Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n
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A50148
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A pastoral letter to the English captives, in Africa, from New-England
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Mather, Cotton, 1663-1728.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing M1137; ESTC R19432
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8,003
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18
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Destruction and Slavery that Sin ha's brought upon them When you have Sincerely thus Believed on the Lord JESUS CHRIST then you may Joyfully Sing I know that my Redeemer Lives Though you Dy in your African Captivity yet you may Dy Praising of God for Saving you from your Spiritual Captivity Yea 't is possible that you may Live to see us again in this World and Bless God with us that ever you were sent into such a sad part of the World as Africa for if you Seek First the Redemption of your Souls the other will the sooner be Added unto you Especially if you go on more particularly to Express that Repentance with which a True Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ will be accompanied It is one of the Oracles in the Word of our God If they Confess their Iniquity that they have walked Contrary unto me and I also have walked Contrary unto them and have brought them into the Land of their Enemies if then their Uncircumcised Hearts be Humbled and they then accept of the Punishment of their Iniquity then will I remember my Covenant My Distressed Friends Now you are in the Land of your Enemies 't is Time for you Humbly to Confess unto the Lord all that Iniquity which He is Punishing in this your Captivity For the Lord in His Oracles also forwarned His People Because thou Servedst not the Lord thy God with Joyfulness Therefore shalt thou Serve thine Enemies which the Lord shall send against thee in Hunger and in Thirst and in Nakedness and in the want of all Things It may be said Who gave you to the African Pyrats It was the Lord against whom you had Sinned Have you forgotten the Story of Menasseh Of Menasseh the Story is famous That his Enemies took him and bound him with Fetters and carryed him to Babylon and when he was in Affliction he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly and Prayed unto Him and He was Entreated of him and heard his Supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem Truly my Brethren your Enemies have taken you and bound you and Carried you to Africa Now in your Affliction if you will Beseech the Lord your God and Humble your selves greatly who can tell what He may do for you It was a Good proposal made by the poor Captives of old among their Lamentations Let us Seach and Try our Wayes and Turn unto the Lord Solomon said Captives are to Bethink themselves and Repent I advise you To set before your selves the Commandments of God and what is Required and what is Forbidden in every one of the Commandments and very Deliberately Examine how far you have in your own Conversation Omitted what is Required and Committed what is Forbidden and Loath Judge your selves before the Lord for all the Evil that ha's been in all your wayes It may be your Conscences will now as it was with Joseph's Brethren when they saw themselves becoming Prisoners accuse you with a more special Remorse for your Unthankfulness and Perhaps Discontentment under the Mercies of God that formerly Surrounded you and for your Unfruitfulness and Misbehaviour under the means of Grace that once Enriched you or perhaps for some Singular Acts of Wickedness against God or Injustice towards your Nighbours Bewayl it all before that God who Forgives Iniquity Transgression Sin and fly to the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as a Fountain set open for Sin and for Uncleanness Do not imagine That it is too late for you to obtain the Pardon of your Sins now the Judgment of God ha's overtaken you for them for it is not so You may yet thro' a CHRIST come to Sing Who is a God like unto thee that Pardons Iniquity He retains not His Anger for ever because He delighteth in Mercy This therefore is the Fourth and a Great Thing to be press'd upon you PRAYER Prayer without Ceasing Your fierce Masters lay heavy Burdens enough upon you The Things which we now lay upon you are Burdens indeed unto an Unregenerate Heart but they are to Ease your Burdens I am sure Prayer will do it marvellously Our Bible mentions one who was of a Sorrowful Spirit but it is added Having poured out her Soul unto the Lord she was no more sad Oh! Let not the Angels of God who are the Spectators of your Sorrows and of your Actions under your Sorrows have cause to make that Complaint of you that the Prophet made of the People that had been Slaves to the Babylonians All this Evil is come upon them yet they have not made their Prayer before the Lord their God You cannot now make your Moans to your Consorts to your Parents to your tender hearted Relations You wish Oh! that I could But you may make your moans to God in the Lord JESUS CHRIST before whom there comes the Sighing of the Prisoner Oh! Get alone as often as you can to pour out your Souls and Spread all your Wants all your Griefs all your Fears before that God who is The Hearer of Prayer And when you are at Prayer unto God in the Lord Jesus Christ I know you will Importunately Cry to Him for your Deliverance out of your doleful Captivity We a great way off adjoyn our AMEN to that Prayer of yours But then to assist it I counsel you to look out Suitable Promises of God in His Word for to plead with Him in your Prayer till your Faith be raised even unto some Assurance I hope you will do all that is possible to preserve your Bibles and prize them and love them and Read them as much as ever you can and find in them those Delights that will not let you Perish in your Affliction Now in your Bibles make such Passages as these the Food of your Meditations the Force of your Supplications Psal 107. 10. Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of Death because they Rebelled against the words of God therefore He brought down their Heart with Labour They cried unto the Lord in their Trouble and He saved them out of their Distresses He brought them out of Darkness and brake their Bands in sundor Deut. 30. 2. When thou shalt Return unto the Lord thy God Then the Lord thy God will turn thy Captivity have Compassion upon thee If any be driven out unto the utmost parts of Heaven from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee Jer. 29. 14. Ye shall Seek me and Find me when ye shall search for me with all your Heart And I will Turn away your Captivity and gather you from all the places whither I have driven you saith the Lord. Plead such Promises as these with that God whose prerogative it is to Turn the Captivity of His people and to Loose the Prisoners Don't Rely on the Endeavours of your Friends to Deliver you but say My Soul wait thou only upon God for my Expectation is from Him Surprising Salvations have been sometimes wrought for Captives in answer to Prayer thus prosecuted The Lord has Turned their Captivity and made them sing The Lord has done great Things for us Only be sure to plead the Blood of the Lord JESUS CHRIST as the Ransome for this Deliverance also It must be by that Blood of the Covenant that you are brought out of the Pit The Lord JESUS CHRIST is the Temple of God with an Eye to whom if you make your Supplication unto God in the Land of them that have Carried you Captives God will Hear your Prayer in Heaven His Dwelling place and forgive you In the mean Time your Prayer will obtain this for you That God who hath the Hearts of all in His own Almighty Hand will give you Compassion before them who have carried you Captives as we read of some in Psal 106 46 He made them to be pittied of all those who carried them Captives Yea if you carry your selves patiently and Honestly and Faiâ—hfully and Industriously as well as Prayerfully in the Hard Service which is by the Providence of God put upon you the Lord may not only Encline your Masters to favour you as Josephs did him in his Captivity but may also make use of you to do an unknown deal of Good where He hath now appointed your uneasy Stations One poor Prisoner oncâ— was the Occasion and Instrument of bringing a whole Kingdom to Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ If you carry it well and Oh pray that you may carry it well in all Respect under your Tedious Hardships you may Glorify the Lord Jesus Christ exceedingly Now that being All that I can farther do for you I do with Fervent Zeal for your Welfare humbly put you over into His Blessing and Saving and Powerful and ever glorious Hands and Subscribe my self Yours in Him Cotton Mather
proved our JESUS to be the Messiah This Declared Him to be the Son of God with power Now that our Lord Jesus Rose from the Dead you must needs own beeause He show'd Himself alive after it by many Infallible proofs After His Resurrection He Exhibited Himself unto those Good men who Saw Him Heard Him Felt Him and convinced all their Senses that iâ— was He. This He did no less than Ten several Times and unto no less than Five Hundred at a Time the Witnesses thereof went over the Earth asse ting it in such a manner that the most Judicious Examiners of their Testimony could not but acknowledge that they were neither Deceivers nor Deceived in the Thing which they Asserted Yea our Lord since His Ascension into the Heavens and as a Fruit and a Proof of His Ascension sent His Church a Letter which we have in the Book of The Revelation wherein He foretold a Thousand Things that we have seen exactly come to pass but He particularly foretold The Rising of the Mahometan Religion it s being propagated by the Arabian Arms it s obscuring the Christian Religion with an horrid Smoke and its Tormenting the Professors of the Christian Religion after the Union of the Four Turkish Kingdoms in the one Ottomian Family for Three hundred Ninety seven years together Besides all this The First Publication of the Christian Reagion was attended which the Mahometan Religion has never been with Miracles that were a Demonstration given by the Holy Spirit of God unto it Astonishing Miracles were done by our JESUS before His Retiring from us into the Heavenly Regions Those Astonishing Miracles are so undeniable that the Writings both of the Jews and of the Turks do at this day confess them nor were the Pagans of the First Ages in the Volumns which they wrote against Christianity still Extant able to deny them And the like Miracles were continued among the Apostolical Preachers of the Christian Religion after our Lords Departure from us for Two hundred years together They spoke with Tongues which they had never Learnt before they Help'd the Blind they Healâ—d the Sick they Rais'd the Dead and they Cast out the Devils from the Possessed No History can be True if This be not so Now these things are Seals from God unto the Christian Religion I beseech you Do not harbour the least suspicion of a Religion so Sealed by the God of Heaven with Ungainsayable Confirmations But if any Mahometan Tempters do assault you Let the words of their own Alcoran serve to Answer them The words of the Alcoran or Turkish BIBLE are The Spirit of God hath given Testimony to CHRIST the Son of Mary He is the Messenger of the Spirit and the Word of God His Doctrine is perfect And Mahomet in this his Alcoran calls the Gospel expresly The Right way to Fear God says That God sent the Gospel for no other end but that they might obtain by it the Love and Grace of God Let the Mahometans now know That you cannot forsake your Christ because the Spirit of God hath given Testimony to Him and that you cannot forsake His Doctrine because it is perfect and that you cannot forsake His Gospel because 't is the Right way to Fear God as They Themselves have confessed My dear Friends The Lord preserve your Souls chast unto Him and make you Faithful to the Death and give you a Crown of Life May you be able to say Lord Tho' thou hast sore broken us in the place of Dragons yet have we not forsaken thee nor dealt falsely in thy Covenant But while you hold fast the Profession of the Christian Religion it is of infiniâ—e concern for you to Experience also the Power and Practice of it And it may be the dismal Affliction of your present Captivity is come upon you to Convince you of and Convert you to those things in Religion whereof you were too insensible when your heard them dispensed unto you in the Ordinances of the Gospel which you sometimes Enjoyed Yea t' wil be an happy Captivity that is now come upon you if the Ears of your Souls be now open to the Discipline of Christianity of which it may be the Lord from Heaven sayes unto you I stake unto thee in thy Prosperity and thou wouldest not hear me You have been particularly told of your Misery by reason of your Slavery to your Interiour Adversaries being Sold under Sin and being Taken Captive by the Devil at his Will But alas alas have you hitherto been deeply sensible of that Misery You were in the worst sort of Slavery before ever the Corshires of Africa Siezed upon you Every Sinful Child of Adam is by Nature so It is an horrible thing to be continually at work for Satan Tempted and Blinded by him and held fast in the Chains of Lust And it is of more than a Million Times greater Consequence to be Redeemed from this cursed Slavery than from that other wherein Turks and Moors do now trample upon you Your Slavery to the Monsters of Africa will be but short and you may Serve God under it and See God after it But your Slavery to the Powers of Darkness whereinto you are by your Fall from God precipitated This alienates you from the Knowledge and Favour of God and Eternal Confusions in another World will be the Wages of it And that which ha's left you in this Condition of Slavery is The Justice of the Holy God which hath arrested you in dreadful Bonds for the Wrongs that your Sins have done in Denying in Defying of His Majesty Methinks It should fill your Hearts with wonderful Joy to have the Tidings Offers of a Redemption from that your Spiritual Slavery This Letter now brings them to you The Lord JESUS CHRIST is that Strong Redeemer who is Able to Save you unto the uttermost and who ha's Engaged Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out This gracious Lord hath paid a Sufficient Ransome unto the Justice of God for the Souls of His Chosen His very Life even the Life of that Man who is God as well as Man and therefore One of infinite Value ha's been given by Him as a Ransome for them They to whom the Vertue of this Ransome is actually applyed are set at Liberty from the Hellish Thraldome wherein the Enemies of their Souls have Enslaved them The Prey is taken from the Mighty and the Lawful Captive is delivered Come then my Afflicted Friends In your Captivity let it be your first Care to Commit your Enslaved Souls into the Hands of the Lord JESUS CHRIST With whom there is Plenteous Redemption for He will Redeem His People from all their Iniquities And Cry unto God that through the Ransome which the Lord JESUS CHRIST hath paid for you even that Blood which is more Precious than Silver and Gold and all the Corruptible things of this World you may have your Souls Redeemed from all the