N00280:66
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.
3. Is the death of the Saints precious in Gods sight? let it be so in ours too. They are not to be accounted for contemptible things which God sets an high value upon; and it is our wisdom to think and speak of persons and things as God doth: we ought not to slight the death of the righteous, and speak meanly of it, as of a thing that is little momentous: I ⟨p. 16⟩am sure their arrival at Heaven is there taken notice of as a thing worthy of observation; and shall not their departure be regarded? they are welcomed into the Palace of delight with Panegyrics; and shall then be hence dismissed with no more but a sorry saying, there is now a good Man gone, and he will be missed in the Family, or the Church to which he once belonged? we should embalm the memory of the Saints with the sweet smelling Spices that grew in their own Gardens, and pick the chiefest Flowers out of those Beds to strew their Graves withal; we should remember and make mention of them with honourable thoughts and words: and though it be now grown a Nick-name of contempt among wicked and profane Men, yet count it the most orient Jewel in their Crown, the most odoriferous and pleasant Flower in their Garland, that we can say of them that they lived and died Saints; all other Escutcheons will either wear away, or be taken down, every other monument will become old, and grow over with the Moss of time, and their Titles, though cut in Brass, will be Canker-eaten and illegible: this only will endure and be fresh and Flourishing, when Marble it self shall be turned into common dust.
3. Is the death of the Saints precious in Gods sight? let it be so in ours too. They are not to be accounted for contemptible things which God sets an high value upon; and it is our wisdom to think and speak of persons and things as God doth: we ought not to slight the death of the righteous, and speak meanly of it, as of a thing that is little momentous: I ⟨p. 16⟩am sure their arrival at Heaven is there taken notice of as a thing worthy of observation; and shall not their departure be regarded? they are welcomed into the Palace of delight with Panegyricks; and shall then be hence dismissed with no more but a sorry saying, there is now a good Man gone, and he will be missed in the Family, or the Church to which he once belonged? we should embalm the memory of the Saints with the sweet smelling Spices that grew in their own Gardens, and pick the chiefest Flowers out of those Beds to strew their Graves withal; we should remember and make mention of them with honourable thoughts and words: and though it be now grown a Nick-name of contempt among wicked and prophane Men, yet count it the most orient Jewel in their Crown, the most odoriferous and pleasant Flower in their Garland, that we can say of them that they lived and died Saints; all other Eschutcheons will either wear away, or be taken down, every other monument will become old, and grow over with the Moss of time, and their Titles, though cut in Brass, will be Canker-eaten and illegible: this onely will endure and be fresh and Flourishing, when Marble it self shall be turned into common dust.