(5)
(illegible text)lon hath lost by this complex disaster,
(illegible text) witness, wrestler, mourner, and a pastor,
The scattered sheep, a most laborious leader,
⟨Poor⟩ hungry souls have lost a painful feeder;
The sufferers have lost a sympathiser;
The doubtful halting souls, a good adviser:
The weak, a ⟨wise⟩ encouraging supporter:
The wanderers and mourners, a comforter:
The tempted souls, a counsellor in terrors;
The ignorant, a guide to keep from errors:
The zealous, from extreams, a holding bridle:
The lazy sort a spur from being idle.
The temporizing sort of faint complyers,
Duty‘s deserters, and Christ’s truth’s denyers,
May boldly now proceed in their backslidings,
⟨Since⟩ that they are deliv’red from his chidings,
Who never ceas’d to be a free reprover,
Nor sins and snares in season to discover.
How insupportable is such a cross!
How irreparable is such a loss!
Oh, let us now make search, that we may know
What may the meaning be of such a blow!
What sins have this procur’d let’s meditate,
What further sorrows may’t prognosticate?
Our misimprovements, let us now confess,
Of such enjoyments, our unworthiness
Of Renwick’s gracious message, little priz’d,
And of his precious ministry despis’d,
Our barrenness, and base ingratitude,
Our weariness of that angelic food,
Whereof the worth we know now by the want,
And must henceforth in tears the loss lament,
These have this rod in righteousness extorted,
From a just God, and left us uncomforted;
A rod which we may sadly now suppose,
A fatal forerunner of future woes,
Impendent on this base degen’rate age;
The perishing of worthies must presage,
That they delivered are from that which we
Are call’d to fear, but cannot bear, nor flee;
But tho’ our loss be great, his gain is glory,
His life, his death, shall be renown’d in story;
Which death, to us most costly and most painful,
Shall to the covenanted cause be gainful;
⟨In⟩ that, in place of a reproached pastor,
A3
