Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	law_n	sin_n	sinner_n	2,820	5	9.3094	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64834	Sin, the plague of plagues, or, Sinful sin the worst of evils a treatise of sins tryal and arraignment, wherein sin is accused for being, proved to be, and condemned for being exceeding sinful : and that 1. as against God, his nature, attributes, works, will, law, image, people, glory and existence, 2. as against man, his good and welfare of body and soul, in this life, and that to come : with the use and improvement to be made of this doctrine, that men may not be damned, but saved, &c. : being the substance of many sermons preached many years ago in Southwark / by Ralph Venning ...	Venning, Ralph, 1621?-1674.	1669 (1669)	Wing V226; ESTC R38391	212,020	400

of grace quis nisi mentis inops c. 'tad wont to be said who but fool● refuse gold when 't is offer'd them But ala● there are such fools as refuse Christ and heaven and happiness offer'd them and will no be entreated to be reconciled that they ma● be saved but are set against the glory 〈◊〉 God and their own salvation now again●● these do the stones of the street and the d●● of the Apostles feet bear witness Luke 1● 40. Luke 9.5 and 10.10 11. Indeed the● is not a sin but the Creation in whole and 〈◊〉 the several parts doth bear witness agains● the very dullest and worst-natured creatu● have exceeded man the Oxe and Ass a● Dives his dogs had more humanity then Dives himself and were witnesses against his cruelty In short whatever duties they teach by that they convince of and bear witness against the sins which are contrary to them duties and whatever sins they convince of they teach the duties contrary to them sins There remains yet another thing to prove the sinfulness of sin by the creatures which I shall but touch and that is as they are instruments in the hands of God to punish sinners which they do with much readiness as if they were revenging themselves as well as vindicating God witness the plagues of Aegypt The four Elements have born their testimony often Fire burnt Sodom Water drown'd the old World the Earth swallowed up Corah c. the Air hath conveyed infection in times of plague the Sun Moon and Stays have been warriours and fought in their courses against sin the beasts of the field and sowls of the air have done the like but I only hint these things Two ways they shew their displeasure and his whose creatures they are against sin in punishing sinners 1 By withdrawing their influences Deut 28.23 the heaven shall be brass and the earth iron that shall not rain nor drop dew this shall not bring forth fruit See Hos 2.18.22 2 By acting contrary to their ordinary course and nature for waters to stand on an heap Exod. 15.8 fire not to burn Dan. 3. are unwonted and contranatural things and they do this to witness against the contranaturalness of sin and both these were witnesses against the sin of persecuting Gods Israel This do the creatures continue to do upon occasions to this day they are always bearing witness though men observe it not which also infers their further sinfulness and this shall suffice as to the witness of the whole Creation Next If any should say notwithstanding all these witnesses we cannot put sin to death without a Law if there be no Law to condemn sin we cannot condemn it I shall therefore proceed to shew that there is a Law against sin which condemns sin as worthy of death for being guilty of the death of many and attempting the death of all so that we may legally and ought by Law to condemn and put sin to death For 5 The Law witnesseth against and condemns Sin The Law of God is without sin in it self 5 The Law doth witness against sin and 't is against sin in others The Law being holy just and good that which breaks the Law must be unholy unjust and evil The Law discovers the authority wisdome will and goodness of God in its primary intention and promulgation for 't was to life sin must therefore be exceeding sinful it being against all this The Law discover'd mans d●ty and mans happiness 't was the whole of man in both these senses how evil is sin then that is a contradiction of and contrariety to both the duty and happiness of man so that sin being a transgression of Gods good Law the sinfulness of sin appears by the Commandment More particularly 1 The Law is against sin before 't is committed 2 After 't is committed 1 The Law is against sin before 't is committed 't is against its being to be committed its holy and wholly against sin for it forbids sin all sin whither of Omission or Commission whither in thought word or deed whither against God or against man the voice and cry of the Law is thou shalt not sin so that in this sense by the Law is the knowledge of sin viz. what is sin as well as what sin is Rom. 7.7 Is the Law sin God forbid nay I had not known sin but by the Law for I had not known lust or concupiscence to be a sin except or unless the Law had said thou shalt not covet thou shalt not lust The Law shews that lust is sin by forbidding it yea the Law doth not only forbid sin but forbids it upon great and severe penalty upon no less then pain of death on the peril of a curse for this it saith cursed be every one that doth not and continueth not to do all things which are written in the Law Gal. 3.11 So that the Law is utterly against the commission of sin 2 The Law is against sin after 't is committed and here even by the commandment sin appears to be exceeding sinful after commission For 1 The Law discovers as before what is sin so now what sin is how displeasing to God how destructive to man and that as 't is a transgression of the Law of God made for the good of man no sooner is sin committed but the Law is so far from indulging or justifying it or the sinner or from concealing it that it discovers it and the displeasure of God against it Rom. 3.20 yea not only discovers sin but 2 It condemns the sinner the Law is not against the righteous against such there is no Law nor condemnation but this Law which like a good Magistrate is an incouragement to them that do well is a terrour to evil doers saith the Apostle Rom. 7.9 when the commandment came and shew'd me sin as in a Perspective-glass sin revived it got the victory over me was too strong for me for the Law strengthened it against me 1 Cor. 15.56 and I died I was dead in Law I had sentence of death within me as he speaks in another case The transgressed Law worketh wrath Rom. 4.15 it sends abroad terrours thundrings and flashes of wrath it discovers wrath to them that by sin have made work for wrath Thus the Law is against sin before and after the commission of it Yet further to shew how the sinfulness the malignity of sin appears by the Commandment as 1 Thus That it takes occasion from its being prohibited and forbidden by the Law to sin against and transgress it the more It hath such a malignity such an enmity in it that it will not be subject to the Law of God Rom. 8.7 it strives to break this bond in sunder and to cast this cord far from it the Law stands in its way and therefore it rusheth upon the breaking of it with the more violence sin grows angry and swells like a river pent up and stopt in its course Thus

many others that might be named that mans happiness cannot be made up of any or all creature enjoyments of having though all the world for a portion For beside what 's newly said 1 It was not so when man was in Paradise when not only man but all the creatures were in a better condition then and not subject to vanity as now they are All that God made was very good and Adam had all that God made and yet that was not his happiness Now if the creatures in their best estate were not mans happiness much less are they so in this their worse estate so that our sin in placing happiness in creature enjoyment now is worse then Adams sin was for the creatures were then far more allicient attractive and taking then now they are for as a worthy person expresseth it though the old walls and ruinous Palace of the world stands to this day yet the beauty gloss and glory of the hangings is soiled and marred with many imperfections cast on every creature what 's without us only cannot be our happiness 2 That cannot be our happiness which is below us the design of Gods making the creatures was that they should serve us and not be served by us● God put Adam colere to till the earth not colere to worship the earth and make a God of it as earthly-minded men do for covetousness is ●dolatry Not only God placed them but man reckons them below himself below man for skin for skin or skin after skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life a great truth though spoken by the Father of lies by which its evident that man reckons all below himself and though old Jacobs life were bound up in the life of young Benjamin yet he would part with him rather then starve Now without further inlargement 't is clear as the Sun that what 's inferiour to us cannot be our happiness 3 That cannot be our happiness which is not so much as a token of the love of God If you had all the Cattel on a thousand hills and never so many thousand bags of gold in your Chest though all the beauty and honor in the world centr'd in you yet I must tell you what a very wise man hath told me Eccl. 9.1 Man knows not love by prosperity no more then hatred by adversity Indeed the world is not as great and good as 't is or 't was 't is not good enough for a Love-token God sent his Son and never any thing but him and what 's in him for a Love-token Well then upon the whole we conclude that seeing happiness is of an higher nature then the Creation and is not in less then God himself that man is a fool in seeking it elsewhere and that sin is very pernicious to man in making him such a fool But 2 Mans folly appears to be great 2 As to means which relates to his end or happiness not only in relation to his end and happiness in his mistaking that but in relation to the means and way leading to happiness in mistaking this also The enjoyment of God is our happiness Religion viz. right worshipping and serving God is the means of enjoying God i. e. of our happinesse Alas here man is a very fool Though in the general men acknowledge that there is a God and that God is to be worshipped and obey'd yet who this God is and how to be worshipped man is full of darknesse doubt and perplexity about it whence it is that we have such expressions in the Scripture concerning sinners ye worship ye know not what Joh. 4.22 Surely they that worship they know not what do worship also they know not how as it there follows The Athenian Altar had this Inscription To the unknown God Acts 17.23 and the world by wisdome knew not God viz. manifest in the flesh 1 Cor. 1.21 Though there be nothing more knowable yet nothing more unknown then God 'T is visible to all the Creation by the Creation that there is a God as Rom. 1.22 but who and what he is and what his will is who hath known the mind of God 1 Cor. 2.16 Sin hath made men worship either 1 A false God and that 's Idolatry Or 2 God falsly and that 's Superstition Man is become such a fool In being 1 Idolatious that his worship till enlightned and converted is either a breach of the first or second Commandment and he fails as to the object or manner of worship and both speak mans folly that his Religion is either Idolatry or Superstition 1 Idolatry is mans folly to worship no God or that which is not a God but an Idol is folly and therefore the Gentiles are called not only Atheists but a foolish people and with this the Apostle upbraids them Gal. 4.8 Rom. 1.21.125 Man is such a fool that he neglects to serve the God that made him and serves Gods of his own making though that make proves that they are not as their name is but Gods like their knowledge falsly so called as 't is at large imputed to them of old Is 44 14.-16 The world hath been guilty of most abominable idolatry the Romans made diseases Gods as the Feaver c. and sinners make not only creatures as gold and their belly their God but among the fore-mentioned Romans theft and murder sins were reputed and called Gods yea the Devil himself hath been made a God and sacrificed to he is called the God of this world 2 Cor. 4.4 and saith the Apostle they sacrifice to devils 1 Cor. 10.20 Deut. 32.17 and sacrificed not only their children Psa 106.37 but their souls for in all services the soul is the sacrifice Oh sinful sin But yet again 2 Superstition is mans folly as to Religion 2 Superstitious and this is younger brother to Idolatry 't is of the same venter womb with Idolatry Superstition is not worshipping a false God but the true God falsly in a way that God commandeth not but it teacheth and practiseth for doctrines the devices and commandments of men or worships not according to the will of God but the will of man This also is called the sacrifice of fools Eccl. 5.1 They mind the matter more then the manner and take up with the work done though it be not well done and mind the outside more then the in-side yea and worship God more because they fear then because they love him And this shall briefly suffice for the evincing of mans folly or how sin hath befool'd man as to his end happiness and the means to it Religion I proceed 3 To shew mans folly 3 As to non or ill-improvement of means as to non or ill improvement of means when made known in truth and clearness though the Will of God as to worship be revealed yet sin makes men fools still either in this that they use not or in this that they make an ill use of