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cause_n	death_n	good_a	life_n	4,509	5	4.8259	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A21059	Tvvo treatises the one of Good conscicnce [sic]; shewing the nature, meanes, markes, benefits, and necessitie thereof. The other The mischiefe and misery of scandalls, both taken and given. Both published. by Ier: Dyke, minister of Gods Word at Epping in Essex.	Dyke, Jeremiah, 1584-1639.; Dyke, Jeremiah, 1584-1639. Mischiefe and miserie of scandals both taken, and given. aut; Dyke, Jeremiah, 1584-1639. Good conscience. aut	1635 (1635)	STC 7428; ESTC S100168	221,877	565

stand to him that will stand for it When Nebuchadnezzar heares his Furnace seaven times hotter than at other times then a good conscience will speak comfort seven times sweeter than at other times Are Gods Saints for good conscience ●on Acts and Mon. Omnis nobis vilis est poena ubi pura comes est conscientia Tiburt apud Baren An. 168. sake in prison Good conscience will make their prisons delectable hort-yards So doth Algerius an Italian Martyr date a comfortable Epistle of his From the delectable hortyard of the Leonine prison a prison in Venice so called So that as he said that hee had rather be in prison with Cato than with Caesar in the Senate house so in this regard it was more comfortable to be with Philpot in the Cole-house than with Bonner in his Palace Bonners conscience made his Palace a Cole house and a Dungeon whilst Philpots made the Cole-house a Palace Are Gods Saints in the Stocks Better it is sayes Philpot to sit in the Stocks of the world then in the stocks of a damnable conscience Therefore though they be in the Stocks yet even then the righteous doth sing and rejoyce yea even in the Stocks and prison Paul and Silas sang in the Stocks Sing in the Stocks Nay Hinc est quod è contrario innocens etiam inter ipsa tormenta fruitur conscientiae securitate cum de poena metuat de innocentia gloriatur Hieron ad Demetti ad ●● 1. more they can sing in the flames and in the middst of the fires Isay 24. 15. Glorifie God in the fires And worthy Hawks could clap his hands in the middst of the flames So great and so passing all understanding is the peace and comfort of a good conscience So that in some sense that may be said of it which is spoken of faith Heb. 11. 34. By it they quenched the violence of fire Gods servants were so rapt and ravisht with the sense of Gods love and their inward peace of conscience that they seem'd to have a kind of happy dedolencie and want of feeling of the smart of outward torments Who knowes what trialls God may bring him to Wee have no patent for our peace nor his free liberty in the profession of the Gospel Suppose we should be cald to the stake for Christs sake Would we be chearful would we sing in the flames Get a good conscience The cause of Christ is a good cause now with a good cause get a good conscience and wee shall be able with all chearfulnesse to lay downe our lives for Christ and his Gospel sake CHAP. XII The comfort and benefit of a good conscience in the dayes of Death and Iudgement IN the fourth place The time of death is a time wherein the benefit and comfort of a good conscience is exceeding great Death hath a ghastly looke and 4. The comfort of a good conscience at the day of Death terrible able to daunt the proudest and bravest spirit in the world but then hath it a ghastly looke indeed when it faces an evill conscience Indeed sometimes and most commonly conscience in many is secure at the time of death God in his justice so plaguing an affected security in life with an inflicted security at Death And the Lord seemes to say as once to the Prophet Go make their consciences asleepe at their death as they have made it asleepe all their life lest conscience should see and speake and they heare and be saved God deales with conscience as with the Prophet Ez. 3. 26. I will make thy tongue cleave to the roofe of thy mouth that thou shalt be dumbe therefore they die though not desparately as Saul and Achitophel yet sottishly without comfort and feeling of Gods love as Nabal But if conscience be awakened and have its eyes and mouth opened no heart can imagine the desparate and unsufferable distresses of such an heart Terrours take hold of him as waters Iob 27. 20. Terrours make him afrai on every side Iob 18. 11. Then is that true Iob 25. 23 24. Hee knowes that the day of darknesse is ready at hand Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid they shall prevaile against him as a King ready to the battell And no wonder for hee is now brought unto the King of Terrours as Death is called Iob 18. 14. A man that hath an ill conscience if his eyes be opened and his conscience awakened he sees death in all the terrible shapes that may bee Sometimes he sees death comming like a mercilesse Officer and a cruell Sergeant to arrest and to drag him by the throat to the prison and place of Torment Psal 55. 15. Let death seize upon them They see it comming like that cruell servant in the Parable to his fellow Math. 18. catching them by the very throat Sometimes he sees death in the shape of some greedy Lyon or some ravening Wolfe ready to devour him and to feed upon his carkasse Ps 49. 14. Death shall feed on them even as a ravenous beast shall feed upon his prey Imagine in what a terrible plight the Samaritans where in when the Lyons set upon them 2 Kin. 17. and by it imagine in what case an ill conscience is when it beholds the face of death It puts an ill conscience into that case in good earnest that David was in in the case of triall Ps 55. 4 5. My heart is sore pained within me and the terrors of death are fallen upon me fearfulnesse and trembling are come upon mee and horrour hath overwhelmed me Sometimes againe he sees death as the Israelites the fiery serpents with mortall stings Sometimes as a mercilesse landlord or the Sheriffe comming with a Writ of Firmae ejectione to throw him out of house and home and to turne him to the wide Common yea he sees death as Gods executioner and messenger of eternall death yea hee sees death with as much horrour as if hee saw the Devill In so many fearfull shapes appeares death to an evill conscience upon the death-bed So as it is indeed the King of terrors to such an one that hath the terrors of conscience within There is no one thought so terrible to such an one as the thought of death nothing that hee more wishes to avoid Oh how loath and unwilling is such an one to dye But come now to a man that hath lived as Paul did in all good conscience and how is it with him upon his death-bed His end is peace so full of joy and comfort so is hee ravished with the inward and unspeakable consolations of his conscience that it is no wonder at all that Balaam should wish to dye the death of the righteous the death of a man with a good conscience The day of a mens mariage is the day of the joy of a mans heart Can. 3. 11. and the day of mariage is not so joyfull a day as is the day of death to a good conscience There are but

few that can marry with that joy wherewith a good conscience dies It enables a man not onely to looke Ananias and the Councel in the face but even to look death it selfe in the face without those amazing terrours yea it makes the face of death seeme lovely and amiable Hee whose conscience is good and sees the face of God reconciled to him in Christ hee can say as Iacob did when he saw the face of Ioseph Gen. 46. 30. Now let me dye since I have seene thy face It is the priviledge of a good conscience alone to goe to the grave as Agag did to Samuel and to say that truly which he spake besides the booke 1 Sam. 15. 32. Hee came pleasantly and hee said Surely the bitternesse of death is past Hee was deceived and therefore had no such cause to be so pleasant but a good conscience can yea cannot chuse but be so pleasant even when going out of the world because the guilt of sinne being washed away in Christs blood it knowes that the bitternesse of death is past and the sweetnesse of life eternall is at hand A man whose debts are paid he dares goe out of doores dare meet and face the Sergeants and the conscience purged by the blood of Christ can look as undauntedly on the face of death He that hath forgotten the sting that is the guilt of conscience taken away by faith in Christ he lookes not upon death as the Israelites upon the fiery Serpents but lookes upon it as Paul doth 1 Cor. 15. O death where is thy sting Who feares a Bee an Hornet a Snake or a Serpent when they have lost their sting The guilt of sinne is the sting of conscience it s the sting of death that stings the conscience The sting of death is sinne 1 Cor. 15. Plucke then sin out of the conscience and at once the conscience is made good and death made weake and disarmed of his weapon And when the conscience sees death unstinged and disarmed it is freed of feare and even in the very act of death can joyfully triumph over death oh Death where is thy sting A good conscience lookes upon death as upon the Sheriffe that comes to give him possession of his Inheritance or as Lazarus upon the Angels that came to carry his soule into Abrahams bosome and therfore can welcome death and entertaine him joyfully And whereas an ill conscience makes a man see death as if he saw the Devill a good conscience makes a man see the face of death as Iacob saw Esau's face Gen. 33. I have seene thy face as the face of God they see the face of death with unspeakeable joy ravishment of heart and exultation of spirit Well now what a motive have wee here to make us labour for good conscience Even Balaam himselfe would faine make a good end and die in peace and who wishes not his death-bed may be a mount Nebo from whence he may see the heavenly Canaan Lo here Balaam the way to dye the death of the righteous I have lived in all good conscience untill this day They that have conscience in their life shal have comfort at their death they that live conscionably they shal dy comfortably they that live in all good conscience till their dying day shall depart in the abundance of comfort at their dying day There will come a day wherein wee must lay downe these Tabernacles the day of death will assuredly come How lamentable a thing will it then be to be so destitute and desolate of all comfort as to be driven to that extremity as to curse our birth day oh what would Comfort be worth at our last houre at our last gaspe whilst our dearest friends shall be weeping wringing their hands and lamenting then then what would inward comfort be worth Who would not hold the whole world an easie price for it then Well then would wee then have Comfort and Ioy oh then get a good conscience now which will yield comfort when all other comforts shall utterly faile and shall be life in the middst of death How happy is that man that when the sentence of death is passed upon him can say with Hezekiah Is 38. 3. Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Indeed the text sayes that Hezekiah wept sore but yet not as fearing death for hee could not feare death who had thus feared God but because the promise was not yet made good to him in a Son and Heire of his kingdome hence came those teares It is otherwise an unspeakable joy that such a conscience as Hezekiahs was will speake to a man upon his death-bed Every one professes a desire to make a good end Here is the way to make good that desire to live in all good conscience Alas how pittifull and miserable a condition live most men in All the dayes of their life and health they have no regard of a good conscience Notwithstanding that men are pressed continually to this one care by the instancie and importutunitie of Gods Ministers yet how miserably is it neglected Well at last the day of death comes and then what would not they give for a comfortable end If the gold of Ophir would purchase comfort it should flie then Then poast for this Minister and run for the other as in the sweating sicknesse in King Edwards dayes then for Gods sake but one word of comfort then O blessed men of God one word of peace Now alas what would you have them to doe Are they or your own courses in fault that you want comfort at your death What would you have us doe Wee must referre you to your owne consciences we cannot make oyle of flint nor crush sweet wine out of sowre Grapes we dare not flatter you against your cōsciences If you would give us a world we cannot comfort you when your owne consciences witnesse against you that such comforts belong not to you Doe not idely in this case hope for comfort from Ministers be it knowne unto you you must have it from your owne consciences Many on their death-bed cry to the Minister as she did to the King 2 King 6. 26 27. Helpe my Lord O King But marke what hee answers If the Lord doe not helpe thee whence shall I helpe thee out of the barne floore or out of the Wine presse So must wee answer to such as cry Helpe helpe O man of God If God and your owne consciences helpe you not whence shall we help you If there had beene Corne within the barnes the King could easily have helped her but he could not make corne So if men have carryed any thing into their consciences if they themselves have inned any provision and comfort by being conscionable in their lives then we can helpe and comfort them but otherwise doe not thinke that we can make comforts and make

shall not be able to draw thee from the faith of the Lord Iesus Prov. 6 20 22 24. My Son keep thy Fathers commandement c. And it will keep thee So I may say here keep a good conscience and it will keepe thee it will keepe thee sound in the faith it will keepe thee from being drawne away by the error of the wicked and it will keepe thee from the Wine of the fornications of the Whore of Babylon CHAP. XV. The last Motive to a good conscience The misery of an evill one THe last Motive remaines and that is The fift motive to a good conscience The horrour and misery of an evill Conscience If men did but truly know what the evill of an evill conscience were and how evill a thing and bitter it will be when conscience awakens here or shall bee awakened in hell a little perswasion should serve to move men to live in a good conscience We may say of the evill conscience as Solomon speakes of the drunkard Pro. 23. 29. Who hath woe who hath sorrow who hath contentions who hath wounds but not without a cause Even the man whose conscience is not good even he that liues in an evill conscience An evill conscience how miserable it is we may see by considering the miserie thereof either in this world or the world to come 1. In this life When an evill conscience is awakened in this life the sorrow and smart the horror and terror is as the joy of a good conscience unspeakable An evil conscience in this life is miserable in regard of feare perplexity and torment To live in a continuall feare and to have a mans heart alwaies in shaking fits of feare is misery of miseries And such is the misery of an evill conscience Prov. 28. 1. The wicked flees when none pursues Onely his owne guilt pursues him and makes him flee His owne guilt causes a sound of feare in his eares Iob 15. 21. Which makes Proprium autem est nocentium trepidare Male de nobis actum erat quod multa seelera legem judicem effugiunt scripta supplicia nisi illa naturalia gravia de presentibus solverent in locum patientiae timor cederet Sonec ep 91. him shake at the noise of a shaken leafe Levit. 26. 36. yea that so scares him that terrours make him afraid on every side and drive him to his feet Iob 18. 11. Yea there are they in great feare where no feare is Ps 53. 3. So that a man with an evill conscience awakened may be named as Pashur is Ier. 20. 3. Magor-Missabib feare round about as being a terror to himselfe and to all his friends ver 4. An evill conscience even makes those feare fearefull feares of whom all other stand in feare How potent a Monarch and how dreadfull a Prince was Belshazzar who was able to put him into any feare whom all the earth feared And yet when his guilty conscience lookes him in the face awakened by the palme writing on the wall see where his courage is then Dan. 5. 6. Then the Kings countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joynts of his loynes were loosed and his knees smote one against another Who would have had his feare to have had his kingdome Let him now cloath himselfe with all his Majestie let him looke and speak as terribly as he can let him threaten the vilest vassall in his Court with all the tortures that tyranny can inflict and let him try if he can for his heart put his poorest subject into that fright and feare that now his conscience puts him into in the ruffe and middst of his jollity But I pray what ayles he to be in this feare in this so extraordinary a feare Hee can neither reade nor understand the writing upon the wall Indeed it threatned him the losse of his kingdome but hee cannot reade his threatning hee knowes not whether they be bitter things that God writes against him why may he not hope that it may bee good which is written and why may not this hope ease and abate his feare No no. Though he cannot reade nor understand the writing yet his guilty conscience can comment shrewdly upon it and can tell him it portends no good towards him His conscience now tells him of his godlesse impieties in profaning the vessels of the Temple of the true God and that for this his sacrilegious impropriation and abuse of holy things God is now come to reckon with him Thus can his conscience doe more than all his wise men All the wise men came in but they could not reade the writing nor make knowne to the King the interpretation thereof Dan. 5. 8. But his conscience is wiser than all his wise men and when they are as puzzeld that interprets to him that this writing meanes him no good and though he cannot reade the syllables yet his conscience gives a shrewd neere guesse at the substance of the writing and therefore hence comes that extasie of feare and those paroxysmes of horror It was better with Adam after his fall After his Sin committed we find him in a great feare Gen. 3. 8 10. and hee hides himselfe for feare Now observe how his feare is described from the circumstance of the time They heard the voyce of the Lord God walking in the garden in the coole of the day Luther layes the Emphasis of the aggravation of his feare upon this word the wind or coole of the day The night indeeed is naturally terrible and darknesse is fearfull whence that phrase Ps 91. The terrors of the night But the day and the light is a cheerfull and a comfortable creature Ec. 11. 7. Truly the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the Sun How is it then that in the faire day light which gives courage and comfort that Adam feares and runs into the thickets Oh his conscience was become Gravis malae conscientiae luxest Senec. ep 123. come evill and full of darknesse and the darknesse of his conscience turned the very light into darknesse and so turned the comforts of the day into the terrours of the night So that in this sense it may be said of an evill conscience which of the Lord is said in another Ps 139. 12. Vnto it the darknesse and the light are both alike As full of feare in the light as in the dark And besides the Lord came but in a gentle wind the coole breath of the day now what a small matter is a coole wind and that in the day time to to put a man in a feare Such small things breed great feares in evill consciences In what a wofull plight would Adam thinke we have beene if the Lord had come to him at the dead and darke midde-night with earth-quakes thunder and blustring tempest We may see the like in Cain After he had defiled his conscience with his brothers

all is the scandalous sinnes and falles of such as professe religion certaine it is that these of all others are the most perillous stumbling blockes by which Satan causes multitudes of men to stumble at religion and workes them to the dislike of the wayes of saluation Afflictions and Persecutions for the Gospells sake are dangerous stumbling blockes and by reason of them many are so offended at religion as that they turne their backes vpon it Math. 13. 21. When tribulation or persecution arises because of the word by and by he is scandalized So that Persecutions cause Scandal But yet the Scandals that come by the euill lifes of professours are in some sense farre more dangerous and hurtfull then those scandals that come from Persecutions Though the scandal of persecution stumble beate off many yet haue very many beene gayned to a loue and liking of Religion by the Patience Courage Constancy of the Saints of God in Persecution But neuer were nor wil be any gayned thereunto by the scandalous falles of professours Persecutions keepe men off by feare but Scandalous sinnes by Hardening mens hearts There is far more hope and possibility of gayning a man that is kept off by feare then of such as are kept off by a setled resolued Hardnes of Heart In scandals of the Crosse men may haue some secret likings of the Truth may haue secret purposes in better times to owne it but in scandals of euill example men grow to an open and professed dislike thereof In scandals of the crosse there is not alwayes a dislike of Religion it selfe but onely of the hard termes with which it must bee receiued but from scandals of euill life growes a dislike of Religion it selfe Notwithstanding the scandal of the crosse men may haue an Honorable and a good conceit of Religion but scandals of euill life breede and nourish a base and a vile esteeme thereof in the hearts of men So that persecutions doe not doe that mischiefe that scandalous falles doe Malicious persecutours in some sense doe not that hurt that scandalous professours doe Now scandalous euents being so mischieuous pernicious and yet withall so common so frequent why may it not bee a worke of charity to counterworke Satan and to remoue out of the way these dangerous stumbling blockes at which so many fall to their vtter ruine and destruction As Satan Balaam-like casts stumbling blocks in so should it be our care to take vp these stumbling blockes out of mens wayes It is not enough for vs that wee put not a stumbling blocke or an occasion to fall in another mans way as the Apostle aduises Rom. 14. 12. But when others haue done it our endeauour should bee to take such a stumbling blocke out of the way It is Gods owne commandement we should so doe Isay 57. 14. Take vp the stumbling blocke out of the way of my people It were happy if wee could preuent scandals but since that cannot bee for it must needs be that offences come the next happinesse is to preuent their mischiefe that though they doe come yet they may come with as little hurt as may be * Esto quod alius mouerit scandalum profecto compescere vos potestis Nolle compescere sine culpa erit Aut velle compescere sine gloria erit Si ergo vos scandalum cum possitis non tollitis plane non impletis ministerium vestrum Bernard Epist 200. ad vulgar Episco Audegav The which thing who so will not nor cares not to doe shall not bee without blame and who so endeauours to doe shall not be without his reward The which worke who so doth not when occasion serues fulfils not his ministry and the which worke who so doth he doth an excellent and a worthy worke euen the worke of Angels * Annon denique ministerium est Angelorum tollere scandala de regno Dei Si dixeritis quid ad nos c. Bernard ibid. Is it not the worke of Angels sayes Bernard to take scandals out of the Kingdome of God Yea we find it to be so Mat. 13. 41. The sonne of man shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather out of his Kingdome all scandals It is therefore not onely a Charitable but an Angelicall worke to gather out scandals and take vp the stumbling blockes that Satan casts in mens way to heauen The same spirit should be in all Gods ministers which was in Paul 2. Cor. 11. 29. Who is offended or Scandalized and I burne not In cases of scandal hee was all on fire not only in regard of his griefe for but in regard of his zeale against them Hee burned with an holy zeale to remoue the scandal and to preuent the mischiefe it might doe Hee burned with an holy fire of zeale to keepe others from burning in the fire of Hell wherewith scandals did endanger them Vpon these grounds haue I bin moued encouraged to the publishing of this following treatise to try if by any meanes either preaching or printing I might preuent the mischiefe of scandals Were it that the fame of them did spred no farther then the places where they happen this labour might haue beene spared but * Sicut quod de alto cadit grandem sonū facit vt ita audiant omnes sic qui de alto gradu cadit ruina illius vbicunque auditur Chrysost in Matth. as that which falles from an high place it is Chrysostomes comparison makes a great noise so that all heare it so men that fall from an high degree of profession their falles are not without such a noise as is heard farre and neere It was needefull therefore to proportion the remedy to the disease that the playster should be as broad as the sore and the medicine goe as far as the poyson When I saw saies Paul that they walked not vprightly according to the truth of the Gospell I said vnto Peter before them all Gal. 2. 14. But why before them all Why had hee no more regard to the Honour of Peter Why was it not spoken to Peter priuately and by himselfe alone Why speakes hee that which might bee to the discredit of Peter before them all Hierome giues a good answer * Dixi Cephaee Publicum scandalum non potuit priuate curari Hieron in Gal. 2. A publique scandal could not bee healed priuately It is very fit that publique euills should haue publique remedies If these endeauours of mine such as they bee shall thorough Gods blessing haue such effect as to preuent any scandals for the time to come to saue any from the danger of such as are already come or to bring any to repentance by whom offences haue come I shall haue cause to thinke my time and paines happily bestowed The seuerall Chapters of this Treatise CHAP. I. THe Coherence and Resolution of the Text. pag. 1. CHAP. II. The Necessitie of scandalous euents in Gods Church pag. 7. CHAP. III. An

hee haue no more to doe with Episcopal or Ministerial function And this Discipline of theirs wants not foundation in Scripture It seemes to be the same thing that God himselfe constituted Ezek 44. 12 13. Because they ministred vnto them before their Idols they shall beare their iniquitie and they shall not come neere vnto mee to doe the office of a Priest vnto me nor to come neere to any of mine holy things in the most holy place but they shall beare their shame and their abominations which they haue committed Vpon their Repentance they were receiued againe to some other places Ver. 10. 11. but they must meddle no more after that scandal of Idolatrie with the Priest-hood And this Discipline did Iosiah put in practise 2. King 23. 9. Some priuiledges vpon their Repentance were granted vnto the Priests of the high places that had defiled themselues with Idolatrie but the office of Priesthood they were quite excluded from it And this was the ancient Discipline against the giuers of offence and indeed such zeale and such seueritie it did concerne and euer will concerne the Church of God to shew to scandalous delinquents Facilitie and an ouer easie readinesse to comply with such breedes a fresh scandal to the world and giues them iust cause to n Et quoniam and●o Charissimifratres impudentia vos quorundā premi verecundiam vestram vim pati oro vos quibus possum precibus vt euāgelij memores vos quoque sollicitè et cautè petentiū desideria ponderetis vtpote amici domini cùm illo post modum indicaturi inspiciatis actū opera merita singulorū ipsorum quoque delictorum genera qualitates cogitetis ne si quid abrupte indignè vel à vobis promissum vel à nobis factū fuerit apud Gentiles quoque ipsos ecclesia nosira erubescere incipiat Cypr. Epist 11. reproach the Church and opens the mouth of iniquitie to say you bee all such Whereas discommoning and discarding such from our familiar and priuate societie and when neede and power is from communion in holy things gaines the Church a great deale of honour and stops the mouth of iniquitie from calumniating Gods people to bee fauourers and countenancers of such persons Such will bee pressing in to gaine their credit and to recouer their respect but when such suddenly and easily get into credit it is no whit for the honour and credit of the Church God will bring woes vpon them in their outward state their peace their posteritie Elies sonnes runne into foule Scandals 1. Sam. 2. 22. It was scandalous for priuate persons much more for Priests to bee vncleane and adulterous It was scandalous to haue done so vnclean an act in any place but to doe it in a scared place with women comming thither vpon deuotion this was egregiously scandalous God therefore takes them to doe and does execution vpon them and cuts them both off in one day by the Sword of the Philistims God brought the wo of the Sword vpon them Nay when they ranne into Scandal because Eli did not restraine them see what God threatens vpon his Posteritie 1. Sam. 2. 36. that hee would plague them with such base beggerie and miserie that they should beg their bread If God thus punish him for not restraining how much more would he haue punished him for the committing of a Scandal If it goe thus hard with Eli that restraines not how hard will it goe with Hophni and Phinehas that commit the scandal Wee cannot haue a more pregnant and full example in this kinde then Dauid himselfe Hee after his scandal committed was truly penitent the guilt of his sinne pardoned a solemne absolution and discharge giuen him by the Prophet And yet for all this wee shall see how terribly this woe pursued him in temporall crosses in this kinde First God smites his childe with death then followes his daughter Thamars defilement by her brother Amnon then Amnons murder then the treason of Absalom in which the hand of God was exceeding smart God turnes him out of house and home Whose heart would not earne and bleede to see his dolefull departure from Ierusalem 2. Sam 15. 30. And Dauid went vp by the ascent of mount Oliuet and wept as he went vp and had his head couered and hee went barefoote and all the people that was with him couered euery man his head and they went vp weeping as they went vp Who could haue beheld so sad and so woefull a spectacle with drie eyes But this was not all his life is endangered his Concubines defiled in open view on the house top And what thinke wee was the ground of all this For the childs death we see 2. Sam. 12. 13 14. The Lord hath put away thy sinne thou shalt not die howbeit because by this thy deede thou hast giuen great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the child also that is borne vnto thee shall surely die It is verie much that fasting and praying can doe it can cast out deuils This kind goes not out but by fasting and praying Mark 9. 29. And yet fasting and praying could not keepe off this woe that Dauids scandal brings vpon him in the childes death woe vnto Dauid by whom that offence came therefore shall his childe die And for all the rest of all those wofull sorrowes 2. Sam. 12. 9. 10. 11. 12. we see the cause of them all these woes were vpon Dauid for his scandal And if Gods woe in these temporall outward calamities will thus pursue and follow a repēting an humbled scandalous offender how much more will that hand of God pursue that man vpon whose scandal followes no Repentance and Humiliation If Dauid the man after Gods owne heart must not escape what then shall others looke for If a beloued Dauid shall haue his teeth on edge with his owne sowre grapes of his scandalous courses who then shall thinke to goe scotfree that is guilty of scandalous transgressions what a sure irresistible wo is that which Repentance it selfe cannot keepe off from a mans children his life person and goods And thus temporall woe is to him by whom offences come 2. God will pursue and pinch such as giue offence with spirituall woe God will fill such mens hearts specially if they belong to him with much spirituall woe and bitternesse of soule He will awaken conscience to smite pinch and gripe them at the heart He will so loade and burden their consciences that in the anguish and bitternes of their spirits they shal be forced to cry out woe is mee vile wretch that I was borne that euer I breathed thus to dishonour God It is true that there is an happinesse in this woe and it is singular mercy that men are not seared and hardened in their sinne but yet for all that there it a great deale of smart sorrow and a great deale of wofull bitternes in the worke

his Name dishonoured and for the scandal sake the punishment so smart in this rather then in the other A small sinne scandalous hath a greater punishment then a great sinne close and secret because there is in the scandal a pollution of Gods Name an Impeach of his honour besides the guilt of the breach of his Law So then therefore is God so seuere in punishing scandals because God is more wronged by them then by simple sinne because they pollute his sacred Name 2. God is thus seuere in the punishing of scandals because soule-bloud is not cheape with God They that spill the bloud of soules shall pay full dearely for it God will require it at their hands Now in the commission of scandalous sinnes there is a great deale of spirituall u Si quis simplici mente desiderio veniat ad Ecclesiam vt prosiciat vt melior fiat iste si videat nos qui multo iam tempore in side stetimus vel non recte agentes vel cum offendiculo loquentes efficimur nos illi lapsus ad peccatum Cum autem peccauerit trueidatus est sanguis animae eius prostuit omnis ob eo virtus vitalis abscedit Scandalizati animae sanguis effunditur cum ceciderit in peccatum propterea dixit quia requi retur sanguis eius à fratre frater tuus est qui fudit sanguinem tuum Origen in Psal 36. hom 3. bloudshed and murther Paul speaking of Scandals of an inferiour nature such as are giuen to weake brethren in the vse of Christian libertie in the vse of things in their nature indifferent makes them bloudie and murtherour Rom. 14. 15. Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died 1. Cor. 8. 12. Thorough thy knowledge shall thy weake brother perish If Scandals in such causes bee so dangerous in their issue of such mortal consequence then what are Scandals in a higher nature in the offensiue and euill lifes of such as professe Religion How much more are they of deadly consequence and how much more is bloud spilt by them If a man may haue his hand in the bloud of soules by giuing scandal in the doing of things in their owne nature lawfull then how much more by giuing scandal in the doing of such things as in their owne nature are sinfull and vnlawfull There is a Law Exod. 21. 33 34. that if a man open a pit and couer it not and an Oxe or an Asse fal therein the owner of the pit shall make it good Now in euery Scandal giuen there is a pit digged and opened euery one that giues a Scandal opens and digges a pit into which many a soule fals headlong If he that opened the pit must make good the Oxe or Asse that fell thereinto that is must pay the full price and worth of it to the owner what must hee doe that opens a pit into which a soule fals Surely God will require it at his hands and it must bee made good Doth God saith the Apostle take care for Oxen So here will God require Oxen at their hands thorough whose default they fall into pits then how much more doth he take care and will he require soules of men at their hands that by Scandals haue opened pits into which they are fallen and ruined There is another Law in the same place worth our noting to this purpose Exod. 21. 22. 23. If men striue hurt a woman with child so that her fruit depart from her yet no mischiefe follow hee shall be surely punished c. And if any mischiefe follow thou shalt giue life for life or soul for soul as the words originally are If no mischiefe follow either to the womā or the child yet a punishment was due in such a case but if mischiefe followed then life for life soule for soule Now in the case of scandals it is a sure thing that Mischiefe doth follow wee saw before what a deale of Woe and Mischiefe they bring with them Hee that giues a Scandal is as a man that smites or spurnes a woman with childe He that doth so a hundred to one but hee causes mischiefe to follow It may bee there was a man that began to haue some good in him some hope that Christ began to be formed in him Now a man giues some heynous Scandal and therevpon mischiefe followes all these hopes are dasht this man flies quite off and casts off all thoughts of medling any more with godlinesse here is one with child spurned and a mischiefe followes therefore life for life soule for soule will be required * Vae illi qui scandalizauerit vnum ex pusillis istis Vae pregnantem calcanti Ambros in Psal 118. Woe be to him that spurnes a woman with childe and causes mischiefe to follow and therefore Woe to him by whom an offence comes because by him mischiefe comes mischiefe comes to many a soule the mischiefe of reiecting religion or the mischiefe of an hardened heart And therefore is God thus seuere in his Iustice vpon such because they do bloudie mischiefe and therefore they must giue z Qui scandali conscius est animam dabit pro anima eius quem scandalizauit Origen soule for soule It may bee that many a man was like to be brought on to Religion might haue some a Factus sum opprobrium vicinis meis nimium vicinis meis nimium opprobrium factus sum id est qui mihi Ecclesiae iam appropinquabant vt crederent hoc est vicini mei nimium deterriti sunt mala vita malorum falsorum Christianorum Quam multos enim putatis fratres mei velle esse Christianos sed offendi malis moribus Christianorum Ipsi sunt vicini qui iam appropinquabant nimium opprobrium illis visi sumus Augustinus in Psal 30. thoughts of imbracing and receiuing the truth but now some Professor of Religion falling foule he fals off and will none all these thoughts are dampt and so laid aside There be so many soules lost and kept out of Heauen by that Scandal Here is the bloud of soules spilt How many might haue come to haue been godly and religious Christians if it had not beene for the Scandal of some one man professing godlinesse and religion Such a deale of mischiefe followes by such a scandal And for this cause was that woe vpon the Priests that they were base and contemptible because they had caused many to stumble at the law and to fly off from religion which was not without the mischieuing of their soules for euer It may bee many a mans mouth was shut and though hee said no good yet hee could say no euill of the way of truth now that a man falles into scandal his mouth is opened against God against Religion and he blasphemes ful mouth Now is this mans soule by his blasphemy miserably endaūgered here is soule blood spilt What a deale of mischiefe is