Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

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

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42490	Megaleia theou, Gods great demonstrations and demands of iustice, mercy, and humility set forth in a sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons, at their solemn fast, before their first sitting, April 30, 1660 / by John Gauden ...	Gauden, John, 1605-1662.	1660 (1660)	Wing G364; ESTC R16267	41,750	78

no man can as to these be at any time unable if he be not unwilling here impotency is impiety God strictly observes all wilfull and presumptuous transgressions and will be the avenger of them not is he to be deceived or satisfied with any formal excuses and pretentions used by wily hypocrites who offer chaff instead of good weat no more than he can be escaped or reresisted by any tyrannique power and insolencies when he maketh inquisition for these notorious omissions of Iustice Mercy and Humility which are the summaries of all good Laws and the seminaries of all piety grace and vertue nor shall these words of God which drop like the rain and gentle dew from heaven return in vain but will be swift witnesses against any soul whose barrenness presages it is nigh to our sing and burning for these laws and lessons as from Mount Sinai are with thunder and lightning Gods demonstrations are not only true but terrible armed with omnipotency never to be bafled pregnantly shewed by their own perspicuity and powerfully exacted by the divine severity who will carry himself frowardly or contrarily and as I may say with an uncondescending height and divine stiffness against those that are not humble in his sight resisting the proud and withdrawing mercy from the merciless yea requiring the justice of punishment on us because the justice of obedience is not done by us Ideo enim patimur justitiam quia non agimus as St. Bernard speaks for this is by the eternal vengeance still inculcated in hell as Virgil expresseth Discite justitiam moniti ne temnite divos while the Furies with their flaming iron whips flagellis ferreis flagrantibus do compel wicked and unjust men to suffer that justice which they refused to do to God to Man to themselves and others But I have done with the first general in which I observed the occasion and authority of this Demonstration Secondly I now come to the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} thing demonstrated the grand lesson which God teacheth so clearly and constantly to all men at all times these are denoted under these three grand heads Iustice Mercy and Humility These are considerable 1. Conjunctim joyntly 2. Divisim severally in their united and distinct aspects 1. Consider them together and they afford us six things considerable First The paucity of these magna mandata or summè requisita grand demands The Lord lays but a few things upon us Tria sunt omnia a sacred Trinity of Precepts from the sacred Trinity of Iustice Mercy and Humility from the divine Wisdom Power and Majesty These make up that monile sacrum holy pendent or jewel which is the greatest ornament of humane nature and blessing of all Societies consisting but of three gems but they are paragons of great price for what is brighter than the invincible Diamond of Justice which is scintilla Dei a spark of God as pearls are drops and Diamonds sparks of the Sun what more beautiful than the gentle Saphire of Mercy what more amiable than the modest Emrald of Humility The paternal indulgence of God is pleased to give us in his teaching us short lessons compendious Counsels and holy Epitomes of his will and our duty At first he propounded but decem verba ten commands in the Decalogue which is a summary of all Theological and Moral Institutions After he reduceth these to a narrower compass of loving the Lord thy God and thy neighbor as thy self So Solomon To fear God and keep his Commandments Christ makes up all in one grand sentence of doing as we would be done unto whence the Emperor Severus took his famous Motto the Apostle St. Paul brings all points and lines of the Laws and Gospels circumference to this one center Love as the fulfilling of all in one word Nor doth he permit Timothy to vary from that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} wholesome form of words the faith once delivered to the Saints which he had taught him as a short creed or summary no doubt of Christian doctrine which otherwhere is expressed in beleiving with the heart and confessing the Lord Iesus with the mouth so in the end of the commandment which is Charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfained So inexcusable are they who refuse to learn of God whose commandments are neither grievous nor numerous but condescending to the weakest capacities and frailest memories to which what ever is necessary in religion is easie to be learned and retained For secondly as the particular heads are few in number so very short in the discourse some points may by long Orations be like gold malleated and extended to such great latitudes of diffused expressions as make them very combersom as the volumes of our times both in Dogmatick Polemick and Practick Divinity do witness while the superfluity of mans wit and eloquence glories to find out many inventions definitions and distinctions even in plain things wire-drawing religion into fine threads and driving the solid mass of Divinity as to Faith and Repentance love of God and our neighbours to leaf gold chopping and hewing and paring the pillars of wisdom into small chips and thin shavings Doubtless as Erasmus writes to Archep Warrham the Church of Christ was never in a more happy estate than when it was uno brevissimo symbolo contenta both contented with and kept in the compass of that one short Creed which we call the Apostles and which was yet once shorter than now it is Thirdly But commonly brevity is attended with obscurity Brevis esse laboro obscurus fio short and concise expressions many times wrap things up as it were in clouds whereas Laws ought to be meridiana lumina tanquam solis radiis scriptae so clear as none need complain so legible that he that runs may read them and so indeed are these divine demonstrations in the Text where the wisdom of God reconcileth brevity and perspicuity together as Pliny speaks of Trajans uniting Soveraignty and Liberty by an happy temper of Government or Empire which neither diminished his own just Prerogative as a Prince nor oppressed the peoples legal immunities as his Subjects so the Lord designing these Laws for all sorts of people fits them for all capacities in such a way that the very babes and simple ones may learn and understand and do them {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Laws saith Plato ought to be as common and catholick in their expressions as they are in their injunction or obligation that none may plead ignorance either by the prolixity or obscurity by the ennormious number or by the tedious length of them Fourthly We may observe the order and situation of the particulars First Justice Secondly Mercy Thirdly Humility there is as Calvin and others observe an {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} inverting of the Primacy and

great example no less than Justice and Mercy have by this we draw nearest to God and are fittest to accord with him by this we are partakers of the divine nature of Christs Spirit graces and rewards Pride which is its own Idol and Idolater its own Carver and Comforter hath its reward onely from it self or the vain world for God resisteth the proud and they must be sure to be destroyed who dash against God Hell is the pit and prison of proud Angels and men the first {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they kept not their station or rank but lifted up themselves to be like to the most high beyond what was due to them The second because as Pharoah and Nebuchadnezzar they rob God of his glory both as to the justice which forbears to destroy them as they deserved and as to that Mercy which was conferred upon them beyond any merit in them Secondly As I have thus briefly considered these Three Subjects Justice Mercy and Humility in themselves so I am with like brevity to consider the predicates or actions applied to each of them 1. To do justice First Materially as to the merit of the cause and person Secondly Regularly as to the Law prescribed by God or man not by private opinion presumption or passion Thirdly Authoritatively by due order and commission derived to thee from the lawful supreme power for however all men must have the inward principles and desires for justice yet the doing or executing of it is not given to all but only those to whom the sword of justice is committed by the Law of God and man Christs question must be asked before a man does justice Who hath made me a judge or Ruler A man may be very unjust in punishing the greatest and most notorious offenders without due authority derived to him Fourthly Do justice formalizer as to the inward form principle or conscience for justice sake not for ambition as Absolom or reward or revenge or glory c. A Judge may give a just sentence before man and yet be an unjust Judge before God when he doth what is just materially but not mentally as to his end and design in doing Justice men must be sincere hoc agere make it their {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} business for Gods sake or from a good conscience for judgement is the Lords as Moses tells the Elders 5. Do Justice practice effectually not only think and meditate consult vote decree enact and declare or talk and plead and dispute and cavil or contend but bring forth the fruits of righteousness that all may see them and enjoy the benefit of them just Laws made and never executed are as good seed sown upon barren ground which never comes up beyond straw and wilde oats 6. Do Justice {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Impartially {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in all things to all persons poor and rich not oppressing the rich because his fleece is large nor the poor because his strength is small and friends few Aequum dicitur quia aequat leges omnibus as Varro observes Justice must be streight or right without warping as equal and indifferent to all blind as to the persons though Eagle-eyed as to the cause and rule 7. Do it speedily especially in such cases when the effects of justice are not penal but beneficial Delays of Justice are so far denials and so long unjust when it is in the power of a Judge or Prince or Magistrate to do it no usury is so unjust as that which makes advantages by dilatory justice In penal effects of Justice there dilatory executions may be more venial and tolerable because they are mixtures of mercy and reprieves in order to repentance for which God gives us the great pattern in his giving us space to repent and being so slow to excute vengeance on us though daily provoked by us 8. Do it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in rigor but in measure judgement and proportion as they said of old {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} God is an axact Geometritian duly measuring and weighing or pondering the actions of all men and proportioning his judgements to them so ought men to demean themselves in doing justice calmely as in the cool of the day without passion or transport Perit judicium quum res transit inaffectum the eyes of judgement are blinded when the mists of any passions arise either prejudicating the person for the cause or the cause for the person 9. Do justice {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with humanity pitty and compassion to the person in the greatest severities against and justest detestations of their sins Justice among men much more among Christians must have not only vulnera but also viscera bowels as well as blows Ingenuous Justice dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox is afflicted when compelled to inflict punishment and feels the strokes it gives condemning the Judge to commiseration when he condemns others to misery this tenderness or temperament it learns from God who deplores when he executeth or denounceth his judgements his bowels are turned within him when he is forced to give over his people to the destroyers hence are his many forewarnings importunings and beseechings of men to flye from the wrath to come as why will ye die c. and How shall I give you over to be as Admah and Zeboim how shall I make thee as Sodom and Gomorah Secondly To love Mercy here first the order is observable That Justice must first be done before Mercy else it is as very preposterous to exclude Justice to make way for Mercy as it is presumptuous to do unjustly under pretence of shewing Mercy Like the design of some mens cruel charity to get an estate by all imjurious ways in order to do works of charity or to build an Alms-house like the giving alms or legacies before we pay our debts Such Sacrifices are abominable to God we must not rob the Exchequer of Justice to put into the Corban or poor mans box of the sanctuary 2. We may observe the emphasis of the word put to Mercy beyond that is to Justice this must be done as a work and task which is enjoyned us but the other Mercy must be loved and delighted in Justice is opus necessarium alienum a necessary but strange and unwelcome work compared to Mercy in this also we have the precedent of the divine goodness whose {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} pleasure and delight is in shewing mercy where there is any capacity but his executions of Justice are as it were a pressure and distress upon him not that he is not infinitely just to all the extents of Justice but he is superinfinitely merciful so as to set even