Wherefore seeing the Heathen have a Conscience they have also a Law which leaves them without excuse at the great day of Judgment though they have not the light of the glorious Gospel shining among them as blessed be God we have Let us strive to keep Conscience awake while we are here in this life and not to muzzle its mouth then it will either accuse or excuse us but if it be deadned here at the great day of judgment when the books shall Rev. 20. 12. be opened that is mens Consciences or the records and testimonies of every man's Conscience being unfolded and manifested through the mighty power of God wherein as in books are written all mens thoughts words and works then Conscience will speak and not be dumb and thou shalt be judged out of those things which are written in those books yea if thou stiflest the mouth of Conscience here thy Conscience as ten thosand witnesses will fly in thy face for ever hereafter where the worm never Isai 66. 24. Mark 9. 44. dyes where that worm of Conscience will for ever gnaw upon thine heart in the fire that never goeth out Then the Lord will be known by the judgments Psal 9. 16. which He executeth and the wicked shall be snared in the works of their own hands Oh that dreadful expression the Lord said by Moses unto Pharaoh Exod. 9. 14. I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart and upon thy servants and upon thy people And in the next Chapter I have hardened his heart and Exod. 10. 1. the heart of his servants These spiritual judgments are of all others the most fearful and terrible that can befall a man or woman in this life As 1. Blindness of mind 2. Hardness of heart 3. Searedness of Conscience for these are the dreadful fore-runners of hell Let us therefore hearken to the checks of Conscience and not stifle them and labour we to have our hearts sprinkled Heb. 10. 22. from an evil Conscience that is from the inward impurity and defilements of corruption whereof every man's Conscience is a witness and judge And strive we also to have the answer of a 1 Pet. 3. 21. good conscience towards God The meaning of the Apostle there is of the inward baptism or washing wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost whereby a believers Conscience is in such manner eased acquitted and purified that it being tryed and questioned before God it answers and witnesses to it self in the name of the Holy Ghost Pardon Grace and Peace which is Rom. 8. 16. which is unto such a soul a foundation pledge and assurance of everlasting Salvation As the former were the pledges and assurances of everlasting damnation Despair is that which follows from an evil Conscience and obstinate contempt of God and is the greatest part of punishment and evil which wicked men suffer Conscience may be thus described though there be other definitions of it A power and faculty of the Soul taking knowledge and bearing witness of all a man's thoughts words and actions and accordingly excusing or accusing absolving or condemning comforting or tormenting of the same Conscience is God's Notary and there is nothing passes in our whole life whether good or evil which Conscience notes not down with an indeleble Character which nothing can rase out but Christ's blood alone Conscience writes men's sins as with a pen of Iron and with the point of a Diamond and they are graven upon the table of their hearts Their conscience Jer. 17. 1. also bearing witness c. In the day when Rom. 2. 15 16. God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ Conscience I say is exact and punctual in setting down the particulars of a man's whole life that it may be a faithful witness either for him or against him at the last day Our transgressions Isai 59. 12. are multiplyed before Thee and our sins testifie against us for our transgressions are with us and as for our sins we know them A hard heart is not rent by compunction Bernard nor mollified by Piety nor moved by intreaties yieldeth not unto threatnings is hardened by corrections is ingrateful for benefits will not hearken to good counsel cruel to revenge immodest in regard of shameful things not dismayed with dangers inhumane in humane things râ—sh in Divine things forgetting things past neglecting present things not providing for future that is which remembreth nothing past but only injuries to revenge them c. Q. How may we understand this that is said in several places Pharaoh hardened Exod. 4. 21 his heart and God said I have hardened Pharaohs heart and the Lord 9. 12. hardened Pharaohs heart if God hardened his heart how did he do it himself A. God worketh two ways in the hearts of wicked men 1. By with-holding His Grace whereby they might be moved unto good as when light is taken away there remaineth nothing but darkness and blindness when God's Spirit is taken away then mens hearts become hard as stones when God's direction ceaseth then mens hearts are turned aside into crookedness and perverseness so it is said that God doth blind harden and bow them from whom He takes away the power to see and to do that which is right 2. By using the Ministery of Sathan to stir up frame and incline their wills God for the executing of His judgments by Sathan the Minister of His wrath both appointeth the purposes of wicked men to what end it pleaseth Him and stirreth up their wills and strengthneth their endeavours So Sihon King of Heshbon as we said Deut. 2. 30. before did not let Israel pass by him because the Lord hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate that He might deliver him into the hand of Israel Therefore because it was God's Will to have him destroyed the making of his heart hard and obstinate was God's preparing him for his destruction So God hardened Pharaoh's heart that is not only in not sustaining it but also in committing his heart to Sathan to be confirmed with obstinacy So God turned their hearts to hate His Psal 105. 25. people c. And it was the Lord that hardened the heart of Pharaoh and his servants to pursue after Israel that He Exod. 14. 4. might be honoured upon Pharaoh c. God hardened Pharaoh's heart not that He did set and imprint hardness in his heart but because by sundry actions He ordered and governed His wicked will And they are four 1. God permitted Pharaoh to walk after his own will 2. He left him to the malice of the Devil and the lusts of his own heart 3. He urgeth him with a Commandment to let the people go and Pharaoh the more he is urged the stiffeâ— and more stubborn he is and the more he reâ—els against God 4. God useth the hardness of Pharaoh's heart to the manifestation of His own
air to meet the Lord But the Reprobate together with the Devil and his Angels shall with great horror and confusion be drawn into the presence of Christ then Rev. 6. 15. the Books shall be opened whereby we understand partly the Omniscience of God or His knowing of all things and partly the conscience of every man and woman And another book shall be opened which is the book of life Which is to shew that the salvation of the godly is not from their works buâ— from the eternal Grace of God whereby they are written in the book of life The wicked shall have their unbelief and wickedness so laid before their eyes by the testimony of their own consciences that they shall not be able to contradict or deny any thing at all I will reprove thee saith God and Psal â—0 21. Mat. 12. 3â— set thy wickedness before thy face The Act of Judgment shall be performed two ways 1. By examination 2. By pronouncing Sentence 1. By examination and that â— By 1. Examination the Law of God which hath been revealed unto men whether it be the Law of Nature only which is the remainder of the Law written in the hearts of our First Parents and conveyed by the Power of God unto all men to leave them without excuse for the Rom. 1. 20. invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even His eternal Power and God-head so that they are without excuse Or whether by the Law of God we understand that written word of God vouchsafed unto the Church in the Scriptures first of the Old and after of the New Testament as the rule of faith and life For as many as have sinned without Rom. 2. 12. Law shall also perish without Law and as many as have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law 2. This examination shall be by the evidence of every mans conscience bringing all his works to light whether they be good or evil his conscience bearing witness with him or against him together with the testimony of such who either by their doctrine company or example have either approved or condemned him Which Mat. 12. 27 41 42. shew the work of the law written in their Rom. 2. 15. hearts their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or excusing one another But there shall be a great difference in the examination of the elect and examination of the reprobates For 1. The elect shall not have their sins remembred Christ having satisfied for them All their transgressions that Ezek. 18. 22. they have committed they shall not be mentioned unto them Their transgressions are forgiven and their sins are covered Psal 32. 1. But their good works shall be remembred I was hungry and ye fed me c. their good works do follow Rev. 14. 13. them 2. Because they be in Christ therefore they and their works shall not undergo the strict Tryal of the law simply in its self but as the obedience thereof doth prove them to be true partakers of the grace of the Gospel Thus we have seen the first Act of judgment which is by Examination Now of the second Act which is by the 2. Pronouncing of sentence pronouncing of sentence The sentence shall be pronounced by the Judg Himself our Lord Jesus Christ according to the evidence and verdict of conscience touching works who shall adjudg the Elect unto the blessing of the Kingdom of God His Father And the Reprobates with the Devil and his Angels unto the curse of everlasting Fire So then men shall be adjudged to salvation or damnation for their works sake 1. The wicked shall be condemned for the merit of their works because being perfectly evil they deserve the wages of damnation For the wages of Rom. 6. 23. sin is death 2. The Godly shall be pronounced just because their works though imperfect do prove their faith whereby they lay hold on Christ and His meritorious righteousness to be a true Faith As Jam. 2. 18. Gal. 5. 6. working by love in all parts of obedience This last Judgment is administred by Christ as a King for the power of judging is a part of the Royal Function 1. In respect of the faithful this Judgment is from Grace and is a Function of the Kingdom of Grace essential to Christ as our Mediator 2. But in respect of the wicked From His Power and Dominion granted to Him by the Father Hence it is as I said before the sins of the Godly shall not come into Judgment for in this life by the Sentence of Justification they are taken away and coverd And this last Judgment shall be a confirming and manifestation of the same Sentence Therefore it is not consentaneous or meet that they should then be brought to light again Christ shall judg the world not according Isa 11. 3. to the sight of the eyes or hearing of the ears But He is the knower and searcher of all hearts who can discern the Hypocrites from the truly Godly and He will do no wrong to any The judg of all the earth will do Gen. 18. 25. right He will not acquit the wicked nor condemn the just He will manifest the secrets of all hearts and render to every one according to his works then shall the upright have praise of God Q Why must this last judgment be A. 1. Because of God's decree He hath decreed it and said it shall be 2. That God may obtain the end of creation of man God made all men for His glory if wicked men would not glorifie Him here He will judiciarily be glorified upon them in their everlasting confusion God shall be praised and glorified by His Elect to all eternity 3. That God may shew His perfect goodness and mercy to His Elect who were so excruciated troubled and afflicted here in this world that they may 2 Thess 1. 8. have rest 4. For His perfect Justice and Truths sake that He may shew His Justice in punishing the ungodly who do flourish in this world where they have all Luk. 16. 25. the good that ever they shall have Therefore it must be according to God's Justice and Truth in His Promises that the righteous shall have recompence in everlasting life both in body and soul Q. But it is said The Saints shall 1 Cor. 6. 2. judg the world And the Apostles shall sit upon thrones judging the twelve Luk. 22. 30. tribes of Israel A. I answer Christ alone in His humane nature shall appear judg and pronounce the sentence on all and execute it yet not excluding the Father and the Holy Ghost God is invisible For this judgment is the work of the whole individual Trinity but according to the visible act promulgation and execution of the sentence so it is the judgment of Christ For Christ being
these ungodly Swearers shall and that for ever for the Lord hath said He will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain God will have us to fear and reverence His glorious and fearful name the Deut. 28. 58. Psal 99. 3. Lord our God Let men praise His great and terrible name for it is holy The Jews heretofore were and yet still are so superstitious erring too much on the right hand that they mention not the Name of God but by a circumloquution and so had divers phrases to express God by as Caiaphas said to Christ Art thou the Son of the Blessed Mark 14. 61. would not say of God or of the Lord. But these on the contrary cannot speak six words without an oath and think it a Gentile quality and a gracing to their speeches to swear by the great and dreadful name of God I must not say they are Atheists although I really Tit. 1. 15 16. believe them so to be their mind and conscience is desiled They profess that they know God but in their works they deny Him being abominable disobedient unto every good work reprobate Like as they abhor not evil and abhor Psal 36. 4 10 3. Zech. 11. 8. to walk in God's ways even so the Lord will abhor them Their worm shall not dye neither shall their fire be quenched Isai 66. 24. and they shall be an abhorring to all flesh Although they think as their brethren of old those wicked rebellious Jews that they have made a Covenant with death and that they are at an agreement with Hell that when the Isai 28. 15. over-flowing scourge shall pass through that it shall not come unto them But the Lord telleth them your covenant 18. with death shall be disanulled and your agreement with hell shall not stand when the overflowing scourge shall pass through then ye shall be trodden down by it Some may think me too invective or â—atyrical against these prophane Sweaâ—ers let such know that these are the people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever They are God's Mal. 1. 4. â—nemies that take His name in vain Psal 139. 20. which should cause grief of heart and detestation of spirit to all those that love and fear the Lord. So the following words of David are Do not I hate Verses 21 22. them O Lord that hate thee and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee I hate them with a perfect hatred I count them mine enemies We have not a prophetical spirit as David had to know certainly God's enemies although by their fruits they may be known we Mat. â— 20. may and must hate their vices and wickednesses and leave them to the righteous judgment of God continuing to mourn for these abominations which do make the Land to mourn and not ceasing to pray for them If peradventure 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. God will give them repentance unto life and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil who are taken captive by him at his will to do his will Never was a child more like his father than they are like their father the Devil whose works they Joh. 8. 44. do By cursing and swearing whoredom Hos 4. 4. and adultery they break out for usually these abominable sins with others the like do go together they that make no conscience of one sin neither will they of another And when once the Devil hath gotten sound footing in such or such persons he drives them on without resistance They break all bonds asunder and cast all cords from them no bounds will hold them neither Psal 2. 3. Luk. 18. 4. the Laws of God nor man for they fear neither nor the checks of their own Consciences But like fed horses Jer. â— 8. neigh after their neighbours wise therefore God will cast them into a bed but it shall be a siery one into great tribulations Rev. 8. 22. except they repent of their deeds for whore-mongers and adulterers Heb. 13. 4. God will judge though they may escape the judgment of men yet God will assuredly judge them and will render to every one according to his 2 Cor. 5. 10 works Although while they are here they make the Land to mourn and the earth to groan under them to bear such wicked wretches God will come and Rom. 8. 2â— put a difference between him that sweareth and him that feareth an oath So Eccles 9. 2. we leave these Swearers who have attained to the highest form in the Devil's School By all these things we are taught how grievously they do sin who swear so rashly and easily oaths flowing from them as water out of a conduit in their ordinary speeches and discourses whose mouths are full of cursings and bitterness Rom. 3. 14. Job 15. 5. whose mouths utter their iniquities their own mouth condemns them Verse 6. and their own lips testifie against them they in the mean time not thinking that thereby they do expose the glory and the name of God to scorn and so do urge and provoke God to shew and inflict the severity of His judgments and vengeance upon them for the Lord will not suffer those to go unpunished who thus take His name in vain The Son of Syrach said Accustom not Ecclesiasticus 23. 9 10 11 thy mouth to swearing neither use thy self to the naming of the holy one For as a servant that is continually beaten shall not be without a blew-mark so he that sweareth and nameth God continually shall not be faultless A man that useth much swearing shall be filled with iniquity and the plague shall never depart from his house If he shall offend his sin shall be upon him and if he acknowledge not his sin he maketh a double offence and if he swear in vain he shall not be innocent but his house shall be full of calamities There is none that frequently swears but sometimes he forswears or perjureth himself like-as he who useth his mouth to multitude of words sometimes must needs speak unfit things Therefore said the wise man In the multitude of words Prov. 10. 19. there wanteth not sin But some will think to say O Lord O God O Jesus c. in their common talk or in a wondering way good God! good Lord is no sin Know assuredly that such foolish admirations and taking of God's Holy name lightly into our mouths on every slight occasion is utterly condemned in the third Commandment So the Reverend Archbishop Vsher and many other reverend and learned Divines do firmly conclude There is also a superstitious and idolatrous oath to swear by an idol or by Gods Creatures as by the Mass our Zeph. 1. 5. Lady c. by bread fish salt fire Amos 8. 14. light and many such-like fond trashes Whereas God never made or appointed His creatures for such uses Others will plight
keep and preserve them subdue the Canaanites before them and settle them in that Land for a possession as He had sworn to their fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Pharaoh said Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice I know not the Lord. But God said the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I have gotten Me honour upon Pharaoh upon Exod. 14. 18. his chariots and upon his horse-men Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see and be ashamed for their envy at Thy people Isai 26. 11. yea the sire of thine enemies shall devour them For the Scripture saith of Pharaoh Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up that I might shew My power in thee and that My name Rom. 9. 17. might be declared in all the earth So Sihon King of Heshbon though probably he had heard of the wonders God had wrought for Israel he would not let the people pass by him for the Lord hardened his Spirit and made his heart obstinate that He might deliver him into the hand of Israel who smoâ—e him his sons and all his people until Numb 21. 35. there was none left him alive and they possessed his Land So Nebuchadnezar when his heart was lifted up and his mind hardened in pride he was deposed from his kingly Dan. 5. 20 21. throne and they took his glory from him and he was driven from the sons of men and his heart was made like the beasts and his dwelling was with the wild asses they fed him with grass like oxen c. And thou his son O Beshazzar hast not humbled thine heart though thou Dan. 5. 22. 23. 30. knewest all this but hast lifted up thy self against the Lord of heaven c. and the God in whose hand thy breath is and whose are all thy wayes hast thou not honoured in that same night he was slain What became of the Jews who hardened their hearts against the preaching of Christ and His Apostles God gave them over to hardness of heart and impenitency c. those spiritual plagues and followed them so with His temporal judgments also until His wrath came 1 Thess 2. 16. upon them even to the utmost This St. Paul then spake in a way of Prophecy for he writ these Epistles to the Thessalonians from Athens about the 13th year of Claudius Caesar which was about 22 years after Christ Crucified and Jerusalem was not destroyed by Titus Vespâ—sian until some years after for some place it in the 40th year but the most Authentick in the 38th year after Christ was Crucified when in the Siege were slain Eleven hundred thousand in the war taken Captives Ninety seven thousand besides many millions that perished in silence Thus perished those wicked hardened Jews as they had wished that Christ's blood might be on them and on their children and so it hath rested Mat. 27. 25. heavily for above these Sixteen hundred years and they are as vagabonds on the earth still 〈◊〉 no more of this To harden the heart may have reference 1. To God which is when He leaves a man in his natural hardness not softning his heart but as a just Judge delivering him over to Satan to be more hardened thus God hardened Pharaoh's Exod. 9 12. heart 2. To Satan to inspire blind thoughts and so to make the heart of a man more hard 3. To a man's Self to follow his own lusts stubbornly thus Pharaoh hardened his heart So at last such a man hath a stony heart which is an extream hardness of man's wit and heart with stubbornness resisting God's will Thus a man comes to a hard heart which is a disobedient and unyielding heart a heart Rom. 2. 5. Heb. 3. 13. that cannot repent which the Apostle bids them beware of lest their heart be made hard through the deceitfulness of Isai 48. 4. Zech. 7. 12. sin This is the brâ—sen forehead the iron sinew the stony heart the heart of Adamant spoken of in Scripture which nothing can bow or break neither promises nor threatnings blessings nor afflictions Unto this estate men come by long custom in sin custom of sin bringeth hardness of heart Well doth holy David therefore pray to God to Psal 139. 24. 119. 101. 104. deliver him from every way of wickedness that he might not make wickedness his trade his customary way to walk in as too too many do This hardness of heart comes as I said before 1. By the just judgment of God 2. By the malice of Satan 3. By a man 's own perverse will This the Apostle fully describes They Eph. 4. 18 19 walk in the vanity of their mind having the understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their heart who being past feeling have given themselves over into lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness I translate it the hardness of their heart for the word in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies induration or hardening although rendered in our translation according to the blindness of their heart Whereas the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 callum Joh. 12. 40. obduco obduro is rendered He hath hardened their hearts and both words come from the same word in the Original So from these words we see in what consists this alienation or estranging from God namely in the darkness of the understanding and the untamed malice of the heart being deprived of God's Spirit and Grace being given over to a reprobate mind i. e. to a mind void of judgment or God took from them the light of right reason for all Rom. 1. 28. these the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies in the Original they are wilfully ignorant obstinately refusing the light of God which is offered them Who being past feeling having lost all remorse of Conscience all fear of God's judgments and likewise all just feeling of their punishments have deaded their Conscience that they may not be stayed from doing evil by God's judgments And this is the last degree and fulness of the said alienation from God by which a man is not only destitute of God's light and power to do well but also shakes off the only curb he had to keep him from doing evil which is his Conscience And so he brings himself to a seared Conscience to have his Conscience seared as with a hot iron that hath lost 1 Tim. 4. 2 all manner of feeling and motion of Conscience as a cautery or searing iron applyed to any part of the body deadens it and makes it insensible For Conscience is a Judge and a Witness unless it be deadned the Conscience is but a correspondency and relation of man's spirit unto the Law either to bind or unbind him to accuse or excuse him to condemn or absolve him