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	transgression_n	2,525	5	10.8527	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25669	Antiquity reviv'd, or, The government of a certain island antiently call'd Astreada in reference to religion, policy, war and peace some hundreds of years before the coming of Christ.		1693 (1693)	Wing A3510; ESTC R19475	60,242	129

remov'd after the manner they determine from the visible corporeal World to another whose place they are not able to demonstrate otherwise than by an implicit Belief that goes farther with them than real Proof I cannot apprehend what Answer they 'd return unless they would ingeniously confess that they do not know nor can I guess on what they ground their Notion of transporting the Persons of all after death from one World to another pretended unless it be that they believe the compass of this World is not spacious enough to receive the vast numbers of both Sexes that is to say all that have and shall enter the Confines of Mortality by Death And I grant that it may be some Question whether the Terrestrial Globe be sufficiently large to give entertainment to all of humane Composition after living here or if room enough for them to move or stand foot by foot together But whether moving sitting standing or lying be the general suppos'd posture of such as by future Life shall reside in the Elisium Abodes is not derermin'd by your Grecian Dogmatists But as for the personal ●ppearance of every Individual of humane kind there I conceive they allow them to pass thither as naked as they first came to their Graves and Sepulchres And if they grant that bodily Organs are restor'd to both Sexes as they survive again I do not see how they can deny our corporeal Sense and Appetites in the Elisium they ordain Neith●r do I doubt but their Tenent is so indulgent to Beauty as to concede to Men and Women such a Renovation as may best refine the Splendors of their Youth and Features And who can question but this pleasant Imagination has proselited not a few especially the most delicate of both Sexes in all Ages Some I confess affirm That both Soul and Body shall not be only renovated but purified from the natural Passions and Affections that were theirs when earthly Inhabitants But how they can presume that humane Composition is capable of such a cleansing or refining in similitude to the practical effects of Fire or Water I do as little understand as they are able to inform me In sum concluded the Fidefendon We are not averse to any of the before recited Doctrines on the account that we would be thought to pretend to greater assurance by any Notions of our own that relate to future living in another World Be pleas'd therefore to take notice that we of this Island are no such Bigots for any Assertions of Belief that are rather problematical and discussive than evident to the understanding nothing being more fundamentally repugnant to our Creed than to intermix any dubious Conjectures with Maxims of our Faith much less impose th●m on others a precipitate hazard or Crime for which too many Religions are at this day accountable If Providence our familier and visible Director as has been enough instanc'd do's not perspicuously guide our Assents as far as the cursory Doctrines of others extend 't is they that dissent exorbitantly f●om us and not we from them and whosoever do's undertake to deliver Maxims of Faith less sensibly proceeding from the undoubted manifestation of Providence or less ocularly and rational●y certain than the order and conduct of ●he Universe in all respects must grant his Propositions as palpably deficient if compar'd with ours as the shadows of Night are to the Illuminations of the clearest Light And yet there is no Article of ●heir Worship that is evident to Sense nor any distribution of moral Virtue or sincere esteem of pious Conversation and Life that is not entirely embrac'd by us True it is that in the punishment nature and qualifications of Sin there may be some diversity betwixt their Tenents and the integrity and certainty of ours and the Reason is because they prescribe farther than their Understandings can accompany their Creeds Let this briefly be the Example We do not deny that after Death according to every desert of humane kind there shall be future Reward to the good in whatsoever excellency of Being the providential Disposer of all things has determin'd as likewise Infli●●ions on the evil Deeds and Impieties of others Which Doctrine is not asserted by us as a manifest Article of our Faith but as our comfortable hope and expectation of Felicity to come after our periods of living here But not having the same familiar and open prospect of Providence whereby we as palpably apprehend the place and manner of future Life as perspicuously as we behold the actual conduct and existence of the Universe in which we inhabit we do not dogmatically impose after their Model the belief of another World nor can any affirm that they have the emphatical and visible as●urance by any providential Operation or Object of a subsequent Being reserv'd ●or Mankind either in Soul or Body or in both conjoin'd to possess Neither do we said the Fidefendon as ● even now express'd in any kind re●ect the comfortable Opinion of future Felicity though we hold it not as equally convictive as we are sensible of the Providence that we are demonstratively oblig'd to reverence here in doing of which we do not infer that a Tenent may not be useful for Contemplation and Encouragement in order to the attaining of humane Perfection though it has no intelligible note or known assurance from proof However we are indubitably confirmed that all Wickedness is arraign'd by the discerning Tribunal that Con●cience does erect in every requisite understanding besides the publick and outward Ignomy that Laws inflict on enormous and presumptuous transgressions of Life and where there is sufficient capacity the sting of Sin must needs be grievous in the sense of the Offender as ●his inward Punishment and cause a deploring of his Guilt suitable to the natur● of his Crime But on the contraty where invincibl● Ignorance to scupidity prevails that th● Sinner is neither considerate or duly capacitated to penetrate his Offence h● may be notwithstanding held a legal Offender and punish'd as an Inconvenienc● and Scandal to civil Society according t● his Fact but cannot be deem'd intelligent of his Crime because every S●● ought to proceed from the guilt an● cause of the understanding To preve●● which Imbecillity and want of Consid●ration in the Soul we Fidefendons an● publickly ordain'd to stir up in the hea● a suitable inspection of Sin as also th● most thankful and devout returns to th● Supreme Providence from whose Benignity and merciful Effects we enjoy the comforts of Soul and Body And this is th● Summ of our Astreadan Belief and Worship The Philosopher told the Fidefendon tha● he had nothing to object against the natural and manifest way of Devotion whic● he had deliver'd as the common Persuasio● of his Nation And turning to the Astreada● Jussinedos or Magistrate there present he requested him to inform them briefly By what Political Rules or Measures the Government of that Island hath been so long happy in not

publick disgrace which proved a very effectual means of peace and security within our Nation far above the obliging the Allegiance of men by the engagement of an Oath however significantly intended to ascertain their duty It being notoriously known that where Subjects are factiously principled or antipathis'd to the rule they are under that they will have their Evasions Cavils and racite Reservations tho tied to the performance of their duty by the strongest knot the Law can produce in the form of swearing and who can doubt that such persons will not much rather venture the abusing of their Conscience as for their haughty ends and oblique interests they favour their opinions and practices or as they naturally incline to patronize the Reputation of their Alliances concenter with the Enormities of their Families and Kindred by owning of the same sinister designs and tenents than to undergo a visible Reproach that implies Shame to themselves and dearest Relations and no way to be prevented by intercession or the highest application that Money can advance And such was the constant Regard and Circumspection of our Government whereby the depraved politicks of men received the useful inflictions I have here noted which in future time produced the integrity that hath rendered our Monarchy great and prosperous 'T is not to be thought replied the Athenian Magistrate that any legitimate Gubernation should be destitute of right in order to discountenance and prevent such ante-political deeds and practices as are detrimental to civil Obedience and publick Tranquility And I do likewise readily condescend that if the Prudence incumbent on humane rule be judiciously and timely applied that it may sufficiently operate by allaying or extinguishing such maladies of State that are too pronely emergent and have not seldom a contagious transition as they are successively endeared and patronized by nearest Consanguinities insomuch that it has been thought rather a reputation vindicated to adhere to such maxims as have taint●d the Blood of nearest Relations than for their Offspring to mani●est by deeds that they are in soul separated from the evil opinions and facts of their Alliances from whence it often comes to pass as is manifest to experience that within the Bosom of the body politick are contained so many Hereditary Rebels and Traitors And tho I much value your Astreadan expedient yet I cannot but judge that it is something severe considering that it reflects on persons who may not have deserved it from the guilt of any overt-act It being very possible that ●any allied to such Criminals did not espouse the destructive prevarication of their Tenents and Offences on which ground I suppose there might encrease partialities and divisions amongst you however formerly suppressed by excluding at will of your supream Magistracy so many considerable of your people from being capable of any National Trust or Imployment as also to bear the figures of publick disgrace visible on their persons for no other reason but because they were the Heirs or Alliances of evil men until your State was perfectly satisfied of their future Fidelity And I assure you if you answer this Objection I shall readily embrace your Countrys Expedient as the most proper care that could be applied to rectifie the Principles of a corrupt or degenerate People True it is replied the Jassinedos that the Expedient was something disgusted at first tho not so considerably as to hinder the conveniency of its operation like men whose Pallates seem averse to the best of Physick until their tempers are aptly disposed to value the Remedy If other Principalities have fell short of our methods in securing publick Obedience either as they were satisfied by a cursory Oath of Allegiance occasionally administred oftner sworn than conscionably remembred and submitted to as it ought the trite and frequent abuse by which perverse Subjects too often mingled their tacite Reservations and Falacies contrary to the genuine sense of the solemn Asseveration they had made before the Eyes of Heaven and man a sophistry of swearing very incident to the Nature of some People whereby their Consciences stood prepared if occasion required to eject a precedent Oath that they might yield room to another in opposition to their former whensoever a change in State was promoted and welcomed by them which superlative evil the wisdom of our constituted Rule has in no small degree prevented as it does impede the descending malady of pernicious Tenents and Oppositions that by a dangerous commixture have at any time disturbed the due Repose of our Nation And what man can be so froward an Opiniator as to esteem it no requisite provision if to overawe and disgrace the impetuous transactions of precedent Offenders such outward reproach should be inflicted on their Issues and near Affinities that might visibly deter succeeding Generations from inheriting the Transgressions of their Predecessors and ●f the letter R signalized on their Habits shall ocularly imply as I formerly expressed the Renunciation of the Enormities of their Families it may well deserve to be so represented and doubtless the fear of personal Shame that bears a publick Remark when applied to the alliances and heirs of wicked Consanguinities has affected more as has been fully experienc'd by us than could be accomplis'd by the internal obligation of the Soul men being far more inclin'd to avoid the detriment and ignominies of their persons than to preserve the integrity of their Allegianc● tho strictly oblig'd by the solemnity of an Oath And whereas you seem'd to apprehend that the necessary correction in the method of our State of obliquities in the body politick as it reflected on the personal crimes of original transgressions in order to purge and vilifie their emanation in reference to their Allies and Successors might irritate and encrease the spreading of Factions Repinings and Tenents within our Soveraignty It was soon experimented by the diligence of our civil gubernation that the contagion of evil tenents partialities and sidings amongst us were by that means in a few years totally extinguish'd as to any prejudicial encrease or growth that could any ways redound from their contrivances neither was it necessary for the Prudence of our Government to inflict the animadversion and censure I have instanced on many persons of Men Families or Relations it being well discerned by our Monarchs that the eminent of Blood and Alliances are the most considerable Patronizers of such enormous Principles and designs as by their tendency and overt-acts most dangerously operate against common repose and safety and this you were pleased to concede as an evident inconvenience in your Athenian Republick where the supream in repute according to your acknowledgment had perniciously allur'd the factious compliance of subordinate Interests and I doubt not said the Jassinedos but the effects are the same in all Dominions And thus you may perceive how significantly the method of our cure tending to our body politick was adapted to such essentials within our civil Rule who