Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	abraham_n	isaac_n	promise_n	1,783	5	6.8949	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93124	Two sermons preached in St. Maries Church in Cambridge. By Robert Sheringham, Master of Arts, and Fellow of Gunvil and Caius Colledge.	Sheringham, Robert, 1602-1678.	1645 (1645)	Wing S3239; Thomason E285_1; ESTC R200065	41,774	103

not how to perform this duty which are subject to deceive themselves to let many sins passe undiscerned and oftentimes to mistake them for vertues If there be any such here as I am afraid there are too many let mee desire you to observe these two rules for your direction First when yee examine your actions take heed you weigh them not by a false balance that is by a defiled conscience for a defiled conscience is as a false balance it is impossible to weigh an action rightly by it The Jewes having a defiled conscience preferred Barabbas before our Saviour Christ And this is that which deceives many when they examine themselves and find they doe nothing against their conscience they think themselves very upright and just but they know not that their conscience is defiled they consider not that their affection swayes their conscience and can make it judge any thing lawfull or unlawfull as it please But you will say How shall I know when my conscience is defiled The Apostle Saint Paul will resolve that doubt Unto the pure saith hee all things are pure but unto them that are defiled and unbeleeving nothing is pure but even their mind and conscience is defiled Titus 1.15 Whosoever therefore lives in any habituall sin whosoever alloweth himselfe to doe wickedly in any thing his conscience is defiled and it is in vain for him to consult with it concerning the lawfulnesse or unlawfulnesse of any action Secondly when you examine your actions favour not your selves but give the same judgement upon your own sins and pronounce the same condemnation against your selves which at other times ye have pronounced against others that have committed the like offences There are many for want of observing this rule which think themselves to be much better then they are they will censure and scoffe at others for those sins and infirmities which they commit every day without seeing them in themselves Would these men but look upon their owne actions with the same impartiall eye that they looke upon others they would be able to judge better of their owne wayes and would discover the same corruptions in themselves which they can so easily discern in another And this is the first condition necessary to a true confession that is a due examination of our selves and of our former life The second condition necessary to a true confession is sorrow and contrition of heart They that confesse their sins and are not grieved for them may be said rather to relate or to describe their sins then to confesse them Sorrow is a condition so inseparable from this duty that where it is wanting it is as good to deny our sins as to confesse them and this condition is expresly required Levit. 26.40 where God makes a promise to the Jewes when they shall be in captivity saying If they shall confesse their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers with their trespasse which they trespassed against mee and that they also have walked contrary unto mee And that I also have walked contrary unto them and have brought them into the land of their enemies if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob and also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember and I will remember the land This promise you see which God made to the Jewes upon their confession is a conditionall promise and the condition expressed is this If their uncircumcised hearts be humbled that is if they be broken and rent with sorrow for their sins he doth not promise to remember them whensoever they should formally confesse but if their uncircumcised hearts were humbled when they made their confession And therefore wheresoever you find the children of God confessing their sins in Scripture yee shall find them usually in an humble and mournfull posture In such a posture shall you find Daniel at the ninth chapter and third verse of his own Prophecie where you may see that hee first humbled himselfe and by putting on sack-cloth and ashes expressed deep signes of sorrow and contrition and then hee proceeded to make confession of his sins In such a posture shal ye find Ezra at the 9th chapter and 5th verse of his own book where you may see that he also by the outward gesture of his body first testified the inward heavinesse and affliction of his mind and then proceeded to make his confession to God And this is the true manner of confessing sin our confession is then available when our hearts are ready to break with sorrow wee may be confident the Lord will not despise us when our tears lift up our confession as the waters lifted up the Ark. I will not here dispute the question concerning the quality of sorrow whether a sensible sorrow be alwaies necessary or whether an appreciative rationall sorrow will serve the turn as our Romish Doctors do generally affirme For my part I take their appreciative rationall sorrow to be a meer figment a fained and forged invention of their owne as many other of their distinctions are Sorrow is a passion of the mind and I think an appreciative rationall passion is a new kind of passion that was never known to any but themselves True sorrow without doubt hath alwayes some sensible motions some convulsions of heart to attend it it could not be a passion of the mind if it did not inferre passionem animo some wayes or other sensibly affect the soule I will also omit the question concerning the quantity of sorrow which wee ought to have namely whether sorrow for sin ought to be the greatest sorrow Bellarmines determination is that it ought to be the greatest appreciative but not intensive I will not at this time examine this determination I say only in generall that true sorrow proceeding from the grace of God and not from the fear of punishment or any other sinister respect in what degree or quantity soever it be is sufficient to make our confession available before God Many when they compare their owne sorrow with the sorrow of David or with the sorrow of divers other holy men and women which are mentioned in the Scriptures are much troubled in mind because they cannot equall them What are my tears say they compared with Davids tears What is my griefe compared with the griefe of Mary Magdalen Thus they discourse within themselves and are ready almost to dispaire because they cannot arrive at their perfection But such comparisons as these beloved are offensive and unprofitable for why should every one compare himselfe with David or Mary Magdalen which were Gods especiall favourites and had a greater measure of grace conferred upon them then is ordinarily conferred upon others Every one cannot hope to be so perfect as they were I speak not this to dishearten any or inclining to an opinion that it is not lawfull for you to desire