of God yet that zeale is a passion still one of those which Aristotle hath defined in his Rhetoricks being not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} according to knowledge or conscience Rom. 10. 2. for the Hebrew word as I told you is rendred by those two words promiscuously {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} knowledge and conscience Or 23 Fourthly diabolicall suggestion or infusion it may be an enthusiasm of that black spirit as it is or of some thing as bad in effect infallibly whensoever Rebellion Sedition Murther Rapine Hatred Envy Vncharitablenesse Lying Swearing Sacriledge c. come to us under the disguise of Religion and Conscience and therefore the Spirits must be searcht whether they be of God or of the Devill and no surer way to doe it then by these and the like Symptomes these fruits and productions of that infernall Spirit which so perfectly represent and owne their parent that none but blind or mad men or daemoniacks can beleeve them in earnest to come from God Or 24 Fiftly False doctrine it may be and that againe set off either by the authority of the teacher or by the dignity of some eminent followers and practicers of it and then the Apostle calls it having mens persons in admiration or by the earlinesse of its representation being imbibed and taken in first swallowed and digested before the truth was offered to us and then it is prejudice or prepossession and this again alwayes assisted by the force of that old axiom Intus existens c. and by that which is naturall to all habits to be hardly moveable and yet further improved sometimes by pride and obstinacy alwayes by selfe-love which makes us think our own opinions i. e. which we are already possest of the truest which in this case is in effect to think our luck the best luck and the same which was observed in one worst sort of Heathens who whatsoever they saw first in the morning worshipt that all the day after a choosing of perswasions as country men choose Valentines that which they chance to meet with first after their coming abroad 25 Besides these many other things it may be and so 1. It is oddes enough that it will not be conscience which pretends to be so and 2. It is certainly not conscience unlesse it produce some law for its rule to direct us by And this was the Negative or first thing 26 The second or the Positive thing which followes from the premises is this that Conscience of duty in any particular action is to be ruled by that law which is proper to that action as for example The Christian law is the rule of Conscience for Christian actions the law of reason or morall saw for morall the law nationall municipall or locall for civill the naturall law of all creatures for naturall actions and the law of scandall a branch of the Christian law for matters of scandall and the law of liberty for indifferent free actions And as it is very irregular and unreasonable to measure any action by a rule that belongs not to it to try the exactnesse of the circle by the square which would be done by the compasse and in like manner to judge the Christiannesse of an action by the law of naturall reason which can onely be judged by its conformity with the law of Christ superiour to that of nature So will there be no just pretence of conscience against any thing but where some one or more of these lawes are producible against it but on the other side even in the lowest sort of actions if they be regulated by the law proper to them and nothing done contrary to any superiour law even by this God shall be glorified 1 Cor. 10. 31. a kind of glory resulting to God from that readinesse of submission and subordination of every thing to its proper rule and law to which the great Creator hath subjected it and of all lawes to that supreme transcendent one the law of Christ And though some touches there are in the Scripture of each of these lawes some fibrae or strings of them discernibly there so farre that there is nothing almost under any of the heads forementioned but by the Scripture some generall account may be given of it and againe though that of Scripture be the supreame law of all and nothing authorizeable by any inferiour law which is contradicted or prohibited by that yet is not that of Scripture such a particular Code oâ— Pandect of all lawes as that every thing which is commanded by any other law should be found commanded there or be bound to prove its selfe justifiable from thence any further then that it is not there prohibited or thereby justly concluded to be unlawful 27 From whence by the way I conceive direction may be had and resolution of that difficult practicall probleme what a man may doe in case he be legally commanded by his lawfull superiour to doe what he may lawfully doe which yet he is perswaded he may not doe or doubteth whether he may or no For in this case if he be not able to produce some plaine prohibition from some superiour law as from that of Scripture he cannot be truly said to be perswaded in conscience which implyes knowledge of the unlawfulnesse of that thing nor consequently hath he any plea for disobedience to that lawfull command of his Superiours All that may be said is that he may from some obscure place misunderstood have cause or occasion to doubt whether he may doe it or no and then although doubting simply taken i. e. where no command interposes may keep me from doing what I doubt yet it ought not to be of that weight as to keep me from my lawfull Superiours lawfull command because that very command is a sufficient ground to supersede my doubting when I have no plaine prohibition of Scripture to the contrary which in this case I am supposed not to have for if I had Then first it were not a lawfull command and secondly I should not doubt but be assured it being my duty and part of my Christian meeknesse in doubtfull matters to take my resolution from those whom God hath placed over me and it being the sinne of dogmatizing to affirme any thing for me or others to doe which some law of God c. still in force doth not prohibit which sin being added to that other of disobedience to my lawfull Superiours will sâ—re never be able to make that commence virtue which was before so far from any pretentions to that title 28 Having proceeded thus far in the search of the ground of Conscience 't were now time to reduce this operation to practice and shew you first What directions Conscience is able to afford from every of those lawes for the ruling of all actions of that kind and secondly What an harmony and conspiration there is betwixt all these
lawes one mutually ayding and assisting the other and not violating or destroying But this were the largest undertaking that could be pitcht on in the whole circle of learning Aerodius's Pandectae rerum ab omni aevâ— judicaturum and all the Schoolmens and Casuists volumes de legibus de jure justitia and on the Decalogue would be but imperfect parts of this I shall give you but one taste or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of it by which the Reader will be perswaded to spare me or rather himselfe that trouble 29 The prime of these the Christian law is the rule of all actions that come within that spheare sets downe the nature of all Christian duties of piety and love of our brethren in generall and more particularly of Faith Hope Charity Repentance selfe-denyall taking up the crosse c. of humility meeknesse mercifulnesse peaceablenesse obedience to superiours patience contentednesse and the like and the relation of a Christian being a grand transcendent relation there is no action imaginable but may either in respect of the matter or motive or principle or circumstances offend against one of these and then malum ex qualibet defectu the least of these defects blemisheth it and so conscience directed by that rule or law will direct me either to doe it or not to doe it in that manner and then t is not any complyance with or agreeablenesse to any or all other lawes which will make this action Christian which hath any such notable defect or blemish in it Not to pursue this any farther having thus named it and shewed you the vastnesse of the sea it leads to it will suffice to our present designe to tell you that from what is said these 3 corollaries to omit many others will be deducible 30 1. That it is not possible for Conscience be it never so strongly perswaded to make any action lawfull which is not regulated by those rules or lawes which are proper to it and reconcileable with the grand rule the Christian law Conscience can never transforme profanenesse into piety sacriledge into justice or holinesse rebellion into obedience faction into humility perjury or taking of unlawful oathes into religion rapine into contentednesse inhumanity into mercifulnesse adultery fornication divorces save in case of adultery or any uncleannesse into purity labouring to shake a Kingdome to remove the crosse from my owne shoulders to another mans into taking up of the Crosse but contrariwise if it be truly and univocally Conscience of duty it will tel me that every one of these foule titles belongs to every such action the Scripture being so cleare in these particulars that there is no place or excuse for ignorance or mistake and by setting before me the terrors of the Lord perswade me not to venture on any one such action upon any termes or if I have ventured it will smite and wound me for it and drive me to timely repentance or if it doe not t is either a cauterized insensate conscience a reprobate mind or else some of these Images which even now I mentioned mistaken for Conscience or if it be a full perswasion of minde that what I thus am about I am obliged to doe if that be a possible thing in such matters and under so much light t is then in the calmest style an erroneous Conscience which is so far from excusing me unlesse in case of ignorance truly invincible which here is not imaginable that it brings upon me the most unparalleld infelicity in the world an obligation to sinne which way soever I turne my selfe on one side appearing and lying at my doore the guilt of committing that sinne which I have so mistaken and on the other the guilt of omitting that though sinne which my Conscience represented to me as duty and nothing but repentance and reformation of judgement first and then of practice will be able to retrive the one or the other 31 The second corollary will be this That it is the most unreasonable insolence in the world for them that can swallow such Camell-sins as these without any regrets nay with full approbation and direction perhaps of conscience it that may be called Conscience which is so divided from and contrary to knowledge yet to scruple and interpose doubts most tremblingly and most conscientiously in matters of indifferency not so much as pretended to be against the word of God and so within the law of christian liberty that they may be done if he will and yet over and above their naturall indifferency commanded by that authority in subjection to which the christian vertue of obedience consists and all this either first upon no ground of conscience at all but only that it is contrary to their Phansy their Humour their Prepossessions or Secondly because it is a restraint upon their christian liberty which yet Christ never forbid to be restrained quoad exercitium as farre as belongs to the exercise of it but hath permitted sometime the care of not offending the weak brother i. e. Charity and sometime Obedience to lawfull superiours to restreine it for if in things indifferent they may not restreine there can no obedience be payed to them or Thirdly because they are offensive though not to them yet to others who are perswaded they are unlawfull Whereas I that perswasion of those others is erroneous and not sufficient to justifie disobedience in themselves much lesse in other men in case of lawfull humane command And 2 that their censuring of such indifferent actions i. e. being angry without a cause may bee greater matter of scandall and so more offensive to others and more probable to work upon them to bring them by that example to be so argry also then the doing that indifferent action mistaken by others and condemned for unlawfull would be to bring them to transcribe that reprobated samplar i. e. to doe what they thus condemne all men being farre more apt and inclinable to break out into passions then into acts against conscience and so more likely to be scandalized or offended or insnared by following the former then the latter example to sinne for company or after another man by censuring whom he censures which is being angry without a cause then by doing what they are advised and resolved they ought not to do which is sinning against conscience Or fourthly because they are against their conscience to doe whilst yet they produce no law of God or man against them and so in effect confesse there is nothing in them against conscience unlesse as before was noted they wilfully aequivocate in the word Conscience which will and skill of theirs as it will not make any thing unlawfull which before was indifferent so will it not conclude ought save only this that they which are so artificious to impose on others and forme scruples where there were none would not be thought the likeliest men to swallow grosse sinnes under the disguise of vertues or if
of the Acts 14 In the second place the accusing or condemning conscience is often mentioned also John 8. 9. Convicted by their conscience or reproved some for one sinne some for another So by intimation Heb. 9. 9. where t is said of the Legall sacrifices that they could not make perfect as pertaining to Conscience where the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} rendred to make perfect signifies in the sacred idiom to consecrate to make a priest whose office being {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to draw neare to God proportionably {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to perfect or consecrate as pertaining to conscience signifies to give accesse with boldnesse to God by taking off that guilt which formerly lay upon their conscience the same that v. 14. is called to purge the conscience from dead works to wash off that guilt of sin past which hinders their approach to God obstructs all entrance to their prayers for we know that God heareth not sinners Joh. 9. 31. and Is 1. 15. whereupon t is observable that Heb. 13. 18. when he bespeaks their prayers for him he adds this reason to encourage them to doe so For we trust we have a good conscience that good conscience being necessary there to have other mens prayers heard for them as here to give themselves accesse to God in prayer So Heb. 10. 2. Conscience or conscienciousnes of sins and v. 22. Evill conscience and so wisd. 17. 11. there is mention of wickednesse condemned by her own witnes and prest by conscience 15 And of the last sort in the latitude common to both are Rom. 2. 15. Rom. 9. 1. 2 Cor. 4. 2. and 5. 11. and 1 Tim. 4. 2. all cleare enough without the help of our paraphrase to adde light to them 16 Having thus marshalled all these places of Scripture into ranks and given some hints of generall insight into them it now remaines that we return a while to the neerer survey of the two generall heads and first of the former acception of the word as it imports a monitor or director of life by which our actions must be regulated and from the mistaking of which the chiefe inconvenience doth arise 17 To which end it will be absolutely necessary to settle and resolve but one question what is that rule or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of Conscience from whence it must receive its regulation For he that draweth a line of direction for another must have a rule to draw it by and that a straight exact one or else the directions will not be authentique and they which walke {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} exactly or conscientiously must {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} walk by rule Phil. 3. 16. and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} have their eye or thought alway upon that one thing their rule of direction or else be they never such {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in the beginning of that verse such forward proficients their end may be perdition v. 19. This when once we have done the difficulty will soone vanish And to this purpose I shall take that for granted which in thesi I never heard any doubt of 18 though many of our actions look otherwise in hypothest that law is this onely rule {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} rule and law being words of the same importance and nothing fit or proper to regulate our actions but that which the law giver to whom obedience must be payed hath thought fit to rule them by To which purpose it is ordinarily observed that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Sin or aberration from that rule by which we ought to walke for so that word naturally signifies is by Saint John 1 Epist. 3. 4. defined {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which we render a trangression of the law In which place of Saint John though the truth is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} denoting more then the bare commission of sinne in that Author generally viz. the wilfull perpetration of it and an indulgence in and habit of so doing the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} must proportionably also signifie not onely transgressing but wilfull habituall contemning the Law being an exlex or without law as the Idolatrous Atheist is said to be without God in the world i. e. without any account or respect of it and so {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Joh. 31. 3. notes the greatest degree of sinfulnesse we render it workers of iniquity and so very frequently in the Septuagint we finde {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} where we render the Hebrew by mischiefe yet still the observation stands good that law is the rule in aberration from which all sinne consists and so {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in both senses the least degree of sinne a deviation from the law and a malicious contentious sinning a malitious contemptuous deviation or transgression and so Saint Paul hath also resolved it that where there is no law there is no transgression no {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Rom. 4. 15. no going awry when there is no rule proposed to goe by 19 This being so cleare in is selfe and yet through the mistakes yea and impieties of the world bâ—come so necessary to be thus farther cleared Two things there are which will hence inevitably follow the first Negative the second Positive The first or the Negative that Whatsoever undertakes to direct or guide our actions to tell us our duty that this we must that we may not doe and hath not some law in force and still obligatory to us to authorize those directions by is not Conscience whatsoever it is 20 First Humour it may be to think our selves bound to doe whatsoever we have a strong inclination to doe it being a matter of some difficulty to distinguish between my naturall and my spirituall inclinations the motion of my sensitive appetite and my diviner principle my lower and my upper soule and the former commonly crying louder and moving more lively and impatiently and earnestly then the other 21 Secondly Phansie it may be which is a kind of irrationall animall Conscience hath the same relation to sensitive representations those lawes in the members which Conscience hath to intellectuall those lawes of the mind and then as Aristotle saith that in those creatures which have not reason phansie supplyes the place of reason so they which have not or will not have conscience to direct them phansie most commonly gets into its place Or 22 Thirdly Passion it may be Our feares will advise us one thing our animosities another our zeale a third and though that be perhaps zeal
they doe so will have least right to that onely Antidote of invincible ignorance to digest them 32 The third corollary will be this that scrupulousnesse of conscience in some lighter lesse important matters if it may be supposed excusable as a weaknesse of an uninstructed mind joyned with that good symptome of tendernesse of quick sense yet can never hope to be accepted by God by way of commutation or expiation for grosser sinnes so that he that falls foulely in any confessed sinne should fare the better at the great day of account or be in lesse danger of being cast out of Gods favour for the present because he is over-scrupulous in other things For sure this were a strange way of supererogation to pay one arreare to God by running into another with him to discharge a debt by owing more And yet this is an errour which may seem worth the paines of preventing it being so notoriously seen that some men which professe to have care of their wayes and must in charity be beleeved to have so goe on confidently in greivous sins which they cannot but know will damne without repentance the sentence of not inheriting the Kingdome of God Gal. 5. being so distinct and punctuall and absolute and indispensable against them and yet have no Antidote to relye on for the averting that danger but onely this of their exactnesse and scrupulousnesse in things indifferent which if they shall say they doe not confide in they are then obliged in conscience and charity to their brethren who may follow them to this precipice either to give over hoping or to set to purifying without which there is no true ground of hope This hint puts me in mind that there is another part of my design still behind belonging to the second notion of conscience to examine 33 What it is that is required to entitle a man to a good conscience which will briefly be stated by premising what before was mentioned that the good conscience belongs either to particular single performances or to the whole state of life and actions To the first there is no more required but that that particular action be both for matter and circumstance regulated by the rule or rules which are proper to it and have nothing contrary to any superiour transcendent rule As that my meale be with sobriety and thanksgiving my almes with chearfulnesse liberality discretion done in gratitude and obedience to God and mercifulnesse to my brother without reflexion on my own gaine or praise in this world But for the Good Conscience which belongs to the whole state of life and actions which is called a good Conscience in all things Heb. 13. 18. or a good Conscience consisting in having a good conversation in all things for so the punctation in the Greek will direct rather to render it we have a good conscience willing to live well or have an honest conversation in all things there the difficulty will be greater And yet two Texts there are which tend much to the clearing and disinvolving of that one 1 Pet. 3. 16. where {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Good Conscience in the beginning of the verse is explained in the close by {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a good conversation in Christ or a good christian conversation or such as now through Christ by the purport of the second covenant may and shall be accepted for good Where the word conversation denoting first the actions and behaviour both toward God and man and secondly the whole course and frame of those actions wherein it seems a good conscience consists I cannot better be explained then either by the Apostles {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an accurate exact walking Eph. 1. 15. or the phrase to Titus c. 2. 12. living soberly and righteously and godly in this present world the first respecting our duty to our selves or actions as private men the second our duty to our brethren in our more publique capacities the third our duty to God as creatures men and Christians or Saint Lukes character of Zachary and Elizabeth Luk. 1. 6. Walking in all the Commandements and Ordinances of the Lord blamelesse Walking Blamelesse In all Universall sincere obedience not entire or perfect without ever sinning but considered with the rules of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or moderation of strict law which is now part of the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Gospel-law by which a Christian is to be nyed as equity is a part of the municipall law of this land Such is mercy for frailties and infirmities and grosser lapses recovered and retracted by repentance now under the Gospel so as to be acceptable to God in Christ which was intimated as in the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in Christ 1 Pet. 3. so in the former part of that verse and their character {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} righteous before God Which phrase Before God hath a double intimation worth observing in this place first of the perseverance or perpetuity of that righteousnesse as opposed to the temporary of the hypocrite for the phrase {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} before him refers to the shew bread of old Exod. 25. 30. which was to be set before God alway and therefore is sometime called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the bread of faces or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} bread before his face literally {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} before him and sometimes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} perpetuall bread and secondly of the acceptation or reception in the sight of God for that againe was the end of setting the bread alwayes before God that God looking on it might accept them and so righteousnesse before God is such righteousnesse as God will please in the Gospel to accept of as when visiting the fatherlesse c. Jac. 1. 27. is called religion pure and undefiled before God the Father it noteth such a degree of unblemisht purity not as excluded all sinne but as God in Christ would or hath promised to accept of And the same phrase therefore is in another place of the same Chapter Luk. 1. 75. rendred by our Church in the Gospel for Midsummer day by these words such as may be acceptable for him 34 Which being all taken into the description of a good conscience that it is such a continued good conversation as God now under the Gospel promiseth to accept of the onely difficulty behind will be what that is which God promiseth to accept of To which end it will be very instrumentall to take in that other place which I promised and that is that forementioned Heb. 13. 18. where the Good Conscience is evidenced or the ground of confidence that he hath a good conscience demonstrated by this {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} willing or resolving or