N00355:52
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.
Consider 2. What Misery you have by might upon your self, on your Body, that must dye an accursed death▪ you must hang between Heaven and Earth, as it were forsaken of both, and unworthy to be in either. And what Misery have you brought upon your poor Children! you have brought an everlasting Reproach upon them▪ How great will their Shame be, when it shall be said to them, that their Father was hanged, […] for his goodness, as many in the world have him▪ but for his wickedness: not as a Martyr, but as a Malefactor, truly so! But that which is Ten Thousand Thousand times worse than all this, is, That you have (without Repentance) brought undoing Misery upon your poor yet precious Soul […] not only Death on your Body, but a Second Death on your never-dying Soul. It is said in the Scripture, That Murderers shall have their part in the lake, which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the Second Death, Rev: 21. 8. O tremble at that! I remember a Man that was condemned and Executed in this place▪ […] years ago, that had been a Soldier, ⟨p. 32⟩and as stout a spirited man as most in the World, who when he came to dye, thus expressed himself to a Minister that treated with him about his Soul; I (said he) never knew what Fear meant, tho' I have bin amongst drawn Swords, and before the Cannons mouth, I feared not death but now you tell me of a Second Death, it makes my Soul to shake within me! That's a Death, the Thoughts whereof may make the soul of the stoutest Sinner in the world to tremble; for that's a death which is ETERNAL▪ The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are ETERNAL. The death of the Body, that's seen, and is soon over; but what becomes of the Soul when a Sinner dyeth, they that stand by him do not see, but if he dye impenitent, the Death which is not seen takes hold on him, and it is eternal. The God against whom he has sinned, liveth for ever to punish him. And a fearful thing it is, to fall into the •••nds of the ever-living God. O run not into the mouth of the Second Death, into the wide Mouth of the fiery Pit, which has devoured Millions of Millions of immortal souls; and know you for certain, that if you die impenitent, your Damnation will be no ordinary one: for yo• have not only transgressed against the Law o God, with a high hand, but sinned against the Gospel too.