Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	godly_a	rejoice_v	simplicity_n	1,031	5	9.5439	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36020	A sermon at the funeral of the Lady Elizabeth Alston, wife of Sir Thomas Alston, Knight and Baronet preached in the parish-church of Woodhill in Bedford-shire, Septemb. 10, 1677 / by William Dillingham ...	Dillingham, William, 1617?-1689.	1678 (1678)	Wing D1487; ESTC R10439	20,890	43

To assure him of a Crown of Righteousness and by that Assurance mediately to comfort him against the Fear of Death of which I shall speak afterwards 2. By this consideration to comfort himself immediately and next way against the Fear of Death The Testimony of a good Conscience Conscientia rectè factorum doth arm and support a man against the gastly aspect of approaching Death For What is it that makes Death so terrible unto Mortals that the very mention of it makes them tremble like an Aspine-leaf The Apostle tells us The Sting of Death is Sin 1 Cor. 15.56 The guilt of Sin upon the Conscience is that which puts the Heart into such a palpitation For the Conscience knowing that for all those Impieties whereof it keeps the Register it must come to judgment and the Books must be opened and every one must be judged according to what is found written in the Books it dreads Judgment to come as Felix did and cannot but look upon Death as on the grim Serjeant that comes to arrest us and to summon us to judgment This is the Sting in the Tail of Death But now a good Conscience sprinkled with the Blood of Christ that sincerely reports unto us that we have by Faith in the Blood of Christ received him for the Pardon of Sin and gives us in an holy Life in evidence of the Truth of our Faith doth thereby shew that the Promise of the Gospel which was made conditionally is now become absolute unto us and that therefore we are already passed from Death to Life And then being once assured that our Debts are pardoned and the Hand-writing cancelled we fear no longer Death's Arrest but may say with this Apostle O Death where is thy Sting Thanks be to God who giveth us the Victory through Jesus Christ our Lord 1 Cor. 15.55 56. Thus we see that the Testimony of a good Conscience and nothing else without it can give us true and solid Comfort when we come to dy A wicked man may through the hardness of his Heart and searedness of his Conscience be sensless and stupid in his Death and so fall down like a Log into Hell-flames An erroneous Conscience may make a man brave it out and with Curtius leap desperately into the Gulf of the Bottomless Pit An Hypocrite's Conscience may set a fair outside upon it and dy possibly with seeming Joy but in the midst of Laughter his Heart is sad his Joy is but like the risus Sardonius when Men seem to dy laughing but 't is rather a Rictus than a Risus a grinning of the Teeth than Laughter and shall end in gnashing of Teeth in another World 'T is only the Testimony of a good and pure sincere and enlightned Conscience that can yield a man good ground of true and solid Comfort And therefore St. Paul being now as it were at Death's door takes this Cordial before he knocks hath recourse unto his own Conscience for his Letters Testimonial drawn up from a Survey of an holy and well-led Life and here he finds support And the like he had done before 2 Cor. 1.12 For our rejoycing is this the Testimony of our Conscience that in Simplicity and godly Sincerity we have had our Conversation in the World This also hath been the Practice and Method of other Saints and Servants of God in Scripture who when they were under the apprehension of their approaching Departure have fetcht their Comfort from the lame Topick which St. Paul here made use of viz. the Testimony of a good Conscience concerning their passed Lives and Conversations Thus good Hezekiah Isa 38.1 c. having received that doleful Message the Sentence of Death pronounced by the mouth of the Prophet Set thine House in order for thou shalt dye and not live whence does he look for his Comfort but from the secret witness of his own Soul testifying unto him the Sincerity of his former Course which he is willing to have tryed by the Sun-beams of God's own Knowledg v. 3. Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walke I before thee in Truth and with a perfect Heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Thus Elijah sitting under the Juniper-tree 1 Kin. 19.4 could not with any comfort have desired seriously as he did that God would take away his Life from him had he not had this assurance written on the Table of his own Heart that he had been very Zealous or Jealous for the Lord of Hosts as himself professeth v. 10.1 And how could good old Simeon with joy have sung his Nunc dimittis had he not known in his Conscience what the Gospel reports of him that he was a just and devout Man waiting for the Consolation of Israel Luk. 2.25 As ever therefore we desire to find Comfort in our Death let us lead holy Lives and keep good Consciences as Paul and these other Servants of God did There are scarce any so profligate and given up to all Impiety but do desire Comfort when they come to dy But alas by their wicked Lives they have stop't the Minister's mouth seared the Breasts of Consolation and cut off those Conduit-pipes which should have conveyed Comfort into their Souls There be many who will be ready to say with Balaam O let me dy the Death of the Righteous and let my last end be like his but they will not live the Life of the Righteous Mark the perfect Man and behold the upright for the end of that Man is peace Psal 37.37 But alas what Peace can thy Conscience or any other speak to thee while thy crying Sins and Impieties are so many Light is sown for the Righteous and Joy for the Upright in Heart Psal 97.11 A man may with as much reason expect to reap where he hath not sown as to reap Joy and Comfort in Death without sowing the Seed of it in an holy Life Sow then in thy Life-time what thou wouldest reap when thou comest to dy And thus I have done with St. Paul's First Meditation or his Reflexion upon his former Life well-spent I come to the Second Medit. 2. St. Paul's second Meditation is a Prospect into the Life to come and the Glory of it together with his own Share in it Wherein we have these Severals to be taken into our Consideration 1. The Reward it self called a Crown of Righteousness 2. The Certainty of it in those words laid up for me 3. The Bestower of it the Lord the Righteous Judg shall give me 4. The Time when it shall be bestowed at that day I. The Reward it self which is no other than Eternal Life the Glory and Joys of Heaven Which we have here set forth unto us under the Metaphor of a Crown of Righteousness The Joys and Glory of Heaven are called a Crown 1. Because Eternal Life and Blessedness are promised to us under the Notion of an Heavenly Kingdom Luk. 12.32 Fear not little Flock for it is your