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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	adam_n	death_n	reign_v	2,100	5	9.6354	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62632	Several discourses viz. Of the great duties of natural religion. Instituted religion not intended to undermine natural. Christianity not destructive; but perfective of the law of Moses. The nature and necessity of regeneration. The danger of all known sin. Knowledge and practice necessary in religion. The sins of men not chargeable on God. By the most reverend Dr. John Tillotson, late lord arch-bishop of Canterbury. Being the fourth volume; published from the originals, by Ralph Barker, D.D. chaplain to his Grace.	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.; Barker, Ralph, 1648-1708.; White, Robert, 1600-1690, engraver.	1697 (1697)	Wing T1261A; ESTC R221745	169,748	495

Fact is committed our Conscience is strangely disquieted at the thoughts of it When a Man does but design to do a bad thing he is guilty to himself as if he had committed it Of this we have a considerable instance in the first violence that was offered to Nature Gen. 4. 6. The Lord said unto Cain why art thou wroth and why is thy countenance fallen The very thought of that Wickedness which he did but then design did disorder his Mind and make a change in his very Countenance Guilt is the natural Concomitant of heinous Crimes which so soon as ever a Man commits his Spirit receives a secret wound which causeth a great deal of smart and anguish For guilt is restless an● puts the Mind of Man into an unnatural working and fermentation never to be settled again but by Repentance The Wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest which plainly shews that the Mind of Man hath a kind of Natural sense of Good and Evil because when ever we offend against Nature our Consciences are touched to the quick and we receive a sting into our Soul which shoots and pains us when ever we reflect upon what we have done I appeal to that witness which every Man carries in his breast whether this be not true 2. Men are naturally full of hopes and fears according as they follow or go against these natural Dictates A good Conscience is apt to fill Men with confidence and good hopes It does not only give ease but security to the Mind of Man against the dread of Invisible Powers and the fearful apprehensions of a future Judgment Whereas guilt fills Men with dismal apprehensions of danger and continual misgivings concerning their own safety Thus it was with Cain after he had slain his Brother It shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall s●ay me Nay when a Man hath done a secret fault which none can accuse him of yet then is he haunted with the terrors of his own Mind and cannot be secure in his own apprehensions which plainly shews that Men are conscious to themselves when they do well and when they do amiss and that the same Natural Instinct which prompts Men to their Duty fills them with good hopes when they have done it and with secret fears and apprehensions of danger when they have done contrary to it Secondly God shews Men what is good by Natural Reason and that two ways By the convenience of things to our Nature and by their tendency to our Happiness and Interest First Reason shews us the convenience of things to our Nature and whatever is agreeable to the Primitive design and intention of Nature that we call good whatever is contrary thereto we call evil For Example to honour and love God It is natural to honour great power and perfection and to love goodness wherever it is So likewise gratitude is natural to acknowledge benefits received and to be ready to requite them and the contrary is monstrous and universally abhorred and there is no greater sign that any thing is contrary to Nature than if it be detested by the whole kind It is agreeable also to Nature to be just and to do to others as we would have them do to us for this is to make our own natural inclinations and desires the rule of our dealing with others and to be merciful for no Man that hath not devested himself of humanity can be cruel and hard-hearted to others without feeling a pain in himself Secondly Reason shews us the Tendency of these Things to our Happiness and Interest And indeed the notion of good and evil does commonly refer to the Consequences of things and we call that good which will bring some Benefit and Advantage to us and that evil which is likely to produce some Mischief and Inconvenience and by this rule Reason discovers to us that these Duties are good To begin with Piety towards God Nothing can more evidently tend to our Interest than to make him our Friend upon whose Favour our Happiness depends So likewise for Gratitude it is a Virtue to which if Nature did not prompt us our Interest would direct us for every Man is ready to place Benefits there where he may hope for a thankful Return Temperance does apparently conduce to our Health which next to a good Conscience is the most pleasant and valuable thing in the World whereas the intemperate Man is an open Enemy to himself and continually making Assaults upon his own Life Mercy and Pity are not more welcome to others than they are delightful and beneficial to our selves for we do not only gratifie our own Nature and Bowels by relieving those who are in misery but we provoke Mankind by our Example to the like Tenderness and do prudently bespeak the Commiseration of others towards us when it shall be our Turn to stand in need of it And if we be wise enough our Reason will likewise direct us to be just as the surest Art of thriving in this World It gives a Man a Reputation which is a powerful Advantage in all the Affairs of this World It is the shortest and easiest way of dispatching Business the plainest and least entangled and though it be not so sudden a way of growing rich as Fraud and Oppression yet it is much surer and more lasting and not liable to those terrible Back-blows and after-reckonings to which Estates got by Injustice are And natural Reason does not only shew us that these things are good but that the Lord requires them of us that is that they have the Force and Obligation of Laws For there needs nothing more to make any thing a Law than a sufficient declaration that it is the Will of God and this God hath sufficiently signified to Mankind by the very Frame of our Natures and of those principles and faculties which he hath endued us withall so that whenever we act contrary to these we plainly disobey the Will of him that made us and violate those Laws which he hath Enacted in our Natures and written upon our Hearts And this is all the Law that the greatest part of Mankind were under before the Revelation of the Gospel From Adam to Moses the World was almost solely governed by the Natural Law which seems to be the meaning of that hard Text Rom. 5. 13. For until the Law Sin was in the World that is before the Law of Moses was given Men were capable of offending against some other Law for otherwise Sin could not have been imputed to them for Sin is not imputed wh●re there is no Law And then it follows Nevertheless Death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's Transgression that is during that space from Adam to Moses Men sinned against the natural Law and were liable to Death upon that account though they had not offended against an express Revelation from God as Adam had

any thing wanting on God's part but on theirs as those known Texts wherein our Saviour laments the Case of Jerusalem because they obstinately brought destruction upon themselves Luke 19. 42. If thou hadst known in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace intimating that they might have known them so as to have prevented that desolation which was coming upon them and was a forerunner of their Eternal Ruine but now they are hid from thine eyes intimating that then God gave them up to their own blindness and obstinacy but the time was when they might have known the things of their peace which cannot be upon the supposition of the necessity of an irresistible act of God's Grace to their Conversion and Repentance because then without that they could not have Repented and if that had been afforded to them they had infallibly Repented So likewise in that other Text Matth. 23. 37. Oh! Jerusalem Jerusalem how often would I have gathered thee even as an Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings and you would not And in John 5. 40. Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life He would have gathered them and they would not he would have given them Life but they would not come to him Are these serious and compassionate expostulations and declarations of our Saviour's gracious intention towards them any ways consistent with an impossibility of their Repentance which yet must be said if irresistible grace be necessary thereto for then Repentance is impossible without it and that it was not afforded to them is plain because they did not Repent The same may be said of that solemn declaration of God Ezek. 33. 11. As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and ●ive Can it be said that God hath no pleasure in the death of Sinners and yet be true that he denys to the greatest part of them that grace which is necessary to their Repentance Upon this Supposition how can it be true that if the mighty works that were done in Chorazin and Bethsaida had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have Repented Matth. 11. 21. since irresistible grace did not accompany those Miracles For if it had Chorazin and Bethsaida had Repented and without it Tyre and Sidon could not Repent The same difficulty is in those Texts wherein God is represented as expecting the Repentance and Conversion of Sinners and our Saviour wondering at their unbelief and hardness of heart and upbraiding them with it Isa 5. 4. What could I have done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes brought it forth wild grapes Mark 6. 6. 't is said our Saviour marvell'd at the unbelief of the Jews And Chap. 16. 14. that he upbraided his Disciples with their unbelief and hardness of heart But why should the Repentance of Sinners be expected or their unbelief marvell'd at or indeed be upbraided to them by him who knew it impossible to them without an irresistible power and grace which he knew likewise was not afforded to them Neither God nor Men have reason to wonder ●hat any Man does not do that which at the same time they certainly know he cannot do The bottom of all that is said to avoid this pressing difficulty is this that this impotency and disability of Sinners is their Sin and therefore cannot be pleaded in their excuse for their impenitency but God may still justly require that of them which they had once a natural power to do but wilfully forfeited and lost it they had this power in Adam and forfeited it by his disobedience To shew how slight this evasion is I need not run into that Argument how far we are guilty of the Sin of our first Parents That by that first transgression and disobedience all Mankind suffers and our Natures are extreamly corrupted and depraved cannot be denied but the corruption of our Natures is a thing very different from Personal guilt strictly and properly so call'd I will take the business much shorter and granting that Mankind had in Adam a Natural power to have continued obedient to the Laws of God yet since by one Man Sin enter'd into the World and all are now Sinners here is an obligation to Repentance as well as to Obedience and Men shall be Condemned for their Impenitency I ask now whether in Adam we had a power to Repent 'T is certain Adam had not this power and therefore I cannot see how we could lose it and forfeit it in him Adam indeed had a Natural Power not to have sinned and so not to have needed Repentance but no power to Repent in the state of Innocency because in that state Repentance was impossible because there could be no occasion for it he had it not after his fall because by that he forfeited all his power to that which is spiritually good 'T is said indeed he had it in Innocency but forfeited it by his Fall so that he had it when there was no occasion or possibility of the exercise of it and lost it when there was occasion for it or if he did not lose it by his Fall we have it still and then there is no need of any supernatural much less irresistible grace to Repentance so that our impotency as to the particular Duty of Repentance cannot be charg'd upon us as our fault not so much as upon the account of Original Sin But the want of this Power is the consequent and just punishment of our first Transgression Be it so but if this impotency still remain in all those to whom God doth not afford his irresistible grace how comes th grace offer'd in the Gospel to aggravate the impenitency of Men and encrease their Condemnation For if it be no Remedy against this impotency how comes it to inflame the guilt of Impenitency Or how is it Grace to offer Mercy to those upon their Repentance who are out of a possibility of Repenting and yet to punish them more severely for their impenitency after this offer made to them which they cannot accept without that grace which God is resolved not to afford them If this be the Case the greatest favour had been to have had no such offer made to them and it had been happier for Mankind that the grace of God had not appear'd to all Men but only to those who shall irresistibly be made partakers of the benefit of it Secondly Another Doctrine grounded upon this Metaphor of a new Creation is that we are meerly passive in the work of Conversion and Regeneration and contribute nothing to it that God does all and we do nothing at all and this follows from the former especially if we allow the Metaphor as far as it will carry us For as the first Creation of things was by an irresistible act of Divine Power so the things that

God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any Man But every Man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own Lust and enticed In which words these two things are plainly contained First That God doth not tempt any Man to Sin Let no Man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any Man Secondly That every Man's fault lies at his own door and he is his own greatest tempter But every Man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own Lust and enticed I. That God doth not tempt any Man to Sin Let no Man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any Man In which words there are three things to be considered First The Proposition which the Apostle here rejects and that is That God tempts Men. Let no Man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God Secondly The manner in which he rejects it Let no Man say so By which manner of speaking the Apostle insinuates these two Things 1. That Men are apt to lay their faults upon God For when he says L●t no Man say so he intimates that Men are apt to say so and it is very probable that some did say so and 2 dly That it is not only a fault but an impious assertion to say that God tempts Men. He speaks of it as a thing to be rejected with detestation Let no Man say that is far be it from us to affirm a thing so impious and dishonourable to God Thirdly The Reason and Argument that he brings against it For God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any Man First the Proposition which the Apostle here rejects and that is That God tempts Men Let no Man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God Now that we may the more distinctly understand the meaning of the Proposition which the Apostle here rejects it will be very requisite to consider what Temptation is and the several sorts and kinds of it To Tempt a Man is in general nothing else but to make trial of him in any kind what he will do In Scripture Temptation is commonly confin'd to the trial of a Man's good or bad of his virtuous or vicious inclinations But then it is such a trial as endangers a Man's virtue and if he be not well resolved is likely to overcome it and to make him fall into Sin So that temptation does always imply something of danger the worst way And Men are thus tempted either from themselves or by others by others chiefly these two ways First By direct and down-right perswasions to Sin Secondly By being brought into such Circumstances as will greatly endanger their falling into it tho' none solicit and perswade them to it First By direct and down-right perswasions to Sin Thus the Devil tempted our First Parents by representing things so to them as might on the one hand incite them to Sin and on the other hand weaken and loosen that which was the great curb and restraint from it On the one hand he represents to them the advantages they should have by breaking God's Command God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil On the other hand he represents the danger of offending not to be so great and certain as they imagined The Serpent said unto the Woman ye shall not surely dye And the Devil had so good success in this way of tempting the first Adam as to encourage him to set upon the second our Blessed Saviour in the same manner for he would have perswaded him to fall down and worship him by offering him all the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them And thus bad Men many times tempt others and endeavour to draw them into the same wicked Courses with themselves Solomon represents to us the manner and the danger of it Prov. 1. 10 11 13 14. My Son if Sinners entice thee consent thou not if they say come with us let us lay wait for blood let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause we shall find all precious substance we shall fill our houses with spoil Cast in thy lot amongst us let us all have one purse This is the first way of temptation And to be sure God tempts no Man this way He offers no Arguments to Man to perswade him to Sin he no where proposeth either Reward or Impunity to Sinners but on the contrary gives all imaginable encouragement to Obedience and threatens the transgression of his Law with most dreadful Punishments Secondly Men are likewise tempted by being brought into such Circumstances as will greatly endanger their falling into Sin tho' none perswade them to it and this happens two ways when Men are remarkably beset with the allurements of the World or assaulted with the Evils and Calamities of it for either of these Conditions are great temptations to Men and make powerful assaults upon them especially when they fall upon those who are ill disposed before or are but of a weak Virtue and Resolution The allurements of the World are strong temptations Riches and Honours and Pleasures they are the Occasions and Incentives to many Lusts Honour and Greatness Power and Authority over other● especially when Men are suddenly lifted up and from a low Condition are apt to transport Men to Pride and Insolency towards others Power is a strong Liquor which does easily intoxicate weak Minds and make them apt to say and do undecent things Man that is in Honour and understands not is like the Beasts that perish Intimating that Men who are exalted to an high Condition are very apt to forget themselves and to play the Fools and Beasts It requires great Consideration and a well-poised Mind not to be lifted up with one's Condition Weak heads are apt to turn and grow dizzy when they look down from a great height And so likewise Ease and Prosperity are a very slippery Condition to most Men and without great care do endanger the falling into great Sins So Solomon observes Prov. 1. 32. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them For this Reason Agur maketh his Prayer to God that he would give him neither Poverty nor Riches but keep him in a mean Condition because of the danger of both extreams Prov. 30. 8 9. Give me not Riches lest I be full and deny thee Both the eager desire and the possession and enjoyment of Riches do frequently prove fatal to Men. So our Saviour tells us elsewhere very Emphatically Mat. 19. 23 24. Verily I say unto you that a Rich Man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And again I say unto you it is easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a Rich Man to enter into the