A51833:96
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.
3. Such as are impatient and discontented, as if God had not dealt wisely or worthily with them. When a full Vessel is shaken, the Water will plash over: And when there is such a Tumult in the Heart, unseemly Expressions will drop from us; as if God should not have dealt thus with us, as to take away these Comforts in which were all our Solace, the Staff and the Stay of the Family. We that are Neighbours are apt very often in Discontent to say, What a serviceable and useful Person hath God taken away, and so many bad ones left? as if God had not made a right choice. Foolish Man would be accounted wiser than God. But if a Man were well skilled in God's Attributes, he would never murmur, especially if he did but consider, this cometh from a Wise God. The Cause of all the Disorder in the Heart, is the want of fearing God's Name, we are not skilled in his Attributes. Alphonsus ⟨p. 18⟩blasphemously said, Si in principio mundi ipse Deo adfuisset, multa melius ornatiusque condenda essent; things should have been ordered better, if he had been of God's Council. Many of you do not utter such Expressions, but yet too often conceive such Thoughts in your Hearts; you will not think so; ay, but what mean the bleating of the Sheep, and the lowing of the Oxen? such Expressions as these, O! would to God I had died first; as David, 2 Sam. 18. 33. O Absalom, my Son, my Son! would to God that I had died for thee! And again; would to God I had been dead a long time ago, rather than to survive my Happiness; all my Estate gone in an instant, as (Brethren) in these empty trying Times it is many a Man's Case: but remember, foolish Man, the All-wise God thought it fittest for thee. Yet thus doth the Prophet Elijah, when he was driven into the Wilderness by Jezebel, 1 Kings 19. 4. in a Discontent requests for himself, that he might die; It is enough now, O Lord, take away my Life.
4. Such as unfit for Duty. Affections are no further lawful than they fit for Duty. When Grief taketh off our Hearts from the Duties of our general or particular Calling, it is an evil Grief: See