A50163:59
Soldiers counselled and comforted a discourse delivered unto some part of the forces engaged…Souldiers counselled and comforted a discourse delivered unto some part of the forces engaged…
Soldiers counselled and comforted a discourse delivered unto some part of the forces engaged in the just war of New-England against the northern & eastern Indians, Sept. 1, 1689 / by Cotton Mather ...Souldiers counselled and comforted a discourse delivered unto some part of the forces engaged in the just war of New-England against the northern & eastern Indians, Sept. 1, 1689 / by Cotton Mather ...
Boston: printed by Samuel Green, 1689
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.
USE I The Improvement of these things remains; & first the Whole Congregation is concerned in it.
Unto you, I say, Take heed that your Lives be not snatched out of your Hands, before your Souls are well provided for. Your Souls are not well provided for without Regeneration; for we are told, Except a man be born Again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Nor without Conversion: for we are told, Except ye be Converted, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Nor without Believing; for we are told, If you ⟨p. 21⟩Believe not, you shall Die in your Sins. O Look after these Important things, they all make up The One Thing Necessary. I am to tell you, and I must loose the Life which I now carry in my Hand, if I tell you not, That Necessity is laid upon you, and Woe unto you, if you do it not. If your Souls are dragged away before you have had a Comfortable Experience of these Needful Things, you are horribly undone; Flatter not yourselves, He that made you will not have mercy on you, and He that Formed you, will show you no Favour. The Souls which are now so much in your Own Hands, must then fall into Other Hands, which how can your Hearts be strong, or how can your Hands Endure at the fore-sight of? Your Souls must then fall into the Hands of God, whose Hands (whose fiery iron Arms) 'tis a fearful thing to fall into. And your Souls must then fall into the Hands of Satan too, Who goes about seeking whom to catch and gripe in his cruel claws. And are these the Hands, that, O ye Souls in peril, ye will rush into? Hearken to that voice of the Eternal God, which says in Heb. 3.7. To Day if you will Hear his voice. What you do for the Welfare of your Souls, must be done To Day, To Day! Your Souls may have taken Wing before To morrow. I may say as 'twas once said in a worse case, What thou do• do quickly! 'Tis the Solemn Caution, in