Works, Part 4 · Religious instruction · Chapter 15
CHAP. XV. Of Conscience.
LOoke how is our Conscience, so is our confidence: it is a tender peece,Conscience is tender. we must beware how we offer any violence to it. For the veriest reprobate hath his reprehender, which if hee doth not satisfie, it will deliuer him to the Iaylor. From this euill conscience we must be sprinkled in our hearts, first with faith in the blood of the Lambe, determining that wee will neuer defile the house of God againe: and though wee cannot doe all good, yet let vsus desire all good, for the Lord iudgethDesire all good. Luk. 16. according to the purpose; not according to the performance; according to the affect, not by the effect. And yet we must not stay in this It stāds vsus vponupon to vse the meanes, that wee may be masters of vertues: Hell is ful of purposes, but not of performances Look therfore to thy conscience, for it is a brasen wall, and as a thousand witnesses often to vrge this particular syllogisme: Who so sinneth must die: thou hast sinned: ergo, &c. Adam hauing eaten of the forbidden fruite, was in paradise still, but all the ioyes therein were notable to comfort his conscience, vntill being found gasping and panting, he was comforted of the Lord.
2 We must euer desire the light of Gods louing countenance, which wee may be assuredShipwrack of good consci…nce how dā …rous. of, if wee keepe faith and a good conscience; but if we make shipwracke of these, the least thing shall greatly amaze vsus, yea the shaking of a leafe: but if we hauehave this, nothing shall dismay vsus. Wherefore let others put their trust in chariots, yet if we trust in the Lord. we shall not feare what man can doe vntounto vsus. This will take away confidence in the flesh, and make vsus trust onelyonly in God.
3 For examining a mans conscience; the best way is by the law to trie whether hee hathExamination of the conscience. a knowledge, feeling, and misliking of his sins or no: whether hee hath any feare of Gods iudgements for sin, or faith in his promises: and whether by particular applying of these things to himselfe, he can shew any effects of prayer, Sacraments, new birth & repentance.
4 Wee must especially beware of smothering the watchword of our conscience, whenThe watchword of the conscience. True peace of conscience. The state of man before grace, and in grace. we are bent to sinne. Care of a good conscience, breedeth comfort in holinesse; and pleasure in holinesse breedes assurance of blessednesse.
5 Wee hauehave great peace, but no true peace, vntill we turne to God: vntill the Israelites would serue God, Pharaoh let them alone, but afterward he prepares for them, brick, lime, and a fornace: so long as wee are quiet in sinne, all is well; but if once wee defie sinne, then the diuell will heate a fornace for vsus: yea he will rather than he would leese vsus, giuegive wages to vsus, as he did to Iudas. Hereof it is, that so long as we hauehave no sense of sinne, we can eate, drinke, and sleepe quietly, but when once we make conscience of sin, then comes trouble and vexation of minde, which worldly minded men would maruell at: But they are at peace with the diuell; for were they not at peace, they should be put out of his seruice. But doth not the Lord say, The wicked hauehave no peace? Esay. 57. True it is, they hauehave no peace with God and with their own consciences, albeit they hauehave great peace with the fleshe, andThe peace of the wicked. Mo…e. world, and the diuell. The peace of the wicked is like an harnesse vnoccupied, to a vineyard neuer stirred, to a ground neuer ploughed: they are neuer surbushed with crosses, but rust vponupon the walles; yet farre better were it for them to be disquieted, and hauehave their fallow hearts broken and rent vp. The holy Ghost saith, that the iust man shall hauehave peace at the last: So that there is a first peace, and that is a truce for a fewe dayes: and there is anotherPsal 37. 37. Note. peace at the last, which followeth our warre, and this brings glorie and immortalitie. Saul would needes hauehave peace with men, and therefore brake peace with God; but afterward he lost his peace with God and men. The Iewes refused peace with Christ, to hauehave peace with the Romanes; but when they had slaine Christ, they lost their peace with God and the Romanes also. Wherefore let vsus labour for that peace which passeth vnderstanding, and for that euerlasting peace.
6 We cannot sodainly and effectually worke vponupon a mans conscience, vnlesse God permit vsus sometime to dwell vponupon his conscience.
7 A man shall neuer be brought to be iealous ouer his own corrupt affection, vntill theTo be iealous ouer our own corrupt affections. Lord hath stricken his conscience with some feare of his maiestie, which dispelleth al wicked imaginations.
8 We must specially beware of sins against knowledge and conscience: for as of all the parts of the body nothing is so subiect to hurt as the eye: so nothing is sooner wounded than the conscience: it will not abide any pricking, the least thrust or violence will impaireThe eye and conscience tender. Schir…us ocuii. it; it is a tender place, and is very tendernesse it selfe. The learned Physitions say there is a thing that is hard like a web in the eye, wherewith the eye being affected, euen it of al parts being most sensible, is made most vnsensible. Such a thing may be in the conscience, so if that once this hard skin be ouerspred the conscience, that place which of al other in it ownSchir…hosis conscientiae. How the consciēce is hardened. nature is most tender, groweth to be most hard; & that hardnes proueth to be more hard than the hardnes of Pharaoh; and their estate is worse than if they had neuer knowne God, I meane if they hauehave once had a possession of good things, and after loose it, they hauehave a …inde on their eye, and of all men they see the least: for if they loose their tendernesse and harde… themselues, then God hardeneth them too, and that it is a fearefull obduration.
9 …d doth not so seuerely punish particular deserts, but a generall falling into s… smaller infirmities, but grosser presumptions: for the particular sin bringeth notWhat sinne brings wrath wrath, but the lying in the sinne, and not repenting of it, bringeth wrath: which drawing in other sinnes, withal draweth also Gods displeasure. So that one sin may be said to be spared and also punished: spared, if being admonished we be humbled, as Dauid by Nathan. 2. Sam. 12. Iehosaphat by Iehu 2. Chron. 19. 2. because in this wee seeke not to drawe in other sinnes, but to be rid of this one punishment: where notwithstanding all merciful admonitions, and sower threatnings, we still lye in sinne, and tye sinne to sinne, and so make away to Gods iudgement to fal on vsus: Wherefore we may comfort our selues for particular sins,Note: Simile. so that in the generall course of our life we labour truly to please God. For as a louing husband doth not take away his louelove from his wife, though in some particulars of her obedience and dutie she faileth, so long as she keepeth her louelove chast and true to him: so the louing kindnesse of the Lord will not cast off his children for some particular weaknesse or frailtie in speciall commandements, so long as in sincere louelove to his maiestie, wee seeke to obey him.