N01064:26
A discourse concerning earthquakes. Occasioned by the earthquakes which were in New-England, in the…
A discourse concerning earthquakes. Occasioned by the earthquakes which were in New-England, in the province of Massachusetts-Bay, June 16. and in Connecticut-Colony [sic], June 22. 1705. : Also, two sermons, showing, that sin is the greatest evil; and, that to redeem time is the greatest wisdom. / By Increase Mather.A discourse concerning earthquakes. Occasioned by the earthquakes which were in New-England, in the province of Massachusetts-Bay, June 16. and in Conecticot-Colony [sic], June 22. 1705. : Also, two sermons, shewing, that sin is the greatest evil; and, that to redeem time is the greatest wisdom. / By Increase Mather.
Boston: printed by Timothy Green for Benjamin Eliot, 1706
Title page typeset from the transcription.
There shall be Great Earthquakes before the Lords Coming. › Proposition 2: PROPOSITION II.
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. Earthquakes are sometimes, and indeed usually, a Sign that Men have Sinned, and that God is Angry. Certain it is, that if men had never Sinned, they had never been terrified with Earthquakes. Therefore at the time when God caused the Law to be Proclaimed there was an Earthquake; signifying His Holy anger against those that should Transgress that Law. The Scripture often speaks of Earthquakes as a sign of the Wrath of God burning against a sinful world. He overturns the Mountains in His Anger, Jo•. 9▪ 5▪ At His Wrath the Earth shall Tremble. Jer. 10. 10. The Mountains Quake at Him. Who can stand before His Indignation? His Fury is poured out like Fire, and the Rocks are thrown down by Him, Nah. 1. 5, 6. God therefore threatens to Visit men with Earthquakes as a terrible▪ Judgment; Isa. 29. 6. Thou shalt be Visited of the Lord of Hosts, with Thunder and with Earthquake, and with great Noise: And there […] awful instances Recorded in the Script••e of horrendous Earthquakes, which were the Effects of Divine indignation for the Sins of men. It was Thunder and Lightning and an Earthquake which Destroyed •he Sinners in Sodom & Gomorrah, causing ⟨p. 12⟩all their houses as well as themselves to sink down into an horrid Lake. They were Prodigious Sinners, therefore a Prodigious Earthquake brought upon them Eternal Desolation. So when Corah and his wicked Crew by means of an Earthquake, went down alive into Hell; it was because they had highly provoked the Lord by Sinning against Him: Numb. 16. 30. If the Earth opens its mouth & swallow them up with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the Pit, then you shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord. When there was a formidable Earthquake in the Days of King Uzziah, the Jewish writers tell us, that it happened at that very time when he was presumptuously offering Incense in the Temple, contrary to the Commandment of God, for which he was also smitten with an incurable Leprosy. Yea, sometimes Earthquakes have been a sign of the Displeasure of God, when the Earth has only trembled without destroying any person. So was that Earthquake which happened at the time when our Saviour CHRIST was Crucified,