N00280:45
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.
2. He takes order that they shall die in peace; whatever Troubles they have been which they have met with in their lives, yet they shall meet perfect peace in their Death, Psal. 37.37. Take notice of the perfect man, mark the upright, for the latter end of that man is peace. Death comes not armed with a sting against them, but the sting is taken out, and the poison of it removed, 1 Cor. 15.55. Oh Death! where is thy sting? it comes not as an Officer of Justice to Arrest them, but as a friendly Messenger to invite them into their Fathers presence, to the Court of a reconciled God, and tender-hearted Father, and the kind embraces of a loving Redeemer.
2. He takes order thet they shall die in peace; whatever Troubles they have been which they have met with in their lives, yet they shall meet perfect peace in their Death, Psal. 37.37. Take notice of the perfect man, mark the upright, for the latter end of that man is peace. Death comes not armed with a sting against them, but the sting is taken out, and the poyson of it removed, 1 Cor. 15.55. Oh Death! where is thy sting? it comes not as an Officer of Justice to Arrest them, but as a friendly Messenger to invite them into their Fathers presence, to the Court of a reconciled God, and tender-hearted Father, and the kind embraces of a loving Redeemer.
3. He orders them so to die as to leave a sweet remembrance behind them. Wicked men possibly may endeavour, by throwing dirt at them, to blemish their Names, and yet God often makes them speak well of his dead Saints, and to build the Tombs of the Prophets whom they have killed: But however, in the hearts of the faithful they have an honourable esteem, a worthy Monument,