A51833:133
Advice to mourners under the loss of dear relations in a funeral sermon long…
Advice to mourners under the loss of dear relations in a funeral sermon long since preached / by the late Reverend Dr. Thomas Manton ... And now occasionally published on the much lamented death of Mrs. Ann Terry, who died the 9th of November, 1693. With a short account of some passages of her life, and papers left under her own hand.Advice to mourners under the loss of dear relations in a funeral sermon long since preach'd / by the late Reverand Dr. Thomas Manton ... And now occasionally published on the much lamented death of Mrs. Ann Terry, who died the 9th of November, 1693. With a short account of some passages of her life, and papers left under her own hand.
London: printed by J.D. for Jonathon Robinson, 1694
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.
Do not squander away your Time in reading Plays and Romances, and filthy Books, which will corrupt your Fancies, and make you unfit for the Service of God. I say to you, as David to his Son, And thou Solomon, my Son, know thou the God of thy Fathers, and serve him with a perfect Heart, and with a willing Mind; for the Lord searcheth all Hearts, and understandeth all the Imaginations of the Thoughts: If thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever. Children, as soon as you are capable of knowing any thing, I would have you labour to know God, own him, love him, obey him, and serve him, and that with a willing Mind, knowing that he searcheth your Hearts; you cannot deceive him, for he knows the Imagination of all your Thoughts better than you know ⟨p. 50⟩them your selves. If you seek him, he will be found of you: You may seek earthly Friends, and at last be disappointed: you may seek Riches, and lose your Labour: but if you do rightly seek God, he will be found of you, and then happy are you for ever. You see that if you forsake him, he will cast you off for ever. O miserable and wretched are they that are cast off by God; where shall they go for Comfort that have lost his Friendship and Favour? Children, if you lose all you have in the World, it is nothing to the Loss of God's Favour: If you lose Father and Mother, yet if God will take you up, you are happy: If all Friends fail you, if God do not fail nor forsake you, nor cast you off, still you may be happy: your true Felicity lieth not in the things of this Life, but in your Portion in the everlasting God.
My Children, if you honour God, he will honour you; but if you despise him, he will lightly esteem you: He will be with you while you are with him; but if you forsake him, (wonder not if) he will forsake you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.