Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	david_n	heart_n	smite_v	1,341	5	9.6931	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02531	Contemplations, the sixth volume. By Ios. Hall D. of D.; Contemplations upon the principall passages of the Holy Storie. Vol. 6	Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.	1622 (1622)	STC 12657A; ESTC S103671	93,503	467

Iudah fiue hundred thousand the ordinarie companies which serued by course for the roiall gard foure and twentie thousand each moneth needed not be reckoned the addition of them with their seuerall Captaines raises the summe of Israel to the rate of eleuen hundred thousand A power able to puffe vp a carnall heart but how can an heart that is more then flesh trust to an arme of flesh Oh holy Dauid whither hath a glorious vanitie transported thee Thou which once didst sing so sweetly Put not your trust in Princes nor in the sonne of man for there is no helpe in him His breath departeth and he returneth to his earth then his thoughts perish Blessed is he that hath the God of Iacob for his helpe whose hope is in the Lord his God How canst thou now stoope to so vnsafe and vnworthy a confidence As some stomackfull horse that will not be stopt in his career with the sharpest bit but runs on heddily till he come to some wall or ditch and then stands still and trembles so did Dauid All the disswasions of Ioab could not restraine him from his intended course almost ten moneths doth he run on impetuously in a way of his owne rough and dangerous at last his heart smites him the conscience of his offence and the feare of iudgment haue fetcht him vpon his knees O Lord I haue sinned exceedingly in that I haue done therefore now Lord I beseech thee take away the trespasse of thy seruant for I haue done very foolishly It is possible for a sinne not to baite only but to soiourne in the holiest soule but though it soiourne there as a stranger it shall not dwell there as an owner The renewed heart after some rouings of error will once ere ouer-long returne home to it selfe and fall out with that ill guide wherewith it was misled and with it selfe for being misled and now it is resolued into teares and breathes forth nothing but sighes and confessions and deprecations Heere needed no Nathan by a parabolicall circumlocution to fetch in Dauid to a sight and acknowledgement of his sin The heart of the penitent supplied the Prophet no others tongue could smite him so deep as his owne thoughts But though his reines chastisd him in the night yet his Seer scourges him in the morning Thus saith the Lord I offer thee three things choose thee which of them I shall doe vnto thee But what shall we say to this When vpon the Prophets reproofe for an adulterie cloked with murder Dauid did but say I haue sinned it was presently returned God hath put away thy sinne neither did any smart follow but the death of a mis-begotten infant and now when he voluntarily reproued himselfe for but a needlesse muster and sought for pardon vnbidden with great humiliation God sends him three terrible scourges famine sword or pestilence that he may choose with which of them he had rather to bleed he shall haue the fauour of an election not of a remission God is more angred with a spirituall and immediate affront offred to his Maiestie in our pride and false confidence in earthly things then with a fleshly crime though hainously seconded It was an hard and wofull choice of three yeeres famine added to the three fore-past or of three moneths flight from the sword of an enemie or three daies pestilence The Almightie that had fore determined his iudgement referres it to Dauids will as fully as if it were vtterly vndetermined God hath resolued yet Dauid may choose That infinite wisdome hath foreseene the very will of his creature which whiles it freely inclines it selfe to what it had rather vnwittingly wills that which was fore-appointed in heauen We doe well beleeue thee ô Dauid that thou wert in a wonderfull straite this very libertie is no other then fetters Thou needst not haue famine thou needst not haue the sword thou needst not haue pestilence one of them thou must haue There is miserie in all there is miserie in any thou and thy people can die but once and once they must die either by famine warre or pestilence Oh God how vainely doe we hope to passe ouer our sinnes with impunitie when all the fauour that Dauid and Israel can receiue is to choose their bane Yet behold neither sinnes nor threats nor feares can bereaue a true penitent of his faith Let vs fall now into the hands of the Lord for his mercies are great There can be no euill of punishment wherein God hath not an hand there could be no famine no sword without him but some euils are more immediate from a diuine stroke such was that plague into which Dauid is vnwillingly willing to fal He had his choyce of dayes moneths yeares in the same number and though the shortnesse of time prefixed to the threatned pestilence might seeme to offer some aduantage for the leading of his election yet God meant and Dauid knew it herein to proportion the difference of time to the violence of the plague neither should any fewer perish by so few daies pestilence then by so many yeares famine The wealthiest might auoyd the dearth the swiftest might run away from the Sword no man could promise himselfe safetie from that pestilence In likelihood Gods Angell would rather strike the most guiltie How euer therefore Dauid might well looke to be in wrapped in the common destruction yet he rather chooses to fal into that mercy which he had abused and to suffer from that iustice which he had prouoked Let vs now fall into the hands of the Lord. Humble confessions and deuout penance cannot alwaies auert temporall iudgements Gods Angell is abroad and within that short compasse of time sweepes away seuentie thousand Israelites Dauid was proud of the number of his subiects now they are abated that he may see cause of humiliation in the matter of his glory In what we haue offended wee commonly smart These thousands of Israel were not so innocent that they should onely perish for Dauids sinne Their sins were the motiues both of this sinne and punishment besides the respect of Dauids offence they die for themselues It was no ordinary pestilence that was thus suddenly and vniuersally mortall Common eyes saw the botch and the markes saw not the Angell Dauids clearer sight hath espyed him after that killing peragration through the Tribes of Israel shaking his sword ouer Ierusalem and houering ouer Mount Sion and now he who doubtlesse had spent those three dismall daies in the saddest contrition humbly casts himselfe downe at the feete of the auenger and layes himselfe ready for the fatall stroke of iustice It was more terror that God intended in the visible shape of his Angell and deeper humiliation and what hee meant hee wrought Neuer Soule could be more deiected more anguished with the sense of a iudgement in the bitternesse whereof hee cryes out Behold I haue sinned yea I haue done wickedly But these Sheepe what haue they done Let thine hand I

wont to tell Nathan what he meant to doe in his holy and most important ciuill affaires There are cases wherein it is not vnfit for Gods Prophets to meddle with matters of State It is no disparagement to religious Princes to impart their counsels vnto them who can requite them with the counsels of God That wood which a single yron could not riue is soone splitted with a double wedge The seasonable importunitie of Bathsheba and Nathan thus seconding each other hath so wrought vpon Dauid that now his loue to Adonijah giues place to indignation nature to an holy fidelitie and now he renewes his ancient oath to Bathsheba with a passionate solemnitie As the Lord liueth who hath redeemed my soule out of all aduersitie euen as I sware vnto thee by the Lord God of Israel saying Assuredly Salomon thy sonne shall reigne after me and he shall sit vpon my throne in my stead so will I certainly doe this day In the decay of Dauids body I finde not his intellectiue powers any whit impaired As one therefore that from his bed could with a perfect if weake hand stere the gouernment of Israel he giues wise and full directions for the inauguration of Salomon Zadok the Priest and Nathan the Prophet and Benaiah the Captaine receiue his graue and Princely charge for the carriage of that so weightie a businesse They are commanded to take with them the royall gard to set Salomon vpon his fathers Mule to carry him downe in state to Gihon to anoint him with the holy oile of the Tabernacle to sound the trumpets and proclaime him in the streets to bring him backe with triumph and magnificence to the Court and to set him in the royall Throne with all the due ceremonies of Coronation How pleasing was this command to them who in Salomons glorie saw their owne safetie Benaiah applauds it and not fearing a fathers enuie in Dauids presence wisheth Salomons throne exalted aboue his The people are rauished with the ioy of so hopefull a succession and breake the earth and fill the heauen with the noise of their Musicke and shoutings Salomons guests had now at last better cheere then Adonijahs whose feast as all wicked mens ended in horror No sooner are their bellies full of meat then their eares are full of the sound of those trumpets which at once proclaime Salomons triumph and their confusion Euer after the meale is ended comes the reckoning God could as easily haue preuented this iollitie as marred it But he willingly suffers vaine men to please themselues for the time in the conceited successe of their owne proiects that afterwards their disappointment may be so much more grieuous No doubt at this feast there was many an health drunke to Adonijah many a confident boast of their prospering designe many a scorne of the despised faction of Salomon and now for their last dish is serued vp astonishment and fearefull expectation of a iust reuenge Ionathan the sonne of Abiathar the Priest brings the newes of Salomons solemne and ioyfull enthronization now all hearts are cold all faces pale and euery man hath but life enough to run away How suddenly is this brauing troupe dispersed Adonijah their new Prince flies to the hornes of the Altar as distrusting all hopes of life saue the Sanctitie of the place and the mercie of his riuall So doth the wise and iust God befoole proud and insolent sinners in those secret plots wherein they hope to vndermine the true sonne of Dauid the Prince of peace he suffers them to lay their heads together and to feast themselues in a iocund securitie and promise of successe at last when they are at the height of their ioyes and hopes he confounds all their deuices and laies them open to the scorne of the world and to the anguish of their owne guiltie hearts Dauids end and Salomons beginning IT well became Salomon to begin his raigne in peace Adonijah receiues pardon vpon his good behauiour and finds the throne of Salomon as safe as the Altar Dauid liues to see a wise sonne warme in his seat and now hee that had yeelded to succession yeelds to nature Many good counsels had Dauid giuen his heire now hee summes them vp in his end Dying words are wont to be weightiest The Soule when it is entring into glory breathes nothing but diuine I goe the way of all the earth How well is that princely heart content to subscribe to the conditions of humane mortalitie as one that knew Soueraigntie doth not reach to the affaires of nature Though a King he neither expects nor desires an immunity from dissolution making not account to goe in any other then the common tracke to the vniuersall home of mankinde the house of age Whither should earth but to earth and why should wee grudge to doe that which all doe Be thou strong therefore and shew thy selfe a man Euen when his spirit was going out he puts spirit into his Sonne Age puts life into youth and the dying animates the vigorous He had well found that strength was requisite to gouernment that he had need to be no lesse then a man that should rule ouer men If greatnesse should neuer receiue any opposition yet those worlds of cares and businesses that attend the chayre of State are able to ouer-lay any meane powers A weake man may obey none but the strong can gouerne Gracelesse courage were but the whet-stone of tyranny Take heed therefore to the charge of the Lord thy God to walke in his wayes and to keepe his Statutes The best legacy that Dauid bequeathes to his heire is the care of piety himselfe had found the sweetnesse of a good conscience and now hee commends it to his successor If there be any thing that in our desires of the prosperous condition of our children takes place of goodnesse our hearts are not vpright Here was the father a King charging the King his sonne to keepe the Statutes of the King of Kings as one that knew greatnesse could neither exempt from obedience nor priuiledge sinne as one that knew the least deuiation in the greatest and hiest Orbe is both most sensible and most dangerous Neither would he haue his sonne to looke for any prosperity saue onely from well-doing That happinesse is built vpon sands or Ice which is raised vpon any foundation besides vertue If Salomon were wise Dauid was good and if old Salomon had well remembred the counsell of old Dauid hee had not so foulely mis-carried After the precepts of pietie follow those of iustice distributing in a due recompence as reuenge to Ioab and Shimei so fauour to the house of Barzillai The bloudinesse of Ioab had lien long vpon Dauids heart the hideous noyse of those treacherous murders as it had pierced heauen so it still filled the eares of Dauid He could abhorre that villanie though hee could not reuenge it What hee cannot pay he will owe and approue himselfe at last a faithfull debtor Now he