N00941:24
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.
The First Proposition.
Where God has given Faith He will make a Trial of that Faith As there is need of our having Faith; Necessity is laid on us to get Faith, and woe unto us if we have it not. So there is need of a Trial for this Faith. We read, 1 pet. 1. 6. If need be you are in heaviness through many Temptations: for the Trial of your Faith. God will make a Trial of our Faith. Why so? That we may see how Weak it is; for which accordingly He ⟨p. 11⟩would humble us, and ab••e us. God will also make a Trial of our Faith because He will have it seen how strong it is; a strong Faith is a thing pleasing to God, and so is the Trial of a Strong Faith. There was a woman to whom our Lord said, Great is thy Faith: He gave the Faith. Well, but He then Tried every stroke of that Faith This Trial of our Faith is ordered by God, partly for our Comfort We read, Rom. 5. 4. It works hope. When a man has had his Faith well Tried, and it proves what it should be in the Trying that man may have an Hope in his own Soul […] and other man; He may Hope that God is his God; He may Hope, that Christ is his Friend; He may Hope, that Heaven is his inheritance; And he may Hope, that all the Promises are a portion to him. God by Trying of our Faith knocks the Vessels of our Souls, that it may be seen whether we are full, full of Faith, or no; Sirs, We may know […] was are full, when we don't make a foolish noise, but under •o our Calamity Silently and patiently. Our Faith is a Rose; The Trial of […] the stilling o• it, which fetches out the sweetness, that is in it. Our Faith is a Spice; God Pounds it in a Trial of it, that […] Odour ⟨p. 12⟩