Now this is the Temper to which, by divine Assistance, we should all labour to bring our own Hearts, when GOD puts this bitter Cup into our Hands, and _takes away with a Stroke_ those dear Little-ones, which were the _Desire of our Eyes_[t], and the Joy of our Hearts. Let us not content ourselves, in such Circumstances, with _keeping the Door of our Lips_[u], that we break not out into any Indecencies of Complaint; let us not attempt to harden ourselves against our Sorrows by a stern Insensibility, or that sullen Resolution which sometimes says, _It is a Grief, and I must bear it_[w]; but let us labour, (for _a great Labour_ it will indeed be,) to compose and quiet our Souls, calmly to acquiesce in this painful Dispensation, nay, cordially to approve it as in present Circumstances every Way fit. IT will be the main Business of this Discourse, to prove how reasonable such a Temper is, or to shew how much Cause Christian Parents have to borrow the Language of the Text, when their Infant Offspring is taken away, and to say with the pious _Shunamite_, in the noblest Sense that her Words will bear,--_It is well._ AND here I would more particularly shew,--It is well in the general, because GOD does it:--It is surely well for the pious Parents in particular, because it is the Work of their Covenant GOD:--They may see many Respects in which it is evidently so, by observing what useful Lessons it has a Tendency to teach them:--And they have Reason to hope, it is well with those dear Creatures whom GOD hath removed in their early Days. THESE are surely convincing Reasons to the Understanding: Yet who can say, that they shalt be Reasons to the Heart? _Arise, O GOD, and plead thine own Cause_[x] in the most effectual Manner! May thy powerful and gracious Voice appease the swelling Billows of the Passions, and produce a great and delightful Calm in our Souls, in which we may yet enjoy thee and ourselves, tho' a Part of our Treasure be for the present swallowed up! I. THERE is surely Reason, in such a Case, to say _it is well_,--because GOD doth it. THIS pass'd for an unanswerable Reason with _David, I was dumb, I opened not my Mouth, because thou didst it_[y], and with good old _Eli,_ under a severer Tryal than ours, _It is the Lord, let him do as seemeth good in his Sight_[z]. And shall We object against the Force of it? Was it a Reason to _David_, and to _Eli_, and is it not equally so to us? Or have We any new Right to _reply against GOD_[a], which those eminent Saints had not?