Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	david_n	heart_n	smite_v	1,341	5	9.6931	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41450	A serious and compassionate inquiry into the causes of the present neglect and contempt of the Protestant religion and Church of England with several seasonable considerations offer'd to all English Protestants, tending to perswade them to a complyance with and conformity to the religion and government of this church as it is established by the laws of the Kingdom.	Goodman, John, 1625 or 6-1690.	1674 (1674)	Wing G1120; ESTC R28650	105,843	292

the case And it is no more easie to find out what men mean by Tenderness than what they meant by Conscience Doubtless when men speak of a Tender Conscience they do not mean such an one as will endure no check or restraint that like an unbroken Horse will admit of no rein of Government nor yet a nice and phantastical Conscience that can brook nothing contrary to its own humour These at the first view are plainly vitious and most of all need and deserve the restraint of Laws and to be inured to that they so stubbornly decline Nor yet on the other side can Tenderness be taken in the same latitude with a Good Conscience Every good man hath such a tenderness as to be afraid of sin and to decline the occasions and temptations to it and it would be too arrogant and presumptuous for those that plead the tenderness of their Consciences to suppose themselves the only men that make Conscience of what they do for then the contrary to a tender Conscience must be a brawny and obdurate or stupid Conscience which it would be too contumelious to reproach all other men but themselves with It remains then That that which is meant by Tenderness is something betwixt these two namely neither a steady well instructed nor yet a sturdy and rebellious Conscience but a weak unsetled and timorous one And now having before resolved Conscience in general to be nothing but the Mind or practical Understanding a Tender Conscience will be nothing but either an ignorant or uninstructed Mind or a sickly melancholy and superstitious Understanding And then to speak plainly A man of a tender Conscience is such a person as being right and honest for the main yet either through the weakness of his Intellectuals or prejudices of his Education or through the melancholy of his Constitution doth not rightly understand his duty and consequently is apt to doubt and scruple and fear where no fear is and by this mistake from the causes aforesaid renders those things evil to himself that are not so in themselves Now this being so that a Tender Conscience is this and no more a man will justly wonder whence it should come to pass that either the pretence of such a Conscience should be a matter of ambition as we see it is with some and much more that it should be thought fit to give Laws to the world as it seems to be the mind of others However we grant it pittyable but before we shew what priviledges it may claim we will a little unfold more particularly the qualifications it must have to be able to sue out its priviledges And in general I have said already That such a person must be right and sincerely honest for the main Now of that he that pleads tender Conscience must give proof in these following Instances 1. He that pleads for Compassion upon the account of his Weakness must be so ingenuous as willingly to submit himself to instruction for he that scorns it and thinks himself wiser than all the world besides of all men hath the least right to make this plea. I do not see how he that hath the confidence to be a Preacher to others or a Disputer for opinions can pretend to the priviledges of that Tenderness we speak of For either a man owns himself an ignorant or a knowing man if he be an ignorant man he ought not to take upon him to teach others but to learn if he be a knowing man he ought not to scruple but to obey 2. He that pretends Tenderness of Conscience must make good his claim by being uniformly conscientious that is making as much Conscience in other things as that he pleads exemption from Otherwise it will be but Pharisaism to strain at a Gnat and swallow a Camel Davids heart smote him when he cut off the skirt of Saul 's Garment but it would never have been called Tenderness of Conscience in David if at another time he should have attempted the life of Saul St. Austin speaks of some that prescribed to themselves stricter limits of Matrimony than the Laws did per Mores non fiebat quod per Leges licebat factum horrebatur licitum ob vicinitatem illiciti But then they were severly holy men in all their conversation otherwise this would have deserved no better esteem than Superstition in them or worse He that shall scruple a Ceremony and neglects an Institution of Christ that dares not kneel at the Sacrament but dares neglect the Communion that scruples the observation of Lent but scruples not Sensuality or Lust Drunkenness or Gluttony that is afraid to eat blood but not afraid to shed the blood of men that will abstain from things strangled but not from fornication Let such a man pretend what he will he neither hath nor can plead the priviledges of a Tender Conscience 3. He that is truly tender if he cannot do all that he is commanded will yet do all that he can He will not make the breach wider nor the distance greater than needs must lest he should betray more of humour and stomach than Conscience He that cannot bow at the name of Jesus yet perhaps can stand up at the Creed or if not that neither yet probably he can be present at it He that cannot kneel when he is required may express so much reverence as to stand And he that is not satisfied in all the parts of the publick Prayers may possibly be able to come to Church or if none of these yet at least 4. He that cannot perform what the Laws require of him may forbear judging and censuring those that do His Conscience is a rule to himself but doth not oblige him to pass severe Censures upon all other men It is a very proud Conscience that will transcend its own Province and prescribe to all the world besides If he be weak and ignorant it is very unsuitable that he should carry himself as the only sagacious man and make his mind the publick standard of truth and falshood of good and evil For in so doing he contradicts himself pleads ignorance and pretends knowledge would be dealt with as the most weak but deals by others as if he was the most strong and skilful The man of a tender Conscience finds it enough to rule and judge his own actions but leaves other men to their own masters He is so modest upon the sense of his own defects and consequently so charitable as to think other men may know a reason of that he is not satisfied in But they that must erect a Judicature for all those that differ from them and arraign them of Superstition or Popery that are not of their own mind shall sooner convict themselves of pride and pragmaticalness than give proof of any true tenderness of Conscience 5. The truly tender Conscience will freely part with Money and whatever else uses to be valuable of that kind to preserve its own Innocency and Peace

Conviction and Argument In short he that resolves never to change his opinion nor hopes to be wiser than he is either will be alwayes a fool or hath the fortune of such an one or both Now then he that seeing Reason to incline him to take new measures shall yet upon Secular considerations think fit not to own a change may have the reputation of a cunning man but never of an honest and shall lose more in the Judgement of wise men than he shall gain with the vulgar 2. Epecially let it be considered how much the honour of our Religion is of more value than our Personal reputation and how much that is concerned in the peaceable and obedient temper of all those that pretend to it and withal what it suffers in defect of this And surely a due sense of these things will have such weight with all those that are sincerely Christian as to depress and keep down the turgency of our phancy and vain glory It was an effectual course Haman took Esther 3. 8. and he had wit in his malice when he designing to ruine the whole Church of the Jews first undermines the reputation of their Profession delates their Religion as not fit for the protection of the Prince and that it contained Laws contrary to all people and that they would not obey the Kings Laws There is nothing casts so indeleble a blemish upon Religion as when the Professors of it are turbulent unperswadable ungovernable When that which should strengthen the hands of the Magistrate shall weaken them when that which should ease his care and save the labour of his Animadversions shall it self awaken and raise his Jealousie when that which should enact his Laws in the very Consciences of men shall pretend to abrogate or dispense with them when men shall smite and break the two Tables one against another and put other limitations and conditions upon Princes than God hath and pretend a revocation of the Broad Seal of Civil Authority by the Privy Signet of Religion whereever this is done that Prince or Magistrate had need be a very devout man indeed that casts a benign aspect upon that Profession which hath so malignant an influence upon his Government And all considering men will with great reason doubt whether that Religion be of God that gives such trouble to his Vicegerent and whether that will carry men to Heaven hereafter that makes tumults confusions and a Hell upon earth But I have said so much to this business heretofore when I considered the mischiefs of Schism that I shall need to say the less now Only let me observe That the more raised and elevated any Religion pretends to be the more it professes a Contempt of this world the more it speaks of Patience Contentation Humility and the more it glories in the hopes of another world still the more horribly absurd and contradictious will it be that this should give countenance to disobedience and disturbance of Government I have also noted before that it was the great advantage Christianity had for the planting it self in the world that it disturbed no setled Form made no noise or commotion but fell like the dew of Heaven upon a Fleece of Wooll Our Saviour himself was so careful of giving offence that he not only gave no jealousie to those in possession of the Government but also abridged his own Liberty rather than he would seem to retrench their Power St. Paul when he was accused by an eloquent Orator Tertullus Acts 24. 5. as a mover of Sedition doth with equal eloquence disprove the charge and detest the Crime And that the generality of Christians were of the same temper and spirit Tertullian gives ample testimony Externi sumus vestra omnia implevimus urbes insulas castella municipia castra ipsa tribus decurias palatium senatum forum c. cui bello non idenei c. Apol. c. 37. We want saith he neither numbers nor Leaders nor Spirit to inable us for any attempt but that we have learnt to suffer ill and not to do it to obey and submit not to contend with our Rulers And Ammianus Marcellinus a Pagan Souldier in Julian's Army and therefore the more undeniable witness in the case gives this short description of the Christian Religion Nil nisi justum suadet lene It is saith he compounded of nothing but mildness and innocency It makes men just and honest it fills mens hearts with virtuous principles but not their heads with troublesome niceties It teaches men not to be troublers of the World but to go quietly and inoffensively through it with as little noise and provocation as is possible and so to arrive at eternal rest and peace in Heaven And as this is the known glory of Christianity in general so it was peculiarly of the English Reformation in particular as I shewed before It was brought in by the Prince not by the rout of people it was establisht orderly by Law did not force its way by popular tumult and was truly what it ought to be a revival of Primitive purity and simplicity And it is infinite pity that its glory should afterwards be stained by the insolence and impatience of those that pretend to it It is a great blot in the writings of Mr. Calvin that after he had discoursed rarely well of the power of Princes and the duty of Subjects in the last Chapter of his Institutions and the one and thirtieth Paragraph he undoes all again with an unhappy exception in these words de privatis hominibus semper loquor A passage of that ill aspect upon Government that it is suspected by some and not altogether without cause that most of the confusions of Kingdoms which have happened since and especially the troubles of this Nation have received incouragement if not taken rise from thence But whether that be so or no it is certain that it hath furnisht the Papists with a recrimination upon the Protestant Doctrine when we have charged theirs as blowing a Trumpet to Sedition and Rebellion And though the true Protestant Doctrine be as innocent as theirs is guilty in this kind yet if it can be objected against us that our Churches are alwayes infested with Divisions and the States under which we live imbroyled in troubles we have reason to be concerned forasmuch as we have no reason to expect that our Adversaries will be so just or charitable as to distinguish betwixt the faults of the Doctrine and the miscarriages of those that Profess it but will be sure to involve both in the dishonour For it cannot be but that either the Seed must be very bad that brings forth such Fruit or the Soil very corrupt that makes good Seed so degenerate that is either the Religion must be very faulty that fills men generally with so bad Principles or at least the Men must be extreamly evil that debauch good Doctrine And whether soever of these two things be concluded on as it