talked vainly wanton wickedly his voice is a terrour to himselfe Seeth he his own eyes in a glasse he presently apprehends these are those which shot forth so many envious covetous amorous Glances his eyes are a terrour to himselfe Sheep are observed to flye without cause scared as some say with the sound of their own feet Their feet knack because they flye and they fly because their feet knack an emblem of Gods Children in a wounded Conscience selfe-fearing selfe frighted Tim. What is the fift Reason which makes the paine so great Phil. Because Sathan rakâ—…s his clawes in the reeking blood of a wounded Conscience Belzebub the devils name fignifieth in Hebrew the Lord of flyes which excellently intimates his nature and employment flyes take their selicity about sores and galled Backs to infest and inflame them So Sathan no sooner discovereth and that Bird of Prey hath quick sight a Soule terrour-struck but thither he hasts and is busie to keepe the wound raw there he is in his throne to doe mischiefe Tim. What is the sixt and last Reason why a wounded Conscience is so great a torment Phil. Because of the impotency and invaliditie of all earthly receipts to give ease thereunto For there is such a gulfe of disproportion betwixt a Mind-malady and Bodymedicines that no carnall corporall comforts can effectually work thereupon Tim. Yet wine in this case is prescribed in Scripture * Give wine to the heavy hearted that they may remember their misery no more Phil. Indeed if the wound be in the spirits those cursiters betwixt soule and body to recover their decay or consumption wine may usefully be applyed but if the wound be in the spirit in Scripture phrase all carnall corporall comforts are utterly in vaine Tim. Me thinks merry company should doe much to refresh him Phil. Alas a man shall no longer be welcome in merry company then he is able to sing his Part in their Joviall Consort When a hunted Deere runs for safeguard amongst the rest of the Herd they will not admit him into their company but beat him off with their hornes out of principles of selfe-preservation for feare the Hounds in pursuit of him fall on them also So hard it is for Man or Beast in misery to find a faithfull friend In like manner when a knot of Bad-good-fellowes perceive one of their society dogg'd with Gods terrours at his heeles they will be shut of him as soone as they can preferring his roome and declining his company lest his sadnesse prove infectious to others And now if all six reasons be put together so heavy a hand smiting with so sharp a sword on so tender a part of so foolish a patient whilst Sathan seeks to widen and no worldly plaister can cure the wound it sufficiently proves a wounded conscience to be an exquisite torture Tim. Give me I pray an example hereof Phil. When Adam had eaten the forbidden fruit he tarryed a time in Paradise but tooke no contentment therein The Sunne did shine as bright the Rivers ran as cleare as ever before Birds sang as sweetly Beasts played as pleasantly Flowers smelt as fragrant Herbs grew as fresh Fruits flourisht as faire no Puntilio of Pleasure was either altered or abated The objects were the same but Adams eyes were otherwise his nakednesse stood in his light a thorne of guiltinesse grew in his heart before any thistles sprang out of the ground which made him not to seeke for the fairest fruits to fill his hunger but the biggest leaves to cover his nakednesse Thus a wounded conscience is able to unparadise Paradise it selfe Tim. Give me another instance Phil. CHRIST JESVS our Saviour he was blinded buffeted scourged scoffed at had his hands and feet nailed on the Crosse and all this while said nothing But no sooner apprehended he his Father deserting him groaning under the burthen of the sins of mankind imputed unto him but presently the Lambe who hitherto dumb before his shearer opened not his mouth for paine began to bleat My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Tim. Why is a wounded conscience by David resembled to Arrowes * Thine Arrowes stick fast in me Phil. Because an Arrow especially if barbed rakes rends the flesh the more the more mettall the wounded partie hath to strive and struggle with it and a guilty conscience pierceth the deeper whilst a stout stomach with might and main seeketh to out-wrastle it Tim. May not a wounded conscience also work on the body to hasten and heighten the sicknesse thereof Phil. Yes verily so that there may be employment for * Luke the beloved physitian if the same person with the Evangelist to exercise both his professions But we meddle onely with the malady of the mind abstracted from any bodily indisposition V. Dialogue Soveraign uses to be made of the torment of a wounded conscience Tim. SEeing the torture of a wounded conscience is so great what use is to be made thereof Phil. Very much And first it may make men sensible of the intollerable paine in Hell fire If the mouth of the fiery Fornace into which the children were cast was so hot that it burnt those which approached it how hot was the Fornace it selfe If a wounded conscience the suburbs of Hell be so painfull oh how extreame is that place where the worme never dyeth and the fire is never quenched Tim. Did our roaring Boyes as they call them but seriously consider this they would not wish GOD DAMNE THEM and GOD CONFOUND THEM so frequently as they doe Phil. No verily I read in Theodoret of the ancient Donatists that they were so ambitious of Martyrdome as they accounted it that many of them meeting with a young Gentleman requested of him that he would be pleased to kill them He to confute their folly condescended to their desire on condition that first they would be contented to be all fast bound which being done accordingly he took order that they were all soundly whipt but saved their lives In application When I heare such Riotous youths wish that God would Damne or Confound them I hope God will be more mercifull then to take them at their words and to grant them their wish only I heartily desire that he would be pleased sharply to scourge them and soundly to lash them with the frights terrours of a wounded conscience And I doubt not but that they would so ill like the paine thereof that they would revoke their wishes as having little list and lesse delight to taste of hell hereafter Tim. What other use is to be made of the paine of a wounded Conscience Phil. To teach us seasonably to prevent what we cannot possibly endure Let us shunne the smallest sinne lest if we slight and neglect it it by degrees fester and gangrene into a wounded conscience One of the bravest * spirits that ever England bred or Ireland buried lost his life by a light hurt neglected as if it had
THE CAUSE AND CURE OF A VVOVNDED CONSCIENCE By THO: FULLER B. D. PROV. 18. 14. But a wounded conscience who can beare LONDON Printed for John Williams at the Crowne in S. Pauls Churchyard M D C XLVII TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE And Vertuous Lady Frances Mannours Countesse of Rutland Madam BY the Judicial Law of the Jewes if a servant had children by a wife which was given him by his Master though he himselfe went forth free in the seventh yeere yet his children did remain with his Master as the proper goods of his possession I ever have been and shall be a servant to that noble Family whence your Honour is extracted And of late in that house I have been wedded to the pleasant embraces of a private life the fittest wife and meetest Helper that can be provided for a Student in troublesome times And the same hath been bestowed upon me by the bounty of your Noble Brother EDW Lord MONTAGUE Wherefore what issue soever shall result from my mind by his meanes most happily marryed to a retired life must of due redound to his Honour as the sole Proprietarie of my paines during my present condition Now this Booke is my eldest Off-spring which had it beene a Sonne I mean had it been a Worke of Masculine beauty and bignesse it should have waited as a Page in Dedication to his Honour But finding it to be of the weaker sexe little in strength and low in stature may it be admitted Madam to attend on your Ladiship his Honours Sister I need not mind your Ladiship how God hath measured outward happinesse unto you by the Cubit of the Sanctuarie of the largest size so that one would be posed to wish more then what your Ladiship doth enjoy My prayer to God shall be that shining as a Pearle of Grace here you may shine as a Starre in Glory hereafter So resteth Your Honours in all Christian offices Tho Fuller Boughton Ian. 25. 1646. To the Christian Reader AS one was not anciently to want a wedding garment at a Marriage feast So now adayes wilfully to weare gaudy cloathes at a Funerall is justly censurable as unsuiting with the occasion Wherefore in this sad subject I have endeavoured to decline all light and luxurious expressions And if I be found faulty therein I cry and crave God and the Reader pardon Thus desiring that my pains may prove to the glory of God thine and my owne edification I rest Thine in Christ Jesus Thomas Fuller THE CONTENTS of the severall Dialogues 1. Dialogue What a wounded conscience is wherewith the godly and reprobate may be tortured page 1. 2. Dial. What use they are to make thereof who neither hitherto were nor haply hereafter shall be visited with a wounded conscience p. 7. 3. Dial. Three solemne seasons when men are surprised with wounded consciences p. 14. 4. Dial. The great torment of a wounded conscience proved by Reasons and Examples p. 20 5 Dial. Soveraign uses to be made of the torment of a wounded conscience page 30. 6. Dial. That in some cases more repentance must be preached to a wounded conscience p. 36. 7. Dial. Onely Christ is to be applyed to soules truly contrite p. 43. 8. Dial. Answers to the objections of a wounded conscience drawne from the grievousnesse of his sins p. 50. 9. Dial. Answers to the objections of a wounded conscience drawn from the slightnesse of his Repentance p. 59 10. Dial. Answers to the objections of a wounded conscience drawn from the feeblenesse of his faith p. 72. 11. Dial. God alone can satisfie all objections of a wounded conscience p. 76. 12. Dial. Means to be used by wounded consciences for the recovering of comfort p. 81. 13. Dial. Foure wholsome counsels for a wounded conscience to practice p. 95. 14. Dial. Comfortable meditations for wounded consciences to muse upon p. 102 15. Dial. That is not alwayes the greatest sin whereof a man is guilty wherewith his conscience is most pained for the present p. 111. 16. Dial. Obstructions hindring the speedy flowing of comfort into a troubled soule p. 118. 17. Dial. What is to be conceived of their finall estate who die in a wounded conscience without any visible comfâ—…rt p. 124. 18 Dial. Of the different time and manner of the comming of comfort to such who are healed of a wounded conscience p. 134. 19. Dial. How such who are compleatly cured of a wounded conscience are to demeane themselves p. 140 20. Dial. Whether one cured of a wounded conâ—…cience be subject to a relapse p. 147. 21. Dial. Whether it be lawfull to pray for or to pray against or to praise God for a wounded conscience p. 152. THE CAUSE CURE OF A wounded Conscience I. Dialogue What a wounded Conscience is wherewith the Godly and Reprobate may be tortured Timotheus SEeing the best way never to know a wounded Conscience by wofull experience is speedily to know it by a sanctified consideration thereof Give me I pray you the description of a wounded Conscience in the highest degree thereof Philologus It is a Conscience frighted at the sight of * sin and weight of Gods wrath even unto the despaire of all pardon during the present Agony Tim. Is there any difference betwixt a broken * spirit and a wounded Conscience in this your acception Phil. Exceeding much for a broken spirit is to be prayed and laboured for as the most healthfull and happy temper of the soule letting in as much comfort as it leakes out sorrow for sinne Whereas a wounded conscience is a miserable maladie of the mind filling it for the present with despaire Tim. In this your sense is not the conscience wounded every time that the soule is smitten with guiltinesse for any sinne committed Phil. God forbid otherwise his servants would be in a sad condition as in the case of David * smitten by his owne heart for being as he thought over-bold with Gods Anointed in cutting off the skirt of Sauls garment such hurts are presently heal'd by a Plaister of Christs blood applyed by faith and never come to that height to be counted and called wounded câ—…nsciences Tim. Are the godly aâ—… well as the wicked subject to this malady Phil. Yes verily Vessels of honour as well as vessels of wrath in this world are subject to the knocks and brâ—…ises of a wounded conscience A patient Job pâ—…ous David faithfull Paul may be vexed therewith no lesse then a cursed Cain perfidious Achitâ—…phil or treacherous Judas Tim. What is the difference betwixt a wounded conscience in the godly and in the reprobate Phil. None at all oft times in the parties apprenensions both for the time being conceiving their estates equally desperate little if any in the widenesse and anguish of the wound it selfe which for the time may be as tedious and torturing in the godly as in the wicked Tim. How then doe they differ Phil. Exceeding much in Gods intention gashing the wicked as Malefactors out of Justice
not yet pleased to give it or the Patient not yet prepared to receive it or the Minister not well fitted to deliver it Tim. How from God not yet pleased to give it Phil. His time to bestow consolation is not yet come now no plummets of the heaviest humane importunity can so weigh downe Gods Clock of Time as to make it strike one minute before his houre be come Till then his Mother her selfe could not prevaile with * Christ to worke a Miracle and turn water into wine and till that minute appointed approach God will not in a wounded conscience convert the water of affliction into that wine of comfort which maketh glad the heart of the soule Tim. How may the hindrance be in the Patient himselfe Phil. He may as yet not be sufficiently humbled or else God perchance in his providence fore-seeth that as the prodigall child when he had received his portion riotously mis-spent it so this sick soule if comfort were imparted unto him would prove an unthrift and ill husband upon it would lose and lavish it God therefore conceiveth it most for his glory and the others good to keep the comfort still in his owne hand till the wounded conscience get more wisdome to manage and employ it Tim. May not the sick mans too meane opinion of the Minister be a cause why he reaps no more comfort by his counsell Phil. It may Perchance the sicke man hath formerly slightand neglected that Minister and God will not now make him the instrument for his comfort who before had beene the object of his contempt But on the other side we must also know that perchance the parties over-high opinion of the Ministers parts piety and corporall presence as if he cured where he came and carryed ease with him may hinder the operation of his advice For God growes jealous of so suspicious an instrument who probably may be mistaken for the principall Whereas a meaner man of whose spiritualnesse the patient hath not so high carnall conceipts may prove more effectuall in comforting because not within the compasse of suspition to eclipse God of his glory Tim. How may the obstructions be in the Minister himselfe Phil. If he comes unprepared by prayer or possessed with pride or unsâ—…ilfull in what he undertakes wherefore in such cases a Minister may doe well to reflect on himselfe as the * Disciples did when they could not cast out the Devill and to call his heart to account what may be the cause thereof particularly whether some unrepented-for sinne in himselfe hath not hindred the effects of his councells in others Tim. However you would not have him wholly disheartned with his ill successe Phil. O no but let him comfort himselfe with these considerations First that though the Patient gets no benefit by him he may gain experience by the patient thereby being enabled more effectually to proceede with some other in the same disease 2. Though the sickman refuseth comfort for the present yet what doth not sink on a sudden may soake in by degrees and may prove profitable afterwards Thirdly his unsucceeding paines may notwithstanding facilitate comfort for another to worke in the same body as Solomon built a Temple with most materialls formerly provided and brought thither by David Lastly grant his paines altogether lost on the wounded Conscience yet his * Labour is not in vaine in the Lord who without respect to the event will reward his endeavours Tim. But what if this Minister hath beene the means to cast this sick man downe and now cannot comfort him againe Phil. In such a case he must make this sad accident the more matter for his humiliation but not for his dejection Besides he is bound both in honour and honesty Civility and Christianity to procure what he cannot performe calling in the advice of oâ—…hers more able to assist him not conceiving out of pride or envie that the discreet craving of the helpe of others is a disgracefull confessing of his owne weaknesse like those malitious Midwives who had rather that the woman in travaile should miscarry then be safely delivered by the hand of another more skilfull then themselves XVII Dialogue What is to be conceived of their finall estate who die in a wounded Conscience without any visible comfort Tim. WHat thinke you of such who yeeld up their ghost in the agony of an afflicted spirit without receiving the least sensible degree of comfort Phil. Let me be your remembrancer to call or keep in your mind what I said before that our discourse onely concerneth the Children of God This notion renued I answer It is possible that the sick soule may receive secret solace though the standers by doe not perceive it We know how insensibly Satan may spirt and inject Despaire into a heart and shall we not allow the Lord of heaven to be more dextrous and active with his Antidotes then the devil is with his Poysons Tim. Surely if he had any such comfort he would shew it by words signes or some way were it onely but to comfort his sad kindred and content such sorrowfull friends which survive him Were there any hidden fire of consolation kindled in his heart it would sparkle in his looks and gestures especially seeing no obligation of secrecie is imposed on him as on the * blind man when healed to tell none thereof Phil. It may be he cannot discover the comfort he hath received and that for two reasons First because it comes so late when he lyeth in the Merches of life and death being so weak that he can neither speak nor make signes with Zechariah being at that very instant when the silver cord is ready to be loosed and the golden bowle to be broken and the pitcher to be broken at the fountaine and the wheele to be broken at the cisterne Tim. What may be the other reason Phil. Because the Comfort it selfe may be incommunicable in its owne nature which the party can take and not tell enjoy and not expresse receive and not impart As by the assistance of Gods Spirit he sent up * groanes which cannot be uttered so the same may from God be returned with comfort which cannot be uttered and as hee had many invisible and privy pangs concealed from the cognizance of others so may God give him secret comfort known unto himself alone without any other mens sharing in the notice thereof * The heart knoweth his owne bitternesse and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy So that his comfort may be compared to the new name given to Gods servants * which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it Tim. All this proceeds on what is possible or probable but amounts to no certainty Phil. Well then suppose the worst this is most sure though he die without tasting of any comfort here he may instantly partake of everlasting joyes hereafter Surely many a despairing soule groaning out his last breath with feare and