work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
3617,"",Reading,2010-01-11 22:20:43 UTC,"The multiplication also of Laws and Ceremonies of Religion does exceedingly multiply questions of practice ; and there were among the Jews, by reason of their numerous rites many more than there were at first among the Christians.
For we find the Apostles only exhorting to humility, to piety towards parents, to obedience to magistrates, to charity and justice ; and the Christians who meant well understood well, and needed no books of Conscience but the Rule, and the Commandment. But when Error crept in, Truth became difficult and hard to be understood: and when the Rituals of the Church and her laws became numerous, then Religion was hard to be practised: and when Men set up new interests,
then the laws of Conscience were so many, that as the laws of
the old Romans,
--------verba minantia fixo
Aere legebantur--------
which at first were nailed in a brass-plate upon a wall, became at last so numerous and filled so many volumes, that their very Compendium made a large digest ; so are these too many to be considered, or perfectly to be understood; and therefore either they must be cut off by simplicity and an
honest heart, and contempt of the World, and our duty must
look for no measures but love and the lines of the easy Commandment, or else we can have no peace and no security. But with these there is not only collateral security, but very often a direct wisdom. Because he that endeavours to keep
a good Conscience and hath an honest mind, besides that he
will inquire after his duty sufficiently, he will be able to tell
very much of it himself: for God will assist him, and cause
that his own mind shall tell him more than seven Watchmen that sit in a Tower; and if he miss, he is next to an excuse, and God is ready to pardon him: and therefore in what sect of Christianity soever any man is ingaged, if he have an honest heart and a good Conscience, though he be in darkness, he will find his way out, or grope his way within; he
shall be guided, or he shall be pardon'd; God will pity
him, and find some way for his remedy; and, if it be necessary, will bring him out.
(pp. xv)",,17638,"","""Because he that endeavours to keep
a good Conscience and hath an honest mind, besides that he will inquire after his duty sufficiently, he will be able to tell very much of it himself: for God will assist him, and cause that his own mind shall tell him more than seven Watchmen that sit in a Tower; and if he miss, he is next to an excuse, and God is ready to pardon him: and therefore in what sect of Christianity soever any man is ingaged, if he have an honest heart and a good Conscience, though he be in darkness, he will find his way out, or grope his way within; he shall be guided, or he shall be pardon'd; God will pity him, and find some way for his remedy; and, if it be necessary, will bring him out.""","",2010-01-11 23:06:30 UTC,Preface
3617,"",Reading,2010-01-11 22:57:05 UTC,"2. That providence which governs all the world, is nothing else but God present by his providence: and God is in our hearts by his Laws: he rules in us by his Substitute, our conscience. God sits there and gives us Laws; and as God said
to Moses, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, that is, to
give him Laws, and to minister in the execution of those Laws,
and to inflict angry sentences upon him; so hath God done
to us. He hath given us Conscience to be in Gods stead to
us, to give us Laws, and to exact obedience to those Laws,
to punish them that prevaricate, and to reward the obedient. And therefore Conscience is called [GREEK] The Household Guardian, The Domestick God, The Spirit or Angel of the place: and when we
call God to witness, we only mean, that our conscience is
right, and that God and Gods vicar, our conscience, knows
it. So Lactantius: Meminerit Deum se habere testem,
id est, ut ego arbitror, mentem suam, qua nihil homini dedit
Deus ipse divinius. Let him remember that he hath God
for his witness, that is, as I suppose, his mind; than which
God hath given to man nothing that is more divine. In sum,
It is the image of God; and as in the mysterious Trinity, we
adore the will, memory, and understanding, and Theology contemplates three persons in the analogies, proportions, and correspondences, of them: so in this also we see plainly that Conscience is that likeness of God, in which he was pleased to make man. For although conscience be primarily
founded in the understanding, as it is the Lawgiver and
Dictator; and the rule and dominion of conscience fundatur in intellectu, is established in the understanding part;
yet it is also Memory, when it accuses or excuses, when it makes joyful and sorrowful; and there is in it some mixture
of will, as I shall discourse in the sequel; so that conscience
is a result of all, of Understanding, Will, and Memory.
(pp. 1-2)",,17642,"","""And therefore Conscience is called [...] The Household Guardian, The Domestick God, The Spirit or Angel of the place: and when we call God to witness, we only mean, that our conscience is right, and that God and Gods vicar, our conscience, knows it.""","",2010-01-12 18:54:36 UTC,"Book I, Chapter I"
3617,"",Reading,2010-01-11 23:01:57 UTC,"2. That providence which governs all the world, is nothing else but God present by his providence: and God is in our hearts by his Laws: he rules in us by his Substitute, our conscience. God sits there and gives us Laws; and as God said
to Moses, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, that is, to
give him Laws, and to minister in the execution of those Laws,
and to inflict angry sentences upon him; so hath God done
to us. He hath given us Conscience to be in Gods stead to
us, to give us Laws, and to exact obedience to those Laws,
to punish them that prevaricate, and to reward the obedient. And therefore Conscience is called [GREEK] The Household Guardian, The Domestick God, The Spirit or Angel of the place: and when we
call God to witness, we only mean, that our conscience is
right, and that God and Gods vicar, our conscience, knows
it. So Lactantius: Meminerit Deum se habere testem,
id est, ut ego arbitror, mentem suam, qua nihil homini dedit
Deus ipse divinius. Let him remember that he hath God
for his witness, that is, as I suppose, his mind; than which
God hath given to man nothing that is more divine. In sum,
It is the image of God; and as in the mysterious Trinity, we
adore the will, memory, and understanding, and Theology contemplates three persons in the analogies, proportions, and correspondences, of them: so in this also we see plainly that Conscience is that likeness of God, in which he was pleased to make man. For although conscience be primarily
founded in the understanding, as it is the Lawgiver and
Dictator; and the rule and dominion of conscience fundatur in intellectu, is established in the understanding part;
yet it is also Memory, when it accuses or excuses, when it makes joyful and sorrowful; and there is in it some mixture
of will, as I shall discourse in the sequel; so that conscience
is a result of all, of Understanding, Will, and Memory.
(pp. 1-2)",,17644,"","""For although conscience be primarily founded in the understanding, as it is the Lawgiver and Dictator; and the rule and dominion of conscience 'fundatur in intellectu', is established in the understanding part; yet it is also Memory, when it accuses or excuses, when it makes joyful and sorrowful; and there is in it some mixture of will, as I shall discourse in the sequel; so that conscience is a result of all, of Understanding, Will, and Memory.""",Inhabitants,2013-06-11 21:13:07 UTC,"Book I, Chapter I"
3617,"",Reading,2010-01-12 17:16:20 UTC,"3. But these high and great expressions are better in the Spirit than in the letter; they have in them something of institution, and something of design, they tell us that Conscience is a guard and a guide, a rule and a law set over us by God, and they are spoken to make us afraid to sin against our conscience, because by so doing we sin against God; he having put a double bridle upon us, society and solitude, that is, company and our selves, or rather God and Man; it being now impossible for us to sin in any circumstances, but we shall have a reprover: [GREEK], as Hierocles said well; that neither company may give countenance nor excuse to sin, or solitariness may give confidence or warranty; for as we are ashamed to sin in company, so we ought to fear our conscience, which is God's Watchman and Intelligencer.
(p. 2)",,17650,"","""But these high and great expressions are better in the Spirit than in the letter; they have in them something of institution, and something of design, they tell us that Conscience is a guard and a guide, a rule and a law set over us by God, and they are spoken to make us afraid to sin against our conscience, because by so doing we sin against God.""","",2010-01-12 17:16:20 UTC,"Book I, Chapter I"
3617,"",Reading,2010-01-12 17:18:39 UTC,"3. But these high and great expressions are better in the Spirit than in the letter; they have in them something of institution, and something of design, they tell us that Conscience is a guard and a guide, a rule and a law set over us by God, and they are spoken to make us afraid to sin against our conscience, because by so doing we sin against God; he having put a double bridle upon us, society and solitude, that is, company and our selves, or rather God and Man; it being now impossible for us to sin in any circumstances, but we shall have a reprover: [GREEK], as Hierocles said well; that neither company may give countenance nor excuse to sin, or solitariness may give confidence or warranty; for as we are ashamed to sin in company, so we ought to fear our conscience, which is God's Watchman and Intelligencer.
(p. 2)",,17651,"","""[F]or as we are ashamed to sin in company, so we ought to fear our conscience, which is God's Watchman and Intelligencer.""","",2010-01-12 17:18:39 UTC,"Book I, Chapter I"
3617,"",Reading,2010-01-12 17:24:21 UTC,"4. To which purpose it was soberly spoken of Tertullian, Conscientia optima testis Divinitatis, Our conscience is the best argument in the World to prove there is a God: For conscience is Gods deputy; and the inferior must suppose a superior; and God and our conscience are like relative terms, it not being imaginable why some persons in some cases should be amaz'd and troubled in their minds for their having done a secret turpitude or cruelty; but that con-
science is present with a message from God, and the men feel inward causes of fear, when they are secure from without: that is, they are forc'd to fear God, when they are safe from men. And it is impossible that any man should be an
Atheist, if he have any conscience: and for this reason it is, there have been so few Atheists in the world, because it is so hard for men to lose their conscience wholly.
(p. 2)",,17652,"","""For conscience is Gods deputy; and the inferior must suppose a superior; and God and our conscience are like relative terms, it not being imaginable why some persons in some cases should be amaz'd and troubled in their minds for their having done a secret turpitude or cruelty; but that con-
science is present with a message from God, and the men feel inward causes of fear, when they are secure from without.""","",2010-01-12 17:24:21 UTC,"Book I, Chapter I"
3617,"",Reading,2010-01-12 17:59:09 UTC,"8. Our mind being thus furnished with a holy Rule, and conducted by a divine guide, is called Conscience; and is the same thing which in Scripture is sometimes called the heart*; there being in the Hebrew tongue, no proper word for Conscience, but in stead of it they use the word [HEBREW] the heart; Oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth, that is, thy conscience knoweth, that thou thyself hast cursed
others, so in the New Testament, Beloved, If our hearts condemn us not, then have we peace towards God, viz. If in our own consciences we are not condemned. Sometimes it is called Spirit*, the third ingredient of the constitution of a Christian; the Spirit, distinct from Soul and Body. For as our Body shall be spiritual in the Resurrection, therefore, because all its offices shall intirely minister to the spirit, and converse with spirits, so may that part of the soul, which is wholly furnished, taught, and conducted by the Spirit of grace, and whose work it is wholly to serve the spirit, by a just proportion of reason be called the Spirit. This is that which is affirmed by S. Paul, The word of God sharper than a two-edged sword, dividing the soul and the spirit; that is, the soul is the spirit separated by the word of God, instructed by it, and, by relation to it, is called the spirit. And this is the sence of Origen, Testimonio sane conscientiae uti Apostolus dicit eos qui descriptam continent in cordibus legem, &c. The Apostle says, that they use the testimony of conscience, who have the law written in their hearts. Hence it is necessary to enquire what that is which the Apostle calls conscience, whether it be any other substance than the heart or soul? For of this it is otherwhere said that it reprehends, but is not reprehended, and that it judges a man, but itself is judged of no man: as John saith, If our conscience condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God. And again, S. Paul himself saith in another place, Our glorying is this, even the testimony of our conscience; because therefore I see so great a liberty of it, that in good things it is always glad and rejoices, but in evil things it is not reproved, but reproves and corrects the soul it self to which it does adhere; I do suppose that this is the very spirit, which by the Apostle is said to be with the soul, as a pedagogue and social governor, that it may admonish the soul of better things, and chastise her for her faults, and reprove her: Because no man knows the things of a man but the spirit of a man which is in him; and that is the spirit of our conscience, concerning which, he saith, That spirit gives testimony to our spirit. So far Origen.
(p.3)",,17655,"","""Our mind being thus furnished with a holy Rule, and conducted by a divine guide, is called Conscience; and is the same thing which in Scripture is sometimes called the heart.""","",2010-01-12 17:59:09 UTC,"Book I, Chapter I"
3617,"",Reading,2010-01-12 18:04:16 UTC,"8. Our mind being thus furnished with a holy Rule, and conducted by a divine guide, is called Conscience; and is the same thing which in Scripture is sometimes called the heart*; there being in the Hebrew tongue, no proper word for Conscience, but in stead of it they use the word [HEBREW] the heart; Oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth, that is, thy conscience knoweth, that thou thyself hast cursed
others, so in the New Testament, Beloved, If our hearts condemn us not, then have we peace towards God, viz. If in our own consciences we are not condemned. Sometimes it is called Spirit*, the third ingredient of the constitution of a Christian; the Spirit, distinct from Soul and Body. For as our Body shall be spiritual in the Resurrection, therefore, because all its offices shall intirely minister to the spirit, and converse with spirits, so may that part of the soul, which is wholly furnished, taught, and conducted by the Spirit of grace, and whose work it is wholly to serve the spirit, by a just proportion of reason be called the Spirit. This is that which is affirmed by S. Paul, The word of God sharper than a two-edged sword, dividing the soul and the spirit; that is, the soul is the spirit separated by the word of God, instructed by it, and, by relation to it, is called the spirit. And this is the sence of Origen, Testimonio sane conscientiae uti Apostolus dicit eos qui descriptam continent in cordibus legem, &c. The Apostle says, that they use the testimony of conscience, who have the law written in their hearts. Hence it is necessary to enquire what that is which the Apostle calls conscience, whether it be any other substance than the heart or soul? For of this it is otherwhere said that it reprehends, but is not reprehended, and that it judges a man, but itself is judged of no man: as John saith, If our conscience condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God. And again, S. Paul himself saith in another place, Our glorying is this, even the testimony of our conscience; because therefore I see so great a liberty of it, that in good things it is always glad and rejoices, but in evil things it is not reproved, but reproves and corrects the soul it self to which it does adhere; I do suppose that this is the very spirit, which by the Apostle is said to be with the soul, as a pedagogue and social governor, that it may admonish the soul of better things, and chastise her for her faults, and reprove her: Because no man knows the things of a man but the spirit of a man which is in him; and that is the spirit of our conscience, concerning which, he saith, That spirit gives testimony to our spirit. So far Origen.
(p. 3)
",,17657,"","""I do suppose that this is the very spirit, which by the Apostle is said to be with the soul, as a pedagogue and social governor, that it may admonish the soul of better things, and chastise her for her faults, and reprove her.""","",2010-01-12 18:04:16 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,"","Whitman, James Q. The origins of reasonable doubt: theological roots of the criminal trial. Yale UP, 2008. p. 179. <Link to Google Books>
",2010-01-13 20:37:45 UTC,"2. Against a doubting conscience a man may not work but against a scrupulous he may. For a scrupulous conscience does not take away the proper determination of the understanding; but it is like a Woman handling of a Frog or a Chicken, which, all their friends tell them, can do them no hurt, and they are convinced in reason that they cannot, they believe it and know it ; and yet when they take the little creature into their hands, they shreek, and sometimes hold fast, and find their fears confuted, and sometimes they let go, and find their reason useless.
(p. 160)",,17674,"","""For a scrupulous conscience does not take away the proper determination of the understanding; but it is like a Woman handling of a Frog or a Chicken, which, all their friends tell them, can do them no hurt, and they are convinced in reason that they cannot, they believe it and know it ; and yet when they take the little creature into their hands, they shreek, and sometimes hold fast, and find their fears confuted, and sometimes they let go, and find their reason useless.""","",2010-01-13 20:38:13 UTC,"Book I, Chapter 6, Rule II"