N00355:143
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.
1. Thou standest here before the Lord and his People at this Time, as a solemn Example of that sacred Text, Numb. 32. 23. You have sinned against the Lord, and be […] your sin will find you out. This day is this Scripture awfully fulfilled upon you. You have owned under your hand that you have lived all your days in those abominable sins of Cursing, Swearing, Lying, Drunkenness and Sabbath-breaking, such sins as that the least of them (however you have made a light matter of them) without deep Humiliation & sincere Application to the Blo•d of Christ, is enough to exclude you forever from any Inheritance in the Kingdom of Heaven. 1. Cor. 6, 9, 10. And those that have been acquainted with you think you have not wronged your self in that Confession. Besides all the other evils that ⟨p. 86⟩your own heart is privy to, and many more which the All seeing God has observed in you. I speak not this to upbraid you but further to humble you, and withal to tell you, that you glorify God by this Confession. Thus you say you have lived, and these sins you traded in, till now at last the Lord has lest you to commit that great & horrendous Sin of Murder, in the doing of which you have even filled up your measure, and all the rest of your sins do in this one sin find you out and light upon you. You may look at this sin as part of the punishment of your former and other sins. And it is one of the Lord's most righteous, but withal most tremendous wa•es of punishing Sin; viz. with Sin, or by Sin: Lesser sins are punished by leaving men to greater sins. Thus did the Lord punish the Gentiles, Rom. 1. 18, &c. the Apostle there calls it the Revelation of the wrath of God from heaven, when for their Unthankfulness & Vanity &c. He gave them up to vile Affections, and Actions, among which Murder is mentioned as one, v. 18.—32. Solomon tells us, Prov. 13. 21 that Evil pursueth sinners, and it is true of the Evil of Sin and the Evil of Punishment both, that they do pursue sinners, tho there that of Punishment is properly intended, as appears by the Opposition unto the Good which shall be repaid to the righteous. You have bin pursuing the evil of Sin, and the evil of Punishment hath been in the mean time pursuing you, and now you are overtaken & seized thereby.