A39690:94
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.
What if God taking notice how little thou regardest the many undeserved favours thou yet possessest, should say, Well, if thou thinkest them not worth the owning, ⟨p. 26⟩neither do I think them worth the continuing. Go death, there's a husband, a wife, other children yet left, smite them all. Go sickness and remove the health of his body yet left; go losses and impoverish his estate yet left; go reproach and blast his reputation which is yet sweet. What would you think of this? And yet if you be out of Christ, you are in danger of a far sadder stroke than either or all yet mentioned. What if God should say, Prizest thou not my mercy? Hast thou no value for my goodness, and forbearance towards thee? Is it nothing that I have spared thee thus long in thy sins and rebellions? Well then, I will stretch out my hand upon thy life, cut off that thread which hath kept thee so many years from dropping into hell.
What if God taking notice how little thou regardest the many undeserved favours thou yet possessest, should say, Well, if thou think'st them not worth the owning, ⟨p. 26⟩neither do I think them worth the continuing. Go death, there's a husband, a wife, other children yet left, smite them all. Go sickness and remove the health of his body yet left; go losses and impoverish his estate yet left; go reproach and blast his reputation which is yet sweet. What would you think of this? And yet if you be out of Christ, you are in danger of a far sadder stroke than either or all yet mention'd. What if God should say, Prizest thou not my mercy? Hast thou no value for my goodness, and forbearance towards thee? Is it nothing that I have spar'd thee thus long in thy sins and rebellions? Well then, I will stretch out my hand upon thy life, cut off that thred which hath kept thee so many years from dropping into hell.
O think then what you have done, by provoking the Lord through your vile ingratitude! Its a dangerous thing to provoke God, when he is already in a way of Judgement. And if you be his own people, and so out of the danger of this last and worst stroke: yet know, you have better mercies to lose, than any you have yet lost. Should God cloud your soul with doubts, let loose Satan to buffet