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 Survivor (according to his Circumstances) by sympathizing Persons, will be allowed to unload his burdened heart, by pouring out his Complaints in some such manner:

THe Survivor (according to his Circumstances) by sympathizing Persons, will be allowed to unload his burthened heart, by pouring out his Complaints in some such manner:

Hath God afflicted me? Hath he chastised my Children? both me and them with such a ⟨p. 2⟩smarting Rod, as Death bereaving me of the choicest outward Comfort of my Life, and removing out of the World from them a tender Mother, that brought them into it, and thereby caused us all to drink deeply of the Waters of Marah, and filled our Eyes with overflowing Tears, and our Hearts with over-whelming Sorrow, and is it not time to cast about what Remedy Scripture doth yield, which Nature cannot afford? Do I stand before you this day in such Circumstances, as in Preaching for the space of almost forty years, I never did, and may I not borrow from you some hours in your hearing to speak to my self and them, deprived of so great a Mercy? Paul was in a great strait whether he should choose to live or dye; and I am in a strait how I should without sin Sorrow for my dead. For if defect of Sense and Sorrow in this case be a Sin, I will strive to Sorrow, that through stupidity I might not Sin. If regular Sorrow be my duty, I will study and pray that it might be so regulated, that whilst I Sorrow and not Sin, I might please and delight my self in this Sorrow, and take some comfort from my Sorrow: If excess be my weakness, without Divine Assistance I cannot remove it, therefore bent my mind to muse upon these words, I would not have you to be ignorant, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope.

Hath God afflicted me? Hath he chastised my Children? both me and them with such a ⟨p. 2⟩smarting Rod, as Death bereaving me of the choicest outward Comfort of my Life, and removing out of the World from them a tender Mother, that brought them into it, and thereby caused us all to drink deeply of the Waters of Marah, and filled our Eyes with overflowing Tears, and our Hearts with over-whelming Sorrow, and is it not time to cast about what Remedy Scripture doth yield, which Nature cannot afford? Do I stand before you this day in such Circumstances, as in Preaching for the space of almost forty years, I never did, and may I not borrow from you some hours in your hearing to speak to my self and them, deprived of so great a Mercy? Paul was in a great strait whether he should chuse to live or dye; and I am in a strait how I should without sin Sorrow for my dead. For if defect of Sense and Sorrow in this case be a Sin, I will strive to Sorrow, that through stupidity I might not Sin. If regular Sorrow be my duty, I will study and pray that it might be so regulated, that whilest I Sorrow and not Sin, I might please and delight my self in this Sorrow, and take some comfort from my Sorrow: If excess be my weakness, without Divine Assistance I cannot remove it, therefore bent my mind to muse upon these words, I would not have you to be ignorant, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope.