N00941:206
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.
Once more; the wisdom of God, must be our Song in the Night. You may hear that Song in the mouth of the afflicted Saint; Psal. 119 75. I know, O Lord, that thy Judgments are Right, and that thou in Faithfulness hast afflicted me. In the Night, we are in the Dark, about the Nature, and the Design, and the Issue of our Troubles. But the Wisdom of God sees all things in a True Light. It is Wisely contrived, that in the Division of Time, there should be Night as well as Day. How cheerfully may we refer and resign every thing, to that God, whose Understanding is Infinite! Our Song then should run much upon such Notes as these; The All wise God sees, that some Night, and not all Day, is best for me. O Lord, how manifold are thy works, in thy Dealings with me? In wisdom hast thou done them all. Thou knowest, ⟨p. 123⟩when I want Affliction, and what Affliction is fittest for me. Thou knowest, When, and How to deliver me out of my Affliction. And thou knowest, How and Where to make my Affliction profitable.
Furthermore; The Merry of God should be our Song in the Night. You may hear that Song, in the mouth of the Afflicted Church; Lam 3. 22. It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed; because His Compassions fail not. In the Night we are easily Terrified. How apt are we to take up Terrible Apprehensions, when the Night comes upon us: Has the Lord forgotten to be gracious? Is His Mercy clean gone? Hath He shut up His Tender Mercies in Anger? But let us not make rash conclusions from our Sharp Corrections. Our Song should be of such a strain as this; The merciful God punishes me far less than my Iniquities have deserved; and tho' He bereave me of some Comforts, yet He leaves me still a thousand more Comforts than Sorrows. Nor does my Affliction by God, argue my Rejection from God: No, my Affliction ma• be rather an Argument for my Adoption: ⟨p. 124⟩For whom the Lord Loveth, He Chasteneth, and Scourgeth every Son Whom He receiveth. At the last, I shall find, That God is Good in Afflicting of me, and that it is Good for me to be Afflicted.