Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	good_a	sin_n	transgression_n	4,384	5	10.5404	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32896	A Christian's journal, or, Brief directions for devotion and conversation		1684 (1684)	Wing C3956; ESTC R43093	58,065	347

that State wherein he is and wherein he is well As Birds and Fishes are often by noise and stirring driven from the Places in which they were safe into the Snares of the Fowler The fourth when he invites a man to those things which are above his strength The fifth when under pretence of some Good he draws a man into Danger and under pretence of Virtue perswades a man to some Vice The sixth is a Peace and Cessation from Temptation the most dangerous subtlety of all for from hence springs Sloth Pride Contempt of our Brethren Hardness of Heart c. A man may resist Temptation three ways First he resists that consents not The Tempter is overcome if he overcome not Secondly he resists Temptations that flies from and shuns Them Thirdly he resists which beats them back and makes opposition With the shunning Temptation we must joyn Indignation not vouchsafing to look after or harken to the Devil what ever he offers contemning and scorning when he offers that which is infinitely less worth and even nothing in comparison of God's Love Here is the great Point of Wisdom and Spiritual skill so fervently to love God so closely to cleave to him so diligently to employ one's self to do his pleasure to preserve and defend Virtue and to be so immovably fix'd in these Exercises that the Darts of Temptation may not touch us A temptation is best beaten back by its own Weapon Now every Virtue does so as often as in the Temptation its Beauty and pretiousness is seriously thought upon for by such Meditations both the Sins that do Tempt us and and the thoughts that proceed from them are always weakned and sometimes vanish into nothing as Darkness flies away when Light approaches for the only reason that Vice and the Profits and Pleasures thereof seem in the hour of Temptation to have some Excellency and be of some Value and Worth is because at the time the Law and Light of Virtue is hid from our Eyes either through Ignorance or Negligence as rotten Wood and the Scales of Fishes do shine in the Night because the light of the Sun and other lights are wanting Of Self-Examination THE necessity of this self-reflexion appears from this double consideration the danger of the neglect and the great benefit of the Practice of this Duty The neglect of it makes a man a stranger to himself A very dangerous fault yet very easily run into through the Love of Sin and ones self it throws a man every moment upon a thousand unexpected dangers and who can tell how wicked he shall be that does not know how bad he is And when once God shall awaken a mans Conscience and tear off the covering wherewith Sloth and Security have muffled it when by some notable Judgment or Sickness he shall quicken in a Man the remembrance of his former Iniquities and summon him to Death and Judgment when he shall see his Sins set in order before him and large Rolls of Indictments written against him full of his Sins and Woes within and without Oh! in what a maze in what a miserable condition is such a Person As to the benefit that comes by this Practice Hereby a man shall come to the knowledge of himself and his present Estate shall see what Graces he has and what those are he most wants It will discover the whole temper of his Soul and shew him what evil Affections are strongest in him and in what things he is most apt to Sin what Graces are weakest in him what most useful for him that he may the more earnestly implore them And besides this particular knowledge will bring forth these three blessed effects Watchfulness and Tenderness of Conscience He that is acquainted with the State of his Body and knows what is hurtful what is healthful and what the danger of a Surfeit or any other Distemper is will be very wary of his Diet and course of Life Nature teaches this and surely Grace is a better Instructer He that has taken thorough notice of the great Distempers of his Heart how suddenly he is transported with Passion how quickly intic'd by every Temptation to practice any evil that had seen how ugly and fearful the face of Sin is when presented in its true shape and stript of all its lying Pleasures and Profits and accompany'd only with God's hatred and Curse that has found what it is to venture upon Sin what the loss of Gods Favour the joy of the Holy Ghost the peace and quiet of a good Conscience is blame not that man if he be afraid to Sin Humility He that often beholds himself in the unspotted Glass of Gods Law will not be very forward to fall in love with his own beauty When a man sits down to try himself by the Law of God he finds therein all perfections of Holiness commanded but not the thousand part of it in himself he reads long Catalogues of Sins forbidden upon pain of Gods eternal displeasure and in his own Conscience he finds the Guilt of all or most of those Transgressions When he scans his best Works he finds they fall short of that Faith Zeal Sincerity and perfect Charity wherein they ought to have been perform'd he finds that he has little whereof to be proud much whereof to be ashamed So that what ever others may think of him he knows so much evil and so little good by himself that he cannot have high thoughts of himself Let him be despised reviled or reproached as base and vile it is no Corrosive to him he abhors himself more than any other can despise him and is more Vile in his own Esteem than he can be in theirs True Peace and Comfort He that often calls himself to a strict Account that Judges himself for his Transgressions weeping over them with godly Sorrow never ceasing till pardon be obtain'd this man alone possesses his Heart in peace and comfort and can with great quietness and resolution expect the approach of all Adversity nothing can put such a man to much fear or trouble neither Adversity nor Sickness nor Death nor Judgment it self This is the benefit of this Exercise and yet how great a shame it is to consider our neglect and carelesness who seek to know All things but our Selves Our minds are like our Eyes we can turn neither of them inward Oh! therefore for the furture let us take all opportunities that shall be offer'd we are not at all times alike dispos'd for this Exercise there are special occasions that fit us for it many times one sad accident or other turns home our thoughts to our Selves and makes us see what we are in other men The loss of a dear Friend the sound of a Passing-bell the sight of a Dying man have a strange Virtue many times to compose a disorder'd Heart Sometimes a Sermon has set us to rights and sent us home quicken'd with much holy Affection sometimes a Fit of natural Melancholy and