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
A84597	The scorned Quakers true and honest account, both why and what he should have spoken (as to the sum and substance thereof) by commission from God, but that he had not permission from men, in the Painted Chamber on the 17th. day of the 7th. month 1656. before the Protector and the Parliament then, and there met together, with many more of no mean account, who were not of them, yet were then crowded in among them.	Fisher, Samuel, 1605-1665.	1656 (1656)	Wing F1057; Thomason E889_10; ESTC R202114	32,531	40

and had no certain dwelling place and yet though counted the very scum of the world as these are now by you were neither rogues nor vagabonds saith the Lord some for onely entring into the Synagogues whose doors stand open for all Men and there either doing nothing or declaring sometimes in deed before but sometimes not till after all is ended even as the movings of the Lord are upon them against the false worships and hireling Priests thereof that Divine for money and the people that love to have it so which both Christ and the Prophets and Apostles of old did even there cry woe against and yet were neither disturbers nor Malefact●rs saith the Lord some for not having the faith of God with respect of persons which who so have are convinced of the Law as transgressors some for not giving flattering titles unto Men not honouring them in their own way of bowing before them not stooping to their wills beyond either sense or reason which the Law of God flatly forbiddeth some for not putting off the Hat to them or standing bare-headed before them which no Law at all of either God or Man commandeth but is onely one of those many customs of the Heathen which are vain and so vain is this especially as the complementall Cringers and foolish fashion-followers of this vain age use it that men may with as much civility put off and require the putting off of their Coats one to another and to as much good purpose saith the Lord some for using the plain English of Thee and Thou to Men though it be the most proper speech to a single person whether you speak to God or the greatest Men witness your own translation of the Scripture into your own English tongue in all which it can't be found from one end thereof to the other where the word you is made use of when no more but one person is spoken to besides what evidence is given in from other tongues to the truth of this save onely that meer pride and respect of persons doth both improperly and impudently plead to have severall sorts of speaking to severall s●rts of people in this brutish Nation and adulterous Generation saith the Lord some for telling lyars in plain terms onely of their lying which to do is held to be such reviling as deserves little less than half hanging among many though there is no more reall hurt but that falshood and foolish custome hath perverted the true being of many things and your true seeing almost of any things as they are in saying to him that lyeth Thou lyest than in saying to him that sweareth Thou swearest saith the Lord some for not paying of tythes even to them that they neither do nor can in Conscience ever own to be their Pastours though they hinder no Men from paying them that have a Mind to it and whose Consciences compell them even that way to maintain their own Ministers which as the Gospell is against the paying of by Christs flock to their own Shepheards that feed them much more to such Shepheards as whether they will or no do fleece but never feed them so no Law in this Land can compell any Man to pay at all in case he be minded whether out of Covetousness or Conscience to refuse it the Ecclesiastical Courts being clear taken away and there being an express Statute extant remaining yet unrepealed that it shall not be lawfull for any to sue for tythes in any Temporall or in any but in Ecclesiasticall Courts nor for any to be summoned before any secular Judge to give in any answer about that Matter and therefore what condition the Judges are in that now meddle with it who are sworn not to do against any Statute Law of the Land let the light in their own Consciences be judge for to that measure of my light in them by which I am coming to be a swift witness against the false swearer as well as every other evill doer do I now speak and appeal saith the Lord some for no more than bare going out of duty to God to visit their imprisoned and afflicted friends have been sent back without the sight of them and some with passes as Rogues Vagabonds and idle wanderers though they have been of sufficient worth as to the outward also and have never either begged or stole and others are taken up by the way to their friends and put by whole heaps together in prison and there kept till they can buckle so low to the wills of Men against all Law and Conscience as to say if the Lord will they will go back without effecting their intended lawfull business of visiting Christ in prison which woe to them that do not much more woe to them that do imprison him or not go on in that their honest undertaking witness that sinfull shamefull business at Exeter where are no less than between ten and twenty at once in prison meerly for going to see friends in prison at another place and there held unless they will find sureties for their good behaviour or pass their words if the Lord will to go which way they would have them as if the Land were not free for Men that are bound by the Law of God to a good behaviour to pass up and down in about none but lawfull occasions without binding themselves thereunto and so giving it for granted that they have misbehaved themselves when they have not upon every malicious Officers unruly will or Magistrates slender and meer groundless suspition b Thus is my people made a prey of saith the Lord for which in speciall as for all other of your evills have I had a controversy with you and my hand hath been against you saith the Lord so that you have not prospered in your undertakings ye have travelled much in your Councells but ye have brought forth little ye have wrought no deliverance in the earth to any perfection neither have your enemies fallen before you of late as in former dayes but ye have fallen even woderfully before them ye have sown iniquity and reaped meer vanity ye have sown wind and reaped a whirlewind even a grievous whirlewind of wrath from the Lord which falls with much pain upon your heads of distractions divisions jealousies one of another and suspitions fractions and factions confusion contention disappointment and vexation upon vexation ye have sown to the flesh and there is come up a crop of corruption that hath made you fit fuell for the fire of mine indignation which is kindled and except ye repent will ere long waxe burning hot against you till it have consumed you into nothing Wherefore now thus saith the Lord God unto you ye stiffe-necked and stout hearted ones who though ye talk of it yet are far from my righteousness yee high and sturdy Oakes of Bashan ye tall and haughty Cedars of Lebanon come down and sit in the dust and humble your selves under my mighty hand which is

be the Rule as in the dark for want of the true light yet shining which now shineth forth they have been supposed to be and the onely sure foundation of the faith and Church but Christ himself his light and Spirit which shew good and evill in the heart which are the onely Guide Light Commander Counceller Leader Law Lawgiver Foundation and Rule which the Scripture sends to and this is infallible and to be followed in what it speaks infallibly and not otherwise to the conscience and there is the onely sure and safe walking even in the light in Christ in the Spirit and not in the Letter which is fallible by false interpretation and translation which yet is true as 't was penn'd by the Spiri● much less in the flesh and in the darkness as too many do besides both the Letter and the light of them that talk much of the Let●er yea of them that talk also of the spirit of the light but if the light be put out in any through abuse of it and the God of this world hath been suffered by the God of all the worlds to bli●d the mind and put out the eye then if the light be darkness and the eye which is the light of the body be out how great is that darkness who can help i● who can help it if for not walking in the light while men had it darkness is come upon them if for not liking to retain God in their knowledge when what might be known of him was manifest in them and shewed in them and for not glorifying him as God but becoming vain in their imaginations and not receiving the love of the truth that shined in them their foolish heart was darkened and they given over to strong delusion to vile affections to do things unseemly to hate whisper backbite envy murder be filthy drunken swear steal lye dissemble still they knew the judgement of God that they that do such things are worthy of death yet not onely did the same but had pleasure in those that did them if the Gospell be thus hid it is hid but to them that are lost but they are happy still who keep stedfast in the light their foundation is still sure and infallible whose heart condemns not it self nor the true light that shines in it in what it allows it self in and does for he that walks in meekness temperance love joy peace innocency righteousness purity patience doing what he would be done to which is the Law and the Prophets saith Christ the sum of all the fulfilling of the Law which things the light Spirit of Christ leads all that follow it up to cut of the lusts and fruits and wayes of the fl●sh if all men cry out of him for an heretick a deceiver a Devill a base fellow a disturber as they did of Christ he clearly comprehends them all to be but in the deceit themselves and in the vanity of their own thoughts and falseness of their own imaginations yea infallibly he knows in the light of the Lord himself to be a true man and all those that think him otherwise and call him hypocrite to be but lyars and again if a man walk in the lusts and wayes of the flesh which are infallibly also manifest in the light as drunkeness revelling wantoness couzening cheating fighting hating adultery murder lying and the like If all the men in the world shall flatter him and tell him he does well and he need not fear but he is right and these things are good and pleasing unto God unless I say again the light be quite put out as the candle of the wicked which once they had shining in them often is and then wo so that they call good evill and darkness light being scaled up under obscure darkness in Gods just wrath against the judgement there is that light in his conscience will tell him if he heed it his way is false and filthy and these men that cry peace to him in it are all lyars and when ever the book of conscience but a little opens it appears so to be in wicked men at this very day Now therefore turn into that Law of mine written in your hearts saith the Lord which Law if you turn away your ears from the hearing of your very prayers are abominable unto me saith the Lord yea though you make many prayers to me and long and spread forth your hands and howl unto me as you do on your fast dayes and in the dayes of your ordained humiliations whereby to make your voyce to be heard on high yet will I not give ear unto you saith the Lord but as I call and cry for righteousness and purity even within you and ye hear not so ye shall call and cry to me without and not be heard and though my hand be no way shortned that it cannot save nor my ear heavy that it cannot hear yet if after your fasts you enter as you have often done into strife and debate and smite even my people with the fist of wickedness and find your own pleasure and do your own works and wills and think your own thoughts and live still under the power of your lusts and will not be led by my Spirit in you which would lead you from them then I will not accept you at all yea my Soul shall even loath and abhor you and these iniquities of yours shall separate between me and you and your sins shall keep good things from you even the good things ye cry and call for and you shall wait for peace but behold trouble for light and joy but there shall be dimness of anguish and ye shall be driven more and more to darkness and ye shall roare like Bears and mourn sore like Doves and groap for the wall like the blind even like them that have no eyes and those that looke for good from you who are their representatives shall find none their eyes shall fail with looking for help from you and even drop out before ever deliverance shall come to them by you yea they shall wait for justice but there shal be more oppression of them righteousness but there shall be nothing but a cry because he that departeth from iniquity is made a prey among you still and ye hate him that reproveth in the gate and a man is made an offender for a word speaking even for my word spoken among you by command and commission from my self neither shall any one among you be able to uphold and ye shall be a broken staff in the hands of such as leane upon you running into their hands rather than sustaining neither is there any one of you from the highest to the lowest that shall come to good or be vessells of honour saith the Lord unless ye be sanctifyed by my light or counted fit at all for the Masters use Be wise now therefore O ye Kings ye Rulers and Judges of the Earth and serve the

many who the more they pray to God the more they play fast and loose with him the more they harden the more they heighten the more they strengthen themselves in the Devills Kingdom and in their blind misguided zeal which tells them 't is errour who can't see wood for trees against the truth so as in that zeal as Paul once did till his eye was opened to persecute the Church for how true that was which was said before you this day viz. that in the turnings of the world there was a change of men but not of things I le not determine in some respects it may be so yet sure I am this is as true also that in the turnings of the world to God ther 's a change of things and not of men unless it be into worse for though they shift from forme to forme from a darker to a clearer and from a superstitious to one more refined yet themselves remain some as and some more dark and superstitious in those their finer forms and not a few as unrefined as ever still in the same manners still in their old natures in Esau's Cains and Ishmaels natures murdering Abell scoffing at Isaac hating yea hunting Jacob even from the very Prelatick party that reformed most immediatly from the thick fog of Romish false-worship to the Presbyterian whom they persecuted from them to the Independants whom they persecuted from them to the Baptists whom they persecuted and from them to the Ranters all which sorts though they are mad against each other yet as to the true tremblers at the word of God and Saints of the Lord in substance not so much in shew forme nor shadow and things without they all now come against these with one open mouth and as Edom Amelek Moab Ammon Midian Israels fleshly kindred against him even so all they that were formerly fighting quarrelling and disputing against each other now leave the battell they have among themselves and even make one head against the Quakers as they call them whom they all persecute with lyes and revilings and hatreds and hard censures and all the harsh usage and despite that possibly they can stumbling at every straw to the breaking of their own necks that they find amiss among them magnifying every mole-hill even every small matter and some things that they have but by hear-say and some things that they are mistaken in by meer mis-representation of them and some things that are flatly false too and in truth just nothing to make them even them among whom many if many as we know many will do prove worse then nought are glorious with the glory of Christ upon them full of grace and truth which was a glory ever unseen to the world as odious as they can even as the Divell himself in the eyes one of another The end of all which disjointed yet joint baiters and biters and abusers of Gods hidden ones whom though they hate yet they can neither hit nor hurt they being as secure as they are obscure having one life more then the world who may take away that of the body can either touch or come neer so as either to live in it or kill them out of it hid with Christ in God wil be to be hewed to pieces by Gods Prophets slain by the rod even the words of his mouth to be burnt up by the flaming breath of his lips and those coals sparks and tempests thunders and lightnings of his Law arising from the dead in their own consciences as a witness for God for ever and for ever against them according to that true and most plain prophecy that went before of old of these times these men and this matter 2 Esdras 13. which who so reads shall find it more lively now upon the Stage then ever and lastly to be consuming a while by the Spirit of his mouth speaking now here a little now there a little to them out of the mouth of Babes and stammerers and at last to be utterly destroyed by the brightness of his coming now then if these shall be still the best fruits of your fasts that Gods innocent ones his pretious ones his anointed and holy ones shall be hunted by you as a Partridge upon the Mountains and you abide still under new names and notions the old men in the old earthly sensuall cruell wrathfull and malicious nature in enmity against them that are created after Gods own Image in Righteousness and Holiness of truth and are brought forth into his own divine nature Then hear the word of the Lord ye Rulers of Sodom and give eare to it ye people of Gomorrah I will hide mine eyes from you saith the Lord and have no respect to your offering though it seem to the outward eye as Cains might do more gay and costly then that of Abell I will stop my ears and not hear your voice though it be as the voice of Jacob saith the Lord whilst your hands are the rough hands of Esau wherewith you cruelly and coursely handle your brethren and oppress them yea all your services shall be but a smoake in my Nose as a stink in my Nostrills saith the Lord I will spread dung upon your faces even the dung of your solemn meetings and you shall be taken away with it and howbeit you may reforme many things as Josiah did in whose dayes yet I raised up my Prophet Zephany to warn them and threaten them in my name to consume them because all things were not yet as they should be and the names of the Chemarins with the Priests were continued so will I bring a consumption upon all your earthly joy and glory saith the Lord and curse you and all your blessings if you do my work even the work of Reformation negligently and but by the halves even the Reformation of your own persons which in the first place I look for from you that are the powers in which works many whom your teachers will tell you had need be reformed are gone far beyond you and also the Reformation of the Nations wherein still they are not onely continued standing but also maintenance is forced from my own people that cannot own them for the Chemarims even for many black and smoaky Priests whilst my own Ministers whom I send unto you that desire not so much as maintenance from you cannot have so much as common countenance with other men and sometimes not so much as them that are malefactors indeed as these are onely accounted to be do and have obtained at your hands saith the Lord Now therefore thus saith the Lord take heed what ye do in this day the new wine is in the cluster see that you hurt it not for a blessing is in it there is a people gathering together whom I am redeeming from among all people Nations kindreds and tongues and taking one of a family two of a Tribe and bringing unto Sion who are asking the way thereunto with their faces thitherward