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	speak_v	4,191	5	5.3230	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30126	Infirmity inducing to conformity, or, A scourge for impudent usurpers, and a cordiall for impotent Christians preached not long since in St. Peter's the Poore ... and in St. Pancras Church-yard when it could not be admitted into the church, July 8, 1649 / by Peter Bales ...	Bales, Peter, 1547-1610?	1650 (1650)	Wing B549; ESTC R3551	29,358	39

as a Garden full of sweet flowers intermixt with many and diverse stinking weeds It is as a flourishing Vine laden with sowre grapes which by God's assistance I shall presse that with the juyce of them your appetites may be more and more sharpened to eate and digest the true bread of life Begin we therefore with the first generall part of my Text which is the Delictum or Offence The vulgar Latine translates the originall word Offendimus we offend or stumble Sinne indeed is offendiculum a stumbling stone or block of offence and it lieth in our way which way soever we turne our selves so that if we stumble not upon it but misse it it was the grace of God that upheld us and gave us warning of it that we might have the more free progresse in our journey to the heavenly Canaan Sin offendeth God our selves and our Neighbours First it offendeth God who is Holinesse it selfe and therefore cannot but abominate it in his Creatures It caused him to repent that he had made Man and to be sory at his very heart Gen. 6.6 Yea sinne is so offensive to him that nothing but the merits and intercession of his beloved Sonne and our alone Saviour Jesus Christ can appease his wrath and turne away his displeasure towards us Secondly it offendeth our selves and that First in respect of the new man or regenerate part If thy right eye offend thee pluck it out Mat. 5.29 where by the eye hand and foot our Saviour meaneth the lusts of the flesh and the concupiscences of the old man which doe often molest and offend the new man in its running in the path of God's commandements Secondly in respect of the Conscience every sinne is a sicknesse and a soare It is flagellum animae yea mors animae as Saint Bernard calls it the scourge of the soule and death of the soule When the conscience is throughly awakened for sinne it casteth the soule into many pangs and throws and leaves it void of all comfort till Christ Jesus brings it into his wine-cellar of consolation and spreads over it the banner of his love If he doth not it proves not onely an Accuser and a Judge but an Executioner also Thirdly it offendeth our Neighbours it made the holy Prophet David complain bitterly in his abode with incorrigible implacable and prophane Persons Psal 120. Woe is me that I am constrained to dwell with Meseck and to have my habitation among the tents of Kedar My soule hath long dwelt with those that are Enemies unto peace The Sodomits unlawfull deeds vexed Lot's righteous soule from day to day 1 Pet. 2.7 8. And these five severall waies especially doe we offend our Neighbours 1. By evill example 2. By evill counsell 3. By base detraction 4. By false doctrine 5. By the abuse of Christian liberty Let therefore our light so shine before men that they seeing our good works may glorifie our Father which is in Heaven Mat. 5.16 Let us with Saint Paul therein exercise our selves to have alwaies a conscience void of offence toward God and toward Men Act. 24.16 Let us give no offence neither to the Jewes nor to the Grecians nor to the Church of God 1 Cor. 10.32 In a word Let us not doe any thimg without Faith and Charity Whosoever walketh according to this rule Peace shall be upon him and upon the Israel of God But we doe not onely give and take offence our selves stumble our selves and make others stumble but we also fall and so our best Translation renders it In multis labimur omnes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we fall many waies This Fall is not corporall but morall yet by a Corporall we may understand a Morall fall for as he that falleth in regard of the sight of his body commeth lower and withall ordinarily taketh a bruise even so is it in a morall fall Our nature by it becomes not onely more base and vile but more feeble also But this phrase importeth a difference of Sinners some draw iniquity with the cords of vanity others account it vanity and doe feele vexation of spirit to be drawne into iniquity with cords Some doe take pleasure in sinning others doe esteem it a sinne to take pleasure therein some doe sinne through malice some through frailty some comit sinne some fall They sinne through malice in whom the principles of conscience are corrupt who wittingly and willingly commit sinne with greedinesse neither before the fact feeling any reluctancy nor after the fact conceiving any sorrow These account darknesse light and light darknesse evill good and good evill as the Prophet speaketh Isai 5.20 It is improper to say that these doe fall into sinne for will any one of set purpose fall to hurt himselfe To be overtaken in a fault which phrase Saint Paul useth to the Galatians Gal. 6.1 is nothing else but this falling in my Text. The phrase reacheth onely those who sinne dum aut latet veritas aut compellit infirmitas as venerable Bede speaketh either when they are sophistically circumvented or unawares transported and so take a fall Let him therefore that thinks he stands to himselfe take heed lest he fall 1 Cor. 10.12 For it is not said we have fallen or shall fall though true enough but we doe noting unto us the assiduity or daily continuance of our falling which is the first Particular of the first Generall and comes now in order to be handled We doe continually sinne even from the morning of our youth to the evening of our old age yea from our very cradles even unto our graves Our life is a dying and our dying is our life Our breathing under Heaven is a breathing against Heaven and we live not a day without sinne A just man saith Salomon Prov. 26.16 falleth seven times yea in a day every day This is the common addition frequent in the antient Fathers though not found in the Originall But God himself saith that the imagination of mans heart is evill from his youth Gen. 8.21 And in Gen. 6.5 he saith The imaginations of the thoughts of his heart are onely evill continually The Hebrew renders it every day Should not this teach us all to be ready to forgive the frequent continuall and daily fallings and offences of our Brethren Peter said unto our Saviour How often shall my Brother sinne against me and I shall forgive him unto seven times Jesus said unto him I say not to thee Vnto seven times but unto seventy times seven times Saint Austine makes this question upon these words Why saith he doth our Saviour say Seventy times seven times and not an hundreth times eight times The answer saith he is ready From Adam to Christ were seventy Generations therefore as Christ forgave all the transgressions of whole mankind parted and diffused into so many Generations so also we should remit as many offences as in the terme and compasse of our life are committed against us Againe what doth this teach us