N00731:66
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 3: PROPOSITION. III.
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. The Scripture every where speaks of Sinners as of Fools. How often are they in the Holy Writings, (in the Book of Job; and in the Psalms, and in Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes) called fools. The Scripture says of them that they are foolish. Psal. 5.4. The foolish, i. e. Sinners shall not stand in thy sight. When they come to be tried for their lives before Gods Tribunal, they will not be able to stand in the judgment. The Hebrew word HOLEPIM, there Translated foolish, signifieth mad men, or such as rave with folly; Sinners are subject to moral madness: If they were not raving mad they would never do as they do. Madness is in their hearts as long as they live, and after that they go to the dead, nay, to the damned. Sinners are said to be without knowledge. Psal. 14.4. Have all the workers of Iniquity no knowledge. Truly, there is not one of them all that has any saving knowledge; such of them as are wise to do evil, to do good they have no knowledge. Isa. 27.11. It is a ⟨p. 69⟩people of no understanding. They are called simple ones. Prov. 1.22. How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity. Hence the Scripture compares them to Beasts, because they act as if they were devoid of all reason or rational understanding. Psal. 49.10. Wise men die, likewise the brutish person: Who but a Sinner is that brutish person? A Sinner is resembled to the most stupid of all Beasts; To the Ass, to the wild Ass, nay, to the wild asses colt. Job 11.12. Man is born like the wild asses colt. A Sinner is a born fool: They are compared to the silly Birds, to simple fearful Doves. Hos. 7.11. Ephraim is like a silly Dove without heart. Yea, they are compared to Ostriches. Lam. 4.3. The Ostrich is both a very foolish and an unnatural Bird. Job 9.16, 17. She is hardened against her young ones as though they were not hers because God has deprived her of wisdom, neither has he imparted to her understanding. Such an Ostrich has the Condemned Prisoner (who was here the last Lords day) been. She has been hardened against her young one, as if it had not been hers. Yea, though it was crushed to death she regarded it not. True spiritual wisdom and understanding is in fearing the Lord, which is contrary