A39690:170
A token for mourners, or, The advice of Christ to a distressed mother bewailing…
A token for mourners, or, The advice of Christ to a distressed mother bewailing the death of her dear and only son wherein the boundaries of sorrow are duly fixed, excesses restrained, the common pleas answered, and divers rules for the support of Gods afflicted ones prescribed / by J.F.
London: printed for Robert Boulter, 1674
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.
Alas, it was not Christs intent to purchase for you a sensual content in the enjoyment of these earthly comforts, but to redeem you from all iniquity; purge your corruptions, sanctify your natures, wean your hearts from this vain world; and so to dispose and order your present condition, that finding no rest and content here, you might the more ardently pant and sigh after the rest which remains for the people of God. And are you not in as probable a way to attain this end now, as you were before? Do you think ⟨p. 55⟩you are not as likely by these methods of providence to be weaned from the world, as by more pleasant and prosperous ones? Every wise man reckons that station and condition to be best for him, which most promotes and secures his last end and great design.
Alas, it was not Christs intent to purchase for you a sensual content in the enjoyment of these earthly comforts, but to redeem you from all iniquity; purge your corruptions, sanctifie your natures, wean your hearts from this vain world; and so to dispose and order your present condition, that finding no rest and content here, you might the more ardently pant and sigh after the rest which remains for the people of God. And are you not in as probable a way to attain this end now, as you were before? Do you think ⟨p. 55⟩you are not as likely by these methods of providence to be weaned from the world, as by more pleasant and prosperous ones? Every wise man reckons that station and condition to be best for him, which most promotes and secures his last end and great design.
Well then, reckon you are as well without these things as with them; yea, and better too, if they were but clogs and snares upon your affections, you have really lost nothing, if the things wherein your eternal happiness consisteth be yet safe. Many of Gods dearest children have been denied such comforts as these, and many have been deprived of them, and yet never the farther from Christ and heaven for that.