The Fathers Tears over his Daughters Remains, Title page 1 – To the reader
Reliquiae Turellae, et Lachrymae Paternae. The Father's Tears over his Daughter's Remains.
Two SERMONS Preach'd at Medford, April 6. 1735. By Benjamin Colman, D.D. The Lord's Day after the Funeral Of His beloved Daughter Mrs. Jane Turell. To which are added, Some large MEMOIRS of her Life and Death, By her Conſort, the Reverend Mr. Ebenezer Turell, M. A. Paſtor of the Church in Medford.
Proverbs xxxi 26.
She openeth her Mouth with Wiſdom, and in her Tongue is the Law of Kindneſs. Ver. 31. Give her of the Fruit of her Hands, and let her own Works praiſe Her in the Gates.
BOSTON: Printed by S. KNEELAND & T. GREEN, for J. EDWARDS and H. FOSTER in Cornhill. 1735.
TO THE READER.
THE following Sermons, plain and ſimple as they are, for Mourning forbids Ornament, had been publiſh'd ſooner, if at all, after the Funeral of my dear Child, if the putting in Order ſome Memoirs of her ſhort Exemplary Life had not obliged us to ſome Delay.
I hope both the Sermons and the Memoirs may be of good Uſe to Parents and Children, and to Miniſters and their Children in particular, or I ſhould not trouble the Public with them.
As the Father of the Deceaſed I owe this Reſpect unto her Memory, but more as a Miniſter I owe it to the Children of my Country and of the Town. It becomes Me now in Age to write for Thoſe unto Whom I have been miniſtring theſe five and thirty Years; and I magnify my Office (to borrow the Words of the Great Apoſtle) if I may provoke to Emulation thoſe that are my Fleſh. I mean, If what is here publiſh'd may ſerve to put Parents on more early and continued Endeavours for the Souls of their Children, and to inſpire our Dau'ters in particular with Deſires to improve in Knowlege and Goodneſs under the Inſtructions of their wiſe and gracious Parents. This, by the Will of God, ought to be to me a Joy next to any Saving Miniſtrations to my own Offspring, whereof the following Record gives me ſome humble Hope: Scil. That it has pleaſed God to make Me, together with my good Son Mr. Turell, a Spiritual Father to my lov'd Child, and that in Chriſt Jeſus we have begotten her thro' the Goſpel; (again to uſe the Apoſtle's moſt pleaſant Words) — At leaſt the Reader will charitably judge that I have with ſome Pains and Throws been travailing in Birth till Chriſt was formed in her. In which I beſeech Others to be Followers of me, who yet am not worthy to be named among the Miniſters of Chriſt.
For I have at laſt very poorly anſwered that firſt and great Commandment of God to all his People, Deut. vi. 4,—7. "Hear, O Iſrael, The Lord our God is one Lord! And thou ſhalt love the Lord thy God with all thine Heart, and with all thy Soul, and with all thy Might: And theſe Words which I command thee this Day ſhall be in thine Heart, and THOU SHALT TEACH THEM DILIGENTLY UNTO THY CHILDREN, &c. See how much true Love to God lies & ſhows it ſelf in our Care for the Souls of our Poſterity! and how much He will account this in us Love to Himſelf.
My Deceaſed has it may be better anſwer'd the Commandment of God to Children, Prov. iv. 1. "Hear the Inſtruction of a Father, and attend to know Underſtanding"; and could with true Delight take up the following Words, "For I was my Father's—, tender and only beloved in the Sight of my Mother; He taught me alſo and ſaid to me, Let thy Heart retain my Words, keep my Commandments and live: "Get Wiſdom, get Underſtanding, forget it not, &c.
O might we ſee many, many of our Sons and Daughters anſwering to this Original in the Book of God, this wiſeſt of the Sons of Men, in a much ſuperiour Meaſure to what my Deceaſed did in her Childhood and Youth!
The firſt of theſe Sermons was compoſed on the Sudden Death of her dear Mother, and ſhe ſat at my Feet and heard it in her great Mourning, with ſome Character of her lov'd Parent; whoſe Cares for her Soul ſhe records with great Thankfulneſs to God in ſome of her Papers. And when Mr. Turell prevail'd with me to come & weep with Him & his People, the Sabbath after the Funeral of his Wife, I choſe to repeat that Sermon to my Self & Him; adapting it to the Communion which then fell in Curſe.
The other Sermon I had preach'd at Home the Lord's Day before, and now I make the DEDICATION of both, firſt to the Beloved Children of my own Flock and Town, and then to the Beloved People of Medford, to Whom I gave away no ſmall part of the Light of my Eyes in the Day I married her to their Paſtor.
May They and their Sons and Daughters ſerve Themſelves of theſe her living Remains, and whatſoever things are juſt, pure, lovely and of good Report, let 'em think to theſe things.— And while She being dead ſpeaks to You in what is here publiſh'd, after a ſhort and ſilent Life among you; GOD grant her Surviving Spouſe may be long continued to teach and feed You in the Name and Strength of the LORD GOD, and to carry many of You with him to Heaven.
Boſton, May 20. 1735. Benjamin Colman.