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
B05943	The royall advocate. Or, An introduction to the magnificent and honourable laws of Jehovah the Lord Christ, now contaminated and despised by the present army-men of this nation. Asserting and controverting the holinesse, righteousness, perfectnesse, and universallity thereof, of divine right: in opposition to the heathenish, and antichristian laws, traditions, and vaine imaginations of the past and present, pretended Christian magistrates of this nation which they yet so much dote upon and endeavour to support, against the alone law giver, lord of heaven and earth, god of gods, king of kings, and lord of lords. / Published by John Spittle-house, now a prisoner for his testimony against the idolatry and tryanny of the present army men, priests, lawyers &c ...	Spittlehouse, John.	1655 (1655)	Wing S5014; ESTC R184541	66,921	80

Ceremoniall Law concerned such Rites and sacrifices as belonged to the externall worship of God prescribed to the people of the ●ews in reference to the promised seed of the woman which was to bruise the Serpents head Gen. 3. 14 15. and to typifie his coming to this end as also to distinguish them from other Nations in the world and to be signes and Symbols unto them of the Spiri●uall graces of the New Testament to be fulfilled by the Messiah The Ceremoniall Law utterly abolished As touching the Ceremoniall Law it is utterly abolished so that there is no place for them under the Gospel Neither can they be revived without derogation to the Gospel of Christ as the Apostle saith if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing Gal. 5. 2. for when the body is come the shadow must be done away but the Cremonies were shadows the body is Christ Col. 2. 17. 1. Their Temple signified the body of Christ in his Church their Holy place HEAVEN or the bodies of the Saints 1 Cor. 6. 19. Know ye not that your bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost which is in you c. their sacrifices the passion of Christ Heb. 9. 26. 28. their expiation the Remission of sinnes Heb. 22. c. these things then being fully verified and fulfilled in Christ have no more place in the Church 2. These Ceremonies served onely for that carnall people which were as children kept in Bondage under the Elements and Rudiments of the world Gal. 4. 3. But now we are no longer under Tutours and Governours the time appointed of the father being expired but are set free and redeemed by Christ 3. A third Reason for the abolishing of them is in respect of that people to whom they were prescribed as a mark and Cognizance to discern them from all other nations But now this distinction also being taken away and the wall of partition being broken down Jew and Gentile being now made all one in Christ by faith that also is abolished which discerned them from other people Reason 4 For the Causes being changed for the which the Law was made there must needs be also an Alteration of the Law it self The Moral Law remaineth in full force in point of obedience The Moral Law remaineth yet in full force and is not abrogated in respect of obedience which thereunto is still required under the Gospel But in respect of the Curse * Christ hath onely taken away the Curse and malediction of the Morall Law and malediction which Christ hath taken away so that it is most true which our blessed Saviour Saith He came not to destroy the Law but to fulfill it Mat. 5. 17 18 19. he hath fulfilled it first in his own person in keeping it 2. in paying the punishment for us which was due by the Law to the transgressors thereof 3. inabling us by his grace to walke in obedience to his Law Why it pleased God to give his written Law into the World 1. God did not give the moral law in writing in that he was either mutable in changing his first determination or that in processe of time he had found out a more profitable way then he knew before as some have wickedly objected of old and now revived by the The Ranters and Quakers Tenent Ranters and Quakers of this Apostate Generation saying that by the light of Nature before the Flood Men discerned good from evill just from unjust so that the old world sinning against the law of Nature was justly punished it being imprinted in their hearts they shewing the effects of that Law written in their hearts their consciences also bearing them witnesse Answer 1. But because the law of Nature was now much obscured and almost quite obliterated by reason of the Idolatry and Tyranny that was then spread over the earth which flowed from the corruption of nature Therefore the Lord thought it needfull to give it forth by a Visible writing thereof in two Tables of Stone To his then onely peculiar people who from that very cause was selected out of the world Gen. 17. 1 2 4. Exod. 15. 26. and 20. 2 3. Deut. 5. 1 2 3. and 6. 12 c. 2. Least men should complain that somewhat was wanting in the heart therefore to take away all pretext of ignorance the Lord gave his written Law so that all men in generall are left without excuse 3. Because it was to prepare and make way for the Gospel to shew that we have not strength in our selves to fulfill the law in reference to the spirituall part thereof and so it was our Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ Gal. 3. 24. 4. It was given as a supply of the weakness and ignorance of man that whereas there was no certain rule before to know what was good and what was evill but men according to their blinde phantasie and carnal imagination placed happinesse some in one thing and some in another the written law was to correct their erronious opinions to teach one constant certain rule of truth and virtue Reason For although in Civill and Politick matters the esteemed wise among the Heathen by their depraved light of nature and experience had attained to some degree of knowledge therein yet they were utterly ignorant of the true knowledge thereof and worship which God required therein all which is explained in the law with the statutes and judgments annexed thereunto So that in doing of this the Lord is said to commit the greatest treasure in the world to mankinde as Moses affirmeth Deut. 4. 8. What Nation is there so great that hath Statutes and judgments so righteous as all the Law that I set before you this day The fourfold use of the moral law in the fourfold State of man First As man was in his creation and state of Innocency he received two benefits by the knowledge of the law which was grafted in him by creation For 1. thereby he was made conformable to the image of God And so directed as that he should not have swerved from the will of his creator 2. He had assurance so long as he walked in obedience thereunto of certain eternity never to have tasted of Death Corruption or Mutability For he that keepeth the Law shall live thereby Secondly in Mans corrupt and decayed estate the law served to restrain the evill i. e. the written Law and therefore the Apostle saith that the Law is not given to a righteous man but to a lawless and disobedient 1 Tim. 1. 9. as also to discover unto them their sins and hence the same Apostle saith without the law sin is dead Rom. 7. 8. i. e. sin was not known to be sin for saith he I had not known Lust except the Law i. e. the written Law had said Thou shalt not commit vers 7. Here then that Soul-destroying notion of Quakisme is confuted The Quakers opinion confuted which alloreth men that are in this corrupt and

Law bring to this Nation what freedome from expence from unjust imprisonment of mens persons from being deceived in their causes and from being overborn in their Judg●ments by delay of Justice whereby potent adversaries have great advantage given them to corrupt Judges hinder Justice and get false witnesse many guilty persons by this means scaping unpunished and many innocent persons undone by imprisonments in their estates families and repute among men which would not be done had we but Judges as at the first and Rulers as at the beginning of the Common-wealth of Israel i. e. Men fearing God and hating covetousnesse and valiant for the truth to put this Holy Just and Perfect Law in execution not fearing the face of any knowing that the Judgement is the Lords the accomplishment whereof that the Lord would in much mercy hasten is the earnest desire of him who is now a prisoner at Lambeth for the Testimony of the truth as it is in Jesus which he is ready to vindicate with all that is near or dear unto him John Spittlehouse Errata REader the Authour not having had a sight of this printed Copy before it was wrought off throu●h the Correctours negligence these following Errors have hapned which are not onely very many but some also very grosse the matter being left out in some places so that without correcting thereof with thy pen before thou readest it will be troublesome to understand what is printed Page 3 line 15. read See and in the Margent r. be p. 8. l. 29. r. covet p. 10 l. 2. r. heard l. 4. r. commending and in marg r. were l. 26. r. hence p. 11. l. 11. r. hence p. 11. l 12. r. Restauration and for commanded r. commended l. 16. r. hence and in margent against l. 25. place figure 4. p. 12. l. 3. r. Jam. p. 14. l. 24. r. whether l. 31. r. denounced p. 15. l. 2. r. that they l. 5. betwixt saying and in r. he hath and betwixt term and that r. affirmed l 8. r. Civil l. 3. betwixt many and after r. wise p. 17. l. 5. r. enemy l. 27. r. over all 31. r. careth l 32. r. then p. 18. against l. 31. place figure 4 in marg p. 22. l. 1. r. declined p. 23. l. 20 r. those l. 28. r. their p. 24. l. 14. r. quiet p. 29. l. 36. dele● by p. 32. l. 14. r. it l. 27. betwixt at and bringing r. the p 39. l. 8. r. thence p. 40. l 35. r. contrivers p. 43. l 2. r. a●pectable l. 28. ●novel p 49. l. 29. r. intended p. 56. l. 1. r. such l. 15. betwixt of and Nation r. this l. 36. r judgeth and betwixt of and Antichrist r. the l. 37. r. his p. 58. l. 13. r. desired p. 62. and l. 31. r. and not that it is THE Royall Advocate c. Asserting Assert 1 I. That the Contents of the Royall Law of Jehovah the Lord Christ was planted in Mankinde by Nature Proof ALbeit our first Parents were created in the Image of God which consisteth in Righteousnes * Gen. 1. 26 27. Ephes 4. 24 and true holinesse yet were not they thereby made Lawlesse Persons as appeareth from the Testimony of the Apostle Paul Rom. 2. 14 15. where he saith The Gentiles which have not the Law do by Nature the things contained in the Law these having * viz. the written law not the Law are a Law unto themselves which shew the work * Or operation or effects of the law of the Law written in their Hearts their Conscience also bearing them witnesse and their thoughts in the mean while accusing or excusing one another And hence the Apostle saith I have lived in all good Conscience before God Act. 23. 1. vid. 24. 16. 2 Cor. 1. 12. 1 Tim. 1. 5. 19. 2. Tim. 1. 3. Heb. 13. 18. 1 Pet. 3. 16. 21. From which I Argue that seeing Mankinde in The conscience is as a thousand witnesses their adulterate and depraved estate had the operations of the Royall Law of Jehovah written in their hearts by Nature as also a Conscience accusing or excusing them in point of obedience or disobedience thereunto It must needs be that they had the same much more in their Virgin and pure estate when they were in their Innocency and Integrity before their fall And this doth clearly appear from Gen. 3. 6 7 8. Where no sooner had our first Parents violated the divine precept by means of the suggestions and delusions of Satan but immediately their eyes are said to be opened and that they saw their nakednesse and went and sowed fig-leaves together to make themselves Aprons As also in that assoon as they heard the voice of the Lord in the Garden they went to hide themselves among the Trees of the Garden All which doth clearly denote unto us that their Consciences had testified unto them their disobedience as also condemned them for what they had done and therefore they are said to be afraid as in v. 10. If our Conscience condemn us God is greater than our Conscience and he shall much more condemn us Vid. Heb. 9. 14. Assert 2 II. That this Royall Law so planted in mankind by Nature is comprehended in two grand Principles i. e. 1. To love God above all 2. To love our neighbour as our self Proof Deut. 6. 4 5. Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might Deut. 10. 12. And now O Israel what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God to walk in all his wayes and to love him and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul c. Lev. 19. 17 18. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour and not suffer fin upon him Thou shalt not avenge or bear grudge against the children of thy people but Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self I am the Lord. Assert 3 III. That this Doctrine was ratified by Jesus Christ Proof Mark 12. 28. Then one of the Scribes that was a Lawyer Mat. 22. 35. coming unto him and asking him which was the first Commandement or great Commandement in the Law Mat. 22. 36. of all Jesus answered him The first of all the Commandements or the Great Commandement in the Law Mat. 22. 38 is Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength This is the first and Great Comm●ndement And the second is like unto it namely this Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self There are no other Commandments that are greater than these Mat. 22. 40. On these Commandements hang all the Law and the Prophets Assert 4 IV. That this Doctrine was taught

do them John 13. 17. as also the Apostle Peter If ye do these things ye shall never fall 2 Pet. 1. 10. Fourthly it sheweth what benefit we have received by Christ i. e. the renewing of that image wherein man was first created the Scriptures being a Lanthorn and a Light to that purpose as David h●th acknowledged Col. 3. 10. Having put on the new man which is created in knowledge after the image of him that created h●m In the state of Reformation of all things the Law shall have that use which it had before mans fall to shew the conformity of mankind in their holy obedience with the blessed will of their Glorious Creatour Lord and Master Jesus Christ blessed for ever Amen Of the Judiciall Law The Judicialll Law floweth from the Morall Law which is the Fountain and Foundation thereof and as the Morall Law is fixed in the Heart and Conscience of every man by nature Rom. 2. 14 15. so the Judicialls appertaining thereunto flow from the same Fountain and therefore seeing no Common-wealth can stand without a Civil and Judiciall Constitution the Lord therefore having provided the Law that binds in Conscience so here he sets forth the pena●ll lawes whereby the obstinacy of men may be restrained for if men were left to themselves there would be few that would not rather live as they list as the Ranters c. 1. Therefore because it might so fall out that all would not be Why the Judicial Law was given obedient to the Moral Precept it was necessary that the alone Law-giver Rom. 4. 12. who is onely able to save and to destroy to prescribe what Punishment every transgressour of the Law should be liable unto Of the word Judgement As touching the word Judgement in the Singular it doth not signifie as Judgements in the Plurall for Judgement in the Singular doth for the most part signifie condemnation but in the plurall it signifies as well the revenge and punishment of the guilty as the defence of the innocent 2. The word Judgement is taken three wayes as first it signifi●s the Act of Judgement and understanding which determineth what is meet and convenient to be done and so it is the fountain and beginning whence good Lawes do proceed Reason For the Law is made good out of Judgement So that the Judiciall Law is in effect as if the Lord had said unto Moses whereas I have already given the people Generall Rules of serving me as also how to dem●an themselves one towards another now upon a full and deliberate consultation and Iudgement given I shall deliver their particular demeanour touching the same as also the punishment that shall be inflicted upon the violatours thereof whether towards me or towards one another 2. The word Judg●ment is taken for the Administration of Iustice which is the executive part of the Law 3. It is taken for the Law it self according to which Iudgement i● given The Iudiciall Law of three sorts 1. They either were such as were annexed to the Moral Law as the statutes and Judgements touching the Contemners of the Moral Law in Generall or in particular as in Blasphemy Idolatry Murther Adultery c. 2. Or such as were appendent to the Ceremoniall Law as the Statutes and Iudgements touching any dead thing or that were prohibited and the like 3. Or such as appertained to the particular Policie and State of the Jews Common-wealth as concerning the year of Jubile raising ●● seed to the brother departed without issue by marrying his wife c. The two last of these are abolished one with the Ceremonies on which they attended the other as being onely peculiar to that Government is now decayed and determined with it The Great Controversie now to debate is whether the first of of these i. e. the Statutes and Judgements annexed to the Moral Law be as Binding to all Nations as the Moral Law it self In r●ference to which I take the Affirmative part and say That the Judicial Laws annexed to the Moral Law is as Binding as the Law and ought to be put in practise by the Magistrates of ALL the NATIONS in the whole world This great Argument controverted It is acknowledged that the Moral Law is obligatory universal The Adversaries confession and eternal for that it is agreeable to the Law of nature commanded by God to Moses revived and ratified by Jesus Christ in the Gospel and therefore may really and truly be termed the Law of Christ and the Royall Law of Jehovah binding ALL NATIONS But as for the judiciall Law it ended with the Jews Common Their Objection wealth for which it was intended and therefore untill it can be shewn when and where it was renued and imposed upon all Nations Mounseir Needham the Court Parrasite and Pensioner that scoffing Ishmaelite and blasphemous Rabshakah of the times saith he will not believe it Resp I am glad this Court Sycophant and Temporising Parasite hath so much grace as to acknowledge what he hath in reference to the Royal Law of Jehovah i. e. the Moral Law and as touching the other I answer and say That the Judiciall Law annexed to the Moral Law is no more ended or determined than the Moral Law it self Neither can be And that for these following Reasons i. e. 1. For they are as I have said conclusions and rules of justice Reason 13 grounded upon the Morall Law or Royal Law and were not appointed to prefigure any thing but meerly grounded upon the law of Equity and Justice and therefore can nor ought to be laid aside any more than those precepts of equity and justice to which they are so inseparably annexed as that the one cannot suffer detriment without the other and consequently neither the law statute or judgment but by an open and apparent contempt of Jehovah the Lord Christ the God of equity and justice who hath established and ratified them to be his laws to such purpose and so not judaicall or peculiar onely to the Jews but to all that are under the verge of the Moral Law 2. For that the breach of the Moral Precept or Law is the same before the alone Law-giver in one part of the world as in another as to kill a man wilfully or by Accident is now the same sin before the eyes of God in England as it was then in Canaan and consequently of any other transgression of the Moral Precept and therefore in such cases the great and singular Law-giver hath declared that one Law should be for the stranger i. e. the Gentile as for the home born or Jews themselves Exod. 12. 49. Lev. 24. 22. And therefore unlesse this Changeling will undertake to prove Iehovah the Lord Christ such an one as himself as to prefix one punishment in Canaan for the violation of a Moral Precept whether General or particular and another sort of punishment for the same Transgression in another Country as in England c. which blasphemous

no sooner had the * Gal. 6. 10 As we have opportunity let us do good Opportunity put into his hand of magnifying the Law of God and making it Honorable but forthwith put it in practice which sad experience teacheth our Army-Men have not albeit all their opportunities vows and protestations to that purpose as before expressed whereas it is the mind of God that if a man vow or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond that he break not his word but do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth Numb 30. 2. Again Deut. 23. 21. When thou shalt vow unto the Lord thy God thou shalt not slack to pay it for the Lord thy God shall surely require it of thee and it will be sin to thee again Ecclesiast 5. 4 5 6. When thou vowest a vow unto God defer not to pay it for he hath no pleasure in Fools Pay that which thou hast vowed better it is thou shouldest not vow than that thou shouldest vow and not pay Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin neither say thou before the angel that it was an error wherefore should God be angry at thy voyce and destroy the work of thy hand All that your Swords have gotten you Godly David telleth God that he will pay the vows which he made to him when he was in trouble but it seems our Army-men are content with Nebuchadnezzar to proclaim the God of Daniel to be worshipped in their Dominions provided he will be content to have it done after the Baylonish fashion Otherwise they have no more to say unto him Again it is worthy our observation what notabe Jugglers Instance the Kings or Tyrants of the earth have ever been with God as for instance in Dan. 2. 47. we find Nebuchadnezzar having lately received a favour from Daniels God in reference to the knowledge of his dream openly declaring that of a truth Daniels God was a God of Gods and a Lord of Kings and a revealer of Secrets and yet notwithstanding all this in the third verse following we find the same Nebuchadnezzar er●cting an image of Gold and compelling the worship●ers of Daniels God to fall down and worship it An Act not much unsuitable to the present actions of our Army-men who having formerly proclaimed Jesus Christ as aforesaid Comparison by way of thankfulnesse for their wonderful preservations from so many eminent dangers and to exalt and magnifie him onely and that by his own Way or Rule of Worship in and by his own Laws and Ordinances contained in the holy Scriptures that they would suppresse whatsoever was contrary thereunto both in Church and State but the Nine Dayes Wonder being over forthwith cast all their Ingagements behind their backs and instead of performing thereof turn direct Antipodians or Retrogradians by setting up an image of some things that had been destroying and not onely so but also commanding obedience thereunto witnesse the late Gooernment they have erected 3. Albeit Mordecay and Daniel did act according to the Laws and Customes of that Country during their captivity in that place that doth not in the least argue or conclude that the Laws of the Babylonians and Persians should now be promoted among us Reason For what should we do with their Laws without their Idols for their Laws were their Religion by which they worship Flesh God or King or Tyrant at whose Lust and Pleasure the lives of men were sacrificed to appease his wrath or their graven and molten gods with the Rites and Ceremonies appertaining thereunto Therefore in as much as we do at least pretend that we do not worship their gods what use have we of their Laws or Religion whether in reference to their idolatries or Tyrannicall worship required by them So that the necessary Consequent of what hath been said will be that so many of this Nation as own that God which made his own Law in Mount Sina by which he will be worshipped as also how his Subjects shall demean themselves one towards another and which was established and ratified by his sonne and our Saviour in Mount Olivet and also by his Apostles as hath been proved That they henceforth indevour the promotion of those Holy Just and perfect Laws with all their might and power and contrary-wise to suppresse all such persons and things that are opposite thereunto whether in Church or State Object Our Saviour commandeth us to give tribute to Cesar and the Apostle injoyned obedience to the higher powers which doth bear the Sword and that for conscience sake Rom. 13. all which giveth Approbation to the Laws of Nations Resp The people of God were then as I have said under the power of Heathen Magistrates and therefore to the end they might procure unto themselves a great and peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty 1 Tim. ●2 2. Our Lord Jesus and his Apostles admonished them in such cases not to oppose or resist them and indeed who would not feed a hungry and greedy Lion rather than to be torn in pieces and devoured by him But all this doth not in the least prove that the Laws of Cesar or the Image thereof are better than the Laws of God or that the people of God having now under God freed themselves from the Dominion of Cesar should now by force be brought back again to worship and adore the image and Superscription of Cesar under a Cesarian Habit that they should submit to the Laws Customes and Traditions of those false gods they have Conquered and Neglect the Laws Statutes and Judgements of that God by whose might and power they have conquered these false gods and their worshippers for if so what is it other than to imitate those disobedient Israelites who joyned in league with the Canaanites whom the Lord signed for destruction and with them to worship Baalim and the Groves Judges 3. 6 7. Therefore such whom the Lord hath made instrumentall either by word or sword to extirpate the name and person of Cesar out of this nation ought doubtles to persevere therein until they have as well extinguished and blotted out his Image and Superscription in whomsoever and whatsoever they see or find it to be fixed in and that to All Ends and purposes For without all Controversie the one is altogether as lawfull if not More than was the other yea doubtlesse it is a far lesse resisting of Magistracy to destroy the Image and Superscription of Cesar than it was to destroy His Name and Person but the Army affirmed it was no resisting of Magistracy to destroy the person and name of Cesar therefore it will be no resisting of Magistracy in the other to destroy the Image and Superscription in whomsoever and whatsoever they find it For in such Cases the Army hath concluded it as a Maxime that it is no resisting * Note to side with just Principles i. e. in such Cases whereupon the life and death of True