there will be a time when judgment shall rejoyce over mercy for ever and it is much easier to change the seasons of the year that it shall not be summer and winter in its season rather then the seasons of the attributes of God for the curse is dying thou shalt dye Secondly No hope of mitigation or ease thy honours shall do thee no good it shall not descend after thee nor thy Riches shall not profit in the day of wrath Pro. 11.4 there is nothing but Righteousness can then avail thou shalt carry nothing with thee to bribe the flames or corrupt thy tormenters and not a drop of water Luke 16. not the smallest mitigation to eternity and this is properly the death of the soul loosing the soul Mat. 16.26 for so long the soul will live as long as there is hope but hope defer'd makes the heart sick and hope perished makes the heart dye the consideration of eternity swallows up a created understanding to be punished with eternal destruction depart into everlasting fire this is astonishment and dreadful amazement there shall be perfect fear for a man shall receive the spirit of bondage perfectly which is 2 Kin. 1.7 a spirit of fear we see it in the Devils Mat. 8.29 though they are in torment for the present yet there is a time of greater torment which they expect and that which they know they are reserved for and this they continually fear Luke 8.28 Here is the Dev. is prayer I beseech thee torment me not before the time c. so Dives though in torment yet he desires that his brethren may not come into the same place not that there is any charity in Hell for the Devil would have all men damn'd with himself and our natural affections shall cease in Hell but only fear of worse to come still remains Here in this life ungodly men are fearless and they seem to mock at fear as Job speaks c. but there is a time when their fear shall come Pro. 1.26 I will mock when their fear comes for it will come upon them as an armed man and the Lord will pour out upon them a trembling heart Deu◠28.65 and fear shall be on very side they shall be full of terrible apprehensions and so become Magor Missabib Jer. 20.3 4 Isa 13.8 their faces shall be as flames which denotes the variety of sad impressions upon them they shall change and be as tremulous as a flame Secondly The terrours of God shall set themselves in array against a man Job 6.4 and we know the terrour of the Lord how dreadful it is when he shall stir up all his wrath and thou shalt pay the uttermost farthing and he will recover all that glory upon thee by thy suffering that he has lost by thy sinning Thirdly Men may say but though I know not what God can inflict because it shall be his wrath put forth in the power of it though I know not what God can do yet I know what I can suffer but the Lord will surely inlarge the faculties and thou shalt be in a continual terrour that thou knowest not what the Lord will inlarge thee to suffer for thou art a vessel of wrath and therefore 't is said Psal 90.11 even according to thy fear so is thy wrath c. Fourthly Hence shall follow a distraction and madness Psal 88.15 while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted and also blasphemy I wish I were above God sayes Spira and a desire of annihilation wishing that he had never been Job 7.14 his soul chose strangling rather Judas does dispatch himself to be rid of his fears the wicked shall rise to judgment but they shall not be able to stand in judgment saith Spira this I know and it torments me with pangs unutterable and yet there is nothing that I desire more than that I might come unto that place where I might know the worst of my torment and so be freed from the fear of worse to come Nay fear doth anticipate our evils beforehand and thereby a man may even bring upon himself an eternity of torments at once in the fear of it the creature knows not the terror of the Lord unless it be discover'd to him my sufferings are great but my fears are endless and makes a man to suffer even an eternity of torments at once First Vse Seeing that Conscience shal be a mans tormentor at the last and that the Worm is bred from the putrefaction and corruption that is it the Conscience it should be a seasonable exhortation to get your Conscience purged that there may be nothing within you to breed this Worm 2 Tim. 1.3 We read of a pure or a purged Conscience and 〈◊〉 this be done thou needest not to fear for there will be nothing in thee fo◠this Worm to feed upon And here it will be good to consider First By nature thy Conscience i◠defiled for as upon the whole So◠defilement came by sin so Conscience having a special hand in the sin its defilement came specially upon the Conscience Secondly Tit. 1.15 Every sin committe◠adds unto this defilement as Mark 7.20.21 And this defiles the man there is not a vain thought in thy heart a vain word in thy mouth a sinful glance of thine eye Heb. 9.19 but it adds unto thy defilement for Jer. 17.1 It is Conscience that receives all and registers all all dead works lye there this is the Tophet or the Golgotha in the man all the filthiness of his life is there laid up as in a treasure for wrath and vengeance against the day of the revelation of the just judgment of God Jer. 2.22 Thirdly There is no power in nature to purge the Conscience for thou art dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2.1 And what can be more sutable to dead works should a man fast and pray could he fill the air with sighs and weep even to the brim it would add to his defilement because all the works of nature are dead works and their very prayers are turned into sin and their sacrifices are an abomination and that which adds unto his defilement can never cleanse it Fourthly If Conscience be not purged here it will never be purged hereafter Here indeed there is a plaister that will kill this Worm but if it out live the time of this life it is immortal it will never dye peccatum viatorum deleri potest Aquin. damnatorum non potest c. The Lord will say I would have purged you but you would not be purged therefore you shall never be purged from your iniquity for ever Fifthly There is but one medicine in the world will do it and if you miss of that you will dye in your sins and lye down with your Consciences full of the sins of your youth you may fly to prayer and preaching and think to have it done by these but it will never be there is but
3.17 be it known unto thee O King we will not serve thy gods c. Acts 1.20 We cannot but speak a necessity is laid upon me I must preach c. Jer. 20 9. The Word was in him as fire he could not forbear it is the impulse of Conscience that was the cause there is a double necessity Externa interna c. Now according unto this order and subordination of the faculties so shall the torment be Conscience is subject to none but God therefore the spirit of bondage shall come into the Conscience and trouble that and this shall torment the whole man and as God does usually set up Governours and they become Instruments of wrath over the kingdoms where they dwell if they be good they are a special blessing they are the breath of our Nostrils the stay of our Tribes the Chariots and Horsemen but if they be wicked they ruine the kingdom Psal 75.3 Saul had even destroyed the Nation they are ravening Lyons and evening Wolves Zeph. 3.3 So it is in the government of the inward man if the Conscience be good it s the greatest blessing and if evil the greatest curse for as none has the Power the Authority and the Opportunity to undo a people like those that have the Rule over them so it is with the Conscience there is nothing hath that Authority and Oppertunity to undo a man like it because it is alwayes with him where soever he goes and therefore 〈◊〉 Mala domestica Austine compare an evil Wife and an evil Conscience because they are both intolerablâ— burdensome evils a continual droping none have the Opertunity 〈◊〉 Torment like these Thirdly Conscience here has 〈◊〉 great hand in corrupting the whoâ— man and therefore it is no wondeâ— if hereafter it should have the greâ— hand in Tormenting him First Here Conscience is blinâ— and does not shew a man what is 〈◊〉 Duty and so many men Sin igâ—rantly for want of an inlightneâ— Conscience when the eye of 〈◊〉 man is darkned Math. 6. Hoâ— great is that darkness Secondly Conscience is dead a spirit of slumber is upon it that though it know things to be evil yet it stirs not against them or if it does it is but faintly but a good Conscience exerciseth Authority over the whole man and smites him when ever he does evil as 1 Sam. 24.17 Thirdly it is erroneous and carries men unto evil violently under a pretence of good a zeal not according to knowledg Joh. 16.2 For zeal persecuting the Church Tantus eram Saulus â—hat he thought him worthy of eternal death that descented from the Authority of his Religion in any thing it is from a deceived heart an erroneous Conscience Fourthly Conscience will be bribed by Lust takes in carnal reason and corrupt principles and will be satisfied in them Rom 1. imprisons truths in unrighteousness 1 Tim. 4.2 And it is insensible of any thing and it is just with God that that Officer in the man that had the great hand in corrupting should also have the great hand in tormenting the whole man Quest 4. Fourthly Why is not Conscience a Worm here as well as hereafter in Hell First Because Conscience cannot work of it self unless the Spirit of God awaken it c. Secondly Here is the working time of Conscience its suffering time shall be hereafter Here Conscience has great workes to do and great talents to imploy Heb. 13.18 The charge of the whole Life lies upon the Conscience and the Lord haâ— here a great house 2 Tim. 2.20 Understand it of the World or of the Church yet he has in it Vessek of Honour and some to Dishonour Now Why does God suspend the torment of the Devils It is because Christ has much work for them to do and they would have no pleasure in Sin if their Torments were fuller so it is with wicked men also and therefore the Lord has appointed a working time for Conscience to perform its viatory office and he has a pointed a suffering time for Conscience allo and he will not Torment them before that time Thirdly Hereby the Lord does exalt his own patience and long suffering so much the more for Sin being an infinite evil and a man that is but dust to provoke God to his Face and to do it the rather because God forbears them and sin the more because God forbears them and because of his patience because sentence is not executed speedily therefore the hearts of the children of men are fully set to do evil now that God should bear with much patience and long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction and that the Lord should not stretch forth his own hand against them but that he should also suspend the working of their one Consciences and should not let loose the reins upon them which would bring them down in the midst of their galantry as Belshazer Felix Judas c. And that God should keep a hand upon their Consciences and withhold their own thoughts from flying upon them it does wonderfully set forth the patience of God The Lord knows how to reserve the wicked to the day of wrath Fourthly Many things here which stop the mouth of Conscience shall hereafter be removed and then Conscience will speak The Worm of Conscience is to the Soul as they say the disease of the Wolf is to the Body If it be fed with something from without will eat the less inwardly but take away all supplies from without and it destroys inwardly as all the good things of this Life will be gone and then the Soul turns in upon it self and will be its own Tormentor foâ— ever Rev. 20.12 And I saw thâ— dead small and great stand before God and the Books were openedâ— and another Book was opened which is the Book of Life and the Deaâ— were judged out of those things whicâ— were written in the Books according to their works It is an allusion to the day of judgment That 's granted by all The books opened are First the book of the Law and Gospel Secondly of Gods Omnisciency Thirdly of his Decre Fourthly the book of Conscience All those ancient Records that lay hid as Colours in the dark Rom. 2.15.16 or as something that is written with the juice of a Lemon you may read it when you bring it to the fire but not till then But we will now set forth those Tormenting acts of Conscience hereafter which shall be as the gnawings of this never dying worm but before we come to speak unto them perticularly it 's necessary that these four things be premised First That after this Life the Spirit of God shall come into the Conscience of a wicked man as a spirit of bondage fully for ever Conscience is but a subordinate power and acts allways with reference to a higher Law as a rule and a higher power as a Judge it is Regnum sub graviore Regno And therefore it never works by it self
are evil and the false reasonings of sin in the Conscience the man cannot see men are given over to believe the lyes of their own spirits and cannot say is there not a lye in my right hand and a seared Conscience with a hot Iron that man despises the threatning and judgment of God 1 Tim. 4.9 and is wholly insensible as seared flesh And all this defilement is not brought into the Conscience from without but grows out of it by custome in sinning And the ground of it is because Conscience is the highest faculty and has the highest office in the man and therefore it is by corruption of the Conscience that all the rest of the faculties are so exceedingly corrupted as they are because Conscience doth not its duty and therefore God will mainly lay load upon the Conscience after this life as this had the main hand in defiling the man so it shall be the great instrument in tormenting the man for could men walk on in sin as they do if Conscience did its duty if it did instruct suggest accuse truly as in the name of God and never excuse but upon grounds from the judgment that God gives of things c. The great pollution of the whole soul flows from the pollution of the Conscience and therefore when the Papists do crowd down the defilement of the soul unto the inferiour faculties the affections and passions as if they were the sink of the soul and all the filthiness were swept down upon them but as for the understanding the will they are in a great measure free the Mistress or Lady in the soul and if a light be brought into the understanding the will has a power to follow and so say the Arminians also and it is a doctrine that spreads much amongst us so when you hear Divines say that of all the faculties the Conscience is the least polluted take heed of it for the main filthiness of thy soul lyes there And the reason that is commonly given is because Conscience in the worst men doth many times take part with God against sin when Lust carries a man and his will is very violently bent upon it but consider in an unregenerate man this doth not proceed from the purity of his Conscience even at that time when it doth take part with God but because there is the spirit of God comes in and stirs up Conscience and lays a command upon it and forceth it to do its duty which it would be glad to let alone and let Lust revel in it without controle it would surely gratify the affection it has to Lust but that the spirit of God comes in and over-aws the Conscience and doth awaken and terrify it and force it to speak and therefore it doth not any more argue the purity of Conscience then Balaams blessing of the people of Israel in the wilderness did argue his love to Israel whom he did earnestly desire to have cursed and did greedily follow after the wayges of unrighteousness but that the Lord held a strickt hand upon his Convcience that he durst not sin in it being over-awd but it was no thanks to Balaam And so it is here no thanks to Conscience which is corrupt and will by degrees grow insencible and incourage a man desperately in a way of sinning even to despight of the spirit of Gods grace Now How shall this defilement be purged all these dead works how shall they be cleansed It is by the blood of Christ First From the Holyness of his nature as he is our Head For by the blood of Christ is meant all his active and passive obedience and in his active obedience the holyness of his nature must be taken in as he was man he received the spirit He had a union and an unction from the free grace of the Father calling him to this great work and by a glorious sovereignty appointed Christ to be the head of his Church and the second Adam to stand in their stead to perform all for them and to receive all for them c. So he did receive the spirit as an unction from the Father Isa 42.1 I will put my spirit upon him he shall be cloathed with the Holy Ghost and put it on as a garment and this spirit he doth receive as a head that he may disperse it for the infinite holyness of the Divine nature could no more be communicated then the infinite righteousness of the Divine nature could be imputed and therefore he must perform perfect obedience in his humane nature for our justification that it may be imputed to us and he must receive perfect holiness in his humane nature for our sanctification that it may be imparted to us John 17.19 For their sakes I sanctify my self that is recieved a spirit of sanctification that it might be unto them a principle of holiness and the fountain of their sanctification also which I conceive to be meant by the Law of the spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 What is the Law of sin and death It is the power of sin to condemnation defiling and destroying and what is the Law of the spirit of Life it is put for the powerful and commanding work of the living and the quickning spirit of Christ and this Law not as it is in us but as it is in Christ it is this that frees us both in respect of justification and of sanctification also from the law of sin to defile and rule and also to condemn and to destroy and thus from the holiness of the nature of Christ it comes to pass that the same spirit that was in him is conveyed unto us his union did abundantly sanctifie him in himself it being persoual and therefore there was an inpeccability the actus est suppositi but his unction was for us he had a fulness of the spirit as he was our surety he paid our debt and as our head so he received a spirit for us and dispenced it to us c. thus you see the sanctification of the humane nature of Christ doth purge a mans Conseience from dead works even the Law of the spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus makes us free from the Law of sin Secondly There is in the blood of Christ a causa meritoria and it doth meritoriously purge the Couscience for though there was the fulness of all grace in the humane nature of Christ yet it could never have been conveyed unto us without a satisfaction had gone before God must be satisfied that men might be sanctified for there is in the sufferings of Christ two things First The payment of a debt Secondly There is a redundancy of merit some thing must be procured for man non solum instauratus est Aust sed melioratus à peccatis ablutus instauratus est in caeteris melioratus Aust Tom. 4.9 123. p. 613. First It
a greater discovery of truth in the latter days the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun Isa 26.30 c. And the Temple of God shall be opened in Heaven and they shall see into the ark of the Testament Rev. 11. and the Sea of glass that was first clear afterwards became as the blood of a dead man and afterwards a Sea mixed with fire will be at last a clear River of the waters of Life clear as Christal again and that the Lord will never leave refining and purging Religion Rev. 22. till he has taken of all that filthiness and defilement of Antichrist that he hath east upon it Heb. 12.28 This shall be the gain that we shall have by all the shaking of the things that are made a removing of all things in Religion that have onely the stamp and authority of man upon them which we are to wait and pray for Secondly So much in Religion as will stand with a mans credit profit and honour in the World that they can admit of but it is not good to be singular and too precise therein this was the principle that was in Jehues heart so much reformation as would establish the kingdome unto himself and his posterity he was zealous for but no more but if any thing do cross that then men rise up against it with Demetrius they will not hear of it for by this craft we get our wealth c. As the King of Navar answered Beza when he exhorted him to own the Protestant Cause and to appear for them seeing he professed to favour them his answer was se istoc pelago commisurum c. He would so far go and shew himself and Lanch into this Sea that he would make sure of a safe harbour so men will go no further in Religion then may stand with worldly interest and mens policies do set bounds unto their piety as we see by woful experience this day c. Whereas the Gospel rule is that a man must in the things of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let him utterly deny himself and he that loves Father and Mother more then me is not worthy of me God hates that Religion that shall cost men nothing the Lord calls for singularity in Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what singular thing do you and what do you more then others you talk more but do you do more and hazard more c. As singularity in a way of sin and pride is abominable to God so singularity in a way of holiness is well pleasing to him and for such is the Kingdom of Heaven prepared it 's a straight gate and a narrow way and there be few that find it the Lords flock is a little flock they are a singular Company they do not walk in the drove with the rest of the world but they follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes through thick and through thin as we use to say Thirdly They say there is no necessity of a work of conversion and regeneration as men do talk of for they that are born in the Church as we all are we are born in true Religion also it is the Heathens and Papists that are to be converted so did the Pharisees think that they needed no repentance though they could not deny but that they did sin and in many things offend therefore they must grant a repentance for particular acts of sin but as for that repentence which we call initial the change of a mans state that they did conceive the Heathen had need of but they had not for they were the seed of Abraham born in the Church to whom the Covenants did belong c. and men say there is no such inward power of godliness upon the heart as men speak of contrary to what Christ sayes to Nicodemus unless a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God and that to Timothy 2 Tim. 1.5 and 1 John 3.5 Acts 20.18 and yet they dare to say that all that profess it do but dissemble and they are hypocrites and it is ridiculous for the Church to require such an account of the workings of God upon their hearts before they are admited into the Church fellowship and Ministers now adays teach their people a canting language which all are to speak or else they are no Church Members whereas they say Religion consists in a fair outward just and unblamable carriage before men they have a form of godliness as sayes the Apostle Tim. 2.3.5 but deny the power of it and so the pharisees they did justifie themselves before men they were such as Sepulchres are that were outwardly fair made clean the outside only So these are civil men which are the worlds Saints whereas also there is an inward work wanting upon the heart there is a being changed in the spirit of their mind which they never experienced a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees and with out this converting grace all their works are lost not tantum peccata sed bona opera mortalia Fourthly They say it is an easie thing to repent it is but to cry Lord have mercy upon us and I am sorry for my sin when I am laid upon my death bed and I can no longer commit it then I hope I shall repent but Christ sayes its not so easie to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven it 's easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle then for a rich man to enter there and therefore he bids them strive to enter Judas did repent here and yet he is gone to Hell that is his place and truly there is and will be repentance enough in Hell to eternity if any repentance would serve the turne men may easily repent Acts 5.31 I but God accepts no repentance but true repentance and its God only that gives repentance unto life and being it is in his power Oh that the day of his power may be upon all that hear me this day that you may not think it so easie a matter to do this great work take heed least thy heart be hardened with the deceitfulness of sin Rom. 2.5 Fifthly They think God is mercifull and count it no hard matter to get the pardon of sin and think it not so great an evil as it is made out to be but a godly man that has been convinced of sin and converted from it he looks upon sin as the greatest evil and sees all kind of evil in it and every sin to abound in sinfulness and that there is more evil in it then in Hell it self for that is but against a created good and this against an uncreated good and the glory of God is dearer then Heaven and Earth to them Secondly The price that was paid to purchase our pardon from sin and defilement was the blood of Christ we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of