A39690:387
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.
3. Answer.
And whereas you imagine the parting would have been easier, if the enjoyment had been longer, it is a fond and groundless suspicion. The longer you had enjoyed them, the stronger would the endearments have been. A young and tender plant may be easily drawn up by a single hand, but when it hath spread and fixed its roots many years in the earth, it will require many a strong blow and hard tug to root it up. Affections like those underground roots are fixed and strengthened by nothing more than consuetude, and long possession; it's much easier parting now, than it would be hereafter, whatever you opine. However, this should satisfy you, that Gods time is the best time.
And whereas you imagine the parting would have been easier, if the enjoyment had been longer, it is a fond and groundless suspicion. The longer you had enjoyed them, the stronger would the endearments have been. A young and tender plant may be easily drawn up by a single hand, but when it hath spread and fixed its roots many years in the earth, it will require many a strong blow and hard tug to root it up. Affections like those underground roots are fixed and strengthned by nothing more than consuetude, and long possession; it's much easier parting now, than it would be hereafter, whatever you opine. However, this should satisfie you, that Gods time is the best time.