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	obedience_n	obligation_n	1,036	5	9.4199	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64566	The regulating of law-suits, evidences, and pleadings an assize-sermon preach't at Carmarthen, March the 16th, 1656 / by William Thomas ...	Thomas, William, 1613-1689.	1657 (1657)	Wing T981; ESTC R1308	25,954	42

The Regulating of LAW-SUITS EVIDENCES and PLEADINGS AN ASSIZE-SERMON Preach't at Carmarthen March the 16th 1656. By VVILLIAM THOMAS Vicar of Laughorn Inter legesipsas delinquitur inter jura peccatur Innocentia non illie ubi defenditur reservatur D. Cypr. lib. 2. Ep. 2. LONDON Printed at the request of some eminent Auditors Sold by Gabriel Bedell and T. Collins at the Middle-Temple-gate in Fleet-street 1657. ERRATA Pag. 4. in the margin for proct read pract. Pag. 8. lin. 19. read {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Pag. 10. in the marg. read {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Pag. 25. in the marg. for Passio read Iussio Pag. 29. lin. 21 and 23. read Vatterotz and Vatteretz AN ASSIZE-SERMON Preach't at CARMARTHEN March the 16th 1656. Exod. 20. vers. 16. Thou shalt not bear false vvitnesse against thy neighbour LAwes are like fences that serve for bounds and for restraints Tully call's the Law a dumb Magistrate and the Magistrate a speaking Law As the Magistrate doth rule and sway the people so the Law doth rule and sway the Magistrate The Almighty God whose actions are our patterns hath prescribed a Law unto himself This is the first and properly called the Law eternall And as the Divine wisdome of the Creator hath set a rule and measure to his own actions so he hath ordained the like to his Creatures This is either an unwritten or a written Law to borrow Plato's distinction The most famous unwritten Law is that of Nature which Iustinian extends to all living creatures but the Schoolmen confine to mankind taking it for that which the Civilians term the Law of Nations Aquinas defines the Law of Nature to be the participation of the eternall Law in the reasonable creature Not to describe to enwrap it in a cloud the Law of Nature is a judgement naturally engrafted in our hearts for the discerning of good and evil This is the soveraign Rule the Pole-star for the Heathens For if the Gentiles which have not a Law do by nature the things contained in the Law they having not a Law are a Law unto themselves Iustinian mentions three Precepts cast in this mould to live honestly to hurt no man to render to every man his own But our blessed Saviour recites the most renowned law of nature even in the judgement of Heathen Sages so much magnified by Severus the Emperour that he commanded it to be engraven in his Palace Whatsoever you would that men should do unto you do you even so to them Nature it self prompts us this equality indifferently to shift the scenes to look upon our own actions with that rigour as if they were another mans and upon another mans actions with that candor as if they were our own But because this Law was not sufficient to bridle the disorderly passions of wicked men God hath seconded and reinforced it with divers written lawes to his people The 1. for the deciding of their controversies This was the Iudiciall Law raised to the Meridian of Iewry framed to the Climate of Palestine which as to other nations may indifferently be abrogated or retained The second for the regulating of their Ritualls the ordering of their Circumstantialls in Religion This was the Ceremoniall Law of Moses not to be mingled blended with the Evangelicall doctrine as the Ebionites heretically asserted not to be observed or approved under the Gospel The Synagogue is solemnly interred the Iudiciall Law dead the Ceremoniall deadly The third sort the Morall law the practicall test the rule for conversation is not yet destitute of life or vigour The Gospell gives no bill of divorce to this law unstings onely but not unsinews it acquits believing repenting soules from the curse not the observance from the penalty not the duty of it This Morall law is of eternall force being comprised in the ten Commandments which Melanchthon accounts the law of nature rightly expounded These are not to be engraven in tables of stone onely not in tables of brasse as the lawes of Solon were but to be imprinted in the tables of our hearts to be copyed out in our lives I shall at this time by Gods gracious assistance take into consideration one distinct branch of it Thou shalt not bear false witnesse against thy neighbour Before I treat of the matter of the prohibition I shall offer at a cursory survey of the manner of the expression like a limmer that frames a rude draught of his work before he drawes out the severall lineaments in full proportion That dreadfull Iudge who will require of us an account for every idle word dictate's none himself Though there were many thousands of Israelites present yet the charge is framed in the singular number Thou not in a loose generality prescribed to all lest in a loose neglect it be observed by none This denotes the divine mercy That he vouchsafes to take care of every man in particular and chalks out our duty That every man in particular make application of Gods law to his own conscience as a compasse to steer by as a rule to live by The Charge is in a future severe tenor Thou shalt This imports the perpetuity of the obligation the authority of it It was proclaimed with thunder and accented with lightning If our obedience to Gods Law be not active it shall be passive If his Commandement be not punctually observed his Iudgement shall be sharply inflicted it shall and must be endured This Law is Negative not an Edict an Injunction limited with opportunityes conveniencies to allay it's rigour but an Interdict a Prohibition that admits no dispensation of time or place to mince or qualifie it This Prohibition serves as a glasse to present the uncomely complexion of the soul it 's unholy disposition a swinge a bent to false testimonies Other offences are sorted severed among the sonnes of men but this is communicable to all Every man a lyar at least in a corrupt vehement inclination of a heart unregenerated To proceed Our English translation is too low flat Thou shalt not bear it is in the Originall lo tagnaneh thou shalt not answer a false testimony It abates the lustre the credit of a disadvantagious testimony against a neighbour for to be voluntary An evidence that is commodious behoofefull may in some cases be tendred but if discommodious it ought to be required it is justified onely by an interrogatory to be cited required examined That discovery which sounds an unmeet detraction a dart of slander at the Table may amount to a meet deposition a fit Evidence at the Bar. In the one case the rule of Charity debarres it in the other case the rule of Iustice warrants it It is not expressed Thoushalt not bear witnesse at all but Thoushalt not bear false witnesse Courts of judicature are not abrogated condemned in my text but directed regulated If no evidence could be produced no innocence