the word of God as the Psalmist saith A young man may cleanse his way by taking heed to Gods Word Look how a raw and unskilful Composer may do well enough if he shall but follow the advice of an able and careful Corrector of the Press so may the Consciences of men produce a correct edition of their lives if they make but such amendments as the word of God doth direct Far be it from us to charge the holy God so foolishly as if he did suborn and instigate the Consciences of men to condemn them for what they ought to be commended or to commend them for what they ought to be condemned for shall not the judg of all the earth do righteously is not Jehovah a God that cannot lye This premised it must needs be said that God never did doth or can give to Conscience a Commission or command to smite when it ought not to smite or to strike when it ought rather to smile upon us but it cannot be denied but that God doth sometimes give such a permission as that to the Consciences of men and leaves them as he is free to do to mis-represent things according to their corrupt and perverse inclinations That passage in the first of Kings 22.22 which seemeth of all other Texts most pregnant to prove that God Almighty doth sometimes give forth his command and commission to instruments to do that which is evil as namely to lye c. will be found upon due examination to signifie just nothing to that purpose the words are these And the evil spirit said I will go forth and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his that is of Ahab's Prophets And he that is the Lord said thou shalt perswade and prevail also go forth and do so But upon due search it will be found that those words of God go forth and do so are not words of command and Commission but a bare permission and sufferance like those words of our Saviour to Judas John 13.27 And after the sop Satan entered into him That thou doest do quickly As if he had said now the fulness of time is at hand in which the Son of man is to be betrayed I will not hinder thee but suffer thee to do what I know is in thy heart to do as soon as thou pleasest Again I say the words forecited Go and do so signifie no more than did the words of Christ to the Devils who besought him to suffer them to go into the Herd of Swine Matth. 8.31 And he said unto them go ver 32. that is not I command and appoint but I permit and suffer you to do Moreover it is to be noted that so the Hebrew Language doth often put the Imperative Mood for the Future Tense as in Prov. 4.4 Keep my Commandments and live where vive is put for vives live instead of thou shalt live So Prov. 9.6 Forsake the foolish and live that is and thou shalt live of which there are many more instances in the holy Scriptures In like manner the words go forth and do so in the Text I am explaining signifie no more but this I will not be thy hindrance if thou wilt thou shalt for me thou shalt have my permission to go forth and do so By what I have said it doth plainly appear that unless God were bound as surely he is not to hinder all the sin that is or ever was or ever shall be possible for him to hinder that is all sin that ever was or shall be in the world there is no fault to be charged upon God for permitting and but barely permitting the degenerate purblind Consciences of men like Ahab's false Prophets to delude and deceive them When the Consciences of men have defiled and debauched themselves it is at Gods pleasure and liberty whether hewill or will not restore and rectifie them However this may serve for ever to stop the mouths of men that though their Consciences in this fallen state be not a light sufficient to guide them in all their ways that they turn not aside from God more or less to the right or to the left hand yet God hath given another auxiliary or supplemental light if I may so call it viz. the Holy Scriptures which are said to be profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnish'd unto all good works For as man could not plead ignorance after that God had given him the Ten Commandments written in Tables of Stone though he had defaced the Law which was at first written in his heart this new edition of the Law in Tables of Stone restoring to him what was obliterated in the stony table of his heart so neither now can men plead excuse for their sins from the misdirectings of their Consciences sith God hath given his holy Word as it were another Conscience and guide to men to show them the way in the which they ought to walk and to please God What if the torch of natural light or Conscience hath been well nigh blown out so long as there are the Sun Beams of Divine Revelation contracted in the holy Scriptures as in a Burning-glass wherewith to light it again Put Conscience and Scripture together and where they two meet there 's light enough to make a mans way plain to heaven and if he will but mind his Compass to bring him safe to the port of everlasting happiness So I have done with the doctrinal part of the first doctrine viz. that Conscience is a smiter or a thing that will smite men first or last if they give occasion I shall conclude this discousse with a few Corolaries or Vses Use 1. Then God hath not left himself without a witness in the breasts of men nor men without warning Sometimes Conscience witnesseth for God and against men other times Conscience witnesseth for men and with God so the Apostle speaks The Spirit of God witnesseth with our spirits that we are the children of God Conscience is Gods Ambassador lying leager in the souls of men by which God is wont to give men notice when he is whetting his sword bending his bow making ready his arrow upon the string and preparing for them instruments of death if they turn not as in Psalm 7.12 God doth not usually surprize men or come upon them unawares before such time as he hath shot off his warning-piece Nineveh had notice given it by the Prophet Jonah of its approaching ruine if Repentance prevented not God by the preaching of Noah warn'd the old world of that Flood which did await it and was to fall upon it not till a hundred and twenty years after God would have men forewarned that they might be fore-arm'd Amos 4.12 Thus will I do unto thee O Israel and because I will do this unto thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel God threatens that he may not smite wishing
again and give over smitting Now to that I reply No Man can tell there is no Prophet that in this case knows how long for it is with the smitings of Conscience as it is with the Diseases of the Body Sometimes it smites Men without any intermission and that from day to day and gives them no rest day or night but makes them cry out with David Their iniquity is alwayes before them or say with Job Chap. 7. v. 13 14. When I say my Bed shall comfort me and my Couch shall case my Complaint then thou scarest me with Dreams and terrifiest me through Visions Whereas others again have their hot and cold fits and between while their well days wherein they are perfectly exempted from the smitings of Conscience Again Some have onely now and then a fit or two of Conscience and away which some call their Dumps or Melancholies and they are up again the smiting of their Consciences is but as the Morning Dew or early Cloud which soon passeth away 't is but April with them now and then a Cloud and a Shower and then the Sun presently shines out again but in others the smitings of Conscience are like a Burning Hectick Feaver never off them Their Consciences seem to be implacable towards them and and resolve to admit of no reconciliation but to have War with Amalek for ever if I may so allude It were not hard it may be to tell you of those who have been under the smitings of Conscience Seven years together or more I think that was Mrs. Honywoods Case nay of those whose Consciences have killed them with smiting or provoked them so long and so lamentably till they kill'd themselves or those who leapt out of the flames of Conscience into those of Hell Neither can I say that some who have been none of the greatest Sinners nor guilty of any enormous Crimes have been kept a great while in the Furnace of a smiting Conscience witness Mrs. Honywood aforesaid though ordinarily I do suppose it is the lot and portion of sinners of the first and second rate to be so served rather than others witness those words Psal 39.11 When thou with rebukes doth correct Man for Iniquity thou makest his Beauty to consume away like a Moth as also those Ezek. 33.10 Thus ye speak saying If our Transgressions and our Sins be upon us and we pine away in them how should we then live Now Lord what shall we say to this if the smitings of Conscience be so sharp and the shortest of them be so long compared with Humane Corrections and even to be given not onely to Children but Malefactors who can bear them long and who can live when God does this unless supported by that Arm which keeps even the damned in Hell alive We now proceed to the Seventh query viz. the Quando namely When or at what times it is that Conscience doth use to smitein reference to sin Whereto I reply First of all Many times before a sin be committed when Men have as yet but sin in deliberation or are but sitting upon it like the Cockatrice upon her Eggs having yet hatch'd nothing and are yet but parling with the temptation and listning to the tempter even at that time of day 't is usual with Conscience to shoot off her Warning Piece and to bid men take heed what they do and to do by them as Pilate's Wife did by him Matth. 27.19 When he was sate down on the Judgment Seat sent unto him saying Have thou nothing to do with that Just Man for I have suffered many things concerning him in a Dream c. Yea it is not unusual with Conscience to smite Men meerly for parling with a temptation or lending their ears more or less to the tempter for looking at the bait though they have not yet bit of it much less received the hook into their mouths and to give such Counsel as Solomon doth Proverbs 23.31 Look not thou upon the Wine when it is Red when it giveth its Colour in the Cup when it moveth it self aright at last it biteth like a Scrpent and stingeth like an Adder Thus in my Text Davids Heart smote him but for entertaining a Thought of Killing Saul as some suppose he had done or but for lending an ear to those disloyal Miscreants who counselled him so to do Secondly Conscience sometimes smites men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the very act of sin as Zimri and Cosby were smitten by another hand Thus while Belshazzar was carousing in the Bowles of the Temple which he ought not to have so prophaned and probably debauched himself and his Nobles round about him at that very instant appeared the Hand-writing upon the Wall in these words Dan. 5. S5 Mene Mene Tekel Vpharsin c. They are much mistaken who think that great sins if long adoing are committed without great regret in the very doing of them Conscience poures in Gall and Wormwood into the stollen Waters which Men thought would have been altogether sweet imbittering them in the very drinking of them and mixeth Colliquintida which is a very bitter thing with that sweet bread as men hope to find it which is eaten in secret Conscience doth purposely disturb and interupt the pleasures of Sinners and to spoil their sport doth as it were set a Deaths-Head by them in the midst of their Feasting and Jollity and doth cast their Sins in their Dishes whilst they are Feeding without fear and maketh them now and then to drink a Cup of Astonishment and of the wrath of God and to be like the Citizens in Esop's Fables Who whilst they were Banqueting are represented scared and affrighted with the noise in the Key-hole viz. Some Creditor or Creditors came to attaque them Now Conscience seems to do this not onely to imbitter so much of the Sin as is past but to make Men break off presently like Souldiers quaffing and carousing when they hear the Drums and Trumpets of an approaching Enemy David seems to have been approaching towards the Murthering of Saul when he cut off his Skirt It seems to imply he was trying what his Conscience would permit him to do in that case but blessed be God he had such a check from hs God and his Conscience for doing but that that he durst proceed no farther Thirdly More especially Conscience is wont to smite Men after Sin committed and that sometimes sooner sometimes later I had almost compared Conscience to an Vsurer who though he long forbear his Money when it is well secured as by Motrgage of House and Lands yet at last will be sure to call for Principal and Interest yea for Vse upon Vse or to take the forfeiture of what is engaged for his security There are particular reasons to be given why Conscience sometimes doth not smite men either before the Commission of a great Sin or in the very Act nor yet presently after but as sure as Old Age will come upon Men I
done de facto may be done de jure or whatsoever God makes possible by an unusual series of Providence as is the cutting off a Kings Head when it is once brought to the Block is thereby intimated to be lawful yea necessary and our duty So opportunity makes a Thief and a good opportunity makes it a Judges Duty to condemn him and an Executioners to put him to death But possibly these Subterranean or Cave Councellors of Davids that they might have three strings to their Bow did really intend to urge also a Prophecy and Promise from God in the Case whether there were any or no a Practice usual in more modern Ages to encourage Rebellion by some pretended Prophecy of success in the Case When men that intend Rebellion can alledge signal Providences pursuant of Prophecies and Promises for their purpose as also Prophecies foretelling those things which a train of successful providences seem to make way for they seem then to sail before Wind and Tide doubt not but to get safely yea and honestly too into the harbour of their designs and to get Complices enough to bear them company But since that providence hath tackt about like the Wind though it held for above twenty years in one Corner I do imagine that the English Logicians who formerly made more use of that Topick than of any other could wish that an Index Expurgatorius might pass upon it Because that Wind which for so many years past was with and for them is now as much against them And if they will still hold that old Argument taken from Providence it is to be hoped it will make them good and loyal Subjects because as miraculous a series of Providence as any they could ever pretend to hath given us the happy Restauration of His Majesty and firmly setled him upon his Throne But to proceed The Counsel of David's followers seemed to make some Impression upon him and that something did stick as they say there will when men do fortiter calumniari for that he adventured to cut off Saul 's Skirt as who should say he would try whether the Ice would bear him before he would venture to walk or slide upon it but finding it to Give Thaw or Crack under him I mean his Heart to fail him when he had done no more but so he presently started back his Conscience recoiled upon him and gave occasion to the words of my Text And Davids Heart smote him because he had cut off Saul 's Skirt Which words do plainly consist of three general parts viz. first of all David smitten secondly that which smote him viz. his Heart thirdly the reason why his Heart smote him because he cut off Saul 's Skirt I shall spend but a few words to explain the several parts of the Text. By Davids Heart we are to understand his Conscience for so some Interpreters render it Redarguit Davidem Conscientia sua Now the Conscience of Man may well be called his Heart because Naturallists give this account of the Heart of Man that it is Primum vivens ultimus moriens so is the Conscience of Man viz. The first thing that lives when man begins the Life of Religion and the last thing that dies when a man forsakes that Life for whilst a man has one spark of Religion abiding in him it remains in his Conscience As for the word smote him though it be a Metaphor I hope it may be pardoned because I find few Texts of Scripture in which is no Metaphor and the sense of it is plainly this That Davids Heart did rebuke him As for the last words because he cut off Saul 's Skirt they are so plain nothing can make them plainer It is most easie to espy in these words thus divided and explained these Four Propositions viz. First of all That Conscience is a Smiter or one that will smite men first or last if they give occasion Secondly That Conscience doth smite men sometimes for sins comparatively small as Davids Heart did for cutting off but Saul's Skirt Thirdly That the same Conscience hath and doth sometimes smite men for small sins which for a time hath given them no rebuke for much greater transgressions witness the Heart of David which for a considerable time rebuked him not for his Adultery with Bathsheba nor yet for murthering her innocent Husband Vriah and yet now smote him for but cutting off of the Lap of Sauls Skirt Fourthly That Affronts and Injuries offered to Superiours are sins for which Conscience is as apt to smite men as for most that are committed against either Table Of which I shall give an account hereafter But now for the first of these Propositions It may take in the two Later to which I shall therefore apply my self and in pursuance of it inquire into Nine Particulars or whether I should rather call them Generals I am not as yet satisfied viz. Quid Or what is Conscience secondly Quod the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or that Conscience is a smiter Thirdly Propter quod Or for what it is that Conscience useth to smite Fourthly Quos Or who they are that Conscience takes the boldness or useth to smite Fifthly Quibus Or by what means and methods Conscience is stirr'd up to smite men Sixthly Quando When and at what seasons Conscience useth to smite Seventhly Quamdiu How long Conscience holds on Chiding Eighthly Quomodo How or in what manner Conscience useth to smite Ninthly Quare Why or by what Authority Conscience presumes to smite Now these Nine Particulars will take up all we mean to say upon the Doctrinal part of this Text which we intend to finish in a short Application We begin with the first of these namely the Quid or to shew what Conscience is Conscience is well defined by Amesius to be Judicium Hominis de semetipso prout subjecitur Judicio Dei That is the Judgment of a Man concerning himself as it is subjected to the Judgment of God Isa 5.3 1 Corinth 11.31 But more plainly Conscience is that which excuseth when we do well condemneth us when we do ill If our Hearts condemn us saith the Apostle c. Commendeth us when we do well Confounds us or rather puts us to shame and confusion of Face when we leave undone the things we ought to do or do the things we ought to leave undone and on the other hand comforts us and fills us with joy when we leave undone what we ought to leave undone and do the things which we ought to do and as we ought to do them Hence those words of the Apostle 2 Corinth 1.12 For our Rejoycing is this The testimony of our Conscience that in godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world c. Conscience is a Court set up by God in every mans Breast and hath a three-fold Office assign'd it viz. That of a Plaintiff or Accuser Secondly Of a Witness or Evidence Thirdly Of a Judge for Conscience is all
these in one If any man put the Question What is Conscience as Pilate of old What is Truth Methinks I see Conscience it self stand ready to answer him Knowest not thou who and what I Conscience am whence I come and whether I would Art thou so much a stranger at home so much a stranger to thy self of whom I am part I am nearer to thee than he or she that is Flesh of thy Flesh and Bone of thy Bone than the Husband or Wife of thy Bosome I was brought up with thee in thy Nonage and was thy Bosome Companion from the time thou didst first know thy right hand from thy left I have been with thee early and late talked with thee many an hour in thy Bed and in the still and dead of the night I have kept thee waking many an hour when thou wouldst fain have slept calling thy sins to remembrance and seting them in order before thee Many a time have I made thee blush many a time have I made thee cry and water thy Couch with thy tears sometimes have I made thee quake and tremble and make thy very Bed to shake under thee And knowest thou me not all this while Other times have I spoken good and comfortable words to thee come to thee with an Olive Branch of Peace in my Mouth and said to thee in Gods Name whose vicegerent I am Well done good and faithful Servant Or as the Angel of God said to Cornelius in a Vision Acts 10.4 Thy Prayers and thy Alms are come up for a Memorial before God or as the words are Eccles 9.7 Go thy way eat thy Bread with joy and drink thy Wine with a merry heart for God now accepteth thy Works Sometimes have I made thee a Feast of Fat Things and of Wines refined on the Lees for a good Conscience thou knowest is a continual Feast of Fat Things full of Marrow of Wines on the Lees well refined Hence forward ask no body but thy self who I am Who should know the things of a Man but the Spirit of Man which is in him as the Apostle speaks And surely among the things of a Man I Conscience am the greatest I am that Spirit of Man which Solomon calleth the Candle of the Lord Searching all the inward parts of the Belly I am that great thing which some have called a god for it is an old saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though indeed I am but Gods Vice Roy or one of those that are called gods In a word I 'll say no more what I am for I am so inconsiderable when my Saviour is but once mentioned that I am not worthy speaking of yet I am not just nothing at all therefore let him that was writing of me proceed and tell you how it doth appear that I am that Smiter that Reprover that Bonarges that Son of Thunder that he has told you I am and that will bring him from the Quid to the Quod which is the next thing to be spoke to Secondly I am obliged in the next place to prove that which may as easily admit a proof as any thing yea indeed needs no proof at all viz. That Conscience is a faculty in the Soul of Man that will smite first or last if occasion be given I say it seems to need no proof for what need is there for any man to prove by Reason and Arguments that there is such a thing as the Gout Stone or Collick or that these things are painful when they seize People violently seeing the sense and woful experience of every man that has been under the smart discipline of all or any of these assures him that so it is What the Apostle saith of Afflictions may be applied to the chastisings of Conscience If you are without Chastisement whereof all are partakers ye are Bastards and not Sons The Scripture saith That by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word is confirmed We shall therefore alledge Three credible Witnesses viz. Scripture Experience and Sound Reason whereby ex abundanti to establish the point in hand It is none of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or things but once written in the Holy Scriptures That Conscience is a Smiter for this we find asserted over and over both in the Old and New Testament Witness first the famous instance of this truth in the first Adam Gen. 3. v. 10. And he said I heard thy voice in the Garden and I was afraid because I was naked and and hid my self The meaning whereof is That when Adam had eaten of the forbidden Fruit his Conscience did forthwith fly or spit in his Face and put him into a pannick fear and to a woful shame so that he could almost have buried himself alive or gone down to Hell could he there have been hid from the presence and displeasure of an angry God Our next instance shall be in Cain Did his Conscience smite him or did it not Yea almost as mortally as he smote his Brother Abel witness those words of his Gen. 4.13 And Cain said unto the Lord My punishment is greater than I can bear behold thou hast driven me out this day from the Face of the Earth and from thy Face shall I be hid and I shall be a Fugitive and a Vagaboud in the Earth and it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me v. 14. See here the doleful Bodings of a guilty smiting Conscience The Third Witness that we shall call shall be that passage in Gen. 42.21 And they viz. Joseph 's Brethren said one to another we are verily guilty concerning our Brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us A Fourth instance would be one more than I promis'd but you may have it in Judges 1.7 And Adoni-Bezek said threescore and ten Kings having their Thumbs and their great Toes cut off gathered meat under my Table As I have done so God hath requited me Let the famous instance of Judas bring up the Rear Matth. 27.3 Then Judas which had betrayed him viz. our Saviour when he saw that he was condemned repented himself saying I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood And he cast down the pieces of Silver in the Temple and went and hanged himself verse 4 5. If Conscience had not smitten him so as it were with fiery Scorpions surely his soul had not chosen strangling rather than life We have been already compassed about with a sufficient Cloud of Scriptural Witnesses In the next place you may find those Witnesses backt with Experience I mean the Experience not of one but of all Ages which need not be pressed but will come in in the Quality of Volunteers and offer its service to attest this truth That there is a God hath not more suffrages from the light of Nature and common Experience of Mankind then that there is a
Smiter or Reprover in every Mans Breast called Conscience I had almost said I appeal to every mans Conscience that there is a Reprover in his Breast which when he rusheth into Sin as the Horse into the Battle and drinketh in Sin as the Fish doth Water Curbs and checks him for so doing tells him he ought not to mispend his precious time to waste those golden sands of time which once run out can never be recalled Tells him that he ought to mind the Errand for which God sent him into the World and set all men upon the face of the earth viz. To seek after God if hapily they might feel after him and find him Acts 17. v. 27. And tells him in case he doth otherwise that he plays Jonah who set sail for Tarshish when God sent him to Nineveh and may justly expect that a storm of Divine Wrath will pursue him that he shall be cast into the Deep into the midst of the Seas and all Gods Billows and Waves shall pass over him as it is Jonah 2.3 Tells him that sith he names the name of Christ he should depart from all iniquity should deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts live righteously soberly and godly in the present world and that tribulation and anguish shall be upon every soul that obeys not the truth Vpon the Christian first and then upon the Heathen for this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil Now I doubt not but every man is capable of this Appeal to himself or to his Conscience or to that which the Quaker calls The Light within him Unless there be some few that have served their Consciences as desperate Persons sometimes do those Bayliffs and Serjeants which come to Arrest them in the Kings Name viz. kill them out-right which yet I think is hard to do by Conscience for thoughsome have laid their Consciences in Swanes and Trances or cast them into a dead sleep as did Herod in reference to Herodias with whom he lived in Incest yet they do generally awake and come to themselves again as appeareth by that famous instance of Herod Mark 6.16 of whom it is said When he heard of the fame of Christ he said It is John whom I beheaded he is risen from the dead Now to Scripture and Experience the two fore-cited witnesses I shall add a third viz. Reason That three-fold Cord can surely never be broken Hear then what Reason can say on the behalf of Conscience it being a Smiter I know saith Reason it must needs be so because the frame and make of Conscience is such as it is as well as I know that a keen Axe must needs be apt to cut because it hath so sharp an Edge Conscience is a Natural Logician Apta Natu that is naturally fitted to frame Syllogismes concerning which 't is a constant and infallible Rule That the Conclusion doth alwayes follow the worse and weaker part of the Premises Conclusio semper sequitur partem deteriorem If then Conscience shall thus syllogize as often it doth he that believeth not in the Lord Jesus Christ he that loveth not Jesus Christ sincerely and superlatively he that forsaketh not his Sins he that mortifieth not the Flesh with the Lusts and Affections thereof is condemned already and the wrath of God abideth upon him and then assumes or takes this for his minor Proposition But thou O my Soul believest not thou lovest not the Lord Jesus Christ thou hast not forsaken thy Sins c. Then will it be forced to fall foul upon a Man with this Conclusion Ergo or therefore thou art condemned already and the wrath of God abideth on thee I hope by this time I have proved the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Quod sit beyond all exception viz. that Conscience is a Smiter c. Which brings me to the third particular namely to the Propter quod or to shew what it is that Conscience doth usually smite men for In general it is for sin real or supposed most commonly real Now though Conscience doth many times wink at small faults though not alwayes so neither give me leave to tell you it seldome forbears to smite for great and crying Abominations such are first of all sins committed against the clear Light of Nature as well as of Scripture such as the Apostle chargeth them with Rom. 1. v. 32. Who knowing the Judgment of God that they who commit such things are worthy of death not onely do the same but have pleasure in them that do them When Christians venture to do those things which even Heathens know ought not to be done namely to do to others what they would nor others should do unto them to tell pernicious Lies to perjure or suborn Perjury to the undoing of others c. When Conscience smites for such faults as those will it not fetch blood and make every blow it gives pierce to the very heart Secondly Those sins whereto even corrupted Nature seems to have an antipathy aversation and abhorrence as namely Horrid ingratitude towards our best Friends recompencing Evil for Good as Christ saith I have done many good works among you for which of these do you go about to stone me John 10.32 Cruelty to a mans own Flesh and Blood as in Parents towards Children and Children towards Parents and in other near Relations one towards another Incest and the like When Conscience smites such Fools as these doth it not as it were Bray them in a Morter break them upon the Wheel put them upon a Rack give no Quarter and Refuse to â—â—ure for their much crying Thirdly Those sins which are at once a manifest breach of both the Tables of Gods Law and which either smite at men as it were through the Loyns of God Almighty or at God Almighty through the Loyns of Men As for Example When Jezebel suborned Witnesses to forswear themselves against Naboth that she might take away his Life What was that but a smiting of Naboth through the Loyns of God Almighty And on the other hand When wicked men have persecuted the Saints and Servants of God spilt their Blood as Water upon the Ground because they bore the Image of their Heavenly Father What was that but to smite at God himself through the Loyns of Men To crucifie our Saviour again in Effigie and to tell the World but that the Heaven of Heavens must contain him till the restitution of all things they would have done as much to him as they have done to his Friends and Followers Now Conscience is wont to stir up all its Wrath as it were to heat the Furnace of its Indignation seven times hotter than at other times when such Miscreants as these are to be cast into it Fourthly Those sins which are of dreadful and horred consequence which produce amazing and astonishing evil Effects which imbrew Nations in Blood and pluck down Divine
Dowry for his Daughter two hundred Foreskins of the Philistines slain by his hand yet was his Conscience too much and too hard for him humbled him laid him grovelling in the Dust at its pleasure Nay it hath smitten as great rich and powerful men as most ever were witness David aforesaid and his Son Solomon a greater Prince than he both in Wisdom and Wealth both of which Conscience when time was made to lay their mouths in the dust if there might be hope Did not Conscience make its part good with Nebuchadnezzer though a kind of Universal Monarch Dan. 3.4 c. As also with Belshazar spoken of Dan. 5.6 In these words Then the Kings Countenance was changed and his Thoughts troubled him so that the Joynts of his Loins were loosned and his Knees smote one against another namely when he saw the hand-writting upon the Wall Thou art weighed and found too light And so I have dispatched the fourth thing or the Quos shewing whom Conscience makes bold to smite viz. As well High as Low Rich as Poor Wise as Foolish Learned as Unlearned Princes as People Men that have the fairest forms of Godlias well as those that are openly Prophane for Conscience is no Child or Coward to fear Masks and Vizards and no Changling to be taken with Painted Faces and Artificial Beauties The next or fifth Head to be spoken too is the Quibus or by what things Conscience is ordinarily stirr'd up to smite and chide and some of them are as follow viz. By the Word of God Read or powerfully Preached which is the reason why some Persons conscious to themselves of great sins wherein they lived have studiously refrained coming to Church lest they should meet with rebukes and others have as generally abstained from Reading the Holy Scriptures lest they should find the Word of God to be quick and powerful and sharper than a two-edged Sword and a discerner of the Thoughts and Intents of the Heart Saint Austin Reading the Holy Scriptures was smitten to the purpose with that Text Rom. 13.13 Let us walk Honestly as in the day not in Rioting and Drunkenness not in Chambering and Wantonness c. Secondly Conscience is sometimes set to work or set a work by the private admonition of some faithful friend Minister or other good Christian So David's sleepy Conscience was roused and awakened by the Prophet Nathan his convincing Parable of the Ewe-Lamb c. Hence that Expression of the Holy Psalmist Psal 141.5 Let the righteous smite me it shall be a kindness and let him reprove me it shall be an excellent Oyl which shall not break my Head That is by the figure Meiosis which shall prove sanative and healing to me meaning that the wholesome reproofs of a faithful friend like those Medicines which take off the stagnation of Blood and Spirits in the Veins and Arteries of Men and do put them into a free motion and equal circulation would as it were ferment his Conscience and by so doing cause it to do him a kindness Thirdly Gods chastisements upon men set their Consciences a smiting For when God smites Conscience though it lay still before is apt to smite too as we see in the case of Josephs Brethren who when he ruffled with them and swore by the Life of Pharoah they were spyes which might make them to expect to be used accordingly then and not till then they said one to another We are verily guilty concerning our Brother in that we saw the anguish of his Soul and we would not hear therefore this distress is come upon us In the 33. Chap. of Job where we read of Gods chastning Man with Pain upon his Bed and the multitude of his Bones with strong Pain so that his Life abhoreth Bread and his Soul dainty Meat his Flesh is consumed away that it cannot be seen and his Bones that were not seen stick out his Soul draws near to the Grave and his Life to the Destroyers then as it is v. 16. God openeth the Ears of Men and sealeth their Instruction then as it is v. 23. If there be a Messenger with him and an Interpreter one among a thousand which may partly be meant of an awakened Conscience by what followeth v. 27. To shew to man his uprightness then God is gracious to him c. I say the 27. v. may countenance the referring those words to Conscience or intending it by the Interpreter there spoken of because the words there are He looketh upon Men and if any say I have sinned and perverted that which is right and it profited me not he will deliver his Soul from going into the Pit c. Fourthly Those Afflictions or Judgments above all others which carry the Mark and Signature of our Sins upon them are most apt to set Conscience a smiting for read saith Conscience as he that runs may thy sin in thy suffering behold the plain Prints and foot-steps of it that Face doth not more exactly answer to Face in the Glass So in the case of Adoni-Bezek Judges the 1.7 Threescore and ten Kings saith he having their thumbs and their great toes cut off gathered their meat under my table as I have done so God hath requited me c. So said Samuel to Agag 1 Sam. 15.33 As thy Sword hath made Women Childless so shall thy Mother be Childless among Women and Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord c. Fifthly When men are spectators of Gods smiting others for the same sins which themselves have committed or do commit from day to day but especially if for less degrees of those sins than they themselves are guilty of then and thereby is Conscience stirr'd up to smite them and doth cause them thus to bethink themselves If this be done to the green Tree what shall be done to the dry As for Example If Ananias and Saphira were struck dead upon the place for telling one lie a-piece and that but a kind of equivocation neither O what shall become of me who have told thousands of lies who walked in the way of lying who compassed God about with lies and deceipt as it is Hosea 11.12 Who have pressed the God of Truth with Lies as a Cart is pressed with Sheaves What can I expect but that the Earth should open its Mouth and swallow me quick Now these are some of the things for I shall not pretend to call all to remembrance which do by the Conscience of Men as the Marriners did by Jonah when fast asleep in the Ship viz. Call upon them and awaken them which possibly would otherwise never awake till they awoke in Hell or till Men were drowned in the bottomless Pit of Destruction Sixthly the next thing we propose to query is the Quamdiu or how long the smitings of Conscience use to last how long it useth to be before an angry Conscience become pacified or before Conscience having fallen out with Men about some great Sin or Sins become Friends
mean the infirmities of it if they live to be an hundred years Old so certainly Conscience will call Men to an account if not in Health yet in Sickness if not Living yet Dying yea if not dying so soon as they are Dead for Conscience is a King that never Dies as they say in Law Rex nunquam moritur And they will find it in the next World by the Name and Nature of a Never dying Worm and as the Proverb saith Nullum Tempus occurrâ—t Regi The Kings time never lapseth Some Men will find that Conscience hath not lapsed or lost any time like Creditors that lose their Debts and Priviledge of suing for them for want of demanding them within such a term of years but will recover all its Arrears and sue them till they have paid the uttermost farthing We proceed in the next place to the Eighth Query which I proposed to speak of viz. The Quomodo Or how and in what manner it is thas Conscience doth use to smite men for sin To which I answer That Conscience doth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at sundry times and in divers manners First of all Conscience doth sometimes smite men very gently and easily with light and soft touches as Old Ely did his Sons when he said It is not a good report which I hear of you my Sons you make the Lords People to transgress 1 Sam. 2. Chap. v. 24. It whips Men sometimes as Mothers use to do their Infant Children with a small Twig and a soft hand whereby they are rather scared than hurt and toucheth them with that tenderness as one would touch the Apple of ones Eye But Secondly Conscience doth many times correct Men smartly smite them severely yet not so but that they are able to bear it as you shall hear some Men say of those fits of the Stone Gout or Collick which they have felt that they were very painful indeed but they thank God such as they were able to undergo and but able It is as much as ever some Men can do to bear that burthen of a wounded Conscience which lies upon them but they make a hard shift with much a-do rub along a little more weight added to them would sink and over-whelm them their Consciences correct them in full measure though not above measure and this it may be is the case of thousands their Consciences give them their full Dose though they destroy them not with a Hypercatharsis Thirdly But some there are a case two frequent in the World though not so common as the former whose Consciences do smite them Ad extremum viriuna and lay on upon them with all their might whose Conscience thunder and lighten upon them as God did upon the Israelites from Mount Sinai Exodus 19.16 And it came to pass that there were Thunder and Lightnings and a thick Cloud upon the Mount and the Voice of the Trumpet exceeding loud so that all the People that was in the Camp trembled and Mount Sinai was altogether on a Smoak because the Lord descended upon it in Fire the Smoak thereof ascended as the Smoak of a Furnace and the whole Mount quaked greatly With such like Terrour so far as a Creature may imitate his Creator so doth Conscience sometimes cloath it self If a Beast doth but touch the Mountain to allude to the passages at Mount Sinai it is stoned or struck through with a Dart Heb. 12.20 I mean if a bruitish thought do but touch a mans mind so terrible is the sight thereof as aggravated by Conscience that he may say as Moses 21. I exceedingly quake Look with how grim a Countenance and with how incens'd a Heart Ahasuerus lookt upon Haman when coming out of his Garden he found that proud Traytor fallen upon the Bed where Hester his Queen was and said of him Will he force the Queen also before me in the House Hester 7.8 With such an aspect and with such a rage doth Conscience accost some Men cause their Faces to be covered presently with shame and confusion Doth it not fall upon some Men like a Bear robbed of her Whelps or like a Man under Jealousie upon him whom he suspects Of which Solomon saith It is the rage of a Man he will not spare in the day of his wrath Conscience seems sometimes to vie with Death in the point of Terror and to make it self more a King of Terrors than he for Sin is the sting of Death and Conscience is as it were the sting of Sin That Death is less terrible than an inraged Conscience is manifest because thousands fly or have fled from a pursuant Conscience to hide themselves in the valley of the shadow of Death and have chosen rather to fall into their own Bloody and Murtherous Hands than to remain in the hands of Conscience How many pursued by Conscience have repaired to a Melancholly Beam as one calls it or any thing they could make a Gallows of as it were to a City of Refuge or to the Horns of an Altar that is have chosen strangling rather than life The Jews allow but Thirty nine Stripes to be given even to Malefactors 1 Cor. 11. But Conscience will give Thousands and Millions fetching Blood at every stroak Stone Collick Strangury are the names of three little Tortures compared to that of a wounded and wounding Conscience for so it is that a wounded Conscience will wound if we wound it it will wound us that ever Gnawing Worm if we tread upon it will surely turn again Nothing can make the Torment of Racking and Burning seem small but the greater Torment of a Tormenting Conscience All I have said is easie to believe if we but consider some men have preferred Hell it self before the smitings of an incensed Conscience so Judas when he went and hanged himself though others it may be have been preverted from doing the same thing chiefly by considering that what is said of God may as truly be said of and to Conscience Psal 139. If I make my Bed in Hell behold thou art there Some it may be fear that never dying Worm in Hell more than the Fire and Brimstone we read of as supposing that the Torments of Conscience are all in all as to the Pena sensus or the positive Punishment which the damned do there undergo Say not the Lion is not so terrible as he is Painted or Conscience as I have described it for it alone can tell thee how terrible it is Of it as of the great God may be said Who knoweth the power of his wrath according to his fear so is his wrath The terrors of Conscience are as boundless as the extent of Fear which is a passion that knows no limits The Sea is bounded by Sands but the dreads of Conscience hardly by any thing no Boanarges or Son of Thunder like to Conscience no high Court of Justice nor yet of Injustice so terrible as that Two Witnesses serve in other Courts Conscience is a
thousand Witnesses that which makes it more dreadful is In the Court of Conscience a man becomes a thousand Witnesses against himself yea a Man becomes that Judge that passes the Sentence of eternal Death on himself as the Apostle saith Acts 13.46 Yea viz. Jews have put away the Gospel from you and judged your selves unworthy of everlasting Life Were there ever a Francis Spiro in our days as it is like some such there are he would tell you that all that I have said of the terror of a smitting Conscience were but one half of what is true yea but a Flea-biting to what he himself had felt that eye had never seen ear heard or it ever entered into the heart of man to conceive how terrible the smitings of Conscience sometimes are and that whereas 't is said that Deus Eternitas non patiuntur Hyperbolen id est that God and Eternity can admit of no Hyperboles or cannot be out-languaged The same may be truly said of a Conscience set upon smiting I shall conclude this Head with those words of Solomon The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmities but a wounded Spirit who can bear Prov. 18.14 Ninthly Come we now to speak of the ninth and last Query propounded to be spoken to viz. Quare Why it is that Conscience doth smite men when they do or have sinned against God I answer of that there are principally two reasons to be given first of all because God hath given Conscience a Command and Commission so to do saying to Conscience as to his Prophet of old Lift up thy voice like a Trumpet tell the people their transgressions Conscience is God's Attorney-General if I may so call it God's Advocate to plead for God against man to exhibit God's Indictments against man as the matter doth or shall require Conscience is also Gods Executioner God's Lictor if I may so call it and therefore must smite when God bids it smite it hath God's fasces and secures that is God's Rods and Axes in his hands and must not bear those ensigns of Authority in vain but do execution with them as the great Consul or Dictator of the world shall appoint So much for the first reason Secondly The next is this God hath every way fitted and framed Conscience in its own fabrick nature and constitution for such a work as this viz. to smite men in reference to sin Unto so doing it is conducted as it were by instinct from God as is the Sun to know its due time of Rising and Setting and several Creatures void of understanding to know their proper seasons yea things without life act according to that frame and make which Art hath given them so Clocks do strike and Alarms go and sound at such seasons as they are made to do But for smitings of Conscience there is further reason for Conscience is at once both a Law a Witness and a Judg appointed of God so to be and qualified accordingly As it is a Law of which the Apostle speaks Rom. 2.14 15. These speaking to the Gentiles having not the Law are a Law to themselves which law is Conscience that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Law written in their hearts Now Conscience as such is by Divines called Synteresis being a Store-house of Maxims and Principles informing us of the Eternae indispensabiles rationes boni mali which Divines do so much speak of engraven with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or common notions of good and evil Secondly Conscience is a witness yea a thousand witnesses as we learn from Rom. 2.15 by these words which show the works of the Law written in their hearts their Conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts mean while accusing or else excusing one another Now as Conscience is a witness Divines call it Syneidesis Lastly Conscience is a Judg and as such is by Divines called Crisis witness 1 John 3.20 21. If our hearts condemn us God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things if our hearts condemn us not then have we confidence towards God which words do show Conscience to be a Judg for it is the office of a Judg to pass sentence either of Condemnation or Absolution Moreover in those words are intimated that God hath given to Conscience as it were the power of the Keys and had said unto it as unto Peter and his Successors Matth. 16.19 I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven But now methinks I have to encounter with a very grand Objection namely this How can Conscience be said to be qualified as a reprover or smiter for sin sith it sometimes smites men for that which is no sin at other times when men do really sin against God it smites not at all but rather applauds and commends them as did the Conscience of St. Paul which told him he ought to do many things against Jesus of Nazareth and that it was true zeal in him to persecute the Churches of Christ Sith Conscience sometimes puts darkness for light and light for darkness evil for good and good for evil what matter is it for its smitings unless it were wiser and knew how at all turns never to justifie the wicked and condemn the righteous Can it be may some say that God should give a Commission to Conscience to smite those which ought not to be smitten or to chide those which ought rather to be comforted or to comfort and commend those who ought rather to be soundly chid and condemned If Conscience trifle at this rate may some say ought it not to be slighted like a perfidious Jury that brings in those guilty that are not guilty and those not guilty that are guilty This Objection seems to stand like a Mountain if not like Mount Sion it self which can never be removed yet wait but a while you may see it made a Plane if not turned into a Valley I premise a word or two by way of Concession namely that Conscience in this corrupt degenerate estate of all humane faculties doth sometimes mistake comforting those which it ought to chide and chiding those whom it ought to comfort but thanks be to God there is a way to prevent those mistakes Time was when Conscience might have serv'd as a Law to us and of it self a kind of regula pure regulans But now it is a regula regulata viz. a rule to be ruled by the word of God which is to Conscience as a light shining in a dark place to which the Consciences of men ought to take heed as to that which is a light to their feet and a lanthorn to their paths There is a crookedness which hath happened in part to the Consciences of men by Adam's fall and their fall in him but is such as may be rectified or made streight by attending to
rather to scare men than to hurt them and causeth Conscience to smite them that if that will serve the turn he may hold his hand for it is better to fall into the hand of Conscience than into the hand of God If God had not such a witness as Conscience is how could he convict men at the day of Judgment of secret sins as the Text saith God will bring every secret thing to light whether it be good or whether it be evil and in the 1 Corinth 4.5 is said God will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the heart What but Conscience can witness against Men at the day of Judgment their Heart Murthers Heart Adulteries as Solomon said to Shimei 1 Kings 2.44 Thou knowest all the wickedness which thy Heart is privy to Now Conscience is such a witness as none can withstand or deny its testimony If two credible witnesses are sufficient even in matter of Life and Death much more Conscience which is a thousand witnesses Hence it is that we read of him who coming to a Wedding Feast without a Wedding Garment that when the King said unto him Friend How camest thou in hither not having a Wedding Garment he was speechless Matth. 22.12 Hence also we read of Every Mouth being stopt and all the World becoming guilty before God Rom. 3.19 Hence it was that no reply was made to our Saviour when he said He that wâ—â— without sin let him cast the first stone at her for the Text saith John 8.9 They which heard it being convicted in their own Consciences went out one by one Now whereas some are brought in pleading thus for themselves at the day of Judgement When did we see thee Hungry and fed thee not Naked and clothed thee not Sick and in Prison and did not administer unto thee Matth. 25.44 The reason is because they knew not that which Christ tells them of in the next verse In as much as you did it not to one of the least of these you did it not to me If their Consciences had been sooner convicted of their unkindness to their Saviour expressed in their unkindness to his Disciples and Followers they would not have had one word to say for themselves or presumed to open their Mouths It can never be doubted whether the Message were left with those Persons whom Conscience was appointed to warn because Conscience alwayes speaks with the Parties themselves and leaves its errand in their own Breasts Indeed when Christ shall come to judge the World it is said He will come like a Thief in the night Yea when God comes to ruine Persons or Nations after fair warnings given but never taken he oft-times doth it suddenly Hence Destruction is said to come as a whirlwind or as sorrow upâ—n a Woman in Travel who are sometimes never better at ease or more light-some or cheerful than just before their Pains hence those words of Solomon Prov. 29.1 He that being often reproved hardeneth his Neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy There we read indeed of sudden destruction but of frequent reproof going before it Now Conscience is the great Reprover and a man is never throughly convicted as to himself till he be so of his own Conscience so I have done with the first use Second Vse The next Use or Corollary is this If Conscience be such a Smiter as hath been shewed then it is no argument that sinners scape scot-free or go unpunished because their sins do not go before to Judgment that is are kept secret from men and consequently exempted from Humane Punishment Pain and Shame because it is Punishment enough God wot for a Man to run the Gantlet and undergo the Rack of his own Conscience If God shall but say take him Conscience take him by the Throat clap Irons upon him throw him in thy Dungeon feed him with the Bread of Spiritual Affliction and give him those Waters to drink which are more bitter than the Waters of Marah If the great Judge shall thus deliver up a man to the severest of Jaylors and say throw him in Prison and give him no hope to come out till he pay the utmost farthing Handle him as thou didst Cain Judas Francis Spira for thou canst do it teach him as Gideon taught the Men of Succoth with Bryers and Thorns tear him in pieces and let none deliver him Psal 15.22 If such a sentence as that shall come forth from the great God he upon whom it is past needs no Poverty no loss of near and dear Relations no Bodily Sickness or Pain no Temporal Prison no Reproach or Disgrace from Men to make him miserable nay he shall be so in spight of Riches Honour Power the best of Wives and Children the kindest of Relations and Friends and what ever else this World can give him he shall tremble as did Belshazzar even when quaffing and carouzing with all his Friends about him he shall fit Uneasie and as it were upon Thorns though he sit upon a Throne with his Crown on his Head and his Scepter in his Hand and Thousands of Nobles standing bare before him he shall not be heartily merry though upon his Wedding day nor at the Birth and Baptizing of a brave Son long desired nor at a Prince-like Feast when he hath all his Kindred and Friends about him the rarest Wines shall not be able to make him merry till they have made him not himself and then how he can be said to be merry who is not himself I know not Wine commonly makes the Brute or Brutal part of Man merry but what is that to the Man or to the Soul of Man which is himself God knows if Conscience be wounded a Man can possess no Mirth but what is rather to be called Madness or like the Laughter or Dancing of those who are stung with a Tarantula and let the Beast or Beastial part of Man be never so Brisk and Jocond that which is properly called the Soul viz. The Humane rational Soul or Spirit of a Man intermeddles not with its joys which makes me think of the Apostles words The Widow which liveth in Pleasure is Dead while she lives for what is Death but a separation of Soul and Body and in this case Soul and Body are separated for her animated Body hath Pleasure but her Soul hath none Reader If thou hadst ever known what the smitings of Conscience mean I need not tell thee that they are sufficient to give a man a very Hell upon Earth whilst they who behold his outward Prosperity not knowing where the Shooe pinches him do think him as it were in Heaven if there be any such thing as Heaven upon Earth So I have done with the second Vse The Third Vse is this If Conscience be so great and terrible a smiter it must needs be great folly in Men needlesly to provoke and inrage it as too many do from day to
what I do though all the World besides be ignorant of it than if all the World besides knew it and my own Conscience knew nothing of it for if Conscience be disposed to take vengeance on me and to call me to a strict account for what I have done I know it can create punishments for me beyond all that men can inflict or that can be inflicted by any hands save his who is able to cast Soul and Body into Hell Fire and in that regard is the onely Person whom I ought to dread and reverence more than my own Conscience for as Self Murther is the worst and cruellest of all Murthers so Self-smitings and what are they but reflections of Conscience are the terriblest of all smiteings They are those Arrows of the Almighty that stick in Mens hearts and the venom thereof drinketh up their Spirits What pity is it that many men never learn to fear themselves enough till they come to feel themselves so sharp upon and so uneasie to themselves that they can bear it no longer that they seem a greater Hell to themselves than Hell it self would be which was Spira's case It is one good answer wherewith to stop the mouth of the tempter How can I do this wickedness and sin against my own Conscience How can I look my Conscience in the face if I comply with such a temptation or rather how dreadfully will Conscience stare me in the face when I have done it I had rather displease the whole World than displease that part of my self which is called Conscience for if that once be angry and continue so I shall have no joy in my Life all my comforts will be imbittered it will give me for Beauty Ashes for the Oyl of Joy Mourning for the Garment of Praise the Spirit of Heaviness it will be Colloquintida or Death in the pot of all my Injoyments They feel Conscience least who fear it most and they who in one sense are most afraid of Conscience are usually least hurt by it as Parents love not to strike those Children whom they can sufficiently over-awe and deter from mis-doing without striking them So I have done with the 5. Vse A Sixth shall be this Sith Conscience is so dreadful a Smiter it must needs be every mans concern to maintain Peace Amity and a good Correspondence with his own Conscience that it may either not smite him at all or in measure so as he may be able to bear it staying if I may so speak its rough Wind in the day of the East-wind not thrashing out the Fitches with a thrashing Instrument nor turning about the Cart Wheel upon the Cummin but beating out the Fitches with a Staff and the Cummin with the Rod To allude to what is said of God Isaiah 28.27 Correct him but in measure though it leave him not altogether unpunished as God promised his People Jer. 30.11 School Boys who have Masters eminently severe are concerned to make as few faults as ever they can and to please them as much as ever lies in their power as ever they hope to sleep in a whole skin such a Master is Conscience if it set on Now the way to give it content and to keep it quiet with us is as followeth Direct 1. See that Conscience it self be well advised and informed like a Jury that have received full instructions from the Judge else it may chance to chide us sometimes upon pure mistake as the weakest People are usually the most querulous What serves the Word of God for what more proper use can be made of pious and able Ministers of our acquantance with Judicious and experienced Christians than that by the help of all these our Consciences might be guided into the way of truth Neither is it easie for us to imagine that in case we did use all these means to inform our Consciences aright that God would suffer them to err in any great and dangerous instances Direct 2. When we have got our Consciences well advised our next business should be to consult and advise with our Consciences When Conscience hath heard what God hath to say to it we should hear what Conscience had to say to us As God gave his Law to Moses and Moses to his People so God speaks first to Conscience or gives his Law to Conscience and Conscience in Gods Name gives Law to us If we pay not that respect to our Consciences to consult with them they will never be at peace with us but think themselves slighted and affronted Conscience expects that every Man should say to it By your leave and may it stand with your good liking before he enterpriseth any matter of concernment When a Man hath any thing in design the first question to be asked is Is it lawful to be done And of whom should a Man ask that but of his Conscience leaving thar to inform it self the best it can by all the wayes and means aforesaid For as God took it ill when the Israelites sate down to eat and drink with the Gibeonites and asked not Counsel of the Lord So will Conscience when we do any thing of importance and do not first ask its Counsel and repair to it as to an Oracle Direct 3. If thou wouldst not have Conscience smite thee then when Conscience is yet in doubt and suspence be thou in suspence also suspend acting till Conscience become resolved according to that good old saying Quod dubitas ne facias Remembring the Apostles Words He that doubteth is damned if he eat because he eateth not of faith for whatsoever is not of faith is sin Rom. 14.23 As also the Exhortation which the same Apostle giveth v. 5. Let every man be fully perswaded or assured in his own mind Meaning of the lawfulness of that which he taketh in hand He that would maintain peace and friendship betwixt Conscience and himself or rather that would have his Conscience good friends with him let him await the full resolution and satisfaction of Conscience before he presumes to act Direct 4. He that would escape the severe stroaks and smitings of Conscience let him take heed of doing any thing contrary to the express distates and commands of thereof of going if I may so express it to Tarshish as did Jonah when Conscience would send him to Nineveh of going to the West when the Commission which he hath received is for the East Conscience is very impatient of being contradicted and that Men and Women should proceed point blank contrary to its Counsel and Command Next to that indignation wherewith you may imagine the great God resented it when the Israelites of old made this stubborn reply to his Prophet Jeremy Jer. 44.16 viz. As for the Word that thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord we will not hearken unto thee but we will certainly do whatsoever thing goes forth out of our own Mouth to burn Incense unto the Queen of Heaven c.