Dialogues, English -- Early works to 1800; Great Britain -- History -- Charles II, 1660-1685 -- Pamphlets
_Citt._ I mean, the _Court_, and the _Church-Party_. So long (I say) all
our Brethren of the Separation joyn'd as one man, against that
_Inordinate Power_; and herein we were _Conscienciously True_ to our
_General Profession_; but so soon as ever we had subdu'd that _Popish_
and _Tyrannical Interest_, through the _Conscience_ of our _General
Profession_, we then consulted our _Particular_; and every man did
Conscienciously labour for the Establishment of _his own_ way. But now
we come to the great Nicety of all; that is to say, the _Conscience_ of
making a _Conscience_ of using _any Conscience at all_: There's a Riddle
for ye, _Bumpkin_.
Bum. _I must confess I do not understand one Bitt on't._
A Conscience of using no Conscience at all.
_Citt._ That's for want of a Discerning Spirit _Bumpkin_. What does
_Conscience_ signifie to the _Saints_, that are deliver'd from the
Fetters of _Moral Obligations_, by so many _Extraordinary_ and
_Over-riding Priviledges_, which are granted in a peculiar manner to the
_People of the Lord_? What's he the _better_, or the _worse_, for
_keeping_ or for _breaking_ the _Ten Commandments_, that lies under the
_Predestinarian Fate_ of an _Unchangeable Necessity_ and _Decree_? What
needs he care for any _other Guide_, that carries within himself an
_Infallible Light_? Or He for _any Rule at all_ that cannot _sin_? For
the _same thing_ may be _sin_ in _another man_, which in _Him_ is
_None_.
Bum. _Really this is admirable: So that we that are the =Elect= are
bound up by no =Laws= at all, either of =God= or of =Man=._
_Citt._ Why look you now for that; we _Are_, and we are _Not_. If it so
happens that the _Inward_ and _Invisible Spirit_ move us to do _the same
thing_, which the _Outward_, and _Visible Law_ requires of us; in _That
Case_ we are _Bound_; but so, as to the _Spirit_, not to the _Law_: and
therefore we are bid to _stand fast in our Christian Liberty_.
Of Christian Liberty.
Bum. _That's extreamly well said, for if =We Christians= should be
Shackled with =Human Laws=, which can only reach the =Outward Man=, then
are =the Heritage of the Lord=, in no better Condition then the
=Wicked=, and the =Heathen=._
The Extent of it.
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