N00729:76
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.
V. Let the Sins of Unchastity be Loathed by us, with a Peculiar Antipathy; because ordinarily there are more Sins that follow, to Punish them: 'Tis very Rarely otherwise. Unchaste Persons have this foretold concerning them, in Prov. 5.11, 14. They shall mourn at the last, and say, I was almost in all evil. Alas, If you wallow in the Nasty Vices, and Puddles, of Unchastity, God will give you over, to be Almost all in Evil! There are Two Things, that frequently occur among us. One thing very Frequent is This; A person that falls into One Act of Unchastity, if they don't presently with Bleeding Souls fly to the Blood of the Lord for Pardon, they are usually left unto another. Yea, and God punishes the Unclean, by giving them over, to proceed from one kind of Unchastity unto another. First the young Wretch, confines his Wantonness unto himself alone; but he goes on to Fornication, he goes ⟨p. 43⟩on to Adultery; he goes on, — to ne•andous and stupendous Abominations. The Fire of Lust, becomes like the Fire of Hell, in the Oven of that Unchaste Soul; 'tis never quenched, until God shall drench it in the Lake that burns with Fire and Brimstone. And another Thing very Frequent is This; A Person abandoned unto the Sins of Unchastity, is rarely brought unto Repentance; God punishes the Unclean, by giving them over to Eternal Obduration in their Unchastity. These are Sins, whereof 'tis said, They take away the Heart: The Brutified Wretch that is Habituated thereunto, ha's no Heart for Christ, no Heart for Penitence, no Heart for Piety left unto him. Hence you shall see, That though Malefactors, have by an Unchaste life brought themselves unto the very Gallows, the Fire of Lust hath B•ked their Hearts into such Insensible Hardness, and Seared them into such Insensibility, that nothing will work upon them. We have seen, that they'll continue their Whoredoms, in the very Prison; they'll go out of the World with Lies in their Mouths; you shall have almost as many Lies from them as Tears: The Sottishness upon them, is the Amazement of all Spectators. Whence is this? 'Tis the punishment of Sin with Sin, in those, who as Eph. 4.19. Being past all Feeling, have given themselves over unto Lasciviousness to work all Uncleanness with Greediness.