N00341:96
The greatest sinners exhorted and encouraged to come to Christ, and that now without…
The greatest sinners exhorted and encouraged to come to Christ, and that now without delaying. Also, the exceeding danger of men's deferring their repentance. : Together with a discourse about the day of judgement. And on several other subjects. / By Increase Mather teacher of a church at Boston in N. England. ; [Six lines of Scripture texts]
printed by R.P. for Joseph Brunning i.e, 1686
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.
We read of one in the Gospel, that the Devil was cast out of him with exceeding Difficulty, and when it was asked how long is it ago since this came to him? Answer was made, of a child. Mar. 9.21. Thus where the Devil has a long time held his possession of a soul, its a hard matter to get him out. And SIN as well as Satan will have deeper rooting and stronger hold on the soul, if Conversion be delayed. The sins of men are like Bonds upon their souls, It was said to Simon Magus, Thou art in the bond of iniquity. Now the longer men continue in sin, the stronger do they make that woeful bond: they will find their souls so fettered in the bloody chains of sin, as that it will be a wonder if ever they get loose Jer. 13.23. Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the Leopard his ⟨p. 56⟩spots? then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil. Can it be? it would be strange if it should: Such a thing will be a kind of a Miracle. The sinner is in a grave: Every Sin he doth commit is as it were another stone cast upon that grave which will make his Resurrection the more difficult. And there is infinite danger in mens delaying their Conversion, lest God should say of them as He did of the old world of ungodly ones, who deferred their Repentance. Gen. 6.3. My spirit shall not always strive with man. Or as it was said of Jerusalem, Ezek. 24.13. Because I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee. It may be thy delays may provoke God to inflict spiritual Judgments upon thee; to give thee up to judicial Blindness and Hardness of heart. There is a most awful passage in the Evangelical Prophet Isaiah, which Scripture is often mentioned in the New-Testament, to show that Sinners under the Gospel are greatly Concerned in it, Viz. that Chapt. 6.10. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert and be healed. If God should say of thee, There's such a sinner, I have a ⟨p. 57⟩