Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n
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A94746
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Innovations of popery in the Church of Rome, calling for repentance and reformation; being as a wall of separation between Christians and Christians. : Wherein is shewed, that the mystery of iniquity, Sodom and Egypt spiritual ... are all founded in innovations. : Given forth partly to stir up our thankfulness to God for his former mercies to this nation ... / By one that loves all that fear the Lord ... W.T.
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Tomlinson, William.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing T1848; ESTC R185373
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39,994
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146
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their conscience that they may draw near to God in full assurance of Faith having their Hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience Heb. 10.22 Many things might further be spoken upon this point but it being much controverted by others I hasten to other things Only give me leave to commend one thing worthy to be read by all that are in doubt upon this Subject And that is the Epistle of the Prophet Jeremy sent to the Captives in Babylon You may find it in the Apocripha it s the last Chapter of Baruch the whole Chapter Where setting aside the Matter that their Idols were made of their description by their impotency to do any thing or help themselves beside many other circumstances may as well be applyed to that which is called the Host as it was to them whereby they are known to be no Gods. They cannot speak they cannot feel if they be gnawed upon by Worms they cannot save themselves from Thieves or Robbers but stand in need to be kept with Locks and Bars from Robbers if you set many Candles before them they cannot see one there is no Breath in them they are born by men having no feet to go with whereby they declare unto men that they are nothing worth if they fall to the Ground at any time they cannot rise up again of themselves nor can they move themselves By these things ye may know that they are no Gods. Many things of like sort you may read of them in that Chapter whereby saith the Prophet Jeremy you may know that they are no Gods therefore fear them not ver 16. Now I pray you consider what dishonour you do to our Lord Jesus Christ to exhibit him to the world in such a Dress so fully agreeing with the description of the Heathen Idols May not the Heathen say What is your God better than our God Miserable are they saith Solomon And in dead things is there hope who called them Gods which are the Works of mens Hands Wisdom of Solomon Chap. 13.10 11. Another dismal Innovation is depriving people of the free use of the Holy Scriptures in their purity In the first place this shews the Popedom to be a Dominion point blank opposite to the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ For his Kingdom is a Kingdom of light but the Popedom is a Kingdom of darkness Christ was given for a light to us but the Pope brings darkness I will give thee for a Light to the Gentiles that thou maist be my Salvation unto the end of the Earth Isa 49.6 The Light is in order to Salvation not darkness And the same Prophet Isaiah personates Christ speaking thus Chap. 51.4 Hearken unto me my people and give Ear unto me O my Nation for a Law shall proceed from me and I will make my judgment to rest for a Light of the People But the Popedome will not let his Law and his Judgment to rest for a Light of the People but hides it from them and as Thieves and Robbers they rob them of that which is for Salvation unto the end of the Earth Therefore the true Apostles were sent forth to turn men from darkness to the Light and by that means from the Power of Satan which is in the Darkness unto God that so they might receive forgiveness of Sins and an inheritance in that Light among them that are Sanctified by Faith in Christ Acts 26.18 And therefore the happy State of Believers is called an inheritance in the Light Col. 1.12 Eph. 5.8 But Popery gives an inheritance in the Darkness It matters not how dark people be kept if they have but Mony enough they may obtain an inheritance in the Darkness therewith such as it is Is it not manifest to all that here is a Kingdom of darkness set up under the Popedom working quite contrary to the Kingdom of Christ which stands in the Light And as by this Innovation they most clearly shew their Kingdom to be contrary to the Kingdom of Christ So also hereby they manifest themselves to be Evil Workers departed from the Truth of the Gospel For why do they deprive people of the free use of the Scripture but because it discovers their evil Deeds their deeds of darkness And therefore lest people should see their works of darkness which it discovers they put out that Candle or hide the light of it from them by clothing the Scriptures with the Hairy Sack-cloth of their own Comments for the saving of their innovations from the sharp Edge thereof Christ Jesus our Lord the Truth and the Life hath told us plainly That he that doth Truth cometh to the Light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God. But on the other hand every one that doth evil hateth the Light neither cometh to the Light lest his deeds should be reproved John 3.20 21. It s a plain demonstration of an evil doer to hate the Light. I know some are so seared that they have confidence I may say impudence to defend this restraint of the Scriptures from the people because say they The liberty of having and reading the Scriptures is a means to beget and foment Errors and Heresies in the Church To this I answer First This judgment is directly contrary to the Judgment of Christ therefore it s a false and forged Opinion For Christ saith Ye err not knowing the Scriptures but Popery saith Ye will Err if ye know the Scriptures therefore ye shall be debar'd of them Thus directly opposite to Christ is that work and he that defends it Mat. 22.29 Secondly I give this answer The cause of this false assertion or shift in saying That the Scritures are a means or cause of Errors among the people is this They that are trained up under the Popish innovations take those innovations for Truth and the Truth it self for Error So they call that Error and Heresie which is contrary to those innovations And herein they fall under the Prophet Isaiah's Woe Isa 5.20 Woe to them that call evil good and good evil that put darkness for light and light for darkness And now to go on with this Innovated Darkness They hereby not only shew their opposition to Christ and his Kingdom and make themselves known to be evil Doers but also herein they shew themselves most cruel Tyrants against their own people keeping them as it were in a Dungeon and Chains of Darkness where they must not make use of their own Eyes nor have the Benefit of the comfortable light of the Sun but they must see only with others Eyes and by the light of those dim Candle-lights which burn blew through the Damp of their Pit which they hand to them in dark Lanthrons To speak plainly they must have little or no light but such as is obfuscated and dimmed with their poysonous innovations and that must be held forth to them by persons sufficiently leavened with their corrupt inventions They must not make use of their own
Spirit now And a pretence of honouring God thereby will not excuse men to him The Jews when they had made a Calf in the Wilderness and Sacrificed to it and Feasted with those Sacrifices this was done in pretence to the Lord who had brought them out of Egypt Therefore when Aaron proclaimed a Day to do Sacrifice to the Calf he proclaimed it thus To morrow is a Feast to the Lord Exod. 32.5 You see this was pretended to be done to the Lord the people came upon that Proclamation as keeping a Feast to the Lord and did Eat and Drink and make merry and in their Sacrifice câ—lebrated their deliverance out of Egypt But they would have that Calf to represent their Deliverer and therefore attributed that Title to the thing repesenting which was due only to the Lord whom they would represent For we cannot imagine that they who so lately had seen the wonders of the Lord in bringing them out with a high hand and went before them in a Pillar of a Cloud and Fire could believe that Calf to be their Deliverer both because it was made after they were delivered and also because it was made of their own Ear-Rings and Gold which they gave to Aaron to make it of but they put Signum pro re significata the sign for the thing signified which the Lord will not approve of in such case And therefore in this place and to this Innovation I may here add their Idolatry used in their Sacrifice of the Mass worshipping the Sign for the thing signified Namely their worshipping of that which their own hands have made which was always counted Idolatry in Scripture Their Land saith the Prophet Isaiah is full of Idols they worship the Work of their own hands that which their own Fingers have made And the mean Man boweth down and the Great Man humbleth himself therefore forgive them not Isa 2.8 9. And again in the New Testament it s said The rest of men which were not killed with these Plagues yet repented not of the Works of their Hands that they should not worship Devils and Idols of Gold and Silver and Brass and Stone and Wood which neither can see nor hear nor walk Rev. 9.20 Now consider is not this the Work of their own hands that which their own Fingers have made Is it not a God of their own making Do they not first make the Bread or Wasers and then make it a God by speaking a few words And is it not such a God as can neither see nor hear nor walk nor speak By which Characters Idols are frequently described and will you have Christ Jesus to come under the description of Idols and make him like them The Idols of the Heathen have Mouths but they speak not Eyes but they see not Ears but they hear not They are known to be Idols because they can neither speak nor see nor hear and will you make him like one of them Read and consider Psal 135.15 16. and Psal 115.3 4 5 6 7. Where you may plainly see not to hear not to speak not to see not to smell not to handle not to walk are made notes of an Idol to know them by And will you now make our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the World was made like a Dumb Idol Will you make that to be he which was only left for a Memorial of him Do this as often as ye do it in remembrance of me saith he He makes it but a Sign for a Memorial of him I do believe that many may be verily perswaded that the Bread and Wine are really the Body and Blood of Christ and so use it with great reverence as if it were he and that they think they do honour him thereby But it is great dishonour done to him if you well consider the thing For first it brings him under the Circumstances of the Idols of the Heathen as hath been shewed 2. To offer him up again invalidates that one Sacrifice of himself upon the Cross once for all by which he hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified But I know you stand upon the literal words of Christ This is my Body And therein I can bear with you a little because many may think that they verily obey Christ therein But if you well weigh it you will find that those words are not to be taken literally but figuratively as many other of his expressions were as for instance I am the Door I am the true Vine my Father is the Husbandman Take one more which comes near to that saying This is my Body namely this Except ye Eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and Drink his Blood ye have no life in you John 6.53 Some took that in a literal sense as you do those words This is my Body But let us mind his own exposition of them for that comes near to the Case in hand The words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life What do you talk of the Flesh The Flesh profiteth nothing It s the Spirit that quickeneth John 6.63 Whereby he shews plainly that this Eating of his Flesh he spake of was the receiving and nourishing of his Spirit in our Hearts which gives us life a Spiritual Life in him A like expression to this he used to the Woman of Samaria John 4.14 where he compares the receiving and embracing of his Spirit to drinking of Water the words are these But whosoever drinketh of the Water that I shall give him shall never Thirst but the Water that I shall give him shall be in him a Well of Water springing up into everlasting Life You see by Water he understood Spirit and by Flesh and Blood he understood Spirit which were Metaphorical expressions And so here in these words This is my Body he spake after the same manner For when as he saith The Flesh profiteth nothing to what end should we imagine that he left his Flesh to be eaten But then as for the Offering of him up by a Priest This is an intrusion into the Mediatorship of Christ who only could offer up himself to God He being both the Sacrifice and the Priest set apart by God for that work whom all the Priests under the Law typifyed And he did this himself Once for all And there remains no more Sacrifice for Sin. For by one Offering he hath perfected for ever them that are Sanctified You may read that word Once expressed many times in the 9th and 10th Chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews whereby is shewed the Difference between the Sacrifices of the Law which were types and that one Sacrifice of Christ which was the substance How they were offered often because they could not make the Comers thereunto perfect as pertaining to the Conscience but this Sacrifice of Christ was offered but Once because it is of Efficacy at once offering to make the comers to it perfect as pertaining to the Conscience that is to clear