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conscience_n holy_a sin_n sin_v 2,051 5 9.4946 5 true
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A67765 The prevention of poverty, together with the cure of melancholy, alias discontent. Or The best and surest way to wealth and happiness being subjects very seasonable for these times; wherein all are poor, or not pleased, or both; when they need be neither. / By Rich. Younge, of Roxwel in Essex, florilegus. Imprimatur Joseph Caryl. Younge, Richard. 1655 (1655) Wing Y178A; ESTC R218571 77,218 76

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the bread of deceit but men finde it as gravel crashing between their teeth Nor will his troubled conscience suffer him to steal a sound sleep yea he sleeps as unquietly as if his pillow were stuft with Lawyers per-knives I may give ye a hint of these things from the word but onely God and he can tell how the remembrance of his forepast cozenages and oppression occasions his guilty conscience many secret wrings and pinches and gives his heart many a sore lash to increase the fear and horror of his soul every time he calls the same to remembrance which is not seldom As O poor wretches what do they indure how are they immerged in the horrors of a vulned conscience there is more ease in a nest of Hornets then under the sting of such a tormenting conscience He that hath this plague is like a man in debt who suspecteth that every bush he sees is a Sergant to arest and carry him away to prison It was Gods curse upon Cain when he had slain his brother Abel to suspect and fear that every one he met would kill him yea it makes him so afraid of every thing that a very Maulking frights him and it is much that he dares trust his Barber to shave him Dionysius was so troubled with fear and horror of conscience that not daring to trust his best friends with a razor he used to findge his beard with burning coals as Cicero records He is much like a Malefactor in prison who though he fare well yet is tormented with the thought of ensuing judgement It is the hand-writing on the wall that prints bloody characters in Belshazzars heart So that if any should deem a man the better or happier for being the richer he is very shallow as many looking on the outer face of things or see but the one side as they used to paint Antigonus that they might conceal his deformity on the other side see not how they smart in secret how their consciences gripe them Nor does any one know how the shoo wrings the foot but he that wears the same Or admit the best that can come as suppose they can stop consciences mouth for a time or with the musick of their mony play it asleep for the present yet when they lye upon their death-beds it will sting them to the quick For when death hesiegeth the body Satan will not fail to beleagure the soul yea then he will be sure to lay on load for as all corrupt humors run to the diseased and bruised part of the body so when conscience is once awakened all former sins and present crosses joyn together to make the bruise or sore more painful As every Creditor falls upon the poor man when he is once arested Or let it be granted that his con●cience never troubles him on his sick bed and that he have no bonds in his death as the Psalmist speaks Psal. 73. but departs like a Lamb which is not onely possible but probable for more by many thousands go to hell like Naball then like Judas more dye like sots in security then in despair of conscience yet all this is nothing for the sting of conscience here though it be intollerable is but a flea-biting to that he shall endure hereafter where the worm of conscience dyeth not and where the fire never goeth out This is part of sins wages and Satans reward We have sinned therefore our hearts are heavy Isa. 59. 11 12. The sorrows of them that offer to another God as do the covetous shall be multiplyed says holy David Psal. 16. 4. Yea Seneca an heathen could say that an evil life causeth an unquiet minde so that Satans government is rather a bondage then a government unto which Christ giveth up those that shake off his own What his government is you may partly guess at by the servile slaveries he puts his subjects upon As O the many hard services which Satan puts his servants upon and what a bad Master is he when we read that Origen at his onely appointment made himself an Eunuch Democritus put out his own eyes Crates cast his money into the Sea Thracius cut down all the Vines whereas David did none of these Ahaz made his son to pass through the fire Jephta sacrificed his onely daughter as the text seems to import Wicked men think they do God good service in putting his children to death but where do we finde any Religious Israelite or servant of God at such cost or when did God require this of his servants The Prophets and Apostles never whipt nor lanced themselves but Baals Priests did this and more And so of the Papists those hypocrites of late yeers and the Pharisees of old How many sleepless nights and restless dayes and wretched shifts treacherous and bloody plots and practises does covetousness and ambition cost men which the humble and contented Christian is unacquainted with How does the covetous mans heart droop wish his Mammon How does he turmoile and vex his spirit torment his conscience and make himself a very map of misery and a sink of calamity it is nothing so with Christs servants CHAP. XIII I Have much more to enlarge of the miseries of unmerciful and ingrate full Misers but before I speak of them I will give you the reasons and uses of these already dispatcht wherein I will be as brief as may be You see that God may give men riches in wrath and so as they shall be never the better for them but the worse Now that you may not think it any strange thing observe the reasons why and how justly they are so served The first Reason is the unmerciful Misers monstrous unthankfulness for those millions of mercies he hath received from God of which I shall give you an account in the second part this causes God either not at all to give him or in giving him riches to add this you have heard as a curse withall He is unthankful for what he hath therefore have he never so much it shall not be worth thanks He is cruel to the poor therefore he shall be as cruel to himself The poor shall have no comfort of what he hath therefore himself shall have as little The covetous are cozen Germans to the nine leapers thankless persons They are so much for receiving that they never mind what they have received He deals with God as a dog doth with his master who as Austine observes devoureth by and by whatever he can catch and gapeth continually for more Nor hath covetousness any thing so proper to it as to be ingrateful A greedy man is never but shamefully unthankful for unless he have all he hath nothing He must have his will or God shall not have a good look from him yea as the Mill if it go empty makes an unpleasant and odious noise so the covetous man if the Lord does not satisfie his desires in every thing he will most wickedly murmur and blaspheme his