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 dost thou indeed believe these sayings of thy Lord, O my Soul, and yet sit sorrowing with excessive sorrow for thy Dead, that shall so surely live, and be with him? Doth not some other Frame and Temper more become thee? Dost thou believe the future happy State of their Bodies, whose present death thou dost bewail, yet canst thou not abate thy sorrow? nor turn it yet into the actings of some other Affections, nor into the exercises of some Grace? which if thou dost, will it not more tend to the Glory of God, to thine own Comfort, and to the Encouragement of thine own Relations, ⟨p. 235⟩which yet do live with thee, and to the setting off the Power of the Christian Religion, when thou shalt believe the Promises and Principles thereof, and behave thy self as one that is endued with such Faith, and hast such firm Foundation for thy Faith?

Blessed Lord, by thine assistance now I can, and by thy helping Spirit now I will endeavour that I might no longer sorrow as if I had no hope, when the sincere dying Christian hath hope in his Death, and after he or she is dead, the Living have such grounds of hope that the Dead by Christ shall conquer Death, and that the day will come, when if they be looked for in the Grave, there they shall not be found, but may be said, they are not here, but are risen, come see the place where they did lye, but are not here, but gone to meet the Lord, and to be for ever with him in the highest Heavens.

Then Lord, I will no longer droop, but hope. Awake my Hope, and let my Sorrow give place to thee. Hope! Oh how sweet is this, how pleasant and delightful? If my Sorrow was as bitter as Gall, this Hope is as sweet as Honey: And this I do begin to feel, the more lively is my Hope of their joyful glorious Resurrection, the more my Sorrow doth abate, tho now for the present ⟨p. 236⟩