Chapter III
That men are apt to regard the natural light of conscience, and the influences of it, to be the effects of true grace. The reasons of their mistake.
I come now to prove all sorts of men unregenerate, have been, and are,
apt to mistake this light of conscience in them, and the powerful effects of
it, to be true righteousness which makes them acceptable to God. And if
they be professors of Christianity, they are ready to take it for sanctification and true holiness.
There are three things under this head to be spoken unto.
I. That, de facto, all sorts of professions have mistaken it. H. The reasons of it.
III. Some grounds of the mistake.
I. All sorts have been apt to this.
1. Heathens have been so. It were infinite to reckon up the fleshblown conceits of the heart of man in the instances of the heathens (as they may be authentically drawn out of their own writings), how they magnify
and cry up in themselves that which they called right reason forementioned, as their Diana ; what divine eulogies they give it, and how they blessed themselves when they lived conformably unto it, and the decrees or dog mata of it, as Epictetus calls them.
1. For the light thereof itself they judged it holy, divine, heavenly ; yea, and nothing more divine or heavenly, not God himself ; it being (as they
say) a part of the divine Spirit put and drenched into a human body. Thus Seneca speaks,** and he speaks it not of the soul itself, but of reason or conscience, for he speaks of that which he terms the rule and measure of virtues ; yea, and because it is right reason or conscience that lets in the
light of a deity into the soul (as the word itself imports) as a judge ; there
fore they called it not only a good angel, or Daimon, in a man (as frequently they do), but Seneca terms it sacer spiritus, a sacred or holy spirit. Sacer
* Una inducitur humanis virtutibus regula ; ratio recta simplexque
: Nihil est divino divinius, coelesti coelestius. Eatio autem nihil aliud est quam iu corpus humanum pars divini Spiritus mersa. Seneca, Ep. 66.
246 THE WORK OP THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK
intra nos spiritus sedet, malorum lonorumque nostwrum obsermtor et custos. Hie prout a nobis tractatus est, ita nos ipse tractat. There is a sacred spirit that sits within us, which is the observer, and layer up, and keeper of all the good or evil things in us (that is, which we do or are found in us), who so deals with us as we deal with him. This eminently refers unto con
science, for that is that principle which lets God in upon us as a judge of our actions in our own hearts. And you see it is spoken of that in us which
is the observer of all good and evil in us, yea, and the layer of it up and remembrancer of it for a long time after ; and which, as we follow the light and guidance of it, so it deals with us, accusing or excusing us, as here, in the text, conscience is said to do. All which are evidently properties of conscience (as in this text), unto which he (as from his own experience) attributed a deity ; as indeed himself in the very next words says, he knew not what god to call it, but a god it was (Quis deus incertum est, habitat deus), for his conscience still represented a deity unto him. Yea, this light and principle in them they also accounted a thing equal unto God, calling it not only a branch of the divine nature (Antoninus, lib. v., de vita ma, chap. 6).* Epictetus also thus speaks, As for thy reason, man ! thou art not less or inferior to the gods ; f which they spake as
concerning the nature of it ; so in respect of its ability to guide and bring us unto happiness, in this respect equal to the reason or divine light that
is in God, though indeed in him it was infallible and supreme, by which he governed and managed himself and his affairs. Thus Seneca expressly makes no other difference between right reason within a man and God,} than between two mariners that have like skill to steer and govern their vessels ; only the one, viz., reason, hath a less ship to guide, God a larger ship of the same fashion and make. Yet so as that right reason in a man
is as supreme in his compass as God in his ; both had the same rules they steered by, and in that sense and intention they attend the usual speech, that in following reason they followed God. And so indeed I may in this
respect make a parallel, that look, as the papists having set up the pope as the supreme universal judge of controversies, though in pretence as Christ s vicar, to increase his power, yet in the apostolical interpretation of it, 2 Thes. ii., they set him even above and against Christ, and all that
is called God, for that which they attribute to him doth really arise to so much ; so these heathens, and the wisest of them, did set up right reason in a man, though in pretence as God s vicegerent, yet really and in effect as equal unto God in a man, and as man s supreme guide or judge, only dictating the same rule or doy/tara, as Epictetus calls them, which God did. Yea, to make the parallel more full, they made it a universal rule and concern
(as Euripides calls it), that had so full a power over all their actions, as to constitute them good or evil. Thus they gave forth this maxim, || Ni tibi
concessit ratio, digitum exere, peccas, unless right reason gives commission, even to the putting forth a finger, it is a sinful action. They speak (you see) higher things hereof by far than the Scripture doth of the new creature, which yet is termed a participation of the divine nature.
* acro<rcr<r//,a eaurou ovrog ds Jtfr/y gxatfrou voijg x,at Xoyog. Anto. lib. 5. de vita tud, cap. 6.
1^ r^ v ^ ^^ s J&IXPOTSOOS Epict. % Quam inter duos quibus par scientia regendi gubernaculum est : meliorem
f xard, rl rot Xbyov ovds X?
dixeris, cui majus speciosiusque navigium.
$ xdvuvov TO\J xaXXoD. Euripides in Hecub.
U Persius, Satyr. 5
CHAP. III.] IN OUR SALVATION. 247
Secondly, And 2. For the fruit and effect of this principle upon their
hearts and in their lives, they judge themselves therein according to that measure and esteem which, we have heard, they had of the principles of
self. A good life they termed a harmonious, suitable living to the height and dictates of this light, as that wherein the happiness of a man lay. Now all that the apostles attribute to a true saint, or a holy man (in this
respect), they attribute also to themselves in terminis.
1. They term it the image and likeness to God, O///O/WGVI/ rw sti, so Plato,
yea, and he puts it into the same division ; and in the same words the
apostles express the parts thereof. Plato s words are these :* A likeness
unto God consists in what is holy, and what is just or righteous, with wis dom and knowledge. The apostle s words are these : The image of God, which is in knowledge created after God in righteousness and true holiness,
Eph. iv. 24, compared with Col. iii. 10. Only, for distinction, the Holy Ghost adds true holiness, for theirs was not so.
2. Doth the Scripture call such a man a good man, a blessed man ? These are the ordinary titles which they also usurp, and that with dis
tinction from others, 6 dyaQug o evdaufLuv, the good, the blessed man, and the
like.
Yea, 3. Doth James call a man grown up in Christianity a perfect man ? And Paul use the same : I speak to those that are perfect ? So do they.f And as the apostles said that all graces go together, so they affirm of all
virtues, and that else a man is not perfect. Yea, they go higher than the
apostles did, for they assert that good men are impeccable, and cannot fall
or transgress, and that a wicked man was one that had no virtue in him ; and they distinguish also of proficients and of perfect men. Do the apostles
say that a godly man hath dominion! and fellowship with God ( Truly our
fellowship is with the Father and the Son. And Abraham was called the
friend of God). They will needs say the same of their blessed man, Unto whose estate (says Seneca ) when thou hast attained, thou beginnest to be
a companion with God himself. Another describes his wise man to be one who doth, in mortali corpore ayitare societatem Jovis, in a mortal body pur sue fellowship with God. Yea, and herein they are bold to vie with God
himself. Cum Diis, says Seneca, ex pari vivit: He lives as blessed a life as
God, and differs from him (say they) but in duration, passions, and mor
tality ; but I will not trouble you farther with their notions. I shall only add unto all these one scripture instance of a heathen, who though in these
first times of the world we find more modest, yet standing upon his in
tegrity and righteousness before God himself, he says, Gen. xx. 4, 5.
Wilt thou also slay a righteous nation ? Said he not unto me, She was my sister ? and she, even herself said, He is my brother : in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this. This man was
a heathen, as also his people whom he was king over. The speech of
Abraham, ver. 11, declares it upon the general observation of their manners.
1 What didst thou see in us ? says Abimelech. I said, says Abraham,
Surely the fear of God is not in this place ; that is, God is not worshipped by or amongst this people, or there is no religion amongst them. Parallel
* opoiuffiv &su diKaikv xa,) btihv [Mra (pgotfjffsotc yivsc&at. Plato in Philebo.
fTOV ayaQbv avdea, rzXtiov sivdi Xjyoutf/. Nee virum perfectum qui non omnes
virtutes habet,nec actionem quae non fiat secundum omnes. Chrysippus. avafAagrq-
rou; rov$ ffopovg, rti a-rrspfrr^TOug sivou a/Aapn^ar/. Laertius in Zenon.
J Qu. communion ? ED.
\ Incipis esse Deorum socius. Sen., Ep. 35. Epictetus, Seneca, Chrysippus.
248 THE WOEK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK VI.
to which is that speech of David s, Ps. xxxvi. 1, The transgression of the wicked says within my heart, there is no fear of God before his eyes. It
is so apparent and speaks so loud ; yet this Abimelech, in the case of Sarah, having dealt there according to his knowledge, and the principles of his conscience commonly received amongst them^ in that nation, says that
for conscience sake he would not have taken her, if he had known her
to have been Abraham s wife : In the integrity, says he, of my heart, and innocency of my hands, have I done this, ver. 5. And this he speaks not to Abraham (and so as what he could pretend to before men), but to God, of whom he had some knowledge, though a heathen, and whom he doth acknowledge to be judge over nations, and to judge righteous judg ment. In the words afore, ver. 4, he makes his appeal to God, the only judge of his conscience, professing net only in innocency of hands as to matter of outward fact, but of integrity of heart, as having been sincerely conformable therein to his conscience. And he speaks herein the very language of a holy man, even of David, whom you hear, Ps. xviii. 24, thus
* According to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight. Now, what he says of one action, that in all other (if conformable to his conscience) he would make the same
pleading with God,
plea.
2. That the Jews did so mistake the natural light of conscience, and the
powerful effects thereof to be true righteousness, the Old and the New Testament are so abundant in known instances as I need not mention any. They rested in the law, and made their boast of God, says the apostle, Bom. ii. And the resting in the law was, by those that were the best of them, by reason of their conformity unto it ( These have I kept from my youth, said that young man in Mat. xix.), for which, as they thought them
selves righteous (as Christ speaks) so they judged it ordained unto life and
justification, as Paul says, Ptom. vii. And thus they went about to estab
lish their own righteousness, Bom. x. 4. And what is all this, but to take the effects of conscience for true holiness, yea, for justification ? So (as was said) this as the principle was the suscipient of the law, and the cause of all that obedience in them.
3. Christians also are obnoxious to the same mistake. What Pelagius did boldly and plainly in his doctrine utter, that in application do the most of Christian professors secretly rest upon for their own salvation, even what
goodness is found to be in nature. We have alljibra Pelagiana in us, we are
naturally all Pelagians, and the great deceit of men s hearts is, that what
opinions they doctrinally condemn in their speculative judgments, those
they practically approve in their secret transactions with God for their
salvation. We generally declaim against Pelagianism, as extolling nature
for grace, and yet as generally we take the frnits and effects of it in our selves for grace. And I may say, as the apostle doth, Blessed is the man that blesseth not himself in what he condemns.
Now Pelagius in his doctrine professed conscience, and the light thereof, to be grace and holiness. He hath a manifest saying
* to this purpose
: There is in our minds a certain natural holiness, which residing in the supreme part and tower of the mind, doth give forth and exerciseth the judgment of what is good and evil, which encourageth to and cherisheth honest acts in us, and condemns what are evil and wicked. Now what is
this but that which we call conscience ? And to this purpose he would * Est in animis nostris naturalis qusedam sanctitas, qu0B velut in arce animi residens, exercet rnali bonique judicium, honestis actibus fovet, et sinistra opera condemnat.
CHAP. III.] IN OUR SALVATION. 249
draw the very words (of Rom. ii. 14, 15) to be intended of Abel, Noah,
and all just ones before the flood, and before the law was given, that by
nature they did what was acceptable to God. Et justas illas imagines, says
he, quis nisi injustus prohibet a reyno Dei ?
II. Secondly, The reasons of this aptness to mistake are these :
1. In general ; It is conscience itself that is the judge ; yea, in a man s
own heart, the highest and most supreme, and there is no higher principle
to control it. Yea, and no more of the word prevails with a man than this
takes in, and the proper office of it is to judge what makes a man accept
able to God, and what not. And next unto God (who is greater than our
hearts) all appeals are made to this court ; and therefore no man doth
imagine but that conscience doth direct him right ; and that if the dictates
thereof were followed and obeyed, he should be a just and an upright man.
Conscience being the supreme judge, hath this opinion of its own judgment,
that if it were followed it would save a man ; and the rest of the faculties
have that good opinion of it also, for else it would never be acknowledged
as supreme. And there is no man that doth or will think himself so far
off from grace as not to think he hath right opinions about it. If, there
fore, conscience finds its judgment hath any sway or stroke in a man to
overpower the heart, or the actions, it presently applauds both this its own
power for grace, and also thinks well of the man, so far as he is conform
able to its dictates ; and applauds him with a Well done, good and faith
ful servant ! And this, because it doth think well of itself, even as we are
apt to think the better of ourselves, when we see ourselves respected, and
entertain good opinions of those who do respect us.
2. Secondly, The main reason is, because all men are under the cove
* Ye are not under
nant of works, or the covenant of grace (Rom. vi. 14,
the law, but under grace. Compare it with Rom. vii. 1) ; and the one
hath ever set up its righteousness against the other ; and now that man is
fallen, yet corrupt nature is so conceited of itself, that it attempts to vie
and outvie that righteousness that is of the spring of grace in us. The
genius in that covenant is to trust in itself for righteousness. It is strange
to see how contrary to the way of salvation by Christ, the way of nature is.
Christ s way is to cause all men to distrust themselves, and be nothing in
themselves, that he that glories might glory in the Lord. But the great
est maxim of nature, among those of the heathen, that professed to live
most righteously, was expressly, Sibifidere, to trust in a man s self, and to
what in and by nature he was able to do. And Paul hath insinuated the
reason of it also in those words, Rom. x., They went about to establish
their own righteousness ; and they did so because it was their own.
III. Thirdly, The particular grounds of the mistake are,
1. Men find conscience to be an inward principle, as grace is, inherent,
seated and rooted in themselves, as they hear grace is ; and therefore if
it hath any power in a man, they easily take it for grace. Men would
think otherwise, indeed, if that which carried them on against evil, and
unto good, were only and merely outward, as Socrates his genius, &c. ; or
if outward weights and enforcements of worldly respects hung on, only moved the wheels ; if only vainglory, or fear of superiors, or conformity
to others, acted them. But men find something here within them, over
and besides all these, which is real and serious for good, and against evil, and that such a spring should move, and have any stroke in them, as a
part of themselves, this they easily think to be grace. Now such a prin
ciple is conscience, and the light of it in men ; for the effect of the law is
250 THE WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK VI.
written in the heart, as the text says, and they are a law to themselves. It is not other respects only that moved them, but a law in themselves, and to themselves. Yea, and oftentimes, when a stream of outward respects would carry them against what is good, and unto what is evil, yet this inward principle, conscience, moves them contrary, to swim against that stream ; as in Socrates, and Brutus, and Fabricius, whom no threats or entreats could divert ; of whom it was said, that sooner might the sun be turned out of its course than Fabricius be swayed by respects. And we have an instance too in Balaam, whom an house full of gold and silver
(though himself was covetous) could not persuade, God having a hold upon his conscience within.
2. Again, 2dly, That which helps forward this good opinion is, that men find it a constant and incorrupt principle, and (as the schoolmen say) that
it keeps itself a virgin. It dwells in them, as grace is said to be a seed that remains. And it is incorrupt in this respect, that it will not let sin
pass uncontrolled, nor be charmed to hold its tongue, but will talk and
speak against it, whilst it hath a tongue, which, though it be imprisoned, will preach in prison. In keeping itself thus incorrupt, men are apt to think it is grace in them.
3. The fruits and effects are so like to those of true grace, that no won der af men mistake them. The phrase used to express both are so nigh akin, as a man must criticise to observe the difference. Grace is the law written in the heart, the light of conscience is the effect of the law written there. The same outward duties which grace directs to, conscience
enlightened doth urge unto, and speaks against the same sins. And at once to give you a clear demonstration, both that the effects are much
alike, and thence men are apt to mistake : How comes it to pass, that the 7th chapter of the Romans, from the 14th verse to the end, should be so
variously interpreted by men of great understandings, that one and the same draught and representation, which Paul there makes of that great
fight between grace and corruption, the law of the members and the law of
the mind should be drawn by Arminius and others as a representation of the effects and conflicts of natural conscience enlightened, and that he should carry on every phrase and particle therein, in all the particulars, with so much seeming appearance ? This argues the effects to be alike. Yea, which is yet stranger, Augustine himself (who knew the difference of the effects of grace and natural conscience ; yea, and in his Confessions, relates the experiments of that difference in himself to have been the first evidence of regeneration, or of that new work of grace upon him, in com
paring the then frame of his heart, when new converted, with his former, in his unregenerate condition). After this work he interpreted that chapter of the effects of the natural conscience, though after he retracts it. We also hear carnal people, that apparently have no grace, yet allege out of that chapter, excuses for their grossest sinnings, that they do what they would not ; and it is not I, but sin. That thus one and the same pic ture should seem two several pictures of two several men, argues there is a near resemblance. That the complexion and lineaments of natural con science should seem to one to be pourtrayed in this chapter, and yet the resemblance of grace appears in it, to another that hath experience of what
is grace, argues a great likeness, as indeed there is. But I will discourse of this more particularly.
1. The grounds why heathens were deceived in their high esteem of
conscience, were these. They thought reason, and conscience in them, to
CHAP, HI.] IN OUR SALVATION. 251
be the same that is in God himself. Orta est simul cum mente divina ; et
princeps lex est ratio recta summi Jovis, says Tully.* And Hieroclesf also
says, that it is the same thing to obey right reason, and God ; such a mind
enlightened differs not from the mind of God, but being intent on that
divinity and brightness by which it is enlightened, it comes to do those
things which it doth. And the heathens, knowing no higher illumination, and therefore thinking that it was thus adequate and correspondent unto
the light that is in God, whom whilst they glimmeringly knew, they judged
altogether such a one as themselves, and glorified him not as God in their
knowledge of him ; they therefore knowing no higher, judged nothing could
be higher. And so look, what pleased reason in them, they judged it must
fully please God also, of whom it was the participation. And although
they could not but acknowledge God as the supreme judge (for conscience
still urged them with his authority), yet they did in their doctrines do what
they could to persuade themselves and others that this right reason, or law
in their consciences, was the supreme visible judge, to which a man himself
only was to give an account, and receive his happiness or woe from it,
according as he lived after its dictates.
2. The Jews receiving the law immediately from God himself, as a per
fect copy of his mind, saw not the end of it, 2 Cor. iii., and 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 con
sciences taking it from God, set them a-doing 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, Bom. vii. 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
* for conscience sake, Rom. xiii. 5 ; and having!
expressed by doing things
all religion also to be reduced to those two, and so expressed to us, viz.,
* faith and a good conscience, (1 Tim. i. 19 ; faith being the principle of
all things to be believed ; conscience, of things that are to be done. Fides
principium credendorum et conscientia ayendorum), 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
* defiled conscience, which
the new creature, not dreaming that there is a
gets men a-work till faith and regeneration come with power and purify the heart.
* Lib. 3, de Kepub. lib. 6, cap. 8. See Chrysippus apud Laertium.
f Hierocles Comment, in Carmin Pythagor.
j Qu. hearing ? ED.
252 THE WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK YI.