om whom it might reasonably have
expected so much future Service. This is, indeed, a generous, and a
Christian Sentiment, and there is something noble in those Tears which
flow on such a Consideration. But do not so remember your Relation to
Earth, as to forget that which you bear to Heaven; and do not so wrong
the Divine Wisdom and Goodness, as to suppose, that when he takes away
from hence promising Instruments of Service, he there lays them by as
useless. Much more reasonable is it to conclude, that their Sphere of
Action, as well as Happiness, is inlarged, and that the Church above
hath gained incomparably more, than that below can be supposed to have
lost by their Death.

ON the whole, therefore, far from complaining of the Divine Conduct in
this Respect, it will become you, my Friends, rather to be very
thankful that these dear Children were spared so long; to accompany
and entertain you in so many Stages of your short Journey thro' Life,
to answer so many of your Hopes, and to establish so many more beyond
all Fear of Disappointment. Reflect on all that GOD did in, and upon
them, on all he was beginning to do by them, and on what you have
great Reason to believe he is now doing for them; and adore his Name,
that he has left you these dear Memorials, by which your Case is so
happily distinguished from ours, whose Hopes in our Children withered
in the very Bud; or from theirs, who saw those who were once so dear
to them, perishing, as they have Cause to fear, _in the Paths of the
Destroyer._

BUT while I speak thus, methinks I am alarmed, lest I should awaken
the far more grievous Sorrows of some mournful Parent, whom it will
not be so easy to comfort. My Brethren and Friends, what shall I say
to you, who are lamenting over your _Absaloms_, and almost wishing
_you had died for them_[m]? Shall I urge _you_ to say _it is well?_
Perhaps you may think it a great Attainment, if, like _Aaron,_ when
his Sons _died before the Lord_, you _can hold your Peace_[n], under
the awful Stroke. My Soul is troubled for you; _my Words are_ almost
_swallowed up._ I cannot unsay what I have elsewhere said at large on
this melancholy Subject[*]. Yet let me remind you of this, that you do
not certainly know what Almighty Grace might do for these lamented
Creatures, even in the latest Moments, and have therefore no Warrant
confidently to pronounce that they are assuredly perished. And if you
cannot but tremble in the too probable Fear o