Holy living in which are described the means and instruments of obtaining every virute, and the remedies against every vice, and considerations serving to the resisting all temptations : together with prayers containing the whole duty of a Christian, and the parts of devotion occasians [sic], and furnished for all necessities / by Jer. Taylor.

Death of Children, or nearest Relatives and Friends.

There are some persons who have been noted for excellent in their lives and passions, rarely innocent, and yet hugely penitent for indiscretions and harmless infirmities, such as was Paulina one of the ghostly children of S. Hierom, and yet when any of her children died she was arrested with a sorrow so great as brought her to the margent of her grave.

And the more tender our spirts are made by Religion, the more easie we are to let in grief, if the cause be innocent, and be but in any sense twisted with piety and due af∣fections. * To cure which we may consider that all the world must die, and therefore to be impatient at the death of a person cōcer∣ning whom it was certain and known that he must die, is to mourn because thy friend or childe was not born an Angel, and when thou hast a while made thy self miserable by an importunate and uselesse grief, it may be thou shalt die thy self, and leave others to their choice whether they will mourn for thee or no: but by that time it will appear how impertinent that greif was which served no end of life, and en∣ded in thy own funeral. But what great matter is it, if sparkes fly upward, or a stone falls into a pit, if that which was combustible be burned, or that which was liquid be melted, or that which is mor∣tal doe die? It is no more then a man does every day; for every night death hath gotten possession of that day, and we shall never live that day over again; and when the last day is come, there are no more daies left for us to die. And what is sleeping and waking, but living and dying? what is Spring and Autumn, youth and old age, morning and evening, but real images of life and death, and really the same to many considerable effects and changes?