they stand like olive plants about our tables, it would grieve us to see the least twig amongst them broken down; but surely the death of one out of many, is much more tolerable than all in one. Hence it is noted in Scripture as the greatest of earthly sorrows," O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes. Make thee mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation," Jer. vi. 26. Yea, so deep and penetrating is this grief, that the Holy Ghost borrows it to express the deepest spiritual troubles by it; "They shall mourn for him whom they have pierced, as one mourneth for an only son." Zech. xii. 10.

And yet, to heighten the affliction, it is superadded," And she was a widow." So that the staff of her age, on which she leaned, was broken. She had now none left to comfort or assist her in her helpless, comfortless, state of widowhood; which is a condition not only void of comfort, but exposed to oppression and contempt. Yea, and being a widow, the whole burden lay upon her alone. She had not a husband to comfort her, as Elkanah did Hannah, in 1 Sam. i. 8; "Why weepest thou, and why is thy

heart grieved? Am not I better to thee than ten sons ?" This would have been a great relief; but her husband was dead, as well as her son, both gone, and she only surviving, to lament the loss of those comforts that once she had. Her calamities came not single, but one after another, and this reviving and aggravating the former. This was her case and condition when the Lord met her.

2. Let us consider the counsel which Christ gave her, with respect to this her sad and sorrowful case. "And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not." Relieving and supporting words; wherein we shall consider the occasion, the motive, and the counsel itself.

Consider the occasion of it; and that was his seeing her. This meeting at the gate of the city, how accidental and occasional soever it seems, was yet without doubt providentially suited to the work intended to be wrought. The eye of his omniscience foresaw her, and this meeting was by him designed as an occasion of that famous miracle which he wrought upon the young man. Christ has a quick eye to discern poor mourning and disconsolate creatures; and though he is

now in heaven, and stands out of our sight, so that we see him not, yet he sees us, and his eye, which is upon all our troubles, still affects his heart, and moves his bowels for us.

The motive stirring him up to give this relieving and comfortable counsel to her, was his own compassion. She neither expected nor desired it from him; but so full of tender pity was the Lord towards her, that he prevents her with unexpected consolation. Her heart was not so full of compassion for her son, as Christ's heart was for her. He bore our infirmities, even natural, as well as moral ones, in the days of his flesh; and though he is now exalted to the highest glory, yet still he continues as merciful as ever, and as apt to be touched with the sense of our miseries. Heb. iv. 15.

Consider the counsel itself,--" Weep not;" herein fulfilling the office of comforter to them that mourn, whereunto he was anointed, Isaiah lxi. 1, 2, 3. Yet the words are not an absolute prohibition of tears and sorrow. He does not condemn all mourning as sinful, or all expressions of grief for dead relations as uncomely. No; Christ would not have his people stupid and insensible. He

prohibits only the excesses and extravagancies of our sorrows for the dead, that it should not be such a mourning for the dead as is found among the heathen, who sorrow without measure, because without hope, being ignorant of that grand relief which the Gospel reveals.

Well

The resurrection of her son from the dead, is the ground upon which Christ builds her consolation and relief. might he say, "Weep not," when he intended quickly to remove the cause of her tears, by restoring him again to life. Now though there is somewhat in this case extraordinary and peculiar, for few or none that carry their dead children to the grave, may expect to receive them again from the dead immediately by a special resurrection, as this woman did; I say, this is not to be expected by any that now lose their relations; the occasion and reason of such miraculous, special resurrections being removed, by a sufficient and full evidence and confirmation of Christ's divine power and Godhead; yet those who now bury their relations, if they be such as die in Christ, have as good and sufficient reason to moderate their passions, as this mourner had, and do as truly come within the reach and

compass of his comfortable and supporting counsel, "Weep not," as she did; for do but consider, what support or comfort can a particular and present resurrection from the dead give us, more than that it is, and as it is, a specimen or pledge of the general resurrection? It is not the returning of the soul to its body, to live an animal life again in this world of sin and sorrow, and shortly after to undergo the agonies and pains of death again, that is in itself any such privilege as may afford much comfort to the person raised, or his relations. It is no privilege to the person raised, for it returns him from rest to trouble, from the harbour back again into the ocean. It is a matter of trouble to many dying saints, to hear of the likelihood of their returning again, when they are got so nigh to heaven. It was once the case of a godly minister of this nation; and he was much troubled at his return, and said, "I am like a sheep driven out of the storm almost to the fold, and then driven back into the storm again; or a weary traveller that is come near his home, and then must go back to fetch somewhat he had forgotten; or an apprentice, whose time is almost expired, and then must begin a new term."

But