Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	body_n	death_n	separation_n	3,748	5	10.7337	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28171	The common principiles of Christian religion clearly proved and singularly improved, or, A practical catechism wherein some of the most concerning-foundations of our faith are solidely laid down, and that doctrine, which is according to godliness, sweetly, yet pungently pressed home and most satisfyingly handled / by that worthy and faithful servant of Jesus Christ, Mr. Hew Binning ...	Binning, Hugh, 1627-1653.; Gillespie, Patrick, 1617-1675.	1667 (1667)	Wing B2927; ESTC R33213	197,041	290

that so many do abide in themselves and trusting to their own good purposes resolutions endeavo●…s do think to pacifie God and help themselves out of their misery But O look again and look in upon your selves in the glass of the Word and there is no doubt but you vvill straightway be filled vvith confusion of face and be altogether spoiled of good confidence and hope as you call it you vvill find your self plunged in a pit of misery and all strength gone and none on the right hand or the left to help you and then and not till then vvill the second Adams hand stretched out for our help be seasonable That vvhich next follows is that vvhich is the companion of sin inseparably Death hath past upon all and that by sin Adams one disobedience opened a port for all sin to enter upon mankind and sin cannot enter vvithout this companion Death Sin goes before and Death follows on the back of it and these suite one another as the vvork and the vvages as the tree and the fruit they have a sibness one to another sowing to corruption reaps an answerable harvest to vvit corruption Sowing to the vvind and reaping the vvhirlewind how suitable are they That men may know how evil and bitter a thing sin is he makes this the fruit of it In his first Law and sanction given out to men he joyns them inseparably sin and death sin and vvrath sin and a curse By Death is not only meant bodily death which is the separation of the soul from the body but first the spiritual death of the soul consisting in a separation of the soul from Gods blessed enlightning enlivening and comforting countenance Mans true life wherein he differs from beasts consists in the right aspect of God upon his soul in his walking with God and keeping communion with him all things besides this are but common and base and this was cut off his comfort his joy and peace in God extinct God became terrible to his conscience and therefore man did flee and was araid when he heard his voice in the garden Sin being interposed between God and the soul cut off all the influence of heaven Hence arises darkness o●… mind hardness of heart delusions vile affections horror of conscience Look what difference is between a living creature and a dead carcase so much is between Adams soul upright living in God and Adams soul separated from God by sin Then upon the outward man the curse redounds the body becoms mortal which had been incorruptible it 's now like a besiedged City now some outward sorts are gained by diseases now by pains and torments the outward wals of the body are at length overcome and when life hath fled into a Castle within the City the heart that is at last all besiedged so straitly and stormed so violently that it must render unto death upon any terms The body of man is even a seminary of a world of diseases and grievances that if men could look upon it aright they might see the sentence of death every day performed Then how many evils in estate in friends and relations in imployments which being considered by Heathens hath made them praise the dead more then the living but him not yet born most of all because the present life is nothing else but a valley of misery and tears a sea of troubles where one wave continually prevents another and comes on like Iobs messengers before he speak out his wo●…ul tydings another comes with such like or worse But that which is the sum and accomplishment of Gods curse and mans misery is that death to come eternal death not death simply but an everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power An infinite loss because the loss of such a glorious life in the enjoyment of Gods presence and an infinite hurt and torment beside and both eternal Now this is that we would lay before you you are under such an heavy sentence from the womb a 〈◊〉 of the Almighty adjudging you for Adams guilt and your own to all the misery in this world and the next to all the treasures of wrath that are heaped up against the day of wrath and strange it is how vve can live in peace and not be troubled in mind vvho have so great and formidable a party Be perswaded O be perswaded that there shal not one ●…ot of this be removed it must be fulfilled in you or your Cautione●… and vvhy then is a Savior offered a City of refuge opened and secure sinners vvill not flee into it But as for as many as have the inward dreadful apprehension of this vvrath to come and knows not vvhat to do know that to you is Jesus Christ preached the second Adam a quickning Spirit and in that consideration better then the first not only a living soul himself but a Spirit to quicken you vvho are dead in sins one that hath undertaken for you and vvill hold you fast Adam vvho should have kept us lost himself Christ in a manner lost himself to save us And as by Adams disobedience all this sin misery hath abounded on man know that the second Adam his obedience and righteousness is of greater vertue and efficacy to save and in stead of sin to restore righteousness and in stead of death to give life therefore you may come to him and you shal be more surely kept then be●…ore 1. Tim. 1. 15. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Iesus Christ came in the world to save sinners OF all Doctrines that ever vvere published to men this contained here is the choisest as you see the very preface prefixed to it import And truly as it is the most excellent in it self it could not but be sweet unto us if we had received into the heart the belief of our own wretchedness misery I do not know a more soveraign cordial for a fainting soul then this faithful saying That Iesus Christ came into the world to save sinners And therfore we are most willing to dwel on this ●…ubject and to inculcate it often upon you That without him ye are undone and lost and in him you may be saved I profess all other subjects howsoever they might be more pleasing to some hearers are unpleasant and unsavory to me This is that we would once learn and ever be learning to know him that came to save us and come to him We labored to show unto you the state of sin and misery that Adams first transgression hath subjected all mankind unto which if it were really and truly apprehended I do not think but it would make this saying welcome to our souls Man being plunged into such a deep pit of misery sin and death having over-flowed the whole world and this being seen and acknowledged by a sinner certainly the next question in order of nature is this Hath God left all to perish in this

see his face in ioy Certainly it had been altogether impossible if our Lord Jesus Christ had not come who is the light and life of men the Father shines on him and the beams of his love reflects upon us from the Sun The love of God and his favourable countenance that cannot meet with us in a direct and immediate beam they fall on us in this blessed compasse by the intervention of a Mediator We are rebels staning at distance with God Christ comes between a Mediator and Peace-maker to reconcile us to God God is in Christ reconciling the World God first makes an union of Natures with Christ and so he comes near to us down to us who could not come up to him and then he sends out the Word of Reconciliation the Gospel the tenor wherof is this 1 Ioh. 1. 3. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye may have fellowship with the Father and his Son It is a voice of peace and invitation to the fellowship of God Behold then the happinesse of man is th●…very end and purpose of the Gospel Christ is the repairer of the breaches the second Adam aspired to quicken what Adam killed He hath slain the emnity and cancelled the hand-writing that was against us and so made peace by the blood of his crosse and then having removed all that out of the way he comes and calls us unto the fellowship which we were ordained unto frō our Creation We who are rebels are called to be friends I call you not servants but friends It is a wōder that the creature should be called a friend of God but O great wonder that the rebell should be called a friend and yet that is not all we are called to a nearer union to be Sons of God this is our priviledge Ioh. 1. 12. This is a great part of our fellowship with the Father and his Son we are the Fathers children and the Sons brethren acd if children then heirs and heirs of God and if brethren then co-heirs with Christ Rom. 8. 17. Thus the Union is begun again in Christ but as long as sin dwels in our mortall bodies it is not perfect there is alwayes some separation and some enmity in our hearts so there is neither ful seeing of God for we know but in part and we see darkly nor full enjoying of God for we are saved by hope we live by faith and not by fight But this is begun which is the seed of eternall communion we are here partakers of the Divine Nature Now then it must aspire unto a more perfect union with God whose Image it is And therefore the Soul of a Believer is here still in motion towards God as his element There is here an union in affection but not compleated in fruition affectu non effectu the soul pants after God Whom have I in heaven or earth but thee My ●…esh and my heart faileth a believing soul looksupon God as its only portion accounts nothing misery but to be separated from him nothing blessednesse but to be one with him this is the Load-stone of the affections and desires the Center which they move towards and in which they will rest It is true indeed that oftentimes our hearts our flesh faileth us we become ignorant and brutish our affections cleave to the earth and tentations with their violence turn our souls towards another end than God as there is nothing more easily moved and turned wrong then the needle that is touched with the Adamant yet it settles not in such a posture it recovers it self and rests never till it look towards the North and then it is fixed even so tentations and the corruptions and infirmities of our hearts desturb our spirits easily and wind them about from the Lord towards any other thing but yet we are continuing with him and he keeps us with his right hand and therefore though we may be moved yet we shal not be greatly commoved we may fall but we shal rise again he is the strength of our heart and therefore he will turn our heart about again and fix it upon its own portion Our Union here consists more in his holding of us by his power then our taking hold of him by faith Power and good-will encamps about both faith and the soul we are kept by his power through faith 1 Pet. 1. And thus he will guide the soul and still be drawing it nearer to him from it self from sin and from the world till he receive us into Glory and untill we be one as with the Father and the Son he in us and we in him that we may be made perfect in one as it is in the words read This is strange a greater unity and fuller enjoyment a more perfect fellowship then ever Adam in his innocency would have been capable of what soul ca conceive it What tongue expresse it None cann for it's that which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor entered into Mans heart to concive We must suspend the knowledge of it till we have experience of it Let us now believe it and then we shal find it There is a mutual inhabitation which is wonerfull Persons that dwel one with another have much society and fellowship but to dwel one in another is a strange thing I in them and they in me and therefore God is often said to dwel in us and we to dwel in him But that which makes it of all most wonderful and incomprehensible is that glorious unity and communion between the Father and the Son which it is made an Embleme of As thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us Can you conceive that unity of the Trinity Can you imagine that reciprocall inhabitation that mutuall communion between the Father and the Son No it hath not entered into the heart to conceive it Only thus much we know that it is most perfect it is most glorious so much we may apprehend of this unity of the Saints with God O love is an uniting and transforming thing God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him He dwelleth in us by love this makes him work in us and shine upon us love hath drawn him down from his seat of Majesty to visite poor Cottages of sinners Isa. 66. 1 2. 15 47. And it is that love of God reflecting upon our souls that carries the soul upward to him to live in him and walk with him O how doth it constrain a soul to live to him and draw it from it self 2 Cor. 5. 15. Then the more unity with God the more separation from our selves the world the nearer God the farther from our selves the farther from ourselves the more happy and the more unity with God the more unity among our selves among the brethren of our family Because we are not fully one with our Father

desired tasting of it only begets a kindly appetite after it the more tasted still the fresher and more recent But yet it is above both desire and fruition thou cannot see my face c. All our knowledge of God all our attainments of experience of him do reach but to some dark confused apprehension of what he is the clearest and nearest sight of God in the world is as if a man were not known but by his back which is a great point of estrangement It 's said in the heaven we shall see him face to face and fully as he is because then the soul is made capable of it Two things in us here puts us in an incapacity of nearnesse with God Infirmity and Iniquity Infirmity in us cannot behold his glory it 's of so weak eies that the brightnesse of the Sun would strike it blind and Iniquity in us he cannot behold it because he is of pure eyes that can look on no unclean thing it 's the only thing in the Creation that Gods holinesse hath antipathy at and therefore he is stil about the destroying of the body of sin in us about the purging of all filthinesse of the flesh and spirit and till the soul be thus purged of all sin by the operation of the Holy Ghost it cannot be a Temple for an immediate vision of him an immediate exhibition of God to us Sin is the wall of partition and the thick cloud that eclipses his glory from us it is the opposite Hemesphere of darknesse contrary to light according to the accesse or recesse of Gods presence it is more or lesse dark the more sin reigns in thee the lesse of God is in thee and the more sin be subdued the readier nearer is Gods presence but let us comfort our selves That one day shal put off both Infirmity and Iniquity mortality shal put on immortality and corruption be cloathed with incorruption we shal leave the rags of mortall weaknesse in the grave and our menstruous cloaths of sin behind us then shal the weak eyes of flesh be made like Eagles eyes to behold the Sun and then shal the soul be cloathed with holinesse as with a Garment which God shal delight to look upon because he sees his own Image in that glasse We come to the Lords satisfying of Moses desire and proclaiming his Name before him it is himself only can tell you what he is it is not Ministers preaching or other discourse can proclaim that Name to you we may indeed speak over those words unto you but it is the Lord that must write that Name upon your heart he only can discover his glory to your spirit There is a spirit of life which cannot be inclosed in Letters and Syllables or transmitted through your ears into your hearts but he himself must create it inwardly and stir up the outward sense feeling of that Name of those Attributes Faith indeed comes by hearing and our knowledge in this life is thorow a glasse darkly thorow ordinances and senses but there must be an inward teaching and speaking to your souls to make that effectuall the anointing teacheth you all things 1 Ioh. 2. 27. Alas its the separation of that from the word that makes it so unprofitable if the spirit of God were inwardly writing what the word is teaching then should our souls be living Epistles that ye might read Gods Name on them O be much in imploying of depending on him that teacheth to profit who only can declare unto your souls what he is These names expresse his Essence or Being his Properties what he is in himself what he is to us in himself he is Jehovah or a self-being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we heard in the 3. Chap. I am that I am and EL a strong God or Almighty God which two hold out to us the absolute incomprehensible perfection of God eminently and infinitely enclosing within himself all perfections of the creatures the unchangeable and mutable being of God who was and is is to come without succession without variation or shadow of turning and then the Almighty power of God by which without difficulty by the inclination and beck of his will pleasure he can make or unmake all create or annihilate to whom nothing is impossible which three if they were pondered by us till our souls received the stamp of them they would certainly be powerfull to abstract and draw our hearts from the vain changeable and empty shadow of the creature gather our scattered affections that are parted among them because of their unsufficiency that all might unite in one and joyn with this self-sufficient and eternal God I say if a soul did indeed believe and consider how All sufficient he is how insufficient all things else are would it not cleave to him and draw near to him Psal. 73. ult It is the very torment and vexation of the soul to be thus racked distracted divided about many things therefore many because there is none of them can supply all our wants our wants are infinit our desires insatiable the good that is in any thing is limited bounded it can serve one but for one use and another for another use and when all are together they can but supply some wants but they leave much of the soul empty But often these outward things crosses one another and cannot consist together and hence ariseth much strife and debate in a soul his need requireth both and both will not agree But O that you could see this one universall good One for all and above all your souls would choose him certainly your souls would trust in him ye would say Ashur soal not save us we will not ride on horses Creatures shal not satisfie us we will seek our happinesse in thee and no where else since we have tasted this new wine away with the old the new is better I beseech you make God your friend for he is a great one whether he be a friend or an enemy he hath two properties that make him either most comfortable or most terrible according as he is at peace or war with souls Eternity and Omnipotency You were once all enemies to him O consider what a Party you have an Almighty Party and unchangeable Party if you will make peace with him and that in Christ then know he is the best friend in the world because he is unchangeable and Almighty if he be thy friend he will do all for thee he can do and thou hast need of But many friends willing to do yet have not ability but he hath power to do what he will and pleases Many friends are changeable their affections dry up of themselves die and therefore even Princes friendship is but a vain confidence for they shal die then their thoughts of favour perish with them but he abides the same for all Generations there is no end of his

the ugly face of disobedience and rebellion vers 19. Whereby man draweth himself from his allegiance due to his Maker and shaketh off the yoke in reproach of the most High Next you may behold the vile and abominable ●…ace of ingratitude and unthankfulnesse in it and truly heathens have so abhorred unthankfulnesse towards men that they could not digest the reproach of it Ingratum si dixeris omnia dixeris If you cal me unthankful your may cal me anything or all things it s a compend of al vices It s even iniquity grown to maturity and 〈◊〉 But that such a fruit should grow out of such a holy and good spyle so wel dressed and manured by the Lord was a wonder Lord what is man that thou so magnified him and made him a little lower tha●… the Angels That thou put all things sublunary under his feet and exalted him above them For that creature chosen and elected from among all to be his minion to stand in his presence adorned beautified with such gifts and graces magnified with such glorious priviledges made according to the most excellent pattern His own Image to ●…orget all forget so soon and when he had such a spacious Garden to make use of as is supposed to make up the third part of the earth to eat of no fruit but that which was forbidden there is no such monstrous ingratitude can be imagined as here was acted But then consider the two fountains from which this flowed unbelief and pride ye shal find it the heaviest sin in the world unbelief of his word and threatning first he was brought to question it and doubt of it then to deny it A Word so solemnly and particularly told him by the truth it self that ever a question of it could arise in his mind to get entry what else was it than to impute iniquity to the Holy One And that iniquity or falshood and lying which his nature most abhors What was it to blaspheme the most High and faithful God by hearkning to the suggestions of his enemy and credit them more then the threatning of God To give the very flat contradiction to God we shal not die and to assent so heartily to Sathans slanders and reproaches of God And this unbelief opened a door to ambition and bride the most sacrilegious ingredient of all which is most opposite to God and unto which he most opposed himself from the beginning You shal be like gods Was he not happy enough already according to Gods Image Nay but this evil principle would arise up to the throne of God and sit down in his stead Pride hath Atheism in it to deny the true God yet would be a god it self For the foot-stool to lift up it self thus what an indignity was it indeed this wretched aime at so high an estate hath thrown us down as low as hell You see then how injurious this transgression was to God There was disobedience and rebellion in it which denies his dominion and supremacy there was unthankfulnesse in it denying his goodness and bounty there was unbelief in it contradicting his truth and faithfulnesse finally pride opposing it self to all that is in God reaching up to his very crown of Majesty to take it off You see then what you are guilty of in being guilty of Adams transgression many of you flatter your selves in your own eyes that ye have not done much evil and yee will justifie your selves in your comparisons with others But I beseech you consider this though you had never done personally good or evil here that which drowned the World in misery is your sin and charged upon you you are guilty of that which ruined all mankind and makes the Creation subject to vanity corruption O if ye believe this ye would find more need of the second Adam than ye do O how precious would this righteousnesse and obedience be to you if ye had rightly apprehended your interest in the first mans disobedience But besides this imputation there is much more propagated unto all and that is a total corruption and depravation of nature in soul body whereby man is utterly indisposed disabled and made opposite unto all that is truly and spiritually good and wholly inclined to all evil that continually which is commonly called Original sin A total aversenesse from God and from al goodnesse an antipathy against the wayes of holinesse a propension strong impulse towards evil even as a stone move downward This poyson contagion of sin entering into the world hath infected al gone through all the members Neither is it any wonder it be so whē this leprosie hath defiled the wals roof of the house I mean hath made the Creation subject to vanity and corruption It is no wonder that it spread abroad in his issue and makes al unclean like himself And truly this is it which most abases mans nature and being seen would most humble men yea til this be discerned no man can be indeed humbled he will never apprehend himself so bad as he is but still imagine some excellency in himself til he s●…e himself in this glasse You talk of good natures and good dispositions but in our flesh saith the Apostle dwels no good thing the seed of all wickednesse are in every one of us its the goodness of God for preserving humane society that they are restrained and kept down in any from the grossest out-breakings They know not themselves who know any good of themselves and they know not themselves who either are in admiration at or in bitterness or in contempt against other sinners whose sins are manifest to all This were the only way to profite by looking on others evils if we could straight way retire within and behold the root of that in our sevles the fountain of it within us and so grow in loathing not of these persons but of humane nature and in suitable thoughts of our selves others might wonder at the goodnesse and undeserved bounty of the Lord that passes an act of restraint upon our corruption dammes it up Oh that we could learn to loath our selves in other mens evils thus we might reap good out of the evil and prevent more in our selves But the looking upon grosse provocations as singularities make them more general because every man does not charge himself with the corruption that is in all these but prefers himself to another therefore are reins loosed to corruption a sluce opened that it may come out that he who would not see his own Image in another mans face may behold it in the glasse of his own abominations There is no point lesse believed than this though generally confessed that man is dead in sins and trespasses impotent to help himself You will hardly take with wickednesse when you confesse weaknesse as if nature were only sick but not dead hurt but not killed therefore it is