A26951:1791
The life of faith in three parts, the first is a sermon on Heb.…
The life of faith in three parts, the first is a sermon on Heb. 11, 1, formerly preached before His Majesty, and published by his command, with another added for the fuller application : the second is instructions for confirming believers in the Christian faith : the third is directions how to live by faith, or how to exercise it upon all occasions / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons, 1670
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
1. The very phrase of their question is non-sense, or very unfit. Conscience is but a mans knowledge or judgment of himself as he is obliged to his duty and the effects; and consequently, of the obligations, which lie upon him.
It is a strange question, whether I am bound in knowledge of my self: But it were a reasonable question, whether I be bound to know; or whether I know that I am bound. It is the whole man, and most eminently the Will, which is bound by Laws, or any Moral Obligations. The man is bound.
But if by conscience, they mean the soul, it is a ridiculous question: For no bonds can lie upon the body immediately, but Cords or Iron, or such like materials. The soul is the first obliged, or else the man is not morally obliged at all.
If the sense of the question be, whether it be a Divine or a Religious obligation, which mens commands do lay upon us▪ The answer is easy: 1. That Man is not God; and therefore as humane it is not Divine. 2. That Mans Government is Gods institution, and Men are Gods Officers; and therefore the obligation is Religious, and Instrumentally or Mediately Divine. Either mens Laws and Commands do bind us or not: If not, they are no Laws, nor authoritative Acts: If they do bind, either it is primarily by an authority originally in themselves that made them (and then they are all gods: And then there is no God.) Or else it is by derived authority. If so, God must be the Original (or still the Original must be God.) And then is the high way any plainer than the true answer of this question, viz. That Princes, Parents, &c. have a governing or Law-giving power from God, in subordination to him; and that they are his Officers in governing: And that all those Laws which he hath authorized them to make do bind the soul, that is, the man, immediately as humane, and instrumentally or mediately as Divine, or as the bonds of God. As my Covenant bind my self to conscience, (if you will so speak, rather than that they bind my conscience) so do men a Laws also bind me. You may as well ask whether the writing of my pen, be its action or mine; and be an animate, or inanimate act; which is soon resolved.