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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.
Secondly, Unsanctified Desires of Life are to ⟨p. 120⟩be Reproved also. Of these Desires there are Three Sorts to be Reprehended.
There are, first. Carnal Desires of Life to be blamed. Some desire to live, and wherefore is it? It is because they desire to eat and drink and be merry. They can't part with such Relations and Possessions as are here to be enjoyed. The Comforts of Life are the things that cause their Desires of Life. One once beholding his fine Accommodations made this Reflection thereupon, Hac faciant invitos mori; these are the things that make us unwilling to die. Unmortified Corruptions are the causes of these desires. Remember what the Lord hath said in Matth. 10. 37. He that loveth Father or Mother, or Son or DAUGHTER more than me, is not worthy of me. Thus may the Lord well say to the Subject of these Desires, If you had rather be with your friends on earth, than with your Father in Heaven, you are not worthy to be with me at all. And this by the way is to he said of them that desire the life of their Friends as well as of them selves. It is for the Interest of the Lord Jesus Christ that the dead Children which you lament, are dead; or else they had not dyed at all. Now says the Lord Jesus, If thou lovest those CHILDREN, those Relations more than me, and hadst rather have them with thy self, to my Prejudice, than to have them with me, to thy own Bereavement, thou art not worthy to have them with me at all.
There are, first. Carnal Desires of Life to be blamed. Some desire to live, and wherefore is it? It is because they desire to eat and drink and be merry. They cann't part with such Relations and Possessions as are here to be enjoyed. The Comforts of Life are the things that cause their Desires of Life. One once beholding his fine Accommodations made this Reflection thereupon, Hac faciant invitos mori; these are the things that make us unwilling to dy. Unmortified Corruptions are the causes of these desires. Remember what the Lord hath said in