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
A90288	A sermon preached to the Honourable House of Commons, in Parliament assembled: on January 31. A day of solemne humiliation. With a discourse about toleration, and the duty of the civill magistrate about religion, thereunto annexed. Humbly presented to them, and all peace-loving men of this nation. / By John Owen, pastor of the Church of Christ, which is at Coggeshall in Essex.	Owen, John, 1616-1683.	1649 (1649)	Wing O805; Thomason E540_25; Thomason E549_1; ESTC R203104	74,810	103

just and righteous for so must all acts of supreame and absolute dominion be 2. That he can be Author of nothing but what hath existence and being in it selfe for he workes as the Fountaine of Beings This sin hath not So that though every action whether good or bad receives its specification from the working of Providence and to that is their existence in their severall kinds to be Ascribed yet an evill action in the evilnesse of it depends not upon Divine concourse and influence for good and evill make not sundry kinds of Actions but only a distinction of a Subject in respect of its Adjuncts and Accidents But now the Principle of operation in man is Nature vitiated and corrupted I say Nature not that he worketh naturally being a free Agent but that these faculties will and understanding which are the principles of Operation are in nature corrupted and from thence can nothing flow but evill An evill tree bringeth forth evill fruit Men doe not gather Figs from Thistles A bitter fountaine sends not forth sweet Waters Who can bring a cleane thing out of an uncleane If the fountaine be poisoned can the streames be wholesome What can you expect of light and truth from a minde possest with vanity and darknesse What from a will averted from the chiefest good and fixt upon present appearances What from an heart the figment of whose imagination is onely evill 2. Consider the difference in the Rule of operation Every thing that workes hath a Rule worke by this is called a Law In that thing which to man is sinfull God worketh as it is a thing onely Man as it is a sinfull thing And how so Why every ones sin is his Aberration from his Rule of operation or working {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is aberrare a scopo To sin is not to collime aright at the end proposed {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is a most exact definition of it Irregularity is its forme if it may be said to have a Forme a Privations forme is deformity Looke then in any Action wherein an Agent exorbitates from its Rule that is sin Now what is Gods rule in operation His owne infinite wise will alone he takes neither Motive rise nor occasion for any internall acts from any thing without himselfe hee doth what ever hee pleaseth Psal. 115. 3. He worketh all things according to the counsell of his owne will Ephes. 1. 11. That is his owne Law of operation and the Rule of righteousnesse unto others working then agreeably to his owne will which he alwayes must doe he is free from the obliquity of any action What now is the Rule of the Sonnes of men Why the revealed will of God Revealed things belong to us that we may doe them Deut. 29. 29. Gods revealed will is the rule of our walking our working what ever suits not answers not this is Evill Sinne is the transgression of the Law 1 John 3. 4. Here then comes in the deformity the obliquity the at axy of any thing God workes and man worketh those Agents have severall rules God workes according to his rule hence the action is good as an Action Man deviates from his rule hence it is sinfull in respect of its qualifications and Adjuncts Man writes faire letters upon a wet paper and they run all into one blot not the skill of the Scribe but the defect in the Paper is the cause of the deformity he that makes a lame Horse goe is the cause of his going but the defect in his joynts is the cause of his going lame The Sunne exhales a steame from the Dunghill the Sunne is the cause of the exhalation but the Dunghill of the unwholesome savour The first cause is the proper cause of a things being but the second of its being Evill 3. Consider the severall operations and actings of God and Man for instance in a rebellious peoples fighting against their Helpers under him Now the Acts of God herein may be referred to six heads 1. A continuance of the creatures being and life Vpholding him by the word of his power Heb. 1. 3. When he might take him off in a moment Enduring them with much long suffering Rom. 9. 22. When he might cut him off as he did she opposers of Elijah with fire from heaven 2 Kings 1. 12. 2. A continuance of power of operation to them when he could make their hands to wither like Jeroboams when they goe about to strike 1 Kings 13. 4. Or their hearts to dye within them like Nabals when they intend to be Churlish 1 Sam. 25. 37. but he raiseth them up or makes them to stand that they may oppose Rom. 9. 11. 3. Laying before them a suitable object for the drawing forth their corruption unto opposition giving them such Helpers as shall in many things crosse their lusts exasperate them thereunto as Elijab a man of fiery zeale for a lukewarme Ahab 4. Withholding from them that effectuall grace by which alone that sin might be avoided a not actually keeping them from that sin by the might of his spirit and grace that alone is effectuall grace which is actuall he suffers them to walke in their owne wayes And this the Lord may doe First in respect of them Judicially they deserve to be forsaken Ahab is left to fill up the measure of his iniquities add iniquity to iniquity Psal. 69. 27. Secondly In respect of himselfe by way of Soveraignety doing what he will with his owne hardening whom hee will Rom. 9. 15. 5. He positively sends upon their understandings that which the Scripture sets out under the termes of blindnesse darkenesse folly delusion slumber a spirit of giddinesse and the like the places are too many to rehearse What secret actings in and upon the minds of men what disturbing of their advises what mingling of corrupt affections with false carnall reasonings what givings up to the power of darknesse in Satan the Prince thereof this judiciall act doth containe I cannot insist upon Let it suffice God will not helpe them to discern yea he will cause that they shall not discerne but hide from their eyes the things that concerne their peace and so give them up to contend with their onely Helpers 6. Suitably upon the will and affections he hath severall acts obfirming the one in corruption and giving up the other to vilenesse Rom. 1. 24 26. Untill the heart become throughly hardened and the conscience seared Not forcing the one but leaving it to follow the Judgement of practicall reason which being a blind yea a blinded guide whither can it lead a blind Follower but into the ditch Not defiling the other with infused sensuality but provoking them to act according to inbred native corruption and by suffering frequent vile actings to confirme them in wayes of vilenesse Take an instance of the whole God gives Helpers and Deliverers to a sinfull people because of their provocations some or all of them

from hence name and pursue other Observations but I shall only name one and proceed When false worship with injustice by cruelty have possessed the Governours of a Nation and wrapt in the consent of the greatest part of the people who have been acquainted with the mind of God that People and Nation without unpresidented mercy is obnoxious to remedilesse ruine Those two are the Bell and Dragon that what by their actings what by their deservings have swallowed that Ocean of blood which hath flowed from the veines of millions of millions slaine upon the face of the earth Give mee the number of the witnesses of Jesus whose soules under the Altar cry for revenge against their false worshipping murtherers and the Tale of them whose lives have been sacrificed to the insatiable Ambition and Tyranny of blood-thirsty Potentates with the issues of Gods just vengeance on the sons of men for complyance in these two things and you will have gathered in the whole Harvest of blood leaving but a few stragling gleanings upon other occasions And if these things have been sound in England and the present administration with sincere humiliation doe not runne crosse to vnravell this close woven webb of destruction all thoughts of recovery will quickly be too late And thus far sinne and providence drive on a parallel 3. The inevitablenesse of the desolation threatned and the inexorablenesse of God in the execution of it v. 1. is the third thing considerable Though Moses and Samuel stood before mee yet my minde could not be toward this people Should I insist upon this it would draw me out unto Scripture evidences of a Nations travelling in sinne beyond the line of Gods patience and so not to be exempted from ruine but instead thereof I shall make it a part of my daily supplications that they may be to our enemies if Gods enemies and the interpretation of them to those that hate us In briefe the words containe an impossible supposition and yet a Negation of the thing for whose sake it is supposed Moses and Samuel were men who in the dayes of their flesh offered up strong supplications and averted many imminent judgements from a sinfull people As if the Lord should say All that I can doe in such a case as this I would grant at the intercession of Moses and Samuel or others interceding in their spirit and zeale but now the state of things is come to that passe the time of Treaty being expired the black flagge hung out and the decrree having brought forth Zeph. 2. 2. that upon their utmost intreaty it cannot it shall not be reversed There is a time when sin growes ripe for ruine For three transgressions and for foure the Lord will not turne away the iniquity of a people Amos 1. 9. When the sinne of the Amorites hath filled the cup of vengeance they must drinke it Gen. 15. 16. England under severall Administrations of civill Government hath fallen twice yea thrice into Nation-destroying sinnes Providence hath once more given it another bottome If you should stumble which the Lord avere at the same blocke of impiety and cruelty there is not another sifting to be made to reserve any graines from the ground I doubt not but our three transgressions and foure will end in totall desolation the Lord be your guide poor England lyeth at stake The greatest difficulty that lyeth in bringing of totall destruction upon a sinfull people is in the interposition of Moses and Samuel If Moses would but have stood out of the gap and let the Almighty goe he had broken in upon the whole Host of Israel Exo. 32. 9 10. And let it by the way be observed of the spirit of Samuel that when the people of God were most exorbitant he cryeth as for me God forbid that I should sinne against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you 1 Sam. 12. 23. Scarce answered by those who if their interest be no served or at best their reason satisfied will scarce yield a prayer for yea powre out curses against their choisest Deliverers The Lord lay it not to their charge For us seeing that praying Deliverers are more prevalent then fighting Deliverers it is though Moses and Samuel not Gideon and Sampson stood before me as some decay let us gather strength in the Lord that bee may have never the more rest for their giving over untill hee establish mount Zyon a praise in the earth 4. Come we now to the fourth thing in this Chapter the Prophets state and condition with the frame and deportment of his heart and spirit under these dispensations and here we find him expressing two things of himselfe 1. What he found from others v. 10. 2. What hee wrestled withall in his owne spirit v. 15 16 17 18. 1. What he found from others he telleth you it was cursing and reproach c. I have neither lent on usury nor have men lent to me on usury yet every one of them doth curse me v. 10. Now this returne may be considered two wayes 1. In it selfe Every one saith he of this people curse me 2. In reference to his deportment I have neither borrowed nor lent on usury yet they curse me From the First Observe Instruments of Gods greatest workes and glory are often times the chiefest objects of a professing peoples curses and revenges The returne which Gods Labourers meet withall in this Generation is in the number of those things whereof there is none new under the Sun Men that under God deliver a Kingdom may have the Kingdoms curses for their paines When Moses had brought the people of Israel out of Bondage by that wonderfull and unparallel'd deliverance being forced to appeare with the Lord for the destruction of Corah and his Associates who would have seduced the Congregation to its utter ruine he receives at length this reward of all his travell labour and paines All the Congregation gathered themselves against him and Aaron laying murther and sedition to their charge telling them they had killed the people of the Lord Numb. 16. 41 42. A goodly reward for all their travels If Gods workes doe not suite with the lusts prejudices and interests of men they will labour to give his instruments the Devills wayes Let not upright hearts sink because they meet with thanklesse men Bona agere mala pati Christianorum est A man may have the blessing of God and the curse of a professing people at the same time Behold I and the Children wbom God hath given me are for signes and for wonders in Israel Isa. 8. 15. Cum ab hominibus damnamur à Deo absolvimur Mans condemnation and Gods absolution doe not seldome meet upon the same persons for the same things If you labour to doe the worke of the Lord pray think it not strange if among men curses be your reward and detestation your wages 2. In reference to the Prophets deportment he had neither lent