of the Acts 14 In the second place the accusing or condemning conscience is often mentioned also John 8. 9. Convicted by their conscience or reproved some for one sinne some for another So by intimation Heb. 9. 9. where t is said of the Legall sacrifices that they could not make perfect as pertaining to Conscience where the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} rendred to make perfect signifies in the sacred idiom to consecrate to make a priest whose office being {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to draw neare to God proportionably {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to perfect or consecrate as pertaining to conscience signifies to give accesse with boldnesse to God by taking off that guilt which formerly lay upon their conscience the same that v. 14. is called to purge the conscience from dead works to wash off that guilt of sin past which hinders their approach to God obstructs all entrance to their prayers for we know that God heareth not sinners Joh. 9. 31. and Is 1. 15. whereupon t is observable that Heb. 13. 18. when he bespeaks their prayers for him he adds this reason to encourage them to doe so For we trust we have a good conscience that good conscience being necessary there to have other mens prayers heard for them as here to give themselves accesse to God in prayer So Heb. 10. 2. Conscience or conscienciousnes of sins and v. 22. Evill conscience and so wisd. 17. 11. there is mention of wickednesse condemned by her own witnes and prest by conscience 15 And of the last sort in the latitude common to both are Rom. 2. 15. Rom. 9. 1. 2 Cor. 4. 2. and 5. 11. and 1 Tim. 4. 2. all cleare enough without the help of our paraphrase to adde light to them 16 Having thus marshalled all these places of Scripture into ranks and given some hints of generall insight into them it now remaines that we return a while to the neerer survey of the two generall heads and first of the former acception of the word as it imports a monitor or director of life by which our actions must be regulated and from the mistaking of which the chiefe inconvenience doth arise 17 To which end it will be absolutely necessary to settle and resolve but one question what is that rule or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of Conscience from whence it must receive its regulation For he that draweth a line of direction for another must have a rule to draw it by and that a straight exact one or else the directions will not be authentique and they which walke {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} exactly or conscientiously must {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} walk by rule Phil. 3. 16. and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} have their eye or thought alway upon that one thing their rule of direction or else be they never such {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in the beginning of that verse such forward proficients their end may be perdition v. 19. This when once we have done the difficulty will soone vanish And to this purpose I shall take that for granted which in thesi I never heard any doubt of 18 though many of our actions look otherwise in hypothest that law is this onely rule {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} rule and law being words of the same importance and nothing fit or proper to regulate our actions but that which the law giver to whom obedience must be payed hath thought fit to rule them by To which purpose it is ordinarily observed that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Sin or aberration from that rule by which we ought to walke for so that word naturally signifies is by Saint John 1 Epist. 3. 4. defined {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which we render a trangression of the law In which place of Saint John though the truth is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} denoting more then the bare commission of sinne in that Author generally viz. the wilfull perpetration of it and an indulgence in and habit of so doing the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} must proportionably also signifie not onely transgressing but wilfull habituall contemning the Law being an exlex or without law as the Idolatrous Atheist is said to be without God in the world i. e. without any account or respect of it and so {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Joh. 31. 3. notes the greatest degree of sinfulnesse we render it workers of iniquity and so very frequently in the Septuagint we finde {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} where we render the Hebrew by mischiefe yet still the observation stands good that law is the rule in aberration from which all sinne consists and so {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in both senses the least degree of sinne a deviation from the law and a malicious contentious sinning a malitious contemptuous deviation or transgression and so Saint Paul hath also resolved it that where there is no law there is no transgression no {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Rom. 4. 15. no going awry when there is no rule proposed to goe by 19 This being so cleare in is selfe and yet through the mistakes yea and impieties of the world bâ—come so necessary to be thus farther cleared Two things there are which will hence inevitably follow the first Negative the second Positive The first or the Negative that Whatsoever undertakes to direct or guide our actions to tell us our duty that this we must that we may not doe and hath not some law in force and still obligatory to us to authorize those directions by is not Conscience whatsoever it is 20 First Humour it may be to think our selves bound to doe whatsoever we have a strong inclination to doe it being a matter of some difficulty to distinguish between my naturall and my spirituall inclinations the motion of my sensitive appetite and my diviner principle my lower and my upper soule and the former commonly crying louder and moving more lively and impatiently and earnestly then the other 21 Secondly Phansie it may be which is a kind of irrationall animall Conscience hath the same relation to sensitive representations those lawes in the members which Conscience hath to intellectuall those lawes of the mind and then as Aristotle saith that in those creatures which have not reason phansie supplyes the place of reason so they which have not or will not have conscience to direct them phansie most commonly gets into its place Or 22 Thirdly Passion it may be Our feares will advise us one thing our animosities another our zeale a third and though that be perhaps zeal
of God yet that zeale is a passion still one of those which Aristotle hath defined in his Rhetoricks being not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} according to knowledge or conscience Rom. 10. 2. for the Hebrew word as I told you is rendred by those two words promiscuously {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} knowledge and conscience Or 23 Fourthly diabolicall suggestion or infusion it may be an enthusiasm of that black spirit as it is or of some thing as bad in effect infallibly whensoever Rebellion Sedition Murther Rapine Hatred Envy Vncharitablenesse Lying Swearing Sacriledge c. come to us under the disguise of Religion and Conscience and therefore the Spirits must be searcht whether they be of God or of the Devill and no surer way to doe it then by these and the like Symptomes these fruits and productions of that infernall Spirit which so perfectly represent and owne their parent that none but blind or mad men or daemoniacks can beleeve them in earnest to come from God Or 24 Fiftly False doctrine it may be and that againe set off either by the authority of the teacher or by the dignity of some eminent followers and practicers of it and then the Apostle calls it having mens persons in admiration or by the earlinesse of its representation being imbibed and taken in first swallowed and digested before the truth was offered to us and then it is prejudice or prepossession and this again alwayes assisted by the force of that old axiom Intus existens c. and by that which is naturall to all habits to be hardly moveable and yet further improved sometimes by pride and obstinacy alwayes by selfe-love which makes us think our own opinions i. e. which we are already possest of the truest which in this case is in effect to think our luck the best luck and the same which was observed in one worst sort of Heathens who whatsoever they saw first in the morning worshipt that all the day after a choosing of perswasions as country men choose Valentines that which they chance to meet with first after their coming abroad 25 Besides these many other things it may be and so 1. It is oddes enough that it will not be conscience which pretends to be so and 2. It is certainly not conscience unlesse it produce some law for its rule to direct us by And this was the Negative or first thing 26 The second or the Positive thing which followes from the premises is this that Conscience of duty in any particular action is to be ruled by that law which is proper to that action as for example The Christian law is the rule of Conscience for Christian actions the law of reason or morall saw for morall the law nationall municipall or locall for civill the naturall law of all creatures for naturall actions and the law of scandall a branch of the Christian law for matters of scandall and the law of liberty for indifferent free actions And as it is very irregular and unreasonable to measure any action by a rule that belongs not to it to try the exactnesse of the circle by the square which would be done by the compasse and in like manner to judge the Christiannesse of an action by the law of naturall reason which can onely be judged by its conformity with the law of Christ superiour to that of nature So will there be no just pretence of conscience against any thing but where some one or more of these lawes are producible against it but on the other side even in the lowest sort of actions if they be regulated by the law proper to them and nothing done contrary to any superiour law even by this God shall be glorified 1 Cor. 10. 31. a kind of glory resulting to God from that readinesse of submission and subordination of every thing to its proper rule and law to which the great Creator hath subjected it and of all lawes to that supreme transcendent one the law of Christ And though some touches there are in the Scripture of each of these lawes some fibrae or strings of them discernibly there so farre that there is nothing almost under any of the heads forementioned but by the Scripture some generall account may be given of it and againe though that of Scripture be the supreame law of all and nothing authorizeable by any inferiour law which is contradicted or prohibited by that yet is not that of Scripture such a particular Code oâ— Pandect of all lawes as that every thing which is commanded by any other law should be found commanded there or be bound to prove its selfe justifiable from thence any further then that it is not there prohibited or thereby justly concluded to be unlawful 27 From whence by the way I conceive direction may be had and resolution of that difficult practicall probleme what a man may doe in case he be legally commanded by his lawfull superiour to doe what he may lawfully doe which yet he is perswaded he may not doe or doubteth whether he may or no For in this case if he be not able to produce some plaine prohibition from some superiour law as from that of Scripture he cannot be truly said to be perswaded in conscience which implyes knowledge of the unlawfulnesse of that thing nor consequently hath he any plea for disobedience to that lawfull command of his Superiours All that may be said is that he may from some obscure place misunderstood have cause or occasion to doubt whether he may doe it or no and then although doubting simply taken i. e. where no command interposes may keep me from doing what I doubt yet it ought not to be of that weight as to keep me from my lawfull Superiours lawfull command because that very command is a sufficient ground to supersede my doubting when I have no plaine prohibition of Scripture to the contrary which in this case I am supposed not to have for if I had Then first it were not a lawfull command and secondly I should not doubt but be assured it being my duty and part of my Christian meeknesse in doubtfull matters to take my resolution from those whom God hath placed over me and it being the sinne of dogmatizing to affirme any thing for me or others to doe which some law of God c. still in force doth not prohibit which sin being added to that other of disobedience to my lawfull Superiours will sâ—re never be able to make that commence virtue which was before so far from any pretentions to that title 28 Having proceeded thus far in the search of the ground of Conscience 't were now time to reduce this operation to practice and shew you first What directions Conscience is able to afford from every of those lawes for the ruling of all actions of that kind and secondly What an harmony and conspiration there is betwixt all these
we being weake dyed for the ungodly to note the universal benefit of his death for such weak ones and such sinnes as these to which meer weaknesse betrayes them The very doctrine which from that text at the beginning of our reformation our Reverend Bishop Martyr did assert in his excellent Preface to his explication of the commandements 41 To which purpose I shall onely adde one proofe more taken from the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or rationall importance of Saint Pauls exhortation Rom. 15. 1. We that are strong saith he mus beare the weaknesses {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of them which are not strong {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and not please our selves for v. 3. Christ did not so but c. which reason sure must come home to both parts the affirmative as well as the negative or else the Logick will not be good and so the affirmative be that Christ bare the infirmities of the weake and so again v. 7. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} applyed to the same matter he took us up when we were thus fallen I might adde more but I hope rather that I have said too much in so plaine a point and abundantly evinced the irreconcileablenesse of such frailties with a good conscience 42 A third thing is that The lusting of the flesh against the spirit is reconcileable with a good conscience so it be in him that walketh in the spirit obeys the desires and dictates of that and fulfilleth not the lusts of the flesh Gal. 5. 16 17. There is no spiritually good thing that a man ever doth in his life but the flesh hath some mutinyings lustings and objections against it there being such a contrariety betwixt the commands of Christ and the desires of the flesh that no man which hath those two within him doth the things that he would For so t is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that you doe not not that you cannot doe The things that he would i. e. the things which either he resolves to doe or takes delight in those he doth not i. e. either purely without some mixture or still without some opposition of the contrary or as againe the place may be rendred this opposition of these two one against another tendeth to this that we may not doe or to hinder us from doing every thing that we would as indeed we should doe were there not that opposition within our owne brests This is the meaning of that 17 verse which notwithstanding it followes verse 18. that if we be led by the spirit if that be victorious over the contrary pretender as it may though tother lust against it if the production be not works of the flesh adultery c. v. 19. but the fruit of the spirit love peace c. v. 22. against such there is no law no condemnation no accusation of conscience here or hereafter 43 For it must be observed that there is great difference betwixt this lusting of the flesh against the spirit in them that are led by the spirit Gal. 5. and the warring of the law in the members against the law in the mind which bringeth into captivity to the law of sin i. e. to it selfe Rom. 7. For those in whom that latter is to be found are there said to be carnall sold under sinne as a slave was wont sub hasta to be sold and so {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to be led by the flesh and fulfill the lusts of the flesh which is of all things most unreconcileable with that mans state against whom there is no condemnation in Christ Rom. 8. 1. and so with a good Conscience 44 And if the resistance of the minde or the law morall of the spirit or the law Christian be sufficient to excuse that action or habituall course which is committed and lived in in opposition to both of these or while both of these check and contradict then sure are sins against conscience become if not the most excusable sinnes yet the more excusable for this that they are against conscience that woulding or contending of the mind or the law of the mind being no other but the dictate of the instructed conscience in them which know the law Rom. 7. 1. which he that obeyes not but followes the law or command of sin against it hath not sure a good conscience in our second sence as that signifies a Conscience of well-doing or doing nothing against rule of Conscience for that this man in terminis is supposed to doe 45 Having now proceeded thus farre in the affirmative part in shewing what sinnes are reconcileable with a good Conscience I should now proceed to the negative part and shew what are not reconcileable therewith But before I advance to that there is one classis or head of sinnes about which there is some question and difficulty of resolving to which of the extreames it should be reduced i. e. whether it be reconcileable or unreconcileable with a good Conscience And that is the single Commission of some act of knowne sinne which hath not the Apology of weaknesse to excuse it and yet is not indulged or persisted or continued in for of those that are so you shall hear anon in the 8 Proposition but without delay retracted by humiliation and reformation For the stating and fatisfying of which it will be necessary first to observe that 46 Any such act of wilfull sinne First hath in it selfe a being and so is capable of a notion abstracted from the retraction of it Yea secondly is a work of some time and though it be never so suddenly retracted by repentance yet some space there is before that retraction and if we speak of that time or space there is no doubt but that act first is contrary to good conscience and contracts a guilt and consequent to that the displeasure of God and obligation to punishment which nothing but repentance can do away yea and secondly is a naturall means of weakning that habit of good of sauciating and wounding the soule and for that time putting it in a bloody direfull condition and should God before repentance strike for ought we know there would be no remission and so fearfull would be the end of that soule 47 But then secondly if before God thus visit in justice repentance interpose as in this present case we suppose it doth if this plank be caught hold on instantly upon the shipwrack if he that hath committed this act of carnality c. lye not down after the manner of the Grecian horses in Saint Ambroses expression qui cum ceciderint quandam tenent quietis patientiae disciplinam are taught when they fall in the race not to strive or endeavour to get up again lye still on the ground with great stilnesse and patience walk not after the flesh Ro. 8. 1. Then presently is he set right again in Gods favour upon performance