N00280:51
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.
A. It Flows not from any merit of theirs; a Saint aspires not to challenge any favour from God upon the score of his own deservings, but when he hath done all, acknowledgeth himself an unprofitable Servant, and his best Righteousness to be but as filthy Rags: but it proceeds from Gods infinitely free Grace, and if we look upon that, we shall find manifold reason why the Saints Death is precious in God's sight: viz.
A. It Flows not from any merit of theirs; a Saint aspires not to chalenge any favour from God upon the score of his own deservings, but when he hath done all, acknowledgeth himself an unprofitable Servant, and his best Righteousness to be but as filthy Rags: but it proceeds from Gods infinitely free Grace, and if we look upon that, we shall find manifold reason why the Saints Death is precious in God's sight: viz.
1. Because he hath loved them in Christ with an everlasting Love: where there is love, it renders that object beloved, precious to him that loves it; though another can discern no excellency or worthiness in it, and may thereupon wonder what he loves it for, yet love apprehends it to be of worth: now God hath loved his Saints from everlasting, Jer. 31.3. and inasmuch as that which is everlasting, is by consequence immutable; hence this love of his abides to, in, and after death, and makes it precious.
2. Because they are his: Propriety and Peculiarity engage the care, and exit the affections to a suitable proportion unto the Subject; the Saints are God's Peculium, they are called his Anointed, and his Prophets, Psal. 105.15. they are firmly and closely united unto him through Christ, and Death doth not dissolve that indissoluble Bond; dead Believers continue in union with Christ, and shall his own die then, and he not be deeply concerned in it? it cannot be.