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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94173	Ten lectures on the obligation of humane conscience Read in the divinity school at Oxford, in the year, 1647. By that most learned and reverend father in God, Doctor Robert Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln. &c. Translated by Robert Codrington, Master of Arts.	Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663.; Codrington, Robert, 1601-1665.	1660 (1660)	Wing S631; ESTC R227569	227,297	402

defective in those things which are beyond its Sphear of which nature are the mysteries of Faith and weak in those things which are a little more remote from those precepts which are most universal in those cases I say we must have recourse to the light of the word as to a light shining in a dark place 2 Pet. 1. 19. To the Law and the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them Ifa 8. 20. Thy word is a Lantern unto my feet and a light unto my path Ps 119. 105. If I should enlarge my self upon the perfection and the profit of this Law there would be no end of my discourse See on this Subject the nineteenth Psalm where there you shall find much in few words and concisely And the hundred and nineteenth Psalm where you shall find the same things in more words and more largely represented XXVII Moreover there are two parts of this Law the Law properly so called and the Gospel I do not here understand the Law and the Gospel in that sence as for the most part it is taken by Divines for the two Covenants made by God with man The covenant of Works and the covenant of Grace but in the more common acceptation for the Books of the old and new Testament which the Fathers not unaptly for this purpose have called the old Law and the new Law but both these Laws all the whole Law of Moses and the new Law of Christ for that part of it which containeth moral institutions is cryed down by the Antinomians the Anabaptists and Enthusiasts and other prodigious names of a generation of people of our age as altogether unprofitable and unworthy of the care and study of a Christian after he is come to be of age in Christ and annoynted with the unction of the Spirit They will admit of no Law but only the Law of Faith and the Dictates of the Spirit I am not at leasure now to confute them neither indeed is it very needfull seeing that the Apostle James hath long since so opposed the Monsters of such errours as if by some Prophetick Spirit he had on purpose undertaken the Confutation of them XXVIII The old Law which is called the Mosaical Law is distinguished into three parts the Moral the Ceremonial and the Judicial Of every one whereof many things are diversely disputed by many men I shall at this time passe them by and briefly propound unto you what I conceive of the obligation of them reserving in the mean time to every man his own Judgment I say therefore in the first place That no Law at all delivered by Moses doth formally directly and by its self oblige the Conscience of Christians as it is the Law delivered by Moses my reason is that every Mosaical Law as Mosaical was positive and a Law positive doth oblige none but those only on whom it is imposed Seeing therefore that the Law delivered by Moses was only imposed on the peculiar Nation of the Hebrews as may easily appear to any man that will observe but the beginning of it Hear Israel and the whole Addresse of the folowing discourse it cannot so appertain unto those who are out of the number of that Nation as by that account to oblige them because delivered by Moses But if any part of that Law doth now oblige Christians as certainly the Commandements of the Decalogue are obliging it commeth to passe by Accident and ratione materiae by reason of the matter not because Moses so commanded but because that which hath been commanded by him is either agreeable to the Law of Nature or confirmed in the new Law by Christ himself XXIX I say in the second place That the Ceremonial Law of Moses doth oblige the Jewes in their Consciences before the Gospel of Jesus Christ was preached to them but not other men unlesse those only who were Proselytes of the Jewish Religion and worship who consisting of two kinds Proselytae Portae and Proselytae Justitiae so called by the Jews that is to say Proselytes of the Gate and Proselytes of Righteousnesse were obliged to the observation of the Ritual precepts Those of the former kind were obliged to the fewer but those of the latter as the Jews themselves were obliged to the observation of them all Now from the time of the Death and Resurrection of Christ since the Gospel began first to be preached to the Jews and afterwards to the Gentiles until the eversion of the Temple of Jerusalem and the Jewish Common-wealth this Law indeed was dead if we love to speak after St. Augustine but not deadly which is to say that it had lost the force of obliging but the Rites and Ceremonies delivered by Moses were not altogether unlawful but left as indifferent to the observation of every man so that it was lawful for any one according to the emergency of the occasion to use the freedom of his own will and to use them or not to use them a due respect being always had to Prudence and Charity And that this was the sence of St. Paul is so manifest both by his constant Doctrine and his Practice that there needeth no proof of it And after the eversion of the Temple it was spoken by diverse men that this part of the Law of Moses was not only dead but mortiferous which unlesse it be rightly applyed and with a prepared Distinction I am affraid will be found to be more wittily than solidly expressed For all Ceremonies are not alike to be esteemed But those which concern Order and Decency are wisely to be severed from those which were the Figures of Christ to come for those figurative Ceremonies which were instituted by God to be Types of Christ our Redeemer to come in the Flesh such as were Circumcision sacrifices and many such like became certainly of no use after Christ did really fulfill all things which were typically figured in those Ceremonies and sufficiently declared to the whole world by the Preachers of his Gospel that all those things were rightly fulfilled they are therefore to be taken away not only as dead and rotten but are most carefully to be shunned by every true Christian as deadly and pestiferous and above all things it must most precisely be taken heed unto that they be not observed with any opinion of necessity according to that Gal. 5. 2. I Paul say unto you if you be circumcised Christ will profit you nothing But those Ceremonies which pertain only to the outward Decency in the solemnity of the Divine-worship although peradventure it were better not to use them where a just cause of offence may be given yet they are not simply to be condemned as unlawfull upon this bare account that they are a part of the Mosaical paedagogy XXX I say in the third place That although many do distinguish betwixt those Political Laws of Moses which were of a common right of which they

Democraty the chief and Soveraign power consisteth in many Magistra●es yearly chosen by popular Suffrages or by certain other Intervalls of time and this heretofore was the state of the people of Rome when they were governed by Consulls Praetors Tribunes of the people Aedils and other yearly Magistrates and from hence proceed those Expressions which oftentimes we find in Tully Populi Romani Majestas laesa populi Majestas Visum est Senatui populoque Romano The Majesty of the Romane people The injured Majesty of the people it seemed good to the Senate and the people of Rome c. In a state Aristocratical the same Majesty resideth amongst some of the Lords and Nobles whom in some places they call Illustrissimoes in others the Peers of the Land and in other places again they receive other titles and appellations according to the custom of the Nation Amongst whom although peradventure but one as in the Common-wealth of Venice or more of them may have a preheminence of place and dignity above the rest being as it were a certain Primacy of Order which heretofore was the Honour of the Bishops of Rome and some Patriarchs in their Councils yet no man was so superiour above the rest in power that by his own authority he could judge any one of them neither could he himself be judged unlesse it were by all of them altogether Some form of this Government is still retained by our Mayors and Aldermen in our Cities and by the Heads and Fellows of Colleges in our Universities and although as it were but in a shadow yet in some manner they do represent it to us But in a Monarchial Government as the Name it self implies the chief Power is resident in the Person of the King alone whereupon St. Peter a most excellent Interpreter of St. Paul doth admonish the Christian People to obey the King as their superior that no man might any more doubt of whom St. Paul speaketh when he maketh mention of the higher Powers Ro. 1. 3. 1. Samuel also the Prophet of God doth so propound unto the people the fulness of the Kingly Power to be considered of by them 1 Sam. 8. That if a King the supreme in his Kingdom should act all those things which in that Chapter it is manifest that it is lawful for him to do upon no just Cause but upon the meer desire of Domination and to show himself a Tyrant and not a King although he wanted not Sin before God yet he ought not to have any force to be put upon him by the People nevertheless he may justly be said to have abused his Power but his own Power Amongst us English what more certainly or more cleerly can appear unless at noon we choose rather to be blind than open our eyes than that the supreme Power of the three Kingdoms doth intirely appertain to the Kings most excellent Majesty whom we are accustomed to render more remarkable by the title of Majesty not only according to the common use of speaking but in our solemn Ordinances and in all our forms actions of Law in the taking of an oath laying our hands upon the Gospel of the eternal God we acknowledg him the supreme yea the only supreme Governour of all persons and Causes in his Kingdoms VIII In the fourth place we are to understand That when we say the Power of making Lawes is in the King alone It is not so to be understood as if we meant that whatsoever the King is pleased to command shall immediatly obtain the force of a Law for by and by I will show unto you that some Consent of the People themselves and many other things are required to the Constitution of Law but this is that which I would hold forth unto you that the Counsels of the People Senate and other Demands of the Peers People or any whomsoever doe not oblige the Subjects nor do carry with them the Power of a Law unlesse they are strengthened and established by the Authority of the King to which being maturely and duely prepared as soon as the Consent of the King accedeth they immediatly receive the Name the Form and Authority of a Law and forthwith begin as soon as they are published to oblige the Subjects Therefore seeing that only is to be esteemed to be the Principal and the efficient Cause of any thing which by it self and immediatly produceth and into a prepared matter introduceth that Form which giveth to that Thing both the Name and the Being although other things ought to concurre to the production of that Effect or to go before it as so many praevious dispositions that so the matter may be rendred more apt to receive the Form intended by the Agent It is most manifest whatsoever those things are which antecedently are required to the Constitution of a Law yet the will of the Prince from whose Arbitration and Command alone all Rogations of Lawes are either established or made void is the only adaequate and efficient Cause of Publick Laws IX These things being premised The Position is confirmed by many Arguments And first by the Testimony of Holy Scripture First Gen. 49. 10. in that remarkable Testament of the Patriarch Jacob being about to dye The Scepter shall not be taken away from Judah nor a Law-giver from his Thigh is a Prophecy of the future Royal Dignity of that Tribe which the holy old man doth periphrastically describe and to the Confirmation of it he mentioned the Scepter the most remarkable witnesse of Kingly Authority and the Legislative Power the chiefest Perogative of it Secondly Deut. 33. 4 5. Moses was said to be a King in Israel because having gathered together all the Tribes of the People he gave them a Law to observe Thirdly Psal 60. 7. Judah is my Law-giver that is King And the vulgar Interpretation reads it Judah is my King In the Text now in hand Prov. 8. 15. By me Kings reign and the makers of Laws do decree just things where which is usual with Solomon in the whole Book of the Proverbs that the latter part of the verse doth contain an Amplification or Antithesis the very same Persons who in the beginning of the verse are called Kings in the latter part by way of Amplification are called Makers of Lawes Fiftly In the new Testament St. James also maketh mention 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Royal Law X. Secondly It is confirmed by the Testimonies of Philosophers and Historians and by the Authority of the Civil Laws and the municipal Laws of our Nation The thing being so manifest we shall be content to give you but few Examples Aristotle Plutarch and almost an infinit Number of other Authors of great Estimation do all affirm that we must have a Law and the Law of the Prince But that of Ulpian is very remarkable which he hath in his Book of the Roman Laws Quod principi placuit Legis vigorem habet What pleaseth the Prince hath the

morally good or bad as to serve God to honour our Parents to restore the pledge to oppresse the poor to plunder to keep or to break our trusts and all other things which the Philosophers call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is worthy praise or reproof and the Schoolmen meritorious or demeritorious And these things are properly the objects of Conscience XXIII The object therefore of the Conscience of man is a moral operable that is either done or to be done either omitted or that may be omitted Neverthelesse it is to be advertised that in men as they are Christians the object of the Conscience is further to be extended and not only oblige them to the performance of their duties as they are men but to believe the mysteries of Faith revealed in the word of God as they are Christians for infidelity doth cause the Conscience to be impure T it 1 15. And the Conscience doth sting that man as much who dispiseth what he vowed in Baptism to believe as him who violates the commandment which he promised to keep And it may not unfitly peradventure be said that even the Evangelical Faith it self is to be accounted amongst the moral operables They are the express words of our Saviour This is the work of God that you believe in his Son Joh. 6. 29. And the like in the first Book of the Apostle St. John the third Chapter and twenty third verse This is his Commandment that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ as he hath commanded us XXIIII The last member of the Definition remaineth which is The proper act of Conscience to wit the application of the light which is in the mind by the discourse of reason to particular Acts I say in the first place that application is the proper and primary Act of the Conscience That Axiome in the Schooles is in every mans mouth That of one Habit there is but one Act to wit the primary and the chief and unto which all the other Acts pertaining to it may be reduced It may sufficiently appear by what is already spoken that there are many Acts of the Conscience in the Species of it but what is that most common Act which brings all the other within its compasse is most of all to be inquired after for no other Act but that prima●ry one which is adaequate unto Habit and to which all other Acts are reduced ought to come into the Definition of Habit And hereupon it is that many when they observed that most of those Acts exercised by the Conscience may in some measure be referred to the Act of judging for the Conscience doth judge of Acts past present and to come they concluded that this primary Act was the Act of judging But there are some Acts of Conscience which cannot but hardly and with restraint be referred to it As that Act for example by which the Conscience gives testimony of some thing committed or omitted For it is not for a Judge to be a witnesse nor for a witnesse to pass judgement on a Trespasse Moreover that Act of judging doth necessarily presuppose the Act of applying as going before it for it cannot be but that the Conscience must first apply the Fact which it is about to judge to the light of the mind before it can give true judgment on it And this Act of application is very neer of kine to the derivation of the word of which I have before spoken that Conscience is so called because it is an application of knowledge unto knowledge XXV In the second place I say that this application is an application of the light which is in the mind that is of the light present to the mind at that time when the Application is made whether it be that light of Nature viz. common notions written in the Hearts of men by the dictates of nature and kept in the Synteresis or guiltlesse conservation of the mind as a treasure snatcht from the Common fire and the reliques of the Image of God after the Fall or whether it be a light of Divine revelation either extraordinary by Visions Dreams and Prophesies or ordinary being laid open to mankind in the bookes of the old and new Testament Or lastly whether it be the light of reason to wit whatsoever from the principles of both kinds from the law of nature and the Divine revelation is so immediately and evidently deduced that no man who doth grant the one can doubt of the other XXVI In the third place I do say that this light is applyed by the discourse of reason for this light that is to be applyed being quid universale something universal and that which it is applyed to being particular or singular Acts such an application cannot be made but by the mediation of this discourse of reason which is able to unite Universals unto Singulars And this is the work of Reason by such a Syllogism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist 1. Poster 17. or such practical Syllogisms as already I have exhibited unto you Moreover it often comes to pass as it is commonly spoken and experience doth prove it to be true that we erre by going downwards and so it is that although we do not easily fall into an errour concerning the Prima Universalia principia the universal principles which do carry with them a greater evidence yet in the application of those principles and in deducing conclusions from them errours most often are committed wherefore we must use the greater care 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot 2. Metaph. 1. and diligence that we do not deceive our selves but that in this discourse of reason all things be exactly considered that so we may justly proceed and as legitimately and duely conclude XXVII Fourthly I say that this application ought to be made to particular Acts which four ways may be done for the Conscience doth apply the light of the mind with which it is endued either to things already done or to things to be done To things already done in a twofold consideration first by bearing testimony that this is done or that it is not done by us in this manner are those formes of the Rhetoricians in the question of the Fact Crestes hast thou killed thy mother the Conscience maketh answer I have killed her Secondly by 〈◊〉 judgment whether the fact committed or omitted be well or ill done or whether well or ill omitted as in the question of right or Law among the Rhetorici●ns where the Fact is evident as Didst thou kill Clodius Milo the reply is I kill'd him Dost thou therefore confesse thy self guilty I have killed him lawfully Here in the first application the Conscience proceeds by the way of a witnesse in the second by the way of a Judge for the offices and Acts of Conscience in the first proceeding are to bear witnesse in the second to reprove to accuse to excuse to condemn to absolve