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
A12205	Tvvo sermons vpon the first words of Christs last sermon Iohn XIIII. I. Being also the last sermons of Richard Sibbs D.D. Preached to the honourable society of Grayes Inne, Iune the 21. and 28. 1635. Who the next Lords day follwing, died, and rested from all his labours	Sibbes, Richard, 1577-1635.; Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680.; Nye, Philip, 1596?-1672.	1636 (1636)	STC 22515; ESTC S102407	24,191	77

every cranny and bring light heat and influence into every part of the soule And therefore Christ saith Let not your hearts be troubled Now for the wayes whereby we must labour to comfort our hearts amongst many that I might speak of I will name a few First of all there must be a due search into the heart of the grounds of our trouble for oftentimes Christians are troubled they cannot tell wherefore As children that Will complaine they know not why I speake not of hypocrites that will complaine of that which is not a true griefe to them like some Birds that make greatest noyse when they be furthest from their nests But of some poore Christians that are troubled but distinctly know not the ground of it But search the heart ingenuously and truly to the bottome of it and see if there be not some Achan in the Camp some sinne in the heart for sinne is like winde when it gets into the veines it will have vent and a troublesome one and so will sinne if it get into the soule it is that indeed which causeth all trouble And therefore search your hearts throughly what sinne lyeth there unrepented of and for which you have not beene humbled And when you have found out your sinne give it vent by confession of it to God and in some cases to others And when we have done so consider what promises and comforts in the word of God are fitted to that condition for we can be in no condition but there are comforts for it and promises fitted to yeeld comforts for every malady And it will be the wisedome of a Christian to accommodate the remedy to the sore of his heart And therefore we ought to be skilfull and well seene in the word of God that we may sore up comforts before-hand Our Saviour Christ tels them before-hand of the scandall of the Crosse and of Peters deniall that they might lay up strength and spirituall armour against the day of tryall Those comforts do not for the most part hold out in the day of adversity which were not procured in the day of prosperitie It is not wisedome to be to learne Religion when we should use it and therefore let us be spirituall good husbands for our soules by storing up comforts out of the Word of God and then we shall have no more to do then to remember the comforts that we did before-hand know And there be some promise of more generall use that are Catholica fitted for all sorts of grievances and of these wee must make use when we cannot think of particular ones As the promises that concerne forgivenesse of sinnes Thinke of Gods mercy in pardoning sinne with admiration because sinne will be presented us in such terrible colours that if God be not presented in as gracious colours wee shall sinke and therefore set out Christ in his mercies and all sufficiencie when sinne is aggravated to be in its hainousnesse and out of measure sinfulnesse as the Prophet Michah doth Who is a God like our God that pardoneth iniquitie transgression and sinne c. Likewise how many promises and comforts are there in that one promise Luk. 11. He will give his spirit to them that aske him And here our Saviour promiseth to send the Comforter all graces and all comforts are included in the Spirit of grace and comfort his Spirit is a Spirit of all grace and therefore our Saviour thought that the promised enough when be said he would send them the Comforter And so what a world of comfort is in that promise All things shall worke together for the best to them that love God yea those things that are worst shall work together though they be hostile and opposite one to another yet they joyne issue in this they be all for the good of Gods people As in a clocke the wheels go severall wayes but all joyne to make the Clocke strike And so in the carriage and ordering of things one passage crosses another but in the issue we shall be able to say all things worke together for the best I found God turning all things for my good And I could not have beene without such a crosse such an affliction And so for present assistance in your callings or straits remember that promise made to Iosuab which is repeated in the 13 of the Hebrews I will not faile thee nor for sake thee a promise which is five times renewed in Scripture and how much comfort is in that that he will vouchsafe by his spirit a gracious presence in all conditions whatsoever And likewise that of David Psalme 23. Though I walke in the valley of the shadow of death yet will I feare no ill for thou art with me It was a terrible supposition made that though he should walke in the valley of the shadow of death yet he would feare no evill These promises well digested will arme the soule with confidence that it shall be able to put any case of trouble As in the 27. Psalme David puts cases The Lord is my strength the Lord is the light of my countenance of whom shall I be afraid Though thousands shall rise against me yet in this I will be confident If our hearts be established by the word of God setled in the truth of such promises by the Spirit of God we may set God and his truth against all troubles that can arise from Sathan and hell and the instruments of Sathan or our owne hearts And therefore it is a great wrong to God and his truth if we know not our portion of comfort and use it as occasion serves More particulars I omit leaving them to your owne industry the Scripture being full of them When we have these promises let us labour to understand them throughly to understand the grounds of our comfort in them and to beleeve the truth of them which are as true as God who is truth it selfe And then to love them and digest them in our affections and so make them our owne and then to walk in the strength and comfort of them Labour likewise to have them fresh in memory it is a great defect of Christians they forget their consolation as it is in the Hebrews though we know many things yet we have the benefit of our comfort from no more then we remember But above all if we will keep our hearts from trouble let us labour to keepe unspotred consciences Innocencie and diligence are marvellous preservers of comfort And therefore if the conscience be sported and uncleane wash it in the bloud of Christ which is first purging and then purifying It first purgeth the soule being set aworke to search our sinnes and confesse them which maketh us see our need of Christ who dyed to satisfie divine justice Then God sprinkles our heart with this bloud which was shed for all penitent sinners by which when the heart is purged the conscience will be soone satisfied also by Christs bloud And

when it is purged and pacified then keep it cleane for a foule soule is alwayes a troubled soule and though it may be quiet yet it is sure to break out afterwards And because there can be no more comfort then there is care of duty therefore together with innocencie let us be carefull of all duties in all our severall relations let us consider in what relations we stand and what duties we owe and be carefull to satisfie them all Neglect of duty is a debt and debts are troublesome when the soule reflects upon the omission of a necessarie duty I owe such a duty to such a person I should have done such a thing in such a relation but I have omitted it it is a disquietment and that upon good grounds and if you have beene negligent there must be an actuall renewing of the Covenant and a setting upon the duty with fresh endeavours to make amends for former negligences or else the soule shall have no comfort nor will God suffer it to admit of comfort And therefore work out your salvation with feare and trembling The reason that men do still tremble and are troubled with this doubt and that feare is because their salvation is not wrought out something is left undone and their consciences tels them so But above all that we may receive comfort let us labour for a spirit of faith Therefore here it is said You beleeve in God beleeve also in me Christ brings them to faith for comfort And he sets downe a a double object of faith God that is the Father Sonne and holy Ghost and Christ considered as Mediator and Christ brings them to himselfe Beleeve also in me because he would fense them against the future scandal of his suffering As if he should say You will hereafter when you see me so handled and upon the Crosse doubt and call in question whether I am God and the Messiah of the world or no. But if you beleeve in God beleeve in me For howsoever in love to you and mankinde I tooke mans nature on me and am abased yet in my greatest abasement remember this that I am God And surely there is nothing can stay the soule more especially when it is deeply humbled then to consider God in the second person incarnate and abased and crucified and made a curse and sinne for us to see the great God of heaven and earth whose excellencies we cannot comprehend to take our nature and in our nature to suffer for us those things which he did endure This will establish the soule indeed Can the the soule thinke that this was done for any small or to little purpose Or can there be any griefe or sinne that should hinder comfort or perswasion of the possibilitie of pardon when the great God became man on purpose to dye for sinne We may set this against all discouragements whatsoever And therefore beleeve in God beleeve also in me Howsoever you see me abased yet you may have comfort in my abasement for it is for you And therefore saith Paul Irejoyce to know nothing but Iesus Christ and him crucified That which proud and Atheisticall Heathens tooke scandall at that he rejoyceth in God forbid that I should glory in anything but in the Crosse of Christ Peace of conscience joy in the holy Ghost reconciliation and title to happinesse is all founded upon Christ crucified And then againe you see he joynes both together Ye beleeve in God beleeve also in me to shew the distinction of persons in the Trinitie God the Father Sonne and holy Ghost all our faith is resolved at length into one God but yet withall into three persons in that Divine nature because as there is God the Father offended so there must be a God to satisfie that God and there must be a God to reveale and apply that satisfaction The soule is so full of doubtings that nothing can set it downe but that which is above the soule and above the devill And therefore for our salvation and to give us comfort there is a necessitie of three persons in the Godhead The Father is offended God in the second person must satisfie offended justice and God in the third person must reveale and apply the Sonne for comfort And therefore he names them distinctly Ye beleeve in God c. And because we cannot beleeve in God the Father but by beleeving in Christ therefore he joynes them together ye beleeve in God ye beleeve also in me No man comes to the Father but by the Sonne God the Father dwels in the light that no mortall eye can approach unto onely he hath manifested himselfe in his Sonne who is the ingraven Image of his person God shines in the face of Christ and as he comes down and makes himselfe knowne to us in his Sonne so we must go up to him in his Sonne as he saith afterwards I am the way the truth and the life There is no going to the Father but by me nothing is more terrible then to conceive of God out of Christ for so he is a consuming fire therefore thinke of God as ours in Christ carry Christ our elder Brother with us and desire God to looke upon us in his Sonne Now now doth faith in Christ ease the soule in trouble Many wayes I will name a few Faith in Christ banisheth troubles and bringeth in comfort Because it is an emptying grace it emptieth us of our selves and so makes us cleane to another and thereby becomes a grace of union It is such a grace as brings the soule and Christ together Now Christ being the fountaine of comfort God having treasured all comfort in him for the fulnesse of the Godhead dwels in Christ and faith causeth Christ to dwell in us brings the soule and Christ together and so must needs make way for comfort for it makes us one with the fountain of comfort And by its repeated acts derives fresh comfort Again faith establisheth the heart Now to establish the soule there must be a solid Basis as in building there must be a foundation and a planting upon that foundation Now here is a foundation God and Christ and there must be a grace to found and bottome the soule thereupon and that is faith and so the soule is established The chaine and connexion of causes herein is this God the Father in Christ and by the holy Ghost conveighs comforts through the word laid hold upon by faith It is not the word alone for that is but as the veins and atteries that conveigh the bloud and spirits So the Spirit being conveighed by the promises helpeth the soule to lay it selfe upon Christ by faith which is a grace of union by which union with him the foule is established And then againe faith stirreth up such graces as do comfort the soule as hope in all good things promised And therefore in the next Verse he addes to comfort them In my Fathers house are many mansions and