A39690:49
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.
Lastly, The Counsel it self, Weep not, herein fulfilling the office of a Comforter to them that mourn, whereunto he was anointed, Isa. 61. 1, 2, 3. Yet the words are not an absolute prohibition of tears and sorrow; he doth not Condemn •ll mourning as sinful, or all expressions of grief for dead Relations as uncomely: no, Christ would not have his people stupid and insensate; he only prohibits the excesses and extravagances of our sorrows ⟨p. 9⟩for the dead, that it should not be such a mourning for the dead as is found among the Heathens, who sorrow without measure, because without hope, being ignorant of that grand relief by the Resurrection which the Gospel reveals.
Lastly, The Councel it self, Weep not, herein fulfilling the office of a Comforter to them that mourn, whereunto he was anointed, Isa. 61. 1, 2, 3. Yet the words are not an absolute prohibition of tears and sorrow; he doth not Condemn •ll mourning as sinful, or all expressions of grief for dead Relations as uncomely: no, Christ would not have his people stupid and insensate; he only prohibits the excesses and extravagancies of our sorrows ⟨p. 9⟩for the dead, that it should not be such a mourning for the dead as is found among the Heathens, who sorrow without measure, because without hope, being ignorant of that grand relief by the Resurrection which the Gospel reveals.
The Resurrection of her Son from the dead, is the ground upon which Christ builds her consolation and relief. Well might he say, Weep not, when he intended quickly to remove the cause of her tears by restoring him again to life.