N01488:112
Several sermons wherein is showed, I. That Jesus Christ is a mighty Saviour. II.…Several sermons wherein is shewed, I. That Jesus Christ is a mighty Saviour. II.…
Several sermons wherein is showed, I. That Jesus Christ is a mighty Saviour. II. That God converts his elect some at one age, and some at another, commonly before old age. III. That when godly men dye, angels carry their souls to another and a better world. : With a preface in which there is a brief and true character of the Reverend Mr. Thomas Bridge a lately deceased pastor in one of the churches in Boston. / By Increase Mather, D.D. ; [Four lines of quotations]Several sermons wherein is shewed, I. That Jesus Christ is a mighty Saviour. II. That God converts his elect some at one age, and some at another, commonly before old age. III. That when godly men dye, angels carry their souls to another and a better world. : With a preface in which there is a brief and true character of the Reverend Mr. Thomas Bridge a lately deceased pastor in one of the churches in Boston. / By Increase Mather, D.D. ; [Four lines of quotations]
Boston: printed by B. Green for Benjamin Eliot, 1715
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.
All the Men in the World, are not able to kill a Soul. To deny the Immortality of the Soul, is to destroy all Religion at once. For […] nullifies all the Promises & Threatenings contained in the Scripture, which are not fulfilled in this Life, therefore if there ⟨p. 99⟩is not a future State, and so an Immortal Soul they will never be fulfilled. To say that Man is wholly Mortal, is an assertion not only contrary to the Scripture, but […] the light of Natural Reason. For it is irrational, to think that a Vicious Man is happier that a Virtuous Man: yet so it would be, if there is no other Life but this, or if the Souls of M•n dye with their Bodies. 1 Cor. 15.19. If in his life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. If there is no life but this, the best Men would be the unhappiest Men. What reasonable Man can believe that to be so? Blessed Rewards are Promised to the Righteous; But in this life they see them not. There is one event to the Righteous and to the Wicked. Yea, many times they are subject to greater Miseries than others, and that all their life long. The holy Penman of the Seventy third Psalm, says, All the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning. Severe punishment is threatened, for those that have been great Sinners. ⟨p. 100⟩Whenas many times they are not punished in this World. The ungodly prosper in the World, they have more than heart can wish. From these Considerations the Philosophers and Wise Men among the Gentiles, did believe the Immortality of the Soul, and that there is another World in which Good Men shall be Happy, and the Wicked Miserable. Balaam was so far enlightened as to believe this. Wherefore he said, Let me dye the Death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his, Numb. 23.10. He knew that when Righteous Men dye, their Souls do not dye, but that afterwards, (as the Original Hebrew imports,) after Death they are happy. And this has been the Faith of all Righteous Men. It is therefore said, The righteous has hope in his Death, Prov. 14.32. He has hope of being made happy at and by his Death. The Martyr Stephen did not think that his Soul dyed with his Body, for then he would not when dying have said, Lord Jesus receive my spirit. The Faith of this, comforted