Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	good_a	law_n	transgression_n	4,529	5	10.4346	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27558	Of the happiness of the saints in heaven a sermon preached before the Queen at Whitehall, October 12, 1690 / by William Beveridge.; Of the happiness of the saints in heaven	Beveridge, William, 1637-1708.	1695 (1695)	Wing B2097; ESTC R14203	15,307	36

himself is holiness or which is all one Holiness is himself his own divine Nature or Essence And that 's the reason why they who partake of his holiness are said to partake of his divine nature And hence it is that when the holy Angels would celebrate the praises of the most high God in the highest manner they can they cry Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole earth is full of his glory And hence also it is that when God designed to make Man after his own image as like him as a creature could be he made him perfectly holy And now that this image is defaced in us if it be restored again to any man so that he becomes a new man he is said to be created after God that is after the likeness of God in righteousness and true holiness So that this is the great perfection wherein we were at first made and ought again to become like to God our Maker who therefore commands us to be holy as he is holy As he who hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation From whence it appears that though we cannot be holy in the same measure as God is who is so without and beyond all measure yet we should be so after the same manner as he is 〈◊〉 rather our holiness should be of the same kind or nature with his and as like it as it is possible for it to be Hence therefore as Holiness when attributed to God denotes the purity and excellency of his divine nature whereby he is exalted above all things else so when attributed to men it signifies the purity and excellency of their nature whereby they are resined and raised up above the rest of mankind This the Apostle teacheth us where he opposeth holiness to uncleanness saying God hath not called us unto uncleanness but unto holiness And David where he calls the Saints that are upon earth the excellent implying that Saints as such excell all other persons by reason of their holiness that is the highest excellency which their nature is capable of Which therefore doth not consist in any particular Acts or Habits either of the soul or body or both together but in the rectitude or due temperament of our nature in general And indeed Holiness properly so called is nothing else but that pure and excellent frame or disposition of the whole man whereby all the faculties of the soul and members of the body are reduced to their primitive constitution and become such as God at first made and would still have them to be exerting themselves in their respective places and offices according to those rules which he hath set them So that to our perfecting Holiness as the Apostle speaks in the fear of God there is required a right and clear understanding a sound judgment a pure heart an obedient will a good conscience and regular affections placed every one upon its proper objects in a due manner And wheresoever the Soul if I may so speak is thus all of a-piece all over such as God would have it to be and so agreeable to his divine will there is true holiness and such a one may be truly said to be holy yea to be holy as God is holy as being pure and excellent according to his finite capacity as God himself is in his infinite perfections Now the true notion of holiness or sanctity being thus briefly stated we may easily understand what kind of persons those be which are here called Saints For in order to a man's being a true Saint He must first have so much knowledge of God and Christ as is necessary to the possessing of his mind with a due sense of his divine Majesty and with right apprehensions of the great mystery of our Salvation by Jesus Christ He must have a sound judgment in all things especially in the fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith and in all the necessary duties required in the Gospel He must have a pure and sincere heart in believing all those Articles as revealed and in performing all such duties as required by God He must have a good conscience a conscience void of all offence both towards God and towards men He must have a pliable and obedient will ready upon all occasions to chuse whatsoever his understanding rightly informed dictates to be good and to refuse whatsoever he apprehends to be evil He must keep his affections all in their proper order fixed constantly upon such objects which they were at first fitted and designed for He must hate abhor and shun all manner of sin upon that account only because it is sin or the transgression of God's law and be heartily troubled that he was ever guilty of it He must love God with all his heart and soul and so above all things in the world besides He must bear no grudg hatred malice or ill-will against any person upon earth but love his neighbour as himself He must hunger and thirst after righteousness and desire nothing so much as to serve and please God and so to have his love and favour whatsoever it costs him He must not fear them which can kill the body but him only who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell He must trust in the Lord with all his heart and support himself under all the circumstances and occurrences of this life with an humble confidence of his goodness and mercy in Jesus Christ He must rejoyce in the Lord always both when he hath and when he hath not any thing else to rejoyce in He must be sober and temperate meek and humble gentle and peaceable faithfull to his word true to his friend loving to his enemy charitable to the poor kind and mercifull and just to all In brief he must be stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord as knowing that his labour is not in vain in the Lord. And that he may be sure of For he who hath attained to such an excellent temper as this is is certainly a real and true Saint and therefore shall as certainly partake of that transcendent happiness which is here called the Inheritance of the Saints in light It is called an Inheritance or as the word signifies also a lot in allusion to that type of Heaven the land of Canaan which was divided among all the Children of Israel by lot and is all along in the Old Testament called their Inheritance And so certainly is Heaven in a proper and literal sense the Inheritance of the Saints For they being all regenerate and born again of God are properly his Children and as the Apostle rightly argues If children then heirs heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ So that all the Saints or Sons of God in whatsoever age or place they were born again from the beginning to the end of the world they are all co-heirs and so have an equal right and

light it self And now we are got upon the Mount how well may we say with the Apostles It is good for us to be here Let us set up our Tents and dwell continually upon the Contemplation of this glorious inheritance of the Saints in light But alas how far as yet are we distant from it how unworthy of it how unmeet for it What a deal of work have we to do before we can get thither But blessed be God we are in the ready way living in such a Church wherein we have all things that can be desired in order to it Let us not then despair but use the utmost of our care and study to qualifie our selves aright sor it and we cannot miss of it For which purpose therefore let us consider in the next place how we may be rightly qualified or as the Apostle here speaks made meet to be part●kers of this inheritance of the Saints in light Where we may observe by the way that the Apostle here supposeth or rather takes it for granted that all men are not meet for it Than which nothing can be more certain None being meet to partake of the inheritance of the Saints but only they who are Saints themselves God himself hath excluded all others from it by his eternal and irrevocable decree that without holiness no man shall see the Lord. And indeed none but Saints are subjects capable of it For all others being still in their natural and sinfull estate their minds are so stuffed with vitious and gross humours that they cannot see the light and so wholly inclined and bent upon sensual objects that they can take no pleasure in the joys of Heaven But rather being altogether unclean and carnal they have an utter aversion if not an antipathy against such pure and spiritual delights as being directly contrary to their corrupt nature Insomuch that Heaven it self would seem more like Hell than Heaven to them The place would seem melancholly the company irksome the work tedious the light troublesome every thing uneasie and disagreeable As suppose it should please Almighty God to take us all up immediately from this place into the highest Heavens and there set us all just at our Saviour's elbow All such who are real Saints among us who love God above all things how glad would they be to see him they love to see their Saviour shining in all his glory How suddenly would they strike up with the Choir of Heaven in singing forth the praises of him that brought them thither What infinite pleasure would they take in the place the work the company and every thing they see there But as for others who are still in their sins and mind only earthly things how sad and disconsolate would they be they would wonder to see the Saints so pleasant and joyfull for as for their parts they can see nothing there which they care for In the midst of light they would be still in darkness In sorrow in the midst of joys They cannot hear that heavenly musick or if they did it would sound harsh all discords to them They cannot tast of those spiritual dainties or if they did they could not relish nor find any sweetness in them They cannot see the face of God or if they did they would not be pleased but terrified and confounded at it and wish with all their souls to be out of that sad place again that they might mind the business and enjoy the pleasures they like better If that be Heaven they never desire to come there any more And all because they want that principle of true grace and holiness which should make them Saints and so capacitate them for the enjoyment of those holy pleasures without which a blind man may as well delight in Pictures the deaf in Musick yea a brute beast in Metaphysicks as they in Heaven or in God himself By this therefore we may see how necessary it is to be holy before we can be happy pure in heart before we can see God real and true Saints before we can partake of their inheritance in light And by consequence as ever we desire to go to Heaven when we dye we must take care while we live to get our Hearts purged from all corrupt affections our Minds enlightened and our Souls sanctified throughout and inclined wholly unto God so as to prefer him at least in some degree before all things else that so we may go out of this world rightly disposed and fitted to behold the light of his countenance and to solace our selves in it as the highest object of our Souls desires And then we may be sure that our desires shall be fully satisfied For our Souls will be no sooner loosned from our Bodies but they will be immediately carried up to Heaven and there partake of the inheritance of the Saints in light And at the last day our bodies shall be united to our souls again and then both in soul and body we shall enjoy all we can desire for evermore But who is sufficient for these things How can we who were born and have lived so long in Sin ever be made so pure and holy as to be meet to live with Saints and Angels with Christ and God himself in the world to come It is I confess no easie matter but howsoever it is possible for every one here present to be so Nay more than that none of us can fail of it unless we be failing to our selves in our endeavours after it As we may easily perceive if we do but consider how others have been and so how we our selves may be sanctified or made Saints if we do but set our selves in good earnest about it For which end we may observe that this being too great a work for us to do by our own strength the eternal Son of God himself was pleased to undertake it for us And for that purpose having taken our nature upon him he gave himself for us as to redeem us from all iniquity so to purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works And so he is made unto us Wisedom as well as Righteousness Sanctification as well as Redemption that as we are justified and redeemed from our sins so we may be made wise and holy through him who is the fountain as of all the good things we do or can enjoy so likewise of all the goodness and vertue we are or can be endued with It all flows from him who therefore tells us that without him we can do nothing But by him there is nothing but we can do As St. Paul found by experience saving I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me Hence therefore if we desire to be made holy we must apply our selves to Christ who although he be now in Heaven as to his Humane Nature yet he is always present with us here below both in his Divine Person and also by his Holy Spirit and so