N01015:112
A faithful man, described and rewarded. Some observable & serviceable passages in the life…
A faithful man, described and rewarded. Some observable & serviceable passages in the life and death of Mr. Michael Wigglesworth. Late Pastor of Maldon [i.e., Malden]; who rested from his labours, on the Lords-Day, June 10th. 1705. In the seventy fourth year of his age. : And memorials of piety, left behind him among his written experiences. : With a funeral-sermon preached (for him) at Maldon; June 24. 1705. / By Cotton Mather. ; [Two lines of quotation in Latin]
Boston: printed by B. Green for Benj. Eliot, 1705
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.
XX. The Lord affects my Heart with some shame, that I should so Dishonour my Fathers House, as to feed upon Husks, when He has Bread Enough for me: That I should promise my self any Paradise under the Sun, when as I have experimentally found all to be vanity and vexation of Spirit; That I should mind or desire the love of the Creature, more than take contentment in the love of Christ, who loveth me better than any Creature can do, and who is more able to do for me, what I stand in need of, than any, yea, than all besides.
XXI. My God, and His Service, is all that I have to Delight my self in, in this World.
XXII. God sends me in some support. For, First; I have desired and delighted in (not Heaven, or any Created Excellencies, but) God Himself, who is my Hearts contentment. Secondly. I do not desire Holiness for Heaven, but for the Love I bear to God and Christ, and out of my Desire to please Him. And I should desire it, if ⟨p. 35⟩there were neither Hell nor Heaven, and I desire universal Holiness. And it is my very Happiness to do God some Service before I die. That's all I have to comfort me against my Sorrows. And that is one end, why I desire communion with God; that I may be like Him. Such a Christ pleases me best, as will make me Holy.
XXII. God sends me in some support. For, First; I have desired and delighted in (not Heaven, or any Created Excellencies, but) God Himself, who is my Hearts contentment. Secondly. I do not desire Holiness for Heaven, but for the Love I bear to God and Christ, and out of my Desire to please Him. And I should desire it, if ⟨p. 35⟩