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	sin_n	sprinkle_v	1,192	5	10.9545	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88594	A treatise of effectual calling and election. In XVI. sermons, on 2 Pet. 1.10 Wherein a Christian may discern, whether yet he be effectually called and elected. And what course he ought to take that he may attain the assurance thereof. Preached by that faithful servant of Christ, Mr. Christopher Love, late minister of Lawrence Jury, London.	Love, Christopher, 1618-1651.; Calamy, Edward, 1600-1666.; Cross, Thomas, fl. 1632-1682,	1653 (1653)	Wing L3178; Thomason E696_1; ESTC R202781	182,095	256

the father of the faithful did when he was to believe a thing that sense and reason would tell him should never come to passe It is said of Abraham Rom. 4.18 19. That in hope he believed against hope He would exalt faith against sense And how was it God promised Abraham a childe reason and sense would have told Abraham Abraham thou art a hundred yeers old thy wife ninety nine her womb is barren and it is not likely you should have children but Abraham would not argue thus but would exalt arguments of faith and apply Gods Promises and Gods Word exalting these Abraham did believe in hope against hope Beloved so must you though you say you have barren wombs Grace is not likely to grow in you and though you are old and decrepit feeble Christians yet advance arguments of faith from Gods love and from Gods power and from Gods Providence and Gods Promises and that 's the way to get your comforts clear and full I may apply what Fox in his Acts and Monuments reports of a poor woman that was called before Bonner and the rest in Queen Maries Reign that sate in Judgement about her Religion they see her though a poor and silly woman yet keep firm to her principles and would not deny her Religion At length Bonner sent some learned Doctors to dispute with her and argue the case about some points she held they coming to see her she puts them off with this saying Well you are Scholars and you come to dispute I must needs tell you I cannot dispute but I can burn for my Religion Beloved I would have you answer the devil thus If he comes to outwit and cavill with you about your comforts say you cannot dispute but you can believe you can lay your help on Jesus Christ upon one that is mighty and exalt arguments of faith and this will much strengthen your comforts Luke 8.42 There came a Ruler to Jesus Christ and besought him for his daughter that lay a dying and while he was telling Christ this there came another messenger after and told him Thy daughter is dead trouble the man no farther what saith Christ hearing this Fear not onely believe As if he should say sense and reason would have told him it were a needlesse thing to beg of Christ for his daughter when she was dead but saith Christ Do not stoop to sense and reason Fear not onely believe and the work shall be done So I say to you Consult not with flesh and blood but exalt arguments of faith against present feelings and this is the way to get assurance of your comforts Secondly Keep conscience clear that no sin be harboured there and you are in the way to get your comforts full God saith David Psal 85.8 will speak peace to his people but they must not return unto folly As if he should say though God doth speak peace and assure you of your pardon and salvation yet if you return to sin God can tell how to break your peace and turn his smiles into frowns and angry looks Take heed of sin and keep your conscience clear and that 's the way to have peace setled in your hearts Job 11.14 15. If iniquity be in thy hand put it far away and let not wickednesse dwell in thy Tabernacle What followes and then shalt thou lift up thy face before God without spot thou shalt be stedfast and shalt not fear A strange expression That if you will keep sin far away then you shall be stedfast before God and not fear that is you shall not be exposed to those fears and doubts and anxieties which other men are exposed to Heb. 10.22 Let us draw near to God with an upright heart in fall assurance of faith Now what shall a man do to come to God in full assurance Mark the next words Draw nigh to God in full assurance of faith having your hearts sprinkled from an evill conscience Here is the way if you are sprinkled from an evill conscience you may be bold to come to God in full assurance Whereas alas if thy conscience tell thee thou art a whoremaster and thou art a deceiver and a liar and loose liver thou canst not come with full assurance thou mayest come in presumption indeed but not with the assurance of faith and therefore keep a conscience clear from harbouring guilt upon it and that 's the way to have the heart sull of joy Thirdly be diligent in keeping company with the most godly experienced Christians where you live this is a very special way to increase your comforts Ye read an excellent passage 2 Corinth 1.4 We are comforted of God saith the Apostle that we might comfort others with the comfort wherewith we are comforted of God Godly Christians they will comfort you with the same comforts wherewith they themselves are comforted If we are comforted it is for your consolation Godly men if they have any inward comfort from God they will impart their experiences to you and tell you as David did Psal 66.16 What God hath done for their soul There is no way better then this to keep in communion with godly and knowing Christians Master Bradford that famous Martyr who was in prison about his profession of Christ the story saith he lay a long time under trouble of minde and horrour of conscience that he could not finde a real and clear evidence of his effectual calling there came many men to him and could not settle him Yet a poore Weaver an ancient and experienced Christian that did usually accompany Master Bradford in prison by his frequent communion with this poore man he got more inward comfort then ever he got all his life before Beloved this I speak to you to make you the more to study the worth of godly society and the more you are conversant with Christians that live in the enjoyment of the light of Gods countenance and in the assurance of his favour all the day long the more you are in the ready way to increase your comforts and assurance Fourthly Submit thy self to the approbation of others and be willing to have them pass a verdict upon thee When thou art a sleep or in a swoun then thou canst not tel thyself what thou dost but others must tell thee So it may fall out with the godly they may be in such a spiritual swoun that the yare not fit judges of their own condition in this case submit to the judgement of others they may see grace in thee when thou thy self canst not see it so Master Throgmorton was comforted by the Testimony of a company of godly Ministers Fifthly Live in the daily improvement of grace and that 's the way to get assurance And this meanes the holy Ghost layes down in the Chapter out of which my text is taken Adde grace to grace And I remember that Beza upon this text doth write that in the Greek Translations these words are put in Give diligence

their soules which words clearly import that men that draw back without returning they draw back to perdition to damnation but we are not of them saith the Apostle And here then beloved doth this word fall upon any man before God this day Hast thou left a course of strictnesse and fallen into a course of prophanenesse and loosenesse Hast thou fallen from thy God and never thinkest of a returning I shall not censure thee now but if thou livest and diest in this estate it is an undoubted argument thou art not within the compasse of Gods decree to save Secondly Men that doe make the mercies and goodnesse of God as arguments to embolden them the more in sinne such men are not likely to be the persons whom God hath elected to life and glory In the Epistle of Jude v. 4. It is spoken there of men that turned the grace of God into wantonnesse And what saith the Apostle of them they are men that are ordained of old to condemnation The Scripture there makes it the badge of a man ordained of old to condemnation when he shal persist in this sinfull temper to turn Gods grace into lasciviousnesse that is to take arguments from the grace and mercy and goodnesse of God to walk in waies of sinne And therefore look to it and with your hearts bewaile it all you that are apt to abuse doctrines of grace and because God is good you will be evil because God is mercifull therefore you will be sinful if you die in this temper the Scripture declares that you are the men ordained of old to condemnation Thirdly a man that doth walk in a course of sinne wilfully with malice and knowingly against conscience and obstinately without reluctancy and persist in this and live and die thus that man is not within the compasse of Gods election There is a phrase Psal 59.5 Be not mercifull O Lord unto wicked transgressors It is in some translations Be not mercifull to them that sinne of wicked malice or of malicious wickednesse Now there is this rule which Divines give that those prayers which were made by David they are rather Prophecies of what should be then meere prayers that this might be As David prayed against the Jewes Psal 69.22 that their table might be a snare to them and that they should alway bow down under their burden which was a prophecie and they did so And so he prayes here that God would not be mercifull to men that sinne of wicked malice which is as much as a prophecie that God will not be mercifull to men that sinne of malicious wickednesse And therefore beloved all you that so live and resolve you will die and haply doe die who sinne obstinately that let God command what he can you will do what you please let the Minister say what he will you will doe as you list that sinne against knowledge and against conscience and without any reluctancy resolve to live and die in a course of sinne the Lord be mercifull to such persons for certainly there must be no Bible if such men fall within the compasse of Gods election Fourthly That man that by living under the powerfull Ministry of the Word is more hard in heart and worse in life if a man grows thus it is an argument he is not within the purpose of Gods election Matth. 13.14 15. By hearing you shall heare but not understand by seeing you shall see but not perceive this peoples heart is waxed grosse their eares dull in hearing their eyes shut lest at any time they should see with their eyes heare with their eares understand with their hearts and be converted and I should save them Here is the judgement God laies upon such sinners that they shall have eyes and not see they shall be ignorant their hearts shall waxe grosse they shall be uncapable of taking any impression of the word upon them And what 's the end of all this lest they should be converted and I should save them implying that if God lets you that live under the Ministry to have dark eyes and hard hearts it is an argument God hath no intent to save you and therefore his purpose is to condemne you So John 12.40 He hath blinded their eyes and hardned their hearts lest they should see with their eyes and understand with their hearts and be converted Here it is laid down as an act of Gods that God did harden their hearts and God did blind their eyes lest they should be converted Implying that if men doe live and die in this temper that they have lived yeere after yeere under a powerfull Ministry and yet they grow more blind in judgement and more profane in life and more hard in heart after 20 30 40 yeeres hearing then they were before that the word doth but draw out their wickednesse and makes them more prophane and more to oppose godlinesse the Lord have mercy upon such soules for certainly if God leave you thus it is an argument he never intends to save you for the Lord doth thus with such that they might not be saved There is a passage Rom. 11.7 Israel hath not obtained that which he seeks for but the election hath obtained and the rest were hardned By election is meant the elected the Abstract put for the Concrete As often in Scripture Circumcision put for Circumcised and so here Election put for elected The elected have obtained it what did they obtaine they obtained salvation and glory but the rest that were not elected they were hardned The Lord there makes it the badge of them that are not elected that they are a blinded people and a hardned people Intimating that men that are not elected they shall live under the word yet shall be blind in mind shall be hard in heart shall be wicked in life and the Ministry of the word shall never reforme them And if any of you be such O that the Lord would make you tremble this day tremble lest you are not in Gods thoughts to doe you any good another day Fifthly when God doth give up men to strong delusions not onely to believe lies themselves but to teach lies to seduce others when the Lord leaves men to live and die in that estate the Scripture makes it an argument of them that are not chosen by God to life and glory You shall read therefore in that great delusion of Antichrist 2 Thes 2.10 11 12. God gave them up to strong delusions to believe lies that all might be damned that believe not the truth It is made a brand of damnation when God shall give them over to believe lies Though a godly man may die in a corrupt opinion for every errour is not a badge of damnation but errours that are fundamentall that strike at the foundation of Religion wherein men runne so far as never to repent of their errour that the Scripture makes the badge of a man whose soule is in a world of danger Read

a gainsaying heart thou hast a stout spirit against God thy heart is as hard as an Adamant as hard as the Rocks yet here is thy comfort all the gain-sayings of thy spirit and all the stubbornnesse of thy will it shall not be able to keep off converting mercy and shall not be able to keep off calling grace from thee When God hath an intent to call thee he will come with Power by his call and make thee do what he commands thee and make thee imbrace what he cals thee to Did not Jesus Christ use an operative call as well as a significative call no man in the world would ever be called And this is the reason that in hearing the same Sermon and following the same Preacher one man is converted the other is not The reason is this The call of the Ministry is onely a significative call of a Reprobate onely signifying what God would have him do But there is no power conveyed with the invitation to make the man able to do what Christ cals him to and therefore one is called the other is not Thus much in Answer to the first case Case 2 Secondly What temptations doth the Devil suggest to men who are uncalled that they should not give entertainment to or embrace the call of Jesus Christ unto grace and glory And in answer to this I shall lay down onely four suggestions of the Devil wherewith he entangles a man that he should not yeeld to the call of Jesus Christ And as I lay them down I shall labour to take them away As 1. The first temptation the Devil will suggest is to you that are young men and to you he will suggest that you are yet too young to imbrace the call of Jesus Christ 't will be time enough hereafter and you may do it soon enough hereafter you are too young now to be abridg'd of your pleasure and to mortifie your lusts and to betake your selves unto so serious a course as Christ cals you to and by this temptation the Devil prevails with young men more especially And I remember Austin saith that this temptation of the Devil made him keep off for seven years together from embracing the call of Jesus Christ the Devil would still tell him in his heart thou art too young to leave thy Drunkennesse and too young to leave thy Harlots till at last he cryed out How long shall I say it is too soon Why may I not repent to day This temptation I say it hath fastened upon many before you that they were too young to come in to Jesus Christ and to this end the Devil will suggest to you that old and false Proverb A young Saint and an old Devil Whereas indeed if you are young Devils you will be old Beelzebubs And therefore this being a suggestion prevailing with many hearts I shall lay down six considerations to take off this temptation that it may not prevail with you First If the Devil tempt you that you are yet too yong to hearken to Christs call consider That the Devil cannot give you a Lease of your lives if the Devil could give you a Lease of your lives and tell you you should live till old age you might then with more safety hearken to his temptation but your lives are not at the Devils disposal God is the Author of your life the issues of life and death are in his hands you may dye in youth and if you die in youth uncalled you may be damned as well as dead You may be as these men Job 36.14 That shall dye in their youth and their lives shall be among the unclean And therefore though the Devil tempt you that you are too young seeing he cannot assure you of your lives you have no reason to hearken to his temptation Secondly Suppose the Devil could assure you you should live till old age yet take this consideration that in putting off your calling and the work of conversion from your youth this may so provoke God that he may harden your hearts in your old dayes that you shall have no heart to think of and imbrace the call and invitation of Jesus Christ Jer. 22.21 I spake to thee in thy prosperity but thou wouldst not hear and this hath been thy manner from thy youth Thou wouldst not obey my voyce God spake but they would not hear and it was from their youth that they did thus therefore God would never speak more God hardened their hearts that they should never receive or imbrace the call of Jesus Christ So Isa 6.9.10 Seeing the Jewes from their youth were obstinate against the word of God Go saith God make their ears heavy and their hearts fat and their eyes blind that they should not be called and converted and I should save them Let this therefore be a second consideration that the putting off your call till your old age may so provoke God as never to give you hearts to imbrace his call Thirdly Suppose all this that you could have a Lease of your lives and you could be assured that when you come to old age your hearts should not be hardened yet consider this that the more sinful and evil the dayes of your youth have been the more disquietness of mind and horror of conscience will this breed in you when you are old though you should be called and converted by Jesus Christ Job 13.24 25 26. Thou hidest thy face thou holdest me as thy Enemy Thou dost drive me as a leaf to and fro and thou dost pursue me like dry stubble Now why doth Job complain thus Mark the next words For thou writest bitter things against me and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth Job when he was a young man it seems he was a wicked man and had many sins in his youth and this in his old age made him cry out and say that God took him for his Enemy and that God brake him like a leaf driven with the wind O beloved the sins of your youth though you should be Jobs converted yet they wil bring great disquietness and great horror when you come to age the lusts of youth and the vanities of youth and the sensual pleasures of your youthful dayes they will lay a foundation of sorrow when you come to gray hairs to be neare your graves so Job 20.11 And therefore put the case you should repent and should be called when you are old you have no cause to put off the call of Jesus Christ seeing sins of youth will fill you with horror and disquietness of mind Hence it is that David after he was call'd by the power of the word cryes out Psal 25. Lord remember not the sins of my youth that gravelled and gall'd his conscience the sins of his youth before his call Quae fuerunt inaenia juventut is gaudia haec sunt acerba senectutis gravamina It is the speech of an Author that to look on the pleasurable vanities