N00732:30
The surest way to the greatest honour
The surest way to the greatest honour: discoursed in a sermon, delivered in the audience of His Excellency the Earl of Bellomont, captain general and governor in chief, and the Council, and representatives of the General Assembly of the province of the Massachusetts-Bay, convened at Boston in New-England, May 31st. 1699. Being the day for the election of counsellors in that province. / By Increase Mather.The surest way to the greatest honour: discoursed in a sermon, delivered in the audience of His Excellency the Earl of Bellomont, captain general and governour in chief, and the Council, and representatives of the General Assembly of the province of the Massachusetts-Bay, convened at Boston in New-England, May 31st. 1699. Being the day for the election of counsellors in that province. / By Increase Mather.
Boston: printed by Bartholomew 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.
3. The Honourer of God is one that ha's an Holy Zeal for His Name. A man that honours another ha's a Zeal for him. He cannot bear it that the person whom he has an high value for should be abused. So he that honours God is greatly concerned at the injuries which are done to his Name. Psal. 69. 9. The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me. He •elt those reproaches that were ca•• upon the Name of God more sensibly than if they had fallen upon Himself. The Prophet Elijah was a man that honoured God: And he was a Zealous man. I (said he) have been very Jealous for the Lord God of Hosts, for the Children of Israel have forsaken thy Covenant, thrown down thy alters, and slain the Prophets with the Sword. • King 19 10. Never man did honour God so much as the man Christ Jesus did, who never in all his Life did any thing but with a respect to his Father• ⟨p. 11⟩Glory. Now his Holy Heart was always burning with Zeal for God. Therefore was it said of him, The Zeal of thy House has eaten me up. Joh. 2. 17. This Zeal which is the Character of one that honours God, discovers it self in two things especially.
•. By ••aring a due Testimony against the Sins of men. When Gods Law is Transgressed, his Name is dishonoured. Rom 2. 23. Through breaking the Law dishonourest thou God? Therefore when those Transgressions are duly Testified against, He is honoured. A Minister that would honour God in his place, must faithfully reprove the sins of men, and spare none: They must cry aloud and spare not, and li•• up their Voice like a Trumpet showing to the house of Jacob their sins. John Baptist did not spare Herod himself, notwithstanding his greatness, when he was known to be a vicious person. That his Faithfulness cost him his Life, and he was willing rather to loose his Life, than God should loose the honour due to his Name. If reproofs will not do, they that have Authority to punish Transgressors are bound out of respect to the honour of God in that way to express their Love and Zeal for his Name. So did Christ show his Zeal in punishing them that had profaned the Temple. When Phinehas Executed Judgment on several filthy debauched persons, God was honoured and highly pleased with that his Zeal.