Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	draw_v	evil_a	sprinkle_v	1,134	5	10.3564	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63641	Antiquitates christianæ, or, The history of the life and death of the holy Jesus as also the lives acts and martyrdoms of his Apostles : in two parts.	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.; Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. Great exemplar of sanctity and holy life according to the christian institution.; Cave, William, 1637-1713. Antiquitates apostolicae, or, The lives , acts and martyrdoms of the holy apostles of our Saviour.; Cave, William, 1637-1713. Lives, acts and martydoms of the holy apostles of our Saviour.	1675 (1675)	Wing T287; ESTC R19304	1,245,097	752

pursuance of this the same Apostle declares that the several states of sin are so many recessions from the state of Baptismal grace and if we arrive to the direct Apostasie and renouncing of or a contradiction to the state of Baptism we are then unpardonable because we are fallen from our state of Pardon This S. Paul conditions most strictly in his Epistle to the Hebrews This is the Covenant I will make in those days I will put my Laws in their hearts And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more Now where remission of these is there is no more offering for sin that is our sins are so pardoned that we need no more oblation we are then made partakers of the death of Christ which we afterwards renew in memory and Eucharist and representment But the great work is done in Baptism for so it follows Having boldness to 〈◊〉 into the Holiest by the bloud of Jesus by a new and living way that is by the veil of his flesh his Incarnation But how do we enter into this Baptism is the door and the ground of this confidence for ever for so he adds Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water This is the consignation of this blessed state and the gate to all this mercy Let us hold fast the profession of our faith that is the Religion of a Christian the Faith into which we were baptized for that is the Faith that justifies and saves us Let us therefore hold fast this profession of this Faith and do all the intermedial works in order to the conservation of it such as are assembling in the Communion of Saints the use of the Word and Sacrament is included in the Precept mutual Exhortation good Example and the like For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth that is if we sin against the profession of this Faith and hold it not fast but let the Faith and the profession go wilfully which afterwards he calls a treading under foot the Son of God accounting the bloud of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and a doing despite to the spirit of grace viz. which moved upon those waters and did illuminate him in Baptism if we do this there is no more sacrifice for sins no more deaths of Christ into which you may be baptized that is you are fallen from the state of Pardon and Repentance into which you were admitted in Baptism and in which you continue so long as you have not quitted your baptismal Rights and the whole Covenant Contrary to this is that which S. Peter calls making our Calling and Election sure that is a doing all that which may continue us in our state of Baptism and the grace of the Covenant And between these two states of absolute Apostasie from and intirely adhering to and securing this state of Calling and Election are all the intermedial sins and being overtaken in single faults or declining towards vicious habits which in their several proportions are degrees of danger and insecurity which S. Peter calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a forgetting our Baptism or purification from our sins And in this sence are those words The just shall live by Faith that is by that profession which they made in Baptism from which if they swerve not they shall be supported in their spiritual life It is a Grace which by virtue of the Covenant consigned in Baptism does like a centre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to all the periods and portions of our life our whole life all the periods of our succeeding hopes are kept alive by this This consideration is of great use besides many other things to reprove the folly of those who in the Primitive Church deferred their Baptism till their death-bed because Baptism is a Laver of Sanctification and drowns all our sins and buries them in the grave of our Lord they thought they might sin securely upon the stock of an after-Baptism for unless they were strangely prevented by a sudden accident a death-bed Baptism they thought would secure their condition but early some of them durst not take it much less in the beginning of their years that they might at least gain impunity for their follies and heats of their youth Baptism hath influence into the pardon of all our sins committed in all the days of our folly and infirmity and so long as we have not been baptized so long we are out of the state of Pardon and therefore an early Baptism is not to be avoided upon this mistaken fancy and plot upon Heaven it is the greater security towards the pardon of our sins if we have taken it in the beginning of our days 20. Fifthly The next benefit of Baptism which is also a verification of this is a Sanctification of the baptized person by the Spirit of Grace Sanctus in hunc coelo descendit Spiritus amnem Coelestique sacras fonte maritat aquas Concipit unda Deum sanctámque liquoribus almis Edit ab aeterno semine progeniem The Holy Ghost descends upon the waters of Baptism and makes them prolifical apt to produce children unto God and therefore S. Leo compares the Font of Baptism to the Womb of the Blessed Virgin when it was replenished with the Holy Spirit And this is the Baptism of our dearest Lord his Ministers baptize with Water our Lord at the same time verifies their Ministery with giving the Holy Spirit They are joyned together by S. Paul We are by one Spirit baptized into one body that is admitted into the Church by baptism of Water and the Spirit This is that which our Blessed Lord calls a being born of Water and of the Spirit by Water we are sacramentally dead and buried by the Spirit we are made alive But because these are mysterious expressions and according to the style of Scripture high and secret in spiritual significations therefore that we may understand what these things signifie we must consider it by its real effects and what it produces upon the Soul of a man 21. First It is the suppletory of original Righteousness by which Adam was at first gracious with God and which he lost by his prevarication It was in him a principle of Wisdom and Obedience a relation between God and himself a title to the extraordinary mercies of God and a state of Friendship When he fell he was discomposed in all the links of the golden chain and blessed relation were broken and it so continued in the whole life of Man which was stained with the evils of this folly and the consequent mischiefs and therefore when we began the world again entring into the Articles of a new life God gave us his Spirit to be an instrument of our becoming gracious persons and of being in a condition of obtaining that supernatural End which

justifie that a holy life and a persevering Sanctity is enjoyned by the Covenant of the Gospel if I say in its first intention it be declared that we may as well and upon the same terms hope for Pardon upon a Recovery hereafter as upon the perseverance in the present condition 13. From these premisses we may soon understand what is the Duty of a Christian in all his life even to pursue his own undertaking made in Baptism or his first access to Christ and redemption of his person from the guilt and punishment of sins The state of a Christian is called in Scripture Regeneration Spiritual life Walking after the Spirit Walking in newness of life that is a bringing forth fruits meet for Repentance That Repentance which tied up in the same ligament with Faith was the disposition of a Christian to his Regeneration and Atonement must have holy life in perpetual succession for that is the apt and proper fruit of the first Repentance which John the Baptist preached as an introduction to Christianity and as an entertaining the Redemption by the bloud of the Covenant And all that is spoken in the New Testament is nothing but a calling upon us to do what we promised in our Regeneration to perform that which was the design of Christ who therefore redeemed us and bare our sins in his own body that we might die unto sin and live unto righteousness 14. This is that saying of S. Paul Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you Plainly saying that unless we pursue the state of Holiness and Christian communion into which we were baptized when we received the grace of God we shall fail of the state of Grace and never come to see the glories of the Lord. And a little before Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of Faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water That 's the first state of our Redemption that 's the Covenant God made with us to remember our sins no more and to put his laws in our hearts and minds And this was done when our bodies were washed with water and our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience that is in Baptism It remains then that we persist in the condition that we may continue our title to the Covenant for so it follows Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering For if we sin wilfully after the profession there remains no more sacrifice that is If we hold not fast the profession of our Faith and continue not the condition of the Covenant but fall into a contrary state we have forfeited the mercies of the Covenant So that all our hopes of Blessedness relying upon the Covenant made with God in Jesus Christ are ascertained upon us by holding fast that profession by retaining our hearts still sprinkled from an evil conscience by following peace with all men and holiness For by not failing of the grace of God we shall not fail of our hopes the mighty price of our high calling but without all this we shall never see the face of God 15. To the same purpose are all those places of Scripture which intitle us to Christ and the Spirit upon no other condition but a holy life and a prevailing habitual victorious Grace Know you not your own selves Brethren how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates There are but two states of being in order to Eternity either a state of the Inhabitation of Christ or the state of Reprobation Either Christ is in us or we are reprobates But what does that signifie to have Christ dwelling in us That also we learn at the feet of the same Doctor If Christ be in you the body is dead by reason of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness The body of Sin is mortified and the life of Grace is active busie and spiritual in all them who are not in the state of Reprobation The Parallel with that other expression of his They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts If sin be vigorous if it be habitual if it be beloved if it be not dead or dying in us we are not of Christ's portion we belong not to him nor he to us For whoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God that is every Regenerate person is in a condition whose very being is a contradiction and an opposite design to Sin When he was regenerate and born anew of water and the spirit the seed of God the original of Piety was put into him and bidden to encrease and multiply The seed of God in S. John is the same with the word of God in S. James by which he begat us and as long as this remains a Regenerate person cannot be given up to sin for when he is he quits his Baptism he renounces the Covenant he alters his relation to God in the same degree as he enters into a state of sin 16. And yet this discourse is no otherwise to be understood than according to the design of the thing it self and the purpose of God that is that it be a deep ingagement and an effectual consideration for the necessity of a holy life but at no hand let it be made an instrument of Despair nor an argument to lessen the influences of the Divine Mercy For although the nicety and limits of the Covenant being consigned in Baptism are fixed upon the condition of a holy and persevering uninterrupted Sanctity and our Redemption is wrought but once compleated but once we are but once absolutely intirely and presentially forgiven and reconciled to God this Reconciliation being in virtue of the Sacrifice and this Sacrifice applied in Baptism is one as Baptism is one and as the Sacrifice is one yet the Mercy of God besides this great Feast hath fragments which the Apostles and Ministers spiritual are to gather up in baskets and minister to the afterneeds of indigent and necessitous Disciples 17. And this we gather as fragments are gathered by respersed sayings instances and examples of the Divine mercy recorded in Holy Scripture The Holy Jesus commands us to forgive our brother seventy times seven times when he asks our pardon and implores our mercy and since the Divine mercy is the pattern of ours and is also procured by ours the one being made the measure of the other by way of precedent and by way of reward God will certainly forgive us as we forgive our brother and it cannot be imagined God should oblige us to give pardon oftner than he will give it himself especially since he hath expressed ours to be a title of a

Shepherd in the 〈◊〉 Afterwards they admitted Pictures but not before the time of Constantine for in the Council of Eliberis they were forbidden And in succession of time the scruples lessened with the danger and all the way they signified their belief to be that this Commandment was only so far retained by Christ as it relied upon natural reason or was a particular instance of the great Commandment that is Images were forbidden where they did dishonour God or lessen his reputation or estrange our duties or became Idols or the direct matter of superstitious observances charms or senseless confidences but they were permitted to represent the Humanity of Christ to remember Saints and Martyrs to recount a story to imprint a memory to do honour and reputation to absent persons and to be the instruments of a relative civility and esteem But in this particular infinite care is to be taken of Scandal and danger of a forward and zealous ignorance or of a mistaking and peevish confidence and where a Society hath such persons in it the little good of Images must not be violently retained with the greater danger and certain offence of such persons of whom consideration is to be had in the cure of Souls I only add this that the first Christians made no scruple of saluting the Statues of their Princes and were confident it made no intrenchment upon the natural prohibition contained in this Commandment because they had observed that exteriour inclinations and addresses of the body though in the lowest manner were not proper to God but in Scripture found also to be communicated to Creatures to Kings to Prophets to Parents to Religious persons and because they found it to be death to do affront to the Pictures and Statues of their Emperors they concluded in reason which they also saw verified by the practice and opinion of all the world that the respect they did at the Emperor's Statue was accepted as a veneration to his person But these things are but sparingly to be drawn into Religion because the customs of this world are altered and their opinions new and many who have not weak understandings have weak Consciences and the necessity for the entertainment of them is not so great as the offence is or may be 18. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain This our Blessed Saviour repeating expresses it thus It hath been said to them of old time Thou shalt not for swear thy self to which Christ adds out of Num. 30. 2. But thou shalt perform thy Oaths unto the Lord. The meaning of the one we are taught by the other We must not invocate the Name of God in any promise in vain that is with a Lie which happens either out of levity that we change our purpose which at first we really intended or when our intention at that instant was fallacious and contradictory to the undertaking This is to take the Name of God that is to use it to take it into our mouths for vanity that is according to the perpetual style of Scripture for a Lie Every one hath spoken vanity to his neighbour that is he hath lied unto him for so it follows with flattering lips and with a double heart and swearing deceitfully is by the Psalmist called lifting up his soul unto vanity And Philo the Jew who well understood the Law and the language of his Nation renders the sence of this Commandment to be to call God to witness to a Lie And this is to be understood only in Promises for so Christ explains it by the appendix out of the Law Thou shalt perform thy Oaths For lying in Judgment which is also with an Oath or taking God's Name for witness is forbidden in the Ninth Commandment To this Christ added a farther restraint For whereas by the Natural Law it was not unlawful to swear by any Oath that implied not Idolatry 〈◊〉 the belief of a false God I say any grave and prudent Oath when they spake a grave truth and whereas it was lawful for the 〈◊〉 in ordinary entercourse to swear by God so they did not swear to a Lie to which also swearing to an impertinency might be reduced by a proportion of reason and was so accounted of in the practice of the Jews but else and in other cases they us'd to swear by God or by a Creature respectively for they that swear by him shall be commended saith the Psalmist and swearing to the Lord of Hosts is called speaking the language of Canaan Most of this was rescinded Christ forbad all swearing not only swearing to a Lie but also swearing to a truth in common affairs not only swearing commonly by the Name of God but swearing commonly by Heaven and by the Earth by our Head or by any other Oath only let our speech be yea or nay that is plainly affirming or denying In these I say Christ corrected the licence and vanities of the Jews and Gentiles For as the Jews accounted it Religion to name God and therefore would not swear by him but in the more solemn occasions of their life but in trifles they would swear by their Fathers or the Light of Heaven or the Ground they trode on so the Greeks were also careful not to swear by the Gods lightly much less fallaciously but they would swear by any thing about them or near them upon an occasion as vain as their Oath But because these Oaths are either indirectly to be referred to God and Christ instances in divers or else they are but a vain testimony or else they give a Divine honour to a Creature by making it a Judge of truth and discerner of spirits therefore Christ seems to forbid all forms of Swearing whatsoever In pursuance of which law Basilides being converted at the prayers of Potamiaena a Virgin-Martyr and required by his fellow-souldiers to swear upon some occasion then happening answered it was not lawful for him to swear for he was a Christian and many of the Fathers have followed the words of Christ in so severe a sence that their words seem to admit no exception 19. But here a grain of salt must be taken lest the letter destroy the spirit First it is certain the Holy Jesus forbad a custom of Swearing it being great irreligion to despise and lessen the Name of God which is the instrument and conveyance of our Adorations to him by making it common and applicable to trifles and ordinary accidents of our life He that swears often many times swears false and however lays by that reverence which being due to God the Scripture determines it to be due at his Name His Name is to be loved and feared And therefore Christ commands that our communication be yea yea or nay nay that is our ordinary discourses should be simply affirmative or negative In order to this Plutarch affirms out of Phavorinus that the