N01484:121
A sorrowful spectacle. In two sermons, occasioned by a just sentence of death, on…
A sorrowful spectacle. In two sermons, occasioned by a just sentence of death, on a miserable woman, for the murder of a spurious offspring. : The one declaring, the evil of an heart hardened, under and against all means of good. : The other describing, the fearful case of such as in a suffering time, and much more such as in a dying hour, are found without the fear of God. : With some remarkable things, relating to the criminal; proper for all to be informed of. / By Cotton Mather, D.D. and F.R.S. ; [One line from Acts]
Boston: printed by T. Fleet & T. Crump for Samuel Gerrish, 1715
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.
First. If People Dye without the fear of God, they Dye Unpardoned: And this Entails the formidable Wrath of God upon them. We read; Psal. CIII. 11, 12. Great is His Mercy towards them that fear Him. He removes our Transgressions from us. But if People do not fear God, their Sins are lying on them, sticking to them; not one of a Thousand, alas, not one of their many Thousands, removed from them. The Wrath of God therefore falls upon the Man, who Dies without the fear of God. He is not at Peace with God, and so he can't avoid the Wrath of God. But, Oh! How dreadful a Thing to fall under the Wrath ⟨p. 71⟩of the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY! How fearful a Thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God! The Wrath of God sometimes lays People under incredible Torments in this World. But undoubtedly, the Tormenting Blows and Scalds, which the Wrath of God will give unto the Children of Wrath in the World to come, will exceed all that is ever seen in this World. Oh! Never yet were those unsearchable Treasures of Wrath so broken up, that any People alive upon Earth, have had a full Display thereof. But there is this Terror of the Lord added unto the dismal State of it Sinner lying under this Wrath; We know no Period of it! The Lamentations will not be, All our Days are passed away under thy Wrath. No, The Days will Never, Never, Never be All passed away. Nor will they be Days neither. They will be Nights rather than Days. 'Tis all utter Darkness. There will be Blackness of Darkness forever. O Dreadful! To be Exiled from GOD! And with an everlasting ⟨p. 72⟩Exile! To be made Vessels of Wrath, wherein the Wrath of God against Sin, shall hang up Everlasting Monuments and Spectacles! This is the Portion of them who Dye without the fear of God: This the Heritage of them who do not get into the Favour of God before they Dye.
Secondly. If People Dye without the fear of God, they Dye with a Vene••ious Nature still unchanged; and so they carry an Eternal Fuel for the Wrath of God into Eternity with them. We read,