Chapter VII
How a natural conscience, in its highest operations, is deficient in that which
is necessary to make it really holy.
Now, to give a demonstration of the deficiency of conscience, in its ope rations on the heart in all particulars, might be too large ; I shall do it but
in some few, which shall be fitted to two cases or conditions of men unre
generate, under one of which all such men s conditions will fall, and in
either of which it will appear that natural conscience sanctifies not the heart throughout, as regenerating grace doth.
The first case is, that in men unregenerate there are to be found, besides
light of conscience, virtues, and impressions on their wills and affections
inclining them to good, which the heathens called semina rirtutum, seeds of virtues, inclining them unto what the light of conscience doth direct them unto ; and in this case will it not be said that it maketh the heart good, or that a goodness of heart doth accompany it ? But 1. None had a universal goodness, no, not in that sphere of moral
good, but were deficient in some virtues, whereunto the light of their con science did direct them. God did never make light of conscience, and moral impressions to virtue, adequate or even in any man, that is, not of
like extent, but left it so as in those who naturally or otherwise have had most of moral inclinations in them, yet their consciences have had strong convictions to such duties and actions unto which their wills and affections have had no inclinations stamped on them to correspond therewith, but the
contrary inclinations have been left to their full strength. And this God doth to give a ground of discovery unto all men of their natural condition, by letting them see the strength of corrupt inclinations, and their empti ness of good, by some such particulars. This is exemplified both in hea
thens, Jews, and Christians. The heathens had dispersed among the bulk and multitude of them all seeds of virtues ; but so as all were not in each and every man, but one had justice, another abstinence from pleasures, a
third continency. God withal left each of them in their dispositions naked and void in respect of some virtues or other. Thus Socrates was given to
the love of boys ; and such vile affections is the very instance Paul gives of the wisest of their philosophers (Rom. i.), that so that fatal doom might with condition be pronounced of all and each, which the apostle there re-
cordeth, They withheld the truth in unrighteousness. Their corrupt hearts were too headstrong for their consciences to rule in some particular or other.
I confess, I have sometimes wondered at those high passages I before
CHAP. VII.] IN OUR SALVATION. 279
rehearsed, both concerning their crying up right reason, and also of their
professing to live thereto ; as being a seeming vindication of them from
that which the apostle, Rom. i., chargeth them withal, viz., imprisoning the truth in unrighteousness in some things. But in the end I perceived the juggle (for it was truly such) ; for whilst all cried up this right reason
in the general as their rule, and professed to live by it, yet come to the
particulars, therein each sect or person would judge this or that to be,
according to right reason (or nature, as they termed it) as they listed, and
as agreed with their lusts. Diogenes accounted self-pollution, or (as the
apostle terms it) defiling their bodies (sv iayro/fc) committed alone by themselves, to be lawful, and according to nature ; which the apostle (Rom. i. 24) instanceth in, as one of their philosophical practices. Plato*
(the divinest of them) held communion of wives. The like might be said
of others. Though all men understand what is meant by iron, what by
silver, as soon as they hear each named ; yet (says Plato) when we use
the name of just or good, one is carried to one thing as just and good which
another dislikes, and we differ therein amongst ourselves. Thus he con-
fesseth. And hence, under this general proclaiming the right rule, and
magnifying right reason (as all did), so many sects arose amongst them,
7 good or evil, lawful or unlawful, so as every one did surrender the judgment of his reason
differing in their judgment of what was just or unjust, morall}
to his lusts ; yea, and made many abominable vices things in their nature
: f each made his own opinion, and what they had a mind to, the law of nature and right reason. And
indifferent ; leges natura opiniones suas faciunt
then indeed they might well boast (as they did) they lived according to right reason ; for wherein their virtues fell short, or their lusts overruled them,
they would flatly argue for that to be lawful, or natural, or indifferent, and
so blessed themselves in their own deceivings. And, if I mistake not, the
apostle had this very thing in his eye when he says, They became vain in
their reasonings (drtXoyiff/Ao?g), and their foolish heart was darkened, Rom. i. 21 ; and professing themselves wise (so each sect pretend),
1 they became fools, the vainest that ever were, corrupting themselves in what they knew naturally, and making use of corrupt reason in them to
defend what natural reason condemned. And so I may make a parallel between the mystery of iniquity among the heathen and that in the popish
religion. The pope cries up the Scriptures in general, and professeth to
give us religion from thence ; but then he, taking on him to be the supreme
judge, can and doth give us out from thence what religion he pleaseth, and
frameth opinions to his own lusts and ambition ; and so did the philo
sophers, whilst they cried up reason.
2. Both the light of their consciences, and also their highest virtues, when they did most exactly fall on them, did carry them but to the letter, but not to the spiritual part of any virtue. At the best, they are said to
do but the things contained in the law (ra, rou VO,<AOU in the text), even
wherein they were a law unto themselves. Observe it, they are not said to
keep the law, neither to have the law written in their hearts ; whereas of a
believer both these are at once affirmed, John xiv. 21, He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, is he that loves me. First, he is said
to have the law truly and genuinely stamped upon his soul ; and secondly, out of that principle is said to keep it ; whereas these have but the duties, the outward works of it written there, and accordingly do but the things of the law. Or again, they may be said to have the effect of it, as brute * De Repub., lib. v. t Tertullian.
280 THE WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK VI.
beasts are said to have the work or effect of reason, as bees in making their
hives, &c. The works which they do are opera intelligentifs, as if reason had done them ; but they do them not from a principle of reason. And this difference did Augustine long ago urge and insist on, in his answers to
Pelagius, and Julianus, and the Massilienses, who urged this text, that the
light of conscience, and virtues, and good works thence flowing were such as had a true and real goodness in them. But he* distinguished how that in the law commanding, and in every action to be done according to the hw, there were opus, or (as from the Stoics he termed it) offidwn quod faci endum est, the duty that is to be done ; et finis, vel propter quod faciendum, the end for which it is to be clone. Which end he still asserts against them, to be not merely the good of any creature, though a public good to the whole world, but the chief end of a good action is God s glory, who himself is the chiefest good and the chiefest end. The officia, the duties, are not the law, but only rot, rov VO/AOV, the things of the law ; officia legis, as Beza interprets it. But love to God is the end of the law, and the per formance of it, 1 Tim. i. 5, and so it is the soul and spirit of it ; and when
it is not written as the supreme law and sovereign dictate in the conscience,
it may be said the law is wanting there.
In heathens nature spoke out, and their highest pitch was to love virtue for virtue s sake, judging and valuing it to be the greatest ornament of their rational souls. They therefore decried all outward respects as unworthy, and too mean to be motives unto virtuous actions ; but yet still all their admiration was raised no further but to virtue itself, and virtuous actions for themselves, as the supreme excellency. They never raised virtue to a tendency or subordination to God, and to glorify God, as God, by it; herein they fell short, and therefore short in holiness. For I may safely affirm, that if a Christian himself could thus love true grace, and prize it as a supreme excellency, and love goodness only as it is a habit in the soul which makes us good, this would not be holiness. For in so doing, a man would value it only as a particular good unto his own soul, which is but a small piece of the creation of God. And the mind, in so doing, would but
glory and centre still in itself (as well as in valuing riches or honours), and not in the Lord ; for there is the same reason in either. The second case is this, that to the Jews and us Christians, there are, by the revelation of the law and will of God, many duties of God s worship (as prayers, meditation, holy conference, and reading the word) \vhereunto there are small, if any, moral inclinations stamped upon men s wills to assist them in them, or facilitate these unto them ; and therefore conscience, calling upon the heart for such duties as these, is forced to raise the tax or levy of them, by calling in foreign assistance and aid. And for a supply of natural
strength and inclination unto duties of this kind, it is reduced to such motives of the law as are fitted to stir self-love in the affections ; as fear of
hell, &c. And this is also the case of temporary believers under the gospel. Now in this case it doth yet more evidently appear that the light of natural conscience doth not sanctify the heart throughout, as grace in a regenerate man in some measure doth.
1. Natural conscience puts a necessity upon the performance of a duty, saith and urgeth that it ought and must be done ; but it puts no inward freedom and willingness into the will to the performance of it, as grace doth. For grace makes a man willing, as conscience makes the duty necessary. It
puts an inclination, a spirit of liberty and freedom ; a free spirit, an ingenu- * Lib. iv., contra Julian., cap. 13.
CHAP. VII.] IN OUR SALVATION.
ous spirit, as David calls it, Ps. li. 12. And therefore Paul opposeth
(Gal. v. 18) the working of the spirit of the law, or of conscience by the
law, in these words, If you be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law,
and so e contra. Now, to be led by the Spirit is to have the will ready to
follow God in everything ; to have the will easily carried on to a duty, for
< A child shall lead them ;
: Isa. xi. 6,
leading implies readiness of following
that is, a little thing may persuade them.
If it be objected, that conscience carried on the will to do duties, for else
they would not be done,
I answer ; There is a willingness which is intrinsecal and direct, and per
se, when a man hath a mind and will to a thing for itself ; and there is a
made willingness, which is per accidens, which is a comparative willingness. There is no man so averse to anything but may be thus made willing, that
is, comparatively, andj^r accidens willing. The most covetous man in the
world, that loves money never so much, may be made willing to part with
it, and glad to do so, if it concerns his life to do it ; or if a great necessity
of bonds, or going to prison, be laid on him, which is indeed a constraint,
and so Peter terms it (1 Peter v. 2) and opposeth it to willingly. But a
godly man hath a ready mind to whatever is good, in the principle of his
heart, and often good duties come off at the first motion, To will is present
with me, Rom. vii. 18. Or if flesh lie uppermost, and so there is an averse-
ness in the entrance, yet when God and his heart have closed in the duty and grown familiar, he finds his whole heart to be in it.
Now, the reason of an unregenerate man s unwillingness unto such holy
duties lies in this, that they are appointed, and the tendency of them is, to
bring God and their hearts together, which indeed is to bring two enemies
together, for such are their hearts and God. And the reason of a regenerate man s willingness is, that in the duty two friends meet together, God who
hath from everlasting owned that soul, and the soul that hath chosen God
to be his God.
2. Natural conscience gives light and enforcements from legal motives to
the duty, but it gives no new inward strength. And the reason is clear ;
for natural conscience carries a man on but upon the strength of the covenant
of works. Now, the law is weak (says the apostle, Rom. viii.) as to any
such effect. Urgency of conscience is but as if a man should come to one
that is lame, and his joints frozen and stiff, with a light in one hand and a
cudgel in the other, and waken him, and jog him, and tell him, Here is
light for you to walk by, and there are blows if you will not. Or it is as if
one should ride a tired horse ; there is a bridle to direct, and a spur to put him on, but the rider giveth no strength for the horse to travel with.
Natural conscience in its government is tyrannical, and, like the task
masters of Egypt, requires bricks to be made, and beats men if not, but
gives them no straw. But grace adds another principle to conscience, and
that is, faith and the new creature. Faith fetcheth life, and quickening, and
strength from Christ, both habitual strength, which is called strength in
the inward man, and co-operating strength. I am able (says the apostle)
4 to do all things, through Christ that strengtheneth me. The spirit of
* helpeth our infirmities, Rom.
adoption not only puts us on to pray, but
^ The Holy Ghost comes and fills the soul with arguments and motions and inclinations
viii. 28, which is spoken in opposition to the spirit of bondage.
to pray, insomuch as the soul is like a full breast till it be drawn, or a
pregnant womb till it be delivered of what is formed in it. And the
^ soul
rests not till it hath gone alone, and poured forth itself to God. Conscience
282 THE WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK VI.
indeed wakens the old man so, as he makes him bestir himself and his lazy stiff joints, and so to mend his pace in duties, bat still it gives no strength,
so as it is extrinsecal enforcement and instigation only, and not inward
strength, which conscience doth afford.
3. Natural conscience cannot sweeten the law to a man, and cause him
to delight in it, and the duties of it, as a regenerate man is said to do (Rom. vii.), for if it gives not suitable strength and will, it cannot give
delight ; for delight follows these, whilst forced extrinsecal motives carry us
on, and there is a grievance in the motion, for fear is an affection which hath grief in it (1 John iv. 1 8) ; and thus though they (Mai. i. 13) brought but the lame and the lean sacrifices, yet they grudge at it, and said what weariness is in it ? They were weary of doing anything for God, but love sweetens all to a man : This is the love of God, that his commandments are not grievous, 1 John v. 3. Now it is a certain rule, that as natural conscience works by fear, so faith works by love, and love sweetens the law
to a man. Conscience may bring a sick man meat, but it must be the inward constitution of a sound mind that tastes the sweetness of meat.
4. Lastly, As thus its weakness is seen in holy duties, so in regard of sin
also, it is not able to condemn sin in the flesh. Of the law it is spoken, Rom. viii. 3, that it discovers sin, but kills it not ; it hath power to kill the man for sin, and to condemn him, 2 Cor. iii. 6, but not to kill sin in the man (as the phrase is, Rom. viii. 4). As the law came into the world, that sin might be imputed, that is, known and discovered, but not destroyed, so light of conscience hath no farther power. Like flashes of lightning, it on the sudden discovers, but expels not the darkness, yea, often leaves the soul the more in the dark ; yea, which is more, it enrageth some lusts the more, and that whilst it restrains the outward acts. So Paul, who had a
strong work of the law (through conscience) upon him, says (Rom. vii.) that the law wrought all concupiscence in him. As a horse that is reined grows the more fierce ; as the winds that go to blow out the fire spreads it more ; as the water in lime makes it burn within the more ; so the light of conscience makes lust inwardly the hotter and more violent : therefore those are more eager in sinning that have most knowledge. It is true indeed, violent terrors of conscience upon a man, when the guilt of sin in its turn comes to take the dominion and to reign (which is but an after part of the dominion of the law over a man), will restrain men from sinning ; but
yet the ordinary light of it, though it restrains the acts, yet increaseth the
lust, and so doth more hurt one way than good another.
Use. Let us then mind the main and primary scope and extent of con science s commission, and God s primary end in putting the light of it into men, which is the same with that of the law, as the power of it and the
effect of it is the same. Now the law was sent that man s sinfulness might be discovered, and he convinced of it, to see his weakness and the power of
sin, and his utter averseness to good and proneness to evil ; that so men, despairing of being saved by the effects of it, or their conformity to it, might seek help in Christ, and work anew from him, Gal. iii. 15, 16, 17, 18. And if this use be not made of it, then God hath ordained it for another
use, to convince and condemn men by it at the latter day, and leave them without excuse ; which use the apostle speaks of, Rom. i. And God will make use of the light of natural conscience even to condemn the strictest heathen.
What a great mistake is it then utterly to pervert this use and extent both of God and it, and to deem this light of the law and of conscience,
CHAP. VIII.] IN OUR SALVATION. 283
and of the work of it, to be grace itself ? Oh ! that ever men should thus
abuse the very witness God hath appointed to convince them they are not
in a state of grace, and mistaking the intent of his speech and verdict in them,
should judge it to be grace, and because it checks them for evil, and puts them
on to good, think by conforming a little to it to be saved ! Thus the Jews
understood the law, and the effects of that in them ; and because they had
the law which God gave them, to see themselves out of his favour, they
thought therefore they were in it (Rom. ii.), rested in the law, and thought
if they conformed to it, because it called for obedience, they should be
saved, Rom. x. Whereas if men would listen to it, it would shew them
their inability to conform to it, and so begin to humble them, and to take them off from resting in their obedience. There is enough in the light of
it to do this, for God means to judge them by it at the last day.