in and prosecute a just case till a bribe come and puts out the very eies of their conscience Their consciences are of so soft a temper that the least touch of silver turnes their edge presently They hold out well till there come a tentation on their left hand that is in their right hand Psal 144. 8. Whose mouth speakes vanity and their right hand is a right hand of falshood If once the right hand be a right hand of falsehood the mouth will soone speake vanity though before it speake conscience Who would not have thought Balaam to have beene a man of an excellent conscience If Balak would give mee his house full of silver and gold I cannot goe beyond the word of the Lord my God to doe lesse or more Num. 22. 18. But yet besides that faltering in those words I cannot goe whereas the language of a good conscience would have beene I will not goe besides that I say before hee ends his speech see how the hope of promotions works and works his conscience like wax before the fire ver 19. Now therfore I pray you tarry heere also this night that I may know what the Lord will say unto me more A faltering inference If his conscience had beene good it would have inferred strongly thus Now therefore I pray get you gone and trouble me no longer Hee knew in his conscience the people ought not to be cursed and that he ought not to goe and yet comes in with I pray tarry all night c. Truly Balak needed not to have beene so lavish and so prodigall as to offer an house full one handfull of his silver and gold will frame Balaams conscience to any thing The like triall may be made of mens consciences by their inconstancie in good courses and this will condemne three sorts as guilty of evill consciences 1. Such as sometimes being convinced of the necessity of good courses doe set upon the practice of them and begin to looke towards Religion and religious duties till meeting with some of their supposed wiser neighbours they be advised to take heed they may bring themselves into greater note then they are aware of they will incur sharper censures then they thinke of c. and suddenly all is dasht all is quasht and quencht There is a disease among beasts they call the Staggers and it is a disease too frequent in mens Consciences who sometimes are on sometimes off one day begin and next day cease good courses That may be said of many mens conscices which Iacob speakes of Reuben Gen 49. 4. Vnstable as water The water moues as the winds blow If the wind blow out of the East then it moves one way if out of the west then it moves another the cleane contrary and upon every new winde a new way So many let them heare a convincing and a good perswading Sermon moving to good duties then they will set upon them let them againe heare either some mocks or reproches for those wayes or some sage advise from one they count wise against the way of conscience they are as far off againe as ever These staggering irresolute and watry Consciences are farre from good ones 2. Such as in their youth or when the world was low with them were very zealous and forward But what are they now at this day True downeright Demasses zealous when they were young but now old and cold zealous when they were meane but now the world is come vpon them Demas-like they have forsaken goodnes and embraced the world have gotten now worme-eaten and world-eaten consciences The zeale of Gods house was wont to eat them up but now the world hath eaten up them and all their good conscience 3. Those that have made good the prophane Proverb Young Saints and old Devills whose hatred of Religion and good conscience is greater then ever was their love thereto as Ammon was towards Thamar 2 Sam. 13. 15. They were zealous and forward frequenters of Gods house and Ordinances zealous enemies against Swearing and Sabbath-breaking c. But what are they at this day yesterday indeed zealous professors of holines but what are they to day to day malicious scoffers of godlinesse haters and opposers of goodnes the only swearers and drunkards in a country What kind of cōsciences are these none of Pauls conscience I have lived in all good conscience untill this day What then just the consciences of Hymenaeus and Alexander 1 Tim. 1. 18 19. They once made great profession of conscience but now enemies to Paul and blasphemers men as Paul speaks that had put away good conscience they did not through want of watchfulnesse let it slip or steale away but as if it would never have been gone soone enough they put and drave it away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beza translates it Qua expulsa They used their consciences as Ammon did Thamar after his lust satisfied 2 Sam. 13. 15 17. Arise be gone sayes hee to her and when shee pleads for her selfe hee cals his servant and sayes unto him Put out this woman and bolt the doore after her put her out so as shee may be sure not to come againe They dealt with their Consciences as Colleges deale with Rake-hels expelled them without all hope of re-entry Thus many prophane Apostating backsliders cannot be content to lose good conscience unlesse Ammon-like they may put it away with violence and expell it And how can they have good conscience that have put it away Hee hath not his wife that hath put her away and given her a bill of divorce In the dayes of Popery and darknesse the Devill it seemed walked very familiarly amongst them and hence we have so many stories of Fayries and of children taken out of cradles and others laid in their roomes whom they called Changelings Since the light of the Gospell these Devils and Fayries have not beene seene amongst us but yet we are still troubled with Changelings Some Priests and Iesuites have changed some the world hath changed some Good-fellowship and the Ale-house hath changed These have played the Fayries have taken and stolne away goodly forward and fervent Christians and have layd in their roomes Earthlings Worldlings Popelings Swearers Drunkards Malicious scorners of all goodnesse Thus have these Fayries in stead of faire and comely children brought in these lame blind deformed and wrizzled faced Changelings that any one may easily see them to be rather the births of some Hobgoblins then the Children of God If therefore we would evidence our consciences good labour to hold to the last and rest not in youth but labor to have age found in the way of righteousnesse This is a Crowne of glory and this is right good conscience to live therein untill our dying day All the former sixe are nothing without this last CHAP. X. The comfort and benefit of a good conscience in the case of Disgrace and Reproach VVEe are now come to the fift and last point which was propounded
Propter incertitudinem propriae Iustitiae periculum inanis gloriae tutissimum est fiduciam totam in sola Dei misericordia benignitate reponere Bellar. de Iustific lib. 5. cap. 7. merit comes to this at last That by reason of the uncertainty of our owne righteousnesse and the danger of vaine-glory it is the most safe way to repose our whole confidence in the mercie and goodnesse of God alone Which way soever Bellarmine is gone himselfe or any of his religion I thinke common reason will teach a man so much wisdome to go the safest way to heaven and that the safest way is the best way The Lord that would have us make our calling and election sure 2 Peter 1. 10. would not have us put so great a matter as the salvation of our soules upon Bellarmines hazard and confessed uncertaintie of our owne righteousnesse Now as in case of doctrine so in case of practise it is great wisedome and a great meanes of keeping a good conscience to doe that wherein we may Tutioris vivere and to take to that which Tutissimum est to follow that which is safest and to take to that side which is the surest and the freest from danger CHAP. VII Two markes if a good Conscience THus wee see how a good conscience may be had it followes we consider how it may be knowne and be discerned to be had The markes and notes by which a good conscience may bee knowne are seven 1. This in the Text. In all good conscience 1. Note of good conscience Conscience in all things It is a good note of a good conscience when a man makes conscience of all things all duties and all Sins There be that have naturall consciences principled by some generall grounds of nature and it may bee so farre as these rules carry them may make some conscience but their principles comming short they must needs also come as short of a good conscience I have lived saies Paul here in all good conscience and Heb. 13. 18. Wee trust wee have a good Conscience in all things It is a good conscience when a mans life all his life is a life of conscience when in all his life and the whole tenour thereof he makes conscience of all that God commands and forbids Psal 119. 6. Then shall I not be ashamed what breeds shame but evill conscience when I have respect unto all thy Commandements When all are respected there is no shame because where all are respected there is good conscience and where good conscience is there is no shame That argued Davids good conscience Psal 119. 101. I have refrained my feet from every evill way Try mens consciences by this and it will discover a great deale of evill conscience in the world Many a morall man makes conscience of doing his neighbour the least wrong hee will not wrong or pinch any man payes every man his owne deales fairly and squarely in his commerce there is no man can say blacke is his eye you shall have him thank God that he hath as good a conscience as the best These are good things and such things as men ought to make conscience of but yet here is not enough to make a good conscience A good conscience must be all good conscience or it is no good conscience Now indeed these men may have good consciences before men but my Text tels us that we must live in all good conscience before God And Paul joines them two together Act. 24. 13. And herein I doe exercise my selfe to have a good conscience voyd of offence towards God and towards men Now be it that these have good conscience before men yet what have they before God Alas they are miserably ignorant in the things of God no consciences to acquaint themselves with his truth no conscience of prayer in their families of reading the Scriptures no conscience of an oath and as little of the Sabbath and the private duties thereof How far are these from good conscience Others againe seeme to make conscience of their duties before God but in the meane time no conscience of duties of Justice in the second Table make no conscience of oppression racking rents covetousnesse over-reaching c. these are no better consciences then the former neither are good because they live not in all good conscience Thus may ◠man discover the naughty consciences of most Iehu seemes wondrous zealous for the Lord and seemes to be a man of a singular good conscience in the demolishing the Tēple of Baal putting to death his Priests I but if Iehu make conscience of letting Baals Tēple stand why doth he not as well make conscience of letting Ieroboams Calves stand If Iehu had had a good conscience hee would as ill have brookt Ieroboams as Iezebels Idolatry he would have purged the land of all Idols Herod seemes to make some conscience of an Oath Marke 6. 26. For his Oaths sake hee would not reject her It is joy of him that hee is a man of so good conscience I but in the meane time why makes hee no conscience of incest and murther Hee feares and makes conscience to breake an unlawfull Oath but makes no conscience to cut an holy Prophets throate Who would not have thought Saul to have beene a man of a very good conscience see how like a man of good conscience hee speakes 1 Sam. 14. 34. Sinne not against the Lord in eating with the blood Hee would have the people make conscience of eating with the blood and indeed it was a thing to be made conscience of I but he that makes conscience of eating the flesh of Sheepe and Oxen with the blood like a bloody hearted tyrāt as he was he makes no conscience of sucking and shedding the blood of fourescore and five of Gods Priests Iust the conscience of his blood-hound Doeg 1 Sam 21. 7. Doeg was there that day deteined before the Lord. How deteined either out of a religious conscience of the Sabbath or by occasion of a vow the man made conscience of going before the Sabbath were ended or the dayes of his vow finisht A thing indeed to be made conscience of men ought not to depart from Gods house till holy services bee finisht a duety that even the Prince must make conscience of Ezek. 46. 10. Who therefore would not judge this Edomite a conscionable Proselyte I but why then makes hee no conscience of Lying Psalm 25. Why no conscience of being instrumentall to Sauls injustice in that barbarous villany of slaying not onely innocent men but innocent Priests of the Lord such were the Consciences of the Chiefe Priests Matth. 27. 6. How like honest conscionable men they speake It is not lawfull for to put them into the treasury because it is the price of blood Sure it is great conscience ought to bee made of bringing the price of blood into the Temple treasurie Are they not then men of good conscience It is not lawfull
meaning of the word Conscience Conscience is a knowledge together How together First a knowledge together with another person namely with God when God and a mans heart know a thing there is Conscience knowledge together Rom. 9. 1. My conscience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Co-witnessing witnessing together How together God knows it and witnesses and my conscience together with him knowes witnesses Secondly a knowledge ioyned together with another knowledge for there is a double act of the vnderstanding First that wherby wee thinke or know a thing Secondly there is a reflecting act of the soule wherby we thinke what we thinke and know what we know and this is the action of the Conscience and this ioyning of this secōd knowledge to the first giues it the name of Conscience As here in this place As for our iniquities wee know them that is we know that wee have had evill thoughts and our knowledge tels vs witnesses to vs that we have done so This agrees with Bernards definition that Conscientia est cordis scientia Conscience is the knowledge of the heart namely passively It is the knowing of what the heart knowes which others in better termes have expressed thus Conscience is the recoiling of the soule vpon it self Sutable to that of the Apostle 1. Cor. 4. 4. I know nothing by my selfe As if he had said I know not any thing that I know against my selfe my Conscience doth not witnesse against mee And this second office of Conscience in bearing witnesse is also in the memory And accordingly accusing or excusing absolving or condemning These acts of Conscience we finde Rom. 2. 15. Their thoughts accusing or excusing one another Rom. 12. 22. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that he allows The ground of these acts is this Conscience before actions are to be done determines of their lawfulnesse and unlawfulnesse iudges of them whether they be good or evill And if it iudge them good it inuites stirres vp vrges and bindes to the doing of them Rom. 13. 5. Ye must be subiect for conscience sake that is because Conscience determines it to be good vrges bindes thereunto Hence that phrase in common speech my conscience vrgeth me to it or he was vrged in conscience to do it and I am bound inconscience to doe it Certainly if it judge determine actions to be evill unlawfull then it binds from them So much that speech implies 1 Cor. 10. 27. Eate asking no question for conscience sake So that conscience hath a power to bind to and to bind from Now then when a man in his particular actions doth follow the Prescriptions Dictates Injunctions Prohibitions and Determinations of Conscience and hearkens to the incitements therof then conscience excuses him acquits and absolves him But if in his actions he go against any of these then Conscience accuses him of offence condemns him for that offence The accusation of conscience hath respect unto a mans guilt the condemnation of it unto a mans punishment Accusation is an act of Conscience passing sentence upon a mans action as when conscience tels him This was ill done this action was sinfull Condemnation is an act of conscience passing sentence not onely upon a mans action but upon a mans person as when it tels him Thou deservest Gods wrath for this Sin Conscience in accusing shewes what is the quality in condemning what is the desert of a mans actions And these actions of conscience are in the mind and understanding part of the soule The act of the conscience in the memory determins de facto and tels us what wee have done or not done The act of Conscience in the understanding determines de jure and tels us whether we have done well or ill and so accordingly either excuses or accuses acquits or condemns Comforting or tormenting the same these be the last acts of conscience following the former If Conscience determining prescribing and inciting to good be hearkned unto then it excuses acquits thereupon followes comfort joy hope 2 Cor. 11. 2. This is our rejoycing the testimony of our Conscience Contrarily if Sic in domo propria ◠propria familia habeo accusatores testes judices tortores Accusat me conscientia testis est memoria volūtas carcer timor tortor oblectamentum tormentum Bern. Med. de vot cap. 13. the dictates of Conscience be not regarded it accuses and condemnes and then torments with feare griefe dispaire and violent perturbations in all which is that worme Mar. 9. 44. And these actions of the conscience are in the will and in the affections And thus according to the divers parts of the soule the acts and office of conscience are divers In the memory it hath the office of a Notary Register Witnesse In the understanding it hath the office of a Iudge and an accuser of a Felix and a Tertullus In the affections either of a Comforter or Tormenter The summe of all may be thus knit up Conscience containes three things 1. Knowledge practicall 2. Application of that knowledge to our particular estates and actions 3. Those affections which arise thereupon Now the speciall worke of Conscience consists in the second in the applying our knowledge to our estates actions Now in this application it looks on things past or present simply as things and so it witnesses of them to be done or not done Eccl. 7. 22. Or else it looks at the good or evill of things past present and to come Super nos etiam posuit ad custodiēdum si deliquissent qui accusarent qui testificarentur qui judicarent qui punirent consc quippe est accusatrix memoria testis ratio judex timor carnifex Bern. hom de vill iniq If things past or present seeme good it excuses if evill it accuses bites Rom. 2. 15. If things to be done seeme good it excites urges and bindes to the doing thereof If evill it urges and binds therefrom Now according to these severall acts there follow in us divers affections joy hope feare griefe and the like The whole processe of the worke of Conscience fals within the frame a of practicall Syllogisme as for example Every one that sins in betraying innocent Conscientia Synteresisest qua victi voluptatibus vel furore ipsaque interdum rationis decepti similitudine nos peccare sentinuis Hieronym in Eccl. ca. 1. Synteresis est promptuarium principiorū seu regularum practicarum ejus officium est regulas legis divinae proferre cōsc subministrare ut illarum ope possit censorem agere de propriisactionibus Alsted Theol. Cas cap. 2. bloud is worthy of Gods wrath But I saith Iudas have sinned in betraying innocent bloud therefore I am worthy of Gods wrath Here the Major is knowledge practicall the rule law by which conscience keeps her Court This is Synteresis The Minor that is Syneidesis the proper worke of Conscience applying that knowledge and generall
Consciences be quiet and lie not grating upon them and telling them that their courses are sinfull damnable and that their persons are in a dangerous condition but rather by their silence ignorance and vaine pretences doe justifie them and tell them all will be well enough Oh then what excellent good Consciences have these men They make no Conscience of Family duties once in the yeare to come to the Sacrament serves the turne they are common swearers in their ordinary communication make no conscience of sanctifying Sabbaths c. and their consciences let them alone in all these doe not give them one syllable of ill language oh what gentle good natured Consciences think these men they have But alas what evill consciences have they A good Conscience must be upright as well as peaceable And an upright Conscience is enlightned with the knowledge of the Word and by that light judges what is good what evil when it finds mens actions not to be good and warrantable deales plainly and lets them heare of it A good Conscience hath good eyes and is able to discerne betweene good and evill Now these mens Consciences are quiet and have their mouths shut but whence is it Because their eyes are shut and they are dumbe because they are blind Right Idoll Consciences they want mouths to speake because they want eyes to see So that it may be said of such Consciences as the Prophet speaks of those Watchmen Isa 56. 10. His watchmen are blind they are all ignorant they are all dumbe dogs they cannot barke Their blindnesse bred dumbnesse and their ignorance silence Thus it is with ignorant Conscience What is the reason they barke not but are dumbe and are thus quiet Meerly because they are blind and ignorant But yet as good as men account these consciences now the time will come that it shall fare with them as it did with Adam and Eve after they had eaten the forbidden fruit Then their eyes were opened So the time will come when these Consciences shall have their eyes opened and then also shall their mouths be opened yea wide and loud opened and these now quiet consciences shall both bark and bite too Doe not therefore flatter thy selfe in thine ignorance as if thy condition and Conscience were good because quiet Never account that true Peace which is not joyned with uprightnesse Integrity and ignorance can no more stand together than light and darknesse Integrity of Conscience may be without Peace Peace can never be without Integrity Dumbe Ministers go in the world for good Ministers because quiet ones but the day will come that men shall curse them for having been so quiet So ignorant and tongue-tyed consciences go for good ones but the time will come that men will curse this peace of their Conscience for bringing them so quietly to hell The Masse goes for an excellent good Service because Missa non mordet honest toothlesse devotion it never fastens fang in the hearers flesh So many have Masse-like Consciences toothlesse and tonguelesse Consciences but yet the time will come that as Masse-mongers shall curse their toothlesse Masse so ignorant persons that now glory in their peace shall curse their toothlesse Conscience yea they shall gnash their teeth because Conscience had no teeth and shall gnaw their tongues for anguish of heart because their consciences wanted tongues to tel them of the danger of their wicked wayes that have brought them to so miserable a condition 2. The Secure Conscience As the blind Conscience was like the dumbe Minister so the secure Conscience is like the flattering Minister that Ier. 6. 13. heales the hurt of his people with sweet words and cries peace peace where there is no peace This Conscience wants not an eye but only a good tongue in the head It sees its master to doe evill and knowes it to be evil but either cares not to speak or else is easily put off from speaking sometime it cares not to speake being sleepy heavie and drowsie like those Prophets Isa 56. 10. They are all dumbe dogs they cannot barke What is the Reason Sleeping lying downe loving to slumber A sleepy and heavy-eyed Curre though he see one come into his masters yard or house that should not yet barkes not as loath by his barking to disquiet himselfe A sleepy secure conscience sees many a Sin to enter the soule that should not and yet lies still and sayes nothing is loath to breake his sleepe And yet such Consciences men count good Sometimes it may be it offers to speak as a sleepy dog may open once or twice at a strangers entrance yet is soone snibd the least word of the master of the house makes him whist and quiet So secure Consciences upon the greene wound begin to smart and upon the fresh commission of Sin begin to mutter and to have some grudgings but their master answers them as the friend in his bed did his neighbor desiring to borrow three loavs Luk. 11. 17. Trouble me not for I am in bed I pray thee be quiet let us have no wrangling and brawling it shal be so no more I will cry God mercy I will hereafter find a time for repentance c. and so Conscience being secure is easily put off with a few good words and so closing her eyes and mouth againe gives her master liberty to take his rest And thus the secure Conscience because it is so easily husht and stilled is counted a good Conscience as Nurses counted them good children which though they are ready to cry at every turne yet are easily quieted with some toy But this Conscience is as far from a good Conscience as Securitie is from Integrity Sin indeed sleeps but yet it sleeps but dogs sleepe yea though it sleepe soundly yet it cannot sleepe long Gen. 4. 7. Sin lies at the doore Sin lies asleepe in the Conscience as a Mastife lies at the doore A place where a dog cannot sleep long The doore is the common passage into and out of the house every one is passing to and fro that way and keep such a clattering with the opening and shutting of the doore that there can be no sound or at least no long sleepe No better is the sleepe of secure Consciences which at length like mad band-dogs and fell mastifes will fly in the face of the sinner ready to pluck out the very throat and heart of him The secure conscience can be no good Conscience because it hath neither uprightnesse nor peace both which were before required to the temper of a good one Vprightnesse hath it none for it is not faithfull in its office it doth not witnesse it doth not accuse as it becomes an honest upright conscience to doe Peace it hath none There is a great difference between a peace and a truce in peace there is a totall deposition both of Armes and Enmitie all hostile affections are put off In a truce there is but a suspention
and a cessation of Armes for a season so as during the same there is still provision of more Force and a preparation of greater strength A truce is but a breathing time to fit for fiercer impressions The truce being ended the assaults are rather fiercer than they were before The secure Consciences are quiet not because there is peace for there is no peace to the wicked Quomodo tranquilla cum mundi hujus prosperitas alludit illudit cum laudatur peccator in desiderijs animae suae Born de Conse saith my God Isa 57. 21. But because there is some truce the world smiles upon them and they have outward hearts ease and this brings them asleepe but if any affliction crosse or sicknesse come then they see how far they are from peace Conscience is sometime at truce with secure sinners but during this truce Conscience is preparing Armes and Ammunition against them is levying of fresh forces against them and assoone as the truce is ended be it sooner or be it later have at them with more violence fury fiercenes than ever before And the truce once ended it will easilie appeare what a wide breadth of difference there is between a secure and a good Conscience 3. A Seared Conscience That which Paul speakes of 1 Tim. 4. 2. A cauterized Conscience That is as Beza translates and expounds it A Conscience cut off as it were with a Chirugions Instrument An arme or a leg cut off from the body stab it gash it chop it into gobbets do what you will with it it is insensible it feeles it not Or else as our translation hath it Having their Consciences seared with an hot iron A comparison borrowed from Chirurgerie When a limbe is cut off Chirugions use to seare that part of the Body from whence the other is taken with an hot iron and sometimes they do cures by searing the affected parts with hot irons Now these parts upon their searing have a kind of crusty brawninesse which is utterly insensible which though it be cut or pricked it neither bleeds nor feeles Thus is it with many mens Consciences commit they whatsoever sins they will yet their hearts are so hardned through long custome in sin that they feele no gripings pinches or bitings at all but are growne to that dead and dedolent disposition Ephes 4. 19. Who being past feeling c. It is with such mens consciences as with labouring mens hands which through much labor have a brawny hardnesse growing upon them which is without any feeling One may thrust pins into it pare it with a knife and yet without any trouble or griefe at all Such callous Consciences have many that though they be wounded and gashed with never such foule sins yet their consciences shrink not feele not awhit Their Consciences are like Gally-slaves backs so bebrawned over with often lashing that an ordinary lash will not make them so much as once shuck in their shoulders You have many that can sweare not onely your more civill oathes of faith and troth but those ruffianly and bloudy oathes of bloud and wounds and it never wounds their hearts awhit You have many that can commit foule sins with lesse touch than others can heare of them You shall have black Smiths that are used to the frequent and daily handling of hot iron hold an hot firecoale in their hands and laugh whilst another would roare out There be those that can be drunke day after day that consecrate whole Sabbaths to Venus Bacchus and give themselvs up to foule villanies yet not one twitch at the heart not a snib not a crosse word from their Consciences Estrich-like they can concoct iron and put it off as easily as another weake stomacke can doe gelly They have brought their hearts to that passe the drunkards body is in Pro. 25. 35. They have striken me and I was not sick they have eaten me and I felt it not Their seared Consciences have no more feeling than our sotted Drunkards have in their drunkennesse who though they have many a knocke and sore bruise yet feele it not To this fearefull condition and senselesse and seared stupiditie of Conscience many growe and when they have thus crusted and brawned the same then they have their Consciences at a good passe becavse they heare them not brawling within them Alas how farre are such from goodnesse of Conscience In some sense those have worse Consciences than the Devill himselfe who beleeves and trembles whose Conscience yet is not so seared but it trembles at the thoughts of his deserved damnation And howsoever these seared Consciences are quiet yet there will come a day that this seared crustinesse shall bee scaled off and those Consciences which were not sensible of sinne shall be most sensible of paine though they were past feeling in the committing of sinne yet they shall be all feeling in suffering punishment for sinne God will pare off that brawninesse from their Consciences and will pare them so to the quicke that they shall feele and most sensibly feele that which here they would not feele Tremble therefore at the having of such a Conscience in which there is neither uprightnesse nor peace neither integrity nor tranquility but a senslesse and fearfull stupidity Thus we have seen what a good Conscience is CHAP. IV. Peace of Conscience how gotten IT followes now to know how a man may get and keepe a good one which is the third point which was propounded to be handled A point well worth our inquiring after A good Conscience is the most precious thing that a Christian can have a thing of that esteeme that where it is wanting wee account a man without a Conscience So of a man that hath an ill Conscience we use to say he is a man of no conscience Not that he hath no Conscience the Devils themselves have a conscience and happy it were for them they had none but when a man hath not a good one we esteeme of him as having none at all There is no greater good we can seeke after than a good conscience Let us enquire then how we may get and keepe this so great a good A good Conscience then consisting in Peace and Integrity these two being gotten and kept wee shall get and keepe a good Conscience First then to make the Conscience peaceably good these things are required 1. Faith in Christ and his blood The conscience cannot be at peace till it be purged from its guilt An impure conscience cānot but be an unquiet conscience and every guilty Conscience is impure Guilt is the same to the Conscience that the winds are to the seas Isa 27. 20. 21. The wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up myre and dirt there is no peace to the wicked Now that which makes the sea so troublesome and ragingly restlesse is the violence of the blustering winds that trouble tosse it to and fro The winds
ye see they will not doe that which is not lawfull It is well but tell me is it not lawfull to take the price of blood and is it lawful to give a price for blood Ought there Qualis haec innoceÌ„tiae simulatio pecuniaÌ„ sanguinis non mitâ—â—e in Arâ—â—â— et ipsum sanguinem mitieâ—e in ConscientiaÌ„ August not a Conscience to bee made of blood as well as of the price of blood They make a Conscience of receiving the price of blood into the Treasury but make no Conscience of receiving the guilt of blood into their Consciences Iust such Consciences as they had Ioh. 18. 28. They would not go into the Iudgement Hall lest they should bee defiled but that they might eate the Passover Indeed a man should make great Conscience of preparation to the Sacrament and take great heede that he come not thither defiled but see their naughty Conscience they make Conscience of being defiled by going into the judgement Hall but make no Conscience of being defiled with the blood of an Innocent Such was the conscience of the Iewes Ioh. 19. 31. they make Conscience of the body of Christ hanging on the Crosse on the Sabbath but with what conscience have they hanged it on the Crosse at all This was just like to those that Socrates speaks of who made great conscience of keeping Holy-dayes yet made no conscience of uncleannesse that was but an indifferent thing with them As if conscience were not rather to be made of keeping our vessels in holinesse our bodies then dayes holy Remarkable in this kind is that dealing of the Iewes with Paul 2 Cor. 11. 24. Of the Iewes five times received I forty stripes save one If we looke into the Law Deut. 25. 1 2 3. it runs thus If there be a controversie c. and it shall be if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten the Iudge shall cause him to lye downe and to be beaten before his face according to his fault by a certaine number forty stripes hee may give him and not exceed Now see the good consciences of these Iewes they might give forty stripes but not beyond that number might they goe Now they make so much conscience of exceeding the number of forty that they give Paul but nine and thirty Thus they make conscience of the number but no conscience of the fact They make conscience of giving above fortie but with what conscience doe they give him any at all The Text not onely prescribes the number of stripes but the condition of the person namely that he be worthy to be beaten and he must be punished according to his fault Now see these men make Conscience of the law for the number but make no conscience of the Law that will have onely wicked men and such as are worthy to be beaten to be so used These be the consciences of wicked men they make seeme of making conscience in some one thing but make no conscience of ten others it may be of farre greater weight and necessity and herein discover they the naughtinesse of their consciences The conscience therefore is not to be judged good for one or some good actions Ioab turned not after Absolom but hee turned after Adoniah 1 King 1. 28. Whereas a good conscience that turnes neither to the right hand not the left would have turned neither after Adoniah nor Absolom A good conscience and a good conversation must goe together 1 Pet. 3. 16. Having a good Conscience that they may be ashamed that falsly accuse your good conversation One good action makes not a good conversation nor a good conscience but then a mans conversation may be said to be good when in his whole course he is carefull to do all good duties and to avoyd all sinnes and such a good conversation is a signe of good Conscience Nunc autem in hoc maior offensa est quod partem sententiae sacrae pro commodorum nostrorum utilitate deligimus parrem pro dei iniuria praeterimus Et maxime cum terrestres domini nequaquam aequo animo tolerandum putent si iussiones suas serui ex parte audiant ex parte contemnant Si enim pro arbitrio suo servi dominis obtemperant ne ijs quidem in quibus obtemperaverint obsequuntur c. Savian de Provid To doe some good things and not all is no more a signe of good conscience then to doe some things onely which his master requires and to neglect other some is no signe of a good servant A good servants commendation is to do all his Masters businesse hee enjoynes him Wee would hold him but an holy-day servant and an idle companion that when his master hath set him his severall workes to doe hee will doe which him pleases and leave the other undone This were not to doe his masters but to doe his owne will and to serve his owne turne rather then his masters So for a man to make choyce of duties and to picke out some particulars wherein hee will yeeld obedience to God and to passe by others as not standing with his profits pleasures and lusts this will never gaine a man the commendation of a good conscience whose goodnes must bee knowne by making conscience of all things Then have Gods servants good consciences when it can be sayd of them as Shaphan speaks of Iosiah his servants 2 Chron. 34. 16. All that was committed to thy servants they doe it 2. To make conscience of small Duties and small sinnes This also rises out of the Text. All good Conscience If of all things then of small things It might have beene comprehended under the former but yet for Conviction sake I distinguish them The good conscience makes not conscience onely of great duties and sinnes but even of the least knowing that as Gods great power and omnipotence is the same in the making of an Angell and a worme so Gods authority wisedome and holinesse is the same in the least Commandements as in the greatest of them all It makes conscience specially of Judgement and the weighty matters of the law but yet doth not therefore thinke it selfe discharged of all care in smaller things doth not thereupon challenge a dispensation from obedience in meaner matters as if it were needlesse scrupulosity as too much precisenesse to ty the Mint Anise and Cummin A Cummin-seede indeede is but a small thing a very toy but yet as small a thing and as light as it is yet will it ly heavie upon a good conscience being injuriously and fraudulently detayned from the Levites The Pharisees tythed Mint Anise and Cummin but they neglected the weighty matters of the Law It is no good conscience that lookes to small and neglects great duties neither is it a good conscience on the other side that lookes after the great and weighty duties and makes no reckoning of Mint and Anise Our Saviour sayes both ought to bee done Pharaoh could bee content that
the people should goe Sacrifice but hee cannot abide that Moses should bee so peevishly precise that not an hoofe should be left behind Alas an hoofe is but a toy not worth the mentioning what need Moses bee so strict as to stand upon an hoofe Yet a good conscience will stand upon it having Gods Commandement and will make conscience as well of carrying away hoofes as of whole bodies of Cattell It is with a good conscience as it is with the apple of the eye of all the parts of the body it is the most tender not onely of some great shives or splints under the eye-lid but even the smallest haire and dust grieves and offends it It is so with a tender good conscience not onely beames but also moates disquiet the eye of a good conscience and not onely greater and fouler Sinnes but even such as the world counts veniall trifles doe offend it A good conscience straines not onely at a Camell but at a Gnat also Neither doth our Saviour blame the Pharisees simply for straining at a Gnat but for their hypocrisie who would pretend conscience in smaller things and meane while made none in the greater for otherwise a good conscience indeed hath a narrow passage for a Gnat as well as for a Camell The least corne of gravell galls his foot that hath a strait shooe but hee that hath a large wide shooe slopping about his foot it is no trouble to him It is just so with consciences good and evill A Gnat is but a small thing yet Pope Bol. pag. of Popes pag. 97. Hadrian the fourth was choakt with a Gnat and one Flye though but a small thing to a whole boxe of oyntment yet dead Flies as small things as they are cause the oyntment of the Apothecarie to send forth a stinking savour Ec. 10. 1. and so doth a little folly though but little doe a great deale of hurt And therefore a good conscience lives by Salomons rule Give not water passage no not a little And take not onely the Foxes but the little Foxes which spoyle not onely the Vines but the tender Grapes Cant. 2. 15. It knowes a little will make way for much Pharaoh is content that the people the men should go sacrifice Ex. 10. but their little ones should not goe he knew if hee had but their little ones with him he should be sure enough of their return therefore Moses will not onely have the men goe but their little ones also And therefore a good conscience deales with Satan as Marcus Arethusius dealt with Putantes pauperem vel medietatem petebant pecuniarum novissime vel paueum aliquid exigebant Quibus ait nec obolum unum pro omnibus dabo Hist Tripart lib. 6. cap. 12. his tormentours who having pulled downe an Idolatrous Temple and being urged by them to give so much as would build it up againe refused it They urged him to give but halfe hee still refused they urged him at last to give but a little towards it but he refused to give them so much as one halfe-penny No not an halfe-penny sayes he for it is as great wickednesse to conferre one Ad impietatem inquit obulum conferre unum perinde valet ac si quis cōferat omnia Theodor. lib. 3. cap. 7. halfe penny in case of Impiety as if a man should bestow the whole What was a poore halfe-penny it was a very small matter specially considering in what torture he was from which an half-penny gift would haue released him Indeed an half-penny is but a little but yet it is more then a good Conscience dares give to the maintenance of idolatrous worship A good conscience will not give so much as a farthing token to such an use as little a thing as it is For he that is faithfull in that which is least is faithfull also in much and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much Luke 16. 10. Even the least things are as great trials of a good conscience as the greatest A good Conscience will not greatifie Satan nor neglect God no not in a little Put mens consciences now vpon this triall Who crakes not of his good conscience there be none if they may bee beleeved but they have good Consciences But why are they good They can swallow no Camells Well yeeld them that though if their entrals were well searcht a man might finde huge bunch backt camells that have gone downe their gullets They can swallow no camells but what say they to gnats can they swallow them Tush Gnats are nothing whole swarmes of them can goe downe their throats and they never once cough for the matter Foule and grosse scandalls such as are infamous amongst meere heathen such Camells they swallow not but what say they to unsavorie and naughtie thoughts which their hearts prosecute with delight what say they to them Gnats doe not swarme more abundantly in the fennes then such vile thoughts doe in their hearts The prodigious oaths of wounds blood the damned language of Ruffians and the Monsters of the earth Oh their hearts would tremble to have such words passe out of their mouths but yet what say they to the neater and civilified Complements of Faith and Troth Tush these are trifles meere Gnats alas that you shall stand upon such niceties To rob a man upon the high way or to breake up a mans house in the night this is a monstrous Camell but in buying and selling to over-reach a neighbour a shilling or two a penny or two what say they to that Oh God forbid they should be so strictly dealt withall that is a small thing their throats are not so narrow but these Gnats will goe downe easily enough To beare false witnesse in an open Court of Iustice or to be guilty of pillory-perjury these bee foule things but to lye a little for a mans advantage or to make another man merriment what thinke they of this This is a very Gnat they are ashamed to straine thereat Tell many a man of his sinne in which he lyes that his sinne and a good conscience cannot stand together what is his answer but as Lot of Zoar Is it not a little one Gen. 19. 20 But the truth is that these little ones are great evidences of evill conscience It is but a dreame to thinke our consciences good that make no conscience of small sinnes and duties The conscionable Nazarite now did not only make conscience of guzling and quaffing whole cups of wine but of eating but an huske and a kernell of a Grape What a trifle is the kernell of a Grape and yet a good conscience will care to please God as well in abstinence from the kernell as from the cup. Indeed when David had defiled and hardned his conscience with his adultery then hee could cut Vriahs throat and his heart smites him not for it but when under his affliction his conscience was tender and good his heart smites him
conscience that he ought and it was his safest course to goe out to the Chaldeans questionlesse his conscience prest him to it and bids him goe out Why then goes he not He is afraid Ier. 38. 19. that he shall be mockt Such consciences as will not preferre their owne good word a comfort before the good or ill words of the world Such consciences as more feare the mocks and flouts of men on earth then they doe the grinning mocks of the devils in hell Such as will not preferre the peace of conscience before all other things are meere strangers to good conscience The seventh and last note remaines 7. Note of a good conscience Constancie in good And that is in the Text Vntill this day Constancie and Perseverance in good is a sure note of a good conscience Paul had beene young and now was old and yet was old Paul still still the same holy man hee was Time changes all things but a good conscience and that is neither changed by Time nor with Time Age changes a mans favour but not a good mans faith his complexion not his religion and though his head turne gray yet his heart holds vigorous still Vntill this day And this day was not farre from his dying day And how held he out to his last day Heare as it were his last and dying breath 2 Tim. 4. 7. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith He sayes not I have finished my faith I have kept my life as many may but I have finished my course I have kept the faith He kept his faith till he had finisht his course not only here untill this day but there untill his finishing day So long hee kept the faith and therefore so long a good conscience for as the losing of them goe together 1 Tim. 1. 19. so the keeping of them goe together therefore keeping the faith he also kept a good conscience till he finisht his dayes Vntill this day And yet one would wonder that hee should keepe it to this day considering how hardly he had been used before untill and now at this day the most of those things 2 Cor. 11. 23. were before this day Often under stripes in prisons oft and yet stands constant in the maintenance of the liberty of his conscience vers 24 25. Thrice I suffered shipwracke c. and yet made no shipwracke of a good conscience vers 26 27. in a number of perils in perill of false brethren and yet his conscience playes not false with God neither is it weary of going on in a religious course Here then is the nature of a good conscience and the tryall of it A good conscience holds out constantly in a good Cause without Deflection and in a good Course without Defection 1. In a good cause Let a good conscience undertake the defence of a good Cause and it will stand rightly to it and neither grow weary nor corrupt It will not make shewes of countenancing Pauls cause till he come before Nero and then give him the slippe and give him leave to stand upon his owne bottome and shift for himselfe as well as hee can A conscionable Magistrate and a Iudge who cut of a conscience of the faithfull discharge of his place takes in hand the defence of a good or the punishment of a bad cause will not leave it in the suddes will not be wrought by feare or favour to let Innocency be thrust to the walls and Iniquity hold up the neb but will stand out stiffe and manifest the goodness of his conscience in his Constancie 2. In a good Course A man that is once in a good course having a good conscience wil neither be driven nor be drawn out of that good way to his dying day There be tentations on the right hand and there be tentations on the left but yet a good conscience will turne neither way Pro. 4. 27. but keepes on fore right and presses hard to the marke that is set before it Try it with tentations on the left hand Try it by the mockings and derisions of others whom it sees in good wayes will this stagger or stumble it and make it start aside not a whit but it wil go on with so much the more courage rather Iob 17 6 7 8 9. He hath made me also a by-word of the people and aforetime I was a Tabret Was not this enough to shake others to see such a prime man as Iob thus used thus scorned and mocked not a whit for all this The righteous shall hold on his way and hee that hath cleane hands be stronger and stronger Try it by mockings and derisions personall Si reddere beneficium non aliter quam per speciem injuria potero oequissimo animo ad honestum consilium peâ— medium infamiam â—endam Nemo mihi videtur pluris virtutem nemo illi magis esse devotus quam qui boni viri famam perdidit ne conscientiam perderet Senoc epi. 82. by personall infamy and reproach let a mans owne selfe be derided be defamed this will goe neerer than the former what will this move him out of the way No He will lose his good name before his good conscience See Ps 119. 51. The proud have had me greatly in derision yet have I not declined from thy Law And though Michol 2 Sam. 6. play the flouting foole yet David will not play the declining foole but if to be zealous be to be a foole he will be yet more vile And though Ieremy was in derision daily and every one mocked him yea and defamed him yet he was rather the more than the lesse zealous Ier. 20. 7 9 10. The righteous Psal 135. 1. are like Mount Sion that cannot be removed but abides for ever What likelihood that a puffe of breath should remove a Mountaine When men can blow downe Mountaines with their breath then may they scoffe a good conscience out of the waies of godlinesse and sinceritie Mount Sion and a good conscience abide for ever But these happily may be thought lighter trials put a good conscience to some more smarting and bleeding trials then these pettier ones are and yet there shall we find it as constant as in the former Let the Lord give the Sabeans ChaldeaÌ„s and satan leave to spoile Iob of his goods and children will not then Iob give up his Integrity doe ye not thinke that he will curse God to his face So indeed the devill hopes Iob 1. 15. But what is the issue what gets the devill by the triall onely gives God argument of triumph against him in Iobs constancie Iob 2. 3. And still he holdeth fast his integrity As if he had said See for all that thou canst doe in spight of all thy spight and mischievous malice he holds fast his Integrity untill this day See the terrible trials to which they were put Heb. 11. 37. They were stoned sawne asunder c. and
not in meates and drinks but in righteousnesse peace and joy in the holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. Quietnesse and a dry morsell is better then an housefull of good cheare with strife Pro. 17. 1. Though it be but outward quietnesse when a man is free from vnjust vexations and the molestations of froward and contentious disposition even such quietnesse makes a dry morsell good cheere makes a feast of a crust But when there is inward quietnesse of a good conscience and a mans heart is at quiet from his peace with his God what excellent cheere is a dry morsel then Though a man have ever so good fare yet to have it sawced with the bitternesse of contention and to live in a continuall wrangling with pevish people what poore content would a well furnisht Table afford such a man And what poore cheere especially would all these feasts in the world make where there is brawling and contention from the conscience Here then is the excellencie of this feast above all other feasts This feast is able to subsist and to maintaine it selfe without other feasting other feasting is nothing without this of a good conscience Other feasting often hurts and hinders this feast whilest men by their vaine and licentious carriage therein Feasting without all feare Iude. 12. Doe make the conscience fast and starve and whilest their Quailes are betweene their teeth Leannesse enters into their soule Psalm 106. 5. So farre is bodily feasting from helping that it hinders this feasting rather Conscience can have mirth enough without a feast but little is the comfort and content that a feast can give where the Conscience is not good Men may Sed non est ista hilaritas longa Observa videbis cosdem in exiguum tempus atergime ridere acerrime rudere Senec ep 92. set a face vpon it and bragge laugh and be jolly in their feasting but yet in the middest of their laughter the heart is sorrowfull and the end of that mirth is heavinesse Prov. 14. 13. Conscience awakened even in the middest of the greatest jollitie gives men many a bitter twitch at the heart and in the middest of all their revellings gives them Vineger and Gall to drinke A good conscience is it that sweetens and seasons all the dishes of a feast that is the sawce that makes meat savoury the sugar that sweetens Wine that is the musicke that makes a mans heart dance But let a man goe to the most sumptuous and delicious feasts without a good conscience and how is it with him then Iust as with Belshazzar Dan. 5. Where the hand writing on the wall marred all his mirth or else it is in such a case as it was with Haman The foole brags that he alone is invited to Esters banquet with the King Esth 5. 12. Oh how happy a man was he under how fortunate a Planet was he borne to be the King and Queenes Favorite both But see what little reason hee had to brag Chap. 7. 2. Even at the banquet of Wine Esther gives him a cup of gall at the banquet of Wine doth she accuse Haman to the King Oh! how many glory in their banquetting and their feasting but how often doe their consciences put Esthers tricke vpon them even accuse them to God and gall and gird them in the midst of their wine conscience serves many as Absoloms villaines served Amnon when his heart was merry at Absoloms feast then they stabd him to the heart Cōscience deales with them as the Israelites were dealt withal in their quaile feast They had their Quailes and their dainties but a man would rather want their good cheere than have their sawce Their sweet meat had sharpe sawce Whilst the flesh was between their teeth Gods anger brake in upon them So whilst many are chewing their dainties conscience fils their mouth with gravell and so sawces and spices their dishes that they find but little content therein So miserable are all feasts and merriments of this world when a man wants the independent feast of a good conscience So happy also are they that have the feast of a good conscience although they never taste bit of other feast whilst they live although they be denied the crums that fall under the feasting Gluttons table 3. It is better in regard of the Vniversality of it As for belly feasts it stands not with every mans condition and purse to make them It belongs onely to the richer and abler sort to feast Feasting is a matter of charge and cost and so is out of the reach of the poorer sort But here is the excellencie of this feast The poorest that is may make it and the poore have as good priviledge to make it as the rich and the poore in this respect may keepe as good an house as the best Nobleman yea for the most part the poorer sort keep this feast best Nabal makes a feast like a king but wretched man in the mean time what feast keepes his conscience It may be many a poore Carmelite neighbour of his that went in a poore russet coat and lived in a poore thatcht cottage kept that feast abundantly richly whilst he poore sot had not the crums that fell from their tables Lazarus could not have the crums that fell from the gluttons table but how happy had it been with the glutton if in stead of this delicious fare he might have had but the reversions of Lazarus boord Lazarus may not come to his feast no nor yet to his fragments neither will Lazarus condition permit him to feast it as the glutton did but yet this feast of a good conscience Lazarus may make as well as hee and can and doth keepe it whilst the glutton feeles many an hunger-biting gripe What an excellent feast is this above all other feasts wherein the russet hath as much priviledge as the velvet the beggar as the King the poore tenant as the rich Landlord The rich Landlord often so feeds upon and eates up his poor tenant by oppression that the tenant is kept low enough for feasting It is well with him if hee have food hee had not need thinke of feasting But loe now the excellent feast of a good conscience here may the Tenant keep as good cheere as the Landlord yea and it may be may feast whilst the rich Landlord is ready to starve for want of this provision Now then all this considered what a Motive should it be to make us in love with a good cōscience How powerfully should this perswade us therto whē God would perswade men to come to the joyes of heaven hee uses no other argument than this to invite them to a feast as in the Parable Luk. 14. Behold here is the same argument to move you to be in love with a good conscience behold the Lord invites you to a feast and to a feast where ye shall have sufficiencie without want or loathing where ye shal have wine mirth musick and good
dies If the worme of Hell would die the fire of Hell would go out For if there were no guilt there should be no punishment So that the very Hell of Hell is that self-torment which an evill conscience breeds Now then all this considered how powerfully should it move us to labour for a good conscience Thou that goest on in thine evill courses and hatest to be reformed and reclamed do but bethinke thy selfe if God should awaken thy conscience in what misery thou shouldst live Vt ex cruditate febres nascuntur vermes quaÌ„do quis cibum sumit intemperanter ita si quis peccata peccatis accumulet nec deco quot ea poenetentia sed misceat peccata peccatis cruditatem contrahit veterum recentium delictorum igne aduâ—etur proprio vermibus consumetur Ignis est queÌ„ generat moestitia delictorum vermis est eo quod irrationabilia animi peccata mentem pungunt viscera exedant vermes ex unoque nascuntur tanquam ex corpore peccatoris hic vermis non morietur c. Ambr. lib. 7. in Luk. c. 14. here what an hell to have a palsie conscience what a hell on earth to be alwayes under the accusations inditements and terrors of conscience and to live Cain like in the land of Nod in a continuall restlesse agitation But especially as thou fearest that everliving and ever grabbing worme so have a care to get a good conscience Greene raw fruits breed Chestworms which if heed be not taken will eate the very maw thorow A dead body and a putrified corrupt carcasse breeds worms that ly gnawing at it in the grave The forbidden and raw fruits of Sin are those which breed Chestwormes in the conscience The corruptions of the soule and dead workes are those that breed this living worme take heed therfore of medling with these fruits that will breed this worme and get thy conscience purged from dead works get this worme killed with the soonest for if thou lettest it live till thou dye it will never die at all and will put thee to those exquisite torments from which to be freed thou wouldst willingly suffer ten thousand of the most cruell deaths that the wit of man were able to invent As then I say thou fearest this worme of Hell so get a good conscience Drink downe every morning a hearty draught of Christs blood which may make this worme burst And when once this worm is burst and voyded and the conscience well purged by Christs blood take heed ever after of eating those raw fruits that will breed new wormes Lead so holy so upright and so conscionable a life that thou mayest not by thy fresh Sins clog thy conscience with fresh guilt Get thy conscience purged by Christs blood and thy conversation framed by Gods Word Thy words were found by me and I did eate them Ier. 15. 16. Do thou so eat no more the unwholesome and worme-breeding fruits of Sin but drinke Christs blood and eate Gods Word and they both shall purifie and scoure thy conscience from all such stuffe as may breed and feed the Hell-worme of an evill conscience CHAP. XVI The portion and respect that a good conscience finds in the world ANd thus have we hither to seen Pauls Protestation The second point followes namely Ananias his insolent and impetuous Injunction Verse 2. And the high Priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth Paul had begun his defence in the former verse and that by authoritie and speciall command as appeares in the former Chapter at the 30. ver But he had no sooner begun but he is interrupted cut off and hath not onely his mouth stopt but stopt with Ananias fist He commanded to smite him on the mouth Out of which carriage and violence of his wee may observe divers things First learne What is the Reward and portion of a good conscience from the world It is the portion of a good conscience full oft to be smitten either on the mouth or with the mouth Blowes either with the fist or with the tongue To be smitten one way or other is full often the lot of a good conscience Smite him on the mouth sayes Ananias But let us a little expostulate the matter with Ananias Smite him on the mouth But yet as Pilate speaks in Christs case But what evill hath he done or what evill hath hee spoken Smite him on the mouth But as our Saviour answers Ioh. 18. 23. If he have spoken evil take witnesse of the evill and proceed legally and formally If he have spoken well or no manner of evill why commandest thou him to be smitten What hath he spoken any treason against Caesar or the Roman government If he have then as the town-clark of Ephesus speaks Act. 19. 38. The Law is open and there are Deputies let them accuse him and bring him to his answer It is a base usage of an ingenuous person to be smitten on the mouth in a Court of Iustice a dishonourable usage of a Roman Surely it should seeme by such base and bitter usage that Paul hath some way or other fouly forgotten and overshot himselfe that Ananias his spirit is thus embitered and provoked against him What hath Paul given him any exasperating and disgracefull termes hath he given him any open and personall girds before the whole Councell No no No such matter at all Why what then is the matter that Paul must be thus basely and thus despitefully used Will ye know the cause Men and brethren I have lived in all good conscience Loe here is the quarrell He hath made a profession of a good conscience and for his good conscience sake are Ananias fists about his eares There is nothing so mads men of wicked consciences as the profession practice of a good conscience doth The very name mention of a good conscience makes Ananias halfe mad like one besides himselfe he fals not onely to foule words but to blowes also and Paul must have it on the mouth for good conscience sake Paul might have blasphemed the blessed name of Christ and rayled upon the odious Sect of the Nazarens hee might have beene a drunkard an adulterour or a murtherer and none of all these things would have stirred Ananias his blood for none of all these should Paul have been smitten but let him but once speak or treate of or any way meddle with good conscience and Ananias his blood is presently up hee cannot hold his hands but Paul must have on the mouth there is no remedy So odious a thing is good conscience and the profession of it to wicked men Therefore this is that which a good coÌ„scieÌ„ce must expect even Ananias his dole fists blowes smiting hard injurious measure from the world This is no new thing It was our Saviours case before it was Pauls Ioh. 18. 22. And when he had thus spoken one of the officers which stood by strucke