N00460:183
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. Yet there is a considerable deal of a negative Hope that may be entertained for such as these; in as much as they have had a great deal of Gods restraining Grace on them, and ⟨p. 100⟩though that may be where there is no Saving Grace, yet many times it is a fruit of such an inward principle: Besides, there is corruption in the best, and that many times hath not only a great influence into but also much of Prevalency upon the natural temper or constitution which is in men. There are some constitutions in men, which will make a great deal of show with a little Grace and there are others that can make but a very small appearance of a great deal: and if we give to men these allowances, which Christian Charity requires from one to another, we may lawfully Hope, that there might be the root of the matter in them, although they did not make so great a discovery of it as could have been desired.
2. Yet there is a considerable deal of a negative Hope that may be entertained for such as these; in as much as they have had a great deal of Gods restraining Grace on them, and ⟨p. 100⟩though that may be where there is no Saving Grace, yet many times it is a fruit of such an inward principle: Besides, there is corruptton in the best, and that many times hath not only a great influence into but also much of Prevalency upon the natural temper or constitution which is in men. There are some constitutions in men, which will make a great deal of shew with a little Grace and there are others that can make but a very small appearance of a great deal: and if we give to men these allowances, which Christian Charity requires from one to another, we may lawfully Hope, that there might be the root of the matter in them, although they did not make so great a discovery of it as could have been desired.
4. Some there be whose conversation is good and commendable, and their profession is very desirable: only they stand off from holding Communion with the Church of Christ at the Lords Table: and under this circumstance they live and die: and there are too many who so do, and this consideration becomes a stumbling block, and occasion of many heart searchings in their friends when they come to die in this Condition: and truly it is not without a great deal of reason: for out of doubt it is a duty incumbent on all adult persons living under