Book VI
The vanity of thoughts, being an instance of the abounding sinfulness in one
faculty of the soul, the cogitative; whereby the sinfulness of the rest may be
estimated.
[This Book, with a few verbal alterations, was published by the author as a
separate treatise, under the title, THE VANITY OF THOUGHTS. In that form it is given in the present edition, Vol. III. p. 507, and is therefore omitted here. ED.]
ClIAP. I.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 257
BOOK VII.
The corruption and defilements of conscience.
Unto the pure all things are pare: but unto them that are defiled and un
believing is nothing pure ; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. TITUS I. 15.
CHAPTER I.
The conscience is false in the performance of its office. It indulgeth some sins
though it be severe against others. It tells a man but part of his duty. it
is very scrupulous of observing its own traditions, while it neglects the insti
tutions of God. It urgeth only carnal motives. It invents arguments to
justify a sin.
IF there be anything good in man it is his conscience, which yet the apostle pronounceth denied. How the light of natural conscience hath no true
goodness in it I have before shewn,* and how all the acts of it fall short of
grace, I have in another treatise, of the differences between natural con
science and true grace, demonstrated, t Now here only I shall shew the
positive defilements of conscience in some particulars, and shall frame the demonstration from the false and corrupt carriage of it in its office, and abuse of its power committed to it, which power, though it be from God (as the authority of all magistrates is), yet being seated in and committed to a
corrupt and denied faculty, as conscience is here in the text said to be, it
proves false to God, and though it be from God, and is his officer, yet it is not for him, nor true to him, as it ought, and as true grace is, which is God s image.
1. Conscience is exceeding partial in its office, in winking at and indulg ing some sins, which are favourites of the heart, and great with it, when it
will be exceeding strict and severe against those of the lower sort and rank, and by a show of justice and severity against them, colour its countenancing of those other. Thus we find Saul s conscience exceeding strict in a matter of the ceremonial law : 1 Sam. xiv. 34,
* And Saul said, Disperse yourselves among the people, and say unto them, Bring me hither every man his ox, arid every man his sheep, and slay them here, and eat ; and sin not against the Lord in eating with the blood. And all the people brought every man
his ox with him that night, and slew them there. But his conscience never
scruples to eat God s people as bread (as David speaks, Ps. xiv. 4), to kill fourscore and five of God s priests, to seek the blood of David, an innocent man ; his conscience, though so squeamish in other things, yet never strains
at all this, though he is rebuked for it by his own son again and again. The * Book II. chap vii. of this Discourse.
t Which belongs to the Discourse of Regeneration ami tho New Creature in MS.
VOL. X. K
258 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK VII.
pharisees, they also mightily pretended conscience : Mat. xxvii. 6, And the
chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them
into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. And yet it was the same money which these hypocrites gave unto Judas to betray that blood. Thus
conscience, which is God s vicegerent, and betrusted with the execution of
his laws, as to some of them will be very severe, in others lax. It ought to be as God s mouth, and speak truly and faithfully ; but on the contrary,
* For the
it is like those priests of whom God complains
: Mai. ii. 7-9.
priest s lips should speak knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth ; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But ye are departed out of the way ; ye have caused many to stumble at the law ; ye have cor
rupted the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of hosts : therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law. It is partial in the
law, and will become a judge of the law, not a judge according to law. It
will urge the statute against some sins, and turn them out of their places, but it will not look on the statutes which are in force against other sins, but wink at them, and suffer them to hold their places still. Thus a mere
natural conscience will be partial in its actings, when grace and a sanctified conscience will not do thus, but urgeth the law indifferently, and judgeth
impartially, and will let no sin escape. We trust, says Paul, that we have
a good conscience, for we desire to live well in all things
: Heb. xiii. 18,
1 Pray for us : for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.
Now the reason why a natural conscience is thus unequal is, because of its
defilement ; it is out of order, and humorous, as a stomach which is longing and craving for some kind of meat, and loathes other, though wholesome. And why doth it so, but because it is foul, or custom makes conscience to be thus unequal ? When a sin hath never been committed by a man before, conscience will fly in the face of a man for it ; but a sin which a man prac tises every day, and with which conscience is made familiar, it will let alone, and never trouble the man for it. And on the contrary, a duty which a man hath customarily performed, if he neglect it, conscience wall much
trouble him for it ; but as to one which hath been long neglected, it will be
quiet. Many such reasons may be given of these false and partial dealings of conscience, and God acting men s consciences by a common providence,
gives them more scope for one sin than another, as he sees cause, and
therefore some men make no conscience of swearing, talking lewdly, Sabbath-
breaking, &c., when yet they will startle at murder, stealing, adultery, and
perjury. But now in the government which God exercises over a godly man s conscience, his vicegerent is punctual to exercise the whole of its
commission, and will check the man for every sin ; God s design being to
save him from all sin, and to have an uniform obedience from him.
2. The corrupted conscience is partial in telling a man what is his duty, and herein it is unjust to God as well as in the former instance. For it will
be content, and let a man alone quietly, though he neglects the greatest part of that obedience and service which he owes unto God. It will wink and
take no notice, nay, is well enough satisfied, though God hath but half his
due. It is like that steward who was so unjust to his master, that when an hundred pound was owing to him, bid the creditor set down fifty, and crossed
the debt when but half of it was paid. Thus conscience will excuse a man
of half the debt due to God, and accept the payment of a part for the whole.
If the man prays, and performs the ceremony of that service, conscience will
be contented, though he do it never so lazily, and in a most careless and
CHAP. I.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 259
perfunctory manner. It will be content with the mere bodily service, though the soul hath little or no part in it ; and therefore though God s name is not
sanctified in the performance, yet it will excuse and give an acquittance for
the payment of the duty. If the man hath but prayed to-day, it is no great matter how he did it, and his conscience gives him a discharge of having done the work. Thus they in Malachi offered the lame and the blind, and
yet their consciences were never troubled for being so defective : Mai. i. 8, 9,
* And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil ? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil ? offer it now unto thy governor ; will he be
pleased with thee, or accept thy person ? saith the Lord of hosts. And
now, I pray you, beseech God that he will be gracious unto us : this hath been by your means: will he regard your persons ? saith the Lord of hosts.
Nay, they wondered that they should be charged with despising of God, or
any neglect of him : vers. 6, 7, A son honoureth his father, and a servant
his master : if then I be a father, where is mine honour ? and if I be a
master, where is my fear ? saith the Lord of hosts unto you, priests, that
despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name ? Ye
offer polluted bread upon mine altar ; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee ? In that ye say, The table of the Lord is contemptible/ Now God reckons this a great corruption in conscience, and therefore he calls them
deceivers and cheaters whe dealt thus with him: ver. 14, But cursed be
the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing
: for I am a great King, saith the Lord of
hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen. This kind of con
science Saul had, who destroyed only the lean kine, and yet pleads that in
doing so he had done the will of the Lord, and thought he deserved a dis
* But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best
: 1 Sam. xv. 9,
charge
of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all
that was good, and would not utterly destroy them : but everything that was
vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly. Now what is the reason that
conscience acts thus deficiently in its duty ? Why, truly, it is because its
light falls short of God s glory and holiness, and therefore thinks anything good enough for him, and that a small matter will serve him. It was upon this principle that the Israelites thought they could serve God sufficiently well ; for they imagined they could perform the outward service, and thought anything would please. No, says Joshua ; he is a holy God, too holy for
you to please with such your services : Joshua xxiv. 19, 21, And Joshua
said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the Lord : for he is an holy God ; he
is a jealous God ; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. And the people said unto Joshua, Nay ; but we will serve the Lord. But now a good conscience is faithful to God, and will refuse such broken and cracked pieces for payment, and calls for whole money, for a whole
sacrifice, entire services, and spiritual lively prayers. It knows that the law
is spiritual, and the light of a good conscience is spiritual too, and therefore
calls for spiritual sacrifices ; and though it may give allowance for failings, as God himself doth, yet it will have good and current money, and God must be worshipped in spirit and in truth, or else it accounts not the duty done.
3. A corrupted conscience will be often exceedingly scrupulous of its own
traditions and the traditions of men, when it is lame and negligent in things which the word enjoins. It will be exact to keep a man to its own private edicts and orders, when it lets the public statutes be broken. Thus the
pharisees were very nicely wary of eating with unwashen hands, when they laid aside the commandments of God, as Christ tells them : Mark vii. 6-9,
2GO AN UNBEGENEBATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFOBE GOD, [BOOK VII.
He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you
hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but
their heart is far from me. Howbeit, in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For, laying aside the command ment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups
: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well
ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. And thus persons popishly affected, prefer holidays before the Sabbath, and account to eat flesh on a Friday a greater sin than uncleanness. Thus hy
pocritically scrupulous were the Jews, who would not at the time of the
passover s approaching enter into Pilate s hall lest they should be defiled : John xviii. 28, Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judg ment : and it was early ; and they themselves went not into the judgment
hall, lest they should be denied, but that they might eat the passover. Yet
this was a thing which was never forbidden even by the ceremonial law, which doth not make the coming into any heathen house a defilement ; and yet when they scrupled this, which was never prohibited, neither by the moral nor ceremonial law, they made no conscience of shedding the innocent blood of Christ. And thus you shall see men now to be very scrupulous about the observance of any old order or human custom, or anything which
they have vowed to perform, or in the practice of which they have been edu
cated, whilst they will -not be much careful about the neglect of the great
things of the law ; and thus they will act out of a principle of conscience also.
They will take more care not to eat before the sacrament than to prepare for the receiving of it. Thus conscience is exceedingly corrupt, in taking
exactly its own taxes and impositions, whilst it suffers God s customs to be
stolen.
4. A corrupt conscience will make use of arguments drawn from self-
interest and its lusts, and urge carnal motives to persuade the man to do a
good action. It useth not right, but fleshly means, to make the duties of
religion pass freely, and to get them currently down. Whereas, it is the
office of a good conscience not only to perform the holy action, but to stir a man to do it upon holy grounds and reasons ; not only to propound duties
as God s commands, but -to offer motives from God to persuade us to dis
charge them. But now a corrupt conscience, though it proposeth a right
thing to be done, yet presseth the doing it from wrong principles and argu ments ; and though the matter is good, yet it gets the enemies voices to bear and carry it out. That God may have his due, it gathers his rents, but yet forceth the payment of them by violent courses ; it frightens the man to
give in his arrears by threatening to sue him out to an arrest ; it drives him on to his duty only by terror, and representing God as cruel or a tyrant, which wrongs God as much as if the dues were not paid. For even in com mon converse among men, when the thing moved for a man might be a kind
ness to him, yet the motioning of it for him may be in such a manner as to do him a real injury. It may be moved upon considerations so prejudicial as to make him wish that it had never been propounded, and to move him
to choose rather that he had not objected than to get it so. The motives may prove disadvantageous, when the thing to be done would be a kindness.
It is in this manner that a corrupt conscience wrongs God, by urging us to do our duty to him by carnal arguments, by such reasons only as stir and
prevail with corrupt nature, by urging us with fear and trouble of mind, with
the shame and misery which will unavoidably follow, if such a sin be com
mitted, or such a duty is not done. It will make use of or strike in with such reasons as these only, to keep us from a sin, or to put us upon the
CHAP. I.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 261
duty ; or if it propounds other arguments, as the glory of God, and consider
ations drawn from his love, yet it offers them but for fashion s sake. For
it being its office to propound what is suggested to it, it may and doth some
times lay such reasons as these before the man, yet for show rather than so
as to prevail. Look as a person interested, who promiseth to propound and recommend many to a place of office or trnst ; some he offers to the choice but faintly, and as knowing beforehand that they will not please the com
pany, and as such, too, that he is not hearty for ; but when he comes to
others, he not only propounds them, but presseth earnestly and zealously for them. Thus conscience will put in holy and spiritual motives among the
rest, but the stress and emphasis is put upon those which are carnal, which
will work with flesh in the man. Spiritual motives are like wooden ordnance, brought out for show only ; but those which are charged and let off are such
as are suited to corruption, and whose bullets will pierce, and strike, and
sink into self-love, and the heart is not moved till their force comes. And
the reason is, because conscience being corrupt itself, these arguments are most suitable to it. These arguments of the law it understands well enough, and therefore as men use such reasons as are suitable to their brains, and which they naturally invent, and of which they are apprehensive ; so natural
conscience will not employ spiritual arguments or motives, because it natu
rally doth not engender them, and not suiting its mould, they seldom come
in ; but the carnal motives and arguments do, and these weapons it can wield when the other are too strong and heavy for it. And it finds also, that
having to do with flesh, nothing but such agreeable motives will take with it, and therefore directing its speech to the heart that it may prevail, it speaks in the flesh s language of reward or punishment. In a word, a corrupt con
science always deals by way of bribery or flattery, or threatening, and there
fore is corrupt, though the duties which it propounds be good. 5. As conscience useth motives drawn from some lusts or other in the
heart to enforce its injunctions, and to make them to be obeyed, so to gratify these lusts again, conscience will join with them to colour and countenance such actions, which are done chiefly out of lusts and ill ends. Some con
sideration of conscience or other will be found out to help them, and make them out to be acts of conscience. So when Herod was about to commit
that great sin of killing John the Baptist, which he did chiefly to please Herodias and those who were with him, and that against his conscience too,
yet conscience itself strikes in to help the action forward, and seeing his sin
ful will would have it done, suggests his oath to him as a thing to be made conscience of. And therefore it is said that he did it for his oath s sake : Mark vi. 26, And the king was exceeding sorry, yet for his oath s sake, and
for their sakes which .sat with him, he would not reject her. He made con
science of his promise and oath, forsooth, in it ! Thus conscience joined with his lusts to help forward a wicked act against conscience. Thus also Saul s conscience told him that he ought not to sacrifice till Samuel came, and yet to please the people he did it, because they began to be scattered from him : 1 Sam. xiii. 11, And Samuel said, What hast thou done ? And Saul said, Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that thou earnest not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered themselves together to Michmash. But yet conscience would come in with some consideration which might warrant it, and he would pretend at least
that he could not find in his heart to go to war before he had prayed
: ver.
12, Therefore, said I, the Philistines will come down upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication unto the Lord : I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt offering. So that now, if conscience can but find out
262 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK VII.
some little consideration to humour and please it, it will be satisfied with the act, and gives its warrant for it, though it be gross, and though sinful
lusts are the actors and managers of the whole affair, so to combine and join in acts of higher treason against God.
6. Corrupt conscience will be bribed to find out arguments, and to plead (which is yet more) in justification of actions utterly unlawful. And is not
that a corrupt judge which justifies the wicked ? This is conscience, which not only like a corrupt lawyer may be feed and hired to plead an ill cause, and
find out some law or other for it as they who crucified Christ would not do it without a colour of law : John xix. 7, The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God but it is an ill judge which is bribed to give sentence for a wicked cause to justify it. Thus all true judgment is ruined, when it is
swayed aod carried wholly by affection : perit ornnejudicium, cum res transit
* Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil ; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. And we see in many instances that conscience, by reason of the defilement which
in affectum ; and hence men call evil good, and good evil : Isa. v. 20,
is in it, is ready to prove the lawfulness of a sinful action by false argu ments, when the heart is once inclined to the sin. Thus a man newly come out from heathenism, and having his heart yet touched and warped toward his former idols and idolatrous practices, and bearing some reverence
to the rites of his old superstition, would comply with the Gentiles in a part of their worship (as eating in the idol s temple), though not in the whole of
it. And though eating things sacrificed to idols in the very temple was as
flat idolatry as could be, and proved to be so by the apostle Paul, 1 Cor.
x. 14, 15, yet some, to hold a fair correspondency with the heathen, or to
avoid persecution, would find out some shuffling reason or other to maintain
their doing so. What arguments did their consciences find out, that an
. idol was nothing in the world, and that therefore whatever they did about it
: 1 Cor. viii. 4, As concerning there
was but frivolous and insignificant
fore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. But some did stumble at the practice, as having a conscience of
the idols, and so being convinced that what they did in respect to it touched
upon idolatry, 1 Cor. viii. 7. And yet, as for those persons, their consciences were apt to be confirmed in such a practice by the example of others, and
they were ready to join with any argument that might give them confidence
* For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol s temple, shall not the con
to do it. This the apostle refers to, 1 Cor. viii. 10,
science of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are
offered to idols ? And if, when conscience is only weak, it may be thus
defiled and perverted, much more when it is wholly corrupt, as in wicked men, much more will they take encouragement from any invented reasons of
their own, or example of others, to practise that to which they are inclined, and will strive to fashion their opinions to their lusts, and mould them
answerably ; and therefore a corrupt conscience is afraid to have more light admitted into it for its better information, whereas a godly soul gives itself
up to God to be instructed by him.
CHAP. II.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 263