Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n
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A70390
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A sermon preach'd at Turners-Hall, the 5th of May, 1700 by George Keith ; in which he gave an account of his joyning in communion with the Church of England ; with some additions and enlargements made by himself.
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Keith, George, 1639?-1716.
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1700
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Wing K209; ESTC R14185
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28,024
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34
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A SERMON Preach'd at TURNERS-HALL The 5 th of MAY 1700. By GEORGE KEITH In which he gave an Account of his joyning in Communion with the Church of England With some Additions and Enlargements made by Himself LONDON Printed by W. Bowyer for Brab Aylmer at the Three Pigeons in Cornhil and Char. Brome at the Gun at the West-End of St. Paul's Church-yard 1700. Mr. KEITH's LAST SERMON AT TURNERS-HALL MAY the 5 th 1700. 1 PETER iii. 16. Having a good Conscience that whereas they speak evil of you as of evil doers they may be ashamed that falsly accuse your good Conversation in Christ THE last Lord's Day I made the former Verse of this Chapter the Subject of what I then said in this Place which I shall not repeat only let me put you in mind that I told you who were then present That it was the Duty of every one who professeth himself to be a Christian to be ready to give to every Man that asketh him a Reason of the Hope that is in him Under which Term Hope by a Synecdoche of a part for the whole is comprehended and understood our whole Faith and Religion and all our religious Actions and Performances for all which as we ought to be able to give a Reason or Ground why we so believe hope act and why we so profess to our own Hearts and Consciences so we ought also to be able and ready to give the like Reason or Ground of the same to others that ask it of us which yet suffers some Limitation that I shall not now repeat to the end that by the same they may be convinced to embrace the same way with us as God is pleased to make us instrumental by the Operation of his Holy Spirit to produce that effect or at least to put to silence their unjust Clamours against us But the chief thing is with good Reason to be persuaded in our own Consciences that what we so believe hope or act is true and right is approved in the sight of God and in that we shall have Peace In the opening of the Words of this 16th Verse I purpose to answer these three Questions I. What Conscience is II. What a good Conscience is and how a good Conscience is distinguished from an evil Conscience III. What the Rule of a good Conscience is according to which it ought to be directed and guided To the first I answer Conscience is that Power or Faculty of our reasonable Soul or Mind that can and doth reflect on our Thoughts Words and Deeds both present and past so as to judge and determine concerning them whether they be really or apparently right or wrong good or evil justifiable or reproveable Hence Rom. 2. 15. the Conscience of the Heathen or Gentiles is said to bear witness and their thoughts the mean while to accuse or excuse one another To the second I answer There are several things altogether necessary to denominate a Man's Conscience to be good 1. It must be an enlightned Conscience with a good measure of true Knowledge whereby to know what is right and good or wrong and evil An ignorant Conscience cannot be good 2. The Obedience of the Heart and Will of Man to what he is convinc'd of his Duty either to be believ'd or practis'd is necessary to denominate the Conscience to be a good Conscience for though true Conviction and Knowledge are necessary yet that alone without Obedience is not sufficient to denominate the Conscience to be good even though the Knowledge and Conviction come from the Spirit of God there must be a Consent and Harmony betwixt the Understanding and the Will to constitute and denominate the Conscience to be good 3. The Conscience that is purged and justified by the Blood of Christ even the Blood of his Cross that was outwardly shed through Faith in that Blood Rom. 3. 25. and where the Heart and Conscience and whole Soul and Body is sanctified by the Spirit of God and the inward work of Regeneration is known by the Spirit of God the Conscience only of such a Man is a good Conscience I say that the Conscience must be purged by the Blood of Christ that it may be good See Heb. 9. 13 14. For if the blood of Bulls and of Goats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without Spot to God purge your Conscience from dead works to serve the living God And the Faith which is in the Blood of Christ Rom. 3. 25. is wrought in us and generally in all who have it by means of the written Word that is to say by the Doctrine of Christ crucified and the spiritual Blessings we have by him as it is preached to us for as the Scripture saith Faith comes by Hearing and Hearing by the Word and that Word is the outward Word as it is in the mouth of the Preachers as it followeth in Rom. 10. 14. And how shall they hear without a Preacher and how shall they preach unless they be sent Hence the Word even the doctrinal Word is called the incorruptible Seâ—â— of which true Believers are regenerated and born again according to 1 Pet. 1. 23. And Christ in the Parable compar'd his Preaching to the People to the Husbandman that soweth his seed in the several sorts of ground Matth. 13. 3. There are a great * Among the Quakers many who think they have a good Conscience but they have no need of this Blood of Christ nor of Faith in it they will have the Object of their Faith only within them they find no need of having the Conscience sprinkled by the Blood of Christ without them nay they argue against it as an impossible Notion not considering that this Sprinkling is spiritually by Faith and not by any material Application Also they have a wrong Notion of Faith they think they have no need of the written Word or any outward Means or Helps to have this Faith wrought in them The Spirit or Light within alone doth all the Light within them is sufficient to Salvation without any thing else the Light within them is whole Christ God and Man Flesh and Spirit and Bone They need no Christ without them nor no written Word without them they can Preach Pray Believe without Book without all outward Helps they need no Crutches as some argue against Forms of Prayer and call them Crutches to lame Persons which whole and sound Men need not So others make no more of the written Word the whole Doctrine of the Gospel as outwardly delivered us in the Holy Scriptures but as Crutches which they have no need of at all They will not allow of any written Word at all or any outward Word they ask where we find a written Word in Scripture I tell them I find it in John 15. 25. where Christ calleth a short
Sentence that he quoted out of a Psalm of David 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that written Word They say they call the Scripture what it calleth it self to wit a Treatise for which they quote Acts 1. 1. the former Treatise but had they understood or consulted the Greek they would have found it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the former Word whereby he understands the whole Book of the Gospel according to St. Luke Now as to the distinction betwixt a good and evil Conscience of which also the Scripture speaks 1. An evil Conscience is an ignorant Conscience 2. Unfaithfulness and Disobedince to what a Man is convinced of renders the Conscience to be evil 3. Unbelief and want of Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ makes the Conscience evil 4. Not to follow the dictates of Conscience even when it errs is an evidence of an evil Conscience Here that Axiom takes place Conscientia errans ligat sed non obligat an erring Conscience ties but doth not oblige it is a great pinch and strait He 〈◊〉 follows not an erring Conscience sinneth because he acts not in Faith and what is not of faith is sin and when he followeth his erring Conscience he sinneth This is no new Doctrine however possibly it may so seem to some here it is that which every Casuist doth commonly teach I will illustrate it to you by a Similitude that some have given If a Subject be deceived by a counterfeit Messenger from his Prince who brings a counterfeit Message from the King sealed with a counterfeit Seal and he thinks it to be real this Subject sufficiently shews his disrespect and disloyalty to his Prince if he refuse to obey it the application is easie If any object that as Contradictories cannot be both true or both false but the one true and the other false so if to follow an erring Conscience be a sin not to follow it is no sin being Contradictory But I answer they are not Contradictory for they are both affirmative Propositions He that followeth an erring Conscience sinneth this is affirmative He that followeth not an erring Conscience sinneth this is also affirmative But the way to get out of this pinch is to get a well-informed Conscience and to get rid of those Errours of Conscience which prejudice of Education by evil Teachers has led them into read the Holy Scriptures search meditate pray God to give you a good Understanding and let you see your Errours confer with such whom you have good cause to esteem both more holy and more wise and understanding than your selves To the third and last what the Rule of Conscience is according to which it must be directed and guided that so it may be denominated a good Conscience I answer We must distinguish betwixt an inadequate or incomplete Rule of Conscience and that which is adequate and complete The Law writ in the Heart of every Man is an incomplete Rule to a Man's Conscience obliging every Christian to obey it so that whosoever transgresseth against it is guilty of hainous sin and this Law extendeth in some degree to most of all yea in some sort to all the ten Precepts of the Moral Law but our highest Obedience to that Law and Rule cannot denominate the Conscience good or give true peace of Conscience or heal the wound of it that sin hath given for all have sinned and faln short of the Glory of God and whatsoever the Law saith it saith to them who are under the Law that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world become guilty before God The best of our Obedience cannot make atonement for our sins nay not for one sin not the least sin it is only the Lamb of God as he was slain for us that takes away our sins as we have faith in him his Blood cleanseth us 〈◊〉 all sin and the Merit and Value of it hath procured to us the Gift of the Holy Spirit to sanctifie us and therefore we owe both our Justification and Sanctification to the Lamb of God and to his most precious Blood for by our Justification we are cleansed from the guilt of sin and by our Sanctification from the filth of it And though Faith and Repentance are necessary conditions and qualifications to our obtaining Remission of sin Justification and eternal Salvation yet they are not in any wise the meritorious Cause thereof but Christ alone by what he hath done and suffered for us Holiness and our Obedience to God's Laws and Precepts both as writ without in the Holy Scriptures and as writ within in our Hearts is indispensibly necessary to our eternal Salvation but we must not rest nor rely upon it even when it is wrought in us by the help of the Holy Spirit it must not be the foundation or ground of our Faith and hope for remission of Sins and eternal Salvation either in whole or in part but our reliance must be alone on the Lord Jesus Christ both God and Man as he died for us c. and on the Mercy of God through him apprehended by Faith Now the knowledge of this in God's ordinary way is given to us and all who have it by the inward Illumination and Operation of the Holy Spirit in the use of the written Word as it is preached and heard by us or read and meditated upon We feeling the working of the Spirit of Christ to mortifie the works of the flesh and the earthly members and to draw up our mind to high and heavenly things as the 17th Article of the Church of England plainly expresseth The complete and adequate Rule therefore of our Faith and Practice is the whole revealed Will of God as it is declared unto us in the Holy Scriptures the Laws and Precepts whereof are of a far greater extent than those writ in every Man's heart without all Scripture Revelation or antecedent to it as David said I have seen an end of all perfection but thy Commandment is exceeding broad that is the whole complex or body of the Divine Laws given us by God and Christ as they are contained in the Holy Scriptures for Doctrine for Correction for Instruction c. It is therefore a great and dangerous Errour in them who hold as many do in these Nations that the Light within and what it dictates in every Man is the full and entire complete and perfect Rule of all Faith and Practice and nothing is absolutely needful to our Salvation but what that Light within teacheth us and all Mankind or will teach us if we hearken to it and obey it without all Scripture and all outward means of Instruction and yet the utmost extent that this Light within goeth to teach Men without Scripture and without the special Illumination and Operation of the Spirit accompanying the Scripture's Testimony is no more than the Righteousness of the Moral Law and Terms of the first Covenant Do and Live which Covenant we have all transgressed and