Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	fire_n	hell_n	worm_n	1,679	5	10.4739	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41649	A word to sinners, and a word to saints The former tending to the awakening the consciences of secure sinners, unto a lively sense and apprehension of the dreadfull condition they are in, so long as they live in their natural and unregenerate estate. The latter tending to the directing and perswading of the godly and regenerate unto several singular duties. As also a word to housholders stirring them up to the good old way of serving God in and with their families, from Joshuah's resolution, Josh. 24. 15. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Set forth especially for the use and benefit of the inhabitants of St. Sepulchres Parish, London by Tho. Gouge, late pastor thereof.	Gouge, Thomas, 1605-1681.	1668 (1668)	Wing G1371; ESTC R222576	207,485	324

creatures shall run hither and thither and not get a drop of Water to cool their scorched tongues Ah sinner sinner how canst thou but quake and tremble at the thought of this fire at which the very Devils do quake and tremble Suppose thou wert condemned to be cast as many of the Martyrs were into a boyling Caldron or flaming fire oh how dreadful and terrible would the apprehension thereof be unto thee and how wouldst thou cry and roar through the extremity of the torment But alas what is a boyling Caldron to that boyling Sea of fire and brimstone And what is a flaming fire of Wood and Coal here to the fire of hell kept in highest flame by the breath of Gods wrath Surely this as far surpasseth that in heat as our Chimney fire doth exceed the fire painted on the Wall This me-thinks should sowre the pleasure of all thy sinful lusts and provoke thee forthwith to set upon that stricter course of life that more serious circumspect conscientious walking whereby thou maist escape these heavy things Ah sinner look about thee while it is called to day run over to Christ lay hold on his righteousness stoop to his Scepter beg of God that whatsoever he deny thee he would not deny his Son to thee by whom alone thou canst be freed from this tormenting fire Otherwise woe and alas that ever thou wert born But oh how wonderfully prodigal are we generally of our souls when that for the vile things here below we are so ready to prostitute them to the lust of Satan and to expose them to the torments of hell-fire Whereas alas What is it to gain the World and to lose our Souls What to spend our dayes in mirth and jollity and in a moment to be cast into hell It is easie for a secure unbelieving soul to read and hear of this fire But woe and ten thousand woes to all such who shall feel and endure and prove by their experience how hot it is 4. Another resemblance whereby the misery of the damned is set forth is a Worm Their Worm shall not dye neither shall their fire be quenched Which very words Christ applyeth to the damned in hell Mark 9.44 46 48. This metaphor of the Worm setteth out the sting of conscience and anguish of soul and sheweth that hell pains go through a man without and within In the forementioned place there be two especial things in the torments of hell which are thrice repeated together namely the Worm and the fire the Worm that dyeth not and the fire that is not quenched And it is observable that in all the three verses the Worm is set in the first place as it were to teach us that the principal torment in hell is the Worm rather than the fire And what is the Worm but the sting or the torment of an evil conscience which shall lye eternally gnawing and griping the hearts of the damned in hell As of the putrefaction of the body there breedeth a worm which eates and consumes the body so from the corruption of the soul tainted with sin there ariseth the Worm of Conscience which gnaweth and vexeth the soul with continual anguish Men talk much of hell-fire and it were well they would talk more of it But yet there is another torment that would be thought on too and that is this Worm of an evil conscience which whilest the fire burneth this will bite and sting the soul with torment intolerable This Worm of Conscience consisteth especially in two things 1. In bringing to remembrance thy former sinfull lusts and pleasures of which nothing remaineth but thy present shame and pain Then shall thy conscience gnaw thee by bringing to thy remembrance thy former oaths and cursings thy mispent time thy cozenings and defraudings yea all thy secret impurities as well as thine open iniquities as also thy sinful omissions of good duties how seldom thou prayedst with thy family or in thy closet how little care thou hadst of thy precious soul slighting the opportunities and means of grace Ah sinner the remembrance of these things will exceedingly pierce thy soul and afflict thine heart with bitter grief and sorrow Soul how camest thou in hither ah this was mine own doing t' was my negligence and carelesness and wilfulness and wickedness A little care a little wisdom a little labour and pains might have prevented all this If I would have hearkened to God hearkened to conscience in time none of all this misery had ever come upon me Oh wretch that I was oh foolish sottish wilful wretch how have I undone my self what ever I now feel and roar under I have none to blame but my self t' was mine own doing that I am fallen headlong into this place of torment 2. In despairing of freedom and deliverance from thy present misery This is one special thing which will very much add to thy present torment that thy condition though most sad and dreadfull yet is hopeless Didst thou conceive any hope of deliverance after thousands and millions of years hell would not be hell unto thee But this is that which will lye like a mountain of lead upon thee that there is no hope of deliverance In the consideration whereof consisteth the gnawings of the Worm of Conscience These are the resemblances whereby the misery of the damned is set forth IV. The misery of the damned is further fet forth in Scripture by the place where they abide which is ●ell For that is the most usual word attributed to the place of the damned In the old Testament that word which properly signifieth the grave is oft translated hell and by way of resemblance Tophet is taken for hell because in the place called Tophet great fires were made wherein they Sacrificed their Children In the New Testament there are two words ordinarily used to express hell One implyeth a place of darkness The other translated from the name of the place where the forementioned Tophet was called Gehinnom the valley of Hinnom whence hell is called Gehenna The place of the damned is also called a bottomless pitt by reason of the unsearchable depth of it and a lake These and other like names of terrour are attributed to the place where the damned are tormented but where that place is in Scripture is not expresly revealed and therefore cannot be defined only we may know that it is out of Heaven even below it It is the most fearful place that ever was or can be and it is a great point of wisdom in this World so to carry our selves as we may never come by our experience to prove where and what it is V. The misery of the damned is likewise set forth in Scripture by the perpetuity and eternity of their torment Their Worm dyeth not and their fire is not quenched but continueth to burn without end And therefore is called unquenchable fire and everlasting fire As the Salamander is said to live

in the fire So shall the wicked live for ever in the fire of hell Though they seek for death yet they shall not find it though they be alwayes burning yet they shall not be consumed though they be alwayes gnawed upon by the Worm of Conscience yet they shall never be devoured Which makes the misery of the damned in hell most exquisitely miserable Men in misery comfort themselves with hope of an end The Prisoner with hope of Goal-delivery the Apprentice with hope of a freedom and liberty the Gally-slave with hope of a ransome only the poor wretches in hell have no hope of freedom and liberty at all they are as far from an end of their torments as at their first beginning and entrance thereinto If there might be any end of their torments though it should be after so many millions of years as there are Sands on the Sea-shore or Stars in the Firmament it would be some comfort to those who endure them But Eternity is the very hell of hells and that which most of all breaks the very hearts of the damned The present sense of pain being not so grievous to the damned as it is to think that after thousands yea thousand thousands of years they shall be as far either from end or from ease as they were the first hour of their falling into it Surely if to a man tormented with the gout stone or collick one night seemeth exceeding long Oh how long do you think eternity that night which shall never know morning will seem to those who shall lye tormented and roaring in a bed of flame with wicked fiends and Devils about them daily and hourly adding to their torment If one short nights pain be so tedious and grievous what will that eternal night be Ah sinner thou art not now able to endure the sudden scorch of a fire nor to hold one of thy fingers over the flame of a Candle for a quarter of an hour How wilt thou then endure to lye in a fiery flaming Furnace not only an hour or a day but years yea millions of years Some have thus represented the eternity of hell-torments Suppose say they that all the vast space which is between Heaven and Earth were filled with Sands and God should command an Angel once in every thousand years to fetch away one small grain what an innumerable number of years would be spent before all those sands would be fetcht away yet shalt thou abide thus long in hell-fire and when they are expired continue as long again and again and a thousand times told for Eternity knows no beginning no middle no end but after a thousand thousand millions of years there are still as many more to come and when these many more are come and gone thy torments are as far from the last as they were at the first What heart can think of these things without horrour and amazement Suppose that for some high-treason against the Kings-person thou wert condemned to be cast into a fiery flaming Furnace or Caldron of boyling lead and there to continue a thousand years how sad would thy condition be yet this were a mercy to hell-torments For after thou hast layn ten thousand thousand years in a Furnace of fire kept up in the highest flame by the breath of Gods wrath there is full as much behind as there was on thy first-day Thou sinnedst in thine eternity and therefore must suffer in Gods eternity Thou sinnedst against an infinite God despising his infinite grace and mercy and the infinite merits of Christ and wouldst have drawn out thy sin to the length of eternity and therefore must suffer an infinite eternal punishment Thou never heartily repentedst of thy sins and therefore God will never repent him of thy sufferings This is the day of Gods-long-suffering and that will be the day of thy long-suffering when thou shalt suffer long for thine abusing the long-suffering of God Ah sinner sinner what stupidity hath seised on thee that thou shoulst be lyable to eternal torments in hell and yet live as carelesly and prophanely as if it did no way at all concern thee Know for certain that though thou dost not as yet feel these torments yet thou art every moment subject and hasting thereunto A cloud of fire and brimstone hangeth over thine head and the Lord knoweth how suddenly it may fall upon thee It is certainly decreed in Heaven that if thou turn not here from thy sins unto God by true and unfaigned repentance and turn over a new leaf leading a new course of life thou shalt lye in a lake of brimstone to all eternity and thou knowest not how soon God may seal the warrant for thine execution Oh sinner that I could prevail with thee once a day to steep thy thoughts in a serious meditation of the Eternity of hell-torments Certainly it would abate the heat of thy lusts and take off the edge of thy love to thy most pleasing vanities and stop thee in the eager pursuit of thy carnal pleasures For wouldst thou be content to run the hazard of such torments for thy present ease of such plagues for thy present pleasures of such thick darkness for the light of thine own sparks of such an Eternity for a few jocund hours Oh when wilt thou awake from this folly Thou who now givest thy self up to the gratifying of thy sinfull lusts to the satisfying of thy brurish pleasures who art sowing daily to the flesh sowing oaths and curses and lyes and adulteries c. without considering what a bitter harvest thou shalt have after such a black seed-time should I but ask thee how much pleasure thou wouldst take to lye but one day in such a burning Furnace as Nebuchadnezzars was after it was heated seven times more for the three Children I dare boldly say thou wouldst not lye therein one quarter of an hour for all the pleasures and riches in the World How is it then that for a little pleasure which endureth but for a moment thou dost so little regard the lying in the Furnace of hell-fire to all eternity In the fear of God therefore often think as of the extremity so of the eternity of hell-torments Me-thinks the very thought thereof should forthwith call off the drunkard from following the Ale-house with his vain companions and the swearer from taking the name of God so often in vain and the voluptuous person from his sensual delights and wanton dalliances and the worldling from his immoderate seeking after earthly riches and treasures and cause every of them out of hand to set upon another and a wiser course to mind the good of their immortal souls and bethink themselves in earnest how they might escape the wrath to come to cast away sin to cry after mercy to run over to Jesus Christ with their tongues with their eyes with their hearts full of prayers Lord save me or I perish Lord teach me what I must do to be saved Lord pardon me

A WORD to SINNERS And a WORD to SAINTS The Former tending to the awakening the Consciences of secure Sinners unto a lively sense and apprehension of the dreadfull condition they are in so long as they live in their Natural and Unregenerate Estate The Latter tending to the directing and perswading of the Godly and Regenerate unto several singular Duties As also a Word to Housholders stirring them up to the good old way of serving God in and with their Families from Ioshuah's resolution Josh. 24.15 As for me and my house we will serve the Lord. Set forth especially for the Use and Benefit of the Inhabitants of St. Sepulchres Parish London By Tho. Gouge Late Pastor thereof LONDON Printed for George Sawbridge living on Clerkenwell-Green 1668. To my dearly beloved Friends the Inhabitants of St. Sepulchres Parish London Beloved Friends TO further the salvation of mens souls as it is a most excellent work so it ought to be the study and endeavour both of every Christian in his place and calling and especially of the Ministers of the Gospel whose office and function calls upon them more importunately to labour therein Now since Regeneration is absolutely necessary to Salvation and that there can be no entrance into the new Ierusalem without a new birth I have according to that ability which the Lord hath given me set forth in this small Treatise the nature and necessity of Regeneration together with the Means on your part to be performed for the better attaining thereunto Most of these truths have been Preached in your hearing and now they are presented to your sight that thereby you may be put in remembrance of them and more thorowly affected with them Though I cease to be your Minister yet I shall not cease to do what in me lyeth to further your eternal happiness It was my hearty desire of your everlasting welfare that first put me upon Preaching on this Subject and the like desire hath ingaged me to present the same to your view Herein have I set before you Heaven and Hell Happiness and Misery Oh that you would be so wise as to choose Heaven rather than Hell Happiness rather than Misery That I should adventure these Notes into the World is not out of any conceit that there is any thing extraordinary in them being Conscious to my self of much Weakness but meerly out of that strong affection I bear to your souls welfare For my hearts desire for you is that you may be saved And will the Lord but bless this small Treatise to the Regeneration or Edification of any of your Souls I have the end of all my pains and cost Avoiding all affectation of Words I have used plainness of speech it being alwayes my chief design in the whole course of my Ministry to affect the Hearts and Consciences of my Hearers rather than to tickle their Ears and please their Phansie That I may not detain you longer I shall close this Epistle with three requests unto you 1. That you kindly accept of this small Book which treats on a subject so necessary to your everlasting happiness 2. That you would be pleased as to peruse it your selves so to take some time to read it to your Families If you cannot find leisure on the week dayes than to read some part thereof on each Lords day till you have read it through 3. That you would not lock it up in your closets but suffer it to lye in your houses where your Children and Servants may peruse it as they find opportunity Who knoweth how successfull and fruitful this plain Treatise may prove if the Lord shall be pleased to accompany it with his blessing That the Lord therefore would so bless these my poor and weak endeavours that such as are yet in their natural state may be converted that Converts may be improved and built up in that grace wherein they stand is the unfeigned desire and hearty Prayer of Your Servant in the Work of the Gospel who hath been and still is desirous of your Spiritual welfare Tho. Gouge THE CONTENTS THE Exposition of the first verse Page 1. The Observation thence raised The greatest of sinners are oftentimes received to mercy 3. The Exposition of the second verse 4. The Observation thence raised True faith may be exceeding weak ibid. The Exposition of the third verse wherein Christ declareth to Nicodemus the Necessity of Regeneration 7. The Observations thence raised 1. Christ is ready to entertain those that in truth and uprightness seek unto him though their weakness and infirmities be many 8. 2. Regeneration is necessary to Salvation 15. For the Explication of which point is shewed 1. The Nature of Regeneration what it is 16. 2. The Parts of Regeneration 19. 1. Mortification ib. 2. Vivification 20. 3. The causes which concurr to the work of Regeneration which are four 21. 1. The Efficient 2. The Material 3. The Formal 4. The Final 22. The Reasons proving Regeneration necessary to Salvation 23. Vse of Exhortation 1. To the Vnregenerate 2. To the Regenerate 28. 1. To the Vnregenerate that they earnestly desire and industriously labour after a saving change in the use of all means God hath sanctified thereunto ib. Quickning Motives thereunto drawn 1. From the Excellency of Regeneration 29. 2. From the Vtility of Regeneration 30. 3. From the Necessity of Regeneration 31. The Means to be performed for the better attaining thereunto brought to two heads 1. The Embracing some truths 2. The Practising some duties The Truths to be Embraced are these 1. That every man in his state of unregeneracy is in a miserable estate and dreadfull condition 33. 2. That there is hope of mercy for the greatest sinners ib. The miseries of the Unregenerate in this life 34. 1. They are Servants to their Lusts. ib. 2. They are slaves to the Devil 35. 3. They are under the curse of God which continually hangeth over their heads 36. 4. They are under the guilt of all their sins 37. 5. They are lyable to all sorts of Iudgements viz. Temporal Spiritual and Eternal 38. The miserable condition of the Vnregenerate at their deaths in several particulars 39. The dreadful estate of the Vnregenerate after their deaths in several particulars 47. Of the particular Iudgement that immediately followeth after death 48. Of the General Iudgement at the end of the World 49. The Person who shall be the Iudge 51. The Manner of Christs coming to Iudgement which will be As in great Glory and Majesty 53. So in great terrour to the wicked and impenitent 54. The Order of Christs proceeding in Iudgement 56. The dolefull condition of the Vngenerate after the Day of Iudgement which in general is most cursed 72. That Cursed estate is manifest 1. By privation of all felicity ib. 2. By subjection to all misery 73. Which misery is set out I. By sundry resemblances as 1. Darkness yea outer Darkness 76. 2. Torment which is the extremity of pain 77. 3. Fire

which is the fiercest kind of torment that is and most intollerable 78. 4. A Worm which setteth out the sting or torment of an evil Conscience which shall lye eternally gnawing and griping the hearts of the damned 80. II. By the place where the Damned abide which is Hell 81. III. By the Perpetuity and Eternity of their torment there which is the very Hell of Hells that which most of all breaks the hearts of the damned 82. II. Another truth to be embraced in order to the work of Regeneration is That there is hope of mercy for the greatest Sinners 88. Which appeareth from a due consideration 1. Of Gods Power to save the worst of Sinners 90. 2. Of Gods willingness to save them 91. 3. Of the all-sufficiency of Christs Sacrifice 103. 4. Of Christs readiness to embrace all Sinners who will come unto him and receive him upon the terms of the Gospel 105. The Duties to be practised in order to Regeneration 110. Several Objections of carnal and unregenerate men against the use of the formentioned Means answered 132. The second branch of the use of Exhortation unto the Regenerate which consisteth of divers heads 1. To admire and adore Gods special mercy and goodness in the work of Regeneration 146. 2. To be thank full unto God for the same with Arguments thereunto 156. 3. To walk worthy of that dignity by living singular and exemplary lives 158. The singular duties incumbent upon the Regenerate 1. To make Conscience of their precious time and to improve it to the best advantage 162. 2. To embrace every opportunity of doing and receiving good 164. 3. To be carefull of the manner of performing good duties 167. 4. To walk circumspectly and exactly which consisteth 1. In walking by rule 173 2. In having respect to the inward and spiritual part of the Law as well as to the outward and external ib. 3. In a careful avoiding all occasions of evil and temptations thereunto 174. 4. In abstaining from appearances of evil as well as from apparent and direct evil 175. 5. In a moderate use of lawfull things 177. 5. To beware of Covetousness and over-loving the World as being the root of all evil 180. 6. To live by faith 186. 7. To be spiritually minded by a frequent contemplation of Spiritual and Heavenly things 193. 8. To labour in the use of all good Means for the mortification of the whole body of sin with all its affections and lusts especially those which are most praedominant John 3.1 2 3. 1. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus a ruler of the Iews 2. The same came to Iesus by night and said unto him Rabbi we know that thou art a teacher come from God for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him 3. Iesus answered and said unto him Verily Verily I say unto thee except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God CHAP. 1. The Exposition and Observations arising out of the first and second verses FRom the beginning of this third Chapter to the 22. verse is set forth the conference between our blessed Saviour and Nicodemus In which are three things observable 1. A description of Nicodemus verse 1. 2. The occasion of the conference which was Nicodemus his coming unto Christ expressed verse 2. 3. The conference it self from verse 3. to 22. I. Nicodemus is thus described verse 1. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus a ruler of the Iews He is here set forth 1. By his name Nicodemus which is distinctly set down as for the truth of the history so for the honour of the man It is observable that in the holy Scriptures there is most care of setting ' down the names of good men that have in their life time some way or other set forth Gods glory and made themselves examples worthy of imitation For God will honour such as honour him he will have their memorial blessed As therefore we desire to have our memorial blessed let us now labour to honour God in our several places callings conditions and relations by a conscionable discharge of the duties belonging to them and then we may rest assured God will some way or other honour us 2. By his Sect He is expresly said to be a man of the Pharisees who were a select Sect among the Iews of highest account for their seeming sanctity and strict profession Whereas in truth they were very hypocrites for they did all to be seen of men Which because Christ discovered and made known to the people they proved his greatest enemies and persecutors 3. By his Office It 's in general said that he was a ruler of the Iews Which is not to be taken as if he were the only or chief governour of the Jews but to shew that he was none of the common sort but one of those who had authority and government amongst the Iews It is observable that few of the Pharisees and Rulers received Christs Doctrine and believed on him as appears by their own expression Have any of the Rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him which interrogation importeth a strong negation implying that none or few of the Rulers or Pharisees believed on Christ. They were so puffed up with the pride of their high-places so swoln with conceitedness of their strict profession and seeming sanctity and so possest with prejudice against the spiritual and heavenly doctrine of Christ that their hearts boyled with much envy and indigna●ion against him and thereupon sought many wayes to entrap and ensnare him Yea out of very malice they thirsted after his blood and never ceased till they took away his life Yet here we find one who was both a Pharisee and a Ruler become a Disciple of Iesus Christ whom Christ instructeth as in the doctrine of regeneration so in other main principles of Religion and thereupon became a true believer whence we may observe Observ. That the dew of Gods grace often falleth on the most graceless That the greatest of sinners are ofttimes received to mercy and embraced in the arms of free grace This God doth as for the magnifying the riches of his grace so for the encouraging great and notorious sinners to return from their sins and to look up unto him for mercy For are the greatest sinners ofttimes received to mercy then there is hope of mercy for thee how many and heinous soever thy sins are St. Paul speaking of Gods mercy to him who was not only an heinous sinner but the chief of sinners declareth how God shewed mercy to him that he might be a ground of hope and encouragement unto other great and heinous sinners For this cause saith he I obtained mercy that in me first Iesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting Intimating that one special end Christ aimed at in shewing mercy to such a