all Scripture given by Inspiration of God 2 Tim. 3.16 is profitable not only for doctrine but also for reproof correction and instruction c. So let this be used 1. For reproof Of three Errors in opinion 1. 1. Error That Conscience in general is not common to all as if some men had no Consciences whereas it is as possible for fire to be without heat as for any man to be without a Conscience The vulgar saying is Such a man hath no Conscience c. But the meaning is He hath no good Conscience for as good none as none good But every man hath a Conscience one or other such as it is good or bad For it is a standing Power created by God and unmoveably set in the soul of man abiding for ever with him whether he be on Earth in Heaven or Hell 2. 2. Error That Conscience is nothing but a sad mood or melancholy sit or heavy damp and dumps on the spirit of a man c. Erroneously mistaking the effect of the cause Whereas Conscience is a standard chained to man ever remaining with him when all his moods and fits of heats and colds of fears and joyes and jollities are over and gone Let Hypocrites and Epicures slabber it with their jollity and daub it with their formality yet their Consciences will be sure one time or other if not in the midst of their drunken carouses and riotousexcesses like those singers of a mans hand on Belshazzar's wall get in the end and bottome Dan 5.5 to sadden soure and spoyl all Prov. 14.13 yea even in their best services as in Cain's Sacrifice when his countenance was dijected there will be something if not in the midst Gen. 4.5 yet in the end to tell them That both their Acts and Persons are rejected That Conscience is hanged or drowned 3. Error dead and gone a great while a go c. But alas these are idle addle opinions Atheistical Proverbs and sottish imaginations had it been no more then this That Conscience hath lain long bedrid and speechlesse c. it had been enough yet it might be raised and recovered But that he is dead yea so shamefully and accursedly dead 'T is petty Atheism to say and think so No no Ahitophel can tell you That though a man hang himself 2 Sam. 17.23 yet he cannot hang his Conscience Saul can tell you 1 Sam. 31.4 That though a man kill himself yet he cannot kill his Conscience which is as immortal as his soul Judas could tell you Mat. 27.4 That no force or violence can suppresse or curb it for it made him carry back the price and decry his sin saying I have sinned Pharaoh could tell you That no earthly might or majesty can bash or dash it but that one time or other it will stare and flie in the sinners face for it did in his as great a King as he was and made him say I have now sinned The Lord is righteous Exod. 9.27 but I and my people are wicked Saul again could tell you That no Mirth or Musick can Charme or Conjure the evill spirit of it 1 Sam. 16.14 16. for his bad Conscience plaied the Divel with his wretched soul And Joseph's Brethren could tell you That time and years cannot expunge the writings nor obliterate or eat out the ingravings of it for twenty years after when there was no other Pursuer or Remembrancer it accused them Gen. 42.21 22. and made them look wistly upon one another and accuse themselves of their cruel unnaturall usage of him Nullum tempus occurrit Regi And they said one to another We are verily guilty concerning our Brother c. Therefore is this distresse come upon us and his blood required of us And now having mentioned twenty years 't is the lesse notable to speak of Pharaoh's Butler's Conscience remembring him about one year after Gen. 40.23 Gen. 41.9 I do now remember my faults this day And verily so it is That as many in youthful vanity and vain-glory do such violent wrongs in bulges and bruises to their bodies as forty or fifty years after they sadly remember in the Aches and Ailings of pained old Age So do many bear out insensibly for a time the bulges and bruises they have given their souls it may be thirty forty fifty years till the hand of the Lord be upon them either in some heavy crosse and sharp affliction or a Death-bed and then commonly Conscience remembers them For Conscience will keep a grudge a long time and is not so soon pacified as offended though it doth not always shew remorse yet it always keeps remembrance though in many men it sleep in regard of motion yet it never sleeps in regard of notice and observation And though not always speaking yet it is always writing taking Notes preparing Bills and Items against that day to come Nay death it self that dissolves all worldly knots and parts the neerest on Earth Man and Wife cannot part Conscience and Sinner but it remains in him as a worm that never dies Mar. 9.44 and as a fire that never goes out Isa 66.24 not on Earth no nor in Hell And thus for reproof of three errors and false opinions 2. For Correction Of three practical Errors and Misbehaviours of the World in point of Conscience 1. 1. Miscarriage In wrapping up Goliah's sword in a fair cloth behind the Ephod In hiding the monstrous miscarriages prodigious impieties and divelish practises of the World under that Religious name and specious mask of Conscience One man is of an erroneous opinion and Hetrodox judgement holds some false doctrine by means either of the authority of the Teacher or of the dignity of some eminent follower as having mens persons in admiration Jam. 2.1 Jude 16. and having the faith of Christ in respect of persons or of prejudice and prepossession sticking to his first perswasion pride and obstinacy denying place for retractation or truer information and this he calls his Conscience Another is of an irrefractory inclination of an heady headstrong humour and propension his senses not exercised to discern between his natural and spiritual disposition Heb. 5.24 the motion of his sensitive appetite and his diviner principle his lower and his upper soul and the former commonly is more obstreperous importunate and clamorous for satisfaction then the latter whereby a man thinks himselfe bound to do whatsoever he hath a strong mind will and humour to do and this he calls his Conscience Another is of a strong strange imagination and phantasie which is a kind of irrational animal conscience having the same relation to sensitive representations those Laws in the members which Conscience hath to intellectual those Laws of the mind Rom. 7.23 Aristotle And as phantasie supplieth the place of reason in unreasonable creatures so it doth of Conscience in unconscionable when a man is directed
what with an inlightned one without a purified and pacified one without a sanctified and saved one by the blood of Jesus O plead this blood but first beg it with more then Rachell's earnestnesse for children Gen. 30.1 Lord give it me or else I die And when we have gotten this good enlightned purified and pacified Conscience we were best keep it with all diligence keep the peace of it and not willingly offend it for a thousand worlds And that upon these considerations 1. That to sin against the cry of an illightned Conscience Isa 65.3 Ezek. 2.4 is to provoke God to his face like impudent children in the holy Prophets account for an illuminated Conscience is as the face of God in the soul of man where a man even sees God looking upon him commanding or forbidding 2. That to sin against the cry of an illightned Conscience is to draw upon a mans soul the horrible guilt of Herod's aggravation and huge addition unto all his sins and evils Luke 3.20 He added yet this above all that he shut up John in prison John 5.35 John was a burning and a shining light And such is an illuminated Conscience therefore to go against the burning and shining light thereof is to add yet this above all other evils to shut up our John in prison 3. That to sin against the cry of an illightned Conscience offends Gods deputy in the soul and provokes him oft times to stab the heart dead all duty discountenance faith and hope and discourage confidence in prayer If our heart condemn us not 1 John 3.20 21. Mat. 5.23 then have we confidence towards God and what we ask we receive c. But if it doth condemn us we may hold our peace for it is of greater danger then in case of an offended and irreconciled brother If thou bring thy prayer into God's presence and there remembrest that thine offended irreconciled Conscience hath ought against thee first go and by faith in Christ's blood and resolution of new obedience be reconciled unto thy Conscience and then come and pray for an irreconciled Conscience doth ever way-lay undermine and enter caveats against prayers Psal 66.18 no offering will be accepted till Conscience be satisfied be it for our selves or others bad Consciences much hinder prayer If I have a bad Conscience God will not heare my prayers saith David ye have good Consciences Heb. 13.18 therefore God will hear your prayers for us said Paul 4. That Conscience is ever to abide and dwell with us never to leave a man therefore to be kept with all diligence that it may be good and void of offence Two that were born and bred and must inseparably live together should take heed of offending one the other there is a parting time for all but a man and his Conscience there are none on Earth with whom we shall always live without any separation but our Consciences not always with Husbands or Wives with Parents or Children with Masters or Servants c. But with our Consciences ever therefore make you much of it In one of the Fathers we read a Parable to this purpose Greg. Mor. of a Man that had three friends two of whom he loved very intirely and the third but indifferently this Man being called in question for his life craved aid of his friends The first would only accompany him some part of the way and bring him going and no more The second would onely lend him some means and accommodate him for his journey and no more But the third whom he least expected and regarded would go all the way abide and appeare ever with him speak and plead for him and never leave him Now we are the man Flesh World and Conscience are our three friends And when death shall summon us to Judgement Our fleshly friends will bring us to our graves and decent burials so far going and there leave us Our worldly goods may help us to Shrouds Coffins Tombs and at most Epitaphs and there leave us But well fare a good Conscience this will live and die with us or rather live when we are dead awaiting our rising again to appear with us and stand for us before God at his judgement-seat And when neither of our other friends can do us good then a good Conscience will stand us in high and eternal stead Conscience I say FINIS
it is so called 4. The place and Situation of it Where this thing resides which is so called 5. The subject of it whose and with whom this thing it which is so called 6. The ground and reason Why there is at all such a thing which is so called Conscience I say 1. The Truth of it That there is such a thing in the general which is so called 1. Quod sit seemeth past all question not only by the writings of holy men of God inspired by the holy Ghost Dr. Hammond both in the New Testament two and thirty times under the particular expresse term of Conscience so frequent among the Evangelists and Apostles and in the Old Testament though but once by the Greek Translators under that notion Eccle. 10.20 Eccles 7.22 Dan. 7. yet often under the general terms of Heart Rom. 2.15 Rom. 8.16 1 Cor. 2.11 1 John 3.21 Soul Spirit and Thought and so the Hebrew ever you can hardly find the term Conscience with them but commonly one of these As St. John who so much abounded with Hebrewismes If our Heart condemn us c. meaning our Conscience Thus not only upon sacred Record but also by human writers Their Paedagogus their Genius their Guardant Angel and the like meaning Conscience Yea by very Heathen themselves in whom this light of Law and Nature is conserved there being no People so barbarous but that part of Conscience which is called Synteresis keepeth in them some sparks of the knowledge of good and evil which the most prophane man that ever was cannot though he would get utterly extinct and suffocate The Dictates of Conscience have apparent impressions in the most Miscreants on Earth Dictamen Conscientiae in whom Nature it selfe shrinks and sighs when it hath done ill joyes and elevates it self when it hath done well And what is all this but the act of Consc their Master-Phylosophers make the soul a building consisting of many rooms some higher some lower whereof the highest is the Vnderstanding and this again is either Speculative containing some general Notions and Principles of Truth Or Practical containing the like Principles and Axiomes of good things which at first were and still are in part left in the soul of man and this even in their judgement is called Conscience And now if the Testimony of an Adversary be strong for an Adversary Why may not this Theological Truth get some advantage by consent from Heathens in whom so much light of Nature and Law is reserved Who shall question a Deity if the very Heathens acknowledge it and who can deny a Conscience if the very Pagans confesse it Nay by unreasonable creatures themselves An irrational animal Conscience Dr. Hammond for there is some shadow of this in a beast as there is of reason some shadow I say whose secret instinct of nature which answers to the Heathens Dictamen Jer. 8.7 whereby the Stork Turtle Crane and Swallow c are inclined to do that which upbraids man is to them in place of that which is called Conscience to man And thus for the Truth of it That there is such a thing which is so called 2. 2. Quid sit The nature of it What in the general this thing is which is so called Conscience for we may with the Israelites ask what is it Exod. 16.15 being a kind of Manna too But let no man ask here of Conscience as Pilate did there of Truth John 18.38 what is it and go out but stay and attend a while For it is a word of great Latitude and of Infinit Dispute and it is a thing much talked of little known and less practised then understood Mllaem ut me reprehendant Grammtici quam ut non intelligant populi Therefore herein the best learning is to be most plain and so I may be profitable I care the less to seem artificial in regard of that we have in hand Conscience I say And note we now both Name Thing For things as well as men should be known by their name The name of it which according to the Etymology of the word 1. Quid nominis both in Greek and Latine is A joynt knowing or seeing together Syneidesis Conscientia Diversly to be taken subjectively if I may so speak anothers knowledge joyned with ours the joynt knowledge of two persons together two Secretaries Records and witnesses one on Earth the other in Heaven Job's witnesse in Heaven Job 16.19 and Record on high so that man can know nothing himselfe alone there must be another besides man's selfe and this other is God And therefore God and man are so joyned together in Conscience 1 Cor. 2.11 1 John 3.20 Rom. 9.1 which God hath deputed to give witnes and sentence with him and before him mans joynt knowledge with God's Conscience I say Objectively of one thing and another the joynt knowledge of two things together A Rule and an Act at once Science is of one simple object Conscience is of two laid together and then with one Act of the intellect apprehended joyntly whence likely it came by the name of Conscience I say Actively also Scientia cum alia Bernard two joynt knowledges together both one and another c. And thus for the name Conscience I say The thing and nature of it though better felt than described 2. Quid Rei yet may be thus conceived Conscience is a Divine thing a standing power in the soul of Man there set and appointed by God to take knowledge and give notice of its spiritual state and condition in what terms it standeth with God Or thus Conscience is the judgement of man upon himself as he is subject to the judgement of God Judge I pray betwixt me and my vineyard Judge our selves that is In our Conscience Isa 5.3 1 Cor. 11.31 Divines do usually expresse it by a practical syllogism as they call it Pro and Con Whereof The Major and proposition is made by Synteresis that is some knowledge of a Rule what we should do in the word The Minor and assumption is made by Syneidesis that is the knowledge of some Act in life what we have done The Conclusion by the act and office of Conscience with us or against us excusing or accusing absolving or condemning comforting or tormenting As for instance To be carnally minded is death Rom. 8.6 But I am carnally minded -Therefore I am in a state of death And so on the contrary As many as are led by the Spirit of God Rom. 8.4 they are the Sons of God this is from knowledge of the word of God But I am led by the Spirit of God this is from knowledge of a mans heart and life Therefore I am the child of God Thus Conscience is very rational and logical it can hold and urge an argument well in right mood and figure though Scholars only are
artificial yet Conscience inlightened is a good natural Logitian As the Apostle told the Christians at Rome who were scarce ever at Athens that they had Logick enough to argue themselves Dead unto sin and alive unto God Rom. 6.11 through Jesus Christ our Lord The original word means thus Exercise so much Logick in your selves and like good Logitians prove your selves c. And thus for the nature of it in general what this thing is which is so called 3. 3. Quale sit The original Quality and condition of it in general Whence and what manner of thing it is Conscience is of God and things only excellent are so termed of God Psal 36.6 Psal 51.17 I say A spiritual thing very sacred and divine much like God as in other respects so in this not easily comprehended A subordinate God Nay some good-natured Atheists have so Revered and Defined it as the only Deity in the world and in proportion fancied nothing but God-like of it Nothing indeed more God like and Divine as seeming to partake of the Immensity Infinitenesse and Omnipresence of God To illustrate the Quality and Condition of it the Holy learned of old time as well as new have many sayings and similitudes For transcendent things need many words for their conveyance unto common apprehensions One calleth Conscience A just and impartial Vmpire betwixt God and man speaking the truth and right Vmpire Another terms it An Authentick and Divine Eccho both of the Mercy and the Judgement-seat saying as God saith If it condemn Eccho 1 John 3.20 21. much more will God who is greater And if not neither doth God One of the Greek Fathers styls it The Souls Lanthorn by it to see her self and her sins Lanthorn But as spirits say some first make the lights to burn blew and at the last to go quite out So the Divel with his blast would blow this Candle of the Lord in the belly as Solomon calleth it out Prov. 20.27 that the soul should see nothing by it Another calleth it The Stomach of the Soul That whereas sin Stomach like the book in the Revelation which St. John was bid to eat sweet in the mouth Rev. 10.10 but bitter in the belly goeth glibly down as smooth as Oyl Conscience disdaineth and loatheth it Faâ—tum Infectum and fain would cast it up again but that a thing done cannot be undone yet it yeoxeth and reacheth and exhaleth many loathsome savors it upbraids the sinner One calleth it A secondary Law or Bible Book Bernard Chrysost hodex animae a living and walking Book annexed to the soul of man consisting of two parts or volumes The Law-book of Statutes And the Chronicle-booke of works one for Rule the other for Acts. Another calleth it A School-Master Monitor and Corrector of the soul Origen Paedagogus animae mind thoughts and ways and indeed they fare much alike at the unworthy hands of the misdeeming World for though a good School Master be one of the best members in Church and Common-wealth Quem Jupiter odit hunc Paedagogum facit yet hated and despised even to a Proverb not caring to be troubled with them So with Conscience It is styled by one The House of the Soul because there if anywhere House men may be properly said to be at home Pro. 23.7 and at home men are though not abroad what they are As he thinketh in his heart and Conscience so is he As when we receive Summons from Superiors the Messengers follow us not to our ideling places abroad but come to our houses supposing every man to be at home and there fasten their Scripts upon the door So God's Ministers and Messengers look for us with their Summons at the houses of our Consciences And oh how many Scripts have they fixed upon our doors And is it not pity that this our sumptuous house should lie waste ruined and decayed And by another God 's Secretary and Apparater His Commissary and Minister Preacher God's Preacher in our Bosomes And it is a most certain Rule That that man that will not regard the Preacher in the Bosome will hardly regard the Preacher in the Pulpit And the reason of the ones prositing so little is because the other is neglected so much And The Souls Looking-glasse clearer then Cristal Glasse Speculo Similis wherein by reflection we may see all of our selves and therefore the Conscience is called Anima reflexa The Soul reflecting and recoyling upon it self As St. 1 Cor. 4.4 Paul did to know by it self or A reflexive Knowledge Scientia Reflexiva First the mind thinketh or knoweth a thing which is either good or bad Then it reflecteth by thinking and knowing againe knowing that we know it to be good or bad As men say vulgarly I know what I know 1 Kings 2.44 And as the King to Shimei Thou knowest all that thine heart knoweth c. And this is the Act of Conscience this joyning of the second knowledge to the first giveth it the name of Conscience Resemblance of this we have in the eye that can see all visible objects all things that are to be seen and yet seeth not it self but by reflexion the help of a Looking-glasse So the mind of man that can look upon and into all creatures yet cannot behold it self but by Conscience which is The whole Soul with its eyes inward Forerunner of the last Judgement Another calleth it The Forerunner of the last Judgement the private before the publique Judgement day Praejudicium extremi Judicii as your Sessions before Assizes even the truest Almanack in our own brests and bosomes Tertullian foreshewing the weather of the future world and what shall become of us at the last day And thus for the quality of Conscience in general whence and what manner of thing it is 4. 4. Vbi sit The proper Place and Seat of it And here as between Christ and two of John's Disciples Master John 1.38 where dwellest thou Come and see the habitation is not the Body but the Soul not in the Face 1 Cor. 2.11 no other man can know it not in the Speech no hypocrisie or dissimulation of man can thrall it to justisie his words and deeds although a thousand times alledged It is the Deputy of God in the soul of man Ames and yet here all do not accord about it Some give it as belonging only to the will Barlow for the agent and working power of it as onely practick Some to the Mind for the understanding power of it as only Theorick Actus rationis applicans scientiam ad opus Aquin. Some to Reason for the discoursing power of it driving to issue by discourse Some call it an Habit others an Act others a Faculty with their several arguments Pro and Con This is that I told you before Men
it must speak all at once which who can bear Oh 't is heavy hearing all at once as falling all at once once for all when Conscience shall take up those words in Isaiah I have long Isa 42.14 time holden my peace I have been still and refrained my self now will I cry and destroy and devour at once And as it was in the Fable of the blinde Woman and the Physitian coming often to her house to cure her never departed empty but still carried away a portion of her best good so that by that time that her sight was recovered all her choisest goods were gone So this blinded charmed Conscience sees not the ransacking of the soul and spoyling of graces till it be left empty and then it sees and cries with Esau too late for a blessing And therefore though some wretched men by their wicked commissions of evils omissions of good and procrastinations of their repentance and conversions to God seem as destitute and void of Conscience as the very beasts that perish yet Conscience will stand forth and appear in due time and shew plainly that it was present with them every moment of their lives and privy to all their evil acts Psa 50.21 thoughts and ways by reproving and setting them in order before their eyes and making them say with David O Lord Conscience Psal 139.1 2 3. thou hast searched me and known me thou knowest my down lying and mine uprising and understandest my thoughts Thou compassest or winnowest my paths and art acquainted with all my ways And as Jesus to Nathanael before that Philip called thee John 1.48 when thou wast under the fig-tree I saw thee So will Conscience at last say to those ungodly men Before I now speak to you I saw you At such and such a time in such and such a place with such and such company about such and such ungodly deeds I saw you And all to shew it an impossible and therefore a vain thing to attempt the nulling or avoiding of Conscience 2. Because it were a thing unprofitable and distructive to man Hos 4.17 to be let alone without this Monitor and Corrector Psal 81.11 12. Prov. 20.27 Prov. 4.19 to be given up to the treachery of a beloved sin or to the tyranny of a raging lust without this controller to have this candle of the Lord put out which should search all the hidden parts of the belly to have a mans way as darknesse and not to know whereat he stumbles this were one of God's heaviest judgements on man on this side Hell Like a Body without a Pulse a City without Ward or Walls and an Army without a Watch Such or worse were a mans case without Conscience if it were possible but that divelish rage and practice is vain because impossible and unprofitable And thus for correction of three evil practises 3. For Instruction In a pure and precious point of righteousnesse about Conscience Prov. 4.23 To keep it with all diligence or with all keeping as men would keep their treasures their honours their lives This prime Christian Jewel as Instar omnium is to be sought with all seeking and to be kept with all keeping That it may be good and void of offence toward God and men in all actions spiritual Act. 23.1 Act. 24.16 moral civil natural after St. Paul's example making it our special businesse and dayly exercise to have and to hold and to use a good Conscience And that upon this consideration because Conscience is a thing inseparably annexed unto the soul of man there set and appointed by God never to leave him And now here I crave leave for a little digression to take some view of the sundry kinds sorts of Conscience as of lines drawn from the centre to declinate the several climates and regions of Conscience Which of old were thought to be wittily distributed into Four Bernard 1. Good but not Quiet 2. Quiet but not Good 3. Both Good and Quiet 4. Neither Good nor Quiet 1. An evill unquiet Conscience is bad but hopeful because some life is in it 2. An evil quiet Conscience is worst of all the most hopelesse temper that can be better to have a tormenting Tophet in the soul than a Fools paradise there It was better with Peter when he wept Mat. 26. â—5 than when he presumed 3. A good unquiet Conscience is good not simply but respectively of tendernesse and fearfulnesse to offend God 4. A good and quiet Conscience is best of all a paradise upon Earth a pregustation and prelibation of Heaven Heaven before the time Juge convivium Prov. 15.15 Heb. 1.14 Rev. 3.20 Rom. 14.17 Phil. 4.7 A mansion for the blessed Trinity to dwell in a continual feast at which the Servitors are Angels the prime guest God himself The cheer joy in the holy Ghost the Musick peace with the creatures with our Neighbours and with our selves yea and such peace with God in Christ as passeth all understanding The two good Consciences belong properly to the godly And the two bad to the ungodly Whose Consciences are Either too quiet being blinded or benummed or seared and so like a becalmed Ocean to famished Sea-men that kills with kindnesse and destroys with fair weather Perituros lactans Judg. 5.25 and like dissembling Jael offering Milk and Butter means of life but bringing Hammer and Nail instruments of death Or too unquiet being wounded enraged tormented and so like the troubled Sea that cannot rest So that Good and Bad comprehend all Consciences without more words and terms for rest and trouble are not essential but accidental to Conscience Now in the general a good Conscience is The seeing of an act according with the rule And in particular it is either legal or evangelical according to the rules of each A legal good Conscience compleat is A seeing of all our actions according with all the rules of the Law exactly And requires two things 1. A distinct and universal knowledge of every branch of the Law 2. A constant and universal obedience to every precept of the Law For he who is ignorant of the least tittle Jam. 2.10 and delinquent in any particle is guilty of all and so consequently hath not a compleat legall good Conscience But what is this to us this is none of ours as our case now stands therefore we may say and do with it as did the Tribes with Rehoboam 1 King 12.16 saying What portion have we in David c. And so departed For the compleat legal good Conscience is unto us as Saul's Armour was unto David Too heavy for him to bear therefore our surest safest way is denying and disclaiming all pretensions to compleat legal good Conscience to depart unto the Evangelical that we may be justified and saved Gal. 2.16 Heb. 7.19 these be your only Tents O Israel for if the Law as the case now stands with us be
should not sound as old and legal Rom. 3.27 2 Thes 1.8 but rather as new and evangelical For there is a law of Faith and a vengeance on the disobedience to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ Mat. 11.28 29 30. yea there is a yoak of Christ and which is more admirable a yoake that easeth O mirus reficiendi modus But whither run we out into particulars there is one comprehensive compendious thing most eminently and transcendently necessary to an evangelical good Conscience as all in all Namely 3. The Spirit of Faith in the blood of Jesus 2 Cor. 4.13 No good Conscience without Faith as it seems by their fast frequent conjunction together 1 Tim. 1.4 18 19. so obvious in holy Scripture Faith and a good Conscience 1 Tim. 3.9 yet not that poor livelesse fruitless faith which may be found in apostate men Jam. 2.15 and Divels Rom. 1.17 Rom. 5.1 Act. 15.9 1 John 5.4 Eph. 2.8 who are said to believe and tremble But that Faith which verisies and justifies and purifies and pacifies and conquereth and saveth This this is the Faith For the image of God wherein man was first created was not more necessary to the attaining of a legal good Conscience than this Faith so invested with such gracious properties is to the accomplishing of an evangelical For what availeth the knowledge of Law and Gospel and so much Faith as to give credence to the truth of the precepts and promises and threats without that personal peculiar proper Faith whereby Christ is applied in particular with all his benefits to each believing soul So that without Faith no evangelical good Conscience Whence here is the difference betwixt the compleatnesse of a legal and evangelical good Conscience That requireth many acts to perfect it Deut. 26.27 Jam. 2.10 one sinful commission or omission is enough to wrack and spoyl it This requires but one only to compleat it one act of believing uniteth to Christ by which union man is made partaker of the all-sufficient obedience of Christ which is the sole and absolute object matter of an evangelical good Conscience For as one act of Adam brake the whole Decalogue so one act of faith in Christ will perfectly fulfil it But not the habit without the act nor the act without the object maketh an evangelical good Conscience and justifies For the whole obedience of Christ typified by the whole Lamb to be eaten and accounted for Exod. 12.4 10. is it that satisfies the justice of the Law which when by faith we are conjoyned to him is made all ours And therefore Faith and Christ's blood Christ's Blood are here conjoyned in one as to an evangelical good Conscience As no good Conscience without faith So No good Conscience without Christ's blood A good Conscience is most beholding unto the blood of Christ for its goodness as the only price of it the material and meritorious cause of it yea and of our redemption the graces fore-mentioned are the means of application There sticketh to the Conscience of every man naturally a great deal of guile and filth which defileth and obscureth and hardens it and it hath contracted so much guilt and foulnesse that there is no room for peace till it be refined and cleansed Heb. 9.14 Act. 15.9 Rom. 5.1 and mollified which can no way be done without saith in Christ's blood Heb. 9.18 22. which is all in all For as in the old Law all dedications and purgings and remissions were by blood So in the new Law of Faith in the Gospel no good done about Conscience without blood It is Purged Purified Pacified all by this blood Conscience is 1. 1 Joh. 1.7 Purged and Cleansed -From the corruption of sin by the efficacy of Christ's blood From the guilt of sin by the merit of Christs blood 2 Tim. 1.3 2. Purified and Sanctified from the stain of sin 1 Pet. 3.21 by the purity of Christs blood 3. Pacified from the unquietness of sin Col. 1.20 by the attonement of Christ's blood In sin unrepented Isa 57.20 21. unpardoned unpurged unreformed there is no peace but like the troubled Sea it cannot rest A good Conscience may be like the troubled Air sometime disquieted but when the wind is still the Air can rest when the occasion is over the Conscience is quiet But a bad Conscience is like the troubled Sea that cannot rest through the inconstancy of its own natural motions fluxing and refluxing and the restlesnesse of its own waves as well as the boysterousnesse of external storms and winds so that the Sea remains unquiet when the storm is ended so do evil mens bad Consciences when the outward occasion of affliction is ceased and that trouble ended yet they have that within which denies their rest Such indeed is the guilt and filth of sin to the Conscience as Jonah to the Mariners and Achan to the Souldiers a dangerous and accursed thing or like an arrow-head and corrupt coar in a wound no safety or blessing ease or healing till out and gone And this can never be done but by the blood of Jesus Heb. 12.24 Oh that purging purifying pacifying blood of his that blood of sprinkling so called in allusion to that blood in the bason of the Passeover Exod. 12.22 wherewith the Lintel and the two side-posts were sprinkled and whereby this blood was prefigured Now although about the two side-posts some Interpreters are but little divided yet about the transome or lintel lesse most applying it to Conscience For the resemblance in ancient buildings of those Countreys contriving in or just over the lintel a place to look out at for the discovery of all that knock at door And such a thing indeed is Conscience through which we should look out upon all occurrences and occasions before we admit or open And this Lintel we must strike with the bunch of Hysop dipped in the blood of the Bason Conscience must be struck with faith in Christ's blood the blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things then that of Abel Better to God and better to Conscience Mark 4.39 and the voice which it speaks is peace and be still and that not because blood but because his blood who can quiet Consciences as well as Seas and Winds and that not without faith for no goodnesse or purity or peace to the Conscience without blood and no such blood for the Conscience without faith Therefore the unbelieving Conscience is a defiled Conscience and the defiled Conscience is a disturbed Conscience and the disturbed Conscience no compleat good Conscience Tit. 1.15 defiled and unbelieving are in conjunction by the holy Ghost Therefore as we love to have and to hold and to use a good Conscience in all our beggings beg we this faith of God in this blood For what can a man do with an old natural Conscience without a new inlightned one And