it self evil as in the Polygamy of the Patriarchs And should not this power be good whose power is so great both for evil and for good 5. From the Principles it owneth 1. In Nature Doth not even Nature it self teach me that my Conscience be good whatsoever pains it cost me or whatever be the persecutions from men wherewith it may be consequenced The very Heathens have therefore prescribed means and pressed motives 2. In Grace how much more am I taught to exercise my self herein and engage my self hereunto by all the principles of godliness and by all the Promises of the Gospel 6. From the Offices it is to perform Can my Conscience do well if it be evil do not its Offices for God require that it be holy and good Conscience hath the office of 1. A Minister and is therefore obliged to be good a bad Minister being the worst of Men there is little hopes of its ministring good unless it be a good Minister 2. Of a Magistrate who should be most eminently and exemplarily good and a Minister to thee for good 3. Of a Witness 4. And of a Judg which must be good or they will do evil do evil themselves and not deliver Souls from extremity and injustice 3ly Direct 3 Apply you to the Causes of a good Conscience The Causes improved the effect will ensue These are principal or less principal 1 The Principal is God Every good and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of Lights The good Conscience is from the God of Conscience The God that made thy Conscience can alone make thy Conscience good Acknowledg him then in all thy ways and he shall direct thy paths Ask of him by prayer and strong crys as David did Thou art good and dost good teach me thy Statutes Incline my heart to thy Testimonies Let my heart be sound in thy Statutes Create in me a clean heart O God Jam. 1.17 Psal 119.36 68 80. 1. It proceedeth from the good-will of the Father The Inspiration of the Almighty giveth Understanding 'T is He that putteth Wisdom in the inward parts and giveth Understanding to the Heart Press thy Heart to consider it and plead with him in Supplication who delights to be urged with the liberousness of his own acts of Grace and giveth liberally to him that asketh Job 32.8 c. 38.36 Jam. 1.5 2. It is procured by the great worth of the Son who was made sin for us to take sin from us and in the likeness of sinful flesh by a sacrifice for sin hath condemned sin in the flesh and so brings us to God 2 Cor. 5.21 1 Joh. 3.5 Rom. 8.3 marg 1 Pet. 3.18 The good Conscience costs no less price than the Blood of God the Blood of Christ was shed that the besmeared Conscience might be sprinkled and purged for the peculiar service of God Act. 20.28 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Heb. 10.22 c. 9.4 Apply then the meritorious and medicinal vertue that is in the Blood of Christ for cure of those maladies and bruises that are in thy Conscience Apply it by an hand of Faith make it thine Put thou on the Lord Jesus Christ Bring it down to thy case let this Blood be sprinkled on thy Conscience apply it in ardent prayer come unto God by him present his Merit with thy malignity to Divine mercy Plead his worthiness in thy unworthiness his stripes for thy healing the righteousness of Christ for the renovation of thy Conscience Pursue thy petitions upon the price he hath paid 3. It is produced by the gracious work of the Spirit If Conscience be spiritual and gracious it comes from the spirit of Grace if pure if holy 't is by the power of the Holy Ghost 'T is carnal till the Spirit comes never spiritual till born of the Spirit It is the spirit of life which sets it free from the law of sin and death Joh. 3.5 Rom. 15.13 16. Rom. 8.2 What Evangelical Truths are imprinted on the good Conscience they are of the Spirit 's writing 2 Cor. 3.3 What Evangelical Testimony is imparted by the good Conscience 't is of the Spirit 's working of his working for us who also witnesseth therewith in us Rom. 8.15 c. 9.1 Put not off the Spirit then in its motions and essays upon you which he maketh ply to him with all diligence and dearness put him not off with delays much less shouldst thou provoke him with a denial Let Steven speak why the Jews were uncircumcised in heart Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost Act. 7.51 Rather pray in the Spirit which God hath promised to pour out And who knows but Beggars may be blest in that branch of the Promises of his Grace I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and do them Prov. 1.23 Luk. 11.13 Ezek. 36.27 2 The less principal Causes are 1. an operative faith and love within you 2. the ordinances for faith and love without you 1. Let there be an operative faith and love within you These like Judah and Simeon his Brother come up into each others lots to subdue the Canaanites and set right the Conscience Let there be Charity out of a pure heart and Faith unfeigned and thou canst not be left without a good Conscience which the Apostle lodgeth in the midst of these as the Tabernacle of the Congregation was in the midst of the Camp Judg. 1.3 1 Tim. 1.5 Numb 2.17 Both of them have a blessed operation and tendency first to purifie then to pacifie the Conscience Of which hereafter 2. Live in the Ordinances for Faith and Love Be much in Praying Hearing Reading Meditation Conference the end of all these Commandments of God is to make thy Conscience good Cry after him and continue in them for this end make God's end thy errand to them and your heart shall live that seek God 1 Tim. 1.5 Psal 69.32 You wrong your own Souls that wave the Ordinances of our Saviour How many an evil Conscience hath been healed and cured by them How many a bad Conscience have been made good and how many a good Conscience have been made better The way is as open to you as it was to them follow God in them forsake not the ways of his Gospel you shall know if you follow on to know the Lord. Continue at the gates of Wisdom come for Wisdom to her gates and thou shalt not come off a loser yea if thou criest after knowledg and liftest up thy voice for understanding If thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledg of God Prov. 8.33 ad finem Hos 6.3 Prov. 2.1 6. 4. Attend Conscience throughout Direct 4 If Conscience be not good throughly 't is not good truly See that this goodness go throughout Conscience To this is requisite 1. a right apprehension of
should not ordinarily fail of the effect either in clearing and confirming the truth or confuting the falshood of what our Conscience witnesseth Doth Conscience say They that have fellowship with God are in an happy state But we have fellowship with God Put her to the proof of the Assumption in a second practical Syllogism as thus They that have fellowship with God walk in the light i.e. live holily for God is light and in him is no darkness at all But we walk in the light i.e. live holy and uprightly This confirms Or on the other hand thus They that walk in darkness i.e. that are ignorant and disobedient have no fellowship with God But we wâ—lk in darkness This confuteth If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth 1 Joh. 1.5 6 7. The Scriptures therefore do frequently offer to the application of Conscience both negative Marks and positive together that by the application of the former we may correct our mistakes and by the latter we may confirm our minds in what is assumed by Conscience as to our being in Christ and in a condition of Blessedness as Rom. 8.1 9 10 11. Psal 1.1 2. Ephes 4.20 25. And the Apostle thinks it fit to subjoyn sometimes to the testimony of his Conscience the reasons upon which that testimony was raised and from whence it resulted 2 Cor. 1.12 13. Rom. 9.1 2 3. 5. The crediting of Conscience its testimony therefore in such Propositions as are capable of further proof is not safe for us ordinarily without the calling in and considering of those proofs first had and made And it is of singular use in such a case to put Conscience afresh to the question before it comes to a Conclusive determination that such a testimony is of indubitable truth As There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ a Proposition of infallible verity But I am in Christ saith Conscience This Assumption should be again put to the question and requireth proof and confirmation as the Apostle seems to imply by adding so many Characteristical signs They that are in Christ walk not after the flesh but after the spirit are made free from the Law of sin and death i.e. from the prevailing and binding power thereof In such the body is dead because of sin and the spirit is life because of righteousness Can Conscience now again assume But this is our walk we are thus free our sins thus mortified and our spirits thus vivifyed to righteousness and holiness Or as elsewhere They that are in Christ are new Creatures Doth Conscience say we are new Creatures Press her to give you the proof of what she saith They that are new Creatures have old things past away all things are become new have put off the old man and put on the new And now attend whether Conscience can assume as in the presence of God All things are past away all things are become new in and to us c. Rom. 8.1 10. 2 Cor. 5.17 Ephes 4.22 24. 2 Let Conscience deliberate before she delivers in her Testimony Bethink thy self and bring this witness as they were their wickedness 1 King 8.47 back again to thine heart Consider your ways and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God David's haste did more than once disturb his peace and drew the Jews into a fools Paradise Hag. 1.5 7. Eccles 5.2 Psal 31.22 Isa 5.12 Hos 7.2 Know therefore this day and consider it in thine heart 1. To and before whom she is to render this witness or report 'T is not to thy self only but unto God also He knoweth the way that thou dost take The heart saith he is deceitful above all things who can know it I the Lord search the heart I try the reins c. Job 23.10 Jer. 17.9 10. O my Conscience if thou shalt not speak home and speak uprightly shall not God search it out for he knoweth the secrets of the heart The righteous God trieth the heart and reins Dost thou bear this witness in the Holy Ghost Psal 44.21 7.10 Rom. 9.1 2. What the rule or mark is according to which she is thus to witness and report Compare Spiritual things with Spiritual thy self not with thy self but with the sign or standard by which thou art to measure thy state Take not only an occasional or transient view of what that speaketh and thou art or dost But let thy consultations therewith be frequent ordinary deliberate deep Who so looketh into the perfect Law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed 2 Cor. 10.12 Jam. 1.23 24 25. 3. What reason is there that she should make this report O my Conscience how canst thou clear up this thy Testimony Of which before 4. What will be the result of this witness or report Shouldst not thou now deal faithfully with me what a fearful deluge of presumption c. would henceforth overflow me and what floods of dedolence pride c. would henceforth also oppress My conversion will be less possible and thy condemnation and torment more perplexing and full of horrour Act. 28.26 27. Luk. 13.27 28 29. 3 Let Conscience be dealt with truly and impartially by thee that she may deal forth a true and impartial testimony to thee 1. Charge her to be herein true and thorow with thee By her concernment in it Who shall witness if Conscience do not For no man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him God hath set thee O my Conscience as that heap and pillar to be a witness between him and me 1 Cor. 2.11 Gen. 31.52 Rom. 2.15 By her Commands for it God hath chosen her for this purpose and chargeth her in his Laws to be a Minister and Witness both of those things which she hath seen like Paul and of those things in the which he shall appear to her Rom. ibid. 2 Cor. 4.2 Act. 26.16 By the Covenant and Oath of God which she hath taken for it The vows of God are upon thee to be a faithfulful Witness that will not lie And wouldst thou have him to be a swift Witness against thee Prov. 14.5 Mal. 3.5 By the consequence of it to her as well as thee by the blessed effects on the one hand by the bitter effects on the other 2. Keep off such as would tamper with her and either keep her from giving witness or corrupt her in the witness she doth give Keep thine heart with all diligence Sin is ready to buy off her testimony with its pleasures Sense to bribe her with its profits Satan to befool and ensnare her with his policies Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation Set a guard upon Conscience Let not these come nigh the corner of her house He that doth keep his soul shall be far from
according to a consecution or emanation from Mans nature As when we say Man is by nature endowed with an Understanding Will c. Thus the powers and properties of Mans nature are said to be natural to him 3. Or for that which is by and according to a connexion with Mans nature as Paul saith We were by nature children of wrath Eph. 2.3 This condition was connexed with our nature we were subject to the revenging justice of God as soon as we received the nature of man Thus the pravity and pollution of Mans nature is said to be natural to him The import of this question is not Whether the Conscience be evil either in regard of its natural constitution or essence In this sense it must needs be good because it is by the special efficience and gift of God Job 32.8 Chap. 20.7 Or 2. in regard of any natural consecution or emanation from its nature Thus it cannot be bad but good for the same reason because it cometh from the blessed God whose work is perfect Deut 32.4 But 3. in regard of a natural connexion i.e. Whether Conscience in man by and according to the condition which is connexed with his nature be morally evil or sinful yea or no That every mans Conscience is by nature sinful in the sense last mentioned appears First From the notorious defilement of every man by nature These propositions are of Apostolical proof That all have sinned and that they are all under sin That all the world is become guilty before God And that they are all by nature children of wrath Rom. 3.9 19 23. Ephes 2.3 What is man that he should be clean and that which is born of a woman that he should be righteous saith Eliphaz All persons and all the parts of man are impure and defiled Job 15.14 15 16. Rom. 3.9 19. And who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean To them that are defiled is nothing pure but even their mind and conscience is defiled Job 14.4 Tit. 1.15 The leaven of sin hath over-spread the whole lump The leprosie of sin hath left no faculty untainted The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint It reacheth from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot So that the Conscience is corrupt as well as the corporeal part 1 Cor. 5.6 Isa 1.4 5 6. Secondly From the notable declarations in the Covenant of Grace What on Gods part is therein more clearly proposed than this I will put a new spirit within you I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh I will circumcise your hearts I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts c. Ezek. 11.19 20. Chap. 36.26 Jer. 31.33 Deut. 30.6 And what can on mans part then be more clearly supposed than this That the heart of man is of a stony adamantine and uncircumcised temper without the sculpture of any saving truth e're grace takes him within the Covenant And surely by nature the sons of men are all strangers from the Covenants of Promise Zach. 7.12 Jer. 9.26 27. 2 Cor. 3.3 Eph. 2.12 cum 3. Thirdly From the known design of the Commandments and conveyance of Grace A good Conscience is the end of Gods Commandments 1 Tim. 1.5 1 Pet. 3.16 If Conscience were good by nature how should the goodness thereof be the end and effect of the Gospel of Grace A good Conscience was not found by the Gospel in the regions where it came but was the fruit of the Gospel The Gospel was sent amongst them not as supposing their Conscience already good but to set them right and leave them good whom it found bad Act. 26.18 20. 1 Cor. 14.24 25 Heb. 4.12 A good Conscience is the effect of the grace of faith in Christ God purifying mens hearts by faith Act. 15.9 Heb. 10.22 Before the coming of faith then the Conscience is defiled To the unbeliever nothing 〈◊〉 pure And manifest enough it is that faith it Christ never grew in the garden of nature when most pure from the weeds of sin which the Fall hath brought in but is an eflux of divine grace and an especial gift of God Tit. 1.15 Heb. 11.6 Eph. 2.8 Phil. 1.29 Fourthly From the necessary diffusion of sanctifying grace throughout the whole nature of Man The God of peace sanctifie you wholly the whole then was sinful And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless c. The upper region of Mans soul then and which is rational as well as the lower region and which is more sensitive were stained and culpable The Conscience therefore cannot but be corrupted 1 Thes 5.23 The Conscience could neither require nor receive the renovation of grace if it were righteous by nature But renovation passeth through all the parts and powers Behold all things are become new This is to put on the new man and to put off the old man Sin did and Sanctification now doth extend it self over all the man especially the mind To be renewed is eminently in the spirit of our mind 2 Cor. 5.17 Eph. 4.22 23 24. Fifthly From the noted derivation of a good Conscience to us by means of Christ Till his blood be sprinkled on us the Conscience is not sanctified in us as is implied Heb. 9.14 'T is the blood of Christ Who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God which purgeth your Consciences from dead works to serve the living God Hebr. 9.14 Conscience is impure then till Christ purgeth it 'T is he freeth it from sin and fitteth it for Gods service But by nature we are all without Christ alienated and enemies in our minds by wicked works Men do not come by nature but are called by grace unto the fellowship of the Son Jesus Christ Eph. 2.12 cum 3. Col. 1.21 1 Cor. 1.9 Sixthly From the notable defilement of Conscience in the discharge of its acts and offices Now laesae actiones laesas facultates indicant It must needs be a maimed and diseased power that puts forth such maimed and diseased performances These I shall briefly instance in the next Question and judg needful to pluck down the pride of Man and to preserve you from the dangerous precipices of many who cry up Conscience and its conduct for Salvation instead of calling men to Christ and to the conduct of the Scriptures Q. 2. What are the evils of Mans Conscience naturally which we should be heedful of and and humbled under Though I cannot fully open that sink of sin which lieth here a work that is more accurately done by an acute and able hand * Anth. Burgess Orig. sin par 3. c. 2. §. 1 8. and though a further manifestation hereof must follow in our ventilation of the several sorts of an evil Conscience of which hereafter yet something shall be done for the discovery of this evil and putrefaction Conscience may
'T is for praise to the advancement and glorifying of God which it principally reckons of and finally refers unto The good Conscience is for celebrating God and his Glory in which it ultimately terminates the discharge of its Offices and the debts and obligations it inferreth on us this is Gods end in renewing the Conscience and the great end of Conscience renewed that he might be glorified Isa 43.7 21. c. 60.21 1 Tim. 1.17 This it chargeth most upon it self Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy Name Bless the Lord O my soul c. Awake up my Glory awake Psaltery and Harp I my self will awake right early This also comforteth it self most in and he is not ashamed but can cheerfully acquiesce whatsoever he doth or endureth for Conscience sake toward God while Christ is magnified in his body and while on his part God is glorified Psal 103.1 2. c. 57.8 Phil. 1.20 1 Pet. 2.19.4.14 This is the great matter which he purposeth with himself and to which he provoketh other Souls I will praise thee O Lord my God with all my heart and I will glorifie thy Name for evermore I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall be continually in my mouth My soul shall make her boast in God O magnifie the Lord with me and let us exalt his Name together Yea let all such as love thy Salvation say continually the Lord be magnified Psal 86.12 c. 34.1 2 3. 70.4 Let Conscience answer then Do not you like to retain God in your knowledg you know God but are you careless of glorifying him as God And say what is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profit should we have if we pray unto him Or do you scoff at your Brethren which you may have cast out with those in Isaiah saying Let the Lord be glorified O miserable Consciences Rom. 1.21 28. Job 21.14 Isa 66.5 cum ch 5.19 Or while you pretend to Gods glory do you prefer your own Are your acts of piety your almes or acts of charity done principally that you may have glory of men unto whom ye would outwardly appear righteous Verily you have your reward and still remain with rotten and unsound Consciences Mat. 6.2 1 Thes 2.6 Mat. 23.27 28. But you that vail your own glory to Gods the bias and bent of whose good works which men behold is to this mark that they may glorifie not so much you as God in and for you in the day of Visitation you that can venture and forgo all for Gods glory when he calls for it and count of nothing so high as his honour you whose fruits of righteousness are with this final respect that your Father may be glorified and you may shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light You that have glorified him and are resolved you will glorifie him again Go eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart for God now accepteth thy work He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory but he that seeketh his glory that sent him the same is true and no unrighteousness is in him Joh. 8.50 1 Pet. 2.12 Mat. 5.16 2 Cor. 12.9 10. Phil. 1.11 1 Pet. 2.9 Eccles 9.7 Joh. 7.18 Fifthly § 21 By the answer of a good Conscience which if Peter be consulted is towards God 1 Pet. 3.21 Quest Whether we may argue the goodness of our Conscience from their answer towards God I answer you may But then 't is not so much from your present earnestness therein as from the powerful efficacy and proportionate extent thereof that you must take your evidence for you shall find bad Consciences furnished with quick and ready answers as if they would not abridge God of the least he calls for Deut. 5.27 28 29. Jer. 42.5 6. You are concerned to discuss the deliberateness of the answer and its due extent The good Conscience answers to Gods Call § 22 Commands c. 1 To Gods Call No sooner is the Conscience effectually convinced or hath Christ effectually called but you have the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle phrases it of the good Conscience Conscience answers with Samuel Speak Lord for thy servant heareth and with David Lo I come I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy Law is within my heart 1 Sam. 3.10 Psal 40.7 8. Yea Conscience asks with Saul Lord what wilt thou have me to do Teach me thy way O Lord I will walk in thy truth Vnite my heart to fear thy name Conscience sets him upon the Tower with Habakkuk and will watch to see what God will say unto him and what he shall answer when he is convinced or argued with Act. 9.6 Psal 86.11 Hab. 2.1 How is it then hath God called but ye would not answer Hath he spoken but ye would not hear Have you set at nought his counsel and despised his reproof Have you chosen your own ways and doth your Soul delight it self in your abominations You have then sinful and stupid Consciences Prov. 1.24 25. Isa 65.12 c. 66.3 4. But you whose Ears are bored to hear and your Hearts are brought to embrace the Calls of Grace You that with Simon and Andrew his Brother with James the Son of Zebedee and John his Brother at the Call of Christ can quit all when he once said Come ye after me You that attend the saving motions of his Spirit and addict your selves to this mystery of Godliness whose Hearts are determined upon God in Christ and to whom no Calls are so acceptable as are the Calls from sin and to his service you may comfortably reflect and repose your selves in the witness of a good Conscience Mar. 1.16 21. 1 Cor. 16.15 Job 22.21 22. ch 27.6 2 To Gods Commands § 32 The good Conscience corresponds to Gods Commandments not only as it conserves and apprehends Law Here is a Copy and Transcript within of the Command and Truths without The Law of God is in his Heart the Spirit of the living God hath written it in these fleshly Tables Psal 37.31 Jer. 31.33 2 Cor. 3.3 But as it comes and applies Law hath God said Seek ye my face Conscience speaks back My Heart said unto thee Thy face Lord will I seek Hath God commanded us to keep his Precepts diligently Conscience corresponds and crys out O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes Doth God require that we do his will I delight to do thy wiâ—â— saith Conscience Psal 27.8 c. 119.4 5. c. 40.7 8. Try then what agreement find you between his Commands and your Consciences Are you afraid of the restraint of God's Laws and would break these bands from you and can you not bear these cords Do you hate him that rebuketh in the Gate and abhor the Ministry that speaks uprightly and searcheth the inward parts of the belly as Ahab did Micajah for saith he He
never prophesieth good but always evil to me Surely this is an evil Conscience Psal 2.3 Amos 5.10 2 Chron. 18.7 Or how do your Hearts answer and are accommodated to his Testimonies Have God's Commands a counter-part in your Consciences Have you hid his Law in your Hearts that you may not sin against him And are your Hearts enclined to perform his Statutes always even to the end Gods Law commands you Do your Hearts readily accept and return answer to it I will run the way of thy Commandments and have respect unto thy ways I will delight my self in thy Statutes I will not forget thy Word Psal 119.11 15 16 32 112. Gods Law chides and threatens you How do your Hearts rellish it and acquiesce under it Is it a kindness Do you count it an excellent Oyl Do you compose your selves to submission under it and to serve the ends of God by it Psal 141.5 Isa 39.8 1 Sam. 3.18 Mich. 7.9 Here is one answer of a good Conscience 3 To Gods Covenant § 24 The good Conscience gives answer to Gods Covenant 1. to the tenour of it God saith unto them which were not his people Thou art my people The good Conscience speaks back again Thou art my God O my Soul saith David thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my God Hos 2.23 Psal 16.2 Ezek. 11.20 c. 36.28 2. To the terms of it The Lord avoucheth Believers to be his peculiar people and that they should keep all his Commandments The good Conscience restipulates and avoucheth the Lord to be his God and to walk in his ways and to keep his Statutes and his Commandments c. Deut. 26.17 18. Exod. 19 5. 9.3 To the Truths in it The good Conscience hath a Transcript of all the important Truths of Gods Covenant This shall be the Covenant I will make with them after those days saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts Jer. 31.33 Heb. 8.8 9 10. Come then who is he that hath engaged his heart to approach unto me saith the Lord Have you taken the Lord for your God and alone chief good and given back your selves unto him his servants to obey and that for ever Have you none in Heaven but God and is there none upon Earth that you desire besides God And have you taken his Testimonies as an Heritage for ever and chosen the way of his Truths This may let you know that you have a good Conscience Jer. 30.21 22. c. 32.28 Psal 73.25 c. 119.30 111. I will give them an heart to know me that I am the Lord and they shall be my people and I will be their God for they shall return unto me with their whole heart Jer. 24.7 Is there a Conversion to God the Conscience is good But no Conversion no good Conscience Hath God commanded you saying Obey my voice and I will be your God and ye shall be my people and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you that it may be well with you But you hearken not nor encline your ears and walk in your own counsels and imaginations refuse Communion with God or reject any of the known Commands of God or regard any iniquity or any interest above God you have then evil Hearts and your Consciences are not right in the sight of God Jer. 7.23 24. c. 3.17 Numb 85.39 Psal 66.18 4 To the cause of God § 25 The good Conscience is for Gods cause above others above its own this is the bottom in which it sails all its concernments and therefore with Paul and with Moses is cool and gentle in transacting his own matters but quick and transported with great heat in the matters of God and Godliness forgives and is submissive to his own enemies but flames with zeal and is stiff and inflexible to Gods enemies Gal. 4.12 cum 5.12 Act. 13.9 c. Num. 12.3 cum Exod. 30.19 If the Cause of God calls for his part in action he is ready and willingly offers himself according to his office and the capacity and circumstances he is in If it calls for a passive part he can for Conscience toward God endure grief suffering wrongfully and is ready not only to be bound but also to die for his sake 2 Cor. 9.2 Judg. 5.2 9. 2 Cor. 8.3 1 Pet. 2.19 Act. 21.13 You that like Gallio care for none of these things that seek your own things not the things which are Jesus Christs whose Spirits are abundantly raised in your own Cause but ordinarily remiss in Gods Cause have no good Conscience Act. 18.17 Phil. 2.21 Psal 137.5 6. But you that prefer Hierusalem to your chief joy that say unto Zion because of the house of the Lord our God we will seek thy good that will very gladly spend and be spent for the good of Souls and glory of their Saviour that sacrifice your own Concernments to those of Christ and his Church and would rejoyce to be offered upon the sacrifice and service of their faith and rejoyce in your sufferings with respect to his service Receive this sign and may you reap the sense of a good Conscience Psal 137.6 122.9 2 Cor. 12.15 Phil. 2.17 Col. 1.24 5 To the counsels of God § 26 and his dispensations towards them The good Conscience would hold Communion with God in his Works as well as in his Word and doth especially consider of and commemorates what God hath done for his Soul Psal 107.43 94.19 66.16 Hath God accepted his person answered his prayers afforded him his presence of Grace c. it binds him the faster to God Blessed be God saith he who hath not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me He will love God the more choicely live with God the more closely lean on and trust in God the more constantly Ps 66.19 20.116 throughout 146.1 2. Doth God afflict and is angry with him with-draws the sense of his Salvation with-holds the spirit of Peace and the waters are come even into his Soul He considers and confesses his sin communes with himself converts and turns himself to God crieth for his Salvation chargeth his Soul to hope in to obey to remember and to repose it self in God Psal 32.5 c. 38.6 c. 42.5 11. 51.1 12. 77.1 13. 13.1 6. I should be too large if I left particular instances as may concern either the inward or outward man Put it upon the enquiry The Providences of God are various toward you How do you answer the acts of God and his aimes by them What no laying them to heart Happily he may have brought his judgments at the doors and yet do not you lay it to heart not so much as ask what have I done nor hearken to him for all this to observe his Counsels or obey his Commandments Happily he may have multiplied his mercies or you and do you not yet say in your hearts Let us now fear
that doth good and sinneth not Prov. 20.9 Psal 19.12 Job 14.4 Eccles 7.20 2. Who was ever possessed in this life with the perfection of Conscience Conscience is never perfected till the Christian is perfected and the body of sin and this sinful body be put off fully 1 Cor. 13.10 c. Phil. 3.12 c. What is man that he should be clean His Conscience is miserably polluted and seared who durst pretend to perfection in the sight of God and wretchedly deceiveth himself and denieth the Scriptures of God Job 15.14 15 16. c. 25.4 5 6. c. 11.4 5. 1 Joh. 1.1 8 10. 2ly This Evangelical purity of the Conscience is attainable in this life and should be attained 't is possible we may and God's pleasure that that we do and must endeavour for and ensure it Lo 1. Man is admonished and called upon for it Purifie your hearts ye double minded Wash your hearts from your wickedness Have them sprinkled from an evil Conscience Purge your selves cleanse your selves from all filthiness of the spirit Hold the mystery of faith in a pure Conscience which implicitely requireth that you have a pure Conscience wherein to hold it In short the end of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart and of a good Conscience Jam. 4.8 Jer. 4.14 Heb. 10.22 2 Tim. 2.21 2 Cor. 7.1 1 Tim. 3.9 c. 1.5 2. Means are afforded and communicated for it Without us the Word and Ordinances within us Faith Hope c. Above us the Blood and Spirit of Christ whereby the Conscience may be purged from dead works Of which some things have been premised and more will be subjoyned hereafter Q. 5. If this mercy were not to be attained wherefore are these means they were as to this in vain and to no purpose appointed 3. Many have attained it Paul thanks God whom he served from his forefathers with a pure Conscience The Deacons held the mystery of faith in a pure Conscience Wherefore should I multiply instances in whomsoever there was or is a living faith and lively hope it did and doth purifie the Heart and Conscience 2 Tim. 1.3 1 Tim. 3.9 Act. 15.9 1 Joh. 3.3 In short whosoever believeth is pure hath all things pure to himself and his Mind and Conscience purified in him Tit. 1.15 Q. 3. Whether a Man's Conscience may be habitually impure and defiled and he not apprehensive of it Though all the Sons of Men may know de facto and should know de jure Whether their Consciences are pure or polluted yet many a man's Conscience is habitually impure and polluted and he knoweth it not 1. Witness Scriptures There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes yet is not washed from their filthiness Prov. 30.12 Laodicea saith I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knoweth not that she is wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked Instances would be endless Luk. 18.11 12. Isa 65.5 2. What else is the work of the Spirit of the Scriptures and of the servants of God by office but to convince of sin and shut up the Conscience of sinners in the sense of their sinful condition to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light that they that see not may see the defiled and deplorable state in which they have been and yet are and be at length convicted as those Pharisees were by their own Conscience Joh. 16.8 9. Act. 26.18 Psâ—l 19.8 Joh. 9.39 c. 8.9 Shall I point you whence it ariseth 1. Partly from want of self discussion Conscience is seldom or never put to the question by them or they by Conscience They consider not in their hearts Heb. They say not to their hearts Hos 7.2 How could those loose and wicked wretches so insolently insist upon it We are wise and the law of the Lord is with us But that they held fast deceit and no man said in his heart what have I done Jer. 8.5 6. cum 9.2 Principally from a wretched self-indulgence Self-love flatters men into a fond opinion of themselves and pride inflames them into a foolish ostentation and both render them averse to the knowledg of the worst by themselves afraid that Conscience do its work with much strictness and arms them also against â—orreign arguments and convictions with deâ—ensive pleas and pretensions lâ—t him hear the words of the Curse Yet he blesseth himself in â—is own heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart c. Deut. 29.19 Q. 4. How may we know whether our Consciences are habitually pure or defiled Put Conscience to it press home upon your hearts as in the presence of the most high God these three Questions which I here present and tender you First What is thy Conscience purified in If Conscience be purified at all 't is purified in all in every orb every office every part and proper officine of the Conscience 't is frequently called the perfect heart 1 King 15.14 1 Chron. 28.9 c. 29.19 2 Chron. 25.2 Understand it of an integral perfection there is no part of Conscience but is purified 1. Conscience is pure as a law it conserveth pure and holy laws and because they are very pure therefore doth this soul love them Psal 19.8 c. 119.140 2. Conscience is pure as it applyeth this law as for the pure his work is right that which this Conscience eyes is purity both in it self and in what is subordinated to it by all the acts generally it puts forth Prov. 21.8 Heb. 10.22 'T is an heart after God's own heart and therefore with the pure will shew himself pure and preserves the mysteries of faith in a pure mind and Conscience 1 Sanâ— 13.14 Psal 18.26 1 Tim. 3.9 Call Conscience then before thee commune with thâ— own heart Hath the water of purifying passeâ— upon the whole Conscience Is every veâ—â— thereof like those in Solomon's house of pure Gold Do you love pureness of heart Would you approve your selves in all things by pureness as the servants of God And whatsoever things are pure do you think on them and that with best complacence and most contentation Then are your Consciences purified Psal 4.4 1 King 10.21 Prov. 22.11 2 Cor. 6.4 6. Phil. 4.8 Secondly What is my Conscience purified from The pure Conscience in Scripture stands opposed not only to that which is defiled Tit. 1.15 but to that which is double Purifie your hearts ye double-minded Jam. 4.8 Let me ask then and thy heart answer 1. Is thy Conscience purified from its doubleness This is specially when Conscience will be making or maintaining a coalition and compounding of interests uniting and contempering of gain and godliness God and the World or as the Samaritans Fearing the Lord and serving their own Gods 1 Tim. 6.5 Jam. 4.4 2 King 17.33 Enquire then 1. into the object whereto it doth or should determine thee Is not thy heart divided between God and Mammon If so thou
we get or obtain a pure Conscience Answ This enquiry is not how we may get it pure from some new actual tincture of which see Q. 7. but from its old habitual taint and pollution for which take these Directions 1. Behold the necessity of a pure Conscience and be awakened 1. Without this there is no Society with God He is of purer eyes than to entertain you in your habitual impurity There is no having nor so much as hoping Communion with or a propriety in him unless Conscience be purified in you Hab. 1.13 Psal 18.26 1 Joh. 3.3 Jam. 4.8 2 Without this there is no Salvation by God Wash thine Heart as ever thou wouldst to Heaven There is nothing entereth which is unclean that happy place is reserved only for the pure in heart Jer. 4.14 Rev. 21.27 Psal 24.3 4. A polluted Conscience is neither fit for the business nor blessedness of that pure and perfect condition 3 Without this there is no serving of God at least with acceptance to him or with advantage to you The Heart must be purified that would attempt his Presence Josh 24.19 Heb. 9.14 c. 10.22 Jam. 4.8 Till Conscience be purified the pure God will not endure thy presence nor will thy impure Conscience easily bear his Presence 4 Without this there is no sincerity in thee Clean or pure acts will never put ye beyond an hypocrite without a clean or pure Heart 'T is not a pure Conversation but a pure Conscience that speaks thy condition prosperous and secures from the condemnation of Pharisees Psal 73.1 2 Tim. 1.3 Mat. 23.25 29. 5 Without this there is no security for thee thy condition can never be safe till Conscience be sanctified All that God secures Conscience is but on this condition If thou be pure and upright And for the security of Conscience 't is grounded upon the sincerity of Conscience 't is first pure then peaceable as David points us in his prayer and 't is the pure in Heart are first pronounced Blessed by our Saviour 1 Thes 5.23 Job 8.6 Jam. 3.17 Ps 51.7 8. Mat. 5.8 2. Behold the nature of an impure Conscience and be ashamed Thou art not so pure in thine own eyes but thou art as impure and vile in God's eyes Be convinced of this and thou wilt be cleansing that and begging him to cleanse thee Prov. 30.12 Isa 65.5 Mich. 6.11 13. Job 40.4 1 Think what is defiled Conscience that choice that curious piece that so dignifieth Man next the Angels and differenceth him from the Brutes Conscience that is God's Tabernacle in Man and maketh Man the Temple of God Conscience that is chief among the faculties and is under God to command the whole frame of our Hearts and Lives What Conscience that by Creation was like the Nazarites purer than Snow whiter than Milk more ruddy than Rubies whose polishing was of Saphire should be now blacker than a coal and she that was clothed in Scarlet should embrace Dunghils That thy Gold should become thus dim and the most fine Gold be changed into dirt This cannot but procure a Lamentation especially when thou shalt consider that this thou hast contracted upon thy self who knowest how great a crime it is if through thy means the Conscience but of a weak brother should be desiled Prov. 20.27 1 Cor. 3.17 Lam. 4.1 9. 1 Cor. 8.7 2 Think what it doth defile A defiled Conscience 1. defiles all of thee it defiles the Man the whole Man the Spirit Soul and Body are defiled even the Mind the most pure and precious part is defiled wheresoever the Conscience is defiled Mat. 15.18 1 Thes 5.23 Tit. 1.15 2. It defiles all to thee there is nothing pure to thee The taking of God's Covenant into thy mouth thy very Table-comforts thy Meat become a sin and snare to thee Conscience being unclean whatever it toucheth doth become unclean likewise Tit. 1.15 Psal 50.16 17. 69.22 Lev. 5.2.3 It defiles all that comes from or is done by thee It streams sin upon every service Thy Civil actions thy very plowing is sin and thy sacred actions thy very praying is sin likewise For who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Mat. 15.18 Prov. 21.4 c. 28.9 Job 14.4 3. Betake ye to the known provision which God hath made for purifying the Conscience and be active The pure Conscience is from God as the principal Cause 't is he that purifieth and he that pacifieth the Conscience He that cureth its diseases and cleanseth it from defilements He creates and so the Heart is clean 1 Thes 5.23 Ezek. 36.25 Psal 51.7 10. But though it be his work principally 't is our work partly too as himself presseth it Wash ye make you clean c. Isa 1.16 'T is his work to bless the means unto purifying and our work to be in the use of those means whereby he purifieth Asking the mercy of him and applying the means to us 1 Then ask this mercy from him with the greatest ardour thou may'st acknowledging thy pollution with shame and sorrow aggravating it also in his presence abhorring thy self and acknowledg with thy impotency his power as who alone can purifie thee So David Psal 51.2 11. His promises of it do not preclude but should provoke rather thy prayers for it Ezek. 36.25 cum 37. 2 Apply thee to the means and the means to thee with the greatest activity thou can'st These are the Word Water and Blood * See Sheffield's good Cons c. 2. p 33. c. 1 The Word Ye are clean through the Word saith Christ Job 15.3 This is not only pure in it self but purifying the Soul that attendeth the preaching of it Psal 19.8 Joh. 17.17 Ephes 5.26 Submit thy Conscience to the Commands of it Purity is the end of them and will be the effect in thee 1 Tim. 1.5 1 Pet. 1.22 If you obey Then 2. Skill thy Conscience in the Promises of it Every Promise is both a motive to and means for cleansing as of the flesh so likewise of the Spirit But there is an especial Promise in God's absolute Covenant I will sprinkle clean water on you and ye shall be clean Which you may urge upon your self in secret and urge God with in supplication 2. Cor. 7.1 Jer. 33.8 Ezek. 3.6.25 cum 37. 2 Water Ezek. ibid. Ephes 5.26 The Sacrament of Water should not only be remembred by thee but re-inforced on thee by due and doubled consideration Though I cannot say to thee as Ananias said unto Saul Arise and be Baptised and wash away thy sins if thou wert baptized in thy infancy yet I must counsel thee to apply thy Baptism by fetching arguments from thence and by eying the ability and efficacy of the Blood and Spirit of Christ thereby exhibited till thou findest the answer thereunto of a good Conscience toward God And then thy Infant-baptism will be as effectual to the washing away of thy sins in thy adult estate as the Circumcision of the Hands was
to the adult Jews who were then Circumcised and not till then with the Circumcision of the Heart * See Fords pract use of Infant-â—aptis Rom. 6.3 4. Act. 22.16 1 Pet. 3.21 Phil. 3.11 12 13. 2. The waters of sorrow or sincere repentance Contrition will cleanse thy Conscience Evangelical tears will expunge these tinctures No dirt will fix where these drops fall witness David Repentance will blot out these stains from thy Soul and thy sins also before God Smite thy rocky Heart then with the Rod of God and the Waters will gush out Draw Water and pour it out before God Repentance is called the washing of the Heart from wickedness Ezek. 18.30 31. Jer. 31.18 19. Psal 51. Act. 3.19 Exod. 17.6 1 Sam. 7.6 Jer. 4.14 3. The Waters of the Spirit sanctifying and regenerating the Spirit is not only compared to Water as quenching the drought of the Soul but as cleansing the defilements of the Soul Joh. 7.37 38 39. Ezek. 36.25 Conscience will continue sinful till he comes and cleanses its filth is not to be washed off by any work of flesh but by the effectual work of God's Spirit 'T is God's Spirit must sanctifie our Spirits or we stick in the sink and mud of our sin and uncleanness Isa 4.4 Rom. 15.16 1 Pet. 1.2 Resist not the Spirit then but receive those influences he sheds abroad Listen not to the flesh look within the vail of the Covenant where God hath promised to put his Spirit within you yea and to pour out his Spirit on you and plead his Promise in your Prayers Ezek. 11.19 Isa 44.3 Psal 51.12 143.10 3 Blood The Bath for Conscience is the Blood of Christ Here is the Fountain opened for Sin and for Uncleanness this cleanseth from all sin and there is not any sin which doth not need this cleansing or any power of the Soul Both the Tabernacle and all the Vessels of the Ministry were to be purged by Blood Moses sprinkled therewith both the Book and all the People Consider Conscience then in any capacity it needs this cleansing as a Book as a Witness as a Judg as it 's the Mansion of God and as it ministers to and in Man Zach. 13.1 1 Joh. 1.7 Heb. 9.14 19. 23. Sprinkle then this Blood of Jesus upon thy Conscience The People were to sprinkle the Blood with a bunch of Hysop dipt therein as well as the Priests Exod. 12.22 Lev. 16.14 To note there must be an Application of Christ's blood made by us as well as an Application made to us of this Blood by Christ and thus have we our Hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience as by the Spirit on his part sprinkling it on us so by Faith on our part which sprinkleth us with it Faith is that bunch of Hysop which being dipt in this Blood purifieth the Heart Purge me with Hysop and I shall be clean saith the Psalmist Purifying their hearts through faith saith Peter Heb. 10.22 1 Pet. 1.2 Psal 51.7 Act. 15.9 Believe then in the Lord Jesus Faith is not only effectual through the Blood of Christ to purge the Conscience from the guilt of sin to the justification of thy person but also from the filth of sin to the Sanctification of thy Nature Rom. 5.1 Act. 26.18 4. Behold the noted excellency of a pure Conence and be assiduous For at 1 Mind the noted place of Conscience it 's the upmost part of the Soul next under God and above all that is in Man A pure Conscience is of Angelical perfection Purity is the Gem and Diamond in the Crown both of the clear and pure Conscience this renders it like the New Hierusalem a City of pure Gold 2 The noted power of this Conscience The pure Conscience hath a power of converting even the basest Mettals like the Philosopher's Stone into pure Gold afflictions into advantages To the pure Conscience all things are pure like that Perfume which the Lord prescribeth Moses whatever they are asunder being tempered together they are pure and holy 1 Pet. 2.19 c. Tit. 1.15 Exod. 30.35 3 The noted price of this Conscience What cost it no less rate than the precious Blood of the pure and immaculate Lamb of God What print carrieth it no lower than the resemblance of the purest Essence and Excellency of God Of what preciousness and pleasance doth God account it Of no less than his Habitation his Throne his Resting-place Heb. 9.14 cum 1 Pet. 1.19 1 Joh. 3.3 Isa 57.15 4 The noted Priviledges of this Conscience How great here boldness in prayer the blessing of peace the beauties of God's Presence c. Heb. 10.22 Phil. 4.7 Psal 18.26 But how glorious hereafter in a pure and perfect state most pure and beatifick sights Psal 24.3 4. Mat. 5.8 But consider this and you cannot be careless God Glory Christ Comfort do all severally bespeak Conscience as Christ sometime did Peter If I wash thee not thou hast no part in me But wash this and thou art clean every whit Joh. 13.8 10. Q. 6. How may we preserve our Conscience pure Though I must remit you for fuller satisfaction to what hath been already spoken Chap. 2. Q. 6. Yet I shall not refuse to subjoyn something more in this place 1. Continue at your work Conscience is clean but not all therefore is neither all your work done for its cleansing till hope pass into enjoyment ye ought to be purifying both the Promises hoped for and the principle of hope put upon and perswade unto it 2 Cor. 7.1 1 Joh. 3.3 Neglect not any of the means already prescribed you Qu. 5. Direct 3. The same word and work of Faith Hope c. which made thy Conscience pure will maintain its purity 2. Keep Conscience to its work Keep it doing and you keep it from defiling The pure Gold never rusts or cankers till it rests or is coffered up Paul kept it on employment and so kept it pure 2 Tim. 1.3 Act. 24.16 Conscience hath its work within door upon it self and upon the whole Soul and Spirit and without door upon the Sense and their Objects and Organs If it rests like a standing Pool it putrifieth and gathers stench If it runs like a living Fountain it purifieth it self and whatever is put into it 3. Keep Conscience upon its watch Consciscience is the Centinel to watch over and for it self and the whole Soul beside Watch therefore in all things He that would be clean must be circumspect 2 Tim. 4.5 Psal 119.9 1 Watch against Sinners These will be throwing forth and throwing on of dirt Press not unnecessarily into their Society Be not partakers with their sin keep thy self pure Isa 57.20 Ephes 5.7 11. 1 Tim. 5.22 Yea in the very Society of the Saints be yet still upon thy Watch looking diligently One defection hath defiled many and the more weak thou art the more watchful be thou A weak Conscience is defiled quickly Heb. 12.15 1 Cor. 8.7 2 Watch
then make you draw off your guards and centinels or make you more diligent and circumspect 2 Greater fortitude of spirit forbearing troubles breaking thorow tentations and baffling all the assaults of flesh and blood upon the sanctified habits and faculties The peace of God shall keep your hearts and minds saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall keep it as with a garrison as that word is elsewhere used Joh. 16.33 Phil. 4.7 cum 2 Cor. 11.32 It shall fit you for resistance fill you with resolution and free you from those returns of fraud and force which make others become their prisoners * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gr. Scho. Doth this peace then cool and slacken your resolutions for duty especially in case of discouragements and difficulty or doth it quicken and add spurs and wings to it 3 Greater vigors of obedience A formal peace is the best effect usually of that Pharisaical peace But this Evangelical peace is not without an Evangelical power upon the heart within and in the acts without Rom. 14.17 cum 1 Cor. 4.20 2 Tim. 1.3 cum 6. This Soul not only maintains a course or track in spiritual matters but manageth them with a spiritual mind His spiritual peace begets a spiritual plenty and now he can easily step over what heretofore stumbled him No offence is so great to him as that his obedience is no greater He not only liveth up to Gods testimonies but he loves him exceedingly Rom. 8.6 Psal 119.165 169. Doth your peace then make you more slight and formal in duty or more spiritual and vigorous Are they not only more bulky but more strong and sincere fuller of the sap of love and of the spirit of life 4 Greater vivacity of Holiness Evangelical peace is ever prospered to Evangelical grace and growth See how it fructifieth and clusters Rom. 5.1 6. Gal. 5.22 23. Let the day of that false peace be as the harvest-time to the formal hypocrite His righteousness is now all gathered into barn But 't is as the seed-time to the faithful soul The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace Jam. 3.18 Now is this Soul's time to be distributing the seeds of righteousness for God and among men and by the oyl of gladness to make increase likewise of the oyl of grace This holy peace puts him upon perfecting holiness in himself and provoking others Souls to take and taste thereof likewise Heb. 13.20 21. Psal 66.16 34.8 51.12 13. Q. 3. May not the Soul that enjoys ease and tranquility after eminent troubles of Conscience infer that his is Evangelical peace In no wise * See Sheffield's good Cons c. 18. pag. 263 c. Though a good Conscience may prove greatly troublesom after great tranquility yet the greatest tranquility after the greatest troubles cannot simply and by it self prove Conscience good Because the Devil turns in men hither and a deceitful heart often taketh up here I have felt the terrors of the Lord but now find tranquility and taste of his love as they did Heb. 6.4 5 6. cum 9. Hear me therefore a few things 1. Prop. 2 Every trouble is not a trouble of Conscience that may be so called 1. There is a trouble of carnal policy Herod is troubled and all Hierusalem with him but 't is that Christ is born who might shake his Secular Kingdom not that he was born without Christ or seeth no title to an eternal Kingdom So is the King of Assyria sore troubled But 't is for the defeating of his Counsels not for destroying his corruptions Mat. 2.3 2 King 6.11 2. There is a trouble of Concupiscence and iniquity Ahab is so troubled as he taketh his bed upon it not for want of faith in or forgiveness from God but for want of the Vineyard So is Amnon not that his lust may be subdued but that it may be satisfied upon his Sister Tamar 1 King 21.4 2 Sam. 13.2 3. There is a trouble that is but corporeal and bodily through excess of Melancholy c. which is sometimes mixt sometimes meerly such This disordereth the imagination or fancy This again distempereth the passions these discompose the natural spirits these again drive to and fro and agitate the humours of the body and so all is in a commotion nothing is quiet And now happily a mans own spirit falls upon him within and an evil spirit from the Lord also from without And then terrour taketh hold of him on every side as it did upon Saul But what are these troubles Rather of sickness than for sin from the oppression of nature rather than in order to grace at least originally if not only 1 Sam. 16.14 I presume you will not call it peace of Conscience to have a period or conclusion put to any or all of these 2. Eminent troubles of Conscience there may be Prop. 2 and often are which are neither preparatory to nor productive of peace but rather a providential fulfilling of God's threatnings and a preface sometimes to greater torments as they were to Cain and Judas Will you read his threatning The Lord shall give thee a trembling heart and failing of eyes and sorrow of mind and thou shalt fear day and night In the morning thou shalt say would God it were even and at even thou shalt say would God it were morning for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear Deut. 29.65 67. Lev. 26.36 Isa 8.21 22. God may remit then or remove such troubles as he doth other temporal judgments without renovation of the person or the blessing of a religious peace 3. Prop. 3 Eminent troubles of Conscience may and have ended in a still and sapless formality without sincerity or sanctifying the Conscience The Pharisees are a clear and confessed instance Conscience arrests the Jews with fears and conscernation Away they betake them to a course of prayer and fasting but in both formal And so Conscience is at rest but as the Psalmist observeth was not right in them Isa 58.2 c. Psal 78.33 37. Ananias and Sapphira seem pricked in their heart but were not purified in their heart Formality drew out that prick but drew on their perdition Conscience takes hold on Magus on Ahab and others and they are troubled But wherein ended their pangs of Conscience In a sound peace No but in a spiritless profession and practice of some external duties without any saving change upon them Act. 2.37 cum 5.1 c. 8.13 c. 1 King 21.27 cum c. 22. This amounts to no more than a silencing of such troubles not the sanctifying of them Formality is as bad an evidence of the truth of our peace as it is of the truth of our grace 4. Prop. 4 Eminent troubles and distresses of Conscience may and have ended in stupidity and dedolence The smiting reproving Conscience may become a seared remorsless Conscience witness Pharaoah Felix Belshazzar What pangs of Conscience might you have sometime found them in who within
the end and happy effect of these Convictions So did they Act. 2. 16. They did not Oh do not you 1. Either strangle these distresses of Conscience as if they were but a fit of Melancholy a foolish Pusillanimity or at best of no profit and inserviency as they take it Mal. 3.13 14. Job 21.14 15. How many thus seek to stifle Conscience as Herod sought to slay Christ in the very Cradle 2. Do not study to defer Conscience now is the accepted time now is the day of Salvation Oh! if thou didst know in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace 2 Cor. 6.2 Luk. 19.42 Felix trembled when Conscience took hold of him but what doth he He turns off the Preacher at the Bar and this Preacher in his bosom till a more convenient time He had now something else to do and we never read that Conscience any more rebuked him Act. 24.25 3. Do not seek to divert Conscience either by carnal pleasures as Saul did Conscience is moved and he calls for the Physician He doth not pray it away but must have it played away from him Or by pursute of your callings as Cain did Conscience bruiseth and torments him and he falls upon building and travels 1 Sam. 16.14 17 c. Gen. 4.16 17. 4. Do not skin over these distresses with the formalities only of Religion as the Jews often When Conscience within or calamities without pinch them they fall a praying and crying but their heart was not right in them Baalam quiets Conscience with a few cold wishes and cheap words in commendation of God's Children Ahab humbleth himself puts on Sackcloth and goeth softly Simon Magus will be baptized and become a Christian The Pharisee pays every one of his own is not as bad as the Publican is as prompt as any to pay the external dues of Religion Psal 78.34 37. Numb 23.10 c. 1 King 21.27 Act. 8.13 Luk. 18.11 12. These things will but skin over thy wounds without the spirit and life of Religion They will but fester inwardly without this and sooner or latter break out again as they did in Magus Ahab and others Much less shouldst thou slubber it over with unprescribed and superstitious observations as the Pharisees did and have more wo's denounced against them than any one sort of men in all the Scriptures Mark 7.3 14. Mat. 23.14 c. 5. Do not swill away these distresses and debauch thy Conscience If the other courses are ill this must needs be vile Yet how many cry to Conscience as the Devil 's sometimes did to Christ What have we to do with thee Jesus thou Son of God Art thou come to torment us before the time We would fain be merry while we may And if Conscience be clamorous the drunken rounds must out-voice Conscience They drink away their Cares and Conscience Surely this iniquity shall not be purged away till you die saith the Lord of Hosts Isa 22.12 13 14. Direct 3. Awaken Consideration to a just sense of thy special corruption and therewith of thy state and condition It was this that drove the nail to the head in their heart Act. 2.37 When they heard this cum ver 36. they were pricked in their heart They did not only cry out of the sting but of the serpent Cain crieth out of his punishment But a Christian should cry out with David of his provocation Gen. 4.13 2 Sam. 24.17 Why criest thou for thine affliction thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity Saith the Lord Because thy sins were encreased I have done these things unto thee Jer. 30.15 Now is the time to turn in upon thy sin and to take off thy precious Soul from this painted strumpet whose end thou seest is bitter as wormwood sharp as a two-edged sword Now consider your ways now that your own doings have beset you about and the yoke of thy transgressions is bound upon thee by the hand of the Lord they are wreathed and come up upon thy neck Hag. 1.5 6 7. Hos 7.2 Lam. 1.14 Fix not thy thoughts so much upon his wrath as thy wickedness Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee this is thy wickedness because it is bitter because it reacheth unto thine heart Jer. 4.18 c. 2.17 Nor shouldst thou single out only some staring corruption but set before thee thy state and condition Thus did they Act. 12 16. They looked upon their lost estate and on themselves as lost and undone by sin as their question imports I am undone undone what shall I do to be saved When the Commandment came â—n revived and I died saith the Apostle Rom. 7.9 i.e. I had the sentence of death in my own Spirit I saw my self dead in and undone by sin Oh I am a dead and undone man without mercy deliver and send help Such considerations will quicken endeavours clear justice and carry thee to Jesus Christ upon the wings of faith and repentance Direct 4. Arise and sit not still in complaining They mind their work Act. 2. 16. and do not only mourn and whine Complaints both to God and Men may be lawful yea and useful needful But complaints only will never honour God or heal thy Conscience This alone will but make thy chain harder and burden heavier An ill Balsom for a bleeding wound and which the great Physician of Consciences bids you forbear Jer. 15.18 Psal 42.11 Jer. 30.15 Get thee up saith the Lord to Joshua wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face Israel hath sinned c. Josh 7.10 11. Complaints of thy sin will be more acceptable to him and advantageous to thee than complaints of thy suffering Yet neither is this enough God expects to see thee working rather than to hear thee weeping that thou be not so much querulous as industrious Lam. 3.39 40. Direct 5. Acknowledg thy case and ask counsel not only in prayer to God but in converse with men Thus did they Act. 2. 16. They do not conceal their distress but crave direction 'T is an high adventure of folly to let your wounds bleed inwardly 'T is better to breath a vein in confession If there be some shame in it there is much safety The smart of concealing will be more than the shame of confessing 'T will be some ease to have emptied your selves into anothers bosom if it do not extricate you out of your straits and unload your burdens Spiritual and skilful Surgeons when they cannot eradicate the distemper yet can and usually do ease and asswage the dolor But to whom should we go Ans To whom you should not I have advised already Direct 5. I advise you to apply your selves 1. To experienc'd men such who are healed of these maladies They can tell you their own case and cure and comforts And are therefore comforted to afford you comfort That they may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith they
in sound repentance if thou wouldst no more feel the arrows of the Almighty or hear the thundering Cannon of a terrified Conscience On to God in Christ if thou wilt return return unto me saith the Lord Jer. 7.1 There is no recovery without returning even unto him from all thine iniquity Hos 4.1 2. Return to him as the only Original of thy being as the only object that can make thee blessed Yield up thy whole self to his holy Government thy Conscience and Conversation to be ordered by his commands Return to him as thine adequate good and alone Governour Put thy whole man under his Soveraignty present thy self a living Sacrifice to him Ezek. 18.30 31 32. Rom. 6.13 17 19. c. 12.1 Mourning will not do it without turning nor this unless it be of the whole man nor this unless it be unto God Joel 2.12 13. Jer. 3.6 10. Provoke thy self hitherward put on strong and present resolutions There is no healing till thou com'st hither Till thou acknowledg thy offence and seek his face he will be not a Surgeon to repair but as a Lion to rend and tear thee Only return and there is an open remedy He that hath torn will heal thee he that hath smitten will bind thee up Ho◠5.13 14 15. 6.1 2. 2 Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ Act. 16.30 31. i.e. Receive him in all his Offices and with all his inconveniencles and rest on him as the Lord thy righteousness Never think that relief is possible by any other means There is not Salvation in any other There are two negatives in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Act. 4.12 But lo he is able to save to the utmost those that come unto God by him His very stripes are healing He is both medicus medicina too Not a broken heart but he can set and heal it He immediately made her straight that had been infirm and bound together for Eighteen years Heb. 7.25 Isa 53.5 Luk. 4.18 c. 13.11 12 13. And he is as willing as able He invites yea intreats poor sin-sick Souls to come in and he will cure them for nothing only requireth that they come Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Rev. 22.17 2 Cor. 5.20 Mat. 11.28 Why do not our Souls answer with the Church Behold we come And attest him with Peter Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternal life Joh. 3.22 Joh. 6.68 Hear thou distressed Conscience the Master calleth for thee The whole need not a Physician but they that are sick I came to call not the righteous but finers to repentance Think not thou shalt be too bold when the Physician bids thee 'T is a sinful bashfulness that stays thee from believing on Christ when he bids you to lay all your heart-troubles at his blessed feet in believing Let not your hearts be troubled believe in me Mar. 2.17 1 Joh. 3.23 Joh. 14.1 Come then thou wounded Conscience close with Christ and commit the cure into his hand who is anointed with a fulness of the Spirit for this very purpose Canst thou but touch his garment by faith thou shalt be whole To him give all the Prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Isa 61.1 Mat. 9.21 22. Act. 10.43 Direct 8. Assay Conscience ever and anon with some Cordials and do not add more Corrosives when thy case is so sad already They were pricked in their heart Act. 2. 16. and the Apostles would not have them abide one minute without a plaister How many a Soul is ready to swoon away under the Surgeons hand For their sakes I subjoyn this direction Say not thy bones are dried thy hope is lost thou art cut off for thy part Think rather 1. Of others deliverances who have been as greatly distressed Cannot God open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves and breathe life even into your dead Souls as well as theirs Ezek. 37.11 12 13 5 6. Have not you read of such whose Couches did swim with tears who have complained their wounds did stink and in whom the arrows of the Almighty stuck fast that have lookt on themselves as laid in the lowest pit in darkness and in the deeps that have been distracted with terrors and roared by reason of the disquietness of their heart That have said their strength and their hope was perished from the Lord while they remembred their affliction and misery the gall and wormwood And yet have these been relieved refreshed and rejoyced afterward in the loving-kindness of the Lord Psal 6.6 38. 9.88.6 c. Lam. 3.18 19 c. What an instance was Paul Hast thou smarted like him was not he a monument of greater severity that was struck down to the very ground c. Or hast thou sinned like him been such a persecutor blasphemer c. Howbeit he obtained mercy And why but for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe in Christ to life everlasting Act. 9.3 4 6 c. 1 Tim. 1.13 14 16. Say then Why may not there be mercy for me too even for me Is the stock of God's mercies spent are they not infinite Manasseh Magdalen c. find mercy And why should I foresee nothing but misery 2. Think of the deliverance tendered thee The tender is universal to all and therefore to me may Conscience say Come unto me all ye that are weary c. Whosoever will let him come c. Whosoever is a thirst let him drink of the water of life freely Say why should I exclude my self whom the Scripture whom my Saviour never excluded but hath ever invited as he entertained likewise Publicans and Sinners Mat. 11.28 Rev. 22.17 Isa 55.1 Joh. 7.37 'T is but come come by faith come by repentance and upon the feet of new obedience and there is comfort for me The Draw-bridge is not up the door of grace stands open to me 3. Think of thy demerits and yet what God hath done with thee and for thee Hath not every sin deserved a death an hell How many a death and hell hast thou then deserved And yet thou art alive through his forbearance and livest upon his finding What reason hast thou then for blessing and honouring him and bearing up of hope in thee Well this distress might have been damnation These might have been the chains of the blackness of darkness I might have been now frying in easeless and endless flames But he punisheth me much less than I have deserved 'T is of his mercy that I am not consumed Ezra 9.14 15. Lam. 3.22 And why may not he further magnifie his mercy in saving me who hath so far magnified it already in sparing me He that hath reprieved me that was under the sentence of death may also pardon me if I do but press him with petitions and pursue my petitions with repentance 4. Think
See thou do not baffle with or break from him Quench none of his motions be they never so strict or seem they never so severe They all tend to grace they all end in peace And though he be as yet a spirit of bondage to fear it is not to exulcerate Conscience more sharply but to heal it the more soundly and that he may be a spirit of adoption to thee whereby thou maist cry Abba father 1 Thes 5.19 Isa 61.1 Rom. 8.15 2 Attend his ways before thee not only his ways in the Sanctuary without thee in the means of grace as praying hearing c. but his ways that are more spiritual within thee in the motions of grace and minding of Spiritual and gracious matters The less spiritual-mindedness the less serenity of mind What blustrings are there here beneath But above 't is all in an happy tranquility There are no tempests or thundrings in the upper region Call up thy Conscience and its Colleagues thither and keep them conversant about spiritual and heavenly Objects and thou shalt then soon know what is the communion of the Spirit and what these suavities of Conscience are To be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually is life and peace Phil. 3.20 21. cum 18 19. Col. 1.9 10. Rom. 8.5 6. 3 Attend the witness of the Spirit in and with thee It is the Spirit that beareth witness saith the Apostle 1 Joh. 5.6 Which he doth not only externally in the Scriptures but internally to and with our spirits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8.16 A single witness under the law was of no moment But at the mouth of two witnesses shall the matter be established Deut. 19.15 Jo. 8.17 Lo two witnesses are tendered upon the case to clear it God's spirit and our spirit both of them needful and useful to testifie the things of God and the things of man For what man knoweth the things of man save the spirit of man which is in him Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God 1 Cor. 3.11 The spirit witnesseth to and with our spirit or Conscience in and throughout its whole argumentation and progress whereupon it concludeth its peace E. g. All those that with child-like appretiation affiance and affections can cry Abba father are the children of God But I can with a child-like appretiation affiance and affections cry Abba father Therefore I am a child of God Rom. 8.15 16. The Spirit witnesseth with my Spirit 1. To the truth of the Proposition by an internal manitestation or revelation of that truth to the mind whereof he hath already made an outward revelation in the Scriptures Joh. 14.26 Psal 119.18 2. To the truth of the Assumption by irradiating the Conscience and enabling her in and upon the reflections she maketh to apprehend feel and descry such appretiations and affections in me or whatsoever other mark or medium I am making use of to clear up my estate thereby Eph. 1.17 18. 1 Cor. 2.12 14. 3. To the truth of the Conclusion not only by strengthning her to conclude my state and condition from such appretiations and affections but by shedding abroad such beams of joy and comfort as confirm me therein and seal it up unto my soul 1 Cor. 2.9 10. Rom. 5.5 Eph. 1.13 c. 4.30 Though you must not attend for an external audible testimony from the Spirit * See Hollingw Hol. Ghost on the bench p. 74 75. Ball 's Lif of Faith p. 79. which was never promised and hardly if ever pattern'd Yet you may and must attend for the internal and effectual testimony of the Spirit in effecting exciting heightning and evidencing of his own graces to and in you and in the effusion of the love of God and of his joy upon you which is called the joy in and of the Holy Ghost and is the companion of peace of Conscience Rom. 14.17 1 Thes 1.5 6. Let me only add Thou must not expect as if the Spirit would or could witness peace to thee before it hath wrought grace in thee For its testifying peace to the Conscience is by testifying the truth of thy grace and closing with Christ Thou must first set thy scal to the truth of God in the reception of his testimony by faith in his Son ere the Spirit of truth will seal thee up to the day of redemption Joh. 3.33 cum Eph. 4.30 2 Cor. 1.22 In whom after that ye believed * Quasi dicat non citiùs nec ante sed post sidem in Christum Zanch. ad loc ye were sealed with the holy spirit of promise Ephes 1.13 Thus appealing Conscience into and adjuring her by the divine presence will be of notable advantage It will not only awaken and engage Conscience but will awe her from extreams to which Sin and Satan may otherwise incline her and put the more authority and undeniableness into her testimony and sentence as being given not only upon God's commission but with God's contestation and comprobation and so will be the more powerful to arrest and stay scruples to anticipate or answer Satan and ascertain the Soul in the sweetest and steadiest affiance while the testimony and judgment of Conscience to a mans righteousness and reconciliation c. is after such severities and as in the sight of God And her language to the Soul is like that of Eliphaz to Job Lo this we have searched it so it is hear it and know thou it for thy good Psal 17.2 3. 7.3 9 10. 26.1 2 3. Job 13.15 16. c. 23.10 c. 27.2 5 6. c. 5.27 Q. 7. How may we keep Peace of Conscience when once gotten The former Directions C. 2. Q. 7. and those even now given you Q. 7. are of useful review here likewise * See Fenners Treat of Consc p. 200 c. But I shall be particular Direct 1. Keep out sin This is THE make-bate and like a mad man it casteth firebrands arrows and death Her entrance and first embraces its true may promise a mellifluous sweetness But her end is bitter as wormwood sharp as a two-edged sword that pierceth even to the Conscience And if anothers abuse of his liberty may wound your Conscience much more will the ardour of your own lusts Prov. 26.19 c. 3 4. Rom. 6.21 1 Cor. 8.12 Psal 38.3 5. Keep out especially 1 Scandalous sins These fly at God and his glory His name is blasphemed through them and shall you be blessed in them Had Zimri peace who slew his master Though David was the darling of Divine Providence yet farewell his peace when he once fell into such a provocation 2 Sam. 12.14 2 King 9.31 Psal 51.8 11. 2 Self-condemned sins Think not to sin against Conscience and yet sin in quiet Such sins are a daring of Conscience to do its worst and do implicitely condemn her as she doth explicitely condemn them And how can she in such a circumstance acquit and clear Remember what it
* See Fenner 's Treat of Consc p. 205 c. as it anticipateth what would trouble and confound the terms of our peace but as it affordeth a testimony to Conscience of the truth of our peace Hereby we know that we know God and are known and acknowledged by him Hereby we assure our hearts before him 2 Cor. 1.12 1 Joh. 2.3 5. c. 3.19 Yea God assureth the true Evangelical obedience an happy tranquility and peace The work of righteousness shall be peace Glory honour and peace to every one that worketh good As many as walk according to this rule peace shall be upon them Isa 32.17 Rom. 2.10 Gal. 6.16 I advise especially that you preserve 1. Loving affections The more you love his precepts the more you shall live in peace Great peace have they which love thy law Psal 119.165 166 167 132. 2. Loyal aims Let the preponderating motive be to please the Lord that you walk worthy of him unto all pleasing And he will reciprocate with you Every thing shall work together to pleasure you your enemies shall be at peace with you God himself shall take pleasure in you And therefore Conscience must needs be at peace with you No testimony speaks that peace to Conscience as this that I please God 2 Tim. 2.4 Col. 1.10 Rom. 8.28 Prov. 16.7 Psal 149.4 Heb. 11.5 Direct 8. In short keep a foot consideration and your most awakened and active circumspection Look backward and consider your pangs and plaints ere it came your prayers and promises that it might come the price you then set upon it the pains you then spent for it c. Look forward and consider the end it pointeth at the effects it promiseth the enjoyments to which it predisposeth c. Look upward and consider the principle whence it cometh the price which it cost the proprieties and priviledges which it cleareth c. Look downward and consider not only others horrors but how ominous hopeless c. your thoughts of hell and of the grave would be if you should lose your peace You cannot miss of motives whither soever you convert your minds In a word lose this and you lose all God Glory Heaven Happiness though not as to themselves yet as to your sense Keep this and you keep all the sweets the security of all Nay if you keep not this you cannot keep your selves at least in any quiet and composure For 't is the peace of God that keeps your hearts and minds all your rational faculties Phil. 4.7 Keep thy heart therefore with all diligence Be diligent that you may be found of God in peace without spot and blameless Watch thou in all things Prov. 4.23 2 Pet 3.14 2 Tim. 4.5 Watch the adversaries oâ— Conscience that they neither flatter her oâ—â— of her peace or fright her with their power neither feed her with prejudice nor force her upon any precipice that they neither cause an invasion nor cherish an insurrection Watch the acts of Conscience both imperate which she injoyneth other powers of the Soul and elicit which issue immediately from her self that they neither decline the rule nor discontinue their exercise nor be distorted to either extream but be discharged regularly Watch her answers that they be the answers of a good Conscience toward God In fine watch every avenue that nothing pass in or out but what you can give a good account for to the God of peace Mat. 26.41 1 Cor. 16.13 c. 8.9 Hebr. 3.12 1 Pet. 3.21 Luk. 21.34 36. Q. 8. Whether a pious Christian may not live for some time without Peace of Conscience Doubtless he may For though we may admit Piety to be the practical foundation of Peace yet we must allow some time between laying the foundation and raising up the frame or building 'T is true the end of that man is peace but his entrance is most times perplex as Manassebs Ephraims the Jews and Jaylors was Psal 37.37 2 Chron. 33.12 c. Jer. 31.18 c. Act. 2.37 c. c. 16.29 c. It is plain 1 there can be no peace before grace Q. 1. 'T is first grace then peace in all the options of the Apostle Rom. 1.7 2 Cor. 1.2 2 There is and must be grace in order of time and nature before peace For the true peace of a gracious Christian ariseth from the testimony of Conscience to the truth of his grace So that Conscience in pronouncing peace doth alway presuppose grace and maketh use of the truth of our grace as a medium whereby it proveth that we are upon terms of peace 2 Cor. 1.12 Isa 26.12 Psal 4.8 3 There may be a considerable interval between the implanting of grace in us and the imparting of peace to us whether we consider the ground of peace or the giver of peace 1. The ground of peace The immediate rise of peace is not the simple existence of grace in us but the sense and evidence of this grace to us And it is manifest that grace may exist in that subject which hath no evidence or sense of it and that for a long time Witness Heman David c. 'T is one thing to know God 't is another to know that we know him This is the product usually of much time many thoughts and trials of our selves Christ tells his Disciples Whither I go ye know and the way ye know But Thomas saith unto him Lord we know not whither thou goest and how can we know the way There is no contradiction They knew it but did not know that they knew it notwithstanding so long continuance with him Science there was at least a dark and confused knowledg but not Conscience no distinctness or clearness of knowledg though they had so long converse with him in whom were laid up the treasures of wisdom and knowledg Psal 88.3 9 15. c. 42.3 8. 1 Joh. 2.3 Joh. 14.4 5. 2. Let the giver of peace be considered Grace and peace are from the same Spirit But not at the same time or with the same circumstances 'T is the same spirit that sanctifieth us in the day of our renovation and that sealeth us up to the day of our redemption But it is not by the same act That is antecedaneous this afterward After ye believed ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise Isa 32.15 17. Rom. 15.13 16. Ephes 1.13 How long or how little time he will take ere the ensealing of the deed is not for us to determine while he hath not declared it in his word and is pleased to diversifie so much in his works Pauls peace was not so early as Lydias was 'T is not for us to know the times and scasons which the Father hath put in his own power Act. 9.9 17 18. c. 16.14.1.7 This is certain Grace is from the Spirit as working out sin and writing out the similitude of God upon the Soul Peace is from him as witnessing with our spirits our Sonship and Salvation So that
as he first worketh then witnesseth so there is usually some distance of time between this and that And his witnessing that we are the Sons of God doth ever presuppose that work as every act doth presuppose its object Rom. 8.15 16. Besides the Spirit doth not evidence or witness the truth of grace to us but in and by the exercise of grace as it is at work in us The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost Rom. 15.13 Now as grace must be before it works so the works and exercise of grace are seldom of that eminence as to amount to an evidence of the truth of grace till time hath given us some taste and trial of them in iterated and renewed acts 4 A pious Christian may live for a long time without peace of Conscience then as appears by the premisses Grace it self is called the inward and hidden man of the heart and like the Souls in-being in the body is not known à priori from its causes but à posteriori from its effects 1 Pet. 3.4 2 Cor. 4.16 Col. 1.6 Admit that these effects are discernable yet are they not actually and so efficaciously discerned as to assure peace without the concurrence of a twofold witness God's Spirit and our Spirits God's Spirit as being a most free agent is not obliged to this or that or indeed to any time of ours He bloweth where and when he listeth Our Spirits are often so dull'd discomposed distempered with passions prejudices prevailing fears and sorrows or power of melancholy c. as they are disenabled to discern till these are worn out with time and experience And mean while like Asaph and others the Soul oft-time refuseth to be comforted Rom. 8.16 Psal 51.12 Joh. 3.8 Psal 77.2 Gen. 37.35 Jer. 31.15 5 Hence there is no such inseparable connexion between grace and peace as a man should disclaim grace because he is as yet denied peace 'T is a weighty saying of that worthy servant of God * Love's Grace Truth growth Serm. 11. p. 〈…〉 who is now shining in another world Though there cannot be true peace where there is no grace yet there may be true grace where there is no peace Q. 9. Whether pious Christians may not lose the peace of their Conscience No doubt they may if we understand it of peace it self though they cannot lose the seeds of peace 1 They cannot lose the seeds of peace and in this sense cannot lose their peace i.e. Seminally and radically considered 'T is a peace and assurance for ever an everlasting joy a joy that no man taketh from you For ever not in regard of an uninterrupted continuance here but in regard of its unintermitted causes There is ever cause or matter of peace though there is not ever the conscience or mercy of peace Isa 32.17 c. 35.10 Joh. 16.22 1. Christ our peace is the same still the same considered in himself and as to the consummating of our Salvation He will not lose his interest in his Saints and hath assured they shall not lose their interest in himself They may forfeit his smiles but shall never fall from himself Heb. 13.8 c. 5.9 Joh. 6.37 39. c. 10.28 29. 2. The Covenant of peace is the same still 'T is an everlasting Covenant and gives ground of everlasting comfort And the propriety of his Saints therein is everlasting too though they cannot ever plead it They may not ever have the comforts of the Covenant but they shall never be cut off or cast out of Covenant Heb. 13.20 Isa 54.8 9 10. c. 61.8 Jer. 33.40 Heb. 13.5 2 They may lose the sweets of peace yea peace it self God himself gives evidence to it Remember how he speaketh to and of his Church O thou afflicted tossed with tempests and not comforted I called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit We have heard a voice of trembling of fear and not of peace I have taken away my peace from this people even loving kindness and mercies I was wroth and smote him I hid me and was wroth c. Isa 54.6 11. Jer. 30.5 Isa 57.17 The godly have given us their experience in it too Behold for peace I had great bitterness saith Hezekiah Isa 38.17 The arrows of the Almighty are within me saith Job the poyson whereof drinketh up my spirit The terrors of God do set themselves in aray against me Mine hope hath he removed like a tree he hath also kindled his wrath against me and counteth me unto him as one of his enemies c. He teareth me in his wrath he gnasheth upon me with his teeth c. Job 6.4 c. 19.10 11. c. 16.9 What shall I tell you of Heman of Asaph or of David who yet was of a sanguine and therefore chearful Constitution and of singular skill both in Musical instruments and singing yet was his and their Souls full of troubles and you may find them roaring by reason of the disquietness of their hearts Psal 38. 88. 13. 22. 27. Peace it self may be removed then though the seeds of peace remain In that those seeds are now hidden from sense and they do not immediately bring forth the blessed fruits of peace without the intervening act and attestation of God's Spirit and ours as was said Q. 8. without which a mans interest in Christ and the Covenant will be always dark most times doubtful and many times denied Isa 40.27 Psal 31.22 c. 88.14 Now God's Spirit may and many times doth suspend his testimony and stand off as a stranger or as a wayfaring man yea smite and wound and write bitter things against â—he Soul Our spirits may and do with-hold their witness many times also either careless through oscitancy or confused in their observations or complicated by other objects or compressed in their own operations through doubts which depress them through diffidence which disquiets them through distracting cares and fears which desolate them So that our spirits may not only be opposite to peace but overwhelmed with perplexities Psal 30.7 Jer. 14.8 Psal 69.26 Job 13.26 27. Psal 25.17 77.2 3. 143.4 3 Hence Christians should not measure their grace by their peace Neither 1. as to the sincerity of it There is not any such infallible tye between them as that a man should throw off all his hopes of grace as soon as he is turn'd out of the hold of peace Their tenure is different Grace is a tenure for perpetuity but Peace is a tenancy at will ad placitum domini We hold both from God and of meer grace or favour But that we hold more absolutely God hath undertaken both parts of the Covenant that we shall not depart from him as well as that he will not depart from us This see peace we hold more arbitrarily and are at our good behaviour in it If we break his statutes he will break our
of thy estate How is the most fine Gold changed Consternation fills my heart the crown is fallen from my head the joy of my heart ceaseth But especially thou must deplore the signalness of thy sins Wo unto me that I have sinned I will be sorry for my sin My sin is ever before me Against thee thee only have I sinned c. Lam. 4.1 c. 5.15 16 17. Psal 38.18 51.3 4. 'T is not sorrow simply but sorrow for sin which is the salve for a wounded spirit Yea this is not only a salve to heal but a sacrifice to expiate Psal 41.4 51.17 So that were thy heart more broken for sin it would be less burdened with sighing For this would interest God in thy case The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit Nay this would engage him in the cure He healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds He undertaketh to cordial and revive them yea to come down and dwell in them Psal 34.18 147.3 Isa 57.15 3 Return from thy sins unto the Lord in conversion Whence are all thy maladies but from turning to them from him And what remedy is there without returning to him from them Lo this is God's own prescription who is the great Physician and hath his promise of a cure sealed up with it and the Saints probatum est subscribed to it Hear how he calls encourageth cheareth quickeneth thee Hos 14.1 7. Jer. 3.1 12 13 14 22. Return ye back-sliding children and I will heal your back-slidings When will you speak back to him Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God who alone hast right in us and art alone able to give rest to us The misery is men turn into themselves or unto second causes with Ephraim to be healed of their wound and then cry out with Jeremy Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable which refuseth to be healed And thence complain and fly out even against God's faithfulness Wilt thou be altogether unto me as a lyar and as waters that fail To such strange heights of diffidence do such diversions sometimes drive them But alas they disoblige God from comforting them by these courses of theirs and open a way for severer corrections while they decline him and deifie others Hos 5.13 14 15. Jer. 15.18 19. Psal 13.1 2 3. 77.7 11. Come then and let us return unto the Lord. There is no recovery of our peace out of his presence 'T is he woundeth and his hands make whole Return we hither and we are sure to recover He hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up We have his promise for it Hos 6.1 2. Zach. 1.3 Job 5.18 Deut. 4.29 30 31. Direct 5. Take the Balsome that is in the blood of Christ Is there no balm in Gilead Is there no Physician there Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered Though there were none there that could heal their civil wounds Isa 8.22 c. 46.11 yet there is enough here to cure thy spiritual wounds For the blood of Jesus cleanseth from all sin cureth and redeemeth from all iniquity 1 Joh. 1.7 Tit. 2.14 His blood is the most sovereign confection and 〈◊〉 blessed self the most skilful Chirurgeon and Physitian No sore no sickness ever came amiss to him He hath healed infirmities of eighteen yea of eight and thirty years standing Isa 53.5 Mar. 2.17 Luk. 13.11 12. Joh. 5.5 c. Yea he is not only the Physiâ—ian but the Physick as one saith * D. Reynolds on Hos 14. Serm. 4. and gives himself his own flesh his own blood for a purgative a cordial a plaister to the Soul of his patient There is no balm for Conscience like the blood of Christ § 14 It both cleanseth and comforteth It purgeth her from dead works and pacifieth her with the living God and like the tree of life it is both for meat and for medicine Heb. 9.14 c. 10.19 22. Eph. 2.13 14. Ezek. 47.12 See then that you apply this blood to you and see him applying it for you 1 See that you apply his blood to you The best Balsoms become ineffectual without a befitting application Conscience is the part affected apply this plaister close to it You are not come to blackness and darkness but to the blood of sprinkling Heb. 12.18 24. Think it not enough that Christ's blood might be shed for you but it must be sprinkled on and by you The remission of your sins both in it self and in the sense of it doth immediately flow from this not that We have sinned and so God is provoked This is the burden and matter of pain to Conscience Christ is the propitiation for our sins this breatheth forth peace to Conscience But how is he the propitiation for our sins Through faith in his blood So that without an intervening act and application of faith Conscience is not blessed with peace notwithstanding the blood of Christ 1 Pet. 1.2 1 Joh. 2.1 2. Rom. 3.25 Come then and apply this choice and happy Balsom the precious blood as Peter calls it of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.19 Apply and bring down the vertue of it to thine own case and condition Oh the advantages of an holy application which Christ assures us of under the metaphor of drinking his blood Joh. 6.54 55 56. Accept it then from the hands of thy dear Physician who to save thy blood hath shed his own and hath washed us from our sins in his own blood Appropriate it especially to the ulcerous and diseased part Take it for thine own 'T is no presumption while the Physician tenders it to thee and that freely and tells thee thou must not so much as dream of life without drinking his blood i.e. without applying and appropriating it Act. 20.28 Rev. 5.9 c. 1.5 c. 22.17 Joh. 7.37 c. 6.53 I allow that there is a difference between the act of the Will in chosing and accepting of Christ for mine and the act of the Conscience whereby I know and am assured that he is mine and I am his And though the latter be only immediately productive of this peace yet the former is eminently preparative thereunto and doth beget an initial and inchoative peace at least it will baffle many troubles Go then as far with Conscience as you can in it in answering her pleas from hence if you cannot accord all in peace Doth Conscience suggest the foulness of thy sins speak back again to Conscience His blood was shed for many for the remission of sins yea and of my sins if I am but throughly willing to take him for my Lord and Saviour Doth Conscience tell thee of thy several forfeitures and spiritual vassallage to Divine justice Tell Conscience his blood hath obtained eternal Redemption yea there is redemption for me through his blood if I can receive
God He that tells a lie to the Spirit tells a liâ—â—to God not unto men but unto God Act. 5.3 4. Prop. 5. The Father Son and Holy Ghost being verily and truly Gods and being distinct persons in the one only and same Godhead we may then according to the grounds laid direct our prayers to God with express mention of one only or of more or of all the persons in the Godhead The laudable examples in Scripture may evince the lawfulness hereof Paul directs his prayers with the express mention sometimes but of one person Ephes 3.14 Sometimes of two persons 1 Thes 3.11 Sometimes of all three 2 Cor. 13.14 John and Steven explicitely address themselves to the second person Rev. 22.20 Act. 7.59 Paul attests the third person Rom. 9.1 as well as others apply themselves to the first person and St. John invocates all three persons Rev. 1.4 5. Prop. 6. The Father Son and Holy Ghost being but one only God of one nature mind will power Godhead they are therefore according to the first Proposition to speak strictly and properly but one only formal object of prayer and of other parts of religious worship So that our Saviour bids us baptize not in the names but in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Mat. 28.19 Not only to intimate their coequality in power and authority among themselves as being one and the same God with whom are no degrees of power or perfection But to instruct us how we should consider of and come before them in that and in all other acts of worship upon the same reason as those that are co-essential and co-equally the original and object of all as natural so instituted worship Thus also were the Priests bound to say in blessing the people Jehovah Jehovah Jehovah bless thee c. Num. 6.24 25 26. Thereby pointing them and us That though they are distinguished in their personal subsistence yet they are not to be divided in our prayers and supplications Rather that as these three are one in the unity of the divine essence so they should be eyed as one in the unity of an end or object in all our devout and religious exercises Prop. 7. In directing prayer therefore to God with express mention but of one or two persons the Saints of old did not and our selves ought not to exclude the other person or persons because they are all one God co-equal and co-eternal co-existing with each other yea in each other in the same Godhead Believe me saith Christ that I am in the Father and the Father in me Joh. 14.11 You need not any proofs from me that the Godhead or divine nature and excellency is the formal and adequate ground and reason of divine Worship Or that these three persons are God and therefore equal in the Godhead equal in glory not one greater or less than another not one above or below another These premisses being of infallible verity the inference is plain and obvious therefore are they to be equally worshipped not one more or less than another not one above or beneath another For there being no difference or degrees in the ground and adequate reason of the divine Worship that is due unto them there can be no difference or degrees admittable with any ground or reason in the worship that is done unto them If one be not less a God than another one may not be less glorified than another Prop. 8. Yet lastly the Father being the fountain and first principle though not of their essential subsistence yet of the personal subsistence of the Son and of the Holy Ghost of which in the next Question and so of their peculiar manner of working ad extra or without the Godhead viz. the Son working from the Father and the Holy Ghost from them both The Saints therefore have and your selves may eminently though not exclusively direct your prayers to God the Father yea and that for those benefits which come to you by the more especial and eminent operation of God the Son or of God the Holy Ghost 'T is easie to instance Paul blesseth the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for all the blessings in and by Christ the remission of his sins the redemption of his soul c. Ephes 1.3 c. Then beseecheth he that the God of our Lord Jesus the Father of glory may give unto them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledg of Christ ver 17. c. And again Chap. 3. v. 14 15 16 17. I bow my knees saith he unto the Father of our Loâ—â— Jesus Christ that you may be strengthned by his â—pirit that Christ may dwell in your hearts by â—aith c. Much to the same effect is the prayer of Peter Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ c. 1 Pet. 1.3 4. Not to mention those passages of the Psalmist Vphold me with thy free spirit Lead me by thy spirit c. Psal 51.12 143.10 Q. 2. How may we order our thoughts aright in distinguishing these three persons Father Son and Holy Ghost I am not willing to weary either my self or you with a needless discussion of what you intend by this expression order your thoughts aright I suppose you would not have me understand thoughts so much in their larger and less proper notion and acceptation as they include all the interior acts of the Soul as in their more limited strict and proper sense as they import the acts and apprehensions of the intellect And that your meaning is how you may order your apprehensions or more briefly may apprehend aright in or touching the distinction of those persons And truth is according as your thoughts are well or ill ordered in this strict sense that your apprehensions are either fitting or faulty so will your thoughts be in that larger sense all the other inward motions of your Soul with relation hereunto will be well or ill ordered more free or more faulty This only I shall therefore further premise Father Son and Holy Ghost are and may be presented to our thoughts under a twofold consideration 1. Common or essential as they are God 2. Peculiar or personal as they are persons in the Godhead And this consideration of them is either 1. More absolute as they all subsist in the unity of the same nature Or 2. Meerly relative in the order of one person to another and distinction of one person from another And now in accord to your desires I offer you these Directions Direct 1. Think of Father Son and Holy Ghost as divine and increated persons That they are persons I do not attempt to confirm because you already confess both thing and name as that which best agreeth to the Scripture-expression as it doth Heb. 1.3 'T is true that this term person doth import the most excellent kind of subsistence viz. intelligent and rational We call not the best of brutes a person But