woman that brake the Bâ—x of Ointment on the Lord That she did wash his feet with tears and â—ipe them with her hair out of love she was tenderly affâ—ctionat and very real in her going about that work This will seclude many good works on the matter which are called in this same epistle dead works because not done in the loving lively spiritual manner that God requires 4ly An honest walk must be from an honest principle though it were possible that a man could do all things called for never so well for the manner if they be not done from a right principle he is not honest in his walk and it s on this ground that all the duties of natural men of meerly moral men are rejected as having no honesty in them as being but the fruit of corrupâ— trees which can bring forth no good fruit as the Lord expresly affirms and therefore can have no influence on a good Conscience because from a corrupt principle We need not stand here particularly to prove the branches they being obvious To live honestly takes in all these four without which a man cannot have a good Conscience as we suppose will be granted at least in word by all The next thing to be cleared is the universality of this honesty how it is that a man in this honest walk must be universal A good Conscience must have this property and he that would have it must needs study to live honestly in all things In things of the first Table of the Law and in things of the Second in things that concern the Law and in things that concern the Gospel Though a man should 〈◊〉 never so much external holiness if he neglect the exercise of Repentance of Faith of Mortification and of other inward Gospel-duties or Graces he is very defective and pursues not an honest walk in the just exâ—ent and latitude of it So then a man that would live honestly must study to be honest in all not only in duties of Religious worship but alâ—o in the duties of his calling station and relation even in every thing whereof we had occasion to speak more particularly and fully in the close of our last Sermon For further clearing of this universality Take these qualifications of it first this universality must be designed and endeavoured in respect of mens light and judgement to which their walk must be answerable A man that would walk honestly must endeavour to know what is commanded and the meaning of the command if the eye in this respect be not single the whole body will be full of darkness the want of this qualification hath made many Legalists think themselves to be far advanced in holiness because they were ignorant of the spiritual meaning of the Law as we see in that man spoken of Matth. 19. who said to the Lord pressing on him obedience to â—uch and such commands all these things have have I keeped from my youth up and its like he thought as he said not knowing the spirituality and extent of the Law Therefore mens apprehensions and thoughts of their universalness in the study of holiness cannot be a good and sufficient ground of peace when they are ignorant of the rule of holiness 2ly This universality must be in respect of affection and estimation men would not only know their duty as it is commanded of God but they would esteem and love every commanded duty people may know many duties and yet have but very little or no love at all to them or esteem of them which speaks their obedience not to beuniversal and so not sound I will not say but a Believer iâ— Christ may find some singular Sweetness and Soul-refreshing in some duties of Religion beyond what he doth in some others whereby they may be the more endeared and made the more delightsome to him yet in respect of the same divine authority injoyning obedience to all the commands he hath an equal respect and estimation to and of them all I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right sayeth the Psalmist Psal. 119. v. 128. O! what an estimation puts he on every precept of God and as if it were not enough for him to say that he esteemed all his commandments to be right He adds concerning all things and in the preceeding verse he sayes I love thy commandments above gold yea above fine gold These words hold forth his affection to and esteem of them and the universality thereof is expressed in the following words many times men are dragged as it â—were by the heels or by the hair to the obedience of a command who yet have little or no love to it or esteem of it much therefore of our sincerity may be gathered from our affection to and esteem of duty when we are drawn to it not so much from fear of the punishment that may follow on disobedience to the Command as from love to and esteem of the thing commanded which doth not so much force and compell as it doth sweetly incline and move us to it 2ly This universality must be in respect of mens design and deliberat purpose to practice all commanded duties without allowed balking any one of them which is when in the prosecuting of holiness they lay all Gods Commandments before them as David said he did Psâ—l 18. 22. All his judgements were before me and I did not put away his statutes from me 4ly This universality must be in respect of our endeavour to prosecute and use all the midses and means that may further us toward the suitable discharge of all called for duties and towards the promoving of holiness in all manner of conversation and endeavouring to carry a long all the circumstances that are requisit to the making of our â—ctions truly Godly A man that would have a good Conscience as to the honesty of his walk would omit nothing appointed by God that may promove him in the way of holiness And O! how vastly comprehensive this is it takes in endeavourâ— to prevent and eschew all temptations snares and impediments of what ever sort that may marr and let him in following forth his course of holiness and in his exercising of Faith in God through Christ and dependance on him to be with speed brought forward to the end thereof that he may in some measure be in case to say with the Apostle I have finished my course These words of the wise man Prov 3. 5 6. are to this purpose observable in all thy wayes acknowledge thou him and he shall direct thy paths Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding There would not only be an acknowledging of God in this and that particular action but in all our wayes as we would be careful to make use of him and to trust him so we would eschew leaning to our own understanding This universal extent of our endeavour is so necessary that without it we cannot have peace for
house beside it We will not say but many filthy things may be in a pure Conscience but it does not comport wel with them nor digest them They are as lukewarm-water to a mans Stomach that he cannot keep but must needs vomit up again and he is sick till he do so 5. It s a good token of a pure Conscience when the man cannot endure to be at a distance from Christ but hath many errands to him would fain be near him yea would fain abide constantly with him as well as in him by Faith when he would ly beside him as beside the Fountain to be bleatched there so to speak because he kâ—ws that no sooner wil he go from him but his Conscience will be defiled and he loves so well to be clean and loves Christ so well that makes him clean that he likes well to be always near him This is a good token of a person that hath a pure Conscience Because as it betokens a great loathing of filthiness so it betokens a great respect to Christ on this account as to the maker and keeper of the Conscience clean and on the contrary it s a very evil token when persons will pretend to a pure Conscience when yet they will not go to the Fountain for a very long time if at all and when they go if we may speak so they scarce give their Conscience a dip or a little sprinkling or syning as we use to speak but they are away and gone again But a serious tender and purged Soul will no sooner perceive a â—oul stain or spot but it repairs quickly to the Fountain of Christs Blood to get it washed out And O! but its precious to him and he never thinks himself to be right and well but when he is there and near to him It s true he cannot alwayes be in Prayer or in other Duties of Worship yet he endeavours to be in the habitual exercise of Faith corresponding with him for attaining and keeping a clean and undefiled Conscience SERMON II. HEB. 9. v. 14. and 10 v. 22. 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 Chap. 10. v. 22. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water IF we knew what sort of Consciences we naturally have and were suitably sensible of the evil state of them it would be to us as good News from a far Countrey to hear how they may be gotten purged and made good and how little soever men think of this now and how ever easie they fancy it to be to get their Consciences solidly quieted and calmed there is a day coming when sleeping and secure Consciences will be awakned and when it will be found more easie to endure the greatest toil and the most exquisit torment on earth then to wrestle with and to be closely pursued and constantly haunted by the terrours of an evil and awakned Conscience which will roar against men as a lyon and tear as it were the very caul of their heart Then O! then they who would never be perswaded before to believe what an evil and defiled Conscience is nor what the benefit and advantage of peace with God and in the Conscience is shall be made to their eternal prejudice to know the truth of both In both these places now read in your hearing the Apostles scope is to commend the transcendent worth and matchless excellency of Jesus Christ and the incomparable efficacy of his most precious blood from this noble notable and non-such effect of it viz. That when nothing else can lay or allay the storm and tempest of an evil Conscience nor purge it from these defiling dead works this blood can do it to purpose and effectually when applyed by Faith when no legal Sacrifice nor washings that sanctified only to the purifying of the flesh could reach perfyting the comer thereto as pertaining to the conscience as it s said Chap. 9. v. 9. Neither could deliver him from an evil Conscience and give him confidence and boldness in drawing neer to God over the belly of many quarrels and grounds of challenge the blood of Christ can as it is Chap. 10. v. 22. We left the other day at speaking somewhat to that natural pollution that throughly affects the hearts and Consciences of all men before they be by the blood of Christ purged and the Apostles taking such pains to hold out this shews plainly that it is a matter of greatest concernment to Christians to know the way how to get their Consciences purged from that deep defilement of sin wherewith they are polluted for is it not his manner to insist in any thing that is not of concernment to the people of God who will readily from the sad and doleful experience of their own pollution be induced to think that this truth is such and ought to be esteemed so by them 2ly Observe That there is nothing that Christians should more aim at and endeavour more to be in the practice of then to be following that way whereby they may get their Consciences purged and more particularly these who have had their Consciences again defiled after that they were once purged no main infected with the Borch or plague hath more need of cleansing from it then the man whose Conscience is infected and defiled with the dead works of sin needs to have it purged from them by the blood of Christ. We shall but very briefly to make way for that which we would mainly be at hint at two or three Observations from both these verses now read put together first then Observe from Chap. 10. v. 22. That a Conscience not purged by the blood of Christ is a very evil thing which we will find to be a very sad truth if we consider the unpurged Conscience either as it s awakned or as it s not awakned but asleep which is ill both ways It s ill if it be awakned and the terrours of God be fresh upon it who can express or adequatly conceive the terribleness of such a case The spirit of a man may sustain his infirmity and wrestle through many crosses but a wounded a wrath-wounded spirit or an ill Conscience rouzed by the terrours of the Almighty God who can bear This hath made some with Iudas the trai tour rather to choise death a violent death inflicted by their own wretched hands on themselves then life whereby they have desperatly run themselves under the wrath of God to the full O poor silly miserable shift and evasion to flee from some smaller fore-parties as it were of the wrath of God on earth into the very strength and main battel of it eternally in hell this is infinitely worse then to leap out of the water into the fire Nay some of the most eminent
considering that the best and most disceâ—ning men may be mistaken in their application of these evidences to us neither is it the end of Conference to be a ground of peace when in the mean time there is no solid course taken how to get our debt payeâ— and the justice of God satified our main yea our first work would be to be take our selves to the Cautioner and to the blood of sprinkling under the conviction and sense of sin and guilt and then we may profitably reason our selves and admit of the reasoning of others for help to quiet our Conscience and unless there be actual fleeing to Christ and to his blood preceeding and going before words of comfort or direction spoken whether in private or in publick This word of God declares them to be null and voâ—d as to any advantage to us 4ly Observe That when nothing can pacify an evâ—l and defiled Conscience nor purge it from dead works the application of the blood of Christ by faith can and will purge that Conscience and give peace and quietness to it with holy and humble confidence and boldness in coming and drawing near to God as if in some respect it had never been defiled by these dead works of sin It s the Apostles great scope and design here to press these two which are the two branches of the Doctrine 1. The sufficiency of Christs blood as the price that â—atisfies divine Justice and quiets the Conscâ—ence for when the Conscience gets this blood applyed to it by faith it has no ground to crave any further satisfaction to the justice of God whose deputy it is as if something were owing that blood as a full and condigâ— price satisfies for all the debt How much more sayeth the Apostle here shall the blood of Christ purge your conscience from dead works The 2d Branch is that which followeth upon â—his as a native use of it That a Belleâ—er who hath fled to Jesus Christ after the committing of sin and hath actually applyed his blood to the Conscience may have quietness in it and go with boldness and confidence to God and may on this ground maintain his peace in some respect as if he had never sinned So â—uos the Apostles scope if we look to the 19. v. of Chap. 10. and forward Having therefore brethren sayeth he boldness to enter into the holiest by a new and living way â—y the blood of Iesus let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of saith having our hearts sprinkâ—ed from an evil conscience though it hath been polluted before This is one of the rarest pearls and richest Jewels of the Gospel one of the excellentest priviledges of a Belâ—ever and one of the noblest and notablest exprâ—ssions and evidences of the grace of God and withall the great prooâ— of the reality and efficacy of the satisfaction of our blessed Lord Jesus viz. That when the Conscâ—ence of the poor Believer is confounded and in a manner put on the wrack with many challenges for sin he may mâ—ke application of Christs blood and on that ground have sweet peace and tranquillity of Soul For further clearing of this We shall 1. lay down some grouâ—ds for its confirmation And then 2ly make some â—se of it As for the first of them to wit some grounds to confirm it Take these few shortly 1. If by the application of Christs blood there be solid peace made up betwixt God and the sinner it will necessarly follow that the application of the blood of Christ will â—urge the Conscience and ought to be ground of peace and quietness to it For sayeth Iohn Epistle 1. Chap. 3. v. 20. God is greater then the heart or Conscience and sayeth Paul 1 Cor. 4. 4. Though we know nothing by our selves yet are we not hereby justified but â—e that judgeth us is the Lord This is sound reasoning God hath nothing to say therefore the Conscience ought to be satisfied But it is clear that by the application of Christs blood solid peace is made up betwixt God and a sinner As Rom. 5. 1. Being justified by saith we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ There is no standing controversie nor quarrel â—onger then by faith the blood of Christ is â—led unto and applyed Iohn 5. 24. He that heareth my word and believeth on â—im that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation He shall come to judgement to be absolved but not to be condemned for as it is Iohn 3. 18. He that believeth on him shall not be condemned And Rom. 8. 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ And 1 Iohn 5. 12. He that hath the Son hath life c. This being the over word of the Gospel it will follow that the Conscience of a poor sinner that is fled to Christ for refuge hath good ground of peace and that there is no ground to the Conscience â—ormentingly or anxiously to challenge And this is indeed no small matter and yet no presumption after a sinner hath fled to Christ to quiet himself and to be at peace on this ground A 2d ground of confirmation is the experience of all the Sainâ—s recorded in the Scripture after their faâ—lings and fallings into sin what hath quieted them may also quâ—et us for there is but one way of making peace with God and the taking of that way workes as to the main alike to all Now it s this way that hath quieted them it s the same faith in all and alike precious 〈◊〉 in all as to the kind because it hath the like precious substantial effects in all It is this therefore that must give quâ—etness and boldness to us That which quieted them was a look an often renewed look as guilt was of new contracted through all these types and shadows to Christ all of them had their original and actual pollutions whereby their Conscience was some wâ—y defiled and disquieted yet through application of Christs blood they wan to peace Purge me sayes David Psal. 51. with â—ysop and I shall be clean c. Even when the Conscience was writeing his lybel and he was under challenges for his guilt he had the faith of his interest and attained peace through application of the blood of Christ that was to come signified by purging with hysop For that ground stands sure which is laid down Act 13. 38 39. Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him all that believe are 〈◊〉 from all things from which ye could not be justified by the law oâ— Moses There is indeed as if he had said a large and long 〈◊〉 and Inditement that Sin and tâ—e Law and the Conscience have against you but be it known unto you that through Iesus Christ remission of sins is preached to you and that through saith in him ye are justified and fred
they had payed their own debt and â—atisfied justice in their own persons had that been possible and if on â—his bargan and transaction all his sufferings are buâ—lt then sure there is in Christs death a most solid and sufficient ground of peace and quietnesse to the Conscience of a finner that hath fled to him and closed with his â—atisfaction even as solid and sufficient as if he had payed the debt himself For it were blasphemâ—e to imagine such a covenant so laid down and for such an end and not to be most real and effectual for reaching the end This covenant being most sure and this being the end of it as it is â— Cor. 5. ult viz. To make him sin for us who knâ—w no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him by the same covenant and good will of God Father Son and Spirit concurring to lay down this way of Salvation Christ was made sin for us not against his will but with his will for he was most willing to undergo the work as is clear from Psal. 40. compared with Heb. 10. And this was the reason or rather end for which he was made sin for us even That we might be made the righteousness of God in him That he being found the sinner and dealt with as the sinner we might be declared righteous not as if we had never sinned but that by imputation of his righteousness and Gods gracious accepting of it for us we are reckoned free as if we had payed the debt our selves in our own persons and if the covenant betwixt God and the Mediator had a real effect on Christ Jesus the Cautioner if he really took on our nature and in that nature suffered and payed our debt if our iniquities in the punishment of them did meet on him As it is Isa. 53. The Lord laid on him the iniquities of us all If he drank the bitter cup that we should have drunken and satisfied justice for us then sure the covenant must have a real effect on the other side as to us and we have good and sufficient warrand to believe that God will accept of that satisfaction for believing sinners that lay hold theron for making their peace and that he will as really keep that part of the bargane viz. To mâ—ke the application of Christs satisfaction forth-coming to them as he did the other in exacting that satisfaction from him as many as are now before the Throne are joyful witnesses and glorious Monuments of the reality of this part of the covenant and indeed there is no more legality to speak so in the impuâ—ing of our sin to Christ then there is legality in imputing his righteousness to us in giving us absolution and declaring us righteous through him for there was no ground for justice to have any claime against Christ but the will of God and the covenant of Redemption wherein Christ undertakes the debt and there is no other ground for making his purchase forth-coming to the sinner that by â—aith layes hold on him It s the same blessed design that carries on both parts of the bargan And now putting all these together may we not most confidently say that there is notably good ground for quieting of the Conscince of a sinner that by faith betakes himself to the blood of Christ and that such a sinner may with well-grounded Confidence hope for and certainly expect pardon and absolution as if in some respect he had never sinned We cannot now insist to speak to the Uses of this Doctrine only from this we may clearly see 1. How much sinners are oblidged to God and to the Mediator Jesus Christ and how poor sorry and miserable a life and how comfortless and cursed a death we should have had if he had not laid down a way for purging the Conscience from dead works even this excellent and wonderful way by his own most precious blood And therefore defiled and guilty sinners would endeavour to make this Doctrine very dearly welcome as Paul doth is 1 Tim. 1. v. 15. When in a transport of holy admiration he cryes This is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation that Christ came into the world to save sinners O! Believers in Christ prize his grace highly and bless him heartily even with all that is within you that ever the thoughts of this way of relief for lost sinners were in his blessed heart 2ly Since it is most certain that naturally we all have evil Consciences through the debt of sin and defilement of dead works and that through the blood of Christ if we flee to it by faith and take hold of his satisfaction we may get our Consciences purged and our debt as certainly payed as any mans debt is who hath in his Charter-chist the discharge of a Sum he was once owing Then let me beseech you for the Lords sake to make this your great work to get the application of this blood made to your Consciences and to have it on good grounds made sure that ye have by faith made application of it that ye may not live and die in a conjectural and guessing uncertainty about it O! How mightily momentuous and concerning to you through all eternity is it to have your defiled Consciences sprinkled with that blood if it be of concernment to you to have access to lift up your heads with joy and your faces with boldness in that day when the hearts of many shall fall them for fear of those things coming on them and their knees shall smite one against another when their faces shall gather paleness and they shall weep and houl desperatly without all hope Then doubtless it is of your concernment of your incomparably greatest concernment to get your Consciences sprinkled with this blood otherwayes be assured live as ye will and die as ye may this defiled ill Conscience will cleave to you as a girdle doth to the loins of a man and it will yell and roar on you with unconceavable terror and torment It will then be known and acknowledged by many to their everlasting shame and loss and to their endless terror and torment that there was a greatly concerning truth in this Doctrine viz. That the only way how to get a defiled Conscience purged from dead works of sin is by the blood of Jesus Christ. A SERMON on Heb. 10. v. 22. Let us draw near with a true heart in ful assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water THe confident approaching of sinners to God is the great design of the manifestation of his Grace in the Gospel and that they may boldly though humbly draw near unto and have communion with him is the great fruit of Christs purchase the Apostle discoursing here to these Hebrews of the excellent advantages which they had in and by Jesus Christ whereof he gives a short summary and abridgement v. 19. 20 21. drawes thence a
waited with great aggravations as in that Ps. Davids sin is aggravated mightily by him and yet he makes application to Christ over all that guilt and all these aggravations of his guilt 3ly When the Believer hath through his folly relapsed in sin which is not spoken to give a liberty to sin God forbid wo to them that make so cursed an use of such blessed doctrine but to the commendation of Gods free grace and of the worth and efficacy of Christs blood and for the incouragement of lost sinners that would fain be at Christ for pardon and peace for as long as the blood of Christ hath efficacy and worth and as far as the promise extends it self as long and as far may the Believer reach his faith for coming up to boldness and confidence although for his humiliation and keeping humble he may possibly never win at not recover his former confidence and boldness yet looking to the grounds of faith and hope he may and ought to study to streach his faith to the attaining of it 4ly He may and should thus endeavour confidently to draw near to God when challenges are quick and very sharp yea when the challenges of Conscience are sharpest and most peircing though challenges were as so many troups of horses rushing in on him and the Conscience were like a Lyon rampant standing with his claws ready to to tear he may and should humbly taking with guilt step to confidently and make application of the blood of sprinkling and indeed this is the very time when in a special manner he should do it as it was in the case of the man-slayer when he was most hotly pursued by the avenger of blood that was the very time when he was called to flee and with greatest speed to the city of refuge and the allusion is made to this purpose Heb. 6. 18. That by two immutable things sayes the Apostle Wherein it was impossible for God to lie we might have strong consolation who are fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us When may they have consolation and strong consolation even when they are fleeing with the greatest haste to the clay of refuge it s then that the gates of the city are cast widest open to them when was it that David made his most earnest and humbly-confident addresse to God for the joy of his salvation even when blood-guiltiness was stareing him in the face and when his very bones were in a manner broken and when to his own sense his grace was very much if not altogether gone and when he had as is were forefaulted his right to consolation yet even then he comes foreward draws near to God humbly maintains his interest in him and pleads for former manifestations upon the grounds of graceâ— 5ly The Believer may and ought thus to make humbly-confident application to God throw Christ when he finds to the great grief of his soul an exceeding in-disposition to duty when his praying repenting hearing c. goe not with him as he would fain have them if there be a real fleeing for refuge to the hope set before him he may and should even in that case step forward and draw near with humble boldness hence David Psal. 51. Prayes not only for consolation but for the lively exercise of grace while he sayes to God Creat in me a clean heart renew a right spirit within me and uphold me with thy free spirit The sense of sin and exercise of repentance being real and serious the exercise of faith is then surely native and will readily looking to Jesus go over all that comes in the way of it In a word it s then when the humble Believer may draw near with full assurance of faith even when he hath the real sense of his sin and danger and flees unto Jesus Christ for refuge he is then warranted to run to the city of refuge and may confidently go on in his errand viz. To get pardon of sin renewed consolation restored and his spiritual frame righted It s no doubt a foolish conceit and a prejudicial mistake for troubled sinners first to seek after peace and then to make application to Christ or to think that first they must have all the requisits of a good spiritual frame and grace in the liveliest exercise before they adventure to draw near to God with confidence I grant these are very desirable and the souls desire after them very commendable yet if the Believer resolve never to draw thus near till he be as he would be when shall he do it What if David had stood and stuck at that Psal. 51 He might have been keeped a-back and so been unwashen all his dayes but knowing the way of Gods Grace and the nature of his gracious covenant made with his people he steps humbly yet confidently forward in the exercise of faith out over the sense of guiltinesse and all the aggravations of it over relapsing in sin over in disposition and over many sharp challenges all taken with and lamented over and makes all these together as so many earands to God The 2d Use serves to commend the bargan of free-grace and to hold out the excellency of this blood of sprinkling which may also mightily encourage the Believer to step forward In prosecuting whereof I shall 1. speak a word to the efficacy of this blood of sprinkling And then 2ly a word to the necessity of it as to us For the first To wit the excellency and efficacy of it it may be seen in these four 1. In the noble and notable effects that it produceth or that come by it even all the great things contained in the promises touched on before such as pardon of sin grace to subdue it friendship and peace with God fellowship with him conformity to him the hope of heaven and glory the sweet serenity tranquillity and peace of the Conscience it s as a hiding place from the wind and rain and a covert from the florm yea even as the shadow of a great rock in the midst of a weary land when the soul sorely beaten with the storm of challenges and of the apprehensions of wrath comes under the shadow and shelter of this it presently finds ease and repose what shall I say what can I say words here may be swallowed up from this proceed all the glorious priviledges of the people of God possessed and expected in hand and in hope 2ly It s excellency and efficacy appears in this That it hath procured these things to sinners to them that had an unclean and polluted Conscience for who is it I pray that may thus draw near to God with full assurance of faith It is not such as never had an evil Conscience but such as having an evil Conscience flee unto this blood and get it sprinkled therewith it s these who had their Consciences defiled with dead works and came to it and got them purged from these dead works 3ly The
conscience in all things willing to live honestly Heb. 13. v. 18. And if at any time the Conscience of the Christian be defiled and wounded by new contracted pollution and guilt and challenges begin thence to arise and to disturb the peace and sweet repose of the Soul there would be on all such occasions fresh believing applications made to the blood of sprinkling that thereby the heart may be sprinkled from an evil conscience and the Conscience purged from dead works to serve the living God and endeavours would be renewed in the strength of grace to walk more tenderly without offence toward God and toward men toward which these Sermons abound with varietie of choice and excellent directions and helps Thirdly and more particularly we would study to have our Conscience well and throughly informed by intimat acquaintance with the minde and will of God revealed in the Scriptures of truth as to all things that we are called to believe and do so that it may be in case to discharge its office and dutie aright whether in Dictating or in Testifying or in Iudging an ill informed Conscience especially where there is any zeal or forwardness strongly pusheth and suriously driveth men to many dangerous distracted and destructive practices hath not this driven men to kill the servants of Christ as himself foretold and in doing so to think that they did God service did not this hurry on Paul before his conversion to persecute Callers on the name of the Lord Jesus and to make havock of the Church by drawing and dragging the disciples both men and women bound to Prison and by cruel persecuting of them even to strange cities compelling them to blaspheme so exceedingly mad was he as himself confesseth against them O! what terrible and tragical things hath this set men on to do and what mâ—d work hath it made in some places of the world beside many lesser impertinencies extravagancies and disturbances in particular Christian Societies Fourthly We would endeavour to have the Conscience deeply impressed with due and deeâ— vâ—neration aw and dread of the Majestie of God the supream Lord of and great Law-giver to the Conscience whose Laws and Commands are only properly directly immediately and of themselves obligatory thereof because the Consciences and Souls of men are properly subject only to God and because the Law of God written in the hearts of men and in the Scriptures is the only rule of Conscience and moreover because men cannot immediately judge the Conscience nor know they the secret motions thereof and finally because he can only inflict spiritual punishment on the sinning Conscience all the Laws and Commands of men in what ever capacitie are only obligatory of the Conscience mediatly indirectly and consequentially viz. in so far as they are consistent complyant and agreeable with the Laws and Commands of the absolutely supream Law-giver or not repugnant thereunto for certainly he hath not given a dispensation to any power on earth Civil or Ecclesiastick to countermand his coÌ„mands or to enjoyn obedience â—o commands contrary to or inconsistent with his own whose commands are immediately and inviolably binding of the Consciences of Superiors and Magistrates though the greatest Monarchs on earth as well as of Inferiours and Subjects all without exception being Inferiours and Subjects to him Yet such Laws of men as do either press or declare the Commands and Law of God and make for the conservation and observation thereof oblidge in Conscience because such Laws as they are such participat of the nature and force of the Divine Law and because the Law of God doth directly and immediately command subjection to the Superior Powers therefore even in reference to theâ—â—njust Laws and such as are repugnant to or 〈◊〉 with the divine Laws Subjects are oblidged in 〈◊〉 not to reâ—use obedience to them out of any contempt of lawful authority let â—e to discaâ—m anâ— renounce the same as some poor seduced and deluded persons do in these dayes â—ther ouâ— of ignorance or humour or misguideâ— zeal to the great reproach of Religion not to admit 〈◊〉 any thing that mâ— have in it the 〈◊〉 appearance of offence and scandal that way because the contempt oâ— lawful authority and the â—andal of others are in themselves sins against the Law of God yet still as no â—eer humane laws do directly immediately and of themselves as I said bind the conscience so neither hath God given a power to any of the Superâ—our Powers on earth to enjoâ— obedience to commands that are cross to his own â—njunctions which all are oblidged indispensably to obey And therefore it is not only sâ—range but even stupendious for any Christians especially such as pretend to be Protestants confidently to assert and bolâ—â—o publish to the world as Mr. Hobbs doth in his Leviathan a book designed by him as I have been informed to complement Cromwel against the writâ—rs own Conscience such as it was p. 168. That no private man is judge of good and evil actions in a Common wealth under civil Laws and that the meaâ—ure of good and evil actions is the Civil Law of actions civilv good why not but of actions simply good and evil as his assertion carries whâ— what reason or shâ—dow of reason God never having given noâ— assigned such a rule we may thus throw away ouâ— Bibles as the rule of good and evâ—l aâ—ions and all betake our selves to the Civil Law as the only Rule and the Legis lâ—tor the alone Iudge since he may as well divest a man of humane nature and un-man him as deprive him of a privat Judgement of discretion or of a private discreâ—ive Judgement in reference to his own actions the soâ—er exercise whereof is no assuming to himself in â—he least the capaciâ—e of a publick Judge and it at any time in any thing relaâ—ing to â—is 〈◊〉 acts this Judgement of private discretiâ—n fall to thwart the Law or publick Judgement he advenâ—es on that cum pericâ—lo or on his peâ—l but it cannot in reason utteâ—ly rob him of it since as is said he can as soon cease to be a man or a rational creature as to have that quite denyed him or taken from him to what end or purpose should he be priviledged with this above brutes iâ— the exercise of â—t shall be for ever suspended in the Members of Kingdoms and Common-wealths as almoâ— all men in the world are what sound and Orthodox Divine or sound Christian Lawyer ever taught such Doctrine The learned doctor Ames tellâ— us in the 4. Co olary and very last words of his first book of Cases of Conscience that Interpretatio Scripturae vel judicium â—scernere voluntatem Dei pertinet ad quemlibet in foro conscâ—tiae pro 〈◊〉 And page 169. of the fore-cited book the same Hobbs sayes That he who is subject to no civil Law sinneth in â—ll that â—e doth against his conscience yet â—t is not so with him who liveth in a common
Christian walk according to Conscience 〈◊〉 these seven particulars 1. A man that would walk according to Conscience must have a respect to all sorts of Dâ—ties in Words Thoughts and Actions for Conscience will challenge for an idle word and for a â—inful thought to Simon Acts 8. 22. says the Apostle Pray God if perhaps the thought of thy hearâ— may be forgiven thee which saith that sinâ—ul thoughts may have influence to 〈◊〉 the Conscience and that a man who wouâ—d keep peace in his Conscience should dispense with himself in none of these 2. A man that would walk according tâ— Conscience must extend Duty to all particulars oâ— everâ— kind to every Thought every Word and every action â—or according as Conscience when in case is pleased or displeased in every one of these in publick in private in secret in 〈◊〉 or smaller Duties or â—ins so it will accuse or â—xcuse so then as Conscience regardeth alâ— Duties and kinds of them so it regardeth every particular of every kind 3. A man that would walk according to Conscience must aim in his Christian walk at the highest degree in every one of these though he come short yet he must not dispense with himself in his short-coming in any of them for instance as he must love God so he must endeavour to love him with all his strength soul and mind and as he must be holy so he must aim to perfect Holiness and to purifie himself even as he is pure in this respect the least defect will give Conscience ground of a challenge and if he in the least but indirectlâ— dispense with himself in it it will breed a quarrel 4. Walking according to Conscience tyeth a man to be in this aim and design always so as it alloweth of no inâ—ermission as for instance to study Holiness in this or that condition of life and not in another or under the cross and not in prosperity but as the word is here in the Tâ—xt he is always to exercise himself in this study and though a man should live many years with a Conscâ—ence void of offence if he begin at last though iâ— be but now and then to take undue liberty Conscience will take notice of it and challenge for it because the Word the superior of Conscience taketh notice of it 5. To walk according to Conscience extendeth it self to all circumstances and qualifications of Duty it looketh not only to the matter of duty that it be good but that it be spiritually prâ—secute in all the circumstances of it it will look to the mans aim that it be single and if it be not so it will find fault it will look to his manner of doing whether he be spiritual lively tender zealous c. in what he doeth and it will look from what principle he acteth from the strength of Grace or from a gift from his own Strength or from Christs and it will look to what is his end or aim as I just now said whether he be bringing forth fruit to himself or to God whether his end be to please men and to have their approbation and applause or to glorifie God and to approve to him whether it be to stop the mouth of his Conscience or to honour God Conscience taketh notice of these for founding its accusing or excusing and in this it differeth from all Courts among men it will accuse and condemn where they will absolve contra 6. Conscience will put a man to take notice of all the means opportunities and helps whereby Holiness may be furthered and if a man come short in the use of any mean it will put him to run the back trade as it were and to take with the guilt it will say Man whether mightest thou not have had more knowledge having had so many opportunities to hear and learn having had such and such Ministers and Christian friends to advise with and to be instructed by as the Apostle hath it Heb. 5. 12. Ye might have been teachers of others by reason of time and means and yet ye have need to be taught the first principles c. To have a Conscience void of offence it is necessary to use every mean to further us in the knowledge of Gods will and to attain to the practice of it 7. Conscience will look especially to what use we make of our Holiness and to what we lay before Conscience to answer its challenges whether we bring our good Mind our Prayers External Performances and our following of Ordinances to stop the mouth of it and to â—ilence the challenges and quench the fire to say so of Conscience or whether we bring the blood of Iesus Christ that blood of sprinkling if we compare Heb. 10. vers 2. with vers 22. and Heb. 9. vers 9. with vers 14. we will find this latter way and â—ot the former to be the only safe way These sacrifices that are offered year by year continually can never make the the comers thereunto perfect but having a high-priest over the house of God we may draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water These gifts and sacrifices could not make them that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience but the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purgeth the conscience from dead works to serve the living God and though the Conscience will challenge a Believer where there are defects in the foâ—mer rules yet it is quieted and satisfied where there is serious and suitable application made to and of the sufferings and satisfaction of the Redeemer iâ— so be he dispense not with himself as to his short-coming in them and if the use that he makes of his Holiness in the largest extent and highest degree of it be not to found his righteousness thereon but to honour God thereby in gratitude to him to edifie others and to evidence to himself the soundness and reality of his believing and gracious state This sheweth the vast extent of Holiness and what it is that men are called to and thereby we may also see that many sadly mistake Religion and what that perfect walk is that a Christian ought to have before God and we may say on the whole if this be to walk according to Conscience then cerâ—ainly not many but very few walk according to â—t which is a lamentation and should be for a lamentation The 2d Use is â—or tryal If a Believer when he is in case and right will have it for his exercise to walk so as he may have a Conscience void of offence toward God and toward men then this will be a differencing mark betwixt a Believer and an un-believer the one singly aimeth and seriously endeavoureth to have a good Conscience and to walk so as in nothing he may offend his Conscience The other haâ—h no such design
there is no healing of his wound till a word from God himself do it It is on the contrary an ill token when a Conscience seeth sin and can speak peace to it self on this ground that there is mercy in God and yet never applyeth the blood of sprinkling to purge it from dead works nor seeketh to have the Word spoken as it were from Gods own mouth and on the other side the legal Conscience will make amends to God will give him Sacrifices enough and perform many duties to him looking for his acceptance only on account of these and that is as ill a token but a good Conscience resteth not on any of these but though it hath the sacrifice of a broken and contrite spirit to offer to God yet it doth not rest on that nor on any duty but is put beyond these to rest on Christ and on his Sacrifice Purge me with hyssop c. saith David Psal. 51. And this is a clear and certain differencing mark even to consider well whereon Conscience resteth for peace after a challenge and to make sure that it resteth thus on Christ. A 3d. Character is That a good Conscience will both challenge and speak peace at one time it can stand up and defend it self against a challenge thus when the Law on the one hand comes and charges it with many defects in duty and denounceth wrath against it because of these it will humbly take with them and yet on the other hand in the very time it can betake it self to Christ and produce a word of peace that it hath ready at hand from him this we may see in Paul 1 Tim. 1. 13. I was says he before a blasphemer a persecuter and injurious but I obtained mercy It is an evil token when men either have only challenges and no peace or only peace and no challenges at all as it is also an evil token to offer to maintain peace by shifting challenges or to give over pressing after and maintaining of peace by giving way to challenges But it is a good token when Conscience can take kindly with and be humbled under challenges and yet debate against them so as to keep and maintain peace and can give a warrand for its doing so which is indeed a great practick in Religion we may see a clear instance of this in Ioâ— who saith chap. 7. 20. I have sinned what shall I do unto thee O thou preserver of men where he acknowledgeth that he hath sinned and cannot make amends and yet chap. 27. 4 5. he saith with holy boldness and peremptoryness My lips shall not speak wickedness nor my tongue utter deceit God forbid that I should justifie you till I die I will not remove my integrity from me When God speaketh or seemeth to speak wrath his angry countenance driveth him not away from him though saith he chap. 13. 15. he should kill me yet I will trust in him but I will maintain mine own ways before him and vers 16. an hypocrite shall not come before him The Hypocrite or legal man giveth it over when he is thus put hard to it â— though it be easie for him to presume while the Law and Wrath break not in yet when the Law cometh Sin reviveth and he dieth as it is Rom. 79. it is easie to have peace so long as God speaketh not down-right against it but when he cometh to set all a mans sins in order before him he will with Iudas run and hang himself rather then abide that tormenting Conscience of his terribly denouncing war and wrath from God against him A 4th Character is That a good Conscience will love to entertain and welcome a challenge but an ill Conscience cannot abide nor endure a challenge and if it could it would have Conscience always silent and quiet when yet it should not be quiet neither hath it any ground to be so He who hath a good Conscience is glad to have sin discovered and Conscience kept waking he thinketh a sanctified conviction of sin a valueable mercy and the reason is because he aimeth not so much at this to have peace in himself as to have a good and solid ground of peace betwixt God and him and to remove what may mar it whereas the Hypocrites great design is to have peace on any terms and by any means and therefore when a challenge cometh closs and home to him it is quite marred It is on this ground that a tender soul will designedly aggrege sin and even foster a challenge as David doth Psal. â—1 Against thee thee only have I sinned whereas a Saul will defend his own sinful practice and seek to shift the challenge as we may see 1 Sam. 15. 10. yea I have keeped the commandment of the Lord saith that proud Hypocrite A 5th Character or Difference is That a good Conscience maintaineth its peace both from the Law and from the Gospel and will needs have peace in some measure in respect of both else it will not be satisfied The evil Conscience again taketh its peace from the one and not from the other and so taketh a wrong rule or ground for founding and trying of its peace An honest man that hath a good Conscience hath respect to the Law and will not thwart it yea the challenging and condemning part of it is welcomed and the threatnings of it have influence on him to make him fear and as he respecteth the Law so he respecteth the Gospel and looketh well to Believing Repentance Self-searching Examination Meditation and to his manner of performing these and of all his other duties that none of them come in the place of Christ or get any thing of that which is his due and though he seem to himself to have faith in Christ if he endeavour not to have Holiness going along with it he dare not speak peace to himself But on the contrary the legal man or law-conscience if it be in good terms as he supposeth with the Law it looketh not to the duties of the Gospel whether the man be indeed fled to Christ or be in good terms with God through him and on the other hand the presumptuous Conscience when it heareth the Law and the threatnings thereof it â—ome way tusheth at these and under pretext of betaking it self to Christ it teareth as it were away the Law and this mistaking halving and dividing of the rule maketh many men think that their Conscience speaketh good to them when it doeth not so but hath rather ground to speak evil and wo. And in the by ye who think ye have good Consciences try them by this mark if ye walk humbly under Conscience-convictions taking with them and if they be welcome to you as well as a word of peace A 6th Character or Difference is That a good Conscience is holily jealous and suspicious while an evil Conscience is presumptuously confident and bold we say a good Conscience is suspicious and therefore is often putting
to hazard on sin to neglect Prayer and other duties yet they would consider the terrour that followeth ane evil Conscience and how it breedeth and breweth a hell within their own Bosom There is then a necessity an absolute necessity of a good Conscience that quarrels be not and abide not betwixt God and us for ever 3ly For some Helps or Directions to keep a good Conscience and we wish we were all in a posture and frame of Soul to meet with to receive and make suitable Use of them 1. Endeavour to have light and clearness in the matters of God and what concerneth your own good Let every one be fully perswaded in his own mind as it is Rom. 14. 5. It is not possible that ye who are grossely or very ignorant can keep a good Conscience ye know not when ye sin nor when ye do duty aright yea although ye may do duties or things good on the matter the want of knowledge maketh you want the Testimony of that good Alace that many wise and rich men that can speak well of the things of this world should be quite ignorant of the things of God and many of you would think shame of it if we would point you out 2ly Advert and take heed to what Conscience sayeth The truth is most men take heed to what may further their designs in externalls to what their wit and reason carveth out to them and to what their own light thinketh or as it were overly sayeth is right and presently step to it and never ask what science well informed from the word sayeth This maketh many men say and do in their haste that which they repent of afterward Therefore ye should learn to put Conscience to speak consult not with your designs nor with your wit and reason only nor mainly but retire and consult seriously with your Conscience Commune with your heart and be still stand in awe and sin not as it is Psal. 4. 4. Consult not with Flesh and Blood let not their advice come in betwixt God and you and finally determine you but reason with your selves think this and this our inclination sayeth and this and this our overly light sayeth but we will put Conscience to it and hear what it sayeth and yet it 's but an inferior Rule and therefore we should not take every thing from Conscience without ground but hear what the Superiour Rule of Gods Word sayeth And this is a right circle wherein ye should turn your selves even to try your Light by bringing it to Conscience and then to try your Conscience by putting it to give a reason from the Word 3ly Be exceedingly aware to thwart with your Light in the least thing and abstain from every thing that seemeth to come in tops with it For Conscience is a very tender thing if we stand not in awe of Conscience we may provoke God to give us up to do what we will and to send us Like lambs to feed in a large place Therefore I say again beware of thwarting in the least thing with your Light and your Conscience 4ly As ye would hear what Conscience sayeth before ye do any thing so when ye have done it ye should consider how ye carried in it according to your Light and whether ye have had a good Conscience in such a thing both as to the matter and the manner and put your Conscience to speak to that and hear what it sayeth concerning what is done There would be in this much singlenesse for if the eye be evil it will make the whoâ—e body full of darkness Hence Paul putteth a good Conscience and Sincerity together 2 Cor. 1. 12. If we should speak never so many good words and do never so many good â—hings on the matter if we be not singly minding Gods honour in them they will not be acceptable The want of Sincerity will be as the dead â—ie in many a mans pot of Ointment of called for duties that will make it cast forth ane evil and stinking smel the savour of a good Conscience will sure be wanting where singleness is not or where Conscience is made subordinate to our carnal Interests Many may have a resolution to do such and Duties who yet make these to keep level with carnal designs and interests It 's impossible when men come not as new born babes to drink in the sincere milk of the Word that they can profit let be grow thereby 6ly Be frequent and serious in making humble and believing applications to the Blood of Christ to the Blood of sprinkling that thereby your Consciences may be sprinkled and purged from dead works for the great ground of your pâ—ace is not your seriousness and sincerity but his satisfaction many of our works and duties alace want life and if they be not sprinkled with the virtue of his Blood they will be but as so many dead weights on the Conscience and indeed there can be no truly good Conscience whatever else be if this be neglected Let then these that would be at a good Conscience make use of these directions and helps and they shall doubtless come the better speed Now we are sure that this is the Truth of God to wit That we shoold indeavour to have and to keep a good Conscience in all things and alwayes toward God and men which a very Heathen were he present with us would not contradict and it is very useful for you though it may be some profane wretches will be ready to say What needeth all this niceness And as it is a Truth and a most concerning Truth so nothing will make your life more truly cheerful and comfortable And if it be neglected or slighted all your Knowledge all your Disputs about Religion all your Tastings of the good Word of God all your Prayers or what else ye can name will be to no purpose And seing it is so very important and concerning a Truth we leave it on you before God and put it home to your Conscience to make it your exercise to have always a good Conscience void of offence toward God and toward men We mind not to come back again on this Text nor to touch on the rest of the Doctrines at first proposed from it what we have said being principally if not only designed and most if not all the other Doctrines being one way or other reached in the Prosecution of these that we have at length spoken to The Lord graciously blesse what ye have heard SERMON I. 1 PETER 3. 21. Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience towards God COnscience is in it self a most excellent Gift of GOD given to Men having an excellent nature being waited with many Rare and choice Uses and Advantages throughout their whole Life and when it is rightly used it is one of the special Freinds that men can have on earth and one of the great things that this Gospel and the
that 's behind in that respect and sayes with the Apostle Phil. 3. according to his measure Not as if I had attained or were already perfyt one thing I do forgetting these things that are â—ehind and reaching forth unto these things that are before I press towards the mark for the 〈◊〉 He is so taken up with pressing desires and endeavouâ— to be forward that any thing he hath attained he is not much taken and far less vainly tickled with it as these proud Pharisees were with their giving of almes The attainment that many offer as an evidence of their honest willingness and their pleading for it with their proud boasting of it is a shrewd evidence of their real unwillingness in so far as they sit down contenâ—dly with what they have attained and press not at 〈◊〉 to be forward as it becomes those to do that are far behind The truly willing honest man sees so great a deal of his way before him that he scarce endures to look back on what of it is past he is ready to think and â—ay I have so many things to do for God that I someway forget all the good turns that I have done as to sitting down with them or boasting of them 6ly The seriously willing man can never be fully satisfied with any victory he hath obtained over his corruption or out-gate from it nor dare he rest on it Neither hath he peace till he come to look to God in Christ and to the hope of outgate through him I thank God sayeth the Apostle Rom. 7. through Iesus Christ our Lord and then followes the conclusion so then with my mind I my self serve the law of God but with the flesh the law of sin And Chap. 8. 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Iesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit This character hath three branches 1. The man that is wrestling with and groaning under the body of death loves well and dearly the hope of an outgate and now and then longs to have the pins of his tabernacle loosed and to be fred from that evil neighbour and troublesome guest of indwelling corruption and it is unexpressibly sweet and refreshing to him to look to that desirable day when he and it shall finally part company 2ly He hath never the settled hope of an outgate but when he looks to God through Christ he looks to God and thinks himself eternally oblidged to him for his giving Christ to deliver him and he looks to Christ for strength to stand it out in the battel and for obtaining a full and final out-gate in the close and at last And 3ly A man that hath this willingness It highly commends the free grace of God to him it makes Christ very lovely to him and withall it makes sin to be exceeding sinful in his own eyes he loves Christ well because he hath the hope of an out-gate through him and he loves grace well because the poor man who is wrestling and warring with his corruption and often plunged in the puddle and mire by it hath through grace the hope of a final out-gate from it and it makes sin to become out of measure loathsome to him and the higher Christ Jesus and his grace are exalted the more vile and abominable is sin in his â—ight O! but it be safe for the Soul to ride at anchor betwixt these two We shall only add That this sincerely and honestly willing man is one that hath two parts in him and as he hath two parts so he labours to give every part it s own due and unless this be done there is no keeping of peace and calmness in the Conscience if a man should look on himself as wholly renewed it were rank presumption having still a remainder of corruption in him And if being a sound Believer in Christ he should look on himself as wholly unrenewed It were gross unbelief Therefore he attributs to corruption its due and is humbled for it before the Lord and he acknowledges the grace of God in him and any honest protest against â—in attributing it to grace and gives God the praise of his grace after Pauls example who sayes Rom. 7. I thank God through Iesus Christ our Lord so then with my mind I my self serve the Law of God and with my flesh the law of sen He takes with it that with his unrenewed pâ—t he serves the law of sin so that he was not come at perfection in holiness and yet asserts that in his mind he serves the law of God yet so that he served not the Law of God as of himself or in his own strength but as renewed and assisted by grace For 2 Cor. 3. 5. He sayes Not that we are sufficient of our selves as of our selves to think any thing but our sufficiency is of God He acknowledges that of himself as of himself he sinned and could not so much as think a good thought but as renewed and that not as of himself but aâ— of God he served God his sufficiency being allenarlly of him who enabled him to any thing that was good and as it is 1 Cor. 15. Not I but the grace of God in me the same man that sayes he cannot so much as think what is good as of himself that he can do nothing yet sayes I can do all things through Christ strengthning me Philp. 4. 10. O strange This way of distinguishing is both a notable evidence of a man that aims honesty at peace and is the way to peace of Conscience and otherwayes if it be neglected whilst Christians have corruption in them they can never have solid peace SERMON I. Heb. 9. v. 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 14. 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 IT is the great business of Christians to walk so as they may be in good terms with their Conscience that from no untenderness in their way there may be any just ground of challenge at least none such as may wound the Conscience and break or marr the peace and tranquillity of it before God or disturb or interupt that sweet serenity and distinct calmness of a spiritual frame of soul that he allowes on believers in him who are exercising themselves to have alwayes a good Conscience But alace its not all professors of Religion It s not all gracious Christians that win at this who I mean serious Christians partly throw the unmortified remâ—nder of corruption still dwelling in them and partly through their own unwatchfulness fall often into such sins as defile the Conscience and obstruct the clear light and serene tranquillity thereof when in any measure attained and therefore it is no less necessary to know
how a defiled Conscience may be purged and how we may recover losed calmness and peace then it is to know how a good Conscience may be win at for indeed if all our peace and tranquillity of Conscience depended on our own holy walk only it would be but a heartless and comfortless work to speak of a good and calm Conscience on that ground but this is the great the very great advantage that we have by the Gospel of Grace which as it shews the way how to prevent a quarrel from and so a wound unto the Conscience so it shews the way how a quarrel and controversie drawn on may be removed and this is the thing that now we would speak a little to from these words wherein the Apostles scope is to hold out to the Iewes the weakness of their ceremonial worship sacrifices and washings and the sufficiency of Christs sacrifice to do their business and to bring them from resting on that ceremonial worship to rest upon Jesus Christ alone and one of the arguments that he makes use of for this end is That no legal or ceremonial worship or service could make him that did the service perfyt as pertaining to the conscience as he sayes v. 9. None of these things could give a man peace before God and his own Conscience but that on the contrary the blood of Iesus Christ is able to purge the conscience from dead works And to bring a man that is in a state of peace and freindship with God after he hath sinned and thereby defiled and wounded his Conscience back to that same peace and calmness that he had before he sinned and make him in some respect as quiet and calm as iâ— he had not sinned And therefore the blood of Christ must be infiâ—ly preferable to all these ceremonial sacrifices puâ—gings and washings which probably they inclined to joyn with him In the words read the Apostle illustraâ—s and confirms the efficacy of Christs blood by comparing it with the ceremonies of the Law obviating an Objection which is this The ceremonies of the Law had a good use and why then will ye cry them down He Answers they had an use as they respected Christs Sacrifice that was in due time to be actually offered and as they â—ed it and also as to a ceremonial cleansing or holiness but they could not as pertaining to the Consciâ—nce make a man perfyâ— And sayeth he if these ceremonies had an efficacy as to the outward man and making ceremonially and externally clean or holy how much more shall the blood of Christ be efficacious to the cleansing of the Soul and inner man If the ceremonies of the Law had an efficacy toward the admitting of a man to external ordinances how much more shall the blood of Christ have an efficacy to purge the Conscience from dead works and to take away the sting and guilt and the defilement also of sin and to make it quiet and so to capacitat the man to be adâ—tted to real fellowship with him in his ordinances That the comparison may be the more clear he uses â—ere a threefold distinction 1. Of a twofold uncleanness one of the flesh or outward man another of a mans Sâ—ate and Conscience before God The first related to the mans practice and made him that was ceremonially unclean to be thurst without the camp and to continue so till he was legally cleanâ—ed The second marred the mans peace before God The 2d distinction is of a twofold Court wherein this uncleanness is charged upon the man The one is a Court wherein the mans flesh iâ— as it were judged and that is by men according to his external prosession the other is a Court wherein his spiritual 〈◊〉 is judged and that is his Conscience In the first Court if the moral Law charged him not with guilt it was not asked whether his Conscience was guilty or not but he was on his outward cleansing admitted to Church priviledges but the second Court which is called the Court of conscience looks not aâ— things as they appear before men but as they are before God and therefore will challenge when men do not challenge The 3d. distinction is of a twofold Sanctification The first is that of the flesh spoken of v. 13. And that is when a man is made externally clean or holy whereby he is admitted to the congregagation The other is that which is inward which admits not only to external Church-fellowship but to real internal-fellowship with God and to peace and calmness of Conscience Now for quieting the Conscience and for giving a man peace he tells them that though these external ceremonies admitted him to the congregation yet they did not purify his Conscience but that notwithstanding of all these the quarrel was not taken away before God and so they could not be the ground of inward peace nor bring it in to the mans soul and Conscience but that its the blood of Christ which only doth that and therefore his sacrifice is more excellent then all these ceremonial Sacrifices sprinklings and washings for it admits a man to peace with God and gives him quietness in his own Conscience To leave the comparison then We have in the latter part of these words which we intend to insist on a notable effect and the great efficacy of Christs blood in purging of the Conscience holden forth in these particulars 1. It is implyed That the state of a mans Conscience by nature is this viz. It is polluted and defiled by dead works 2. That the great mean whereby the Conscience is purged and made clean is the blood of Christ. 3ly The end wherefore the Consciences of men are made clean is that they they may serve the living God 4. The proof and demonstration of the efficacy of this blood in these words of the former part of the verse The blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God Is taken from the excellency of the sacrifice of the preist and of the altar whereby the sacrifice was sanctified We shall in passing Observe a few things that may make way â—or clearing of the words and for that which we chiefly intend to speak to from them And 1. Observe That the state of mens Consciences by nature is That they are polluted by dead works which are such works as are to be repented of as the Apostle sayes of them Heb. 6. 1. Whereby he plainly insinuats that sins are called deaâ— works for three reasons 1. Because of a dead principle they proceed from they flow from man that is dead by nature as to any spiritual life dead in sins and trespusses and even the sins of Believers themselves are such as proceeding from them in so far as they are not quickned and renewed 2ly Because of their demerit and that which they deserve which is eternal death final continuance wherein doth at last most certainly bring on eternal death 3ly Because though a
natural mans performances were never so specious and splendid yet before God they are but dead like a carcase that wants life So that though the greatest heap of prayers and of other duties should be found with a meerly natural man they are but like to these Apples which as its storied grow at or about the lake of Sodom Which appear beautiful to the eye but so soon as they are touched with the hand they presently fall into ashes so the very best of natural mens works how shineing soever are but dead works before God Therefore by the way ye would know that there is a great difference betwixt dead works and living works And that there are many things that present fair are pleasant to look upon which yet defile the Conscience ah How many men and women are there even living in the bosom of the visible Church who are in as great danger from and by that which seâ—ms at first blush to be somewhat as by that which is reâ—ly and obviously nothing all such works are but empty shews counterfiâ—s and very cheats they have no Soul 〈◊〉 Lâ—fe in them being 〈◊〉 destitute of any 〈◊〉 principle or end however the world of proâ— of Reâ—igion do to their own ruine place all their Religion in them If we consider the influencing effect of these dead works on the Conscience We find it here to be that they pollute and defile it as a clear Spring is mudded and defiled by the soul feet of Beasts going thorow it even so is this Dâ—vine thing the Conscience defiled by sinful 〈◊〉 in it which make it to become as it were a cage for every unclean and haâ—eful Bird or rather as a hold of every â—oul Spirit these Lusts as so many â—oul Spirits swarming in it pollute and defile it whereby it becomes qâ—ite another thing Whence we may draw these two Observations The 1. Whereof is That dead works or sins continued in do polluâ—e and defile a manâ— Conscience They make as I just now said a clean and 〈◊〉 Conscience to become polluted and filthy so that yeâ— ever saw a face more full of foul spots more deformed by them then the Conscience is polluted by these dead works defiâ—ing sins Therefore is this word to purge the Conscience used there which is rendred to cleans Ephes. 5 26. That he might sanctifie and cleanse his Câ—urch and as simpolluâ—es the man in all his powers and fâ—culties so proportionably it polluts him in his Conscience which is deeply polluted before it be purged and cleansed by the blood of Christ For clearing of it Consider that there is a threefold pollution that follow◠〈◊〉 in the Conscience 1. In respect of a mans State 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before God it makâ—s him legally unclean as we use to say of a Murderer or a Thief or any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when found guilty by an Assize that such a person is filed so a man by committing of sin is 〈◊〉 guâ—lty obnoxious to punishment Iyable to wrath even the eternal Wrath of God because of it This is a legal Pollution or defilement 2. In respect of a mans present peace and tranquillity of Conscâ—ence for though he be in a justified and clean state and hath it may be win at clearness of his interest in God and to peace and tranquillity in his Conscience so that his peace hath run as a clear smooth and still River or Stream the letting in of sin is like to the driving of a herd of Cattel thorow a clear running Stream whereby it is mudded and troubled so that in stead of Peace there come in disquieting Challenges and in stead of clearness much confusion as we may see in the sad instances of several of Gods Saints as particularly in David after his fall who therefore Psal. 51. prayes to be washen from this filthiness both from the guilt and from the pollution of sin and for peace That God would restore to him the joy of his Salvation 3. In respect of a sinful propension and inclination to more sin which follows upon every sin so that by frequent falling into sin the very nature as it were of Conscience is altered that of a loather of sin it becomes a lover of it and licks it up as a Dog doth his Vomit and with the Sow that was washen returns to wallowing in the mire as the Apostle speaks 2 Pet. 2. ult When a person is seemingly washen and returns to the same sins that he was given to before his Conscience becomes so filthy that it can digest the filthiest and most loathsom sins it can swallow them down and glut them over to speak so and never challenge nor quarrel for them In this sense the Apostle says Tit. 1. 15. To the pure all things are pure but to these that are defiled and unbelieving there is nothing pure but even their mind and conscience is defiâ—ed The man that follows a course of sin his Mind and Conscience is defiled not only in respect of contracted guilt and in respect of the want of peace and comfort But also in respect of utter indisposition for duty and of a sinful inclination to more sin so that it becomes hardned and cauterizâ—d There is such a contagion in sin that it defiles and pollutes the Conscience all these wayes that whereas it was before pure It becomes now like a person that hath the Botch and many Boils and putrifying Sores running in him Only we would distinguish here betwixt this pollution of Conscience as it is total in an unrenewed man and as it is partial in a Believer a Believer may be defiled in Conscience when he is offended and stumbled so as to be tempted by the example of others to do some thing wherein he is not clear as some were 1 Cor. 8. verse 7 and 10. His Conscience is thereby mudded jumbled and troubled and his peace marred yet he hath not a total and universal defilement of Conscience And therefore the effects of that uncleanness pollution and defilement follow not totally and universally oh him I shall only say for Use of this 1. O! that ye knew what an abominable thing sin is and how dreadfully dangerous it is thereby to defile and pollute the Conscience which is the most noble thing in you sin would sure be more abhorred and fled from It s really a wonder that men should love dead Works so well when there is no Botch nor Plague so infectious and contagious so hurtful and destructive to the Bodies as it is to the Souls of men 2 This we may also see that it s no marvel that men who are given to sin be hard to be wakned and reclaimed for continuance in sin makes the Conscience full of holes as it were that all slips and falls thorow it or as the Apostle speaks it makes the Conscience to become cauterized fenseless and feelingless as the flesh is that a Chirurgeon designs to consume away so I say continuance in sin deadens and
eats out the very life and feeling of the Conscience though it will be found to be a Conscience still and a Conscience that will speak and speak aloud one day albeit in Gods righteous Judgement it be silent now 3. We may also see here the reason why many persons are so very filthy that sin becomes a delight to them so that the sin that others could not sleep with they cannot sleep till they get it committed because thorow a custom of and continuance in sinning their mind and Conscience is defiled 2ly Observe That a man before he be purged by Christs Blood hath his Conscience wholly defiled Not only in part as we said of the Believer but wholly before he be in Christ and be purged by his Blood he is like that wretched Infant described Ezek. 16. 5. which description sets forth to the life what these people were before God entered in Covenant with them cast out in the open field to the loathing of their persons unsalted and unswadled with their navils uncut wallowing in their own blood and having no eye to pity them And thus are all men and women without exception before they be in Covenant with God they are wholly in a state of irreconciliation and enmity with God whose Law does not only condemn this and that work or deed of theirs but all of them as but dead works Their very state and person is condemned their peace if they have any is no solid peace none of Gods peace for there is no peace nor ground of peace to the wicked sayes my God Isai. 57. Their inclination is wholly depraved and corrupted all their Thoughts and Imaginations are evil only evil and continually evil as it is Gen. 6. 5. and as that often cited emphatick word is Tit. 1 15. To him that is defiled and unbelieving there is nothing pure Every practice of his the use of every thing is to him impure and his very mind and conscience is totally defiled And this will be yet more clear if we consider 1. The case that the man is in who is not in Christ he is without God without hope under his curse and the condemnatory sentence of his Law and can a man possibly have a clear Conscience that is under Gods curse and hath the Sentence of his Law standing over his head unrepealed Therefore he is said Iohn 3. to be condemned already and to have the wrath of God abiding on him 2. If we consider that a man in this condition is under the dominion of sin he is a captive of it and of the Devil at his will as it is 2 Tim 2. 26 So that there is scarce any motion or temptation to sin but he hearkens to it and complys with it his heart is open to swarms of lusts and as a Cage to unclean and foul Spirits Legions of Devils in a manner haunt him Now if such a man can have a clear Conscience ye may easily judge and yet such is the state and condition of every man by nature and therefore when Christ speaks of the Renovation of a man he sometimes calls it the casting out of the Devil importing thereby that every man in nature is a common receptacle as it were to Devils The 1. Use of this serves to teach us how we ought on the one hand to loath the state of Nature and how on the other hand we ought to love and long after a state of faith in Christ Jesus by whom only our natural state can be changed Is it not a wonder that so many rational men and women can live and ly still in their Natural state without minding or looking after a change Considering that this stands recorded of and against them That their very mind and conscience is defiled and that with dead works and that all who are not in Christ are so defiled vile and abominable that the most stinking dunghill is not so loathsom as the Consciences of such persons are O! What heaps and dunghils of Lusts what pudles and myres what kennels and sinks of pollution and noisome and poisonable filthiness are there What noisom and poisonable sins are drunk down with pleasure as so much sweet Wine all which are kept in retentis by the Conscience never one of them is forgotten though for the time the Conscience by its silence is supposed to have forgotten them yet it will set them all in order marshal them all as it were in rank and file against the persons who shall be found out of Christ in a most formidable manner it will not suffer one sin nor so much as one aggravating circumstance of any sin to be forgot It will bring forth all and charge them home furiously and irresistably This in Gods holy Justice will be the use of Conscience to all such persons It s not like a Conduit or Pipe that takes in at the one end and le ts out at the other but like a standing sink that still retains all that comes into it O! then what a foul and filthy bag to speak â—o is the Conscience of many a man and woman So that no Botch Bovl or Imposthume hath such vile filthy and abominable matter in it as it hath O! what a noisom and viâ—ely stinking smell will that putrid matter send forth when God pricks it This should make you all to loath living in your natural state and to long without lingâ—ing to be out of it It s like that many take it ill â—o have such things said or thought of them but I assure you all that are out of Christ whether ye have a more full or empty purse about you you have this filthy bag full of sin within you and while ye securely heap sins upon sins ye are treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath and of the righteous judgement of God The 2 Use serves to let us see what a poor and sory ground the most part have for their peace of Conscience we may in truth wonder how it comes to pass that many of you can have any peace having such a puddle of filthiness within you If it be true that your mind and Conscience is defiled which are the best things ye have and one day will clearly and convincingly make discovery of the truth of it O! how much hypocrisie and presumption will be found to be among you in stead of true and solid peace with which ye have nothing to do so long as these Whoredoms and Witch-crafts to say so of filthy sins are with you unpurged away by the blood of Christ. The 3. Use serves to demonstrat and clearly to hold forth the absolute necessity of Jesus Christ and the transcendent worth and matchless excellency that is in him that even when a man is thus defiled and polluted by sins these dead works there is access by his blood to get the Conscience purged and this is the thing that we would mainly point at from these words and which we intend God
Saints by the falling but of some hot scalding drops of Gods fatherly wrath and displeasure have been brought neer the length of wishing rather for strangling though mercifully keeped from it and made to abhorre it then life As it was with non such holy Iob who looked on death a violent death as an easie matter be what it was to be under the sense of wrath and to be set up as the mark for Gods arrows to be shot at the venome whereof to his apprehension drunk up his Spirits though all the while he was kept up in the faith of his interest in God and of his love to him To his purpose Human heavily complains Psal. 88. I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up while I suffer thy terrours I am distracted If it be sometimes done thus in the green trees even the greenest what shall be done in the dry Now the Conscience is in a special manner the receptacle of all the terrors of God it must therefore certainly be a very ill thing to have an awakned ill Conscience If an ill and unpurged Conscience be silent and a sleep it s in some respect worse for it hath this black and dreadful awakning abiding it and the longer it sleep and keep silence the the wakning will be the more terrible and its cryes the lowder It s all the while of its silence and sleeping treasuring up more wrath whereby the poor wretch will be payed home with multiplyed increase of terrour and horrour O! that ye knew how evil a thing how very evil a thing it is to have a Conscience not purged from dead works a Conscience not sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ as no stranger can intermiddle with the joy of a mans Spirit who hath a good Conscience a Conscience sprinkled and purged by the blood of Christ so no man can to the full represent to you the exceeding terribleness of the terrour of an evil Conscience when awakned by the wrath of God pleading and pursuing a quarrel with the Soul which quarrel he is infinitly powerful to avenge It would be very suitable to be often enquiring at our selves what is become of the quarrel and what solid ground of peace and confidence towards God is there We will all most certainly and inavoidably be put on this great tryal O! suffer not your selves to be so far deluded as to think that a silent and stupid Conscience is a good Conscience and hath no danger with it which is as great folly as to think that a feeless and benummed member of the body is thereby in â—o danger nay the danger is so much the greater 2ly Observe That though all men naturally be under thiâ— evil of an unpurged Conscience yet in the covenant of Grace God hath laid down a way how sinners may get their Consciences purged This is the Apostles scope in both these scriptures even to lay a solid ground for the consolation of Believers and for a high commendation of Gods grace viz. That by application made to the blood of Jesus there is as a real purging of the Conscience from sin win at as there was access made to persons ceremonially unclean by these sacrifices and washings under the Law to external Church-priviledges being ceremonialy cleansed thereby which is not so to be understood as if the sin committed had never really and actually been so as the purged Believer should neither remember it nor repent of it that is not at all the meaning of the Doctrine but it is to be understood legally that as to the removing of the guilt of sin and as to his having peace with God and in his own Conscience it is purged so as sin cannot stand in the way of his expecting Gods favour nor simply in the way of his delighting himself therein more then if it had never been though the man be the debitor yet there is a way laid down in the Gospel covenant to declare him free even as a man that has plaid the dyvour or bankerupt though he cannot simply and in all respects be made as if he had never been so yet by anothers paying of the debt he is before the Judge acquited and is reckoned free of the debt as if it had never been contracted or owing and as to any effect that might in law follow on it to his prejudice just so is it here with the sinner that flees to the blood of sprinkling and the word purging sufficiently holds it out especially when it is joyned with coming with boldness and confidence to the throne of God for if it should be said to such a sinner how canst thou how darst thou come to God with such confidence that hast an ill Conscience through so much sin He answers Let us draw near or come having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience So that as to a confident approaching to God and application of Christs righteousness persons who have made application of the blood of sprinkling may come to God with as much holy and humble boldness as if the Conscience had never been defiled and pollured and the experience of the Saints who in this way have found peace and confidence is a great evidence and confirmation of the truth of it 3ly To come a little nearer We may Observe in the negative That there is no way for a man that has once had his Conscience defiled and polluted with sin to be cleansed and purged from it but by the blood of Christ If we look through this 9th Chapter from the beginning and the following 10th Chapter We will find that the Apostles scope is to prove that it is not the blood of Bulls or of Calves nor any one or all of these ceremonial Sacrifices washings or purgations that can do the business as he more particularly cleareth v 9. of the 9. Chap. Where the Apostle insinuats That though God appointed many means and midâ—es of purgation yet if there had been no more but these they could never have effected the perfyting of a man as pertaining to the Conscience It s only the blood of Jesus that hath this effect And this one reason will confirm it viz. That there is no other thing but the blood of Christ that can satisfie Gods justice and remove the quâ—rrel that is betwixt him and the guilty sinner it s he only in whom God is well pleased he is our peace and there is no name under heaven given whereby a sinner can be saved but the name of Iesus And till God be satisfied the Conscience cannot be quiet seeing then that nothing can satisfie Gods Justice buâ— his blood there can nothing purge and satisfie the Conscience but it Therefore David prayes Psal. 51. Purge me with hysop and I shall be clean Where he allâ—ds and looks to the blood of Christ that was â—ypifyed by the sprinkling of Blood with a bunsh of hysop under the law as the Apostle doth here As the Use of this Doctrine