N00731:53
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 2 › Proposition 2: PROPOSITION. II.
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. They that seek to Excuse and Extenuate Sin, make too light of it. Thus our first Parents did. The woman who was first in the Transgression, would lay the blame at the Serpents door: The Serpent beguiled me. Thus Eves Children think to Excuse or Extenuate their sin by laying the fault on the Devil. Why would you do such an evil thing? The Devil Tempted me say they. The man sought to make some excuse for himself by accusing his Wife▪ & silently reflected on the providence of God, The woman whom thou gavest me she gave to me of the Tree and I did eat. Gen. 3.12. Thus sinners to Extenuate their Crimes will reflect upon God: They say, If God had given me Grace, I should not have done so wickedly. Ever since Adams fall it has been natural for men to excuse and extenuate their faults either by blaming others, or by some other pretext. When Aaron committed a great Sin in making the Calf in the Wilderness, what a frivolous excuse did he make for himself, ⟨p. 55⟩that the people brought him some Gold, and he cast it into the fire, and there came out a Calf. Exod. 32.24. As if it had been only by Chance and not of Choice that a thing like a Calf came out of the fire. The Jewish Rabbis in their writings excuse that fact of Aaron, pretending that he designed not to make such an Idol, but that there was an Extraordinary operation of the Devil in that matter; but this fiction of theirs is against the Scripture, which declares the activity of Aaron in the forming of that Idol. Verse 4. He fashioned it with a graving tool: but then he had another excuse to lessen his Crime. Verse 22. Thou knowest the people they are set on mischief: he would lay all the fault at their door. If a good man, a Saint of the Lord, as Aaron was, will when under Temptation find excuses for great sins, will not sinners do so much more? We read concerning Saul, when he spared Agag & the Amalekites substance, contrary to the Express Commandment of God, he endeavoured to extenuate his Crime, by pretending that he was afraid to displease the people. 1 Sam. 15. 24. I have transgressed the Commandment of the Lord, because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. And he ⟨p. 55⟩