Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	commit_v	sin_n	sin_v	2,906	5	9.7075	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30987	A treatise of fornication shewing what the sin is, how to flee it, motives and directions to shun it : upon 1 Cor. VI, XVIII : also, A penitentiary sermon upon John viii. II / by W.B., M.A.	W. B. (William Barlow), b. 1617 or 18.	1690 (1690)	Wing B848; ESTC R10545	68,090	89

man should be so far gone from himself through Drink or any other Course as that like Lot he should not know hedoth commit the sin when he doth commit it It is a Sin that requires much study in most Cases how to contrive and compass the commission of it and therefore especially in such Cases is a Sin of knowledge a Sin committed with deliberation and therefore is a wilful Sin and such Sins are wounding Sins to the Soul wasting Sins to the Conscience the first Act wounds the second wasts and the Habit of it when it grows to that quite destroys the Conscience the custom of sinning takes away all both Sense and Conscience of Sin like those Gentiles spoken of by St. Paul Eph. 4.17 18 19. who walked in the vanity of their mind having their understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that was in them because of the blindness or rather hardness of their heart who being past feeling gave themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness Which blindness and hardness senselesness and stupidity of Mind and Heart when men once have through continued custom of sinning in this way brought upon themselves then it is but just that God should give them up in a Judicial way unto Uncleanness and unto vile Affections and even give them over unto a reprobate mind a mind void of Judgment as he did those Romas St. Paul speaks of Rom. 1.24 26 28. And this to be given over to a reprobate sense to have the Conscience cauterized to be under a benummedness of mind and a brawniness of heart to be without Sense and Conscience of sin is to be under a most dismal Judgment the high Road to and the very Gate into and month of Hell For when once a man is past seeling or sin he is the past sorrowing for sin and past repenting of it without an extraordinary and miraculous Work of Conviction wrought upon him and without Repentance there can be no Salvation And therefore that sin which brings a man into this desperate Condition is a sin that is mischievous with a Witness it blinds the mind perverts the judgment benumbs the heart sears the Conscience leaving the mind under stupefaction and senselesness hardness and impenitency 5. It distracts him in those Duties to God whereby he should obtain the Grace of God and preserve and encrease it when it is obtained This fleshly Lust will not suffer him rightly to attend to any spiritual Duty it will not suffer him to have any Communion with God either by hearing God speak to him in his Word or speaking to God himself in Prayer it so takes up all his Thoughts that he can mind nothing of the Worship and Service of of God as he ought When he should be thinking of God he is thinking of his Whore and instead of praying for Grace to abstain from his sin and to mortifie his Lust he is plotting how to fulfil his Lust and commit his sin So true is that of St. Ambrose Nullus peccandi modus inexplexibilis scelerum sitis nisi morte amantis extingui non potest This sin is unmeasurable unsatiable the burning Thirst whereof never quenched by any thing but Death Now surely it is a very great mischief to be so distracted in ones Duty to God that is a plaguy Lust that will not let a man be quiet till he hath said his Prayers but be as ill or worse a Tempter to a man than the Devil himself And yet such a mischievous sin Lust is that whereby the Fornicator is swayed and governed in his Course of Uncleanness And no marvel for it besots and fools him so that he neither minds nor regards what he is about unless it be when he is getting satisfaction to his Lust It dispirits and unmans the man and turns him all into Beast well nigh saving what he is in shew and shape Who could think any other that should find Hercules the only Worthy and Wonder in his time for strength and Valour stooping to the meanness of being a Servant to Omphale and in the quality of a Wench working at the Rock and Spindle And what other can we think was meant by the ancient Poets when they tell us of the strange Transformations of Jupiter and other Gods into a Bull a Swan and the like bruitish Creatures for the love of and to satisfie his lust with this or that admired Beauty but that lust this lust of Fornication transforms and turns men even the greatest of them into very Beasts makes them do brutish things as if they had no more of the Heart of a man in them than Nebuchadnezzar had when he was turned to Grass than the Beasts of the Field have And this probably was meant by the Prophet Hosea when in his fourth Chapter and cleventh Verse he makes Fornication to be one of those things that take away the Heart Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the Heart do turn a man into a very beast and suitably the Prophet Jeremy compares these unclean sinners to Horses lustful Creatures Jer. 5.8 They were as fed horses saith he every one neighed after his Neighbours Wife And so the Apostle St. Peter speaking of those that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness compares them to natural bruit beasts made to be taken and destroyed and even to Dogs and Swine two most unclean Creatures and more irrational than any other Creatures in their lusts 2 Pet. 2.10 12 22. which is a great mischief to a man as being the turning of him out of himself and the degrading of him into a Beast rendring him unfit for any manly acting and dissolving him all into softness and folly And having bereft him of Judgment and Spirit the less marvel is it if it do also bereave him of his Freedom and make a very Slave of him It is an imperious lust this it makes them in whom it reigns very Servants and Slaves to it Hence these kind of people are by the Apostle St. Peter called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 servants of corruption adding this for the reason of his so calling them because that of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought into bondage 2 Pet. 2.19 And so the Apostle St. Paul Rom. 6.16 Know ye not to whom ye yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness And after v. 19. speaks of their having yielded their members servanos to uncleanness So that this sin of Uncleanness is a tyrannous lust it bereaves its Subjects of their Liberty and Freedom and brings them under bondage and slavery A fornicator and a Free-man are two terms that cannot be said of the same Man He that is a worker of Uncleanness is in a state of very servitude and a base a wretched servitude is it that he serves He is made a Servant to

8.18 23. 1 Thess 4.7 Sin which is so far from Purity that it is the direct contrary thereto and called by the name of corruption uncleanness pollution filthiness the lust of uncleanness ungodly lust a spotting and defiling thing And what indeed is in the whole story and business of it but nastiness and beastliness filthiness and uncleanness not to be seen by Christian Eye not to be spoken by Christian Mouths not to be heard by Christian Ears Whence the Apostle would not have it once named among Saints and saith it is a shame even to speak of those things Eph. 5.3 12. And thirdly It is a Sin against all the Persons in the sacred Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost 1. Against the Father in that it is a dishonouring of his Creature abusing that to vileness and baseness and bruitishness which he made for himself and for his own Honour and Glory Whence the Apostle cells us above v. 13 that the Body is not for Fornication but for the Lord and helow v. 20. bids that we should glorifie God in our Body as being that which is his upon a double right first of Creation and after of Redemption and therefore is only to be used according to his Will in all Purity and not to be abused according to our Lust in any Uncleanness 2. Against the Son for it is a Dishonouring and a defiling of a Member of him even so far as to make it a Member of a Harlot Know ye not says our Apostle v. 15. that your bodies are the members of Christ Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of an harlot God forbid As by Marriage the two Parties become one in Body so by Religion which imports a holy tye of a Christian unto Christ Christ and the Christian become one in Spirit there is a spiritual Union betwixt them as a civil Union betwixt married couples But then Fornication is the breaking of this Union for by a mans joyning himself to another to a Harlot he becomes one body with a Whore which is a high disloyalty against Christ and a breaking off from Union with Christ a forsaking of him to follow after and be joyned with a Whore which is a strong Argument against this Sin Memento quia Christo sacrata sunt menbra tua nou misceantur membris meretricis Chrysost O remember that your Members are consecrated unto Christ and that is reason enough why you should not commit Fornication inasmuch as that 't is the making of your Members to become the Members of an Harlot or Whore 3. Against the Holy Ghost For it is a dishonouring and a defiling of his Temple and a turning it into a Stve or rather a Den of Uncleanness What says the Apostle here v. 19. know you not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you So that this defiling of the Body is the defiling of the Temple of the Hold ghost and to a doing of despite unto that Spirit of Grace a forcing him with our nastiness to forsake his Habitation which is also a sure way to bring on our Destruction For says our Apostle 1 Cor. 3.16 17. Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you If any man defile the Temple of God him shall God destroy for the Temple of God is holy which Temple are ye Now this Consideration raises up this Sin to so exceeding an height of sinfulness as that it seems not needful to add any thing more to shew the sinfulness of it And yet more may be said to shew it For it is a Sin against a mans own Body and abusing of a mans self a doing a Dishonour and Despite to their own bodies Rom. 1.24 And our Apostle argues by way of Motive to disswade from this Sin in the following members of the Text Flee Fornication Every Sin that a man doth is without the Body but he that committeth Fornication sinneth against his own body The meaning is That whereas most other Sins are against others God or our Neighbour this is a Sin against a man's own self whereby he defiles that part of himself into filthy abuse which was sanctified by God to an use of holiness even to be the Temple of his most holy Spirit It is a robbing of a man's self of so great an Honour and so great an Happiness as to have his Body to be the Temple of Gods Spirit than which what worse Discourtesy what greater Mischief can a man do unto himself And not only against himself but it is a Sin also against the body of Another the Body of her with whom Fornication is committed as well as his own Body It is a doing to her as much mischief as to himself bringing as great a Sin upon her and involving her into as great a share of Punishment as himself For this is a Sin that cannot be committed by one there must ever be two at it A man may commit Murder or Thiest alone he may forswear and lye alone he may gluttonize and be drunken himself alone but he cannot play the fornicator alone by himself he must have a Partner with him in his Sin whereby he doubles his Sin as being guilty not only of his own act but others also whom he tempted to the consenting to him in the acting of that filthiness which is a great aggravation to the sinsulness of it And yet neither is this all For In the next place it is a Sin committed against clear light and knowledge and so cannot but be against Conscience For the Scripture hath clear and plain Prohibitions and Dehortations from it and Denunciations or Threatnings against the Committers of it which none can be ignorant of that knows any thing of the Scriptures of God Prohibitions and Dehortations we have mentioned before and such is this in my text Flee Fornication Such is that in Act 15.29 where abstaining from Fornication is made a necessary Injunction upon all that would be Christians Such again that in 1 Thess 4.3 where it is declared to be the will of God that we should abstain from Fornication And for Denunciations or Threatnings they are plain nad clear and full Such is that of the Apostle Hib. 13.4 Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge Such that of his again in Eph. 5.5 No Whoremonger nor unclean Person hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God So v. 6 For these things cometh the wrath of God upon the Children of Disobedience And to name no more such is that Rev. 21.8 where Whoremongers are of that number that shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone which is the second Death Are not these clear and plain Prohibitions and Denunciations And do these lie fair and clear in our Books to read And are they not frequently read in our Churches and published in our Congregations Who then can plead ignorance of