Conscience therefore is an High and Awful Power, it is solo Deo minor; next and immediately under God▪ our Judge; riding as Joseph did in the second Chariot, and concerning Conscience he saith to every man, as he once did to Moses with respect to Pharaoh, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, Exod. 7. 1. The Voice of Conscience is the Voice of God. What it bindeth or looseth on Earth, Clave non errante, is accordingly bound or loosed in Heaven, 1 Joh. 3. 21. the greatest deference and precise Obedience is due to its Commands. Its Consolations are of all the most sweet, and its Condemnations (only excepting those by the mouth of Christ in the last Judgment) most terrible. Zuinglius spake not without ground when he said, What Death would I not rather choose? what Punishment would I not rather bear? yea, into what profound Abyss of Hell would I not rather enter, than to witness against my Conscience? 'Tis like he had felt the Terrors of it, to be more bitter than Death. How many have chosen strangling rather than life under the Terrors of Conscience? Wherever you go, Conscience accompanies you. Whatever you say, do, or but think, it Registers and Records in order to the Day of Account. When all Friends forsake thee, yea, when thy Soul forsakes thy Body. Conscience will not, cannot forsake thee. When thy Body is weakest and dullest, thy Conscience is most vigorous and active. Never more life in the Conscience, ⟨p. 9⟩than when Death makes its nearest approach to the Body; when it smiles, cheers, acquits, and comforts, O what an Heaven doth it create within a Man? And when it frowns, condemns, and terrifies; how doth it becloud, yea, benight all the Pleasures, Joys and Delights of this World. O Conscience, how glad would the damned be to have taken their last farewell of thee, when they bid this World, and all its Inhabitants farewell at Death! And what had become of all the Sufferers and Martyrs, when shut up from Friends in Dungeons, had it not been for thy cheering Cordials and Comforts, thou there administeredst to support them! 'Tis certainly the best of Friends, or the worst of Enemies in the whole Creation. This is Conscience, these are its Powers and Offices, which was the first thing.
Conscience therefore is an High and Aweful Power, it is solo Deo minor; next and immediately under God▪ our Judge; riding as Ioseph did in the second Chariot, and concerning Conscience he saith to every man, as he once did to Moses with respect to Pharaoh, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, Exod. 7. 1. The Voice of Conscience is the Voice of God. What it bindeth or looseth on Earth, Clave non errante, is accordingly bound or loosed in Heaven, 1 Ioh. 3. 21. the greatest deference and precise Obedience is due to its Commands. Its Consolations are of all the most sweet, and its Condemnations (only excepting those by the mouth of Christ in the last Judgment) most terrible. Zuinglius spake not without ground when he said, What Death would I not rather chuse? what Punishment would I not rather bear? yea, into what profound Abyss of Hell would I not rather enter, than to witness against my Conscience? 'Tis like he had felt the Terrors of it, to be more bitter than Death. How many have chosen strangling rather than life under the Terrors of Conscience? Wherever you go, Conscience accompanies you. VVhatever you say, do, or but think, it Registers and Records in order to the Day of Account. VVhen all Friends forsake thee, yea, when thy Soul forsakes thy Body. Conscience will not, cannot forsake thee. When thy Body is weakest and dullest, thy Conscience is most vigorous and active. Never more life in the Conscience, ⟨p. 9⟩than when Death makes its nearest approach to the Body; when it smiles, chears, acquits, and comforts, O what an Heaven doth it create within a Man? And when it frowns, condemns, and terrifies; how doth it becloud, yea, benight all the Pleasures, Joyes and Delights of this World. O Conscience, how glad would the damned be to have taken their last farewel of thee, when they bid this World, and all its Inhabitants farewel at Death! And what had become of all the Sufferers and Martyrs, when shut up from Friends in Dungeons, had it not been for thy chearing Cordials and Comforts, thou there administredst to support them! 'Tis certainly the best of Friends, or the worst of Enemies in the whole Creation. This is Conscience, these are its Powers and Offices, which was the first thing.
