A50164:59
Speedy repentance urged a sermon preached at Boston, December 29, 1689
Speedy repentance urged a sermon preached at Boston, December 29, 1689 : in the hearing and at the request of one Hugh Stone, [a mis]erable man [under a just sen]tense of [death] for a [tragical and] hor[rible murder : together with some account concerning the character, carriage, and execution of that unhappy malefactor : to which are added certain memorable providences relating to some other murders, & some great instances of repentance which have been seen amongst us / by Cotton Mather.]Speedy repentance urged a sermon preached at Boston, December 29, 1689 : in the hearing and at the request of one Hugh Stone, [a mis]erable man [under a just sen]tence of [death] for a [tragical and] hor[rible murder : together with some account concerning the character, carriage, and execution of that unhappy malefactor : to which are added certain memorable providences relating to some other murders, & some great instances of repentance which have been seen amonst us / by Cotton Mather.]
Boston: printed by Samuel Green, 1690
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.
Assertion 1.
The Death of Men, is a kind of sleep unto them.
This is a Scheme of speaking used by the Holy Spirit of God. Death is a Sleep to the Godly: therefore it was said in John 11: 11, 12. Our Friend Lazarus s•eepeth; Howbeit Jesus spake of his death. Death is a Sleep to the Wicked also. Hence it is said in Dan. 12. 2. many of them that sleep in the Dust shall awake, ⟨p. 29⟩to shame and everlasting contempt. Our Burying places, are therefore not unfitly termed, Caeme•ries, or Dormitories, or Sleeping places. Thus the Psalmist feared, in Psal 13. 3. Lest I sleep, the sleep of Death. Death is a Sleep, How? Tis not for the Spirit so. A Psychopannychia, a sleeping of the Soul on Death, is too gross and sad a thing to be imagined: it is it self, a Dream. The Active Apostle would never have said, as in Phil. 1▪ 23. I desire to be dislodged and be with Christ; if he should have had nothing to do but Sleep in the Lodging which he was thus desirous to go unto. Let no man imagine that his departed Soul shall become stupid and senseless▪ and with| out all Apprehensions after Death. God forbid it should be so! Nr do YOU that are here a dying Prisoner, expect that within a few Hours, you shall be fallen into a Deep Sleep of all your Faculties. No, the Souls of Mn at the hour of Death, do rather begin