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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.
See wither lesser sins will lead you, even unto greater till at last you come to the Great Transgression. Your frequent swallowing of Gnats will make you not to stick at Camels. Custom of sin will take away Conscience of Sin; and when Conscience of sin is gone, what sin is there that you are not ready for?
I shall speak a few words to each of those Sins which he Wills them a Warning against.
Cursing & Swearing begin to grow common in this Land. It was not so in our first days. I lived near 20 years in this Country before I heard an Oath or a Curse. But now as you pass along in the streets, you may hear children curse and Swear, and take the great & dreadful Name of God in vain. They have learnt it from elder persons. Woe to those that taught them if they repent not. The Lord will not hold you guiltless: You shall answer not only for your own Oaths & Curses & Blasphemings of God's Name, but for the sins of those Children whom you have taught, yea made to sin. It has always bin the great design of Satan to debauch the Professors of Religion; hence he suggested to Balaam the Counsel which he gave to Balk to draw Israel unto sin, to debauch the Youth, and then he need not hire any to curse them because their holy God would be wroth with them: and its dreadful to think what success the Instruments of the Devil have had of late years ⟨p. 108⟩in this Land. Those that vainly swear, let […] •ead what Jesus Christ the Judg of all saith, (and He is a Judge that stands at the door and hears and is ready to judge both the quick and the dead, (Jam. 5. 9. with Pet. 5. 5.) I say hear Him speaking thus (