It is in every part or faculty of the soule 1. It hath the understanding for its Throne and Pallace where it is cheifly resident and keepeth a compleate Court in the whole soule commonly called forum conscientiae and there as a Judge sits determining and prescribing absolving and condemning de jure 2. It s in the memory and there it acteth as Register or Recorder readily minding and recording witnessing and testifying de facto 3. It s in the will and affections and there Conscience carries it selfe like a Jaylour or Executioner rendring rewarding plaguing and punishing every one sine respectu without partiality The 4 th thing in the definition of conscience is determination Conscience determineth what is good what evill what is to be done what not to be done and so excites or diswades accordingly If conscience say this must be done then must we do it for conscience sake If conscience tells us it is evill Rom. 13.5 then must we forbeare for conscience sake i.e. out of an holy feare of God whereby our conscience may be preserved pure before him 5. The rule by which conscience acteth namely the light of Gods law I do not say by the light of the word Gospell or written Law but more largely by the light of Gods law I meane the law of Nature written in mans heart before the word was written or Gospell revealed For as man had a conscience from the beginning so he had light from the beginning to regulate conscience which was the law of Nature written in his heart Rom. 2.15 6. The last thing in the desinition of conscience is her acting or working upon the light received which is twofold either acquitting or condemning when by her light she determines what is done that it is good or evill she accordingly doth excuse or accuse Rom. 2.15 And thus have you conscience in generall defined and explained Having shewed you what conscience is and in whom namely in the reasonable Creature now in so much as every man hath reason I may safely conclude that every man hath conscience The point of Doctrine is clearly this Doct. There is in every man a power or faculty called Conscience 1. That there is in man a conscience let our Apostle cleare up this truth in himselfe how often doth he call and appeale unto conscience upon all occasions when he was convented before the Coūsell greiveous things charged upō him he appeals to conscience Men and Brethren I have lived saith he in all good Conscience before God untill this day Againe when Ananias commanded them that stood by to smite Paul on the mouth Act. 23.1.2 and Tertullus with all his Rhetoricke before Foelix besmeares him calling him a pestilent fellow a mover of sedition a maintainer of the sect of the Pharisees a polluter of the Temple and what not He hath no way to cast off all this filth but by flying unto conscience shewing his enimies how far and free he was from these base aspersions that it was his constant practice to keep a Conscience void of offence toward God and toward men Act. 24.16 And that you may not think it to be Pauls peculiar but common to others with him we approve our selves to every mans Conscience in the sight of God 2 Cor. 4.2 Ob. Though good men have a conscience yet wicked men have not A. It is an usuall saying indeed amongst men here when they meet with such as are very hard in their dealings or very vitious in living to say this man hath no Conscience But you must understand their meaning when they say he hath no conscience they meane no good conscience or no working conscience Be you therefore assured that there is a Conscience in every man and woman be they good or bad not only in Paul but also in Pilate not only in John but likewise in Judas John 8.9 Rom. 2.15 The accursed Jewes wicked Pharisees and Heathenish Idolaters will all acknowledge the being and working of Conscience in them To hold therefore that some men have no Conscience is both dishonourable to God and injurious to man 1. A dishonour to God as if he had given man not a perfect but imperfect soule defective in its principall power or faculty we confesse that the body of man being generated may be maimed wanting a part or member Gen. 2.7 as an eye an eare a hand or foot Anima infundendo creatur creando infunditur Tho Aqu. 2. d. 3. q. 1.4.1 because it comes mediately from man but as for the foule being created and infused by God this cannot be defective but compleat in all this powers and faculties and therefore a great dishonour to God to question his workmanship as men do if they deny man to have a conscience Anima humana non eseminis traduce propagatur sed immediatè à Deo creatur which is a speciall power or faculty in the soule 2. An injury to man 1. Deny man conscience you deny him reason and so confound him with a beast but grant him a conscience and you grant him reason and set him in his proper place as a Lord or master over beasts Ps 8.7 2. Againe deny him Conscience you deny him a Soule one of his Essentials and so confound his manhood which were a great injury to him We acknowledge sin hath brought us to a great losse but not to such a losse as to loose our being we have by Adams sin lost our innocency but not our essence our Excellency but not our existence our soule is defiled not annìhilated our powers depraved not destroyed man is man still hath body and soule partes members powers and faculties all good quoad bonum naturale all naught quoad bonum morale The truth then still stands cleare that there is in every man a power or faculty called Conscience 2. The Reasons why God hath planted this power of conscience in man are two 1. R. To shew his Justice that he will judge righteously God commands judges here on earth to execute righteous judgment Deut. 1.16 to proceed secundum allegata probata to do nothing but upon good evidence and witnesse Now shall not the Judge of all the world do right God hath therefore set this power in man that when God comes to judge him he may have sufficient evidence in himselfe his owne Conscience witnessing for him or against him before Gods Tribunall For God will not condemne without a witnesse 2. R. Is to shew his mercy unto man He knowes man is very fraile labilis memoriae apt to forget his God and to forget himselfe Sometimes he goes forth and forgets to pray unto God for protection and direction sometimes he returnes home and neglects his duty of praise to God for his preservation therefore God hath placed in him this power of conscience as a remembrancer unto him Againe sometimes mens Passions are very high as in Jonah Jonah 4.9 who is
that her name is become unsavory the very mentioning of Conscience is nauseated by every prophane Belialist It 's high time therefore to crave the help of an Angel yea the Angel of the Covenant Jesus Christ the Saviour to roll away the stone and to raise up our dead friend Conscience as sometimes he raised up his dead friend Lazarus This worke of raising the dead is proper unto God onely yet may an omnipotent God use impotent man in such a worke as Elisha in raising the Shunamites dead son to life 2 King 4.34 Act. 9.9 Act. 40. Paul in restoring Eutychus and Peter in reviving Tabitha aliàs Dorcas Now he that imployed men then in raising dead bodies can and will imploy men still in raising dead soules dead consciences who knoweth what God may do if we do our parts if the Hebrews pray Paul preach and God come in with a blessing on both what shall hinder but that the dead conscience should be revived the drowsie awakened the weake confirmed the troubled quieted the good bettered and every elect soule returne to his rest with some measure of Pauls considence and say I trust I have a good Conscience willing in all things to live honestly The occasion of Pauls pleading a good Conscience I find to be thus Occasion there were certaine ill-affected persons among the Hebrewes who calumniated Pauls doctrine Theophilact in h. l. as tending to the subversion of Moses law so that many who had formerly given their Names to Christ began now to draw back from Paul as a Seducer and false Teacher and so their Affections alienated from him He therefore to cleare himselfe from such false aspersions and calumniations and to confirme and establish the Hebrewes in the truth gives them to understand that he had not dealt fallaciously but faithfully with them in what he had taught them and therefore adviseth them to continue constant in their obedience unto their Teachers and in servent prayer unto God for them For saith he we are assured we have a good Conscience willing in all things to live honestly You may terme this Text Pauls Triumph or his choice Jewel with which the whole world compared and weighed in the Ballance will be found as light as drosse and vanity and without this all things are but losse dung and vexation of spirit 1. Analysis Pauls Conscience 2. Pauls Considence In the first note the quality it is a good Conscience In the second the propriety it is his owne good Conscience I have a good conscience In the second viz. his confidence you have 1. his Assurance we trust 2. the grounds of it built on foure firme pillars 1. His will desiring 2. The Extent in all things 3. The Constancy of his will to walke or live 4. The Syncerity of it namely honesty First of conscience in generall it would be very tedious to shew you the opinions of men upon the definition of conscience all varying in terme Habitus multis dispositionibus acquisitus Habitus intellectualis quâ talis officium est unicum inclinare ad promptè agendum Conscientia verò multas habet operationes quas immedtatè exercet ergo non Habitus Ames de Conscien and some in truth Much adoe there is amongst Divines to find out the Genus or generall terme of it as also the difference Some calling it an act some an habit some a faculty some a power As for the two former they are liable to just exception that call it an act or habit 1. It cannot properly be called an act because conscience many times doth not act as in sleepy men and seared consciences 2. It cannot be properly termed an habit because conscience is innate not acquired The two latter a faculty or power are generally imbraced but especially the last Some leave out faculty because the Scripture hath not yet determined it to be a distinct faculty but calling it sometimes the spirit of a man and sometimes the spirit of the mind of man therefore to avoid all exception I shall pitch upō the last terme namely power as the true genus and so define it Conscience is an inbred light in the mind of man teaching him to follow what is good and to eschew that which is evill and it is called conscientia quasi concludens scientia and it hath a two-fold Act the first is to give Testimony to things whether we have done well or ill if we have done them well then it giveth testimony for us Rom. 9.1 My Conscience also bearing me witnesse and if we have done evill then it testifieth against us Therefore Nazianzen used to call the Conscience Pedagogū animae for as a Pedagogue waiteth upon a Child and commendeth him when he doth well and on the contrary whippeth him when he doth evill so the conscience when a man sinneth it stingeth him like Hornets Deut. 7.20 But when he doth well it alloweth him bids him go on maugre all opposition and to rejoice and sing though in a prison with Peter or in stocks with Paul vid. Weemse divine exercitations But to define it more plainly and fully Conscience is a Relative power in the reasonable Creature Definition which upon determination through the light of Gods law doth either excuse or accuse 1. A power because of the many operations and workings which it dayly exerciseth in us 2. It s a Relative power not absolute Conscientia i.e. scientia cum alia scientia 1. Cum Deo scire 2. Cum seipso scire 3. Cum aliis scire 4. Cum rebus ipsis conscire because what Conscience doth it doth it in Relation to another and therefore called conscience because it knoweth with another with one that is of familiarity with it and witnesseth the truth with it and this is God alone who only knoweth the heart and trieth the reines Hence it is that Paul calleth the spirit of God to second his conscience I speake the truth in Christ I lie not my Conscience bearing me witnesse in the holy Ghost where you may see 3 witnesses produced by the Apostle and all of them without exception namely Christ the holy Ghost and Conscience which is mille testes a thousand witnesses 3. The subject in which conscience is seated it is in the reasonable Creature I doe not say it is in the Creatour for God being holinesse and righteousnesse it selfe needeth not Conscience to order governe and direct him Neither do I say it is in the unreasonable creature because Beasts and Fowles wanting reason must needs want conscience but this I affirme conscience is in the reasonable creature only whether they be men or Angels good or evill Saints or sinners blessed Angels or collapsed Divels this power of Conscience is in them all Q. In what part of man is this power seated A. Tota in toto tota in qualibet parte I will say of conscience in the soule as Philosophers of the soule in the body
ready to quarrell with God and to fall out with him as if he had greatly wronged him God saith unto him doest thou well to be angry yea saith he I do well to be angry even unto death His words are very high words of a passionate spirit blinded with anger rather then with any expresse rebellion Very needfull therefore is it that such should have conscience as a Controuler to check them Againe others their Affections are disorderly placed on wrong objects likeing those whom they should dislike and loving those whom they should loath such was the blind Affection of Jehoshaphat to Ahab I am saith he as thou art 2 Chron. 18 3. 2 Chron. 19.2 my people as thy people its needfull therefore that conscience say to such as Jehn to Iehoshaphat shouldst then love them that hate the Lord Lastly many mens appetites are very wanton wholsome meates and drinkes content them not their meates must be mixed with hurtfull condiments and their drinke with noxious ingredients therefore it is very requisite that conscience play the Monitor and advise them not to looke on the wine when it sparkles Prov. 23.30 31. nor to seeke after mixt wine though it goe downe pleasantly yet at last it will bite like a Serpent and hurt like a Cockatrice And thus you see how just and how mercifull God is to plant such a power as conscience within us Vse 1 Is there such a power or faculty as conscience in every man then let every man learne to magnify his maker not barely for being his Creature but for being such a Creature as none is like him First look upon thy meanest part namely thy body view that well and thou shalt see such an exellency in it that no visible creature is comparable unto mans body If we look unto our first Creation we find them very excellent creatures 1. God made them with consultation and deliberation Gen. 1.26 let us make man His advice argueth a worke of great weight and moment and this word of plurality us intimates the Trinity (a) Galen though a meere Naturalist when he saw the admirable frame and structure of mans body was so taken with it that he could not but adiudge the honour of an Hymne to the wise Creator of it and mindes us of the mysterie of the three persons in one Godhead God the father seemeth to speak as communicating by way of consultation with God the Son and God the holy Ghost in the worke of Creation 2. The wonderfull endowments of the body in beauty strength nimblenesse activity without deformity or mortality 3. All other bodies made for the good of mans body the heavenly to give light unto it the earthly bodies to nourish cherish and comfort it Againe if we consider the recreation or regeneration of our bodies we find them more excellent 1. Purchased by Christs bloud 1 Cor. 6.20 2. Sanctified by Christs spirit 1 Cor. 6.19 3. Assumed by Christs person Phil. 2.7 When he took our nature he took our body and was made like unto us in all things sin only excepted so that we are as neer to Christ as our bodies to our soules Having thus viewed our meanest part namely the body let us in the next place consider our best part namely our soule What the soule is The soule of man is a spirit distinct invisible immortall infused by God 1. A spirit Thus much the Originall word declareth as in John 11. 33. and John 12. 27. we find soule and spirit promiscuously used by our Saviour my soule is troubled my spirit is troubled 2. A distinct spirit because it hath its being not only in the body but also out of the body Eccl. 12.7 as it had its time of entrance into the body so its time of returne out As it is in us so it can be without us and will be after us 3. Invisible Because no more to be seen then an Angel or God himselfe 4. An immortall spirit Eccl. 12.7 And Christ tells us that men may kill our bodies but not our soules which made Anaxzarchus bold to speak unto his Tormentors who did beat him with clubs laye on my Sachel meaning his body you cannot hurt Anaxzarchus meaning his soule 5. A spirit infused by God Gen. 2.7 How Adam came by his soule we all know namely by inspiration but as for our owne soules we are at a great stand Some think by participation (b) Chrysippus de natur â. lib. 3. as one Candle lighteth another Some thinke by generation (c) Tertullian l. de anim â ch 5. that a man begets a man compleat Others say it is by infusion (d) Thom. Aquin. 1 q. 75.6 1 m. by a peculiar inspiration when the child is first quickened in the womb Much is imagined little concluded concerning this question (e) St. Austin hath writ 4 bookes of the originall of the soule in which he leaveth this question undecided And his second booke of Retractions doth witnesse that he continued in that doubt unto his death cap. 56. and no marvell for who knoweth the way of the spirit Eccl. 11.5 The Scripture seems to warrant the last opinion calling God the Creator of the Spirit Zach. 12.1 The giver of the Spirit Eccl. 12.7 The Father of our spirits Heb. 12.9 It is not without consideration if God by a peculiar elegy and stile is called the father of spirits that he might be opposed to the father of the flesh for if the soule be by traduction then those that are the fathers of the flesh would also be the fathers of the spirits neither would God by this title be distinguished from the father of the flesh if he wrought alike in both and did not forme mens soules otherwise then their bodies So then consider well your bodies soules and you may safely conclude that of all the creatures that ever God made there is more to be seen of God in man then in them all and in man much in his body more in his soule but most of all in his conscience as one saith this smelleth more of God then the heavens the Sun the Stars or all the glorious things of the earth gold precious stones Rubies or sweetest herbs roses or lillies Oh how should we magnifie our maker Ps 139.14 and with David say I will praise thee O Lord for I am fearfully and wonderfully made marvelous are thy workes and that my soule knoweth right well Object Ob. Our conscience were at first very pure and excellent but now like our selves they are most sinfull yea our Soules and Consciences are defiled Tit. 1.15 therefore nothing worthy praise in them Answ A. It s very true that our consciences which were pure and excellent at first are by Adam's sin become defiled and uncleane But let me tell you there is no part power or faculty in the whole man that retaines so much of its excellency in it as conscience doth though the
whole soule were defiled and every part and power depraved yet conscience had so much life left in it as with Iobs messengers to tell sad tydings of mans great losse There remaines in it scintilla rectae rationis a little spark to shew what great light hath been extinguisht but now this also through affected blindnesse and wilfull malice is so smothered and suffocated through a daiely custome of sinning that I may say of conscience in many as the Psalmist of an Idol it hath an eye and cannot see an eare and cannot heare a mouth and cannot speak Thus stands the cause whith many a hardned sinner The eye of their conscience is as the eye of a mole which serves only to decore the body but not to guide the way Their eares but as the eares of an Addar wilfully stopt at the best counsell that the messenger of Christ can bring unto it and the mouth of it as the mouth of a viper that sucks in and sends out nothing but poison and poisonous expressions Yet notwithstanding the naturall Conscience will hold an excellency beyond all other powers faculties in the soule So that thy Maker still deserveth praise from thee Use 2 Have all a conscience then let all acknowledge it and not dare to conceale what God hath given them It s very dangerous to hide any Talent that God gives us in a Napkin Luk. 19. what God bestowes on man man is to imploy and use it to the honour of him that gives it therefore let conscience appeare in a conscientious walking before him be holy to thy God Tit. 1.12 upright to thy neighbour and sober in thy selfe walke so circumspectly in thy place and calling that all may say thou art a man of conscience But woe unto us we sojourne in Mesech our habitations are in Kedar we live among such as are enimies to conscience yea open and professed enimies unto it yea the very naming of conscience is very hatefull unto them aske them where their conscience is and they will desperately answer what tell you me of conscience Conscience say they was hanged long ago But let me tell thee thou wretched Belialist that saiest that conscience is hang'd wast thou the Hangman If so then know God will be avenged on thee for this cruell act he will one day revive conscience and then assure thy selfe thy conscience will hang thee But hear me thou foolish man that thus talkest of hanging conscience thou speakest not only prophanely but most ignorantly thinkest thou it is in the power of any man to hang conscience know thou it is impossible the worke is too hard for all the hangmen in the world The Hangman may hang thee as he did Haman or thou mayest hang thy selfe as did Judas but neither he nor thou art able to offer such violence to conscience Wer'st thou to live as long as Methusalem it will outlive thee go where thou wilt it will go with thee nec fugere nec fugare poteris go up to Heaven or go downe to Hell 't will never leave thee nor forsake thee Againe I find some who are so maliciously bent against conscience that they resolve if they cannot hang conscience they will beat out her teeth and pluck out her tongue so that she shall neither bite nor barke if the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes the pride of life if all the pleasures of sin will do it they will surely effect it They will call for the harp with Saul for their Cup with Nabal and their Harlot with Herod and all to drowne the cryes and complaints of conscience but let me tell such that thus labour to make conscience dumb possible it is that by a long custome in sin or greedy practice of it men may prevaile so far as to silence her for the present so that she shall not speak but know this though you keep conscience from speaking yet not from writing she will act the part of a Recorder and Register put downe exactly every daies deviations and aberrations and when shee sees her time will produce her Bill and read it aloud making thine eares to tingle now a lie and then an oath this time drunkennesse that time uncleanesse such a day thou tookest away thy Brothers goods by oppression and theevery another day his good name by slaunder and calumny In fine the Bill will be so bigg so black that thou wilt not be able to endure to heare it read And then thy conscience whom thou hast thus wronged will be avenged for all her wrongs and act the part of a Judge a Jaylour and a Tormentour and joine with her God in that black and most just sentence take him bind him hand and foot and cast him into utter darknesse where there shall be nothing but weeping wailing gnashing of teeth and that for ever Oh consider this ye that abuse Conscience lest she teare you in pieces when none shall deliver you 3. Use of Conviction unto all Atheisticall persons that dare say with their tongue or in their heart there is no God Tell me thou Atheist hast thou a conscience in thee and yet no God over thee how can this be if thou wilt suffer thy selfe to be lead by common reason thou then wilt be forced to say there is a God Consider the operation of thy conscience if it be not seared and thou shalt find that upon some grosse sin it will be a witnesse and give testimony against thee but to whom to men or Angels that cannot be for they cannot heare the voice of conscience nor receive consciences testimony neither can they see what is in the heart of man It remains therefore that there is a spirituall substance most wise most holy most mighty that sees knows all things to whom conscience beares record and that is God himselfe Let Atheists bark against this as long as they will they have that in them that will convince them of the truth of the Godhead will they nill they either in life or death Let the dreaming Atheist consider the great affliction that that severe Governesse of the life of man brings upon their soules by affrighting horrors of Conscience by puzzeling and befooling them in the free use of their Reason by curbing them in their naturall and kindly injoyments in the life present and making bitter all the pleasures and contentment of it by some checks of Conscience by anxious cares and disquieting feares concerning their state in the life to come Besides those ineffable agonies of mind dampes and deadnesse of spirit that they sometimes undergoe so that to be buried quick were lesse torture by far then such dark heart-sinking privations of all the joyes of life And they cannot chuse did they not shut their eyes against the light but see that there is a superintendent principle over nature which is all one as to confesse that there is a God If thou be not convinced by the working of thine owne
but brings it to the touch 1 Thes 5.22 tries all things and so holds fast not what seems good but What is good lastly the render conscience will take heed of what he knowes to be lawfull he dares not to do all that he may doe least he should do what he ought not to doe Consider you that are Gamsters merry come panions fashion-mongers and all flesh-pleasers which are lovers of pleasure more then lovers of God I know you will stand upon your justification and plead strongly for your dicing drinking carding your long haire your fantasticall fashions and pot companions though there be enough recorded in Gods book against them in all of these Me thinks I heare you say there are many great Schollers will maintaine the lawfulnesse and that it is condemned only by a company of strict lacea Puritans and men of meane parts and learning Give me leave to speak the words of truth and sobernesse you say cards dice drinking and merry company are things lawfull 1 Cor. 6.12 but answer me 1. are they expedient 2. Doe they edify you 3. Are they not brought under the power of these things these practices Alas who sees not such as thus seek to please the flesh that they do displease God their merry company makes them to distast the society of Saints their dicing and drinking makes them to loath the hearing and reading of Gods word yea Bible and the pack of Cards are like the Arke and Dagon they will not stand together Let me therefore advise you not to be too presumptuous upon the lawfulnesse of these but consider expediency and edification that all be done soe that God may have glory and your selves may be edified more and more in Christ If you look not to this that which is lawfull in it selfe will be found unlawfull in you You will soon be brought under their power be captivated by what should be your servants Remember therefore what on saith and that most truly licitis perimus omnes the Whole world is undone by lawfull things i. e. lawfull things abused or misesteemed Was it not so with the old world when our Saviour speaketh of the destruction of the old world by water what doth our Saviour charge upon them as deserving this great and generall judgement he mentions only things that were both lawfull and necessary They did eate hey dranke they bought and sold they built and planted they married and were given in marriage See you any unlawfulnesse in any of these notwithstanding the giving themselves up to these things Luk. 17.27 suffering such practices to call them off from God God was highly displeased and themselves fearfully perished Oh therefore doe not presume upon the lawfulnesse of such things but if you have this holy tendernesse in thee examine all circumstances least God be offended and thy conscience so wounded as that thou canst find no peace within but in thy apprehension a very reprobate One word more by way of comfort unto you that are thus tender Use of Comfort possible it is that though you desire tendernesse and to hold a firme peace with conscience yet your conscience may frowne upon you and so you conclude against your selfe that God is angry with you according to that of the Apostle 1. Joh 3.21 If our heart condemne us God is greater then our heart and knoweth all things i.e. if our conscience condemne us then God will condemne us much more but your Conscience you say doth condemne you and therefore your condition is very sad before God To give you satisfaction in this I must confesse it is most true that when conscience doth check accuse condemne upon right information there is no hope of avoiding the sentence of God by any close carriage by which we may thinke to shift and hide our selves and our actions from his eyes Yet this hinders not but that sometimes the conscience may condemne where God doth not For though it always judge for God and on his side yet it doth not alwaies judge with God and according to his direction but sometimes it may be that with Jobs friends it makes a lye or God and yet not purposely but through misinformation or prejudice while it lookes on the worst and not on the best that is to say on the present and particular indisposition of the heart and not on the sincere and generall disposition of it Such for want of better light in that particular may feare where no feare is but let me tell such they have a most gracious God that takes no notice of such failings but pardoneth and passeth by the transgressions of his people as if he saw is not Mic. 7.18 Therefore let such tender ones support their spirits upon that sweet and gracious promise of Christ Is 42.3 not to breake the bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flax i.e. God will not deale harshly with such weake and feeable ones but support and comfort them for though their light be little and burne dimlie yet the Lord will not extinguish it but snuffe it and make it burne more cleerly Consider when your Conscience doth accuse whether it proceed from sufficient light out of the word of God or from wrong information If from light received out of the word of God her sentence is divine and we are to regard it but if otherwise upon wrong information it is the error of conscience and our remedy is by sending conscience to seek the warrant of her sentence out of the word of God Againe if conscience present unto you sins which you committed many years agoe and whereof you have repented For we are to know that albeit after Repentance the Lord forgives the guiltinesse of sin yet he will have the memory thereof to remaine in that conserving faculty of Conscience called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it may both serve to humble us for the evill we have done as also to preserve us from sin for the time to come Againe if conscience accuse us for sin committed and not repented it is Gods great mercy who by inward troubles wakens us to judge our selves here that we may not be condemned of the Lord hereafter Obiect Now if any prophane Belialist shall at last say what need all this adoe concerning a good conscience have not all men a good conscience Answ To such I answer in some sence they have a good conscience namely a conscience which is metaphysically and naturally good and so they may and yet go to hell But the conscience that brings with it a continuall feast and is accompanied with grace in this life and glory in the life to come It is more then metaphysically or naturally good It is spiritually and supernaturally good 1. A conscience purged and pacified by the bloud of Christ Heb. 9.14 2. A conscience habitually exercised to inoffensivenesse both to God and man Act. 24.16 3. A conscience that desires to be compleatly good in all things and alwaies Act. 23.1 4. A conscience that will approve it selfe good even in the sight of God Act. 23.1 1 Pet 3.21 5. A conscience that will give testimony of thy hearts simplicity and godly sincerity and sopport thee under greatest troubles and distresses 2 Cor. 1.8 9.10 11 12. Now if upon a serious search thou canst evidence such a conscience I must tell thee thou hast obteined great favour from the Lord and art enriched with so rich a Iewell that far surpasseth all the wealth of the world and can never be worne by the men of this world Rejoice therefore in the Lord alwaies and acquaint thy Christian friends with it that you may rejoice together yea eat thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart for God hath accepted thee Eccl. 9.7 The conclusion is this Conclusion Christians Conclusiour Consciences are all obscured corrupted and depraved through Adams fall It is the part of every one to labour to reduce conscience to its prime purity againe When a Compasse is out of frame we touch the needle of the Compasse with a Loadstone that the stone may draw it right to the Pole againe So let our minds be touched with the Loadstone of the Spirit of grace that they may come back to the Lord as to the Pole and quiet themselves in Christ as their true sole and perfect Saviour Let this be your daiely prayer unto God and constant endeavour who only can sanctify us throughout in spirit soule and body who can make every part and member of our bodies with every power and faculty of our soules weapons of Righteousnesse to doe him service Now unto him that is able to make you to stand upright before him and to keep you from falling Jud. 24.25 and to present you faultlesse before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only Wise God our Saviour be Glory and Majesty Dominion and Power now and for ever Amen April 5th 1656. FINIS