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,…

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⟩they be the captives of Death. Indeed had it not been that I had got this Hope, my Heart would break with Grief, but through Grace I have obtained this good hope, and by it my Spirit is revived, my Sorrow is more moderate.

And having this Hope, my Sorrow is turned into desire, and longing for the Day and Coming of my Lord, that all that sleep in Jesus might awake, and their Immortal Souls be clothed with Immortal, glorious Bodies: Oh how much better do I find it, to groan with desires that they might live, and come up out of their Graves, than to groan through grief that they are dead, and cast into them? O Time, make haste and fly with greater speed, that this day of the Coming of the Lord, and rising of the Dead may come! It is approaching, it is approaching, it is nearer by every Day, by every Night, by every Hour that comes and passeth away. As time doth wear away, so let my Sorrow, as to its excess wear off, and that by my desiring instead of sorrowing.