N00941:192
Meat out of the eater. Or, Funeral-discourses occasioned by the death of several relatives.…
Meat out of the eater. Or, Funeral-discourses occasioned by the death of several relatives. Work accommodated unto the service of all that are in any affliction; but very particularly such as are afflicted with the loss of their consorts or children. / By Cotton Mather. ; [Four lines from I Corinthians]
Boston: printed by B. Green & J. Allen for Benjamin Eliot, 1703
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
First, What Affliction it is, that may make a Night unto the Children of God?
Now, tis plain; That the Withdraw of our Comfortable Enjoyments, is Enough to make a Night for us. When God brings upon us any Lamentable Bereavements of our Comfortable Enjoyments, we may say; Lam 3 6 He hath set me in dark places. It was a Night with Jacob, it was a Night with Ephraim, it was a Night with David, when his Children were taken from him, and it was a Night with Job, when his Riches as well as his Children were taken from him, and Sickness within, and Censure abroad, was also hard upon him.
Yea, but it adds unto the Circumstances of the Night with us, when we are utterly at a Loss, which way to take, what course to steer; when we Grope as in the Dark, to find the methods of our Safety. Tis a Night with us, when we are in the Dark, ⟨p. 116⟩and at a Loss, what we shall do, that we may not Stumble into Mischief. How full of Night, is that Affliction, wherein a man must say, Job 19. 8. He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and He hath set Darkness in my paths!
Yea, but it adds unto the Circumstances of the Night with us, when we are utterly at a Loss, which way to take, what course to steer; when we Grope as in the Dark, to find the methods of our Safety. Tis a Night with us, when we are in the Dark, ⟨p. 116⟩and at a Loss, what we shall do, that we may not Stumble into Mischief. How full of Night, is that Affliction, wherein a man must say,