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,…

and when I feel Sorrow added to Sorrow, at the remembrance of them I must see no more, methinks it pleaseth me to remember them, tho it grieves me that I can not, must not see them, nor enjoy their Company, nor my comfort in their Company any more for ever.

Is this your Sorrow? And have you nothing else to do than to feed your Sorrow? And please your self with this kind of Sorrow? What do you call it? Natural Sorrow? Sorrow of Men, as Men? But where is your ⟨p. 79⟩Christian Sorrow? And the Sorrow you should have as renewed, sanctified Men? Or should tend by the spiritual Improvement of the Death of your Relation to make you such? Should you not say, Is my Child dead, and my Soul not mended by its Death? My Heart as hard, and as worldly as before? Hath God been smiting me, and cannot I feel? Hath God been correcting me for my Sin, and cannot I yet grieve and groan, weep and sorrow for my Sin? Hath Death separated me and my Relation, and do I sorrow for that? And hath not Sin separated God and me, and do not I sorrow for this? Do I sit and sorrow, because I shall enjoy the company of this Relation no more, and have I no grief and sorrow, that by my Sin I have forfeited the enjoyment of God for ever? Is not God better than the Creature, and the Enjoyment of God better, sweeter than the Enjoyment of the Creature; and the lose of God a greater, and more bitter loss, than the loss of my Relation? And yet have I so many Tears for the loss of the lesser, and not one for the loss of the greater Good? Did I take the Creature for my God, that I sorrow more for the loss of it, than I do for the real loss of him that is indeed the only True, Living and Eternal God? Hath God been laying Gall and Wormwood on the Creatures Breast, to wean me from the Love of this present World; and do not I improve his stroke, to call off my Affections ⟨p. 80⟩from it? When my Children did live, I then pretended that my worldly Cares was to make Provisions for them; hath God taken them away, and do my worldly care still remain as much as when I had them to provide for? May I not see the deceitfulness of my heart, and turn my sorrow from mourning for my Dead, to mourning for making no better Improvement of their Death? Did I give that Love to them, which was due to God, and now I have not them to lve, should not God have my love, and more of it? Did I place so much comfort in their Life, and should not I seek my comforts now from God, when I find my Creature-comforts thus do fail me?