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
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
and living Impression on our hearts and making our hearts that were stony before now to be soft and tender to receive that Impression and yet so solid firm and tenacious as to retain it being as a Nail fixt in a firm place by the Masters of Assemblies given by one Shepherd Eccles 12. 11. But so is not the heart of Unbelievers or Heathen Gentiles whose heart is a heart of stone but the heart of every sincere Believer is a heart of flesh according to Ezek. 11. 19. and 36. 26 27. compared with 2 Cor. 3. 3. But say some cannot the Spirit teach us without Book even without the Scripture Thus some argue for the sufficiency of the Light within without any thing else I answer and so can an able Schoolmaster teach his Scholars without Book but they cannot well learn without Book As the Master condescendeth to the weak capacity of his Scholars to teach them by Books so doth the Spirit condescend to our weak capacity to teach us by the written Word Now as concerning the peculiar positive Laws of the Gospel under the New Testament and the Gospel Precepts some of them are greater and some lesser but all highly valuable and profitable The greater are such that Obedience to them is of absolute and indispensible necessity to our Salvation as to believe in Christ and to love Christ and to rejoyce in Christ whom yet we have neither outwardly heard nor seen according to 1 Pet. 1. 8. and John 20. 29. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed The lesser are such that are not of that absolute and indispensible necessity to Salvation in some cases thought still generally necessary to Salvation as Water-Baptism and the Lord's Supper It would be too uncharitable in us to conclude that all who die without them fall short of Salvation Christ said He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he said not he that is not baptized shall be damned but he that believeth not shall be damned Our most mereiful and gracious Lord knew well that by some unavoidable Providences some could neither receive Baptism nor the Supper how much soever they desired it being prevented by Death before they could have them administred to them in which case all good Casuists and Divines say Votum Baptismi i. e. The Desire of Baptism and the Willingness of the Mind to subject to it as the Ordinance of Christ is equivalent to Baptism it self And the like may be said of the Lord's Supper But what shall we say or think of many in our day and time who may have it and yet through woful Ignorance and Errour being deluded by false Teachers and prejudice of Education or otherwise darkned and blinded in their Minds refuse and reject it not only break these two precious Commands of Christ but teach Men so to do And many have lived and died in this opposition to these Precepts of Christ without any sign of Repentance being taught by their false Teachers to believe that they are no Commands of Christ I own to my Grief and Shame that I have been so deceived by them and I thank my gracious God that has spared and prolonged my natural Life until he was pleased to farther enlighten me and give me to see my great Errour and renounce it as I have done and now to practise that which I formerly rejected But to answer directly to the Question what other or better Answer can I give than the words of our Saviour himself Mat. 5. 19. Whosoever shall break one of these least Commandments and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven Some understand it so that he shall have no place in the Kingdom of Heaven which is true if he live and die in wilful Ignorance and Disobedience but I will not be so uncharitable as to think so of many who have in some measure in Faithfulness held the Fundamentals of Christianity and have sincerely endeavoured to obey such of the greater Commands of Christ that they are perished but on the contrary I have the charity to them and so I hope and desire that ye may have the same that God has in mercy received them and has not excluded them from the Kingdom of Heaven notwithstanding they have lived and died not only in the disuse of some of Christ's Commands such as Baptism and the Supper but have even continued in the opposition of them to the last moment not throught any wilful Ignorance but by being imposed upon by the high Pretences of their false Teachers whom they esteemed to be Prophets Yet I think without breach of charity I may say that for their Ignorance and ignorant opposition to these or any of the least of Christ's Commands they shall have a lesser degree of Glory in the Kingdom of Heaven than otherwise they should have had I have now done with what I had to say in answer to these weighty Questions I shall only observe one Particular from the words of the Text which is this That it hath oft been and is the Lot of good Men having a good Conscience to be wrongfully judged misrepresented and falsly accused both Scripture and History abounds with Examples to prove this as in the case of Joseph Moses David and Daniel and many of the Prophets and in the case of John Baptist and our Saviour John came neither eating nor drinking and they said he had a Devil Christ came eating and drinking with Publicans and Sinners and they called him gluttonous and a Wine-bibber to which my Case somewhat resembles These four Years past my Adversaries among the Quakers reproached me that I was of no Communion neither Quaker nor Presbyterian nor Independent nor Baptist nor of the Church of England and unless I would declare my self to be of some particular Communion they would not dispute with me nor regard me to answer me though I told them I was a Christian and a Member of the Catholick Church of Christ and have great charity for all the sincere that hold the Head in all the several Communions of Protestants but this would not satisfie but they would insult and sought to trample me under their feet but God supported me But now again when with a good Conscience being farther I bless God enlightned and my Scruples I had being fairly removed after diligent Examination and mature Deliberation I have declared my self to be for the Church of England and have joyn'd in Communion with her they do as much reproach and revile me and falsly accuse me as formerly and so would they have done if I had joyned with any of the Dissenters but I bless God I have a good Conscience and my care hath been is and I hope ever shall be to have Peace with God and my own Conscience and therefore I need not be much concerned what my Adversaries or any other ignorant persons shall say of me I am comforted with the words of