In the exercise of these qualities and endowments, under these advantages, he has been, as it were, a father to this part of the land, on whom the whole county had, under God, its dependence in all its public affairs, and especially since the beginning of the present war.° How much the weight of all the warlike concerns of the county (which above any part of the land lies exposed to the enemy) has lain on his shoulders, and how he has been the spring of all motion and the doer of everything that has been done, and how wisely and faithfully he has conducted these affairs, I need not inform this congregation. You will know that he took care of the county as a father of a family of children, not neglecting men’s lives and making light of their blood; but with great diligence, vigilance, and prudence applying himself continually to the proper means of our safety and welfare. And especially has this his native town, where he has dwelt from his infancy, reaped the benefit of his happy influence: his wisdom has been, under God, very much our guide, and his authority our support and strength, and he has been a great honor to Northampton and ornament to our church.
He continued in full capacity of usefulness while he lived; he was indeed considerably advanced in years, but his powers of mind were not sensibly abated, and his strength of body was not so impaired but that he was able to go long journeys, in extreme heat and cold, and in a short time.
But now this “strong rod is broken and withered,” and surely the judgment of God therein is very awful, and the dispensation that which may well be for a lamentation. Probably we shall be more sensible of the worth and importance of such a strong rod by the want of it. The awful voice of God in this providence is worthy to be attended to by this whole province, and especially by the people of this county, but in a more peculiar manner by us of this town. We have now this testimony of the divine displeasure added to all the other dark clouds God has lately brought over us, and his awful frown upon us. ’Tis a dispensation, on many accounts, greatly calling for our humiliation and fear before God; an awful manifestation of his supreme, universal and absolute dominion, calling us to adore the divine sovereignty and tremble at the presence of this great God. And it is a lively instance of human frailty and mortality. We see how that none are out of the reach of death, that no greatness, no authority, no wisdom and sagacity, no honorableness of person or station, no degree of valuableness and importance exempts from the stroke of death. This is therefore a loud and solemn warning to all sorts to prepare for their departure hence.
And the
memory of this person who is now gone, who was made so great a blessing while
he lived, should engage us to show respect and kindness to his family. This we
should do both out of respect to him and to his father, your former eminent
pastor, who in his day was, in a remarkable manner, a father to this part of
the land in spirituals, and especially to this town, as this his son has been
in temporals.—God greatly resented it, when the children of Israel did not show
kindness to the house of Jerubbaal that had been made an instrument of so much
good to them: Judges viii. 35, “Neither showed they kindness to the house of
Jerubbaal, according to all the good which he had showed unto Israel.”
