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
A77979	An exposition with practical observations continued upon the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of the prophesy of Hosea· Being first delivered in several lectures at Michaels Cornhil London. By Jeremiah Burroughs. Being the fifth book, published by Thomas Goodwyn, William Greenhil, Sydrach Simson William Bridge, John Yates, William Adderly.	Burroughs, Jeremiah, 1599-1646.; Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680.	1650 (1650)	Wing B6070; Thomason E588_1; ESTC R206293	515,009	635

fire burneth and who hath laid it to heart No body stirs because the fire is not kindled in the City you lay it not to heart and you suffer your brethren one Country after another to be spoiled Take heed if you stir not more than you have done as many of you may answer for the blood of your brethren so for the spoiling of their goods because you do not lay to heart this heavy judgment that is upon the land at this day The execution of this controversie But yet in times of war you must know that the taking away of all mens goods otherwise than meerly by the positive Law of the Land is no stealing nor no breach of the eighth Commandement for it is against common sense and reason that in times of war we should be wholly tied to those positive Laws of a State that are made for times of peace But it is according to the Law of Nature to the Law of God to the Law of Arms that our enemies should be deprived of what may strengthen them against us Therefore let none cry out of stealing and robbing in these times Indeed it is not fit that any should be suffered to be as robbers but yet it is just that those that will not be on one side should be taken as enemies to the other and I say it is agreeable to the Law of Nature and to the Law of God and to the Law of Arms that in times of war when the war is just in which I hope you cannot but be fully satisfied that what may strengthen the enemy may be taken away Indeed they plead for Law who wholly break it themselves because they would have all the priviledg they can to strengthen themselves by our goods and the goods of others but certainly God giveth us allowance being in a lawful war to strengthen our selves by the estates and goods of those that appear enemies unto us without breach of peace or the positive Law of the land or his own Commandement Thus much for the fourth charge The fifth is Committing Adultery The generation of a rational creature who must live unto all eternity is a work that God challengeth a special hand in to appoint it to all at his pleasure therefore the breach of Gods Order in this and the casting filth upon this to satisfie the brutish lust of a man or woman it is a most cursed evil against which God hath a most dreadful controversie It is a breach of the blessed Covenant of God and a sin that is most opposite to Gods Nature And take that text all you that are guilty of this for perhaps many seem not to be guilty that are professors of Religion and live fairly amongst their neighbors yet may be secretly guilty of it too take that text home with you Prov. 22.14 That the abhorred of the Lord shall fall into the pit of the whore Go thy waies in that condition wherein thou art thou canst know no otherwise by thy self but that thou art the man or the woman that art abhorred of God Thou art beloved of thy Whore but God abhorreth thee And Tertullian speaking upon that place Eph. 5.6 Let no man deceive you with vain words Nunquā mac●●o aut fornicatori secundam paenitentiā esse permissā Dui maechiam concienatur esse remissibilem He admitted but 1. repentance after baptisme See lib. de penitentiâ de pudicitiâ he that expression which I confess I would not dare to have These are saith he vain words be that preacheth of repentance to adultery especially adultery in a forcible way he deceiveth men with vain words You may see how he apprehended the sin we dare not justifie what he saith in that but only shew you how dreadful he apprehended the sinne to be And in another place speaking of the sin that is unpardonable in Heb. 6. he hath this expression We never read saith he or ever knew a second repentance promised to an adulterer or fornicator These were his thoughts of Adultery The Athenians made a law That if any man found his wife in the act of adultery he might presently kill her And I have read of a people among the Heathens that have punished this sin for the filthiness of it by putting the adulterers head into the panch of a beast where the filth of it lay and so stifled him If Heathens hated it so much surely God must have a controversie with those that profess themselves Christians because of this sin And the greater controversie because it is so little punished by men And though many great ones can get beyond punishment by man yet they cannot get beyond this controversie I remember Mr. Cleaver reports of one that he knew that had committed the act of uncleanness and in the horrour of conscience he hung himself but before when he was about to hang himself he writes in a paper and left it in a place to this effect Indeed saith be I acknowledg it to be utterly unlawful for a man to kill himself but I am bound to act the Magistrates part because sin punishment of this sin it death God would have that sin punished with death but the Magistrate did not punish it accordingly therefore he in horrour of conscience laies violent hands upon himself We justifie not his act but it shews what a controversie God hath with men that commit this sin Thou committest that abominable sin and thou hast some pleasure and delight in it Go thy way thou art a dead man in Gods eyes look to thy self one way or other God may bring death upon thee and though mans Law take not hold upon thee God may thou knowst not how soon I have read of a King of Navarre that by adultery had weakned his body very much and in regard of that his Physitians caused his body to be wrapt about with a Cerecloath dipt in Aqua-vitae and the party that sowed the Cerecloath having done went to burn off the threed with a candle which presently took hold of the cloath and consumed both it and the King And as God hath a controversie for this sin which is so little punished by mans Law which by Gods Law is death so the rather hath God a controversie for this sin if it be committed by men of knowledg by learned men by men that are in publick places by men that carry a shew of holiness by men that are in the Ministry If they commit it God hath a dreadfull controversie with them in a special manner Jer. 29.23 The Lord make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab whom the King of Babylon rosted in the fire because they committed villany in Israel and have committed adultery with their neighbors wives It was a proverb Jer. 29.32 opened The Lord make thee like Zedekiah and Ahab whom the King of Babylon rosted in the fire This was not King Zedekiah and King Ahab but two false Prophets that were called by that name and

house and from his labor that performeth not this promise It is a judgment to be shaken out of our labour but to be shaken out of such an office whereby we draw so nigh unto God as to be the mouth of God unto the people and the mouth of the people unto God again this is a sore evil Again whereas it may be said Israel had no true Priests therefore it was no judgment for them to be rejected out of that Office But to be cast out of what we seem to have that is likewise a judgment of God Luk. 8.18 Seeing thou hast forgotten the Law of God I will also forget thy children You have forgotten the Law You live so as you shew that you never think of the Law of the holiness equity and authority of it and the threats annexed unto it for if you remembred these you could not go on so quietly in a sinful way but you have cast off all the remembrance of the Law it is even worn out of your memory The book of the Law of God was lost for a long time in Judah surely in Israel much more I will forget Eti●m Ego even I. It is a sad thing to be forgotten by our friends when we are in misery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oh that such a deer friend such a father or such a mother should forget me but how sad a thing is it for God to forget you Yea I will forget your children That is there shall be no succession in the Priestly office This was threatned against Eli his house 1 Sam. 2.20 It is a blessing for children of godly Ministers being godly to succeed them in the Office Observ and the contrary is a judgment Your children shall not succeed you in this Office but they shall be forgotten by me The families of wicked Ministers thorough Gods judgment are many times forgotten You have forgotten me Obser I wil forget you and your children I will not here speak how the child may suffer ●or the fathers offence we often meet with it Only now as it concerns the posterity of wicked Ministers they are thorough Gods judgment often forgotten But let not the families of Godly Ministers especially if their children be godly too Oh let not them be forgotten It is a judgment threatned upon these wicked Priests that God would forget their children therefore though men forget them it is not so evil but if there be any that have been faithful Ministers God forbid their children should be forgotten after they are dead This City hath been honored for their respect to godly Ministers but have you never forgotten their children their families that have been left behind When they were with you and preached among you you seemed to give mighty respect unto them but are there not many that belong unto their families now with you that live in a hard condition yea their children and families that are godly their widdows too how are they forgotten If the children of godly Ministers that are godly too should go unto God and complain thus would it not be a sad thing Lord thou threatnest Idolatrous Priests that forget thee that thou wouldest forget their children but Lord my father in the City was a faithful Minister he remembred thee and he was a faithful remembrancer for thy people yet we are forgotten is this according to thy Word shall the judgment that is threatned upon the children of Idolatrous Priests be the judgment upon us that are the children of faithful Ministers that we are thus forgotten though our fathers forgot not thee Look therefore into the families of godly Ministers look after their children for their fathers did not forget God do not you forget them let not the judgment that is threatned upon the children of wicked Ministers be upon them but let there be a distinction made between the children of faithful and godly Ministers and the children of Idolatrous Priests Verse 7. As they were encreased so they sinned against me therefore will I change their glory into shame THe Lord is here further charging these ten Tribes but especially their Priests he aimeth at them most in this his Charge They had before rejected the knowledg of the Lord and the Lord threatned rejection of them The knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that knowledge Scientiam illam that knowledge of God in the way of his worship that he was to be worshiped at Jerusalem alone that truth was a suffering truth therefor● that truth they did reject they rejected others but especially that And in this seventh verse here is some ground of their rejection of the knowledg of God As they were encreased so they sinned against me God had encreased them they were grown first into a great multitude and as their number encreas'd so their sins encreas'd But especially that which I take to be the meaning of the holy Ghost here is As their prosperous condition encreas'd they were grown up to an height of prosperity and that was the thing made them sin against God and reject the knowledg of God The first is not to be rejected viz. As they encreased in multitude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the Seventy turn it according to their fulness And it may be turned both waies fulness of number or fulness of their prosperous estate Obser It is a usual thing where there is encrease in number to be encrease in sin The more meat there is in the pot the more scum ariseth simile So in great Cities what a great deal of filth is there filth of sin moral filth Where there is any confluence of people at Fares and Merkets in the Country or in any Corporation what abundance of filth is there continually As there is any encrease in number usually there is encrease in sin In Churches though when they are but small at their first beginning a few called Saints they can agree wel together and go on sweetly in their way but ordinarily as they increase in number when Churches grow to any number they begin to corrupt and increase in sin They should encrease so much the more in godliness but this is the corruption of mans heart every one bringing in some corruption Therefore as there is an increase in number so in sin But because that is not the scope but the second to speak to that a little As they encreased in their prosperous estate For we are to know that at this time the ten Tribes were in a very prosperous condition they were grown rich and great and so they were increast and especially the Priests for they had the favour of Jeroboam and of the Princes For their main design was to uphold their false worship and the Priests served for their turns most therefore they countenanced those Priests of Dan and Bethel the Priests of the Calves and they flourished at this time in the Court and in the Countrey and were much increast in their prosperous estate And as

is written with a pen of iron with the point of a diamond Jer. 17.1 every oath every lye yea and every vain thought which thou hast committed and continuest in under an impenitent condition know that thy sins are remembred and that thou mayest be sure of it see what the text saith Job 14.17 Job 4.17 My transgression is sealed up in a bag opened and thou sewest up my iniquity They are sealed in a bag as the Clark of Assizes seals up the inditements of men and at the Assizes brings his bag and takes them out even so will God as God hath his time to seal up mens transgressiōs in his bag so he wil have his time to take them out to reckon with sinners for them and then wo to them Deut. 32.34 Is not this laid up in store with me and sealed up among my treasures It is sealed up to be remembred though perhaps committed fourty or fifty yeers ago and it is thy sin if thou dost not remember them when and where they were committed and if thou wilt not know that God hath his time to make thee know them Wicked men will not consider that God doth remember their sins Obs 2 In Psal 94.7 they commit horrible wickednesses daring sins yet they force themselves not to beleeve that God doth remember them and take notice of them yet they say The Lord shall not see it neither shall the God of Jacob remember it The Jews tell us that when Jeroboams hand was dried up the false Prophets told him that this was but by chance and so kept him from thinking of God that had smitten him Did men consider that it is God that remembers them it would work humiliation in them and stop them in their sins were the danger that sin brings men into alwaies in their eye they would think it a great madness to sin against God and folly too Use Joshua thought it so Is the iniquity of Peor a smal thing in your eyes that you should ad more to them Didst thou know that God remembers the sins of thy youth and thy elder age thou wouldst fear that upon the next sin thou committest God might bring upon thee all the rest of the sins which thou hast committed as a man that hath used his body to drink poyson simile at the first and second time he may do well but at last he is overcome and destroies himself so the next sin which thou committest Note though it be a less sin than formerly thou hast committed this sin may set all the rest on working as suppose there be many barrels of Gunpouder in a room and there lies but a thimbleful by it ●imile and a spark falls into that and so fires all the rest so thy former sins are as the barrels of Gunpouder the next sin thou committest especially if a sin against knowledg may be the thimbleful which sets all the rest on work to pull down judgment upon thee There is no argument so powerful to keep men from their sins as the consideration that God sees them and knows them all and will remember them Obs 3 When God doth punish for sin he manifests that he remembers sin 1 King 17.18 the woman of Zarephath falls out with the Prophet saying What have I to do with thee Oh thou man of God art thou come unto me to call my sin into remembrance and to slay my son Gods hand being upon her brought her sin into remembrance How doth the consciences of men dictate this unto them in their afflictions this cross is for such a sin this misery for such a base lust that thou wouldest have fulfilled at such a time God now puts thee in mind of such an act of uncleanness such a time thou were cruel and hardhearted this is cleer in Josephs brethren whose sin was committed twenty two yeers before this trouble came upon them you that have committed many sins a long time ago and think they are forgotten 't is no such matter if the guilt of them be taken away by Christ know that there will come a time in which thou shalt be put in mind of them as a man that gets a surfet in his youth and younger age simile or gets many a bruise and rub which then he undergoes wel enough and never complains of them but when he grows old or hath an infirm body then against every rain and change of weather it will appear and he will complain but this is the Saints priviledg that God never so remembers their sins as to condemn them for their sins It follows I remember all their wickedness now their own d●ings have bese● them about they are before my face Their wickedness Luther saith their studied wickedness Septuag Luther their contrived iniquities have beset them round about or their doing have compassed them round Expos These words have reference to these similitudes as Officers beset Malefactors who shift up and down and play least in sight but at the last are found and beset Just thus their sins had beset them that they could no way escape or as Soldiers beleaguer a Town and will not let any in the Town get out so men by their sins are besiged and brought into such a condition that there is no way for comfort to come at them or for them to avoid the judgments which are coming upon them mens sins are like unto those six men in Ezek. 9.2 And behold six men came from the way of the higher Gate to beset the Gates of the City And know Oh thou bold sinner that God hath his time to beset thee with thy sins and his judgments Applic. to awaken thy conscience by setting thy sin● in order before thee and this is the great reason why men cry out in the horror of their consciences because they are beset with their sins what a sad condition were this City in if beleaguerd with an hundred thousand men Every mans sins are worse and endanger a man more than millions of enemies can do man shall need no other enemy than his own iniquity thine own iniquity shall find thee out it shall find thee as in a snare Prov. 5.21 For the waies of man are before the eyes of the Lord and he pondereth all his goings that is I so remember their sins as if they were all present before me committed at this very instant so that thou art to consider that God doth not only remember thy sins but they are before Gods face so that God never can look about him but they are present before his face thou hast committed a sin and perhaps art troubled for it but after a while thou forgettest it and the trouble is blown over but God looks upon it as now presently committed for as there is no beginning of eternity so there is no succession of it If thou wert to go to the Lords table thou wouldest not go in a drunken fit Note