N00946:112
Soul-saving Gospel truths. Delivered in several sermons, wherein is showedSoul-saving Gospel truths. Delivered in several sermons, wherein is shewed
Soul-saving Gospel truths. Delivered in several sermons, wherein is showed: I. The unreasonableness of those excuses which men make for their delaying to come to the Lord Jesus for salvation. II. That for men to despair of the forgiveness of their sins because they have been great, is a great evil. III. That every man in the world is going into eternity. / By Increase Mather. ; [Eight lines of Scripture texts]Soul-saving Gospel truths. Delivered in several sermons, wherein is shewed: I. The unreasonableness of those excuses which men make for their delaying to come to the Lord Jesus for salvation. II. That for men to despair of the forgiveness of their sins because they have been great, is a great evil. III. That every man in the world is going into eternity. / By Increase Mather. ; [Eight lines of Scripture texts]
Boston : Sold by Eleazer Phillips., 1703
Title page typeset from the transcription.
TO DESPAIR Of the Forgiveness of SIN, Is a GREAT EVIL. › Conclusion 1: CONCLUSION I.
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.
CONCLUSION I.
Not only Elect Vessels, but true Believers may for a time be overcome with this Evil. What are men, yea the best of men, if God withdraw from them, and leave them to the power of Satan's Temptations? There have been very Holy Men & Women who have had their pangs of Despair. For such may be of melancholy tempers, and thence apt without any just ground, to fancy dismal things concerning themselves. There was an eminent Minister in London, (Mr. Nalton) who in some fits of melancholy would say, If an Angel should come from Heaven and tell him that he had Grace, he could not believe him. An Aged & Faithful Minister here in New-England, being overcome with melancholy, did many Years ago utter such words ⟨p. 106⟩as these to me, O it is a sad thing when a man knows that he must be Damned. I have your Father more than any man in the world: He came to see me, and would have Prayed with me, but I would not permit him to do it lest he should take Gods Name in vain by Praying for a […] Thus a Natural Disease is through the malice of Satan the cause of this Spiritual Malady. And then it is often removed by the use of natural means. The Physician may do more than the Divine […] for relief in this case. Moreover, Good men may be in a Despairing condition through a mistaken Judgment Some very pious Souls have been troubled with horrid Blash•emous Thoughts concerning God, and Christ, and the Holy Scriptures; and Satan has from thence taken occasion to fill them with […] Thoughts too. They have falsely imagined that no one that belongs to God could be ⟨p. 107⟩troubled with such thoughts: Whereas the greatest Saints on Earth may be vexed with them. What more blasphemous imagination can there be than that a Man should worship the Devil? Nevertheless, the Devil did suggest that to the Holy mind of Christ in whom there never was any sin. Such blasphemous thoughts if they are not at all entertained, but rejected with abhorrency, are the Devils sin, and not the sins, only the great affliction of the man that is perplexed with them. When Josephs Steward put his Silver Cup into Benjamins Sack, there was no guilt on Benjamin who never consented to the Theft. No more are they guilty of sin whose minds are perplexed with blasphemous injections from Satan, as long as they give no consent to them. It is not the ravished party, but the party whose will consented to the rape that is guilty.