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
A79881	Aurea Legenda, or Apothegms, sentences, and sayings of many wise and learned men, useful for all sorts of persons Collected out of many authors by Sa. Clark, sometimes pastor in B.F.	Clarke, Samuel, 1599-1682.	1682 (1682)	Wing C4488A; ESTC R223906	51,711	152

Commander and chief Controuler of all his Desires and doings Conscience is a most Celestial gift It is so of God and in Man that it is a kind of middle thing between God and Man less than God and yet above man It may be called our God in the sense that Moses was called Pharaoh's God having Power to controul and avenge our disobedience with greater plagues than ever Moses brought upon Egypt Many seek for knowledge few care for Conscience yet is Conscience got with more ease and kept with more advantage than all our Science Keep Conscience pure and it will keep thee in Peace Let men the World and the Devils do their worst they cannot hurt him that hath a good Conscience saith Bernard A good Conscience is the Paradise that God walks in the Throne that Christ sits upon the Temple that the holy Spirit dwels in the Golden-pot wherein is kept the hidden Manna c. Conscience is the Book of Books the ancientest piece of Scripture in the world The first Tables of God's own hewing and Hand-writing in the Heart of Man for whose sake all other Books since yea the Scripture it self was afterwards written on purpose to Comment upon it This is the Book that every man should be well versed in To study other Books will make thee a Schollar but to study this will make thee a Christian Peace of Conscience is worth our utmost endeavour It will make a man sleep without a Pillow yea without a Bed Hence it was that Jacob took such good rest upon a Stone That Peter loaden with Iron Chains could sleep so sweetly tho for ought he knew he was to dye the next day That Mr Philpot and his fellow Prisoners could rouse as merrily in the Straw in the B B of London's Colehouse as if they had been upon Down Beds in a Pallace It is a Feast with any Food tho never so course and slender It made those blessed Martyrs in the Reign of Severus the Emperor of whom Eusebius writes that after long and hard imprisonment being released for a time they appeared to the People as those that came è Myrothecia non Ergastulo rather out of Shops from among sweet Oyntments than out of filthy Prisons They were brought forth saith he rejoycing in their Torments and carrying in their Countenances a certain Divine aspect This inward peace of Conscience made the Prophet Isay cheerfully to submit himself to the Saw Jeremiah to be stoned Paul to the Sword Peter to the Cross Lawrence to the Grid-iron c. Prov. 28. 1. The righteous is bold as a Lyon Conscintia pura semper secura A good Conscience hath a secure Confidence and he that hath it sits Noah-like mediis tranquillus in undis Quiet in the greatest Combustions Freed if not from the common Destruction yet from the common Distraction For he knows whom he hath trusted and is sure that neither Life nor Dèath nor things Present nor things to come can ever sunder him from God's love in Christ Rom. 8. 38 39. Tho Saul could not be merry without a Fidler Ahab without Naboth's Vineyard Nor Haman without Mordecai's curtesie Yet he that hath a good Conscience can be merry without all these Yea as the Lilly is fresh beautiful and looks pleasantly tho among Thorns So can such an one exult in the midst of troubles St. Paul tho no man out of Hell ever suffered more then he yet did he not only Glory in Tribulations but Over-abounded exceedingly with joy 2 Cor. 7. 4. There are four quiet Consciences and never a one of them good First The ignorant Conscience which with the blind Man swallows many a Fly and know's it not Ephe. 4. 18 19. Secondly The Conscience that was never yet well awakened The sleeping Conscience But Sin lyes at the Door His Bones are full of the Sin of his youth which shall lye down with him in the Dust Job 20. 11. This is worse than a troubled Conscience Here the strong Man armed keepeth possession and therefore all things are at Peace Luke 11. 21. Thirdly The deluded Conscience that Dreams of nothing but Visions of Peace Lam. 2. 14. being deluded by Satan and his Instruments as Ahab was by his false Prophets 1 Kin. 22. 21 22. Most men are in this condition Zech. 1. 11. Behold all the Earth sits still and is at rest Zeph. 1. 11. I will punish the men that are setled on their Lees c. These dye like Lambs and are accounted happy Jer. 51. 40. Fourthly The obdurate Conscience These Treasure up wrath against the day of Wrath Rom. 2. 5. Job 36. 13. There is no greater a Plague than such a Conscience David before he was smitten either by God's hand or by the Prophet's reproof his own sanctified Conscience did the Office of a faithful Monitor and houshold Chaplain For his Heart presently mis-gave him 1 Chron. 21. 8. 2 Sam. 24 10. Bee-Masters tell us that those are the best Hives that make the greatest noise Sure it is that that is the best Conscience that suffers not a man to sleep in Sin David's heart smote him for numbring the People It was for his own for a small for a secret Sin For failing in the manner only For he knew that a man might as well dye of an in ward bleeding as of an outward Wound The good Soul is often afflicted for it's failings in those Duties which others applaud and extoll A good and a peaceable Conscience saith Bernard est lectus Animae The Bed on which the Soul takes sweet repose Behold the Considence of a good Conscience towards God 1 Pet. 3. 21. when it is parling with God by Prayer and bold intercession It dares plead with God as Jeremy did Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee Yet let me talk with thee of thy Judgments c. Jer. 12. 1. And interrogates as St. Paul Rom. 8. 33 34 35. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justifies Who is he that Condemns c And expostulates with God as David often did When God seems to be asleep he will awaken him When to delay he will quicken him When to have lost his wonted kindness he will find it for him In pure Water the Face may be seen not so in muddy So in a pure Conscience Gods Face may be seen and no where else in the Earth As Faith makes the Conscience good before God so Purity makes it good before men The unlearned man with a good Conscience saith St. Austin will go to Heaven when thou with all thy Learning shalt be cast into Hell Surgunt indocti rapiunt Regnum Coelorum c. Faith looks to Promises Fear to threats Hope to futures Obedience to Duties Repentance to Sins c. But Conscience looks to all A good Conscience will stand a Man instead when he appears before the great Tribunal of God where Courage dares not shew it's Face nor Eloquence open

without mental sufferings and dyes and there is an end of him But this wicked man is always upon the Rack whilst he lives being perpetually tormented with the lashes of an Evil and accusing Conscience which is worse than Death As the Crocodile incautiously sleeping with his Mouth open receives into his Belly the Ichneumon or Indian-Rat which causes that he is never at quiet his entrails never being free from gnawings and Pain One while he plunges into the water and anon runs again to the Land No place will afford him case till Death hinders his Motion So it is with such as are tormented with the Worm of Conscience As we see in Nero when he had murthered his Mother and his Wives And in Otho the Emperor when he had slain Galba and Piso In Herod when he had caused his Wife Mariamne to be put to Death And in our King Richard the third when he had slain his two innocent Nephews in the Tower In Spira Latomus and many others all which were so gnawed and grub'd with this Worm that they could never be at rest till being utterly tired with continual Vexation of Spirit they either desperately flew themselves or were dreadfully dispatched by others In thy Commission of evil fear no man so much as thy self another is but one Witness but they Conscience is a Thousand Another thou may'st avoid but thy Conscience thou canst not Wickedness is its own Punishment No man is able to stand before a guilty Conscience The Conscience awaken'd is like a Bear enraged It tears a man in pieces It falls upon him like some mighty Tower and crushes him to Powder It is like a Gouty joynt so sore and Painful that it cannot endure it self as Bernard speaks How was David wounded his Bones bruised by it c. Psal 32. 3. c How many have we seen to lye Panting and Groaning under the wounds of Conscience Oh what Horrors Fears apprehensions have the Tongues and Faces of some of God's own Children implied to standers by And if their Agonies have been such who have been but in part wounded and withal secretly sustained what then must the Case of the wicked needs be when his Conscience falls with a full weight upon him and there is no supporting Prov. 18. 14. A wounded Spirit who can bear The Gout Stone and some other Diseases are in themselves almost insufferable Yet the Spirit of a man sustained with hope and strengthened by God may somewhat tug with them But when the Spirit which sustains all is it self wounded when God that other where supports becomes an Enemy who can bear it For Here is not a Creature to a Creature Weakness to weakness but a finite Creature must encounter with an infinite Power Weakness must fight with Strength Man with God Alass when the Heavens fall upon a poor Worm must he not needs down when Judas shall have the Earth against him and Hell against him and Heaven against him and himself against himself must he not needs shrink and fall Oh! How miserable is the condition of every impenitent Sinner Poor wretch he goes on in a sinful course and fears no harm His Conscience sleeps and he hopes it will never awake But when he hath long pursued his Conscience his Conscience will at last pursue him and after a long silence it will at last speak and Ring him such peal as will make him at his Wits end Sometimes in this Life a spark of Hell falls upon his Soul and then where is he Can he quench this flame with the purest Wines Shake of these fits with a peal of Laughter Can he out-ride the shriches of his Conscience as he follow 's his Games Can he drown that noise with his cryes and Hubbubs Can he forget those gripings in his busiest Tales and relations of News Or can he leave his Conscience behind him in any place No no his Conscience is his constant Companion and cryes upon him in the Night sleeping in the Day walking In his greatest Mirth In his busiest Sports and Pastimes Nay his Heart is now employed about another business His desires are full of Solitariness His Thoughts as black as Hell it self The Devil saith he what Creature is he My flesh trembles at the thoughts of him yet would I might see him Hell thinks he what place is that Sith thither I must would I knew the worst These these be the thoughts of a desperate Heart and of a throbbing Conscience Witness Judas He comes to the Priests and looks upon them but they cannot ease him He takes his Money and looks upon that but it cannot help him He walks forth and looks upon the Light and is weary of that He passeth by men he hath nothing to say He is best alone nay not alone If there be any hope it is in Hell If any Comfort it is among the Devils thither he will go to seek it Oh misery Oh Death Oh Hell when a man must go to Hell for ease to the damned Spirits for Comfort A guilty Conscience as it will prove the most inmost so the utmost Enemy and that First unavoidable Do what thou canst thou canst not shake it off It lyes with thee it sleeps with thee it Rides with thee it wakes with thee it walks with thee in every place beyond all times when thou goest it goes when thou flyest it runs still it cries and raises the Country against thee It meets thee in the dark and makes the leap It meets thee in the Day and makes the quake It meets thee in thy Dreams and makes thee start It meets thee in every Corner and makes thee think every Bush to be a man every man a Devil every Devil a messenger to carry thee quick to Hell Thou com'st to thy Chamber there thy Conscience frights the Thou com'st to the Field there it turns thee Thou turnest again and their it Crosses the way upon thee Thou turn'st it turns Thou cryest it cries thou darest not call if thou doest Conscience fears no Company Secondly Unsufferable An evil Conscience strips one of all Comfort at once If a sick Stomach will make one a weary of all Chairs Beds Meats Drinks Friends All Oh what will a sick Conscience do Thirdly It puts one to intollerable Pains It racks the Memory and makes it run back twenty years as we see in Joseph's Brethren and Aristocrates in Plutarch Yea it twinges for Sins in youth as Job complain's It racks the understanding and carries it forward beyond the Grave and makes it feel the very bittterness of Death and Hell before it sees them It racks the Phantasie and makes it see Ghosts in men Lyons in Children as it 's storied of some It troubles the Eye and makes a murthering Theodorick see the Face of a Man in the mouth of a Fish It troubles the Ear and makes a Bessus hear the cry of Murther in the chattering of Birds It racks all the Senses quite out of joynt it makes a