N01484:129
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.
Aged People surely cannot but know this. I am therefore to say unto you; An Aged Person without the fear of God, Oh! 'Tis one of the most Melancholy Sights that can be looked upon. What? Past Fifty, and come to the Use of Glasses, and flying down to the Grave, with the Haste of an ⟨p. 76⟩Eagle to the Prey; and still without the fear of God! Oh! Lamentable! I entreat you, I entreat you, Sirs, to make Haste in lifting up your Cries unto God. Oh! God of all Grace, Implant thy Fear in my Soul before I die! Oh! Let not my Death surprise me, before the Grace of thy Fear has Enlightened me! And Oh! be at no Quiet, until you feel the Working of it. Your Epitaph will else quickly be that; Eccl. IX. 3. Madness is in their Heart while they Live, and after that they go to the Dead.
Aged People surely cannot but know this. I am therefore to say unto you; An Aged Person without the fear of God, Oh! 'Tis one of the most Melancholy Sights that can be look'd upon. What? Past Fifty, and come to the Use of Glasses, and flying down to the Grave, with the Haste of an ⟨p. 76⟩Eagle to the Prey; and still without the fear of God! Oh! Lamentable! I entreat you, I entreat you, Syrs, to make Haste in lifting up your Cries unto God. Oh! God of all Grace, Implant thy Fear in my Soul before I die! Oh! Let not my Death surprize me, before the Grace of thy Fear has Enlightened me! And Oh! be at no Quiet, until you feel the Working of it. Your Epitaph will else quickly be that; Eccl. IX. 3. Madness is in their Heart while they Live, and after that they go to the Dead.
But of those who are sure of having the Arrest of Death presently served upon them, there is none that has a more affecting Assurance of it, than a poor Daughter of Death, who is this Afternoon to have her Soul Required of her. Ah! poor Creature! Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art under a Condemnation, to a Tragical Death which is to be this Afternoon executed on thee; and within three or four Hours, thy Soul will be Required of thee; within three or four