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,…

When is our Sorrow for our Dead Spiritually defective tho it be naturally abundant? Or when is it too little, as we are Christians, be it never so much as we are Men?

Ans. 1. When we sorrow for the breach of the Relation made by death, we sorrow as men, tho in great abundance, for so an Heathen may do; but do not sorrow for Sin as Sin, committed against God in the neglect of our Relative Duties while the Relation was continued, for so only Christians can do. Tho our Natural Sorrow doth abound in the first respect, it is spiritually defective in the latter respect. Two things taken for granted.

1. Here it is taken for granted, That the most Loving Relations may Sin and fail in their Relative Duties one to another; for as much as we cannot yield perfect Obedience to any one of the Ten Commandments, among which the Fifth contains Relative Duties: And who can say, tho I have transgressed all the rest, yet this I have perfectly fulfilled? I have heard that some have asserted, that they have lived Twenty or Forty years in a Conjugal Relation without ⟨p. 70⟩an angry word, or unkind act betwixt them; if so, might not we say, O peaceable Spirits that were in these! O rare Example, and seldom found! But be it so, is there no other Sin in these Relations but anger and angry words? What! Did they pray also daily together, or as much one for another as they ought, and as fervently as they should? Did they by all ways and means appointed by God help each other in their Spiritual Concerns as Duty did require? Were there never no sinful Thoughts in their Minds one against another? there is one can tell you, his sinful Thoughts against some Related to him, hath filled his Heart with more sorrow, his Eyes with Tears, and his Mouth with secret Confessions to God, and cost him more Sighs, and Sobs, and Groans in pleading for Pardon for the Sin of his Thoughts (tho resisted) than any angry Words or unkind Actions ever did. For the one might be more easily prevented than the other, because we have a more absolute government over our Tongues and Hands than over our Thoughts. What! Can any Persons in any Relation suppose Husband and Wife, Parents and Children say they did never Love too much, or at no time too little? never did take too much care, or never too little for their Relations, but had that just proportion and measure of Love to them and Care for them, as the perfect Rule requires: So much as God commanded, and no more