4. Want of Sorrow for the dead taken from them, from want of sense of God's hand upon them, and against them, argues, That they are spiritually Blind, and cannot see; spiritually Deaf, and cannot hear; spiritually Benumbed, and cannot feel. When your living fall down dead, God's hand is lifted up, and you do not see. You see them fall into the Grave under your fe•t, but you do not see the hand of God lifted up over your head. Isa. 26.11. Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see. When your living Relations do dye, there is Gods rod upon you, and it hath a Voice, a loud, a sh•ill, and doleful crying Voice; but you do not h•ar, did I say, a Rod? Nay, God hath been in your House with his Axe, hewing down your Living, lopping off the Children, as so many Branches; cutting off the Father, or the Mother, or both, and plucking up the Family by the Roots, and yet you do not hear the sound of the Rod, nor of the Axe, nor consider who it is that did appoint both. When your Relations dye, it is a stroke of God upon your selves; he kills them, and smiteth you, and yet you have no feeling of his blow. What! are the living dead, while they do live? Are the living become like unto their dead? Having eyes, but do not see; and ears, but do not hear; and flesh, but cannot feel? You stand ⟨p. 41⟩before them, but they do not see you; you call to them, but they do not hear you; you strip them, and put on them their Grave-clothes, and remove them down your Stairs, and carry them from your House to their Lodging-dust, and let them down into the pit, and all this while they do not feel you. So are you towards God, as they towards you. God, a displeased God, is come into your House, into your Chamber, but you do not see him, nor his anger: He calls to you by your Dead that lies before you, but you do not hear his Voice: He is punishing, correcting of you, but you do not feel the smart of his stroke. Behold, the dead burying their dead! men spiritually dead, burying their naturally dead. The Lifeless corps do not sorrow that they are let down into the Grave; and the Lifeless-living (living a Life of Nature, but not a Life of Grace, not having the Sense of Christians, nor of Men, of the death of their dead, nor of Sin, nor of God's displeasure) do not mourn to see them lodged th•re.
4. Want of Sorrow for the dead taken from them, from want of sense of God's hand upon them, and against them, argues, That they are spiritually Blind, and cannot see; spiritually Deaf, and cannot hear; spiritually Benummed, and cannot feel. When your living fall down dead, God's hand is lifted up, and you do not see. You see them fall into the Grave under your fe•t, but you do not see the hand of God lifted up over your head. Isa. 26.11. Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see. When your living Relations do dye, there is Gods rod upon you, and it hath a Voice, a loud, a sh•ill, and doleful crying Voice; but you do not h•ar, did I say, a Rod? Nay, God hath been in your House with his Ax, hewing down your Living, lopping off the Children, as so many Branches; cutting off the Father, or the Mother, or both, and plucking up the Family by the Roots, and yet you do not hear the sound of the Rod, nor of the Ax, nor consider who it is that did appoint both. When your Relations dye, it is a stroke of God upon your selves; he kills them, and smitteth you, and yet you have no feeling of his blow. What! are the living dead, while they do live? Are the living become like unto their dead? Having eyes, but do not see; and ears, but do not hear; and flesh, but cannot feel? You stand ⟨p. 41⟩before them, but they do not see you; you call to them, but they do not hear you; you strip them, and put on them their Grave-clothes, and remove them down your Stairs, and carry them from your House to their Lodging-dust, and let them down into the pit, and all this while they do not feel you. So are you towards God, as they towards you. God, a displeased God, is come into your House, into your Chamber, but you do not see him, nor his anger: He calls to you by your Dead that lies b•fore you, but you do not hear his Voice: He is punishing, correcting of you, but you do not feel the smart of his stroke. Behold, the dead burying their dead! men spiritually dead, burying their naturally dead. The Lifeless corps do not sorrow that they are let down into the Grave; and the Liseless-living (living a Life of Nature, but not a Life of Grace, not having the Sense of Christians, nor of Men, of the death of their dead, nor of Sin, nor of God's displeasure) do not mourn to see th•m lodged th•re.
