Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A28346
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The Ladies Charity School-house roll of Highgate, or, A subscription of many noble, well-disposed ladies for the easie carrying of it on
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W. B. (William Blake), fl. 1650-1670.
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1670
(1670)
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Wing B3152; ESTC R2137
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96,148
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302
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thou goest from God Christ and Self-happiness Self-love and happiness is to love God and God above all Whom have I in Heaven but thee or whom do I desire in comparison of thee saith David Psal 73. 25. There was a time when you desired your Lord much but did you ever desire your Lord Christ a little if you did do it more and more his Name his Nature his Person and his Promise is altogether desirable and shall be remembred in all Generations and praised for ever and ever Psal 45. 17. Therefore his Love is better than Wine Cant. 1. 2. Yea the wine of Angels for this is that that they drink in the perpetual beholding of him and you shall see my face too sayes God if you be his Servants Rev. 22. 4. But do not think of Reigning with God in Heaven if you be not his Servants here and your present Heaven is nothing to that Lift up your Eyes and look upon them and he that made them all your Heavens are but Dreams and Smoak What art thou that forgetst the Lord thy Maker Isa 51. 13. that hath stretched forth the Heavens and laid the foundations of the Earth and art afraid of a man that shall dye and be as grass Look unto Abraham sayes God ver 2. And if Abraham's bosom be desirable his Faith and Obedience is so too Some have the art to make much of little but few to make God all as Abraham did when he told him I am thy sheild and exceeding great reward Gen. 15. 1. and it is not in the power of any but he who is all and filleth all in all to give to all abundantly what their Souls do want Herod would give half his Kingdom for nothing but St. John Baptist's head pleased the young Gib well enough Matt. 14. 8. He preached repentance and Christ forgiveness a Prophet may instruct us but Christ only makes us to profit by the ministry of the word Oh! pray pray that hearing you may hear Rev. 2. 11. Matt. 13. 14. and know him whom to know is life eternal John 17. 3. though knowledge may be without Grace yet true Grace is never without knowledge and I know my redeemer lives saies Job 19. 25. and that you have not the love of God in you saies Christ to the Jews Joh. 5. 42. and his satisfaction for us is more the ground of our justification before God than his sanctification in us and yet Christ in us too is the hope of glory Oh! let him live in your hearts by faith 't will breed joy and feed joy a true Christian tasts that here which will be unspeakable hereafter here his joys enter into us hereafter we shall enter into it and the sweetness of divine love passeth all knowledge men taste a little here but ravishment is for fruition be industrious till you come there for the industrious man is not at leisure to sin heavenly meditations keep the mind busie when the hand is at plough or play but play dayes said Bishop Latimer are the Devils working dayes and he has more sin in one of them than in a whole week besides Religion allows not much idleness for he that will not work must not eat by Paul's rule Admire God in your calling and out of thy calling and the fields will give you room and objects enough for meditations and contemplations if you be not vain and airy but you must take care and watch thoughts or else you 'l loose God in your mind which is the honey in the way Oh! what is the bough the bush and the green but a little thing he sends every spring a little Daisy has a fine head but all the world cannot make it nor one hair white or black Oh! admire God in his works which are past finding out saies David Psal 19. 1. if they were happy which stood before Solomon as the Queen of Sheba said Luk. 11. 31. what are they that shall stand before the Lamb to admire him to Eternity Rev. 7. 15. Come begin heaven on earth admire him here and you shall hereafter in a sinless state here we sin and serve him too not in sin that is the Devil's work as Christ said John 8. 44. there we shall be without sin and never fear nor offend but love him to all eternity and be beloved of him Saints and Angels too Oh! may you dwell among them for ever and that is best of all but the best of and whole of this world is not worth one half quarter of the world to come That that makes heaven full of Joy is that it is above all fears and that that makes hell so full of terrour is that it is below all hopes the certainty perpetuity and eternity of it never ends nor the worm dyes saies Christ Mark 9. 44. Isa 66. 24. sin breeds death and the worm feeds upon the Conscience in remembrance of it so that a man or womans own hell comes much from and lies most in themselves by the alwise providence of a just and wise God ordering of it so see and buy Mr. Strongs little book upon the Worm of conscience we grieve and take care that little ones be not sick and dye of the worms but seldom take good and sound repentance our selves through the blood of Christ to kill the worm to come Oh! that sin may dye and Christ live in all your hearts grace increase and that decrease grace is glory begun a bud beam and slower of it and a grain of it is more worth than all the hypocritical knowledge in the world and through justifying grace scarlet sins and sinners are made whiter than snow by the blood of Christ Psal 51. 2. and the true preaching of the holy Gospel is the breaking of one heart and the binding up of another the hard is to be broken and the bruised is to be bound up much of the Minister or good Physicians skill lies in this Oh how good is it to have such a good Physician or to look out if we have not and if it be good for us to draw near unto God by prayer is it not so for him to draw near unto us by Preaching Peace Pardon and Forgiveness to us in the Ministry Yea 't is this way that he speaks Peace to his People And every faithful Minister hath as much the Power and Key this way as another For 't is but in Preaching and Believing They tell us of the Love of God and we apply and believe through the Blood of Christ and this applying and believing becomes our Remission and Forgiveness Oh! believe God is a giving and a sin-forgiving God and has two places one above and another below in a broken heart and if he dwell with a penitent what may not that heart get by him And for old and past sins it is our Heaven to be rid of them for they would have run us to Hell if we had continued in them When God is in the heart
will certainly wish he had never been in a dying hour who lives not unto him All things fail me now but my God my duty and my prayers Mason So then faith never fails said he who had been five times Embassador for King James But from all chiefly learn this the world to be vanity that God in Christ Faith and holy Duties well performed were never failing things that is to say holy Duties done by Divine assistance and the sense of his Love in Christ But all things else fail us and Cordials cease when breath and life slies away But God is my portion for ever saith the Psalmist 16. 5. Money will not nor money cannot buy one moment from the grave for what would not some give could the Physician help but Faith and Holiness will help practise then the Art of well living for the comfort of well dying Great peace have they that love thy Law saith David Psal 119. 165. Many shall be the sorrows of those that sin much here or hereafter And I suffer these pains for my sins past saith a great Lord. And I shall never sleep more saith a Carding Gentlewoman the word Eternity doth so run in mine Ear. And indeed it is hard when people spend their time in Carding as she had done and come to dying to find comfort Oh! but a good conscience sings sweet Remember O Lord I walk before thee says good King Hezekiah 2 King 20 3. I have finished my work sayes Christ Joh. 17. 4. I have fought a good fight sayes Paul 2 Tim. 4. 7. And I have loved Preached and lived to thee sayes Luther Oh Christ from my Soul And so have I says Beza and I am weary of sin and willing to dye But what have you great Ladies done that you should expect to live with Angels and sing with that Coelestial Quire the praises of the Lamb to all Eternity Rev. 7. 9. Come and begin Heaven here on Earth that ye be never made the tayl at last you are now uppermost in all places rooms and companies would you be lowermost in the next world Lords lead you by the hand up and down stairs where your steps go pit pat with your silver Clappers But oh if ye do not live to Christ what will become of you when the Silken Stockin and the Silver Shoe the Holland Shift and all must off and as ye come into the world so must ye go only your Mother's blood will be washt away Princes Kings and Queens must all lye down to Death and Parliament Lords must pull off their Robes but Death can never strip a Saint nor any true believing penitent of Christ and his Righteousness no no Worms may eat his skin through and through and the Grave consume his flesh and bones to dust as Job speaks Job 19. 26. Yet shall I see my Redeemer But will he own you then if you do not own him now My Sheep hear my voice and I give to them Eternal Life sayes Christ But you would none of me Joh. 10. 27. I have piped sayes Christ but you would not dance I have mourned but ye would not lament Mat. 11. 17. Christ Preached Repentance by John to the Jews but they would not mourn Christ Preached Forgiveness by himself but they would not believe nor have any of his Salvation Oh! take heed and again take heed that ye Great and Noble Gentile Ladies do not the same The Gadarens once preferred their Swine before the Lord of Life and Glory and intreated him to be gone out of their Coasts or Country Luk. 8. 37. And take ye heed that ye refuse not the waters of Shiloah that run softly Isa 8. 6. and slight him that speaks from Heaven Heb. 12. 25. prefer your Lusts Toys Honours and every little thing before your Lord and Master Why should the braying of an Ass be more acceptable to you than the most melodious Musick of the Gospel I mean base and mean things before the high and heavenly ones of God Oh! tast and see that the Lord is gracious and Religion sweet Psal 34. 8. I will assure you 't is said a great Countess to the Lord Bartlet And Cursed be the man said the Noble Marquess Galliaces that thinks all the pleasure in the world worth one hours communion with God And if you would have communion with God sit down and sink down in your spirits and converse with your selves a little before ye go hence and be no more but the Devil visits and twenty needless things will not let you sit down walk alone or be in the dark one hour to mind Death Heaven Hell and Eternity Indeed it is hard for a man of much business or a Lady of much Honour and Courtship to mind the main or to live to him at all who lives much for others Wise men and Great men and States-men too are great strangers to themselves many times Oh! let 's live to our selves We have lived to our Fortune our King and our Country let 's live to our selves before we go hence All the world will not make amends if we neglect it said Sir Francis Walsingham to Lord Burlington who were great States-men in Queen Elizabeth's time and if you neglect it too to breed up two or three young Lords or Ladies to stand in your room and stead meerly to maintain your Honour and the Honour of your Families and not mind the Honour of Christ and his Exemplary Life or Laws which should be copyed out in your Lives and Children's Conversations What do ye more than others as Christ speaks nay do ye not worse than others many times Matth. 5. 47. As if Greatness were necessitated to abandon Piety and Goodness This is a bad conclusion Great men should imitate the great Planets and the great Deity by being good and doing good but you do hurt many times by bad Examples sinning leading others into sin send away your Children for a little breeding to the hazard of their Souls match them to the worst of men for a little Honour many times weep for them when they are sick and laugh when they sin But Cato advises He that will buy a Farm should look well what Neighbours he has but the qualifications of the person had need more be minded of the Young Lady's Servant because 't is for Life For Honour is but a shadow without Piety and will prove a bubble a bubble as one cryed out of all the world upon the thoughts of Eternity indeed that swallows all things as mighty Whales does the little Fishes how quick and soon this comes God knows Man walks sings laughs and talks and Ladies do the same play upon the Lute and Citern one day and to Death's Pipe the next And now if Death and Night puts an end to Life and Day what should remain but to work whilst day and time last because though another day comes and that past yet the same Day and Life nor may that opportunity be which in