N01488:124
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.
USE. III.
What do we think will be•me me of the Souls of Ungodly Men when their Bodies shall […]? Will holy Angels carry them to Heaven? No, certainly; but evil Angels and carry them to Hell. One of the Ancients speaks of an Ungodly Youth that when he was dying, he cried out to his Father, O Father, I see Devils come to carry me away. So 'tis with those that dye in their sins, whether they see it or no before they are dead; their Souls are no sooner out ⟨p. 120⟩of their Bodies, but they are sensible of this. Where was the Soul of ungodly Dives when his Body was dead and buried? Was his Immortal Soul carried into Abraham's bosom? No, the next word to my Text says, In hell be lift up his eyes. And how was it with him there! was he not in flaming Torment? Lazarus his Soul was in Paradise, but the Soul of Dives was in the place of Torment; and not one drop of any comfort there, how did he beg for one drop of Water to cool his Torment, but in vain. And how is it this day & for ever, with the Souls of those ungodly Men that lived in the Old World, before the Flood. Are they not in Prison? Does not the Scripture say that the Spirits, the Immortal Souls of these who sometimes were disobedient in the days of Noah, are in prison, 1 Pet. 3.19, 20. They are in blackness of darkness forever. In a dismal Dungeon, where is nothing but misery. And where are the filthy Souls of the Sinners in Sodom? Does not Jude say, They suffer the vengeance of ⟨p. 121⟩Eternal Fire? Suppose what is spoken in the Scripture concerning the Fire and Brimstone in Hell, to be Metaphorical, since Spirits are not capable of being hurt by a material Fire, that proves the Torment which the Damned endure, to be more terrible than the hottest Fire upon Earth. No Fire to be compared with the Fire of God's Wrath. I have somewhere Read of a miserable Man in Horror of Conscience, who looking on the Fire, said, Do you see that Fire burn? To burn there, is but a Metaphor compared with what I feel in my Soul. True it is, that the Damned will be more Miserable after the Day of Judgment, than at present they are. As the Evil Angels shall; whence some of them said to Christ, Jesus thou son of God, art thou come to torment us before the time,