N00597:86
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.
1. By their being brought unto true Repentance for their sins. For then sin becomes exceeding bitter to the Soul. The Jews took pleasure in Crucifying Christ; but when Peters Sermon had pricked them to the heart, they mourned for him as one mourns for an only Son, and were in bitterness for him as one in bitterness for his first born. Zach. 12. 10. When a man repents truly, his sorrow for sin is much greater, then was the pleasure he had in Committing of it. David found it so, this we see in his penitential Psalms, where we hear him saying, Neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin: for mine iniquities are gone over my head, as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me, Psal. 38. 3, 4. And in another place, he speaks of his roaring all the day long: And again, he complains of his broken bones: He could not have been in more bitter anguish if all his bones had been broken, then he was in, after his grievous fall in that matter of Uriah and Bathsheba. And when Solomon was brought ⟨p. 86⟩to a true sight of his sin, how bitter was it to him: Do but hear what he saith Eccles. 7. 26. I find more bitter then death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and he• hands are bands, whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her, but the sinner shall be taken by her And did not sin become hateful to the incestuous Corinthian, when he was in danger of being swallowed up with sorrow, 2 Cor. 2. 7. There is nothing got by sin but sorrow and shame. Therefore did the Apostle say, What fruit had you of those things whereof you are now ashamed, Rom. 6. 21. A true penitent never thinks of his former sins and follies, but with sorrow and shame. It makes his Soul within him to bleed and to blush before the Lord. Or if not so.
1. By their being brought unto true Repentance for their sins. For then sin becomes exceeding bitter to the Soul. The Jews took pleasure in Crucifying Christ; but when Peters Sermon had pricked them to the heart, they mourned for him as one mourns for an onely Son, and were in bitterness for him as one in bitterness for his first born.