N00941:348
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.
It is most of all to be Lamented, when Consorts cannot make a Consort, but cease to be Desirable unto one another. Let all such Relatives, the most nearly Related of any under Heaven, beware of every thing that may reader them unacceptable unto one another; and beware of all Tendencies or Temptations to weariness of one another. It is required. Eph. 5. 23 Let every one of you in particular, so Love his Wife even at himself, and the Wife see that she Reverence her Husband. Let the Fear of God cause you, to oblige one another, with all suitable Expressions of Goodness and Kindness; and set the Fear of God fill you with Love to one another. ⟨p. 210⟩Oh, let there be nothing in your Conduct, but what shall be an Emblem of the Goodness and Kindness, that passes between the Lord Jesus Christ & His Church.
II. Must very Desirable Relatives be Taken from one another? It becomes Relatives then, to Live together, as not being Always to Live together. When we have any Desire of our Eyes before us, Let us hear that Admonition from Heaven unto us; Prov. 23. 5. Wilt thou set thine Eyes upon that which is not! For these things certainly make themselves wings they fly away as an Eagle towards Heaven. The Desirable Relatives, whose Conversation with us, is the very Salt of our Lives, and without whom Life it self is hardly to be Desired. Let us Remember, That ere Long, either we shall be Taken from them, or They be Taken from us. In the midst of all our Entertainments, with our Desirable Relatives, Oh, Remember the Days of Darkness, and think, Shortly we must part. It would not have been the Ancient Custom, to introduce a Deaths Head at a Wedding Feast, if such Thoughts were at all Impertinent or unprofitable, Oh, Let us Take heed of too violent Affections towards each other, lest we Hasten the parting ⟨p. 211⟩Time upon us, and lest when the parting Time comes, we make it a Bitter one. Christians, Fortify your selves with a Spirit of Self Denial and Resignation, Mortify your Passions, that you may be ready for that which Mortality has to do upon you. Wholesome is that Advice;