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
A80510	The copy of a narrative prepared for his Majesty about the year 1674. to distinguish Protestants from Papists		1674 (1674)	Wing C6179; ESTC R230957	20,542	16

governed by a Protestant Prince than by any other and consequently it may be further seen whether it be any way adviseable for his Majesty or any way advantagious to his affairs still to commit the whole trust of the Church and of Religion it self entirely into the hands or Government of the Clergy To the end therefore that I may with all clearness represent the difficulties that do attend the Protestant Religion with the Government of it as things now stand I shall humbly crave leave to lay down this as the Foundation of my whole Argument which I humbly conceive will hardly be denied me by any Viz That in the Protestant Church the Prince professing himself to be of the Reformed Religion cannot any way remove or take away the use of the Scriptures from the common people the use or restoration of them in the Vulgar Tongue being accounted one main part if not the chiefest priviledge of any that came by the Reformation it self Which being granted me another difficulty is created by it inevitably for seeing the Prince is no way able to remove the use of the Scriptures from the common people he can never possibly be able to remove the influence and effects which the Divine Authority of the Scriptures must have and cannot but have upon the minds and consciences of the said people as the Scriptures are acknowledged to be the only Word the alone Rule of the mind of God unto his people this Character or apprehension of the Dignity and Authority of the Scriptures being so essential to our Reformation it self that there is no Protestant can so much as doubt of it it being that which is not only commonly taught in our Pulpits but frequently inculcated to us while we are Children by our Parents and by those Masters which take the care of us while we are at School And therefore this Principle of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures being from our very Education thus firmly rooted in us it must unavoidably make the influence and effects to be equally as strong and equally as powerful upon the Consciences of us even as they themselves are that is equal with the very Authority of God himself and especially upon all such as re religiously educated and bred so that there is no obligation or tye wha ever which is capable to be laid on men upon any civil outward or temporal account that is able to have any part of that strength or influence upon them as the Scriptures must necessarily have upon and over the generality of all persons in the Protestant Church which is another consequence that cannot be removed by the Civil Government The strength and prevalency of which tye as made upon the Consciences of all persons as Protestants by or from the Scriptures is yet the more considerable because whatever Worship Service or Religion we as Protestants do profess to give unto God we profess it only from the Authority of the Scriptures themselves and from the Authority of them as they are thus owned and accounted by the Protestant Church to be our Supreme and consequently our immediate tye in all that we believe and in all that we act as Protestants towards God hath not its termination or its dependance so much upon men or upon the Church as upon the Scripture or Word of God itself we judging it lawful enough to forsake the Church when we once judge the Church in what it believes or in what it acts or practiseth toward God to have forsaken the Word and our Prosession or Religion being thus founded I mean out of conscience purely to Gods Word every man then properly as a Protestant if he be sincere doth as much believe that the worship whatever it be which he professeth is as truly agreeable to the Mind and Will of God as is the very Scripture it self and consequently that he is as much to contend for the said Worship as he is bound to contend for the Authority of the Scripture it self for these two being taken by him but for one thing viz. the Authority of the Scripture and the truth and authority of what he professeth consequently the same tye that binds him to the Scripture must of necessity bind him to that Religion whatever it be which he as a Protestant professeth unto God and consequently if there be no tye so firm or so strong upon the Conscience as that of the Divine and absolute Authority of the Scripture is as we have proved there is not there can be no tye stronger than what Protestants as such and as sincere must necessarily have for that Religion whatever it be that they do respectively profess unto God And this now being made clear and undoubted viz. that the tye and obligation that every man hath to the worship which he professeth unto God properly as a Protestant lieth in and riseth immediately from the Scriptures and it being likewise cleared that the highest tye which can possibly be laid upon the Conscience of any man is that proceeding from the Scriptures as they are the only Rule of Gods mind and will to us it must necessarily follow that if a Prince can neither remove the use of the Scriptures themselves nor remove the obligation which they have above all things upon the Consciences of men even from their very Education as they are the only Word of God he can never possibly remove the obedience which men will always conceive themselves obliged to give to the said Word in whatsoever it be they apprehend it doth clearly command seeing this obedience is looked upon to be the same and no other with an obedience given to God himself and if an obedience given unto God be in conscience also infinitely preferrable to any obedience to man then must an obligation to the Law and Will of God be always preferrable to and stronger than any obligation whatever to the Law or command of men which is a third thing that can no way possibly be avoided And consequently if the Law of the Church cannot in the matter of Worship any way compel or bind men to obedience further or otherwise than as they apprehend it to be agreeable to the Law of God or to the Law of his Word then neither can the Law of the Prince or the Law of the Civil Government bind mens Consciences in the matter of worship further or otherwise than the Law of the Church viz. no otherwise than as the said Law appears to them to be agreeable to Gods Law which is the Law of his Scriptures or Word and consequently it can never be avoided by any Prince as a Protestant but his Authority as relating purely to things civil with the efficacy of it must stand upon one Rule his Authority as relating to things of Divine Worship with the efficacy of it must necessarily and unavoidably stand upon another Rule and therefore that his Authority over his Subjects in the one and in the other of these must of

their bare saying to be taken against others By all that I have said then if allowed it will appear that there is a clear difference between the Authority of a Prince in things Civil and in things relating to Worship and Religion for as his Authority about things Civil is unquestionable and entersares with no Law of God whatever and can have no pretence therefore to intrench upon the Conscience or upon any prior obligation or duty that a man oweth unto God and as it must for all these reasons be necessarily and indispensibly obeyed and submitted unto by all his Subjects so on the contrary a Prince especially as a Protestant can put out no Law about Divine Worship but his Subjects so far as they are Protestants are bound in Conscience and by the very Principles of that Religion which they profess not only to consider it but to examine it whether it be agreeable to the Word of God or not and if it appear not to be such at least according to the best of their understandings as they will have a Plea always not to submit to it by reason it intrencheth upon a prior obligation that they have both in Conscience and according to the Principles of their Reformation unto God and according also to the sixth Article of the Church of England it self so this Plea cannot well with Justice be denied them if no Crime whatever in their Conversation can be proved against them nor can men in this case be actually punished and proceeded against without the sense and grief of that wrong or oppression that is manifestly done to them and suffered by them especially seeing their non-conformity to the said Laws proceeds not as we said either from their Election or Liberty nor yet from any breach of duty or affection to their Prince but only from what appears to them to be an inevitable or indispensible necessity that ariseth and is occasioned from their meer Profession as they are of the Protestant Religion To which end let me humbly beg leave to offer one argument more also which is That the thing which doth Essentially distinguish a Protestant from a Papist more than any note mark or character whatsoever besides is that a Papist by his Principles as a Papist may not and indeed cannot dispute any Law whatever relating to the Worship or Service of God provided it be declared and established by what he acknowledgeth to be the Church because he takes the Authority of the Church for the whole Argument or for the only Foundation of all his Obidence unto God rather than the Divine Authority of the Scripture or Word and because he presumeth the Church also to be a thing altogether holy and such as neither hath erred nor can err for should he question this he must question the whole of his Religion it self whereas the Protestant Church on the other hand having separated from the Church of Rome not only upon the supposition that she hath actually erred but that she hath been grosly corrupted as well in Manners as in Faith and having for the better justification of her own Practice both in matter of Worship and in all things relating to Doctrine and Faith set up the Scriptures as the sole and Soveraign Rule of Gods mind and will to his Church as she cannot challenge the exercise of any Authority therefore that is beyond that of the Scriptures or of any that is not subordinate to the Scriptures it self so it is expected that all the duties consequently which she requires and all those Articles or Points of Faith which she at any time recommends to such as are the Members of her should always be enforced from those Arguments properly and only which are drawn from the Scriptures because it is this which she her self hath appealed unto and this only which she challengeth to justifie her A Protestant then that understands the grounds of Religion or that hath been at all instructed in the rise or Principles of Reformation taking this for the very first Article of his Faith that a Church may err and may have corruption in it and may in its Worship possibly swerve and depart from the pure Mind Word and Wisdom of God and laying this no less firmly as the foundation of his belief on the other hand viz. that the Scriptures cannot err nor can be other than unalterable and incorruptible Rule of Gods Law and of his will and mind to his people he cannot possibly hold the Authority of the Church to be Divine any further or otherwise than as it appears to be clearly grounded upon the Scripture as the word of God and consequently the tye or obligation which he hath to obey the Church so far as it relates to the Conscience and binds the Conscience ariseth out of no other ground than from the conformity which he seeth or is perswaded that the Church hath in her Laws Orders and Doctrines to the said Word and consequently if this conformity doth or shall once cease in the said Church a Protestant as a Protestant cannot but judge his tye or obligation to her as a Church ought to cease also with it And this being the true state of that Radical or Essential difference that is between the Principles of a Protestant and the Principles of a Papist as a Papist if a Church then that professeth her self to be a Protestant or the Clergy rather who are the Rulers properly of it shall not much consider or regard the justifying of what Laws and Orders she makes by the consonancy they expresly have to the Law or Mind of God in his Word which is his Rule to the Church nor shall much concern it self to clear and inforce the Faith and Doctrine which she holds by the evidence of its truth or by the authority of it as sufficiently grounded upon that word that is absolutely divine but shall on the contrary in whatsoever she commands or in the things she teacheth constrain and exact an obedience from her Members to her self and to her own Authority as absolute and as unsubordinate to the Word of God and therefore to her own Authority as it is a distinct thing from the said word that Church or the Clergy rather which are the Rulers of it so far as she doth this in any Doctrine or in any Law that she makes indispensible doth so far cease in her Principles and practice to be Protestant and doth so far disclaim not only a main and chief ground of her separation from the Church of Rome but the very Principle it self upon which she pretends to guide her self and justifie her self in her Reformation For if it cannot be denied that this was one main and great cause of our separation from the Church of Rome viz. because she had made her self and her Commands absolute and had set up an Authority in the matters of worship and faith above that of the Scripture as the word of God and secondly because she did not