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	nature_n	posterity_n	3,607	5	9.0097	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A71301	A sermon against the anti-Scripturists also another concerning the sinfulness, danger, and remedies of infidelity, preached at White-Hall / by Seth Lord Bishop of Sarum.	Ward, Seth, 1617-1689.	1670 (1670)	Wing W827; Wing W819; ESTC R10269	41,480	128

them He saved others himself he cannot save let him do one more miracle let him come down from the Cross and we will beleive him So Vain is the pretence of those who think to excuse their Infidelity because they cannot see a miracle So false are the Grounds of that opinion 3. Briefly to bring this Argument to an issue If it were granted to these persons to see a miracle what kind of miracle would they chuse to convince their understandings and settel them in religion We are here I confess in loco Conjecturali and no man can tell what miracle another man would chuse but I am perswaded that which most men would agree upon as most conducing to that purpose whereof we are speaking would be this that to assure them of the Immortality of the Soul and of the rewards and punishments of the world to come and to satisfy their Curiosity in some other doubts and scruples They might once be allowed to see and converse with some one that might rise from the dead who might resolve their Questions concerning the condition of those that are in Hades 3. I say then that our Saviour who knew what was in man and needed not that any one should tell him foreseeing this Phantastical conceit hath shewed the folly of it and preoccupated this vain resort In the 16 of Luke 27. Dives makes it his request to Abraham that he would send Lazarus from the dead to testify to his brethren those things which these men dream of Abraham refers them to the Scriptures which were in the same manner recommended to them as our Scriptures are to us They have Moses and the Prophets c. let them hear them He saith unto him Nay father Abraham but if one went to them from the dead they would believe And he Abraham said If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead This I take to be a clear and a full determination of the matter in Question And if any one should imagine that this determination was but Conjectural Our Saviour afterward tries the Experiment and raises another Lazarus from the dead What was the effect of this mans coming from the dead did it Convert the High Priest or the Scribes the rulers or the people nay but from that very day they took counsel together how they might put Jesus to death And the Chief Priests Consulted how they might put Lazarus to death Also Upon these Considerations we may infallibly Conclude that Infidelity in Such times as ours is no more excusable then it was in the dayes of Christ or his Apostles the times of miracles and phrophesies So much of the first Supposition in the Caveat of the text the Sinfulness of Infidelity in General at all times And the Inexcusableness in our times which makes it our Duty to take heed of it I pass to the second supposition concerning the Danger of falling into it which makes it our concernment and Interest to beware of it For if this be clear the Exhortation will be powerful take heed brethren c. Now the Danger of falling into infidelity is in it self so conspicuous and made so sensible by every day ' s experience that I wish the proof of it were difficult so as to Justify a studious laborious demonstration of it At once to shorten my discourse and to remove the suspicion of any Satyrical reflexion upon those that hear me I shall shew that the Greatest Advantages have not preserved the best of men from sometimes falling into Infidelity Take heed therefore brethren The greatest Helps and Advantages against unbelief I conceive to be these ensueing 1. Evidences of Gods Presence 2. Or these lighting on a good understanding 3. At least upon the Ablest of men 4. Such as have held Communion with God 5. Or have been eminent for the habit and exercise of faith 6. or these with warnings to prevent the Danger of falling 7. And those reiterated Yet all these have not preserved good men from sometimes falling A word of each 1. First then to begin with the persons in the Context What greater Evidences of the Presence of God can be Imagined then they enjoyed In Egypt in their passage over the red Sea in the Wilderness my presence saith God shall go along with you They were conducted by a Pillar of a Cloud c. they were Supported and Corrected by Visible and palpable instances of Gods power and presence Yet they tempted and grieved the Spirit of God by their Infidelity for they believed not for all his Wondrous Works 2. But these Jewes were a dull and stupid people If God should once manifest himself to a wise and understanding person Such as we take our selves to be We may think it impossible to fall into unbelief I suppose it will be no disparagement to these Objectors to say that Solomon might be as Wise and Knowing as Wary and Philosophical as they And as for the manifestation of Gods presence the Scripture tells us Expressly that God appeared to him at Gibeon Where he made a promise to him which he performed Yet Solomon fell into the grossest Infidelity to think there were Gods and Goddesses To worship Asteroth the Goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the Abomination of the Ammonites 3. But it may be yet Objected that Solomon did this in the Dotage of his years and his Dotage upon his Idolatrous wives which turned away his heart but that it could not have preceeded from him before his understanding was empayred Behold then a greater then Solomon even Adam in his full strength when he was newly made after the similitude of God a little lower then the Angels God several times appeared to him in the Garden Yet he fell through unbeleif and drew all his posterity into his ruine 4. But Adam though he had perfection of Nature yet he wanted Grace whereby he might have held Communion with God which having been once enjoyed would for ever have kept him from infidelity or deliberate sin which alwayes proceeds from it Consider then the case of David of whom it is said that the Spirit of the Lord God came upon him That God himself made a Covenant with him and Sware unto him by his holiness that he would not fail him And as for David who was like unto him for Devotion and Zeal for spiritual Communion and intercourse with God He was the sweet singer of Israel and how often do we find his Spirit inebriated and transported in the Celebration of his divine and ravishing enjoyments Yet we find him falling from all this height and great and terrible was his fall he went mourning for it all his days and bowed down his head continually 5. But perhaps it may be thought that though David was an Excellent man yet seeing his Eminency lay not in the gift of Faith but in Zeal or in some other Grace the danger