An account of the life and death of Mr. Philip Henry, minister of the…

I have lately met with a Letter of Mr. Henry's, to a Couple related to him, who in a very short time had Buried all their Children of the Small Pox, to their great Grief, 'twas in the Year 1679. What Comfort and Counsels he Administered to them, may be of use •o others in their Afflictions, and therefore I shall Transcribe the whole Letter, though it be long.

I have lately met with a Letter of Mr. Henry's, to a Couple related to him, who in a very short time had Buryed all their Children of the Small Pox, to their great Grief, 'twas in the Year 1679. What Comfort and Counsels he Administred to them, may be of use •o others in their Afflictions, and therefore I shall Transcribe the whole Letter, though it be long.

Dear Cousins, This is to you both, whom God hath made one in the Conjugal Relation, and who are one also in the present Affliction; only to signify to you that we do heartily Sympathize with you in it. The Trial is indeed sharp, and there will be need of all the Wisdom and Grace you have, and of all the help ⟨p. 236⟩of Friends you can get, both to bear and to improve it aright. You must bear it with Silence and Submission. Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I have born Chastisement. He is Sovereign Lord of all, and may do with us and ours as pleaseth him. It is not for the Clay to quarrel with the Potter. It was Mercy you had Children, and comfort in them so long; it is Mercy that yet you have one another, and your Children are not lost, but gone before, a little before, whither you your selves are hastening after. And if a Storm be coming, (as God grant it be not) it is best with them that put first into the Harbour. Your Children are taken away from the Evil to come, and you must not Mourn as they that have no hope. Sensible you cannot but be, but dejected and sullen you must not be, that will but put more bitterness into the Cup, and make way for another, perhaps a sharper stroke. You must not think, and I hope you do not, that there cannot be a sharper stroke, for God hath many Arrows in his Quiver; he can heat the Furnace seven times hotter, and again and again seven times hotter, till he hath Consumed us; and if he should do so, yet still we must say, he hath punished us less than our Iniquities have deserved. For Examples of Patience in the like kind, we have two eminent ones in the Book of God, those are Job and Aaron; of the latter it is said,