Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	law_n	punishment_n	transgression_n	4,077	5	10.0665	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44540	A sermon preached at the solemnity of the funeral of Mrs. Dorothy St. John, fourth daughter of the late Sir Oliver St. John, Knight and Baronet, of Woodford in Northamptonshire, in the parish church of St. Martins in the Fields, on the 24th of June, 1677 by Anthony Horneck ...	Horneck, Anthony, 1641-1697.	1677 (1677)	Wing H2849; ESTC R7942	28,330	40

it as the Israelites in the Wilderness breaks down the limits of that vanity outdoes Adam that was the occasion of it nay goes beyond the Judg that doom'd that Gold to corruption The Creatures labour under vanity enough because they cannot serve us in that innocence and integrity we once stood in but to abuse them now they are under a state of misery and to force them to serve us in our sins is a bondage which will bear witness against the daring sinner in that day when God shall judg the secrets of mens hearts by the Gospel of Jesus Sinner that wine thou abusest to besot thy understanding suffers violence from thee thou dost ravish it serve thy lusts and it groans as it were under thy oppression and thou makest it vainer than Heaven ever made it God made it serviceable to thy infirmity and intended it as a remedy against the weakness of thy nature but when thou swallowest it to destroy thy nature to throw down the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which must guide thy actions and shed discretion into thy speeches and converse forcest it to make thee a beast and leave nothing in thee but the brutal part indeed scarce to leave thee sense and appetite thou dost offer greater insolence to it than Amnon did to Thamar Surely every man is vanity saith the Psalmist Psal. 39. 11. But he that tempts his neighbour to run with him into excess of riot Makes him worse than vanity the Adulterer and Fornicator that is restless till he hath caressed his Mistress as he calls her to consent to his folly The ill companion that solicits his associates to be lewd and prophane with him such persons make the creature so vain that a devout soul cannot but stand amazed at the enterprize vain indeed for they double and treble its misery and he that entices his friend into sin makes him besides his vanity a creature of the Devil The man before this sin was born to trouble as the sparks fly upward but the sin he is drawn into makes his burden greater increases his load and makes his pound of vanity a talent and as if his weakness and frailty here on earth were too little sinks him into Hell and as if the curse of God of old were too light a punishment makes him obnoxious to Gods everlasting malediction And such men must necessarily be of the first form in the Devils Kingdom for these make Devils help to increase the number of the Fiends and are Familiars that make men sinck with them into endless torments The Covetous who confines his money to his Chest and makes that lie still in his Coffers which like blood should have its circulation and as it is given him from Heaven should return to Heaven again by way of charity and doing good seems to be angry with God for giving that Creature so small a touch of vanity and therefore as if God had not made it frail enough makes himself Gods Officer renders the Dye deeper drowns it in misery and inflicts vanity upon it with a witness and Gods little finger he makes heavier than his loyns for he wants in the midst of plenty and is indigent while he knows not how to consume that which he hath already and this vanity increases if extortion and oppression joyn with it and tempt hm to wade through Orphans tears and Widows blood through the necessities of the Fatherless and through the cries and lamentations of the needy to make his heap much greater and certainly if the Creature is to be purged from its vanity by fire it 's but reason his body should be the fewel who hath loaded the Creature with so much vanity and misery and against Gods will and order too His stripes will be iustly doubled for his sin was so and he deserves to be punished both for his cruelty and disobedience The Scripture excludes such men from the Kingdom of Heaven and good reason for they are so given to vanity that they would attempt to make Gods Joys and Hallelujahs so IV. In the vanity of the Creature let us behold our own and whenever we take a view of the decay of terrestrial glories and see day die into night and Summer into Winter one hour one moment into another and herbs and plants shed their blossoms let us reflect upon our own death and departure hence The Stoicks were in the right when they defined Philosophy or Religion to be a Meditation of death He that is frequently engaged in such meditations embitters his sensual delights crushes his fondness of the world dares not live in those sins which other men allow themselves in and takes the readiest way to overcome himself for how should he be enamoured with earth that looks upon himself as leaving of it and what delight can he take in the laughter of fools or in jovial company that expects every hour to be summon'd to the Bar of Christ how should he set his heart upon his Farm and Oxen that looks every moment to be call'd to give an account of his Stewardship and knows not how soon the Arch Angels Trumpet will sound and the Judg of Quick and Dead awaken the world with his thundring voice Arise ye dead and come to judgment This even the Heathens were so sensible of that the Egyptians as every man knows had a Sceleton or Death's head set on amidst their greatest dainties and at their greatest Feasts to check vain mirth and to put their Guests in mind what they were shortly to come to This made the Patriarchs of old dig their Sepulchers in their Gardens while their glory was yet fresh in them that neither the pleasure of a Garden nor their business might take them off from a continual contemplation of mortality This made others order their Winding sheet to be carried before them others command their Servants to call to them every night they went to bed That their life was spent for their going to sleep they looked upon to be but a kind of going to their Graves And indeed he that thus thinks of death cannot be surprized when it comes for it is but what he look'd for and when it knocks at his Chamber door he can let it in and embrace it as a welcome Messenger with Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation V. In the vanity of the Creature let us take notice of the odiousness of sin and it 's large demeri●s when God for mans sin hath subjected the Creature unto van●●y it shews what an abhorrency he hath from sinful actions and how displeased he is with transgression of his Laws in that he confines not the punishment to Man alone but extends it to the Creatures or to his Servants too To the generality of men sin seems but an inconsiderable thing and they fancy God to be altogether such a one as themselves they will not believe that sin hath that poison in it which

the less to the greater If the whole Creation hopes to be delivered from her bondage and oppression you may with far greater reason both look for a happy deliverance and comfort your selves with the thoughts of it And indeed he will soon be convinced that the Creature was made subject unto vanity that shall observe how much its gloss and beauty decay'd after the fall of Adam how the Earth that before was a stranger to all noxious herbs and plants brought forth Thistles and thorns now how her former fertility was lost in a dismal barrenness and the ground that before required no labour would yield little now but what Men forced and squeezed out of it by the sweat of their brows how the Blessing that enrich'd and adorn'd it before exspir'd into a Curse and Nature which before knew no poison no enmity to Man degenerated now into Hostility and from a friend became a foe how her former lovely face is all disfigured with spots and freckles now and that which was all charm to a rational soul before is now become an object which few wise men indeed none but fools delight in how the Heavens which before dispens'd their kindly influences to Man and seem'd to be proud of the employment soon after became Gods Arsenal from whence he sometimes fetches water to drown as he did the first World sometimes fire to consume as he did Sodom and Gomorra sometimes hailstones to kill as he did the Amorites sometimes winds to overturn as he did Job's houses how the Creatures which were commission'd only to seed and cherish man are now very ordinarily made use of to punish him and they that before served him for the noblest uses in his integrity at the best do now relieve him in his misery how the Creatures which before did reverently observe and bow to him do now as often seize on him as if Nature were inverted and they had got the dominion over him whose primitive right it was to have dominion over every living thing that moves upon the Earth and how many things which before might have made him truly happy serve only now to make him an object of scorn to God and his holy Angels So much of this change II. The manner of the change or rather the cause of it Not willingly but by reason of him that subjected it unto the same Men and the Apostate Angels indeed were made subject to vanity with their own consent and their own wilfulness lost them that glory they once enjoy'd but the other creatures in a manner against their will because it was not for any fault of their own but for Man's sin that God doomed them to their vanity Cursed be the Earth for thy sake saith God to Adam Gen. 3. 17. And that no man may think it strange that the curse of God should light on things innocent and incapable of sinning we must remember that God in punishing the creatures with their vanity punished Man himself for whose use and service chiefly they were created as a Magistrate that confiscates the offenders goods inflicts Justice on the offender and puts him in mind of the error he hath committed and of the injury he hath done to the publick So that he that hath subjected the Creature unto vanity is God by whose just sentence it came to pass that the Creatures all glorious before became sutable to Man's corrupt and miserable condition and were permittied to be stings and thorns in his side and so far from yielding true content and satisfaction that they ordinarily lead to trouble and vexation of spirit I will not here enlarge upon Adam's sin nor shew you what unbelief what pride what contumacy what ingratitude what want of love what Apostacy may be discover'd in it We may be confident God had reason for what he did and that he saw the crimson dye of the transgression which made him issue out this order that upon this Great Princes fall the whole Creation should go into Mourning III. That which in a great measure qualifies and mitigates this Vanity the Creature hath been suffer'd to sink into is this That it is subjected in hope God hath as it were endow'd the Creatures our eyes behold with hopes of their restitution to their pristine beauty usefulness and glory For according to his promise we look for new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth righteousness the old Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the old Earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up 2 Pet. 3. 10. 13. Thus the Creature will one day undergo a kind of Glorification and participate of the splendor which shall encircle all righteous and sanctified souls and as Gold in the fire is refin'd it 's dross purged away and comes out more splendid than it was before So the World that now lies under corruption purified by that future fire will put on a face more pleasant and beautiful than now it hath and let no man scoff at this assertion under a pretence that the Earth at that time will be of no use for good men will be in Heaven and the wicked in Hell and consequently the Earth will have no need of Renovation for can any man be so irrational as to think that there is no use of the Creature but what consists in eating and drinking and sensual pleasure And though I will not say with Tertullian who favours the Millenary opinion that the new Heavens and the new Earth will be in compensationem eorum quae in seculo vel despeximus vel amisimus to make amends for what we have either lost or despis'd in this World yet how are we sure that the glorified Saints shall be so confined to that place we strictly call Heaven as not to descend upon this glorified Earth which for ought we know will be fill'd with God's glory in a manner as much as Heaven and will together with Heaven make one great Theatre of bliss and happiness And who knows but these triumphant Saints as at that time they 'll know things perfectly and see through a glass no more are to read the wisdom and goodness and bounty of the Great Creator in the several Creatures that shall adorn that new World And this is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that restistution of all things foretold of all the Holy Prophets since the World began mention'd Act. 3. 21 That this stately Fabrick of the World is to be at last consumed by fire and whatever we see before us to be lost in an universal Conflagration is not only the import of the Apostles discourse here but hath been the opinion of the most ancient Heathen Philosophers Pythagoras Heraclitus Zeno and of all the Stoicks who therefore talk'd much of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and seem to have receiv'd it by an immemorial tradition from Adam himself who as Josephus tells us Prophesied that the World should once