Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	believe_v	justify_v	remission_n	4,306	5	10.0145	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A71231	Enter into thy closet, or A method and order for private devotion A treatise endeavouring a plain discovery of the most spiritual and edifying course of reading, meditation, and prayer; and so, of self examination, humiliation, mortification, and such most necessary Christian duties, by which we sue out the pardon of our sins from Heaven, and maintain an holy converse with God. Together with particular perswasives thereunto, and helps therein.	Wettenhall, Edward, 1636-1713.	1666 (1666)	Wing W1495B; ESTC R217163	97,436	340

that my sin Now the consideration how this restitution or reconcilement may be made and the Resolution to make it may be best done in my Closet and such consultation and resolution deserves a place to be registred amongst my other penitential devotions upon the same reasons as they do These rules in my repentance if I have observed though I cannot look upon any action of mine as compleat yet I may have hope I have not herein been slighty but that God through Christ Jesus will accept it Sect. 8. Of that faith which is requisite in order to pardon of sin BEsides Repentance it is commonly said that God requireth Faith of us in order to pardon of our sins and it is most certain if we understand faith as we ought But it is as certain that people are ordinarily very much mistaken in the nature of Faith as it is not unusual for us to be in such things the names whereof are takne in such different Dr. Ham. Pract. Catech. Lib. 1. Sect. 3. senses as the name of Faith is in Scripture Now faith we all of us know signifies Belief and therein doth the nature of it lye Him that we believe in is God that which we believe is his Word So then Faith is a full belief or credence of the whole Word of God and especially of the Gospel a receiving it and every part of it in a way suitable to the matter of it agreeing to whatever is therein affirmed as being true believing all the promises that God will never fail on his part unless we do on ours setting our selves to fulfil all the commands as believing all that is commanded to be our duty and of indispensible necessity to salvation trembling at all the threatnings as being perswaded God will be as good as his word and punish all impenitent sinners Faith I say is the hearty and sincere embracing and being perswaded of the whole word and these its parts after this sort and we must not single out the promises and believe them alone for all commands and threats are no less the word of God than are the promises and therefore must be as much believed nor shall any one ever be justified who doth not thus believe If it be asked whether it be not faith in the free promises of the Gospel or a trusting to God through Christ that he will pardon my sin which doth chiefly justifie me I say No and that the embracing the doctrine of the Gospel the receiving every command and threat so deeply into my heart as that the belief of the one turns forthwith into obedience and of the other into obedience and of the other into an holy fear which are the other parts of faith cannot be conceived to be either in their own nature inferiour unto that trust or less either valued or required by God I do not say that God accepts of any of them or all of them for their worth He accepts of them and of the person in whom they are purely through Christ through his merits doth he impute this faith to such person for righteousness that is reckon and accept of this his cordial and impartial receiving his whole Gospel after this sort as well as if he had performed perfect and unsinning obedience as he was first bound but this I say and that upon the evidence already hinted that justification or the pardoning of sin is no more appropriated to that one act of faith which we call trust than to those other and that I cannot if comparison in this case be made but account those other acts that impartial submitting and devoting the sould to obedience answerably to every command that true resting in the fear of God as the more principal worthy and I am sure less to be suspected acts of faith At the least I cannot conceive what we call a justifying faith to proceed any otherwise than as follows First I do believe the promise of pardon of sin to be true and God to be faithful and that without all doubt God will not fail on his part except I fail on mine God will not fail to give the promised blessing if I fail not to perform the condition upon which he hath promised it Secondly I therefore forthwith set my self about the condition or duty required as I expect the blessing or promised mercy from God I sorrow for my sins I endeavour amendment of life I cleave unto God with full purpose of impartial obedience Thirdly having done so I do not believe that all this is worth any thing in it self but that it is through the meer grace of God in Christ Jesus that I must be accepted pardoned and saved Wherefore I trust to God according to his promise the condition of which I have ●ndeavoured to fulfil that he will through Christ pardon all my sins and reckon this my faith to me for righteousness to trust for the pardoning of my sins upon any o●her terms is unbelief and presumption for it is a believing God will pardon my sins upon their terms than he hath said he would ever pardon sin and that is a believing God will be false But now let the case be put that some grievous sinner much humbled under the sense of his notorious wickedness doth as beforesaid believe the promise to be true as it is set himself about the fulfilling its condition sorrowing repenting c. believe all that he doth to be in its self worth nothing but yet Christs merits to be of infinite worth through which notwithstanding he dare not trust for the pardon of his sins as remembring them to be so great and doubting lest he hath not yet performed the condition which the promise of the pardon of sin through Christs merits requires and in this temper dies Put I say this case shall we think this man hath not a true and justifying faith He hath surely and it may be a truer faith than hath many an one who yet hath more of the trust But yet it is evident he hath not this trust for he durst not through sense of his own unworthiness animate himself thereto Seeing therefore that it is very possible a man may in such case be justified without that act of faith I conclude that justification is not appropriate unto it that is that a trusting in God that he through Christ will pardon my sin is not that act of faith which chiefly justifies me and that they are very much mistaken who take this by it self to be the true nature of justifying faith that they believe God will pardon their sin for Christs sake so then I now see the course which I am to take in my humiliation to sue out the pardon of my sin I am to believe that God will not fail on his part if I do fail on mine I am therefore to repent of my sins as before I have been taught and persist in amendment of life all the while trusting in the grace of God

〈◊〉 through my Saviour Christ Jesus in whose Name I further pray as by him taught when I pray to say Our Father c. Chap. X. A form of prayer made as the other which may be used in our Evening Privacy IN like manner the Christian having entred his Closet with some such ejaculatory or short prayer as before directed to and having read and meditated as in the morning may I presume very profitably use with such alteration as his condition shall require and his discretion direct the ensuing Prayer O Most Holy and Gracious Father the searcher of all hearts who seest my down-lying as well as up-rising darkness and light being both alike to thee who art near unto all my wayes and espiest my thoughts while they are yet afar off I have here set my self before thee to pay my evening homage and desire to present both my soul and body as is most due a living Sacrifice to thee my God who hast made and redeemed both But most unfit O Lord are they to be to thee presented every part of both being naturally corrupt and abominable and nothing in me free from the loathsome defilement of sin My soul is desperately wicked and all its powers perverse and bent upon evil My mind alienated from thee through the ignorance that is within me My affections unruly and masterless My will full of enmity to thy Law and enslaved to the service of divers lusts and pleasures And as to my body in iniquity O Lord was I shapen and in sin did my Mother conceive me And ever since have all my members been servants unto iniquity and instruments of wickedness With my whole man have I obeyed the law of sin and fulfilled the desires of my flesh and corrupt mind I scarce can think of that sin in which I have not had my hands one part of my time or other In sin O God have I spent not onely my vainer age and the days of my ignorance but my ripest years and those of fullest discretion which I have yet attain'd to Since the light of thy Gospel hath shone into my opened eys since thou hast touched my heart with a sense of that evil which there is in sin so wicked and perverse a servant have I been that knowing my Lords will I have both neglected to do accordingly and presumptuously done contrary unto it To the very present time O Lord how † frequently and how † sadly do I backslide What † liberty do I allow my self How † heedlesly do I converse I walk at a meer peradventure with thee my God Notwithstanding all my vows and promises of watchfulness unto obedience this very day how little hath thy fear been in my heart and from hence comes it to pass that I have so miserably departed from thee by ** * Here confess any of the miscarriages of the day which thou hast been supposed to have taken notice of in thy meditation With what stripes therefore do I deserve to be beaten And how righteous a quarrel against me hath not onely thy Justice but thy very Grace and Mercy Notwithstanding O Blessed Father give thy poor creature leave to beseech and let him prevail with thee not to take that advantage against him which justly thou mayest Rather now thou hast borne so long break my heart by this thy goodness and make thy forbearance and long-suffering to lead me to repentance Vouchsafe unto me thy sanctifying Spirit Let it fill me with an holy shame of my former wayes And let the sense of my own unworthiness towards thee beget in me an holy indignation against my self a passionate and constant zeal by future diligence as far as is possible to redeem and repair some of my lost and most sadly mis-spent time Let my heart be never void of a stedfast purpose of serving thee in the impartial performance of every known duty especially of *** and careful avoidance of every sin * Here put in any thing for which thou findest occasion And having thus given to will do thou of the same thy good pleasure give also to do following the preventions of thy Grace by the continual assistances thereof so that I may proceed from one virtue unto another perfecting holiness in thy fear and keeping a conscience void of offence towards thee and all men And this my cordial purpose and perseverance in endeavours of pleasing thee do thou through the bloud of my Saviour graciously accept laying not to my charge any of my former sins nor visiting upon me either the neglects or transgressions of my duty At least however thou shalt here deal with thy servant in the last day acquit him of all guilt and through the merits of thy Son let him obtain remission of his sin and an inheritance in thine everlasting Kingdom In the mean while as to the necessaries of this present life give thy servant what thou pleasest and what thou seest best for him even food convenient Thou needest not O God my service but accept my ambition of being serviceable unto thee and bless me both with strength and opportunities for it and if it may be thy holy will with success therein Father I pray unto thee also for all men forasmuch as thou art a God who wouldest have all to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of thy truth especially for all and every member and members of thy Universal Church and for the particular Church of this the Land of my nativity For the Kings Majesty the Queen and the whole Royal Family for all that are in authority for the several Stewards of thy Mysteries the Ministers of thy Gospel for him in particular to whose oversight thou hast committed me that thou wilt give unto them all according to thy most gracious pleasure the blessings both of this life and that which is to come especially such measures of thy Spirit that every shoulder may be fitted for its burden and all amongst us may faithfully serve thee according to their several degrees so that this whole Land may be blessed with abundance of prosperity and peace so long as the Sun and Moon endureth Forget not peculiarly to shew mercy unto the relations friends helpers and well-wishers of thy servant Reward I beseech thee all their love and forgive good Lord divert and put an end unto all others malice or enmity Let thine eyes be ever open upon and the bowels of thy compassion be moved towards all thy wanting and suffering servants Support them under and graciously deliver them out of all their distresses and let the end be peace and righteousness and blessedness for ever Thy servant will speak yet once more and praise thee for thine infinite love and compassion to that miserable nature of which he is a partaker in revealing to us when we had lost or corrupted it the knowledge of thy self both by the light of Nature and most clearly by thy holy Word in sending thy Son for our redemption

possible that such a backsliding wretch as my self should ever be renewed again unto repentance or thereby restored But forasmuch as I understand that to turn thus desperate and to neglect repentance and amendment of life would be worse than all the wickedness which I have hitherto wrought I am here prostrate before thee to bewail my self and with sorrow and grief of heart for my former wayes do I here cast my self upon thee If thou wilt have mercy thou canst still save me If thou wilt not Lord I perish But doest thou use to suffer those to perish who thus with such repentance as they can submit and humble themselves at thy footstool crying unto thee for help Far be it from thee thou Father of Mercies Notwithstanding inasmuch as I being much worse than ordinary sinners do more justly deserve to find no place for repentance and have therefore more reason to fear how thou maist deal with me deal with me as thou wilt † through thy grace I will sin no more no more knowingly and presumptuously as I have done And to that end I have here in thy presence this day considered my wayes † I have endeavoured to find out those wiles and methods by which the Devil and mine own lusts have ensnared me in such grievous sins † I have resolved upon impartial diligence as well in my endeavours against these particular evils as against all other and in performing unto thee hearty and intire obedience These Resolutions I here humbly present before thee sacredly engaging my self to do my utmost to keep them and beseeching thee by thy grace to engage my heart more firmly to them And Lord let not any dulness or want of that affection with which I ought to have confessed my sins to have bewailed my guilt and to have passed these resolutions hinder that this my serious humiliation of my self should not be accepted before thee Such contrition as thou hast enabled me to I have endeavoured sorrowing that I am not more deeply humbled Such which is wanting do thou bestow For it is no less thy property to bestow than to accept the contrite heart The broken spirit is O Lord from thee When thou of old commandedst water out of the flinty Rock it forthwith yielded obedient streams nor can my heart dry and hard as it is but dissolve into holy tears if thou wilt bid it melt Give forth then the word O God Speak thy servant is here ready to hear Turn thou me and I shall be turned Send out thy good Spirit let it inlighten the eyes of my mind in the knowledge both of my self and thee let it savingly perswade me of the truth of all that thou hast spoken and especially of the defiling cursed and damning nature of sin of the sufficiency and efficacy of the merits of Christ Jesus unto all those who by a right faith apply themselves to thee through him I do O Lord believe help my unbelief And grant that this sight and perswasion both of my sin and Saviour may affect mine heart so that I may sorrow after a godly sort and that sorrow may bring forth in me those wholesome fruits which after all my endeavours of repentance I cannot but lament to be much wanting in me to wit carefulness against sin vehement desire and zeal of holiness indignation and an holy revenge against my self by all which I may for the future clear my self and ever approve mine heart honest upright and sincere before thee Suffer not this my righteousness to be onely as a morning cloud or early dew soon passing away but let thy grace alwayes dwelling in me keep open in my soul an ever flowing fountain of such penitence that I may go on thus mourning to mourn over my sins and perfecting holiness in thy fear accounting all little enough if so be I may but in the end obtain mercy And this my penitent return at least hearty endeavour of such return accompanied with persevering study of impartial obedience to thee do thou however most unworthy in it self through the perfect merits of thy Son accept washing away all my sins both the iniquities of my youth and transgressions of my riper years as well known as unknown especially Here mention thy chiefest sin or sins my ** in his bloud and reckoning according to thy gracious Covenant this my faith which by such works as these shall discover it self to be alive and true unto me for righteousness And if thine infinite Wisdome shall see it to be good for me do thou grant me this further happiness that I thus living in thy fear may be ever filled with peace and joy through a comfortable assurance of thy favour and hopes of eternal glory As to all my outward affaires by thy good providence be thou pleased so to overrule all events that whatsoever befals me may work together to me for good My sins indeed O Lord deserve quite contrary even the severest inflictions of thy wrath and fiery displeasure And I do most seriously acknowledge that in all the judgments which thou hast at any time laid upon me thou hast used much mercy All the paines which my body hath felt all the losses which have impaired my estate all the slanders which have blasted my name particularly ** I embrace as infinitely less than my deserts That † I am in any straits ** that I Here mention any particular afflictions suffer otherwise in my body relations c. ** were all a thousand sold to what it is I should confess it to be most just Were I to enjoy no more good than I do deserve I should have just nothing Righteous therefore art thou O Lord when I plead with thee Yet if thou wilt be intreated by thy repenting servant to † withdraw * These and such like expressions are to be used according to persons particular conditions or withhold thy hand to remove the punishment I feel or not to inflict the punishments which I fear but through the bloud of Christ to deliver me from thy present wrath as well as from the wrath to come thy servant shall ever bless and praise thee and be able to serve thee with more chearful diligence However Lord thy Will be done Bring me surely to thy self let it be by what means thou wilt Please thy self thy servant will endeavour to be content Deny me what things thou wilt onely deny me not Grace Pardon and thy Self And not onely upon me O Lord but upon all men do thou have mercy according to the gracious pleasure of thine own most holy Will Especially upon the universal Church Enlarge thou its bounds provide for its safety and purity delivering any part of it which is in danger and reforming whatsoever of it is corrupted Do thou with all suitable mercies bless this particular Church Forgive the publick sinnes ** Heal the publick Here mention such sins or calamities Calamities ** Preserve and every way be gracious unto