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	sprinkle_v	1,554	5	10.8871	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33349	Three practical essays ... containing instructions for a holy life, with earnest exhortations, especially to young persons, drawn from the consideration of the severity of the discipline of the primitive church / by Samuel Clark ...; Whole duty of a Christian	Clarke, Samuel, 1599-1682.	1699 (1699)	Wing C4561; ESTC R11363	120,109	256

publick profession of at their Baptism They were fully instructed in the excellent Moral Precepts of that Divine Religion which they were to practise the remaining part of their lives And then they were thought prepared for the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost CHAP. III. In what manner persons converted to Christianity were baptized to what Privileges they were admitted and to what Duties they were ingaged by their Baptism 1. WHen the person to be baptized was thus prepared and the time appointed come which was usually at Easter or Whitsontide the Commemorations of our Saviour's Passion and Resurrection and of the great Effusion of the Holy Spirit things principally respected in this Sacrament though it might also upon occasion be celebrated at any other time When the Person I say was thus prepared he was brought by the Priest to a convenient place where there was plenty of Water and being stript of all his cloaths he in the first place with stretched out Arms in a most solemn manner renounced the Devil and all his Works the Pomps and Vanities of this wicked World and all not only the absolutely sinful but also the lawful desires of the flesh so far as to keep them within the most strict bounds and most exact obedience to the Laws of Reason and Religion Then he made Profession of his Faith in One God the Father Almighty c. in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord c. and in the Holy Ghost the Holy Catholick Church c. After which he was baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost being immersed in the Water three times once at the Name of each Person in the ever Blessed Trinity Which being done he came up out of the Water and then according to the Custom of some Churches he was anointed with Oil with the addition of some other Ceremonies which as they were in their own nature indifferent so they were used only in some places and that diversly according to the different usage of particular Churches After all which he was clothed with a white Robe and so admitted among the Faithful to the Communion of the Church which last Ceremony the Greeks as a Learned Writer of our own observes keep up to this day putting upon the Child immediately after Baptism a white Garment with this Form Receive this white and immaculate Cloathing and bring it with thee unspotted before the Tribunal of Christ and thou shalt inherit eternal life 2. This was the Form and Manner in which Persons converted to Christianity were Baptized in the Primitive Church And by all these outward and visible Ceremonies were significantly represented certain inward and invisible things which were either the Privileges to the injoyment of which the Person Baptized was intitled or the Duties to the performance of which he was engaged by his Baptism 3. The first Grace or Privilege which God annexed to the right use of this Ordinance of Baptism and to which the Person Baptised was consequently intitled was Remission of all past sins The design of our Savior's coming into the World was by the Merit of his Death and Suffering to purchase Pardon and Remission for all those who should believe in his Name and obey his Gospel Rom. 3. 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God Now the Means by which this Pardon is applied and the Seal by which it is secured to all those who Believe and by Repentance begin to Obey the Gospel is Baptism Whosoever therefore was converted to Christianity and was baptized was baptised into the death of Christ i. e. was by Baptism intitled to the benefit of the Pardon purchased by his Death and Passion As his Body was washed with pure Water so his Sins were absolutely done away by the Blood of Christ and his Heart sprinkled from an evil Conscience Heb. 10. 22. Hence Baptism is called the Washing of Regeneration Tit. 3. 5. and they who by the Apostles Preaching or by any other more extraordinary means were convinced of the Truth of the Gospel were exhorted immediately to be baptized and wash away their sins Acts 22. 16. And now why tarriest thou Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins calling on the Name of the Lord And Acts 2. 38. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins To which those Places also seem manifestly to allude Rev. 1. 5. Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own Blood and Rev. 7. 14. These are they which have washed their Robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb. The plain meaning of all which passages is this That as a new-born Infant is without Spot Innocent and Sinless so every one that is born of Water i. e. regenerated by Baptism is in the account of God as if he had never sinned cloathed with the white and spotless Garment of Innocence which if he never defile by gross and wilful sins he shall walk in white with Christ for he shall be worthy 4. The next Privilege which Baptism principally and most significantly represented was the Admission of the Convert into the Church or Family of God All that received Baptism were thereby actually admitted into the Society of Christians and to the participation of all the benefits which God bestows upon his Church They were admitted to the Communion of the Saints of God and to the Fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord 1 Cor. 1. 9. They were made Fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the Houshold of God Eph. 2. 19. being come unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable Company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the First-born which are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the Spirits of just Men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediatour of the New Covenant c. Heb. 12. 22. More particularly they were made first Members of Christ i. e. they were incorporated into that Body whereof Christ is the Head Secondly They were made Children of God i. e. they were enroll'd in the number of those whom God had chosen to be his Peculiar and Elect People and whom he designed to govern with the same tenderness as an affectionate and merciful Father does his most beloved Children which is what the Apostles express by our being called the Sons of God 1 John 3. 1. by our having received the Adoption of Sons Gal. 4. 5. and by our having power given us to become the Sons of God John 1. 12. Lastly They were made Heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven i. e. they who before were Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and

almost wholly Moral and Spiritual respecting the inward disposition of the Heart and Mind whereas on the contrary the Ceremonies of the Jewish Law were for the most part external and as the Apostle to the Hebrews calls them Carnal Ordinances respecting chiefly the outward purification of the Body therefore the Apostle calls the Christian Religion Spirit and the Jewish Religion Flesh. Thus in the Epistle to the Romans ch 8. ver 3 4. For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh and for sin condemned sin in the Flesh that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit that is whereas the Jewish Religion because of its outward and carnal Ordinances was weak and insufficient to make Men truly Righteous God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Man to offer up himself a Sacrifice for the Sins of Mankind established the Christian Religion which purifying throughly the whole Heart and Mind and purging the Conscience from dead Works might through the Grace and Mercy of God avail to justifie Men from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law Thus also in the Epistle to the Galatians ch 3. ver 3. Are ye so foolish Having begun in the Spirit are ye now made perfect by the Flesh that is Are ye so foolish as to think that after ye have embraced the Truth of the Christian Religion you can become yet more perfect by observing the Ceremonies of the Jewish Law 8. These are the Terms which the Apostle expresses the Christian and Jewish Religion by in these Epistles And according to this Interpretation the substance of both these Epistles may clearly be resolved into certain Arguments by which the Apostle plainly and strongly proves against the Judaizing Believers that Obedience to the Christian Religion is sufficient to Salvation without observing the Ceremonies of the Jewish 9. His first Argument is this The Jewish Religion having proved insufficient to make Men truly good as the Natural Religion had before done there was a necessity of setting up another Institution of Religion which might be more available and effectual to that End now the setting up a new Institution of Religion necessarily implying the abolishing of the old it follows that Christianity was not to be added to Judaism but that Judaism was to be changed into Christianity that is that the Jewish Religion was from thenceforward to cease and the Christian Religion to succeed in its room This Argument the Apostle insists upon in the 1st 2d 5th 6th and 7th Chapters to the Romans and in the 1st and 4th Chapters to the Galatians In the 1st and 2d Chapters of the Epistle to the Romans he shows that the Jewish Religion had proved insufficient to make Men truly Holy as Natural Religion had also done In the 5th and 6th Chapters of that Epistle to the Romans and in the 1st to the Galatians he gives an account of the Institution of the Christian Religion as more available to that End in the 7th Chapter to the Romans he shews that this new Institution of Religion necessarily implies the abolishing of the old one and this he does from the similitude of a Womans being bound by the Law to her Husband so long as he lives but if her Husband be dead she is free from the Law of her Husband which Similitude he applies ver 4. Wherefore my Brethren ye also are become dead to the Law by the Body of Christ that ye should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God In the 4th Chapter to the Galatians he proves the same thing from the Similitude of a young Heirs being under Governors or Tutors ver 1. I say that the Heir as long as he is a Child differeth nothing from a Servant tho' he be Lord of all but is under Tutors and Governors until the time appointed of the Father even so we when we were Children were in bondage under the elements of the World But when the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to redeem those that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of Sons that is The Jewish Law was an Institution of Religion adapted by God in great Condescention to the weak Apprehensions of that People but when the fulness of time was come God sent his Son Jesus Christ to institute a more perfect Form of Religion after the settlement of which in the World the former Dispensation was to be disannulled for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof 10. The second Argument by which the Apostle proves that the Christian Religion is sufficient to justifie a Man without mixing therewith the Rites of the Jewish is this The Summ and Essence of all Religion is Obedience to the moral and eternal Law of God since therefore the Ceremonies of the Jewish Law were instituted only for that very reason that they might promote this great End and prepare Mens Hearts for the reception of that more perfect Institution of Religion wherein God was to be worshipped and obeyed in Spirit and in Truth 't is manifest that when this more perfect Institution of Religion was settled the former which was designed for no other reason but to be a preparatory to this must be abolished This Argument the Apostle insists on in the 2d Chapter to the Romans and in the 3d to the Galatians In the 2d to the Romans he shows that every Institution of Religion and particularly the Jewish was no otherwise of any esteem in the sight of God than as it promoted that great end of Obedience to his Moral and Eternal Law For Circumcision saith he verily profiteth if thou keep the Law but if thou be a breaker of the Law thy Circumcision is made Uncircumcision Therefore if the Uncircumcision keep the Righteousness of the Law shall not his Uncircumcision be counted for Circumcision And shall not Uncircumcision which is by nature if it keep the Law judge thee who by the Letter and Circumcision dost transgress the Law For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision which is outward in the flesh But he is a Jew which is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of Men but of God v. 25. to the end In the 3d to the Galatians he argues that the Jewish Religion having been thus instituted only to prepare Men for that Obedience to the Eternal Law of God which was to be the sum and essence of the Christian Religion it follows that when this latter and more perfect Institution took place there was no need of continuing the former The Law saith he was added because of transgressions till the Seed should