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	hold_v	try_v	1,158	5	9.9291	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67047	A word in season. Or Three great duties of Christians in the worst of times viz. abiding in Christ, thirsting after his institutions, and submission to his providences. The first opened, from 1 John 2.28. The second from Psal. 42.1,2. The third from Jer. 14.19. By a servant of Christs in the work of his Gospel. To which is added, by way of appendix, the advice of some ministers to their people for the reviving the power and practice of godliness in their families.	Servant of Christ in the work of his Gospel.	1668 (1668)	Wing W3548A; ESTC R204145	100,163	272

and apprehensions of their own consciences be the troublers of Israel be the persons more or less approved and accepted of God I say the issue will be tryed again upon appeal at the tribunal of Christ Live therefore in this hope and let not the deferrings of your hope make your heart sick He that shall come will come and shall not tarry The blessed Apostles sixteen hundred years since saw him preparing his Chariot and making ready and in the view of it endured cruel mocking courgings imprisonments fiery tryals the loss of all and counted all but dung that they might in that day be found in him Your salvation is nearer now ●ea it is nearer than when you first believed Maintain this blessed lively glorious hope Maintain it and it will maintain you It is a grace will not be your debtor Without it your heart will break under it it cannot break But remember Hope which is seen is no hope You may for ought I know endure many a cold night in derisions reproaches c. in Prisons in other Lands Whiles you keep that faith and good conscience which your Master hath given you in charge before the dayes of your servitude be expired yea the long night of death may come and your flesh may rest in hope some years But still maintain your hope Rachel will come at last eternity is coming A joyful resurrection a day of Judgement is coming you have done your work and are doing of it serving God with faithfulness others must d● theirs too in filling up the measure of their iniquity persecuting him in his members whose person they cannot reach unless by their profane Oathes God will judge both you and them according to your works The men ● this world it may be pierce your heart as with a sword when they say When is your Christ become Where is the Promise of his coming It is not more than sixteen hundred years and all things remain as they were But you shall see him Christians you shall see and they shall see that Christ riding in triumph with all his Angels and ten thousands of his Saints whom you have desired to serve faithfully with your spirits whose Kingdom you have desired to advance and they shall see him whose Name they have profaned whose Gospel they have obstructed whose Kingdom they have opposed whose Ministers whose Members and Servants they have abused imprisoned I say they shall see him Revel 6.15 16. and endeavour to hide themselves in Dens and Rocks of Mountains and say to the Mountains and to the Rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to abide it Abide in this hope 3. Abide in your patient waitings for God Adherence to Christ secureth the soul it setteth it on the Rock that is higher than it and secureth it as to Eternity It puts the soul into a certain state of Salvation and keeps it so Hope keeps it alive and full of vigour and chearfulness and strength in that state so as it fainteth not under all the delayes of Providence Patience stayeth the soul and maketh it to stand still and wait for Gods time so that neither in its heart nor in its actions it makeeth hast but having chosen its ground and found it to be such as will bear a soul and such as a soul ought to stand upon it standeth still without weariness or murmuring or discontent and notwithstanding all the Artifices of the World Flesh and Devil all the vollies of shot that are made against it all the discouragements that it hath yet it standeth and waiteth still and will not stir from the ground which it hath chosen but sayes This way this course I have chosen in expectation of an happy issue I yet see it not but yet here I will stand here I will abide here will dye if I perish I perish The blessed Apostle tells the Hebrews Heb. 10.36 He. 10.36 You have need of patience th● after you have done the will of God m● inherit the promise There is a pass●● patience which lyes in a quiet submitsion to and a glorifying of God under the frowns of his Providence Christians in suffering times have need ● this Lu. 21.19 In your patience saith our Saviour possess your souls There is ●active patience which is the souls quiet waiting for the promise while it goes on doing his will It is opposed to a souls making haste Of the Believer it is said He that believeth maketh not haste Christians I know many of you have had patience Abide in your patience those that can wait on the Lord without limiting the Holy One to the uncertainties of years and moneths in the end shall not be ashamed You cannot abide in Christ if you cannot abide in patience God will be waited for Les patience therefore have its perfect work Say not to your Lord Wilt thou at this or that time restore the Kingdom to Israel It is not for you to know times or seasons It is an ill principle that hath hitherto kept thee in the wayes of God if this be all because by such a time thou expectedst sensible encouragements What hast thou to do but to perform thy duty and to wait for the mercy if thou hast hitherto thus or thus walked because God required it of thee and it was thy duty The will of God is the same still and consequently thy engagement the same still But I proceed to the third thing by which I opened this branch of Exhortation 3. Abide in thy Obedience Faith and patience and hope are all parts of obedience but I understand here by it an ordering of thy conversation still in exactest conformity to the will of God Duties of Obedience fall under a double head as our conversation more immediately respecteth God or man 1. Therefore Whatsoever acts or ways of Worship thou hast formerly performed and walked in in conscience to the command of God those abide in Men alter God changeth not What was the rule of his Worship is so still if thy foot formerly swerved from it thou hast reason to reduce it if not take heed how thou forsakest it The Lyons Den did not scare Daniel from praying to the God of Heaven as he was accustomed Acts of Worship are immediate homages to God they are the souls approaches unto him A Christian stands concerned to be very curious and diligent as to them I know nothing which formally distinguisheth true and false Worship but the immediate command of God for the one and the want of it for the other Think it not a light matter how you worship God If you any way fail as to the immediate or mediate object It is Idolatry of all sins the highest than which nothing so soon divorceth a soul from Christ and therefore in Scripture it is compared to

professors who are turned out the right ways of God The cla●●● of an ill-tongu'd world are so lov● that I am so charitable as to many 〈◊〉 to believe that in the midst of the● rage they are thus far justifiable 〈◊〉 lieving that they ought to do many this against those whom they hear so ●●ported of These are nearer pardon great deal than the Apostate is He h●● known the way of righteousness he ha● walked in it his conscience tells h●● that those whom he thus deserte● and possibly persecuteth are more ri●●teous than he that they are such as desire nothing but herein to exercise himself to keep a good conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men That there is nothing to be found against them but in the matters of God That their ways are more ●oly more righteous than the ways of ●thers and that nothing but the lust 〈◊〉 his own heart hath enticed him out of them or can intice any from them who hath any thing of the reason of a man or Religion of a Christian yet he ●bideth not in them but embraceth a present world in defiance of his known duty What shall the end of this man be 3. Consider how tenacious others are of their sinful and vain courses Jer. 2.10 11. Pass you over saith God by the Prophet the Isles of Chittim and send unto Kedar and consider diligently and see if there be such a thing Hath a nation changed their gods which yet are no gods but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit Give me leave to allude to it Pass ye over to the Mahumetans whose Idol is a sordid person whose course and so●● of Religion is a bundle of nonsense an● blasphemy yet will not they forsa●● their profession Send to the blind ●●pists who have nothing to say for they superstitions but They believe as 〈◊〉 Church believeth yet how rarely is o●● of them proselyted Look up among the blinder sort of Proteltants w● have got some forms of Religion 〈◊〉 they can neither give themselves 〈◊〉 others a rational account of what they believe or practise yet how true is the generality of them to their blind devotion Shall the knowing Protestant only be the reed which every wi●● will shake Did not the very foundation of your Religion allow you 〈◊〉 judgment of discretion a liberty to prov● all things requiring you only to ho●● fast that which was good Were you like others forced into your practice or did you upon deliberation and weighing of principles and practices chuse the way wherein you chose to walk as that which was most conformable to the will of God Have you a better evidence for the contrary now Bring forth your strong arguments Have you one but what is drawn from your impatience of suffering your ambition our covetousness of filthy lucrè c See amongst the Heathen there be such thing to be found Oh let it not be 〈◊〉 that those who worship they know 〈◊〉 what are yet more sure to their ●osession than you who know what 〈◊〉 do and that salvation is in that ●●y wherein you have walked Fourthly Consider what it is that you 〈◊〉 done The Prophet tells you 〈◊〉 2.13 You forsake the fountain of ●ing waters and dig up to your selves ●ken cisterns that will hold no water ●od is the Fountain of living waters the creatures are cisterns that will ●●d no water The pure Ordinances God are fountains of living water ●●d is the Spring Ordinances are the ●●ntains which this Spring filleth ●he waters are the Graces of Gods ●irit communicated to the souls of ●s people in and by his Ordinances ●he Ordinances are the wells of sal●●tion out of which our souls draw ●●e water of life If these wells be kept pure the souls of Gods people are treshed by them and grow fat in 〈◊〉 use of them Going on from strength strength till they appear before God Sion If they be corrupted according the tincture they have received the are more or less dangerous There is fountain you know that is kept clear how pleasant how wholsome are streams of it There are fountains 〈◊〉 which men have thrown mire and 〈◊〉 how unwholesome are their water how unpleasant are they to the 〈◊〉 how unsavoury to the taste Have you forsaken God to embrace the wo●● in the credit honours profits of 〈◊〉 You have forsaken the fountain of ●●●ing waters He must needs be so 〈◊〉 the fountain of all good he in whom live move and have our being have digged up to your selves cisterns ●●ken cisterns that will hold no water You will find it so when ever the providence of God brings you to be a third if ever your conscience akes if ever you have a thought rise up in arms again●● you if eyer you come to be within view of the grave and that you 〈◊〉 do one day if ever you come to have a prospect of hell you will find all the treature but a cistern a broken cistern that will hold no water I have heard of an Emperour brought to that digress that he cried out A Kingdom for ●● cup of water O take heed that you ●e not another day heard crying out will give all my credit all my honours all my places of trust and profit 〈◊〉 an hours peace of conscience for ●ne smile from my angry God for one ●rop of water to cool my tongue You ●aye forsaken the pure Ordinances of ●●od for the inventions of men you have forsaken the fountain of living wa●●s you have digged up cisterns that ●ill hold no water Here 's the name ●● the means of grace but where 's the ●ung What presence of God do you ●●d in them What strength do you trive from them What sweetness do ●●a taste in them Where 's your for●er spiritual joy peace satisfaction 〈◊〉 it not an Image in your bed in●●ad of an Husband a dream in your ●●uls from which when you rise up ●ou are still an hungry in stead of a feast fat things Fifthly O that you would consider 〈◊〉 it hath been with your souls since you 〈◊〉 your defection To this God calleth 〈◊〉 back-sliding people Jer. 2.14 〈◊〉 16 17. Is Israel a servant Is he 〈◊〉 home-born stave Why is he spoiled 〈◊〉 young Lions roared upon him and yelled they laid his land waste his cities 〈◊〉 burnth without an inhabitant Also 〈◊〉 children of Noph and Tahapanes 〈◊〉 broken thy head Hast thou not proc●●● this unto thy self in that thou hast 〈◊〉 saken the Lord thy God when he led the by thee way It may be worth the 〈◊〉 flection for you to consider how G●● hath dealt with you as to what you have most proposed to your self mean the getting of the world whether in the profits or honours or 〈◊〉 dit and reputation of it If the ba●slider gets not this he gets nothing and let me tell you it is not ordinary 〈◊〉 the providence of God to

to Christ walking in your uprightness in an exact obedience to his blessed will both in matters of Worship and Homage towards God and in matters of Holiness Justice equity and Mercy towards men 1. 1. Br. Abide in the faith of Christ that is in a firm and fixed perswasion of the truth of those propositions of truth which Christ hath in his Gospel revealed This is the least of a Christian and that which distinguisheth him from a Jew wh●● believeth the Old Testament but not th● New and from a Pagan who believeth neither A man may go to he● who hath it for the devils also believe and tremble they could say Thou an● Christ the Son of the living God but n● man can go to heaven without it It is ●he foundation of justifying faith it hath an influence upon all our practice How shall men call on him on whom they ●ave not believed Therefore the Apostle ●eaking of some Apostates joyns both ●hese phrases together Having made ●ipwrack of faith and of a good conscience Without reliance on Christ none can ●e saved who will trust and rely and ●dhere to a Saviour who doth not ●now him or is not perswaded of him ●● his circumstances of sufficiency Think not therefore light of this The propositions of the Gospel are various the Scriptures are as full of them ●s the Heavens are of Stars but as one ●ar differeth from another in glory ●● it is with these Propositions All are ●ot of equal weight glory and influence Divines have usually distinguished ●hem into Fundamentals and such as ●e no Fundamentals But what are Fun●amentals is not yet agreed nor I think ●er will I shall not undertake to de●●de the controversie But in short I think Propositions of truth may be illed Fundamental 1. With reference to others So those truths are Fundamental which are the bases and foundations of all others from whence the● flow by way of just consequence o● inference 2. With reference to our salvation and so those are fundamental upon which our salvation depends And 〈◊〉 these 1. There are some that must be explicitly known and assented to or we can not be saved I think truly the number of these is not great though I durst n●● undertake to define them 2. Others there are of which 〈◊〉 cannot say that an explicit disting knowledge of them is necessary to salvation but some knowledge of the● and assent to them is necessary especially to persons living under the light of the Gospel I shall not pretend ●●give you a strict account of all that f●● under either notion but some I shall more especially commend to you 1. That the holy Scriptures are 〈◊〉 Word of God and the only rule of fai●● and life This is the principle of 〈◊〉 Christian Religion and the proof of from Scripture is not to be expected Take heed you fail not in this yea and take heed upon what argument you receive the Scripture as such The Socinian will tell you there are arguments enough from reason but the greater is not blessed by the less The Papists will tell you the Tradition of the Church is enough If you take the Scriptures upon either of these evidences as sufficient the devil hath a fair advantage to tell you That both these are but humane testimonies and humane testimony can beget but an humane faith and if an humane faith be sufficient for the Scriptures in general It is sufficient for every proposition of faith revealed in them Our Saviour ●lessed Peter for believing what flesh and ●loud revealed not to him The old Doctrine of Protestants was That nothing ●ut the impression of the holy Spirit work●●g by and with reason and the self-●vidence of those holy books can be enough ●old there or you lose all Do the ●apists bid you Prove the Spirit you pre●nd to perswade to Bid them prove their Church whose traditions they obtrude upon you and you are even with them They must certainly prove it by the Scriptures or not all and i● so I hope the Scriptures may as we●● be allowed to shine in their own light as in the light of the Church which hath no light but what it must borrow from the Scriptures 2. That the Lord Jesus Christ th● Eternal Son of God prophesied and prefigured of old in the fulness of time assume our nature and as God-Man died ●● our sins and rose again for our justification being our only Saviour Mediator and Intercessor and he whom God hath appointed to judge the world The Socinian or Vnitarians as they call themselves deny the eternal existence of the Son God and so call you to believe in a insufficient Saviour they deny his M●rits or the Satisfaction of them The Papists tell you of other Mediators and Intercessors hence their invocation 〈◊〉 Saints they teach you to trust in you● own merits take heed of these the shake the foundations The Apost calls Christ God over all blessed for ev●● It tells you Rom. 9 5.4.25 Rom. 4.25 He was ●● livered for our offences 1 Tim. 2.5 and rose again for our justification It tells you that there is but one Mediator between God and man even Christ That he liveth to make intercession for us Heb. 9. Acts 4.12 That there is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved neither is there salvation in any other Let this be a second 3. That there is none righteous no not one No Infant Rom. 3.10.5.15 17 18 19. The Scripture tells you Ephes 2.3 We are all by nature children of wrath Psal 51.4 That our mother hath conceived us in sin That by one mans disobedience many were made sinners No grown person either legally righteous 1 King 8.46 For there is none who liveth and sinneth not Jam. 3.2 Ja. 2.10 Eccles 7.20 There is not a just man that liveth and sinneth not Nor yet Evangelically righteous from any righteousness of his own But of this more by and by 4. That the righteous Lord loveth righteousness And without righteousness no man can stand before God but will certainly be accursed to all eternity The Psalmist tells you The righteous Lord lovth righteousness The Law is Gal. 3.10 Cursed be he that continueth not in every little of the Law to do it The Gospel dispenseth not with that curse it only allows of our Sureties fulfilling the Law for us and our fulfilling of it in him according to that of the Apostle In him you a●● complete 5. That there is no righteousness when in any poor creature in the great day 〈◊〉 the Lord can stand before a righteous God but the alone righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ that is his active and pass●● obedienee imputed and made over unto ●● Nor is there any deliverance from wrath but by this righteousness of Christ imputed This point is the very hinge of the Gospel Luther called it The Article of banding or falling Church it is the Article of a

iniquity Judas in all probability was baptized yet a Son of perdition Will it relieve thee to think thou hast believed the Scriptures to be the Word of God and Christ to be the Son of God so do the Devils believe and tremble Will it relieve thee to think that thou hast been obedient to the orders of the Church Dost thou not see that those are most universal in that Obedience which is so called whose lives proclaim the greatest opposition to the plain letter of Scripture in almost all the moral precepts of it Shall they also have peace 2. For thy new Practices Heretofore thou wer 't wont to pray in thy family and to instruct them in the things of God to spend thy time in reading the holy Scripture to spend dayes in fasting prayer communion with the Saints of God Believing thy obligation from a moral Precept to keep the Lords Day holy thou wer't wont in it to exercise thy self in reading the word hearing of it in prayer instructing thy children Now thou hast forgotten thy family duties thy chamber practice in Religion thy religious care of thy children and servants and all thy Devotion is turned into a little Formality of which thou makest no great conscience neither Thy Sabbaths are spent in vain and idle discourses and in a vain conversation and if any acts of devotion still continue possibly they are such as to which God will say to thee Who hath required these things at your hands Where did I ever speak a word to you or your Fathers of such homage to be performed to me nor did it ever come into my heart The time on other dayes which thou wer't wont to spend in fasting is now spent in feasting what was wont to be spared for hearing Sermons is now spent in hearing Playes Hark my friend shalt thou not one day thinkest thou be sick unto death as Hezekiah was Isa 38.1 will the Providence of God thinkest thou never speak to thee saying Set thy house in order for thou shalt dye and not live Wilt thou upon these practices be able to say as Hezekiah ver 3. Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how l●● have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which was good in thy sight Doth thy conscience tell thee these things are good in the sight of the Lord. Such an absurd verdict may possibly be given in by the conscience of one muffled up in ignorance but thou hast known thou hast proved better things thy conscience must tell thee the courses which I formerly took were better than these Thou after thou hast escaped the pollution of the world 2 Pet. 2.20 through the ●nowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ art again entangled therein and overcome Thy latter end is worse than thy beginning It had been better for you never to have known the way of righteousness then having known it to turn from ●he holy commandment delivered unto you 3. For thy new Company Thou heretofore wer 't a companion to those that ●eared the Lord. The Excellent on the Earth were those in whom thou didst delight or at least pretend to do so Ministers of the Gospel who had beside their habit something else to approve them such powerful constant Preachers of the word that knew h●● to speak a word in season to the weary how to satisfie a doubt resolve case of conscience give to every o● their portion c. People who math a conscience of their wayes a● though they had possibly their error and failings yet they were not such 〈◊〉 the very light of nature and reason shewed abominable such as cursing a● swearing blaspheming the God who● they served reviling persons an things that had ought of his Im●● and Superscription upon them Th● art now become a companion of soe● such I mean as the Scripture calls 〈◊〉 leud profane persons Sons of B●● that live without any yoke either Scripture or Moral Principles th● catest with the Glutton and sittest with the Drunkard and thy Chair is set 〈◊〉 them who sit in the seat of the scorns● and whiles they are smiting thy on● fellow servants if thy hand be not w● them yet thy heart is if thy ● throwest no stones at the Lord 's S●phen's yet thou holdest the cloaths them that do it Will thy day of v●tation thinkest thou never come Send in that day for those that have sat at the Tavern with thee and see ●f they be able to speak a word to thy ●oul weary of life Remember Saul who had rejected Samuel enough when he was in distress he goes to a Witch and who must she raise up but Samuel What satisfaction wilt thou have ●n an evil day in a dying day from ●hose whom living thou hast preferred to be thy companions before such as have feared the Lord. I shall shut up this Head with minding you that by this Argument God by his Prophet Jeremiah endeavoured to reduce backsliding Israel Jeremiah 2.28 Jer. 2.28 But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee Let them arise if they can save thee in the day of trouble I will only add one thing for thy termor It is like enough that in the day of trouble God may leave thee to fetch thy relief from these empty cisterns When Judas's conscience smote him God left him to his Masters the Scribes and Pharisees alone to comfort him how cold a cup of consolation they afforded him the Gospel tells you When the Jewes had apostatized and the Philistins and Ammonites oppose● them and they cryed unto the Lord they met with a rough answer ver 13. Jude 10.11 12 13 14. I will deliver you no m●● Go and cry unt● the Gods whom you ha● chosen and let them deliver you in the day of your tribulation Take heed th● the Providence of God speaks not that language to your souls in the day o● their tribulation Go and fetch their comfort from the principles practice and company which you have chosen 7. I will add but one Argument more That shall be from the mercy 〈◊〉 God which he hath for backsliding children making timely returns unto him This is an Argument which the Prophet Jeremy largely insisted upon Chap. 3. v. 1 2 3 4 5 12 13 14 22. First He sheweth them that this is above the mercy of men If a m● putteth away his Wife shall he take b● again c. It is very observable that the Jews defection chiefly insisted upon by the Prophet was in matters of Divine Worship where the sin charged upon them was the highest in genere suo ido●try which is a failer in the object of Worship either more immediate or me●iate and therefore exprest in Scripture by the sin of whoredom which is the highest error in conjugal relations There 's no sin so separates a people or person from God as this sin Superstition which is failer in the more external manner and rites of