Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	die_v	fire_n	worm_n	1,088	5	9.7140	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27472	A mirror that flatters not, or, A looking-glass for all new-converts to whatsoever perswasion, Roman-Catholicks, Conformists, or Non-conformists : that is, certain sermons of St. Bernard translated into English ... : together with a preface of the translator to all new-converts ...; De conversione ad clericos. English	Bernard, of Clairvaux, Saint, 1090 or 91-1153.	1677 (1677)	Wing B1982; ESTC R5454	46,594	72

sense of its internal dammages because it is not within it self but in the belly perhaps or under the belly In fine some mens Souls are in their Platters and others in their Coffers where thy treasure is says our Lord there also is thy heart And what wonder if the Soul feel not its own wounds when forgetful of it self and wholly absent from it self it was gone into a far Country But the time will come when returning home to it self it shall understand how cruelly it tore out its own very bowels under the pretext of a miserable hunting Neither indeed could it then be sensible of it when with unsatiable desire catching at the vile prey of a few sorry flyes like the spider it seemed to make Nets of its own Bowels CHAP. V. Of the punishment as well of Soul as Body and fruitless Repentance after death AND this return into it self shall without doubt be at least after death when all the doors of the Body shall be shut up by which it was wont to wander abroad and go forth to busie it self about the figure of this world which passes away so that now it necessarily remains in it self all egress out of it self being now impossible unto it But it will be a sad and most pernicious return and everlasting misery when it shall be able to have repentance but not be able to do any penitential work for when the Body shall be wanting there can be no action and when there shall be no action neither can there be found any satisfaction For to have repentance is to grieve but to do penitential works is the remedy of grief For one that shall want hands can no more lift up his hands unto heaven But whosoever shall not return unto himself before the laying aside of his body must necessarily remain in himself for ever But in what a self In such a self as he shall have made himself in this life unless perhaps he shall sometimes be worse for better shall he never be who is bad for this very Body which now he puts off he must one day receive again not to do penance but to be punished in it when after a certain sort the condition of the flesh and of sin shall be much a-like for as sin shall be able always to be punished but never be expiated or satisfied for so neither in the Body shall the torments possibly be ended nor yet the Body be consumed with the torments Deservedly indeed shall everlasting vengeance and rage be against the sinner because his fault can never be blotted out and neither shall the substance of his flesh fail lest together with it the affliction of his flesh should be forced to fail also My dearest Brethren he that fears these things is cautious to avoid them but he that slights them falls into them CHAP. VI. That the worm of Conscience ought here to be felt and by little and little extinguished and not to be cherished and nourished to immortality THAT therefore we may return to the Voice we spoke of above whilst there is a way open thither whither his Salvation shews us who with so great piety and compassion calls back thither Prevaricators Nor in the mean time let it be irksome to feel the bitings of the internal Worm nor let a dangerous sowerness of mind or a pernicious softness prevail with us to dissemble our present trouble Then the Worm is best felt when there is also a possible capacity of choaking it Therefore let it bite now that it may die and by little and little cease to bite In the mean time by biting let it gnaw upon putrefaction that gnawing upon it it may consume it and it self altogether with it be consumed and not be nourished to immortality Their worm says he shall not die and their fire shall not be put out Isa 66. Who shall be able to endure from the face of those bitings For at present many little Consolations do mitigate the torture of the reprehending Conscience God is good not suffering us to be tempted above our strength nor does he suffer this worm to molest and vex us beyond all measure especially in the beginnings of our Conversion he supples our wounds with the Oil of Mercy that neither the quantity of our Disease nor the difficulty of its Cure may be further made known to us than is expedient but rather a certain facility seems to smile upon us which afterwards vanishes away when now to him that has his senses exercised a strong Combat is given that he may overcome and learn that Wisdom is powerful over all In the mean time he that hears the Voice of the Lord Return to your heart O ye Prevaricators and finds so many obscenities in his inward Bed-chamber he 's very busy in searching every corner and being very curious he seeks by what passage all this filth flowed in and without any great difficulty the hole yea the holes are manifest unto him But neither is this consideration cause of a little grief unto him when that through his own windows death is found to have entred For that the curiosity of the eyes seems to have let in much filth the itching of the ears much and much also the pleasure of Smelling Tasting and Touching For as for spiritual vices of which are made mention above he being carnal hardly yet examines them as they are Whence it comes to pass that he has less sense or none at all of those things which are more grievous nor is he bitten so much with the remembrance of Pride and Envy as with the remembrance of certain flagitious and facinorous acts CHAP. VII That to some it seems easy for man's will to obey the Divine Voice AND lo again a Voice out of the Clouds saying Thou hast sinned Peace And what is said is to this purpose Now the sink overflowing fills the House with an intolerable stench and whilst as yet the ordures are continually flowing in in vain doest thou go about to pump them out to do pennance whilst thou doest not leave off to sin For who can approve of their Fasts who fast for strife and contention and impiously smite with the fist yea their own wills and pleasures are found in them Such is not the Fast which I have chosen says the Lord Isa 58. Shut the windows of death stop up diligently all the holes and passages and so at length no new ordure entring in thou wilt be able to purge out the old And the poor ignorant man unexperienced in spiritual exercises thinks what is now commanded is easily fulfilled for what should hinder me says he that I should not be able to command the members of my own body Instantly then he lays a command of fasting upon his gluttonous appetite forbids excess in drinking charges his ears to be stopt against hearing of blood turns away his eyes lest they should see vanity he stretches out his hands not to covetousness but rather to giving of