work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
3617,"",Reading,2010-01-12 18:29:20 UTC,"10. Now there are two ways by which God reigns in the mind of a man, 1. Faith, and, 2. Conscience. Faith contains all the treasures of Divine knowledge and speculation. Conscience is the treasury of Divine commandments and rules in practical things. Faith tells us why; Conscience tells us what we are to do. Faith is the measure of our perswasions; Conscience is the measure of our Actions. And as faith is a gift of God, so is Conscience; that is, as the understanding of a man is taught by the Spirit of God in Scripture, what to believe, how to distinguish truth from errors; so is the Conscience instructed to distinguish good and evil, how to please God, how to do justice and charity to our neighbour, and how to treat our selves; so that when the revelations of Christ and the Commandments of God are fully recorded in our minds, then we are perfectly instructed to every good work.
(p. 4)",,17661,"","""Now there are two ways by which God reigns in the mind of a man, 1. Faith, and, 2. Conscience.""","",2010-01-12 18:29:20 UTC,"Book I, Chapter I"
3617,"",Reading,2010-01-12 18:48:44 UTC,"12. Conscience relies not at all upon the will directly. For though a Conscience is good or bad, pure or impure; and so the Doctors of Mystic Theologie divide and handle it, yet a conscience is not made so by the will, formally, but by the understanding. For that is a good conscience, which is rightly taught in the word of life ; that is impure and defiled, which hath entertained evil and ungodly principles; such is theirs, who follow false lights, evil teachers, men of corrupt minds. For the conscience is a Judge and a Guide, a Monitor and a Witness, which are the offices of the knowing, not of the chusing faculty. Spiritum, correctorem, & paedagogum anima, so Origen calls it. The instructor of the Soul, the spirit, the corrector. Naturale judicatorium,
or naturalis vis judicandi, so S. Basil. The natural
power of judging, or natures judgment-seat. Lucem
intellectus nostri, so Damascen calls it, The light of our
understanding. The conscience does accuse or excuse a man before God, which the will cannot. If it could, we should all stand upright at doomesday, or at least those would be acquitted, who fain would do well, but miss, who
do the things they love not, and love those they do not; that is, they who strive to enter in, but shall not be able. But to accuse or excuse is the office of a faculty which can neither will nor chuse, that is, of the conscience, which is properly a record, a book, and a judgment-seat.
(p. 4)",,17664,"","""For the conscience is a Judge and a Guide, a Monitor and a Witness, which are the offices of the knowing, not of the chusing faculty.""","",2010-01-12 18:49:16 UTC,"Book I, Chapter I"
3617,"",Reading,2010-01-12 18:51:14 UTC,"12. Conscience relies not at all upon the will directly. For though a Conscience is good or bad, pure or impure; and so the Doctors of Mystic Theologie divide and handle it, yet a conscience is not made so by the will, formally, but by the understanding. For that is a good conscience, which is rightly taught in the word of life ; that is impure and defiled, which hath entertained evil and ungodly principles; such is theirs, who follow false lights, evil teachers, men of corrupt minds. For the conscience is a Judge and a Guide, a Monitor and a Witness, which are the offices of the knowing, not of the chusing faculty. Spiritum, correctorem, & paedagogum anima, so Origen calls it. The instructor of the Soul, the spirit, the corrector. Naturale judicatorium,
or naturalis vis judicandi, so S. Basil. The natural
power of judging, or natures judgment-seat. Lucem
intellectus nostri, so Damascen calls it, The light of our
understanding. The conscience does accuse or excuse a man before God, which the will cannot. If it could, we should all stand upright at doomesday, or at least those would be acquitted, who fain would do well, but miss, who
do the things they love not, and love those they do not; that is, they who strive to enter in, but shall not be able. But to accuse or excuse is the office of a faculty which can neither will nor chuse, that is, of the conscience, which is properly a record, a book, and a judgment-seat.
(p. 4)",,17665,"","""But to accuse or excuse is the office of a faculty which can neither will nor chuse, that is, of the conscience, which is properly a record, a book, and a judgment-seat.""","",2010-01-12 18:51:14 UTC,"Book I, Chapter I"
3617,"","Reading Peter Goodrich's ""The New Casuistry."" Critical Inquiry 33, no. 4 (Summer 2007): 683. <Link to Critical Inquiry>",2010-01-12 19:29:05 UTC,"21. That is, of that which God hath declared to be good or evil respectively, the conscience is to be informed. God hath taken care that his laws shall be published to all his subjects, he hath written them where they must needs read them, not in Tables of stone or Phylacteries on the forehead, but in a secret Table: The conscience or mind of a man is the [GREEK], the preserver of the Court Rolls of Heaven. But I added this clause to the former of [a rule] because the express line of Gods rule is not the adequate measure of
conscience: but there are analogies and proportions, and commensurations of things with things, which make the measure full and equal. For he does not always keep a good conscience who keeps only the words of a Divine law,
but the proportions also and the reasons of it, the similitudes
and correspondences in like instances, are the measures of
conscience.
(p. 6)",,17668,"I LEFT OFF HERE. The text is exhausting!! — Skipping ahead to p. 43 or so? Following Goodrich and taking his last metaphor. Note, Goodrich emphasizes the light metaphors. This may be an error in emphasis.","""That is, of that which God hath declared to be good or evil respectively, the conscience is to be informed. God hath taken care that his laws shall be published to all his subjects, he hath written them where they must needs read them, not in Tables of stone or Phylacteries on the forehead, but in a secret Table: The conscience or mind of a man is the [...], the preserver of the Court Rolls of Heaven.""","",2010-01-12 19:44:12 UTC,"Book I, Chapter I"
7097,"",Reading,2011-09-16 20:19:28 UTC,"It is a main point to take Care that we propose nothing but what is Hopeful, and Honest. For it will be equally troublesome to us, either not to succeed, or to be asham'd of the Success. Wherefore, Let us be sure not to admit any Ill Design into our Heart; that we may lift up pure Hands to Heaven, and ask nothing which another shall be a Loser by. Let us pray for a Good Mind, which is a Wish to no Man's Injury. I will Remember always that I am a Man, and then consider, that if I am Happy, it will not last Always; if Unhappy, I may be other if I please. I will carry my Life in my Hand, and deliver it up readily when it shall be call'd for. I will have a care of being a Slave to my self; for it is a Perpetual, a Shameful, and the heaviest of all Servitudes; and this may be done by moderate Desires. I will say to my self, What is it that I Labour, Sweat, and Sollicit for, when it is but very little that I want, and it will not be long that I shall need any thing?
(Chapter V, pp. 134-5)",,19181,"Actually, first created 2004-09-21, -- realized this was L'Estrange's rewriting (can't find corresponding passage in other translation and moved entry here. First located reading collections of quotations on the internet.
Added Title, Year of Publication, and context - PNH.
Reviewed 2006-10-30","""I will have a care of being a Slave to my self; for it is a Perpetual, a Shameful, and the heaviest of all Servitudes; and this may be done by moderate Desires.""",Fetters,2011-09-16 20:56:30 UTC,Chapter V
7097,"","Searching ""mind"" in Google Books",2011-09-20 16:09:16 UTC,"A Good Conscience is the Testimony of a Good Life, and the Reward of it. This is it that fortifies the Mind against Fortune, when a Man has gotten the Mastery of his Passions; plac'd his Treasure, and his Security within himself; learned to be content with his Condition; and that Death is no Evil in itself but only the End of Man. He that has dedicated his Mind to Virtue, and to the Good of Human Society, whereof he is a Member, has consummated all that is either Profitable or Necessary for him to Know, or Do toward the Establishment of his Peace. Every Man has a Judge, and a Witness within himself, of all the Good, and lll that he Does; which inspires us with great Thoughts, and administers to us wholsome Counsels. We have a Veneration for all the Works pf Nature, the Heads of Rivers, and the Springs of Medicinal Waters: the Horrors of Groves, and of Caves, strike us with an Impression of Religion and Worship. To see a Man Fearless in Dangers, Untainted with Lusts, Happy in Adversity, Compos'd in a Tumult, and Laughing at all those Things which are generally either Coveted or Feared; all Men must acknowledge, that this can be nothing else but a Beam of Divinity that Influences a Mortal Body. And this is it that carries us to the Disquisition of Things Divine, and Human; What the state of the World was before the Distribution of the First Matter into Parts; what Power it was that drew Order out of that Confusion, and gave Laws both to the whole, and to every Particle thereof; what that Space is beyond the World; and whence proceed the several Operations of Nature. Shall any Man see the Glory, and Order of the Universe; so many scatter'd Parts, and Qualities wrought into one Mass; such a Medly of Things, which are yet distinguished; the World enlighten'd, and the Disorders of it so wonderfully Regulated; and, shall he not consider the Author, and Disposer of all this; and, whither we our selves shall go, when our Souls shall bedeliver'd from the Slavery of our Flesh? The whole Creation, we see, conforms to the Dictates of Providence, and follows God both as a Governour, and as a Guide. A Great, a Good, and a Right Mind, is a kind of Divinity lodg'd in Flesh, and may be the Blessing of a Slave, as well as of a Prince; it came from Heaven, and to Heaven it must return; and it is a kind of Heavenly Felicity, which a pure, and virtuous Mind enjoys, in some Degree, even upon Earth: Whereas Temples of Honour are but empty Names, which probably owe their Beginning either to Ambition, or to Violence. I am strangely transported with the Thoughts of Eternity; Nay, with the Belief of it; for I have a profound Veneration for the Opinions of Great Men, especially when they promise Things so much to my Satisfaction: for they do Promise them, though they do not Prove them. In the Question of the Immortality of the the Soul, it goes very far with me, a General Consent to the Opinion of a Future Reward, and Punishment; which Meditation raises me to the Contempt of this Lise, in hopes of a Better. But still, though we know that we have a Soul; yet, What the Soul is, How, and from Whence, we are utterly Ignorant: This only we understand, that all the Good, and lll we do, is under the Dominion of the Mind; that a Clear Conscience states us in an Inviolable Peace: And, that the greatest Blessing in Nature, is that, which every honest Man may bestow upon himself. The Body is but the Clog and Prisoner of the Mind; tossed up and down, and persecuted with Punishments, Violences, and Diseases; but the Mind it self is Sacred, and Eternal, and exempt from the Danger of all Actual Impression.
(pp. 138-40)",,19189,"","""Every Man has a Judge, and a Witness within himself, of all the Good, and lll that he Does; which inspires us with great Thoughts, and administers to us wholsome Counsels.""",Court,2011-09-20 16:09:16 UTC,"Of A Happy Life, Chapter VI"
7097,"","Searching ""mind"" in Google Books",2011-09-20 16:10:35 UTC,"A Good Conscience is the Testimony of a Good Life, and the Reward of it. This is it that fortifies the Mind against Fortune, when a Man has gotten the Mastery of his Passions; plac'd his Treasure, and his Security within himself; learned to be content with his Condition; and that Death is no Evil in itself but only the End of Man. He that has dedicated his Mind to Virtue, and to the Good of Human Society, whereof he is a Member, has consummated all that is either Profitable or Necessary for him to Know, or Do toward the Establishment of his Peace. Every Man has a Judge, and a Witness within himself, of all the Good, and lll that he Does; which inspires us with great Thoughts, and administers to us wholsome Counsels. We have a Veneration for all the Works pf Nature, the Heads of Rivers, and the Springs of Medicinal Waters: the Horrors of Groves, and of Caves, strike us with an Impression of Religion and Worship. To see a Man Fearless in Dangers, Untainted with Lusts, Happy in Adversity, Compos'd in a Tumult, and Laughing at all those Things which are generally either Coveted or Feared; all Men must acknowledge, that this can be nothing else but a Beam of Divinity that Influences a Mortal Body. And this is it that carries us to the Disquisition of Things Divine, and Human; What the state of the World was before the Distribution of the First Matter into Parts; what Power it was that drew Order out of that Confusion, and gave Laws both to the whole, and to every Particle thereof; what that Space is beyond the World; and whence proceed the several Operations of Nature. Shall any Man see the Glory, and Order of the Universe; so many scatter'd Parts, and Qualities wrought into one Mass; such a Medly of Things, which are yet distinguished; the World enlighten'd, and the Disorders of it so wonderfully Regulated; and, shall he not consider the Author, and Disposer of all this; and, whither we our selves shall go, when our Souls shall bedeliver'd from the Slavery of our Flesh? The whole Creation, we see, conforms to the Dictates of Providence, and follows God both as a Governour, and as a Guide. A Great, a Good, and a Right Mind, is a kind of Divinity lodg'd in Flesh, and may be the Blessing of a Slave, as well as of a Prince; it came from Heaven, and to Heaven it must return; and it is a kind of Heavenly Felicity, which a pure, and virtuous Mind enjoys, in some Degree, even upon Earth: Whereas Temples of Honour are but empty Names, which probably owe their Beginning either to Ambition, or to Violence. I am strangely transported with the Thoughts of Eternity; Nay, with the Belief of it; for I have a profound Veneration for the Opinions of Great Men, especially when they promise Things so much to my Satisfaction: for they do Promise them, though they do not Prove them. In the Question of the Immortality of the the Soul, it goes very far with me, a General Consent to the Opinion of a Future Reward, and Punishment; which Meditation raises me to the Contempt of this Lise, in hopes of a Better. But still, though we know that we have a Soul; yet, What the Soul is, How, and from Whence, we are utterly Ignorant: This only we understand, that all the Good, and lll we do, is under the Dominion of the Mind; that a Clear Conscience states us in an Inviolable Peace: And, that the greatest Blessing in Nature, is that, which every honest Man may bestow upon himself. The Body is but the Clog and Prisoner of the Mind; tossed up and down, and persecuted with Punishments, Violences, and Diseases; but the Mind it self is Sacred, and Eternal, and exempt from the Danger of all Actual Impression.
(pp. 138-40)",,19190,"","""Shall any Man see the Glory, and Order of the Universe; so many scatter'd Parts, and Qualities wrought into one Mass; such a Medly of Things, which are yet distinguished; the World enlighten'd, and the Disorders of it so wonderfully Regulated; and, shall he not consider the Author, and Disposer of all this; and, whither we our selves shall go, when our Souls shall bedeliver'd from the Slavery of our Flesh?""",Fetters,2011-09-20 16:10:35 UTC,"Of A Happy Life, Chapter VI"
7097,"","Searching ""mind"" in Google Books",2011-09-20 16:15:54 UTC,"To begin now with the Pleasures of the Palate; (which deal with us like Ægyptian Thieves, that strangle those they embrace,) What shall we say of the Luxury of Nomentanus and Apicius, that entertained their very Souls in the Kitchin; they have the Choicest Musick for their Ears; the most diverting Spectacles for their Eyes; the Choicest variety of Meats, and Drinks for their Palates. What is all this, I say, but a Merry Madness? 'Tis true they have their Delights, but not without Heavy and Anxious Thoughts, even in their very Enjoyments; beside that they are followed with Repentance, and their Frolicks are little more than the Laughter of so many People out of their Wits. Their Felicities are full of Disquiet, and neither Sincere, nor Well-grounded: But they have need of one Pleasure to support another: and of new Prayers to forgive the Errors of their Former. Their Life must needs be wretched, that get with great Pains, what they keep with greater. One Diversion overtakes another: Hope excites Hope; Ambition begets Ambition; so that they only change the Matter of their Miseries, without seeking any End of them; and shall never be without either prosperous, or unhappy Causes of Disquiet. What if a Body might have all the Pleasures in the World for the Asking? Who would so much Unman himself, as by accepting of them, to desert his Soul, and become a perpetual Slave to his Senses? Those False and Miserable Palates, that Judge of Meats by the Price, and Difficulty, not by the Healthfulness, or Taste: They Vomit, that they may Eat; and they Eat that they may fetch it up again. They cross the Seas for Rarities, and when they have swallowed them, they will not so much as give them time to digest. Wheresoever Nature has plac'd Men, she has provided them Aliment: But we rather chuse to irritate Hunger by Expence, than to allay it at an Easier rate. What is it that we plow the Seas for; or Arm our selves against Men, and Beasts? To what end do we Toyl, and Labour, and pile Bags upon Bags? We may enlarge our Fortunes, but we cannot our Bodies; so that it does but spill, and run over, whatsoever we take more than we can hold. Our Forefathers (by the force of whose Virtues we are now supported in our Vices) liv'd every jot as well as we, when they provided, and dress'd their own Meat with their own Hands; lodg'd upon the Ground, and were not as yet come to the vanity of Gold and Gemms: When they swore by their Earthen Gods, and kept their Oath, though they dy'd for't. Did not our Consuls live more Happily, when they Cook'd their own Meat with those Victorious Hands that had conquer'd so many Enemies, and won so many Laurels? Did they not live more happily, I say, than our (that Corrupter of Youth, and Plague of the Age he liv'd in) who after he had spent a Prodigious Fortune upon his Belly, Poison'd himself for fear of Starving, when he had yet 250000 Crowns in his Coffers: which may serve to shew us, that it is the Mind, and not the Sum, that makes any Man Rich: When Apicius with all this Treasure counted himself in a state of Beggery; and took Poison to avoid that Condition, which another would have pray'd for. But, why do we call it Poison, which was the wholsomest Draught of his Life? His daily Gluttony was Poison rather, both to himself, and others. His Ostentation of it was intolerable and so was the Infinite Pains he took to mis-lead others by his Example, who went even fast enough of themselves without driving.
(pp. 175-7)",,19192,"","""Who would so much Unman himself, as by accepting of them, to desert his Soul, and become a perpetual Slave to his Senses?""","",2011-09-20 16:15:54 UTC,"Of a Happy Life, Chapter XI."