Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n
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A49403
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Religious perfection: or, A third part of the enquiry after happiness. By the author of Practical Christianity; Enquiry after happiness. Part 3.
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Lucas, Richard, 1648-1715.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing L3414; ESTC R200631
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216,575
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570
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Matter of Fact that the most Perfect upon Earth are not without Frailties and Infirmities and such Infirmities as discover themselves in actual Slips and Errors But the Question is whether these are to be accounted Sins I must confess if we strictly follow the Language of the Scripture we should rather call them by some other Name for this does so generally understand by Sin a Deliberate Transgression of the Law of God that it will be very difficult to produce many Texts wherein the Word Sin is used in any other sense As to Legal Pollutions I have not much considered the matter But as to Moral ones I am in some Degree confident that the word Sin does generally signifie such a Transgression as by the Gospel Covenant is punishable with Death and rarely does it occur in any other sense I say rarely for if I be not much mistaken the Scripture does sometimes call those Infirmities I am now talking of Sin But what if it did not 'T is plain That every Deviation from the Law of God if it has any Concurrence of the will in it is in strict speaking Sin and 't is as plain that the Scripture does frequently give us such Descriptions and Characters and such Names of these Sins of Infirmity as do oblige us both to strive and watch against them and repent of them For it calls them Spots Errors Defects Slips and the like But what is Lastly most to my purpose it is plain That this Distinction of Sins into Mortal and Venial or Sins of Infirmity has its Foundation in express Texts of Scripture Numerous are the Texts cited to this purpose But he that will deal fairly must confess that they are most of them improperly and impertinently urged as relating either to Falls into Temporal Calamity or to Mortal not Venial Sins or to the Sins of an unregenerate State or to a comparative Impurity I mean the Impurity of Man with respect to God a Form of Expression frequent in Job I will therefore content my self to cite three or four which seem not liable to these Exceptions Deut 32.4 they have corrupted themselves their Spot is not the spot of his Children They are a perverse and crooked Generation Here two things seem to be pointed out to us plainly First That the Children of God are not without their Spots Secondly That these are not of the same Nature with those of the wicked in comparison with whose wilful and perverse Transgressions the Children of God are elsewhere pronounced blameless without Offence without Spot Psal 19.12 13. Who can understand his Errors cleanse thou me from secret Faults keep back also thy Servant from presumptuous Sins let them not have dominion over me then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great Transgression Here again the Psalmist seems to me to place Uprightness in Freedom from Deliberate or Mortal Sin and to admit of another sort of Transgressions into which even upright Men slip sometimes Nor does the Psalmist here only assert Venial Sins but he seems to me to suggest the Springs and Sources of them namely some secret Dispositions in our Nature to Folly and Error which he prays God to cleanse and free him from more and more cleanse thou me from secret Faults The word Fault is not in the Original but something of that kind must be supplied to render the sense entire in our Language The words of Solomon Prov. 20.9 seem to relate to this Corruption lurking in us and never utterly to be extirpated Who can say I have made my Heart clean I am pure from my Sin For if this should be applied to Mortal Sin every one sees that it will contradict a hundred places in Scripture which attribute to Righteous Men Purity of Heart and Deliverance from Sin Lastly James 3.2 we are told plainly that in many things we offend all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not Sinners only but Righteous and Upright Men have their Defects and Slips And accordingly there is not any Life which we have the History of in Scripture how excellent soever the Person be but we meet with some of these recorded as will appear from those several Instances I shall produce when I come to describe the Nature of these Sins And certainly when David says of himself my Sins are more in number than the hairs of my head He that shall interpret this Place of Mortal or Presumptuous Sins will both contradict the Scriptures which acquit him except in the matter of Vriah and highly wrong the Memory of David making him a Prodigy of Wickedness instead of a Saint Nor does that make any thing against me which he adds in the next Words my heart fails me or that in the foregoing Verse mine Iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up For I do not affirm that the Psalmist here has regard only to Sins of Infirmity exclusively of others no he reckons all together and so discerns the one aggravated by the other and the Guilt of all together very far enhansed Nor do I Secondly interess my self here in that Dispute between Protestants and Papists whether Sins of Infirmity are not damnable in their own Nature though not imputed under the Covevenant of Grace Nor do I Lastly examine what a vast Heap of Sins of Infirmity may amount to though the Gilt of this or that alone were not so fatal I have then I think proved the matter in Question having shewed both from the Experience of Mankind and the Scripture That the best Men have their Infirmities and Defects And that these may properly enough be called Sins I think it superfluous to prove that they consist with a state of Salvation since 't is not by any that I know of denied and may be easily enough made out from what I have already said I am now to Enquire S. 2. What these Sins be and how distinguished from Mortal or Damnable ones To this purpose we may distinguish Human Actions under which I comprise both Internal and External into three sorts Voluntary Involuntary and Mixt. § 1. There are Actions properly and truly Voluntary such are those deliberate Transgressions of a Divine Law which Man commits in Opposition to the direct Remonstrances of Conscience he knows the Action is forbid he sees the Turpitude and Obliquity of it he is not ignorant of the punishment denounced against it and yet he ventures upon it This is plainly Mortal Damnable Sin and I cannot think that any Circumstance or Pretence whatever can render it Venial And therefore I must be pardoned if I cannot be of their Opinion who supposed that the smalness of the Matter the Reluctancy of Conscience or the Length and Force of a Temptation can so soften and mitigate a Voluntary Transgression as to diminish it into a Sin of Infirmity 1. As to the smalness of the Matter Some cannot but think those Transgressions Venial which are for the Matter of them so
on the Soul in its Creation but also scatters and diffuses I know not what Venome and Infection thorough it that makes it eagerly pursue its own Misery 'T is a Disease that produces more intollerable Effects in the Soul than any whatever can in the Body The Predominancy of any noxious Humour can breed no Pain no Disturbance equal to that of a Predominant Passionâ— no Scars or Ruins which the worst Disease leaves behind it are half so deformed and loathsom as those of Vice Nay that last Change which Death it self produces when it converts a beautiful Body into Dust and Rottenness is not half so contemptible or hateful as that of Sin when it transforms Man into a Beast or Devil If we do not yet sufficiently comprehend the Nature of Sin by viewing it as it exists in our Minds and Hearts we may Contemplate it in our Actions And here 't is Blindness and Folly Rashness and Madness Incogitance Levity Falshood and Cowardise 't is every thing that is mean and base and all this aggravated by the most accursed Ingratitude that Human Nature is capable of These and the like Reflections on the Nature of Sin cannot chuse but render it hateful And if Secondly we make any serious ones on the Effects of it they cannot fail of rendering it frightful and dreadful to us These Effects may be especially reduced to Three 1. The ill Influence Sin has upon our Temporal Concerns 2. Guilt And 3. Fear As to the First of these I shall only say that we suffer very few Evils but what are owing to our own Sins that it is very rarely any Calamity befalls us but we may put our Finger on the Fountain the Sin I mean from whence the Mischief flows Whence come Wars and Fighting amongst you saith St. James come they not from your Lusts which war in your Members This is every jot as applicable to Private as Publick Contentions and where Envy Strife and Contention is no evil Work no Disaster will be long absent I might run through all the different kinds of Evils that infest the Body or embroil the Fortune that blast our Hopes or stain our Desires and easily shew that they all generally spring from our Vices Nay what is worse yet I could shew that Sin converts our good things into evil and our Enjoyments into Punishments that it renders the slightest Evils intollerable turns Scratches into Wounds and Wounds into Gangrenes But this is too copious a subject and would insensibly render me Voluminous when I would be as short as possibly I can A Second Effect of Sin is Guilt which is nothing else but a Consciousness of having done ill and an Obligation to Punishment resulting from it And though Men often Sin with Hopes of Impunity yet it is hard to imagine even on this supposal that they should sin without suffering the Reproaches of their own Minds which surely must be very uneasie to them To be perpetually vex't at ones own Folly to commit those things which we inwardly condemn and be in continual Pain lest they should come to Light to be always displeased at ones self and afraid not only of the Reflections of others but our own This is methinks a great Evil did no other attend our sin But Thirdly Fear is almost inseparably joyned with Guilt for Guilt does not only damp the Chearfulness and enfeeble the Vigour of the Mind it does not only destroy that Confidence Man would otherwise naturally have in God and render him Cowardly and Pusillanimous but it terrifies his Soul with Melancholy Apprehensions and makes him live continually in fear of Death and Punishment And thus the Scripture represents the state of a sinner The wicked flee when none pursue but the righteous are bold as a lion Prov. 28.1 If our heart condemn us God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things 1 John 3.2 There is no peace to the wicked saith the Lord Isa 48.22 To deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Heb. 2.15 The sinners in Zion are afraid fearfulness has surpised the Hypocrites who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burnings Isa 23.14 Nor let any one wonder that notwithstanding the outward Gaiety of the sinner the Spirit thus describes the inward Condition of his Soul As long as Men retain the Belief of a God it is impossible they should wholly free themselves from the Fear of him They may indeed forget him in the Fits of Lust or Passion but in their Intermissions his Terrours will return upon them with more Violence Again as long as Men retain the common Principles of Truth and Justice if they acknowledge but the Obligation of that universal Law Thou shalt do to others as thou wouldest they should do unto thee 't is impossible they should reflect on their sins without Regret and uneasiness for there is no sin but has more or less Repugnancy in it to Truth Justice and Goodness Finally as long as Men are perswaded that there is such a Faculty as Conscience that God has prescribed them a Law and that they are accountable to Him the natural Conscience cannot chuse but by Fits and upon Occasions scourge and torture lance and gash them And 't is a hard matter to wear out these Notions they are so natural and obvious the Proofs of them are so clear their Reputation and Authority in the World is so well established and the Providence of God so frequently inculcates them Men may easily wear out all sense of the Beauty and of their Obligations to the Heights and Perfections of Vertue but they cannot so easily do this in reference to Virtue in general because 't is temper'd and accommodated to Human Nature and Society and necessary to the tollerable well-being of the World Men may soon I confess extinguish their Christianity but not Humanity and while this remains Sin will leave a Stain and Guilt behind it and Guilt will be attended by uneasiness and Fear The very Pagans who had advanced so far in Wickedness as to be given up to all dishonourable Passions and to commit all Vncleanness with Greediness had not yet so mortified and stupified their Consciences but that it gave them much Disturbance Rom. 1. ver 32. 't is said of them that they knew the Judgment of God that they which committed such things were worthy of Death And Rom. 2.15 their Consciences are said to accuse and condemn them And 't is of very wicked Men that the Author to the Hebrews affirms that through fear of Death they were all their life time subject to bondage But are there not will some say many Ingenious and Brave Spirits who have dispersed these vain Spectres and burst those superstitious Fetters by which you labour to scare and enslave the World I do not doubt indeed but that there are too many who have vigorously endeavour'd to cashier all Principles of Natural