Rule 6. In mourning for such Relations that neither did their Duty to God, nor to their Family, but lived to God's dishonour and their daily ⟨p. 92⟩grief, and died without Repentance for both, our sorrow must be for their sakes, and not our own: For the ungodly and unnatural, as dying impenitently in their Sins, and for the Loss of their Souls, and Misery in the other World, as David did for Absalom; for tho our grief for them cannot mitigate their Torments, nor our Tears quench their Fire, yet it cannot but be a grief to us, that our Relations should live and die in their Rebellion against God, and neglect of their Duties towards us, but did dishonour God whom they should have glorified, and overthrew the Family by their Sin and Wicked Lives which they should have built up and maintained: And as for their Sin while they lived, so dying impenitent for their Misery after death. The death of some puts an end to those Troubles, and Disquiet, and Crosses which they caused in their Families while they lived, that for their own sakes the Living cannot find a reason why they should mourn because they are dead. But when they consider their death was the beginning of their Intolerable and Eternal Misery, for their sakes they cannot but give place to sorrow: •or while these Thoughts are working, my Husband is dead, and his Soul is Damned; it will be hard to keep sorrow from the Heart. And tho such sorrow doth not profit the ⟨p. 93⟩Damned Soul, yet unaccountable sorrow is not easily cast off: Nor can we always cease to sorrow, when we cannot give a reason of any good that is the fruit of our sorrow. But yet a reason will be here suggested, it was my Husband, or Wife, or Son, or Daughter that lived wickedly, and died impenitently; and the Soul of one so near is lost, is for ever lost. And Religion teaching us that the Souls of such are miserable, Nature will be working in us to lament their Misery; and this is sorrow for their sakes.
Rule 6. In mourning for such Relations that neither did their Duty to God, nor to their Family, but lived to God's dishonour and their daily ⟨p. 92⟩grief, and died without Repentance for both, our sorrow must be for their sakes, and not our own: For the ungodly and unnatural, as dying impenitently in their Sins, and for the Loss of their Souls, and Misery in the other World, as David did for Absolom; for tho our grief for them cannot mitigate their Torments, nor our Tears quench their Fire, yet it cannot but be a grief to us, that our Relations should live and die in their Rebellion against God, and neglect of their Duties towards us, but did dishonour God whom they should have glorified, and overthrew the Family by their Sin and Wicked Lives which they should have built up and maintained: And as for their Sin while they lived, so dying impenitent for their Misery after death. The death of some puts an end to those Troubles, and Disquiet, and Crosses which they caused in their Families while they lived, that for their own sakes the Living cannot find a reason why they should mourn because they are dead. But when they consider their death was the beginning of their Intolerable and Eternal Misery, for their sakes they cannot but give place to sorrow: •or while these Thoughts are working, my Husband is dead, and his Soul is Damned; it will be hard to keep sorrow from the Heart. And tho such sorrow doth not profit the ⟨p. 93⟩Damned Soul, yet unaccountable sorrow is not easily cast off: Nor can we always cease to sorrow, when we cannot give a reason of any good that is the fruit of our sorrow. But yet a reason will be here suggested, it was my Husband, or Wife, or Son, or Daughter that lived wickedly, and died impenitently; and the Soul of one so near is lost, is for ever lost. And Religion teaching us that the Souls of such are miserable, Nature will be working in us to lament their Misery; and this is sorrow for their sakes.
