N01484:178
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.
IF we Punish from Anger it roils us: if Pity remain it grieves us. If Joy seizes us, and Love work strongly in us, they overcome us almost: But much more if Wrath and Hatred move us, we suffer most ourselves in the Punishments we lay on others. But it is not so with God: Tho' we read of His Wrath, yet must we not suppose or imagine any Painful Impression on the Divine Mind. He neither feels the Miseries He pities; nor is vexed at the Sins which He detests. The Divine Mind is ever Serene, Calm and Impassible; and we must abstract all that in our Conceptions of Him, which spring out of the Imperfection either of Nature or Happiness.
IF we Punish from Anger it roils us: if Pity remain it grieves us. If Joy seizes us, and Love work strongly in us, they overcome us almost: But much more if Wrath and Hatred move us, we suffer most ourselves in the Punishments we lay on others. But it is not so with God: Tho' we read of His Wrath, yet must we not suppose or imagine any Painful Impression on the Divine Mind. He neither feels the Miseries He pities; nor is vext at the Sins which He detests. The Divine Mind is ever Serene, Calm and Impassible; and we must abstract all that in our Conceptions of Him, which spring out of the Imperfection either of Nature or Happiness.
SO far I have laboured to State and Limit the Truth before us; to clear and deliver it from those Cavils and Objections that may rise against it in our Minds. Tho' GOD ⟨p. 15⟩has no Pleasure that the Wicked should die, yet it is infinitely Pleasurable to Him to hate Sin, to glorify His Justice, and to perform His Truth and Threatenings against Sin; and the Miseries of them that perish are no grief or offence of Heart unto Him.
SO far I have labour'd to State and Limit the Truth before us; to clear and deliver it from those Cavils and Objections that may rise against it in our Minds. Tho' GOD ⟨p. 15⟩has no Pleasure that the Wicked should die, yet it is infinitely Pleasurable to Him to hate Sin, to glorify His Justice, and to perform His Truth and Threatnings against Sin; and the Miseries of them that perish are no grief or offence of Heart unto Him.