Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A66338
|
A sermon preached before the Queen at White-Hall, April 2, 1690 being the fifth Wednesday in Lent / by William Wake.
|
Wake, William, 1657-1737.
|
1690
(1690)
|
Wing W264; ESTC R24588
|
17,349
|
40
|
somewhat which himself does to involve his Soul in the Guilt of it For else as a great man among the Heathens themselves very well argued another mans wickedness might be my Evil which says he God would not have that it might not be in another mans power to make me unhappy 'T is true indeed so great was the care of God heretofore to restrain the Jews from an Idolatrous Worship that he threatned for this Sin to visit the Iniquities of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth Generation i. e. upon those who could not possibly have been in any manner accessary to their Impieties But besides that there is a great deal of difference between being partakers of other mens Sins and being Visited or Punished upon Occasion of them and that too only with some Temporal Evils such as their own Sins had very well deserved We are plainly assured by God himself Ezekiel xviii that even this complaint should be taken away The Children should no more bear the Iniquity of their fathers neither the fathers of their Children but the Soul that sinned it should die And in all the accounts we meet with in the New Testament of the judgment to come we are expresly told that every man shall receive according to his own works or as our Apostle has Phrased it Gal. vi 5. Every man shall bear his own Burden It remains therefore that no one either becomes partaker of the Guilt of another mans Sins now or shall be Punish'd for them hereafter any farther than he has by some Circumstance or other render'd himself accessary thereunto And our present business must be to enquire how many ways a man may do so Now those are in General these three 1 st By giving Occasion to other mens sins 2 dly By Approving of them when Committed And 3 dly By neglecting to hinder them from committing them when we might and ought to have done it 1st A man may become a partaker of Other mens Sins by giving Occasion to the Committing of them This is in General so very clear that I do not know that it has ever been deny'd or doubted of by any But now how many ways a man may become so far the Occasion of anothers Sin as to render himself thereby a partaker in the Guilt of it I shall not undertake precisely to define I will offer some of those that are the most obvious and particularly reflected on as such in the Holy Scriptures And First He who Contrives the Commission of any Sin and either by his Authority over any other Commands or else by his Arguments and insinuations Persuades him to commit it it is not to be question'd but that such a one does undoubtedly thereby render himself partaker of it This was the case of David in the business of Uriah 2 Sam. chap. xi th xii th When having committed Adultery with Bathsheba and not knowing otherwise how to prevent the scandal of it he order'd Joab who then commanded the Royal Army before Rabbah to set Uriah her husband in the fore-front of the hottest Battel that he might be smitten and dye and so he might take Bathsheba to be his Wife But tho Joab therefore executed the Command and the Enemy slew him as he had projected it yet God charges neither the one nor the other of them with his Death He lays the whole Guilt of his Bloud at the King's door who had been the Occasion of it 2 Sam. xii 9. Wherefore says the Prophet hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword Thou hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon And then he goes on in the next verses to pronounce Judgment against him upon the account of it Now therefore the sword shall not depart from thy house Behold I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house and I will take thy wives before thine eyes and give them unto thy neighbour and he shall lye with thy wives in the sight of this sun For thou didst it secretly but I will do this thing before all Israel and before this sun And immediately upon this Admonition we find David himself confessing his Sin and imploring God's forgiveness v. 13. And David said unto Nathan I have sinned against the LORD And in that great Penitential Psalm Psal. li. composed on purpose to be a standing memorial in the House of God of his Humiliation and Repentance for this very sin he particularly acknowledges himself guilty of the murder of Uriah and deprecates God's anger upon the account of it v. 14. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness O God! thou God of my Salvation and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness The truth is such a one as this is for the most part more guilty of the Sin committed than he who was either over-aw'd or perswaded into the Commission of it For tho every man ought to have such a care of himself and such a concern for his duty as not to suffer either the Authority of the Greatest Person or the Insinuations of the Dearest Friend in the world to be able to prevail with him in a matter where the Glory of God and the Salvation of his own Soul are at stake Yet there is a certain easiness and tenderness in our natures that not only too much exposes us to be overcome by such persons as we have either a very great value for or have otherwise been very much obliged to and do what we ought not out of a false and unreasonable regard to them but does also render us many times extremely pityable tho not excusable in the doing of it Whilst he who thus executes the office of the Devil projects the Villany and prompts us to the Execution of it must remain utterly inexcusable both in the sight of God and Man for his Impiety But Secondly A man may be the occasion of anothers sin and so become Partaker of it tho he does not in so eminent a degree as this concur to it if he does but in any other manner truly and effectually assist him in the committing of it Now this may be done many ways As 1 st By contributing a helping hand to the doing of it Upon which account it was a Constitution of the Roman Law That if one committed a Theft by the assistance of another as for instance If one set a ladder ready or left a door open that another might go in and steal his neighbours goods he was adjudged thereby to be partaker of the Crime and stood liable to the same Punishment that the other did who committed the Robbery And the same must be said 2dly of him who counsels and advises another to any sin and thereby puts him upon the Execution of it As if for example a man should persuade another in necessity to supply