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
A64744	Flores solitudinis certaine rare and elegant pieces, viz. ... / collected in his sicknesse and retirement by Henry Vaughan.	Nieremberg, Juan Eusebio, 1595-1658. Two excellent discourses.; Eucherius, Saint, fl. 410-449. De contemptu mundi. English.; Vaughan, Henry, 1622-1695.	1654 (1654)	Wing V121; ESTC R35226	150,915	376

Sinner is a Fool. The wised●me of Doves is innocence and that which makes the light to shine is its simplicity Light is a Type of Joy and Darknesse of Sorrow Joy is the fruit of innocence and sorrow of Sinne. The sorrow we take for Fortune is hurtfull Those teares like tempestuous droppings if not kept out will rot the house But the sorow for sinne is healing Penitential tears are the O●le of the Sanctuary God gives them and afterwards accepts them they both cleanse us and cherish us When Marble weepes it washeth off the dust Worldly teares are the waters of Marah the tree that sweetens them must be shewed by the Lord The waters of the pool Bethesda heal'd not untill the Angel stirred them without true remorse teares profit not but if they have that Ingredient they are showers which the Lord hath blessed and must not be stopped although they might As courage and a joyfull heart are the ripe fruits of innocence so shame and sorrow are the hopefull buds and primroses of it Contrition is the infancie of Virtue Therefore that sadnesse must not be expelled which expelleth Vice It is an invention of the Deity to destroy Sinnes That they might be either unfruitfull or fruitfull onely to their owne destruction For this we have two instances from Nature in the Mule and the Viper Whereof the one is barren and the other unhappily fruitfull Nature is carefull that Evills may not multiply or if they do that they may not prosper The Mule is barren lest there should be an increase of Monsters Apposite to this is that saying of Gregory Cerameus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c Evils saith he are denyed from God the power of propagating as mules have not the faculty to preserve their kind by generating one another The Viper notwithstanding is a mother but shee brings forth her owne destruction The birth of her young ones is her death So sorrow that is the child of sinne is the death of it also Let therefore this saving destroyer of sins be made much off let this godly sorrow be still cherished and never rebuked he that dryes up his teares before he is cleansed takes delight in his filthinesse and like the lothsome drunkard would sleep in his vomit Penitent afflictions should never be resisted but by precaution Hee then that would not drink of this Wormwood must be sure to refuse the sugred venom of sinne No man is Evill for nothing Every defect in life is occasioned by a defect of Patience because we cannot endure to be constantly good because we are impatient of continuall holinesse Two Evills attend upon Sinners the Evill of sin and the Evill of Punishment which is the Evil of sorrow To escape the last we must abstain from the first wee must be either impatient of the first or else the patients of the last Unlesse wee will suffer a litle to avoid offences wee must suffer much after we have fallen into them A short displeasure is better then a long torment This previous Patience of abstaining frees us from two subsequent Evils The pain of Conscience untill we repent and after that the pain of Penitence These two are the Appendants or retinue of every sinne A seasonable innocent forbearance is the fense against them both one small griefe averts these two great ones How wholesome and comfortable is that Patience which prevents sinne and sorrow the Consequent of it But Virtue when it is most healthfull is in the estimation of some reputed to be poyson For no other reason do they reject it of whome Theodotus elegantly sings Virtues faire cares some people measure For poys'nous works that hinder pleasure This Patient abstinence from Evill is the Mother of holy Joy it keeps the mind pleasant and serene What is there or what can there be more beneficial or delightfull to man then a pure innocent conscience where all the Virtues like busie Bees are in constant action as in a fair flowry field or rather in Paradise where all is Divine all Peacefull nothing polluted no feare no distraction In this state as Theophanes saith The wise man is adorned with a Godlike Conscience and a mind becomming the very Deity What is there more joyful then to be master of such a Power as cannot be violated by Tyrants and Torments It was a golden and Victorious saying of Tiburtius Every punishment is poor when a pure Conscience keepes us company For as the guilty can receive no comfort So the Innocent cannot lose his Joy The Joy of Conscience is Natures recompence the coalescent reward or fruite of integrity an entailed happinesse the native blandishment of life and the minds mighty purchase What happier gaine can be then to rejoice alwaies for what wee have done but once or what greater damage then an unrighteous gain It was bravely said by Chilo that the heavi●st losse was to bee chosen before base gain That will grieve us but once the other alwaies The losse of temporal goods will trouble us but for a time but a lost Conscience will torment us Eternally What greater liberty can there be then not to fear any thing And what can he be affeard of that is not frighted by the guilt of his own spirit when Periander was asked what liberty was he answered A good Conscience And another saith that Man should with Virtue arm'd and hearten d be And innocently watch his Enemy For fearlesse freedom which none can controule Is gotten by a pure and upright Soul Sinne makes remisse and c●wardly spirits to be the constant slaves of misery what liberty yea what joy can he have or what dares he do Whose guilty soul with terrours fraught doth frame New torments still and still doth blow that flame Which still burns him nor sees what end can be Of his dire plagues and fruitful penalty But fears them living and fears more to dye Which makes his life a constant Tragedy Therefore to preserve the mirth and peace of Conscience righteous or honest Actions are mainly conducing and should be alwaies our imployment for this is the appointed task of man and it is his mysterie too The hand is the best Sacrifice The Antient Portugals used to dedicate to their Gods the right hands of their captives but offer thou thine own and not anothers To be onely without Vice is a vitious commendation Nay it is not commendable at all but self-indulgence or a flattering of our owne corrupt inactivity To such a passe is man come that he is not ashamed to do lesse for Virtue then the vitious will do for Vice It is a most poore and fordid glory to be onely not numbred amongst the bad It is a base degree of praise to be reputed onely not base To be without Vice is not to be good Not to be vitious and to be Virtuous are two things To refrain from Evill is scarse not Evill especially if we proceed no further For to be able to be good and not to be

and preparations seem formidable but to children only Take off the helmet or vizard of Evil and underneath it you will find good Hast thou lost a friend that took care for thee like a mother and furnished the like a Father that very losse is an occasion of greater gain though at first it appears not Parents sometimes to sport with their Children disguise themselves The Child at the first sight is dejected but having taken off the Masque he findes his Mother He laughs kisseth and embraceth her and if shee comes again in that dresse he fears her not Who would not be astonished at that furious Army of Evils which fought against holy Job It was a sad sight to see a Father after the losse of his Children and substance to lye languishing under the Tyranny of a devouring Ulcer And where upon a dunghill the very sink of uncleannesse and corruption But this frighted him not Hee was so farre from thinking it an Evil that he played with the worms and made that which his friends esteemed for vengeance and misery to be his meditation and mirth Hee was sure that he was innocent and retaining his integrity he could not misse of joy He saw through that Crust and Scab the sure mercies of God His beautifull and healing hand shined through that lothsome Veyle He desired not the comforts of his kinred nor his friends he said to corruption thou art my Father and to the worms you are my Sisters This was onely a shel or seeming Evil but the kernel or substance that lay within it was solid and reall good As Children deal with nuts so good and wise men deal with Calamities they break the shell and eate the kernell both the Good and Evill of this World have their fucus and outside Hee that knowes that and knowes how to take it off is a knowing man and knowes how to use them This lesson Saint Paul taught the Citizens of Corinth Let them that weep saith he be as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they re●oyced not And they that buy as though they possessed not He allowes onely an illusive and seeming commerce with the World Hear his reason and you will acknowledge his Justice The fashion of this World saith he passeth away or is transient and deceiving That which men call fruition in this World is but face-acquaintance All temporall possession is but a looking on the things themselves passe away They are still in a Cryptical unperceived motion when we suppose them to be fast lockt and fettered in our armes They creep from us like a mist or smoke which in confused and silent Evolutions steales out at the top of the chimney after it hath fouled it within All worldly things even while they grow decay As smoke doth by ascending wast away Saith Dionysius Lyrinensis The Apostle would have us to put on the same disposition and to be even with this great deceiver by a like deception Let us give it but a glimpse and halfe a face as it gives us but a transient and flattering salute Let us weep and not weepe rejoyce and not rejoyce use it and not use it This wee can never Act handsomly without personating or rather mocking this Arch-cheat When our Eyes flow with tears we must keep our Consciences smiling and pleasant Wee must have Heraclitus his face and Democritus his heart The forehead is the Index of the mind but the Soul of the just must shine when his face is most clouded Wee must not give our strength unto the World that is to say we must not seriously affect it In all our negotiations with it we must stand at a distance and keepe our affection for him who must be loved with all the heart with all the strength and with all the Soul Saint Paul when he made use of this expression had respect I believe unto the rites of the Roman Theater the Comick and Tragick Lawes of their Poets which together with their Government were dispersed into all civill climates He applied to the various representations suddain changes and successive showes of the Stage where Truth moved in disguise and the serious travels of the Sons of Men were by Masquers and personating Counterfeits solidly Acted Where the short flourish of humane affaires did wither by degrees and ended in a sad Catastrophe while the Poets plot upbrayded the vanity of States-mens policie The World is a meer Stage the Master of the Revels is God the Actors are Men the Ornaments and flourishes of the Scenes are honour power and pomp the transitory and painted Streams of Mortality which passe along with the current of time and like flowers do but onely appeare when they stay longest Hee that enjoyes them most doth but smell to them and the shortest fruition permits as much What else was the Majesty of the Assyrian Empire but a tractitious vanishing apparition a slight Flash of transient glory It shot by like a falling star and was presently succeeded by the Medes and Persians after them came the Macedon and last of all the Roman The Kingdomes of mortall men are not Immortal they are no better then their Rulers Where is Ninus now where is Semiramis Cyrus Darius Alexander Antipater Ptolomie Julius Caesar Octavian and Tiberius Where now are these Patriarchs of amb●ition these weak roots of the Assyri●n Median Persian Macedonian Asian Egyptian and Roman greatnesse What is become of these Primats of pride these eldest Sons of Fortune these prosperous disturbers of mankinds peace before whom the world became dumb like a Sparrow before a Kite what a deep Silence What a thick darkness is now drawn over them Nothing remaines of them but their names and the bare Skeleton of glory Their onely boast is that they have been Our onely Knowledge is that they are vanished Nay it is most certain that we know not all their names those we are acquainted with are not many so ruinous a thing is humane glory though held by mortal men to be immortal They are deceived It leaves neither Reliques as their bodies do nor Inscriptions like their Sepulchers The glory of men is more mortal then their Carkasses Their bones remain after ●heir Funerals after the fire Executioner And th●ir teeth may be seen when they can neith●r snarl● nor bite But their fame is edibl● it is dev●●red by time without F●re ●●a without Aire for by no● re●●●●ing p●s●erity it becomes dumb and miss●●h their ●ongues by whose speaking it lives All the felicity of men is a dream it comes on they know not how and when it vanisheth they cannot so much as discern its Back-parts If these recorded Empires these famous Yoaks and Burthens of the World came so suddenly to nothing what will be the lot of these petty fetters these leaden manacles that we are bound with If those massie and mighty weights were so clearly blown off what will become of these loose Packes which have nothing to balasse them

legal and politick punishment that in Phalaris it was a Tyrannical devise in Cain the Divine vengeance and in Adam and Eve the Justice of Nature God Nature Reason and fury it selfe which in this case must not be defined madnesse do all beare witnesse that selfe-condemnation or the guilt of conscience is of all others the most bitter and avenging torment Adde to this that the certainty of it is as infallible and inevitable as the extremity and fiercenesse of it are implacable there was never any Tyrant so cruel but would pardon some offender There was none so severely inquisitive but some might either escape from him or deceive him But the rigour of conscience permits neither favour flight nor fraud It is utterly inexorable and neither our feete will serve us to ran away nor our hands to free us whither shall a man ran from himselfe from the secrets of his own spirit from his life No man can be an Impostour or dissembler with his own heart no man can undo what he hath already done to have sinned is the remediless plague of the Soul It was a slow expression of Victor that Vengeance is near to sinne It is swifter then so It is not consectaneous or in chase of it but coetaneous with it and its foster-sister The punishment hath the same birth with the offence and proceedes from it It is both the Sister and the Daughter of it Wickednesse cannot be brought forth without its penalty The brest that conceives the one is big with the other and when the one is borne he is delivered of both It is a fruitfullnesse like that of Mice whose young ones are included the one in the other and generate in the very wombe Conscience while man thinkes of Evill even before he acts doth rebuke that thought so that the punishment is praeexistent to the crime though in the reigne of Virtue it is noiselesse and uselesse as penal Lawes are dead letters untill they are quickned by offenders It is then in its minority and without a sting or else it is asleep untill the Cry of Sinne awakes it In the state of Evill Conscience is the first and the last revenger when smal offences are wiped out enormous crimes like capital letters will still remain No man can find a Sanctuary to save him from himself No evill doer can so fly for refuge as to be secure though he may be safe Hee will be afraid in that place where he thought not to fear Though he fears not the friends of the murthered yet he finds that within him which makes him sore afraid He may escape the Executioner and the sword but he will be overtaken by himselfe and being safe hee will be afraid even of his safety Though he may find fidelity in his fellow-Tyrants yet shall he find none in his own bosome which is ever clamorous and spues out blood and guilt Nature deviseth such a punishment for evill doers as that which tyed living Malefactors unto the putrid Carkasses of dead men that the horrour and stench of them might afflict their spirits and the quick flesh be infected and devoured by the dead and rotten The punishment sticks fast unto us after the offence whose carkasse is terrour of Conscience Shame and a gnawing remorse that feeds still upon the faulty but is not satisfied The guilty person can have noe peace But night and day doth his owne life molest And bears his Judge and witnesse in his brest Adde to this that Reason which in all other pressures and misfortunes is the great Auxiliary and Guardian of man is in an offended Conscience his greatest Enemy and imploys all her forces to his vexation and ruine Fortune therefore is not the onely cause of our contristation we our selves do arm adversities and put a sword into the hand of griefe to wound us with we are sticklers against our selves Evill Actions afflict more then Evill Fortune We are not onely troubled that it was Chaunce but that it was our Choice It is the worst kind of misery to be made miserable by our owne approbation That evill which we procure to our selves must needs grieve us more then that which we casually suffer Noe damage is so doleful as a condemning conscience Truly I do believe that the onely misfortune of Man is Sinne. And so very bad and mischievous a Cheat it is that when it is most punished wee think it most prospers neither can Fortune be justly termed Evil but when she is the Assistant of Evill men and the surety for Evill doing This permitted successe makes the affaires of the most unrighteous to be esteemed Just This is a felicity like that of beasts which we put into pleasant and well watered pastures that they may be fed for slaughter Against this true misfortune as well as the false and seeming Patience must be our Antidote not by bearing but by abstaining from it Patience in this Case must elevate it selfe and passe into a virtuous anger and contempt of sinfull prosperity We must be piously impatient of all their proffers and poisonous allurements Impatient I say that we may patiently overcome them Therefore as I have formerly exhibited the Art of bearing well to be the onely remedy against Fortune So now I shall demonstrate to you that the Art of abstaining well is the sole medicine against these true and inward misfortunes Differing diseases must have different cures Patience is the poyson that kills Fortune and the Balm that heales her stripes but a sacred impatience or abstinence from Sinne is the Antidote of Conscience and the Basis or foundation of this holy impatience is transcendent and triumphant Patience To mitigate or overcome Fortune is a trivial trick Flattery will do it if we can but descend to approve of and commend all that she doth To preserve the peace of Conscience wee must be rigid and censorious We must speak home and truly We must examine before we Act and admit of no Action that wil be a just cause but for to blush The approaches of Fortune are abstruse She moves not within the light of Humane wisedome or if she doth the strength of her Prerogative lies betwixt Willingnesse and Constraint It is a kind of fatal fooling Man playes with his Stars untill they hurt him But the cause of an evill Conscience is within our view and may be prevented by Counsell For no man can Sinne against his Will or without his Knowledge One naile must drive out another He that would avoyd damnation must avoid also those things which are damnable He cannot grieve too much that grieves only to prevent Eternal griefe The helps we use against Fortune are after-games But the Salves of Conscience must precede the wound the cure of spirituall diseases is their prevention In the affaires of this World the best man is the experienced But in the distresses and affaires of Conscience he is the wisest that is most ignorant A noxious Knowledge is death and every