N00896:96
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.
1. Sometimes they are spared as to temporal Ruin for the sake of Righteous men, as the City of Zoar, a whole City, (though but a little one) was spared for the sake of Lot. Gen. 19.22 So when Paul was Sailing to Rome, all the Ships Company had their lives saved for his sake: The Angel said to him, God has given thee all them that Sail with thee. Acts 27.24▪ There were two hundred threescore and sixteen souls, whose lives were all spared for the sake of a righteous Paul, that was among them. Thus in the Parable, the tares were spared for the sake of the wheat that was mixed with them. Mat. ⟨p. 52⟩13 29 the Servants would have been plucking up the tares, no says the Lord, let them alone, lest you pluck up the wheat also. The truth is, that the world stands for the sake of a few righteous men in it. And so it has been in every Generation. Prov. 10.25 The Righteous is an everlasting foundation: They as a foundation uphold the world, and have done so all along from the beginning of the world, and will do so to the end of it 'Tis for their sakes any are saved, Mat. 24.22. No flesh should be saved if it were not for the Elects sake If all the Righteous men in the world were taken •ut of it, God would do to this Earth as he did to Sodom when Lot was taken out of it. If all the Righteous men were taken out of the Earth, God would set the whole World on fire before to morrow. Then 'tis for their sakes that the world stands; when all the Elect are called and snatched out of the world (as it will be at the last and great day) then devouring fire shall come and destroy all the wicked. Then that Scripture will be fulfilled in the utmost extent of it, Ma• 4 1. For behold the day cometh that shall burn as an O•en, and all the wicked shall be stubble, they shall be burnt up root and branch.