N00731:70
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.
But at present they may mo•• ⟨p. 75⟩at their own misery, which declares their folly and madness. Besides this which is expressed in the Text before us, there are other properties of a Fool to be affirmed of him that is a Sinner. e. g.
1. Indocibility is the property of a Fool. He is unteachable: Suppose he should have the best Instructors in the world, he will not learn wisdom, nor get understanding. The Sinners amongst the Jews had Prophets to Instruct them, and yet they would not Learn. Isa. 28.13. The word of the Lord was unto them▪ Precept upon Precept, Line upon Line, here a little and there a little▪ God dealt with them as we do with Children that must learn first one line & there another, and but a little at a time. And or all that, they would learn nothing: They were ever Learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth; so unteachable were they. If a Fool be Corrected as well as Instructed, yet he will not learn. There is no beating of knowledge into him: And is it not so with Sinners? There is many a Sinner that has smarted for his sin & folly, & yet he has not the sense to reform hi• ways. Many a drunkard that has suffered much in his Estate, and in his Relations, and in ⟨p. 76⟩his Soul and Body, because of that sin, and for all that, he has neither the Grace nor Wit to leave that sin: Though he has been stricken and beaten for it, he will seek it yet again. Prov. 23.35. What a Fool is such a sinner? We see every day that what the wise man speaks is true.