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	shipwreck_n	6,868	5	12.4968	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42475	Causa Dei: = Gods pleading his own cause set forth in two sermons preached at the Temple in November, 1659. By Dr. Gauden, Bishop of Excester.	Gauden, John, 1605-1662.	1661 (1661)	Wing G344A; ESTC R216426	72,042	214

crowns of eternal victory for though we die for it yet we shall live by it the greatest trophies of Gods cause are in another world there our Lord Iesus Christ with the Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors and all the true Professors set up their victorious banners and rest in eternal Triumphs O let us all cast anchor in Gods Cause and we shall have no cause to fear the tossings of this world which was and ever wil be a restless Sea Let us keep Faith and a good conscience from shipwrack by preservation of our Laws and reformed Religion so shall we and our posteritie Kings and Subjects be most safe on earth however we shall be sure to gain our main cause and process at last in heaven tho in other things we be less advantaged as to this world for all our care pains in pleading Gods the Kings and the Churches Cause In which I hope I have not been wholly wanting to my duty in the worst of times nor shall I be now discouraged in these more Halcyon days however my sun may seem to be in its Western decline wher I find my self preferred as to much more love civility and honor from the Gentry sober Clergie ingenuous people of that Diocess then I can well deserve so I am exposed to much more business and fatigue of life sweet●ed with far less worldly comfort t●anquillity then formerly I enjoyed when I had the happiness of a more conv●nient as well as a more private and retired condition but Iow my self more to the publick cause of God and his Church of my King and Country then to my own ease or private interest for those we must be willing to do suffer and deny our selves in any thing short of heaven sin and hell faithful seruice of them is our greatest freedom highest honor and will be at last our greatest reward if we can but have patience to wait a few years till we pass to another world where the crown of eternall glory shall be set on the head of that vertue which envie here may depress That you with my self may persevere in sincerely pleading and promoting Gods blessed Cause which is our own is the earnest prayer of Your very humble Servant John Gauden Bp. of Exeter E●ueter Feb. 20. 1660. ERRATA Pag. 66. line 26. r. which l. 27. r. of l. 28 dele them p. 61 l. 16. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 18. r. Hinges or ●xes l. 19. r. polar p. 89. l. 15. r. pleaded p. 150. l. 19. r. l p. 153 ● 8. r. pursue Causa Dei Gods pleading his own Cause Set forth in two SERMONS Preached at the Temple in Novemb. 1659. Upon PSAL. 74. 22 Arise O God Plead thine own Cause Remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily THis Psalm is a most Pathetick Lamentation for the deplorable state of the Church of God among the Jews in the Babylonish captivity after the Justice and Wrath of God had let in the power aud malice of enemies as a mighty flood which swept away not onely the civil peace liberty plenty safety and honour with the Majesty and Government of the State but also the very face and form of the Church The publick profession order decency and solemnity of Religion the Worship and Service of God moral and ceremonial as to sacrifices and oblations Prayers and praises in the Temple § A matter of the greatest consideration to every pious and devout soul who cannot but be grieved to see Religion as the light of the sun put under a bushel confined to closets and corners driven to private and precarious Conventicles to be forced to thin and scattered Congregations or which is worse to affect separate Conventicles where the ta 〈…〉 d ra●● of verity will never be able to ●●ep charity warm or cover the 〈…〉 of Schism and Faction 〈…〉 i● the● time to cry out with old Eli Ichabod The glory is departed from Israel the beauty of holiness is turned into sackeloth ashes and publick joys sink into mourning and solemn Halelujahs into sad lamentations full of sighs and tears There is no cause to triumph or joy upon any civil and secular accounts in any Nation never so prospe●●●s when true Religion is eclipsed or the true Church and its Ministry discountenanced debased persecuted plundered destroyed reproached Then if ever as the Mariners cryed to Jonah in the storm Every man should cry mightily to his God apply his hands to the ore that is to such means as being pious and prudent are only proper to be used in Gods Cause This Psalm beare the name of Asaph that famous Master in Davids time of Church-musick both Vocal and Organical in which there is so much of humane yea divine sweetness composure and rapture that nothing but savage Barbarity and rude hypocrisie can envy or deny the Church of Christ both Christian and Judaick the blessing of holy harmony in singing to God and setting forth his high praises in the greatest perfections of melody that man can attain unto and the Churches gravity enjoy Not that it is like to have bin then penn'd by Asaph as if by the spirit of prophesie he had foreseen foretold and forewarned the captivity four hundred years before it came to pass but either some other of that name wrote it in the time of the captivity or some man of another name might then write this doleful Psalm or Threnody to the composure method or tune of Asaphs excellent melody who was one of the chief Singers leaving to after ages further monuments not only of devout compassion of the Churches affliction but also of those heavenly comforts which may in all cases be used and enjoyned in such holy forms as do set forth the exemplary passions of devout men either as to joy or sorrow complacenc 〈…〉 compassion prayer or praise in publick or private concernments so that not onely as St. James speaks If any man rejoyce he may sing Psalms of praise and thanksgiving But if he be afflicted he may read pray and weep over such divine Ditties as are most suitable to the sence and sorrow of his soul or the state of the Church yea and of any private friend This holy Pen-man whoever he were having an heart full of zeal for Gods glory no less then eyes full of tears and lips full of complaints for the Churches calamities suffers himself to boil over to all the Topicks of pathetick Oratory and devout importunity sometime deploring in general the sad state of things other while complaining to God in particular instances yea in one place he seems to complain of God himself as if he were regardless and negligent of his own interests Tanquam coecum surdum numen as if he needed a Monitor and Remembrancer to mind his own cause one while he deplores Gods fierce anger against his Church Then he tells him of the near relation he had to that suffering Cause

they give all for gone save only a little hold and hope they have in their prayers and in the precious promises of God to whom nothing is impossible or hard that is worthy of him and who is a present help both inward and outward in time of trouble when his time of help is come The Reasons of Gods permitting his Cause thus to lapse for a time as silent and unconcerned or as not seeing nor regarding the low estate of his Church may in brief be these 1. To let wicked men see what is in fundo cordium in the bottom and lees of their hearts if they be let alone unpunished and unrestrained to the very dregs of their malice what a perfect enmity and hatred they have to God and his Cause which is his Truth Word and VVorship yea every grace and vertue or good work yea all rules of justice good laws and decent order in Church and State that as the thoughts of their hearts are onely evil and that continually so will the actings of their lives if left to themselves 2. For the trial of his grace in those that are upright in heart and on Gods side that their prayers faith zeal patience perseverance and Christian courage together with their love to God and charity even to enemies with their compassion for the Church may be manifested Hence as St. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 11. God permits Heresies and Apostasies and Schisms to rise and prevail in the Church yea and many sinful at least superstitious corruptions in doctrine and manners that by such trials the sounder sort may be approved who in the hour of temptation persevere without shipwrack of faith or good conscience either in their judgement or conversation which is still such as becomes the Gospel of Christ 3. God permits these lapses and oppressions of Religion to punish by penal induration and blindness the obstinate and presumptuous sinners who gratifie their immoralities and lusts by their errors and Apostacies letting them alone to add sin to sin and to fill up the measure of their iniquity Hence they are given up to strong delusions to believe fables and speak lyes in hypocrisie because they with-held the truth in unrighteousness and loved the darkness of sottish superstition and confusion more then the truth and power purity and order of Religion 4. The Cause of God is many times under great depressions that by such fiery trials God may purge away the dross of such as are for the main sincerely good but yet gradually lukewarm too secure too sensual too carnal and worldly too self-conceited and self-seeking they are cast into the furnace of affliction to wean their affections from the fleshly and sensual world to prepare them for death and a better life by a nearer conformity to Christ in his cross that they may not think the greatest reward of Christian piety to be had in this world that they may embrace nudum Christum crucifixum Christ with the cross as well as with the crown 5. Lastly It is magnum praejudicium futuri judicii an evident token of after judgement and future recompences which shall reward the patience and perseverance of the godly with a crown of glory and the wicked after all their prosperous oppressions with the fruit of their own ways by the impressions of divine Justice in the ballancing of eternity 3. The third General Head is How God pleads his own Cause 1. Immediately by his own special appearing for it against his and his Churches enemies 2. Mediately by such instruments as he stirs up to be on his side 1. God hath his pleadings in several Courts 1. In foro conscienciae in that Court of conscience which is within men sometimes God pleads against them there filling them with terrors and stupors with horror and inquietude as in Cain those surda fulmina secreta fulgura those silent thunders and unseen lightnings which make them self-arraigned accused convinced judged and condemned in interiori tribunali at the bar or tribunal of their own brests as were Josephs brethren when they came into trouble and were more afraid then hurt yet guilty consciences are afraid of a leafs shaking and their own shadow There is no peace saith my God that is no true well-grounded and constant to the wicked as such they are as a restless sea not only foaming out their rage and fury against God but filling and fowling themselves with mire and dirt Prima est haec ultio quod se Judice nemo nocens absolvitur thus the heathens found and owned that the accuser witness judge condemner and tormentor which every wicked man had in his own soul was of all most inexorable and intolerable Poena autem vehemens c. Nocte dieque a suum gestere in pectore testem yea pestem that they seem sometime quiet jolly merry and secure it is but as a puddle of fowl water which stinks the more it stands still or as a warm gleam before a smart showre these are the sharp Indictments in mens own souls not verbal pleas onely but forked arrows and poysoned darts which drink up their very spirits as so many furies or animarum hirudines leeches of their souls 2. Other times God pleads his own Cause in the Court of conscience for us and in our behalf in troubles doubts darkness and desertions when by the evil of times as Eliah Jeremiah Baruch we are dejected or by the evil of temptations buffetted and tossed as St. Paul in a long and dismal storm that we see no light there the promises and Spirit of God pleads for us crying and making intercession with us commanding us to lay hold on his strength God furnisheth us with strong reason bidding us plead with him and urge his own name and glory and goodness as Moses did to disarm an angry God He then puts us in mind of Christs merits who is our righteousness of Gods free gift of pardoning sin for his own sake of the Law fulfilled of the no condemnation to them that are in Christ of his not quenching the smoaking flax or breaking the bruised reed These and the like are Gods gracious pleadings in us and for us when we can say nothing for our selves as a Judge that turns Advocate for a modest and penitent prisoner God stops the mouth of the great accuser the Devil Christ answers for us all doubts and objections all debts and indictments they are paid and cancelled by his rich and gratuitous grace 3. God pleads his Cause many times in foro seculi by the visible instances of his special power and providence which makes all men to see there is a God that judgeth the world who is neither deaf nor dumb neither negligent nor impotent only patient and long-suffering toward his adversaries that they might see they had space of repentance Here the pleadings of God when he