N01064:70
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.
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.
He does in Effect say, that the Lord is either an Ignorant or an Impotent God, that either does not know how He has been abused, or is not able to avenge it. The Blessed God is the Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Hosts. The Father is Holy, the Son is Holy, the Eternal Spirit is Holy. God is and cannot but be Holy. Holiness is Essential to his Nature. He is of purer Eyes than to behold Evil, He cannot look on Iniquity. But Sin stands in the greatest Opposition to the Holiness of God. And men by giving way to sin, practically say, that he is not so Holy and so Just to Punish sin as he has declared concerning Himself. God hates Sin with an Infinite and Eternal hatred. But sinners think that he hates sin no more than they themselves do, Psal. 50. 21. Thou thoughtest that I was such an one as thy self. Thus we see how Sin is against God; and in that Chiefly does the Evil of it appear. For God is the Chief Good: And that which ⟨p. 47⟩is most contrary to the Greatest Good, must needs be the Greatest Evil.
II. Sin is Exceeding Hurtful to the precious and immortal Souls of Men. Other Evils may hurt us as to our Estates, or Names, or Bodies, but not as to our Souls without Sin. A Philosopher could say, that his Enemies could only destroy the Case, but not the Jewel which was is it; meaning that they could only hurt his Body, which is like the Case, in which the Precious Jewel, viz. the Soul is contained. A great Truth this is. Our Lord himself has declared no lets, Mat. 10. 28. Fear not them which kill the Body, but are not able to kill the Soul. Then that which hurts the Soul is a greater Evil than that which hurts the Body. Who can declare the worth of a Soul? What shall a man give in Exchange for that Soul which is more worth than all the World, That then which is injurious to a Soul, that is more worth than all the World, how Exceeding Evil is it? But this is true of Sin;