But when the doleful tidings came to you that Mr. Stubs was departed, that your Pastor was dead, that he had finished his course, and resigned up his spirit; what were your looks, your thoughts, your speeches then? What •ighs, what sorrows, what tears, what bitter mournings and lamentations were there generally then to be found amongst his acquaintance and hearers in the Country? And is he gone indeed? Shall we no more see his face? No more hear his voice? Will he pray amongst us, and pray for us, no more? Will he appear in the Pulpit and Preach to us no more? Did we think that the last Sermon which he Preached before his last •ourney, would be the last Sermon which we should have and hear from him? He lately Preached to us of praying without ceasing, and did we think he would so soon cease to pray himself? He called upon us with great importunity that we would pray fervently, and he lived in the practice of his own Sermons; we have heard of his constant secret Devotions, his daily prayers with his Wife, and in his Family; and he did bear us […] ⟨image 4⟩[…] ⟨image 4⟩⟨p. 6⟩upon his heart in his private addresses unto God; But O how did this good man waste and spend his spirits in his fervent prayers with us and upon our account, when he prayed amongst us on ordinary and extraordinary occasions? We have often known him to continue five or six hours together in Preaching, chiefly in prayer on fasting days (being in the Country destitute of the help of any other Minister) and that without impertinences, tautologies, tedious repetitions, or any crude, raw, rude, and nauseating expressions, but with a great and delightful variety of holy pleas and arguments; and if our base hearts have been tired sometimes with the length of his administrations, yet he himself hath seemed to be little tired, at least his spirit hath been unwearied with all his pains and labour. We remember how affectionately be used to make acknowledgement of sin, of our sins, which he was more grieved for than our selves; we remember his sighs and groans which from an oppressed heart brake forth at his mouth, signifying an inward sense beyond the utterance of words: we remember how the tears did often steal from his eyes, and run dow• his old cheeks, how he hath often wept for us when our eyes have been dry, our hearts stupid and hard like a stone within us.
But when the doleful tidings came to you that Mr. Stubbs was departed, that your Pastor was dead, that he had finished his course, and resigned up his spirit; what were your looks, your thoughts, your speeches then? What •ighs, what sorrows, what tears, what bitter mournings and lamentations were there generally then to be found amongst his acquaintance and hearers in the Country? And is he gone •ndeed? Shall we no more see his face? No more hear his voice? Will he pray amongst us, and pray for us, no more? Will he appear in the Pulpit and Preach to us no more? Did we think that the last Sermon which he Preached before his last •ourney, would be the last Sermon which we should have and hear from him? He lately Preached to us of praying without ceasing, and did we think he would so soon cease to pray himself? He called upon us with great importunity that we would pray fervently, and he lived in the practice of his own Sermons; we have heard of his constant secret Devotions, his dayly prayers with his Wife, and in his Family; and he did bear us 〈…〉 ⟨image 4⟩〈…〉 ⟨image 4⟩⟨p. 6⟩upon his heart in his private addresses unto God; But O how did this good man waste and spend his spirits in his fervent prayers with us and upon our account, when he prayed amongst us on ordinary and extraordinary occasions? We have often known him to continue five or six hours together in Preaching, chiefly in prayer on fastingdays (being in the Country destitute of the help of any other Minister) and that without impertinencies, tautologies, tedious repetitions, or any crude, raw, rude, and nauseating expressions, but with a great and delightful variety of holy pleas and arguments; and if our base hearts have been tyred sometimes with the length of his administrations, yet he himself hath seemed to be little tyred, at least his spirit hath been unwearied with all his pains and labour. We remember how affectionately be used to make acknowledgment of sin, of our sins, which he was more grieved for than our selves; we remember his sighs and groans which from an oppressed heart brake forth at his mouth, signifying an inward sense beyond the utterance of words: we remember how the tears did often steal from his eyes, and run dow• his old cheeks, how he hath often wept for us when our eyes have been dry, our hearts stupi• and hard like a stone within us.
