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	good_a	unfeigned_a	1,203	5	10.8412	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80869	An useful tractate to further Christians of these dangerous and back-sliding times, in the practice of the most needful duty of prayer Wherein are discover'd the nature, necessity and successe of fervent prayer: many objections answered, several practical cases of conscience resolved; and all briefly applied from this text, viz. James 5. 16. The effectual fervent-prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Being the substance of several sermons preached in the town of Columpton in Devon. / By William Crompton M.A. minister of that part of Christs Church there.	Crompton, William, 1599?-1642.	1659 (1659)	Wing C7033; Thomason E2142_2; ESTC R210127	70,200	187

you may ask and receive not because you ask amisse Jam. 4.3 Your requests may not terminate in self That was but a brutish request which we find related Exod. 17.2 Give us water that we may drink A beast can aim at self-preservation This branch of Prayer must have an ordination to God Therefore Thirdly and Lastly Desir●s must be holy for the end As may well be collected from the beginning and end of the Lords Prayer the beginning is Hallowed be thy Name the end is For thine is the Kingdome Power and Glory for ever As the superiour Orb carries all the inferiour about with i●s own motion So must this great and noble end wheel about all our desires and though lowest actions Enquire we may for the clearing of this last branch after two things First When is a mans end holy Secondly Why our ends must be holy Qu. 1 For the first When is a mans end holy Ans The Answer shall lie in these two things 1. When neither himself nor any other creature is the last end of a mans prayer For either of them make it eccentrick irregular The motion must needs be lame when a man shall make God a meer servant to himself and move wholly on a private center of his own and is visibly for God but underhand for himself The Pharisees were glorious in prayer but what they did was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be admired by others The Spring was not Gods grace and the end was not Gods glory Glorious actions without holy and pure ends are like sweet herbs on a noisome dunghi●l 2. When God is the end ultimus though not proximus last though not the very next or immediate end of our desires As in Jacobs and Hannahs prayer 1 Sam. 1.11 When men aim at his glory the enl●rging of Christs Kingdome and resolve what they get in prayer to spend for God and the good of his Relations with the sanctification and salvation of their souls then the end is holy The want of this was that did so discolour the otherwise excellent works of the Heathen which are almost incredible they looked not to God in their great services and brave exploits So that ●heir actions were good Bullion as one speaks but carried not a good stamp upon them and therefore would not passe with God So that it is well maintained by our Divines yea some of the Schoolmen that their works were not morally good because though the proxime end might be good yet they knew not the ultimate end which was Gods glory Secondly Why must our ends be holy Qu. 2 Divers Reasons may be rendred Ans Some Philosophical and some Theologicall Of the first I will mention these three viz. 1. Because every operative intellect doth begin with the end that is first in intention and that which doth both move the agent and denominate the action Which appeareth to be truth from two reasons First Because the end supplieth the room and place of the form in all those agents and acts whose essential perfection consists in operation Secondly Because the last end doth perfect both the actor and the action justly therefore doth it begin with the end and take denomination from the end 2. The end must be holy because the last end especially doth give beauty and amability to all the means conducing thereunto and because the appetite is terminated and quieted in the last end Needs must his desires be holy whose end is holy 3. Because the end and the means leading thereunto are proportioned and disposed together Posito sine ponuntur disponuntur media omnia c. if a mans end be not holy the means leading thereunto cannot be holy The second sort of Reasons are Theological I shall give these two viz. First Because the Lord looks mainly to the end and specially no●es wherefore we pray He regards not so much the Arithmetick of Prayers how numerous they are nor the Rhetorick of them how neat they are nor their Geometry how long they are not so much their Musick how melodious nor their Logick how methodical but their Divinity how heart-sprung they are how they tend to his glory how much holinesse is twisted about them Secondly The end if it be holy will strengthen the Petitioner to pe●severe in the use of all good means When a man with a free Conscience can say Lord thou knowest my ends they are not meerly self nor biassed with carnal interests but holy and spiritual according to the best of my knowledge and power as did Hezekiah I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done th●t which is good in thy sight is a good ground to rest faith upon for a gracious ●nswer in due time This may be useful to us all by way Use 1 of correction and instruction First For correction there be many among us that pray at least that read or say prayers like the Parrot at Rome that could repeat the whole Creed but very few that send up fervent expressions of holy desires Some know no● what it is to pray they cannot distinguish between oro and credo Others think not of it that they are going into Heaven into the Presence-Chamber before the Throne of a great and glorious God when they do pray And too many there are who rest on the work done numbring rather then weighing their prayers So it cometh to passe that most are indisposed for this holy exercise in all or some of these following cases 1. If your hearts be impure which may be discerned by your thoughts now good and then bad and both disregarded by your words the very off-spring of the heart Matth. 12.34 false corrupt impertinent by your companions chosen for intimacy and that you most delight in and by your life if that be impure through the reign of any one sin You regard iniquity in your heart and the Lord will not hear But observe there is a two-fold impurity one in the dominion another from the inhesion of sin understand the first here 2. If you have and bring nothing but natural desires sufficient knowledge a good memory a quick invention and easie elocution so th●t your praying is nothing but a mat●er of wit and parts rather for ostentation then devotion which may be thus discerned First If your heads are better then your hearts you have more abilities then will to do good and glorifie God Secondly By such prayers the head may be better'd but not the heart It is a clear case the more any man prayeth spiritually the more is Gods image renewed in his heart and soul the heart is more benefited then the head Thirdly If the matter o● manner of your prayers be carnal as if you should crave blessings of the le●● hand only for corn wine and oil meat that perisheth the bona scabelli ●nd not throni as Austine speaketh o● should ask these things in the first plac● the matter and manner is then carnal Fourthly

of greatest weight and concernment for comfort credit and profit and to matters of greatest importance we account all other things but lets but not them as lets to any thing of a subordinate nature If the King or some special Favourite should come to your Place and publish a will to admit any to his presence that you might confer with him an hour or two about your wrongs and wants would you so plead Alas we have not the leasure it would hinder us in our callings I trow not but rather put off all occasions attend this So judge in the Case now in question Secondly It doth much further you in all your worldly affairs You know the baiting of the horse doth not hinder the journey nor the whetting of the sythe the work but further them The blessing of the Lord maketh rich and fervent prayer is the souls messenger sent up to fetch it down on servants cattle grounds and the whole day and night Therefore is prayer called by one of the Fathers the lock of the night and the key of the day to shut up from harm and to let in the Sun even the Sun of righteousnesse in his glorious beams and ravishing influence into every sad dark and drooping soul 4. Grant all you say Suppose it some hinderance will you be at no charge to wait upon God and to prefer your Petitions to him You can hardly expect so easie and such cheap audience in any earthly Princes Court to have your Petitions presented and answered without fees or moving gratuities And will you part with nothing for God not so much as hazard a pretended losse David was of another minde when called to build an Altar 2 Sam. 24. He would not offer that to God which cost him nothing It is true God is not won thus our good extends not to him yet he would have us willing to part with all for the purchase of the pearl to account all things but dung in respect of communion with him and the fruition of Christ he can give you a rich dew upon your labours much more then this and infinitely recompence your supposed hinderance A whet is no let you say and for all the haste of work and businesse you will have time to eat your meat three or four times a day that you may do your work both better and speedier O fools and unwise to judge prayer a losse a hinderance while it refresheth the soul of poor Pilgrims setteth edge on all our spiritual implements and calleth in the Lord to be and help you in your businesse Many thousands now in Heaven are blessing God for the benefit of Prayer No time can be spent better But I am sensible of a Digression my aim is to assure you my Beloved in the Lord for whose sake this is written that Prayer is the best way to thrive To such as rested on the Lords day according to the command did not the Lord give a double portion of Manna the day before And to such as paid their Tythes for the maintenance of the Sanctuary did not the Lord promise to open the windows of Heaven Malac. 3.10 Abraham had this promise of abundance performed to him So had Constantine the first Christian Emperour the Churches great Benefactor so many temporal blessings as never any man durst to wish Aug. de Civit. Dei Lastly Where you mention fear of Derision it is of all other the least discouragement If others laugh do you mourn if they scoff do you counsel if they curse do you blesse and pray The best things do hear ill from the worst men They know not what they do Let Dogs bark or mad men shoot arrows to the Lights of Heaven they with their radiant light and motion do still serve their Creatour So say you If this be to be vile I will be more vile then thus Chuse you whether you will pray or no as for me I will pray fervently to God who only is able to save us from sin and Hell From Objections we proceed to some Cases of Conscience First What should a man do that Case 1 cannot utter his minde he wants fit words for such a presence 1. Let such a one know Ans that an unfeigned fervent desire of the heart is to God an acceptable prayer and broken language coming from a broken heart avails more then affectation of well-couched words without affection of prayer I say the businesse of prayer is more dispatched by sighs then speeches by inward groans more then outward garnishes As the Lord heareth without ears so he understandeth without words Sighs and breathing● to God are articulate There is great dispute among the Schoolmen about the speech of Angels but this they agree in that one Angel speaketh thus to another when any one hath a conceit in his minde of any thing with a will that another should understand it and that God should also that is enough for the expression of it So it is with the spirit of man in speaking to God for the spirit of man agreeth with Angels Though it is our duty to strive to pray in fit words and to be enriched in all utterance and knowledge Hosea 14.1 1 Cor. 1.5 Therefore 2. Let him for a time use the help of godly mens prayers composed to his hand by the same Spirit and purposely intended for such as want knowledge memory or utterance till the Lord further enable the willing minde to make its requests known in a reverent and sober manner as savouring more of grace then art Young beginners may finde great help in the matter fit words good method from such a form and which being applied to particular occasions do not a little quicken revive and enlarge the heart If you should say Is it lawful so to pray I shall answer by asking this question Where is there any law against it And where there is no law there is no transgression I can finde no command against it This we finde in Scripture that Prayer is an Ordinance of God but whether to be conceived only in the heart or uttered by words whether in our own or in others words by pronunciation or reading that is not appointed Why then may not a godly man and in some cases especially as when the soul cannot put forth its operations do as Christ did pray oft in the same words to God and that though composed by another Neither is there any thing hinders but that a man thus doing may pray by the Spirit the work of the Spirit being rather 1. To teach us what graces to pray for 2. To raise fervent and devout desires after the things we pray for groans that cannot be expressed then to give in words which a man may want and yet not want the Spirit of Prayer Nor that I deny that the Spirit of God doth at all help as to words and expressions for he doth it mediately by stirring up the affections which being raised are some advantage to