one potion and therefore it will be good for you to take that in time also Now what is this medicine that will purge the Conscience it is the blood of Christ onely Heb. 9.14 It shall purge your Conscience from dead works and Heb. 10.22 Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience Here is first the disease and that is dead works with the subject of it or the part of the evil affected that is the Conscience Secondly There is the medicine it 's the bloud of Christ who offered himself by the eternal spirit without spot to God Thirdly The manner how this blood doth it it is by sprinkling and therein the power of this medicine is put forth First The disease dead works in the Conscience are of two sorts Guilt and Lust c. But to awaken every mans Conscience to get it purged take these considerations First By nature every mans Conscience is defiled Tit. 1.15 Heb. 9.14 the blood of Christ comes upon no mans Conscience but it finds it polluted with dead works for whether we consider either the guilt or the defilement of sin it 's the Conscience that is the main receptacle of it the guilt is laid up there Jer. 17.1 The sin of Judah is written with a pen of Iron and with the point of a Diamond it is spoken de summo indelibili reatu it was written upon their Consciences and upon the horns of their Altars nec deleri potest nec latere for it did appear upon every Altar and every new act of sin adds unto the defilement of Conscience that 's the Tophet the Golgotha of the soul men of corrupt Consciences are graves though they appear not so Now when a man shall consider how our iniquities are gone over our heads and are more in number then the hairs of our head and even answerable to the sand upon the Sea shore innumerable What filthy polluted Consciences must such men needs have Secondly Consider what a miserable thing it is for a man to have a polluted Conscience First It breaks a mans peace the inward man is never quiet Isa 57.21 There is no peace says my God to the wicked It is as Austin compares it to a bad wife that when a man hath met with hard labour abroad trouble and afflictions from without and retires himself and hopes to find some comfort at home but there he has never a quiet hour this is more troublesome then any of his outward crosses can be for it is an evil Wife that 's a continual droping so is Conscience Fugiet ab agro ad civitatem à publico ad domum à domo ad cubiculum sequitur tribulatio Secondly It imbitters all a mans comforts a good Conscience will sweeten every cross Paul and Silas can sing in the stocks Ubi cunque alibipassus est tribulationes illuc confugiet ibi inveniet Deum c. and the Martyrs rejoyce a the stake for whensoever any man suffers tribulation for keeping a good Conscience thither God hastens and finds him and makes him rejoyce in the testimony of his Conscience so an evil Conscience will imbitter every comfort Paul can stand with boldness at the Barr when Felix doth tremble on the Bench there is no state can secure a man that has an evil Conscience his comforts will not secure him they will all be imbittered take the choycest pleasures of sin that any man of you doth injoy it is this adds Water to your Wine and adds a tincture of Gall and Wormwood to all your sweetness and delicacies There is an evil spirit that comes upon Saul from the Lord and what is that Turbatur iâ—i anima Conscientia immoderata tristitia a diabolo excitata and when God did suffer Satan to come in and disquiet his Conscience all the comforts of a kingdome could not sweeten such a mans spirit neither can he have any sweetness in them all Thirdly It takes away a mans courage a good Conscience makes a man to be as bold as a Lyon and he can set his face as a Rock let the storm come and yet the Rock shakes not and he is not afraid of evil tideings but the wicked flyes when none pursues them and indeed they need no other pursuer for there is within them Lethalis arundo as a Deer that is shot may run but still carries his misery with him and as Cain surely every one that meets me will slay me Gen. 11.4 Herod when he heard of the fame of Jesus he says surely it is John the Baptist he is risen from the dead and therefore mighty works shew forth themselves in him Fourthly It unfits a man for every duty for the guilt of it arising in the Conscience stops a mans mouth and shuts up his heart before the Lord brings him into the presence of God as a Malefactor into the presence of the Judg with a vail upon his face and pollutes all his services his prayer is turned into sin for all things are defiled unto them whose Consciences are defiled Tit. 1.15 Fifthly A man cannot promise himself any acceptance or success in any thing he does Mal. 3.4 He shall purge them as silver and then shall their sacrifices be pleasant unto the Lord c. and Psal 51.13 Open thou my lips then shall I teach transgressours thy way c. God may indeed work great things by men of polluted Consciences but they cannot promise themselves success in any thing that they undertake till their Consciences be purged Sixthly Thou art in a continual fear and expectation when God will awaken it as he surely will do for sin lyes at the dore but between a godly man and sin there is a wall that will never open but between a wicked man and sin there is a dore that though it may be shut long it will open at last and an evil Conscience it is that watcheth at the dore till the man dare look out miserrimum est talem habere janitorum Luther A Spirit of slumber upon a man and a seared Conscience is a great judgment but it will not last allways it is at farthest but for the time of this Life and then the callumne upon Conscience shall be worne off and the slumber cast away and it shall be awakened so as never to sleep again Read the story of Cain and Belteshazar of Judas and of Spira c. Nay Lay your ears to Hell a while and hear the clamours of polluted Consciences there and you shall see that the greatest plague that can befall a man in this life is to be left unto the power of an evil Conscience so that you had need to seek to have your Consciences purged and this is specially to be considered of you that are grown old in wickedness and whose bones are still full of the sins of your youth having been laying in defilement into your Consciences long surely all this filth the sink and sodoms of vanity
that are there cannot be easily purged those unclean stables cannot be soon swept there is no power in nature to purge it for we are dead in trespasses and sins and what is more sutable to dead men then dead works and it is necessary to consider that if Conscience is not purged here it will never be purged and there is but one means in the world will do it First Consider the disease and that is a Conscience defiled with dead works as all the works of an unregenerat man are he being a dead man c. And Conscience is defiled onely by sin and there are two things in sin that defile the Conscience First the guilt of it Secondly the defilement of it and hence Divines say that as a good Conscience is either honeste bona pacate bona purged from the filth purified and and pacified in respect of the guilt So there is a twofold evil Conscience either moleste mala a Conscience disquieted with the guilt of sin or else vitiose mala polluted with the defilement the filth of sin and a mans Conscience must be purged from both these Secondly Here is the Medicine that must purge the Conscience from both these and that is the blood of Christ by the blood of Christ is meant that perfect satisfaction that he did give unto the justice of God for the sin of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim 2.6 A price every way answerable to the debt that we did owe Now there was a double debt that man did owe to God a debt of obedience as he was a creature and a debt of service as he was a sinner a debt of suffering the one answering the precept and the other the curse of the Law and both are here meant by the blood of Christ his whole and perfect satisfaction his active and passive obedience Onely our whole redemption is attributed to his blood Ephes 1.7 We have redemption through his blood because this was the last payment for the debt that Christ did pay for us was as a debt that men pay upon a bond by several parcels a little at one time and a little at another but the debt is not paid nor the bond cancelled till it be all paid so though indeed all the acts of obedience that Christ did perform in our nature they were for us and were part of that obedience that we did owe all the acts of obedience that he performs in the dayes of his humiliation takeing our nature upon him he did as our surety and many of his sufferings went before his death for he was dying all the while the thirty three years that he lived upon the earth being indeed a man of sorrows a worm and no man his suffering in his hunger and thirst labour and weariness and all the persecution that he suffered from men after he set his foot upon this earth they are to be counted as part of his satisfaction but yet the shedding of his blood upon the Cross and being delivered unto death for us this was the last and great act and from the last payment which did fully satisfie the debt and cancel the bond hence it has its denomination and so the whole satisfaction of Christ as our sacrifice and surety is here meant by the blood of Christ Thirdly The manner how this medicine doth work this Cure it is by sprinkling of it a man must have his heart sprinkled from an evil Conscience It is a Typical expression taken from the sacrifice under the Law the sacrifice must not onely be killed but the bloud must be sprinkled also where the pascal Lamb was to be slain they must take the blood in the Basin and with a branch of Hysope sprinkle it upon the dore-posts not that the Angel had need to have a signal that he might pass over their houses for he knew them well enough but they had need of it that they might thereby have their faith tried and strengthened in the sprinkling of that blood of which the blood of the Lamb was but a Type So Exod. 24.8 When they had offered the sacrifice Moses took the blood and sprinkled it upon all the people Lev. 14.14 and when the Leaper was cleansed he came to the door of the Tabernacle and brought a trespass offering and the Priest did take of the blood and put it upon his right ear and the thumb of his right hand And in answer to all this Type the blood of Christ is called the blood of sprinkling Heb. 12.24 And this sprinkling is nothing else but the application of his merit and satisfaction of this blood unto a mans own particular soul for in Christ's sacrifice there was a satisfaction and application the one is in killing the sacrifice and the other in sprinkling the blood and this is done when by a mighty work of the Holy Ghost the Conscience affected and afrighted with the guilt of sin doth rely and cast it self upon this satisfaction to be a sacrifice for him then is this satisfaction apropriated and applied unto him so this blood as sprinkled is a speaking blood it speaks better things then the blood of Abel that is it speaks so in the Conscience non vindictam clamat sed veniam Conscience is pacified and a man thereby puts his sins upon the head of the Beast Our sacrifice is a sufficient satisfaction and the Conscience is not terrified with the guilt of sin as if it were his own and as if he were to satisfie in his own person no more for the soul saith he was made sin for us that knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him Christ came into the World to save sinners of whom I am chief And here are these six things taken in by the soul to pacifie the Conscience in respect of guilt First When the soul sees by a spiritual and heavenly teaching that the great plot and design of God under the second Covenant is to take away sin Heb. 10.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To take sin off the sinner for if God will be just he must punish the sin and if he be mercifull in sparing the sinner there must be a way to separate the sin from the sinner and this the Lord will do by an act of Sovereignty such as he did never exercise unto persons under the first Covenant and that is by imputing of our sin unto another who was righteous 2 Cor. 5.20.21 and he was made sin for us who knew no sin he will be just and therefore there shall not be commutatio justitiae and he will be merciful and therefore there must be à commutatio personae there had been else no place for mercy to have come onely there is this one cause the Lord will change the person and by an act of absolute sovereignty the Lord will count it so that the sin shall be in Gods account in the guilt of it taken off from the one in
3.17 be it known unto thee O King we will not serve thy gods c. Acts 1.20 We cannot but speak a necessity is laid upon me I must preach c. Jer. 20 9. The Word was in him as fire he could not forbear it is the impulse of Conscience that was the cause there is a double necessity Externa interna c. Now according unto this order and subordination of the faculties so shall the torment be Conscience is subject to none but God therefore the spirit of bondage shall come into the Conscience and trouble that and this shall torment the whole man and as God does usually set up Governours and they become Instruments of wrath over the kingdoms where they dwell if they be good they are a special blessing they are the breath of our Nostrils the stay of our Tribes the Chariots and Horsemen but if they be wicked they ruine the kingdom Psal 75.3 Saul had even destroyed the Nation they are ravening Lyons and evening Wolves Zeph. 3.3 So it is in the government of the inward man if the Conscience be good it s the greatest blessing and if evil the greatest curse for as none has the Power the Authority and the Opportunity to undo a people like those that have the Rule over them so it is with the Conscience there is nothing hath that Authority and Oppertunity to undo a man like it because it is alwayes with him where soever he goes and therefore 〈◊〉 Mala domestica Austine compare an evil Wife and an evil Conscience because they are both intolerablâ— burdensome evils a continual droping none have the Opertunity 〈◊〉 Torment like these Thirdly Conscience here has 〈◊〉 great hand in corrupting the whoâ— man and therefore it is no wondeâ— if hereafter it should have the greâ— hand in Tormenting him First Here Conscience is blinâ— and does not shew a man what is 〈◊〉 Duty and so many men Sin igâ—rantly for want of an inlightneâ— Conscience when the eye of 〈◊〉 man is darkned Math. 6. Hoâ— great is that darkness Secondly Conscience is dead a spirit of slumber is upon it that though it know things to be evil yet it stirs not against them or if it does it is but faintly but a good Conscience exerciseth Authority over the whole man and smites him when ever he does evil as 1 Sam. 24.17 Thirdly it is erroneous and carries men unto evil violently under a pretence of good a zeal not according to knowledg Joh. 16.2 For zeal persecuting the Church Tantus eram Saulus â—hat he thought him worthy of eternal death that descented from the Authority of his Religion in any thing it is from a deceived heart an erroneous Conscience Fourthly Conscience will be bribed by Lust takes in carnal reason and corrupt principles and will be satisfied in them Rom 1. imprisons truths in unrighteousness 1 Tim. 4.2 And it is insensible of any thing and it is just with God that that Officer in the man that had the great hand in corrupting should also have the great hand in tormenting the whole man Quest 4. Fourthly Why is not Conscience a Worm here as well as hereafter in Hell First Because Conscience cannot work of it self unless the Spirit of God awaken it c. Secondly Here is the working time of Conscience its suffering time shall be hereafter Here Conscience has great workes to do and great talents to imploy Heb. 13.18 The charge of the whole Life lies upon the Conscience and the Lord haâ— here a great house 2 Tim. 2.20 Understand it of the World or of the Church yet he has in it Vessek of Honour and some to Dishonour Now Why does God suspend the torment of the Devils It is because Christ has much work for them to do and they would have no pleasure in Sin if their Torments were fuller so it is with wicked men also and therefore the Lord has appointed a working time for Conscience to perform its viatory office and he has a pointed a suffering time for Conscience allo and he will not Torment them before that time Thirdly Hereby the Lord does exalt his own patience and long suffering so much the more for Sin being an infinite evil and a man that is but dust to provoke God to his Face and to do it the rather because God forbears them and sin the more because God forbears them and because of his patience because sentence is not executed speedily therefore the hearts of the children of men are fully set to do evil now that God should bear with much patience and long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction and that the Lord should not stretch forth his own hand against them but that he should also suspend the working of their one Consciences and should not let loose the reins upon them which would bring them down in the midst of their galantry as Belshazer Felix Judas c. And that God should keep a hand upon their Consciences and withhold their own thoughts from flying upon them it does wonderfully set forth the patience of God The Lord knows how to reserve the wicked to the day of wrath Fourthly Many things here which stop the mouth of Conscience shall hereafter be removed and then Conscience will speak The Worm of Conscience is to the Soul as they say the disease of the Wolf is to the Body If it be fed with something from without will eat the less inwardly but take away all supplies from without and it destroys inwardly as all the good things of this Life will be gone and then the Soul turns in upon it self and will be its own Tormentor foâ— ever Rev. 20.12 And I saw thâ— dead small and great stand before God and the Books were openedâ— and another Book was opened which is the Book of Life and the Deaâ— were judged out of those things whicâ— were written in the Books according to their works It is an allusion to the day of judgment That 's granted by all The books opened are First the book of the Law and Gospel Secondly of Gods Omnisciency Thirdly of his Decre Fourthly the book of Conscience All those ancient Records that lay hid as Colours in the dark Rom. 2.15.16 or as something that is written with the juice of a Lemon you may read it when you bring it to the fire but not till then But we will now set forth those Tormenting acts of Conscience hereafter which shall be as the gnawings of this never dying worm but before we come to speak unto them perticularly it 's necessary that these four things be premised First That after this Life the Spirit of God shall come into the Conscience of a wicked man as a spirit of bondage fully for ever Conscience is but a subordinate power and acts allways with reference to a higher Law as a rule and a higher power as a Judge it is Regnum sub graviore Regno And therefore it never works by it self
are as truly subordinate unto your good as they are unto Gods glory 〈◊〉 and the end of all is to take away the sin and to purge the Conscience that is defiled by sin and to perfect holiness in the fear of God Sixthly The blood of Christ doth purge their Consciences as it is now sprinkled in Heaven before the mercy Seat by the interception of Christ for there were under the Law two things that did perfect the sacrifice the offering of it the killing of it and the carrying the blood into the most holy place and sprinkling it upon the mercy Seat and the sacrifice was not perfect until both were done and the blood was to remain before the mercy Seat so the Lord Jesus has offer'd himself a sacrifice but his blood is sprinkled still upon us and remains and it is a speaking blood it speaks better things then the blood of Abel now it doth speak to us continually for the end of his blood and what is it but that we may be cleansed he gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie us to himself Tit. 2.14 c. and the cry of this blood still in Heaven is sanctifie them by thy truth keep them from the evil of the world father keep through thy own name them that thou hast given me c. But how shall I know my Conscience is purged by the blood of Christ c. First The more a mans Conscience is afflicted with the spiritual rising of lust and he loaths himself for it as Paul for the Law of his members warring against the Law of his mind and Job I have seen thee and therefore I abhor my self Secondly The more ready a man is to deny himself for God in any service and his Conscience puts him forth to the uttermost in it as Paul I am willing to spend my self or to dye for the name of the Lord Jesus and Abraham rose up early to obey the command of God even to sacrifice his only son for the more the glory of God and his commands do sway with a man the more cause he has to be assured that the blood of sprinkling has passed upon him c. Thirdly The more a mans Conscience keeps down h is lust in the presence of the object of it as Boaz the woman lay at his feet and yet his lust did not rise and as Job to make a Covenant with his eyes and not look upon a Maid not have eyes full of adultery a godly man may be tempted to sin it may be in the absence of the object but if it be present and lust have all the advantages that can be and yet it cannot prevail it s an argument of a pure Conscience and try all these with reference unto your darling lust for answerable as the Conscience is purged with respect unto that so it is unto all other sins whatsoever It will serve for exhortation unto all men to keep their Consciences pure Vse 2 being once cleansed in the blood of the Lamb and this was the Apostle Pauls labour and his dayly exercise Acts 24.16 in this I exercise my self to to keep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Conscience void of offence before God and all men Now we have formerly heard that as there be two things in sin so there is a double defilement of the Conscience there is a guilt and a pollution and a mans Conscience can never be a good Conscience a pure Conscience without a stumbling block unless it be kept pure in both these and here I would speak of a pure Conscience according to the Apostles distinction First before God Secondly before men And first in reference unto the guilt of sin and a Conscience polluted therewith and this is a heart sprinkled from an evil Conscience Heb. 10.22 that is an accusing and a condemning Conscience 1 John 3.21 if our hearts condemn us not that is if they have the guilt of no sin lye upon them for which they draw us before the judgment Seat of Christ and pass upon us the sentence of condemnation and so Paul 2 Cor. 1.12 this is our rejoycing the testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our Conversation in the world and more especially towards you and 1 Cor. 4.4 I know nothing by my self it was a small thing to him to be judged of by man or in mans day for men have their day of judgment also as God has his and the reason why he doth despise the judgment of all men is this that he was conscious to himself of nothing wherein he had misbehaved himself in his Apostleship towards them many weaknesses there were which he owned in himself but yet the guilt of none of them did stick upon his Conscience and yet he refers himself unto the judgment of God who knows more then a mans Conscience can know by a mans self c. and this was the great care of Job that his heart might not reproach him all his dayes Job 27.6 In respect of God there is a two-fold good Conscience in regard of guilt one in truth and the other in shew and appearance only First There is a natural Conscience that may have a great shew of goodness in it not having the guilt of sin rising in it but may with a great deal of boldness appear before God and may lift up a mans face before him and yet this not be a Conscience truly good as we see in the Heathen Rom. 2.16 their thoughts do excuse as well as acâ—use and that in the day when God shall judge the secrets of all men c. therefore there is the guilt of some sins that Conscience will acquit a man from and will speak for him in the presence of the Lord and so some do apply that speech of Paul as Act. 23.1 I have lived in all good Conscience before God even unto this day it is conceived by some as Cajetan c. that it is spoken in reference unto all his dayes even those also before his Conversion in which he did never sin against his Conscience and therefore he saith bona Conscientia non bono opere for he thought that he did God good service in all that he did as Luther did say of himself Nec ita eram glacies frigus sicut Eccius alii qui propter ventrem Papam defendere videbantur sed ego rem seriam agebam ut qui diem extremum horribiliter timui salvus fieri ex intimis medullis cupiebam And the goodness of a mans Conscience in not witnessing guilt is but a seeming goodness it is sometimes from a mans uprightness and good intention in a particular act wherein though he doth ill yet he doth mean well and think also that he doth well as it is the manner of many a misled and deluded soul as Gen. 20.5.6 Abimelech answered God in the integrity of my heart and the
defilement that may befall a mans Conscience First there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Conscience is the seat of practical principles as there is a judgment in Conscience that it can make of what is true and what is false what is good and what is evil Secondly There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I knowing and a judging of mans person and his wayes by these principles and the acts of Conscience that follow thereupon and the corruptions of either of these will pollute the Conscience First There is a Synteresis which are the principles by which men are acted in their ways which are the rules by which a man walks and by which he doth judge of himself and of all his ways and by which he doth direct and steer his whole course if these be true the Conscience is so far kept pure that though a man may sin against his knowledge and be carryed away by the violence of temptation yet it is contrary unto the rule and the principle that is within him there is something in him that is contrary to it and condemns it and takes part with God and with duty and the more a mans judgment and Conscience is leavened with corrupt principles the more is his Conscience defiled a man must hold the mystery of faith in a pure Conscience 1 Tim. 3.9 1 Tim. 1.19 holding Faith and a good Conscience which some having put away concerning the Faith have made shipwrack for the mystery of faith must be kept in a pure Conscience for if your judgments be leavened with corrupt principles 1 Tim. 3.9 you will soon make shipwrack of the faith which signifies a dangerous and an irrecoverable loss of it And here I will speak to these three things First That there is a great deal of danger that mens Consciences may be defiled in their principles and they corrupted in judgment Secondly The greatness of this danger what an evil it is for a man to have his judgment defiled and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that Conscience corrupted Thirdly The means and rules how a man may be preserved from a polluted Conscience in this how a mans judgment may be kept undefiled and you had need to take heed for there is a great deal of danger that your judgment may be corrupted First Because there is a great deal of darkness in all Gospel-administrations in comparison of what we do expect the Lord shall give unto his people in the latter dayes when Ezekiel's Temple shall be built the Lord will shew his people all the forms and the patterns of his house and the goings in and the comings out thereof and in the sounding of the seventh Trumpet which refers unto the same time Rev. 11. last for then the mistery of God shall be finished the Temple shall be opened and we shall see into the Ark of the Testimony it had a vail before it that it might not be seen but the most hidden and secret things shall then be made manifest and clearly discovered and by the Ark some understand it of Christ of whom the Ark was a type there should be a further and a more glorious manifestation of him in all Church ordinances and administrations than ever there had been in times past But mean while there is a Sea of Glass but it is mixed with fire there is a great deal of affliction and bitter contention and the Temple is fill'd with smoak a great darkness upon all ordinances in so much that during all the time of the pouring out of the Vials no man that is no considerable and great company of men should be brought into the Church here and there a few converted but none in comparison of the fulness of Jews and Gentiles that shall be converted to God afterwards when the smoak of the Temple shall be dispel'd and done away and if there be so much darkness it is no wonder if men be in danger to be deceived and to be led away from the truth it is no wonder if men in the dark may eire and miss their way and therefore I would not have men as not too censorious of others so not too confifident of their own way in any thing that they have not a clear warrant for in the Word for surely this is the time of the Vials and it is spoken of the reformed Churches they that while the Vials were powering upon Antichrist did stand with the Lamb upon mount Sion that had gotten victory over the Beast and his Image and did sing the Song of Moses and of the Lamb c. and yet amongst them the Temple was full of smoak and therefore there is danger that you may be deceived and deluded c. Secondly There be a great many false teachers gone abroad in the World 1 John 4.1 Beloved believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they are of God because many false Prophets are gone out c. It hath been the way that Satan has taken in all resormations as soon as ever the Gospel began to dawn in the World in the Apostles times there arose men of themselves that did speak perverse things Act. 20.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is such things as turn all upside down that subvert and overthrow all the principles and foundations of the doctrine of Christ that have been laid by himself and his Apostles Rev. 12. And when their was a reformation in the time of Constantine then another floud of heresy was cast out after the woman So in the reformation in Luthers time if the Lord do but sow good seed the enemy will come and sow tares and we see how much confidence Satan puts in this way of prevailing for it is his last remedy that he shall use to uphold the kingdom of Antichrist as we see Rev. 16.13 The Vial being powred out upon the seat of the Beast and Rome falling as a Millstone into the Sea without hope of recovery and now there is a new Church ariseing coming out of the Wilderness leaning upon her Beloved and Euphrates dryed up to make way for the Kings of the East Now he doth send out of the mouth of the â—east and the Dragon and salfe Prophet three unclean spirits like Frogs and they are the spirits of Devils working miracles and going forth into the Kings of the earth c. They are said to be spirits for their activity and impetiousness so some but I rather think they are called spirits that is false teachers because they pretend to speak by the spirit as 1 John 4.1 Believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God and they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is not the ordinary word that is used for the Devil but a word doth express knowledg and learning c. They shall send forth there most learned men of the greatest parts and the best wits and they that shall teach spirits as Frogs they that shall teach unclean and corrupt
for the loss of them at any time as Judas sought oppertunity to betray Christ Prov. 7. and the Harlot is glad of the opportunity The good man is gene fromhome and has taken a Sum of moneywith him and will not return till thetime appointed come let us take ourfill of Love and Joseph's Mistress when none of the men of the house were within and Judas when the Oyntment was poured out he was sorry for the wast that he lost such an opportunity and Gehazy my Master has let him go with all those fine things but as the Lord lives I will go and get something of him and what did he get but a foul disease c. Eightly When much means are used to keep men from sin and they avail not but men do break through all and will commit sin when men have been often admonished Pro. 29.1 and often afflicted Pro. 29.1 God will hedge up their way with thornes and yet they will follow after their Lovers Hos 2.6 God doth take many courses to make sin difficult unto a man a hedge of thornes and yet the man follows after it still Pro. 13.19 Balaam a man would have thought Gods forbidding him first and then the difficulties that lay in his way should have hindred him and though he would still be trying to displease God yet still God held a hand upon his Conscience nevertheless Balaam ran greedily after the wayes of unrighteousness when men cannot endure to be reproved Asa was a godly man yet his Conscience was in an evil frame he could not bear a reproof nay when men wait and lay snares for him that reproves in the gate c. It is a sign of a seared Conscience c. Ninthly When men grow impudent and shameless in evil for there is a shame that doth keep men from some sins some kind of awe and respects before men Gen. 15.16 but there is a fullness of sin and impudency and obstinacy makes it up when men have a Whores forehead that cannot blush they are not ashamed of sin nay they glory in their shame and speak of it with rejoycing pudet non esse impudentem the unjust know no shame Lastly When men are not affected with and not afraid of spiritual judgments it 's the highest and the greatest wrath that can befall a man vae illis ad quorum peccata connivet Deus Luther Ephraim is joyned to Idols Let him alone why should they be smiten any more they will revolt more and more I will not punish your daughters when they commit adultery saies the Lord non parcit propitius parcit iratus Aust O servum illum beatum Tertul. cui deus dignatur irasci The last sentence of the Church is Anathama Maranatha and so it is here also Now there is nothing the people of God are more affected with then spiritual judgment to be given up to a hard heart to a blind mind and a spirit of slumber they are troubled at nothing more wounds upon a mans estate or his name lyes not so heavy upon his spirit nay he would chuse all outward evils rather this is a strange and terrible work of God in judgment pouring out upon a man a spirit of a deep sleep and for men not to be troubled that they are not troubled it is an argument of a very polluted Conscience 1 Cor. Durum est quod seipsum non exhorret Bern. Secondly Now to give some rules how a man should do to keep a good Conscience in all things First Set a high price upon a good Conscience as being the excellency of the man which will bear up a man against all evils that men or devils can do to him 2 Cor. 1.12 says the Apostle this is our rejoycing that in godly simplicity we have had our conversation in the world and 't is this that gives a man boldness in the presence of God if our hearts condem us not we have boldness in his sight a man that has a good Conscience shall lift up his face without spot even before God a good Conscience it is a continual feast it cheers a man in the worst times and his Conscience can never be freed from guilt that is not in desire at least freed from defilement for Christ came by water and by bloud and upon our Consciences he sprinkles bloud and sprinkles upon them clean water also Secondly Come to the Laver repent dayly judg your selves dayly and apply the blood of Christ which can onely purge the Conscience and do it dayly for the longer any sin lyes upon the Conscience the more unclean that Conscience is it is compaired unto a Fountain that doth dayly work out the mud Mâ—t. 12.15 and doth not let it rest there at all but immediately works against it to a renewed Conscience all sin is as a mote in the eye and a beam he can have no quiet till it be out but sin in a natural Conscience it is not burthensome though men add iniquity to iniquity can easily slip into sin without any remorse whereas we are not to give place to the Devil no not one hour Peter after he had sin'd straightway he went out and wept bitterly Oh! when any sin lies upon the Conscience be sure that it will defile thee more therefore make hast and work it out this delay of purging the Conscience is an evil may be found in the best men it cost David broken bones and great perplexity thefore we should be the more careful to come to the Laver of regeneration Thirdly Do not despise the checks of Conscience but mind that Light within you when it reproves for fins either of omission or commission do not turn the deaf ear Davids heart smote him and he took notice of it and Christ himself my reins chasten me to instruct me in the Psal 16.7 night season c. For let me tell you that any motion of a mans Conscience slighted it is thereby defiled for it speaks in the name of God and not any word of God nor any admonition of Conscience should we pass by without regard for Conscience is in the place of God in the man Fourthly Let it be your constant desire and your dayly exercise to live honestly in all things according to that of the Apostle Heb. 13.18 And truly therein the goodness of a mans Conscience is seen and Acts 24.16 In this I exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of offence toward God and toward men Satan doth cast defilement into the Conscience dayly and therefore there is nothing that a man should be imployed in more then to keep a good Conscience dayly in all things and truly it is the great shame of many that will take upon them the name of Religion yet are defective in this in a great measure that it may be said of them they do not labour in all things to keep a good Conscience Fisthly Take
the whole man body and soul for to keep one member or to please one pleasant gainfull darling Lust In the torments of hell there are two parts First something Privative a privation of all good whatsoever might make them happy and something Positive an addition of whatever might make them miserable The first is expressed by Christ depart from me ye cursed Mat. 25.41 The Positive part of the torments of hell are set forth in these words where their worm dyeth not wherein we may observe First the torment of the Creature from God 2dly From himself something principal and something accidental that from God which is the principal part of heâ—l torment is the fire the less principal the worm In the words therefore is discribed the positive part of the torments of hell First that which is Essential and principal the Fire Secondly That which is less Principal the Worm Thirdly The eternity of them both the fire is never quenched nor the Worm never dies I will take them as they lye in the Text and begin first with that which is less principal the Worm their worm never dyes Here we may note two things First the torment it self a Worm Secondly the particularity of the torment Their Worm Every man shall have his own Worm The words are taken out of Isa 66.24 The Lord had promised the glorious deliverance of the Church and had threatned the utter destruction of his enemies and when they were destroyed the Saints should look upon them and triumph over them the Saints shall have dominion over them in the morning and they shall go forth in their contemplation and consider not only their present outward condition and misery but their eternal condition Their Worm never dyes and their fire is not quenched to all Eternity and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh To begin with the Torment it self it 's a Worm which is not to be understood literally but metaphorically of something that holds some resemblance and some analogy to it Now a Worm in Scripture is put to resemble two things First something that is despicable and to be contemned fear not thou worm Jacob Secondly something that is tormenting and continually vexing and so it 's in this place here the Phylosophers tell us Nihil est in intellectu c. And therefore the Lord is pleased to help our understandings to express spiritual things by earthly similitudes and resemblances as Christ saith of the Misteries of the Gospel he could not speak them as they were but by earthly things that is in respect of the manner of delivery though the things were in themselves spiritual and if the Lord do it by things that men have experience of in this life how much more the things that are reserved for the World to come as the joys of Heaven by all good things the torments of hell by all evill things Whatever is most terrible to sence and most tormenting as Fire Brimstone darkness and a Worm which are only to help our understanding in those things which both pass fear and knowledge as after death it is set forth as a thing dreadfull to nature to have worms breed out of a man and feed upon him Job 24.20 as Job speaks The Worms shall feed sweetly on him he shall be no more remembred c. And the greatest persons that have lain upon beds of Ivory and have had Tapistry for their covering must say unto the worms ye are my sisters the Moth eats them as a garment and the Worm devours them as wooll c. Now to have these bodies that have been cloathed sumptuously and fed delicately to be cloathed with worms and to become their food is sad and even dismal to nature after a mans dissolution But if these worms should breed in a man and feed upon him whilst he were alive it would be much more terrible as it was a torment invented by a Tyrant to keep a man in a Coffin and feed him till by his own filth he breed worms and these worms devoured his flesh and he dyed by them The judgement that came upon Herod by the immediate stroak of an Angel Acts 12.23 and the same judgement is said to be inflicted upon Maximinus the Emperor that his body putrify'd bred worms continually Now this is a fearfull thing and dreadfull to nature to come upon the body but what will it be for a worm to be gnawing upon the soul for ever For in respect of that fire in Hell our fire here is but a painted fire it 's true also in reference to the Worm therein This being a Metaphorical expression let us come to open it a little what it is and wherein the resemblance doth consist This Worm is generally to be understood of the furious reflection of the soul upon it self in consideration of it's by past life neglected opportunities and it 's present hopeless and unrecoverable condition and so the tormenting acts of Conscience upon the man are resembled by the Worm and the resemblance lies in two things First a Worm is bred out of the putrifaction of the subject in which it is now in the conscience of men there is much corruption the conscience is as it were the sink where all the evil in a man is there is first much of the filthiness and defilement of sin in the conscience Tit. 1.15 Their conscience is defiled Mat. 23.27 like whited Sepulchres outwardly fair but inwardly full of rottenness and all uncleannesse they may easily breed worms Heb. 9.14 Secondly All the guilt of sin in the soul settles upon the conscience and it needs purging for all the works done by an unregenerate man are dead works because they proceed from a dead nature and because they all tend unto death and though these things be the work of the whole soul and every faculty yet the guilt of them all is laid upon the conscience and if there be so much filthiness and putrifaction both of guilt and defilement in the conscience it is no wonder if it breed a worm as all other putrifactions do and this being the worst it is not strange if it breed the worst and the most devouring Worm Secondly It doth alwayes gnaw upon the subject in which it is bred and so it is with this Worm it is alwayes feeding upon the soul and that for ever For it is with a mans spirit as with mill-stones when there is nothing else it grindes it self c. Now God will stop the current of all the creatures after this life Luke 16.25 There shall be nothing from without for the spirit of a man to feed upon and then it will turn in upon it self for ever Here most of the acts of a mans soul are direâ—â— upon objects without him there are few reflexe acts man will not turn in upon himself But then a mans acts shall be full of reflection upon himself for ever Now this furious reflection of the
alone but it doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 2.14.15 Rom 1. as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and hence it is that the same thing hath such different effects upon the spirits of men There were many in the company of Belshazar when the hand-wrighting apeared Dan. 5.5.6 and yet none that we read of was affected with it but the King and it was not the hand-wrighting that troubled him but at the same time the spirit of God did come into his Conscience and his own thoughts troubled him stir'd up and acted his Conscience and they sudenly terrisie him as the word doth here signify And â—rov 18.14 We reaâ— of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sad anâ— troubled broaken and tender spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And who has power over the spirits of a man It is subject unto none but God and the spirit of God and therefore none is able to wound the spirit of a man no more then they can command it without the spirit of God come in with it Therefore one man is moved by a threatning and another man is not one man is pricked in his heart and the other feels it not It is as tâ—e spirit of God doth come into the Conscience of men Now as there is a twofold Covenant so there is a twofold Spirit That is in respect of the double effect that the spirit of God works upon the spirits of men for every man hath the spirit of God working in him answerable to the Covenant under which he stands Christ having the administration of both Covenants the Covenant of grace and the Covenant of works and the spirit of Christ being the Prorex of Christ in the administration of all things in his kingdom the spirit that accompanies the first Covenant and works in all that are under it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8.15 2 Tim. 1.7 But the spirit that acompanies the Covenant of grace and works in all those whose Covenant is changed is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8.45 2 Cor. 3.17 And the liberty or the bondage of a mans spirit lies mainly in his Conscience The spirit of God coming in to a mans Conscience gives him boldness and a manuduction into the presence of God the boldness of a man that has a spirit of adoption Job 2 it makes him lift up his face in the presence of God and the spirit coming into a mans heart as a spirit of Bondage it casts upon a man chains of darkness Jude 6. Heb. 2.15 Now As here in this life the spirit of God as a spirit of Sonship and Adoption comes into the soul but by degrees and we do but receive the first fruits Rom. 8.23 The earnest Ephes 9.4 All is but as a spark to the Fire a drop to the Ocean and the spirit of God works and withdraws it self and the man is diserted so now the coming of the spirit of God into the Conscience is but a pledge and the first fruits of wrath which now a man receives but in the first fruits in a weak measure and with much intermission We have our well and our ill dayes c. And men have their deversions notwithstanding the pangs of their Consciences Caine can build Cities to drown the cry of Conscience but hereafter as the spirit of God in Heaven shall be perfectly a spirit of Adoption so in Hell it shall be perfectly a spirit of Bondage and Fear and that without intermission or interception for ever Secondly After this Life Conscience shall be perfectly inlightned and perfectly awakened There are two great evils that hinder the working of Conscience in this Life First A blindness and that both sinful and penal Luk 19.11 They would not know the things of their peace in the day of their peace therefore they were now hid from their eyes and so men go hoodwinckt to Hell and fall into distruction ere they apprehend their danger Mal. 3.8 Will a man rob God c. And they say wherein have we rob'd thee Isa 26.11 The hand of the Lord is lifted up but they will not see and Isa 5.20 They call evil good and good evil put darkness for light and light for darkness and they Math. 6.7 Did think they had prayed well when they babled much for they did expect to be heard for it and so there is a great deal of blindness that does sease upon men Judicially Rom. 11.7 Secondly There is also a spirit of stumber Isa 29.10 The word in the Hebrew is the same that is used of Adam when God took out a rib from him Gen. 2.21 Let God threaten judgment and terrour out of his word and the man awakes not but is in a deep sleep still But there are some spiritual Judgments that are also eternal a man being forsaken of God and God leaving him to the willful wickedness of his own spirit But there are some that are but temporal and only for the time of this Life God gives men over to Atheism and the Fool says there is no God But though there are Atheists here there are no Atheists in Hell God gives men over to blindness here that they will not see that sin is so great an evil and the wrath of God is so dreadful as it is But they shall see and the blindness of their minds shall be done away and they shall be awakned and the spirit of slumber removed and Conscience shall never sleep again Thirdly All the faculties of the soul shall be inlarged here they are streightned by sin and are of a narrow capacity and it is little either joy or sorrow that they are capable of also Conscience renewed is capable of a little Grace there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a measure a pitch to which they come and that is but little before they be translated to Glory it is but a taste that the Lord is gracious it is but the first fruits of the spirit but after this life all the faculties shall be inlarged that they shall be made vessels prepared for Glory So wicked men Cain and Judas they are capable of a little wrath here as a man cannot see God and live he is not capable of the glory of Heaven so neither is a man capable of the torments of Hell and live a child is capable of more wrath in Hell then the wickedest man that ever was whilest he lived here therefore they shall be vessels fitted for destruction c. And hence it is that men cannot call to mind the offers of grace and opertunities neglected rejected motions the duties omited the sins commited Sermons heard the truths that were offered to be disposed the several checks of a mans own Conscience and the several admonitions of friends reproaches of enemies c. A man cannot conceive how it should be but then our faculties shall be inlarged and we shall put off our houses of Clay by which the soul is streightened and it shall be conversant
no more about these streightned objects but about the vast things of Eternity for ever The things of Eternity pass knowledg and pass fear 1 Cor. 13.12 This life in grace is but childhood to Heaven the faculties and abilities of our souls are streightned so this life in sin and misery is but childhood unto Hell for there shall the soul be inlarged for God has made the soul capable of greater joyes and greater sorrows greater blessings and greater sufferings then there are in this Life and he would never have prepared such vessels either for wrath or glory but that he means to fill them and this inlargement shall be by degrees as he will fill them by degrees and as grace inlarges and prepares the heart for glory Col. 1.12 so does sin inlarge and prepare the heart for wrath and therefore they are said Rom. 9.23 To be vessels fited for distruction as well as prepared for glory c. Fourthly After this Life all comfortable affections and actings of the soul shall have an end There be some acts of soul that are comforting and cheering and there are some acts that are afflicting and tormenting the comforting acts are in refference to good things either present or to come if present the soul loves them and rejoyceth in them and if absent the soul loves them desires them and hopes for them and all these do cheer the soul and in the exercise of these the life of the soul comes in but after this Life all good things of this Life in present fruition or future reversion shall have an end From the creatures all good things at Death shall take their leave they are but this worlds goods and for all good things from God there shall be none for they shall have Judgment without mercy pure and utter darkness there shall not be a beam of light or the hope of any good thing for the soul to live upon unto Eternity for if a man were to lye in Hell a million of years and were to expect then a release his soul would live but being swallowed up in eternity of misery without hope the soul dyes These affections shall still remain in the soul but because they have no object therefore shall never be exercised as fear and sorrow are in the Saints in Heaven but never are exercised because there is no object upon which it should be exercised Therefore in Hell there never shall be an act of love or joy or hope more to eternity the hope of the wicked is as the giving up of the Ghost he breaths it out with his last breath and he shall never hope more for ever and there are in the soul some tormenting and afflicting acts in reference unto evil things present or to come if it be present there is sorrow and if to come fear and if it be looked upon as an insuportable and inseparable no way to escape it there is dispair for ever Now seeing there shall be the absence of all good at present and in hope and the presence of all evil and a mans condition under it helpless and hopeless therefore after this life to ungodly men all comforting acts of soul shall cease and all the tormenting acts shall take place and act in their full power and vigour for ever Now let us come to the particulars wherein Conscience doth apear to be a worm after this life manely There is a four fold act of Conscience and in every one of them it does hereafter become a worm First There is an act of Accusation Secondly of Conviction Thirdly of Condemnation Fourthly of Execution The torments that follow the soul after all these and in these does this furious reflection of the soul upon it self consist First An act of accusation Rom. 2.15 Conscience accusing and excusing and this consists in two things First A reviewing and reflecting upon the rule that a man did and should have walked in Secondly Upon the unanswerableness of a mans wayes unto this rule and so Conscience shall charge upon a man all the errours of his way for an accusation does suppose and lay down a Law and then charges a man with the breach thereof there is a double book of Conscience the first is a book of precepts and rules secondly a book of practises First For the book of rules and precepts there shall be manifested three things after this life First There are many rules of duty that we are ignorant of and so there are many sins of ignorance committed that men know not to be a sin because they are unacquainted with the rule of duty for we know in part and prophecy in part 1 Cor. 13. There is a vail upon the hearts of men in many things that they know not what they do Now to this end the book of Law and Gospel shall be opened and thereby a mans Duty discovered and Conscience inlightned in those things which here it never knew Rom. 2.16 for he will judge the secrets of all men according unto my Gospel c. Secondly There are several sins commited out of errour and mistake and upon false rules The Lord will bring forth and discover unto a man all these false and erroneous principles by which he has been led in his whole course John 16.2 1 Cor. 2.8 had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory Rom. 10.2 they have a zeal but not according to knowledg many things they did from an erroneous Conscience now all these false principles that mislead a man in his wayes shall be brought forth also and the falshood of them discovered Thirdly There are many true principles which Conscience does receive here from the word and the ministery thereof which are called truth Rom. 1.18 Who withhold the truth in unrighteousness All these rules in their authority holiness and equity shall be set before a man and how all of them were required of man for his good Thus the book of precepts being opened and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Conscience inlarged now follow the opening of the second book and that is that of practises First Conscience does charge upon a man sins of ignorance this thou hast done through ignorance of such a rule as Paul knew not Lust to be a sin before that the Commandment said thou shalt not Lust and then thy ignorance shall be discovered unto thee before men and angels and that with all thy means and opertunities of knowledg you to whom the Lord wrote the great things of his Law that had the Scriptures in your own Language and freedom and liberty to use them you that had all manner of helps publickly and privately preaching and writing wherein men do transcribere aias you that dwelt in the valley of Vision and yet of these things you are wilfully ignorant and in the things you know not in them you have corrupted your selves now they that counted it matter of shame to be instructed by a
minister and matter of scorn to be examined by him fearing least they should bewray their ignorance God will charge it upon thy Conscience and make thee bear the shame of it before men and angels those sins thou hast commited and those things thou hast omited out of ignorance that such rules thou oughtest to have known Secondly The Lord will charge upon a man the sins that he commited upon false and eroneous principles Thou hast called the proud happy and because they that hate the Lord are exalted therefore thou hast fallen upon those wayes and thought their way to be the onely way to peace and prosperity thou hast thought Usury Sabbath breaking petty oathes officious lyes were little or nothing and that if a man performed the outward duties of Religion went to Church and heard a Sermon and kept himself unspotted before men and walked lovingly amongst his neighbours this was enough to bring him to Heaven and that what was more was but either needless scrupulosity or affected singularity which is but hypocrisie and therefore thou hast counted religious men the precise fools of the time when thou hast seen them with Dives as a Lazarus at thy door and regarded them not but men shall recant their corrupt opinions and publish their retractations and be ashamed of them before Men and Angels Psal 50.21 thou thoughtest wickedly that I was such a one as thy felf but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes Thirdly Conscience shall charge a man with the Truths he knew and imprison'd Rom. 1. last and 2.1 who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do them therefore thou art inexcusible thou knewest this to be a sin and yet commitedst it and such as thing to be a duty and yet neglectedst it and then all a mans omissions and comissions sins of ignorance and wilfulness or errour shal be charged upon him And here are three things in a special manner that shall be charged First in this life our memories are frail Heb. 12.5 and we let things slip out of them Heb. 2.1 and ye have forgotten the exaltation which c. We forget that we hear but there shall be no forgetfulness hereafter Conscience shall record all the rules of duty in their order Secondly Is 50 17. Here there are manifold diversions of our thoughts and men do cast these rules of duty and their sins against them behind their backs but it shall then be so set before a man that it shall be his study for ever and he shall never be able to turn from it Conscience shall always set his sins before him as David said my sin is ever before me Thirdly There is this difference between this life and the life to come here these rules are set before a man that he might learn and obey them but hereafter they are set before him to throw the neglect of them upon him that he might be upbraided with the guilt of them for ever Job 27.22 and Job 27.6 that our hearts might reproach us for ever there is a great deal of difference between the admonition of a father telling the son his duty or of a minister instructing a man and between a judg telling a malefactor his sin and his duty the one doth it in order to his direction and reformation and the other doth it in order to his execution and conviction that he may see and be silenced that the judgment and sentence past upon him is just and to lay the guilt of his own destruction upon his own head for ever Secondly an act of conviction here if sin be charged upon men every man hath a Counsellor within his own breast to plead for him which is his own carnal reason and that does many times seek to excuse à toto and the man pleads not guilty as David for the death of Vriah 2 Sam 11.25 and Pilate gives sentence against Christ and yet excuses himself that he had nothing to do with the blood of this just man and the Pharisies and Priests Acts 5.28 they had no hand in the death of Christ and therefore they are displeas'd that the Apostles had filled Jerusalem with their doctrine and intend to bring this mans blood upon us reatum invidiam mortis Christi or else it minceth the matter and excuseth à tanto if it be evil yet not so great an evil for it is the common custom Act. 28.22 it is a sect spoken against every where c. and by after inconveniencies Joh. 11.48 else the Romans will come and destroy place and Nation and so many plead for Ale-houses Game-houses Play-houses a trade of beging and usury for Widows and Orphans how shall they live else and a subtile distinction for swearing Mat 23.16 swear by the Temple for men to swear it is nothing but who ever shall swear by the Gold of the Temple he is a debtor so we hear men say to swear by God it 's a sin we will allow to be something but to swear by Faith and Troth by light c. by Creatures is no evil as Judg. 21.22 they elude their vow by saying we did not give them but they did take them with our knowledge and consent c. and with such kind of pleas as an ignorant judge is blinded by the subtleties of his Counsel casting a varnish over an evil cause and drawing a Cobweb â—awn over it so is Conscience also But after this life all these pleas shall vanish and men shall be convicted of their own Consciences that they shall have nothing to say for themselves a man shall be speechless Mat 22.12 he shall have no cloak for his sin John 15.22 he was without an excuse or apologie Rom. 2.19 a Deus foras in crepabit conscientia intus accusabit Greg. there shall be on means either to deny it or extenuate it for 2 Cor. 5.11 we are made manifest unto God and I trust unto your Consciences and this Conscience shall do by setting before a man First The unreasonableness of sin Jer 2.13 that I did forsake the Fountain of living water and digged to my self broken â—isterns so foolish was I and as a beast before thee Secondly The causelesness of it Jer. 2.5 what iniquity have your fathen found in me Mic. 6 3. oh my people what have I done to you testify against me have I been a Wilderness Thirdly God did forbear me with much patience 2 Pet. 3.5 did not cut me down but spared me this year also and I had horae plusquam amenae nunquam rediturae c. 4ly from several inducements to obedience the compassionate calls of God Act. 20.31 oh Ephraim what shall I do unto thee my repentings are kindled within me Christ weeps over Jerusalem and his ministers shed tears the promises of God and the society of the faithful the
rowl away the stone from the grave but it was done in a legal and judiciary way and therefore he is said to be justified He is near that justifies me 1 Tim. 3.16 Isa 50.8 And by this he doth convince the World of righteousness because the Lord delivered him from death Because he doth go to the Father Sixthly For a Soul by an Almighty power of God to rest upon this satisfaction of his and to plead it before God for himself at his judgment seat First To look upon Christ as dying not for himself but as a surety for in justification and the purging of Conscience from the guilt of sin the eye of Faith is mainly set upon Christ crucified Christ as dying and that as a surety to make satisfaction 1 Cor. 2.2 Heb 9.22 I desire to know nothing but Christ and Christ crucyfied for without sheding of blood there is no remission For though it is true that the personal excellencies that be in Christ are the objects of Faith yet that Faith as it comes to Christ in the act of justyfication and being quit of the guilt of sin it mainly looks upon Christ dying Christ satisfying Secondly To look upon Christ as a representative head as one in whom I died as a surety so as one in whome I rose he was justyfied and I in him because as he dyed for me so for me he was justified also and Christ was formerly condemned therefore there must an act of aquiting pass upon Christ and therefore Heb. 9.28 That it was so apeared plainly for he did bear the sins of many in respect of the guilt of them and he shall apear the second time without sin that is have the guilt of no sin charged upon him in oposition unto his former bearing our iniquities he shall be aquitted before men and angels and therefore he rose as the first fruits as a person representing all the rest of the elect and he was justified in the spirit that is raised up by the power of the divine nature thereby he was manifested to be justified and as he is sanctified as a common person and receives an Image for us that we must bear the Image of the heavenly there is life eternal laid up in him so he is justified as a common person from the guilt of sin that not any iniquity remains unsatisfied for in his behalf that is the ransom in his death is fully paid and as we were condemned in Adam a common person so it is reason we should be justified by Christ as in a common person also now when a soul by an almighty work of the spirit of God looks upon all these acts of Christ and the soul rests upon them in respect of the guilt of sin he doth put his sins upon the head of his surety and looks upon himself as acquitted in his justification and casts himself upon it that he may attain it thus the blood of Christ is said by a mighty work of the spirit on Christs part and faith on ours to be sprinkled upon our Consciences to purge them from the guilt of dead works Quest But how shall I know whether there be such an almighty power put forth in me that I may stay my soul upon Christs blood thus satisfying that I might be able thereby to see my Conscience purged and pacified and the terrour of sin taken away Answ A man shall know this almighty work of the spirit sprinkling this blood of Christ upon the Conscience by enabling a man unto that which all the power and improvement of a natural Conscience cannot perform and it will be seen in three things First When a mans Conscience awakened and convinced of sin doth yet make after reconciliation with God and union with Christ for a natural Conscience can find it easie to believe while he goes on still in his sins and Conscience is a sleep and indeed the faith of most men is but a good conceit of themselves from the self flatery of their own hearts but as soon as Conscience is awakened by and by they fly from God and look upon him as an enemy Luke 3.5 there are Mountains to be made a plain and there are Valleys to be fill'd now when a soul considers himself under the condemnation of sin the curse of the Law and looks upon God as an angry judge and yet saith I have heard that the Lord of Israel is a mercifull God and if mercy save me I shall be saved and if mercy destroy me I shall but dye I will fly to him whom I have offended and lye down at his footstool there is nothing in the world that I desire like unto reconciliation with him and I would be reconciled to him in his own way the way of union with Christ I would he found in him not having my own righteousness I would submit to the way of the Gospel Oh blessed is the Man unto whom the Lord imputes this righteousness and he is made the righteousness of God in Christ when a soul thus convinced of sin saith God be mercifull to me a sinner I will now go to him and leave my self with him let him do as it seemeth good to him as David said if the Lord delight in me he will save me c. truly all the power of nature improved can never make men leave themselves with God in this manner Secondly When a mans sins are discovered and the Lord leads a man into the wardrope of Christs righteousness and enables him to see how there is enough therein to cover them all and as God saw enough of Christs righteousness to satisfie him in point of justice so the Lord doth by a glorious light shew unto the soul enough of Christs righteousness to satisfy also in point of guilt that the soul can in some measure in Christ answer all the objections that Conscience can make by some spiritual reasonings drawn from the Lord Jesus Christ as when Conscience objects sin is a transgression of the Law but the soul answers the sufferings of Christ are the humiliation of the Law-giver sin is a dishonour to God in point of goods but Christ that made all things with him and had the same title unto all that God the Father had he laid down all and became poor and took a new title unto all he had more then a world to lay down sin did wrong God in point of honour but he that was the brightness of his glory did abase himself and made himself of no reputation and did bring thereby more honour to God he being subject to him then the subjection of all the creatures could have done it was a higher honour to the Soveraignty of God to have his son a servant then could have been to have had the service of all the creatures and he can do him more service and bring him in more glory in an hour then all the creatures could have done if man had stood to eternity sin did offend
God but Christs righteousness did please him in him his soul delights and is well pleased sin blotted out Gods Image in man Christ restored it again we were full of all unrighteousness and he fulfilled all righteousness my sins are all hainous but greater were charged upon Christ he was a sufferer as a Traytor a blasphemer a Drunkard a Seducer a Conjurer a Devil he was made sin for us he made his grave with the wicked and thy heart was very wicked and full of enmity when thou didst commit sin but Christs heart was holy and full of love to God when he satisfied for it thou didst delight in sin and so did Christ delight to suffer he was payned till his sufferings were ended thou didst sin openly at such a time and such a place c. The Lord suffered without the gate openly in the view of all and as thy sin is the greatest sin so is his most shamefull suffering in the most solemn time as it were before all the world and in a most infamous place as the greatest malefactor as it were at Tyburne and for the company he suffered in it was between two Theeves c. when a soul is able to silence the guilt and clamour of his Conscience by answering all that Conscience can object by finding out something in the righteousness and satisfaction of Christ to answer it and faith is not nonplussed truly this is a work of an almighty power for while men go on in the pleasures of sin so long sin is nothing sin sits with no weight upon them but when their Conscience is awakened to it by and by their spirits are overwhelmed with it as Judas was now for a man to see sin in its utmost dimensions and not to spare and be streightned in his humiliation and yet when Conscience has said its worst yet for him to be able to look into Christ and see something in him that shall answer all its accusations with as great strength of spiritual reason as the other can be objected and for a mans soul to be stay'd by such thoughts when he is even going down to the pit this is an almighty power Thirdly When a man is convinced of sin and sees himself to be an undone man knows not whether God will be mercifull unto him or no he walks in darkness in point of justification and yet his heart is kept in a constant awe of sinning against God he would do nothing that should displease him for a world his darling lust doth yield and strike sail to the contrary grace Sam. 50.10.11 he fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant he would do nothing that should displease him for a world and yet he knows not whether he shall find mercy with him or no but his soul takes up an unchangeable resolution against sin and sayes I will walk no more in a way of sinning saved or damned I will be willing to obey him and count it my happiness to do him service and I will be willing to wait upon him let him do with me as it seems good in his sight if casting a mans self upon Christ make a man fear to sin against him there is an almighty power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that all the power of a natural Conscience will never make the man to yield up his darling-lust as there is a Conscience moleste mala full of perplexity in respect of guilt and the purging of the Conscience therein lies in its pacification when a man looking upon sin in its greatness and exceeding sinfulness and yet can see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the satisfaction of Christ unto which as a City of refuge he flyes being pursued Heb. 6.18 and upon that he casts himself and pleads it before the judgment seat of God that the debt is paid and the surety acquited and this he doth either by an act of recombancy and reliance or else by an act of assurance as the Lord is pleased to clear his interest and so the man is for ever perfected according to his Conscience that is Heb. 9.6 though sin doth cleave to him and the guilt of sin may by Satan be presented to him yet conscience flying unto Christ for a refuge and finding in him a perfect satisfaction the man casts all upon his surety and his Conscience is calm and serene as a man himself indebted must needs be when he knows that his surety hath paid his debt and though there be a dayly application of this unto the soul yet there is but one oblation and the man upon this ground hath no more Conscience of sin in respect of the guilt of it for ever and this pacification of the Conscience is the perfection of the man c. But there is a Conscience also that is vitiose mala full of the defilement and pollution of sin 1 Tit. 1.15 All evil is put under too heads malum triste afflicting evil or malum turpe defiling evil and sin has in it both these as it binds a man over unto all afflicting evil so there is a guilt and as it doth fill a man with all polluting evil so there is a defilement a macula a stain and filthiness of sin and it hath all the filthiness in the World in it it is leprosy pollution in blood a sepulcher and the rottenness thereof it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very excrement of wickedness Jam. 1.21 that if there could be any thing more filthiness then naughtiness it self it is sin it has defaced the image of God and the native beauty of the soul and it hath brought upon a man positive filthiness even the image of the Devil and the dreadful marks of hellish deformity that cannot be washed away with Niter and much Sope Jer. 17.1 Though this be an universal pollution that overspreads the whole man defiles body and soul and spirit yet the main defilement of sin lyes in the Conscience and where every sin doth add to the pollution as every act intends the habit above all the faculties the defilement of the Conscience is increased thereby Now the great pollution of the soul lyes in a spirit of slumber Conscience letting a man commit evil and not to tell him it is evil and in his sencelesness under sin Isa 29.10 Ephes 4.19 Being bribed by Lust and passions and pleasures to give consent to a sin and to plead for it for Conscience to pass sentence for a sin and that in the name of God 1 Joh. 16.2 and say that it is a duty and stirs up a man to it which it may be is one of the greatest sins of his Life Conscience pleads for sin and excuses a man falsly speaking peace to a man in a corrupt and cursed state saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart to add drunkenness to thirst c. In a reprobate sense to be in such a mind that Conscience approves things that
are evil and the false reasonings of sin in the Conscience the man cannot see men are given over to believe the lyes of their own spirits and cannot say is there not a lye in my right hand and a seared Conscience with a hot Iron that man despises the threatning and judgment of God 1 Tim. 4.9 and is wholly insensible as seared flesh And all this defilement is not brought into the Conscience from without but grows out of it by custome in sinning And the ground of it is because Conscience is the highest faculty and has the highest office in the man and therefore it is by corruption of the Conscience that all the rest of the faculties are so exceedingly corrupted as they are because Conscience doth not its duty and therefore God will mainly lay load upon the Conscience after this life as this had the main hand in defiling the man so it shall be the great instrument in tormenting the man for could men walk on in sin as they do if Conscience did its duty if it did instruct suggest accuse truly as in the name of God and never excuse but upon grounds from the judgment that God gives of things c. The great pollution of the whole soul flows from the pollution of the Conscience and therefore when the Papists do crowd down the defilement of the soul unto the inferiour faculties the affections and passions as if they were the sink of the soul and all the filthiness were swept down upon them but as for the understanding the will they are in a great measure free the Mistress or Lady in the soul and if a light be brought into the understanding the will has a power to follow and so say the Arminians also and it is a doctrine that spreads much amongst us so when you hear Divines say that of all the faculties the Conscience is the least polluted take heed of it for the main filthiness of thy soul lyes there And the reason that is commonly given is because Conscience in the worst men doth many times take part with God against sin when Lust carries a man and his will is very violently bent upon it but consider in an unregenerate man this doth not proceed from the purity of his Conscience even at that time when it doth take part with God but because there is the spirit of God comes in and stirs up Conscience and lays a command upon it and forceth it to do its duty which it would be glad to let alone and let Lust revel in it without controle it would surely gratify the affection it has to Lust but that the spirit of God comes in and over-aws the Conscience and doth awaken and terrify it and force it to speak and therefore it doth not any more argue the purity of Conscience then Balaams blessing of the people of Israel in the wilderness did argue his love to Israel whom he did earnestly desire to have cursed and did greedily follow after the wayges of unrighteousness but that the Lord held a strickt hand upon his Convcience that he durst not sin in it being over-awd but it was no thanks to Balaam And so it is here no thanks to Conscience which is corrupt and will by degrees grow insencible and incourage a man desperately in a way of sinning even to despight of the spirit of Gods grace Now How shall this defilement be purged all these dead works how shall they be cleansed It is by the blood of Christ First From the Holyness of his nature as he is our Head For by the blood of Christ is meant all his active and passive obedience and in his active obedience the holyness of his nature must be taken in as he was man he received the spirit He had a union and an unction from the free grace of the Father calling him to this great work and by a glorious sovereignty appointed Christ to be the head of his Church and the second Adam to stand in their stead to perform all for them and to receive all for them c. So he did receive the spirit as an unction from the Father Isa 42.1 I will put my spirit upon him he shall be cloathed with the Holy Ghost and put it on as a garment and this spirit he doth receive as a head that he may disperse it for the infinite holyness of the Divine nature could no more be communicated then the infinite righteousness of the Divine nature could be imputed and therefore he must perform perfect obedience in his humane nature for our justification that it may be imputed to us and he must receive perfect holiness in his humane nature for our sanctification that it may be imparted to us John 17.19 For their sakes I sanctify my self that is recieved a spirit of sanctification that it might be unto them a principle of holiness and the fountain of their sanctification also which I conceive to be meant by the Law of the spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 What is the Law of sin and death It is the power of sin to condemnation defiling and destroying and what is the Law of the spirit of Life it is put for the powerful and commanding work of the living and the quickning spirit of Christ and this Law not as it is in us but as it is in Christ it is this that frees us both in respect of justification and of sanctification also from the law of sin to defile and rule and also to condemn and to destroy and thus from the holiness of the nature of Christ it comes to pass that the same spirit that was in him is conveyed unto us his union did abundantly sanctifie him in himself it being persoual and therefore there was an inpeccability the actus est suppositi but his unction was for us he had a fulness of the spirit as he was our surety he paid our debt and as our head so he received a spirit for us and dispenced it to us c. thus you see the sanctification of the humane nature of Christ doth purge a mans Conseience from dead works even the Law of the spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus makes us free from the Law of sin Secondly There is in the blood of Christ a causa meritoria and it doth meritoriously purge the Couscience for though there was the fulness of all grace in the humane nature of Christ yet it could never have been conveyed unto us without a satisfaction had gone before God must be satisfied that men might be sanctified for there is in the sufferings of Christ two things First The payment of a debt Secondly There is a redundancy of merit some thing must be procured for man non solum instauratus est Aust sed melioratus à peccatis ablutus instauratus est in caeteris melioratus Aust Tom. 4.9 123. p. 613. First It
prize of the high calling and it is some ground that I have got already something that I have attain'd but yet it is but a little but upon a hope that I shall have him that indeed is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in my eye therefore I strive with all my might and press hard to the mark c. And thus the blood of Christ gives an efficacy unto all the precepts and the promises of the Gospel and they are all of them by this means of a cleansing nature they do purge the Conscience they have all a cleansing property Fifthly The blood of Christ doth purge the Conscience by sprinkling all means that it shall tend unto a mans purification that as by sin all things do become means to defile the Conscience so by the blood of Christ all things shall become means to purge the Conscience Tit. 1.15 Unto the pure all things are pure but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure but even their mind and Conscience is defiled For under the law the sprinkling of the blood was not onely upon the person but upon the book and the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministery Heb. 9.19 Implying that none of these would have been instruments of purging of the Conscience if they had not themselves been first purged by the blood of Christ But what are the means that thus purge the Conscience First The word of God Ephes 5.26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of Water by the word and John 15.3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you c. Mens Consciences are purged by it but yet in it self it will increase the defilement as unto all unregenerate men it does Heb. 6.7 The ground that drinks in the rain that comes oft upon it and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed receiveth blessing from God But that which bears thorns and briers is rejected and is nigh to cursing And yet if Christ sprinkle it with his blood it will surely purge the Conscience and all the purging vertue that the word has is because his blood was sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice Secondly All other ordinances also 2 Cor. 3 3. First that of the ministery ye are our epistle and though ye have Ten thousand instructers yet not many Fathers but I have begotten you through the Gospel Now even this ordinance that was appointed for their cleansing will but increase their pollution of themselves if their uncircumcised heart should rise against the message they bring them to believe in the blood of Christ and then God in judgment says to his ministers go make the heart of this people fat let their hearts be hardened and their spirits rise against it that hearing they may hear and not understand least they be converted and I should heal them the Lusts of men are thereby the more exasperated and drawn forth as it did in the Pharisees under Christs ministery their enmity did rise to the sin against the Holy Ghost besides Blasphemy against the son of man but that the ministery is effectual to any souls it is onely the sprinkling of the blood of Christ upon all the ordinances thereof and it will purge if Christ in it sit as a refiner of silver in his shop and do concurr in the ordinances to their refinement Thirdly The example of the Saints are a means of purging the Conscience Phil. 3.17 Be followers together of me and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample c. When a man doth observe unto what a pitch of holiness and purification the Saints of God have attained as the example of Christ so of the saints also such pressing forward to more spirituality such growth in grace and in knowledg such love to all Saints this is a great means to raise the hearts of them that fear God to give all diligence to be as they were holy in all manner of conversation But yet they will be a means of pollution of themselves even these glorious examples of Christ and his followers if not sprinkled with the blood of Christ and as the Pharisees looking upon the holyness of the Saints they were the more inraged so the more lively men do see holyness in the practise of it they hate it so much the more Fourthly Hos 2.6 Jer. 31.18 Isa 18. Afflictions When the Lord sends it upon any of his children this is all their fruit to take away their sin but yet afflictions will of themselves purge no mans Conscience but rather defile it as we see how the rage of mens spirits are drawn out by it as King Ahaz sin'd yet more the more he was afflicted and Revel 16.9.10 They did gnaw their tongues with pain and did blaspheme the God of Heaven but repented not of their evil deeds bray a Fool in a Morter and yet his folly will not depart from him but yet if Christs blood do sprinkle our crosses they shall be as corasives to eat out the proud flesh and they shall tend to heal him whom they had wounded Fifthly Sometimes the Lord will do it by sins in giving him up to some publick open and scandulous fall as he did with David lets him fall into that great evil of murder and adultery and that made him to wash himself throughout and it was a means to keep him low and to preserve him from sin all his life time after and we have the like instance in Peter in denying the Lord and cursing and swearing that he never knew him when thou art converted says Christ to him strengthen thy bretheren for he would be the stronger afterwards as a bone broke c. and the less apt to fall into sin Surely sins of themselves being filthiness it self cannot purge but will defile but yet sprinkled with the blood of Christ they shall be an occasion of purging Sixthly Sometimes the Lord will do it by leaving a man to the winnowings of Satan in some furious and violent temptation Satans aim is thereby to sift out all grace and to leave nothing but chaff in the soul for we fight not against flesh and blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things that concerne Heaven and Eternity and commonly men are foiled by them and are the more filthy by a touch of the wicked one 1 John 5.19 But when the Lord doth sprinkle a temptation with the blood of Christ it shall be a means to purge the soul and the poyson of it shall be tempered into a wholesome medicine as it was unto Paul * A Messenger of Satan c. 2 Cor. 12.7.8 It is sometime purging and sometimes preventing Physick to keep the soul from being lifted up c. The same may be said of mercies and of all the dispensations of providence for all shall work together for good that is for a mans spiritual and eternal good because they are all yours Creatures and providences
innocency of my hands have I done this and God bears witness to him that in the integrity of his heart he did it not knowing her to be another mans wife not with an intention to wrong her husband by taking her there is and may be a moral integrity in a particular action and a man may mean truly in that he doth and do that which is evil and yet not with an evil intention Now will Conscience excuse the man in the presence of God and say I intended no evil in that which I have done Joh. 16.2 they shall think that they do God good service nay in the worst and the most wicked actions even persecuting the Saints a man may conceive therein that he has done God service and he may bless himself in his own heart and Conscience may not only acquit a man but applaud him in that which he has done and so there is many a man out of a blind zeal and a spirit of errour and delusion that looks upon those things as great services to God and intends them so which will be discovered to be the great sins of their lives at the last day as it was in the Jews persecuting of Christ and the Desciples setting up the Law against the Gospel going about to establish their own righteousnes and not submiting unto the righteousness of Christ therein so Acts 13.50 there are devout and honourable women are stir'd up against the Apostles doctrine they made use of that natural devotion that was in them to persecute the Gospel and as Beza doth observe they did raise the persecution persuasis sc maritis engaged their husbands in the quarrel which is the condition of many a poor well meaning man that is not acquainted with the depths of Satan and the the delusions of the times at this day Secondly Sometimes it is from a mans ignorance and want of light and so his Conscience he thinks is good and speaks peace to him because he doth not see the evil that is in him Rom. 7. I was alive without the Law once he speaks it in reference to his state of unregeneracy and he saith sin was dead in respect of the guilt and the accusing and condemning power of it and Paul was alive full of presumtious self-confidence and self-excusations and acquitting himself and his Conscience did speak peace unto him and there is no guilt at all but yet afterwards the commandment came in the spiritual and convincing power of it and then the guilt of sin revived in me and I saw my self a dead man for without the Law sin is dead and therefore many a man that is quiet because the Law of God is not opened to him he has the Law in the Letter but not in the spiritual sence of it it is with ignorant souls in this respect as with colours in the dark there they are but not seen till the light be brought in so many a man is in the guilt of all abominations but they are not discovered till the light be brought in and then a man wonders how it was possible his Conscience could be quiet and hath such a load lye upon it Thirdly From a spirit of slumber that God pours out upon a man in judgment his Conscience being quiet through common works and outward duties a man having escaped the common pollutions of the world and lives in no gross way of sinning and is exceedingly censorious and severely exclaims against others and condemns and reproves those sins in others he doth shine as a light and is honoured by the Saints as one that doth truly fear God and is eminent in the profession of Religion as the foolish Virgins and the thorny ground have a lamp of profession bring forth some fruit has a name to live and with this Conscience is quieted and its peace is not disturbed and so it is with many a temporarie believer that had never more then a natural Conscience and some of them their Conscience in respect of the guilt of them is never awakened but they go out of the world even in a fools paradise with great hopes and say Lord Lord Mat. 7.22 have we not prophesied in thy name c as they are brought in saying at the day of judgment c. at death every mans eternal state is cast for immediately after death comes judgment Heb. 9.27 and in this day it is for men shall have a particular sentence passed upon them and receive their doom for their eternal state before the last day but at death men shall say Lord Lord open to me c. and from thence some of our divines say that an hypocrite may live and dye with a quiet Conscience in self-delusions and yet miss of Heaven in the height of his hopes and therefore it 's said Rom. 2.17 of the hypocritical Jews that they rest in the Law c. and so they may do along time in the profession and outward Priviledges of the Law and an outward obedience thereunto that when God shall awaken their Consciences as he doth many of them some to conviction only and some to conversion they are surprized with the greatest horrour and amazement of any other men in the world and though there may be a great deal of quiet and seeming goodness in Conscience that is natural yet it is not truly a good Conscience it has but a shew of goodness and there is the guilt of sin laid up in it that will surely shew forth it self at the last and great day sin lyes at the door and it will awaken and revive and condemn him But there is away to keep the Conscience pure from the guilt of sin in the sight of God that a man shall have no more Conscience of sin and there are three ways or steps to a pure Conscience before God in this respect First In a mans Conversion when the Lord Christ as a surety and as a sacrifice is offered unto him and he consents to the terms upon which Christ is offered that he may have an interest in the satisfaction that he has given and that his sins may be done away and he stand righteous and aquited before God and so at a mans Conversion all his sins in his unregenerate state is pardoned and the guilt of them is covered so that they are unto his Conscience as if they had never been his sins are by virtue of union imputed to Christ and Christs righteousness imputed to him and he is made the Lord our righteousness 2 Cor 5.21 1 Pet. 3.21 and we are the righteousness of God in him which is by the answer of a good Conscience which I conceive to be an allusion to the antient manner of baptising wherein the people confessed their sins and did answer unto certain questions that were then asked therein engaging themselves by a publick profession unto Christ to consent to his Covenant so when it was done sincerely then it is said to be the answer of a
created so if a mans miseries after this Life were only in the creatures all created miseries would never make Hell but still the Soul would live under them all But it is only under the wrath of the great God that the soul dies Fourthly Consider the torments of the Devils whence is all their Torments now For Jude tells us they are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day c. And they are not wholy freed Now Doth God apply any creature to this work Mar. 8.29 Doest thou come to torment us before the time There was nothing tormented them but his presence and power c. And this wrung from them this great complaint Now they do not torment themselves though they have a Conscience yet this is not the great tormenter and we do not read that they are executioners one of another or that God doth use the ministry of the good Angels in the punishment of the evil though the good Angels strive with them for the preservation of the Saints now what Creature has power enough to torment the Devils such great and mighty Creatures as they are surely it is nothing else but the wrath and indignation of the great God which is the fire that is reserved for the Devil and his Angels to be made objects of and lye under for ever this the Lord doth suspend here in this life by the Kingdom of Christ because now there is a time of patience and the Lord has service to imploy them in as vessels of dishonour which if they should lye under the wrath of God perfectly poured out they would not be able to perform and therefore the Lord doth forbear them that at last wrath may come upon them to the uttermost Fifthly Consider the first fruits and inchoations of Hell in this life and that either in wicked men or in the Saints in wicked men Heb. 10.27 there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some sparkles of Hell a certain fearfull looking for of Judgment and fiery indignation c. As the people of God have here some sparks of Heaven by the Spirit of adoption some earnest and glimpses of Heaven see it in Cain Gen. 4.13 and Judas his Soul is filled with horror and amazement that they would rather chuse all the miseries of the Creatures and to lye under the whole Creation call to Mountains to cover them to be freed of it and therefore they cry out it is too late for me to repent is' t possible for me to be pardoned I know God will never have mercy upon me and therefore their soul chooseth strangling any thing to put them out of this torment what did Judas aise who did hurt him he had money in his purse there was no evil of the Creature upon him he gratified the high Priests and many of that crew only there was a secret touch of Gods own finger upon him an immediate drop of wrath let in upon his Conscience c. And not only in wicked but in godly men as Job and Heman Job 6.4 The arrows of the Almighty stick in me and the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me and surely inward terrors are the most terrible and there are no medicines in the whole creation that can heal a wounded spirit all friends estates honours relations will be to a man as the white of an Egge in the day when the terrors of Gods wrath do compass a man about as if God speak peace to the Soul none can speak terror no not all the Creatures and the most exquisite miseries that can be inflicted by them â—s appears by Martyrs so if God speak terrors there is none can speak comfort nothing in the Creature can help or ease as appears by men that have had all things the world can afford and yet their spirits were 〈◊〉 wounded in them they had â—or he least relief thereby so 〈…〉 Heman Psal 88.5 We know of no pressure that was upon him by the Creatures and yet he complains he was free among the dead as a man in Hell already while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted there was something beyond what all the Creatures could inflict Now there is joyes that the Saints receive here from God under Heaven joy unspeakable and glorious and of the same kind though they differ in degree with those in glory so the terrors here are of the same kind only they differ in degree from the torments of Hell they have a taste of the Cup which in Hell they shall drink of it a full drought and therefore as the one is joy unspeakable and full of glory so is the other torments unspeakable and full of sorrow and in this God uses the ministerie of no Creature neither doth the hearts of men discerne any thing but the wrath and terrors of the Almighty Sixthly It doth more fully appear in the suffering of Christ if we look upon him as in the Garden he was in an agony Mat. â—6 38 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his soul was invironed and compassed about with sorrow now all the misery that can come from the Creature can never compass the Soul about there will be some door open but here he sees no way our and therefore Mark 14.33 he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sore amazed under the apprehension of wrath and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Spirit failed within him Psal 40.13 His heart in the middle of his body was melted as wax and this anguish of spirit so wrought upon his body that it made him to sweat drops of blood whence is all this affliction that was upon Christ we read of no Devils that were let loose upon him to torment him his very presence was their tormenter here and his wrath shall be their tormenter hereafter we read of no Angels that had commission to afflict him nay we read of an Angel that appeared from heaven to comfort him Luke 22.43 which would have been enough to have raised up a mans Spirit under the greatest afflictions of the Creatures nor was it from any inward unquietness in his own Spirit for there was no seeds of such fearfull distempers in him for he knew no sin there was no guile in his mouth it could not be from any bodily pain for in the Garden the Jews had not laid hold upon him there was no evil upon him and it could not be fear of a bodily death for it was for this cause that he came into the world and it was that which he did desire and long for with desire have I desired to eat the Passeover with you I have a baptism to be baptized with and how am I straightned till it be accomplished but the cause was the sence of the wrath of God lying upon his spirit Isa 53.10 it pleased the Lord to bruise him he hath put him to grief to beat him to pieces and to grind him to powder as his Soul was made an