A treatise of original sin ... proving that it is

Fourthly, Conscience hath a further and ultimate work or acting in a man, and that is to judge It is a witness, an accuser and a Judge also. There is a Tribunal should be erected in every mans heart, where conscience is to sit as Judge, and this Court of conscience is daily to be kept. This is no more then when Psal, 4. we are commanded To commune with our own hearts, and be still; when we are commanded To search and try our ways, or 1 Cor. 11. To judge our selves that we be not judged. This is the great duty which not only Heathens commended Nosce teipsum, and Tecum havita, and which another complaineth of the neglect thereof, In se nemo tentat descendere, but it is very frequently commanded in the Scripture, as the foundation and introduction into the state of conversion, as a constant duty in persons converted to prevent Apostasy. But who is there that doth keep a daily Court thus in himself? That which Pythagoras, Seneca, and Heathens have admired, To examine our selves, What have I done to day? Wherein have I sinned? In what have I exceeded? This Christians, though enlightened by Gods Word, are horribly slothful and careless about: When is this examination, this scrutiny set up? When are thy actions, thy thoughts called to the bar, and judgement given against them? Now this judgement of conscience is seen about a two-fold object, Our Actions, and our Persons; our Actions, they are to be judged, Whether they be agreeable with the Word of God, or no? Whatsoever thou undertakest, and art not persuaded of in conscience as lawful, is a sin, Rom. 14. Whatsoever is not of faith ⟨p. 232⟩is sin: Now examine thy actions, thou profane man; see whether they will bear the Touchstone or no: Doth thy conscience tell thee, such ways are lawful? Art thou out of faith thus persuaded to do? Look over all thy thoughts, all thy words, thy actions, and weigh them in the balance of the Sanctuary; See whether they be chaff or wheat; Judge them before God cometh to judge them: As our Actions, so our Persons, and the frame and constitution of our souls; and here conscience is more unable to do its work, then in the former; For actions (at least many of them) may be condemned by the light of nature, but when thou comest to search thy heart, to judge that, here is much heavenly skill and prudence required: Did the hypocrite judge himself?