Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A26811
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The sure trial of uprightness open'd in several sermons upon Psal. xviii, v. 23 ... / by William Bates.
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Bates, William, 1625-1699.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing B1129; ESTC R24838
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61,106
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151
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of victorious Grace Where there is little Resistance there is no Honour to overcome where there is no Matter of Triumph there is no Glory in triumphing But when in the natural Temper there are Seeds of Incitation to fierce Anger and inordinate Lust and when those Propensities are inflam'd by Temptations if we subdue those disorderly and violent Passions 't is the most noble Effect of Divine Grace On the contrary the Sinner that yields himself to the sway of the Carnal Appetites is the Servant of Corruption is defil'd and debas'd in such a manner that he is sunk below the Beasts that perish For what is baser than Corruption except the Sinner that obeys it The Peace and Joy that is the Reward of Victory over our Sins cannot be understood but by Experience What a savour of Life is the Death of a reigning Sin What an Angelical Comfort was it to Joseph and the blessed Mother of Christ when the Advice was brought from Heaven to them in Egypt Arise for they are dead that sought the young Child's Life What Consolation does it afford when the Holy Spirit witnesses with our Spirits that the Enemy in our Bosoms that sought the Life of our Souls is mortified by Repentance The Psalmist tells us Light is sown for the Righteous and Joy for the upright in Heart The present sense of God's Favour and the future Hope of Glory sheds abroad that bright serenity in their Breasts that is a reflection of Heaven In our Extremity when a good and quiet Conscience will be more valuable than Crowns and Scepters and solid Comfort more worth than the World how refreshing will the inward Testimony be of our Uprightness When Hezekiah was under the Sentence of Death and his Kingdom could afford him no Comfort this allayed his Sorrows Remember O Lord that I have walk'd before thee with an upright Heart This Testimony of Conscience will calm our Agonies and expel the Terrors of that last Enemy this when we are ready to die will assure us that our Redeemer lives The two substantial Joys how Divine the one from the reflection upon the past Life the other from the prospect of Eternal Life are the blessed Reward of Uprightness In short the sum of Felicity is expresly assur'd to them The Upright shall dwell in thy presence where is fulness of Joy and Rivers of Pleasure flow for ever 6. Consider the woful Effects of indulging the Lusts that by Pleasure or Profit bribe Men to give consent to their Commission The naked Light of Reason discovers Sin and makes it uneasy to Conscience but a strong Light arm'd with Terrors the Law of God with the Doom annex'd to the Precept against rebellious Sinners makes it fearful The Command is peremptory and universal with respect to all Temptations and Allurements to Sin be they as dear and difficult to be parted with as the right Eye or right Hand the most useful and precious Instruments of Life yet they must with abhorrence be cast from us or the whole Man will be cast into Hell Fire where the Worm dies not and the Fire is not quenched This terrible Threatning is sadly repeated by our Saviour three times to make the more powerful impression upon Sinners The guilty accusing Conscience begins the everlasting Hell here Our Saviour saith That a Woman when she is in travail hath sorrow because her hour is come but as soon as she is delivered she remembreth no more the anguish for joy that a Man is born into the World But a Sinner after he hath brought forth his Sin with pleasure is struck with horror at the monstrous Birth When Conscience is strongly awaken'd it arraigns and condemns without partiality the Sinner is the Executioner of the Sentence upon himself The Torment of the Spirit is invisible to others and in that the liker Hell and unavoidable 'T is as the cruel practice of the Tyrant related by the Poet who fasten'd a dead Body and a Living together that the putrefaction and stench of the one might cause a lingring death in the other this is a little resemblance of the Effect of the guilty Conscience charg'd with dead Works and inseparable from the Sinner All the Pleasures of the World cannot stupify the Sense or mitigate the Torments of the wounded Spirit In the approaches of Death the Sins Men have indulgently committed return to the Memory and the ghastly Apparition strikes them into consternation the Thoughts are fearfully transferr'd from the sick Body to the guilty Soul from the consideration of the first Death to the second that immediately attends it In vain they desire to live for Time is irrevocably past and the Season of Mercy expir'd in vain they desire to die intirely and put an end to their Misery for Immortality is the inseparable but fatal Privilege of their Nature If they look upward revenging Justice is ready to pass a heavy Doom if beneath a fearful Depth is ready to swallow them up Who can express the Agonies and Throws of the guilty Conscience the dismal Degrees of the tormenting Passions in the Wicked under the apprehensions of Eternal Judgment Yet the most fearful Apprehensions are not commensurate to the prepared Plagues by vindictive Justice for impenitent Sinners Who knows the Power of God's Wrath The chosen Expressions in Scripture to represent it will be verified in higher degrees than can be inflicted from the most vehement and terrible things in the World. Fire is so tormenting to Sense that no Man can endure the point of the Flame of a Candle upon his Flesh Who then can dwell with devouring Fire and with everlasting burning Besides the Damned are not only passive but active in their wretched State there is a Hell of Rancor and Indignation within and of Fire and Brimstone without them What furious Reflections will they make upon their votary Madness that for the seeming Pleasures of Sin that were but for a season they should continue their Rebellion against the Omnipotent Deity and bring upon themselves his fierce and unchangeable Displeasure This infinitely aggravates their Misery after a Million of Years the intire Sum remains that revenging Justice will exact for ever The Righteous Judg will never so far be reconciled as to annihilate them Perfection of Misery Desperate Sorrow A Life in Torments that never dies a Death that never ends Now it is impossible for Men that have reasonable Minds to choose the Pleasures of Sin that are like Bubbles on the Water that presently break and vanish when attended with Misery that admits no Ease or End Is there any possible Comparison between them The serious belief of Hell cannot consist with the knowledg and purpose of Sin and the delightful Practice of it Either the belief of it will infuse and impress such efficacious Vertue into Mens Minds that will restrain them from Sin or the habitual course of Sin will extinguish or eclipse the belief of the Punishment 'T is