it self evil as in the Polygamy of the Patriarchs And should not this power be good whose power is so great both for evil and for good 5. From the Principles it owneth 1. In Nature Doth not even Nature it self teach me that my Conscience be good whatsoever pains it cost me or whatever be the persecutions from men wherewith it may be consequenced The very Heathens have therefore prescribed means and pressed motives 2. In Grace how much more am I taught to exercise my self herein and engage my self hereunto by all the principles of godliness and by all the Promises of the Gospel 6. From the Offices it is to perform Can my Conscience do well if it be evil do not its Offices for God require that it be holy and good Conscience hath the office of 1. A Minister and is therefore obliged to be good a bad Minister being the worst of Men there is little hopes of its ministring good unless it be a good Minister 2. Of a Magistrate who should be most eminently and exemplarily good and a Minister to thee for good 3. Of a Witness 4. And of a Judg which must be good or they will do evil do evil themselves and not deliver Souls from extremity and injustice 3ly Direct 3 Apply you to the Causes of a good Conscience The Causes improved the effect will ensue These are principal or less principal 1 The Principal is God Every good and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of Lights The good Conscience is from the God of Conscience The God that made thy Conscience can alone make thy Conscience good Acknowledg him then in all thy ways and he shall direct thy paths Ask of him by prayer and strong crys as David did Thou art good and dost good teach me thy Statutes Incline my heart to thy Testimonies Let my heart be sound in thy Statutes Create in me a clean heart O God Jam. 1.17 Psal 119.36 68 80. 1. It proceedeth from the good-will of the Father The Inspiration of the Almighty giveth Understanding 'T is He that putteth Wisdom in the inward parts and giveth Understanding to the Heart Press thy Heart to consider it and plead with him in Supplication who delights to be urged with the liberousness of his own acts of Grace and giveth liberally to him that asketh Job 32.8 c. 38.36 Jam. 1.5 2. It is procured by the great worth of the Son who was made sin for us to take sin from us and in the likeness of sinful flesh by a sacrifice for sin hath condemned sin in the flesh and so brings us to God 2 Cor. 5.21 1 Joh. 3.5 Rom. 8.3 marg 1 Pet. 3.18 The good Conscience costs no less price than the Blood of God the Blood of Christ was shed that the besmeared Conscience might be sprinkled and purged for the peculiar service of God Act. 20.28 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Heb. 10.22 c. 9.4 Apply then the meritorious and medicinal vertue that is in the Blood of Christ for cure of those maladies and bruises that are in thy Conscience Apply it by an hand of Faith make it thine Put thou on the Lord Jesus Christ Bring it down to thy case let this Blood be sprinkled on thy Conscience apply it in ardent prayer come unto God by him present his Merit with thy malignity to Divine mercy Plead his worthiness in thy unworthiness his stripes for thy healing the righteousness of Christ for the renovation of thy Conscience Pursue thy petitions upon the price he hath paid 3. It is produced by the gracious work of the Spirit If Conscience be spiritual and gracious it comes from the spirit of Grace if pure if holy 't is by the power of the Holy Ghost 'T is carnal till the Spirit comes never spiritual till born of the Spirit It is the spirit of life which sets it free from the law of sin and death Joh. 3.5 Rom. 15.13 16. Rom. 8.2 What Evangelical Truths are imprinted on the good Conscience they are of the Spirit 's writing 2 Cor. 3.3 What Evangelical Testimony is imparted by the good Conscience 't is of the Spirit 's working of his working for us who also witnesseth therewith in us Rom. 8.15 c. 9.1 Put not off the Spirit then in its motions and essays upon you which he maketh ply to him with all diligence and dearness put him not off with delays much less shouldst thou provoke him with a denial Let Steven speak why the Jews were uncircumcised in heart Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost Act. 7.51 Rather pray in the Spirit which God hath promised to pour out And who knows but Beggars may be blest in that branch of the Promises of his Grace I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and do them Prov. 1.23 Luk. 11.13 Ezek. 36.27 2 The less principal Causes are 1. an operative faith and love within you 2. the ordinances for faith and love without you 1. Let there be an operative faith and love within you These like Judah and Simeon his Brother come up into each others lots to subdue the Canaanites and set right the Conscience Let there be Charity out of a pure heart and Faith unfeigned and thou canst not be left without a good Conscience which the Apostle lodgeth in the midst of these as the Tabernacle of the Congregation was in the midst of the Camp Judg. 1.3 1 Tim. 1.5 Numb 2.17 Both of them have a blessed operation and tendency first to purifie then to pacifie the Conscience Of which hereafter 2. Live in the Ordinances for Faith and Love Be much in Praying Hearing Reading Meditation Conference the end of all these Commandments of God is to make thy Conscience good Cry after him and continue in them for this end make God's end thy errand to them and your heart shall live that seek God 1 Tim. 1.5 Psal 69.32 You wrong your own Souls that wave the Ordinances of our Saviour How many an evil Conscience hath been healed and cured by them How many a bad Conscience have been made good and how many a good Conscience have been made better The way is as open to you as it was to them follow God in them forsake not the ways of his Gospel you shall know if you follow on to know the Lord. Continue at the gates of Wisdom come for Wisdom to her gates and thou shalt not come off a loser yea if thou criest after knowledg and liftest up thy voice for understanding If thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledg of God Prov. 8.33 ad finem Hos 6.3 Prov. 2.1 6. 4. Attend Conscience throughout Direct 4 If Conscience be not good throughly 't is not good truly See that this goodness go throughout Conscience To this is requisite 1. a right apprehension of
according to a consecution or emanation from Mans nature As when we say Man is by nature endowed with an Understanding Will c. Thus the powers and properties of Mans nature are said to be natural to him 3. Or for that which is by and according to a connexion with Mans nature as Paul saith We were by nature children of wrath Eph. 2.3 This condition was connexed with our nature we were subject to the revenging justice of God as soon as we received the nature of man Thus the pravity and pollution of Mans nature is said to be natural to him The import of this question is not Whether the Conscience be evil either in regard of its natural constitution or essence In this sense it must needs be good because it is by the special efficience and gift of God Job 32.8 Chap. 20.7 Or 2. in regard of any natural consecution or emanation from its nature Thus it cannot be bad but good for the same reason because it cometh from the blessed God whose work is perfect Deut 32.4 But 3. in regard of a natural connexion i.e. Whether Conscience in man by and according to the condition which is connexed with his nature be morally evil or sinful yea or no That every mans Conscience is by nature sinful in the sense last mentioned appears First From the notorious defilement of every man by nature These propositions are of Apostolical proof That all have sinned and that they are all under sin That all the world is become guilty before God And that they are all by nature children of wrath Rom. 3.9 19 23. Ephes 2.3 What is man that he should be clean and that which is born of a woman that he should be righteous saith Eliphaz All persons and all the parts of man are impure and defiled Job 15.14 15 16. Rom. 3.9 19. And who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean To them that are defiled is nothing pure but even their mind and conscience is defiled Job 14.4 Tit. 1.15 The leaven of sin hath over-spread the whole lump The leprosie of sin hath left no faculty untainted The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint It reacheth from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot So that the Conscience is corrupt as well as the corporeal part 1 Cor. 5.6 Isa 1.4 5 6. Secondly From the notable declarations in the Covenant of Grace What on Gods part is therein more clearly proposed than this I will put a new spirit within you I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh I will circumcise your hearts I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts c. Ezek. 11.19 20. Chap. 36.26 Jer. 31.33 Deut. 30.6 And what can on mans part then be more clearly supposed than this That the heart of man is of a stony adamantine and uncircumcised temper without the sculpture of any saving truth e're grace takes him within the Covenant And surely by nature the sons of men are all strangers from the Covenants of Promise Zach. 7.12 Jer. 9.26 27. 2 Cor. 3.3 Eph. 2.12 cum 3. Thirdly From the known design of the Commandments and conveyance of Grace A good Conscience is the end of Gods Commandments 1 Tim. 1.5 1 Pet. 3.16 If Conscience were good by nature how should the goodness thereof be the end and effect of the Gospel of Grace A good Conscience was not found by the Gospel in the regions where it came but was the fruit of the Gospel The Gospel was sent amongst them not as supposing their Conscience already good but to set them right and leave them good whom it found bad Act. 26.18 20. 1 Cor. 14.24 25 Heb. 4.12 A good Conscience is the effect of the grace of faith in Christ God purifying mens hearts by faith Act. 15.9 Heb. 10.22 Before the coming of faith then the Conscience is defiled To the unbeliever nothing 〈◊〉 pure And manifest enough it is that faith it Christ never grew in the garden of nature when most pure from the weeds of sin which the Fall hath brought in but is an eflux of divine grace and an especial gift of God Tit. 1.15 Heb. 11.6 Eph. 2.8 Phil. 1.29 Fourthly From the necessary diffusion of sanctifying grace throughout the whole nature of Man The God of peace sanctifie you wholly the whole then was sinful And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless c. The upper region of Mans soul then and which is rational as well as the lower region and which is more sensitive were stained and culpable The Conscience therefore cannot but be corrupted 1 Thes 5.23 The Conscience could neither require nor receive the renovation of grace if it were righteous by nature But renovation passeth through all the parts and powers Behold all things are become new This is to put on the new man and to put off the old man Sin did and Sanctification now doth extend it self over all the man especially the mind To be renewed is eminently in the spirit of our mind 2 Cor. 5.17 Eph. 4.22 23 24. Fifthly From the noted derivation of a good Conscience to us by means of Christ Till his blood be sprinkled on us the Conscience is not sanctified in us as is implied Heb. 9.14 'T is the blood of Christ Who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God which purgeth your Consciences from dead works to serve the living God Hebr. 9.14 Conscience is impure then till Christ purgeth it 'T is he freeth it from sin and fitteth it for Gods service But by nature we are all without Christ alienated and enemies in our minds by wicked works Men do not come by nature but are called by grace unto the fellowship of the Son Jesus Christ Eph. 2.12 cum 3. Col. 1.21 1 Cor. 1.9 Sixthly From the notable defilement of Conscience in the discharge of its acts and offices Now laesae actiones laesas facultates indicant It must needs be a maimed and diseased power that puts forth such maimed and diseased performances These I shall briefly instance in the next Question and judg needful to pluck down the pride of Man and to preserve you from the dangerous precipices of many who cry up Conscience and its conduct for Salvation instead of calling men to Christ and to the conduct of the Scriptures Q. 2. What are the evils of Mans Conscience naturally which we should be heedful of and and humbled under Though I cannot fully open that sink of sin which lieth here a work that is more accurately done by an acute and able hand * Anth. Burgess Orig. sin par 3. c. 2. §. 1 8. and though a further manifestation hereof must follow in our ventilation of the several sorts of an evil Conscience of which hereafter yet something shall be done for the discovery of this evil and putrefaction Conscience may
curses your rich estates will be the ruin of your souls your eminent pleasures will end in perdition and the greater is your confluence the greater will be your confusion if guilt shall still abide upon your Conscience If ye will not lay it to heart saith the Lord of Hosts I will even send a curse upon you and I will curse your blessings yea I have cursed them already because ye do not lay it to heart Deut. 28.15 ad finem Eccles 7.13 Jam. 5.3 6. Rev. 18.7 Mal. 2.2 4 Is Conscience evil you have no interest in Christ An interest in Christ and an evil Conscience are things inconsistent who doth always purge their Conscience whom he proprietateth in his choice benefits True it is the priviledges by Christ are large but as Peter told Simou Magus so must I tell thee upon the same reason Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter for thy heart is not right in the sight of God Heb. 9.14 c. 10.22 Act. 8.21 5 Is Conscience evil your choicest endeavours are also evil because you frustrate the end of the Commandment which is to free you from an evil Conscience and are not framed to that entireness which the Commandment enjoyneth and expecteth unless your hearts are sprinkled from an evil Conscience you have no access to God nor can hope for acceptance much less can you have assurance your prayers are turned into sins and provocations So long as Conscience was statedly sinful God accounted the most costly Sacrifices of the Jews wherewith went supplications also but as so many splendid mockeries and they were so far from receiving acceptation that they were reckoned abomination 1 Tim. 1.5 Jam. 4.8 Heb. 10.22 Psal 109.8 Isa 66.3 4. Prov. 21.27 6 Is Conscience evil be sure the consequence will be evil if you continue this evil So long as Conscience is bad no one capacity or faculty can be good which are all under the empire and influence of Conscience If thine eye be evil the whole body is full of darkness and if the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness Mat. 6.23 But this is not all mind the place of Conscience miserable must be the issue of an evil and polluted Conscience Corruptio optimi pessima You that are fearless of its sin now shall feel its sting hereafter and shriek and roar with the corrodings of that worm which you would not here attempt to kill or cure It s evil of sin will issue in extreamest and eternal sufferings if not timely salved Cure it or it will kill and condemn you and you will contract condemnation from God unto you Mar. 9.44 Isa 66.24 1 Joh. 3.20 IV. Speed your â—onversion from sin your Conscience must needs be sinful so long as your sin continueth If you continue in a sinful state the state of Conscience must needs be sinful If you are defiled this is defiled If you are after the flesh so is this also Tit. 1.15 Rom. 8.5 6 7 8. If you would heal Conscience then hasten your conversion do not only try your ways but turn to the Lord who will bind up that which is broken Lam. 3.40 Hos 6.1 The change of your condition includeth the change of Conscience Turn you at Gods reproof and he will pour out his spirit upon you and then you are no more in the flesh but in the spirit the motions and mindings of Conscience shall be no more so fleshly Prov. 1.27 Rom. 8.9 c. 7.5 6. V. Strike in with Christ The stain of Conscience is such that none but the sprinklings of Christs blood upon it can purge it from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 10.22 c. 9.14 The evil of Conscience came in originally by the first Adam and is only healed by the second Adam Hasten to him by an active faith This is that bunch of Hysop which sprinkleth this blood upon you and so the Conscience becomes clean in the sight of God Psal 51.7 Would you have Conscience cured from its evil state close with Christ by a sound faith He dwelleth in the heart by faith Eph. 3.17 VI. Search and put the Covenant into suit follow him that did create and can alone cure the Conscience with iterated prayers and with the instance and pressing of his promises Peruse his Promises I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh c. Ezek. 11.19 20. c. 36.26 27. Deut. 30.6 Plead them in your petitions He will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel Ezek. 36.37 Unfold the pravity of your Hearts and Consciences Lord I acknowledg my Conscience is miserably corrupted far departed from thy first Creation and foully depraved both by the fall of Adam and my own voluntary dâ—fections Behold I bring thee an old and obdurate Heart Lord renew and mollifie it a diseased and defiled Heart Lord repair and purge it an Heart of stone and adamant inflexible to thy ducture impenetrable by thy displeasure c. Lord remove it and renew me Urge him with his Promises to do it and thine own heart there-with also to deliberate and draw from them Lord hast thou not said A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you I will â—ake away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh O make good â—hy word to thy poor creature who can no â—ore cure this heart of stone than I can â—reate another world Create in me a clean heart 〈◊〉 God and renew a right spirit within me So David Psal 51.10 See further helps hereâ—â—ter Q. 4. How may we know whether our Consciences are Evangelically good or bad Be plain with Conscience § 1 and let it be â—ain with thee But in regard our Conâ—â—ience may and doth put a paralogism upon 〈◊〉 and its argumentation is oft-times sophiâ—â—cal and fallacious through the depravedness of our natures of which hereafter and so men deceive their own selves Jam. 1 2◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It therefore requireth the stricter care and caution in your part and circumspection on mine how we manage thiâ— work To which end before I propound marks * See Dik Good Conscience ch 7 8 9. p. 73. ad 128. Sheffield Good Conscience ch 24. Bald wins cas Conscience ch 12. I would promise this brief animadversioâ— for preventing mistakes * See Sheffields Good Conscience ch 18 2â— that you may 〈◊〉 conclude the goodness of your Conscienâ—â— either from their past or present 1 scrupulosâ—â— 2 smart or trouble on the one hand 3 stillâ—â— or quiet on the other without further aâ— fuller evidence Which I shall put upon a 〈◊〉 deliberate enquiry hereafter The stated habitude of your Conscienâ—â— may be discerned by these five things Tâ—â— adjuncts the acts the absoluteness the aspeâ— the answer of the Conscience First § 2 By the Adjuncts of Conscience aâ— your Consciences Evangelically pure or defiled Evangelically at peace or disquieted
was not indeed the Mother 1 King 3.26 27. Though you are devout towards God if you are dishonest towards men or dissolute in your selves you have an evil Conscience And though you are upright in your transactions and dealings with men if you are regardless of the truths and duties of godliness or sobriety you have still but an evil Conscience See these instances Mat. 23.14 ch 15.4 5. Isa 58.2 9. Prov. 7.13 16. Luk. 18.11 12. Mat. 19.20 21 22. The good Conscience is not disjunctive but copulative in its duties and will give Christ his due and Caesar his You then that impartially consult both Tables in your practice that knit religion towards God with righteousness towards Men that follow after both things holy and things honest things just and things pure and are taught to live both soberly righteously and godly in this present world your conversations are in godly sincerity and you have a good Conscience May you rejoyce in its testimony Psal 15.2 Isa 33.15 Phil. 4.8 Tit. 2.12 2 Cor. 1.12 II. § 8 'T is good as to all the Commandments The good Conscience is set to do all Gods Commandments God chargeth all his Commandments upon the Conscience Keep and seek for all the Commandments of the Lord your God 1 Chron. 28.8 Deut. 11.8 22. ch 26.18 And the good Conscience chargeth them all upon the godly to keep all the command he knoweth and to seek all the command he knoweth not that he may keep them We are all here present before God saith Cornelius to hear all things that are commanded of God Act. 10.33 The good Conscience countâ— all Gods Commandments to be good Aâ—â— thy Commandments are sure all thy Commandments are faithful It saith not only that they are all truth but all thy Commandments are righteousness Psal 111.7 c. 119.86 151 172. The good Conscience would know all Gods Commandments because good and that he may keep them Oh that my way were directed saith he to keep thy statutes 〈◊〉 let me not wander from thy Commandments O hide not thy Commandments from me Teaâ—â— me O Lord the way of thy statutes and I shaâ—â— keep it unto the end Give me understanding anâ— I shall keep thy Law yea I shall observe it with my whole heart Psal 119.5 10 19 33 34 'T is true corrupt flesh may and will ever and anon be retracting and impleading it buâ— the good Conscience fights it out and is finally victorious He hath sworn and he wiâ—â— perform it that he will keep Gods righteouâ— judgments And I will walk at liberty saith this Soul for I seek thy precepts ver 106 45. The good Conscience would keep all Gods Commandments which he knoweth He may be weak in many things but he is willing in all things to live honestly He allows himself in no known aversation from any one of Gods Testimonies His heart is inclined to perform Gods statutes always If the habitual temper be enquired into whatever his declinings be under the heat of tentation with his mind he serves the law of God Heb. 13.18 Rom. 7.15 25. Psal 119.112 How is it with your Consciences then Adhere they closely to the commands and traditions of men but mean while are careless of the Commands and Truths of God Or are they herein observedly strict in Mint Annise and Cummin the lesser matters of the Law while mean time they omit Mercy Judgment and Faith the greater matters of the Law Are they partial and upon reserves in the matters of Piety and of his Precepts And do they ordinarily allow the forbearance of or formality in any self-displeasing secret or inobserved duties You have then an evil Conscience Mar. 7.6 10. Mat. 23.23 Mal. 2.9 1 Joh. 2.4 But do they esteem all Gods Precepts concerning all things to be right Do you walk in all the Commandments and Ordinances of God with Zachary and Elizabeth Have you a respect to all Gods Commandments Then shall you not be ashamed it is well with Conscience and shall be well you in the conclusion Psal 119.6 128. Luk. 1.6 Jer. 7.23 The integrity of Davids heart hath the divine impression and allowance or approbation while it was set to do according to all that God had commanded him 1 King 9.4 2 Chron. 7.17 3 'T is good as concerns all Corruptions § 9 which it doth both avoid and abhor He would abstain from and doth hate every false way Psal 119.2 3 128. It refrains the feet from every evil way that we may keep to the Word of God without us and keep up the work of God within us Psal 119.101 104. This Soul may actually and doth often sin but he allows not what he doth and may say with Paul What I hate that do I Rom. 7.15 A good Conscience then will not allow of any evil of corruption not any manner or any measure any kind or to any degree It would have iniquity all iniquity and all of iniquity taken away the pollution and power as well as punishment and will rather choose the greatest suffering than the least sin Hos 14.2 Psal 139.24 Heb. 11.25 How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God This is the reasoning of the good Conscience I will take heed to my ways that I sin not I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress These are the resolutions of the good Conscience Gen. 39.9 Psal 39.1 c. 17.3 How is it with Conscience Happily it hath not with Joab turned after Absalom but hath it turned after Adonijah Vile and refuse sins it will destroy utterly But the fatlings and the best of the sheep that will best serve your carnal pleasures and profits especially Agag the predominant and pleasing sin must they be spared Baals Temple and Priests must fall but must Jeroboams Calves stand Sins against the interest of worldly self be crucified but must sins that feed thy interest be cherished Ah wicked and wretched Conscience 1 King 1.7 1 Sam. 15.9 2 King 10.29 Jam. 4.4 Your Consciences happily strain at Gnats such and such smaller sins But can they swallow Camels greater sins Your Consciences abhor Idols but do you commit Sacriledg You cannot violate a rash Oath with Herod but can you swear rashly and slay the innocent servants of the Lord rather than it shall be said you have not accomplished it Ah deplorable and desperate Consciences Mat. 23.24 Rom. 2.22 Mar. 6.26 27. Again it may be your Consciences cannot but accuse for and do abhor flagitious and open sins You are not extortioners unjust adulterers c. But can they allow those of a fresher dye and less obvious to sight such as are more small or more secret Then surely 't is an evil Conscience Luk. 18.11 Ephes 5.12 Sirs you whose Consciences are both against small and great sins open and in secret against darling sins as well as displeasing sins that would build up as well as such as will break down your fleshes interest You you are the men and women
you Good only till the storms of tribulation arise and then farewell Conscience and the house falls Oh miserable and mistaking Consciences Gen. 49.4 2 Tim. 4.10 Joh. 19.21 2 Chron. 24.2 17 18. Num. 22.16 1 Tim. 1.19 Mat. 7.26 27. Yours is the good and honest heart and conscience who bring forth fruit with patience or perseverance * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 8.15 Review your principles Can you say I have enclined my heart to perform thy Statutes always even to the end Reflect on your purposes and are these your practical and permanent resolutions I will never forget thy precepts I will keep thy Law continually for ever and ever I will walk in the name of the Lord my God for ever and ever And if Religion will make me vile I will be more vile Recall your practice Have you taken his Testimonies as an heritage for ever Many perhaps may have been your Persecutors yet have you not declined from his Testimonies And will you yet keep his Precepts with the whole heart vvhatever be the exigencies befall you or enticements to flatter you And shall this God be your God and your portion for ever Go and glorifie God and congratulate thy self in the happiness of a good Conscience Psal 119.112 93 44. Mic. 4.5 2 Sam. 6.22 Psal 119.111 157 69. 48.14.73.26 Fourthly § 13 By the aspect of a good Conscience you may acquaint your selves whether your Consciences are good This is towards God the creator commander of and that alone infallibly knoweth the Conscience 1 Pet. 2.19 Or if towards Man 't is but secondarily and subordinately and towards God primarily First towards God then towards Man towards Man in and for God towards God above and beyond Man Act. 24.16 Q. § 14 Whether we may argue the goodness of our Conscience from their aspect towards God I answer you may But what you are chiefly to attend and ask after is whether God be chief and principal in its aspect For an evil Conscience may have an eye upon God but God is not highest or upmost Joh. 12.43 Tit. 3.3 And a good Conscience may have an eye upon its own happiness and the approbation of others but 't is upon God first and chiefest Heb. 11.16 2 Cor. 4.2 When God â—s the supream in your intentions and your â—ighest aims and ambitions are to be accepted of him and approved by him it is an argument a good Conscience and affords great confidence 2 Cor. 5.8 9 10 17 18. The good Conscience then is 1 For the Power and Authority of God § 15 as by which it is principally ruled The good Conscience will give unto Caesar the things which are Caesars he shall have our subjection not only for wrath but for Conscience sake But it will not give unto Caesar the things which are Gods or set Christ beneath Caesar Conscience remembers there is one Law-giver and resolves it the Lord is our Law-giver Mat. 22.21 Joh. 4.12 Isa 33.12 The good Conscience is for acts of obedience to Governours but 't is limited therein and led thereunto principally by the authority of God 'T is limited thereby if Governours command what God countermands the good Conscience dares not comply to it saith he We onght to obey God rather than men Daniâ—â— purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the Kingâ— meat prohibited by the law Nor will he decline his prayers to God whatever be the decree and prohibition of the supream Governour Let Baals worship bear the Princes and publick warrant Elijah and seven thousand more dare not bow the knee to him oâ— in it Act. 5.29 Dan. 1.8 c. 6.10 1 King 19.18 'T is led thereby also the good Conscience submits to every ordinance of Man but 't is for the Lords sake It counsels us to keep the King's commandment but it s principally quickned by his obligation from and in regard of the Cath of God 1 Pet. 2.13 Eccles 8.2 How is it then can your Conscience willingly pass the commands of Goâ— for the commands of Men and keep their statutes that are contrary to his Commandment and your knowledg rather than you will come to suffer Or do you obey the commands and take up the ordinances of God as Hamor and Shechem and the men of their City did that of Circumcision But 't is for compassing Dinah and the designs they have for Jacob's substance You own the concernments of Christ and officiously assist to his cause and interest as the people sometimes did the Jews and the rulers of the Provinces brought them their assistance but is it because the fear of the Jews or the fear of Mordecai the Christian Magistrate is fallen upon you This is an evil Conscience Hos 5.11 Mic. 6.16 Gen. 34.22 23 24. Esth 8.17 c. 9.3 You that vail the commands of Men to the commands of God and in fulfilling his or their Commandments which correspond with his have your first respects not to humane commands censures or customs or your carnal ends but to the divine command and constitution with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men you have one good evidence of a good Conscience Act. 4.19 Isa 26.13 Ephes 6.7 2 § 16 'T is for the presence and all-seeing eye of God which it principally respects The good Conscience eyes principally God's knowâ—edg O Lord saith he thou hast searched me and â—nown me Not a word in my tongue not a working of my thoughts but thou knowest it â—ltogether Unto him therefore he openeth his cause sets him before his face and is not so much over-ruled by this that man seeth as by this ordinarily that God seeth him and searcheth his heart and reins This perfect heart is not only for doing that which is good in it self but for doing it as in God's sight Psal 139.1 14. Jer. 20.12 Psal 16.8 c. 7.3 2 King 20.3 I have kept thy Precepts saith this pious Conscience for all my ways are before thee Psal 119.168 How is it then are you most for God's or most for man's eye You make broad your Phylacteries you do works of Piety perhaps and works of Charity but are they done for to be seen of Men Is this the mark you shoot at principally Oh gross hypocrisie and unsound Consciences Mat. 23.5 c. 6.5 Noah and Enoch walked amongst men but with God God was most in their eye The light of Christians shines before men and as their good works may be seen of them But it stays not here they subordinate this to an higher sight and scope that others seeing their good works may glorifie their Father which is Heaven Gen. 5.22 c. 6.9 Mat. 5.16 You that as of God and as in the sight of God so do and so speak who are more preponderated in the course of their practice by his presence than Mens privity or perswasives that walk as before him and are wrought to a greater willingness in his service by his
heart-searching than if any others saw you you have great cause of gratitude to him and of joy in your selves as those who have a good Conscience 2 Cor. 2.17 Psal 44.20 21. Gen. 17.1 1 Chr. 28.9 3 § 17 'T is for the praise and approving it self to God which it principally regardeth The good Conscience is first and most for commending it self and us to God Indeed 't is not he who commendeth himself or whom man commendeth is approved but whom God commendeth 2 Cor. 10.18 'T is true he would by manifestation of the truth commend himself to every mans Conscience and that his service might be accepted of the Saints But 't is as in God's sight and for God's sake that he may be the more serviceable to his glory in their good and 't is first to God then to their Consciences 2 Cor. 4.2 5. Rom. 15.31 2 Cor. 5.11 The great care therefore of the good Conscience is to prove and approve what is acceptable unto the Lord This is that he so aimeth at and is so ambitious of that he may be accepted of him and have grace whereby he may serve him acceptably Ephes 5.10 2 Cor. 5.9 Heb. 12.28 Enquire then do you seek the praise and approbation of Men more than the praise and approbation of God court their applause c. Oh wretched Consciences ye are they which justifie your selves before men but God knoweth your Heartsâ— and this know that which is highly esteemed amongst men is abonâ—nation in the sight of God Joh. 5.44 c. 12.43 Luk. 16.15 But you that seek the honour that cometh from God only and set the highest account upon his comprobation whose praise is not of men but of God that seek his favour with your whole heart and that the words of your mouth and meditations of your heart may be acceptable in his sight Yours yours is the good Conscience Joh. 12.43 Rom. 2.29 Psal 119.68 c. 19.13 14. 4 § 18 'T is for pleasing and applying himself to God to which it principally refers The good Conscience is for Compliance to Gods Will and would so carry it self in its whole work as it and we might receive Enochs Testimony That he pleased God And this one argument is of most observed avail with it That God is pleased Heb. 11.5 c. 13.16 'T is true it is willing to please his Neighbour for his good and would fain please all men in all things that consist with his place and their profit but 't is not for his own ends that he seeks his own profit but for their edification and to exalt God and his Gospel if by any means he may save some the profit of many that they may be saved Rom. 15.2 1 Cor. 10.33 c. 9.19 24. The greatest care of the good Conscience is not so much to please man as to please God If he seeks to gratifie them 't is because he is set to glorifie him 't is with singleness of heart fearing God This is his greatest care to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing and as he hath received how he ought to walk and to please God so he would fain abound more and more Nothing so pleases him as that God is pleased nothing so provokes him as that God is provoked 1 Cor. 7.32 2 Tim. 2.4 Col. 3.22 c. 1.10 1 Thes 4.1 Psal 69.30 31. How is it then do you seek to please men and to do them a pleasure do not stick to omit the duties of your place and with Herod Felix and Festus to oppress also the defenders of piety Or in the duties of your place is your design ordinarily to please man before God or rather than him If you yet seek to please men how are you then the servants of Christ Nor have you this singleness of heart and Conscience whereto we are speaking Act. 12.3 c. 24.27.25.9 Gal. 1.10 Ephes 6.5 6. You whose desires and designs are principally levelled at the pleasing of God and would be always doing the things which are pleasing in his sight you whose duties to men are not discharged with eye-service as men-pleasers but in singleness of heart as unto Christ you who walk not as pleasing men but as pleasing God which trieth our hearts you have an happy argument of having a good Conscience Joh. 8.29 1 Joh. 3.22 Col. 3.22 1 Thes 2.4 5 § 19 'T is for the possessing and enjoyment of God which it principally requireth and in which it principally rests The good Conscience is for Communion with God above the greatest Comforts whilst others are for Corn and Wine Creature-comforts and Immunities this is for the light of God's Countenance As for me saith he I will behold thy face in righteousness Here is his Blessedness Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee Here is his Business This is the one thing he desireth of the Lord and that he will seek after Psal 4.6 7. c. 17.15 c. 65.4 c. 27.4 'T is true he doth not slight but diligently seeks a competency also of the Goods of this life but first he seeks the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and would fain see the goodness of God in this Worlds Goods and by them serve his Glory The first and great Commandment as in it felf so to this Soul to the good Conscience is to love the Lord his God with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his mind Prov. 30.8.9 Mat. 6.33 Psal 104.33 34. compared with the former verses Mat. 22.37 38. How is it then What! God not in all your thoughts Is the friendship and fruition of the World sought before the friendship and fruition of God Is the World upmost and God under You can part with God rather than part with your Grandeur Goods c. You can venture the loss of him rather than the loss of them Happily you pray and profess to Him but do you most prize them mean while Do you cry more for Corn and Wine than for the incomes of his Grace the influx of his Goodness the Interest of his Gospel c. Oh sensual and sinful Consciences Psal 10.4 Jam. 4.4 2 Tim. 3.4 c. 4.10 1 Tim. 6.9 10. Hos 7.14 But do you prefer one God to all other Goodness Do you pant most after the grace of his Favour to you and the grace of his Spirit in you Do your Souls pursue after him and will not be put off with Secular commodities and enjoyments Is he the â—oortion that doth best please you Is your Propriety in and intercourse with him of higher price then all other priviledges and possessions to you What! have you none in Heaven but God and is there none upon Earth you desire in comparison with God Certainly you have chosen the better part and may comfortably possess your selves in this sign of a good Conscience Psal 62.5 6 7. c. 42.1 c. c. 63.1 c. c. 16.5 6 7. c. 84.10 c. 73.25 26. Luk. 10.42 6 § 20
'T is for praise to the advancement and glorifying of God which it principally reckons of and finally refers unto The good Conscience is for celebrating God and his Glory in which it ultimately terminates the discharge of its Offices and the debts and obligations it inferreth on us this is Gods end in renewing the Conscience and the great end of Conscience renewed that he might be glorified Isa 43.7 21. c. 60.21 1 Tim. 1.17 This it chargeth most upon it self Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy Name Bless the Lord O my soul c. Awake up my Glory awake Psaltery and Harp I my self will awake right early This also comforteth it self most in and he is not ashamed but can cheerfully acquiesce whatsoever he doth or endureth for Conscience sake toward God while Christ is magnified in his body and while on his part God is glorified Psal 103.1 2. c. 57.8 Phil. 1.20 1 Pet. 2.19.4.14 This is the great matter which he purposeth with himself and to which he provoketh other Souls I will praise thee O Lord my God with all my heart and I will glorifie thy Name for evermore I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall be continually in my mouth My soul shall make her boast in God O magnifie the Lord with me and let us exalt his Name together Yea let all such as love thy Salvation say continually the Lord be magnified Psal 86.12 c. 34.1 2 3. 70.4 Let Conscience answer then Do not you like to retain God in your knowledg you know God but are you careless of glorifying him as God And say what is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profit should we have if we pray unto him Or do you scoff at your Brethren which you may have cast out with those in Isaiah saying Let the Lord be glorified O miserable Consciences Rom. 1.21 28. Job 21.14 Isa 66.5 cum ch 5.19 Or while you pretend to Gods glory do you prefer your own Are your acts of piety your almes or acts of charity done principally that you may have glory of men unto whom ye would outwardly appear righteous Verily you have your reward and still remain with rotten and unsound Consciences Mat. 6.2 1 Thes 2.6 Mat. 23.27 28. But you that vail your own glory to Gods the bias and bent of whose good works which men behold is to this mark that they may glorifie not so much you as God in and for you in the day of Visitation you that can venture and forgo all for Gods glory when he calls for it and count of nothing so high as his honour you whose fruits of righteousness are with this final respect that your Father may be glorified and you may shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light You that have glorified him and are resolved you will glorifie him again Go eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart for God now accepteth thy work He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory but he that seeketh his glory that sent him the same is true and no unrighteousness is in him Joh. 8.50 1 Pet. 2.12 Mat. 5.16 2 Cor. 12.9 10. Phil. 1.11 1 Pet. 2.9 Eccles 9.7 Joh. 7.18 Fifthly § 21 By the answer of a good Conscience which if Peter be consulted is towards God 1 Pet. 3.21 Quest Whether we may argue the goodness of our Conscience from their answer towards God I answer you may But then 't is not so much from your present earnestness therein as from the powerful efficacy and proportionate extent thereof that you must take your evidence for you shall find bad Consciences furnished with quick and ready answers as if they would not abridge God of the least he calls for Deut. 5.27 28 29. Jer. 42.5 6. You are concerned to discuss the deliberateness of the answer and its due extent The good Conscience answers to Gods Call § 22 Commands c. 1 To Gods Call No sooner is the Conscience effectually convinced or hath Christ effectually called but you have the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle phrases it of the good Conscience Conscience answers with Samuel Speak Lord for thy servant heareth and with David Lo I come I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy Law is within my heart 1 Sam. 3.10 Psal 40.7 8. Yea Conscience asks with Saul Lord what wilt thou have me to do Teach me thy way O Lord I will walk in thy truth Vnite my heart to fear thy name Conscience sets him upon the Tower with Habakkuk and will watch to see what God will say unto him and what he shall answer when he is convinced or argued with Act. 9.6 Psal 86.11 Hab. 2.1 How is it then hath God called but ye would not answer Hath he spoken but ye would not hear Have you set at nought his counsel and despised his reproof Have you chosen your own ways and doth your Soul delight it self in your abominations You have then sinful and stupid Consciences Prov. 1.24 25. Isa 65.12 c. 66.3 4. But you whose Ears are bored to hear and your Hearts are brought to embrace the Calls of Grace You that with Simon and Andrew his Brother with James the Son of Zebedee and John his Brother at the Call of Christ can quit all when he once said Come ye after me You that attend the saving motions of his Spirit and addict your selves to this mystery of Godliness whose Hearts are determined upon God in Christ and to whom no Calls are so acceptable as are the Calls from sin and to his service you may comfortably reflect and repose your selves in the witness of a good Conscience Mar. 1.16 21. 1 Cor. 16.15 Job 22.21 22. ch 27.6 2 To Gods Commands § 32 The good Conscience corresponds to Gods Commandments not only as it conserves and apprehends Law Here is a Copy and Transcript within of the Command and Truths without The Law of God is in his Heart the Spirit of the living God hath written it in these fleshly Tables Psal 37.31 Jer. 31.33 2 Cor. 3.3 But as it comes and applies Law hath God said Seek ye my face Conscience speaks back My Heart said unto thee Thy face Lord will I seek Hath God commanded us to keep his Precepts diligently Conscience corresponds and crys out O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes Doth God require that we do his will I delight to do thy wiâ—â— saith Conscience Psal 27.8 c. 119.4 5. c. 40.7 8. Try then what agreement find you between his Commands and your Consciences Are you afraid of the restraint of God's Laws and would break these bands from you and can you not bear these cords Do you hate him that rebuketh in the Gate and abhor the Ministry that speaks uprightly and searcheth the inward parts of the belly as Ahab did Micajah for saith he He
never prophesieth good but always evil to me Surely this is an evil Conscience Psal 2.3 Amos 5.10 2 Chron. 18.7 Or how do your Hearts answer and are accommodated to his Testimonies Have God's Commands a counter-part in your Consciences Have you hid his Law in your Hearts that you may not sin against him And are your Hearts enclined to perform his Statutes always even to the end Gods Law commands you Do your Hearts readily accept and return answer to it I will run the way of thy Commandments and have respect unto thy ways I will delight my self in thy Statutes I will not forget thy Word Psal 119.11 15 16 32 112. Gods Law chides and threatens you How do your Hearts rellish it and acquiesce under it Is it a kindness Do you count it an excellent Oyl Do you compose your selves to submission under it and to serve the ends of God by it Psal 141.5 Isa 39.8 1 Sam. 3.18 Mich. 7.9 Here is one answer of a good Conscience 3 To Gods Covenant § 24 The good Conscience gives answer to Gods Covenant 1. to the tenour of it God saith unto them which were not his people Thou art my people The good Conscience speaks back again Thou art my God O my Soul saith David thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my God Hos 2.23 Psal 16.2 Ezek. 11.20 c. 36.28 2. To the terms of it The Lord avoucheth Believers to be his peculiar people and that they should keep all his Commandments The good Conscience restipulates and avoucheth the Lord to be his God and to walk in his ways and to keep his Statutes and his Commandments c. Deut. 26.17 18. Exod. 19 5. 9.3 To the Truths in it The good Conscience hath a Transcript of all the important Truths of Gods Covenant This shall be the Covenant I will make with them after those days saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts Jer. 31.33 Heb. 8.8 9 10. Come then who is he that hath engaged his heart to approach unto me saith the Lord Have you taken the Lord for your God and alone chief good and given back your selves unto him his servants to obey and that for ever Have you none in Heaven but God and is there none upon Earth that you desire besides God And have you taken his Testimonies as an Heritage for ever and chosen the way of his Truths This may let you know that you have a good Conscience Jer. 30.21 22. c. 32.28 Psal 73.25 c. 119.30 111. I will give them an heart to know me that I am the Lord and they shall be my people and I will be their God for they shall return unto me with their whole heart Jer. 24.7 Is there a Conversion to God the Conscience is good But no Conversion no good Conscience Hath God commanded you saying Obey my voice and I will be your God and ye shall be my people and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you that it may be well with you But you hearken not nor encline your ears and walk in your own counsels and imaginations refuse Communion with God or reject any of the known Commands of God or regard any iniquity or any interest above God you have then evil Hearts and your Consciences are not right in the sight of God Jer. 7.23 24. c. 3.17 Numb 85.39 Psal 66.18 4 To the cause of God § 25 The good Conscience is for Gods cause above others above its own this is the bottom in which it sails all its concernments and therefore with Paul and with Moses is cool and gentle in transacting his own matters but quick and transported with great heat in the matters of God and Godliness forgives and is submissive to his own enemies but flames with zeal and is stiff and inflexible to Gods enemies Gal. 4.12 cum 5.12 Act. 13.9 c. Num. 12.3 cum Exod. 30.19 If the Cause of God calls for his part in action he is ready and willingly offers himself according to his office and the capacity and circumstances he is in If it calls for a passive part he can for Conscience toward God endure grief suffering wrongfully and is ready not only to be bound but also to die for his sake 2 Cor. 9.2 Judg. 5.2 9. 2 Cor. 8.3 1 Pet. 2.19 Act. 21.13 You that like Gallio care for none of these things that seek your own things not the things which are Jesus Christs whose Spirits are abundantly raised in your own Cause but ordinarily remiss in Gods Cause have no good Conscience Act. 18.17 Phil. 2.21 Psal 137.5 6. But you that prefer Hierusalem to your chief joy that say unto Zion because of the house of the Lord our God we will seek thy good that will very gladly spend and be spent for the good of Souls and glory of their Saviour that sacrifice your own Concernments to those of Christ and his Church and would rejoyce to be offered upon the sacrifice and service of their faith and rejoyce in your sufferings with respect to his service Receive this sign and may you reap the sense of a good Conscience Psal 137.6 122.9 2 Cor. 12.15 Phil. 2.17 Col. 1.24 5 To the counsels of God § 26 and his dispensations towards them The good Conscience would hold Communion with God in his Works as well as in his Word and doth especially consider of and commemorates what God hath done for his Soul Psal 107.43 94.19 66.16 Hath God accepted his person answered his prayers afforded him his presence of Grace c. it binds him the faster to God Blessed be God saith he who hath not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me He will love God the more choicely live with God the more closely lean on and trust in God the more constantly Ps 66.19 20.116 throughout 146.1 2. Doth God afflict and is angry with him with-draws the sense of his Salvation with-holds the spirit of Peace and the waters are come even into his Soul He considers and confesses his sin communes with himself converts and turns himself to God crieth for his Salvation chargeth his Soul to hope in to obey to remember and to repose it self in God Psal 32.5 c. 38.6 c. 42.5 11. 51.1 12. 77.1 13. 13.1 6. I should be too large if I left particular instances as may concern either the inward or outward man Put it upon the enquiry The Providences of God are various toward you How do you answer the acts of God and his aimes by them What no laying them to heart Happily he may have brought his judgments at the doors and yet do not you lay it to heart not so much as ask what have I done nor hearken to him for all this to observe his Counsels or obey his Commandments Happily he may have multiplied his mercies or you and do you not yet say in your hearts Let us now fear
principles so that you must get Conscience well-principled for which God calls upon you My Son keep my words and lay up my Commandments with thee Let thine heart retain my words Prov. 7.1 c. 4.4 2. A right application of these principles both as a witness and as a judg to which purpose as I shall particularly direct hereafter so you must endeavour the right purifying and the right pacifying of your Consciences and get Conscience both well-purified and well pacified of which I shall speak distinctly in the Questions that ensue to which I must here dismiss you Q. 7. How may we keep a good Conscience This Question supposeth you in the possession of a good Conscience and is subjoynfor the preservation of your Conscience good * See Perkins T. 1. Treat of Conscience c. 4. §. 2. pag. 553. Sheff good Cons c. 25. with the goodness of Evangelical purity immediately and with the goodness of Evangelical peace mediately and remotely of which more afterwards In order hereunto there are some things to be declined and taken heed of and others to be done and taken heed unto First There are some things in order hereunto to be declined viz. 1. An itch after curious questions frothy speculations fabulous and vain bablings in and about the matters of Religion which will eat as a canker effeminate the Conscience and will encrease unto more ungodliness from these withdraw And let the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the doctrine which is according to godliness take up your deliberations and discourses the end whereof is a good Conscience 2 Tim. 4.3 4. c. 2.16 17. 1 Tim. 6.3 4 5. c. 1.4 5. 2. Ill Companions These corrupt both the Conversations and Consciences of each other witness Hymeneus and Alexander Hymeneus and Philetus Phygellus and Hermogenes 1 Tim. 1.19 20. 2 Tim. 2.17 c. 1.15 As you would preserve your Conscience partake not with their company unnecessarily Can a man take fire in his bosom and his Clothes not be burnt Can one go upon hot coals and his Feet not be burnt See how Ahab's Company and Solomon's Concubines debauched his and Jehoshaphat's Conscience and drew upon them God's displeasure Ephes 5.7 11. Prov. 6.27 28. 2 Chron. 18.3 c. 19.2 1 King 11.4 c. Beware of the communion of evil men as you would not blemish Conscience in the eye of God Psal 26.4 5. c. 119.63 Prov. 13.20 c. 14.7 3. An idle corrupt and soothing Ministry that lull Conscience asleep in sin or lash the Conscience of strictness These are the pests of any people My Son cease to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledg Hearken not unto the Prophets that make you vain and speak a vision out of their own heart crying peace peace when there is no peace Prov. 19.27 Jer. 23.16 21. c. 6.14 Ezek. 13.10 c. Attend rather the most strict and soul-searching Ministry enquire and take counsel from the Seer whose Sermons are most sharp and searching even to the thoughts and intents of thy heart follow these and account of their correptions as an acceptable kindness Heb. 13.17 1 Sam. 9.9 10 18. Heb. 4.12 1 Cor. 14.25 Ps 141.5 4. Intemperance of all kinds and toward any Creature-comforts or Secular contentments Take heed to your selves lest at any time your Hearts be overcharged with any of them be crucified to the World and let the World be crucified to you or Conscience will be captivated by the World the rational Will to the sensitive or brutish appetite If you are set upon it that you will be rich you shall be snared and enslaved by it and shall not be innocent Luk. 21.34 Gal. 6.14 1 Tim. 6.9 Prov. 28.20 5. Indulgence of any one corruption which speaks Conscience already defective in its Office and steals off its tenderness c. by degrees Sin is never at a stay if Conscience let alone Concupiscence it will soon conceive quicken and bring forth first sin then death Jam. 1.15 Psal 1.1 You must exercise a good Conscience if you would eschew sin and eschew sin every sin if you would exercise a good Conscience specially eye the beginnings and entrance of sin that you be not hardened through the deceitfulness of sin Principiis obsta Corruption gaineth by steps Peter first casts off fear then closes with falshood then curses and forswears His faint denial at first time fetcheth out a dreadful Oath at second time and a most daring imprecation the third Heb. 3.13 Mat. 26.69 75. Conscience looseth by steps also Sin happily hath been unportable now it may be it is heavy take up betimes within a while it will become portable next time pleasant to thee and perhaps within a while thou mayst plead for it To such extremities some have arrived gradually as Bernard observeth * Primò importabile processu temporis grave Pauló post leve postea placet dulce est Ad extremum quod erat impossibile ad faciendum est impossibile ad continendum Bern. de Cons c. 3. Beware of secret sins these are a moth that eat out its integrity beware of smaller sins these make way for greater and do as surely though not as suddenly sink the vessel of Conscience as greater leaks or the springing of a plank doth Beware of the shews and seeds and inducements to sin come not nigh her corner these contract carelesness upon Conscience admit not so much as thread or shoo-latchet beware especially of staring and scandalous sins which are like the wild Boar of the Forrest to root up rend and devour Refrain thy foot from every evil way Psal 19.12 17. Eccles 10.1 Jude 23. Psal 51. 119.101 6. Idling away the checks and convictions of Conscience Observe its sayings as Jacob did Joseph's whilst others do as Joseph's Brethren did envy it or them If thou wilt be deaf to Conscience now Conscience within a while may be dumb to thee David doth not hear Conscience but hastens into Bathsheba and how long was it e're he heard from Conscience and when he doth 't is such a voice as maketh his ears to tingle and his heart to tremble Gen. 37.11 2 Sam. 11. 12. cum Psal 51. 7. Indispositions and evils of Conscience What these are hath been premised how these are best healed and cured will be prescribed hereafter Beware of its sleepiness searedness c. every disease hath a tendency toward a dissolution as in Nature so also in Grace 8. Inforcing and violating Conscience Sins against Conscience are of saddest consequence and do of all others most wound and wast the Conscience One sin deliberately committed against the Dictates of Conscience doth more to the corrupting and defilement thereof than many others contracted through weakness David's sin against the light of Conscience lost him the sense and savour of a good Conscience Men that force Conscience do at length flight Conscience and 't is just with God while these put away the good Conscience which they seemed
to have that he pluck it away also and that he punish this violence and their voluntary resistance with a final remorslesness Psal 51.10 1 Tim. 1.19 Jer. 9.3 Rom. 1.28 9. Inordinate cares shame and fears which overcharge Conscience and are offended with the Cross You must expect contempt and to endure the Cross if you will exercise and enjoy a good Conscience shame and fear decline those and you must therefore decline these divert them rather upon their proper Objects Be ashamed and afraid of sin as the greatest evil and of losing the sight and salvation of God who is the greatest good as you are advised by the Apostle for having a good Conscience 1 Pet. 3.14 15 16. c. 4.12 13 16. 'T is no matter of shame or fear to suffer for Conscience 't is a fearful thing indeed to suffer in or from Conscience But â—â—o this is thank-worthy an expression beyond any other in all the Bible if a man for Conscience toward God endure grief suffering wrongfully 1 Pet. 2.19 Secondly There are some things to be done If you would ensure the custody of a good Conscience 1. Employ your strictest care Sin and Satan lay their main Batteries against this the good Conscience is the grand Citadel of a gracious Christian get this and they get all keep this and ye keep all You are proportionably concerned to preserve the outer guards in your Conversations but you are principally concerned to preserve the inner and main guard of your Conscience Keep this and it will keep thee But remember as it was not gotten idly so neither is it kept but with industry Keep thy heart with diligence nay with all diligence and above all keeping and good reason for out of it are the issues of life Prov. 2.10 11. c. 4.20 21 23. 2. Extend this care to all the sorts and kinds of a good Conscience To the pure peaceable sincere soft and tender Conscience c. and touching which we shall instruct hereafter yea and to the whole circuit and compass of Conscience Take a prospect of every part in every proposition that it may be good both as a Rule and as a Witness and as a Judg Of which also you may expect in the ensuing parts of this Discourse 3. Hear Conscience Conscience hath a voice within you as well as Christ in his Word without you a voice * of correction in case of evil Why art thou cast down O my soul c Psal 43.5 A voice of counsel and direction for continuance and growth in good as David's had My reins also instruct me in the night-season Psal 16.7 Hear counsel then and receive instruction that thou mayst be wise in the latter end Conscience never hardens till it is not heard the more attention is given by you the more authority is gained to it and the better advise it giveth to you Attend the directions and discourse of Conscience then as Joseph and Nehemiah did who thereby kept an unspotted Conscience amidst all aspersions and calumnies Prov. 19.20 Gen. 39.9 Neh. 6.11 4. Estate it often by its Copy or Original rather the Holy Scriptures These are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the prime rule and standard by which you must pass and square Conscience Christians must write them a Copy of this Law in the Book of Conscience if they would be kept incorrupt and from crooked ways and examine this exscript often by that as the Kings of Israel must Conscience is to be instead of a mouth to Scriptures as Aaron was to Moses but the Scripture is to be instead of a God to Conscience as Moses was to Aaron Deut. 17.17 18 19. Exod. 4.16 Conscience is to every man as his Book as Bernard * Vnicuique suus libeâ— est conscientiu Conferamus itaque libros nostroscum librovitae ne fortè in illa ultima discussione abjiciantur si non fuerint emendati De Cons l. 1. c. 9. well observeth but such as must be examined by the Bible compared with and corrected by it Order my steps in thy Word saith David Thy Testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors Psal 119.133 24. Order Conscience by this through all its offices and proceeds Is Conscience a rule The Word must be the Regula regulans Conscience is but Regula regulata Conscience must take the rule from Christ in his Word and then give it to the Christian for the weighing of his Estate and Actions The Word is the lamp for the feet and light for the paths Psal 119.105 Is Conscience a witness If you look that it witness the Truth and in truth have it to the Law and to the Testimony Isa 8.20 Is Conscience a Judg If you would have it judg righteous judgment away with it to the Word of Righteousness which shall judg you in the last day Joh. 12.48 5. Engage the choice and constant resolutions of your wills It is well with Conscience while the Will is constant and cleaves unto God with full purpose let the Will be preserved steady and its welfare will be preserved in safety The weal of Conscience much-what follows the Will 's choice and when this is found divided that is faulty and diseased Act. 11.23 Hos 10.2 'T is said 1 Tim. 1.19 they put away a good Conscience and concerning Faith made ship-wrack Their loss did not arise as from its next cause from other's violence but their own voluntariness Satan seducers sufferings could never have pulled it away if they themselves had not put it away They made ship-wrack rather than endured ship-wrack Well then if you would still have a good Conscience be willing in all things to live honestly Heb. 13.18 6. Eye God's all-seeing knowledg Let thy Conscience keep its eye upon God who keepeth his eye upon thy Conscience Set the Lord alway before thy face with David and set thy self always before the face of the Lord with Paul As of God as in the sight of God so steer thy whole course Keep thy Conscience on God and God will keep thy Conscience who hath said Walk before me and be thou perfect Psal 16.8 2 Cor. 2.17 Gen. 17.1 Conscience is a knowledg together with the Lord look to it then in every creek and turn of thy life Doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it and he that keepeth thy soul doth not he know it Prov. 24.12 Psal 44.21 The prospect David took of Gods omniscient knowledg preserved a tender gracious and holy Conscience Psal 139. I have kept his precepts and thy testimonies saith he elsewhere for all my ways are before thee Eye him that is invisible with Moses whose eye is upon all thy goings Tell Conscience as Laban told Jacob No man is with us But see God is witness betwixt me and thee And forget not his Mizpah that is a Beacon or Watch-tower and say to it with him The Lord watch between me and thee when we are absent one from another Psal 119.168 Heb. 11.27 Gen. 31.49 50.
that doth good and sinneth not Prov. 20.9 Psal 19.12 Job 14.4 Eccles 7.20 2. Who was ever possessed in this life with the perfection of Conscience Conscience is never perfected till the Christian is perfected and the body of sin and this sinful body be put off fully 1 Cor. 13.10 c. Phil. 3.12 c. What is man that he should be clean His Conscience is miserably polluted and seared who durst pretend to perfection in the sight of God and wretchedly deceiveth himself and denieth the Scriptures of God Job 15.14 15 16. c. 25.4 5 6. c. 11.4 5. 1 Joh. 1.1 8 10. 2ly This Evangelical purity of the Conscience is attainable in this life and should be attained 't is possible we may and God's pleasure that that we do and must endeavour for and ensure it Lo 1. Man is admonished and called upon for it Purifie your hearts ye double minded Wash your hearts from your wickedness Have them sprinkled from an evil Conscience Purge your selves cleanse your selves from all filthiness of the spirit Hold the mystery of faith in a pure Conscience which implicitely requireth that you have a pure Conscience wherein to hold it In short the end of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart and of a good Conscience Jam. 4.8 Jer. 4.14 Heb. 10.22 2 Tim. 2.21 2 Cor. 7.1 1 Tim. 3.9 c. 1.5 2. Means are afforded and communicated for it Without us the Word and Ordinances within us Faith Hope c. Above us the Blood and Spirit of Christ whereby the Conscience may be purged from dead works Of which some things have been premised and more will be subjoyned hereafter Q. 5. If this mercy were not to be attained wherefore are these means they were as to this in vain and to no purpose appointed 3. Many have attained it Paul thanks God whom he served from his forefathers with a pure Conscience The Deacons held the mystery of faith in a pure Conscience Wherefore should I multiply instances in whomsoever there was or is a living faith and lively hope it did and doth purifie the Heart and Conscience 2 Tim. 1.3 1 Tim. 3.9 Act. 15.9 1 Joh. 3.3 In short whosoever believeth is pure hath all things pure to himself and his Mind and Conscience purified in him Tit. 1.15 Q. 3. Whether a Man's Conscience may be habitually impure and defiled and he not apprehensive of it Though all the Sons of Men may know de facto and should know de jure Whether their Consciences are pure or polluted yet many a man's Conscience is habitually impure and polluted and he knoweth it not 1. Witness Scriptures There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes yet is not washed from their filthiness Prov. 30.12 Laodicea saith I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knoweth not that she is wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked Instances would be endless Luk. 18.11 12. Isa 65.5 2. What else is the work of the Spirit of the Scriptures and of the servants of God by office but to convince of sin and shut up the Conscience of sinners in the sense of their sinful condition to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light that they that see not may see the defiled and deplorable state in which they have been and yet are and be at length convicted as those Pharisees were by their own Conscience Joh. 16.8 9. Act. 26.18 Psâ—l 19.8 Joh. 9.39 c. 8.9 Shall I point you whence it ariseth 1. Partly from want of self discussion Conscience is seldom or never put to the question by them or they by Conscience They consider not in their hearts Heb. They say not to their hearts Hos 7.2 How could those loose and wicked wretches so insolently insist upon it We are wise and the law of the Lord is with us But that they held fast deceit and no man said in his heart what have I done Jer. 8.5 6. cum 9.2 Principally from a wretched self-indulgence Self-love flatters men into a fond opinion of themselves and pride inflames them into a foolish ostentation and both render them averse to the knowledg of the worst by themselves afraid that Conscience do its work with much strictness and arms them also against â—orreign arguments and convictions with deâ—ensive pleas and pretensions lâ—t him hear the words of the Curse Yet he blesseth himself in â—is own heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart c. Deut. 29.19 Q. 4. How may we know whether our Consciences are habitually pure or defiled Put Conscience to it press home upon your hearts as in the presence of the most high God these three Questions which I here present and tender you First What is thy Conscience purified in If Conscience be purified at all 't is purified in all in every orb every office every part and proper officine of the Conscience 't is frequently called the perfect heart 1 King 15.14 1 Chron. 28.9 c. 29.19 2 Chron. 25.2 Understand it of an integral perfection there is no part of Conscience but is purified 1. Conscience is pure as a law it conserveth pure and holy laws and because they are very pure therefore doth this soul love them Psal 19.8 c. 119.140 2. Conscience is pure as it applyeth this law as for the pure his work is right that which this Conscience eyes is purity both in it self and in what is subordinated to it by all the acts generally it puts forth Prov. 21.8 Heb. 10.22 'T is an heart after God's own heart and therefore with the pure will shew himself pure and preserves the mysteries of faith in a pure mind and Conscience 1 Sanâ— 13.14 Psal 18.26 1 Tim. 3.9 Call Conscience then before thee commune with thâ— own heart Hath the water of purifying passeâ— upon the whole Conscience Is every veâ—â— thereof like those in Solomon's house of pure Gold Do you love pureness of heart Would you approve your selves in all things by pureness as the servants of God And whatsoever things are pure do you think on them and that with best complacence and most contentation Then are your Consciences purified Psal 4.4 1 King 10.21 Prov. 22.11 2 Cor. 6.4 6. Phil. 4.8 Secondly What is my Conscience purified from The pure Conscience in Scripture stands opposed not only to that which is defiled Tit. 1.15 but to that which is double Purifie your hearts ye double-minded Jam. 4.8 Let me ask then and thy heart answer 1. Is thy Conscience purified from its doubleness This is specially when Conscience will be making or maintaining a coalition and compounding of interests uniting and contempering of gain and godliness God and the World or as the Samaritans Fearing the Lord and serving their own Gods 1 Tim. 6.5 Jam. 4.4 2 King 17.33 Enquire then 1. into the object whereto it doth or should determine thee Is not thy heart divided between God and Mammon If so thou
her of which Q. 4. God hath surrogated and set her up 1. To be a law-giver from him imploy her in the study and revelation of what his laws are and your lives should be and see that you receive the truths she dictateth from him 2. To be a witness for and with him Imploy her in the observation and report of his works and your ways and see that you refuse not the testimony she delivereth for him 3. To be a judg under him Imploy her in the search and determining of your condition and see you remove not the sentence which she receiveth from him while you remain in this condition Rom. 2.14 15. Joh. 8.9 2 Cor. 5.11 4. In a befittingness and accord to God who hath invested men with it and imprinted his mind upon it 1. In accord to his work herein Men should not call their concupiscence humour lust illusion contumaciousness by the precious name of Conscience It reflects disparagement and an odium to its divine rise and original 2. In accord to his worth If Conscience be implanted in you by him she is inferiour to him and should not impose upon you against or above his commission She is then under the rule and authority of him and must render an account to him 3. In accord to his will as may best express his superiority over her his similitude upon her and best exemplifie those sacred instructions which he hath left upon record concerning her 5. Beyond and above all for him If Conscience be first implanted by him she should be finally imployed for him 'T is a sordid employment to put Conscience upon the palliation or extenuating of a mans corruption or upon the provision and erecting of a mans credit c. And 't is a sorry end to determine her high-bôrn operations within the narrow confines of the object sense or of a mans felf If she be of an higher efficient she should be busied for an higher end Her acts and answers should be all towards God 1 Pet. 2.19.3.21 Men should study to approve their Conscience to him to assure their Conscience before him and to advance and celebrate him by all the elicit and imperate acts of their Conscience 2 Cor. 5.9 11. 1 Joh. 3.19 Psal 34.1 2 3. 6. So as to behold and steadily own whatsoever truths he hath ordered out for man's knowledg and observation by implanting him with a Conscience And the more eminent any of them are the more firm should be mans assent to them and the more full and vigorous his adherence to and asserting of them Q. 3. What great truths may every man know and gather up from hence that there is a Conscience in him Among and above others every man may hence know and infallibly conclude these ensuing verities Is there a Conscience in every man then let every man 1. Behold a Deity * Conscientia optimus testis divinatis Tert. lib. de testim animae That which may be known of God is manifest in them from within as well as manifest to them from without so far at least as will render them inexcusable in sin though not as far as may be requisite and effectual to Salvation The eternal power and Godhead are written in lively and legible Characters not only upon the Creatures but in the Conscience enough to convince the Atheist and whereby he may arrive to the knowledg both that he is and to a good degree what he is also Rom. 1.19.20 2.14 15 The several truths which are conserved in the Conscience doth she not dictate as the will of God The special testimonies the Spirit communicateth doth she not declare as a witness for and with God The sentence and judgment wherewith the Spirit concludeth doth she not deliver as a substitute from as the sentence of God I need no other evidence for this than your own experiences which do plainly enough acquaint you that all the offices Conscience doth discharge are done under and for God and that the obligation she infers is as from so by God So that the being and acts of Conscience are both a pregnant proof that there is a God and do powerfully perswade men to acknowledg his Government and ascribe him worship and glory 2. Behold the Doctrine of Eternity rewards of good and evil that extend beyond death and all duration of time Behold your Consciences do not confine themselves in their converses with you within the narrow limits of mortality They carry engraven on them an immortal state with accord to the immortality of your Souls and by the prospect of this they inhibit and restrain from vice instigate and rouze us to vertue refresh mens hopes at one time and raise fears and torments at another Manifest it is that Conscience principally restrains and rules by the hopes and fears of a future immortality of glory and misery And if there were no such thing her government should be for the most part frivolous and delusory 2. Gods giving her to many persons would be vain and unnecessary for how should she contain armed force or artificial fraud within the bounds of duty when the one can sin safely beyond the punishments of this life and the other secretly Besides 3. her glory in being thus capacitated and raised above the brute Creatures would be hers and our shame and misery and render her and us beneath them while her hopes she ruleth by are frustrate and her fears are vexing which are things utterly to be rejected by all rational men 3. Behold a Dooms-day or day of judgment If every man hath a Conscience then every man must give an accompt and come to judgment and necessary it is that the several judgments of Conscience may be set right and the secrets of Conscience may be revealed and set open Rom. 2.12 17. 1 Cor. 4.5 Conscience is praejudicium judicii as Tertullian well 'T is an Emblem and evidence of the day of judgment Conscience keeps many a Court before hand as a Judg but lo she conducts men as by the hand to a more solemn and supream judgment Yea how often doth she cite men hither and arrest men from hence So that Paul preaching of Judgment maketh even a Pagan Judg to tremble Act. 24.25 Plain it is that the judgment of Conscience refers higher and reminds men often of a more impartial Judg and Judicature that is future and certain Conscience contains the records of Gods Laws and mens lives as a Book Here men often keep this Book clasped and sealed but the righteousness of God in and for the reward of men requireth that the Books be and they shall be opened Revel 20.12 Conscience is the Candle of the Lord searching yea and shewing what men are and have done as a witness whose work it is to give evidence in judgment Here men sometimes baffle at other times bribe this witness It shall therefore be brought into an open and impartial Court where it may neither be flattered nor
Gen. 39.9 And charging us to such as are good to do them 1 Pet. 3.16 The object of Conscience then is very large and extensive So that as one saith * Annesley qu. supra 'T is much easier to reckon up what is not the object of Conscience then what is In brief whatsoever is morally operable is the object of Conscience whatsoever Conscience doth or may operate about in a Moral sense and so takes in both our estate toward God and all our actions not only such as are moral operables in a stricter sense but such as are only thus in a larger sense as is Evangelical faith it self to be accounted * Sanders Prael 1. §. 23. This being as the command so the work of God that we believe in his Son Jesus Christ Joh. 6.29 1 Joh. 3.23 Nay there is not an act of that Moral indifferency which we may call properly humane the indeliberate and immoral actions of man which grow out of the imagination and disposition of natural qualities I except as being not in propriety of speech humane as not proceeding from the Soul as reasonable * Aquin. Sum. 12. q. 18. a. 9. I say there is not so indifferent an act which comes not within the sight and censure of Conscience though not as such or secundum speciem yet in its singular existence and as 't is circumstanced by which circumstances Conscience considers it made either morally good or else morally evil Thus Davids heart smote him but for cutting off the skirt of a garment an act in it self indifferent But Conscience attends the circumstances It was the skirt of Saul his Sovereign and Gods Substitute and therefore a sin in him who was his subject servant c. 1 Sam. 24.5 6. Thirdly Q. What is the end of Conscience to which it resers 'T is Mans judgment of himself i.e. of his estate and actions as it and they are subjected to the judgment of God Conscience being Gods Substitute and set by God himself upon the throne of Judicature doth therefore subordinate all to God all its objects and in all its operations It eyes God as the supream Judg both of it and of them in its regular acts and exercises Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts Psal 139.23 24. Nor doth Conscience ascite either the estate or any action into or sit upon them in judgment but as they and it are subjected to him who is superiour to the Conscience greater than the heart and knoweth all things 1 Joh. 3.20 21. Truth is when Conscience acts it self it is steered by and subordinated to the judgment of God in its whole judicial process In the first proposition 't is ruled by and subjected to the judgment of God in point of truth or as to matter of law In the second proposition 't is ruled by and subjected to it in point of testimony or as to matter of fact and therefore in the third proposition which is but a result from and upon the two former there cannot but be a subordination and subjection still had and made either virtually or formally to the same righteous and unerring judgment How shall I do this great wickedness and sin against God saith Conscience in Joseph As I have done so God hath requited me saith Conscience in Adoni-bezek Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God judg ye say Peter and John to the Jewish Rulers when they would set Conscience in them at work Gen. 39.9 Judg. 1.7 Act. 4.19 The office of Conscience then in general is to judg for from and under God which is inclusive of many particular acts or as some please to phrase it offices whereof I shall give you a succinct view in opening a sixth Question Q. 6. What are the Offices of Conscience and how may we so order her and our selves in them as to come off with more clearness The Offices of Conscience are best observed and opened by a review of the manner of its operation or judgment which is by way of Discourse in a practical Syllogism as hath been already mentioned Let me offer two instances more Thus All that have the Lord for their God are in an happy or blessed estate But I have the Lord for my God Therefore I am in an happy or blessed estate Again All sin is to be avoided for it self But this idleness of mine is sin Therefore This idleness of mine is to be avoided for it self Here are two Syllogisms which shew the manner of Conscience its operations both as concerns my estate in the first Syllogism and as concerns action of mine in the latter In each Syllogism there are as you see three propositions This is the proceeding of Conscience in all the judgments it maketh The offices of Conscience are obviously pointed us out in and by these several Propositions The first Proposition still manifestly contains some general law or rule whereby I may come to a clear issue in judgment what my actions have been or else should be and what my estate is Thus Conscience hath the office of a Law-giver thus she is to conserve for us and 1. to communieate or dictate to us laws or rules of general right and verity as concern our estates and actions And so the Apostle sometimes appeals it Know ye not i.e. do not your Consciences tell you that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.9 Know ye not that to whom ye yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience to righteousness Rom. 6.16 i.e. Do not your Consciences dictate as much as this So 1 Cor. 11.13 14. Judg in your selves c. Conscience is appealed to in this general concernment Is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered Again Doth not even nature it self i.e. doth not even natural Conscience teach you that if a man have long hair it is a shame unto him 3. To chalk out and descry our liberty As it is to dictate law or what must be in matters necessary so it is to discern liberty what may or may not be in matters of indifferency * Ames de Consc l. 1. c 3. n. 1. Q. 5 p. 26. That Conscience hath to order and officiate for us in thing adiaphorous is afore premised the Apostle prompteth 1 Cor. 10.25 27. I know there are that approve not the mention of these acts to the account of Conscience But the twofold acceptation of Conscience tendered you Quest 5. pag. 21. a more large and in a more limited sense may salve their exceptions And that such dictates and laws appertain to Conscience in the common and received usage of Conscience which I am particularly concerned to attend needs no other proof than the frequency of such speeches among us My Conscience tells me Men should do to others as they would
to accuse and condemn Rom. 2.15 Their Conscience also bearing them witness and their thoughts the mean while excusing or else accusing one another 1. If the estate and actions be or have been good Conscience is accordingly to acquit and clear This it doth 1. to and before God as its superior in judgment whom it doth 1. sometime appeal as the supream Judg. Judg me O Lord according to my righteousness and according to mine integrity that is in me Psal 7.8.26 1. And 2. sometimes it apologizeth and excuseth us to him not by extenuating our sin * Excusatio enim hic non strictiore sensu accipitur quo diminutionem vel attenuationem culpae designat sed illo quo plenam culpae reatus amotionem notat Ames but by insisting on our sincerity Lord saith Abimelech in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this Remember O Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart So Hezekiah Gen. 20.5 6. Isa 38.3 This it doth also 2. from God as his substitute in the judgment from whence Conscience is by office to approve and absolve 1. To approve the good and so our hearts are assured before and we have confidence toward God 1 Joh. 3.19 21. I have finished my course saith Paul I have kept the faith Conscience approves it and so assures him Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judg shall give me c. 2 Tim. 4.7 8. 2. To absolve from evil 1. from evils threatned by Gods laws the evil of divine indignation 1 Joh. 3.21 22 Nay saith Conscience whatever be the charges laid against him or crosses lay before him Who is he that condemneth it is God that justifieth In all these things I am more than a conquerour through him that loved me Rom. 8.31 to the end 2. â—â—rom evils thrown upon him by mens lusts the evils of humane imputations and hard censures Amidst all calumnies Conscience acquits Job and asserts his integrity Let his adversaries write a book against him he can bind their censures as a crown unto him Let them reproach him of hypocrisie Yet saith he till I die I will not remove my integrity from me My righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live Job 31.5 to the end 27.5 6. 2. If the estate or actions be or have been bad Conscience is by office judicially to accuse and condemn I say judicially to accuse because it 's accusation per modum testis as a witness appertaineth to the second Proposition Thus it likewise doth 1. As to and before God to and before whom it accuseth us and causeth us to acknowledg our guilt Thus Davids heart smote him after he had numbred the people and David said unto the Lord I have sinned greatly in that I have done c. 2 Sam. 24.10 And after he had gone in to Bathsheba Against thee thee only I have sinned and done this evil in thy sight c. Psal 51.4 2. As from and under God who is greater than the Conscience So Conscience is by office 1. To convict the sinner and doth conclude it as to the sinful state and actions for which it stands arraigned before it Witness those Jews Joh. 8.9 Who were convicted by their own Consciences 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Significat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 convincere causam eò deducere ut obijci enti praetexi nihil amplius queat Hyperius So shut up by arguments and by the authority of this Judg that they could not start from it 2. To censure and set a brand and mark of infamy upon the sin So David in the Text before 2 Sam. 24.10 I have done very foolishly And elsewhere So foolish was I and ignorant I was a beast before thee Psal 73.22 Here the least Conscience as a Judg can do is dislike and displicence with the sin and with it self for sin The evil which I do I allow not saith Paul Rom. 7.15 3. To condemn 1 Joh. 3.20 i.e. to pronounce the sentence which is a sentence of condemnation to the sinner where the estate is bad whereof is no reversal but upon repentance Act. 2.37 38. Tit. 3.11 A sentence of castigation and to contrition where the estate is good Jer. 31.19 and is still a sentence of condemnation to the sin and for the crucifying of the same whether the estate be good or bad Lam. 3.39 40 41. Secondly as it respects time future and what is to be Thus Conscience is by office in particular not only 1. to tell us or hold forth what is right and what is wrong what is good and what is evil to us in particular agreeable to the general law in the first Proposition But 2. to tye and oblige us respectively to that evil and to this good agreeably still to the same law in the same proposition And 3. to thrust forward excite or impell us for the avoiding of that evil and for the attaining or doing of this good with accord still to that general light or law In relation to these Offices the holy Scriptures speaks of the Conscientious man as one stirred as one bound as one pressed in his own spirit Act. 17.16 18.5.20 22. He is not only a debtor Rom. 1.14 But there is a necessity upon him as from Gods command so from his own Conscience He is constrained and cannot chuse unless he should offer violence to his own Conscience but do what his Conscience dictates 1 Cor. 9 16. 2 Cor. 5.14 Act. 4.20 I am not ignorant that these three last Offices of Conscience are commonly placed elsewhere and conceived to appertain rather to the first Proposition But in that Conscience doth therein dictate but the general right or law and these acts do evidently include a particular respect and application to a mans own estate or action and this conclusive as to his estate and action As the operation of Conscience aforesaid doth obviously witness I do therefore rather chuse to place them here Not that I blame others for the liberty which they please to take nor shall bind up my self strictly this order in the progress of this Discourse Q. 7. How may and should we so order our Conscience in relation to the first Proposition that they offer us true and right Laws and Rules and none but such concerning our estates * See Q. 3. Direct 1. in Chap. 3. and actions To this end it is necessary that you 1. Direct 1 Store your Conscience that she have a stock and treasury of knowledg a bank and habit of all necessary laws and rules of practice that as a scribe instructed to the Kingdom she may bring forth out of her treasury things both new and old as any occasion offers For how shall she be able to give rules if she hath them not or teach you if her self be untaught
testimonies Let my heart be sound in thy statutes Psal 119.10 35 36.80 6. Direct 6 Spend more of your time in consideration This will concoct what you already know and convert it into blood and spirits It improveth both the quickness and clearness of Conscience while truths are revolved upon the heart and it runs them over again with fresh attention and intention of the several faculties The most considerate Christian is the most knowing and best thriveth in his Conscience Her miscarriages are the issue of inconsiderateness Psal 1.1 2.64.9 Ecles 5.1 The iterated acts of meditation will 1. habituate the principles which you already know 't will root them deeper and rivet them faster upon the mind and memory And Conscience will be ever and anon calling them into counsel Psal 119.15 16 23 24. 2. They 'l affect and pour in oyl upon the flames of love delight and desire toward these and such other principles O how love I thy law saith David What was it that kindled and caused it to burn up to such an height It is my meditation all the day Psal 119.15 16 48 97. 3. They 'l advance these principles to an higher progress and proficiency in knowledg Meditation will not only be dilating on them but deducing inferences from them and drawing on the judgment and conscience from one field of truth to another for the delicious views of the full harvest of divine verities having drunk in so much sweetness already from a few sheaves of it This was it inlarged Davids understanding beyond his teachers and above the ancients as well as above his enemies Thy testimonies are my meditation Psal 119.98 99 100. Lastly Direct 7 Sin not against your Conscience but render your selves conformable to what rules she giveth Some men sin against her rules till they have sinned away her rules till God and Conscience give them over to their own lusts instead of giving them out his laws That as they loved to restrain the truth in unrighteousness and liked not to retain God in their knowledg they shall run where they lift for a time with a reprobate and remorsless Conscience Psal 81.11 12. Isa 6.9 10 11. Rom. 1.18 21 24 28. But Sirs if you would have Conscience true in giving rules to you you must be true to the rules which Conscience gives you you encourage Conscience when you exemplifie her laws in your lives and conversations But if you turn not her directions into duties you tempt her to deal at most but by halves with you as you do at best with her The doers of the Commandments have the most discerning Conscience and dwell most in comforts If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them He that doth what he knoweth is most likely to know what to do He is secured by promise If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine and God will manifest himself to him Ps 111.10 Joh. 13.17.7.17.14.21 Q. 8. How should we so order our Conscience in relation to the second Proposition that she may give us a true and right testimony and none but such concerning our estates * See Chap. 3. Q. 3. Dir. 2. and actions To this end it is necessary That you 1. Ply your Conscience with arguments Direct 1 The influence of rational inducements with her cannot be small in that her seat and fixation is in the very highest orb of reason So that the more reasons you offer the more ready must she be caeteris paribus to her office and the more regular in her operations You may urge her 1 from her ability Thou and thou only under God canst fully and clearly testifie For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him God hath set thee up as a shining lamp for surveying all the several periods and acts of my life and thou searchest all the inward parts of the heart metaphorically expressed by the belly 1 Cor. 2.11 Prov. 2.27 2. From her authority For this art thou constituted by God in and over me And this is his command upon thee to testifie what is my consonancy to or dissonancy from those laws he hath imposed on or engraven in me Thou hast his warrant and 't is thy work to witness a work approved by him in Scripture and agreeable to thy nature Who can exempt or what shall excuse thee Rom. 2.15 3. From her avail Thy single testimony alone doth supercede the witness of the whole world besides I can appeal from them to thee but from thee I can appeal to none but God Next under his thy witness is of highest weight both with him and me Job 23.10 11 12. Rom. 9. â— 4. From her acts Why didst thou dictate truths and laws to me if thou wilt deny thy testimony to my life By those I know what God appointeth and demandeth of me but 't is by this alone I can know what I am and what is done by me Should I know his statutes only or should I not also know my own self 2 Cor. 13.5 Besides how canst thou otherwise descend to judgment who passeth sentence without some previous evidence And if this be unsound that cannot be safe So that deny or deprave thy witness and thou undoest thy whole work 5. From her advantage Witness thou must and shalt Now it may be done with less smart and more security then if thou shouldst defer it till the cords of distress or fetters of death and judgment do constrain thee 6. From her account An account thou must render at Gods Bar shortly He will then open the book of Conscience and every line of thy heart and life shall be read over distinctly He now observeth what reflections and reports Conscience maketh of what hath been done by thee and hath eminently marked out her silence as a sore evil in thee Jer. 8.6 Eccles 4.8 7 From what attends Why O my Conscience my work and welfare both as to time and eternity do all turn upon this one hinge How can I repent either from or for my past or present sins or state if sinful on the one hand Or how can I rejoyce in or be thankful for my past or present sincerity and Gods salvation on the other if thy silence or partiality in giving witness shall leave me still under the thick and dark vail of ignorance 2. Press her by and before authority Direct 2 Subpoena her to appear at Gods Bar and there argue with her Psal 50.22 Jer. 12.3 Art thou not 1 to witness from him hath not he substituted and sent thee How wilt thou answer it to him then whom thou abusest infinitely if thou adventure either to suspend thy testimony or to speak untruly 2 Art thou not to witness for him i.e. in his cause and concern as well as on his commission Durst thou so slight his honour and therewith thine obligations as either to speak wickedly for him or to be speechless or
shuffle in thy witness when the interess of his government glory c. is at stake before thee shall not his excellency make thee afraid Job 13.7 8 9. 3 Art thou not to witness to him Doth thy testimony terminate with me Nay 't is transmitted to the supream Judg. The records of it must lie in heaven with him And canst thou impose by lying upon an infinite truth or hide any thing by a loose and fraudulent testimony from his immensity 4 Art thou not to witness as before God As of God in the sight of God so shouldst thou speak The answer of a good Conscience is towards God Whether it be right in the sight of God is her grand enquiry And durst thou withhold or wrench and obtort thy testimony before his eye should not his presence better poyze and be of more prevalence with thee 2 Cor. 2.17 1 Pet. 3.21 Act. 4.19 5 And what is God from for to and before whom thou art to witness Doth not he know both all the matters of fact and all thy manifold frauds with the highest exactness Thy witness cannot add to nor thy wrestings abate from his knowledg Jer. 17.9 10. Psal 119.168 Or will he cover either because thou concealest them or castes a vail over them Nay if thou sayest Behold I know it not Doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it and he that keepeth thy soul doth not he know it And shall not he render to every man according to his works Prov. 12.24 3. Direct 3 Purge out that habitual guil and aversation which naturally adhereth to her of which elsewhere Chap. 2. Qu. 2. and principle her with holy habits Purity will be an excellent preservative from the temptations proffered her from without and the treachery she is prone to from within As for the pure his work is right The witness of a pure Conscience will not be blinded with or blinded by any carnal interess 't will continue pure like her self 2 Tim. 1.3 Prov. 21.8 Tit. 1.15 Fidelity is not less effectual then expedient and necessary She will not be either bought off by temptations or brow-beaten by trouble nor will she bruise upon the truth or baffle in her testimony A faithful witness will not lie A true witness delivereth souls Prov. 14.5 25. Chap. 12.17 4. Direct 4 Prevent her from allurements There will be enough to tamper with her and be taking her off from her testimony 1. Self-love will be prompting arguments from thy own ease c. to abstain or however to adjourn or at least to allay her testimony 2. Secret lusts will be putting in for some countenance at least connivance Why shouldst thou make a full discovery Look back upon the profits and pleasures we have ministred to thee shall thine own testimony destroy both ours and thine own tranquillity 3. Satan will be pleading and perswading with thee either to pass it over or palliate it up or at least to put it off to a more convenient season Nay 4. the several powers of the Soul which are subordinated to Conscience and must sense the consequence of a just and impartial testimony will be plucking her back and press her to a forbearance from the extent and fearful effects of a severe testimony Why shouldst thou so far prejudice the peace of thy self and us who have taken sweet counsel together heretofore Come spare thy self and us at least a little longer Thorns and snares thou seest are strew'd in the way of Conscience's witness-bearing The more it concerns thee to keep her with thy utmost circumspection Suffer her not to play with these baits as thou wouldst not have her perish by the hook that is hid under them Prov. 4.23 Chap. 22.5 Act. 24.16 Let Conscience know 1. allurements are fallacious and deceitful they are but to betray her from her irksome duty into the more irrecoverable danger And however they now briskly sparkle in the cup and entrance yet in the consequence and end they will bite like a Serpent they will sting like an adder 2. Their arguments are all frivolous and sophistical The true spiritual self-love easily seeth through and scattereth them all She seeth that the witness of Conscience serves our best welfare and comfort And if troubles ensue upon her testimony she will see and say they are but preparatory to our everlasting tranquillity and preventive oâ— eternal torments Or suppose the worst iâ— you weigh their suggestions in the scales oâ— self-love indeed she will soon inform you 'T is better to bleed once than to burn for ever Better you should smart once than suffer always Better Conscience should be giving witness on earth than be a gnawing worm in hell To be now testifying than for eveâ— tormenting c. Luk. 16.23 24 25. 5. Direct 5 Prize her attestation and be well pleased with it Receive her testimony with thankfulness to God and tenderness toward herâ— yea though her testimony should give cheâ—â— to your carnal interest and corrupt inclinations yet congratulate and bid her welcome when she bears her witness as Daviâ— sometime did Abigail Blessed be the Lord which sent thee to meet me this day and blessed be thy advice and blessed be thou of the Lord 1 Sam. 25.32 33. 'T is good for you 1 to invite her and that in sincerity if she seems strange There is a saying to the heart which the Scripture suggests to us Hos 7.2 If Conscience seems to withdraw speak to her the more winningly and say not to thy self by her as Judah did to his servant concerning Tamar Let her alone enquire not after her lest we be ashamed Gen. 38.23 But see that thou do it in integrity Do not invite her as Amnon did his Sister to deflowre her testimony first and then turn her out of doors afterward 2 Sam. 13.17 2 Entertain her with promises of security if she seems suspicious and â—earful Tell her thou wilt bear with and shalt bless God for her integrity and wilt bear her but against her enemies As David to Abiathar Abide thou with me fear not for he that seeketh by life seeketh my life But with me thou shalt â—e in safety 1 Sam. 22.23 3 Encourage â—er if she yet seems shy and doubtful as Moses was to encourage Joshua and as God â—couraged Paul Be of good cheer Paul as thou â—ast testified of me in Jerusalem so thou must bear â—itness also at Rome Speak out freely fully â—ithfully I shall not oppose but own it thankâ—lly Tell her as wisdom doth her Children With me thou shalt dwell in safety and shalt be â—iet from fear of evil Deut. 5.38 Act. 23.11 â—ov 1.33 Receive her testimony then and â—at in reality and with all readiness whereâ—â— you shall eminently disappoint the hopes 〈◊〉 sin and Satan and encourage her to the disâ—arge of her office You receive the witness 〈◊〉 men the witness of God is greater and the witness of Conscience is Gods witness iâ— and to you 't is the
or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which speaks back what they should have been or now should be So that Conscience in her reflection is both to consult her own records and to compare the concern before her wherein she is to witness with those holy rules I advise then that you 1. Direct 1 Send your Conscience to search her own Records Here her actions are all bookt as before Q. 9. let her reflect hither remember and read them over without which you cannot now reach the end or reap the benefit of their being so reposited Remember this how they are enrolled and why Call it again to mind O ye transgressors to use the words of the Prophet Isa 46.8 Now that you may consult these records aright and have Conscience to reflect It s requisite that there be 1 Self-denial without which this work will not be done at all or not aright but Conscience like the unjust Steward will be writing fifty for an hundred For be sure your wills and affections yea Conscience it self through the corruption that cleaves to it will be drawing back from such a difficult and flesh-displeasing work or at most will not dwell long upon it And therefore the Apostle doubleth the charge Examine your selves prove your own selves as knowing how hardly we are brought to it and how the heart hangs back from it Luk. 16.6 2 Cor. 13.5 2 Serious deliberation lest you misread and misunderstand her records and the result be a mistake and misrepresentation of your case which will minister nothing but matter for repentance as it did unto David I said in my haste c. Psal 31.22 and 116.11 3 A steady diligence My spirit made diligent search Psal 77.6 1. In rubbing up and ransacking the memory where these records lie as in their most proper repository For many of our actions lie there rather as so much rubbish which we have swept out of sight then as so many records that are orderly shelv'd up for a surveigh 2. In reiterating this method our actions many times lie so far off and so many things interpose between them and the eye of Conscience that there must be a raised and repeated diligence yea and giving all diligence to remove other matters and to reduce them again to our minds 'T is therefore called a bringing back to the heart 2 Pet. 1.10 1 King 8.47 Isa 46.8 3. In the reception and right nicking of the means The court of records stands not always open and 't is ill slipping the first season Now diligence would be doing e're the doors are shut and the draught by Conscience is yet fresh and unsullied As David sometimes immediately reflected upon the cutting off of Sauls garment and upon his numbring the people But at another time when he yields to his own sloth and falls not in with the first season Vriah is murdered and his Wife constuprated by him c. and he never casts a reflex upon either of these prodigious acts yea notwithstanding the Parable came so pat and plain upon him till the Prophet was fain to put himself in the place of Conscience and tell him Thou art the man and you know what this negligence cost him 1 Sam. 24.5 2 Sam. 24.10 Chap. 11 and 12. Psal 51. 2. Direct 2 Set Conscience by those holy rules whereon she must reflect The rule is of necessary reflection on and of as needful resolution in witness-bearing For how shall Conscience witness or reflect on this as good or on that as good but by comparing this and that with the rule which can alone resolve her what is good and what is bad Now as Gods revealed will is the only rule and measure of all moral good and evil so the reflection of Conscience connoteth a respect to this rule For Conscience doth not cast back an enquiry after the physical being of an action as whether I have eat or drunk but after the moral being of that action as whether I have eat or drunk to Gods glory c. as his law enjoyns me or else to excess c. as his law inhibits me Mic. 6.8 1 Joh. 3.4 1 Cor. 10.31 Eph. 5.18 Now hereunto these three things are requisite which though they are not of that obvious necessity and distinct use in those sudden and transient reflections which Conscience often maketh yet are they of very needful observation and useful distinctness in her more solemn and abiding reflections in the more serious returns we are to make upon our selves as before the Sacrament c. or when we undertake the solemn examination of our selves 1. Set the rule before thy Conscience in its spiritual power purity and in the several parts of it On this she is to reflect and by this she must be regulated 'T is not enough that you have them lying in habit with the sunteresis but they should be now actually educed and brought forth to view For in that you are now to search your selves by them you must take an actual surveigh of them David therefore did not satisfie himself that the laws of God were ever with him but he did expose and lay them before him Thy judgments have I laid before me Psal 119.30 cum 98. And without this the course you are now taking will be much-what ineffectual and can never be fully commensurate with your design this duty or Gods demand who bids you take heed to your ways according to his word Psal 119.9 2. Sift your Conscience and therewith your lives and actions by the rules compare her and them with this Examine your selves prove your own selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as men try metals by bringing them to their proper measure as Gold and Silver to the touch-stone 2 Cor. 13.5 Self-discussion by the divine standard is of singular advantage both for the discovery of your sins as David and Paul found it and for the drawing out a discovery of your sincerity as Job Ps 19.11 12. Rom. 7.8 9 c. Job 23.10 11. Will you but cast an eye on this glass you should see more of the nature and number of your sins the nature necessity and beauty of Gods service and continuing therein should contract his blessing on your selves Jam. 1.25 But in your solemn examinations let me advise you to call forth the laws of God and rules of godliness successively and distinctly and so to compare the several periods of your lives with them both in the matter and manner of your actions Hath the matter of my life born accord to this that and the other precepts or hath there not been an attempt on and violation of both this and that and the other prohibition For the manner of my actions have they been done upon that account and with those aimes affections c. that these rules prescribe me and whereupon they promise a blessing to me By this course Conscience will be 1. Less complicated in her work through the artifices of sin or Satan They usually hide their
deceits under the covert of generals This unravels all the clue 2. More compleat in her witness For by this means many of those actions which lay out of sight upon her records are suggested by and to Conscience afresh 3 More cogent in her witness and it being more particular it will be more prevalent with us when Conscience can now say to us as Job's friends to him Lo this I have searched it so it is hear then at and know it for thy good Job 5.27 4 More constant in her witness and more quick hence-forth and ready to her work Her frequent converses with these rules and comparings therewith form her unto a more habitual promptness and present activity to cherish good and check evil while 't is yet but in the egg and entrance 3. Stay thy Conscience with the rule and upon the reflections which thou now makest Let her not give a glance only and so go off but consider Hebr. Set your heart on your ways as David I considered Heb. I thoughted my ways Hag. 1.5 7. Psal 119.59 By this means if consideration be taken up in making such comparisons your work will thrive upon your hands to a greater extension and a more gracious intension Consideration will fetch in the whole compass of Gods commands and our conversations If Conscience reflect upon an evil this will rip it up in all its circumstances as it did in the Patriarchs and pious David If upon a good this will run down its enquiry into the root and efficient of it and then run it up again into the exemplar and end of it and so returns fraught with repentance on that hand with rejoycing on this Gen. 42.21 22. Psal 51.3 4 c. 2 Cor. 4.2 c. 2.17 1.12 'T is necessary then that there should be some immoration of our Conscience in an intent consideration when we are imployed in these self-converses The worth hereof is great the efficacy of such reflections depending eminently thereupon David thoughted his ways and immediately turneth his feet to Gods word The Preacher considers and is forthwith cured of his trouble and tentation Whereas others through inconsiderateness run on in sin and some are held upon the rack of sorrow and anguish Psal 119.59 Eccles 9.1 Isa 1.3 Psal 73.21 22. Let me add a fourth 4. Shake off whatsoever will retard you in or retain you from this work Sin and Satan will be suggesting disswasives and determents Slothfulness will be sticking at the difficulty and diligence which must be used The sensual and sensitive part will be startling and bogling at the displeasingness and danger of it as that which will hazard all her ease and self-enjoyment Yea your selves will be but too shy of such a duty if you shake not off all such insinuations and suggestions and set to it with all your might 3. Direct 3 Speak to thy Conscience that she will reflect more constantly or at least that she will reckon with thee in the close of every day 1 That she reflect more constantly Herein do I exercise my self saith Paul to have always a Conscience void of offence Act. 24.16 And elsewhere he speaks of it in the present tense Not we had or shall have but we have a good Conscience Heb. 13.18 And that is the good Conscience which gives the quick reflex It is true I acknowledg that your actions are quick and sudden in their motions but Conscience is as quick and sudden and though those may have gotten the start of her as Cushi did of Ahimaaz yet she can easily overtake and out-run them as Ahimaaz did Cushi because she runneth as he did by the way of the Plain There are many more things to interrupt their motion than hers Truth is 1. When an action is yet but in purpose or in the proposal Conscience should reflect immediately as she is capacitated accordingly to promote it if good as in Solomon or prevent it if evil as it did in Joseph 1 King 5.8 Gen. 39.9 2. Or when an action is passing from the inward intention to outward execution Conscience should catch it by the heel in the place of the breaking forth of Children as Jacob did his Brother and as being Gods Centinel should require its pass and certificate and remand it back if it it be bad or rescue it from its assailants if it be good as Paul did Hos 12.3 Rom. 7.15 24. 3. Or is an action past forth without her animadvertence she should forthwith pursue it and put the arrest of her reflection upon it and be asking what have I done Or ask us as Joab ask'd David What hast thou done Jer. 8.6 2 Sam. 3.24 To this end labour for tenderness of Conscience of which hereafter which will soon reflect upon the least touch and pressure 2 King 22.19 But alas where is the Conscience that hath not abused us more or less in all these who can say my heart is clean therefore urge her 2 To reckon with thee at least in the close of every day Conscience should be still every day a doing with us but there are two seasons in the day wherein we especially should have to do with Conscience viz. in the morning that she may tell us what we have to do this day and in the evening that she tell us what we have done Commune with your own heart upon your bed Psal 4.4 'T is good communing with our selves and speaking to Conscience before we compose our selves to sleep Job reflected every day upon the carriage of his Sons and therefore no doubt upon the carriage of himself Thus did Job continually Heb. all the days Job 1.5 This is the way to keep your accounts both more short and more sure Well if conscience be shy or sullen plead the cause with her as the very heathen could do * Quotidie apud me causam dico c. v. Senec. de Irâ l. 3. c. 36. and then put her to the question What good have I done or else declined this day or if she return thee that thy actions have been good for the matter Return upon her yet again Yea but in what manner did I it upon what motives with what mind in what method c. So what evil have I committed or cherished or else given check to or crucified this day or if this and that were not evil in it self have not I wounded it by some evil circumstances Believe it Christians it would be of excellent advantage to your actual growth and eternal good if you had such a compendium of sins and duties by you or rather in you as Conscience might call it over every evening and comparing your employments that day with it might be able to witness clearly your estate and actions of the day now past you 4. Shew kindness to thy Conscience Direct 4 when she doth reflect yea though it be in thy own reproof Tell her thou art thankful as well as sensible and dost more congratulate thy self in
the wounds of such a friend than in the kisses of such as flatter For by this thou dost encourage her now and invite her for hereafter and shalt henceforth enjoy more of thy self and of her society He that heareth reproof getteth understanding Heb. possesseth an heart Prov. 15.32 Be not of those that can reflect on a mote in their brother's eye but not on a beam if in their own eye The more censorious abroad the more blind or at best blear-eyed will Conscience be at â—ome The kind treatments of a self-reflecting Conscience will produce most circumspection in her and most compassion towards others Mat. 7.3 4. Gal. 6.1 3. Welcome her reflections there is not so much vinegar as oyl in them If she chideth reproveth 't is but like Jeremy to keep thee from ruin Therefore do not smite her and put her in prison as Pashur did by that Prophet She may so forbear reflecting and for a while fall to remorslesness But assure thy self if she forbears thee now 't is to fetch a greater blow at thee hereafter Jer. 20.2 Rom. 1.28 5. Direct 5 Stir up thy Conscience if she be remiss speak to her if she be silent towards thee 1. There are some speaking providences that invite her to reflect and do suggest matter suffer her not to break from these Who knoweth but they may be as prosperous to you as they were to Joseph's Brethren and Pharaoh's Butler Gen. 42.21 cum 7. c. 41.9 cum 8. 2. There are some speaking portions of Scriptures and Sermons that enlighten her for reflecting and are a special means Do not baffle with these For how knoweth thou but there may be the same spiritual and saving effect obtained oâ— thee as hath been on others Heb. 4.12 1 Cor. 14.24 25. 3. There be many speaking perswasives to enduce and engage thee to reflect and serve for motives do not baulk these I have set many before you already and shall only subjoyn these 1. God seeth whether thou dallyest in it and his revenge wiâ—â— be severe if thou dost not reflect in season Psal 50.21 22. Jer. 8.6 c. Hos 7.2 2. 'T is a grievous sin to decline it thou dost not act like a man thou art brutish in thy knowledg yea below the brutes 't is not only vanity but a sore travel Isa 1.3 Eccles 4.8 3. What good success mayst thou arrive to by diligence Davids reflection ended in his reformation Pauls in eminent rejoycing the Jews in the reception of their prapers remission and pardon of their sins and restoring of them into signal favour both with God and man Psal 119.59 2 Cor. 1.12 1 King 8.47 51. Q. 11. How manifold is Conscience The definition of Conscience being dispatcht the distribution regularly follows to be next enquired into Herein I may not be too nice or acurate but attending the design of a practical Casuist I shall accordingly guide my self in the distribution hereof Thus more generally as both common experience and clear Scripture evidence instruct us There is 1 the good Conscience Heb. 13.18 1 Pet. 3.16 21. 2 The evil Conscience Heb. 10.22 The good and evil conscience may be considered and distributed either 1 according to the stated habitude Or 2 according to the several acts of mens Consciences First if we consider the state or according to the stated habitude of mens Consciences so the Conscience may be called good or evil either 1 in an ethical and moral Or 2 in an Evangelical and Spiritual sense 1. Ethically good or good upon a common account so is the Conscience which from a principle of moral righteousness is habitually disposed toward and actually dischargeth its offices according to Ethical or Moral principles In this sense many Pagans had and Paul before his Conversion was not without a good Conscience Act. 23.1 I have lived in all good Conscience before God until this day i.e. I have lived up to the light of my Conscience Or as the Dutch Annotators * Ad locum I have served God uprightly i.e. without hypocrisie according to the knowledg I had 2. Evangelically good or good upon the Christian account so only is that Conscience which from a spiritual principle of renovation is habitually disposed toward and actually dischargeth its offices according to evangelical principles Paul therefore incloseth this between charity out of a pure heart and faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1.5 Let me add that the same Conscience as that of Paul before his effectual calling and as is commonly found in Moral persons which we may and do call good sensu ethico in an ethick sense we must call an evil Conscience sensu Evangelico in an Evangelical sense For so still it is an evil Conscience till it be purged from dead works by the blood of Christ to serve the living God Heb. 9.14 10 22. There is a double goodness found with the Conscience evangelically good a goodness of purity and a goodness of peace or a goodness of sincerity and of security as a practical Writer of ours speaketh * Sheffield Good Cons c. â— p. 26. Or a goodness of integrity and of tranquillity as another * Dykes Good Cons p. 20. See Ames de Consc l. 1. c. 12. Hence there is 1 the purified or pure Conscience instanced 2 Tim. 1.3 And 2 the pacified or peaceable Conscience intimated Phil. 4.7 Opposite to this double goodness of Conscience there is a double evil of defilement to sin habitual and allowed and 2. of distress to sorrow and anguish of heart Accordingly there is 1 the defiled Conscience propounded Tit. 1.15 And 2 the disquiet Conscience pointed at Prov. 12.25 It must be herewith remembred that neither this twofold evil nor that twofold goodness do always co-exist in the same Conscience There may be purity yet no peace and peace of Conscience such as it is yet no purity There may be an habitually impure or defiled Conscience which yet is not distressed And there may be a distressed Conscience which is not habitually impure or defiled as will be seen in the further progress of this discourse Oh happy conjunction when both goodnesses of peace and of purity of sincerity and of security do meet in the fame Conscience * Faelix conscientiâ— in qua osculatae sunt pax justitia Bern. de inter dom Happy when both evils of defilement and of distress of transgression and of trouble are cast out and kept out of the doors of Confcience together Secondly the good and evil Conscience may be distributed according to the several acts of Conscience viz. Either 1. as it apprehends and dictates matters of law or right where by it cometh to an issue in judgment Or 2. as it applys and draws them down to the matter before it for judgment Both which it doth either firmly and strongly or but feebly and weakly Agreeable whereunto there is 1 the weak and infirm Conscience And 2 the well-inabled firm or strong Conscience Of
c. Mal. 1.13 Job 21.15 Chap. 35.3 Amos 8.5 Exod. 5.2 2. Sometimes 't is outs in the measure generally it is in one extream or other either over or under Conscience accused Cain as also Judas but to that extremity as ended in despair and horrour It accused Ahab and Felix but not as might infer the hatred of their sins or alteration of their states Gen. 4.13 c. Mat. 27.3 4 5. 1 King 21.29 cum Chap. 22. Act. 24.25 26 27. 3. Most times 't is out in the method and circumstance of time Conscience should be checking and curbing in the first motion of sin within but concupiscence ordinarily conceiveth and bringeth forth e're Conscience checketh it or censureth the sinner Conscience should have anticipated that act of pride and carnal confidence in Davids numbring the people at least should have been accusing while that act was a consummating But nine months and twenty days are run out e're Conscience gives him a rebuke And Davids heart smote him after that he had numbred the people Conscience condemned the sin of Judas but not till he saw the condemning of Jesus 2 Sam. 24.8 10. Mat. 27.3 4. At all times 't is out in the manner if God should be severe and weigh it in the scales of his Justice Who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin That his Conscience hath discharged its office with that freedom and faithfulness with that openess and holiness with that sincerity and self-denial c. as is due from us Who can understand his errors Prov. 20.9 Eccles 7.20 Psal 19.12 2. With relation to future things and tims Conscience is authoritatively to direct and determine 1. Subordinately under God and as from God as the chief Governour 2. Supreamly to and for God as the chief good and end But alas how sinful is it here likewise 1. How little doth it attend insomuch as God complains None saith restore and calls out Who will hearken and hear for the time to come Isa 42.23 How few are there that with Mary ponder those things in their hearts which concern the after-times and their eternal peace But how many that hold fast deceit that refuse to return and set their heart on their iniquity rather than to seek out their duty And because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil Luk. 2.19 Jer. 8.5 Chap. 5.3 Hos 4.8 Eccles 8.11 2. How lost is its authority Conscience hath much-what left its subordination to God and his word Lo they have rejected the word of the Lord and what wisdom is in them Jer. 8.9 Chap. 6.10 The Commandments of Men are received and the Commandments of God are rejected by the Pharisees and Conscience is pretended and pleaded Mat. 15.1 10. Mar. 7.1 14. Conscience hath much what lost also its superiority over the Will and Affections which it should over-rule and order God calls and Conscience calls Return ye every one from his evil way and make your ways and your doings good And they said There is no hope but we will walk aster our own devices and we will do every one the imagination of his evil heart And so Conscience is often enslaved though it cannot be wholly extinguished by corrupt affections Jer. 18.11 12. Chap. 2.24 25. Rom. 1.18 21 c. 3. How low is its aspect Conscience should order every business to be done as for and as before God and should hold back from sin as that which displeaseth dishonoureth and is contrary to God But alas how far distant are mens counsels which abundantly speak the defilement of Conscience Ahab humbleth himself but 't is to anticipate the sufferings denounced from God not in abhorrence of the sin done against God Jehu reforms but 't is to ensure the Government not to exalt Godliness Conscience calls the Pharisees to prayer and almes-deeds but 't is to be seen of men rather than serve God Calls the People and the Priests to fasting at some times to feasting at others But keeps them within themselves carrieth them not up to God as their end in either 1 King 21.21 ad finem 2 King 10.28 cum 31. Mat. 6.2 c. Zach. 7.5 6. 4. How languid are its acts Conscience is 1. to inform and dictate what we are to do what to decline but this it doth many times falsly most times ineffectually calling evil good and good evil putting darkness for light and light for darkness Or if it presenteth our duty right yet not so as to prevail to the doing thereof regularly Isa 5.20 Rom. 1.21 2. Conscience is to engage and bind us from iniquity to duty But this it doth either very feebly or forbears and lets fall its bonds in an affliction happily these bonds seem fast and firm but the heart is not right with God nor remains stedfast with him and they soon fall of again And as for the word spoken to them in the name of the Lord when the rod is over they are ready to say We will not hearken to thee but we will certainly do whatsoever seems good in our own eyes c. Hos 5.15 chap. 4.6 Ps 78.34 37. Jer. 44.16 17. 3. Conscience is to impell and instigate but alas how faintly doth it this or else forbears it insomuch as the Prophet complains There is none that stireth up himself to take hold of thee Isa 64.7 And the best of Believers have sound frequent cause of awakening and alaruming their Conscience Psal 57.8 chap. 103.1 2. 4. Yea Conscience is ready to engage against all this so corrupt it is as to be angry with the strict and searching Truths of God and with Ahab to quarel with Gods Elijahs Hast thou found me O mine enemy And to conclude with him against the messengers of God as he touching Micajah He never prophesieth good concerning me but evil Yea to hate the good and love the evil to hate him that rebuketh in the gate to hate the light and will not come to the light lest his deeds should be reproved 1 King 21.20 ch 22.8 Mich. 3.2 Amos 5.10 Joh. 3.19 20. How extream then is the evil of Conscience further than it is purged by the blood of Christ What cause have we then of continual humiliation and of highest circumspection How careful should we be to get Conscience cleansed and cured which leads us to the next Question Q. 3. How may we be cured of an evil Conscience The cure of the several evils or sicknesses of Conscience as also the cure of the several sorts of an evil Conscience must be expected by you and will be endeavoured by me more particularly hereafter The cure of the evil state of the Conscience is the concernment I have now before me I suppose you sensible that the state thereof is bad In order to the setting right of it I advise that I. You submit to your Convictions These Convictions
come from the spirit do not quash them as thou wouldst not quench the spirit or wouldst consult thy Salvation Joh. 16.8 Gen. 6.3 Hos 4.4 5. See 1 Thou do not stifle or suppress them They held the truth down in unrighteousness and liked not to retain God in their knowledg Rom. 1. What became of it Therefore God gave them over to a reprobate mind And now farewell Convictions farewell Conscience till they feel the effect of such a constupration happily in eternal condemnation they are filled with all manner of unrighteousness and are fatting for eternal ruin ver 18 21 24 28 29 c. This is the hazard thou runnest especially upon iterated acts of rebellion Prov. 1.24 33. Psal 81.11 12. Mat. 13.14 15. Prov. 29.1 And though justice may not take this advantage against thee yet every stifled Conviction will now add to the hardning of thy Conscience and to the augmenting of thy shame sorrow and self-confusion when God shall awaken Conscience Zeph. 7.11 12. Rom. 2.4 5. Jer. 31.19 2 Thou do not sit down or sit still under them Is Conscience convinced how canst thou be quiet Are these chains to sleep in What! condemned of thy self and yet sit quiet What if God should condemn thee too Methinks we should hear thee crying out with the Jaylor and those Jews Men and Brethren what shall we do Sirs what must I do to be saved And like the two blind men the more others are complaining the more should you be crying Tit. 3.11 1 Joh. 3.20 Act. 2.37 c. 16.29 30. Mat. 20.30 31. I say therefore to you as the Lepers said among themselves Why sit you here until you die Arise and be doing if Conscience kill you you can but die 2 King 7.3 4. 3 See thou do not shift them off They were convicted by their own Conscience Joh. 8. but it came to no good they stealing away from Christ and shifting away from Conscience every one to his course of life Cain baffles Conscience with building Cities and a crowd of secular businesses Saul is melancholy happily Convictions might be upon him from the Lord though this was not all and he must have the Ministrel the musick Joh. 8.9 Gen. 4.15 17. 1 Sam. 16.23 See thou be not diverted from thy Convictions by any company especially which is sinful or by any secular contrivance and that thou do not dismiss them as Felix did his till another convenience whose Conscience as far as appears did ever after contract more guilt and filthiness Act. 24.25 26 27. To day therefore while it is called to day hear Gods voice and do not harden your hearts lest to your voluntary hardning and aversation from Conviction God add a judicial hardning and afford you no more Convictions Hebr. 3.7 16.4 7. II. Speak to Conscience and suffer that to speak to unto you commune often with it and ask it What have I done and as the Lord asked Cain What hast thou done As ever you would have Conscience throughly salved you must throughly search let your probe go to the bottom of its ulcerated nature let thy spirit make diligent search Psal 4.4 Jer. 8.6 Gen. 4.10 Psal 77.6 Having searched it speak to it tell it of its sick sad perilous and pitiful estate tell it of its rottenness and Gods revenging justice Shew it its extensive diseases and the eternal death that will ensue without its effectual change Speak to it of the searcher of hearts and that he seeth all its sins and shifts God often imputeth the sinfulness of mens hearts to this that they say not in their hearts they set not to their heart and particularly that they say heart not to their Heb. that I remember all their wickedness Jer. 5.24 Isa 44.19 Hos 7.2 Marg. Yea and suffer Conscience to speak to you while it tells you of your sins or of its sinfulness The knowledg of your case is a fair step towards your cure Do not silence or suspend Conscience or shut its mouth or thy ears against its clamors Conscience calls to you as Jotham to the men of Shechem Hearken unto me that God may hearken unto you and if you will not hear and if you will not lay it to heart be sure the end will be full of hazard Wrath is like to come upon you to the uttermost who charge Conscience as the Jews sometimes did the Ministers of Christ That they teach no more in this Name Or are ready to chide Conscience as Amaziah sometime quipped the Prophets confidence Art thou made of the Kings counsel forbear why shouldst thou be smitten Judg. 9. Mal. 2.2 1 Thes 2.16 Act. 4.18 2 Chr. 25.16 17. III. Stir up and strengthen consideration The badness of Conscience grows out of your backwardness to consider Israel doth not know my people doth not consider What cometh of it Ah sinful Nation a people laden with iniquity c. Isa 1.34 They considered not in their heart thence were they so corrupt both in their hearts and actions Hos 7.1 2 c. When God would have men rectifie their Conscience he would therefore have them to recall and consider with themselves Psal 50.21 22. Isa 44.19 c. 41.20 Hearken then Oh careless sinner and consider 1 If Conscience be bad your Conversations are bad if not in the account of man yet in the account of God who seeth not as man seeth Man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart 1 Sam. 16.7 Can the salt-spring yield fresh streams or will the sharp thorn bring forth sweet grapes Every tree saith our Saviour is known by his own fruit For of thorns men do not gather figs nor of a bramble-bush gather they grapes He applies it to the case in hand An evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth evil things Let Conscience be evil and thy Conversation thy Communication is not like to be good For these things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart and they defile the man And this know though thy conversation be bad thy Conscience is worse Here is the treasures 't is out of the abundance of the heart Jam. 3.11 12. Luk. 6.44 45. Mat. 15.18 19. 2 Is Conscience evil your callings are evil though not in themselves yet to your selves If this be depraved there is nothing pure to you your tables become a snare and your trading becomes a sin Is Conscience corrupt the Farm the Oxen the Wife will keep you from Christ which should carry you to him and your plowing yea your praying is sin Tit. 1.15 Psal 69.22 Luk. 14.18 19 20. Prov. 21.4 Psal 109.8 3 Is Conscience evil your comforts are evil Inward comforts are but ensnaring cheats and the illusions and cousenliges of the evil one For all true and gracious comforts arise from the testimony of a good Conscience otherwise while you bless God doth curse Job 8.19 2 Cor. 1.12 Deut. 29.19 20. Your outward comforts are overgrown with
art verily faulty But is it united to fear God's name There is none that Conscience bids thee pursue by desire like him or binds thee to please in and by thy duties like him or to promote his designs of glory equal with him Psal 86.11 c. 73.25 1 Thes 2.4 2. Enquire into the offices whereunto it directs thee Dost thou renounce the hidden things of dishonesty durst you not walk in craftiness or handle the Word of God deceitfully by contempering flesh and spirit in thy work as Vintners do in their Wines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But wouldst thou every office thou presentest shouldst be a pure offering every prayer a pure prayer And that which thou principally covetest therein is that thou mayst call on the Lord out of a pure heart 2 Cor. 4.2 Mal. 1.11 Job 16.17 2 Tim. 2.22 3. Enquire into the openness simplicity and unguilful disposition of thy Conscience What hast thou an heart and an heart as those Psal 12.2 marg one for God another for Baal for the world Miserable the pure Conscience is a plain Conscience 't is clothed with simplicity and godly sincerity 't is a spirit in which is no guile Durst you not double then in the matters of Conscience nor dissemble in the matters of corruption Art willing God should see the worst of thee and shew thee the very worst of thy self Dost thou expose all to his search and wouldst approve all in his sight and not so much as have thy heart secretly enticed from himself This is a pure Conscience 2 Cor. 1.12 Psal 32.2 1 Chron. 12.33 Psal 119.23 24. Job 31.27 2. Is thy Conscience purified from its defilement I know you are not purified from all degrees of sin are you from all the kinds of sin You are not purified from the actual stain of them but are you from the habitual state in them this is God's promise and the Gospel-purity of the Conscience I will cleause you from all your filthiness Ezek. 36.25 26 33. c. 37.23 I know none can say and speak truly his Heart is clean from all adhesion of sin to him or from activity of sin in him But can you say my heart is clean from the approbation of any sin by it and from the allowance of any sin in it 1 What say you to an habitual course in sin I know there are wicked works found with you but is there no wicked way found in you Do you refrain your feet from every evil way Though you fall into the mire with the sheep do not you wallow in the mire with the Swine Do you wash off the repeated spots of your sins by the renewed streams of godly sorrow to repentance else never call it a pure Conscience Psal 139.24 Psal 119.101 2 Pet. 2.22 Mich. 6.11 2 What say you to the authority and command of sin Doth Conscience woo and welcome it or witness and war against it and wash it self afresh in the blood of Christ and waters of Contrition when it hath contracted guilt and filth by the power or policies of it Is Conscience pure from its reign though she cannot preserve you from its rage Sin may pollute your Conscience and for present captivate it But doth not Conscience give up her self to the commands thereof but grieves rather that she should so be contaminated And when captivated doth Conscience raise complaints in and recollect the other powers of the Soul And doth she run to Christ renew the quarrel and reinforce her strength for another combate and resolve never to quit the field till she carrieth the victory and the Crown be fixed upon the head of Christ This is a pure Conscience Rom. 6.12 23. c. 7.15 ult 3 What say you to the hearts closing with sin Are you pure from the indulgence of sin though you cannot be from the in-dwelling of sin Do you hate all false ways Is there never an Herodias that your Hearts hug and cherish Are you for taking away all iniquity Is thy Conscience afraid of all abhorrent from all arms against all Secret as well as open Such as serve the interest of the flesh as well as such as straiten it And would you keep your selves unspotted from the world unspotted from the flesh as well as unswallowed uâ— by the world or by the flesh This speakâ—â— you to have a pure Conscience Psal 119.104 128. Hos 14.2 Psal 19.12 13. Jam. 1.27 Jude 23. Thirdly What is thy Conscience purified unto 1 To what as thy employment The pure Conscience is for the purest carrlage after the purest Copy 1 Job 3.3 This is the Temple of God the very floor of whose house as was that of Solomon's is over-laid with pure Gold both within and without 1 Cor. 3.17 1 King 6.30 Search the acts and offices of Conscience then is Godliness the greatest employment which it commands the other powers of the Soul and wherein it most congratulates it self If it be purified from sin 't is for the service of God if from dead works 't is to serve the living God 2 Tim. 1.3 Tit. 2.14 Heb. 9.14 2 To what as thy enjoyment The pure Conscience is for the purest comforts not so much for those which run out of the muddy Cisterns of Creatures but for such as rise out of the unmixed springs of Communication with God in Christ and the intimate sense of his quickning and conserving influences Nor doth it ever enjoy it self with that serenity as in the evidence of God's grace to him or in the exercise of his grace in and by him This is its rejoycing this its rest Psal 65.4 2 Cor. 1.12 Psal 116.7 Enquire then what are those enjoyments wherein Conscience giveth thee the greatest content and complacency Are they the impurer objects and operations of Sense or the purer acts and objects of the spirit of Faith Here is that pure river of the water of life wherein the pure Conscience doth most bath and bless it self Phil. 4.7 Rom. 15.13 Rev. 22.1 3 To what as thy end The pure Conscience puts forth its acts both imperate and elicite upon the purest accompt and for the purest ends with pure Conscience The Intentions to which it determineth the Will are not as the Feet in Nebuchadnezar's Image part of Iron and part of Clay but like that Image's Head of fine Gold 'T is a Conscience toward God 2 Tim. 1.3 Dan. 2.32 33. 1 Pet. 2.19 Enquire then whether the praise of God be that principal end which you prefer in and above all that Conscience carrieth you out to enterprize whether you do not mingle your glory with his or make his glory serve yours If God hath purified thy Conscience it is peculiarly for himself as the sole supream end and object of it And the Apostle offers us this observation That whatsoever is done heartily i.e. of pure Conscience is done unto the Lord and not unto men Phil. 1.20 Joh. 5.44 c. 12.43 Tit. 2.14 Col. 3.23 Ephes 6.6 7. Q. 5. How may
we get or obtain a pure Conscience Answ This enquiry is not how we may get it pure from some new actual tincture of which see Q. 7. but from its old habitual taint and pollution for which take these Directions 1. Behold the necessity of a pure Conscience and be awakened 1. Without this there is no Society with God He is of purer eyes than to entertain you in your habitual impurity There is no having nor so much as hoping Communion with or a propriety in him unless Conscience be purified in you Hab. 1.13 Psal 18.26 1 Joh. 3.3 Jam. 4.8 2 Without this there is no Salvation by God Wash thine Heart as ever thou wouldst to Heaven There is nothing entereth which is unclean that happy place is reserved only for the pure in heart Jer. 4.14 Rev. 21.27 Psal 24.3 4. A polluted Conscience is neither fit for the business nor blessedness of that pure and perfect condition 3 Without this there is no serving of God at least with acceptance to him or with advantage to you The Heart must be purified that would attempt his Presence Josh 24.19 Heb. 9.14 c. 10.22 Jam. 4.8 Till Conscience be purified the pure God will not endure thy presence nor will thy impure Conscience easily bear his Presence 4 Without this there is no sincerity in thee Clean or pure acts will never put ye beyond an hypocrite without a clean or pure Heart 'T is not a pure Conversation but a pure Conscience that speaks thy condition prosperous and secures from the condemnation of Pharisees Psal 73.1 2 Tim. 1.3 Mat. 23.25 29. 5 Without this there is no security for thee thy condition can never be safe till Conscience be sanctified All that God secures Conscience is but on this condition If thou be pure and upright And for the security of Conscience 't is grounded upon the sincerity of Conscience 't is first pure then peaceable as David points us in his prayer and 't is the pure in Heart are first pronounced Blessed by our Saviour 1 Thes 5.23 Job 8.6 Jam. 3.17 Ps 51.7 8. Mat. 5.8 2. Behold the nature of an impure Conscience and be ashamed Thou art not so pure in thine own eyes but thou art as impure and vile in God's eyes Be convinced of this and thou wilt be cleansing that and begging him to cleanse thee Prov. 30.12 Isa 65.5 Mich. 6.11 13. Job 40.4 1 Think what is defiled Conscience that choice that curious piece that so dignifieth Man next the Angels and differenceth him from the Brutes Conscience that is God's Tabernacle in Man and maketh Man the Temple of God Conscience that is chief among the faculties and is under God to command the whole frame of our Hearts and Lives What Conscience that by Creation was like the Nazarites purer than Snow whiter than Milk more ruddy than Rubies whose polishing was of Saphire should be now blacker than a coal and she that was clothed in Scarlet should embrace Dunghils That thy Gold should become thus dim and the most fine Gold be changed into dirt This cannot but procure a Lamentation especially when thou shalt consider that this thou hast contracted upon thy self who knowest how great a crime it is if through thy means the Conscience but of a weak brother should be desiled Prov. 20.27 1 Cor. 3.17 Lam. 4.1 9. 1 Cor. 8.7 2 Think what it doth defile A defiled Conscience 1. defiles all of thee it defiles the Man the whole Man the Spirit Soul and Body are defiled even the Mind the most pure and precious part is defiled wheresoever the Conscience is defiled Mat. 15.18 1 Thes 5.23 Tit. 1.15 2. It defiles all to thee there is nothing pure to thee The taking of God's Covenant into thy mouth thy very Table-comforts thy Meat become a sin and snare to thee Conscience being unclean whatever it toucheth doth become unclean likewise Tit. 1.15 Psal 50.16 17. 69.22 Lev. 5.2.3 It defiles all that comes from or is done by thee It streams sin upon every service Thy Civil actions thy very plowing is sin and thy sacred actions thy very praying is sin likewise For who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Mat. 15.18 Prov. 21.4 c. 28.9 Job 14.4 3. Betake ye to the known provision which God hath made for purifying the Conscience and be active The pure Conscience is from God as the principal Cause 't is he that purifieth and he that pacifieth the Conscience He that cureth its diseases and cleanseth it from defilements He creates and so the Heart is clean 1 Thes 5.23 Ezek. 36.25 Psal 51.7 10. But though it be his work principally 't is our work partly too as himself presseth it Wash ye make you clean c. Isa 1.16 'T is his work to bless the means unto purifying and our work to be in the use of those means whereby he purifieth Asking the mercy of him and applying the means to us 1 Then ask this mercy from him with the greatest ardour thou may'st acknowledging thy pollution with shame and sorrow aggravating it also in his presence abhorring thy self and acknowledg with thy impotency his power as who alone can purifie thee So David Psal 51.2 11. His promises of it do not preclude but should provoke rather thy prayers for it Ezek. 36.25 cum 37. 2 Apply thee to the means and the means to thee with the greatest activity thou can'st These are the Word Water and Blood * See Sheffield's good Cons c. 2. p 33. c. 1 The Word Ye are clean through the Word saith Christ Job 15.3 This is not only pure in it self but purifying the Soul that attendeth the preaching of it Psal 19.8 Joh. 17.17 Ephes 5.26 Submit thy Conscience to the Commands of it Purity is the end of them and will be the effect in thee 1 Tim. 1.5 1 Pet. 1.22 If you obey Then 2. Skill thy Conscience in the Promises of it Every Promise is both a motive to and means for cleansing as of the flesh so likewise of the Spirit But there is an especial Promise in God's absolute Covenant I will sprinkle clean water on you and ye shall be clean Which you may urge upon your self in secret and urge God with in supplication 2. Cor. 7.1 Jer. 33.8 Ezek. 3.6.25 cum 37. 2 Water Ezek. ibid. Ephes 5.26 The Sacrament of Water should not only be remembred by thee but re-inforced on thee by due and doubled consideration Though I cannot say to thee as Ananias said unto Saul Arise and be Baptised and wash away thy sins if thou wert baptized in thy infancy yet I must counsel thee to apply thy Baptism by fetching arguments from thence and by eying the ability and efficacy of the Blood and Spirit of Christ thereby exhibited till thou findest the answer thereunto of a good Conscience toward God And then thy Infant-baptism will be as effectual to the washing away of thy sins in thy adult estate as the Circumcision of the Hands was
with thee For the Commandment is a lamp and the Law is light and reproofs of instruction are the way of life Prov. 6.21 22 23. 3. Take forth what marks thou hast treasured up for trial That as a Scribe instructed to the Kingdom of God thou mayst bring forth out of thy treasure things both new and old Mat. 13.52 There are three sorts of Marks mentioned by Divines * See Manton on James 1. Exclusive the absence of which doth plainly speak that we are not as yet in a state of Grace and Salvation 2. Inclusive the presence of which doth not only prove the truth of our Grace or being in the state of Salvation but our growth in Grace and progress in Sanctification 3. Beside those there are a middle sort of Marks which they call positive The presence of which doth positively and plainly shew the being or integrity of our Graces the truth of our Sanctification and that we are in a state of Salvation Touching these I shall offer you some rules in the case before you 1. Do not decline Exclusive Marks which have their end and are of efficacy to undeceive and convince of infidelity and hypocrisie That a man deceive not his own heart there is use of the Exclusive Mark Jam. 1.26 He that seems to be religious and bridleth not his tongue this mans religion is vain as well as of that more evidential and positive ver 27. Prayer and other acts of Worship will not prove you in a state saving but if you cast off Worship and restrain Prayer before God it will prove you in a state of sin Hearing his truths will not prove the acceptation of your persons by God But if you turn away your ear from hearing the Law it will prove that your prayers are an abomination Isa 1.15 Job 15.4 Jam. 1.22 Prov. 28.9 2. Do not dwell upon Exclusive Marks much less shouldst thou draw them down to the ends and uses of such as are positive as if reading and hearing Sermons receiving Sacraments c. would speak thee to be in a saving state For as they are unable to do this so thou wilt hereby but deceive thy own self whereof you have already seen several instances 3. Draw forth and improve thy positive Marks which I suppose thee to have tried and treasured up according to the two former Directions Now is the time to bring them forth out of thy armory when thou art in hazard of thy life and thy heart lyeth open to all the assaults which either the policies or power of Sin and Satan can bring on against thee to captivate or ensnare thee The Apostle therefore directs them now to produce faith and fellowship with Christ when they are upon proving and examining themselves and to ascertain their estares And now it is that Job and David awaken their memories to recall and do apply such Marks to themselves when they are about clearing their case before God and in their own Conscience Job 23.10 11 12. Psal 26.1 2 3 4. Draw forth thy positive Marks for a full and final decision in what estate thou art or for positive ends That thou leave not thy estate at an hovering uncertainty in loose conjectures or languishing probabilities but bring it to a clear and certain issue in thy own Conscience and so assure thy heart before God 1 Joh. 3.19 And indeed why have you such positive Marks afforded on God's part but to this end or how can you answer so many obligations as are plainly required on your part that cannot be performed without the previous knowledg of your estate 1 Joh. 5.13 20. 2 Cor. 13.5 Prov. 22.21 The Primitive Christians therefore would not suffer themselves to sit down in opinionative guesses or hopeful conjectures only but pursued their Marks to a peremptory but modest knowledg of what condition they were in Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandments Hereby know we that we are in him We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the Brethren c. 1 Joh. 2.3 5. c. 3.14 19 24. c. 5.19 Direct 2. Touching the Assumption wherein Conscience delivereth her testimony and report in the management of this self-trial how 't is with us as to matter of fact with reference to the matter of law or rule contained in the former Proposition Here I advise 1. Let Conscience discuss the truth thereof before she determines on her testimony The Psalmist reflects and revolves the case upon his thoughts ere Conscience shall make report Nor will he adventure to determine without a diligent self-discussion I commune with my own heart and my spirit made diligent search And surely 't is no less our duty than his whose danger as being less fallible is far more Psal 76.6 4.4 2 Pet. 1.10 Heb. 6.11 Laodicea might easily have disproved that false testimony Thou sayest I am rich and encreased with goods and have need of nothing If she had but discussed it first in her own thoughts but being careless in this she knew not that she was miserable and poor and blind and naked Rev. 3.17 The Jews say Joh. 8.41 We have one Father even God Our Saviour returns the speech to a further search of Conscience which might easily correct such a mistake and misreport as this Nay if God were your Father ye would love me for I proceeded forth and came from God c. ver 42 44 45. The like he doth ver 33 34 39 40. We were never in bondage say they we are Abraham's seed and he is our father and no doubt they speake according to the suffrage of their Conscience But he remits it to second and more serious considerations Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin If ye be Abraham's children ye would do the works of Abraham But ye seek to kill me c. this did not Abraham 'T is requisite then that you return the testimony once and again to a further reflection and review of Conscience Sometimes 1. the calling back of Circumstances may confute the vanity and falshood of such a Testimony Would Babylon have said I shall be a Lady for ever if she had laid these things to heart Isa 47.6 7. Or those in Mich. 3.11 Is not the Lord among us none evil can come upon us if they had but looked backwards and lain hold upon the circumstances of their disobedience ver 9.10 2. Sometimes the calling in of sense as Jer. 2.23 How canst thou say I am not polluted I have not gone after Baalim See thy way in the Valley c. 3. Most times the calling over and consulting with Scriptures which pierce like a two-edged sword even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart and maketh manifest the secrets thereof to it self unto a sound Conviction Heb. 4.12 1 Cor. 14.24 25. 4. But would we carry on the converse in our own Conscience we
both clear and quick or expeditious in the judgment Thou needst not call for Law-books or foreign Witnesses With thee is a treasury of Laws and thou art more than a thousand Witnesses 3. If Conscience yet suspends judgment cite her before the supream Judg. Behold Conscience the Judg standeth before the door He is greater than the Conscience to him thou must accompt Thou mayst apologize to me but how wilt thou answer it to him who made thee his deputy and substituted thee upon this very design And hath said to Conscience as Jehoshaphat to his Judges Take heed what ye do for ye judg not for man but for the Lord who is with you in the judgment Wherefore take heed and do it Jam. 5.9 1 Joh. 30.20 2 Chron. 19.5 6 7. 2 See that Conscience pronounce the sentence fully and clearly upon thee An half-sentence can give but half-satisfaction If the sentence be dubious thy Soul will still be in the dark Why all this pains Not for airy hopes but for assurance of the heart before God 1 Joh. 3.19 To this end 1. Be full and clear with Conscience in exposing all thou art and dost to her sentence without any of the restraints of self-love without any reserve for any secret lusts Self-love will be putting in for her immunities A clear and impartial sentence will shake all her foundations hitherto of quiet and self-ease And therefore importuneth Conscience as David sometime did his chief Commanders Deal gently for my sake yea and for thy own sake for thou must sustain the effects of such a sentence 2 Tim. 3.2 cum 5. 2 Sam. 18.5 Secret lusts will be putting in for an indemnity which it may be Conscience hath cockered or at least hitherto connived at Wherefore should we be slain Have not we took sweet counsel together and walked to the house of God in company c. But Conscience must quit them ere it can clear thec 'T will be a partial sentence if she parteth not with these sins Or if she speak peace it will be but the shew and paint of it so long as ye will walk after the imagination of your own hearts Psal 19.12 13. 18.23 Deut. 29.19 Bring all then before the Bar of Conscience and that Bar without any vails or coverts and tell her as Cornelius told Peter we are all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God Act. 10.33 2. Be free yet close with Conscience You may remember her there will be another audit and what will attend if she shall give a loose or partial judgment Cursed be he that perverteth judgment But remember her withal that therefore this thy appearance is made before her throne of Judicature and thou demandest it as thy right not as a matter of courtesie from her but as of debt and duty As of old it was ordained Thou shalt come to the Judg and enquire and he shall shew thee the sentence of judgment Deut. 27.19 c. 17.9 See thou do not see her by any carnal indulgence for a gift blindeth the eyes of the wise and perverteth the words of righteousness and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery Deut. 16.19 Job 15.34 Nor flatter her by any corrupt inducements The flattering mouth worketh ruin Psal 36.2 Prov. 26.28 Be plain with Conscience Lo I have now put my self my state my salvation upon thy sentence 'T is thy work to condemn or clear me thy eternal wo or weal is concerned in it I require thee as before the supream and all-seeing Judg to judg righteously I do not sollicite for favour but seek justice at thy mouth How long shall I take counsel in my soul When wilt thou bring it to a conclusion that I may know my estate what I am Follow her with arguments and importunities till she answereth thee in the words of the Psalmist I will judg uprightly Psal 75.2 Q. 4. How may we difference the Peace of a good and of an evil Conscience and so discern that ours is a sound and an Evangelical Peace Doubtless there is a difference * See Fenner's Treat of Consc p. 137. to 167. Robinsons Christ all in all p. 187 188 Collin's right way to true peace p. 51. ad 62. or our Saviour had not delivered it as he doth Joh. 14.27 cum 22. But he that would drive this nail to the head for the discovery of his own peace whether it be true or false should discuss it thorowly with his own Conscience how it came to take up this peace The peace that an evil Conscience bears groweth usually out of one of these two roots 1. Either out of the sluggishness of Conscience that puts not the estate upon trial 2. Or from the shifts and unfaithfulness of Conscience if it proceed to trial 1. Fither in the Proposition 2. Or in the Assumption 3. Or in the Conclusion as hath been shewed You should dig to the very bottom in this business Whether this peace be the product of pains prayers and of proving your hearts and states once and again What pains did Conscience take in it What proceed did Conscience make in it Did it give full and infallible marks for the trial of your estates Did it give a faithful and impartial testimony in the trial And did it give a free and unbiassed judgment upon the trial of your estates Produce and prove thy Evidences That your enmity against godliness is turned into peace and therewith amity That you are as earnest for holiness as you were for sin or are for happiness and as great a friend to the purity as to the peace of Conscience Prove that the spirit of peace hath renewed and sanctified you That the Prince of Peace Christ Jesus ruleth in and hath the Soveraignty over you That the God of peace is related as a Father to you and is that supream good and end to whom you finally refer your selves in point of felicity and duty and then your peace which is gathered from these Premisses is proved therewith to be true pious and Evangelical But to give you the difference enquired after though every thing I herewith offer doth not serve to discover it effectually in such a practical inquiry without some further reference The Evangelical peace of the good Conscience and the quiet or peace of an evil Conscience are different 1. In the eminency of this Evangelical Peace 1. In point of truth That other is but the shadow and semblance of peace but this is solid substantial peace 'T is peace peace Isa 26.3 c. 57.19 not only the resemblance or appearance of peace but real rich assured abundant peace But there is no peace saith my God unto the wicked ver 21. Isa 48.22 Let men call it by the title of peace yet God accounts it to be in truth no peace 2 In point of tranquillity That other is mostly but negative a freedom from storms but this is positive a fulness of serenity There
a while instead of finding peace grow past feeling Exod. 8.8 cum 15 28. cum 32. Dan. 5.60.29 30. Act. 24.25 cum 27. And will you call this peace of Conscience which is a proeme rather of eternal condemnation This is not the spirit of peace but a spirit of slumber * See Perkins vol. 1. p. 368. 5. Prop. 5 Eminent troubles of Conscience now past cannot then infer the truth of your present peace as neither can that ease and tranquility which you now possess of which Q. 1. But that those exigencing perplexities â—ay issue in Evangelical peace there is enjoyned the intercurrence of repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 which these troubles are intended as disâ—ositive and preparatory and without which â—ere is no enjoyment of this Divine peace The Jews were pricked in their heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The nail was driven to the very â—â—d The iron entred into their very souls The Jaylor is filled with perplexing troubles he trembles and falls prostrate before Paul and Silas Both he and they cry out for direction What shall we do The Apostles who well knew there might be a spirit of bondage which is never consequenced with a spirit of Adoption never advise them these agonies are enough you may sit down in peace but press upon them the necessity and use of faith and repentance as prerequisities to their salvation and peace Act. 2.37 38. c. 16.29 30 31. Rom. 8.15 6. Prop. 6 Examine then how thou camest out of these perplexing troubles and how thou camest by this tranquility and peace 1. Didst thou arrive hereto in the Gospel method What hast thou found or now findest of the Gospel-prerequisites to peace faith in Christ and repentance from dead works What hast thou felt or now feelest of the Gospel-power or efficacy in order to peace The Gospel first proclaims war in the Soul against Sin the World and Satan then publisheth peace in dethroning these usurpers upon God's Soveraign Prerogative and the powers of our Souls The Gospel first preacheth the grace of God to us and in us and then peace with God unto us First purifying the Conscience by the graces of his Spirit and then pacifying it in the grace of his favour The Gospel first carries back the Soul to the God of Peace in an Evangelical conversion then chears the Soul with this peace of God in Evangelical consolations First hints the Soul unto Christ in all his offices of peace for us unto all obedience then quiets the Soul in the peace that he hath obtained for us and ordereth out unto us by his holy Spirit In short the Gospel first changeth the Soul into the resemblance and image of God then and not till then comforteth it by a review of its interest in God and of God's in him Rom. 8.5 6 7. c. 1.7 Heb. 9.14 Hos 6.1 Isa 9.6 7. 1 Thes 5.23 Psal 4.8 2 Is it accompanied with a Gospel-mould With an unfeigned and universal change of thy heart and life into the likeness of the Gospel of peace 'T is one great branch of the Covenant of Grace which God hath also called the Covenant of his Peace that he will write his law in our hearts and put it in our inward parts Isa 34.10 Ezek. 34.25 c. 37.26 Jer. 31.33 So that if thine be a Gospel-peace thou art transformed into the Gospel-pattern There is a change not only of some actions but of thy estate relative in thy Justification real in thy Sanctification True peace of Conscience taketh its rise from a pious sense of this change 2 Cor. 3.18 Rom. 5.1 1 Joh. 5.18 19 20. Q. 5. What should convinced Sinners do in distress of Conscience as are conscious to themselves that they are now in a sinful and damnable condition A Question long since ask'd and answer'd Act. 2.37 c. c. 16.30 c. Yet let it not seem amiss if I offer a few advises or directions which shall especially refer unto those two instances Direct 1. Accept of your Convictions and do not either put them off or put them out or press them down They were pricked in their heart Act. 3. But they abide the pain are not angry with Peter nor do they pluck out and throw away the arrow The Jaylor trembleth in such an agony was he of Conscience yet he attempts not either to break prison from Conscience or abuse the Preachers who were now his Prisoners or to precipitate his Comforts To this end 1. Remember whence they come from thy Spirit immediately but mediately and originally from God's holy Spirit which is first a spirit of bondage then a spirit of adoption first convinceth then comforteth the Conscience Rom. 8.15 Joh. 16.8 Will you break his bands asunder Take heed he will make them stronger if you continue to resist But â—o sweetness safety if you close and submit Isa 28.22 Job 36.8 12. If you will not accept either he 'l away on the one hand and then oh the hardness of your heart Or else add amazement to your anguish on the other hand Gen. 6.3 Isa 63.10 2. Remember their concern and whither they tend These setters are not like those of Pharaoh's Baker in order to your perdition but like those of his Butler or of Joseph's rather in order to his preferment Every pang and throw is preparatory to the new Birth to that conversion without which thou canst not see the Kingdom of God and so to those consolations which are wont to ensue upon Christ's being formed in the heart If the Spirit breaks 't is in order to binding up if he prick and launce the heart 't is in order to the health and ease of his Patient He is making way by these afflictive severities for the sweets of Adoption Hos 6.1 Act. 2.37 38. Rom. 8.15 3. Remember the consequence If you accept you are half-way over this deep ford While the Heart the Will which commands the other faculties is so far won the work is like to continue and frame well to your ease and God's ends who is ready to meet you as the Father in the Parable did his prodigal Son when he was yet a great way off Mic. 6.9 Levit. 26.41 c. Luk. 15.20 And as your business will succeed the better so your burden will sit much the lighter the more you wince the more you weaken and sin wounds you cut off advantages from Satan and are more capable of improving sound advise and the Spirit 's assistance If you do not accept see what attends Happily a great dedolence and stupidity of Conscience which is a dreadful instance of Divine justice Rom. 1.28 Prov. 1.30 But beyond a perhaps there will be greater dolor either here in the approaching arrests of an abased Conscience to repentance or hereafter in the anger astonishment and continued gnawing of an accusing Conscience to eternal ruin Hos 6.5 Prov. 5.22 23. Direct 2. Avoid those courses which will defeat thee of
the end and happy effect of these Convictions So did they Act. 2. 16. They did not Oh do not you 1. Either strangle these distresses of Conscience as if they were but a fit of Melancholy a foolish Pusillanimity or at best of no profit and inserviency as they take it Mal. 3.13 14. Job 21.14 15. How many thus seek to stifle Conscience as Herod sought to slay Christ in the very Cradle 2. Do not study to defer Conscience now is the accepted time now is the day of Salvation Oh! if thou didst know in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace 2 Cor. 6.2 Luk. 19.42 Felix trembled when Conscience took hold of him but what doth he He turns off the Preacher at the Bar and this Preacher in his bosom till a more convenient time He had now something else to do and we never read that Conscience any more rebuked him Act. 24.25 3. Do not seek to divert Conscience either by carnal pleasures as Saul did Conscience is moved and he calls for the Physician He doth not pray it away but must have it played away from him Or by pursute of your callings as Cain did Conscience bruiseth and torments him and he falls upon building and travels 1 Sam. 16.14 17 c. Gen. 4.16 17. 4. Do not skin over these distresses with the formalities only of Religion as the Jews often When Conscience within or calamities without pinch them they fall a praying and crying but their heart was not right in them Baalam quiets Conscience with a few cold wishes and cheap words in commendation of God's Children Ahab humbleth himself puts on Sackcloth and goeth softly Simon Magus will be baptized and become a Christian The Pharisee pays every one of his own is not as bad as the Publican is as prompt as any to pay the external dues of Religion Psal 78.34 37. Numb 23.10 c. 1 King 21.27 Act. 8.13 Luk. 18.11 12. These things will but skin over thy wounds without the spirit and life of Religion They will but fester inwardly without this and sooner or latter break out again as they did in Magus Ahab and others Much less shouldst thou slubber it over with unprescribed and superstitious observations as the Pharisees did and have more wo's denounced against them than any one sort of men in all the Scriptures Mark 7.3 14. Mat. 23.14 c. 5. Do not swill away these distresses and debauch thy Conscience If the other courses are ill this must needs be vile Yet how many cry to Conscience as the Devil 's sometimes did to Christ What have we to do with thee Jesus thou Son of God Art thou come to torment us before the time We would fain be merry while we may And if Conscience be clamorous the drunken rounds must out-voice Conscience They drink away their Cares and Conscience Surely this iniquity shall not be purged away till you die saith the Lord of Hosts Isa 22.12 13 14. Direct 3. Awaken Consideration to a just sense of thy special corruption and therewith of thy state and condition It was this that drove the nail to the head in their heart Act. 2.37 When they heard this cum ver 36. they were pricked in their heart They did not only cry out of the sting but of the serpent Cain crieth out of his punishment But a Christian should cry out with David of his provocation Gen. 4.13 2 Sam. 24.17 Why criest thou for thine affliction thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity Saith the Lord Because thy sins were encreased I have done these things unto thee Jer. 30.15 Now is the time to turn in upon thy sin and to take off thy precious Soul from this painted strumpet whose end thou seest is bitter as wormwood sharp as a two-edged sword Now consider your ways now that your own doings have beset you about and the yoke of thy transgressions is bound upon thee by the hand of the Lord they are wreathed and come up upon thy neck Hag. 1.5 6 7. Hos 7.2 Lam. 1.14 Fix not thy thoughts so much upon his wrath as thy wickedness Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee this is thy wickedness because it is bitter because it reacheth unto thine heart Jer. 4.18 c. 2.17 Nor shouldst thou single out only some staring corruption but set before thee thy state and condition Thus did they Act. 12 16. They looked upon their lost estate and on themselves as lost and undone by sin as their question imports I am undone undone what shall I do to be saved When the Commandment came â—n revived and I died saith the Apostle Rom. 7.9 i.e. I had the sentence of death in my own Spirit I saw my self dead in and undone by sin Oh I am a dead and undone man without mercy deliver and send help Such considerations will quicken endeavours clear justice and carry thee to Jesus Christ upon the wings of faith and repentance Direct 4. Arise and sit not still in complaining They mind their work Act. 2. 16. and do not only mourn and whine Complaints both to God and Men may be lawful yea and useful needful But complaints only will never honour God or heal thy Conscience This alone will but make thy chain harder and burden heavier An ill Balsom for a bleeding wound and which the great Physician of Consciences bids you forbear Jer. 15.18 Psal 42.11 Jer. 30.15 Get thee up saith the Lord to Joshua wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face Israel hath sinned c. Josh 7.10 11. Complaints of thy sin will be more acceptable to him and advantageous to thee than complaints of thy suffering Yet neither is this enough God expects to see thee working rather than to hear thee weeping that thou be not so much querulous as industrious Lam. 3.39 40. Direct 5. Acknowledg thy case and ask counsel not only in prayer to God but in converse with men Thus did they Act. 2. 16. They do not conceal their distress but crave direction 'T is an high adventure of folly to let your wounds bleed inwardly 'T is better to breath a vein in confession If there be some shame in it there is much safety The smart of concealing will be more than the shame of confessing 'T will be some ease to have emptied your selves into anothers bosom if it do not extricate you out of your straits and unload your burdens Spiritual and skilful Surgeons when they cannot eradicate the distemper yet can and usually do ease and asswage the dolor But to whom should we go Ans To whom you should not I have advised already Direct 5. I advise you to apply your selves 1. To experienc'd men such who are healed of these maladies They can tell you their own case and cure and comforts And are therefore comforted to afford you comfort That they may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith they
of the design of this present dispensation He hath me in the furnace of affliction but it may be not to consume me but to cleanse and purifie me to cast me into the precious mould of his pure and holy mind and will which in his word is revealed to me He breaketh up the fallow ground of my heart but 't is to sow me with the seeds of righteousness And were there no plowing and harrowing I could expect no harvest But of this before Direction 1. Direct 9. Attend thy Cure with patience and do not too hastily press after comfort Thou art in the hands of a most wise and gracious Physician who knoweth how to time his Cordials to thy constitution and temper and will do it Do not limit his Eternity to thy time his infiniteness to thy measure Those Act. 2. 16. enquire what course they would prescribe them to take not what comfort they could presently tender them And the Apostles let them know that Conscience must first attend the duties of repentance and faith ere it could arrive to a delicious rejoycing in God's favour This is thy time to be getting of grace let God take his time for giving of peace The effect of righteousness will be peace Ply thy work and wait patiently He is a God of judgment that knows best when and how to order out his blessings Blessed are all they that wait for him You never knew that it went ill with any such as waited on him Isa 32.17 c. 30.18 Psal 33.20 21. 40.1 I do not blame the seeking of peace and comfort so it be submissive and ordinate But would have you 1. Stay God's time for it The fruit of the lips peace peace must have time to ripen It will but beget crudities if if you eat it raw Early joys are none of the safest enjoyments Those hearers that anon received Word with joy were by and by offended when the heat of tribulation did once arise for the Word's sake 'T is good to hear till God shall speak peace Hâ—b 6.4 5. Mat. 13.20 21. Psal 85.8 2. And to set grace above and seek grace beyond it This is of absolute necessity to you to your very being that is necessary but to your better being God hath never said he will not save you without peace but he will not cannot save you with accord to his honour his holiness without grace Heb. 12.14 1 Cor. 6.9 Besides it will argue better for you Natural Conscience will put you upon endeavors for peace 'T is an enlightned Conscience that puts you upon endeavours for grace And 't is an home at least an hopeful evidence of saving illumination when you do prefer grace in your endeavours to peace and that you love it for its own comeliness and not only in order to your quiet 3. To stay the galling anxieties and vexations anhilations of your hearts for and after it Cutting and corroding cares even for this are faulty You should make known your case to God in prayer and cast these cares into the lap of his Providence continuing in the means which he hath prescribed you and so peace will come in his appointed time which is the most acceptable and advantageous time Phil. 4.6 7. Hab. 2.3 Othervvise you expose your self to the artifices of Satan vvho vvill soon abuse your eagerness to his ends either dravving you off from your vvork in the failer and vvant of peace or dravving you into his vviles in a false and ungrounded peace Q. 6. How may we obtain a peaceable or sound peace of Conscience The Premisses Quest 5. are of pertinent consideration Here likewise I only add Direct 1. Affect thy heart not only with the possibility of peace after all these perplexities of which before but with the preciousness of this peace * See Jenkins on Jude vers 2. This will excite and engage endeavours 'T is a peace that the world cannot give nor would the Soul that senseth it give it for the whole world 'T is the peace of God a peace in Christ the peace of Christ 'T is for the truth and transcendency of it called peace peace Joh. 14.27 Phil. 4.7 Joh. 16.33 Isa 57.19 Of what an excellency must this Peace needs be which is produced by no lower power than the blessed God he creats it is procured by no lower price than the blood of God who was crucified for it is proclaimed by no lower persons than the Blessed Angels they celebrate it Isa 57.19 Col. 1.20 Luk. 2.14 What a peace that can grasp Heaven into the heart of him that hath it and make an Heaven upon earth and in any place can behold a Paradise and God his portion Psal 16.5 c. Joh. 16.22 Why should thy Soul sit down in sadness Here is a feast a continual feast * See Dykes good Conscience c. 13 p 18. to p. 201. Thou mayst come with the Wedding-garment on and welcome Prov. 15.15 Here mayst thou eat of the hidden manna and have given thee the white stone and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth but he that receiveth it Eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive what is here prepared This peace passeth all understanding 'T is so sweet so signal so surpassing Rev. 2.17 1 Cor. 2.9 Phil. 4.7 Wert thou but possest of this peace thou might'st look on Satan as not only disarm'd but destroy'd on Sin not only as disabled but destroyed on Sufferings not only as not harmful but advantageous and helpful on the sentence of the law and severities of God not only as satisfied for thee but as sweetned to thee Eph. 2.15 Rom. 6.16 c. 8.33 to the end Thou might look on death and not be discouraged Thou shalt depart in peace Look on the grave and hell and not be dismayed Thou shalt enter into peace Look up to Heaven and there see nothing but rest and peace rest from work at least from weariness as well as rest from wars Luk. 2.29 Isa 57.2 Luk. 19.38 Rev. 14.13 Direct 2. Hasten thy best attempts for the prerequisite of Peace Purity Conscience is first pure then peaceable as hath been said The goodness of Security is founded upon the goodness of Sincerity 'T is true Conscience may be Evangelically purified yet not pacified But 't is as true never was Conscience Evangelically pacified but it was first Evangelically purified Of this before An impure Soul must expect the same return from Conscience to all his messengers enquiries for peace which Jehn returned Joram's messengers Turn thee behind me what hast thou to do with peace 2 King 9.17 18 19. Direct 3. Abandon all those ways and means which made and maintained the war between God and thy Soul Conscience is God's Officer The war it maketh and manageth is by his commission and in his cause to revenge thine injuries done him to return thee to thy duty to him and in both to right him
go and seek the Lord their God They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward saying come and let us joyn our selves to the Lord c. Gen. 3.8 Isa 50.5 Jer. 50.4 5. Who is this that engageth his heart to approach unto me saith the Lord. He requires it Seek ye my face and you must resolve upon it thy face Lord I must and I will seek 'T is good for you and God hath annexed his special promise to to it Jer. 30.21 Psal 27.8 73.28 4 There must be an hearty conjunction with him For of what avail is acquaintance as long as the heart hangs loose in our converses Your heart must be knit and cleave unto him as Jonathan's did unto David Psal 86.11 Act. 11.23 1 Sam. 18.1 What acquaintance with omniscience while your hearts stand off and God is near in your mouth but far from your reins Behold he desireth truth in the inward parts He searcheth the heart and trieth the reins And if thy heart be not right with him thy other applications will be reckoned flattery not friendship Jer. 12.2 3. Psal 51.6 Jer. 17.10 Psal 78.7 36 37. 1 Chron. 28.9 5 Be actually and often communicating thy self to him If you will hide your heart from him what hopes of acquaintance with him He that intends acquaintance should be emptying and unbosoming his heart to him and making him partaker of his secrets Pour out your heart before him then especially in Prayers and Supplications Present him your particular cases and concernments Hide nothing from him from whom indeed nothing is hidden Let all thy pangs of sorrow have vent like Hannahs in the pouring out of thy Soul It may be when thou art pouring out thy case he may be pouring in his comforts Psal 62.8 32.5 38.9 1 Sam. 1.15 Prayer hath the promise of his Presence and indeed of peace In every thing by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known unto God And the peace of God shall keep your hearts c. Psal 145.18 Job 33.26 Phil. 4.6 7. 6 Add to all this an affectionate correspondence and communion with him Acquaintance doth not barely note an interest in another but intimacy but endearedness at least intercourse with that other I would have you secure an interest in him that thou be able with Thomas to say My Lord and my God This will serve thee in with choice peace in that this God is the God of peace Psal 16.2 Joh. 20.28 1 Thes 5.23 But I would not have you think it enough to have obtain'd an interest in him but you should maintain an holy open intercourse with him for herein lieth the crop and confluence of Evangelical peace and it is the end for which one whole Epistle was written 1 Joh. 1.3 4. Oh! what a calm and serenity of Conscience do such holy converses of faith love c. breathe forth What a conflux of joy are they blessed with Who ever came down from this Mount but his face shone with the irradiations of Divine love Or did not say of being on this Mount as Peter of being on that Mat. 17. 'T is good for us to be here let us build Tabernacles c. Isa 26.3 Exod. 34.29 30. Psal 65.4 36.7 8.9 Mat. 17.4 Direct 7. Argue this state and ascertain it to Conscience if thou wouldst arrive to peace Adjure her throughout all her proceedings or argumentations and articulate converses about it to be plain and full with thee as ever thou wouldst attain to a sound and well-setled peace Peace of Conscience is not the birth of rash and precipitate conjectures at an adventure but of rational and pondering self-converses and arguings by comparing a mans self with the signs or marks which the Scriptures give him for judging his estate and condition Hereby know we that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts * Inde fit ut pacatam conscientiam habeamâ—â— Bez. 〈◊〉 not ad 〈◊〉 or as the Syriack make our hearts quiet before him Hereby we know that we know him viz. to be our advocate with the father and that he is the propitiation for our sins and therefore our peace if we keep his commandments 1 Joh. 3.18 19. c. 2.1 2 3. Call Conscience to attend its office for clearing thy estate and charge it to be open and down-right with thee in the discharge of every part as it proceedeth in way of ratiocination and discourse It proceeds as I have said in a practical Syllogism As thus To be spiritually minded is life and peace But I am spiritually mind do mind spiritual Objects first and fullest Ergo I have life and peace Adjure hereby the living God to tell thee nothing but the truth in all the parts of her discourse Let artificial Logick be found only among Scholars yet is there natural Logick in every mans Conscience as one * Fenners Treat of Conscienc p. 231 232. well observeth Charge her before God and the Lord Jesus Christ to be clear and impartial with thee throughout In the first Proposition adjure her not to give thee unsound marks on the one hand as a very hypocrite may have nor unsafe marks on the other hand as are only to be had where there is height or growth in grace and are therefore improper in the present case which concerns only the truth of grace In the second Proposition adjure her to be full and faithful with thee in her testimony Wilt thou say this before the all-seeing God for me Wilt thou speak it to thy superiour as well as to my self Canst thou say Behold my witness is in heaven and my record is on high Psal 139.1 23 24. Joh. 21.17 Job 16.19 In the third Proposition urge her to speak home and speak out as she will answer it to God the supream Judg. Give her no rest if she either suspends her sentence or is short in it till she saith Shibboleth plainly and roundly that ye may bring things to some certainty as they did Job 16.30 2 Tim. 1.12 1 Joh. 2.5 See this fully prosecuted Q. 3. Direct 8. Attend the spirit of peace Spiritual peace is an effect of pouring out the spirit upon us Isa 32.15 16 17. Not as if it did exclude the efficiency of Father or Son 'T is both from him and them Rev. 1.4 5. It was through the eternal Spirit that Christ offered his spotless blood to purge and therewith pacifie the Conscience from dead works It is the same eternal Spirit that mouldeth us into the mystical union with Christ maketh application of his blood to the Conscience and manifests the same to its peace and comfort Heb. 9.14 1 Cor. 12.13 Tit. 3.5 6 7. Abuse not the Spirit then but attend his work upon thee his ways before thee and his witness in and with thee 1 Attend his work upon thee What he is doing what he is demanding and with what designes * See Fords spir of bond c. 10 11.
See thou do not baffle with or break from him Quench none of his motions be they never so strict or seem they never so severe They all tend to grace they all end in peace And though he be as yet a spirit of bondage to fear it is not to exulcerate Conscience more sharply but to heal it the more soundly and that he may be a spirit of adoption to thee whereby thou maist cry Abba father 1 Thes 5.19 Isa 61.1 Rom. 8.15 2 Attend his ways before thee not only his ways in the Sanctuary without thee in the means of grace as praying hearing c. but his ways that are more spiritual within thee in the motions of grace and minding of Spiritual and gracious matters The less spiritual-mindedness the less serenity of mind What blustrings are there here beneath But above 't is all in an happy tranquility There are no tempests or thundrings in the upper region Call up thy Conscience and its Colleagues thither and keep them conversant about spiritual and heavenly Objects and thou shalt then soon know what is the communion of the Spirit and what these suavities of Conscience are To be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually is life and peace Phil. 3.20 21. cum 18 19. Col. 1.9 10. Rom. 8.5 6. 3 Attend the witness of the Spirit in and with thee It is the Spirit that beareth witness saith the Apostle 1 Joh. 5.6 Which he doth not only externally in the Scriptures but internally to and with our spirits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8.16 A single witness under the law was of no moment But at the mouth of two witnesses shall the matter be established Deut. 19.15 Jo. 8.17 Lo two witnesses are tendered upon the case to clear it God's spirit and our spirit both of them needful and useful to testifie the things of God and the things of man For what man knoweth the things of man save the spirit of man which is in him Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God 1 Cor. 3.11 The spirit witnesseth to and with our spirit or Conscience in and throughout its whole argumentation and progress whereupon it concludeth its peace E. g. All those that with child-like appretiation affiance and affections can cry Abba father are the children of God But I can with a child-like appretiation affiance and affections cry Abba father Therefore I am a child of God Rom. 8.15 16. The Spirit witnesseth with my Spirit 1. To the truth of the Proposition by an internal manitestation or revelation of that truth to the mind whereof he hath already made an outward revelation in the Scriptures Joh. 14.26 Psal 119.18 2. To the truth of the Assumption by irradiating the Conscience and enabling her in and upon the reflections she maketh to apprehend feel and descry such appretiations and affections in me or whatsoever other mark or medium I am making use of to clear up my estate thereby Eph. 1.17 18. 1 Cor. 2.12 14. 3. To the truth of the Conclusion not only by strengthning her to conclude my state and condition from such appretiations and affections but by shedding abroad such beams of joy and comfort as confirm me therein and seal it up unto my soul 1 Cor. 2.9 10. Rom. 5.5 Eph. 1.13 c. 4.30 Though you must not attend for an external audible testimony from the Spirit * See Hollingw Hol. Ghost on the bench p. 74 75. Ball 's Lif of Faith p. 79. which was never promised and hardly if ever pattern'd Yet you may and must attend for the internal and effectual testimony of the Spirit in effecting exciting heightning and evidencing of his own graces to and in you and in the effusion of the love of God and of his joy upon you which is called the joy in and of the Holy Ghost and is the companion of peace of Conscience Rom. 14.17 1 Thes 1.5 6. Let me only add Thou must not expect as if the Spirit would or could witness peace to thee before it hath wrought grace in thee For its testifying peace to the Conscience is by testifying the truth of thy grace and closing with Christ Thou must first set thy scal to the truth of God in the reception of his testimony by faith in his Son ere the Spirit of truth will seal thee up to the day of redemption Joh. 3.33 cum Eph. 4.30 2 Cor. 1.22 In whom after that ye believed * Quasi dicat non citiùs nec ante sed post sidem in Christum Zanch. ad loc ye were sealed with the holy spirit of promise Ephes 1.13 Thus appealing Conscience into and adjuring her by the divine presence will be of notable advantage It will not only awaken and engage Conscience but will awe her from extreams to which Sin and Satan may otherwise incline her and put the more authority and undeniableness into her testimony and sentence as being given not only upon God's commission but with God's contestation and comprobation and so will be the more powerful to arrest and stay scruples to anticipate or answer Satan and ascertain the Soul in the sweetest and steadiest affiance while the testimony and judgment of Conscience to a mans righteousness and reconciliation c. is after such severities and as in the sight of God And her language to the Soul is like that of Eliphaz to Job Lo this we have searched it so it is hear it and know thou it for thy good Psal 17.2 3. 7.3 9 10. 26.1 2 3. Job 13.15 16. c. 23.10 c. 27.2 5 6. c. 5.27 Q. 7. How may we keep Peace of Conscience when once gotten The former Directions C. 2. Q. 7. and those even now given you Q. 7. are of useful review here likewise * See Fenners Treat of Consc p. 200 c. But I shall be particular Direct 1. Keep out sin This is THE make-bate and like a mad man it casteth firebrands arrows and death Her entrance and first embraces its true may promise a mellifluous sweetness But her end is bitter as wormwood sharp as a two-edged sword that pierceth even to the Conscience And if anothers abuse of his liberty may wound your Conscience much more will the ardour of your own lusts Prov. 26.19 c. 3 4. Rom. 6.21 1 Cor. 8.12 Psal 38.3 5. Keep out especially 1 Scandalous sins These fly at God and his glory His name is blasphemed through them and shall you be blessed in them Had Zimri peace who slew his master Though David was the darling of Divine Providence yet farewell his peace when he once fell into such a provocation 2 Sam. 12.14 2 King 9.31 Psal 51.8 11. 2 Self-condemned sins Think not to sin against Conscience and yet sin in quiet Such sins are a daring of Conscience to do its worst and do implicitely condemn her as she doth explicitely condemn them And how can she in such a circumstance acquit and clear Remember what it