Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	law_n	sin_n	sin_v	3,553	5	9.3146	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B05829	Certain select cases resolved. Specially, tending to the right ordering of the heart, that we may comfortably walk with God in our general and particular callings. / By Thomas Shephard, sometimes of Emanuel College in Cambridge; now preacher of Gods word in New-England.	Shephard, Thomas, 1605-1649.	1695 (1695)	Wing S3105A; ESTC R227738	42,314	125

peace much interrupted This of yours puts me in mind of the complaint of an honest yet plain man to an able Minister once who in bewailing his condition to him among other miseries that was not the least viz. that he was exceedingly troubled with good thoughts so that he could not follow his place unless very oft he did stand still and pray for fear of grieving the Spirit as he thought and losing his season of being heard in Heaven for said Conscience oft unto him how dost thou know but this may be thy accepted time and if thou dost not take it it may be thou shalt never have it again I have forgot the Ministers answer but I am sure in these complaints you go not alone I have lately known one very able wise and godly put upon the Rack in these kind of thoughts by him that envying Gods peoples peace knows how to change himself into an Angel of light For it being his usual course in the time of his health to make a diary of his hourly life and finding much benefit by it he was in Conscience prest by the power and delusion of Satan to make and take the same daily survey of his life in the time of his sickness by means of which he spent his enfeebled spirits cast on fuel to fire his sickness and had not a friend of his convinced him of his erronious conscience misleading him at that time he had murdered his body out of conscience to save his Soul and to preserve his grace and do you think these were the motions of Gods Spirit which like those Locusts Rev. 9. 9 10. had faces like men but had tailes like Scorpions and stings in their tailes Your thoughts I know are not likely to produce the same effects altho you have the same efficient and because you say your peace is hereby disturbed by ignorance as not knowing what to do in the midst of these Civil actions and these religious thoughts I conceive that two things are to be sadly considered of for the cure of them First how to know when such religious pious Two things to be considered about motions thoughts come from Gods Spirit and when from the devil transforming himself into an Angel of light or from a well-melted stirring conscience yet blind For when you know they come from Gods Spirit you are bound to nourish them but when not you are bound not to embrace nor comply with them Secondly learn how your Soul is to behave and carry it self in Civil employments For when you see how you do and may honour God in following them your Spirit will not be so unquiet if at any time you imbrace not the suggestions of the other 1. For the first briefly all good motions and thoughts are not the Spirits motions as may thus appear There be three things chiefly by which we How to try the motions of Gods Spirit may discern the motions suggestions and thoughts which come from Gods Spirit all which concurring together in a good action or thought or word not one alone will make discovery whether they are from Gods Spirit or not 1. If it be suggested for Gods ends it s from Gods Spirit to act so high as for a supernatural end must arise from a supernatural principle which only is Gods Spirit Pharisaical actions were for a double selfish end and hence not from Gods Spirit but nature and their own spirit 1. To be seen of men 2. If they did any of them abhor this yet it was to purchase and gender in their own minds an opinion of holiness before God and hence Christ gives them this Item in giving Alms that they should not let the right hand know what their left hand doth for many men will do good acts lest they should by the neglect of them think them Hypocrites and so be troubled for them Christ would have us not to take notice of what we do for such an end If they be animated and quickned from Gods command for the higher measure of holiness for glorious ends without u warrant from the Word is the more for did superstition Christ healed the Leper when he charged him with anger to tell no man he no question for a good end published the miracle the more this was a good motion but it was sinful in him being cross to Christs command when Christ would have washed Peters feet he had many thoughts that came into h●s head concerning his own vileness and Christs glory and had a good end and meaning in his answers yet his humility crossing Christs command the Lord professeth against it and him for it that he had no part in him if he should go on in it 3. Gods Spirit sets a man on work in due season for let the duty be commanded and rightly directed yet if it be not done in season it is not from Gods Spirit hence Psal 1. The righteous bring forth fruit in its season and hence Solomon speaks of words spoken in season are as apples of Gold and hence we read in Ecclesiastes of a time and season for every thing under the Sun and therefore when there is a season of Gods appointing for civil things or business it is not season now to be molested or perplexed in it by the injection and evocation of those thoughts which we think to proceed from the Spirit of God I know indeed that the Spirit of God doth enable a man to do whatever good he doth but as Grace makes Nature sometimes to serve so sin ful Nature brings Grace into captivity which Paul complains of Rom. 7. and makes Grace to serve it To exhort and reprove another for sin is from Gods Spirit that it is done but to reprove at an unseasonable time it s from sinful corruption abusing Gods grace and making Sampson to grind It s from the excellency of of knife to cut well but to cut my finger with it when I should be cutting of my meat with it ariseth not from the end of the knife nor from the intention of him that made it so to think of good things it is from the spirit I grant but to think of them in such a season that God sets you a work to mind and follow other occasions it s from the enemy of Gods spirit and your own peace for as it is a sin to nourish worldly thoughts when God sets you a work in spiritual heavenly imployments so it is in some respects as great a sin to suffer your self to be distracted by spiritual thoughts when Gods sets you on work in Civil yet lawful imploiments such thoughts I conceive are but the leven of Monkish holiness if they divert you from your lawful affairs when the Lord calls you to follow them For the Lord never calls you to two divers imployments at the same time unless you make the one to be a means to further the good of the other which such pious thoughrs in some civil imployments do it

Conversation whereby he upholdeth things in their being and power of working Act. 17. 28. Psal 104. 29 30. Nehem. 9. 6. Secondly in Gubernation whereby he guides directs brings all creatures to their ends Psal 29. 10. Psal 33. 11. Q. Doth God govern all creatures alike A. No but some he governs by a common providence and others by a special providence to wit Angels and Men to an eternal estate of happiness in pleasing him or of misery in displeasing him Deut. 30. 15 16. Q. What of Gods Providence appears in his special government of man A. Two things 1. Mans Apostacy or fall 2. His Recovery or rising again Q. Concerning mans fall what are you to observe therein A. Two things 1. His transgression in eating the forbidden fruit Gen. 2. 17. 2. The propagation of this unto all Adam's posterity Q. Was this so great a sin to eat of the forbidden fruit A. Yes exceeding great this Tree being a Sacrament of the Covenant also he had a special charge not to eat of it and in it the whole man did strike against the whole law even when God had so highly advanced him Q. what are the causes of this transgression A. The blameless cause was the law of God Rom. 5. 13. And hence as the Law did it so God did it holy justly and blamelesly Rom. 7. 10 11 12. Q. What are the blameable causes A. Two principally 1. The devil abusing the serpent to deceive the woman Gen. 3. 1. 2. Man himself in abusing his own free-will in receiving the temptation which he might have resisted Eph. 7 29. Q. What is the Devil A. That great number of apostate rebellious Angels which through pride and blasphemy against God and malice against man becamely ars and murtherers of man by bringing him into that sin Luk. 11. 18. 1 Tim. 3. 6. 1 loh. 3. 12. loh. 8. 44. Q. What are the effects and fruits of this transgression A. They are two 1. Guilt wherby they are tied to undergo due punishment for the fault Rom. 3. 19. 2. Punishment which is the just anger of God upon them for the filth of sin Rom. 1. 18. Q. What are the particular punishments inflicted on the causes of this sin A. Besides the fearful punishment of the devils mentioned Iude 6. and that of the Serpent the Woman Gen. 3. 14 16 the punishment of man was first Sin Original Actual Secondly death Gen. 5. 5. Q. What is sin A. The transgression of Gods law Io. 3. 4. Q. What is Original and Actual sin A. First Original sin is the contrariety of the whole nature of man to the law of God whereby it being averse from all good is enclined to all evil Eccles 8. 11. Gen. 6. 5. Rom. 6. 20. Secondly Actual sin is the continual jarring of the actions of man from the law of God by reason of original sin and so man hath no free will to any spiritual good Esa 65. 2 3. Jam. 1. 14 15. Esa 1. 11. Q. What death is that God inflicts on man for sin A. A double death 1. The first death of the body together with the beginnings of it in this world as grief shame losles sicknesses Deut. 28. 21 22. 35. 2. The Second death of the Soul which is the eternal separation and ejection of the Soul after death and Soul and body after judgment from God into everlasting torments in hell Q. Is there no beginning of this death as there is of the other in this life A. Yes as first Security and hardness of heart which cannot feel sin its greatest evil 2. Terrors of conscience Heb. 2. 15. 3. Bondage of Satan Eph. 2. 2. 4. The curse of God in all blessings whereby they are fitted for destruction Rom. 9. 22. Q. What of Gods attributs shine forth here 1. His holiness whereby he being pure from all sin cannot away with the least sin in the best of his creatures Heb. 1. 13. 2. His Justice whereby he being most just in himself cannot but punish man for sin as well as reward him for well doing 2. Thes 1. 6. 3. His Patience whereby he useth pity Patience and Bounty to his creatures offending Rom. 2. 3. Q. Is this sin and the punishment of it derived to all mens posterity A. Yes Ioh. 3. 3. Eph. 2. 3. Q. How is it propagated A. By the imputation of Adams sin unto us and so the punishment must needs follow upon it Rom. 5. 13. Q. Why should Adams sin be imputed to all his posterity A. Because we were in him as the members in the head as children in his loyns as debtors in their surety as branches in their roots it being just that as if he standing al had stood by imputation of his righteousness so he falling al should fall by the imputation of his sin Q. Thus have you seen mans apostacy from God what is his recovery A. It is the return of man to the favour of God again meerly out of favour and the exceeding riches of his free grace Eph. 2. 12 13. Rom. 5. 8. Q. How are we brought into favour and what are the parts of this recovery A. Two wayes First by Redemption 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. 2dly by Application hereof Tit. 3. 6. Q. What is Redemption A. The satisfaction made or the price payed to the justice of God for the life and deliverance of man out of the captivity of sin Satan and death by a Redeemer according to the Covenant made between him and the Father 1 Cor. 6. 20. Luk. 1. 74. Esa 55. 10 11. Q. Who is this Redeemer A. Jesus Christ God and Man Mat. 1. 23. Ioh. 1. 14. Col. 2. 19. Q. VVhy is he God Man A. Tha t so he might be a fit Mediator to transact all businessess between God and man in the execution of his three Offices whereunto he was anointed of the Father 1 Tim. 2. 5. Esa 42. 12. Q. What are those three Offices of Christ A. 1. His Prophetical Office whereby he doth reveal the will of the Father Act. 3. 22. Col. 2. 3. 2. His Priestly Office whereby he makes full atonement with the Father for us Col. 1. 20. 3. His Kingly Office whereby he governs his people whom he had taught and reconciled subduing their enemies and procuring their eternal peace Psal 2. 6. Esa 9. 6. Q. How hath Christ Iesus made satisfaction A. By his humiliation whereby he was made subject throughout his whole life and death to the strict Justice of God to perform what ever the same might require for the redemption of man Gal. 4. 4 5. Q. What did Gods Justice require of man A. 1. Death for the breach of the Law and that Christ tasted in his bitter sufferings both of body and Soul by being made sin and so abolishing sin and this is called his Passive Obedience Heb. 2. 9. Eph. 1. 7. 2 Cor. 5. 21. Gal. 3. 13. 2. Perfect Obedience in fulfilling the Law perfectly both in his Nature and Actions

rationally wrapt up in the Covenant of grace Indeed gross scandalous sins nay infirmities when they are given way to and not resisted may keep the soul from the fruition for a time of Gods Covenant but never from the eternal jus and right unto it for as the habit of Faith or Grace gives a man a constant right to the promise and Covenant which seed ever remains which habit ever lasts Jer. 3. 9. so the act of Faith or Grace gives a man fruition of the Covenant and the benefit of the promise and hence by the acting and venting of some sins wherein there is included the neglect of the exercise of grace He that is really in covenant with God may be deprived of the fruition of it yet seeing the seed of God and the habit of grace ever remains he cannot by any sin break his covenant for the covenant of grace is absolute wherein the Lord doth not only promise the good but to begin perfect fulfil the condition absolutly without respect of sin ex parte creaturae Indeed if Gods covenant of Grace did as that of works depend upon man to fulfil the condition having sufficient grace to fulfil it then gross sin might well break the Covenant but seeing God hath undertaken to fulfil the Covenant absolutely not withstanding all the evils and sins of the soul no sin can possibly break that knot and covenant which so firm and resolute love hath once knit And therefore if this be a good argument Infirmities cannot break covenant What cause have I to be humbled for them so as to say It is thy mercy Lord that I am not consumed for them as you write you may upon the same ground say so If the Lord should desert you or you for Take the Lord and so fall into the foulest sin which I suppose corrupt conscience dares not be so bold as to think or allow of 2. Secondly I say the least sins or infirmities do break the first covenant of works and hence you do not only deserve but are under the sentence of death and curse of God immediatly after the least hairs-breadth swarving from the Law by the smallest sin and most involuntary accidental infirmity According to the Tenor of the Law the soul that sinneth shall die and cursed is he that continueth not in all things of the Law Gal. 3. 10. The least sin being ex parte objecti in respect of God against whom it is committed as horrible and as great as the greatest For it being an infinite wrong being the dishonour of an infinite Majesty there can be no greater wrong than an infinite one unless you can imagin a thing greater than that which is insinite and therefore in this respect there is as much venom and mischief done against God in the least as in the greatest sin And therefore it and whosoever commit it deserve death for it as if they had committed the foulest sin in the world and therefore after the least and smallest infirmities you may from hence see what cause you have freely to be humbled and to confess for them how worthy you are to be destroyed yea even to look upon your self as lying under the sentence of the Law and death immediately after the commission of them and so to mourn bitterly for them Object But you will say a Christian that is under the Covenant of Grace is not within the Covenant of Works that Bond is cancelled the last will must stand and therefore he being out of that Covenant no sins of his can be said to break the Covenant for no man can be said to break that Law under which he is not and which he is not bound to keep Answ I answer every Believer has a double being or standing and so there may be put upon him a double respect 1. First he may be considered as united to and having a spiritual being on Christ and so it is true he is under Grace and the Covenant of Grace and not under the Law nor the Covenant of works and hence not being under the Law nor bound to keep it as a covenant of life tho' it be a rule of life no sin can condemn him there being no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. 1. But as Christ is above condemnation and law and death and curse so is he And this truly understood is the foundation of a Christians joy and peace and glory every day yet so as tho' sin doth not condemn him yet he has good reason to say it is mercy and meer mercy Lord that I am not consumed that I am condemned For sin is the same nay grace and Gods love aggravates sin for to sin against the law deserves death without recovery but to sin when grace has received me and loved me when the blood of Christ has been shed abundantly to deliver me from sin Oh this makes the most secret silent sin a crying one So that if you do consider this well you may see what little cause there is to have your heart rising against the deepest humilation for the least sin tho' you be in Christ and under grace For as Daniel when he was put into the Lions den had not the cause to wonder that he was not torn in pieces by them and why because it was not from any defect on their parts to tear him in pieces but from the omnipotent power and mercy and grace of his God that muzzell'd their mouths so tho' no Lion can ●ear tho' no sins can hurt or condemn a Christian as he is considered in Christ yet has not he cause to confess and wonder and say Lord it is thy meer grace and mercy that it is not so which is the act of humilation your letter saith you can hardly come unto and why not because Gods grace puts any less evil in sin but because it is meerly grace that keeps it from spitting that venom which otherwise it would Secondly A Christian may be considered in respect of his natural being in hi●●elf and thus he is ever under the Law and as oft as he sinneth under the sentence of death and as the Apostle speaks by na●ure even we justified quickned are the children of wrath as well as others And thus after the least involuntary accidental sin you may easily see what cause you have to lie down deeply humbled mourning under the sentence of death and Gods eternal curse as a condemned man going to execution to feel that fire that shall never go out looking upon your self as you are in your self a forlorn cast-away every moment and this truly understood is the foundation of a Christians sorrow shame and confusion of face self-loathing self-forgetting self-forsaking and condemning every day and believe it Sir it is no small Piece of a Christians skill and work to put a difference between himself and himself himself as he is in Christ and so to joy and triumph and himself as he is growing on