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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.
2. The Great & terrible God is dreadfully angry with you for this sin, & for all the rest that that have bin previous thereunto. The only Subject upon which that fearful thing the Anger of God fa•ls, is Sin, and Sinners for Sin. All His own works are good, his Creatures good, so owned & pronounced in Gen. 1. 31. and therefore the Lord is pleased with them, SIN only that is the Devils work & Man's work, God is angry with. You have heard something even how of the nature of God's Anger, but who knows the Power of it. Psal. 90. 11. And you are the person against whom this inconceivable Anger is enkindled; O let this word sink down into the bottom of thy Heart, and pierce thy very soul. Say to thy self, I am the man with whom the eternal GOD, the Sovereign of the whole World is angry. Think on that Text, & let thy heart meditate terror the while, Psa. 7. 11. God is angry with the wicked every day. While thou wert Cursing, Swearing, Drinking, to excess, &c. God was angry with thee, even every one of those days was he angry, while thou wert wickedly transgressing, living in a course of open Transgression, He was angry all the while; Thou wert conceiving Sin, and God was conceiving Anger, which is now brought forth, tho thou tookst no notice of it, nor hadst any dread of it before. Especially He is severely angry with thee for this execrable Sin of ⟨p. 88⟩Murder, for which there is no expiation but by the death of the Murderer; whereof that Reason is given Gen. 9. 1. because man was made in God's Image, so that the Killing of a man is the Destroying of the image of God. Murder is a fill against the light of Nature; and so heinous that the Barbarians who had no knowledge of the true God, yet concluded that Vengeance followed the Murderer up and down, so that tho' he may escape for a while, however at length it would not suffer him to live. Act. 28. 4. Know then that this is the main thing thou hast to think on, this is the most terrible thing before thee, not so much the pain or shame of the death thou art speedily to undergo, as the Anger of God that comes with it. This is the great Concernment of every man at all times, and of thee principally at this time: How stand matters between God and thee? how is He affected, is He angry or pleased? Why, I tell thee, That God whose favour is life, and whose Wrath is Death, He is angry with thee.