e to the King?_[x]" Would
any of you, my Brethren, venture to say, "What tho' I be a Child of
GOD, and an Heir of Glory, it matters not, for _my Gourd is withered_;
that pleasant Plant which was opening so fair and so delightful, under
the Shadow of which I expected long to have sate, and even _the Rock
of Ages_ cannot shelter me so well? I can behold that beloved Face no
more, and therefore I will not look upward to behold the Face of GOD,
I will not look forward to Christ and to Heaven?" Would this, my
Friends, be the Language of a real Christian? Nay, are there not many
abandon'd Sinners who would tremble at such Expressions? Yet is it not
in effect the Language of our tumultuous Passions, when, like
_Rachel,_ we are _mourning for our Children,_ and _will not be
comforted, because they are not_[y]? Is it not our Language while we
cannot, like the pious _Shunamite_ in the Text, bring our afflicted
Hearts to say, _It is well?_

III. PIOUS PARENTS, in such a Circumstance, have farther Reason to
say, _It is well_,--as they may observe an apparent Tendency in such a
Dispensation to teach them a Variety of the most instructive and
useful Lessons, in a very convincing and effectual Manner.

'TIS a just Observation of _Solomon_, that _the Rod and Reproof give
Wisdom_[z]; and 'tis peculiarly applicable to such a Chastisement of
our heavenly Father. It should therefore be our great Care to _bear
the Rod and him that hath appointed it_[a]; and so far as it hath a
Tendency to teach us our Duty, and to improve the divine Life in our
Souls, we have the highest Reason to say, that _it is_ indeed _well._

EVERY Affliction hath in its Degree this kind of Tendency, and 'tis
the very Reason for which _we are_ thus _chastened_, that we may
_profit_ by our Sorrows, and be made _Partakers of God's Holiness_[b].
But this Dispensation is peculiarly adapted, in a very affecting
Manner,--to teach us the Vanity of the World,--to warn us of the
Approach of our own Death,--to quicken us in the Duties incumbent upon
us, especially to our surviving Children,--and to produce a more
intire Resignation to the Divine Will, which is indeed the surest
Foundation of Quiet, and Source of Happiness.

I SHALL insist a little more particularly on each of these; and I
desire that it may be remembered, that the Sight and Knowledge of such
mournful Providences as are now before us, should, in some Degree, be
improved to these Purposes, even by those Par