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
A76116	The civil magistrates coercive power in religious matters asserted, in a sermon [on Matt. vii. 12] preached at the assizes at Hertford, March the 7th, 1683/4 by Ralph Battel ...	Battell, Ralph, 1649-1713.	1684 (1684)	Wing B1148A; ESTC R209185	11,968	32

to themselves in all things relating to Religion at least whatever Laws are made about other things But I hope I shall be able to Justifie our Governours as to that point also and shew that nothing is done by them but what may both Religiously and Lawfully be put in practice any thing in this Rule of the Text notwithstanding The Excellent Lord Verulam observed long ago in his Essays That as a Wound or the Solution of Continuity as he calls it is more dangerous to the Natural Body than a corrupt Humour so are Schisms and Factions to the Body Politick Other Vices may indeed call down a Judgment from above upon any Government that shall indulge and tolerate them but these do nothing else here below but contrive continually how to Subvert and Undermine all Government and yet the Mystery is that they who are this way most concern'd are for the King all this while or would be thought to be so even just as some Practical Atheists do upon occasion sometimes own Religion with their Mouths and yet deny it daily in all their Actions so these men are for the King too in their pretensions and yet Oppose him in all his Measures in all his Friends and in all his Interests And now does this look so much like Religion as perfect Combination against the Government which indeed they have awakened to defend it self against their restlesness by the seasonable Execution of Laws which is nothing but what is Just and Reasonable no ways transgressing this Rule of my Text but rather Prudently exerting it no ways bordering upon Persecution or Irreligion but tending to confirm and strengthen the true Church of God For that Hereticks and Schismaticks ought to be restrained by the Temporal Powers is nothing but what is First Founded in Reason Secondly May be proved from Scripture Thirdly Agrees with Practice of Antiquity First It is founded in Reason That the Supream Temporal Power should have a right to suppress all the Errours in Religion for else they would be defective in a necessary part of their Life and Constitution it were otherwise impossible to hold the Rein steddy or keep the People in due Subjection For whatever other bonds of Government there may be there is none so good as Religion and if you cannot prevail with men to be subject for Conscience sake as well as for Fear i. e. for fear of Men It will be hard to lay the Foundations of a lasting Peace in any Place where there are either Bold or Ambitious or Politick Men to be found And so by consequence there would be no Government upon Earth but what would be as changeable as the Winds and Seas with which the Psalmist sometimes conjoyns the Madness of the People Ps 65.7 Again as Religion is the best Bond of Government so the Pretence of it is also the most Fatal and Ruinous to every Community or Society no Commotions in the Common Wealth are so Sharp so Dangerous and so Intestine as those that are set a Foot under the Colour of Religion almost all Ages and Places would afford us Examples of this Nature but I need not go beyond the bounds of our own Time and Country for them we our selves have seen one of the most Unnatural and Bloody Wars that ever was in the World begun carrried on and by Gods Permission as a Punishment for our Sins Crowned with Success and all under the Banner of Hypocrisie entitled Religion or the Devil transformed into an Angel of Light And is it not then needful that the Magistrate should have a Right to suppress the Pernicious Doctrines of Atheists or Hypocrites and Enthusiasts pretending to Religion to the disturbance of Humane Society and to withold or reclaim such as they would otherwise continually seduce But should not Religion be our Voluntary Service does not God require the Heart and where that is wanting is it any better than Hypocrisie This may be granted and more also and yet the Truth of what I have asserted will stand firm 'T is true indeed that Religion is of no Value unless it be sincere yea it is farther true that Religion properly speaking cannot be forced that is to say as to its inward Act and it were vain and foollish for any one to attempt to go about it by Pure and meer Compulsion but yet will it not follow that all Compulsion in order to Religion is either Unprofitable or Unlawful for Opportunity and the use of Means do many times prevail at length to perform what they could not bring about at first And 't is both Prudent and Reasonable that Men should be brought to use such Means as may inform them and bring them out of Error And I am confident that there are many Thousands in this Realm that owe their Separation from the Church of England to nothing else but the Neglect of Hearing what they might hear and learning what they might be taught which Lessons if received with a Meek and Humble Heart might be an effectual means to bring them into the Bosom of the Church again But oh will you force the Conscience is not every man obliged to follow that and does not he sin that transgresseth its Dictates at any time Granting this to be also true that every man sins who does not follow his Conscience I moreover assert that every man sins who follows it in Opposition to the Law of God or to the Law of Man when it commands nothing that is Opposite to the Law of God And therefore they who transgress the Publick Injunctions of the Magistrate upon suspicion only of Evil are taken in their own Fear and certainly do Evil in endeavouring to avoid it if it be so that 't is really a Scruple of Conscience and not a stubbornness in their Will that is the ground of their Disobedience And therefore if the Magistrate compel an Erroneous Conscience in this Case so far as to make it Enquire and Learn better what it ought to Believe and Practise 't is no less than a great Piece of Charity in him for he only forces the Man out of a perplexity which if he escape by this means he is free from the Snare of Sin but if he escape not he is in no worse Condition than he was before Secondly As Reason requires this so the Scripture both by Examples and Precepts sets forth the fitness of some restraints in these Cases Nebuchadnezzer when he was converted by the Miraculous escape of the Three Children out of the Fiery Furnace Dan. 3.29 made a Law that every People Nation and Language that should speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrack Mesheck and Abednego should be cut in pieces and their houses made a dunghil This was a high Punishment but so was the Offence ye will say even Blasphemy against God I shall mention some of a lesser Degree We read of Artaxerxes Ezra 7.26.27 and the Text tells us that God put it into his

in Prudence might desire to be done by when he applies the most Proper Remedy to the Distemper for many will hearken to the Rod that would not have listned to the Instruction although seven wise men should have render'd a Reason Especially such as act out of Interest more than Conscience and there has been we all know I wish I could say that there were not still a Party in the Land that carry on their Designs by Masks of Piety and Shews of Religion a forni of godliness without the power Grace without Morality or at best a zeal without knowledge Let not us imitate them in these but if we are Wise let us learn Diligence from them in our Honest Undertakings Alas must I say it we want Activity we want Zeal we trust a Cause and we trust a Religion that God will defend his Church and preserve our King and truly so he has hitherto done by Miracle but we must take heed how we tempt Providence by the neglect of ordinary means lest if Industry forsake us success do also fail for usually those two go together And 't is pity it should always be seen that the Children of this World are Wiser in their Generation than the Children of Light I speak not this with the least thought of a reflection upon the Honourable Judges or other Subordinate Ministers of Justice here present whose endeavours have been constant and uninterrupted in the Service of their King and Country but I speak to excite others to become Imitators of their Steddiness and in their several capacities to be Active and Faithful true to the King true to the Laws true to their Oaths and true to their own Consciences and if all men in any Publick Employ would be but thus far careful it would by the Grace of God put an end at length to such Boutefeus in Church and State as turn Religion into Rebellion and Faith into Faction which have now for above these Hundred Years some or more of them infested this Realm that what neither the length of time or the indulgence of our Kings or the industry of the Regular Pastors has been able to bring to pass the wholsom Execution of Laws might perfect and consummate 'T is not the Punishment that makes the Martyr but the Cause was long ago truly said and no man is now required by the Law to deny God to Burn his Bible or to do Sacrifice to Idols as in the Primitive Persecutions And the Government may truly wash it's Hands and say with St. Peter who is he that will harm you if you be followers of that which is good But if any man will suffer as an evil doer or as a busy body in other mens matters who will have Reason to pity him Much less since the late Horrid Fanatical Conspiracy has surely opened every Eye that was not before wilfully closed so as to make it see the danger of tolerating any such Religion in the State whose very Principles do abet and encourage Rebellion as I am sure the greatest Part of our Protestant Recusants if not all of them do as much as those of the Jesuited Romanists But can that be True Religion that teaches Resistance to Lawful Powers no it is as impossible as it would have been for Christ who was all Suffering to have held Communion with Belial who is so called because he would be without Yoak Consider then Gentlemen this Rule in the Text and apply it to all it 's due applications 't is a large and an extensive Rule it takes in all Orders and Degrees of Men yea it concerns not only time present but it has an Eye to Generations yet to come Consider and let it make you first to do by the King as Reason will tell you every good Subject ought to do assist to the uttermost in the Execution of his Laws and in the Defence of his Majesties Person and all his Just Prerogatives against the Turbulent and Seditious Let it make you do by your Country what is the Part of true Patriots and not of Popular pretending ones study to quiet and appease the least Fermentations in the minds of the Heady People and quash the first tendencies to Faction but not stand at the Helm and Steer or give Aim as it were to them who of themselves are already too much given to Change Let it make you do by your selves according to the Prime Law of Nature endeavour by your Vigilance and Prudence to preserve those Lives which his Majesty in his Declaration tells you were not long since designed for a Massacre Let it make you do by Posterity what they may also justly claim transmit to them the Rights and Libertys of English Free-born Subjects which Rebellion has ever invaded when it most pretended to assert And the soberly Reformed Protestant Religion which the Schism has ever dishonour'd when it most pretended to Profess But this indeed is Gods Work yours only the endeavour Let us therefore Pray unto him that he will preserve our Church and King that the Gates of Hell may never prevail against the one And that neither the Counsels of any State Achitophel or the Rebellion of an Absalom or the Maledictions of a Shimei may ever prosper against the other Which God of his Infinite Mercy grant through the Merits of his Son Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and Holy Spirit be ascribed all Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen FINIS