Selected quad for the lemma: peace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
peace_n	conscience_n	good_a	quiet_a	4,842	5	9.8994	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67756	The hearts-index, or, Self-knowledg [sic] together with I. the wonderful change that the word and spirit do work upon the heart when a sinner is converted II. the excellency of grace above nature III. the safety and calm of such as have sued out their pardon in Christ / by R. Younge ...	Younge, Richard.	1667 (1667)	Wing Y160; ESTC R16696	27,579	32

a man hates it also and does the contrary good is to be evil still because honesty without piety is but a body without a soul. All my Religion was either superstition or formality or hypocrisie I had a form of Godliness but denied the power thereof I often drew near unto God with my mouth and honoured him with my lips but my heart was far from him Isa. 25.13 Mark 7.2 to 14. Mat. 15.7 to 10. All which considered viz the means which God had afforded me and the little use I had made thereof left me in a far worse condition then the very Heathen that never heard of Christ. So that it was Gods unspeakable mercy that I am not at this present frying in Hell flames never to be freed God hath sent unto us all his servants the Prophets rising up early and they have been instant in preaching the Gospel both in season and out of season but my carnal heart hath ever been flint unto God wax unto Satan You shall die if you continue in the practise of sin I heard but you shall not die as saith the Devil I believed Sect. 15. Besides all this Suppose I had none of these to answer for neither sins of Commission nor sins of Omission yet Original sin were enough to damn me no need of any more and yet my actual transgressions have been such and so many and my ingratitude therein so great that it might have sunk me down with shame and left me hopeless of ever obtaining pardon for them As see but some small part of my monstrous and devilish ingratitude to so good a God so loving and merciful a Saviour and Redeemer that hath done and suffered so much for me even more than can either be expressed or conceived by any heart were it as deep as the Sea Touching what God and Christ hath done for me in the first place he gave me my self and all the creatures to serve for my use yea he created me after his own image in righteousness and holiness and in perfect knowledg of the truth with a power to stand and for ever to continue in a most blessed and happy condition But this was nothing in comparison for when I was in a sad-condition when I had forfeited all this and my self when by sin I had turned that image of God into the image of Satan and wilfully plunged my soul and body into Eternal torments when I was become his enemy mortally hating him and to my utmost fighting against him and taking part with his onely enemies Sin and Satan not having the least thought or desire of reconcilement but a perverse and obstinate will to resist all means tending thereunto he did redeem me not onely without asking but even against my will so making of me his cursed enemy a servant of a servant a son of a son an heir and coheir with Christ Gal. 4.7 But how have I required this so great so superlative a mercy All my recompence of Gods love unto me hath been to do that which he hates and to hate those whom he loves Christ the fountain of all good is my Lord by a manifold right and I his servant by all manner of obligations First he is my Lord by the right of creation as being his workmanship made by him Secondly by the right of Redemption being his purchase bought by him Thirdly of preservation being kept upheld and maintained by him Fourthly his by Vocation even of his Family having admitted me a member of his visible Church Fifthly his also had it not been my own fault by sanctification whereby to possess me Lastly he would have me of his Court by glorification that he might crown me so that I was every way his God had raised me from a beggar to a great estate But how did I requite him I would not if possible suffer a godly and conscientious minister to be chosen or to abide where I had to do but to bring in one that would flatter sin and flout holiness discourage the godly and incourage the wicked I used both my own and all my friends utmost ability Much more might be mentioned but I fear to be tedious Now argue with all the world and they will conclude that there is no vice like ingratitude But I have been more ungrateful to God than can be exprest by the best Oratour alive It was horrid ingratitude in the Jews to scourge and crucifie Christ who did them good every way for he healed their diseases fed their bodies enlightned their minds of God became man and lived miserably amongst them many years that he might save their souls but they fell short of my ingratitude to God in that most of them were not in the least convinced that he was the Messias sent from God and promised from the beginning But I have not onely denied this Lord that bought me but I hated him yea most spitefully and maliciously fought on Satans and Sins side against him and persecuted his children and the truth with all my might and all this against knowledg and conscience after some measure of illumination which cannot be affirmed of the Jews Yet miserable wretch that I was if I could have given him my body and soul they should have been saved by it but he were never the better for them Sect. 16. Lastly to tell you that which is more strange Notwithstanding all this that hath been mention'd and much more Yet I thought my self a good Christian forsooth yea with that young man in the Gospel I thought I had kept all the commandments Nor was I a whit troubled for sin either original or actual but my conscience was at quiet and I was at peace neither did any sin trouble me Yea I would applaud my self with that Pharisee Luke 18.9 to 15. and say I was not like other men not once doubting of my salvation I ever refused to do what my Maker commanded and yet confidently hoped to escape what he threatned Nor did I doubt of having Christ my Redeemer and Advocate in the next life when I had been a bitter enemy to him and his members in this life Here was blindness with a witness as it is not to be believed how blind blockish men are that have onely the flesh for their guide especially if they have hardned their hearts and feared their consciences with a customary sinning As I could give you for instance a large catalogue of rare Examples how sin hath besotted men and what stark fools carnal men are in spiritual things be they never so wise for mundane knowledg But least it should be taken for a digression or excursion you shall have a list of them by themselves the which I will add as an Appendix to this Discourse or Dialogue In the mean time I have given you a brief of my manifold provocations and great ingratitude to my Maker and Redeemer for otherwise I might be endless in the prosecution thereof It remains that I should

come to deliver his people Whence commonly it comes to pass that those think best of themselves that have least cause yea the true Christian is as fearful to entertain a good opinion of himself as the false is unwilling to be driven from it They that have store of grace mourn for the want of it and they that indeed want it chant their abundance None so apt to doubt their Adoption as they that may be assured of it nor none more usually fear then they that have the greatest cause to hope We feel corruption not by corruption but by Grace and therefore the more we feel our inward corruption the more Grace we have Contraries the nearer they are one to another the sharper is the conflict betwixt them Now of all enemies the Spirit and the Flesh are nearest one to another being both in the Soul of a regenerate man and in all faculties of the soul and in every action that springeth from those faculties The more Grace the more Spiritual life and the more Spiritual life the more antipathy to the contrary whence none are so sensible of corruption as those that have the most Living Souls Sect. 19. Now for Remedy of the contrary there cannot be a better lesson for carnal men to learn than this All the promises of God are conditional to take place if we repent as all the threatnings of God are conditional to take place if we repent not But wicked men as they believe without repenting their Faith being meer presumption so they repent without believing their repentance being indeed Desperation and this observe we are cast down in the disappointment of our hopes in the same measure as we were too much lifted up in expectation of good from them Whence these peremptory presumers if ever they repent it is commonly as Francis Spira an Advocate of Padua did and never did any man plead so well for himself as he did against himself One Star is much bigger than the Earth yet it seems many degrees less It is the nature of fear to make dangers greater helps less than they are Christ hath promised peace and rest unto their souls that labour and are heavy laden and to those that walk according to rule Mat. 11.29 Gal. 6.16 even peace celestial in the state of grace and peace eternal in the state of glory Such therefore as never were distressed in conscience or live loosly never had true peace Peace is the Daughter of Righteousness Rom. 5.1 Being justified by faith we have peace with God But he who makes a Bridge of his own shadow will be sure to fall into the Water Those blocks that never in their life were moved with Gods threatnings never in any streight of conscience never groaned under the burden of Gods anger they have not so much as entred into the porch of this house or lift a foot over the threshold of this school of repentance Oh! that we could but so much fear the eternal pains as we do the temporary and be but so careful to save our souls from torment as our bodies In the mean time the case of these men is so much the worse by how much their fear is the less It faring with the soul as with the body Those diseases which do take away all sense of pain are of all others most desperate As the dead palsie the falling sickness the sleepy lethargy c. And the patient is most dangerously sick when he hath no feeling thereof In like manner whilest they suppose themselves to be free from judgment they are already smitten with the heaviest of Gods judgments a heart that cannot repent Rom. 2.5 In a Lethargy it is needful the Patient should be cast into a burning Feaver because the senses are benummed and this will waken them and dry up the besotting humours So in our dead security before our conversion God is fain to let the Law Sin Conscience and Satan loose upon us and to kindle the very fire of Hell in our souls that so we might be roused out of our security but thousands of these blocks both live and depart with as great hopes as men go to a Lottery even dreaming of Heaven until they awake in Hell For they too often die without any remorse of conscience like blocks or as an Ox dies in a ditch Yea thousands that live like Laban die like Nabal which is but the same word inverted whilest others the dear children of God die in distress of Conscience For it is not every good mans hap to die like Antonius Pius whose death was after the fashion and semblance of a kindly and pleasant sleep However St. Austins rule will be sure to hold He cannot die ill that hath lived well and for the most part He that lives conscionably dies comfortably and departeth rich And so you see how it fares with the wickedest and worst of men Wherefore if you are truly sensible of your wretchedness it is a good sign that you are in some forwardness to be recovered and really to become so good as formerly you but dreamed or imagined your self to be And indeed the very first step to grace is to feel the want of grace and the next way to receive mercy is to see your self miserable Therefore our constant and most diligent search should be to find out the naughtiness of our own hearts and to get strength from God against our prevailing corruptions Sect. 20. Loose Libertine But is there any hope for one so wicked as I who have turned the grace of God into wantonness applying Christs passion as a warrant for my licentiousness not as a remedy and taking his death as a license to sin his Cross as a Letters patent to do mischief As if a man should head his drum of rebellion with his pardon For I have most spightfully and malitiously taken up Arms against my Maker and fought against my Redeemer all my dayes Convert Do but unfeignedly repent you of your sins and forsake your former evill wayes and lay hold upon Christ by a true and lively faith my soul for yours God is very ready to forgive them be they never so many and innumerable for multitude never so hainous for quality and magnitude Yea I can shew you your Pardon from the great King of Heaven for all that is past the which you may read at large Isa 55.7 Ezek. 18.21 to 29. and 33.11 Joel 2.12 13 14. Yea read 1 Cor. 6.10 11. together with the story of Manasses Mary Magdalen the Thief and the Prodigal Son and you shall see presidents thereof Yea the very murderers of the Son of God upon their serious and unfeigned repentance and stedfast believing in him received pardon and salvation And indeed despair is a sin which never knew Jesus True every sin deserves damnation but no sin shall condemn but the lying and continuing in it True repentance is ever blest with forgiveness And know this that Gods mercy is greater than thy