Testimony yeelds which are Fourfold 1. It hath with it inward quietness strength and comfort The well grounded approving Testimony of the Conscience calms the heart amidst all storms of outward troubles or of inward challenges and tentations and puts them all to silence it doth fortify the heart to bear out in what ever tryal it proves not only comfortable in the holding off challenges but hath a joy and refreshing flowing immediately from the very Testimony it self even a singularly sweet joy that floorishes and flows over and above these and keeps the heart in a calm serenity The peace of God sayeth the Apostle Phil. 4. 7 shall guard your hearts and minds through Christ Iesus Consciences Testimony warrantably speaking peace is like a garison planted about the heart keeping it as an impregnable and invincible strong Hold or Fort So that no troubles nor temptations from without nor stirrings of Corruption or Challenges from within do sooner to say so set out their head but it overmatcheth them and preserves the heart quiet in despyt of them all 2ly This does also accompany this Testimony as a ground of joy even the clearing up of the persons interest in Christ and the evidencing of their sincerity and the truth and reality of the work of Grace in them Which is very strengthning and comforting when a man hath put his way to the tryal in the court of Conscience and found it to be squared according to the Rule of the Word and hath Consciences Testimony therein for him It sweetly evidences to him his sincerity and so the truth of his interest in Christ which is attended with unspeakable joy 3ly This Testimony gives boldnesse and accesse with confidence to God to go heartsomly and familiarly to him in prayer under the multitude of temptations crosses and reproaches and is not this ground of great refreshing and joy When a man may go to God and pour out his very heart in his bosome may not only tell him what he needs but also expect a gracious hearing and return from him in whatsoever is needful If our hearts sayes Iohn 1 Epistle Chap. 2. v. 22. condemn us not we have confidence towards God and whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his commandments and do these things that are pleasant in his sight Though the man be empty-handed for the time and hath not in himself whereupon he can be for the honour of God either by suffering or doing he may with humble boldnesse present his suit to God and expect from him whatsoever is good and needful for the man himself and what ever may be for his own honour in him and by him 4ly This Testimony of a good Conscience hath attending it a clearing up-making fresh and lively hope of eternal Life and of a comfortable glorious and satisfying out-gate from all the difficulties temptations and troubles that he is in at present or may be in for the future it will make him according to his measure say as Paul doth 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Hence forth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness c. And by thus clearing up the Christians hope of eternal life an entrance is ministred unto him abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ as Peter hath it 2. Ep. ch 1. v. 11. And must it not be exceedingly and even unspeakably refreshing and joyful to the Christian to have all these trysting together in his Case even while he is here sojourning in the earth doubtlesse it must The First Use of this Doctrine serves for exhorting and beseeching you all to study and be in love with a good Conscience its unknown what solid sweet peace and joy ye may have by it O! Endeavour through Grace to be so tender straight and upright in your aim to have a good Conscience in all things that when ye reflect on your way ye may have its good Testimony There will most certainly be more peace found in this then in the greatest abundance of all earthly comforts though combined together at their very best Can any of these calm a mans mind in a storm of challenges for sin and of the terrours of death Do they not often rather leave men in greater anxiety and perplexity then if they had never injoyed them Yea often in the very mean time of these injoyments and in the midst of the carnal joy and laughter that results from them the heart is sad through the want of the Testimony of a good Conscience Therefore we exhort you in the Name of the Lord as ye would have a pleasant and cheerful life and a comfortable and joyful death labour to have a good Conscience in all things that when ye reflect on it it may testify for and speak good of and to you This as Solomon sayes Is a continual feast in Life and a soveraign cordial against the terrour of Death The 2d Use serves To let us see the rise reason and cause of the great anxiety perplexity and vexation that is among most men so that they toil night and day and have no satisfaction it s even this that they do not seek after the peace and joy that are founded upon and result from the Testimony of a good Conscience no wonder that such persons live and die utter strangers to all solid peace and joy which only grow on this Root This is a main cause also of the little peace and great heartlesnesse that is among even Believers themselves that either they are not so seriously endeavouring to have the Testimony of a good Conscience or they are not so careful to draw their rejoyceing from it but are untender in their walk or are as so many Bees fleeing from this flower to the other of worldly injoyments seeking to suck some sweetnesse and satisfaction from them and doe not as it becomes them reflect on Conscience that they may have a Testimony of sincerity from it and that on that ground they may be quiet cheerful and joyful The 3d. Use Serves To discover to us what mighty prejudice flows from and follows upon the neglect of a tender walk which layes the ground of this Testimony and on the neglect of self-examination a main piece of a tender walk which helpeth to draw forth this Testimony and therefore as ye would have this Testimony and the refreshing peace and joy that flow from it in Life and Death and as ye would have a heart holily triumphing over all crosses and difficulties afflictions and tribulations design and indeavour more through grace to have a tender walk that ye may lay a ground for this Testimony and study to be more frequent in Self-examination that thereby ye may extract and draw it forth clearly and convincingly for your peace comfort and joy Could many of you be but once prevailed with to prove and make tryal what a comfortable
short in his duty which would quite mar a legal Testimony of Conscience or the Testimony of a legal good Conscience Thus Paul hath a good Conscience Rom. 7. 22. Even when he is wrestling against Sin and crying out in the fight O! miserable man that â— am who shall deliver me from the body of this death For he findeth himself delighting in the Law of God after the inward man and that his design is to be honest and single for God It is not so much the challenge of Conscience as that there should be ground for it that affeâ—eth and troubleth him when he thinketh with himself what may I and must I be before God when Conscience taketh notice of so many things to be amiss in me It is from this ground I say that Paul comforteth himself that he alloweth not himself in that which he did and reckoneth his Evangelically good Conscience and his sincerity to be his renewed part and as such sideth and taketh part with it and condemneth the un renewed part A 4th Property or Character is taken from a Believers walking in reference to his challenges This is not the mark that he wanteth challenges but it s drawn from the influence that challenges have on him Which comprehends three different Characters 1. A Gospel good Conscience taketh quickly and easily with a challenge and is soon troubled and melted 2. It is made quickly to loath and conâ—emn it self for sin and so Conscience and the man agree well together when Conscience sayeth to him thou art a Sinner thou arâ— lost Justice must be satisfied and thou canst not do it he sayeth so likewise 3. When challenges put yet further at him and pursue him yet harder and closser the good Conscience makes him â—ee to the Blood of Christ and sets him a seeking of pardon from God in the Court of Grace when the man is some way condemned in the Court of his own Conscience and then he obtaineth peace even in the Court of Conscience For when God speaks peace in and through Jesus Christ the Conscience also speaks peace and thus though the man hath not a good Conscience in a Law sense as I said before yet in a Gospel-sense he hath and he mindeth to keep friendship with God and with his Conscience though he cannot quiet pacifie and satisfie it in a Legall way yet in a Gospel way he may And this is even it that the Saints have in their appealing to their Conscience for the great ground of their peace viz. The sincerity of their Practice and their fleeing to Christs Blood to the Blood of sprinkling for quieting their Conscience in the croud of challenges for their short comings and failings in practice and that very warrantably from the Word of God whoever sincerely take this way though they have challenges of Conscience they have yet notwithstanding a good Conscience Such a Conscience challengeth by the Law yet absolveth by the Gospel challengeth on account of the Rebellion of the Law in the Members and yet absolveth in respect of the Law in the mind it condemneth the man as loathsome in himself and in his own duties and righteousness and yet absolveth him as founding his peace on Christ and sinking and putting to silence all challenges and accusations in that Blood of Sprinkling that speaking Blood that hath a cry to out-cry the loudest cryes of the most clamorous and guilty Conscience And what can be justly said against this since Christ's Righteousness is perfect and Gods promise faithful and Christs Blood of force and efficacy to quiet and give the answer of a good Conscience But it may be asked hâ—re May not a natural un-renewed person or a hypocrite have the Testimony of a good Conscience or how far may his Conscience be good and wherein lyeth the difference betwixt his good Conscience and the Believers good Conscience I know this is a piece of the Spiritual pride and vanity of many of you to boast of a good Conscience and really it would make a tender Conscience some way to loath to hear you speak so confidently of it I shall therefore in the First place Answer to the Question how far the Conscience of a natural man or an hypocriâ—e may be good and then shew you how and wherein it is defective and what are the differences betwixt it and the Believers good Conscience For the First I would say this in generall in the First place that we are not now speaking of slâ—epie erring dead and hardened Consciences the Testimony of these is little worth neither is every thing Conscience that many men think to be so Conscience must act according to the word else it withdraweth it self from that due subordination it standeth in to God and to his Law Conscience is oblidged to abide and stand by Gods Testimony but God is not oblidged to stand by its Testimony we would therefore beware of mistakinâ— Conscience more particularly in the 2d place a natural man may have something like a good Conscience and may come the length of these four Steps according to his light â— He may have a negative good Conscience that is a Conscience which doth not actually challenge him yea a Conscience that hath no gross thing to challenge him for he is it may be no Murtherer no Adulterer he defigneth no Oppression nor deceit in his Dealing c. and on this ground he possibly thinketh that he hath a good Conscience though he hath no positive Testimony of a good Conscience all this while 2. He may someway have a good Conscience in respect of such or such a particular act in respect of being free of a challenge on account of a wrong design of doing such or such a thing or in respect of moral sincerity and ingenuity such as was in these men that followed Absolom in the simplicity of their heart and in Abimelech who in taking Abrahams wife meaned no evil noâ— any thing but what was lawful and therefore he saith That in the integrity of his heart â—e did it that is he had a moral honest design and was free from grounds of challenge about what others might have been ready to charge him with as to that action 3 He may come a great length as to the duties of the second Table of the Law so as he may not wrong his neighbour in word nor deed he may design no mans hurt he may wish evil to no man thus very probably it was with that Pharisee who came to Christ and said All these have I keept from my youth the poor man speaks as he thought not knowing the Spiritual meaning and extent of the Law Therefore when he is bidden sell all and gâ—ve to the poor he went away grieved he had no gross sinister design it 's also said that Christ loved him or pitied him as a civil man And It s indeed on this ground that meerly civil men so much magnifie and cry up their Conscience and place all
and were fond on them A 5th Character is That a deluded Conscience iâ— ordinarily bitter and cruel in the effects of it as it is proud and vain so it will persecute to the death them it differeth from hence were the Persecutions of the Apostles and of Paul especially and we have seen it in poor deluded souls who have thought themselves oblidged to slay all that were against them or differed from them in these their delusions some what of this bitterspirit accompanied the delusion of the Galatians Therefore the Apostle sayeth to them chap. 5. 15. If ye bite and devour one another c. And Iames speaketh to the same purpose of such persons chap. 3. 14. If ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts glory not and lye not against the truth this wisdom descendeth not from above Bitter zeal and strife is an evil token and a bitter Conscience is readily no good Conscience when a man supposing himself to be in the right is carried on with a spirit of bitterness though in other cases bitterness through the power of corruption may kyth yet it is native to delusion It floweth from pride in such persons exalting themselves above all others Therefore as soon as they are deluded go wrong they must have a Church by themselves and will joyn with no other persons in Christian communion but such as are of their mistaken opinion But a Third Question ariseth here on occasion of the former viz. whether Believers in Christ need to be afraid of a deluded Conscience And whether they may not be perswaded and that with a sort of delight and satisfaction that they are right when yet they are wrong the latter branch of the Question necessarily supposeth the former which needeth not therefore to be particularly spoken to We Answer with a distinction that a Believer may be mistaken and deluded in a particular but cannot be deluded as to his gracious state because being indeed a Believer it s a most true and certain conclusion which he draws concerning his being in a gracious state though possibly as to some of the grounds whence he deduceth it he may be mistaken or he may draw it from wrong grounds yet I say in some particulars he may be deluded as in taking such or such an error to be a truth and so the first Three grounds and rises of a deluded Conscience which we form erly assigned may agree to him As he may lay too much weight on carnal reason and on common Gifts as some of the Galaians did and the Apostles themselves were in hazard to do and therefore our Lord saith to them Luke 10. 20. Rejoyce not in this that the spirits are subject to you but that your names are written in heaven he may also lay too much weight on sense or comfort and the reason may be because when God graciously condescendeth to give them now and then some proof that he loveth them they being in so far deserted draw a conclusion quite cross to the design and end of that manifestation as if he approved them in that particular wherein they are mistaken for as a Believer when he is right may think himself to be wrong because of the want of sense so by the rule of contraries he may think himself to be right because he hath much sense when yet he may be wrong I shall for further clearing instance it in five or six cases As 1. When a Believer hath been in some tender frame praying to God sincerely and hath gotten a hearing and when some smiling providence meeteth him and inviteth him to side with such or such a thing he is ready to think that God calleth him to that thing or it may be the Christian after Prayer meets with a Scripture that holdeth out that thing which he hath been praying for whence he rashly draweth the conclusion that he will obtain it and is ready to think that therein he walks according to reason if the thing look rational like to him and suit the matter of his Prayer we may see something of this or very like it in Samuel if we compare the 15. and 16. Chapters of the first Book of Samuel together in the end of the 15. Chapter he hath very probably been praying when he mourned and chap. 16. v. 1. he is sent by God to Bethlehem to anoint one of Iesses sons to be king and when vers 6. he looketh on Eliah he presently and somewhat rashly yet very confidently saith Surely the Lord's anointed is before him he having been praying and the thing looking so rational and purpose-like was perswaded that he was right but the Lord reproveth him and saith to him Look not on his countenance nor on the height of his stature because I have refused him for the Lord seeth not â—s man seeth for man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart How oâ—t may a tryst of Providence be mistaken I was in Prayer and such a word met me and such a Providence occurred to me and did cast the ballance A â— d. Case is when a thing representeth it self to the Believer not only as lawful and honest but as conducing much to Gods glory and to the good of his work and he meaneth well in it how ready is he hence to conclude that he is certainly called to such a thing and that it is his duty when yet it is not so we may see something of this in David who 2 Sam. 7. 1 2 3 and 4. having a purpose to build a house to God proposeth the matter to Nathan the Prophet who without consulting God off-hand saith to him Go do all that is in thine heart for the Lord is with thee and yet notwithstanding though God loved the thing and approved of it in its self as a duty yet it was not Gods mind that David should perform it nor that Nathan should have so positively encouraged him to it hence when a thing considered in it self is pleasing to God and may be for his honour some good people may think it to be their duty whom yet God never called to such a thing as for instance to aim to be a Minister of the Gospel is a good thing in it self and one may have a sort of impulse to it who yet may not be called to it A 3d. Case is when Believers inclinations and affections are exceeding much towards such or such a thing very readily there-from they will come to have a sort of perswasion in their Conscience anent that thing as for instance when they love one sort of life beyond another which is not simply unlawful or one Child beyond another as we may see in Isaac his strong inclination to bless Esau Gen. 27. we conceive the good man went not against the light of his own Conscience in the matter but he loved him excessively which made him take the less heed to what otherways Gods promise and way of dealing with his sons
true peace is the result of a mans designed and in some measure seriously endeavoured conformity to all Gods commands and the breach of any one command will some way marr his peace There must be then an universal design and endeavour to keep touches with God we can never else have solid peace But where this is there is fair and ready access to peace and a good evidence of a good Conscience according to that notable word Psal. 119. 6. Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect to all thy commandments It s only this universal respect to Gods commands that prevents shame and gives the Believer boldness and therefore it must needs be a good evidence of and have a great stâ—oak and influence upon a good Conscience The 3d. thing in the Doctrine to be cleared is what is meant by willingness and a hearty purpose to be univerial in the practice of holiness or of an honest life and walk whereupon as on its base we said the great stress of the evidence lyes and therefore we would clear it the more fully and that we may do so we shall â— premit some distinctions of willingness that we may know of what willingness it is that the Apostle means 2ly We shall confirm both parts of the Doctrine after some few things permitted 3ly We shall shew wherein this willingness consists and what are its characters For the First we would have you to distinguish 1. Betwixt a willingness in reference to the end or benefit it self and a willingness in reference to the mids whereby that end or benefit is attained betwixt willingness to have a quiet Conscience as to the end and willingness to live honestly as the mids There is nothing more common among people then to think that they are willing to have heaven and to have Christ that they may get heaven they think they are very sure that they are very willing and love well to be in heaven when they die and leave this present world and yet if this be put to a narrow and just tryal it will rather be found to be a willingness to have some benefit then to be at the mids that leads to it they would have Christ peace with God and Heaven because they are good and men naturally have an appeâ—e and desire after good but a desire towards the mids that leads to the end is a willingness to be at the practice of holinesse by which we come to a good Conscience a willingness to deny our own righteousness and by faith to betake our selves to Christ for peace with God and for the pardon of sin and a willingness to have grace to make us fruitful in every good work many men and women have the first sort of willingness who have not the second therefore so soon as it comes to the use of such means as may help to further holiness and to attain a good Conscience they are at a stand as it was with that man mentioned Mat. 19. who questionless would have been at heaven but when Christ tells him If he would be persyte he must sell all that he hath and give to the poor and come and follow him And so puts him to a proof of his willingness by putting him to will the mids as ever he would come by the end It 's said He went away sorrowful for he had great possessions He was loath and unwilling to want heaven and he was as unwilling and loath to forgoe his riches and at length in this debate and strugle his wealth prevailed and carried him quite off from Christ alace There are many such hearers of the Gospel however a desire to the mids as well as to the end must be in right willingnesse to live honestly which is the first thing wherein this willingnesse consists 2ly We would distinguish and put difference betwixt willingness to the mids abstractedly to speak so considered and a willingness to the mids considered complexly with other things and wayes that ly cross to it which yet the man loves Thus when a man is convinced that such a thing is good and desirable he will have a sort of desire after it as that â—an spoken of Matth. 19. had after heaven and salvation but when he comes to to look at the thing complexly as it may be thwarting with some other thing that he loves better he doth not actually will it because he sees that for the attaining of it he must part with and forgoe that other thing which he preferreth to it in this respect many men may love holiness as good and desirable and they will readily say O! to be holy as that wretch Balaam wished to die the death of the righteous but when it comes to particulars that thwart and cross their lusts and corrupt inclinations as when they are told that they must forgive such wrongs restore such things as they have unjustly taken and detained that they must deny themselves c. they are at a stand Hence some will give very fair and pertinent advices and directions to others in reference to the study of holines and even some very prophane men will sometimes commend the fear of God to their children while yet in their own practice they lay no weight on it noâ— regard it because they consider it not in it self but as it is complicated with the apparent necessity of parting with and closing of such and such particular things that they have no will to forgoe 3ly We would distinguish betwixt a willingness that is by fits and is but some accidental motion to speak so and a willingness that is deliberat resolute fixed and habitual The former may be under convictions challenges and fears as appears in many of these spoken of Exod. 19. and Deut. 5. 27. Who readily say under a fit of conviction and of fear all that the Lord â—as commanded us we will do And in many persons in their afflictions and on their sick-beds who will say if they had their health again and were delivered from such and such a trouble and distress they would study to be better men But so soon as they recover health and such a tempest of trouble is over they return with the dog to the vomit their goodness is like the morning cloud and early dew that goeth away as it is Hos. 6. 4. It s not this willingness that we speak of but it s an habitual fixed willingness a settled design as to such a thing as these words Acts 24. 16. hold forth Hâ—rein do I exercise my self alwayes to have a conscience void of offence It s not to have a willingness this or that day or hour and then to lay it quite by but it s in all our conversation to be willing to live honestly as the Apostle hath it Rom. 7. To will is present with me This willingness is alwayes in some measure present with serious Christians it waits still on them it s a constant habitual inclination and propension