Loyalty and Peace Or Two Seasonable DISCOURSES From 1 Sam. 24.5 viz. David's heart smote him because he cut off Saul's skirt The First Of CONSCIENCE and its Smitings The Second Of the Prodigious Impiety of Murthering King CHARLES I. Intended To promote sincere Devotion and Humiliation upon each Anniversary Fast for the late King's Death By Dr. SAMUEL ROLLS Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty LONDON Printed by Tho. James Mathematical Printer to the King 's most Excellent Majesty for Joseph Hindmarsh at the Black Bull in Cornhill near the Royal Exchange 1678. but stand ready for such another I had dedicated these my first-fruits in the Church to him to whom all first-fruits are due but that I considered that Kings like High Altars ought not to be approached all at once but by steps and degrees as also that such a Tragedy as I here relate could not be pleasant to his Majesty to read though very profitable for his Subjects that it should be written The Loyal Contents of this small Treatise may assure the world that your Lordship hath admitted into his Majesties Service a Person of as unfained and fervent Loyalty as your heart could wish or as the world affords And now my Lord what remains but my most ardent wishes in which I know your Lordship will joyn with me viz. That the Soul of our Lord the King may be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord his God as the Phrase is 1 Sam. 25.29 and the lives of his enemies may be slung out as out of the middle of a sling that his Enemies may be clothed with shame but upon himself his Crown may flourish and that God would cover his head both in the day of Battle and of Peace For your Lordship I have no greater thing to wish than that the King of Kings may take your Lordship as much into his favour as the King of England has done and instead of the Star which his Majesty hath bestowed upon you may in due time give you that Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judg shall give at the great day to all them that love his appearing which is the hearty Prayer of My Lord Your Lordships most humble faithful and obedient Servant S. ROLLS TO The most Reverend Father in God WILLIAM Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of all England and Metropolitan and one of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council S. R. The least of all the Servants of the Church and not worthy to be so called humbly dedicates his poor and unworthy Labours in the ensuing Treatise of Conscience c. May it please your Grace THough some Writings of extraordinary men may seem to need no Patron yet I am very sensible that mine do and this of mine above all the rest which for the nature of the Subject may pretend to deserve one because I do easily foresee it will fall under the displeasure of many both for the Author 's and Arguments-sake for the Author's sake because he hath given his Service to the Church of England which he had done many years sooner but for an invincible impediment not unknown to your Grace and now doth with as much heartiness chearfulness and satisfaction as ever man did for which there are some that do stomach him the more because a doubting trembling sâ—â—upulous Conformist is in their apprehension the honestest man that conforms and in the most safe and salvable condition though the Spirit of God speaking by St Paul hath told us That whatsoever is not of faith is sin and that he that doubteth is damned if he eat No less distasteful to many prejudiced and malecontented people is the Argument of the latter part of this Fook For they cannot endure to hear that Fact called a horrid and bloody Murther which they have look'd upon as a gallant and heroick Enterprize not unlike the signal Atchievements of Jael against Sisera Ehud against Eglon recorded in the Book of Judges I doubt too many had rather that Act had been made a Precedent than the Actors thereof an Example My Lord If I fly not to your Grace's Protection men of that ill Character will be ready to swallow me up quick whilst their rage is kindled against me For having preached but one 30th day of January upon the subject of this Book I know to my sorrow what it and a few more expressions of my Conformity cost me and how I was made to run the Gaunlet for it and from some men could have no quarter But my comfort is that I have fully satisfied my own Conscience in this that I have written and if your Grace's Judgment shall be also satisfied therewith I shall value it more than I shall regard the censure and clamor of a thousand disaffected persons who for want of Capacity Learning and Integrity are not the thousandth part so able to make a judgment of it I therefore beseech your Grace to take both it and its Author under your wing at least the Author for his good and loyal Intentions which may extend far towards the covering of his weaknesses who will easily own that he hath nothing to be proud of if he may be proud of any thing but that he had the honour to have been sometime of the same University and Colledge with your Grace and admitted thereinto upon your Grace's personal Examination and Allowance I write not this as presuming to invite your Grace to water what you have planted but only to make a hedge about it that no wild Creatures may root it up Now that he whose right hand hath fixed your Grace in that place of Eminency where you now shine as a Star of the first Magnitude would always hold your Grace as a Star in his own right hand and make you as hitherto your Grace has been a burning and shining Light shining forth more and more like the Sun towards the perfect day is the hearty Prayer of Your Grace's Most Devoted Orator Humble Servant and Obedient Son S. ROLLS To the Right Honourable Henry Earl of Arlington Lord Chamberlain Of His Majesty's Houshold and one of His Majesties most Honorable Privy-Council c. S. R. Humbly dedicateth the ensuing Treatise wishing it may prove in any measure worthy of your Lordships acceptance May it please your Lordship HAving lately received more immediately from your Lordships hand an Honour too big for me to mention in print I hold it my bounden duty thankfully to acknowledge it Were I able to write any thing that might be worth your Lordships reading which I can scarce presume to think that were one proper way of doing it for the Calves of Mens Lips are as usual a Thank-offering as any and the Calves or Sacrifices of their Pens are almost the same thing For Pens are a sort of Lips wherewith men speak so loud that the world may hear them My Lord within the compass of this Book I have endeavored to express my hearty Loyalty first to the
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
Vengeance upon Cities and Kingdoms like the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah which laid those famous Cities all in Ashes or like Davids numbring the People which exposed his Subjects to one of three dreadful Judgments choose him whether the least whereof was the Plague or Pestilence when Conscience smites for such things as these it even breaks Mens Bones it makes them Magor Missabibs that is Terrors round about to themselves ready to fall into the jaws of despair cursing the day of their birth as did Job Chap. 1.3 upon an other account and crying out as he v. 11. Why died I not from the Womb Why did I not give up the Ghost when I came out of the Belly When Conscience smites at this rate ah who can live But Fifthly and lastly to name no more Presumptuous sins that is sins committed against full Conriction of their real and hainous sinfulness against the Lord Out-cryes of Christian Friends Holy Ministers and above all of Mens own Consciences crying out and saying O do not this abominable thing which the Soul of God hateth sins against fairest warnings given by Gods signal Judgments executed upon sinners of the like nature sins against the highest obligations of stupendious mercies obliging men to the contrary and aggravated by whatsoever other circumstances do aggravate the sins of men These presumptious sins as I call them do make the Consciences of Men to smite till even themselves be sick with smiting and to give the sinner little or no rest day or night causing him to cry out My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness there is no soundness in my flesh because of my sin mine iniquites are gone over my Head and are a burthen too heavy for me to bear c. Now that Conscience should smite for such crying and crimson sins as these is no wonder but what should be the meaning of its smiting men as now and than it doth for small sins for motes in their eyes for meer Peccadillo's When poor Jonathans have tasted but a little Honey upon the tip of their Staves Why must they die for so doing Why must Vzza's Hand wither but for stretching it forth and that with a good intention to stay Gods tottering Ark Why must the Carkasses of so many Beth-shemites fall onely for the most pardonable curiositie as it may seem viz. To look into Gods Ark whilst the Angels of God themselves are allowed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to stoop down and to pry into Gods Misteries Why must David lose so great a number of his innocent Subjects as he call'd them when he said What have these Sheep done onely because their King and Shepherd made bold to number them Why since it is a Maxim in the Laws of England Lex non curat de minimis The Law troubles not it self with trivial faults I say Why doth the All-merciful God either smite himself or suffer Conscience to smite at so great a rate for small Transgressions for cutting off not the Head of a King but meerly the Skirt of his Garment Or how can he be said to be merciful that does so Hath he appointed Conscience not onely not to swallow Camels but to strain at Gnats Is this the manner of Men that are accounted mild and merciful Ans It were easie for me to take up the Authors of this objection very short saying no more than this Who art thou O man that repliest against God But since it may easily be done I shall gratifie them with a more full and satisfactory account of this matter in the following Particulars First of all God doth therefore punish small sins such I mean in comparison of others with great temporal Punishments and set Conscience at work sometimes to chide for them at a great rate to let the World know there is no sin small absolutely but comparatively For as much as every sin is committed against God who is infinitely good and in that respect is Ex parte objecti a kind of infinite evil As there is no wilful Murther Incest Sodomy Bestiality Perjury or Treason which is in it self a small crime yet there are some of all these which are small in comparison of other faults of the same denomination clothed with much more aggravating circumstances as we commonly hear of Petty Treason in opposition to High Treason so there are Petty Thefts Petty Oaths of which sins we may say as of the Stars of Heaven viz. They are all great though not all of the same magnitude for all Stars are not Stars of the first magnitude Secondly God sometimes smites severely both by himself and by Conscience his Vice-Roy for small sins to let men know that the smallest sins deserve though not the greatest of eternal yet of temporal Punishments though not the worst place in Hell yet the worst condition can be undergone in this World else God had been unrighteous in laying what he did lay upon Job whose sins were meer Motes in comparison of the sins of many other Men which were like Beams and yet his Afflictions were like great Beams whilst theirs were but little Motes or Atomes dancing in the Sun To punish any man one grain above his demerit were one grain of Injustice which is altogether incompatible with the Righteousness of God Surely the greatest of temporal Judgments are but finite and therefore the least of sins being infinitely evil Ex parte objecti or as it is against an infinite good cannot but deserve it Thirdly Therefore doth God suffer men to be smitten at a very great rate both by himself and their own Consciences for small sins which they use to call Zoar 's saying they are but little ones and their Souls shall live to declare his infinite Purity and Holiness as being so great a hater of all sin that he cannot behold the least without indignation as if the Apple of his Eyes were thereby touched and a very Mote will disturb the Apple of ones Eye Fourthly We may humbly conceive that God puts a Rod into the hands of Conscience in order to its smiting men for small sins for this merciful end that he may restrain them from committing greater He whose Heart smote him for cutting off but Sauls Skirt was in no danger of ever adventuring to cut off his Head Lastly God may be supposed by Conscience and by himself to smite men severely for small sins that thereby he may make other men afraid of committing greater and they who have committed greater to quake and tremble when they consider what God hath done by those whose sins were far less than theirs saying within themselves If this be done to the green Tree what shall be done to the dry And if Judgment thus begin as it were at the House of God where shall the wicked and ungodly appear I hope by this time my Reader is satisfied in the reasons why God doth sometimes punish sins comparatively but small with great and grievous Judgments and
particularly with sharp stings and reflections of Conscience If any shall now ask me why God doth not punish all sins alike in this Life and every small transgression as severely as he did Davids numbering the People I might answer him by another Question namely Why do not Magistrates put to death all condemned Persons Thieves and others but onely transport some whilst they hang others and while some are executed within a day or two give others a long reprive and possibly in conclusion a pardon Is there any Injustice in so doing No surely for Justice and Mercy do not interfere but do sweetly accord and kiss each other whilst Mercy keeps within its Zodiack to allude to the motion of the Sun though it hath an Ecliptick Line which seems not so strait yet it trespasseth not upon the Bounds or Land-marks of Justice Take it in the case of Pharoah who though he hanged his Baker that had displeased him was not unjust though his pleasure was to lift up the Head of his Butler who possibly was in the same Transgression as well as in the same Prison with him not upon the Gallows as he did the Baker but in the Preferments of his Court A Creditor who having two Debtors shall cast one of them into Prison who all things considered deserves to be so dealt with is not unjust though at the same time he shall freely forgive the other as great or greater a Debt It is highly comporting with Wisdom and the ends of Government that small sins be sometimes severely punished especially at the first making Laws to give them sanction So God commanded him to be stoned to death who gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day and sent fire from Heaven to consume Nadab and Abihu for offering strange fire And it is on the other hand as agreeable to Wisdom and other Perfections that small faults should generally receive but small punishments that the work and reward as well bad as good should bear a manifest proportion each to other But the Riddle of all Riddles as it may seem to some is that which is yet behind namely Why doth God sometimes suffer the Consciences of men to be quiet and not to smite them at all after they have sinned with a very high hand when yet the Consciences of those very men are sometimes appointed by God to fall foul upon them for meer Peccadillo's Of which we have an instance in David whose Heart smote him not for the matter of Bathsheba and Vriah the two grand faults of his Life and greatest blot sin all his Escutheon till such time as Nathan the Prophet came to him which was supposed to have been one or more years afterwards and opened his Eyes with the Eye-salve of a Parable whereby he was honestly trapann'd if I may so say into giving sentence against himself There are principally two reasons which offer themselves to satisfie us in this point One taken from the Nature of great Sins the other from the Justice and Wisdom of God That from great Sins is this 'T is the nature and property of great sins to stun and stupisie the Consciences of Men and as it were to strike them dead as a great blow is apt to put a man past all feeling for the present to deliver him up to an Apoplexy whilst a small blow shall fill him with Smart and Pain 'T is commonly and truly said Leves loquuntur curae Ingentes stupent And it is most certain that all things which are a great deal too big and too much for us do naturally astonish and confound us be they Griefs or Joyes Fears or Hopes Good or Evil Things which sutes well with what Naturalists say viz. that Nimium sensible ledit sensorium As we see too much Light dazzles and blinds our Eyes though nothing so pleasing to the Eyes as that measure of Light which they can bear and too much noise though moderate sounds are the musick of the ear do not please but deafen us so it fareth with Men who by great sins have stun'd their Consciences and lain them as it were sprauling at their feet they become as the Apostle calls it Past feeling Ephes 4.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as it is expressed 1 Tim. 4.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is having their Consciences seared with a hot Iron Conscientias Cauterio resectas like Veins or Arteries burnt in two which have no more sense or perception of any thing Secondly The reason of this which is taken from the Justice of God may be thus explained 'T is a righteous thing with God when Men have slighted the frequent and earnest motions of their Consciences to give them up to their own hearts lusts and to say unto Conscience Let them alone as of old concerning Ephraim Ephraim is joyned to Idols let him alone Hosea 4.17 or as it is in the 14 of that Chap. I will not punish your Daughters when they commit Whoredom nor your Spouses when they commit Adultery c. Or as it is in Psal 11. v. 11 12. But my People would not hearken to my voice and Israel would have none of me so I gave them up to their own hearts lust and they walked in their own counsels c. This is now the soarest of all Punishments in this Life As nothing afflicts a Sick Man so much as to hear his Physician say Let him eat and drink what he will rise and go abroad when and where he will for then he concludes that he has given him over and looks upon him as past all cure and so an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or pleasant Passage out of the World is all he aims at for him I forbear to add a third reason viz. That Conscience when it has found it self often repulsed resisted and baffled begins to grow weary of admonishing takes pet and saith in effect as the words are Rev. 22.11 He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he that is filthy let him be filthy still or as God himself Isaiah 1.5 Why should you be stricken any more you will revolt more and more the whole Head is sick and the whole Heart is faint c. Let us now pass to the fourth thing which I propounded to speak of viz. The Quos or who they are that Conscience doth make bold to smite In answer to that let me tell you 'T is much easier to declare whom Conscience hath presumed to smite than whom it hath not for doubtless Conscience fears the Face of no man it hath smitten as Wise Men as ever were in the World not doubting to make good its charge against them witness Solomon for one if the Book of Ecclesiastes be his recantation as it is generally supposed to be It hath smitten as valiant Men and brave Souldiers as ever drew a Sword witness David who feared not the Face of Goliah that mighty amazing Gyant he who undauntedly encountered with a Lion and a Bear and gave Saul as a
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
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
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
will not so much as bark Or what does a Sword signifie if it be rusty and has lost all its edge Chyrurgeons can asill spare their smarting as their healing Plaisters because proud Flesh must be taken off by Corrosives Give me a Fever rather than a Lethargy sith it is the manner of Physicians to cure Men of Lethargies by casting them into Fevers It is better to be blistered than stupified therefore Epispastick Plaisters are applied when stupefaction is feared but especially when incumbent Let my Conscience rather raise Blisters on me from Head to Foot than suffer me to fall into a dead sleep of Security and fall into Hell in a Golden Dream of Heaven and Happiness Now that Conscience may be in smiteing case as the matter shall require and have that sharp edge which is due to it take the following directions Dir. 1. Keep the Eye of Conscience alwayes open and clear that it may be able to see when cause is given to smite The will indeed is Coeca potentia a blind faculty truly so called and if not led by the understanding will fall into many a Ditch hence 't is commonly said that Voluntas sequitur ultimum dictamen intellectus practici But as for the Conscience that to be sure ought to be no blind faculty for that is understanding it self therefore called Intellectus practicus it does belong to it not to be led but to lead it is the very eye of a Soul I had almost said the very Apple of its Eye therefore let not so much as a Mote get into it to dim and obscure it Direct 2. Keep alwayes a tenderness upon thy Conscience though not a perplexing scrupulousness What said God to Josiah 2 Kings 22.19 Because thine heart was tender I also have heard thee saith the Lord c. A tender Conscience is soon wounded and a Conscience that is wounded will certainly wound and smite Conscience of all things is not to be exposed to hardship for what Divines say of the Holy Ghost viz. That Spiritus Dei estres delicatula That he is a tender thing soon grieved and quenched The same in its measure may be said of Conscience it is a most tender thing 'T is preternatural when those parts of the Body that ought to be soft and tender become hard and callous as when a Mans Kidneys become petrified and turned into meer Stones so it is when the heart of a Man becomes a heart of stone which ought to be a Heart of Flesh Direct 3. Labour to escape the frequent and more fervent smitings of Conscience for by means of them it is that the hearts of Men become perfectly hardned Just like School-Boys who having often felt the smart of the Rod or Ferula and are feeling of it from day to day are wont to despise those Corrections and to become Rod and Ferulâ— Direct 4. Encourage Conscience to smite thee by mending upon it as often as it tells thee thy faults remembring that passage Job 34.31 32. Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement I will not offend any more that which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more Conscience will have little heart to smite a man any more but rather consent that he be reserved to the day of Judgment to be punished if when smitten he revolt more and more and if he be not manifestly worse is not one jot the better for all its smitings Direct 5. Be much in contemplation of Death and Judgment and of the world to come or if thou wilt of the quatuor novissima or the four last things viz. Death Judgment Heaven and Hell for they are as it were the four wheels which draw the Chariot of Conscience and when they or any of them is quite taken off Conscience draws but heavily Commend me to the good man that said I bless God I carry my dying thoughts always about me and do use to try my most solemn enterprises by the touch-stone of this question Will this or that give me comfort when I come to die How will Conscience look upon this or that through the perspective of Death and approaching Judgment To think often of our dying and coming to judgment is an excellent way to keep our Consciences alive and awake and in smiting case so I have done with the 5. Direction and 4. Use The 5. Vse or Corollary is this Sith Conscience is so terrible a Smiter and so like to the Hand and Rod of Moses which could fetch Water out of a Rock as has been shewed it behoves every Man to stand in Awe of his own Conscience and to take that advice as in reference to God himself viz. Stand in awe and sin not It was an old and a good saying Dâ—sce revereri teipsum That is That a Man should learn to reverence respect and dread himself Sure I am There is no part of a Mans self which he ought more or yet so much to dread as his Conscience But for Conscience no one faculty in the Soul of Man would be terrible to him nor yet all his faculties put together but Conscience infuseth terrour into every one of them Who could not look upon the Register of his Memory without any trouble or fear were it not that Conscience did severely reflect upon the evil action therein registred Who could not exercise his speculative understanding in contemplating the worst things he hath done without regret or remorse were it not that Conscience that Practical Intellect did make such terrible use of them Who could not disport himself with his Fantasie and Imagination and pleasantly act over all his former enormities upon that stage were it not for Conscience that is apt to spoil the Sport to look a Man out of Countenance and to speak to him in those words of Solomon Eccles 11.9 Rejoyce O Young Man in thy Youth and let thy Heart cheer thee in the days of thy Youth and walk in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment They had wont to say Cave Cato videt Take heed Cato sees you But I say Cave Conscientia videt Take heed Conscience sees you get out of Consciences sight if you can and do your worst but I had almost said you may as easily fly from God himself who is Omnipresent as from Conscience which is Gods Deputy though it be not every where present as God is and present to all Creatures as God is yet it is present to every Mans self and I was about to say of it in reference to every Mans Soul as is said of the Soul in reference to the Body that Conscientia est tota in toto tota in qualibet parte That is Intirely in all and every part and faculty of the Soul Say often to thy self It is more to me that my Conscience is privy to
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
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
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
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
day for there are a sort of Men of whom David speaks Who are wont to transgress without a cause Psal 25.3 David speaks of some who were his Enemies without a cause Psal 7. and without Cause had hid their net for him in a Pit which without cause they digged for him Psal 35.7 May it not be said of some that they are Enemies to God and to the Peace of their own Minds by making work for Conscience and for Repentance without any considerable cause Of this sort are those who abound in needless Oaths and Execrations crying at every turn I will be hang'd if this or that be not so Yea here and there you have a Monster of a Man that fears not upon every slight occasion to cry God damn me as if he defied his maker and scorned that Tophet which was prepared of old for such as he which God hath made deep and large the Pile whereof is much Wood and the Breath of the Lord like a stream of Brimstone doth kindle it Isa 30.33 Or as if they could cheerfully drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God which is poured out with mixture into the Cup of his Indignation and endure to be tormented with Fire and Brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb and to have the smoak of their torment ascending for ever and ever and to have no rest day nor night Rev. 14.10 11. Or as if when the question is put Who can dwell with the consuming Fire who can dwell with everlasting Burnings as it is Isa 33.14 they could roundly answer That can we do If so they have stouter hearts than sinners in old time were wont to have for the Text saith The sinners in Zion are afraid fearfulness hath surprized the Hypocrites saying Who shall dwell with devouring Fire c. Methinks I can resemble these Persons to nothing so much as to the Priests of Baal spoken of 1 Kings 18.28 of whom it is said They cried aloud and cut themselves after their manner with Knives and Launces till the Blood guished out upon them Many who laugh at the Papist for whipping themselves on Good-Friday do worse for that Papists do in point of Devotion aiming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to beat down their Bodies as we translate it by beating them Black and Blew but Atheists slash and gash their Souls with severe stroaks for no good intent at all but out of meer Irreligion and wanton Prophaneness Lord I can but think how these men will look when Conscience shall come to reckon with them and they find themselves not able to answer it one of a thousand I can but think how pale they will look or rather how black in the Face with fear and astonishment what a dreadful eccho those Oaths and bloody Curses will have in Mens Ears when they come to be resounded upon a Sick-bed or Death-bed Or rather in what a pickle those men will be when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming Fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and they see themselves punished with everlasting Destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2 Thes 1.7 8 9. If it be so terrible as it is to hear but a zealous Minister warmly discoursing of the Torments of Hell especially if a Mans Conscience at the same time second what he saith and joyn issue with the Preacher as did the Conscience of Felix of whom it is said Acts 24.25 That when Paul reasoned of Righteousness Temperance and Judgement to come Felix trembled I say if the bare hearing of Hell be so terrible as to make a Heathen Judge upon the Bench tremble at the words of his poor Prisoner at the Bar standing there to await his Sentence how intollerable will it be to feel such things And who can chuse when in the midst of those Flames but cry out as did the Sinners and Hypocrites in Zion Who can dwell with devouring Fire Who can dwell with everlasting Burnings You would be loath constantly to sit under the Ministry of a Boanerges that would be alwayes thundring and lightning preaching of Hell and Damnation flashing Hell-fire in your Faces with every Sermon as if Mount Sinah were his Pulpit but were your Minister such you could make a shift and an excuse to go out of the Church as oft as he came to his use of terrour and stay out of his way till the storm were over but if you provoke your Consciences and make them burning as well as shining Lights within you as that phrase may be taken whether will you fly from those flames and whereunto will you betake your selves Go whither you will Conscience will follow you and if you have Ears to hear will make you hear yea will find you Ears if you make as if you had none yea speak loud enough to be heard though you were almost dead or were disposed to turn a deaf Ear upon it Conscience will have access to you at all hours even in the dead and still of the night it will come stealing upon you like a Thief in the night nay that it need not do neither for it will make bold with greatest noise to burst your Iron Bars break open your Doors and make a loud and forcible entrance upon you when it pleases and look upon it self to be always at home when it is where you are yea to be Master of the House and to have full authority to speak and do within your Breasts what it listeth Conscience is as it were every Mans Chamberlain and carrieth the Key of every Mans Breast as it were at his Girdle and therefore can go or get into a Man when it pleaseth and if they do as it were bolt or bar the Door on the inside it is able to make even Brass or Iron Grates to fly open before it for nothing can keep Conscience out Now Conscience being such a thing as I have described what Solomon saith viz. He that passeth by and medleth with strife that belongeth not to him is like one that taketh a Dog by the Ears may be applied to Conscience And therefore it must needs be folly and madness in any Man needlesly to provoke his Conscience and without great cause and temptation to make work for it as he were mad that would rouze up a sleepy Lion or Mastiff when he had no occasion so to do So much shall serve for the 3. Vse Fourth Vse shall be this Sith it is the office of Conscience to smite Men as in reference to sin it must needs behove us to keep our Consciences alwayes in smiting case I do not mean to give them cause to smite us for that we should by no means do but to keep them in an aptitude and fitness to smite us when just cause is given What is a Dog good for if he
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.
You may conceive that indignation to be wherewith Conscience resents it when any Man saith to it either in words or in effect As for what thou hast spoken to me in the Name of the Lord I will not do it but whatsoever proceedeth out of my own Heart and Mouth that will I do The day is yet to come in which Conscience ever did or ever will speak peace to those that are in flat rebellion against it and as the Text saith Had Zimri peace who slew his Master So may it be said Had ever any Man peace whilst he was in actual Arms and Hostility against his Conscience No no The way to peace and tranquility of Mind is to do nothing but by full and free leave and consent of our well informed Consciences Direct 5. If thou wouldst shun the smiteings of Conscience being so terrible as thou hast heard they are give thy Conscience the preferrence and preheminence above all other faculties of thy Soul yea above all other Creatures interest and considerations whatsoever The interest of God and Conscience is one and the same and therefore that Interest should take place of all others Say not my Will and Affections nor yet my Pleasure Profit nor Honour do incline or invite me this or that way If Conscience suggest other things and say O do not that thing whereto thy will and affections are so much inclined or thou so much tempted by thy worldly interest for Conscience is more than all the rest All other Sheaves ought to bow to the Sheave of Conscience to allude to what was prophesied and as it were tipified concerning Joseph and his Brethren that they should be subject to him We have a Proverb My Mind to me a Kingdom is To be sure every Mans Conscience is his Kingdom So long as any Man holds the possession of a good and unvanquished Conscience he may be said to be in his Kingdom for surely among those Kings of whom God saith By me Kings Reign Conscience is one Dejure and he admits of Tyrany and Vsurpation in his Soul who suffers any other Creature to rule over him or any being but he that is The King of Kings and Lord of Lords One saith well That Peace is every thing in Gods Order and that there is not rue Peace but where it is so you may therefore conclude that where the soveraignty of Conscience next and immediately under the great God is not owned and submitted to there can be no Peace for so long as Conscience can hold a Scepter in his Hand he will smite all such Persons or do what is worse Direct 6. If thou wouldst disable COnscience from smiting or arresting thee labour alwayes to carry a pardon about thee signed and sealed with the Blood of Jesus have thy Discharge and Acquittance from the great God alwayes in readiness to produce then mayest thou presently stop the mouth of Conscience if it begin to accuse thee with such words as those Rom. 8.33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect it is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died nay rather that is risen again c. Then may you say using the Apostles words 1 Cor. 6.11 And such meaning such great sinners were some of you but you are washed but you are sanctified but you are justified in the Name of our Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God Lastly Thou mayest build upon it that a well informed Conscience will never smite thee so as to do thee any great hurt if thou canst but sincerely say of thy self what Saint Paul saith of himself Acts 24.16 Herein do I exercise my self to have alwayes a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards Man Nay let me tell you the fore-going Directions well observed and practised will not onely prevent the stripes and smitings of Conscience but also procure the smiles thereof and cause it to speak to thee in such Language as the great Judge will to all true believers at the great day saying Well done good and faithful servant enter into the joy of thy Lord. FINIS The Second DISCOURSE OF No Conscience OR Of the Murthering OF King Charles I. Calculated more especially to be Read on any Thirtieth Day of JANVARY BY DOCTOR SAMUEL ROLLS One of His Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary LONDON Printed 1678. The Second Discourse NOw Reader if thou art only for Practical Divinity stop here and go no further for I confess to thee what remains will be partly Polemical partly Political being such as the solemnity of the 30th day of January and the occasion of the Fast of that day doth call for For methinks if I may presume to know the Whispers of Mens Hearts I hear some prejudiced Persons object and say What cause hath any Mans Conscience to smite him for having been concerned in the Death of King Charles the First Why is he called a Martyr or why his Judges called Murtherers So many of them as died upon the account of that Fact Now why should I be thought uncharitable for imagining this to be the lauguage of some Mens Hearts since David saith Psal 36.1 The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart that there is no fear of God before his eyes there taking upon him to judge the Root in their hearts by the fruit in their lives there being so greata foundation in the practices of some men to judge so of their hearts Namely That they think the King no Martyr nor his Judges no Murtherers Nay what if some do think That they were the true Martyrs who suffer'd for putting the King to death This will be more easie for any man to believe if he shall but consider that not one of all those men that were condemned and executed for giving Sentence against the late King of Blessed Memory would ever acknowledge that he had sinned against God in so doing Since they did seem to be of that mind who had the Microscope of Death before them which I so call because death oft makes men spy small faults in themselves who before could not espy great ones Doubtless there are many others of the same mind though a man would wonder that there should be such a vail of ignorance upon the hearts of any that are called Christians as not to know so black and foul a Crime as that to be a sin But sith so it is that some if they durst would rather applaud that Bloody Fact than profess to abhor it and would not doubt to say That Ministers in observing the Thirtieth day of January as a solemn Fast do but mock God and flatter the State being a time which some had rather keep as a day of Thanksgiving the more their Sin and Shame I think it but necessary not in order to kindling of Coals or increasing Animosities or causing the surviving relations of the Kings Judges to be more hated and scorned for God knows I abhor any such