N00355:185
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.
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 (Mat. 5. 34.) I say unto you, (and there is a great deal of weight to be laid upon that Introduction, I say unto you swear not at all. The same is also repeated by the Apostle James Cap. 5. 12. where note the form of vehemency & earnestness (as one calls it) in which He propounds it, Above all things, Swear not, it being a great Sin much in use, and when so,1 it is hardest left: therefore above all things do not swear, and its enforced from the danger of falling into Condemnation. I remember […] Herbert saith in his Advice to young men […] the Swearer has neither any fair pretence […] •oing it, nor excuse when done, either from pleasure or profit, &c. and adds, that if an Epicure he could forbear Swearing.
Cursing & Swearing begin to grow common in this Land. It was not so in our first dayes. I lived near 20 years in this Countrey 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. Wo 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 alwayes 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