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
A93124	Two sermons preached in St. Maries Church in Cambridge. By Robert Sheringham, Master of Arts, and Fellow of Gunvil and Caius Colledge.	Sheringham, Robert, 1602-1678.	1645 (1645)	Wing S3239; Thomason E285_1; ESTC R200065	41,774	103

if his repentance end where it begun it is a signe his will is not yet healed When good resolutions vanish like the morning-dew and are never put in execution what fruit can they produce but when resolutions and actions like the former and the later rain succeed one another in their due season they cause a fruitfull increase of glory and happinesse and it is an evident signe that the will is wrought upon by grace for that love that springs from grace makes the soule affectionate to God and carefull to abstain from all such actions as offend him When Israel came out of Egypt and the house of Jacob from among the strange people the sea saw that and fled Jordan was driven back Psal 114.1 3. The Israelites departure out of Egypt to worship God in the wildernesse was a type of mans conversion to God by love and the flight of the waters was a type of the flight of sin that follows upon it Ante retrorsum aquae conversae fuerunt nunc retrorsum peccata conversa sunt saith S. Ambrose upon that passage there the waters but here sins are driven backward there the course of the floud was stopped within its channell but here the course of sin is stopped in all the secret passages of the heart And this is the third thing to which Davids petition must be applyed namely to his will But Davids soule is not yet perfectly healed his conscience was wounded too and therefore in the last place this petition must be applied to his conscience Heal my conscience And here the manner of healing is something different from the former grace can heale the staine of sin but it cannot heale the guilt it can sanctifie but it cannot justifie the soule nothing can take away the guilt of sin but forgivenesse of sin but sin being forgiven the obligation to punishment is taken away then the conscience is healed and guilt is turned into innocence fear into gladnesse In the 102. Psalme David laments his own case very passionately My dayes are consumed away like smoak and my bones are burnt up as it were a fire-brand my heart is smitten downe and withered like grasse so that I forget to eat my bread For the voice of my groaning my bones will scarce cleave to my flesh c. In the 103. Psalme hee seems to rejoice as much and breaks forth into elogies of praise Praise the Lord O my soul and all that is within me praise his holy name Praise the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits What was it that transported him so suddenly from one passion to another If you read the Psalmes you shall soon see the cause his conscience was wounded when hee made the 102. Psalm and healed when he made the 103. Psalm his sins lay heavie upon his soule when hee made the one and were forgiven him when hee made the other As long as the guilt of sin disquieted his conscience not all the glory of his Kingdome nor the pomp of his Court not all the delights of Canaan though a land flowing with milk and honey could content his mind but when his sins were forgiven hee found a sudden alteration that heavinesse that possessed his heart vented it selfe and gave place to joy O Lord my God saith he I cryed unto thee and thou hast healed me Psal 30.2 And what ensued upon this Thou hast turned saith hee afterwards my heavinesse into joy thou hast put off my sack cloth and girded me with gladnesse That contentment of mind that tranquillity of conscience that circle of joy wherewith his soul was girt followed immediately upon the healing of his conscience and forgivenesse of his sins forgivenesse of sin is as proper to heale the guilt of sin as grace to heale the staine In the Scripture to heal sin and to forgive sin are termini aequipollentes termes which signifie the same things and are promiscuously taken the one for the other Return ye back-sliding children and I will heal your back-slidings Jer. 3.22 Here you see to heale their back-slidings is to forgive their sin And so again I have seen his ways and will heale him I will lead him also and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners Isa 57.18 I have seen his wayes and will heale him that is I have seen his sins and will forgive them But was not David healed before hee made this Psalm did not the Prophet Nathan tell him The Lord also hath put away thy sin 2 Sam. 12.13 He did but David being assured by the Prophet desired yet a greater assurance The richest of Gods saints alwayes suspect their owne poverty and think that which they have nothing in respect of that which they have not and of that which they desire to have David was healed the Lord had forgiven him all his sins and yet for all that hee desires still to be healed Let us then learn by Davids example to be thus carefull and solicitous to have our soules healed Pharaoh desired to be delivered from the plagues of Egypt but not from his hardnesse of heart Let us rather desire the last for the wounds of sin are the worst wounds The Scripture hath in many places very artificially painted out the nature of sin but it alwayes borrowes colours from noxious and hurtfull creatures it compares it to the basilisk to the viper to the asp whose poysonous qualities are destructive to the life of men And it hath also in many places allegorically expressed the nature of sin by many deadly diseases by the leprosie by the palsie by the bloudy-flux and sometimes by death it selfe in the abstract By these and many other expressions in the Scripture yee may learn the nature of sin and see how dangerous her wounds are if they be not healed Let us then doe as David did let us seek unto the Lord who is the Physician of our souls hee onely is able by his grace to heale the staine and by his mercy the guilt of our sins The time will not permit mee to enter into the last part of my Text I will therefore conclude all with that of the Prophet Jeremiah Heal us O Lord and we shall be healed save us and we shall be saved for thou art our praise FINIS PSALM 41.4 Heal my soul for I have sinned against thee I Have formerly begun to speak of these words in this place I divided my Text then as you may remember into three parts First here is Designatio partis vulneratae Davids discovery of the wounded part and that was his soul Heal my soul Secondly here is Petitio remedii his prayer and petition for a remedy and that was to be healed Heal my soul Thirdly here is Confessio causae his confession of the cause of those wounds and that was sin for I have sinned against thee I have already spoken of the two first parts where I shewed you the wounds of his soule and the manner how they were to be

that supreme facultie of the soul and mistresse of all the other for the will was once able to rule the affections and to hold them all in subjection it had a naturall power to love God and a naturall inclination carrying all her desires towards him But sin hath now wounded the will also and deprived it of those naturall perfections wherewith it was created it is now inclined to love the creatures and to desire and long after them more then after God Could wee but penetrate with our bodily eyes into the souls of men and behold all the severall acts of their wills wee should see an admirable diversity and multitude of desires but all fixt upon the creatures wee should see some desiring riches others honour others to spend their dayes in lust and pleasure we should see some transported with love others with jealousie wee should see an infinite number of desires but all pointed downwards towards transitory and earthly things How few are there whose desires fly upward Who is there that will say I desire to enjoy God though it cost me my lust my riches mine honour and all that I possesse The name of happinesse is pleasing to our ears but wee regard not the thing it selfe or at least we pursue the shadow whilest the substance flies from us our disordered passions do now so over-rule our wills that wee preferre lies before truth vice before vertue the vain delights of the body before the true and solid contentments of the mind wee preferre the spurious pleasures of our senses before those which are legitimate which vertue receives and approves Whilest wee should moderate our affections and establish a durable and lasting peace within our selves we rather give way to their disorders and suffer our happinesse to be interrupted by their excesse and riot Our wils are full of inordinate and unsatiable desires and are become soft and plyable to evill but hard and impenetrable to every good motion This is the third wound of the soul which is called Malitia duritas cordis malice and hardnesse of heart And yet this is not all Sin hath made another wound in the soule which troubles it worse then all the rest and that is in the conscience In the spirituall conflict between sin and the soul 1 King 22.34 the conscience may say like Ahab Take mee out of the battell for I am wounded There are two effects of sin macula reatus the stain of sin and the guilt of sin the stain of sin is that distemper and vitious inclination that sin leaveth behind it and this adheres to the faculties before mentioned The guilt of sin is the obligation to punishment that lies upon every sinner after hee hath committed it for as hee that breaks the provinciall laws and customes of any common-wealth is guilty of the punishment which the sanction and penalty of the law provides in that common-wealth so he that sins against God is guilty of the punishment appointed by his law and this guilt adheres to the conscience Thus sin hath wounded all the powers and faculties of the soul not by any positive acts as the Pelagians supposed a necessity but by depriving it of that originall justice wherewith it was created as a man may overthrow a building as well by taking away a pillar as by applying outward force The want of originall justice hath made the soul lame and imperfect hee that hath one leg shorter then another cannot chuse but halt and goe unequally in his naturall motion and the soul that is moved by Reason Affections tanquam à duobus pedibus inaequalibus as by two unequall legs cannot chuse but halt and goe unequally in its morall motion for whilest it follows the motion of its longer leg Reason it riseth towards heaven but whilst it follows the motion of its shorter leg the Affections it falleth towards the earth God to supply this inequality and defect created the soul with originall justice which did after a manner spiritualize the Affections and kept the whole soul in such a frame and temper that all her faculties moved towards heaven But man sinned and God as a just judgement took from him that originall justice that upheld his nature for want whereof the soul is fallen into that decay and become subject to those vvounds and defects that I have named This is every finners condition and this was Davids condition hee was wounded in all the powers and faculties of his soul he was wounded in his affections in his vnderstanding in his will and in his conscience and all these wounds were the effects of originall sin But David had yet more vvounds David had his personall and actuall sins which although they did not wound new faculties for originall sin had vvounded all before yet they made new vvounds but if I should undertake to shew you all those wounds I should undertake that which himself was not able to performe though more privie to his owne actions Psal 19.21 Who can tell saith hee how oft hee offendeth His words have the forme of a question but the force of a peremptory assertion for there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher speaks questions which have the force of affirmative or negative propositions and so hath this here Davids Quis intelligit is as much as Nullus intelligit and if no man can number his sins then surely no man can number the vvounds of his soule for every sinne is as deadly as the first it vvounds as deep though it vvounds not so many and these wounds vvere dangerous though but light in comparison of others for David had sins of presumption also sins against his knowledge and against his conscience but those sins vvhich made the vvorst vvounds and which he desires in my Text especially to have healed were his adultery and his murther In the next Psalm to my Text he complains of the bitternesse of those wounds Why art thou so full of heavinesse O my soul Psal 42.11 saith he and why art thou so disquieted within mee here was heavinesse and disquietnesse in his soul and all this the effect of those wounds His adultery and murther were sins of an high nature and most of all destructive to the soule Whoso committeth adultery with a woman saith Solomon lacketh understanding hee that doth it destroyeth his owne soul Prov. 6.31 Adultery you see destroyes the soul it wounds it mortally and murther is no lesse destructive then adultery Yee know saith Saint John that no murtherer hath eternall life abiding in him 1 John 3.15 This sin doth not onely deprive the soul of health but of life it selfe it kils the soul outright this made David complain My wickednesses are gone over mine head and are like a sore burden too heavie for mee to bear Psal 38.4 The cruell and unnaturall homicide sheds his brothers bloud and it falls upon the earth and the earth seems to drink it up and yet the word