more to us all, and to your dear Son in particular. The Lord bless him and keep him.

When she had read Mr. Wallers Poems, it appears that she was struck with the pleasing Admiration of him also; as for the Beauty of his Thoughts, so more especially for the Purity of his Style and delicacy of Language. It was He that taught us the Simplicity and Easiness of Expression, which has ever since been the Character of our best Writers.

I might add to these some Pieces of Wit and Humour, which if published would give a brighter Idea of her to some sort of Readers; but as her Heart was set upon graver and better Subjects, and her Pen much oftener employed about them, so I choose to omit them, though' innocent enough, and to preserve the Memory of her Ingenuity only by the forementioned, and two or three more Occasional Pieces, that will be inserted in their Place.

(2) We come now to Things more serious and profitable, in Prose, though' many of them very melancholy, being writ under the more immediate Cares and Distresses of her Mind about her Spiritual State.

I shall first insert a long and broken Letter to her Father, in which you will see (as her Father expresses it) the Natural Workings of a broken contrite Spirit, in the Depths of Humiliation, Shame and Fear and Grief; yet in the lively Efforts of Faith, Hope, Desire and gracious Love.

Her Father was ready and careful to Answer all her Letters, and to be sure therefore could not let this want a speedy Answer.—The Day he received it, he answered it in the following Words,

But there is a fuller and more particular Answer dated the next Day; which was a vast Comfort to her, and may so to some of my Readers under the like Circumstances, for whose Benefit it is here inserted; wherein her Father thus addresses her.

Her next Letter was a very Excellent one to her Sister a few Weeks after.

This Letter was too good to be overlook'd by her Father ; I find him presently making the following most just, and yet most obliging Return for it.

I have several more Letters to show, which she wrote me from Boston in the Year 1729, in equal Strains of Piety. A Paragraph or two shall be offered.

Again,

Here follows a remarkable One she wrote me from her Chamber.

Upon the Receipt of this Script I observed unto her, that it was truly an Infirmity, and a very faulty one, to hide her Griefs ; it being no other than a piece of Cruelty upon herself, and aggravated, in as much as she had many a time found Relief by laying them open to her Friends. — That God only knows the Hearts of all the Children of Men, and that the C • untenance is a most uncertain Rule for any to guess the State of a Person by.— As to her Fears and Doubts about her Eternal Welfare founded on the Greatness of her Sins, I told her she well knew it was as easy for infinite Power and Mercy and Grace to save from many Sins as from few, from great as from small ; that the Promise of Pardon was made to true Penitents let the Degree of their Guilt be what it would. — That the particular she mentioned, of being over merry in Company, proved nothing against her. Her Heart's troubling her for it was like David 's Heart's smiting him for cutting off Saul 's skirt, which for anything that appears in Scripture, proceeded from mere Tenderness of Conscience, a Fear least something might be amiss.—That her not being able to pray with desired Composure and Affection must not be thought to affect her State. Her present unhappy Frame might proceed from bodily Indisposition, natural & not moral Causes, which is oftener the Occasion of such Frames in God's People than most are sensible of; and that she ought not to draw up C • nclusions about her State either from the Ebb or Flow of her Affections, but from the Bent and Sincerity of her Heart, and Course of her Life. — That her Fears about her Prayers being an Abomination were ill-grounded; for more was intended by Wicked in that Scripture then she imagined; and I hardly thought she would own her Self the resolved Sinner, delighting in Sin and committing it with Greediness: Nay that she proved the contrary by what she added of her following God in the Dark, and hoping in him —Upon the whole, I led her to Christ the true Light, and told her, though' Grief endureth for a Night, yet Joy would come in the Morning: For they that sow in such Tears of Humiliation and Repentance, will anon reap the Joys of Assurance.

I now repair to her Diary, which filled much faster after Marriage than before: wherein she takes notice of God's Providences to her Self, her Friends, and the Land in general.

There is in it the Covenant, in Mr. Alleine 's Form, solemnly Subscrib'd with her Hand, and often Renew'd on Sacramental and other Occasions.

It is not very easy to methodize a Christian 's Diary, and place everything under distinct and proper Heads. In her Books there is notice taken of These among other Things.

ADDENDA. Concerning her last Sickness and Death.

HER Illness began with violent Symptoms, such as Opressions at the Breast & in the Bowels, which held three or more Hours in the Night Season; under which she cried to God that Patience might have its perfect Work, and that her Faith might not fail. — After some Time it changed, and put on various Forms, as is common in Hysterick Cases. For some Days her Complaints were chiefly of Faintness and Sinking of the Spirits, in the Proxysms whereof she often thought herself a dying, and would graciously resign herself, hoping it would be well with her.

When Fear overcame her, and she was ready to despond, she would check herself and say, This is Nature, and Grace cannot wholly conquer it.

On the Saturday Night before she died she lay under the most wracking Pains in her Back, Shoulders &c. and in the Morning fell into a Degree of Stupor, which brought on Fits by Monday Afternoon.

The Tuesday Night she caused me to be several Times awaked by the Watcher, to discourse▪ of Spiritual and Eternal Things, and to bring Promises and Comforts to her Mind.

She had her lucid Intervals all along, which she improved in lifting up her Voice and Soul in most pious and pertinent Ejaculations.

The last Day of her Life (which was Wednesday ) her Frame was proper to meet Death in, so long as she could be kept awake; and spake often of its Approaching ; especially in the Evening. When I spake of praying, she desired me to be short and sweet, for she could not be long intent.

Her last Words, were, 'Thou hast delivered, thou dost deliver, and I trust in Thee that thou wilt still deliver. — And Death is the Deliverance of those that live as she did.

Between the Hours of Eleven and Twelve (after she had struggled with two or three violent Fits) we apprehended her Change would quickly come on. I therefore stood up and Pray'd over her, with her Friends; and in the midst of our Resignations of her, and commending her Spirit into the Hands of her Redeemer (without any Groan or Motion) she fell asleep in Jesus, and is gone to everlasting Rest and Joy. The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, and Blessed be the Name of the Lord.

POSTSCRIPT.

THE Reader will easily observe, thro' the preceeding Memoirs, the great Advantage Mrs. Turell had in the early Care of her Father to infuse Knowlege of the best Kind, in the easiest and kindest Manner, into her little Mind, as fast as it grew capable of receiving it. He first talked into her all he could in the most free and endearing Manner, and then supplied her with the best Books of every kind, suited to her Years and Inclinations, without making them a Task and Burthen; which it must be owned was very much owing to her natural Genius and Inclination. His next Care was to teach her to read his Hand, and then by writing to her, in a Manner becoming him and proper for her, he insinuated himself more and more into her Affections, and increased her Reverence of Him, and Desire of his Esteem. The Way to merit and obtain that, he let her see was by a prudent, humble, virtuous and religious Conduct, upon the Principles and Motives of Christianity, the Fear of GOD and a Desire to please her Heavenly Father. The Success and Fruit of these happy Methods have been partly seen in the foregoing Narrative ; and though' it cannot be pretended that the like Endeavors will always be attended with like Success, yet it may be supposed they would very often, if Parents, with a humble Reliance on the Blessing of God, and Prayers for it, would go into them.

Ministers especially have great Advantages herefor, and are under special Obligations to be Examples to their Flocks, in this Rule of their own House. And though' the Father of Mrs. Turell, would not pretend to propose Himself as an Example to his B • ethren, yet upon a Review of his Letters to his Daughter he is inclined to publish some more of them, believing they may be of Use to the Living, as he has Reason to think they were to his Dead.