N00460:122
The mourners cordial against excessive sorrow discovering what grounds of hope Gods people have…
The mourners cordial against excessive sorrow discovering what grounds of hope Gods people have concerning their dead friends / by Samuel Willard, teacher of a church in Boston. ; [Five lines from II Corinthians]
Boston: printed by Benjamin Harris, 1691
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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. It diverts the mind with better thoughts, sorrow takes a great deal of pleasure in feeding it self with poring upon black and bitter speculations; it findeth a kind of a sullen contentment in representing every thing to it self with Sable Colours, and thereupon to sink it self yet lower with its own thought whereas Hope interposeth more bright and lightsome things for the mind to be looking upon, and by such an entertainment as this is, gives unto it a very happy diversion; the heart is hereby opened, and hath liberty given it to fetch breath and recover spirits & life again.
4. It puts men upon the exercise of Patience. Impatience under sorrow, makes it to be a great deal more burdensome than otherwise it would be: now the genuine fruit of Hope is patience: when expectation is raised in a man, it puts him upon waiting, and makes him quiet in waiting; and this is proportionable to the degrees that hope hath arrived to; so that when the good expected is certain to come without fail, and ⟨p. 56⟩there is a clear prospect that when it doth come, it will make a full compensation for all the trouble which hath been sustained, together with the removal of it from him; a comfortable persuasion that it shall be so, makes him to be earnestly looking out for it, and to satisfy himself for the present with the expectation of it. This may suffice for the consideration of Hope in general; it follows to enquire.
4. It puts men upon the exereise of Patience. Impatience under sorrow, makes it to be a great deal more burdensom than otherwise it would be: now the genuine fruit of Hope is patience: when expectation is raised in a man, it puts him upon waiting, and makes him quiet in waiting; and this is proportionable to the degrees that hope hath arrived to; so that when the good expected is certain to come without fail, and ⟨p. 56⟩there is a clear prospect that when it doth come, it will make a full compensation for all the trouble which hath been susteined, together with the removal of it from him; a comfortable perswasion that it shall be so, makes him to be earnestly looking out for it, and to satisfy himself for the present with the expectation of it. This may suffice for the consideration of Hope in general; it follows to enquire.