Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	death_n	good_a	life_n	3,922	5	4.7095	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64184	Misselanies, or, Fifty years gathering out of sundry authors in prose and verse being the studious readings, painful collections, and some of them are the composings of the writer and publisher heerof / John Taylor.	Taylor, John, 1580-1653.	1652 (1652)	Wing T483A; ESTC R27535	17,565	42

on them for their false unnaturall selling of their Brother Joseph Conscience is twice 500 Witnesses And as Conscience is a Law to guide us and a Witnesse to accuse us so it is an impartiall Judge to condemn us if we be faulty and to acquit us if we be clear and innocent if Cain had appealed from the sharp judgement seat of his own Conscience to the high Tribunall of Gods mercy then instead of destroying desperation he had found Remission and Salvation The Centurion humbly did acknowledge himselfe to bee so unworthy a Sinner that he was not worthy Jesus should come under his Roofe that meek and faithfull acknowledgement caused Christ in compassion to cure his sick servant for there was never any sinners that by penitent appealing from the rigorous sentences of their own Consciences to the Throne of Grace but their appeals procured their pardons as appeareth in the sacred Stories of David Manasses Mary Magdalen and other penitent and blessed Souls Thus though we flatter our selves in our follies yet our Consciences will neither bee brib'd nor flatter'd Conscience being a just Law a true Accuser and an upright incorrupt Judge it followeth in the last place that it is a terrible Executioner who with a Vermin called the Worme os Conscience doth continually gnaw the souls of impenitent sinners for though there may be some fruitlesse shaddow of painted pleasure in the conceiving of sinne yet that conception is presently check'd reprov'd grudg'd and grumbled at by the Conscience but when the soul is delivered of this impious Imp then the Worm gnaws most tormentingly for instance of this there needs no more proofs then the accursed case of Judas who after he had conceived and brought forth the damnable Treason of betraying his gracious and innocent Master his Conscience so tormented him that hee thought Hell would yield him more ease and lesse terrour and therefore hee despairing hang'd himselfe to be freed from the horror of the continuall sting of a gnawing Conscience It is a perpetuall torture that will never suffer a sinner to take rest till such time as by true Repentance and amendment of life he be clensed from his former transgressions if hee bee waking or sleeping it frets and galls him with bitter remorse or affrights and scares him with fearfull dreams wheresoever he goes it make● hell to seem in his sight and Gods judgemen● against him it makes him afraid of Tree●● Bushes and Shaddows nay himselfe is afrai● of nothing or that is worth nothing his own shaddow for sinne is the only food that do●● nourish and feed the Worm of Conscience 〈◊〉 as the celestiall Bread of Life is the food of ev●●ry faithfull soul and terrestriall food maintai●● the life and vigor of the body so is sinne t●● onely life and nourishment of the Worme● Conscience He that will have the Worme● leave gnawing let him avoid and hate sin a●● then the Worm will dye with famine But the joy and contentment of a cleare guiltlesse conscience is such an inward p●●● which few attain to and none doe or can expresse but such as enjoy it A good Conscience wil acquit a man when all the world condemns him There is no true Recreation or all Recreations can yeeld so great content or any content at all without a good Conscience It is so voyd of Earthly cares and Worldly perturbations that as the Wise man sayd Proverb 15. It is a continuall Banquet and St. John in his first Epistle doth call it the Heart saving If the heart reprehend us not wee have a great confidence in God St. Paul in the first to the Corinths chap. 1. sayth that our glory is the testimony of a good Conscience for if men judge and think never so hardly of us yet if our Consciences doe not accuse us before God we are at peace within our selves because the peace of God is in every good man or womans Conscience And thus I have ●hewed in part what Power and Command Conscience hath over all our thoughts words works and lives from our births to our death ●nd at our departure and last gasp Great Kings and mighty Lords Magistrates ●nd Governors of Common-wealths they doe ●e most and hear most with the eyes and ears ●f other men themselves have no knowledge ●f mens actions unlesse their Officers and In●●●ument doe certifie and informe them how ●atters and businesses do passe under their go●●rnments and they judge no further then exterior or outward proofs doth manifest unto them and yet for all their testimonies and evidences they so often erre in their judgements But Conscience beareth sway over our outsides and insides both it governes rules approves reprooves clears and punisheth all our interiour and exteriour thoughts words and actions as is before declared for Conscience is clear sighted and sees all Conscience hath sundry divisions and definitions for we use to say that such as do rake scrape and ravenously devour mens lives and livelyhoods in joyning house to house land to land eyther by oppression extortion fraud or force they care not how so they have it Some men will say that all such Caterpillers have large Consciences and some are in the mind that they have no Conscience at all To put a medium or mean betwixt these two extreams of too large or large Conscience and no Conscience let every man examine himselfe and they will quickly find that each of them hath a Conscience though not visible yet invisible that will tell him how it is with him eyther well or ill according as he hath used his Conscience Every mans Conscience is an accusing book which shall be opened at the last day Revelat. 20. 12. The Conscience of unjust men is in continuall fear but a righteous mans Conscience makes him bold as a Lion Wisdom 7. 10. and Prov. 28. 1. He that doth any thing against his Conscience is condemned Rom. 14. 20. He that hath a contented quiet Conscience is rich whether hee be in a sufficient estate or in worldly necessity but hee that hath a troubled Conscience is discontented in robes of Royalty and formented amidst his greatest pleasures and delicious fare and banquetting for his very Table is a share unto him He that makes his belly his God his kitchin his Church his Cooke the Priest and his Sacrifices the lushious delicate Dishes let his teeth gnaw earchly dainties never sog reedily gluttonous the worme of Conscience is feasting and gnawing him within that all his pleasures are painfull perplexities unto him for A wounded Conscience who can beare Earth and earthly minded Dives made no account of poore Lazarus nor had any compassion on him whilest he lived And Heaven made lesse esteeme of Dives when he was dead for the Glutton would not give a few crummes to releeve and save the life of the poore Begger who was received into Glory so the other was denied one small drop of cold water in his grievous torments and greatest necessity

For the painted felicities of unmerciful men doe end when their lives end so the miseries of the poore and oppressed are as mortall as themselves but their joyes and the others paines are both immortall and everlasting I write not in Envy or Emulation of riches for as they may be imployed riches are the blessings of God there have beene in all Ages good and charitable rich men Abraham Lot Jacob Joshua Job David Salomon and many others were rich charitable and blessed of God heer on Earth and for ever in Heaven And our England hath produced many pious honorable persons of both sexes and of all estates and degrees whose names and memories are famous and their monumentall Erections and Foundations of Colledges Churches Schools Hospitalls Almes-houses and gifts and Legacies to Orphans and Prisoners are testimonies of their Charities and Compassion But I speak of uncharitable Muck-wormes whose minds are too empty of pity their souls disfurnished of a good Conscience and their Bags too full of ill gotten accursed and damnable unrighteous Mammon To conclude this case of Conscience with the saying of the Wise man Eccles. 14. 2. Blessed is he that is not condemned in his own Conscience Verses never Printed till now as I am certified of the Misery of Man THE world 's a Bubble and the life of Man Lesse then a span In his conception wretched from the Wombe So to the Tombe Cries in his Cradle and brought up in Teares With cares and fears Who then to frail Mortality doth trust But limbs the Water or else writes in Dust Yet since with sorrowes heer we live opprest What life is best Courts are but only superficiall Schooles To dandle Fooles The Countrey 's almost turn'd into a den Of Savage Men And wher 's a City from all Vice so free But may be tearm'd the worst of all the three Domesticke cares afflict the Husbands bed Or paines his head Some would have children those that have them mone Or wish them gone Those that live single count it for a curse Or doe things worse What is it then to have or not have Wife But single thraldome or a double strife Our own affections still at home to please Is a Disease To crosse the Seas to any forreign soyl Perill and toyl Wars with their rumors fright us when they cease Wee 're worse in peace What then remains but that we still should crie Not to be born or being born to die Another to the same purpose Life's brevity and Mans frailty CAN he be Fair that withers with a blast Or he be Strong that ayery breath can cast Or he be Wise that knows not how to live Or he be Rich that nothing hath to give Or he be Yong that 's feeble weak and wan So Fair Strong Wise so Rich so Yong is man So Faire is man that Death a parting blast Blasts his fair Flower and makes him Dust at last So Strong is Man that with a gasping breath He totters and bequeaths himself to Death So Wise is Man that if with Death he strive His Wisdome cannot teach him how to live So Rich is Man that all his debts being payd His wealth 's the winding sheet wherein hee 's layd So Yong is Man that broke with care and sorrow Hee 's old enough to day to die to morrow Why bragct thou then thou worm of 5 foot long Thou 'rt neither Fair Wise Yong nor Rich or Strong A good Conscience more worth then the World TO shine in silk to glister all in gold To flow in wealth to feed on dainty fare To build our houses stately to behold The Princes favour and the peoples care Although those gifts be great and very rare The groaning Gowt the Collick and the Stone Will marre the mirth and turn it all to moan But be it that the Body subject bee To no such sickness or the like annoy Yet if the Conscience be not firme and free Riches are Trash and Honour but a Toy The Peace of Conscience is that perfect Joy By which Gods Children in this life are left To want the which better want all the rest Conscience for good and bad is mille testis A Conscience clear a sweet continuall feast is A Sonnet of Henry Duke of Glocester WHat is my fault alas what have I done Is it for Treason that I am Captiv'd Or is it that I was my Fathers Son That I am of my liberty depriv'd My Infant innocence no Plot contriv'd Against the Army State or Parliament But all my fa●●● is that I am deriv'd From mighty Kings and Princes eminent To me it seems a bitter consequent I am a Prisoner 'cause I was begot Alas I could not help it or prevent My being born or my unlucky lot Could I have help'd my selfe or any other I would have help'd my Father and my Mother A Prudent Man THe highest pitch of Cesars soaring spirit Was but to win the World whereby t' inherit The aiery purchase of a transitory And glozing title of an ages glory Wouldst thou by conquest win more fame then bee Subdue thy selfe thy selfe's a World to thee Earth's but a Ball that Heaven hath quilted o're With wealth and honour bandied on the flore Offickle fortunes false and slippery Court Sent for a Toy to make us Children sport And he whose merits mount to such a Joy Gaines but the honour of a mighty Toy Brave mindes opprest should in despight of Fate Shine greatest like the Sun in lowest state Upon the word MORE ALthough the World be old God knew before Who should be his Elect hee 'l have no More Good Angels guard men as they did of yore As Michael Raphael Gabriel many More One Raphael did old Tobies sight restore Tob. 11 Gabriel that brought best tidings was no * More The Divell and his Angels rage and rore Devouring many yet still gape for More Lords Ladies Lawyers hee hath swallowed store And Doctors yet would have one Doctor More In th' ayre the fire upon the seas and shore He labours night and day to purchase More He hath layd Churches levell with the floore But if this world last he will knock down More Of peace and wealth he made us sick and sore Yet hath he still some damned Dog-tricks More Abiram Dathan and their Cosin Core He swallowed quicke and every day doth More False hypocrites have reverend habits wore So hath the Divel himselfe and so hath More Brave men are glad with one sute torne and tore When every base Time-serving Knave hath More My selfe with spectacles doe peep and pore And write for little am in hope of More The Miser doth his golden God adore And though he hath too much would fain have More The frosty bearded Churle with head all hoar Lives poore in plenty and destreth More Ther 's many a sin earing Hector loves a Whore So doe all Bawdy Knaves and so doth More Ther 's many a Pascall call rich lives like a Bore That feedeth in his Trough so doth one More Abundance run to hell and ther 's no dore To keep men out the Divell will have More And many a rustick Clowne is gilded o're With Reverend Titles and so is one More The Usurer on his bed doth snort and snore And in his sleep dreams how he may have More Mine Hostes gladly would be paid her score And 't is my daily Drinke that makes it More Extortion and Oppression make men poore And every day of Beggars we have More For vertuous living now and Learnings lore Like toyes worth nothing are esteem'd no More I wish my soul with sorrow may deplore Because my sins encrease still more and More All men have vainly too oft lid and swore Let 's all endeavour to doe so no More And humbly God for pardon le ts implore For though our crimes are great his mercy 's More Some small occasion I scarce know wherfore Did make me merrily write this of More Which I have now concluded and therefore On More at this time I will write no More And he that of the word More More can make Let him in hand pen ink and paper take I have done with MORE and yet there is more behind * No Blackmore