N01367:28
Nepenthes evangelicum. A brief essay, upon a soul at ease; in what piety will…
Nepenthes evangelicum. A brief essay, upon a soul at ease; in what piety will bring both parents and children to. : A sermon occasioned by the death of a religious matron, Mrs. Mary Rock. Who having entered the eighty first year of her age, withdrew from us. 30d. 7m. 1713. / By Cotton Mather, D.D. ; [One line from Matthew]Nepenthes evangelicum. A brief essay, upon a soul at ease; in what piety will bring both parents and children to. : A sermon occasion'd by the death of a religious matron, Mrs. Mary Rock. Who having entred the eighty first year of her age, withdrew from us. 30d. 7m. 1713. / By Cotton Mather, D.D. ; [One line from Matthew]
Boston: printed by Thomas Fleet for Daniel Henchman, 1713
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.
VII. Piety will provide a Dwelling for the SOUL, after Death; and so good a Dwelling, that the Ease of Soul in it, will be Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful! The Blessings of the Life to come, are now, as I foretold, come unto us. The Fear of God provides an Easy Dwelling for the Soul of the Good Man, at the ⟨p. 21⟩Time when his Seed Inherits the Earth. At the time of our Death, it is that our Children enter upon the Inheritance that we leave unto them, and make their Division of it. At this time the Soul of a Good Man shall have a Dwelling in Good; It shall dwell in a good State, and in a good Place, and therefore dwell at Ease. I am obliged unto the Famous Alting the Younger for this Illustration. The Immortality of the Soul is plainly Confessed and Asserted in this Expectation. The New-Testament has most plainly Testified this Article of our Faith: It is not possible for any Words to be plainer or fuller for this Purpose, than those Words of our Saviour; Matth. X. 28. They that Kill the Body, are not able to Kill the Soul. But Sirs, you see the Old Testament also acknowledges it; An Easy Dwelling for a prepared Soul, when it leaves the Body. Let no Man be now so Brutish, as to make any Doubt, whether he has an Immortal Soul or no. There is a late Infamous Bigot, whom they will needs have to pass for a very Learned Man; that for a notable Proof of his Learning, has written a Discourse ⟨p. 22⟩to prove from the Scriptures and the First Fathers, that the Soul is a Principle naturally Mortal. You have seen the Scriptures Condemn that Foolish Man; and one cannot well Imagine, with what Face, he could call in the Fathers to Patronize his wicked Opinion. I may not be allowed here to Digress for the Confutation of an Assertion made with so much of an Impudence, that cannot be accounted for: But I hope, Justin Martyr may pass for one of the Fathers, who in his Apology, over and over again asserts, All Departed Souls to be in a state of Sensibility; All of them to have a Sensation continued unto them. Well, but what comes of a God-fearing, and so a prepared Soul, when it must no longer Dwell in the Body? The Soul is by Death, turned out of its Dwelling; turned out of Doors. But a Regenerated Soul, a Sanctified Soul, a Purified Soul, finds a Dwelling at its Departure hence; A Comfortable Dwelling; A Dwelling where it shall be comforted.