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	faith_n	sprinkle_v	2,358	5	11.3240	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42553	Philadelphia, or, a treatise of brotherly-love Shewing, that we must love all men: love the wicked in general: love our enemies: that the godly must especially love another: and the reasons of each particular love. The manner of our mutual love; the dignity, necessity, excellenc, and usefulness of brotherly-love. That the want of love, where love is due, is hatred, shewed in divers particulars. The greatness of the sin of malice and hatred; with the reasons why wicked men hate the saints: together with cautions against those sins that break the bond of love. Many weighty questions discussed, and divers cases cleared. By William Gearing, minister of the word.	Gearing, William.	1670 (1670)	Wing G436C; ESTC R223669	92,727	215

mighty numbers of notorious Offenders shall then be arraigned and endited for the breach of this ancient Law which was from the beginning What numberless Catalogues and huge Bills of Offences against this Law shall then be brought to Tryal The thought of this might make mens hearts to shake and their knees to smite together as Belshazzar's did If we consider That as he saw an hand miraculously writing his Doom upon the wall so the hand of God hath written and doth write all these Offences in the Tables of men's Consciences where they shall stand recorded until the last day unless in those who have washed out this Hand-writing by the Blood of Christ sprinkled by Faith joyned with unfeigned Repentance and Reformation of Heart and Life How should we bewail the fearful Transgressions against this most ancient and sacred Law committed now among our selves to whom the Gospel of Love and Peace is preached in which Gospel the Lord Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace hath especially as in his last Testament bequeathed Peace and commended Love unto us I say in this Testament sealed with his own most precious blood which he shed in Love towards us to make Peace between God and us That so we might be at peace among our selves CHAP. VIII I come now to the main thing in my Text and that is Christian-Love And thence shall observe Sect. I. Observ THat it is the message and solemn charge of God and Christ That Christians should love one another It is not an Arbitrary thing That we should love one another but the Command of God a great Command and that which is joyned to believing in his Son Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 3.23 The one is as truly necessary to Salvation as the other Let men talk of Believing while they will on the Son of God yet if they have no Love one to another Their Faith is a dead Faith because God stands much upon this To have his people live together in Love At the beginning of the verse he saith it is his Commandment and at the end of the verse he saith he gave us Commandment It is also observable that he saith of the Commandment of Love he gave us that Commandment It is a gift we should not only submit to it as being bound by the Authority of it but we should open our hearts to it and cheerfully embrace it as a Gift from God Love is an affection of the Heart arising out of an Apprehension of God's Love to us and embracing others in the Lord 1 Joh. 4.11 If God so loved us we ought also to love another He sheweth whence this spiritual love springeth even from an Apprehension of God's Love to us Now from this Love to God ariseth our Love to others Ver. 20. If a man say he loveth God and hateth his brother he is a Lyar and ver 21. This Commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his brother also So that as our Love to God ariseth from God's Love to us so this spiritual Love to men ariseth both from God's Love to us and our Love to God And it is in the Lord True spiritual Love carrieth a respect to God and not so much to outward things It loveth others either with respect to God's Graces in them or with respect to God's Command either because God hath put his likeness upon them or because God hath commanded them to love them In the former respect this Love embraceth the Godly in the second All men because God hath commanded us to love all under the name of our Neighbour For that answer of Saviour to the question Who is my Neighbour is appliable to any And Christ who speaketh peremptorily I say unto you Love your enemies excludeth none Now that this Love is sound only in the sanctified Soul is easily proved by the Description it self for it ariseth from an apprehension of God's Love to us Now wheresoever this is rightly apprehended there is some degree of Sanctification and the heart is in some measure purified For God's Love is apprehended by a sound Faith and a sound Faith purifieth the heart Yea the Love of God prevaileth so far as to brin● the heart out of Love with Sin and so to purge and cleanse out those sinful dispositions and affections of the heart which are contrary to the Love of God and so purifieth the heart A new commandment I give unto you saith our Saviour to his Disciples That ye love one another as I have loved you that ye also love one another Joh. 13.34 This is my Commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you Joh. 15.12 SECT II. THere are two remarkable things about this Christ calleth it a new Commandment and he calleth it his Commandment He calleth it a new Commandment for these reasons 1. Because it is given after a new manner The Law commandeth us to love our Neighbour as our selves Wh●●e our Love to our selves is the Rule of our Love to our Neighbour But Christ in his Gospel commandeth us to love one another sicut ego dilexi vos as I have loved you saith he We must Love each other even as he hath loved us Where Christ's Love to us must be the Rule and Measure of our Love to the Saints and to all men The Law saith Thou shalt love thy Neighbour Christ extends it further and saith Thou shalt love thy very Enemies Our Love must be like the Sun in the Firmament that shineth upon the Good and the Bad. Our Love like the Clouds must drop on the barren Heath as well as upon the rich and fruitful Soyl. We must do good to them that do us evil bless them that curse us 2. It is called new in respect of the excellency of this Grace and so it is an Hebraism It was the Hebrew custom to call excellent things new quia nova aut sunt aut videntur meliora quàm vetera because new things either are or seem to be better than old As if our Saviour had said Many a Commandment have I delivered unto you but this is instead of all Love one another Love will make you to keep all the other Love is the fulfilling of the Law 3. It is called new as Maldonat thinketh not because it is a new command or delivered in a new manner but because our Saviour commendeth this above all and commandeth and presseth it to his Disciples as if it were a new command brought from heaven as if they never heard of such Truth before Love one another Novitas respicit studium diligendi non mandatum 4. It is called a new Commandment as the Gospel is called a new Testament 5. Because it must be renued every day We must love and yet moreover we must pay this this debt of Love continually and yet still stand in debt Christ calleth it his Command for two reasons 1. Because among all the Commands of the Moral Law he presseth this most of all As

blood So now the greatest Potentate and the poorest beggar the most civil and the most savage Nations are of one blood originally the English and the Muscovitae the Laplanders Tartarians yea the Beasilians and Canibals are of one blood originally God could have made a man and woman for every province and part of the world and so have given a several Original to every Nation but he in his wisdom did rather please to make one man out of whose loyns one woman out of whose womb all the Nations of the earth should issue that so all Nations might be made of one blood and all might be of kin and that so there might be a natural bond of union brotherhood and love between them So then a child of God is a brother to a natural person for th●y that are the children of God are the children of men too and of the same blood with others therefore when natural persons do not love the children of God it is a sign they do abide in death When the graces of the godly and the fruits of grace in their conversation and practice are so distastful unto men that for this they cast off love and affection towards them though they be their brethren by nature and of the same blood with them originally whereas this should encrease their love towards them this sheweth that such do abide in death 2. He that liveth in the Church of God and accounteth himself a child of God if he be a child of God indeed all the children of God are his brethren and sisters both by Nature and Grace If God be his father the children of God are his brethren and sisters but if he doth not love them as brethren it sheweth that he abideth in death and deceiveth himself he is not born of God nor passed from death to life SECT III. III. HAters of others especially of the godly they are murderers 1 Job 3 15. He that hateth his brother is a murderer Every act of hatred is a mortal wound given to a godly man Some think St. John speaketh by way of allusion to Cain who was an actual murderer of holy Abel and that God accounteth all haters of godly men as hainous sinners as damned Cain is and their hatred as abominable a sin as his actual murder Dost thou see a man hating scoffing opposing persecuting godliness for godliness sake Thou maist point at him and say yonder goeth a Cain a murderer of a righteous man 1. Malice and hatred is murder affectu desiderio in affection and desire it makes a man to desire wish and rejoyce in the death or destruction of those whom he hateth This the Heathens saw by the light of Nature therefore one of them said Quem oderunt periisse expetunt whom men do hate his death they do desire Now what is this but murder It is true that in respect of the person hated the hurt done to him by hating him is much less than when he is actually murdered and his blood spilt It is true also that the actual commission of murder in outward act doth add much to the guilt of his conscience that hateth his brother because there is both the inward hatred or murder of the heart and the outward cruel act of murder added to it there is the beginning and the consummation the accomplishing and finishing of this bloody sin But yet the inward malice and hatred of the heart which maketh those that harbour malice in their hearts to wish the death and destruction of those they hate or to rejoyce in it is murder in the sight of God Men that have malice festering in their hearts against others causing a desire of their destruction may hold their hands from shedding of blood for want of opportunity for fear of the Law for fear of infamy among men yea out of a slavish fear left their own conscience as a revenger of blood should pursue them with restless horror and terror and never let them enjoy merry hour in this life besides the dismal effects of it in the life to come And on the other side they are not restrained from murther by Love in any degree That appeareth by this that though themselves are loth to shed blood yet they that are malicious generally could be content that those whom they hate should perish by the hands of others they have a secret d●sire of this and are well enough pleased with it in the retired thoughts of their hearts if such a thing happen by the hands of others 2. M●lice is the root of Murther and therefore it is murther virtualiter et eminenter Murther is conceived in the womb of Malice Malice is the Seed of which this foul and bloody Monster of Murther and Bloodshed is hatched As the Child is in the Fathers Loyus ere it be born or conceived so murther is in the Bowels of Malice before it is brought sorth As poyson is in the young Brood of the Viper before it is able to put forth the sting so murther lyeth a breeding in the womb of Malice and Hatred before it break forth into Blood Malice maketh a bloody Heart and Murther maketh bloody hands Murther is oftentimes the effect of Hatied and Malice first Cain did hate Abel he was wroth with him then he killed him Absalom's Hatred made him to kill his Brother Amnon Thus Persecutors hating the Professors of Truth took away their Lives from them They set their Wits on work to invent Torments for the painful death of Gods Saints Hatred of godliness did kindle the fire of Martyrdom 3. The Scripture calleth it Murther to shew how great a Sin hatred of Godliness is Aquinas disputing what was the greatest sin as a man man could commit against his Neighbour his resolution was that Odium proximi est gravissimum peccatorum it was Hatred of our Neighbour Much more grievous it is when a man shall hate any one because he followeth the thing that good is and hateth a man because he laboureth to be like unto God To shed mans Blood who was made after the Image of God and to do that murther that ever was committed with the least degree of malice that any was is a most fearful and damnable sin but I conceive that there may be a greater sin committed in harbouring abundance of malice and bitterness in the heart though without Bloodshed than in some Cases when Blood is unlawfully spilt In the malice of our powder-Traytors this is apparent which though by the Providence of God it was restrained from shedding of Blood was far more grievous than many an act of murther which hath been committed But besides this when men do neither actually shed Blood nor purpose and plot bloodshed I conceive their malice may be more sinful than some acts of Murther I doubt not but that many a man sinneth far more in malice against his Neighbour than David in killing Vriah though it was a grievous sin for what is sin but the