Conscience

. If a natural man's conscience checks or accuses for sin—then he seeks to stop the mouth of it—but not to satisfy it. Most of the natural man's duties are to still and stifle conscience. But, the believer chooses rather to let conscience cry, than to stop the mouth of it, until he can do it upon good terms, and until he can fetch in satisfaction to it from the blood of Jesus Christ, by fresh acts of faith apprehended and applied. The natural man seeks to still the noise of conscience, rather than to remove the guilt. The believer seeks the removal of guilt by the application of Christ's blood; and then conscience is quiet of itself.

As a foolish man, having a mote fallen into his eye, and making it water, he wipes away the water, and labors to keep it dry—but never searches his eye to get out the mote; but a wise man minds not so much the wiping, as the searching his eye; something has got into the eye, and that causes the watering, and therefore the cause must be removed. Now then, if when conscience accuses for sin, I take up a life of duties, a form of godliness, to stop the mouth of conscience; and if hereupon conscience be still and quiet; then is this but a natural conscience. But if, when conscience checks, it will not be satisfied with anything but the blood of Christ, and therefore I use duties to bring me to Christ; and if I beg the sprinkling of his blood upon conscience, and labor not so much to stop the mouth of it, as to remove guilt from it—then is this a renewed conscience.