Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	dead_a	life_n	trespass_n	5,011	5	10.5955	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A16333	Mr. Boltons last and learned worke of the foure last things death, iudgement, hell, and heauen. With an assises-sermon, and notes on Iustice Nicolls his funerall. Together with the life and death of the authour. Published by E.B.	Bolton, Robert, 1572-1631.; Bagshaw, Edward, d. 1662.	1632 (1632)	STC 3242; ESTC S106786	206,639	329

is a right noble and heroicall revenge which doth not onely deprive the body of temporall life but bring also the immortall soule to endlesse flames everlastingly 3. Desperate corrupt affection is strangely desperate to run headlong upon the damnation of hell for a little earthly delight if we should see a naked man in some furious moode as prodigall of his temporall life runne upon his owne sword or throw himselfe from some steep rocke or cast himselfe into some deep river and teare out his owne bowels we should censure it presently to be a very desperate part and ruefull spectacle what shall we say of him then who thorough the fury of his rebellious nature to the endlesse destruction of the life of his immortall soule doth desperatly throw himselfe upon the devouring edge of GODS fiercest indignation upon the sharpest points of all the plagues and curses in his Booke and into the very flames of everlasting fire It is a very fearefull thing to see a man bath and embrue his hands in the blood and butchery of his owne body and with his murderous blade to take away the life thereof but of how much more horrour and wofulnesse is that spectacle when a desperate wretch with the empoysoned edge of his owne enraged corruption doth cut the throat of his owne deare immortall soule so that a man may teach him all his life long by the blood thereof in the sinfull passages of his life untill at length it bee stark dead in sinnes and trespasses for how can a soule all purple red with willfull sheading its own blood looke for any part in that pretious blood of that spotles lambe Nay assuredly such bloody stubbornnes and selfe-murthering cruelty will be paid home at last by the severe revenger of such cursed desperatnesse Hee will judge such a man after the manner of them that shed their owne blood and give him the blood of wrath and of jealousie Lord it is prodigiously strange and lamentably fearefull that so noble and excellent a creature as man prince of all other earthly creatures by the priviledge of reason and enlightned with the glorious beame of understanding nature should be so furiously madded with its owne malice and bewitchedly blindfolded by the Prince which rules in the Aire as for the momentany enjoyment of some fewglorious miseries bitter-sweet pleasures heart-vexing riches or some other worldly vanity at the best desperatly and wilfully to abandon and cast himselfe from the unconceivable pleasures of its joyfull place where GOD dwels into an infinite world of everlasting woefulnesse For let a carnall man consider in a word his prodigious madnesse in this point He might not onely in this vale of teares bee possest with a peacefull heart which is an incomparable pretiousnesse surpassing all created understandings For I dare say this I know it to bee true One little glimpse of Heaven shed sometimes into the heart of a sanctified man by the saving illumination of the comforting spirit whereby he sees and feeles that in despight of the rage of divels malice of men let sin and death the grave and hell doe their worst his soule is most certainely bound by the hand of GOD in the bundle of the living and that hee shall hereafter everlastingly inhabite the joyes of eternity I say this one conceit being the immediate certificate of the spirit of truth doth infinitely more refresh his affections and affect his heart with more true sweetnesse and tastfull pleasure then all carnall delights and sensuall delicacies can possibly produce though they were as exquisite and numberlesse as nature art and pleasure it selfe could devise and to be enjoyed securely as long as the world lasts Besides this heaven upon earth and glorious happinesse even in this world he might hereafter go in arme with Angels sit downe by the side of the blessed Trinity amongst Saints and Angels and all the truly worthy men that ever lived with the highest perfection of blisse endlesse peace and blessed immortality all the joyes all the glory all the blisse which lies within the compasse of heaven should be powred upon him everlastingly and yet for all this he doth not onely in a spirituall phrensie desperately deprive himselfe and trample under foot this heaven upon earth and that joyfull rest in heaven world without end but also throwes himselfe into a hell of ill conscience here and hereafter into that hell of Devils which is a place of flames and perpetuall darknesse where there is torment without end and past imagination The day will come and the LORD knowes how soone when he will clearely see and acknowledge with horrible anguish of heart his strange and desperate madnesse See Wisd. 5. 2 c. For after the moment of a few miserable pleasures in this life be ended he is presently plunged into the fiery lake and ere he be aware the pit of destruction shutteth upon him everlastingly and if once he find himselfe in hell he knowes there is no redemption out of that infernall pit then would he think himselfe happy if he were to suffer those bitter and intolerable torments no mo thousands of yeares than there are sands on the sea shore haires on his head starres in heaven grasse piles on the ground and creatures both in heaven and earth for he would still comfort himselfe at least with this thought that once his misery would have an end but alas this word never doth ever burst his heart with unexpressible sorrow when he thinks upon it for after an hundred thousand of millions of yeares there suffered he hath as farre to suffer as he had at the first day of his entrance into those endlesse torments now let a man consider if he should lie in an extreme fit of the stone or a woman if she should be afflicted with the grievous torture of child-bed but one night though they lie upon the softest beds have their friends about them to comfort them Physitians to cure them all needfull things ministred unto them to asswage their paine yet how tedious painfull and wearisome would even one night seeme unto them how would they turne and tosse themselves from side to side telling the clocke counting every houre as it passeth which would seeme unto them a whole day What is it then think you to lie in fire and brimstone inflamed with the unquenchable wrath of GOD world without end Where they shall have nothing about them but darknesse and discomforts yellings and gnashings of teeth their companions in prophanenesse and vanity to ban and curse them the damned fiends of hell to scourge them and torment them despaire and the worme that never dies to feed upon them with everlasting horrour If carnall wretches be so desperate as wilfully to spill the bloud of their owne soules let us set light by the life of our bodies if the cruelty of the times call for it for the honour of the Saviour of our soules Let me give one instance of dangerous snares

and rebellious people which was fruitlesly and vainly spilt as water upon the ground or lost upon the hardest slint many a piercing and powerfull Sermon had he spent amongst them to the wasting of his strength and spirits which yet was to them as an idle and empty breath vanishing into nothing and scatter'd in the aire The LORD as He saies Himselfe made His mouth as a sharpe sword and Himselfe as a chosen shaft and yet that two-edged sword was full often blunted upon their hardest hearts and his keene arrowes discharged by a skilfull hand rebounded from their flinty bosomes as shafts shot against a stone wall And that made that Seraphicall Oratour the unmatched Paragon of sacred eloquence thus to complaine Isa. 47. 4. I have laboured in vaine I have spent my strength in vaine and for nothing A course of extraordinary severity and terrour was taken with Pharaoh he was not onely chastised with rods but even scourged with Scorpions and yet all the plagues of Egypt were so farre from piercing and softening his hard heart as that every particular plague added a severall iron sinew and more slintinesse to his already stony heart And as the heart is naturally thus hardened towards godlinesse so also hollow towards the godly See Sauls cariage towards David No materiall waight can more crush the heart of man than braying in a morter and yet saith Salomon Prov. 27. 22. Though thou shouldest bray a foole a desperate sinner a rebellious wretch in a morter amongst wheat brayed with a pestill yet will not his foolishnesse his sinfulnesse which is the greatest depart from him no more than the skin from the Blacke-moore or the spots from the Leopard by washing him Shame an old obstinate beaten sinner with his horrible ingratitude show him the ugly face of his hainous sinnes tell him of the losse of the happinesse of heaven affright him with the feare of hell and damnation in all this he is like a Smiths anvill that growes harder and harder for all his hammering Lastly a damned spirit though he lie in the lowest dungeon of utter darknesse laden with that burden of sinne which prest downe a glorious Angell of light and all his followers from the top of heaven into that lowest pit with the full weight of the unquenchable and everlasting wrath of GOD with all the heavy chaines of that infernall lake and with that which me thinkes is farre worse and more cutting than many hels than ten thousand damnations even with despaire of ever having ease end or remedy of those most bitter everlasting intolerable hellish torments I say though a damned soule be thus laden and thus heavily prest downe with all this cursed waight and hainousnesse of hell yet he is still as hard as a stone So certaine it is that no curse or created power not the softest eloquence or severest course not the waight of the whole world or the heavines of hell if all were prest and laid upon the heart of a man could possibly breake that stubbornesse or tame that rebellion This is onely the worke of the blessed Spirit with the hammer of the Word This hardnesse of heart had attained a strange height even in the worlds infancy into what a prodigious rocke is that growne now then by length of time in so many ages sith every generation since by invention of new sinnes and addition of hainousnesse unto the old have every one added thereunto a severall iron sinew and a further degree of flintinesse What a heart was got into Cains breast who was first cut out of the stony rocke of corrupt man-kind remorse of shedding the guiltlesse bloud of his murthered brother which was able to have melted an adarnant into bloudy teares moved him never a whit Nay the presence of Almighty GOD at which the earth trembles the hills melt like waxe which turneth the rocke into water-pooles and the stint into a fountaine of water as David speakes yet made his stony heart relent never a whit Nay yet further GODS mighty voice immediately from His owne mouth which breakes the cedars and shakes the wildernesse which was able with one word even in a moment to turne the whole world into nothing and the sonnes of men as though they had never beene yet I say this powerfull and mighty voice did not at all amaze or mollifie the un-relenting stubbornenesse of this bloudy wretch but in a strange dogged fashion he answers GOD Almighty even to His face For when GOD mildly and fairely asked him what was become of his brother Abel he answered I cannot tell Nay further as though he had bid GOD go looke he faith Am I my brothers keeper Where take this note by the way Let not Christians thinke much to receive dogged answers and disdainfull speeches from prophane men you see how doggedly this fellow answers even GOD Almighty The Disciple is not above his Master nor the servant above his Lord It is enough for the Disciple to be as the Master and the servant as his Lord if they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub how much more them of his houshold Mat. 10. 24 25. What a strange stony heart lodged in the breast of the tyrant Pharaoh When the Prophet 1 Kin. 13. cried to the altar of Ieroboam O altar altar the altar clave presently asunder at the Word of GOD in the mouth of the Prophet but this mighty hammer of the Word Ier. 23. 29. with ten miracles gave ten mighty strokes at Pharaohs heart and yet could find no entrance could not pierce it but rebounded backe as an arrow shot against a stone wall Let no man then thinke it strange to see many stubborne and rebellious wretches run on in their courses and rage against the waies of GOD though they have both the Ministry of the Word of GOD to reclaime them and be many times singled out particularly by the hand of GOD with some speciall judgement for the abatement of their fury For the rebelliousnesse of mans nature can never possibly be tamed corrupt affection can never be conquered untill the heart wherein it sits inthron'd be crusht and broke in peeces and this hardnesse of heart can never be mortified no created power can possibly pierce it untill the Almighty Spirit take the hammer of the Word into His owne hand that by His speciall unresistable power He may first breake and bruise it and after by sprinkling it with the bloud of CHRIST dissolve it into teares of true repentance that so it may be softened sanctified and sav'd And let no man marvell that the powerfullest Ministry doth produce by accident the most pestilent scorners cruellest persecutors and men of most raging cariage against the meanes of their salvation for these reasons 1. From the nature of the glorious Gospell of IESVS CHRIST the sunn of righteousnesse which shining upon one that hath spirituall life will more reuiue and quicken him but in one dead in

sinnes and trespasses causes him to stinke more hatefully before the face of GOD and man 2. From the cruelty of Satan who laies more burdens and heavier chaines upon him that the Ministers labour to pull out of h●…s snares 2. Vnsatiable Corrupt affection is unsatiable in all it sensuall pursuits for the empoysoned 1. Fountaine of originall pollution is bottomlesse restlesse and ever working it sends out uncessantly fresh desires new longings and more greedinesse for the grasping engrossing and devouring of earthly delights and carnall pleasures 2. When the heart of man forsakes the blessed and boundlesse Fountaine of living waters of which if it should drinke heartily and sincerely and every drop should be in it a well of water springing up to everlasting life and digs unto it earthly pits wherout to suck the muddy and troubled streams of vanity and sensuall delights then GOD in his just Iudgement makes those pits bottomlesse that they 'le hold no water so that it shall seeke and never bee satisfied it shall toile and tire out it selfe in waies of wickednes and destruction and shall never find end and rest but in endlesse woe and restlesse torments 3. Never was jaylor so jealous over his prisoners as Satan is watchfull over every wicked man And therefore least he should waxe weary of his way to hell he failes not by a secret accursed influence to fill his sinfull heart with an unquenchable thirst after pleasures of the earth And he doth not onely put this insatiable thirst into the soule of a carnall man but also by his jugling and art of imposture he gilds over sensuall objects with lying glory and a deceitfull lustre and puts a violent strong inticing power into wordly vanities that they may continually feed his greedy appetite with fresh succession and an endlesse variety of sensuall sweetnesses Satan himselfe is infinite in malice against the majesty of GOD. Hee drinkes up sinne and devoures iniquity with as insatiable greedinesse as Behemoth the river Iordan Of all those huge mountaines the numberlesse number and purple seas of sinnes and transgressions which have at any time any where by any creature been committed since himself first fell from heaven unto this hou●…e or shall be from thence untill the day of doome or from thence everlastingly in hell by bannings cursings and despaires amongst those damned fiends I say of all these sinnes Satan is guilty one way or other and if he might have his will he hath malice enough to make an infinite addition both in number and hainousnesse Where one sinne is committed he wisheth there were ten thousand Hee would have every sinfull thought be a sin of Sodomy every idle word a desperate blasphemy every angry looke a bloody murther every frailty a crying sinne every default a damnable rebellion Now as Satan himselfe is thus infinite and insatiable in the waies of darknesse so doth hee inspire every limbe of his with a spice of this sinfull greedinesse and restlesse pursuit of their owne wicked waies To give an instance of trembling and terrour in this kind and of Satans mercilesse malice that way I knew a man which in his life time was given to that fearefull blasphemous sinne of swearing who comming to his death-bed Satan so fild his heart with a madded and enraged greedinesse after that most gainelesse and pleasurelesse sinne that though himselfe swore as fast and furiously as he could yet as though hee had beene already amongst the bannings and blasphemies of hell he desperatly desir'd the standers-by to helpe him with oathes and to sweare for him Incredible rage prodigious fury Now if Satan be able to beget such insatiablenesse after sin wherein there is no profit or delight at all how fiercely fearefully will he enrage carnall men in the pursuit of gainfull pleasure full and advancing sinnes You see then how the insatiablenesse of corrupt affection springs out of the fountaine of originall naughtinesse from the just curse of GOD and malice of Satan It is cleare and evident by ordinary experience and observation in the world with what insatisfiable desire and greedinesse corrupt affection doth feed upō that sensuall object and earthly pleasure upon which with speciall apprehension and delightfull taste it seazes and sets it selfe 1. If it fall in love with honour and high roomes it begets ambition which is an unsatiable thirst after glory and a gluttonous excessive desire after greatnesse Of all other vicious passions which doe possesse the heart of man it is the most powerfull and unconquerable As it is superlative and transcendent in it object and aspirations and seated in the highest and haughtiest spirits so is it resolute and desperate in it undertakings furious and head-strong in it pursuits and persecutions It is ventrous to remove any let and hardned for all meanes many times without remorse or teares it takes out of the way by some cruell contriuance their dearest friends and tramples the neerest blood as we see ordinarily in the Turkish Emperours to get up into an high place and grasp an Imperiall Crowne It is victorious over all other affections and maisters even the sensuality of lustfull pleasures as we may see in many great men of the Heathens Alexander Scipio Pompey and many others who being tempted with the exquisitenes and varieties of choisest beauties yet forbare that villanie not for conscience sake or for feare of GOD whome they knew not but least thereby they should stop the current of their uictorious atchieuements and obscure the glory of their remarkable valour It preferres a high roome in the world before a temporall life yea and eternall life too How many great mens hearts have burst at the displeased and frouning countenance of a King how many either by desperate practices or their own violent hands have brought themselves to untimely ends because they were impatient of the lower places they had formerly enjoyed Achitophel when hee was like to loose the reputation and ranke of a Privy Councellour sadled his Asse went home put his house in order and hanged himselfe How many daily runne great hazards to domineere for a while in their undeserved dignities And prepare against the day of wrath by an unconscionable purchasing of highest roomes amongst the sonnes of men Lastly it is uncapable of society and sharpned by the enjoyment of that it desireth Give roome to Caesar and hee le ambitiously pursue the Soveraignty of the whole world Let Alexander conquer the whole world hee le aske for moe let those be subdued he would climbe towards the starres if he could aspire thither he would peep beyond the heavens For the proud and ambitious man enlargeth his desire like hell and is as death and cannot be satisfied c. Hab. 2. 5. Who can fill the bottomlesse gulfe of hell or stop the insatiable jawes of death neither can the greedy humour of a haughty spirit be satisfied Let a consideration of that crowne of endlesse joy and glory which the Christian hath