N00731:79
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.
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 ext•eam 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.