N00597:112
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
To fill up the Vacant PAGES, A Serious and most Important Question,… › Answer 2
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.
II. When Sin is become a mans greatest burden, that argues a real Saving change of Soul. Such an one ha's a New heart given to him. There is spirit as well as flesh, Grace as well as Sin in that mans Soul. Gal. 5. 17. It is from Grace in the heart that sin is become the most hated loathsome evil. It was a good answer which an holy man gave to one that proposed that Question, How may a man know that a sin is mortified? If (said he) it is become unsavoury & loathsome like a dead & rotten carcass, that's a sign of its mortification. Though sin has a being still in that mans Soul, it does not raig• there unto death. Suppose a living man should have a dead body chained to him that he could not possibly get rid of, this must needs be matter of constant sorrow to him, and he would desire nothing more than to get clear of that dead ⟨p. 110⟩body: This is the very case of the true believer on Christ, which makes him cry out Oh! wretched man that I am, Rom. 7. 24. That sin is become the greatest burden to the renewed Soul, is evident, inasmuch as one of the chief reasons why he is willing to die, is that […] may never sin more. There are esepicia••y two Considerations which make the believer willing to leave this world, one is, that so he may see Jesus Christ, and be with him for ever; the other is that so he may be eternally freed from sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin, Rom. 6. 7. Nothing is sweeter then life, yet life is not so dear to the sincere Christian as sin is grievous and hateful to him. Hence it comes to pass that if at any time. Temptations and Iniquities prevail over him, the sorrows of his Soul are enlarged: he then says as Rebekah did, I am weary of my life because of the Children of Heth. And because sin is become the most abhorred evil to him, there are sins which Unregenerate men are seldom troubled for, that the sincere Christian cannot allow himself in, namely Sinful thoughts. I dare not say that whoever is afraid to commit a sin in his thoughts is certainly gone beyond a Hypocrite; If I should so speak, I should •ow Pillows under the Elbows of many an