N00280:14
The high esteem which God hath of the death of his saints. As it…
The high esteem which God hath of the death of his saints. As it was delivered in a sermon preached October 7. 1683. Occasioned by the death of the Worshipful John Hull Esq: who deceased October 1, 1683. / By Samuel Willard teacher to a church in Boston. ; [Four lines of quotations]
printed by Samuel Green for Samuel Sewall, 1683
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.
In the Words there are two parts,
1. The Subject about which the Assertion is; The Death of Gods Saints: such a Subject is presumed, for the Scripture doth not pronounce or express the condition of non-entities. And hence we gather these three Conclusions.
•. God hath his Saints in the World; as evil and degenerate as the World is grown, yet there are some Holy Men in it. It is true there is none so holy here as to live without sin; but there are some that are so pure, as to be undefiled in God's eye and esteem, Numb. 23.21. God hath seen no iniquity in Jacob. Psal. 119.1. Blessed are the undefiled: The Word used in our Text, for Saints signifies properly one that is precious, kind, bountiful and merciful. The Substantive is most commonly used for Mercy, or pity; and this Word in our Text is Translated Merciful, Isai. 57.1. and so divers read it here, his merciful ones: others read it, his beneficent ones, much to the same purpose: But the Septuagint for the most part translate the Word by [Greek or Hebrew] which signifies a Saint or an Holy one, and so they do in this place, Hence, as some observe, the Posterity of Jonadab, the Son of Rechab, were, by reason of their strictness or severity of Life, called Hassidim, which is the Word used in the Text.
•. God hath his Saints in the World; as evil and degenerate as the World is grown, yet there are some Holy Men in it. It is true there is none so holy here as to live without sin; but there are some that are so pure, as to be undefiled in God's eye and esteem,