Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n
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A17286
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The excellency of a gracious spirit Deliuered in a treatise upon the 14. of Numbers, verse 24. By Ier. Burroughes minister of Gods Word.
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Burroughs, Jeremiah, 1599-1646.
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1639
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STC 4128; ESTC S107060
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167,441
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from the common sort of the world for my praise If you had loved them prized them and honoured them as the choice of the earth if if you had followed their example I had not slain you but now you shall perish everlastingly CAP VII No dishonor to be singular Seven notes to discover that godly mens differing from other men proceeds not from proud humourous singularity but from the choicenesse and excellencie of their spirits IF godly men be men of another spirit and this be their commendation why then should any account it to be a dishonour to be singular from the world Singularity is cast upon Gods servants as their disgrace but certainly it is their glory they are singular and their wayes are singular it is true and they avouch it they rejoyce in it and blesse God for it it is impossible but that it should be so for they are of another spirit a peculiar people separated from the world set apart for God their separation is a wonderfull separation Exod. 33. 16. So shall we bee separated sayes Moses I and thy people from all the people that are upon the face of the earth the word is in the Originall We shall be wonderfully separated No marvell then though their singularity bee such as the world who knowes not their principles wonder at it Their wayes are different from other men I that is true indeed who can thinke otherwise Their principles their estates their dignites their hopes are raised higher then other mens Would Saul have been offended if his former acquaintance had complained Oh now Saul hee mindes other things goes on in other waies lives after another fashion then we doe I that is true indeed for his condition is altered his estate is raised higher then yours he hath an other spirit To complaine of Gods servants that they are singular from others is all one as if you should complaine of Pearles that they are more glistering than dirt and gravell Their way their lives are singular Why how would you have them live would you have them live according to the common course of the world they cannot for they have not received the spirit of the world but another spirit When the Spirit of God would set out the greatest misery of men when they are the children of wrath without God in the world without hope it is that they lived according to the common course of the world Ephes 2. 2. And those two are joyned together living according to the common couse of the world and according to that spirit that rules in the children of disobedience So long as they were acted by that spirit they did live so but now there is another spirit that they are acted by and would you have them live so still as they did before Certainly it cannot be You cry out of dissimulation and that justly But what is dissimulation if this be not where there is not a sutablenesse between the inward principles the inward frame and disposition of the spirit and the outward actions Now if Gods people should not live singular lives certainly their outward actions would not be agreeable to the inward principles frames and dispositions of their spirits for they are singular differing from other mens As there may be dissembling for a man to seeme better than he is so there may be dissembling to seeme worse than we are Is there not as much evill in a life differing from the spirit as in a spirit differing from the life If a man seemes to be godly and is not it is an argument the man is vile who will thus play the hypocrite but it is a commendation to godlinesse that men will account the very seeming of it to be honourable but if a man hath godlinesse in his heart and yet his life be no other than other mens this would argue that a man were ashamed of godlinesse it selfe here godlinesse it selfe would suffer as if it were such a dishonourable thing as would bring shame to a man if it did appeare as if though indeed it must be reserved in the heart for necessity sake yet it must be kept downe not suffered to appeare in the life for feare it be a disgrace to men Is not here then as great an evill in this way of dissimulation as in the other Better all the men of the world had shame cast upon them than that godlinesse should have the least staine Surely then where the spirits of men be other spirits singular choice spirits their lives ought and must needs be other lives singular from other men Their conscience witnesse to them that their spirits are changed that they are other from that they were yea and witnesses for them that their lives are other lives singular from other men and in this witnesse their soules rejoyce But is there not a proud phantasticall singularity may not pride sullennesse and fancie carry men on in singular wayes differing from other men conceiting themselves to be wiser than others loving to satisfie some odde humours of their own If it were any choicenesse or excellency of their spirits it were another matter we would not speake against them but it is this proud hypocriticall humorous singularity we speake against To this I answer If you indeed should do as they doe if you should live after a different manner from the common course of the world having no other principles than those you have it would certainly bee singularity pride hypocrisie and humour in you and thus your consciences would tell you and that because you had not principles to carry you out in this way you have not spirits sutable to it and you judging of others by that you seele in your selves this makes you to thinke the different wayes of Gods servants is onely from pride and humourous singularity yea and they themselves know that there was a time indeede where in if they should have done as now they doe it would have beene no other in them then that you now accuse them of namely when their spirits were as other mens spirits are but now they know they have other principles other qualifications of spirit then formerly they had But surely you doe not thinke indeed that their different lives doe come from proud and humourous singularitie for if you did why doe your consciences so well approve of them when you lie on your sicke beds when you apprehend your selves going before the great God then you could wish it were with you as it is with them But what say you if you thought it were not from this pride and conceitednesse you speake of then you would thinke it were well then you would joyne in justifying of them if you were sure it were from a choyce excellent spirit in them Well then let Gods servants rejoyce in this that they know it is not from pride that it is not from humour that they run not into excesse of riot as others doe but from the worke of
shall follow them with anguish and horrour and fill up their spirits with them It may be once they had some flashy comforts in the performance of some duties but they shall be all taken from them and dismall horror and hideous amazement of spirit shall possesse them Pro. 14. 14. The backslider in heart shall bee filled with his owne wayes Much more than the backslider in heart and life too hee shall bee filled he shall have enough of them Conscience one day will upbraid fly in the face and teare the heart Oh wretched creature what hast thou done whom hast thou forsaken is it not the God of life and peace and comfort and all good that thou hast forsaken are they not the blessed wayes of holinesse the wayes of eternall rest and peace that thou hast left God hath likewise forsaken thee and all good and comfort begins to withdraw it selfe from thee thou art like to bee left in horrid dismall darknesse Just it is that thou shouldst be left as a forsaken forlorne miserable wretch who hast thus wretchedly and vilely forsaken God and his truth for the enjoyment of such poore base things as thy heart is turned aside unto How wilt thou be able to looke upon the faces of those with whom thou hast formerly joyned in holy duties and hast had communion with But how canst thou looke upon the face of the blessed God when hee shall appeare in his glory unto thee What anguish will it bee to thee when thou shalt see others who have continued in their way following the Lord to be for ever blessed in that God whom their soules have followed and cleaved constantly unto but thy selfe because thy base unbeleeving heart dared not venture all upon him now thou art cast out for ever as an eternall curse Oh what rack of conscience will it bee when thou shalt see in what a faire way once thou wert but for want of comming off fully and constantly in such and such particulars thou art now for ever lost Lastly these men are hatefull both to God and Men they are hatefull to Men because they goe so farre and to God because they goe no further as Hebr. 10. 38. If any man draw back my soule shall have no pleasure in him Oh what a happy thing were it if God would trouble the wayes of these poore creatures if hee would make them bitter and grievous to them if hee would magnifie his mercy and his power in turning their hearts againe towards him if hee would deale with them as hee did with his people Hosea 2. 6. 7. Hedge up their wayes with thornes make a wall that they should not find their paths that so they might at length come to that blessed resolution wee find there I will goe and returne to my Husband for then it was better with me than now So I will goe and returne to my former wayes and follow after the Lord againe from whom I have wretchedly departed for then it was better with me then it is now then I had more comfort more peace more safety more blessing than I have now And let such know that though it were just with God for ever to reject them who have forsaken him just to say that vanity should bee their portion who have turned after lying vanities and many of the Ancients have made the case of such exceeding doubtfull especially if after conviction they have forsaken God againe and againe as Clemens Alexandrinus thought that God might give such the first and second repentance but if they fell oftner there was no renewing them by repentance And Origen seemed likewise to bee of the same minde in his 5. Homily upon Leviticus Chap. 25. So Tertullian in his Book of repentance God grants saith hee a second repentance but no further Thus we see the strictnesse of these Ancient times But though these leave these men exceeding comfortlesse yet let them know that the Lord cals them to returne again unto himselfe For though it be saith the Lord that if a wife have played the harlot and shee be put away and become another mans her husband will not receive her again yet saith the Lord Ier. 3. 1. Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers but yet returne to mee and verse 22. Returne yee back-sliding children and I will heale your back-slidings Oh that your hearts would answer as theirs there did Oh that this gracious offer of the Lord might have the same effect upon your hearts as it had upon theirs Behold say they wee come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God truely in vaine is salvation hoped for from the hils c. Wee see wee see wee have beene utterly deceived the wayes that wee have chosen have not beene good shame hath devoured our labour wee have bestowed our labour in shamefull things we lie downe in our shame and our confusion covereth us for wee have sinned against the Lord our God As when a man goeth from the Sunne yet the Sunne-beames follow him shine on him warme him so though thou hast departed from the Lord yet the beames of Gods mercy this day follow thee they shine on thee Oh that they might so warme thy heart as to cause thee to returne CAP. IV. Comfort and encouragement to those who follow the Lord fully IF this following of the Lord fully be the honour of the Saints before the Lord then here is comfort and encouragement to those whose conscience doth witnesse that their hearts and wayes are fully after the Lord. What ever others do yet there are a generation of men in the world who doe fully follow the Lord Blessed are you of the Lord you are honourable in the eyes of God and man you make up in part that hurt that is done to Religion by others you bind up the wounds of Jesus Christ and do in part heale his scarres If you bee content to give up all to God to betrust God with all know that there are many blessed promises full of mercy and encouragement for you that God will make good to the full unto you yea they shall come to you fuller of goodnesse and blessing than you can imagine Caleb challenged this promise of God to him made in this place upon this ground Ioshuah 14. 8. five and forty yeares after it was made for hee was but forty yeares old when hee went to spie out the Land and when hee challenged this promise in this place bee saith verse 10. I am this day fourescore and five yeares old Though God may seeme to deferre a while the fulfilling of his promise yet bee encouraged to follow him still for the eye of God is upon you to make good his word unto you and the longer it stayes the more full with good and blessing it will come God seemed to deferre a long time that promise he made to Abraham That hee would make his seed as the starres of heaven for two hundred and fifteene