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,…

And then tell me, O my Soul, if that Sorrow be not Excessive for thy Dead, whereby thou hastenest the death of thy own Body, and invitest Death to lay it dead? Tho God by Death hath taken away the Life of thy Relation, yet hath he not commanded thee to use all means lawful, and to abstain from all those things (amongst which Immoderate grief is one) that doth endanger thine own Life? and wilt thou thereby become guilty of thy own Death? Besides, is not that Sorrow too much, that must be sorrowed for? and those Tears too many, that must be wept for? and more follow them, because they are so many? Hast thou Sorrow too much already, and must thou still have more, because thou hast too much? Dost thou not see what straits thou bringest thy self into, that while thou dost abound in Sorrow, thou wantest Sorrow, because as yet thou hast not sorrowed for this too much abundant Sorrow?

For give me an answer, O my Soul, if that be not too much abundant Sorrow, that doth more hurt than good? and would be too much if it were for thy Sin, which for Sin, tho the greatest Evil, would be too much, when it doth more hurt than good? and doth it not do so, when it driveth to despair, keeps ⟨p. 219⟩off the Soul from Christ, and from hoping in his Merits, or God's Mercy: and is it not too much, when it is more for thy Dead than for thy Sin, for when thy Sorrow should bear its proportion to the Evil thou sorrowest for, and Sin is a greater Evil than the Death of thy nearest Relation, be thou thy self the Judge, if sorrow for the lesser evil be not too much, when it is more than that which thou hast for the greatest Evil?

Moreover, O my Soul, wilt thou not grant, that Sorrow is excessive, which causeth thy Thoughts to run into the Grave, and hinders them from ascending into Heaven? and to have many self-piercing and self-tormenting Thoughts of thy dead, for one serious and Heart-affecting Thought thou hast of the Living and Eternal God? and which makes thy Heart as cold in all thy Duties unto God, as the Body of thy dead Relation is in its Grave?