N00896:92
The excellency of a public spirit discoursedThe excellency of a publick spirit discoursed
The excellency of a public spirit discoursed: in a sermon, preached in the audience of the General Assembly of the province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, May 27. 1702. Being the day for election of counsellors in that province. / By Increase Mather. ; [Four lines of quotations]The excellency of a publick spirit discoursed: in a sermon, preached in the audience of the General Assembly of the province of the Masachusetts Bay in New England, May 27. 1702. Being the day for election of counsellors in that province. / By Increase Mather. ; [Four lines of quotations]
printed by B. Green for Nicholas Boone, 1702
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.
like that of the Blood being sprinkled on the doors of the houses of the Children of Israel. Hereby is noted, how God does sometimes signally preserve his Righteous ones. When the world is turning up side down, they are as safe as things that have the Seal Royal on them, which may not be meddled with. Wonderful it was that when the Roman Empire was overturned by barbarous Nations, many Professors of Christianity escaped the general destruction Nevertheless, though the Lord does sometimes make a difference as to outward Judgments, i• is not always so; therefore it is said, Eccles 9.2. There is one Event unto the Righteous and to the Wicked; And God says, in Ezek 21.3, 4. that he would Cut off the Righteous with the Wicked: For alas! sometimes righteous men do partake too much in the sins of the wicked, by which God is provoked to bring destroying judgments on the Earth. And if they partake with them in their sins, it is not to be w•ndred ⟨p. 48⟩a• if they partake with them in the judgments that come for those sins. Come out of Babylon (says God) my people, partake not of her sins, lest you receive of her plagues. Rev. 18.4. And which is a sadder truth, righteous men may through temptation fall into such sins as shall bring temporal judgments on themselves and others too. Thus Gideon by introducing innovations in Religion, made a great Schism among the Lords people, which ended in sore calamities, Judg. 7.27. The like is to be said of David when he numbered the people; and Jehoshaphat when he did too much comply with an ungodly Interest, 2 Chron. 19.2. Shouldst thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? therefore wrath from the Lord is on thee: And what was that wrath? why in the next Chapter you see how there was a great force from beyond Sea, viz. the Moabites, who dwelt on the other side of the dead Sea, and other Enemies coming to invade the Land, and this to punish Jehoshaphat, a good man for his sinful compliances; so then righteous men may suffer with the wicked. And in Epidemical Judgments 'tis commonly so, when a War breaks forth, Righteous men are cut off as well as others; the Sword devours one as well as another: Or if mortal and contagious diseases happen, Good men as well as others die by this Judgment; when seventy thousand men were swept away by the Plague in Davids time, no