N01608:30
The valley of Hinnom. The terrors of hell demonstrated and the methods of escaping…The valley of Hinnom. The terrours of hell demonstrated and the methods of escaping…
The valley of Hinnom. The terrors of hell demonstrated and the methods of escaping the terrible miseries of the punishments on the wicked there, declared. In a sermon preached in the hearing, and at the request, of a man under a sentence of death for a murder; just before the execution of the sentence; and upon a text by himself assigned for the sermon to insist upon. At Boston, 13.d. IV.m. 1717, : [Two lines of quotation in Latin]The valley of Hinnom. The terrours of hell demonstrated and the methods of escaping the terrible miseries of the punishments on the wicked there, declared. In a sermon preached in the hearing, and at the request, of a man under a sentence of death for a murder; just before the execution of the sentence; and upon a text by himself assigned for the sermon to insist upon. At Boston, 13.d. IV.m. 1717, : [Two lines of quotation in Latin]
Boston: printed by J. Allen for Robert Starke, 1717
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.
Unto this tremendous Assertion, there has been a mighty Army of Martyrs who have born a Testimony, which ought to be far from Contemptible with us. Come with me, to Mahanaim, and see the Hosts of GOD, and hear their Testimony. There have been Thousands of good and wise Men, who rather than Sin against the Glorious GOD have not loved their Lives unto the Death; but been willing to Dye before the Term to which in the course of Nature they might have lived. When these Men were put ⟨p. 23⟩in mind of this thing, Death is Bitter; One of them spoke the mind of all the rest, when he said, But HELL is more Bitter than any Death! Death in all the most hideous and horrible Forms of it, and with all the most Insufferable Tortures, has been set before them. This Death have they chosen, and unto all the Torturous Cruelties which that Cursed Monster Persecution could afflict them withal, have they Courageously and Cheerfully Exposed themselves. Why, They have all said, No Death of the Body from the Hand of Man can be so formidable, as the Destruction of Soul as well as Body from the Hand of GOD, after Death, unto which our Sin against GOD would render us obnoxious. The Servants of GOD, who have suffered Martyrdom have been the Excellent of the Earth; and such a Spirit of GOD has rested on them, in their sufferings, that we cannot reasonably imagine them left unto a Delusion, in the Grand Principle ⟨p. 24⟩that acted them. These Witnesses of GOD, ascending up into Heaven in a Cloud, call with a Loud Voice from thence unto us; It was well worth all our Sufferings, to escape the Destructive Miseries of the Hell, from which we are now delivered!
What will be the more special kinds of the Destructive miseries in the Punishment of the Damned in HELL; This is a Thing very much concealed from us, as well as the more particular place of Torment. Our Saxon Word, HELL, signifies, a Pit, and one that is covered over. Doubtless, our Language wants Words to express the Destructive Miseries in that Pit of Destruction, and so it can be no other than very much covered over. And yet the Mouth of the Pit has been so much Discovered unto us that we shall not fall into it, except with madness in our Heart while we live, we will go unto the Dead. You shall presently see the Mouth of the Pit opened, and the Smoke of the Torment come