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
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A38477 The English Presbyterian and Independent reconciled Setting forth the small ground of difference between them both. An English gentleman, a well-willer to the peace of his country. 1656 (1656) Wing E3113A; ESTC R220208 74,553 124

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

hands and hearts of all men against them but that the Persons and Estates of such of the Lords as have assisted the Court of Parliament in the time of their extremities may hence be preserved from ruine which in case the Enemy should get the upper hand they must be subject to and cannot therefore in their serious and prudent thoughts but confesse that Safety and Preservation are as valuable as Order or Honour is Did the Engagement crosse the above-named Oaths the Refuser might plead the tendernes of his Conscience that having taken those Oaths which to his present judgement doth deter him from subscribing to the Engagement he cannot without dispencing with his Conscience so subscribe The Subscriber from the tendernesse of his observes and builds on the Apostles precepts Let every Soule be subject to the higher Powers againe submit unto every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake he holds withall Gratitude to be a morall act of Conscience and therefore thinks he may nay that he is bound to promise fidelity to the Power from whence be receives protection and enjoyes his safety so it seems strange that amongst men of the same uprightnes and integrity many of either party being conscientious and honest men one Party should Take another should Refuse and that the same guide of Conscience conversing about the selfe same object should tend and lead to contrary Ends and Actions Conscience is a certain and uniform habit of the mind of man and therefore cannot erre in a contrary Diameter as at the first entrance into this Warre the Kings Party did pursue their Cause as the Parliament did theirs each of them imploring Gods blessing according to the Iustnesse and Righteousnesse thereof which could not be Iust on ether part when their undertakings were contrary and crosse each to other It seems as strange that divers of either party acknowledging Gods Goodnesse trusting on his help should from contrariety of judgments and Courses each to other hope to succeed in that they expect from him a blessing upon their endeavourings he is the same knowes no change nor faileth them who trust in him none so wicked but will confesse that he is good and gracious but for any to expect that through his blessing through his goodnesse which they take not the proper course for in Prudence Sobriety and obedience or faile in that which he hath ordeyned for conveying unto us what we look for at his hands it is rather a tempting then a trusting on him Conscience else may be defined a perswasion of the mind that such or such a thing is sinne that therefore we are unwilling and afraid to commit the same for feare of displeasing a great and all-seeing Majesty sinne is a transgression of the morall Law subscribing is no breach of it the act of Subscribing or not subscribing may proceed from a disposition or indisposition to do or refuse what our will doth prompt us unto Neither is it so much Conscience in the Taker and Refuser both in respect of some t is to be feared a Passion or selfe wilfull humour governed and directed by a carnall and selfeseeking policy neither is it a matter of small difficulty to distinguish betweene the Naturall and Spirituall inclinations of a man It is not betweene Taking and not Taking the Engagement amongst us as betweene Eating and not Eating meats amongst the Christian Romans where as to the Eating and not Eating the Aposte judgeth it a matter of indifferency as to them that were so divided concerning meates and thereupon ordereth Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not which he doth to take away the occasion of secondary differences which might grow betwixt them to preserve the common Peace to take away all scandall and division there was nothing there enjoyned as to the Eating or Abstaining from Eating It is not so between Submitting and not Submitting unto Authority as to the Lawes and Policies of a Commonwealth for whereas submission to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake is required and here the Powers that be enjoyne the same Obedience being a conscientious Duty better then Sacrifice the indifferency seems to cease and is become a duty and there the Conscience swayes the ballance rather unto that side which obeyes then unto that which resists Authority so the continuation of the quarrell rests in subjection on the one hand to in resisting on the other hand the higher Powers the process of this War lies on their score and theirs alone who when they have erred and are convinced shall not acknowledge and retract their errour which can be no injury or disrepute to the sober and lowly minded The wisest of * Philosophers maintaines that no injury can befall a wise man his stout and resolved heart keeps off the sto●ms of Calumny when weaker ones do feare and shrinke under every gust of reproach and censure so that if the convicted Party shall redeem their errour by confessing it the vanquishing forbeare to glory as some have over-hastily boasted in their extraordinary successe of a finite uncertaine and vanishing condition ſ rather then in the Equity and Iustice of their Cause of a more durable and lasting station t Or in the flattering and pleasing our selves with the divisions falling out amidst our enemies abroad concerning their Counsells and Commands rather in studying to compose and reconcile our own at home the Warre might soon be ended and the God of Peace own us as of the Number of those unto whom he hath promised * the Blessing of Peace FINIS a In the Meditation upon the second Treatise in the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} b Proverb c See the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ☞ * Edw. 3. cap. 25. d With swords girt on their sides c. See the form of the Writ in the Crown Office e Mr. Lambard in his Eirenarch lib. 1. cap. 6. f See his Answ to a Declaration sent from both Houses May 1642 g See the two Declarations entituled The Declarations of the Lords and Commons of Parliament assembled at O●ford with the specious Frontispices of The One Touching a Treaty Other Concerning their endeavors for Peace Print March 1643. h In his Declaration concerning his proceedings with his Subjects of Scotland since the Pacification in the Camp near Berwick Printed 1640 pag. 38. i Namely in that Recorded in the Chronicle of Richard Earle of Warwick his Answer unto King Henry the 6th who directing His Privy-Seal to discharge him of his Governourship of Callis the Earle refused alleging That it was granted him by Parliament Whereunto if it be answered That that might be a personall Contumacy in the Earl nothing proving the validity of that Court the reply may be That the Authority of Parliament hath been of so large an extent That some Kings of this Realm have been by Act of Parliament confirmed as Edw. the 4th Some with their Wife and Issue dis-inherited