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
A59872	The second part of the preservative against popery shewing how contrary popery is to the true ends of the Christian religion : fitted for the instruction of unlearned Protestants / by William Sherlock ...	Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.	1688 (1688)	Wing S3343; ESTC R35181	73,416	99

Church of Rome indeed has taken great care about the first of these and has found out more ways of expiating 〈…〉 making satisfaction for it than the Gospel ever taught us 〈…〉 ther they are so effectual to this purpose let those look to 〈…〉 trust in them but there is not that care taken to inculc●●● 〈…〉 necessity of internal holiness and purity of mind and one 〈…〉 easily guess there can be no great need of it in that Church 〈…〉 has so many easie ways of expiating sin The true character of Gospel-Doctrines is a Doctrine 〈…〉 ding to Godliness the principal design of which is to 〈…〉 true goodness all the Articles of the Christian Faith 〈…〉 end to lay great and irresistible obligations on us to abs●● every sin and to exercise our selves in every thing that is good as we have ability and opportunity to do it and therefore all Doctrines which secretly undermine a good life and make it unnecessary for men to be truly and sincerely vertuous can be no Gospel-Doctrines That there are such Doctrines in the Church of Rome has been abundantly proved by the late Learned and Reverend Bishop Taylor in his Disswasive from Popery which is so very useful a Book that I had rather direct my Readers to it than transcribe out of it My design leads me to another method for if I can prove that the Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome naturally tend to evacuate the force of the Gospel it self to make men good and holy every one will easily see that that can be no Gospel-Faith and Worship which sets aside the Gospel it self The whole Doctrine of the Gospel either consists of the Rules of Holiness or of the Motives and Instruments of it for the Articles of the Christian Faith are all of them so many Motives to a good life let us then consider how the Faith and Worship of the Church of Rome has made void the Gospel of our Saviour as the Pharisees made void the Law of Moses by their Traditions First Let us begin then with the Gospel-Rules of Holiness It would be an endless thing here to take notice of the loose Determinations of their famed and approved Casuists of their Doctrine of probable Opinions of the direction of the intention by which means the very Laws and Boundaries of Vertue and Vice are in a great measure quite altered and it may be this would only make work for the Representer and furnish out a fourth part of the Papist Misrepresented if we venture to tell the World what has been the avowed Doctrines of their great Divines and Casuists But whether such Definitions be the Doctrine of their Church or not I am sure they are equally mischievous if they be the Doctrines of their Confessors who have the immediate direction of mens Conscience Those who have a mind to be satisfied in this matter may find enough of it in the Provincial Letters the Jesuits Morals and Bishop Taylor 's Disswasive It sufficiently answers my present design to take notice of some few plain things which will admit of no dispute I have already shewn what a great value the Church of Rome sets upon an external Righteousness which is much more meritorious than a real and substantial Piety and Virtue Now let any man judge whether this be not apt to corrupt mens notions of what is good to perswade them that such external observances are much more pleasing to God and therefore certainly much better in themselves than true Gospel-Obedience than Moral and Evangelical Vertues for that which will merit of God the pardon of the greatest immoralities and a great reward that which supplies the want of true Vertue which compensates for sin and makes men great Saints must needs be more pleasing to God than Vertue it self is and if men can believe this all the Laws of Holiness signifie nothing but to let men know when they break them that they may make satisfaction by some meritorious Superstitions Thus the Doctrine of venial sins which are hardly any sins at all to be sure how numerous soever they are or how frequently soever repeated cannot deserve eternal punishments is apt to give men very slight thoughts of very great Evils For very great Evils may come under the notion of venial sins when they are the effects of Passion and Surprize and the like Indeed this very Doctrine of venial sins is so perplexed and undetermined that the Priest and the Penitent may serve themselves of it to good purpose I am sure this distinction is apt to make men careless of what they think little faults which are generally the seeds and dispositions to much greater such as the sudden eruptions of Passion some wanton thoughts an indecorum and undecency in words and actions and what men will please to call little venial sins for there is no certain Rule to know them by so that while this distinction lasts men have an excuse at hand for a great many sins which they need take no care of they are not obliged to aim at those perfections of Vertue which the Gospel requires if they keep clear of mortal sins they are safe and that men may do without any great attainments in Vertue which does not look very like a Gospel-Doctrine which gives us such admirable Laws which requires such great circumspection in our Lives such a command over our Passions such inoffensiveness in our Words and Actions as no Institution in the World ever did before Whatever corrupts mens Notions of Good and Evil as External Superstitions and the distinction between Venial and Mortal Sins is apt to do is a contradiction to the design of the Gospel to give us the plain Rules and Precepts of a perfect Vertue Secondly Let us consider some of the principal Motives of the Gospel to a Holy Life and see whether the Church of Rome does not evacuate them also and destroy their force and power Now 1. The Fundamental Motive of all is the absolute necessity of a Holy Life that without holiness no man shall see God for no other Argument has any necessary force without this But the absolute necessity of a holy life to please God and to go to Heaven is many ways overthrown by the Church of Rome and nothing would more effectually overthrow the Church of Rome than to re-establish this Doctrine of the absolute necessity of a good life For were men once convinced of this that there is no way to get to Heaven but by being truly and sincerely good they would keep their Money in their Pockets and not fling it so lavishly away upon Indulgencies or Masses they would stay at home and not tire themselves with fruitless Pilgrimages and prodigal Offerings at the Shrines of some powerful Saints all external troublesome and costly Superstitions would fall into contempt good men would feel that they need them not and if bad men were convinced that they would do them no good there were an end of

more merciful unto them they have no great reason to glory much in the Goodness of God though they should go to Heaven at last so that our Protestant need not dispute much about Purgatory Let him only ask a Popish Priest How the Doctrine of Purgatory can be reconciled with that stupendious Love of God declared to penitent sinners in his Son Jesus Christ for it is a contradiction to the Notion of Goodness among men to inflict such terrible Punishments in meer Grace and Love even when the sin is pardoned and the sinner reconciled and no longer in a state of Discipline and Tryal Secondly The Doctrine of Purgatory destroys or weakens that Security the Gospel hath given Sinners of their Redemption from the Wrath of God and the just Punishment of their Sins One great Security is the Love of God declared to the World by our Lord Jesus Christ but if the Love of God to penitent Sinners who are Redeemed by the Bloud of Christ be consistent with his tormenting them in Purgatory so many thousand years as you have already heard it will be a very hard thing to distinguish such Love from Wrath and a Sinner who is afraid of so many thousand years punishment can take no great comfort in it but besides this the Doctrine of Purgatory destroys mens hope and considence in the Merits and Intercession of Christ and in the express promises of Pardon and Remission of Sins in his Name 1. It destroys mens hopes in the Merits of Christ and the Atonement and Expiation of his Bloud For if the Bloud of Christ does not deliver us from the punishment of Sin what security is this to a Sinner Yes you 'll say Christ has Redeemed us from Eternal tho' not from Temporal Punishments and therefore penitent Sinners have this security by the Expiation of Christ's Death that they shall not be eternally Damned This I know the Church of Rome teaches but I desire to know How any man can be satisfied from Scripture that Christ by his Death has delivered us from Eternal Punishments if he have not delivered us from Temporal Punishments of Sin in the next World I thankfully acknowledge and it is the only hope I have that the Gospel has given us abundant assurance of the Expiation and Atonement made for Sin by the Bloud of Christ but what I say is this that if these Texts which prove our Redemption by the Death of Christ do not prove that Christ has redeemed us from the whole punishment due to Sin in the next World they prove nothing and then we have not one place of Scripture to prove that Christ by his Death has redeemed us from Eternal Punishments which is enough to make all Christians abhor the Doctrine of Purgatory if it destroy the Doctrine of Salvation by Jesus Christ As to shew this briefly The hope and security of Sinners depends upon such Scripture-expressions as these that Christ has died for our sins that he has made atonement for sin that he is a propitiation through faith in his blood that he has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us that remission and forgiveness of sins is preached in his name that by him we are justified from all those things from which we could not be justified by the Law of Moses that being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ that we are reconciled unto God and saved from wrath by him Now I desire to know Whether all these expressions signifie that for Christ's sake and through the atonement and expiation of his Blood a penitent Sinner shall be delivered from the punishment due to his sins If they do not signifie this how is a Sinner secured that though his sins are pardoned and he is justified and reconciled to God and redeemed from the Curse of the Law and saved from Wrath he shall not after all this be damned for his sins since that is the punishment of sin which it seems is not removed when the sin is pardoned and the Sinner justified and reconciled to God If these expressions do not signifie taking away the punishment of sin I desire one Text of Scripture to prove that a Sinner who is pardoned and justified shall not undergo the eternal punishment of his sins If to be pardoned and justified c. does signifie to be delivered from the punishment of sin I desire to know How a sinner who is pardoned and justified can be punished for his sins that is How a sinner who is released from the Punishment of his sins should be bound to suffer the punishment of his sins in Purgatory Our Roman Adversaries do indeed distinguish between the Temporal and Eternal Punishment of Sin the Eternal Punishment of Sin they say Christ has made satisfaction for and that is removed by his Death that no penitent Sinner shall be eternally damned but a Sinner must make satisfaction for the temporal punishment of Sin himself either in this World or in Purgatory and consequently that forgiveness of Sins signifies the remission of the Eternal Punishment of Sin but not of the Temporal now I shall not put them to prove this distinction from Scripture which is a very unreasonable Task because there is nothing in Scripture about it but yet I would gladly be secured that I shall be saved from Eternal Punishments and therefore I would gladly know how Forgiveness of Sins and our Redemption from the Curse of the Law signifies our deliverance from Eternal Punishments if they do not signifie our deliverance from the Punishment of our Sins And how they can signifie our deliverance from the Punishment of our Sins if notwithstanding this we must suffer the punishment of our sins in Purgatory If they signifie that we shall not be punished for our sins then indeed they may signifie that we shall not be Eternally Punished but they cannot signifie that we shall not be Eternally Punished unless they signifie that we shall not be punished and therefore not in Purgatory neither if that be the Punishment of sin The truth is this is a very senceless distinction between the Temporal and Eternal Punishment of sin for I desire to know Whether the Temporal Punishment be not the Punishment of sin be not the Curse of the Law if it be then forgiveness of sin if it remits the Punishment remits the Temporal Punishment for that is the Punishment of sin then our Redemption from the Curse of the Law redeems us from Purgatory for that is the Curse of the Law too if you add and from Death for that is the Curse of the Law too and yet those who are redeemed and justified die still which shows the fallacy of this Argument for it seems Redemption from the Curse of the Law does not signifie our Redemption from the whole Curse for then a justified Person must not die since bare dying is part of the Curse I answer this had certainly been true