Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	heaven_n	hell_n	worm_n	1,015	5	11.0094	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29689	A golden key to open hidden treasures, or, Several great points that refer to the saints present blessedness and their future happiness, with the resolution of several important questions here you have also the active and passive obedience of Christ vindicated and improved ... : you have farther eleven serious singular pleas, that all sincere Christians may safely and groundedly make to those ten Scriptures in the Old and New Testament, that speak of the general judgment, and of that particular judgment, that must certainly pass upon them all immediately after death ... / by Tho. Brooks ...	Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680.; Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680. Golden key to open hidden treasures. Part 2.	1675 (1675)	Wing B4942; ESTC R20167	340,648	428

7. 15. 19. 21. 23. Isa 30. 22. 14. Hos 8. When the will stands upon such terms of defiance with all sin as that it will never enter into a league of friendship with any sin then is the Soul turned from every sin Thirdly In the judgments turning away from all sin by disapproving disallowing and condemning all sin Rom. 7. 15. O! saith the judgment of a Christian sin is the greatest evil in all the world 't is the only thing God abhors and that brought Jesus Christ to the Cross that damns Souls that shuts Heaven and that has laid the foundations of Hell O! It is the pricking thorn in my eye the deadly arrow in my side the two-edged-sword that hath wounded my Conscience and slain my comforts and separated between God and my Soul O! sin is that which hath hindred my prayers and imbittered my mercies and put a sting into all my crosses and therefore I can't but disapprove of it and disallow of it and condemn it to death yea to Hell from whence it came Fourthly In the purpose and resolution of the soul the soul sincerely purposing and resolving never willingly wilfully or wickedly to transgress any more Psal 17. 3. The general purpose and resolution of my heart is not to transgress though particular failings may attend me yet my resolutions and purposes are firmly set against doing evil Psal 39. 1. The true Penitent holds up his purposes and resolutions to keep off from sin and to keep close with God though he be not able in every thing and at all times to make good his purposes and resolutions c. But Fifthly In the earnest and unfeigned desires and careful endeavours of the Soul to abandon all sin to forsake all sin and to be rid of all sin Rom. 7. 22 23. You know when a prudent tender indulgent Father sees hs Child to fail and come short in that which he enjoyns him to do yet knowing that his desires and endeavours is to please him and serve him he will not be harsh rigid sowre or severe towards him but will spare him and exercise much tenderness and indulgence towards him and will God will God whose mercies reach above the Heavens and whose compassions are infinite and whose love is like himself carry it worse towards his Children then men do carry it towards theirs Surely no. God's Fatherly indulgence accepts of the will for the work Heb. 13. 18. 2 Cor. 8. 12. Certainly a sick man is not more desirous to be rid of all his Diseases nor a Prisoner to be freed from all his bolts and chains than the true Penitent is desirous to be rid of all his sins Sixthly and lastly In the common and ordinary declining shunning and avoyding of all known occasions of sin yea and all temptations provocations inducements and enticements to sin c. That royal Law 1 Thes 5. 22. Abstain from all appearance of evil is a Law that is very precious in a Penitent mans eye and commonly lyes warm upon a Penitent mans heart so that take him in his ordinary course and you shall find him very ready to shun and be shie of the very appearance of sin of the very shews and shadows of sin Job made a Covenant with his eyes Job 31. 1. and Joseph would not hearken to his bold tempting Mistriss to lye by her or to be with her Gen. 39. 10. And David when himself would not sit with Vain persons Psal 26. 3 4 5. Now a true penitential turning from all sins lyes in these six things and therefore you had need look about you for if there be any one way of wickedness wherein you walk and which you are resolved you will not forsake you are no true penitents and you will certainly lose your souls and be miserable for ever This Opinion that is now under-consideration is an opinion that will exceedingly deject many precious Christians and cause them greatly to hang down their heads especially in four days 1. In the day of common calamity 2. In the day of personal affliction 3. In the day of death 4. In the great day of account First In a day of common Calamity when the Sword is drunk with the blood of the slain or when the raging Pestilence lays thousands in heap upon heap or when Fevours Agues Gripes and other Diseases carry hundreds every week to their long homes O! now the remembrance of a mans beloved sins his bosom sins his darling sins if a Saint had any such sins will be very apt to fill his soul with fears dreads and perplexities Surely now God will meet with me now God will avenge himself on me for my beloved sins my bosom sins my darling sins O! how righteous a thing is it with God because of my beloved lusts to sweep me away by these sweeping Judgments that are abroad in the Earth On the contrary how sweet and comfortable a thing is it when in a day of common Calamity a Christian can appeal to God and appeal to Conscience that though he has many weaknesses and infirmities that hang upon him that yet he has no beloved sin no bosom sin no darling sin that either God or Conscience can charge upon him O! such a consideration as this may be as life from the dead to a gracious Christian in the midst of all the common Calamities that do's surround him and that hourly threaten him Secondly In the day of personal Affections when the smarting Rod is upon him and God writes bitter things against him when the Hand of the Almighty has toucht him in his Name Estate Relations c. O! now the remembrance of a mans beloved sins his bosom sins his darling sins if a Saint had any such sins will be as the hand writing upon the Wall Dan. 5. 5 6. that will make his counteance to be changed his thoughts to be troubled his joynts to be loosed and his knees to be dashed one against another O! now a Christian will be ready to conclude O! 't is my beloved sins my bosom sins my darling sins that has caused God to put this bitter cup into my hand and that has provokt him to give me gall and wormwood to drink Lam. 3. 19. Whereas on the contrary when a man under all his personal tryals though they are many and great yet can lift up his head and appeal to God and Conscience that though he has many sinful weaknesses and infirmities hanging upon him yet neither God nor Conscience can charge upon him any beloved sins any bosom sins any darling sins O! such a consideration as this will help a man to bare up bravely sweetly cheerfully patiently and contentedly under the heaviest hand of God as is evident in that great instance of Job who so sorely afflicted as Job and yet no beloved sin no bosom sin no darling sin being chargable upon him by God or Conscience Job 10. 7. chap. 31. 33. How bravely sweetly and Christianly do's Job bear up under

all the men which have been from Adams time till this day and which shall be to the end of the world and all the piles of grass in the world were turned into so many men to augment the number and that puntshment inflicted in Hell upon any one were to be divided amongst all these so as to every one might befall an equal part of that punishment yet that which would be the portion of one man would be far more grievous than all the cruel deaths and exquisite tortures which have been inflicted upon men ever since the world began A Heathen Poet speaking of the multitude of the pains and torments of the wicked in Hell affirmed That although he had a hundred mouths and as many tongues with a voyce as strong as Iron yet were they not able to express the names of them But this Poet spoke more like a Prophet than a Poet. The Poets tell you of a place called Tartarum or Hell where the impious shall be eternally tormented This Tartarum the Poets did set forth with many fictions to affright people from vicious practises such as of the four Lakes of Acheron Styx Phlegethon and Cocytus over which Charon in his Boat did wast over the departed souls of the three Judges Aecus Minos and Rhadamanthus who were to call the Souls to an account and judg them to their state of the three Furies Tisophone Megaera Alecto who lashed guilty souls to extort confession from them of Cerberus the Dog of Hell with three heads which would let none come out when once they were in and of several sorts of punishments inflicted as iron chains horrid Purchas his Pilgrim 3d. 〈◊〉 pag. 407. 408. stripes gnawing of Vultures Wheels rowling great stones and the like In the Chappel of Ticam the China Pluto the pains of Hell were so desciphered that could not but strike terrour into the beholders some rosted in Iron beds some fryed in scalding Oyle some cut in pieces or divided in the middle or torne of Doggs c. In another part of the Chappel were painted the Dungeons of Hell with horrible Serpents Flames Devils c. In Hell saith Mahomet there is the floore of Brimstone Alchoran c. smoakie pitchy with stinking flames deep pits of scalding pitch and sulphurous flames wherein the damned are punished daily There the Wicked shall be fed with the Tree Ezecum which shall burn in their Bellies like fire there they shall drink fire and be holden in Chains of seventy Cubits In the midst of Hell they say is a Tree full of fruit every Apple being like to the head of a Devil which groweth green in the mid'st of all those flames called Zoaccum Agacci or the Tree of bitterness and the souls that shall eat thereof thinking to refresh themselves shall so find them and by them and their pains in Hell they shall grow mad and the Devils shall bind them with chains of fire and shall drag them up and down in Hell with much more which I am not free to transcribe Now although most of those things which you may find among many Poets Heathens and Turks concerning the torments of Hell are fictions of their own brains Yet that there is such a place as Hell and that there are diversity of torments there the very light of nature doth witness and hath forced many to confess c. And as there are diversity of torments in Hell so the torments of Hell are everlasting Mark every thing that is conducible to the torments of the damned is eternal 1. God himself that damns them is Eternal Deut. 33. 27. 1 Tim. 1. 17. 2. The fire that torments them is Eternal Isa 30. 33. cap. 66. 24. Jud. 7. 3. The Prison and Chains that holds them are Eternal Jude 6. 7 13. 2 Pet. 2. 17. Melancthon calls it a Hellish fery 4. The Worm that gnaws them is Eternal Mark 9. 44. 5. The sentence that shall be passed upon them shall be Eternal● Math. 25. 41. Depart from me ye Cursed into everlasting fire You know that fire is the most tormenting Of this fire see more in my Londons Lamentation on the late fiery dispensation part 2 page 105. to page 131. Element Oh the most dreadful impression that it makes upon the flesh Everlasting fire There is the vengance and continuance of it You shall go into fire into everlasting fire that shall never consume it self nor consume you Eternity of Eternity is the Hell of Hell The fire in Hell is like that stone in Arcadia which being once kindled could never be quenched If all the fires that ever were or shall be in the world were contracted into one fire how terrible would it be Yet such a fire would be but as a painted fire upon the wall to the fire of Hell For to be tormented without end this is that which goes beyond all the bounds of desperation Grievous is the torment of the damned for the bitterness of the punishments but it Dionys in 18. Apocalyps fol. 301. is more grievous for the diversity of the punishments but most grievous for the eternity of the punishments If after so many millions of years as there be drops in the Ocean there might be a deliverance out of Hell this would yield a little ease a little comfort to the damned O but this word Eternity Eternity Eternity this word Everlasting Everlasting Everlasting this word for Ever for Ever for Ever will even break the hearts of the Damned in ten thousand pieces O that word Never said a poor despairing Creature on his Death-bed breaks my heart The Reprobate shall have punishment without pity Drexel misery without mercy sorrow without succour crying without compassion mischief without measure and torment without end Plato could say That whoever are not expiated but prophane shall go into Hell to be tormented for their wickedness with the greatest the most bitter and terrible punishments for ever in that Prison of Hell And Trismegistus could say that souls going out of the body defiled were tost too and fro with eternal punishments Yea the very Turks speaking of the House of Perdition do affirm That they who have turned Gods grace into Wantonness shall A●●wan Mah●m c. 14. p. 160. c. c 20. p. 198 c. abide eternally in the fire of Hell and there be eternally tormented A certain Religious man going to visit Olympius who lived Cloistered up in a dark Cell which he thought uninhabitable by reason of heat and swarms of Gnats and Flyes and asking him how he could endure to live in such a place he answered All this is but a light matter that I may escape eternal torments I can endure the stinging of Gnats that I might not endure the stinging of Conscience and the gnawing of that Worm that never dyes this heat thou thinkest grievous I can easily endure when I think of the eternal fire of Hell these sufferings are but short but the

Lake And Hell with all her furies quake And Trismegistus affirms concerning the souls going out of the body defiled that 't is tost too and fro with eternal punishments nor was Virgil ignorant thereof when he said Dent ocyus omnes Quas mervere patisic stat sententia poenas They all shall pack Sentence once past to their deserved rack The horror of which place he acknowledgeth he could not express Non mihi si centum linguae sint oraque centum Omnia paenarum percurrere nomina possum No heart of man can think no tongue can tell The direful pains ordain'd and felt in Hell It was the common opinion among the poor Heathen that the wicked were held in chains by Pluto so they called Alcoran Mahom c. 14. p. 160. and c. 20 p. 198. the Prince of Devils in chains which cannot be loosed To conclude the very Turks speak of the House of Perdition and affirm that they who have turned the grace of God into impiety shall abide eternally in the fire of Hell and there be eternally tormented I might have spent much more time upon this head but that I don't Judge it expedient considering the persons for whose sakes and satisfaction I have sent this piece into the world But Fourthly The secret checks gripes stings and the amazing horrors and terrors of Conscience that do sometimes Suae quemque ex agitant fu●iae Every man is tormented with his own fury that is his Conscience saith the Philosopher Dan. 5. 5 6. astonish affright and even distract Sinful wretches do clearly and abundantly evidence that there is a Hell that there is a place of Torments prepared and appointed for ungodly Sinners Doubtless it was not meerly the dissolution of Nature but the sad consequent that so startled and terrified Belshazzar when he saw the hand-writing on the wall Guilty Man when Conscience is awakned fears an after-reckoning when he shall be paid the wages of his crying sins proportionable to his demerits Wolsius tells you of one John Hufmeister that fell Sick Wolf lect Memor Tom. 2. c. in his Inn as he was Travelling towards Auspurg in Germany and grew to that horror that they were fain to bind him in his Bed with Chains where he cryed out That he was for ever cast off from before the Face of God and should perish for ever he having greatly wounded his Conscience by Sin c. James Abyes who suffered Martyrdom for Christs sake and the Gospels as he was going along to Execution he gave all his Money and his Cloaths away to one and another to his Shirt upon which one of the Sheriffs Attendants scoffingly said That he was a mand man and a Heretick But as soon as the good man was Executed this Wretch was struck Mad and threw away his Cloaths and cryed out That James Abyes was a good man and gone to Heaven but he was a wicked man and was damn'd and thus he continued crying out until his death Dionysius was so troubled with fear and horrour of Conscience Cicero that not daring to trust his best Friends with a Razor he used to sindge his Beard with burning coals Bossus having slain his Father and being afterwards Plut. de sera vindict Banquetting with several Nobles arose from the Table and beat down a Swallows Nest which was in the Chimney saying They Lyed to say that he slew his Father for his guilty Conscience made him think that the Swallows when they chattered proclaimed his Parricide to the world Theodoricus the King having slain Boetius and Symmachus Sigonius de occid Imper. and being afterwards at Dinner began to change Countenance his guilty Conscience so blinding his eyes that he thought the head of a Fish which stood before him to have been the head of his Cozen Symmachus who bit his lip at him and threatned him the horrour whereof did so amaze him that he presently dyed Nero that Monster of Nature having once slain his Mother had never-more any peace within but was astonished with Horrours Fears Visions and Clamours which his guilty Conscience set before him and suggested unto him Imo latens in praedio familiares suspectos habuit Xiphil in Nerone c. vocem humanam horruit ad 〈…〉 latratum galli cantumi rami exvento motum terr●batur loqui non ausus ne audiretur He suspected his nearest and dearest Friends and Favourites he trembled at the barking of a Puppy and the crowing of a Cock yea the wagging of a Leaf and neither durst speak unto others nor could endure others to speak to him when he was retired into a private House lest the noise should be heard by some who lay in wait for his life Now were there not a Hell were there not a place of torment where God will certainly inflict unspeakable miseries and intollerable torments upon wicked and ungodly men Why should their Consciences thus amaze torture and torment them Yea the very Heathen had so much light in their natural Consciences as made such a discovery of that place of darkness that some of them have been terrified with their own inventions concerning it and distracted with the very sense of those very torments which their own persons have described As Pigmalion doted on his own picture so were they amazed with their own Comments The very flashes of Hell-fire which Sinners do daily experience in their own Consciences in this world may be an argument sufficient to satisfie them that there is a Hell a place of torment provided for them in another world Fifthly Those matchless easeless and endless torments that God will certainly inflict upon the bodys and souls of all wicked and ungodly men after the Resurrection does sufficiently evidence that there is a Hell that there is a place of torment provided prepared and fitted by God Wherein he will pour forth all the Vials of his Wrath upon wicked and ungodly men Isa 30. 33. For Tophet is ordained of old yea for the King it is prepared he hath made it deep and large the pile thereof is fire and much wood the breath of the Lord like a stream of Brimstone doth kindle it This place that was so famous for Judgment and Vengeance is used to express the torments of Hell the place of the damned Tophet was a place in the Valley of Hinnom it was the place where the Angel of the Lord destroyed the Host of Sennacherib Isa 30. 31 33. King of Assyria and this was the place where the Idolatrous Jews were slain and massacred by the Babylonian Armies when their City was taken and their Carkasses Jer. 7. 31 32 33. and chap. 19. 4 5 6. left for want of room for Burial for meat to the Fowls of Heaven and Beasts of the Field according to the word of the Lord by the Prophet Jeremy And this was the place where the Children of Israel committed that abominable Idolatry in making their Children pass through the fire to

readiness and resoluteness whatsoever calamities or miseries may attend us for Christ's sake or the Gospel's sake Ah what a shame would it be if we should ●ot be always ready to suffer any thing for his sake who hath suffered so much for our sins as is beyond all conception all expression Never was Jacob more gracious and acceptable to his father Isaac than when he stood before him cloathed in the garments of his rough brother Esau then the father smelling the savour of the elder Gen. 27. 27. brothers garments said Behold the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed And never are we more gracious and acceptable to our heavenly father than when we stand before him cloathed in the rough garments of Christ's afflictions and sufferings Oh Christians all your sufferings for Christ they are but in lets to your glorious reigning with Christ Justin Martyr saith that when the Romans did immortalize their Emperours as they called it they brought one to swear that he see him go to Heaven out of the fire but we may see by an eye of faith the blessed souls of Martyrs fly to heaven like Elias in his fiery charriot or like the Angel that appeared to Manoah in the flames By the consent of the School-men all Martyrs shall appear in the Church triumphant bearing the signs of their Christian wounds about them as so many speaking testimonies of their holy courage that what here they endured in the behalf of their Saviour may be there an addition to their glory But Sixthly hath Jesus Christ suffered such great and grievous things for you Oh then in all your fears doubts and conflicts with enemies within or without fly to the sufferings of Christ as your City of refuge Did Christ endure a most ignominious death for thee did he take on him thy sinful person and bare thy sin and death and cross and was made a sacrifice and curse for thee Oh then in all thy inward and outward distresses shelter Psal 90. 1. Psal 91. 1 4 9. thy self under the wings of a suffering Christ I have read of Nero that he had a shirt made of a Salamander's skin so that if he went through the fire in it it would keep him from burning Oh sirs a suffering Christ is this Salamander's skin that will keep the Saints from burning in the midst of burning from suffering in the Dan. 3. 24. 29. Isa 43. 2. midst of sufferings from drowning in the midst of drowning In all the storms that beat upon your inward or your outward man eye the sufferings of Christ l●an upon Zach. 13. 10. Cant. 8. 5. 2 Cor. 2. 14. Eph. 6. 14. the sufferings of Christ plead the sufferings of Christ and triumph in the sufferings of Christ It is storied of a Martyr that writing to his wife where she might find him when he was fled from home oh my dear said he Surius in vita sancti Elzearii if thou desirest to see me seek me in the side of Christ in the cleft of the rock in the hollow of his wounds for there I have made my nest there will I dwell there shalt thou find me and no where else but there In every temptation let us look up to a crucified Christ who is fitted Heb. 2. 17 18. cap. 4. 15 16. and qualified to succour tempted souls oh my soul when ever thou art assaulted let the wounds of Christ be thy City of refuge whither thou maist fly and live Let us learn in every tentation which presseth us whether it be sin or death or curse or any other evil to translate it from our selves to Christ and all the good in Christ let us learn to translate it from Christ to our selves Look as the Burgess of a Town or Corporation sitting in the Parliament house beareth the persons of that whole Town or place and what he saith the whole Town saith and what is done to him is done to the whole Town even so Christ upon the cross stood in our Isa 53. 4 5 6. place and bare our sins and whatsoever he suffered we suffered and when he died all the faithful died with him and in him I have read of a gracious woman who being by Satan strongly tempted replyed Satan if thou hast any thing to say to me say it to my surety who has undertaken all for me who hath paid all my debts and satisfied Divine Justice and set all reckonings even between God and my soul Do your sins terrifie you oh then look up to a crucified Saviour who bare your sins in his own body on the Tree 1 Pet. 2. 24. When sin stares you in the face oh then turn your face The strongest Antidote against sin is to look upon sin in the red glass of Christ's blood Au●tin to a dying Jesus and behold him with a spear in his side with thorns in his head with nails in his feet and a pardon in his hands Hast thou wounded thy conscience by any great fall or falls O then remember that there is nothing in heaven or earth more efficacious to cure the Bern. Ser. 61. in cant wounds of conscience than a frequent and serious meditation on the wounds of Christ Doth death that rides upon the pale horse look gashly and deadly upon thee Rev. 6. 8. Rom. 5. 6 8. oh then remember that Christ died for you and that by his death he hath swallowed up death in victory Oh 1 Cor. 15. 55 56 57. remember that a crucified Christ hath stripped death of his sting and disarmed it of all its destroying power death may buzz about our ears but it can never sting our souls Look as a crucified Christ hath taken away the guilt of sin though he hath not taken away sin it self so he hath taken away the sting of death though he hath not taken away death it self He spake excellently that said that is not death but life wbich joyns the dying man to Christ Ambrosius in 1 Tim. 5. 6. Death will blow the bud of Grace into the flower of Glory and that is not life but death that separates the living man from Christ Austin longed to die that he might see that head that was crowned with thorns Did Christ die for me saith one that I might live with him I will not therefore desire to live long from him all men go willingly to see him whom they love and shall I be unwilling to die that I may see him whom my soul loves Bernard would have us never to let go out of our minds the thoughts of a crucified Christ let these says he be meat and drink unto you let them be your sweetness and consolation your honey and your desire your reading and your meditation your contemplation your life death and resurrection certainly he that shall live up to this counsel will look upon the King of terrors as the King of desires Are