N00729:69
Pillars of salt. An history of some criminals executed in this land, for capital…
Pillars of salt. An history of some criminals executed in this land, for capital crimes. : With some of their dying speeches; collected and published, for the warning of such as live in destructive courses of ungodliness. : Whereto is added, for the better improvement of this history, a brief discourse about the dreadful justice of God, in punishing of sin, with sin. : [Two lines from Deuteronomy]
printed by B. Green for Samuel Phillips, 1699
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.
IV. Let us Examine our selves with sincere Impartiality, and humble Sincerity, whether we are not Already Fallen into some Sin, wherein we are punished for some Former Sin. Indeed this is one of the unhappy Symptoms usually attending a Soul given up to Sin for Sin; That such a Soul, is most unhappily Insensible of its own wretched circumstances. Of such, 'tis said in Rom. 11.8. God hath given them the Spirit of Slumber. 'Tis perhaps an allusion, to those that are Bitten with an Asp; on which Bite they are Stupefied, they Slumber, they doze, they die away in their Stupidity. Sirs, if a Stupidity be upon you, while you are growing more and more Sinful before the Lord, God is now smiting of you, with this Transcendent Wretchedness, of being Left unto Sin for Sin. Caution, Suspicion, Fearfulness, & Self Examination, would be a good prevention of this Wretchedness. Examine particularly; Do you Indulge no• Sins, which Evidently do you all sorts of Injuries, & yet you can'• for your Lives leave off those Injurious Miscarriages? A man is given over to Sin for Sin, when he plainly sees himself […] ⟨p. 37⟩by Sin, and yet says, as in Prov. 23.35. I will seek it yet again. Many a man, Evidently sees it, yea, Feels it, That by his Drunkenness, he brings upon himself a Woe; That by his Uncleanness he gets unto himself a Wound; That his Vain Company ever serves him, as the Thieves did the poor man Travelling from Jerusalem: And yet the man is in, A Bond of Iniquity: he cannot forbear Sinning, any more than the poor Animal in the Woods, running into the mouth of the Fascinating Rattle Snake, although he fears, and Cries, and Shrieks, and knows that he runs into the Jaws of Death. Ah, Soul; That Sin seems now to be Armed with a Commission from God, thus to Hold thee, in such a Bond of Iniquity. 'Tis a Sin that is a Punishment upon thee, as well a Sin; a Punishment upon thee, for thy not Repenting of Sin.
IV. Let us Examine our selves with sincere Impartiality, and humble Sincerity, whether we are not Already Fallen into some Sin, wherein we are punished for some Former Sin. Indeed this is one of the unhappy Symptomes usually attending a Soul given up to Sin for Sin; That such a Soul, is most unhappily Insensible of its own wretched circumstances. Of such, 'tis said in