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,…

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.

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 Ʋse 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.

Quest. I. What are the Aggravations of defect or want of sorrow for our Dead? In an Use of Reproof.