Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	high_a	power_n	resist_v	1,057	5	9.4839	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42392	Reflections upon the animadversions upon the Bishop of Worcester's letter by H.G.	H. G.	1662 (1662)	Wing G25; ESTC R40433	9,578	13

to make Episcopacy dangerous to Regality will have above twenry to one against him and therefore to advance it it is therefore absurdly done of him to charge Crimine ab uno Disce omnes upon the Bishop here when as he himself hath nothing else to make good his exception 2. For want of argument against the Bishops assertion that the Bishop is the sole Pastor of all Congregations in his Diocess D. E. is sure he says but it is only upon his own Authority Gratis dictum it can be defended by those arguments which maintain the Popes supremacy which is all one as if D. E. should be sure that my going to Church can only be maintained by those arguments which are alleged to maintain Mass and therefore I should never come there and if he had understood a little Logick he would have found he had proved the Bishops assertion by the practice of Paul and Peter though no Saints of his which he brings against it for to bid and command is the Predicament of Relation to something subject to it and if Paul may bid the Elders of Ephesus and Peter command his fellow Elders then necessarily must the Elders of Ephesus and Peter's fellow Elders be subject to Paul and Peter which is I believe as much as the Bishop will desire 3. I commend D. E. that in his 3. objection he charges the Bishop page 3. that such as come not in by the door to be Thieves and Robbers ought to be understood of such Ministers as speak to Congregations without the Bishops License whereas the Bishop then only charges Mr. Baxter not to come in by the door but to be a Thief and Robber because he had not only robbed the Right-full Vicar of Kidderminster of his Reputation but of his means and maintenance D. E. therefore does very well to set up a man of straw this cold weather and get himself heat by threshing of it but if D. E. be good at Addition he is no less at Substraction and therefore takes no notice of the Bishops instance of Saint Paul and Alexander the Copper-smith and Demas Philetus and H●meneus for D. E. his objection against preaching without a License after Ordination because it cannot be dissolved much less hindered in the free use except for moral and notoriously vicious misdemeanors I grant that power indissoluble because a divine institution yet does it not therefore follow that the exercise of it may not be suspended upon abuse of it However D. E. puts the cart before the horse in affirming it impossible to be dissolved much less impeached or hindred in the free use of it For his 2. objection of being unreasonable for one Minister of the Gospell to silence another and the Bishop to be no more He himself before granted it in Paul's bidding and Peter's commanding the Elders and Paul and Peter were but Ministers of the Gospell and if Paul and Peter might bid and command then might Paul and Peter forbid and silence for cujus est velle ejus est nolle But it is well here he allows the Bishop to be a Minister of the Gospell and so Christs whereas page 2. he makes him purely the Kings And now let me tell D. E. that the Judges of Assize are fellow subjects with himself yet for ought I know may proceed against and hang him if he mends not his manners Nor hath D. E. got so great a Goal of the Bishop in affirming our Saviour to put the Scribes and Pharises to silence by Argument only for the Scribes and Pharises were rightfully in Moses chair and had not as Thieves and Robbers invaded the rights and just possessions of other men as the Presbyterians did nor in that formality as Presbyterians had they or now have any right or power to teach the people and if it be not true which he saith the Bishop layes to their charge of preaching nothing but sedition and treason as contrary to their principles I am sure it is no way contrary to their Practice and so they are the more manifest Hypocrites in being so 4. D. E. 4 th objection is injurious and false for in all ages the Church did and might in point of Conscience injoyn penance for publick or private faults although forgiven or not taken notice of by Temporal Powers without any breach or disturbance of the publick Peace neither do I find or believe that the Bishop does affirm the Church distinct from the State to have any coercive power 5. D. E. 5 th objection is so wild and impertinent that I am confident the Bishop did never dream of such a consequence as he there puts where things are commanded by them who have no right or Authority to do it 6. And whereas D. E. in his sixt objection against the Bishop would have it an unconscionable thing to go against any pretence of Scripture or practice of Primitive times and to impose in Gods worship things confessedly needless and trivial and therefore what the Bishop uncompassionately tells us that our Laws do well to punish even with non-admission to the Sacrament such as will not or perhaps dare not kneel I am unwilling to dispute with any man where the terms of the subject matter are not first defined much less where my Adversary and I it may be mean quite contrary things by them I say then by Conscience I understand alwaies a rightfull power commanding or forbidding any thing and if any subordinate power to which I am subject commands contrary to it then to submit to the penalty but never to resist the power Now would I know what Law of God forbids me to kneel at the receiving the Sacrament or otherwise I cannot plead conscience against it if I be injoyned to do it by any Authority to which I am subject and therefore our Laws do well to punish those who will not conform and that kneeling and outward gestures are not trivial and needless as D. E. is pleas'd to tearm them in the worship and service of God is evident both by the old Law and Gospell and consent of all men in all ages and places untill denyed by our late and now Hypocrites and Reformers I say that outward gestures are commanded by our Saviour himself in Gods worship for when the Devil tempted our Saviour he bid him not ask any thing of him but fall down and worship him which was only an outward gesture but our Saviour told that it was writen that thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve to worship God therefore with an outward worship is commanded by our Saviour And I pray what is God jealous of in the second Commandment of falling down and worshiping any creature but that that should be given to it which is only due and proper to him and by the Authority of all storys men did ever wheresoever they apprehended a Deity worship it with outward worship It may be it was a trivial and needless

thing in Moses at another time to put off his shooes it was not so when God bid him put them off because the place was holy But D. E. hath two reasons against the Bishops reason for non-admission of such as will not kneel at receiving the Sacrament viz. that it become not the Law-givers to endanger the Churches peace for their sakes one is it did much more become all Law-givers in the things of God to observe the Law of Christ which is a Law of Love and Liberty When D. E. shews that kneeling or observing things duly required of us in Gods service does become destructive to Christs Law of Love and Liberty then he says something in the mean time I think D. E. to be a wondrous proper instrument to plead for Love and Liberty in Religion for his love it appears by his Animadversion and for his Liberty sure his Religion is yet to chuse His second is the Churches peace to be more endangered by pressing things doubtfull than by the forbearance of them for since by enforcing of such things as God hath no where commanded our Christian Liberty is enfringed from hence it follows if it ought not yet we may lawfully refuse such impositions as our Saviour did not washing his hands before meat and the Apostle Paul in case of Circumcision What though God hath not commanded things in his worship and service shall therefore nothing be done in it nothing less for it is sufficient to me that God commands me to hear and obey the Church and commands the Church to do all things decently and in order in his worship and service what things therefore the Church commands for decency and order in Gods worship if they be not contrary to Gods Laws are not things doubtfull but ought in conscience to be submitted to upon penalty of the breach of Gods Law in not hearing and disobeying the Church For D. E. his instances of our Saviours and the Apostles refusing to observe the Pharises in washing of hands and Circumcission it is both blasphemous and false for our Saviour was in the power of the Pharises in reference to the Ceremonial Law and therefore D. E. cannot assume to himself like liberty with our Saviour and Circumcission being typical was fulfilled by our Saviour and the use of it a denyal of his coming in the Flesh 7. Nor is that a Rope of Sand which the Bishop affirms that from diversity in external Forms arises dislike from dislike enmity from enmity opposition thence Schism in the Church and Sedition in the State For as Socrates objects to Eutyphro that there must necessarily be something to which men in difference must indifferently submit to or their dissentions will be endlesse and if the established Rules in the Church for Gods Worship and Service be not that thing to which D. E. and I must indifferently submit to then is there nothing in the power of D. E. or my self which can prescribe another and so by consequence there can be no decency nor order in the Worship and Service of God but all things therein left in confusion and disorder which is expressly against the Divine Canon Nor did ever D. E. or any seditious men begin at Sedition directly but alwayes pretended conscience and made Religion a stalking horse thereunto according to that of the Poet Quoties vis fallere Plebem Finge Deum And I chalenge D. E. to instance in any Age or Place where men invaded the Peace of the Church but they at least attempted the like in the State and now see how vain and Idle ●ll 3 of D. E. objections against the Bishops assertion are his first reason is that in Diversity of external Forms without any dislike as to the Person the Apostles that preached to the Circumcision gave the right hand of fellowship to the Apostles of the Gentiles although their outward Rites and publick Worship were far more different than those which by any of the most distant perswasions are now practised in England So that D. E. grants the Bishop that external Forms in Gods Worship is an Apostolick practice without any prejudice to the Bishop's assertion for since God in our nature hath not left in what external Form he will be worshiped but to every Church her liberty and therefore divers Apostles and divers Churches ever did and now do use divers external Forms in their Worship of God And therefore the Church of England may use one external Form different from that of France and that of France another from that of Greece c. without any dislike yet doth it not therefore follow that D. E. may raise Schism in the Church of England or France any more than that because the Laws of England and France are different therefore D. E. is not obliged by them but may make Rebellion and raise Sedition in them Certainly if D. E. had Logick enough to understand his Arguments I would not wish the Bishop a better Advocate But whereas D. E. in his second objection thinks for want of reason he hath so sure a Topick in his instance of a Pagan State existing without Bishops and therefore in Triumph he again objects it give me leave to speak as a man and Christian I say then as I am a man I acknowedge Regality to be a sacred Order and founded by God in Nature and so ever continued both before and since the Flood in all the world where it was not invaded and violated by Seditious men and that by inherent birth-right I ow my Sovereign Lord the King all Allegiance next under God and this being founded in Nature is an indelible Character and cannot be dissolved but by God alone but is due in all places whether I be in the Kings Dominions or not but since mans fall there was nothing in Nature left him whereby he might attain that blessednesse from which he fell therefore God was pleased to take extraordinarily our Nature upon him to redeem us that by believing on him and observing his commands we might attain that happinesse from which our Parents first fell and I acknowledge it his grace that I am baptized into this Faith But because parum est jus nisi sint qui possunt jura gerere it had been to no purpose for our Saviour to have made a will unlesse he had made Executors to execute it he was therefore pleased to ordain 12 Apostles and 70 Evangelists his Executors with power to propagate it to others untill his next coming again I say this power no wayes intrenches upon the Regal for it only hath reference to Christ and him crucified and Gods Worship and Service And as the Power no wayes intrenches upon Regality so is there nothing in Christs will against it but to advance it For there we are commanded to pay tribute to Caesar and are taught that Higher Powers are Gods Ordinance to which men must submit for Conscience sake but as this Ghostly Power no wayes intrenches