N00152:60
The wicked mans portion. Or A sermon (preached at the lecture in Boston in…
The wicked mans portion. Or A sermon (preached at the lecture in Boston in New-England the 18th day of the 1 month 1674. when two men were executed, who had murdered their master.) Wherein is showed that excess in wickedness doth bring untimely death. / By Increase Mather, teacher of a Church of Christ. ; [Six lines of quotations]The wicked mans portion. Or A sermon (preached at the lecture in Boston in New-England the 18th day of the 1 moneth 1674. when two men were executed, who had murthered their master.) Wherein is shewed that excesse in wickedness doth bring untimely death. / By Increase Mather, teacher of a Church of Christ. ; [Six lines of quotations]
Boston: printed by John Foster, 1675
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. Let us all be exhorted to make a right Improvement of such awful Providences as the Text speaks of. There is such a Providence before us this day, which hath occasioned me to speak from these words at this Time. For truly I think God would not have us suffer such solemn awful• Providences as these to pass away without taking •p•ciall notice of them, and making some good Improvement thereof.
1. Let us all be exhorted to make a right Improvement of such awfull Providences as the Text speaks of. There is such a Providence before us this day, which hath occasioned me to speak from these words at this Time. For truly I think God would not have us suffer such solemn awful• Providences as these to pass away without taking •p•ciall notice of them, and making some good Improvement thereof.
You will say, But what use should we make of this awf••l Providence?
Answ. It should cause us humbly to reflect upon our own vile natures. Have we been kept from the like evils that others have been guilty of? No thanks to our own hearts, for we have the same nature that they have, and if God had given us up to our own hearts lusts, we should have been as bad as they, or as any of the children of men, that ever were in the world. Wherefore the Apostle in the third Chapter to the Romans, discoursing of the state of men by nature, saith Their feet are swift to shed blood v. 15. Why; Is every natural man a Murderer? Truly, he hath a Murderers heart within him, and he would quickly shed blood, He would actually commit Murder, if G did not restrain him. How should this thought humble us, and make us vile in our own eyes?