Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	child_n	spirit_n	witness_v	1,106	5	9.8469	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30598	The rare jewel of Christian contentment wherein is shewed, I. What contentment is, II. The holy art or mystery of it, III. Several lessons that Christ teacheth, to work the heart to contentment, IV. The excellencies of it, V. The evils of murmuring, VII. The aggravations of the sin of murmuring / by Jeremiah Burroughs.	Burroughs, Jeremiah, 1599-1646.	1649 (1649)	Wing B6103; ESTC R32016	217,805	276

your own spirits and then you shall know that God is God God will not appear till first you be still 2. Reas We are not able to make use of our own Graces till we be quiet and still If God have bestowed Graces when we are in a hurly-burly we have no use of them at all therefore saith the text Psalm 4. Stand in awe sin not commune with your own hearts upon your beds and be still Commune with your own hearts you have somewhat perhaps in your own hearts that may quiet you commune with your own hearts and be still you are not fit to commune with your own hearts till you get them quiet first be quiet and then commune Oh! my brethren A man or woman of a staid sound quiet and still spirit hath a mighty advantage of all passionate spirits there are many of you that are passionate at all other times and that is the reason that in such great extremities you are so over-rul'd with passion you are so over-rul'd with your passion of anger at other times and out of Gods just judgment you are over-rul'd with the passion of Fear now But if at other times you would labour to keep in your spirits God would help you now 3. Reas Because without this stilness and quietness we cannot manifest that subjection to God we owe him for then there is a great deal of sin and pride and stoutness committed against God and therefore in that fourth Psalm the old Latine hath it My soul be silent my soul is subject to God the subjection of our souls to God depends much upon this Quieting of our hearts 4. Reas Our reverence of God depends much upon it and therfore in this 4. Psalm Stand in aw and sin not commune with your own heart and be still for us to behave our selves in such a manner as many people do throwing out their hands and wringing and keeping such a stir as they do this shows there is not in their hearts that reverence they owe to God stand in awe If your hearts were possess'd with Gods fear you would not keep such a stir as you do in times of great danger 5. Reas This makes people unfit to listen to any thing that is spoken to them let any thing be spoken to them that is of any use they eannor hear it nor make use of it as we reade of the people of Israel Exod. 6.9 when Moses came to tell them of their deliverance the text saith He spake to the Children of Israel but they hearkned not to him why for anguish of spirit How many in trouble of conscience and in other times of extremity have their spirits in such anguish that they never hearken to any thing that is delivered to them and therefore they come with the same objection over and over again a hundred times in cases of conscience 6. Without this Quietness of spirit you are mighty hinderers of others and you daunt and discourage the hearts of others and many times the cause miscarries meerly upon the unquietness of the hearts of men and women in time of danger therefore you must be quiet and look up to God for salvation for Faith hath this excellency that it is able to bring life out of death light out of darkness it hath a kind of creating vertue as God himself brings one contrary out of another so faith hath such a kind of working if faith be of the right stamp a genuine faith it hath a mighty power in times of extremity to behold Gods salvation and make use of it I 'le give you one example of the use of faith in times of extremity and that is of David when he fled from Saul and when he was in the Cave mark Be merciful to me O God be merciful to me for my soul trusteth in thee yea in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge What was the shadow of Gods wings poor David was got into the shadow of the Cave and the Sun did not shine upon him but he looked upon himself in the Cave as under the shadow of Gods wings You poor people that live it may be in Cellers and in poor dark holes and Lanes the Sun scarce shines upon you in a year yet if you be godly you are under Gods wings by faith I shall now speak to the Second part of the Doctrine that we are to expect Salvation from God David did fly from Absolom and yet what confidence had David in that case in God reade but that third Psalm and you 'l see confidence enough in David and yet flying too Divers grounds and reasons I shall give for this why we must look up to God as well as be still Rea. Hereby we sanctifie Gods Name Fear ye not their fear but sanctifie God in your hearts saith the text You sanctifie not God else I suppose many of you would be loth to be guilty of swearing and taking Gods Name in vain in that kind but by your distracting thoughts and unbeseeming carriage in times of danger you take Gods Name in vain you break the third Commandement 2. Rea. This shews the beauty and excellency of Faith as David said Thou shalt see what thy servant can do So now there is a great deal of talk of faith in the world let us see now what it can do the truth of love is when I can love God for himself without his gifts so when I can beleeve in God without experience I shew the excellency of my faith when I can trust in God meerly upon his word as I love God meerly for himself when my faith taks Gods single bond without any security that is the excellency of Faith when I would have outward helps and assurances there I call for sureties So Christians when they must needs have outward helps and former experiences they call to God for sureties as if they would not trust God upon his simple bond that 's the excellency of faith to trust God upon his single bond 3. Rea. When we look up to God for salvation we engage God in our cause God owns not the cause till then and then he owns it Now how happy were we if thus we could do in al our particular and private straights stand still and look up to God for help and for salvation It 's true you cry out and complain I have lost a dear husband and a dear friend never man lost such a friend and these great straights I am brought into but lose not the quiet of thy heart too take heed of that that is a greater loss than any loss thou canst have in this world I remember I have read of a Phylosopher that had this expression saith he If the gods would grant to me my desire and bid me ask what I would have I would ask of them this thing that I might have the composed spirit of Socrates that I might have such a spirit as Socrates had for it is observed of

is taken away this promise tels me that if it doth befall me yet it is for some notable end and because God hath use of my life and intends to fetch about his glory some way that I know not of And if he will come in a fatherly way of chastisement yet I will be satisfied in the thing So a Christian heart by reasoning out of the word comes to satisfie his soul in the middest of such a heavy hand of God and in such a distressed condition as that is Now Carnal hearts they find not that power in the Word that healing vertue that there is in the Word to heal their destracted cares and the troubles of their spirits but now those that are godly when they come to hear the Word they find out that in the Word there is as a plaister to all their wounds and so they come to have ease and Contentment in such conditions as are very grievous and miserable unto others But now for other particular promises and more generally for the Covenant of grace how and in what mysterious way the Saints do work to fetch out Contentment and satisfaction to their souls we shall refer to the next time SERMON IV. PHILIPPIANS 4.11 For I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content IN the last Exercise we spoke of divers things in the Mystrie of Contentment and in the close we spoke of two more but we could not have time to open either of them I shall open them a little more largely then proceed to some few more and so to other things in the point That 's the next then A Christian heart hath not only Contentment in God and certainly he that hath God must have all he that hath him that hath all he hath all But he is able to make up all his outward wants of creature-comforts from what he finds in himself That may seem to be more strange It 's true perhaps we may convince men though they doe not feel by experience what it is to make up all in God yet we may convince them that if they have him that hath all things then they have al for there is such a fulness in God he being the infinite first-being of all things that may make up all their wants But here 's another thing that 's further I say a godly man can make up whatsoever he wants without the creature he can make it up in himself in the 14. of the Prov. 14. A good man is satisfied in himself as now If he wants outward comforts good chear feasting a good conscience is a continual feast he can make up the want of a feast by that peace he hath in his own conscience if he wants melody abroad he hath a bird within him that sings the most melodious songs that are in the world and the most delightful And then doth he want honour he hath his own conscience witnessing for him that is as a thousand witnesses the Scripture saith in the 17. of Luke v. 21. Neither shall they say Lo here or lo there for behold the Kingdome of God is within you a Christian then whatsoever he wants he can make it up for he hath a Kingdom in himselfe the Kingdom of God is within him If one that is a King should meet with a great deal of trouble when he is abroad yet he Contents himself with this I have a Kingdom of mine own now here it 's said the Kingdom of God is within a man truly upon this Scripture of the Kingdom of God being within those that are learned if they would but look into that Coment upon the Gospel that we have of a learned man they shall find a very strange conceit that he hath about this very text he confesses indeed it is unutterable and so indeed it is the Kingdom of God is within you he makes it that there is such a presence of God and Christ within the soul of a man that when the body dies he saith that the soul goes into God and Christ that is within him the souls going into God and Christ and enjoying of that Communion with God and Christ that is within it's self that 's Heaven to it saith he he confesses he is not able to expresse himself nor others cannot understand fully what he intends but certainly for the present before death there 's a Kingdom of God within the soul such a manifestation of God in the soul that is enough to Content the heart of any godly man in the world the Kingdom that he hath now within him he shall not stay till afterwards till he goes to Heaven but certainly there is a Heaven in the soul of a godly man he hath Heaven already many times when you go to comfort your friends in their afflictions you will say Heaven will pay for all nay you may certainly find Heaven pays for all already there is a Heaven within the souls of the Saints that 's a certain truth no soul shall ever come to heaven but that Soul that hath Heaven come to it first When you die you hope you shall goe to Heaven But if you shall goe to Heaven when you die Heaven will come to you before you die Now this is a great Mysterie to have the Kingdom of Heaven in the Soul no man can know this but that Soul that hath it that Heaven which is within the Soul for the present I say it is like the white stone and the new name that none but those that have it can understand it It 's a miserable condition my brethren to depend upon creatures altogether for our Contentment you know that rich men account it a great happinesse if they need not go to buy things by the penny as others do they have all things for pleasure or profit upon their own ground and all their inheritance lies intire together they have no body comes within them but they have all within themselves there lies their happinesse Whereas other poorer people are fain to go from one Market to another to provide them necessaries but yet great rich men they have sheep and beeves corn and cloathing and all things else of their own within themselves and herein they place their happinesse But this is the happinesse of a Christian that he hath that within himselfe that may satisfie him more than all these That place that we have in the first of James seems to allude to that condition of men that have all their estates within themselves Jam. 1.4 But let patience have her perfect work that we may be perfect and entire wanting nothing the word there used signifies to have the whole inheritance to our selves not a broken inheritance but that where all lies within themselves as a man that hath not a piece of his estate here and a piece there but he hath it all lie together and the heart being patient under afflictions finds it self to be in such an estate as this is finds