Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	day_n	keep_v	sabbath_n	1,672	5	10.1381	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31893	The art of divine meditation, or, A discourse of the nature, necessity, and excellency thereof with motives to, and rules for the better performance of that most important Christian duty : in several sermons on Gen. 24:63 / by Edmund Calamy ...	Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666.	1680 (1680)	Wing C227; ESTC R952	107,034	224

practise of this duty be not always like Martha troubled with this and that business but remember Maries choice who chose the better part in attending upon Christ's Ministry I would have all rich men every day think of that Text Luk. 12. 20. Thou fool this night shall thy soul be taken from thee and what then will become of all thy possessions I confess God doth not require this at the hand of the daily labourer or at the hands of servants that are not masters of their own time and those that are very poor and are not able to set time apart for Meditation But you may remember I gave you a distinction between Ejaculatory Meditation and solemn Meditation a poor man when he is at his work may have a short Ejaculatory Meditation though he hath not time for this set and solemn meditation when he is at his work he may meditate upon the Promises and of Heaven and of Hell and of Death and Iudgment and the vanity of the world I have heard of a godly man was wont to say I thank God I can be in heaven in the midst of the croud of Cheapside I can meditate on the Rest I shall have in the other world 3. The third Direction is this The Sabbath-day especially is a day wherein all sorts of people are to busie themselves in this excellent work of Divine Meditation this is a day wherein the labourer ceaseth from his work the Plowmans yoke is taken off and the labouring-man and the serving man have their rest therefore it concerns all of us to spend some time every Sabbath-day in Meditation to meditate of the work of Creation or Redemption for the Lords-day is so called because Christ rose on that day and Christ set apart that day in memory of his Resurrection in memory of his Redemption therefore this is thy work Oh Christian not only to come to the publick Ordinances not only to pray in thy family but to set some time apart for Divine Meditation and the Lord forgive us this sin that we have omitted this duty so long Oh that I could be Gods instrument that there might be a resurrection of it that you would make conscience of it every sabbath-Sabbath-day as you make conscience of attending upon publick and private duties so you would put this as one of your sabbath-Sabbath-day duties for it is the very Quintessence the life and soul of all duty the sabbath-Sabbath-day is a type of the eternal Sabbath which we shall keep for ever in Heaven and shall not I think of my eternal Sabbath upon the Sabbath shall not I be much in Heaven when I am keeping a rest upon earth that represents my eternal rest in Heaven let us upon our day of rest meditate much upon our eternal rest Oh let us upon our Sabbath-day meditate upon the everlasting Sabbath which we shall keep with God Almighty the Father Son and Holy Ghost for ever in Heaven 4. And last Direction is this That Sacrament-days are especially to be meditating-days to be set apart for this great work of Divine Meditation it is the great end why Christ hath appointed the Sacrament to shew forth the Lords-death till he come and saith Christ Do this in remembrance of me There are two things make us worthy receivers of the Sacrament Preparation before we come and Meditation when we are come and though thy Preparation be never so serious yet if thou dost not act aright in thy Meditation as well as thou hast done in thy Preparation thou maist lose the benefit of the Sacrament Now if any should ask me What are those things you would have us to meditate of when we are come unto the Sacrament or when we are at the Sacrament There are twelve Meditations which ought to take up our Sacramental-time which I call twelve common-place-heads I do not say we can meditate upon all of them at one Sacrament but my design is to give you matter sufficient that you may sometimes meditate of one sometimes of another I will but name them 1. You must meditate of the great and wonderful love of God the Father in giving Christ not only to die for us upon the Cross but in giving him to be our food at the Sacrament there was nothing moved God to give Christ but pure love and great love For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son So how so infinitely so inexpressibly the love of God in bestowing Christ is so great that the Angels desire to look into it And you that are not affected with this love I fear you have little share in it That is enough to take up one Sacrament 2. You are to meditate at the Sacrament not only of the love of the Father in giving of his Son but of the love of Christ in giving himself Ephes. 5. 2. Who loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour As God gave Christ so Christ gave himself as God gave himself as man the Godhead infused this will into the Manhood that Christ willingly laid down his life Ioh. 10. 17 18. Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again no man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up this commandment have I received of my Father Now the love of Christ in giving himself to be a curse for us is a love that passeth knowledg yet it is a love that we must study to know It is a riddle but such a riddle as the Apostle himself doth in so many express words declare unto us Ephes. 3. 19. That we may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and heigth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledg Great is the love of Christ which passeth knowledg great is the love of Christ in dying for us and being made sin for us and being made a curse for us 3. We must meditate of the heinousness of sin when we were all fallen in Adam we were ingulphed into such a bottomless abyss of misery that none but the blood of a God could deliver us for there was an infinite breach by sin between God and us and this breach could never be made up but by the blood of God That is a rare meditation at the Sacrament to meditate of the heinousness of sin when you see the bread broken it was sin that caused Christs body to be broken and when you see the wine poured out it was sin caused Christs blood to be poured out it was sin that caused Christ to suffer so much 4. You must meditate of the excellency of this Sacramental feast for the Sacrament is a commemorative Sacrifice it is a commemoration of that blessed Sacrifice that was offered on the Cross for our sins and it is an obsignation

when a man doth so think on the Sacrament that his heart is all on a fire with a holy thirsting after the Sacrament When the heart is affected with the meditation of the head and therefore David saith Psal. 104. 34. My meditation of him shall be sweet this is the true meditation when we do so meditate of God as to taste a sweetness in God when meditation doth not rest in the intellectual part but flows into the will and affection that the heart is all inflamed with the things we meditate on There are many great Scholars that meditate much of God and Christ and Heaven and yet they are never the holier for their meditation and the reason is because they meditate on these things meerly to find out curious notions of God and Christ and Heaven but they do not meditate on these things to get their hearts affected to get Heavenly and Divine hearts and therefore you shall see many Scholars as undevout and as unholy as other people though they know more and meditate more And I have found it by experience that there are many poor lay-people that get more good by meditation than great Scholars for the great Scholar his meditation many times vanisheth into empty speculations and into notions and opinions but the honest godly man his meditation is all for practice he meditates of sin to hate it of the Sacrament to hunger after it of God to love him of Christ to be inflamed with a desire after him And therefore he gets the more good many times by meditation The Butterflie will dwell upon the flower as well as the Bee but the Butterflie only sucks the flower that she may paint her wings with it she is not useful to make honey she doth not suck honey from the flower so there are many Scholars many men that meditate much of the things of God to paint their wings that is to get more knowledg of God and Heaven and more curious expressions of Heaven but it is the honest Christian the plain-hearted Christian that meditates of God like the Bee to suck out the sweetness of God that meditates on Christ so as to get his heart burning in love to Christ this is the rare grace of meditation Meditation must enter into three doors or else it will never do you any good 1. It must get into the door of the understanding and there it is seated there is the proper place of meditation but if it rest there thou art never the better for it 2. It must get into the door of thy heart and of thy affections and thou must never leave meditating till it get into that door likewise 3. The door of thy conversation for thy meditation must not rest in the affections but it must likewise have influence into thy conversation to make thy conversation more holy thou must so meditate of God as to walk as God walks and so to meditate of Christ as to prize him and live in obedience to him A nurse that hath a nurse-child will cut the meat and will many times chew the meat for the child but she will not eat the meat but give it to the child for if she should chew the meat and eat it up her self the child might starve for all her chewing of it and preparing of it so it is with the grace of meditation Meditation while it is in the understanding chews upon the things of God and of Christ and of Heaven but when the understanding hath chewed these things it must not devour all these things it self but it must convey the meat it hath chewed as the meat is conveyed from the stomack into the liver and then into the heart and then into all the other parts of the body into the heart and into the will and into the affections and into the conversation This is the first the admirable nature of this grace 2. I come to shew you the necessity of it and I do this the rather that I might provoke you all to the practice of it for I am very confident there are few people that do practise this duty of meditation there are few that know how to practise it but there are very few that make conscience to practise it even you that make conscience to praying twice a day in your family seldom make conscience once a day of meditation nay once a week And therefore that I might awaken my self and you give me leave to shew you the great necessity of practising the duty of meditation and I will shew it two manner of ways 1. By considering the mischief that flows from the want of practising this duty 2. By shewing you the advantage and spiritual benefit that you will gain by practising this duty 1. I shall shew you the woful inconveniences and the intolerable mischiefs that come from the want of practising this duty of meditation I will bring them to two heads 1. I will shew you that the want of practising this duty is the cause of all sin 2. It is the cause of all punishment 1. I will shew you that the want of practising this duty is the cause of all sin and I will instance in particulars 1. The reason why people harden their hearts in sin and do not repent of their sins but go on obstinately is for want of meditation Ier. 8. 6. I hearkened and heard but they spake not aright no man repented him of his wickedness saying what have I done They did not repent because they did not reflect upon what they did they did not bethink themselves so the phrase is If any man bethink himself and repent 1 King 8. 47. they did not say I am undone by what I have done I have lost God and Heaven by what I have done and if I do not repent I am an undone creature for ever No man repented of his wickedness because no man considered what he had done for did you consider the evil that is in sin did you dwell and abide upon it did you commune with your own hearts and seriously consider what an evil and bitter thing it is to sin against God you durst not willingly sin against God but the reason why men go on rashly heedlesly obstinately in sin is for want of the meditation of the evil of sin 2. The reason why all the Sermons we hear do us no more good is for want of Divine meditation for it is with Sermons as it is with meat it is not the having of meat upon your table will feed you but you must eat it and not only eat it but concoct it and digest it or else your meat will do you no good So it is with Sermons it is not the hearing Sermons will do you good but it is the concocting them digesting them by meditation the pondering in your hearts what you hear must do you good And one Sermon well digested well meditated upon is better than twenty Sermons without meditation As for example a