Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	faith_n	good_a	pure_a	8,237	5	8.2613	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70985	The reign of the whore discovered and her ruine seen her merchants the priests examined, and with the Romish church (their elder sister) compared and found agreeable in many things ... : some queries also for those people that pay tythes, and priests that receive tythes, to consider and answer : and whereas their cry hath been loud against us the people of God called Quakers, that we are Jesuits, and Jesuitical, in tryal they are found false accusers, and of the same stock and generation themselves ... : also the sustance of a dispute which was the 15th day of the 2d month, called April 1659, at the Bridge-house in Southwark, between VVilliam Cooper, VVilliam VVhitaker, Thomas VVoodsworth, VVieles, Watkins, Cradicut, and others who profess themselves ministers of Christ, and some of the people call'd Quakers ... / written in that which gives to see over all the popish train ... W.S.	Smith, William, d. 1673.; Burrough, Edward, 1634-1662. Following letter containing the substance of the dispute.	1659 (1659)	Wing S204A; ESTC R33983	31,593	40

to be Deceivers and false Teachers and of Antichrist and your fruits and works doth manifest it and thereby do we know you not to be the Ministers of Christ but false Teachers as I have said And whereas you affirmed your selves to be Ministers of Christ and went about to prove it by your Arguments of invented Logick and the substance and intent of your first Argument was Those that have the Characters and Signs upon them spoken of in 1 Tim. 3. are Ministers of Christ but you have those Signs and Characters upon you and therefore You are Ministers of Christ Ans. Now this Scripture which you have mentioned for proof of your Ministry when you are truly laid to the line and measure thereof will prove that you are not true Ministers for you are not thus qualified in your Spirits and Conversation as this Scripture doth signifie but the contrary fruits and effects doth appear from you then is set down in this Scripture Are you blameless in your conversations And are you sober and of good behaviour and given to Hospitality and apt to teach And are you not given to Wine and filthy Lucre And are you patient not brawlers nor covetous And are you not lifted up with pride And are you of good report And do you hold the mysterie of faith in a pure conscience These things were required to be in the Ministers of Christ and have you these characters and are you such as is here spoken of And have you these fruits and marke upon you now are you to be tried and and I am searching your own proof whether it holds sound to confirm that for which you brought it No it is manifest by your fruits according to your own proof that you are men of another generation and are bringing forth fruits and works clean contrary to them whom the Apostle allows of for Ministers For you are not blamelesse nor sober nor of good behaviour for you are guilty of the pride and vanity of this world and live in envy and bitternesse and so not blamelesse nor sober nor of good behaviour neither apt to teach for you want the Spirit that was in the Apostles and you cannot speak as that Spirit gives you utterance but you speak from humane study and what you have gathered from other mens works and many of you are given to wine and strong drink and are greedy of filthy lucre and sue men at Law for wages and remove from one place to another for more means and for greater hire and this is covetousnesse and greedinesse of filthy lucre which you to wit genrally the Priests are known to be guilty of through the whole Land and ye have an ill report to be covetous men and proud men and ambitious and self-seeking men this report you have of many that are without and the poore unconverted people they know you to be guilty of these things and your Consciences are not pure neither do ye hold the mysterie of faith in it but your consciences are defiled with the evil and sinfull practises of this wicked world and that faith that you professe is not the true faith that the Apostles had which gave them victory over the world and over all sinne for you are in the pollutions of the world unsanctified and the guilt of sinne lies upon you these things are true as the Witness in your own consciences may testifie● so that your own proof and evidence hath condemned you and the Scripture by which you thought to prove your selves Ministers of Christ it hath turn'd upon your own heads and manifested the contrary and though you have said you were qualified according to that Scripture and therefore you were called into the mini●st● and were the true Ministers yet the contrary is discovered and that you are qualified by a contrary spirit and have the marks and characters upon you not of the true ministers of Christ but of 〈◊〉 spoken of in 2 Tim. 3. and according to that sort of false Teachers are you qualified and therefore in Practice and conversation you do not agree with the Apostles but are different and contrary to them and are according to the false Teachers and false Apostles and with them you do agree in spirit and in practice in many things And as to your call to the Ministry you are not able to make any good proof thereof at all nor did not at that time but some of them did deny that the anointing the unction of the holy Spirit was necessary unto the Ministry and this was the Argument That all things were mentioned for the qualification of a Minister in that 1 Tim. 3. but the holy unction is not mentioned therefore the unction of the spirit is not necessary to the Ministry Answer Something was spoken to this before as to shew the ignorance of it and the wickednesse of this Argument and some of you were partly ashamed of it your selves and had not the man and you been vvholly ignorant and blind this would never have proceeded from amongst you and are you like to be Ministers of Christ who hath asserted That the spirit of God and the anointing is not necessary to the ministry Was ever the like ignorance uttered by any before you even your Fathers the Friars at Rome would be ashamed of you herein to utter such dark and ignorant assertions Is this your Learning and your wise Logick to prove the anointing unnecessary to the ministry and such ministers we believe are you that have not the holy unction of the spirit but are ministers of the letter and by the will of man and not by the spirit nor of the spirit and so your call is not the same as was the Apostles but contrary to them and different from them so that we cannot own you to be ministers of Christ for ye are different and contrary to them both in your call and in your conversations And though you seemed to deny to be made ministers by your Learning and Education yet it is manifest that through that you received the ministry through the attainments of such Arts and Sciences and at last you came to attain to the Office of Ministers as you say and it was not by the call of the spirit nor by the gift of the holy Ghost for that you have in part denied and saith the unction is not necessary to the Ministry so it is but your hypocrisie to deny that you are made Ministers by your natural learning for we know that thereby onely and without the Gift of the Holy Ghost did you attain to that Ministry which now you hold cannot convert sinners to God nor turn the wicked from his evil way for it answers not the testimony of God in people but people remains always blind and ignorant under it and you go on dreaming for carnal ends unto your selves seeking for your hire and for your gain and therefore we do deny that you are true Ministers of Christ for you

you true Shepherds so much as come to save your sheep from being drawn or taken from or out of your Fold And have you not lost many of the best and soberest of your flock Have you cared naturally for your flock or naturally for the fleece Have you shewed your selves like true shepherds or like hirelings in this thing Do you think you are wronged to be called and counted careless dreaming false idle shepherds and such who want the spiritual Weapons and true Shepherds Crook Put aside Whips and Stocks and Prisons and compulsive Laws and what can you do Where 's your Spiritual Weapons Where 's your Shepherds Crook then If you lose these Weapons what can you do to defend your selves or flock And if you put away the Wisdom which man teacheth and which man hath taught you as natural tongues and arts what can you say Is your armour the whole armour of light and have you the Sword of the Spirit and do you speak as the Spirit gives you utterance as Christ's Ministers did Or do you not gain utterance as the popish priests and Jesuits gains it and have you not bought the art of uttetance and yet are not many of you so dull and sottish that if you should lose your Notes which I have seen some of you craftily hide betwixt the leaves of your Bibles that the people might not see them would you not lose your method matter and utterance and so have little to say Why do you endeavour to hide your notes And do not some of you carry a Bible on purpose up with you into your Pulpits to hide your Notes And are there not some of you that have * Note Books bound and painted in form of a Bible when there is no printed Letter in it Now could you not preach better without your Bible then without your Notes and Note-Book Why do you not leave your Bibles at home Do you bring it onely for a cloak custom fashion and is not this the reason why people cry against us for denyers of the Scriptures because we do not hold a Bible in our hands when we preach to people and because we follow not your fashion and have Notes to tell the people the Chapter and Verse Did Christs Ministers go forth after this manner with Notes in their pockets or in a Book to tell them what to preach and how to preach and did they ever sit down and continue in one place for term of life unless they could hear of a people that would give them more money and greater hire Whose example do you follow in this if not the Popish Priests Come Priests let the people hear your answer Fourthly In your Work called to you say 't is to preach the Gospel and the cry is among poor blind ignorant people you are Ministers of the Gospel But are you not Ministers of the Letter and do you not call Matthew Mark Luke and John's Writings the Gospel and do you not take the Letter for your ground-work which you call your Text and then by your art which you have learn'd at School raise that you call your Doctrines Points Reasons Uses Motives and Trials and such like Now is not your preaching or making an hours speech artificial and is not your Work herein like the Popish Priests and are you not very unlike the Ministers of Christ in this your Work Did any of the latter Prophets take the former Prophets Words to speak from Or did any of the latter Apostles and Ministers of Christ take the former Apostles and Ministers Words for their Ground-Work Did not they all minister according as they had received from God and was not their Work and Ministry for this end To turn people to Gods gift in them from the darkness to the light from the power of Satan to God But is your Work so Do not you turn people's minds to something without them and do not your selves hate the light and so are you like to turn people from darkness and are you not under the power of Satan you selves and do you not teach the poor ignorant people that 't is impossible to be freed from under the power of Satan and that they must never expect to be freed from committing of sin while living in the Body and are not those under the power of the Devil that doth the Works of the Devil and obeys his Will are not those that commit sin the servants of sin and free from righteousness Is not he that commits sin of the Devil Then to what end and purpose is all your labour pains and study and preaching and praying c. if people must always be servants of sin and slaves to the Devil and never be redeemed from fin and iniquity What spiritual things do you sowe to poore people What Gospel do you preach What glad tydings do you bring Is this your glad tydings that people must live in sin and under the power of the Devil Are you not miserable Ministers Have you not brought another Gospel besides that which the Apostles preached Is not the Gospel glad tydings to such as are weary and heavy laden with sin and in bondage to the Devil And is not the Gospel the Power of God And is not Christ the Power of God and is not he appointed to save his people from their sin and not in their sins Have you not one thing still to learn of the Pope and that is to know where the time and place of Cleansing is How come you to miss preaching up a Purgatory or place of Cleansing after this life seeing your Doctrine and Principles admits of no such place and time in this World But are not the Papists and you both deceived in this thing Doth not the Tree lie as it falls And Judgement finde as death leaves And no unclean thing enter the Kingdome Come Priests let us and the people here your answer Fifthly As to your Maintenance in this your Work How can you quit your selves from being like the Papist Priest and Jesuits Are you any thing like the Ministers of Christ in this thing also Have not the Pope Cardinals and Bishops been the Foundation of your setled standing-maintenance by Tithes Gleab-lands Easter-reckonings Midsummer dues Mortnaries and Smoke penys and such like Are you not beholding to the Pope Popish Laws for this your way of maintenance And why do you deny the Pope Is it because he hath no authority in this Nation to give you any more means nor to take from you what you have Is it not a great sign that the root of all evil is in you to wit Covetousness that you have swallowed down so much blood liberty and goods of many of the poor innocent Lambs of Christ within these few years because for conscience sake they could not put into your mouths Have you not prepared war against the innocent people of the Lord who living in his pure fear did not dare to maintain you in