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 Apostle's Golden Rule should be our Christian Directory, for the moderating of our Joy and Sorrow, in having or losing the outward Enjoyments of this Life. 1 Cor. 7.29. But this I say, Brethren, the time is short; it remaineth that both they that have wives, be as though they had none. 33. And those that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away. In which Rule we might note these things. (1.) Some have their Wives, Husbands, Parents, Children yet continuing with them: Others have none, because by death taken from them. 2. Those that have them, are apt to •ver-joy in them; those that have lost them, are prone to over-sorrow for them. (3.) Those that have them, shall shortly be in the same circumstances as those that are by death deprived of them: Ours are dead, and yours shortly will be so. Life is so short, and the end of all so near and sure, that there is little and no long difference betwixt the state of one and of the other. (4.) Those that have Wives and other Relations, should sometimes suppose themselves to be in the Circumstances of those that have none; that the thoughts that shortly they ⟨p. 118⟩shall have none, might correct their excessive joy while they have them; for though you have them, you should he as though you had them not: looking upon Relations that shortly will not be, as if now already they were not, is a point of prudence, for the moderating of our joy in them. Those that have them not, should suppose this will be the case of those that have, for the allaying of their sorrow; that now this is their present state. (5.) The reasons of this indifferency of our Spirits, in these different Circumstances of our Life. (1.) The time is short; those that have Fathers and Mothers, Wife, Husband or Children, shall have them but for a short time: Why then are your hearts transported with so much joy, when you might stand and see the end of them? those that are deprived of them, have themselves but a little time to live: Why then are you so much cast down for so short a want of them? (2.) All these things are but as a shadow, or an appearance of good, rather than that good wherein our happiness doth lie, and the solid, spiritual abiding comfort of our life doth consist: