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Small offers towards the service of the tabernacle in the wilderness. Four discourses, accommodated…
Small offers towards the service of the tabernacle in the wilderness. Four discourses, accommodated unto the designs of practical godliness. The first, concerning the methods wherein men ought to engage both themselves and their houses in the service of God. The second, concerning the right and best ways of redeeming time in the world. The third, concerning the carriage which we should have under trials used by God upon us. The fourth, concerning the end, which in our desires of life, we should propound unto ourselves. Preached partly at Boston, partly at Charleston. / By Cotton Mather, Pastor of a church in Boston. ; Published by a gentleman lately restored from threatening sickness; as an humble essay to serve the interest of religion, in gratitude unto God for his recovery.Small offers towards the service of the tabernacle in the wilderness. Four discourses, accommodated unto the designs of practical godliness. The first, concerning the methods wherein men ought to engage both themselves and their houses in the service of God. The second, concerning the right and best waies of redeeming time in the world. The third, concerning the carriage which we should have under trials used by God upon us. The fourth, concerning the end, which in our desires of life, we should propound unto ourselves. Preached partly at Boston, partly at Charleston. / By Cotton Mather, Pastor of a church in Boston. ; Published by a gentleman lately restored from threatning sickness; as an humble essay to serve the interest of religion, in gratitude unto God for his recovery.
Boston: printed by R. Pierce. Sold by Jos. Brunning, 1689
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.
LIFE DESIRED.
Upon the Death of a Relation.
Psal. CXIX. 175. Let my Soul live, and it shall praise thee, and let thy Judgements help me.
Sweeter Words than these could not come soon the Sweet Singer of Israel himself. The Hundred and Nineteeth, is the longest, and yet, if the Comparison be not odious, the sweetest, of all the Psalms; and perhaps the Psalm, like the Grace wherewith it was Composed, has a growing Sweetness, towards the Conclusion of it. The one and twentieth Octonary in this excellent Psalm, is a Bundle of Heavenly Affections; this two and twentieth Octonary is an Heap of Holy Petitions. There are especially Six Petitions in this last part of the Psalm. The fourth and fifth of them are in the ⟨p. 106⟩words now before us. He begs, First, for his Life, then for God's Help. The Life petitioned for, may be understood as Two-sold: it is called, The life of the Soul; both Natural Life, and Spiritual Life may be intended in that Expression. But chiefly the former. Let my soul live; it is q. d. Let my Self live. Tis an usual Hebraism. In that signification it was the Choice of Sampson, Let me die, in the Hebrew it is, Let my Soul die with the Philistines. The Help petitioned for, has Two Things declared concerning it. We have the For-What of this Help; this is, That he might, attend the Business for which he desired to live; namely, To praise God. And we also have the From-Whence, of this Help; this is, From the Judgments of God. Thy Judgments! this is one of the Ten various Phrases used here, to signify, the Ways and Means whereby God reveals Himself unto the world.