N04855:71
Some select cases resolved. Specially, tending to the right ordering of the heart, that…
Some select cases resolved. Specially, tending to the right ordering of the heart, that we may comfortably walk with God in our general and particular callings: &c. In a letter to a pious friend in England. / By Thomas Shepard, M.A. Formerly of Emmanuel-College in Cambridge in England: afterward Minister of Cambridge in New-England. ; Corrected by four several editions.
Boston: printed by Rogers and Fowle, 1747
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2. I say the least sins or infirmities do break ⟨p. 14⟩the first covenant of works: and hence you do not only deserve, but are under the sentence of death, and curse of God, immediately after the least hair's breadth, swerving from the Law by the smallest sin, and most involuntary accidental infirmity. According to the tenor of the law, the soul that sinneth shall die; and, cursed is he that continueth not in all things of the Law, Gal. 3.10. The least sin being, (ex parte objecti) in respect of God against whom it is committed, as horrible and as great as the greatest. For it being an infinite wrong, being the dishonour of an infinite Majesty, there can be no greater wrong than an infinite one; unless you can imagine a thing greater than that which is infinite: And therefore in this respect, there is as much venom and mischief done against God in the least, as in the greatest sin: And therefore it, and whosoever commits it, deserves death for it, as if they had committed the foulest sin in the world. And therefore after the least and smallest infirmities, you may from hence see what cause you have freely to be humbled, and to confess for them how worthy you are to be destroyed; yea, even to look upon your self as lying under the sentence of the law and death immediately after the commission of them, and so to mourn bitterly for them.
2. I say the least sins or infirmities do break ⟨p. 14⟩the first covenant of works: and hence you do not only deserve, but are under the sentence of death, and curse of God, immediately after the least hair's breadth, swerving from the Law by the smallest sin, and most involuntary accidental infirmity. According to the tenour of the law, the soul that sinneth shall dy; and, cursed is he that continueth not in all things of the Law, Gal. 3.10. The least sin being, (ex parte objecti) in respect of God against whom it is committed, as horrible and as great as the greatest. For it being an infinite wrong, being the dishonour of an infinite Majesty, there can be no greater wrong than an infinite one; unless you can imagine a thing greater than that which is infinite: And therefore in this respect, there is as much venom and mischief done against God in the least, as in the greatest sin: And therefore it, and whosoever commits it, deserves death for it, as if they had committed the foulest sin in the world. And therefore after the least and smallest infirmities, you may from hence see what cause you have freely to be humbled, and to confess for them how worthy you are to be destroyed; yea, even to look upon your self as lying under the sentence of the law and death immediately after the commission of them, and so to mourn bitterly for them.