N02155:44
A call to the tempted. A sermon on the horrid crime of self-murder, preached…
A call to the tempted. A sermon on the horrid crime of self-murder, preached on a remarkable occasion, / by the memorable Dr. Increase Mather. ; And now published from his notes, for a charitable stop to suicides. ; [Five lines of quotation in Latin]
Boston: printed by B. Green, 1723
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.
USE 3. BEWARE of this Iniquity.
ONE would think, there should be no great Need of such an EXHORTATION; To call upon men, To do themselves no Harm! Since there is in every man, a Principle of Self-Preservation. Yet there is too much Occasion for it. One Self-Murder makes way for Another. Sauls did for that of his Armour Bearer. —
IT is a Lamentable Thing, that in a Place of so much Light, and Profession as This, it should be said unto a Self-Murdering Devil; — Thou shalt Persuade, and Prevail also! — That in such a Place, there should be any Need of insisting on such a Subject! — Yet there has been so; and there is! Above four Years ago, I saw Occasion to insist on a subject of this Importance, ⟨p. 14⟩because within the space of but Five Weeks, there had been Five Self-Murders! The Lord Knows how many others may be Tempted at This Time, unto the like. I am not without Apprehensions, That the Bloody Lion, who goes about seeking whom he may devour, may be let loose among the Flock; And therefore I thought it my Duty to withstand him, with the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of GOD; Not knowing, but that I may by such means rescue Poor Creatures out of his hands!
IT is a Lamentable Thing, that in a Place of so much Light, and Profession as This, it should be said unto a Self-Murdering Devil; — Thou shalt Perswade, and Prevail also! — That in such a Place, there should be any Need of insisting on such a Subject! — Yet there has been so; and there is! Above four Years ago, I saw Occasion to insist on a subject of this Importance, ⟨p. 14⟩because within the space of but Five Weeks, there had been Five Self-Murders! The Lord Knows how many others may be Tempted at This Time, unto the like. I am not without Apprehensions, That the Bloody Lion, who goes about seeking whom he may devour, may be let loose among the Flock; And therefore I thought it my Duty to withstand him, with the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of GOD; Not knowing, but that I may by such means rescue Poor Creatures out of his hands!