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,…

CHAP. XIX. Containing the Mourners Soliloquy, or Reasoning with himself concerning his Sorrow for his Dead, for the moderating of it.

Dead! Alas! woe is me! my Father, Mother dead! my Wife, or Husband, or Child dead! can I with Comfort live? are not my comfortable days past and gone, when he or she is dead and gone? Gone! no more to return to live with me on Earth! Let me look upon the Body in the Coffin, before it be lodged in the Grave, for after that I shall look upon it no more: mine Eyes shall see it no more. Look! behold its pale Face, its closed Eyes, its Jaws tied and muffled up; these Eyes did see me, but now Death bath shut ⟨p. 216⟩them, that they cannot: This Tongue did use to talk with me to my great delight, but now Death hath tied it, and my Ears shall hear the sound thereof no more: These Feet did often walk with me, yea, we went to the Ordinances of God together, but now Death hath fettered them, that they can move no more; and must I follow it to the Grave, and see it covered with Earth, and there leave it? and when returned home, look for it at my Table, but it is not there; or in my Chamber, but it is not there? The Clothes the Body was often dressed with are there, but the Body is not there. Now it is so many Weeks since it was buried, she is gone, but my Sorrow doth remain: Remain! it comes more and more, and doth increase: My Soul is grieved, my Heart is loaded, and my Spirit fails within me, the more I muse, the more I Mourn; the more I think of mine thus captivated by Death, and buried out of my sight, the more my Sorrow is renewed. Alas! I can contradict that Old Proverb, Out of Sight, out of Mind; for he, or she hath been so long out of my sight, but hath not been a a Day, or Night out of my mind; and the more and longer I remember, the more and longer I do sorrow.

DEad! Alas! wo is me! my Father, Mother dead! my Wife, or Husband, or Child dead! can I with Comfort live? are not my comfortable days past and gone, when he or she is dead and gone? Gone! no more to return to live with me on Earth! Let me look upon the Body in the Coffin, before it be lodged in the Grave, for after that I shall look upon it no more: mine Eyes shall see it no more. Look! behold its pale Face, its closed Eyes, its Jaws tyed and muffled up; these Eyes did see me, but now Death bath shut