N00460:143
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. That the application of this Hope is in respect of something future. For such a thing, we observed, is the proper object of hope, according to that of the Apostle, Rom. 8.24 Hope that is seen, is not Hope, for what a man sees, why doth he yet hope for? There is something that is expected to come, upon the assurance of these premises; and that is the eternal felicity of such as are under the shadow of this promise: either they are •ot yet happy, or we are not as yet fully assu••• that they are▪ either the thing is future, or […] perfect knowledge of it is so; and we are in the mean while encouraging of our selves by this Hope.
3. That the application of this Hope is in respect of something future. For such a thing, we observed, is the proper object of hope, according to that of the Apostle, Rom. 8.24 Hope that is seen, is not Hope, for what a man sees, why doth he yet hope for? There is something that is expected to come, upon the assurance of these premises; and that is the eternal felicity of such as are under the shadow of this promise: either they are •ot yet happy, or we are not as yet fully assu••• that they are▪ either the thing is future, or 〈…〉 perfect knowledge of it is so; and we are in the mean while encouraging of our selves by this Hope.
4. This application is not in respect of every one for whom we Hope, of equal evidence. Though the general Rule of faith be sufficiently Demonstrable, viz. chat all the Dead are blessed which die in the Lord: yet the particular inference of hope, hath its different degrees with respect to the persons concerning whom it is exercised: and the reason of this difference lieth here, because