Heaven nor Hell Whose God is their belly and whose end is destruction as S. Paul saith Phil. 3.19 who declare their sin as Sodom and hide it not Wounto them saith the Lord they have rewarded evil to themselves Isa 3.9 this may be said of thousands among us whose countenance testifie against them their wanton carriages painted faces naked breasts powdred locks 〈◊〉 other antick fashions testifie against thousands both of men and women the they do little mind this great truth that conscience can and will declare all their doings to God Proud Hamans drunken Nabals and whoring Jesabel declare their sin as Sodom hide it not and as for Conscience they turn him off But in these miserable wretches know this as the prophet saith Wo unto them who have rewardâ—â— evil unto themselves They have made a long black bloody vill for conscience to open againâ—â— them at the last day of the term of their lives aâ— soon as ever their souls are departed from theâ—â— bodies sentence shall be passed against them according to the light and testimony of theâ—â— own consciences Séeing then Conscience will give testimonâ— of every ones ways let us not slight Consâ—â—ence let us not stop the mouthof Conscienâ—â— séeing Conscience can and will speak and tâ—â—â— us what we are Many there are that go about to stop the mouth of conscience when Conscience deals plainly with them and tels them of their sins Oh they cannot endure to hear of that but remember the miserable end of Judas what said Judas his conscience to him Thou hast betrayed thy Lord and Master for a little Silver Ali covetous wretch But could Judas his silver stop the mouth of his conscience No Judas his conscience so terrifies him that he flung in the money again and so went and hanged himself So likewise remember the fearful estate of Spira and many others whose consciences made them to possess the wrath of God here on earth A wounded spirit saith Solomon Prov. 8.14 who can bear a tormenting and condemning Conscience who can endure O there is no resisting of conscience it is Gods Vicegerent in the soul When conscience speaks threatning language to many for such and such sins they séek to turn conscience out of doors but because they cannot possibly do this they strive to stop his mouth by running wilfully into sin like men that desperately give up their souls to the devil and so make shipwrack of faith conscience soul and all for ever and then follows as we have seen by woful experience self-stabbing self-hanging drowning or poisoning or some such like accursed ends Oh consider this all ye that forget God and make no conscience of your ways you undermine your own salvation Many men deal with conscience as Felix did with Paul Acts 24.25 they will hear conscience so long as it speaks good but when conscience tells them thorowly of their sins their darling sins then they have enough of conscience and so puts him off till they he better at lesure When there was no King in Israel every man did what was good in his own eyes so where there is no conscience alive in the soul men lives as they list but yet for all this conscience will speak home at last If thou art a drunkard or an adulterer or an unjust dealer or whatsoever sin it is thou art guilty of conscience will make it known and if at last conscience doth condemn thou shalt never be saved But on the contrary though men and devils say thou art an hypocrite or the like yet if thou hast the testimony of thy conscience God will own thee as just and righteous One dram of the peace of conscience is worth a thousand worlds What would the damned in Hell give for a little of this lasting jay this peace which passeth all understanding the want of which is hell yea worse then hell Think upon this O ye great ones of the world who live in pleasure Remember that there is a conscience and that there is a God and that thou hast a precious immortal soul which if thy conscience witness against shall be thrown-into Hell You that eat the fat and sweet of the earth and drink wine in bowls and cloath your selves in silks remember this that conscience takes notice of all thy ways of the pride of thy heart of the vanity of thy life and setteth all down in his Black Book You that like the harlot in Prov. 7. cry Let us take our fill of love and pleasure consider that all these things must have an end when all is done the Bell must toll and you must all dance after deaths pipe who are now stnging and swinging your selves in worldly pleasures and delights O if God should say to any soul of you as he did to the rich fool in Luk. 12.20 This night shall thy soul be taken from thee It shall little advantage you then to weep and cry O that I were out of these Infernal and external Flames O that I had hearkened when time was to the voice of Christ and my own Conscience The Sighs and groans of dying men are often very sad but the cryes and groans of the damned in Hell can never he imagined or expressed O constder this you that sin away Conscience that quaff and drink away conscience accompanying one another in sin take heed you be not one day found to weep over one anothers backs in hell Certainly whole coachfuls of gallants will be tumbled down into hell The Lord awaken your sleepy dead consciences before you go hence be no more seen What pitty is it that persons that bears the Image of God and are as it were in outward glory and beauty Gods above others what pitty is it that such beauty should come to be embraced by ugly loathsome devils in Hell Thousands there are that court and sport pin and paint away their time whose end is to be burned and shall at last perish in hell Fruitless Fig-trees they are that bear nothing but leaves Cut them down saith God and cast them into the fire To perish in a prison or on a dunghil is nothing to dye for want of food is nothing Lazarus died so whilst Dives with his delicious fare dyed on his hed of down and was cast into hell You that lye upon beds of Ivory and have your hangings of needle-works if you get not Christ and a good conscience hell shall be your fare and devils your companions to torment you for ever and who shall be able to stand in the day of the Lords wrath And who can dwell with everlasting burnings Companions in sin shall be companions in Hell and those who can sport andp lay one with another shall in Hell drag and torment one another and curse the day that ever they saw one another and cry out one of another O what miserable wretches were we to lose the heaven of heavens for a little vain delight the love and favour of God for the love and favour of wicked rompanions in whose presence we more delighted then in the everlasting love of God whose pleasures are pleasures for evermore What prefitteth it now that we have had our Wine and our Musick our fill and our sull of earthly delights O wretched creatures that we are who shall deliver us from this dying death these miserable torments Wo unto us we have rewarded evil to our own souls we are tanished for ever from the presence of the Lord and have utterly lost that inward peace of conscience the want whereof addeth torments to our torments and maketh us in our misery more excéeding miserable Now the Lord give every one of us this peace this joy which that we may all have The Peace of God which passeth all understanding keep our hearts and minds in the love and knowledge of Jesus Christ And the blood of Christ wash and purge our consciences from dead works that we may serve the living God Which that we may all do The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all Amen FINIS Courteous Reader THere is lately published an excellent and profitable Sermon called Christs first Sermon or The necessity duty and practice of Repentance opened and applied Also Christs last Sermon or The everlasting estate and condition of all men in the World to come Likewise the Christians best Garment or The putting on of the Lord Jesus Christ The Christians blessed Choice Also Heavens Glory and Hells Horror or the parable between Dives and Lazarus opened and applied And the School of Grace Very godly Books and are but three pence a peece price There is likewise nine other small Books all of them very godly and comfortable for thy soul One is entituled Englands Faithful Physitian The second Dooms-day at hand The third The Dreadful Character of a Drunkard The fourth The Fathers last blessing to his children The fifth The sin of pride arraigned and condemned The fixth The Plain-mans-plain Path-way to heaven The seventh Peters Sermon of Repentance The eighth The Charitable Christian The ninth Death Triumphant All very necessary for these licentious times each of them being but two pence price They are to be sold by Eli. Andrews at the white-Lyon neer Py-corner FINIS
election sure I have brought out my own damnation without either fear or wit and made my self sure of eternal and everlasting wrath and condemnation saith méer moral formal and prophane christians consciences Ah Lord saith the dissembling Hypocrites conscience I have béen but an outside Christian I have gone to Church but onely as dogs do for fashion sake and to be looked upon estéemed among my neighbours I have made a shew indéed and pretence of Religion and holiness but it hath been but a meer show I have altogether denied the power and practice of it in my life and conversation as it is Tit. 1.16 They profess that they know God but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and to every good Work reprobate And why so because as he saith in the 15 vers Their minds and consciences are defiled Ah my conscience told mâ— several times that I was but an Hypocrite a meer painted Sepulchre fair without but foul within O but I would not hear conscience then but slighted and neglected him Ah but now my conscience makes me hear him whether I will or no. Therefore Lord do with mâ— what thou pleasest true and righteous art thou in all thy dealings towards me be they never so harsh they are but the just reward of mine iniquities And saith the covetous mans conscience and the griping cruel extorting Vsererâ— consciences Lord I confess I have been covetous wretch but I have not coveted after heaven it hath been my whole trade and business to cozen and cheat others and to gripe and grind the faces of the poor and all that I could to undo others Aut alas for me what have I done I have quite and clean undone my own soul that to all eternity I have been very cruel and unmerciful to others I would not forgive my poor brethren in the least O Lord I deserve no mercy at thy hands the hottest place will be too cold for me What have you done with all your wealth saith God to rich men all those great estates and possessions which I lent to you or rather intrusted you with as stewards How have you improved them what of them have you laid out or lent to me again in releiving my poor members What good have you gotten to your own souls by them Have you laid up any thing in store for eternal life O no saith conscience I have not Lord I have not But this I have done I have treasured up wrath against the day of wrath My gold and silver is rusted my riches are corrupted myrich garments motheatén as S. James saith in his 5. ch 12 13 14. v. My gold and silver is cankered and the rust of them is now a witness against me to condemn me eats my flesh as if it were fire And now also behold the hire of the laborers which have reaped down my field which I kept back by fraud cryeth and the crys of them which have reaped are entred into the ears of the Lord of Sabbaths I have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton and I have nourished my heart as in a day of slaughter I told you saith conscience that for all your pleasures and for all your riches and for all your greatness and delights you must come to judgement give an account to God of all your actions and for all your wealth and how and which way you spent every penny that he lent you Did I not tell you saith conscience True it is my conscience told me but I slighted conscience as a thing of no value or account Ah miserable man that I was to slight this voice of conscience wo unto me my punishment is less then mine iniquities deserve Thus and thus will mens consciences deal with them before the Lord. When as Peter denied his Lord Master his conscience let him alone once yea twice but the third time the Cock crew and Peters heart smote him for what be had done and he went forth and wept bitterly Peter did not go about to stop the mouth of his conscience as Judas did so banged himself no Peter he closed with the voice of his conscience and so by his true unfeigned repentance obtained mercy So likewise David when the Prophet Nathan in 2 Sam. 12.13 had by the Parable of the Ew-lamb shewed David the evil of his sins prâ—sently David was convinced in his consciencâ— of the horridness of his sins and David saiâ— unto Nathan I have sinned against the Lord. Have mercy upon me saith David Psalm 51. the Psalm of his Repentance according to thy loving kindness According to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions Wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleans me from my sin For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is before me Against thee even thee onely have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight David had a very tender conscience for when he did cut off Sauls skirt his heart smote him his conscience accused him as you may sée 5 Sam. 24.5 O but how many wicked men are there now whose consciences tell them over and over again and again of their sins yet for all that they stop their ears against conscience How many times doth the beastly Drunkards conscience the prophane Swearers the Sabbath-breakers consciences tell them of their sins and yet notwithstanding for all the checks of conscience they will go on in their sins and fill up the measures of their iniquities and so makes conscience to fill up his black scroll of indictments against them whereby they are everlastingly condemned O if men would but be convinced in their consciences of the evil of their ways when their conscience tells them of it how many thousands might be brought home by repentance to life eternal who now run head-long to the Pit of destruction I am perswaded that many who cozen and cheat by undermining and over-selling using false and light weights and measures cannot chuse but meet with many checks from their consciences and O that men would be convinced of this great evil Hear this O ye that swallow up the needy by false weights and measures O be convinced in thy conscience Make Conscience thy friend now by forsaking thy evil Practices lest Conscience prove thy foe to torment thee for ever But men now adays instead of being convinced of their consciences of the evil of their ways are not ashamed to commit all manner of abominations that with greediness and then lay all the blame upon their consciences and why so It was my conscience say they As many of our cursed Diabolical Ranters Quakers and notorious wicked Libertines in these our days have laid all their impieties and horrid blaspemies upon their consciences Ask them but the reason why they deny Christ and the Scripture and cast off Ordinance and the Ministry of Christ and live as they list and refuse subjection to Magistrates and in their
actions become worse then beasts Why they do hold such damnable and devillish Opinions both against God and Christ yea against humanity it self Ask them the reason of these things and what do they say It is from the Light within us it is the liberty of our consciences and have not we fought for liberty of Conscience Ah cursed wretches the Light within you is darkness Is this the liberty of thy conscience No no this is the liberty of thy lusts and the delnsions of the Devil thou hast seared thy conscience with a hot Iron but yet at last thy conscience though thou hast defiled it never so much will put the saddle upon the right horse and charge thee home with all the blame Is liberty of conscience a libérty to sin No God forbid Shall we sin saith S. Paul Rom. 6.1 that grace may abound No God forbid I dare not saith a gracious heart my conscience tells me I must not How shall I saith Joseph Gen. 39.9 do this great wickedness and sin against God The grace of God saith the Apostle Tit. 2.11 that brings salvation teacheth me to deny ungodliness and worldly lust and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world And not to live as we list which is a sign of no grace at all A truly tender conscience will be very tender of committing sin and will have a circumspect care over himself how he walks and how he lives that so the name of God and of Christ be not blasphemed but in these last and worst of times wherein men as S. Paul saith make shipwrack of faith and a good conscience men have not minded this at all but have taken a full liberty to commit all manner of sins And I pray God that this sin be not charged upon those who instead of restraining men from sin a punishing them for sin have tollerated them to sin if not countenanced them to sin But let men take beed how they sin because grace abounds For saith the Apostle Heb. 10.26 27. If we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation from the Lord. For the wrath of God Rom. 1.18 is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth of God in unrighteousness Read these two texts and tremble all ye that take liberty to sin because the grace of God hath abounded How will ye be able to look either God or conscience in the face certainly you will be never able to do it unless you repent for if men will sin willingly notwithstanding all their checks of conscience their conscience will condemn them irresistably before the Lord. For certain it is there is a conscience in every man that sées observes and takes notice of all his ways and will kéep a just account of them and so be a witness either for or against the soul at the day of Iudgement What was it that made the Apostles so joyful in all their trouble and persecutions was it not the witness of their consciences sée 2 Cor. 1.12 Our rejoycing is this saith St. Paul the testimony of our conscience What was it made Paul Silas sing in prison for joy was it not that their consciences told them they were happy blessed men notwithstanding all their sufferings and reproaches Now what conscience is I shall briefly shew you and so conclude Conscience is a thing with which God endued the soul of man by creation and is for our comfort if we live well as we ought to do but will be a dreadful terror to all those that live and dye in their sins For this conscience was in Adam before his fall though not as a condemner till his fall for where there is no sin what néedeth an accuser So long as Adam kept the commands of God there was no cause for conscience to condemn him but as soon as ever Adam transgrest his conscience flew in his face which made him fly from the face of God as you may sée Gen. 3.7 8. The eyes of them both were opened their conscience accused and they hid themselves And this conscience is onely in men and women for bruit beasts wanting reason are not capable of conscience and the beasts when they dy there is an end of them but it is not so with man for conscience in man followeth the man further then the grave for if men might bury their consciences with them in their Graves they might be happy notwihstanding al their abuses of conscience for men oftentimes against all reason equity or conscience doth worse then the worst of beasts And this conscience kéepeth his Court in the heart and there sits upon the life or death of the soul and according as he finds every mans work so doth he pass sentence of condemnation or absolution for there is no briving of conscience conscience will speak the truth of every mans ways before the Lord be they good or be they evil If our hearts condemn us saith S. John 1 Joh. 2.10 God is greater then our heart that is our conscience And God hath given this power to conscience because men should have no plea of excuse before the Lord. It was not Pilates washing of his hands saying I am guiltless of the blood of this just man that could wash away the guilt of Christs blood from his conscience Pilates Conscience told him that Christ was a just man and that he saw no cause of death in him at all Luk. 23.23 and yet cursed Pilate contraty to the light of his own conscience delivered the Lord of life into the hands of bloody men to be crucified and so brought the guilt of his blood upon his own soul He that will not endure conscience to reprove him for his sins certainly he loves to go to hell without controul and he that will not endure Conscience to tell him of his sins here shall whether he will or no suffer sufficient torment for his sins hereafter For an evil Conscience is a hell to the soul here and shall be the hell of hels hereafter Now then if there be such a thing in man as conscience and that his conscience shall either justifie or condenm him then let every man take héed how he orders his conversation in the world do not give leave to your selves to think say or do any thing but what you are willing to own before the Lord at the last day Therefore let every one of us so think and so speak â—nd so do that we may not have a conscience to condemn us But let us so live as those that expect to have conscience witness for them before the Lord that with godly sincerity they have had their conversation in this world But what multitudes are there in the world that be as if there were no conscience at all neither God nor Devil nor