Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	bind_v	law_n	obligation_n	1,970	5	9.7701	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44723	A letter from a clergy-man in the city, to his friend in the country, containing his reasons for not reading the declaration	Halifax, George Savile, Marquis of, 1633-1695.	1688 (1688)	Wing H308; ESTC R9523	7,783	8

recommend it to them with all the Sophistry and artificial Insinuations in obedience to the King with a very good Conscience because without our consent If it be said this would be a contradiction to the Doctrine of our Church by Law established so I take the Declaration to be And if we may read the Declaration contrary to Law because it does not imply our consent to it so we may Popish Homilies for the bare reading them will not imply our consent no more than the reading the Declaration does But whether I consent to the Doctrine or no it is certain I consent to teach my People this Doctrine and it is to be considered whether an honest man can do this Thirdly I suppose no man will doubt but the King intends that our Reading the Declaration should signifie to the Nation our Consent and Approbation of it for the Declaration does not want Publishing for it is sufficiently known already but our Reading it in our Churches must serve instead of Addresses of Thanks which the Clergy generally refused though it was only to Thank the King for His Gracious Promises renewed to the Church of England in his Declaration which was much more innocent than to publish the Declaration itself in our Churches This would perswade one that the King thinks our reading the Declaration to signifie our Consent and that the People will think it to be so And he that can satisfie his Conscience to do an action without consent which the nature of the Thing the Design and intention of the Command and the Sence of the People expound to be a Consent may I think as well satisfie himself with Equivocations and mental Reservations There are two things to be answered to this which must be considered I. That the People understand our Minds and see that this is matter of Force upon us and meer Obedience to the King. To which I answer 1. Possibly the People do understand that the matter of the Declaration is against our Principles But is this any excuse that we read that and by reading recommend that to them which is against our own Consciences and Judgments Reading the Declaration would be no Fault at all but our Duty when the King commands it did we approve of the matter of it but to consent to teach our People such Doctrines as we think contrary to the Laws of God or the Laws of the Land does not lessen but aggravate the Fault and People must be very good natured to think this an Excuse 2. It is not likely that all the people will be of a mind in this matter some may excuse it others and those it may be the most the best and the wisest men will condemn us for it and then how shall we justifie our selves against their Censures when the world will be divided in their Opinions the plain way is certainly the best to do what we can justifie our selves and then let men judge as they please No men in England will be pleased with our Reading the Declaration but those who hope to make great advantage of it against us and against our Church and Religion others will severely condemn us for it and censure us as false to our Religion and as Betrayers both of Church and State and besides that it does not become a Minister of Religion to do any thing which in the opinion of the most charitable men can only be excused for what needs an excuse is either a fault or looks very like one besides this I say I will not trust mens Charity those who have suffered themselves in this Cause will not excuse us for fear of suffering those who are inclined to excuse us now will not do so when they consider the thing better and come to feel the ill consequences of it when our Enemies open their eyes and tell them what our Reading the Declaration signified which they will then tell us we ought to have seen before though they were not bound to see it for we are to guide and instruct them not they us II. Others therefore think that when we read the Declaration we should publickly profess that it is not our own judgment but that we only read it in obedience to the King and then our reading it cannot imply our consent to it Now this is only Protestatio contra factum which all people will laugh at and scorn us for for such a solemn reading it in the time of Divine Service when all men ought to be most grave and serious and far from dissembling with God or Men does in the nature of the thing imply our approbation and should we declare the contrary when we read it what shall we say to those who ask us Why then do you read it But let those who have a mind try this way which for my part I take to be a greater and more unjustifiable provocation of the King than not to read it and I suppose those who do not read it will be thought plainer and honester men and will escape as well as those who read it and protest against it and yet nothing less than an express Protestation against it will salve this matter for only to say they read it meerly in obedience to the King does not express their dissent it signifies indeed that they would not have read it if the King had not commanded it but these words do not signifie that they disapprove of the Declaration when their reading it though only in obedience to the King signifies their approbation of it as much as actions can signifie a consent let us call to mind how it fared with those in King Charles the First 's Reign who read the Book of Sports as it was called and then preached against it To return then to our Argument If reading the Declaration in our Churches be in the nature of the action in the intention of the command in the opinion of the People an interpretative consent to it I think my self bound in conscience not to read it because I am bound in conscience not to approve it It is against the Constitution of the Church of England which is established by Law and to which I have subscribed and therefore am bound in conscience to teach nothing contrary to it while this Obligation lasts It is to teach an unlimited and universal Toleration which the Parliament in 72. declared illegal and which has been condemned by the Christian Church in all Ages It is to teach my People that they need never come to Church more but have my free leave as they have the King 's to go to a Conventicle or to Mass It is to teach the dispensing Power which alters what has been formerly thought the whole Constitution of this Church and Kingdom which we dare not do till we have the Authority of Parliament for it It is to recommend to our People the choice of such persons to sit in Parliament as shall take away the Test and Penal Laws