Consciences too How many are there that have thus bewildred themselves in their own Fansies and Opinions and so have fallen upon the Precipice of damnable Errors and into Bogs of Mire and filthy Lusts only through an ignorant Conscience and self-conceited Pride that is always a Companion of it this Ignorance fills the Conscience with false Presumptions and draws it to wrong Determinations and Conclusions which though they seem to be but little mistakes in the Notion yet are they most destructive and pernicious in a Man's practice As a small mistake in the levelling of an Arrow at the Hand makes a wide distance at the Mark so a small mistake in the Notion of Truth makes a wide error in the practice of Godliness A mis-persuaded Conscience usually gives rise to misguided Zeal and Zeal without Knowledge is but a Religious Phrensie that fashions out to it self strange shapes of Sin and Duty of Good and Evil and usually it takes the one for the other until it falls under that Woe denounced by the Prophet Isa 5.20 Woe to them that call Good Evil and Evil Good that put Darkness for Light and Light for Darkness that put Bitter for Sweet and Sweet for Bitter Now Ignorance doth vitiate and corrupt the Conscience two ways Ignorance vitiates the Conscience two ways either it makes it unnecessarily scrupulous or else it makes it daringly presumptuous First 1. By making it unnecessarily scrupulous Ignorance fetters and binds up the Conscience either to the doing of or abstaining from that concerning which God hath laid no Law and Obligation at all upon it This is an encroaching Conscience that makes that an enclosure that God hath left common and rigorously exacts from us what God hath permitted as indifferent It is a very sad Judgment to be given up to the domineering Impositions of a scrupulous Conscience such a Conscience as this is will certainly make much more Sin than over the Law made for whatever we do against the Commands of Conscience is Sin though it be not immediately and directly against the Commands of God Rom. 14.23 Why now some there are that do so needlesly pin and coop up themselves that they cannot stir nor moderately use that lawful Liberty that God hath indulged them but presently they are entangled in Sin because of the imperious Prohibitions of their own Consciences Secondly 2. By making it licentious and daringly presumptuous Sometimes Ignorance makes Conscience licentious indulging it self in those Actions that the Law of God condemns making it daringly presumptuous and this is a quite contrary extream and yet as opposite as these are we oftentimes find them joined together in the same Persons the same Persons that have a needlesly scrupulous Conscience have also a daringly presumptuous Conscience and this proceeds from an Ignorance of their due Bounds and Limits Who ordinarily so prophane as the Superstitious Their Ignorance makes them scrupulous Observers of little Circumstances and yet bold Adventurers upon notorious Sins What a strange wry Conscience have such Men that tie up themselves strictly where God gives them scope and yet run riotously where God's Commands and Threatnings restrain dreading more the transgressing one Law of Man than they do the transgressing of the whole moral Law of God This is now from Ignorance whereby Men do not know the due Bounds either of that Liberty that God indulgeth them or that Restraint that God lays upon them And this is the first Thing that corrupts Conscience namely Ignorance Secondly 2. Wilful Sinning corrupts Conscience and that two ways Wilful Sinning corrupts and vitiates the Conscience and that two ways First Sometimes such Sins stupifie and deaden the Conscience 1. By stupifying and deadning of Conscience especially if they become frequent and customary and therefore we usually call them Conscience-wasting Sins Believe it through a continued course of known and presumptuous Sins you will bring your Consciences into very sad Consumptions that they will pine away under Iniquities and how many are there that have their Consciences already lying Speechless Senseless and Gasping ready to give up the Ghost The Apostle in Eph. 4.19 speaks of them Eph. 4. â—9 that being past feeling have given themselves over to Lasciviousness Secondly 2. By terrifying and inraging of Conscience Sometimes such Sins do affright terrifie and enrage the Conscience filling it with dreadful Thoughts of eternal future Vengeance Wilful and known Sins sometimes terrifie and enrage the Conscience and this is a Corruption of the Conscience when the Terrors of it are so overwhelming as to sink Men into Despair for mark it it is its Office to accuse and to threaten for Sin and the greater the Sin is the more sharp and stinging ought to be its Reproofs but be the Sin never so great for which Conscience reproves if yet it denounceth Wrath without making mention of Repentance and hopes of Mercy it exceeds its Commission that God hath given it and becomes an evil and corrupt Conscience And therefore we have that Expression Heb. 10.22 Heb. 10.22 Let us draw near says the Apostle having our Hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience By an evil Conscience here is meant a despairing Conscience from which we are freed only by the Blood of Sprinkling to be convinced of Sin and not at all to be convinced of Righteousness is such a Conviction as constitutes one part of the Torments of the damned in Hell whose Worm never dies and certainly that Conscience must needs be very evil and very corrupt that breeds in it this hellish Worm while we are here upon Earth And so much for the first Thing what it is that corrupts the Conscience Secondly 2. What it is to have a clear Conscience and that in two Things The next Thing propounded is to shew you What it is to have a their Conscience Now there are two Things that denominate a Conscience to be clear when it is pure and when it is peaceable when it is free from all known and wilful Defilements and when it is not justly burdned with the guilt of Sin then is it a clear Conscience 1. Then a Man hath a clear Conscience 1. When it is free from all known and wilful Sins when it is free from all known and wilful sins I say from all known and wilful Sins for it is impossible while we are encompassed about with Infirmities and oppressed with a heavy Body of Sin and Death to keep our selves free and pure from all Sin For in many things we offend all says St. James 3.2 Jam. 3.2 But these Sins of daily Weakness and sudden Surreption as they are usually small Sins and scarce discernible so are they no Obstructions to a clear Conscience no more than the Moats of the Sun-beams are Obstructions to a clear Day As for those Quotidian Weaknesses and Sins of â—aily Infirmity they neither leave Guilt nor Defilement upon the Conscience of God's Children but
with Patience so it gives him advantage to reprove others with Authority It is a very true Rule that he that reproves another ought himself to be free from the Fault he reproves for otherwise his Reproofs neither come with freedom from the Reprover nor with efficacy to the Reproved First A Reproof that comes from a guilty Conscience is but a stammering and a timerous Reproof Such a Man 's own Conscience must needs rise up in his Throat and choak his Reproofs Consciousness of the same Miscarriages will retort whatever we can say against others more strongly upon our selves and will suggest to us that it is but Hypocrisie for us to blame that which we our selves practise With what Face canst thou press others to Repent and Reform What Arguments canst thou use to them who by continuing in the same Sins dost thy self judge those Arguments are of no force at all Thus Conscience will suggest and hereby Tongue-ties Reproofs Secondly This also makes Reproofs ineffectual It were indeed a Temper to be wished and pray'd for that we could only respect how righteous the Reproof is and not how righteous the Person is that gives it and if we could be content to have the Motes pluck'd out of our own Eyes though it be by such as have Beams in their own Eyes for indeed there is no more reason to reject sound Admonitions because they come from an unsound Heart than there is to stop our Ears against good Counsel because delivered it may be with an unsavoury Breath But yet so it is when Men of polluted Consciences and defiled Conversations come to reprove others Men are apt to think of them What is such a one in earnest Doth he not personate his Reproof Doth he not do as bad or worse himself Or doth he envy me my Sins and would engross them all to himself and so the Reproof takes no place at all upon him But now when a Man of a clear and unspotted Conscience reproves wicked Men his Reproofs break in upon them with Conviction Authority and Power if not to reform them yet at least to daunt and silence them Here is one that reproves Sin who doubtless believes it to be Evil by his own avoiding of it Here is one that denounceth Wrath if I repent not who doubtless believes it to be as terrible as he represents it to be by his own carefulness to escape it And thus a clear Conscience hath great advantage to reprove Sinners successfully at least to work Conviction upon them if not to work Reformation in them 3. It gives boldness of access unto God Thirdly A clear Conscience gives boldness of access unto God Guilt is the only thing that abashes the Soul and makes it both ashamed and afraid to appear in the Presence of God and therefore we find that as soon as Adam had sinned against his Maker he hides himself from him We may observe it in our selves What slavish deadness and dejectedness of Heart seizeth upon us when we come to God in Duty after that we have wronged him by any known Sin We come with such a misgiving kind of Fear as if we would not have God take notice that we are before him and we are still in pain till the Duty be over But when our Consciences are clear O with what delight do we hast to God and with what content do we stay with him How doth the Soul dilate and spread it self under the Smiles of God beating full upon it Loe O Lord here 's a Heart that I labour to make and keep void of Offence do thou fill it with thy promised Grace and Spirit it is not indeed a Mansion pure enough for the pure and holy God yet is it such as thou wilt accept of and dwell in there are still many hidden Corruptions in it but do thou search them out and thou who hast kept thy Servant from presumptuous Sins do thou also cleanse me from secret Faults Thus a clear Conscience with a holy and reverend Boldness addresses it self to God and sweetly closeth up every Duty and every Prayer with full assurance of being heard and accepted and that it shall obtain Mercy from God So the Apostle tells us Heb. 10.22 Heb. 10.22 Let us says he draw near in full assurance of Faith How may we gain this full assurance when we draw near to God How says he Why by having our Hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience get but a pure and clear Conscience and that will enable you to draw near to God in full assurance of Faith And so in the like parallel place 1 John 3.21 1 John 3.21 Beloved if our Hearts condemn us not then have we confidence towards God If Conscience be not evil to accuse us then have we confidence towards God When the Face of a Man's Conscience looks chearful and hath no Frowns and Wrinkles upon it this makes us joyfully to apprehend that God's Face to us is calm and serene too and that we shall be welcom at all times into our Father's presence this Conscience suggests to us and makes us come with a holy yet with an awful boldness unto God 4. It is the sweetest Bosom Friend with which we may at all times freely and intimately converse Fourthly A clear Conscience is the sweetest bosom Friend with which we may at all times freely and intimately converse Wicked Men indeed of all Company in the World do most hate themselves for Companions they have a lowring and a rumbling Conscience at home that always threatens and disquiets them and therefore they love to keep abroad Soliloquies and Heart-discoveries are a very Torment to them and they wonder that the Psalmist should ever bid them Commune with their own Hearts and be still Psal 4.4 as it is in Psal 4.4 Why alas they are never less still than when they discourse with their own Hearts and Consciences which are grown so peevish and quarrelsom that they thunder out nothing but Woes and Curses against them hurling about them Swords and Fire-brands and Death that they dare not so much as once look within Doors But now a Christian whose Conscience is calm and clear he finds it the best Companion of the World In his solitary Retirements from the crowd and noise of the World with what Delight doth he call his Heart aside and there are they sweetly and peaceably conferring together And God usually comes in as a third Friend and joins himself in Society with them and here pass mutual Endearments between them the Soul embraces and clasps about God with the Arms of Faith and Dependence and God embraceth the Soul in the Arms of his everlasting Love Here are mutual unbosomings of Secrets the Soul unlocks its Secrets before God and God again reveals the Secrets of his Love unto the Soul Here are mutual Rejoycings the Soul rejoyceth in God its Saviour and God rejoyceth over the Soul to do it good and under these Intercourses
the Defilement of our Sins An historical Faith may keep the Soul from contracting Defilement but this justifying this saving Faith washes out the Stains and Defilements that we have contracted and makes us white and spotless in the Blood of the Lamb. Faith is that Conveyance that God hath appointed to bring the Blood of Christ to stream forth upon the defiled Soul and Conscience and upon every renewed Act of Sin we ought by a renewed Act of Faith to lay our spotted and defiled Souls under the fall of that Fountain that is set open to wash and cleanse us from our Filth and Pollution Thus Faith cleanseth the Conscience mystically and by the Actings of Faith we may thus get and keep our Consciences clear and inoffensive Fifthly 5. Set a strict Watch and Guard upon your selves If you would keep your Consciences clear then set a strict Watch and Guard upon your selves both upon your inward and upon your outward Man Set a Guard to your Heart and to all the Approaches to your Heart 1. Keep a narrow Guard upon your Heart 1. Set a Guard upon your Heart The Heart is the great meeting Place where Objects Thoughts and Affections do swarm and crowd together And as much Concourse leaves Dirt behind it upon the Place so this great Heart-Assembly usually leaves it foul and polluted Our Saviour Mark 9. tells the Jews That it was that which was within them that Wickedness which lay latent in their Hearts that which proceedeth from the Heart that defiles the Man There is a Defilement in the Thoughts and in the Desires as well as in the more gross and bulky Sins of the Life Hence the Prophet Jeremy speaks Jer. 4.14 O Jerusalem wash thine Heart from Wickedness Why wherewith is it polluted Why the next Words shew it How long shall thy vain Thoughts lodge within thee Vain Thoughts leave a Stain and Contagion upon the Soul and certainly if a vain Thought that is such a fleeting and volitary Thing breaths a kind of Contagion and Taint upon the Heart they certainly then must have foul Hearts indeed and their Spots in Grain who lie soaking and stewing themselves in Unclean Malicious and Covetous Thoughts and Designs Since then that Conscience is apt to receive Taint but with the breathing of a vain and sinful Thought upon it how doth it concern us then to keep a watchful and circumspect Eye over every Motion of our Hearts It is the wise Man's Counsel as you have heard Keep thy Heart with all diligence for out of it are the Issues of Life Look to it therefore that you suffer not your Hearts to be defiled with sinful Thoughts or sinful Affections by those inward and invisible Corruptions that settle at the bottom of it though the Life be never so clear and cristal yet if that Mud be but stirred and raised Conscience becomes thereby defiled and an evil Conscience And therefore the Apostle 1 Tim. 1.5 1 Tim. 1.5 joins them together speaking of a pure Heart and a good Conscience but if the steems of Lust rise up thick in the Heart they defile and pollute the Conscience Hence the Apostle again joins them together Tit. 1.15 Tit. 1.15 a defiled Mind and a defiled Conscience The Mind and Conscience says he is defiled How can the Mind be defiled unless it be with Sins of the Mind Evil Thoughts and evil Affections which as sprightly and aerial as they seem to be yet they leave a Stain upon the Conscience As the breathing upon a Glass sullies it and dims the Representation of the Face that looks into it so the breathing of evil Cogitations upon Conscience the Glass of the Soul leaves a Mist and Cloud upon it that it can but dimly and darkly represent to us our true State 2. Watch diligently as the Heart it self so all the Approaches unto the Heart 2. Watch diligently all the Approaches to the Heart The Approaches to the Heart are like your Roads to a great City which are full of Passengers and usually full of Dirt also And these are the Senses by which and through which Objects are continually travelling to the Heart and carry with them a World of Wickedness These are Sluces which instead of letting in pleasant Streams to refresh commonly they let in nothing but Mud which pollutes the Soul There is no actual Filthiness in the Hearts of any but what enters in by these Inlets through these the Devil casts in abundance of Filth stirs up and increaseth indwelling Lust and by sinful Objects that the Senses convey to the Soul dungs that Ground that is of it self but too too fruitful Thus the Devil makes use of the Ear through it he blows up the Bladder of Pride by the Breath of popular Applause and Praise And thus he makes use of the lascivious Eye as a burning Glass to set the Heart on Fire and so also he makes use of the other Senses as Sinks of Luxury and Intemperance Now if you would keep your Consciences clear and undefiled set a strict Guard and narrow Watch upon all these Passages to your Hearts critically examin every Thing that goes in and every Thing that comes out by these Gates arrest whatever cannot produce its Pass and Warrant from the Word of God keep the same Watch upon these Gates that God would keep on the Gate of the Heavenly City the New Jerusalem It is said Rev. 21.27 Rev. 21.27 That there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth Why so let us who would keep our Consciences clear guard all the Approaches to them with the same strictness and let nothing that defileth enter in by these Approaches to our Hearts Sixthly and Lastly 6. Listen to the Voice of Conscience take this Direction Be sure to listen to the Voice of Conscience Those that stop their Ears and will not hear Conscience when it directs and reproves shall be sure to hear it loud enough when it shall accuse and condemn them Conscience is the Voice of God in the Soul why now if this Voice be slighted beware lest the next time it speak to you in Thunder Do nothing contrary to the Dictates of your Consciences for this will provoke God to give you up to a reprobate Sense and judicially to harden you in your Sins for if sinning against your Consciences doth not corrupt them by making them insensible and stupid it will certainly corrupt them by making them enraging and despairing Well now for your Encouragement let me tell you while you are careful by following these Directions to keep your Consciences clear you shall also keep them peaceable It is the foulness of a Gun that makes it recoil in discharging And so it is the foulness of Men's Consciences that makes them recoil back again upon them in discharging of their Offices But while Conscience is kept clear and void of Offence it will be also kept free from quarrelling with you and
little nearer to Conscience and Practice These very Men that thus make their impotency a pretence for their Sloth they do not indeed believe what they pretend and assert here they do not believe that they are thus impotent no it is in the inward and secret Thoughts of them all that they have a Power to work out their own Salvation and therefore whether they have or have not Power yet still they are inexcusable if while they think they have Power yet they will not strive and endeavour to put it forth Those Men who thus plead impotency and want of power to Obey and work out their Salvation though they speak these things yet they believe not a word of what they say and therefore they are inexcusable if they strive not to put forth that Power that they suppose they have into Act. Although a Man's Feet be chain'd and fetter'd that he cannot walk nor stir yet if he thinks himself at Liberty and yet will sit still judge you whether the Fault be not wholly to be imputed to his want of Will and not to his want of Power for he thinks himself free and able to move but will not try So is it here wicked Men do think they have Power to Work however they speak otherwise sometimes and therefore they are utterly inexcusable if they do not Work this is as clear as the Light and their Slothfulness therefore proceeds not from their Weakness but from their Wilfulness And I shall endeavour by some Arguments to convince Sinners that they do indeed think and believe that they have this Power to work out their own Salvation whatever they may pretend to and therefore they are inexcusable if they do not strive and endeavour for to do it And First Did you never when God hath shaken his Rod over you promise and resolve to work By his Rod I mean either some Convictions or Afflictions have not these made you to enter into Ingagements with God that you would obey him and walk more holily and strictly for the future And did you not really thus resolve to do Few I believe there are but have some time or other under some Fit of Sickness or some pang of Conscience thus done And what did you resolve all this and yet at the same time think and believe you could do nothing at all Did you only mock God Did you only dally and play with your own Consciences No certainly Conscience was too much provoked too much inraged and too broad awakened to be so jested withal We find this very Temper in the Israelites when they were affrighted with the terrible Voice of God from Mount Sinai in the 5th of Deutronomy See how confidently under that Conviction Deut. 5.27 they promised and resolved Speak thou unto us what the Lord our God shall say unto thee and we will do it And so the Jews also when they were in great Distress and Calamity when the Whip and the Rod was over them then they take up large Resolutions and make great Promises what they will be and do Jer. 42.2 Whether it be good or whether it be evil say they we will obey the voice of the Lord our God And oh how many pious Purposes and holy Resolutions have the Dangers Fears and sick Beds of many Men been Witnesses unto Have they not heard Sinners cry out Lord spare a little give us some space try us once more Lord and we will reform our sinful Lives and perform neglected Duties never more will we return to Folly And are not these Resolutions and Promises evident Convictions that you thought you had Power to do what you thus resolved to do Who is there but hath some time or other under some Trouble and Affliction taken up such Resolutions of Obedience as these And certainly you dare not so much mock God and dally with your own Consciences under such Convictions as to make such Promises but that you think you can perform what you promise And that is one Argument Secondly Did you never in your whole lives perform a Duty to God Did you never pray to him Are there any so desperately Prophane so utterly lost as to any shews and appearances of Goodness as not to have prayed or performed one Duty unto God in his whole Life Why now to what end have you prayed and performed these Duties that you have done Was it not for Salvation And did you work for Salvation and at the same time believe you could not work No this is impossible that ever any Mans Practice should maintain such a contradiction What ever Mens Opinions are yet their works shew that they think they have Power for somthing must be done though it be but formally though but a slight cold heartless Lord have Mercy on me or a customary Lord forgive me yet something Conscience requires and this Men reckon and account the working out Salvation Thirdly Wherefore is it that you trust to and rely upon your works if indeed you think you have no Power to work out your own Salvation by them Would it be so hard and difficult to take Men off from leaning too much upon their Works if they did not believe they had a Power to work out their own Salvation by them Men do apprehend some worth some value and sufficiency in what themselves do in order to Eternity For bid them forgo and renounce their own Works their own Righteousness this is a hard saying and they can as easily renounce and forgo all Hopes of Happiness and Salvation as renounce their own Works Now whence is it that Men are so difficultly brought unto the renouncing their own Works Why it is because by them they Hope to obtain Salvation And can there be such a Principle in Men and yet at the same time believe and think that they cannot work out their own Salvation It is very evident therefore whatever Notions Men may take up to stop the Mouth of a clamorous Conscience when it calls them to working and labouring yet they do not themselves believe what they say concerning their impotency but do really think they have a Power to work out their own Salvation Fourthly Did you never when the Spirit of God hath been dealing with your Hearts and Consciences when it hath been persuading you to enter upon a Course of Obedience did you never procrastinate and use Delays Did you never stifle the Breathings and resist the Motions of the Holy Spirit thinking it time enough to do what it puts you upon hereafter What need I begin so soon to vex Flesh and Blood What deny the Pleasures of my Life as soon as I come to relish and taste them When Sickness and gray Hairs admonish me and tell me I am near Eternity when old Age promiseth me that the severity and strictness of Religion shall not last long to trouble me then will I repent and believe and work out my own Salvation Speak truly and deal plainly with your own
Consciences have not these been the foolish Reasonings of your own Hearts Have you not often thus promised God and your own Consciences And doth not all this imply that you thought you had a Power to do it Why did you delay and put it off if you thought you had no Power to do it at last Wherefore thou art inexcusable O Man whoever thou art that wilt not work it is in Vain to plead thou wantedst Power God will confute thee by thy self and out of thy own Mouth What wilt thou say thou hadst no Power Why thou thoughtest that thou hadst Power and yet wouldst not work nor endeavour so to do and therefore thy Ruin if thou perishest is as wilful and thy Condemnation will be as Just as if thou hadst Power and wouldest not work And this is the Fourth Answer to this Objection Men do really believe that they have Power to work and therefore they are inexcusable if they will not endeavour to put it forth Fifthly Men will not plead so Foolishly no not in matters of far lower concernment than the Salvation of their Souls is Would a Master when he Commands his Servant to work take this as a sufficient Excuse for his Sloth and Idleness that he hath no Power to work till God Acts and Moves him Why this is a Truth that he cannot do it unless God inable him and it may as well be Objected by your Servants to you and with more Reason too than by you unto God Pray tell me what Power have I to Speak one Word or you to Hear one Word more unless God concurs to it Nay we are not sufficient to think as of our selves yet we do not make this an Excuse to forbear those Actions that are necessary Do we therefore resolve to do nothing because it is impossible for us to do any thing unless God concur What Stupid and dull Folly is this No but we put it plainly and hourly to the Trial and never could any one produce that Man that could ever say God was wanting to him in his concurrence when he would have done an Action What a miserable ridiculous Task would it be if in every Action of our Lives wherein we can do nothing without God we should still be questioning Gods concurrence with us When you Sit do you dispute whether God will inable you to Arise When you Walk do you every Step you take question whether God will concur to another Step No Men put these things to the Trial and though it be impossible that they should live move or stir till God act and move them yet this hinders not Mens endeavours no nor is it any matter of discouragment to them Now why should we not do so in Spirituals as well as in Temporals Are they not of greater Concernment Do they not more deserve the Trial It is true we can do nothing without God's concurrence yet let us put it to the trial whether or no God will not concur when we endeavour Certainly that Man must be for ever nameless that can say he was truly willing and did sincerely endeavour to do any good Thing and God did not inable him Sixthly Consider this altho' wicked Men had Power to work out their Salvation yet they would never do it and therefore it is a vain and most unreasonable pretence for Sloth to plead want of Power for had wicked Men Power they would never Obey But how can any one tell that What not obey if we had Power Why no and the Reason is this because there is no wicked Man in the World that hath done so much or that doth so much as he is able to do no not so much as he is able to do without special Grace and Assistance and therefore it is not Inability but wilful Sloth that destroys Men. Sinners ask your own Consciences this Question Was there not one Duty more that you could have performed Was there not one Temptation nor one Corruption more that you could have resisted Could you not have prayed and read and heard and meditated more upon Heavenly Things even then when your Hearts and Thoughts have been vain and worldly yea sinful and devilish Might not that time have been spent in holy Converse that you have trifled away in Idleness and in doing nothing or that which is worse than nothing What Force or Restraint is laid upon you Is there any Violence used to you Can you not think And if you can can you not think of God as well as of the Things of the World or think upon your Lusts Can you not Speak And if you can can you not speak of God of Heaven and the Concernments of another Life as well as of your Trade and Bargainings and other trivial Matters which are below a Man much more below a Christian What force is there put upon Sinners Doth the Devil screw open the Drunkards Mouth and pour down his intemperate Cups whether he will or no Doth the Devil violently move the black Tongue of the Blasphemer and Swearer to rend and tear the holy Name of God by horrid Oaths and Blasphemies Doth the Devil strike Men dumb when they should Pray or Deaf when they should Hear or Senseless when they should understand and ponder Is there any such force or violence used unto any Can you not avoid the one And can you not do the other if you will Yes you can but you will not and therefore neither would you work out your own Salvation if you could do it Is there any hopes that you would ever willingly do the greater who will not do the less Let your Impotency and Weakness be what it will your Damnation lies not upon it but upon your Wilfulness so long as your Wilfulness is greater than your Weakness No it is not upon your Impotency that your precious and immortal Souls perish eternally but it is only for lack of a Will to pity them and to save them Sinners wherefore then will you perish Why will you sleep away your Souls into Hell Will you go on drowsily to Destruction Shall your Souls be ready to burn as a Brand in unquenchable Fire and will you not stretch forth your Hand to snatch it out Is it more painful for you to Work than to be Damned Endeavour therefore to do what you can labour and sweat at Salvation rather than fail of it Let it not grate and fret your Consciences in Hell that you lie there for a wilful Neglect Object But should I labour should I endeavour should I work to my utmost should I do all that I am able to do I cannot work Grace in my self by all this to what purpose then should I work Answ However try God in this particular Did you ever know any who thus laboured and thus wrought that did not give very good Evidence of a Work of Grace wrought upon their Hearts And why then should you suspect that you should be the first What reason have you
altogether as freely as if we were saved without any Obedience at all And so much in Answer unto the Third Objection Fourthly Others may say That it is a vain and most needless thing to press this Doctrin of working for Salvation upon them What! they work If they are Elected to Salvation they shall be saved whether they work or not and if they are not Elected all their working will be to no purpose for they shall never be saved by it To this I Answer We are to look to God's Commands not to his Decrees to our Duty not to his Purposes The Decrees of God are a vast Ocean whereinto many possibly may have curiously pry'd to their own Horror and Despair but few or none have ever pry'd into them to their own Satisfaction This Election in particular is not written in the Word of God but this Duty is plainly written If thou performest thy Duty thereby thou shalt come to know thy Election It is but a preposterous Course and that which will both discourage all Endeavours and fill the Soul with Despair to look first to Gods Decrees and then to its own Duty whereas indeed the right Method is first to perform thy own Duty and thereby to be led into the knowledge of God's Decrees Question not therefore whether thou art Elected or not but first work for Salvation and if thy Work be good and thy Obedience true thereby thou mayest come to a certain Knowledge that thou art Elected And know this also farther that God who Elects to the End Elects also to the Means Now Obedience is the means and way to Salvation and therefore if thou art Elected to Salvation thou art also Elected to Obedience Say not therefore if I am Elected I shall be saved whether I work or not there is no such thing I may boldly say if thou art Elected and doest not work it is impossible that thy Election should save thee 2 Thess 2.13 What says the Apostle 2 Thess God hath chosen us there 's Election chosen us to Salvation there 's the End But how through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the Truth Chosen us to Salvation as to the End but it is not an End to be obtained without Sanctification There is indeed an absolute Election to Salvation whereby God without respect of Works hath chosen some to Salvation but there is no Election to Salvation absolute whereby God hath chosen any to Salvation without Works that is whether they work or not If therefore you believe heartily and obey sincerely then your Election to Salvation stands firm nay the Scripture makes Election to be terminated as well in Obedience as Salvation Elect says the Apostle unto Obedience through sanctification of the Spirit In the former place it was Elect to Salvation through Sanctification but in this it is Elect to Obedience through Sanctification Noting thus much to us That none are Elected to Salvation but those that are Elected to Obedience and therefore it is unreasonable yea it is contradictory to say If I am Elected I shall be saved whether I obey or not for none are thereunto Elected but thro' Obedience And now having as I hope satisfactorily Answer'd all Objections and Scruples that may arise in the Hearts of Men against this Doctrin I now proceed to press this Duty of working for Salvation upon their Consciences and I shall do it in a Use of Exhortation Be perswaded then Oh Sinners to cast off your Sloth and Laziness and to rouse your selves from that drowsy Slumber that you have long lain in and to work for Salvation But truly when I consider how powerful an Orator and how mighty a Charmer Sloth is how easily it can stupify and benumb Reason and lull Men asleep on the top of a Mast and on the brinks of Hell and though God and Man call upon them Sinners Sinners bestir your selves work for your Lives you perish eternally if you do not labour to lay hold on eternal Life for you are falling and Hell-fire is under you Yet truly when we call and cry thus earnestly how easily can a careless yawning wretched Sinner slight all these Admonitions baffle all these Arguments Motives and Persuasions though urged upon them with all vehemency and tenderness of Affection that can be and turn about like a Man besotted falling fast asleep again When I consider this truly I am apt to conclude that it is but a desperate attempt to press Men any more against their Natures and against so many Disadvantages that can soon frustrate the Efficacy of weaker Words and to give over in Despair with that of the Prophet He that will be Righteous let him be Righteous and he that will be Wicked let him be Wicked still And truly were it not more for Conscience of Duty than for any Hope of Success I would not speak one Word more upon the Subject Success I mean upon those who are altogether carnal whose Hearts Satan hath filled and whose Ears Satan hath stopt we may call long enough and loud enough ere these Men will awake or if they do sometimes give a Look upwards they soon close their Eyes again and slumber away into Destruction And yet truly if variety of Motives if Strength of Arguments and Persuasions would prevail we might hope for this seldom-seen Success why then let us consider these following Particulars 1. To work for Salvation is a great and weighty Work First Consider Sinners you have a great and weighty Work to do and therefore it is time yea high time that you were up and doing Believe it Sirs God hath not placed you here in this World as the Leviathan in the great Waters only to play and sport were it so you might take your Ease hold your Arms in your Bosoms and follow your Delights and Pleasures and let him be blam'd that ever should disturb or discourage you I know not whether some may not think that we Ministers are Task-Masters and that we make more ado than needs No Sirs it is God that hath set you your Work we do only tell you how great it is and of how great concernment it is to you that it be done and if you will not do it who can help it We have no Scourges or Scorpions to drive you to your Work but God hath to punish you if you neglect it and why is it so generally neglected but because Men do not seriously consider how great it is Most Men acknowledg that it must be done but because they look upon it as that which may speedily and quickly be dispatched they drive it before them from Day to Day and think to huddle it up at the end of their Lives Then when they are fit for no other Imployment and least of all fit for this Imployment then they think to do the Works of God I shall here lay down three Particulars to convince Sinners of the greatness of this Work and because it is so
Helpers to you in this great Work of working out of your Salvation And therefore they are called Helpers of your Faith and Joy 2 Cor. 1.24 They are said To watch for your Souls as those that must give an account Heb. 13.17 They are said to be Co-workers with Jesus Christ yea Jude 23. they are said To save your Souls Ministers are set in the Church to admonish with all Meekness to beseech with all Earnestness to rebuke with all Authority yea and we have done it Have we not called upon you Sinners Sinners why will you die The Way wherein you now walk leads down to the Chambers of Death and Destruction the Wages of that Work you are now doing is Shame Death and Hell Have we not thus often call'd upon you Yes so often have we thundred Terrors in Mens Ears that they now disregard them out of custom and when we speak of Sin and Death and Hell and Judgment to come Men think we are fallen into a common Peace and we must talk dreadfully to keep in our Road. These are the Apprehensions Men have of the great and fearful Denunciations that are daily discharged in their Ears by the Ministers of the Gospel And have we not also display'd Jesus Christ in all his Excellencies so far forth as his infinite Excellencies can be display'd with a few short-breath'd Words Have we not set forth Holiness in its Beauty and Lustre and done as much as we could do to reconcile you to the ways of Obedience and to remove the unjust Prejudices that Men have taken up against them What could we have done more than we have done to inform Mens Judgments to satisfie their Consciences to answer all their Doubts to allay their Fears to supply them with quickning Considerations to Duty and with deterring Considerations from Sin We appeal to your selves and yet we speak not this to ingratiate or to commend our selves we profess we care not much for the good Opinion of any Man in the World farther than it may be of some advantage to do your Souls good but do you think God expects not some great Thing from you Give me leave â—o deal truly and faithfully with you if your Works do not in some measure answer the Labours of God's Servants that have many Years follow'd you with Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept here a little and there a little still warning and intreating with all Bowels of Tenderness alluring you to pity your own Souls and to save your selves from that Wrath and Vengeance that shall shortly overcome the disobedient World They who have thus exhorted you believe it shall within a while be Witnesses against you Well then since you are daily called upon and warned to flee from Wrath to come since you have such clear Convictions of your Duty that a bribed Conscience can hardly evade since you have such abundance of Examples of others who have gone before you and have done what God requires of you why will not you be hereby persuaded and encouraged to work These Things you must acknowledge are great Helps to further your Salvation and believe it they will prove dreadful Aggravations of your Condemnations if they do not prevail with you But these are only outward Helps 2. Inward Helps Secondly There are other Helps and they are inward and of far greater Force and Efficacy of which I shall name Two 1. The Dictates of Conscience First The Dictates of your own Consciences they are still prompting and exciting of you to work Conscience it is God's Deputy and Vicegerent in the Soul that rules and governs in his Name and by his Authority Now of all the Faculties in Man this was the least corrupted by his Fall though the Will be wholly corrupted and perverse that it will not obey the Commands of Conscience yet Conscience still continues the performance of its Office still it informs and urgeth and threatens and tormenteth and thus may you see it busily working even in those that never had the Law of God to direct Conscience The Gentiles says the Apostle to the Romans that have not the Law Rom. 2.14 15. do by Nature that is by natural Conscience the things contained in the Law their Consciences bearing witness and their Thoughts in the mean while accusing and excusing one another And because they had not the Law therefore Conscience in them was like an Officer walking in the Dark apprehending the Innocent and letting the Guilty escape But yet this was from the beginning so deeply implanted in the Heart of Man that something must be done and avoided for to obtain Happiness which could never yet be obliterated Tho' our knowledge of what is Duty and what is Sin be in a great part defaced yet this knowledg the Scripture doth abundantly supply to us and gives Conscience a perfect Draught of all the Duties that God requires and bids it be Overseer and look that the Work be done How is it not a great Help when you have somewhat within you that stands for and takes part with what is Good and what is your Duty Conscience secretly bids you beware of such and such Sins that will bring Ruin Destruction and Vengeance upon you and perform such and such Duties Pray Hear Meditate and be more fervent and affectionate in all your Services this is the way that tends to Life and Happiness Thus Conscience daily and hourly is following of you with Counsels and Chidings and with Threatnings denouncing Wrath and Vengeance against you and though it speaketh these Things with so low a Voice that others though they lay their Ears to your Soul cannot hear it yet in your Ears it speaks as loud as Thunder and no less terrible it is in vain to wound it it is in vain to stop its Mouth for that will but make it break out with the more violence and out-rage nothing can appease it but Duty and Work Why should you not then since you have that within you that stands for and prompts you to work why should you not as well follow and obey the Dictates and Commands of your Consciences that prompt you to Work and Duty as obey the Propensions of your sensual part to the contrary Secondly 2. God himself helps a Christian to work God himself helps us by working all our Works in us and for us by working in us the will to work and by working for us the work when we have willed And therefore while there is no part of our Work too hard for God there should be no part of it too hard and difficult for us Christ tells us His burthen is not heavy yet were it heavy we might well undergo it since he himself helps us to bear it The frequent experience of every Child of God doth abundantly confirm this Did you never begin a Duty with your Hearts listless and dead with Affections cold and flat with Thoughts very wandring and distracting that
once God le ts fall some Drops of his Wrath upon their Consciences then they hiss and boil and fill the Soul with Smoak and Smother A hard Heart is no security from a troubled Conscience It is with the Hearts and Consciences of wicked Men as it is with a Sore in the Body which it may be is the hardest part in the Body and yet the sorest also the red Flesh about the Sore is hard and yet full of Pain and Anguish So is it many times with the Hearts and Consciences of wicked Men which though they are exceeding hard yet are full of Pain and Anguish We read of Heman Psal 88.3 That whilst he suffered the Terrors of God he was distracted And David tells us Psal 116.3 The Sorrows of Death compass'd me about and the Pains of Hell got hold of me And if the Wrath of the Almighty be thus sore and terrible upon these holy Men whose Hearts were sound towards God how fretting and gauling will it be upon the ulcerated Consciences of Sinners No Man hath his present Contentment and Delight in his own Power no more than he hath his own Conscience in his own Power which will speak yea and speak terrible Things too when the Sinner hath done all he can to stifle it nay let every Sinner speak How is it with you after the madness and rage of your Sin is over Are you not then haunted with direful Thoughts of Horror and Amazement that are as it were gnawing and devouring your Hearts And are these they who are content to buy Ease and Quietness at so dear a rate as the loss of their precious and immortal Souls and to be eternally tormented hereafter besides their present Pain and Anguish after the committing of Sin now which if they feel not always yet frequently they do But if God should give them up to such hardness of Heart as to become altogether insensible and stupid while they continue in this World yet what will this avail them Will they not purchase their Ease and Pleasure very dearly to lose their Souls for ever hereafter and to suffer the Pains of Hell eternally The Devil hath put a horrid Cheat upon these Men for they do not change their Troubles and Sorrows but only the time of them and for a little fansied sensual Ease and Pleasure in this World which it may be they may enjoy and it may be not for possibly God may be so provoked by them that he may suddenly cut them off in their Sins but if not it is but for a very little time that the Pleasures of their Sins and Lusts will last and then an Eternity of Pain and Torment shall be their Portion Sinners be not therefore deceived suffer not the Devil to abuse you and to impose his Drudgery upon you under the pretence of Ease and Quietness If therefore it be only present Contentment and Satisfaction that you seek if you think that you shall perish but yet you would perish the easiest way that is not believe it that is not by giving up of your selves to a way and course of Sin but in a way of Duty and laborious Working in that only can you find present Contentment and in that possibly you may find eternal Happiness Object But may some say The Works of God would be more pleasing to us if we could but work them But first we have no working Principle we are in a state of Nature and without Grace so that we cannot work And Secondly we cannot implant this Grace in our selves Answ To this I Answer Though you neither have Grace nor can work Grace in your selves yet you can do much yea very much in order to Salvation by the meer Strength of Nature and the liberty of your own Will This is a Consideration that needs to be frequently pressed upon the Consciences of wicked Men they often hear unto what a state of Weakness Sin hath reduced them and that without Grace they can do nothing that is pleasing unto God or advantagious to themselves and by this they are put out of conceit of setting upon the Work of God and leave the Salvation of their Souls at all adventures Consider therefore What Sinners may do towards their own Salvation Sinners how much you may do towards your own Salvation from your own Nature and Free-will And here First 1. They may attain to the highest degree of preparation wrought in the Heart before Grace The vilest Sinner even by the power of Nature and his own Free-will may attain to the highest degree and pitch of preparation that is usually wrought in the Heart antecedently or before true Grace Such are legal Conviction and Contrition a sad sight of Sin and a deep sorrow for it together with strong Resolutions and Purposes against it with strong Desires after Grace and Holiness and the like And the Reason of this is because all these Things are short of Grace and whatever is short of true Grace falls within the compass of Nature and Free-will which is common unto all Men which though it be indeed wounded and maimed yet may make shift to go so far as this comes to True Grace now is only the Creation of the Power of God and not the Production of Nature or Free-will Wherefore after all this preparation is wrought a Sinner can no more work Grace in himself than he could before yet is he now nearer to Grace and in a greater probability of it than he was before and there is none but may go thus far if they will but improve that Power and Ability that they have 2. No Duty in Religion but the Power of Nature may carry a Man out to Secondly There is no Duty in Religion but the Power of Nature may carry a Man out to the external performance thereof and that with Affection and Enlargement also Ahab humbles himself Herod heard John Baptist gladly And so Sinners can Pray Hear Read Meditate and Discourse of the Things of God others have done so formerly and therefore they may and can do so now Indeed heretofore there were peculiar Gifts bestowed upon wicked Persons immediately from God Numb 24.17 as Balaam was made to prophesie of Christ and the like But these are now ceased and all unregenerate Persons now have the same Power and Faculties in them one as well as another and may be able to do one as much as another in the performance of spiritual Duties if they themselves will Thirdly 3. The Power of Nature will keep a Man from scandalous Sins There is no wicked Man whatever but may by the meer Power of Nature restrain himself from the commission of Sin I speak not of Sins collectively taken for no Man can so say his Heart or Life is clean and pure but he may keep out of notorious and scandalous Sins There is no Sinner that hath given himself up to his Lusts but may if he will for the future live
but the Simple pass on and are punished They are rash and confident in their Undertakings and so they pass on and are punished Fear makes a Christian circumspect and considerative with himself how he may keep from Miscarriages in the performance of his great Work If God call me to such a Duty how shall I perform it If to bear such a Cross and Affliction how shall I glorifie him under it If to conflict with such Temptations how shall I resist and overcome them Yea how shall I do to break through all Difficulties Duties and Oppositions that I who am but a weak and feeble Christian may meet withal and how shall I do to bear up And thus pondring what may be his Duty and forecasting what Duties God may call him unto he is inabled to do what is his Duty at present and what also may by Providence hereafter become his Duty Nothing overtakes such a Man unexpected nor doth any thing surprize him unprovided for it And thus a careful Fear enables him in the performance of his great Work Secondly A Fear of Humility and holy Reverence of God induceth much to the working out of our Salvation and that in three Particulars First It much helps us in our great Work to fear God as our Lord and Master that sees and overlooks all our Works observing both what we do and how we do it also That Servant must be desperately bold that will dare to be idle or slight and perfunctory in his Work while his Masters Eye is upon him Why Christians should consider Gods Eye is always upon them in Praying in Hearing and in every Duty that they perform yea in every Action of their whole Lives And if the Eye of a Master that is but a Fellow Creature nay but a Fellow Servant can have such awe and influence upon his Servant as to make him careful how he works and what he works and to make him diligent in his Work Should not much more the consideration of Gods Eye being upon us who stands at an infinitee distance from us cause a holy Fear and Diligence in us in doing what our Lord and Master commands us Secondly Fear God also as him from whom you have all your Power and Ability to work Fear him lest at any time through any neglect or miscarriage of yours he should be provoked to suspend his Influence and withdraw his Grace from you and to leave you to your own Weakness and Impotency upon whose influence all your Obedience doth depend This is the Apostles Argument in the Text Work with Fear for God works in you both to Will and to Do. Holy diligence in Obedience cannot be more strongly enforced on an ingenious Spirit than by considering all that Strength and Ability that we have to work is received from God and therefore should be improved for God lest for our Sloth he deprives us of that we make no use of Thirdly In working fear God also as he that will be the Judge and Rewarder of your Works for ever You perform them unto him who is to pass Sentence upon them and upon you for them and will you then dare to do them slothfully and negligently God will try every Mans Work with Fire and will call every Action to a severe and strict account every Mans Work shall be seen through and through and then it shall be known who hath wrought the Works of God and who hath fulfilled the Will of Satan and the final Doom and irreversible Sentence shall then be pronounced according to Mens Works God will Rom. 2.7 8 9. says the Apostle render unto every Man according to his Works to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and Immortality to them he will render Eternal Life but to them that are contentious and obey not the Truth but obey Vnrighteousness he will render unto them Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul that doth Evil. Now would you but thus fear God as an upright and impartial Judge that will render unto every one according to his Works How would this prevail with you so to work that at last you might be found of God in well doing and receive the blessed Reward and Sentence of the diligent and faithful Servant To enter into your Master's joy Fourthly and Lastly If you would work for Salvation successfully then work speedily without delay and constantly without cessation First Work speedily without delay Delays in all Affairs are dangerous but in Soul Affairs usually they are damnable For First The longer you procrastinate and delay the greater and more difficult will your Work be at last Corruption will be grown more tuff ill Humours will be grown more stubborn your Heart will be more hardned your Affections being more habituated will be more firmly engag'd to Sin the Devil will plead right to you by Prescription and it is hard keeping an Enemy out that hath had long Possession Secondly Consider what a desperate Folly it is to put off your Work till to Morrow you are not sure that you shall live to see another Day And oh what Hazards do those Men run whose hopes of Heaven depend upon no better a bottom than their hopes of Life and whose eternal Salvation is subject to as many Casualties and Accidents as their present Beings in this World are subject to Mans Breath is in his Nostrils and yet how do Men suffer their Souls and their everlasting Happiness to depend upon nothing surer than their Breath that Breath that every moment goes forth from them and they know not whether ever it shall return to them again But suppose your Life and Days should continue and you should reach unto that time whereof you have boasted and promised to mind the concernments of your Souls eternal Happiness in yet consider Thirdly The Grace of God is not at your disposal for then either First The outward Call may cease or it may grow more faint and low you may not be so daily importun'd and solicited for Heaven as now you are Ordinances and Opportunities may cease or you for your contempt may be given over to a contempt and neglect of them Secondly The inward Dictates of your own Consciences and the motions of the holy Spirit may cease Conscience may be brib'd to a silence and the holy Ghost may be commissionated to depart after this present opportunity and never more may you have its Breathings and Movings upon your Hearts if you do not now listen to them Thirdly If inward Motions do continue are you sure after this moments refusal that you shall obtain that Grace from God that may make you willing to close with those Motions Leave not therefore the eternal Salvation of your precious and immortal Souls at such Hazards and Delays Now is the acceptable time now is the day of Salvation to day therefore if you will hear his voice even while it is called to day harden not your Hearts for this
Conscience when it is under searching Convictions O the Smart and Anguish of a wounded Spirit when God instead of Balm shall only chafe it with Brimstone And yet this is the common method that God useth to prepare Souls for himself he seems to arm himself in all his Terrors against them singling them out to the Conflict and when they give up themselves for lost lying gasping for Hope scarcely at length is administred some few reviving Comforts It is with these as it was with the Children of Israel upon Sinai first they were astonished with a confused noise of Thunder the Air full of Lightning the Mountains all on a Flame and the Earth trembling under them before they heard that comfortable Voice in Exod. 20.2 I am the Lord thy God So is it with convinced Sinners God dischargeth his Threatnings against them that speak more dreadfully to them than a Voice of Thunder he speaks to them out of the midst of Flames and every Word scorcheth up their Hearts and when they stand trembling and despairing once at length they hear those reviving Words I am the Lord thy God What Hearts are there now that such a dreadful Mercy as this is would not over-aw Those Discoveries of Gods Love that break in upon the Soul in the midst of a doleful and gloomy Night of Despair and Despondency work naturally a sweet kind of Terror and a shivering Joy and that 's the first Consideration The dreadful method that God takes to procure Mercy for us even by the death of his Son and to apply Mercy to us even by the Terrors of a convinced Conscience is a sufficient Ground to affect our Hearts with Fear Reas 2. We ought to fear God tho' he be our God because it is possible to lose his Love and the Sense of it though we stand fully possess'd of his Favour Secondly Though God be our God yet to consider that it is possible to lose his Favour and the Sense of it this is enough to affect the Heart with a holy fear even of a reconciled God It is true God's Original and Fountain Love can never be dried up Whom he loves he loves unto the End Psal 89.33 John 1.13 And my loving Kindness will I never utterly take away from him Psal 89.33 But yet the Streams of this Fountain Love may be very much obstructed from flowing freely down upon us though we shall never again be Children of Wrath yet we may be Children under Wrath every presumptuous Sin we commit raiseth God's displeasure against us he is angry with us upon every more notorious and known Sin we commit and since then we are in danger every Day of falling into gross and foul Sins and are kept only by his almighty and free Grace from the worst what cause have we to fear lest we forfeit his Favor and turn his Displeasure against us Yea again though we should be preserved from Sin and continue in his Love yet we cannot assure our selves that we shall continue in the Sense and comfortable Apprehension of it Comfort is most arbitrary and at God's free Dispose neither hath he ingaged himself to bestow it upon any by any absolute Promise though now his Lamp shined clearly upon thy Tabernacle and thou rejoycest in his Smiles yet how quickly may he wrap thee up in a dark Night of Desertion and turn all thy Songs into Mourning Thou therefore that art now assured that God is thy God fear lest ere long thou mayest not think him to be so certain thou art he is so now yet before it be long possibly through thy Miscarriage thou mayest not think him to be so and it is all one as to Comfort or Discomfort whether God be thy God or not if thou dost not apprehend him to be so and therefore fear him Thirdly Reas 3. Why we should fear God because every Frown of our God touches to the quick Consider every Frown and Stroke toucheth to the Quick that cometh from a reconciled God and a loving Father and therefore the rather fear because he is thy God Every little Blow from a Father strikes deeper and causeth more Smart than greater Blows from other Persons others strike the Body but when a loving Father strikes he wounds the Heart So is it here the nearness of the Relation betwixt God and us puts an Anguish and Sting into every Correction As the Psalmist speaks in his own Case Psal 55.12 It was not an Enemy that reproached me neither was it he that hated me then I could have born it but it was thou a Friend mine Equal my Guide and mine Acquaintance These are sad Accents and so is it here The Blood of a Sin-revenging God may indeed break the Back but the Blows of a gracious and reconciled Father break the Heart Fear therefore lest through some Miscarriage of thine and such Miscarriages thou art every Day guilty of thou shouldest provoke thy God to lay some heavy Stroke upon thee which will be the more smart from the aggravation that provoked Love puts upon it And thus you see now in these three Particulars what ground there is from the consideration of God as our God to enforce a holy Fear of his divine Majesty upon our Hearts He is our God therefore fear him because the way that he became ours is most dreadful he is our God as yet fear lest we may not apprehend him so long he is our God therefore fear him because every Stroke and Frown from a God in Covenant comes with an aggravated smart and sting Why now this holy Fear as it is no Enemy to full assurance as I have shewed you so neither Secondly 2. Holy Fear is not contrary to the Love of God Is it any way prejudicial to a most ardent love of God Filial Love and Filial Fear are two Twins but not such as Jacob and Esau that strive to supplant one another The pure Flame of divine and heavenly Love is like other Flames the higher it mounts the more it vibrates and trembles Indeed St. John tells us 1 Joh. 4.18 opened 1 John 4.18 That perfect Love casteth out Fear It should seem then that all Fear of God is swallowed up in those Hearts that are once brought into an holy Love But the Apostle doth very well explain himself in the reason that he gives of this Assertion in the next Words Perfect Love casteth out Fear because Fear hath Torment in it Hence therefore we may distinguish of a twofold fear of God The one is tormenting causing unquiet rollings and estuations in the Heart in a sad suspense of what our future and eternal State may prove and this is slavish Now this Fear perfect Love casteth out and expells for where divine Love is perfected in the Soul there are no more such Suspences Hesitations and Doubtings what will become of it to Eternity Now by perfect Love may be meant either that state of Perfection to which we shall
attain in Glory where our whole Work to all Eternity shall be to love and please God or else that Perfection that consists in its Sincerity in this Life If we take it for that perfection of Love that shall for ever burn in our Hearts when we our selves shall be made perfect so it is certain it will cast out all tormenting Fears for certainly if in Heaven Hope it self shall be abolished much more shall Fear be abolished for there every Saint shall have much more than a full assurance even a full fruition of Glory and they shall know themselves to be for ever confirmed in that blessed state which shall prevent all doubts and fears If we understand it of that perfection of Love that we may attain to in this Life so also the strong and vigorous actings of Love to God casteth out all tormenting Fears It is not possible that that Soul that actually loves God with a vigorous and most ardent Affection should at the same time be rack'd with distracting fears of Hell and Damnation for it is the sense of God's Love unto the Soul that draws from it reciprocal Love again unto God We love him says the Apostle because he first loved us That is as strong as our apprehensions are of God's Love to us so strong will our Love be in its returns to God again Water riseth naturally as high as its Spring wherefore the assurance of God's Love being the Spring from whence our Love flows such as is our Love such will be our assurance also If then our Love be strong in its actings it must needs cast out Fear because it flows from that assurance with which tormenting Fear is utterly inconsistent But then there is another kind of Fear that is not tormenting and that is an awful frame of Heart struck with reverential apprehensions of God's infinite Majesty and our own vileness and unworthiness and this perfect Love doth not cast out but perfects this awful sedate calm fear of God The Angels and the glorified Saints in Heaven whose Love is so perfect that it can neither admit of an increase or abatement yet they stand in aw and fear of the terrible Majesty of the great God the same infinit Excelencies of the divine Nature that attract their Love doth also excite their Fear See how the Prophet makes this an Argument to fear God Jer. 10.7 Who would not fear thee O King of Saints For said he in all the Earth there is none like unto thee One would rather think Gods unparallel Excellencies and Perfections should be a Motive to Love who would not love thee O King of Saints since there is none in all the Earth like thee Yea but filial Fear and filial Love are of so near a kind and cognation that they may well be enforced by one and the same Argument Who would not fear thee for in all the Earth there is none like thee This is the Excellency of divine Love it is an attractive of Love and it is an excitement unto Fear Well then though we have no chilling Fear of a hot and scorching Hell yet let us have an awful reverential Fear of the glorious God whose Excellencies are such as cannot be matched nor scarcely imitable by any in Heaven or in Earth Thirdly 3. A holy Fear of God is not contrary to the Spirit of Adoption The Fear of God is not contrary to that free Spirit of Adoption which we receive in our first Conversion It may perhaps seem to some that the Apostle opposeth them in Rom. 8.15 You have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to Fear but the Spirit of Adoption whereby you cry Abba Father To this I Answer That by the Spirit of Bondage here the Apostle means the legal Work of the holy Ghost in Conviction that is preparatory to Conversion which Work usually is accompanied with dreadful Terrors apprehending God not as a reconciled Father but as an incensed and severe Judge why now says the Apostle You have not received this Spirit of Bondage again thus to fear this is not that Fear that the consideration of God as your God and reconciled Father excited to you this is not that Fear that the Apostle exhorts Christians unto but an awful reverential Fear of God whereby we should stand in aw of his dread Majesty so as to be preserved from whatever may be an offence to his Purity and if in any Night of Desertion it should happen that the Hearts of true Believers should be overwhelmed with dismal Fears apprehending God as enraged and incensed against them standing in doubt of the goodness of their spiritual Condition if this seize upon them after they have had the Spirit of Adoption let them know this Fear is not from a Work of the Holy Ghost in them they have not received the Spirit of Bondage again so to fear it is not a Work of the Holy Ghost to excite in them doubts and fears of their spiritual Condition after they have once had assurance of the goodness thereof but it ariseth either from some Ignorance or from some Sin that they have committed that interposeth betwixt them and the clear sight of the discoveries of God's Love Now for the better understanding of this place because I judge it pertinent to my present purpose I shall open it to you somewhat largely in these following Particulars 1. The Work of Conversion is usually carried on by legal Fear and Terrors First The preparatory Work of Conversion is usually carried on in the Soul by legal Fears and Terrors I call that a legal Fear that is wrought in the Soul by the Dread-Threatnings and Denunciations of the Law The Law if we take it in its native Rigour without the merciful qualification of Gospel-grace thunder'd out nothing but Execrations Wrath and Vengeance against every Transgressor of it representing God armed also with his almighty Power to destroy them this is that Glass that shew'd them their old Sins in most ugly Shapes now they see them stare ghastly upon their Consciences that before allured them the Scene is quite changed and there are nothing but dreadful Apparitions of Death and Hell fleeting now before them Hell belsh'd in their very Faces God brandished his flaming Sword over them ready to reeve their Hearts asunder they that lately were secure and fearless now stand quaking under the fearful expectations of that fiery Wrath and Indignation that they neither have hope to escape nor yet have they Strength or Patience to endure This is that legal Fear that the Curse and Threatnings of the Law when set home in their full acrimony work in the Hearts of convinced Sinners Secondly 2. Slavish Fear engenders unto Bondage This legal Fear is slavish and engenders unto Bondage There is Bondage under the reigning Power of Sin and there is a Bondage under the terrifying Power of Sin The former makes a Man a Slave unto the Devil and the latter makes a Man a
the sense of divine Comfort As it is in clear Water when it is still and transparent the Sun shines to the very bottom but if you stir the Mud presently it grows so thick that no Light can pierce into it So is it with the Children of God though their apprehensions of God's Love be as clear and transparent sometimes as the very Air that the Angels and glorified Saints breath in in Heaven yet if once the muddy Humor of Melancholy stirs they become dark so that no Light or Ray of Comfort can break in to the deserted Soul And then sometimes the Devil causeth these Tragedies by his Temptations that so if it were possible he might drive them to Dispair he hated their Graces he envies their Comforts and therefore he would persuade them that all their former Joys were but Delusions proud Dreams and presumptuous Fansies and that they are still in the Gall of Bitterness and in the Bond of Iniquity and by such Suggestions as these are when he cannot hinder the Work of Grace he strives what he can to hinder the Sense of Comfort When therefore those that have once rejoyced under the comfortable Persuasions of God's Love to them the Holy Ghost witnessing himself to them to be a Spirit of Adoption by being in them a Spirit of Sanctification if they now find themselves under the Bondage of legal Fears and Terrors and slavish Dejections looking upon themselves as under the revenging Wrath of God and as Persons devoted to Destruction let them know such Fears proceed not from the Convictions of the Spirit of God who hath been a Spirit of Adoption but it proceeds from the Delusions of Satan for those that once receive the Spirit of Adoption never receive the Spirit of Bondage again to fear that is to fear with a slavish tormenting Fear Sixthly 6. We ought to fear God tho' we know him to be our God A reverential filial Fear of God may and ought to possess our Souls while the Spirit of God who is a Spirit of Adoption is by the clearest Evidences actually witnessing our Son-ship to us Let Men boast what they will of their high Gospel-attainments yet certainly they have not the genuine Disposition of God's Children whose Love to him is not mingled with Fear and whose Fear of him is not encreased by their Love Love it is the Gage and Measure of all our Affections and according to the proportion of our Love to God such will be our Fear that is the more we love God the more we shall fear his Displeasure and the Loss of his Favour It is in vain for us to pretend love to God as our Father unless we fear him also as our Lord and Master Christ who was his only begotten Son and certainly had much more clear assurance of the love and favour of God than any adopted Sons can possibly have yet the Scripture ascribes an holy awful reverential Fear of God even unto him Heb. 5.7 When he offered up Prayers with strong Cries and Tears and was heard in that he feared it may be render'd he was heard because of his godly Fear So in Isa 11.2 The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the Spirit of Knowledge and of the Fear of the Lord speaking of Christ If therefore he feared God who was himself to be feared as God equal to him and his eternal Son how much more ought we to fear the great God who are as it were but Up-starts in the Family of Heaven we wretched and forlorn Out-casts that were but lately raked out of the Dunghil and by meer Pity taken up into the Bosom of God and nurtured as his Children And thus you see the Fear of God is not in the least contrary to the free Spirit of Adoption Fourthly 4. A Fear of God is no Impediment to a holy Rejoycing in God An awful Fear of God is no Impediment to a holy Rejoycing Indeed slavish Fear damps all true Joy Those that Fear and expect the Revengings of God cannot have any true Joy they may have a kind of mad Jollity that spends it self in Noise and Tumults that may roar out Songs of Mirth only to drown the loud Roarings of their own Consciences Such as these are like your new Liquor that works over into Foam and Froth when the bottom is thick and troubl'd So in this false Joy the Countenance runs over with Laughter when yet the Heart is brim full of the Wrath of God of such the wise Man speaks Prov. 14.13 Prov. 14.13 Even in Laughter the Heart is sorrowful But now a filial fear of God puts no check at all upon our holy Rejoycing in him spiritual Joy is not of that flashy Nature but it is a sober and a severe Grace it is Joy mixed with Fear and because of the mixture of these two together the fear of God with joy in the Lord therefore we find these two are promiscuously ascribed each to other so in Isa 60.5 Their Hearts shall fear and be enlarged You know it is the property of Joy to extend and enlarge the Heart Fear contracts and draws it together but here Fear is said to dilate the Heart to denote to us that a Christians Fear is always conjoyned and mingled together with his Joy And so on the other Hand it is said Psal 2.11 Psal 2.11 Serve the Lord with Fear and rejoyce with Trembling Fear with Trembling is more proper and natural but because of the mixture of these two Graces in the Heart of a Christian therefore the Holy Ghost thus expresseth it Rejoyce with Trembling for great Joys as well as great Fears cause a kind of trembling and fluttering in the Heart As it was with the two Women whom the Angels assured of Christ's Resurrection Mat. 28.8 Mat. 28.8 They departed from the Sepulchre with Fear and great Joy So is it with those Christians who by the Eye of Faith looking upon the Death and into the Sepulchre of Jesus Christ are assured that he is risen for their Justification cannot but have their Hearts filled with a quaking and a fearful Joy Even a Christians strong Praises are breathed out with a shaking and a trembling Voice so that godly Fear is no Impediment to a holy and a severe Rejoycing in God as our Saviour Fifthly 5. Godly fear lays no check on our freedom and boldness with God Godly Fear lays no check upon our holy freedom and boldness with God God hath established a Throne of Grace whereon he sets and unto which he invites his People to approach with a becoming Confidence Heb. 4.16 Let us come boldly to the Throne of Grace As that Emperor counted his Clemency disparaged when any delivered a Petition to him with a shaking Hand as though he doubted of his Favour so God loves when we make our Addresses to him that we should do it with full assurance of Faith nothing doubting of acceptance with him and of an Answer
from him He that asks timorously only begs a Denial from God But yet that this boldness may not degenerate into rudeness and irreverence he requires that our Freedom with him be tempered with an awful Fear of him We must come in all Humility and Prostration of Soul with broken Hearts and bended Knees to touch that golden Scepter that he holds forth to us Thus you see in these five Things how consistent the Grace of Fear is with other Graces of the Spirit it is no Impediment to a full Assurance it s no Hinderance to Love it s no Impediment to a Spirit of Adoption nor to a holy Rejoycing no nor to a holy Boldness Wherein slavish and filial Fear differ Now because I have made frequent mention of filial and slavish Fear that you may the better understand what each of these means I shall briefly give you the difference betwixt them In their Concomitants and in their Effects Now they differ in their Concomitants and in their Effects 1. In their Concomitants First Slavish Fear hath always two dreadful Concomitants and they are Dispair and Hatred or Enmity against God 1. In slavish Fear there is always some degree of Dispair In slavish Fear there is always some degree of Dispair Now this slavish Fear is joined with dreadful expectations of Wrath. A Slave that hath committed a Fault expects no other than to be punished for it without Mercy So those that lie under this slavish Fear apprehend and account of God no otherwise than the slothful Servant as a severe Lord and a cruel Tyrant that will exact Punishment from them to the utmost of their Deserts they expect no other but that certainly God's Wrath will kindle upon them and burn them eternally and this makes them live as the Apostle speaks in Heb. 10.27 In certain fearful Expectations of Wrath and Indignation that shall devour them as Adversaries This kind of horrid Fear I doubt not but is common to most wicked Men and though they brave it out and most of them speak high Matters of their hopes of Heaven and Salvation yet at the same time their own Hearts and Consciences tell them sad and misgiving Stories of Hell and everlasting Wrath. But now a true and filial Fear of God looks at the Wrath of God with Dread and Terror but not with Expectation there 's the Difference Slavish Fear looks upon the Wrath of God and expects it Filial Fear looks upon it as due but not with Expectations that it should be inflicted upon it 2. Slavish Fear is accompanied with hatred of God 2. Slavish Fear is always accompanied with some degree of Enmity and Hatred against God It is natural for us to hate those that we fear with a slavish Fear He that thinks God will certainly punish him must out of self-love needs be provoked to hate God Hence is it that the Soul that lies under the Terrors of the Law wisheth that there was no such thing as Hell and eternal Damnation nay that there was no God to inflict this upon it This proceeds from this slavish Fear of God But now a reverent Fear of God is joined with a holy Love as Children who love their Parents but yet stand in awe of them So much for the Concomitants of this Fear 2. They differ in their Effects Secondly For their Effects and that both as to Sin and as to Duty 1. As to Sin 1. As to Sin Slavish Fear dreads nothing but Hell and Punishment but godly Fear dreads Sin it self The one fears only to burn the other fears for to sin As Austin saith well He fears Hell only who fears not to sin but fears to burn but he fears to sin who hates sin as he would hate Hell 2. Slavish Fear usually restrains only from external and those also the more gross and notorious Acts of sin but holy Fear over-awes the Heart from inward and secret Sins yea from the least Sins whatsoever And then as for Duty also 2. As to Duty in two Things briefly First A slavish Fear of God makes Men to consult how they may fly from God As Adam did when he had brought Guilt upon his Conscience by his Fall he hides himself from God in the Garden Guilt loves not the presence of its Judge But godly Fear is still exciting the Soul to approach near to God in Duty And therefore David saith Psal 5.7 In thy Fear will I worship towards thy holy Temple The Fear of God encourageth the Soul in the performance of Duty Secondly Slavish Fear contents it self with external Performances Just so much as will serve the turn to satisfie the Demands of Conscience but holy Fear sanctifies the Lord in Duty as well as satisfies Conscience And therefore you have it in Isa 8.13 Sanctify the Lord of Host in your Hearts and let him be your Fear and your Dread Thus much briefly for the difference betwixt filial and slavish Fear Use 1 I come now to the Application And the first Use shall be by way of Corollary If the consideration of God as a consuming Fire ought to affect the most assured Christian with a holy Fear and Dread of God how much more then may it shrink and shrivel up the Hearts of ungodly Sinners If it make God's own Children to tremble to look into Hell and to see those heaps of miserable Wretches that are there burning for ever shall it not much more make you to tremble who are liable every moment to be bound in Bundles and to be cast in to burn among them When a City is on Fire it is terrible to see it rage afar off to see it spue up Smoak and Flames tho' at a distance and he that is not affected with it is Inhuman but he is more than stupid that doth not tremble to see it devour whole Streets before it ruining all till it approach near his own Dwelling Why Sirs this consuming Fire hath already seized upon Millions of others and burnt them down into the lowest Hell Do not you hear Dives in the Gospel cry Fire Fire The greatest part of the World is already burnt down and if their Case makes not your Hearts to shake and tremble yet methinks your own should This Fire is catching and kindling upon your Souls and the next moment may make you Brands in Hell But alas what hope is there to affright Men that are fast asleep Such a dead Security hath seized upon the Hearts of most that it is almost impossible to rouze them and but little hope but that they will be burnt in this their Sleep Yet if it may be possible to awaken you consider 1. God's Wrath against Sinners makes him terrible to his Saints First That it is only God's Wrath against Sinners that makes him terrible to his Saints They are afraid of that fiery Indignation that burned against the Wicked and shall not the Wicked then much more be afraid that must
as their more foul Sins are done away by particular Acts of Repentance so these are done away by a general state of Repentance which state the Children of God are always in and there is also a constant out-flowing of the Blood of Christ and of the Mercy of God upon the Soul to remove the Guilt and Filth of those Sins as we fall into them Then is the Conscience clear when all former Sins being pardoned to us we daily labour to please God though it be with manifold Imperfections and Weaknesses this doth not hinder but that our Consciences may be both pure and peaceable while we thus sincerely strive to keep our selves from all wilful and from all presumptuous Sins our Consciences are clear notwithstanding the Sins of daily Infirmity So says the Psalmist Psal 19.13 Keep back thy Servant from presumptuous Sins Psal 19.13 then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great Transgression That 's the first thing Conscience is clear when it 's free from all known and wilful Sins 2. Then a Man hath a clear Conscience when it is not justly burdned with the Guilt of Sin I say not justly burdned 2. When it is not justly burdened with the guilt of Sin because sometimes we may burden our selves without cause when God hath already forgiven us Many times through Temptations and Desertions God's Children reflect back upon their old Sins with new Troubles and rip up their old Wounds and make them bleed afresh they remember against themselves what God hath forgotten and with great Terrors accuse and condemn themselves for what God hath already remitted to them Now here I shall lay down two Things First That every quiet Conscience is not a clear Conscience Secondly That every troubled Conscience is not an evil Conscience First 1. Every quiet Conscience is not a clear Conscience Every quiet Conscience is not a clear Conscience Some are lull'd asleep in security and their Consciences are quiet meerly because they are insensible it may be they have so harrassed and wasted their Consciences by dreadful Sins so often mortally wounded them that now they have not Strength enough to become quarrelsome and troublesome and this they call Peace indeed it is such a Peace as Galgathus reproaches the Romans with in Tacitus when they had laid all wast then they called it Peace So these Sinners think they have good peaceable Consciences because they do not menace torment and worry them and alas how can they their Consciences are murdered there is no Sense nor Life left in them This is no Peace but a meer Solitude and Desolation of Conscience and yet believe it too these quiet and peaceable Consciences will not be long so at the Hour of Death or if not then the next moment after Death these peaceable Consciences will be startled out of their Sleep and with fearful Screeches fly in their Faces and roar so loud that Heaven and Hell shall hear them As in still Weather many times Matter is gathering for a Storm so while Conscience seems so still and quiet it is only gathering Matter for a Tempest that will one Day pour upon your Heads and O! how grievous will it be when those Consciences that never gave them an ill Word before shall on a sudden drag them before the Tribunal of God and there bitterly accuse them of those horrid Sins that once they seem'd to take no notice of and call for the severest execution of divine Wrath and Vengeance upon them And possibly many that speak of the Peace of their Consciences do not find it so neither they are as far from a peaceable Conscience as they are from a raving and a raging Conscience A raving Conscience soon discovers it self in hellish Despair but there are many whose Consciences do not rave and yet are never quiet they give them many a secret twitch and guird at the very Heart not outwardly discernible by others as Thunder rumbles long in the Entrails of a Cloud that never breaks forth into dreadful and terrible Cracks so a Man may have a rumbling and a grumbling Conscience a Conscience that may murmur and scole upon him and yet he may carry it as if all were calm and serene with him However tho all within may be quiet yet a quiet Conscience may be a polluted Conscience as a standing Puddle may be as foul as the raging Sea when it casts out its Mire and Filth 2. Every troubled Conscience is not an evil Conscience Secondly As every quiet Conscience is not a clear Conscience so every troubled Conscience is not an evil Conscience Hypocrites and wicked Men may indeed and do often so judge Would God ever suffer such strange Terrors to seize upon Men were they not notorious Sinners As those Barbarians at Malta spoken of in the Acts when they saw the Viper fasten upon the Apostle's Hand presently they concluded that he was some wicked Person whom divine Vengeance would not suffer to live So these Men when they see the Worm of Conscience fasten upon others presently they judge them guilty of notorious Crimes such Crimes for which the Vengeance and Wrath of God pursues them but this is a wrong Censure and most unjust For the most part it is seen that those that have the best Consciences are most troubled at least for a time until the Holy Ghost persuade them of the Love of God and of the Pardon of their Sins It is the greatest Fault of a tender Conscience that it mis-interpretes every thing against it self and oftentimes when God rejoyceth over it it apprehends he frowns upon it mistaking the firing of a Burn-fire for the firing of a Beacon and give an Alarm when they should proclaim Peace and Joy many times it is so with them that have tender Consciences a Man may be long troubled for those Sins that are already pardoned to him Nathan comes to David and tells him upon his Confession that he had sinned 2 Sam. 12.13 I have sinned 2 Sam. 12.13 says he and God by Nathan tells him that he had put away his Sin from him and yet his Conscience though it were clear in respect of any Guilt that God charged upon him yet it was not clear in respect of what he himself charged upon himself he thought himself guilty in his own apprehension as you may perceive by his penning of the 51st Psalm yet he was not guilty in God's Account for he assures him by his Prophet that he had pardoned him Question Why now it being so that both a quiet Conscience may be impure and that a troubled Conscience may be a clear Consciene how shall we know whether when our Consciences are troubled it be from the Guilt of Sin remaining upon them or whether when they be clear and quiet it be from the removal of that Guilt How a Man may know when his Conscience is troubled from the guilt of Sin remaining upon it or not
For answer unto this first it may be known when a Man's Conscience is troubled from the guilt of Sin remaining upon it by considering the effects of this Trouble Doth he find that when Conscience is disquieted he is apt to shift off the Trouble by diverting it and doing what he can to lull Conscience asleep Doth he neglect Prayer Reading of the Word and other Duties and Means that God hath appointed to bring him to a true Repentance for his Sin if it be so this Man hath great cause to fear that the trouble of his Conscience proceeds from the Impurity and Defilement of it Where God will save the Soul this trouble of Conscience works in another manner and stirs up a Man to Pray to Hear to Meditate upon God's Word where his condition will be stated to his Hand to follow God in all his Ways and Ordinances making him restless till he come to know that his Sins are pardoned and his Wounds healed and closed up by the Blood of Jesus Christ Now many there are in whom the troubles of Conscience never produce any good effects but all their care is low they may divert all troublesome and disquieting Thoughts from themselves and so they wear off Convictions Now this Trouble can never produce any saving effect and is it self produced meerly from that corroding and gnawing Guilt that lies upon Conscience which a true and genuine Trouble is a means by God appointed to remove Secondly How a Man may know when his Conscience is quiet whether it be because guilt of Sin is removed or not How may a Man know when Conscience is quiet whether it be quieted upon God's Grounds because the Guilt of Sin is removed from it To this I answer it must be considered whether quietness of Conscience comes after Trouble and if Conscience be quiet after Trouble then you must consider how it came to be quieted Did you wear it away with other Businesses Or did you seek to God by Prayer and applying of the Promises to your selves Did you in the way of God obtain Peace Why now if a Man's quietness that he hath be got after Trouble and if got in God's way that way that he hath appointed to still and to quiet the Conscience you may then satisfie your self in it But when as you never have been troubled or having been troubled have worn it off you may be assured such a Peace of Conscience is far worse and more dangerous than the most horrid Troubles and Disquietments of Conscience that can be I come now to the third general Head propounded and that was to shew you What great Importance and of what beneficial Consequence it is to keep our Consciences clear and inoffensive And in speaking unto this I shall at once both give you the Reasons of the Point The Excellency of a clear Conscience opened in six Particulars Why it should be our continual Endeavour to keep clear Consciences and also give you Motives to persuade you to the Duty I shall only name Six 1. It is a most comfortable Relief under false Reproaches First A clear Conscience is the most comfortable Relief under false Reproaches and Aspersions that are cast upon us A good Conscience is only in our own Power but a good Name is in the Power of every slanderous Tongue to blast and indeed it is a thing almost impossible to keep at once both a good Conscience and a good Name too The World is shattered and fractured into so many Parties and each of them of such different Relishes of good and bad that unless our Actions have as universal a Gust as according to the Rabbin's Tradition the Israelite's Manna had that it had the taste of that which they best fansied unless our Actions have such a universal Gust we must of necessity fall under Mis-constructions Censures and Defamations for indeed if you observe it usually our Similitude to others makes them think and speak well of us Whosoever commends another commends somewhat that he supposeth at least he hath in himself and this is the reason of that Woe of our Saviour Luke 6.26 Luke 6.26 Woe to you when all Men shall speak well of you When wicked Men speak well of us it is a Sign we are but too too like them Even a Heathen could say when he was highly applauded by the vulgar Rout What Evil have I done that these Men praise me The very reproaches of ungodly Men are the best Testimonials that can be given of an excellent and singular Christian In a strict and holy Conversation there is that contradiction to loose Prophaneness of the World as at once both convinceth and offends them reproves them and galls them and if we thus reproach them by our Lives we must again expect that they will reproach us by their Lyings and Slanders It is a sinful tenderness of our esteem among Men when we tack about with every popular Breath that blows such must needs prefer the Praise of Men before the Praise of God and let me tell you this is as fruitless as it is sinful since as the Wind always blows from contrary Points and Quarters so while some extol us others will as much vilify and scorn us It is miserable to live upon the Reports and Opinions of others let us not reckon what they say but what Reports our own Consciences make us it is far better to offend the whole World than God and Conscience And if any storm of Obloquy Reproach Railing or bitter Cursing at any time patters upon us how sweet then is it to retire inward to the calm Innocency of our own Hearts where are a thousand Witnesses within us that tell us we have not deserved them How comfortable is it to remit our Cause to God and leave our Vindication to him for whose sake we suffer Reproach Thus we find the Prophet Jeremy appealing unto God Jer. 20.10 12. Jer. 20.10 12. I heard the defaming of many report say they and we will report it that is let us raise a disgraceful and a reproachful Report of him But says he O Lord of Host thou that triest the Righteous thou that seest the Reins and the Heart unto thee have I opened my Cause Why thus if while wicked Men are maliciously conspiring how to blot sully and stain our Names if all this while we can keep our Consciences clear what need we much care how the Wind blows abroad since we are harboured under the retreat of a peaceful Conscience They may possibly persuade others to believe their Calumnies but God who searcheth the Heart and Conscience knows that we are injured and he is hastning forward a Day wherein he will clear up our Righteousness and then the Testimony of one good Conscience will put ten thousand Slanderers to silence 2. It gives a Man advantage to reprove others with Authority Secondly A clear Conscience as it will enable a Man to bear Reproaches from others
of Love and Sweetness the Soul is ready to faint away and dissolve with Joy This is that continual Feast as the wise Man calls it that a good Conscience entertains a Christian with where all is transacted with a still and noiseless Mirth 5. It is the best Comfort and Support in the midst of Dangers Fifthly A clear Conscience is the best comfort and support when Fears Troubles and Dangers are on every side encompassing us about It is a blessed Thing when we have Trouble without to have Peace within in our own Bosoms then to have Peace with God and Peace with our selves And therefore says Christ John 16.33 These Things have I spoken unto you that in me ye might have Peace in the World you shall have Tribulation A strange Paradox but indeed a Christian is made up of such strange Paradoxes as Sorrowful yet always Rejoycing as Poor himself yet making many Rich as having Nothing and yet Possessing all Things as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 6.10 Here is Tribulation in the World and yet here is Peace also When once the great and bloody Quarrel betwixt God and the Soul is taken up and compounded when we are reconciled to God and thereby our Consciences become reconciled to us all the Enmity and Persecution of the World are but little peltring Differences that cannot disturb that solid and inviolable Peace that a Christian enjoys This is that Peace that as the Friendship of the World cannot give so neither can the Enmity of the World ever take away My Peace I leave with you my Peace I give unto you let not your Hearts be troubled It is observable of Josiah 2 Kings 22.20 God promised there by the Mouth of Huldah the Prophetess that he should be gathered to his Grave in Peace and yet in the next Chapter Verse 29. it is said there That he was slain in the War which he undertook against Pharoah Necho King of Egypt he was slain in War and yet died in Peace and no wonder for whosoever dies in Peace with God and in Peace with his own Conscience dies peaceably though he dies in the midst of Wars and Tumults Sixthly 6. It is an unspeakable Comfort in a dying hour A clear Conscience affords sweet and unspeakable Comfort in a dying hour When all Things must take their leave of us and we of them when Death is setting all its Terrors in Array against us O what a blessed Support will it then be to the departing Soul standing on Tip-toe ready to take its Flight into Eternity to be able to make that Appeal which Hezekiah doth Isa 38.3 Isa 38.3 Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in Truth with a perfect Heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Such a Testimony as this is at such a time as this is is worth Heaven and Glory it self this is to have Heaven let down into us one hour and to be our selves taken up into Heaven the next hour Now possibly Men may frolick away their Days in Sin and Vanity and live as if they should never give an account but believe it the Day and Hour is coming and it will come wherein Conscience will begin to open its Eyes when it may be their Friends stand round about them to close theirs and then it will see these horrid Shapes of Death and Hell and Wrath eternal such as while they were secure Sinners they never imagined and now that they are awakned Sinners and possibly awakned too late too they can never escape If therefore you would enjoy Peace and Serenity in your Death and â—ave the Testimony of your Consciences to carry with you to shew to your Judge for your Acquittance be sure then to cherish a good Conscience in your Life-time Now it may be Conscience may be bribed to give in a false and flattering Testimony but when Eternity is in its view it will then speak Truth and O thrice happy are they to whom a true Conscience becomes then an excusing Conscience And so much for the third Thing propounded namely of what concernment it is to labour to keep Consciences void of Offence Fourthly the next Thing propounded was To give you some Rules and Directions how you may get and also how you may keep clear and inoffensive Consciences Object But you will say It is in vain to give Rules for that which is impossible to be done Doth not the wise Man challenge all the World upon this Point Prov. 20.9 Who can say I have made my Heart clean I am pure from my Sins Never did the raging Sea cast up more Mire and Filth than the Heart of Man doth and as soon may we empty the vast Waters of the great Deep and scour the bottom of it from all its Dirt and Mud as attempt to keep Conscience clear into which a sinful Heart is continually emptying and pouring out its Filth and Mire Answ To this I Answer Were it impossible yet there is no release to our Obligation We are commanded To be holy even as God is holy whose infinite Purity is such as stains the Heavens themselves and puts the glorious Angels out of Countenance This Perfection is much more impossible for us who are but Lumps of Dirt mingled and kneaded together with Sin than for a thick Clod of Earth to be as transparent as the Sun that shines but yet these accessive Commands have a use in them even to raise up our Endeavors to a higher pitch and strain than if we were commanded only somewhat that were within our own Power as he that aims at a Star is like to shoot higher than he that aims only at a Turf Thus though it were impossible to keep clean Consciences void of Offence both towards God and Men according to the exactness of God's Command yet he that is careful to avoid all Pollutions both of Flesh and Spirit shall certainly have a much cleaner Conscience by far than he that wallows in those Sins In a foul way it is perhaps impossible to keep our selves from being bespatered with Dirt yet he that walks warily and carefully comes cleaner home than he that tumbles and rolls himself in it But yet this Duty is not impossible it is indeed difficult to keep a clear Conscience but yet it is a thing that is faesible And in general there are two ways to keep our Consciences clear either by preserving them from being defiled or else by cleansing them when they are defiled First We may keep our Consciences clear by preserving them from being defiled You will say How can this be Is there any Man living says the wise Man that doth good and sinneth not And doth not every Sin leave behind it a spot and stain upon the Face of Conscience How then can we keep them clear I Answer Sins are of two sorts there are Sins that are Crimes and there are Sins that are but Faults Crimes I call those Sins
He that eats doubtingly says the Apostle is damned if he eats Rom. 14.23 2. By giving it Strength to inforce us to the doing of Good and to the avoiding of Evil. Secondly Knowledge gives the Conscience Strength to enforce us to the doing of that which it discovers to be Good and to the Flight of that which it discovers to be Evil. A knowing Person cannot sin so easily as an ignorant Man may but he must struggle and wrestle harder and offer more Violence by far to his own Conscience A Man that sees his Danger before him will hardly be dragg'd into Precipices whereas one that is blind is easily led thither suspecting nothing So here a knowing Person that sees the Danger of Hell and Damnation before him if he sins it must be with a great deal of inward reluctancy An enlightned Conscience struggles and with-holds him and if Temptation be so violent as to wrest him out of the Hand of Conscience how is he wrackt and torn in pieces betwixt Conscience and Temptations and when Conscience hath lost its hold still it pursues him and follows him to his Sin and disturbs his Pleasure and imbitters that Sweetness that he thought to have found in Sin before and never leaves its Clamors till it hath at least by a hypocritical and formal Repentance and by Engagements to be more observing of the Commands of Conscience for the future satisfied and appeased it This force Conscience hath when it is duly informed with Knowledge But where Ignorance hath blinded it it suffers Men quietly to rush upon God's Neck and upon the thick bosses of his Buckler it sees not neither respects any Danger when it is even on the very brink of Hell An ignorant Person is like your benighted or bewildred Traveller which because it cannot see its own Way before it what is to be chosen and what is to be â—efused it lays the Reins upon the Neck of Men's Lusts and suffers them without controul to take their own course And therefore if you would have good Consciences get them rightly informâ—d with the knowledge of what is Sin â—nd what is Duty Secondly 2. Cast out the filth of Conscience by a daily and frequent Confession If you would have a clear Conscience then cast out the filth of Conâ—â—ience by a daily and frequent Confession Confession one of the Fathers calls it the Vomit of the Soul whereby it easeth it self when it is over-charged and glutted with Sin and Guilt And so the Scripture also speaks when the Apostle speaks of Apostates relapsing back again into their old Sins In 2 Pet. 2.22 he saith They return with the Dog to his Vomit that is they return and do again lick up those Sins which before they disgorged and cast up by Confession This indeed is the Way when Conscience is burdned with the Guilt of any Sin when Sin lies unconcocted and heavy within go then and pour out your Heart before the Lord in the Confession of your Sin see what sudden Ease this will bring in to Conscience David was Sin-sick and he resolves upon this course Psal 32.5 Psal 32.5 I acknowledged my Sin unto thee and my Iniquity have I not hid I said I would confess my Transgression and suddenly there came Ease to his Conscience and thou O Lord says he forgavest the Iniquity of my Sin Are our Consciences oppressed with the Burden and Weight of great and numberless Sins Here we may by an humble and penitent Confession unload them all before God and this is the Mystery of Confession the way to unload our Sins from off us is by taking them upon our selves when we charge our selves with them and impute them to our selves God will not impute them to us but charge them upon Christ for he hath promised If we judge and condemn our selves that we shall not be judged and condemned Thus in 2 Sam. 12.13 as soon as David â—â—d there by an humble Confession 2 Sam. 12.13 â—aken his Sin to himself saying I have â—â—â—ned God by the Prophet tells him That he had taken away his Sin from him The Lord also says the Prophet to him 〈◊〉 put away thy Sin And indeed â—â—ve we not found it thus by manifold Experiences that when Conscience â—ath been bowed down by the unsupportable Weight of the Guilt of Sin â—ave ye not found that a sorrowful and â—ngenuous Confession of them unto God â—ath lightned the Burden And whereâ—s before Conscience was heavy and gloomy now it looks chearfully upon you under the apprehensions of God's pardoning Grace that God will pardon and forgive them to us Now this â—asing of our Consciences by Confession must be frequently reiterated our Consciences are always filling with Sin and Guilt and therefore we must be always casting of it out by Confession As in the emptying of a Pond where there are many Streams rising and bubling up if we stop and intermit the Work the Pond grows presently full again Truly our Hearts and Consciences are like such Ponds in which there are many corrupt Streams still sprouting up now Confession is the Laving of it out which if we do but a while intermit our Consciences again grow as full of Sin and Guilt as ever and therefore it must be a frequent and daily Confession of Sin yea our Confession must be reiterated as often as we fall into and commit any Sin And that is another Means to keep our Consciences clear I might also add That an effectual Means to keep the Conscience clear is frequently to wash it with repenting Tears But because unfeigned Confession of Sin doth also include and suppose a penitential Frame of Heart I shall not therefore insist upon this as a particular Head In the Third Place therefore 3. Get a mean and low esteem of the World If you would keep your Consciences clear and inoffensive then labour to get a mean and low esteem of the World The inordinate Love of the present World is utterly inconsistent with a good Conscience What is it that makes so many offer Violence to their Consciences to stretch and wrack them to any base compliance or sinful practice but only that they may thereby gain some secular Advantage or that they may thereby avoid some worldly Inconvenience This is that which fills the World with Fraud and Cozenage with Rapine and Extortion while all tug hard to get one from another although they lose their Consciences in the Scuffle This is that which makes Men so often shift their Sails that they may run before every Wind that blows If Times grow ruff and tempestuous and they must throw over-Board either their Gain or their Godliness this inordinate Love of the World persuades them to make Shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience only that they may bear up in the World Now they that have but a low and mean esteem of the World such as it deserves escape this Temptation and they can with a holy
Generousness scorn to prostitute their Consciences and to barter their precious Souls for the Gain of any of these fading and perishing Riches here below Riches that perish in the using If therefore you would keep good Consciences learn to despise the Threats and Frowns the Flatterings and Fawnings of this World look upon it as of no great concernment to you whatever in Adversity or Prosperity can happen to you in this short and frail Life Reflect upon those who groan under the Terrors of a wounded Conscience all the World cannot give them one moments Ease or Comfort yea had they the whole World at their dispose they would give it all to procure Peace yea but a Truce for a while with their own Consciences such a vain and contemptible Thing is the World in comparison of inward Tranquility and Serenity of Mind Why now thus to rate the World below the Peace and Quietness of our own Consciences is an excellent Means to preserve them clear and peaceable Fourthly 4. Strengthen your Faith If you would keep Conscience clear labour above all things to strengthen your Faith Faith is a purifying Grace Acts 15.9 Purifying their Hearts by Faith Now Faith hath a double Influence to purifie the Heart or Conscience Faith purifies the Conscience two ways First 1. As it is a dogmatical Faith and so it doth it morally A dogmatical Faith keeps the Conscience clear and pure and that morally Secondly A justifying and a saving Faith purifies the Conscience and that mystically First 1. What a dogmatical Faith is A dogmatical Faith keeps the Conscience clear and pure A dogmatical Faith I call that which hath for its Object the whole revealed Truth of God and it is nothing but a firm undoubting Assent to the Verity and Certainty of whatever is contained in the Holy Scriptures upon no other Account and Reason than meerly the Authority and Veracity of God who is the Author of it This is a dogmatical or an historical Faith which though it be not Justifying as the Papists hold yet is it of a mighty Influence to sanctifie the Heart and to keep the Conscience and Conversation inoffensive and this it doth in a moral way For did but Men believe that Heaven is so unconceivably glorious sparkling with Light flowing with Pleasure resounding with Praises a Place where Joy and Bliss ever dwells and where we shall dwell too in an endless Eternity in the Smiles and Love of God if now but for a few short Years we strive to live holily did we but as really believe these Things to be true and certain as we know those Things to be true and certain that we see with our very Eyes what manner of Christians would this force us to be in all Holiness and Godliness of Conversation cleansing our selves from all Pollutions both of Flesh and Spirit Wherefore is it that the Promise of some temporal Reward the hopes of some mean Preferment from some great Person is of Force sufficient to make Men obsequious to them And yet the Promises that God himself hath made of Heaven and Glory in comparison of which to promise Crowns and Scepters is but to promise Pebbles and Gugaws work so little effect upon the generality of Men to allure them from Sin to a holy Life Whence is it but that Men believe not that Heaven is so glorious as the Scripture describes it to be Nay indeed if they would speak their Minds they are not yet sure whether there be a Heaven or not it is from their Unbelief Did Men but believe the insupportable Wrath of God those Horrors and Torments that Fire and Sulphur that Stench and Darkness those burning Chains and those fiery Whips the Woe and Anguish of the Damned in Hell which are as far from being utterable as they are from being tollerable did they as certainly believe these Things as if they believe them not they shall certainly feel them would they dare still to venture on to treasure up Wrath to themselves against the day of Wrath Would they still dare by wounding their Consciences now enrage them to their own Wounding and Smart for ever hereafter Would they dare to do it did they believe these Things Did they but believe that Conscience will be revenged seven fold on them for all the Wrongs and Violence that they have done it This Worm that they now carry in their Breasts frozen and benum'd shall be heated by the Fire of Hell and fly upon them and sting their Souls with a burning and flaming Anguish Did they believe this would they not be careful to give no Offence to their Consciences Would they not be as careful to avoid all Sin that arms the Terrors of Hell against them as they have Reason to think a damned Wretch in Hell who hath had the Experience of these Things would do if God would release him out of it with a Promise that he shall for ever escape it upon the same Terms that he hath promised us Think with your selves what effect the Sense and Feeling of those dreadful Things would have upon such a one to make him rigorously conscientious that in nothing he provoke so terrible a God or offend and irritate a revenging Conscience that will be sure to repay him home sevenfold into his own Bosom why the same carefulness and circumspection would it work in all of us did we as firmly and strongly believe those Things to be true as God hath evidently and clearly revealed them to be true in his Word It is true these Things we all know and we persuade our selves that we do believe them Do we not profess to believe that Jesus Christ shall judge both Quick and Dead and that all shall receive Rewards according to their Works those that have done Well shall receive the Reward of eternal Life and those that have done Ill the Reward of eternal Death These Things we may indeed profess to believe and these Things we may frequently represent to our own Thoughts but the weak and small Influence that these Things have to over-awe our Consciences evinceth clearly that this is not Faith but Fancy It is a wavering unevident Opinion that we have taken up and that we call by the Name of Faith for did we live in the Belief of these Truths we should no more dare to sin against our Consciences than if we saw Hell flaming before these Eyes of ours and knew that upon the next Sin we commit we were to be cast into it And thus you see a dogmatical Faith is a great Help to purifie the Heart and to keep the Conscience clear and inoffensive 2. As Faith justifies so it purifies the Conscience mystically 2. A justifying Faith also is of great use to purifie the Conscience And this it doth not morally by any natural Influence or Efficacy of its own but only mystically as it applies to the Soul the Blood of Jesus Christ that Blood that alone takes away
that require not much time to perform their Errands in for there is a holy Mystery in pointing our earthly Employments with these heavenly Ejaculations as Men point their Writings sometimes with Stops ever now and then shooting up a short mental Prayer unto Heaven such Pauses as these are you will find to be no Impediments to your worldly Affairs This is the way for a Christian to be retired and private in the midst of a Multitude to turn his Shop or his Field into a Closet to trade for Earth and yet to get Heaven also into the Bargain So we read of Nehemiah 2.4 Nehem. 2.4 That whilst the King was discoursing to him of the State of Judea it is said that Nehemiah prayed unto God that is he sent up secret Prayers to God which tho' they escaped the King's notice and observation yet were they so prevalent as to bow and encline his Heart 4. It is always to keep our Hearts in a praying Frame Fourthly and Lastly There is yet something more in this Praying without ceasing and that is this We may then be said to pray without ceasing when we keep our Hearts in such a frame as that we are fit at all times to vent our selves before God in Prayer When we keep alive and cherish a praying Spirit and can upon all Opportunities draw near to God with full Souls and with quick and vigorous Affections This is to pray without ceasing and this I take to be the most genuine natural Sense of the Words and the true Scope of the Apostle here to have the Habit of Prayer enclining them always freely and sweetly to breath out their Requests unto God They that would maintain a praying Temper must be careful of Two Things and to take all Occasions to prostrate themselves before his Throne of Grace Now those that would maintain this praying Temper must be especially careful of Two Things 1. That they immerse not themselves in the World First That they do not too much ingulf themselves in the Businesses and Pleasures of this Life for this will exceedingly damp and deaden the Heart to this holy Duty as Earth cast upon the Fire puts it out so the World when it is spread over the Affections must needs stifle and extinguish that holy Flame that should ascend up to Heaven How hard is it for a Man that oppresseth himself with a heap of Businesses to raise his Heart unto God under all that Load How hard is it for those that let out their Hearts thus too and fro a thousand ways to summon them in the next moment to attend upon God with that awful and serious Frame that becomes all those that appear before him When we come to Prayer reaking hot out of the Affairs of this World we find our Hearts subject to manifold Distractions and Discomposures and our Thoughts scattered like Bees still flying from one Flower to another still bringing some Intelligence from worldly Objects even then when we are about divine Employments Secondly 2. That they fall into no known and presumptous Sin If you would maintain a praying Temper of Soul be careful not to fall into the commission of any known presumptuous Sin The Guilt of Sin lying upon the Conscience will exceedingly deaden the Heart to Prayer Alas how can we go to God with any freedom of Spirit How can we call him Father with any Boldness and Confidence while we are conscious to our selves that we have daringly provoked him by some wilful Offence I may appeal to your own Experience in this Do not your Consciences fly in your Faces Do they not take you by the Throat and even choak your Speech while you are praying with some such Suggestions as these What can I pray for the Pardon of Sin that frequently commit that which I know to be Sin Shall I dare to lift up unclean Hands before his pure and holy Eyes or to speak to him in Prayer when as those Sins that rancor and fester in my Conscience must needs make my Breath unsavory and noisome to him Will the Lord hear such Prayers Or if he doth hear them will he not account them an Abomination You now whose Consciences thus accuse you do you not find such Reflections as these to be great Deadnings to your Hearts such Damps to Duty such Clippings of the Wings of the Spirit of God and takings off of the Wheels of the Soul so that it drives on but slowly and heavily in the performance of that Duty Certainly Guilt is the greatest Impediment to Duty in the World for it takes off from the Freeness and Filialness of our Spirits and fills us with Distrust Diffidence and a slavish Fear of coming before God rather as our Judge than as our Father And therefore we find that as soon as Adam had sinned against his Maker he hides himself from him Yea and we may observe it in our selves what a slavish dejectedness and deadness seizeth upon us when we come to God in Duty after we have wronged him by any known Sin how doth this make us come with such misgiving Fears as if we would not have God to take notice that we were in his Presence making us to be continually in Pain until the Duty be done And thus you see what it is to Pray without ceasing It is to pray constantly at set Times and Seasons it is to pray importunately and vehemently it is upon all Occasions to be sending up holy Ejaculations unto God and especially to keep alive and cherish a praying Frame of Heart Which whosoever would do he must beware of emerging himself in the World and of committing any known and presumptuous Sin And so much for the doctrinal part An Exhortation unto Prayer The Application shall be to stir us up and excite us to the performance of this Holy Duty wherein indeed the Vitals of Religion and Holiness do consist And to press this upon you consider with me these following Particulars 1. Prayer is a Sign of the new Birth First Prayer is one of the greatest Signs of a Man's new Birth As in the natural Birth we know the Child is living by its Crying when it comes into the World so also in this spiritual Birth it is an evidence that we are born living Souls to God when we cry mightily unto God in Prayer And therefore in Acts 9.11 Acts 9.11 when God sent Ananias unto Paul that he might take off that Fear from him that might otherwise seize upon him in going to such an enraged Persecutor as he was he tells him St. Paul was changed for behold he prays This is an infallible Sign that we are Children of God when we can with a Holy Reverence and Boldness cry Abba Father 2. Prayer is an inestimable Priviledge Secondly Consider it is a great and inestimable Priviledge that God will permit us to approach so near to himself that he will permit such vile Dust and Ashes
it are direct and certain and because if you once begin to work you shall most assuredly persevere till you have attained that End even the Salvation of your own Souls And this is one Reason why your Labour shall not be in vain Secondly Your Labour shall not be in vain because this End shall fully answer yea infinitely exceed all that Cost and Pains you are at in procuring it It is not so in the Things of this World As to this that of the Psalmist holds true Psal 39.6 Surely every Man walketh in a vain Shew surely they are disquieted in vain Though they do attain their End and that because that very End that they grasp is it self but Vanity But can any Man account Heaven and Happiness a vain Thing Is it not infinitely worth all yea more than all that thou canst do or suffer for it Certainly when you come to enjoy it you will not think it a hard Bargain that it stood you in so many Duties and Difficulties before you came to the possession of it No if there could be any Sorrow in that state of perfect Joy it would be not that we have done so much but that we have done no more not that we have gone through so much Anguish in Repentance or that we have sustained such great Conflicts in Self-denial and Mortification but that we waded no deeper in our own Tears and deeper in the Blood of our own Lusts that we have not more vexed and crossed our carnal self and taken more Pains in the ways of God could there be any Sorrow in Heaven this would be the cause of it But certainly a great part of our Joy there will be to reflect back upon those Duties and Works of Obedience through which though with much strugling and striving we have attained unto that most blessed State And this is the last Argument or Motive that I shall insist upon Work for your Labour shall not be in vain you shall certainly accomplish your End and this End shall abundantly recompence you for all your Labour and Pains Well then to conclude this Head you have at large seen what can be pleaded on the behalf of Obedience What is it now that you can Object against these Things Are they not true Are they not cogent Your Consciences I know tell you that they are so why then do they not prevail with you Why sit you still holding your Arms in your Bosoms Sirs I have not spoken to you Fables or Mysteries that cannot be understood but the Truth in all plainess and if you will not lay it to Heart believe it there is a Day a coming when you shall too late know that once you had a proffer of Salvation and you might have been happy for working for it But alas this is the desperate Folly of Men they do not prize Salvation while it is attainable they never account their Souls precious till they are lost yea and lost beyond all hope of recovery I cannot tell how these many and weighty Arguments that have been propounded may work with you God and your own Consciences know but this I can tell the Devil can never bring such strong Reasons why you should destroy and damn your selves as have now been laid before you why you should work out your own Salvation And if they do not prevail with you truly there is nothing that you can plead for your selves You cannot plead that you could not do these Things that Objection hath been answered you cannot plead that there would no Profit arise to you if you did them for the Reward hath been abundantly discovered to you if you plead any thing it must be because you will not do them and that is the thing that will condemn you Therefore if these Things do not prevail with you if you still continue obstinate and instead of working the Works of God you work the Works of your Father the Devil God acquits himself your Blood lies not upon him you have been fairly warned and told of it but your own Destruction shall justly lie upon your own Heads And thus having done with the Arguments to press you to this Duty of working out your own Salvation with Fear and Trembling I come now to Answer some Objections And Object 1 First It may possibly enter into the Heart of some desperate Sinner or other to say These indeed are strong Arguments that have been propounded for the inforceing this Duty of working out our Salvation upon those that expect Salvation but for my part I pretend not so high let me but now enjoy the Sins that I serve and the Pleasures that I pursue and for the state of my Soul hereafter I shall commend it to the Mercy of God had I true Grace I might be persuaded to attempt this hard Work with hopes of some good success but I own my self to be a Sinner and you tell me I cannot change my own Heart and without this change no Salvation can be expected why then should I disquiet my self in vain by labouring for that which I cannot accomplish If I must perish I will perish with as much Ease and Pleasure as I may if I must go to Hell I may be as soon carried down thither in a Flood of Tears as with a Flood of Sins if God hath sentenced me to Hell hereafter why should I sentence my self to a Hell here And therefore if Salvation and Happiness be such Points I will give them over and embrace more easie and obvious Pleasures I know there is no pious Heart but shivereth with Horror at such Language as this is though it be but presented to them and may and do think it rather the Speech of Devils than Men that are in a way of Salvation It is true it is the Speech of Devils but it is the Speech of Devils in Mens Hearts But what now Shall we leave these Men to such desperate Resolutions as these are Shall we suffer them thus to go down flaming to Hell Certainly Religion hath reason enough in it to convince such as these if they will but shew themselves to be rational Men. For Answ Consider thou who hadst rather perish than make thy Life a Trouble to thee by Obedience God under thy Disobedience may make thy Life a Trouble yea a Hell to thee by his Terrors Thou thinkest the filthy Garments of thy Sin and Pollution sit more easie and loose about thee than the close Garments of Holiness and Obedience will do nay but God can wrap and roll these filthy Garments of thine in Brimstone and set them on Fire about thine Ears Many Mens Consciences indeed are like Iron that hath lain for some time out of the Fire that you would not suspect to be hot till you let some Water fall upon it and then it appears to be so by its noise and hissing So truly their Consciences seem cold and dead and such as you might handle at your pleasure but when