Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	evil_a	good_a	sin_n	3,208	5	4.9732	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76129	The light and dark sides of God or A plain and brief discourse of the light side (God, Heaven and angels.) The dark side (Devill, sin, and Hell.) As also of the Resurrection and Scripture. : All which are set forth in their severall natures and beings, according to the spirituality of the Scripture. / Written by Jacob Bauthumley.	Bauthumley, Jacob.	1650 (1650)	Wing B1165B; ESTC R16169	44,323	100

be cast into their lake and there be reserved to the great judgement day of the Lord within us when he shall sit as a refiner in our spirits then shall the chaffe be burnt up consumed by the brightnes and fire of these Angelical appearances of God this was an Angel of God comforting me against all the aspersions of heresie blasphemy that the people of God lye under at this day and so you see what I thinke of the Angels and what they are And thus have I done with that which I call The light side of God I come now to the dark and shall begin with that first which is called Devill Concerning the Devill I See that which we call the Devill is also in man and yet I cannot apprehend him to be a creature as men generally do For then I must give him a Being and there is nothing hath a Being but God that is formally and properly yet as men speake though improperly there is such a thing as we call Devill which I conceive to be nothing but the fleshly Being or as men commonly speak the corruption of nature or as the Scripture calls it the old Man and this also moves and acts in all those things which we call sinfull So that so far as a man lives in a sinfull being so farre the Devill in him and therefore when Mary Magdelen had 7 Devils cast out of her it gives me to conceive that every sin is a Devill and so far as a man is led aside of his own lusts so far he is led by the Devill and therefore he is called Satan Tempter and Deceiver with divers other expressions And hence it is that whatsoever is hatefull or hurtfull to man we use to say the Devill is in it and so every thing that doth hinder or darken our spirituall comfort and peace that is a Devill in us God is Light and in him there is no darkness and it is as true the Devill is darknesse and in him there is no light at all And so farre as yny man is in that darknesse so farre he is in the Devill so much the nearer he comes to him and therefore it is said You are of your Father the Devill and his workes you do God is the Way Truth and Life and the Devill is falsehood his wayes tend to darknesse and end in death and destruction This is the deciever that would perswade us of a happyness of our own and a glory out of God He is that Mystery of iniquity that man of sinne whom the Lord is continually destroying and for whose destruction God is man'd in our flesh and as the Devill the deciever hath led us from God to live a life of our own so God in us is reducing us againe to live in himself and so the spirituall seed is breaking the head and power of the carnall this Devill is the spirit of envy malice cruelty ever seeking to devoure and rob us of that which is most precious to us Men fear a Devill without them and so fancy him to be terrible in their apprehensions never considering that he is in them and therefore it is said The Devill entered into Judas not but that he was in him before but then was there a more then ordinary appearance of him and so he is that Judas indeed which is ever betraying the spirituall Christ into the hands of self and flesh and is continually crucifying the Lord of life and putting him to open shame and vailing his glory under shadowes making men to take them for substances and so is transforming himself into an Angell of light and so makes men put light for darknesse and darknesse for light exalting himself and perswading self and flesh to have high thoughts of himself and seeking to put out all that spirituall light and glory wherever it appeares in the spirits of men So that however men ascribe a Being and person a Him to him yet there is nothing so neither would I call him any thing but as it is the language of men to expresse our selves to one another about that which wee call Devill And so I shall leave the Devill and speak something of Sinne because that is most like him being of the nearest Kindred to him Concerning Sinne. FOr Sin I cannot tell how to call it any thing because it is nothing I cannot give it a name because it is no substance or creature It is rather Primitive then Positive we call it and give it a Being though indeed in it self it hath none It is no act for then it were visible but Sin is inward and spirituall as that is which we call Grace and Holinesse it is therefore called spirituall wickednesse it is rather the defect of Grace and a deficiency in the Creature then any act as visible to the outward view Further Sin as Sin admits of no degrees for that which we call a great sinne is no more then that which we call the least but because we would not be thought to lessen it while we speake of it we shall give you our thoughts of it in the language of Scripture And therefore we see the Apostle describes it to our hands where he saith We have all sinned and are deprived of the Glory of God So hence I conclude that sinne is a coming short or a deprivation of the Glory of God and so farre as a man is short of that glory or doth not live and act in that divine Being so farre he sins so farre as he is in darknesse and hath this glory vailed in him so far he is sinfull In brief sin is a living out of the will of God for God being the Supream will and having ordered all things and persons to be in such and such a condition this self and carnall Being wills something of its own below Gods Will and so prevaricates from that and ●ente●● in his own will and so sins Hence it is that Nations and perticular persons are grieved and discontented with their condition and set ●ayes times a part as if they could alter the Supreme Will not considering that the Supreme will must be subjected unto and that they must receive evill from the hands of God as well as good and not knowing that all is in the ordering of the Supreme will and so run to this and that outward and formall duty and so are carnall and sinfull while they think they do God good service and yet I do not condemn them in so doing for to them it is their light though they be truely and spiritually in darkness and though men act in darknesse yet God is there vailing his glory and so they must needs sin for sin is properly the dark side of God which is a meere privation of light Further we must consider that God gives not any Law or Rule out of himselfe or beyond his own glory And as himself and his own glory are the ultimate end of all actions and

kind of power to restraine a man from evill and so men confound the power and will of God when as indeed they are not distinct in God for Gods power and will are all one his will is his power and his power is his will and by the self same act that he wills things by the selfe same act he doth things and it is our weakenesse otherwise to apprehend for God being one and intire admitting of no distinction or division in himself he admits of no variations but all things are as that supreme will acts and brings them forth And I see according to the Councell of his will they did no more that crucified Christ then they that did imbrace him These things I write not to countenance any unseemly act or evill in any man And I know God being purity it self cannot behold uncleannesse and his Spirit in me doth condemn it wherever I see it and I cannot but reprove it where ever it is found Neither can I so close in society or fellowship with those that are in darkness or walk unbeseemingly not becoming the Gospel and yet I know that if the grace of God appeared in them it would as well teach them to deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts as to live righteously and soberly in the World Onely I desire to open the nature of that which we call sin and to make it as spiritually vile as I can For I see my self to have been mistaken and I see others are in sin as well as in that we call grace goodnes For as I have made the formall and outward performance of a Duty the onely thing wherein grace and godliness did consist so have I made the outward doing or not doing of an act to be the sin But I really see that neither the one or the other as an act is either good or evill But as godliness is a mystery and inward and is within us so is sin likewise a mystery and also within us and therefore it is called a mystery of iniquity from whence proceeds murders adulteries and are they not from the lust within The inward lust and acting is the sin which is contrary or below God the outward acting or putting forth of that inward lust is the sin against man and is below a man and whether the thing or sinne be acted outwardly or no there is sin And therefore the spirituality of the Gospel is above the Letter the Letter onely forbiding the outward act of adultery but the spirituality forbids the very lust within and therefore he that looks on a woman with a secret and inward lust hath committed the sin in the Spirit and heart as if he had done the outward act and is in Gods account an adulterer And all the use I can make of the premisses duely considered it rather aggravates the nature of sin then extinuates or lessens it for I can seriously reflect upon my own spirit and see more sin within then all the world can do without I see that I have framed and fancied a God without me and have given him an outward Worship while I have seem'd to be very spirituall and so have been very far from that spirituall worship of him which is like himself and consists onely in Spirit and Truth for what a vaine thing is it to me for a man to put off his Hat or kneele and show an outward reverence to an invisible God and how carnall have I been and men are in setting dayes and times a part to expresse an outward humiliation for an inward and spirituall sacrifice whereas there is no humility but in the Spirit and there is no spirituall exaltation of God but when the Creature ceases from being or doing any thing and makes God All whereas men think to get pardon and peace from God by a self-humiliation prayers and duties and I know not what and so give that to a duty and a prayer which is the onely proper worke of God who subdues our sinnes and pardons them for his own Names sake And so I have done with that which we call sinne which we call a privation of God or the living below God you see we have made it something and nothing in respect of God it is nothing for he knowes no defect neither is he in darknesse but is all glory and light Again it is something in respect of the creature because it is in darknesse and lives not in the light and glory of that God and there is that in the Creature which as a vaile covers and hides the glory of God and so it is sinfull and yet here is God in all this for should the Creature share in the Deity God would not be so glorious and should the Deity partake of the Humanity and be one with it there would be no sin and therefore is God manifest in flesh but not to flesh and therefore doth the Divine Nature and Being live in the Humane but is not the Humane nor is the Humane capable of any conjunction or union with the Divine and therefore the Divine lives in it self and the Humane or fleshly Being lives in it self and as the fleshly Being is below the Divine so men living in it are sinfull and as that acts so they act sin which is all at present I see of that we call Sinne. Concerning Hell HAving spoken of the Devill and Sin Hell must needes follow for no sooner did Man leave to live in the Divine Being and so lived in himself but he was turned out of Paradise to digg for his living and to worke labour and toyle to maintaine a self-Being and to procure a self-happinesse and so presently he came to shame and misery he eating of the forbidden fruite which was his own holinesse righteousnesse all is cursed to him and so the man is in Hell so that our ceasing to live in God and living in the self-Being is the Hell For that Angelicall life in us being vailed and covered we live in the Diabolicall whence it is we are in Hell As soone as man ceast to live in the light but he would be knowing something and doing something so soone did he fall into a Chaos and all was darknesse and so that develish and self nature is in man and he is reserved in chaines of darknesse till the judgement of the great day of Gods appearing in his Spirit and till then he is in Hell untill God Judge and burne up that flesh and carnall knowing of him and reduce him to his first Being to live in God till then he suffers the fire of Hel in himself so that the Hell in a mans selfe and the condemnation is that a man is condemned of himself What adoe there is in the world to find Hell where it is how many have puzled and beat their braines to find it out as if it were a locall place and therefore some because they would make it contrary to Heaven and as they fancie that the highest