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	faith_n	sprinkle_v	1,168	5	10.6414	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A74993	Certain select discourses on those most important subjects, requisite to be well understood by a catechist in laying the foundation of Christian knowledge in the minds of novitiates viz., First discourses on I. The doctrine of the two covenants both legal and evangelical, II. On faith and justification / by William Allen. Secondly, Discourses on I. The covenant of grace, or baptismal covenant, being chatechetical lectures on the preliminary questions and answers of the Church-Catechism : II. Three catechetical lectures on faith and justification / by Thomas Bray, D.D.	Allen, William, d. 1686.; Bray, Thomas, 1658-1730.	1699 (1699)	Wing A1055A; ESTC R172154	614,412	564

having him our High-Priest over the House of God we may hence-forward draw near with a true Heart in full Assurance of Faith having our Hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience Heb. 10.19 20 21 22. that is Every Christian provided he comes not with the guilt of any unrepented Sin upon his Conscience may himself now Offer up his own Prayers to God through Christ without the Mediation of any other Priest or Sacrifice and that with a full Assurance of being graciously heard and answer'd And that this Faith and full Assurance with which we may Approach unto God to Pray to him for the Forgiveness of Sins is our Priviledge only as we are the Sons of God by Adoption is plain from St. Paul Rom. 8.15 Ye have not received the Spirit of Bondage again unto fear as under the Law but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry unto God Abba Father And again Gal. 4.6 Because ye are thus made his Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father And now Lastly If there be any other very considerable Priviledge Lastly A Child of God is more surely instated in the Inheritance of Heaven than others accruing to a Child of God from such his Relation it is That God will more surely Instate him in the Inheritance of Heaven than he will do others that have no such Relation to him And indeed if Children of God then Heirs we are told Heirs of God and Joint-Heirs with Christ Rom. 8.17 But the Vastness of this will be best consider'd by us when we come to the Explication of that Third and the last of those Priviledges made over to us on God's Part in the Covenant of Grace viz. What it is to be an Inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven The infinite reason we have to praise God for these Advantages And now upon the Review of what has been said in the Exposition of this present Article In what Admiration of God's Goodness may we all of us cry out with St. John 1 Epist 3.1 Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestow'd upon us that we should be call'd the Sons of God And what infinite Reason have we with St. Paul thankfully to Praise him for it Eph. 1.3.5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath Blessed us Christians with all Spiritual Blessings in and concerning Heavenly Places and Concerns of the World to come through Christ having Predestinated us to the Adoption and Priviledges of Children by Jesus Christ unto himself according to the good Pleasure of his Will He Adopted us to be his Children according to the good Pleasure of his Will This Priviledge that we should be his Children is Attended with very rich Advantages all which have accru'd to us not from any Merit and Desert of ours being suppos'd Enemies unto him but only from his free Goodness towards us which was pleas'd so to determine it And as it is both Great and Free we ought certainly with all possible Acknowledgments to Magnify and Extol both his infinite Condescension and Goodness and our own unspeakable Priviledge and Dignity therein Indeed for God to be a Father by Creation and Providence as One observes tho' it be a Mercy yet it is no Priviledge for in that Sence he is Parens rerum the common Parent of all things But that God should be thy Father by Adoption that he should make thee his Son through his only Begotten Son that he should rake up Dirt and Filth as thou art and lay it in his Bosom that he should take Aliens and Strangers near unto himself and Adopt Enemies and Rebels into his Family Register their Names in the Book of Life make them Heirs of Glory Co-heirs with Jesus Christ his Eternal Son as the Apostle doth admiringly re-count it Rom. 8.17 This is Mercy and Miracle both It is indeed an invaluable Grace and Favour that we should be Adopted his Children were it only for this that he will be ready to Pardon our Sins and Infirmities and will Admit us favourably to Address our Selves and Prayers to him But this Priviledge of being his Children will farther appear to be beyond all Expression Great since if Children as the Apostle infers Rom. 8.17 then Heirs Heirs of God and Joint-Heirs with Christ If a Child of God then which Crowns all the rest of his Covenanted Mercies Inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven which yet it is said we shall be But what and how Great that Third and Last Priviledge of the Covenant is I am in the Explication of the next Article to declare unto you THE Eighth Lecture And an Inheritour of the Kingdom of Heaven HAving hitherto spoke to the Two First Priviledges made over to us in the Covenant of Grace that thereby we are First made Members of Christ and Secondly Children of God Having both Explain'd to you the Meaning and Importance of those Two Articles and laid out to you the Vastness of those Priviledges and Advantages contain'd therein I come now in like manner to Explain to you the Third which is that we are made thereby Inheritours of the Kingdom of Heaven And indeed this Last does necessarily follow from the other For as St. Paul speaks Rom. 8.17 If Children then Heirs Heirs of God and Joint-Heirs with Christ This is the Perfection of all God's Promises and Favours vouchsafed in the Second Covenant It comes last and Crowns all the rest And it will be the certain Reward of all those that persevere to the end of their Lives in well-doing and in sincere Obedience notwithstanding all Temptations to the contrary to God's most Righteous Commands Be faithful unto Death says our Saviour and I will give thee a Crown of Life Rev. 2.10 And that you may throughly understand the vast greatness of this most extraordinary Priviledge made over to you by Covenant so as to be excited thereby to render your selves worthy to be Partakers thereof according to my usual Method I will Explain to you First What is meant by the Kingdom of Heaven Secondly What it Imports to be an Inheritour of it And then Lastly I will lay out before you the Vastness of our Priviledge in being made Inheritours of the Kingdom of Heaven And First I am to Explain unto you By the Kingdom of Heaven is meant in Scripture either First the Kingdom of Grace in this Life or Secondly the Kingdom of Glory in the Life to come what is meant by the Kingdom of Heaven The Kingdom of Heaven is an Expression we do meet with above Thirty times in the New Testament and I think we may safely say That we are constantly to understand by it either First The Kingdom of Grace in this Life or Secondly The Kingdom of Glory in the Life to come By the Kingdom of Grace in this Life I mean that Happy and Blessed State of us Christians now under the Gospel wherein we Enjoy the Happiness

days upon the Land c. Deut. 32.46 47. Set your hearts unto all the words which I testifie among you this day for it is not a vain thing for you because it is your life and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the Land wherein ye go The latter words are exegetical of the former Through this thing ye shall prolong your days is the interpretation of those it is your Life And it may be considered also whether this Particle in which if a Man do he shall even live in them may not determine the nature and kind of that Reward which was promised in the first Covenant as it was a present Reward a Reward which was received even while the Work was doing according to that Psal 19.11 In keeping them there is great reward And this is agreeable to what fell out in the event The Lord was with them to prosper them while they were with him but when they forsook him presently Troubles overtook them The pouring out of God's Fury on them to consume them in the Wilderness being put in Ezek. 20 13 21. as the direct contrary to those words which if a Man do he shall even live in them seems greatly to favour this Notion But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the Wilderness They walked not in my Statutes and they despised my Judg●ents which if a man do he shall even live in them Then I said I would ●●ur out my fury upon them to consume them in the Wilderness And indeed one main difference between the two Covenants which I ●ould have here observed lies in this to wit the presentness of the R●ward promised in the first and the futurity of that promised in the se●ond St. Paul in his Allegorical description of the two Covenants Ga● 4.24 c. represents those that adhered to the first Covenant by the Children of the Bond-servant to whom Abraham gave Gifts in pres●●t and sent them away as in Gen. 25.5 and those that adhered to th● second by the Son of the free-woman Isaac who was Abraham's Heir ●o whom he gave the whole Inheritance at last And the Adoptio● of Sons as the Privilege of the New Covenant is opposed to the condition of Servants under the Old Gal. 4.7 And what are they ad●pted to but to an Inheritance for the future For by Adoption they are made Heirs If a Son then an Heir of God through Christ An Heir of what of an Inheritance for the future an inheritance incorruptible undefiled and which fadeth not away reserved in Heaven 1 Pet. 1.4 And therefore they are said to wait for the Adoption to wit the redemption of their Bodies at the Resurrection Rom. 8.23 Sons and Heirs serve their Father with a free and ingenuous Spirit though they have but little for the present in confidence of what he will do for them ●ereafter in another World when they shall come to Age. But those under the Old Covenant were like Servants who serve with a servile Spirit because they do it with expectation of present pay The one walk by Faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen the other were influenced in their Obedience by the expectation of present Reward because that was it which the first Covenant promised to the observers of it These Promises now insisted on were promises of Reward to the observers of this first Covenant But besides these there was another sort of Promises exhibited in the first Covenant and they were Promises of Pardon in many cases when the Laws of that Covenant were broken There were as I have shewed Laws of Indemnity which made many of the breaches of the Laws of Duty pardonable upon certain conditions And such were all Sins of Ignorance and Inadvertency and some of those also which were committed wittingly But presumptuous Sins and such as carried in them a kind of contempt of the Law these were exempted from Pardon Heb. 10.28 He that despised Moses's Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses But for the other there were promises of pardon upon certain conditions which conditions were not always the same In some cases the offering of a Sin-offering or Trespass-offering was the condition In other cases that with confession of Sin was the condition And in some other cases Sacrificing Restitution and Satisfaction were the condition And afflicting of the Soul as well as the Sacrifice for Atonement o● the day of general Expiation was always a condition of forgiveness These things in the particularities of them you have in the 4 5 6 1● and 23d Chapters of Levit. And then the condition of the Promis●s of Purgation of Legal Uncleannesses and the penal effects from the● was the observing the Rules prescribed for purifying the Uncle●n Now the forgiveness promised by these Laws of Indemnity did ●ot free the Conscience from all obligation to Eternal Punishment but ●nly freed the Person from suffering those temporal Evils which ●ere threatned in this Covenant against those which did not contin●● in all things written in the Book of it Neither Sacrifices nor ●egal Purifications Sanctified but unto the purifying of the flesh and to their temporal Concerns only Heb. 9.9 10 13. And here we may observe a five-fold difference in reference ●o Remission of Sin between the first Covenant and the Cove●ant of Grace 1. They differ in the nature of those Sacrifices by which Atonements were made and upon which Forgiveness was promised The Blood of the Sacrifice of the first Covenant was but the blood of Bulls and of Goats and the like Heb. 10.4 But the Blood of the Sacrifice of the second Covenant is the Blood of Christ the Eternal Son of God So that the nature of the Sacrifices of the two Covenants upon which the Promise of the pardon of Sins was granted doth differ as much as the Blood of Beasts and the Blood of the Son of God differ 2. Those two sorts of Sacrifices pertaining to two kinds of Covenants differ in the proportion of Efficacy and Virtue to accomplish their respective Ends and Effects There is a greater Richness of proportion in the Blood of Christ to free the Conscience from the guilt of Sin or obligation to Eternal Punishment than there was in the Blood of Beasts to free the delinquent Person from temporal Punishments This is plainly intimated in Heb. 9.13 14. For if the blood of Bulls and of Goats and the ashes of an Heiser sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your Conscience from dead works to serve the living God 3. They differ in the nature of the pardon promised in each of the Covenants respectively The Redemption granted in the first Covenant was but Temporal as the Covenant it self was it was but from Evils temporal But Christ Jesus by his Atonement hath obtained

to the Intent that giving an extraordinary Proof of their Faith and Constancy and Patience and Love to him he may extraordinarily Reward ' em Every one that hath forsaken Houses or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children or Lands for his Names sake being certain to receive an Hundred Fold and to Inherit Everlasting Life Mat. 19.29 II. Hezekiah to discover his Hypocrisy and to Humble him in the sight thereof Secondly We find That God Tempted Hezekiah in order to discover to him his own Hypocrisy and Corruption and the Pride of his own Heart that he might be humbled in the Sight and Sense thereof For Hezekiah being lately Recover'd from a mortal Sickness by the miraculous Providence of God The Princes of Babylon sent their Ambassadors unto him to enquire of the Wonder that was done in the Land and God left him to try him that he might Know all that was in his Heart 2 Chron. 32.31 that is God did Providentially order the Coming of those Forreign Ambassadors upon this Errand to try Hezekiah whether he would take this occasion before those Idolaters who put their Trust in those which were no Gods to Glorify the True God of Israel for so miraculously Recovering of him But he being more intent upon setting out his own Grandeur than God's Glory took care only To shew them all the House of his precious Things the Silver and the Gold and the Spices and the precious Ointment and all the house of his Armour and all the house of his Treasures 2 King 20.13 Upon which God did severely Reprove and Humble him by the Mouth of his Prophet Isaiah ver 17 18 19. for such his Ingratitude Pride and Vanity And so it is with every one of us There is a great deal of Pride and Vanity and other Corruptions and secret Hypocrisies which lie lurking in our Hearts and we our selves are Ignorant thereof and how we shall prove till we are try'd and some Providential Occasion draws it out And then if God's Word or Ministers or the Rebukes of our own Consciences make us sensible thereof we are much Better'd and God has his Gracious Ends in our Amendment So that thus you see to what good Purposes God does Tempt us namely Either to prove our Vertue that he may Reward us the better for it or to discover our Hypocrisy and Insincerity that we might be Humbled in the Sight and Sence thereof and be thereby amended These Temptations of God are therefore in no sence to be Renounc'd but to be Re Such Temptations therefore as these are none of the Works of the Devil nor in any Sence to be Renounced by us Nay rather We have reason to count it all Joy when we fall into these divers Temptations of God's ordering Knowing this that the Trying of our Faith worketh Patience Jam. 1.2 3. They give us an Opportunity of Exercising the Noblest Vertues of Christianity bitually committed will cause in them such a Reprobate Mind as will disable 'em at length to know any difference between Good and Evil. And by this very Wile he to this day By these Means he brings that Ignorance in Divine Matters which reigns in most Men's Minds spreads such an Ignorance over the Minds of Men in matters of Religion as makes even Darkness it self seem to reign where the Gospel has so long shin'd For by engaging some into nice Enquiries after a Thousand other things he draws 'em off from ever looking into their Bibles And as to Others by decoying 'em into one Sin after another he does at length improve their Knowledge of Evil to that degree that at last they come to know nothing of Good nay to have so little a sense of it such stupify'd Apprehensions concerning it as to Call Evil Good and Good Evil. And then having once Blindfolded the Reason of Man And being spiritually ignorant Men are easily led into whatever Sin and Misery with the Ignorance of Divine Things what Sin and Misery is there that Satan does not most easily lead Men into For why Good and Useful Knowledge such as the Knowledge of God and of our selves and of our Duty to him is the Eye of the Soul whereby alone it can see its Way and steer its Course safely towards Heaven Whereas on the other side Ignorance of God and Religion is the same in the Mind as Blindness in the Eye and therefore as a Blind Man may with the greatest Ease be drawn aside into Pits and over Rocks to his Downfal and Destruction and it is next to impossible he should ever get safe to his Journeys End so an Ignorant Man in Religious Matters must needs be an easy Prey to Satan and False Deceivers and he cannot possibly tell how to steer his Course safe towards Heaven but must almost necessarily suffer Shipwrack of Body and Soul in Hell So that this Policy of the Devil in Corrupting the Understanding and Reason of Man by putting him upon curious Enquiries and a sinful Experiment in order as he pretended to enlarge his Knowledge but in reallity with a design to draw over his Soul a thick Cloud of Ignorance that so he might lead him Blindfold into any Sin and Misery is a Depth of Satan that was and still is most Fatal and Destructive to our Innocence and to our Happiness And this therefore is another Wile of Satan's This therefore another Wile of Satan's which must be carefully avoided which you must also carefully avoid You must above all things Beware of ever making Experiments of the Pleasures of Sin vainly deceiving your own Souls with the Expectations that having once known what is in 'em you will the more Abhor 'em for the future Few of those who do make such sinful Experiments do afterwards return to a sound and sober Sense of things Not that they find any reason to stick to those Courses but because the ways of Sin are meer Mazes which once Enter'd into are hardly got out of and because Sin often committed does at length sear the Conscience and drives away the Holy Spirit and so the wretched Sinner becomes utterly Ignorant of God's Ways and the Happiness it would be to him to walk therein And in this their Ignorance what Pits of Destruction are there which Satan cannot draw them into You must therefore I say above all things endeavour as to Expel all Ignorance of Divine Things out of your Minds so the great Causes thereof of Satan's Contrivance namely Curiosity after vain and unprofitable Things which will divert you from what does infinitely more concern you viz. The good State of your Souls and you must carefully beware of Experimentally knowing Sin the Commission and Acquaintance with which will draw a thick Cloud of Ignorance over your Minds as has been spoke And hereby you will also Renounce and Defeat another considerable Temptation and Wile of Satan's to draw us into a Course of Sin III. By bribing

will sly from that worst of Tormentors he thinks his own Mind even to the Grave and into Destruction it self for Refuge And hence it is that so many miserable Wretches hang stab drown or shoot themselves being thus Tempted thereto by Satan And hence it is that Persons of a melancholly Temper of Mind are so apt above others to be troubled with Blasphemous Thoughts tho' Persons of great Piety and such as have all along Feared God and kept his Commandments Both these and the former Apprehensions are some of those Fiery Darts of the Devil mention'd Eph. 6.16 cast into the Soul at such time when they are least able to Repel 'em and that on purpose to disturb the poor melancholly Wretch to the highest degree so as to do Violence to his own Nature and to destroy himself or to force from him Expressions most highly Dishonou●able to God and Terrible to Christian Ears to hear But Eighthly The great Battery of the Devil whereby he does storm the Innocency and shake the Constancy of the greatest Part of Mankind Is his Representing to the Fancy of Men the Conveniency of Riches the Glory of Honours and the Sweetness of Pleasures thereby to Bribe 'em to Rebel against God and to Sin against their own Souls VIII Above all by Representing to the Fancies of Men the Conveniency of Riches the Glory of Honours and the Sweetness of Pleasures he does thereby Bribe 'em to Rebel against God and to Sin against their own Souls This I call his great Battery and usually therefore he does Assault us therewith not till all others have fail'd him In this manner he dealt with our Saviour When all his other Temptations prov'd ineffectual The Devil taketh him up into an exceeding high Mountain and sheweth him all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of ' em And saith unto him All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me Matth. 4.8 9. But altho' the Son of God was no more to be won upon by this than by any of the former to comply in the least with the Designs of the wicked Tempter Yet the Weakness of the Generality of Men is such that they are Brib'd hereby when nothing else can prevail to Apostatize from God to do Injuries to Men and to do the greatest Abuses to their own Reason and Nature and in short to commit every Kind of Sin whereby God is Dishonour'd and they themselves shall be finally Ruin'd And the Manner and Cunning wherewith the Devil manages these Temptations is extreamly well worth your Notice When he makes any Representation to our Souls of this World's Glory he only shews us the fairest Out-side of those Things to allure us thereby into Sin industriously concealing all that is vain and vexatious and stinging therein which would deter us from it In his Representation of this World's Goods he shews only the fair out-side to allure into Sin industriously concealing all that is hurtful therein and would deter Men from it Thus he manag'd the matter with our Saviour and thus he does still with us In that World and the Glory thereof which he shew'd to our Blessed Lord there was a great mixture of Confusion and Disorder and Crosses and Vexations and Troubles but nothing of this did he represent to his View when he offer'd it to him as a Bribe but only gave him to see the Plenty the Grandeur the Beauty thereof separated from the other ungrateful and displeasing Part And so he deals with us He does very lively present to Men the Advantage of Riches how that Money commands all Things and then stirs up their Covetous Desires after it so as to get it they care not how by Thieving and Robbery by Cozennage and Extortion and Sacriledge or by any unlawful Arts and Methods He does dazle their Eyes with the Splendor and Glory of High Places le ts 'em see the Cap and the Knee and low Obeisances and the servile Flatteries made to the Grandees of this World to stir up their Ambition to wade through Seas of Blood and to tread upon the Necks of oppressed Provinces in order to mount those Seats of Honour And lastly he does very lively lay before their Eyes the Luxury and Wantonness and seeming Ease found in sensual Pleasures and so inflames their Lusts and Appetites after the Enjoyment of 'em But he draws a dark shade over the deformed Part of the World that we may not perceive those manifold Troubles and Vexations and Disappointments and Punishments attending these Things in the unlawful getting of 'em and the never-failing Remorses and Regrets of Conscience Amazing and Distracting and stinging with a Venom more inflam'd and furious than that of Scorpions the Souls who wickedly pursue and attain to those Things All this dark Part he reserves till this World's Goods are so unjustly got to work upon their Shame and Despair in order to promote his farther Designs upon 'em as you will see in his following Temptations As Ninthly When any have been once prevail'd upon by the Conveniency the Beauty the Honour or the Pleasure of any of these Outward things which the Devil has presented to their Fancies to commit Sin to obtain them Then he fails not to lay the Shame and Disgrace of their Sins before them and will perswade them to commit another horrid Wickedness to hide from the Eyes of Men the Shame of the former IX Having prevail'd thereby upon Persons to commit some grevious Sin to obtain them he then lays the shame and Disgrace of their Sins before 'em perswading 'em to commit another horrid Wickedness to hide from the Eyes of Men the shame of the former Thus when he had Tempted David to commit Adultery with Bathsheba the Wife of Vriah then must the Injur'd Husband be made Drunk that his Lying with his Wife might not be Discover'd when he return'd from the Battle but that he and the World might think the Child Begotten was his own And when that would not make Vriah go in unto his Wife then at last he must be Murder'd by being put into the Front of the Battle and then Treacherously left to be Cut off by the Enemy that she being freed of her former Husband he might without Scandal to the Eye of the world Enjoy her as his own Wife And how often do we see the like Device to draw Men into Sin acted over and over at this Day and many lewd ungodly Persons after they have committed Uncleanness privately to murder their own Off-spring to prevent the Shame and Disgrace that will follow the Fact being known And when Children and Servants have done amiss how commonly are they prompted to tell a Lye nay and sometimes to Swear to it that it may not be discover'd The Devil well knows that Sin is like laying a Train of Gun-Powder which if you fire but One Corn it will presently give Flame to all the rest So one Sin committed the