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
A40807	Libertas ecclesiastica, or, A discourse vindicating the lawfulness of those things which are chiefly excepted against in the Church of England, especially in its liturgy and worship and manifesting their agreeableness with the doctrine and practice both of ancient and modern churches / by William Falkner.	Falkner, William, d. 1682.	1674 (1674)	Wing F331; ESTC R25390	247,632	577

because it could not consist with their owning the Law of Moses and is not mentioned either in the Scriptures or in Josephus But considering how little Josephus wrote that hath any kind of relation to the Samaritan worship and that our Saviour chargeth them with a miscarriage about the object of their worship Joh. 4.22 Ye worship saith he ye know not what considering also that the worshippers at Bethel by whom the Samaritans were instructed did before their Captivity worship God there by an Image and that the Assyrians Syrians and others Neighbouring upon the Samaritans as Bochartus sheweth Bochart ibidem did chuse the form of a Dove to be the Image and resemblance of God there is no just reason to question the evidence of the Jewish Writers concerning the Samaritans 4. It hath been also objected against all Ecclesiastical Constitutions that the Apostle blamed the Colossians Col. 2.20 21. Why as though living in the World are ye subject unto Ordinances such as he mentioneth in the next verse Touch not or eat not tast not handle not Ans This place concerneth not prudential Rules of order Davenant Zanch. In Loc. but it blameth the Colossians that they should suffer their minds to be deluded Whitak Cont. 4. Qu. 7. c. 3. and their practices to be enshared and perverted by false positions delivered as Doctrines and this is observed to be the sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 20. and these things were called the Commandments and Doctrines of men v. 22. and will-worship v. 23 because they were delivered as proper divine Commandments And that this was the cause of the Apostles reproving the Colossians may be further manifest because the Apostles themselves upon a prudential and Christian account enjoined the Gentiles to forbear some sorts of meal the observing of which Apostolical Constitution which did not doctrinally declare those things themselves to be unclean was in no wise condemned by S. Paul writing to his Colossians 5. That place of S. James Jam. 4.12 There is one Lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy doth appropriate to God the Authority of establishing and executing such Laws the obeying or disobeying which is the sure way to eternal life or destruction because they are his Laws but this Scripture having no peculiar respect to the worship of God in publick Assemblies doth no more condemn Ecclesiastical Constitutions of Creder in the Church than either the civil sanctions of secular Governours or the Domestick commands of Parents or Masters Inst l. 4. c. 10. Sect. 7 30. And even Calvin with some respect to this place of St. James aserteth in his Institutions that in the great matters of Christianity there is unicus vitae magister one only who is to rule and command our life but in externa Disciplina Ceremoniis in matters external concerning Discipline and Ceremonies he hath not thought sit to prescribe every particular thing but hath left us to be guided by general rules 6. I know that some who urge this place of S. James would thence conclude that none besides God have any power or Authority by their commands to him●●●● Consciences of men Now though this TExe speaketh nothing expresly of Conscience or its obligation I shall concerning that matter add that Ecclesiastical Constitutions do no otherwise bind the Consciences of men so far as concerneth the nature of the obligation than the commands of Magistrates Parents and Masters do though they have ordinarily the stronger motives with direct respect to the Peace and Order of the Church and the edification of its Members And it must be acknowledged that no humane Authority can bind the ●●●ing power of Conscience so that it is 〈…〉 that a duty which is whereby ●●●●●●ded without having liberty 〈…〉 of its lawfulness and this is ●●●if●●tly the sense of several 〈…〉 Writers when they say that Go●●●●ly hath power to bind the Conscience But that humane Laws and commands do secondarily and consequentially bind the Conscience to take care of practising what is lawfully commanded is that which can 〈◊〉 be denyed It would certainly sound harshto a Christian Ear if any shall assert that a Child is not bound in Conscience to do any particular lawful thing which his Father commandeth him it being all one to assert that it is not his duty and that he is not bound in Conscience to do it But if he be bound in Conscience to do that upon his Fathers command which he was not bound to undertake without that command it must needs be his command which layeth that obligation upon Conscience secondarily and consequentially or with a respect unto Gods general command of obedience 7. In this sense it is not unusual with Protestant Writers beyond the Seas as well as with divers of our own Nation as particularly Bishop Saunderson de Obligatione Conscientiae Duct Dubit l. 3. c. 1. rule 1.5 Ch. 4. rule 5. and Bishop Taylor very largely in his Ductor Dubitantium to assert that the injunctions of our Superiours bind the Conscience Vrsin in his Explicatio Catechetica asserteth the Constitution of the Magistrate to bind the Conscience that is saith he by reason of the command of the Magistrate Ex. Cat. qu. 96. it becometh necessary to be performed and cannot be neglected without the offence of God though it be no case of scandal In praec 2. de Cultu Dei And in his Loci Theologici he to the same purpose declareth edicta Magistratûs obligant conscientias and absque scandalo obligatur conscientia ad harum legum observationem To the same purpose may Paraeus be produced Alsted Theol. Cas c. 2. Reg. 2. And Alsted very well noteth that humane laws mediately or under God do bind the Conscience even as an Oath Vow or promise made by a mans sely doth 8. I shall not insist upon that objection from Heb. 3.5 6. which expresseth the faithfulness of Christ to be more glorious than the faithfulness of Moses from whence it hath been with more manifest violence than strength of argument concluded that under the Gospel which is perfectly and compleatly delivered by Christ there is no place left for any prudential Constitutions which were say they wholly excluded under the Mosaical law But I suppose I have beyond all contradiction evinced that under the Mosaical Law there were divers things appointed by Ecclesiastical Authority And that Moses's faithfulness consisted in delivering the Law as he received it and not in the compleatness of enjoining every particular circumstance in the Church will appear evident because otherwise he could not be accounted as faithful with respect to their Synagogue worship as to their Temple worship And it may be further noted that the numerous divine commands about matters external referring to the Temple worship V. Sanders de Obl. Cons prael 6. Sect. 30. which was the Law of Commandments contained in Ordinances was no part of the

their superiours who are over them in the Church in the things they command or the truths they recommend rather than by the opinions of any other persons whomsoever 1. Because God hath appointed them to be teachers leaders and guides to us and therefore it is against the duty of our relation to them and of the due submission we owe to them and inconsistent with the duty of honouring our Rulers to censure their appointments or instructions as evil meerly upon the credit of any other persons contrary opinion 2. Because they who disobey the Constitutions of their Superiours only out of respect to the contrary judgment of any other persons do not disobey out of Conscience but out of prejudice and disaffection because no principle of Conscience can ordinarily bind men who are not able to judge fully of the Case to conclude their superiours or Ecclesiastical Governours to be in the wrong and those who oppose them to be in the right and Gods command to obey them who have the rule over us cannot safely be overlooked out of respect to mens own prejudices and disaffections Disp of Cerem c. 15. Sect. 3. In this case it was well declared by Mr. Baxter that the duty of obeying being certain and the sinfulness of the thing commanded being uncertain and only suspected we must go on the surer side with much more to the same purpose Now the observing these rules abovementioned See Dr. Ferne's Considerations of concernment c. 1. will both preserve the true freedom of judgment and Conscience which when it proceedeth upon unerring evidence is to be preferred before any humane authority and it will also provide for the establishing of Truth Vnity and Peace in the Church and will be the best security to the Souls and Consciences of men because they who hold fast the Fundamentals of Christian Faith and Life though in matters of a lesser nature they should mistake where they sincerely design to practise their duty so far as they can understand of themselves or are instructed by their teachers without any willing neglect of duty towards God or Man such mistakes or errors are not destructive to Salvation 12. Indeed S. Paul telleth his Romans Rom. 14.23 that he that doubteth is domned or condemned which some expound self condemned if he eat and that whatsoever is not of Faith is sin But as the Rules above-expressed are means for the satisfying doubts so this Apostolical Rule requiring a full and well satisfied perswasion of a mans own judgment and knowledge in what he acteth must be applyed to the special case intended which is this That wheresoever the omitting any action is certainly free from sin and the practice of it appeareth to any person doubtful there to do that action is a very dangerous and evil practice because it containeth in it a chusing to run the hazard of sin which choice is always a sin in such a Case the Apostle alloweth no man to engage upon any such action until he be certainly perswaded by an undoubting knowledge of the lawfulness thereof And the same rule must take place when the practice of any thing is manifestly lawful and the omission doubtful But the Case is very much different when both acting and forhearing may be doubted of where the one of them is a duty and it is impossible that both should be forborn and such to some persons is the question above-mentioned concerning Infant Baptism obedience to Rulers c. Nor doth the Apostle in this place design in general that no Servant Child or Subject may eat any thing observe any time religiously obey any command or perform any other action till he hath obtained so much knowledge as to discern by an undoubting judgment how these actions in their particular circumstances are allowable by the rules of Christianity for then the ignorant person should be directed till he becometh knowing to be idle and do nothing and to be disobedient and under no command but would scarce be allowed to live so long as to obtain knowledge But God having commanded Superiours to rule and Inferiours to obey to suspend all action here is to perform an inward moral action of choice about a matter of duty which if it be not regularly managed is a sin And in this case so far as concerneth the obedience of a Child Servant or Subject they ought to account their superiours command to lay such an obligation upon them to duty that they must be guided thereby unless they be able to prove themselves bound to act the contrary 13. Assert 4. It is neither necessary nor possible that Ecclesiastical Constitutions should not be liable to be scrupled or suspected where those suspicions and scruples are admitted without sufficient evidence of evil in the things themselves Mr. H. Tract of Schism I know that some have asserted that the Church and its Officers are guilty of Schism if they appoint any thing not necessary or indifferent which is by others suspected But that things in themselves lawful and expedient may lawfully be commanded though they be groundlesly suspected or scrupled appeareth I. Because otherwise all rules of Ecclesiastical order would be unlawful where people are needlesly suspitious and scrupulous and a great part of the authority of Princes Parents and Masters would be abridged if it must be limited by all the unnecessary suspitions of inferiours 14. Arg. 2. From the Apostolical practice When S. Paul had directed his Corinthians that the men should pray uncovered and the women covered adding 1 Cor. 11.16 that if any man will be contentious we have no such Custom nor the Churches of God he doth plainly enough express that what is duly and orderly established in the Church must take place notwithstanding contentions and oppositions And when the Apostolical Synod required the Gentiles to abstain from bloud and things strangled even that constitution might have been scrupled and opposed especially considering that many Primitive Christians were not presently satisfied by the Declaration of the Apostles concerning Christian liberty as is manifest from Rom. 14.2 14 20. Had not Christians then been of another temper than many now are and made up more of Vnity humility meekness and peace than of heats parties and controversies they might have objected that this was an encroachment upon Christian liberty whereby they were free from the whole Yoke of Mosaical Ceremonies that it might seem to countenance the distinction of things clean and unclean and to give occasion to the Gentile Christians to Judaize as the Galatians did It might also have been said that that Decree had an appearance of establishing Christianity upon Judaism because the Jews had a sort of Proselytes called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proselytes of converse Gemar Sanhedr c. 7. Sect. 5. Cocceius ibidem Buxt Lexic Rab. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who were not circumcised but only enjoined to observe the seven Precepts of the Sons of Noah to whom bloud was prohibited And