A36322:36
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
THE Mourners Directory. › Chapter 1: The Introduction and Explication of the Text.
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.
2. The Deportment and Behaviour of the Survivors, in reference to such as sleep the sleep of Death, which relates unto their Sorrow upon this occasion. And in this, these two things are couched in the Text.
2. The Deportment and Behaviour of the Survivers, in reference to such as sleep the sleep of Death, which relates unto their Sorrow upon this occasion. And in this, these two things are couched in the Text.
1. A Sorrow supposed, granted, and allowed to the living for their dead. For should the living be as senseless as the dead, when Death hath taken away Life, and Breath, and Motion from them, shall Sin take away all workings of natural Affections from us? Shall Death snatch them out of our Bosoms, force them out of our Arms, and tear one piece of our selves from our selves, take the one half away, and leave the other behind, and we stand and look on without a Tear in our Eyes, without Sorrow in our Hearts, as if we had neither sense of Gods heavy Hand, nor love to them, nor feeling of the stroke that thereby is laid upon our selves? Sorrow we may, tho not as others.
2. Excess of Sorrow is corrected. Lay not the Reins loose upon your Affections, lest they carry you to Sin in your Sorrow. Lavish not those Tears in washing your dead, which should be kept for lamenting of your Sins. Let there be a difference betwixt your Sorrow, and the Sorrow of others, as there should […] betwixt those that have hope, and those that have no hope of a joyful Resurrection ⟨p. 7⟩to Eternal, Glorious Life. The Heathens have no such hope, for they are without Christ, the cause of hope; without the Church, the place of hope; without the Covenant, the ground and reason of hope: While you are allowed to mourn as Men, do not exceed the bounds and limits becoming Christian Men. The Heathens mourn for their dead beyond all bounds of Moderation, while they lament them as such that shall live no more. But let Christians limit their Sorrow, as for such, that tho they be dead, shall live again, and after that shall die no more.