Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	darkness_n	light_n	shine_v	1,422	5	9.5903	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31367	Truths caracter of professors and their teachers which by looking through may bring to their remembrance the dayes of old, and how it was then with them, which may evidently shew unto them what hath befallen them since they degenerated from the measure of God, which some of them had in them, and it may also put them in mind of Gods justice and severity towards them ... / by William Caton.	Caton, William, 1636-1665.	1660 (1660)	Wing C1522; ESTC R24738	68,611	57

some of them you begot into your own image and these promoted you and you flattered them And by degrees in processe of time you came to be invested with the supream Authoritie in the Nation And then you strove to wind out those that were not for your design though for your own ends you made use of many that were not of your mind but them you kept under and by guile caught them in your snare so that it was so with you for a season that you might do what seemed good in your own eyes And then many begun to sit down at ease having enriched themselves with the spoil of their enemies and were not onely gotten into their possessions and estates but were also plunged into their sins and were become as proud as covetous as self-seeking as their enemies had been And this many saw in the light of the Lord that had been one with you in your affliction and distresse in your sufferings and servitude which you had passed through before you came into the seats of those that the Lord drove out before you And when those that feared the Lord amongst you beheld your degeneration and saw so little was performed of what was promised by you they begun to desert you and many that retained their sinceritie towards God came out voluntarily from among you and others that could not bear your actions but must reprove you were turned out by you And even at that very time when many of you were in Authoritie did the Lord God of heaven and earth cause his Light to shine out of the darknesse in the hearts of a remnant even more clearly and more gloriously then it had done in yours And by this eternal Light which was the same that had shined in your Consciences whereby you had seen the evil of those things which you had long groaned under by this Light I say did the Lord convince many of his everlasting Truth and of the evil of destroying and devouring one another so that many came by the arme of Gods power to be gathered into the life of those things which you professed and came again to be brought into that tendernesse which you had lost and came to be more abundantly sensible of Gods eternall power and presence then you had been before And though those had been with you and had hazarded life liberty and estate with you yet you could not bear them because they could not bear your hypocrisie and deceit nor suffer it to passe unreproved therefore did you turn your hand against them that were your dearest friends and begun to make Leagues and Covenants with such as have now proved your enemies indeed And crept into fellowship with them and so sate down and setled your selves in that which was not your rest And then by degrees crept into Societies and some got into one form and some into another And many became Presbyterians and strove to draw if it had been possible all men after them into that Form in which there were and yet to this day are some as bad as those that you suffered under many years ago so in processe of time many came to see by the light of the Lord that they were not in the right way And so left them and went forth from that in themselves by which they had seen their covetousnesse their rigidnesse and the emptinesse of their form and so went too among them called Independants who in some things had a more shew of godlinesse though but in a few then the Presbyterians had but in a certain time their ambition and arrogancy appeared their covetousnesse and self-conceitednesse which became a burthen to such as retained their zeal and tendernesse towards the Lord and many such honest-hearted and self-denying people came out from among them and could not be content to keep at a distance from all till the Lord shewed them who were his flock and where they did feed and rest And therefore did they run to the Anabaptists so called who differed much in judgement from those with whom they had walked but in processe of time the light of the Lord manifested the emptinesse of their inventions as it had done the loosenesse of other Professors who had lost their tendernesse towards God which they seemed to have when they first setled in the forms before mentioned which many by running into them from that of God in themselves lost and so became dead dry barren and unfruitfull as many of you are who are as it were scorched and withered as trees of the heath without sap in the desert where you may behold your figure And when it came to be thus with you then many such as were tender among you and could not find him whom their souls loved while they continued in your forms came by the arm of the Lords Power to be pluckt out from among you as fire brands out of the fire and then many of you came to be offended and your indignation came to be kindled against them as the wrath of your adversaries was kindled against you in the dayes of your tendernesse and then did you instead of paying your vowes which you made unto the Lord in the day of your distress add unto the afflictions of the affl●cted and began to augment the oppressions of the oppressed and did behave your selves so uncharitably towards a suffering people even as if you your selves had never been acquainted with suffering so when you had lost the tendernesse that was in your selves you exalted your selves over them that were tender and made a prey upon them and cast them out from among you out of places of authority out of power and out of your Church fellowships And then preferred shallow selfish prating and deceitful men that would comply with you for their own ends above discreet sober honest and conscientious men that feared God when they could not swear nor bow to you nor give you flattering Titles did you not then and often upon that very account lay them aside esteemed them unfit to be in any place of office and so lightly regard your truest friends who bore much of the heat of the day and were more noble and valiant then your selves and for whose sakes rather then for yours the Lord often delivered you out of your enemies hands And some of you did not onely turn them out of power but gave your power unto their and your enemies for them to make a prey upon such as were recovered again to that state and condition which you were in when you suffered for conscience sake by that power that they had joyned with you against and yet did you do unto them as your adversaries did unto you when they had power over you yet they did not so unto you as you did unto them by whom you suffered For against them you plotted conspired and sought both their Lives and Estates as since hath appeared