A36322:118
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,…
The mourner directory, guiding him to the middle way betwixt the two extremes, defect, excess of sorrow for his dead to which is added, The mourners soliloquy / by Thomas Doolittle ...The mourner directory, guiding him to the middle way betwixt the two extreams, defect, excess of sorrow for his dead to which is added, The mourners soliloquy / by Thomas Doolittle ...
London: printed by J.A. for Tho. Cockeril, 1693
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Do not think me over-tedious on this Sorrowful Subject, for herein I do not only consult the helping of my self to bear the Hand of God upon me, and the searching of my own sorrow, of what kind it is, but the common good of mortal men, whose case in one House or other, one House or other! In many Houses in this great City, wherein many Hundreds ⟨p. 68⟩die every Week, this must be the common case of many every day. When I sit in my Study, and hear the sound of that which you call the Passing-bell in the next Parish to us [Cripplegate], Lord, think I, how many art thou calling to mourn as well as me and mine! And tho you speak of a Passing-bell in common course of Speech, and have not your H•arts affected with t•e hearing of your Ears, yet to me it makes a doleful sound, while I think it is a Passing-bell; for whither are they passing? their Bodies from their Houses to their Graves; from the Company of their Friends and Relations to be Companions of Worms; and their Souls, into Eternity of Joy or Torment; to God, and Christ, and Holy Angels; or to the Devil and his Angels for ever; and so pass from us, as no more to return unto us, out of one World into another, and so pass from this to that, as to find no passage from that to this any more for ever.
Those that have past from us to the World of Immortal Spirits, out of Time into Eternity, have left us behind as Mourners not for their Gain, which is cause of Joy, but for our own Loss, which to us is cause of sorrow; and our Duty is to enquire further into the Nature of it; which because you must die, may be useful to your sorrowful Relations, or your Relations must die, and leave you to mourn for them; and many every day have cause of sorrow ⟨p. 69⟩by the death of some or other, the Case being a common Case, but the Question not a common Question, I shall propound it, and endeavour to resolve it.