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	witness_v	1,100	5	9.8841	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27998	A paraphrase on the book of Job as likewise on the songs of Moses, Deborah, David, on four select psalms, some chapters of Isaiah, and the third chapter of Habakkuk / by Sir Richard Blackmore.	Blackmore, Richard, Sir, d. 1729.	1700 (1700)	Wing B2641; ESTC R14205	136,050	332

Wills and our Reason too and acquiesce in this Belief that nothing is more certain than that God can do his Creature no wrong and that in all his Dispensations he has both wise and gracious Designs tho' our shallow and incompetent Reason is not able to discern them 'T is probable that one Reason why we are apt to censure God's Proceedings is that we take his Idea too nicely from our selves For tho' we must form our Idea of him from the Contemplation of our selves yet this must not be too strict nor extended too far For 't is plain that God's Knowledge is another thing from ours he knows by one single Act of Intuition we know by Reasoning that is by deducing one Proposition from two others and by forming in a tedious way a long depending Chain of Consequences which are for that reason apt to create a distrust Now as our inferiour kind of Knowledge is by no means a measure of that most perfect kind in the Divine Understanding so the Iustice Mercy and Goodness which are the Perfections of a Creature 's may be of a lower kind and therefore an unfit measure of those Perfections in the Divine Will 'T is probable that for this reason the Disputants in this Poem for the clearing of God's Justice and Goodness betake themselves so often to the transcendent Greatness and Excellency of the Divine Nature whereby they plainly intimate that we are by no means competent Judges of his Actions Another means to quiet Men's Minds concerning the Wisdom and Justice of God's Dispensations in those Instances that are the ●arshest and most unaccountable to us is to reflect on the narrow and broken as well as obscure Prospect which we have of the wide Sphere of his Providence Did we clearly and fully understand how we are related to all the Parts of Mankind both to our Contemporaries and to those who have liv'd in the past or shall live in the future Ages of the World had we besides a clear Knowledge of our relation to other Reasonable but Superior Creatures I mean the Angels that inhabit the Immense and Glorious Regions above us and to those that ●ill the Stars and Planets for 't is improbable this Ball of Earth the Dregs and Sediment of the World should be so full of Reasonable Beings and the nobler Parts of the Creation should not be peopled with sutable Inhabitants Had we a perfect and comprehensive View of the whole Scheme of the Divine Oeconomy in relation to all these Parts of his Government and how in his Administration in the different Parts of it he promoted the great and glorious Design of the whole we should have quite another Apprehension of God's Wisdom and Iustice. He that contemplates a Leg or an Arm with its relation to a Humane Body of which they are Parts has a very different Notion of them from him who considers them divided without any dependance on or connexion with the Whole It is not in our Power to make any but partial and very lame Observations of God's Government of his Creatures and upon such imperfect Views 't is no wonder if our Constructions and Conclusions are often erroneous and this it may be is another Reason why these Wise Men that manage the Debate about Providence in this Book lead us so often to contemplate the Works of God's Creation of which our selves are so small a Part. Besides this Principal and most Conspicuous Design other Vseful and Excellent Ends are pursu'd in this Poem One of which is to enlarge and raise our Conceptions of the Divine Being to give us worthy and honourable Thoughts of his Infinite Perfections and form in our Minds a sutable Idea of his Greatness The Representations of God's Transcendent Excellencies of his Independent Sovereign and Irresistible Power as well as of his Purity Wisdom Justice and Beneficence are in many Parts of this Book so noble so lively and admirable that they are very capable of leaving in our Thoughts very deep and lasting Impressions And to give us right and just Conceptions of the Divine Nature on which our Notions of Religion the Conduct of our Lives our Honour and our Happiness depend is to do one of the greatest Services that can be done to Mankind Another great End is to set before us for our Imitation an Illustrious Example of Piety and all kinds of Vertue in the most contrary Circumstances of Life that can be the most Flourishing and the most Miserable And this is done in the Character of Job While he possess'd a greater Substance than any Man in the Country where he liv'd and was blest with a compleat Collection of all those Enjoyments that are suppos'd to make a Man happy in this World he maintain'd his Religion and Integrity inviolable he was no less eminent for his Piety than for his Power and Abundance He strictly preserv'd his Moderation and Humility his Temperance and Justice his Continence his Compassion and his great Love to Mankind as appears by the first and Thirty first Chapters of this Book And when by a strange and surprizing Revolution the Scene was chang'd and this Righteous Person being depriv'd of his Children and Possessions and afflicted with grievous Pain and Sickness became the most wretched and unhappy Man that can be imagin'd he then by the Exercise of other rare Vertues maintains as great a Character in his Sufferings He shows an admirable Instance of Patience and Resignation of Constancy and Perseverance holds fast his Religion and still expresses his unalterable Dependence on his God In short his Mind was neither elated nor soften'd by the greatest Prosperity nor sowr'd or broken by the greatest Adversity 'T is true indeed that he vented several passionate rash and unbecoming Expressions but when we consider the Anguish of his Soul under such prodigious Sufferings the profane Provocations of his Wife the exasperating Reproaches of his mistaken Friends who after all his heavy Losses would have robb'd him too of his Integrity it will not be hard to excuse those Expressions And no more can be concluded from them than this that tho' he was an Excellent he was not a Faultless Man Moses who was honour'd with the Character of the meekest Man on Earth did on some provoking Occasions lose his Temper and Job may be allow'd to be the most patient Person in the World tho' in such Streights and Distress and urg'd with such Provocations some impatient Speeches might be extorted from him I cannot but observe in this place that Job a Person of such Piety and so many rare and admirable Vertues had no Advantages from the Divine Revelations made to Moses and the Jewish Prophets He was a Stranger to their Law and their System of Religion The Light that directed him must be only that of Natural Reason and Conscience assisted by some Oral Traditions from Adam and Noah and by what God was pleas'd sometimes to communicate by Dreams and Visions in those darker Ages of

Wealth and Greatness long endure Black Seas of stagnant Darkness round him spread And Night Eternal shall involve his Head Th' Almighty's Lightnings shall destroy his Fruit Blast his green Leaves and kill his spreading Root His angry Breath shall as a Tempest tare His Branches off and drive them thro' the Air. Let therefore none on Power and Wealth depend These from approaching Evils can't defend Their Promises are vain and vanity their end Whoe'er in these deceitful Friends conside Untimely Ruin shall correct their Pride Suddain Destruction shall their Heads invade And all their Fruit and verdant Pomp shall fade As when a rough East Wind or Storm of Hail The fruitful Olive or the Vine assail Their flowry Pride the Olive Branches shed And unripe Grapes shook off the Vineyard spred So shall th' Oppressors gawdy Pomp decay So his fair Limbs and Beauty fade away His Sons and Friends shall meet as sad a Doom And vengeful Fire their Dwellings shall consume His lab'ring Brain dire Mischief does contrive And black Deceit his teeming Heart conceive But he shall bring his own Destruction forth As Vipers dye to give their Offspring Birth CHAP. XVI Then Iob reply'd Oft has my suff'ring Ear Such vain Discourses been compell'd to hear You cruel Comforters enrage my Woe You neither Skill nor yet Compassion show With tedious Repetitions you abound Keep your old Track and argue in a Round But will your empty Speeches never end Disarm'd and vanquish'd will you still contend What has embolden'd thee O Eliphaz Still to reply tho' never to my Case Were my Afflictions yours with how much ease Could I such Language find such Words as these Uncharitably Pious I could grow Like pointed Arrows sharp Reproaches throw And with as good a Grace deride your Woe But my Compassion would my Lips restrain From galling Words that might increase your Pain I to support you would extend my Arms And sooth your Anguish with the softest Charms My tender Accents should your Fate condole And balmy Language ease your tortur'd Soul Why should not you with equal Zeal engage Your utmost Skill my Anguish to asswage How sad a Fate is mine if I complain To God or Man I make my Moan in vain If by forbearing I expect Relief And stop the stream of my complaining Grief Its Flood increases when forbid to flow And the rough Waves more formidable grow In higher Seas collected Sorrows roll And whelm their Deluge o'er my sinking Soul Opprest beneath the pond'rous load I lye Weary of living yet deny'd to dye My Sons my Servants and my Substance gone I am deserted desolate undone Tho' you produce my Sores and wrinkled Skin As Witnesses of some enormous Sin Yet they can only testify the weight Of those vast Woes which my Complaints create God as a fierce relentless Foe appears And in his Fury me in pieces tears He grinds his raging Teeth and from his Eyes A Flame against me keen as Light'ning flies My Friends elated with prodigious Pride Stand gaping on me and my Grief deride From distant parts they come not to asswage My Anguish but my Suff'rings to enrage God has expos'd me likewise to the Bands Of fierce invaders from the neighb'ring Lands And giv'n me up a Prey to impious hands My Dwelling flourish'd and I liv'd at ease With Plenty blest and the soft Joys of Peace When God denounc'd his unexpected War And with his Darts did me asunder tare Me in his griping Arms th' Almighty took And with such mighty force my body shook That all my Members were in pieces broke He sets me as a mark on rising ground And his fierce Archers compass me around In Showers of singing Death their Arrows fly And in my tortur'd Entrails buried ly My Gall so deep so mortal is the Wound As well as Blood flows out and stains the Ground Black throngs of Woes invade my frighted Soul As crowding Billows on each other roll Th' Almighty runs upon me in his rage As a fierce Gyant eager to engage Sackcloth I wear of Ornaments despoil'd And in the Dust my Glory lies defil'd My Cheeks with Everlasting Weeping fade And on my Eye-lids hangs a dismal shade Yet no Injustice does in Iob appear As you my Friends unkindly would infer Pure is my Prayer my Heart within sincere If e'er a Man by my flagitious hand Vext and Opprest has perish'd from the Land Let not thy Womb O Earth his Blood conceal But to the Light my black Offence reveal That publique Shame and Pains may be my Fate Which on the heinous Malefactor wait Let God and Man their Bowels shut when I In deadly Torment for Compassion cry Conscience alone my awful Judge within Does not acquit me of enormous Sin But God and all his sacred Angels bear Witness to this and will my Justice clear From you my Friends who my Distress deride I turn to Heav'n let Heav'n my Cause decide If God his just Tribunal would ascend To hear how you accuse and I defend If he as Arbitrator would preside And weigh the Reasons urg'd on either side From your Indictment he would me release And I my Virtue clear'd should dye in Peace And O that God would soon my Tryal hear And Judgment give before I disappear For when a few more fleeting days are past I in the Arms of Death shall lye embrac't CH. XVII Corruption my consuming Flesh devours And Time has almost paid my number'd hours The opening Grave invites me to her Womb And in the Dust prepares to give me Room But clear before I dye just God my Fame And cover my perfidious Friends with Shame For do not pious Scoffers here abide Who mock for God and all my Groans deride Their sharp Reproaches vex my Soul by Day And chase by Night my wish'd-for Sleep away Would God on high would suffer me to state My Case aright and hear the whole Debate For these my Friends against th' Assaults of Sense Have rais'd a strong impenetrable Fence Such Gates of Darkness ne'er to be unbarr'd Such Forts of gloomy Shades the Passes guard That Reason's strongest Forces they repel Entrench'd in Errors inaccessible But sure the Righteous God will ne'er permit That Men so blinded should to Judge me sit Those who to flatter Heav'n their Neighbour wrong Shall not their Power and prosp'rous days prolong Destructive Suff'rings shall their Sons assail Whose Eyes in looking after Aid shall fail I was the People's Darling and Delight In former times for when I came in sight Thro' crowded Streets loud Acclamations rung They to the Tabret my loud Praises sung And on my Chariot Wheels transported hung A waving Sea of Heads was round me spred And still fresh Streams the gazing Deluge fed As I advanc'd the eager wond'ring Throng Their Eye-balls strain'd to see me pass along They feasted on me with their greedy Eyes And with Applauses fill'd th' ecchoing Skies Now for as sad an Object I am shown My wondrous Troubles are Proverbial grown

the World By this it appears that great Advances may be made in Vertue by a diligent attendance to the Dictates of our Natural Light Would Men but improve their Reason reverence their Consciences and stand in awe of themselves they would become Worshippers of God as well as Sober and Righteous in an eminent degree I refer this to the Consideration of those Gentlemen that do not acknowledge the Divine Authority either of the Mosaick or of the Christian Institution Another ●nd and a very useful one too is by the Example of Job to con●ince the Reader of the Instability of a prosperous Condition and the great Vicissitude of Humane Affairs whereby his Mind may be dispos'd to Moderation Humility Temperance Compassion and Charity and preserved from that Pride and Contempt of others from that arrogant cruel and haughty Temper which great Riches and high Stations are too apt to produce especially in Men of a mean and low Spirit I have not attempted a close Translation of this Sacred Book but a Paraphrase For the Original being written in an Eastern Language their Manner and Turns of Expression are as before-mention'd so very different from ours that I thought a Paraphrase more proper and advantageous for a Modern European Language But as I judg'd it would not bear a strict Translation so on the other hand I have endeavour'd that the Paraphrase should not be too loose and wide but that the Reader may all along carry with him the Sense of the Original I have often diffus'd the Sense in other Expression I have amplify'd the Text in many Places that appear'd more Poetical and from General Heads I have descended sometimes to Particulars the Enumeration of which I believ'd would illustrate and enliven the Original I have avoided the immediate Repetition of the same Thought in Words little different from the first which is so very common in this Book as well as in that of the Psalms and other Poetical Places of the Scripture For tho' this was no doubt accounted in the Eastern Countries at that time a great Beauty and Ornament to the Writing yet we have quite another Taste of Eloquence and therefore I have thought it best to accommodate that Matter to the Modern way of Writing The Method of Writing in the Eastern Countries is what the Europeans think irregular the same Matter treated on before frequently recurs and the Connexion is sometimes broken and often obscure The Transitions are sometimes neglected and a new Subject enter'd upon without the preparation for it which we expect should be made We censure these Modes and Customs in Writings as defects and no doubt they would censure ours as much I would not peremptorily condemn their Taste for the Opinion of Beauty and Ornament seems not to be capable of being determin'd by any fixt and unalterable Rule Truth and good Sense are setled upon Eternal and unchangeable Grounds and Reasons but the manner of Expression and the method of conveying them and what concerns the Dress the Pomp and Ornament of them these are perhaps indifferent Ceremonies and every Nation may have Authority to establish which they please 'T is plain the Eastern World have not the same Apprehensions of Beauty and Ornament that we have They believe there is a great Beauty in the neglect of what we call Order and Regularity as is evident in their Gardens and Buildings What we censure as careless wild and extravagant strikes them with more Admiration and gives them greater Pleasure than all our elaborate and orderly Contrivances All that can be said is that our Tasts are different and if they are barbarous to us we are so to them some of which especially the Chinese are or at least have been very Wise and Polite Nations We in this part of the World are all so full of Homer and Virgil and are so bigotted to the Greek and Latin Sects that we are ready to account all Authors Heretical that are without the Pale of the Classicks This seems to me to be a narrow Sectarian Spirit that prompts Men to impose their Fancies and Opinions on all the World besides Whatever high Opinion we have of our own Attainments we should have that Temper and Moderation that might preserve a due regard for the Wisdom and Judgment of other Nations and not with the haughty Air of a Supercilious Critick censure and condemn every thing that deviates from the Examples of the Greek and Latin Authors I have therefore in this Paraphrase proceeded all along from Chapter to Chapter and Verse to Verse in the Order they are set down excepting some very few inconsiderable Transpositions So that I have by no means alter'd the Method and Order of the Narration or any way chang'd the Model And 't will be hard to give a Reason why the Author of this Book has not as great a Right to be made the Standard whereby to try Homer and Virgil as those two Authors have to bring this to their Tribunal If the Knowledge of the Hebrew Language had been look'd on in Europe to have been as necessary as the Greek and Latin had it been as great an Honour and Accomplishment for a Man to understand the first as the last and had there been as great a variety of Authors of all sorts of Learning left in the Language that there might have been an equal Inducement to have study'd and taught it universally in the Schools I say had this been the Grammarians and Criticks might perhaps have ●ixt on this as the best Model of Poetical Writings and have drawn their Rules and Remarks from the Example they found here For 't is plain all their Precepts are founded on Examples and on those Examples with which they were most conversant and in such Languages as were most in vogue and which most of them were oblig'd to profess and teach I have indeed supply'd in some Places the Transitions and other Connexions which according to their manner of Writing are omitted in the Original that the Reader of the Paraphrase who is unaccustomed to that way may not be embarrass'd or interrupted There are many hard and obscure Places about the meaning of which I have consulted the ablest and most famous Writers and have taken that Sense which I look'd on as most natural and supported by the best Reasons And in this I have chiefly been obliged to the Excellent Paraphrase of the Learned Bishop of Ely and the Collection of the Critici I have added a Paraphrase upon several other Poetical Parts of the Bible which in my Opinion are nobler Examples of the true sublime Stile than any can be sound in the Pagan Writers The Images are so strong the Thoughts so great the Expressions so divine and the Figures so admirable bold and moving that the wonderful manner of these Writers is quite inimitable One thing I must advertise the Reader of that in the Prophets 't is common with them that they may represent the Certainty of