CHAPTER IV: Wherein natural conscience falls short of true grace
considered not that the end and intent of God's giving it, was to discover to them now fallen, their weakness and contrariety to it, to drive them to Christ; but they thought that God prescribed the law to them as the way to life, by which they might live in doing of it as they were able; and so their consciences taking it from God, set them adoing it in the letter of it, and this they judged must save them, because the primitive intent of the law to man at first was ordained to life. This Paul speaks as his thoughts, in the name of the rest,
Rom. 7:9. But that which deceived them was that man was not as at first, though the law, in itself, was what it was at first.
3. We Christians, that know the gospel, yet remaining unregenerate, do still verge in our spirits to the way of the covenant of works, for it is nature in us; and so we set up conscience, and close with the dictates of it for religion, rather than the way of faith and rules of believing. And further, hearing religion expressed to us by such phrases as these, of a man's being a conscionable man, and the integrity of a man's actions being expressed by doing things 'for conscience sake,' Rom. 13:5; and having all religion also to be reduced to those two, and so expressed to us, viz., 'faith and a good conscience,' (1 Tim. 1:19; faith being the principle of all things to be believed; conscience, of things that are to be done. Fides principium credendorum et conscientia agendorum), therefore faith to be a common assent to what they are trained up in, and is delivered in the word; so look what effects conscience hath upon their hearts, either for good or against evil, they think must needs be what the New
Testament means by 'the new creature,' not dreaming that there is a 'defiled conscience,' which sets men a-work till faith and regeneration come with power and purify the heart.
CHAPTER IV
A discovery of the defects wherein natural conscience falls short of true
grace.
The third and main head is to make discovery of this deficiency, as also of the grounds of those mistakes fore-specified.
1. I shall make inquisition or search into the principle of conscience itself, and into the light with which the consciences of natural men are endowed. And I shall inquire also into the nature, seat, condition, and goodness of that light; and this in many assertions introductory unto what shall follow. For, to be sure, the goodness of the effects of conscience cannot rise higher than that of the cause.
2. I shall consider the grounds of those several mistakes forementioned, by which men unregenerate are induced to think the light of natural conscience to be holiness.
3. I shall particularly examine all those effects of natural conscience which have been enumerated, and the deficiency of them from that holiness which is in a man regenerate.
1. As to the inquiry concerning the principle of conscience itself.
Suppose that you had some person that were counterfeit, that pretended to some great inheritance under examination, you would strictly inquire into his birth, original, place of abode, and residence, and the like. Let us take the same course here.
(1.) For its original, I acknowledge that the light thereof is from God, upon a new account; but this will make nothing for the justification of the grand mistake, that therefore it is holiness. There are those who would have those sparks of moral light in conscience, as also of moral virtues and inclinations in the will and affections, found in corrupt nature, to be relics of the former image of God; so that, by the stumps of stubble remaining on the ground, you might know what corn once grew upon that soil, viz., the heart of man, now laid waste and desolate. And indeed if the case was thus, this controversy were at an end, for then these remaining sparks of conscience must
be of the same kind with that primitive holiness, as being the stumps thereof, and so every man by nature would be in part regenerate, which is the highest perfection here. But that which I would assert is, that take these seeds of light, &c., abstracted from the natural faculties, and they are new plants rather in the heart of man, though of another kind (as herbs that are wild in wildernesses are from those in gardens), which God through Christ's general mediation for all mankind hath planted there, de novo, out of pity to the totally ruined condition of man's nature; out of which by the curse, all stems were utterly rooted out and stubbed up; the nature of man being left in the rigour and utmost extent of the curse, nothing but flesh, or as an abrasa tabula, devoid of all good (Rom. 7:18), insomuch as it would not have had the shadow or appearance of what is good; as Christ's curse upon the temple was, that not so much as a stone should be left upon a stone. Insomuch as in the execution of that curse, after that the Romans in Titus's time had razed and thrown down the upper parts and walls thereof, even unto the ground, God in Julian's time gave the earth a vomit by an earthquake, and it cast up the very foundations, that not a stone was left upon a stone. So it befell man's nature upon the fall, in respect of all moral good. And so though these sparks of light and κοινὰι ἐννοὶαι, common notions of God and goodness, are indeed the imperfect shadow of that former image created in true holiness (as by distinction from these Paul termeth that original primitive purity), yet they are no way the relics or remainders of it, but indeed are new donatives, over and above that birthright of nothing but sin, and natural faculties, the necessary subject thereof, which Adam, and the curse for his sin, left unto us.
For, 1, Christ himself hath designed and set out the pittance of that birthright portion to be this, 'That which is born of the flesh is flesh,'
John 3. That is, there is not that thing which is born or derived to us by that birth, and the dues of it, but flesh; and of that flesh Paul says, again and again, that it is 'enmity to God,' Rom. 8; and that 'no good thing dwells in it,' Rom. 7.
Neither, 2, had the curse for Adam's sin any eye to pity, or commission to spare some good, whilst it stretched out its sword to cut off all. It alike struck at root as well as branch, and its devouring jaws left no broken fragments. The threatening was, that' that day thou sinnest thou diest.' Whatever good then is found, is from the mitigation of this curse on another account, viz., of riches of mercy, though but common mercy, such as the fourth verse of this Rom. 2 speaks of.
And truly, 3, the great inequality of the distribution of these moral lights, or goodness, which is found either in conscience or any other faculty, doth evidence this. Socrates had more thereof than Epicurus; whereas the curse of itself would work in all a like deprivation of moral light. And this to me is unanswerable, that so far as any one man's conscience doth by nature prove more dim in light than others, even to the lowest degree of glimmerings, such as is found in the merest natural fool that ever was yet in the world, unto that degree at least (as it must be acknowledged) would the curse of itself work in all men to leave them to the same proportion. For even that small proportion (in comparison of what others have) is from the same curse; which of itself in justice was to overflow to all, and as a sweeping rain would carry all away. And truly whilst we give the name of 'mere naturals' unto them who have the lowest degree of light, and are but a nice distinction between an elevated brute and a rational creature, we do thereby tacitly acknowledge that this least pittance is the whole dowry which mere nature, as accursed and corrupt, would have left to any man: so as utter darkness, blindness in things, is nature's legacy. 'Man is born' (says Elihu* in Job), 'as a wild ass-colt,' Job 11:12. And thus, though conscience be a natural faculty, and there is the altar, yet the fire, and the light of it, and what is morally good, even to every spark thereof, is not raked up in the ashes of our nature, as remainders of that holy light which was there before; but as sparks struck into conscience, as the tinder fully capable and recipient of them. In Rom. 2, you have one phrase makes for this, and another that makes against it; let us examine the force of either. Paul says it is the 'effect of the law written in their
hearts.' Writing is opus artificis, and notes out characters imprinted by an exterior hand. Our consciences are the paper, that is all we bring, which the very renewal or revival by the law typified. God at first formed both by one immediate hand, in the state of innocency; but after man had broken these tables, man finds the stone, but God the letters, and writing still. But then how is it said, verse 14, that 'by nature they do the things of the law'? This on the other hand, seems to make against it. But the answer is easy; nature is opposed to God's outward revelation of the law, as the context shews. The Gentiles that have not the law, that is, the outward knowledge of it by revelation, have yet a light derived with their births and nature (for the sparks of this must be acknowledged to be therewith derived), according to the purport of that expression, 'He enlighteneth every man that is born into the world;' and so it accompanies our birth, and more or less is made a dowry common to the nature of man, and made innate in man; yet it is still written there by an external hand. And all those other scriptures convince me of this, in that when speaking of this truth (whereof conscience is the seat) concerning God and righteousness, which, Rom. 1:18, he says, was 'withheld in unrighteousness' by the Gentiles; and which, verse 19, he calls 'that which may be known of God' which was 'manifest in them;' he is wary in a special manner to speak something of the sense or original of it, and how they being naturally (as we all are) so corrupt, came by it; 'For God' (says he) 'hath shewed it to them;' he by his secret instruction teaching them to spell those characters of his eternal power and godhead written in the creation, verse 20, which without his teaching, and shewing them, as one doth a child, they would never have understood. This they owed to God, and therefore this reflecting power in man 'that searcheth the inward chambers of the belly,' Prov. 20:27, is called 'the candle of the Lord.' He speaks evidently of conscience, which is that light and faculty which pierceth by reflections upon all faculties, witnessing, accusing, excusing, discerning just or unjust, that is never so secretly done in any room of the soul. And why is it called the candle of the Lord? But because we are all in the dark, and should have so remained, if God had not brought in and set up de novo that candle within us, or at least
lighted it and snuffed it. And as a candle is extrinsecal to the room, at least the light is extrinsecal, in respect of its original, to the candle, so here it is in this case. And this assertion, that there is light from God himself as the enlightener (especially in things moral, and which concern himself), even in man fallen, is no new opinion, even among both Jewish, heathenish, or Christian writers.* And by them it is judged to be that to the conscience or mind (which is the natural faculty itself), which an external sun or candle is to the eye of the body. There have been large collections out of all these, and references to them for the demonstration of it, made unto your hands. Now this light, though extrinsecally from God, comes to be defiled, and to have a tincture from the defilement of the mind, as the light of the sun shining on, or through a glass dyed green or red, useth to receive a tincture suitable, for quicquid recipitur ad modum recipientis. To which that of the apostle accords, 'To unbelievers all things are impure, because their minds and consciences are defiled,
Titus 1:15.
I added, in the beginning of this assertion, that the light was vouchsafed thus to all, more or less, through the mediation of Christ.
By which I understand such a mediation as he hath made for the upholding the whole creation, which the curse would else have pulled about Adam's ears. And truly that scripture seems to look that way;
John 1:9, 'He is that light, which enlighteneth every man that comes into the world.' The analysis of that chapter might give light to this, if I could insist on it. The apostle shews, 1. What before the fall Christ was to all creatures, ver. 3. 2. What he was to man in innocency, verses 2, 4. 3. What he is to man fallen and become darkness: verse
5, 'And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not;' which in this 9th verse he again enlargeth on.
He is in himself that true light, from whom all men born into the world have that light, which accompanies their nature. He shews what Christ was to the Jews in revealing the law and gospel, verse 11.
And 5, What he is to believers whom he regenerates, verses 12, 13.
And it is evident that part of John's scope is withal to distinguish this common light vouchsafed to every man in the world, verses 5, 9, 10,
from that of faith and regeneration, of which he speaks, verses 12, 13.
That common light turneth not the natural darkness or corruption of the heart into holiness; 'the darkness comprehends it not.' It changeth not the heart into the same image; even as the light of stars is such a light as serves to discover themselves, but they alter not the air into light, as the sun doth. And he speaks of that light specially shining into men's dark and corrupt hearts as gives the knowledge of good or evil, and of God, because it is such a light as the darkness of man's nature would avoid, and is some way contrary unto it, for it avoids it, receives it not, so as to have its full effect on their hearts, it discovering that darkness that is found in the chambers of the belly.
Now natural knowledge, in other things, man's darkness is not opposite unto. The drift then of what we have hitherto said hereof is, that this light of conscience is not the remainder of the former image, and so no part or spark of the former holiness, but a light de novo, brought in by God and Christ, as, in common, a mediator for all mankind.
There is, or may be supposed, a difference in the kinds or sorts of light, and so there is a difference of this from what is holy and spiritual; although all be derived from God, as the Father of lights, as James in the plural calls them, when he insinuates a distinction of gifts perfect and imperfect, yet it follows not that it should be holy, no more than other notions, in the knowledge of things merely natural and philosophical truths are. It falls out in the lights of the mind, whereof God is the Father, as it doth in bodily visible lights, which Paul speaks of upon occasion of the resurrection, and in setting forth the difference of the qualities now and after the resurrection: 1 Cor. 15:39, 'All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.' And ver. 41, 'There is one glory of the sun, another of the moon, and another of the stars.' Now by their glory he means their differing light that is in them and from them. So say I of these lights vouchsafed by God; although they be from God, yet they differ both in their kind and efficacy, and also according to the tincture of the subjects they are shed into. The light of the natural
conscience is one kind of light, which is as that of the stars; the light given the Jew from the law, and the light of men that fall away
(spoken of Heb. 6), are as that of the moon; and the light vouchsafed the saints in regeneration is as the sun. Our Saviour Christ therefore, in John, gives this note of distinction of it from all lights else (though all be from God), in calling it 'the light of life.' John 8:12, 'He that followeth me' (saith he) 'shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life,' viz., that which converts, saves, and only giveth life.
Which Elihu in Job speaking of (Job 33:30) names it a being enlightened with the light of the living, which brings back a man's soul from the pit. Which distinction the apostle John, that wrote the Gospel, confirms (1 John 2:4, 9, 11), when he says, ver. 4, 'He that says I know him, and keeps not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;' and, ver. 9, 'is in darkness even until now,' that is, in his dark condition, devoid of light, and (ver. 11) 'walks in darkness.' Now consider that the apostle (Rom. 1:18) calls that natural light the heathen had 'the truth,' and (ver. 19) says it was ἐν ἑαυτοις, manifest in them. And these professors of Christianity which John speaks of were certainly enlightened with that light
(Heb. 6) which drew them in their profession to say that they knew God, without which in those times men had no encouragement, but all discouragements to profess him. How then doth he say that the truth is not in them, and that in saying they knew God they lied? This could not have been unless there had been a knowledge, which is comparatively the only true genuine knowledge and light of God indeed, and in comparison of which the other are but as darkness. As the light of the sun is such a light, and so different from all other, that it alone bears the title of the true light, which only makes day, and in comparison of which all other is but darkness and night, though one night may be more light than another, as we see when the moon shines in its brightness, and some star-light nights are clearer than others; yet still a man that knows the difference may say,
These all are not the true light, not the light which makes day, for they overcome not the darkness when they shine, as the least beam of the sun doth. Now regenerate men are called day, as set in the daylight. And the state of unregeneracy is termed night and
darkness. Now as suppose a man that had been kept in a close darkness all his days, and from seeing any light, yet had heard some talk in general of the light of the day, and the shining of light that makes day; and bring this man into a room where a great and stately lamp or taper burns, 'Oh, this is the light I have heard so much of,' would he presently say; and lo, this is day, and oh, how pleasant a thing would he affirm it to behold this light, in comparison to that darkness he had been condemned to. So if we could suppose any one of the sons of men brought up in those meræ tenebræ, more darkness which were only nature's legacy, and on the sudden God should set up in the lantern of his brains the light of the greatest magnitude that Plato or Socrates ever had, how would this man bless himself (as much as we heard they did), magnify this as the only light, and the same which God himself hath, as they also did. Well, yet for illustration's sake, let us make a further supposition, and that is, that this man were told, Oh, but there is a further and higher light yet, that gives light to all the world: there is the sun, which is placed in the heavens, and not on a candlestick, to give light only to one house or one room. And then let this man be carried forth into the open sky, and let any one shew him a full moon, walking in her greatest brightness, as Job speaks, Oh, how would he kiss his hand to it, and passionately cry out, Oh, this is light, this is day indeed; and what a miserable creature was I (would that poor man say within himself) that have hitherto lived in such darkness, and wanted this blessed light of the world! Well, let this man a while enjoy his fancy, and keep him still in the open air awake, and anon when the day is approaching let him discover the twinkling stars to close up their lights and vanish, and the brightness to wash off by degrees from his so adored moon, which he verily took for the sun, and her face to grow pale and wan; and a far differing, stronger light to steal in by degrees, and he looks about him, and discerns not from what cause it springs, nor can at first imagine, till at last casting his eye to that quarter of heaven which is brightest, he discerns the body of the sun beginning to peep up above the horizon—do but think with yourselves, upon the sight hereof, what this man would say. This is day indeed, this is light indeed, the only true light I have heard
spoken of, and differs (though the other had the name and reality of light) as much from the former as any sorts of creatures that are the counterfeits of others that are genuine can be supposed to do. This man would acknowledge what John affixeth to natural men, enlightened not savingly, that he had been but in darkness, and walked in the night all this while until now; and that his boasts and brags that he knew day and had commerce with the sun were mistakes, and that the truth of life had neither been in him, nor in them which hitherto he had seen.
Let your own judgments and consciences make the application. For like mistakes there are about the light of life, and of eternal salvation.
Neither is the difference of these several lights, but only in and by the effects, demonstrable to any man, but him that hath seen the true light of the sun shining on him. Other men will walk and abide in night and darkness, and yet will say they have the true light, and their error can never be discovered to them but by the arising of the true light. Only the saints can say (as John' in their names there) with difference from all others, 'We know we know him,' 1 John 2:3; and 'the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth,' ver. 8, and there can be no other.
The present drift of this discourse hath been to shew, that a difference is and may be supposed between the light that God vouchsafes regenerate and unregenerate men in kind as well as in degree. For if there be one glory of a torch or taper, which is a light on earth, another of the stars and moon, which is a light in and from heaven, and yet another of the sun, which alone deserves the name of being a true light, which difference God the Father of all lights hath set amongst them; why should we not think that the same God can diversify and vary the lights that he causeth to fall and shine into men's hearts, and make them of a several kind? Common light in heathens is but as a candle on earth; light in Jews and Christians but as the light of the moon; and though heavenly, yet not dispelling night. Although all these be light, and represent in many things the very same objects (though somewhat more imperfectly), as all these
forementioned lights do, yet still the light of regeneration describes* only the name of the true light, the light of life, and the other in comparison are darkness, according to that of Solomon: Prov. 9:10,
'The knowledge of the Holy is understanding,' and that only.
The third consideration is touching the seat of the power and dominion of the natural light of conscience.
1. The light of conscience hath a power over the rest of the faculties.
2. The seat of that power and dominion over the rest of the faculties is not the whole heart, but conscience, which is but one faculty. That a power and dominion it hath over a man's heart, the forementioned effects do shew; and Paul's discourse manifests it in his Epistle to the Romans, the 6th and 7th chapters. In the 6th chapter the apostle, treating of that sanctification which is in a man truly regenerate, in the 14th verse expresseth his state thus, 'Ye are not under the law, but under grace;' wherein his state is both negatively and affirmatively set forth.
(1.) Negatively, it is being not under the law, which is on purpose inserted in opposition to the contrary state of men unregenerate, who are under the law; and the law hath a dominion over such.
(2.) Affirmatively, it is set forth in those words, so as grace comes to have a dominion over a man's spirit when sanctified; and under these two conditions are all men cast.
Then in the 7th chapter, from the first verse, he sets out this dominion that the law hath over an unregenerate man in more express terms: 'the law hath dominion over a man as long as he lives.'
Where these words, 'as long as he lives,' respect not simply the term of a man's life in this world, but limitedly the time of his continuance in that estate wherein he was at first born into the world. For life there relates to the death mentioned ver. 4 and 6: 'Ye are become dead to the law,' speaking of their regenerate condition, 'that being dead wherein ye were held.' Christ's body, which was crucified for us,
in virtue of it works a dying to a man's former estate, by humiliation and mortification, whereof also he speaks, Gal. 2:19, 'I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.' He speaks particularly with respect to the law, as a husband, that had power over a man before, as is evident from ver. 1, 2, 'You know, brethren, how the law hath dominion over a man as long as he lives. For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.' And suitably, in following this allegory, he expresseth the change of their condition in those that are wrought upon: ver. 4, 'Wherefore, brethren, ye are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead.' So then it is clear from this, that as Christ and grace have a dominion over a man after regeneration, the law hath dominion over every man before conversion. And to set forth this the more, the apostle compares the unregenerate heart of man unto the wife, and the law unto the husband, who, according to the law of nature, hath dominion over the wife whilst both live. And that the law was once the natural husband of man's heart, and God by it, you may observe out of Jer. 31:32. God there speaking of the old covenant, and expressing the tenor of that covenant of works, which was the same with that of man's creation, says, 'I was a husband to them.' And now that man is fallen, God still urgeth his right, and the obligation which is upon a man whilst under the mere covenant of his creation; and the terms of his condition, by his fall, are no way altered. Now, further, it is the law, whether written by nature or given by revelation, which calls for this subjection to God, which it doth though men be departed and gone a-whoring from him; and urgeth all sorts of duties conjugal upon the heart; and the heart cannot deny but that it is her duty to be subject, for she is conscious of her primitive allegiance, which in that state of nature she can never shake off, but is an adulteress in every act of disobedience or rebellion.
2. The seat or proper throne of this dominion which the law hath, and from whence the exercise of it comes, is the conscience of a man.
The case stands thus: the husband and wife are not wholly parted, although they live at odds, but the husband challengeth to live under the same roof with her; and so although the heart would and hath for her part cast off God, yet God keeps possession in one corner of the house, by the light of his law, that he causeth to shine into conscience, which (as I have shewn) is the suscipient of God's law.
Sin in the heart hath shut God out of all the rest, and keeps it to itself, and hath crowded him up into that narrow corner, and grudgeth him that too, and if it could possibly, would throw him out of all; but God will so far keep and maintain his right and possession, as that the heart may know and acknowledge his ancient right over it, and its subjection to his law. Yea, and by means and virtue of its residence there, doth the law continually provoke the heart to her duties, and overrules her in many things, and tells her of her adulteries and departments* from God, &c. But all that the law speaks is contrary to the full bent and inclination of her heart: 'Her desire is not to her husband,' for the apostle, ver. 5, tells us that this husband begets nothing but motions of sins on her, through her perverseness. I may otherwise express it under the similitude and metaphor of a kingdom, which the apostle also useth, Rom. 5:21 and chap. 6:14. All mankind had clean shook off the sweet and natural subjection of the heart to God and his law; and sin and self were become absolute and supreme, and had got the power, and had entered upon God's rights and dominions. And though in title sin be but a tyrant, yet in power and jurisdiction it is (now man is fallen) owned by the whole man as its natural lord and prince, giving forth laws, Rom. 7:23; which laws being men's own lusts, are willingly and cheerfully obeyed, Rom. 6:12. But shall sin think to carry it thus from God, to enjoy a settled dominion quietly, so that God shall have no remedy, no law to take place? The truth is, God had beforehand made and placed over the soul of man one tower (for so conscience is termed by the ancients arx animæ), which is by the natural situation of it so unfortifiable by the utmost power of man, and lies so open and exposed immediately unto God, and beams of light from him, that let man revolt and become never so sinful and rebellious, yet he cannot keep God nor his forces out of it. Man can never stop that
passage, but God can bring in what forces and what number he pleaseth, and all the power in man can never hinder it. The devil himself cannot keep God out thence, for 'they believe and tremble.'
This is the practic part of the understanding, viz., conscience. Yea, the truth is, that but for this principle, which is natural to men and devils, and can never be demolished by the wickedness of either, God could never come to punish for sin either of them in their spirits.
Yea, the devil would wholly have escaped, for he is not capable of bodily punishment in outward things. It is conscience, which is a tender part, and which is such in man as God hath made in wild beasts to tame them by, as a snout in a bear and the mouth in an horse. It is conscience that is only, or at least primarily, sensible of God's wrath, and hell fire could not take hold of the soul but at this corner. And so God created it for all events and for all states, viz., to stop men's mouths when he indulgeth, to execute vengeance upon them when he punisheth in hell, and on earth to rule and cut short men's spirits, and restrain them from wickedness; there being this difference between the state of wicked men and devils, that he doth not rule the devils by conscience. It is not their conscience that keeps them from any evil, for they certainly make conscience of nothing.
He punisheth them indeed by conscience, and at that channel lets in all the streams of the lake of fire and brimstone into these vessels of wrath. Conscience, the moderate effects of which men magnify so much, hath its fullest dominion in hell, and is in its height of power there.
But to return to the similitude. God having thus aforehand taken order to erect in man's soul this out-work, this castle upon an impregnable rock, which can powerfully command the rebellious town and malignant inhabitants that dwell below it, plants his great ordnance there (namely, the awful knowledge of himself, of the works of the law, and of his wrath), hangs out his flags of summons, sends out proclamations with sound of trumpet from this mount
Sinai (as in giving the law he did), often thunders down with fears, and horrors, and dreadful punishments, in and with which the law of God is 'revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men, that withhold the truth in unrighteousness'
(as of the very Gentiles the apostle prefaceth, Rom. 1:18); yet all this while the city, and the towns about, and adjacent parts of the heart of man, are perfect malignants, stand out in rebellion, having set up a contrary king and kingdom, which they obey in the lusts thereof, and will obey only. From this fort God now and then sends out parties that bring them to some contribution, that prevail to make them take many conditions, and bring them to much outward conformity, even to the laws of God; yet so as still the seat, the place of residence to all these foreign forces (as these are to the heart), is but this one faculty from whence God commands the rest, though they are not brought into a natural subjection. Whereas regenerating grace, where it comes, immediately plants itself in the whole man, takes up every faculty, one as well as another, for God, and 'brings every thought into subjection,' 2 Cor. 10:5. It wins the heart of every faculty, that had rebelled, unto itself and unto God, sets up a new kingdom in the midst of the soul, alters all the state and form of government, insomuch as the laws of that kingdom are made natural where grace reigns, Rom. 5:21. And the laws of God are become the law of a believer's mind, Rom. 7:23, and if he were to choose, he would be governed by no other. But the condition of an unregenerate man is very different; for, as in a state or kingdom, a foreign power may have much quarter and many compliances, when yet the laws of that kingdom are still in force; so in an unregenerate man, though the law of God may, in the light of it, be said to be in his mind and prevail much there, yet it is not become the law of his mind, which hath still a contrary law and government that stands in force. The reason whereof is clear, for the power of it being but the power of the law, therefore it can never sanctify; and though it may come to have much power, stroke, and command amongst the subjects of this kingdom of sin, yet it can never pull down the power of sin, or put sin from its dominion. It is an apostolical maxim, resolutely delivered: Rom.
6:14, 'Sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law.' Therefore, whilst a man is in such an estate as he is still under the law, sin will retain its dominion. Indeed, the law by conscience may much interrupt and impede sin in its proceedings, and overrule
a man unto much good; yet it must be something stronger than the law to alter the whole form of government and frame of the heart, and subdue it to God, and restore to him his kingdom again. Christ alone can do this. The law, as it can never justify, so nor sanctify, although indeed what is written in the heart in our sanctification is the matter of the law, as also in Christ the performance of the same law is the matter of our justification. Yet it is not by the power of the law that we are sanctified or justified. 'If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness had been by the law,' Gal. 3:21. But the apostle hath informed us, Rom. 8:3, that the law was 'weak through the flesh,' and could not free a man from 'the law of sin and death,' but the spirit and power that is in Jesus Christ must do this; Rom. 8:2, 3, 'For the law of the spirit of life in Christ
Jesus hath made us free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.'
The fourth consideration or assertion is touching the exercise of this power, which the light of conscience hath in a man. Concerning which, I assert, 1. That the strength and force that is in all the workings of it, whether in motives to duty or restraint from sin, do lie in the law; and the weapons of its warfare, whereby it works its chiefest effects, are all fetched out of that magazine. The great artillery thereof are charged both with powder and bullets of the law; as it is said, 'the strength of sin is the law,' 1 Cor. 15:56, viz., in respect of holding us under the guilt of it, so the strength of natural conscience is but that of the law, as to the motive part thereof. And the reason is clear from the apostle's forementioned maxim: 'Ye are not under the law, but grace; therefore sin shall not have dominion,' Rom. 6:14. Hence therefore, in whomsoever sin hath dominion, there the law is the most prevalent principle; and so whatever hath the presence of goodness in them must have its rise chiefly from thence. Everything is in working as it is in being. Now the condition of the person is to be
under the law, and he belongs to that dominion, and therefore the swaying principle of his actings must be from the power thereof.
Insomuch as if an unregenerate man be enlightened, and duties of the gospel be urged upon him, as to mourn for sin, to believe in Christ, &c.; yet the motives that prevail with that man are but such as are of the same kind with those of the law. As faith turns the commands of the law into gospel in a regenerate man's heart, so conscience, in an unregenerate man, turns the gospel into law. As faith writes the law in the heart, and urgeth the duties of it upon evangelical grounds and motives—as the love of Christ, conformity to him, union with him, and the free grace of God—so in a man unregenerate, gospel duties are turned into legal, through the sway and influence of conscience, and that dominion which the covenant of works hath over him. And if to such a man you use such motives as are drawn from Christ's love, God's free grace, &c., they are but as wooden cannons set upon the walls for show. But those that do execution, make dints and impressions on the heart, are at best in such cases but the threatenings of the law. Conscience, at best, is but a legal preacher. I call it so, because though the law lays down the doctrines and shews what is man's duty, yet conscience is that which makes the application, and as occasion serves, makes uses of direction and exhortation to good, or of comfort if a man doth well, or of reproof if he doth evil. And let the doctrine be what it will, yet the motives, with which it backs its uses, are still legal, and so it is but a legal preacher. And therefore, Gal. 5:18, 'to be led by the Spirit,' and to be 'under the law,' or conscience (its minister), are two different things, and two distinct principles of men's actions, regenerate or unregenerate.
2. My second assertion concerneth the kind or condition of this power, and the exercise of it, which is plainly this: It is a tyrannical and forced government which natural conscience exerciseth over the heart. Whereas, on the contrary, the government of the grace of regeneration in the soul is (so far as a man's heart is regenerated) sweet and intrinsecal, congenial and connatural to the heart, it being endowed with dispositions suitable, and changed into the image of