N00655:44
The way to excel. Meditations, awakened by the death of the Reverend Mr. Joshua…
The way to excel. Meditations, awakened by the death of the Reverend Mr. Joshua Moodey; with some short character of that eminent person: who slept in Jesus, 4d. 5.m. 1697. In the sixty fifth year of his age. / By Cotton Mather. ; [Six lines from Joshua]
printed by B. Green, 1697
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.
VII. Let us Beware of every Sin; for Sin will Turn a Man into a Devil. Oh! Vile SIN, horrid SIN, cursed SIN; or, to speak a more Pungent word, than all of That; Oh, SINFUL Sin; how Pernicious art thou unto the Souls of Men! Tis said, in 1 Joh. 3.8. He that Committeth Sin, is of the Devil. Holiness will make men Incarnate Angels; but Wickedness will make them Devils Incarnate. An Impenitent Sinner; hath he the Face of an Angel? No, but the Heart of a Devil in him. Let ⟨p. 27⟩your Zeal against all Sin then, be like that of the Seraphim. The Angels, are Seraphims, or Burning ones; They Burn [and so let us!] against all Sin, because of its being so contrary & provoking to their most Holy Lord. Sirs, Mark it; If any of you wittingly, and willingly, Sin against God, you do as the Devils do, and as the Devils would have you to do, and as our Lord Jesus Christ speaks, in Joh. 8.44 Ye are of your Father the Devil, and the Lusts of your Father ye will do. Dreadful words! There is the Image of the Devil, and there is the Practice of the Devil, in every SIN. To Commit SIN, is Humane; to Indulge it, will be Diabolical. But especially, there is much of the Devil in Apostasy from Good Beginnings. Of the Devils, we find in Jude 6. They kept not their First Estate: They once joined, it seems, in Praising of God, with the Angels of the Blessed Regions; but they Left it all. You that have Left the Societies, and the Exercises, of Christianity, wherein you were at First Engaged; Behold, who your Leader is! The first and great Apostate, the Devil, is your Leader, in this Desertion; And, alas, whither will he Lead you? There is much of the Devil also, in Hypocrisy under Good Professions. When there was a Secret, Rotten Hypocrite, among the Disciples of our Lord. Our Lord said, in Joh. 6.70. He is a Devil: Indeed, the Devil is never so much a Devil, as when Transformed into an Angel of Light. When strict pretenders, and pleaders, and it may be, Preachers of the Gospel, shall yet Cloak some ⟨p. 28⟩Hidden Practices of Dishonesty under their fair pretences, Behold, Men playing the Devil horribly. What shall I say more? The Devil is an Unclean Spirit, a Lying Spirit, a Proud Spirit, a Spirit full of Envy. Oh! Take heed lest you be of such a Spirit, and so, Lest you Perish with the Devil and his Angels, throughout Eternal Ages.