Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	apostle_n	law_n	transgression_n	5,619	5	10.4785	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51221	Of patience and submission to authority a sermon preach'd before the Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen at Guild-Hall Chapel on the 27th of January, 1683/4 / by John Moore ...	Moore, John, 1646-1714.	1684 (1684)	Wing M2545; ESTC R32113	43,694	66

their just weight they would discharge out of mens minds abundance of those scruples wherewith they have brought much charge and trouble upon themselves and given great disturbance to their Governours and they would be able by these methods to distinguish between what was done out of pure conscience and what under the colour of it onely But if having proceeded thus far by a removal of those things which in this case ought to have no influence upon Conscience some dissatisfaction sticks still in the mind the proper work remaining is to try the objections of Conscience by the rule of Conscience The rule of Conscience is the will of God the will of God is discover'd by the light of Nature and revealed in the holy Scripture And by an application of the objection to the rule the Conscience may discern whether there be any strength in it For whatsoever we find God to have commanded we are bound in conscience to doe it whatever to have forbidden we are bound in conscience to avoid it and in matters by God neither commanded nor forbidden the thing is indifferent and the Conscience free A man may let it alone without omitting his duty he may doe it without committing a sin For how is it possible that should be a duty which God never has commanded or that a sin which God never has forbidden thus the Apostle argues most truly where no law is there is no transgression Wherefore if upon a just comparison between these commands of Authority against which the meek Christian's scruples have lain and the word of God there does not appear any thing in them injoined which by the Divine Laws is forbidden nor any thing forbidden which God has required it will evidently follow that he must acquit the commands of his Governours from all imputation of evil and dismiss those scruples from his Conscience which hitherto have been the occasion of his disobedience and exposed him to the lash of the Law And this is the case of the Church of England for few of the sober Nonconformists have been so far carry'd away with the power of prejudice as to affirm that there is any thing in her Constitutions expresly forbidden by any Law of God and those few who have been so hardy as to pass this unjust censure upon her neither yet have nor ever will be able to prove their assertion And those places of holy Writ which some men would have prest into the service of this Cause when the reason and occasion of them has been thoroughly examined to all unprejudiced men have appear'd to look another way But if the scruple against Conformity is not taken from the words of Scripture immediately but inferred upon some consequence which is thought to flow from them or bottoms upon some difficult Text which may require learning and depth of judgment to the finding out of its meaning or upon a metaphor or allegory as many mistakes in Religion have done or upon his ignorance of the state of the Church and the Controversies and Errours on foot when those portions of the Divine Writings were penned wherefrom he deduceth his argument and so he finds it an hard matter to deliver himself from his doubt then he repairs to some sober grave wise man eminent for his piety learning and skill in controversies and having stript his Soul from prejudices and that biass which either passion or profit may have clapp'd upon it with all candour and ingenuity he opens and lays his case before him resolving firmly to submit himself to his reasons so far as they shall convince him and to order his conversation accordingly And by taking this course there will be great reason to hope he shall have his doubts cleared his scruples removed and those objections dissolved which had he relied alone upon his own abilities might have ensnared him in unwarrantable disobedience to those God has set over him and pull'd down heavy calamities upon himself But if after all these honest and commendable endeavours again and again repeated according as the difficulty of his Cause required and he had opportunity to do it he cannot attain to an entire mastery of his Scruples and give his Conscience full satisfaction however he will evidence to the World the uprightness of his heart in the pains he has taken by his quiet and humble deportment For what Scruples soever he may have as to other things he is well assured that meekness peace and charity are essential ingredients in the character of a true Christian And although the Learned may discover the errours of his understanding yet it is his daily care the good and the wise shall have no true reason to blame him for stubbornness in his will for haughty perverse and unruly passions such as make him to contemn the judgment of others and will suffer him to comply with no body but upon his own terms He does not therefore grow peevish or censorious and forthwith condemn all that differ from him in opinion or practice he does not set up for a Patron of a new Sect and lay aside all due respects to Antiquity draw as many as ever he can into his own Party and confine salvation to the small number of his own persuasion as if the Divine Providence had engaged it self in securing them alone from all damnable sins in practice and mistakes in Faith He does not whisper stories and jealousies into Mens ears to dispose them to turbulency and sedition nor speak evil of Dignities and libel the Rulers of his People he does not clamour against nor arreign the whole management of Publick Affairs much less enter into wicked Plots and with the same illegal violences go about to maintain his own Religion by which those of the Church of Rome have so often attempted to introduce theirs But he is meek and patient and easie to the Government under which he lives he conforms to all its Constitutions as far as in conscience he can he is affable and courteous to his Neighbours and upon all occasions shews a great charity for those who have not the same sentiments with him in matters of Religion he minds his own business keeps his peculiar opinions to himself whenever they stand opposite to the establishments of Authority and is contented privately to enjoy them And having thus presented you with several instances which go to the description of the good Christian who in patience has possest his Soul I will now briefly propose the means by which he doth attain it 1. He is daily lessening his desires of those things whereof there is but small use and he may subsist well without them And having once contracted and confined his Appetite to what onely is necessary to the comfortable supports of life or in the first rank of things convenient for it as he is but a little concern'd for the purchase of whatever else the World can afford so the loss of it never torments him Now the necessaries