Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	eat_v	idol_n	weak_a	2,180	5	9.3570	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01299	A briefe confutation, of a popish discourse: lately set forth, and presumptuously dedicated to the Queenes most excellent Maiestie: by Iohn Howlet, or some other birde of the night, vnder that name Contayning certaine reasons, why papistes refuse to come to church, which reasons are here inserted and set downe at large, with their seuerall answeres. By D. Fulke, Maister of Penbroke Hall, in Cambridge. Seene and allowed.	Fulke, William, 1538-1589.; Parsons, Robert, 1546-1610. Brief discours contayning certayne reasons why Catholiques refuse to goe to church.	1583 (1583)	STC 11421; ESTC S102704	108,905	118

whom you doe not blush not by begging but by extorting as you call it a necessary supposition to offer a clere demonstration The second Reason THe second reason why a Catholike cannot yeeld to goe to Church is because hee cannot goe without scandale which is a sinne more mentioned more forewarned more forbidden more detested more threatned in the Scripture then any sinne els mentioned in the same except it bee Idolatrie But in the new Testament nothing so much exaggerated or with such vehement speeches prohibited Christe signifiyng that the most part of the worlde were to be damned for this sin when he cryeth out with that cōpassionable voice of his saying Wo be to the world by reason of scandales Wherefore pronoucing as pitifull a sentence vpon the authour of these scandales he saith Woe bee to that man by whome come these scandales And deuising with himselfe as it were how to expresse vnto our capacities the intollerablegreatnes of this mans torment in Hell for scandalizing of other men he vttereth it in this sort It were better for that man that a milstone were hanged about his necke and that hee were so cast into the Sea Which saying so terrified Saint Paule that rather then hee woulde scandalize any man in eating a peece of meate a thing of it selfe lawfull as he saith he protested that hee woulde neuer eate flesh in his life Now this hainous sin of scādale consisteth properly in these three points First to induce another mā by any meanes to sin whether it be by life or doctrine and this was the scādale of the Priestes in the old law by their naughtie life alluring the people to cōmit the same sins This was the scandale of the daughters of Moabe who by their speeches examples brought the Israelits to sacrifice with thē to Idols Wherof also as of the like to them Christ spoke against with great disdaine in the Apocalipse saying Thou hast their certaine which hold the doctrine of Balaā who taught Balaac how to giue a scandale that is an occasion for the childrē of Israel to sinne I will fight against those men with the sword of my mouth And in this point is the proper signification of Scandalum seene which importeth as much as a stumbling block wherby a man maketh another to fall especially the fall of deadly sin whereby a man breaketh the necke of his soule As if a man shoulde induce another by his example or otherwise to commit adulterie to take an oth against his conscience or the like and as Ieroboam did by his example make the tenne tribes forsake the vnitie of the Church of Ierusalem which sinne of his is so much noted in the scripture with this title of scandale For that he made Israel to sinne as nothing more And in reuenge of the same God foretolde him by Amos the Prophe●… that hee woulde destroy his whole house and so afterwardes perfourmed the same as it appeareth in the third booke of the kinges And this first point of scandale whiche is to induce other men to sinne is so large and reacheth so far because it may be doone by life example wordes workes omission permission the like as men had need to looke better about thē then they do It were too long to giue examples in al one out of the ancient D. and martyr of christ S. Cyprian shal serue for all for by that the rest may be gessed Hee talketh of parents which either by their euil examples had drawen their children to heresie or schisme or at the leastwise had not sufficiently in structed thē of the true church and of the sacraments and true seruice of GOD in the same Wherevppon these children beeing damned shall moste pitifully bewaile their miserie sayeth Sainte Cyprian and the crueltie of their parentes at the day of iudgement saying thus Wee haue done nothing of our selues neither for saking the meate and the cuppe of our Lord the blessed Sacrament haue wee of our owne accord hastened to prophane coutagions of schisme or heresie The perfidiousnesse or infidelitie of other men ●…ath vndone vs we haue felte our owne parents to be murtherers vnto vs. They haue denied vnto vs. the Church which is our mother and God which is our father and wee being young not foreseeing the danger of so heynousan offence were content to ioyne our selues with others in the soc●…etie or participation of the crime and so by other mens fraude we were deceiued This that S. Cyprian affirmeth of children in respect of their parents we may apply to wyues brethren sisters kinsfolkes acquaintance schollers seruants subiectes tenantes or the like in respect of any whose wordes life or example hath or shal do them hurt by giuing them a scandale that is by inducing them to sinne The second point of scandale is not only if I do induce an other man to sinne by doing or saying nought my self but further if I doe offend an other mans conscience in a thing of it selfe lawful that is if I do make an other man thinke that I do an vnlawful thing albeit either I doe it not or that the thing be lawful in it selfe yet I commit scandale As for example if a Priest should haunt dishonest or suspected houses albeit hee ment neuer so honestly And this is that great scandale wherabout saint Paule maketh so muche adoe as concerning the eating of meates offered to Idols the which albeit it be lawful in it selfe as saint Paule discourseth to him that hath knowledge and thereby can iudge that no meate of his own nature is vncleane before God and that an Idole is nothing and consequently that suche meates offered to Idols are nothing spotted or made vnlawfull thereby Yet to eate it in such place or presence as the lookers on beeing weake and simple may thinke that thou art an idolater because thou eatest the flesh offered vp to the idoles ●…r that they by thine example be edefied or induced to eate the same meates with an e●…il conscience this is dar●…nable saieth S. Paule and a most horrible sinne against Christ himselfe and such a sin as S. Paul himselfe saieth That hee would neuer 〈◊〉 flesh while he liued rather then by eating so to scandalise any man Vppon the which discourse of S. Paule the learned father S. ●…sten saieth thus By this it is euident that wee are not only forbidden to vse any thing in the honour of straunge Gods as the eating of meates offered to them might seeme to be but also to doe any thing wherby we may be thought to honour them doing it in such sort as that although in heart wee despise them yet wee edefie or induce those that know not our heartes in deed to honour the same This was also the scandale that the worthie old Eleazarus in the booke of Machabies so much detested and resisted that hee chose rather to dye most cruelly then

to the Church of so many thousande Catholykes at this day in that Realme is not vppon disloyaltie or stubberne obstinacy as their aduersaryes giue it out but vppon conscience and great reason and for the auoyding of manyfest perryll of eternall damnation which they shoulde incurre in yeeldyng to that which is demaunded at theyr handes I haue put downe some causes and reasons heere followyng referring the Reader to more larger dyscourses made by dyuerse learned men of our tyme in sundry partes of theyr works this beyng shuffled vp in haste and namely to apeculyar Treatyse not longe agone publyshed touchyng this matter But first of all it is to bee noted that my reasons to thend they may conuynce are to bee supposed to proceede from a catholyke mynde that is from a man which in his conscience is throughlye perswaded that onelye the Catholyke Romayne Relygyon is trueth and that all other newe doctrynes and relygions are false relygions as all newe Gods are false Gods Nowe of these Catholykes there are two sortes in Englande thone which in theyr consciences doe iudge that as all other relygions besides theyr owne are false so all partycipation with them eyther in deede or in shewe by oath by Sacramentes by goyng vnto theyr prayers and seruice or otherwyse is naught forbydden and vnlawefull and yet eyther for feare or fauour or some other worldly cause they are content to communicate wich them in all or some of the foresayde thinges and of those men albeit they bee very many in England I meane not to entreate theyr case beyng apparauntly both to themselues and to all other men wicked and out of all doubte damnable For as S. Austine sayth Hee that knoweth the things to bee ill that he doth and yet doth thē he goeth downe quick vnto hell As though he would say Albeit he be yet quicke vpon the earth yet is he in the prouidēce of God dead damned in hel And S. Paul talking of this sin neuer laieth lesse punishment vpon it then iudgement dānation although it be committed in thinges of themselues indifferent or lawfull for albeit as he saith meates offred to idoles be of themselues lawfull to be eaten to him that knoweth an Idole to be nothing Yet If a man shoulde discerne or iudge it to be vnlawfull and yet eate of it he is damned for it because hee doeth not according to his conscience or knowledge And the reason is that which S. Paule hath immediatly following saying All that which is done by vs not according to our knowledge or conscience is sinne And S. Iames confirmeth the same saying He that knoweth good and doth it not sinneth Wherefore S. Paule crieth out a a little before thus Blessed is hee that iudgeth not or condemneth not himselfe in doing contrary to that he best allowetb And the cause why this sinne against a mans owne conscience is so damnable is this Some doe sinne of humane frailtie as did Peter and this is called a sinne against the father who is called Power Some doe sinne of ignorance as did Paule and this is called a sinne against the sonne who is called Wisedome Some doe sinne of meere will and malice choosing to sinne although they know it to be sinne and this is the sinne against the holy Ghost to whom is appropriated particularly grace and goodnesse the which a man most wickedly contemneth and reiecteth when he sinneth wilfully against his own conscience and therefore Christ saith that a man shalbe forgeuen a sinne agaynst the father and against the sonne as we doe see it was in Peter and Paule But he that sinneth agaynst the holy Ghost shall neuer be forgeuen neither in this world neyther in the worlde to come As for example the Pharisies were not which did many thinges against Christ malitiously and contray to their owne knowledge consciences If this be true as it is if God be not vntrue thē in what a miserable case standeth many a man in England at this day which take othes receiue sacramentes goe to Church and commit many a like acte directly against theyr owne consciences and against their owne knowledge nay what a case doe they stand in which know such thinges to be directly agaynst other mens consciences and yet doe compell them to doe it As to receiue against their will to sweare against their will and the like Surely as I am nowe minded I would not for ten thousand worldes compel a Iewe to sweare that there were a blessed Trinitie For albeit the thing be neuer so true yet should●…●…e be damned for swearing against his conscience and I for compelling him to commit so heynous and greeuous a sinue But of this sorte of Catholikes this is ynough and too much excepte they were better For they are to be accounted according to Saint Paule damned me●… in this lyfe and therefore no christians and much lesse Catholikes There are another sort of Catholikes that albeit they doe iudge all other religions besides their owne false and erroneous and damnable yet doe they not thinke but that for some worldly respecte as for sauing their offices dignities liberties credytes or the like they may in some of the former thinges at the leastwise in going to church for as for swearing and receiuing I thinke no Catholike this day in Europe thinketh it lesse then damnable shewe them selues conformable men to the proceedinges of them of the contrarye religion and doe also thinke others too scrupulous whiche doe stande in the refusall of the same But to shewe that these men are in a wrong and perillous perswasion builded onely on their owne fantasie and therefore to be reformed and that the other men are the onely true Catholickes and bounde to doe so much as they doe vppon payne of the high displeasure of God and eternall damage of their owne soules I haue put downe here these reasons that followe which may serue for the iustifying of the one parties conscience and for the due reforming of the other HE beginneth with a large Periode and stately style as though hée were endyting of a Proclamation or an A●…te of Parliament with a long breath stretched Lunges and full mouth That the Queenes moste excellent Maiesty the Honourable Lordes of her Priuie Counsell and other the learned and wyse of E●…glande maye see Quid tanto dignum feret hic Promissor hiatu Parturiunt montes nascetur ridiculus mus What will this large promiser bring foorthe woorthy of so wide a gaping The Mountaynes are in trauell a ridiculous Mouse shall bee borne anon For what in Gods name shall all the Learned and wise in Englande sée Beside her Maiestie and her honorable C●…unsell Forsooth That the refusall of going too the churche of so many thousand Catholikes at this day in that realme is not vppon d●…oyaltie or stubborne obstinacie as their aduersaries giue it out A m●…tter indeede woorthie of so greate a presence as