Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	evil_a	good_a	motive_n	1,128	5	11.3729	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29573	An apologie of John, Earl of Bristol consisting of two tracts : in the first, he setteth down those motives and tyes of religion, oaths, laws, loyalty, and gratitude, which obliged him to adhere unto the King in the late unhappy wars in England : in the second, he vindicateth his honour and innocency from having in any kind deserved that injurious and merciless censure, of being excepted from pardon or mercy, either in life or fortunes.	Bristol, John Digby, Earl of, 1580-1654.	1657 (1657)	Wing B4789; ESTC R9292	74,883	107

never have betaken me to any other way of clearing my self although I am not ignorant upon how great disadvantage and hazard any man is brought to a Tryal upon the Impeachment and pursuit of the Houses Neither had I any reason to slatter my self with any indulgency towards we Yet withall I had and have so great confidence of my own clear Innocency in point of not meriting to be excepted from the same course of proceeding afforded others That I was never more desirous to attain any thing than I was and am to be admitted to an equal and fair Hearing and Legal Tryal As for the point of having served and adhered to the King I shall neither deny or evade it but my Case is in that the same with many Thousands and I should be too indulgent to my self not to expect the same misfortunes and suffering with others But now almost despairing of ever to be so happy as to see mine own Country again in regard of my Age and Infirmities and in less hopes of ever being admitted to a fair Hearing since the very ways of Addresses or Petitions unto them are debarred me and the using of any further indeavour to satisfie them is voted down And since their Sentence is already before either Examination Tryal or Conviction put in execution in as much as concerneth Fortunes or Estates by their actual possessing and disposing of them So that having nothing left unto me but an exiled Life present wants and an expectation of greater poverty I shall indeavour to bear those heavy visitations which God hath been pleased to send upon me and my Family with that Constancy of mind and pious submission to Gods holy will as befitteth a good Christian and leave unto my Family and Posterity the subsequent Discourse where in the first place I shall set down those Reasons that induced me to adhere unto the King being as I conceive thereunto bound in Honour and Conscience by the Law of God and of the Land by many solemn Oaths by natural Allegiance as a Subject and by Honesty and Gratitude as a sworn Servant both to his Father and to himself Of which several Obligations I shall speak in the first part of this Discourse And in the second part I shall make so true and faithfull a Narration of my Proceedings as I doubt not But to appear to have been a Faithfull Loyal and Affectionate Servant to the King my Soveraign and Master But to have had no hand in any of those Exorbitancies which caused those misunderstandings betwixt the King and his People To have been no Incendiary betwixt the King and the Houses But on the contrary to have used all possible indeavours as far as in me was to have put those unhappy breaches and differences into a way of Accommodation whereby a Civil War might have been prevented and since the War there never was any Overture or hope of Peace to which I did not contribute both my prayers and all the furtherance that was in my power And so not to have deserved that merciless Sentence of Unpardonable Destruction CHAP. II. The particular Reasons of adhering unto the King in this Cause and the method observed in this Discourse MY intention is not in this Discourse wherein the Vindication of mine own Honour and Innocency and the setting down of those Reasons which deterred my Conscience from taking Armes against my King is the main scope to write a defence of the Cause in general or to dispute the Question of Subjects taking Armes against their Soveraign It will require a large and elaborate Tract aparr which may not be interrupted by any thing of the proceedings of a particular man Neither will I censure or judge other men nor fix upon others though of a contrary way any thing that may seem opprobrious notwithstanding the Stile of Traitor and notorious Traitor hath often been my Title in Print although that detestable name in this Case doth not make me blush I know mens Consciences may by different Principles be carried different waies Neither will I censure so many men of all Qualities and Conditions and religious Professions of so much Impietie as to have broken through all Tyes of Allegiance and Loyaltie and so many Oaths their Consciences unconsulted and without conceiving they had found something to ballance their Judgements against so many precise and clear Duties I shall only set down the motives and inducements of mine own Conscience which ought to be to each Christian his Guide against which as he can do nothing well so even good Actions become evil if they be done with an unsatisfied or dubious conscience The Rules of Scripture being That we be fully perswaded in our minds Rom. 14.5 That he is happy that condemneth not himself in the thing he alloweth vers. 22. That he that doubteth is damned And that all things that are not of faith are Sin ver. 23. So that as it will be easily agreed That to all Christian men Conscience ought to be the strongest and most unresistable guide and of so great and binding authoritie with us That it should over-rule all considerations of Safetie Profit Ambition Revenge or other Interest whatsoever So it behooveth each Christian man to seek out the best and most unfallible marks and directions for the guiding of his Conscience in the right way And this I may with truth declare and take God to my witness in it That when I did see that no Industry wherein I omitted nothing that was in my power for the stopping allaying or reconciling of those differences and violences which breaking in like a floud prevailed over mine and all other peaceable minded mens indeavours could produce any good effect And that there was now nothing left to any man but in an unevitable War to make choice of the juster side as his Conscience towards God in the first place and his other civil duties and obligations should dictate unto him I did after many Conferences with learned men of the other way much studie and reading of all that I could find to have written in favour or excuse of Subjects taking Arms against their King resolve contrary to all worldy or prudential Interests of my own to adhere to the King according as my Conscience was satisfied I was bound to do By the law of God By the doctrine and practice of all Christian Churches and in all times By many Oathes By the laws of the Kingdom By my natural Allegiance as a Subject And by Gratitude and Fidelity as a sworn Servant both to his Father and Himself Of each which several Obligations I shall speak in the subsequent Discourse in the order that is here set down CHAP. III. Reasons deduced from Scripture AS it will be easily assented unto that Conscience ought to be the guide of our Actions so the most infallible Rule whereby to guide Conscience to a Christian ought to be the Principles of Religion and those Principles are above all other

due to their Kings upon any colour or pretext of Religion For as no private man doth forfeit his Inheritance or free-hold by Impiety or Atheism although he may forfeit his Soul unless he commit some legal Crime So a Prince that holdeth his Crown by unquestionable Right of Succession cannot forfeit his Temporal Inheritance by the erroniousness of his Religion his Soul must only answer that forfeit And although some have gone so far as to admit a lawfullness of the Subjects taking Arms against their Prince for the defence and maintenance of their Laws and Religion yet no man hath adventured so far as to allow the taking Arms for bringing in of new Laws and a new Religion contrary to the established and that by force and without consent of their Soveraign which is the present Case CHAP. IX Shewing the War not to have been begun by the King but that he condescended to all things that could in reason be demanded of him for the preventing of it THere is yet one further Objection wherwith I have heard some indeavour to countenance and justifie their taking Arms against the King which was That he first made War against his Parliament meaning by force to introduce an Arbitrary Power in Church and Common-Wealth And that the War on their side was only defensive and for the maintenance of their liberties proprieties privileges and Religion The steps and progress of this unhappy War are so well known unto me even from the first misunderstandings betwixt the King and People and the improvement of them by Tumults and several Artifices untill they broke out into Acts of open hostility that nothing did so much terrifie my Conscience from taking Arms against the King or more confirmed me in my Duty of adhering unto him than the certain and infallible knowledge I had of the Kings hearty and unfeigned Desires and Indeavours to have prevented this War and to that end to have done and was ready to do all things that had been or should be with justice or reason propounded unto him for the satisfaction of his Parliament which I conceive to all unpreoccupated Iudgments will be easily most apparent when it shall be considered how many things he hath done besides the easing of just grievances whereunto he is indeed obliged which were meerly Acts of Grace and which if he had denied he should have done no wrong And for the doing whereof the wit of man can find no other reason or inducement but his desire to satisfie his Parliament and the keeping of things from extremities For besides the giving way to the putting down of the Court of Starchamber the High Commission and the regulating of his Councel-Table many other things he hath done which some Kings would rather have adventured a War than have parted with any of them As the consenting to have his Privy-Councel that had been sworn to secrecy to be examined upon Oath concerning those things that had passed in his Presence in his most secret Cabinet Councel The giving his Assent in such conjuncture of times to the taking away the Bishops Votes in Parliament And the divesting of himself of the Power to dissolve the Parliament notwithstanding that the evil Consequences that might happen to him thereby were represented unto him in my hearing And I conceive that no man will be so partial but they do beleeve that howsoever the King might be satisfied in point of Conscience by the Bishops and Iudges and the joint authority of both Houses for giving his Assent to the passing of the Bill for my Lord of Straffords Attaindure yet no man but beleeveth he would have saved his Life at a great Ransom But hoping therby to have allayed the rage of his people aswell as to have given full satisfaction to his Houses with a sad and afflicted heart he signed the Warrant for the Earls execution For he was then made beleeve that with his giving way to his death and his consenting to the Bill for not adjourning or dissolving of the Parliament but with the Concurrence of the Houses all misunderstandings betwixt him and his Parliament would be removed and all things return to a calm and orderly way of Proceeding Now if the King had had any secret Intention of making of a War would he have done so many things so prejudicial to himself and so against his heart only for the preventing of it and although his hopes of a quiet settlement by the passing of these two Bills failed him he yet gave not over the doing of all further things which he thought might renew a right understanding betwixt him and the Houses So likewise when that unhappy and unseasonable Act of his going to the House of Commons in Person happened he indeavoured to redeem it with such Acts of acknowledgemeot submission nay I may say asking forgiveness as were never done by any King unto his Subjects So likewise in the particular of his Attorneys accusing of the Lord Kimbolton and the five Members notwithstanding he had a President for it in his own time of Sir Robert Heath his then Attorneys impeaching of my self of High Treason which Impeachment was received and admitted of by the House of Peers and Arraignment and due process of Law was by the said House ordered and awarded thereupon yet the King finding the Houses therewith displeased did not only command prosecution to be withdrawn but left his Attorny to the Iustice of the Parliament And I conceive that it will be acknowledged by all Laws and Religions That the very excesses and errors of Soveraign Princes if reparation and satisfaction may be obtained by Petition and Remonstrance as in these Ca●es they have been Recourse ought not to be had by Subjects to Arms or Hostile Resistance and I am deceived if this be not also the Opinion of the severest of our new Doctors Where wrongs are done if the party offending shall upon demand make reparation and give satisfaction to the party offended and yet he shall notwithstanding make War it is He that is the Agressor that maketh the offensive War Melior causa ad partem poenitentem transit And the party first offending by his penitency and satisfaction brings over the Right and Iustice to his Cause and if this be betwixt Independent States betwixt whom such as write de Iure Belli say a legitimate War can only be for War being defined to be publico●um Armorum justa contentio Subjects are not allowed as lawfull Enemies opposed to their Soveraign for want of supreme and publique Authority How much more ought such Acknowledgment and Reparations as have before been set down have satisfied Subjects in the behalf of their King so far humbling of himself as certainly would have pacified a modest Conqueror After the King had found himself disappointed of his expectation and that by his former yieldings and complyances the misunderstandings were little allayed but greater appearances grew every day that other of unquietness and troubles

binding and obliging which are deduced from the word of God I shall therefore first begin with those religious and pious Motives which have in Conscience restrained me from taking Arms against the King or making to him any hostile Resistance For I desire it to be understood that when I speak of Resistance I alwaies understand Actual and Hostile Resistance For I well know that in things in themselves sinfull mala in se I ought rather to obey God than Men And in such Cases suffering is a full performance of our Duty of Obedience Nay in Cases only illegal non illicita but illegalia against publique or private Right as if a Prince shall infringe the known undoubted Prilileges of the Kingdom or of Parliament or command that which is destructive unto them The Weapons of our Resistance ought to be Replyes Petitions Remonstrances Nay we may withold our free-will-Offerings though not our Tributes of Dutie we may stop our voluntarie supplies of giving Subsidies we may make a stand in the transactions of affairs untill the King condescendeth to do us Right as hath been often practised As it was in the Case of the Earl of Arundel who being restrained and kept from sitting in Parliament in the year 1626. by the King without cause shewn The House of Peers sate many daies silent without debating or transacting any Business untill he should be restored to his libertie and place in Parliament or cause shewed for his detention But to take Arms or to use Acts of force this is the Resistance which ought not to be used and is neither justifiable by the Laws of God nor of the Kingdom And this Resistance I am far from being satisfied in my Conscience may be used by any subjects against their lawfull and undoubted Soveraign The places in Scripture both in the old and new Testament commanding by positive precept our obedience and forbidding Resistance to the Powers ordeined over us by God are many But the Arguments of necessary deduction are infinite whereas Resistance is no where commanded or allowed And the Arguments by way of Deduction which are made use of to tollerate the Subjects taking of Arms against their Soveraign are by putting some places of Scripture upon wrack and torture to make them speak their sense whereas it is an undeniable Rule in Schools That Inferences and deductions cannot justifie the breach of plain duties injoyned by any one positive precept of Scripture In the old Testament it was death to disobey much more hostilely to resist the supream Authority by positive precept Deut. 17.10 Joshua 1.18 So it was to resist Parents And certainly in States and Common-wealths tam Pater Nemohe is Pater patriae and all the civill power that was of old in Paternall Iurisdiction is now by the Consent and Common Agreement of the People placed in the supream power of a State and the same obedience is due to it and resistance to it as unjustifiable And such as will indulge to the People a freedome to resume their first Original Power grounded upon that Maxime Omnis homo nascitur liber every man is born free seduce them by so false a Principle that the contrary of it is the truth Nullus homo nascitur liber no man is born free Neither was there ever yet in this world anyone man born free It is true there was one man created free our first father Adam But all his Children and all his Descent after him were born under Paternall Iurisdiction Nay our blessed Saviour speaking of him as a Man and Son to the blessed Virgin was born under this Paternal Jurisdiction and filial Obedience whereunto he submitted himself as is plainly set down Scripture Luke the 2.51 where it is said He went with Joseph and his Mother and was subject unto them Now this Paternal Jurisdiction which was at first the sole Soveraignty which governed the world By reason of Partiality in Parents Oppression by such as were the strongest and a multitude of inconveniences and confusions when the World was become numerous and full of People and every family become a Realm As it was too narrow so it grew to be so hurtful unto Mankind That men were forced for their own preservation Common Justice and comfort of life to transfer this paternal Jurisdiction all but filial and personal Duty of honoring and obeying Parents into Magistracy and willingly divested themselves for their own good of that Native Libertie which they had before And as the right power of Government is the same which it was in paternall Iurisdiction only by the Consent of the People changed into another hand So the Obedience unto it ought to be the same And the fifth Commandement of obeying Parents is by all understood to extend unto the Magistrate to whom the people having by consent tranferred the power of paternal Jurisction are likewise by Divine Precept bound to obedience and the People cannot still retein unto themselves that which by common consent they have divested themselves of and transferred to others So was it in the Common-Wealth of Rome when by lex Regia the people had transferred all their power to the Emperour they were not to resist And it was to those Emperours to whom our Saviour and his Apostles injoined Obedience not only for Wrath but for Conscience sake and not unto the good only but unto the froward David was pursued by Saul unjustly his life sought by him yet his Conscience check'd him when he had only cut off the lap of Sauls garment 1 Sam. 24.5 6. But when the attempting upon his person was mentioned he then cryed out Who can stretch forth his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltlesse 1 Sam. 26.9 Nay when he might have slain Saul and he was desired by Abishai that he might strike him to the ground he did not only forbid him but called unto Abner telling him he deserved to die that he had not more carefully kept and guarded his Master vers. 15 16. which sheweth that not only not to hurt but to preserve is our Duty And truly if I should have lift up my hand or drawn my Sword against the King I fear I should not have been so happy as divers have been that have gone the other way in finding out such satisfactory Arguments or distinctions as would have rid or cured me of that horrour of Conscience which would have made me most miserable in the height of all prosperitie and successe All the whole context of the old Testament incite to the obedience to the honouring fearing and reverencing of the King And all the Attempts that have been made upon the persons of Kings or their Government are either condemned as wicked or else were by the extraordinary and especial Commandement of God making use of wicked men to be the Executioners of his just Judgments Besides the Government of the Jewish Commonwealth was a Theocratia an immediate Government of God himself and by the Consent of all Divines