N00460:158
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.
2. Positively, take these following conclusions;
1. That godly parents have a better hope concerning their Children than those that are Unconverted. Though both are in the Gospel Covenant outwardly, and under the external dispensations of it: and though a gracious man can no more merit for his Children then an ungracious man; nor can •e any more work saving grace in them than the other; yet his hopes are far better than the other: and the reason of this is evident; because we have observed that the hope of Gods Children is a result of their faith; we are therefore said to be begotten to a lively faith, i. e. in Regeneration, The Hope of Godly ones is not a mere Affection, but a sanctified Affection; and therefore it cannot be but there where this sanctification is wrought.
1. That godly parents have a better hope concerning their Children than those that are Unconverted. Though both are in the Gospel Covenant outwardly, and under the external dispensations of it: and though a gracious man can no more merit for his Children then an ungracious man; nor can •e any more work saving grace in them than the other; yet his hopes are far better than the other: and the reason of this is evident; because we have observed that the hope of Gods Children is a result of their faith; we are therefore said to be begotten to a lively faith, i. e. in Regeneration, The Hope of Godly ones is not a meer Affection, but a sanctified Affection; and therefore it cannot be but there where this sanctification is wrought.
Though God can as well save the Child of an unbeliever, as of the most eminent Saint in the world, yet the unbeliever cannot so well hope for it: and the reason is because this soul satisfying Hope, is a fruit of the spirit, and is wrought in none but such whom he sanctifies. An unregenerate man is under the Covenant threatening, and therefore all the Hopes that he maintains himself