you Good only till the storms of tribulation arise and then farewell Conscience and the house falls Oh miserable and mistaking Consciences Gen. 49.4 2 Tim. 4.10 Joh. 19.21 2 Chron. 24.2 17 18. Num. 22.16 1 Tim. 1.19 Mat. 7.26 27. Yours is the good and honest heart and conscience who bring forth fruit with patience or perseverance * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 8.15 Review your principles Can you say I have enclined my heart to perform thy Statutes always even to the end Reflect on your purposes and are these your practical and permanent resolutions I will never forget thy precepts I will keep thy Law continually for ever and ever I will walk in the name of the Lord my God for ever and ever And if Religion will make me vile I will be more vile Recall your practice Have you taken his Testimonies as an heritage for ever Many perhaps may have been your Persecutors yet have you not declined from his Testimonies And will you yet keep his Precepts with the whole heart vvhatever be the exigencies befall you or enticements to flatter you And shall this God be your God and your portion for ever Go and glorifie God and congratulate thy self in the happiness of a good Conscience Psal 119.112 93 44. Mic. 4.5 2 Sam. 6.22 Psal 119.111 157 69. 48.14.73.26 Fourthly § 13 By the aspect of a good Conscience you may acquaint your selves whether your Consciences are good This is towards God the creator commander of and that alone infallibly knoweth the Conscience 1 Pet. 2.19 Or if towards Man 't is but secondarily and subordinately and towards God primarily First towards God then towards Man towards Man in and for God towards God above and beyond Man Act. 24.16 Q. § 14 Whether we may argue the goodness of our Conscience from their aspect towards God I answer you may But what you are chiefly to attend and ask after is whether God be chief and principal in its aspect For an evil Conscience may have an eye upon God but God is not highest or upmost Joh. 12.43 Tit. 3.3 And a good Conscience may have an eye upon its own happiness and the approbation of others but 't is upon God first and chiefest Heb. 11.16 2 Cor. 4.2 When God â—s the supream in your intentions and your â—ighest aims and ambitions are to be accepted of him and approved by him it is an argument a good Conscience and affords great confidence 2 Cor. 5.8 9 10 17 18. The good Conscience then is 1 For the Power and Authority of God § 15 as by which it is principally ruled The good Conscience will give unto Caesar the things which are Caesars he shall have our subjection not only for wrath but for Conscience sake But it will not give unto Caesar the things which are Gods or set Christ beneath Caesar Conscience remembers there is one Law-giver and resolves it the Lord is our Law-giver Mat. 22.21 Joh. 4.12 Isa 33.12 The good Conscience is for acts of obedience to Governours but 't is limited therein and led thereunto principally by the authority of God 'T is limited thereby if Governours command what God countermands the good Conscience dares not comply to it saith he We onght to obey God rather than men Daniâ—â— purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the Kingâ— meat prohibited by the law Nor will he decline his prayers to God whatever be the decree and prohibition of the supream Governour Let Baals worship bear the Princes and publick warrant Elijah and seven thousand more dare not bow the knee to him oâ— in it Act. 5.29 Dan. 1.8 c. 6.10 1 King 19.18 'T is led thereby also the good Conscience submits to every ordinance of Man but 't is for the Lords sake It counsels us to keep the King's commandment but it s principally quickned by his obligation from and in regard of the Cath of God 1 Pet. 2.13 Eccles 8.2 How is it then can your Conscience willingly pass the commands of Goâ— for the commands of Men and keep their statutes that are contrary to his Commandment and your knowledg rather than you will come to suffer Or do you obey the commands and take up the ordinances of God as Hamor and Shechem and the men of their City did that of Circumcision But 't is for compassing Dinah and the designs they have for Jacob's substance You own the concernments of Christ and officiously assist to his cause and interest as the people sometimes did the Jews and the rulers of the Provinces brought them their assistance but is it because the fear of the Jews or the fear of Mordecai the Christian Magistrate is fallen upon you This is an evil Conscience Hos 5.11 Mic. 6.16 Gen. 34.22 23 24. Esth 8.17 c. 9.3 You that vail the commands of Men to the commands of God and in fulfilling his or their Commandments which correspond with his have your first respects not to humane commands censures or customs or your carnal ends but to the divine command and constitution with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men you have one good evidence of a good Conscience Act. 4.19 Isa 26.13 Ephes 6.7 2 § 16 'T is for the presence and all-seeing eye of God which it principally respects The good Conscience eyes principally God's knowâ—edg O Lord saith he thou hast searched me and â—nown me Not a word in my tongue not a working of my thoughts but thou knowest it â—ltogether Unto him therefore he openeth his cause sets him before his face and is not so much over-ruled by this that man seeth as by this ordinarily that God seeth him and searcheth his heart and reins This perfect heart is not only for doing that which is good in it self but for doing it as in God's sight Psal 139.1 14. Jer. 20.12 Psal 16.8 c. 7.3 2 King 20.3 I have kept thy Precepts saith this pious Conscience for all my ways are before thee Psal 119.168 How is it then are you most for God's or most for man's eye You make broad your Phylacteries you do works of Piety perhaps and works of Charity but are they done for to be seen of Men Is this the mark you shoot at principally Oh gross hypocrisie and unsound Consciences Mat. 23.5 c. 6.5 Noah and Enoch walked amongst men but with God God was most in their eye The light of Christians shines before men and as their good works may be seen of them But it stays not here they subordinate this to an higher sight and scope that others seeing their good works may glorifie their Father which is Heaven Gen. 5.22 c. 6.9 Mat. 5.16 You that as of God and as in the sight of God so do and so speak who are more preponderated in the course of their practice by his presence than Mens privity or perswasives that walk as before him and are wrought to a greater willingness in his service by his
gives it to you by the spirit of Regeneration This Man shall be the peace when Divine justice on the one hand or the Devil on the other hand like the Assyrian shall invade Conscience Joh. 14.27 Phil. 4.7 Mich. 5.5 Is the blood of his Cross then that peace-offering you present unto the Father the peace you plead for is it upon the account of your service or of his satisfaction of your deserts or of his death for you There is no preaching peace but by Jesus Christ Col. 1.20 Act. 10.36 The prime instruments of your peace what were or what are they Was it the Gospel of Peace then will the Ministration and Ministry thereof be more beautiful in your eyes Nah. 1.15 Isa 52.7 Was it the grace of faith 'T is first grace then peace throughout the Gospel No peace before grace much less without grace 'T is believing in Christ that brings the calm upon the Conscience Being justified by faith we have peace with God Rom. 1.7 1 Cor. 1.3 Joh. 14.1 Rom. 5.1 Try your faith then whether it be beyond temporary whether it be truly justifying ere you take up with peace He cannot be the God of peace to you if he be not the God of hope and faith unto you The God of hope fill you with peace in believing saith the Apostle Rom. 15.13 2 Enquire into the matter of your Peace not so much that of which it consisteth as about which it is conversant To mention but an head or two 1. Is it Communion with God which consists in that mutual relation and those mutual returns which pass 'twixt God and a Believer in the descending of his graces and ascending of our duties What say you are these the matters that take up the tranquillity of your mind the mutual interest that God and you have in each other that he is yours and you are his the mutual intercourse that you have with each other in his mercies and your duties while he draweth nigh to you in extending the grace of his favour and you draw nigh to him in exercising the graces of his Spirit This this is the heart of Evangelical Peace acquaintance with God fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Here the believing Soul doth lye down in Peace Job 22.21 1 Joh. 1.3 4. Psal 4.6 8. 2. Is it the Kingdom of God specially in and over you That false peace is never thorow in the former and taketh its leave in this latter It may be taken with God's love but turns aside from his laws especially from that part which is cross to his carnal interest But Evangelical peace hath endearing and precious thoughts of the very laws the rule and restraints of Divine Government He rejoyceth and worketh righteousness and the work of righteousness is his peace and rejoycing Psal 119.165 169. Isa 65.5 c. 32.17 How is Conscience pleased then with the commands of God in that he hath the dominion of Conscience and will not dispense with the least corruptions and will have the ducture of your whole Conversations Read the language and resolution herein of the good and peaceable Conscience Isa 26.12 13. 3 Enquire into the formal cause There is no Gospel-peace of Conscience but what is spoken by God thorow Christ in the Gospel The peace spoken by Conscience through the Gospel standing in an accord to what is spoken by Christ in the Gospel And it is not only therefore called the peace of God * Phil. 4.7 in that it is caused principally by him he is the fountain of it But in regard of the conformity thereof to his pleasure which gives form and being to it Thus Evangelical Conscience doth not absolve or justifie before or without God but with and because God absolves and justifies * Rom. 5.1 9. It 1. reads and reviews God's sentence of peace in the Gospel Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ c. As many as walk according to this rule peace shall be upon them 1 Pet. 5.14 Rom. 8.1 Gal. 6.16 2. It reflects and resumes But I who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit am in Christ I walk after this rule as God himself is my witness Hence 3. he reports and agrees God's sentence in the Gospel to his own Soul in particular Therefore to me is peace God hath cleared me therefore Conscience cleareth me And so have I quietness in and confidence toward God Behold my witness is in heaven and my record is on high 1 Joh. 3.21 Job 34.29 c. 16.19 Well then it must be peace in Heaven or there can be no peace to speak properly in your hearts Your hearts are at peace because heaven is at peace and this heart-peace bears accord with heavens peace * Luk. 2.14 19.38 And be sure God can never speak peace in you upon any other terms than he hath in the Gospel spoken peace to you 4 Enquire into the final cause This peace of God is finally for the God of peace it sits not down in self-ease but is set for his service and the enjoyment of himself Yea it not only pursueth good works but would be made perfect to every good work Nor doth this Soul content it self in the sweets of this joy and peace but his care and character is that in these things he serveth Christ Heb. 9.14 chap. 13.20 21. Rom. 14.17 18. Whither doth your peace then extend and where doth it terminate it self True peace of Conscience can never take up short of God in Christ This is its earnest expectation and hope that shall be magnified and his service maintained and his own Soul shall more abound in holiness and in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost The thoughts of this heart are not only taken up about his own felicity and peace but about the furtherance of God's praise the fulfilling of his pleasure and the peaceable fruits of righteousness If there be any vertue if there be any praise he thinks on these things Phil. 1.20 Rom. 15.13 Jam. 3.18 Phil. 4.7 8. In short as this peace is by reception from God so its rest is in and with God It lifts up the Soul unto him lifts him upmost in the Soul lays its charge thereon to repose her self upon him to rejoyce in him and upon every miscarriage to return to him as her only rest and center Psal 86.4 c. 73.25 26. 62.5 116.7 4. The peace of a good and evil Conscience are differenced in and by the effects of it The peace of an evil Conscience usually renders men less circumspect and inobservant of spiritual dangers more slight and overly in spiritual duties c. But Evangelical peace ends in 1 Greater vigilance over himself and against sin satan as also in the objects of sense that he turn not again to solly Psal 85.8 Rom. 16.19 20. 1 Thes 5.5 6 8 9. Doth this peace
hear the small and still voice in which God saith I am thy salvation I will create peace peace Gen. 22.14 Isa 40.29 c. 61.3 Psal 18.27 28. 112.4 1 King 19.11 12. 4 And now peace after such perplexities is more perfect and precious Now how sensible is it like reviving ease after racking pangs or the pleasantest light after blackness of darkness Now how sweet is it sweeter than the honey and the honey-comb after such draughts of aloes and rhubarb Time was this full Soul loathed the honey-comb 〈◊〉 but now she is hungry every bitter thing is sweet Now how satisfying is it How acceptable is the sealed pardon to this self-condemned prisoner that awoke only heretofore with the thoughts of racks and gibbets Mannah shall be no more light bread from henceforth to him He is satisfied as with marrow and fatness Nay how stable and steady is it Now that the wax is throughly softned the impression sticks upon it especially now the Almighty puts forth his arm in sealing it Now she is provided with supports of hope and stays of heart against future difficulties Experience tells her such deeps are passable and a most delicious prospect is of t'other side of the port I might easily subjoyn more but what I have said is swoln unto such a bulk already What can if the consideration of these things cannot quiet you Are you aware what God is preparing for you Are not these clouds ready to dissolve into showers of comfort Yet a little while and Joseph shall see the issue of his prison and of God's intricate Providences to end all in his Preferment And though ye have lien among the pots yet shall ye be as the wings of a Dove covered with silver and her feathers with yellow gold Psal 68.13 5. Happily this is to prepare me may your Souls say for some eminent use and more than ordinary employment Were you intended for the fire there needed no more than cutting down and cleaving up Or were you for an ordinary place in God's building it were enough to have passed the Saw and the Ax but now that God bestoweth so much work upon you 't is an argument you must stand in a more conspicuous place and perhaps in the front of the building 'T is observable that whomsoever God hath made instances of such eminent distresses he hath made them instances of as eminent usefulness as Job David Hezekiah c. in the Old Testament and Paul in the New who was troubled on every side within were fears as without were fightings 2 Cor. 7.5 Those metals are intended for a signal use which are often cast into the fire Such exigencies do stock us with experiences And experience gives wisdom enlargeth the understanding and receptive powers and so enableth yea ennobleth for the highest undertakings 1. Perhaps it may be to prepare you for a passive state and make way to the condition and crown of Christs eminent Confessors and glorious Martyrs You that have felt greater will not fear such lesser evils The world will seem little in your eyes to part with for God and his glory that could do nothing for you when God was angry and seems little or nothing to you in comparison with him appeased We read of none in the New Testament that did equal Paul in those inward fears and he seems to excell all in inward fortitude He that was most sad did best and most suffer 2 Cor. 7.5.4.8 9 10 11 16 c. Act. 20.24 c. 21.13 2 Cor. 11.23 28. 2. Perhaps it may be to prepare you for an active state 1. To be for eminent conduct in the Church as Job David and Hezekiah were God may intend you not for passengers only to save your selves but for Pilots to steer the Ship and save others who must be acquainted with the practice as well as art of navigation and experimentally know how to take the height and depth what are the Seas and Shores where the rocks and sands and on what point of the Compass the wind sets c. 2. Or perhaps for the eminent comfort of his chosen that you may be able with Paul to comfort others in any trouble with the same comforts wherewith you were comforted of God God may intend you for a monument of Consolation to the Christians about you and therefore hews and cuts you thus that he may prepare and polish you for this excellent employment and perswade them to the entertainment of what you have experimented I will tell you what he hath done for my Soul is usually an effectual argument 2 Cor. 1.4 6. Psal 34.4 8. 66.16 How should this quiet you The ax and the hammer are but to fit you for and fasten you to your place in the building God hath some high ends by these hard exigencies They neither come nor are like to go away empty handed Joseph is sold into Egypt a slave in it a strait prisoner c. But all tendeth to his publick usefulness and personal good How know you but you may find cause of calling your first-born after these troubles Manasseh as he did For God said he hath made me forget all my toil and all my fathers house Gen. 41.51 Q. 15. What if the Soul be running or run down into despair how may we prevent or recover it There is a pious despair an holy desperation as one * Perkins vol. 2. p. 365. calls it which driveth us out of our selves to draw in the succours of Grace As those that can never hope to attain Salvation by any strength sufficience works or worth of our own This should be kept up and cherished as that which quickens and carrieth the Soul to God in Christ 2 Cor. 3.4 5. 1 Pet. 1.21 Phil. 3.7 8 9. But there is also a passionate and perverse despair which driveth the Soul from that supream power and goodness by which alone it can arrive to salvation and rest 'T is of this that we are attempting the cure Now this ariseth out of a misrepresentation to themselves partly of their own condition and principally of the object in and from whom or the object by and through whom they should hope for Salvation as if they were not able to bestow it or not willing As then you would prevent this sore evil Direct 1. Put off thy distempered passions and put on thy reason Immoderate fears and sorrows will but hide the succours wherewith hope is wont to be sustained from sense or betray them unto Satan And like strong winds to a stirring Sea will make Conscience rise the more highly and rave the more incessantly and reject both the comforts and reproofs which are brought her What is my strength that I should hope Do ye imagin to reprove words and the speeches of one that is desperate Job 6.11 26. Remember thou art a man that is put under the ducture of reason and not under the power of brutish passions The inspiration of the Almighty hath given thee
〈◊〉 lightned or still in darkness are they sinceâ—â— and upright or but hollow and hypocriticâ—â— soft and tender or but hardened and obduraâ—â— These things will be put upon a distinct tâ—â—â— hereafter Secondly § 3 By the acts of your Conscienâ—â— acts speak the powers and habits wheâ— they are good acts speak them good 〈◊〉 acts speak them evil you shall know them their fruits a good tree cannot bring foâ— evil fruit neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit Mat. 7.16 17 18. Thus the acts of Conscience naturally good bespeak a good natural Conscience the acts of Conscience which are morally good bespeak a good moral Conscience and the acts of Conscience which are Evangelically good bespeak a good Evangelical Conscience Of this is the enquiry Q. May we conclude our Consciences are good because their acts are good I answer 1. § 4 Though you may not conclude it from a few occasional acts for even a bad Conscience may call and keep you to that which is good for a fit as long as the force of such an occasion or inducement lasts witness Saul Simon Magus and those Psal 78.34 38. 1 Sam. 24.16 c. 26.21 c. Act. 3.13 Yet when such acts become fixed and ordinary when though there may be some diversions as were in Job and Paul yet the main stream and current of its acts are carried in an Evangelical channel from sin to righteousness you may now conclude the goodness of your Conscience Job 27.3 4. cum 5. Rom. 7.25 cum praeced 2. Though the good acts of Conscience materially considered will not â—rgue the goodness of Conscience for there have been acts for their matter very good where the heart and mind have been very â—ad Joh. 8.9 Rom. 2.15 Psal 78.34 35 â—6 yet its good acts formally considered as â—e take in with the matter of these acts the â—anner also wherein and motives whereupon they are put forth do argue a good Conscience for such grapes cannot grow upon thistles nor can a salt fountain yield such sweet water We may argue from the effect to the cause from holy and good operations to a good and holy Origine as Paul doth in this case Heb. 13.18 Act. 24.16 What are the acts of your Conscience then what ordinarily doth it thence you may conclude its habitude and how 't is ordinarily disposed There are the elicit and imperate acts of Conscience how are these discharged is it from Evangelical motives and in an Evangelical manner Conscience is 1. to dictate truth and doth it dictate Gospel-truths and duties Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ To deny your selves and take up your cross To love your enemies and bless them that hate you To endure grief suffering wrongfully and overcome evâ—â— with good c. Act. 20.21 Mar. 8.34 Mat. 5.44 1 Pet. 2.19 Rom. 12.21 Are the Consciences not only enlightned in but engaged bâ— these commands But more particularly doth the Conscience dictate these Gospel-truths to be done upon Gospel-terms To be done 1 to and for Christ as your head and ruler And can your Conscience say in sincerity The Lord is oâ— Judg the Lord is our King the Lord is our Law-giver And that you esteem all but loss foâ— the excellency of the knowledg of Jesus Chriâ—â— your Lord Isa 33.22 Phil. 3.8 2. To be done in and through Christ as your Intercessour and Redeemer To do all in the name of our Lord Jesus with the rejecting of your own righteousness and resting upon the grace of God in him alone for your reward and acceptance Col. 3.17 Phil. 3.9 Dan. 9.18 1 Pet. 2.5 And doth not thy Conscience only dictate this in the Theory but descends to the Praxis And doth it not only inform this in the notion but doth it infer and induce it in the ordinary course of thy Conversation Thou hast then a good Conscience 2. Conscience is to deliver its testimony How doth your Conscience testifie Doth it testifie to and for the Gospel to the authority thereof above all laws over you to the amiableness thereof above all doctrines to you to the sin-subduing and soul-saving efficacy thereof upon you and to the singular and surpassing excellency thereof unto you Act. 4.19 20. Rom. 1.16 1 Thes 1.5 6. Psal 119.72 Doth Conscience testifie with and according to the Gospel Are you wont to pray for the especial teachings of the spirit in prevention of a false testimony To put your selves as in his sight and presence that it may produce a good and true testimony And do you prize and prefer the Spirits testimony before that of your spirits and are prevailingly steered by his witness with your Conscience and can provoke and call in with Peter his all-seeing knowledg Lord thou knowest all things and thou knowest that I love thee Job 34.32 Psal 139.23 24. 2 Cor. 2.17 Rom. 8.16 Joh. 21.17 This is a good Conscience I forbear to instance further Thirdly § 5 By the absoluteness and universality of the good Conscience that Conscience is not good at all that is not good in all Paul trusts he had a good Conscience but whence appeared it In all things he was willing to live honestly Heb. 13.18 Q. May we argue the goodness of our Conscience by and from their Vniversality and Absoluteness I answer you may and should as Paul doth § 6 but must attentively consider that the Universality by which you prove it is not to be an Universality in the degrees of goodness which is reserved for glory but an Universality as to the parts of goodness which is inseparable from grace 1 King 9.4 Luk. 1.6 1 Chron. 29.19 So then the Conscience that is unfeignedly good is universally good as it respects all the parts though it cannot here reach all the perfection and degrees of goodness I. § 7 'T is good as to all concernments good at first Table and good at second-Table-duties Willing in all things to live honestly Heb. 13.18 'T is not good at matters of holiness and bad at matters of honesty or good at matters of honesty and bad at matters of holiness but good both as to holiness and as to honesty whereof the good Conscience ever makes a good conjunction 1 Tim. 2.2 Luk. 8.15 Let the formal hypocrite be for inoffensiveness to God while he indulgeth himself in his offensiveness to man let the civil Justiciary be for inoffensiveness to man while be indulgeth his inobedience and offensiveness to God But the great exercise and endeavour of the good Conscience is to preserve it self void of offence both towards God the object of all those religious dues required in the first table and towards men the object of all that righteousness required in the second Table Act. 24.16 It provides for honest things not only in the sight of the Lord but in the sight of men 2 Cor. 8.21 Your Consciences are evil who are careless of either Table She that was for dividing the Child
that have this good Conscience Psal 19.12 13. 4 'T is good as concerns all our capacities § 10 The good Conscience goeth the whole compass of a Christian of Christianity and of his calling For the Christian the good Conscience will have him good without and good within 'T is for inward renovation as well as outward reformation for washing the heart the affections as well as whiting the appearances the actions It 's taken up most about the inward and hidden man calls first for truth in the inward parts the transforming of the Understanding into divine Truths and turning in of the Will unto and determining it upon the Divine goodness And you shall ever find a good Conscience followed with a good Conversation Ephes 4.23 24. Jer. 4.14 1 Pet. 3.4 Psal 51.6 Rom. 12.2 Deut. 26.17 1 Pet. 3.16 For Christianity the good Conscience will forgo none and is found good in all the doctrines and duties and graces both of faith and charity 'T is not only almost but altogether perswaded to be a Christian From the heart hath this Soul obeyed the form of Christian doctrine This Conscience is as were it cast into it and cometh from it as the vessel from the mould into which it was melted * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 1.5 Act. 26.28 29. Rom. 6.17 For our callings the good Conscience will be good in our particular Callings and relations as well as good in our general and as concerns Religion Good as a Subject as well as good as a Saint Innocency was found in me before God and also before thee O King I have done no hurt saith Daniel Chap. 6.22 Good as a Minister of a flock not seeking his own profit but the profit of many that they may be saved Good as a Master of a Family He and his house will serve the Lord He will walk within his house with a perfect heart 1 Cor. 10.33 Josh 24.15 Psal 101.2 In short the good Conscience considers the business as well as the benefit of the relation and calling Conscience directs the business that it be done in the Lord and as he hath limited discusses the business whether it be done or not and calls over the carriage of it and asks the son servant c. as Samuel did Saul What hast thou done And in a word dictates that all businesses be done for the Lord and for Conscience sake Ephes 5.22 chap. 6.10 1 Sam. 13.11 Jer. 8.6 Rom. 13.5 1 Pet. 2.18 19. How is it with you then let Conscience speak an evil Conversation doth loudly proclaim an evil Conscience Or is the outside clean but the inside mean while corrupt You name the name of Christ but are your natures still unchang'd and carnal You are good at the doctrine of Christianity but are you bad at the duties Good at the Temple and in Gods house but bad at your Trades and in your own Houses Good at the Bible with Judas but bad at the Bag Good at your general profession of Religion but bad in your particular places and relations You have then but an evil Conscience Mat. 23.25 28. 2 Tim. 2.19 21. Tit. 1.16 Jer. 7.4 13. Joh. 12.6 Luk. 16.10 11. But as for you whose Consciences run all points of the Compass respects all parts of your callings you into whose conversations Conscience like Christs coat is woven from the top throughout You that are willing in a◠things to live honestly to wear the comfort of a good Conscience as Paul did and Peter directs tacitely Heb. 13.10 2 Cor. 1.12 1 Pet. 3.16 5 'T is good in its whole Compass § 11 The Conscience that is truly good is throughly good This goodness is not at the list only but runs throughout the whole piece 'T is often called the perfect heart 2 Chron. 25.2 1 King 11.4 c. 15.3.14 There is no piece or part of the Conscience but is renewed with Grace though it be renewed but in part 'T is good at the rule in the first Proposition It hath learnt not only the truth of Jesus but the truth as 't is in Jesus Good at the reflection it is to make and the report it is to manifest in the second Proposition Good at the result from both in the third Proposition 'T is good as a rule good as a witness good as a judg So that the Christian is habitually disposed to do what it enjoyneth and endure what is imposed for Conscience sake 1 Pet. 2.19 Rom. 13.5 Is Conscience then sanctified throughout Hath the leaven of special grace leavened the whole lump Is your heart not only studied but sound in Gods statutes Then shall you not be ashamed 1 Thes 5.23 Psal 119.80 6 'T is good for continuance § 12 and in all conditions The good Conscience is good as concerns all times as well as all things I do exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of offence saith Paul Act. 24.16 Though the good Conscience be not always in exercise yet the good man doth exercise himself to have always a good Conscience A good Conscience saith one holds out constantly in a good cause without deflection and in a good course without defection * Dykes Good Cons c. 8. p. 113 Particular failings thereof cannot but be confessed but this is the prevailing frame and ordinary constitution of it Let the times frown or favour be times of prosperity to or persecution of the Church and cause of God yet the good Conscience whether it rain or shine holds on his way and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger Job 17.9 He may sometimes go out of his way but never will give it over This Soul breaketh for the longing it hath to Gods Testimonies at all times and hath respect unto his Statutes continually his heart may turn aside but is not turned back and though it may sometimes deal foolishly and most times feebly yet dealeth not falsly in Gods Covenant Psal 119.20 117. c. 44.17 18. Let Satan tempt Job the Sabeans trouble c. his Cattel his Corn his Sheep his Servants his Children and all are taken from him but this good Conscience still tarrieth with him He could hold fast none of that great confluence but still he holdeth fast this good Conscience as God himself is witness and Satan doth not withstand it Job 1.13 20. cum 2.3 Still he holdeth fast his Integrity Put it upon the enquiry then in your own spirits What! like Reuben unstable as waters Doth Conscience shift as the winds of worldly profit or preferment sit Now for the Word and now for the World with Demas Would you fain have saved Christ and his concernments as Pilat would from the cruelty of the Jews even now and do you by and by sentence him to death when others would else say you were no friends to Caesar What! good only while Jehojadah your Tutor or Minister c. lived and now grown evil Good only till Balak offers the wages of unrighteousness to
never prophesieth good but always evil to me Surely this is an evil Conscience Psal 2.3 Amos 5.10 2 Chron. 18.7 Or how do your Hearts answer and are accommodated to his Testimonies Have God's Commands a counter-part in your Consciences Have you hid his Law in your Hearts that you may not sin against him And are your Hearts enclined to perform his Statutes always even to the end Gods Law commands you Do your Hearts readily accept and return answer to it I will run the way of thy Commandments and have respect unto thy ways I will delight my self in thy Statutes I will not forget thy Word Psal 119.11 15 16 32 112. Gods Law chides and threatens you How do your Hearts rellish it and acquiesce under it Is it a kindness Do you count it an excellent Oyl Do you compose your selves to submission under it and to serve the ends of God by it Psal 141.5 Isa 39.8 1 Sam. 3.18 Mich. 7.9 Here is one answer of a good Conscience 3 To Gods Covenant § 24 The good Conscience gives answer to Gods Covenant 1. to the tenour of it God saith unto them which were not his people Thou art my people The good Conscience speaks back again Thou art my God O my Soul saith David thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my God Hos 2.23 Psal 16.2 Ezek. 11.20 c. 36.28 2. To the terms of it The Lord avoucheth Believers to be his peculiar people and that they should keep all his Commandments The good Conscience restipulates and avoucheth the Lord to be his God and to walk in his ways and to keep his Statutes and his Commandments c. Deut. 26.17 18. Exod. 19 5. 9.3 To the Truths in it The good Conscience hath a Transcript of all the important Truths of Gods Covenant This shall be the Covenant I will make with them after those days saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts Jer. 31.33 Heb. 8.8 9 10. Come then who is he that hath engaged his heart to approach unto me saith the Lord Have you taken the Lord for your God and alone chief good and given back your selves unto him his servants to obey and that for ever Have you none in Heaven but God and is there none upon Earth that you desire besides God And have you taken his Testimonies as an Heritage for ever and chosen the way of his Truths This may let you know that you have a good Conscience Jer. 30.21 22. c. 32.28 Psal 73.25 c. 119.30 111. I will give them an heart to know me that I am the Lord and they shall be my people and I will be their God for they shall return unto me with their whole heart Jer. 24.7 Is there a Conversion to God the Conscience is good But no Conversion no good Conscience Hath God commanded you saying Obey my voice and I will be your God and ye shall be my people and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you that it may be well with you But you hearken not nor encline your ears and walk in your own counsels and imaginations refuse Communion with God or reject any of the known Commands of God or regard any iniquity or any interest above God you have then evil Hearts and your Consciences are not right in the sight of God Jer. 7.23 24. c. 3.17 Numb 85.39 Psal 66.18 4 To the cause of God § 25 The good Conscience is for Gods cause above others above its own this is the bottom in which it sails all its concernments and therefore with Paul and with Moses is cool and gentle in transacting his own matters but quick and transported with great heat in the matters of God and Godliness forgives and is submissive to his own enemies but flames with zeal and is stiff and inflexible to Gods enemies Gal. 4.12 cum 5.12 Act. 13.9 c. Num. 12.3 cum Exod. 30.19 If the Cause of God calls for his part in action he is ready and willingly offers himself according to his office and the capacity and circumstances he is in If it calls for a passive part he can for Conscience toward God endure grief suffering wrongfully and is ready not only to be bound but also to die for his sake 2 Cor. 9.2 Judg. 5.2 9. 2 Cor. 8.3 1 Pet. 2.19 Act. 21.13 You that like Gallio care for none of these things that seek your own things not the things which are Jesus Christs whose Spirits are abundantly raised in your own Cause but ordinarily remiss in Gods Cause have no good Conscience Act. 18.17 Phil. 2.21 Psal 137.5 6. But you that prefer Hierusalem to your chief joy that say unto Zion because of the house of the Lord our God we will seek thy good that will very gladly spend and be spent for the good of Souls and glory of their Saviour that sacrifice your own Concernments to those of Christ and his Church and would rejoyce to be offered upon the sacrifice and service of their faith and rejoyce in your sufferings with respect to his service Receive this sign and may you reap the sense of a good Conscience Psal 137.6 122.9 2 Cor. 12.15 Phil. 2.17 Col. 1.24 5 To the counsels of God § 26 and his dispensations towards them The good Conscience would hold Communion with God in his Works as well as in his Word and doth especially consider of and commemorates what God hath done for his Soul Psal 107.43 94.19 66.16 Hath God accepted his person answered his prayers afforded him his presence of Grace c. it binds him the faster to God Blessed be God saith he who hath not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me He will love God the more choicely live with God the more closely lean on and trust in God the more constantly Ps 66.19 20.116 throughout 146.1 2. Doth God afflict and is angry with him with-draws the sense of his Salvation with-holds the spirit of Peace and the waters are come even into his Soul He considers and confesses his sin communes with himself converts and turns himself to God crieth for his Salvation chargeth his Soul to hope in to obey to remember and to repose it self in God Psal 32.5 c. 38.6 c. 42.5 11. 51.1 12. 77.1 13. 13.1 6. I should be too large if I left particular instances as may concern either the inward or outward man Put it upon the enquiry The Providences of God are various toward you How do you answer the acts of God and his aimes by them What no laying them to heart Happily he may have brought his judgments at the doors and yet do not you lay it to heart not so much as ask what have I done nor hearken to him for all this to observe his Counsels or obey his Commandments Happily he may have multiplied his mercies or you and do you not yet say in your hearts Let us now fear
it self evil as in the Polygamy of the Patriarchs And should not this power be good whose power is so great both for evil and for good 5. From the Principles it owneth 1. In Nature Doth not even Nature it self teach me that my Conscience be good whatsoever pains it cost me or whatever be the persecutions from men wherewith it may be consequenced The very Heathens have therefore prescribed means and pressed motives 2. In Grace how much more am I taught to exercise my self herein and engage my self hereunto by all the principles of godliness and by all the Promises of the Gospel 6. From the Offices it is to perform Can my Conscience do well if it be evil do not its Offices for God require that it be holy and good Conscience hath the office of 1. A Minister and is therefore obliged to be good a bad Minister being the worst of Men there is little hopes of its ministring good unless it be a good Minister 2. Of a Magistrate who should be most eminently and exemplarily good and a Minister to thee for good 3. Of a Witness 4. And of a Judg which must be good or they will do evil do evil themselves and not deliver Souls from extremity and injustice 3ly Direct 3 Apply you to the Causes of a good Conscience The Causes improved the effect will ensue These are principal or less principal 1 The Principal is God Every good and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of Lights The good Conscience is from the God of Conscience The God that made thy Conscience can alone make thy Conscience good Acknowledg him then in all thy ways and he shall direct thy paths Ask of him by prayer and strong crys as David did Thou art good and dost good teach me thy Statutes Incline my heart to thy Testimonies Let my heart be sound in thy Statutes Create in me a clean heart O God Jam. 1.17 Psal 119.36 68 80. 1. It proceedeth from the good-will of the Father The Inspiration of the Almighty giveth Understanding 'T is He that putteth Wisdom in the inward parts and giveth Understanding to the Heart Press thy Heart to consider it and plead with him in Supplication who delights to be urged with the liberousness of his own acts of Grace and giveth liberally to him that asketh Job 32.8 c. 38.36 Jam. 1.5 2. It is procured by the great worth of the Son who was made sin for us to take sin from us and in the likeness of sinful flesh by a sacrifice for sin hath condemned sin in the flesh and so brings us to God 2 Cor. 5.21 1 Joh. 3.5 Rom. 8.3 marg 1 Pet. 3.18 The good Conscience costs no less price than the Blood of God the Blood of Christ was shed that the besmeared Conscience might be sprinkled and purged for the peculiar service of God Act. 20.28 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Heb. 10.22 c. 9.4 Apply then the meritorious and medicinal vertue that is in the Blood of Christ for cure of those maladies and bruises that are in thy Conscience Apply it by an hand of Faith make it thine Put thou on the Lord Jesus Christ Bring it down to thy case let this Blood be sprinkled on thy Conscience apply it in ardent prayer come unto God by him present his Merit with thy malignity to Divine mercy Plead his worthiness in thy unworthiness his stripes for thy healing the righteousness of Christ for the renovation of thy Conscience Pursue thy petitions upon the price he hath paid 3. It is produced by the gracious work of the Spirit If Conscience be spiritual and gracious it comes from the spirit of Grace if pure if holy 't is by the power of the Holy Ghost 'T is carnal till the Spirit comes never spiritual till born of the Spirit It is the spirit of life which sets it free from the law of sin and death Joh. 3.5 Rom. 15.13 16. Rom. 8.2 What Evangelical Truths are imprinted on the good Conscience they are of the Spirit 's writing 2 Cor. 3.3 What Evangelical Testimony is imparted by the good Conscience 't is of the Spirit 's working of his working for us who also witnesseth therewith in us Rom. 8.15 c. 9.1 Put not off the Spirit then in its motions and essays upon you which he maketh ply to him with all diligence and dearness put him not off with delays much less shouldst thou provoke him with a denial Let Steven speak why the Jews were uncircumcised in heart Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost Act. 7.51 Rather pray in the Spirit which God hath promised to pour out And who knows but Beggars may be blest in that branch of the Promises of his Grace I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and do them Prov. 1.23 Luk. 11.13 Ezek. 36.27 2 The less principal Causes are 1. an operative faith and love within you 2. the ordinances for faith and love without you 1. Let there be an operative faith and love within you These like Judah and Simeon his Brother come up into each others lots to subdue the Canaanites and set right the Conscience Let there be Charity out of a pure heart and Faith unfeigned and thou canst not be left without a good Conscience which the Apostle lodgeth in the midst of these as the Tabernacle of the Congregation was in the midst of the Camp Judg. 1.3 1 Tim. 1.5 Numb 2.17 Both of them have a blessed operation and tendency first to purifie then to pacifie the Conscience Of which hereafter 2. Live in the Ordinances for Faith and Love Be much in Praying Hearing Reading Meditation Conference the end of all these Commandments of God is to make thy Conscience good Cry after him and continue in them for this end make God's end thy errand to them and your heart shall live that seek God 1 Tim. 1.5 Psal 69.32 You wrong your own Souls that wave the Ordinances of our Saviour How many an evil Conscience hath been healed and cured by them How many a bad Conscience have been made good and how many a good Conscience have been made better The way is as open to you as it was to them follow God in them forsake not the ways of his Gospel you shall know if you follow on to know the Lord. Continue at the gates of Wisdom come for Wisdom to her gates and thou shalt not come off a loser yea if thou criest after knowledg and liftest up thy voice for understanding If thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledg of God Prov. 8.33 ad finem Hos 6.3 Prov. 2.1 6. 4. Attend Conscience throughout Direct 4 If Conscience be not good throughly 't is not good truly See that this goodness go throughout Conscience To this is requisite 1. a right apprehension of
to have that he pluck it away also and that he punish this violence and their voluntary resistance with a final remorslesness Psal 51.10 1 Tim. 1.19 Jer. 9.3 Rom. 1.28 9. Inordinate cares shame and fears which overcharge Conscience and are offended with the Cross You must expect contempt and to endure the Cross if you will exercise and enjoy a good Conscience shame and fear decline those and you must therefore decline these divert them rather upon their proper Objects Be ashamed and afraid of sin as the greatest evil and of losing the sight and salvation of God who is the greatest good as you are advised by the Apostle for having a good Conscience 1 Pet. 3.14 15 16. c. 4.12 13 16. 'T is no matter of shame or fear to suffer for Conscience 't is a fearful thing indeed to suffer in or from Conscience But â—â—o this is thank-worthy an expression beyond any other in all the Bible if a man for Conscience toward God endure grief suffering wrongfully 1 Pet. 2.19 Secondly There are some things to be done If you would ensure the custody of a good Conscience 1. Employ your strictest care Sin and Satan lay their main Batteries against this the good Conscience is the grand Citadel of a gracious Christian get this and they get all keep this and ye keep all You are proportionably concerned to preserve the outer guards in your Conversations but you are principally concerned to preserve the inner and main guard of your Conscience Keep this and it will keep thee But remember as it was not gotten idly so neither is it kept but with industry Keep thy heart with diligence nay with all diligence and above all keeping and good reason for out of it are the issues of life Prov. 2.10 11. c. 4.20 21 23. 2. Extend this care to all the sorts and kinds of a good Conscience To the pure peaceable sincere soft and tender Conscience c. and touching which we shall instruct hereafter yea and to the whole circuit and compass of Conscience Take a prospect of every part in every proposition that it may be good both as a Rule and as a Witness and as a Judg Of which also you may expect in the ensuing parts of this Discourse 3. Hear Conscience Conscience hath a voice within you as well as Christ in his Word without you a voice * of correction in case of evil Why art thou cast down O my soul c Psal 43.5 A voice of counsel and direction for continuance and growth in good as David's had My reins also instruct me in the night-season Psal 16.7 Hear counsel then and receive instruction that thou mayst be wise in the latter end Conscience never hardens till it is not heard the more attention is given by you the more authority is gained to it and the better advise it giveth to you Attend the directions and discourse of Conscience then as Joseph and Nehemiah did who thereby kept an unspotted Conscience amidst all aspersions and calumnies Prov. 19.20 Gen. 39.9 Neh. 6.11 4. Estate it often by its Copy or Original rather the Holy Scriptures These are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the prime rule and standard by which you must pass and square Conscience Christians must write them a Copy of this Law in the Book of Conscience if they would be kept incorrupt and from crooked ways and examine this exscript often by that as the Kings of Israel must Conscience is to be instead of a mouth to Scriptures as Aaron was to Moses but the Scripture is to be instead of a God to Conscience as Moses was to Aaron Deut. 17.17 18 19. Exod. 4.16 Conscience is to every man as his Book as Bernard * Vnicuique suus libeâ— est conscientiu Conferamus itaque libros nostroscum librovitae ne fortè in illa ultima discussione abjiciantur si non fuerint emendati De Cons l. 1. c. 9. well observeth but such as must be examined by the Bible compared with and corrected by it Order my steps in thy Word saith David Thy Testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors Psal 119.133 24. Order Conscience by this through all its offices and proceeds Is Conscience a rule The Word must be the Regula regulans Conscience is but Regula regulata Conscience must take the rule from Christ in his Word and then give it to the Christian for the weighing of his Estate and Actions The Word is the lamp for the feet and light for the paths Psal 119.105 Is Conscience a witness If you look that it witness the Truth and in truth have it to the Law and to the Testimony Isa 8.20 Is Conscience a Judg If you would have it judg righteous judgment away with it to the Word of Righteousness which shall judg you in the last day Joh. 12.48 5. Engage the choice and constant resolutions of your wills It is well with Conscience while the Will is constant and cleaves unto God with full purpose let the Will be preserved steady and its welfare will be preserved in safety The weal of Conscience much-what follows the Will 's choice and when this is found divided that is faulty and diseased Act. 11.23 Hos 10.2 'T is said 1 Tim. 1.19 they put away a good Conscience and concerning Faith made ship-wrack Their loss did not arise as from its next cause from other's violence but their own voluntariness Satan seducers sufferings could never have pulled it away if they themselves had not put it away They made ship-wrack rather than endured ship-wrack Well then if you would still have a good Conscience be willing in all things to live honestly Heb. 13.18 6. Eye God's all-seeing knowledg Let thy Conscience keep its eye upon God who keepeth his eye upon thy Conscience Set the Lord alway before thy face with David and set thy self always before the face of the Lord with Paul As of God as in the sight of God so steer thy whole course Keep thy Conscience on God and God will keep thy Conscience who hath said Walk before me and be thou perfect Psal 16.8 2 Cor. 2.17 Gen. 17.1 Conscience is a knowledg together with the Lord look to it then in every creek and turn of thy life Doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it and he that keepeth thy soul doth not he know it Prov. 24.12 Psal 44.21 The prospect David took of Gods omniscient knowledg preserved a tender gracious and holy Conscience Psal 139. I have kept his precepts and thy testimonies saith he elsewhere for all my ways are before thee Eye him that is invisible with Moses whose eye is upon all thy goings Tell Conscience as Laban told Jacob No man is with us But see God is witness betwixt me and thee And forget not his Mizpah that is a Beacon or Watch-tower and say to it with him The Lord watch between me and thee when we are absent one from another Psal 119.168 Heb. 11.27 Gen. 31.49 50.
we get or obtain a pure Conscience Answ This enquiry is not how we may get it pure from some new actual tincture of which see Q. 7. but from its old habitual taint and pollution for which take these Directions 1. Behold the necessity of a pure Conscience and be awakened 1. Without this there is no Society with God He is of purer eyes than to entertain you in your habitual impurity There is no having nor so much as hoping Communion with or a propriety in him unless Conscience be purified in you Hab. 1.13 Psal 18.26 1 Joh. 3.3 Jam. 4.8 2 Without this there is no Salvation by God Wash thine Heart as ever thou wouldst to Heaven There is nothing entereth which is unclean that happy place is reserved only for the pure in heart Jer. 4.14 Rev. 21.27 Psal 24.3 4. A polluted Conscience is neither fit for the business nor blessedness of that pure and perfect condition 3 Without this there is no serving of God at least with acceptance to him or with advantage to you The Heart must be purified that would attempt his Presence Josh 24.19 Heb. 9.14 c. 10.22 Jam. 4.8 Till Conscience be purified the pure God will not endure thy presence nor will thy impure Conscience easily bear his Presence 4 Without this there is no sincerity in thee Clean or pure acts will never put ye beyond an hypocrite without a clean or pure Heart 'T is not a pure Conversation but a pure Conscience that speaks thy condition prosperous and secures from the condemnation of Pharisees Psal 73.1 2 Tim. 1.3 Mat. 23.25 29. 5 Without this there is no security for thee thy condition can never be safe till Conscience be sanctified All that God secures Conscience is but on this condition If thou be pure and upright And for the security of Conscience 't is grounded upon the sincerity of Conscience 't is first pure then peaceable as David points us in his prayer and 't is the pure in Heart are first pronounced Blessed by our Saviour 1 Thes 5.23 Job 8.6 Jam. 3.17 Ps 51.7 8. Mat. 5.8 2. Behold the nature of an impure Conscience and be ashamed Thou art not so pure in thine own eyes but thou art as impure and vile in God's eyes Be convinced of this and thou wilt be cleansing that and begging him to cleanse thee Prov. 30.12 Isa 65.5 Mich. 6.11 13. Job 40.4 1 Think what is defiled Conscience that choice that curious piece that so dignifieth Man next the Angels and differenceth him from the Brutes Conscience that is God's Tabernacle in Man and maketh Man the Temple of God Conscience that is chief among the faculties and is under God to command the whole frame of our Hearts and Lives What Conscience that by Creation was like the Nazarites purer than Snow whiter than Milk more ruddy than Rubies whose polishing was of Saphire should be now blacker than a coal and she that was clothed in Scarlet should embrace Dunghils That thy Gold should become thus dim and the most fine Gold be changed into dirt This cannot but procure a Lamentation especially when thou shalt consider that this thou hast contracted upon thy self who knowest how great a crime it is if through thy means the Conscience but of a weak brother should be desiled Prov. 20.27 1 Cor. 3.17 Lam. 4.1 9. 1 Cor. 8.7 2 Think what it doth defile A defiled Conscience 1. defiles all of thee it defiles the Man the whole Man the Spirit Soul and Body are defiled even the Mind the most pure and precious part is defiled wheresoever the Conscience is defiled Mat. 15.18 1 Thes 5.23 Tit. 1.15 2. It defiles all to thee there is nothing pure to thee The taking of God's Covenant into thy mouth thy very Table-comforts thy Meat become a sin and snare to thee Conscience being unclean whatever it toucheth doth become unclean likewise Tit. 1.15 Psal 50.16 17. 69.22 Lev. 5.2.3 It defiles all that comes from or is done by thee It streams sin upon every service Thy Civil actions thy very plowing is sin and thy sacred actions thy very praying is sin likewise For who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Mat. 15.18 Prov. 21.4 c. 28.9 Job 14.4 3. Betake ye to the known provision which God hath made for purifying the Conscience and be active The pure Conscience is from God as the principal Cause 't is he that purifieth and he that pacifieth the Conscience He that cureth its diseases and cleanseth it from defilements He creates and so the Heart is clean 1 Thes 5.23 Ezek. 36.25 Psal 51.7 10. But though it be his work principally 't is our work partly too as himself presseth it Wash ye make you clean c. Isa 1.16 'T is his work to bless the means unto purifying and our work to be in the use of those means whereby he purifieth Asking the mercy of him and applying the means to us 1 Then ask this mercy from him with the greatest ardour thou may'st acknowledging thy pollution with shame and sorrow aggravating it also in his presence abhorring thy self and acknowledg with thy impotency his power as who alone can purifie thee So David Psal 51.2 11. His promises of it do not preclude but should provoke rather thy prayers for it Ezek. 36.25 cum 37. 2 Apply thee to the means and the means to thee with the greatest activity thou can'st These are the Word Water and Blood * See Sheffield's good Cons c. 2. p 33. c. 1 The Word Ye are clean through the Word saith Christ Job 15.3 This is not only pure in it self but purifying the Soul that attendeth the preaching of it Psal 19.8 Joh. 17.17 Ephes 5.26 Submit thy Conscience to the Commands of it Purity is the end of them and will be the effect in thee 1 Tim. 1.5 1 Pet. 1.22 If you obey Then 2. Skill thy Conscience in the Promises of it Every Promise is both a motive to and means for cleansing as of the flesh so likewise of the Spirit But there is an especial Promise in God's absolute Covenant I will sprinkle clean water on you and ye shall be clean Which you may urge upon your self in secret and urge God with in supplication 2. Cor. 7.1 Jer. 33.8 Ezek. 3.6.25 cum 37. 2 Water Ezek. ibid. Ephes 5.26 The Sacrament of Water should not only be remembred by thee but re-inforced on thee by due and doubled consideration Though I cannot say to thee as Ananias said unto Saul Arise and be Baptised and wash away thy sins if thou wert baptized in thy infancy yet I must counsel thee to apply thy Baptism by fetching arguments from thence and by eying the ability and efficacy of the Blood and Spirit of Christ thereby exhibited till thou findest the answer thereunto of a good Conscience toward God And then thy Infant-baptism will be as effectual to the washing away of thy sins in thy adult estate as the Circumcision of the Hands was
thy present succours and supports Your sighs are many and your heart is faint but the seed of peace as well as of grace remaineth Distressed you are but not in despair cast down but not utterly for the Lord upholdeth you with his hand Whither had Satan and your own sins and sorrows hurried you if the everlasting arms had not been under you Lam. 1.22 Psal 97.11 1 Joh. 3.9 2 Cor. 4.8 Psal 37.24 Deut. 33.27 Besides are there not some secrets hints and intimations now and then suggested you that your grounds of peace are better and God is better pleased with you than your prejudices will admit Your beloved standeth behind the wall but doth he not look forth sometimes also at the windows and shew himself through the lattess And must you not tell him if you would speak truth with the Psalmist When my spirit was overwhelmed within me then thou knewest my path Cant. 2.9 Psal 142.3 Would you hereupon argue it with your selves as the Psalmists doth it would cheer and quicken hopes if not quiet your hearts He reasons off his anxious conceptions hereby at one time and rebukes his hasty conclusions against himself at another Psal 42.11 43.5 31.22 Q. 11. Whether and how far a pious Christian besides the loss of his peace may be burdened with and live under great perplexity and distress of Conscience No doubt he may if we mind but what is â—ready delivered The premisses on Q. 8. and 〈◊〉 may seem proof enough But in that the â—ghs and self-censures of many precious Saints â—â—e such as call upon us to behold and see if there were ever any sorrow like unto their â—rrow Or if ever under the whole Heaven â—â—th been done upon any pious Soul as hath â—een done upon their particular selves I am â—erswaded therefore to be more particular * See Symond's Deserted Soul cap. 25 36. Lam. 1.12 Dan. 12.2 I say therefore your Conscience may not only deny you peace but denounce war and the dreadfullest punishments and yet you may be devoutly pious Instances have been already premised Q. 9. and more will be added in the progress of this Discourse Be it but admitted or granted which hath been already asserted and made good that a pious Christian may lose the Evidences of Grace and may look upon himself as in the estate of nature and I need say little to confirm the Proposition that he may be in deep distress and passionate perplexities Whether Conscience be considered or the concourse of other causes to afflict him in such a condition as this 1 Let Conscience be considered Your Conscience was created with a capability of sustaining the evils of sense as well as the evils of loss By her receptive capacity she is disposed to take in the impressions of both and as well to let in the sense of guilt and misery upon the perpetration of sin as the sense of good and felicity upon perseverance in sanctity By its active capacity it is disposed to accuse and condemn as well as to acquit and clear Yea the activity of Conscience doth much further the Christians anguish and sharpens the sword in the hand of Conscience and doubleth its strokes especially while unbelieâ— leaves the Conscience destitute of the succours she should receive from Christ and the Covenant c. without her and lays her naked and deplorably subject to her own cutting accusations and killing aggravations of this estate without the least resistance from within her Besides the authority of Conscience doth much heighten and hasten on such self-afflictions while Conscience is both law and plaintiff and witness and judg and executioner and all this from God So that if the Soul would in this case make its appeal to him Conscience doth arrest and stay it Nay saith she 't is God that chargeth God that condemneth you I am but his mouth his officer c. Yea hereupon it aggravateth and abetteth the sadness of this Soul's estate If I that know or can recall so few things by you if your heart condemn you God is greater than your heart who knoweth all things So that if the Conscience of the pious may thus conclude of their estate as hath been premised to be without God and grace c. the product must needs be calamitous Distress of Conscience is the deepest distress the bones are dried by it the spirit is broken by it And Solomon puts it to requestion Who can bear it Prov. 17.22 c. 15.13 c. 18.14 2 What a concourse of other causes is there often times that all wring their wormwood into this bitter cup Shall I mention and but mention some of them 1. The principal is God He doth not only â—ide his face from his yet at that the Soul is â—oubled but he encreaseth his frowns sharpâ—eth his eyes against them tears them in his â—rath as was Job's case yet a none-such for â—ncerity Psal 30.7 Job 13.24 c. 16.9 c. 19.11.1.8 He tells his Church I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy with the chastisement of a cruel one c. He tells others I was wroth and smote him I hid me and was wroth c. Jer. 30.14 Isa 57.17 Oh how must this cut the Saint at the heart and fill his mind with consternation and his mouth with complaints That God his God on whom he had pitcht all his hopes in whom he had placed all his happiness with whom he had sometime as he then thought such pleasant intercourse and of whom he had such precious experiences that this God so good so great so desirable so dear so respected so related c. hath unsheathed his sword against him or rather sheathed it in him and made Conscience his best friend to become now his bitterest foe 2. The procuring cause is Sin which is now set forth before the Soul in its nature number dismal sequel dreadful circumstances c. which are as Oyl to the flames and winds to this Sea of troubles that make Conscience rage and roar in more abundance Wo to me that I have sinned I am not able to look up An heavy burden are they God is pressed with them Christ was pierced by them they are too heavy for me Lam. 5.16 Psal 40.12 38.3 4. 3. The promoting causes are several Satan roareth as a Lion upon them and would swallow them up in these sorrows and castâ— in his fiery darts to keep up those flamesâ— 1 Pet. 5.8 2 Cor. 2.7 cum 11. Ephes 6.16 Sinners either censure or scoffe at them which even slays the broken in heart Ay! this is that your religion comes to I thought you would grow mad c. Psal 109.16 25. 69.26 Act. 26.24 Saints it may be either stand aloof as strangers or smite with causeless and cruel censures yea even good men great friends and such as have been of our most inward and intimate familiarity and perhaps of our own family Which must needs add weight to their burdens Such
for an appointed time but at the end it shall speak and not lie Though it tarry wait for it because it will surely come it will not tarry beyond God's appointment or your advantage 2 Cor. 1.3 4. Ephes 1.9 Psal 85.8 Heb. 10.37 Hab. 2.7 Be patient therefore there is some peace even in patience for it calms and stills the passions and gives the soul the possession of it self and 't is seldom but peace ensueth on patience for this hath the promise of it I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my cry He brought me up also out of an horrible pit out of the miry clay c. Jam. 5.7 8. Luk. 21.19 Psal 40.1 2 3. Isa 40.27 31. c. 26.9.64.4 Direct 3. Abet hope This will be an Anchor sure and stedfast in the most astonishing tempests when you cannot use either sails or rudder What though thy heart be cast down there is no happiness nothing but horrour in hand yet shouldst thou charge thy Soul with David Hope thou in God Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy and with him there is plenteous redemption His compassions fail not he hath corrected thee but he hath not consumed thee And whence is this but of his mercy This I recall to mind saith the Church in her sore and nigh sinking condition therefore have I hope Heb. 6.19 Psal 42.5 11. 130.7 Lam. 3.21 22. I grant your case is deplorable but not desperate Your recovery is ardnous but not impossible Others have been restored Job David Heman c. whose feet were as fast yea faster locked in these stocks than yours If you make reflection you 'l meet with little or no reason to let your hopes flag and fail at this rate Is there not the same way open still the same mercy in God the same merit in Christ the same ministration of the Covenant Are you not as capable of peace now when God hears you praying crying lamenting after him and sees you pursuing panting after him and pressing on him as you were heretofore when he heard little else perhaps than blasphemies saw you weltring in your blood and yet was then found of you when you sought him not Why should you cast away those confidences of hope or not rather hold them fast Heb. 10.35 c. 3.6 14. Besides the valley of Achor i.e. of trouble which had its name from Achans troubling them and there being troubled of the Lord may be for a door of hope So great a darkness may presage and be but the immediate precursor of a dawning When I am weak i.e. in my self then am I strong i.e. in my Saviour saith Paul When his feet were fastest in the stocks his liberty was nearest and his bands were loosed When Job's and David's distresses did most overflow their banks then did their most peace and joy flow into their bosoms God comforteth those that are cast down Yea when men are cast down then thou shalt say there is lifting up and he shall save the humble person Josh 7.26 Hos 2.15 2 Cor. 12.10 Act. 16.24 26. Job 42. Psal 31.22 2 Cor. 7.6 Job 22.29 Direct 4. Adhere yet to him and that with full purpose You have lost your assurance this is expired in lamentation and anguish but do not let go your adherence this will end in life and happiness at the last God's end by putting you to feed on husks is not to keep you off but to quicken you home to your father's house not that your Souls should drive further from him among the shelfs and sands of despair but draw nearer to him in the still and safe waters of dependance Act. 11.23 Deut. 30.20 Psal 83.16 Hos 5.15 He expects that you cleave to him with steadier resolutions and commit your selves to him with a steadier recumbence 1. Cleave to him more stedfastly You that fear him are called on to cleave unto him And alas whither can you go from him and find the good and peace you look for Thou mayst call for thy lovers but among all thy lovers there is none can comfort thee while God is wounding and chastising thee Is it not thy loosness and inconsistency with God which hath brought thee into these labyrinths of confusion and mazes of perplexities Call back thy Soul hither Return unto thy rest O my Soul My Soul wait thou only upon God And keep thy Soul here For there is no quiet off the center But every thing is quiet in its center Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help whose hope is in the Lord his God Deut. 10.20 Lam. 1.2 19. Jer. 30.14 Psal 116.7 62.5 146.5 I doubt your restlesness groweth out of irresolution You are not throughly resolved for God as your center and chiefest good Or how is it that you are so easily carried from him or cleave no more entirely to him a stone needs not to be driven downward nor fire upward they affect their center and acquiesce in it nor are drawn from it but by force and violence Come then and gather up your resolutions for God Be ye stedfast and immovable Yea thou maist humbly tell him I will not let thee go except thou bless me No though thou hast sore broken me in the place of Dragons and covered me with the shadow of death my heart shall not turn back from thee While I live I will serve thy Majesty and when I die it shall be at the feet of thy mercy O how such prayers and purposes have power with God and prevail Lo this is the rest wherewith we may cause the weary to rest and this is the refreshing 1 Cor. 15.58 Gen. 32.26 28. Psal 44.18 19. Isa 28.12 2. Commit your selves to God more steadily I see your case comes off but badly from your hands will you cast it once at length into God's hand Unto him will you commit your cause Cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee Commit thy way and works unto the Lord trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass and thy thoughts shall be established But if you think to warm you by your own sparks and to walk in the light of your fire This shall ye have of mine hand saith the Lord ye shall lie down in sorrow Job 5.8 Psal 55.22 37.5 Prov. 16.3 Isa 50.11 Unbelief like a growing torrent will bear down all the props and pillars of hope and obedience before it and leaves thy duties bare without spirit or strength Nor wilt thou be able to extricate thy mind out of that maze of doubtful and perplexed reasonings wherein she is intangled without this exercise of faith Obj. Ah but may such as I dare to adventure it Will it not be presumption in me to transfer over my case to him and trust in God Answ No in no wise 1. Devolve thy cares and case thou must some-where or thou must still droop under them and die away