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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

And such doe and will reioyce Now truely all before considered we see what little cause they haue to be so ouer-ioyed there is a great deale of Ioy and merriment more then there is cause All considered wee may truely say vnto them as Iam. 4. 9 Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your ioy into heauinesse Woe vnto the world because ofscandals When scandals come into the world a woe comes vnto the world messengers of vengeance to doe executions of Iustice are sent by God And will the world be so blind and witlesse to reioyce and triumph in that which comes to bee their bane and ruine their sorrow and their smart Hath the silly beast any cause to leape and friske when hee sees the trap set vp and bayted that will ensnare and murder him It is probably thought that when Noah fell so foule and shamefully in his drunkennes that Canaan Chams sonne first * Hebreus etiam id tradebat ratione confirmabat primum Chanaan verenda aui sui vidisse suoque solum patri narrasse tanquā de sene ridentem Theodoret. Quaest in Gens 57. saw his grandfather in that case and so went and told his father Cham of it for else why should Noah curse Cham in his sonne Canaan rather then in any other of his sonnes Hee had other sonnes besides Gene. 10. 6. And the sonnes of Cham Cush and Mizraim and Phut and Canaan Why therefore cursed bee Canaan rather then Cush Mizraim or Phut Like enough that Canaan as the Iewes probably coniecture first espied Noah in that case and he being an vngracious youngster one without all Religion and possibly an hater of all goodnesse one that had like enough beene often sagely admonished and sharply reprooued by Noah And little content did the holynesse austeritie and religious carriage of Noah giue either to Canaan or to Cham. Now therefore Canaan when hee sees him in his drunkennes and in that shamefull pickle in his nakednesse he tels it to his father and his father after to Shem and Iaphet and that with Ioy and gladnesse with mocking and derision for otherwise for Canaan to haue seene it occasionally and to haue told it his father or for his father to haue seene it occasionally and haue told it his brethren had beene no matter of offence but quest onlesse they both told it with much ioy and reioycing Like enough Canaan when he first espied it came running to his father with much ioy in his face Oh father I can tell you excellent Newes the brauest Newes that can be Newes that will doe you good at the very heart doe but goe along with me and I will shew you such a sight as you neuer saw Look where that old Dotard lies drunke and in what a base and shamefull fashion This is he that alwayes telling me of my swearing censuring mee for my want of religion this is hee that was so holy so full of his religion and godlines see there how like a beast he lies And surely if Canaan did tell Cham of it Chams fact was exceeding vnnaturally villanous the text sayes Gen. 9. 22. And C ham the father of Canaan saw the nakednes of his father not occasionally and at vnawares so might Shem or Iaphet haue done But if Canaan did first tell Cham of it as very probably hee did then C ham like an vngratious varlet as he was could not be content to heare of it but to reioyce and glad his heart the more he must goe see the sight hee must goe feed his eyes with it and that he might be sure of it and obseruing all the seuerall circumstances hee might haue the more to make vp his mouth And then after this in scorne and derision and with insulting insolency goes reports it to Shem and Iaphet So that what betweene an vngracious sonne and a gracelesse grand-childe there was sure no small Iubilation and exultation in Noahs scandal and drunkennes But now as merry and iocund as Cham and Canaan were let vs see a little what cause they had for it and consider if their were not that in it that was enough to marre their merriment and to haue turned their mirth into mourning Alas all considered full little cause had they to be thus vpon their merrie pinnes It could not be but the scandal of Noahs drunkennes must come but woe to Cham and Canaan because of that scandal God had a purpose to bring a woe and a curse vpon Cham and Canaan and vpon the Canaanites his posterity that they should be rooted out and cut off by the sword of Israel But how now should way bee made to bring this curse vpon the heads of them Noah shal fall into a scandal thereby shall they be occasioned by reason of their naughty spirits to doe as they did and then no sooner shal Noah awake from his wine but hee shall awake with a solemne curse in his mouth which should be as the oracle of God Cursed bee Canaan a seruant of seruants shall hee bee vnto his brethren And now I pray what cause haue b Sed O miser Ham quam beat●s e● qui nunc d●mi● inuenisti quod quaerebas venenum scilicet insaluberrima rosa Luther in Gen. 9. Cham and Canaan so to reioyce at their fathers fall Woe be to them because of this offence because in this offence of his there is a trap and a snare set to catch them and a way preparing to bring a sorrowfull curse vpon thē both And haue they then thinke wee any great cause of merrimēt wil any man that is in his wits reioyce at that euent whose errand purposely is to bring Gods curse vpon him So little cause had Cham and Canaan to reioyce at Noahs fall And euery whit as little cause hath the world to reioyce when scandals come for then woe comes God is setting his ginnes and snares traps to catch some hee sends forth his messengers of wrath to doe seuere Iustice vpon persons that haue beene vnprofitable vnder the Gospell Suppose God should send the sword amongst men would men reioyce and bee glad at it See Ezec. 21. 9. 10. A sword A sword is sharpened and also fourbished It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter it is fourbisht that it may glitter should we then make mirth I trow not And why not make mirth in such a case Because the sword brought woe and mischiefe with it because it came to be dismall and fatal because it was a messenger of wrath and vengeance And why then make men mirth at scandals when they come May we not truely say of this laughter Thou art mad and of this mirth what doth it Eccl. 2. 2. Come not scandals with a woe as well as the sword And it hee not as mad that reioyceth at the comming of scandals as hee is that reioyces at the comming of a sword Say a scandal a scandal it is fowle and heynous it is come with woe to make

Apologie for Religion and the Professours thereof against the Scandal of Scandals pag. 26. CHAP. IIII. That Scandals are wofull and fatall to the Scandalized World p. 60. CHAP. V. How Scandals come to be so mortally Mischieuous pag. 77. CHAP. VI. What little reason men haue to triumph at and what great reason to be cautelous in the euent of Scandals pag. 109. CHAP. VII The sharpe and seuere Iustice of God vpon such as giue Scandal p. 136. CHAP. VIII Why God is so smart and so seuere in his Iustice against those by whom Scandals come pag. 170. CHAP. IX The great care we should haue of giuing scandal and sorrow for them giuen and the great cause of humiliation they haue by whom offences come pag. 206. The Mischiefe and Miserie of SCANDALS Both Taken and Giuen MATH 18. 7. Woe vnto the world because of offences for it must needs bee that offences come but woe to that man by whom the offence commeth CHAP. I. The Coherence and Resolution of the Text. THE drift of our Sauiour in his former Discourse was to exhort to the receiuing of little ones Verse 5. And who so shall receiue one such little childe in my name receiueth mee A strong motiue to receiue such The Apostles argument to hospitalitie Heh 13. 2 is strong Bee not forgetfull to entertaine strangers for thereby some haue entertained Angels vnawares But heere the argument carries more strength Be willing and readie to doe all Christian Offices of loue and shew tender respect to little ones and so receiue them and you shall receiue not Angels but Christ himselfe How willingly would men receiue Christ Receiue these and you receiue him And if little ones must be thus tenderly receiued and regarded how warie should men bee of doing any thing that may offend them Therfore our Sauiour doth not onely aduise to receiue such but also to take heed of doing any thing that may proue vnto young belieuers matter of offence scandal And so he takes occasion to enter vpon a large discourse concerning scandal This Verse is part of that discourse and in it there be two principall points 1. The necessitie of scandals 2. The mischiefe of scandals 1. The necessitie of scandals for it must needs be that offences come 2. The Mischiefe and the miserie that comes by them And that is a twofold woe 1. A woe to such as are scandalized that doe stumble and are offended Woe to the world because of offences Offences shall come and must come but to the sorrow and smart of some men shal they come They shall come to make way for the greater woe to some persons Such euents shall be but yet they will proue euents of woe to men of the world 2. A woe to such as do cause and giue the offence But woe to the man by whom the offence commeth As if hee had said It is necessarie that offences come and infallibly they will fall out but yet this necessitie of the euent shall no whit at all excuse or protect the offender but as a woe to them that take the offence so a woe to them that giue the offence Woe to him by whom the offence commeth To make way for what followes it is fit to consider what is heere meant by Scandal or Offence That we call a scandal which is or may be in it selfe an occasion of falling vnto another Any thing whereby wee so offend another as that hee is hindred from Good drawne into or confirmed in euill is a scandal Now a scandal may be 1. First in doctrine and this is scandal giuen in heresies false doctrines Secondly by the abuse or the vnseasonable vse of Christian libertie of which kinde of scandals the Apostle speakes Rom. 14. 1. Cor. 8. 10. Thirdly Scandal may be giuen by mens lifes when their lifes and actions are such as crosse and thwart the Religion professed by vs and dishonours the Name of God which we haue taken vp As when a man professes the Name Faith of Christ and professes it zealously and yet fals into vncleannesse drunkennesse into grosse and notorious acts of fraude and coozenage these bee scandals and offences because they be occasions to make others fall they hinder some from comming towards goodnesse and Religion and they harden and confirme some in their sinfull and euill courses Thus Dauids murther and adultery Noahs drunkennesse the incestuous Corinthians marriage were scandalous actions Now though this text reach to offences of all kinds yet I will onely meddle with offences of this last kinde such as bee the grosse and foule courses and practices of any such as haue taken vpon them the profession of the Gospell and the Name of Christ To come then to the first point The Necessitie of scandals It must needs bee that offences come There must and there shall assuredly fall out scandalous and offensiue actions in the Church of God euen amongst those that professe Religion and godlinesse For that our Sauiour speakes of the sinnes of those that are in the Church it is plaine by that Verse 15. 16. 17. If thy brother shall trespasse c. therefore he speakes of the offences of brethren If hee shall neglect to heare them tell it to the Church Now if not of the Church why should he be complained of to the Church What hath the Church to do to iudge those and exercise discipline vpon those that are without And againe scandals properly so called can be no where but in the Church and amongst such as professe the Truth of God CHAP. II. The Necessitie of scandalous euents in Gods Church THe point we haue then first to handle is this That there is a necessitie of scandalous euents in the Church of God That scandalous euents and offences shall assuredly and infallibly fall out amongst those that professe the Name of Christ It must bee and it must needs bee that offences come So Luke 17. 1. It is impossible but that offences should come And as the Apostle speakes of heresies and of offences giuen in that kinde 1. Cor. 11. 19. There must be heresies so is it true of these kinds of offences which are giuen by sinfull and foule actions that there must bee scandals This Necessitie arises from a threefold ground 1. From the decree and councell of God and his secret but most Iust Iudgement for God that brought light out of darknesse can bring good out of euill and can worke out his glory euen from those things which in their euents seeme to make exceedingly to the impeaching and obscuring thereof God can gather grapes of these thistles and figs of these thornes and therefore his pleasure it is and so will he haue it that such thornes and thistles should grow and come vp in his garden His wayes are not as our wayes nor his thoughts as our thoughts Hee can make that which for the present and in our eye and apprehension is for the great dishonour and disgrace of his Name

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