N00731:27
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.
1. There are Temporal Judgments. All the Afflictions which befall the Sinner whilst in this World are the fruit of Sin. Psal. 107.17. Fools because of their Transgression, and because of their Iniquity, are afflicted. Poverty is a great affliction, and Sin is the cause of it. That provokes the Lord to send Impoverishing Judgments on a whole Land sometimes. Isa 42.24. Who gave Jacob for a Spoil, and Israel to the Robbers? End not the Lord he against whom we have sinned? M•n loose their Estates by Enemies, […] water, by Fire. […] if it had not been for Sin, none of all this would ever have been. For a man […] loose his good Name is a greater evil […] ⟨p. 25⟩to loose his Estate, since a Good Name is better than Riches; but this also is the effect of sin. Prov. 14.34. Sin is a reproach to any people: Some sins especially are an everlasting reproach to the person that shall be known to be guilty of them. Above all other transgressions, vile breaches of the Seventh Commandment are so. The man that shall be proved guilty of them, hath lost his good name for ever. Prov. 6.32, 33. whoso committeth Adultery with a woman, lacketh understanding, a wound and dishonour shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away. That Sin will be a disgrace to him as long as he liveth, and after he is dead too. All bodily diseases , and death it self is the fruit of sin. Had it not been for sin, Soul and Body had never been rent asunder. It is for sin that some Die in youth, because they have been wicked overmuch, they die before their time; and it may be by tragical and dismal deaths, by grievous deaths. They are crushed in the Gate. The Sword of Justice cuts them off for being Criminals, and not worthy to live. There is a great variety of Temporal judgments, and all are the fruit of sins: […] on particular persons, on Families, ⟨p. 26⟩on Nations, are the fruit of sin. How terrible is God in his doings sometimes towards the children of men, in respect of public National Judgments, which their sins pull down upon them? So on the Old World, when the Windows from on High were opened, and God poured down the Cataracts of his Wrath on a sinful sinning World: How many millions were swept away with that Besom of Destruction? Sin caused all the men, and women, and Children in the whole World to be drowned in one year, excepting eight persons only.