Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	heart_n	pure_a	purify_v	1,181	5	11.3319	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87175	Christ's first sermon, or, The absolute necessity, gospel duty, and Christian practice of repentance, opened and applied, by a godly, able, and faithful minister of Jesus Christ. ; Wherein is discovered, what repentance is, as also the great necessity thereof to salvation: with the great folly and desperate madness of all those that delay and put off repentance unto a sick bed, or old age. ; Together with the great benefit, joy, and comfort that shall be to the souls of all those that timely and truly repent.	Hart, John, D.D.	1663 (1663)	Wing H937; ESTC R177838	21,802	46

secondly to his father Luke 15 17. When he came to himself he said I wil arise and go to my father and say unto him Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy son Sinners are said to be mad but repentance brings men to their right wits again chery impenitent sinner is a mad men a meet Bedman who but a mad man will run himself wilfully into the fire as every wicked man doth he runs headlong to destruction but repentance turns men from this madness In Acts 16.18 it is called A turning of men from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God Sin is a darkness and when men sin they know not what they do but Repentance enlightens men and sets them at liberty In Acts 20.20 Repentances turning to God are put together they are one and the same the one cannot be without the other but it is not any turning that doth this but it is a turning of the judgemant and a turning of the will and affections so that men that are turned are carried wholly from sin and wickedness unto God Joel 3.12 Turn unto me saith God with all your heart If it be with a piece it is nothing worth it is altogether deceitful Thirdly Repentance is a returning to men we must not be ashamed to acknowledge our faults one to another Jam. 5.16 Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another If we have dene any man wrong we ought to acknowledge it Is it so then that Repentance flowes from Faith in Jesus Christ and turns men from sin unto God then I observe that there are many in the world who as yet never knew what true repentance meaneth because they are yet in unbelief without faith without which there can be no repentance Men may cry bitterly and humble themselves in sackcloth and ashes as Ahab did men may have the hort ours of Hell in their consciences as Judas had Men may reform many things that are amiss as Herod did and yet being unbelicvers they are still in the estate of impenitency It is an infallible demonstration that they never yet truly tasted of the love of God in the pardon of their sins who dare presume to take a liberty to sin or delight themselves in any sin whatsoever they that truly believe cannot dare not allow themselves in any sin for as faith purifies the heart so faith repentance keeps the heart pure and makes the conscience tender and the more pure the heart is the more will it abstain from all things that are evil Then secondly is Repentance the gift and grace of God whereby a believing sinner being humbled under the sight and sense of his sins doth truly turn to God Then we may observe that where true repentance is there is also humiliation for sin It is not possible that ever any soul should truly repent that is not truly humbled and cast down in the sight sense of his sins Turn unto me saith the Lord with all your heart with fasting with weeping and with mourning Joel 2.12 The Ninivites when they repented they humbled themselves from the highest to the lowest and this also shews us that the greatest part of men and women in the world never yet truly repented because they were never yet truly humbled IT is not every kinde of sorrow that works repentance but as it is in 2 Cor 7.10 Onely goldy sorrow worketh repentance never to be repented of And as there may be a counterfeit repentance so there may be a counterfiet humiliation The signes and marks of true humiliation are these First the soul that is truly humbled for sin is very free in confession of sin and the Scriptures tell us that those that have been most humbled for sin have bin freest in the confession of their sins as David Nehemiah Job and others Psal 51.3 saith David I acknowledg my transgression and my sin is ever before me And this confession of sin will be in some measure suitable to our humiliation if our sorrow for sin be sincere our confession will be so too Therefore all those who are less afraid to commit sin then they are ashamed to confess sin were never yet truly humbled for sin neither shall their souls reap any ben fit by it Prov. 28.13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall finde mercy They that will not finde out their sins to confess them to be sure one day or other their sins shall finde them out to forment them if sin finde us not out in youth it will finde us out in age if it finde us not out in health yet it will find us out in sickness if it finde us not out in life yet it will finde us out in death if it finde us not out in death yet it will finde us out after death in the day of judgement either one time or other out sins will finde us out Numb 25. 33. Your sins saith God shall finde you out Secondly godly sorrow and humiliation for sin causeth the soul that is humbled utterly to loath and abhor and hate sin Ezek. 20.43 Ye shall remember your ways and your doings wherein you have been defiled and ye shall loath your selves in your own sight for all your evil that you have committed Sin is odious and hateful to an humble soul I abhor every false way saith David Rivers of tears run down mine eyes because men keep not thy law Psal 119.164.136 Nature may teach a man to loath sin in others but its onely grace that teaches us to abhor sin in out selves When Judab Gen. 38.24 heard that his daughter Thanmar had played the harlot he presently cast sentence of death upon her Bring her forth saith he that she may be burned But when he saw by the pledges that sin was his own Judah was then silent no more talk of burning her then A soul truly humbled will hate sin wheresoever it is especially in his own bosom men will flie from venomous and hurtful creatures wheresoever they are especially if they be near them because they are then in most danger to be hurt by them all the sins of the world cannot do a soul so much hurt as his own sins then they that do not hate sin in themselves are not truly humbled for sin Thirdly he that is truly humbled is willing to take shame to himself the humble sinner is willing to be ashamed of his folly Ezek. 16. 63. That thou mayest remember and be ashamed and never open thy mouth more when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done saith the Lord. Fourthly a truly humble soul will be willing to receive the word of God with all readiness what 's the reason men are no more humbled for sin Surely this because they despise or neglect the good word of God which is the onely means to get humility the

disease with which most men are infected But let such men know that it is a hard matter to repent ans sin is very powerful and if they do not seek to get it subdued in the strength of their dayes it will be too hard for them at the last for although men grow weaker and weaker yet sin grows stronger and stronger and being as we say bred in the bone nursed up by us in our youthful dayes it will not easily be rooted out of the flesh Can the Blackmore change his skin or the Leopard his spots Jer. 15 23. No they cannot no more can they that are accustomed to do evil leave it when they list If repentance be a thing so easie how is it that many who sought after it could never obtain it How many are there that have reared and cried in the bitterness of their souls and in the horror of their consciences that they could not repent O that I could repent O that my hard heart would break in pieces This hath been the cries of many It is not in the power of man to repent when he pleases doth God give us space to repent now it may be he will not do it to morrow a man by nature as he cannot of himself so he hath no inclination of himself to repentance Repentance it s a heart-work a circumcising of the heart and casting of sin out of the soul which indeed will make the heart to bleed which thing no natural man is either willing or able to do Mortifie saith the Apostle Col. 3.5 your Members which are upon earth which thing suits not with a natural man Let no man then put off Repentance upon such foolish wicked thoughts as these that repentance is an easie work which a man may perform when he pleases such sinful thoughts as these will deceive you Thou that wilt not repent now thou mayest when thou wouldest it may be thou shalt not be permitted you that will not repent when God gives space how justly may he when thou wouldest deny it thee because when it was offered to thee thou refusedst Ezek. 24.13 Because I would have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness saith the Lord. The longer men live in sin the stronger will sinne grow in them he that will not leave sin when he is yong will hardly leave it when he is old it is said of wicked men in Job 20.11 Their bones are full of the sins of their youth which lie down with them in the dust Not that mens sins are buried with them in their graves for then they might be happy but that they continue with them till death yea after death Many a time and often hath the Lord stood at the door of mens Consciences and knocked to come in Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the door and knock saith Christ O do not let God wait long he hath waited a long time already to be gracious unto thee Isa 30.18 Do not give the devil the prime and strength of your dayes and then think to serve God in your old age You do not leave sin in this but sin leaves you you have not the strength and power to sin then as you have had but still your hearts are as bad as ever they were then put not off your repentance till sickness comes Happy yea thrice happy is that man and blessed shall he be that in the time of his youth health furnishes his heart and soul with comforts against the evil day happy is that soul who when age and sickness comes is so sitted for death by repentance that when death comes he hath nothing else to do but to dye Be perswaded th●n to repent betimes before you go hence and be no more seen there is no time ours but the present time we do not know whether we shall live another day another night many that are in health one day are brought to their graves the next Our life saith St. James is but a vapour that appeareth for a little time Jam. 4.14 we are no sooner born but we begin to die Put not your souls off then from day to day he that 's unfit or unwilling to repent to day will be so to morrow therefore seek the Lord while he may be found Isa 55.6 There is a time when God will not be found Prov. 1.24 to ver 30. sath God Because I called and ye refused and set at naught all my counsel and would none of my reproof therefore will I laugh at your calamity and will mock when your fear cometh when distress and anguish cometh upon you then shall ye call on me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but shall not finde me For that they hated knowledge and did not chuse the fear of the Lord therefore shall they eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with their own devices There is a time when mercy may be had but if we neglect that time it will not be recovered again though it be sought for with tears there is a time when with the wise Vigins we may enter into the wedding but if we take not that time we may with the foolish ones have the door shut against us Mat. 25. Then may we knock and call yea cry Lord Lord open to us but the Lord shall say unto us I know you not The old world had a long time of Repentance a hundred and twenty years did Noah preach repentance to them and yet they repented not but the Ninivites they had but a short time given them but forty dayes and yet they repented they made the Day of Repentance whilst the Sun of Gods patience shined upon them God is not bound to wait mens leasure the Soul is but a tenant at will and may suddenly be turned out of doors and when you lie upon your sick beds the Lord may fill your hearts with such fears as may make your consciences altogether despair of mercy God sent you his servants early and late in season out of season to invite you to repent but you will repent you say hereafter you will if you can you hope God will work it in you What ground have you of this hope hath God made you any such promise Thou canst not draw out the thred of thy life one minute for ought thou knowest this may be thy last day the tenders of mercy and the offers of grace are at an end when thy life ends if not before you know that time and tide stayes no mans leasure every one is so wise as to take time and tide for worldly affairs will any man be so sottish as to defer the time of his sowing till harvest men will not be carrying out of dung when they should be fetching in of Corn no they will dispatch those things first which are of most necessity And is there any thing of more necessity then the salvation of your souls will your souls