N00731:23
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.
When Nabad and Abihu instead of taking fire from the Altar according to Divine Institution, would follow their own invention, and make use of another fire, without any warning given to them to repent of their sin, God killed them in a moment; there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them, and they dyed. When in the Wilderness a man did but gather a few sticks on the Sabbath day, God from Heaven commanded that that man should be stoned to death. When Uzzah inconsiderately took hold on the Ark, intending no harm, only to keep it from falling God smote him for his error; and […] ⟨p. 19⟩dyed by the Ark of God. When the men of Bethshemesh looked into the Ark, probably with no ill design, only to see whether the Philistines had not taken something out of it, the Lord smote of the people, fifty thousand and threescore and ten men. I Sam. 6.19. some have wondered how that could be, because Bethshemesh was a small Town, not containing fifty thousand, nor so many as five thousand; but as 'tis probable the people round about the Country hearing that the Ark was come to Bethshemesh, came flocking thither, and did irreverently look upon it, (which they might not do) and some would be look-into it; and for this error, above fifty thousand, not of the men of Bethshemesh only, but of the people, lost their lives. So highly is God offended at sin. But his Holy Displeasure at sin appears in nothing so much, as in the dreadful sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ, when he stood in the room of Sinners, sustaining their person before God his Father. Rom. 8.32. He spared not his own Son. Christ is Gods own Son, and a Son that never offended him in any thing. Christ is dearer to God than […] Angels in heaven, or men on ⟨p. 20⟩earth. Nevertheless, when He became a Surety for Sinners, God would not spare him, nor abate him any thing of the punishment due for sin. The truth is, God never pardoned any sin without satisfaction made for the injury done to his Name thereby. No sin but God either has punished it in the Surety and Saviour of Sinners, or he will punish it in the Sinner himself to all Eternity. And shall wretched Creatures make a light matter of that which is so hateful unto God! This therefore shall be the next Demonstration of the Truth before us.