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
A62579	The remaining discourses, on the attributes of God Viz. his Goodness. His mercy. His patience. His long-suffering. His power. His spirituality. His immensity. His eternity. His incomprehensibleness. God the first cause, and last end. By the most reverend Dr. John Tillotson, late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury. Being the seventh volume; published from the originals, by Ralph Barker, D.D. chaplain to his Grace.	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.; Barker, Ralph, 1648-1708, publisher.	1700 (1700)	Wing T1216; ESTC R222200	153,719	440

will be in a more especial manner severe towards those who take encouragement from his Mercy to disbelieve and despise his threatnings And this God hath as plainly told us as words can express any thing Deut. 29.19 20. And if it come to pass that when he heareth the words of this curse he bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace tho' I walk in the imagination of my heart to add drunkenness to thirst The Lord will not spare him but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoke against that man and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven What ever right and power God hath reserved to himself about the execution of his threatnings he hath plainly declared that of all others those who encourage themselves in a sinful course from the hopes of God's Mercy notwithstanding his threatnings shall find no favour and mercy at his hand whatever he may remit of his threatnings to others he will certainly not spare those who believe so largely concerning the Mercy of God not with a mind to submit to the terms of it but to presume so much the more upon it 4. God hath not been wanting to shew some remarkable Instances of his severity towards Sinners in this World As he is pleased sometimes to give good Men some fore-tastes of Heaven and earnests of their future happiness so likewise by some present stroke to let Sinners feel what they are to expect hereafter some sparks of Hell do now and then fall upon the Consciences of Sinners That fear which is sometimes kindled in Men's Consciences in this life that horrible anguish and those unspeakable terrors which some Sinners have had experience of in this World may serve to forewarn us of the wrath which is to come and to convince us of the reality of those expressions of the Torments of Hell by the worm that dies not and the fire that is not quenched That miraculous Deluge which swallowed up the old World that Hell which was rained down from Heaven in those terrible showers of Fire and Brimstone to consume Sodom and Gomorrah the Earth opening her mouth upon Corah and his seditious company to let them down as it were quick into Hell these and many other remarkable Judgments of God in several Ages upon particular Persons and upon Cities and Nations may satisfie us in some measure of the severity of God against sin and be as it were Pledges to assure Sinners of the insupportable Misery and Torments of the next Life 5. The Argument is much stronger the other way that because the punishment of Sinners is delayed so long therefore it will be much heavier and severer when it comes that the wrath of God is growing all this while and as we fill up the measure of our sins he fills the vials of his wrath Rom. 2.5 And according to thy hard and impenitent heart treasurest up to thy self wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God God now keeps in his dis-pleasure but all the while we go on in an impenitent course the wrath of God is continually increasing and will at last be manifested by the righteous Judgment of God upon Sinners God now exerciseth and displayeth his milder Attributes his Goodness and Mercy and Patience but these will not always hold out there is a dreadful day a coming wherein as the Apostle speaks God will shew his wrath and make his power known after he hath endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction All this long time of God's patience and forbearance his wrath is kindling and he is whetting his glittering sword and making sharp his arrows and this long preparation doth portend a much more dreadful Execution so that we should reason thus from the long-suffering of God God bears with us and spares us at present and keeps in his anger therefore if we go on to provoke him time will come when he will not spare but his anger will flame forth and his jealousie smoak against us This is but reasonable to expect that they who in this World forsake their own mercies the mercy of God in the next should forsake them 4. Another false conclusion which Men draw from the delay of punishment is that because it is delayed therefore it is not so certain the Sinner escapes for the present and tho' he have some misgivings and fearful apprehensions of the future yet he hopes his fears may be greater than his danger 'T is true indeed we are not so certain of the misery of wicked Men in another World as if it were present and we lay groaning under the weight of it such a certainty as this would not only leave no place for doubting but even for that which we properly and strictly call Faith for faith is the evidence of things not seen But sure we have other Faculties besides Sense to judge of things by we may be sufficiently certain of many things which are neither present nor sensible of many things past and future upon good ground and testimony we are sure that we were born and yet we have no remembrance of it we are certain that we shall dye tho' we never had the experience of it Things may be certain in their causes as well as in their present existence if the causes be certain The truth of God who hath declared these things to us is an abundant ground of assurance to us tho' they be at a great distance The certainty of things is not shaken by our wavering belief concerning them Besides the very light of Nature and the common Reason of Mankind hath always made a contrary inference from the long-suffering of God and the delay of present punishment Tho' Men are apt to think that because Judgment is deferr'd therefore it is not certain yet the very light of Nature hath taught Men to reason otherwise that because God is so patient to Sinners in this life therefore there will a time come when they shall be punisht that because this life is a time of tryal and forbearance therefore there shall be another state after this life which shall be a season of recompences And by this argument chiefly it was that the wisest of the Heathen satisfied themselves concerning another state after this life and answer'd the troublesome Objection against the Providence of God from the unequal administration of things in this World so visible in the afflictions and sufferings of good Men and the prosperity of the wicked viz. That there would be another state that would adjust all these matters and set them streight when good and bad Men should receive the full recompence of their deeds The 5 th and last false conclusion which Men draw from the long-suffering of God and the delay of Punishment is this that it is however probably at some distance and