Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	devil_n	tempt_v	temptation_n	4,731	5	9.2474	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12191	The riches of mercie In two treatises: 1 Lydia's conversion. 2. A rescue from death. By the late learned, and reverend divine, Richard Sibbs, Doctor in Divinitie. Published by the authors own appointment, and subscribed with his owne hand to prevent imperfect copies.	Sibbes, Richard, 1577-1635.	1638 (1638)	STC 22501; ESTC S100975	53,245	274

was at the Baptisme of Christ so euery infant that is baptized is the Child of Christ. And it is a speciall thing that we should meditate of We slight our baptisme and thinke it needlesse you see the holy woman here would bee baptized presently shee would haue the seale of the covenant There are many that are not booke-learned that cannot read at least they haue no leasure to read I would they would read their booke in their Baptisme and if they would consider what it ministers to them upon all ocasions they would be farre better Christians then they are Thinke of thy Baptisme when thou goest to God especially when hee seemes angrie it is the seale of the covenant bring the promise Lord it is the seale of thy Covenant thou hast prevented mee by thy grace thou brough test mee into the Covenant before I knew my right hand from my left So when we goe to Church to offer our seruice to God thinke by baptisme wee were consecrated and dedicated to God we not only receiue grace from God but we giue our selues to God Therefore it is sacriledge for persons baptized to yeeld to temptations to sinne we are dedicated to God in baptisme When we are tempted to despaire let us thinke of our baptisme wee are in the Covenant of Grace and haue receiued the seale of the Covenant baptisme The divell is an vncircumcised damned cursed spirit hee is out of the Covenant but I am in the Covenant Christ is mine the holy Ghost is mine and God is mine therefore let us stand against all the temptations of that vncircumcised vnbaptized damned spirit The thinking of our baptisme thus will help us to resist the Devill he is a coward if hee bee resisted he will flee and what will better resist him then the Covenant of grace and the seale of it When we are tempted to sinne let us thinke what haue I to doe with sinne by baptisme I haue union with the death of Christ he died to take away sin and my end must be his I must abolish sin in my nature Shall I yeild to that that in baptisme I haue sworne against And then if we bee tempted to despaire for sin let us call to mind the promises of grace and forgiuenesse of sins and the seale of forgiuenesse of sinnes which is baptisme For as water in baptisme washeth the body so the blood of Christ washeth the soule Let us make that use of our baptisme in temptations not to despaire for sin And in conversing among men let us labor to maintaine the vnitie of the spirit in the bond of peace to live peaceably Christians must not fall to jarre why There is one faith and one Baptisme have wee not all one father one inheritance one baptisme one Religion and shall wee breake one with another for trifles they forget their Baptisme that are so in quarrells Thus if wee would thinke of it it is such a booke as would be readie at hand for all services And then for our children those that God hath committed to us let us make use of baptisme do they die in their infancie make this use of it I have assured hope that my child is gone to God he was borne in the Covenant and had the seale of the Covenant baptisme why should I doubt of the salvation of my child If they live to yeares of discretion then be of good comfort he is Gods Child more then mine I have dedicate him to God and to Christ he was baptized in the name of Christ Christ will care for him as well as for me If I leave my Children behind me they are Gods and Christs children they have received the seale of the Covenant baptisme Christ will provide for them and he that provides heaven for them will provide all things in the way to heaven necessarie God hath said I will be the God of thee and of thy children they are in Covenant thine they were Lord. A man may commit his Children to God on his death-bed thou gavest them me and I commit them to thee againe as before I did by baptisme All this wee have by thinking of our baptisme If we looke no further as prophane spirits doe not then the water and the elements we can have no comfort by these things but wee should consider Gods blessed institution and ordinance to strengthen our faith And to our children when they come to yeares baptisme is an obligation to beleeve because they have received the seale before hand and it is a meanes to beleeve Shee was Baptized And her houshold SO good is God where the governour of the familie is good he gives all the familie good because he makes conscience in governing and instructing them God crownes their indeavours with successe that they shall be all good As we see Abraham and his houshold the Gaoler and his houshold Zacheus and his houshold Oh! it is a a blessed thing to be a good governour in a familie he brings a blessing upon his house the Church of God is in his house There cannot be a more honorable title to any house then to say it is the Church of God that the Governour of the familie brings all in subjection to God that as he will have all serve him so he will have all serve God that he will not have a servant but he shall be the servant of God nor a child but he shall be the child of God and he labours to make his wife the Spouse of Christ. Thus it should be said of every Christian familie and then they are Churches Alas in many places now they are hells because there is little regard had of instructing of them Beloved many poore soules have had occasion to blesse God forever that they haue bin grafted into such good families And put case sometimes thou hast instructed them and taken paines and there is no good done When thou art dead twenty yeares after it may come to their minds all those instructions when they are in worse families Oh! in such a place with such a Master I had such instructions but I had no grace to take good by them but now I call them to mind so the seed that was sowen long before may take effect then This should incourage those that are Governours of families to be good Lydia was baptized and her houshold And she besought them saying if you have judged me faithfull to the Lord come to my house and abide there HEre is the fruit of Lydia's conversion when shee was converted and baptized shee intreated the Apostles to come to her house and abide there and she prevailed shee constrained them by a morrall kind of violence they suffered themselves to be overcome If you have judged mee faithfull c. Come to my house and abide there Here is her invitation and the argument that she forceth it by If you have judged me faithfull to Christ then come to my house To speake a

hath discharged that he comes to parents and masters and children and servants and such particular duties because the spring of our duty to man is our duty to God and the first justice is the justice of religion to God when we are not just to giue God his due thereupon come all breaches in our civill conversation and commerce with men for want of the feare of God men doe this as Ioseph sayd how shall I doe this and offend God and Abraham he had a conceit they would abuse his wife Surely the feare of God is not here therefore he thought they would not bee afraid to doe any thing he that feares not God if opportunitie serue he will not be afraid to violate the second table hee that feares God hee will reason how shall I doe this to wrong another in his name and reputation or in his estate sin against God for I cannot sinne against man but I must first sin against God that is the reason he sets it downe thus transgressions and iniquities See an vnhappy succession of sinne that where there is transgression there will be iniquitie when a man yeelds to lust once presently he breaks upon Gods due and then upon mans one sin drawes on another as wee see David giving way to one sin it brought another so the giving way to transgression neglecting the word of God and duties of religion presently another followes neglect of dutie to men Take heed of the beginnings of sinne there are degrees in Sathans schoole from ill to worse till we come to worst of all and there is no staying it is like the descent down a steepe hill let us stop in the beginning by any meanes as we would avoid iniquitie let us take heed of transgression Are afflicted HEE meanes especially that affliction of sicknesse as appeares by the words following Sin is the cause of all sicknesse Fooles for their transgressions and iniquities are afflicted for Gods quarrell is especially against the soule and to the body because of the soule I will not dwell on this point having spoken of it at large on another text The Use that I will make of it now shall bee First of all If sinne be the cause of all sicknesse Let us justifie God and condemne our selues complaine of our selues and not of God Wherfore doth the living man complaine and murmure and fret Man suffereth for his sinne Iustifie God and judge our selues I wil beare the wrath the Lord because I have sinned against him judge our selues and we shall not bee judged Then againe is sin the cause of sicknes it should teach us patience I held my tongue because thou Lord diddest it Shall not a man be patient in that he hath procured by his owne evill and sin And search our selues for usually it is for some particular sin which conscience will tell a man of and sometimes the kind of the punishment will tell a man for sins of the body God punisheth in the body he payes men home in their owne coyne what measure a man measureth to others shall bee measured to him againe If a man have beene cruell to others God will stirre vp those that shall be so to him therefore we should labour to part with our particular transgressions and iniquities It is a generall truth for all ills whatsoeuer as well as this of sicknesse Therefore we should first of all goe to God by confession of sinne It is a preposterous course that the athesticall carelesse world takes where the Physitian ends there the divine begins when they know not what to doe If diseases come from sinne then make vse of the divine first to certifie the conscience and to acquaint a man with his owne mercy First to search them and let them see the guilt of their sins and then to speake comfort to them and to set accounts straite betweene God them as in Ps. 32. an excellent place David roared his moysture was turned into the drought of summer what course doth hee take he doth not run to the Physitian presently but goes to God Then sayd I it was an inward resolution and speech of the mind then I concluded with my selfe I will confesse my sinne to God and thou for gavest my iniquities and sinne so body and soule were healed at once Divinity herein transcends all other Arts not onely corrupt nature and corrupt courses but all other For the Phisitian hee looks to the cause of the sicknesse out of a man or in a man out of a man and then especially in contagious sicknesse hee looks to the influence of the heavens in such a yeare such conjunctions and such eclipses haue beene he lookes to the infection of the Ayre to subordinate causes to contagious company and to diet c. And then in a man to the distemper of the humours and of the spirits when the instrument of nature is out of tune it is the cause of sicknesse But the divine and every Christian that should be a divine in this respect goes higher and sees all the discord betweene God and vs there is not that sweet harmony there and so all the jarres in second causes come from God as the cause inflicting from sin as the cause demeriting The Divine considers those two alway The Phisitian lookes to the inward distemper and the outward contagion and this is well and may be done without sin but men must ioyne this too to looke into conscience and looke vp to God together with looking for helpe to the Physitian because we haue especially to deale with God I would this were considered that wee might carry our selues more Christian-like vnder any affliction whatsoever what is the reason that people murmure struggle and striue as a bull in a net as the Prophet speakes when God hampers them in some judgement They looke to the second causes and neuer looke to cleare the conscience of sinne nor never looke to God when indeed the ground of all is God offended by sinne Fooles for their transgressions are afflicted We by our sins put a rod into Gods hand A rod for the fooles backe as Salomon saith and when wee will be fooles wee must needs indure the scourge and rod in one kind or other those that will sin must looke for a rod it is the best reward of wicked and vaine fooles that make a jest of sinne as the wiseman saith They cast firebrands and say am I not in jest That raile and scorne at good things that sweare and carrie themselues in a loose ridiculous scandalous fashion as if God did not eye their carriage and yet am I not injest Well it is no jesting matter sinne is like a secret poyson perhaps it doth not worke presently as there are some kind of subtile poysons made in these dayes wherein the Devill hath whetted mens wits that will worke perhaps a yeare after so sinne if

he lets it goe on till the Physicke have wrought well carried away the malignant matter that he may be the better for it and that hee is a loving and tender Physitian yet so God when we are in trouble it is as Physick we cry but God he turnes the glasse as the Physitians doe nay this time shall be expired it shall work so long till thy pride be taken away thou shalt be humbled throughly till thou be weaned from thy former wicked pleasures till thou be prepared to receiue further blessings therefore they crie and crie and God deferres to heare the voyce of his children in the meane time he loues to heare the cry of his children and their prayer is as sweet incense yet he deferres stil but all is for the patients good be not weary of waiting it is a great mercy that Hee makes thee able to continue crying that thou hast the spirit of Prayer that thou canst poure out thy soule to God it is a great mercy and so account of it Perhaps thou hast not cast out thy Ionas thy Achan that there is some particular sinne vnrepented of and thou cryest and cryest but thy sinne cries louder thy pride or thy oppression cries thy wicked course cries thou cryest unto God and there is another thing cries in thee that cries vengeance as thou doest for mercie therefore search out thy Achan cast out thy beloued sinne see if thou regard iniquity in thy heart if thou regard any pleasing or profitable or gainfull sin and never thinke that God will heare thee till that bee out for it will out-cry thy prayers The next thing is the manner of Gods cure Hee sent his word and healed them WHAT word His secret commaund his will Let such a thing be as in the creation Let there bee light c. Besides his word written there is his word creating and preserving things created and so here restoring them that were sicke Hee sent his word and healed them and so at the resurrection his Word his voyce shall raise our bodies againe It is a strange manner of cure for GOD to cure by his word by his commaund It shewes that GOD hath an universall commaund of all things in the world in heaven and earth over divells and over sicknesses as it is said in the Gospell Hee rebuked the sicknesses Hee can rebuke the agues the plague and the pestilence and they shall bee gone by his word as the Centurion sayd I am a man that have servants under mee and I say to one come and hee commeth and to another goe and he goeth so thou hast all things under thee thou art GOD and if Thou say to a disease Come it commeth if Thou say goe it goeth GOD sent his word of command and healed them It is but a word of God to heale but a word of God to strike Hee is the Lord of Hostes If Hee doe but hisse as the Prophet saith for the flie of Egypt If Hee doe but call for an Enemie they come at his word as wee see in Pharaohs plagues the Flies and Frogs all things obey his word There is a s●cret obedience in all things to God when his will is that they shall doe this or that why doth the Sea keepe his bounds when as the nature and position of the Sea is to bee above the earth It is the command of GOD that hath sayd Let it bee there and hither shall thy proud waues goe and no further I might give many instances how GOD doth all by his word The Divells are at his word the whales the Sea when Christ rebukes it obeyes It should teach us not to displease this GOD that can strike us in the middest of our sinnes even with a word Let us feare this GOD put case we had no enemie in the world God can arme a mans humours against him he can raise the spirit and soule against it selfe and make it fight against it selfe by desperate thoughts hee needed not forreine forces for Achitophel and Saul he could arme their owne soules against themselves And when hee will take downe the greatest Gyant in the world he needs not forreine forces it is but working of a disease but giving way to a humour but inflaming the spirits and the soule shall abhorre all manner of meat Againe he gives a command a rebuke and they are gone presently therefore let us not offend this great God that is commander of heaven and earth let us labour to please him and it is no matter who else wee displease for hee hath all things at his command even the hearts of kings as the rivers of water when Esau sought for Iacob to hurt him there was a secret command God set upon him to love him therefore we should feare him and all other things shall feare us we need feare nothing so we have a care to feare God further then in God and for God but not so to feare them as to doe evill for them and offend the great God that can with a word command sicknesse to come or bid it be gone Againe in that God when all second causes faile can heale by his word therefore let us never bee discouraged from praying though wee see a hurly-burly and tumult in the Church though we see all Europe in combustion and the Church driven into a narrow corner let us not give over prayer for Christ that with a word commanded the waves to bee still and the divels to be gone and they presently obeyed him he can still the waves of the Church hee can pt a hooke into the nostrils of his enemies and draw them which way hee please he can still all with his word therefore howsoever things seeme to run contrary and opposite to our desires yet let us not give over hee that sees no ground of hope in carnall fleshly reason let him despaire of nothing despaire shuts the gate and doore of mercy and hope as it were you see here when all meanes faile when they were at the very gates and entrie of death God fetcheth them backe againe how with physick no hee is not tyed to physicke there is difference betweene God and betweene nature and art nature and art can doe nothing without meanes but the God of nature and art can doe it with his word How made hee this heaven and earth this glorious fabrick with his word Let there be light and there was light c. And how shall hee restore all againe with his mightie commanding word how doth hee preserve things by his word how are things multiplyed by his word increase and multiplie a word of blessing he doth all things with his word So hee can confound his enemies with a word Nay Christ in his greatest abasement when they came with ●taves and armes to take him Whom seeke ye Saith hee that word struck downe all the Officers of the Scribes and Pharisees they fell flat on the ground