Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	blood_n	bull_n	purge_v	993	5	9.4603	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25250	Ultima, = the last things in reference to the first and middle things: or certain meditations on life, death, judgement, hell, right purgatory, and heaven: delivered by Isaac Ambrose, minister of the Gospel at Preston in Amoundernes in Lancashire.; Prima, media, & ultima. Ultima.	Ambrose, Isaac, 1604-1664.	1650 (1650)	Wing A2970; ESTC R27187	201,728	236

Law exspected of all the faithfull from the beginning of the world and therefore the Apostle concludeth almost all things are by the Law purged with bloud and without shedding of bloud is no remission Heb. 9.22 Heb. 9.22 It is true Christ purged by his death and other his sufferings and yet are all these contained in the shedding of his bloud this bloud is the foundation of true Religion for other foundation can no man lay Wherefore neither was the first Testament ordained without bloud 1 Cor. 3.11 Heb. 9.18 Heb. 9.18 Nor is the new Testament otherwise sealed then with bloud Matth. 26.28 Matth. 26.28 What needs more If the bloud of Buls and of Goates in the old Testament sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the bloud of Christ in the new Testament purge your Consciences from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9.13 14. Heb. 9.13 14. O sweet bloud of our Saviour that purgeth our Consciences evacuates our dead works restores us to our God will bring us unto heaven Esay 63.2 But O my Saviour wherefore art thou red in thy apparell and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine-fat is it thy precious bloud that hath given this hew yes an hew often dipped in the Wine-fat and that we may the better see the colour let us distinguish the times when his Bloud was shed for us Sixe times saith a * Adams Crucifix Modern seven times saith * Bern. de passione Domini cap. 36. Bernard did Christ shed his bloud for us and to reduce them into order the first was at his Circumcision when his name Iesus was given him which was so named of the Angell before he was conceived in the womb Luk. 2.21 Bern. ibid. and was this without Mistery no saith Bernard for by the effusion of his bloud he was to be our Iesus our Saviour Blessed Jesu how ready art thou for the Sacrifice What but eight days old and then to shed thy bloud for the salvation of our souls Maturum hoc Martyrium here is a mature Martyrdome indeed It is a superstition took up with the Aegyptians and Arabians Ambros l. 2. de patriarch Abraham that Circumcision should fright away devils and the Iewes have a conceit not much unlike for when the child is Circumcised one stands by which a vessell full of dust into which they cast the Praepuce the meaning of it is that whereas it was the curse of the Serpent Dust shalt thou eate all the dayes of thy life Gen. 3.14 Pet. Mart loc com class 4. c. 7. Symbol Ruffini Tomo Jeronymi 4. they suppose therefore the Praepuce or fore skin being cast into the dust the Devill by that Covenant eates his own meat and so departs from the child But howsoever they erre of this we are sure that Christ delivered his flesh as a bait to Sathan held him fast with the hook of his Divinity through the shedding of his bloud this bloud was it first shed at his Circumcision and we cannot imagine it a little pain seeing the flesh was cut with a sharp stone which made Zipporah to cry out against Moses Surely a bloudy husband art thou to mee what a love is this that Christ newly born should so early shed his bloud Exod. 4.25 but all was for our sakes for the salvation of our souls You see one vein opened but in his second effusion not one but all the veins in his body fell a bleeding at once and this was at his passion in the garden when as the Evangelist testifies he fell into an agony and his sweat was like drops of bloud trickling down to the ground here is a physick-purgative indeed Luk. 22.44 when all his body evacuates sweat like drops of bloud but what be the pleurisie never so great how strange is the phlebotomy it seems not to consult where the sign lies you see all his body fals at once to sweating and bleeding not is the cure less strange then the physick for we had surfetted and it is he that purgeth we had the fever and it is he that sweats and bleeds for the recovery of our health did you ever hear of such a remedy as this oft-times a bleeding in the head say Physicians is best stop by striking a vein in the foot but here the malady is in the foot and the remedy in the head we silly wretches lay sick of sin and Christ our Saviour purgeth it out by a sweat like drops of bloud trickling down to the ground here is a wonder no violence is offered no labour is sustained he is abroad too in the raw ayr and laid down groveling on the cooler earth or if all this be not enough to keep him from sweating the night is cold so cold that hardier souldiers were fain to have a fire within doors and yet notwithstanding all this he sweats saith the Text how sweats it is not sudor diaphoreticus a thin faint sweat but grumosus of great drops and those so many so violent as they pierce not onely his skin but clothes too trickling down to the ground in great abundance and yet may all this fall within the compasse of a naturall possibility But a sweat of bloud puts all reason to silence yea saith Hilary it is again nature to sweat bloud Contra naturam est sudare sanguinem Hillar l. 10. trinitate and yet howsoever nature stands agast the God of nature goes thus far that in a cold night which naturally draws bloud inwards he sweats without heat and bleeds without a wound See all his body is besprinckled with a Crimson dew the very veins and pores not waiting the tormentors fury pour out a showr of bloud upon the suddain foul sin that could not be clensed save onely by such a bath what must our surfets be thus sweat out by our Saviour Yes saith Bernard we sin and our Saviour weeps for it Bern. in ramis Palmarum serm 3. not onely with his eyes but with all the parts of his bodie and why so but to this end That the whole body of his Church might be purged with the tears of his whole body Come then ye sons of Adam and see your Redeemer in this heavie case if such as be kind and loving are wont when they come to visit their friends in death or danger to observe their countenance to consider their colour and other accidents of their bodies tell me ye that in your Contemplations behold the face of your Saviour What think you when you see in him such wonderfull strange and deadly signes our sweat howsoever caused is most usuall in the face or forehead but our Saviour sweats in all his bodie and how then was that face of his disfigured when it stood all on dros and the drops not of a watrie sweat but of scarlet bloud O my heart how canst thou but rend into a thousand pieces O

of Megiddon O weep or if you will not weep for him yet weep for your selves and your own sinnes alas have you not cause your sins were his murtherers and your hands by your sins were imbrued in his bloud Secondly stay not here but when you have mourned and wept over your Saviour then hate those sinnes that wrought this evil on your Saviour Which that you may do effectually send your thoughts a far off and see your Saviour in his circumcision in the garden and when you have done so then follow him a little further behold the tears in his eies and the clodded bloud that came from him when his cheeks were nipped his head crowned his back scourged his hands and feet nailed his side opened and then O then see if you can love those sins that have done all this villany love them said I no if you have any share in Christ I hope you will rather be revenged on your sins rather you will every one say O my pride and my stubbornness and my looseness and my uncleanness and my drunkenness these were the nailes and the whips and the spear that drew bloud from my Saviour therefore let me be for ever revenged of this proud subborn rebellious heart of mine own let me for ever loath my sin because it brought all this sorrow on my Saviour Is not this ordinary with men should any one murther your Father or friend whom you highly regarded and honoured would you brook his sight or endure his company nay would not your hearts rise against him would you not prosecute the Law to the uttermost and if you might be the Executioner would you not wound him and mangle him and at every stroak cry out Thou wast the death of my Father thou wast the death of my Father and is the heart of a man thus inraged against him that hath but murthered his friend or his father O then how should your hearts be transported with infinite indignation not against the man but against sinne that hath shed the precious bloud of your father your Master your God your King your Saviour O follow follow after these sins with an Hue and Cry bring them to the Bar set them be-the Tribunall of that great Judge of heaven and cry Iustice Lord justice against these sins of mine these slew my Saviour Lord slay them these crucified my Saviour Lord crucifie them Why thus persue and never leave them untill if it possible may may you see these sins bleed their last never think you have done enough but still give your corruptions one hack more confess your sins once more and say Lord this pride and this stubbornness and this looseness of heart these are they that killed my Saviour and I will be revenged of them Thirdly stay not here neither but when you have mourned for your sins and sought revenge on them then by Faith cast them all on the Lord Jesus Christ ease your own souls of them and hurle your care on him that careth for you all Certainly there is no way to wash you clean from your sin but onely by Christs blood and how must you apply this but by Faith now then in the last place have faith rence your soul as it were in the bloud of this immaculate Lamb and though you are polluted and defied yet questionless the bloud of Jesus Christ will purge you from all sin Heb. 9.13 14. If the bloud of Buls and Goats saith the Apostle and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the bloud of Christ who through the eternall Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God You may talk of a Purgatory why here is the Purgatory that true Purgatory the fountain that is laid open for the house of Iudah to wash in and I pray you mark it it is not onely for justification but being applyed by faith as effectuall for sanctification not onely for the expiation of sin that it be not laid to your charge but withall to purge your Consciences from dead works to serve the living God O then as you tender your souls believe and cast your selves upon Christ for salvation and for pardon of sins Do you not see him bleeding on the Cross Do you not hear him graciously offering to receive your sin-wearied souls into his bleeding wounds what should you do then but cast your selves with all the spirituall strength that you can at least with infinite longings and most hearty desires into the bosome of your Saviour say with your selves the fountain is opened and here will we bathe for ever Come life or come death come heaven or come hell come what come can here will we stick for ever nay if you must perish tell God and man Angels and devils they shall pluck you out of the hands and rent you from between the armes of your blessed bleeding Redeemer your soul-purging Saviour Thus if you believe you need not to droop for your sins but to go on with comfort to everlasting happiness the bloud of Christ no question will make way for you into heaven Yea saith the Apostle by the bloud of Iesus we may boldly enter into the holy places by the new and living way which he hath prepared for us Heb. 10.19.20 through the veile which is his flesh Such is the blessed fruit of this bloud and the Lord make it effectuall unto us to bring us into heaven even for his sake who by himself thus purged our sins You see the Purge given and taken onely a time it must have and then follows the Evacuation Hee purged What the ill humour is Sin the extent of it Our sin of both these together at our next meeting Now the Lord so prepare us that this Purge may work in us the everlasting wel-fare and health of our souls Our sins SIn is our sickness and to cure us of it the Law yields corrasives the Gospell lenitives but especially Christ yields that Physick Purgative which evacuates sin To consider Christ as a man of sorrows and not a Saviour of sinners were but a melancholick contemplation to behold his wounds and not so to think on 'em as they were our selves addes but more sorrows to our other miseries but when we call to mind that his bloud was our ransome that his stripes were our cures then with all our hearts we pray his bloud be upon us and our children And why not this bloud saith the Apostle speaks better things then the bloud of Abel Heb. 12.24 For Ables bloud cryed revenge but Christs bloud speaks mercy and to our comfort be it spoken if God heard the servant he will much rather hear the son yea if he heard his servant for spilling how much more will he hear his Son for saving and regaining our souls In the words are two parts 1. The ill hu●our evacuated Sin 2. The extent

every corn of your field neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of the harvest How not reap it not gather it what then why Thou shalt leave them for the poor and for the stranger I am the Lord your God Levit. 19.9 Lev. 19.9 10. When Ruth came to glean in the fields of Boaz that good Master commands his servants Ruth 2.15 Let her gather among the sheaves and do not rebuke her Had this Worldling been so pitifull to the poor his barns might have stood himself might have lived his soul have been saved But now what a strange lot happens on him his Halls Houses Barns Buildings all runne round in a dance of Death before his eyes Fourthly his house and friends both left him when death came The Parable is common Ex Damasceno A man hath three friends two whereof he loved most entirely the third he made no account of this man being sent for to come before his King he desires his first friend to go with him but he could not onely he would give him something for his journey He desires his second friend to go with him but he would not onely he would bring him a little piece of his way When both these forsook him he goes to the last which before he esteemed least and this friend was the party that went with him to the King and answered for him in all his causes This is the case of every man dying the King our Judge sends death his Serjeant to summon you to your judgement Come to your first friends I mean your riches alas they cannot go with you but give you a sheet as necessary for your journey Come to your second friends I mean your acquaintance alas they wil not go with you but bring you to your graves and there leave you to your selves Come to your last friends which you now least think of I mean your Consciences and you shall find that is the truest friend that will go with you to the Judge answer for you to the King and either acquit you or condemn you bring you to the gates of heaven or deliver you to the goal of hell Have a care of your Consciences if you mean to speed well at this day how blessed a man had this Worldling been if onely a good conscience had accompanied him to the Judge of heaven but now when death summons him there is no friend to solicite no Advocate to plead no man to speak one word in his souls behalf it is his bad conscience keeps him company and though all others leave him he can devise no means to shake this from him Fifthly there is a jewell irrevocable of which this sudden death robs him I mean his time and what a losse was this all his goods grounds barns buildings were they more worth then the world it self yet were they not able to restore one minute of his time if this could be purchased what a rate would he give for a little respite nothing is now so precious as a piece of time which before by moneths and years he lavishly mis-spent they that passe away time with mirth and pastime shall one day see to their grief what a losse they have now we revell it out dally it away use all means and occasions to make it short enough but when this golden showre is gone and those opportunities of salvation lost by negligence then we may wish and wish again Oh had we a little time a little space to repent Imagine that this worldling whom now you must suppose to lie frying in hel flames were dispenced with for a little time to live here again on earth amongst us would but the Lord vouchsafe him one hour of a new triall a minute season of a gracious visitation oh how highly would he prize how eagerly would he apprehend with what infinite watching praying fasting would he improve that short time that he might repent him I know not how effectually this may work an your hearts but I am fully perswaded if any damned creature had but the happinesse to hear this Sermon you should see how his very heart would bleed vvithin him bleed said I nay break and fall asunder in his breast like drops of vvater Oh vvith vvhat inflamed attention vvould he hear and listen vvith vvhat insatiable grasping vvould he lay hold on Christ vvith vvhat streaming tears vvould he vvater his cheeks as if he vvould melt himself like Niobe into a fountain Blessed God! hovv fond are foolish men that never think of this till their time be lost vve that are alive have onely this benefit of opportunity and if vve neglect it a day vvill come vve knovv not hovv soon that vve shall be past it and cannot recover it no not one houre if vve vvould give a thousand ten thousand vvorlds for it What can I say reflect on your selves you that have souls to save you have yet a little time and the time present is that time vvhat then but so use it novv as vvhen you are gone you need not vvith grief vvish you here again Sixthly yet more losse and that is the losse of losses the losse of his soul his riches lands houses friends time and all were nothing to his soul This is that Paragon Peere Rose and Spouse of our well-beloved Christ How many a teare shed he to save it what grones cryes prayers teares and bloud poured he before God that he might redeem it from the jawes of Satan and is this lost notwithstanding all this labour O sweet Jesu what a losse is this thou wast born lived died and that a shamefull death the death of the cross and all this suffering was to save poor souls yet see a soul here lost and the bloud of God though able not effectuall to redeem it Whose heart would not melt into bloud that but knew this misery Suppose you could see the soul of this wretched worldling no sooner had it left the body but immediately was it seized on by infernall fiends now lies it on a bed of fire tortured tormented scourged and scorched in those furious flames there his conscience stings him his sorrow gripes him his pain so handles him that he cryes and roares Woe woe and alas evermore Who now for shadows of short pleasures would incur these sorrows of eternall pains In this world we can weep and wail for a losse of trifles an house a field an Oxe took from us is enough to cruciate us but how shall we bewail the losse of a soul which no sooner plunged into that pit of horrour but it shall feel a punishment without pity misery without mercy sorrow without succour crying without comfort torment without ease a world of mischiefe without all measure or redress Such is the losse of this mans silly soul whilest he was cheering it with an home-bred solace Soul thou hast much goods layd up for many years God whispers in his eares and tells him other newes What of his soul

off the burthen Matth. 11.28 Rev. 21.6 do they thirst after righteousness just then is the fountain of the water of life set wide open unto them are they contrite and humble in spirit Esay 57.15 just then are they become thrones for the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity to dwell in for ever O then come and welcome Christ excepts none that will not except themselves He died for all and be would have all men to be saved But yet let us be cautelous secondly he purged our sinnes and ours with a limitation the vse of Physick we say consists in application and howsoever our Saviour hath purged our sins yet this purge of his is nothing beneficiall to us unlesse there be some means to apply it As then it is in all other Physick so in this we must first take it secondly keep it 1. Take it for as the best plaister if not laid to can cure no wound so Christ himself and all his precious merits are of no virtue to him that will not apply them by faith when you hear the Gospel preached believe it on your parts believe Christ is yours believe that he lived and died and sorrowed and suffered and all this for you to purge your souls of your sinnes 2. But having taken it you must secondly keep it as men take Physick not onely in belief that it will do them good but in hope to keep it by the virtue and strength of the retentive parts so we take Christ by faith but we retain him by holiness these two faith and holiness are those two bonds wherewith Christ is united unto us and we unto Christ so that if we be of this number then truly may we say that he purged our sinnes for the both died for us and by virtue of our faith and holinesse through him his death is applied to us to us I say not in any generall acception but as we are of the number of his Saints for we had sinned and they were our sinnes onely that he effectually purged and washed away Vse And this lesson may afford us this use that howsoever the free grace and mercie and goodnesse of Christ Jesus is revealed and offered to all men universally yet our Saviour takes none but such as are willing to take upon them his yoke he gives himself to none but such as are readie to sell all and follow him he saves none but such as deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and live soberly righteously and godlily in this present world in a word he purgeth none or cleanseth none by his bloud from all sin but such as walk in the light as God is in the light who make conscience of detesting and declining all sins and sincerely set their hearts and hands with love and carefull endeavour to every duty enjoyned them why these are the men onely to whom his death is effectuall and therefore as we mean to partake of his merits or to have good by his death let us become new creatures It is true indeed and we cannot but maintain it that to justification nothing but faith is required but this caution must be added it must be a faith that purifies the heart that works an universall change that shews it self in the fruits if therefore any of us would come in let us have ready our answer as a late Divine speaks the dialogue betwixt Christ and a true Christian on this manner First saith he when God hath enlightened the eyes of a man that he can see where this treasure is what then Why saith the Christian I am so enflamed with the love of it that I will have it whatsoever it cost me yea saith Christ but there is a price upon it it must cost thee dear a great deal of sorrow and trouble and crosses and afflictions Tush tell me not of price saith the Christian whatsoever I have shall go for it I will do any thing for it that God will enable me Why saith Christ wilt thou curb thine affections wilt thou give up thy life wilt thou be content to sell all thou hast I will do it saith the Christian with all my heart I am content to sell all that I have nothing is so dear unto me but I will part with it my right hand my right eye nay if hell it felf should stand between me and Christ yet would I passe through it unto him This beloved this is that violent affection which God puts into the hearts of his children that they will have Christ whatsoever it cost them yet understand me I pray you It is not to sell our houses or lands or children but our sinns that I mean the Lord Jesus and one lust cannot lodge together in one soul no if we are but once truly incorporated into Christ we must take him as our Husband and Lord we must love honour and serve him we must endeavour after sanctification puritie new obedience abilitie to do or suffer any thing for Christ we must consecrate all the powers and possibilities of our bodies and souls to do him the best service we can we must grieve and walk more humbly because we can do no better and thus if we do though I cannot say but still we shall sin so long as we live on this earth yet here is our comfort 1. Joh. 2.1 2. We have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sinnes I say for our sinnes effectually if we believe in his Name for it was for us he died and they were our sinnes he purged and this is that great benefit we receive from our Saviour in that he by himself hath purged our sinns And now our sinnes being purged our souls recovered I may well end this Text onely I shall give it one visit more and so Farwell You see the maladie Sin the remedie a purge the Physician he the patient himself our selves for our infirmities were laid on him and his sores became our salves by whose virtue we are healed Blesse we then God for the recovery of our souls and be we carefull for the future of any relapse whatsoever these relapses are they we had need to fear indeed for in them the diseases are more dangerous sinns are more pernicious Matth. 12.44 and men become seven times more the children of Sathan then ever they were before Now then we are healed be we studious to preserve it all the dayes of our life and we shall find at our death that he that purged our sinns will save our souls we need not any other Purgatory after death no when our souls shall take their flights from our bodies then are the Angels readie to conduct them to his Kingdome and thither may we come for his sake and his onely who by himself in his own person hath purged our sinnes AMEN FINIS Heavens happiness LUKE 23.43 To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise HE that purged our sinns is