N00460:215
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.
Sermon › Proposition 6 › Application 2: USE II.Sermon › Proposition 6 › Application 2: VSE II.
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. Mourn too long. If it were only for the present, whilst their spirits are under a sudden surprise, and by reason thereof their sorrows are too hard for them, having gotten an advantage over them; although this ⟨p. 122⟩is not to be Justified, yet it might better be allowed; b•t when they settle themselves to it, and resolve to bid adieu to all joys any more; they go mourning from day to day, and year to year, and never strive to get themselves into any composed frame, and their minds stayed: this is altogether a fault to be reprehended, it calls for a sharp rebuke; this is at least Heathenish, if it be not a great deal worse.
2. Mourn too long. If it were only for the present, whilst their spirits are under a sudden surprize, and by reason thereof their sorrows are too hard for them, having gotten an advantage over them; although this ⟨p. 122⟩is not to be Justified, yet it might better be allowed; b•t when they settle themselves to it, and resolve to bid adieu to all joys any more; they go mourning from day to day, and year to year, and never strive to get themselves into any composed frame, and their minds stayed: this is altogether a fault to be reprehended, it calls for a sharp rebuke; this is at least Heathenish, if it be not a great deal worse.
3. Their mourning puts them by their Duties which they owe the constant performance of unto God. Any thing that obstructs a Christian Conversation, and takes men off from the service of God is to be reproved, and there are the Duties which we are called to a constant upholding of, and in so doing we express our faithfulness to God. The sorrow which drives us to more care and diligence in these than before we used, is profitable for us; but that which puts us off from them, and so gives a check to our progress in holiness, is to be reprehended. All Christians are by Duty called to be spiritual Priests unto God, i. e. they are to offer up Sacrifices of Thanksgiving unto him in an holy life: now the Priest of old, was not to lay off his garments for mourning, i. e. he was not to unfit himself for the service of the Altar. If Gods Children do by their sorrow put themselves out of any disposition