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	unfeigned_a	3,625	5	11.4478	5	true

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

from others or at least such Doctrines as were but obscurely revealed to others by Holy Scriptures were plainly made known to them by Tradition But besides the Holy Scriptures and Tradition they or at least some of them pretended Revelation in behalf of their idle Fables as Irenaeus makes evident by the example of one Marcus and other Gnosticks who as they gave out did not only prophesie themselves but had power to communicate the gift thereof to others and accordingly as they boasted and their Disciples believed so they did to divers especially of the weaker Sex and by this pretence they deceived and drew many after them and no wonder if they did so for all men took Prophets to be holy Men of God who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and who so profligate from all Religion as to think that they were such and yet refuse to be led by or partake of their Spirit by this pretence therefore how false and fabulous soever their Doctrine was the foundation of Faith in it and of Obedience to it was laid in the Consciences of men and this Foundation is of all others the most firm and immoveable able to bear whatever superstructure shall be laid upon it yea also and to beat off whatever assaults shall be made against it as appears by the improbability of some Doctrines and severity of some Orders still received and defended because at first founded on the credit of pretended Visions and Revelations all the difficulty was in the choice of the ground wherein to lay this Foundation the minds of men that were of sharp deep and strong Discourse were not apt to receive it but men of shallow apprehensions and weak intellectuals were fittest and most prepared for it this those builders of Babel the primitive Seducers seem wisely to have considered for S. Peter insinuates they were unstable Souls whom they beguiled and S. Paul more expresly saith they were the Simple whose hearts they deceived they crept into houses and led captive silly women laden with sins and led away with divers lusts thus those in the Apostles dayes and Irenaeus tells us of others who a little after them were most busie with women especially those that were of greatest Quality and most famous for worldly Grandieur and Riches these they most frequently sought to impose upon and allure by flatteries But lest their deceiveableness of unrighteousness viz. their Artifices of deceit should not be sufficient to secure the Foundation they came also as it was foretold they would with the working of Satan with all Power and Signes and lying Wonders for we read of Simon the Samaritan the Founder of Heresies and Father of Hereticks that he used Sorcery and bewitched the People of Samaria giving out that he himself was some great one to whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest saying this man is the great Power of God Yet as great as he was he at length was in some measure subdued by a greater Power than his for he believed and was baptized yet his heart not being right in the Sight of God but supposing the Apostles to be greater Magicians than himself he greedily contended against them that he might seem more glorious than they to this end he desisted not from the study of Magick but made such farther progress in it as that he provoked many to amazement by it for Claudius Caesar erected a Statue in Honour of him for it After him the Carpocratians were much addicted to Magick and Inchantments that they might entice others to love them yea and they drew Devils to their assistance that by many Delusions it might be in their Power to be Lord and Master of whom they pleased Thus also it is reported of the before mentioned Marcus that he was a very great Proficient in Magical Imposture whereby he deceived many both Men and Women the like might I observe concerning others but this may suffice to shew that in this respect as well as others the primitive Seducers did exactly fulfill the Prophecies that went before of them and from thence it is easie to inferr that they who uttered them viz. Christ and his Apostles were Prophets because the only ordinary and certain Mark of a Prophetick Spirit viz. Predictions exactly accomplish'd is manifestly found in them But forasmuch as the Predictions of Christ and his Apostles concerning Seducers are of use not only to confirm the Faith but also to direct the Judgment in the choice of what Teachers men ought to follow and adhere to it would not be unuseful for us to make Trial of our Modern Teachers thereby which if we should do impartially I doubt not but we should find that the Copy which was set by the false Teachers in the Apostles times is too fairly transcribed by too many especially the Papists in ours and consequently we need not search the Records of Antiquity our own age will afford us too sure and sad accomplishment of these Predictions the demonstration hereof I did once intend but finding I should thereby grasp at matter more sit for a Volume than a Section I shall not so far digress but proceed to speak Sect. 6. Concerning the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles And here my business will be to prove that they really wrought many and great Miracles The Truth and certainty of which Proposition because Miracles were matters of Fact is most properly demonstrable only by Testimony yet Reason methinks proves it probable or somewhat more for granted it is on all sides that our Blessed Saviour himself in regard of his Manhood was but mean in the World his Parents were no Persons of Honour and he himself had but a mean Reception at his Birth nor was he by the Jews much set by in his Life He grew up as a root out of a dry Ground they thought there was no Form Comeliness or Beauty in him that they should desire him They would see no such blossomes in his Youth as promised any extraordinary Fruit in his riper age wherein also he was despised and rejected of men a man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief a Rock of Offence and Stone of Stumbling set at naught by the Master-Builders of Israel rejected by the chief of his own Nation pursued by his Enemies betrayed by one of his pretended Friends denyed by another and suspected by all pursued and apprehended bound and buffetted arraigned and spit on condemned and crucified by his own Country-men as one of the worst of Malefactors was this mans Name like to become great in Israel and famous among the Gentiles yet this was he that sent forth his Apostles and who were They why men as mean as himself persons of obscure Parentage of no Reputation for Wealth or Wisdom Honour or Authority in their own Country yea so far from it as that the chief of them was a Fisherman and others as rude and illiterate as the meanest