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	sin_n	transgress_v	1,751	5	11.5774	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01804	The succession of the bishops of England since the first planting of Christian religion in this island together with the historie of their liues and memorable actions faithfully gathered out of the monuments of antiquity. VVhereunto is prefixed a discourse concerning the first conuersion of our Britaine vnto Christian religion. By Francis Godwin now Bishop of Hereford.; Catalogue of the bishops of England	Godwin, Francis, 1562-1633.	1625 (1625)	STC 11939; ESTC S105686	74,779	749

the 5. verse he goes to view the Rules I will get me to the great men for these have knowne the way of the Lord and when he saw that these had broken the bands then how shall I pardon thee for this So is it in his judgement towards a particular man when God lookes downe upon a man and sees him in his courses exceeding loose and wicked hee lookes first upon those rude affections in him which are uncleane profane debaucht greedy of all wickednesse Ay but sayes he these are foolish of themselves but I will looke upon his understanding and upon the superiour faculties which are the guides of these affections and see what they dictate to these unruly affections to restraine them And when he findes that the guides themselves are enlightned and have knowne the way of the Lord and that the will and the affections though informed with much knowledge yet break all bands then how shall I pardon thee Thee who art a knowing drunkard and a knowing unclean person c. so as thus to sin aggravates and maketh sin out of measure sinfull Now that knowledge and reason is a mans guide will further appeare by this That even erroneous knowledge doth put an obligation a bond and a tye upon a man which can be in no other respect but because knowledge is appointed to be a mans guide Thus if a man thinkes a thing which is in it selfe common and indifferent to be a sinne and forbidden as Rom. 14. 4. although the Law forbids it not yet to him it is uncleane though in Christ it is not uncleane that is by the Law of Christ For this his knowledge and judgement of the thing hath to him the force of a Law for it propounds it to him as a Law and as from God which reason of his God hath appointed as his immediate guide and the will is to follow nothing that is evill which is represented to it as evill this is the Law of meere nature in all conditions therefore if a man should doe an action which is in it self good if he thought it to be evill he should sinne and so è contra for he goes against the dictate of nature So that erroneous knowledge though against the Law is a law to me though not per se yet per accidens Now therefore if to go against a false light of conscience be yet a sinne though it proves that the commandement allowes the thing was done and was for it then to go against the true light of the Law how sinfull is it Againe thirdly the knowledge of the law binds the person so much the more to obedience by how much the more he knowes it so as though it would be a sinne when he knowes not the Law to transgresse it yet when he knowes it it is a greater sinne 'T is true indeed that conscience and the Law when they meet make up but one Law not two distinct Laws and therefore in sinning against knowledge though a man doth not commit two distinct sinnes yet the knowledge of it doth adde a further degree of sinfulnesse to it As a cloath is the same cloath when it is white that it was when it is dyed with a scarlet dye yet then it hath a dye a tincture given it which is more worth than the cloath and so when you sinne not knowing the Law the sin is the same for substance it would be if you had known it yet that knowledge dyes it makes it a scarlet sinne as Esay speaks farre greater and deeper in demerit than the sinne it selfe and the ground of this is because Lawes then come to be in force when they are promulged and made known so as the more they are promulged and knowne the more is the force of their binding and so the greater guilt Therefore Deut. 11. 12. 3. 8. God straitens the cords more the binding force of the law more upon those Jewes consciences to whom he at the first personally with majesty had promulgated it than upon their children though upon theirs also Now if all Gods Lawes being made knowne to Adam binde us and are in force and this when we know them not then if we do know them or might know them they binde much more and still the more clearely wee know them the obligation increaseth and the guilt insuing with it and the rather because now when wee come to know them they are anew promulged in a way of a peculiar mercie wee having defaced the knowledge of them in our fall Fourthly when the Law being knowne is broken there is the more contempt cast upon the Law and the Law-giver also and so a higher degree of sinning And therefore Numbers 15. 30. He that sinnes out of knowledge is said to reproach the Lord and to despise the word And therefore Saul sinning against knowledge Samuel calleth it rebellion and though it were but in a small thing yet he parallels it with witchcraft So also Iob 24. 13. they are said to rebell when they sinne against light because rebellion is added to disobedience For knowledge is an Officer set to see the Law executed and fulfilled and makes God present to the conscience Therefore Rom. 2. 14. it is called a witnesse and therefore in sinning against knowledge men are said to sinne before the face of the Lord himselfe now what a great contempt is that Therefore also Psal 50. the hypocrite sinning against knowledge is said to cast the law of God behind his back so as there is a contempt in this sinning which is in no other Fiftly the more knowledge a man sinneth against the more the will of the sinner is discovered to be for sinne as sinne Now voluntarium est regula mensur a actionum moralium willingnesse in sinning is the standard and measure of sinnes The lesse will the lesse sinne so much is cut off the lesse the will closeth with it at least wise so much is added by how much the will is more in it and therefore the highest degree of sinning is exprest to us by sinning willingly and this after knowledge Heb. 10. Now though an ignorant man commits the act as willingly as when Paul persecuted the Church yet he commits it not considered as sinne till he hath the knowledge of it but then when it is discovered to be sinne and the more clearely it is so discovered the will may be said to joyn with it as sinne Therefore the Apostle sayes To him that knowes to doe well and doth it not to him it is sinne Iames 4. 17. because by his knowledge the thing is represented as sinne and so he closeth with it the more under that notion and apprehension Sixtly in sinning against knowledge a man condemns himselfe but when out of ignorance meerely the Law onely doth condemne him So Rom. 2. 1. A man having knowledge in that wherein hee judgeth another he condemneth himselfe So Rom. 14. Now as self-murder is

good pretences to cover their sins and dissemble them not onely by finding out some cunning artificiall colour as David did in the matter of Vriah Chance of warre sayes he falls to all alike but when men are so impudently hypocriticall as to make use of religious pretexts as the Devill sometimes doth as Saul who pretends to Samuel I have done the will of the Lord and when Samuel told him of the cattell oh sayes he they are for a sacrifice when God had expresly commanded to kill them all But this shift shifted him out of his Kingdome Samuel pronounceth him a rebell in it Rebellion is sinne against knowledge therefore he knew it Thus also Iezabel coloured over the stoning of Naboth with a solemne fast So Iudas fisheth for money with a charitable pretence This might have beene sold and given to the poore In sins against knowledge usually the mind indevours to find out a colour and that provokes God more than the sinne because we goe about to mock him We see men cannot endure a shift much lesse the All-knowing God not to be mocked and we see it is hard to convince such an one David was faine to be brought to the rack ere he would confesse when he had a shift and men doe seeke such shifts onely in case of sinning against conscience for else there were no need they would be sure to plead ignorance as Abimelech did Secondly when men neglect the getting and obtaining of knowledge which knowledge might keep hinder them frō sinning and might make them expert in duties This is as much as to sin against knowledge although the sins be committed out of ignorance yet that ignorance being through their owne default it comes all to one when it may be said of men as the Apostle doth of the Hebrewes Chap. 5. 12. That for the time they have had to learn they might have beene teachers they had yet need be taught againe the first principles If a man had an Apprentice who through negligence and want of heeding and observing what hee daily sees and heares about his trade might have got for his time much knowledge in his trade whereby he might have saved his master much which hee now hath lost him and rid and perfected much worke hee daily spoiles him such carelesse blockish ignorance it is just for his master to correct him for and to charge on him all that waste and losse because he might have knowne how to have done better And therefore even they who thought ignorance in it selfe no sin wherein they erred yet the neglect of knowledge upon this very ground they thought a great sinne and that it would be so farre from excusing sinnes as that it would aggravate them So here we see these Gentiles shall not onely be reckoned with for the actuall knowledge they had attained to and sinned against but also for what they might have had and have picked out of the creatures For so the Apostle brings in this here in the 20. verse that the power of God being cleerly seen in the creatures they neglecting to spell and reade it so much knowledg as they might have got God will reckon to them and aggravate their sins by Thirdly which is yet much worse when men refuse knowledge that they may sinne the more freely and doe stop the eare lest they should be charmed As when men are loath and afraid and dare not reade such a booke as discovers or might discover that truth to them the submission to which would prejudice them and this to the end that they may plead ignorance of their sinne Thus also those that assent not to truth when it comes in strongly upon them but seek to evade it But 1 Cor. 14. 38. when the Apostle had cleerely discovered the truth in those things controverted so as who ever was spirituall or not fully blind might see and would acknowledge the truth then he shuts up his discourse about them ver 27. If any be ignorant let him be ignorant for it is wilfull it is affected hee speakes it as elsewhere Revel last it is said He that is unjust let him be unjust still that is hee that will be unjust and refuseth to turne let him goe on This is a great sinne for God you see gives such a man over one that is but neglectfull or dull of capacity God will take paines with him to teach him and beare with him as Christ did with his Disciples but if he be wilfully ignorant he lets him die in his ignorance and yet will reckon with him as if all his sinnes had beene committed against knowledge because hee refused to know The fourth is to hate the light and to endevour to extinguish it This is yet much worse when men hate the Word and the Ministers of it the examples of Gods people and the light they carry with them they shining as lights in a crooked generation Phil. 2. 15. and yet they hate these as theeves doe a torch in the night and fly against the light as batts doe and as the Iewes did Iohn 3. 20. This Christ sayes is the great condemning sinne of all others So these Gentiles put Socrates to death for reproving them And thus men sinne also when they labour to extinguish the light in their owne consciences and like not to retaine God in their knowledge verse 28. but would studie the art of forgetfulnesse When men have put the candle out and drawne the curtaines that they may sinne and sleepe in sin more freely and securely Thus those also sin in a higher measure who have had a cleare conviction that they ought to be thus strict and ought to sanctifie the Lords day and pray privately but now have lost this light and think they need not be so strict when men continue not in what they were once assured of as the Apostle speaks 2 Tim. 3. 14. these sinne against their knowledge and are the worst of such sinners and this estate Aristotle himselfe makes statum maligni the state of a wicked one namely when the sparkes of light are extinguisht or hated For when any mans light is lost and turned into darknesse by sinning then as Christ sayes how great is that darknesse When good lawes are not onely not enacted and embraced but repealed also it is Aristotles similitude to distinguish an incontinent person and a wicked man this is an high kind of sinning So of these Gentiles it is said their foolish heart was darkned they had extinguisht some of that light God gave them As some drink away their wits so some sin away their consciences and thus by degrees they first sinne away the light of the word they had as they in Iude who were religious once and then they quench even that little sparke of nature that is left Also verse 10. corrupting themselves in what they know naturally Fiftly Men sinne against knowledge yet worse when they hold opinion against their knowledge So