INDEED there may be some Reason to imagine, that it was with Design to humble those who are in distinguish'd Stations of Life, and who have peculiar Advantages and Obligations to excel in Religion, that GOD has shewn us in Scripture, as well as in common Life, some bright Examples of Piety, where they could hardly have been expected in so great a Degree; and hath, as it were, _perfected Praise out of the Mouths of Babes and Sucklings_[i]. Thus when _Zacharias_[k], an aged Priest, doubted the Veracity of the Angel which appeared to assure him of the Birth of his Child, which was to be produced in an ordinary Way; _Mary,_ an obscure young Virgin, could believe a far more unexampled Event, and said, with humble Faith and thankful Consent, _Behold the Hand-maid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy Word_[l]. _Jonah_ the Prophet, tho' favour'd with such immediate Revelations, and so lately delivered, in a miraculous Way, from the very _Belly of Hell_[m], was thrown into a most indecent Transport of Passion, on the withering of a Gourd; so that he presumed to tell the Almighty to his Face, that _he did well to be angry even unto Death_[n]: Whereas this pious Woman preserves the Calmness and Serenity of her Temper, when she had lost a Child, a Son, an only Child, who had been given beyond all natural Hope, and therefore to be sure was so much the dearer, and the Expectation from him so much the higher. Yet are these Expectations dash'd almost in a Moment; and this, when he was grown up to an Age when Children are peculiarly entertaining; for he was old enough to be with his Father in the Field, where no doubt he was diverting him with his fond Prattle; yet he was not too big to be laid _on his Mother's Knees_[o], when he came home complaining of his Head; so that he was probably about five or six Years old. This amiable Child was well in the Morning, and dead by Noon; a pale Corpse in his Mother's Arms! and he now _lay dead in the House_; and yet they had the Faith, and the Goodness to say, "_It is well._" THIS good Woman had found the Prophet _Elisha_ grateful for all the Favours he had received at her House; where she had from time to time accommodated him in his Journies, and thought it an Honour rather than an Incumbrance. She had experienced the Power of his Prayers, in answer to which the Child had been given; and 'tis extremely probable, that she also recollected the Miracle which _Elijah_ had wrought a few Years before, tho' till that Time the like had not been known in _Israel_, or on Earth; I mean, in raising from the Dead the Child of that Widow of _Sarepta_[p], who had nourished him during the Famine. She might therefore think it a possible Case, that the Miracle might be renewed; at least, she knew not how to comfort herself better, than by going to so good a Friend, and asking his Counsels and his Prayers, to enable her to bear her Affliction, if it must not be removed[*].