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
A36308	XXVI sermons. The third volume preached by that learned and reverend divine John Donne ...	Donne, John, 1572-1631.	1661 (1661)	Wing D1873; ESTC R32773	439,670	425

the Law of Nature it self in exposing her self to that danger How far Humane Laws do binde the conscience how far they lay such an obligation upon us as that if we transgress them we do not only incur the penalty but sin towards God hath been a perplexed question in all times and in all places But how divers soever their opinions be in that they all agree in this That no Law which hath all the essential parts of a Law for Laws against God Laws beyond the power of him that pretends to make them are no Laws no Law can be so meerly a Humane Law but that there is in it a Divine part There is in every Humane Law part of the Law of God which is obedience to the Superior That Man cannot binde the conscience because he cannot judge the conscience nor he cannot absolve the conscience may be a good argument but in Laws made by that power which is ordained by God man bindes not but God himself And then you must be subject not because of wrath but because of conscience Though then the matter and subject of the Law that which the Law commands or prohibits may be an indifferent action yet in all these God hath his part and there is a certain Divine soul and spark of Gods power which goes through all Laws and inanimates them In all the Canons of the Church God hath his voice Ut omnia ordine fiant that all things be done decently and in order so the Canon that ordains that is from God in all the other Laws he hath his voice too Ut piè tranquillè vivatur That we may live peaceably and religiously and so those Laws are from God And in all of all sorts this voice of his sounds evidently qui resistit ordinationi he that resists his Commission his Lieutenancy his Authority in Law-makers appointed by him resists himself There is no Law that is meerly humane but only Lex in membris The Law in our flesh which rebels against the Law in our minde and this is a Rebellion a Tyranny no lawful Government In all true Laws God hath his interest and the observing of them in that respect as made by his authority is an act of worship and obedience to him and the transgressing of them with that relation that is a resisting or undervaluing of that authority is certainly sinne How then was Esthers act exempt from this for she went directly against a direct Law That none should come to the King uncalled Whensoever divers Laws concur and meet together that Law which comes from the superior Magistrate and is in the nature of the thing commanded highest too that Law must prevail If two Laws lie upon me and it be impossible to obey both I must obey that which comes immediately from the greatest power and imposes the greatest duty Here met in her the fix'd and permanent Law of promoting Gods glory and a new Law of the King to augment his greatness and Majesty by this retiredness and denying of ordinary access to his person Gods Law for his glory which is infinite and unsearchable and the Kings Law for his ease of which she knows the reason and the scope were in the ballance together if this Law of the King had been of any thing naturally and essentially evil in it self no circumstance could have delivered her from sin if she had done against it Though the Law were but concerning an indifferent action and of no great importance yet because Gods Authority is in every just Law if she could not have been satisfied in her conscience that that Law might admit an exception and a dispensation in her case she had sinn'd in breaking it But when she proceeded not upon any precipitation upon any singular or seditious spirit when she debated the matter temperately with a dispassioned man Mordecai when she found a reservation even in the body of the Law That if the King held up his Scepter the Law became no Law to that party when she might justly think her self out of the Law which was as Josephus delivers it Ut nemo ex domesticis accederet That none of his servants should come into his presence uncalled she was then come to that which onely can excuse and justifie the breaking of any Law that is a probable if not a certain assurance contracted Bona fide in a rectified conscience That if this present case which makes us break this Law had been known and considered when the Law was made he that made the Law would have made provision for this case No presuming of a pardon when the Law is broken no dispensation given before hand to break it can settle the Conscience nor any other way then a Declaration well grounded that that particular case was never intended to have been composed in that Law nor the reason and purpose thereof So when the Conscience of Esther was and so when the Conscience of any particular Christian is after due consideration of the matter come to a religious and temperate assurance That he may break any Law his assurance must be grounded upon this That if that Law were now to be made that case which he hath presently in hand would not be included by him that made that Law in that Law otherwise to violate a Law either because being but a Humane Law I think I am discharged paying the penalty or because I have good means to the King I may presume of a pardon in all cases where my priviledge works any other way then as we have said that is that our case is not intended in that Law it had been in Esther it should be in us a sin to transgress any Law though of a Law-nature and of an indifferent action But upon those circumstances which we mentioned before Esther might see that that Law admitted some exceptions and that no exception was likelier then this That the King for all his majestical reservedness would be content to receive information of such a dishonor done to his Queen and to her god she might justly think that that Law intended onely for the Kings ease or his state reached not to her person who was his wife nor to her case which was the destruction of all that professed her Religion It was then no sin in her to go in to the King Si Peream though not according to the Law but she may seem to have sinned in exposing her self to so certain a danger as that Law inflicted with such a resolution Si peream peream If I perish I perish How far a man may lawfully and with a good conscience forsake himself and expose himself to danger is a point of too much largeness and intricacy and perplexity to handle now The general stream of Casuists runs thus That a private man may lawfully expose himself to certain danger for the preserving of the Magistrate or of a superior person and that reason might have justified Esthers enterprise if

Primitive Church they fix'd certain times for giving Orders and making Ministers they appointed Fasts at those times when they fix'd certain times for solemn Baptism as they did Easter and Whitsontide they appointed Fasts then too and so they did in their solemn and publick Penances So also when Christians encreased in number and that therefore besides the Sabbath-day they us'd to call them to Church and to give the Sacrament upon other days too as soon as Wednesday and Friday were appointed for that purpose for the Sacrament they were appointed to be fasted too And therefore when St. Cyril says Cyril Vis tibi ostendam quale jejunare debes jejunium Jejuna ab omni peccato Shall I tell you what Fast God looks for at your hands Fast from sin yet this is not all the Fasting that he exacts though it be indeed the effect and accomplishment of all but he adds Non ideo hoc dicimus We say not this says he because we would give liberty Habemus enim quadragesimum quartum sextum Hebdomadae diem quibus solemniter jejunamus We have a fixed Lent to fast in and we have Wednesdays and Fridays fixt to fast in In all times Gods people had fixed and limited Fasts besides these Fasts which were enjoyned upon emergent dangers as this of Ester In which there is a harder circumstance then this That it was a Fast limited to certain days for it is Jejunate pro me Fast you for me And these words may seem to give some colour some countenance to the Doctrine of the Roman Church That the merits of one man may be applyed to another which Doctrine is the foundation of Indulgences and the fuel of Purgatory In which they go so far as to say That one may fee an Attorney to satisfie God for him he may procure another man to Fast Grether or do other works of mortification for him And he that does so for his Client Sanguinem pro sanguine Christo reddit He pays Christ his blood again and gives him as much as he receiv'd from him and more Deum sibi debitorem efficit he brings God into his debt and may turn that dept upon whom he will and God must wipe off so much of the other mans score to whom he intends it They go beyond this too That satisfaction may be made to God even by our selves after our death As they say when they had brought Maximilian the Emperor to that mortification that he commanded upon his death-bed that his body should be whipped after he was dead that purpose of his though it were not executed was a satisfaction of the Justice of God And as error can finde no place to stop at they go yet farther when they extend this power of satisfaction even to Hell it self by authorizing those fables That a dead man which appeared and said he was damned was by this flagellation by his friends whipping of himself in his behalf brought to repentance in hell and so to faith in hell and so to salvation in hell But in the words of Esther here is no intimation of this Heresie when Queen Esther appoints others to fast for her she knew she could no more be the better for their fasting then she could be the leaner or in the better health for it but because she was to have benefit by the subsequent act by their prayers she provokes them to that by which their prayers might be the more acceptable and effectual that is to fasting And so because the whole action was for her and her good success in that enterprize they are in that sense properly said to have fasted for her So that this Jejunate super me as the word is Gnalai super me in my behalf is no more but Orate pro me Hier. Pray for me and so Saint Hierom translates these words Orate pro me Pray for me And therefore since Prayers is the way which God hath given us to batter Heaven whether facta manu Deum oramus Tertul. vim gratum ei facimus whether we besiege God with our prayers in these publick Congregations or whether we wrastle with him hand to hand in our Chambers in the battel of a troubled Conscience let us live soberly and moderately and in Bello and in Duello here in the Congregation and at home in our private Colluctations we shall be the likelier to prevail with God for though we receive assistance from the prayer of others that must not make us lazie in our own behalfs which is Esthers last preparation she bids all the people fast for her that is for the good success of her good purposes but not the people alone she and her own maids will fast likewise Qui fecit te sine te non salvabit te sine te Ego Ancill is a saying of Saint Augustine never too often repeated and God and his Church are of one minde for the Church that did Baptize thee without thy asking will not fast for thee nor pray for thee without thou fast and pray for thy self As in spiritual things charity begins with ourselves and I am bound to wish my own salvation rather then any other mans so I am bound to trust to my making sure of my salvation by that which I do my self rather then by that which I procure others to do for me Domus Dei Domus orationis we have inestimable profit by the publick Prayers of the Church the House of God but as there is Deus Domus ejus so there must be Ego Domus mea I and my House will serve the Lord. Jos ult 15. I also and my Maids will fast likewise says Esther in her great enterprise for that which the Original expresses here by Gnalai for me the Chalde Paraphrase expresses by Gnimmi with me She was as well to fast as they It was a great confidence in that Priest that comforted Saint Augustines Mother Fieri non potest ut filius istarum lachrymarum pereat It is impossible that the son for whom so good a mother hath poured out so devout tears should perish at last it was a confidence which no man may take to himself to go to Heaven by that water the tears of other men but tu domus tua Do thou and thy house serve the Lord teach thine own eyes to weep thine own body to fulfil the sufferings of Christ thine own appetite to fast thine own heart and thine own tongue to pray Come and participate of the devotions of the Church but yet also in thy Chappel of ease in thine own Bed-chamber provide that thy self and thy servants all thy senses and all thy faculties may also fast and pray and so go with a religious confidence as Esther did about all thy other worldly businesses and undertakings This was her Preparation Her Devotion hath two branches 2. Part. she was to transgress a positive Law a Law of the State and she neglected