N01488:54
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. II.
If Christ is a Saviour of Souls, then they who are the destroyers of Souls, are the m•st unlike to our Lord Jesus Christ of a•y […] the W•ld. In this respect Christ and the Devil are most contrary: For ⟨p. 35⟩the Devil is a Mighty Destroyer of Souls. And Sin which is worse than the Devil, is a great Soul Destroyer. The Devil by causing Men to sin, destroys their Souls. He designed the destruction of all the Souls that ever should come into the World, when he persuaded Adam, the common Parent of Mankind to sin a against God. This he did soon after the World began, and is therefore said to be a Murderer from the beginning, Joh. 8.44. And he had obtained his bloody design, if God had not sent his Son Jesus Christ into the World to be the Saviour of it. 1 Joh. 3.8. He that committeth sin is of the Devil, for the Devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil. The Devils work was to destroy Souls, Christ's work is to save them. The Devil is still driving on his old cursed Trade. 1 Pet. 5.8. Your Adversary the Devil as a roaring Lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour. Writers say of the Leopard that he delights in ⟨p. 36⟩nothing so much as in humane Blood. The Devil […] a Lion and s• a Leopard he thirsts after nothing so much as the Blood of Souls. It is indeed true, that he designs the destruction of the Bodies of Men. He is the Angel •f Death. If God shall permit him, he'll poison the Air, and destroy Multitudes with the noisome Pestilence he will raise bloody Wars, and set Nations upon destroying one another; but this he does, because when the Bodies of Men are destroyed, if they dye in their sins, their Souls are destroyed also. When there is a battle fought & many Thousands slain, if they are Christless their Souls fall into the Devils hands the great devourer of Souls, so unlike is he to Christ. And there are Men who are the Devils Children and most unlike to Christ, in that they are the destroyers of Souls. There are some that endeavour to hinder oaths from Embracing the way of Truth, which is the way of Salvation.