N01488:9
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.
THE PREFACE
I Shall not make any Apology for the Plainness of the Style in the Sermons Emitted herewith, Much less for my having Confirmed the doc• insisted on, with Scriptural De• strations, that having always b• and ever shall be, Studious […] deavoured by me.
I Shall not make any Apology for the Plainess of the Style in the Sermons Emitted herewith, Much less for my having Confirmed the doc• insisted on, with Scriptural De• strations, that having alwayes b• and ever shall be, Studiou• 〈…〉 deavoured by me.
There are Preachers in the World, wh• have little Citation of S• ture their Discourses, but […] are Studied Harangues, Ca• to please the Phantasies, […] awaken the Consciences of the ⟨p. ii⟩Auditors. No Man of those few in the World to whom I am known, will Expect any thing of that Nature from me. I bless the Lord that in my Youth I did not so, because of the fear of God, but have been willing to follow that Apostolical Precept, in Doctrine to show Incorruptness, Gravity, Sincerity and sound Speech which cannot be condemned. Much more does it become me to do so in my Old Age. I am grieved to see in a late Book which gives an Account of the present State of the Dissenters, Complaints, that many Ministers in England, among those that o under the Name of Dissenters, are got into a Modish Way of Preaching; and tha so they might be thought to be florid, they affect a Dramatic Style in their Sermons, and bring out Play house Phrases into the Language of the Pulpit. That