N00941:200
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.
II There are glorious Matters of Satisfaction and Consolation, which the Children of God are to make their Songs in the Night of their Affliction. There are the Songs of Zion, which are prepared by God ⟨p. 118⟩for the Sons of Zion; and some of them are peculiarly calculated for the Night. As it was said, Psal. 119. 54. Thy Statutes have been my Songs, in the House of my Pilgrimage: Thus, the Statutes of God inform us, of matters for our Songs, in the Night of our Affliction. Davids Harp never founded better than in the Night and upon the Water. More particularly.
First, It is a Song to be Sung in the Night of our Affliction, That the Great God is the First Cause of our Affliction. This was the Song of that Excellent man, Job 5. 6. 8. Affliction cometh not forth of the Dust, neither doth Trouble spring out of the Ground: I would seek unto God, when it comes. Who is it that sends upon us all our Darkness? Tis that God, of whom we have that Song, Amos 4. 13. Lo, Tis He that makes the morning Darkness, the LORD, the God of Hosts is His Name. We are too prone, in the Night of our Affliction, to look upon Second Causes; and especially if Rational and Injurious Instruments have been concerned in our Affliction. But it will be a very dark Night indeed with us, if we can't see beyond Second Causes. Oh, Let us look through' all the Darkness, unto the Great GOD, as ⟨p. 119⟩the First Cause of all; And let this be our Song in the Night: Though Clouds and Darkness be round about Him, yet Righteousness & Judgment are the Habitation of His Throne. Though Instruments be very deeply concerned in our Affliction, yet the Song of a Job will be, The Lord has taken away! the Song of a David will be, The Lord has bidden them! It is an admirably well tuned Song, that we find with the Sweet singer of Israel: