N00343:53
A sermon occasioned by the execution of a man found guilty of murder: preached…
A sermon occasioned by the execution of a man found guilty of murder: preached at Boston in New-England, March 11th 1685/6. : (Together with the confession, last expressions, and solemn warning of that murderer, to all persons; especially to young men, to beware of those sins which brought him to his miserable end.) / By Increase Mather, teacher of a church of Christ.A sermon occasioned by the execution of a man found guilty of murder: preached at Boston in New-England, March 11th 1685/6. : (Together with the confession, last expressions, and solemn warning of that murderer, to all persons; expecially to young men, to beware of those sins which brought him to his miserable end.) / By Increase Mather, teacher of a church of Christ.
Boston: printed by Richard Pierce for Joseph Brunning book-seller, 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.
But I proceed to the second Exhortation.
If Murder be such a Crime as has been declared, then, let whoever has been guilty of ••'s sin, be humbled for it, and repent of it. As for Interpretative Murder, many are guilty of that. O how many that have by debauchery and intemperance, shortened the lives of themselves or others; let such repent, and turn from their sins unto God. But I hope there is none in this vast Assembly, that has been guilty of that Murder which is by the Law of God, and of the Land a Capital Crime, excepting one man, and one such person where is here present, unto whom I shall now particularly apply my self. Do you then hear, that your Soul may live: This is the last Sermon that •ver you shall hear. Time was when ⟨p. 35⟩you might have heard Sermons, but would not; and now you shall not hear them, tho' you would. For, as God •id to him, This night thy Soul shall be required of thee; So I say to you in his Name, This night thy Soul shall be taken from thee: This might your Soul shall be either in Heaven or in Hell for ever. You. are appointed to die th•s day, and after death, cometh the Judgment; as soon as your Body is dead, your immortal Soul shall appear before the Great God and Judge of all, and a Sentence of Everlasting Life, or Everlasting Death shall be passed upon you. Are you willing when those Chains, which a•e about you, shall be taken off, that your immortal Soul should be hanged in Everlasting Chains? Are you willing that when your Body is removed from the Prison, your Soul should go to the Spirits that are in Prison? You have complained that you have been in a Dungeon, and had little light there; but are you willing to go where you shall never see light? Are you willing that when your Body is delivered from this Dungeon, your Soul should go into that Dungeon, where is blackness of darkness for ever? If not, I charge you in the Name of God to hear and obey his Word: Yea, that Word which you have many a time despised: I have spoken so often to you in