Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	commit_v	sin_n	transgression_n	6,297	5	10.9290	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61501	Trias sacra, a second ternary of sermons preached being the last (and best) monuments that are likely to be made publique of that most learned, pious and eminent Dr. Richard Stuart ...	Steward, Richard, 1593?-1651.	1659 (1659)	Wing S5528; ESTC R34608	46,631	180

that other only of what is false and carnal We need not fear then to confesse Herod a reprobate and yet acknowledge him to have given most joyful entertainment to Iohns preaching and that unfeignedly and in good earnest For as Temporary Faith may be the Mother of an unfeigned joy which yet is not presently to be thought commendable only because it is not counterfeit For Herod might take delight in some carnal circumstances more than in the principal matter preached as to hear him tell of a Messiah that was to come of his strange Baptism that he would Baptize men with fire of the excellency of the Messiah's person seeing Iohn whose grave Aust●…rity freed him from all suspicion of any complemental excesse confessed himself not worthy to untye the the latchet of his Shooe He might be affected with his grave discourse and Treatings of Justice Temperance Fortitude and other Princely qualities wherwith doubtlesse the Baptist knew very well how to entertain him For virtue loves to shew its lustre and will seem admirable sometimes even in the eyes of vice it self Now how could it but rejoyce a King to hear those no lesse politique than Divine instructions copied out in the third of Luke where in at once he taught the people charity the Publicars conscience the Souldiers contentment and modesty Thus did he ease Herod in governing and make Religion supply that which otherwise would require the Princes Authority There is then a twofold Truth to be considered in our joy rei personae Herods Person was truly glad but his joy had made choise and fix●…d it self upon a false object and therefore false because 't was fading For we may not think he rejoyced in any sense which he had of the remission of his Sins for then we should have read him likewise partaker of Iohns Baptism which was preambulatory to it nor that he put any confident assurance in the preached Messias for then he would not have arayed him in white and so mocked and despised him as he did no cadebat hic semen in terram petrosam all this seed fell upon stony ground and that you may know that it did so indeed by and by it Sprung up you may see a blade of it almost as soon as it is sowen for so the Text addeth He did many things and that was my third and last part which I now come to consider and un●…old to you Part 3. He did many things c. Faith argueth our birth but good works our growth in Religion and as we may well su●…pect the child is abortive if it lives onely but encreaseth not so may we justly condemne that Faith for degenerate that beleeves onely but works n●…t But Herod seems Religious beyond censure who to manifest the Truth of his Fai●…h adds also the integrity of a good conversation And because one Action or two onely are scarse able to prove a man Good he claimes the Title by a multitude he doth many things perhaps feed●… the hungry clothes the naked that were in Israel Fasts twice every week perhaps gives Tythe of all his possessions precisely and becomes as Ceremonial and formal as any Pharisee in the crue But we must learn from Saint Austin lib. 1. Confess cap. 17. Non uno modo sacrificatur transgressoribus Angelis The devils Altars admit of more than one kind of sacrifice and though perhaps Herod might do him at this time no worship by way of oppression or covetousnesse or Idolatrie yet so long as he kept Herodias he was a true votary and servant of Satan and his Incest with his brother Philips wife a welcome oblation This then is but another progresse of a reprobate a second step which such a one may make in the way of salvation and yet never attain it He may do many goodly works and his charity may seem though not more true yet more specious splendid and bountifull than that of the Elect themselves for enquire but a little wherein the strength of his devotion lyeth you will find he had rather behead a Prophet than displease a Minion he had rather hazzard the losse of Religion it self than forgoe the pleasures of a beloved si●… This is Herods pietie Thus did this dyi●…g Tree shed all its fair fruit at the blast of a woman Those many things which he did must all end in one Herodias So inconsiderately wicked was t●… is Galilaean that he staines the beauty of all his former Actions and incurres the censure or penalty of the whole law by giving consent to that one transgression For this we must know the Gospel hath glo●…s'd upon both the Tables of the law farre beyond the strictnesse of Phari●…aical Interpreters teaching us by eff●…ct as well as report that Christ came not to destroy the law but to explain it and to take away ●…ot its Authority but its sting onely Thoughts were held free till he taught that but lusting was a breach of the seavent●… commandement A riddle till then beyond Sampsons subtilty H●…c u●…i vir non est ut sit adulterium as the Poet sc●…ffingly expresseth it that a woman should be an Adultresse that never entertained a paramour that Herodias in the Court of Galile should commit sin with Herod absent from her perhaps as farre as Hierusalem 'T is strange likewise that Achan because guilty of Theft should be arraigned and made liable to the law of Murther or that even Herod because incestuous should be counted as him that impiously blasphemes and curseth God And yet it is the Doctrine which Saint Iames in his Epistle teacheth chap. 2. at the 10th verse He that transgresseth in one commandement is held guilty of all Not that all sins are therefore equal or that an incestuous person is ipso facto as we say really and indeed made thereby a Blasphemer to think so were perhaps little lesse than to blaspheme and to accuse the justice of God of a strange iniquity but the sense is this He offends the same Majesty in the breach of the seventh commandement who lustfully climbeth up into his neighbours bed which he doth in the breach of the third who sacrilegiously Blasphemes and curseth his Creator The same Divine Majesty is offended by the breach of any one Commandement that is offended by the breach of all and we lose the love of God and become lyable to eternal damnation by the breach of one as really and assuredly I say not so deeply perhaps or h●…inously in regard of punishment as if we had transgres●…ed them all Herod then may well do many things and yet come farre short of that goodnesse which becomes Religion For as that mans joy is but carnal that looks not chiefly upon remission of sin though he be otherwise entertained with never so great variety of guest and delight so are not his works to be counted otherwise than most imperfect and vitiated who gives himself the liberty of any one sin yea though he should be supposed