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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	call_v	great_a	power_n	2,783	5	4.5526	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62638	Several discourses of repentance by John Tillotson ; being the eighth volume published from the originals by Ralph Barker.	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.; Barker, Ralph, 1648-1708.	1700 (1700)	Wing T1267; ESTC R26972	169,818	480

of it Such is the unspotted Purity and Perfection of the Divine Nature that it is not possible that God should give the least countenance to any thing that is Evil. Psal 5.4 5. Thou art not a God says David there to him that hast Pleasure in iniquity neither shall evil dwell with thee The wicked shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all the workers of iniquity 5. We are ashamed likewise to do any thing that is Evil and unseemly before those who we are afraid will publish our faults to others and will make known and expose the folly of them Now whenever we Sin it is before him who will most certainly one day bring all our works of darkness into the open light and expose all our secret deeds of dishonesty upon the publick Stage of the World and make all the vilest of our actions known and lay them open with all the shameful Circumstances of them before men and Angels to our everlasting Shame and Confusion This is the meaning of that Proverbial Speech so often used by our Saviour There is nothing cover'd that shall not be revealed neither hid that shall not be made manifest All the Sins which we now commit with so much caution in secret and dark retirements shall in that great day of Revelation when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed be set in open view and in so full and strong a light that all the World shall see them and that which was plotted and contrived in so much secrecy and hardly whisper'd in this World shall then be proclaimed aloud and as it were upon the House-tops 6. and Lastly We are ashamed and afraid to commit a fault before those who we believe will call us to an account for it and Punish us severely A Man may suffer innocently and for a good Cause but all suffering in that case is by wise and good men esteemed honourable and glorious and tho' we are Condemned by men we are acquitted in our own Consciences But that which is properly called Punishment is always attended with Infamy and Reproach because it always supposeth some fault and crime as the ground and reason of it Hence it is that in this World men are not only afraid but ashamed to commit any fault before those who they think have Authority and Power to punish it He is an impudent Villain indeed that will venture to cut a Purse in the presence of the Judge Now when ever we commit any Wickedness we do it under the Eye of the great Judge of the World who stedfastly beholds us and whose Omnipotent Justice stands by us ready armed and charged for our Destruction and can in a moment cut us off Every sin that we are guilty of in thought word or deed is all in the presence of the Holy and Just and Powerful God whose Power enables him and whose Holiness and Justice will effectually engage him one time or other if a timely Repentance doth not prevent it to inflict a terrible Punishment upon all the Workers of iniquity You see then by all that hath been said upon this Argument how shameful a thing sin is and what Confusion of face the reflection upon our wicked Lives ought to cause in all of us What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed If ever we be brought to true Repentance for our sins it cannot but be matter of great Shame to us We find in Scripture that shame doth continually accompany Repentance and is inseparable from it This is one Mark and Character of a true Penitent that he is ashamed of what he hath done Thus Ezra when he makes Confession of the sins of the People he testifies and declares his Shame for what they had done I said O my God! I am ashamed and blush to lift up mine Eyes to thee my God for our iniquities are increased over our Heads and our trespasses are grown up to the Heavens Ezra 9.6 And may not we of this Nation at this day take these words unto our selves considering to what a strange height our sins are grown and how iniquity abounds among us So likewise the Prophet Jeremiah when he would express the Repentance of the People of Israel Jer. 3.25 We lye down says he in our shame and our Confusion covereth us because we have sinned against the Lord our God In like manner the Prophet Daniel after he had in the Name of the People made an humble acknowledgment of their manifold and great Sins he takes shame to himself and them for them Dan. 9.5 We have sinned says he and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled in departing from thy Precepts and from thy Judgments O Lord righteousness belongeth to thee but unto us confusion of face as at this day to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and unto all Israel that are near and that are far off through all the Countries whither thou hast driven them because of their trespass which they have trespassed against thee O Lord To us belongeth confusion of face to our Kings to our Princes and to our Fathers because we have sinned against thee By which we may judge how considerable and essential a part of Repentance this Holy Man esteemed shame for the sins they had been guilty of to be And indeed upon all occasions of solemn Repentance and Humiliation for sin this taking shame for their sins is hardly ever omitted as if there could be no sincere Confession of sin and Repentance for it without testifying their shame and Confusion of face upon the remembrance of their sins Now to stir up this affection of shame in us let me offer to you these three Considerations I. Consider what great reason we have to be heartily ashamed of all the sins and offences which we have been guilty of against God It was a good old Precept of Philosophy that we should reverence our selves i. e. that we should never do any thing that should be matter of Shame and Reproach to us afterwards nothing that misbecomes us and is unworthy of us I have shewn at large that all Sin and Vice is a dishonour to our Nature and beneath the Dignity of it that it is a great reproach to our Reason and directly contrary to our true and best Interest that it hath all the aggravating circumstances of Infamy and Shame that every sin that was at any time committed by us was done in the presence of one whom of all Persons in the World we have most Reason to reverence and against him to whom of all others we stand most obliged for the greatest Favours for innumerable Benefits for infinite Mercy and Patience and Forbearance towards us in the presence of the Holy and Just God who is at the farthest distance from sin and the greatest and most implacable Enemy to it in the whole World and who will one day punish all our faults and expose us to open shame

very reproachful to us that we destroy our selves by our own folly and neglect of our selves and become miserable by our own choice and when the Grace of God hath put it into our Power to be wise and to be happy I should now have proceeded to the Second thing I proposed which was to consider Sin in relation to God and to shew that it is no less shameful in that respect than I have shewn it to be with regard to our selves But this I shall refer to another oportunity SERMON VI. Serm. 6. The Shamefulness of Sin an Argument for Repentance The Second Sermon on this Text. ROM VI. 21 22. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed For the end of those things is death But now being made free from sin and become Servants to God ye have your fruit unto Holiness and the end Everlasting Life IN these words the Apostle makes a comparison between an Holy and Virtuous and a Sinful and Vicious course of Life and sets before us a perfect enumeration of the manifest inconveniences of the one Vol. 8. and the manifold advantages of the other I began with the First of these viz. to shew the manifest inconveniences of a sinful and vicious course I am upon the Second inconvenience of a sinful course viz. That the reflection upon it afterwards is cause of great Shame and Confusion of face to us and that First in Relation to our selves Which I have dispatch'd and proceed now in the Second Place to consider Sin in respect of God against whom and in whose sight and presence it is committed and upon examination it will appear to be no less shameful in this respect than the other There are some Persons before whom we are more apt to be ashamed and blush than before others as those whom we reverence those to whom we are greatly oblig'd and those who are clear of those faults which we are guilty of and those who hate or greatly dislike what we do especially if they be present with us and in our company if they stand by us and observe and take notice of what we do and are likely to publish our folly and make it known and have Authority and Power to punish us for our faults we are ashamed to have done any thing that is vile and unworthy before such Persons Now to render Sin the more Shameful God may be consider'd by us under all these Notions and in all these respects 1. Whenever we commit any Sin we do it before him in his presence and under his eye and knowledge to whom of all persons in the world we ought to pay the most profound reverence I remember Seneca somewhere says that There are some Persons quorum interventû perditi quoque homines vitia supprimerent that are so awful and so generally reverenc'd for the eminency of their Virtues that even the most profligate and impudent sinners will endeavour to suppress their Vices and refrain from any thing that is notoriously bad and uncomely whilst such Persons stand by them and are in presence Such an one was Cato among the Romans The People of Rome had such a Regard and Reverence for him that if he appeared they would not begin or continue their usual sports till he was withdrawn from the Theatre thinking them too light to be acted before a Person of his Gravity and Virtue And if they were so much aw'd by the presence of a Wise and a Virtuous Man that they were ashamed to do any thing that was unseemly before him how much more should the presence of the Holy God who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity make us blush to do any thing that is lewd and vile in his sight and fill us with shame and confusion of face at the thoughts of it Now whenever we commit any Sin God looks upon us and he alone is an ample Theatre indeed That he observes what we do ought to be more to us than if the Eyes of all the World besides were gazing upon us 2. He likewise is incomparably our greatest Benefactour and there is no Person in the World to whom in any degree we stand so much oblig'd as to him and from whom we can expect and hope for so much good as from him the consideration whereof must make us ashamed so often as we consider and are conscious to our selves that we have done any thing that is grievous and displeasing to him We are wont to have a more peculiar Reverence for those to whom we are exceedingly beholden and to be much ashamed to do any thing before them which may signifie disrespect and much more enmity against them because this would be horrible ingratitude one of the most odious and shameful of all Vices And is there any one to whom we can stand more obliged than to him that made us than to the Author and Founder of our Beings and the great Patron and Preserver of our lives And can there then be any before whom and against whom we should be more ashamed to offend When the Prodigal in the Parable would set forth the shamefulness of his Miscarriage he aggravates it from hence that he had offended against and before one to whom he had been so infinitely obliged Father says he I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight 3. We are ashamed likewise to be guilty of any fault or crime before those Persons who are clear of it or of any thing of the like nature themselves Men are not apt to be ashamed before those who are their fellow-Criminals and involved with them in the same guilt because they do not stand in awe of them nor can have any reverence for them Those who are equally guilty must bear with one another We are not apt to fear the censures and reproofs of those who are as bad as our selves but we are ashamed to do a foul and unworthy Action before those who are innocent and free from the same or the like Sins and Vices which we are guilty of Now whenever we commit any Sin it is in the presence of the Holy God who hath no part with us in our crimes whose nature is removed at the farthest distance from Sin and is as contrary to it as can be There is no iniquity with the Lord our God And therefore of all Persons in the World we should blush to be guilty of it before him 4. We are apt also to be ashamed to do any thing before those who dislike and detest what we do To do a wicked Action before those who are not offended at it or perhaps take pleasure in it is no such matter of shame to us Now of all others God is the greatest hater of Sin and the most perfect Enemy to it in the whole World Hab. 1.13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity i. e. with patience and without an infinite hatred and abhorrence