my choice of your Patronage of this Treatise It would have bin an incongruity to have had the name of a person of an evill Conscience prefixed before a booke of good Conscience I desired a Patron sutable to my subject I presume the very subject shall make the Treatise welcome to you Be you pleased to afford your acceptance as I will afford you my poore prayers that the Lord who hath already set upon your head the crowne of the Elders Prov. 17. 6. Childrens Children and one Crowne of glory here one earth Age found in the Prov. 16. 1. wayes of righteousnes would also in his due time give you that incorruptible crowne of righteousnes and eternall glory in the heavens which that righteous Judge shall give to you and to all those that in the wayes of a good Conscience waite for the blessed appearance of the Lord Iesus Your Worships in all Christian observance IER DYKE The Contents of this TREATISE The Text containes thee Maine Heads The first maine head Pauls Protestation of a good Conscience where five things are considered 1. What Conscience is 2. What a good Conscience is It is good with a twofold goodnesse 1. With the goodnesse of Integritie and this integrity is threefold 1. When being rightly principled by the VVord it sincerely judges and determines of good evill 2. VVhen it doth excuse for good and accuse for evill 3. VVhen it urges to good restraines from evil 2. VVith the goodnesse of Tranquillitie and Peace Here are three sorts of Conscience discovered not to be good viz. 1. The Ignorant Conscience 2. The Secure 3. The Seared 3. The means of getting keeping a good Conscience 1. To get and keepe the Conscience good peaceably or with the goodnesse of peace three things required 1. Faith in Christs blood 2. Repentance from dead workes 3. The conscionable exercise of Prayer 2. To get and keepe the Conscience good with the goodnesse of integrity and to have it uprightly good five things required viz. 1. VValking before God 2. Framing ones Course by the Rule of the VVord 3. Frequent examination of the Conscience 4. Hearkning to the voice of Conscience 5. In cases of questionable nature to take the surest and the safest side 4 The markes and notes of a good Conscience and they be seven 1. To make Conscience of all sinnes and duties 2. To make Conscience of small sinnes duties 3. To effect a Ministery that speakes to the Conscience 4. To doe duties and avoid sin for Conscience sake 5. Holy boldnesse 6. To suffer for Conscience 7. Constancie and Perseverance in Good 5. The Motives to a good Conscience and they are five 1. The incomparable comfort and benefit of it in all such times and cases as all other comforts faile a man and wherein a man stands most in need of comfort The Cases or times are five 1. The Time and case of Disgrace and Reproach 2. The Time of common feare cōmon calamity 3. The Time of sicknesse or other Crosses 4. The Time of Death 5. The Time and day of Iudgement 2. That a good Conseience is 1. A feast for 1. Contentment and satisfaction 2. Ioy and Mirth 3. Societie 2. Better than a feast for 1. The Cotinuance 2. Independency 3. Vniversalitie 3. Without a good Conscience all our best duties are nought 4. It is the Ship and Arke of Faith 5. The misery of an evil one 1. In this world in respect of 1. Feare 2. Perplexitie 3. Torment 2. in the world to come The second Maine Head Ananias his insolent injunction Whereout is observed 1 What is the respect a good Consciēce finds in the world 2. The impetuous injustice of the enemies of good consciēce 3. Who cōmonly be the bitteest enemies of good conscience 4. That Vsurpers are Smiters 5. What is a sad fore-runner of a Nations Ruine The third maine head Pauls Answere and Contestation Whereout is observed 1. That Christian patience muzzels not a good Conscience from pleading its owne Innocencie 2. The severitie of Gods Iudgements upon the Enemies and Smiters of good Conscience 3. The equity of Gods administration in his execution of Iustice GOOD CONSCIENCE ACTS 23. 1. And Paul earnestly beholding the Councell said Men and brethren I have lived in all good Conscience untill this day 2. And the high Priest Ananias commanded them that stood by to smite him on the mouth 3. Then said Paul unto him God shall smite thee thou whited wall CHAP. I. The Introduction of the Discourse following THere is no complaint so generall as this that the world is naught His experience is short and slender which will not justifie the truth of this complaint And what think we may the Cause be of the generall wickednes of our Times Surely nothing makes Ill Times but Ill men and nothing makes Ill men but Ill consciences Ill Conscience is the source and fountaine Hominum sunt istae non Temporum Sonec ep 98. from whence comes all iniquities which makes times here so ill How well should hee deserve that could amend ill times There is a course if it would be taken that would do the deed and so cease the common complaint Elisha's course in healing the waters of Iericho must be taken They said of their waters as wee of our times The water is naught and the ground barren 2 King 2. 19. What course now takes Elisha for healing of the waters He went out unto the spring of the waters and cast the Salt in there ver 21. So the waters were healed ver 22. The spring and fountaine of all actions good or evill is the Conscience and all actions courses of men are as their Consciences Out of the heart are the issues of life Prov. 4. 23. the heart and Conscience is the fountaine every action of a mans life is an Issue a little rivelet and a water passage thence Are these waters then that issue thence Naught The way to heale them Nō erit fructus bonus nisi arboris bonae Mutacor mutabitur opus Aug. de ver Dom. Serm. 12. is to cast the Salt into the spring Mend the Conscience and all is mended Good Consciences would make Good men and Good men would make Good Times Lo here a project for the reformation of evil times Were this Project set on foot and a good Conscience set up how should we see prophanation of Gods holy Name and Day Injustice Bribery Oppression Deceit Adulteries and Whoredomes and all other Iniquities how should wee see all these as our Savior saw Satan falling downe like lightning from heaven How should we see them come tumbling downe like so many Dagons before Gods Arke yea tumbled downe and broken to the stumps The onely Arke that must dash and ding downe these Dagons is a good Conscience And if we would well weigh the matter what is there equally desirable with a Ecce quid prodest plena bonisarca cum sit inanis
but for cutting Sauls coat 1 Sam. 24. 5. See the nature of a good conscience it will smile not onely for cutting Sauls throat but for cutting Sauls coat but for an appearance vpon a suspicion and but a iealousie of evill Paul speakes of a pure Conscience 2 Tim. 1. 3. Now it is with the pure conscience as it is with pure Religion Iam. 1. 17. Pure religion and undefiled is to keepe á mans selfe unspotted of the world It hates not onely wallowing with the Sow in the mire but is shie of very spots and hates not only the flesh but the garment not onely that is grosely besmeared but which is but spotted with the flesh Iude 23. according to that Ceremonial Levit. 15. 17. And this is that which differences civility and a good Conscience Civility shunnes mire but is not so trim as to wash off spots this is the pure Religion of a pure Conscience Pure Religion and nndefiled is to keep a mans selfe unspotted therefore they who are not unspoted are not undefiled but if their consciences be but spotted yet are they defiled Mens consciences are as their Religion is and pure Religion is spotlesse Yea to close this point the greatest evidence of a good conscience is in making Conscience of small things Whilst Probat enim etiam in majoribus si res exigat executorem se idoneum fore à quo minora compleantur Salvian de provid l. 3. men feare great sinnes or are carefull of maine duties it may bee their reputation and credits may sway them which otherwise would be impeached So that in them it may be a question whether it be Conscience or Credit that is the first mover but in smaller things where there is no credit to be had nay for scrupling whereof a man may rather receive some discredit from the world here it is more evident that good Conscience sets a man on This then is a note of a good Conscience to make Conscience as of small duties so of small sinnes as hee that feares poison feares to take a drop as well as a draught and men feare not onely when a firebrand is thrust into but when a sparke lights upon their thatch CHAP. VIII Three other notes of a good Conscience A Third note of good conscience may be this It loves and likes a Ministry and such Ministers as preach and speake 3. Note of good conscience To love a Ministry that speaks home to the conscience to the Conscience It likes such a dispensation of the Word as comes home to it whether for direction or reproofe The Word is the rule of conscience and a good conscience is desirous to know the rule it must live by The Word must judge the conscience this every good conscience knowes and therefore grudges not to be reproved by it as knowing that if it will not abide the Words reproofe it must abide the Words iudgement Therefore a man with a good conscience speakes as Samuel Speake Lord thy servant heares He can suffer the words of exhortation and not count himselfe to suffer whilst it is done He is of Davids minde Let the righteous smite me and it shall be a kindnesse let him reproue me and it shall bee an excellent oyle which shall not breake mine head Psal 141. 5. It is with good conscience as with good eyes that can abide the light and can delight in it whereas sicke and sore eyes are troubled and offended therewith A sound heart is like sound flesh that can abide not onely touching but also rubbing and chafing and yet a man will not bee put into a chafe thereby whereas contrarily if the least thorne or vnsoundnesse bee therein Tu scis Deus noster quod tunc de Alipio ab illa peste sanando non cogetaverim At ille in se rapuit meque illud non nisi propter se dixisle credidit quod alias acciperet ad succensendum mihi accepit honestus adolescens ad succensendum sibi ad meardentius diligendum Aug. conf lib. 6. ca. 7. a touch at vnawares provokes a man if not to smite yet to angry words and language of displeasure Vnsound flesh loves to be stroakt and to be handled gently the least roughnesse puts into a rage That is the ingenuity of a good conscienence which was the good disposition of Alipius when hee was vnwittingly taxed by Augustine for his Theatricall vanities hee was so sarre from being angry with him though he conceived him purposely to ayme at him that hee was rather angry with himselfe and loved Augustine so much the better Put mens consciences vpon this triall and we shall see what the consciences of most men are Let a man preach in an vnprofitable maner let him spend himselfe in idle curiosities and speculations let him be in combate with obsolete or forraine heresies so long their Minister is a faire and a good Churchman But let him doe as God commands Ezekiel to doe Ezek. 14. 4. Answer them according to their Idols preach to their necessities let him call them and presse them to holy duties and reprove them for their vnholy practises and make knowne vnto them what evill consciences they have what then is Scio me offensurum quam plurimos qui generalem de vitiis disputationem in suam referunt contumeliam dum mihi irascuntur suam judicant conscientiam multoque prius de se quam de me judicant Hieron ad Rustic Monach. their carriage and behaviour Even that Amos. 5. 10. They hate him that rebukes in the gate and they abhorre him that speaks vprighly This Ministry that comes to the conscience will not downe with them It lets in too much light vpon them and Ahab hates Micaiah for drawing the curtains so wide open he cannot endure such punctuall and particular preaching that clappes so close to his conscience A plaine signe that Ahab hath a rotten and an vnsound Conscience Micaiah could not be more punctuall with Ahab then Isaiah was with Hezekiah Isa 39. 6 7. And yet what sayes Hezekiah Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken as if he had said a good Sermon a good Preacher all good Whence comes this good entertainment of so harsh a message Hezekiah had a good Conscience and therefore though the message went against the haire yet he could give good words Let the righteous smite mee and it shall be a kindnesse Psal 141. I but that is whē the righteous smites the righteous what if the Prophet smite Amaziah he will threaten to smite him againe 2 Chron. 25. 16. Forbeare why shouldest thou be smitten Why if Paul preach of a good Conscience and so make Ananias his Conscience to smite him Ananias will commaund the standers by to smite him on the mouth Now let all the standers by judge whether Ananias have any good Conscience in him who cannot brook the preaching of good Cōscience Let men professe they know God as long as they
will yet if they slight the word or swel at it or be disobedient to it when it is laid to their Conscience Paul makes it a manifest signe of a defiled conscience Tit. 1. 15 16. Their mind and their conscience is defiled How appeares that They professe they know God but they are disobedient When therfore the Ministry of the Word shall charge thee with dutie or reproove thee for sinne and then thou shalt charge the Minister with railing and girding and that this Sermon was made for the nonce for thee thou likest not that Ministers should be so particular c. In Gods feare bee advised to looke to thy Conscience and know it that thou hast a naughtie conscience when the Ministry of the Word smites thy conscience then for thee to smite the Minister with reproachfull and disgracefull tearmes to smite him with thy mouth How is thy conscience better then Ananias his that commands to smite Paul on the mouth he that cannot brooke that Gods Ministers should not discharge a good conscience in preaching to the conscience be bold to challenge that man for a man of an evill conscience 4. That is a fourth note of a good conscience 4 Note of a good conscience To doe duty for conscience sake Rom. 13. 5. ye must be subject for conscience sake To doe good or abstaine from evill meerly for conscience sake is a note of a right good conscience indeed Conscience as we saw before doth excite and stirre up and bind to the doing of good and bind from the doing of evill Now when the conscience upon just information from the Word shall presse and forbid and then a man shall because conscience forbids forbeare or because it presses performe obedience thus to doe good or not to doe evill for conscience sake is a note of a good conscience It evidences a good conscience when the maine weight that sets the wheeles on worke is conscience of Gods coÌ„mandement When it is that Ps 119. 4. that sets a man on work Thou hast coÌ„manded us to keep thy precepts diligently The end of the commandement is love 1 Tim. 1. 5. and love is the fulfilling of the commandement Rom. 12. But what love From a pure heart and a good conscience 1 Tim. 1. 5. When conscience of the commandement carries a man to the fulfilling of the end of it then doth such love come froÌ„ a good conscience Salomons description of a good man Eccl. 9. 2. is that he fears an oath He saies not that swears not but that feares an oath For a man not to sweare may be the fruit of good education and of the awe a man hath stood in of his Governours but to feare an oath argues that a man feares the commandement Prov. 13. 13. and to feare the commandement is the note of a good conscience Here let mens consciences be tried Thou prayest in thy family hearest the Word keepest the Sabbath c. Now search thine heart and make inquirie what it is that carrieth thee to these duties Doest thou do them for conscience sake Doest thou find conscience to urge and presse thee and to give satisfaction of the conscience and obedience to the injunctions thereof Are these things done If so it is a signe of a good conscience But this discovers the naughtinesse of mens consciences who though they be sound in some good duties or in the avoyding of some evils yet is it not conscience that workes them thereto Yee must be subject not onely for wrath that is for feare of the Magistrates wrath and revenge but for conscience sake Rom. 13. 5. It is no good conscience when a man will be subject for his skins sake and lest hee smart by the Magistrates sword but then a mans conscience is good when in obedience to Gods Word and in conscience of his commandement he subjects The like may be said of all by-ends Ye must doe good duties not for profit not for credit not for vaine-glory not for â—aw but for conscience sake or else evill consciences ye have in that ye doe The Shechemites receive circumcision Gen. â—4 And is not circumcision Gods Ordinance And is it not joy of them that they will joyne to the Church and professe the true Religion Yes surely if it were done for conscience I but it is not done for conscience sake Alas no such matter but for Hamors sake the Lord of the Towne and for Shechems sake their young Master and for the hope of gaines sake Shall not their cattell and their substance and every beasts of theirs be ours Gen. 34. 23. For the oxen sake and not for conscience sake are the Shechemites circumcised Shechem for Dinahs sake receives the Sacrament Oh the zeale and forwardnesse that some will professe on a sudden What frequenters of holy exercises But what is it for conscience sake No such matter but Shechem is in hope of a match with Dinah and all these showes of Religion are neither for Gods sake nor conscience sake but all for Dinahs sake all under hope of preferment by a rich marriage They were goodly shewes of zeale Ioh. 6. 22. 24. in seeking and following after Christ but it was neither for Christ nor conscience sake but ver 26. for the loaves and the bread and their bellies sake Many of the heathens Esth 8. 17. turned Iewes Was there not joy of such Proselytes not a whit for not the fear of God but the feare of the Iewes fell upon them as many frequent the publicke assemblies more for feare of the statute then for fear of the commandement The officers of the King helped the Iewes Esther 9. 3. Was it for conscience sake Nothing lesse but for wrath sake and for feare because the feare of Mordecai fell upon them If the Pharises had done all that Mat. 6. for conscience sake which they did for vaine-glory sake they had had the glory of good consciences Many preached the Gospel in Pauls daies Phil. 1. Does not so good a worke argue a good conscience Yes if it had beene done for conscience sake but that was done for contention sake not to adde soules to the Church but to adde sorrowes to Pauls afflictions It is a note of a good conscience when that which we doe is done with a respect unto the commandement of God Psal 119. 6. and not with a squint respect unto our owne private for praise or profit It Vtrine majores heretici illine qui pictas ligneas an qui aureas argenteas imagines è templis exigerent ad conflandam monetam igne adurerent Dubro hist Bohe. l. 24. was a good argument of those Bohemians good consciences in plucking downe Images that they beate downe onely painted and wooden Images whilst Sigismund the Emperour pulled downe silver and golden ones to melt into money for pay of his Souldiers as they plead for themselves when they were held Heretikes for their fact If they had pulled downe such Images as
hee did they might have beene thought to have done it for gaine and not for conscience sake How great is often the zeale of many against fashions and such vanities How well it were if it were for conscience sake and not for envy against some particular person whom they doe distaste and so for the person the vanity For if it be for conscience sake how is it that those vanities such great offences to their consciences found in some distasted persons are yet no trouble to their consciences being the very same if not worse in their owne favourites and associates Iudge whether such zeale come from conscience or from corrupt affection whether it be not more against the person 5. Note of a good conscience Holy boldnesse Bona conscientia prodire vult conspici ipsas nequitia tenebras timet Senec. ep 98. Qui non deliquit decet audacem esse confidenter prose proterve loqui Plaut in Anth. then against the sinne 5. We have a fift note of a good conscience in the Text. And Paul earnestly beholding the Councell Here is a marke of a good conscience in his lookes as well as in his words in his face as well as in his speech Paul is here convented before the Councell with what face is hee able to behold them And Paul earnestly beholding the Councell A good conscience makes a man hold up his head even in the thickest of his enemies It can looke them in the faces and out-face a whole rabble of them assembled on purpose to cast disgrace on it That may be said of a man with a good conscience which is spoken of some of Davids men 1 Chron. 12. 8. Whose faces were like the faces of Lions for the righteous is bold as a Lion Prov. 28. 1. Now might Paul truely have said as David Ps 57. 4. My soule is among Lions I ly among them that are set on fire And now how fares hee what is he all amort lookes he pale and blanke doth he sneake or hang downe his head or droope with a dejected countenance No Paul is as bold as a Lion and can face these Lions and earnestly fixe his countenance upon the best of them A good conscience makes a mans face as God had made Ezekiels Ez. 3. 8 9. Behold I have made thy face strong against their faces and thy forehead strong against their foreheads As an Adamant harder then flint have I made thy forehead feare them not neither be dismaid at their lookes Such hartening and hardening comes also from a good conscience A good conscience makes a man goe as the Lord in another sense tells Israell he had done for them Levit. 26. 13. I have made you goe upright A good conscience erects a mans face and lookes it is no sneaking slinker but makes a man goe upright As contrarily guilt dejects both a mans spirits and his lookes and unlesse a man have a Sodomiticall impudencie Isa 3. 9. or an whores forehead Ier. 3. 3. which refuses to be ashamed makes him hang downe the head Paul fixes his eyes here and lookes earnestly upon them but what if they had looked as earnestly upon him yet would not his good conscience have beene outfaced See Act. 6. 15. All that sate in the Councel looked stedfastly on him namely on Steven If but the high Priest alone had faced him it had beene somewhat but all that sate at the Councell looked stedfastly on him Surely one would thinke such a presence were able to have damped and utterly to have dashed him out of countenance But how is it with him Is hee appalled Is hee damped They saw his face as it had beene the face of an Angell sayes the text As wisedome Eccl. 8. 1. so a good conscience makes the face to shine A good conscience hath not onely a Lions but an Angels face it hath not onely a Lion-like boldnesse but an Angelicall dazling brightnesse which the sicke and sore eyes of malice can as ill indure to behold as the Israelites could the shining brightnesse of Moses face The face of a good conscience tels enemies that they are malicious Lyars And no wonder that a good conscience hath such courage and confidence in the face standing before a whole Councell when it shall be able to hold up it head with boldnesse before the Lord himselfe at that great day of the generall Iudgement Even then shall a good conscience have a bold face CHAP. IX Two other and the last notes of a good conscience A Sixt note of a good conscience followes namely that which we have 6. Note of conscience To suffer for conscience 1 Pet. 2. 19. When a man for conscience towards God endures griefe suffering wrong A good conscience had rather that Ananias should smite then it selfe should Ananias his blowes are nothing to the blowes of conscience Ananias may make Pauls cheekes glow but conscience gives such terrible buffets as will make the stoutest heart in the world to ake That will pinch and twitch and gird the heart with such griping throwes that all the blowes and tortures that Ananias his cruell heart can invent are nothing to them Now therefore a man that sets any store by a good conscience will not part with the Peace or Integrity thereof upon any termes Hee rates the goodnesse of his conscience far above al earthly things Wealth liberty wife children life it selfe all are vile and cheape in comparison of it And therefore a man of a good conscience will endure any griefe and suffer any wrong to keepe his conscience good towards God Such a good conscience had Daniel Dan. 1. 8. Hee proposed in his heart that hee would not defile himselfe with the portion of the Kings meat That is he was fully setled and resolved in his cōscience come what would come he would not do that which would not stand with a good conscience But what if it could have gotten no other meat without all doubt he would rather have starved than have defiled his conscience with that meat Hee would have lost his life rather than have lost the Peace and Integrity of his conscience It seemes a question of great difficulty which was put to the three Children Dan. 3. Whether they will give the bowing of their bodies to the golden Idoll or the burning of their bodies to the fiery Furnace But yet they find no such difficulty therin they were not carefull to answer in that matter ver 16. Of the two fires they chose the coolest the easiest The fire of a guilty conscience is seven times hotter and more intolerable than the fire of Nebuchadnezzars Furnace though it be heated seven times more then it is wont to be heated If the question come betweene life and good conscience that one of the two must be parted withall it is an hard case Life is wondrous sweet and precious Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life Iob 2. 4. What
The Motives to perswade us to get good consciences The Motives therunto may be many I will keepe my selfe within the compasse of five 1. Motive The incomparable and unspeakable 1. Motive to a good conscience comfort and benefit thereof in such cases and times as all other comforts faile a man and wherin a man stands most in need of comfort These cases or times are five 1. The Time and Case of Disgrace and Reproach 2. The Time of Common feare and Common calamitie 3. The Time of Sicknes or outward crosses in a mans goods 4. The Time of Death 5. The Time and Day of Iudgement In all these or in any of these times it is good to have such a friend or companion that will sticke to a man and be faithfull Interim elige socium qui cum omnia subtracta fuerint fidem servat dilectoribus suis nec recedit in tēpore angustiae Bern. de Consc to him when all other things faile him Such a friend and such a companion is a good conscience A friend loves at all times and a brother is borne for adversitie Proverb 17. 17. But in some of these cases a brother and friend may be false and will not or may be weake and cannot helpe nor pleasure a man but a good conscience is better then all friends and brethren whatsoever when they will not or cannot or may not yet then will a good conscience sticke close to a man and be a sure friend to him Let us see in the particulars the truth of it 1. In the time and case of Disgrace Infamie Reproach and wrongs of that The comfort of a good conscience in case of disgrace and reproach kinde the comfort and benefit of a good conscience is unspeakeable When a man shall be traduced slandered falsely accused and condemned then in such wrongs will a good conscience doe the office of a faithfull friend will sticke to and stand by a man and will comfort and hearten him against all such injuries Paul is heere convented before the Councell as a Malefactor hee hath an whole Councell bent against him What now is his comfort and his defence against such an heape of accusers as doe affront him This it is Men and brethren I have lived in all good conscience As if hee had said Impeach traduce accuse and condemne mee as you please yet be it knowne unto you that I have a good conscience and this my good conscience is it which shall comfort and uphold me against all your injurious and unequall proceedings You may bring forth false witnesses against me but my conscience doth and will witnesse for me you may condemne me yet my conscience acquits and absolves me And thus doth Paul shelter himselfe under his good conscience The like we may see in the next Chapter Ananias and the Elders come and bring Tertullus and he is feed to be Pauls accuser and he layes heavie and hainous things to Pauls charge vers 5. Wee have found this man a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition among all the Iews throughout the world a ring-leader of the sect of the Nazarens c. Here be foule things what will Paul be able to say to all this Will not this bee enough to sinke him downe utterly to see so many banded together and such great ones combined to countenance such an accusation How will he be able to subsist Now then behold the benefit and comfort of a good conscience He holds up his former buckler and smites Ananias and the rest with his former weapon vers 16. Herein doe I exercise my selfe to have alwaies a conscience voyd of offence towards God and towards men Ananias and the Elders have a mercenary Tertullus to accuse him Paul hath no man dares be seene to plead for him none will be retained in his cause but yet now conscience steps out and stops the foule mouth of this slanderous Oratour and puts spirit and heart into Paul to plead his own Cause against them all Conscience seemes on this manner to animate him Feare not Paul the accusations of this Tertullus I witnesse for thee thine Innocencie I justifie it to the teeth of Tertullus that he is one whose malice and covetousnesse hath made him set his conscience to sale stand up therefore and speake boldly for thy selfe dread them not Well fare a good conscience yet that will speake comfort to Paul and make Paul speake with courage when none else dare be seene in his cause It was an ill case David was in Psalm 69. 20. 21. Reproach hath broken mine heart and I am full of heavinesse and I looked for some to take pitty but there was none and for comforters but I found none they gave me also gall for my meat and in my thirst they gave mee vineger to drinke A very hard case indeed Where was now Davids familiar friend his acquaintance with whom hee was wont to take sweet counsell what was become of him now Possibly some of his acquaintance were at this time like a broken tooth and a foot out of joynt Prov. 25. 19. Confidence in an unfaithfull man is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joynt Others it may be that had profest him loue were ready to fasten a poysoned tooth in him This was Davids case and this may be any mans case but now at such a time and in such a pinch appeares the excellency and benefit of a good Gonscience Though all a mans friends should prove Iobs friends like the Winter brooks of Teman that in winter overswell the bankes but in the scorching heat of Sommer prove drie ditches yet then even then well fare a good conscience That will heale Davids heart broken with reproach that will cheere him up in his heavinesse that will sweeten the gall and take away the sharpenes of the vineger which his enemies have given him to drinke There is a generation Prov. 30. 14. whose teeth are as swords and their jaw teeth as knives and Pro. 12. 18. that generation speakes as the piercing of a sword There is a generation whose words are woūds that go down into the innermost parts of the belly Pro. 18. 8. These be dangerous generations But what generation are they Generations of vipers Psal 140. 3. Adders poyson is under their lips Iunius translates it Venenum ptyados The poison of the spitting Serpent They be then generations of spitting serpents even of fiery serpents that have their tongues set on fire from hell and so they spit fiery poyson in the faces of Innocents Now there is no man can live in this world at whom these adders will not spit no man can be free from the sprinckling of their poyson The disciple is not above the master If these snakes have hissed at the Lord of the house and if these spitting Serpents have cast their poison in his face why would they feare to do it to the servants But is there then no balme against
dies If the worme of Hell would die the fire of Hell would go out For if there were no guilt there should be no punishment So that the very Hell of Hell is that self-torment which an evill conscience breeds Now then all this considered how powerfully should it move us to labour for a good conscience Thou that goest on in thine evill courses and hatest to be reformed and reclamed do but bethinke thy selfe if God should awaken thy conscience in what misery thou shouldst live Vt ex cruditate febres nascuntur vermes quaÌ„do quis cibum sumit intemperanter ita si quis peccata peccatis accumulet nec deco quot ea poenetentia sed misceat peccata peccatis cruditatem contrahit veterum recentium delictorum igne aduâ—etur proprio vermibus consumetur Ignis est queÌ„ generat moestitia delictorum vermis est eo quod irrationabilia animi peccata mentem pungunt viscera exedant vermes ex unoque nascuntur tanquam ex corpore peccatoris hic vermis non morietur c. Ambr. lib. 7. in Luk. c. 14. here what an hell to have a palsie conscience what a hell on earth to be alwayes under the accusations inditements and terrors of conscience and to live Cain like in the land of Nod in a continuall restlesse agitation But especially as thou fearest that everliving and ever grabbing worme so have a care to get a good conscience Greene raw fruits breed Chestworms which if heed be not taken will eate the very maw thorow A dead body and a putrified corrupt carcasse breeds worms that ly gnawing at it in the grave The forbidden and raw fruits of Sin are those which breed Chestwormes in the conscience The corruptions of the soule and dead workes are those that breed this living worme take heed therfore of medling with these fruits that will breed this worme and get thy conscience purged from dead works get this worme killed with the soonest for if thou lettest it live till thou dye it will never die at all and will put thee to those exquisite torments from which to be freed thou wouldst willingly suffer ten thousand of the most cruell deaths that the wit of man were able to invent As then I say thou fearest this worme of Hell so get a good conscience Drink downe every morning a hearty draught of Christs blood which may make this worme burst And when once this worm is burst and voyded and the conscience well purged by Christs blood take heed ever after of eating those raw fruits that will breed new wormes Lead so holy so upright and so conscionable a life that thou mayest not by thy fresh Sins clog thy conscience with fresh guilt Get thy conscience purged by Christs blood and thy conversation framed by Gods Word Thy words were found by me and I did eate them Ier. 15. 16. Do thou so eat no more the unwholesome and worme-breeding fruits of Sin but drinke Christs blood and eate Gods Word and they both shall purifie and scoure thy conscience from all such stuffe as may breed and feed the Hell-worme of an evill conscience CHAP. XVI The portion and respect that a good conscience finds in the world ANd thus have we hither to seen Pauls Protestation The second point followes namely Ananias his insolent and impetuous Injunction Verse 2. And the high Priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth Paul had begun his defence in the former verse and that by authoritie and speciall command as appeares in the former Chapter at the 30. ver But he had no sooner begun but he is interrupted cut off and hath not onely his mouth stopt but stopt with Ananias fist He commanded to smite him on the mouth Out of which carriage and violence of his wee may observe divers things First learne What is the Reward and portion of a good conscience from the world It is the portion of a good conscience full oft to be smitten either on the mouth or with the mouth Blowes either with the fist or with the tongue To be smitten one way or other is full often the lot of a good conscience Smite him on the mouth sayes Ananias But let us a little expostulate the matter with Ananias Smite him on the mouth But yet as Pilate speaks in Christs case But what evill hath he done or what evill hath hee spoken Smite him on the mouth But as our Saviour answers Ioh. 18. 23. If he have spoken evil take witnesse of the evill and proceed legally and formally If he have spoken well or no manner of evill why commandest thou him to be smitten What hath he spoken any treason against Caesar or the Roman government If he have then as the town-clark of Ephesus speaks Act. 19. 38. The Law is open and there are Deputies let them accuse him and bring him to his answer It is a base usage of an ingenuous person to be smitten on the mouth in a Court of Iustice a dishonourable usage of a Roman Surely it should seeme by such base and bitter usage that Paul hath some way or other fouly forgotten and overshot himselfe that Ananias his spirit is thus embitered and provoked against him What hath Paul given him any exasperating and disgracefull termes hath he given him any open and personall girds before the whole Councell No no No such matter at all Why what then is the matter that Paul must be thus basely and thus despitefully used Will ye know the cause Men and brethren I have lived in all good conscience Loe here is the quarrell He hath made a profession of a good conscience and for his good conscience sake are Ananias fists about his eares There is nothing so mads men of wicked consciences as the profession practice of a good conscience doth The very name mention of a good conscience makes Ananias halfe mad like one besides himselfe he fals not onely to foule words but to blowes also and Paul must have it on the mouth for good conscience sake Paul might have blasphemed the blessed name of Christ and rayled upon the odious Sect of the Nazarens hee might have beene a drunkard an adulterour or a murtherer and none of all these things would have stirred Ananias his blood for none of all these should Paul have been smitten but let him but once speak or treate of or any way meddle with good conscience and Ananias his blood is presently up hee cannot hold his hands but Paul must have on the mouth there is no remedy So odious a thing is good conscience and the profession of it to wicked men Therefore this is that which a good coÌ„scieÌ„ce must expect even Ananias his dole fists blowes smiting hard injurious measure from the world This is no new thing It was our Saviours case before it was Pauls Ioh. 18. 22. And when he had thus spoken one of the officers which stood by strucke
Iesus with the palme of his hand c. Lu. 22. 63 64. And the men that held Iesus mocked him and smote him And when they had blind-folded him they stroke him on the face He felt the weight of their fists for the same quarrell that Paul did So it was fore-prophecied of him Isa 50. 6. I gave my backe to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the haire It was the kindnesse that Zidkiah could afford Micaiah 1 King 22. 24. He went neere and smote him on the cheeke it was the thanks the Prophet was like to have for the discharge of a good conscience 1 Chr. 25. 16. Forbear why shouldst thou be smitten It is that of which Iob cōplained so long since Iob 16. 10. Mine enemie sharpens his eyes upon me they have gaped upon me with the mouth they have smitten me upon the cheeke reproachfully The same portion shall the Prophet Ieremy meet withall Ier. 20. 2. Then Pashur smote Ieremiah the Prophet What was the quarrell That in the former vers Hee heard that Ieremiah had prophecied these things Only for discharging his conscience for the conscionable dispensation of Gods truth And as sometime they smote him on the mouth so somtime they smote him with the mouth Ier. 18. 18. Come let us devise devices against Ieremiah come let us smite him with the tongue and let us not give heed to any of his words And why would they smite him with the tongue Onely for his conscience and fidelity in his Ministery There is mention made of two false Prophets against whom an heavie judgment is threatned Ier. 29. 21 23. Ahab Zedekiah two base scandalous debauched persons who committed villany in Israel and committed adultery with their neighbors wives The Prophet Ieremy he out of conscience fulfils his Ministry see how light-fingred Pashur is he hath fists for Ieremies face and stocks for his heeles but in the meane time Ahab Zedekiah they may whore play the villains and they feele not the weight of his little finger If his fingers must needs be walking there is worke for them there he may strike and stocke with credit But there is no such zeale against them No such dealing with them Zedekiah and Ahab may be in good tearmes of grace with Pashur whilst Ieremiah must have blowes on the face ly by the heeles So well can wicked men brook villany and any wretched courses better than they can a good conscience Pashur can better endure an aduletrous whoremaster than an honest conscionable Prophet villaines may wall at liberty whilst a good conscience shal sit in the stocks Heere then is the portion a good conscience may look for from the world The better conscience the harder measure For which of my good works do ye stone me saith our Saviour Ioh. 10. 32. A strange recompence for good works and yet oft-times the best recompence and reward that the world can afford good works and a good conscience stones and strokes And if so be that feare of law and happy government bind their hands yet then will they bee smiting with the tongue and if the law keep them in awe for smiting on the mouth yet then will they do what they dare they will smite with the mouth A faire Item to all that meane to undertake Vse 1 the profession and courses of good cōscience Do as many do in case of marriage before they affect the person they first consider how they like the portion So heere before thou meddle with good conscience thinke with thy selfe what is her portion and if thou like not that it is but a folly to think of a good conscience Do as our Saviour advises Luk. 14. 28. Sit down first count the cost and whether thou be able to endure that cost or no. Ananias hath a fierce spirit and a foule heavie fist Pashur is a club fisted fellow and the spitting adders of the world will smite their sting deepe Suppose a good conscience may speed better as having the protection of Christian government yet this it must reckon upon and it must account of the hardest Therfore think before hād before you meddle with it how you can beare the fists and blowes of smiters if ever you should come under them I may say here as our Saviour did to the Sons of Zebedeus Mat. 20. 20 21. Ye know not what ye aske Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of and to be baptized with the baptisme that I am baptized with Many say they desire to enter the courses of a good conscience but doe not well know nor well weigh what they desire Consider with your selves Are ye able to drink of the cup that a good conscience shall drinke of Can ye be baptized with the baptisme that a good conscience must be baptized with Can ye indure the smart of Ananias blows Can ye bear the load of Pashurs club fist Think upon this aforehand and weight it well this is that you must make account of that will set upon the courses of a good conscience Is this the portion of a good cōscience see then what a good measure of Christian Vse 2 resolution they shall need to have that take the profession of it upon them Be shod with the shoos of the preparation of the Gospel Eph. 6. 15. Grow marveilous resolute to harden thy self and to harden thy face against all enemies fists blows whatsoever that though Ananias should dash thee on the face yet he might not dash thee and thy good conscience out of Countenance Thus did our Saviour Is 50. 6. I gave my backe to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the haire I hid not my face from shame and spitting But how was hee ever able to endure all this See vers 7. I have set my face like a flint and I know that I shall not be ashamed So must thou doe that meanest to keepe a good conscience Get a face and a fore-head of flint that enemies may as soone cracke a flint with their knuckles as by their violence and injuries drive thee from a good conscience Get an Ezekiels face Ezek. 3. 9. Make thy forehead as an Adamant harder than a flint Steele and flint thy face with all heroicall resolution A face of flesh will never endure but a face of flint will hold Ananias fist tacke let him strike while he will he shall sooner batter a flint with his fist than stir a resolved conscience out of its station But believe me these be hard things to Quest undergo who will be able to abide such hard measure how therefore may one grow to such resolution to abide the worlds fists the smart of their smiting 1. Consider that conscience hath fists Answ as well as Ananias 1 Sam. 24. 5. 2 Sam. 24. 10. Davids heart smote him And what are Ananias his blowes on the face to the blowes of conscience at the
heart One blow on the heart or with the heart is more painefull than an hundred on the face and as Rehoboam speaks of himselfe 1 King 12. 10. so consciences little finger is thicker heavier and more intollerable than both Ananias his hands and loynes Now then here is the case If Paul will stand to his conscience then Ananias his fists will be about his eares If Paul do forsake or flawe good conscience for feare or for the favour of Ananias then will consciences fist be about his heart Now then if no remedy but a man must have blowes it is good wisedome to chuse the lightest fist and the softer hand and to take the blow on that part that is best able to beare it with most ease The face is better able to abide blows than the heart and Ananias his blowes are but fillips to the clubbing blowes of conscience We would scarce judge him a wise man that to avoyd a cuffe on the eare would put himselfe under the danger of a blow with a club Here is that then that may make us to compose our selves to patience and to grow to an hardinesse and a Christian resolution Better ten blowes on the face than one on the heart Better an hundred from Ananias than one from conscience that will lay on load let the world smite yet mine heart smites not yea that strokes and comforts whilst the world strikes and threatens Therefore being smitten in case of conscience rather than give out do as our Saviour bids in another case Math. 5. 39. Whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheeke turne to him the other also 2. Consider that in the next verse God shall smite thee God hath smiting fists as well as Ananias Let him smite but yet there will come a time that God shall smite him God will call smiters to a reckoning 3. Consider that of David Psal 3. 7. Thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheeke bone thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly God will not onely smite the enemies of his people but will smite them with disgrace as it is a matter of vile disgrace to have a boxe on the cheeke and hee will give them such a dust on the mouth as shall dash out their very teeth he will lay heavie and disgracefull judgements upon them as he did upon Absolom of whom David speakes May it ever be thy lot to see good conscience under the fists of smiters be not discouraged start not stumble not at it Bee not ready to inferre It is in vaine to cleanse a mans conscience and wash his hands in innocencie But consider that this hath been ever the worlds madnesse and the ancient lot of a good conscience either to bee smitten with adversaries hands or varlets tongues CHAP. XVII The impetuous injustice and malice of the adversaries of a good conscience AS we have seene the entertainment a good conscience meets withall in the world so we may here further see the inordinat violences that the enemies and haters of a good conscience are carried with Therefore out of this insolent Injunction of Ananias we may in the second place observe The heady violence and impetuous injustice Doct. 2 of the adversaries of good conscience Smite him on the mouth A man would not imagine that hatred and malice against goodnesse should so transport a man as to make him run into so much so open so grosse Injustice Doe but examine the fact and you shall see a strange deale of injustice therein 1. Who is he that bids smite The high Priest He had a better Canon to live by Mal. 2. 6. He walked with me in peace and equity So Levi walked so should Gods Priests walke also And that Canon of Paul for the Ministry of the Gospel held no lesse good for the Ministry of the law That he should not be soone angry no striker Tit. 1. 7. How haps it then that the High Priest is thus light fingred Smite him on the mouth Oh! shame that such a word should come out of a Priests especially the High Priests mouth 2. Who must be smitten Paul an Innocent Foule injustice Questionlesse if Paul had offered such measure but to Ananias his dog to have smitten him for nothing but out of his meer spight Ananias would have judged him a dogged fellow And would Ananias use an innocēt person as he would be loth a man should use his dog 3. Where must this blow be given In open Court where they were all convened to doe justice Still the worse If he had commanded him to have been smitten in his private Parlour it had been unjustifiable but to smite him in open Court and to doe injustice in the place of Iustice this is deepe injustice The place he sate in the gravity of his person Gods High Priest the solemnity of the administration of justice all these might have manacled his hands and have a little tempered and bridled his spirit A foule indignity for the Iudge of Israel to bee smitten on the cheeke Mic. 5. 1. As foule an iniquity for a Iudge of Israel to smite on the mouth wrongfully and in an open Court of Iustice What an indecent thing for a Iudge to goe to cuffes on the Bench What an intemperate and a vindictive spirit argues it But what is the Indency to the Injustice And what Injustice to that which was done upon the Bench Of all wormwood that is the most bitter into which justice is turned 4. For what is the blow given For a good conscience What And hath Gods High Priest no more conscience than so his place teaches him to bee a Protector Defender and an Incourager of good conscience His whole office is matter of conscience and will he that should teach maintaine and incourage good conscience will he smite men for good conscience What is this but Is 58. 4. To smite with the fist of wickednesse 5. When is the blow given When he is begining to plead his own innocencie to speake in his own defence More injustice yet Did not Nicodemus speake reason Ioh. 7. 51. Doth our Law judge any man before it heare him Nay if Ananias have no regard to Gods Law as it seemes hee hath but a little that will smite a man for good conscience yet what will he say to Caesars Law Act. 18. 25. Is it lawfull for you to scourage and so to smite a man that is a Roman and uncondemned and unheard To judge and condemne a man unheard is deep Injustice but far deeper to punish and execute him Will hee hang a man and then try him Lo here indeed a right unrighteous Iudge that feares neither God nor man that regards neither Gods Law nor Caesars To have done by Paul as Gallio did Act. 18. 14 16. When Paul was about to open his mouth to drive him and the rest from the judgement-seat this had beene injustice but when Paul opens his mouth to speake for himself for Ananias to stop
in the place He commands Paul to be smitten Vsurpers commonly are smiters and usurpation is usually attended with violence Such as the entrance such the administration We see it true in Abimelech Integritas praesidentisi est salus subditoruÌ„ principatus auteÌ„ quem ambitus occupavit etiam si moribus atque actibus non offendit ipsius tamen initij sui est pernitiosus exemplo difficile est ut bono peragantur exitu quae malo sunt inducta principio ex Decret and Athalia That as it is said of Pope Bonif. the eight that he entred like a Foxe raigned like a Lyon c. So was it with Ananias hee had a Foxes entrance hee came not to the Priesthood by an hereditary succession but as the fashion then was by simony bribery and flattery and now see how he raignes like a Lion and commands Paul to be smitten on the mouth An ill entrance into any place of office in Church or Common-wealth cannot promise any good in the administration thereof See what wofull times here were what bitternesse what madnesse against a good conscience Doct. 5 And these were the times that did a little fore-run the fatall fearfull ruine and desolation of Ierusalem and the Nation of the Iewes Ananias his deadly hatred of goodnesse and good conscience was a bud of the fig-tree that the particular Iudgement of Ierusalem was even at the doores When the rod is blossomed and pride hath budded and violence specially against good conscience is risen up into a rod of wickednes then may it truly be said Behold the day behold it is come The time is come the day drawes neere Ezec. 7. 10 11 12. By Bede describing the ancient destruction Odium in veritatis professores tanquaÌ„ subversores omnia tela odium in hos Bed hist gent. Aug. l. 1. cap. 14. of this kingdome of Britain this is made a fore-runner therof The hatred of the professors of the truth as of subverters all the spite and hate was against them Our Saviour tels his Disciples Luk. 21. 11. of fearfull sights and great signes that should be from heaven before the destruction of Ierusalem And so there was a fearfull comet many other prodigious things before the same Now if the Iewes had had hearts to have considered it this cordiall malignity on every hand against good coÌ„scieÌ„ce was as sad a Prognosticator of their approaching ruine as any blazing star or terrible sight whatsoever It is an ill presage of a Nation going down when once good conscience is fisted downe CHAP. XVIII The severity of Gods justice upon the enemies of a good conscience and the usuall equity of Gods administration in his executions of justice THus have wee seene Paul fisted and laid on the mouth How doth Paul now take this blow at Ananias hands He smites not againe nor offers to repell one violence with another he had learned of Christ rather to have turned his other cheeke to him But yet though hee smite him not with the fist yet he smites with a checke and a just reproofe for his violence And so may a man smite without transgression and without revenge Psal 141. 5. Let the righteous smite me it shall not breake mine head So may a man smite and yet be a righteous man These blows are not to breake heads as Ananias his blowes are but these are to breake hard hearts Thus Paul smites without transgression of the bonds of meeknesse and patience And so we are now come to the third maine point in the text Pauls zealous answer and contestation Vers 3. Then said Paul unto him God shall smite thee thou whited wall The contestation is contained in the whole verse And in this contestation we have a denunciation of judgement that haâ—ly by a Propheticall an Apostolicall spirit prophesying to him what should befall him not an imprecation out of a private spirit stirred with a desire of revenge God shall or will smite not I pray God smite or I hope to see the day when God shall smite but God shall smite As if he had said well Ananias thou hast smitten me heare now what thy doome from God is I am sent to thee with heavie tydings God wil call thee to reckoning for this blow and Gods hand is over thine head to pay thee in thine owne kind So then from the whole learne thus much Christian patience though it bind a mans Doct. hands yet doth it not alwayes bind a mans tongue Though it lay a Law upon a man to forbeare violence yet layes it not a Law upon him alwayes to enjoyne him silence Though a man in Pauls case may not strike yet hee may speake Though Religion pinion a mans armes from striking yet doth it not sow seale up a mans lips from speaking Ananias hath smitten Paul on the face and if it please him to have another blow he will not resist him hee hath his other cheeke ready for him if his fingers itch to be doing but yet for all this though Paul hold his hands hee doth not hold his peace Indeed Christs precept is well known Math. 5. 39. Turne the other cheeke also but yet for all that see what his practice was when he was smitten Ioh. 18. 23. Iesus answered him If I have spoken evill beare witnesse of the evill but if well why smitest thou me And yet his precept and practice doe not interfeire nor crosse shinnes For though by his precept hee forbids us to retaliate or recompence injury with injury out of the heat of a vindictive spirit yet by his practice he warrants us in cases of injury to make a manifestation both of our own innocencie and others injustice Religion binds no man to be a Traytour to his own innocencie and the justice of his cause and by silence to abet others injustice With a good conscience may a man speake so long as hee speakes as Paul did before Festus Act. 26. 25. The words of truth and sobernesse So a man answer truly soberly without tacks of gall and impatient touches of revenge Christ and Religion say to a man convented and injuriously proceeded against as Agrippa did to Paul Act. 26. 1. Thou art permitted to speak for thy self This in generall more particularly in this Denunciation Consider the judgement denounced that is this God shall smite thee From which we may observe two things First See Gods judgements and the severity of Doct. 1 his justice against the enemies of a good conscience and his faithfull servants Ananias smites Paul and for his good conscience and what gets hee by it God will smite him and give him as good as hee brings God will smite smiters Ananias smites Paul and Gods will smite Ananias yea and God did smite Ananias for he was afterwards slaine by Manaimus one of the Captaines of the Iewes It is a dangerous thing not to smite when God commands 1 King 20. 35 36. He that would not smite a
Prophet when God commanded was smitten with an heavie judgement It is no lesse dangerous to smite when God forbids smiting God hath an heavie hand for those that are so light fingred and he will give them blow for blow that will bee smiting his for a good conscience Touch not mine anoynted and do my Prophets no harm Ps 105. 15. He that touches them touches the apple of Gods eye Zach. 2. 8. So hee that smites them smites the apple of his eye The eie is a tender place and sensible of a little blow God will not take a blow on the eye nor beare a blow on his face at the hands of the proudest enemies of them all and though we must turne the other cheek rather than smite againe yet the Lord to whom vengeance belongs wil take no blows at their hands but if they will be smiting they shall be sure to heare of him to their cost You find Ex. 2. 11. an Aegyptian smiting an Israelite It becomes none better than Aegyptians to be smiting Israelites Moses spies an Aegyptian smiting of an Hebrew What gets the Aegyptian in the end See verse 12. God stirs up the spirit of Moses to smite him and to slay him Thus will God teach Aegyptians to be medling Pashur smites Ieremy Ier. 20. 2. What got he by it The heavie stroke of Gods hand upon himselfe and all his friends ver 3 4 5 6. Herod was a smiter too Act. 12. 1 2. He stretched forth his hands to vexe certain of the Church and he killed Iames the Brother of Iohn with the Sword And what became of him in the end See ver 23. The Angel of the Lord smote him he was eaten up of worms and he gave up the ghost It is said of Ionas his gourd that a worme smote it and it withered Ion. 4. That was much that a worme should so soone smite the gourd But when men will be smiting Gods people and his prophets for a good conscience and when Herod will be so busie as to smite Apostles God can send not onely an Angel one of his most glorious creatures but even a base worme even one of the weakest creatures to smite Herod and eate him both Ieroboam stretches forth his arme against the Prophet 1 Kin. 13. his arm withers he doth but threatē to smite God smites him How much more when Herod stretches forth his hād to vexe the Church and to smite Gods Ministers wil God not only wither them but smite him as Sampson smote the Philistims hip and thigh and make him a rotten and a stinking spectacle to all malicious smiters to the worlds end Thus is that true which the Prophet implies in that speech Isa 27. 6. Hath hee smitten him as hee smote his smiter Marke then Gods dealing hee uses to smite smiters Neither is this true only of smiters with the fist and with the sword but it is also true of those smiters Ier. 18. 18. Come and let us smite him with the tongue Even such smiters will God smite also as wee may see there ver 21 22 23. Thus God met with Nabal David sends for reliefe to him upon his festivall day and he in stead of an almes fals a railing on him and cals him in effect a Rogue and a Vagabond and a run-away Thus hee smote David with his tongue What follows See ver 38. And it came to passe about ten dayes after that the Lord smote Nabal And how smote he him That he died So Zach. 14. 12. Their tongue shall consume away in their mouth What might the reason be of that judgment Because haply many that cannot or dare not fight with their hands for fear of the law yet fight against Gods Ministers his servants with their tongues Wel God hath a plague to smite such sinners Though they smite but with the tongue yet God will smite them and give them their portion with the rest of the adversaries of the Church And if God will not spare such smiters how much lessewil he spare such as smite with the sword Terror to all smiters either with hand Vse 1 or tongue Smite on goe on in your malicious courses doe so but yet know that there is a smiter in heaven that will meet with you Had Zimri peace who slew his master So said Iezabel to Iehu and so may it bee said in this case Search the Scriptures search the Histories of the Church Had ever any smiters peace which lifted up either hand or tongue against any of the Lords people Did smiters ever scape scot-free Had they any cause to brag in the end Had they ever any cause to brag of the last blow Did Herod prosper that smote Iames with the sword did Ananias prosper that smote Paul did the Aegyptian prosper that smote the Hebrew Did Doeg prosper who was a tongue-smiter as well as an hand-smiter Psa 52. Oh consider this you that dare lift up your hands and tongues against a good conscience be afraid of Gods smiting hand tremble to meddle in this kind Learne to hold your hands and tongues unlesse yee long to feele Gods smiting hand Especially take heed of smiting Gods Ministers in any kind Deut. 33. 11. Levi hath a strange blessing Blesse Lord his substance accept the worke of his hand smite through the loynes of them that rise against him and of them that hate him that they rise not again God saw that of al others Levi would be most subject to the blowes of fists and tongues and therefore he is fenced with a blessing for the nonce to make smiters feare to meddle with him or if they will needs meddle yet to let them see that it were better to wrong any other tribe than that God would smite thē smite them to the purpose that shal offer to smite him Here is that which may make Gods people comfortably patient under all the Vse 2 wrongs injuries of smiters in any kind Here is that may make them by patience to possesse their soules may make them hold their hands and their tongues from smiting Smite not thou God will smite smiters Indeed when we will be smiting wee prevent Gods smiting and so they have the easier blows by the meanes For what are our blowes to the Lords Do as Christs did 1 Pet. 2. 23. Who when hee was reviled reviled not againe but committed himself to him that judges righteously It is best leaving them to the Lords hand Pray for thy smiters that God would give them smiting hearts that their hearts may smite them for their smiting pray to God if he see it good they may be so smitten This is a revenge will stand with charity Yet if not leave them to God who best knows how to smite smiters It is great comfort against the sore afflictions Vse 3 of Gods Church at this present The enemies of the Gospel have smitten Gods Church with a sore blow Wel yet let us not bee out
Conscientia Bona vis habere bonus non vis esse tum quid est quod vis habere malū Nihil omnino non uxorem nō filium non ancillā villam tunicā postremo nō caligam tamē vis habere malam vitam Rogo te praepone vitam tuam calige tuae sic Conscientiam Aug. Ibid. good Conscience What is that men would have but they desire to have it Good And yet amongst all other things they desire to have Good what little care to have the Conscience such Wife children servants houses lands ayre food raiment who would not have these good And yet that without which none of all these are good nor will yield us any true good that alone is neglected and whilst men would have all other things good yet their cōsciences themselves are naught Now alas what good wil all other goods do us whilst this one and this maine Good thing is wanting How excellent is this Good above all other good things A good wife good children good land c. these Vbi supra Ipsae ergo divitiae bonae sunt sed ista omnia bona a bonis malis haberi possunt Et cum bona sint bonos tamen facere non possuut Aug. de verb. Do. Serm. 5. may a man have and yet he himselfe not Good these find men sometimes Good but make none so these goods may a man have and yet himselfe be naught Not so with good Conscience which no evill man can have which whosoever hath it makes him and all he hath Good So great and so good a Good why is it so much neglected Try we therefore and let us assay if by any meanes Gods good blessing giving assistance we may be able to stir up men and to worke them to regard so great and excellent a good It may be at least some few may be perswaded and may set upon this work of getting a good Conscience If but some few if but one be wrought upon the labour is not in vaine If none yet our worke is with our God to whom we are a sweet sauor in Christ in them that are saved in them that perish 2 Cor. 2. 15 This portion of Scripture then which I have chosen for the ground of the following Discourse consists of three parts 1. Pauls sober and ingenious Profession and Protestation ver 1. 2. Ananias his insolent and impetuous Injunction ver 2. 3. Pauls zealous Answer and Contestation ver 3. 1. The first is Pauls Protestation in these words Men and brethren I have lived in all good Conscience untill this day With this Protestation of a good Conscience Paul begins his Plea And however to distinguish our selves frō Papists we beare the name of Protestants yet we shal never be sound and good Protestants indeed till we can take up Pauls Protestation that our care indeavor and course is to live in All good Conscience A Protestant with a loose and a naughty Conscience hath no great cause to glory in his desertion of the Romish Religion As good a blind Papist as a halting Protestant The blind and the halt were equally abominable unto the Lord. Paul was here brought forth to answer for himselfe before the chiefe Priests and the Councell And his Preface as I said to his intended Apology if hee had not been injuriously interrupted is a Protestation of the goodnes of his conscience and this his good Conscience or the goodnes of his Conscience he sets forth 1. From his Conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have lived or conversed A good conversation is a good evidence of a good Conscience indeed there can be no good conscience where there is not a Conversing in good It is not some moods and fits in some good actions duties from whence conscience gaines the reputation of goodnesse but a good conversation godly and religious in the generall tenour thereof proves the cōscience worthy such an honor as to be holden good He may be said to have a good cōscience that can be said to live in a good conscience Many a man is frequent in the City yet cānot be said to live there There a man lives where he hath his Converse Residence A mans life is not to be measured by some few actions in which at sometime he may be found but by his general course and conversation God will judge every man not according to his steps but according to his wayes It were over-rigid censoriousnesse to condemn a righteous man and to question whether his Conscience were good because some steps of his have bin beside the way We know for the generall his way is good wherein he walkes and therefore according to his good way we judge his Conscience good Contrarily when we see a mans way for the generall to be evill though sometime hee may tread a right step or two and chance to chop into the faire road for a rod or two for this to judge a mans Conscience good were a bottomlesse and a boundlesse Charitie Every mans Conscience is as his life is 2. From the Generalitie of his care and obedience In all good Conscience It must be All good or it is no good Conscience at all There be that live in some good Conscience yea Herod seemes to have much good Conscience hee did many things gladly but yet Paul goes further and lives not in some not in much but in All good Conscience 3. From the Sincerity and Integrity of it before God Before men how many have their consciences exceeding good yet their consciences are farre short of goodnes because they are not good before God the judge of Conscience Whilst Conscience is made onely of the Capitals of the second Table or of the externals and ceremonials of the first which duty is not done out of obedience to God and his Commandements but a mans self either in his gaine or in his praise is sought and base ends are the first movers to good duties here the Conscience what ever applause it hath from or before men for it goodnesse yet of God shall not be so esteemed For that is not a good cōscience which is one outwardly but which is one inwardly whose praise is not of men but of God And that hath its praise of God which is before God 4. From his continuance and constancie untill this day To begin a good life and course and to live in all good conscience that before God are excellent things but yet one thing is wanting to make up this goodnesse compleat To be so for a day or some dayes will not serve but when a man can say at his last day I have lived in all good Conscience untill this day that man may be safely judged to have a good Conscience indeed Thus in these foure particulars doth the goodnes of Pauls Conscience appeare It is not my purpose to confine my selfe and to keep mee within those bounds alone but to take a larger
righteous smite mee but yet whilst others it may be are fearfull and timorous to doe him that good office conscience is at no demurre upon the point that feares not but smites David for sin Gods Ministers are oft slighted and light set by preachers caÌ„not be regarded but God hath given men a Preacher in their own bosom and this Preacher will make many a curtain sermon wil take men to task upon their pillow will be preaching over our Sermons againe to them And though many will not be brought to repetition of Sermons in their Families yet they have a Repeater in their bosom that will be at private repetitions with them in spite of them and will tell them This is not according to that you have been taught you have been taught otherwise you have been reproved for and convinced of this sinne in the publicke Ministerie c. Why doe not you hearken and reforme Thus then conscience having a voyce and doing the office of a Preacher unto us if wee would have conscience good then in all things that conscience enlightened shall say unto us hearken unto it More distinctly conscience hath a two-fold voyce 1. A voyce of direction telling us what is good or evill what is lawfull and unlawfull Isa 30. 21. And thine eares shall heare a word behind thee saying This is the way walke ye in it That is understood of Ita enim desuper in silento sonat quidam non auribus sed mentibus August in Psal 42. the voyce of Gods spirit in the secret suggestions thereof and such is the voyce also of conscience within us dictating to us and directing us what duties are to be done what courses to be avoyded How many times doth conscience presse us to repentance and to reforme our wayes how often doth it call upon us to settle to such and such good courses and so with David Psal 16. 7. Our reines doe teach it in the night season 2 A voyce of correction and accusation checking and chiding taking up and shipping us when we do amisse So Psal 42. 5. 11. and Ps 43. 5. Why art thou cast downe O my Soule and why art thou disquieted within me And Ps 77. 10. whilst in the foregoing verses he was complaining and using some speeches that might savor of some diffidence see how Conscience doth her office by a correcting voyce And I said this is my infirmitie as if hee had said whilst I was using such different expostulations mine own conscience told me I did not do well CoÌ„science so speaks to us as the Lord to Ionah Ion. 4. 4. 9. Dost thou well to be angry So sayes conscience oft Doest thou well to be thus earthly thus eager upon the world thus negligent and formall in holy duties thus conscience gives her privie nips and her secret checks This is that of which Iob speaks Iob 27. 6. My heart shall not reproch me so long as I live Implying that conscience after sin hath a reproching voice as when it befooles a man as foole that thou art to do this to lose thy peace with God for a base sinfull pleasure Thus Davids conscience reproched him 2 Sam. 24. 10. I have don very foolishly yea Ps 37. 22. it puts the foole and the beast both upon him So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a beast before thee This is the smiting of the conscience 2 Sam. 24. 10. Conscience first points with the finger and gives direction if that be neglected it smites with the fist and gives correction Now then that which I ayme at is this If we would get and keepe a good conscience then neglect not nor despise conscience when it speaketh Doth thy conscience presse thee to any works of piety to the care of family-worship and privat devotion to the reading of the Scriptures sanctification of the Sabbath c. In any case be so wise as to hearken to the councels to the urgings and to the injunctions which come out of the Court of Conscience Hearken in any case to this Preacher whom thou canst not suspect of partiality malice ill will as thou dost others therby giving way to satans policy that hereby stops up the passages of thine heart that the Word may not enter Here can be no such suspitions conscience cannot be suspected to be set on by others though Ieremy be charged to be set on by Baruch Ier. 43. 3. Therefore hearken to the voice of this Preacher and this will helpe thee to a good conscience Ideo quantuÌ„ potes teipsum coargue inquire in te accusatoris primum partibus sungere deinde Iudicis novissime deprecatoris aliquando offâ—ndete Senec. epist 28. Againe doth thy conscience rebuke thee doth it chide and check thee doth thy heart reproach thee for thy wayes doth it say doest thou well to live in such and such Sins Doth it punctually reprove thee for thine evils Doe not answer conscience as Ionas answered God frowardly Yea I doe well but even close with conscience and doe thou accuse thy selfe as fast as it accuses acknowledge thy folly yield promise and covenant with thy conscience a present and speedy reformation This if it were done how happy should men be in getting and keeping a good conscience But alas how few regard the voyce of Conscience and once hearken to it and the very want of this duty is it which breeds so much ill conscience in the world Men in this case are guilty of a double wickednesse Either they deale as the Iewes with the Apostles Act. 4. 18. and 1 Thes 2. 16. They either stop consciences mouth and labour to silence this Preacher or else they deale with conscience as the Iews did with Stephen Act. 7. 57. They stopped their eares If they cannot stop consciences mouth they will at least stop their owne eares 1 They labour to stop consciences mouth If conscience begin to take them aside and to say to them as Ehud to Eglon Iudg. 3. 19. I have a secret errand unto thee they answer but in another sense as hee did Keepe silence If conscience offer to be talking unto them they shufflle it off as Felix did Paul they are not at leasure they will finde some other time when their leasure will better serve Yea many when their consciences reproach them they againe reproach and reprove it and answer it as the Danites did Micah Iudges 11. 23. What ayleth thee and are ready to give reproachfull language to their owne conscience that it cannot be quiet and let them alone 2 But yet Conscience will not of entimes be thus posted and shuffled off will not bee gagged or suffer her lips to bee sown up but will deale with a man as the woman of Canaan did with our Saviour Math. 15. She would not be put off with neglect or crosse answers but she stil presses upon our Saviour and grows so much the more importunat So oftentimes conscience when she sees men shuffle growes the more importunate
the people should goe Sacrifice but hee cannot abide that Moses should bee so peevishly precise that not an hoofe should be left behind Alas an hoofe is but a toy not worth the mentioning what need Moses bee so strict as to stand upon an hoofe Yet a good conscience will stand upon it having Gods Commandement and will make conscience as well of carrying away hoofes as of whole bodies of Cattell It is with a good conscience as it is with the apple of the eye of all the parts of the body it is the most tender not onely of some great shives or splints under the eye-lid but even the smallest haire and dust grieves and offends it It is so with a tender good conscience not onely beames but also moates disquiet the eye of a good conscience and not onely greater and fouler Sinnes but even such as the world counts veniall trifles doe offend it A good conscience straines not onely at a Camell but at a Gnat also Neither doth our Saviour blame the Pharisees simply for straining at a Gnat but for their hypocrisie who would pretend conscience in smaller things and meane while made none in the greater for otherwise a good conscience indeed hath a narrow passage for a Gnat as well as for a Camell The least corne of gravell galls his foot that hath a strait shooe but hee that hath a large wide shooe slopping about his foot it is no trouble to him It is just so with consciences good and evill A Gnat is but a small thing yet Pope Bol. pag. of Popes pag. 97. Hadrian the fourth was choakt with a Gnat and one Flye though but a small thing to a whole boxe of oyntment yet dead Flies as small things as they are cause the oyntment of the Apothecarie to send forth a stinking savour Ec. 10. 1. and so doth a little folly though but little doe a great deale of hurt And therefore a good conscience lives by Salomons rule Give not water passage no not a little And take not onely the Foxes but the little Foxes which spoyle not onely the Vines but the tender Grapes Cant. 2. 15. It knowes a little will make way for much Pharaoh is content that the people the men should go sacrifice Ex. 10. but their little ones should not goe he knew if hee had but their little ones with him he should be sure enough of their return therefore Moses will not onely have the men goe but their little ones also And therefore a good conscience deales with Satan as Marcus Arethusius dealt with Putantes pauperem vel medietatem petebant pecuniarum novissime vel paueum aliquid exigebant Quibus ait nec obolum unum pro omnibus dabo Hist Tripart lib. 6. cap. 12. his tormentours who having pulled downe an Idolatrous Temple and being urged by them to give so much as would build it up againe refused it They urged him to give but halfe hee still refused they urged him at last to give but a little towards it but he refused to give them so much as one halfe-penny No not an halfe-penny sayes he for it is as great wickednesse to conferre one Ad impietatem inquit obulum conferre unum perinde valet ac si quis cōferat omnia Theodor. lib. 3. cap. 7. halfe penny in case of Impiety as if a man should bestow the whole What was a poore halfe-penny it was a very small matter specially considering in what torture he was from which an half-penny gift would haue released him Indeed an half-penny is but a little but yet it is more then a good Conscience dares give to the maintenance of idolatrous worship A good conscience will not give so much as a farthing token to such an use as little a thing as it is For he that is faithfull in that which is least is faithfull also in much and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much Luke 16. 10. Even the least things are as great trials of a good conscience as the greatest A good Conscience will not greatifie Satan nor neglect God no not in a little Put mens consciences now vpon this triall Who crakes not of his good conscience there be none if they may bee beleeved but they have good Consciences But why are they good They can swallow no Camells Well yeeld them that though if their entrals were well searcht a man might finde huge bunch backt camells that have gone downe their gullets They can swallow no camells but what say they to gnats can they swallow them Tush Gnats are nothing whole swarmes of them can goe downe their throats and they never once cough for the matter Foule and grosse scandalls such as are infamous amongst meere heathen such Camells they swallow not but what say they to unsavorie and naughtie thoughts which their hearts prosecute with delight what say they to them Gnats doe not swarme more abundantly in the fennes then such vile thoughts doe in their hearts The prodigious oaths of wounds blood the damned language of Ruffians and the Monsters of the earth Oh their hearts would tremble to have such words passe out of their mouths but yet what say they to the neater and civilified Complements of Faith and Troth Tush these are trifles meere Gnats alas that you shall stand upon such niceties To rob a man upon the high way or to breake up a mans house in the night this is a monstrous Camell but in buying and selling to over-reach a neighbour a shilling or two a penny or two what say they to that Oh God forbid they should be so strictly dealt withall that is a small thing their throats are not so narrow but these Gnats will goe downe easily enough To beare false witnesse in an open Court of Iustice or to be guilty of pillory-perjury these bee foule things but to lye a little for a mans advantage or to make another man merriment what thinke they of this This is a very Gnat they are ashamed to straine thereat Tell many a man of his sinne in which he lyes that his sinne and a good conscience cannot stand together what is his answer but as Lot of Zoar Is it not a little one Gen. 19. 20 But the truth is that these little ones are great evidences of evill conscience It is but a dreame to thinke our consciences good that make no conscience of small sinnes and duties The conscionable Nazarite now did not only make conscience of guzling and quaffing whole cups of wine but of eating but an huske and a kernell of a Grape What a trifle is the kernell of a Grape and yet a good conscience will care to please God as well in abstinence from the kernell as from the cup. Indeed when David had defiled and hardned his conscience with his adultery then hee could cut Vriahs throat and his heart smites him not for it but when under his affliction his conscience was tender and good his heart smites him
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
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 andâ—o Charissimifratres impudentia vos quorundaÌ„ premi verecundiam vestram vim pati oro vos quibus possum precibus vt euaÌ„gelij memores vos quoque sollicitè et cautè petentiuÌ„ desideria ponderetis vtpote amici domini cùm illo post modum indicaturi inspiciatis actuÌ„ opera merita singuloruÌ„ ipsorum quoque delictorum genera qualitates cogitetis ne si quid abrupte indignè vel à vobis promissum vel à nobis factuÌ„ 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 repeÌ„ting 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