Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	adam_n	law_n	moral_a	4,944	5	10.5377	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67166	Folly detected or, Some animadversions on a b[ook] called, A brief discourse [con-]cerning singing in the pub[lic] worship of God; put forth by one Mr. Isaac Marlow 1690, and an appendix printed 1691 Wherein the weakness of his arguments against singing God's praises, the dangerousness of his assertions, and his unaccountable confidence is laid open; and singing of Psalms, &c. in God's worship proved a Gospel-ordinance. By Joseph Wright.	Wright, Joseph.; T. W. Appendix: or, A brief answer to Mr. Marlow's notion of the essence of singing.	1691 (1691)	Wing W3704; ESTC R221057	43,280	88

and Errors which whilst you have militated against the Truth you have run into and to remove that Stumbling-block you have laid before the Weak and shall not trouble my self at present to trace you in all your Mistakes that are out in Print because that hath been done by other Hands but shall with all convenient brevity shew your Mistake and Error about that which you call the Essence of Singing Sin and Prayer desiring the Lord to bless it to your Conviction What I shall at present take notice of shall be in Answer to this Question Whether the Essence of Sin Prayer and Praise consists only in the Heart or in an inward spiritual Exercise of the Soul or Mind of Man as Mr. Marlow endeavours to prove Pag. 5 6 7 of his Book of Singing § I shall first of all endeavour to explain the Term Essence to see what it imports in its proper Notion and then apply it to the above Particulars The Essence of a Thing is the Nature and Being thereof Est totum per quod res in proprio esse intrinsicè constituitur saith the Author of Ars sciendi Sive est totum illud per quod res est id quod est 'T is that which gives Being to a Thing it denotes the bare Nature of a Thing abstract from all Modes and Accidents Whatever may be separated from the Nature of a Thing and yet the Thing still remain this doth not appertain to the Essence of it This term Essence as I humbly conceive belongs primarily and properly Entibus realibus to real Beings in opposition to Non-entia entia rationis for all Modes Accidents Entia rationis tho they have Existence yet have no Essence properly so called because Essence as Schuler speaks is formale Entis the very Nature of a positive Being and therefore real positive Beings alone are said to have Essence But in a large Sense and borrowed Acceptation 't is sometimes applyed to Modes and Accidents whether they be Actions Relations or Privations c. and so denotes their Nature and Being such as it is But so much for the term Essence which properly denotes the Quiddity the Nature and Being of a Thing Now whether the Essence of Sin Prayer and Praise does consist in the Heart Mind or Spirit I conceive will be easily made appear by opening the true Nature of these Things because the Essence of a Thing and the Nature of it as before minded is all one § 1. First then as to the Nature of Sin I humbly conceive it lies here 'T is the want of that Rectitude and Conformity to the Law whether it be of Nature Quality or Action that ought to be found in a rational Creature I say rational Creature because 't is the Property or Adjunct of reasonable Creatures Brutes are not under a Law properly so called and consequently are not Subjects capable of Sin I place its Nature in the want of Rectitude with relation to the Law because 't is a privative not positive Being All positive Beings are derived from God and if Sin hath properly an Essence God must be the Creator of it which is Blasphemy to assert And from this very Notion that Sin hath a positive Essence the Manichees fell into the Heresy of two first Principles They taught there were two chief independent Beings namely a good God and a bad One from whom they derived all Good and Evil Into which Heresy Austin is reported to have fallen in his first Days concluding that Sin if it was a positive Being must certainly have an efficient Cause But afterward better understanding its Nature he bewales his Errour and rejects the Notion with great Abhorrence as may be seen in his Confessions Sin therefore I conclude hath no positive Being neither hath it an efficient but rather if I may so call it a deficient Cause 'T is the want of that Rectitude which should be in the Creature with reference to God's Law And so St. John defines it 1 John 3.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Sin is the transgression of or the want of due conformity to the Law of God Hence the Learned Turrettine defines it thus saith he Hinc sequitur rationem formalem peccati in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 privatione consistere quae notat carentiam rectitudinis seu bonitatis secundùm prescriptum Legis debitae inesse Creaturae rationali sive ea naturae sit seu qualitatum sive actionum c. Lib. 1. P. 651. And others thus 'T is an Inclination Action or Omission opposing the Law of God or wanting that due legal Rectitude it ought to have § 2. But so much for the Nature of Sin in general which is usually divided into Original and that either Inherent or Imputed and Actual and that either of Thought Word or Action Original Sin respects Man's Person and Nature of which he is guilty as soon as born For first of all we are born without that original Righteousness wherewith Adam was created and which the Law of God requires should be in us because we were in Adam as a publick Person whose Duty it was to have kept himself in the Estate wherein God made him so in this respect we have not due conformity to the Law of God even in our very Natures and Qualities Now this very want of original Righteousness is properly Sin because it is the want of what ought to be in us We have not that moral Image of God consisting in Knowledg Righteousness and Holiness which God gave us in our first Parents Our Natures are deprived of original Righteousness and those moral Perfections wherewith Adam was created and are now propense and prone to all Sin and this is that we call Original Sin and of which we read in Scripture especially Psal 51.5 Eph. 2.1 Job 14.4 c. 2ly We are born guilty of Adam's actual Transgression which he first committed which by just imputation becomes ours because then Adam stood not as a private but as a publick Person all were to stand and fall in him he being the Root and Representative of Mankind Adam therefore being made our Head in that first Covenant by Divine Ordination therefore his Transgression is accounted ours we sinned in him as our publick Head and fell with him as the Branches fall with the Body of the Tree according to that of the Apostle in him all sinned and all died Rom. 5.12 But thus much for Original Sin § 3. Now Mr. Marlow in his description of the Essence of Sin as he improperly and confusedly is pleased to call it seems wholly to exclude Original Sin tho I am apt to believe he is no Arminian for when in Pag. 6. he saith The Essence of Sin is in the Spirit 1. Either by this Expression he means the same as he did before Pag. 5. when he spoke of Singing The Essence of Sin is in the Spirit that is it consists in an inward spiritual Exercise of the Soul or