N00460:13
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.
This Chapter belongs to the hortatory part of the Epistle; and from this verse to the end of the Chapter, he gives precious and profitable advice to the people of God about their mourning over their Deceased Friends: The advice it self is given in the Text, the arguments to strengthen it, and render it profitable to them, is in the following verses. The advice it self is, not to mourn despairingly over them▪ the reasons why they should not so do are three; taken from the consideration of the glorious Resurrection they shall ere long arrive at, the happy meeting which they shall then have with the Lord Jesus Christ, and their being thenceforth made to live with him for ever in glory; and one would think this were enough to set men down completely satisfied, could they embrace all this with Faith.
This Chapter belongs to the hortatory part of the Epistle; and from this verse to the end of the Chapter, he gives precious and profitable advice to the people of God about their mourning over their Deceased Friends: The advice it self is given in the Text, the arguments to strengthen it, and render it profitable to them, is in the following verses. The advice it self is, not to mourn despairingly over them▪ the reasons why they should not so do are three; taken from the consideration of the glorious Resurrection they shall ere long arrive at, the happy meeting which they shall then have with the Lord Jesus Christ, and their being thenceforth made to live with him for ever in glory; and one would think this were enough to set men down compleatly satisfied, could they embrace all this with Faith.
In the words then we may take notice of,
1. The Subject to whom the advice is given, Brethren; he applies it to such as were by profession Christians, and in the judgment of Charity, true believers. This Cordial is only provided for such, and if any other shall take it, it may prove to be poison unto them.