Helpers to you in this great Work of working out of your Salvation And therefore they are called Helpers of your Faith and Joy 2 Cor. 1.24 They are said To watch for your Souls as those that must give an account Heb. 13.17 They are said to be Co-workers with Jesus Christ yea Jude 23. they are said To save your Souls Ministers are set in the Church to admonish with all Meekness to beseech with all Earnestness to rebuke with all Authority yea and we have done it Have we not called upon you Sinners Sinners why will you die The Way wherein you now walk leads down to the Chambers of Death and Destruction the Wages of that Work you are now doing is Shame Death and Hell Have we not thus often call'd upon you Yes so often have we thundred Terrors in Mens Ears that they now disregard them out of custom and when we speak of Sin and Death and Hell and Judgment to come Men think we are fallen into a common Peace and we must talk dreadfully to keep in our Road. These are the Apprehensions Men have of the great and fearful Denunciations that are daily discharged in their Ears by the Ministers of the Gospel And have we not also display'd Jesus Christ in all his Excellencies so far forth as his infinite Excellencies can be display'd with a few short-breath'd Words Have we not set forth Holiness in its Beauty and Lustre and done as much as we could do to reconcile you to the ways of Obedience and to remove the unjust Prejudices that Men have taken up against them What could we have done more than we have done to inform Mens Judgments to satisfie their Consciences to answer all their Doubts to allay their Fears to supply them with quickning Considerations to Duty and with deterring Considerations from Sin We appeal to your selves and yet we speak not this to ingratiate or to commend our selves we profess we care not much for the good Opinion of any Man in the World farther than it may be of some advantage to do your Souls good but do you think God expects not some great Thing from you Give me leave â—o deal truly and faithfully with you if your Works do not in some measure answer the Labours of God's Servants that have many Years follow'd you with Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept here a little and there a little still warning and intreating with all Bowels of Tenderness alluring you to pity your own Souls and to save your selves from that Wrath and Vengeance that shall shortly overcome the disobedient World They who have thus exhorted you believe it shall within a while be Witnesses against you Well then since you are daily called upon and warned to flee from Wrath to come since you have such clear Convictions of your Duty that a bribed Conscience can hardly evade since you have such abundance of Examples of others who have gone before you and have done what God requires of you why will not you be hereby persuaded and encouraged to work These Things you must acknowledge are great Helps to further your Salvation and believe it they will prove dreadful Aggravations of your Condemnations if they do not prevail with you But these are only outward Helps 2. Inward Helps Secondly There are other Helps and they are inward and of far greater Force and Efficacy of which I shall name Two 1. The Dictates of Conscience First The Dictates of your own Consciences they are still prompting and exciting of you to work Conscience it is God's Deputy and Vicegerent in the Soul that rules and governs in his Name and by his Authority Now of all the Faculties in Man this was the least corrupted by his Fall though the Will be wholly corrupted and perverse that it will not obey the Commands of Conscience yet Conscience still continues the performance of its Office still it informs and urgeth and threatens and tormenteth and thus may you see it busily working even in those that never had the Law of God to direct Conscience The Gentiles says the Apostle to the Romans that have not the Law Rom. 2.14 15. do by Nature that is by natural Conscience the things contained in the Law their Consciences bearing witness and their Thoughts in the mean while accusing and excusing one another And because they had not the Law therefore Conscience in them was like an Officer walking in the Dark apprehending the Innocent and letting the Guilty escape But yet this was from the beginning so deeply implanted in the Heart of Man that something must be done and avoided for to obtain Happiness which could never yet be obliterated Tho' our knowledge of what is Duty and what is Sin be in a great part defaced yet this knowledg the Scripture doth abundantly supply to us and gives Conscience a perfect Draught of all the Duties that God requires and bids it be Overseer and look that the Work be done How is it not a great Help when you have somewhat within you that stands for and takes part with what is Good and what is your Duty Conscience secretly bids you beware of such and such Sins that will bring Ruin Destruction and Vengeance upon you and perform such and such Duties Pray Hear Meditate and be more fervent and affectionate in all your Services this is the way that tends to Life and Happiness Thus Conscience daily and hourly is following of you with Counsels and Chidings and with Threatnings denouncing Wrath and Vengeance against you and though it speaketh these Things with so low a Voice that others though they lay their Ears to your Soul cannot hear it yet in your Ears it speaks as loud as Thunder and no less terrible it is in vain to wound it it is in vain to stop its Mouth for that will but make it break out with the more violence and out-rage nothing can appease it but Duty and Work Why should you not then since you have that within you that stands for and prompts you to work why should you not as well follow and obey the Dictates and Commands of your Consciences that prompt you to Work and Duty as obey the Propensions of your sensual part to the contrary Secondly 2. God himself helps a Christian to work God himself helps us by working all our Works in us and for us by working in us the will to work and by working for us the work when we have willed And therefore while there is no part of our Work too hard for God there should be no part of it too hard and difficult for us Christ tells us His burthen is not heavy yet were it heavy we might well undergo it since he himself helps us to bear it The frequent experience of every Child of God doth abundantly confirm this Did you never begin a Duty with your Hearts listless and dead with Affections cold and flat with Thoughts very wandring and distracting that
us of all those Mercies and Comforts that now he heaps upon us So much for this Time and Text. A DISCOURSE OF THE NATURE Corruption and Renewing OF THE CONSCIENCE WITH Accounts of the Moment of having a Conscience void of Offence to God and Men. FROM ACTS xxiv 16. By EZEKIEL HOPKINS Late Lord Bishop of London-derry LONDON Printed for Jonathan Robinson A. and J. Churchill John Taylor and John Wyat. 1696. A DISCOURSE OF THE NATURE Corruption and Renewing OF THE CONSCIENCE ACTS xxiv 16. Herein do I exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of Offence towards God and towards Man IN this Chapter St. Paul gives an account to Felix of the general Course and Demeanor of his former Life being accused by Tertullian a flattering Orator as one who was Prophane and Seditious After that he had purged himself in sundry Particulars he comes to the Text to shew that he was far from those Crimes that were laid to his Charge having made it his constant Exercise all his Life-time to keep a good Conscience The Words have little or no Difficulty in them and therefore instead of giving you an elaborate Exposition I shall only run them over with a brief Paraphrase The Explication of the Words Herein do I exercise my self that is I make it my constant Care and Imployment to have a Conscience void of Offence that is to keep my Conscience clear that it may not justly accuse me of any Offence done either against God or against Men that is I labour conscientiously to practise as well the Duties of the second as the Duties of the first Table to be Just towards Men as well as to be Religious towards God knowing that the one without the other to be without Offence towards Men only is but meer Morality and to be without Offence only towards God is but vain Hypocrisie Without farther Explication the Words do of their own accord deliver to us this Doctrin Doctrin That it should be our continual Care and Employment in all Things whether relating to God or Man to keep clear and inoffensive Consciences Conscience is nothing but a practical Syllogism or Argumentation What Conscience is and always infers a personal Conclusion either excusing or accusing and it hath three Offices First The Offices of Conscience It discovers to us what is Sin and what is Duty and the Reward that is entailed upon both 1. It informs what is Sin and what is Duty and thus it gives in its Verdict according to that Light that shines into it If it hath only the twilight of Nature to illustrate it as the Heathens had no other then it can pass Judgment only upon natural Duties and unnatural Sins Thus the Consciences of Heathens through some remainders of original Knowledge informed them that Worship was due to God and Justice to Men and that all Impieties against God and all Injuries against Men should in the end be severely punished But if Conscience enjoys the superadded Light of Scripture it judges then of those Duties and those Sins that could only be known by Divine Revelation Hence it is that Conscience is enabled to form such a Proposition as this He that believes shall be saved he that believes not shall be damned This Proposition it forms not from natural Light but from the super-induced Light of Scripture This is the first direct Act of Conscience whereby it pronounceth of Men's Works whither they be sinful or not and what the Reward or Punishment is that shall follow them according as it finds it written in the dark and imperfect Law of Nature or in the superadded Law of God 2. It witnesseth and deposeth Secondly When Conscience hath thus pronounced whether the Action be good or bad and what Reward or Punishment belong to it it 's next Office is to witness and depose we have done such or such Actions this is a reflex Act whereby when Conscience hath discovered what is Sin and what is Duty it testifies that either we have performed the one or that we have committed the other The Scripture reveals that Faith shall be rewarded with eternal Life and Unbelief punished with Death eternal hereupon Conscience makes reflection upon it self and applies the Proposition but I believe or I do not believe and that is its witnessing or deposing Office Thirdly It hath besides this 3. It acquits or condemns the Office of a Judge to acquit or condemn and this it doth by inferring a comfortable or a terrifying Conclusion from the former Premises applying the Reward or Punishment to our selves according as those Actions have been ours to which they belong If it hath proved us Unbelievers strait it pronounceth us condemned Persons or if it evidences our Faith to us presently it justifies and acquits us Hence it is that wicked Men are haunted with pale Fears and ghastly Reflections because they are always Malefactors arraigned at a Bar a Bar that they carry about with them in their own Breasts where they hear a thousand Witnesses sworn and examined where they hear their Judge ten thousand times a Day pronouncing them Cursed and Damned And hence it is also that there is sometimes diffused into the Hearts of God's Children such sweet Joy such solid Peace such calm Stayedness and some Prelibations of heavenly Bliss because they carry in their Breasts a Court of Judicature where their earthly Judge Conscience acquits them and assures them that their heavenly Judge will do so also This is Conscience that faithful Register in every Man's Bosom that writes down the Actions Discourses and Cogitations of every Hour and Minute Now this being premised concerning the Nature and Offices of Conscience I shall come in the next place to enquire into these following Particulars into which I shall digest the method of this Subject First What it is that doth corrupt and vitiate Conscience Secondly What it is to have a clear Conscience Thirdly Of what Importance and Consequence it is that our Consciences be kept clear and void of Offence under which I shall give you the Reasons of the Point Fourthly I shall lay down some Rules and Means whereby we may attain unto and keep a pure and clean Conscience First 1. What vitiates and corrupts Conscience What is it that doth corrupt and vitiate Conscience in executing of its Offices Now this I shall couch under Two Particulars and they are Ignorance and wilful Sinning 1. Ignorance corrupts the Conscience 1. Ignorance Conscience is the Guide of Life and Knowledge is the Eye of Conscience which if it be darkned the Blind leads the Blind till both fall into the Ditch Conscience is a Guide that leads apace and therefore had need see its Way before it which some not being well able to discern have wound themselves into inextricable Wandrings pursuing every glaring Delusion and running after every skipping Light that danceth before it till at last they have lost both themselves and their
Consciences too How many are there that have thus bewildred themselves in their own Fansies and Opinions and so have fallen upon the Precipice of damnable Errors and into Bogs of Mire and filthy Lusts only through an ignorant Conscience and self-conceited Pride that is always a Companion of it this Ignorance fills the Conscience with false Presumptions and draws it to wrong Determinations and Conclusions which though they seem to be but little mistakes in the Notion yet are they most destructive and pernicious in a Man's practice As a small mistake in the levelling of an Arrow at the Hand makes a wide distance at the Mark so a small mistake in the Notion of Truth makes a wide error in the practice of Godliness A mis-persuaded Conscience usually gives rise to misguided Zeal and Zeal without Knowledge is but a Religious Phrensie that fashions out to it self strange shapes of Sin and Duty of Good and Evil and usually it takes the one for the other until it falls under that Woe denounced by the Prophet Isa 5.20 Woe to them that call Good Evil and Evil Good that put Darkness for Light and Light for Darkness that put Bitter for Sweet and Sweet for Bitter Now Ignorance doth vitiate and corrupt the Conscience two ways Ignorance vitiates the Conscience two ways either it makes it unnecessarily scrupulous or else it makes it daringly presumptuous First 1. By making it unnecessarily scrupulous Ignorance fetters and binds up the Conscience either to the doing of or abstaining from that concerning which God hath laid no Law and Obligation at all upon it This is an encroaching Conscience that makes that an enclosure that God hath left common and rigorously exacts from us what God hath permitted as indifferent It is a very sad Judgment to be given up to the domineering Impositions of a scrupulous Conscience such a Conscience as this is will certainly make much more Sin than over the Law made for whatever we do against the Commands of Conscience is Sin though it be not immediately and directly against the Commands of God Rom. 14.23 Why now some there are that do so needlesly pin and coop up themselves that they cannot stir nor moderately use that lawful Liberty that God hath indulged them but presently they are entangled in Sin because of the imperious Prohibitions of their own Consciences Secondly 2. By making it licentious and daringly presumptuous Sometimes Ignorance makes Conscience licentious indulging it self in those Actions that the Law of God condemns making it daringly presumptuous and this is a quite contrary extream and yet as opposite as these are we oftentimes find them joined together in the same Persons the same Persons that have a needlesly scrupulous Conscience have also a daringly presumptuous Conscience and this proceeds from an Ignorance of their due Bounds and Limits Who ordinarily so prophane as the Superstitious Their Ignorance makes them scrupulous Observers of little Circumstances and yet bold Adventurers upon notorious Sins What a strange wry Conscience have such Men that tie up themselves strictly where God gives them scope and yet run riotously where God's Commands and Threatnings restrain dreading more the transgressing one Law of Man than they do the transgressing of the whole moral Law of God This is now from Ignorance whereby Men do not know the due Bounds either of that Liberty that God indulgeth them or that Restraint that God lays upon them And this is the first Thing that corrupts Conscience namely Ignorance Secondly 2. Wilful Sinning corrupts Conscience and that two ways Wilful Sinning corrupts and vitiates the Conscience and that two ways First Sometimes such Sins stupifie and deaden the Conscience 1. By stupifying and deadning of Conscience especially if they become frequent and customary and therefore we usually call them Conscience-wasting Sins Believe it through a continued course of known and presumptuous Sins you will bring your Consciences into very sad Consumptions that they will pine away under Iniquities and how many are there that have their Consciences already lying Speechless Senseless and Gasping ready to give up the Ghost The Apostle in Eph. 4.19 speaks of them Eph. 4. â—9 that being past feeling have given themselves over to Lasciviousness Secondly 2. By terrifying and inraging of Conscience Sometimes such Sins do affright terrifie and enrage the Conscience filling it with dreadful Thoughts of eternal future Vengeance Wilful and known Sins sometimes terrifie and enrage the Conscience and this is a Corruption of the Conscience when the Terrors of it are so overwhelming as to sink Men into Despair for mark it it is its Office to accuse and to threaten for Sin and the greater the Sin is the more sharp and stinging ought to be its Reproofs but be the Sin never so great for which Conscience reproves if yet it denounceth Wrath without making mention of Repentance and hopes of Mercy it exceeds its Commission that God hath given it and becomes an evil and corrupt Conscience And therefore we have that Expression Heb. 10.22 Heb. 10.22 Let us draw near says the Apostle having our Hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience By an evil Conscience here is meant a despairing Conscience from which we are freed only by the Blood of Sprinkling to be convinced of Sin and not at all to be convinced of Righteousness is such a Conviction as constitutes one part of the Torments of the damned in Hell whose Worm never dies and certainly that Conscience must needs be very evil and very corrupt that breeds in it this hellish Worm while we are here upon Earth And so much for the first Thing what it is that corrupts the Conscience Secondly 2. What it is to have a clear Conscience and that in two Things The next Thing propounded is to shew you What it is to have a their Conscience Now there are two Things that denominate a Conscience to be clear when it is pure and when it is peaceable when it is free from all known and wilful Defilements and when it is not justly burdned with the guilt of Sin then is it a clear Conscience 1. Then a Man hath a clear Conscience 1. When it is free from all known and wilful Sins when it is free from all known and wilful sins I say from all known and wilful Sins for it is impossible while we are encompassed about with Infirmities and oppressed with a heavy Body of Sin and Death to keep our selves free and pure from all Sin For in many things we offend all says St. James 3.2 Jam. 3.2 But these Sins of daily Weakness and sudden Surreption as they are usually small Sins and scarce discernible so are they no Obstructions to a clear Conscience no more than the Moats of the Sun-beams are Obstructions to a clear Day As for those Quotidian Weaknesses and Sins of â—aily Infirmity they neither leave Guilt nor Defilement upon the Conscience of God's Children but
as their more foul Sins are done away by particular Acts of Repentance so these are done away by a general state of Repentance which state the Children of God are always in and there is also a constant out-flowing of the Blood of Christ and of the Mercy of God upon the Soul to remove the Guilt and Filth of those Sins as we fall into them Then is the Conscience clear when all former Sins being pardoned to us we daily labour to please God though it be with manifold Imperfections and Weaknesses this doth not hinder but that our Consciences may be both pure and peaceable while we thus sincerely strive to keep our selves from all wilful and from all presumptuous Sins our Consciences are clear notwithstanding the Sins of daily Infirmity So says the Psalmist Psal 19.13 Keep back thy Servant from presumptuous Sins Psal 19.13 then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great Transgression That 's the first thing Conscience is clear when it 's free from all known and wilful Sins 2. Then a Man hath a clear Conscience when it is not justly burdned with the Guilt of Sin I say not justly burdned 2. When it is not justly burdened with the guilt of Sin because sometimes we may burden our selves without cause when God hath already forgiven us Many times through Temptations and Desertions God's Children reflect back upon their old Sins with new Troubles and rip up their old Wounds and make them bleed afresh they remember against themselves what God hath forgotten and with great Terrors accuse and condemn themselves for what God hath already remitted to them Now here I shall lay down two Things First That every quiet Conscience is not a clear Conscience Secondly That every troubled Conscience is not an evil Conscience First 1. Every quiet Conscience is not a clear Conscience Every quiet Conscience is not a clear Conscience Some are lull'd asleep in security and their Consciences are quiet meerly because they are insensible it may be they have so harrassed and wasted their Consciences by dreadful Sins so often mortally wounded them that now they have not Strength enough to become quarrelsome and troublesome and this they call Peace indeed it is such a Peace as Galgathus reproaches the Romans with in Tacitus when they had laid all wast then they called it Peace So these Sinners think they have good peaceable Consciences because they do not menace torment and worry them and alas how can they their Consciences are murdered there is no Sense nor Life left in them This is no Peace but a meer Solitude and Desolation of Conscience and yet believe it too these quiet and peaceable Consciences will not be long so at the Hour of Death or if not then the next moment after Death these peaceable Consciences will be startled out of their Sleep and with fearful Screeches fly in their Faces and roar so loud that Heaven and Hell shall hear them As in still Weather many times Matter is gathering for a Storm so while Conscience seems so still and quiet it is only gathering Matter for a Tempest that will one Day pour upon your Heads and O! how grievous will it be when those Consciences that never gave them an ill Word before shall on a sudden drag them before the Tribunal of God and there bitterly accuse them of those horrid Sins that once they seem'd to take no notice of and call for the severest execution of divine Wrath and Vengeance upon them And possibly many that speak of the Peace of their Consciences do not find it so neither they are as far from a peaceable Conscience as they are from a raving and a raging Conscience A raving Conscience soon discovers it self in hellish Despair but there are many whose Consciences do not rave and yet are never quiet they give them many a secret twitch and guird at the very Heart not outwardly discernible by others as Thunder rumbles long in the Entrails of a Cloud that never breaks forth into dreadful and terrible Cracks so a Man may have a rumbling and a grumbling Conscience a Conscience that may murmur and scole upon him and yet he may carry it as if all were calm and serene with him However tho all within may be quiet yet a quiet Conscience may be a polluted Conscience as a standing Puddle may be as foul as the raging Sea when it casts out its Mire and Filth 2. Every troubled Conscience is not an evil Conscience Secondly As every quiet Conscience is not a clear Conscience so every troubled Conscience is not an evil Conscience Hypocrites and wicked Men may indeed and do often so judge Would God ever suffer such strange Terrors to seize upon Men were they not notorious Sinners As those Barbarians at Malta spoken of in the Acts when they saw the Viper fasten upon the Apostle's Hand presently they concluded that he was some wicked Person whom divine Vengeance would not suffer to live So these Men when they see the Worm of Conscience fasten upon others presently they judge them guilty of notorious Crimes such Crimes for which the Vengeance and Wrath of God pursues them but this is a wrong Censure and most unjust For the most part it is seen that those that have the best Consciences are most troubled at least for a time until the Holy Ghost persuade them of the Love of God and of the Pardon of their Sins It is the greatest Fault of a tender Conscience that it mis-interpretes every thing against it self and oftentimes when God rejoyceth over it it apprehends he frowns upon it mistaking the firing of a Burn-fire for the firing of a Beacon and give an Alarm when they should proclaim Peace and Joy many times it is so with them that have tender Consciences a Man may be long troubled for those Sins that are already pardoned to him Nathan comes to David and tells him upon his Confession that he had sinned 2 Sam. 12.13 I have sinned 2 Sam. 12.13 says he and God by Nathan tells him that he had put away his Sin from him and yet his Conscience though it were clear in respect of any Guilt that God charged upon him yet it was not clear in respect of what he himself charged upon himself he thought himself guilty in his own apprehension as you may perceive by his penning of the 51st Psalm yet he was not guilty in God's Account for he assures him by his Prophet that he had pardoned him Question Why now it being so that both a quiet Conscience may be impure and that a troubled Conscience may be a clear Consciene how shall we know whether when our Consciences are troubled it be from the Guilt of Sin remaining upon them or whether when they be clear and quiet it be from the removal of that Guilt How a Man may know when his Conscience is troubled from the guilt of Sin remaining upon it or not
with Patience so it gives him advantage to reprove others with Authority It is a very true Rule that he that reproves another ought himself to be free from the Fault he reproves for otherwise his Reproofs neither come with freedom from the Reprover nor with efficacy to the Reproved First A Reproof that comes from a guilty Conscience is but a stammering and a timerous Reproof Such a Man 's own Conscience must needs rise up in his Throat and choak his Reproofs Consciousness of the same Miscarriages will retort whatever we can say against others more strongly upon our selves and will suggest to us that it is but Hypocrisie for us to blame that which we our selves practise With what Face canst thou press others to Repent and Reform What Arguments canst thou use to them who by continuing in the same Sins dost thy self judge those Arguments are of no force at all Thus Conscience will suggest and hereby Tongue-ties Reproofs Secondly This also makes Reproofs ineffectual It were indeed a Temper to be wished and pray'd for that we could only respect how righteous the Reproof is and not how righteous the Person is that gives it and if we could be content to have the Motes pluck'd out of our own Eyes though it be by such as have Beams in their own Eyes for indeed there is no more reason to reject sound Admonitions because they come from an unsound Heart than there is to stop our Ears against good Counsel because delivered it may be with an unsavoury Breath But yet so it is when Men of polluted Consciences and defiled Conversations come to reprove others Men are apt to think of them What is such a one in earnest Doth he not personate his Reproof Doth he not do as bad or worse himself Or doth he envy me my Sins and would engross them all to himself and so the Reproof takes no place at all upon him But now when a Man of a clear and unspotted Conscience reproves wicked Men his Reproofs break in upon them with Conviction Authority and Power if not to reform them yet at least to daunt and silence them Here is one that reproves Sin who doubtless believes it to be Evil by his own avoiding of it Here is one that denounceth Wrath if I repent not who doubtless believes it to be as terrible as he represents it to be by his own carefulness to escape it And thus a clear Conscience hath great advantage to reprove Sinners successfully at least to work Conviction upon them if not to work Reformation in them 3. It gives boldness of access unto God Thirdly A clear Conscience gives boldness of access unto God Guilt is the only thing that abashes the Soul and makes it both ashamed and afraid to appear in the Presence of God and therefore we find that as soon as Adam had sinned against his Maker he hides himself from him We may observe it in our selves What slavish deadness and dejectedness of Heart seizeth upon us when we come to God in Duty after that we have wronged him by any known Sin We come with such a misgiving kind of Fear as if we would not have God take notice that we are before him and we are still in pain till the Duty be over But when our Consciences are clear O with what delight do we hast to God and with what content do we stay with him How doth the Soul dilate and spread it self under the Smiles of God beating full upon it Loe O Lord here 's a Heart that I labour to make and keep void of Offence do thou fill it with thy promised Grace and Spirit it is not indeed a Mansion pure enough for the pure and holy God yet is it such as thou wilt accept of and dwell in there are still many hidden Corruptions in it but do thou search them out and thou who hast kept thy Servant from presumptuous Sins do thou also cleanse me from secret Faults Thus a clear Conscience with a holy and reverend Boldness addresses it self to God and sweetly closeth up every Duty and every Prayer with full assurance of being heard and accepted and that it shall obtain Mercy from God So the Apostle tells us Heb. 10.22 Heb. 10.22 Let us says he draw near in full assurance of Faith How may we gain this full assurance when we draw near to God How says he Why by having our Hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience get but a pure and clear Conscience and that will enable you to draw near to God in full assurance of Faith And so in the like parallel place 1 John 3.21 1 John 3.21 Beloved if our Hearts condemn us not then have we confidence towards God If Conscience be not evil to accuse us then have we confidence towards God When the Face of a Man's Conscience looks chearful and hath no Frowns and Wrinkles upon it this makes us joyfully to apprehend that God's Face to us is calm and serene too and that we shall be welcom at all times into our Father's presence this Conscience suggests to us and makes us come with a holy yet with an awful boldness unto God 4. It is the sweetest Bosom Friend with which we may at all times freely and intimately converse Fourthly A clear Conscience is the sweetest bosom Friend with which we may at all times freely and intimately converse Wicked Men indeed of all Company in the World do most hate themselves for Companions they have a lowring and a rumbling Conscience at home that always threatens and disquiets them and therefore they love to keep abroad Soliloquies and Heart-discoveries are a very Torment to them and they wonder that the Psalmist should ever bid them Commune with their own Hearts and be still Psal 4.4 as it is in Psal 4.4 Why alas they are never less still than when they discourse with their own Hearts and Consciences which are grown so peevish and quarrelsom that they thunder out nothing but Woes and Curses against them hurling about them Swords and Fire-brands and Death that they dare not so much as once look within Doors But now a Christian whose Conscience is calm and clear he finds it the best Companion of the World In his solitary Retirements from the crowd and noise of the World with what Delight doth he call his Heart aside and there are they sweetly and peaceably conferring together And God usually comes in as a third Friend and joins himself in Society with them and here pass mutual Endearments between them the Soul embraces and clasps about God with the Arms of Faith and Dependence and God embraceth the Soul in the Arms of his everlasting Love Here are mutual unbosomings of Secrets the Soul unlocks its Secrets before God and God again reveals the Secrets of his Love unto the Soul Here are mutual Rejoycings the Soul rejoyceth in God its Saviour and God rejoyceth over the Soul to do it good and under these Intercourses
of Love and Sweetness the Soul is ready to faint away and dissolve with Joy This is that continual Feast as the wise Man calls it that a good Conscience entertains a Christian with where all is transacted with a still and noiseless Mirth 5. It is the best Comfort and Support in the midst of Dangers Fifthly A clear Conscience is the best comfort and support when Fears Troubles and Dangers are on every side encompassing us about It is a blessed Thing when we have Trouble without to have Peace within in our own Bosoms then to have Peace with God and Peace with our selves And therefore says Christ John 16.33 These Things have I spoken unto you that in me ye might have Peace in the World you shall have Tribulation A strange Paradox but indeed a Christian is made up of such strange Paradoxes as Sorrowful yet always Rejoycing as Poor himself yet making many Rich as having Nothing and yet Possessing all Things as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 6.10 Here is Tribulation in the World and yet here is Peace also When once the great and bloody Quarrel betwixt God and the Soul is taken up and compounded when we are reconciled to God and thereby our Consciences become reconciled to us all the Enmity and Persecution of the World are but little peltring Differences that cannot disturb that solid and inviolable Peace that a Christian enjoys This is that Peace that as the Friendship of the World cannot give so neither can the Enmity of the World ever take away My Peace I leave with you my Peace I give unto you let not your Hearts be troubled It is observable of Josiah 2 Kings 22.20 God promised there by the Mouth of Huldah the Prophetess that he should be gathered to his Grave in Peace and yet in the next Chapter Verse 29. it is said there That he was slain in the War which he undertook against Pharoah Necho King of Egypt he was slain in War and yet died in Peace and no wonder for whosoever dies in Peace with God and in Peace with his own Conscience dies peaceably though he dies in the midst of Wars and Tumults Sixthly 6. It is an unspeakable Comfort in a dying hour A clear Conscience affords sweet and unspeakable Comfort in a dying hour When all Things must take their leave of us and we of them when Death is setting all its Terrors in Array against us O what a blessed Support will it then be to the departing Soul standing on Tip-toe ready to take its Flight into Eternity to be able to make that Appeal which Hezekiah doth Isa 38.3 Isa 38.3 Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in Truth with a perfect Heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Such a Testimony as this is at such a time as this is is worth Heaven and Glory it self this is to have Heaven let down into us one hour and to be our selves taken up into Heaven the next hour Now possibly Men may frolick away their Days in Sin and Vanity and live as if they should never give an account but believe it the Day and Hour is coming and it will come wherein Conscience will begin to open its Eyes when it may be their Friends stand round about them to close theirs and then it will see these horrid Shapes of Death and Hell and Wrath eternal such as while they were secure Sinners they never imagined and now that they are awakned Sinners and possibly awakned too late too they can never escape If therefore you would enjoy Peace and Serenity in your Death and â—ave the Testimony of your Consciences to carry with you to shew to your Judge for your Acquittance be sure then to cherish a good Conscience in your Life-time Now it may be Conscience may be bribed to give in a false and flattering Testimony but when Eternity is in its view it will then speak Truth and O thrice happy are they to whom a true Conscience becomes then an excusing Conscience And so much for the third Thing propounded namely of what concernment it is to labour to keep Consciences void of Offence Fourthly the next Thing propounded was To give you some Rules and Directions how you may get and also how you may keep clear and inoffensive Consciences Object But you will say It is in vain to give Rules for that which is impossible to be done Doth not the wise Man challenge all the World upon this Point Prov. 20.9 Who can say I have made my Heart clean I am pure from my Sins Never did the raging Sea cast up more Mire and Filth than the Heart of Man doth and as soon may we empty the vast Waters of the great Deep and scour the bottom of it from all its Dirt and Mud as attempt to keep Conscience clear into which a sinful Heart is continually emptying and pouring out its Filth and Mire Answ To this I Answer Were it impossible yet there is no release to our Obligation We are commanded To be holy even as God is holy whose infinite Purity is such as stains the Heavens themselves and puts the glorious Angels out of Countenance This Perfection is much more impossible for us who are but Lumps of Dirt mingled and kneaded together with Sin than for a thick Clod of Earth to be as transparent as the Sun that shines but yet these accessive Commands have a use in them even to raise up our Endeavors to a higher pitch and strain than if we were commanded only somewhat that were within our own Power as he that aims at a Star is like to shoot higher than he that aims only at a Turf Thus though it were impossible to keep clean Consciences void of Offence both towards God and Men according to the exactness of God's Command yet he that is careful to avoid all Pollutions both of Flesh and Spirit shall certainly have a much cleaner Conscience by far than he that wallows in those Sins In a foul way it is perhaps impossible to keep our selves from being bespatered with Dirt yet he that walks warily and carefully comes cleaner home than he that tumbles and rolls himself in it But yet this Duty is not impossible it is indeed difficult to keep a clear Conscience but yet it is a thing that is faesible And in general there are two ways to keep our Consciences clear either by preserving them from being defiled or else by cleansing them when they are defiled First We may keep our Consciences clear by preserving them from being defiled You will say How can this be Is there any Man living says the wise Man that doth good and sinneth not And doth not every Sin leave behind it a spot and stain upon the Face of Conscience How then can we keep them clear I Answer Sins are of two sorts there are Sins that are Crimes and there are Sins that are but Faults Crimes I call those Sins
the Defilement of our Sins An historical Faith may keep the Soul from contracting Defilement but this justifying this saving Faith washes out the Stains and Defilements that we have contracted and makes us white and spotless in the Blood of the Lamb. Faith is that Conveyance that God hath appointed to bring the Blood of Christ to stream forth upon the defiled Soul and Conscience and upon every renewed Act of Sin we ought by a renewed Act of Faith to lay our spotted and defiled Souls under the fall of that Fountain that is set open to wash and cleanse us from our Filth and Pollution Thus Faith cleanseth the Conscience mystically and by the Actings of Faith we may thus get and keep our Consciences clear and inoffensive Fifthly 5. Set a strict Watch and Guard upon your selves If you would keep your Consciences clear then set a strict Watch and Guard upon your selves both upon your inward and upon your outward Man Set a Guard to your Heart and to all the Approaches to your Heart 1. Keep a narrow Guard upon your Heart 1. Set a Guard upon your Heart The Heart is the great meeting Place where Objects Thoughts and Affections do swarm and crowd together And as much Concourse leaves Dirt behind it upon the Place so this great Heart-Assembly usually leaves it foul and polluted Our Saviour Mark 9. tells the Jews That it was that which was within them that Wickedness which lay latent in their Hearts that which proceedeth from the Heart that defiles the Man There is a Defilement in the Thoughts and in the Desires as well as in the more gross and bulky Sins of the Life Hence the Prophet Jeremy speaks Jer. 4.14 O Jerusalem wash thine Heart from Wickedness Why wherewith is it polluted Why the next Words shew it How long shall thy vain Thoughts lodge within thee Vain Thoughts leave a Stain and Contagion upon the Soul and certainly if a vain Thought that is such a fleeting and volitary Thing breaths a kind of Contagion and Taint upon the Heart they certainly then must have foul Hearts indeed and their Spots in Grain who lie soaking and stewing themselves in Unclean Malicious and Covetous Thoughts and Designs Since then that Conscience is apt to receive Taint but with the breathing of a vain and sinful Thought upon it how doth it concern us then to keep a watchful and circumspect Eye over every Motion of our Hearts It is the wise Man's Counsel as you have heard Keep thy Heart with all diligence for out of it are the Issues of Life Look to it therefore that you suffer not your Hearts to be defiled with sinful Thoughts or sinful Affections by those inward and invisible Corruptions that settle at the bottom of it though the Life be never so clear and cristal yet if that Mud be but stirred and raised Conscience becomes thereby defiled and an evil Conscience And therefore the Apostle 1 Tim. 1.5 1 Tim. 1.5 joins them together speaking of a pure Heart and a good Conscience but if the steems of Lust rise up thick in the Heart they defile and pollute the Conscience Hence the Apostle again joins them together Tit. 1.15 Tit. 1.15 a defiled Mind and a defiled Conscience The Mind and Conscience says he is defiled How can the Mind be defiled unless it be with Sins of the Mind Evil Thoughts and evil Affections which as sprightly and aerial as they seem to be yet they leave a Stain upon the Conscience As the breathing upon a Glass sullies it and dims the Representation of the Face that looks into it so the breathing of evil Cogitations upon Conscience the Glass of the Soul leaves a Mist and Cloud upon it that it can but dimly and darkly represent to us our true State 2. Watch diligently as the Heart it self so all the Approaches unto the Heart 2. Watch diligently all the Approaches to the Heart The Approaches to the Heart are like your Roads to a great City which are full of Passengers and usually full of Dirt also And these are the Senses by which and through which Objects are continually travelling to the Heart and carry with them a World of Wickedness These are Sluces which instead of letting in pleasant Streams to refresh commonly they let in nothing but Mud which pollutes the Soul There is no actual Filthiness in the Hearts of any but what enters in by these Inlets through these the Devil casts in abundance of Filth stirs up and increaseth indwelling Lust and by sinful Objects that the Senses convey to the Soul dungs that Ground that is of it self but too too fruitful Thus the Devil makes use of the Ear through it he blows up the Bladder of Pride by the Breath of popular Applause and Praise And thus he makes use of the lascivious Eye as a burning Glass to set the Heart on Fire and so also he makes use of the other Senses as Sinks of Luxury and Intemperance Now if you would keep your Consciences clear and undefiled set a strict Guard and narrow Watch upon all these Passages to your Hearts critically examin every Thing that goes in and every Thing that comes out by these Gates arrest whatever cannot produce its Pass and Warrant from the Word of God keep the same Watch upon these Gates that God would keep on the Gate of the Heavenly City the New Jerusalem It is said Rev. 21.27 Rev. 21.27 That there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth Why so let us who would keep our Consciences clear guard all the Approaches to them with the same strictness and let nothing that defileth enter in by these Approaches to our Hearts Sixthly and Lastly 6. Listen to the Voice of Conscience take this Direction Be sure to listen to the Voice of Conscience Those that stop their Ears and will not hear Conscience when it directs and reproves shall be sure to hear it loud enough when it shall accuse and condemn them Conscience is the Voice of God in the Soul why now if this Voice be slighted beware lest the next time it speak to you in Thunder Do nothing contrary to the Dictates of your Consciences for this will provoke God to give you up to a reprobate Sense and judicially to harden you in your Sins for if sinning against your Consciences doth not corrupt them by making them insensible and stupid it will certainly corrupt them by making them enraging and despairing Well now for your Encouragement let me tell you while you are careful by following these Directions to keep your Consciences clear you shall also keep them peaceable It is the foulness of a Gun that makes it recoil in discharging And so it is the foulness of Men's Consciences that makes them recoil back again upon them in discharging of their Offices But while Conscience is kept clear and void of Offence it will be also kept free from quarrelling with you and