Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	evil_a	good_a	note_n	1,054	5	9.3782	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57597	Shlohavot, or, The burning of London in the year 1666 commemorated and improved in a CX discourses, meditations, and contemplations, divided into four parts treating of I. The sins, or spiritual causes procuring that judgment, II. The natural causes of fire, morally applied, III. The most remarkable passages and circumstances of that dreadful fire, IV. Councels and comfort unto such as are sufferers by the said judgment / by Samuel Rolle ...	Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Preliminary discourses.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Physical contemplations.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Sixty one meditations.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Twenty seven meditations.	1667 (1667)	Wing R1877; Wing R1882_PARTIAL; Wing R1884_PARTIAL; ESTC R21820	301,379	534

concerning the Law of God taught by parents to their children Prov. 6.22 When thou goesh it shall lead thee when thou awakest it shall talk with thee So will a good conscience An evil conscience findes such discourse as men have not patience to hear like Micaiah it never prophesieth good but a good conscience commends without flattery and tells those stories than would not be grievous to a man to listen to from morning to night It speaks like God in his sentence of Absolution well done good and faithful Servant No man can frame a discourse so delightful as are the whispers of a good conscience speaking peace and pardon to us in the name of God Where such company and such discourse is there can want no mirth taking mirth in the soberest sense for comfort and refreshment yea it will make the heart more glad than they whose wine and oile increase And as for musick all the voices and instruments in the World cannot make such melody as a good conscience If a man had all those Men-singers and Women-singers that Solomon had Eccles 2.8 their best notes were not comparable to this Nor is it hard to make out how a good conscience can and doth give a man hearty welcome For as Christ in several senses is both Priest Altar and Sacrifice so is that both our feast and our Host our entertainer and our entertainment Conscience doth as it were grudge a wicked man both his meat and his mirth but to a good man it saith eat thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart for the Lord accepteth thy person Conscience bids much good may do him with all he hath and tells him in the name of God he is as welcome to it as his heart can wish and hath it with as good a will We count those men best able to feast that have as we say every thing about them and within themselves Corne Cattel Poultry all of their own Dove-houses Warrens Parks all within their own grounds Ponds affording several sorts of fish Trees yielding all sorts of fruits c. Such is he that hath a good conscience he hath all materials for feasting within himself and therefore may afford to do it Prov. 14.14 A good Man shall be satisfied from himself Viz. from the consciousness of his own integrity As Paul saith this is our rejoycing viz. the testimony of our conscience c. He that hath this hath meat to eat that the World knows not of and such meat as he would not exchange for all the rarities and varieties that are at Emperors Tables He blesseth himself or rather God when he thinks how much happeir he is than the World takes him for and how much better he fares than the World knows of whereas they do or may blush and inwardly bleed to think how much happier they are thought to be than indeed they are I might add he that feasts upon a good conscience hath that kinde of meat which is also sawce for every thing whereas others have the same sawce that spoiles all their sweet meat But possibly I cannot say more of the happiness of a good conscience than many can easily believe from the experience of a bad one and the misery they have felt by meanes of it A good conscience think they were an excellent feast indeed if we had it There is none like that but as Saul said the Philistims were come up against him and God was departed so they The Fire is come up against them and hath taken away what they feasted on before and as for a good conscience they wish they had it but they have it not Such a sound spirit would bear their infirmities but for want of it they are not able to bear them Were I sure such men were in good earnest to look after that good conscience which they confess and complain they want I would tell them for their encouragement that there is a way for a bad yea a very bad conscience to be made good as well as a good one to be made better Who can think that Paul had alwaies a good conscience the Scripture telling us that he was sometimes a persecutor an injurious person and a blasphemer yea that he did compell others to blaspheme Acts 26.12 considering that he had his hand in the death of many of Gods Saints Acts 26.12 Many of the Saints did I shut up in prison and when they were put to death I gave my voice against them But manifest it is that he had a good conscience afterwards therefore I say there is a way for a very bad conscience to be made very good and blessed be God there is so It is against Scripture to say that a conscience once deflowred can never recover its virginity He who himself was born of a virgin can reduce that conscience to a virgin state which hath been the mother of many hainous sins Hab. 9.14 If the blood of bulls and goats and the sprinkling the ashes of an heifer sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ sanctifie your conscience from dead works to serve the living God It is sin alone that defiles the conscience and makes it evil Now sin is either immediately against God or immediately against our neighbour that is against men and that also is against God ultimately though not firstly and only Therefore David confessing his sin in the matter of Vriah saith to God Against thee have I sinned He that would have a good that is a pure and peaceable conscience must if he be able satisfie men for the wrongs and injuries done to them as Zacheus resolved to do or if he be not able he must be sincerely willing and desirous so to do and fully purpose it in his heart if God shall ever make him able For nisi●restitutur oblatum is an old and a true rule that is either actually or intentionally non remittitur peccatum But as for the injury done to God by sin either immediately or mediately that no meere man is able to satisfie for though he could give thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of oile or would give the fruit of his body for the sin of his soul Therefore as to that there is no way to get our sins carried into the land of forgetfulness but by laying them by faith upon the head of Christ who was tipified by the Scape-goat under the Law no satisfaction to be tendered for them but that which Christ our surety hath made and intended for the use and benefit of them and them only who do or shall believe in him and by repentance turn from dead works to serve the living Go● Col. 1.14 In whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins When these things are once done namely when care hath been taken to satisfie men so far as we are able for the wrongs done to them when we have looked upon him whom

we have pierced by sin and truly mourned when we have confessed our sins and forsaken them both actually for the present and in sincere resolution for ever after and when we have lifted up all eye of faith to Christ as to the antitype of that brazen serpent which was lifted up in the wilderness as he that is able to take out the sting of sin out of the fiery serpent and by faith laid hold upon his grace as upon the horns of an altar I say when this is done then is that conscience which was bad become purely good and when we can reflect upon what we have done then do they become not only pure but peaceable and consequently good upon all accounts Now I see not what notion can be more comfortable to those that have brought a bad conscience into a bad condition than this that a conscience extreamly bad may be made good that which is impure may become very pure and that which is unquiet may become calm and peaceable yea full of joy and triumph This premised I think it no hard matter to tell many a man how he may be much more happie in a mean and impoverished condition than he had wont to be in midst of all his plenty and prosperity Get but a good conscience instead of a bad one Get but peace within viz. that peace which passeth all understanding get but the pardon of thy sins and the well-grounded perswasion of that pardon get but a vision of thy sins as drowned in the red sea of Christ his blood get but to look upon God as thy friend and father and upon death as none of thine enemie and where it is no enemy it is and will be a great friend get but the Spirit of God to witness with thy spirit that thou art the childe of God get but this for thy rejoycing which Paul had viz. the testimony of thy conscience c. and let me be miserable for thee if thou who hast wanted these things in times past when thou hadst the world at will when once possest hereof dost not become more happie in the enjoyment of meer food and raiment than ever thou wert formerly when waters of a full cup were wrung out unto thee Some have said Bread and the Gospel are good cheere It is as true that brown bread and a good conscience are so He that hath those two will finde no cause he hath to complain And as the Prophet speaks Isa 33.24 The inhabitant shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity so neither will men repine that they are poor and despicable and otherwise afflicted if they come but once to know for certain that they are pardoned The true reason why many men do want so many outward good things as namely so much wine so much company so much recreation c. is because they want better consciences had they more of a good conscience to cheare and to refresh them they would need less of other things If Saul had not been possessed with an evil spirit be had not wanted David to have plaied to him upon the Harp 1 Sam. 16.16 One saith that the life of a wicked man is a continual Dversion If men were not wicked they would not need the one half of those diversions which they betake themselves to as reliefs against the sting of an evil conscience Notable is that counsel of the Apostle Eph. 5.18 Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess but be ye filled with the spirit v. 19. making melody in your hearts to the Lord. When men want the comforts of Gods Spirit and melody in their own hearts they would supply that defect if they knew how with more than ordinary refreshments from those good comforts of God which do gratifie and entertain their senses and thence probably it is that St. Jude joines those two together Jude 19. Sensuel having not the Spirit They that frequently use Cordials are supposed to be apt to faintings for others had rather let them alone Wine is observed to be a narcorick or stupifying thing witness the proneness of men to fall asleep when they have drunk freely of it and it is to be feated that many do use it but as opium to conscience Now as Physitians say the body is much endangered by the over-frequent use of opiates natural opiates so is the soul much more by those things which cast it for the present into a dead sleep for they do but keep that worm from gnawing at the present which will afterwards gnaw so much the more and never die stupifying things remove not a disease but fix it so much the more I see then O Lord what men must do if they would not only think themselves happy but be so indeed if they would not be like hungry men that dream they eat but finde themselves empty when they awake or thirsty men that dream of drink but awake and finde themselves deceived Isa 29.8 If they would feast in good earnest it must be by means of a good and quiet conscience That men may want though they have houses full of Gold and Silver that men may have though Gold and Silver they have none Riches cannot give it poverty cannot hinder it I am or would be at a point whether my body feast at all more or less but for my soul I desire not only a good meale now and then but that continual feast of a conscience both pure and peaceable I prefer that to all the far fetcht and dear bought varieties of fish flesh and fowle which are at Princes tables I see then men need not bid adieu to feasting or reckon upon a bare commons after all the spoile this fire hath made They need only change their diet for that which is much better than they had wont to live upon and they may feast hereafter ten times for once they did heretofore and be said in a nobler sense than ever Dives was to fare sumptuouslie every day Peace of conscience is a feast of fat things full of marrow and of wines on the lees well refined as I may allude to Isa 25.16 DISCOURSE VII Of getting and living upon a stock of spiritual comforts AS it fareth with children whose nurses have milk enough in both breasts but one is much hardet to be drawn than the other they would willinglie lie altogether or mostlie at that breast which may be drawn with most ease so with many Christians who have an interest both in Spiritual and temporal things wherewith to solace themselves they are too too prone to live upon the breast of their worldlie comforts which may be suckt as it were by sense rather than upon that of their Spiritual priviledges and advantages which breast though much the sweetest and fullest can no otherwise be drawn than by the exercise of faith Now sad experience convinceth us that it is much more hard to exercise our faith than to use our

the thoughts of any such thing Let my only care be to live in my Fathers house and to carry my self alwayes as in his sight and I shall never want a belliful of huskes nor yet have meer husks for thou feedest not thy children like swine wherewith to fill my belly Every thing that is good is not good for me neither is the best of earthly things alwayes best for me no more than the best liquors are for him that is in a feaver Give me to walk in integrity before thee and then I know thou wilt give me every thing that is good for me for thy promise is to give grace and glory and that no good thing wilt thou with-hold from them that walk uprightly Can I expect to eat bread in the Kingdome of God as the phrase is Luke 14.15 and think that God will not give me bread to eat in this World can I believe I shall be one day cloathed upon with an house which it from heaven as it is called 2 Cor. 5.2 and yet think that God will deny me such cloathing as my body stands in need of he hath given life it not that more than meat a body is not that more than raiment Mat. 6.25 he that hath given the greater will he not give that which is less Our Heavenly Father knows we have need of food and raiment whilst we are in this World and cannot live without it vers 32. Lord give me but to trust in thee and to do good and as thou hast said so I believe verily I shall be fed DISCOURSE VI. Of a good conscience being a continual feast HOwever it comes to pass the vulgar and seemingly mistaken quotation of the close of that verse Prov. 15.15 viz. in these words A good conscience is a continual feast sounds much more spiritually and like a saying of the Holy Ghost than doth that translation which is usually given us viz. in these expressions He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast which they that know no mirth but that which Salomon calls madness will be apt to wrest to a very bad sense The word translated merry is in the Hebrew Tob which signifieth good which is a better word in common acceptation than is the word merry for that is but too liable to an ill construction may I take liberty to alter but that one word and render the Hebrew Text verbatim word for word A good heart a continual feast when we have compared it with the context it wil easily enough appear that the true sense and meaning is that which is generally understood by such a saying as this in that a good conscience is a continual feast For if I mistake not that Proverb is seldom used but by a good conscience is intended a conscience not accusing but excusing not testifying against us but with us and for us a conscience speaking peace and such as is a comfort and a rejoycing to us That Salomon by a good heart doth intend such a conscience as that the opposition in the foregoing words seemeth to imply All the daies of the afflicted are evil but a good heart c. intimating thereby as if good were here opposed to grieved wounded afflicted which interpretation is also countenanced by what followeth ver 16. Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith probably meaning trouble of mind and conscience for the ill geting of it for other kind of trouble there may be where there is but a little and that both gotten and enjoyed in the fear of God And now we know what it is that Solomon here stileth a continual feast we may be able to speak to those who having with Dives fared deliciously every day which now they are not able to do as formerly think it cold comfort to be told of meer food and raiment and would be fain feasting again if they had wherewithall Feast we may and that not only now and then but every day in the year and every hour of the day and upon greater delicacies than any feast commonly so called consists of if we can but get that good conscience Solomon speaks of to feast withall Indeed there is no contentment but a good conscience our bodies admit not of a continual feast but our souls do A full stomack loathes the honey comb But there is no satiety in those dainties which conscience feeds upon much lesse can we surfeit with them As those that have but almost dined feel no troublesome sense of hunger and yet could eat more so a good conscience though it have that already which may suffice yet is alwaies left with a wholsome appetite What can be desired or what is ever enjoyed in a feast but good chear good company good discourse mirth musick now and then as an help to mirth and above all hearty welcome I am deceived if a good conscience do not afford all and every of these Good meats and good drinks are that we count good chear and if our meats and drinks be both for health and delight then do we account them good A good conscience affords both meats and drinks as they may properly enough be called as wholesome and as delightfull as can be wished Meats and drinks such as our bodies feed upon there are none in Heaven Yet something so called there is else why is there mention of eating bread in the kingdome of God Luke 14.15 or why doth Christ speak of drinking of the fruit of the Vine new in the kingdome of his father Mat. 26.29 The bread of comfort the Wine of joy is that which Saints and Angels feast upon in Heaven and the same for kind though not for degree is that of a good conscience It spreads a Table with first second and third course It s presenting us with a well-grounded perswasion of our being delivered from the wrath to come as the Apostle saith we are not appointed to wrath that is as it were the first course it 's witnessing that we are not only not children of wrath which alone would be a great comfort to be assured of but also that we are the children of God as the spirit of God is said to witness with the spirits of Gods children that is the second and then its telling us that it is our fathers pleasure to give us even us a kingdome and causing us to rejoyce in hope of the glory of God that is the third Nor is a good conscience better chear than it is good company As a bad conscience is the worst companion in the World so a good conscience is the very best unless it be God himself He that hath it is many times never less solitary than when he is most alone that is the best company that is both profitable and pleasant and so is a good conscience it hath that property of a good companion amongst others it will finde good and pleasant discourse What Solomon speaks