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
A90678	The Gospel nevv-creature; wherein the work of the spirit is opened, in awakening the soul; to the getting pardon of sin, and an interest in Jesus Christ; without which, it is undone to all eternity. Discovering the false refuges, and vain hopes for heaven, of ignorant and formal professors in this nation, tending to rouze them out of their carnal security, before it be too late. Whereunto is added, (by way of comfort, to all dejected soules) the tempestuous soul calmed by Jesus Christ. / By A. Palmer, preacher of the Gospel at Bourton on the Water in Gloucester-shire.	Palmer, Anthony, 1618?-1679.; Palmer, Anthony, 1618?-1679. Tempestuous soul calmed.	1658 (1658)	Wing P216; Thomason E1826_2; Thomason E1826_3; ESTC R209826	155,076	274

the great Comprehensive Duties but there is not any one thing more mistaken then what this good conscience is Too many Preachers presse this carnally and carnall people go away with it that they have Faith yea they never doubt it and for a good conscience they discharge it I have spoken of Faith already but now that which such poor seduced souls take to be a good Conscience is onely to wrong no body to be just to all not to purloyn others goods to take and keep nothing but their own they take it to be chiefly conversant about the duties of the second table concerning their Neighbour A little to rectifie this soul-damning mistake 1. A Scripture-Conscience is an enlightened conscience which before was shut up in darknesse Eph. 1.18 The light of the word of God is set up in the conscience whereby it discovers those truths in their power and worth which before it was dark unto 2. A good conscience is a conscience searcht by the power of the word convinc'd to be under sin and guilt and pollution whereby trouble doth arise in it God laying in the weight of guilt the damnableness of sinne the pollution of it upon the Conscience so that the soul cries out What shall I do How shall God be pacified and the soul saved 3. And hence it is an awakened Conscience which before was asleep Awake thou that sleepest Eph. 5. The voice of the Spirit doth awaken that Conscience that before was asleep in sinful security 4. A good Conscience is convinced that all the keepings of the Law and keeping a Conscience to men cannot justifie the soul before God cannot commend it to God which a Second-Table-Conscience imagines it will and so is in peace Paul kept a Conscience as to many things Act. 23.1 I have lived in all good Conscience before God untill this day meaning I conceive from his youth up when he was a Pharisee but when his Conscience was convinced and awakened and came to see Jesus Christ he saw that all his keeping a Conscience as to many Sins and Duties could not in the least commend him to God 5. A good Conscience is sprinkled with the bloud of Jesus Christ Heb. 10.22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of Faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself to God purge your Conscience from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9.14 So that this is the efficacy of the bloud of Jesus Christ upon the Conscience of a Believer it pacifies it in the sense of the forgiveness of sins towards God so as it can draw near to God and it purgeth it from dead works sin and pollution to serve God acceptably This is a good Conscience indeed 6. A good Conscience respects all the Precepts of God as well of Holiness to God as Goodness to men which the Conscience we have been speaking of doth not Such a one makes not conscience of this great and absolute Precept Be ye holy 1 Pet. 1. It makes not conscience of purging the heart of secret mourning to God of the purity of Gods Worship It makes no Conscience of lesser sins as we have shew'd not of all sin as Herod heard the Word gladly but made no conscience of persecuting John to death when he stood in the way of his Lusts Now I say a good Conscience respects precepts of Holiness secret as well as publique Duties inward as well as outward sins lesser sins as well as greater 7. A Scripture-good Conscience is much taken up about godly sincerity So Paul 2 Cor. 1.12 For our rejoycing is this the testimony of our Consciences that with simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly Wisdome but with the grace of God we have had our Conversation in the World c. Thus a soul that walks with a good Conscience towards God labours to a prove it self in all things with a godly sincerity to do all as unto God Lastly a good Conscience labours to keep it self pure and undefiled it is accompanied with a pure heart 1 Tim. 1.5 Now the end of the Commandement is love out of a pure heart and of a good Conscience and of Faith unfeigned A soul that would keep the Conscience good would keep it pure and the whole inward man pure as a Temple unto God Vse Now see how many ingredients go to make up a good Conscience in a Scripture-sense and what a great mistake is in this weighty matter and how far abundance of people that make conscience of their dealings with men conclude thence they have a Scripture-good-conscience to God when they are not savingly enlightned their Conscience never searcht by the power of the Word and throughly awakened out of a natural condition never humbled for resting in themselves and their Duties not having their Conscience sprinkled with the bloud of Jesus Christ and purged thereby not having a tender respect to all the Precepts of God not to walk before him in godly sincerity nor with a pure heart You then that are short of these things you are wholly to seek in that which you so much pretend to and speak peace to your selves in the having or keeping a good Conscience you have as yet no part in this matter 2. What hath been spoken of a good Conscience may be for instruction and direction to the Called Ones of Christ how to preserve the Conscience good and peaceable and so to live and dye in the peace and comfort of it through Jesus Christ our Lord. Get it sprinkled with the bloud of Jesus Christ every day and under the searchings of the Word and awake unto God and pure and undefiled respecting all the Holy Precepts of God as binding to your Conscience so will the Conscience be tender and peaceable and God will witness in your Consciences your acceptance with him in his Son Jesus Christ I would give out further some Notes of Tryal Whether you rest in false common grace or not as to what we have already spoken in so weighty a matter 1. By your never-suspecting the truth of your grace but taking all upon trust never doubting but you have Faith and do repent and so of all the rest That soul that never suspected his grace may well fear that his pretended grace is no more then what a Hypocrite may reach unto The poor called Children of God are exceedingly jealous their Faith is not sound that they are short in every grace because of the woful mixtures that they find more Unbelief then Faith more hardness of heart then softness more pride then humiliation and so of all Now that soul that goes away with an unsuspected confidence of every grace sure flatters himself and his way will be found to be deceitful 2. That soul that draws back his Conscience from the searching power of the Word when it gives out ways of tryal of sincerity and

perform their Duties as returnes to God Every called Believer saith in his heart as David Psal 116.12 Oh! What shall I render to thee How gracious hath God been and now how holy should I be Who shall love the Lord and fear before him and praise him if I shall not To whom shall his Name Laws Ordinances be precious if not unto me Who is more bound to love the blessed God then I and how shall I love him but by obeying him Thus doth a Believer perform his obedience as a testimony of a thankful return to God though I do not say that this is all his motive 10. By the Obedience and Holiness of Believers God is much glorifyed in the World 't is the greatest glory that God designs to himself in the World even by the holiness and willing-gracious obedience of his people to him When the World lyes in wickedness and makes War against the great and holy God this is that which Honours God that he hath a people called by his grace that set forth the glory of holiness in the world that are witnesses to the holiness of God the holiness of his Worship and all his Ways and profess and endeavour to walk in them and by this others are brought on to glorifie God on their behalf 1 Pet. 2.12 Vse 1. It may serve for instruction and information of your judgments and Consciences that there are other blessed and necessary and holy Ends in the Sanctification and Obedience of a Believer though they do not pacifie God nor justifie the Believer nor procure mercy by way of worthiness to a poor Soul called thereunto which may therefore serve to discover the damnableness of such kind of Doctrines that teach and cry in this day Grace is free Christ hath done all what need you pray and have Ordinances and be holy This is of the wicked one and comes from his Instruments and Factors who are sent abroad to damn Soules You may see that not one of those Ends mentioned but is of weight enough to convince a soul of the necessity of Holiness Duties and Obedience and such mens pretences are not a Scripture-way of Free-grace 2. If there are blessed and holy Ends of a Believers Duties and Obedience though he is not thereby justifyed It may serve to take off that prejudice of heart through misunderstanding and ignorance that is apt to be upon the hearts of such as are Carnal when they hear that all their Duties Sobriety and Righteousness is to be accounted as loss for Christ You see there are good and necessary Ends of all Duties of Obedience onely still take this with you and to your Consciences that till you come as poor and naked to Iesus Christ for your justifying Righteousness and so get life in and from him and so are carryed on in a way of Duty Your Duties serve you for no end and purpose unless for a lesser degree of Torment in Hell onely be encouraged to wait upon the means for the receiving of the Spirit for the Knowledge of Jesus Christ And these things I have spoken may be your Experience 3. It may further direct Believers what ends they are to propose to themselves in the way of their Duties and Obedience to be carryed on in them through the grace of GOD and the daily supply of the Spirit as one great end of your Redemption that you should serve the Lord in Holiness to eye the Soveraign and Absolute Command of God over you that thereby you are made conformable to God and shew forth his Image and to the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ that there is an equity and goodness in all the Holy and Righteous Ways of God And see that the love of God be shed abroad in your hearts to draw out your love to him and so be acted in your obedience Get your hearts taken with the beauty and glory of the Lord Jesus and so long after likeness to him See that you look after Communion with God in your Duties and that you do not neglect your Evidence for the Pardon of your sinnes by the sight of your Sanctification and your Universal Obedience And perform them not as to procure mercy by any proportion thereunto in your Duties but as Returns to God and consider how much God is glorifyed in the World by the Obedience of his people And thus may you carry on your progress in Holiness and a sweet and consciencious performance of Duties and walking with God and yet live by your Faith for your justification by the rich and Free-grace of God through the Righteousness of Jesus Christ as if you had never obeyed at all In a word If thou hast felt the power and vertue of the bloud of Jesus Christ upon thy Soul coming as a poor naked polluted guilty Soul unto it as thou hast been shewed and hast received life from Jesus Christ by a believing closing with him and art waiting for a sight and sense of thy justification but doest yet want it Remember still that in the performance of thy Duties thy heart which it is very apt to do lay no stress upon them as in them to appear before God and to procure the favour of God but still go forth to the grace bloud righteousness promises of Christ and there fix for thy acceptance with God and be much in renewing of Acts of Faith that is casting thy Soul upon them and Evidence will come in yet go on in humbling praying waiting reforming sanctifying obeying as to the ends mentioned And the peace of God fill thy heart 2. Believers that have some sense of their Justification do you remember that you obey God not that thereby you were are or ever may be justified but because you are justified therefore you obey the Lord and delight in his wayes keep this in your eye and 't will keep the heart from going to bottome upon your selves as gracious and partly righteous which mixtures render Duties uncomfortable and keep souls from assurance No Believer performs his Duties so spiritually sweetly and comfortably as that soul that labours to keep the sight of his justification still upon the account of Free-grace and out of himself that soul enjoys sweetest Communion with God in the way of his Duties and gets to Heaven with most comfort and assurance AMEN The End of the Second Treatise of the Gospel New-Creature The Third Treatise THE Gospel-New-Creature In Christ positively opened The false appearances thereof in the Legal-new-Creature so called plainly refuted And the true Evidences thereof particularly held forth to the Experience of the weak Believers 2 COR. 5.17 If any man be in Christ he is a New Creature I Have been opening the difference between the Righteousness of the Law and the Gospel shewing the Necessity Nature and Way of obtaining Gospel-justification by the bloud of Jesus Christ and have discovered a soul estated therein I shall now endeavour to open the Gospel-New Creature peculiarly as distinguisht

this Redemption and the necessity of it and how it makes atonement merits mercy and pardon procures peace and reconciliation with God so they would come and accept of it and fall down before the righteous God and plead it to him Thou hast heard the way of Gods letting out mercy to sinners and no mercy but in that way but by justice being satisfied by the death and blood of Jesus Christ whereby he becomes the Saviour of sinners Now this bloud is offered up to God the price is paid and accepted with God and in the Gospel of God t is revealed and preacht to the guilty world and t is freely offered to any poor sinner that will come and accept of it and make claim to it and plead for mercy and forgivenesse upon the account of it and will come to the termes of it which is to be accepted and pardoned alone by vertue of it to be washed and sanctified and actually deliver'd not onely from the guilt and condemnation of sin but the power and reign and pollution of it Oh Sinner be awakened and stirred up by the word of the Lord to get actuall deliverance from the guilt bondage reign service of thy sin go and cry to God offer him up the blood of his own eternall Son tell him thou seest he may let out justice upon thee to destroy thee and damn thee for ever of thy self thou hast no plea against it But aske the blessed God if it may not be more glory to him and his grace mercy glorified by it if he will accept of satisfaction by his own Son Jesus Christ plead to him that thou hearest he dyed in the room of guilty condemned sinners such as thou art ungodly Rom. 5.6 yea tell him with an humble adoration of his mercy and love in it that thou hearest in his blessed Gospel that 't is offered to any sinner that will come and accept it and that 't is proclaimed from heaven that there 's satisfaction made by the blood of a Iesus for the greatest sinner such as thou art Oh! cry unto him that therefore thou comest and beggst to be heard in thy plea and that it may be entred in Heaven that thou comest for all the ends of his death thou art weary of the service of thy lusts and the pollution of thy nature and therefore thou wouldst have thy nature cleansed thy conscience purged all which thou findest the bloud of Jesus Christ is able to do yea tell him and plead it with some humble boldnesse that thou art acquainted that Jesus Christ prayes in Heaven for such sinners that come and plead his bloud to thee and that he is heard in what he prayes and that therefore forgivenesse must be had yea say thou will hold on thy plea thou hast no other and art resolved against any other If thou shalt to Hell pleading the bloud of a Saviour be it so but I am resolved to plead it to the utmost yea tell him cry to him that it cannot repent him that he hath ordained the sacrifice of the bloud of his own Son and therefore why shouldst thou be rejected Yea Come to this issue through the Spirit of faith upon thee that if it can be that a sinner crying out for pardon upon the account of the death and bloud of Jesus Christ and for sanctification may go to Hell then thou wilt willingly lay thy hand upon thy mouth and open it no more but sinke under divine vengeance to eternity Oh! That every poor sinner might go home with this plea in his heart written there by the holy Ghost and pierce Heaven with his or her cryes and groanes and put the bloud of Jesus Christ before him and plead for mercy and holinesse to be pardoned and sanctified till God say Go in peace thou art pardoned redeemed and blessed for ever Yet a little to excite a poor drowsie sinner to this eternall Concernment 1. Consider thou art under the guilt of thousands of sins one whereof is enough to sink thee to Hell Guilt if continued is Hell begun and wants nothing but the execution of vengeance upon thee Oh what should a guilty sinner do but close with a Saviour and get an interest in Redemption from it 2. Specially considering that all the Duties and Obedience thou hast performed towards God or ever shall have not made nor ever will the least payment to God for thy sins thou art as much in debt to God as ever thou wast as much behind with him All the Items for the sin of thy Nature thy Thoughts Words and Actual Wickedness and thy sinful Neglects stand uncancelled all ready to be charged upon thee And nought will be accepted for payment but the death of Jesus Christ the onely Price that God will hearken to Nothing will cancel the Book where all thy sins are recorded Nothing will blot out the Hand-writing that is against thee but the blood of Iesus Christ Col. 2.13 14. 3. God is resolved never to forgive you the Debt till you have put in this Plea and it be recorded in Heaven and you have it in a Gospel-way No forgiveness of sins but by Redemption pleaded claimed possessed and sealed by the Holy Spirit Ephes 1.7 14. 4. Thou art yet under the Bondage and Reign of thy sin and therefore under condemnation the Law is gone out against thee thy Sentence pronounced Cursed is every one that transgresseth c. saith the Law And thou art in bondage yet and hast not procured actual deliverance from it If a Prisoner be condemned and lye in Fetters in a Dungeon and hears of a Ransome paid for him What 's this to him till he have his liberty So for a sinner to be in the Fetters of his Lusts held fast by them a Bond-man to the Devil hear of a Christ laying down a Ransom What is this to him unless he sue it out and get actual deliverance and liberty the liberry of the Sons and Daughters of God and have a Spirit of Adoption to cry Abba Father Gal. 4.4 5. That being made free from sinne the Reign and Power of it by the power of the Lord Iesus revealed in him you may become servants to God and have your fruit unto Holiness and the end everlasting life 5. Consider as thou standest in thy filth and uncleanness of thy sins thou art unfit for God either to please him in any thing thou doest or to be with him in Heaven hereafter thy person and services are loathsome to the Soul of God therefore get washed and purified in the bloud of Iesus Christ Go on to cry and wait and beg a heart to do it and that in Faith till thou shalt feel peace coming in by thy constant Plea of the bloud of Christ till thou shalt feel cleansing vertue of it upon thy Soul till thou shalt experience the power of his death destroying sin in thee and so shalt finde thou hast fellowship with him and so a

that he might live to God Gal. 2.19 That I might live unto God Likewise reckon ye your selves to be dead indeed unto him but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.11 Every justified believer doth thus reckon of himself I am to be dead to sin but alive to God I am to yeild my self to God verse 13. To have my fruit unto holinesse verse 22. 4. Faith that justifies doth through the Spirit work the soul to Gospel-obedience to all the Lawes and Ordinances of Jesus of Christ which shall be revealed to be the will Christ from the Command of Jesus Christ and from a principle of love to Jesus Christ John 15.10 5. A Justified believer will deny himself for Christ take up his crosse and follow Him let any sufferings be proposed to a called believer and let him know it is for Jesus Christ and that soul unlesse under a temporary desertion or temptation will choose and embrace those sufferings and undergo them with some chearfulnesse Luk. 14.26 27. 6. Every justified believer hath a marriage-union with Jesus Christ Ephes 5.25 26 32. The soul hath chosen Jesus Christ having broken off from all other lovers hath betrothed it self unto Christ in an everlasting bond and Covenant hath given it self to Christ As Jesus Christ bestowes himself and all he hath upon the soul so doth the soul bestow it self and all it hath upon Jesus Christ and having so done resolves to be contented with him in every condition whom have I in heaven but thee and none in earth in Comparison of thee saith every gracious Believer 7. Every justified believer lives by his faith Gal. 2.20 lives upon Jesus Christ for all and fetcheth all from him sees him as a treasury of all grace hath recourse unto him this being the most proper Act of Faith to make the soul live out of its self upon another namely Jesus Christ for all 8. Faith that entitles the Soul to Jesus Christ works by love to all Saints Gal. 5.6 When the Soul closeth with Jesus Christ it will also close with his Disciples as distinguisht from carnal unsavoury dead Professors What makes the living among the dead A living Soul alive in Christ highly priseth fellowship with such as are alive I might name many more particulars but these may suffice as the most distinguishing 1. Let what hath been spoken serve to discover to you Whether you have a Faith that doth entitle you to the bloud of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of your sins Can you say your Soules are carryed out after more purging and 't is your daily cry to Heaven Can you say that you are often crucifying with Jesus Christ And oh that I were that I were but crucified with Jesus Christ that I might reckon of my self as dead to sinne And oh that I might live to God and might walk in Gospel-obedience That I might throughly deny my self for Jesus Christ and choose to suffer with him and for him Oh I would more clearly see the Marriage-union between Christ and my poor Soul I would I do bestow my self upon him and all that 's mine I do give my self to him I will be contented with him here and for ever Whom have I whom have I but him Oh have you found in some good degree such Workings of heart towards Jesus Christ And do you live by your Faith upon Christ upon Promises and do you maintain your Souls this way And do you love and delight in the Fellowship of living soules savoury soules or do you at least long that you may have opportunity to do so If you cannot in some measure experience these things your Faith is a dead empty Speculation such a Faith that is so far from uniting you to Christ that indeed it keeps you on this side Jesus Christ And therefore say of it 't is a Faith that is in vain that keeps me dead in my sins Oh therefore say in thy Heart I will now wait on the Word the Ministration of it that is ordained of God to beget Faith I will go and pray the Father to draw me to Jesus Christ and that my soul may be united to him that I may have Fellowship in his Death and Resurrection that I may be made alive unto God that I may feel the pacifying-purging vertue of the bloud of the Lord Jesus upon my poor Soul By what hath been said Believers may try their Faith and if they find their Soules to have experienced these things they may take comfort that they are justifyed by Faith in the bloud of Jesus and therefore shall be saved by his Life To wind up all in a word of Exhortation If God hath set forth Iesus Christ to be a propitiation that through Faith in his bloud a sinner may become justified from his sinne then what encouragement is here for sinners to come to him and believe on his Name to venture the issue of Eternal Salvation upon him since God himself hath set him forth For that end and purpose that sinners might come unto him and be washed justified saved from their sins 'T is not then to be doubted but that God as he hath therein taken care for the Salvation of the sinner so for the glory of his own righteousness so that the sinner hath no reason to doubt that comes to Jesus in the way proposed but that God can take pleasure to accept of him through the bloud of Jesus 'T was the most deliberate Act that ever the Wisdom of God was taken up about the setting forth of Jesus Christ to be the Saviour of sinners through his bloud 'T was the first Foundation that God said from all Eternity and after he had promised Jesus Christ it was some thousands of years before he set him forth to the World and therefore God cannot repent nor change his mind purpose as to accepting pardoning justifying sanctifying poor sinners that cast their souls upon it by the bloud of his Son Jesus Christ Upon which it is that blessed Souls are brought in in the Scriptures magnifying the grace of God for their cleansing by the bloud of Jesus 1 Joh. 1.7 The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sinne So are the Saints brought forth tryumphing Rev. 5.9 Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy bloud And Chap. 7.14 These are they who have washed their Robes and made them white in the bloud of the Lamb. Therefore I say with what boldness may poor sinners come unto it and how certainly are they in Gods way to Salvation in which way blessed souls have been ever found and none did ever miss of this end the Salvation of their Soules I have now dispatcht what I shall speak at this time as to the Doctrine of Justification by the Free-grace of God through the righteousness of Jesus Christ and of Saving-Faith therein and shall commit it to the Lord to work it upon the Conscience I shall a little insist upon the last