Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	idol_n	knowledge_n	weak_a	1,298	5	9.3976	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61655	A warning to drunkards delivered in several sermons to a congregation in Colchester, upon the occasion of a sad providence towards a young man dying in the act of drunkenness / by ... Owen Stockton ...	Stockton, Owen, 1630-1680.; Fairfax, John, 1623-1700.	1682 (1682)	Wing S5702; ESTC R37594	103,537	210

this great Nation is a wise and understanding people The Israelites worshipped the true God and professed themselves to be the people of God they enjoyed the means of grace and therefore a drunkard of Ephraim was in a worse condition then a drunkard of Moab or Egypt A drunken Israelite was worse than a drunken Heathen That it is far worse for men of knowledge and eminent for profession of Religion to be addicted to this sin of drunkenness than ignorant and prophane men may be made out several ways As 1. When men of knowledge and professors of Religion will frequent Taverns and set tipling at Ale-houses till they are enflamed with strong drink their example will embolden ignorant and young persons to do as they do and may ruin them for ever What the Apostle saith of knowing persons sitting and eating in the Idols Temple 1 Cor. 8.10 11. If any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the Idols Temple shall not the Conscience of him that is weak be emboldned to eat those things which are offered to Idols And through thy knowledge shall thy weaker brother perish for whom Christ dyed The same may I say of sitting at Taverns and Ale-houses If any man see thee which hast knowledge sit and drink and tipple at a Tavern or an Ale-house shall not he that is weak be emboldned to follow thy example and through thy knowledge thy weak brother may perish Eternally What is said of Achan Josh 22.20 That man perished not alone in his iniquity The same may be said of men of knowledge they perish not alone in their iniquities their example draweth multitudes to sin and destruction with them 2. The miscarriages of men of knowledge and professors of Religion cause the name and Gospel of God to be blasphemed Rom. 2.17 23 24. Behold thou art called a Jew and restest in the Law and makest thy boast of God and knowest his will Thou that makest thy boast of the Law through breaking the Law dishonourest thou God For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you When such as are called and accounted the people of God and know his will do break God's Laws this causeth God's name to be dishonoured and blasphemed VVhen David who had a great name for Religion fell into scandalous sins his fall gave great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme his name 2 Sam. 12.14 Because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the child also that is born unto thee shall surely dye As the Philistines rejoyced and triumphed when they heard that Saul and his mighty men fell in the battel 2 Sam. 1.19 20. The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places now are the mighty fallen Tell it not in Gath publish it not in the streets of Askelon least the daughters of the Philistines rejoyce least the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph So do prophane men rejoyce and triumph when they hear of any persons eminent for profession of Religion that fall into any scandalous sins As the Heathen spoke scoffingly of the children of Israel when they went into captivity Ezek. 36.20 These are the people of the Lord and are gone forth out of his Land So are prophane men ready to say when they see professors of Religion overcome with wine or strong drink These are the people of the Lord and yet they will drink and tipple and be drunk as well as other men and thereupon make a scoff at Religion and think by reason of some mens miscarriages that all Religion is nothing else but hypocrisie 3. Sins against knowledge are far greater than sins of ignorance A sin committed against knowledge is so great that a sin of ignorance is as it were no sin compared with it Joh. 9.41 Jesus saith unto them if ye were blind ye should have no sin but now ye say we see therefore your sin remaineth Joh. 15.22 If I had not come and spoken unto them they had not had sin but now they have no cloak for their sin They had not had sin that is not to be understood absolutely for all men have sinned Heathens that never heard of the Gospel as well as other men Rom. 3.23 but it is to be understood comparatively their sin is so great being committed against knowledge against the light of my Gospel that their sin had been none at all compared with their sin as it is now aggravated by being committed against light Yet sins of ignorance are of that heinous nature that they are not explated but by the blood of Christ For there were Offerings and Sacrifices for sins of ignorance under the Law as we may see Lev 4.2 3 13 14 22 23 27 28. Which did type out the expiation of our sins by Christs offering up himself a Sacrifice for us Heb. 9.26 Eph. 5.2 And it is said expresly Heb. 9.22 VVithout shedding of blood is no remission And if sins of ignorance be not expiated but by the blood of Christ and would have procured our being cast into Hell torments for ever what heinous sins are sins against knowledge seeing sins of ignorance are as no sins compared with sins against light 4. Such as sin against knowledge and under a profession of Religion shall have far greater punishment in the other VVorld than ignorant persons Luk. 12.47 That servant which knew his Lords will and prepared not himself neither did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes The Pharisees who were knowing persons being given to oppression and other sins and covering their sins with a profession of Religion our Lord Jesus Christ saith to them Matth. 23.14 Therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation And as such as sin against light and sin under a profession of Religion shall receive greater damnation in the other World so they oft times are punished sooner and more severely in this World than other men Amos 3.2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities Ezek. 9.6 Slay utterly old and young and begin at my Sanctuary VVhen God sends forth his judgments he usually begins at his Sanctuary Attending upon God's Ordinances will be so far from securing impenitent sinners from God's judgments that it will hasten their ruine § Drunkenness is worse in women than in men IV. It is a greater shame to see a drunken woman than a drunken man A drunken woman was in old times accounted a daughter of Belial 1 Sam. 1.13 14 15 16. Eli thought she had been drunken and Eli said unto her how long wilt thou be drunken put away thy wine from thee And Hannah answered and said no my Lord I am a woman of a sorrowfull Spirit I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink Count not thine hand-maid for a daughter of Belial Hannah's answer to Eli implyeth that drunken women were counted daughters of Belial But what is it

A WARNING TO DRUNKARDS Delivered in several SERMONS To a Congregation in COLCHESTER Upon The Occasion of a sad Providence towards a Young Man dying in the Act of Drunkenness By that Reverend Faithful and painful Servant and Minister of Jesus Christ Mr. Owen Stockton lately deceased LONDON Printed by J. R. for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and 3 Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside 1682. To the Worshipful Ralph Cr●●eild Esq and Nathaniel Lawrence Esq Aldermen of Colchester and Justices of the Peace for the County of Essex Gentlemen YOV may believe it is no pleasure to me to complain of the Immorality of a degenerate age and the vast conquests which prevailing vice like a potent Tyrant hath of late years made I say not over the Religion but the very reason of Humane Nature and the Dependencies thereof Which as it is not to be mentioned by good men without lamentation so cannot be dissembled or excused without participation Prophane swearing unclean whoredom and beastly Drunkenness with other too manifest are not only abounding but as the Prophet speaketh mighty sins amongst us strengthned as well by the quality as the number of the guilty It is a prodigious mode of estimation for men to value themselves or be valued by others according to the measure of their intemperate excess Etiam viri fortis accipit nomen qui tamen tanto nequior quanto sub poculo invictior They are the mighty who can drink most wine and the men of strength who can mingle strong Drink as if they envyed that Royal Heathen Name and were ambitious of the Honour of his Inscription upon his Tomb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have been able to drink abundantly and to bear it strongly In the pride of which strength some will have the confidence to glory even while a paralytick trembling no weak evidence of their great atchievements in their Bacchanalia hath disabled their hands to serve their mouth and monstrous swellings have mishaped their Bodies into such unweldie burdens that some are tempted to ask Homines hi an utres verius aestimandi Whither they be not rather Barrels than Bodies of men Fallen Nature even in Heathens have retained some principles of restraint from impudence and excess of vice The Spartanes thought it an effectual preservative of their Children from intemperate drinking to present to their view their drunken Vassals for as drunk as a Beggar hath been the Proverb that beholding their loathsome vomit and ridiculous behaviour they might the more abhorr such gratifying of inordinate appetite which debaseth the honour of a man into the shame of a beast And the very Turks after a fit of Drunkenness will lie day and night crying and praying to Mahomet for intercession But the very Remnants of Conscience and shame seem utterly extinct among some Christians of this generation Surely the days of the Apostles were modest when they that were drunk were drunk in the night but now St. Peter's argument is too weak to refel the accusation for these men may be drunk at the third hour of the day And some do so declare their sin as Sodom and hide it not Drinking and Singing Roaring and Revelling Reeling and Staggering in the open Sun as if they would confute St. Paul and demonstrate Rioting and Drunkenness to be no works of Darkness Yea such credit and power hath Debauchery obtained that it lifts up it self above controul and is impatient to be touched and ready to turn again and rent the wisest reprover And who so is resolved to possess his Vessel in sobriety and Honour doth tantum non forfit his reputation and is in danger to be written among the suspected by those whose God is Bacchus whose Temple the Tavern whose Altar the Table whose Priest the Vintner whose Offering Wine and strong Drink and whose Heaven is sensual Who have arrived to that degree of Atheism as to fortifie their Lusts against their Conscience with the vainest flattery and self deluding conceit that their great pretences of loyalty and zeal for King and Church shall sanctifie the grossest violations of the Laws of Morality both sacred and civil Nay vice will scarce acknowledge it self to violate but even claims a right and calls it self by the name of Vertue According to the Moralist's Character of the worst times Habebitur ebrietati honor et plurimum meri cepisse victus erit saith Seneca Offering excess of Wine is become an Instance of Noble and Generous Entertainment and a part of answerable civility to accept it Guests are scarce made welcome if not made Drunk Such an obliging bond is courting courtesie and complement such force in great examples such arguments applyed of Honour and Loyalty Such colour motion and sparkling in the glass to provoke that he must be a Nazarite or a Rechabite that hath the courage to withstand the power of so great temptation He that will be sober is uncivil and it is an high affront deserving no less than a stab to boggle at life and Soul-destroying Healths or to refuse to be drowned for Company Thus doth the pride of debauchery magnifie it self Hectoring virtue out of its due honour and arrogating an unjust Glory to its own shame What the issue of this great evil will be is the fear of the Good viz. least for the Vomit and filth whereof all Tables are full the Land also in just retribution spue out her Inhabitants That so many Judgments by which Heaven hath contended with a sinful Nation should not only prove it incorrigible but leave it declining into worse is no weak indication of a desperate disease He that hath denovnced Wo to the Drunkards is faithful to keep and Almighty to execute his word Whereof he hath in his righteous providence made many sad and woful Instances As in too many other places so particularly in your Colchester He hath not left himself without witness by a very quick and remarkable judgment upon a young Drunkard twice dead dying dead drunk The Report whereof at least came not short of your special notice May I have leave to speak it God sometimes blest your Town with the happy Ministry of his laborious and faithful Servant Mr. Owen Stockton whose due Character is elsewhere read whose Head Heart Tongue and Pen constantly travelled for the Salvation of precious yet perishing Souls At this warning and amazing stroke as formerly at the destroying Pestilence among you which exercised the labour of his Pen to a considerable Vo ume which yet never saw the light His Spirit like St. Paul's was stirred in him to improve the advantage of so severe a Providence by joyning to it the Word of God committed to his trust hoping that the Sword of the Spirit being therewith sharpned might be the more effectual and mighty through God against this fleshly Lust which warreth against the Soul and hath made more havock of the Sons of men than ever Saul did of the Saints of God In which honourable and