Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	law_n	light_n	perfect_a	1,397	5	9.4420	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86667	The rebukes of a reviler fallen upon his own head, in an answer to a book put forth by one Iohn Stelham, called a minister at Terlin in Essex. Wherein is shewed unto all spiritual men, that he himself is justly proved to be a contradictor of the scriptures, while he falsly accuses others thereof, that are clear, and the saying is fulfilled upon him, he is fallen into the pit, which he digged for others, for even that way which he calls heresie, do we worship the God of our fathers. By R.H.	Hubberthorn, Richard, 1628-1662.; Burrough, Edward, 1634-1662.	1657 (1657)	Wing H3229; Thomason E919_7; ESTC R207520	62,017	83

not for we say the same that some mens Consciences are defiled and we do not desire the Laws to be made according to mens several opinions and defiled Consciences but according to the light of Christ Jesus in every mans Conscience which is but one in all and is according to the Law of God and every just Law will be according to it and though I. S. by his own meaning would make it appear contradiction in our saying no Law must be concerning Religion and yet saying all Laws should be according to the light of Christ in the Conscience Now by these words we do not mean that we would not have a Law according to Religion but no Law to limit to or from this or that manner of Religion and this doth very well agree with our saying let all your Laws be according to the light of Christ so by his misinterpretation of the first he makes it appear to be contradictions to the second but it is not so in the light of the Spirit of God And further R. F. saying the law of God answers his Justice and the light of Christ in the conscience answers the law of God which is perfect according to that in the conscience these words I. S. charges with two errors but let the Reader try where the error lyes and not believe I. S. false deduction from R. F. plain words which are simply uttered through subtilty wrested And I. S. speaks as if some would have Magistrates to make Laws to bind themselves from striking at offenders Blasphemers Gospel and Church disturbers c. In answer to this we are not they that would have any Magistrates to bind themselves from striking at offenders who are truly able to judge of offences we own that such should be punished according to the offence but the Magistrates Law reaches but to the outward man to keep that in peace and good order and not to the inward man to bind or limit that And as for Blasphemy and Gospel and Church disturbing we find many Magistrates not able to judge thereof but many on the contrary calling truth blasphemy and reproving of sin in Teachers and people Gospel and Church disturbing and so by false judgement making such offenders which are not and so abusing their power and condemning the Innocent rather then the guilty and these are such as I. S. speaks of where the strong man armed keeps the house and these are rather a terror to well doers then to evill and such Magistrates and such Laws by which the just are oppressed and the hands of the wicked strengthened will the Lord confound in a day to the glory of his name and to the refreshing of all his people who is now every way oppressed by evill men both by Rulers Teachers and People And as for the rest of his Book it s but of the same nature with the former and not worth answering to onely his lyes I do deny and his first following is that all our Doctrines are raised upon the ruines of the Scriptures excellency and authority this is false neither doth his proof at all make it good His second lye is that our corrupt Tenents are built upon false and novel Interpretations and this is two lyes together our Tenents are not corrupt neither do we build any thing which we hold upon false Interpretations His third lye is that it is pride that hath bred and doth feed our opinions and practises and this is also false and to prove it hath wrested some of E. B. words His fourth lye is that unbelief begets and procreates all our errors and our love of error with our derisions of the truth here is many lyes folded up in one which are all denyed with the life of God and the author of them proved to be of the Devil and we proved to be of God who are spoken all manner of evil against falsely for the name of Jesus His fifth lye is that we do subtilly couch many errors under spacious words of truth this lye also I bear Witness against as also against his Sixth wherein he charges us with meer ignorance and wilful blindness about the covenant of Grace c. His seventh lye is that much of mystical Babylon and confusion is in our Writings and wayes this is also a lye and of the devil and also against his eight I bear testimony our Doctrines and practises ends not in Apostacy neither are they blasphemy against Christ as I. S. impudently asserteth so that from the first of his Book to his last his whole Work is born witness against not to be of God but of the devill and in vain hath he striven and his Work shall not accomplish any part of his desire for the Quakers against whom he hath Written cannot be offended in Christ though I. S. have endeavoured for to make their way and Doctrines in the sight of men abominable but his Work shall not prevent the purpose of the Lord nor the gathering in of the upright-hearted from the mouths of devouring Shepheards such as I. S. and the Priests of England who is it that doth not begin to see their deceits and abominations yea thousands do and m●ny more shall do so that all their striving to uphold their Kingdom is but in vain for God hath blasted al their glory and he will teach his people himself and govern them by his own Law and order and the Kingdoms of this World shall be changed and shall become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ and Antichrist and all his ministers shall be confounded and the Beast and the false Prophet shall both be taken alive and cast into the lake Ah John Stelham against whom hast thou set thy self and exalted thy horn against whom hast thou bent thy strength and shot forth thy envie in crafty words of guile who is it that thou hast defied and girded on thy armour against and counted them as nothing before thy uncircumcised strength even against the Lords people hast thou thus done though thou wilt not now know it yet one day thou shalt know it when iniquity is come to an end and transgression finished and thou shalt stand in thy lot at that day and receive according to thy work a just and righteous reward from the hand of the Lord in the day of judgement when every secret work of iniquity shall appear to condemnation and in the mean time the Lord will bring forth good unto his people even from thy evil and all things even thy evil purposes shail work together for good unto such whom God hath called and thy works and purposes which are to trouble them and to break them and to make them appear vile in the sight of men even thy work doth the Lord turn to establish them and to unite them and in the sight of men thy work against us proves us to be of God and thy self to be of the Devil who was a persecutor from the beginning

the Covenant of Works was not made with Adam in innocency God could not in justice require satisfaction of his posterity under the Fall c. A third supposition to prove Adam under a Covenant of Works is this Either he stood under the Covenant of Works or was under the Covenant of Grace or he was under no Covenant c. Unto which I Answer All such Priests and Teachers who be out of innocency themselves cannot tell what Covenant those are in with God who are innocent and in the image of God in holiness and righteousness and therefore from such have we so much perverting of the Scriptures and violating of the Law of God to make it according to their imaginations But unto such God saith What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldest take my Covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest Instruction and castest my Words behind thee psal. 50. 16. Thou givest thy mouth to evil and thy tongue frameth deceit But I say that Covenant in which Adam was with God in his innocency and in his image he stood in that and by that by which he was made a living Soul and in that was in unity and Covenant with God for the disobedience of which he was driven out from God into the Earth and none was under the Law of Works neither was that Law added until there was transgression which it was added because of but that which is innocent and without sin unreprovable in Gods sight is under no Law but that which endureth for ever which doth free from sin and death those that be in it which is made manifest unto some since the falling from it and which the Isles is to wait for till it be made manifest where it is not already revealed and all who come to have right to speak of Gods Precepts and to take his Covenant in their mouths they see and comprehend all such darkness which doth not speak according to words of Scripture but speaks of three Covenants contrary to Scripture saying that the first Covenant promiseth nothing of Salvation nor mentioning nothing of a Saviour and yet saith that that Covenant is a part of Gods Word and his Will and pure law and yet mentioneth nothing of a Saviour and again saith that the Moral Law he calls of Works which promiseth no Salvation mentioneth nothing of a Saviour that this which mentioneth nothing of a Saviour is to be a directory and rule to true believers for the ordering of their Sanctification ●s it is also in Christs hand guiding them by his Spirit so this cannot build nor joyn together and so time to cease building any more in confusion but in denyal of that false doctrine I say That there is but two Covenants spoken of in the Scriptures which is a plain testimony of them without any such confusion or contradiction as the Apostles to the Hebrews saying in that he saith a new Covenant he hath made the first old c. And in the first Covenant as you may read Heb. 9. in all these things there was Christ held out and mentioned in the shadows and figures and so that Covenant which promiseth no Salvation nor mentioneth any thing of a Saviour that we deny for there is not such a Covenant in the Scriptures For that which said Do this and live promised life and mentioned Christ who is the life and by Christ who is the life and light of men is that Covenant fulfilled and by his power both the obedience and life is brought forth of which that Covenant speaketh and the new Covenant being come that God hath promised wherein he hath put his Law in their hearts and his Spirit in their inward part and all such needs not to come to such Priests to be taught who tells of a Covenant which promiseth no Salvation nor mentioneth any thing of a Saviour for we who be in the second know the first fulfilled which Christ was held forth in under Ordinances of Divine Service and a worldly sanctuary and divers washings and carnal Ordinances which never made the comers thereunto perfect as pertaining to the Conscience but now is Christ the Covenant of God and Covenant of light come and preached and with his light shineth in mens Conscience that he may make perfect as pertaining to the Conscience which Covenant is now witnessed among thousands and such denyed which speak of a Covenant that mentions nothing of a Saviour and that to be the rule of true believers Again in John Stelhams 5th head of Scripture Contradiction he speaks concerning Sin saying That the more a Soul is sanctified the more he sees his moats to be beams and that Paul was groaning and sighing all his life time under the body of sin and death Both these are false For the more a Soul is sanctified he is not the more taught to lye or to see falsly but the more he is taught to see clearly and discern a moat to be a moat and a beam to be a beam and knows the differance And Paul thanks God who had given him the victory over sin and death which he had not while he groaned under the body of it and so both the Saints and the work of sanctification is falsly accused by such and such are to be denyed as Enemies to God and to his Work In the reading of this let all people take notice That in the several and particular Heads of I. S. Book where he saith he hath contradicted us he is proved himself to contradict the Scriptures and so far as he contradicts the Scriptures in those particulars so far he may say he contradicts us and our testimony being one with the Scriptures in them things For in his 6 Head as concerning Justification he saith He that is justified is justified by God not under the Aspect or Notion of a Saint and as such but of a sinner and as a sinner believing in Jesus not as he loveth God or overcometh the world by Faith c. but as believing on Christ dying c. Now this testimony of I. S. is contrary to the Scriptures for God never justified any as hating of him nor as a sinner but as made obedient through Faith according to the Scriptures as the Apostle witnesseth Gal 2. 16. Even by the faith of Jesus Christ even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ c. so they believed that they might be justified and the ungodly they were first called out of their ungodliness and whom he called them he also justified and they whom he justified them he also glorified and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses Acts 13. 39 and so all who are justified by the Lord are justified from their sins and not in them as all shall witness who come to be justified by Christ from their iniquity And

read any contradiction in it but only it seems I. S. hath set himself to cavell Further he saith We contradict our selves concerning Quaking and trembling from this confession that the same power that made Moses to quake and tremble the same power we witness but wherein doth this contradiction appear in these words let honest men try the cause and I. S. be silent and whereas he Instances I. P. standing in an evill cause and of I. P. he may be silent whose blood he or his Generation sought after and now might they well be quiet of him their wills being stifled by drinking his blood as it were but that wicked men must add to their own wickedness till it be fulfilled that they may receive their reward and I. P. was bold as is the children of God and though I. S. would clear himself and his company from what was done to I. P. yet by the effect it appeared that there was enough envy in them towards him and the truth and though his body be in the ground yet the Spirit of the Lord which guided him stands alive a sufficient witness against them and all their cruel and wicked dealing and let I. S. judgement be what it will neither concerning growth of Grace nor forms of Religion nor fruits of the Spirit do we at all contradict the Spirit of God neither doth he prove us in these things whereof he accuseth us in strife debate except against such as I. S. and the Devils Kingdom neither in emulation hatred scoffs or any of these things whom the Lord hath redeemed us from though we be falsely accused in these things as in many other by him and whereas he would prove their preaching in their method and Points and Reasons and Uses from the example of the Saints in former ages he falls far short in effecting his extent for he cannot prove that they studied for what they spake nor that in such a way they delivered what they said an hour by a glass c. as the Priests of this age do also if it were they preached in the like manner as the Apostles did yet not by the same spirit but by the spirit of error and for a wrong end that is the thing which makes their manner abominable when as they are not guided wth the same Spirit of the Apostles and their preaching in their method of points and particulars is rather an art of preaching by humane policy and not the gift of preaching by the Spirit of God neither do we concerning humility and love contradict our selves but are in humility and love towards all men even such as wrongs us we seek no revenge against and herein doth our humility and love appear yet cannot we respect any mans person with hat or knee and that is it which I. S. I suppose is offended with In his 13th Head concerning Ordinances He charges us with self-contradiction because we say we own praying c. and yet hath given over Family prayer morning and evening and at meals but this is no contradiction for we own praying in the Spirit of God but doth deny it without the Spirit and this is no contradiction he may as well say it was contradiction in Christ to cry against the prayers of the Pharisees yet to teach his Disciples to pray and to pray himself this is the same cause of ours which he foolishly charges with contradiction and as I have said the prayers of the Wicked we deny and yet doth own Prayer in the Spirit and who are moved by the Spirit morning or evening or at meals or otherwise and this is truth let I. S. gather what he can from it Further he saith If we teach one another why do we condemn them for teaching But to this I have answered Preaching or Teaching by the Spirit we own and without the Spirit we deny and because we say we own all that which is Gods as Baptisme the Lords Supper and Sabbath c. pet doth disown in practice their Water Baptisme and their form of breaking of Bread and Wine and their forms of Church-fellowship and their form of keeping a Sabbath this he charges to be contradiction but it is not so in the sight of the Lord though I. S. falsely so judge it for their Baptisme and breaking of Bread and Wine and their Church fellowship and keeping of a day I say their exercise in these things we do deny to be of God as in measure is proved and may be further if need require and I say we own that which is Gods and which is led unto by his Spirit and practised in his fear and counsel and yet we do deny all their Immitations of any thing which God commanded doth owne the command of God and yet doth not contradict our selves though I. S. falsely so judge of us Further he charges us with self-contradiction concerning speech and silence because we check some for speaking and yet speaks or writes our selves but this is the same with the former and the same answer will serve that speaking that which is not in the Spirit we check which is not the voyce of Christ but of the stranger and yet doth own that which is spoken by the Spirit of God and herein doth not contradict our selves Further he saith We contradict our selves concerning Conscience and Laws because we say there must be no Law concerning Religion viz. to bind any man to worship in this or the other way and to bind him from this or that way of Worship and yet in exhorting the Rulers that their Laws be according to that in the Conscience but in these words there is no contradiction for the Laws being according to the light in every mans Conscience that Law will not bind or limit the Conscience from this or that way of Worship in Religion for that Law is un just which binds or limits the pure conscience of any man but that Law which is contrary to the light in every mans conscience is oppression and we bear witness against it and though we do say no Law must be laid upon Religion that it is to say to bind any mans Conscience to or from such a form of Religion and though we further say that all just Laws is and should be according to the light in every mans conscience yet in this there is no contradiction And whereas I. S. speaks of such Laws who persecuted prisoned and crucified for the testimony of a good Conscience God hath hewen down in all ages saith he Let the Rulers of England take notice of this from the mouth of one of their Teachers And further I adde so will God hew down in this Age all those Laws by which many are persecuted and prisoned as he hath done ie other Ages therefore let it be considered by them And he saith The Magistrate is not to levell his Law with every mans conscience and light and this he speaks in opposition to us but he needs