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A44438 The fourth (and last) volume of discourses, or sermons, on several scriptures by Exekiel Hopkins ... Hopkins, Ezekiel, 1634-1690. 1696 (1696) Wing H2734; ESTC R43261 196,621 503

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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. ●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 ●aily Infirmity they neither leave Guilt nor Defilement upon the Conscience of God's Children but
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