THE BOOKE OF CONSCIENCE opened and read In a Sermon preached at the Spittle on Easter-Tuesday being April 12. 1642. By JOHN JACKSON LONDON Printed by F. K. for R. M. and are to be sold by Daniel Milbourne at the New Exchange and at the holy Lambe in little Britaine 1642. TO THE RIGHT Honourable Sr RICHARD GURNY Knight and Baronet Lord Major of the City of London together with the Right Worshipfull the Sheriffes and Aldermen of the same City The continuall feast of a good Conscience be ever multiplyed SIRS MAy it please you The Scottish King being imprisoned in Mortimers hole comforted himself and deceived the sorrowes of his bondage by scraping the Story of Christ crucified upon the wals with his nailes Even so God writeth the lawes and dictates of Conscience upon a wall the wall of Conscience Murus aheneus so as all the rules of Divinity of nature of nations and of positive lawes as they relate to Conscience are like the hand-writing Dan. 5. herbae Parietariae wall-flowers And they are written and sculptured with a naile too but a more stiffe and potent naile then that of the Scottish King Judge not ex ungue c. but by a retrograde crisis judge the naile by the finger which is expresly called digitus Dei Exod. 31. 18. and what can the naile of such a finger be but unguis adamantinus as it is adjuncted Jer. 17. 1 and need it hath to be no lesse unlesse the pen be more soft then the paper for if our hearts be hearts of adamant Zech. 7. 12. then the stile that writes characters upon them had need be a pen of iron and the naile of an Adamant I present here your Worthinesses with a booke a booke as St Bernard ingeniously for the rectifying whereof all other bookes are written I except not the very Booke of bookes it self For there are foure Bookes written by God for the sons of men which are thus to be classed and ordered They are either the Bookes of Grace or of Nature The Bookes of Grace are either outwarâ— or inward The outward Booke of Grace is the holy Bible The inward Book of Grace is the holy Spirit the great Doctor of the Church The outward booke of nature is the world or book of the Creatures which is God unfolded The inward Booke of nature is this very booke whose seales I have in the ensuing Traâ—â—aâ—e broke open the Book of Conscience so called Apoc. 20. 12. That which one likes another will dislike some have been such grosse flatterers as to commend Nero and some againe such detractors as to dispraise Trajan one mans pottage will be anothers coloquintida the same son was Rachels Ben-oni Jacob's Benjamin The same in scription on the plaister which made Belshazzar quiver for feare made Darius his successor quavâ—r for joy The very same facultie of Conscience which entertaines and feasts one starves or choakes another And the Commentary must not looke for a better lot then the Text nor the Sermon then the Theame I know too well the wayes of this towne to expect other but for the publishing hereof I have this excuse which must prevaile with an ingenuous nature that I have beene mastered by entreaties thereunto so as if there be any errour in that regard their burthen must be my case Now I pray God keep your Honour and Worships in grace unto glory and that as the best meanes conducing to that end you here exercise your selves to keep a good Conscience in all things both towards God and towards man Your Hon. and Wor. humble and faithfull Servant in the things of God and Christ JOHN JACKSON The readings of the Text of Prov. 15. ver. 15. Hebr. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Graec. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Sept. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Symmacâ— Lat. Secura mens quasi juge convivium Vulg. Cujus bilaris est animus convivium est continuum Transl. Chald. Paraphr Cor bonum quasi juge covivium Munst. Secura mens hoc est bona conscientia c. Stephanus Jucundus corde convivio jugi Vataâ—â— Jociâ—dus corde c. Pagniu Laeta mens perpetuum 〈◊〉 Câ—stalio c. Angl. A good Conscience is a continuall feast He that is of a merry heaâ—t hath a continuall feast THE BOOKE OF CONSCIENCE opened and read Tho Text PROV. 15. 15. A good Conscience is a continuall feast THe reading of this Text must first be set straight ere any progresse can be made lest we seeme to make a Sermon upon a text which will not beare the burden of the discourse It was read long in our English Bibles thus A good conscience is a continuall feast till King James of blessed memory as another Ptolomy Philadelphus assembled together above 40. rare Linguists and Divines to perfect us a new translation where it is read thus He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast Which reading is subordinate to the former for there can be no sincere or lasting mirth of heart but such as proceeds from and is superstructed upon the foundation of a good conscience Besides if we will drinke water out of the fount it is in the Hebrew neither a merry heart nor a good conscience a but a good heart is a continuall feast nor can it otherwise be because there is no peculiar word in the Hebrew tongue to denote this particular facultie of soule which we call Conscience but the generall word b HEART And even in the now Testament where there are proper words for it yet the generall word HEART is used 1 John Epist. chap. 3. and 20. c If our heart condemne us c. there HEART stands for CONSCIENCE for we know it to be the proper effect of conscience to condemne or absolve which of it selfe seems to determine that Conscience is not a peculiar and distinct faculty of the soul as understanding will memory c. are but the soul reflecting and recoyling upon it self Which being prefaced we may safely read it as you have heard A good Conscience is a continuall feast Wherein every word doth fitly constitute a part for first here is the subject Conscience Secondly and adjunct of excellencie joyned unto it Good Thirdly the praedicate A Feast Lastly an adjunct of perpetuity joyned to that Continuall And in the orderly pursuance of these foure parts there will fall out to be handled foure points of very high and necessary concernment in the life and conversation of every Christian namely First this That every man hath a certaine Genius associated to his soul to wit Conscience Secondly this That by the grace of conversion there is a divine quality stamped and imprinted upon the naturall Conscience which is Goodnesse Thirdly this That Conscience thus qualified with goodnesse is a Feast Lastly this That this feast of a good Conscience is not onely for a time but for eternity not only a long but a
without any fee or reward other then that of Honour and good Acceptance They are the farre better to be liked for that They are the more hopefull for you the Auditors because all danger of our merchandizing the Word is hereby taken away And they are nor the lesse hopefull to us the Preachers for if we be faithfull in this our dispensation we shall have a greater reward then any you can give us And here I doe pause a little and not rashly but upon due deliberation do wish with all my heart both for my selfe and all my brethren of the Ministerie that the portion of the Clergie were so set out and their maintenance so provided for that it might prove Balaams wages for any one either to accept or expect any recompence Shekell or talent Homer or Epha great or small from the hand of any person whether high or low for any part of the worke of the Ministery whether publique or private Then should you see sinners otherwise reproved the wounds of Conscience which are but now skinned over with sweet words otherwise searched into and healed up great persons otherwise over-awed the Ladies spots and the Lords blots otherwise pointed at death-beds and sick couches otherwise visited then to give the decumbent such a peace as he may carry along to hell with him funerall Sermons otherwise preached then to be meere Panegyricks and commendatory orations of them whom the whole Congregation knowes were no such persons as the Mercenary tongue of the Preacher pourtrayes forth Then certainely this City would not have been so much wronged as of late especially it hath with so many of such Sermons as Saint Paul cals * wind of doctrine whereby Christians are blown and carried about from the stedfastness of the truth The Authour of the Epistle to the Hebrewes Chap. 13. and 9. censures them to be new and strange doctrines and implies that the hearts of them who preach and abet them are not established with grace Doctrines of devils they are 1 Tim. 4. 1. in regard of him who inspires them doctrines of men they are in respect of the instruments by which he breaths them That Noble and Learned Gentleman before mentioned one of the standing Honours of the Law in generall and of Grayes-Inne in particular observes that if the choyce and best of those observations that have been made dispersedly in Sermons within this Kingdome by the space of fortie yeeres and more had beene set downe in a continuance it had been the best work in Divinitie which had been written since the Apostles time I am about to say another thing That if men of undoubted judgement and integrity were but to bring in all those absurdities which they have heard vented in Pulpits within and about this Citie for these 18. months last past they would make such Miscellanies of Divinitie as your Pulpits had need of all their rich Velvet and Embroydered cloths which they have to cover their shame And I wish that Ignorance were the worst root from which these things have sprung but I doubt much that when some of these mens Consciences are awakened they shall be as a thousand witnesses to tell them that out of designe and out of wry and by-ends they * have led captive simple women laden with sins and led away with divers lusts women ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth And therefore I cannot but much commend the ingenuity of Mr Alexander Hendersam who whilst he was here a Commissioner did with great liberty of speech taxe and reprove what in this kind he both saw and heard of in this City But to divert no further I will in speaking unto you labour to keepe an even path betwixt detraction and flattery and first briefly but faithfully reprove what I think at this time most reproveable and then as candidly commend what is in you commendable that so those faults amended and these vertues being retained you may partake of this feast of a good Conscience And for the first of these twaine I will search none of your old sores at this time but onely note unto you two faults which have of late rendered this City blame-worthy both to God and man The first is the great schismes and dis-unions which have lately burst forth amongst you one of you being very Ishmaels to another whereas a City should be at unitie in it selfe and is the very Prototype and Copie of Concord and Unitie That Vnitie is omnipotent is one of Scaligers subtleties to be undevided and indivisible is the chiefe and first Excellencie of the blessed Trinitie Therefore the Pythagoreans call the number of two an infamous number because it first discedeth from Unitie Nothing more divine then Vnitie nothing more â—atanicall then division The second is your City-tumults tumults in the City and tumults from the City just like that Ephesian-tumult Acts 19. Confused and the more part not knowing wherefore they were come together Concerning which I will only aske you this one question What fruit have you now of those things Have you thereby trow ye pleased God No sure but rather highly offended him for God is the God of Order not of confusion Have you pleased the King you know how high his complaints runne Have you pleased the Parliament they doe by no meanes own your disorders Have you helped trade I trow not and pity it were it should be helped by these wayes lest prosperous folly should be accounted wisdome and prosperous wickednesse be accounted vertue Let me but aske one question more Have you hereby got the feast of a good Conscience I think there is a great deale more cause why in this case Conscience should be a WORME then a FEAST I have done my reprehension and comming to you with a rod I will now come to you with the spirit of meeknesse and praise you where you are truly praise-worthy for your Charity towards orphans the poore the blind the lame the self-lame sluggard c. or rather praise the Grace of God who hath made you both valentes and volentes able and willing hereunto And here I wil limit your attention to these three heads viz. 1. To shew you a good Rule of Almes and Charitie 2. A good Embleme thereof And lastly a good Example For the first all the best Rules of Almes are united and concentred in that one Text of the Preacher Eccles. 11. 1. Cast thy bread upon the waters for thou shalt finde it after many dayes Let us such the Text 1. In the first word CAST lye closely three distinct Eleemosynarie Rules that is 1. We ought to give Almes bountifully and liberally to sow plentifully 2. Cheerfully also and with a ready alâ— critie of minde 3. Speedily and seasonably whilest now the necessity presseth the receiver and summoneth the Almoner for without all these we doe but drop or sprinkle or lay down we do not sow or cast our Almes 2. In the
word THY two other Rules are implyed 1. That works of mercy must be founded on justice 2. They must also be founded on industry and diligence in our particular callings for OUR bread and MY bread and THY bread in Scripture-Phrase are opposed to a two-fold bread which are the bread of others not our owne to wit 1. The bread of deceit the cheat-loaves of fraud 2. The bread of Idlenesse 3. In the word BREAD is expressed the matter of right Almes we must give unto the indigent not a serpent but fish not a stone but bread that is to say such things as will help truly to support relieve their poore and low condition for by the word Bread both in the Lords Prayer and other Texts of Scripture all things necessary are to be understood Mercifull Christians must both fill the bellies and clothe the backs and cover the heads of the hungry and naked harbourless else they give but crummes or crusts not bread 4. In the words UPON THE WATERS there are two notable Rules more for if Waters be referred to the Giver or Almoner then this Rule will thence arise That we must afford pitie as well as pietie sympathy and condolencie of affection as well as reliefe We must weepe with those that weepe as well as wipe away teares from their eyes And if you meane the waters of the receiver or poore man then it sets out the proper object of Almes namely he whose head is a fountaine and his eyes conduits of teares to bewaile his low and miserable condition And the Rule is this that Miserie is the proper object of Mercy 5. In the last words the Promise of FINDING againe this Rule lyes hid That Almes must be given in faith That God will both accept them and reward them though not for the works sake yet for his mercies sake and for his Christs sake Therefore it is notable that our Saviour in the Gospel having exhorted to Almes in the very next words bids Get bags The inference seemes but weake first to poure out and give away and then get bags rather let a man scrape and corrade and then get bags but the sense is That the more bountifull we are in discreet charitable Almes the more abundant shall Gods blessings be both spirituall and temporall Therefore Whilgift Arch-bishop of Canterbury after he had finished hi Hospitall at Croyden said he could not perceive That therby he was in his estate a peny the poorer These are the Rules of Almes-deeds The Embleme of Almes I promised you is this A naked Boy with a cheerefull Countenance feeding with hony a Bee without wings Play the Pierius upon this Hieroglyphick 1. This Boy is naked because Charitie seeketh not her own 2. With a cheerefull Countenance because God loves a cheerfull giver 3. Giving hony hony not gall bread not stones We must give good things to those that aske 4. To a Bee not a droane to a labourer not a loyterer 5. Without wings that is all one as to the trembling hand in MOSES his Law to such an one as God hath disabled by sicknesse lamenesse great incumbencies old age or the like For 't is a good distinction I find in the Book of Martyrs in a Sermon of B. Ridly before K. Edward 6. of poore of Gods making and poor of their own making by Idlenesse thriftlesnesse riot c. for the latter a Bride-well or house of correction is the best Almes for the former Cast thy Bread upon the waters c. Now lastly for Examples and Presidents of Almes-deeds we see daily faire ones How God enlargeth and expanseth the hearts of his Saints to shew their faith by their workes I referre you to a Treatise written by Dr Willet wherein he undertaketh by instance to shew how farre the charitable deeds of Protestants since the Reformation of Religion have both in number and greatnesse even in these places exceeded those of the Papists in a farre longer tract of time It is a thing worth the considering both to silence their obloquie of us in calling us Solifidians and their arrogancie of themselves as if they onely were full of good works It is now divers yeeres since Dr Willet wrote that I wish some knowing hand would perfect it and adde unto it what hath been done since not to the pompe or pride of any either persons or places but to The honour of God who gives grace unto men And here is a fit place to commemorate those publike Acts of Charitie which have been ordered in this City for this last yeere viz. CHildren kept and maintained at this present at the charge of Christs Hospitall in the aid House in divers places of this City and Suburbs and with sundry Nurses in the Country 975 The naâ—â—es of all which are registred in the Books kept in Christs Hospitall there to be seen from what Parishes and by what meanes they have been from time to time admitted Children put forth Apprentices discharged and dead this yeare last past 112 THere hath been cured this yeare last past at the charge of Saint Bartholomews Hospitall of Souldiers and other diseased people to the number of 847 All which were relieved with money and other necessaries at their departure Buried this yeare after much charge in their sicknesse 161 Remaining under cure at this present at the charge of the said Hospitall 345 THere hath been cured this yeare last past at the charge of Saint Thomas Hospitall of Souldiers and other diseased people 1013 All which were relieved with money and other necessaries at their departure Buried out of the said Hospitall this yeare 184 Remaining under cure at this present 319 THere hath been brought to the Hospitall of Bridewell within the spâ—ce of one â—ere of wandring Souldiers and other Vagrants to the number of 684 Whereof some have beene clothed and sent beyond the Seas And of which number many have been chargeable for the time of their being there which cannot be avoyded by reason of their necessities nor passed away without charge There is maintained and kept in the said Hospitall in Arts Occupations and other works and labours Apprentices taken up â—ut of divers Parishes and streets of this City to the number of 170 For all which Glory be to God on high due praise to the Founders and Benefactors and Governours Comfort to the relieved and Imitation according to our abilities from us Amen FINIS a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} b {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ☜ a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} b Conscientiam à diis immortalibus accepimus 〈◊〉 divelli à nobis non â—otest Cic. pâ—o Cluent c Juveâ— Sat. 13. a Mos erar antiquis niveis atrisqâ— lapillis bis damnare râ—os illis absolvere culpâ Ovid Met. b {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} d {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}