be done by My Conscience tells me such and such things must be done which are matters of general right and equity And they that deny such clear and commonly received laws of general right are in common speech said to offer violence to their Consciences So my Conscience tells me such and such matters may be declined and forborn which are matters of indifferency 'T is true there is no small difference between the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the conservation of such laws and rules and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Conscience strictly so called * See Baldw. Cas Cons l. 1. c 4. But I must follow the vulgar usage and sense of this term as most fitting my design There is an habit bank and treasury of light and laws with Conscience and which it conserves Here is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is the application of them had and made by Conscience here is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The second and third Propositions still make application of some general law or rule had in the first Proposition to a mans particular estate or actions Thus it is the office of Conscience to apply general Propositions and Canons to a mans personal and particular case and concern And indeed the Thomists * Aquin. Sum. 1. q. 79. a. 13 do make Conscience to be nothing else but an application of the knowledg or light which is in the Synteresis and therefore define it to be an act Though to speak properly as one * Sanders Prael 1. de Consc §. 14. observeth the application of science is not Conscience it self but an act of it And as another * Rutherf libert of Consc c. 1. p. 6. saith 'T is the same Conscience that acts all three parts of a law of a witness and of a judg The second Propofition contains the direct testimony of Conscience and with respect to this the office of Conscience in general is that of a witness Thus Paul suggests of his own and touching the Conscience of the Gentiles My Conscience also bearing me witness Rom. 9.1 Their Consciences also bearing witness Rom. 2.15 The witness of Conscience may be either considered 1. as it is in habit and rests upon record Or 2. as it is in act or is reduced thereunto which is by two steps 1. Conscience casts back a reflection upon its own records of our estate and actions and considers and ruminates upon them And then 2. Conscience comes forth and reports to us how the case now stands or hath stood agreeable to those records and to this reflection The office or act of Conscience then in respect of the second Proposition is threefold 1. To register and book down what a man is and doth And in truth Conscience is as one * Sheffield good Cons c. 4. p. 52. well the great Register and Recorder of the world It hath the pen of a ready writer Not a word from the mouth not a work of man not a thought of the mind can escape or pass its swift pen. It is Gods Historian saith Dr. Reynolds * Of the Passions c. 41. that writes not Annals but Journals Conscience hath its book and had its table whereon it did indelebly write both the sins of Judah and the sincerity of Job Rev. 20.12 Jer. 17.1 Job 27.6 2. To reflect and bring back to the heart as the expression of Solomon is in the margin of 1 King 8.47 Conscience is to every man not only as his private Notary but as his petty-Constable to search into and seize upon every miscarrying act and habit Conscience reviews its register recalls and reads over its records Here are those sayings in and sayings to the heart that Scripture and experience tell us of Jer. 5.24 Hos 7.2 marg Those communings with our hearts and calling upon our own actions and estates those countings and self-searches how the case stands Psal 4.4.77.6 Herewith Conscience comparing our past actions and intentions with the Canons and rules conserved in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ruminates and bethinks according to the case and concern before it Conscience considers the matter I considered in my heart saith the Preacher or I gave or set to my heart Hebr. Eccles 9.1 Conscience is not only to consult its books or cast back an eye but to consider the affair before it attentively Now therefore thus saith the Lord of Hostes consider your ways Hebr. Set your heart on your ways Hag. 1.5.7 Here are those layings to heart we read of in the Prophets Jer. 5.24 Mal. 2.2 3. To report and bring forth its testimony according as the matter hath been or is Thus Conscience in Josephs Brethren had taken and bookt down their sin after this turns back and tells them of it and of the circumstances wherewith Conscience considered it to be aggravated We saw the anguish of his Soul and we would not hear c. Gen. 42.21 22. Conscience in Pharaohs Butler had recorded did recall rip up and read him his faults Gen. 41.9 David Job and Paul are contumeliously censured and cried out upon Conscience casts back a reflection consults its own records considers their uprightness and the others reproaches and cleareth up their righteousness Psal 7.3 4. Job 27.5 6 c. 2 Cor. 1.12 As this is the office of Conscience to give testimony in relation to what is past so also in relation to what is present Conscience witnesseth both 1. what we are or what our estate is The spirit witnesseth with our spirits that we are the Sons of God Rom. 8.16 2. And what we act or what our actions are Witness Pauls example I speak the truth in Christ I lye not my Conscience also bearing me witness Rom. 9.1 3. And whatever you are or intend Psal 17.3 2 Cor. 1.17 The third Proposition contains the decisive judgment of Conscience and with respect to this most properly and strictly the office of Conscience is to judg If we would judg our selves we should not be judged 1 Cor. 11.31 Confcience is herein judicially to apply the truth dictated in the first Proposition upon the testimony delivered in the second Proposition and doth infer the Conclusion from those premises according to its apprehension of the rule or law in the first or major Proposition and according to its attestation and report of our life or actions in the second or minor Proposition The judgment conscience pronounceth sometimes respects our estate and sometimes respecteth our actions and both of them either 1. as good or else 2. as evil And thus again either 1. as it respects the time past or present or else 2. as it respects the time future either as they have formerly been or now are or henceforth should be First as it respects the time past and present The office of Conscience in regard of what is and hath been good is to acquit and clear In regard of what is and hath been evil it 's
it self evil as in the Polygamy of the Patriarchs And should not this power be good whose power is so great both for evil and for good 5. From the Principles it owneth 1. In Nature Doth not even Nature it self teach me that my Conscience be good whatsoever pains it cost me or whatever be the persecutions from men wherewith it may be consequenced The very Heathens have therefore prescribed means and pressed motives 2. In Grace how much more am I taught to exercise my self herein and engage my self hereunto by all the principles of godliness and by all the Promises of the Gospel 6. From the Offices it is to perform Can my Conscience do well if it be evil do not its Offices for God require that it be holy and good Conscience hath the office of 1. A Minister and is therefore obliged to be good a bad Minister being the worst of Men there is little hopes of its ministring good unless it be a good Minister 2. Of a Magistrate who should be most eminently and exemplarily good and a Minister to thee for good 3. Of a Witness 4. And of a Judg which must be good or they will do evil do evil themselves and not deliver Souls from extremity and injustice 3ly Direct 3 Apply you to the Causes of a good Conscience The Causes improved the effect will ensue These are principal or less principal 1 The Principal is God Every good and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of Lights The good Conscience is from the God of Conscience The God that made thy Conscience can alone make thy Conscience good Acknowledg him then in all thy ways and he shall direct thy paths Ask of him by prayer and strong crys as David did Thou art good and dost good teach me thy Statutes Incline my heart to thy Testimonies Let my heart be sound in thy Statutes Create in me a clean heart O God Jam. 1.17 Psal 119.36 68 80. 1. It proceedeth from the good-will of the Father The Inspiration of the Almighty giveth Understanding 'T is He that putteth Wisdom in the inward parts and giveth Understanding to the Heart Press thy Heart to consider it and plead with him in Supplication who delights to be urged with the liberousness of his own acts of Grace and giveth liberally to him that asketh Job 32.8 c. 38.36 Jam. 1.5 2. It is procured by the great worth of the Son who was made sin for us to take sin from us and in the likeness of sinful flesh by a sacrifice for sin hath condemned sin in the flesh and so brings us to God 2 Cor. 5.21 1 Joh. 3.5 Rom. 8.3 marg 1 Pet. 3.18 The good Conscience costs no less price than the Blood of God the Blood of Christ was shed that the besmeared Conscience might be sprinkled and purged for the peculiar service of God Act. 20.28 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Heb. 10.22 c. 9.4 Apply then the meritorious and medicinal vertue that is in the Blood of Christ for cure of those maladies and bruises that are in thy Conscience Apply it by an hand of Faith make it thine Put thou on the Lord Jesus Christ Bring it down to thy case let this Blood be sprinkled on thy Conscience apply it in ardent prayer come unto God by him present his Merit with thy malignity to Divine mercy Plead his worthiness in thy unworthiness his stripes for thy healing the righteousness of Christ for the renovation of thy Conscience Pursue thy petitions upon the price he hath paid 3. It is produced by the gracious work of the Spirit If Conscience be spiritual and gracious it comes from the spirit of Grace if pure if holy 't is by the power of the Holy Ghost 'T is carnal till the Spirit comes never spiritual till born of the Spirit It is the spirit of life which sets it free from the law of sin and death Joh. 3.5 Rom. 15.13 16. Rom. 8.2 What Evangelical Truths are imprinted on the good Conscience they are of the Spirit 's writing 2 Cor. 3.3 What Evangelical Testimony is imparted by the good Conscience 't is of the Spirit 's working of his working for us who also witnesseth therewith in us Rom. 8.15 c. 9.1 Put not off the Spirit then in its motions and essays upon you which he maketh ply to him with all diligence and dearness put him not off with delays much less shouldst thou provoke him with a denial Let Steven speak why the Jews were uncircumcised in heart Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost Act. 7.51 Rather pray in the Spirit which God hath promised to pour out And who knows but Beggars may be blest in that branch of the Promises of his Grace I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and do them Prov. 1.23 Luk. 11.13 Ezek. 36.27 2 The less principal Causes are 1. an operative faith and love within you 2. the ordinances for faith and love without you 1. Let there be an operative faith and love within you These like Judah and Simeon his Brother come up into each others lots to subdue the Canaanites and set right the Conscience Let there be Charity out of a pure heart and Faith unfeigned and thou canst not be left without a good Conscience which the Apostle lodgeth in the midst of these as the Tabernacle of the Congregation was in the midst of the Camp Judg. 1.3 1 Tim. 1.5 Numb 2.17 Both of them have a blessed operation and tendency first to purifie then to pacifie the Conscience Of which hereafter 2. Live in the Ordinances for Faith and Love Be much in Praying Hearing Reading Meditation Conference the end of all these Commandments of God is to make thy Conscience good Cry after him and continue in them for this end make God's end thy errand to them and your heart shall live that seek God 1 Tim. 1.5 Psal 69.32 You wrong your own Souls that wave the Ordinances of our Saviour How many an evil Conscience hath been healed and cured by them How many a bad Conscience have been made good and how many a good Conscience have been made better The way is as open to you as it was to them follow God in them forsake not the ways of his Gospel you shall know if you follow on to know the Lord. Continue at the gates of Wisdom come for Wisdom to her gates and thou shalt not come off a loser yea if thou criest after knowledg and liftest up thy voice for understanding If thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledg of God Prov. 8.33 ad finem Hos 6.3 Prov. 2.1 6. 4. Attend Conscience throughout Direct 4 If Conscience be not good throughly 't is not good truly See that this goodness go throughout Conscience To this is requisite 1. a right apprehension of
should not ordinarily fail of the effect either in clearing and confirming the truth or confuting the falshood of what our Conscience witnesseth Doth Conscience say They that have fellowship with God are in an happy state But we have fellowship with God Put her to the proof of the Assumption in a second practical Syllogism as thus They that have fellowship with God walk in the light i.e. live holily for God is light and in him is no darkness at all But we walk in the light i.e. live holy and uprightly This confirms Or on the other hand thus They that walk in darkness i.e. that are ignorant and disobedient have no fellowship with God But we wâ—lk in darkness This confuteth If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth 1 Joh. 1.5 6 7. The Scriptures therefore do frequently offer to the application of Conscience both negative Marks and positive together that by the application of the former we may correct our mistakes and by the latter we may confirm our minds in what is assumed by Conscience as to our being in Christ and in a condition of Blessedness as Rom. 8.1 9 10 11. Psal 1.1 2. Ephes 4.20 25. And the Apostle thinks it fit to subjoyn sometimes to the testimony of his Conscience the reasons upon which that testimony was raised and from whence it resulted 2 Cor. 1.12 13. Rom. 9.1 2 3. 5. The crediting of Conscience its testimony therefore in such Propositions as are capable of further proof is not safe for us ordinarily without the calling in and considering of those proofs first had and made And it is of singular use in such a case to put Conscience afresh to the question before it comes to a Conclusive determination that such a testimony is of indubitable truth As There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ a Proposition of infallible verity But I am in Christ saith Conscience This Assumption should be again put to the question and requireth proof and confirmation as the Apostle seems to imply by adding so many Characteristical signs They that are in Christ walk not after the flesh but after the spirit are made free from the Law of sin and death i.e. from the prevailing and binding power thereof In such the body is dead because of sin and the spirit is life because of righteousness Can Conscience now again assume But this is our walk we are thus free our sins thus mortified and our spirits thus vivifyed to righteousness and holiness Or as elsewhere They that are in Christ are new Creatures Doth Conscience say we are new Creatures Press her to give you the proof of what she saith They that are new Creatures have old things past away all things are become new have put off the old man and put on the new And now attend whether Conscience can assume as in the presence of God All things are past away all things are become new in and to us c. Rom. 8.1 10. 2 Cor. 5.17 Ephes 4.22 24. 2 Let Conscience deliberate before she delivers in her Testimony Bethink thy self and bring this witness as they were their wickedness 1 King 8.47 back again to thine heart Consider your ways and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God David's haste did more than once disturb his peace and drew the Jews into a fools Paradise Hag. 1.5 7. Eccles 5.2 Psal 31.22 Isa 5.12 Hos 7.2 Know therefore this day and consider it in thine heart 1. To and before whom she is to render this witness or report 'T is not to thy self only but unto God also He knoweth the way that thou dost take The heart saith he is deceitful above all things who can know it I the Lord search the heart I try the reins c. Job 23.10 Jer. 17.9 10. O my Conscience if thou shalt not speak home and speak uprightly shall not God search it out for he knoweth the secrets of the heart The righteous God trieth the heart and reins Dost thou bear this witness in the Holy Ghost Psal 44.21 7.10 Rom. 9.1 2. What the rule or mark is according to which she is thus to witness and report Compare Spiritual things with Spiritual thy self not with thy self but with the sign or standard by which thou art to measure thy state Take not only an occasional or transient view of what that speaketh and thou art or dost But let thy consultations therewith be frequent ordinary deliberate deep Who so looketh into the perfect Law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed 2 Cor. 10.12 Jam. 1.23 24 25. 3. What reason is there that she should make this report O my Conscience how canst thou clear up this thy Testimony Of which before 4. What will be the result of this witness or report Shouldst not thou now deal faithfully with me what a fearful deluge of presumption c. would henceforth overflow me and what floods of dedolence pride c. would henceforth also oppress My conversion will be less possible and thy condemnation and torment more perplexing and full of horrour Act. 28.26 27. Luk. 13.27 28 29. 3 Let Conscience be dealt with truly and impartially by thee that she may deal forth a true and impartial testimony to thee 1. Charge her to be herein true and thorow with thee By her concernment in it Who shall witness if Conscience do not For no man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him God hath set thee O my Conscience as that heap and pillar to be a witness between him and me 1 Cor. 2.11 Gen. 31.52 Rom. 2.15 By her Commands for it God hath chosen her for this purpose and chargeth her in his Laws to be a Minister and Witness both of those things which she hath seen like Paul and of those things in the which he shall appear to her Rom. ibid. 2 Cor. 4.2 Act. 26.16 By the Covenant and Oath of God which she hath taken for it The vows of God are upon thee to be a faithfulful Witness that will not lie And wouldst thou have him to be a swift Witness against thee Prov. 14.5 Mal. 3.5 By the consequence of it to her as well as thee by the blessed effects on the one hand by the bitter effects on the other 2. Keep off such as would tamper with her and either keep her from giving witness or corrupt her in the witness she doth give Keep thine heart with all diligence Sin is ready to buy off her testimony with its pleasures Sense to bribe her with its profits Satan to befool and ensnare her with his policies Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation Set a guard upon Conscience Let not these come nigh the corner of her house He that doth keep his soul shall be far from
See thou do not baffle with or break from him Quench none of his motions be they never so strict or seem they never so severe They all tend to grace they all end in peace And though he be as yet a spirit of bondage to fear it is not to exulcerate Conscience more sharply but to heal it the more soundly and that he may be a spirit of adoption to thee whereby thou maist cry Abba father 1 Thes 5.19 Isa 61.1 Rom. 8.15 2 Attend his ways before thee not only his ways in the Sanctuary without thee in the means of grace as praying hearing c. but his ways that are more spiritual within thee in the motions of grace and minding of Spiritual and gracious matters The less spiritual-mindedness the less serenity of mind What blustrings are there here beneath But above 't is all in an happy tranquility There are no tempests or thundrings in the upper region Call up thy Conscience and its Colleagues thither and keep them conversant about spiritual and heavenly Objects and thou shalt then soon know what is the communion of the Spirit and what these suavities of Conscience are To be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually is life and peace Phil. 3.20 21. cum 18 19. Col. 1.9 10. Rom. 8.5 6. 3 Attend the witness of the Spirit in and with thee It is the Spirit that beareth witness saith the Apostle 1 Joh. 5.6 Which he doth not only externally in the Scriptures but internally to and with our spirits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8.16 A single witness under the law was of no moment But at the mouth of two witnesses shall the matter be established Deut. 19.15 Jo. 8.17 Lo two witnesses are tendered upon the case to clear it God's spirit and our spirit both of them needful and useful to testifie the things of God and the things of man For what man knoweth the things of man save the spirit of man which is in him Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God 1 Cor. 3.11 The spirit witnesseth to and with our spirit or Conscience in and throughout its whole argumentation and progress whereupon it concludeth its peace E. g. All those that with child-like appretiation affiance and affections can cry Abba father are the children of God But I can with a child-like appretiation affiance and affections cry Abba father Therefore I am a child of God Rom. 8.15 16. The Spirit witnesseth with my Spirit 1. To the truth of the Proposition by an internal manitestation or revelation of that truth to the mind whereof he hath already made an outward revelation in the Scriptures Joh. 14.26 Psal 119.18 2. To the truth of the Assumption by irradiating the Conscience and enabling her in and upon the reflections she maketh to apprehend feel and descry such appretiations and affections in me or whatsoever other mark or medium I am making use of to clear up my estate thereby Eph. 1.17 18. 1 Cor. 2.12 14. 3. To the truth of the Conclusion not only by strengthning her to conclude my state and condition from such appretiations and affections but by shedding abroad such beams of joy and comfort as confirm me therein and seal it up unto my soul 1 Cor. 2.9 10. Rom. 5.5 Eph. 1.13 c. 4.30 Though you must not attend for an external audible testimony from the Spirit * See Hollingw Hol. Ghost on the bench p. 74 75. Ball 's Lif of Faith p. 79. which was never promised and hardly if ever pattern'd Yet you may and must attend for the internal and effectual testimony of the Spirit in effecting exciting heightning and evidencing of his own graces to and in you and in the effusion of the love of God and of his joy upon you which is called the joy in and of the Holy Ghost and is the companion of peace of Conscience Rom. 14.17 1 Thes 1.5 6. Let me only add Thou must not expect as if the Spirit would or could witness peace to thee before it hath wrought grace in thee For its testifying peace to the Conscience is by testifying the truth of thy grace and closing with Christ Thou must first set thy scal to the truth of God in the reception of his testimony by faith in his Son ere the Spirit of truth will seal thee up to the day of redemption Joh. 3.33 cum Eph. 4.30 2 Cor. 1.22 In whom after that ye believed * Quasi dicat non citiùs nec ante sed post sidem in Christum Zanch. ad loc ye were sealed with the holy spirit of promise Ephes 1.13 Thus appealing Conscience into and adjuring her by the divine presence will be of notable advantage It will not only awaken and engage Conscience but will awe her from extreams to which Sin and Satan may otherwise incline her and put the more authority and undeniableness into her testimony and sentence as being given not only upon God's commission but with God's contestation and comprobation and so will be the more powerful to arrest and stay scruples to anticipate or answer Satan and ascertain the Soul in the sweetest and steadiest affiance while the testimony and judgment of Conscience to a mans righteousness and reconciliation c. is after such severities and as in the sight of God And her language to the Soul is like that of Eliphaz to Job Lo this we have searched it so it is hear it and know thou it for thy good Psal 17.2 3. 7.3 9 10. 26.1 2 3. Job 13.15 16. c. 23.10 c. 27.2 5 6. c. 5.27 Q. 7. How may we keep Peace of Conscience when once gotten The former Directions C. 2. Q. 7. and those even now given you Q. 7. are of useful review here likewise * See Fenners Treat of Consc p. 200 c. But I shall be particular Direct 1. Keep out sin This is THE make-bate and like a mad man it casteth firebrands arrows and death Her entrance and first embraces its true may promise a mellifluous sweetness But her end is bitter as wormwood sharp as a two-edged sword that pierceth even to the Conscience And if anothers abuse of his liberty may wound your Conscience much more will the ardour of your own lusts Prov. 26.19 c. 3 4. Rom. 6.21 1 Cor. 8.12 Psal 38.3 5. Keep out especially 1 Scandalous sins These fly at God and his glory His name is blasphemed through them and shall you be blessed in them Had Zimri peace who slew his master Though David was the darling of Divine Providence yet farewell his peace when he once fell into such a provocation 2 Sam. 12.14 2 King 9.31 Psal 51.8 11. 2 Self-condemned sins Think not to sin against Conscience and yet sin in quiet Such sins are a daring of Conscience to do its worst and do implicitely condemn her as she doth explicitely condemn them And how can she in such a circumstance acquit and clear Remember what it
oppress Briefly what or whence those secret inward records of what you have declined and done and suitable inclinations and recalls thereof to your hearts especially when death or some notable distress is come upon you or coming on What I say are all or any of these but the exertings and acts and therefore evidences and arguments of that spirit or conscience in man which is the candle of the Lord searching the innermost parts of the Belly Prov. 20.27 3. Will you confer with such who never heard of Christ or have read the Scriptures Read their written Confessions or review the workings of their Consciences There are few things that more fully or frequently occur in their Writings than the presence and power of Conscience in every man which God say they hath given to every one (a) Consciamens ut cuique sua est ita concipit intra Pectora pro facto spemque metumque suo Ovid. Fastor l. 1. s p. 2. as his deputy and for their direction over-rule and over-sight (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Menand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hierocl That from this is no subterfuge nothing latent (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isocrat ad Demonic Nunquam fides latendi fit etiam latentibus quia coarguit illos conscientia ipsos sibi ostendit Senec. Epist 97. That its Testimony is of all others the strongest (d) Conscientia mille testes Turpe quid acturus te sine teste time Consciamens recti famae mendacia ridet Ovid. Fastor l. 1. Magna vis est conscientiae judicis magna in utramque partem Vt neque timeant qui nihil commiserint paenam semper ante oculos versari putent qui peccâ—rint Cicer. pro Milon its tranquility sweetest (e) Hic murus aheneus esto Nil conscire sibi nullâ pallescere culpâ Horat. l. 1. Epist 1. Conscientia rectae voluntatis maxima consolatio rerum incommodarum Cicer. Epist tam. 4. l. 6. Nullâ re tam laetart soleo quà m officiorum meorum conscientiâ Id. Quae etiâ—m obruta delectat quae concioniâ— ac famae reelomat in se omnia reponit cum ingentem ex altera purte turbam contra-sentientium aspexit non numerat suffragia sed unsâ— sententiâ vincit Sen. de Benef. l. 4. c. 21. Licet ipsum Corpus plenum bonâ conscientiâ stillet placebit illi ignis per quem bona fides coâ—â—ucebit Id. ibid. its torments sharpest They therefore abundantly counsel man to study his own Conscience (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tecum habita Pers Sat. 4. Nec te quaesiveris extra Pers Sat. 1. and affectionately complain that men search not into but slight their own Consciences (h) Vt nemo in se tentat descendere nemo Persius Sat. 4. As for the workings of their Consciences that of the Apostle is written (f) Nihil est miserius quà m animus hominis conscius Plaut Occultum quatiente animum tortore flagellum Mens sibi conscia facti Praemetuens adhibet stimulos torretque flagellis Luer Poena autem vehemens multò saevior illis quos Caeditius gravis invenit Rhadamanthus Nocte dieque suum gestare in pectorâ—-testem Juven as with a Sun-beam in their life as well as his Letters The Gentiles which have not the Law are a Law to themselves which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their Consciences also bearing witness or their Consciences witnessing with them and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another Rom. 2.14 15. 'T is true we commonly say such and such are of no Conscience or have lost all Conscience But this is and must be understood with reference had rather to the quality than to the faculty i.e. they are of no good or honest Conscience or as Conscience is considered in act rather than in habit they have lost their Conscience as we say men have lost their reason i. e. the free and uninterrupted use of it And it is true also that there are who have made shipwrack of all good Conscience that have seared their Consciences and that there are such whom God hath justly given over to a reprobate and remorsless Conscience cannot be denied 1 Tim. 1.19 Rom. 1.28 But Conscience it self ceaseth not though such qualities may cease or are changed Conscience is not destroyed when defiled 't is Conscience though contemned Tit. 1.15 1 Tim. 4.2 We find the arrests and acts of Conscience even among the damned the devils Mat. 8.29 Mar. 9.44 So that there is a Conscience universally in all and cannot utterly be extinct in any * See D. Taylor Ductor Dubitan 1 l. 1. ru.n. x. 5.6 7. Even they that say unto God depart from us we desire not the knowledg of thy ways are not therein without the evident self-reflections of an evil and seared Conscience Job 21.14 15. Q. 2. There being a Conscience in every man implanted by God how ought every man to imploy his Conscience in order to God Though Conscience be under the Sovereign command and of the sole Creation of God yet hath he substituted every man to be the keeper of his own Conscience under him and must surrender an account thereof to him Prov. 4.23 Mal. 2.15 Rom. 14.12 And if God hath implanted in every man a Conscience then every man should imploy his Conscience 1. In the behalf of God who hath made both them and it for himself Isa 43.7 Prov. 16.4 And so in pursuance of his holy inclinations furthering his supream Government in promoting his holy interest vindicating his sovereign glory in patronage of his holy image forwarding serious godliness in propugning his holy intentions and institutions frustrating in what they may the strong hopes and oppositions of his enemies sin the world and satan 2. As before God who as he made the Conscience will assuredly manifest the counsels of the heart 1 Cor. 4.5 'T is good to mind her often of her original and of his omniscience which will both quicken her to her employment and keep her from extreams Yea 't is necessary that all the acts of Conscience and of you toward Conscience be done as before the all-seeing Creator lest they lose their efficacy and authority upon you and you lose your end and attempts upon her whose pravity is so desperate and policies are so deep Rom. 2.15 Jer. 17.9 10. Psal 64.6 Let her often know from you that God who created and implanted her hath a most intuitive knowledg therefore of her and all her intrigues lye open to him Wo to her if she would hide counsel from him Psal 9.4.7 12. Heb. 4.13 Is 29.15 16. 3. In the business appointed her of God Look what are those offices which he hath deposited with her and see that neither you nor she decline them Look what are those operations which he hath designed by her and see that she do them and that you accordingly demean your selves toward
frighted Prov. 20.27 4. Behold Mans Dignity If every man hath a Conscience than is Mankind advanced in dignity next the very Angels Some of the Creatures have being only and no life others have being and life but no sense these again have being life and sense but no reason But man was created and is continued with being life sense and reason likewise Let your condition as creatures be considered and you are but little lower than the Angels Ps 8.4 c. The noblest of brute and inanimate Creatures have no principle of Reason no power for self-reflection they have neither science nor conscience You have both of them Be thankful for be tender of improve and justifie this Dignity Mind it maintain it otherwise this Dignity will but heighten your damnation and you will be worse than the beasts that perish who while men injure and abuse their Conscience imploy and improve their brutish knowledg Rom. 1.18 ad finem Ps 49.12 14 20. Isa 1.2 3 4. 5. Behold his duty If every man hath a Conscience then no man is left to a sinful license without a check or restraint upon him or to his self-lusts without a command to rule him without a Controller to reprove him a Conscience to curb and reprehend him What duties are delineated and drawn out upon every mans Conscience I shall not discuss or enquire though I doubt not to say that there is since the fall at least a minute-draught left of the Moral law of God upon her So that he that will not shut the eyes of his Conscience must needs see that he is under a law and debt of religion toward God of righteousness toward man and of temperance and sobriety to his own self The Gentiles which have not the Law are a Law unto themselves which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their Conscience also bearing witness c. Rom. 2.14 15. Q. 4. But what duties hath every man to look to in that he is not left without Conscience I answer in that every man hath a Conscience he is engaged thereby to look well to the whole compass of his duty and in all things to live honestly Heb. 13.18 For therefore is Conscience bestowed upon him for the better knowledg of his duties for binding and keeping him to his duties and for his better conduct in and throughout his duties But more particularly * See Eenners Treat oâ— Consc p. 38 c. there are duties incumbent on you both 1 in regard that you have a Conscience and in 2. regard of the Conscience that you have 1. In that you have a Conscience 1. Be less sensual Sensuality is for Brutes that are led by sense and imagination But there is a spirit in man an internal principle of knowledg and Conscience which no sensible object is suitable to or can satisfie Ps 49.6 ad finem the wisdom wills ways that are earthly and sensual are below a man are brutish yea devilish Jam. 3.15 Jam. 73.22 Compared with the former uses 2. Be more Spiritual both in the offices you perform and in the objects you pitch upon There is a Conscience in every one of you which knoweth the things not only without but within man the interior motions of the mind as well as the exterior of the members 1 Cor. 2.11 See there be truth then in the inward and hidden parts and slubber not over outward religious actions without inward religious acts and affections Let there be a proportion within to your practice without which is not only requisite in that you have a Conscience but it will richly assure your heart and Conscience before God 1 Joh. 3.18 19. 3. Be more strict in secret You cannot look Conscience out of your Closets or Counting-houses Here is a spy and centinel from God upon you yea in you wheresoever you are and whatsoever you are about The most secret omission or commission can never escape the privy search of Conscience or its judicial censure It searcheth all the inward parts of the belly Prov. 20.27 4. Be more circumspect Ponder the paths of your feet look well to your estates and actions Walk circumspectly Hazard not a breach with Conscience for these bitter-sweet comforts or thy Salvation for Secular vanities Adventure not upon sin or the snares that induce to or intangle in sin Remember Conscience is with thee yea within thee a strict Notary to write a sure Observer to witness and a severe Judg to punish thy precipitate especially thy preconsulted iniquities II. In regard of the Conscience you have Have you a Conscience Then 1. Act Conscience All habits and all powers are for action And the more eminent they are the more for exercise You imploy the sensitive and brutish part why should the Rational and Angelical part as Conscience is lie idle The more inactivity the more you contract of inability here and the more will be compensate for this injury hereafter Rom. 1.21 c. 2. Attend Conscience Its orders offices obligation all the items intimations and instructions which thou hast from it Whatsoever it saith especially that it self be safe here is the main guard if Sin or Satan seiseth this what is safe Keep thy heart which includeth the Conscience with all diligence above all keeping for out of it are the issues of life Prov. 4.23 3. Acquaint your selves with Conscience You seek correspondence abroad and should you be strangers to Conscience at home which dwells under the same roof with your self and is expressed to you by your very selves in the Scripture Judg in your selves 1 Cor. 11.13 18. i.e. Judg in your Consciences Let a man examine himself i.e. Let him examine his Conscience 1 Cor. 11.28 Knâ—w ye not your own selves So large acquaintance with others and so little with thy own self Go commune with your own hearts upon your beds and be still 2 Cor. 13.5 Psal 4.4 4. Assure Conscience Here is an intestine friend or enemy and therefore the best friend or worst enemy 'T is a general office and of greatest over-sight Oh the happy consequence of assuring Conscience you assure the God of conscience who will acquit and accept you and therewith confidence toward God not only of access to but of audience by him in whatsoever you ask of him 1 Joh. 3.19 23. Q. 5. What is Conscience in Man What Conscience in Angels is comes not within the compass of this Question nor much concerns our knowledg 'T is true we find Conscience at work both in the Angels that kept their first estate Rev. 19.10 and in those that kept it not Mat. 8.29 But this is eccentrick to our design which is to discuss Conscience in man wherein I may not apply my self to feed the itch of a Polemical School-querist but as may best fit the intention of a sober practical Casuist The An sit hath been spoken to the Quid sit is the subject now before us And in that the nature of
circumference and comprehension It is of known and confessed observation that the judgment of Conscience is not consummate or perfected but by discourse in some practical Syllogism which is still formally or else virtually done * Vid. Ames de Consc l. 1. c 1. n. 7 8 9 10. As thus He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved But I believe and am baptized Therefore I shall be saved In the first proposition you have the Truth which Conscience dictates and therein still shines forth the light and laws of Conscience In the second you have the Testimony which Conscience delivers and therein we still see the written Records and witnessing reflections and reports of Conscience In the third you have the Sentence denounced by Conscience and herein Conscience sits most properly as a Judg. Now thus within the circumference of Conscience are these three things with a different respect unto which Conscience may be accounted either a power or habit or act 1. there is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or conserved truths and laws of Conscience which are still had in the first proposition 2. And the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conscience more properly so called or the consentient Testimony of Conscience which is still assumed in the second proposition 3. And the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or conclusory judgment which is still made in the last proposition All these fall vvithin Conscience its lines of communication its large and usual acceptation * Rutherf Libert of Consc c. 1. p. 6 7. And indeed all these are manifestly included in the having and exercise of a good Conscience professed by Paul Heb. 13.18 Act. 24.16 and in the advice and exhortation which is pressed by Peter 1 Pet. 3.16 Having a good Conscience c. i.e. a Conscience well principled with truth as concerns the former proposition and well performing its testimony and judicial sentence as concerns the two latter A Conscience conserving good laws and conformably giving a good suffrage or testimony and a good sentence or judgment With respect to the former unless as it is subjectively taken for that intellective practical power wherein these laws are engraven which yet we usually say are written in the Conscience it is an intellective habit as the Schools * Aquin. Sum. 1. q. 79. a. 12. Sayr clav reg c. 2. generally determine and ours * Ames de Consc l. 1. c. 2 n. 1. c. also of the first principles about good and evil With respect to the latter I humbly conceive it is a power of the practical understanding of which by and by And as it is taken effectivè for an act or motion of the Conscience as it is used in 1 Pet. 2.9 If a man for Conscience sake towards God endure grief c. i.e. for the dictates and directions and so discharge o◠his Conscience so it may be described by an act 2. Conscience is strictly taken as hath been noted And that it is not an act in this sense as Aquinas * Sum. q. 79. a. 13. and his Followers do contend seems to me evident Partly because there are the acts of Conscience as to accuse acquit c. and acts do not flow from acts but either from some forms or power or habit 2. And because of the absurdity thereupon consequent If Conscience were an act then Conscience were not when it acted not and should cease to be as often as we sleep or Conscience doth cease to act which is against the evidence both of Nature and Scripture which states it to be Conscience still though now seared 1 Tim. 4.2 I close with them rather who call it a power a See Perkins Treat of Consc vol. 1. p. 517. Baldw. cas l. 1. c. 3. Rutherf lib. of cons c. 1. p. 3. c. Huit of Consc p. 87. rather than an habit of the practical intellect◠though it be true that the other opinion hath its strong and subtil patrons b Scotus Duran l. 2 Distin. 39 and specious and shrewd pretensions Not only 1 in that Conscience cites and calls before it all the other powers sifts sits upon and censureth them c Harris Pauls Exercise But in that 2 it is contradistinguished from another power viz. the Mind Tit. 1.15 3 In that by this men have their potency to the acts hereafter mentioned Qu. 4. 4 And also in that it is proper to and inseparable from any the sons of men and therefore is as natural as any other power of man whatsoever Yet that Conscience may in no sense be called an habit as well as is science for the reasons by a Modern d Sanders ibid. §. 16 17 18. given I shall not impugn Secondly Q. What is the object of Conscien which it respecteth and treats I add Conscience is Mans judgment of himself i.e. of his estate and actions Conscience rides circuit throughout all the man ând reflects upon all in and of man 'T is set up as a Judg not only in Mans self 1 Cor. 11.13 but of mans self v. 31. Conscience is therefore placed as it were in the midst between God and man as an arbitrator to give sentence and to pronounce either with man or against man unto God So Perkins * Treat of Consc c. 1. There is nothing of us or ours hid from the inspection enquiries and judgment of Conscience neither our estate nor actions * See Annesley Cripl lect p. 4. 'T is the candle of the Lord. searching all the inward parts of the belly Prov. 20.27 1. For Mans Estate It is not only put upon the scrutiny of our estates once and again 2 Cor. 13.5 Psal 4.4 cum 3. but passeth sentence frequently Conscience told the Goaler and those Jews that they were in a lost and miserable estate so that they cried out Sirs what must we do to be saved Act. 16.30 2.37 Conscience tells John and other Believers in Jesus that they were in a safe and happy estate We know that we are passed from death to life Joh. 3.14 See also ver 19 21. 2. As for Mans Actions It sees into and sits upon and sentenceth all of them whether external or internal whether duties and services or defects and sins whether toward God or toward man all acts concerning holiness or honesty Act. 24.16 Heb. 13.18 Conscience looks inward to and judgeth of the root spring and sincerity of our actions Heb. 9.14 2 Cor. 1.12 Outward to the fruits and circumstances of our actions 2 Cor. 4.2 2 Tim. 1.3 4. Upward to approve its actions in Gods eye and to answer Gods ends and his engagements 2 Cor. 2.17 1 Pet. 3.21 Downward by an holy activity and self-judging to avoid the severe judgments there prepared 1 Cor. 11.31 32 It looks backward upon former actions and smiteth for them if they have been evil 2 Sam. 24.10 And forward also toward future actions cautioning us against such as are evil that we decline them
to accuse and condemn Rom. 2.15 Their Conscience also bearing them witness and their thoughts the mean while excusing or else accusing one another 1. If the estate and actions be or have been good Conscience is accordingly to acquit and clear This it doth 1. to and before God as its superior in judgment whom it doth 1. sometime appeal as the supream Judg. Judg me O Lord according to my righteousness and according to mine integrity that is in me Psal 7.8.26 1. And 2. sometimes it apologizeth and excuseth us to him not by extenuating our sin * Excusatio enim hic non strictiore sensu accipitur quo diminutionem vel attenuationem culpae designat sed illo quo plenam culpae reatus amotionem notat Ames but by insisting on our sincerity Lord saith Abimelech in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this Remember O Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart So Hezekiah Gen. 20.5 6. Isa 38.3 This it doth also 2. from God as his substitute in the judgment from whence Conscience is by office to approve and absolve 1. To approve the good and so our hearts are assured before and we have confidence toward God 1 Joh. 3.19 21. I have finished my course saith Paul I have kept the faith Conscience approves it and so assures him Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judg shall give me c. 2 Tim. 4.7 8. 2. To absolve from evil 1. from evils threatned by Gods laws the evil of divine indignation 1 Joh. 3.21 22 Nay saith Conscience whatever be the charges laid against him or crosses lay before him Who is he that condemneth it is God that justifieth In all these things I am more than a conquerour through him that loved me Rom. 8.31 to the end 2. â—â—rom evils thrown upon him by mens lusts the evils of humane imputations and hard censures Amidst all calumnies Conscience acquits Job and asserts his integrity Let his adversaries write a book against him he can bind their censures as a crown unto him Let them reproach him of hypocrisie Yet saith he till I die I will not remove my integrity from me My righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live Job 31.5 to the end 27.5 6. 2. If the estate or actions be or have been bad Conscience is by office judicially to accuse and condemn I say judicially to accuse because it 's accusation per modum testis as a witness appertaineth to the second Proposition Thus it likewise doth 1. As to and before God to and before whom it accuseth us and causeth us to acknowledg our guilt Thus Davids heart smote him after he had numbred the people and David said unto the Lord I have sinned greatly in that I have done c. 2 Sam. 24.10 And after he had gone in to Bathsheba Against thee thee only I have sinned and done this evil in thy sight c. Psal 51.4 2. As from and under God who is greater than the Conscience So Conscience is by office 1. To convict the sinner and doth conclude it as to the sinful state and actions for which it stands arraigned before it Witness those Jews Joh. 8.9 Who were convicted by their own Consciences 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Significat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 convincere causam eò deducere ut obijci enti praetexi nihil amplius queat Hyperius So shut up by arguments and by the authority of this Judg that they could not start from it 2. To censure and set a brand and mark of infamy upon the sin So David in the Text before 2 Sam. 24.10 I have done very foolishly And elsewhere So foolish was I and ignorant I was a beast before thee Psal 73.22 Here the least Conscience as a Judg can do is dislike and displicence with the sin and with it self for sin The evil which I do I allow not saith Paul Rom. 7.15 3. To condemn 1 Joh. 3.20 i.e. to pronounce the sentence which is a sentence of condemnation to the sinner where the estate is bad whereof is no reversal but upon repentance Act. 2.37 38. Tit. 3.11 A sentence of castigation and to contrition where the estate is good Jer. 31.19 and is still a sentence of condemnation to the sin and for the crucifying of the same whether the estate be good or bad Lam. 3.39 40 41. Secondly as it respects time future and what is to be Thus Conscience is by office in particular not only 1. to tell us or hold forth what is right and what is wrong what is good and what is evil to us in particular agreeable to the general law in the first Proposition But 2. to tye and oblige us respectively to that evil and to this good agreeably still to the same law in the same proposition And 3. to thrust forward excite or impell us for the avoiding of that evil and for the attaining or doing of this good with accord still to that general light or law In relation to these Offices the holy Scriptures speaks of the Conscientious man as one stirred as one bound as one pressed in his own spirit Act. 17.16 18.5.20 22. He is not only a debtor Rom. 1.14 But there is a necessity upon him as from Gods command so from his own Conscience He is constrained and cannot chuse unless he should offer violence to his own Conscience but do what his Conscience dictates 1 Cor. 9 16. 2 Cor. 5.14 Act. 4.20 I am not ignorant that these three last Offices of Conscience are commonly placed elsewhere and conceived to appertain rather to the first Proposition But in that Conscience doth therein dictate but the general right or law and these acts do evidently include a particular respect and application to a mans own estate or action and this conclusive as to his estate and action As the operation of Conscience aforesaid doth obviously witness I do therefore rather chuse to place them here Not that I blame others for the liberty which they please to take nor shall bind up my self strictly this order in the progress of this Discourse Q. 7. How may and should we so order our Conscience in relation to the first Proposition that they offer us true and right Laws and Rules and none but such concerning our estates * See Q. 3. Direct 1. in Chap. 3. and actions To this end it is necessary that you 1. Direct 1 Store your Conscience that she have a stock and treasury of knowledg a bank and habit of all necessary laws and rules of practice that as a scribe instructed to the Kingdom she may bring forth out of her treasury things both new and old as any occasion offers For how shall she be able to give rules if she hath them not or teach you if her self be untaught
testimonies Let my heart be sound in thy statutes Psal 119.10 35 36.80 6. Direct 6 Spend more of your time in consideration This will concoct what you already know and convert it into blood and spirits It improveth both the quickness and clearness of Conscience while truths are revolved upon the heart and it runs them over again with fresh attention and intention of the several faculties The most considerate Christian is the most knowing and best thriveth in his Conscience Her miscarriages are the issue of inconsiderateness Psal 1.1 2.64.9 Ecles 5.1 The iterated acts of meditation will 1. habituate the principles which you already know 't will root them deeper and rivet them faster upon the mind and memory And Conscience will be ever and anon calling them into counsel Psal 119.15 16 23 24. 2. They 'l affect and pour in oyl upon the flames of love delight and desire toward these and such other principles O how love I thy law saith David What was it that kindled and caused it to burn up to such an height It is my meditation all the day Psal 119.15 16 48 97. 3. They 'l advance these principles to an higher progress and proficiency in knowledg Meditation will not only be dilating on them but deducing inferences from them and drawing on the judgment and conscience from one field of truth to another for the delicious views of the full harvest of divine verities having drunk in so much sweetness already from a few sheaves of it This was it inlarged Davids understanding beyond his teachers and above the ancients as well as above his enemies Thy testimonies are my meditation Psal 119.98 99 100. Lastly Direct 7 Sin not against your Conscience but render your selves conformable to what rules she giveth Some men sin against her rules till they have sinned away her rules till God and Conscience give them over to their own lusts instead of giving them out his laws That as they loved to restrain the truth in unrighteousness and liked not to retain God in their knowledg they shall run where they lift for a time with a reprobate and remorsless Conscience Psal 81.11 12. Isa 6.9 10 11. Rom. 1.18 21 24 28. But Sirs if you would have Conscience true in giving rules to you you must be true to the rules which Conscience gives you you encourage Conscience when you exemplifie her laws in your lives and conversations But if you turn not her directions into duties you tempt her to deal at most but by halves with you as you do at best with her The doers of the Commandments have the most discerning Conscience and dwell most in comforts If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them He that doth what he knoweth is most likely to know what to do He is secured by promise If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine and God will manifest himself to him Ps 111.10 Joh. 13.17.7.17.14.21 Q. 8. How should we so order our Conscience in relation to the second Proposition that she may give us a true and right testimony and none but such concerning our estates * See Chap. 3. Q. 3. Dir. 2. and actions To this end it is necessary That you 1. Ply your Conscience with arguments Direct 1 The influence of rational inducements with her cannot be small in that her seat and fixation is in the very highest orb of reason So that the more reasons you offer the more ready must she be caeteris paribus to her office and the more regular in her operations You may urge her 1 from her ability Thou and thou only under God canst fully and clearly testifie For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him God hath set thee up as a shining lamp for surveying all the several periods and acts of my life and thou searchest all the inward parts of the heart metaphorically expressed by the belly 1 Cor. 2.11 Prov. 2.27 2. From her authority For this art thou constituted by God in and over me And this is his command upon thee to testifie what is my consonancy to or dissonancy from those laws he hath imposed on or engraven in me Thou hast his warrant and 't is thy work to witness a work approved by him in Scripture and agreeable to thy nature Who can exempt or what shall excuse thee Rom. 2.15 3. From her avail Thy single testimony alone doth supercede the witness of the whole world besides I can appeal from them to thee but from thee I can appeal to none but God Next under his thy witness is of highest weight both with him and me Job 23.10 11 12. Rom. 9. â— 4. From her acts Why didst thou dictate truths and laws to me if thou wilt deny thy testimony to my life By those I know what God appointeth and demandeth of me but 't is by this alone I can know what I am and what is done by me Should I know his statutes only or should I not also know my own self 2 Cor. 13.5 Besides how canst thou otherwise descend to judgment who passeth sentence without some previous evidence And if this be unsound that cannot be safe So that deny or deprave thy witness and thou undoest thy whole work 5. From her advantage Witness thou must and shalt Now it may be done with less smart and more security then if thou shouldst defer it till the cords of distress or fetters of death and judgment do constrain thee 6. From her account An account thou must render at Gods Bar shortly He will then open the book of Conscience and every line of thy heart and life shall be read over distinctly He now observeth what reflections and reports Conscience maketh of what hath been done by thee and hath eminently marked out her silence as a sore evil in thee Jer. 8.6 Eccles 4.8 7 From what attends Why O my Conscience my work and welfare both as to time and eternity do all turn upon this one hinge How can I repent either from or for my past or present sins or state if sinful on the one hand Or how can I rejoyce in or be thankful for my past or present sincerity and Gods salvation on the other if thy silence or partiality in giving witness shall leave me still under the thick and dark vail of ignorance 2. Press her by and before authority Direct 2 Subpoena her to appear at Gods Bar and there argue with her Psal 50.22 Jer. 12.3 Art thou not 1 to witness from him hath not he substituted and sent thee How wilt thou answer it to him then whom thou abusest infinitely if thou adventure either to suspend thy testimony or to speak untruly 2 Art thou not to witness for him i.e. in his cause and concern as well as on his commission Durst thou so slight his honour and therewith thine obligations as either to speak wickedly for him or to be speechless or
〈◊〉 lightned or still in darkness are they sinceâ—â— and upright or but hollow and hypocriticâ—â— soft and tender or but hardened and obduraâ—â— These things will be put upon a distinct tâ—â—â— hereafter Secondly § 3 By the acts of your Conscienâ—â— acts speak the powers and habits wheâ— they are good acts speak them good 〈◊〉 acts speak them evil you shall know them their fruits a good tree cannot bring foâ— evil fruit neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit Mat. 7.16 17 18. Thus the acts of Conscience naturally good bespeak a good natural Conscience the acts of Conscience which are morally good bespeak a good moral Conscience and the acts of Conscience which are Evangelically good bespeak a good Evangelical Conscience Of this is the enquiry Q. May we conclude our Consciences are good because their acts are good I answer 1. § 4 Though you may not conclude it from a few occasional acts for even a bad Conscience may call and keep you to that which is good for a fit as long as the force of such an occasion or inducement lasts witness Saul Simon Magus and those Psal 78.34 38. 1 Sam. 24.16 c. 26.21 c. Act. 3.13 Yet when such acts become fixed and ordinary when though there may be some diversions as were in Job and Paul yet the main stream and current of its acts are carried in an Evangelical channel from sin to righteousness you may now conclude the goodness of your Conscience Job 27.3 4. cum 5. Rom. 7.25 cum praeced 2. Though the good acts of Conscience materially considered will not â—rgue the goodness of Conscience for there have been acts for their matter very good where the heart and mind have been very â—ad Joh. 8.9 Rom. 2.15 Psal 78.34 35 â—6 yet its good acts formally considered as â—e take in with the matter of these acts the â—anner also wherein and motives whereupon they are put forth do argue a good Conscience for such grapes cannot grow upon thistles nor can a salt fountain yield such sweet water We may argue from the effect to the cause from holy and good operations to a good and holy Origine as Paul doth in this case Heb. 13.18 Act. 24.16 What are the acts of your Conscience then what ordinarily doth it thence you may conclude its habitude and how 't is ordinarily disposed There are the elicit and imperate acts of Conscience how are these discharged is it from Evangelical motives and in an Evangelical manner Conscience is 1. to dictate truth and doth it dictate Gospel-truths and duties Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ To deny your selves and take up your cross To love your enemies and bless them that hate you To endure grief suffering wrongfully and overcome evâ—â— with good c. Act. 20.21 Mar. 8.34 Mat. 5.44 1 Pet. 2.19 Rom. 12.21 Are the Consciences not only enlightned in but engaged bâ— these commands But more particularly doth the Conscience dictate these Gospel-truths to be done upon Gospel-terms To be done 1 to and for Christ as your head and ruler And can your Conscience say in sincerity The Lord is oâ— Judg the Lord is our King the Lord is our Law-giver And that you esteem all but loss foâ— the excellency of the knowledg of Jesus Chriâ—â— your Lord Isa 33.22 Phil. 3.8 2. To be done in and through Christ as your Intercessour and Redeemer To do all in the name of our Lord Jesus with the rejecting of your own righteousness and resting upon the grace of God in him alone for your reward and acceptance Col. 3.17 Phil. 3.9 Dan. 9.18 1 Pet. 2.5 And doth not thy Conscience only dictate this in the Theory but descends to the Praxis And doth it not only inform this in the notion but doth it infer and induce it in the ordinary course of thy Conversation Thou hast then a good Conscience 2. Conscience is to deliver its testimony How doth your Conscience testifie Doth it testifie to and for the Gospel to the authority thereof above all laws over you to the amiableness thereof above all doctrines to you to the sin-subduing and soul-saving efficacy thereof upon you and to the singular and surpassing excellency thereof unto you Act. 4.19 20. Rom. 1.16 1 Thes 1.5 6. Psal 119.72 Doth Conscience testifie with and according to the Gospel Are you wont to pray for the especial teachings of the spirit in prevention of a false testimony To put your selves as in his sight and presence that it may produce a good and true testimony And do you prize and prefer the Spirits testimony before that of your spirits and are prevailingly steered by his witness with your Conscience and can provoke and call in with Peter his all-seeing knowledg Lord thou knowest all things and thou knowest that I love thee Job 34.32 Psal 139.23 24. 2 Cor. 2.17 Rom. 8.16 Joh. 21.17 This is a good Conscience I forbear to instance further Thirdly § 5 By the absoluteness and universality of the good Conscience that Conscience is not good at all that is not good in all Paul trusts he had a good Conscience but whence appeared it In all things he was willing to live honestly Heb. 13.18 Q. May we argue the goodness of our Conscience by and from their Vniversality and Absoluteness I answer you may and should as Paul doth § 6 but must attentively consider that the Universality by which you prove it is not to be an Universality in the degrees of goodness which is reserved for glory but an Universality as to the parts of goodness which is inseparable from grace 1 King 9.4 Luk. 1.6 1 Chron. 29.19 So then the Conscience that is unfeignedly good is universally good as it respects all the parts though it cannot here reach all the perfection and degrees of goodness I. § 7 'T is good as to all concernments good at first Table and good at second-Table-duties Willing in all things to live honestly Heb. 13.18 'T is not good at matters of holiness and bad at matters of honesty or good at matters of honesty and bad at matters of holiness but good both as to holiness and as to honesty whereof the good Conscience ever makes a good conjunction 1 Tim. 2.2 Luk. 8.15 Let the formal hypocrite be for inoffensiveness to God while he indulgeth himself in his offensiveness to man let the civil Justiciary be for inoffensiveness to man while be indulgeth his inobedience and offensiveness to God But the great exercise and endeavour of the good Conscience is to preserve it self void of offence both towards God the object of all those religious dues required in the first table and towards men the object of all that righteousness required in the second Table Act. 24.16 It provides for honest things not only in the sight of the Lord but in the sight of men 2 Cor. 8.21 Your Consciences are evil who are careless of either Table She that was for dividing the Child
to have that he pluck it away also and that he punish this violence and their voluntary resistance with a final remorslesness Psal 51.10 1 Tim. 1.19 Jer. 9.3 Rom. 1.28 9. Inordinate cares shame and fears which overcharge Conscience and are offended with the Cross You must expect contempt and to endure the Cross if you will exercise and enjoy a good Conscience shame and fear decline those and you must therefore decline these divert them rather upon their proper Objects Be ashamed and afraid of sin as the greatest evil and of losing the sight and salvation of God who is the greatest good as you are advised by the Apostle for having a good Conscience 1 Pet. 3.14 15 16. c. 4.12 13 16. 'T is no matter of shame or fear to suffer for Conscience 't is a fearful thing indeed to suffer in or from Conscience But â—â—o this is thank-worthy an expression beyond any other in all the Bible if a man for Conscience toward God endure grief suffering wrongfully 1 Pet. 2.19 Secondly There are some things to be done If you would ensure the custody of a good Conscience 1. Employ your strictest care Sin and Satan lay their main Batteries against this the good Conscience is the grand Citadel of a gracious Christian get this and they get all keep this and ye keep all You are proportionably concerned to preserve the outer guards in your Conversations but you are principally concerned to preserve the inner and main guard of your Conscience Keep this and it will keep thee But remember as it was not gotten idly so neither is it kept but with industry Keep thy heart with diligence nay with all diligence and above all keeping and good reason for out of it are the issues of life Prov. 2.10 11. c. 4.20 21 23. 2. Extend this care to all the sorts and kinds of a good Conscience To the pure peaceable sincere soft and tender Conscience c. and touching which we shall instruct hereafter yea and to the whole circuit and compass of Conscience Take a prospect of every part in every proposition that it may be good both as a Rule and as a Witness and as a Judg Of which also you may expect in the ensuing parts of this Discourse 3. Hear Conscience Conscience hath a voice within you as well as Christ in his Word without you a voice * of correction in case of evil Why art thou cast down O my soul c Psal 43.5 A voice of counsel and direction for continuance and growth in good as David's had My reins also instruct me in the night-season Psal 16.7 Hear counsel then and receive instruction that thou mayst be wise in the latter end Conscience never hardens till it is not heard the more attention is given by you the more authority is gained to it and the better advise it giveth to you Attend the directions and discourse of Conscience then as Joseph and Nehemiah did who thereby kept an unspotted Conscience amidst all aspersions and calumnies Prov. 19.20 Gen. 39.9 Neh. 6.11 4. Estate it often by its Copy or Original rather the Holy Scriptures These are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the prime rule and standard by which you must pass and square Conscience Christians must write them a Copy of this Law in the Book of Conscience if they would be kept incorrupt and from crooked ways and examine this exscript often by that as the Kings of Israel must Conscience is to be instead of a mouth to Scriptures as Aaron was to Moses but the Scripture is to be instead of a God to Conscience as Moses was to Aaron Deut. 17.17 18 19. Exod. 4.16 Conscience is to every man as his Book as Bernard * Vnicuique suus libeâ— est conscientiu Conferamus itaque libros nostroscum librovitae ne fortè in illa ultima discussione abjiciantur si non fuerint emendati De Cons l. 1. c. 9. well observeth but such as must be examined by the Bible compared with and corrected by it Order my steps in thy Word saith David Thy Testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors Psal 119.133 24. Order Conscience by this through all its offices and proceeds Is Conscience a rule The Word must be the Regula regulans Conscience is but Regula regulata Conscience must take the rule from Christ in his Word and then give it to the Christian for the weighing of his Estate and Actions The Word is the lamp for the feet and light for the paths Psal 119.105 Is Conscience a witness If you look that it witness the Truth and in truth have it to the Law and to the Testimony Isa 8.20 Is Conscience a Judg If you would have it judg righteous judgment away with it to the Word of Righteousness which shall judg you in the last day Joh. 12.48 5. Engage the choice and constant resolutions of your wills It is well with Conscience while the Will is constant and cleaves unto God with full purpose let the Will be preserved steady and its welfare will be preserved in safety The weal of Conscience much-what follows the Will 's choice and when this is found divided that is faulty and diseased Act. 11.23 Hos 10.2 'T is said 1 Tim. 1.19 they put away a good Conscience and concerning Faith made ship-wrack Their loss did not arise as from its next cause from other's violence but their own voluntariness Satan seducers sufferings could never have pulled it away if they themselves had not put it away They made ship-wrack rather than endured ship-wrack Well then if you would still have a good Conscience be willing in all things to live honestly Heb. 13.18 6. Eye God's all-seeing knowledg Let thy Conscience keep its eye upon God who keepeth his eye upon thy Conscience Set the Lord alway before thy face with David and set thy self always before the face of the Lord with Paul As of God as in the sight of God so steer thy whole course Keep thy Conscience on God and God will keep thy Conscience who hath said Walk before me and be thou perfect Psal 16.8 2 Cor. 2.17 Gen. 17.1 Conscience is a knowledg together with the Lord look to it then in every creek and turn of thy life Doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it and he that keepeth thy soul doth not he know it Prov. 24.12 Psal 44.21 The prospect David took of Gods omniscient knowledg preserved a tender gracious and holy Conscience Psal 139. I have kept his precepts and thy testimonies saith he elsewhere for all my ways are before thee Eye him that is invisible with Moses whose eye is upon all thy goings Tell Conscience as Laban told Jacob No man is with us But see God is witness betwixt me and thee And forget not his Mizpah that is a Beacon or Watch-tower and say to it with him The Lord watch between me and thee when we are absent one from another Psal 119.168 Heb. 11.27 Gen. 31.49 50.
that doth good and sinneth not Prov. 20.9 Psal 19.12 Job 14.4 Eccles 7.20 2. Who was ever possessed in this life with the perfection of Conscience Conscience is never perfected till the Christian is perfected and the body of sin and this sinful body be put off fully 1 Cor. 13.10 c. Phil. 3.12 c. What is man that he should be clean His Conscience is miserably polluted and seared who durst pretend to perfection in the sight of God and wretchedly deceiveth himself and denieth the Scriptures of God Job 15.14 15 16. c. 25.4 5 6. c. 11.4 5. 1 Joh. 1.1 8 10. 2ly This Evangelical purity of the Conscience is attainable in this life and should be attained 't is possible we may and God's pleasure that that we do and must endeavour for and ensure it Lo 1. Man is admonished and called upon for it Purifie your hearts ye double minded Wash your hearts from your wickedness Have them sprinkled from an evil Conscience Purge your selves cleanse your selves from all filthiness of the spirit Hold the mystery of faith in a pure Conscience which implicitely requireth that you have a pure Conscience wherein to hold it In short the end of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart and of a good Conscience Jam. 4.8 Jer. 4.14 Heb. 10.22 2 Tim. 2.21 2 Cor. 7.1 1 Tim. 3.9 c. 1.5 2. Means are afforded and communicated for it Without us the Word and Ordinances within us Faith Hope c. Above us the Blood and Spirit of Christ whereby the Conscience may be purged from dead works Of which some things have been premised and more will be subjoyned hereafter Q. 5. If this mercy were not to be attained wherefore are these means they were as to this in vain and to no purpose appointed 3. Many have attained it Paul thanks God whom he served from his forefathers with a pure Conscience The Deacons held the mystery of faith in a pure Conscience Wherefore should I multiply instances in whomsoever there was or is a living faith and lively hope it did and doth purifie the Heart and Conscience 2 Tim. 1.3 1 Tim. 3.9 Act. 15.9 1 Joh. 3.3 In short whosoever believeth is pure hath all things pure to himself and his Mind and Conscience purified in him Tit. 1.15 Q. 3. Whether a Man's Conscience may be habitually impure and defiled and he not apprehensive of it Though all the Sons of Men may know de facto and should know de jure Whether their Consciences are pure or polluted yet many a man's Conscience is habitually impure and polluted and he knoweth it not 1. Witness Scriptures There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes yet is not washed from their filthiness Prov. 30.12 Laodicea saith I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knoweth not that she is wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked Instances would be endless Luk. 18.11 12. Isa 65.5 2. What else is the work of the Spirit of the Scriptures and of the servants of God by office but to convince of sin and shut up the Conscience of sinners in the sense of their sinful condition to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light that they that see not may see the defiled and deplorable state in which they have been and yet are and be at length convicted as those Pharisees were by their own Conscience Joh. 16.8 9. Act. 26.18 Psâ—l 19.8 Joh. 9.39 c. 8.9 Shall I point you whence it ariseth 1. Partly from want of self discussion Conscience is seldom or never put to the question by them or they by Conscience They consider not in their hearts Heb. They say not to their hearts Hos 7.2 How could those loose and wicked wretches so insolently insist upon it We are wise and the law of the Lord is with us But that they held fast deceit and no man said in his heart what have I done Jer. 8.5 6. cum 9.2 Principally from a wretched self-indulgence Self-love flatters men into a fond opinion of themselves and pride inflames them into a foolish ostentation and both render them averse to the knowledg of the worst by themselves afraid that Conscience do its work with much strictness and arms them also against â—orreign arguments and convictions with deâ—ensive pleas and pretensions lâ—t him hear the words of the Curse Yet he blesseth himself in â—is own heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart c. Deut. 29.19 Q. 4. How may we know whether our Consciences are habitually pure or defiled Put Conscience to it press home upon your hearts as in the presence of the most high God these three Questions which I here present and tender you First What is thy Conscience purified in If Conscience be purified at all 't is purified in all in every orb every office every part and proper officine of the Conscience 't is frequently called the perfect heart 1 King 15.14 1 Chron. 28.9 c. 29.19 2 Chron. 25.2 Understand it of an integral perfection there is no part of Conscience but is purified 1. Conscience is pure as a law it conserveth pure and holy laws and because they are very pure therefore doth this soul love them Psal 19.8 c. 119.140 2. Conscience is pure as it applyeth this law as for the pure his work is right that which this Conscience eyes is purity both in it self and in what is subordinated to it by all the acts generally it puts forth Prov. 21.8 Heb. 10.22 'T is an heart after God's own heart and therefore with the pure will shew himself pure and preserves the mysteries of faith in a pure mind and Conscience 1 Sanâ— 13.14 Psal 18.26 1 Tim. 3.9 Call Conscience then before thee commune with thâ— own heart Hath the water of purifying passeâ— upon the whole Conscience Is every veâ—â— thereof like those in Solomon's house of pure Gold Do you love pureness of heart Would you approve your selves in all things by pureness as the servants of God And whatsoever things are pure do you think on them and that with best complacence and most contentation Then are your Consciences purified Psal 4.4 1 King 10.21 Prov. 22.11 2 Cor. 6.4 6. Phil. 4.8 Secondly What is my Conscience purified from The pure Conscience in Scripture stands opposed not only to that which is defiled Tit. 1.15 but to that which is double Purifie your hearts ye double-minded Jam. 4.8 Let me ask then and thy heart answer 1. Is thy Conscience purified from its doubleness This is specially when Conscience will be making or maintaining a coalition and compounding of interests uniting and contempering of gain and godliness God and the World or as the Samaritans Fearing the Lord and serving their own Gods 1 Tim. 6.5 Jam. 4.4 2 King 17.33 Enquire then 1. into the object whereto it doth or should determine thee Is not thy heart divided between God and Mammon If so thou
CASES OF Conscience Practically Resolved By the Reverend and Learned JOHN NORMAN late Minister of Bridgwater LONDON Printed by A. M. for Edw. Brewster at at the Sign of the Crane in St. Paul's Churchyard 1673. THE PREFACE THe reverent Author of this ensuing Treatise Mr. John Norman some few years since deceased is by that state secured both from flattery or obloquy why then should we light a candle of Praise behind his back In short the sole motive to these few lines was this Some dear Relations and Friends of his desirous that his name and worth might be made known to such as knew him not as it was in the Orb wherein he both moved and shined have importuned this unfeigned character and testimony of him What therefore we have seen and heard we testifie While he lived in the Ministry he shined as an eminent light in this world holding forth the word of life His Race while he was in his work was not long yet did he run his race with great diligence and patience out-stripping many A workman that needed not to be ashamed adorning his talent and province and fulfilling I had almost said the Apostles character 2 Cor. 6.4 5 c. And thus when his Lord came and called him off he found him doing Thus he shined in all his motions and trials following the Lamb where ever he led him For the time of my intimacy with him I found him a man of a choice spirit He was relatively godly as a Pastor Husband Father God endowed him with rare natural Parts blessed with no small acquests both of grace and learning he was acute clear and solid in his reasonings and in his converse grave condescending communicative and of an amicable sweetness True to his own light yet not Magisterially imposing it as a rule to others No superstitious admirer or adorer oâ— his own notions and sentiments especially in small and disputablâ— matters no supercilious censor of another mans liberty or latitude as ready to borrow light as to â—end it accounting it a character of little souls to be too nice in little things and yet not refusing the â—earch of any thing by others judged material Among all other his arâ—ainments he had a Scholastical â—exterity able to tye and untye Gordian knots and no mean caâ—uistical faculty wherein it were to â—e wisht more of our Nation beâ—â—des Mr. Perkins and Ames had â—udied to excell Hereof this enâ—ing piece is some taste intended â—y him but as an Essay in this part â—f Theology Which thou hast Christian Reader presented to thee without correction or alteration wherein if any defect appear his own Revisal prevented by death would have supplied accept and peruse it now as it is A Treatise of Conscience requires a conscientious Author which this had and a conscientious Reader which it calls for This is needful in every age and state of the Church and perhaps principally in ours both to point our judgments rectifie mistakes reduce strayers heal divisions settle unstableness and steer our course For it is a subject practical and hath influence into the very vitals of Religion and though it is a duty and withal some difficulty to observe a rule yet much more to give a rule this requires a Master-workman though we are cast into an age critical curious too much quarrelous which God heal yet be thou rather in thy study conscientious practical and peaceable this time as well as this Treatise calls for it I have purposed with my self to intermix nothing of mine as to the Rhetorick part of this subject or the praxis This Torch is set before thee singly by it self shining in its own lustre walk while thou hast the light lest darkness come upon thee If thou I by such helps as these rise up to this blessed frame attain this inestimable Jewel a good conscience which is my prayer thou hast thy advantage and he his aim who is thine in the Lord William Cooper CASES OF Conscience CHAP. I. Of Conscience in General Quest 1. Whether there be such a thing as Conscience in Man A CASE of Conscience is any such Practical Question as falls under the Judgment or if you will under the disquisition and determination of Conscience Having propounded to my self in so great a defect and in so general a desire of Casuistical Tractates in our English Tongue to contribute whatever my poor abilities can afford to a work of so important a nature and of so eminent need I think it very agreeable to your expectation and my employment in my entrance upon this work The an sit and quid sit as also the quotuplex be put upon the enquiry And so what some arrogant Scepticks foolishly start and Atheistical sinners would fain shake off is the subject of this preliminary Question * See Baldw. Cas Cons l. 1. c. 1. Fenner Treat of Cons p. 33 ad 41. Binchi Mellif Theol. par 2. p. 121. The question is not whether there be the same Conscience in all men the same it is in genere naturae though not morum But whether there be found such a thing as is Conscience in all men Which I affirm In this 1. Will you consult the Scriptures Lo These suppose a Conscience in all 1 Cor. 10.29 1 Cor. 10.19 2 Cor. 4.2 2. Send all to consult with their own Consciences Ps 4.4 1 Cor. 11.13 3. Set all upon cleansing and keeping of their Consciences with the utmost diligence Prov. 4.23 1 Tim. 1.5 4. Shew you a Cloud of Witnesses not only among the Pious but the Profane the Pagans in the exercise of Conscience Act. 24.16 Gen. 42.21 22. Rom. 2.15 5. And speak the kinds the keeping the comforts concussions acts authority c. of Conscience of which hereafter So that though the Scriptures never attempt to prove that there is a Conscience as being a proposition of clear evidence in Nature and of confessed evidence among all Nations yet do they abundantly proclaim that there is a spirit a Conscience in Man and that the inspiration of the Almighty hath given him understanding Job 32.8 2. Will you but commune with your own selves Whence are those seeds and dictats of such religious dues from you to God of righteousness to men and of sobriety in your selves which so frequently put forth within you What or whence those suggestions for refraining sin and for rouzing up your selves to and in the service of the eternal God and for securing your everlasting good which are so often prompted to and pressed upon you What or whence those silent reasonings and motions within your own breasts and the several returns you make into your own bosoms or hearts What or whence those searchings and self-reflections upon what you are and act And secret rebukes when you are or act amiss though no eye seeth it As also those sweet refreshments you inwardly feel in consciousness of your own innocency when others unjustly censure you or injuriously
her of which Q. 4. God hath surrogated and set her up 1. To be a law-giver from him imploy her in the study and revelation of what his laws are and your lives should be and see that you receive the truths she dictateth from him 2. To be a witness for and with him Imploy her in the observation and report of his works and your ways and see that you refuse not the testimony she delivereth for him 3. To be a judg under him Imploy her in the search and determining of your condition and see you remove not the sentence which she receiveth from him while you remain in this condition Rom. 2.14 15. Joh. 8.9 2 Cor. 5.11 4. In a befittingness and accord to God who hath invested men with it and imprinted his mind upon it 1. In accord to his work herein Men should not call their concupiscence humour lust illusion contumaciousness by the precious name of Conscience It reflects disparagement and an odium to its divine rise and original 2. In accord to his worth If Conscience be implanted in you by him she is inferiour to him and should not impose upon you against or above his commission She is then under the rule and authority of him and must render an account to him 3. In accord to his will as may best express his superiority over her his similitude upon her and best exemplifie those sacred instructions which he hath left upon record concerning her 5. Beyond and above all for him If Conscience be first implanted by him she should be finally imployed for him 'T is a sordid employment to put Conscience upon the palliation or extenuating of a mans corruption or upon the provision and erecting of a mans credit c. And 't is a sorry end to determine her high-bôrn operations within the narrow confines of the object sense or of a mans felf If she be of an higher efficient she should be busied for an higher end Her acts and answers should be all towards God 1 Pet. 2.19.3.21 Men should study to approve their Conscience to him to assure their Conscience before him and to advance and celebrate him by all the elicit and imperate acts of their Conscience 2 Cor. 5.9 11. 1 Joh. 3.19 Psal 34.1 2 3. 6. So as to behold and steadily own whatsoever truths he hath ordered out for man's knowledg and observation by implanting him with a Conscience And the more eminent any of them are the more firm should be mans assent to them and the more full and vigorous his adherence to and asserting of them Q. 3. What great truths may every man know and gather up from hence that there is a Conscience in him Among and above others every man may hence know and infallibly conclude these ensuing verities Is there a Conscience in every man then let every man 1. Behold a Deity * Conscientia optimus testis divinatis Tert. lib. de testim animae That which may be known of God is manifest in them from within as well as manifest to them from without so far at least as will render them inexcusable in sin though not as far as may be requisite and effectual to Salvation The eternal power and Godhead are written in lively and legible Characters not only upon the Creatures but in the Conscience enough to convince the Atheist and whereby he may arrive to the knowledg both that he is and to a good degree what he is also Rom. 1.19.20 2.14 15 The several truths which are conserved in the Conscience doth she not dictate as the will of God The special testimonies the Spirit communicateth doth she not declare as a witness for and with God The sentence and judgment wherewith the Spirit concludeth doth she not deliver as a substitute from as the sentence of God I need no other evidence for this than your own experiences which do plainly enough acquaint you that all the offices Conscience doth discharge are done under and for God and that the obligation she infers is as from so by God So that the being and acts of Conscience are both a pregnant proof that there is a God and do powerfully perswade men to acknowledg his Government and ascribe him worship and glory 2. Behold the Doctrine of Eternity rewards of good and evil that extend beyond death and all duration of time Behold your Consciences do not confine themselves in their converses with you within the narrow limits of mortality They carry engraven on them an immortal state with accord to the immortality of your Souls and by the prospect of this they inhibit and restrain from vice instigate and rouze us to vertue refresh mens hopes at one time and raise fears and torments at another Manifest it is that Conscience principally restrains and rules by the hopes and fears of a future immortality of glory and misery And if there were no such thing her government should be for the most part frivolous and delusory 2. Gods giving her to many persons would be vain and unnecessary for how should she contain armed force or artificial fraud within the bounds of duty when the one can sin safely beyond the punishments of this life and the other secretly Besides 3. her glory in being thus capacitated and raised above the brute Creatures would be hers and our shame and misery and render her and us beneath them while her hopes she ruleth by are frustrate and her fears are vexing which are things utterly to be rejected by all rational men 3. Behold a Dooms-day or day of judgment If every man hath a Conscience then every man must give an accompt and come to judgment and necessary it is that the several judgments of Conscience may be set right and the secrets of Conscience may be revealed and set open Rom. 2.12 17. 1 Cor. 4.5 Conscience is praejudicium judicii as Tertullian well 'T is an Emblem and evidence of the day of judgment Conscience keeps many a Court before hand as a Judg but lo she conducts men as by the hand to a more solemn and supream judgment Yea how often doth she cite men hither and arrest men from hence So that Paul preaching of Judgment maketh even a Pagan Judg to tremble Act. 24.25 Plain it is that the judgment of Conscience refers higher and reminds men often of a more impartial Judg and Judicature that is future and certain Conscience contains the records of Gods Laws and mens lives as a Book Here men often keep this Book clasped and sealed but the righteousness of God in and for the reward of men requireth that the Books be and they shall be opened Revel 20.12 Conscience is the Candle of the Lord searching yea and shewing what men are and have done as a witness whose work it is to give evidence in judgment Here men sometimes baffle at other times bribe this witness It shall therefore be brought into an open and impartial Court where it may neither be flattered nor
the thing is often exhibited us in the notation of the term whereby it is expressed I shall premise something of the name then present to you its nature 1. For the Name There is not one word which precisely signifieth the Conscience whereby 't is expressed in the Old Testament Sometimes it is expressed by Spirit Prov. 18.14 Psal 34.14 and therewith accords Pauls mention of it 1 Cor. 2.11 The spirit of man i.e. his Conscience which is in him Sometimes by heart 2 Sam. 24.10 1 King 2.44 with which agrees that of 1 Joh. 3.20 21. If our heart i.e. our Conscience condemn c. I shall not omit what is observed by A. Burges * Of Orig. sin par 3. c. 2. s 1. that the first signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leb rendred heart is a conspersion or meal sprinkled with water which points us how the heart or conscience of man is conspersed and water'd with some common principles and notions about good and evil and accordingly is to make application of them The Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Latin Conscientia from whence we have our English word Conscience signifie a knowledg together Conscientia est quasi conjuncta scientia Conscience is a conjunct science both as it respects several subjects and several objects A knowledg together of many Subjects or by and with others and of many objects or of others 1. 'T is a knowledg together with others Conscientia est cum alio scientia as Aquinas * Sum q. 79. a 13. And that not so much with other men though the sincerely conscientious would fain commend himself to every mans Conscience in the sight of God and is careful of keeping close to that universally received rule of Conscience Math. 7.12 Luk. 6.31 2 Cor. 4.2 2. Nor so much with a mans own self when the heart and head are agreed in the judgment which is made And a man can say with Paul My conscience also bearing me witness Conscientia est quasi cordis scientia saith Bernard * De interior Domo Cor quando se novit appellatur Conscientia quando praeter se alia scientia Id. ib. Knowledg in the head alone is barely science as one saith * Sheffield Good Conse c. 1 p. 17. but knowledg in the heart too is Conscience rightly so called 3 But 't is a knowledg together with God Cum Deo scientia Behold my witness is in heaven and my record is on high saith Job Ch. 16.19 And Paul I speak the truth in Christ and lie not my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost Rom. 9.1 He produceth three witnesses say our Annotators * Ad loc Christ Conscience and the Holy Ghost 2. 'T is a Knowledg together of many objects These Conscience doth not abstractly or apart consider but always conjoyns in its proceeds and operation knitting one knowledg and object to another and conjoyning one to another Adding science unto science as one saith b Sanders de Oblig Conse Praelect 1. §. 6. The universal knowledg or the knowledg of law and right to the particular knowledg or the knowledg of the fact by applying one unto the other 2. The nature of Conscience I shall briefly discuss in explicating this definition Conscience in man is mans judgment of himself i.e. of his estate and actions as it and they are subjected to the judgment of God The definitions and descriptions hereof are variously given by various Authors This of Dr. Ames a De Cons l. 1. c. 1. n. 1. seems to me very consonant and comprehensive enough which is closed with by devout Fenner b Treat of Cons p. 32 and by Dr. Anneslie c Cripleg Lect. Ser. 1. p. 3. This speaks its nature and suits with Scripture Judg you Judg in your selves If we would judg our selves Judg between me and my Vineyard Act. 14.19 1 Cor. 11.13 31. Isa 5.3 First I say 't is mans judgment I know there is who likes not the mention hereof in the definition of Conscience Because saith he some acts of Conscience cannot without some force or straining be referred hither But I must acknowledg without any ill reflection had on an Author whom I do so highly reverence that the force of this reason is not so ponderous and pressing with me while this which I adhere unto hath the favour and countenance of the Scripture as before and while in a fair construction Conscience judgeth what is the matter of law before it in the first proposition what is the matter of fact in the second proposition and is most strictly and plainly acknowledged to be a Judg in the third proposition Q. What is the subject of the Conscience wherin it resideth Conscience then is mans Judgment and so appertaineth to the Understanding not to the Speculative understanding which judgeth only of things as true and hath this alone for its object but to the practical underderstanding which judgeth of things not only as true but in their tendency also or as they are operable or ordinable to action Conscience appertaineth then to the practical intellect c Vid. Saunders de oblig Cons Prae. 1. § 21. Rutherf Libert of Consc c. 1. p. 4 5. Baldw. Cas Cons l. 1. c. 3. not to the speculative nor to the will Conscience is a conjunct science as hath been said The heart knoweth its own bitterness Prov. 18.14 Oft times also thine heart knoweth that thou also hast cursed others Eccles 7.22 But the will is a blind and no knowing power as is generally acknowledged Nevertheless it is true that as the will hath no small influence upon the Conscience to interrupt it in and to encline and engage it to the discharge of its acts and offices so the Conscience doth in the discharge thereof include therewith at least infer thereupon suitable inclinations ordinarily in and impressions on the will I might add and upon the affections also its judgment usually being received either with delight and joy on the one hand or with displicence Q. Whether Conscience be an act power or habit dread and grief on the other But now whether Conscience be an habit or act or power of the practical understanding is of a more strict and subtil disquisition among the School-men for accommodation whereof consult our own learned Saunderson * De Obl. Conscient Prael 1. §. 7. ad 2◠Burges Or. sin part 3. c. 2. s 1. Truth is 't is but very little we understand of our own selves a labour of unquestionable difficulty to define and discriminate things of so near a cognation in nature and connexion in use and exercise as powers habits and acts are Yet something must be left for loosing and untying this knot Conscience is sometimes of a larger sometimes of a stricter and more limited acceptation 1. Conscience is sometimes largely taken and in the vulgar use of this term it is of a very large
candle of the Lord. 1 Joh. 5.9 Prov. 20.27 Be sure 1. you dâ— not menace her from giving testimony aâ— Amariah did the Prophet Art thou of the Kingâ— counsel forbear why shouldst thou be smitten Lest she forbear indeed as the Prophet did to his destruction 2 Chron. 25.16 2. Noâ— smite her for giving testimony as Balaam diâ— his Asse when she rebuked his madness leâ— the Angel of the Lord slay thee for smiting heâ— as he was like to have slain him Nor as Abâ—â— and Zedekiah did by Micajah and died miseâ—ably Numb 22.22 34. 1 King 22.15 38. 3. Nor mince the testimony she giveth lest thouâ— become odious to Conscience a Hanan to David while thou cut'st off hâ—â— testimony as Hanan did his Messengers gaâ—ments in the midst hard by their Buttocks anâ— she revenge this shame upon thee as Daviâ— did that with blood and slaughter 1 Chroâ— 19.4 16. 6. Direct 6 Put her upon action and proceed wiâ—â— her throughout this whole action with thâ— most provident attention and circumspectioâ— There are three offices which appertain to Conscience as hath been proved Q. 6. that you aâ— strictly to attend as you would have her wiâ—â—ness aright and truly viz. she is to record 〈◊〉 reflect to report The report of Conscienâ—â— which is the consummation of her office iâ— witnessing is raised upon and results froâ— the two former acts which include the iâ— choation and progress of her witnessing Hâ— witness is resting as in habit with her if we respect the first office and is now a reducing into act by her with respect to the second So that as ever you would have Conscience report or finish her testimony aright whether as concerns your past estate or actions your eminent care is required in and touching the two former wherein I shall more particularly direct you and in the next Question which you should premise I say past because in the testimony of Conscience touching things present this gradual passage from one act to another is not so observable Q. 9. What course should we take touching the recording of things by our Conscience in order to their giving a right witness To this I can say but little here for the consulting and review of her Records belongs to the next Question Direct 1. Touching the due compiling of them I shall only offer two things in the case 1. What she doth do as a motive to incite you 2. What you should do as that which may instruct you 1. Remember what she doth She doth Direct 1 and cannot but record thy actions though thou carest not happily to reflect on or attend to it Such is her relation unto God as being his register and notary So that they are all written before him yea laid up in store with him and sealed up among his treasures Isa 65.6 Deut. 32.34 And such is her relation withal to thee Conscience is one of those books the Scripture speaks of and thou shalt be judged out of those things which are written in this Book according to thy works Dan. 7.10 Rev. 20.12 She books down thy actions then and that truly and thorowly And though through the darkness of mists without and of the mind within thou canst not now discern all her prints and characters yet in the light of some grievous distress or self-discussion thou mayst discover some of them as Josephs Brethren and David did Gen. 42.21 Psal 77.6 and in the light of that great day they will all be discovered And those Letters on it which now seem invisible and illegible like Letters written with the juice of a Lemon will be then clear when it is brought to the fire of Gods judgment 1 Cor. 4.5 Yea as she records them 1. impartially so likewise 2. indelibly Her records are written with a pen of iron and with the point of a Diamond they are graven upon the table of thine heart so that there is no obliterating or razing them out Jer. 17.1 2. Direct 2 Remember what you should do 1. Take care that Conscience record things as legibly as she can whereby when you reflect you shall read them over with less aversation and more attention To this end 1. Circumspection is requisite on your part not only as to the matter of her records but as to the manner also that you may not lose the end of this act or work by the intricacy of her hand-writing In all things that I have said unto you be circumspect Exod. 23.13 Psal 119.9 2. Knowledg and confidence are requisite on her part wherewith it should be your care to furnish her knowledg lest she record virtue for vice as Abimelech Gen. 20.5 6. or vice for virtue as those Prov. 16.25 Isa 5.20 Confidence for if she writes with a trembling and palsie-hand she is like to write if truly yet illegibly and less accurately If you menace her you do but make her write in Characters which you cannot understand without a key to them Record she will but so as you shall not read them who attempt to rend them as we have clear instance Rom. 1.18 to the end Give her confidence and you shall not go away without a good accompt She never records with more clearness to us than when she is treated with most confidence by us Heb. 10 22 23. 2 Take care to keep these records as legible as you can Men are but too prone to blur and sully them either through sensuality they themselves contract blots and filth upon them or through supiness they suffer others to cloud and blemish them And so when Conscience should be reporting them men are to seek how they should read them Some let the dust of secular vanities cover them So did Pharaohs Butler for some years as if the records of his Conscience were to rest there rather as in a grave then as in a Court of Record Gen. 41.1 cum 9. Others let the copperas and gall-nuts or ink of sin to continue on and canker them 〈◊〉 did David for near an whole year together till Nathan revives their legibleness and reads them over to him 2 Sam. 2.13 15. Others let the worms and moths of Satans temptations corrupt them as did those Ephes 2.2 3. Your care then should be 1. to lock them up in a safe repository 2. To look after them so as neither the defilements of sin or dusts of sense or devices of Satan may reach at least rest upon them 3. To look that they be always in readiness that they be not to seek when you should be surveighing them Q. 10. What course should we take in and about the reflections of our Conscience that they may give us a true and right witness In the reflection which Conscience maketh at least of actions past she casteth back an eye upon two things upon her own records which are reposited with the memory which speaks back what our actions either be or have been and upon those holy rules which are reposited with the mind
or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which speaks back what they should have been or now should be So that Conscience in her reflection is both to consult her own records and to compare the concern before her wherein she is to witness with those holy rules I advise then that you 1. Direct 1 Send your Conscience to search her own Records Here her actions are all bookt as before Q. 9. let her reflect hither remember and read them over without which you cannot now reach the end or reap the benefit of their being so reposited Remember this how they are enrolled and why Call it again to mind O ye transgressors to use the words of the Prophet Isa 46.8 Now that you may consult these records aright and have Conscience to reflect It s requisite that there be 1 Self-denial without which this work will not be done at all or not aright but Conscience like the unjust Steward will be writing fifty for an hundred For be sure your wills and affections yea Conscience it self through the corruption that cleaves to it will be drawing back from such a difficult and flesh-displeasing work or at most will not dwell long upon it And therefore the Apostle doubleth the charge Examine your selves prove your own selves as knowing how hardly we are brought to it and how the heart hangs back from it Luk. 16.6 2 Cor. 13.5 2 Serious deliberation lest you misread and misunderstand her records and the result be a mistake and misrepresentation of your case which will minister nothing but matter for repentance as it did unto David I said in my haste c. Psal 31.22 and 116.11 3 A steady diligence My spirit made diligent search Psal 77.6 1. In rubbing up and ransacking the memory where these records lie as in their most proper repository For many of our actions lie there rather as so much rubbish which we have swept out of sight then as so many records that are orderly shelv'd up for a surveigh 2. In reiterating this method our actions many times lie so far off and so many things interpose between them and the eye of Conscience that there must be a raised and repeated diligence yea and giving all diligence to remove other matters and to reduce them again to our minds 'T is therefore called a bringing back to the heart 2 Pet. 1.10 1 King 8.47 Isa 46.8 3. In the reception and right nicking of the means The court of records stands not always open and 't is ill slipping the first season Now diligence would be doing e're the doors are shut and the draught by Conscience is yet fresh and unsullied As David sometimes immediately reflected upon the cutting off of Sauls garment and upon his numbring the people But at another time when he yields to his own sloth and falls not in with the first season Vriah is murdered and his Wife constuprated by him c. and he never casts a reflex upon either of these prodigious acts yea notwithstanding the Parable came so pat and plain upon him till the Prophet was fain to put himself in the place of Conscience and tell him Thou art the man and you know what this negligence cost him 1 Sam. 24.5 2 Sam. 24.10 Chap. 11 and 12. Psal 51. 2. Direct 2 Set Conscience by those holy rules whereon she must reflect The rule is of necessary reflection on and of as needful resolution in witness-bearing For how shall Conscience witness or reflect on this as good or on that as good but by comparing this and that with the rule which can alone resolve her what is good and what is bad Now as Gods revealed will is the only rule and measure of all moral good and evil so the reflection of Conscience connoteth a respect to this rule For Conscience doth not cast back an enquiry after the physical being of an action as whether I have eat or drunk but after the moral being of that action as whether I have eat or drunk to Gods glory c. as his law enjoyns me or else to excess c. as his law inhibits me Mic. 6.8 1 Joh. 3.4 1 Cor. 10.31 Eph. 5.18 Now hereunto these three things are requisite which though they are not of that obvious necessity and distinct use in those sudden and transient reflections which Conscience often maketh yet are they of very needful observation and useful distinctness in her more solemn and abiding reflections in the more serious returns we are to make upon our selves as before the Sacrament c. or when we undertake the solemn examination of our selves 1. Set the rule before thy Conscience in its spiritual power purity and in the several parts of it On this she is to reflect and by this she must be regulated 'T is not enough that you have them lying in habit with the sunteresis but they should be now actually educed and brought forth to view For in that you are now to search your selves by them you must take an actual surveigh of them David therefore did not satisfie himself that the laws of God were ever with him but he did expose and lay them before him Thy judgments have I laid before me Psal 119.30 cum 98. And without this the course you are now taking will be much-what ineffectual and can never be fully commensurate with your design this duty or Gods demand who bids you take heed to your ways according to his word Psal 119.9 2. Sift your Conscience and therewith your lives and actions by the rules compare her and them with this Examine your selves prove your own selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as men try metals by bringing them to their proper measure as Gold and Silver to the touch-stone 2 Cor. 13.5 Self-discussion by the divine standard is of singular advantage both for the discovery of your sins as David and Paul found it and for the drawing out a discovery of your sincerity as Job Ps 19.11 12. Rom. 7.8 9 c. Job 23.10 11. Will you but cast an eye on this glass you should see more of the nature and number of your sins the nature necessity and beauty of Gods service and continuing therein should contract his blessing on your selves Jam. 1.25 But in your solemn examinations let me advise you to call forth the laws of God and rules of godliness successively and distinctly and so to compare the several periods of your lives with them both in the matter and manner of your actions Hath the matter of my life born accord to this that and the other precepts or hath there not been an attempt on and violation of both this and that and the other prohibition For the manner of my actions have they been done upon that account and with those aimes affections c. that these rules prescribe me and whereupon they promise a blessing to me By this course Conscience will be 1. Less complicated in her work through the artifices of sin or Satan They usually hide their
deceits under the covert of generals This unravels all the clue 2. More compleat in her witness For by this means many of those actions which lay out of sight upon her records are suggested by and to Conscience afresh 3 More cogent in her witness and it being more particular it will be more prevalent with us when Conscience can now say to us as Job's friends to him Lo this I have searched it so it is hear then at and know it for thy good Job 5.27 4 More constant in her witness and more quick hence-forth and ready to her work Her frequent converses with these rules and comparings therewith form her unto a more habitual promptness and present activity to cherish good and check evil while 't is yet but in the egg and entrance 3. Stay thy Conscience with the rule and upon the reflections which thou now makest Let her not give a glance only and so go off but consider Hebr. Set your heart on your ways as David I considered Heb. I thoughted my ways Hag. 1.5 7. Psal 119.59 By this means if consideration be taken up in making such comparisons your work will thrive upon your hands to a greater extension and a more gracious intension Consideration will fetch in the whole compass of Gods commands and our conversations If Conscience reflect upon an evil this will rip it up in all its circumstances as it did in the Patriarchs and pious David If upon a good this will run down its enquiry into the root and efficient of it and then run it up again into the exemplar and end of it and so returns fraught with repentance on that hand with rejoycing on this Gen. 42.21 22. Psal 51.3 4 c. 2 Cor. 4.2 c. 2.17 1.12 'T is necessary then that there should be some immoration of our Conscience in an intent consideration when we are imployed in these self-converses The worth hereof is great the efficacy of such reflections depending eminently thereupon David thoughted his ways and immediately turneth his feet to Gods word The Preacher considers and is forthwith cured of his trouble and tentation Whereas others through inconsiderateness run on in sin and some are held upon the rack of sorrow and anguish Psal 119.59 Eccles 9.1 Isa 1.3 Psal 73.21 22. Let me add a fourth 4. Shake off whatsoever will retard you in or retain you from this work Sin and Satan will be suggesting disswasives and determents Slothfulness will be sticking at the difficulty and diligence which must be used The sensual and sensitive part will be startling and bogling at the displeasingness and danger of it as that which will hazard all her ease and self-enjoyment Yea your selves will be but too shy of such a duty if you shake not off all such insinuations and suggestions and set to it with all your might 3. Direct 3 Speak to thy Conscience that she will reflect more constantly or at least that she will reckon with thee in the close of every day 1 That she reflect more constantly Herein do I exercise my self saith Paul to have always a Conscience void of offence Act. 24.16 And elsewhere he speaks of it in the present tense Not we had or shall have but we have a good Conscience Heb. 13.18 And that is the good Conscience which gives the quick reflex It is true I acknowledg that your actions are quick and sudden in their motions but Conscience is as quick and sudden and though those may have gotten the start of her as Cushi did of Ahimaaz yet she can easily overtake and out-run them as Ahimaaz did Cushi because she runneth as he did by the way of the Plain There are many more things to interrupt their motion than hers Truth is 1. When an action is yet but in purpose or in the proposal Conscience should reflect immediately as she is capacitated accordingly to promote it if good as in Solomon or prevent it if evil as it did in Joseph 1 King 5.8 Gen. 39.9 2. Or when an action is passing from the inward intention to outward execution Conscience should catch it by the heel in the place of the breaking forth of Children as Jacob did his Brother and as being Gods Centinel should require its pass and certificate and remand it back if it it be bad or rescue it from its assailants if it be good as Paul did Hos 12.3 Rom. 7.15 24. 3. Or is an action past forth without her animadvertence she should forthwith pursue it and put the arrest of her reflection upon it and be asking what have I done Or ask us as Joab ask'd David What hast thou done Jer. 8.6 2 Sam. 3.24 To this end labour for tenderness of Conscience of which hereafter which will soon reflect upon the least touch and pressure 2 King 22.19 But alas where is the Conscience that hath not abused us more or less in all these who can say my heart is clean therefore urge her 2 To reckon with thee at least in the close of every day Conscience should be still every day a doing with us but there are two seasons in the day wherein we especially should have to do with Conscience viz. in the morning that she may tell us what we have to do this day and in the evening that she tell us what we have done Commune with your own heart upon your bed Psal 4.4 'T is good communing with our selves and speaking to Conscience before we compose our selves to sleep Job reflected every day upon the carriage of his Sons and therefore no doubt upon the carriage of himself Thus did Job continually Heb. all the days Job 1.5 This is the way to keep your accounts both more short and more sure Well if conscience be shy or sullen plead the cause with her as the very heathen could do * Quotidie apud me causam dico c. v. Senec. de Irâ l. 3. c. 36. and then put her to the question What good have I done or else declined this day or if she return thee that thy actions have been good for the matter Return upon her yet again Yea but in what manner did I it upon what motives with what mind in what method c. So what evil have I committed or cherished or else given check to or crucified this day or if this and that were not evil in it self have not I wounded it by some evil circumstances Believe it Christians it would be of excellent advantage to your actual growth and eternal good if you had such a compendium of sins and duties by you or rather in you as Conscience might call it over every evening and comparing your employments that day with it might be able to witness clearly your estate and actions of the day now past you 4. Shew kindness to thy Conscience Direct 4 when she doth reflect yea though it be in thy own reproof Tell her thou art thankful as well as sensible and dost more congratulate thy self in
according to a consecution or emanation from Mans nature As when we say Man is by nature endowed with an Understanding Will c. Thus the powers and properties of Mans nature are said to be natural to him 3. Or for that which is by and according to a connexion with Mans nature as Paul saith We were by nature children of wrath Eph. 2.3 This condition was connexed with our nature we were subject to the revenging justice of God as soon as we received the nature of man Thus the pravity and pollution of Mans nature is said to be natural to him The import of this question is not Whether the Conscience be evil either in regard of its natural constitution or essence In this sense it must needs be good because it is by the special efficience and gift of God Job 32.8 Chap. 20.7 Or 2. in regard of any natural consecution or emanation from its nature Thus it cannot be bad but good for the same reason because it cometh from the blessed God whose work is perfect Deut 32.4 But 3. in regard of a natural connexion i.e. Whether Conscience in man by and according to the condition which is connexed with his nature be morally evil or sinful yea or no That every mans Conscience is by nature sinful in the sense last mentioned appears First From the notorious defilement of every man by nature These propositions are of Apostolical proof That all have sinned and that they are all under sin That all the world is become guilty before God And that they are all by nature children of wrath Rom. 3.9 19 23. Ephes 2.3 What is man that he should be clean and that which is born of a woman that he should be righteous saith Eliphaz All persons and all the parts of man are impure and defiled Job 15.14 15 16. Rom. 3.9 19. And who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean To them that are defiled is nothing pure but even their mind and conscience is defiled Job 14.4 Tit. 1.15 The leaven of sin hath over-spread the whole lump The leprosie of sin hath left no faculty untainted The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint It reacheth from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot So that the Conscience is corrupt as well as the corporeal part 1 Cor. 5.6 Isa 1.4 5 6. Secondly From the notable declarations in the Covenant of Grace What on Gods part is therein more clearly proposed than this I will put a new spirit within you I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh I will circumcise your hearts I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts c. Ezek. 11.19 20. Chap. 36.26 Jer. 31.33 Deut. 30.6 And what can on mans part then be more clearly supposed than this That the heart of man is of a stony adamantine and uncircumcised temper without the sculpture of any saving truth e're grace takes him within the Covenant And surely by nature the sons of men are all strangers from the Covenants of Promise Zach. 7.12 Jer. 9.26 27. 2 Cor. 3.3 Eph. 2.12 cum 3. Thirdly From the known design of the Commandments and conveyance of Grace A good Conscience is the end of Gods Commandments 1 Tim. 1.5 1 Pet. 3.16 If Conscience were good by nature how should the goodness thereof be the end and effect of the Gospel of Grace A good Conscience was not found by the Gospel in the regions where it came but was the fruit of the Gospel The Gospel was sent amongst them not as supposing their Conscience already good but to set them right and leave them good whom it found bad Act. 26.18 20. 1 Cor. 14.24 25 Heb. 4.12 A good Conscience is the effect of the grace of faith in Christ God purifying mens hearts by faith Act. 15.9 Heb. 10.22 Before the coming of faith then the Conscience is defiled To the unbeliever nothing 〈◊〉 pure And manifest enough it is that faith it Christ never grew in the garden of nature when most pure from the weeds of sin which the Fall hath brought in but is an eflux of divine grace and an especial gift of God Tit. 1.15 Heb. 11.6 Eph. 2.8 Phil. 1.29 Fourthly From the necessary diffusion of sanctifying grace throughout the whole nature of Man The God of peace sanctifie you wholly the whole then was sinful And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless c. The upper region of Mans soul then and which is rational as well as the lower region and which is more sensitive were stained and culpable The Conscience therefore cannot but be corrupted 1 Thes 5.23 The Conscience could neither require nor receive the renovation of grace if it were righteous by nature But renovation passeth through all the parts and powers Behold all things are become new This is to put on the new man and to put off the old man Sin did and Sanctification now doth extend it self over all the man especially the mind To be renewed is eminently in the spirit of our mind 2 Cor. 5.17 Eph. 4.22 23 24. Fifthly From the noted derivation of a good Conscience to us by means of Christ Till his blood be sprinkled on us the Conscience is not sanctified in us as is implied Heb. 9.14 'T is the blood of Christ Who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God which purgeth your Consciences from dead works to serve the living God Hebr. 9.14 Conscience is impure then till Christ purgeth it 'T is he freeth it from sin and fitteth it for Gods service But by nature we are all without Christ alienated and enemies in our minds by wicked works Men do not come by nature but are called by grace unto the fellowship of the Son Jesus Christ Eph. 2.12 cum 3. Col. 1.21 1 Cor. 1.9 Sixthly From the notable defilement of Conscience in the discharge of its acts and offices Now laesae actiones laesas facultates indicant It must needs be a maimed and diseased power that puts forth such maimed and diseased performances These I shall briefly instance in the next Question and judg needful to pluck down the pride of Man and to preserve you from the dangerous precipices of many who cry up Conscience and its conduct for Salvation instead of calling men to Christ and to the conduct of the Scriptures Q. 2. What are the evils of Mans Conscience naturally which we should be heedful of and and humbled under Though I cannot fully open that sink of sin which lieth here a work that is more accurately done by an acute and able hand * Anth. Burgess Orig. sin par 3. c. 2. §. 1 8. and though a further manifestation hereof must follow in our ventilation of the several sorts of an evil Conscience of which hereafter yet something shall be done for the discovery of this evil and putrefaction Conscience may
curses your rich estates will be the ruin of your souls your eminent pleasures will end in perdition and the greater is your confluence the greater will be your confusion if guilt shall still abide upon your Conscience If ye will not lay it to heart saith the Lord of Hosts I will even send a curse upon you and I will curse your blessings yea I have cursed them already because ye do not lay it to heart Deut. 28.15 ad finem Eccles 7.13 Jam. 5.3 6. Rev. 18.7 Mal. 2.2 4 Is Conscience evil you have no interest in Christ An interest in Christ and an evil Conscience are things inconsistent who doth always purge their Conscience whom he proprietateth in his choice benefits True it is the priviledges by Christ are large but as Peter told Simou Magus so must I tell thee upon the same reason Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter for thy heart is not right in the sight of God Heb. 9.14 c. 10.22 Act. 8.21 5 Is Conscience evil your choicest endeavours are also evil because you frustrate the end of the Commandment which is to free you from an evil Conscience and are not framed to that entireness which the Commandment enjoyneth and expecteth unless your hearts are sprinkled from an evil Conscience you have no access to God nor can hope for acceptance much less can you have assurance your prayers are turned into sins and provocations So long as Conscience was statedly sinful God accounted the most costly Sacrifices of the Jews wherewith went supplications also but as so many splendid mockeries and they were so far from receiving acceptation that they were reckoned abomination 1 Tim. 1.5 Jam. 4.8 Heb. 10.22 Psal 109.8 Isa 66.3 4. Prov. 21.27 6 Is Conscience evil be sure the consequence will be evil if you continue this evil So long as Conscience is bad no one capacity or faculty can be good which are all under the empire and influence of Conscience If thine eye be evil the whole body is full of darkness and if the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness Mat. 6.23 But this is not all mind the place of Conscience miserable must be the issue of an evil and polluted Conscience Corruptio optimi pessima You that are fearless of its sin now shall feel its sting hereafter and shriek and roar with the corrodings of that worm which you would not here attempt to kill or cure It s evil of sin will issue in extreamest and eternal sufferings if not timely salved Cure it or it will kill and condemn you and you will contract condemnation from God unto you Mar. 9.44 Isa 66.24 1 Joh. 3.20 IV. Speed your â—onversion from sin your Conscience must needs be sinful so long as your sin continueth If you continue in a sinful state the state of Conscience must needs be sinful If you are defiled this is defiled If you are after the flesh so is this also Tit. 1.15 Rom. 8.5 6 7 8. If you would heal Conscience then hasten your conversion do not only try your ways but turn to the Lord who will bind up that which is broken Lam. 3.40 Hos 6.1 The change of your condition includeth the change of Conscience Turn you at Gods reproof and he will pour out his spirit upon you and then you are no more in the flesh but in the spirit the motions and mindings of Conscience shall be no more so fleshly Prov. 1.27 Rom. 8.9 c. 7.5 6. V. Strike in with Christ The stain of Conscience is such that none but the sprinklings of Christs blood upon it can purge it from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 10.22 c. 9.14 The evil of Conscience came in originally by the first Adam and is only healed by the second Adam Hasten to him by an active faith This is that bunch of Hysop which sprinkleth this blood upon you and so the Conscience becomes clean in the sight of God Psal 51.7 Would you have Conscience cured from its evil state close with Christ by a sound faith He dwelleth in the heart by faith Eph. 3.17 VI. Search and put the Covenant into suit follow him that did create and can alone cure the Conscience with iterated prayers and with the instance and pressing of his promises Peruse his Promises I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh c. Ezek. 11.19 20. c. 36.26 27. Deut. 30.6 Plead them in your petitions He will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel Ezek. 36.37 Unfold the pravity of your Hearts and Consciences Lord I acknowledg my Conscience is miserably corrupted far departed from thy first Creation and foully depraved both by the fall of Adam and my own voluntary dâ—fections Behold I bring thee an old and obdurate Heart Lord renew and mollifie it a diseased and defiled Heart Lord repair and purge it an Heart of stone and adamant inflexible to thy ducture impenetrable by thy displeasure c. Lord remove it and renew me Urge him with his Promises to do it and thine own heart there-with also to deliberate and draw from them Lord hast thou not said A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you I will â—ake away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh O make good â—hy word to thy poor creature who can no â—ore cure this heart of stone than I can â—reate another world Create in me a clean heart 〈◊〉 God and renew a right spirit within me So David Psal 51.10 See further helps hereâ—â—ter Q. 4. How may we know whether our Consciences are Evangelically good or bad Be plain with Conscience § 1 and let it be â—ain with thee But in regard our Conâ—â—ience may and doth put a paralogism upon 〈◊〉 and its argumentation is oft-times sophiâ—â—cal and fallacious through the depravedness of our natures of which hereafter and so men deceive their own selves Jam. 1 2◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It therefore requireth the stricter care and caution in your part and circumspection on mine how we manage thiâ— work To which end before I propound marks * See Dik Good Conscience ch 7 8 9. p. 73. ad 128. Sheffield Good Conscience ch 24. Bald wins cas Conscience ch 12. I would promise this brief animadversioâ— for preventing mistakes * See Sheffields Good Conscience ch 18 2â— that you may 〈◊〉 conclude the goodness of your Conscienâ—â— either from their past or present 1 scrupulosâ—â— 2 smart or trouble on the one hand 3 stillâ—â— or quiet on the other without further aâ— fuller evidence Which I shall put upon a 〈◊〉 deliberate enquiry hereafter The stated habitude of your Conscienâ—â— may be discerned by these five things Tâ—â— adjuncts the acts the absoluteness the aspeâ— the answer of the Conscience First § 2 By the Adjuncts of Conscience aâ— your Consciences Evangelically pure or defiled Evangelically at peace or disquieted
that have this good Conscience Psal 19.12 13. 4 'T is good as concerns all our capacities § 10 The good Conscience goeth the whole compass of a Christian of Christianity and of his calling For the Christian the good Conscience will have him good without and good within 'T is for inward renovation as well as outward reformation for washing the heart the affections as well as whiting the appearances the actions It 's taken up most about the inward and hidden man calls first for truth in the inward parts the transforming of the Understanding into divine Truths and turning in of the Will unto and determining it upon the Divine goodness And you shall ever find a good Conscience followed with a good Conversation Ephes 4.23 24. Jer. 4.14 1 Pet. 3.4 Psal 51.6 Rom. 12.2 Deut. 26.17 1 Pet. 3.16 For Christianity the good Conscience will forgo none and is found good in all the doctrines and duties and graces both of faith and charity 'T is not only almost but altogether perswaded to be a Christian From the heart hath this Soul obeyed the form of Christian doctrine This Conscience is as were it cast into it and cometh from it as the vessel from the mould into which it was melted * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 1.5 Act. 26.28 29. Rom. 6.17 For our callings the good Conscience will be good in our particular Callings and relations as well as good in our general and as concerns Religion Good as a Subject as well as good as a Saint Innocency was found in me before God and also before thee O King I have done no hurt saith Daniel Chap. 6.22 Good as a Minister of a flock not seeking his own profit but the profit of many that they may be saved Good as a Master of a Family He and his house will serve the Lord He will walk within his house with a perfect heart 1 Cor. 10.33 Josh 24.15 Psal 101.2 In short the good Conscience considers the business as well as the benefit of the relation and calling Conscience directs the business that it be done in the Lord and as he hath limited discusses the business whether it be done or not and calls over the carriage of it and asks the son servant c. as Samuel did Saul What hast thou done And in a word dictates that all businesses be done for the Lord and for Conscience sake Ephes 5.22 chap. 6.10 1 Sam. 13.11 Jer. 8.6 Rom. 13.5 1 Pet. 2.18 19. How is it with you then let Conscience speak an evil Conversation doth loudly proclaim an evil Conscience Or is the outside clean but the inside mean while corrupt You name the name of Christ but are your natures still unchang'd and carnal You are good at the doctrine of Christianity but are you bad at the duties Good at the Temple and in Gods house but bad at your Trades and in your own Houses Good at the Bible with Judas but bad at the Bag Good at your general profession of Religion but bad in your particular places and relations You have then but an evil Conscience Mat. 23.25 28. 2 Tim. 2.19 21. Tit. 1.16 Jer. 7.4 13. Joh. 12.6 Luk. 16.10 11. But as for you whose Consciences run all points of the Compass respects all parts of your callings you into whose conversations Conscience like Christs coat is woven from the top throughout You that are willing in a◠things to live honestly to wear the comfort of a good Conscience as Paul did and Peter directs tacitely Heb. 13.10 2 Cor. 1.12 1 Pet. 3.16 5 'T is good in its whole Compass § 11 The Conscience that is truly good is throughly good This goodness is not at the list only but runs throughout the whole piece 'T is often called the perfect heart 2 Chron. 25.2 1 King 11.4 c. 15.3.14 There is no piece or part of the Conscience but is renewed with Grace though it be renewed but in part 'T is good at the rule in the first Proposition It hath learnt not only the truth of Jesus but the truth as 't is in Jesus Good at the reflection it is to make and the report it is to manifest in the second Proposition Good at the result from both in the third Proposition 'T is good as a rule good as a witness good as a judg So that the Christian is habitually disposed to do what it enjoyneth and endure what is imposed for Conscience sake 1 Pet. 2.19 Rom. 13.5 Is Conscience then sanctified throughout Hath the leaven of special grace leavened the whole lump Is your heart not only studied but sound in Gods statutes Then shall you not be ashamed 1 Thes 5.23 Psal 119.80 6 'T is good for continuance § 12 and in all conditions The good Conscience is good as concerns all times as well as all things I do exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of offence saith Paul Act. 24.16 Though the good Conscience be not always in exercise yet the good man doth exercise himself to have always a good Conscience A good Conscience saith one holds out constantly in a good cause without deflection and in a good course without defection * Dykes Good Cons c. 8. p. 113 Particular failings thereof cannot but be confessed but this is the prevailing frame and ordinary constitution of it Let the times frown or favour be times of prosperity to or persecution of the Church and cause of God yet the good Conscience whether it rain or shine holds on his way and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger Job 17.9 He may sometimes go out of his way but never will give it over This Soul breaketh for the longing it hath to Gods Testimonies at all times and hath respect unto his Statutes continually his heart may turn aside but is not turned back and though it may sometimes deal foolishly and most times feebly yet dealeth not falsly in Gods Covenant Psal 119.20 117. c. 44.17 18. Let Satan tempt Job the Sabeans trouble c. his Cattel his Corn his Sheep his Servants his Children and all are taken from him but this good Conscience still tarrieth with him He could hold fast none of that great confluence but still he holdeth fast this good Conscience as God himself is witness and Satan doth not withstand it Job 1.13 20. cum 2.3 Still he holdeth fast his Integrity Put it upon the enquiry then in your own spirits What! like Reuben unstable as waters Doth Conscience shift as the winds of worldly profit or preferment sit Now for the Word and now for the World with Demas Would you fain have saved Christ and his concernments as Pilat would from the cruelty of the Jews even now and do you by and by sentence him to death when others would else say you were no friends to Caesar What! good only while Jehojadah your Tutor or Minister c. lived and now grown evil Good only till Balak offers the wages of unrighteousness to
'T is for praise to the advancement and glorifying of God which it principally reckons of and finally refers unto The good Conscience is for celebrating God and his Glory in which it ultimately terminates the discharge of its Offices and the debts and obligations it inferreth on us this is Gods end in renewing the Conscience and the great end of Conscience renewed that he might be glorified Isa 43.7 21. c. 60.21 1 Tim. 1.17 This it chargeth most upon it self Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy Name Bless the Lord O my soul c. Awake up my Glory awake Psaltery and Harp I my self will awake right early This also comforteth it self most in and he is not ashamed but can cheerfully acquiesce whatsoever he doth or endureth for Conscience sake toward God while Christ is magnified in his body and while on his part God is glorified Psal 103.1 2. c. 57.8 Phil. 1.20 1 Pet. 2.19.4.14 This is the great matter which he purposeth with himself and to which he provoketh other Souls I will praise thee O Lord my God with all my heart and I will glorifie thy Name for evermore I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall be continually in my mouth My soul shall make her boast in God O magnifie the Lord with me and let us exalt his Name together Yea let all such as love thy Salvation say continually the Lord be magnified Psal 86.12 c. 34.1 2 3. 70.4 Let Conscience answer then Do not you like to retain God in your knowledg you know God but are you careless of glorifying him as God And say what is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profit should we have if we pray unto him Or do you scoff at your Brethren which you may have cast out with those in Isaiah saying Let the Lord be glorified O miserable Consciences Rom. 1.21 28. Job 21.14 Isa 66.5 cum ch 5.19 Or while you pretend to Gods glory do you prefer your own Are your acts of piety your almes or acts of charity done principally that you may have glory of men unto whom ye would outwardly appear righteous Verily you have your reward and still remain with rotten and unsound Consciences Mat. 6.2 1 Thes 2.6 Mat. 23.27 28. But you that vail your own glory to Gods the bias and bent of whose good works which men behold is to this mark that they may glorifie not so much you as God in and for you in the day of Visitation you that can venture and forgo all for Gods glory when he calls for it and count of nothing so high as his honour you whose fruits of righteousness are with this final respect that your Father may be glorified and you may shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light You that have glorified him and are resolved you will glorifie him again Go eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart for God now accepteth thy work He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory but he that seeketh his glory that sent him the same is true and no unrighteousness is in him Joh. 8.50 1 Pet. 2.12 Mat. 5.16 2 Cor. 12.9 10. Phil. 1.11 1 Pet. 2.9 Eccles 9.7 Joh. 7.18 Fifthly § 21 By the answer of a good Conscience which if Peter be consulted is towards God 1 Pet. 3.21 Quest Whether we may argue the goodness of our Conscience from their answer towards God I answer you may But then 't is not so much from your present earnestness therein as from the powerful efficacy and proportionate extent thereof that you must take your evidence for you shall find bad Consciences furnished with quick and ready answers as if they would not abridge God of the least he calls for Deut. 5.27 28 29. Jer. 42.5 6. You are concerned to discuss the deliberateness of the answer and its due extent The good Conscience answers to Gods Call § 22 Commands c. 1 To Gods Call No sooner is the Conscience effectually convinced or hath Christ effectually called but you have the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle phrases it of the good Conscience Conscience answers with Samuel Speak Lord for thy servant heareth and with David Lo I come I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy Law is within my heart 1 Sam. 3.10 Psal 40.7 8. Yea Conscience asks with Saul Lord what wilt thou have me to do Teach me thy way O Lord I will walk in thy truth Vnite my heart to fear thy name Conscience sets him upon the Tower with Habakkuk and will watch to see what God will say unto him and what he shall answer when he is convinced or argued with Act. 9.6 Psal 86.11 Hab. 2.1 How is it then hath God called but ye would not answer Hath he spoken but ye would not hear Have you set at nought his counsel and despised his reproof Have you chosen your own ways and doth your Soul delight it self in your abominations You have then sinful and stupid Consciences Prov. 1.24 25. Isa 65.12 c. 66.3 4. But you whose Ears are bored to hear and your Hearts are brought to embrace the Calls of Grace You that with Simon and Andrew his Brother with James the Son of Zebedee and John his Brother at the Call of Christ can quit all when he once said Come ye after me You that attend the saving motions of his Spirit and addict your selves to this mystery of Godliness whose Hearts are determined upon God in Christ and to whom no Calls are so acceptable as are the Calls from sin and to his service you may comfortably reflect and repose your selves in the witness of a good Conscience Mar. 1.16 21. 1 Cor. 16.15 Job 22.21 22. ch 27.6 2 To Gods Commands § 32 The good Conscience corresponds to Gods Commandments not only as it conserves and apprehends Law Here is a Copy and Transcript within of the Command and Truths without The Law of God is in his Heart the Spirit of the living God hath written it in these fleshly Tables Psal 37.31 Jer. 31.33 2 Cor. 3.3 But as it comes and applies Law hath God said Seek ye my face Conscience speaks back My Heart said unto thee Thy face Lord will I seek Hath God commanded us to keep his Precepts diligently Conscience corresponds and crys out O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes Doth God require that we do his will I delight to do thy wiâ—â— saith Conscience Psal 27.8 c. 119.4 5. c. 40.7 8. Try then what agreement find you between his Commands and your Consciences Are you afraid of the restraint of God's Laws and would break these bands from you and can you not bear these cords Do you hate him that rebuketh in the Gate and abhor the Ministry that speaks uprightly and searcheth the inward parts of the belly as Ahab did Micajah for saith he He
never prophesieth good but always evil to me Surely this is an evil Conscience Psal 2.3 Amos 5.10 2 Chron. 18.7 Or how do your Hearts answer and are accommodated to his Testimonies Have God's Commands a counter-part in your Consciences Have you hid his Law in your Hearts that you may not sin against him And are your Hearts enclined to perform his Statutes always even to the end Gods Law commands you Do your Hearts readily accept and return answer to it I will run the way of thy Commandments and have respect unto thy ways I will delight my self in thy Statutes I will not forget thy Word Psal 119.11 15 16 32 112. Gods Law chides and threatens you How do your Hearts rellish it and acquiesce under it Is it a kindness Do you count it an excellent Oyl Do you compose your selves to submission under it and to serve the ends of God by it Psal 141.5 Isa 39.8 1 Sam. 3.18 Mich. 7.9 Here is one answer of a good Conscience 3 To Gods Covenant § 24 The good Conscience gives answer to Gods Covenant 1. to the tenour of it God saith unto them which were not his people Thou art my people The good Conscience speaks back again Thou art my God O my Soul saith David thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my God Hos 2.23 Psal 16.2 Ezek. 11.20 c. 36.28 2. To the terms of it The Lord avoucheth Believers to be his peculiar people and that they should keep all his Commandments The good Conscience restipulates and avoucheth the Lord to be his God and to walk in his ways and to keep his Statutes and his Commandments c. Deut. 26.17 18. Exod. 19 5. 9.3 To the Truths in it The good Conscience hath a Transcript of all the important Truths of Gods Covenant This shall be the Covenant I will make with them after those days saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts Jer. 31.33 Heb. 8.8 9 10. Come then who is he that hath engaged his heart to approach unto me saith the Lord Have you taken the Lord for your God and alone chief good and given back your selves unto him his servants to obey and that for ever Have you none in Heaven but God and is there none upon Earth that you desire besides God And have you taken his Testimonies as an Heritage for ever and chosen the way of his Truths This may let you know that you have a good Conscience Jer. 30.21 22. c. 32.28 Psal 73.25 c. 119.30 111. I will give them an heart to know me that I am the Lord and they shall be my people and I will be their God for they shall return unto me with their whole heart Jer. 24.7 Is there a Conversion to God the Conscience is good But no Conversion no good Conscience Hath God commanded you saying Obey my voice and I will be your God and ye shall be my people and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you that it may be well with you But you hearken not nor encline your ears and walk in your own counsels and imaginations refuse Communion with God or reject any of the known Commands of God or regard any iniquity or any interest above God you have then evil Hearts and your Consciences are not right in the sight of God Jer. 7.23 24. c. 3.17 Numb 85.39 Psal 66.18 4 To the cause of God § 25 The good Conscience is for Gods cause above others above its own this is the bottom in which it sails all its concernments and therefore with Paul and with Moses is cool and gentle in transacting his own matters but quick and transported with great heat in the matters of God and Godliness forgives and is submissive to his own enemies but flames with zeal and is stiff and inflexible to Gods enemies Gal. 4.12 cum 5.12 Act. 13.9 c. Num. 12.3 cum Exod. 30.19 If the Cause of God calls for his part in action he is ready and willingly offers himself according to his office and the capacity and circumstances he is in If it calls for a passive part he can for Conscience toward God endure grief suffering wrongfully and is ready not only to be bound but also to die for his sake 2 Cor. 9.2 Judg. 5.2 9. 2 Cor. 8.3 1 Pet. 2.19 Act. 21.13 You that like Gallio care for none of these things that seek your own things not the things which are Jesus Christs whose Spirits are abundantly raised in your own Cause but ordinarily remiss in Gods Cause have no good Conscience Act. 18.17 Phil. 2.21 Psal 137.5 6. But you that prefer Hierusalem to your chief joy that say unto Zion because of the house of the Lord our God we will seek thy good that will very gladly spend and be spent for the good of Souls and glory of their Saviour that sacrifice your own Concernments to those of Christ and his Church and would rejoyce to be offered upon the sacrifice and service of their faith and rejoyce in your sufferings with respect to his service Receive this sign and may you reap the sense of a good Conscience Psal 137.6 122.9 2 Cor. 12.15 Phil. 2.17 Col. 1.24 5 To the counsels of God § 26 and his dispensations towards them The good Conscience would hold Communion with God in his Works as well as in his Word and doth especially consider of and commemorates what God hath done for his Soul Psal 107.43 94.19 66.16 Hath God accepted his person answered his prayers afforded him his presence of Grace c. it binds him the faster to God Blessed be God saith he who hath not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me He will love God the more choicely live with God the more closely lean on and trust in God the more constantly Ps 66.19 20.116 throughout 146.1 2. Doth God afflict and is angry with him with-draws the sense of his Salvation with-holds the spirit of Peace and the waters are come even into his Soul He considers and confesses his sin communes with himself converts and turns himself to God crieth for his Salvation chargeth his Soul to hope in to obey to remember and to repose it self in God Psal 32.5 c. 38.6 c. 42.5 11. 51.1 12. 77.1 13. 13.1 6. I should be too large if I left particular instances as may concern either the inward or outward man Put it upon the enquiry The Providences of God are various toward you How do you answer the acts of God and his aimes by them What no laying them to heart Happily he may have brought his judgments at the doors and yet do not you lay it to heart not so much as ask what have I done nor hearken to him for all this to observe his Counsels or obey his Commandments Happily he may have multiplied his mercies or you and do you not yet say in your hearts Let us now fear
the Lord our God but the mercies which he gave to humble and to prove you you abuse to pride and luxury c. Oh sinful and sensless Consciences Isa 42.25 Jer. 8.7 Hos 7.2 Jer. 5.24 Deut. 8.16 17. Or do you answer his administrations of justice with trying your ways and turning to the Lord Do you labour to see his mind in them and to learn more skill in his Statutes through them And doth Conscience call upon you Come and let us return to the Lord our God and by sound Conversion to seek a cure for them In administrations of Mercy doth Conscience ordinarily attend abett and argue from thence to duty And when it hath put the question What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me Doth it proceed to the Psalmist's conclusive resolution I will take the 〈◊〉 of Salvation and call upon the name of the Lord I will pay my vows unto the Lord I will wâ—â— before the Lord in the land of the living c. Iâ— short is Conscience wont to answer the dispensations of mercy with more dearness foâ— God and his glory and with more degrees 〈◊〉 humility as it did in Jacob and in David theâ— is yours a good Conscience Psal 103. through out Ezra 9.13 14. Gen. 32.10 2 Sam. 7.18 19. 6 To the Copy of God § 27 The Conscience which is statedly good setteth the Christian upon Conformity to God he abhorreth sauciness with God as blasphemous and aspireth after similitude to God as his eminent business He knoweth that God is righteous and thence concludeth to be a doer of righteousness God is pure and as his hope is in him so he purifieth himself in Conformity to him God hath made it an argument Be ye boly for I am holy Conscience bearing his Authority brings the same argument also and Christ binds it upon the Conscience 1 Joh. 2.29 c. 3.3 1 Pet. 1.15 16. Mat. 5.48 Little Children let no man deceive you if God hath not drawn out his resemblance upon you if you are not doers of Righteousness as God is righteous If Conscience can permit you to walk in darkness while you profess to that God who is a pure light whatever be your pleas that your Consciences are good they are but pretensions not proofs your Consciences are still bad You that are ordinarily looking at and labouring to come as nigh as you may unto your Copy That are followers of God as dear Children that are created after God in righteousness and true holiâ—ess and whose care it is to be as immutable â—ntensive and extensive as you can in goodâ—ess You are the Children of God our Father who hath given to you a good Conscience 〈◊〉 Joh. 3.7 9. c. 1.5 6 7. 1 Pet. 1.14 Eph. 5.1 c. 4. â—4 Mat. 5.45 I have used a greater length and liberty of Speech in this Question than I have in former or shall in future Cases the importance thereof enforced me If Conscience be good your condition is good if Conscience be naught your condition is naught too as will be seen hereafter Be therefore the more thorough and serious in the trial of your selves still remembring this just Limit in all thy helps for knowledg hereof given you That your ordinary or usual tendency and habitude must be attended 'T is not what your Conscience is for a fit or in some sudden flash either as to good or as to evil but what your common frame and general or most usual temper is must be consulted Q. 5. Whether we may know that our Consciences be statedly and Evangelically good Though your Consciences are lockt up from the knowledg of others and are comprehensively and fully known only by God himself for who can understand his errors Psal 19.12 Yet every man may know what the stated habitude of his Conscience is if he will but deliberately discuss and carefully commune with and impartially attend and improve the judgment of his own Conscience As seems evident 1 By the description of its Nature 'T is the candle of the Lord searching not some but all not only the outward parts of the body but the inward parts of the belly i.e. the inwards acts and thoughts and therefore the the habitude and temper of the Heart elsewhere expressed by the Belly Prov. 20.7 cum Job 15.2 35. c. 32.18 19. The Spirit of Man i.e. the Conscience of Man knoweth the things of Man and within Man The Heart i.e. the Conscience knoweth its own bitterness and therefore may know its own blessedness 1 Cor. 2.11 Prov. 14.10 2 By the demands from and for it in Scripture Know ye not your selves i.e. your Consciences and so what your and their state and condition is whether you be in the faith whether Christ be in you 2 Cor. 13.5 Let every man prove his work and then shall he have rejoycing in himself which springs from the Testimony of a good Conscience Gal. 6.4 2 Cor. 1.12 3 By the declared sense hereof we find among the Saints Job's record is on high and in his own heart Job 16.19 c. 27.5 6. David and Hezekiah can and do confidently appeal the all-knowing God in it Psal 26.2 3. 17.3 Isa 38.3 Hear Paul We trust we have a good Conscience 'T is not we think or we hope but we trust 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are perswaded are confident of it which confidence we may raise upon the same foundation that he did In all things willing to live honestly Heb. 13.18 Q. 6. How may we get or obtain a good Conscience The Premises in answer to the former Question are of place and pertinent use here also as likewise whatsoever shall be prescribed hereafter for obtaining a pure peaceable upright faithful Conscience c. Here I advise you these few things * See Perkin's Tom. 1. Treat of Conscience c. 4. p. 551. Sheffield's good Conscience ch 25. Dyke's good Consc c. 5 6. That you Direct 1 1 Act Consideration * See Motives in Dyke's good Cons c. 10. ad finem Consideration is the next step to the Conversion of thy self the change of thy estate and the setting of thy Conscience right in the sight of God Psal 119.59 60. 45.10 11. 50.21 22. See Q. 4. Direct 3. Consider therefore in thy Heart Deut. 4.39 c. 8.5 If my Conscience shall be good Then 1 My Condition will be good secure Conscience for the main and thou securest thy Condition for the main Thy Condition is as thy Conscience is good or bad as this is good or bad in the sight of God Amaziah's Condition was bad though the current of his Actions was materially good because his Conscience was bad he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord but not with a perfect heart nor like his father David 2 Chron. 25.2 2 King 14.3 Jehoshaphat's Condition was good though he were chargeable with some things that were signally bad because his Conscience was good Nevertheless
art verily faulty But is it united to fear God's name There is none that Conscience bids thee pursue by desire like him or binds thee to please in and by thy duties like him or to promote his designs of glory equal with him Psal 86.11 c. 73.25 1 Thes 2.4 2. Enquire into the offices whereunto it directs thee Dost thou renounce the hidden things of dishonesty durst you not walk in craftiness or handle the Word of God deceitfully by contempering flesh and spirit in thy work as Vintners do in their Wines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But wouldst thou every office thou presentest shouldst be a pure offering every prayer a pure prayer And that which thou principally covetest therein is that thou mayst call on the Lord out of a pure heart 2 Cor. 4.2 Mal. 1.11 Job 16.17 2 Tim. 2.22 3. Enquire into the openness simplicity and unguilful disposition of thy Conscience What hast thou an heart and an heart as those Psal 12.2 marg one for God another for Baal for the world Miserable the pure Conscience is a plain Conscience 't is clothed with simplicity and godly sincerity 't is a spirit in which is no guile Durst you not double then in the matters of Conscience nor dissemble in the matters of corruption Art willing God should see the worst of thee and shew thee the very worst of thy self Dost thou expose all to his search and wouldst approve all in his sight and not so much as have thy heart secretly enticed from himself This is a pure Conscience 2 Cor. 1.12 Psal 32.2 1 Chron. 12.33 Psal 119.23 24. Job 31.27 2. Is thy Conscience purified from its defilement I know you are not purified from all degrees of sin are you from all the kinds of sin You are not purified from the actual stain of them but are you from the habitual state in them this is God's promise and the Gospel-purity of the Conscience I will cleause you from all your filthiness Ezek. 36.25 26 33. c. 37.23 I know none can say and speak truly his Heart is clean from all adhesion of sin to him or from activity of sin in him But can you say my heart is clean from the approbation of any sin by it and from the allowance of any sin in it 1 What say you to an habitual course in sin I know there are wicked works found with you but is there no wicked way found in you Do you refrain your feet from every evil way Though you fall into the mire with the sheep do not you wallow in the mire with the Swine Do you wash off the repeated spots of your sins by the renewed streams of godly sorrow to repentance else never call it a pure Conscience Psal 139.24 Psal 119.101 2 Pet. 2.22 Mich. 6.11 2 What say you to the authority and command of sin Doth Conscience woo and welcome it or witness and war against it and wash it self afresh in the blood of Christ and waters of Contrition when it hath contracted guilt and filth by the power or policies of it Is Conscience pure from its reign though she cannot preserve you from its rage Sin may pollute your Conscience and for present captivate it But doth not Conscience give up her self to the commands thereof but grieves rather that she should so be contaminated And when captivated doth Conscience raise complaints in and recollect the other powers of the Soul And doth she run to Christ renew the quarrel and reinforce her strength for another combate and resolve never to quit the field till she carrieth the victory and the Crown be fixed upon the head of Christ This is a pure Conscience Rom. 6.12 23. c. 7.15 ult 3 What say you to the hearts closing with sin Are you pure from the indulgence of sin though you cannot be from the in-dwelling of sin Do you hate all false ways Is there never an Herodias that your Hearts hug and cherish Are you for taking away all iniquity Is thy Conscience afraid of all abhorrent from all arms against all Secret as well as open Such as serve the interest of the flesh as well as such as straiten it And would you keep your selves unspotted from the world unspotted from the flesh as well as unswallowed uâ— by the world or by the flesh This speakâ—â— you to have a pure Conscience Psal 119.104 128. Hos 14.2 Psal 19.12 13. Jam. 1.27 Jude 23. Thirdly What is thy Conscience purified unto 1 To what as thy employment The pure Conscience is for the purest carrlage after the purest Copy 1 Job 3.3 This is the Temple of God the very floor of whose house as was that of Solomon's is over-laid with pure Gold both within and without 1 Cor. 3.17 1 King 6.30 Search the acts and offices of Conscience then is Godliness the greatest employment which it commands the other powers of the Soul and wherein it most congratulates it self If it be purified from sin 't is for the service of God if from dead works 't is to serve the living God 2 Tim. 1.3 Tit. 2.14 Heb. 9.14 2 To what as thy enjoyment The pure Conscience is for the purest comforts not so much for those which run out of the muddy Cisterns of Creatures but for such as rise out of the unmixed springs of Communication with God in Christ and the intimate sense of his quickning and conserving influences Nor doth it ever enjoy it self with that serenity as in the evidence of God's grace to him or in the exercise of his grace in and by him This is its rejoycing this its rest Psal 65.4 2 Cor. 1.12 Psal 116.7 Enquire then what are those enjoyments wherein Conscience giveth thee the greatest content and complacency Are they the impurer objects and operations of Sense or the purer acts and objects of the spirit of Faith Here is that pure river of the water of life wherein the pure Conscience doth most bath and bless it self Phil. 4.7 Rom. 15.13 Rev. 22.1 3 To what as thy end The pure Conscience puts forth its acts both imperate and elicite upon the purest accompt and for the purest ends with pure Conscience The Intentions to which it determineth the Will are not as the Feet in Nebuchadnezar's Image part of Iron and part of Clay but like that Image's Head of fine Gold 'T is a Conscience toward God 2 Tim. 1.3 Dan. 2.32 33. 1 Pet. 2.19 Enquire then whether the praise of God be that principal end which you prefer in and above all that Conscience carrieth you out to enterprize whether you do not mingle your glory with his or make his glory serve yours If God hath purified thy Conscience it is peculiarly for himself as the sole supream end and object of it And the Apostle offers us this observation That whatsoever is done heartily i.e. of pure Conscience is done unto the Lord and not unto men Phil. 1.20 Joh. 5.44 c. 12.43 Tit. 2.14 Col. 3.23 Ephes 6.6 7. Q. 5. How may
we get or obtain a pure Conscience Answ This enquiry is not how we may get it pure from some new actual tincture of which see Q. 7. but from its old habitual taint and pollution for which take these Directions 1. Behold the necessity of a pure Conscience and be awakened 1. Without this there is no Society with God He is of purer eyes than to entertain you in your habitual impurity There is no having nor so much as hoping Communion with or a propriety in him unless Conscience be purified in you Hab. 1.13 Psal 18.26 1 Joh. 3.3 Jam. 4.8 2 Without this there is no Salvation by God Wash thine Heart as ever thou wouldst to Heaven There is nothing entereth which is unclean that happy place is reserved only for the pure in heart Jer. 4.14 Rev. 21.27 Psal 24.3 4. A polluted Conscience is neither fit for the business nor blessedness of that pure and perfect condition 3 Without this there is no serving of God at least with acceptance to him or with advantage to you The Heart must be purified that would attempt his Presence Josh 24.19 Heb. 9.14 c. 10.22 Jam. 4.8 Till Conscience be purified the pure God will not endure thy presence nor will thy impure Conscience easily bear his Presence 4 Without this there is no sincerity in thee Clean or pure acts will never put ye beyond an hypocrite without a clean or pure Heart 'T is not a pure Conversation but a pure Conscience that speaks thy condition prosperous and secures from the condemnation of Pharisees Psal 73.1 2 Tim. 1.3 Mat. 23.25 29. 5 Without this there is no security for thee thy condition can never be safe till Conscience be sanctified All that God secures Conscience is but on this condition If thou be pure and upright And for the security of Conscience 't is grounded upon the sincerity of Conscience 't is first pure then peaceable as David points us in his prayer and 't is the pure in Heart are first pronounced Blessed by our Saviour 1 Thes 5.23 Job 8.6 Jam. 3.17 Ps 51.7 8. Mat. 5.8 2. Behold the nature of an impure Conscience and be ashamed Thou art not so pure in thine own eyes but thou art as impure and vile in God's eyes Be convinced of this and thou wilt be cleansing that and begging him to cleanse thee Prov. 30.12 Isa 65.5 Mich. 6.11 13. Job 40.4 1 Think what is defiled Conscience that choice that curious piece that so dignifieth Man next the Angels and differenceth him from the Brutes Conscience that is God's Tabernacle in Man and maketh Man the Temple of God Conscience that is chief among the faculties and is under God to command the whole frame of our Hearts and Lives What Conscience that by Creation was like the Nazarites purer than Snow whiter than Milk more ruddy than Rubies whose polishing was of Saphire should be now blacker than a coal and she that was clothed in Scarlet should embrace Dunghils That thy Gold should become thus dim and the most fine Gold be changed into dirt This cannot but procure a Lamentation especially when thou shalt consider that this thou hast contracted upon thy self who knowest how great a crime it is if through thy means the Conscience but of a weak brother should be desiled Prov. 20.27 1 Cor. 3.17 Lam. 4.1 9. 1 Cor. 8.7 2 Think what it doth defile A defiled Conscience 1. defiles all of thee it defiles the Man the whole Man the Spirit Soul and Body are defiled even the Mind the most pure and precious part is defiled wheresoever the Conscience is defiled Mat. 15.18 1 Thes 5.23 Tit. 1.15 2. It defiles all to thee there is nothing pure to thee The taking of God's Covenant into thy mouth thy very Table-comforts thy Meat become a sin and snare to thee Conscience being unclean whatever it toucheth doth become unclean likewise Tit. 1.15 Psal 50.16 17. 69.22 Lev. 5.2.3 It defiles all that comes from or is done by thee It streams sin upon every service Thy Civil actions thy very plowing is sin and thy sacred actions thy very praying is sin likewise For who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Mat. 15.18 Prov. 21.4 c. 28.9 Job 14.4 3. Betake ye to the known provision which God hath made for purifying the Conscience and be active The pure Conscience is from God as the principal Cause 't is he that purifieth and he that pacifieth the Conscience He that cureth its diseases and cleanseth it from defilements He creates and so the Heart is clean 1 Thes 5.23 Ezek. 36.25 Psal 51.7 10. But though it be his work principally 't is our work partly too as himself presseth it Wash ye make you clean c. Isa 1.16 'T is his work to bless the means unto purifying and our work to be in the use of those means whereby he purifieth Asking the mercy of him and applying the means to us 1 Then ask this mercy from him with the greatest ardour thou may'st acknowledging thy pollution with shame and sorrow aggravating it also in his presence abhorring thy self and acknowledg with thy impotency his power as who alone can purifie thee So David Psal 51.2 11. His promises of it do not preclude but should provoke rather thy prayers for it Ezek. 36.25 cum 37. 2 Apply thee to the means and the means to thee with the greatest activity thou can'st These are the Word Water and Blood * See Sheffield's good Cons c. 2. p 33. c. 1 The Word Ye are clean through the Word saith Christ Job 15.3 This is not only pure in it self but purifying the Soul that attendeth the preaching of it Psal 19.8 Joh. 17.17 Ephes 5.26 Submit thy Conscience to the Commands of it Purity is the end of them and will be the effect in thee 1 Tim. 1.5 1 Pet. 1.22 If you obey Then 2. Skill thy Conscience in the Promises of it Every Promise is both a motive to and means for cleansing as of the flesh so likewise of the Spirit But there is an especial Promise in God's absolute Covenant I will sprinkle clean water on you and ye shall be clean Which you may urge upon your self in secret and urge God with in supplication 2. Cor. 7.1 Jer. 33.8 Ezek. 3.6.25 cum 37. 2 Water Ezek. ibid. Ephes 5.26 The Sacrament of Water should not only be remembred by thee but re-inforced on thee by due and doubled consideration Though I cannot say to thee as Ananias said unto Saul Arise and be Baptised and wash away thy sins if thou wert baptized in thy infancy yet I must counsel thee to apply thy Baptism by fetching arguments from thence and by eying the ability and efficacy of the Blood and Spirit of Christ thereby exhibited till thou findest the answer thereunto of a good Conscience toward God And then thy Infant-baptism will be as effectual to the washing away of thy sins in thy adult estate as the Circumcision of the Hands was
to the adult Jews who were then Circumcised and not till then with the Circumcision of the Heart * See Fords pract use of Infant-â—aptis Rom. 6.3 4. Act. 22.16 1 Pet. 3.21 Phil. 3.11 12 13. 2. The waters of sorrow or sincere repentance Contrition will cleanse thy Conscience Evangelical tears will expunge these tinctures No dirt will fix where these drops fall witness David Repentance will blot out these stains from thy Soul and thy sins also before God Smite thy rocky Heart then with the Rod of God and the Waters will gush out Draw Water and pour it out before God Repentance is called the washing of the Heart from wickedness Ezek. 18.30 31. Jer. 31.18 19. Psal 51. Act. 3.19 Exod. 17.6 1 Sam. 7.6 Jer. 4.14 3. The Waters of the Spirit sanctifying and regenerating the Spirit is not only compared to Water as quenching the drought of the Soul but as cleansing the defilements of the Soul Joh. 7.37 38 39. Ezek. 36.25 Conscience will continue sinful till he comes and cleanses its filth is not to be washed off by any work of flesh but by the effectual work of God's Spirit 'T is God's Spirit must sanctifie our Spirits or we stick in the sink and mud of our sin and uncleanness Isa 4.4 Rom. 15.16 1 Pet. 1.2 Resist not the Spirit then but receive those influences he sheds abroad Listen not to the flesh look within the vail of the Covenant where God hath promised to put his Spirit within you yea and to pour out his Spirit on you and plead his Promise in your Prayers Ezek. 11.19 Isa 44.3 Psal 51.12 143.10 3 Blood The Bath for Conscience is the Blood of Christ Here is the Fountain opened for Sin and for Uncleanness this cleanseth from all sin and there is not any sin which doth not need this cleansing or any power of the Soul Both the Tabernacle and all the Vessels of the Ministry were to be purged by Blood Moses sprinkled therewith both the Book and all the People Consider Conscience then in any capacity it needs this cleansing as a Book as a Witness as a Judg as it 's the Mansion of God and as it ministers to and in Man Zach. 13.1 1 Joh. 1.7 Heb. 9.14 19. 23. Sprinkle then this Blood of Jesus upon thy Conscience The People were to sprinkle the Blood with a bunch of Hysop dipt therein as well as the Priests Exod. 12.22 Lev. 16.14 To note there must be an Application of Christ's blood made by us as well as an Application made to us of this Blood by Christ and thus have we our Hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience as by the Spirit on his part sprinkling it on us so by Faith on our part which sprinkleth us with it Faith is that bunch of Hysop which being dipt in this Blood purifieth the Heart Purge me with Hysop and I shall be clean saith the Psalmist Purifying their hearts through faith saith Peter Heb. 10.22 1 Pet. 1.2 Psal 51.7 Act. 15.9 Believe then in the Lord Jesus Faith is not only effectual through the Blood of Christ to purge the Conscience from the guilt of sin to the justification of thy person but also from the filth of sin to the Sanctification of thy Nature Rom. 5.1 Act. 26.18 4. Behold the noted excellency of a pure Conence and be assiduous For at 1 Mind the noted place of Conscience it 's the upmost part of the Soul next under God and above all that is in Man A pure Conscience is of Angelical perfection Purity is the Gem and Diamond in the Crown both of the clear and pure Conscience this renders it like the New Hierusalem a City of pure Gold 2 The noted power of this Conscience The pure Conscience hath a power of converting even the basest Mettals like the Philosopher's Stone into pure Gold afflictions into advantages To the pure Conscience all things are pure like that Perfume which the Lord prescribeth Moses whatever they are asunder being tempered together they are pure and holy 1 Pet. 2.19 c. Tit. 1.15 Exod. 30.35 3 The noted price of this Conscience What cost it no less rate than the precious Blood of the pure and immaculate Lamb of God What print carrieth it no lower than the resemblance of the purest Essence and Excellency of God Of what preciousness and pleasance doth God account it Of no less than his Habitation his Throne his Resting-place Heb. 9.14 cum 1 Pet. 1.19 1 Joh. 3.3 Isa 57.15 4 The noted Priviledges of this Conscience How great here boldness in prayer the blessing of peace the beauties of God's Presence c. Heb. 10.22 Phil. 4.7 Psal 18.26 But how glorious hereafter in a pure and perfect state most pure and beatifick sights Psal 24.3 4. Mat. 5.8 But consider this and you cannot be careless God Glory Christ Comfort do all severally bespeak Conscience as Christ sometime did Peter If I wash thee not thou hast no part in me But wash this and thou art clean every whit Joh. 13.8 10. Q. 6. How may we preserve our Conscience pure Though I must remit you for fuller satisfaction to what hath been already spoken Chap. 2. Q. 6. Yet I shall not refuse to subjoyn something more in this place 1. Continue at your work Conscience is clean but not all therefore is neither all your work done for its cleansing till hope pass into enjoyment ye ought to be purifying both the Promises hoped for and the principle of hope put upon and perswade unto it 2 Cor. 7.1 1 Joh. 3.3 Neglect not any of the means already prescribed you Qu. 5. Direct 3. The same word and work of Faith Hope c. which made thy Conscience pure will maintain its purity 2. Keep Conscience to its work Keep it doing and you keep it from defiling The pure Gold never rusts or cankers till it rests or is coffered up Paul kept it on employment and so kept it pure 2 Tim. 1.3 Act. 24.16 Conscience hath its work within door upon it self and upon the whole Soul and Spirit and without door upon the Sense and their Objects and Organs If it rests like a standing Pool it putrifieth and gathers stench If it runs like a living Fountain it purifieth it self and whatever is put into it 3. Keep Conscience upon its watch Consciscience is the Centinel to watch over and for it self and the whole Soul beside Watch therefore in all things He that would be clean must be circumspect 2 Tim. 4.5 Psal 119.9 1 Watch against Sinners These will be throwing forth and throwing on of dirt Press not unnecessarily into their Society Be not partakers with their sin keep thy self pure Isa 57.20 Ephes 5.7 11. 1 Tim. 5.22 Yea in the very Society of the Saints be yet still upon thy Watch looking diligently One defection hath defiled many and the more weak thou art the more watchful be thou A weak Conscience is defiled quickly Heb. 12.15 1 Cor. 8.7 2 Watch
able to stand against all the wiles of the Devil If he drives on peace he designs your perdition by it Be sure his peace is with the extremest drudgery of the exceedingst danger and will surely end in damnation 2 Cor. 2.11 Ephes 6.11 2 Thes 2.9 13. 2. Daubing Priests and Dough-baked Professors which say Peace peace and there is no peace The overflowing showers of Divine displeasure will consume both these and them together the deceived and deceivers Ezek. 13.10 16. Jer. 6.14 Some there are who can or will see nothing but Visions of peace for their people lest when they denounce War from Heaven against others they should hear the eccho and reflex thereof in their own hearts or others should be ready to recriminate Physitian heal thy self Ezek. 13.16 c. Luk. 4.23 Others it may be will be soothing you up in a false peace though you walk in the imagination of your own hearts amongst fire-balls and deaths and will be promising you life while you persist in your lusts A fearful and horrible thing if God himself may be witness Jer. 23.14 17. Ezek. 13.22 Others will be smoothing and salving up the matter upon the least pain or prick of Conscience These heal the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly saith the Lord. They skin over the sores of their fond and foolish Patients without searching or probing them or drawing out the putrid matter and core which is at the bottom of them that addeth to their peril and will augment their future pain They are healing their Souls while they should be hewing at their sins and laying the ax at the very root For this God will surely and severely visit Jer. 6.14 15. c. 8.11 12. Hos 6.5 9. Take heed then and turn thine ear especially thy heart from all such for they speak a Vision of their own heart They see vain and foolish things for thee not discovering thine iniquity One Micajah though he sound the Trumpet of War against thy sins would be more prosperously attended and peaceably accompanied than four hundred false Prophets that will sing a requiem to thy Soul while thou remainest in thy sinful state Jer. 23.16 17. Lam. 2.14 1 King 22.6 c. 3. Divine Justice is another cause which giveth men over to such strong delusions blinding the eyes and hardening the hearts c. of such obdurate sinners 2 Thes 2.11 Joh. 12.40 Only remember he is rather a deficient then an efficient cause For he cannot be the author to speak properly of what he is the avenger He doth not give in this peace but by with-drawing his grace he giveth up men for their sin to sink in and giveth them over to sit down in this false peace Rom. 1.24 26 28. But be it remembred also that he giveth not up any judicially who give not up themselves actually and voluntarily So that here your great care and concern is that you provoke not justice hereunto by your own self-pleasedness and stubborn perversness Hearken to him and you are assured that you shall dwell safely and be quiet from the fear of so great an evil Psal 81.11 12. Rom. ibid. Prov. 1.30 ad finem II. Within the Conscience This false peace ariseth either from the vicious qualities or from the vicious carriage of the Conscience 1. The vicious qualities of the Conscience are many I shall mind you of these six only from whence it taketh its spring and rise As 〈◊〉 from its sortishness or ignorance either of the God of Peace and the purity of his nature or of the peace of God and its pure and powerful effects upon our natures Or of what the Scriptures demâ—nd as antecedaneous or in order to â—ound peace or of what themselves are or do in observance and obedience of the terms of peace Psal 50.20 Eph. 4.18 Rom. 1.21 c. 7.9 Zeph. 1.12 2 From its sensuality and enslavedness to the sensual appetite and those secular objects which it affects When the brutish appetite through mens laziness or listlesness once supercedes and commands the rational a cheap liberty will content the Conscience which now lies captivated in its chains Now God's judgments are far above out of his sight And while sense and fancy have their fill Conscience is easily flattered and he saith in his heart I shall never be moved Soul take thine ease saith he Why shouldst thou feed upon gall and hemlock who hast goods laid up for many years Psal 10.5 6. Luk. 12.19 3 From its supiness and self-indulgence whereby men take it for granted that their estate is good enough already especially if there be the Imprimatur of any eminent Professor and therefore think it a needless and supererogatory piece to undertake such a sowre and self-displeasing work as to put their condition upon such severe inquiâ—ies and so strict an inquisition as their Preachers would perswade to Whence it is that the commands are so much iterated and ingeminated for examining our selves considering our ways c. Jer. 5.24 2 Cor. 13.5 Hag. 1.5 7. Gal. 6.4 4 From its sleepiness and inanimadvertency Happily the notion and necessity of self-examining sticks upon men after a Sermen or in a Sickness But 't is not so powerfully and prevailingly as to put them upon the work presently But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they dismiss so difficult a work till another and then another season It 's requisite they have yet a little more sleep a little more slumber And God hearkens and hears and there is not so much as a question put to their hearts Well happily he renews his calls and repeats his knocks by some smarter providence or severer preaching and yet through a sleepy deadness Conscience is prone to reply as he did in the Gospel Trouble me not the door is now shut and my children are in bed with me I cannot yet rise and give thee Eph. 5.14 Jer. 8.6 Luk. 11.7 5 From its searedness and insensibleness whereby the awakening woes and alarums of wrath which are sounded in his word and resounded in his works make no impression upon it or upon the affections A small prick is soon sensed by a sound part but pierce press cut knock c. a seared part and there is no sense of pain This Conscience is seared as with an hot iron it is past feeling Let the two-edged Sword be bathing it self in blood and slaughter let it be dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit and dissecting even to the joints and marrow of him that sits with him in the same seat yet this seared Conscience neither feels nor fears it Nay though his own doings have beset him round about he will neither say to his heart nor suffer his heart to speak to him in what an estate he standeth 1 Tim. 4.2 Eph. 4.19 Hos 7.2 Mal. 2.2 6 From its stubbornness and indurateness whereby it will not be beaten out nor brought off its old customary pretensions for peace and quiet self-possession Could we flash in some of
with thee For the Commandment is a lamp and the Law is light and reproofs of instruction are the way of life Prov. 6.21 22 23. 3. Take forth what marks thou hast treasured up for trial That as a Scribe instructed to the Kingdom of God thou mayst bring forth out of thy treasure things both new and old Mat. 13.52 There are three sorts of Marks mentioned by Divines * See Manton on James 1. Exclusive the absence of which doth plainly speak that we are not as yet in a state of Grace and Salvation 2. Inclusive the presence of which doth not only prove the truth of our Grace or being in the state of Salvation but our growth in Grace and progress in Sanctification 3. Beside those there are a middle sort of Marks which they call positive The presence of which doth positively and plainly shew the being or integrity of our Graces the truth of our Sanctification and that we are in a state of Salvation Touching these I shall offer you some rules in the case before you 1. Do not decline Exclusive Marks which have their end and are of efficacy to undeceive and convince of infidelity and hypocrisie That a man deceive not his own heart there is use of the Exclusive Mark Jam. 1.26 He that seems to be religious and bridleth not his tongue this mans religion is vain as well as of that more evidential and positive ver 27. Prayer and other acts of Worship will not prove you in a state saving but if you cast off Worship and restrain Prayer before God it will prove you in a state of sin Hearing his truths will not prove the acceptation of your persons by God But if you turn away your ear from hearing the Law it will prove that your prayers are an abomination Isa 1.15 Job 15.4 Jam. 1.22 Prov. 28.9 2. Do not dwell upon Exclusive Marks much less shouldst thou draw them down to the ends and uses of such as are positive as if reading and hearing Sermons receiving Sacraments c. would speak thee to be in a saving state For as they are unable to do this so thou wilt hereby but deceive thy own self whereof you have already seen several instances 3. Draw forth and improve thy positive Marks which I suppose thee to have tried and treasured up according to the two former Directions Now is the time to bring them forth out of thy armory when thou art in hazard of thy life and thy heart lyeth open to all the assaults which either the policies or power of Sin and Satan can bring on against thee to captivate or ensnare thee The Apostle therefore directs them now to produce faith and fellowship with Christ when they are upon proving and examining themselves and to ascertain their estares And now it is that Job and David awaken their memories to recall and do apply such Marks to themselves when they are about clearing their case before God and in their own Conscience Job 23.10 11 12. Psal 26.1 2 3 4. Draw forth thy positive Marks for a full and final decision in what estate thou art or for positive ends That thou leave not thy estate at an hovering uncertainty in loose conjectures or languishing probabilities but bring it to a clear and certain issue in thy own Conscience and so assure thy heart before God 1 Joh. 3.19 And indeed why have you such positive Marks afforded on God's part but to this end or how can you answer so many obligations as are plainly required on your part that cannot be performed without the previous knowledg of your estate 1 Joh. 5.13 20. 2 Cor. 13.5 Prov. 22.21 The Primitive Christians therefore would not suffer themselves to sit down in opinionative guesses or hopeful conjectures only but pursued their Marks to a peremptory but modest knowledg of what condition they were in Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandments Hereby know we that we are in him We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the Brethren c. 1 Joh. 2.3 5. c. 3.14 19 24. c. 5.19 Direct 2. Touching the Assumption wherein Conscience delivereth her testimony and report in the management of this self-trial how 't is with us as to matter of fact with reference to the matter of law or rule contained in the former Proposition Here I advise 1. Let Conscience discuss the truth thereof before she determines on her testimony The Psalmist reflects and revolves the case upon his thoughts ere Conscience shall make report Nor will he adventure to determine without a diligent self-discussion I commune with my own heart and my spirit made diligent search And surely 't is no less our duty than his whose danger as being less fallible is far more Psal 76.6 4.4 2 Pet. 1.10 Heb. 6.11 Laodicea might easily have disproved that false testimony Thou sayest I am rich and encreased with goods and have need of nothing If she had but discussed it first in her own thoughts but being careless in this she knew not that she was miserable and poor and blind and naked Rev. 3.17 The Jews say Joh. 8.41 We have one Father even God Our Saviour returns the speech to a further search of Conscience which might easily correct such a mistake and misreport as this Nay if God were your Father ye would love me for I proceeded forth and came from God c. ver 42 44 45. The like he doth ver 33 34 39 40. We were never in bondage say they we are Abraham's seed and he is our father and no doubt they speake according to the suffrage of their Conscience But he remits it to second and more serious considerations Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin If ye be Abraham's children ye would do the works of Abraham But ye seek to kill me c. this did not Abraham 'T is requisite then that you return the testimony once and again to a further reflection and review of Conscience Sometimes 1. the calling back of Circumstances may confute the vanity and falshood of such a Testimony Would Babylon have said I shall be a Lady for ever if she had laid these things to heart Isa 47.6 7. Or those in Mich. 3.11 Is not the Lord among us none evil can come upon us if they had but looked backwards and lain hold upon the circumstances of their disobedience ver 9.10 2. Sometimes the calling in of sense as Jer. 2.23 How canst thou say I am not polluted I have not gone after Baalim See thy way in the Valley c. 3. Most times the calling over and consulting with Scriptures which pierce like a two-edged sword even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart and maketh manifest the secrets thereof to it self unto a sound Conviction Heb. 4.12 1 Cor. 14.24 25. 4. But would we carry on the converse in our own Conscience we
them Prov. 4.23 Mat. 26.41 Prov. 22.5 3. Close with her Testimony though she speak against thee Let not thy Affections kick and thy Will cast it back upon Conscience to give a more favourable witness for thee 'T is better Conscience should be a severe Witness here than a never-dying Worm hereafter The more fully and faithfully she testifieth the more friendly is she and the more it turneth to thy felicity Faithful are the wounds of a friend but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful Psal 141.5 Prov. 27.6 4 Let Conscience be told ever and anon of the Testimony she must deliver in the day of Judgment Then the Books shall be opened the Book of Conscience within as well as of Creatures and Scriptures without Then must thou shalt thou O my Conscience give a plain and impartial Testimony to all things done in the body Then all thy frauds and fallacies which thou now puttest upon me shall be unvailed and pluckt off before God Men and Angels Then shalt thou bear the shame of them and must suffer for them Thy flatteries and unfaithfulness shall be all laid bare and open Oh how much better were it for thee and me to bring forth thy righteous Testimony now to our Conversion than in that day to our Confusion Alas what can be hid from him who knoweth all things Doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it Thou mayst deceive me but canst thou deceive my God also That day shall discover it If thou fearest the shame and sting of such a Witness in this day shouldst not thou rather fear and fly the shame and sting thereof in that day Now it may be eased and healed by Repentance Defer thy Testimony till then and the shame and torment will be easless endless and remediless Rev. 20.12 2 Cor. 5.10 Eccles 12.14 Mar. 9.44 5 Let Conscience be demanded to give her Witness as in the presence of God the great Judg. Charge her to speak to thee as she would speak to and before him Is not the answer of a good Conscience towards God O my Conscience is not God greater than thy self and knoweth all things Wilt thou witness this thing to God for me as Peter's did Thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee And canst thou appeal him as a Witness in the case with and for thee as he also did Canst thou attest him as they did Josh 22.21 22. The Lord God of Gods the Lord God of Gods he knoweth Canst thou say and say truly Behold my witness is in heaven and my record is on high as Job did And wilt thou answer to him for me what thou now answerest me as before him Lo O Lord thou knowest Thou O Lord knowest me thou hast seen me and tried mine heart Thou hast tried me and shalt find nothing Thou knowest that I am not wicked 1 Pet. 3.21 1 Joh. 3.20 Joh. 21.15 17. Job 16.19 Psal 40.9 Jer. 12.3 Psal 17.3 Job 10.7 Direct 3. Touching the Conclusion wherein Conscience is to denounce the sentence upon the trial made agreeable to the truth she dictateth in the Proposition and to the testimony which she delivereth in the Assumption Here I advise 1 See that Conscience pronounce the sentence upon thee Or why are all these proceeds hitherto Why are 1. the word and statutes of Heaven consulted 2. The Court set 3. The Witness sworn and heard Shall the Records of Heaven be produced and the Records of my Heart proved to no purpose Hast thou done so many things O my Conscience in vain if it shall be yet in vain But because Conscience is so prone to protract the sentence and to forbear the conclusion which should follow upon the Premisses and doth naturally and necessary follow upon the Proposition and Assumption in a Logical discourse as one well observeth * See Ames de Consc l. 1. c. 9. §. 5. 10. I advise these things 1. If Conscience be silent suspect thy condition is not well or that at least it is not well with Conscience I shall not say that her suspending of the Conclusion doth always speak the condition and state of the Soul to be a state of sin Because deserted Saints through the power of fear and temptations and the weakness of their faith in such troubles may not be able to derive and draw it down to themselves But ordinarily and out of the case of desertion it speaks the condition ill and lyable to suspition 'T was not well with David when he turns the conclusion and sentence to another which he should have taken to himself and the Prophet was fain to take up the office of Conscience and tell him Thou art the man c. He cannot be apprehended to have been either ignorant of God's Law or of his own lascivious and murtherous fact But Conscience did not conclude or argue and apply it home And it was very ill with them who knowing the judgment of God that they who did such things were worthy of death and that they did them yet concluded not their estate upon it but continued in their sin Nor was their condition safe or Conscience sound that could wave the Conclusion when the Premisses were so clear Neither say they in their heart let us now fear the Lord c. Jer. 5.23 24. 2 Sam. 12.5 6 7. Rom. 1.32 2. If Conscience do not speak to thee do thou speak to Conscience God complaineth when men do not set and say to their hearts when they do not call upon and converse with them Isa 44.19 Hos 7.2 Argue it with her and urge her to proceed to sentence and to perfect her discourse in giving judgment Urge her by her past proceeds of which before By her place and power Hath not God made thee a Judg in Israel set thee next under himself and over me that thou shouldst shew me the sentence in judgment Is not thy commission Divine His concurrence declared who is with you in the judgment to behold if thou judgest falsly to approve if thy judgment be according to verity Deut. 17.9 2 Chron. 19.6 1 Joh. 3.20 21. By her Precedency Thou expectest from inferiour Judges that they proceed to judgment and wilt expostulate and rebuke them if they shall adventure to retard it and judgment goeth not forth Thou art superiour to any to all of them God hath set thee as Solomon set his Mother next himself on the Throne And if thou shalt clear no matter if they all condemn me But if thou condemn not all of them can quit me May not they dare to adventure upon unnecessary delays in Civil concernments and durst thou to delay and defer the sentence in Spiritual in Soul-matters and of eternal consequence Deut. 16.18 19 20. Hab. 1.4 1 King 2.19 Rom. 8.33 c. 1 Joh. 3.20 By her Principles Civil Judges have severals to consult without them ere they can come to sentence But thou O my Conscience containest all within thee whereby thou mayst be
gives it to you by the spirit of Regeneration This Man shall be the peace when Divine justice on the one hand or the Devil on the other hand like the Assyrian shall invade Conscience Joh. 14.27 Phil. 4.7 Mich. 5.5 Is the blood of his Cross then that peace-offering you present unto the Father the peace you plead for is it upon the account of your service or of his satisfaction of your deserts or of his death for you There is no preaching peace but by Jesus Christ Col. 1.20 Act. 10.36 The prime instruments of your peace what were or what are they Was it the Gospel of Peace then will the Ministration and Ministry thereof be more beautiful in your eyes Nah. 1.15 Isa 52.7 Was it the grace of faith 'T is first grace then peace throughout the Gospel No peace before grace much less without grace 'T is believing in Christ that brings the calm upon the Conscience Being justified by faith we have peace with God Rom. 1.7 1 Cor. 1.3 Joh. 14.1 Rom. 5.1 Try your faith then whether it be beyond temporary whether it be truly justifying ere you take up with peace He cannot be the God of peace to you if he be not the God of hope and faith unto you The God of hope fill you with peace in believing saith the Apostle Rom. 15.13 2 Enquire into the matter of your Peace not so much that of which it consisteth as about which it is conversant To mention but an head or two 1. Is it Communion with God which consists in that mutual relation and those mutual returns which pass 'twixt God and a Believer in the descending of his graces and ascending of our duties What say you are these the matters that take up the tranquillity of your mind the mutual interest that God and you have in each other that he is yours and you are his the mutual intercourse that you have with each other in his mercies and your duties while he draweth nigh to you in extending the grace of his favour and you draw nigh to him in exercising the graces of his Spirit This this is the heart of Evangelical Peace acquaintance with God fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Here the believing Soul doth lye down in Peace Job 22.21 1 Joh. 1.3 4. Psal 4.6 8. 2. Is it the Kingdom of God specially in and over you That false peace is never thorow in the former and taketh its leave in this latter It may be taken with God's love but turns aside from his laws especially from that part which is cross to his carnal interest But Evangelical peace hath endearing and precious thoughts of the very laws the rule and restraints of Divine Government He rejoyceth and worketh righteousness and the work of righteousness is his peace and rejoycing Psal 119.165 169. Isa 65.5 c. 32.17 How is Conscience pleased then with the commands of God in that he hath the dominion of Conscience and will not dispense with the least corruptions and will have the ducture of your whole Conversations Read the language and resolution herein of the good and peaceable Conscience Isa 26.12 13. 3 Enquire into the formal cause There is no Gospel-peace of Conscience but what is spoken by God thorow Christ in the Gospel The peace spoken by Conscience through the Gospel standing in an accord to what is spoken by Christ in the Gospel And it is not only therefore called the peace of God * Phil. 4.7 in that it is caused principally by him he is the fountain of it But in regard of the conformity thereof to his pleasure which gives form and being to it Thus Evangelical Conscience doth not absolve or justifie before or without God but with and because God absolves and justifies * Rom. 5.1 9. It 1. reads and reviews God's sentence of peace in the Gospel Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ c. As many as walk according to this rule peace shall be upon them 1 Pet. 5.14 Rom. 8.1 Gal. 6.16 2. It reflects and resumes But I who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit am in Christ I walk after this rule as God himself is my witness Hence 3. he reports and agrees God's sentence in the Gospel to his own Soul in particular Therefore to me is peace God hath cleared me therefore Conscience cleareth me And so have I quietness in and confidence toward God Behold my witness is in heaven and my record is on high 1 Joh. 3.21 Job 34.29 c. 16.19 Well then it must be peace in Heaven or there can be no peace to speak properly in your hearts Your hearts are at peace because heaven is at peace and this heart-peace bears accord with heavens peace * Luk. 2.14 19.38 And be sure God can never speak peace in you upon any other terms than he hath in the Gospel spoken peace to you 4 Enquire into the final cause This peace of God is finally for the God of peace it sits not down in self-ease but is set for his service and the enjoyment of himself Yea it not only pursueth good works but would be made perfect to every good work Nor doth this Soul content it self in the sweets of this joy and peace but his care and character is that in these things he serveth Christ Heb. 9.14 chap. 13.20 21. Rom. 14.17 18. Whither doth your peace then extend and where doth it terminate it self True peace of Conscience can never take up short of God in Christ This is its earnest expectation and hope that shall be magnified and his service maintained and his own Soul shall more abound in holiness and in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost The thoughts of this heart are not only taken up about his own felicity and peace but about the furtherance of God's praise the fulfilling of his pleasure and the peaceable fruits of righteousness If there be any vertue if there be any praise he thinks on these things Phil. 1.20 Rom. 15.13 Jam. 3.18 Phil. 4.7 8. In short as this peace is by reception from God so its rest is in and with God It lifts up the Soul unto him lifts him upmost in the Soul lays its charge thereon to repose her self upon him to rejoyce in him and upon every miscarriage to return to him as her only rest and center Psal 86.4 c. 73.25 26. 62.5 116.7 4. The peace of a good and evil Conscience are differenced in and by the effects of it The peace of an evil Conscience usually renders men less circumspect and inobservant of spiritual dangers more slight and overly in spiritual duties c. But Evangelical peace ends in 1 Greater vigilance over himself and against sin satan as also in the objects of sense that he turn not again to solly Psal 85.8 Rom. 16.19 20. 1 Thes 5.5 6 8 9. Doth this peace
a while instead of finding peace grow past feeling Exod. 8.8 cum 15 28. cum 32. Dan. 5.60.29 30. Act. 24.25 cum 27. And will you call this peace of Conscience which is a proeme rather of eternal condemnation This is not the spirit of peace but a spirit of slumber * See Perkins vol. 1. p. 368. 5. Prop. 5 Eminent troubles of Conscience now past cannot then infer the truth of your present peace as neither can that ease and tranquility which you now possess of which Q. 1. But that those exigencing perplexities â—ay issue in Evangelical peace there is enjoyned the intercurrence of repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 which these troubles are intended as disâ—ositive and preparatory and without which â—ere is no enjoyment of this Divine peace The Jews were pricked in their heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The nail was driven to the very â—â—d The iron entred into their very souls The Jaylor is filled with perplexing troubles he trembles and falls prostrate before Paul and Silas Both he and they cry out for direction What shall we do The Apostles who well knew there might be a spirit of bondage which is never consequenced with a spirit of Adoption never advise them these agonies are enough you may sit down in peace but press upon them the necessity and use of faith and repentance as prerequisities to their salvation and peace Act. 2.37 38. c. 16.29 30 31. Rom. 8.15 6. Prop. 6 Examine then how thou camest out of these perplexing troubles and how thou camest by this tranquility and peace 1. Didst thou arrive hereto in the Gospel method What hast thou found or now findest of the Gospel-prerequisites to peace faith in Christ and repentance from dead works What hast thou felt or now feelest of the Gospel-power or efficacy in order to peace The Gospel first proclaims war in the Soul against Sin the World and Satan then publisheth peace in dethroning these usurpers upon God's Soveraign Prerogative and the powers of our Souls The Gospel first preacheth the grace of God to us and in us and then peace with God unto us First purifying the Conscience by the graces of his Spirit and then pacifying it in the grace of his favour The Gospel first carries back the Soul to the God of Peace in an Evangelical conversion then chears the Soul with this peace of God in Evangelical consolations First hints the Soul unto Christ in all his offices of peace for us unto all obedience then quiets the Soul in the peace that he hath obtained for us and ordereth out unto us by his holy Spirit In short the Gospel first changeth the Soul into the resemblance and image of God then and not till then comforteth it by a review of its interest in God and of God's in him Rom. 8.5 6 7. c. 1.7 Heb. 9.14 Hos 6.1 Isa 9.6 7. 1 Thes 5.23 Psal 4.8 2 Is it accompanied with a Gospel-mould With an unfeigned and universal change of thy heart and life into the likeness of the Gospel of peace 'T is one great branch of the Covenant of Grace which God hath also called the Covenant of his Peace that he will write his law in our hearts and put it in our inward parts Isa 34.10 Ezek. 34.25 c. 37.26 Jer. 31.33 So that if thine be a Gospel-peace thou art transformed into the Gospel-pattern There is a change not only of some actions but of thy estate relative in thy Justification real in thy Sanctification True peace of Conscience taketh its rise from a pious sense of this change 2 Cor. 3.18 Rom. 5.1 1 Joh. 5.18 19 20. Q. 5. What should convinced Sinners do in distress of Conscience as are conscious to themselves that they are now in a sinful and damnable condition A Question long since ask'd and answer'd Act. 2.37 c. c. 16.30 c. Yet let it not seem amiss if I offer a few advises or directions which shall especially refer unto those two instances Direct 1. Accept of your Convictions and do not either put them off or put them out or press them down They were pricked in their heart Act. 3. But they abide the pain are not angry with Peter nor do they pluck out and throw away the arrow The Jaylor trembleth in such an agony was he of Conscience yet he attempts not either to break prison from Conscience or abuse the Preachers who were now his Prisoners or to precipitate his Comforts To this end 1. Remember whence they come from thy Spirit immediately but mediately and originally from God's holy Spirit which is first a spirit of bondage then a spirit of adoption first convinceth then comforteth the Conscience Rom. 8.15 Joh. 16.8 Will you break his bands asunder Take heed he will make them stronger if you continue to resist But â—o sweetness safety if you close and submit Isa 28.22 Job 36.8 12. If you will not accept either he 'l away on the one hand and then oh the hardness of your heart Or else add amazement to your anguish on the other hand Gen. 6.3 Isa 63.10 2. Remember their concern and whither they tend These setters are not like those of Pharaoh's Baker in order to your perdition but like those of his Butler or of Joseph's rather in order to his preferment Every pang and throw is preparatory to the new Birth to that conversion without which thou canst not see the Kingdom of God and so to those consolations which are wont to ensue upon Christ's being formed in the heart If the Spirit breaks 't is in order to binding up if he prick and launce the heart 't is in order to the health and ease of his Patient He is making way by these afflictive severities for the sweets of Adoption Hos 6.1 Act. 2.37 38. Rom. 8.15 3. Remember the consequence If you accept you are half-way over this deep ford While the Heart the Will which commands the other faculties is so far won the work is like to continue and frame well to your ease and God's ends who is ready to meet you as the Father in the Parable did his prodigal Son when he was yet a great way off Mic. 6.9 Levit. 26.41 c. Luk. 15.20 And as your business will succeed the better so your burden will sit much the lighter the more you wince the more you weaken and sin wounds you cut off advantages from Satan and are more capable of improving sound advise and the Spirit 's assistance If you do not accept see what attends Happily a great dedolence and stupidity of Conscience which is a dreadful instance of Divine justice Rom. 1.28 Prov. 1.30 But beyond a perhaps there will be greater dolor either here in the approaching arrests of an abased Conscience to repentance or hereafter in the anger astonishment and continued gnawing of an accusing Conscience to eternal ruin Hos 6.5 Prov. 5.22 23. Direct 2. Avoid those courses which will defeat thee of
in sound repentance if thou wouldst no more feel the arrows of the Almighty or hear the thundering Cannon of a terrified Conscience On to God in Christ if thou wilt return return unto me saith the Lord Jer. 7.1 There is no recovery without returning even unto him from all thine iniquity Hos 4.1 2. Return to him as the only Original of thy being as the only object that can make thee blessed Yield up thy whole self to his holy Government thy Conscience and Conversation to be ordered by his commands Return to him as thine adequate good and alone Governour Put thy whole man under his Soveraignty present thy self a living Sacrifice to him Ezek. 18.30 31 32. Rom. 6.13 17 19. c. 12.1 Mourning will not do it without turning nor this unless it be of the whole man nor this unless it be unto God Joel 2.12 13. Jer. 3.6 10. Provoke thy self hitherward put on strong and present resolutions There is no healing till thou com'st hither Till thou acknowledg thy offence and seek his face he will be not a Surgeon to repair but as a Lion to rend and tear thee Only return and there is an open remedy He that hath torn will heal thee he that hath smitten will bind thee up Ho◠5.13 14 15. 6.1 2. 2 Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ Act. 16.30 31. i.e. Receive him in all his Offices and with all his inconveniencles and rest on him as the Lord thy righteousness Never think that relief is possible by any other means There is not Salvation in any other There are two negatives in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Act. 4.12 But lo he is able to save to the utmost those that come unto God by him His very stripes are healing He is both medicus medicina too Not a broken heart but he can set and heal it He immediately made her straight that had been infirm and bound together for Eighteen years Heb. 7.25 Isa 53.5 Luk. 4.18 c. 13.11 12 13. And he is as willing as able He invites yea intreats poor sin-sick Souls to come in and he will cure them for nothing only requireth that they come Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Rev. 22.17 2 Cor. 5.20 Mat. 11.28 Why do not our Souls answer with the Church Behold we come And attest him with Peter Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternal life Joh. 3.22 Joh. 6.68 Hear thou distressed Conscience the Master calleth for thee The whole need not a Physician but they that are sick I came to call not the righteous but finers to repentance Think not thou shalt be too bold when the Physician bids thee 'T is a sinful bashfulness that stays thee from believing on Christ when he bids you to lay all your heart-troubles at his blessed feet in believing Let not your hearts be troubled believe in me Mar. 2.17 1 Joh. 3.23 Joh. 14.1 Come then thou wounded Conscience close with Christ and commit the cure into his hand who is anointed with a fulness of the Spirit for this very purpose Canst thou but touch his garment by faith thou shalt be whole To him give all the Prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Isa 61.1 Mat. 9.21 22. Act. 10.43 Direct 8. Assay Conscience ever and anon with some Cordials and do not add more Corrosives when thy case is so sad already They were pricked in their heart Act. 2. 16. and the Apostles would not have them abide one minute without a plaister How many a Soul is ready to swoon away under the Surgeons hand For their sakes I subjoyn this direction Say not thy bones are dried thy hope is lost thou art cut off for thy part Think rather 1. Of others deliverances who have been as greatly distressed Cannot God open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves and breathe life even into your dead Souls as well as theirs Ezek. 37.11 12 13 5 6. Have not you read of such whose Couches did swim with tears who have complained their wounds did stink and in whom the arrows of the Almighty stuck fast that have lookt on themselves as laid in the lowest pit in darkness and in the deeps that have been distracted with terrors and roared by reason of the disquietness of their heart That have said their strength and their hope was perished from the Lord while they remembred their affliction and misery the gall and wormwood And yet have these been relieved refreshed and rejoyced afterward in the loving-kindness of the Lord Psal 6.6 38. 9.88.6 c. Lam. 3.18 19 c. What an instance was Paul Hast thou smarted like him was not he a monument of greater severity that was struck down to the very ground c. Or hast thou sinned like him been such a persecutor blasphemer c. Howbeit he obtained mercy And why but for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe in Christ to life everlasting Act. 9.3 4 6 c. 1 Tim. 1.13 14 16. Say then Why may not there be mercy for me too even for me Is the stock of God's mercies spent are they not infinite Manasseh Magdalen c. find mercy And why should I foresee nothing but misery 2. Think of the deliverance tendered thee The tender is universal to all and therefore to me may Conscience say Come unto me all ye that are weary c. Whosoever will let him come c. Whosoever is a thirst let him drink of the water of life freely Say why should I exclude my self whom the Scripture whom my Saviour never excluded but hath ever invited as he entertained likewise Publicans and Sinners Mat. 11.28 Rev. 22.17 Isa 55.1 Joh. 7.37 'T is but come come by faith come by repentance and upon the feet of new obedience and there is comfort for me The Draw-bridge is not up the door of grace stands open to me 3. Think of thy demerits and yet what God hath done with thee and for thee Hath not every sin deserved a death an hell How many a death and hell hast thou then deserved And yet thou art alive through his forbearance and livest upon his finding What reason hast thou then for blessing and honouring him and bearing up of hope in thee Well this distress might have been damnation These might have been the chains of the blackness of darkness I might have been now frying in easeless and endless flames But he punisheth me much less than I have deserved 'T is of his mercy that I am not consumed Ezra 9.14 15. Lam. 3.22 And why may not he further magnifie his mercy in saving me who hath so far magnified it already in sparing me He that hath reprieved me that was under the sentence of death may also pardon me if I do but press him with petitions and pursue my petitions with repentance 4. Think
go and seek the Lord their God They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward saying come and let us joyn our selves to the Lord c. Gen. 3.8 Isa 50.5 Jer. 50.4 5. Who is this that engageth his heart to approach unto me saith the Lord. He requires it Seek ye my face and you must resolve upon it thy face Lord I must and I will seek 'T is good for you and God hath annexed his special promise to to it Jer. 30.21 Psal 27.8 73.28 4 There must be an hearty conjunction with him For of what avail is acquaintance as long as the heart hangs loose in our converses Your heart must be knit and cleave unto him as Jonathan's did unto David Psal 86.11 Act. 11.23 1 Sam. 18.1 What acquaintance with omniscience while your hearts stand off and God is near in your mouth but far from your reins Behold he desireth truth in the inward parts He searcheth the heart and trieth the reins And if thy heart be not right with him thy other applications will be reckoned flattery not friendship Jer. 12.2 3. Psal 51.6 Jer. 17.10 Psal 78.7 36 37. 1 Chron. 28.9 5 Be actually and often communicating thy self to him If you will hide your heart from him what hopes of acquaintance with him He that intends acquaintance should be emptying and unbosoming his heart to him and making him partaker of his secrets Pour out your heart before him then especially in Prayers and Supplications Present him your particular cases and concernments Hide nothing from him from whom indeed nothing is hidden Let all thy pangs of sorrow have vent like Hannahs in the pouring out of thy Soul It may be when thou art pouring out thy case he may be pouring in his comforts Psal 62.8 32.5 38.9 1 Sam. 1.15 Prayer hath the promise of his Presence and indeed of peace In every thing by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known unto God And the peace of God shall keep your hearts c. Psal 145.18 Job 33.26 Phil. 4.6 7. 6 Add to all this an affectionate correspondence and communion with him Acquaintance doth not barely note an interest in another but intimacy but endearedness at least intercourse with that other I would have you secure an interest in him that thou be able with Thomas to say My Lord and my God This will serve thee in with choice peace in that this God is the God of peace Psal 16.2 Joh. 20.28 1 Thes 5.23 But I would not have you think it enough to have obtain'd an interest in him but you should maintain an holy open intercourse with him for herein lieth the crop and confluence of Evangelical peace and it is the end for which one whole Epistle was written 1 Joh. 1.3 4. Oh! what a calm and serenity of Conscience do such holy converses of faith love c. breathe forth What a conflux of joy are they blessed with Who ever came down from this Mount but his face shone with the irradiations of Divine love Or did not say of being on this Mount as Peter of being on that Mat. 17. 'T is good for us to be here let us build Tabernacles c. Isa 26.3 Exod. 34.29 30. Psal 65.4 36.7 8.9 Mat. 17.4 Direct 7. Argue this state and ascertain it to Conscience if thou wouldst arrive to peace Adjure her throughout all her proceedings or argumentations and articulate converses about it to be plain and full with thee as ever thou wouldst attain to a sound and well-setled peace Peace of Conscience is not the birth of rash and precipitate conjectures at an adventure but of rational and pondering self-converses and arguings by comparing a mans self with the signs or marks which the Scriptures give him for judging his estate and condition Hereby know we that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts * Inde fit ut pacatam conscientiam habeamâ—â— Bez. 〈◊〉 not ad 〈◊〉 or as the Syriack make our hearts quiet before him Hereby we know that we know him viz. to be our advocate with the father and that he is the propitiation for our sins and therefore our peace if we keep his commandments 1 Joh. 3.18 19. c. 2.1 2 3. Call Conscience to attend its office for clearing thy estate and charge it to be open and down-right with thee in the discharge of every part as it proceedeth in way of ratiocination and discourse It proceeds as I have said in a practical Syllogism As thus To be spiritually minded is life and peace But I am spiritually mind do mind spiritual Objects first and fullest Ergo I have life and peace Adjure hereby the living God to tell thee nothing but the truth in all the parts of her discourse Let artificial Logick be found only among Scholars yet is there natural Logick in every mans Conscience as one * Fenners Treat of Conscienc p. 231 232. well observeth Charge her before God and the Lord Jesus Christ to be clear and impartial with thee throughout In the first Proposition adjure her not to give thee unsound marks on the one hand as a very hypocrite may have nor unsafe marks on the other hand as are only to be had where there is height or growth in grace and are therefore improper in the present case which concerns only the truth of grace In the second Proposition adjure her to be full and faithful with thee in her testimony Wilt thou say this before the all-seeing God for me Wilt thou speak it to thy superiour as well as to my self Canst thou say Behold my witness is in heaven and my record is on high Psal 139.1 23 24. Joh. 21.17 Job 16.19 In the third Proposition urge her to speak home and speak out as she will answer it to God the supream Judg. Give her no rest if she either suspends her sentence or is short in it till she saith Shibboleth plainly and roundly that ye may bring things to some certainty as they did Job 16.30 2 Tim. 1.12 1 Joh. 2.5 See this fully prosecuted Q. 3. Direct 8. Attend the spirit of peace Spiritual peace is an effect of pouring out the spirit upon us Isa 32.15 16 17. Not as if it did exclude the efficiency of Father or Son 'T is both from him and them Rev. 1.4 5. It was through the eternal Spirit that Christ offered his spotless blood to purge and therewith pacifie the Conscience from dead works It is the same eternal Spirit that mouldeth us into the mystical union with Christ maketh application of his blood to the Conscience and manifests the same to its peace and comfort Heb. 9.14 1 Cor. 12.13 Tit. 3.5 6 7. Abuse not the Spirit then but attend his work upon thee his ways before thee and his witness in and with thee 1 Attend his work upon thee What he is doing what he is demanding and with what designes * See Fords spir of bond c. 10 11.
came to in Peter how his blessed peace was exchanged into bitter pangs And indeed such persons carry their condemnatory sentence in their own bosom till it be reversed by repentance Rom. 1.32 c. 2.1 Mat. 26.75 Rom. 14.22 Titus 3.11 Direct 2. Keep off Satan Thy peace is his pain The more thou enjoyest the more he envieth Job's tranquility was Satan's trouble Job 1. C. 2. And he doth not only afflict him in his goods but accuse him to his God There is no impression it is true can be made by him upon the God of peace he is immutable but there may be on the peace of God for this is mutable in it self and in a mutable Subject Numb 23.19 Jer. 14.19 c. 16.5 You have seen the first league of peace violated through his temptation And if you are not the more circumspect he will frustrate the second as to the sweets and serenities thereof to your Souls by feeding your thoughts with tribulations or flattering you to transgressions Be sober be vigilant your adversary the Devil is not at rest because you are in peace The sense of your happiness stirs up the more activity and assiduousness As a roaring lion he walketh about seeking whom he may devour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Swallow up or drink down 'T is not long since he would have swallowed thee up with over-much sorrow Look to it for he is designing the same end though it may be diversifying in the means If he cannot cut off the Covenant of peace yet he will clog the peace of the Covenant in whatsoever he can Stand upon your guard then set out your centinels gird on your spiritual armour keep the shield of faith in your hand Give no place but resist him stedfastly and the God of peace will not only bind but bruise him under your feet shortly 1 Pet. 5.8 9. 2 Cor. 2.7 cum 11. Eph. 6.11 17. c. 4.27 Jam. 4.7 Rom. 16.20 Direct 3. Keep down Secular things They are like fire of place and profit in the hearth but of greatest peril when they get abroad and get up into the house Its objects they are for the sensitive part they relieve refresh it but not for the rational part they disappoint distract divide it and are not only vanity but vexation of spirit Eccles 1.14 c. Though they may feast Concupiscence they will vex the Conscience if you let them come too nigh it 'T is between Conscience and the Creatures as between the Children of Israel and the Canaanites As these get up they come down Are these high they are as low If these be the head they are the tail Deut. 28.43 44. He that would secure the peace of his Conscience must keep these Canaanites under and make them servants and tributaries He must not set his heart but his heel upon them He may not lift up his Soul to vanity He must not love the world though he may live in it But should have his conversation in heaven if he would have this heaven in his Conscience Psal 62.10 24.4 1 Joh. 2.15 16. Phil. 3.20 Take heed to your spirits then keep this world under your feet and the other world in the eye of your faith Let not the lean kine devour the fat Secular prosperity Spiritual peace Set your affection on things above not on things on the earth Mal. 2.15 Gen. 41.20 Coloss 3.2 Direct 4. Keep up your Society and Communion with the God of peace The marrow and kernel of peace of Conscience consists mostly in this Conscience cannot lift up an hand against you while he lifts up the light of his countenance upon you and nothing but your sins can hinder these shines The Lord is with you while you are with him Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him Psal 4.6 cum 8.2 Chron. 15.2 Psal 85.9 Your danger then is in being behind with him doubtless he will not be behind with you you see that he is ready be not you remiss either in receiving in or retaining of those acts of communion which are offered on his part to you or in returning thereto and reciprocating with him therein by those acts of Communion which you owe on your part to him 1 Be still ready to receive and take in whatever further demonstrations of his kindness for and reconciliation to you he shall yet tender thee He comes not without his myrrh and his spices his honey-comb and his honey See that divine Loves find you not snoring upon your beds but stirring about your business and seeking your beloved He meeteth him that rejoyceth and worketh righteousness those that remember him in his ways If you 'l sleep away such opportunities or slight his overtures the very watchmen will wound and smite you You cannot put off his presence but you therewith put off your own peace Cant. 5.1 8. c. 2.1 4. Isa 64.5 Look to your receptive capacities that they be not prepossessed or unprepared The Lamb's wife had no sooner made her self ready but she had the grant of other raiment While David's heart was ready it was at rest And if thou prepare thine heart thou mayst preserve it from anxieties Then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot yea thou shalt be stedfast and shalt not fear Rev. 19.7 8. Psal 57.7 cum Marg. Job 11.13 15. 2 Be sure thou reserve with thee and repeat often to thee what former discoveries of his loving kindness he hath left with thee Review often the evidences he hath shewn and the experiences thou hast sens'd of his love to thee This will strengthen faith silence fear speaketh forgiveness and satisfieth the Soul as with marrow and fatness We have known and believed saith the Apostle the love that God hath to us Hereupon their Souls dwell in love yea in God and God in them and they neither dread law or death nor hell or judgment Psal 63.5 26.3 36.7 8. 1 Joh. 4.16 17 18. What holy challenges may the Soul now bid to all and every one of them yea what an happy conquest is it sure of over them Their united strength can never overthrow his peace while he liveth under the sweet rayes of divine love and is looking on so many pecifick pledges of an omnipotent well-pleasedness And as long as he can look upon him as the God of love he can live upon him also as the God of peace Rom. 8.35 ad finem 2 Cor. 13.11 3 Be serious and speedy in thy returns to him lest thy delay cause his with-drawing Cant. 5.7 Summon up every faculty to attend his coming and answer his loving kindness with the highest joys and thankfulness His loving kindness is better than life therefore heart and lip and life and all should praise him Psal 103.1 2 4. 63.3 138.2 Now is the time to be giving him your loves and bringing forth those pleasant fruits both new and old which you have laid up for him Now it is that he expects most the
40.1 2. Direct 7. Turn in upon your own bosoms Commune with your own hearts as Asaph did in this very case and let your spirits make diligent search Psal 4.4.77.6 'T is one observation of Dr. Sibs on Psal 42.5 * Soul's Conflict c. 5. p. 51. That one way to raise a dejected Soul is to cite it before it self You have often heard of the Court of Conscience see you call and keep it and convene the troubles of your heart before it For herein it is that your case must be audited argued and determined I wish there were no Christians did carry it to Conscience as Ahab to Micajah Either they call not Conscience into the consultations of peace as afraid she will not prophesie good but evil concerning them Or if she comes and deals clearly them they commit her to prison and carve out nothing for her but the bread of affliction till they shall come again in peace 1 King 22.8 27. Whereas there is no sound peace but of Consciences speaking as hath been abundantly shewn Arraign your troubles before Conscience then here audit here answer here argue them For self-communing is one of the speediest and safest ways to stillness and self-quieting Psal 4.4 42.5 1 Audit and require an account of them 1. Of what kind or what they are Are they not secular troubles the troubles of some Secular emergence and interposition The Shuâ—emitess hath lost her Son and her Soul is vexed within her By the solicitous importunities of Sampson's Wife was his Soul vexed unto the death 2 King 4.27 Judg. 16.16 Or are they not Sickness troubles the troubles of a sickly indisposition which oft-times discomposeth the natural spirits and faculties and by reason of the Soul's sympathy with the Body puts the whole frame in a commotion or combustion Or are they but self-conceived troubles the troubles of a strong and stirring imagination whose false and hasty representations do frequently prevent the trial of our judgments and produce as insuperable troubles as if the grounds were real witness Jacob's imagination of his Son 's being slain till they are brought to answer it at the Bar of Conscience and Reason Gen. 37.33 36. Now though such kind of troubles call for due consideration of them in their place yet will they be cast out of Court as of another cognizance and of alien and improper consideration here when the Question is put touching troubles of Conscience 2. From what cause or why are these troubles I intend not hereby the cause why God inflicteth them but why the godly imbrace them Thus demand a reason of them and desist not till you have brought it to a resolution Thus David in his distress doubles and trebles the question Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me Psal 42.5 11. 43.5 Many of your troubles would cease and shrink away were they but summoned to appear before the Tribunal of Conscience as having nothing to say for themselves especially such as have no stronger foundation than your fancy For such as durst appear in Court 2 Here answer them Christians usually lose their peace by listning to and being led by the sudden pleas of sense instead of laying them in the scales of a judicious Discourse They hastily admit those pleas as argumentative and conclusive against their peace in private conference which do require and would receive an easie and advised answer in publick Court if Conscience may deliberately proceed upon them And it is seldom in such a case that they are ever extricated out of their difficulties and disquiets till they come to discuss them over again in the Court of Conscience And then you have them correcting sense and chiding themselves for such indeliberateness and precipitancy I said in my haste c. This is my infirmity Oh that I should be so foolish and ignorant c. Psal 31.22 77.10 73.13 15 23. Lam. 3.18 54. Isa 38.10 11. Whatever then are the pleas and pretensions in impeachment of thy peace let them be produced in open Court Let Conscience consider and compare them with the rules of the Court the standard of Evangelical peace And then how many of thy doubts and troubles will successively have TEKEL on them Thou art weighed in the ballances and art found wanting Dan. 5.27 I forbear to mention here the just answers may be given to what argument may be happily insisted on wherewith you may furnish your selves in the respective cases 3 Here argue it with them If thou canst not evince thy peace by it yet it will ease thee in thy perplexities to expostulate and argue out the case in the Court of Conscience How forcible are right words David's iterated expostulations were effectual to the recovery of his dependance and to the remitting if not removing of his disquiets and diffidence Job 6.25 Psal 42.5 c. Men are prone to plead it out with Heaven and reason it forth with God It were the more easie and expeditious way to plead it with their own hearts No arguings unless of prayer and faith being admitable with God Who is a fit opponent or respondent to argue with Omniscience and Omnipotence or can chuse out words to reason with him Job 13.3 c. 23.4 c. 9.14 Psal 77.7 10. Here argue it then and bid thy fears as Job did his Friends to attend and listen Hear now my reasoning and hearken to the pleading of my lips Job 13.6 Argue 1. from thy past serenities and sweetnesses Old experiences will become new evidences I have considered the days of old saith Asaph the years of ancient times I call to remembrance my song in the night And thence he resolveth that it was his weakness This is my infirmity to â—ield so far to his own despondency and disquiets and should be his work to devolve all into the hands of God and fortifie his dependance on him in the sense of his former happiness I will remember the years of the right hand of the most high I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember thy wonders of old c. Psal 77.5 13. David's spirit was overwhelmed within him My heart within me is desolate saith he And what doth he I remember the days of old c. Psal 143.4 5. God's ancient kindnesses afford new arguments to Conscience whereby she may and many times doth quiet her self and confute her sorrows Psal 31.21 22. 71.18 20. Well then if you would not cast away your confidence call your former comforts to remembrance Are your Souls cast down within you Revive and cheer them up with the remembrances of God from the land of Jordan and of the Hermonites what he spake to you in such a Sermon sealed in such a Sacrament secured in such a solitariness And thence reason with Manoah's Wife If the Lord would slay us would he have shewn us such things as these Heb. 10.32 35. Psal 42.6 Judg. 13.23 Argue 2. from
the eternal flames and open the horrors of Death and Hell yet through the power of such pre-possessions of his own Salvation like the Horse in Job he goeth on to meet the armed men he mocketh at fear and is not affrighted neither turneth he his back from the sword c. And is ready to say with those in Isaiah We have made a Covenant with death and with hell are we at an agreement He acknowledgeth God hath cursed such sins yet blesseth himself in his own heart Job 39.21 22. Isa 28.15 Deut. 29.19 2. The vicious carriage of Conscience in and upon the trial of our estates is the principal fountain of this false Peace None of the Causes without the Conscience can prejudice you unless there be a part-taking by Conscience within you In vain doth Satan force or his Disciples flatter till Conscience falls in with them and speaks that false peace to which these seduce you And therefore the Scriptures resolve it into this as the next cause If he bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace When they shall say Peace peace Deut. 29.19 1 Thes 5.3 Now if Conscience upon the process or trial of your estates doth speak a false or vicious peace it is ever in or by some fallacious procedure in the case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deceiving their own selves It puts a fallacious argument or paralogism upon us Conscience always comes to a conclusion on of our estate and so of our peace as you have seen already by some practical Syllogism If our peace be false its procedure is fallacious in one part still or other of this practical Syllogism wherein it doth impose upon us or is imposed upon 1. Sometimes it is out in the Proposition as it taketh and tendereth us a false mark or rule to try our estates by Thus were they deceived Jam. 1.22 Mat. 7.22 23. Luk. 13.26 27. The assumption was true and in this they attest God himself Lord Lord we have prophesied in thy name we have eat and drunk in thy presence we have been hearers of thy Word c. But the Proposition was false which is therewith included All those that have prophesied in thy name have eat and drunk in thy presence have been hearers of thy Word shall be saved and eternally happy This was a false Proposition and hereby they fell into that false peace concluding themselves in a saving condition from an unsound and false medium which could not bear the weight of such a Conclusion 2. Sometimes it is out in the Assumption as it tenders a false testimony or report of what we are and do in the trial of our estates Thus were they deceived Jer. 2.35 Because I am innocent surely his anger shall turn from me The Proposition implied was true viz. Gods anger shall turn away from all such as are innocent But the Assumption viz. I am innocent was false Behold I will plead with thee saith the Lord because thou sayest I have not sinned ibid. v. 23 c. How canst thou say I am not polluted I have not gone after Baalim See thy way in the Valley know what thou hast done c. Thus 1 Joh. 1.8 faith the Apostle If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us Conscience in giving such false evidence doth but put a cheat upon us a lie upon God ver 10. and proclaims us aliens from the truth of Grace and of the Gospel 3. Sometimes Conscience is out in the Conclusion Sometimes 1 Men suspend the Conclusion as did those Rom. 1.32 Who knowing the judgment of God that they who commit such things are worthy of death not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do them Conscience dealt fairly with them as to the two first Propositions viz. They that do such things are worthy of death But we do such things But as to the Conclusion how fallaciously Not only hiding and with-holding the sentence or conclusion from them that would regularly have followed upon those premisses But indulging them a sinful Complacence in their Society who did them 2 Sometimes me shuffle in another a false Conclusion which the Premisses will not admit and are alien from So Deut. 29.19 And it cometh to pass when he heareth the words of this Curse that he blesseth himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart to add drunkenness to thirst Conscience seems clear in the Proposition There is no blessing but a curse for them that walk in their own lusts and imaginations And to confess the Assumption But I walk in the lusts and imagination of mine own heart Yet is it so far from concluding against his blessedness and peace which should be the genuine result from those Premisses that she concludeth for it and foysteth in another Conclusion in this Soul's case I shall have peace though I walk in these imaginations of mine heart How ordinary is it that men thus shuffle and turn off the severe passages of Sermons and Scriptures from themselves to the sentence of others when as ever they would avoid the Curse they should lay it to their own hearts Mal. 2.2 Sometimes 3 Men shift off the Conclusion that if Conscience will not suspend the true nor shuffle in a false sentence yet she must speak it so softly and the Application be so easie as it may not stick nor abide upon them Conscience concludeth the Jews condition upon them and quickeneth them to a return to him that smote them But the cogency thereof is soon off there was no setled impression Their heart was not right with him Neither were they stedfast in his Covevant Psal 78.34 38. Well then as ever you would avoid the fearful precipices of a false peace watch Conscience in all its proceeds and parts and in the discussion of thy estate use thy utmost diligence and most universal observance Of which in the next Question Q. 3. How may or should a Christian so pursue the trial of his Estate in his own Conscience as to prevent the cheat of a false Peace A false peace principally arising out of the fallacious procedure of Conscience either in the Proposition Assumption or Conclusion therefore in this pursuit or trial of your estates you should strictly attend and assure Conscience throughout all these parts Direct 1. As touching the Proposition wherein Conscience delivereth some truth as a rule or mark to try your estate by I advise 1 That you try such marks by Scriptures 'T is no imputation either to the justice or prudence of a Magistrate to try the several measures by the standard of the Market Paul and Silas preached by an infallible Direction yet the Berean providence of bringing their Sermons to the test of Scriptures searching the Scriptures daily whether those things were so is commended as noble and generous Act. 17.11 Believe not every spirit every sign that is or may be
suggested but search the Scriptures as our Saviour bespeaks thee whether they be marks and what marks or of what they so be 1 Joh. 4.1 Joh. 5.39 Try whether it be a mark that Conscience tenders thee for this trial Is she not ravisht with a strange woman and imbraceth the bosom of a stranger Happily thou countest those things marks which thou shouldst rather call thy mistakes If a man think himself to be something when he is nothing he deceiveth himself Gal. 6.3 He may and shall deceive his own heart that deduceth his arguments but from the semblances and appearances of Religion But he that argueth from the inseperable properties of Religion puts himself thereby beyond that peril of a self-deception Jam. 1.26 Bring the sign or mark then thou wouldst try thy estate by to the scales and touch-stone of the Scriptures Press Conscience to answer these three Questions 1. Is this mark found upon all that are in the state of Salvation Because the particular guises and affections of some individual persons are found upon me I cannot thence prove that I am a Man if I would cogently argue it I must evince it from such affections as are common to the whole kind 'T is as great an impotence and oversight to conclude my peace and salvation from communicating in the characters of some particular Christians My enquiries should be rather after such Characters as do agree to all that are indeed and throughout Christians They urge perhaps from the singular examples of some saved ones as if they had obtained some signal evidence for Heaven having arrived to that height unto which but few did attain Mat. 7.22 Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name east out Devils and in thy name done many wonderful works But our Saviour neither admits the plea nor accepts the persons ver 23. And teacheth us to fetch our Evidences not from the singular priviledges of some numerical Saints but from that spirit of obedience which runs through the veins of all Saints and is inseparable from any that are saved ver 21. The Proposition had need be universal As Peace be to all them that are in Christ Jesus By him all that believe are justified Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life c. 1 Pet. 5.14 Act. 13.39 Joh. 3.15 16. 2. Is this mark found only upon such as are in an estate of Salvation I cannot prove that this is a Man from any such part or principle as is common to a brute with him My proofs must pitch upon what is proper to Mankind He is a Rational Creature therefore a Man For Man only is that Creature upon Earth which is endowed with Reason It would be as great a weakness to argue my title to Heaven from any such qualifications as are common even to them that shall be thrust into Hell The Apostle therefore noteth it as a vain and empty crack in those solifidians Jam. 2.14 c. that they insisted barely upon believing and thence infer'd their Blessedness and Salvation whereas the Devils might put in a claim upon this account to the Heavenly Kingdom as well if not more than they if a faith without works might be admitted for an evidence For the Devils also believe and tremble ver 19. Though Paul spake with tongues more than they all who took those and other such gifts as evidences of Salvation yet he thinks fit to tell them Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels though I have the gift of Prophesie and understand all mysteries and all knowledg and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have no charity the discriminating character of the devout and thorough Christian I am nothing 1 Cor. 14.18 c. 13.1 2. So then the mark which Conscience singleth out to discuss and determine your estate by must be proper to and which is alone predicable of the sincere and saved ones of God Not such a disposition wherein hypocrites may partake with you It was by this Job defended his Integrity and defeated the accusations of his enemies Will the hypocrite delight himself in the Almighty Will he always call upon God And our Saviour's question will be What do you more than others Do not even the Publicans the same And he strictly concludeth Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Job 27.6 11. Mat. 5.46 47. 20. 3. Is this mark convertible i.e. Are all they upon whom this mark is found in a saving estate And have all that are in a saving estate this mark found upon them Right Properties are reciprocally predicable of the Subjects whose Properties they are All that are saved are hearers of the Word But all that are hearers of the Word are not saved This they did deliberate and so deceived themselves Jam. 1.22 See then that you be doers of the word and not hearers only All they that are such shall be saved and all that shall be saved are such Rom. 2.13 Luk. 11.28 Whosoever are in a state of Salvation do profess special dearness to and devotion for the Lord and Saviour But whosoever profess this are not therefore in a state of Salvation This they did not attend and so abused themselves Mat. 7.21 22 23. Luk. 13.24 28. The propriety between Christ and the Church is mutual My beloved is mine and I am his The promise is mutual I will say thou art my people and they shall say thou art my God Cant. 2.16 Hos 2.23 See that the Proposition upon which you proceed will be such too that the terms will reciprocate As the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ is unto all and upon all them that believe And all that believe are interested in this righteousness The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him in truth And all they that call upon him in truth are nigh unto the Lord Rom. 3.22 Psal 145.18 Would you but improve these rules in and for the trial of those marks in the review of which you are to make trial of your estates the deceitful evidences whereby multitudes unto themselves would soon disappear and no more stand before the discussion of Conscience than the dust which is easily driven before the wind 2. Treasure up these marks in order to the trial of thy self Make Conscience the sacred Repository of such marks and rules Or if Memory be this Closet and Repository let Conscience be sure to keep the Key Besides the advantages which thou shalt hereby reap for a solemn self-examination they will suggest matter of self-reflection and inward self-converses in the several lines and periods of thy Secular Negotiations Bind them continually upon thine heart and tye them about thy neck When thou goest it shall lead thee when thou sleepest it shall keep thee and when thou awakest it shall talk