and perhaps himself at the same time under personal afflictions, temptations, and reproaches? What was the world to your friend, while he did enjoy it? Was it not a place of toil and trouble, of envy and vexation, of enmity and poison; of successive cares, and fears, and griefs; and especially of sin? Did he not groan under the burden of a sinful nature; of a distempered, tempted, troubled heart; of languishings and weakness in every grace; of the rebukes of God, the wounds of conscience, and the malice of a wicked world? Did you not often join in a prayer with him, to obtain deliverance from every burden, and will you now grieve that he has received the answer of prayer? Is the

world a place of rest, or of trouble, to yourself; and would you have your friend also to be as far from rest? If your present circumstances are at all easy and peaceful, you little know what storms are near; or how soon you may see the days, hear the tidings, feel the pains, and bear the burdens which may oblige you to desire death, and confess that a life on earth is no felicity.

Sect. V. Do you think it is for the hurt or good of your friend that he is removed from hence? It cannot be for his hurt, unless he be in hell. And if he be in hell, he was no fit person for you to take much pleasure in upon earth. He might have been a fit object of your compassion, but not

of your complacency. How can you be undone for want of such company as God will not endure in his sight? And if your friend is in heaven, you should regard his good as well as your own, and not wish him from thence. If love teaches us to "mourn with them that mourn, and to rejoice with them that rejoice," can it be an act of rational love to mourn for them that are possessed of the highest everlasting joys?

Sect. VI. God will not honour himself merely by one servant, but by many. God best knows when his work is done. When our friends have finished what God intended them to do, is it not time for them to be gone, and for others to take their

places? God will have a succession of his servants in the world. If David had not died, there had been no Solomon, nor Jehoshaphat, nor Hezekiah, nor Josiah, to honour God in the same throne. You must not have all your mercies conveyed to you merely by one instrument. God will not have you confine your love only to one of his servants. Therefore when one has done his

part for your welfare, God will send you other mercies by another hand; and it is fit he should choose the messenger who bestows the gift. If you resolve to have all your mercies in one channel, or refuse to have any more mercies, your case deserves not compassion, but correction. Does your esteem for

your friend centre in him, in yourself, or in God? If in God; why are you troubled to have God dispose of him according to his unerring wisdom? If in your friend; he is now made perfect, and therefore more lovely, and more fit for your joyful complacency. If in yourself only; it is just in God to take him from you to teach you to prefer God before yourself, and to know better the nature of true friendship, and that your own felicity absolutely depends upon God alone.

Sect. VII. Did you get good by your friend while he was with you? If you only loved him, and made but little use of him for your spiritual profit, God in justice took him from