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	heart_n	sprinkle_v	2,758	5	11.3113	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49459	The chief interest of man, or, A discourse of religion, clearly demonstrating the equity of the precepts of the Gospel, and how much the due observance thereof doth conduce to the happiness and well-being as well of humane societies as of particular persons by H. Lukin.	Lukin, H. (Henry), 1628-1719.	1665 (1665)	Wing L3473; ESTC R125	65,780	204

it steady Angercos Fortit udinis ingenii the mettle of it to fit it for action and the Oyl of Gladnesse making the face to shine and being as marrow to the bones making our conversation more acceptable and agreeable unto others our life more pleasing and comfortable to our selves But that wherein a Christian hath the greatest advantage is Peace of Conscience the importunate sollicitations of Satan and our own Lusts to the commission of sin are not so disquieting to the Soul as the rebukes and clamors of Conscience after the commission of it The Devil is a meer Trapan that draws Men into a Plot against Heaven and when he hath ensnared them is the first that accuseth them sollicites men importunately to sin by the strongest enticements afterwards affrights their Consciences by aggravating their guilt to them and this is a preoccupation of Hell as peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 the first fruits and 〈◊〉 of ●eaven As Vertue is its own reward ●o sin is its own punishment guilt followes sin as the shaddow doth the body haunting the sinner like a hideous Ghost and continually terrifying him It is true many do not feel these terrors but it is not through any true setled peace that they have but only a senselesse stupid ignorance of their own danger they are like a man asleep on the top of a Mast do but awake them to see their danger and it is enough to affright them into the infernal abyss While they go on quietly in sin they are but as a man which hath bribed the Serjeant which doth not pay his debt nor secure him against Arrests his debt increases still and he will have more to pay when he is arrested It is not a Merchants putting off the melancholick thoughts of his debts by pleasures and divertisements that will alwayes quiet his mind he doth but beguile himself and increase his debt it is the acquitiance of his Creditor that can only secure him This is the case of many that when they are haunted as Saul by the evil spirit of an accusing Conscience as he had his musick to quiet his mind they must have something to divert their thoughts from such disquieting and tormenting objects but these are but like Opiates which may stupifie for a time and free from pains but do nothing to the cure of the disease It is only the blood of Christ that can sprinkle our hearts from an evil Conscience cleanse our Consciences from dead works only an effectual Faith that applies this blood to the Conscience So that the Heathen Philosophers by all their prescriptions could never quiet the Consciences of sinners and all that peace that they had was only from ignorance of that severe inexorable justice of God which will never pardon sin without satisfaction and never be satified but by the sufferings of Jesus Christ and the nature of the Covenant of Grace or the condition of the Gospel that none should have any benefit by Jesus Christ but those who are united with him by an effectual Faith which produceth the fruits of holinesse in a blamelesse upright conversation so that as the blood of Christ is the cause of our reconciliation with God by Faith and holinesse we actually patake and are assured of the fruits thereof all these therefore are in several respects necessary to true peace of Conscience Morality therefore can never teach a right way and means of it to which the righteousnesse of faith is an hidden mystery The loose prophane Christan can never attain it while his conversation is evidently inconsistent with that true faith and Gospel sincerity which is absolutely required of all that will be saved and however they may flatter or cheat themselves into a vain presumption or shut their eyes that they may not see their danger they are continually obnoxious to the affrights and alarms of such places of Scripture as affirm that without holinesse none shall see God that if we live after the flesh we shall dye that the Gate is strait and the way narrow that leads to life and there are few that find it that many shall seek to enter and shall not be able That if any will be Christs Disciple he must deny himself and take up his Cross and follow him That whoever sayes he knows God and keeps not his Commandments or that he hath communion with God and walks in darknesse is a lyar and the truth is not in him That whoever seems to be Religious and bridleth not his tongue his Religion is vain That he that loves Father or Mother or Wife or Children or House or Lands more than Christ is not worthy of him Besides others clearly importing that a Man may have much knowledge and his judgment so far convinced as to approve of the best things may be much in holy duties take delight in them hear the word with joy do many things which he hears be blameless as to his outward carriage and yet be an hypocrite So that without daily exercising our selves to Godlinesse and a strict watch over all our wayes it is impossible to maintain a setled well grounded peace of Conscience If any object that there are none more disquieted in their Consciences than those that make the greatest shew of Religion none more melanchollick and morose in their conversation I may answer solid joy is a serious thing as Seneca could say it is not most seen in a forced laughter and jollity which is as thorns under a pot Eccl. 7.6 that for the present makes a great noise and blaze but neither heats nor lasts In the midst of it the heart many times is sorrowful and the end of it is heavinesse and as the heart knows its own sorrow the stranger intermeddleth not with its joy There is that comfort within which every one cannot observe A Godly man needs not have his heart revived with wine and strong drink and merry company like a sick Man that is forced continually to have his spirits kept up with Cordials He hath that within which is better to him than Wine and Musick It is true Godly Men have more inward conflicts in their Consciences than others but this proceeds from the sense that they have of their own danger as they say Wisdone armes misery against it self that is discovering the evils that we are obnoxious to makes a Man more timerous and suspicious whiles fools go on and are punished without any fear of danger go on as an Ox to the Slaughter a fool to the Stocks a Bird to the suare and knows not that it is for her life It is time for a Man that knows if he be not set upon the Rock that is higher than himself if he be not upon that sure Foundation Jesus Christ he hangs by the small thread of a brittle life over the bottomlesse pit to look about him and make his calling and election sure Again the greater esteem any one hath of Heavenly

things the more careful he is to make sure of them the more fearfull to be deceived about them Tarda solet magnis rebus in esse fides And further when Satan who before kept all things in peace sees himself in danger of being dispossessed he rageth the more as he rent the poor man out of whom he was cast almost to death And God gives him leave sometimes to winnow his dearest Children for their tryal but for the most part God leaveth them to such disquietment of spirit and terrors of conscience for some sin which they have fallen into as in Davids case and then their trouble is not because of their piety but of their defect in it or else it is before he intends to raise them to some great eminency or fill them with some extraordinary joy as we may observe where Men have been raised exceeding high their foundation hath been laid very low in some deep abasement and so God brings them as a King our of Prison to reign and ordinarily when God layes his people low either by extraordinary outward afflictions or inward temptations he doth recompence them for it by those inward consolations which are the fore-tasts of Heaven hence proceeds that joy the Apostle speaks of which is unspeakable and full of Glory which he that hath tasted the sweetnesse of it would not want to be exempted from all those Temptations and tryals which he hath been exercised with The peace of wicked Men is but an agreement with Hell which shall be disanulled a Covenant with death which shall be broken as the mirth of a Drunken Man who whilst his spirits are raised feels not his wounds but afterwards feels the smart of them when his reason returns to him That will be the woful end of the carnal mans security if he be laid in the Bonds or Fetters of afflictions and so come to himself and feel the wounds which he hath by sin made in his own conscience he is a Magor missa bib terror round about that is the reason of such horror many times on sick beds which yet is better than to be hushed asleep by the charming pleasures of sin and not awake till he be amidst the everlasting flames So that we may say with the Prophet The work of righteousnesse is peace and the effecti of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever It is only by the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ imputed to us by faith that we have peace with God and so peace of Conscience which is as a continual feast daily to entertain us as a brazen wall alwayes to secure us that we may alwayes sind that within wherewith we may solace our selves and need not fear that any thing shall disturb or disquiet the tranquillity which we have in our own souls SECT IX The reward which Godly Men have after this life the chief advantage of Religion The excellency thereof demonstrated from Scripture from the satisfaction which the Angels have in it from the glory which wicked Men enjoy in this World from the sweet fore-tasts which Godly men have of it in this life Wherein it consists the glory of the body the happiness of the Soul in the enjoyment of God in communion with the whole number of perfected Saints and that for ever ALL that I have hitherto said of the advantage of Godlyness is little in respect of what remains to be spoken The estate of Man after this life is of more important consideration as it is usually said there is no proportion betwixt finite and infinite as there is betwixt two things that are finite though at the greatest distance in respect of their natures quality quantity so there is a proportion between a minute and a thousand years and minutes may easily be multiplyed to such a quantity but there is no proportion betwixt a thousand years and Eternity So that if the misery of Christians in this life were answerable to wicked mens prejudice and the happiness of wicked men answerable to their own desires and if both might live in these two different estates a thousands years twice told yea and suppose that after this life wicked men were to be happy to seven and Godly men but to eight as the Philosophers speak of the degrees of heat and cold or that Godly men should be as miserable as wicked men abating only one degree yet the consideration of an Eternity would easily praeponderate in comparing the several states of these persons The Apostle saith that if in this life only we have hope we are of all men the most miserable not that a wicked man hath more real joy or comfort in this life than a Godly man but we must consider that the Apostle is disputing against such as denied the Resurrection in a popular Rhetorical stile wherein words are not to be subjected to a rigid interpretation but to be expounded in a greater latitude and it is usual in several languages to expresse a thing with the greater Emphasis by the Superlative degres as if he had said we are very miserable men if our hope be only in this life Again there may be an Emphasis in the Pronoun q. d. we who are the off-scouring of all things in the eyes of the World and have in these times of Persecution run such hazards and quitted our worldly enjoyments for the hopes of a glorious Resurrection are miserably deceived if there be no Resurrection And further though Christians have that inward peace and comfort in outward tribulations which doth more than counterballance them yet this joy is in hope of the Glory of God and but an anticipation of that joyful Resurrection which hereafter they expect And now I shall come to speak something of the certainty of it of the the nature of it and of the strictnesse of holiness necessary to those who would enjoy it that we may raise our thoughts to hold some proportion with the greatnesse of that glory though it be not possible for poor Mortals to have an adequate conception thereof First let us consider the great things that God himself hath spoken of it and how he hath throughout the Scripture propounded it as a sufficient and an abundant recompence for whatsoever we can do and suffer for him in comparison where with all the afflictions of this life are but light and inconsiderable The Apostle tells us God is not ashamed to be called the God of his people having prepared a City for them The preparations that he hath made for them are answerable to the bounty and munificence of such a Majesty though they here mourn whilst others rejoyce and though he here make them bear the Cross whilst his professed Enemies wear the Crown Now it would be much below the greatnesse and glory of such a Majesty to boast of his own gifts above the real worth of them and flatter men into his service by possessing them with high expectations of great matters which the enjoyment of will not