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
A49336	A letter to Edw. Stillingfleet, D.D. &c. in answer to the epistle dedicatory before his sermon, preached at a publick ordination at St. Peter's Cornhil, March 15, 1684/5 together with some reflections upon certain letters, which Dr. Burnet wrote on the same occasion / by Simon Lowth ...	Lowth, Simon, 1630?-1720.	1687 (1687)	Wing L3328; ESTC R2901	83,769	93

your Younger years were seasoned with such kind of Authors as they appear to have been I 'll instance only in two Irenaeus Philadelphus and Robert Parker unless Martin Mar-Prelate be adjoyned Men so unplacably seditious and revengeful against our Church especially since you are to this day of an Opinion That you served the Church of England in writing your Irenicum An Erynnicum is more likely to be an effect of such studies And I wish that Book had made less heart-burnings and contentions among us and you had less promoted them by so many Impressions In fine if such a procedure as I have in part made yours already appear to be and shall more fully declare in this Epistle be the way to re-establish the Church of England and your Zeal and Affections be thus only indicated then they were for the Succession of the Crown who still attended the Earl of Shaftsbury and dined twice a Week with the Lord Russel making the rest of that Conspiracy their daily Associates and Confidents who kept the Green-Ribbon Clubb sided all along with Ignoramus Jury-men and abhorr'd all Mankind besides That supplyed Johnson's courses that he might with more Dispatch answer Dr. Hicks and defend his Julian lest the Party complain and grow weary of their tedious carryings on or be discouraged and beat off by the Strength of the Doctors reasonings and demonstrations against it who had West for their standing Council and Rumball for their Malt-Man and bought their Tables and Wainscot of the Protestant Joiner as we know he declared at the Gallows at Oxford of whom he had some of his Doctrines Thirdly You take all Power out of the hands of the Church Officers for determining Indifferencies and making occasional Laws for the better Ruling and Governing their Body and ending Controversies as they arise and place it wholly and solely in the Magistrate or Secular Governor as the only Power and Person that can make church-Church-Laws binding the Conscience And this you have done deliberately upon full thoughts and after a thorow enquiry and debate in order as you tell us to the laying a Foundation for Peace and Vnion Part I. c. 2. § 6 7. and c. 6. § 7. pag. 106 127 131. I 'll recite these principal passages for the satisfaction of the Reader You place in him the external Imperative Power of Jurisdiction concerning matters of the Church or as you explain your self the Nomothetical Legislative Power as it is distinguished from that which is properly called Politicial And you say the same again in matters undetermined by the word concerning the external Polity of the Church of God the Magistrate hath Power of determining things so they be agreeable to the Word of God. That no other Persons have power to make Laws binding Men to obedience but only the Civil Magistrate with-holding nothing from him but Preaching the Gospel and Administring the Sacraments in which two things you say consists the Authoritative Exercise of the Ministerial Function derived by Christ unto his Ministers making the Magistrate his own Guide according to the Word of God in the Administration of his Function and by consequence his own Preacher not subject to the Power of the Ministers that is he is to interpret the Scriptures to himself which comes very near to that of Mr. Hobbs in his Leviathan Part III. c. 4. p. 252. No Man ought in the Interpretation of Scripture to proceed farther than the bounds that are set by their several Sovereigns As also p. 295. c. 42. That the right of judging what Doctrines are fit for Peace and to be taught by Subjects is in all Commonwealths inseparably annexed to the Sovereign Power Civil whether it be in one Man or in one Assembly of Men. You go on at the same rate and say The Power of declaring the Obligation of former Laws and of consulting and advising the Magistrate for setling of new Laws for the Polity of the Church belongs to the Pastors and Governors of the Church of God but they have no more Authority to make any new Laws or Constitutions binding Mens Consciences than a command from the Supreme Authority that inferior Magistrates should be obeyed doth imply in them any Power to make new Laws to bind them Power arising from mutual compact and consent of parties is most agreeable to the nature of Church-Power being not coactive but directive And such was the confederate discipline of the Primitive Church before they had any Christian Magistrate thence the decrees of Councils were called Canons and not Laws The great use of Synods and Assemblies of Pastors of Churches is to be as the Council of the Church to the King in matters belonging to the Church as the Parliament is in matters of Civil Concernment Elective Synods substituted in the place of Authoritative Power to determine Controversies are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will never be soveraign enough to cure the distemper it is brought for that is reserved for your Weapon-Salve and bind no farther than the party concern'd doth judge the Sentence equal and just So that they help us with no ways to end Controversies in the Church any farther than the Persons engaged are willing to account that just which shall be judged in their Case they having no juridical Power The Church Power as to divine Law is only directive and declarative but being confirmed by a Civil Sanction is juridical and obligatory As for that time when the Church was without Magistrates ruling in it in those things undetermined by the Word of God they acted out of principles of Christian Prudence and from the principles of the Law of Nature And the reasons that you give for all this are many I 'll instance in but two First Because Church-men have no Authority but are bound up to the commands of Christ already laid down in his Word and why may not the same be said of the Magistrates and that they are equally tied up to the Laws of Christ For a Power to bind Mens Consciences to their determinations lodged in the Officers of the Church must be derived either from a Law of God giving them this Right or else from consent of Parties For any Law of God there is none produced with probability of reason but that Obey those that are over you in the Lord. But that implies no more than submitting to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Gospel and to those whom Christ hath constituted as Pastors of his Church wherein the Law of Christ doth require Obedience to them that is looking upon them and owning them in their Relations to them as Pastors but that gives no Authority to make Laws c. Secondly He who can null and declare all other Obligations void done without his Power hath the only Power to oblige for whatsoever destroys a former Obligation must of necessity imply a Power to oblige because I am bound to obey him in the abstaining from that I was formerly obliged to But this Power belongs