A39690:461
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. Answer.
Let it rather lift up your heart to God in praise that gave you so desirable a child, than fill your heart with discontent at his hand in removing it. How many Parents are there in the world whose children God hath deprived of reason and understanding, so that they only differ from Beasts in external shape and figure? And how many show betimes so perverse a temper, that little comfort can be expected from them?
Let it rather lift up your heart to God in praise that gave you so desirable a child, than fill your heart with discontent at his hand in removing it. How many Parents are there in the world whose children God hath deprived of reason and understanding, so that they only differ from Beasts in external shape and figure? And how many shew betimes so perverse a temper, that little comfort can be expected from them?
2. Answer.
These are but small circumstances and trivial things in themselves; but by these little things, Satan manages a great design against your souls, to deject or exasperate it: And surely this is not your business at this time; you have greater things than the words and actions of children to mind: To search out Gods end in your affliction: To mortify the corruption it's sent to rebuke, to quiet your heart in the will of God: This is your work.