testimony of conscience with them at the great day of account That in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world Under the old covenant God had a Tabernacle of witnesse which was the inner Court where the Arke was in which the Law was to give testimony against the Israelites when they did evill So God hath now under the new covenant a Tabernacle of witnesse and this is the inner Court to wit the heart where conscience is to give testimony against us when we transgresse And therefore let us set a watch upon our hearts and tongues and hands and intreat God with David to hold up our goings in his pathes that our foot-steps slip not Psal 17.5 I note this because I see multitudes live as if there were neither conscience nor God nor Divell Heaven nor Hell The speech of the Prophet of old may I sitly here make use of Men were then so audaciously wicked that the very shew of their countenance did testifie against them they declared their sinnes as Sodome and hid them not Woe unto their soule saith God they have rewarded evill unto themselves Isa 3.9 Thus may I say of multitudes amongst us now The very shew of their countenance doth testifie against them The wanton eye the fiery eye the drousie walling eye the burly Malmsey nose the painted face Anticke postures gestures and fashions doe all as Iobs wrinkles in his face testifie against thousands that they little lay to heart this doctrine That conscience can speake and tell all their doings to God Proud Hamans time-serving Doegs drunken Nabals whorish Iesabels scoffing Ishmaels declare their sinnes as Sodome and hide them not and as for conscience turne him off with a glasse of Sacke and a Play-house But let me say to these wretches with the Prophet Woe unto their soules for they have rewarded evill unto themselves You have made a long blacke bloody bill for conscience to open against you the last day of this Terme to wit at death which shall be tried the first day of the next Terme to wit as soone as you are out of the body and then will conscience give testimony so strongly against you that if you would give ten thousand Rivers of Oyle nay if you would give the fruit of your bodie for the sinne of your soule it shall doe no good the cause shall goe against you and sentence shall be past upon you and then shall you know by woefull experience the meaning of that place Rom. 2.5 But after thy hardnesse and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thy selfe wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God Wherefore three things I would give in counsell to you all seeing conscience can give testimony concerning the simplicity or hypocrisie of mans waies suspend him not sleight not his language but give diligent attention to what he saith Let us not stop the mouth of conscience seeing he can speake and tell us what we are Many there are that labour to stop the mouth of conscience when he tels them plainely of their sinnes and to destroy that divine power which conscience hath to speake in them and to them The Apostle Peter gives us a hint of these where he saith Scoffers shall come in the last time and shall say where is the promise of his comming For this saith he they are willingly ignorant of that by the world of God the Heaveni were of old 2 Pet. 3.5 When conscience told those scoffers that would live in their sinnes and scoffed at the day of judgement saying where is the promise of his comming that God made the world by his word and drowned it quickly by his Word when it was overspread with wilfull wickednesse and therefore you have like cause to looke for like swift misery for as much as you are so wilfully and desperately wicked This sharpe and plaine language of conscience they could not indure and therefore willingly laboured to darken this divine light and to silence this faithfull House-Chaplaine Thus 't is with many sinners now Conscience now and then delivers stinging language to their soules for such and such sinnes and then they set to lift this faithfull Monitor out of his place and because they cannot possibly doe this being so immediately inducted by God they strive to gagge his mouth and kill him by running wilfully into wickednesse against all checkes and reproofes of conscience and friends as men desperately resigning up their soules to the divell because God will not humour and satisfie them in their owne waies and so ship wracke faith conscience soule and all for ever That which oft-times followes upon this is selfe-stabbing selfe-drowning selfe-hanging selfe-poysoning and the like This is crying wickednesse and incurable wickednesse 'T is crying wickednesse to strive to gagge and kill conscience 'T is Dei-cidium to murder God Conscience is no other but Gods Vicegerent in the soule or rather Gods judiciary presence in the soule So farre forth therefore as a man wilfully doth injury to this he doth commit high treason against the King of Heaven 'T is to stab the Judge of all the world as he sits upon the Bench speaking Law and Justice which very nature abhorres as desperatly divellish And 't is incurable wickednesse for 't is to destroy the first medium of conversion by which the holy Ghost workes in man to gagge and kill conscience The first thing that the Spirit of God doth when he come to convert a sinner is to convince his conscience and to make that sting him for his sinnes and then stirre him up to long after and to seeke for Christ and then gives faith in Christ and so saves the sinner Now he that strives to silence conscience undermines his owne salvation in the very foundation and first stone thereof He doth wilfully and wickedly prevent his owne soule of all the good that God doth in this way to bring sinners home to himselfe Thou doest little consider O desperate wretch what great wickednesse thou committest that strivest to gagge and kill conscience Thou committest double murther in a spirituall sense which is murther of the highest kind thou doest murther God and thine owne soule And therefore I beseech you all to take heed of this practice Seeing God hath given conscience ability and parts to speake let him speake freely though he speake never so sharply and plainely and doe not check him 2 Nay doe not sleight him which is the next thing I would a little presse upon you A man that can speake and speake to good purpose though he be an enemy we so farre honour him as to let him speake out fully what he hath to say and not turn away the eare from him give but this honour to conscience Many deale with conscience as Felix did with Paul he willingly heard Paul a while concerning the faith of Christ but when he came to reason of righteousnesse temperance and judgement to come
he did eate of his bread he had favours in commune with the rest of the Apostles and vet plaved the traytor to Christ this Christ upon this occasion you know declared When the holy Ghost after a transcendent manner fell upon the Apostles that they spake with divers tongues some sons of Belâ—…l mocked them and said These 〈◊〉 are fall of new Wine then was a speciall symmachicall occasion for Peter to declare his uprightnesse for the glory of God and for the credit of that honourable society of which he was to declare to all the world that they were not drunken as the blinde worldlings conceived but transcendently filled with the holy Ghost which the Apostle seriously considered and answerably with much courage he declared himselfe But Peter standing up with the eleven lifted up his voice and said Ye men of Iudas and all ye that dwell as Ierusalem be this knowne unto you and hearken unto my words for these are not drunken as ye suppose seeing it is but the third houâ—e of the day but this is that which was spoken by the Prophet Ioel c. Act. 2.14,15,16 4 Nationall occasions and tunes for the declaration of sincerity after a speciall manner are when good or evill after a speciall manner is conversant about in relation not to this or that particular person but to a whole Nation When bloody Pharoah would have destroyed all Israel then was a speciall Nationall occasion for Moses and the rest of the worthies of the Lord to declare their sincerity for the glory of God and the good of his Church which Moses seriously considered and answerably with much courage carried himselfe towards Pharoah upon all occasions though a King he told him his owne and held him strictly to Gods termes and though he shuffled and shifted and went forth and backe as a halting rotten Prince to worke Moses about to decline a little from Gods will yet so sincerely did Moses declare himselfe to God and all his people Exo. 10.26 that he would not yeeld to Pharaoh a hoofe nor swerve from a tittle of what God bid him to stand for So when Balaam would have cursed all Israel for wealth and honour then was a speciall Nationall occasion for all Israelites indeed to declare their sincerity by wrestling with the Lord by prayer to countermine all his enchantments which they seriously considered and answerably with much unweariednesse doubtlesse did or else doubtlesse God would never have withstood Balaam in that admirable manner as he did and have forc'd him still to blesse when he meant to curse When Israel committed whoredome with the daughters of Moab and joyned themselves unto Baal-Peor and the anger of the Lord kindled threatning to destroy all then was a speciall Nationall occasion for Moses to declare his sincerity that he loved the glory of God above the lives of his brethren which he seriously considered and answerably with much courage did And Moses said unto the Iudges of Israel slay ye every one his men that were joyned to Baal-Peor Num. 25.5 So when Israel had made them a molten Calfe in the absence of Moses and God would have destroyed them all at once and have made Moses a great Nation if he would have let him alone in his way then was a speciall Nationall occasion indeed for Moses to declare his uprightnesse that he loved the lives of his brethren above all honours and preferments this world could afford him and that he loved the glory of God which would have beene much blemished by the heathen if he had destroyed Israel more than his owne life which be seriously considered and answerably declared himselfe And Moses returned unto the Lord and said Oh this people have committed a great sinne c. Yet now if thou wilt forgive their sinne and if not blot me I pray thee out of thy booke Exod. 32.31,32 When Israel halted betweene God and Baal making a mixture of divine worship and idolatrous together one to colour the other that poison might be swallowed without scrupling to the speedy and unsensible perdition of soules then was a speciall Nationall occasion for the Prophets of the Lord to declare their uprightnesse in crying against halting not fearing man who shall be made as grasse which Elijah seriously considered and answerably with much courage carried himselfe And Eliah came unto all the people and said how long halt ye betweene two opinions if the Lord be God follow him but if Baal then follow him and the people answered him not a word When Azariah the Prophet told Asa and all Juda that their halting in Gods worship was the cause of all their troubles and that if they did zealously returne to that purity of divine worship which God required and shake off mans inventions it should goe well with them and that God would still bee with them for good and not for hurt as he had been then was a speciall Nationall occasion for that people to declare their sincerity their love to the purity of Gods ordinances more then to their owne inventions which they seriously considered and answerably with much zeale and life did And they entred into a covenant to sâ—eke the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soule that whosoever would not seeke the Lord God of Israel should be put to death whether small or great whether man or woman 2 Chro. 15.12,13 So when Haman had plotted the death of all the Jewes then was a speciall Nationall occasion for Mordecai and Esther to declare their sincerity for the glory of God and the good of his Church which they seriously observed and answerably with much courage carried themselves Then Esthâ—r bad them returne Mordecai this answer Goe gather together all the Iewes that are present in Shushan and fast ye for me and neither cate nor drinke three daies night or day I also and my maidens will fast likewise and so will I goe in unto the King which is not according to the Law and if I perish I perish Esther 4.15,16 The reasons why God in the course of his providence brings about speciall occasions for the declaration of sincerity are these First that the world and the divell may see that his people are indeed sincere Speciall occasions of triall are like Nebuchadnezzars fiery Furnace heat seven times hotter then ordinary which will thoroughly discover Gold from drosse These made knowne Iobs sincerity so universally that all mouthes were stopt which strangely thought and spoke of Iob before 'T is very common with the divell and his children to account and call Gods people hypocrits such as doe not serve God for nought but follow Christ for loaves and professe religion for their owne ends Now God to convince these censorious wretches that judge amisse of the generation of the just brings his children as 't were upon the stage in the open view of all and puts them upon speciall trials of their uprightnesse he sets
villany in Israel and have committed adultery with their neighbours wives and have spoken lying words in my Name which I have not commanded them even I know and am a witnesse saith the Lord Jer. 29.23 By this we see that God the Father sees our sinnes and is a witnesse but because he will not be a witnesse in his own cause he will have two sufficient witnesses besides himselfe to wit Christ and conscience both very true The Divell would willingly be a witnesse against man as an evill spirit that knowes much by man but does not know so much as the Spirit of man which is in him and therefore not a sufficient witnesse But if that evill Spirit did know as much by man as mans owne evill spirit which is in him yet being corrupt he would prove a false witnesse against man a Knight of the Post and sweare any thing against man to bring as great misery upon him as is upon himselfe if he might be admitted for a witnesse such is his divellish hatred and malice to all beings better then his owne but therefore God will not admit of him as a witnesse for or against a man Two true witnesses will God have one without a man and another within him one in heaven and another in earth to wit Christ and conscience Behold I have given him for a witnesse to the People saith God the Father of Christ Isa 55.4 And this witnesse is in Heaven saith Iob Behold my witnesse is in Heaven Job 16.19 Not so in heaven that he is not also in earth or as if he were ignorant of any thing done in earth for then he could not be a sufficient witnesse Iob speakes of Christ according to his speciall place of residence and that is in heaven but Christ hath a Country house here below in our hearts where he hath one abiding continually that is equall to himselfe that tels him all to wit his spirit so that Christ is as competent a witnesse as conscience that sits as Register still in the heart and never stirres out of his place These two witnesses do as that man was commanded to doe which had a sheepe committed to his trust and the sheepe torne in pieces by wild beasts he was to bring some of that which was left some horne or hoofe or any part else that was left for a witnesse of the truth thereof Exod. 22.13 Thus Christ and conscience bring before God the soule those precepts which were by God committed to man to be kept and which he hath suffered his unruly heart to breake to pieces my meaning is so lively doe these two witnesses set before the sinner the breach of every precept according to every circumstance as ever any party under the Law could set before the owner the tearing in pieces of his cattell by the limmes and pieces thereof And this being done divine sentence is given and the soule must needs be silent being so legally handled and Angels and Saints be forc'd to breake forth and say Rightéous art thou O God in all thy waies and holy in all thy works Lastly God hath given this power to conscience to give testimony concerning mans simplicity or hypocrisie that so God at the great day may dispatch a great deale of weighty businesse speedily And I will come neere to you to judgement and I will be a swift witnesse against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and false swearers saith the Lord Mal. 3.5 What the Lord then spake respecting a particular judgement the same will be Gods proceeding with all at the great day The bookes shall be opened Christs booke and the booke of conscience and so in a moment in the twinkling of an eye that is very speedily all things shall be cleare to Judge and malefactour without troubling Juries and other witnesses as we doe here which would make a long worke at that great assize and all persons be judged sent to their place and so righteously judged that not one shall open his mouth to complaine Now this could not possibly be a work speedily done if God had not given this power to conscience to reflect and give testimony and to be instead of better then a thousand witnesses beside and all debating pro and con betweene them The wisedome of God is here to be admired for he hath made such a witnesse to give testimony with Christ for or against a man every way so fit that nothing in the world can be judged so fit Christ we must all confesse to be very sit to be Gods Delegate because he came out of the bosome of God and knows exactly all his Lawes which he hath given man to observe which Angels doe not and man is a party and therefore both unfit But the holy Ghost cannot be judged fit to be mans Delegate because one with the Father and Sonne and so a party in the cause And as for Angels they know not neither the proposed rule exactly nor the aberrations of the Delinquent and as for men they are parties in the cause and so would juggle together and sweare one for another or at least as one flesh and bone with foolish pity spoile a City as we say that is they would speake flattering and halting and so over-turne justice at last after a great deale of doe with them Now to prevent all this danger toile and stirre God hath created such a power within man as to observe all things done by man and no lesse one with man then Christ is with the Father and therefore as inexceptible a Delegate for man on the one side as Christ is for God on the other side And these two of an instant without all disturbance distraction or turmoile give in exact evidence concerning mans integrity or hypocrisie and so speedily without all clamour sentence and execution and all is finished and the Judge of all the world does more weighty businesse in a moment and farre better then all the Judges in this world could do in the age of the world Having thus given you the point and the grounds of it let us see in the next place how usefull this may be unto us all Hath God given power to conscience to give testimony concerning the simplicity or hypocrisie of mans waies Why then let us all take heed how we order our conversation in this world Give leave to your soules to thinke nothing speake nothing nor doe nothing but what you would have written downe and delivered into the Judge of all the world at the great day When we know a tale-teller is neare us we are very carefull what we say or doe Why we have alwaies a tell-truth in our bosomes where ever we goe or whatsoever we doe who will tell all to the Judge of all the world that we thinke speake or doe and therefore let us watch over our thoughts words and deeds and so thinke and so speake and so doe as those that looke to have the comfortable