N00460:233
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.
1. Do it speedily. Take the season whilst you may; use the opportunity while it is in your hand. Their lives are uncertain, their times are in Gods Hand, and if we use unnecessary delays, feed our selves with purposes to do it afterwards, thinking that it is now too soon; the time may be lapsed, and they may be gone to the grave; and then to be sure they will be out of the reach of our ever doing any thing more for them.
2. Do it throughly. Be not perfunctory in this matter; be very serious in the work; it is a great thing, and of unspeakable moment: it is not to be done to the halves. How shall we expect them to be in good earnest in minding these things, if we are not so in our pursuit of them? let not carelessness, fond indulgence, sinister ends, or worldly affairs put us by any part of our Duty which we owe to them; Think not our care of their Souls to be the least or last care incumbent on us: what Christ bids us to do for ourselves, we should endeavour for ours also▪ ⟨p. 133⟩Math. 6.33. Seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness.
2. Do it throughly. Be not perfunctory in this matter; be very serious in the work; it is a great thing, and of unspeakable moment: it is not to be done to the halves. How shall we expect them to be in good earnest in minding these things, if we are not so in our pursuit of them? let not carelessness, fond indulgence, sinister ends, or worldly affairs put us by any part of our Duty which we ow to them; Think not our care of their Souls to be the least or last care incumbent on us: what Christ bids us to do for ourselves, we should endeavour for ours also▪ ⟨p. 133⟩