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A59657 Certain select cases resolved specially tending to the right ordering of the heart, that we may comfortably walk with God in our general and particular callings / by Thomas Shephard ... Shepard, Thomas, 1605-1649.; Adderley, William. 1650 (1650) Wing S3104; ESTC R33878 30,111 60

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do not but the greatest sinnes cannot make a breach of Covenant between God and the soul that is once really not rationally wrapt up in the Covenant of grace Indeed grosse scandalous sinnes nay infirmities when they are given way to and not resisted may keepe the soule from the fruition for a time of Gods Covenant but never from the eternal jus and right unto it for as the habit of Faith or Grace gives a man a constant right to the promise and Covenant which seed ever remaines which habit ever lasts Ier. 3. 9. so the act of Faith or Grace gives a man fruition of the Covenant and the benefit of the promise and hence by the acting and venting of some sinnes wherein there is included the neglect of the exercise of grace He that is really in covenant with God may be deprived of the fruition of it yet seeing the seed of God and the habit of grace ever remaines he cannot by any sin break his covenant for the covenant of grace is absolute wherein the Lord doth not onely promise the good but to begin and perfect and fulfill the condition absolutely without respect of sin ex parte creatur● Indeed if Gods covenant of Grace did as that of works depend upon man to fulfill the condition having sufficient grace to fulfill it then grosse sin might well breake the Covenant but seeing God hath undertaken to fulfill the Covenant absolutely notwithstanding all the evills and sins of the soul no sinne can possibly break that knot and covenant which so firme and resolute love hath once knit And therefore if this be a good argument Infirmities cannot break covenat What cause have I to be humbled for them so as to say It is thy mercy Lord that I am not consumed for them as you write you may upon the same ground say so If the Lord should desert you or you forsake the Lord and so fall into the foulest sinne which I suppose corrupt conscience dares not be so bold as to think or allow of Secondly I say the least sinnes or infirmities do break the first covenant of workes and hence you do not onely deserve but are under the sentence of death and curse of God immediately after the least hairs-breadth swarving from the Law by the smallest sinne and most involuntary accidentall infirmity According to the Tenor of the Law the soul that sinneth shall die and cursed is he that continueth not in all things of the Law Gal. 3. 10. The least sinne being ex part● o●ject● in respect of God against whom it is committed as horrible and as great as the greatest For it being an infinite wrong being the dishonour of an infinite Majesty there can be no greater wrong then an infinite one unlesse you can imagine a thing greater then that which is infinite and therefore in this respect there is as much venome and mischiefe done against God in the least as in the greatest sinne And therefore it and whosoever commits it deserves death for it as if they had committed the foulest sinne in the world and therefore after the least and smallest infirmities you may from hence see what cause you have freely to be humbled and to confesse for them how worthy you are to be destroyed yea even to look upon your self as lying under the sentence of the Law and death immediately after the commission of them and so to mourne bitterly for them But you will say a Christian that is under the Covenant of grace is not within the Covenant of workes that Bond is cancelled the last will must stand and therefore he being out of that Covenant no sinnes of his can be said to breake the Covenant for no man can be said to breake that Law under which he is not and which he is not bound to keep I answer Every beleever hath a double being or standing and so there may be put upon him a double respect First he may be considered as united to and having a spirituall being on Christ and so it is true he is under grace and the Covenant of Grace and not under the Law nor the Covenant of workes and hence not being under the Law nor bound to keep it as a covenant of life though it be a rule of life no sinne can condemn him there being no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. 1. But as Christ is above condemnation and law and death and curse so is he And this truly understood is the foundation of a Christians joy and peace and glory every day yet so as though sinne doth not condemne him yet he hath good reason to say it is mercy and meer m●rcy Lord that I am not consumed that I am condemned For sinne is the same nay grace and Gods love aggravates sinne for to sinne against the law deserves death without recovery but to sinne when grace hath received me and loved me when the blood of Christ hath bin shed abundantly to deliver me from sin Oh this makes the most secret silent sinne a crying one ● So that if you do consider this well you may see what little cause there is to have your heart rising against the deepest humiliation for the least sinne though you be in Christ and under grace For as Daniel when he was put into the Lions den had not he cause to wonder that he was not torne in pieces by them and why because it was not from any defect on their parts to teare him in pieces but from the omnipotent power and mercy and grace of his God that muzzell'd their mouths so though no Lion can teare though no sinnes can hurt or condemn a Christian as hee is considered in Christ yet hath no● he cause to confesse and wonder and say Lord it is thy meer grace and mercy that it is not so which is the act of humiliation you letter saith you can hardly come unto and why not because Gods grace puts any lesse evill in sinne but because it is meerely grace that keeps it from spitting that venome which otherwise it would Secondly A Christian may be considered in respect of his naturall being in himselfe and thus he is ever under the Law and as oft as hee sinneth under the sentence of death and as the Apostle speakes by nature even we justified quickned are the children of wrath as well as others And thus after the least involuntary accidentall si●ne you may easily see what cause you have to lie down deepely humbled mourning under the sentence of death and Gods eternall curse as a condemned man going to the execution to feel that fire that shall never go out looking upon your self as you are in your self a forlorn castaway every moment and this truly understood is the foundation of a Christians sorrow shame and confusion of face self-loathing self-forgetting self●forsaking and condemning every day and believe it Sir it is no small piece of a Christians skill and work to put a difference