N00731:29
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.
2. There are Spiritual Judgments, which although men are least sensible of ther• […] ⟨p. 27⟩far more dreadful than any Temporal Ones. As the Soul is far more worth than the Body, so Spiritual Judgments which lite on the Souls of men, are more to be trembled at, than those which concern the outward man only. These are the woeful fruit of Sin. The Loss of the Divine Image is a Spiritual Judgment. Sin has brought that misery upon every man in the world. Rom. 3.23. All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. There was in man before he sinned, knowledge and wisdom, which made him resemble God, but sin has taken from him that glory. But the Image of God in man did chiefly consist in that Holiness wherewith his Soul was beautified. Without Holiness the Angels of Heaven would be Damned Devils, and the Saints in Glory Damned Ghosts: But this Sin has deprived men of. So that by nature no man has the least spark of grace or holiness in him Rom. 3.10. There is none righteous, no not one. But instead thereof, all manner of spiritual plagues has Sin brought on the miserable Souls of men. A blind mind is a Spiritual Judgment which every […] is smitten with. He is blind, and […] see afar off. Persons that have diseased ⟨p. 28⟩Eyes, the light hurts them; they see the worse for it. So does the light of th• gospel as to those that have minds prejudiced against the Truth: Therefore Christ said, For Judgment am I come, that they which see might be made blind. Joh. 9. •9. Hardness of heart is a Spiritual Judgment: None of the ten plagues of Pharaoh were so dreadful as that; but it is sin that hardens the hearts of men. Heb. 3.13. Take heed lest your hearts be hardened through the deceitfulness of Sin. There are some, that there was a time when if they had committed such a Sin, Hell would have been in their Consciences for it, but now they can do it, and laugh and make a mock at what they have done. Thus are they smitten with Judicial Hardness of heart. The Lord never punisheth sin more fearfully then when he punisheth Sin with Sin. It may be a Sinner has been guilty of the sin of Uncleanness. God to punish for it, leaveth him to commit that Sin again, and saith, Let him that is filthy be filthy still. Or it may be, he shall be left to another Sin, it may be to Murder it self, which is the greatest Sin against the Second Table of the […] Law.