Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	adam_n	law_n	transgression_n	5,599	5	10.5016	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45744	A treatise of moral and intellectual virtues wherein their nature is fully explained and their usefulness proved, as being the best rules of life ... : with a preface shewing the vanity and deceitfulness of vice / by John Hartcliffe ...	Hartcliffe, John, 1651-1712.	1691 (1691)	Wing H971; ESTC R475	208,685	468

of another mind Temperance tends to our Happiness in this that it tends to our Health without which all the Enjoyments of this Life are but little worth on the other side the intemperate Man is an Enemy to himself continually making Assaults upon his own Life the Apostle adviseth that we should abstain from fleshly Lusts that war against the Soul and it ought to be no small Argument to us that they war against the Body also so for Kindness and Love besides that they are good to others they are of much use and benefit to our selves for there is unspeakable pleasure in Love a great deal of ease in a charitable Temper on the contrary how fretting and vexatious to the Mind of Man are Malice Envy and Hatred they do not only raise Enemies abroad but they set a Man against himself and deprive him of the Peace of his own Mind Compassion and Mercy is profitable to others and delightful to our selves so Compassion and Mercy are not more profitable unto other Men than they are delightful to our own Souls and we do not only gratifie our selves by doing Services to others but we thereby provoke Mankind by our Example to the like Kindnesses and so turn the pity of others to our selves when it shall come to be our turn to stand in need of their help In like manner our Reason directs us to the practice of Truth Fidelity and Justice as the surest Arts of thriving in this World these beget Confidence and give Men a Reputation in their Neighbourhood and these Vertues our Reason tells us have the force of a Law and there needs nothing to give the force of a Law to any matter but the stamp of divine Authority upon it Now God that made us and all other Creatures and by virtue of his Authority over us hath imprinted on our Natures the Principles of Good and Evil and hath so wrought 'em into the frame of our Souls by which as by a natural instinct Men are carried to approve what is good and disapprove what is evil and supposing that our natural Reasons do tell us that it is for our Interest to live in the practice of what we call Vertue and to dislike and avoid what we call Vice this is a sufficient declaration that we should do the one and avoid the other and if we live contrary to this we violate the Law of him that made us for there needs nothing to make a thing become a Law to us but that it is the Will of our Sovereign who hath Right to require it of us And this God hath declared to Mankind by the frame of their Natures and by those principal Faculties he hath endued us withal for no Man can imagine but that we should follow the Instruction of our Nature and be governed by the natural Notions of our own Minds And those natural Passions of Hope and Fear Hope and Fear are two very strong Passions that are so rooted in our Souls we cannot without great force to our selves act contrary to them And this is all the Law that great part of Mankind comes under and which is no other than that which the Apostle calls the Work of the Law written upon their Hearts and they having no other Revelation made to them shall be judged by it and those that offend against this Law shall be found guilty before God as well as those that have sinned against an express Revelation which is a plain Evidence that these natural Dictates have the force of a Law otherwise Men would not be guilty of any Crime by acting against them for it is a Rule universally true that where there is no Law there is no Transgression and this I take to be the meaning of that obscure Passage of the Apostle Rom. v. 13. for until the Law Sin was in the World that is before the Law was given unto Moses Men were capable of Sinning and therefore there was another Law against which they offended for Sin is not imputed where there is no Law But Death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's Transgression that is tho they did not sin against any express Law of God as Adam did Thus Reason discovers to us how that the natural Dictates of our Minds have the force of a Law HENCE we may infer that Mankind would have been under the Obligation of Religion tho God had never made any immediate Revelation of his Mind and Will unto them if this was not so the Heathen who had no supernatural Revelation from God could not have been guilty of Sin nor liable to his Judgment for if nothing were Vertue or Vice but what was either expresly commanded or forbidden by God then all Actions would have been alike to the Heathen But there are some things naturally good and some things naturally evil and Men are bound to do the one and fly the other tho God had never made any supernatural Revelation of his Will to them For if God had never forbidden Hatred and Malice with Deceit Oppression Violence and the like Passions they would have appeared evil in themselves and ought not to have been done by us because they are inconsistent with the Peace of Human Society and contrary to the Nature and Reason of Mankind so on the other hand the Vertues opposite to these as Love to God together with Truth and Justice one towards another have such Goodness in them that they are commended to the liking of Mankind without the need of any absolute Declaration to oblige Men to the practice of them If these things were not so the Tables might have been turned and all that which we now call Vertue might have been forbidden by God and things would have been every whit as well and there would have been no difference only the Names of things would have been changed The nature of Good and Evil is unalterable BUT I appeal to any ones Reason whether he can think it as vertuous an Action to hate God as to love him to contemn as to honor him and whether Malice Envy Hatred and Ingratitude would have made as much for the Peace of Mankind as the practice of Love and Goodness would have done if they would not then it is manifest that there is something in the Nature of Things that made the difference and so long as the Nature of God and Man remain what they are some Things will be in their own Natures unalterably good and some things evil which doth not depend upon any arbitrary Constitution but is founded in the Nature of the Things themselves The general consent of mankind shews what is Virtue and what is Vice Thirdly WHAT is Virtue and what is Vice is shewn to us by the general vote and consent of Mankind which we do not extend to all the instances of Virtue and Vice but only to the great and more essential parts of it

this Matter For as nothing doth restore us more to our selves when we faint and are weary than Sleep soberly taken so nothing doth more stupifie than its Excess For this cause Nirembergius a witty Jesuit is angry with Sleep and shews such a multitude of inconveniences that Sleep bringeth upon us that had not Sleep the good Fortune to have befallen Adam in his Innocency he would have gone near to have done as much for Sleep as St. Augustine had done for Natural Lust and made it a second part of Original Sin THEREFORE for the moderating this Virtue the best Counsel I can give is that of Hypocrates Labor Cibus Somnus Venus omnia mediocria the words as they stand in place so they are in order of Nature Labour to procure Appetite Meat to satisfie it Sleep to help Digestion and Venus to ease the Body of Superfluities ALL that we have said not only of Temperance but of Fortitude is briefly summ'd up by Epictetus in these two words Sustine Abstine These virtues are absolutely necessary all the rest are so but upon occasion and for the most part are rather the beautifyings or the outward Ornaments of a virtuous Life Of LIBERALITY FOLLOWING Aristotles's Method the next Virtue we are to Discourse of is Liberality whose two Extreams are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Avarice The Definition thereof is drawn from the Object about which it is conversant that is Money for Liberality is that decent meane which we are to use in giving or receiving in spending or laying up of Riches by which we understand not only That which ordinarily bears the name of Money but all whatsoever may be purchased or had for Money in what kind soever as Lands Houses and Cloaths In all these whoso desires more than is for necessity or for conveniency offends against the Commands of this Virtue The Humour or Passion which this Virtue moderates is Love of Money Liberality moderates the love of Money a strange and unreasonable Passion as being fix'd upon a matter which of its self is of no use save only that Men have agreed that Money shall be the common measure of all things that are useful And this Love of Money spoils all Liberality as may be proved by several instances which Theophrastus hath set down in his Character of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which He says Liberality is directly opposite and is defined to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Virtue easie and ready to lay out its Money upon all good and Lawful occasions when the want of Liberality makes Men stingy that they grudg to be at the necessary Expences of Life Parsimony commended· INDEED there is a sort of Parsimony which we call a Virtue as it is in the people of Holland who are so industrious that they are able to furnish infinite Luxury which they never practice and are so sparing that they Traffick all the Year in pleasures which they never taste Thus they are rich and happy in a voluntary Poverty whilst others are poor and wretched in their real Wealth as all are who have that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or littleness of Mind which Theophrastus observes to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and this sordid Parsimony is admirably described by Juvenal in his Fourtenth Satyr Sunt quaedam vitiorum elementa his protinus illos Imbuit cogit minimas ediscere sordes The use of Money a very beneficial Invention NOW They who first ordained the use of Money which some ascribe to Abrahams's Father were the Authors of a most useful Invention For since Bartering or change of Ware for Ware cannot be without much inconvenience a fairer or more commodious way could not be provided to furnish our selves with all necessaries not only for Life but for good Deeds than Money which consisting of Gold and Silver things hard to be come by not without tedious and perilous Voyages to Peru and Mexico and being also of easie carriage is most adapted for Transportation and daily use in Merchandize Notwithstanding this such a strange unnatural passion hath possessed the minds of Men that it hath taken off our Affection and Love for other things and fix'd it upon Money which is only the means to procure all other things Avarice or the love of Money the most unnatural Passion This Passion hath begotten the most deformed Monster among the brood of Vices which is Avarice for the Creature it once bewitches as the Poet tells us Astat prolato jejunus venditor auro The Husbandman ready himself to starve will sell his Corn for Gold and the Beggar let him have but some small piece of Coin sicco concoquit ore famem will be content to shiver in his Rags endure the biting of his Hunger rather than lay out his Penny for a piece of Bread A Humour this as it is most unaccountable so it is most dangerous For whereas Vices are of two sorts some are intermittent and take us as it were by Fits as Gluttony Lust Drunkenness Anger and the like THESE by affording us some lucid Intervals There are two sorts of Vices give us leave to bethink our selves of what we have done and by this means produce Repentance But there are others without any intermission and keep us as it were in a continual Fit such are Ambition Malice and that which we now speak of Love of Money or Covetousness these never allow us time to reflect but continually press upon us and leave no room for a sober or a relenting Thought For it hath been scarce ever heard of that any malicious ambitious or covetous Person did ever return by repentance but died in his sin That which by abuse we commonly call Love and which hath been the cause of much mischief hath found at length somewhat to qualifie its too great warmth either Time or Business But nothing can stop the violent workings of this Humour Business encreaseth it as being that which is chiefly occasion'd by this Amor sceleratus habendi Old Age doth not diminish it For we see that it is almost the property of old Men to doat upon their Wealth as knowing how easie 't is to lose and hard to get And it hath been observed that many Persons have been hardly brought to make their Wills because they could not well brook these words I give which words are in a manner the very Essence and Form of Liberality WE have therefore great reason to be especially watchful over our Minds A covetous Temper is to be avoided above all things that they do not sink into a niggardly or covetous temper not that He is of that temper who spends less than He hath coming in nor He who can thrive by Prices upon which the lazy and expensive cannot live But He is to be condemned for it who breaks out into Fraud Rapine and Oppression for the sake of multiplying his Heaps who with constant