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	soul_n	sprinkle_v	1,209	5	10.9438	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A11818	The Christians daily walke in holy securitie and peace Being an answer to these questions, 1. How a man may doe each present dayes worke, with Christian chearefulnesse? 2. How to beare each present dayes crosse with Christian patience? Containing familiar directions; shewing 1. How to walke with God in the whole course of a mans life. 2. How to be upright in the said walking. 3. How to liue without taking care or thought any thing. 4. How to get and keepe true peace with God; wherein are manifold helpes to prevent and remove damnable presumption: also to quiet and to ease distressed consciences. First intended for private use; now (through importunity) published for the common good. By Henry Scudder, preacher of the word.	Scudder, Henry, d. 1659?; Davenport, John, 1597-1670.	1631 (1631)	STC 22117; ESTC S106698	278,031	844

spirit of spirituall ioy Where it doth testifie that you are Gods children there it will give you new harts causing you to desire and endevour to live like Gods children in reverent feare and love leading you in the right way checking you and calling you backe out of the way of sinne stirring you up to prayer with sighes desires and inward groanes at least making you to cōfesse your sinnes and to aske and hope for pardon in the name of CHRIST And will still be putting you on to live like obedient children giving you no quietif you doe not Thus much of the first and principall meanes of getting true peace and comfort Secondly If you would have the invaluable Iewell of p●ace then abstaine as much as is possible from the act of all grosse and from all presumptuous sins and from the allowance of any sinne For the more sin the more guilt and the lesse sin the lesse guilt Now the lesse guilt lyeth upon the Conscience the more peace of Conscience the more guilt the lesse peace Thirdly When you fall into sinne for who liveth and sinneth not then with all speed affect your heart with godly sorrow for it cause it to be a burden and a load and wearinesse to the Conscience but withall affect your heart wi●h hope of mercy forgivenes and grace through Christ. Then with all humble submission you must seeke unto GOD the God of peace but come to him by Christ Iesus the Prince of peace upon whom lay the chastisement of your peace Aske mercy and forgivenesse Aske repentance grace and new obedience Beleeve in Christ If you doe all this then you come unto Christ and unto God by Christ according to his Commandement and you have his sure promise that you shall have rest to your soules This doe for in Christ onely can you have peace This true application of CHRISTS bloud and satisfaction will so sprinkle the Conscience from the guilt of sinne that there shall remaine no more Conscience for sinne that is no more guilt which shall draw upon you the wrath of God and eternall punishment for sinne whence must needs follow peace of Conscience because the Conscience hath nothing to accuse you of guiltinesse being washed off by Christs bloud As soone as David after his foule sinnes could come thus to God his heart had ease But when you have thus gotten a good and cleare Conscience take heede of defiling it againe or giving it any matter of unrest Be as tender in keeping your Conscience unspotted and unwounded as you are of the apple of your eye Sin not against knowledge and Conscience and in any case smother not the good checks and watchwards of your Conscience For if being washed you doe againe defile it this will cause new trouble of heart and you must againe apply your selves to this last prescribed remedy In the fourth place CHRIST having taken upon him the burden of your sinnes which was intollerable you must take upon you and submit unto the yoke of Christs service which is light and easie You must indevour to doe whatsoever hee hath commanded in his Word and Gospell following his steppes in all his imitable actions in all humility and meekenesse in all spirituall and heavenly mindednesse When you can thus subject your selves to Christ in holinesse you shall have peace For the holy Ghost saith the worke of righteousnesse is peace and againe saith To be spiritually minded is peace that is bringeth with it peace I comprehend CHRISTS yoke of the Gospell in these three Faith Hope and Love As these three be in you and abound in the same degrees shall peace be in you and shall abound Having Faith in Christ saith the Apostle we have peace with God It is God that justifieth who shall lay any thing to your charge For justifying Faith is the ground and spring from which onely sound and true comfort doth flow Hope will make you wait and expect with patience for the accomplishment of GODS sure promises whereby it will hold you as steady and as sure from wracke of soule as any Anchor can hold a ship God doth therefore give hope that it may be as an Anchor sure and stedfast Though while you are in the Sea of this world it doth not keepe you so quiet but that you may bee in part tossed and disquieted with the waves and billowes of feare and doubt to try the goodnesse of your vessell and strength of your Anchor and tacklings Yet you shall be sure not to make shipwracke of Faith and a good Conscience if you shall lay hold upon this hope set before you And as for Love They that love the Lord shall have peace you must therefore love God love his ordinances and his people Love God with all your heart Love your neighbours as your selves love Gods Commandements For great peace shall they have saith the Prophet that love Gods Law and nothing shall offend them Whosoever doe thus take up Christs yoke and follow him shall find rest to their soules and peace shall be upon them as upon the Israel of God Fiftly If you would have peace use all good meanes whereby you may bee oft put in remembrance of the exhortations and consolations of God They in the Hebrewes were therefore out of quiet and readie to faint in their minds both because they forgat the exhortation which said My sonne despise not the chastening of the Lord c. And because they forgat the consolation which saith Whom the LORD loveth he chasteneth The principall meanes of being put in minde of GODS consolations are these following 1. You must be much Conversant in Scriptures by reading hearing and meditating thereon For they were all written to that end that through patience and comfort of the Scriptures you might have hope The Scriptures of God they are the very Wells and Breasts of consolation and Salvation The Law discovers sinne and by its threats against you and by relating judgements executed upon others doth drive you to Christ The promises of the Gospell made to you and the signification of the accomplishment thereof to others doe settle and confirme you in Christ whereby your heart is filled with joy and consolations The Gospell is called the Gospell of peace and the Ministers of the Gospell are said to bring glad tydings of this peace ●t is the bright shining light in the Gospel which will guide your feet in the way of peace 2. Be much in good Company especially in theirs who are full of ioy and peace in beleeving whose example and counsell will mind you of joy and comfort and will be of excellent use unto you to establish you in peace Sixtly and lastly Acquaint your selfe with God touching the course he useth to take with his children in bringing them to glory Acquaint your selfe with God

agreement of the powers faculties of man within themselves and of freedome from assaults and molestations either of Sathan from without or from lusts within is not absolute but admitteth of severall degr●… the life to come this latter 〈…〉 shall be perfect for then all beleevers shall be perfectly freed from all trouble of Conscience from all molestation of temptations their victory shall be compleat But in this life their Peace is but imperfect It is true for Substance but is more or lesse ●s the light they have received is more cleare or more dimme and as grace in them is more strong or more weake For although mans Iustification is absolute and admitteth not of more or lesse yet the assurance of it whereby a man hath peace of Conscience is more or lesse according to the measure of his ●leare sight and evidence of his ●aith Hence it is that the deare children of God have interruptions and intermissions in their peace having some times much peace some times little or no peace according as they have in ●…ssions in their assurance o● Gods favour Thus it was with David and Asaph sometimes his heart was quiet and his soule was glad in assurance that his soule should rest in Hope at other times his soule was cast down and disquieted in him thinking that he was cast out of God sight fearing that God would shew no more fauour Yea he was so perplexed that hee did almost faint and his eyes failed with waiting for God For sith the best assurance of beleevers is exercised with Combating against doubting their truest and best peace must needes be assaulted with disquiet And as it is with a Ship at anchor so is the most stable peace of a Christian in this life who hath his Hope as an anchor of his soule sure and stedfast who though he cannot make utter Ship wracke yet hee may be grievously tossed and affrighted with the waves and billowes of manifold temptations feares Likewise though peace of Sanctification be true yet it must needs be more or lesse according as any man groweth or decreaseth in holinesse and as God shall please to give restraint tospirituall enemies or power to subdue them more or lesse Now the whole peace of God both in him to man from him manifested and wrought in man doth passe all understanding and serveth to keep the heart minde of him that walketh with GOD and resteth on him through Christ This Peace is it which you must seeke for and imbrace in beleeving and if you would have true comfort and tranquillity in your minde laborespecially to get and keepe the peace of a good Conscience which seemeth to be the peace that is chiefly though not onely intended in this Text. SECTION 2. Concerning the excellencie of the Peace of God THat you may be induced to doe your best to obtain this Peace Consider the excellency of it you may conceive much of it by that which hath beene said in the opening of that Scripture and by shewing the nature of the Peace considering likewise the object author and use of it But that you may better perceive that this Peace of God for worth and use passeth all understanding Take these reasons in particular First That must needs be an excellent Peace which GOD will please to take into his holy Title calling himselfe God of Peace calling Christ the Prince of Peace Secondly That peace must needes bee of infinite value passing all understanding for which Christ gave himselfe paying the price of his owne most precious bloud for it 3. Thirdly This peace cannot but passe all Understanding because the cause from whence it commeth namely Christs love and the effect which it worketh namely ioy in the holy Ghost doe as the Apostles affirme passe knowledge and are unspeakeable 4. Fourthly This peace was that first congratulation wherewith the holy Angels saluted the Church at Christs birth giving her joy in her new borne Husband and Saviour And it was that speciall legacy which Christ ●esus did bequeath to his Church ●aving that as the best token of his love to it a little before his Death Saying My peace I ●ave with you 5. Fifthly This peace is one of the principall parts of the kingdome of GOD which consisteth as the Apostle saith of Righteousnesse Peace and Ioy in the holy Ghost 6. Sixthly By as much as the evils and mischiefes that come to a man by having God to be his enemie which draweth upon him Gods Wrath iustice Power and all Gods creatures to be against him And by as much as the ●●● vousnesse and intollerable anguish of a wounded Spirit passeth Vnderstanding by so much the Peace of GOD which freeth him from all these must of necessity passe all Vnderstanding Now that it is a fearefull thing to have God to be an Enemie it is said He is a consuming fire and it is a fearefull thing to fall into the hands of the living God It appeares likewise by Christs compassion and griefe for Ierusalem who neglected the time of making and accepting of peace with God for he Wept over it and said If thou hadst knowne even thou atleast in this thy day the things which belong to thy Peace but now they are hid from thine eies But what it is to have GOD to be an Enemy is seene most fully by Christs trouble and griefe in his Passion and Agony in the garden and in the Extremitie of his conflict with Gods wrath on the Crosse when God shewed himselfe to be an Enemie and did for mans sin powre on him the fiercenesse of his wrath It made him though he was God being man to sweat for very anguish as it were drops of bloud and to cry If it be possible let this cup passe and My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Moreover If you doe observe the complaints of such distressed soules that have had terrour of Conscience if you have not had experience thereof in your selfe how that they were at their wits end pricked at heart as it were with the point of a speare o● sting of a Serpent pained like men whose bones are broken and out of ioynt making them to rore and to consume their spirits for very heavinesse then you will say that peace of conscience doth passe all understanding Seventhly When God and a mans owne conscience is for him and Gods grace in some good measure hath subdued sinne and Satan in him this draweth with it assurance that all other things whose peace are worth having are also at peace with him For if God be for us who can be against us This peace must of necessitie bring with it all things which will make us happie even all things which pertain to life godlinesse and glory Lastly adde this that as the worth and sense of peace of God is unutterable and

kinde of the sinne if you wel observe it it being a wilfull and malicious refusing of pardon upon such tearmes as the Gospell doth offer it scorning to be beholding unto God for it You may perceive what it is by this description The sinne against the holy Ghost is an utter wilfull and spitefull reiecting of the Gospell of Salvation by Christ together with an advised and absolute falling away from the profession of it so farre that against former knowledge and conscience a man doth maliciously oppose and blaspheme the Spirit of Christ in the Word and Ordinances of the Gospel and motions of the Spirit in them having resisted reiected and utterly quenched all those common and more inward gifts and motions wrought upon their hearts and affections which sometimes were intertained by them in so much that out of hatred of the Spirit of life in Christ they crucifie to themselves a-fresh the Sonne of God and doe put him both in his Ordinances of Religion and in his members to open shame ●reading underfoot the Sonne of God counting the bloud of the Covenant wherewith they were sanctified an unholy thing doing despight to the spirit of grace If you shall heedfu'ly looke into these places of the Scripture which speake of this sinne and withall doe observe the opposition which the Apostle maketh betweene sinning against the Law and sinning against the Gospell you shall clearely finde out the nature of this sinne But to resolve you of this doubt if you be not overcome with Melancholy for then you will answer you know not what which is to be pittied rather than regarded I would aske you that thinke you have committed the sinne against the holy Ghost these Questions Doth it grieve you that you have committed it Could you wish that you had not committed it If it were to be committed would you not forbeare if you could choose Would you take your selfe beholding to God if hee would make you partakers of the bloud and Spirit of his Sonne thereby to pardon and purge your sinne and to give you grace to repent Nay are you troubled that you cannot bring your heart unto a sense of desire of pardon and grace If you can say yea then albeit the sinne or sinnes which trouble you may be some fearefull sinne of which you must be exhorted speedily to repent yet certainly it is not the sinne against the holy Ghost It is not that unpardonable sinne it is not that sinne unto death For he that committeth this sinne cannot relent neither will he be beholding to GOD for pardon and grace by Christs bloud and spirit he cannot desire to repent But he is given over in Gods just judgement unto such a reprobacy of minde pollution and deadnesse of conscience perversnesse and rebellion of will and to such an height of hatred and malice that he is so blasphemously despit●fully bent against the Spirit of holinesse that ●t much pleaseth him rather than any way troubles him that hee hath so maliciously and blasphemously rejected or fallen from persecuted and spoken blasphemously against the good way of Salvation by Christ and against ●he gracious operations of the Spirit and against the members ●f Christ although he was once convinced clearly that this is the ●nely way of Salvation and that those graces and gifts were from God that they were the deare children of God whom he doth ●●w despight Others if not the same object ●●us God will certainely con●●mne them because S. Iohn ●●th said if their hearts condemne ●em God is greater than their ●arts hence they in ferre God will condemn them much more For they say their hearts doe condemne them There is a double judgement by the heart and conscience It ●●●g●●h a mans state or person ●●●the●●e be in state of grace ●●●●●●o Also it judgeth a mans ●…lar actions whether they be good o● no. I take it that th●i place of Iohn is not to be understood of judging or condemning the person For God in his finall judgement doth not judge according to what a mans wea● and erroneous conscience judgeth for so it cannot choose bu● be more or lesse in this life making it the square of his judgement to condemne or absolve any For many a man in his presumption iustifieth himselfe i● this life when yet God will condemne him in the world to com● and many a distressed soule li●● the Prodigall and humble Pu●● li●an cōdemneth himselfe whe● yet God will absolve him For a man may have peace with God yet God for reasons best known to his wisedome doth not presently speake peace to his conscience as it was with David in which case man doth judge otherwise of his estate than God doth This place is to be understood of iudging of particular actions namely whether a man love his brother not in word and tongue onely but in deed and truth according to the exhortation ver 18. Which if his Conscience could testifie for him then it might assure his heart before God and give it boldnesse to pray unto him in confidence to receive whatsoever hee did aske according to his will But if his owne conscience could condemne him of not loving his brother in deed and truth then God who is greater thā his hart but wherein greater greater in knowing mans heart and the truth of his love knowing all things must needs condemn him therein much more Even as Peter in the question whether hee loveth Christ or no he appeales to Christs omniscience whereby he proveth his love towards him saying Thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee This is the full scope of the place Yet this I must needs say that the holy Ghost hath instanced in such an act namely of hearty loving the brethren which is an infallible signe of being in state of grace whereby except in case of extreame melancholy or phrensie and in the brunt of a violent temptation a man may judge whether at that present he be translated from death to life yea or ●o If any shall think the place to be understood of judging the person he must distinguish between that judgement which the heart doth give rightly and de iure and that which it giveth erroneously But suppose that you trying your selves by this your hearts doe condemne you of not loving the brethren can you conclude hence that you shall be finally damned God forbid All that you can inferre is this you cannot have boldnesse to pray unto him untill you love them nor can you assure your selves that you shal have your petitiōs granted And the worst you can conclude is that now for the present you are not in state of grace or at the least you want proofe of being in state of grace You must then use all Gods meanes of being ingrafted into Christ and must love the children of GOD that you may have proofe thereof Did Paul love