of all our carriage and particular actions and so it is looked on as some way different from us hence it is called a Testimony the testimony of our conscience Hence also a man will appeal to his Conscience and it doth when in any measure in exercise impartially and incorruptly bear witness and a manâ— Conscience will speak against him as if it were at all no part of him neither can he command it silence however then we call it It 's a power deputed in the soul of man by God taking orders from Him and fâ—om His revealed will and word and accusing or excusing the man as He directs It 's called Prov. 20. 27. The candle of the Lord it is above man in its sentencing and accusing and will not be commanded by him To clear it yet a little further there are in Conscience these Three things 1. There is the laying down of some ground such as the Law or the word of God by which it puts a man to tryal which is That we call the major or first proposition of the Argument As we may see in Iudas when his Conscience wakened it layes down this ground which is done by light he that is guilty of innoceat Blood hath broken the Law of God and may expect horrible Wrath. 2. There is an assuming which is the minor or second Proposition of the Argument or the Assumption if the man be guilty of such and such sin As thus But I Iudas am guilty of Innocent Blood and have broken the Command of God and this the Conscience by it's Testimony confirmeth Then 3. It draweth the Conclusion and speaks forth the mans Lot and gives out his Doom what he may expect as in the present instance thou Iudas mayest expect horrible Wrath from God this Conscience applyes and layes home unto him every Conscience hath these Three in less or more The way of Conscience its Reasoning and Concluding is different from a mans Knowledge and Light For a man may see Sin and not be touched with it It dâ—ffers likewise from the memory For a man may remember that which affecteth him not It differeth from Self-examination for that if it be meeâ— examination brings a man only to know that he lyes under such and such Sins so and so circumstantiaâ—ed though it make use of all these Three as it's Instruments yet it goâ— beyond them and hath a Pricking Stinging Paining Power It Accuseth Sentenceth Smiteth and sharply Censureth Whereas before Conscience act it's part a man may look often on his Sins and yet but overlook them And as to things that are right Conscience doth not only or barely look on them but it hath an approving Testimony which proveth comfortable there is such a thing as this in every one of you which will let nothing pass but more or less will take notice of it and either accuse or excuse you for it As to the 2d The use of Conscience or the Ends wherefore God hath put this in Men and Women which I shall draw to Three heads that may be as so many Reasons of the Doctrine 1. He hath done so for this end that by it he may keep up his Soveraignity Power and Terribleness and keep men under the awe and dread thereof For this which is called Conscience will make the stoâ—est to tremble it will Write and Impress so vâ—vely and deeply these great Truths that none shall be able to blot them out that there is a God that there is a Judgement to come and that all will be called to Reckoning which none will get eschewed It will fix and fasten such self-convictions on Sinners as will make them un-avoidably condemn themselves So Iohn 8. 9 10. When the Scribes and Pharisees bring a women taken in adultery to Christ intending thereby to trap and insnare him He sayeth He that is without sin amongst you let him cast the first stone at her Whereby their Consciences were made to bear such faithful Testimony against them and to carry such terror with it that they were all forced to steal away one by one and yet they needed not to have thought shame on account of any thing we hear men could have challenged them for But Conscience had such an awe and force on them that there was no resisting of it Scripture-history does also tell us that such is the power and force of Conscience when it is awaked that it will make the knees to smite one against another even of a Belshazzar and will make a Gouernour Felix to tremble A Second end is That God may hold Men and Women at their duty in going about these things which are commanded and prescribed by him and in abstaining from forbidden sins For if there were not some awe from Conscience what extravagancies would they loosly run into who have no fear of God and of his Word And thus Conscience hath a force to put men to duty in these respects 1 It discovers Duty and holds it before them when the Lord hath commanded to Pray read the Scriptures to keep the Church and wait upon Ordinances dispensed there to keep holy the Sabbath day c. Conscience puts a man in mind of these and when he neglects any one of them will say to him thou shouldest be in another place or about other work so when Davids heart smote him it helped him to see his Duty 2. There is an obligation to Duty laid on by Conscience so that the man cannot shift it he cannot he dare not say such a thing is not my duty for Conscience beareth it in and layeth it on him convincingly 3. There is an efficacy in Conscience to pouss to duty from this comes that restlesness and disquiet that is often in Men and Women when duty is omitted that they can have no peace till it be gone about 4. Conscience inviteth to duty by promising peace upon the performance of it On the other hand Conscience hath influence to restrain from Sin 1. By discovering such and such a thing to be Sin and though the Soul would notwithstanding endeavour to digest it yet Conscience makes a challenge to go down with it 2. By threatning the Sinner when it 's warning is neglected and not taken telling him that he shall repent it one day and that it will make him repent iâ— 3. By taking away the sweetness of Sin and leaving a sting in place of it as when Achab killed Naboth it said Hast thou killed and also taken possession And from this arise challenges and fears of the execution of threatned Judgements which quite mar the comfort the man expected in the enjoyment of such and such a thing in all which it keeps a majestick and stately divine way becoming Gods deputy and bears witness for him against the Sinner A 3d. end is To abbreviat as it were Gods process in judging men to justifie and clear him and to make way for his Sentence whatever it be 1. It conduceth 〈◊〉 it were to
Conscience for abstaining from such and such a practice only from long custome of doing so from the example of others or from loathness to displease them or only from dis-inclination to or aversion from the thing which they will not readily abide by if any considerable suffering whether of emergent loss or cessant gain be met with on account thereof whereby it comes to pass that Conscience and truly Consciencious persons are expoâ—ed to contempt and scorn Some standers by and lookers-on taking occasion to think and say that such persons have all the while been acted by no real principle of Conscience but only by humour or at best by the example of others to the great reproach of Religion and the holy profession there of and such as have a natural and unreasonable prejudice at all serious godlinesse and tendernesse of Conscience ly at the wait to fish and catch all advantages so fortifying themselves in their prejudice and are ready to draw their conclusions not only nor so much against the particular persons as against the whole generation of conscientious and godly people yea against godlinesse it self and tendernesse of Conscience their prejudice prompting them to think and say We alwayes thought that sort of men were not truly conscientious and godly whatsoever they professed and now we see and find them to be so and that we were not mistaken but in the right when we thought them to be such they are all such all of a piece acted by no true principle of Conscience but by humour peevishnesse or some such thing notwithstanding of all their high floun pretensions of Conscience for let them but be put a little to it and all their Conscience-pretensions will be quite relinquished and evanish and they will be and do like others which gives ground to sober and truely conscientious persons to think that it were better and more for the advantage and credit of Religion and of the real pleas of Conscience that it were never pretended in such things where it is only pretended I will not I dar not say but a truly conscienscious person may by the more closse approaches of trouble and suffering on the account of some particular debated practice or forbearance be put upon more narrow and exact inquiry into and examination of the grounds reasons of that practice or forbearance And may after such inquiry and examination come from more clear light to have different apprehensions about the thing from what he had before Though the clearnesse win at which is waited with the eschewing of trouble and suffering would be holily jealoused and suspected and brought to the light of the Word to be thereby scrutinously accuratly and impartially tryed least self-love in such a case bribe as it were and byass the persons judgement and light 2dly When Conscience is pretended in minute small petty and comparatively inconsiderable things while in the mean time little or no Conscience at all is made of but vast and unlimited latituds are taken in the most momentuous and weighty things of Religion as the Pharisees pretended Conscience in tithing the smallest herbs as mint anise and rue while in the mean time they passed over without making any bones of them Iudgement and the Love of God which is straining at gnats and swallowing of camels 3dly When Conscience is pretended for mens tenacious adhering to human traditions while in the meantime they make no Conscience of making void the Law of God as the same Pharisees did for which out Lord with holy severity inveigheth against them 4ly When Conscience is pretended for not shedding the blood of Innocents and yet notwithstanding the same things are adventured on and wickedly per-petrated when they come in competition with mens worldly wealth or preferment or with the gratifying of great ones in order to the former as it was with Pilat in the matter of condemning Christ of whose innocence he was throughly convinced and accordingly did thrice over hear publick testimony to it yet when he was told that if he did let him go and condemned him not to death he was not Cesars friend he forthwith proceeded to the condemnatory Sentence and delivered him to the persecuting and murdering Iews to be crucified and poor wretch he imagined that the silly shift of washing his hands in water would wash and purge his deeply â— filâ—d Conscience from the guilt and pollution contracted by shedding of that innocent and most precious Blooâ— buâ— it stuck faster to and was more stiffly barkned on his Conscience then to be so easily washed off with such poor and pitiful shifts do such men think or fancie to pacifie their Consciences and to purge them from the defilements of the greatest most clamant and horrid crimes If Pilat had any real demurr in his Conscience about the thing as very probably he had his counteracting it on so base and unworthy accounts and then foolishly fancieing that by such an empty ceremonie as washing his hands in water he could be washed from the guilt of so aâ—rocious a Crime were high aggravations of it 5ly When men pretend Conscience as the reason of their not committing the least sin nay of their not doing somethings that are very debateable whether they be sins or not while in the mean time they make no Conscience to stretch furth their hand to â—ay with an high hand to adventure on the commission of sins that are incontravertably very great and gross as the Pharisees pretended Conscience for their not going to the Iudgement Hall least forsooth they should be defiled and so unfitted to eat the Passover who yet made no scruple maâ—ciously to embrew their wicked hands in the blood of the person that was God and typified by the Passover 6ly When Conscience or a conscientious regard is pretended for divine institutions and ordinances meerly and mainly from pickque and prejudice at the most tender and conscientious persons as if their warrantable and consistent practices were the grossest violations and greatest viâ—ifyings of them and plain inconsistencies with a just regard for them How often thus did the Scribes and Pharisees quarrel with our Lord and his Disciples as breakers and profaners of the Sabbath because of somethings done by him and them thereon not in the least in-compatible with the sanctification thereof as if they themselves had been more tender of the due observation of the Sabbath then either the Disciples or their Lord and Master was 7ly to give no more instances when Conscience is pretended for keeping and not breaking of sinful engadgements vowes and oaths wherewith men have rashly bound themselves As suppose a man should rashly vow and swear that he will be avenged at the highest rate on another because of either an imagined or real a lesser or greater injurie done him and as Herod sware very inconsiderarly and rashly that he would give the dancing daughter of the incestuous Mother Herodias whatever she should ask of him even to the
We would labour in our self-examination to be up at that distinctnesse that through grace may be win at that we may be so very clear as to be in case to say I wot well I was right at such a time and wrong at such another time in this I was right and in that I was wrong yea so clear and distinct would we be as we might if called to it be ready to give our oath on it as Paul doth in the place we spoke on before viz. Roâ— 9. 1. I say the truth in Christ sayes he and lie not my conscience bearing me witness in the holy ghost There would not be guessing at things but we would be throughly distinct and clear Therefore Iob speaking of the evidences of his integrity Chap. 31. Proposeth them by way of curse being so very confident that he durst confirm what he asserted with a curse on himself if it should be found to be otherwise then he said 2dly We would examine and look on our way till we be brought under some suitable impression of the awe and dread of the Majesty of God and of his absolute Dominion and Soveraignity over us Thus holy Iob sayeth of himself when thus exercised Chap 31. v. 23. Destruction from the Almighty was a terrour to me and by reason of his highness I could not endure We never follow our self-examination far enough till it leave some impression of this kind on our Spirits 3dly It would be followed till we be affected with what discovery we get in the search of our own way It s not enough barely to take a look or view of it but we would I say look on it so as we may be suitably affected with it that either it may give us solid peace and joy from clearness that we are right or else a sensible touch with the sharpness of a challenge for that whereof we are clearly convinced is wrong And men are never rightly exercised in the work of self-examination and of reflection on their Conscience till something of this be there is a great difference betwixt bare light and a well informed and tender Conscience Consciences sense of a thing is of more weight and is more divine and hath some more of the Majesty of God in it then bare Light or conviction of the Judgement It will neither smile nor â—rown but it will suitably affect the man with some inward comfort or sorrow For it representeth God either as smiling or â—rowning 4ly We would follow this work of self-examination and self-reflection till we be clear and fully perswaded as to the Duty we are called to after such Examination as when a man findeth things to be wrong Conscience will say there is here a necessity of Repentance and humiliation and of flying to Jesus Christ for taking away the guilt thereof and of setting about the righting and amending of things and till a man come to be clear in that which he is called to by self-examination he followeth it not â—th a right and as he ought to do The Apostle speaking of worldly and of godly sorrow 2 Cor. 7. 10 11. Giveth these evidences of godly sorrow a fruit of self-examination that it not only was waited in the Corinthians with a fight of the Fault but it touched them in the quick for it and affected them with holy indignation at it and with true zeal to have it removed And that with all it suffered them not to rest till they indeavoured by all means a clearing of themselves Behold sayeth he v. 11. the self same thing ye sorrowed after a godly sort what carefulness it wrought in you â—ea what clearing of your selves yea what indignation c. A man that â—ffers to â—et about self-examination and yet lyes still in the fault that is discovered thereby and is no more affected with it then if he were not at all guilty of it nor any more now after the discovery made in the search inclined to flee to Christ then when he began his self-examination is sure not right We would therefore seriously recommend to you these Four to be well headed and carried along with you in your prosecuting this work of self-examinaâ—on To press this a little we would consider these three 1. The clearness of the duty 2. The profitableness and excellency of it 3. The necessity of it By all which we may be convinced of a necessity lying upon us to press it and upon you to practise it The Lord himselâ— bear in upon us all with a strong hand the conviction of the necessity of it For the first It is as clear a duty as it is for you to come to the Church to hear as it is to read or to pray or to sanctify the Lords day Hence it is that 1. It is so often commanded as Lâ—m. 3. 40. Hagg â— 5. Gal. â— 4. and Psal. 2. 4. Communâ— with your heart upon your beds or speak with your hearâ— or with your Conscience as often in the Old Testament the heart is put for the conscience for it 's the Conscience property that giveth the answer and not the heart So 2 Cor 13. 5. Examine your selves whether ye be in the saith prove your own selves c. the command is doubled nay someway tripled 2. It 's clear also from the ordinary practise of the Saints as hath been formerly instanced so that hardly will ye find a tender man but he is thus exercised and the more tender he be the more is he so Tender David was much exercised this way as he gives an account Psal. 119. 59. I thought saith he on my wayes and turned my feet unto thy Testimonies For the 2d viz. the profitableness and excellency of it it is not only a commanded duty but a choise mean for bringing about many excellent ends I shall instance its excellency amongst others in these three respects 1. it 's excellent in this respect as it is a most clear fresh and refreshful evidence of a tender walk and of a man that maketh Conscience of his way He that doth truth saith Christ Iohn 3. 21. cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God He is not only content to abide a trial but he putteth himself to it He bringeth his deeds to the light to see if they be wrought in God on the contrary he that doth evil hateth the light and cometh not unto it lest his deeds should he reproved Must not this then be an excellent duty which is so clear a character and property of one that walketh tenderly in all duties Nay let all duties be put together without this none of them nor all of them in a conjunction can evidence a mans tenderness for it 's this that giveth him as it were a grip of his duties and putteth them to the touch-stone and sheweth what reality is in them what are to be looked 〈◊〉 acceptable to God through Christ what not without this