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
A56470	A sermon preached at the funeral of the Rt Honorable John Earl of Rochester, who died at Woodstock-Park, July 26, 1680, and was buried at Spilsbury in Oxford-shire, Aug. 9 by Robert Parsons ...	Parsons, Robert, 1647-1714.	1680 (1680)	Wing P570; ESTC R4950	23,584	52

so render'd very probable also in the case of this Person here before us will best be judged by the marks I am now to give you of the sincerity of his Repentance for which I am in the next place to account 3. And t was the power of the Divine Grace and of that only that brake through all these obstacles that I have now mention'd that God who is a God of infinite compassion and forbearance allow'd him leisure and opportunity for Repentance that he awaken'd him from his Spiritual slumber by a pungent Sickness that he gave him such a presence of Mind as both to provide prudently for his worldly affairs and yet not to be distracted or diverted by them from the thoughts of a better world that lengthened out his day of grace and accompanied the ordinary means of salvation and the weak ministry of his Word with the convincing and over-ruling power of his Spirit to his Conscience which Word of God became to him quick and powerful sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of his soul and spirit and at last the Spirit of God witnessed to his spirit that now he was become one of the children of God Now if the Thief upon the Cross an instance too much abused was therefore accepted because accompanied with all the effects of a sincere Convert which his condition was capable of as confession of Christ in the midst of the blasphemies of Pharisees and his own lewd companion and desertion even of Christ's Disciples if his repentance be therefore judged real because he seems to be more concern'd in the remembrance of Christ's future Kingdom than his own death if St. Paul was approv'd by the same more abundant labours which he commended in the Corinthians yea what zeal what fear what vehement desire 2 Cor. 7.11 I think I shall make it appear that the Repentance of this Person was accompanied with the like hopeful symptoms and I am so sensible of that awful Presence both of God and man before whom I speak who are easily able to discover my failings That I shall not deliver any thing but what I know to be a strict and a religious truth Upon my first visit to him May 26. just at his return from his journey out of the West he most gladly received me shew'd me extraordinary respects upon the score of mine Office thank'd God who had in mercy and good providence sent me to him who so much needed my prayers and counsels acknowledging how unworthily heretofore he had treated that order of men reproaching them that they were proud and prophesied only for rewards but now he had learnt how to value them that he esteem'd them the servants of the most High God who were to shew to him the way to everlasting life At the same time I found him labouring under strange trouble and conflicts of mind his spirit wounded and his conscience full of terrors Upon his journey he told me he had been arguing with greater vigor against God and Religion than ever he had done in his life time before and that he was resolved to run 'em down with all the argument and spite in the world but like the great Convert St. Paul he found it hard to kick against the pricks For God at that time had so struck his heart by his immediate hand that presently he argued as strongly for God and Virtue as before he had done against it That God strangely open'd his heart creating in his mind most awful and tremendous thoughts and Ideas of the Divine Majesty with a delightful contemplation of the Divine Nature and Attributes and of the loveliness of Religion and Virtue I never said he was advanced thus far towards happiness in my life before tho upon the commissions of some sins extraordinary I have had some checks and warnings considerable from within but still struggled with 'em and so wore them off again The most observable that I remember was this One day at an Atheistical Meeting at a person of Qualitie's I undertook to manage the Cause and was the principal Disputant against God and Piety and for my performances received the applause of the whole company upon which my mind was terribly struck and I immediately reply'd thus to my self Good God! that a Man that walks upright that sees the wonderful works of God and has the uses of his senses and reason should use them to the defying of his Creator But tho this was a good beginning towards my Conversion to find my Conscience touch'd for my sins yet it went off again nay all my life long I had a secret value and reverence for an honest man and lov'd Morality in others But I had form'd an odd Scheme of Religion to my self which would solve all that God or Conscience might force upon me yet I was not ever well reconciled to the business of Christianity nor had that reverence for the Gospel of Christ as I ought to have Which estate of mind continued till the 53d Chapter of Isaiah was read to him wherein there is a lively description of the Sufferings of our Saviour and the benefits thereof and some other portions of Scripture by the power and efficacy of which Word assisted by his Holy Spirit God so wrought upon his heart that he declar'd that the mysteries of the Passion appeared so clear and plain to him as ever any thing did that was represented in a Glass so that that Joy and Admiration which possess'd his Soul upon the reading of Gods Word to him was remarkable to all about him and he had so much delight in his Testimonies that in my absence he begg'd his Mother and Lady to read the same to him frequently and was unsatisfied notwithstanding his great pains and weakness till he had learned especially the 53. of Isaiah without book At the same time discoursing of his manner of life from his youth up and which all men knew was too too much devoted to the service of sin and that the lusts of the flesh of the eye and the pride of life had captivated him He was very large and particular in his acknowledgments about it more ready to accuse himself then I or any one else can be publicly crying out O Blessed God can such an horrid Creature as I am be accepted by thee who has deny'd thy Being and contemn'd thy Power asking often Can there be mercy and pardon for me Will God own such a Wretch as I and in the middle of his sickness said Shall the unspeakable joys of Heaven be confer'd on me O Mighty Saviour never but through thine infinite Love and Satisfaction O never but by the purchase of thy Bloud adding That with all abhorrency he did reflect upon his former life that sincerely and from his heart he did repent of all that folly and madness which he had committed Indeed he had a true and lively sense of God's great mercy to him in striking his hard