THE HAND OF GOD IN REMOVING OUR FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCE FAR FROM US, CONSIDERED IMPROVED.

AND

Lover and friend haft thou put far from me, dad mine acquaintance into darkness,

N

our

EXT to the joys of religion, thofe of friendship are most rational, fublime and fatisfactory. But they, like all other earthly joys, have their mixtures and allays, and are very precarious. We are often called to weep with friends, and fometimes to weep over them. Grief and tears for their death are the fad tribute we pay for loving and being beloved, and living long in this world. This feems to have been the cafe with the author of this melancholy pfalm, where our text is. He was exercised with

great

He

great afflictions of body, and deep diftrefs of mind. His foul was full of troubles, and his life drew nigh to the grave. was that up and confined by weakness and pain, and could not go forth" to his bufnefs or pleasure, to the focial or folemn affembly. He adds, that " he had been afflicted and ready to die from his youth up," which feems to intimate that he was now an old man. Some of his acquaintance and friends had deserted him, and " he was become an abomination to them." They would not affift him, nor afford him the comfort of a friendly vifit, and the cheap kindnefs of a foft, compaffionate word. Others of them, who would have been faithful and kind to him in his diftrefs, were taken out of the world and this, at a time when, through age and infirmities, he peculiarly needed their company and affiftance. To this he refers in the text; and with this he concludes the pfalm, as the heaviest ftroke of all" Lover and friend haft thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.' This is a common cafe ; and frequently the cafe of the aged. It is no unfual thing for old people to outlive

their nearest relations; the companions of their lives; their children, and fometimes their grandchildren too and they are, as the Pfalmift expreffeth it," like a fparrow alone upon the house-top." As I am now particularly addreffing the aged, I propofe to confider this very afflictive cafe, and fuggeft fome thoughts and advices to them, which I hope, through a divine bleffing, will concur, with the forrow of the countenanance, to make the heart better. better.at I hall, therefore,

J. Confider the heavy affliction with which the Pfalmift was vifited.

11. His devout acknowledgment of the hand of God in it and then add fome ufeful reflections from the fubject.

I. I am to confider the heavy affliction with which the Pfalmift was vifited.

It will be proper here to confider the perfons he fpeaks of, and what was become of them. The perfons fpoken of were his acquaintance, friends, and lovers. Man is a creature formed for fociety: he could not fubfift without it; or if he could, would be

a

a miferable being. There is fome comfort in having what we call acquaintance; efpecially if they are fenfible, neighbourly, well-behaved perfons. The common intereourfes of life, vifits and converfation, have their pleasures. They tend to remove the roughness of the mind, to increase our knowledge of human nature, exercise our focial affections, and promote civility and love. Even from acquaintance we may often want and derive affiftance. But the original word, rendered acquaintance in the text, is in other places tranflated kinsfolks, and familiar friends; and, compared with the other words here ufed, fhoweth that the Pfalmift doth not fo much refer to those with whom he had a general acquaintance only, as to thofe to whom he was allied by blood or friendship, and for whom he had a tender affection. The ties of nature are ftrong and endearing. Where perfons defcend from the fame ftock, and have grown up together, there is generally a moft intimate friendship formed between them. The ties of friendship, where there is no previous relation, are often more tender and ftrong than thofe of nature and, as SoloA a 2

mon

mon obferveth,

"there is a friend that fticketh closer than a brother." When perfons have had long experience of each other's temper, and there hath been a free communication of counfels, joys and griefs; when they have, by a feries of kind offices through many years, affifted one another in difficulties and perplexities, and been intent upon promoting each other's wifdom, holinefs and credit; their hearts are knit together in the ftrongeft manner, and othe principles of gratitude, honour, love and piety confirm the union.

Such friends and relatives the Pfalmift had enjoyed; and that he enjoyed them no longer, was the affliction which he fo pathetically laments in the text. They were put far from him; removed to a diftance.

To lofe the company of fuch friends is pain-ful; for, according to an Arabian proverb, "the prefence of a friend brightens the eye," and gladdens the heart. To lofe their counfel and advice is painful. To be deprived. of thofe in whofe faithful breafts we could repofe our fecrets and our confidence; who would mildly reprove our errors, and wifely direct our fteps; who would