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
A42552	The mount of holy meditation: or a treatise shewing the nature and kinds of meditation the subject matter and ends of it; the necessity of meditation; together with the excellency and usefulnesse thereof. By William Gearing minister of the gospel at Lymington in the county of Southampton.	Gearing, William.	1662 (1662)	Wing G436B; ESTC R222671	88,628	217

Sin and death are two twins born at a birth yea howsoever sin be the elder Brother in time because it 's the cause of death yet in nature they come ver● near each other for as soon as eve● sin was committed death entered according to the commination of God to Adam Si nòn peccasset Adam nòn erat expoliandus corpore sed supervestiendus immortaliter August Gen. 2.17 Had it not been for the sin of man nothing had ever discomposed his quiet the seasons had not been irregular nor the Elements waged warre against him the earth had been fruitfull without the labour of man no thorns or briars had ever covered the face thereof no drowning deluges nor scorching drought nor raging pestilence nor devouring sword nor wasting famine should ever have made any devastation upon an innocent state the two parts that compose man had not been seperated nor the master-piece of the Creation been ruined as Austin speaks and the soul reigning with Angels had not beheld her body devoured by worms of all the strings of the worlds great Instrument Adam's only brake and caused a jar and having run from God hath drawn all his posterity after him the sin of Adam is the fountain of all the evils and miseries that befall his posterity we sinned in him because we lived in his person and the offence of one man is become the obliquity of whole nature because it was included in him as the tree in the kernell Ball 's Treatise of meditation now that man enriched with so many graces and priviledges should in such a place as Paradise and in the sight of the tree of life and having familiar converse with God and leave to eat of all other trees of the Garden yet that he must tast of the only forbidden tree having power from God to have resisted the temptation of the Devil these are great aggravations of Adam's sin as a judicious Divine hath well observed Sect. 5. Of the nature of sin the number of our sins with the aggravations of them 〈◊〉 fifth subject meditation is 〈◊〉 nature of 〈◊〉 c. Order will require that we should now meditate on the nature of sin the number of our sins together with their aggravating circumstances sin came not into the world by Creation but was the Devil's bird brought in afterwards by corruption Gen. 3.1 2 3. Jam. 1.13 14 15. where the manner of sins conception and birth is described Now for the nature of sin consider 1. That sin is a spot 〈◊〉 ●s a spot staining the soul the mind and conscience is defiled by sin Tit. 1.15 things that are unclean clean are vile and loathsome so is sin it is very odious it makes a man like filthy Swine like a spotted Leopard it corrupts him as the flies did Aegypt Exod. 8.24 so as the Lord saith they are become filthy or stinking Isa 64.6 Thence it was that so many washings and purgations under the Law were appointed We are all as an unclean thing saith the Prophet and all our best righteousnesse is but filthy rags thence it is that holy men have been so earnest with God to cleanse them and wash them from the filthinesse thereof Psal 51.2 We have need of washing and cleansing ●rom the sole of the foot to the crown of the head there being nothing whole ●herein nothing but wounds bruises ●wellings and putrifying sores Ad incu●iendam horrorem a peccato tanquam à re immundâ Musculus This Metaphor is used in Scripture saith Musculus to strike terrour into a man to ●un sin and fly from it as an unclean ●ing They that are all clean have need 〈◊〉 wash their feet saith our Saviour to ●hich devout Bernard alluding hath his meditation That though we choose ●●r way and cull out our paths to walk in ●oiding the mire and dirt yet in the best ●●d cleanest wayes our feet will gather some 2. Sin is in Scripture called by the name of folly Sin is folly sin is the greatest folly of all other a good understanding have all they that do Gods Commandments Psal 111.10 therefore sin being the transgression of the Law of God the sinner is the greatest fool to call a wilfull sinner a fool will bear no action of slander in the Court of Heaven 1 Sam. 25.25 thus Abigail said of her Husband Nahal is his name and folly is with him thus Job calls his Wife Job 2.10 and God calls all Atheists so Psal 14.1 and Christ calls the rich man in the Gospel so Luk 12.20 Who dares call a rich man a fool yet so doth our Saviour call him that is rich to the world and is not rich towards God Every one bereft of reason and judgement is a fool He doth not ●ean that sin had abolished the substance of their hearts secundum esse naturale but perverted and spoiled the qualities thereof secundum esse morale so be sinners there be some sins that take away the heart Hos 4.11 Ephraim is a silly dove without heart the sinner like a fool seeks after trifles and le ts go things of the greatest importance he prefers a Counter before a piece of gold and will not leave his bable according to the Proverb for the Tower of London he knowes not where a good bargain is to be had like children running up the hill to catch the Moon sweating and toiling themselves to catch Butterflies so the sinner chooseth vain things that cannot profit him Sinners like fools are fool-hardy and will not be corrected or reclaimed being struck by Aaron's rod or reproved by the Spirit of God and as fools mock at wise mens actions so do the wicked scorn at the wayes of the godly Fools only care for a little meat and drink for the present pins and points and such like trash but look not after an inheritance so sinners are creatures of sense and like bruits are altogether for present ease and present contentments 3. Sin is called a burden Sin is a burden Mine iniquities saith David are gone over my head as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me Psal 38.3 The Prophet Zachary compares it to a talent of lead the heavyest of all mettals the women that are led aside by seducers are said to be silly women laden with sins 2 Tim. 3.6 Salt sand and a lump of Iron Ecclus 22. is easier to bear than an unwise foolish and ungodly man saith the son of Syrach and it 's proved to be a burden by the effects of hanging on and pressing down Heb. 12.1 We see this made good by the example of Jonah that the sin of one private person is likely to sink a Ship in the Sea for he being laden with a Commission for Nineveh and disburdening himself of this Message of God became such a burden to the Ship that though the Mariners had cast out all their wares into the Sea yet the greatest burden was behind the sin

superiour to others or contrary to the good of the persons or chastity or good name of others though it be but in secret corruption or secret working of heart still the Word of God doth oppose it in every thing the Pharisees forbad the outward act of uncleannesse but the Law of God forbids the impurity of the thoughts they make the Law like John Baptist who had a leathern girdle about his loins but the Gospel represents Christ to have a golden girdle about his Paps they represented only the first risings and motions of sin this makes the Saints mourn for the first conceptions of sin though they prove abortive saith Chrysostome Chrysost making them to pray with David to be purged and freed from secret sins and sinfull cogitations 4. Meditate upon the operativenesse of the Word it is not a dead letter but hath a quick power in it to work upon the heart the Spirit of God accompanies it making it active and mighty in operation as in the frame of a man's body under every vein there runs an artery full of spirits so under every vein of truth in the Word of God there is an artery of Spirit quickning searching cutting discovering condemning What 's the reason most mens spirits rise up against the Word it is because as the Elephant troubleth the waters before he drinketh that he may not see his ugly visage so the Word of God troubleth the mind of a sinner it terrifies his conscience making his sin appear very sinfull to him it makes a man a burden to himself these spectacles are too true for the sinners false eyes Ahab cannot endure to talk with Michajah nor meet with Elijah men can endure the generalities of the Word well enough but when it comes near them toucheth their Copyhold corrupt hearts run away from it because for want of serious meditation they are unacquainted with the spirituall nature of the Word of God Oh study I pray thee ●regor Moral saith Gregory and daily meditate on the words of thy Creatour and learn the mind of God in his Word that thou maist look up to eternall things for so much shall thy rest be the greater in Heaven by how much the more it hath been even now from the love of thy Creatour here on earth Sect. 3. Of meditating on Man The third subject of meditation is man his Creation his body his soul his priviledges his Creation his body his soul his priviledges Man cometh in the next place as a fit subject for our meditation and consideration man was the last of God's creatures as the end of his Creation all made for him and all represented in him the rest by his word commanding whereas his body by his hand-working and his soul by his breath-quickning became alive and here let us meditate first on man's Creation who is as Plato saith Plato the miracle of all miracles and as it were the soul of this world and you will see how every circumstance sheweth the Creatours goodnesse and man 's many obligations Let us begin with the meditation of man's body which is as one saith More 's demonstrat the pattern of the universall world 1. Meditate on the provision God made for man before he made him God sets up an house and furnisheth it then puts man into this house ready furnisht to his hand other things are but as essayes of God's power man the perfection Adam the last of all God's works and the Lord and soveraign over them under his soveraign Lord Heaven would have nothing wanting to man that he might wholly mind the things of Heaven 2. Meditate on God's proceeding hereunto the Father as it were calls a Councell God deliberateth upon the enterprize of this work and the Councell is held in the conclave of the most holy Trinity Let us make man Gen. 1.26 Adam is businesse for the whole Trinity all were imployed about this creature to the end that being created he might be wholly imployed about the service of God 3. Meditate on the form of man's body God hath neither made us to lye along on the earth as beasts ●truth Obser●at 36. Cent. 2. or stick on it as trees but by upright stature set our head to Heaven and our feet to the earth as one observeth Os homini sublime dedit coelumque videre Ovid. Jussit erectos ad sidera tollere vultus God with a lofty look did man endew And made him Heavens transcendent glory view God hath given us an upright stature not like other creatures that look downwards to the earth to teach us to look up to Heaven by holy meditations and to look up to the hills whence our salvation cometh our face is toward Heaven to teach us that our hearts should not be nuzzeling in the earth man hath one muscle in his eyes more than any other creature which may teach him still to look up toward Heaven 4. Meditate on the matter of man's Creation Ad coelestia magis rapiatur ad terrestria minùs capiatur Columella l. 5. c. 9. Ecce pulchrum lapidem putre cadaver tegentem Gasp. in Heraclito Homo bis creatus 1. Seminaliter seu causaliter 2. Formaliter seu visibiliter Aug. de Genes he was made of the dust of the earth so as howsoever we appear beautifull and amiable in the eye of man which is fixt only on the externall part yet when the oyl of our lamp is consumed and we reduced again to our first originall matter there will be left us no better Epitaph than this Behold here a spetious shrine covering a stinking corps man is twice created saith St Augustine Seminally or causally Formally or visibly The first according to his soul the second according to his body man's body of earth doth represent whatsoever is between Heaven and earth yea the very Heavens themselves are figured all naturall causes contained and their severall effects produced therein The three Heavens are resembled by the body of man the lower serving for generation and nutriment are like the lowest Heaven within the compasse whereof the elements are found for as from them all beasts plants trees and other things have being receive nourishment growth motion and sense so of four humours there engendered all the members are made fed moved and augmented the same agreeing in nature and number with the elements and producing effects in all answerable to them the upper part which is the seat of the heart may be compared to the middle Heaven the eighth sphere wherein the Stars are fixt which holding one even and constant motion giveth light and life to the world beneath through its rayes and comfortable influences so the heart being still in motion preserveth the whole body in life and health by sending forth the vitall spirits dispersing themselves into all the parts by veins and arteries Lastly the head the highest part of the body and noblest seat of the soul where she acteth