Yesterday from Mr Sewall's hand I Received the favor of several Letters
from my Friends in New-England, and a particular account of that
sharp and surprising Stroak of Providence that has made a painful and
lasting Wound on your Soul. He desir'd a Letter from my hand directed
to you which might carry in it some Balm for an afflicted spirit. By
his Information I find that I am not an utter stranger to your Family
and Kindred. Mr Lee your Venerable Grandfather was Predecessor to Mr
Thomas Rowe my Honour'd Tutor and once my Pastor in my younger years.
Mr Peacock who married your eldest Aunt was my intimate Friend. Mrs
Bishop and Mrs Wirly were both my Acquaintance tho' my long Illness and
Absence from London has made me a stranger to their Posterity whom I
knew when Children. But now I know not who of them are living or where.
Docr Cotton Mather your late Father in Law was my yearly Correspondent,
and I lament the loss of him. But the loss you have sustained is of a
more tender and distressing kind; yet let us see whether there are not
sufficient Springs of Consolation flowing round you to allay the smart
of so great a sorrow. And may the Lord open your Eyes as he did the
Eyes of Hagar in the Wilderness so to Espy the Spring of Water when she
was dying with Thirst and her Child over against her ready to expire.
Gen. 21, 19.
Have you lost two lovely Children? Did you make them your Idols? if you
did, God hath sav'd you from Idolatry; if you did not, you have your
God still and a Creature cannot be miserable who has a God. The short
words My God have infinitely more sweetness in them than My Sons or My
Daughters. Were they desirable Blessings? Your God calls you then to
the nobler Sacrifice. Can you give up these to him at his call? God
delighteth in such a Sacrifice. Were they your All? So was Isaac when
Abraham was required to part with him at God's Altar. Are not you a
Daughter of Abraham? Then imitate you his Faith, his self-denial, his
Obedience, and make your Evidences of such a Spiritual Relation to him
shine Brighter on this solemn occasion. Has God taken them from your
Arms? had you not given them to God before? had you not devoted them
to him in Baptism? are you displeas'd that God calls for his own? was
not your heart sincere in the Resignation of them to him? Show then,
Madam, the sincerity of your Heart in leaving of them in the Hand of
God--Do you say they are lost? not out of God's sight, and God's World,
tho' they are out of our sight and our World. All live to God. You may
hope the spreading Covenant of Grace has shelter'd them from the second
Death. They live tho' not with you. Are you ready to say you have
brought forth for the Grave? it may be so, but not in vain. Isaiah 65,
23. _They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble_; (that
is for Sorrow and without hope) _for they are the seed of the Blessed
of the Lord and their offspring with them_. This has been a sweet Text
to many a Mother when their Children have been called away betimes.
And the Prophet Jeremy Chap. 31, 15-17, has very comfortable words
to allay the same sorrow. Did you please yourself in what comforts
you might have derived from them in maturer years? But Madam, do you
consider sufficiently that God hath taken them away from the evil to
come, and hid them in the Grave from the prevailing and mischievous
Temptations of a degenerate age. My Brother's Wife in London has buried
seven or eight Children, and among them, all her Sons. This tho't has
reconciled her to the Providence of God, that the Temptations of young
men in this Age are so exceeding great, and she has seen so many young
Gentlemen of her acquaintance so shamefully degenerate, that she wipes
her Tears for the Sons she has buried, and composes herself to Patience
and Thankfulness with one only Daughter remaining. Perhaps God has by
this stroak prevented a thousand unknown Sorrows. Are your Sons dead?
but are your Mercies dead too? A worthy Husband is a living Comfort
and may God preserve and restore him to you in safety. Food, Raiment,
Safety, Peace, Liberty of Religious access to the mercy seat, Hope of
Heaven;--All these are daily matters of thankfullness. Good Madam, let
not one sorrow bury them all. Shew that you are a Christian by making
it appear that Religion has supports in it which the World doth not
enjoy and which the World doth not know. What can a poor Worldling do
but mourn over earthly Blessings departed, and go down comfortless
with them to the Grave. But methinks that a Christian should lift up
the Head as partaking of higher hopes. May the Blessed Spirit be your
Comforter. Endeavour Madam to employ yourself in some Business or
Amusement of life continually. Let not a solitary frame of Mind tempt
you to set Brooding over your Sorrows and nurse them up to a dangerous
Size; but turn your Thoughts often to the brighter Scenes of Heaven and
the Resurrection. Forgive the freedom of a stranger, Madam, who desires
to be the Humble and faithful Servant of Christ and Souls.