N00731:78
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.
Mountains cannot stand before his Indignation: For he Overturns the Mountains in his anger, and those Pillars of Heaven tremble at his reproof: Nay, Angels the mightiest and most powerful Creatures in the World cannot stand before him: He spared not the Angels that sinned, but cast them down to Hell. It was Inexpressible folly in the Apostate Angels to set themselves against their Almighty Creator? Well might Eliphaz say, His Angels he charged with Folly. Job 4.18. If then silly Worms on the Earth shall rise up against him, are they not fools for so doing.
6. It is the property of a fool to make foolish bargains: So does the Sinner do; for he barters away his precious Soul, and that for a thing of naught. There is no Sinner, but he has a Jewel belonging to him, more worth then all this world, namely, his precious and immortal Soul; this he parts with, and what has he in exchange for it? Nothing more than the pleasures of sin for a season. Was it not extreme folly in Esau to sell his Birthright ⟨p. 86⟩for a mess of pottage! but what horrible folly is it for a man to sell his Soul for the enjoyment of a sensual Lust? Rather then deny his sensual appetite in respect of a lust of Drunkenness, or of a lust of Uncleanness, he'll loose his soul. What greater folly can there be then to part with pleasures for evermore in Heaven, & to go into Eternal Torments, and all to enjoy the momentany pleasures of Sin? It was a sad word which a miserable man once uttered on a death-bed. I have (said he) enjoyed the pleasures of sin for a little while, and now I must be in torment for infinite millions of Ages.
6. It is the property of a fool to make foolish bargains: So does the Sinner do; for he barters away his precious Soul, and that for a thing of naught. There is no Sinner, but he has a Jewel belonging to him, more worth then all this world, namely, his precious and immortal Soul; this he parts with, and what has he in exchange for it? Nothing more than the pleasures of sin for a season. Was it not exteam folly in Esau to sell his Birthright