Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	bear_v	spirit_n	wound_a	1,374	5	11.0872	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54424	Battering rams against Rome; or, The battel of John the follower of the lamb, fought with the pope and his priests, whilst he was a prisoner in the inquisition-prison of Rome. Also, a certain remonstrance of righteous reason, written in Rome-prison of mad-men, unto all Rome's rulers. Together with a post-script, to all tender-hearted Roman Catholicks.; Battering rams against Rome.	J. P. ((John Perrot)), d. 1671?.	1661 (1661)	Wing P1612; ESTC R217527	61,566	173

Wo upon Wo in the Creature which knoweth not a stay to the heart nor a guide to the affection of the mind and then there is an out-cry according to the Writings in the Walls O Liberty Liberty without Liberty all is nothing yea the fulness of all without Liberty is but the Addition of Fuel to the Flame of the Misery Wherefore saith the Serpent Thou knowest the Redemption do this and thou reapest thy Freedom for it is better to passe under the Confession and Penance which is but as it were for a moment than to languish in this Gulph of Affliction for ever And then the Hypocrite ariseth in the heart and cometh to the Confession of deceit with watry eyes and wringing hands and strong supplications to the Priests and makes the moan of a burdened and troubled Conscience and wounded Spirit because of the Transgressions and then it saith Yea with all my heart Saint Mary St. Ioseph and St. Anthony St. Francis St. Dominick and the rest of the Saints which are written in the Prison-walls I will take for my Advocates and holy Purgatory and all the rest I believe as the Church believes and gladly will I bear my Penance that my Conscience may be eased Whilst all this is but the out-cry of the Devil even of that wicked one for the purchase of Liberty I say to purchase liberty for the full exercise of the Lust and when the Liberty is come and the Lust fulfilled therein in Meats and Musick and Wine and Women and Pride and Covetousness and Lyes and vain Jesting and Idle-talking and cheating and double-dealing and swearing and cursing and all manner of mischief and abominations then the pleasure is full and the peace is possessed the delights are fulfilled no sorrow remains no conscience laden nor spirit burdened with affliction because of transgression but all is accounted well and he reckoned a good Roman Catholick And then what commendations of the good of the Priests and what commendations do the Priests give of that Convert Thus all rottenness is daubed up with dirt and this is the sum and fruit of the whole work which things the LORD GOD will assuredly and that most strongly plead in the faces both of Priests and People unto the utter confusion of all hands and deceitfulness of all corrupt hearts who knoweth how to deal with his own and to deliver from the snare of the wicked whom you know not how to handle to bring under the bent of your Bow You are warned of Gods mighty day wherefore prize your time and repent I also propound a few Queries unto you to the end that you may give me some plain and distinct Answer to each of them particularly under your hand-writing Que. 1. Whether are there more grounds in the nature than two in the Earth that is to say the good and the evil the blessed and the cursed And whether the fruits of each ground according to their nature are not blessed or cursed in the sight of God yea or nay Que. 2. In what ground were your Inquisition Offices and Prisons and the Officers thereunto belonging brought forth and in which do they stand whether in the ground as the fruit of the ground of the many inventions which brought the flood of destruction in the dayes of the generation of Noah or absolutely in the righteousness of the ground of God's Law as given by the Lord from Heaven yea or nay Que. 3. In what ground is Persecution brought forth which any man suffereth for the real sake of a conscience of God Que. 4. Whether can any such Persecutor truly discern and consequently judge the real conscience of God which is in another yea or nay Que. 5. By what testimony of Truth can you shew me That your Penance or Prisons do mortifie the flesh without Murder or quicken the mind from every motion of corruption as freedom from the lusts of transgression Que. 6. Whether have you made inquisition after the Hypocrite and Heretick within you and shew me how you have laid his Life unto the suffering of the Penance of Christ's Cross with the testimony of the effects thereof Que. 7. What was the Inquisition which CHRIST made after the Offence of the accused Harlot and the Judgement of the Harlot's Transgression and whether do you judge with that or contrary to that Judgment in your Inquisitions Que. 8. With what confidence can you judg the pure conscience of another in the presence of the Lord yea or cast a stone at a transgressor whilst you your selves are found sinners Que. 9. What is that Vnjust in whose Eye is the Beam and what is the Beam in the Eye and whether is not the Beam in your Eye yea or nay Que. 10. What is the cause that a mote is judged by the Eye that is beamed And what is the ground root original and principal cause of mens calling good evil and evil good And whether is not your fruit in the general a testimony that you are in that ground and that root in you in the ground which yeelds the fruit of calling good evil and evil good in the particular yea or nay I love the Truth and Souls but do hate a Lye and Deceit with every evil way Rome dispensed from the Inquisition-Prison J. P. To the Seed which is yet unborn in Rome Salutation TO the Seed of that Woman which the Dragon drove into the Wilderness over whose sufferings many Generations have passed which viewed them with an eye of contempt O Seed I see thy travel of sorrows and the sighings that compass thee in the deeps thou art swadled in the womb of affliction and bound in the belly of trouble thou lyest in the deeps of the raging Seas the weeds are wrapt about thy head thou art as the blood-shed of Abel in the Earth and groanest in her bowels to the LORD thy Creator thou dwellest in the solitary places as hid in the hole of the Asp thou art constrained in the Den of the Dragon and forced in the Cockatrice's dwelling thou art as a Pelican in the Wilderness and an alone Sparrow sitting on the house top thou art as a Bee in the holes of the Rocks driven from the Hive of the Swarm thou lyest as a Lark in the heaths of the Mountains and as a Quail in the Stubble-fields thou art as a Wren in a Bush of Thorns the Vulture soars over thee to devour when thou liftest up thine head for a flight the Kite doth strike at thy life the Hawk doth watch for thy rising and the Gier-Eagle to devour the prey Wo wo wo is me for thee in this thy hour of Tribulation for I bear thy wound in my body my soul is pained with thy grief my belly is as a bro●…k of bitterness thou art laden with the Hills of the Earth and pressed with the Mountains of the Wilderness heaps of stones are laid for thy weight and Rocks for the weight of thy burden thou art shut up

may say that my Writings were against then as aforesaid could not I have written the things which I have written in your Inquisition-Prison Fifthly Because that all Righteous Laws of GOD in Nations touching Facts Criminal and Crimes Capital are no more to one person particular than unto all men in general And therefore my adhibition at last to write things of the same nature and purpose in Prison which at first I did in the fruition of Liberty demonstrates that your said self-nulled Law Under which contrary to the tenure of GOD's righteous Law I am yet irrationally and compulsively held in your house of Captivity was not at first so much a stable Law as an aiery variable nicity for that which in such cases adhibits to one and prohibits the same to another is rather like a wind of vanity than a body or pillar of solidity seeing that it will admit of the respect of persons in Judgement and consequently what equality there is in restraining of persons more than two years upon the account of a changeable curiosity and aiery nicity judge thee O thou righteous Iudge in the high seat of superiority Sixthly Because the Eternal Spirit of Righteousness my Maker which searcheth all hearts and tryeth all reins which is the greatest Witness of all Witnesses beareth testimony in my spirit that in all which I have written have stood and do stand in my Conscience clear naked and void of all and every part of a prejudicial mind or conception of Envy Wrath Malice Scorn or despightful Contempt of any man's person neither have I thereby wronged any man whatsoever for all that is therein inserted is none other but wholsom Admonitions exciting to a more peculiar holy and blessed life towards GOD and a man's Neighbour with certain solid sober Interrogations which tend not to the custom of heathenish strifes and contests in the envious and malicious spirit of bitterness but purely sincerely and reverently in the humble spirit of fear of the LORD GOD to the proper and sole end of the Glory of GOD through the Salvation of Souls by his heavenly enlightning of Understandings with the Glory of his holy Spirit And savoury reprehensions of that spirit which sinneth and testimony against the Evils of the Land and the insertion of sundry spiritual Mysteries of the heavenly Kingdom with the spiritual Witness of the Father Son and holy Ghost and nothing therein contrary to the New Testament of GOD the Blood of the Covenant and immaculate Life of the Lamb nor any thing in opposition to that chast Spirit of Sanctity which was in Mary or any which was or is as that blessed Virgin was which upon further and due tryal I am able in the grace and power of GOD and the Life of our Lord Jesus to make appear unto that of God in you and all men whatsoever which my Language can understand upon the face of the Earth In which thing being justified First by GOD which sent me Secondly By example of the holy Prophets of old Thirdly By the practice of CHRIST and his Apostles which at large through the Mercy of the Lord God Almighty I am also able to hold forth unto you in the day of due tryal according to the undeniable Record and Witness of the holy Scriptures of Truth And therfore Righteousness saith Because that the nature of the matter was of a pure purpose should rationally have been recompenced by you with none other than a pure and Christian-like practice Seventhly Because the sweet savour and good report of our Innocency came to your City before us which God made divers of your Ecclesiastical Members to confess in plainness of speech to my face Eighthly Because the Witness of GOD which is greater than the Witness of Man testified in my spirit That all my honest Queries sweet and holy Admonitions pure Advertisments godly Reprehensions proceeded from no other but as Crystal streams from the fountain of the Father's Love which he hath made as a Well of Waters in my bowels And principally because that Reprehension is an infallible token of the Father's Love to his Seed in all Nations and Lands testified by the Spirit to John the Apostle saying Whom I love I rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore and repent Ninthly Because it is the undeniable Duty of all men upon the face of the Earth to love the Rebukes of the LORD as it is purely the LORD's Mercy and of his infinite Love to send them as Visitations of his Love unto all Nations Tenthly Because the resisting of the Rebuke is the resisting of the token of the Favour and Love of GOD which renders men unworthy of the Love and Mercies of GOD their Maker And because it vails the heart from the life of the true Zeal in spirit and hardens the heart in the Wrath of Cain towards Abel of Esau to Jacob and of the Jews to Jesus 11. Because the Righteous Law of God is of the same nature full of Judgment and Reprehension of every Evil not respecting the Person of any man and is at unity with every such spirit of its own nature in so good a work for the which cause it was righteously added of GOD for if there were no bridle how should the Beast be tamed if no Helm how should the Ship be sailed And without Correction there is no perfect Instruction 12. Because the Rebuke of Life is as a Steel which smiteth at the Flint of man's heart and kindleth in his Internals the fire of the fear of his Creator which is the beginning of Wisdom which reveals the knowledge of the countenance of the Father whom to know is Life eternal and because of Solomon's proverbial commendation of the work of Reprehension saying The Reproof of the Righteous is like Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver 13. Because as the matter of my said Writings is manifestly composed of Righteousness and covered with the Countenance of the Word of GOD so the manner thereof stands in unity with the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles which were in the nature of Divinity which covereth not Iniquity with daubing Iniquity 14. Because Moses the Messenger of GOD justified him which prophesied in the Camp whom the People complained against thus answering and saying Would God all the Lords People were Prophets And because GOD Almighty is unchangeably the same as yesterday so this day and for ever of these stones able to raise a Seed unto Abraham 15. Because of the amiable Example of the gesture of David the King under the sharp Reprehension of Nathan the Prophet who persecuted not the Prophet but with a contrite spirit repented of his own sin And the like of the King and People of Niniveh who persecuted not Jonah though he cryed their Destruction in the Streets 16. Because the Prophet Isaiah prophesied it as the great Evil of such a People which would make a man an Offender for a Word 17. Because that for the same things like

the manifest Salvation of GOD unto the ends of the Earth as was spoken by the Word unto Isaiah his Prophet in whose face expresly we have the Revelation of the Father in whom we behold the Glory of the Son as the Glory of the only begotton of GOD full of Power and Wisdom hereby knowing what we Worship whom the whole world alienated from the Power Life Wisdom and Holiness of GOD do ignorantly Worship in the imaginations of their own hearts which before the Lord are only evil continually Him therefore declare I unto you GOD the Eternal and unto every mortal Invisible and Incomprehensible Spirit who is not likened unto the Creation which by the Power of his Eternal Word was made to glorifie hi●… Name by the Spirit sheweth That he dwelleth not in Temples made with hands neither is he worshipped by the Works of mens hands as if he needed any thing who from the beginning determined the times appointed and made all mankind of one mould and gave unto them Life and Breath and added thereunto of the Grace of his Mercy a measure of the Divine Nature if haply that thereby they might seek and feel after him the LORD their Creator But Man whom the LORD made little lower than the Angels and gave him the fulness of the Earth to possess rebelled at all times against his GOD he departed from the beginning from the living Way and made Invention the joy of his Heart and made his Inventions a fence against God and his Imaginations a Bullwark of defence and in all Ages and Generations though the LORD visited with Judgements Destruction Mercies and wonderful Deliverances and sent his Servants the Prophets arising up early and lying down late with Precept upon Precept and Line upon Line speaking as afar off by Signes and Figures and Parables and as at hand by Iudgement and Mercy And always shewed how that he is GOD and altogether unlimited neither bound unto Words nor Wonders nor limited in Sea or in Land but still Man made marks for GOD and set bounds for the Arm of his Power who in no wise is measured as the waters in the Wells nor contained as the Rivers with the banks who was not conceived as the Seed of Man nor born as the Babe of the Womb who is not comprehended as the grass with the ground nor as the wide swelling Seas with the sands of the shores who is not known as he knoweth all fowls and calleth the Stars by name who is not measured as the Earth with the Moon nor as the Heavens with the course of the Sun and therefore Man alwayes lost the knowledge of the eternal Power of the God-head and still settled in his own will which at first rebelled against GOD and in the same Will made Laws and Statutes and Ordinances for Government for Worship and for punishment though even from the dayes of the first man Adam unto this day the hand of the LORD GOD was turned against that work as witness the preaching of the Spirit of Abel Enoch and Noah he who hath an ear let him hear witness also Abraham Isaac and Jacob among the Heathen and Moses among the Egyptians yea witness the Spirit of Moses among Israel by Preaching by Power by Judgement and Deliverance What may I more say They would build a Tower to reach unto Heaven and Arks and Cities and Tabernacles and Temple And all for GOD to be constrained in their Works and when they had Commandments and Sacrifices as appointed by the Word of the LORD the Spirit sheweth when in all these things they would have forced the Rest of GOD the LORD arose alwayes against them and sent his Servants the Prophets to cry against those things with the same Word which commanded them whom they did beat imprison wound and torture yea and put to death And thus it alwayes was He that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit even as it is now and in like manner it hath been from the dayes of Abel until the Heir came and him they shamefully slew to possess the Vineyard Moreover of his dayes I may also speak even in the dayes of the LORD CHRIST when he was transfigured before his Disciples at the glorious appearance of Moses Eliah and the LORD the Disciples would build them Tabernacles but mercy appeared unto them in a Rebuke and they were instructed in the Way of GOD but yet and notwithstanding also that Paul the Apostle taught a pressing on from one degree of Faith unto another until all should be perfected unto the fulness of the measure of a compleat stature shewing also in the Resurrection who himself was risen with Christ the diversities of the measures of the Glories which were revealed and every measure as gathered into God in his fulness were respectively full shewing it by the figure of the Glories of the Lights of the Sun Moon and Stars and wrote to the Church how that he was caught up into the third Heaven and saw things which were unlawful to be uttered And John in the LORD'S Day in the Revelation of the Lord from Heaven saw the great things of GOD yet said the Angel unto him Come up hither I say notwithstanding all this the doctrine of GOD that he might be known to be GOD and not in any wise to be limited Man in his wilfulness and presumption unto this day hath set marks against him and made measures of words in their Wills as Cords of restraint to bind him yea the Heavens and the Earth and the depth of the Seas and all the increase of the Plant of the field and her seeding Seed the Sun Moon and Stars the Clouds the Winds the Hail and the Rain-bow of GOD shall witness against the Nations of the world in this matter They limit not God in their pleasure but do bow in subjection to his Will but the Nations of the Earth in the crookedness of their hearts have made walls against the passage of GOD. O Man lift up thine head and look and behold how the People and Inhabitants of the Earth do limit the LORD to their lusts O open thine Eye and see how they make GOD as a Transgressor in the Earth even as the Cattle of a Stranger which have fed in the fields of their Pasture and as the hand of a Thief and Robber which hath stolen the labour of another Look thorow the Earth among the Nations thereof and thou mayest read all their Professions as Prisons for the Reign of of GOD in the Conscience is limited by the forms of their Words and one cryeth Here and another saith There and another saith these are the Laws and the Precepts and he that will not Rest in this he is out of the Way of GOD and he that speaks against our Law and the Manners of our Worship he must bear the punishment thereof Concerning all which if the Conscience of GOD should demand Are your Words GOD

be made manifest The LIGHT is all your Consciences is your Condemnation within who hate the Light and will no●… come to the Light by the Light which convinceth of sin to be led out of all sin Verily I say unto you neither Wit Craft no●… Guile the Horse nor his Rider Sword Bo●… nor Battle nor Angels nor any othe●… creatures but the Light which you hate and persecute the Witness of it shall deliver in the day of Wrath which is near you And this is the Word of the LORD GOD to you all Remember you are warned Therefore whilst you have time Repent and henceforth blot out the vain imaginations of your minds and let it be written upon the table of your hearts If God's Everlasting Covenant be changeable then may our cruelty change them from the Lord their God Given forth in fear and trembling before the God of all dreadful Power From the Inquisition-Prison in Rome J. P. THese are to this blind-hearted Generation which are smooth to the rough and rough to the smooth and cannot discern the rough from the smooth the crooked from the streight the right from the left Your love the love of the everlasting Father holdeth in an irreconcileable hatred for ye love the smooth words of the men of this world which stand in the rough places of the Earth Ye love their Titles Daubings Flatteries Dissimulations and Hypocrisies and your selves smooth in the same nature unto this their nature of roughness But ye are rough to the smooth which deal with you in honesty and plainess which are not smooth to your rough nature of dissimulations Wherefore you are rough in your consultations secret reports and actions and bend your selves in crookedness against the streightness of the smooth things of Gods Kingdom Your hatred the LORD despiseth even as your love he hateth For the thing which you hate is the seal of the love of the Father to be holden in love unto death as a testimony against the roughness and crookedness both of the love and hatred of your Life you love not to come unto the smooth stone of David which sank into the forehead of the Philistine The Philistine liveth in you and curseth the Dominion of the GOD of David he spake roughly to the smooth thing in the Stripling but the smooth did smite his roughness even so must it be by the Philistine in you ere the GOD of David be known to be God among you And this is to you all that the smooth which is rough to the smooth thing of God may dye in you that the Lord 's smooth thing may live in dominion over the rough things of the Earth Rome dispensed from the Inquisition-Prison J. P. To a Franciscan of the Irish Convent in Rome Irish Priest THou hast desired something from me that thou mayest answer it And I hereby proposing let thy own words stand thy own obligation to be as faithful in answering as thou wert forward in promising I have sometimes born witness unto divers of you Priests of the Roman Catholick Assemblies manifestly shewing unto you how that CHRIST is the LIGHT of the World which lighteth every man that cometh into the World and unto that LIGHT in all your Consciences approving my Message and the Testimony of the Faith of JESUS which I hold in a pure Conscience to be of GOD which in you all shall stand a Witness for me everlastingly unto Judgement though now you rise up as false witnesses against it and so bear false witness against me and will not come unto the Light that you may have Life but do chuse to your selves the antient path of the Serpent's way setling your selves in the inventions of your own hearts lurking in the secret dens of craft and subtilty stretching out your hands in the corrupted fallen apostatized Policy and so whatever is brought forth by you is but the birth or age of Iniquity Divers of you have confessed unto me and lastly as next unto this present time Thou didst acknowledge that there is not one of all your Catholick Church which is restored unto Innocency or redeemed from sin and the daily act of transgression and then I shewed thee if not one in Innocency then all in the contrary which is Iniquity If all in the daily act of transgression then all wallowing in the miry place in the apostatized ground fallen from the Life of the Lord Jesus who leads out of sin Now therefore understand you who are setled in the obstinacy and perversness and hardness of heart Read your unbelief and the desperate end thereof who will not that the Devil's kingdom should come to an end in you you may have all the words of Christ and the Apostles as the Jews had Moses and the Prophets and yet perish in the same desperation through refusing to come unto Him who is the Life You may say The Lord liveth and yet therein be false swearers as said Jeremiah You may have all tongues and many gifts you may give all your goods to the Poor and your bodies to be burnt and yet want the Charity saith Paul You may as the Magicians of Egypt shew many Signs yea and in the Name of CHRIST Preach in the Streets do many wonderful things and cast out Devils and at the last day say Lord these things have we done in thy Name But not coming unto the LIGHT and LIFE of CHRIST which leads out of Iniquity and to dwell in the LIGHT unto the End above Iniquity Unto such I will profess unto them I know you not depart from me ye cursed workers of Iniquity saith Christ What therefore availeth your Doctrine what also hath it profited any of you in confessing so much of Truth unto me saying that my words are true and just and are as Jewels and Diadems and Precious Stones and ought exceedingly to be owned and honoured Except you come to the Life and Truth of the Substance from which they were offered unto you not that you should catch at the shadow and shell as the Hypocrites in the whole Earth who are smooth in confessing and saying but cursed in doing for know ye that it is one thing to be enlightned and to walk contrary to the Light in such the Light is their condemnation and another thing to dwell and walk in the Light in which God dwelleth in such the Light is their justification You may read the declaration of another man's state without you but cannot read more than your own states with a true witness within you you may dream of sweet Wine but be awakened unto a potion of Wormwood There cannot be plainer proof than the Witness of your own Confessions to conclude your Professions of God vanity your wicked sinful life a scandal to Honesty and all Truth and of Christ but an occasion of the contempt of the reproachful shame and ignomy which sometime past I have in my understanding read among the Turks and Jews Ponder these things and be awakened