N00956:31
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.
USE. II.
Such men as are Useful and Serviceable should not be despised. There is an evil Spirit prevailing in some, and they are ready under one pretence or another to despise Useful men: as Michal despised David in her heart. There be many that honour them, yet there be others that undervalue them. It is the Spirit of men of Belial to despise such, 1 Sam. 10.27. But if men be Serviceable men, they are great Blessings, and it is a Frown when God removes them, and those men are blame worthy that do despise them, whatever notion they do it under.
Such men as are Usefull and Serviceable should not be despised. There is an evil Spirit prevailing in some, and they are ready under one pretence or another to despise Usefull men: as Michal despised David in her heart. There be many that honour them, yet there be others that undervalue them. It is the Spirit of men of Belial to despise such, 1 Sam. 10.27. But if men be Serviceable men, they are great Blessings, and it is a Frown when God removes them, and those men are blame worthy that do despise them, whatever notion they do it under.
1. Some do it under a notion, that they have such and such Infirmities. But if we grant that they have, (though some men count those things faults and infirmities that are none;) yet they may not be despised. Humanum est Errare, where shall we find men without infirmities? If David acted rashly in the matter of Mephibosheth, must he be despised? If Asa did not take away the high places, must he be despised? If Jehoshaphat was overseen in joining with Ahab, must he be despised? If Hezekiah's heart were lifted up when the Ambassadors came from Babylon, must he be despised? If it were a precipitate thing for Josiah to take the field against the King of Egypt, must he be despised? Men at the best are but men compassed about with infirmities. God honours men though they have infirmities.