A36322:62
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 3: Want of Sorrow blameable. Conclusions premised.
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.
CHAP. III. Want of Sorrow blameable. Conclusions premised.
IT being made manifest that the Apostle alloweth, and taketh it for granted, that sorrow for those that are fallen asleep may be, should be in those that do survive, for two Reasons I will study Answers to these Three Questions in this case, in so many Uses to be made.
1. For my own sake, and the sake of my Children, that when we hear, we may sorrow, and Natural Affections spurs us on thereto, we may take heed of sinning in our sorrow, and may turn our Natural sorrow to our Spiritual advantage; that in much sorrow we might not be defective in our sorrow, nor sorrow with sorrows displeasing to God.
2. For your sakes, because our case will be shortly yours; and you may be to seek how to govern your sorrows, as we are at present put to it to study and pray, how we ought to rule and manage ours. And for both you and us, because it is a subject I have not read of, and I suppose, you seldom hear: The Theme of moderating our sorrow for the dead is more usual and ordinary, and an Use of Consolation ⟨p. 30⟩for the comforting of the Living at the Burial of their Dead, is more frequent in Funeral Discourses. And tho the Natural Affections of many need rather a Bridle to hold them in, than a Spur to put them forwards, yet it cannot be denied, that some have so little sense and feeling of the death of near Relations, that they are a shame to Humane Nature; or if they do sorrow and mourn, it is with a sinful, passionate, vexatious, but not with a right and kindly sorrow.