N30070:78
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 God's afflicted ones prescribed. / By John Flavel, Preacher of the Gospel of Christ at Dartmouth in Devon. ; [Two lines of Latin text]
Boston: printed by S. Kneeland, 1730
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
We may also make our Complaint to Men; so did Job, Chap. 19.21. Have pity, have pity on me, O ye my Friends, for the Hand of God hath touched me. And it is a Mercy if we have any Friends that are Wise, Faithful, and Experienced. They are born for such a Time as this, Prov. 17.17. But be they what they will, they cannot Pity as God, relieve and succour as he: And oftentimes we may say with Job, Ch. 21.4. As for me, Is my Complaint to Men? And if it were, Why should not my Spirit be troubled; q. d. What great Advantage can I get by these Complaints? I may Burden the Heart of my Friend, but how little doth that ease my own? Yet the very opening of the Heart to an experienced tender Christian is some Relief, and the engaging his Prayers is more. Thus far you moan safely: In all this there is no Danger.
Thirdly, The afflicted Person may (ordinarily) accuse, judge, & condemn himself, for being the Cause and Procurer of his own Troubles. He may lawfully be discontented, and vexed with himself for his own Folly, ⟨p. 19⟩when the Iniquity of his Heels compasseth him about. And truly it is but seldom that any great Affliction befalls a gracious Person but he saw the need of such a Rod before he felt it.
Thirdly, The afflicted Person may (ordinaril) accuse, judge, & condemn himself, for being the Cause and Procurer of his own Troub•es. He may lawfully be discontented, and vexed with himself for his own Folly, ⟨p. 19⟩when the Iniquity of his Heels compasseth him about. And truly it is but seldom that any great Affliction befalls a gracious Person but he saw the need of such a Rod before he felt it.