sins Thirdly That all a mans comfort comes in by it Isa 40.1 says God speak comfortably to her and tell her that her fins are pardoned be of good cheer for thy sins are forgiven and Gods people many of them that walk in bitterness all their dayes and have sad hearts and they pray and their souls draw near to the grave and all this God permits that he might raise the price of pardon in their hearts when he bids them be of good cheer their sins are forgiven and then their flesh comes again as the flesh of a young child These and many the like principles of prophaness there is in the hearts of men and these being once granted they do bear a great sway with a man in his whole life Thus we have seen how to keep a pure Conscience in respect of the principles in mens hearts Now let us come to the second which is how to keep Conscience pure in respect of practise and therein two things are to be spoken to First The notes of a defiled Conscience Secondly Rules how to preserve it pure from defilement First Marks how to judge of the defilement of a mans Conscience as first when a man sins much against knowledge Tit. 1.15 and to sin against knowledge is one of the highest aggravations of sin and it makes every sin to be presumptious and qualifies a man Heb. 10.27 for the great transgression if a mans sin will fully after he has received the knowledge of the truth if you had been blind you had had no sin the Pharisees and the people committed the same sin they all persecuted Christ but the Pharisees sin'd against the Holy Ghost in it and the people did it ignorantly and repented sins that are ignorantly commited leave a door open to mercy Paul obtained mercy for I did it ignorantly in unbelief yet though he did it ignorantly there was need of mercy but because he did it ignorantly therefore there was hope of mercy there was place for mercy and the more the light is of education and example the greater the sin it is a great advantage to have good education Pro. 22.6 Train up a Child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it and so Pro. 31.1 it was that which his mother taught him and Timothy knew the Scriptures from a child and examples do aggravate sins Isa 26.10 In a Land of uprightness will he deal unjustly c. and Dan. 5. Thou Belshazzar hast not humbled thy heart though thou knowest all this to have a light within a man as well as example without to have been once enlightned and tasted of the heavenly gift and then fall away it 's impossible to renew them unto repentance for a man to turn away from professed light and cast up his vomit and lick it up again and as a washed Sow return to the myre again and after many years enquiring of God return with Saul the Witches This is a dreadfull state and such a one had better never to have known the wayes of God c. Secondly When a man resolves to reserve to himself any way of sinning Joh 20.12 Some sweet Morsell and the man hides it see it in Herod he did hear John Baptist gladly and did many things but there was a Herodias that he did reserve and was resolved he could not part with it so there is a way of wickedness that men will not turne from as there are fundamentals in faith and errours in these are most dangerous to destroy the foundation so there are some fundamentals in practise and they will subvert all and this is one of the main that a man deny himself in every known sin pluck out the right eye and cut off the right hand and there is no man that is more polluted in the sight of God than he that spares a right eye or a right hand for there is no sin that this one evil reserved will not draw him to Luke 8.13 in the time of temptation he will fall away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Herod try him in his darling and he will turn a persecutor of that way that before he professed and Judas in his covetousness turn'd Devil and betray'd his Master Thirdly When men fall often into the same sin see it in Sampson and Peter that the Lord lets them fall so fouly at the Last being insnared by carnal confidence so often and Jonas was angry again and again and justified it when a man makes a sin his meat and drink the comfort of his life comes in by it from day to day it 's a sad sign Fourthly with the more hardness of heart and with the less relenting sin is committed and the longer he can lye in it unrepented of as we see it in Judas he was told of the evil and danger of it it had been good for him if he never had been born and yet he goes out and saith What will you give me and some good men as David and Solomon yet lay long in a way of sinning the sooner a man riseth after falls and a mans heart smites him as Davids did the more pure is that mans Conscience in the sight of God to be past feeling and for men to give themselves up to uncleanness Eph. 4.19 it 's a sad sign of a sear'd Conscience 1 Tim. 4.2 c. Fifthly When a temptation takes speedily with a man John 13.27.30 Christ did give Judas a Sop which was a signal to give Satan a farther possession of him and he follows the temptation but after that he went immediately out there was no more consultation so the sooner also that motions to duty prevail with a man the more pure his Conscience is when the Lord sayes seek you my face the Soul presently answers thy face Lord will I seek the spirit sayes come and the Bride sayes come and the sooner motions to sin take with a man the more impure and defiled is his Conscience Pro. 7.23 He no sooner saw a Harlot but he went after her straight way their hearts are hot as an Oven c. Sixthly The more a man plots iniquity and dothdeliberate it before hand makes pro vision for the flesh the adulterer waits for the twy-light Rom. 13.14 and he doth lye in wait at his neighbours door when men dig deep for wayes how to accomplish that that is evil the more men exercise their wits in sin and the more devilish wisdom is in it to commit iniquity by counsell and advice is the wisdom of the flesh ingeniose nequam as Pharaoh men will destroy the just by cruelty and yet deal wisely and Julian by clemency yet deal wisely let them enjoy their liberty by corrupting them by liberty and in peace destroy them God abhors plotted wickedness and surely God will bring it to nought and confound men by it Seventhly When men watch oppertunities of sinning and be glad ofthem and be sorry
for the loss of them at any time as Judas sought oppertunity to betray Christ Prov. 7. and the Harlot is glad of the opportunity The good man is gene fromhome and has taken a Sum of moneywith him and will not return till thetime appointed come let us take ourfill of Love and Joseph's Mistress when none of the men of the house were within and Judas when the Oyntment was poured out he was sorry for the wast that he lost such an opportunity and Gehazy my Master has let him go with all those fine things but as the Lord lives I will go and get something of him and what did he get but a foul disease c. Eightly When much means are used to keep men from sin and they avail not but men do break through all and will commit sin when men have been often admonished Pro. 29.1 and often afflicted Pro. 29.1 God will hedge up their way with thornes and yet they will follow after their Lovers Hos 2.6 God doth take many courses to make sin difficult unto a man a hedge of thornes and yet the man follows after it still Pro. 13.19 Balaam a man would have thought Gods forbidding him first and then the difficulties that lay in his way should have hindred him and though he would still be trying to displease God yet still God held a hand upon his Conscience nevertheless Balaam ran greedily after the wayes of unrighteousness when men cannot endure to be reproved Asa was a godly man yet his Conscience was in an evil frame he could not bear a reproof nay when men wait and lay snares for him that reproves in the gate c. It is a sign of a seared Conscience c. Ninthly When men grow impudent and shameless in evil for there is a shame that doth keep men from some sins some kind of awe and respects before men Gen. 15.16 but there is a fullness of sin and impudency and obstinacy makes it up when men have a Whores forehead that cannot blush they are not ashamed of sin nay they glory in their shame and speak of it with rejoycing pudet non esse impudentem the unjust know no shame Lastly When men are not affected with and not afraid of spiritual judgments it 's the highest and the greatest wrath that can befall a man vae illis ad quorum peccata connivet Deus Luther Ephraim is joyned to Idols Let him alone why should they be smiten any more they will revolt more and more I will not punish your daughters when they commit adultery saies the Lord non parcit propitius parcit iratus Aust O servum illum beatum Tertul. cui deus dignatur irasci The last sentence of the Church is Anathama Maranatha and so it is here also Now there is nothing the people of God are more affected with then spiritual judgment to be given up to a hard heart to a blind mind and a spirit of slumber they are troubled at nothing more wounds upon a mans estate or his name lyes not so heavy upon his spirit nay he would chuse all outward evils rather this is a strange and terrible work of God in judgment pouring out upon a man a spirit of a deep sleep and for men not to be troubled that they are not troubled it is an argument of a very polluted Conscience 1 Cor. Durum est quod seipsum non exhorret Bern. Secondly Now to give some rules how a man should do to keep a good Conscience in all things First Set a high price upon a good Conscience as being the excellency of the man which will bear up a man against all evils that men or devils can do to him 2 Cor. 1.12 says the Apostle this is our rejoycing that in godly simplicity we have had our conversation in the world and 't is this that gives a man boldness in the presence of God if our hearts condem us not we have boldness in his sight a man that has a good Conscience shall lift up his face without spot even before God a good Conscience it is a continual feast it cheers a man in the worst times and his Conscience can never be freed from guilt that is not in desire at least freed from defilement for Christ came by water and by bloud and upon our Consciences he sprinkles bloud and sprinkles upon them clean water also Secondly Come to the Laver repent dayly judg your selves dayly and apply the blood of Christ which can onely purge the Conscience and do it dayly for the longer any sin lyes upon the Conscience the more unclean that Conscience is it is compaired unto a Fountain that doth dayly work out the mud Mâ—t. 12.15 and doth not let it rest there at all but immediately works against it to a renewed Conscience all sin is as a mote in the eye and a beam he can have no quiet till it be out but sin in a natural Conscience it is not burthensome though men add iniquity to iniquity can easily slip into sin without any remorse whereas we are not to give place to the Devil no not one hour Peter after he had sin'd straightway he went out and wept bitterly Oh! when any sin lies upon the Conscience be sure that it will defile thee more therefore make hast and work it out this delay of purging the Conscience is an evil may be found in the best men it cost David broken bones and great perplexity thefore we should be the more careful to come to the Laver of regeneration Thirdly Do not despise the checks of Conscience but mind that Light within you when it reproves for fins either of omission or commission do not turn the deaf ear Davids heart smote him and he took notice of it and Christ himself my reins chasten me to instruct me in the Psal 16.7 night season c. For let me tell you that any motion of a mans Conscience slighted it is thereby defiled for it speaks in the name of God and not any word of God nor any admonition of Conscience should we pass by without regard for Conscience is in the place of God in the man Fourthly Let it be your constant desire and your dayly exercise to live honestly in all things according to that of the Apostle Heb. 13.18 And truly therein the goodness of a mans Conscience is seen and Acts 24.16 In this I exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of offence toward God and toward men Satan doth cast defilement into the Conscience dayly and therefore there is nothing that a man should be imployed in more then to keep a good Conscience dayly in all things and truly it is the great shame of many that will take upon them the name of Religion yet are defective in this in a great measure that it may be said of them they do not labour in all things to keep a good Conscience Fisthly Take
do conceive much rather the meaning to be as I sin every day and thereby do daily contract a new guilt so grant that I may have the righteousness of Christ imputed unto me every day and a penitent heart given me that thereby I may have the qualifications that God requires unto pardon and my iniquities be blotted out For though I conceive it a truth that justification as far as it respects a mans state is done at once and is perfect in instanti that a man is but once justified that is put unto a state of pardon and righteousness and acceptation as soon as made one with Christ yet I conceive the pardon of sin to be a continued act that as a man doth sin daily so he has an actual pardon daily by the imputation of Christ's righteousness unto him anew The sacrifice indeed was offered but once and never to be repeated but the imputation of it is continued to the end of the World and the application of it is the act of every day and therefore some say that God does give us the same things over and over again daily as we sin daily and stand in daily need of it as he doth the Sun it had as much light in it the first day it was made as it hath now and God has not given us a new Sun but the same daily shines so it is with the imputation of Christs obedience who is the Son of Righteousness So that though a man be for his state once for all put into a state of justification yet remission of sins is an act that is continued daily and shall never be perfected till sin shall be done away and till the soul shall cease to say Lord forgive us our trespasses and then God shall cease forgiving but while the Saints do sin so long there is a daily remission upon a daily repentance and a renewed application So if a man sins daily and would have the guilt of his sins taken off his Conscience it must be by a daily confession a daily repentance and humiliation a daily application of the righteousness of Christ and therein by prayer seeking unto God for pardon daily for I know no other means to take the guilt of sin off the Conscience These things I speak partly to awaken the people of God that are justified freely by grace that they might not dare to pass a day in a way of sinning and that they may not dare to lye down with any sin unrepented of also and partly that those abominable and dangerous doctrines that are now abroad in the world to turn the grace of God and the promises of the Gospel into wantoness may be avoided when men say all our sins are pardoned allready and therefore though we may have sin in our conversation yet we have none in our Conscience God sees no iniquity in his people and he loves them in Christ and therefore loves them never the worse for all their sins c. And therefore they need not pray for pardon for they have it already but onely they must believe that they are pardoned and must believe that they need not repent for all is done away in Christ and it is onely for persons that are unregenerate to repent for sin and to ask pardon but for them that are in Christ their sins are pardoned c But let me tell you and the Lord will make you know that as you sin every day and contract a new guilt so there is no way to get this guilt taken off thy Conscience but by a daily repentance for it and a daily application of the righteousness of Christ that thy sins may be blotted out from the presence of the Lord for though thou be washed yet thou hast daily need to wash thy feet There is nothing that the heart of man is more willing and ready to shift off then the duty of repentance though as Tertullian saith he was nulle rei nisi penitentiae natus and yet it is with men as Luther says of himself there was no word that he did hate and abhor so much as that word Repent it is that the heart of man goes against and you have most need to be exhorted to it Thirdly There is another way to keep the Conscience pure from the guilt of sin and that is for a man to get assurance of Gods favour the light of his countenance and to walk in it all day long Psal 89.15 Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound They shall walk O Lord in the light of thy countenance When a man hath the witnesses either of blood and water which are more remote and the spirit of God speaks in them and in all ordinances of the Gospel or else when a man has a more immediate testimony from the spirit of God the Lord saying to his soul be of good cheer thy sins be forgiven thee the Lord sends his spirit that speaks to the soul as the prophet Nathan to David God hath taken away thy sin and this is Gods speaking to the soul pardon and peace which is the portion of many of the Saints when a mans soul draws near to the grave and his life to the destroyers and the Lord comes in and says deliver his soul from death for I have found a ransome and truly there are souls that do walk in the light of Gods countenance all the day long and their souls are as the upper Region quiet and are allways Calme though sin they do yet they speedily repent and humble their souls for it and their peace is never interrupted nor the light of Gods Countenance taken from them but they receive of his pardoning mercy dayly and dayly bear witness to it that their sins are done away and so their Consciences are never clogged with them But as soon as God withdraws the light of his countenance from any poor soul by and by the guilt of sin ariseth and Conscience is terrified and there is a thick cloud over spreads the whole soul and a mans heart is like unto a troubled Sea that cannot rest see what restless tossings David was in while his sin lay upon his Conscience and God hid his face day and night they are so heavy upon me that all the night long I make my bed to swim with my tears oh take me not out of thy presence will the Lord cast off for ever and his mercy is it clean gone will he be gracious no more Thus a man that would have a clear Conscience in respect of guilt must make it his business to walk in the light of Gods Countenance all the day Having thus far seen how a man may keep a Conscience pure from the guilt of sin Let us now come to the second how a mans Conscience may be preserved pure from the defilement and the pollution of sin And here we are to consider that there are two things in Conscience and answerable unto them there is a
3.17 be it known unto thee O King we will not serve thy gods c. Acts 1.20 We cannot but speak a necessity is laid upon me I must preach c. Jer. 20 9. The Word was in him as fire he could not forbear it is the impulse of Conscience that was the cause there is a double necessity Externa interna c. Now according unto this order and subordination of the faculties so shall the torment be Conscience is subject to none but God therefore the spirit of bondage shall come into the Conscience and trouble that and this shall torment the whole man and as God does usually set up Governours and they become Instruments of wrath over the kingdoms where they dwell if they be good they are a special blessing they are the breath of our Nostrils the stay of our Tribes the Chariots and Horsemen but if they be wicked they ruine the kingdom Psal 75.3 Saul had even destroyed the Nation they are ravening Lyons and evening Wolves Zeph. 3.3 So it is in the government of the inward man if the Conscience be good it s the greatest blessing and if evil the greatest curse for as none has the Power the Authority and the Opportunity to undo a people like those that have the Rule over them so it is with the Conscience there is nothing hath that Authority and Oppertunity to undo a man like it because it is alwayes with him where soever he goes and therefore 〈◊〉 Mala domestica Austine compare an evil Wife and an evil Conscience because they are both intolerablâ— burdensome evils a continual droping none have the Opertunity 〈◊〉 Torment like these Thirdly Conscience here has 〈◊〉 great hand in corrupting the whoâ— man and therefore it is no wondeâ— if hereafter it should have the greâ— hand in Tormenting him First Here Conscience is blinâ— and does not shew a man what is 〈◊〉 Duty and so many men Sin igâ—rantly for want of an inlightneâ— Conscience when the eye of 〈◊〉 man is darkned Math. 6. Hoâ— great is that darkness Secondly Conscience is dead a spirit of slumber is upon it that though it know things to be evil yet it stirs not against them or if it does it is but faintly but a good Conscience exerciseth Authority over the whole man and smites him when ever he does evil as 1 Sam. 24.17 Thirdly it is erroneous and carries men unto evil violently under a pretence of good a zeal not according to knowledg Joh. 16.2 For zeal persecuting the Church Tantus eram Saulus â—hat he thought him worthy of eternal death that descented from the Authority of his Religion in any thing it is from a deceived heart an erroneous Conscience Fourthly Conscience will be bribed by Lust takes in carnal reason and corrupt principles and will be satisfied in them Rom 1. imprisons truths in unrighteousness 1 Tim. 4.2 And it is insensible of any thing and it is just with God that that Officer in the man that had the great hand in corrupting should also have the great hand in tormenting the whole man Quest 4. Fourthly Why is not Conscience a Worm here as well as hereafter in Hell First Because Conscience cannot work of it self unless the Spirit of God awaken it c. Secondly Here is the working time of Conscience its suffering time shall be hereafter Here Conscience has great workes to do and great talents to imploy Heb. 13.18 The charge of the whole Life lies upon the Conscience and the Lord haâ— here a great house 2 Tim. 2.20 Understand it of the World or of the Church yet he has in it Vessek of Honour and some to Dishonour Now Why does God suspend the torment of the Devils It is because Christ has much work for them to do and they would have no pleasure in Sin if their Torments were fuller so it is with wicked men also and therefore the Lord has appointed a working time for Conscience to perform its viatory office and he has a pointed a suffering time for Conscience allo and he will not Torment them before that time Thirdly Hereby the Lord does exalt his own patience and long suffering so much the more for Sin being an infinite evil and a man that is but dust to provoke God to his Face and to do it the rather because God forbears them and sin the more because God forbears them and because of his patience because sentence is not executed speedily therefore the hearts of the children of men are fully set to do evil now that God should bear with much patience and long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction and that the Lord should not stretch forth his own hand against them but that he should also suspend the working of their one Consciences and should not let loose the reins upon them which would bring them down in the midst of their galantry as Belshazer Felix Judas c. And that God should keep a hand upon their Consciences and withhold their own thoughts from flying upon them it does wonderfully set forth the patience of God The Lord knows how to reserve the wicked to the day of wrath Fourthly Many things here which stop the mouth of Conscience shall hereafter be removed and then Conscience will speak The Worm of Conscience is to the Soul as they say the disease of the Wolf is to the Body If it be fed with something from without will eat the less inwardly but take away all supplies from without and it destroys inwardly as all the good things of this Life will be gone and then the Soul turns in upon it self and will be its own Tormentor foâ— ever Rev. 20.12 And I saw thâ— dead small and great stand before God and the Books were openedâ— and another Book was opened which is the Book of Life and the Deaâ— were judged out of those things whicâ— were written in the Books according to their works It is an allusion to the day of judgment That 's granted by all The books opened are First the book of the Law and Gospel Secondly of Gods Omnisciency Thirdly of his Decre Fourthly the book of Conscience All those ancient Records that lay hid as Colours in the dark Rom. 2.15.16 or as something that is written with the juice of a Lemon you may read it when you bring it to the fire but not till then But we will now set forth those Tormenting acts of Conscience hereafter which shall be as the gnawings of this never dying worm but before we come to speak unto them perticularly it 's necessary that these four things be premised First That after this Life the Spirit of God shall come into the Conscience of a wicked man as a spirit of bondage fully for ever Conscience is but a subordinate power and acts allways with reference to a higher Law as a rule and a higher power as a Judge it is Regnum sub graviore Regno And therefore it never works by it self