Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	arise_v	good_a	quiet_a	1,555	5	10.4069	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A04220	An exposition of the second epistle of the apostle Paul to Timothy, the first chapter Wherein 1 The text is logically into it's parts resolved ... 4 The seuerall doctrines thence arising deduced. ... All which is accompanied with familiar and delightfull similitudes ... Lastly as the matter requireth: there is vsed, definitions, distributions, subdiuisions, trialls, motiues, and directions, all which be of great vse in their proper order. By Iohn Barlovv ...	Barlow, John, b. 1580 or 81.	1625 (1625)	STC 1434; ESTC S100861	328,113	454

some likenesse with himselfe whether person or action And will not a pure Conscience adorne our profession Reas 2. Giue a comely glosse to our conversation Red Purple and Scarlet adde not more glosse to a piece of fine cloth than this puritie doth to the life of a Christian It will silence our enemies reioyce our friends gaine good report Reas 3. of all persons what a commendation was this to Christ when the Prince of this world came and found no impuritie in him Ioh. 14. 30. Lastly A life attended with this companion will yeeld Reas 4. comfort in distresse afford boldnesse in danger giue hope in death plead for its owne at the last day prevaile and conduct him safe into the heaven of heavens Now because a good Conscience is little knowne lesse regarded we will first declare what it is in generall secondly set downe the kindes of it thirdly shew its office or inseparable companions and finally make application yet by the way we will deduce some Corrolaries the which may seeme to flow from the fountaine of each distinct definition Conscience is a seeing of an act with the Rule In this definition are two things first the genus of it Conscience defined which I call a seeing secondly the forme in these words of an act with the rule Neither let any quarrell with the word seeing 1. For what is the eye without the act of the soule but a dead insensible organt 2. Grant it to be a Metaphor or Tropicall speech yet is not Rhetorick a generall Art and may be every where And it is a seeing of an act with the rule For as conscience is a seeing so is it a seeing of a double Obiect at one instant time The very Etymologie of the word both Greeke and Latine signifies so much Here note that there must be first science of a rule secondly of an act done the which two being applied and the eye of the vnderstanding beholding them together make vp the full forme of Conscience for if either of these be wanting or separated it cannot properly be called Conscience For science is of one simple obiect Conscience of two laid together and then with one act of the intellect apprehended ioyntly whence likely it borrows the name Conscience which is as much as a ioynt knowledge or seeing together of the rule and the act And from this definition it will follow That Conscience is not as some hold a facultie of the I. Corrolaries deduced soule but rather as the Schoole-men defend an act of the vnderstandings facultie the which may be further confirmed by these reasons 1. Every facultie is created Conscience is not created therefore no facultie Were it created then should Adam haue a good or bad conscience before he had done either good or evill which may not be admitted True it is that Adam was indued with science so that if he had applied the frame of his person to the rule by which he was first formed in that it may be said he had a good Conscience for there was an equall proportion betwixt them but vntill he had performed some act it cannot be affirmed of him that he had any conscience at all yet science he had for he clearely vnderstood the Rule being written in his heart at the Creation by which his actions were to be guided 2. No facultie doth quit or condemne Conscience doth qui● or condemne therefore no facultie Wee never read that God doth accuse or excuse a man or Angel for the meere having of a facultie but for the abusing or well-vsing of it If by facultie they vnderstand by a Metonimie the cause for the effect as it seemes to me they doe then we are all of one and the same mind Also we gather this second consequence that vnreasonable II. creatures as birds and beasts fowles and fishes haue no conscience because they haue no rule given of God to guide their actions neither if they had any act of reason to apprehend it although a kind of knowledge may be attributed to them And here we may learne that taking conscience in a large III. acception it may be found in any Art as well as in Divinitie for each Art hath its Precepts and may haue his Praxis Whence it will follow that as there is science so also there may be conscience When a Boy writeth after a Coppie and taketh a view of his worke how it answers the patterne this is a kind of conscience Finally we conclude hence that in lusorie Lots there can IIII. be no conscience and the reason is because there is no rule to guide the act now no science of the rule no conscience This should teach men to vse them vpon extraordinary occasions or not at all and then the example of the godly may be their warrant For how can a man iustifie an act that hath not a rule to guide it or how can there be conscience where science precedes not For Simples in order precede Compounds as is obvious in Logicke the act of reason as also in the worke of Creation Hitherto wee haue spoken of Conscience in generall which is nothing else but a seeing together or more plainly a seeing of the act with the rule and thus wee proceed to its distribution Conscience is good or evill Conscience distributed As the definitions so the distributions of Conscience are many yet may they all be reduced to these two heades For as every Ax●●me or Rule is true or false so is each mans conscience good or evill Some say there is a Conscience good but not quiet quiet but not good good and quiet and neither good nor quiet Yet all these are but two and no more Consciences For rest and trouble are not essentiall but accidentall vnto Conscience A bad Conscience as wee see in Iudas and Saul may now be troubled anon quieted and this fals out from varying the Obiect of the intellect or want of the act and rules application and so may a good Conscience be attended with the same companions as in David and Peter And this may arise from the late commission of some sinne the weaknesse of faith a iealous suspition which men haue of their spirituall estate or the Lords withdrawing for a time his comfortable aspect and presence from his children and yet this Conscience is but one and the same Note further that a wicked man may haue knowledge of a true rule and act according therevnto so that the apprehension of his well-doing may breed peace But when he casteth his eye vpon his many swervings from Gods Precepts except his Conscience be seared through the Lords iust iudgement and his habituall faylings he cannot be at rest In like sort the best person in many things ●ransgresseth the Law of his God in so much that when hee considereth his many errors he is greatly disquieted so that to speake truely and properly trouble is an effect of an ill Conscience

peace of a good one and these contrary effects though to be found in one and the same person yet doe they spring from divers repugnant principles and not from the selfe same causes A good Conscience is a seeing of an act according with the A good Conscience What it is rule And here we are to obserue that in a good Conscience these particulars are required 1. A man must haue knowledge of some rule 2. The rule must be sound and infallible 3. He is to performe an act in every respect answerable to the truth of the rule And 4. he must apply the act to the rule the which being done the seeing of their agreement is a good Conscience Moses made all things according to the patterne the which when he beheld he had a good conscience for there was a proportion and correspondency betwixt the frame of his worke and the patterne GOD gaue him An evill Conscience is a seeing of an act disaccording with the An evill Conscience What it i● rule Suppose a man to haue vnderstanding of a true and perfect rule yet if his act should not be answerable but in some part divert from it so farre as it wants proportion or similitude to the foresaid rule so farre he hath a bad Conscience or evill seeing together and hence will follow the kindes or degrees of an evill Conscience 1. For the more sound knowledge and the lesse sincere obedience the worse is that Conscience and from hence might spring the name of an erroneous Conscience because the actions swerue from the rule 2. From obedience without a certaine apprehension of some precedent Precept ariseth the terme of a blind Conscience though properly it cannot be called Conscience 3. And from this definition we see that there may be some good in a bad Conscience For knowledge of the rule is good acts are good but as they erre from the rule by which they are to be guided they are evill and in regard such Consciences haue a threat denounced against them Yea the sight of sweruing from the rule may be good because it may be a meanes of reformation in future season A good Conscience is Legall or Evangelicall A good Conscience divided The rule whereby man at his Creation was to be guided was the Law the which had he obeyed he might haue purchased a good Legall Conscience now since his Apostasie and fall the Lord hath given him a new Commandem●● for his recoverie being observed which is the Gospell and thus you may Kenn● the ground of this distribution As for the law naturall the remnants wherof remained in the heart of the Gentiles and the law morall engraven in Tables of stone and given to the Iewes is the same for substance being but a distribution from the subiects yet they differ i● these particulars 1. The one is perfect the other not for much of it in time is obliterate worne out of mans heart whereas that written by Gods owne finger is complete The one is got by reading hearing studie c. The other comes by generation and imprinted in mans minde from the very wombs and as Ri●●bilitie is inseparable adiunct to him and this is the true cause why all men covet a kind of Religion and performe some workes that are commendable warrantable For matter therefore these two are the same as a remnant with the whole piece or some few Pr●c●pts with the whole of that Art A Legall good Conscience is a seeing of an act according to the What a Legall good Conscience is rule of the Law He who vnderstandeth any one Precept of the Decalogue and giueth obedience thereto may be said to haue a Legall good Conscience This we see affirmed of the Gentil●s who walked but according to the small reliques of the law which remained in their hearts Rom. 2. 14. 15. A Legall good Conscience is either Complete o● Incomplete A legall good Conscience distributed This distribution may not be omitted being of great vse For its one thing to haue a Legal good Conscience another to haue a complete Legall good Conscience the which we will define that so the difference may appeare A complete Legall good Conscience is a seeing of all acts according A complete Legall good Conscience defined with the rules of the Law But Conscience that as a Boy the Bird in his hand wee may not lose thee while we are talking of thee we will declare how many ingredients concurre for thy confection whether a complete Legall or Evangelicall But first for Legall 1. Knowledge must here be had as the ring-leader Light was the first good thing the Lord made at the Creation and saw to be good so is Knowledge in this worthie frame of a good Conscience Ignorance like the bodie of Amasa the passengers stops the way of this Worke or as darkenesse in the beginning did light in the structure of nature that it cannot be effected Blind sir Iohns neither haue nor can make others haue a pure Conscience the rule must be exactly vnderstood all the particulars thereof distinctly learned or else men will haue at the best but blind Consciences For why is Conscience called blind except in this that people act without knowledge of the rule This caused the Prophet so often so earnestly to pray Lord open mine eyes teach Psal 119. 18. c. me the way of thy statutes hide not thy Commandements fromme Salomon to cry Get knowledge get vnderstanding forget Prov. 4 5. And 30. 2. 3. not Agur to confesse he was more foolish than any man being ignorant of holy things and Paul the elect vessel chiefe Patrone of a good Conscience to esteeme of all things as drosse and dung for the excellent Knowledge of the Law and Phil. 3. 10. the Gospell For without this ingredient Conscience is naught starke naught For how can a man act according to the rule that is ignorant of it And is not damnation threatned to them who liue in blindnesse read and see wherefore 2 Thes 1. 8. if thy science be darke how darke is thy Conscience 2. After Knowledge must follow Obedience These two in a good Conscience cannot be separated the first maketh science the second Conscience For what is knowledge of the rule without obedience but a patterne without a building a cypher without a figure which stands for nothing Hence Acts. 24. 16. it is that our Apostle did lay his policie bend his forces and exercise himselfe to keepe a good Conscience a Conscience without tripping without stumbling Men must learne the Word and then fall to worke according to its directions apply the acts and Precepts ●●ew them ●oth at once with the eye of reason and then as God did all the creatures they shall see their Consciences good and very good All the springs and brookes of our actions speeches resolutions and cogitations must runne by the banke and channell of Gods Precepts neither may we