N00280:60
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. That God's Saints serve a good Master: Th•se that serve Earthly Potentates, though for a while they may be had in high esteem with them, and be greatly set by, yet seldom but they have their quietus est before they die; when they grow unapt for Service, it is thought high time to lay them by: however when Death comes they are then left and soon-forgotten: but the Servants of the most High are never forgotten; God that loved them living, loves them dying too: It was a lamentable, but true saying of a great, yet miserable Prelate; If I had served God as faithfully as I have done my King he would not now have left me: what Fools then and Mad-men are they that relinquish the service of God, to serve the lusts of Men, who care but to serve their own turns of them, and then will relinquish them?
3. That Death cannot make a Believer miserable, but must needs render him happy. Those precious thoughts which God hath conceived in his own breast for dying Saints, cannot choose but break forth into suitable operations for them; if their death be precious in God's sight, it must needs bring forth precious fruits for them, and such as shall fill them with perfect Felicity. Hence of all the Men in the World the Saint is the Man that hath the least need of being afraid to die: this glorious promise is a Believers plentiful security against all the frightful menaces of the King of Terrors; and it may light a Child of God into and through this dark valley, Psal. 16.9, 10. Therefore my heart rejoiceth, and my Glory is glad ▪ &c.
3. That Death cannot make a Believer miserable, but must needs render him happy. Those precious thoughts which God hath conceived in his own breast for dying Saints, cannot chuse but break forth into suitable operations for them; if their death be precious in God's sight, it must needs bring forth precious fruits for them, and such as shall fill them with perfect Felicity. Hence of all the Men in the World the Saint is the Man that hath the least need of being afraid to die: this glorious promise is a Believers plentiful security against all the frightful menaces of the King of Terrors; and it may light a Child of God into and through this dark valley,