Conflicts and Comforts of Conscience, Treatise · Chapter 1
CHAP. I. The first conflict or triall, wherein the conscience of a man regenerate, apprehending Gods wrath for sin, is perillously shaken.
IT is the nature of all sinne, once committed, by guilt to affect the conscience with a fearefull apprehension of Gods wrath both temporall and eternall, as due to the sinner. It was decreed so in the beginning by an vnchangeable law of God: In the day thou eatest thereof, Gen. ….thou shalt dye the death. And no sooner had Adam transgressed, but an horror seased vponupon his soule, hee heares Gods voyce, he feares, flyes, hides himselfe: What's the matter now? Adam, where art thou? might God well say; not in what place, but in what case art thou? surely the Serpent had left his sting in Adams Conscience. Now hee is affrighted with hearing Gods voyce but a farre off, as of a Iudge sending forth a Hue & Cry, or summons to the malefactor to appeare before him: whom before, he ioyed to behold, as a dutifull sonne, delighting in the presence of his louing and liberall father.
Ob. But Adam was afterwards receiued to mercy, and that by a new couenant, of Grace (the old, of workes, being vtterly forfeited) and that in and through Christ, the promised seed of the woman. Is not then the case of mans Conscience now altered? Can the member of Christ, the vessell of grace, the heire of life eternall, bee from henceforth repossessed with any such apprehension, as of Gods wrath eternall, due vntounto him for his sinne? Farre be it. Can he who is once iustified from his sinne by faith in Christ, fall backe into the state of condemnation?Rom. 8.33, 34, 35, & 11.29. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods chosen? It is God that iustifieth, who shall condemne? Ioh. 23.1, Rom. 8.35.And are not the gifts and calling of God without repentance? And whom God loueth, he loueth to the end? And who shall separate vsus from the louelove of Christ? 1 Pet. 1.5And are not the elect of God, kept through faith by the power of God vntounto saluation? and hath he not said, I wil not faile thee, Heb. 13.5nor forsake thee?
True: Notwithstanding such is the malignant poyson of sin euen in the regenerate, that though the dominion thereof be taken away, so as it cannot lead the faithfull away captiue to death eternall: yet the guilt of it may so sease vponupon the Conscience, the thicke cloud of his sin may so eclipse Gods louing countenance from him, as that hee may for the time seeme in his owne apprehension, to bee a very cast-away; yea and that euen then, when God is in Christ reconciled to him. Euen as a father, when his sonne hath offended, yea hath beene humbled for it, confessed it, intreated pardon of his Father; though his father cannot put off the bowels of naturall affection, nor ceases to louelove his sonne still, but purposeth to bestow the inheritance vponupon him, yet shewes him nothing but an angry countenance, layes the rod vponupon him, threatens to disinherit him, and all this but in louelove & wisedome, disciplining his sonne, both for the sounder reformation of what is past, and securer preuention of further offences which otherwise hee might fall into. It is the Apostles comparison, Whom the Lord loueth, he chastiseth, and scourgeth eueryevery sonne whom he receiueth. Our earthly fathers for a few daies chastened vsus for their pleasures, but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holines. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be ioyous, but grieuous, yet afterward it yeeldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousnesse, vntounto them that are exercised thereby. And surely of all other chastenings, none so terrible, as this of the Conscience, being lashed with the cords of its owne sinne. All Iobs corporall afflictions no way comparable to this. What a lamentable voyce was that vttered by Dauid, I said, I am cast out of the sight of thine eyes? And that, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And infinite the like wofull conflicts had holy Dauid with the apprehension of Gods displeasure against him for his sinne. There is no death, no hell so terrible as this, when the blacke hellish cloud of sin comes betweene the soule, and the sun-shine of Gods fauourable countenance.
Ob. But how comes this of the nature of sinne, seeing that not all, nor most sinnes, do vsually cause this apprehension of Gods dreadfull displeasure in a mans soule? How many a couetous, voluptuous, ambitious, carnall-minded man passeth away without touch of any such apprehension of Gods wrath? yea, on the contrary, the more hee thriueth in the fruition of his sinnefull desire, the more hee flattereth himselfe in the presumption of Gods fauour towards him; which is the ordinary error of the world, to measure Gods friendship by outward prosperity; which Dauids carnall judgement once had almost led him into.Psal. 73
Answ. It is not the nature, but the accessory dec…itfulnesse of sin, growing from a habit & custome of sinning, wherewith the soule being possessed, becomes stupified and voyde of all apprehension (through Sathans inchantments, sounding in the eares, Mercy, mercy, and closing the eyes from once looking vponupon the iustice of God) of diuine indignation. Yet all this while sin is not idle, but as a worme lyes gnawing at the stomacke of the dead conscience, and as the moth, doth by little and little insensibly fret away all the softer and tenderer part of the soule, leauing nothing at length,Sensim sine sensu. but the knotty thred of an inueterate stupiditie. Againe, there is great difference betweene the sinnes of the regenerate, and of the vnregenerate. For although habituall corruptions bee in the one, as well as in the other, but in the regenerate inherent and inhabitant onelyonly; in the vnregenerate also regnant and predominant, though some one corruption more conspicuously and actually predominant aboue the rest, as the Belzebub or ring-leader: Yet those indwelling inmates in the regenerate, though they be but as the Gibeonites, captiuated to Israel, and as the reliques of the Canaanites, made Tributaries,Iudg. 3. but not expelled; though I say the corrupt old man bee subdued to the new man, which after God in Christ is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse; yet are they very grieuous to the Saints, being as thornes in their sides, and prickes in their eyes, molesting them continually, and causing euen the holiest to exclaime, O wretched man that I am, Rom. 7.who shall deliuer me from the body of this death? Whereas on the contrary, the corruptions in the vnregenerate, though raigning and raging lusts, yet are no whit troublesome or burthensome to them, except then only, when by some outward impediment they are crossed, & cannot inioy their wished desire to the full; or else when Sathan at the houre of death, or so, hauing hem vponupon the hipp (as we say) or at aduantage in some perillous temptation, presents vntounto them the hideous shape of those their foule enormities, that so downe the precipice of desperation they may tumble headlong into the infernall pit. Againe, the Conscience, both for the naturall quicknesse, and tendernesse of it, is not vnfitly compared to the eye. Now the eye that is sound, how is … offended with the least moate falling into it, nor is it quiet, till it be quit of it? whereas the vnsound eye, hauing a thicke and hard Filme growne ouer it, yet is not sensible of any Paine, though now depriued of sight. The sound eye is the conscience of the regenerate man, which is offended with the least moate of sinne, yea with the very motion onelyonly, crying out, who shall deliuer? but the vnsound eye is the conscience of the vnregenerate, which being ouergrown with the hard filme of habituated corrupt humours and lusts, is no lesse voyde of the sense of any trouble, then of the sight of his sinne.
Now, as the regenerate cry out of their inherent corruptions … so, much more, when vponupon any preualent temptation, working vponupon, and taking aduantage of their want of instant and constant watchfulnes ouer their soules, their corruptions breake forth into (at least) some degree of act, and so, as it causeth scandall, hereupon their sorrow is infinitly aggrauated, and their soules cast downe into the very gulfe of horror and terrors of the wrath of God. Now they are wrapped in a thousand sad perplexities. Now they fall a arguing (Sathans sophistry being ready with his scriptum est) that surely God is become their enemie, that hee loueth them not, that hee hath cast them out of his fauour, discarded them out of the number of his Saints: that they hauehave beene but hypocrites all this while. For those that bee his, he keepeth. He keepetp the feete of his Saints from sliding. 1 Sam. 2.9. Pro. 2.8.The wicked are they, whose feete shall slide in due time. And,Deut. 32.35. Psal. 37.23. The Lord ordereth a good mans going, and maketh his way acceptable to himselfe. And, none shall be presented to Christ, as his spouse, but such as are without spott and wrinkle,Eph. 5.27. such as are holy and without blemish. And, the Angel reapers shall gather out of Christs kingdome al things that offend, and them which do iniquitie. VponUpon these Premises Sathan inferreth: But God hath not so kept thy feet; thou art not free from spots, wrinkles, blemishes; thy life hath beene offensiue, and thou a worker of iniquity: therefore thou art none of Gods Saints; thou appertainest not vntounto Christ; thou must bee culled and cast out of his kingdome for an hypocrite, for a Reprobate. These and the like assaults Sathan maketh against the soule of Gods child afflicted in conscience for his sinne.
And now poore soule, what wilt thou doe in this case? whither wilt thou fly? God hath with drawne his louing countenance from thee, his word is drawne forth as a two edged sword to kill and cut thee off. And now what Balme is left in Gil…ad for thee? what Phisitian there?
Nor is this conflict for a spurt, and away, but of long continuance: how doth the poore soule languish with complaints. Day and night thy hand is heauy vponupon me. My soule is sore troubled; but thou O Lord, how long? And what doth more adde to the soules griefe, then the continuance of a tedious and strong fit of temptation?Terre saeile est preferre graue. If heauinesse did indure but for a night, and ioy returne in the morning, it might the better be indured, though sharpe for the time. The continuall storme of 15 daies, without intermission, was very tedious and terrible to those in Pauls ship. But how tedious are those stormes, wherein the soule and conscience are tossed, not for a few dayes, but for many months, & yeares together. If a naturall child, for some offence, bee but for a few daies debarred from his louing fathers presence, what a heart-griefe is it vntounto him, how impatient is hee, how penitent, how longeth hee to inioy his fathers countenance againe? If Absolon had not beene a gracelesse and vnnaturall son,2 Sam. 14. his fiue yeares banishment from the King his fathers face and fauour, had beene not a little irksome to him; but especially those two yeares in Ierusalem; so that his burning of Ioabs field, might hauehave bene imputed to his zealous and impatient affection of seeing his father, and not to his subtilty, in so making away through the very fire, to his wicked ambition of vsurping the kingdome. But we speake here of a naturall gracious sonne, to whom the offence of a father is a burthen intollerable.Psal. 42.2. This was Dauids affection, when hee was so long banished but from the visible Type of Gods presence and face, the Arke of God. And till reconciliation, no peace.