Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A58787
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The Christian life from its beginning, to its consummation in glory : together with the several means and instruments of Christianity conducing thereunto : with directions for private devotion and forms of prayer fitted to the several states of Christians / by John Scott ...
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Scott, John, 1639-1695.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing S2043; ESTC R38893
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261,748
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609
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us to some great Work or to support us under some extraordinary Suffering For he is a wise and careful Father of his Children and knows 't is much more necessary for us to be good than to be ravished and transported and that such high Cordials are neither proper nor safe for us but in great Extremities and therefore for us to expect that he should make them our ordinary Food and Entertainment is an Argument of our Childish Ignorance and Presumption But though such immediate Whispers and Revelations may serve to good Purposes in a Pinch of Extremity yet are they by no means to be built upon as the Foundations of our ordinary standing Assurance For so long as there is an evil Spirit without and a disordered Fancy within us that can imitate these Whispers we shall be continually liable so long as we put Confidence in them to all the Cheats and Impostures of natural and Diabolical Enthusiasm and unavoidably mistake many an Injection of the Devil and many a warm Flush of Fancy or brisk Fermentation of melancholy Humour for a Whisper and Testimony of the spirit of God and by this means be often lull'd into false Confidences and Assurances which like Golden Dreams will vanish when we awake and leave us miserably disappointed That Assurance therefore which we are to aim at must be founded in the Testimony of a good Conscience and infer'd from the Sense of our own Integrity and Uprightness AND this we are commanded to indeavour after so Heb. x. 22 we are bid to draw near unto God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Confidence or full assurance of faith that is in a firm Persuasion of Gods Love to us and our Interest in his Promises which Persuasion is to be founded upon an inward Sense of our having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies wash'd with pure water and accordingly Heb. vi 11 to be diligent in good works to the full assurance of hope unto the end i. e. to be so diligent in our Duty as that we may thereby acquire such a full Assurance of our Reward as may inable us to continue and hold out to the End For so St. John tells us that 't is by the Integrity of our Vertue and particularly of our love to one another that we are to assure our hearts before God 1 Joh. iii. 14 19. for saith he v. 21 if our hearts condemn us not then have we confidence towards God and for this purpose among others the same Apostle tells us he wrote this Catholick Epistle that true Christians might know and be assured that they had eternal life 1 Joh. v. 13 FROM all which 't is evident that 't is our Duty to labour after such an Assurance of Heaven as naturally ariseth from the clear and certain Sense of our Sincerity towards God and the firm Belief of the Promise of eternal Life to which our Sincerity intitles us For when we are so far improved in Religion as that upon an impartial Surveigh of our selves we can feel our own Integrity and sensibly perceive that our Intention is pure our Resolution fixt and our Heart intirely devoted to God we may from thence most certainly infer our Title and Interest to the Promise of Heaven So that to the obtaining this Assurance all that we have to do is so far to purifie our Intentions from sinister Aims and subdue our bad Inclination to our Resolution of Obedience as that when ever we reflect upon and compare our selves with the Rule our Conscience may be able without any Diffidence to pronounce us sincere and then we may as certainly conclude our Interest in Heaven as we can that Gods Promises are true and if after we are thus far improved in Religion we still remain unassured it proceeds not from the Want of sufficient Evidence but either from a melancholy Temper or a weak Faith or a misinformed Conscience and whichsoever of these is the Cause of it when that is once removed we shall as plainly feel our own Sincerity and therein our Interest in Heaven as we do now our bodily Passions And having once attained this Assurance 't will animate our Hearts with an Heroick Courage against all Temptations and carry us on with unspeakable Alacrity through all the remaining Stages of our Duty it will invigorate our Endeavours and wing our Activity and make us all Life and Spirit in the Exercises of our holy Religion And as when the Christian Army after a tedious march towards the Land of Canaan came within view of the holy City and beheld afar off the Towers and Turrets of Hierusalem they were so Ecstacied with Joy that they made the Heavens ring with triumphant Shouts and Acclamations and as if that Sight had given new Souls to them ran on upon their Enemies with a Courage that forced Victory where-ever they came so when a good Man after a long Progress from one Degree of Vertue to another is got so far as that from a certain Sense and Feeling of his own Sincerity he can discern the new Hierusalem above and his own Interest in it that blessed Sight will fill him with so much Joy Courage and Alacrity that no Temptation for the future will be able to withstand or interrupt him So that his Conscience will be always ringing with Acclamations of Victory and the remainder of his March will be all a Triumphal Progress to him and when he comes to the Conclusion of it to die and pass the Gate of this blessed City the firm Assurance which he hath of Admittance will dispel the Fears sweeten the Troubles and asswage the Pangs and Agonies of the dolorous Passage So that he will die not only with Peace but with Joy and go away into Eternity with Hallelujahs in his Mouth If therefore we mean to bring this our spiritual Warfare to a happy Conclusion it concerns us now while we have Opportunity to labour after a wise and well-grounded Assurance of Heaven SECT VI. Containing certain Motives to Press men to the Practice of these Duties of Perseverance in the Christian Warfare HAVING in the foregoing Section described all those Duties which appertain to the last Part of our Christian Warfare to wit final Perseverance and shewn how effectually they all contribute thereunto I shall now according to my former Method conclude with some Motives to press and persuade men to the Practice of them all which I shall deduce from the Consideration of the great and urgent Necessity of our final Perseverance to which those Duties are such necessary Helps and Means For unless we take in the Assistance of these Duties in all Probability we shall never be able to hold out to the End and unless we persevere to the End we are guilty of the most fatal and mischievous piece of Folly in the World For Consider 1. If after we have made some Progress in Religion we wilfully relapse we shall go back much faster than ever we have
infests us all over with continual Anguish and Pain how when he hath tired and exhausted us with his continued Batteries and worn out our Strength with a succession of wearisom Nights to sorrowful Days he at last storms the Soul out of all the Out-works of Nature and forces it to retire into the Heart and how when he hath marked us for dead with a Baptism of clammy and fatal Sweats he summons our weeping Friends to assist him to grieve and vex us with their parting Kisses and sorrowful Adieus and how at length when he is weary of Tormenting us any more he rushes into our Hearts and with a few Mortal Pangs and Convulsions tears the Soul from thence and turns it out to seek its Fortune in the wide World of Spirits where 't is either seized on by Devils and carried away to their dark Prisons of Sorrow and Despair there to languish out its life in a dismal Expectation of that dreadful Day wherein it must change its bad Condition for a worse or be conducted by Angels to some blessed Abode there to remain in unspeakable Pleasure and Tranquillity till 't is Crown'd with a glorious Resurrection Now since 't is most certain that we must all one time or other experience these things but most uncertain how soon how much doth it concern us to think of them before-hand and to forecast such Provisions and Preparations for them as that whensoever they happen we may not be surprized For besides that the frequent Meditation of death will familiarize its Terrors to us so that whensoever it comes our Minds which have been so long accustomed to converse with it will be much less startled and amazed at it besides that it will wean us from the inordinate Desire and over-eager Prosecution of the things of this World which as I told you before are the Snares with which our Vices do too often intangle us besides all this I say it will put us upon laying in a Store of spiritual Provisions against that great day of Expence For he that often considers the dreadful Approaches the concomitant Terrors and the momentous Issues and Consequents of Death must be strangely stupified if he be not thereby vigorously excited to fore-arm and fortifie himself with all those Graces and Defences that are necessary to render it easie safe and prosperous VIII To our final perseverance in the Christian Warfare it is also necessary that in order to the putting our selves into a good Posture to die we should discharge our Consciences of all the Reliques and Remains of our past guilt For so we are commanded to take care that our hearts be sprinkled from an evil conscience Heb. x. 22 and to hold faith and a good conscience 1 Tim. i. 19 and to make this our rejoycing the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world 2 Cor. i. 12 in a word to live in all good conscience Acts xxiii 1 and to have a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men Acts xxiv 16 Which though they are General Duties do necessarily imply this Particular that we should very nicely and curiously examin our Consciences those faithful Records and Registers of our Actions and where-ever we find the least Item of an uncancel'd Guilt immediately cross it out by a hearty Sorrow for and moral Revocation of it For notwithstanding we may have in the general repented of all our past Sins yet there are some Siins which notwithstanding we react no more do leave a lasting Guilt upon the Mind which nothing can cancel but our actual revoking and unsinning them As supposing that I have heretofore either by my bad Counsels or Example seduced other men into wicked Courses it is not sufficient for the Expiation of my Fault that I my self abstain from those wicked Courses for the future but I must indeavour to undo the Mischief which I have done to others by them and by a solemn Recantation of my past Follies by Persuasion and good Counsel and the Application of all other pious and prudent Means indeavour to reduce those whom I have formerly perverted For till I have done this I wilfully permit the mischievous Effect of my Sin to remain and if when I have wounded another I suffer him to perish without taking any care of his Cure I am guilty of his Murder though I never wound him more Suppose again that I have injured another by any malicious Slander or Calumny it is not enough to acquit me of the Guilt of it that I cease to scandalize him for the future but I must also indeavour by a free Retractation to vindicate his injur'd Name from the ill Surmises of those to whom I have asperst him for so long as his Reputation suffers through my not Retracting the Calumnies I have cast upon it I wilfully persist to defame and calumniate him and so long the Guilt of it must stick and abide upon my Conscience Once more suppose I have injur'd another in his Estate either by Theft or Fraud or Oppression it will not be sufficient to acquit me that for the future I forbear defrauding forcing or stealing from him any more but if it be in my Power I must make Restitution of all that I have wrongfully deprived him of and that to himself if he be living or if not to those that succeed him in his Rights and for want of such to the Poor who by Gods Donation have the Propriety of all such Wefts and Strays as have no other Owner surviving For it 's certain that my wrongful Seizure of what is another Mans doth not alienate his Right to it so that he hath the same Right to it while I keep it from him as he had at first when I took it from him and consequently till I restore it back to him I continue to wrong him of it and my detaining it is a continued Repetition of that Fraud or Theft or Oppression by which I wrongfully seized it and whilst I thus continue the Sin 't is impossible but the Guilt of it must still abide upon me In these Cases therefore it concerns us to be very nice and curious in examining our Accounts to see if there be any of these Scores yet uncancel'd any of these bad Effects of our Sin yet remaining For if any such matter appear in our Accounts it concerns us as much as our everlasting Interest amounts to to use all present Care and Diligence to discharge it that so before Death summons us to give up our Accounts to the great Auditor of the World all Scores between him and us may be even'd and adjusted And indeed if we would be safe it vastly imports us to leave as little as may be to do upon a Death-bed for that is most commonly a very improper State for religious Action since for all we know we may be distracted in it by a Feaver or stupified by an Apoplexy or deprived