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	put_v	shipwreck_n	2,471	5	12.3348	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27173	A sermon preach'd before the right honourable the Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen, at Guild-Hall, December the 27th, 1685 / by Luke Beaulieu ...	Beaulieu, Luke, 1644 or 5-1723.	1686 (1686)	Wing B1577; ESTC R16491	13,439	28

faithful unto death He that shall lose his life for my sake shall find it So here this Apostle who had the Example and the Words of our Saviour and knew full well his mind in this exhorts his afflicted Disciples not to follow the steps of those Hereticks who in time of trial fell away and as he saith would denie their Saviour rather than suffer for his sake but to persevere unto the end contending earnestly for the Faith they had received A Zeal of adherence to Christ to confess and own him before men which is here recommended doth not beget fierceness or wrangling contention in the mind but a peaceable constancy a resolution to be firm and unmovable in passive Graces As the greatest Victory of a Christian is to die for his Saviour so the noblest contention is to suffer for him Accordingly 'tis said of those Christian Conquerours whom St. John saw with Palms in their hands that they loved not their lives unto the death In the language of the Church certamina Martyrum the combate of Martyrs was their enduring patiently the pains and reproaches of their Martyrdom They were called the Athleaes or Champions of Christ and the constancy of their passions upon his account was their Victory Hence the sign of the Cross came to be so venerable and so frequently used amongst Primitive Christians in those days of severe trial They would by that token before Christ's greatest Enemies and Persecutors own themselves to be his Servants who for them had died on the Cross and declare that they were ready cheerfully also to lay down their lives for his sake He must labour hard with himself to overcome Flesh and Blood that would arrive to this resolution And therefore this is the most earnest contention a Christian can undertake for the Faith to lay down his life for it and sign and confess it with his blood And then thirdly we may observe as a consequent from this That if this be a duty and here enjoyn'd by St. Jude much more is it an incumbent duty openly to profess the Faith of Christ crucified when the doing of it is not attended with any such Persecutions or Dangers If under Heathen Emperours when Christianity was opposed and every-where spoken against yet its Professors were obliged freely and sincerely to declare themselves and own their relation to Christ though they died for it much more are they bound to this that live under Christian Princes under Laws that enforce their Obligations to confess that true Catholick and Apostolick Faith which was once delivered to the Saints If we are bound thus to contend for it in a way so difficult even by Death as the Moble Army of Martyrs if God should make it our case much more are we to profess it when we can do it with safety nay and have many encouragements and advantages in the world in the performance of this great duty God of his special favour to us hath made it our Interest even in this life We may now dwell in Churches and exercise our selves to all Godliness and be as virtuous and as devout as ever any Christians were without incurring any inconvenience We need not fear for our Faith lest it should be supprest if we our selves betray it not by our lukewarmness and indifferency for it We are even subject to the inflictions of our Magistrates for neglecting the duties of our Christian Worship And so we lose and suffer much more for not being faithful to Christ than for owning relation to him So that now when Divine Providence makes it so easie and so profitable we ought very seriously to mind this exhortation to contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints by an open and constant profession of it And in the second place also by conforming our lives to its Rules and Precepts That mightily conduceth to the establishment of the Faith and requires a very serious Application and Endeavour of our side We must hold the mystery of Faith in a pure conscience as the Scripture saith and our hearts are to be purified by Faith It is a very preposterous Zeal to be earnest against the errors of other mens understandings whil'st the depravations of our own wills are unreformed A man shall raise loud clamours against anothers mistake not known to the person guilty of it whil'st he himself transgresseth knowingly in things which his own conscience checks and which are expresly forbidden by his Religion This looks very odd and such Zeal is to be suspected not to be so much for God as for a temporal design For our Faith laieth the great stress of our duty and of our hopes upon our own Works the choice we make of doing good or evil If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments Neither the Vnrighteous saith the Apostle nor Fornicaters nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Thieves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God They that believe this and remain impenitent in any of these sins they may dispute for their Opinions but they contend not for the Faith rather as much as in them lies they confute it with their own works For so St. Paul joyns together Faith and a good conscience and tells us that they that put away the one soon make shipwreck as to the other 1 Tim. 1.19 The seeds of Infidelity are in Vice it corrupts the very dictates of Reason Vile and vicious affections raise Objections against those Divine and Holy Truths which reprove and condemn them An ill Life and a good Religion sincerely profest are inconsistent So that in some cases it may be said of a Christian who grosly and wilfully prevaricates against his Rule in the words of St. Paul He hath denied the Faith and is worse than an Infidel Therefore when a man hath learned the Fundamentals of Religion and knows his Duty the great stress of his endeavours must next be laid upon the performance of it That he should fight under Christ's Banner against his own evil inclinations against all sin and immorality This contention St. Jude here recommends by describing those Hereticks against whom he writes as very impure in their lives and factious and ungovernable in their deportment They walked after their own Lusts filthy Dreams who defiled the flesh despised Dominion and spake evil of Dignities By exhorting Christians to contend earnestly for the Faith in opposition to these he means not only their false Doctrines but also their evil deeds against which he is most vehement And indeed it requires a more earnest contention for a man to subdue his own corruptions than to assent to a revealed Truth It is a thing of more difficulty to obey the holy Commandment than to embrace an Article of Belief Withal This Obedience to Divine Precepts is that which our primitive Faith most of all recommends that which is universally assented to by all sorts of Christians there is no controversie in this Points of