N00355:111
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 N.E. March 11th 1685[/]6. : (Together with the confession, last expressions & 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 church of Christ.
Boston: printed by R.P. i.e, 1687
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.
Let your first Head of Meditation be an I Must Think with your selves, I must look unto Jesus Christ. Say to your own souls about Looking to Jesus Christ, as Paul did about preaching of Jesus Christ, Necessity is laid upon me, and woe unto me if I do it not. Bestow one look in the first place on your selves, upon your own most rueful […] & Fears. O ponder on the hideous doleful plight which by your Iniquities you have sunk your selves into and with an Anguish of Soul speak to ⟨p. 66⟩your selves in such Soli-loquies as these.
Let your first Head of Meditation be an I Must Think with your selves, I must look unto Jesus Christ. Say to your own souls about Looking to Jesus Christ, as Paul did about preaching of Jesus Christ, Necessity is laid upon me, and woe unto me if I do it not. Bestow one look in the first place on your selvs, upon your own most rue•ul 〈…〉 & Fears. O ponder on the hideous doleful plight which by your Iniquities you have sunk your selves into and with an Anguish of Soul speak to ⟨p. 66⟩your selvs in such Soli-loquies as these.
Ah, woe is me; In the Fruition of God is enwrapped all my happiness, without this, O Lord, what will become of me for evermore! But never was there a more lamentably forsaken Soul than I. The Terrible God, at whose Rebukes the Everlasting Rocks are tumbled down, and the mountainous Pillars of heaven tremble, He is such an Adversary to me, that if I do not agree quickly with Him, never-ceasing Tormentors will take me into their unpitying hands. I have like a Fool in whom •olly was exalted horribly provoked him by my▪ sins that are as many as the Sands, & as mighty as the Hills that over-top the Clouds. I am hereupon justly already smitten with spiritual plagues, & justly given over into the clutches of the red roaring Dragons, & devouring Lions whom I have most fondly hearkened unto Yes I see the dreadful Gulf below gaping for me, I see my self ready to be preyed upon by the worm that dyes not, & by the fire which never shall be quenched. Nor can I by any means pluck my self out from this horrible Pit, this miry clay. Alas, What shall I do? O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?