Sentence that he quoted out of a Psalm of David 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that written Word They say they call the Scripture what it calleth it self to wit a Treatise for which they quote Acts 1. 1. the former Treatise but had they understood or consulted the Greek they would have found it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the former Word whereby he understands the whole Book of the Gospel according to St. Luke Now as to the distinction betwixt a good and evil Conscience of which also the Scripture speaks 1. An evil Conscience is an ignorant Conscience 2. Unfaithfulness and Disobedince to what a Man is convinced of renders the Conscience to be evil 3. Unbelief and want of Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ makes the Conscience evil 4. Not to follow the dictates of Conscience even when it errs is an evidence of an evil Conscience Here that Axiom takes place Conscientia errans ligat sed non obligat an erring Conscience ties but doth not oblige it is a great pinch and strait He 〈◊〉 follows not an erring Conscience sinneth because he acts not in Faith and what is not of faith is sin and when he followeth his erring Conscience he sinneth This is no new Doctrine however possibly it may so seem to some here it is that which every Casuist doth commonly teach I will illustrate it to you by a Similitude that some have given If a Subject be deceived by a counterfeit Messenger from his Prince who brings a counterfeit Message from the King sealed with a counterfeit Seal and he thinks it to be real this Subject sufficiently shews his disrespect and disloyalty to his Prince if he refuse to obey it the application is easie If any object that as Contradictories cannot be both true or both false but the one true and the other false so if to follow an erring Conscience be a sin not to follow it is no sin being Contradictory But I answer they are not Contradictory for they are both affirmative Propositions He that followeth an erring Conscience sinneth this is affirmative He that followeth not an erring Conscience sinneth this is also affirmative But the way to get out of this pinch is to get a well-informed Conscience and to get rid of those Errours of Conscience which prejudice of Education by evil Teachers has led them into read the Holy Scriptures search meditate pray God to give you a good Understanding and let you see your Errours confer with such whom you have good cause to esteem both more holy and more wise and understanding than your selves To the third and last what the Rule of Conscience is according to which it must be directed and guided that so it may be denominated a good Conscience I answer We must distinguish betwixt an inadequate or incomplete Rule of Conscience and that which is adequate and complete The Law writ in the Heart of every Man is an incomplete Rule to a Man's Conscience obliging every Christian to obey it so that whosoever transgresseth against it is guilty of hainous sin and this Law extendeth in some degree to most of all yea in some sort to all the ten Precepts of the Moral Law but our highest Obedience to that Law and Rule cannot denominate the Conscience good or give true peace of Conscience or heal the wound of it that sin hath given for all have sinned and faln short of the Glory of God and whatsoever the Law saith it saith to them who are under the Law that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world become guilty before God The best of our Obedience cannot make atonement for our sins nay not for one sin not the least sin it is only the Lamb of God as he was slain for us that takes away our sins as we have faith in him his Blood cleanseth us 〈◊〉 all sin and the Merit and Value of it hath procured to us the Gift of the Holy Spirit to sanctifie us and therefore we owe both our Justification and Sanctification to the Lamb of God and to his most precious Blood for by our Justification we are cleansed from the guilt of sin and by our Sanctification from the filth of it And though Faith and Repentance are necessary conditions and qualifications to our obtaining Remission of sin Justification and eternal Salvation yet they are not in any wise the meritorious Cause thereof but Christ alone by what he hath done and suffered for us Holiness and our Obedience to God's Laws and Precepts both as writ without in the Holy Scriptures and as writ within in our Hearts is indispensibly necessary to our eternal Salvation but we must not rest nor rely upon it even when it is wrought in us by the help of the Holy Spirit it must not be the foundation or ground of our Faith and hope for remission of Sins and eternal Salvation either in whole or in part but our reliance must be alone on the Lord Jesus Christ both God and Man as he died for us c. and on the Mercy of God through him apprehended by Faith Now the knowledge of this in God's ordinary way is given to us and all who have it by the inward Illumination and Operation of the Holy Spirit in the use of the written Word as it is preached and heard by us or read and meditated upon We feeling the working of the Spirit of Christ to mortifie the works of the flesh and the earthly members and to draw up our mind to high and heavenly things as the 17th Article of the Church of England plainly expresseth The complete and adequate Rule therefore of our Faith and Practice is the whole revealed Will of God as it is declared unto us in the Holy Scriptures the Laws and Precepts whereof are of a far greater extent than those writ in every Man's heart without all Scripture Revelation or antecedent to it as David said I have seen an end of all perfection but thy Commandment is exceeding broad that is the whole complex or body of the Divine Laws given us by God and Christ as they are contained in the Holy Scriptures for Doctrine for Correction for Instruction c. It is therefore a great and dangerous Errour in them who hold as many do in these Nations that the Light within and what it dictates in every Man is the full and entire complete and perfect Rule of all Faith and Practice and nothing is absolutely needful to our Salvation but what that Light within teacheth us and all Mankind or will teach us if we hearken to it and obey it without all Scripture and all outward means of Instruction and yet the utmost extent that this Light within goeth to teach Men without Scripture and without the special Illumination and Operation of the Spirit accompanying the Scripture's Testimony is no more than the Righteousness of the Moral Law and Terms of the first Covenant Do and Live which Covenant we have all transgressed and therefore cannot be saved by the Terms of it But God in his great Mercy has given us a better Covenant the Covenant of Grace and
Peace in and through the Knowledge and Faith of Jesus Christ as he is the Word made Flesh or God incarnate the Terms of which are gentle and easie and full of Consolation God thereby declaring that he will pardon the Sins of all that sincerely repent and truly believe the Gospel of Christ and sincerely resolve and endeavour to keep his Commands and give to them eternal Life the which Terms God has graciously promised to help every one of us to perform by the Offer and Gift of his Holy Spirit as it accompanies the preaching of the Gospel But these new Terms of the Covenant of Grace the Light as it is an universal Principle in all Men by whatsoever Name they will call it or whatsoever Worth they will ascribe to it both Scripture and common Experience doth tell us doth not teach them He sheweth his Word unto Jacob his Statutes and his Judgments unto Israel He hath not dealt so with any Nation and as for his Judgments they have not known them Psal 147. 19 20. The Jews had this Advantage over the Heathen World that unto them were committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 2. the exceeding great and precious Promises 2 Pet. 1. 4. which the Heathen World to whom the Gospel was not preach'd had not and we have that Advantage now that the Jews then had But the Gentiles being without the Gospel are said to be without God and Christ in the World Ephes 2. 12. i. e. without an Interest in God and Christ and without Hope Aliens and Strangers to the Commonwealth of Israel The highest Acts of Obedience to any Light within us without the Gospel and without Faith in Christ crucified and rais'd again do not denominate us the Children of God nor prove us to have any just Title or Claim to the eternal Inheritance for whosoever are the Children of God they are so by Faith in Jesus Christ as the Scripture expresly declareth Gal. 3. 26. And the Gospel requireth that to obtain Salvation we must confess with our Mouths and believe with our Hearts that God hath raised Christ from the dead Rom. 10. 8 9. even him who died for our Sins who was delivered for our Offences and rose again for our Justification But the Light within as it is an universal Principle teacheth not Men these things these great Mysteries of our Salvation these lively Oracles these great and precious Promises nor these great Fundamentals of the Christian Religion such as the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity the Incarnation of the Word the perfect Atonement and Satisfaction that Christ hath made to the divine Justice and Law for our Sins by his bloody Passion and Death his Ascension and Exaltation and Mediation for us at the right hand of God in the glorified Nature of Man consisting of a glorified Soul and Body and that he is to be the Judge of the Quick and the Dead Also there are divers positive Laws and Precepts of the Gospel that the Light within as it is an universal Principle teacheth us nothing of The Knowledge and Faith of all these things are given us by the written Word preached and read outwardly and by the special Illumination of the Holy Spirit inwardly working in us a firm Persuasion and Faith of them giving us a savoury understanding and relish of them and great Joy and Consolation through hope by the Knowledge and Faith of them It proceeds from great Ignorance and Errour in many that they will not allow any real distinction betwixt the common Illumination given to all Mankind and the special Illumination given to Believers in the crucified Jesus Some will allow a distinction in degree but not in kind or specie but I say they differ in kind or specie though both come from one and the same Fountain the Father of Lights from whom all good Gifts flow both natural and spiritual and supernatural because they discover differing Objects i. e. differing Truths by way of Object that differ from these few Truths discovered by the common Illumination specifically or in kind for whatever Truth or Truths the common Illumination discovers to Heathens of the Being and Power and Providence of God as Creator and the Duty of Mankind to him as such the holy Scriptures without and the special Illumination of the holy Spirit within discovers far other and greater Mysteries of Truth in the inestimable Love of God by the Redemption of the World through Jesus Christ and the Duty that we owe to God and Christ thereby in the Belief of his Word and Promises the Obedience to his Commands and especially all and every of them given under the New Testament as that of Baptism and the Supper Obedience and Subjection to Christ's Government and Discipline he has established in his Church and to all whom he has set up to have the Rule over us in his House and Church But whereas they plead for the Sufficiency of the Light within and its Dictates without the means of Scripture and all outward teaching to qualifie Men to be Christians and Saints and Heirs of eternal Salvation from Jerem. 31. 33. where God promised to put his Law in the inward parts making the Law writ or put in the heart Jerem. 31. 33. to be the same and of the same extent and the same manner of heart and manner of writing with that in Rom. 2. 15. This is a miserable Mistake and a very gross and mischievous Errour That in Jerem. 31. 33. respects the People and Church of God but that in Rom. 2. 15. respects the Heathen World The Law writ in the hearts of the Heathen World teaching the moral Duties of Temperance Justice and general Piety towards God as Creator is I grant without the means or help of Scripture and antecedent to it but so is not the Law or Laws of God writ in the hearts of Believers whether Jews or Gentiles who believe in the crucified Jesus peculiar to the Christian Dispensation as Obedience to the Faith of the Gospel and to the positive Ordinances and Institutions of Christ of Baptism and the Supper and others aforesaid these Laws are not writ in our hearts without Scripture nor antecedent to Scripture but posterior to Scripture and by means of Scripture These positive and peculiar Laws of the Gospel writ in the hearts of true Believers and deeply printed and engraven in them are no other than the Copy or Transcript of the Laws outwardly writ or printed in the holy Scriptures which come to be transcribed into our hearts by what we daily and frequently hear preached to us and read out of the holy Scriptures and what we read our selves out of them the Spirit of God working with our Industry and Labour in our hearing and reading and well pondering and meditating what we hear or read causing it to take deep
of that holy Man Anselm's observation of a Shepherd Boy that had tied a small Stone with a small Thred to the Foot of a small Bird and then let it out of his hand loose to fly The small Bird did fly but a little at a time being incommoded and retarded with the weight of the Stone though but little flying a little and resting a little now mounting upwards as if it would fly straightway to Heaven but then soon after descending to the Earth which that holy Man beholding made the Embleme of the State of his Soul and fell into Weeping saying to this effect What the little Stone is to this little Bird that my Sin that hangs about me is to me To the Third The Administration of the Sacraments wherein do they suppose that the Dissenters have any advantage above the Church of England they will say that they add nothing to Christ's Institution in Baptism whereas the Church of England adds the Sign of the Cross and at the receiving the Lord's Supper they receive it kneeling to this I answer the Church of England makes not the Sign of the Cross any part of Baptism for she doth not order it to be used at private Baptism to any that is in danger of Death nor does she make it any Means of Grace but a convenient Symbole to put us in mind and also to signify that we own Christ that was crucified on the Tree of the Cross and are not ashamed to confess him the Captain of our Salvation and manfully to fight under his Banner against Sin the World and the Devil c. which has but the like Service that a Cross drawn with Ink on Paper has to signify the Cross of Wood that he was crucified upon and is but a sort of Hieroglyphick neither commanded nor forbidden in Scripture but simply indifferent and that our Superiors both Ecclesiastick and Civil have Authority to command us in the use of indifferent Things I am well satisfied and I see not but so ought the Dissenters to acknowledge who grant that our Superiors both Ecclesiastical and Civil may enjoin the keeping of a Fast Day for publick Calamities or a Festival Day of Thanksgiving for publick Mercies Baxter makes no more hurt in using the sign of the Cross in Baptism than if we should tie a piece of Thred to our Finger to keep us in mind of what we desire to remember That the Lord's Supper is received kneeling has no more Ceremony nor hurt in it than that we pray kneeling for both the Minister that gives and the People that receives the Elements of Bread and Wine do it with Prayer For all the great Clamour against the Ceremonies of the Church of England I scarcely find any more but one that may be so called to wit that abovementioned the sign of the Cross at Baptism which is a very harmless and a very ancient Practise in the Church of Christ and had a warrantable Original that because the Heathens upbraided the Christians with the Cross to show they were not ashamed of it after receiving Baptism they received the sign of the Cross on their Foreheads nor is that occasion wanting in our Day where so many Thousands here in this Nation on the pretence of high Divine Inspirations have cast away the Profession of Faith in Christ as he was outwardly Crucified together with the Memorials of him Baptism and the Supper And as concerning Infant Baptism time will not permit at present that I should insist on it but this I say I am fully satisfied with the Baptism I had in Infancy and I do believe that it as duly belongeth to the Infant Children of Believers under the New Testament being a seal to them of God's Covenant of Grace for remission of Sin as Circumcision did belong to such under the Old Testament for God is no less merciful to Believers and their Children now than he was then I cannot but think strange that there should be such a Clamour against the Ceremonies in the Church of England having upon enquiry found them so few I lately met with a Book of one of the Church of England wherein I found him having the same Thought with mine that there is but one Ceremony in the Church of England viz. the sign of the Cross and strictly speaking I see no need why it should be called a Ceremony this hard Word offends many ignorant People why may not our Superiors Ecclesiastick and Civil enjoin some Things that are meerly Circumstantial and in themselves indifferent as to the Habit of Minister's Cloathing and the Use of a Surplice in Divine Service of the Decency and Conveniency of which they are more proper Judges than private Persons as well as they are generally allowed to determine other Circumstances of Time and Place and various Actions relating to both Religious and Civil Matters To bury in Wollen and to lay the dead in a Coffin to lay a Cloth or Cushen on the Pulpit to ring a Bell before Sermon to have a Clock or Hour-glass before the Minister's Face when he Preacheth which the Quakers cry out against as much as others do against the Surplice and sign of the Cross to have a clean Linnen Cloth on the Communion Table and Silver Platter and Cup for the distributing the Elements of Bread and Wine at the Lord's Supper all these and divers other Things the Dissenters commonly allow as well as the Church of England some of them by command of Superiors others of them by Custom why do they not call them Ceremonies and fright the People with that hard Word Lastly as to the Government of the Church the Dissenters are so far from having the Advantage of the Church of England that she hath the Advantage over them in that as well as in the other Things above-mentioned That in all Societies both Civil and Ecclesiastical there should be an Order and Superiority of Officers Rulers and Governours Nature it self teacheth it How can a City or Nation be ruled and kept in Order if all the Rulers be equal How can an Army be governed or disciplined or led forth to Battel without divers Degrees Superior and Inferior of Military Officers if all the Captains of each single Company consisting suppose of one hundred Men each single Company and the whole Army consisting of many Thousands if these single Captains had no superior Officers over them but every one left to his own Discretion to lead on his Company to Battle against the common Enemy who has all in good Order and a due and regular Distinction of superior and inferiour Officers how can it be supposed but that the Army that has this good Order and Distinction of various Officers superior and inferior should prevail against the other that hath no such Order and Distinction we may see a wonderful order of Superiority and Inferiority in all Things in the whole visible Creation in the Heavens and Elements and that there is the like Superiority