Converts were not yet so perfectly and entirely Christians but that they still observed the Ordinances of the Mosaical Law as supposing it still in Force Others on the contrary being more confirmed and grown up in the knowledge of their Christian Liberty and thereby being fully satisfyed that the Ceremonial part of the Mosaick Law was abolish'd and took away observed not that difference of Days and Meats which was prescribed in that Law but look'd upon one Day as another and indifferently ate any kind of Meats being perswaded in their Conscience that Christ had took away all such distinction and made the use of all Lawful Nevertheless the former sort of Converts not understanding that it was the Design of Christianity to abrogaâ—e any thing once established by Moses had their Consciences still in Bondage to a Religious Observation of whatsoever had been enjoyned in his Law And thereupon though they owned Christ yet if any Meat prohibited by Moses was set before them they held themselves bound rather to fast or to eat only Herbs than by eating such Meat to break the Law as they thought and thereby to Defile themselves This was their Case But in this 8 th Chapter of 1 Cor. St. Paul speaks of Persons newly Converted from Idolatry and that touching the Lawfulness or Unlawfulness of eating Meats offered to Idols Concerning which offerings we must know that besides what was eaten of them in the Idols Temple which eating was an Act of Religious Worship and Communion with the Idol as our eating the Bread in the Sacrament is a Communion with Christ besides this I say there was a certain Portion of those Sacrifices which fell to the Priests and which they having no use of sold to those who afterwards exposed it to â—ale promiscuously amongst other Meats upon the Shambles from whence it was accordingly bought up and spent in private Families without any distinction whether it had or had not been offered to Idols Now as for the former way of eating Meats thus offered namely in the Idols Temple this the Apostle utterly disallows as absolutely Unlawful But the latter only under some Circumstances For he allows that it might be lawfully bought amongst other Meat in the Market and being so bought might be eaten in any private House without the least Sin Only with this Caution That whereas there were some who well understood that Meat could have no defiling quality imprinted upon it by its Consecration to an Idol And others on the contrary having not so much knowledge supposed that the Consecration of it to the Idol left upon it such a Polluting quality and near Relation to the Idol as defiled the Eater The former sort might freely and Innocently eat such Meats in private Families provided it was not before those of the latter sort who through weakness having an Opinion of the Unlawfulness of such Meats might nevertheless be induced to use the same Liberty though their Consciences in the mean time having quite another Judgment in this matter esteemed the eating them little better than Idolatry Now the Argument by which the Apostle abridges the liberty of the former sort of Converts in condescension to those of the latter sort proceeds upon the strength of this Assertion That the Lawfulness of Men's Actions depends not solely either upon the lawfulness of their subject matter nor yet upon the Conscience of the doers of them considered in it self but as considered with reference to the Consciences of others to whom by the law of Charity they stand bound so to behave themselves as by none of their Actions to give them occasion of Sin And this was the Case of the Persons here treated of by the Apostle in this Chapter Which Historical account of the subject matter of the words being thus premised I shall cast the prosecution of them under these Three Heads 1. I shall shew what a Weak Conscience is 2. What it is to Wound or Sin against it 3. I shall lay down some Conclusions or Assertions naturally resulting from the foregoing Particulars And First for the first of these what a Weak Conscience is I said at first that such a Conscience was improperly called Tender which in the sense it commonly bears is an expression of our own framing and no where to be met with in the Scriptures Tenderness applyed to Conscience properly imports quickness and exactness of sense which is the Perfection of this Faculty whose duty it is to be Spiritual Watch to give us warning of whatsoever concerns us It is indeed the Eye of the Soul and though the Eye is naturally the most tender and delicate part of the Body yet it is not therefore called Weak so long as its sight is quick and strong Conscience the more sensible it is to accuse or excuse which is its office and to spy out every little thing which may annoy or defile the Soul so much the more Tender it is to be accounted but not therefore so much the more Weak which sufficiently shews Weakness and Tenderness of Conscience to be in strictness of speech two different things And the same appears yet further from those Contraries to which they stand Respectively opposed A Tender Conscience being opposed to a Hard or Seared Conscience Such a one as either wholly or in a great measure has lost the distinguishing sence of Good and Evil Honest and Dishonest But a Weak Conscience is opposed to a Strong Which very strength we shew consisted in the Tenderness or Quickness of its discerning or Perceptive Power whereupon we read of Strong Men and Babes in Christ which denominations take their Rise from the strength or weakness of the Conscience For such as the Conscience is such must be the Christian. And here let none think my Insisting upon the distinction of these Terms either Nice or Needless For it is no small Artifice of Fraud to prepossess the Minds of Men by representing a bad thing under a good Name and calling Weakness of Conscience which is a defect by the Name of Tenderness which is a Perfection Words govern the Generality of the World who seldom go 〈◊〉 deep as to look into Things And Impostors well know how likely their Cause is to succeed if their Terms can but once be admitted As for the Place now before us it is evident that the weakness of Conscience here spoken of is opposed to Faith So that in Rom. 14. Such an one is said to be Weak in the Faith and v. 2. One Believeth that he may eat all things another who is Weak eateth Herbs Where observe that He who believeth is opposed to him who is Weak Now by Faith here is not meant that act or quality by which a Man is justified but signifies the same with Knowledge As 1 Cor. 8.10 If any Man see thee who hast Knowledge sit at meat in the Idols Temple shall not the Conscience of Him who is weak be emboldened to do so too And in v. 7. Howbeit there
is not in every Man this Knowledge for some with Conscience of the Idol eat it as a thing offered to an Idol and their Conscience being Weak is defiled So that as in that Chapter to the Romans Weakness of Conscience is opposed to Faith here in this Chapter to the Corinthians the same Weakness is opposed to Knowledge Which from the Identity of the Case treated of in both Places together with other Circumstances Evidently demonstrate Faith and Knowledge to be here taken for the same thing In short therefore the Faith here spoken of is a clear Knowledge of what is Vnlawful and what only Indifferent together with a firm perswasion of the Lawful use of such Indifferent Things all Circumstances being duly observed in the using of them And therefore on the other side the Weak Conscience is such an one as judges otherwise of the Nature of Things than indeed it is supposing that to be unlawful in it self which really is not so and thereupon abstaining from the use of it as of a thing Unlawful From whence it follows that Weakness of Conscience implies in it these three things First An Ignorance of the Lawfulness of some certain thing or Action Secondly A suspicion ensuing thereupon of its Vnlawfulness Thirdly A Religious fear to use or Practise it grounded upon that Ignorance or suspicion And first for the first of these Ingredients Ignorance which is indeed the chief and principal of all the three as being the Original of the other Two Concerning this we must as the ground-work of all observe that it ought by all means to be such an Ignorance as may in Propriety of Speech and sence bear the Denomination of Weakness Which it is certain that every sort of Ignorance neither does nor can For since Weakness is properly the Privation or Absence of Power That Ignorance only can receive this Name which is not founded upon any Vitious Action or Omission of the Will I say Action or Omission For a Man may either positively design and will the Ignorance of a Thing by studiously avoiding all means to inform himself of it much like the shuting of ones Eyes against the Light or reâ—using to come to Church Or it may be founded upon some Omission as when the will though it does not designedly avoid and put from it the means of Knowledge yet neglects to look after them Now the Ignorance which is Occasioned either of these ways is Willing and consequently Sinful Though usually for distinction sake the former is with more Emphasis termed not only Willing but Willfull as being the direct object of an Act of Volition and upon that Account stamp'd with an higher Aggravation That Ignorance therefore that renders and denominates the Conscience Weak must be such an one as is not Willing which is Evident upon a double account First Because it must be such an one as renders it in some degree excusable but so far as any defect is resolved into the will it is in that degree inexcusable Secondly Because it must be such an Ignorance as renders the Person having it the object of Pity and Compassion But no Man Pities another for any Evil lying upon Him which he would not help but which he could not One is his Burden the other his Choice Vertually at least since he might have Chosen its Prevention So that it must be such an Ignorance as is not all Circumstances considered under the present power of a Man's Will to remedy And Consequently it must be resolved into one of these two Causes First The Natural weakness of the understanding faculty Secondly The want of opportunities or means of Knowledge â—ther of which makes Ignorance Necessary as it is Impossible for Him to see who wants Eyes and Equally Impossible for Him who wants Light the former being the Organ the other the Means of Seeing But as touching the Natural weakness or disability of the understanding faculty we must observe that this may be either Total as in case of Ideotism Phrensy or the like which wholly deprives a Man of the use of his Reason but Persons in this Condition fall not under the present Consideration or Secondly this disability of the understanding may be only in part and as to a certain degree of its exercise From whence it is that one Man apprehends the same thing under the same advantages of Proposal much more slowly and difficultly than Another Which defect being in no Man's Power to prevent but coming with him into the World all that Ignorance which is inevitably caused by it neither can nor ever shall be charged upon the Will But then withal as this defect does not wholly deprive a Man of the Power of kâ—â—wing but only of the Readiness Easiness and Quickness of it upon which account Knowledge becomes more difficult to him in the Acquisition So this Weakness Dullness or Slowness of a Man's Intellectual Powers can never totally excuse Him for being Ignorant of what it was his Duty to know since it was in the Power of his Will by Labour and Industry to have supplied and as it were to have pieced up these Failures in his Apprehension and so at length to have acquired the Knowledge of that by Study and Pains which he could not by the Slowness of his Understanding take in at first But then this must be also confessed that by reason of this diversity in the quickness or slowness of Men's Understandings one Man may be sooner inexcusable for his Ignorance of the same thing than another For God will allow a Man of slower Parts to be Ignorant of a thing longer than a Person endued with more Quick and Pregnant Sence He â—â—â—ects from Men only according to the Proportions of his giving to them still making an Equality and Commensuration between a Man's Obligations and his Powers And thus much for the first and grand Ingredient of Weakness of Conscience which is Ignorance Secondly The Second is a suspicion of the Unlawfulness of any Thing or Action And this is manifestly something more than a bare Ignorance of its Lawfulness Though indeed such an Ignorance is of it self enough to make the forbearance of any Thing or Action necessary For as much as nothing ought to be done but in Faith that is in a full perswasion of the Lawfulness of what we do Which he can be no more said to do who is Ignorant of the Lawfulness of what he goes about than he who suspects it to be Unlawful How be it this suspicion adds to the guilt of the Action in case it be done during its continuance Because all suspicion is grounded upon some Arguments which leave not the Opinion of the Lawfulness or Unlawfulness of a Thing Equal as in 〈◊〉 of meer Ignorance but rather encline us to a belief that it is Unlawful For it is one thing not to know whether a Thing be Lawful another to doubt and shrewdly to suspect that it is not so Now this indeed is the usual
Concomitant of Weakness of Conscience as being the natural product of Ignorance which seldom stops in it self Men in the dark being generally fearful and apt to suspect the worst But yet this suspicion is not essentially requisite to make a Conscience Weak though where it is so it makes that Weakness greater and more troublesome For Ignorance is properly that in which this Weakness consists Ignorance makes the fore suspicion inflames it Thirdly The third and last thing that goes to the making up of this Weakness of Conscience is a Religious Abstinence from the use of that thing of the Lawfulness whereof it is thus Ignorant or Suspicious It brings a Man to that Condition in the 2 d of Coloss. and the 21 st v. 〈◊〉 Touch not Taste not Handle not It lays a tie and a restraint upon his Practice and enslaves him to the Prejudice of a mistaking Conscience under no less a Penalty than that of the Divine Wrath and Eternal Damnation Bonds not to be shook off and Fences not to be broke through by any one who values the Eternal Welfare of his Soul Now from these three things put together I conceive we may collect this full description of a Weak Conscience Namely that it is such an one as obliges a Man to forbear any Thing or Action from a suspicion that it is Unlawful or at least an Ignorance that it is Lawful which suspicion or Ignorance was not caused or occasioned by his own Will but either by the natural Weakness of his Understanding or the want of such means of Knowledge as were absolutely necessary to inform Him This description ought well to be observed and remembred in the several Parts of it as being that which must give light into all the following Particulars And thus much for the first thing pâ—â—posed which was to shew what this Weak Conscience is I proceed now to the Second Which is to shew what it is to Wound or Sin against it It implies I conceive these two Things First To grieve afflict or discompose it or in a word to Rob it of its Peace For there is that concernment for God's Honour dwelling in every truly Pious Heart which makes it troubled at the Sight of any Action by which it supposes God to be dishonoured Rivers of Tears saies David run down my Eyes because Men keep not thy Statutes and am I not grieved with those who rise up against Thee Every Sin directly strikes at God but collaterally the scandal of it reaches all about us And as Piety Commands us not to Offend God so Charity enjoyns us not to Grieve our Neighbour Secondly The other Thing implyed in the Wounding of a Weak Conscience is to encourage or embolden it to act something against its present Judgment oâ— Perswasion which is in other terms to offend or cast a stumbling-block before it That is to do something which may administer to it an occasion of falling or bringing it self under the guilt of Sin So that as the former was a breach upon the Peace this is properly a wound upon the Purity of the Conscience Now the Conscience may be induced to Act counter to its present perswasion two ways 1 st By Example 2 d By Command First And first for Example which is the Case here expressly mentioned and Principally intended According to that of the Apostle in the 10 th v. of this 8 th of 1 Cor. where he says that the Conscience of Him who is Weak is Embolden'd to Eat things offer'd to Idols by seeing Him who has Knowledge sit at Meat in the Idols Temple So that it is the seeing of another do so which makes the Weak Person conclude that he may do so too Now the Reason of that perswasive force which is in Example is from a kind of Implicit Faith in the Goodness and Lawfulness of anothers Actings grounded upon a supposall of his Piety and Judgment which in the Weak Conscience of One who beholds Him naturally frames such a kind of Ratiocination as this I for my part by the best of my Understanding can be no way satisfyed of the Lawfulness of my doing such an Action nevertheless such an one whom I esteem a Person truly Pious and more Judicious than my self makes no scruple of doing it at all which surely he would if it were indeed Unlawful And therefore if it be Lawful for him to do thus and thus why may it not be so likewise for me albeit my own Reason I confess would perswadâ— me otherwise So that here is the force of Example to Perswade and thereby in this Case to Wound in that it induces a Man to Act by an Implicit Faith in the private Judgment of another against the express Dictates and Perswasions of his own A thing directly against the Law of God and Nature which has appointed every Man's Reason or Conscience to be the Immediate Guide or Governour of his Actions Secondly The second way by which the Conscience may be induced to Act contrary to its present Perswasion is by Command as when a Person in Power enjoyns the doing something of the Lawfulness of which a Man is not perswaded But concerning this these two things are to be observed First That it is not so clear that a meer Command can Wound the Conscience this way that is by emboldening it to Act against its present Perswasion For so to embolden it is to make it Willing to Act in this manner but a Command as such makes not a Man willing to do the Thing Commanded but lays only an Obligation upon the Action that is to be done Nevertheless since a Command seldom comes proposed Naked in it self but with the Conjunction of Reward upon Performance of the thing Commanded or of Penalties upon the Omission one whereof works upon a Man's hopes the other upon his fears by both of which ways the will of Man is apt to be prevailed upon therefore in this sence a Command enjoyning a Man to do something against his Judgment may be said to Wound his Conscience not as a bare Command for so it has nothing to allure or gain the Will and it is certain that it cannot force it but as a Command attended with those Things which are apt to entice and gain upon it Add to this also that a Command coming from a Person noted for his Piety and Knowledge has the force of an Example For as much as the Reputation of the Person derives the same Credit upon his Law Secondly The other Thing here to be observed is that a Command may be considered two ways First As descending from one private Person upon another as from a Father upon a Son from a Master upon his Servant from a Guardian upon his Pupil or the like And I question not but the Principal Design of the Apostle in this Chapter extends not beyond private Persons but directly proposes rules only for the Charitable and Inoffensive deportment of one private Person towards another
which protests against Idolatry and Superstition and enjoins nothing that has any just appearance of such things upon it but offers to vindicate every thing practised and enjoyned by it from any such imputation these Men surely can have no Reason to entertain those Jealousies and Prejudices which possessed Men who had been bred up all their days in Iudaism or Idolatry and were but newly converted from it Especially if we add this also that the Goodness of God makes nothing our Duty either to believe or practise but what lies plain and obvious to any common apprehension which will not be wanting to it self Which things since the Church Inculcates to all within it teaching them to know by all the ordinary means of Knowledge whatsoever it is their Duty to know it is evident that no Man amongst us can justifiably plead Weakness of Conscience in that seâ—â—e in which their Consciences were Weak whom St. Paul deals with either in that Epistle of his to the Romans or in this to the Corinthians For can any Man living in the Church alledge any tolerable cause why he should be Ignorant of his Catechism a thing so short and plain and yet so full as to all things necessary to be believ'd or practised by a Christian that common Sence and common Industry may make any one a Master of it The summ of all therefore is this That he only can plead Weakness of Conscience upon Scripture Grounds who is excusably Ignorant of some Point of Duty or Privilege He only is excusably Ignorant whose Ignorance is not the Effect of his Will That Ignorance only is not so which is caused either by want of Ability of Understanding or of Opportunities and Means of Knowledge But he who has the common use of Reason has sufficient Ability and he who lives in a Church Professing the true Religion has sufficient Opportunity and Means of knowing whatsoever â—oncerns him either to know or do From a joint Connexion and an unavoidable Coherence of which Propositions one with another it clearly appears that it is not Weakness but Want of Conscience which is the true Distemper of those Persons who at this day disturb the Church Secondly The second Assertion or Conclusion was this That as such Weakness of Conscience can upon no sufficient ground be actually pleaded so upon much less can it be continued in This must needs be confessed by all that a Weak Conscience in the Apostle's sence is an Imperfection and consequently ought by all means to be removed or laid down For as certainly as growth and proficiency in Knowledge under the means of Grace is a Duty so certainly is it a Duty not to persist in this Weakness of Conscience which has its foundation only in the defect of such Knowledge So that St. Paul himself who is here willing that for the present it should be complyed with elsewhere upbraids and reprehends Men sharply for continuing under it As in the 1 st of Cor. the 3 d Chap. and the 〈◊〉 and 3 d. verses He calls such Babes and such as were to be Fed with Milk and not with Meat And to shew yet further the Imperfection of this Estate he says that upon this account he could not treat them as Spiritual Persons but as Carnal The same Reprehension he repeats in Heb. 5.12 Where he again upbraids them with this Appellation of Babes telling them that whereas for the time they ought to have been Teachers of others they continued in their Spiritual Childhood so long that they had need that one taught them again which were the first principles of the Oracles of God And to shew that these were such Weak Consciences as we are here discoursing of in the 14 th v. He opposes them to such as were of full Age and that by reason of use had their Senses exercised to discern both Good and Evil. The want of which discernment is properly that thing wherein this Weakness of Conscience does consist Whereupon the Apostle in the next Chapter calls upon such to go on to Perfection which surely implies that this their present Condition was not the Perfection which they were to rest in And it were worth the while in our Contest with the Pretenders to Weak or Tender Consciences amongst us to enquire of them how long they think it fit for them to continue Weak and whether they look upon their Weakness and Ignorance as their Free-hold and as that which they resolve to keep for term of Life and to live and die Babes in the Knowledge of the Religion they Profess to to grow up into Childhood and at length go out of the World Infants and Weaklings of Threescore or Fourscore Years Old This certainly they must intend for so far are they from looking upon that Weakness or Tenderness of Conscience which they plead as an Imperfection and consequently to be out grown or removed by them that they own it as a Badge of a more Refined and Advanced Piety and of such a growth and Attainment in the ways of God that they look down upon all others as Christians of a lower form as Moral Men and Ignorant of the Mystery of the Gospel Words which I have often heard from these Impostors and which infallibly shew that the Persons whom St. Paul dealt with and those whom we contend with are not the same kind of Men for as much as they own not the same Duty But that it seems which was the Infancy and Defect of those Persons must pass for the perfection and really is the design of these And whereas St. Paul said to the former that if they doubted they were damned if they ate these for ought appears account it Damnation not to doubt where doubting of their Duty may prove a serving of their Interest I proceed now to the third and last Conclusion Which is this That supposing this weakness of Conscience might be both pleaded and continued in yet the Plea of it ought by no means to be admitted by the Civil Magistrate in prejudice to any Laws either Actually made or to be made by Him for the General Good of his People This was sufficienâ—ly manifest in what I laid down before to wit that the Magistrate is 〈◊〉 ways obliged to frame his Laws to the good of any particular Persons where it stands separate from the good of the Community or Majority of the People Which consideration alone though it be sufficient to discharge the Magistrate from any obligation to admit of such Pleas yet there are other and more forcible reasons why they are by no means to be admited I shall assign two in General First The first taken from the Ill and Fatal Consequences which inevitably ensue upon their Admission Secondly The other taken from the Qualification and Temper of the Persons who make these Pleas. As for the Ill Consequences springing from the admission of them though according to the fertile Nature of every absurd Principle they are indeed innumerable
its great Clog and Impediment As the skilfulest Artist in the World would make but sorry work of it should he be forced to make use of Tools no way fit for his Purpose But whether the fault be in the Spiritual or Corporeal part of our Nature or rather in Both certain it is that no two Things in the World do more rise and grow upon the Fall of Each other than the Flesh and the Spirit They being like a kind of Balance in the hand of Nature so that as one mounts up the other still sinks down and the high Estate of the Body seldom or never fails to be the Low declining Estate of the Soul Which great contrariety and discord between them the Apostle describes as well as words can do Galat. 5.7 The Flesh says He lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit lusteth against the Flesh and these two are contrary like two mighty Princes whose Territories join they are always encroaching and Warring upon one Another And as it most commonly falls out that the Worse Cause has the Best success so when the Flesh and the Spirit come to a Battle it is seldom but the Flesh comes off Victorious And therefore the same great Apostle who so constantly exercised Himself to keep a Conscience void of Offence did as constantly and severely exercise Himself to keep under his Body and bring it into subjection 1 Cor. 9.27 And the same in all Ages has been the Judgment and Practice of all such as have had any Experience in the ways of God and the true methods of Religion For all Bodily Pleasure dulls and weakens the Operations of the Mind even upon a Natural Account and much more upon a Spiritual Now the Pleasures which Chiefly Affect or rather Bewitch the Body and by so doing become the very Pest and Poyson of the Nobler and Intellectual Part of Man are those false and fallacious Pleasures of Lust and Intemperance Of Each of which severally and First For Lust. Nothing does or can darken the mind or Conscience of Man more Nay it has a peculiar Efficacy this way and for that cause may justly be ranked amongst the very Powers of Darkness It being that which as Naturalists observe strikes at the proper seat of the Understanding the Brain Something of that Blackness of Darkness mentioned in the 13 th of St. Iude seeming to be of the very Nature as well as Punishment of this Vice Nor does only the Reason of the thing it self but also the Examples of such as have been possessed with it demonstrate as much For had not Sampson think we an Intolerable Darkness and Confusion upon his understanding while He ran Roving after every strumpet in that Brutish manner that He did Was it not the Eye of his Conscience which his Dalilah first put out and so of a Judge of Israel rendred Himself really a Judgment upon them And when the two Angels as we read in 19. Gen. struck those Monsters the Men of Sodom with Blindness had not their own detestable Lust first stricken them with a greater Or could Herod have ever Thought Himself obliged by the Religion of an Oath to have Murdered the Baptist had not his Lust and His Herodias Imprisoned and Murdered his Conscience first For surely the Common Light of Nature could not but Teach Him that no Oath or Vow whatsoever could warrant the greatest Prince upon Earth to take away the Life of an Innocent Person But it seems his besotted Conscience having broken through the seventh Commandment the sixth stood too near it to be safe long and therefore his two great Casuists the Devil and his Herodias the worse Devil of the Two having allowed Him to lie and wallow in Adultery so long easily perswaded Him that the same Salvo might be found out for Murder also So that it was His Lust obstinately continued in which thus darken'd and deluded his Conscience and the same will no doubt darken and delude and in the End extinguish the Conscience of any Man Breathing who shall surrender Himself up to it The Light within him shall grow every day less and less and at length totally and finally go out and that in a stink too So hard or rather utterly unfeasible is it for Men to be Zealous Votaries of the Blind God without losing their Eyes in his Service and it is well if their Noses do not follow From all which it appears what a Paradox it is in Morals for any one under the Dominion of his lust to think to have a Right Judgment in Things relating to the state of his Soul And the same in the Second Place holds equally in that other Branch of sensuality Intemperance whereupon we find them both Joined together by the Prophet Hosea 4.11 Whoredom says He and Wine take away the Heart that is according to the Language of Holy Writ a Mans Iudging and Discerning abilities And therefore whosoever would preserve these Faculties especially as to their discernment of Spiritual objects quick and vigorous must be sure to keep the upper Region of His Soul clear and serene which the Fumes of Meat and Drink lâ—xuriously taken in will never suffer it to be We know the method which this high and exact Pattern of Spiritual Prudence St. Paul took to keep the great sentinel of His Soul his Conscience always vigilant and circumspect It was by a Constant and severe Temperance heighten'd with frequent Watchings and Fastings as He Himself tells us 2 Cor. 11.27 In watchings often in Fastings often c. This was the Discipline which kept his senses exercised to a sure and exquisite discrimination of Good and Evil and made the Lamp within Him shine always with a Bright and a Triumphant flame But Gluttony and all excess either in eating or drinking strangely clouds and dulls the Intellectual Powers and then it is not to be expected that the Conscience should bear up when the Vnderstanding is drunk down An Epicure's Practice Naturally disposes a Man to an Epicure's Principles that is to an equal looseness and dissolution in Both And He who makes his Belly His Business will quickly come to have a Conscience of as large a swallow as his Throat of which there wants not several scandalous and deplorable Instances Loads of meat and drink are fit for none but a Beast of Burden to bear and He is much the greater Beast of the two who carries his Burden in his Belly than He who carries it upon his Back On the contrary Nothing is so great a Friend to the mind of Man as Abstinence It strenghens the memory clears the Apprehension and sharpens the Iudgment and in a word gives Reason its full scope of Acting and when Reason has That it is always a diligent and faithful Hand-Maid to Conscience And therefore where Men look no further than meer Nature as many do not let no Man expect to keep his Gluttony and his Parts His Drunkenness and his Wit his Revellings and his Iudgment
a Iargon of empty senseless Metaphors and though many venture their Souls upon them despising good works and strict living as meer Morality and perhaps as Popery yet being throughly look'd into and examined after all their Noise they are really nothing but Words and Wind. Another flatters himself that he has lived in full Assurance of his Salvation for Ten or Twenty or perhaps Thirty years that is in other Words The Man has been Ignorant and Confident very long Ay but saies another I am a great Hearer and Lover of Sermons especially of Lectures And it is this which is the very delight of my Righteous Soul and the main business of my Life and though indeed according to the good old Puritan Custom I use to walk and talk out the Prayers before the Church Door or without the Choire yet I am sure to be always in at Sermon Nay I have so entirely devoted my whole Time to the hearing of Sermons that I must Confess I have hardly any left to Practise them And will not all this set me right for Heaven Yes no doubt if a Man were to be pulled up to Heaven by the Ears or the Gospel would but reverse its Rule and declare That not the Doers of the Word but the Hearers only should be justify'd But then in comes a fourth and tells us That He is a Saint of yet an higher Class as having got far above all their Mean Beggerly Steeple-house Dispensations by an happy Exchange of them for the Purer and more Refined Ordinances of the Conventicle where he is sure to meet with Powerful Teaching indeed and to hear Will-worship and Superstition runn'd down And the Priests of Baal paid off and the Follies and Fopperies of their great Idol the Common-Prayer laid open with a Witness not without some Edifying Flings at the King and Court too sometimes by all which his Faith is now grown so Strong that he can no more doubt of his going to Heaven than that there is such a Place as Heaven to go to So that if the Conscience of such an One should at any time offer to grumble at Him He would presently stop its Mouth with this That he is of such an Ones Congregation And then Conscience say thy worst Or if the guilt of some old Perjuries or Extortions should begin to look stern upon Him Why then all those old scores shall be cleared off with a Comfortable Perswasion That such as he cannot fall from Grace though it is shrewdly to be feared That his only way of proving this must be That there can be no losing or falling from that which a Man never had But ah Thou Poor Blind Self-deluding and Deluded Soul are these the best Evidences thou hast for Heaven These the Grounds upon which thou hopest for Salvation Assure thy self that God will deal with thee upon very different Terms For he absolutely enjoins thee to do whatsoever Christ has Commanded and to avoid whatsoever He has forbidden And Christ has commanded thee to be poor in Spirit and to be pure in Heart To subdue thy unruly Appetites to curb thy Lust to restrain thy Anger and to suppress thy Revenge And if any thing proves an hindrance to thee in thy Duty though it be as dear to thee as thy Right Eye to pluck it out and as useful to thee as thy Right Hand to cut it off and cast it from thee He will have thee ready to endure Persecutions Revilings and all manner of Slanders not only patiently but also chearfully for the Truths sake He calls upon thee to Love thine Enemies and to do Good for Evil To bless those that Curse thee and to pray for those that Despitefully use thee He Commands thee in all Things strictly to do as thou wouldest be done by and not to cheat lye or over-reach thy Neighbour and then call it a fetching over the Wicked the better to enable thee to relieve the Godly He will not allow thee to resist Evil and much less to resist thy Governour He commands thee to be Charitable without Vain-Glory and Devout without Ostentation In short He requires thee to be meek and lowly chast and temperate just and merciful and in a word so far as the poor measures of Humanity will reach Perfect as thy Heavenly Father is Perfect This is the summ of those Divine Sayings of our Saviour which he himself refers to in my Text and which if a Man Hears and Does all the Powers of Hell shall never shake him And nothing but a constant impartial universal Practice of these will or can speak Peace to thy Conscience here and stand between Thee and the Wrath of God hereafter As for all other Pretences they are nothing but Death and Damnation dressed up in Fair Words and False Shews nothing but Ginns and Snares and Trepans for Souls Contrived by the Devil and Managed by such as the Devil sets on Work But I have done and the Result of all that I have said or can say is That every Spiritual Builder would be perswaded to Translate his Foundation from the Sand to the Rock and not presume upon Christ as his Saviour till by a full Obedience to His Laws he has owned Him for his Sovereign And this is properly to Believe in Him This is truly to Build upon a Rock even that Rock of Ages upon which every one that wears the Name of Christ must by an inevitable Dilemma either Build or Split Now to God who is able to Build us up in our most Holy Faith to Establish us here and to Save us hereafter be rendred and ascribed as is most Due all Praise Might Majesty and Dominion both now and for evermore Amen A True State and Account OF THE Plea of a Tender Conscience IN A SERMON Preached at Christ-Church Oxon. before the University IN Michaelmass Term 1672. 1 COR. VIII 12 But when ye Sin so against the Brethren and Wound their Weak Conscience ye Sin against Christ. I Shall by God's Assistance from these words debate the Case of a Weak or as some improperly enough call it a Tender Conscience And with what Evidence I can shew both what it is and what Privileges it may justly claim from this and such other places of Scripture One great one we have here set down and that indeed so great that it looks more like a Prerogative than a Privilege Namely that to Wound or Sin against it is no less a Crime than to Sin against Christ Himself Our Apostle in two places of his Epistles treats professedly of this Argument To wit in the 14 th of the Rom. and in this 8 th of the 1 Cor. For the better understanding of his design and meaning in both which places it â—ill be requisite to give some brief account of the Subject Matter and Occasion of them In the 14 th Chapter of the Rom. he speaks of such as had been Converted from Judaism to Christianity some of which being but new
Nevertheless since by manifest Analogy of Reason the Case of Magistrates or publick Persons may here come into Consideration Therefore in the Second Place â—a Command may be Considered as descending from a Magistrate or Publick Person upon Persons under his Jurisdiction and so I affirm that the Supreme Magistrate in the making of Laws or giving out Commands stands not under any obligation from his Office to frame those Laws to the Good or Advantage of any Particular Persons but only of the Community or Majority of the People which are properly the Trust Committed to Him So that if his Reason or Conscience upon the best Information he can get tells Him that the making of such or such a Law tends to the good of these and that so apparently that without it they would be unavoidably hurt in matters of the greatest Moment if this Law now becomes an occasion of Sin to some particular Persons its being so is wholly accidental and extrinsick to the design of the Law and consequently concerns not the Civil Magistrate nor makes Him chargeable with those Sins in the least For surely where the Publick good of all or most of the People comes into Competition with the Private good of some Particulars so that both cannot possibly be served by the same means There Charity as well as bare Reason will teach that the Private must stoop to the Publick rather than the Publick be made a Sacrifice to the Private In God's Government of the World it is the Publick concern of Mankind that there should be Summer and Winter in their respective Seasons and yet there are Millions of Sick and Weak Persons to whose distempers the approach of either of those Seasons will prove certainly Mortal Is it now think we rational that God should suspend a Summer or a Winter only to comply with the distemper of those Crazy Bodily-Weak Brethren and thereby to incommode all the World besides The case is much alike here However this indeed must be confessed that if the Magistrate or Supreme Power should make a Law which he knew would be a direct occasion of Sin to the Generality or Majority of his People the making of such a Law would be in Him a Sin and a Breach of his Trust but still I affirm that his Office obliges Him only to provide for the good of the main Body of his People and if it so falls out that Particulars come to have an Interest distinct from or opposite to that he is not during such its opposition at all bound to regard or Provide for it Nor to answer for the Inconveniences which may attend such Persons either in their Civil or Spiritual Concerns And thus much concerning the second Thing proposed which was to shew what it is to Wound or Sin against a Weak Conscience namely that it is either to grieve it or to embolden it to Sin And if it be now objected against this that the Text calls a Sinning against a Weak Conscience a Sinning against Christ to whom we can no ways properly be said to administer any occasion or inducement to Sin I answer that this expression of Sinning against being applyed to Christ imports only a grieving or disobeying Him Though as it is applyed to the Weak Conscience it signifies the other Thing too It being not unusual in Scripture for the same word to be repeated in the very same sentence under a diverse signification Having thus finished the two first Things I come now to the Third and last which is to set down those Conclusions which by way of Consequence and Deduction naturally result from the foregoing Particulars Which Conclusions are these 1. That no Man having been brought up or for any length of time continued in the Communion of a Church Teaching and Professing the true Religion if he have but also the common use of his Reason can justly plead Weakness of Conscience in the Sence in which it was here used by the Apostle 2. That as such Weakness of Conscience can upon no sufficient ground be Actually pleaded so upon much less can it be continued in 3. That supposing it might be both pleaded and continued in yet the Plea of it ought by no means to be admitted by the civil Magistrate in prejudice of any laws either actually made or to be made by Him for the General good of his People Of each of which in their order First And first for the first of these That no Man c. This conclusion is of so much force and use rightly applyed that it is a wonder it has not been more insisted upon against those who disturb the Church with this Plea for as much as it would wholly cashier and pluck it up by the very Roots And Men mistake the Method of disputing with these pretenders to Weak Consciences now adays not considering that the very supposition that they either have or can have 〈◊〉 â—eak Conscience ought by no means to be granted them nor are we to debate with them how far and to what degree this their Weakness ought to be yielded to but absolutely to deny that amongst us and under our circumstances there is any such thing St. Paul indeed speaks of such a Conscience in those first times of Preaching the Gospel and accordingly urges a compliance with it but where the cases are wholly different there the Privileges applicable to both cannot be the same In both these places in which this Apostle treats of this matter I shew that the Persons to whom he addresses Himself were but new Converts Some of which were just converted and come off from Judaism whose Reverence to the Law of Moses had been sucked in by them with their very Milk and been still kept up in the Minds of all that People to that strange heighth almost of Adoration that it is no wonder if their Opinion of the continuance of that Law even â—fter Christ's Death and their Ignorance of its Abrogation were for a time invincible And for the other sort of new Converts they were such as had been converted from Heathenism and Idolatry and consequently looked upon every thing in use amongst those Heathens with a suspicion and a jealousy so strong that considering the Weakness of Humane Nature it was impossible presently to remove it and therefore they were in Charity for some time to be complyed with For as the prejudices and prepossessions of Education are exceeding hardly removed and broke so being once broke the Aversions of the Mind from them running into the other extreme are altogether as impetuous and as hardly governable by impartial Reason whereupon shadows are oftentimes mistook for substances whilst Men through immoderate fearfulness first create to themselves appearances of Evil and then fly from them But what is all this to the Case of those now adays amongst us who from their Cradle have or migâ—â— have had the Principles of True Religion instilled into them who have still grown up in a Church
yet I shall insist only upon these three First The first is That there can be no Bounds or Limits put to this plea nor any possibility of defining the just Number of particulars to which it may extend For it being founded in Ignorance and Error as has been shown it is Evident that it may reach to all those Things of which Men may be Ignorant and about which they may Err. So that there is no duty but Men may doubt and scruple the doing of it pretending that their Consciences are not satisfied that it is a Duty or ought to be done Nor is there any Action almost so wicked and unjust but they may pretend that their Consciences either prompt them to it as Necessary or allow them in it as Lawful As there was one in the last blessed Times of Rebellion and Reformation who Murdered his own Mother for kneeling at the Sacrament alledging that it was Idolatry and that his Conscience told him it was his Duty to destroy Idolaters And let any Man living if he can state exactly how far Conscience will doubt and be unsatisfied and give me any Reason I say any solid Reason why if it may plead dissatisfaction in this or that thing it may not upon the same Principle plead it in any other Thing whatsoever And so if the obligation of our Laws must then only begin when this Plea shall end I fear we shall never see either the End of one or the beginning of the other Secondly The second Ill Consequence is this That as there can be no bounding of this Plea in respect of the particulars about which it may be made so when it is made there can be no possible evidence of the sincerity of it For all the Evidence producible must be the word of Him who makes this Plea for as much as He only can be Judge of his own Thoughts and Conscience and tell whether they be really under such a perswasion and dissatisfaction or no. But where Men may pretend Conscience in the behalf of Interest I see no reason why their word should be taken in behalf of their Conscience And yet if we hold to the Principle upon which this Plea relies no other proof of it can be had Which if it be admitted I suppose there needs no other Argument to demonstrate that this and the former Consequence together are of that Absurd Nature and malign Influence that they must forthwith open the Flood-gates to all Confusion and like a mighty Torrent bear down before them all Law Right Justice and whatsoever else the Societies of Mankind are settled by and supported with But to proceed to yet a further and more destructive Consequence In the Third Place The admission of this Plea absolutely binds the Hands of the Magistrate and subjects him to the Conscience of those whose Duty it is to be subject to Him For let the Civil Power make what Laws it will if Conscience shall come and put in its exception against them it must be heard and exempt the Person who makes the Exception from the Binding Power of those Laws For since Conscience commands in the Name of God the Issue of the question must be whether God or the Magistrate is to be obeyed and then the Decision is like to be very Easy This Consequence is so direct and withal so strong that there is no Bar against it So that whereas heretofore the Magistrate passed for God's Vicegerent here on Earth the Weak Conscience is now resolved to keep that Office for it self and to prefer the Magistrate to the Dignity of being it s under Officer For the Magistrate must make only such Laws as such Consciences will have made and such Laws only must be obeyed as these Consciences shall judge fit to be obeyed So that upon these Terms it is not the King but the Tender Conscience that has got the Negative Voice upon the making of all our Laws and which is more upon the observing them too when they are made I dare affirm that it is as Impossible for any Government or Politick Body without a standing force to subsist or support it self in the allowance of this Principle as it is for the Natural Body to live and thrive with a dagger sticking in its Vitals Nor can any thing be fuller of Contradiction and Ridiculous Paradox than to think to Reconcile the Soveraignty of the Magistrate and the safety of Government with the sturdy Pleas of dissenting Consciences It being all one as if the Scepter should be put into the Subjects hand in order to his being Governed by it I could add yet further that considering Things and Persons barely in themselves it is ten to one but God rather speaks in the Conscience of a Lawful Christian Magistrate making a Law than in the Conscience of any Private Persons whatsoever dissenting from it And thus much for the first general reason against admitting the Pleas of Weak or as some falsely call them Tender Consciences the Second General Reason shall be taken from those qualities which usually accompany the said Pleas of which there are Two First Partiality Secondly Hypocrisy First And first for Partiality Few make this Plea themselves who being once got into Power will endure it in others Consult History for the Practices of such in Germany and your own Memories for the Practices of the late Saints in England In their general Comprehensive Toleration you know Prelacy stood always joined with Popery and both were excepted together Nor was there any Toleration allowed for the Liturgy and established Worship of the Church of England though the users of it pleaded Conscience never so much for its use and the known Laws of God and Man for the Rule of that their Conscience But those Zealots were above that Legal ordinance of doing as they would be done by Nor were their Consciences any longer Spiritually Weak when their Interest was once grown Temporally strong And then notwithstanding all their pleas of Tenderness and out-cries against Persecution whoever came under them and closed not with them found them to be Men whose Bowels were Brass and whose Hearts were as hard as their Foreheads Secondly The other Qualification which generally goes along with this Plea and so renders it not fit to be admitted is Hypocrisy Divines generally agree upon this as a certain evidence of the sincerity of the Heart when it has an equal respect unto all God's Commands and makes Duty as Duty one of the Principal Reasons of its obedience the Consequence of which is that its Obedience must needs be Universal Now upon the same ground If Conscience be really even in their own sence Tender and doubts of the Lawfulness of such or such a Practice because it carries in it some Appearance and Semblance of Evil though yet it dare not positively affirm that it is so Surely it must and will be equally afraid of every other Practice which carries in it the same appearance of Evil