N00731:17
The folly of sinning, opened & applied, in two sermons, occasioned by the condemnation…The folly of sinning, opened & applyed, in two sermons, occasioned by the condemnation…
The folly of sinning, opened & applied, in two sermons, occasioned by the condemnation of one that was executed at Boston in New-England, on November 17th. 1698. / By Increase Mather, president of Harvard College, in Cambridge, and preacher of the Gospel at Boston in N.E. ; [Two lines from Romans]The folly of sinning, opened & applyed, in two sermons, occasioned by the condemnation of one that was executed at Boston in New-England, on November 17th. 1698. / By Increase Mather, praesident of Harvard Colledge, in Cambridge, and preacher of the Gospel at Boston in N.E. ; [Two lines from Romans]
Boston: printed by B Green for Michael Perry over against the Town House, 1699
THE FOLLY OF Sinning. › Sermon 1 › Proposition 1: PROPOSITION I.
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.
Had it not been for Sin, this World had never been an Evil One. It has brought a Curse and Misery on the Creation, so that the whole Creation sighs under it, and groans to be delivered from that corruption, bondage, vanity and misery which the sin of men has caused it to become subject unto. Rom. 8.22. There had never been any other Evil, if it had not been for Sin. No man would ever have known by an experience of it, what Evil meant. Hence the forbidden Tree was called the Tree of knowledge of good and evil. Gen. 2.17. Men should have had an experimental knowledge of Good only, and not of Evil, if they had not sinned, Sin then is the greatest evil. […] an only evil; Other Evils have some ⟨p. 8⟩mixture of good in them, but Sin hath not so; Nor is it possible ever to make it good; Nor has it in its own nature any tendency unto good. It is not the cause of any good. It is true, that Sin may through the wisdom power and goodness of God, ordering and over-ruling all things, be an occasion of good. This we see in Onesimus, who was guilty of theft, and ran away from his Master, and was Committed to Prison, where the Apostle Paul became the Instrument of his Conversion. Philem. 10. A great sin may be an occasion of the Conversion, and so of the Salvation of a Sinner, but not the cause of it. A corrupt Tree can not bring forth good fruit. Does a Fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter. No Fountain can yield both salt water and fresh. Jam. 3. 11, 12. All the waters of sin, are salt and bitter. Nor does any thing but what is bitter, come out of this Fountain. If we compare Sin with other Evils, we shall see that it is worse than any of them all. It is a greater evil than any Affliction. A man had better […] many Afflictions than one sin. Affliction tho' evil has some good in it, but so has not Sin. David said, it is […] ⟨p. 9⟩for me that I have been afflicted. Psal. 119.71. He does not say, it is good for me that I have sinned. Gods Children find Afflictions to be profitable things unto them. He does chasten them for their profit