lost and now is become altogether Evil. Every imagination of mans heart is onely evil continually Gen. 6. 5. And now mans evil Conscience showeth itself to be so two ways First In the defect of Trouble Secondly In the excess of Trouble First In the defect of Trouble When Sinners have upon them a Stoical Apathy a Spirit of slumber upon them as that they have no remorse at all in their Hearts they have no trouble for Sins past but have a setled purpose and resolution to continue in Sin Such a Conscience is called a seared Conscience 1 Tim. 4. 2. such a Conscience had they of whom the Apostle speaks Ephes 4. 19. that were past feeling and gave themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness Such a Conscience had Pharaoh such a Conscience had Ahab that sold himself to work wickedness Such as these have a Brow of Brass they know no shame Zep. 3. 5. Secondly An evil Conscience showeth itself to be so in the excess of Trouble When wicked men wanting Prayer and Repentance and Faith and Hope and the Pardon of Sin and the Inhabitation of the Spirit and the comfort of the Scriptures which should be supports to them are troubled above measure for that their Life is a burden to them In the Morning they wish that it were Night in the Night they wish it were Morning They are like the rageing Sea that continually casts up Mire and Foam this was the condition of Cain Judas and Spira Object Why but you will say Why should wicked men be thus descriminated and distinguished from others as being restless and unquiet Are not the best of men by the voice of Gods Word Law and Gospel and by the voice of Judgments and by the Acts of Conscience informing warning correcting and judicial in a perplexed Estate also Heman complains of troubles and terrours Psal 88. he was sensible of Gods fierce wrath of an overwhelming wrath a cutting killing and surrounding wrath v. 3 6 7 15 16. Yet Heman was one of the wisest men next after Solomon 1 Kings 4. 31. The condition of Job was like that of Heman he thought that God wrote bitter things against him Job 13. 24 26. He was scared with Dreams and terrified with Visions so that his Soul chose strangling and death rather than life Job 7. 14 15 20. He thought himself to be set up as a mark to shoot at he was a burden to himself he went mourning without the Sun Job 30. 28. Yet Job was a great and good man As for his greatness he was supposed to be the King of the Edomites and as for his goodness he was one that feared God and eschewed evil Job 1. David complains Psal 38. 6. I am troubled I am bowed down greatly I go mourning all the day long I am feeble and sore broken I have roared for the very disquietness of my heart Yet David was a man famous in his Generation for Piety and Holiness he was a man after Gods own heart 1 Sam. 13. 14. He is called the man of God Nehemiah 12. 36. Amiable and Delectable before God and Man So his name David signifieth Now for Answer to this We must note that the Troubles of Job Heman and David were Troubles not in the Conscience onely but also in the Affections and this occasioned a Godly sorrow as being an effect of Grace And they had the Use and Exercise of Prayer and Faith in the midst of their Distresses Job 42. 4. Psal 88. 1 2. Psal 19. 12. Psal 51. 9. 1 Sam. 24. 5. 2 Sam. 24. 10. So that the Issue of all their Troubles was glorious After an Eseck and a Sitnah there was a Rehaboth Gen. 26. 20 21 22. after the Wind Earthquake and Fire there came a still Voice 1 Kings 10. 11 12. after an Hectick Health after an Eclipse clear Light Sequitur post nubula Phoebus After Showers Sun-shine after a Wandering in the Wilderness a Canaans Rest They had secret Supports in their greatest Extremities and at the last had an answer of Peace and Comfort But the Troubles of Cain and Judas were no whit the Troubles of Affections but of Conscience onely and where there is a trouble of Conscience onely it is to be looked upon onely as a judicial Act of God upon the Conscience and it is not to be looked upon as an Effect of Grace but as a part of the Wages of Sin The Subject of Conscience is the Soul The Object of Conscience is Sin Now where the Conscience onely is awakened and enlightened by a common illumination so as to see Sin it is then in a condition to accuse and condemn and vex the Sinner That trouble in the Conscience which is onely a judicial Act consisting in Sense and Accusation God in Judgment brings upon the Transgressour When Instruction Direction Councels Cautions Threatnings and Checks do not keep men from sinning then God doth after Sin awaken the Conscience to accuse for Sinning and then the Soul is filled with bitterness and then the terrours of Hell do shake and confound the Soul Men so tormented long after Death and if it come not they search after it more than treasures and rejoyce when they can find the Grave Conscience works upon Sin and Sin frets and vexeth the Soul so that Conscience becomes as a Worm that never dieth Isai 66. 24. Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop Prov. 12. 15. By the sorrow of the heart the Spirit is broken Prov. 15. 13. Such an one is as one bruised between the Wall and the Door Nulla gravior poena poenâ conscientiae said Isiodorus There is no punishment more grievous than the punishment of a guilty Conscience The Rack and Wheel are and Vri virgis ferroque necari Burning and Scourging and all those bloudy cruelties invented by the Heathen Persecutors are short of this A wounded spirit who can bear Prov. 18. 14. Juvenal describes the sad estate of such men thus Cur tamen hos tu Evasisse putes quos diri conscia facti Mens habet attonitos surdo verbere caedit Occulto quatiente animo tortore flagellum They that are guilty of foul Facts are affrighted in their Conscience they are scourged and beaten with unknown blows Their Conscience like an Executioner whips bites and torments them an evil Conscience sits as a Judge and it is call'd in as a Witness nay more an evil Conscience is Judex Testis Carcer Tortor Judicat Accusat Damnat An evil Conscience is a Judge a Witness a Prison an Executioner it keeps Sessions within it self it accuseth judgeth and condemneth An evil Conscience is a plague which you can neither fugere nor fugare it is an Evil which a Sinner can neither flee nor fly from Cain put himself upon the building of a City to remove the troubles of his mind but that would not do it Gen. 4. 17. Belshazzar thought by his Cups to remove the trouble of his Spirit but
that would not remove it Dan. 5. 2. Such men in the midst of their greatest delights Singing Dancing and Dalliance are tortured in their Souls As Lemnius speaks Nocte dieque suum gestant in pectore testem Night and day they carry their Witness and Accuser within their breasts So that outward pleasures and delights cannot more cure their Wounded Conscience than a Crown of Gold can cure the Head-ach or a Velvet Slipper cure the Gout A perplexed man in the midst of all outward pleasures riches and honours is like a Book of Tragedies fairly bound up without but black within the Leaves Gold and the Lines Blood no Friends nor Physick no Gold nor Silver nor Favour of Princes no Pleasures of the World can give comfort in such a case neither Crowns nor Kingdoms can give deliverance in such a case There is no Bodily Sickness but Nature by the means of Physick hath provided a Remedy no Sore but Chirurgery hath provided a Salve for it There is no outward misery but there may be some means to relieve it Friendship helps Poverty Hope of Liberty easeth Imprisonment Favour revokes Banishment Time wears away Reproach but none of all these things can relieve or comfort a distressed Soul Pierius makes a continually hot baking Oven the Hierogliphick of a gauled Conscience And the Egyptians made a Mill an Hierogliphick of the same both for continuance and torture A man so perplexed is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a self-Tormentor such an ones Conscience like Titius his Vulture doth continually knaw him That which was feigned of Promethaeus as being bound to a Pillar upon the Mountain Caucasus and an Eagle eating his Liver every day and that which was eaten in the day grew up in the night that there might be no decay of his torment is true in this case it is a Worm that never dieth Such an ones House may be compared to Trophonius his Den where were nothing but doleful Ecchoes and sad Complaints A perplexed wicked man may take to him Pashurs terrible Name mentioned in Jerem. 20. 3. Magor-missabib that is fear round about such an one is a terrour to himself and to all that are about him What shall I say more A troubled Conscience is an Epitomy of Hell an Extract a Quintesence a Compound a Mixture of all Malladies Tyrannical Tortures Plagues and Perplexities Fear Sorrow Fury Grief Pain Terrour Anger all these things come short of it Were I to write a full Description of a Troubled Conscience though I had Melpomene for my Muse and had a Pen of Iron droping Cruelty and had Ink and writing as Bloud yet I could not sufficiently delineate it And therefore in this case I shall do like Timanthes who when he was to draw out the Picture of Agamemnons Grief and was not able to perfect it covered it over with a Veil he Pictur'd Calchas sad Vlysses mourning and Menelaus more sorrowful than either of them but as for Agamemnon whose Daughter Iphiginia was to be sacrificed he conceived his grief and sorrow to be in summo gradu not to be deciphered by Art and therefore he covered his Face with a Veil and left every man to his own conceit about it So in this case being not able throughly to describe the misery of an Afflicted Conscience I shall break off abruptly as to the farther Explication of this point and shall leave every man to his own imagination about it I have done with the Tragical part And now I am apt to think that some drooping Spirits groaning under the pressure of Sin and ready to despond and despair by reason of some present guilt upon them for some foul facts committed are ready to say to me Must we part thus Are there no crumbs of comfort Shall we hear no word of peace Will you let your voice be still like the hoarse sound of a Trumpet in a dead march Shall your Sermon be like Dracoes Laws that begun and ended in death Is there no balme in Gilead Is there no Physician there Is there no way to be reconciled to God and to have a peace within our selves and to have our Wounded Spirits healed Why yes I shall by and by come to the Consolatory part and shall put you into a way to be at peace with God and to have peace within your selves and to have your Spirits calm'd and your Consciences quieted But before I come to lay down any Rules of direction or means to obtain this I shall lay down Motives to perswade you hereunto First God hath promised it The Lord will speak peace to his people Psal 85. 8. Peace shall be upon Israel Psal 125. I create the fruit of the lips peace peace to him that is far off and to him that is nigh Isai 57. 19. that is I will really accomplish that which I have promised in giving peace both to Jews and Gentiles Secondly Christ hath purchased our Peace The chastisement of our Peace was upon him there was a proclamation of Peace at Christ's coming into the World the great Design of Christ was to reconcile God to man and to pacifie mans Conscience Rom. 5. 25. 2 Cor. 1. 5. Thirdly Others have obtained Peace within themselves David who for three quarters of a year was in a Spiritual Lethargie being at length awakened was much perplexed yet was at length restored to the joy of Salvation Mr. Bilney for a whole Year was in such anguish of Spirit that he thought all the whole Scriptures were against him and founded out his condemnation but afterward he was indued with such Strength and Faith that he did not onely confess his Faith in the Gospel but suffered his Body to be burnt for the Gospels sake Luther about the year 1514 was in such an Agony of Spirit that he felt nothing but trembling and fearfulness especially when at Rome upon his bare Knees he was climbing up certain Steps of Pilate's Ladder which the Romanist feigned to be brought from Jerusalem when he was doing this in a Superstitious way as a means to purge his Sins and quiet his restless and troubled Minde by the illumination of the Spirit he came to a right understanding of that Scripture The just shall live by his faith and then he was exceedingly comforted and his mind was pacified and he set about the Reformation and became a wonderful Instrument of God through whom God hath opened the light of his Word to the World Such examples as these who have found peace with God and within themselves should encourage us Fourthly Consider the Misery of a Troubled Conscience A wounded spirit who can bear And a wounded spirit who can declare As the troubles of the Soul are insupportable so they are inexpressible A wicked mans Conscience is the greatest Tyrant and Persecutour to himself he needs no other fury to follow him this is both Accuser and Witness Law and Judge Executioner and Punishment to himself A Soul left to the temptations of the Devil and
the prophets Hos 6. 5. It is like that Sword Gen. 3. 24. that turned every way to keep Adam out of Paradise so doth the Law in the Conscience of a Sinner forbidding him during his Agony to enter into the Paradise of comfortable thoughts The Law purely considered without any respect had to the Covenant of Grace was given to discover Sin to proclaim Wrath and Curses to the Sinner The Law so considered perswades a Sinner that all those Armies of Plagues and Curses and Sorrows and Sufferings denounced therein shall with an unresistable violence take hold on him and pursue him with that fury as that he shall never be able to abide nor avoid it The Law also being given upon Mount Sinai in Arabia the Ishmaelites Land who descended from Hagar out of the bounds of the Land of Promise considered purely and abstractively from the Covenant of Grace and not as given in subordination and subservenice to the Covenant of Grace is to discover Sin and the wrath of God against Sin and this works terrour in the Sinner Secondly Sin is an occasion of this Guilt is an adjunct of Sin All the world is guilty before God Rom. 3. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 liable to condemnation Now this guilt works horrour and upon this horrour sometimes follows desparation Peracto scelere magnitudo ejus conspiritur as Tacitus said of Nero. When a man hath committed a sin then he seeth the greatness of it that thereby the Law of God is violated that thereby the Justice of God is offended and then he is ready to look upon himself as being excluded from those Gospel-priviledges Adoption Acceptation Pardon Peace Spiritual Life Liberty Grace and Glory in Jesus Christ then he looks upon himself as a Debtor to God bound over to the penalty of his Law which he hath broken and then he is ready to accuse and condemn himself and is over-whelm'd with desperation ready to destroy himself Our Blessed Saviour being a Sinner onely by imputation met with conflicts and desertions and was in an Agony Sin deprives men of God's favour which is the spring of comfort it keeps men from an interest in Christ who is the Consolation of Israel Sin blinds the minde it hardens the heart it deads the affections it alienates men from God it works delusions desperate thoughts horrour of heart and confusion of spirit Sin follows men like an Avenger of Blood Sin is a bitter-sweet like Esaus Mess like the Israelites Quails like Adonjah's Dainties when the Meal is ended then comes the Reckoning When Sin is unmaskt then that which before appeared sweet and beautiful will appear bitter and ugly that which before was delightful will then appear dreadful Oh the shame the pain the gall the bitterness the horrour and hell that a true sight of Sin will raise in the Soul When the Dress is taken off it will appear more vile and filthy and terrible than Hell it self This made Anselme say That if he should see the shame of Sin on the one hand and the pains of Hell on the other and must of necessity choose one he would rather be thrust into Hell without Sin than go into Heaven with Sin Thirdly Satan is an occasion of trouble in wicked men Those Serpents that stung the Israelites were called fiery Serpents possibly in regard of their colour or rather in regard of their effect Serpents biting the Israelites did occasion a burning in their flesh which made a fiery heat in those whom they stung so the old Serpent the Devil doth set the Souls of wicked men on fire so that they think themselves to be burning already and expect to burn for ever hereafter in Hell The Devil is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Adversary he is also called a roaring Lion Pet. 1. 5 8. as an Adversary he will spight men and as a roaring Lion he will affright men The Devil is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Accuser Rev. 12. 10. the Devil doth not onely accuse God to man as Gen. 3. 5. and man to God Job 1. 9 10. but man to himself Satan entred into Judas Luke 22. 3. to accuse and torment him with thoughts of his Blood-guiltiness he is also called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from a compounded Verb that signifies to strike through We read of the Fiery-darts of the Devil these Darts he shoots through the Spirits of wicked men and doth infect poison and burn He is called the Envious man Satan from his craftiness Belial for his mischievous wickedness Cor. 2. 6 15. Abaddon and Appollyon Rev. 9. 11. as being a destroyer Belzebub which signifies a Prince of flies because he doth vex and fret a Wounded Conscience even as flies do vex and fret a gaul'd Creature Fourthly Conscience is an occasion of this The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Conscience is a compound it is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to see or know and the proposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies with the Latine word Conscientia is quasi cordis Scientia So that the Greek the Latine and the English word Conscience which is derived from the Latine signifies a Knowledge with that is with some other thing even as of the Heart What man knows the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him 1 Cor. 2. 11. Thou knowest all the wickedness which thine heart is privy to which thou didst to David my father Solomon there appeals to the Conscience of Shimei 1 Kings 2. 44. And indeed Conscience is the private Register of mens Actions it is a faithful Monitor within their breasts it is the Eye of the Soul to over-see the whole Occasions and Actions of the Heart and Life it is the Tongue of wicked mens Souls that makes report of the aberrations of their ways The office of conscience is to bear witness Rom. 2. 15. and indeed it is a faithful witness that will not lie Prov. 14. 5. Now the witness of Conscience is according to the qualities of men it excuseth good men Acts 23. 1. and thereupon followeth Peace Rom. 5. 1. It convinceth and accuseth wicked men John 8. 9. it condemns them also Titus 3. 11. 1 St. John 3. 20. aie and it torments them by occasioning shame and anxiety of spirit Levit. 26. 26. Prov. 28. 1. Rom. 6. 21. Grief Trembling and Desparation these are usually the Adjuncts and Concomitants of a perplexed Conscience There are three things considerable in Mans Conscience First The Matter Secondly The Act. Thirdly The Conscequence The Matter of Mans Conscience before the Fall was a Conformity in the whole Man to the whole will of God The Act of Mans Conscience then was to give a true testimony thereof And the Consequence upon Mans continuance in that Estate would have been Peace and Quietness Such a good Conscience would have remain'd in man if he had continued in his entire Estate But by mans Fall his good Conscience was quite