Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n
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A42813
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Essays on several important subjects in philosophy and religion by Joseph Glanvill ...
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Glanvill, Joseph, 1636-1680.
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1676
(1676)
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Wing G809; ESTC R22979
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236,661
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346
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they manag'd their Rebukes of these self-condemn'd men with much judgment and wit without any thing of fierceness or scurrility They shew'd them the Immorality of their spirit and it's contradictions and antipathy to the genius and temper of the Gospel and urged That though they hated debauchery and some gross Carnal sins as the Pharisees did the Publicans Yet they were given up to many other sorts of wickedness to spiritual Pride Malice Envy Avarice Stubbornness Disingenuity and Disobedience That they harbour'd and kept warm these under their pretences of Christs Righteousness and their specious forms of Godliness That though they were always confessing sin in the general with much seeming remorce and trouble of spirit yet they seldom or never made acknowledgements of these That though they lov'd to hear the sins of Drunkenness and Prophaneness vehemently declaim'd against Yet they could not endure to have these throughly detected and reprov'd That even their own Teachers durst not touch here and that when others did it though without naming parties or pointing out persons they call'd it Railing and Persecution and made no other use of those just rebukes That though they shew'd great seeming tenderness of Conscience in other smaller matters of Mint Annise and Cummin Yet they seldom appear'd sensible or troubl'd at their transgressions in those greater matters of the Law ANd because these people were always making complaints and sad moâ—…ns of their sins without endeavouring to amend Those Divines represented to them that such complaints were but forms and a fashion that they followed That sad looks and whinings were but a shew of Humility and Repentance That if they were sensible of their sins indeed they would use the Grace of God to overcome them till at last they arriv'd at victory and not still continue in a state of whimpering and complaining That these men cousened themselves into a false opinion of their penitence and were perswaded that this was enough without conquest and true reformation of heart and life that their remaining sins were but infirmities and the spots of Gods children which were covered with Christs Righteousness and not seen in the Elect By which they deluded themselves into dangerous presumption and security These our Divines endeavour'd to destroy and to pluck away the fig-leaves of all their false and imperfect marks of Godliness and shew'd that their usual complaints were but like the noise of Parrots without an inward sence That when men were only sensible and sorry they were yet but under the Law and a state of bondage That the Gospel aims at Liberty and Victory and that we are but just entred and are yet very imperfect till we have attain'd some considerable measure of that That the great mark of sincerity is to be proceeding and going forwards and towards the conquest of sinful habits and inclinations That we are not to look on these as failings and infirmities and so sit down contented with some tears and customary confessions under the power of them That Infirmities are but single acts and such too as have not the will in them That God hath afforded us sufficiency of means and helps enough to subdue all the evils of our natures and that if we neglect to use those aids and live at rest under any sinful appetites and passions we are Hypocrites and our boasted Faith and spiritualities will signify nothing to us HEre the Governour made a little stop and then said I have run over these things as they offer'd themselves to my mind I might have set them in a better order and have added many other particulars but as to method there is no great need of curiosity in it in such a relation By the things I have told you you may gather what was the Genius of those Divines in many others which for brevity I omit I said that though one might collect the opinion of many matters more by what he had been pleas'd to represent to me yet there were two things which I had a desire to be informed in further viz. Their Notion of Free Grace and Justification by Faith Their Doctrines about these answer'd He might in great part be gather'd from some of those principles I have mention'd but however I shall gratify you with a short account of them For Free Grace it was ever in the mouths of the Ataxites and they seem'd to be transported and ravish'd in the admiration of it But their notion was very perverse and false For they made it an arbitrary kindness bestow'd upon some very few persons for no reason in the world Not for the sake of any vertue or divine qualifications but only for meer uncountable will and pleasure And said That God from this Free Grace as they call'd it chang'd the hearts of the Elect by an immediate irresistible power and created Faith and other Graces in them in the same way of omnipotent operation Against these dangerous conceits they taught That God loves Vertue and Holiness and is no fond Respecter of Persons That those are the proper objects of his special kindness That there was a general Grace which had appear'd unto all men in the light of Reason the Laws written upon our hearts and common aids of the Spirit That it's freedom consisted in it's universal diffusion through the world without let or impediment and in the spontaneity of it This said he may seem somewhat a hard word but I have no plainer to express the fulness of my sense by and I never use a difficult term when the thing can be spoke as well in one that is more easie and familiar I answer'd that I understood it very well and that he meant that Gods Grace was willing and unforc'd flowing from the benignity of his nature still communicating it self to all Subjects that were capable You apprehend me right continued the Governour and thus he hath imparted himself to all Mankind But then added He There is a Grace more special that concerns Christians only without us the declaration of the Gospel and within us those divine vertues that are wrought by them and therefore call'd Graces He said The Gospel perswadeth without force and God works upon us by it in a way proper and sutable to reasonable Creatures by our Reasons and our Interests by our Hopes and our Fears assisting all good desires and endeavours by the operation of his holy Spirit This said he acts as a General Cause according to the dissposition of the Subject our endeavours would be weak and fruitless without it And yet It never works alone by meer omnipotence without our endeavours They operate in conjunction as the Sun and moysture of the earth and seminal principles do in the production of Plants and Flowers each cause doing what is proper to it The Dictates of the Spirit are contain'd in the Gospel and the Spirit enlightneth and teacheth by that And so he came to the great Doctrine of Justification by Faith Here he call'd to my mind
deduce some Corollaries that may be of use for the better understanding of the whole Matter 1. Reason is certain and infallible This follows from the state I gave of the Nature and Notion of Reason in the beginning It consists in First Principles and the Conclusions that are raised from them and the Observations of Sense Now first Principles are certain or nothing can be so for every possible Conclusion must be drawn from those or by their help and every Article of Faith supposeth them And for the Propositions that arise from those certain Principles they are certain likewise For nothing can follow from Truth but Truth in the longest Series of Deduction If Error creep in there is ill consequence in the case And the sort of Conclusions that arise from the Observations of Sense if the Sense be rightly circumstantiated and the Inference rightly made are certain also For if our Senses in all their due Circumstances deceive us All is a delusion and we are sure of nothing But we know that first Principles are certain and that our Senses do not deceive us because God that bestowed them upon us is True and Good and we are as much assured that whatever we duly conclude from either of them is certain because whatever is drawn from any Principle was virtually contained in it 2. I infer That Reason is in a sense the Word of God viz. That which he hath written upon our Minds and Hearts as Scripture is that which is written in a Book The former is the Word whereby he hath spoken to all Mankind the latter is that whereby he hath declared his Will to the Church and his peculiar People Reason is that Candle of the Lord of which Solomon speaks Prov. 20. 27. That Light whereby Christ hath enlightned every one that cometh into the World John 1. 9. And that Law whereby the Consciences of the Heathen either accuse or excuse one another Rom. 2. 15. So that Hierocles spoke well when he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be perswaded by God and right Reason is one and the same thing And Luther called Philosophy within its own bounds The Truth of God 3. The belief of our Reason is an Exercise of Faith and Faith is an Act of Reason The former part is clear from the last Particular and we believe our Reasons because we have them from God who cannot mistake and will not deceive So that relying on them in things clearly perceived is trust in God's veracity and goodness and that is an exercise of Faith Thus Luke 12. The not belief of Reason that suggests from God's clothing the Lillies that He will provide for us is made by our Saviour a defect of Faith Vers. 28. O ye of little Faith And for the other part that Faith is an Act of Reason that is evident also For 'T is the highest Reason to believe in God revealing 4. No Principle of Reason contradicts any Articles of Faith This follows upon the whole Faith befriends Reason and Reason serves Religion and therefore they cannot clash They are both certain both the Truths of God and one Truth doth not interfere with another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle Truth agrees with all things that are Whatsoever contradicts Faith is opposite to Reason for 't is a Fundamental Principle of that That God is to be believed Indeed sometimes there is a seeming contradiction between them But then either something is taken for Faith that is but Phansie or something for Reason that is but Sophistry or the supposed contradiction is an Error and Mistake 5. When any thing is pretended from Reason against any Article of Faith we ought not to cut the Knot by denying Reason but endeavour to unite it by answering the Argument and 't is certain it may be fairly answered For all Hereticks argue either from false Principles or fallaciously conclude from true ones So that our Faith is to be defended not by declaiming against Reason in such a case which strengthens the Enemy and to the great prejudice of Religion allows Reason on his side But we must endeavour to defend it either by discovering the falshood of the Principles he useth in the name of Reason or the ill Consequence which he calls Proof 6. When any thing is offered us for an Article of Faith that seems to contradict Reason we ought to see that there be good cause to believe that this is divinely revealed and in the sense propounded If it be we may be assured from the former Aphorisms that the Contradiction is but an Appearance and it may be discovered to be so But if the Contradiction be real This can be no Article of Revelation or the Revelation hath not this sense For God cannot be the Author of Contradictions and we have seen that Reason as well as Faith is his I mean the Principles of Natural Truth as well as those of Revelation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faith Aristotle Truth is throughout contrary to falshood and what is true in Divinity cannot be false in Reason 'T is said indeed in the Talmud If two Rabbins differ in Contradictories yet both have their Opinions from Moses and from God But we are not obliged to such an irrational kind of Faith And ought not to receive any thing as an Article of it in a sense that palpably contradicts Reason no more than we may receive any sense that contradicts the direct Scriptures Faith and Reason accord as well as the Old Testament and the New and the Analogy of Reason is to be heeded also because even that is Divine and Sacred 7. There is nothing that God hath revealed to oblige our Faith but he hath given us reason to believe that he hath revealed it For though the thing be never so clearly told me if I have not reason to think that God is the Revealer of what is so declared I am not bound to believe it except there be evidence in the thing it self For 't is not Faith but vain credulity to believe every thing that pretends to be from God So that we ought to ask our selves a Reason why we believe the Scripture to be the Revelation of God's Will and ought not to assent to any sense put upon it till we have ground to think that that sense is his mind I say we must have ground either from our particular Reasons or the Authority of the Church otherwise our Faith is vain Credulity and not Faith in God 8. A Man may hold an erroneous Opinion from a mistaken sense of Scripture and deny what is the truth of the Proposition and what is the right meaning of the Text and yet not err in Faith For Faith is a belief of God revealing And if God have not so revealed this or that as to give us certain ground to believe this to be his sense he hath not sufficiently revealed it to oblige our Faith So that though I deny such or such a sense while I believe