Linguistic DNA - Concept Modelling Demonstrator

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	end_n	faith_n	unfeigned_a	1,201	5	10.8215	5	false

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09277	Vindiciæ gratiæ. = A plea for grace More especially the grace of faith. Or, certain lectures as touching the nature and properties of grace and faith: wherein, amongst other matters of great use, the maine sinews of Arminius doctrine are cut asunder. Delivered by that late learned and godly man William Pemble, in Magdalen Hall in Oxford.	Pemble, William, 1592?-1623.; Capel, Richard, 1586-1656.	1627 (1627)	STC 19591; ESTC S114374	222,244	312

doe it As God commandeth and seeing the Circumstances of every good worke are a pure Conscience and Faith unfained the Cause and the Glory of God the End which give such beauty and so sweet a relish to all actions as that without them they are deformed and unsavoury in the eye and taste of the Almighty it is manifest that all the morall actions of the Heathen fell short of their Compleate perfection forasmuch as their Persons were unholy their Consciences defiled their Purposes perverse and crooked and their best Intentions finally resolving themselves into temporall worldly and selfe-considerations But if wee looke unto the substance of the worke it selfe wee shall finde little difference betweene many actions of the Heathen and of Christians there being as exact proportion and correspondence to the rules of Iustice observed by the one as by the other yea many times more by the Heathen than the other It were a consideration worth ones labour to parallell the lawes customes and famous actions of the people of God with those which we finde like unto them recorded in humane history we should see that many particulars would carry a faire resemblance betweene themselves and have the same stampe of vertue imprinted on both This morall goodnesse in Heathen men was no doubt pleasing and acceptable to God so farre forth that he liked the worke and approved of it with that common allowance which he affords to all things that beare any stampe of his owne goodnesse but not so that he liked the person and accepted of it into any speciall favour of grace For it were most absurd to imagine that the Iustice Temperance Valour Chastity of an Aristides Cato Scipio Lucretia c. shall stand condemned before God with the same censure of dislike as the rapine luxury cowardise lust c. of a Sardanapalus Caligula Messalina or such other miscreants Nay he approved of their vertue and civility as the effects of his owne grace in common bestowed on the Gentiles for a common good and in testimony of this his approbation hee prospered those persons and common-wealths among whom sobriety of life strictnesse of discipline severity of good lawes was best maintained And Heathenism it selfe could discerne the ruine of Common-wealths to spring originally from the neglect of Piety and Vertue To conclude then and summe up all touching this point Gods Nature and Attributes his Godhead and eternall Power and Providence are indeede cleerely to bee seene in the Creatures if the Heathen had eyes to see them as Adam had at first But though they be still as visible as they were yet man is blinde and cannot behold them It is very little the Naturallman hath seene not much that hee can see What hee knowes might teach him that God is to be worshipped otherwise than he doth but cannot shew him how to worship him as he ought Whatever he doth or can do in the worship of God nothing is done aright for matter or manner His Inward worship is unholy because his heart is so His Outward worship is superstitious and idolatrous because hee is utterly ignorant of Gods appointments both are false and displeasing being presented to God without a Mediatour of whom the Heathen have no knowledge Againe the Nature of their sinne and misery is above the reach of the Heathens knowledge and therefore Grace and Mercy are beyond the possibility of their desire both which yet are the first step to true Conversion Finally for their vertues they are corrupted in the roote perverted in their buddes defective in their whole practice So that unlesse we will thinke that a civill Conversation without all Sanctity of heart to be true Conversion a kinde of bare Naturall reverence of the Creator in some cold affections of Love Feare c. or an externall superstitious invented worship without all warrant from God To be Gods true right worship in part which are the things the Heathen can attaine unto it appeares to be a vaine assertion to affirme That God hath afforded sufficiency of ability to the Gentiles by the good use of Nature to convert truely to the right worship and obedience of God This of the first the second ground is That if the Heathen use the light of Nature well God is ready yea bound in justice to bestow on them Supernaturall light of grace In the examination of this we neede not be long it being supported by the former together with it it falls to the dust A meere imagination it is withour all warrant from Scripture though for it they bring that place Matth. 25. 29. For unto every man that hath it shall be given and hee shall have abundance i. e. say the Arminians Hee that hath the light of Nature and useth it well to him shall be given the Supernaturall light of grace An Arminian glosse that corrupts the Text which is to be understood of painfulness in the Ministers of the Gospell in the emploiment of such gifts as God hath endewed them withall for the benefite of the Church Which gifts and abilities being well used increase through Gods blessing but if neglected decay utterly through his secret curse as experience shewes in painfull or idle Ministers If the argument be framed only by analogy from this Text and the generall equity of it That whosoever uses any thing well shall have more given unto him besides that this is a very large interpretation which will admit of many exceptions it is to bee noted that in their deduction they mistake the proportion observed in the Text and Parable which speaketh of an increase in the Same not in a Divers kinde Hee that hath meane gifts for the Ministry and useth them well he shall have greater gifts in the same kinde But thence to collect Hee that useth Nature well shall have Grace given him is as if wee should say He that useth his health well shall have riches or honours given him things of another nature It had been true if they had said Hee that useth Naturall light well i. e. studiously in the search of all good knowledge in him that light shall be increased as it was in Philosophers but this made not to their purpose and therefore they take a wide step from Nature to Grace In Scripture therefore there is no ground for this conceit besides there are these three errors in it 1. Against Experience which shewes that grace hath not beene bestowed where they have had the best Natuturall dispositions as is plaine by rejection of the Tyrians and Sidonians and Vocation of the Capernaites though they were naturally better fitted to entertaine the Gospell than these as also by the long rejection of all the civill and learned men of the Nations of the world who though they used their Naturall reason farre better than other barbarous people yet were left destitute so many ages of all Supernaturall helpes as well as they 2. It is founded upon two false Suppositions 1. One That the

men unto God Repent and beleeve thâ— Gospell so often used in the New Testament Let us now for conclusion at this time lay all these errors together and see what is the finall upshot of this Opinion all things being reckoned t is this That in a man unregenerate there is naturally very little or no Corruption and unto his Regeneration there is required little or no Grace That I be not thought to slander them both will appeare unto you to be true thus First that they annihilate and overthrow the Grace of God for whereas the Vnderstanding Will and Affections are in our Conversion chiefly to bee respected it is manifest that by their doctrine Grace hath no worke upon any of these Not upon the Vnderstanding to inlighten it for say they that 's done by the cleere Evidence of the things that are to be understood Not upon the Affections to rectifie their motions for say they the affections follow the understanding and are presently in order as soone as that is informed Lastly not upon the Will to incline that to embrace the Promise for that say they is left absolutely to its owne Liberty and of it selfe it may consent or dissent Where then is any worke left for Grace unlesse that glorious Grace of God in bringing a Sinner unto himselfe so much magnified in Scripture and by all men be now at last nothing but only the Revelation of the Gospell unto mankinde Which we confesse is a great grace but yet without another that 's greater is not sufficient to Conuert a sinner Thus Grace is excluded Let 's see what they thinke of mans inherent Corruption This they also extenuate and tell us that we are not so weake nor wicked as wee have beene alwayes thought to be For why our understanding needs not any supernaturall restoring of decayed sight if divine things be plainely set forth to view we can see well enough Our affections are not of themselves vitiously disposed but only through the error of the minde correct that and all is amended Finally our Wills have not rebellious inclination in them but they can of themselves without further helpe choose that which is good So that if Arminius bee not deceived in his wee may now change our opinion of ourselves and thinke that we are at least something But what then is become of that Sinne that dwelleth in us of that Vniversall Corruption and Disorder of our whole nature so much spoken of so much complained of Is it vanished T is not so well but these men have vanished away in their imaginations and have disputed so long of Gods Grace and mans Corruption till in conclusion they have lost both and are become wilfully ignorant of the one and malitious enemies to the other Hitherto the Explication of their Opinion their Errors and the generall issue of them Wee are now in the next place to unfold and confirme that truth which is to bee maintained touching this question viz. Whether it be in Mans power so to resist the grace of God as finally to hinder his owne Conversion Wee maintaine the Negative that where God purposes to save no power of man can destroy The truth hereof will plainely appeare unto us if wee shall consider distinctly how a man may hinder the Worke of Grace 1. In the Antecedents and Preparatory meanes to his Conversion 2. In his Conversion it selfe For the Antecedent preparations to bring men unto Conversion they are either Outward namely The Observation of the externall parts of Gods worship as frequenting the Word preached Prayers Sacraments keeping of the Sabbaoth attention and industry in the hearing reading and meditation of the Word or Inward the effects of the ordinary grace of God in the use of those meanes as 1. Knowledge of the will of God in the main matters of Religion concerning Faith and Practice 2. Touch of Conscience in the sense of sinne arising from a cleere discovery and conviction of a mans forlorne estate 3. A Feare and horror of Gods punishing vengeance joyned with a naturall griefe of heart that hee is brought into so much unavoydable misery 4. A thought and wish for freedome by some meanes or other 5. Some slight hope of helpe from the promise of grace so generally made as none seeme to bee excluded upon the apprehension whereof some kinde of joy will also arise in the heart All which together may cause some kinde of reformation of life in doing of many things gladly and a not unwilling abstinence from others Touching these preparations unto Conversion you are to note these three positions 1. That they are in themselves good and necessary This is to bee observed against those overbroad and unadvised speeches of some which have given occasion unto our adversaries to fasten upon us this imputation that according to our Doctrine Zelus omnis cura sludium ad obtinendam salutem adhibitum ante ipsam Fidem Spiritum renovationis vanum est atque irritum quinimo noxium magis homini quam utile fructuosum Which assertion were most dangerous because it opens a wide gappe to let in all profane contempt of the exercises of Religion man having hereby a good excuse for the neglect of all dueties of Piety because all their care and diligence in the use of them were not onely to no purpose but to an ill purpose untill such time as they were truely converted But this is a slander our Divines teach no discouraging Doctrine to blunt the edge of mens good desires and to beat them off from all religious endeavours No they presse upon men ever whilst they are unconverted the necessity and profitablenesse of all those forementioned preparations in regard 1. Of the nature of the things themselves which are good and our very necessary obedience to doe them being strictly injoyned by the commandement of God 2. Of the event that followes upon them according to Gods promise and his ordinary proceeding in the worke of grace which is such that he bestowes not his grace ordinarily but upon those that conforme themselves to the doing of those things Neverthelesse our Divines teach this also which is true and warrantable 1. That all these preparations are no Efficient causes to produce grace of Conversion in the heart however they prepare a man to bee the fitter to receive it And therefore where God is not pleased to afford his Sanctifying Spirit they prove vaine and fruitlesse 2. That how good and necessary soever these preparatory works are yet the doing of them is unto a man unregenerate an occasion of sinning And so in the consequent to him they may prove harmfull As for example When an unsanctified man heares the Word Praies performes any duety in Gods worship or in a Christian life in the doing of these things hee alwaies commits some sin or other because he wants a pure Heart a good Conscience and Faith unfained without which hee cannot but errâ— in fulfilling Gods commandements But

it is through want of something in themselves namely sanctified abilities in the heart which as they come not from the VVord so God is not bound to give them by his Spirit It sufficeth that God onely command them if they cannot obey whose fault is that but their owne Gods commands presuppose that strength to obey is or should bee in the creature if that through sinne be made weake God is yet just in commanding and punishing And thus much of this second question by way of knowledge let us briefly see what use we may make thereof to our practice it learnes us a threefold lesson 1. What our affections are to bee in hearing of the Word namely the same that in teachable Schollars towards a most wise Master or in sicke Patients towards the skilfullest Physitian We must be content to be â—â—ld and every way submit our selves to the discretion of that our Heavenly Doctor Wee must remember we have to doe with more than man in this businesse t is the Holy Ghost that does all in all in this sacred ordinance When therefore we goe to heare let us put on all holy humble obedient and tractable affections A proud disdainfull selfe-conceited contentious minde is unâ—it for mans instruction most opposite to the wisedome of Gods teaching who must needs scorne to be their Master that thinke themselves to be too good to bee his Schollars Againe a malicious uncleane worldly voluptuous heart stands contradictory to the holinesse of this blessed Spirit Those proud affections hinder us in knowing these impure lusts in doing our Masters will both together or each alone make the Word utterly unprofitable unto us 2. What the duety of Ministers is in preaching the Word This is threefold one respecting the worke two the issue of it For the worke it selfe the nature and Spirituall quality thereof should teach them faithfulnesse to speake Gods Word as it ought to be spoke which is opposed as to negligence and accaused carelessenesse in the handling thereof contrary to the dignity and majesty of it so on the other side too overmuch diligence humane curiosity contrary to the simplicity and saving vertue thereof Not that a man can be too diligent in doing Gods worke or that it is easie to define precisely what and how farre humane helpes are to bee used in Divinity but yet this is apparant a singular fault there is in mens preparations to this worke who either intend not at all the saving of mens soules or if they doe they thinke themselves must doe as much in it as Gods Spirit Whence else or to what end should so much of man be mingled with that of God why so much study to please mens â—ares why so much care to winne credite to their owne persons c. Sure it cannot but be a thing very admirable to any that will observe it to heare a man standing as Gods Embassadour speaking as from his mouth in his Name to make a solemne praier for assistance of Gods Spirit in his preaching to blesse his Meditations that he hath put into his heart to make them effectuall in the hearers c. when in the meane time his conscience tells him that in his studied preparations hee sought for nothing lesse than the aide of the Spirit and his preaching tells us that he publisheth the words not of Gods but of mans wisedome In the Issue of this worke there is a double dutie 1. If it succeed well Thankefull Humility opposed to Pride that when men are converted by his Ministery hee ascribe all to God nothing to himselfe who was but the Saw in the workemans hand c. 2. If it succeed ill Contented Patience opposed to repining Thought as Why should not my Ministery be as effectuall as anothers is Let a Minister remember he onely sowes the seede God must give it a body of his good pleasure nor is it himselfe but God whom the people here cast off He may take comfort and shall have reward for his godly painâ—â€¦ in the conscionable discharge of his duety albeit God saw it not good that it should bee so blessed in the effect as ã€ˆâ—Šã€‰ could desire 3. This teacheth us how to judge of our â—onversion by the Word preached namely by the inward Sanctification of the heart not by having and frequenting the publicke ordinance Silly wretches they are that so farre misâ—ake themselves and the nature of these things as to thinkâ— the going to Church the hearing of the Sermon the remembring and discoursing â—f it the commending of the Preacher outward reverence to his Person and Ministery some kinde of Reformation of maners wrought out of very shame not to follow such plaine directions as they must needes confesse to be good and others allow of in opinion and practice that thinke I say these things sufficient arguments of a sound Conversion by the Word Let us not beguile our selves in a matter of this high consequence these things are outward but the effect of the Word is inward also upon the conscience in the change of the heart and sanctification thereof with all sacred affections to holinesses Looke then inwards and trie how wee are affected in and after the hearing of the Word Doe we finde an Holy feare to fall upon us when our sinnes are threatned are we willing to abide the Surgeons hand upon our tenderest sores and though it be painfull yet doe heartily rejoyce in the sharpest strokes and deepest cuts of the sword of the Spirit when it pierceth in to the dividing asunder of the Soule and Spirit marrow and joints parting us and our best beloved sinne Doe our hearts secretly rejoyce with joy unspeakeable and glorious in hearing those sure and stedfast promises of Mercy and Grace published in the Gospell Are our soules brought under the powerfull command of the majesty and authority of the Word captivating all our thoughts to the obedience of Christ so that no command of a King armed with greatest terrour can lay the like necessity of obedience upon our outward man as Gods injunctions do upon our consciences Hath the Word wrought in us an unfained hatred of that evill which we outwardly forsake a sincere love of that good which outwardly wee practise Can we truely mourne with much bitternesse and anguish when the Word discovers unto us the infinite corruptions and loathsome uncleannesse of our hearts so that we wish for nothing more in the world than to bee freed from the sinne that hangs so fast on us and to be cloathed with perfect holinesse Finally doe wee love the Word that hath begotten us preferring that food of our soules before our appointed bodily food If these things be in us we have a witnesse to our soules that the Word preached hath been unto us not onely in word but also in power and that the same Spirit which gave it unto the Church hath made it his most blessed instrument of our effectuall Conversion to God But if the case stand

Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

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