the Instrument and another thing to have them all in tune when it is not rightly tuned though it have on all the strings it cannot give a sweet nor harmonious sound so is it with the Conscience The Use is For exhortation to watchful advertance in every thing to Conscience it 's Testimony Seing there are many that do good on the matter who yet want it's Testimony it becomes us to be the more watchful to keep a good Conscience and seing that Conscience it's speaking for a man and giving him it's approbative Testimony and his doing that which is good on the matter are not only separable but are often actually separated the one from the other not only in natural but even in regenerat men as frâ—quent experience puts beyond debate We had need I say to be the more watchful both as to the matter and manner of our doing least we be at a lose of the Testimony of Conscience for us And none would think it to be as easie a bussinesse to keep a good Conscience as to the manner of performing of Duty as it is to do so â—s to the matter of it How many come to the Church but without due preparation and without having a heart ready to hear what God will say to them and meddle with with other Duties without regarding the due manner of performing them We â—ight instance it in all these Six Sorts of Actions we spoke of the other day in all which there is a propensnes iâ— us naturally to degenerat and go beside the Rule As namely 1. In natural Actions of Eating and Drinking or of loving Husband or Wife or Children men may be very carnal degenerat and become like very Beasts 2. In civil Actions as Buying and Barganing wherein men maâ— turn basely covetous selfie and seeking their own things and not the honour of God noâ— the good and advantage of others 3ly In Moral Actions as speaking truth dealing fairly and honestly wherein men may turn legal proud and vain and seek to establish a self-righteousnesse thereby to themselves 4. In external Religious Actions as hearing the Word Praying c. Wherein men may turn hypocritical and formal having a shew without substance and a form of godliness without the power of it 5. In inward Duties as repentance contentment c. Wherein men may turn worldly and carnal therefore a worldly repentance from fear of punishment or of shame in the World or worldly sorrow that causeth death is spoken of 2 Cor. 7. v. 10. So theâ—e is a worldly contentment 6. In passive actions or sufferings some may suffer from inevitable necessity and have no thanks for it as it is 1 Pet. 2. 20. We may from the unstraightnesse of the end to which from the unsoundnesse of the principle from which from the unsuitablenesse of the motive by which duties are done and several otherwayes prejudge our selves of the approving Testimony of our Conscience which we would carefully advert to that we divide not betwixt a good Conscience and a good Turn Action or Duty But it may be Asked here What is the reason that it is so difficult to keep a good Conscience and to carry it along with us in the very interim mean time and nick of performing the Action above and beyond what it is either to deliberat and advise with it before we do or to reflect after we have done I Answer And give these Two or Three Reasons of it The First whereof is drawn from the necessary concurrence of so many things that must go together in the performance of an Action Which makes it easier to resolve before doing or to reflect after doing then to perform The 2d is Because there is such a ticklenesse in the frame ol our hearts that they are unstable as water stable in nothing There are Three distempers of heart that we are subject to which all hold forth this difficulty 1. A declining humour to say so or distemper whereby we are given to backslide or turn aside like a deceitful bow that keeps bensel while the arrow is a drawing and when it is at or in the very letting off starteth aside 2ly A levity and unsetlednesse even such that the weather cock is not sooner and more easily whirled about by the least wind then we are by the least breathing of the air of Tentation So that were we just now in a good and suitable frame for Duty ere we be aware we fall off and a good Conscience requireth a composednesse and stayednesse of Frame 3ly A rashnesse and hastinesse or precipitance which makes us that so soon as we are clear in the thing to rush forward and to think all is done that is requisit so that we wait not to carry Conscience along with us in our performances which rash precipitant and hasty humour or distemper maketh us often miscarry As David sayes of himself Psal. 116 I said in my haste that all men are liars and I said in my haste that I am cut off from thy presence Psal. 31. So Believers often marr the composednesse of their own frame by their hâ—steing and not taking heed to what Conscience sayeth while they are in performing Duty Thus many post as it were through their Prayers speaking of many good things in them from light but not endeavouring to carry Conscience its testimony along with them of their sincerity they spoil and marr that which was well intended and begun by them A 4th ground reason or cause of this is the great difficulty that there is to maintain and keep up a right frame of heart for any considerable time and a man will never keep a good Conscience along particular duties if he maintain not a right frame of heart though a thing good in it self were never so fairly floored to speak so and its ground never so well taken up yet the least byass or rub easily puts it by and makes it go out All which should in reason make us study the more watchfulness 5thly Observe which will help to the Use of the former and is of some affinity with the first particular Observation That persons would endeavour to walk in every particular duty or action so as they may not only advert to what Conscience sayes of it but may also carry it along with them in it and have the positive approving testimony thereof all alongst the doing of it which may be though there be not reflecting on it every moment That is not only would they before they undertake any thing be clear that it is a warrantable duty as was marked before but further when they have done this they would so carry Conscience along with them in it as they may have its testimony that they go about it conscienciously Therefore Paul asketh not only what Conscience sayes of the action as to its matter and as to his sincerity in undertaking it but he bringeth it out speaking for him while he is doing it My conscience saith he
profession of Religion which drawes dreadfully deep as wilâ—â—ther appear from some of his instances If sayes he page 271. it be asked what if we be commanded by our lawful prince to say with our tongue we believe not in Christ he may as well add we believe not that there is such a person as Christ must we obey such a command Profession with the tongue sayeth he is no more then any other gesture whereby we signifie our obedience and wherein a Christian holding firmly in his heart the faith of Christ hath the same liberty that Elisha allowed to Naaman the Syrian a great and grosse mistake the Prophet allowed no such thing but without giving any particular answer to his demand since by what Mr. Hobbs confesseth he could not but know that what he desired if indeed he desired it some learned men asserting that the words contain a reflection upon a past unlawful practice and a begging forgivenesse of it and not a desire of a permission of any such practice for the future was a sin and unlawful to be done only bids him go in peace wishing him well and Gods blessing to him though not as to that particular â—ere sayeth he Naaman believed in his heart but by bowing before the Idol Rimmon he denyed the true God in effect as if he had done it with his lips how dare he then be so bold as to affirm that the Prophet allowed and approved of his practice What then shall we say to that of our Saviour whoever denyeth me before men him will I deny before my Father which is in heaven To this sayeth he We may say that whatsoever a Subject as Naaman was is compelled to in obedience to his Soveraign and doth it not according to his own mind but in Order to the Laws of his Countrey that Action is not his but his Soveraigns nor is it be that in this case denyes Christ but his Governour and the Law of his Countrey O! what a wide door is opened here for grofâ—est distimulation and jugllng in the matters of God and for the most palpable inconsistancy betwixt the heart of 〈◊〉 and his actions The one manifestly contradicting and â—elying the other which ought especially in such cases fâ—thfully to correspond and exactly to agree What security I pray could men have upon earth one from another in their Oaths Covenants â—cts and Coâ—acts in their mutual Bâ—rgainings and dealings if such a cursed latitude were allowed them to say promise and sweat one thing and resolve another in their hearts and shaâ— that be allowed in matters wherein the honour of God is so much and so nearly concerned which is so abominable in the concerns of Men all which comparatively are but trifles Might not all Christian Martyrs of old and Protestant ones of late by such obedience to their respective lawful Soveraigns in the several parts of the Christian World have escaped delivered themselves from being burnt alive from other bloody violent and cruel deaths and exquisite torments and shall they not according to this detestable Doctrine be looked at as a company of silly fools who needlessely threw away their lives which they might thus have very easiely preserved â—or none of them we know of were ever by their Popish lawful Soveraigns injoyned to say with their tongue that they believed not in Christ which yet sayeth he they might and should have done keeping their mind to themselves and to God and much more those things which they were commanded Further page 239 240 241. He refers to the decision of the Soveraign all sorts of Doctrine in effect and more particularly and expresly whether the Subjects shall profess That life eternal and happiness shall be on the earth only Whether the Soul of man is a living Creature independent on the Body or doth subsist separatly from the Body Whether any meer man is Immortal otherwayes then by the Resurrection of the last day whether wicked men shall be tormented eternally so as not to be destroyed to die and be annihitated at length to all which himself seemeth to be 〈◊〉 as his own opinions O! wicked and wretched O! atheistical detestable and damnable opinions whether I say the Subject shall professe these things or not he refers to the decision of the Soveraign by which we may very easily judge in how many and in how very momentuous things in Christian Religion he 〈◊〉 subjects as to their outward profession and carriage to â—stand to and acquiesâ—e in the decision and determination of the lawful Soveraign in a Kingdom or Common-wealth or of the publick Conscience or Law of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which whether it be not to deny all Conscience 〈◊〉 Subjects and private persons in such matters as so nearly concern the eternal Salvation of their Immortal Souls is obvious at first 〈◊〉 It puts me in mind of what is reported of a great man smelling strong of this Conscience-destroying-doctrine who expostulating with some Countrey men living under him for their nor doing somewhat required of them by him for which nonpâ—rformance when they pleaded Conscience he in a great â—uffe not without some execration replyed What have the like of you to do with a Conscience Which was plainly on the matter to say with Hobbs that they and such as they should have no Conscience but what is ductile and governable by the Conscience of lawful Rulers and Superiours and that their commands and prohibitions make things just and adjust which is â—ayeth Mr. Liâ—h in his Body of Divinity page 378 to make Subjects beasts and the Magistrat God 2ly All priâ—at persons living in a Kingdom or Common-wealth must hence furth according to these Doctors allown and not in the feast regard in many things and those not of little moment in Religion and the worship of God their own Consciences as his Deputies and have recourse to the publick Conscience or the Law of the Land as the uniâ—ersal Depute set over all the Consciences of privat persons living therein nay to it as taking Gods own room to make Laws directly immediately and of themselves obligatory of all their Consciences and to enjoyn obedience to them as so oblidging them and must contrary to the Scripture no more notice the accusings or excusings of their own Consciences but those only of the publick Conscience 3ly The indispensibly requisite qualification of the obedience of Children to their Parents Ephes. 6. v. 1. viz. In the Lord whereby the Apostle doth undenyably lay it on the Children to consider and judge by their judgement of private discretion whether the commands and injunctions of their Parents be agreeable to the mind of the Lord and such in obedience whereto they may expect the Lords approbation must be casheered and abandoned for certainly there lyeth no greater obligation on Subjects to obey the commands of the Soveraign power of the Kingdom or Common-wealth then lyeth on Children to obey their Parents who were Soveraigns in Families before ever there were
Conscience for abstaining from such and such a practice only from long custome of doing so from the example of others or from loathness to displease them or only from dis-inclination to or aversion from the thing which they will not readily abide by if any considerable suffering whether of emergent loss or cessant gain be met with on account thereof whereby it comes to pass that Conscience and truly Consciencious persons are expoâ—ed to contempt and scorn Some standers by and lookers-on taking occasion to think and say that such persons have all the while been acted by no real principle of Conscience but only by humour or at best by the example of others to the great reproach of Religion and the holy profession there of and such as have a natural and unreasonable prejudice at all serious godlinesse and tendernesse of Conscience ly at the wait to fish and catch all advantages so fortifying themselves in their prejudice and are ready to draw their conclusions not only nor so much against the particular persons as against the whole generation of conscientious and godly people yea against godlinesse it self and tendernesse of Conscience their prejudice prompting them to think and say We alwayes thought that sort of men were not truly conscientious and godly whatsoever they professed and now we see and find them to be so and that we were not mistaken but in the right when we thought them to be such they are all such all of a piece acted by no true principle of Conscience but by humour peevishnesse or some such thing notwithstanding of all their high floun pretensions of Conscience for let them but be put a little to it and all their Conscience-pretensions will be quite relinquished and evanish and they will be and do like others which gives ground to sober and truely conscientious persons to think that it were better and more for the advantage and credit of Religion and of the real pleas of Conscience that it were never pretended in such things where it is only pretended I will not I dar not say but a truly conscienscious person may by the more closse approaches of trouble and suffering on the account of some particular debated practice or forbearance be put upon more narrow and exact inquiry into and examination of the grounds reasons of that practice or forbearance And may after such inquiry and examination come from more clear light to have different apprehensions about the thing from what he had before Though the clearnesse win at which is waited with the eschewing of trouble and suffering would be holily jealoused and suspected and brought to the light of the Word to be thereby scrutinously accuratly and impartially tryed least self-love in such a case bribe as it were and byass the persons judgement and light 2dly When Conscience is pretended in minute small petty and comparatively inconsiderable things while in the mean time little or no Conscience at all is made of but vast and unlimited latituds are taken in the most momentuous and weighty things of Religion as the Pharisees pretended Conscience in tithing the smallest herbs as mint anise and rue while in the mean time they passed over without making any bones of them Iudgement and the Love of God which is straining at gnats and swallowing of camels 3dly When Conscience is pretended for mens tenacious adhering to human traditions while in the meantime they make no Conscience of making void the Law of God as the same Pharisees did for which out Lord with holy severity inveigheth against them 4ly When Conscience is pretended for not shedding the blood of Innocents and yet notwithstanding the same things are adventured on and wickedly per-petrated when they come in competition with mens worldly wealth or preferment or with the gratifying of great ones in order to the former as it was with Pilat in the matter of condemning Christ of whose innocence he was throughly convinced and accordingly did thrice over hear publick testimony to it yet when he was told that if he did let him go and condemned him not to death he was not Cesars friend he forthwith proceeded to the condemnatory Sentence and delivered him to the persecuting and murdering Iews to be crucified and poor wretch he imagined that the silly shift of washing his hands in water would wash and purge his deeply â— filâ—d Conscience from the guilt and pollution contracted by shedding of that innocent and most precious Blooâ— buâ— it stuck faster to and was more stiffly barkned on his Conscience then to be so easily washed off with such poor and pitiful shifts do such men think or fancie to pacifie their Consciences and to purge them from the defilements of the greatest most clamant and horrid crimes If Pilat had any real demurr in his Conscience about the thing as very probably he had his counteracting it on so base and unworthy accounts and then foolishly fancieing that by such an empty ceremonie as washing his hands in water he could be washed from the guilt of so aâ—rocious a Crime were high aggravations of it 5ly When men pretend Conscience as the reason of their not committing the least sin nay of their not doing somethings that are very debateable whether they be sins or not while in the mean time they make no Conscience to stretch furth their hand to â—ay with an high hand to adventure on the commission of sins that are incontravertably very great and gross as the Pharisees pretended Conscience for their not going to the Iudgement Hall least forsooth they should be defiled and so unfitted to eat the Passover who yet made no scruple maâ—ciously to embrew their wicked hands in the blood of the person that was God and typified by the Passover 6ly When Conscience or a conscientious regard is pretended for divine institutions and ordinances meerly and mainly from pickque and prejudice at the most tender and conscientious persons as if their warrantable and consistent practices were the grossest violations and greatest viâ—ifyings of them and plain inconsistencies with a just regard for them How often thus did the Scribes and Pharisees quarrel with our Lord and his Disciples as breakers and profaners of the Sabbath because of somethings done by him and them thereon not in the least in-compatible with the sanctification thereof as if they themselves had been more tender of the due observation of the Sabbath then either the Disciples or their Lord and Master was 7ly to give no more instances when Conscience is pretended for keeping and not breaking of sinful engadgements vowes and oaths wherewith men have rashly bound themselves As suppose a man should rashly vow and swear that he will be avenged at the highest rate on another because of either an imagined or real a lesser or greater injurie done him and as Herod sware very inconsiderarly and rashly that he would give the dancing daughter of the incestuous Mother Herodias whatever she should ask of him even to the
in them Yet considering 1. The nature of the thing and the institution of marriage and that of Mal. 2. 15. That he made but one man and one woman for the man that he might have a godly seed neither can the multiplication of mankind have sufficient weight to make it simply to be no sin 2dly Considering the frequency of it or its being in so many that it became almost ordinary And 3dly Considering the effects that followed on it viz. The many discontents and heart-burnings amongst the Wives and Children in the Families of Abraham and Iacob It cannot absolutely be excused in all Cases and Circumstances else it should make an extraordinary dispensiation if indeed it was to be very ordinary which we have no warrand for A 2d Instance is in Iobs friends who were no question gracious men as the Lords accepting of them and Iob for them Iob 42. 8. sheweth yet that they Erred and were wrong in a Truth in their Judgements is clear from v. 7. of that Chapter where the Lord telleth them that they had not spoken right as his servant Iob had done And that they did very un-tenderly handle Iob is also clear The 3d. Instance is in the Apostles and Disciples of our Lord They were Believers no doubt according to Christ's own Testimony given them Iohn 17. 8. And yet we will find them in several things thinking themselves to be right and that with some sort of perswasion when yet they were wrong As in that one tenet concerning the nature of Christ's Kingdom which they fancied was to be with some earthly Grandour and Pomp and wherein they expected some Worldy Credit and Greatness and in that of Peter Mat. 16. 22. Be it far from thâ—e Lord this shall not be unto thee And if all the Apostles had been put to a Consultation it is like they would have diswaded him as well as Peter did As when he said he was to go up to Ierusalem they said Master the Iews sought of late to stone thee and wilt thou go up thithe And yet how hatefull this was to Christ is clear from the whole strain of the Gospel and from his checking of Peter at that rate of holy severity saving â—o him Get thee behind me Satan And the two Sons of Zebedee Mat. 20. 22. Telling them That they knew not what they asked And Acts 1. 7. He declareth to them that it was not for them to know the times and seasons which the Father had put in his own power A 4th Instance is that which was the very common Tenet and Opinion of Believers in the Primitive times among the Iews viz That the Ceremonial Law of Moses was not fully abrogâ—ted by the coming of Christ and is clear from Acts 21. and Rom. 14. and 1 Cor. 8. 9. and 10. Chapters and that there was much un-clearness in the matter of Christian Liberty they being some way rooted in their Opinion anent the distinction of Meats and Dayes thinking that it was not taken away And though the Apostles determined it yet they could not easily be brought off from it For the 2d Take some aggredging circumstances which will make this the more wonderfull As 1. That Believers may Err be mistaken and go wrong when in a very tender Christian frame As is clear in the forecited instances of the Patriarchs of Iob's Friends and of the Apostles and Believers in the Primitive Times for will any I pray deny but they were in a good frame when they had so much Liberty in Prayer and Preaching and such successe waiting on it so that the Devils were subject to them They were also singularly dauted and dandled in a manner by Christ Jesus himself and had so much access to God and so much of his countenance yet continuing still for a great while in some of these their Errors and Mistakes 2. That this may be not only among the more common sort of Believers but even also amongst the most eminent for are there any more eminent then there we have named viz. The Patriarchs Apostles and Disâ—iples of our Lord And we may add that of Paul and Barnabas Acts 15 36 39. What the particular was about which the contest was we shall not offer now to decide it is sure in the matter one of them was wrong and it is like both in the manner and yet both though themselves to be right 3. There may be mistakes in very concerning and important Truths Is not that a concerning Truth about which Iobs Friends disputed with him viz. That God would not temporally plague a godly man And was not that a concerning Truth anent the nature of Christs Kingdom wherein the Disciples were mistaken and wrong And if we speak of matters of Fact was not that of the Fathers and other Saints in the matter of Bigamy and Poligamy a concerning thing yet all of them thought themselves to be right neither did they for any thing we know go against an explicit challenge of their Conscience in that matter 4ly It is not one or two but many that may be under such mistakes many of the Fathers were mistaken Iob's Friends were so all the Apostles were so many thousands yea ten thousands of the Iews that believed as it were almost all the Believers of that Countrey were so being all zealous of the cerimoniall Law when yet it was abrogat 5ly They may be exceeding fervent and forward in that wherein they Err very bent on it how vehemently and eagerly did Iobs Friends pursue the Dispute to beat him from a sound principle which they held against him how serious were the Apostles in these things wherin they erred How zealous were these sound believing Iews for these Cerimonies even after the matter was otherwise determined by the Apostles And how hot was the contention betwixt Barnabas and Paul Even so hot that they parted company 6thly They may continue in such mistakes notwithstanding many evidences that might serve to bring them off and against many relevant reasons given them to the contrary how many un-answerable arguments were adduced by Iob to perswade his Friends of their mistake And yet had not the Lord himself immediately interposed it 's like they might have dyed without taking with it How often did Christ refute that Opinion touching the nature of his Kingdom by preaching of suffering and of the necessity of his Death by telling his Disciples expresly that his Kingdom was not of this World and that they behoveâ—â—o become as little Children And yet notwithstanding of all this they continued in their Error not only while Christ was with them before his Death but even after his Resurrection as is clear Acts 1. And we know what were the decrees of the Synod held at Ierusalem Acts 15. Concerning Christian Liberty and how it was told the Believers in that time That an idol was nothing and yet they adhered to their mistake about their Liberty and thought still something of the Idol As Paul
to come at it If ye should incline it how can ye shift this Conviction Conscience may be silent for a time but it will speak and speak loud when Sickness and the Cross cometh As we see it did in Iosephs Brethren in such a case many of you will find that Conscience hath been much slighted O! when Death shall come and stair you in the face what a terrible thing will a guilty Conscience be found then to be The terror of mad Dogs of wild Boars of felrce Lyons and Tygers will not be so terrible as an evil Conscience will be when awakened and having death at it's back Nay suppose that Conscience should not be awakened while ye are alive and in this world but that ye should slip and sleep away like Lambs Hauing no bands in your death and that ye should die applauded of all men yet what will ye do with your Conscience or how will ye stand before it when ye shall be sisted before Gods Tribunal and when the Books shall be laid open Are there not many now in hell who if we could hear their language would very readily bid us beware to thwart with our Conscience and to make it our enemy Wo to them that take an evil Conscience with them to their Grave it will be a worm that will gnaw eternally and an inward poyson and Venom Stinging Burning and inflaming the very bowels as it were and all that is within the man beyond what is here conceivable We would therefore earnestly beseech and obtest you soberly to think on it for there are many of you whom this Challenge and Reproof will reach And if we should say otherwise to you who never had it for your aim to keep a good Conscience and who were never exercised to nor seriously taken up with Religion we would but cheat and beguile you Is it possible that ye can thwart with the Law of God and not also thwart with your own Conscience or can you thwart with your Light and your Conscience be still silent Or shall the having and keeping of a good Conscience be ane exercise to Paul And do you think to come so easily and without all labour to it These and other such are palpable evidences of an ill Conscience It is not sure a good Conscience that yeeldeth you peace and quietness in such a Case but it is your deep security and your being regardless of whâ— Conscience sayeth that lull and rock you a sleep For the 2d How cometh this to pass or how can it be that men and women thus thwart with their Conscience Answer 1. It needeth not at all to seem strange seing God and his Word are thwarted with will they think we stand in awe of Conscience who stand not in awe of God and who do not lay weight on his Word to regulate their Conscience by it This is the great ground of peoples thwarting with their Conscience and of their regardlesness of it even their not standing in awe of God 2dly The most part never consider their obligation to Conscience nor what is the consequence of thwarting with or of going cross to their Conscience therefore it is that they care not what Conscience sayeth is there any considerable number of persons who think that thwarting their Conscience is such a terrible thing at it is indeed and as one day it will be found to be Many had rather have a very little money in their hand then the Testimony of their Conscience and this regardlesness ariseth from the ignorance of it and of what great concernment it is 3ly Men even by accustoming and habituating themselves to thwart with their Conscience in lesser things do by little and little stupify and in a manner put out the life of their Conscience and â—s the Apostle hath the word They cauterize or sear it as it were with a hot iron Hence it is that when some truly tender Christians are troubled with and have for the matter of their exercise any little things or things that have in them but the least appearance of evil others will be ready to pray to be saved from such madness and folly because they were never accustomed to nor acquainted with any challenge or exercise of that kind but have taught themselves a way of steping over their Conscience and this provocketh God to give them up to a reprobate mind to do things which are not convenient They harden themselves by resisting the Challenges of the Word and Rod of God and of their own Conscience and are judicially hardned so that either Conscience sayeth nothing at all to them or they do not at all value what it sayeth Thence and therefore it is that the prophanest have most ordinarily fewest challenges and these few that they have they trample on them and stiffle them as but un-regardable and trifling things Whereas the most tender Conscience hath readily manyest challenges Though I deny not but that sometimes challenges will bear in themselves irresistibly on the profanest of men but they are to such very un-welcomeguests and they endeavour quickly to smother them or to drive them out again 4ly Many byass their own Conscience and teach themselves shifts not so much to satisfie their Conscience as how to answer it and to stop the mouth of it and to please their own humour if they can give a reason for such and such a thing such as it is to their Conscience they think they do very well Thus deceiving themselves and being deceived for a deceived heart hath led them aside Hence it comes to pass that in some things men take as much pains to byass their Conscience and to have it saying as they say as one man would take on another to satisfie him and to bring him over to be of his mind in any matter Hence also is the debating and strugling exercise that some will have within themselves before they can be brought to an ingenuous confession of that they are guilty of 5ly People seek to please their Conscience when they cannot byass it and when Conscience challengeth they will make amends As it may be they will pray when they are going to commit such or such a Sin as some profane men will do when they are going to fight a Combate or Duel this is to bribe the Conscience Thus many Papists when they have done an evil turn will give so much to the poor or dot so much to some pious work or use as they judge to be a sort of recompense what else is this but to bribe Conscience in one thing to hold it's tongue in another thing so some though they tiple all the day think they do well if they have been a while in the Church and will seek to stop the mouth of their Conscience with that at night for they could not at all keep quarter to speak so with their Conscience if they had not some form of Religion And therefore they will to speak so be brave
reflect on himself nor look after the testimony of Conscience Yet in intervals this may be win at and would be endeavoured It 's in this case some way as it 's in reference to that command anent praying alwayes or without ceasing though we cannot pray alwayes actually or continually without interruption nor are we obliged to do so yet we should be frequent in it and intermix all our actions with short ejaculations to God and alwayes keep our selves in a praying frame So though we cannot alwayes be actually putting Conscience to it yet frequently we should and more especially if we be about a duty that is more difficult and tickle and wherein we are very ready to go wrong and so to lay the ground of a challenge or wherein Gods honour is some what more then ordinarily concerned 3. It 's required here that we seriously endeavour to keep things right and be weeding out as it were what is wrong as we find Conscience hinting to us for the frame of our hearts as hath been said is very unstable and fickle we would therefore be often mending and righting it as a man doth with a Watch that is easily distempered he often looks to it and puts it right Or it is here as it is with a Pilot who steereth a Vessel that is very easily by a little wind put by her course he beareth up closs in the eye of the wind and when he finds her never so little off her course he steers about again till he set her right or to hold us at the former comparison of an Instrument to preserve which in tune it must not only be at first tempered to a just and harmonious sound and struck upon to give out that sound But when a man hath played a while upon it he must be tempering and tuning it among hands to say so screwing up this and that and the other Peg as the strings slack their benfil else it will not be kept in tune Even so while we are endeavouring to keep a good Conscience some one Peg or other so to speak will readily still be a-unfixing and we would study to bring things back to their right temper and watching that carnalness creep not in upon us The Use of the Doctrine in a word is partly to reprove for neglect of this walk partly to exhort to the diligent and tender practice of it even carefully to advert to Conscience and to endeavour to be in good terms with it in performing every action in eating drinking in bargaining buying selling in riding a journey in hearing praying c and not only to hear what Conscience hath to say but to walk so as Conscience may speak good to us and give us its approving testimony for helping us to keep this good correspondence with our Conscience in all our actions which hath so great a stroak upon a Christian walk upon a chearful and solacious Christian walk we would now add these following directions to those formerly given to the same purpose The 1. whereof is That in undertaking of actions or duties we would be very deliberat clear and fixed 2. We would study to walk soberly and composedly and to be alwayes in a good frame Rashness precipitancy hastiness inadvertency levity and untenderness are very cross to these two directions as is also parting with Conscience as it were in the way and not bringing it up with us 3. We would be much in ejaculatory Prayer frequenting Gods Throne much often darting up blinks unto him and into our own selves and our Consciences intermixing these 4ly We would be much in self examination This is in some respect the Life of a good Conscience for where there is not self examination or reflection we either are not right or else know not if we be right and no thanks to us if we be not wrong 5ly We would study to have an holy indignation at and a strick watch set against the very first risings of any thing that may in the least offend Conscience Alace We oft times observe not our own declinings and fallings from a good Frame nor the stirrings of some one Lust and Corruption or another which would be resisted in the beginning for the one of these weareth out the other 6ly As we would indeavour if we would have a good Testimony from our Conscience much singlenesse and sincerity in the whole of our walk and would in every duty indeavour to be setting our selves as in the sight of God and under his all seeing eye nothing more marreth the Testimony of Conscience then unsinglenesse and nothing contributs more to it then singlenesse It 's a good word that the Apostle hath 2 Cor. 2. v. last We are not as many which corrupt the word of God but as of sincerity as of God in the sight of God speak we in Christ Preaching is a good work yet there were many Preachers that had not a good Testimony from their Conscience in that good work but Paul had it and that which made him to to have it was his sincerity and singlenesse that he spoke as before God in the sight of God without a byasse or any allowed carnalness in his end if we could preach and pray and live and walk thus in all our Actions O! What sweet peace should we have living and dying and O! what skaith and prejudice doth our inadvertancy rashness and carnal walking work to us and how much doth it deprive us of the benefit of this Friend in the time of our need God help us to amend it SERMON I. 2 COR. 1. 12. For our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world and more abundantly to you-wards IT is no great bussiness but a very ordinary thing for a man to be chearful when he is in prosperity and hath all things in the World smiling on him though often even in the midst of that laughter the heart is sorrowful and there is an emptinesse and utter insufficiency in all these things to make the heart truly glad but this is a great matter a very rare thing and to be found but with very few viz. In the midst of afflictions reproaches tribulations and persecutions to be cheerful and rejoycing and as it is Isa. 24. 15. to be glorisying God in the midst of the fires This is Pauls practice and exercise here who being as the words before hold forth brought so near death that he even dispared of life who having to do with Professors and Preachers of the Gospel that made it their bussines to defame his Person and to depretiat and disparage his Ministry Who being riviled buffeted persecuted and counted as the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things who being alwayes delivered unto death and made a gazing stock to the world to angels to men and being moreover put to wrestle not only