Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	distinction_n	mortal_a	venial_a	4,934	5	12.1153	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49398	Practical Christianity, or, An account of the holinesse which the Gospel enjoyns with the motives to it and the remedies it proposes against temptations, with a prayer concluding each distinct head.	Lucas, Richard, 1648-1715.	1677 (1677)	Wing L3408; ESTC R26162	116,693	322

he that will eject a receiv'd truth out of its possession must do it by a greater force and clearness of Arguments than those are which establish●d it and being firmly perswaded of this that Jesus is the Son of God c. it will be hard for any temptation to get much ground upon your minds and therefore it were well and wisely done every morning to repeat our Creed soberly musingly and thoughtfully and confirm our selves in the belief of it Sect. 2. Late Repentance But why should I resolve to amend after this sin rather than before it Are my Accounts too little that I would add this to the score before I state them Or hath my God and Saviour deserv'd so little of me that I think a short life too much to be spent in his service though he should give me a Heaven or am I sure that I shall have a keener appetite to Holiness after I have tasted the lusciousness of sin or will sin be the more easily put off the more habitual it is grown or do I hope to find God the more merciful the more I provoke him or if the sin be now too sweet too taking to be rejected which is in truth the reason how do I know it will not be so always or if my body decay how shall I know when it is weakness or repentance whether a change in my temper or my mind or how do I know that some other sin will not grow up in its stead not only Youth but every quarter of our life hath some baits or other ripe and in season and how know I what limits the Almighty hath prefixt to his patience he cuts off some sooner than some and the measure of one mans iniquities is finished before anothers or how know I that God will allow me more strength who make so ill an use of this O let us remember our selves and sin no more we are blind and do not see our danger the hazard we run of hardning our hearts and forfeiting Gods Grace and provoking his wrath and being cut off in a moment when we think not of it Sect. 3. It is a little sin he is a very ill Casuist who deliberating upon a temptation forms that foolish distinction of Mortal and Venial sins for he proceeds upon a supposition which is wholly false i. e. that there are some sins which do not interrupt the love of God God cannot approve of sin in the least degree however but if as some think this Veniality or pardonableness is not founded in the nature of the sins themselves but in the good will and kindness of God it will behove him who will act securely to prove that God hath any where declar'd that he will not be displeas'd with him for those sins which he hath nevertheless forbidden upon pain of eternal wrath or if this be nonsense let him prove that God will not be angry with him for that very sin he is about to commit In few words the true use of distinguishing sins by the several degrees of mortality or pardonableness is not to direct men how to sin safely or how to chuse what sins they may commit but to direct the man who hath committed them concerning the nature and degrees of his repentance for in plain terms no sin can be justly call'd little which we deliberate and consult about sin receiving its aggravation not so much from the matter of the sin it self as from the strength of our passion and the Excellency of that God whose Law it is a violation of for though the instance of the sin may be a little one yet if we sin as far as we think we safely may it is a foul argument of the baseness of our temper and the imperfection of our love like Judas we betray our Saviour for a contemptible Piece a smile a word prevails more than the love and bounty of my Creator and do we not then deserve to perish if we will be so foolish to chuse thus why may not God be so just as to punish us 2. That sin is generally most fatal which looks most Innocent for the Devil is never more apt to insinuate himself than when transform'd he appears in a shape of Innocence Let but a man allow himself the utmost liberty he thinks lawful and he shall be soon betraid into what 's unlawful and he that shall indulge himself in any little vanity shall be shrewdly tempted into greater besides the strange danger of growing sensual and undiscerning and besides that the least sin even in the sense of those who most favour the distinction grows mortal by frequent Commission Therefore in opposition to this temptation we are taught 1. To grow in Grace and to go on to Perfection as being a state of the greatest security and this requires the most careful and circumspect walking the most intire denial of our own wills and affections all which is inconsistent with the admission of the most Venial sin for how can it consist with an ardent love of God to chuse to displease him a little what ever a little trifling injury may seem to an unconcern'd Spectator yet if it pass between two who mutually love it will seem great to both 2. We are exhorted to shun not only every sin but every appearance of it not to dwell within the Confines or Suburbs of Temptations not to act the least thing which we but doubt may be unlawful and therefore surely nothing that we know is not to dispute nicely what we may without danger do but to do all that is Noble and Praise-worthy 3. When we have done all we are but unprofitable servants and therefore let us who I am confident shall never do all we ought endeavour to do all we can when we have watch'd and when we have pray'd when we have contended and when we have fought when we have done all we can there will be still sins enough to exercise the mercy and goodness of God sins secret which we know not of sins of sudden surreptions imperfections mixt with our holy duties and innumerable evil motions which unless the Blood of Jesus our own Repentance and the mercies of God intervene would unavoidably damn us Sect. 4. When these ways fail he sets upon us by other Engines by our Friends by some or other who have an Ascendant over us and it is not seldom seen that the Friends of our Bosoms are the greatest Enemies of our Souls For the truth is Friendship is the dearest and most pleasant thing in the world whence it often happens that men of the most excellent tempers and the most generous Principles have been often induc'd by Friendship to do or suffer what neither their proper pleasure nor pain could ever have ingag'd them to and in all honest and allowable instances to prefer a Friend before our selves is if not a Duty yet certainly an Heroick and commendable action But here as to our purpose in hand the case is thus