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12 - The Witness of our own Spirit - Sermons on Several Occasions · Sacred Texts Archive

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Sermon twelve. The witness of our own spirit. This is our rejoicing,
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the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with
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fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation
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in the world Tewod Corinthians one, verse twelve. Such is the voice of
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every true believer in Christ, so long as he abides in faith and love.
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He that followeth me saith. Our Lord walketh not in darkness, And
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while he hath the light, he rejoiceth therein. As he hath received the
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Lord Jesus Christ, so he walketh in him. And while he walketh in
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him, the exhortation of the apostle takes place in his soul day by day.
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Rejoice in the Lord always and again. I say, rejoice, but
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that we may not build our house up on the sand, lest when the
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rains descend, and the winds blow, and the floods arise and beat it
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up, it fall, and great be the fall thereof. I intend in
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the following discourse to show what is the nature and ground of a Christian's joy.
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We know in general it is that happy peace, that calm satisfaction of
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spirit, which arises from such a testimony of his conscience as is here described
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by the Apostle. But in order to understand this the more thoroughly, it
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will be requisite to weigh all his words. Whence will easily appear both what
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we are to understand by conscience and what by the testimony thereof, And also
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how he that hath this testimony rejoiceth evermore. And first, what are we
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to understand by conscience? What is the meaning of this word that is in
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everyone's mouth? One would imagine it was an excas exceedingly difficult thing to discover
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this when we consider how large and numerous volumes have been from time to time
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wrote on this subject, and how all the treasures of ancient and modern learning
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have been ransacked in order to explain it. And yet it is to be
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feared it has not received much light from all those elaborate inquiries. Rather,
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have not most of those writers puzzled the cause, darkening counsel by words without
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knowledge, perplexing a subject plain in itself and easy to be understood for set
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aside but hard words, and every man of an honest heart will soon understand
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the thing God has made us thinking beings capable of perceiving what is present,
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and of reflecting or looking back on what is past. In particular, we
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are capable of perceiving whatsoever passes in our own hearts or lives, of knowing
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whatsoever we feel or do, and that either while it passes or when it
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is passed. This we mean when we say man is a conscious being,
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he hath a consciousness or inward perception, both of things present and past,
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relating to himself, of his own tempers and outward behavior. But what we
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usually term conscience implies somewhat more than this. It is not barely the knowledge
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of our present or the remembrance of our preceding life. To remember, to
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bear witness, either of past or present things, is only one and the
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least office of conscience. Its main business is to excuse or accuse, to
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approve or disapprove, to acquit or condemn. Some latter writers, indeed,
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have given a new name to this, and have chose to style it a
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moral sense. But the old word seems preferable to the new. Were it
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only on this account that it is more common and familiar among men, and
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therefore easier to be understood, and to Christians it is undeniably preferable on another
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account, also namely because it is scriptural, because it is the word which
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the wisdom of God hath chose to use in the inspired writings, and according
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to the meaning wherein it is generally used there, particularly in the epistles of
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Saint Paul. We may understand by conscience of faculty or power implanted by God
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in every soul that comes into the world of perceiving what is right or wrong
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in his own heart or life, in his tempers, thoughts, words,
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and actions. But what is the rule whereby men are to judge of right
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and wrong, whereby their conscience is to be directed the rule of Heathens,
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as the Apostle teaches. Elsewhere is the law written in their hearts by the
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finger of God, their conscience also bearing witness whether they walk by this rule
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or not, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or even excusing, a
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quitting defending them hey Kai apologummanon Romans two, verses fourteen and fifteen. But
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the Christian rule of right and wrong is the word of God. The writings
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of the Old and New Testament, all that the prophets and the holy men
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of old wrote, as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, all that
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scripture which was given by inspiration of God, and which is indeed profitable for
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doctrine or teaching the whole will of God, for reproof of what is contrary,
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there too, for correction or error, and for instruction or training us
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up in righteousness. Two Timothy three, verse sixteen. This is a lantern
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unto a Christian's feet, and a light in all his paths. This alone
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he receives as his rule of right or wrong, of whatever is really good
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or evil. He esteems nothing good, but what is here enjoined, either
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directly or by plain consequence. He accounts nothing evil, but what is here
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forbidden, either in terms or by undeniable inference. Whatever the scripture neither forbids
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nor enjoins, either directly or by plain consequence, he believes to be of
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an indifferent nature, to be in itself neither good nor evil, this being
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the whole and sole outward rule. Whereby his conscience is to be directed in
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all things. And if it be directed thereby, in fact, then hath
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he the answer of a good conscience toward God. A good conscience is what
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is elsewhere termed by the apostle a conscience void of offense. So what he
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at one time expresses, thus, I have lived in all good conscience before
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God until this day Acts twenty three, verse one, he denotes at another
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by that expression, ye're in do I exercise myself to have always a conscience
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void of offense toward God and toward men, Acts twenty four, verse sixteen.
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Now, in order to this, there is absolutely required, first a
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right understanding of the Word of God, or his holy and acceptable and perfect
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will concerning us as it is revealed therein, for it is impossible we should
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walk by a rule if we do not know what it means. There is
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secondly required, which how few have attained a true knowledge of ourselves, a
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knowledge both of our hearts and lives, or our inward tempers and outward conversation.
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Seeing if we know them not, it is not possible that we should
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compare them with our rule. There is required. Thirdly, an agreement of
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our hearts and lives, or our tempers and conversation, or our thoughts and
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words, and work with that rule with the written word of God. For
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without this, if we have any conscience at all, it can be only
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an evil conscience. There is fourthly required an inward perception of this agreement with
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our rule, and this habitual perception, this inward consciousness itself is properly a
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good conscience, or in other phrase of the apostle, a conscience void of
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offense toward God and toward men. But whoever desires to have a conscience thus
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void of offense, let him see that he lay the right foundation. Let
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him remember other foundation of this can no man lay than that which is laid,
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even Jesus Christ. And let him also be mindful that no man buildeth
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on him, but by a living faith, that no man is a partaker
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of Christ until he can clearly testify the life which I now live. I
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live by faith in the Son of God, in Him who is now revealed
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in my heart, who loved me and gave himself for me. Faith alone
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is that evidence, that conviction, that demonstration of things invisible, whereby the
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eyes of our understanding being opened and divine light poured in upon them, we
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see the wondrous things of God's law, the excellency and purity of it,
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the height and depth, and length and breadth thereof, and of every commandment
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contained therein. It is by faith that beholding the light of the glory of
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God in the face of Jesus Christ, we perceive as in a glass all
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that is in ourselves, yea the inmost motions of our souls. And by
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this alone can that blessed love of God be shed abroad in our hearts,
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which enables us so to love one another as Christ loved us. By this
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is that gracious promise ful fit unto all the Israel of God. I will
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put my laws into their mind and write or engrave them in their hearts Hebrews
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eight, verse ten. Hereby producing in their souls an entire agreement with His
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Holy imperfect law, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
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And as an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit, so a good
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tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. As the heart therefore of a believer,
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so likewise his life is thoroughly conformed to the rule of God's commandments in a
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consciousness, whereof we can give glory to God and say with the apostle,
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this is our rejoicing the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly
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sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom. But by the grace of God we have
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had our conversation in the world. We have had our conversation. The Apostle
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in the Original expresses this by one single word and estaphemen. But the meaning
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thereof is exceeding broad, taking in our whole deportment. Yea every inward as
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well as outward circumstance, whether relating to our soul or body. It includes
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every motion of our heart, of our tongue, of our hands and bodily
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members. It extends to all our actions and words, to the employment of
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all our powers and faculties, to the manner of using every talent we have
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received, with respect either to God or man, we have had our conversation
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in the world, even in the world of the ungodly, not only among
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the children of God that were comparatively a little thing, but among the children
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of the devil, among those that lie in wickedness. En toy ponturoi in
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the wicked one? What a world is this? How thoroughly impregnated with the
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spirit, It continued breaths, as our God is good and doeth good.
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So the God of this world and all his children are evil and do evil.
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So far as they are suffered to all the children of God. Like
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their father, they are always lying in wait or walking about, seeking whom
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they may devour, using fraud or force, secret wiles, or open violence,
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to destroy those who are not of the world, continually warring against our
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souls, and by old or new weapons and devices of every kind, laboring
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to bring them back into the snare of the devil, into the broad road
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that leadeth to destruction. We have had our whole conversation in such a world
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in simplicity and godly sincerity. First, in simplicity, this is what our
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Lord recommends. Under the name of a single eye, the light of the
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body, Saith, he is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single,
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the whole body shall be full of light. The meaning whereof is this
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what the eye is to the body, That the intention is to all the
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words and actions. If therefore this eye of thy soul be single, all
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thy actions and conversation shall be full of light, of the light of Heaven,
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of love and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. We are then
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simple of heart when the eye of our mind is singly fixed on God,
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when in all things we aim at God alone as our God, our portion,
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our strength, our happiness, our exceeding great reward, our all in
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time and eternity. This is simplicity when a steady view, a single intention
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of promoting His glory, of doing and suffering His blessed will, runs through
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our whole soul, fills our heart, and is the constant spring of all
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our thoughts, to say, desires and purposes, we have had our conversation
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in the world. Secondly, in godly sincerity. The difference between simplicity and
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sincerity seems to be chiefly this simplicity regards the intention itself, sincerity the execution
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of it, and this sincerity relates not barely to our words but to our
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whole conversation. As described above. It is not here to be understood in
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that narrow sense wherein Saint Paul himself sometimes uses it for speaking the truth or
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abstaining from guile, from craft and dissimulation, but in a more extensive meaning
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as actually hitting the mark which we aim at by simplicity. Accordingly, it
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implies in this place that we do in fact speak and do all to the
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glory of God, that all our words are not only pointed at this but
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actually conducive there too, that all our actions flow on in an even stream,
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uniformly subservient to this greater end, and that in our whole lives we
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are moving straight toward God, and that continually walking steadily on in the highway
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of holiness, in the paths of justice, mercy, and truth. This
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sincerity is termed by the apostle godly sincerity, or the sincerity of God Eli
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Crenii theo to prevent our mistaking or confounding it with the sincerity of the heathens,
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for they had also a kind of sincerity among them, for which they
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professed no small veneration. Likewise, to denote the object and end of this
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as of every Christian virtue, seeing whatever does not ultimately tend to God sinks
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among the beggarly elements of the world. By styling it the sincerity of God,
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he also points out the author of it, the Father of Lights,
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from whom every good and perfect gift descendeth, which is still more clearly declared
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in the following words, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of
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God, not with fleshly wisdom, as if he had said, we cannot
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thus converse in the world by any natural strength of understanding. Neither by any
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naturally acquired knowledge or wisdom. We cannot gain the simplicity or practice this sincerity
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by the force either of good sense, good nature, or good breeding.
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It overshoots all our native courage and resolution, as well as all our precepts
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of philosophy. The power of custom is not able to train us up to
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this, nor the most exquisite rules of human education. Neither could I,
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Paul ever attain hereto, notwithstanding all the advantages I enjoyed, so long as
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I was in the flesh, in my natural state, and pursued it only
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by flesh natural wisdom. And yet surely if any man could Paul himself might
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have attained thereto by that wisdom. For we can hardly conceive any who was
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more highly favored with all the gifts both of nature and education. Besides his
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natural abilities, probably not inferior to those of any person then upon the earth,
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he had all the benefits of learning, studying at the University of Tarsus,
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afterwards brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, a person of the greatest
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account both for knowledge and integrity, that was then in the whole Jewish nation,
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and he had all the possible advantages of religious education, being a Pharisee,
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the son of a Pharisee, trained up in the very straightest sect or
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profession, distinguished from all others by a more eminent strictness. And herein he
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had profited above many others who were his equals in years, being more abundantly
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zealous of whatever he thought would please God, and as touching the righteousness of
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the law blameless. But it could not be that he should hereby attain this
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simplicity and godly sincerity. It was all but lost labor in a deep piercing
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sense of which he was at length constrained to cry out the things which were
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gained to me those I counted loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ
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Jesus my Lord Philippians three, Verses seven and eight. It could not be
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that, ever, he should attain to this but by the excellent knowledge of
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Jesus Christ our Lord, or by the grace of God. Another expression of
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nearly the same import by the grace of God is sometimes to be understood that
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free love, that unmerited mercy by which I am a sinner, through the
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merits of Christ, am now reconciled to God. But in this place it
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rather means that power of God, the Holy Ghost, which worketh in us
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both to will and to do of His good pes pleasure. As soon as
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ever the grace of God in the former sense, his pardoning love is manifested
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to our souls. The grace of God in the latter sense, the power
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of His Spirit takes place therein. And now we can perform through God what
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to man was impossible. Now we can order our conversation art We can do
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all things in the light and power of that love through Christ which strengtheneth us.
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We now have the testimony of our conscience, which we could never have
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by fleshly wisdom. That in simplicity and godly sincerity we have our conversation in
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the world. This is properly the ground of a Christian's joy. We may
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now therefore readily conceive how he that hath this testimony in himself rejoiceth evermore my
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soul, May he say, doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoiceth
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in God, my Savior. I rejoice in Him who, of his own
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unmerited love, of his own free and tender mercy, Hath called me into
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this state of salvation, wherein through his power I now stand. I rejoice
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because his spirit beareth witness to my spirit that I am bought with the blood
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of the Lamb, and that believing in Him, I am a member of
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Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven.
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I rejoice because the sense of God's love to me Hath by the same
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spirit wrought in me to love Him and to love for his sake, every
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child of man, every soul that Hath made. I rejoice because He gives
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me to feel in myself the mind that was in Christ, simplicity, a
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single eye to Him in every motion of my heart, power always to fix
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the loving eye of my soul on Him who loved me and gave himself for
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me to aim at Him alone, at his glorious will. In all I
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think, or speak, or do, desiring nothing more but God, crucifying
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the flesh with its affections and luss setting my affections on things above, not
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on things of the earth. Holiness, a recovery of the image of God,
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a renewal of soul after His likeness and godly sincerity, directing all my
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words and works, so as to conduce to His glory. In this I
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likewise rejoice yea, and will rejoice because my conscience beareth me witness in the
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Holy Ghost, by the light He continually pours in upon it that walk worthy
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of the vocation. Wherewith I am called that I abstain from all appearance of
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evil, fleeing from sin as from the face of a serpent, that as
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I have opportunity, I do all possible good in every kind to all men,
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that I follow my Lord in all my steps and do what is acceptable
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in his sight. I rejoice because I both see and feel, through the
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inspiration of God's Holy Spirit, that all my works are wrought in Him,
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yea, and that it is he who worketh all my works in me.
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I rejoice in seeing through the light of God which shines in my heart,
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that I have power to walk in His ways, and that through his grace
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I turn not therefrom to the right hand or to the left. Such is
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the ground and the nature of that joy, whereby an adult Christian rejoiceth evermore.
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And from all this we may easily infer first that this is not a
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natural joy. It does not arise from any natural cause, not from any
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sudden flow of spirits. This may give a transient start of joy, but
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the Christian rejoiceth always it cannot be owing to bodily health or ease, to
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strength and soundness of constitution, For it is equally strong in sickness and pain,
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yea, perhaps far stronger than before. Many Christians have never experienced any
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joy to be compared with that which then filled their soul when the body was
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well nigh worn out with pain or consumed away with pining sickness. Least of
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all can it be ascribed to outward prosperity, to the favor of men,
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or plenty of worldly goods. For then, chiefly when their faith has been
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tried, as with fire, by all manner of outward afflictions, have the
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children of God rejoiced in Him whom unseen they loved, even with joy unspeakable.
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And never surely did men rejoice like those who were used as the filth
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and off scoring of the world, who wandered to and fro being in want
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of all things, in hunger and cold, in nakedness, who had trials
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not only of cruel mockings, but moreover of bonds and imprisonments, yea who
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at last counted not their lives dearer unto themselves, so they might finish their
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course with joy. From the preceding considerations, we may secondly infer that the
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joy of a Christian does not arise from any blindness of conscience, from his
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not being able to discern good from evil, so far from it that he
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was an utter stranger to this joy till the eyes of his understanding were opened.
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That he knew it, not until he had spiritual senses fitted to discern
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spiritual good and evil. And now the eye of his soul waxeth not dim.
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He was never so sharp sighted before. He has so quick a perception
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of the smallest things, as is quite amazing to the natural man. As
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a moat is visible in the sunbeam, so to him who is walking in
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the light in the beams of the uncreated sun, every moat of sin is
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visible. Nor does he close the eyes of his conscience anymore that sleep is
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departed from him. His soul is always broad awake, no more slumber or
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folding of the hands to rest. He is always standing on the tower and
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hearkening what his Lord will say concerning him, and always rejoicing in this very
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thing, in seeing Him that is invisible. Neither does the joy of a
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Christian arise. Thirdly, from any dulness or callousness of conscience. A kind
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of joy, it is true, may arise from this in those whose foolish
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hearts are darkened, whose heart is callous, unfeeling, dull of sense,
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and consequently without spiritual understanding. Because of their senseless, unfeeling hearts, they
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may rejoice even in committing sin, And this they may probably call liberty,
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which is indeed mere drunkenness of soul, a fatal numbness of spirit, the
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stupid insensibility of a sacred conscience. On the contrary, a Christian has the
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most exquisite sensibility, such as he could not have conceived before. He never
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had such a tenderness of conscience as he has had since the love of God
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has reigned in his heart. This also is his glory and joy that God
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hath heard his daily prayer, Oh, that my tender soul might fly the
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first abhorred approach of ill, quick as the apple of an eye, the
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slightest touch of sin to feel. To conclude, Christian's joy is joy in
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obedience, joy in loving God and keeping His commandments. And yet not in
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keeping them, as if we were thereby to fulfill the terms of the covenant
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of works, as if by any works or righteousness of ours we were to
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procure pardon and acceptance with God. Not so we are already pardoned and accepted
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through the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. Not as if we were by
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our own obedience to procure life life from the death of sin. This also
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we have already, through the grace of God us hath he quickened who were
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dead in sins. And now we are alive to God through Jesus Christ,
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our Lord. But we rejoice in walking according to the covenant of grace,
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in holy love and happy obedience. We rejoice in knowing that being justified through
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His grace. We have not received that grace of God in vain, that
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God having freely not for the sake of our willing or running, but through
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the blood of the Lamb reconciled us to himself. We run in the strength
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which He hath given us the way of his commandments. He hath girded us
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with strength unto the war. And we gladly fight the good fight of faith.
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We rejoice through Him who liveth in our hearts by faith to lay hold
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of eternal life. This is our rejoicing that as our Father worketh hitherto so
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not by our own might or wisdom, but through the power of His Spirit,
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freely given in Christ Jesus, we also work the works of God.
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And may He work any us whatsoever is well pleasing in His sight, to
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whom be the praise forever and ever. It may easily be observed that the
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preceding discourse describes the experience of those that are strong in faith, but hereby
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those that are weak in faith may be discouraged to prevent which the following discourse
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may be of use. End of Section twelve.