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
A43818	An olive branch of peace and accommodation budding in a sermon preached at Basingshaw Church, to the Lord Mayor Alderman Atkin, together with the representative city, Anno Dom. 1645, on a day of humiliation, appointed on purpose to seek the Lord for the repairing of breaches, and the preventing of further differences growing in the city / by Thomas Hill ...	Hill, Thomas, d. 1653.	1648 (1648)	Wing H2025; ESTC R25713	39,441	50

is a great advantage to thee that thou shalt hear of by and by But if nothing can satisfie thy Conscience thou wouldst appease thy Conscience and quiet it and goest to Prayer and it may be comest to Sermons and yet Conscience nibs thee follows and dogs thee from place to place and thou canst not rest Certainly if thou have such a mis-giving self-condemning heart it is a clear sign that yet God himself is not at peace with thee Sometimes indeed a very honest heart may be troubled and much perplexed I would not have any abuse this for there is a troubled Conscience that is yet a good Conscience because then troubled more for sinning against God then for any thing else But if thy heart do condemn thee for a wilful living in such a sin as being obstinately defective for here the Apostle speaks principally in this in wanting love to the Brethren if your hearts condemn you in this that you do not love truly one another you can have no solid peace For I dare boldly say That there is never a man or woman in the world that hath a good Conscience though a troubled Conscience which may be good when not comfortable but they do love the Brethren and love the Saints and they do not live in any gross sin and they do not allow themselves in any little sin But now if thy heart indeed do condemn thee as not having that which is an undoubted evidence of grace not the lowest degree of grace as thy not wallowing in any sin not allowing thy self in any the least wicked way which is inconsistent with the truth of grace thus explain'd it is a certain sign that thou canst as yet expect nothing but condemnation from God And therefore by way of use Beware O beware of defiling of polluting your own Consciences know this Conscience is Gods servant and therefore cannot be bribed will not be corrupted when once it hath received its Commission from him is awakened by him This is the very nature of Conscience observe it when other things wither and dye then it may be Conscience lives when a mans teeth falls out his hair falls off and his hearing is gone and his eye-sight lost that he cannot see without Spectacles c. according to that elegant description of old age by Solomon then his Conscience begins to live more vigorously when he comes to dye It may be thou that hast been an Atheist and dull hearer twenty or thirty years together and very little more edified by all the Sermons thou hast heard then the seat upon which thou satest for this when thou comest to dye thy Conscience will torment thee Oh! it is a dangerous thing to out live your Consciences you may out-live your Trading and Honor and yet overcome that at least have comfort under it but to lose your Conscience to be Plundred of a good Conscience it is the worst of all Plundrings A man had better lose all the world ten thousand times over then to lose God and Conscience no enemy like to Conscience besides God himself who does imploy and act it a million of enemies are not so much as a terrifying Conscience Divines have a great dispute many of them where Hell should be truly you need never make an enquiry God can make a Hell in any one of your Consciences and if God should open any of your eyes at this time that have lived in wickedness all your days and set Conscience on work to torment thee thou wouldst soon know where Hell is If God should but let one drop of his wrath fall upon thy Conscience at this time and discover what a secret wanton such a one hath been and what a private Drunkard such a one hath been if he should in his holy Justice set this upon thy Conscience thou wouldst have a very Hell in thy bosom Before God advances the souls of the Saints to heaven he can bring down heaven to their souls even so he often makes a hell in wicked mens Consciences before he condemns them into hell And therefore I beseech you because that a bad Conscience is a pledge an evidence of greater condemnation Take heed how you baffle abuse break with your Consciences Give me leave to propose this short Dilemma to you here Instance in any sin either you know it to be a sin or not know it Suppose Drunkenness or in Swearing or in Lying or in Uncleanness or in Sabbath-breaking or in want of love whoever you are you know it either to be a sin or you do not know it if thou dost know it to be a sin what a blinde Atheistical Conscience hast thou if thou dost know it and wilt still live in it then what a festred Conscience hast thou This is plain language but it is very wholesom no danger to hear of it now but if it be your doom to feel it at that left hand when you come to Judgement there it will be too late then you can never make your peace with Conscience but art eternally undone Too many men do deal with Conscience very unwisely as men do with Bayliffs Suppose an Officer should have order to Arrest such a man it may be he will give the Officer Bay lift or Sergeant or what you call him five shillings or ten shillings and he spares him but alas poor man the debt runs on and the Creditor will be at the charge of a new Writ So you come to a Sermon and it may be a spark of Truth falls upon your mindes and you go home a little convinced and what will you do you will go to some company to rub it out this Sermon came close to me but you have a jolly way in London it may be get to a Tavern and drink away with a pinte of Sack Twenty Sermons and with a pipe of Tobacco blow them away so you can wear out those strokes that the Word of God hath had upon you Oh! what call you this there is a simple bribing of the Sergeant but the grand debt runs on still And then it may be God will break thy Estate and take away they wife or children or thou hast lost so much at sea but thou dost comfort thy self I have so much left yet and though you be sad for the present yet you may get up again but then it may be a greater cross comes after this and if all this break not thy Conscience it will break thy neck in the conclusion and send thee packing to Hell out of whence there will be no Redemption Therefore I beseech you consider it if you have a selfcondemining Conscience it argues there is a greater condemnation to be expected Conscience will joyn with God as a Witness and Judge against thee Let me adde this is the next place and endeavor to set it a little more on Conscience as it will never be bribed so it is indeed such

a worm as never dyes In Mark 9. 44. you hear there of a worm that dyeth not and a fire that never will be extinguished I believe some of you know what the head-ake or the Tooth-ake or the Gout or a fit of the stone means suppose Eternity should be added to one of these if you should have an eternal Tooth-ake or an everlasting fit of the Stone would not this be a sad thing Adde eternity to an evil and it makes it infinitely evil What will it be to have an everlasting stinging Conscience a fire flaming in you that never will be extinguished Oh! this will be the woful fruit of such a bad Conscience and therefore take heed of such a self-condemning heart If our heart condemn us not then have we considence towards God To have a self-approving a self-absolving heart before God is a pledge of our acceptation from God When thou shalt come to read over the story of thy life and finde that God hath wrought this grace in thee and that God hath likewise taught thee to walk conscionably before him and to love the Brethren and to love them in deed and in truth Oh! here is a pledge of Gods acceptation of thee for that argues indeed That God is thy God if he have given thee a self-approving heart a self-absolving heart He hath made some impression upon thy heart something of himself there given something that is an evidence of thy sincerity and of his accepting of thee in Christ and that he owns thee in him who by his blood hath satisfied Divine Justice for thy sin and then hast thou grounded confidence towards him Why confidence towards him He is thy God For doubtless as I intimated before if God hath given thee a self-absolving a self-approving heart a heart approving thy self to him according to the rule of the Word God is thy God and God being thy God thou hast confidence in him and mayest go and pray to him as to the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ and in him thy Father and doubt not but God will hear thy Prayers I must forbear the further Confirmation and Explication of this this being the third Exercise and the season hot and divers ancient Citizens present whose chearful patience should not be discouraged And the first Use that I will make of it is this You may please to look back to the former Observation because we shall have occasion they having so great affinity to link them both together a little in the Application A self-condemning heart that argues undoubted condemnation from God A self-absolving heart does intitle us to acceptation with God 1. Take heed then in the first place that you do not rest in such a condition wherein you have not your own hearts to approve you and to absolve you And not to instance in any other particular or to return to those generals we mentioned before I will keep to that that seems to be the Apostles intention here principally speaking of their heart condemning of them for want of love to the Brethren As you profess your selves Christians take heed that you be not found such that your heart does not condemn you as indeed not loving one another in truth not loving one another in reality This day it is an Uniting day as well as a Praying day so far as I understood the intent of it it was in part as to seek God so to prevent and remove all Jealousies and all Obstructions or whatever might hinder a happy Union betwixt the Court of Aldermen and Common-Councel that you might preserve Love and Peace in the City Oh! therefore I beseech you Take heed of any thing that may give occasion to your own hearts to condemn you I have some Arguments to prove I should be glad if you will be well able to answer them that some are in a guilty condition and that however you may complement and bear it out that your hearts are full of self-condemning even in this particular that there is no more true love among you My two Reverend Brethren and Fellow-Laborers have commended Stedfastness Activity and Unity Give me leave now to adde a plain Emphasis to all that to endeavor as God shall enable me to drive this Nail to the head that it may be fastened in every one of your hearts and to put you upon a self-examining and self-considering whether you are able now to approve your selves thus to God That you have Spirits settled and composed and effectually combined in this happy Unity that this might be the glory of London to be a City compact within it self which was the beauty of Jerusalem You have had Zeal for the Publique and have let go your Money blessed be God that hath put it into your hearts to be so zealous yea have lost much Money and many of your Friends and God forbid now you should lose your selves for want of love A great Politician saith That England is a huge mighty Animal he tells you also what he thinks of France and Spain but he gives this Character of England That England is such an Animal that will never dye unless it kill it self Truly I hope the same of London that it will never dye to speak as men unless it kill it self And I know no more compendious method to stifle and undo your selves then for want of love Oh! what a victory would this be to the Blood-thirsty Adversaries when all their plots could not break you you should break one another through your Divisions What a triumph would there be at Oxford how would they insult if that when they could not reach you you should bite and tear one another Blessed be the Lord that hath put it into your hearts to extinguish what sparks there are before they come to flame Too many Citizens I doubt herein do over much resemble their Gardens which are full of goodly Tulyps beautiful to the eye but neither good for pot or smell so they have a pompous love a specious kindeness in exchanging some Visits and Invitations but little or no conference to the good of one anothers souls little or no usefulness to one another in reference to the Publike This appears 1. Because there is so much Envy in the City Now certainly Envy proceeds from want of love for if you did love one another indeed you would heartily rejoyce in one anothers good But alas that such a one should have a Place rather then I and such a one should have more Power and more Influence then I have Oh! many men cannot bear it What call you that truly it is want of love such a man wants love to his Neighbor that he envies and he wants also love to the Publique if he envies another man that is abler to do the Service of the Publique then he is were there love to the Publique if there were any man in the City more active