need his Affiftance. God requires nothing of you impoffible, or indecent; only let it be feen, that the dead Creature was not your God, but He that lives for ever and ever.

When our Sorrows make us heedlefs of the Defign of God in our Affliction, and of the Leffons we fhould learn from his Providence, then are they immoderate. My Scul is weary of my Life, fays Job, Chap. 10. 1. and yet in his Anguish, he is for inquiring into the Caufe and Design of his Troubles. I will fay unto God, Do not condemn me: Shew me wherefore thou contendeft with me, verfe 2. To be condemned of God, was what he feared more than any Affliction; for that indeed would be a much more dreadful Thing. The Way to avoid that Condemnation, is to find out what God contends with us for; to remove it by Repentance, and then it will be pardoned by his Grace.

When we refuse to be comforted, it shows that our Grief is fwelling beyond its Boundary, and ready to overflow all. As Jacob, when he thought his Son Jofeph was dead: Jacob rent bis Clothes, and refufed to be comforted, Gen. 37. 34, 35. And fo did another Mourner we read of, Lamentation and bitter Weeping; Rachel weeping for her Children, refused to be comforted for her Children, because they were not, Jer. 31, 15. If Rachel will refufe Comfort from the Word of God, and the Suggestions of Friends, fhe muft go without it; the muft mourn on, and weep on. To want Comfort is an Affliction; but to refuse it, when offered, is a Sin. A Time may come wherein you would be glad

to

to have it if you could, or if there were any to adminifter it. The Anguifh of Spirit may be too great to admit it prefently. David was fo troubled he could not speak: And the Ifraelites in Egypt were in fuch Anguish, they could not hear the comfortable Overtures of Mofes. Mofes fpake unto the Children of Ifrael, but they bearkned not unto bim for Anguish of Spirit, and for cruel Bondage, Exod. 6.9. But to refufe Comfort on purpose that Grief may fwell to the greater Height; to feed your Paffion with fresh Fuel, and ftir it up with aggravating Thoughts; this is not the way to have our Sorrows eafy or innocent.

When Nature, Grace, and Time, fhall have done their Part toward the Settlement of their Minds, and they have got over it pretty well, fo that the Wound feems to be closed; they shall tear it open again, and make it bleed afrefh, by the Help of certain Mementos, that feem to be kept on Purpose for that cruel Service; a Lock of Hair, a Picture, a Relick of Wearing Apparel; or fuch like Memorandum.

Mourner. Muft we then forget our Relations as foon as they are gone? Do you think I fhall ever forget that dear Creature?

Anfwer. But cannot we remember them without forgetting God and ourfelves, and fcandalizing our Religion? If we loved them fo well, is there any Danger of forgetting them too soon, that we fhould need Art and Monitors? Remember what was good, to imitate it; what was lovely to be thankful for it. But as for thefe Provocatives

Sect. II. of Sorrow, if I cannot view them with Patience and Moderation, I am not to be trusted with them. Rachel would have had her Son's Name Bennoni, a Son of Sorrow: Jacob knew that would have been a perpetual reminding him of the forrowful Occafion of his Name, the Lofs of his beloved Rachel. He calls him Benjamin, a Son of the Right Hand. In fuch a World as this, the Sorrow we cannot avoid is enough, if it be well improved.

When Sorrow is fuffered to prey upon Health, in its Degree, or in its Continuance, it is as criminal as mifchievous. A Man may pine away his Health and Life, as well as drink them away; or destroy them by any other Extravagance. It wears away the Strength, and waftes the vital Spirits. Jacob faid, that Sorrow would bring down his gray Hairs to the Grave. We know, by too many Inftances, that Sorrow and Trouble will not only bring gray Hairs to the Grave, but green ones too. Heaviness of Spirit dries the Bones, Prov. It wastes and confumes: So, as to prove the Truth of that Text, in the Letter of it, The Sorrow of this World worketh Death, 2 Cor. 7. 10.

17.22.

Sometimes it kills outright, as effectually as if a Man were shot through. Sometimes more gradually indeed; but it then does its Bufinefs as furely as a flow Poifon; for the Food feldom nourishes that is mingled with Tears. When the Air doth not refresh, nor the Faculties of Nature perform their Functions, then we fay the Heart is broke. And this is the Language of Antiquity, as well as among us: Witness the Royal Philofo

pher,

pher, by Sorrow of Heart the Spirit is broken, Prov. 15. 13. In the Bills of Mortality we fometimes find this Article, Died of Grief. That Article would be much larger, and oftner inferted, if all who died of Grief were to be diftinguished; but they are put down under the Word Confumption, or any other Disease, which Grief brought upon them.

When our Spirits are foured, and disgufted against every Thing; when our Paffions are raised against Men, and we murmur against God; when we give way to hard Thoughts or Language of God, because the Lord bath dealt bitterly with us; Ruth 1. 20. then our Sorrows have greatly exceeded their Bounds.

A Heart without Grace will bound, and fwell, and rise, as if it would fly in the Face of God, upon the Loss of fome beloved and dear Delight; and a Heart with Grace can hardly avoid fomething like it. An afflicted Perfon is fo apt to speak unadvisedly with his Lips, that Satan took it for granted, that even fuch a good Man as Job might be provoked to fo extravagnnt a Thing as to curfe God to his Face; or at leaft he knew, that he should take the most likely Way to provoke him to it.

It was David, the Mourner, that faid in his Hafte, I am cut off from before thine Eyes: Verily I have cleanfed my Hands in vain.

It was Jeremiab the Mourner who uttered thofe defponding Words, My Strength and Hope are perished from the Lord. 1 remember me Affliction and my Mifery, the Wormwood and the Gall. It

was Jonah, in his Affliction, made that fretful Repartee, when the Lord faid, Doft thou well to be angry? And Jonah faid, I do well to be angry, even to Death: If I fret myfelf to Death, is there not a Cause? Or, I will indulge my Grief and Vexation, though it coft my Life. Surely this is the Language of Paffion: Surely this is to go be yond the allowed Bounds.

We may exceed in the Continuance of our Grief: It may continue too long, as well as rife too high. The Time for Mourning has been limited by all wife Nations; and the wifeft People have made it the fhorteft. The Egyptians, who knew not God, mourned feventy Days for old Ifrael: and his own Son Jofeph made a Mourning for his Father but forty-feven Days, Gen. 50. 3. For Aaron Ifrael mourned thirty Days; for Mofes thirty, and for Saul feven: But it is one Thing how long the Ceremony of Mourning may continue, and another Thing how long the Sorrow may endure. The Ceremony may be over when the Grief has no End but with the Mourner's Life, and he carries it with him to the Grave.

SECT.