Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	humane_a	law_n	obligation_n	1,134	5	9.8189	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33220	Seventeen sermons preach'd upon several occasions never before printed / by William Clagett ... with The summ of a conference on February 21, 1686, between Dr. Clagett and Father Gooden, about the point of transubstantiation.	Clagett, William, 1646-1688.	1689 (1689)	Wing C4396; ESTC R7092	211,165	600

I say which can obstruct Justice in its very Course and baffle the most solemn Preparation for it even when the Judge is present when the Court is set when the matter is opened when all things are ready for impartial Proceedings when the Injur'd is arrived to the height of his hopes and the evil Doer is almost faln into the hands of Justice To sum up all The man who dares be Forsworn is one whom neither a natural Sense of Good and Evil nor Duty to the Magistrate nor Love to his Country nor Justice to his Neighbour nor Compassion to the Miserable nor the Presence of the Judg nor the Presence of God nor an Appeal to his Knowledg nor an Appeal to his Justice and the fear of damning himself by his own Sentence can retain from Lying and breach of his Word We can hardly think that such a Wretch as this is fit to live upon the face of the Earth But shall he then ever ascend into God's holy hill Shall he ever come into the Portion of the Righteous How tender are thy Mercies O God who art yet willing to accept even of his Repentance who hast yet suspended the most deserved Execution of his own Sentence against himself and left him under some possibility of Forgiveness In conformity to which great Example we pray that he may be snatcht as a Brand out of the Fire and through a great Repentance escape the Damnation of Hell. Now to the most Gracious and Sacred Majesty of the infinite Good God be ascribed all Honour and Blessing for evermore The Fifteenth Sermon A SERMON Preach'd at WINDSOR Before the PRINCESS of Denmark GEN. V. 24. And Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him IN these words there are two things expressed 1. The Character of Enoch that he walked with God. 2. The manner of his end in this World that he was not for God took him Both which points I intend to consider and then to show how we may make such Considerations profitable to our selves 1. Concerning his Character we may observe that it was given to none of his Predecessors from which we must not conclude that none of them were good men but only that he excelled the rest In so very short an account of the Patriarchs before the Flood as we have in this History wherein little more is reported of them but their Names and their Age to have it said of one them that he walked with God and but of one is a reasonable intimation that he excelled in Godliness and Virtue And this appears farther in that God translated him which of it self implies that he had arrived to great perfection But to walk with God is the Character of all Persons that are truly Holy and Good though it agrees more eminently to some than to others as it did to Enoch more than to all his Predecessors As for the expression it is figurative but yet very plain for Walking doth in this place as in many more signifie the general Course and Tenour of a mans Life and therefore walking with God is a lively expression of his doing those things which are well pleasing to God as if in every step of his passage through this World he had God so present with him as to see him with his bodily eyes which Meaning may be more distinctly explained by these two Particulars 1. That Piety or Faith in God is the over-ruling Principle of his Actions 2. That because he is Governed by such a Principle he lives in the constant Practice of all other Virtue and Duty 1. That Piety or Faith in God is the over-ruling Principle of his Actions a Reason that prevails with him above all other reasons and motives whatsoever He is therefore said to walk with God because it is a sense of God that runs through his Conversation and takes place against all other considerations and leaves a mark of it self upon all his behaviour A sense of God I say that is of God's Infinite Wisdom Power and Goodness of the Absolute right which he hath to be obeyed by his Creatures and of their absolute dependance upon him A sense of his presence every where beholding the evil and the good A sense of his Justice that will not suffer the wicked to go unpunished and of his Faithfulness that will not suffer the Righteous to be unrewarded It is this sense of God that Governeth his Conversation that restrains him that puts him forward that sets bounds to his desire and to his use of pleasures that prescribes to him how to get and how to use his wealth that hath to do in all his affairs and admits no reason from Flesh and Blood or from worldly interest to be heard but in subordination to it self And surely he that is thus affected that believes in God that stands in Awe of him that Loves him and puts his Trust in him may well be said to walk with God since he doth so steddily walk in his ways as if God took him by the Hand and led him through every doubtful passage of his Life for it is in effect the same thing that he having God still before his eyes or rather a lively sense of him in his heart and knowing what his will and pleasure is regards nothing in comparison but the doing of that which will please him and whatever reasons of action do as he goes thorough the World mix themselves with this This is still the supreme and prevailing Reason by which all others are either allowed or rejected This I say That what God will be pleased with must be done and what will displease him must be let alone And this is that Faith by which the just have lived in all Ages That Faith therefore which the 11th to the Hebrews so highly extols Those worthies recorded there believed that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him 2. To this we must add That because he that is said to walk with God lives by Faith therefore he lives also in the Practice of all other Virtue and Duty For Faith leads a man to all which no other Principle that we know of will do though other Principles there are of good use too To walk with God is something more than to cherish and keep alive the good inclinations that came into the world with us for it is to correct and amend the bad ones some men are by Nature framed to many Virtues as I believe all are to some or other but no man is naturally disposed to all and most certainly every one hath a share of corrupted nature but he that walks with God is Ruled by a Principle that doth not only improve what is good in his Nature but mends what is bad in it It is also a great deal more than to observe Humane Laws since the Laws of men can do no more than restrain People from being intolerably bad and such as Humane Society cannot bear He that believes in God submits to just Authority for Conscience sake but the case hath often happened when for the same Conscience sake such a one hath done his Duty by refusing to do what the Law of

would be taken away with it But no man doubts that appealing to God as a Judg is implied in appealing to him as a Witness Hence it is that the Septuagint sometimes useth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Curse for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Oath Said Abraham to his Servant Gen. 24.41 Thou shalt be free from this my Oath But the Septuagint render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou shalt be free from this my Curse And this is that meaning of an Oath which is well exprest both by the Forms and Rites of Swearing used amongst us the common Form being this So help ye God to which the Party Sworn gives his Assent by laying his Hand upon the Holy Gospel and kissing it all which is as much as if he had said If I falsify let me have no part in the Grace and Mercy of God and in the Blood of Christ may I be accursed in this World and let my name be blotted out of the Book of Life And is there not good reason then why an Oath should be as the Apostle speaks of it the end of Controversie since of all other Obligations to Truth this plainly is the strongest and if a man's Conscience will not be held by this it will be held by nothing Thus much concerning the Sacred Obligation of an Oath I proceed to shew how many ways it may be violated and the Guilt of Perjury incurr'd It is usually said That an Oath is either Promissory or Assertory but I think that in strictness every Oath includes a Promise even the Assertory Oath by which a man binds himself to declare what he knows concerning some matter of Fact past or present for this Oath includes a Promise of declaring the truth concerning it only the Promise and Performance are so close to each other that they can hardly be distinguish'd whereas the Obligation of those Oaths we call Promissery continues for some considerable time to come These Oaths are mostly taken out of Courts of Judicature such as the Oaths of subordinate Magistrates to execute the Laws honestly and to administer Justice impartially of the Members of a Society or Corporation to observe the Rules and vindicate the Rights of the same of inferior Officers such as Church-wardens and Constables to present Offenders and execute their Offices according to Law finally of Subjects to vield true Allegiance and Faithful Subjection to the King. Such Oaths as these are directly violated two ways First If there be not an honest Intention at the time of Swearing 2. If there be not a faithful Performance afterwards For a Promise has a double aspect both upon the present Intention and the future Performance he that makes a Promise which at the same time he intends not to perform is guilty of lying and though he intends at first yet if he willingly neglects the Performance afterwards he hath broken his Word therefore if the Promise was made under Oath he is forsworn in either case and if he was false in both he is guilty of a double act of Perjury nay though the Oath were but one yet his Perjuries may be many for so long as those Circumstances remain in which the Oath binds him every wilful omission of performing the tenor of his Promise is contrary to his Oath and consequently a new violation of it so often as he fails so often he is forsworn as truly so often as if he had every time before each guilty Failure taken the same Oath which he bound himself withal at first Thou mayest be sworn once for all the year or for all thy life but there is no such matter as being forsworn once for all as vain people talk for by disobeying thy Superior suppose thou hast done contrary to thy Oath yesterday that was one perjury and shouldst thou do the like to morrow that would be another If thou art under a Promise confirmed by Oath but not under the restraint of the Fear of God thou mayest bind one Curse fast upon thy Head with another and seal them with a third and go on to treasure up Wrath against the Day of Wrath. In Courts of Judicature Perjury is incurr'd when false Witness is given in upon Oath i. e. either when a man swears that to be true which he knows to be false or that he is certain of a matter whereof he is uncertain or that he declares the utmost of his knowledg concerning a Fact when yet he conceals any part thereof In this last case the Witness is forsworn as plainly as in the two former for his Oath is to give in Evidence not only the Truth and nothing but the Truth but likewise the whole Truth in answer to such Questions as the Court shall put to him therefore the Witness is not clear from Perjury merely by saying nothing but what is true touching the matter in question if in favour to either side he conceals so much as any one Circumstance in his Answers and Depositions which he knows would alter the Case What can be plainer He that swears to declare the whole Truth is forsworn if he does it not and he surely does it not who declares it in part only Moreover a Witness may incur the guilt of Perjury by endeavouring to blind the Evidence with deceitful shuffling answers instead of declaring what he knows in plainness and simplicity of speaking for tho the Court by multiplying questions may screw out the Truth at last yet he has not discharg'd his Oath which obliged him not only to an actual and final discovery of the Truth but to an honest intention of so doing and 't is very plain that he intends not the Truth should be discovered who darkens and hides it as much as he can Much less can his Oath be discharged by the help of Equivocation and Mental Reservations which being of no force to save a Lye are much less able to excuse from Perjury The Oath of the Jury being a Promissory Oath to bring in a Verdict according to Evidence their Oath may be doubly violated as was now observed by not intending so to do and by not doing of it If any one of the Jury be prepossess'd in favour of one side intending be the evidence what it will to use all his interest with the rest in favour of that that man I say is Perjur'd as soon as ever he is sworn he has sworn falsly though perhaps he be over-ruled and an honest Verdict be brought in at last Again if any of them intend honestly at first but are afterward wrought to conspire in a Verdict contrary to the Evidence they have violated their Oath at last Nay a corrupt Jury is guilty of perjury in another respect since they swear against that very temptation which misleads them they are to bring in a Verdict according to the proof of the fact whereas they make it according as they are inclined to the Parties and yet they are sworn not to swerve from the Truth for