A SERMON Preach'd at TURNERS-HALL The 5 th of MAY 1700. By GEORGE KEITH In which he gave an Account of his joyning in Communion with the Church of England With some Additions and Enlargements made by Himself LONDON Printed by W. Bowyer for Brab Aylmer at the Three Pigeons in Cornhil and Char. Brome at the Gun at the West-End of St. Paul's Church-yard 1700. Mr. KEITH's LAST SERMON AT TURNERS-HALL MAY the 5 th 1700. 1 PETER iii. 16. Having a good Conscience that whereas they speak evil of you as of evil doers they may be ashamed that falsly accuse your good Conversation in Christ THE last Lord's Day I made the former Verse of this Chapter the Subject of what I then said in this Place which I shall not repeat only let me put you in mind that I told you who were then present That it was the Duty of every one who professeth himself to be a Christian to be ready to give to every Man that asketh him a Reason of the Hope that is in him Under which Term Hope by a Synecdoche of a part for the whole is comprehended and understood our whole Faith and Religion and all our religious Actions and Performances for all which as we ought to be able to give a Reason or Ground why we so believe hope act and why we so profess to our own Hearts and Consciences so we ought also to be able and ready to give the like Reason or Ground of the same to others that ask it of us which yet suffers some Limitation that I shall not now repeat to the end that by the same they may be convinced to embrace the same way with us as God is pleased to make us instrumental by the Operation of his Holy Spirit to produce that effect or at least to put to silence their unjust Clamours against us But the chief thing is with good Reason to be persuaded in our own Consciences that what we so believe hope or act is true and right is approved in the sight of God and in that we shall have Peace In the opening of the Words of this 16th Verse I purpose to answer these three Questions I. What Conscience is II. What a good Conscience is and how a good Conscience is distinguished from an evil Conscience III. What the Rule of a good Conscience is according to which it ought to be directed and guided To the first I answer Conscience is that Power or Faculty of our reasonable Soul or Mind that can and doth reflect on our Thoughts Words and Deeds both present and past so as to judge and determine concerning them whether they be really or apparently right or wrong good or evil justifiable or reproveable Hence Rom. 2. 15. the Conscience of the Heathen or Gentiles is said to bear witness and their thoughts the mean while to accuse or excuse one another To the second I answer There are several things altogether necessary to denominate a Man's Conscience to be good 1. It must be an enlightned Conscience with a good measure of true Knowledge whereby to know what is right and good or wrong and evil An ignorant Conscience cannot be good 2. The Obedience of the Heart and Will of Man to what he is convinc'd of his Duty either to be believ'd or practis'd is necessary to denominate the Conscience to be a good Conscience for though true Conviction and Knowledge are necessary yet that alone without Obedience is not sufficient to denominate the Conscience to be good even though the Knowledge and Conviction come from the Spirit of God there must be a Consent and Harmony betwixt the Understanding and the Will to constitute and denominate the Conscience to be good 3. The Conscience that is purged and justified by the Blood of Christ even the Blood of his Cross that was outwardly shed through Faith in that Blood Rom. 3. 25. and where the Heart and Conscience and whole Soul and Body is sanctified by the Spirit of God and the inward work of Regeneration is known by the Spirit of God the Conscience only of such a Man is a good Conscience I say that the Conscience must be purged by the Blood of Christ that it may be good See Heb. 9. 13 14. For if the blood of Bulls and of Goats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without Spot to God purge your Conscience from dead works to serve the living God And the Faith which is in the Blood of Christ Rom. 3. 25. is wrought in us and generally in all who have it by means of the written Word that is to say by the Doctrine of Christ crucified and the spiritual Blessings we have by him as it is preached to us for as the Scripture saith Faith comes by Hearing and Hearing by the Word and that Word is the outward Word as it is in the mouth of the Preachers as it followeth in Rom. 10. 14. And how shall they hear without a Preacher and how shall they preach unless they be sent Hence the Word even the doctrinal Word is called the incorruptible Seâ—â— of which true Believers are regenerated and born again according to 1 Pet. 1. 23. And Christ in the Parable compar'd his Preaching to the People to the Husbandman that soweth his seed in the several sorts of ground Matth. 13. 3. There are a great * Among the Quakers many who think they have a good Conscience but they have no need of this Blood of Christ nor of Faith in it they will have the Object of their Faith only within them they find no need of having the Conscience sprinkled by the Blood of Christ without them nay they argue against it as an impossible Notion not considering that this Sprinkling is spiritually by Faith and not by any material Application Also they have a wrong Notion of Faith they think they have no need of the written Word or any outward Means or Helps to have this Faith wrought in them The Spirit or Light within alone doth all the Light within them is sufficient to Salvation without any thing else the Light within them is whole Christ God and Man Flesh and Spirit and Bone They need no Christ without them nor no written Word without them they can Preach Pray Believe without Book without all outward Helps they need no Crutches as some argue against Forms of Prayer and call them Crutches to lame Persons which whole and sound Men need not So others make no more of the written Word the whole Doctrine of the Gospel as outwardly delivered us in the Holy Scriptures but as Crutches which they have no need of at all They will not allow of any written Word at all or any outward Word they ask where we find a written Word in Scripture I tell them I find it in John 15. 25. where Christ calleth a short
Sentence that he quoted out of a Psalm of David 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that written Word They say they call the Scripture what it calleth it self to wit a Treatise for which they quote Acts 1. 1. the former Treatise but had they understood or consulted the Greek they would have found it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the former Word whereby he understands the whole Book of the Gospel according to St. Luke Now as to the distinction betwixt a good and evil Conscience of which also the Scripture speaks 1. An evil Conscience is an ignorant Conscience 2. Unfaithfulness and Disobedince to what a Man is convinced of renders the Conscience to be evil 3. Unbelief and want of Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ makes the Conscience evil 4. Not to follow the dictates of Conscience even when it errs is an evidence of an evil Conscience Here that Axiom takes place Conscientia errans ligat sed non obligat an erring Conscience ties but doth not oblige it is a great pinch and strait He 〈◊〉 follows not an erring Conscience sinneth because he acts not in Faith and what is not of faith is sin and when he followeth his erring Conscience he sinneth This is no new Doctrine however possibly it may so seem to some here it is that which every Casuist doth commonly teach I will illustrate it to you by a Similitude that some have given If a Subject be deceived by a counterfeit Messenger from his Prince who brings a counterfeit Message from the King sealed with a counterfeit Seal and he thinks it to be real this Subject sufficiently shews his disrespect and disloyalty to his Prince if he refuse to obey it the application is easie If any object that as Contradictories cannot be both true or both false but the one true and the other false so if to follow an erring Conscience be a sin not to follow it is no sin being Contradictory But I answer they are not Contradictory for they are both affirmative Propositions He that followeth an erring Conscience sinneth this is affirmative He that followeth not an erring Conscience sinneth this is also affirmative But the way to get out of this pinch is to get a well-informed Conscience and to get rid of those Errours of Conscience which prejudice of Education by evil Teachers has led them into read the Holy Scriptures search meditate pray God to give you a good Understanding and let you see your Errours confer with such whom you have good cause to esteem both more holy and more wise and understanding than your selves To the third and last what the Rule of Conscience is according to which it must be directed and guided that so it may be denominated a good Conscience I answer We must distinguish betwixt an inadequate or incomplete Rule of Conscience and that which is adequate and complete The Law writ in the Heart of every Man is an incomplete Rule to a Man's Conscience obliging every Christian to obey it so that whosoever transgresseth against it is guilty of hainous sin and this Law extendeth in some degree to most of all yea in some sort to all the ten Precepts of the Moral Law but our highest Obedience to that Law and Rule cannot denominate the Conscience good or give true peace of Conscience or heal the wound of it that sin hath given for all have sinned and faln short of the Glory of God and whatsoever the Law saith it saith to them who are under the Law that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world become guilty before God The best of our Obedience cannot make atonement for our sins nay not for one sin not the least sin it is only the Lamb of God as he was slain for us that takes away our sins as we have faith in him his Blood cleanseth us 〈◊〉 all sin and the Merit and Value of it hath procured to us the Gift of the Holy Spirit to sanctifie us and therefore we owe both our Justification and Sanctification to the Lamb of God and to his most precious Blood for by our Justification we are cleansed from the guilt of sin and by our Sanctification from the filth of it And though Faith and Repentance are necessary conditions and qualifications to our obtaining Remission of sin Justification and eternal Salvation yet they are not in any wise the meritorious Cause thereof but Christ alone by what he hath done and suffered for us Holiness and our Obedience to God's Laws and Precepts both as writ without in the Holy Scriptures and as writ within in our Hearts is indispensibly necessary to our eternal Salvation but we must not rest nor rely upon it even when it is wrought in us by the help of the Holy Spirit it must not be the foundation or ground of our Faith and hope for remission of Sins and eternal Salvation either in whole or in part but our reliance must be alone on the Lord Jesus Christ both God and Man as he died for us c. and on the Mercy of God through him apprehended by Faith Now the knowledge of this in God's ordinary way is given to us and all who have it by the inward Illumination and Operation of the Holy Spirit in the use of the written Word as it is preached and heard by us or read and meditated upon We feeling the working of the Spirit of Christ to mortifie the works of the flesh and the earthly members and to draw up our mind to high and heavenly things as the 17th Article of the Church of England plainly expresseth The complete and adequate Rule therefore of our Faith and Practice is the whole revealed Will of God as it is declared unto us in the Holy Scriptures the Laws and Precepts whereof are of a far greater extent than those writ in every Man's heart without all Scripture Revelation or antecedent to it as David said I have seen an end of all perfection but thy Commandment is exceeding broad that is the whole complex or body of the Divine Laws given us by God and Christ as they are contained in the Holy Scriptures for Doctrine for Correction for Instruction c. It is therefore a great and dangerous Errour in them who hold as many do in these Nations that the Light within and what it dictates in every Man is the full and entire complete and perfect Rule of all Faith and Practice and nothing is absolutely needful to our Salvation but what that Light within teacheth us and all Mankind or will teach us if we hearken to it and obey it without all Scripture and all outward means of Instruction and yet the utmost extent that this Light within goeth to teach Men without Scripture and without the special Illumination and Operation of the Spirit accompanying the Scripture's Testimony is no more than the Righteousness of the Moral Law and Terms of the first Covenant Do and Live which Covenant we have all transgressed and
therefore cannot be saved by the Terms of it But God in his great Mercy has given us a better Covenant the Covenant of Grace and Peace in and through the Knowledge and Faith of Jesus Christ as he is the Word made Flesh or God incarnate the Terms of which are gentle and easie and full of Consolation God thereby declaring that he will pardon the Sins of all that sincerely repent and truly believe the Gospel of Christ and sincerely resolve and endeavour to keep his Commands and give to them eternal Life the which Terms God has graciously promised to help every one of us to perform by the Offer and Gift of his Holy Spirit as it accompanies the preaching of the Gospel But these new Terms of the Covenant of Grace the Light as it is an universal Principle in all Men by whatsoever Name they will call it or whatsoever Worth they will ascribe to it both Scripture and common Experience doth tell us doth not teach them He sheweth his Word unto Jacob his Statutes and his Judgments unto Israel He hath not dealt so with any Nation and as for his Judgments they have not known them Psal 147. 19 20. The Jews had this Advantage over the Heathen World that unto them were committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 2. the exceeding great and precious Promises 2 Pet. 1. 4. which the Heathen World to whom the Gospel was not preach'd had not and we have that Advantage now that the Jews then had But the Gentiles being without the Gospel are said to be without God and Christ in the World Ephes 2. 12. i. e. without an Interest in God and Christ and without Hope Aliens and Strangers to the Commonwealth of Israel The highest Acts of Obedience to any Light within us without the Gospel and without Faith in Christ crucified and rais'd again do not denominate us the Children of God nor prove us to have any just Title or Claim to the eternal Inheritance for whosoever are the Children of God they are so by Faith in Jesus Christ as the Scripture expresly declareth Gal. 3. 26. And the Gospel requireth that to obtain Salvation we must confess with our Mouths and believe with our Hearts that God hath raised Christ from the dead Rom. 10. 8 9. even him who died for our Sins who was delivered for our Offences and rose again for our Justification But the Light within as it is an universal Principle teacheth not Men these things these great Mysteries of our Salvation these lively Oracles these great and precious Promises nor these great Fundamentals of the Christian Religion such as the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity the Incarnation of the Word the perfect Atonement and Satisfaction that Christ hath made to the divine Justice and Law for our Sins by his bloody Passion and Death his Ascension and Exaltation and Mediation for us at the right hand of God in the glorified Nature of Man consisting of a glorified Soul and Body and that he is to be the Judge of the Quick and the Dead Also there are divers positive Laws and Precepts of the Gospel that the Light within as it is an universal Principle teacheth us nothing of The Knowledge and Faith of all these things are given us by the written Word preached and read outwardly and by the special Illumination of the Holy Spirit inwardly working in us a firm Persuasion and Faith of them giving us a savoury understanding and relish of them and great Joy and Consolation through hope by the Knowledge and Faith of them It proceeds from great Ignorance and Errour in many that they will not allow any real distinction betwixt the common Illumination given to all Mankind and the special Illumination given to Believers in the crucified Jesus Some will allow a distinction in degree but not in kind or specie but I say they differ in kind or specie though both come from one and the same Fountain the Father of Lights from whom all good Gifts flow both natural and spiritual and supernatural because they discover differing Objects i. e. differing Truths by way of Object that differ from these few Truths discovered by the common Illumination specifically or in kind for whatever Truth or Truths the common Illumination discovers to Heathens of the Being and Power and Providence of God as Creator and the Duty of Mankind to him as such the holy Scriptures without and the special Illumination of the holy Spirit within discovers far other and greater Mysteries of Truth in the inestimable Love of God by the Redemption of the World through Jesus Christ and the Duty that we owe to God and Christ thereby in the Belief of his Word and Promises the Obedience to his Commands and especially all and every of them given under the New Testament as that of Baptism and the Supper Obedience and Subjection to Christ's Government and Discipline he has established in his Church and to all whom he has set up to have the Rule over us in his House and Church But whereas they plead for the Sufficiency of the Light within and its Dictates without the means of Scripture and all outward teaching to qualifie Men to be Christians and Saints and Heirs of eternal Salvation from Jerem. 31. 33. where God promised to put his Law in the inward parts making the Law writ or put in the heart Jerem. 31. 33. to be the same and of the same extent and the same manner of heart and manner of writing with that in Rom. 2. 15. This is a miserable Mistake and a very gross and mischievous Errour That in Jerem. 31. 33. respects the People and Church of God but that in Rom. 2. 15. respects the Heathen World The Law writ in the hearts of the Heathen World teaching the moral Duties of Temperance Justice and general Piety towards God as Creator is I grant without the means or help of Scripture and antecedent to it but so is not the Law or Laws of God writ in the hearts of Believers whether Jews or Gentiles who believe in the crucified Jesus peculiar to the Christian Dispensation as Obedience to the Faith of the Gospel and to the positive Ordinances and Institutions of Christ of Baptism and the Supper and others aforesaid these Laws are not writ in our hearts without Scripture nor antecedent to Scripture but posterior to Scripture and by means of Scripture These positive and peculiar Laws of the Gospel writ in the hearts of true Believers and deeply printed and engraven in them are no other than the Copy or Transcript of the Laws outwardly writ or printed in the holy Scriptures which come to be transcribed into our hearts by what we daily and frequently hear preached to us and read out of the holy Scriptures and what we read our selves out of them the Spirit of God working with our Industry and Labour in our hearing and reading and well pondering and meditating what we hear or read causing it to take deep
are the more knowing and judicious and of best repute among them either for Piety or Learning and it will be found that they have more Books of Church of England Divines and other forraign Divines who own Communion with her than of any others And yet for all this shall I be so uncharitably judged and my Friends who go along with me as a sort of Apostates and as having bad Ends and Designs and as some of them I hear suggest against me that I do it for a Living I pray God forgive their uncharitable Judgment I neither was nor yet am so hard put to it for a worldly Living as some imagine and as others wish and desire I mean of my Adversaries among the Quakers who have Prophecied of my outward as well as inward Ruine and longed to have their false Prophecies accomplished against me but God hath hitherto disappointed them and preserved me and mine from Ruine both inwardly and outwardly for which I bless his Name and I hope he will preserve me to the End Why should the Expectation of a Living incline me more to the Church of England than to the Dissenters Had I joyned with them I might have got a Living among them perhaps more plentiful by the Peoples Gratuities than by a Set maintenance in the Church of England Which last way of living I think is the more Honourable and less obnoxious to many great Temptations and every way as suitable to the Gospel I find that the Church of God in Scripture is compared to an Army whose Captain is our blessed Lord Jesus Christ called the Captain of our Salvation Now suppose there were two Armies in the Field the one very great and numerous the other far less in Number as suppose the one Thirty thousand the other Ten pray tell me whether it is not more safe for us all who are concerned in one common Cause against the common Enemy to keep within the Body of the Army then in several Parties to straggle and keep asunder from it or Entrench by themselves The like is our present Case both the Church of England and all called Protestant Dessenters profess to be concerned in one common Cause against Papists Turks and Jews Deists and Atheists and others guilty of vile Heresies in a Spiritual Warfare Is it not therefore more prudent and safe to unite together in one Body of Christian Society and Communion against the common Enemy that we may be the stronger especially seeing the differences betwixt the Church of England and the more judicious and moderate of the Dissenters are not in any Materials either of Doctrine or Worship but the very same as they have Confessed Have not these Divisions and Separations had bad Effects weakned the Protestant Interest strengthned the Papists yea and Deists and Atheists and loose and scandalous Persons who take occasion to say there is no true Religion on either side by observing the great Heats and Annimosities and bitter Prejudices of the differing Parties I will now come to answer what I think they will object mainly against my Reason above given They will tell us that if the parity or equality on both Sides were the same my Reason would be good but they will alledge there is a great disparity and inequality the Dissenters having the Advantage in several Particulars as 1st in Doctrines 2dly in manner of Worship 3dly Administration of the Sacraments 4thly Church Governments which say the Dissenters is more agreeable to Scripture among them than in the Church of England To every one of which I think to say something as briefly as I can And First as to the Doctrine as touching the Articles of Faith the Quakers excepted they profess to be one with the Church of England and have signed or profess themselves willing to sign to her Articles Secondly as to the manner of Worship which the Dissenters contend for should be wholly by an extempore Gift of the Spirit whereas the Church of England though she alloweth that Ministers before and after Sermon may Pray without a Set Form either read or repeated from the bare Memory by using their sanctified Parts and Gifts of Understanding to Conceive Prayer by the Help of the Spirit yet She is not only for the Lawfulness of Set Forms of Prayer composed by Pious Men of Spiritual Abilities both ancient and late but for the great Conveniency and Profitableness of them yea and Necessity of them in many respects in the Publick Worship of God leaving every one to their Christian Freedom whether to use or not use Set Forms in their Closet and Private Devotions But to this I say The most Pious as well as Judicious whom the Dissenters esteem so and repute as their Fathers and others that repute them not so yet will allow that they were very holy and spiritual Men have owned the Lawfulness of Set Forms of Prayer yea not only the Lawfulness but the great Conveniency and Necessity of them in the Publick Worship of God Calvin one of the most famous of the Protestant Reformers was for them as I proved to you some time ago Quod ad formulam precum c. As to the Form of Prayers and Ecclesiastical Rites Note that I greatly approve that it be certain from which it may not be lawful for Pastors to depart in their Function both to guard against the Simplicity and Unskilfulness of some and also that the Consent of all the Churches among themselves may be more certainly known And lastly to Put a Check to the insolent Liberty of some who affect certain Innovations So then it behoveth there be a Set or fixed Catechism a Set Admininistration of Sacraments also a Set Form of Prayers out of his express words in his Letter to the Protector of England Epist 87. The Protestant Churches abroad in Germany Holland Poland Sweden Denmark and France from the beginning of the Reformation to this very day have used Set Forms of Prayer and Thanksgiving in their Publick Worship And yet I think the Dissenters here will not conclude that their Worship was wholly carnal dead and without Life or Spirit as many of them do now argue against the publick Prayers of the Church of England The Life and Spirituality of Prayer doth not consist in the Mode or Form of the words whether Set or Extempore say all sound and judicious Christians but in the Purity and Fervour of the Affections And therefore an Extempore Prayer may be very Formal dead and dry and a Prayer in a Set Form may be very lively powerful and effectual as the experience of Thousands daily confirm And suppose the Dissenters would be so uncharitable to judge that Calvin's Prayers at Geneva in Set Forms and Luther's in Wittenberg and all the other Protestants Prayers in Set Forms were barely Formal Carnal Dead and Dry and the blessed Protestants Prayers who died Martyrs in Queen Mary's Reign that used Set Forms yea many of these now in use which would