N00956:13
Gods frown in the death of useful men. Showed in a sermon preached at…Gods frown in the death of useful men. Shewed in a sermon preached at…
Gods frown in the death of useful men. Showed in a sermon preached at the funeral of the Honourable Col John Pynchon Esq. Who deceased January 17th. 1702[/]3. / By Solomon Stoddard, Pastor of Northampton.Gods frown in the death of useful men. Shewed in a sermon preached at the funeral of the Honourable Col John Pynchon Esq. Who deceased January 17th. 1702[/]3. / By Solomon Stoddard, Pastor of Northampton.
printed by B Green, 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.
DOCTRINE.
There is many times a Great Frown in GODS taking away those that are Eminently Useful.
There is many times a Great Frown in GODS taking away those that are Eminently Ʋsefull.
GOD has many ways to punish a disobedient People; sometimes he punishes them by Wars, by Sicknesses, by Inundations, by Earthquakes, by Fires, by Blastings, by a Spirit of Division; this is one among the rest, by the Death of Useful men. There may be a great Frown in Gods taking away such Young men, as were hopeful to be men for Public Service; as when he took away Jeroboam's Son: so especially when he takes away such as were men of Service: this is not always a Frown, for if God have no Controversy with his People, yet such must dye according to the course of Nature; but ordinarily it is a Frown: Useful and Serviceable men are a Public Blessing; and it is a Public Frown when God removes them: as God Frowns upon a People, when he takes away their Health, their Peace, their Wealth; ⟨p. 5⟩so he does likewise when he takes away those that were a means to preserve their spiritual and outward Prosperity: Men that are eminently Useful are the Pillars of the Church & the Common-wealth, & it is a great weakening to the Society when such are removed. God smiles upon a People, when he raises up Serviceable men, and he Frowns upon them, when he snatches such away: many times it is a token of great anger when such men are removed, and they feel the bitter effects thereof many years after: when their Lives are lost, the Public Society has a great loss: much of the Prosperity of a People is buried in the Graves of Useful men. Hezekiah. Death and Josiahs gave a deadly wound to the People of Judah, and was matter of great Mourning,