Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	good_a	peace_n	quiet_a	5,023	5	9.5882	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30466	Some passages of the life and death of the right honourable John, Earl of Rochester who died the 26th of July, 1680 / written by his own direction on his death-bed by Gilbert Burnet ...	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1680 (1680)	Wing B5922; ESTC R15099	49,660	204

are heaviest We are to acknowledge the Equity of the Law On the one hand there is no prejudice but the restraint of Appetite On the other are the mischiefs of being given up to pleasure of running inordinately into it of breaking the quiet of our own Family at home and of others abroad the ingaging into much Passion the doing many false and impious things to compass what is desired the Wast of mens Estates time and health Now let any man judge Whether the prejudices on this side are not greater than that single one of the other side of being denied some pleasure For Polygamy it is but reasonable since Women are equally concern'd in the Laws of Marriage that they should be considered as well as Men But in a State of Polygamy they are under great misery and jealousie and are indeed barbarously used Man being also of a sociable Nature Friendship and Converse were among the primitive Intendments of Marriage in which as far as the man may excel the Wife in greatness of Mind and height of Knowledge the Wife someway makes that up with her Affection and tender Care So that from both happily mixed there arises a Harmony which is to vertuous Minds one of the greatest joys of life But all this is gone in a state of Polygamy which occasions perpetual Jarrings and Jealousies And the Variety does but engage men to a freer Range of pleasure which is not to be put in the Ballance with the far greater Mischiefs that must follow the other course So that it is plain Our Saviour considered the Nature of Man what it could bear and what was fit for it when he so restrained us in these our Liberties And for Divorce a power to break that Bond would too much encourage married persons in the little quarrellings that may rise between them If it were in their power to depart one from another For when they know that cannot be and that they must live and die together it does naturally incline them to lay down their Resentments and to endeavour to live as well together as they can So the Law of the Gospel being a Law of Love designed to engage Christians to mutual love It was fit that all such Provisions should be made as might advance and maintain it and all such Liberties be taken away as are apt to enkindle or foment strife This might fall in some instances to be uneasie and hard enough but Laws consider what falls out most commonly and cannot provide for all particular Cases The best Laws are in some Instances very great grievances But the Advantages being ballanced with the Inconveniences Measures are to be taken accordingly Upon this whole matter I said That pleasure stood in opposition to other Considerations of great Weight and so the decision was easie And since our Saviour offers us so great Rewards It is but reasonable He have a Priviledge of loading these Promises with such Conditions as are not in themselves grateful to our natural Inclinations For all that propose high Rewards have thereby a right to exact difficult performances To this he said We are sure the terms are difficult but are not so sure of the Rewards Upon this I told him That we have the same assurance of the Rewards that we have of the other parts of Christian Religion We have the Promises of God made to us by Christ confirmed by many Miracles We have the Earnests of these in the quiet and peace which follows a good Conscience and in the Resurrection of Him from the dead who hath promised to raise us up So that the Reward is sufficiently assured to us And there is no reason it should be given to us before the Conditions are performed on which the Promises are made It is but reasonable that we should trust God and do our Duty In hopes of that eternal Life which God who cannot lie hath promised The Difficulties are not so great as those which sometimes the commonest concerns of Life bring upon us The learning some Trades or Sciences the governing our Health and Affairs bring us often under as great straights So that it ought to be no just prejudice that there are some things in Religion that are uneasie since this is rather the effect of our corrupt Natures which are farther deprav'd by vitious habits and can hardly turn to any new course of life without some pain than of the Dictates of Christianity which are in themselves just and reasonable and will be easie to us when renew'd and in a good measure restor'd to our Primitive Integrity As for the Exceptions he had to the Maintenance of the Clergy and the Authority to which they pretended if they stretched their Designs too far The Gospel did plainly reprove them for it So that it was very suitable to that Church which was so grosly faulty this way to take the Scriptures out of the hands of the people since they do so manifesty disclaim all such practices The Priests of the true Christian Religion have no secrets among them which the World must not know but are only an Order of Men dedicated to God to attend on Sacred things who ought to be holy in a more peculiar manner since they are to handle the things of God It was necessary that such persons should have a due Esteem paid them and a fit Maintenance appointed for them That so they might be preserved from the Contempt that follows Poverty and the Distractions which the providing against it might otherways involve them in And as in the Order of the World it was necessary for the support of Magistracy and Government and for preserving its esteem that some state be used though it is a happiness when Great Men have Philosophical Minds to despise the Pageantry of it So the plentiful supply of the Clergy if well used and applied by them will certainly turn to the Advantage of Religion And if some men either through Ambition or Covetousness used indirect means or servile Compliances to aspire to such Dignities and being possessed of them applied their Wealth either to Luxury or Vain Pomp or made great Fortunes out of it for their Families these were personal failings in which the Doctrine of Christ was not concerned He upon that told me plainly There was nothing that gave him and many others a more secret encouragement in their ill ways than that those who pretended to believe lived so that they could not be thought to be in carnest when they said it For he was sure Religion was either a meer Contrivance or the most important thing that could be So that if he once believed he would set himself in great carnest to live suitably to it The aspirings that he had observed at Court of some of the Clergy with the servile ways they took to attain to Preferment and the Animosities among those of several Parties about trifles made him often think they suspected the things were not true which in their Sermons

punished in so extream a manner For the Rites of their Religion We can ill judge of them Except We perfectly understood the Idolatries round about them To which we find they were much inclined So they were to be bent by other Rites to an extream aversion from them And yet by the pomp of many of their Ceremonies and Sacrifices great Indulgences were given to a people naturally fond of a visible splendor in Religious Worship In all which if we cannot descend to such satisfactory Answers in every particular as a curious man would desire it is no wonder The long interval of time and other accidents have worn out those things which were necessary to give us a clearer light into the meaning of them And for the story of the Creation how far some things in it may be Parabolical and how far Historical has been much disputed there is nothing in it that may not be historically true For if it be acknowledged that Spirits can form Voices in the Air for which we have as good Authority as for any thing in History Then it is no wonder that Eve being so lately created might be deceived and think a Serpent spake to her when the Evil Spirit framed the Voice But in all these things I told him he was in the wrong way when he examined the business of Religion by some dark parts of Scripture Therefore I desired him to consider the whole Contexture of the Christian Religion the Rules it gives and the Methods it prescribes Nothing can conduce more to the peace order and happiness of the World than to be governed by its Rules Nothing is more for the Interests of every man in particular The Rules of Sobriety Temperance and Moderation were the best Preservers of life and which was perhaps more of Health Humility Contempt of the Vanities of the World and the being well employed raised a mans Mind to a freedom from the Follies and Temptations that haunted the greatest part Nothing was so Generous and Great as to supply the Necessities of the Poor and to forgive Injuries Nothing raised and maintained a mans Reputation so much as to be exactly just and merciful Kind Charitable and Compassionate Nothing opened the powers of a mans Soul so much as a calm Temper a serene Mind free of Passion and Disorder Nothing made Societies Families and Neighbourhoods so happy as when these Rules which the Gospel prescribes took place Of doing as we would have others do to us and loving our Neighbours as our selves The Christian Worship was also plain and simple suitable to so pure a Doctrine The Ceremonies of it were few and significant as the admission to it by a washing with Water and the Memorial of our Saviour's Death in Bread and Wine The Motives in it to perswade to this Purity were strong That God sees us and will Judge us for all our Actions That we shall be for ever happy or miserable as we pass our Lives here The Example of our Saviour's Life and the great expressions of his Love in Dying for us are mighty Engagements to Obey and Imitate him The plain way of Expression used by our Saviour and his Apostles shews there was no Artifice where there was so much Simplicity used There were no Secrets kept only among the Priests but every thing was open to all Christians The Rewards of Holiness are not entirely put over to another State but good men are specially blest with peace in their Consciences great Joy in the Confidence they have of the Love of God and of seeing Him for ever And often a signal Course of Blessings follows them in their whole Lives But if at other times Calamities fell on them these were so much mitigated by the Patience they were taught and the inward Assistances with which they were furnished that even those Crosses were converted to Blessings I desired he would lay all these things together and see what he could except to them to make him think this was a Contrivance Interest appears in all Humane contrivances Our Saviour plainly had none He avoided Applause withdrew Himself from the Offers of a Crown He submitted to Poverty and Reproach and much Contradiction in his Life and to a most ignominious and painful Death His Apostles had none neither They did not pretend either to Power or Wealth But delivered a Doctrine that must needs condemn them if they ever made such use of it They declared their Commission fully without reserves till other times They Recorded their own Weakness Some of them wrought with their own hands and when they received the Charities of their Converts it was not so much to supply their own Necessities as to distribute to others They knew they were to suffer much for giving their Testimonies to what they had seen and heard In which so many in a thing so visible as Christ's Resurrection and Ascension and the Effusion of the Holy Ghost which He had promised could not be deceived And they gave such publick Confirmations of it by the Wonders they themselves wrought that great multitudes were converted to a Doctrine which besides the opposition it gave to Lust and Passion was born down and Persecuted for 300 years and yet its force was such that it not only weathered out all those Storms but even grew and spread vastly under them Pliny about threescore years after found their Numbers great and their Lives Innocent and even Lucian amidst all his Raillery gives a high Testimony to their Charity and Contempt of Life and the other Vertues of the Christians which is likewise more than once done by Malice it self Julian the Apostate If a man will lay all this in one Ballance and compare with it the few Exceptions brought to it he will soon find how strong the one and how slight the other are Therefore it was an improper way to begin at some Cavils about some Passages in the New Testament or the Old and from thence to prepossess one's Mind against the whole The right method had been first to consider the whole matter and from so general a view to descend to more particular Enquiries whereas they suffered their Minds to be forestalled with Prejudices so that they never examined the matter impartially To the greatest part of this he seemed to assent only he excepted to the belief of Mysteries in the Christian Religion which he thought no man could do since it is not in a mans power to believe that which he cannot comprehend and of which He can have no Notion The believing Mysteries he said made way for all the Juglings of Priests for they getting the people under them in that Point set out to them what they pleased and giving it a hard Name and calling it a Mystery The people were tamed and casily believed it The restraining a man from the use of Women Except one in the way of Marriage and denying the remedy of Divorce he thought unreasonable Impositions on the Freedom of Mankind