Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	bear_v	law_n	witness_n	2,204	5	8.1383	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36078	A Discourse about conscience, relating to the present differences among us in opposition to both extreams of popery and fanaticism.		1684 (1684)	Wing D1568; ESTC R8393	25,645	43

A DISCOURSE ABOUT CONSCIENCE Relating to the Present Differences AMONG US In Opposition to both Extreams OF POPERY and FANATICISM LONDON Printed for William Crooke at the Green Dragon without Temple Bar next Devereux Court 1684. A DISCOURSE ABOUT CONSCIENCE c. THE Design of this short Discourse is to treat about the Nature and Office of Conscience how or in what respect it doth oblige which as it appears by the Practice of some Men laying Claim thereunto ha●h been either grosly mistaken or wilfully abused But be it either one way or other I am sure it has been made the common Cloak and Excuse for some of the greatest Disorders and unwarrantable Proceedings not only against the peaceable Communion of our Church but the legal and well-established Government of the State Now if these few Lines charitably offered may conduce any thing toward the rectifying of such Mistakes and consequently the preventing the like Abuses in any that are willing to be undeceived I have all the End I aim at if not I shall have however this Satisfaction that what I have here offered towards it is done with all the Kindness and Charity that possibly I could without betraying the Cause I have undertaken or doing Injury to that Church whose Communion I have here took Occasion to recommend and plead for And therefore without any tedious Preface or fruitless Apology I shall address my self to the Subject in hand and that in a very plain and impartial manner Now in my Discourse hereupon I shall shew you First What Conscience is or what is included in the Notion of it Secondly What it is to live up to Conscience Thirdly That notwithstanding Conscience by many persons pretending to it hath been and is still abused yet ought not to be neglected or laid aside Fourthly What things Conscience ought chiefly to be concerned for or exercised about Fifthly To offer a few things by way of Advice concerning the governing of our selves with relation to our Consciences From whence you may perceive that I intend to speak of Conscience not so much as it relates to Matters of Doctrine as to Matters of Practice not how it ought to form our Judgments and model our Opinions as how it ought to direct our Lives and govern our Actions which is much more necessary of the two 1. WHAT is meant by Conscience which is almost in every one's Mouth and hath created so much Noise and Bussle in the World Conscience is that Power or Faculty of the Mind which judges of our Actions according to a right Rule whether they be agreeable to it or not or 't is the reflex Act of our Reason and Understanding respecting the Goodness or Badness of our Actions so that Conscience is an Act of the Vnderstanding and but another Name for Reason 'T is Reason exercis'd about the Lawfulness or Unlawfulness of what we do or the Judgment of our Minds acquitting or condemning us in our own Thoughts In which Description of Conscience we may take Notice of these following things which enter the Definition and constitute the Nature of it First Conscience supposeth a Rule by which it ought to be directed and governed in all its Actings for Conscience is no Lordly nor Lawless Principle and therefore is not left at Liberty to think or do what it list to act rashly and at all Adventures No Conscience is under Authority and Restraint and ought to be kept within Bounds and not suffered to run out into an unaccountable Extravagancy or violent Extream to keep its Eye daily on the Rule and take Advice from thence in what it doth for God whose Will ought to be a Law in this Case and none else And that be sure is a Rule large enough for Conscience to walk by and which together with Judgment and Discretion in the Application thereof is sufficient to direct a Christian upon all occasions Secondly There must be a Knowledge of this Rule otherwise Conscience is not concern'd The very Notion of the Word according to the Letter and Derivation of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek and Conscientia in Latine imports as much There cannot be Conscientia without Scientia no Conscience without Knowledge If I am wholly ignorant of the Rule or Law 't is all one to me as if there were none at all and obligeth me no further than I have or may have any Knowledge or Information thereof in this Sence Quod non apparet non est 'T is all one not to be as not to appear so I must therefore know what my Duty is or what it is the Law requires of me before I can think my self obliged thereby and till I know it or have the Means of arriving at the Knowledge of it I lie under no Obligation from thence For a blind Man may with as much Reason be oblig'd to walk steadily in a streight Line or narrow Path tho he cannot see one Step of his way as that a man should be oblig'd in Conscience to any Law whereof he is totally ignorant or deprived of the means of knowing of it I speak here of invincible not affected Ignorance there being as much difference between them two as between natural and wilful Blindness between a man's having no Eyes at all and another that shuts them close and will not open or make use of them to see his way The former excuseth indeed but the later never did and never will For instance those miserably blind Heathen who sit in Darkness and see no Light who never heard of the Name of Christ nor once had the glad Tidings of Salvation preached unto them they are not bound to believe and embrace the Gospel under the Penalty of Damnation as we are who enjoy the means and daily sit under the joyful Sound thereof All that they are to do is to comply with the rational Dictates of their own Mind and conform to that part of the Divine Law which is written upon their Hearts and to live up to the light of natural Religion The ground or reason of which Hypothesis is taken from that of the Apostle Rom. 2.14 15. For when the Gentiles which have not the Law do by Nature the things contain'd in the Law these having not a Law are a Law unto themselves Which shews the work of the Law written in their Hearts their Consciences also bearing them Witness and their Thoughts in the mran time accusing or excusing one another Now according to this of the Apostle If the Gentiles do by Nature the things contain'd in the Law and their Consciences thereupon excuse and bear witness on their behalf as is here expresly affirm'd why should we be so uncharitable as to pass Sentence against those who are acquitted by their own Consciences or think that the Great and Good God who is the Maker of us all will be as partial and severe as we are wont to be in our Censures of them No for we are told in every Nation