Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	faith_n	good_a	purge_v	1,223	5	9.3250	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10617	Foure sermons viz. I. Sinnes contagion, or the sicknesse of the soule. II. The description of a Christian. III. The blindnesse of a wilfull sinner. IV. A race to heaven. Published by William Ressold, Master of Arts and minister of Gods Word at Debach in Suffolke.	Ressold, William, b. 1593.	1627 (1627)	STC 20894; ESTC S100603	96,549	145

or excusing them And Hercules after he had slaine his wife and children became so perplexed in conscience that in the horror of it he concluded Nemo pollutojqueat animo mederi none of a polluted conscience can be cured And Aristotle was able to say of the wicked in the 9. of his Ethicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zeph. 3.5 therefore Alexander a heathen man having slaine his deare friend Clitus became grievously troubled in his conscience his very conscience accusing him for that barbarous and savage cruelty Thirdly they knew this distributive or iudiciarie iustice of God by the examples of Gods iustice for that hath beene true and shall bee true for ever which the Lord sets down by the Prophet Zephany Every morning doth hee bring his iudgements to light and faileth not Therefore when Tull. Hostilius was slaine by lightning from heaven and his house burned the Gentiles understood this to bee the iustice of God against him for his irreligious exorcismes So that wee see it cleere the Gentiles did know this iudiciarie iustice of God yet wilfully against their owne knowledge and conscience they committed things worthy of death A grievous wickednesse for if every sinne deserve death even sinnes of infirmitie and ignorance as the Prophet David doth witnesse and therefore doth cry out unto God Psal 19.12 Oh clense me from my secret sinnes how much more sinnes of wilfulnesse committed against the full swinge of knowledge and conscience 1. Ioh. 3.8 as were the sinnes of these Gentiles for knowing the iustice of God they committed them therefore saith the Apostle Rom. 1.18 They detayned the truth in unrighteousnesse they knew it but they wilfully reiected it Now saith our Saviour Luke 12.47 Hee that knowes his Masters will and doth it not shall bee beaten with many stripes And wee may see that the Prophet Samuel calls the sinne committed against knowledge and conscience 1. Sam. 15.23 a rebellion and compares it to those great sinnes witchcraft and idolatrie and Saul being guilty of this the Lord reiects him for ever What should this then impresse within us beloved in Christ Iesus oh how well might it serve to instruct us to be cautious how we entertaine or live in any sinne against our knowledge and our conscience First to be cautious how wee entertaine any sinne against our conscience 1. Iohn 3.20 for if as Saint Iohn speakes our conscience condemne us God is greater than our conscience and knoweth all things If therefore wee commit those things that our owne knowledge and our conscience is able to condemne us and pronounce iudgement against us for it how much more then shall the Lord condemne us and iudge us for these sinnes to whom they are farre better knowne than to our owne consciences Besides if our conscience bee able now to accuse us for these sinnes how much more shall it bee able to doe it at the finall iudgement Rev. 20.12 when the bookes shall bee opened even the booke of conscience and by the vigour of the divine power shall bee made able to call to remembrance all the thoughts words and actions whatsoever Rom. 2.15 had spoken or done by us and to accuse us or excuse us for them according as they have been agreeable or dissenting from the Law of God how much more then shall our consciences bee able to accuse us for all our sinister passages when they shall be thus opened and as it were quickned and awaked by the mighty power of God for oftentimes in this life through the long habite and continuance in sinne the conscience becomes as it were dead and the dictamen or voyce thereof strangely quailed but at length the Lord shall quicken it even the conscience of the most wicked as he did somtimes Cains which made him cry out Gen. 4.13 My sin is greater than can be forgiven or as he did somtimes Iudases which did so torment him that it made him bring backe his base corrupted hyer and to throw it downe at the feet of the Priests and Elders Matt. 27. openly confessing I have sinned betraying the innocent blood and as weary of his life desperately deprived himselfe of all vitall power Oh therefore be we cautious how we entertaine sinne against our knowledge and our conscience Secondly be we cautious how we live in any sinne against our knowledge and our conscience for this is a dangerous estate for saving Faith receives no impression where the conscience is wounded with plenall raigning sinnes committed against our knowledge and our conscience Therefore the Apostle ioynes these two together 1. Tim. 1.19 Faith and a good conscience that is a conscience purged and purified from raigning sinnes for these doe vastare conscientiam they wast and destroy the conscience therfore to these there is no comfort no peace with God no peace in conscience for there is no peace Esay 48 2● saith the Lord unto the wicked In these that thus live in sin committed with full consent of will against their knowledge and their conscience there is no pietie nor religion there is no true feare of God nor obedience unto his sacred Word Psal 36.1 Oh that wee would therefore be cautious how wee live in any sinne against our conscience for if the Gentiles as the Apostle shewes us had no pretext to excuse their sins whose chiefest Schoolemaster to shew them Gods iustice against their sinnes was yet but the light of Nature if these were voyde of excuse oh then what shal we say to our selves If we live in sinnes against our knowledge our conscience even those grosse sinnes which wee see daily familiarly entertained drunkennesse adulterie deceit oppression envie malice and that hell-bred sinne of usurie how inexcusable shall we be to live in these sinnes who have not only the light of Nature Rom. 6.23 but the cleere and manifest word of God to shew us the iustice of God against these sinnes nay the excellent and precious gospell of Christ Marke 1.15 promising to the repentant that forsake their sinnes and beleeve this sacred truth Ioh. 3.16 17 18. eternall felicitie and happinesse oh then how voyde of pretext shall we be yea how greatly shall this aggravate iudgement against us to live in sinnes against our knowledge and our conscience to whom Gods iustice is so cleerly manifested Heb. 2.2 3. to whom so great meanes is afforded to reclaime us and recall us Oh know we if we against our knowledge and conscience will thus still continue our violence in sinne notwithstanding this great meanes afforded us it shall bee easier for these Gentiles at the day of iudgement than for us And thus much beloved for my first generall part the pollution of the Gentiles in respect of their owne proper sinnes Come I now unto the second observed generall the pollution of the Gentiles in respect of the sinnes of others which the Apostle sets downe as a deep

Sodome and Gomorrah pierce the heavens with their crying sinnes oh know the heavens wil soone pierce them with showers of fire to destroy and burne them from the face of the earth yea if the whole world will conspire against God and rebell against his sacred Maiestie he will swallow them all up with a generall deluge and will only shew mercie to obedient Noah and his family Gen. 7.21 22. Oh then as the true sheepe of Christ heare wee the voyce of Christ obediently Gen. 7.1 with willing hearts to doe that which he enjoynes And thus wee have here the speciall markes of those that belong to the blessed fold of Christ Iesus they heare his voyce Frequently Intelligently Humbly Delightfully and Obediently what now remaines Will we demonstrate that we are of that blessed number sheepe of that sacred fold O then abandon wee all prophanesse all meere verball profession all insolent braving our of sinne all loathing and fastidiousnesse of sacred mysteries all rebellion against God and violent crueltie against men our pronenes to devoure our fellow creatures to make no question to sweare and for sweare to inlarge our estates or revenge our private malice Exod. 20.16 Lô thahhanah berahhecha hhed scheker for t is Gods owne injunction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt not answere a false testimony against thy neighbour Abandon wee therefore these base affections and heare wee the voyce of Christ with all due frequency with understanding hearts with humble affections with fervent delight as the very joy of our soules and as the summe of all with intire obedience ready to doe what the Lord injoynes resigning our wills to his blessed will both for our condition in this life and our eternall happinesse in the life to come For our condition in this life to keep us free from all unlawfull designments from all ungodly courses Iob. 7.20 netser haadam for as Iob speakes hee is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the preserver of men yea as the Prophet Esay speakes Esay 59.15 wee are written upon the palmes of his hands our walls are ever in his sight therefore he concludes by his Apostle that he will never faile us Heb. 12.5 that hee will never forsake us Resigne wee then our wills to his blessed will even for our estate in this life Againe for our eternall happinesse that hee will never take his holy spirit from us that hee will breake the power of the grave Hosea 13.14 ephdem she ôl miiad c. t is his own promise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will redeeme them from the hand of the grave Oh death I will bee thy death oh grave I will be thy destuction and will bring them to a blessed kingdome Our Saviour himselfe doth witnesse it Feare not little fl●●● it is your Fathers pleasure to give you the kingdome Luke 12.32 〈◊〉 an eternall kingdome for ever Hee therefore that labours to frame his life in this prescribed path of intire obedience the very nerve and sinew of a christian profession as hee plainely shewes himselfe to bee the sheepe of that blessed saviour Iesus Christ so he shall be sure to be comp●st about with mercies in this life and a crowne of immortall glorie in the life to come And thus much for the first points namely Addition exprest in these words My sheep heare my voyce Come I now unto the second point Cognition contained in these wordes And I know them In a threefold manner may this blessed Saviour bee said to know his sheep observatively preservatively remissively First he may be said to know them observatively as noting all their steps and passages bee they of what nature soever Psa 139.2.3.4 This the prophet David doth plainly witnesse Thou knowest my sitting and my rising thou understandest my thoughts a farre off thou compassest my paths and my lying downe and art accustomed to all my waies there is not a word in my tongue but loe thou knowest it wholly oh Lord. Iob 13.27 This is Iobs acknowledgement Thou lookest narrowly unto all my pathes And againe Thou numbrest my steps Iob 14.16.17 and doest not delay my sinnes mine iniquitie is sealed up as i● bag As if he should say so present is it unto thy Majestie as things that are used to be kept under seale And concerning this particular the observation of sinne even in the sheep of his owne fould it is the confession of the whole Church Psal 90.8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee and our secret sinnes in the light of thy countenance Many places might bee alledged to like purpose but these may be sufficient to any sober spirit truly qualified with grace to shew that Christ doth know his sheep observatively as marking all their steps and passages even their sinnes and their trangressions As for that errour so familiarly divulged in these partes that God can no waie see any sinne in the justified person it is more grosse than the darknesse of Egypt and worthy to be abhorred of all true christian hearts for the imputation of Christs righteousnesse is not as it is divulged a reall making of the creature righteous as if hee were righteous subjectively and not relatively for so to hold is to hold a notable dreame of papisme Faith the form of Iustificatiō and therfore it is cleere that God seeth sin in the justified notwithstanding justification and doth often punish them for their sinnes as the Scriptures plainly witnes that is correctively though not vindicatively And whereas some are so nice that they will not have the afflictions that are imposed upon Gods children to be called punishments herein they at least much forget themselves for they seeke to pull away the genus from the species for the word punish is the genus and respects any affliction whatsoever correction is the species or determinate kinde shewing it is a punishment for amendment and to bring them to Christ So in like maner revenge may be said to be the species of the punishment inflicted upon the pertinacious wicked as proceeding wholly from the wrath of God against their sinnes Now it is a cleere rule that the genus and the species have a mutuall relation that that which may be spoken of the one may be spoken of the other and therefore the corrections imposed upon Gods children may truly be called punishments Nor doth this distinction or difference of the species take away or destroy the unitie of the genus as it is obiected for these rules are cleare that distinctio specierum non tollit unitatem generis againe perficitur genus determinations oppositarum differentiarum Imputation being an externe act and out of us in regard of the matter imputed and is onely internall and within us not materially but formally as farre forth as it is apprehended by faith and so applied unto the soule and conscience and therefore cannot be a reall or materiall making which is justification but