N00657:55
A discourse concerning the uncertainty of the times of men, and the necessity of…
A discourse concerning the uncertainty of the times of men, and the necessity of being prepared for sudden changes & death. Delivered in a sermon preached at Cambridge in New England. Decemb. 6. 1696. On occasion of the sudden death of two scholars belonging to Harvard College. / By Increase Mather, president of that college. ; [Two lines from I Samuel]A discourse concerning the uncertainty of the times of men, and the necessity of being prepared for sudden changes & death. Delivered in a sermon preached at Cambridge in New England. Decemb. 6. 1696. On occasion of the sudden death of two scholars belonging to Harvard Colledge. / By Increase Mather, praesident of that colledge. ; [Two lines from I Samuel]
printed by B. Green for Samuel Phillips, 1697
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.
You Scholars (said he) have the best Opportunities of all men for the getting of Assurance: you are still looking into Gods Book, and into other good Books, and should acquaint your selves with your Spiritual Estate toward God. Truly, it is a sad thing, when Scholars the design of whose life is to gain knowledge, yet know not what their Spiritual Estate is, or what shall become of their Souls for ever. Why! you cannot know what will become of your Bodies for a day; but you may know what will become of your Souls throughout an endless Eternity. Rest not then without being able to give a good Answer to that Question. I doubt many of you cannot say more than Berengiraus did, (it may be some of you not so much) who when he was dying, thus expressed himself, I am now going to appear before God the Judge of all; what will become of my Soul, I cannot tell; I have some hopes that ⟨p. 39⟩I shall be Saved, but I am afraid that I shall be Damned. Poor man! A sad word for so Learned a Person as he was to go out of the World with.
You Scholars (said he) have the best Opportunities of all men for the getting of Assurance: you are still looking into Gods Book, and into other good Books, and should acquaint your selves with your Spiritual Estate toward God. Truly, it is a sad thing, when Scholars the design of whose life is to gain knowledge, yet know not what their Spiritual Estate is, or what shall become of their Souls for ever. Why! you cannot know what will become of your Bodies for a day; but you may know what will become of your Souls throughout an endless Eternity. Rest not then without being able to give a good Answer to that Question. I doubt many of you cannot say more than Berengiraus did, (it may be some of you not so much) who when he was dying, thus expressed himself, I am now going to appear before God the Iudge of all; what will become of my Soul, I cannot tell; I have some hopes that ⟨p. 39⟩I shall be Saved, but I am afraid that I shall be Damned. Poor man! A sad word for so Learned a Person as he was to go out of the World with.