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
B10034	Of the day of grace, or, A discourse concerning the possibility and fear of its being past before death shewing the groundless doubts, and mistaken apprehensions of some as to their being finally forsaken and left of God, with the dangerous symptomsand approaches of others to such a sad state, in four sermons from Psalm LXXX1. 11, 12 / by John Shower.	Shower, John, 1657-1715.	1694 (1694)	Wing S3679A; ESTC R184224	54,234	156

Repentance the Argument will be as strong against repenting then as it is for delaying now He will then adjourn it to some distance season 3. DO You know what Repentance is that you will venture upon sin with a Design to Repent That is that you will continue to do that which you● resolve and intend to wish you had never done to be heartily sorry that you were such Fools as to do it You resolve to do that which you resolve to be ashamed of and to loath your selves for and would give all the World if it were in your Power that you had not done it For this is implied in Repentance Now is it becoming the Wisdom and Reason of a Man thus to act 4. ART Thou sure to live to that time unto which thou delayest thy Repentance and Turning to God With how many every week is that the Case who intend to Repent some time or other but dye before the time comes VI. WHAT If God should give thee over to thine own Hearts Lusts May he not justly leave thee to the hardness of thine impenitent Heart Doth not such a Carriage of thine deserve it If thou wilt go on from Month to Month from year to year in the neglect of known Duties under the Convictions of Conscience that thou art not yet turned to God or recon●iled to him thou wilt I say yet go on and continue as thou art though thy Heart tell thee if thou dye in this Condition thou must perish and thou hast nothing to relieve thee in this sad Case but only an Intention to Repent some time hereafter O how Justly may God deny that Grace to Thee which thou hast so long abused and forfeited and wilt not now Accept How righteously mayst thou be sealed up to Destruction by Gods forsaking of thee VII THERE is another sort whose Case is exceeding dangerous viz. Who often fall into the same sins which they Repent of and are sorry for After they have sinned they Repent of those sins again and after some Repentance they commit the same sins again and so have the Aggravations of sinning against Knowledge Now to him that knoweth to do good and doth it not that knoweth what is evil and forbears it not to him it is sin with a Witness Jam. 4.7 He that knew his Masters Will and did it not shall be beaten with many stripes Luk. 12.49 It is a dreadful passage though spoken of Apostates from the Profession of Christianity unto Judaism or Heathenism Heb. 10 26 27 28 29. That such as sin after the Knowledg of the Truth there remains no more sacrifice for such sins For what further Guilt may not such sins against Knowledge bring them to and issue in Doubtless the more you know and have considered the Issue and Consequence of such sins as by renewing your Repentance is implied that something of this kind has been done the more aggravated is your Sin afterward and the more dangerous your Case And the more struggle and striving there has been of Conscience against Corruption and yet thy Lusts have carried the day and got the victory over Conscience The more Vows and Promises of Amendment that you have made and broken and sinned against repenting of your Repentance as Pharoah did the greater is your sin and Danger The more Warnings you have had of God by his Providence and the more awakening Calls of his Word ●nd yet you continue this Course of ●●●ning and repenting of repenting and sinning still the more dangerous is your Case Especially under a professon of Religion For in a little time Conscience thus affronted is like enough to be hardened and to be seared as with an hot Iron 2 Thess 2.12 And God may give you up to an impenitent Heart leaving you to commit the grossest Abominations without shame or Remorse as he did the Gentiles Rom 1.21 24 26 28. If such be ever awakened to Repentance in this World this very Consideration will pierce them to the Heart this will make them ready to despair That as the Apostle said of himself I did it ignorantly therefore I obtained Mercy They will be ready to cry out against themselves I did so and so but it was against Knowledge therefore there is no Mercy for me There remains for such without Repentance a most fearful Punishment And a fearful looking for and Expectation of such Punishment in the Consciences of those who have sinned at this rate And there be very Few of those who have lived long under the preaching of the Word and continued to sin thus against Knowledge and Conscience till they were old very few such are recovered to Repentance Certainly the greater the Knowledge is you sin against the more you provoke God to give you up to a reprobate Mind and to leave you to hardness of Heart VIII WHEN Notwithstanding the Profession of Religion and outward Attendance on the Duties of it yet sin has the Dominion and Mastery in the Soul and sensual Inclinations are indulged without restraint even as to gross and notorious sins There are some Backsliders who would formerly have started back at such or such a Temptation who can now boldly enter into it readily yield and are easily overcome without Concern or struggle Sin has the Mastery and Dominion in the Soul they go on to commit it without Check or Fear They consent to its Rule they are willing subjects For to whom you yield your Servants to obey his Servants ye are Rom. 6.6 And that victory which Sin hath got by your own Consent may justly as it commonly doth in the swent bring that Bondage and Slavery under sin which is Judicial and Penal That slavery to sin which at first was voluntary afterwards becomes unavoidable You are held in the Chains of your own sins you are captivated and ovrecome by your own lusts While they promise themselves Liberty says the Apostle they are the Servants of Corruption for of whom a Man is overcome of the same is he brought into Bondage 2. Pet. 2.19 There is less hope of such Men that are grown loose and sensual after they have been forward Professors And they are harder to be recovered than any others For they are more likely to be left of God Some have unwarily said that an open profligate debauched Person is nearer the Grace of God and salvation by Christ than a moral honest Man that is kept from the grosser Pollutions of the World But such Expressions should not make us think that God will invite and wooe us the more earnestly the further our sins have divorced us from him * Dr. Hammonds Sermons p. 275. It is true the Holy Ghost can cleanse and adorn and prepare himself a room in any Heart and soften it and not be repulsed by the most habituate sin or Devil And some have been thus snatched like fire-brands out of the Fire and changed from incarnate Devils to incarnate Saints Yet those extraordinary and rare Examples must

God never punished any Man or Woman with this Spiritual Judgment in Kindness and Love The Third Sermon Psalm LXXXI 12. So I gave them up to their own Hearts lusts and they walked in their own Counsels UPON the Rehearsal of some terrible Threatning when Judgment is denounced or signified to be approaching but the particular Persons are not named who are to be the Subjects of it we may use the Words of the Prophet Daniel chap. 4.29 Before he opened to the King the Import and sense of his ominous Dream The Dream be to them that hate thee O King and the Interpretation thereof unto thine Enemies But such is the Severity and Horrour of this threatned Judgment in the Text that we should not we ought not to wish so much Evil to our worst Enemies but do what we can to prevent it For of all Calamities that can be threatned or inflicted in this World what can be worse than for a Man to be given up to his own Lusts and left to walk in his own Counsels Two or three things we may observe by way of general Inference before I speak to some particular Cases and Questions that relate hereto 1. HOW Much to be pitied is the Ignorance and Folly of sinners that are afraid of any other Calamity more than this I gave 'em up to their own Hearts Lusts is a thousand times worse than if God had given 'em up to the Syrians to spoil 'em or to their most enraged Adversaries to oppress ' em Men are ready to quake and tremble and their Hearts to be moved as the Trees of the Wood are moved with the Wind if a thick or dark Cloud hover over them as to publick or private Affairs If their Health and Ease their Liberties and Estates their outward Priviledges and Advantages are threatened and endangered they presently apprehend themselves concerned to look about them and do their utmost to prevent it But if sin be the greatest Enemy to be given up to sin is the greatest Judgment and should be more feared than Plague or Pestilence or Famine or War or any of those Calamities that Nations and Persons do commonly dread as most Formidable Evils 2. Is it the greatest Judgment to be given up to our own Hearts Lusts How unreasonable is the Displeasure and Anger of Men at the sharpest Methods of Divine Grace that would bring them to Repentance and thereby prevent this sad Catastrophe The most smart Reproofs of the Word the most close Exhortations and Admonitions of Ministers that are now accounted troublesome the most pungent and uneasy Convictions of Conscience and the most afflictive Rebukes of Providence too that have this merciful Design and Tendency they are the real Effects of Kindness as preventive of a greater Mischief even this of being left of God and given up to our own Hearts Lusts What Enemies therefore are they to their own Interest who use such Language as that of the Stubborn Jews Isa 30.10 saying to the Prophets Prophecie not unto us Right things speak unto us smooth things and prophecie Deceits Till God in righteous Judgment resolve and say as he did afterwards Ezek 3.26 Thou shalt no longer be unto them a Reprover Thou shalt be dumb and thy Tongue cleave to the Roof of thy mouth for they are a rebellious House When such as would convince and awaken Men by necessary Reproofs are disliked and their Preaching reckoned a Burden because the Earth is tormented with their Words Revel 11.10 3. HOW wretched and dangerous is their Mistake who think their Case good because their Consciences now trouble them no more They have sinned themselves into such hardness of Heart and searedness of Conscience under such Judicial Blindness and stupidity that the sin which was formerly burdensom as a Mountain they now feel not they bewail it not Conscience that did rebuke them is now silent and fast asleep All things are at peace with them they say and they are glad of it and so is the Devil too God lets them prosper in the World they have no rub in their way to Hell But in the mean time he hath given them over that they shall not be smitten any more that they shall not be troubled with the strivings of his Spirit any more Neither Word nor Rod shall do them good more They applaud themselves in this and rejoyce in it But if to be given up to our own Hearts Lusts be the greatest Judgment there is no storm more dismal than such a Calm or more to be dreaded No Trouble but is better than such Peace No Sickness but is preferable to such Health No Sorrow but is rather to be chosen than such mad Joy Doubt 1. BUT because I would not break the bruised Reed or quench the smoking Flax or sadden the Hearts of those whom God would not have saddened but rather awaken the Joy and assist the Consolation and promote the spiritual Peace of those unto whom it doth of right belong I shall therefore consider some of the Doubts and Objections of several weak or melancholy dejected Christians who on all Occasions argue against themselves and conclude hardly of their own State from every word of Threatening and Terrour against the Ungodly As melancholy People can hardly hear any Disease talked of or described but they presently imagin they have some of the Symptoms of it in their Case WHAT I have said of the Nature and Terrour of this Judgment and of the Methods o● Divine Justice in the Execution of it may make some ready to say I fear lest God hath given me up for I have resisted many of the strivings of the Spirit of Grace and now I think he doth not strive with me any more I have been under the Rod and not bettered by it the Spirit of slumber and of a deep sleep seems to possess me I have outstood many Calls to Repentance and stifled many Convictions of Conscience and contradicted many good Resolutions and broken many Vows and Promises I have backsliden and revolted from God after very hopeful Beginnings Therefore the Punishment of Apostates may Justly be inflected on me I that have casted the good Word of God and of the Powers of the World to come may well fear being left of God so as it should be impossible for me to be renewed by Repentance Heb. 6.7 My Day of Grace is over saith Another my accepted Time past there is nothing so bad but I may Justly fear it For I find I grow worse and worse instead of making progress in Holiness whereas if my Grace were true it would be growing But I find my Corruptions exceeding strong my heart very dead and hard c. Doubtless God has withdrawn his Spirit from me will Another say I have not the Covenant Blessing of a soft Heart a Heart of Flesh I cannot weep a Tear for my sins as once I could I am good for nothing unfit for any spiritual Duty None in the World have