a worm as never dyes In Mark 9. 44. you hear there of a worm that dyeth not and a fire that never will be extinguished I believe some of you know what the head-ake or the Tooth-ake or the Gout or a fit of the stone means suppose Eternity should be added to one of these if you should have an eternal Tooth-ake or an everlasting fit of the Stone would not this be a sad thing Adde eternity to an evil and it makes it infinitely evil What will it be to have an everlasting stinging Conscience a fire flaming in you that never will be extinguished Oh! this will be the woful fruit of such a bad Conscience and therefore take heed of such a self-condemning heart If our heart condemn us not then have we considence towards God To have a self-approving a self-absolving heart before God is a pledge of our acceptation from God When thou shalt come to read over the story of thy life and finde that God hath wrought this grace in thee and that God hath likewise taught thee to walk conscionably before him and to love the Brethren and to love them in deed and in truth Oh! here is a pledge of Gods acceptation of thee for that argues indeed That God is thy God if he have given thee a self-approving heart a self-absolving heart He hath made some impression upon thy heart something of himself there given something that is an evidence of thy sincerity and of his accepting of thee in Christ and that he owns thee in him who by his blood hath satisfied Divine Justice for thy sin and then hast thou grounded confidence towards him Why confidence towards him He is thy God For doubtless as I intimated before if God hath given thee a self-absolving a self-approving heart a heart approving thy self to him according to the rule of the Word God is thy God and God being thy God thou hast confidence in him and mayest go and pray to him as to the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ and in him thy Father and doubt not but God will hear thy Prayers I must forbear the further Confirmation and Explication of this this being the third Exercise and the season hot and divers ancient Citizens present whose chearful patience should not be discouraged And the first Use that I will make of it is this You may please to look back to the former Observation because we shall have occasion they having so great affinity to link them both together a little in the Application A self-condemning heart that argues undoubted condemnation from God A self-absolving heart does intitle us to acceptation with God 1. Take heed then in the first place that you do not rest in such a condition wherein you have not your own hearts to approve you and to absolve you And not to instance in any other particular or to return to those generals we mentioned before I will keep to that that seems to be the Apostles intention here principally speaking of their heart condemning of them for want of love to the Brethren As you profess your selves Christians take heed that you be not found such that your heart does not condemn you as indeed not loving one another in truth not loving one another in reality This day it is an Uniting day as well as a Praying day so far as I understood the intent of it it was in part as to seek God so to prevent and remove all Jealousies and all Obstructions or whatever might hinder a happy Union betwixt the Court of Aldermen and Common-Councel that you might preserve Love and Peace in the City Oh! therefore I beseech you Take heed of any thing that may give occasion to your own hearts to condemn you I have some Arguments to prove I should be glad if you will be well able to answer them that some are in a guilty condition and that however you may complement and bear it out that your hearts are full of self-condemning even in this particular that there is no more true love among you My two Reverend Brethren and Fellow-Laborers have commended Stedfastness Activity and Unity Give me leave now to adde a plain Emphasis to all that to endeavor as God shall enable me to drive this Nail to the head that it may be fastened in every one of your hearts and to put you upon a self-examining and self-considering whether you are able now to approve your selves thus to God That you have Spirits settled and composed and effectually combined in this happy Unity that this might be the glory of London to be a City compact within it self which was the beauty of Jerusalem You have had Zeal for the Publique and have let go your Money blessed be God that hath put it into your hearts to be so zealous yea have lost much Money and many of your Friends and God forbid now you should lose your selves for want of love A great Politician saith That England is a huge mighty Animal he tells you also what he thinks of France and Spain but he gives this Character of England That England is such an Animal that will never dye unless it kill it self Truly I hope the same of London that it will never dye to speak as men unless it kill it self And I know no more compendious method to stifle and undo your selves then for want of love Oh! what a victory would this be to the Blood-thirsty Adversaries when all their plots could not break you you should break one another through your Divisions What a triumph would there be at Oxford how would they insult if that when they could not reach you you should bite and tear one another Blessed be the Lord that hath put it into your hearts to extinguish what sparks there are before they come to flame Too many Citizens I doubt herein do over much resemble their Gardens which are full of goodly Tulyps beautiful to the eye but neither good for pot or smell so they have a pompous love a specious kindeness in exchanging some Visits and Invitations but little or no conference to the good of one anothers souls little or no usefulness to one another in reference to the Publike This appears 1. Because there is so much Envy in the City Now certainly Envy proceeds from want of love for if you did love one another indeed you would heartily rejoyce in one anothers good But alas that such a one should have a Place rather then I and such a one should have more Power and more Influence then I have Oh! many men cannot bear it What call you that truly it is want of love such a man wants love to his Neighbor that he envies and he wants also love to the Publique if he envies another man that is abler to do the Service of the Publique then he is were there love to the Publique if there were any man in the City more active
of thy self and thy own actions that thou canst either condemn or absolve thy self If your heart if your Consciences have a power of self-condemning and self-absolving Then it is good to observe your Consciences and be sure to make your Conscience your friend and minde likewise as carefully what conscience says to you As you in your City Transactions I make no question but you preserve Records and what Acts pass or Orders or Decrees or whatsoever you call them at your meetings at your Common-Councel with the Court of Aldermen because you would be able to read over the Story to know how justly things were done and what may be a Rule for the time to come c. Let us be as careful to keep the Records of Conscience and to observe upon every occasion what your hearts say what conscience says For be you sure of this that Conscience hath a self-absolving and a self-condemning power and though it may be now thou little mindest it hereafter when thou comest to dye then Conscience will rub up thy Memory surely you lived under such a Minister and such Items you had given you and thus Conscience did work and sometimes you were almost perswaded with Agrippa and looked Heaven-ward and saw your errors and were almost perswaded to turn over a new leaf but still thou smotherest Conscience O this will be a sad thing if thy Conscience comes in against thee another day it will not onely be a thousand Witnesses but a thousand Armies to destroy thee over and over look to it now how you approve your selves even to your own Conscience And let me here by the way suggest but this to you Suppose you make a few Quaeries to Conscience now and allow Conscience likewise to make some Quaeries to you 1. Quaere What stewards have you been of all the Talents that God hath committed to your hands A steward say the Lawyers is a servant which is wont to set forth his Masters good for advantage What says Conscience Many of you are crowned with gray hairs and have been advanced to Places of great Power in the City and you have lived upon the goodness of your God it may be some of you fifty sixty years or more and a great stock of Talents hath gone through thy hands and thou shouldst have been trading faithfully for thy God all this while what account now can you give to Conscience Suppose you were now to keep conscience counting house for you will allow the word to speak it in your own language I would it were more frequent to keep a Soulcounting house as well as for your Estates a Closet for your consciences and enter in there Thus long I have lived in the world how much have I lived to my God we live indeed so much as we act for God and no more what says Conscience There have many men been in the world a great while and yet lived but a little while and it may be scarce begun to live yet but lived to themselves and to their lusts and to the service of sin and to the drudgery of Satan all this while Give an account of thy stewardship suppose that were thy word in Luke 16. 2. What says conscience now I doubt it would almost strike some of you dead while you were alive if you had but a real Summons indeed that this were your last day O! then Conscience would work strongly and make you tremble as Felix and look pale if you did believe that God would break the threed of thy life suddenly Suppose thou wert a dying man what says Conscience Hast thou been a faithful steward Canst thou give a good and sincere account of those Talents that God hath betrusted thee with 2. Quaere Let me put this as a second Quaere what wilt thou say to thy conscience How hast thou answered all thy Vows and Protestations and Covenants and all the Purposes and Promises that you have made And canst thou say resolutely with him Psal. 56. 12. Thy Vows are upon me I will render praises unto thee Or that thou hast done so Many of you might say not onely with the Psalmist Thy Vows are upon me but thy Protestations and thy Covenants yea it may be have entred into a curse to walk in Gods Law as they in Nehemiah Chap. 10. 29. The Lord knows that very great Obligations lie upon many of you How many Publike Fasting-days have you had not a day but you did or should renew your Covenant with God How many Communion-days have you had not a Communion day but you either did or should renew your Covenant with your God Some of you are under some Obligation or other and under the Obligation of the Solemn League and Covenant How have you answered all these in advancing the glory of God and the Publike good and the carrying on the work of a Scripture-Reformation what says conscience 3. Quaere Further if this Quaere should be proposed How can you wash your hands of the guilt of other mens sins What would you that are the Representative City say to that now Suppose that all the Drunkenness and all the Sabbath-breaking and the uncleanness and the prodigious wickedness that hath been committed in the City and in the Suburbs up and down upon the Sabbath-day and in other places where the Government of the City hath had or may have influence Suppose this should all now be laid at your door this day I say the Lord Major the Court of Aldermen the Common-Councel-men and they that had the Government of the City they are accountable to God for all the Oathes and Uncleannesses and wickednesses that they have known of and have not punished according to the Acts and Ordinances and Statutes that are to this purpose Give me leave to propound this in the Name of the great God to your Consciences What can you say to this Can you wash your hands in innocency I doubt besides all your by-Oathes that you may be guilty of personally and besides all your secret uncleanness that others may be guilty of and besides the Injustice and Prophaneness that your own hearts accuse you of Do you not think that many of the City-abominations I mean those common abominations that are committed by divers in the City may be charged upon the remiss Government of the City even in a great measure It is good for you now to ask conscience when you come to humble your souls before God and to deal more seriously with him and I hope you will now allow your Ministers to deal faithfully and plainly with you as in the sight of the Lord who will judge both Minister and people at the great Day Had you not need pray with the good old Father Lord forgive me my other mens sins 4. Quae. Let me adde this Quaere what says Conscience of this Many of you I think I may say if I should be mistaken in
whatsoever is in the bottom of your Spirits when you go to Prayer and frequent so many services as there is much pompous Religion in London as so many Lectures in a week and so many Fasting-days God knows a great deal of Hypocrisie in the bottom but you cannot halt before the Sun of Righteousness the Lord knows not onely what we do but why we do it and for what we do it what ingredients there are in all our actions which we cannot always discover the heart being deceitful in all things who can know it 2. God knows more by us in our actions then all the men in the world can know For there are many closer-actions many secret actions in our retirements and therefore well might the Apostle say here God knows all things more then all men and Angels The Devil watches you and he knows a great deal and Angels may be Witnesses of many of your actions and you may have Friends that may watch over you and know much by you but God knows more then all the men of the world set them all together and that will appear it may be when you come to dye then you read over a Story of your own life and conversation which you had forgotten and your Minister or others could not put you in minde of onely God stirs up Conscience he that knows the heart all the issues of it and the Conscience knows more by you at that time enlightned by God then all men do And therefore you finde that some Murthers have been discovered I had almost said in a miraculous way when they have been concealed a great while the Lord in a most wonderful way hath brought them to light whence is this God knows all things all our actions as I know thy works seven times repeated in the Prefaces to the seven Epistles to the seven Churches Revel. the 2. and 3. Chapter 3. Yea that God knows more good and evil by us then we know by our selves will appear at the day of Judgement You shall finde this most clear in Matthew there at the last Judgement what says Christ You fed me when I was hungry and you clothed me when I was naked Come ye blessed of my Father And he says to the other Depart ye cursed for I was in prison and ye did not visit me c. God knows more good by his servants then they know by themselves and God knows more wickedness by wicked men then they know themselves I am perswaded there are Thousands of Prayers some of you have put up and you have forgotten them God knows them every one and hath them all in a Book of Remembrance and there is many a Sin many of us hath committed that we are so far from Repenting of them that we have forgotten them but God remembers all those sins unless we remember them so in the general so as to lay hold upon him by a lively Faith to repent of them or they will come to be remembred Many a tear hast thou dropped in thy Prayer and it may be set fall many a six pence to poor people and spoken many good words in good Meetings and a little spark fired the whole company and one little grain of seed came up to many a hundred thou hast forgotten this I but God remembers it He sees all things I must hasten And here if you will give me leave to approve my self to God and to your Consciences and to deal most nakedly and plainly with you and in the Application of this to put you upon considering your own ways and laboring clearly and distinctly and impartially now to know your selves God knows all things and therefore I heartily desire that as ever you would finde favor in the eyes of God that you may know your own selves so clearly what is amiss by you that you may be brought to humble your selves and to make your peace with God God knows how it is The counsel the Prophet Haggai gives in Hag. 1. 6 7. Now says the Lord of Hosts consider your ways set your hearts upon your ways It is part of our business to preach to you this day upon a day of Humiliation to put you upon this that you call back your hearts and set them upon your ways And I should think it a great mercy of God if he would please so far to accept poor endeavors as to whisper it into your ears even the greatest person in the Congregation if God would but suggest somewhat to thy soul to bring back thy heart to thy ways that thou mightest fix upon the story of thy life from thy minority thy yonger days to thy gray hairs opus diei this is this days work God knows all I confess when I was first invited to this Employment I thought it had been onely a private day that the Representative City had been onely here present and possibly I should then have spoke of some things that according to the Rules of Prudence will not be so fit now to lay open here being a mixt Auditory and it may be some that will make advantage of the discovery of your miscarriages But you will give me leave to say what is seasonable to lead you to know your selves And I will first begin with you in your own personal condition and beseech you to lay this thought by you That God knows every man in the Assembly Lord Major Aldermen Common-Councel-men for to you I address my self God knows you in your greatest intimacy In all your personal ways as you are men as you are Christians He knows you in all your Family-relations what sincerity there is in the bottom of the heart therein The Lord knows that it may be some of thy Neighbors may censure thee for an Hypocrite and think all thy Religion is but Ostentation thou makest a great shew If thy heart be sound in Gods Statutes be not discouraged go on in thy way God knows it and thou needest not be ashamed And on the other side if thou beest a glosing complementing Hypocrite and if thou dost but act a part in Religion and hast got thy tongue tipt with some Gospel language by hearing and out-living so many Ministers and if thou beest stil a rotten hearted professor God knows this wil discover thee in due time And in all your relations God knows what you are possibly some may be churlish Nabals to their Neighbors God knows it if it be so Possibly some may be hard-hearted Pharaohs to their servants God knows it if it be so Possibly some may be cruel Tyrants to their wives God knows that likewise And possibly some may be fond Eli's to their Children indulgent to them in wicked and ungodly courses and when they should correct them and whip them onely ask them Why didst thou so my childe O look upon your selves in all your relations the Lord who with a candle could search Jerusalem can search
is a great advantage to thee that thou shalt hear of by and by But if nothing can satisfie thy Conscience thou wouldst appease thy Conscience and quiet it and goest to Prayer and it may be comest to Sermons and yet Conscience nibs thee follows and dogs thee from place to place and thou canst not rest Certainly if thou have such a mis-giving self-condemning heart it is a clear sign that yet God himself is not at peace with thee Sometimes indeed a very honest heart may be troubled and much perplexed I would not have any abuse this for there is a troubled Conscience that is yet a good Conscience because then troubled more for sinning against God then for any thing else But if thy heart do condemn thee for a wilful living in such a sin as being obstinately defective for here the Apostle speaks principally in this in wanting love to the Brethren if your hearts condemn you in this that you do not love truly one another you can have no solid peace For I dare boldly say That there is never a man or woman in the world that hath a good Conscience though a troubled Conscience which may be good when not comfortable but they do love the Brethren and love the Saints and they do not live in any gross sin and they do not allow themselves in any little sin But now if thy heart indeed do condemn thee as not having that which is an undoubted evidence of grace not the lowest degree of grace as thy not wallowing in any sin not allowing thy self in any the least wicked way which is inconsistent with the truth of grace thus explain'd it is a certain sign that thou canst as yet expect nothing but condemnation from God And therefore by way of use Beware O beware of defiling of polluting your own Consciences know this Conscience is Gods servant and therefore cannot be bribed will not be corrupted when once it hath received its Commission from him is awakened by him This is the very nature of Conscience observe it when other things wither and dye then it may be Conscience lives when a mans teeth falls out his hair falls off and his hearing is gone and his eye-sight lost that he cannot see without Spectacles c. according to that elegant description of old age by Solomon then his Conscience begins to live more vigorously when he comes to dye It may be thou that hast been an Atheist and dull hearer twenty or thirty years together and very little more edified by all the Sermons thou hast heard then the seat upon which thou satest for this when thou comest to dye thy Conscience will torment thee Oh! it is a dangerous thing to out live your Consciences you may out-live your Trading and Honor and yet overcome that at least have comfort under it but to lose your Conscience to be Plundred of a good Conscience it is the worst of all Plundrings A man had better lose all the world ten thousand times over then to lose God and Conscience no enemy like to Conscience besides God himself who does imploy and act it a million of enemies are not so much as a terrifying Conscience Divines have a great dispute many of them where Hell should be truly you need never make an enquiry God can make a Hell in any one of your Consciences and if God should open any of your eyes at this time that have lived in wickedness all your days and set Conscience on work to torment thee thou wouldst soon know where Hell is If God should but let one drop of his wrath fall upon thy Conscience at this time and discover what a secret wanton such a one hath been and what a private Drunkard such a one hath been if he should in his holy Justice set this upon thy Conscience thou wouldst have a very Hell in thy bosom Before God advances the souls of the Saints to heaven he can bring down heaven to their souls even so he often makes a hell in wicked mens Consciences before he condemns them into hell And therefore I beseech you because that a bad Conscience is a pledge an evidence of greater condemnation Take heed how you baffle abuse break with your Consciences Give me leave to propose this short Dilemma to you here Instance in any sin either you know it to be a sin or not know it Suppose Drunkenness or in Swearing or in Lying or in Uncleanness or in Sabbath-breaking or in want of love whoever you are you know it either to be a sin or you do not know it if thou dost know it to be a sin what a blinde Atheistical Conscience hast thou if thou dost know it and wilt still live in it then what a festred Conscience hast thou This is plain language but it is very wholesom no danger to hear of it now but if it be your doom to feel it at that left hand when you come to Judgement there it will be too late then you can never make your peace with Conscience but art eternally undone Too many men do deal with Conscience very unwisely as men do with Bayliffs Suppose an Officer should have order to Arrest such a man it may be he will give the Officer Bay lift or Sergeant or what you call him five shillings or ten shillings and he spares him but alas poor man the debt runs on and the Creditor will be at the charge of a new Writ So you come to a Sermon and it may be a spark of Truth falls upon your mindes and you go home a little convinced and what will you do you will go to some company to rub it out this Sermon came close to me but you have a jolly way in London it may be get to a Tavern and drink away with a pinte of Sack Twenty Sermons and with a pipe of Tobacco blow them away so you can wear out those strokes that the Word of God hath had upon you Oh! what call you this there is a simple bribing of the Sergeant but the grand debt runs on still And then it may be God will break thy Estate and take away they wife or children or thou hast lost so much at sea but thou dost comfort thy self I have so much left yet and though you be sad for the present yet you may get up again but then it may be a greater cross comes after this and if all this break not thy Conscience it will break thy neck in the conclusion and send thee packing to Hell out of whence there will be no Redemption Therefore I beseech you consider it if you have a selfcondemining Conscience it argues there is a greater condemnation to be expected Conscience will joyn with God as a Witness and Judge against thee Let me adde this is the next place and endeavor to set it a little more on Conscience as it will never be bribed so it is indeed such