hopes and comforts of that kind were bound up. For, as in Virgil, Omnis in Ascanio, stat chari cura parentis. All her affections were contracted into this one object. If we have never so many children, we know not which of them to spare. If they stand like olive plants about our table, it would grieve us to see the least twig among them broken down But surely the death of one out of many, is much more tolerable than of all in one.

Hence it is noted in Scripture as the greatest of earthly sorrows" O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes; make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation." Yea, so deep and penetrating is this grief, that the Holy Ghost borrows it to express the deepest spiritual troubles by it" They shall mourn for him (namely Christ whom they pierced,) as one mourneth for an only son."

4. And yet to heighten the afflictions, it is superadded, ver. 12. "And she was a widow." So that the staff of her age, on whom she leaned, was broken. She had now none left to comfort or assist her in her helpless, comfortless state of widowhood; which is a condition not only void of comfort, but exposed to oppression and contempt.

Yea, and being a widow, the whole burden lay upon her alone: she had not a husband to comfort her, as Elkanah did Hannah" Why weepest thou, and why is thy heart grieved? am not I more to thee than ten sons?" This would have been a great relief, but her husband was dead as well as her son; both gone, and she only surviving to la

ment the loss of those comforts, that once she had. Her calamities come not single, but one after another, and this reviving and aggravating the former. This was her case and condition when the Lord met her.

II. Let us consider the counsel which Christ gives her, with respect to this her sad and sorrowful case: "And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not." Relieving and supporting words! wherein we shall consider,

1. The occasion.

2. The motive.

3. The counsel itself.

1. The occasion of it; and that was his seeing of her. This meeting at the gate of the city, how accidental and occasional soever, it seems, yet, without doubt, it was providentially suited to the work intended to be wrought. The eye of his omniscience foresaw her, and this meeting was by him designed, as an occasion of that famous miracle which he wrought upon the young man. Christ hath a quick eye to discern poor mourning and disconsolate creatures. And though he be now in heaven, and stands out of our sight, so that we see him not, yet he sees us; and his eye, (which is upon all our troubles) still affects his heart, and moves his bowels for us. 2. The motive stirring him up to give this relieving and comfortable counsel to her, was his own compassion. She neither expected nor desired it from him; but so full of tender pity was the Lord toward her, that he prevents her with unexpected consolation: her heart was nothing so full of com

passion for her son, as Christ was for her: he bore our infirmities, even natural as well as moral ones in the days of his flesh; and though he be now exalted to the highest glory, yet still he continues as merciful as ever, and is apt to be touched with the sense of our miseries.

3. The counsel itself, "Weep not;” herein fulfilling the office of a comforter to them that mourn, whereunto he was anointed. Yet the words are not an absolute prohibition of tears and sorrow: he doth not condemn all mourning as sinful, or all expressions of grief for dead relations as uncomely. No, Christ would not have his people stupid and insensible; he only prohibits the excess, and extravagancies of our sorrow for the dead; that it should not be such a mourning for the dead as is found among the heathen, who sorrow without measure, because without hope, being ignorant of that grand relief, by the resurrection which the Gospel reveals.

The resurrection of her son from the dead, is the ground upon which Christ builds her consolation and relief. Well might he say, "Weep not," when he intended quickly to remove the cause of her tears by restoring him again to life.

Now, though there be somewhat in this case extraordinary and peculiar: for few or none that carry their dead children to the grave, may expect to receive them again from the dead immediately, by a special resurrection, as she did: I say, this is not to be expected by any that now lose their relations; the occasions and reasons of such miraculous special resurrections being removed, by a sufficient and full

It

evidence and confirmation of Christ's divine power and Godhead: yet those that now bury their relations, if they be such as die in Christ, have as good and sufficient reason to moderate their passions, as this mourner had, and do as truly come within the reach and compass of this, Christ's comfortable and supporting counsel, "Weep not," as she did: for do but consider what of support or comfort can a particular, and present resurrection from the dead give us, more than that it is, and as it is, a specimen, a handsel, or pledge of the general resurrection? is not the returning of the soul to its body, to live an animal life again in this world of sin and sorrow, and shortly after to undergo the agonies and pains of death again, that is in itself any such privilege as may afford much comfort to the person raised, or his relations. It is no privilege to the person raised, for it returns him from rest to trouble, from the harbour back again into the ocean. It is matter of trouble to many dying saints, to hear of the likelihood of their returning again, when they are got so nigh to heaven.

It was once the case of a godly minister of this nation, who was much troubled at his return, and said, "I am like a sheep driven out of the storm almost to the fold, and then driven back into the storm again or a weary traveller, that is come near his home, and then must go back to fetch somewhat he had forgotten; or an apprentice, whose time is almost expired, and then must begin a new term.”

But to die, and then return again from the dead, hath less of privilege, than to return only from the

brink of the grave: for the sick hath not yet felt the agonies and last struggle or pangs of death, but such have felt them once, and must feel them again; they must die twice, before they can be happy once: and besides, during the little time they spend on earth, betwixt the first and second dissolution, there is a perfect forgetfulness and insensibleness of all that which they saw or enjoyed in their state of separation: it being necessary both for them and others, that it should be. For themselves it is necessary, that they may be content to live and endure the time of separation from that blessed and ineffable state, quietly and patiently; and for others, that they may live by faith, and not by sense, and build upon divine, and not human authority and report.

So that here you see, their agonies and pangs are doubled, and yet their life not sweetened by any sense of their happiness, which returns and remains with them; and therefore it can be no such privilege to them.

And for their relations, though it be some comfort to receive them again from the dead, yet the consideration, that they are returned to them in the stormy sea, to partake of new sorrows and troubles, from which they were lately free; and in a short time they must part with them again, and feel the double sorrows of a parting pull, which others feel but once, surely such a particular resurrection considered in itself, is no such ground of comfort as at first we might imagine it to be.

It remains then, that the ground of all solid comfort and relief against the death of our relations, lies