B P HOPKINS's Fourth and Last VOLUME OF Discourses and Sermons The Fourth and Last VOLUME OF DISCOURSES OR SERMONS ON Several Scriptures By EZEKIEL HOPKINS Late Lord Bishop of London-derry LONDON Printed by H. Clark for J. Robinson A. and J. Churchill J. Taylor and J. Wyat 1696. THE PREFACE GIVING An Account of these Discourses and of the Excellent Author thereof Christian Reader AN old Friend and Acquaintance of the very Reverend Author of the following Sermons and Discourses in honour of his Name and Memory though he accepteth no Man's Person neither can give flattering Titles saith upon the occasion of their being Printed and Published as followeth viz. That there have been Three Volumes of Sermons and Discourses sent forth into the Publick before these have appeared and not any one of them unprefaced to but in none of these Prefaces hath he met with any thing to convey down the just Character of this our great Man and his Manner and Ministry to Posterity He will make an Experiment therefore if any thing may be said he saith not aded for hitherto nothing hath been said to render the account of this Amiable Person and his Vseful Labours amongst us to after Ages besides the Testimony of his Gifts and Graces in his Books so familiar amongst us for by these though he be dead he yet speaketh his Works praise him in the Gates and his Remembrance shall be blessed Many will bear Witness the Name of our Author was not unknown but celebrated in this our great City in its Suburbs in our Lines of Communication and within our Bills of Mortality when he for several Years lived and laboured with great acceptance and success in these places Ask in the Town and Parish of Hackney how much Good was done by Mr. Hopkins's Lectures especially amongst the richer sort of Inhabitants and the younger sort at the Schools there and especially those that were descended from good Families If you believe me not ask from Jerusalem to Illyricum from Oxon to London from London to Exon if you please from one London to another even unto London-derry in Ireland where was his Top-preferment and I have been assured his last Works were more than the first So that we have found him that faithful and wise Servant his Lord had made Ruler over his Houshold to give them their Meat in due season Indeed by his exalted Name I ever took him to be none of our smaller Prophets nor of the Patres minorum Gentium In his first education and at his first appearance in the Grammar-School he soon signalized himself none of his Age and Stature being well able to keep pace with him at his coming unto the Vniversity it was by times taken notice of his Stock of Grammar and all good Learning especially in the learned Languages and his Studies and Manners were such that he rendred himself in the College both much a Scholar and much a Gentleman and was chosen out from amongst others to Instruction and Government therein and particularly the Instruction and Government of some of several Young Gentlemen and some descended from some of our Noble and most Honourable Families in our Kingdom and Nation In the Churches of Christ unto the Service whereof he was never slack when invited and called his very First-fruits were promising and his First-fruits being holy the Lump was also holy The Crouds in Hackney-Church in St. Mary Woolnoth Lombard-street at Exon at Dublin at Raphoe at London-derry and last at St. Mary Aldermanbury in our own City declare him a Master-workman the Preacher that was wise and that sought out acceptable words And his Words were as profitable as they were acceptable By the Subjects of the Four Volumes of Sermons you will be able to do more than make a Conjecture you will take some Measures of his Parts and the disposition of his Mind of his Studies and Ministerial Endeavours with the blessed Seals which were put thereunto I will only further as to my part here in his Honour commend to your perusal in special this Fourth Volume of his Sermons and Discourses The Contents will give you the Account of what Materials they consist and to what Vses and Improvements they were directed and applied But I further take liberty to say Here are in these Discourses now handled by him both the Commoda and the Accommoda things profitable in themselves and seasonable to our present Times and Debates Verba super Rotas some of the Author 's Golden Apples in Pictures of Silver They never knew our Author that knew him not to be as acute and solid in his Polemick Discourses as he was accurate and fervent in his Practical and Ordinary Sermons And let but the Christian Reader take the first Discourse in this Book on Phil. 2.12 13. and read but with due Caution and Observation and he will soon think there will not need more be said to stay and quiet the Minds of Men on the controverted Points of Liberty or the Power of Nature and the Interests of the Grace of God in our Salvation He hath also happily herein taken up the Question and proved Repentance and Faith are neither prejudicial to the free Grace of God and the Father nor in any-wise derogatory unto the Merits of Jesus his Son As also fully proved we are far from being justified as soon as elected or redeemed In the Second Part he hath happily added and proved that a temperament of the fear of a Just and Sin-revenging God is consistent with and necessary to be joined unto our highest Attainments in the joyful Sense of the Love and Favour of God and the fullest Assurances of Heaven and Salvation we have in this Life and hath herein cut the Sinews of the Antinomian Errour on the contrary part and without any Noise or Clamour In the Third Part you will find and be much pleased with and I hope equally benefited by his very Pious and Plain Treatise of the Nature and Offices of Conscience the rather because the Corruptions and Defilements of it being so distinctly opened and what it is and of what Importance to get and to keep a clear Conscience with many necessary Directions and Helps in order thereunto very proper to the Times wherein so many have made Shipwrack of Faith and of a Good Conscience The next Discourse is of Instancy and Constancy in Holy Prayer not only as a Negotium cum Deo but Heaven in ordinary and perfect Hearts-ease whil'st we are here upon Earth And the last is an elaborate though short Exercitation and Treatise of the Divine Omnipresence a Meditation prepared to render all the foregoing Parts of the Book more beneficial to us no Argument being in its own Nature more awakening and awful to an intelligent and diligent Reader The rest you are beholden to Providence and the Pen of a ready Writer for but what is written was unquestionably spoken and with a great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a very Reverend
us of all those Mercies and Comforts that now he heaps upon us So much for this Time and Text. A DISCOURSE OF THE NATURE Corruption and Renewing OF THE CONSCIENCE WITH Accounts of the Moment of having a Conscience void of Offence to God and Men. FROM ACTS xxiv 16. By EZEKIEL HOPKINS Late Lord Bishop of London-derry LONDON Printed for Jonathan Robinson A. and J. Churchill John Taylor and John Wyat. 1696. A DISCOURSE OF THE NATURE Corruption and Renewing OF THE CONSCIENCE ACTS xxiv 16. Herein do I exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of Offence towards God and towards Man IN this Chapter St. Paul gives an account to Felix of the general Course and Demeanor of his former Life being accused by Tertullian a flattering Orator as one who was Prophane and Seditious After that he had purged himself in sundry Particulars he comes to the Text to shew that he was far from those Crimes that were laid to his Charge having made it his constant Exercise all his Life-time to keep a good Conscience The Words have little or no Difficulty in them and therefore instead of giving you an elaborate Exposition I shall only run them over with a brief Paraphrase The Explication of the Words Herein do I exercise my self that is I make it my constant Care and Imployment to have a Conscience void of Offence that is to keep my Conscience clear that it may not justly accuse me of any Offence done either against God or against Men that is I labour conscientiously to practise as well the Duties of the second as the Duties of the first Table to be Just towards Men as well as to be Religious towards God knowing that the one without the other to be without Offence towards Men only is but meer Morality and to be without Offence only towards God is but vain Hypocrisie Without farther Explication the Words do of their own accord deliver to us this Doctrin Doctrin That it should be our continual Care and Employment in all Things whether relating to God or Man to keep clear and inoffensive Consciences Conscience is nothing but a practical Syllogism or Argumentation What Conscience is and always infers a personal Conclusion either excusing or accusing and it hath three Offices First The Offices of Conscience It discovers to us what is Sin and what is Duty and the Reward that is entailed upon both 1. It informs what is Sin and what is Duty and thus it gives in its Verdict according to that Light that shines into it If it hath only the twilight of Nature to illustrate it as the Heathens had no other then it can pass Judgment only upon natural Duties and unnatural Sins Thus the Consciences of Heathens through some remainders of original Knowledge informed them that Worship was due to God and Justice to Men and that all Impieties against God and all Injuries against Men should in the end be severely punished But if Conscience enjoys the superadded Light of Scripture it judges then of those Duties and those Sins that could only be known by Divine Revelation Hence it is that Conscience is enabled to form such a Proposition as this He that believes shall be saved he that believes not shall be damned This Proposition it forms not from natural Light but from the super-induced Light of Scripture This is the first direct Act of Conscience whereby it pronounceth of Men's Works whither they be sinful or not and what the Reward or Punishment is that shall follow them according as it finds it written in the dark and imperfect Law of Nature or in the superadded Law of God 2. It witnesseth and deposeth Secondly When Conscience hath thus pronounced whether the Action be good or bad and what Reward or Punishment belong to it it 's next Office is to witness and depose we have done such or such Actions this is a reflex Act whereby when Conscience hath discovered what is Sin and what is Duty it testifies that either we have performed the one or that we have committed the other The Scripture reveals that Faith shall be rewarded with eternal Life and Unbelief punished with Death eternal hereupon Conscience makes reflection upon it self and applies the Proposition but I believe or I do not believe and that is its witnessing or deposing Office Thirdly It hath besides this 3. It acquits or condemns the Office of a Judge to acquit or condemn and this it doth by inferring a comfortable or a terrifying Conclusion from the former Premises applying the Reward or Punishment to our selves according as those Actions have been ours to which they belong If it hath proved us Unbelievers strait it pronounceth us condemned Persons or if it evidences our Faith to us presently it justifies and acquits us Hence it is that wicked Men are haunted with pale Fears and ghastly Reflections because they are always Malefactors arraigned at a Bar a Bar that they carry about with them in their own Breasts where they hear a thousand Witnesses sworn and examined where they hear their Judge ten thousand times a Day pronouncing them Cursed and Damned And hence it is also that there is sometimes diffused into the Hearts of God's Children such sweet Joy such solid Peace such calm Stayedness and some Prelibations of heavenly Bliss because they carry in their Breasts a Court of Judicature where their earthly Judge Conscience acquits them and assures them that their heavenly Judge will do so also This is Conscience that faithful Register in every Man's Bosom that writes down the Actions Discourses and Cogitations of every Hour and Minute Now this being premised concerning the Nature and Offices of Conscience I shall come in the next place to enquire into these following Particulars into which I shall digest the method of this Subject First What it is that doth corrupt and vitiate Conscience Secondly What it is to have a clear Conscience Thirdly Of what Importance and Consequence it is that our Consciences be kept clear and void of Offence under which I shall give you the Reasons of the Point Fourthly I shall lay down some Rules and Means whereby we may attain unto and keep a pure and clean Conscience First 1. What vitiates and corrupts Conscience What is it that doth corrupt and vitiate Conscience in executing of its Offices Now this I shall couch under Two Particulars and they are Ignorance and wilful Sinning 1. Ignorance corrupts the Conscience 1. Ignorance Conscience is the Guide of Life and Knowledge is the Eye of Conscience which if it be darkned the Blind leads the Blind till both fall into the Ditch Conscience is a Guide that leads apace and therefore had need see its Way before it which some not being well able to discern have wound themselves into inextricable Wandrings pursuing every glaring Delusion and running after every skipping Light that danceth before it till at last they have lost both themselves and their
He that eats doubtingly says the Apostle is damned if he eats Rom. 14.23 2. By giving it Strength to inforce us to the doing of Good and to the avoiding of Evil. Secondly Knowledge gives the Conscience Strength to enforce us to the doing of that which it discovers to be Good and to the Flight of that which it discovers to be Evil. A knowing Person cannot sin so easily as an ignorant Man may but he must struggle and wrestle harder and offer more Violence by far to his own Conscience A Man that sees his Danger before him will hardly be dragg'd into Precipices whereas one that is blind is easily led thither suspecting nothing So here a knowing Person that sees the Danger of Hell and Damnation before him if he sins it must be with a great deal of inward reluctancy An enlightned Conscience struggles and with-holds him and if Temptation be so violent as to wrest him out of the Hand of Conscience how is he wrackt and torn in pieces betwixt Conscience and Temptations and when Conscience hath lost its hold still it pursues him and follows him to his Sin and disturbs his Pleasure and imbitters that Sweetness that he thought to have found in Sin before and never leaves its Clamors till it hath at least by a hypocritical and formal Repentance and by Engagements to be more observing of the Commands of Conscience for the future satisfied and appeased it This force Conscience hath when it is duly informed with Knowledge But where Ignorance hath blinded it it suffers Men quietly to rush upon God's Neck and upon the thick bosses of his Buckler it sees not neither respects any Danger when it is even on the very brink of Hell An ignorant Person is like your benighted or bewildred Traveller which because it cannot see its own Way before it what is to be chosen and what is to be â—efused it lays the Reins upon the Neck of Men's Lusts and suffers them without controul to take their own course And therefore if you would have good Consciences get them rightly informâ—d with the knowledge of what is Sin â—nd what is Duty Secondly 2. Cast out the filth of Conscience by a daily and frequent Confession If you would have a clear Conscience then cast out the filth of Conâ—â—ience by a daily and frequent Confession Confession one of the Fathers calls it the Vomit of the Soul whereby it easeth it self when it is over-charged and glutted with Sin and Guilt And so the Scripture also speaks when the Apostle speaks of Apostates relapsing back again into their old Sins In 2 Pet. 2.22 he saith They return with the Dog to his Vomit that is they return and do again lick up those Sins which before they disgorged and cast up by Confession This indeed is the Way when Conscience is burdned with the Guilt of any Sin when Sin lies unconcocted and heavy within go then and pour out your Heart before the Lord in the Confession of your Sin see what sudden Ease this will bring in to Conscience David was Sin-sick and he resolves upon this course Psal 32.5 Psal 32.5 I acknowledged my Sin unto thee and my Iniquity have I not hid I said I would confess my Transgression and suddenly there came Ease to his Conscience and thou O Lord says he forgavest the Iniquity of my Sin Are our Consciences oppressed with the Burden and Weight of great and numberless Sins Here we may by an humble and penitent Confession unload them all before God and this is the Mystery of Confession the way to unload our Sins from off us is by taking them upon our selves when we charge our selves with them and impute them to our selves God will not impute them to us but charge them upon Christ for he hath promised If we judge and condemn our selves that we shall not be judged and condemned Thus in 2 Sam. 12.13 as soon as David â—â—d there by an humble Confession 2 Sam. 12.13 â—aken his Sin to himself saying I have â—â—â—ned God by the Prophet tells him That he had taken away his Sin from him The Lord also says the Prophet to him 〈◊〉 put away thy Sin And indeed â—â—ve we not found it thus by manifold Experiences that when Conscience â—ath been bowed down by the unsupportable Weight of the Guilt of Sin â—ave ye not found that a sorrowful and â—ngenuous Confession of them unto God â—ath lightned the Burden And whereâ—s before Conscience was heavy and gloomy now it looks chearfully upon you under the apprehensions of God's pardoning Grace that God will pardon and forgive them to us Now this â—asing of our Consciences by Confession must be frequently reiterated our Consciences are always filling with Sin and Guilt and therefore we must be always casting of it out by Confession As in the emptying of a Pond where there are many Streams rising and bubling up if we stop and intermit the Work the Pond grows presently full again Truly our Hearts and Consciences are like such Ponds in which there are many corrupt Streams still sprouting up now Confession is the Laving of it out which if we do but a while intermit our Consciences again grow as full of Sin and Guilt as ever and therefore it must be a frequent and daily Confession of Sin yea our Confession must be reiterated as often as we fall into and commit any Sin And that is another Means to keep our Consciences clear I might also add That an effectual Means to keep the Conscience clear is frequently to wash it with repenting Tears But because unfeigned Confession of Sin doth also include and suppose a penitential Frame of Heart I shall not therefore insist upon this as a particular Head In the Third Place therefore 3. Get a mean and low esteem of the World If you would keep your Consciences clear and inoffensive then labour to get a mean and low esteem of the World The inordinate Love of the present World is utterly inconsistent with a good Conscience What is it that makes so many offer Violence to their Consciences to stretch and wrack them to any base compliance or sinful practice but only that they may thereby gain some secular Advantage or that they may thereby avoid some worldly Inconvenience This is that which fills the World with Fraud and Cozenage with Rapine and Extortion while all tug hard to get one from another although they lose their Consciences in the Scuffle This is that which makes Men so often shift their Sails that they may run before every Wind that blows If Times grow ruff and tempestuous and they must throw over-Board either their Gain or their Godliness this inordinate Love of the World persuades them to make Shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience only that they may bear up in the World Now they that have but a low and mean esteem of the World such as it deserves escape this Temptation and they can with a holy
Generousness scorn to prostitute their Consciences and to barter their precious Souls for the Gain of any of these fading and perishing Riches here below Riches that perish in the using If therefore you would keep good Consciences learn to despise the Threats and Frowns the Flatterings and Fawnings of this World look upon it as of no great concernment to you whatever in Adversity or Prosperity can happen to you in this short and frail Life Reflect upon those who groan under the Terrors of a wounded Conscience all the World cannot give them one moments Ease or Comfort yea had they the whole World at their dispose they would give it all to procure Peace yea but a Truce for a while with their own Consciences such a vain and contemptible Thing is the World in comparison of inward Tranquility and Serenity of Mind Why now thus to rate the World below the Peace and Quietness of our own Consciences is an excellent Means to preserve them clear and peaceable Fourthly 4. Strengthen your Faith If you would keep Conscience clear labour above all things to strengthen your Faith Faith is a purifying Grace Acts 15.9 Purifying their Hearts by Faith Now Faith hath a double Influence to purifie the Heart or Conscience Faith purifies the Conscience two ways First 1. As it is a dogmatical Faith and so it doth it morally A dogmatical Faith keeps the Conscience clear and pure and that morally Secondly A justifying and a saving Faith purifies the Conscience and that mystically First 1. What a dogmatical Faith is A dogmatical Faith keeps the Conscience clear and pure A dogmatical Faith I call that which hath for its Object the whole revealed Truth of God and it is nothing but a firm undoubting Assent to the Verity and Certainty of whatever is contained in the Holy Scriptures upon no other Account and Reason than meerly the Authority and Veracity of God who is the Author of it This is a dogmatical or an historical Faith which though it be not Justifying as the Papists hold yet is it of a mighty Influence to sanctifie the Heart and to keep the Conscience and Conversation inoffensive and this it doth in a moral way For did but Men believe that Heaven is so unconceivably glorious sparkling with Light flowing with Pleasure resounding with Praises a Place where Joy and Bliss ever dwells and where we shall dwell too in an endless Eternity in the Smiles and Love of God if now but for a few short Years we strive to live holily did we but as really believe these Things to be true and certain as we know those Things to be true and certain that we see with our very Eyes what manner of Christians would this force us to be in all Holiness and Godliness of Conversation cleansing our selves from all Pollutions both of Flesh and Spirit Wherefore is it that the Promise of some temporal Reward the hopes of some mean Preferment from some great Person is of Force sufficient to make Men obsequious to them And yet the Promises that God himself hath made of Heaven and Glory in comparison of which to promise Crowns and Scepters is but to promise Pebbles and Gugaws work so little effect upon the generality of Men to allure them from Sin to a holy Life Whence is it but that Men believe not that Heaven is so glorious as the Scripture describes it to be Nay indeed if they would speak their Minds they are not yet sure whether there be a Heaven or not it is from their Unbelief Did Men but believe the insupportable Wrath of God those Horrors and Torments that Fire and Sulphur that Stench and Darkness those burning Chains and those fiery Whips the Woe and Anguish of the Damned in Hell which are as far from being utterable as they are from being tollerable did they as certainly believe these Things as if they believe them not they shall certainly feel them would they dare still to venture on to treasure up Wrath to themselves against the day of Wrath Would they still dare by wounding their Consciences now enrage them to their own Wounding and Smart for ever hereafter Would they dare to do it did they believe these Things Did they but believe that Conscience will be revenged seven fold on them for all the Wrongs and Violence that they have done it This Worm that they now carry in their Breasts frozen and benum'd shall be heated by the Fire of Hell and fly upon them and sting their Souls with a burning and flaming Anguish Did they believe this would they not be careful to give no Offence to their Consciences Would they not be as careful to avoid all Sin that arms the Terrors of Hell against them as they have Reason to think a damned Wretch in Hell who hath had the Experience of these Things would do if God would release him out of it with a Promise that he shall for ever escape it upon the same Terms that he hath promised us Think with your selves what effect the Sense and Feeling of those dreadful Things would have upon such a one to make him rigorously conscientious that in nothing he provoke so terrible a God or offend and irritate a revenging Conscience that will be sure to repay him home sevenfold into his own Bosom why the same carefulness and circumspection would it work in all of us did we as firmly and strongly believe those Things to be true as God hath evidently and clearly revealed them to be true in his Word It is true these Things we all know and we persuade our selves that we do believe them Do we not profess to believe that Jesus Christ shall judge both Quick and Dead and that all shall receive Rewards according to their Works those that have done Well shall receive the Reward of eternal Life and those that have done Ill the Reward of eternal Death These Things we may indeed profess to believe and these Things we may frequently represent to our own Thoughts but the weak and small Influence that these Things have to over-awe our Consciences evinceth clearly that this is not Faith but Fancy It is a wavering unevident Opinion that we have taken up and that we call by the Name of Faith for did we live in the Belief of these Truths we should no more dare to sin against our Consciences than if we saw Hell flaming before these Eyes of ours and knew that upon the next Sin we commit we were to be cast into it And thus you see a dogmatical Faith is a great Help to purifie the Heart and to keep the Conscience clear and inoffensive 2. As Faith justifies so it purifies the Conscience mystically 2. A justifying Faith also is of great use to purifie the Conscience And this it doth not morally by any natural Influence or Efficacy of its own but only mystically as it applies to the Soul the Blood of Jesus Christ that Blood that alone takes away
with Patience so it gives him advantage to reprove others with Authority It is a very true Rule that he that reproves another ought himself to be free from the Fault he reproves for otherwise his Reproofs neither come with freedom from the Reprover nor with efficacy to the Reproved First A Reproof that comes from a guilty Conscience is but a stammering and a timerous Reproof Such a Man 's own Conscience must needs rise up in his Throat and choak his Reproofs Consciousness of the same Miscarriages will retort whatever we can say against others more strongly upon our selves and will suggest to us that it is but Hypocrisie for us to blame that which we our selves practise With what Face canst thou press others to Repent and Reform What Arguments canst thou use to them who by continuing in the same Sins dost thy self judge those Arguments are of no force at all Thus Conscience will suggest and hereby Tongue-ties Reproofs Secondly This also makes Reproofs ineffectual It were indeed a Temper to be wished and pray'd for that we could only respect how righteous the Reproof is and not how righteous the Person is that gives it and if we could be content to have the Motes pluck'd out of our own Eyes though it be by such as have Beams in their own Eyes for indeed there is no more reason to reject sound Admonitions because they come from an unsound Heart than there is to stop our Ears against good Counsel because delivered it may be with an unsavoury Breath But yet so it is when Men of polluted Consciences and defiled Conversations come to reprove others Men are apt to think of them What is such a one in earnest Doth he not personate his Reproof Doth he not do as bad or worse himself Or doth he envy me my Sins and would engross them all to himself and so the Reproof takes no place at all upon him But now when a Man of a clear and unspotted Conscience reproves wicked Men his Reproofs break in upon them with Conviction Authority and Power if not to reform them yet at least to daunt and silence them Here is one that reproves Sin who doubtless believes it to be Evil by his own avoiding of it Here is one that denounceth Wrath if I repent not who doubtless believes it to be as terrible as he represents it to be by his own carefulness to escape it And thus a clear Conscience hath great advantage to reprove Sinners successfully at least to work Conviction upon them if not to work Reformation in them 3. It gives boldness of access unto God Thirdly A clear Conscience gives boldness of access unto God Guilt is the only thing that abashes the Soul and makes it both ashamed and afraid to appear in the Presence of God and therefore we find that as soon as Adam had sinned against his Maker he hides himself from him We may observe it in our selves What slavish deadness and dejectedness of Heart seizeth upon us when we come to God in Duty after that we have wronged him by any known Sin We come with such a misgiving kind of Fear as if we would not have God take notice that we are before him and we are still in pain till the Duty be over But when our Consciences are clear O with what delight do we hast to God and with what content do we stay with him How doth the Soul dilate and spread it self under the Smiles of God beating full upon it Loe O Lord here 's a Heart that I labour to make and keep void of Offence do thou fill it with thy promised Grace and Spirit it is not indeed a Mansion pure enough for the pure and holy God yet is it such as thou wilt accept of and dwell in there are still many hidden Corruptions in it but do thou search them out and thou who hast kept thy Servant from presumptuous Sins do thou also cleanse me from secret Faults Thus a clear Conscience with a holy and reverend Boldness addresses it self to God and sweetly closeth up every Duty and every Prayer with full assurance of being heard and accepted and that it shall obtain Mercy from God So the Apostle tells us Heb. 10.22 Heb. 10.22 Let us says he draw near in full assurance of Faith How may we gain this full assurance when we draw near to God How says he Why by having our Hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience get but a pure and clear Conscience and that will enable you to draw near to God in full assurance of Faith And so in the like parallel place 1 John 3.21 1 John 3.21 Beloved if our Hearts condemn us not then have we confidence towards God If Conscience be not evil to accuse us then have we confidence towards God When the Face of a Man's Conscience looks chearful and hath no Frowns and Wrinkles upon it this makes us joyfully to apprehend that God's Face to us is calm and serene too and that we shall be welcom at all times into our Father's presence this Conscience suggests to us and makes us come with a holy yet with an awful boldness unto God 4. It is the sweetest Bosom Friend with which we may at all times freely and intimately converse Fourthly A clear Conscience is the sweetest bosom Friend with which we may at all times freely and intimately converse Wicked Men indeed of all Company in the World do most hate themselves for Companions they have a lowring and a rumbling Conscience at home that always threatens and disquiets them and therefore they love to keep abroad Soliloquies and Heart-discoveries are a very Torment to them and they wonder that the Psalmist should ever bid them Commune with their own Hearts and be still Psal 4.4 as it is in Psal 4.4 Why alas they are never less still than when they discourse with their own Hearts and Consciences which are grown so peevish and quarrelsom that they thunder out nothing but Woes and Curses against them hurling about them Swords and Fire-brands and Death that they dare not so much as once look within Doors But now a Christian whose Conscience is calm and clear he finds it the best Companion of the World In his solitary Retirements from the crowd and noise of the World with what Delight doth he call his Heart aside and there are they sweetly and peaceably conferring together And God usually comes in as a third Friend and joins himself in Society with them and here pass mutual Endearments between them the Soul embraces and clasps about God with the Arms of Faith and Dependence and God embraceth the Soul in the Arms of his everlasting Love Here are mutual unbosomings of Secrets the Soul unlocks its Secrets before God and God again reveals the Secrets of his Love unto the Soul Here are mutual Rejoycings the Soul rejoyceth in God its Saviour and God rejoyceth over the Soul to do it good and under these Intercourses
that are branded for infamous both by God and Man as Murder Adultery Blasphemy and the like at which even natural Conscience recoils such carnal Sins as affright Conscience and make it look pale and ghastly A Crime I also call any sin that is consubstantiated by an access of Guilt by the dreadful Aggravations of being committed knowingly and wilfully By Faults I mean Sins of daily Infirmity and Surreption such as do frequently surprize the best and the holiest Christians from which no Man's Piety nor Watchfulness can secure him Why now though we be over-taken with Faults and every Day and Hour contract new and fresh Guilt upon our Consciences yet we may have clear and good Consciences while we are careful to keep our selves from Crimes from all Sins that are so in their own Nature by the horridness of the Fact and from all Sins that are made so by greatning Circumstances of being deliberate and wilful while we keep our selves from these we have good Consciences notwithstanding Sins of ordinary Weakness That Man hath a good Conscience who preserves himself from all infamous and gross Sins and from all other wilful and deliberate Sins Now this clearness of Conscience is a thing possible to be attained Men may with care and caution keep themselves free from all self-condemning Crimes and live so evenly that when their Consciences are most peevish and toutchy yet they shall have nothing to accuse them of but what is common to all Men of such Men as these this we may affirm that they have been able with Joy to reflect back upon their past Lives in a dying hour that possibly never knew any Guilt by themselves than what the Sins of common and daily Infirmity hath exposed them unto This now is to keep good Consciences We live well says St. Austin if we live without Crimes to live without Fault is impossible and he that thinks he doth it keeps himself not from Sin but from Pardon Secondly Another way to keep our Consciences clear is by cleansing them when they are defiled He keeps his Garments clean that keeps himself from falling and next degree he who being fallen hastes to cleanse himself from his contracted Filth And thus at least we may keep our Consciences clear both from Crimes and from Faults also while we labour to cleanse them from their Defilements and to rub out and wash away those Spots with which at any time we are occasionally bespatter'd There is a twofold Blot Sin leaves behind it there is a Blot of Discredit and a Blot of Defilement the former is indelible As the Scar remains when the Wound is healed so this Blot remains upon the Soul when the Guilt of Sin is removed It is a Discredit to a Malefactor though pardoned that ever he should do that which deserv'd Death And so it is a kind of Blot upon a Christian's Name for ever to have committed those Sins that have deserved eternal Death though through the free Mercy and unspeakable Grace of God he hath obtained the Pardon of them But then there is another Blot a Blot of Defilement that renders Men loathsom and deformed in the Eyes of God and thus every Sin we commit leaves a Blot and a Stain upon the Soul a Stain that defaceth God's Image and that defiles our own Consciences and when this Stain and Blot is cleansed then are we said to have clear Consciences when we have taken off that Blot and Defilement that Sin hath left whereby we are rendred deformed in the sight of God and whereby the Image of God is defaced upon the Soul Thus you see in general there are two ways to keep a clear Conscience Directions for the getting and keeping of a clear Conscience the one by preventing its Defilement and the other by cleansing of it when it is defiled Now to help you in both these Cases I shall lay down several Particulars First 1. Get Conscience rightly informed If you would have your Consciences clear get them rightly informed How can Conscience be clear so long as the Fogs and thick Mists of Ignorance and Error possess it Labour therefore to let in spiritual Light into it that you may see how to cleanse it It is as much Vanity to go about to cleanse an ignorant Conscience as it is in vain to sweep a dark Room An ignorant conscientious Man that knows not the Limits of Sin and Duty may after a great deal of pudder with his Conscience leave it much worse than he found it and cast out Jewels instead of Rubbish Indeed it is impossible for an ignorant Man to have a good Conscience whether we respect Duty or Comfort in point of Duty I have shewed you formerly that Ignorance will make Conscience unnecessarily scrupulous or daringly presumptuous Now neither can an ignorant Conscience be good in respect of Comfort because through Ignorance Conscience oftentimes quarrels at that which is a true Ground of Rejoycing Conscience is that Glass whereby we may both view our selves and also our Actions Now as a Glass when falsly framed represents a beautiful Face monstrous and frightful so Conscience when falsly informed makes even lovely Actions appear mishapen and terrifying by distorted Representations of those Things that are lawful and perhaps our Duty also Therefore in the first place get an enlightned Conscience if you would get a good Conscience for what says the wise Man Prov. 19.2 Prov. 19.2 That the Soul be without knowledge it is not good or as some Translations have it a Soul without knowledge is not good it is indeed good for nothing unless it be to make Men sin conscientiously and to embolden them to commit the greatest Wickedness in the World with Peace and Comfort Thus says our Saviour John 16.2 John 16.2 Whosoever killeth you shall think that he doth God good Service through the Error and Mistake of their Conscience So in 1 Cor. 2.8 Had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory Knowledg betters the Conscience two ways Knowledge betters the Conscience two ways First 1. By instructing of it to discern betwixt Good and Evil. It gives its direction what to choose and what to avoid it instructs it to discern betwixt Good and Evil. Ignorant Persons often mistake the one for the other and eschew what they should follow or if they chance to do that which is good as it is not of great worth to do good only by chance and hazard so they sin also in doing good while the Judgment is in suspence the Conscience must needs be under Guilt If I know not whether I ought to do an Action or to forbear which way soever I take I am entangled in Sin for whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin That is whatsoever is done with a wavering Conscience that I know not whether it be sinful or not that thereby becomes Sin and whatever a Man doth doubtingly he is damned if he doth it
the Defilement of our Sins An historical Faith may keep the Soul from contracting Defilement but this justifying this saving Faith washes out the Stains and Defilements that we have contracted and makes us white and spotless in the Blood of the Lamb. Faith is that Conveyance that God hath appointed to bring the Blood of Christ to stream forth upon the defiled Soul and Conscience and upon every renewed Act of Sin we ought by a renewed Act of Faith to lay our spotted and defiled Souls under the fall of that Fountain that is set open to wash and cleanse us from our Filth and Pollution Thus Faith cleanseth the Conscience mystically and by the Actings of Faith we may thus get and keep our Consciences clear and inoffensive Fifthly 5. Set a strict Watch and Guard upon your selves If you would keep your Consciences clear then set a strict Watch and Guard upon your selves both upon your inward and upon your outward Man Set a Guard to your Heart and to all the Approaches to your Heart 1. Keep a narrow Guard upon your Heart 1. Set a Guard upon your Heart The Heart is the great meeting Place where Objects Thoughts and Affections do swarm and crowd together And as much Concourse leaves Dirt behind it upon the Place so this great Heart-Assembly usually leaves it foul and polluted Our Saviour Mark 9. tells the Jews That it was that which was within them that Wickedness which lay latent in their Hearts that which proceedeth from the Heart that defiles the Man There is a Defilement in the Thoughts and in the Desires as well as in the more gross and bulky Sins of the Life Hence the Prophet Jeremy speaks Jer. 4.14 O Jerusalem wash thine Heart from Wickedness Why wherewith is it polluted Why the next Words shew it How long shall thy vain Thoughts lodge within thee Vain Thoughts leave a Stain and Contagion upon the Soul and certainly if a vain Thought that is such a fleeting and volitary Thing breaths a kind of Contagion and Taint upon the Heart they certainly then must have foul Hearts indeed and their Spots in Grain who lie soaking and stewing themselves in Unclean Malicious and Covetous Thoughts and Designs Since then that Conscience is apt to receive Taint but with the breathing of a vain and sinful Thought upon it how doth it concern us then to keep a watchful and circumspect Eye over every Motion of our Hearts It is the wise Man's Counsel as you have heard Keep thy Heart with all diligence for out of it are the Issues of Life Look to it therefore that you suffer not your Hearts to be defiled with sinful Thoughts or sinful Affections by those inward and invisible Corruptions that settle at the bottom of it though the Life be never so clear and cristal yet if that Mud be but stirred and raised Conscience becomes thereby defiled and an evil Conscience And therefore the Apostle 1 Tim. 1.5 1 Tim. 1.5 joins them together speaking of a pure Heart and a good Conscience but if the steems of Lust rise up thick in the Heart they defile and pollute the Conscience Hence the Apostle again joins them together Tit. 1.15 Tit. 1.15 a defiled Mind and a defiled Conscience The Mind and Conscience says he is defiled How can the Mind be defiled unless it be with Sins of the Mind Evil Thoughts and evil Affections which as sprightly and aerial as they seem to be yet they leave a Stain upon the Conscience As the breathing upon a Glass sullies it and dims the Representation of the Face that looks into it so the breathing of evil Cogitations upon Conscience the Glass of the Soul leaves a Mist and Cloud upon it that it can but dimly and darkly represent to us our true State 2. Watch diligently as the Heart it self so all the Approaches unto the Heart 2. Watch diligently all the Approaches to the Heart The Approaches to the Heart are like your Roads to a great City which are full of Passengers and usually full of Dirt also And these are the Senses by which and through which Objects are continually travelling to the Heart and carry with them a World of Wickedness These are Sluces which instead of letting in pleasant Streams to refresh commonly they let in nothing but Mud which pollutes the Soul There is no actual Filthiness in the Hearts of any but what enters in by these Inlets through these the Devil casts in abundance of Filth stirs up and increaseth indwelling Lust and by sinful Objects that the Senses convey to the Soul dungs that Ground that is of it self but too too fruitful Thus the Devil makes use of the Ear through it he blows up the Bladder of Pride by the Breath of popular Applause and Praise And thus he makes use of the lascivious Eye as a burning Glass to set the Heart on Fire and so also he makes use of the other Senses as Sinks of Luxury and Intemperance Now if you would keep your Consciences clear and undefiled set a strict Guard and narrow Watch upon all these Passages to your Hearts critically examin every Thing that goes in and every Thing that comes out by these Gates arrest whatever cannot produce its Pass and Warrant from the Word of God keep the same Watch upon these Gates that God would keep on the Gate of the Heavenly City the New Jerusalem It is said Rev. 21.27 Rev. 21.27 That there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth Why so let us who would keep our Consciences clear guard all the Approaches to them with the same strictness and let nothing that defileth enter in by these Approaches to our Hearts Sixthly and Lastly 6. Listen to the Voice of Conscience take this Direction Be sure to listen to the Voice of Conscience Those that stop their Ears and will not hear Conscience when it directs and reproves shall be sure to hear it loud enough when it shall accuse and condemn them Conscience is the Voice of God in the Soul why now if this Voice be slighted beware lest the next time it speak to you in Thunder Do nothing contrary to the Dictates of your Consciences for this will provoke God to give you up to a reprobate Sense and judicially to harden you in your Sins for if sinning against your Consciences doth not corrupt them by making them insensible and stupid it will certainly corrupt them by making them enraging and despairing Well now for your Encouragement let me tell you while you are careful by following these Directions to keep your Consciences clear you shall also keep them peaceable It is the foulness of a Gun that makes it recoil in discharging And so it is the foulness of Men's Consciences that makes them recoil back again upon them in discharging of their Offices But while Conscience is kept clear and void of Offence it will be also kept free from quarrelling with you and