A39690:367
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.
1. Answ.
That you prayed for your children before you had them was your duty, and if you prayed not for them submissively, referring it to the pleasure of God to give or deny them, to continue or remove ⟨p. 121⟩them, as should seem good to him; that was your sin; you ought not to limit the holy one of Israel, nor prescribe to him, or capitulate with him, for what term you shall enjoy your outward comforts. If you did so, it was your evil, and God hath justly rebuked it by this stroke: if you did pray conditionally, and submissively, referring both the mercy asked, and continuance of it to the will of God as you ought to do; then there is nothing in the death of your child, that crosses the true scope and intent of your prayer.
2. Answer.
Your prayers may be answered, though the thing prayed for be withheld, yea, or though it should be given for a little while and snatched away from you again. There are four ways of Gods answering prayers: by giving the thing prayed for presently, Dan. 9. 23. or by suspending the answer for a time, and giving it afterwards,