N01484:228
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.
BUT I cannot Conclude without casting an Eye of tender Compassions on the poor Condemned Person before us; and O that GOD would please to Enable her to apprehend the abounding Riches of His Glorious Grace and Compassions to the chief of Sinners, and glorify the same unto her.
BUT I cannot Conclude without casting an Eye of tender Compassions on the poor Condemned Person before us; and O that GOD wou'd please to Enable her to apprehend the abounding Riches of His Glorious Grace and Compassions to the chief of Sinners, and glorify the same unto her.
YOU have heard, poor Margaret, (and O might it be to your everlasting Comfort and for your eternal Salvation that you have heard) that the Holy and most Merciful GOD has no pleasure at •ll that the Sinner should die, but that the Sinner do repent and live. Now why should not your Soul be overcome, and all the Wickedness thereof, by the Mercies of GOD? why should not thy hard Heart be softened and melted into floods of Tears for thy Sins, that the pardoning Mercy of GOD may be magnified toward thee!
[…] your Sins more in number and kind, and more heinous than they are; were thy Soul fouler and more stained with lust and with the guilt ⟨p. 40⟩of blood too than it is; (tho' it be very bad, and how can you think it could be worse than it is?) yet there is no reason for thee to despair of GOD's Mercy. It is only thy own hardness and Impenitency that can exclude thee from it. The glorious GOD pities thee, the People of GOD pity thee; O miserable Woman pity thy self, have compassion on thy own Soul, and cry mightily to thy Saviour that thou mayest find Mercy.