them only leaving the inside of them full of all filthiness and nastiness Thus do ye Pharisees wash your Bodies whilst your Souls and Spirits remain full of all Uncleanness of Malice and Wickedness If you would obey and please God you must cleanse that which is within as well as that which is without then he adds the Words of my Text But rather give Alms of such things as you have and behold all things are clean unto you There are several Meanings given of these Words by Interpreters with which I shall not now trouble you but only propound that which I shall choose to insist upon It is very ordinary in Scripture to express the whole of our Duty or Religion by some one part or eminent Instance of it as very frequently by Charity so here by one principal part of Charity giving of Alms. So that the Sense ought not to be restrained to this single duty of Alms-giving to the exclusion of the rest but all other Duties that are of the same weight and necessity are here understood as well as that one which is mentioned And then the Sense is this Mind chiefly the great and moral and substantial parts of Gods Laws study those Duties that are of eternal and indispensable Obligation be most zealous and sollicitous for the matters of Piety Righteousness and Charity and behold all things are clean unto you that is ye need not then be so anxious or concerned about these little things nor so strictly tye up your selves to such Formalities and external Rites If you be but seriously diligent about your main and undoubted Duty you will be more indifferent about Meats and Drinks nor will you lay so great a stress upon any Singularities or Affectations in Religion Be but exactly careful to avoid every thing which God hath forbid to do every thing which he hath expresly commanded and then trouble not your Consciences about eating with unwashen hands Thus as Grotius upon these Words observeth they signifie the same with what St. Paul saith Titus 1. 15. Vnto the pure all things are pure They who keep themselves unspotted from all sinful Pollutions who strictly abstain from unlawful Freedoms may with a safe Conscience use any unlawful Liberty and eat any kind of meats with washen or unwashen hands In short the sense of the Words seemeth to be this Mind your plain and necessary Duty and trouble not your selves with Scruples about little and indifferent things Whence I shall take occasion to discourse of what is usually called a scrupulous Conscience which I have chosen to do not out of a design to expose or upbraid the weakness of any but rather charitably to contribute what I can towards the healing and curing of it and this I take for granted That we cannot do greater Service either to the Church of Christ or Souls of Men than by all prudent means to root out those needless scruples out of their minds which hath been the occasion of such unchristian Separations and dangerous Divisions amongst us at first begun and still maintained generally upon the account of such things as I verily believe a well instructed Conscience need not be concerned or disturbed about I shall first shew you what I understand by a scrupulous Conscience then observe some few things concerning it and lastly offer some plain Rules and Means by which we may best get rid of it First What is a scrupulous Conscience Now Conscience as it is a Rule of our Actions is nothing else but a Man's Mind or Judgment concerning the moral Goodness or Evil Lawfulness or Unlawfulness of things and as this Judgment is either true or false so is our Conscience either good and well grounded or erroneous The Divine Law made known to us either by the Light of Nature or plain Scripture or direct consequence from it such as any honest man may understand is the rule of Conscience or of that Judgment we make of the Lawfulness or Unlawfulness of things So that our Conscience is a safe Rule and Guide of our Actions no farther than as it self is directed and warranted by the Law of God 1. A good and well grounded Conscience is when we carefully abstain from whatever God hath forbidden don't neglect doing any thing which he hath commanded and as for other matters left indifferent and at Liberty we do them or forbear doing of them according as the Rules of obedience to Superiours Prudence and Charity do require This is the Health and sound State of the Mind 2. An erroneous Conscience is when we judge that to be evil or unnecessary which God hath expresly commanded and is our Duty or that to be good and necessary which he hath plainly forbid and is really sinful Now our Consciences cannot alter the nature of things that which is our Duty remaineth so and we sin by omitting it notwithstanding we in our Consciences think it unlawful to be done and what is really Evil continueth such and is Sin in us however our Consciences tell us it is our duty to do it and the fault is more or less compassionable and pardonable as the causes of the Error are more or less voluntary and avoidable This is a grievous Disease and deadly Sickness of the Mind when we thus grossly err in our Judgments and act according to our mistaken Opinion of things 3. A scrupulous Conscience is conversant about things in their own Nature indifferent and it consists Either in strictly tying up our selves to some things which God hath no where commanded as the Pharisees made great Conscience of washing before they did eat and abundance of other unnecessary Rites and Usages they had of Mens own inventing and devising which they as religiously nay more carefully observed than the indisputable Commands of God himself Or in a conscientious abstaining from some things which are not forbid nor any ways unlawful Touch not taste not handle not doubting and fearing where no fear is thinking that they should as much offend God by eating some kind of Meats wearing some Garments as they should do were they guilty of Murder and Adultery Which is the case of many amongst us who by such Scrupulosity about little matters seem more precise and austere than other good and honest Christians are or themselves need or ought to be For be it from me by any thing I shall now say to discourage the greatest and tenderest care any Christian can take to keep himself from all Sin from all Occasions and Temptations to it from the least appearance of Evil of what is really such and to do any thing that is in it self sinful out of confidence that it is lawful is far worse and a more grievous offence than to abstain from many things which are truly lawful out of an Opinion that they are sinful Notwithstanding this I cannot but reckon it the chief Policy of the Devil the grand Enemy of all that is good when he cannot persuade us that there is
A DISCOURSE ABOUT A Scrupulous Conscience PREACHED At the Parish-Church of St. Mary Aldermanbury London By Benjamin Calamy D. D. One of His Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary Consider this 't is the Judgment of some that thousands are gone to Hell and ten thousands upon their march thither that in all probability had never come there if they had not been tempted from the Parish Churches for the enjoyment of Communion in a purer Church Mr. Baxter's Ep. to separate Congr The Second Edition LONDON Printed for Rowland Reynolds next door to the Middle Exchange in the Strand MDCLXXXIII TO Sr. George Jeffryes Knight and Baronet Chief Justice of CHESTER SIR THough I could not easily perswade my self to expose this following Sermon to publick view yet after I was once resolved to venture it abroad I was soon determined to whom I ought to present it To your Interest and Favour I chiefly owe my being placed in this Parish to your Countenance my greatest Encouragement here and if it may gain your Acceptance and Approbation I shall but little value the uncertain Judgment of others Upon how many this plain homely Discourse may have good effect I cannot ghess how many it will anger and displease I am not at all concerned and tho I may be thought by some ill advis'd in publishing such a Sermon yet every one will commend and justifie my Discretion in prefixing your Name before it for so great an awe have the Enemies of our Church and Government of your Loyalty and Fidelity to both of your undaunted Zeal and Activity for the Service of both that they will not dare loudly to condemn what you are pleased to protect They will be justly afraid of quarrelling with me when they know I have engaged you on my side I am very sensible that in this Age we live some are so extraordinarily wise and wary as to censure and discourage all Men that speak roundly and act vigorously for the King and Church as being more forward and busie than is needful but I am also as sensible that if some Men had not shewn more Courage and Honesty than those prudent Persons both would have been by this time in far greater danger than at this present Thanks be to God they are For my own part no one is more favourable to a truly tender Conscience than my self let it be as nice and scrupulous as it can well be so it be about the substantial matters of Piety towards God Justice between Man and Man due Obedience to Superiours and when it makes us more exactly careful of our undoubted Duty in all Instances But when Men are scrupulous only on one side about things commanded by lawful Authority and make no Scruple of Disobedience Schism Faction and Division when Men set up their private Humour Fancy or Opinion in opposition to established Laws when they become peevish pragmatical and ungovernable nay when Mens Consciences prove so generally tender and scrupulous as to doubt of and suspect the Rights of the Crown for that Conscience that is so tender against the Church is also usually as tender against the King such wayward skittish Consciences ought to be well bridled and restrained or else they will be not only intolerably troublesome but extreamly mischievous both to Church and State That the Blessed Rewards of Vertue and Loyalty may plentifully descend upon your Self and all that belong to you both in this Life and that which is to come is the earnest Prayer of Honoured Sir Your most humble and most obliged Servant Benjamin Calamy St. LUKE 11. 41. But rather give Alms of such things as you have and behold all things are clean unto you THE occasion of these Words was this Whilst our Blessed Saviour was after his wonted manner instructing the People a certain Pharisee either in some measure pleased with his Discourse or else that he might catch an advantage against him besought him to dine with him Our Lord who refused no fair opportunity of doing good would not disdain to go to the Houses either of the greatest Sinners or his most deadly Enemies would converse familiarly with them and eat at their Tables that by such obliging condescension he might by degrees win them to the love and embracing of Divine truth He was the great Physician of Souls and went about continually visiting his Patients all those whose Minds stood in need of his help or cure He consulted their Benefit more than his own Safety or Reputation He would keep company with Publicanes and Sinners in order to the reforming of them tho he himself for doing so should be thought one of them and he frankly accepted the invitation of Pharises tho he knew they lay in wait for him and design'd only to intrap him He went in therefore with the Pharisee into his House and without any of those previous Washings and Purifications which the Jews religiously used before eating he sat down to meat This the strict Pharisee thought a great Prophaneness and Wickedness in his Guest He wondred that so great a Prophet and Preacher of Righteousness as our Saviour pretended to be should so scandalously violate the Traditions of the Elders verse 38. And when the Pharisee saw it he marvelled that he had not first washed before Dinner for as St. Mark tells us upon a like occasion Mark 7. 3. The Pharisees and all the Jews except they wash their hands eat not holding the Tradition of the Elders And when they come from the Market except they wash they eat not And many other things there be which they have received to hold as the washing of Cups and of Pots and of brasen Vessels and of Tables Things not ordained by God nor any part of Moses's Laws but the rules and prescriptions of their Rabbies or Scribes observed at least by the strictest part of the Jews out of an Opinion that true purity of mind was to be obtain'd and preserved by such frequent washings For of such necessity did they think these outward Purgations to be that it was a determined case amongst them that if any one in great distress had Water sufficient for washing but not enough to wash and drink too he ought rather to perish by Thirst than neglect to wash himself and it was commonly said amongst them that to eat with unwashen hands was a greater Pollution than to defile ones Body with an Harlot Now this our Saviour with great zeal reproves in the Pharisees in the Verses before my Text Now do ye Pharisees make clean the out-side of the Cup and Platter but your inward part is full of ravening and Wickedness Ye Fools did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also That is to say that which God regards is the purity of your Minds the cleansing your Hearts from all evil affections and filthy lusts and all your outward washings without this internal purity are but as if a man should wash his Vessels the out-side of
uncharitable to say That it is not dread of displeasing God but some other bye end or interest that acts and moves such a Person and in pleading the Tenderness of his Conscience he is no other than a downright Hypocrite On the other side Let a Man be never so punctual and critical in his Conformity to all the appointed Ceremonies and Usages in our Church let him constantly attend Gods solemn Worship and behave himself most reverently and decently at the Publick Prayers yet if this Man be prophane and intemperate a Derider of true Piety and Godliness if he lives loosly and at Random all his regular Devotions all his bowing and kneeling to the Honour of our Saviour all his niceness about his Worship to perform it in the most orderly manner all his Zeal for the Church shall avail him nothing He is no better than the Pharisee washing the out-side whilst he is within full of all Wickedness and Uncleanness To be so concerned about little things whilst we make no Conscience of the greater is the most evident sign that can be given of a false Christian And hath it not often hapned in the World that such a mighty Scrupulosity about our Duty hath proved a very successful way of growing great or raising an Estate by giving Men so fair an opportunity of imposing upon the credulous and unwary So that I have known it advised as an useful caution to those that would live in the World always to stand upon your Guard and look to your Pockets when you deal with those who pretend to greater Tenderness and Exactness than other undoubtedly sober and honest Christians generally do 3. Where Persons are truly honest and mean well there is nothing more troublesom and vexatious than such unreasonable Scruples about things lawful This must needs be an intolerable disturbance to a Man's Mind and breed great Anxiety and Inquietude when Persons are continually shivering and trembling lest by every thing they do they incur the Divine Displeasure and it certainly disables a man from performing his necessary Duty He is likely to make but a slow Progress in his Journey who instead of going on cheerfully in his way is frequently at a stand doubting which Foot he should set forward or what particular Path he should choose This robs men in a great measure of that Peace and Satisfaction which they might otherwise find in Religion whilst they are daily perplexing themselves with untying Knots which themselves only have fastned Scruples about things indifferent when once we attend to and entertain them like the Plague of Flies amongst the Egyptians will be constantly buzzing in our Ears and tormenting us with their Impertinency till at length we come to distrust every thing and there is nothing that belongs to ordinary civility no recreation we can use no cloaths we can wear no discourse we can hold with others no conversation we can maintain or business which we transact in the World but we shall raise some trifling Objections or Scruples about it which will make our Condition continually uneasie and restless For 4. These Scruples are infinite and endless for being grounded upon some very little and inconsiderable Reason there is hardly any thing to be done but some small Exceptions may be started against it which may soon puzzle and confound the more ignorant sort of Christians Thus he that scruples a Minister's officiating in a white Garment may easily be brought to doubt of the fitness of his doing it in black and then he proceeds against any solemn distinct Habit and at last against the Office of Ministers it self and tells you all Gods People are holy and that all Christians are a Royal Priest-hood and we have no need of Teachers for we are all taught of God From scrupling the Sign of the Cross after Baptism Men have soon come to question Infant Baptism it self they have at first perchance disliked only some significant Ceremonies in God's Worship of Humane appointment but thence they have gone on to deny all outward bodily Reverence and thought it not expedient to pull off their Hats in Church then not to do it before Magistrates at last not at all and thus by giving place to such little Scruples they become afraid of speaking looking or doing any thing like other Men. This is notorious amongst us Those who have taken Offence at some things in our Church and have thereupon separated from us and associated themselves with a purer Congregation have soon disliked something amongst them also and then they would reform themselves farther and after that refine themselves more still till at last they have sunk down either into Quakerism Popery or Atheism This doth not only now and then happen in the World but is the probable effect of embracing and cherishing such Scruples that men go on scrupling one thing after another till at length they doubt of every thing 5. Lastly This needless scrupling of lawful things hath done unspeakable Mischief to the Church of Christ especially to the Reformed Church of England a Church reformed according to the most Primitive and Apostolical Pattern by the best and wisest Rules in which even by the confession of the soberest and most considerable of our Dissenters nothing is required as a condition of Communion that is sinful yet how is she rent and torn mangled and divided how hath she been assaulted undermined and in danger to be the second time overthrown upon the account only of Habits and Gestures and particular Forms Rites and Modes of Discipline and Worship with which some Men are not well satisfied or pleased which they judge might be better done and ordered another way or which they rather would have left at liberty that every Man may do therein according to his own Discretion or Opinion In the great and necessary Truths of Religion we all profess to be agreed We all worship the same God believe in the same Lord and Saviour have the same Baptism the same Faith the same Hope the same common Interest our Sacraments as to the main are rightly administred according to our Saviours Institution our Churches are acknowledged to be true Churches of Jesus Christ but there are some Constitutions which respect chiefly outward Order and the decent performance of Divine Worship against which men have received strange Prejudices on the account of them have raised a mighty noise and clamour against the Church and have openly separated from its Communion as if by renouncing of Popery we had only exchanged one idolatrous Service for another About these skirts and borders the dress and circumstances of Religion hath been all our quarrelling and contention and these Differences have proceeded to such an height as to beget immortal Feuds and Animosities to break and crumble us into little Parties and Fractions whereby mutual Edification his hindred our common Religion suffers Reproach the Enemies of it are strengthned and encouraged publick Peace endangered and brotherly Love the Badge of
Separation from them necessary and so consequently justifiable whereas the things objected against in our Church are at worst only doubtful and suspicious or rather not so good and expedient as might be devised and this surely makes a wide difference in the case But doth not St. Paul say Rom. 14. 19. I know and am perswaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of it self but to him that esteemeth any thing unclean it is unclean Doth not he expresly tell us That whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin that is Whatever we do without a full Persuasion of the lawfulness of it tho it be not so in it self yet is a Sin in him that doth it against his Conscience And doth not the Apostle say He that doubteth is damned if he eat before he is convinced that it may be done I desire here therefore only to be rightly understood and then these things are soon reconciled 1. When I speak of a Scrupulous Conscience I suppose the Person tolerably well perswaded of the lawfulness of what is to be done but yet he doth not like or approve of it he hath some little Reasons and Exceptions against it it is not the best and fittest all things considered This is properly a Scruple and is certainly the case of all those who do sometimes to save themselves from the severity of the Laws joyn in our Worship and communicate with us which we presume they would never do did they judge it absolutely sinful and forbidden by God So that though it should be granted that a man cannot innocently do that of which his Conscience doubts whether it be lawfull or not yet a Man may and in some cases is bound to do that which is not unlawful though upon some other Accounts he scruples the doing of it 2. If the Question be about things wherein we are left wholly to our selves and at liberty having no very weighty Reason for the doing of them then it may be the safest way to forbear all such things we scruple at Of such cases the Apostle speaks in the fore-mentioned Places of eating or not eating some Meats neither of them was required by any law Eating was no instance of Duty or was it any ways forbid where to do or not to do is perfectly at our own choice it is best for a Man to forbear doing that of which he hath some suspicion tho he be not sure that it is sinful As suppose a man have Scruples in his Mind about playing at Cards and Dice or going to see Stage-Plays or puting out his Money to Usury because there is no great Reason or Necessity for any of these things and to be sure they may be innocently forborn without any Detriment to our selves or others though we do not judge them absolutely sinful yet it is safest for him who cannot satisfie himielf concerning the Goodness and Fitness of them wholly to deny himself the use of them But in these two cases it is most for the quiet of our Consciences to act against or notwithstanding our Fears and Scruples when either our Superiours to whom we owe Obedience have interposed their Commands or when by it we prevent some great Evil or Mischief 1. When our Superiours other Civil or Ecclesiastical whom by the Will of God we are bound to obey in all lawful things have interposed their Commands our Scruples will not excuse or justifie our Disobedience If indeed we judge what is commanded to be absolutely unlawful tho it be a false erroneous Judgment yet whilst we are under such persuasion we are by no means to do it upon any Inducement whatever If I only doubt of the lawfulness of any particular Action and it be an instance wherein I am at liberty I am still bound not to do it For Whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin I am certainly innocent when I forbear I may commit a Sin if I do it Wisdom would therefore that the safer part be chosen But now if I am by the command of my Superiours obliged to it my choice is then determined it then becomes my Duty and it can never be safe or advisable to neglect a plain Duty for an uncertain Offence Thus most and best Casuists do determine about a doubtful Conscience particularly the forenamed reverend Bishop in the same Sermon Whatsoever is commanded us by those whom God hath set over us either in Church Commonwealth or Family quod tamen non sit certum displicere Deo saith St. Bernard which is not evidently contrary to the Law and Will of God ought to be of us received and obeyed no otherwise than as if God himself had commanded it because God himself hath commanded us to obey the Higher Powers and to submit our selves to their Ordinances But now this is more plain concerning Fears and Scruples only about the conveniency and expediency of things these ought all to be despised when they come in Competition with the Duty of Obedience Would men but think themselves in Conscience bound to pay the same Duty and respect to the Judgment and Authority of Magistrates and Governours whether in Church or State as they do expect their Servants and Children should to themselves they would soon see the reasonableness of such submission For all Government and Subjection would be very precarious and arbitrary if every one that did not approve of a Law or was not fully satisfied about the reasonableness of it was thereby exempted from all Obligations to obey it This is to give the Supreme Authority to the most humoursom or perverse sort of Christians for according to this principle no publick Laws and Constitutions can be valid and binding unless every scrupulous tho a very ignorant Conscience consent to them 2. We are not to mind or stand upon our Scruples when they probably occasion a great evil a general mischief They are not fit to be put in the balance with the Peace of the Church and Unity of Christians Suppose for once that our publick way of Worship is not the best that can be divised that many things might be amended in our Liturgy that we could invent a more agreeable Establishment than this present is which yet no man in the World can ever tell for we cannot know all the inconveniences of any Alteration till it comes to be tryed yet granting all this it cannot be thought so intolerable an Evil as contempt of Gods Solemn Worship dividing into Sects and Parties living in Debate Contention and Separation from one another If there be some Rites and Customs amongst us not wisely chosen or determined some Ceremonies against which just Exceptions may be made yet to forsake the Communion of such a true Church of Jesus Christ and set up a distinct Altar in opposition to it to combine and associate into separate Congregations is as it is somewhere expressed like knocking a man on the head because his Teeth are rotten or his Nails too long How much more