Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	good_a	heart_n	merry_a	1,048	5	9.9107	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93062	The sinfulnesse of evil thoughts: or, a discourse, wherein, the chambers of imagery are unlocked: the cabinet of the heart opened. The secrets of the inner-man disclosed. In the particular discovery of the numerous evil thoughts, to be found in the most of men, with their various, and severall kinds, sinful causes, sad effects, and proper remedies or cures. Together with directions how to observe and keep the heart; the highest, hardest, nad most necessary work of him that would be a real Christian. / By Jo. Sheffeild Pastor of Swithins London.	Sheffeild, John, d. 1680.	1650 (1650)	Wing S3064A; Thomason E1863_1	165,696	337

as Amalek with Israel strikes them when down and feeble or as Simeon and Levi to the men Deut. 25. 18. of Schechem came upon them when they were Gen. 34. 25. sore and slew them These two are Satans greatest Stratagems and chief supporters of his kingdome but he prevails more by mirth then mourning He saith of his jests and mirth as prophanely Leo the Tenth said quantum nobis profuit ista fabula How much have these fables toyes and jests promoted our Kingdome Therefore is a godly man more afraid of mirth than mourning He saith of laughter what dost thou mean and of mirth art thou not madnesse and have I any need of madnesse or Religion of mad men as once Achish said 1 Sam. 21. 15. Job was never so much afraid least his children should forget themselves and dishonour God as when merry together Job 1. 5. It is noted of the Wise His heart is in the house of mourning but the Fooles in the house of laughter Eccl. 7. 4. and that of the two mourning is better than rejoycing for if it mar the countenance it mends the heart By the sadnesse of the countenance the heart is made better Eccl. 7. 3. The fool is said to be known by his much Eccl. 10. 14. Pro. 10. 19. talk and much laughter and in much of these is much of sin A moderation in both is like a Modicum of Hony very good but too much Pro. 24. 13. 25. 26. 17. hony is not good It is noted of the wicked They spend their days in mirth and in a moment go down to hell Job 21. 13. Their lives are Comicall their death Tragicall Hell is full of mirth carnall mirth and Heaven of mourners spirituall mourners Therefore saith the Prophe● Esay 5. 12. 14. Hell hath enlarged her self and opened her mouth wide without measure and their glory and their multitude and their pomp and he that rejoyceth shall descend into it Such as have the harp the Viol the Tabret and Pipe and Wine in their feasts but regard not the work of the Lord neither consider the operation of his hands Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth and have been wanton saith S. James you have cherished your hearts as in a day of slaughter Jam. 5. 5. Therefore check thy self in thy foolish mirth with looking on that sad hand writing of Christ on the wall on the one hand Vae ridentibus Woe to you that now laugh for you shal mourn and weep Luke 6. 25. And on the other hand Beati lugentes Blessed are ye that mourn and weep now for ye shall laugh Luke 6. 21. Thy Saviour was a man of sorrows and wilt thou be a man of vain joyes he was all his life acquainted with grief and is it fit for thee Esa 53. 3. to have no acquaintance but with idle and empty delights I read that thy Saviour mourned often Mat. 3. 〈◊〉 Jo. 11. 33. 35. Heb. 5. 7. wept grieved groaned sighed cried out with strong cryes and tears Thou never readest that he Laughed He Rejoyced sometime it is said but it was in spirit and spirituall joy Luke 10. 21. He was full of joy but it was in Gods countenance and favour Acts 2. 28. Some passions it is true are licensed but with a restriction Fear Stand in aw and sin not Psal 4. 4. Anger Be angry but sin not Ephes 4. 26. So joy Rejoyce but sin not Be merry and wise as we say in our Proverb Be merry and godly be merry and gracious and be as merry as thou wilt The merry heart hath a continuall feast It is said Prov. 15. 15. But the merry heart is the gracious heart Tob Leb the good heart others render it the good Conscience is a continuall feast Our speech should be with grace seasoned with salt but it should be sal Sanctuarii not Col. 1. 6. Sterquilinii the salt of the Sanctuary as it is called Lev. 2. 13. not the salt of the dunghill The Apostle doth banish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jesting out of the Christians society uncomely facetiousnesse and lepidity though among the wits of the times and the heathen Philosophers of old it bare the Bell for a Prime virtue It is the property of the Dog to smell to his own and others Excrements do not thou sport thy self in thy own or other mens prophane jests They are onely Swine that wallow in this mire others stop their noses or eares at it They are onely flies and beetles that are bred and live in this dung Labour therefore to keep thy loines girt and thy mind composed To be Serious without sadnesse and sournesse and to be chearfull without levity and slightnesse of spirit And this discourse I shall shut up with another Ecce unlike that which concluded the former Ecce quam malum quam injucundum est cohibitare malum jucundum Behold how ill and unpleasant a sight it is to behold an ill man ill and pleasant CHAP. XXVI Of Self-murdering Thoughts BUT the foulest and blackest thoughts of all are self-destroying thoughts Oh these are sad and hellish thoughts My heart trembles at the very mention of them yet are these incident sometimes to a godly heart I do not say he can entertain them But as when in a scare-fire the sparks are driven by the wind he covers his house with wet sheets and stands ready with water to resist the first fastnings and setling of the fire so it must be here Job had once such a Transient thought but it held not long My soul chuseth strangling and death rather than life Job 7. 15. But his fixed resolution was at other times I will wait all the days of my apointed time till my change cometh Job 14. 14. And againe If he kill me yet will I trust in him Job 13. 15. To stop the execution of these black and bloudy thoughts we shall offer a few reasons if yet they will stay to hear any reason The Lord set them home 1. These come Immediately and undoubtedly from Satan who is a murtherer from the beginning and delighteth in bloud especially of souls These cannot come from God The Lords command is to love thy self and to love thy neighbour but as thy self if thou wouldest not have a hand in anothers bloud then not in thy own whom thou art bound to love no lesse These cannot come from thy self or nature Natures first principle implanted in every animal is self-preservation Graces first principle is Soul-preservation but Satans first principle is self-destruction and soul-destruction cast thy self down Thus at one stroke destroying soul and body and cutting off two lives for he envieth not to man his life but his salvation as he envies no man for his riches but for his grace Satan reckons of such as his own who yield to this 2. It always is a sin and impossible to be but a foul sin self-murder To take away the life of another is

furnish thee with some good thought to divert thee from what is thy proper businesse as we say of evil evil is not onely opposite to all good but to some evil vice to vice as well as vice to vertue so we may say of some good thoughts they are not opposite to evil onely but sometimes to good as to read or pray when we should be hearing or to think of what we have heard when we should be praying An old stratagem of Satan to draw us into an Ambush when we should be safe if we kept our ground The devil seekes to set good men together by the eares Saul and Barnabas and to get Agabus to divert Paul When Act. 15. 39. Act. 21. 11. Lu. 9. 59. Christ called one to preach the Gospel he would be excused by his care of his aged father Charity must hinder piety so when Martha should have been hearing she was Lu. 10. 40. cumbred hospitality must justle out pie●y good at another time and very commendable So when that ointment was spent upon Christ Judas puts in his vye for the poor Had not this ointment better have been sold and given to the poor Very plausible but what saith our Saviour Let her alone ●● 12. 5. ● she hath done well The poor you have alwayes with you and at another time you may and must remember them but this is fittest for this time 6. Do not thy good thoughts trouble thee As Nebuchadnezzar was troubled with his thoughts Dan. 4. 5. Many a wic●ed man may say as he Psal 77. 3. I remembred God and was troubled not for his absence but presence wicked men seek to cast out these conceptions as the Hindes bow themselves to cast out their sorrowes Job 39. 13. they think they shall be melancholly if they think a little longer of them The Godly man is not more troubled with his bad thoughts then he is with his good When as to the Godly the good thought is his joy and delight How precious are thy thoughts to Psal 139. 17. Psal 104. 34. me O God my meditation of God O how sweet is it 7. Or thy thoughts are Confused an he●p of them disorderly jumbled together nothing is set in order As Christ once Lu. 2. 44. so the good thought is often lost in the Croud It is the great weaknesse of man that he cannot set in order Gods thoughts or the thoughts of God before him It is Gods Psal 40. 5. perfection his thoughts are all ordred I know the thoughts I think towards you saith the Lord Jer. 29. 11. we know not our own thoughts though every fool saith I know what I think God can set our disorderly thoughts before us and single them out one by one So should we Psal 50. 22. single out some good thoughts at one time another at another and pursue them The Huntsman can have no game till he single his Deer he meanes to hunt out of the whole herd nor can we make any work of it in meditation till we pick out some good thought to fix and fasten upon 8. Thy good thoughts lodge not abide not with thee but are like a night vision make no impression they come to nothing whereas the Godly ly down with such thoughts and rise with them When I awake I am still with thee Psal 139. That is right thinking when we in●end the mind ad ruborem calorem Psal 39. 3. My heart waxed hot within me and while I was musing the fire kindled I felt my thoughts warm my heart as it was said of Holy Bradford when he was praying he never went off from a petition till he felt his heart affected with it But if thy thoughts are good indeed thou shalt know it by these notes 1. Where heart and thoughts are good the words will be so too as the treasure is within such the communication Say not Mat. 12. 35. Lasciva est nobis pagina vita proba I talk at randum merrily Idly but my heart is good I think no harm Say as well the Tree is good though the fruit evil and the fountain sweet though water bitter Thy speech bewrayeth thee The good heart and good discourse ever go together Psal 40. 9 10. and 37. 30 31. Mal. 3. 16. They that had gracious thoughts of Gods name by themselves were full of gracious discourses when they came together 2. Where are holy thoughts there are other graces Mal. 3. 16. They feared God and thought upon his name 3. Good thoughts are ever accompanied with holy serious and frequent meditations Gen. 24. 63. Psal 1. 2. 19. 14. 104. 34. 119. 15. 23. 48. 78. 97. 148. and 143. 5. 1 Tim. 4. 15. Whosoever is a stranger to holy meditations cannot have at least long keep good thoughts much study one saith makes the scholler and much meditation makes the Christian 4. Serious thoughts beget practicall and unmoved determinations 1 Cor. 2. 2. Their good thoughts are the law of God written in their hearts 5. There is a concurrence between thoughts and conscience Ro. 2. 15. Thought gives conscience a jogge who sets at the the sterne and awakens it and conscience thereby steeres better and keepes off from rocks and shelves 6. As there is a concurrence between the good thought and the good conscience so there is a concordance between the good thought and the good conversation Job 31. 1. I shall not wantonly think of a maid therefore I made a covenant with my eyes and with my outward man that there might be no temptation to any ill behaviour said holy Job Psal 119. 59. I thought on my ways and turned my feet to thy testimonies 7. Good thoughts are always backed with peremptory and fixed purposes and resolutions Dan. 1. 8. Act. 11. 23. Psal 17. 3. 2 Tim. 3 10. Ruth 1. 16 17 18. Deut. 18. 6. 8. Frequent prayers Such as those let the words of my mouth and the Meditations motions imaginations of my heart be always acceptable in thy sight O Lord my strength and my redeemer Psal 19. 14. Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me Psal 51. 10. O Lord keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people and prepare their heart or stablish the heart unto thee 1 Chr. 29. 18. The like 1 King 8. 57 58. 9. There will be much joy and delight in them as they much desire to let such guests in so they joy in their company O God now Psal 108. 1. my heart is fixed I will therefore sing and give praise O Lord who am I said David another 1 Chron. 29. 14. 18. time that we should have a heart so free and willing O Lord keep it in the imagination of the thoughts of our hearts and prepare our hearts towards thee Oh that this holy fire come from heaven might ever be kept burning never go Le. 6. 13. out

much delight in casting off and then tormenting his creatures And if our sins be thus upon us we must needs die and how shall we then live they do object And the Lord to stop their mouthes and for ever to silence such destructive thoughts answers immediately and binds it with an oath As I live saith the Ezek. 33. 10 11. Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live Turn you from your evil wayes for why will ye die O house of Israel Who is then to be believed He that saith to man offending sin and live and to man repenting repent and die as Satan ever doth or He that saith to every sinner sin and die repent and live believe and be justified look to me and be saved 2. Neither are the godly often to be excused who as they have low thoughts of themselves so have too low and hard thoughts of God and hence they walk so sadly when these thoughts be entertained They have ever high thoughts of God for his Power truth holinesse faithfullnesse and loving-kindnesse yet misdoubt his mercy at Psal 77. and 88. least to them they complain sometimes as if God had forgotten himself cast off them and that he hath shut up his mercies in displeasure many such sad and mournfull complaints of the men of God are recorded in Scripture And the Lord often takes much paines to satisfie and remove these stumbling-blocks Esa 40. 27 28. Why saiest thou O Jacob and speakest oh Israel my way is hid from the Lord and my judgement passed over from my God c. And Esa 49. 14 15. But Sion said the Lord hath forsaken me and my God forgotten me Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb Yea they may forget yet will not I forget thee CHAP. XIV Of Despairing Thoughts BUT Thoughts of Despair which often follow on those hard Thoughts before spoken of and do therefore fitly follow the handling of them are of all sads the saddest and it may be said of them more truly then the Philosopher said of Death of all Terribles the most Terrible more dreadfull then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 death it self yea as black as hell from which they are but one remove distant Despair is the saddest Disease and Torment incident to the soul of man living or dead To the living it is the upper region of hell and the suburbs of it to the which no darknesse or shadow of death is to be compared no nor in his own thoughts hell flames torment not more And to the dead it is their nethermost hell the sting of the second death and the victory and triumph of hell A most wofull and sinfull condition wherein two seas meet as once to shipwrack Paul 1. The pain Act. 27. 41. of losse the greatest losse Gods favour and the comfort of it 2. And the pain of sense the greatest sense of Gods wrath and the terrors of the Lord to shipwrack the distressed soul yea ordinarily the two seas of sin and misery meet together threatning the present and eternal ruine of such poor creatures to make their miserable condition above all measure miserable Yet can I not but say some such as these may seize on a godly soul whose life is hid with Christ in God and bound up in a bundle of eternall love and life even godly soules have been often at the very brink of despair The sorrows even of Psal 18. 4. 116. 3. hell have taken hold of them and flouds of Beliall have made them afraid The Accuser of the Brethren sometimes casteth out a flood Rev. 12. 10 15. of these out of his mouth to swallow them up alive as those that go into the pit aggravating Prov. 1. 12. to their awakened affrightned Consciences their sins to be unpardonable and Gods Justice as unappesable the Laws sentence of condemnation nation as irrevocable and the interposition of Christs death as unavailable Hence have they Jonah 2. 4. Psal ●8 4. 40. 12. Job 6. 3. Psal 42. 7. cryed out I am cast out of thy sight my sins are gone over my head my heart hath failed me my grief is heavier than the sand All thy waves and billows are gone over me And sometimes have cried out their sorrow was inexpressible Job 7. 15. Job 6. 4. Job 3. 1. their soules could choose strangling rather then life the terrors of God have set themselves in array against them made them a terror to themselves yea they have made bitter exclamations accursing themselves their states their birth and life yea have cried out as if they had been in the sulphurous lake and belly of Hell and that the pit had shut her mouth upon them And all this while more fear than danger the Lord may bring down to Hell and bring 1 Sam. 2. 6. up to Heaven The Lord will not cast off for ever but though he cause grief yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies Lam. 3. 31 32. Yea it is as impossible that a soul that hath the least seed of God in it and the least of Christ a sin-bewailing a Christ-thirsting soul should be held fast of the powers of Hell as it was for Christ Act. 2. 24. himself to be holden by them the Lord will not leave their souls in hell nor suffer the least of his Saints to inherit corruption The least of the New Creature and true Grace is too good to be cast away But this is ordinarily the case of flagicious and atrocious offenders who have often resisted the Spirit of God and rushed into sin as the horse into the battell who having first sinned away their Consciences and afterwards their hopes they find that which they least feared to have come upon them their sins have now found them out and are as so many devils staring Num. 32. 23. them in the face The just Judgement of God They who grieved the good Spirit of God and would none of his counsels have an evil Spirit from the Lord sent to terrifie 1 Sam. 16. 15. them as Saul had they are of God delivered up to Satan now they find their Judgment before slighted lingereth no more nor doth their damnation slumber but they look upon themselves as if God and Satan had agreed in their destruction to laugh at their calamity What words can expresse the misery of this condition They are like the raging sea saith the Prophet which cannot rest whose waters cast out mire and dirt They have all Esa 57. 20. Job 20. 26. darknesse hid in their secret place saith Zophar as if all Hel had exhausted it self and adjorned his residence thither Yea his heart meditates terror dreaming talking of and feeling nothing but devouring flames and everlasting burnings Their sight is gashly their speech amazing and the