A26780:498
An account of the life and death of Mr. Philip Henry, minister of the…
An account of the life and death of Mr. Philip Henry, minister of the gospel near Whitechurch in Shropshire, who died June 24, 1696, in the sixty fifth year of his ageAn account of the life and death of Mr. Philip Henry, minister of the gospel near Whitechurch in Shropshire, who dy'd June 24, 1696, in the sixty fifth year of his age
London: printed for Tho. Parkhurst, 1698
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
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, Lev. 10. 3 He held his Peace; and that which quieted him, was what his Brother Moses said to him, This is that which the Lord hath said I will be sanctified; and if God be Sanctified, Aaron is Satisfied; if God have Glory from it, Aaron hath nothing to say against it. Of the former it is said, Job 1. 20. he fell down, but it was to Worship; and we are told how he expressed himself, The Lord gave, &c. He acknowledgeth God ⟨p. 237⟩in all: And indeed after all, this is it (my dear Cousins) that you must satisfy your selves with under this sad Providence, that the Lord hath done it, and the same Will that ordered the thing it self, ordered all the Circumstances of it; and who are we that we should dispute with our Maker: