Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	end_n	faith_n	unfeigned_a	1,201	5	10.8215	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44932	The spirit of prophecy a treatise to prove, by the wayes formerly in use among the Jews, in the tryal of pretenders to a prophetic spirit, that Christ and his Apostles were prophets : together with the divine authority of christian religion and the Holy Scriptures, the insufficiency of human reason, and the reasonableness of the christian faith, hope, and practice, deduced therefrom, and asserted against Mr. Hobbs, and the Treatise of Hvmane Reason / by W.H.	Hughes, William, b. 1624 or 5.	1679 (1679)	Wing H3346; ESTC R19799	183,906	298

out the Priests by Sacrifices purged their Temples and the Magistrates their City It is also reported that some of the Epicureans being looked on as Inventors of an esseminate degenerate and filthy sort of Wisdom odious to the Gods were by a Law written in the vulgar Tongue driven out of Lyctos a City of Crete by which Law it was provided that if any one of them should presume to come thither he should be bound and put naked into a Cage near the Senate and be anointed with milk and hony for twenty dayes together that Bees and Flies the mean while might devour him but if he survived this Torment then was he cloathed in Womens apparel and cast headlong from a Rock By this their reproachful Severity they declared plainly what was the end of Philosophy or at least what they expected from it viz. that it should be so far from debauching Mens Manners as that it should purifie th●ir Souls and sublimate their Affections destroy their Vices and promote Vertue Sen●ca therefore tells Lucilius that Wisdom forms the Mind and builds it disposeth the Life and rules the Actions sh●ws what 's to be done and demonstrates what 's to be omitted it is to us as a Rudder to a Ship it directs the course of them that fluctuate and waver in uncertainties If then this be the designed Work and end of Wisdom there is no Doctrine in the World can lay so just a claim as that of Christ and his Apostles to that Title For the design of it is not to fill mens heads with Notions or to teach them Systems of Opinions but to furnish their Minds with incouragements to Vertue to mortifie their Passions and Self-wills in order to the Love of the Eternal Beauty and an Imitation of it that so in a sort they might anticipate Heaven by a Resemblance of God here on Earth for our Saviour hath taught us to be Perfect as our Father in Heaven is Perfect To this end both the Precepts and the Promises of the Gospel are so exquisitly adapted as that they do not only most effectually forestall all those Vices which the wisest of mens Laws and Instructions have but in vain attempted to destroy but they do also promote such exact and elevated Vertue as is apt to make us as like to our Maker as in this Life is possible For the exceeding great and precious Promises of the Gospel are given us to this end That by them we might be Partakers of the Divine Nature and the end of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure Heart and of a good Conscience and of Faith unfeigned Faith unfeigned begets a good Conscience a good Conscience a pure Heart and a pure Heart Charity and Charity we know must needs be as one calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a likeness to God or resemblance of him for God is Love an Eternal and Immutable an Omniscient and Almighty Goodness to the Imitation hereof the Gospel doth allure and direct us to this end it is intended and designed its efficacy in order thereunto St. Paul insinuates when he calls it the Ministration of Righteousness and the Pow●r of God unto Salvation It is a thing more Divine than any Demonstration it hath heat to quicken and enliven our Affections as well as Light to guide them It so forms Christ in the Souls of Believers as that it inclines them to say of him and his Word as the Priests of Mercury did in eating Sacrifices Truth is sweet and when once it is so and well digested it will so transform them by the renewing of their Minds as that they may prove what is that Good and Acceptable and Perfect Will of God And by so doing it will dispose them to such a chearful Compliance therewith as that they shall be Followers of God as dear Children And this as Seneca insinuates is the ultimate End and Design the utmost Scope and Tendency of Wisdom ut D●um sequaris Since therefore the Gospel of Christ gives better Rules and affords greater Helps for so doing than any there are either in the Theology of the Jews or the Philosophy of the Gentiles most manifest it is that it doth most highly deserve not only to be called Wisdom but also to be accounted Supernatural and Divine because it excels all former Revelations of God as well as the Wisdom of men and it that be such excellent Wisdom most evident it is that Christ and his Apostles were most excellently Wise endued with a sort of Knowledg which was utterly unattainable without Inspiration of God because if otherwise it would have be●n impossible that they should hav● been Authors of such an excellent Production Sect. 3. Of Christ and his Apostles Fortitude And that this their Wisdom dwelt with Fortitude i. e. such Courage and Magnanimity as the Prophets had in the di●charge of their Office is the next thing to be considered and demonstrated and this it may be from the greatness and strangeness of their Undertaking which we know was to reform the Jews and to convert the Gentiles In prosecution of this Design their Actions and their Sufferings declared the Greatness of their Minds For the Jews although They only of all people worship'd the true God and had the knowledge of his Laws yet were very corrupt and degenerate both in Doctrine and Practice which Corruption seems introduced by their Traditions the Spawn of that pretended Interpretation of their Law before-mentioned for in process of time the Comment made void the Text Traditions were so much regarded as that the Text was little minded the Commandments of Men were taught for Doctrine and the Commandments of God were made of none effect by their Traditions Not only their Faith was founded thereon but a Path was thereby paved for all Israelites though never so bad to go to Heaven in For so absurdly Partial and Indulgent were they to their own Nation as that it was a most Authentick Opinion of their Doctors that every Israelite shall have a portion in the World to come Whosoever believes the thirteen Fundamentals of the Jewish Law before-mentioned is admitted saith Maimonides into the number of Israelites and so surely he obtains as great a Right as any hath to receive Benefit by this their grand Charter for Heaven and this Right he holds unless he be so unhappy as to fall into the number of those that are exempted therefrom but there is no great danger of that because there were but six Sorts of Offences whereby the men of Israel might forfeit this their inestimable Priviledg and truly those Offences were such as they might easily withstand all Temptations to commit for one half of them concerned matters of Faith and therefore might be avoided with little Displeasure to the Flesh and less Intrenchment upon worldly Interests the other half concerned such petty trivial Matters of Practice as that no man well in his Wits would

were Partakers and these 't is confessed were sometimes those useful Ornaments of Arts and Sciences but more frequently if not alwayes those of Intelligence and Prudence somewhat above the ordinary rate of others the Spirit of Prophecy seldom or never rested on any but those whose minds were very capable of first principles and able to guide their actions with Judgment and Discretion Now that Christ and his Apostles were so is a thing whereof it seems needless to make proof because among all the Enemies of Christianity I can find none that ever had the Impudence to say that its Founders were Fools but rather they acknowledg it is such a cunningly devised Fable or so subtil a Contrivance as that they are forced to confess the Authors of it were men of excellent Intellectuals Even Atheists themselves by saying that our Religion is an humane Invention allowed of and defended by Princes to keep men in Subjection do declare plainly that its Authors or first Founders who in all appearance were Christ and his Apostles were men of no shallow apprehension but rather of deep judgment and profound Ratiocination The whole Christian World must be thought to consist of these Fools if those that have given these Laws to it were not wise Yet evident it is whoever saith so deserves to be reckoned one of that number or worse However it see●s the first Opponents of Christ and his Apostl●s although they were extreamly malicious yet were not so far transported with the madness of Pride as to say any such thing of them but contrariwise they admired and marvelled at them insomuch that not only the People were astonished at the Doctrine of Christ and his country-men at his Wisdom but also the very Doctors themselves at his Understandings and Answers when he was but twelve year old and afterwards being come to Maturity never man spake like this man Insomuch that the wicked Hearts of many among them prompted them to think he had a Devil but others said and gave a good reason for it too that his were not the words of one that had a devil if we lay both togeth●r we may from thence gather that his discourse was extraordinary so far above the pitch of the hearers as that it gave Evidence of transcendent Wisdom in the Speaker Which also in some measure discovered it self in his Apostles for the Elders of Israel marvelled and Sergius Paulus a prudent man was astonished at what they heard from them and wise men we know use not to admire and marvel at the Rhapsodies of Fools if therefore the People or yet their Rulers were wise it must be concluded that Christ and his Apostles were such because in despite of Malice they were forced to admire them for so being But in this point the confessions of our modern Scoffers have given me a Supersedeas from the trouble of saying any more for though they will sometimes shoot their bolts at some Parts of our Religion divided from the rest yet they dare not say but that the Whole is so consistent with it self and subservient to the End whereunto they say it is designed as that th●y presume to disgrace it only with slie Insinuations that it savours more of Subtilty and Guile than of Honesty of Craft and Cunning than of the thing called Conscience Were this as great a Truth as it is a Slaunder yet this might we learn from it namely that the Author of our Faith and Founders of our Religion were very intelligent Persons men so far from Defects in their Understandings as that they had very large Intellectuals and comprehensive Capacities can Naturals befool the World and make it dance after their Pipe no surely it must therefore be concluded that Christ and his Apostles were men of Parts and Prudence of Profound Judgment and deep Intentions And in that Respect they were such as the preceeding Rule of the Rabbins style Wise But this sort of Wisdom not being peculiar to Prophets was not I suppose so much inquired after in the Trial of those that pretended to the gift of Prophecy as that that was supernatural namely that Knowledg which without Revelation was utterly unattainable and that in respect either of the Matter Manner or Measure of it That Knowledg ledg or Wisdom which in one or other of these respects was supernatural was I think principally enquired after in the Trial of Pretenders to Prophecy the Reason of this my Conjecture is not only because the Nature of the thing requires that it should be so but because the contumelious carriage of the Jews towards our blessed Saviour seems to intimate that it was so for when they had blind-folded him they stroke him on the face and asked him saying Prophesie who is it that smote thee It seems far more probable to me that this their usage of Christ should referr to a Custom of their own rather than to a sport called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst the Grecian Children or Blind-mans-buff among our own if this sport were of use among the Jews also yet I do not think their Malice was then so gamesome and childish it seems a more solemn jeer allusive to some Custom or Enquiry that wont to be made in the Trial of Prophets and if so it were then is it most probable that in this affair the Jews required evidence of some supernatural Knowledg in him that pretended to the Spirit of Prophecy and such Knowledg as this we have already observed the old Prophets had in respect either of the Matter Manner or Measure of their Knowledg and that Christ and his Apostles had so as well as they is the thing which we are now to demonstrate Fore-knowledge of future Contingencies the Jews very justly held to be Supernatural in respect of the Matter of it That Christ and his Apostles were endued therewith will hereafter appear by the account we are to give of their Predictions at present therefore I shall wave that and observe that they as well as the Prophets before them had a sort of knowledge which was truly Supernatural in respect of the Manner of it i. e. those things which of their own nature were such as might have been known by the power of mens Natural Faculties were sometimes made known to them by immediate Revelation as appears not only by Jesus his knowledge of Nathaneel and of all other men but also by the Discovery which the Apostles made of Ananias and Sapphira's sacriledge Neither in the Nature of the thing known nor yet in the Measure of their Knowledg does there seem any thing extraordinary yet not being informed concerning it 't is evident the manner of their Knowledg or the means whereby they attained to it were Supernatural they received it by Inspiration or Revelation of the Spirit and that 's the reason why St. Peter told Ananias that he had not lied unto Men but to the Holy Ghost i. e. to God himself But of