N00460:155
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.
1. That Saving Grace is not absolutely tied to the visible covenant. It doth not ascertain Conversion and Salvation to every one that is under it. The Gospel Covenant requires such conditions to be found in us, as God alone is able to work by Almighty power, and he is Sovereign in his dispensations; he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, Rom. 9.8. His Grace is free. So that being in the Covenant and under the terms of it, doth it not make an infallible truth that such an one must & shall be Saved. We know that God hath a Glory for his revenging Justice, as well for his Grace, to be gained in his visible Church; there are therefore threatenings as well as promises put into the Covenant; and the promises themselves are Conditional, and will argue no farther than from the Condition being wrought in the person, which God is not under any positive engagement to this or that person to do it for him:
1. That Saving Grace is not absolutely tied to the visible covenant. It doth not ascertain Conversion and Salvation to every one that is under it. The Gospel Covenant requires such conditions to be found in us, as God alone is able to work by Almighty power, and he is Soveraign in his dispensations; he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, Rom. 9.8. His Grace is free. So that being in the Covenant and under the terms of it, doth it not make an infallible truth that such an one must & shall be Saved. We know that God hath a Glory for his revenging Justice, as well for his Grace, to be gained in his visible Church; there are therefore threatnings as well as promises put into the Covenant; and the promises themselves are Conditional, and will argue no farther than from the Condition being wrought in the person, which God is not under any possitive engagement to this or that person to do it for him:
2. The innocency of Children cannot save them. Nor is it any reason or ground of Salvation: It is not that which makes any impression, or becomes any motive on the heart of God to save them rather than others. It is then a very poor Hope that is built upon this Consideration. This, as it raiseth prejudices in some at the providence