N00597:104
Solemn advice to young men, not to walk in the ways of their heart,…Solemn advice to young men, not to walk in the wayes of their heart,…
Solemn advice to young men, not to walk in the ways of their heart, and in the sight of their eyes; but to remember the Day of Judgment. / By Increase Mather, president of Harvard College in Cambridge, & preacher of the Gospel at Boston, in New-England. ; [Five lines of Scripture texts]Solemn advice to young men, not to walk in the wayes of their heart, and in the sight of their eyes; but to remember the Day of Judgment. / By Increase Mather, praesident of Harvard Colledge in Cambridge, & preacher of the Gospel at Boston, in New-England. ; [Five lines of Scripture texts]
printed by Bartholomew Green. Sold by Samuel Phillips, 1695
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. III.
That Sin will not always be sweet, at last it will be bitter. If the pleasures of sin would last for ever, the folly of sinners would not be so great as now it is. You must die shortly, and then the pleasure of sin will be turned into unutterable and Eternal Torments. I remember I have some where read concerning a Company of profane Persons that as they were drinking and making Merry, one of them had this Expression, We live a brave Life if we could but get some body to go to Hell for us when we die: True; if you can do so, be as mad and as merry as you please: But since you must die and then into the fire that never shall be quenched; if madness were not in your hearts, you would hate ⟨p. 105⟩sin more then ever you loved it. But […] will sin be at last? As sure as the Lord Lives and as thou hast an Immortal Soul within thee, it will be bitter at the last. Sin is a root that beareth gall and wormwood, D•ut. 29. 18. As Abner said to Joab about the devouring Sword, 2 Sam. 2. 26. So I say to thee concerning sin that devourer of Immortal Souls, knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end? What will that sin of Drunkenness be at last: The wise man tells you when he says, Look not thou on the wine when it is red when it giveth 'it's colour in the cup, when it moveth it self aright at the last it biteth like a Serpent and stings like an Adder, Prov. 23.31, 32. There are some Serpents which when a man is first bitten with them, the poison causeth such a tickling as that he cannot forbear laughter, but when it is come into his blood and bowels, the torment is intolerable: Such a poison is sin, At the […] will bite like a Serpent. What will the Cursed […] bottle that ha's destroyed so many Bodies and Souls in New-England, be at last? That strong drink which ha's made thee Drunk will at last prove the poison of Dragons, and the Cruel […] of Asps, which killeth without mercy and without remedy,