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	peace_n	quiet_a	5,023	5	9.5882	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66656	Eurēka, Eurēka the virtuous woman found, her loss bewailed, and character examined in a sermon preached at Felsted in Essex, April 30, 1678, at the funeral of ... Mary, countess dowager of Warwick, the most illustrious pattern of a sincere piety, and solid goodness his age hath produced : with so large additions as may be stiled the life of that noble lady : to which are annexed some of her ladyships pious and useful meditations / by Anthony Walker.	Walker, Anthony, d. 1692.; Warwick, Mary Boyle Rich, Countess of, 1625-1678. Occasional meditations upon sundry subjects.	1678 (1678)	Wing W301; ESTC R233189	74,039	235

to God as to a most loving Father with a confidence that he will supply them The Scripture tells you That the effectual fervent prayer of a righteour man availeth much and it tells you that though Elias was a man subject to like passions with us yet God heard him and granted his requests to encourage us to come with boldness to the Throne of Grace Therefore do not only make conscience to pray but make conscience also how to pray Pray with zeal and fervency do not satisfie your self with the body of the duty without the Soul but as pious Hanna did pour out your spirit before the Lord in the name of Christ for things what you stand in need of And remember that David said that the Lord had heard the voice of his weeping And therefore if you can weep for your sins at least mourn that you cannot mourn for sinning against so gracious a Father that so the mercies of God may melt into an ingenuous sorrow And do not leave your prayers till you have enjoyed some Communion with God in them and then you will be fit to go chearfully about your worldly imployments Forget not God hath intrusted you with Children and therefore remember to take care they be bred up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and to season them in their young and tender years with Principles of Piety and Honour that so setting them forth in the way wherein they should go when they are old they may not depart from it Remember also you have a Family to govern and take up good Josuah's resolution that you and your house will serve the Lord and David's who said that his eyes should be on the Faithful in the Land that they might serve him and he that telleth lyes should not tarry in his sight Therefore have a care not to keep any that is openly profane and scandalous but at least let them be morally civil and let God be solemnly twice a day publickly worshipped by your self and Family and set them good Examples and say unto them as Gideon did to his men in another case Look on me and do likewise When you have thus spent your morning then I am not so rigid as to forbid you all Recreations no I think them very necessary for Diversion but I must be so severe as to forbid you such as may put you into any passion or disorder which may be hurtful both to Soul and Body Therefore I would absolutely forbid you Dice and Cards too unless it be sometimes when you must keep these limitations First not to play all day long as if you were made only to eat and drink and rise up to play For certainly God did not give us time as we give Children Rattles only to play withal Remember what your good Friend Dr. Taylor says That he that spends his time in sports and calls it Recreation is as he whose garment is nothing but fringes and and his meat nothing but sauce Therefore I shall advise you that your Recreations may be as your sauce not as your full meat The second limitation I would advise is not to play for more than you care whether you win or lose Remember that Mr. Herbert in his excellent Poems says Game is a Civil Gunpowder in Peace Blowing up houses with their whole increase My next Advice to you is to make a good choice of your friends and to keep company most with those of them that are civil and religious and ingenious for such company will be both pleasant and advantagious to you but the ranting Gamesters company ought to be displeasing to you for I am sure you may get a great deal of ill by them but no good therefore let such Company be rather a punishment than a choice Next I would desire you to be as chearful as you can and to that purpose I would recommend to you that gaity of goodness that will make you most pleasing to your self and others And now my Lord as your Friend you must give me leave to give you not only good counsel but my own experiences too like Nurses who feed their Children with nothing but what they have first themselves digested into milk and to assure you that however the Devil and wicked men may perswade you That Religion will make you melancholy yet I can assert from my own experience that nothing can give you that comfort serenity and composedness of mind as a well and orderly led life This will free you from all those sad disquieting remorses and checks of conscience which follow an ill action and give you that peace of God that passes all understanding and that continual feast of a good conscience This will make you rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory This will calm your desires and quiet your wishes so as you shall find the consolations of God are not small You will find you have made a happy exchange having Gold for Brass and Pearls for Pebles For truly my Lord I am upon tryal convinced that all the pleasures of this world are not satisfactory We expect a great deal more from them than we find For pleasures die in their Birth and therefore as Bishop Hall says are not worthy to come into the Bills of Mortality I must confess for my own part though I had as much as most people in this Kingdom to please me and saw it in all the Glories of the Court and was both young and vain enough to endeavour having my share in all the Vanities thereof yet I never found they satisfied me God having give me a Nature uncapable of satisfaction in any thing below the highest Excellency I never in all my life found real and satisfying Comforts but in the ways of God and I am very confident your Lordship never will neither Therefore I beseech you try this and then I verily believe you will be of my opinion That all her ways are pleasantness and all her paths are peace When you have spent what time you think fit in your Recreations or visiting Friends or receiving Visits from them then I would have you every day set some time apart for reading good Books and Meditation do not fear that a little time alone should make you melancholy for the way not to be alone is to be alone and you will find your self never less alone than when you are so For certainly that God that makes all others good company must needs be best himself Be often in the profitable work of self-examination be not a stranger at home but pray S. Austins Prayer Lord make me know thee and my self You will find the practice of this Rule conduce much to the good of your Soul This will make you see what sin is most predominant and what grace is most weak and therefore had need be strengthened It will keep sin from growing undiscerned by you Remember my Lord the best Gardens had need often to be weeded or else they will

it is everlasting The best Shield against Slanderers is to live so that none may believe them He that revenges an injury acts the part of an Executioner He that pardons it acts the part of a Prince Sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions Man is a pile of Dust and puff of Wind. Why are we so fond of that life which begins with a Cry and ends with a Groan But I will not cloy you knowing it is safest to rise with an appetite even when we are entertained at a Banquet 4. Where she had particular kindness or personal interest she would improve the authority of her friendship to gentle but free correption and argue and perswade so strenuously that her Bow like Jonathan's seldom return'd empty and plead the cause of God and their own souls to whom she spake with so winning and insinuating sweetness that 't was hard to resist the Suada shall I say or rather the spirit by which she spake Let me refound and eccho from her lips though alas too faintly how she would with melting charms and powerful strains attempt upon the Friends for whom she had a kindness and whom she longed to rescue COme come my Friend you must be good you shall be good I cannot be so unkind nay so unfaithful to the laws of Friendship as to let you perish and perish in a way you know as well as I leads down to Hell It grieves my very soul to see so good a nature ensnared against the dictates of its own light by bad example custom or somewhat else And if they replyed with excuses she would stop them thus I pray my Friend have patience hear me out I know or guess at least what you would say and I would not have you say it 'T is bad to commit sin but 't is worse to plead for it and defend it None sin so dangerously as those who sin with excuses The Devil then ties a new snare when he gets into our tongues to fasten us to our failings and raises an out-work in our own mouths to secure the Fort he possesses in our hearts I take it for granted all other Holds were slighted easily could you conquer such or such a vice too much by custom prevailing with you Unhappy custom that dares prescribe against God's Law But Friend use no arguments that will not hold water at the day of judgment though hand joyn in hand you know what follows And no example custom number should allure us which cannot excuse us and secure us But this is the mischief of sin liv'd in it bewitches the heart to love it that it cannot leave it Cannot so men love to speak but 't is because they will not that is will use no endeavours to be rid on 't But you must leave it there 's no remedy though it cost you trouble smart and self-denial There 's as much as all this comes to in cutting off a right hand and digging out a right eye I speak to you as to one in whom I have a party to help me plead I mean your conscience and the belief of the Scriptures for if you were one of those on whom you know I use to set my mark I should not give you this trouble nor esteem my self under more than the Laws of general charity to wish you better should hardly venture my little skill to make you so But as for you who still own God's authority and believe his Word and attend his Worship Why should I despair of making one piece of your self agree with the other your practice with your convictions your conversation with your conscience And not to fright you with the Thunder-claps of wrath and vengeance and God's judging you know who listen still to the voice 't is your peculiar eminency to be kind and grateful and because there is a kind of magnetick virtue in those arguments which touch our temper and a string will move it self when another instrument is touched that 's set to the same Key and pitch I shall attack you on that side hoping the strongest excellency of your nature will prove the weakest defensasative for sin and to keep out God You therefore who are so good natured so kind so grateful that you never think you have acquit your self sufficiently to those who have been civil or as you please to call 't obliging Oh how can be so unkind and so ungrateful unto God Almighty the kindest Fiend who is so much before hand with you who hath given you so much and is so ready to forgive you all Oh that you who I dare say would take my word for any thing else would do me the honour to take my word for him who I assure you upon your sincere repentance will be fully reconciled to you in Christ and never so much as obraid your past neglects but heal your back-slidings and love you freely And do not fear that you shall have cause to repent of your repentance No man ever yet was a loser by God and you shan't be the first you shall not lose your pleasures but exchange them defiling ones for pure and clean and ravishing And let it not seem strange or incredible to you that there should be such things because perhaps you never felt them Alas you have deprived your self unhappily by being uncapable of them New wine must be put into new bottles To say nothing of what the Scriptures speak of a day being in God's courts being better than a thousand and of joys and unspeakable and full of glory of the great peace they have who keep God's law and that nothing shall offend them that wisdoms ways are pleasantness Let my weakness reason out the case with you Do you think that God's Angels which excel in all perfections have no delights because they have no flesh no sense no bodies as men and beasts or have our Souls the Angels in these houses of clay which are God's Images and the price of his Blood no objects no employments which may yield them delight and satisfaction Think not so unworthily of God or meanly of your self have not the stroaks of your own fancy or the intellectual pleasures of your mind sometimes transported you beyond all the charms of your senses when they have chimed all in tune together And cannot God think you who is a spirit and so fit an object for our souls give them as great pleasures as any object of our taste and sight Come come my Friend take my word for 't there is more pleasure in the peace of a good conscience and in well grounded hopes our sins are pardoned and in serving God and expectation of eternal life than in all the pleasures in the world Alas I was once of your mind but I assure you upon my word I have really found more satisfaction in serving God than ever I found in all the good things of the world of which you know I have had my share Try therefore dare to be good resolve

Temple but served God with fasting and prayers night and day 1 Thes 5. Rom. 12.12 Pray without ceasing continuing instant in prayer giving thanks continually and in all things And the Left Hand though it grow on another Arm draws Sap and Virtue from the same Tree and Root to make it fruitful in variety and multitude of Acts of Justice and Charity 1. Of Justice thinking speaking no evil of any Man but dealing honestly with all Men Superiors Equals Inferiours in all natural moral civil Actions in all concernments of Body Goods and Name wronging no Man defrauding no Man but doing to others as they would others should do to them and observing this rule constantly and in all occasions and occurrences and so doing righteousness at all times 2. In Charity Matth. 25. relieving the distressed feeding the hungry cloathing the naked visiting the afflicted by sickness prison or any other pressures instructing the ignorant comforting the feeble-minded and supporting them who are cast down under any temptation Eccl. 12.6 ● and this not once or twice or to one or two but sowing this seed in the Morning and not withholding in the Evening giving this portion to seven and also to eight casting Bread upon the waters yea scattering by all waters This briefly of the good Womans character 2. Her Crown Praise Praise is the shadow which attends the Body of Virtue The Eccho which sounds an honorary Testimony 1. From the Consciences of all Men even those who will not practise it themselves cannot but approve it and applaud it in them that do if there be any virtue if there be any praise the Apostle of the Gentiles nay the Consciences of the very Gentiles hath annexed them so close together Se Judice nemo nocens absolvitur they cannot be parted for as no vicious and guilty person can be absolved though he were to be his own Judge so no virtuous person can be condemned Rom. 2. though to be judged by his Enemies That law written in the heart cannot but approve the Transcript and Counter-part and Copy of it self where ere it meets it 2. From the Mouths of all good Men and those especially who have found and felt its beneficial influence Beloved thou dost faithfully whatever thou dost to the Brethren 3 Joh. 5.6 and to Strangers which have born witness of thy Charity before the Church S. Paul even boasted of the forward zeal of them of Achaia 2 Cor. 9.12 13. 2 Cor. 8.3 and God was glorified for their liberal distribution to all Men. And of the Churches of Macedonia he bears record That to their power yea and beyond their power they were willing of themselves Job 31.20 The Loyns of the poor blessed Job who were warmed by the sleece of his Sheep Her children rise up and call her blessed for the care of their tender and pious education and her husband for her chaste conversation and faithful industry of which he is not only a witness but reaps the benefit of it and for those he praiseth her 3. From the whole Chorus of the Heavenly Hierarchy the Angels Joy in Heaven is the most landative acclamation to her Virtues 4. From God and Christ whose Euge Well done good and faithful servants whose Come ye blessed of my Father whose testimony I was hungry Matth. 25. and ye fed me naked and ye cloathed me is the highest praise imaginable or possible Now this praise is first promised She shall be praised God leaves us not without encouragements to make us good Promises and Threats Rewards and Punishments are the great instruments of Government both with God and Men and all Rewards include Praise and are the silent yet the loudest commendations A Crown of Righteousness 2 Tim. 4.7 8. and Life is provided and fore-promised to them that fight the good Fight that keep the Faith that are faithful unto death Great and precious promises 2 Cor. 6.7 that God will receive us be our Father and our God to provoke us to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfect holiness in the fear of God 1 Pet. An Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven Rivers of pleasure fulness of joy an eternal Kingdom and everlasting life And in the Letter the highest praise Rom. 2.28 for he that is circumcised in heart and spirit that is a Christian within his praise shall be of God and he is approved indeed whom God commendeth Ps 11.26 and we have God's word for it that the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance 2. 'T is commanded and given in charge concerning her to others Give her of the fruit of her hands let her works praise her in the Gates Let them be spoken of and mentioned to her honour in the Assemblies of the great Men and in the concourse of the people which use to be most frequent in the Gates God gives not only leave but charge and 't is not only an allowable courtesie but a just debt and tribute due to virtuous persons to declare and celebrate their famous Acts. 'T is an Apostolical precept to the Philippians concerning Epaphroditus who for the work of Christ was near unto death hold him and not him only but such as he in reputation Phil. 2.29 Yea our Lord himself concerning Mary who anointed him and wrought a good work upon him Mat. 26.13 Praedicendo praecepit Verily I say unto you wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world there shall also this that this woman hath done be told for a memorial of her And God will have the Virtues and the Victories of his Saints recorded to provoke our imitation of them and encourage our weakness to war against vice saith S. Gregory 3. It 's performed concerning her thou excellest them all 1 Cor. 14.12 we should labour to excel in Duty Seek that you may excel What do you more than others See that ye abound more and more so run out-run others that ye may obtain and praise shall be proportionable Thou excellest them all We find such Encomiums frequent in Scripture Thus of Hezekiah 2 King 18.5 He trusted in the Lord God of Israel so that after him was none like him of all the kings of Israel nor any that was before him that is for strength of Faith So of Josiah 2 King 23.25 And like unto him there was no king before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might according to the Law of Moses neither after him arose any like him So God's testimony of Job Job 1.8 is That there was not a Man like him in all the earth So S. Paul testifies of Timothy Phil. 2.20 I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your estate Thus have I lightly shaken the principal Branches of this goodly Tree and the ripe and pleasant Fruit

deserve great praise 2. The object of Praise is some excellent good it must be good or it deserves reproach but it must be also excellent or no notice is taken of it Now the fear of God is excellent Psal 19. The Saints are the excellent of the earth Psal 16.3 The righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour Prov. 12.26 Wisdom excelleth folly as light excelleth darkness Eccles 2.13 And the things of God's law wherein good men exercise themselves are said to be more excellent Rom. 2.18 The godly therefore are to be praised for they are excellent 3. It must be a chosen good for it would be no praise for any Man if that were possible to be good without or against his will If I do this thing willingly I have a reward 1 Cor. 9.17 Now this good woman chuseth Mary hath chosen the good part Luk. 10.42 And so did our honourable Mary if ever any and it is implyed in the reproach cast upon Sinners Prov. 1.29 That they did not chuse the fear of the Lord that the Saints do chuse it Psal 119.30 I have chosen the way of truth thy judgments have I laid before me and vers 137. I have chosen thy precepts Isa 56.4 The eunuchs which chuse the things which please me And it 's the high commendation of Moses Heb. 11.25 26. That he chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season and esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Aegypt 4. It must be some permanent and abiding good not fading not like the morning cloud and early dew now the fear of the Lord endureth for ever Psal 19.9 and where it is in truth it will both continue and grow The righteous is an everlasting foundation Prov. 10.25 The good part they chuse shall not be taken away They repent not of their repentance and Christ hath prayed that their faith fail not They go from strength to strength till they appear before God perfect in Zion and bring forth more fruit in their age The path way of the just is as the shining light Pov. 4.18 which shineth more unto the perfect day 2. I shall consider the object of Praise more specially and what men are esteemed to merit praise for with respect to God their Neighbours and themselves 1. Men are praised for their well performing of their duty to God as good servants 2. For their Beneficence to men in all relations as useful just kind charitable amongst and towards all men 3. For their wisdom to themselves as being prudent discreet and wise in their own concerns Now Religion the Fear of the Lord is productive of all these in an eminent degree and therefore are they greatly to be praised in whom it is 1. This fear will make good servants to God This is a principal part of a servants duty Mal. 1.6 If I be a Master where is my fear Now this fear is the root of universal obedience he that fears God will not dare not offend him Fear God and keep his Commandments this is the whole duty of man Eccles 12.13 Only fear the Lord and serve him if you fear him you will not fail to serve him What doth the Lord require of thee Deut. 10.12 but to fear him and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul serve the Lord with fear Psal 2. Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear Heb. 12.28 Yea the fear of God will help to clean from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit and to perfect holiness 2 Cor. 7.1 So that if it be praise-worthy to be a dutiful child and obedient servant to God as certainly nothing deserves it better the woman that feareth the Lord hath a just claim to Praise 2. The fear of the Lord will make fruitful in all good offices to our Neighbour humble and obedient to Superiours careful of and tender to Inferiours just and kind to all and munificent and liberal to those that are in want This good woman in the Text who feareth the Lord in her heart had fruitful hands and works of her own to praise her in the gates 'T is the excellency of Religion to make good in all relations Good Magistrates 't is the first qualification of Jethro's Justice Able men that fear God Exod. 18.21 So Nehemiah of himself Neh. 5.15 The former Governours which were before me had been chargeable to the people and had taken of them bread and wine and forty shekels of silver yea even their servants had rule over the people but so did not I because of the fear of God and good Subjects Fear thou the Lord and the King Prov. 24.21 Fear God and honour the King 1 Pet. 2.17 One will enforce the other and will make subject for conscience sake Rom. 13.5 It will make loving and good Husbands and it will make good and obedient Wives like Sarah for holy women who trust in God are in subjection to their own husbands 1 Pet. 3. And this made this Virtuous Woman so excellent a Wife It will make good Family-Governours who will walk in their house with a perfect heart and will neither provoke their Children nor deny what 's equal to their servants whilst they remember themselves have a Father and a Master in heaven Col. 4.1 It will make dutiful children and faithful servants Servants obey in all things your Masters according to the flesh not with eye-service as men pleasers but in singleness of heart fearing God Col. 3.22 In a word it will make honest and righteous in our whole conversation S. Peter puts together Acts 10.35 Fearing God and working righteousness It renders also charitable and bountiful to them in need this good Woman vers 20. Stretcheth out her hands to the poor yea she reacheth out her hands to the needy The good man is ever merciful and lendeth yea liberal and giveth Cornelius is described Acts 10.1 A devout man that feared God and gave much alms to the people and S. James tells us that true Religion and undefiled is to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction that is to relieve them So that if to be good in all relations and to be a Benefactor and common good to mankind deserves praise the fear of God deserves it which makes men such Thirdly and lastly the fear of the Lord will make a man wise for himself to do himself good And men will praise thee when thou dost well to thy self Psal 49.18 And nothing is more praise-worthy in man's account than to be wise nor in the account of God than to be wise to salvation Now the fear of the Lord not only makes wise but is wisdom it self The fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding Job 28.28 Wisdom and Godliness are synonymous words in the Holy Ghost's Language the wise man is the