William Gurnall Extended Quote

Though some precious souls that have closed with Christ, and embraced the gospel, be not at present brought to rest in their own consciences, but continue for a while under some dissatisfactions and troubles in their own spirits, yet even then they have peace of conscience in a threefold respect; In precio, in promisso, in semine.

1. In precio; the gospel puts that price into his hand, which will assuredly purchase it, and that is the blood of Christ. We say that is gold which is worth gold, which we may anywhere exchange for gold; such is the blood of Christ; it is peace of conscience, because the soul that hath this may exchange it for this. God himself cannot deny the poor creature that prays on these terms: Lord, give me peace of conscience; here is Christ's blood, the price of it. That which could pay the debt, surely can procure the receipt. Peace of conscience is but a discharge under God's hand that the debt due to divine justice is fully paid. The blood of Christ hath done that the greater for the believer, it shall therefore do this the less. If there were such a rare potion that did infallibly procure health to every one that takes it, wo might safely say, as soon aa the sick man hath drunk it down, that he hath drunk his health: it is in him, though at present he doth not feel himself to have it; in time it will appear.

2. In promisso. Every true believer hath peace of conscience in the promise, and that we count as good as ready money in the purse which we have sure bond for. Ps 29:11 The Lord will bless his people with peace. He is resolved on it, and then who shall hinder it? ... Nothing more hard to enter into the heart of a poor creature (when all is in an uproar in his bosom, and his conscience threatening nothing but fire and sword, wrath, vengeance from God for his sins), than thoughts or hopes of peace and comfort. Now the psalm is spent in shewing what great things God can do, and that with no more trouble to himself than a word speaking. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty, etc ... This God that doth all this promiseth to bless his people with peace, outward and inward; for without this inward peace, though he might give them peace, yet could he never bless them with peace as he there undertakes. A sad peace ... to have quiet streets but cutting of throats in our houses ... yet infinitely more sad to have peace both in our streets and houses but war and blood in our guilty consciences. What peace can a poor creature taste or relish while the sword of God's wrath lies at the throat of conscience? Not peace with God himself. Therefore Christ purchased peace of pardon, to obtain peace of conscience for his pardoned ones, and accordingly hath bequeathed it in the promise .. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you John 14:27. Where you see he is both the testator to leave, and the executor of his own will, to give out with his own hands what his love hath left believers; so that there is no fear but his will shall be performed to the full, seeing himself lives to see it done.

3. In semine. Every believer hath this ... peace in the seed. Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart Ps 97:11. Where sown, but in the believer's own bosom, when principles of grace and holiness were cast into it by the Spirit of God? Hence it is called the peaceable fruit of righteousness Heb 12:11. It shoots as naturally from holiness as any fruit in its kind doth from the seed proper to it. It is, indeed, most true, that the seed runs and ripens into this fruit sooner in some than ... in others. This spiritual harvest comes not alike soon to all, no more than the other that is outward doth; but here is the comfort - whoever hath a seed time of grace ... shall have his harvest time also of joy.

William Gurnall 6

Better have a dog that will, by his barking, tell us a thief is in our yard, than one that will keep silent, and let us be robbed before we have any notice of our danger.

William Gurnall 5

The word tells thee of an informer thou hast in thy own bosom; conscience, which goes along with thee, and is witness to all the fine laid plots, and what it sees it writes down, for it is a court of record; thou canst not sin so fast, but it can write after thee; and the pen with which conscience writes down our sins hath a sharp nib, it cuts deep into the very heart and soul of the sinner.

Christian in complete armour

William Gurnall 4

Wouldest thou preserve thy faith, look to thy conscience. A good conscience is the bottom faith sails in; if the conscience be wrecked, how can it be hought that faith should be safe? If faith be the jewel, a good conscience is the cabinet in which it is kept; and if the cabinet be broken, the jewel must needs be in danger of losing. Now you know what sins waste the conscience; sins either deliberately committed, or impenitently continued in. ....

Christian in complete armour

William Gurnall 3

Can a bird fly when one of her wings is broken? Faith and a good conscience are hope's two wings; if therefore thou hast wounded thy conscience by any sin, renew thy repentance, that so thou mayest act faith for the pardon of it, and acting faith mayest redeem thy hope when the mortgage that is now upon it shall be taken off.

Christian in complete armour

William Gurnall 2

The second effect the Scripture hath on the spirits of men, by which its divine pedigree may be proved, is the power it exerciseth on the conscience to convince and terrify it. Conscience is a castle that no batteries but what God raiseth against it can shake; no power can command it to stop but that which heaven and earth obey.

Christian iin complete arrmour

William Gurnall 1

When the Spirit of God hath sprung with a divine light into the understanding, then he makes his address to the conscience, and the act which passeth upon that is an act of conviction. He shall convince the world ... etc John xvi. 8. Now this conviction is nothing but a reflection of the light that is in the understanding upon the conscience, whereby the creature feels the weight and force of those truths he knows, so as to be brought into a deep sense of them. Light in a direct beam heats not, nor doth knowledge swimming in the brain affect. Most under the Gospel know that unbelief is a damning sin, and that there is no name to be saved by but Christ's, yet how few of those know this so as to apply it to their own consciences, and to be affected with their own deplored state. Who is a scriptural convinced sinner? He, who upon the clear evidence of the Word, brought against him by the Spirit, is found by his own conscience to be so. Speak now, poor creature, did ever such an act of the Spirit of God pass upon thee as this? which that thou mayest the better discern, try thyself by these few characters.

First, A sinner truly convinced, is not only convinced of this or that sin, but of the evil of all sin. It is an ill sign, when a person seems in a passion to cry out at one sin, and to be senseless of another. A parboiled conscience is not right; soft in one part, and hard in another: the Spirit of God is uniform in its work. ....
Christian in Complete Armour