N00941:340
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.
III. When Desirable Relatives are taken away from us, tis God that has taken them. We must have the Providence of God in our Eyes, when the Desire of our Eyes is taken away from us. Our Eyes must not be so put out, by our having the Desire of our Eyes taken away, that we shall not see the Hand of God in all that befalls us. There is the ⟨p. 206⟩Providence of God, ordering and inflicting all the Afflictions, that befall the Children of men. As it was said, Amos 3. 6 Shall there be Evil in a City, and the Lord hath not done it? So we may say, Shall there be Evil in a Family, and it not be the Lords doing? To have Desirable Relatives taken away, is an Affliction of so much Consequence, that we had need think seriously, What Hand is it that Lays this Affliction upon us? Oh, Let us awfully think with our selves, I have to do with God, in this Dispensation. There is nothing to be ascribed unto Hap, & Chance, and Fortune; Tis blind Paganism, to see no further than such a blind Original, for the loss of Desirable Relatives. Nor must we consider Diseases, or Accidents, as being in any higher Form, than that of Second Causes. God the Great GOD, is to be considered, as the First Cause of all. When any of our Desirable Relatives are taken away, we must say with him, Job 1. 21. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. It is a vile Stupidity and Profanity, to be insensible of a Divine Hand, Ordering, Disposing, Directing our loss of Desirable Relatives, when it comes upon us. When our Families are wounded, by having Desirable Relatives taken out of them, if we Regard not ⟨p. 207⟩the works of the Lord, not the Operation of His Hands, we may fear, that He will go on in wounding of us; yea, that He will destroy us, and not build us up.
III. When Desireable Relatives are taken away from us, tis God that has taken them. We must have the Providence of God in our Eyes, when the Desire of our Eyes is taken away from us. Our Eyes must not be so put out, by our having the Desire of our Eyes taken away, that we shall not see the Hand of God in all that befalls us. There is the ⟨p. 206⟩