A36322:227
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.
Controversies are not profitable at this season, nor suitable to the present temper of our Spirits, in the Circumstances now we are under, nor consistent with that brevity that I labour for, therefore two things only I shall now endeavour: First, To select some Texts of Scripture that do assure us what state of Joy and Happiness the separated Soul of a Child of God doth pass into. Secondly, What ground of Comfort against our Sorrow; this is to us that yet are left behind.
1. What clearer Evidence, what surer Arguments, what better Proof, what greater satisfaction can we have in this Point, than what Scripture doth afford? For cannot God that is the Father of Spirits, and the Disposer of Souls, after their Dissolution, and being separated from the Body, best tell what doth become of them? And will he that is faithful, and Essential Truth deceive us? Or need he, that is absolute Lord and Sovereign, perfectly happy in himself, to flatter us, or to gain our Obedience to him, by promises of Eternal Rewards, and everlasting Joys and Glory, if there were not such a ⟨p. 154⟩Sate prepared for us? Where God speaketh, let us believe, and his Veracity is reason why we should. Then let us hear. Luke 16.22. It came to pass that the Beggar dyed, and was carried by the Angels into Abraham's bosom. Luke 23.43. Verily I say unto thee, This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise. Act. 7.29. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus receive my Spirit. 2 Cor. 5.1. For we know, that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved, we have a Building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens. 2. For in this we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon, with our house which is from Heaven. 4 For we in this Tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we should be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. 6. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that whilst we are at home in the Body, we are absent from the Lord. 8. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the Body, and to be present with the Lord: