The mourner directory, guiding him to the middle way betwixt the two extremes, defect,…The mourner directory, guiding him to the middle way betwixt the two extreams, defect,…

So after the Relation is dead, we go and pray against the Workings of Corruption by reason of God's Dispensation, that we might not murmur, nor repine, nor charge God foolishly for his dealings with us; we find Sin stirring, we cry to God, and they are crushed; we feel Temptations assaulting of us, we call to Heaven s•t help to resist them, and they are repelled; we are sensible of our own weakness with Patience, and due Submission to bear so great a Trial; God by his Grace comes and makes it more easy than we thought it could have been; our sorrow for our dead, being kindly sorrow, gives place to our minding of these returns of Prayer; that in my sorrow, I have so much leisure for consideration, as to observe and say, Tho God hath taken away my dear Relation, for whom I prayed, and therefore do sorrow; yet he hath taken away my S•n, and taken •own the power of it, against which I prayed, t•a• in my sorrow I might not sin, and my sorrow shall not s• far blind me, that I should not s•e what at my Prayers God hath done for me: He hath taken my Relation from me, but I have prayed he would not take away himself, nor his quickening Spirit, nor the sense of his Love, and he hath not; the Creature is gone from me, but God continues with me; the one I shall see no more in this World, but God I often since have conversed with, and he hath showed his Love to me, and such returns must quiet my Heart in the time of my grief and sorrow.

So after the Relation is dead, we go and pray against the Workings of Corruption by reason of God's Dispensation, that we might not murmur, nor repine, nor charge God foolishly for his dealings with us; we find Sin stirring, we cry to God, and they are crushed; we feel Temptations assaulting of us, we call to Heaven s•t help to resist them, and they are repelled; we are sensible of our own weakness with Patience, and due Submission to bear so great a Trial; God by his Grace comes and makes it more easie than we thought it could have been; our sorrow for our dead, being kindly sorrow, gives place to our minding of these returns of Prayer; that in my sorrow, I have so much leisure for consideration, as to observe and say, Tho God hath taken away my dear Relation, for whom I prayed, and therefore do sorrow; yet he hath taken away my Sn, and taken own the power of it, against which I prayed, ta in my sorrow I might not sin, and my sorrow shall not s far blind me, that I should not se what at my Prayers God hath done for me: He hath taken my Relation from me, but I have prayed he would not take away himself, nor his quickning Spirit, nor the sense of his Love, and he hath not; the Creature is gone from me, but God continues with me; the one I shall see no more in this World, but God I often since have conversed with, and he hath shewed his Love to me, and such returns must quiet my Heart in the time of my grief and sorrow.