Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	knowledge_n	sin_n	sin_v	2,885	5	9.7377	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27042	A sermon of repentance preached before the honourable House of Commons, assembled in Parliament at Westminster, at their late solemn fast for the setling of these nations, April 30, 1660 / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; England and Wales. Parliament. House of Commons.	1660 (1660)	Wing B1413; ESTC R209398	26,650	54

and to have been cast into the bottom of the Sea Matth. 18. 6. It is a sure and grievous condemnation that waiteth for all that are themselves unholy but to the haters or despisers of the holy Laws and Servants of the Lord how much more grievous a punishment is reserved 3. Enquire also Whether there be none among you that let loose your passions on your inferiours and oppress your poor Tenants and make them groan under the task or at least do little to relieve the needy nor study not to serve the Lord with your estates but sacrifice all to the pleasing of your flesh unless it be some inconsiderable pittance or fruitless drops that are unproportionable to your receivings If there be any such let them Remember their iniquities and cry for mercy before the cry of the poor to heaven do bring down vengeance from him that hath promised to hear their cry and speedily to avenge them Luk. 18. 7 8. 4. Enquire Whether there be none that live the life of Sodom in Pride fulness of bread and idleness Ezek. 16. 49. and that are not pust up with their estates and dignities and are strangers to the humility meekness patience and self-denyal of the Saints That ruffle in bravery and contend more zealously for their honour and preheminence then for the honour and interest of the Lord For pride of apparel it was wont to be taken for a childish or a womanish kind of vice below a man but it s now observed among the gallants that except in spots the notes of vanity are more legibly written on the hair and dress of a multitude of effeminate males then on the females proclaiming to the world that pride which one would think even pride it self should have concealed and calling by these signs to the beholders to observe the emptyness of their minds and how void they are of that inward worth which is the honour of a Christian and of a man It being a marvel to see a man of Learning gravity wisdom and the fear of God appear in such an antick dress I have done with the first part the Remembring of your own evil wayes and doings I beseech you practically go along with me to the next The loathing of your selves in your own eyes for all your iniquities and abominations Every true Convert doth thus loath himself for his iniquities and When God will restore a punished people upon their Repentance he bringeth them to this loathing of themselves 1. A converted soul hath a new and heavenly Light to help him to see those matters of humbling use which others see not 2. More particularly he hath the knowledge of sin and of himself He seeth the odious face of sin and seeth how much his heart and life in his sinful dayes abounded with it and how great a measure yet remains 3. He hath seen by Faith the Lord himself The Majesty the holiness the jealousie the goodness of the eternal God whom he hath offended and therefore must needs abhorr himself John 42. 6. 4. He hath tasted of Gods displeasure against him for his sin already God himself hath set it home and awakened his conscience and held it on till he hath made him understand that the consuming fire is not to be jested with 5. He hath seen Christ Crucified and mourned over him This is the glass that doth most clearly shew the ugliness of sin And here he hath learned to abhor himself 6. He hath foreseen by Faith the End of sin and the doleful recompence of the ungodly His faith beholdeth the misery of damned souls and the Glory which sinners cast away He heareth them before-hand repenting and lamenting and crying out of their former folly and wishing in vain that all this were to do again and that they might once more be tryed with another life and resolving then how holily how self-denyingly they would live He knows if sin had had its way he had been plunged into this hellish misery himself and therefore he must needs loath himself for his iniquities 7. Moreover the true Convert hath had the liveliest tast of mercy of the blood of Christ of the offers and Covenant of grace of reprieving mercy of pardoning mercy of healing and preserving mercy and of the unspeakable mercy contained in the promise of everlasting life And to find that he hath sinned against all this mercy doth constrain him to abhorre himself 8. And it is only the true Convert that hath a new and holy nature contrary to sin and therefore as a man that hath the Leprosie doth loath himself because his nature is contrary to his disease so is it though operating in a freer way with a converted soul as to the Leprosie of sin Oh how he loaths the remnants of his pride and passion his excessive cares desires and fears the backwardness of his soul to God and Heaven Sin is to the new nature of every true Believer as the food of a Swine to the stomack of a man if he have eaten it he hath no rest till he hath vomited it up and then when he looketh on his vomit he loatheth himself to think how long he kept such filth within him and that yet in the bottome there is some remains 9. The true Covert is one that is much at home his heart is the Vineyard which he is daily dressing his work is ordinarily about it and therefore he is acquainted with those secret sins and daily failings which ungodly men that are strangers to themselves do not observe though they have them in dominion 10. Lastly A serious Christian is a workman of the Lords and daily busie at the exercise of his graces and therefore hath occasion to observe his weaknesses and failings and from sad experience is forced to abhorre himself But with careless unrenewed souls it is not so some of them may have a mild ingenuous disposition and the knowledge of their unworthiness and customarily they will confess such sins as are small disgrace to them or cannot be hid or under the terrible gripes of conscience in the hour of distress and at the approach of death they will do more and abhorre themselves perhaps as Judas did or make a constrained confession through the power of fear But so far are they from this loathing of themselves for all their iniquities that sin is to them as their element their food their nature and their friend And now Honourable Worthy and beloved auditors it is my duty to enquire and to provoke you to enquire whether the Representative body of the Commons of England and each man of you in particular be thus affected to your selves or not It concerns you to enquire of it as you love your souls and love not to see the death-marks of impenitencie on them It concerneth us to enquire of it as we love you and the Nation and would fain see the marks of Gods return in mercy to us in your self-loathing and return to God Let

conscience speak as before the Lord that sees your hearts and will shortly judg you Have you had such a sight of your naturall and actuall sin and misery of your neglect of God your contempt of Heaven your loss of precious hasty time your worldly fleshly sensuall lives and your omission of the great and holy works which you were made for have you had such a sight and sense of these as hath filled your souls with shame and sorrow and caused you in tears or hearty grief to lament your sinfull careless lives before the Lord Do you loath your selves for all this as being vile in your own eyes and each man say What a wretch was I what an unreasonable self-hating wretch to do all this against my self what an unnaturall wretch what a monster of rebellion and ingratitude to do all this against the Lord of love and mercy what a deceived foolish wretch to preferre the pleasing of my lust and senses a pleasure that perisheth in the fruition and is past as soon as it s received before the manly pleasures of the Saints and before the souls delight in God and before the unspeakable everlasting pleasures was there any comparison between the bruitish pleasures of the flesh and the spirituall delights of a believing soul in looking to the endles pleasure which we shall have with all the Saints and Angels in the glorious presence of the Lord Was God and glory worth no more then to be cast aside for satiating of an unsatisfiable flesh and fancie and to be sold for a harlot for a forbidden cup for a little aire of popular applause or for a burdensome load of wealth and power for so short a time where 's now the gain and pleasure of all my former sins what have they left but a sting behind them How neer is the time when my departing soul must look back on all the pleasures and profits that ever I enjoyed as a dream when one awaketh as delusory vanities that have done all for me that ever they will doe and all is but to bring my flesh unto corruption Gal. 6. 8. and my soul to this distressing grief and fear Add then I must sing and laugh no more I must brave it out in pride no more I must know the pleasures of the flesh no more but be levelled with the poorest and my body laid in loathsome darkness and my soul appear before that God whom I so wilfully refused to obey and honour O wretch that I am where was my understanding when I plaid so boldly with the flames of hell the wrath of God the poison of sin when God stood by and yet I sinned when conscience did rebuke me and yet I sinned when Heaven or hell were hard at hand and yet I sinned when to please my God and save my soul I would not forbear a filthy lust or a forbidden vanity of no worth when I would not be perswaded to a holy heavenly watchfull life though all my hopes of Heaven lay on it I am ashamed of my self I am confounded in the remembrance of my wilfall self-destroying folly I loath my self for all these abhominations O that I had lived in beggery and rags when I lived in sin and O that I had lived with God in a prison or in a wilderness when I refused a holy heavenly life for the love of a deceitfull world Will the Lord but pardon what is past I am resolved through his grace to do so no more but to loath that filth that I took for pleasure and to abhorre the sin that I made my sport and to die to the glory and riches of the world which I made my idoll and to live entirely to that God that I did so long and so unworthily neglect and to seek that treasure that Kingdome that delight that will fully satisfie my expectation and answer all my care and labour with such infinite advantage Holiness or nothing shall be my work and life and Heaven or nothing shall be my portion and felicity These are the thoughts the affections the breathing of every regenerate gracious soul For your souls sake enquire now Is it thus with you or have you thus returned with self-loathing to the Lord and firmly engaged your souls to him at your enterance into a holy life I must be plain with you Gentlemen or I shall be unfaithfull and I must deal closely with you or I cannot deal honestly and truly with you As sure as you live yea as sure as the word of God is true you must all be such converted men and loath your selves for your iniquities or be condemned as impenitent to everlasting fire To hide this from you is but to deceive you and that in a matter of a thousand times greater moment then your lives Perhaps I could have made shift instead of such serious admonitions to have wasted this hour in flashy oratory and neat expressions and ornaments of reading and other things that are the too common matter of ostentation with men that preach Gods word in jeast and believe not what they are perswading others to believe Or if you think I could not I am indifferent as not much affecting the honour of being able to offend the Lord and wrong your souls by dallying with holy things Flattery in these things of soul concernment is a selfish vilany that hath but a very short reward and those that are pleased with it to day may curse the flatterer for ever Again therefore let me tell you that which I think you will confess that it is not your greatness nor your high looks nor the gallantry of your spirits that scorns to be thus humbled that will serve your turn when God shall deal with you or save your carcasses from rottenness and dust or your guilty souls from the wrath of the Almighty Nor is it your contempt of the threatnings of the Lord and your stupid neglect or scorning at the message that will endure when the sudden unresistible light shall come in upon you and convince you or you shall see and feel what now you refused to believe Nor is it your outside hypocriticall Religion made up of meer words or ceremonies and giving your souls but the leavings of the flesh and making God an underling to the world that will do any more to save your souls then the picture of a feast to feed your bodies Nor is it the stiffest conceits that you shall be saved in an unconverted state or that you are sanctified when you are not that will do any more to keep you from damnation then a conceit that you shall never die will do to keep you here for ever Gentlemen though you are all here in health and dignity and honour to day how little a while is it alas how little till you shall be every man in Heaven or hell unless you are Infidels you dare not deny it And it is only Christ and a holy life that is your way to Heaven