Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	law_n	sin_n	transgression_n	7,400	5	10.9794	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58807	Practical discourses upon several subjects. Vol. I by John Scott ...	Scott, John, 1639-1695.	1697 (1697)	Wing S2061; ESTC R18726	228,964	494

eternal Condemnation for while we thus stand bound we are Children of Wrath and so cannot be Children of God at the same time Now the Law of Christ condemns us for all wilful Sins whatsoever whether they be single Acts or Habits and every single wilful Act is as much a Transgression of the Law which threatens Condemnation as any wilful Habit whatsoever The Law which forbids wilful Lying under the Penalty of eternal Death doth as well forbid the single Act as the Habit of wilful Lying and therefore must forbid them both under the same Penalty and indeed if it did not there are some of the most heinous sins would escape For there are some Sins which when Men have once committed they never have Opportunity to repeat being prevented either for want of a new Occasion or by just Sentence of Law such as Rape and Theft and Murther and others which can never pass beyond a single Act such as Parricide and Self-murther and so can never grow into an Habit and yet I think there is no Man can doubt but that even the single Acts of these Sins supposing them wilful do put a Man into a state of Condemnation I know it is usually said that such horrible Sins as these indeed do so because the Mischief of them is so great and the Malice so heinous that it renders them equivalent to an Habit of any other Sin To which I answer the Law of Christ condemns these Sins not as they are greater than others but as they are Transgressions for which it threatens Condemnation Indeed the greatness of the Sin doth increase the Condemnation but yet the Law which condemns us for a lesser Sin doth as certainly condemn us as that which condemns us for a greater As for Instance the Law of Christ as well condemns us for Drunkenness Adultery Lying and Malice as for Murther And as every wilful Act of unjust Killing is Murther so every wilful Act of Adultery and Malice is Adultery and Malice and therefore the Law of Christ condemns to far greater Pains for the one than for the others yet still it condemns us for both for that Law which forbids any wilful Sin indifferently under the Penalty of Condemnation forbids every Act of it under the same Penalty because every Act of it is the Sin so forbidden and therefore we may as well say that the Law of Christ doth not condemn us for Parricide and Self-murther because these are only single Acts of Murther as that it doth not condemn us for any other single Act of any other wilful Sin For every single Act of wilful Intemperance and Incontinency are as truly Sins against the Law which forbids them under the Penalty of eternal Condemnation as those single Acts of Murther are against the Law which forbids Murther under the same Penalty and consequently do as well put us into a State of Condemnation and to be sure while we are in this state we cannot pretend to be born of God 2. I premise that by wilful Habits of sin are meant such as are contracted by wilful Acts and are wilfully retained and indulged For if you take Habits of Sin in the largest Sense as they signifie a forward Propensity Promptness and Readiness to do Evil there is no doubt but there may be sinful Habits in Men which never were contracted by wilful Acts as on the contrary there may be sinful Habits contracted by wilful Acts which tho' not utterly extirpated may yet cease to be wilful As for instance a Man may be prompted to unreasonable Anger or excessive Lust even from the natural Temper and Constitution of his Body without the Concurrence of any wilful Acts of his own and tho' he may be much more disposed to be angry or lustful than another of a cooler Constitution yet he may be much farther removed from any wilful Habit of Anger and Lust because the latter perhaps contracted them by his own wilful Acts and by his repeated Practice of them doth still cherish and indulge them whereas the former had no more hand in contracting them than he had in the moulding of of his own Constitution and is so far from cherishing them by any wilful Acts of his own that it is the main endeavour of his Life to oppose and vanquish them And so on the other hand a Man that by frequent wilful Acts of Sin hath contracted wilful Habits may afterwards heartily repent and take up a prevailing Resolution of Amendment and yet still the evil Habit the Promptness or Propensity to his Sin may be more or less remaining in him but this is now so far from being wilful that the prevailing Bent and Current of his Will is against it and tho' still his evil Inclinations are ready to take fire upon every Spark of Temptation that falls upon them and to blaze out into evil Actions yet by the Strength of his Resolution he so keeps it under that it cannot break forth but upon a surprize and even that Surprize will render him more watchful and vigilant to suppress it for the future But now when evil Habits do not only exist in us but are also cherished and indulged by us and do ordinarily influence and govern our Practice they are then not only wilful Sins but a fixt and settled State of wilful Sin and are pregnant with a distinct Guilt and Venom from those Acts of wilful Sin that begot them And hence in Scripture you find them markt with the blackest Characters they are called the Root of bitterness the evil Heart the Concupiscence wrought by Sin the Law in the Members which those who are carnal and sold under Sin do obey the carnal Mind the Flesh in which dwells no good and enmity to God by all which they are sufficiently pronounced inconsistent with our being born of God 3. I must premise that by wilful Acts of Sin I do not mean all wilful Actions which have any Degree of Will in them but only such as are deliberately chosen and consented to Every sin is so far voluntary as that when we choose it we are free to refuse it otherwise it is necessary and what is necessary is no Fault nor can be justly liable to Reward or Punishment Those evil Actions therefore which for Distinction sake are called sins of Infirmity are no farther Sins than as they are chosen and have some Intermixture of Will in them for if they have none they have only the Matter of Sin in them but not the Form But we are seldom so surprized with any Temptation to Evil but that it is possible for us to deliberate upon it and thereupon to resolve against it and many Times by our Care and Watchfulness we do prevent those Evils which when we are more remiss do steal upon us unawares and we that can prevent them this Moment can prevent them the next too and so the next and so for ever But then considering the Weakness and Imperfection of our Natures how