N00255:49
A sermon wherein is showed that the church of God is sometimes a subject…A sermon wherein is shewed that the church of God is sometimes a subject…
A sermon wherein is showed that the church of God is sometimes a subject of great persecution; preached on a public fast at Boston in New-England: occasioned by the tidings of a great persecution raised against the Protestants in France. / By Increase Mather, teacher to a church of Christ. ; [Eight lines of quotations]A sermon wherein is shewed that the church of God is sometimes a subject of great persecution; preached on a publick fast at Boston in New-England: occasioned by the tidings of a great persecution raised against the Protestants in France. / By Increase Mather, teacher to a church of Christ. ; [Eight lines of quotations]
printed for Samuel Sewall, 1682
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.
Yea, and many times the sins which Gods people themselves are subject to, are the procuring cause of great persecution. By their own sins they provoke the Lord to put a sword into the Hands of their Enemies. The sins found amongst the Churches of Christ, do this. For indeed, their transgressions do most of all dishonour, and displease Him. If his Sons, and his Daughters provoke him, He will surely ⟨p. 10⟩scourge them in the open sight of others. For Three sins especially:
1. Apostasy. When Solomon did forsake God, the Lord raised up these, and those Adversaries against him, 1 Kings, 11. 9, 14. The Babylonian persecution came on the Jews because their backslidings were increased. Therefore were they torn in pieces by Evening-wolves, by Lions, and by Leopards, Jer. 5. 6. And in the Days of the Judges, Enemies made havoc of the Israelites, because of their going a whoring from God. By their Apostasies, they provoked the Lord; that He sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, Judg. 2. 13, 41. When the Lord strengthened the King of Moab against Israel, it was because Israel had done evil in his sight. So when the Lord left them to be oppressed, and scattered by the Midianites, Philistines, Ammonites; It was because they had left G od, in departing from his holy and righteous ways. We need go no further than our own Nation, for the confirmation of this. The Saxons (from whom we are generally Descended) became great Idolaters, serving graven Images, Canonizing Saints, and worshipping them; in stead of God in Christ alone. For which cause, God punished our forefathers with the Danish Persecution; and after that with the Norman Conquest.
1. Apostasy. When Solomon did forsake God, the Lord raised up these, and those Adversaryes against him,