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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 3: USE III.Sermon › Proposition 6 › Application 3: VSE III.
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.
For Direction.
1. Make sure of your own good estate. ⟨p. 130⟩There is no man can challenge the Gospel Consolations to himself, any farther than he hath this persuasion, that he is entitled to the New Covenant: he that will take the promise as belonging to him, and not arrogate what is not his own, must see that the condition be wrought in him: those only can assure themselves that all things shall work together for their good; all others may expect, and shall find all to turn to their harm: How shall that man comfort himself with such an Hope that this or that person is in Eternal Glory, who hath no grounded hopes that he himself shall ever come there? He may be in his conscience persuaded that such an one is gone to Heaven, but it is another thing to entertain such a persuasion with Hope: Hope is that in the exercise whereof the Soul is relieved, but what relief can an unbeliever have by such a persuasion, yea it is the Spirits work to give us the Consolation of our Hope, that it may have real refreshing in it, but such have not received the Spirit, and therefore can be under no such influence.
1. Make sure of your own good estate. ⟨p. 130⟩There is no man can challenge the Gospel Consolations to himself, any farther than he hath this perswasion, that he is entituled to the New Covenant: he that will take the promise as belonging to him, and not arrogate what is not his own, must see that the condition be wrought in him: those only can assure themselves that all things shall work together for their good; all others may expect, and shall find all to turn to their harm: How shall that man comfort himself with such an Hope that this or that person is in Eternal Glory, who hath no grounded hopes that he himself shall ever come there? He may be in his conscience perswaded that such an one is gone to Heaven, but it is another thing to entertain such a perswasion with Hope: Hope is that in the exercise whereof the Soul is relieved, but what relief can an unbeliever have by such a perswasion, yea it is the Spirits work to give us the Consolation of our Hope, that it may have real refreshing in it, but such have not received the Spirit, and therefore can be under no such influence.