N01732:97
Five sermons on several subjects. I. A birth-day sermon, preached on the day when…
Five sermons on several subjects. I. A birth-day sermon, preached on the day when the author attained to the eightieth year of his age. II. A dying testimony to the sovereign grace of God in the salvation of his elect, containing three sermons. III. Believers encouraged to pray from the consideration of Christs interceding for them, and with them. / By Increase Mather, D.D ; [Six lines of quotations]
Boston: printed by B. Green for Daniel Henchman, 1719
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.
1. The best work of a Christless Sinn•• does not deserve the name of a good […] Tit. 1. 16. They are to every good work […] probate. The Tree that is a bad […] the Fruit of it will be bad. Mat. 7. […] ⟨p. 83⟩A corrupt tree, cannot bring forth good •ruit. An unbelieving Sinner is such a […], therefore he cannot bring forth good fruit. That is the misery of a Christless Sinner, he never did one good work in all his Life, that God did esteem, and accept as good. What if he pray? Psal. 109. 7. His prayer becomes sin. What if […] does perform any other Religious Du•y? Hag. 2. 14. That which they offer is ••clean. That as long as a Man is in a […] state, he cannot perform any one good work, will appear if we consider what is necessary, that so a work may become a good work. It is required, not ••ly that the matter of it be such as God requires; but that it proceeds from a right Principle, from a Principle of Faith in the heart. This you see in the instance of Cain & Abel, Heb. 11. 6. Without Faith •t is impossible to please God. Let a Man▪s work be whatever it may be, if he has not Faith in Christ, he does not please God. As now Abel's offering was plea•ing to God, because he had Faith in Christ that was to come into the World. Cain's •ffering God did not accept of it, because […] had no Faith. Again, the end must ⟨p. 84⟩be such as God approves of, else the work is not a good work; a corrupt end will spoil a good work, as we see in Jhu, wh he executed Judgment on the bloody house of Ahab, he did what God Commanded; but because his end was no good, it was in God's account no better than Murder; therefore God threatened, that he would avenge on the house of […] the blood of Jezreel,