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
are not so troublesome to the sea as guilt is to the Conscience Therefore as the way to calme the Sea is to calme the winds so the way to quiet and calme the Conscience is to purge and take away the guilt Guilt is in the Conscience as Ionas in the Ship out with him and Sea and Ship are both quiet But how then shall the guilt be purged out of the Conscience That we find Heb. 9. 14. How much more shall the bloud of Christ purge our Consciences from dead works We cannot have a good conscience till we be freed from an evill one The way to be freed from an evill Conscience is to have our hearts sprinkled from an evill Conscience Heb. 10. 22. But what is that wherewith the conscience must be sprinkled to be made good with peace and quietnes the same which we find 1 Pet. 1. 2. The sprinkling of the blood of Iesus Christ Heb. 12. 24. The blood of sprinkling which speaks better things than that of Abel So then the Conscience sprinkled with Christs bloud ceases to be evill becomes good and peaceable The same Christ that calmed the rage of the Sea by stilling the winds Mar. 4. 39. He arose and rebuked the wind and said unto the Sea peace and be still and the wind ceased and there was a great calm the same Christ it is that stils the rage of the conscience by taking and purging away the guilt thereof with the sprinkling on of his bloud His bloud speakes Heb. 12. 24. And speakes not only to God but speakes to the conscience The voyce which it speakes is Peace and be still the same voyce which to his Disciples after his resurrection Peace be with you and then followes a great calme and peace makes the Conscience good But heare the Conscience will inquire how it may come to get this bloud sprinkled upon it to make it thus peaceably good and what is it that applies this calming bloud of Christ I answer therfore That it is the grace of faith therfore it was said before that faith in Christs blood makes peace in the Conscience Faith is the hand of the soule and as the hyssope sprinkle by which Christs bloud is sprinkled upon our Consciences Heb. 10. 22. Let us draw neere with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evill Conscience And being justified by faith we have peace towards God Rom. 5. 1. Hence that conjunction of faith and a good Conscience 1 Tim. 1. 5. of a good Conscience and of faith unfayned and ver 19. Holding faith and a good Conscience For faith it is that makes a good conscience by making a quiet consciēce Faith is not only a purifying grace Act. 15. 9. but it is also a pacifying grace Rom. 5. 1. It not onely purges our corruption by applying the efficacie of Christs bloud but specially purges our guilt by applying the merit of his bloud So that no faith no peace and no peace no good Conscience A defiled Conscience can be no good Conscience and what defiles the Conscience See Tit. 1. 15. Vnto them that are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure but even their mind and Conscience is defiled They that be defiled have their consciences defiled but how come they and their Consciences so To them that are defiled and unbelieving Therefore an unbelieving Conscience is a defiled conscience and a defiled conscience is no good conscience because it can have no peace so long as it is clogged with defiling guilt But contrarily faith purifying not onely from corruption but from guilt by the application of Christs bloud makes the conscience pure and peaceable both There can be no peace of conscience but where there is the righteousnesse of the person There is no peace to the wicked Isa 57. 21. as if he should say an evill unrighteous person cannot have a good conscience where the person is evill there the conscience cannot be good Now faith in Christs bloud makes a mans person good so the conscience becomes good It makes the person righteous and the person being righteous the conscience is at peace for the worke of righteousnesse is peace and the effect of righteousnesse quietnesse and assurance for ever Isa 32. 17. with which that of the Apostle sweetly sutes Revel 7. 2. First King of righteousnesse and after that King of peace Our persons must first find Christ a King of righteousnesse by justifying them from their guilt before our consciences can find him King of Salem pacifying them from their unquietnesse Our persons once justified by Christs blood from their guilt and unrighteousnesse our consciences are pacified and freed from their unquietnesse Wouldst thou then have a good conscience Get the peace of conscience Wouldst thou have Peace in thy conscience Get faith in thy soule Believe in the Lord Iesus and get thy soule sprinkled with his bloud and then Heb. 10. 2. Thou shalt have no more conscience of Sin thy Conscience shall be at quiet no more accusing thee nor threatning thee condemnation for thy Sin 2. Repentance from dead workes Though Christs bloud be that which purges the conscience from dead works and so workes peace yet that peace is not wrought in our apprehension neither do we get the feeling of this faith without some further thing Therefore to our faith must be joyned our repentance though not in the making of our peace yet for the feeling of it Many are ready to catch at Christs bloud and if that will make a good conscience they are then safe enough But as thou must have Christs bloud so Christ will have thine heart also bleed by repentance ere he wil vouchsafe the sense of peace A cōscience therefore that would be a conscience having peace must not onely be a believing but a repenting conscience Mat. 3. 2. Repent ye for the Kingdome of heaven is at hand the Kingdome of heaven shall be yours if you will repent ye shall have it immediately upon your repentance But wherein stands this kingdome offered to repentant consciences The Kingdome of God stands in peace and joy in the holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. Repent and ye shall receive the gift of the holy Gbost Act. 3. 38. And what may that gift be The fruits of the Spirit are love joy peace Gal. 5. 22. Which though it be to be understood of peace betweene man and man yet also that peace which is betweene God and man is the fruit of the spirit and the love of God shed abroad into our hearts by the holy Ghost Rom. 5. 5. is the gift of the holy Ghost which he gives to all that by repentance seeke to get a good conscience Blessed are they that mourne that is which repent for they shal be comforted Mat. 5. 4. they shall have the peace of a good conscience which is the greatest and sweetest comfort in the world Many doe trust all to their supposed faith as a short cut and compendious way to a good conscience but
to the defiled their conscience is defiled and that being defiled it defiles all it meddles with as under the Law the Leaper defiled all he touched The best meat disht and dressed with defiled and dirty hands is loathsome to us The honest works of a mans calling are good workes in themselves but no good workes to him that doth them without a good conscience Pro. 21. 4. An high look and a proud heart and the plowing of the wicked is Sin The calling of Husbandry is counted the most honest calling of all others yet where a good cōsciēce is wanting a mans very plowing is Sin Come to holy duties of Religion and Gods service and how is it with a man wanting a good conscience in them That curse of Davids Psal 109. 8. Let his prayer be turned into Sin lies upon the services of all evill consciences See Pro. 15. 8. The sacrifice of the wicked that is of him that hath an evill conscience is an abomination but the prayer of the upright that is of a man that hath a good and upright conscience is his delight Observe the opposition Hee sayes not the prayer of the wicked and the prayer of the upright nor the sacrifice of the wicked and the sacrifice of the upright but the sacrifice of the wicked and the prayer of the upright A sacrifice had prayer with it but yet it was more sumptuous more solemn then single prayer Now who would not thinke but such cost should make a man welcom yet the single prayer of the upright is accepted whilst his sacrifice is an abomination yea and that a vile abomination Is 66. 3. A man of evill conscience delighting in his abominations makes his holiest services such Let such an one come to the Sacraments and how will it be with him there even as in the former To the impure even the pure Sacraments are impure Simon◠Magus rather defiles the waters of Baptisme then they clense him and it is not carnall baptisme that availes any thing without the answer and stipulation of a good conscience 1 Pet. 3. 21. And for the Sacrament of the Supper whether doth it profit an uncleane conscience or such a conscience pollute it It may be judged by a like case resolved Hag. 2. 11 14. The uncleane person by a dead body touching the Bread or Wine or Oyle makes these to be uncleane The ceremoniall uncleannesse by the touch of a dead body typified the morall uncleannes of an evill conscience unpurged from dead works God looks specially at the cōscience in all our services and if hee finds that foule and filthy he throws the dung of mens sacrifices in their faces that come with the dung of their filthy consciences before his face See therefore how Paul serves God 2 Tim. 1. 3. Whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience It is an impure service that is not performed with a pure conscience as sleight as the world make of puritie How much more shal the blood of Christ purge your consciences from dead workes Heb. 9. 14. But to what end are they purged To serve the living God Therfore marke that till the conscience be purged and made good there is no serving of God So Heb. 10. 22. Let us draw neere that is in prayer and the like duties But how Having our hearts sprinkled from an evill conscience Otherwise it is but a folly for us to draw neere for God will not be neere when a good conscience is far off And therfore we are bid to purifie our hearts when wee are bid draw nigh to God Iam. 4. 8. Behold here then a speciall motive to make a good conscience beautifull in our eye As we would be loath our services of God our prayers and holy performances should be abominable in Gods eye so labour for good consciences As we would have cōfort in alour duties of obedience so labor to make our conscience good It is a great deale of confidence that silly ignorant ones have in their good prayers their good serving of God as they call it yea it is all the ground of their hope of salvation when they are demanded an account of their hope now alas your good prayers and your good serving of God! why what do you talking of these things Hath Christ purged your consciences from dead workes Have you by faith got your consciences sprinkled and rinced in Christs blood and so have ye made them good If not never talke of good prayers and good serving of God your prayers cannot be good whilst your consciences are naught An evill conscience before God and a good service to God cannot stand together But would you have your prayers good indeed and your service acceptable indeed then let your first care be to make your conscience good Fourthly let this worke with us as a The fourth motive to a good conscience maine motive to a good conscience That it is the Ship and the Arke wherein the faith is perserved The faith is a rich commoditie a precious fraught and a good conscience is the bottome and the vessell wherein it is caried So long as the ship is safe and good so long the goods therin are safe but if the ship split upon the Rocks or have but a leake therein then are all the goods therein in danger of being lost and cast away So long as a man keeps a good conscience there is no feare of losing the faith the integrity and soundnes of the doctrin therof Constancie in the truth is a fruit of good conscience Psalm 119. 54 55. I have kept thy Law he had not declined from nor forsaken the truth of God but what held and kept him This I had because I kept thy precepts Keeping of a good conscience will keepe a man in the truth It is that which is the holy preservative to save from all errors heresies false doctrins The better conscience the sounder judgment the sounder heart the sounder head As the better digestion in the stomach the sreer the head is from ascēdent fumes that would distemper and trouble the same Iohn 7. 17. If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God How shall a man come to have a sound and a good judgement to be able to judge what is truth and what is not Let him get a good conscience and make conscience of doing the will of God Iohn 14. 21. Hee that hath my commandements and keepes them c. such a man hath and keepes a good conscience And what benefit shall such a one have by keeping of a good conscience I will love him and I will manifest my selfe unto him And Ps 50. 23. To him that orders his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God God doth communicate himselfe and his truth to such as make conscience of their wayes The pure in heart shall see God and the secret of the Lord is with them that feare
my choice of your Patronage of this Treatise It would have bin an incongruity to have had the name of a person of an evill Conscience prefixed before a booke of good Conscience I desired a Patron sutable to my subject I presume the very subject shall make the Treatise welcome to you Be you pleased to afford your acceptance as I will afford you my poore prayers that the Lord who hath already set upon your head the crowne of the Elders Prov. 17. 6. Childrens Children and one Crowne of glory here one earth Age found in the Prov. 16. 1. wayes of righteousnes would also in his due time give you that incorruptible crowne of righteousnes and eternall glory in the heavens which that righteous Judge shall give to you and to all those that in the wayes of a good Conscience waite for the blessed appearance of the Lord Iesus Your Worships in all Christian observance IER DYKE The Contents of this TREATISE The Text containes thee Maine Heads The first maine head Pauls Protestation of a good Conscience where five things are considered 1. What Conscience is 2. What a good Conscience is It is good with a twofold goodnesse 1. With the goodnesse of Integritie and this integrity is threefold 1. When being rightly principled by the VVord it sincerely judges and determines of good evill 2. VVhen it doth excuse for good and accuse for evill 3. VVhen it urges to good restraines from evil 2. VVith the goodnesse of Tranquillitie and Peace Here are three sorts of Conscience discovered not to be good viz. 1. The Ignorant Conscience 2. The Secure 3. The Seared 3. The means of getting keeping a good Conscience 1. To get and keepe the Conscience good peaceably or with the goodnesse of peace three things required 1. Faith in Christs blood 2. Repentance from dead workes 3. The conscionable exercise of Prayer 2. To get and keepe the Conscience good with the goodnesse of integrity and to have it uprightly good five things required viz. 1. VValking before God 2. Framing ones Course by the Rule of the VVord 3. Frequent examination of the Conscience 4. Hearkning to the voice of Conscience 5. In cases of questionable nature to take the surest and the safest side 4 The markes and notes of a good Conscience and they be seven 1. To make Conscience of all sinnes and duties 2. To make Conscience of small sinnes duties 3. To effect a Ministery that speakes to the Conscience 4. To doe duties and avoid sin for Conscience sake 5. Holy boldnesse 6. To suffer for Conscience 7. Constancie and Perseverance in Good 5. The Motives to a good Conscience and they are five 1. The incomparable comfort and benefit of it in all such times and cases as all other comforts faile a man and wherein a man stands most in need of comfort The Cases or times are five 1. The Time and case of Disgrace and Reproach 2. The Time of common feare cōmon calamity 3. The Time of sicknesse or other Crosses 4. The Time of Death 5. The Time and day of Iudgement 2. That a good Conseience is 1. A feast for 1. Contentment and satisfaction 2. Ioy and Mirth 3. Societie 2. Better than a feast for 1. The Cotinuance 2. Independency 3. Vniversalitie 3. Without a good Conscience all our best duties are nought 4. It is the Ship and Arke of Faith 5. The misery of an evil one 1. In this world in respect of 1. Feare 2. Perplexitie 3. Torment 2. in the world to come The second Maine Head Ananias his insolent injunction Whereout is observed 1 What is the respect a good Consciēce finds in the world 2. The impetuous injustice of the enemies of good consciēce 3. Who cōmonly be the bitteest enemies of good conscience 4. That Vsurpers are Smiters 5. What is a sad fore-runner of a Nations Ruine The third maine head Pauls Answere and Contestation Whereout is observed 1. That Christian patience muzzels not a good Conscience from pleading its owne Innocencie 2. The severitie of Gods Iudgements upon the Enemies and Smiters of good Conscience 3. The equity of Gods administration in his execution of Iustice GOOD CONSCIENCE ACTS 23. 1. And Paul earnestly beholding the Councell said Men and brethren I have lived in all good Conscience untill this day 2. And the high Priest Ananias commanded them that stood by to smite him on the mouth 3. Then said Paul unto him God shall smite thee thou whited wall CHAP. I. The Introduction of the Discourse following THere is no complaint so generall as this that the world is naught His experience is short and slender which will not justifie the truth of this complaint And what think we may the Cause be of the generall wickednes of our Times Surely nothing makes Ill Times but Ill men and nothing makes Ill men but Ill consciences Ill Conscience is the source and fountaine Hominum sunt istae non Temporum Sonec ep 98. from whence comes all iniquities which makes times here so ill How well should hee deserve that could amend ill times There is a course if it would be taken that would do the deed and so cease the common complaint Elisha's course in healing the waters of Iericho must be taken They said of their waters as wee of our times The water is naught and the ground barren 2 King 2. 19. What course now takes Elisha for healing of the waters He went out unto the spring of the waters and cast the Salt in there ver 21. So the waters were healed ver 22. The spring and fountaine of all actions good or evill is the Conscience and all actions courses of men are as their Consciences Out of the heart are the issues of life Prov. 4. 23. the heart and Conscience is the fountaine every action of a mans life is an Issue a little rivelet and a water passage thence Are these waters then that issue thence Naught The way to heale them Nō erit fructus bonus nisi arboris bonae Mutacor mutabitur opus Aug. de ver Dom. Serm. 12. is to cast the Salt into the spring Mend the Conscience and all is mended Good Consciences would make Good men and Good men would make Good Times Lo here a project for the reformation of evil times Were this Project set on foot and a good Conscience set up how should we see prophanation of Gods holy Name and Day Injustice Bribery Oppression Deceit Adulteries and Whoredomes and all other Iniquities how should wee see all these as our Savior saw Satan falling downe like lightning from heaven How should we see them come tumbling downe like so many Dagons before Gods Arke yea tumbled downe and broken to the stumps The onely Arke that must dash and ding downe these Dagons is a good Conscience And if we would well weigh the matter what is there equally desirable with a Ecce quid prodest plena bonisarca cum sit inanis
he whose faith doth not as well purifie the heart as pacifie it hath neither faith nor a good conscience It is idle to hope for peace by faith whilst thou livest impenitently in a sinfull course Thou canst have no peace of conscience so long as thou hast peace with thy sins Peace with conscience will be had by war with sin in the daily practise of repentance It it is but a dreame to think of a good cōscience in peace whilst a man makes no conscience of sin They that have a good conscience by Christs bloud may be indeed said to have no conscience of sin as Heb. 10. 2. But yet there is a great difference betweene having no conscience and making no conscience of sin To have no conscience of sin is to have a peaceable good conscience not accusing of sin being sprinkled with Christs blood To make no conscience of sin is for a man impenitently to live and ly in any sin Now let any judge whether these two can stand together that a man may live as he list and make no conscience of any sin and yet have such peace by faith as that he hath no Conscience of sin It is an unconscionable thing in this sense to lay all upon Christ an unconscionable request to have him take away our guiltinesse and yet wee would wallow in our filthinesse still How shall faith remove the sting when repentance removes not the Sin Men seeking peace by faith in Christs blood yet living and lying in their sins without repentance God will give them Iehues answer to Iehoram 2 King 9. 22. What peace so long as the whoredomes of thy mother Iezebel and her witchcrafts are so many So what peace of conscience so long as thine oathes Sabbath-breaches whoredomes drunkennes c. do remain and remaine unrepented of and unreformed It is true of all Sin which is spoken of Romish Idolatry Apoc. 14. 11. They have norest day nor night that is no peace of conscience to any of that religion so of all that live in any Sin they have no true rest day nor night that is as Isaiah interprets it There is no peace to the wicked Peace and wickednesse live not together under one roofe Wouldst thou then have a peaceable heart Get an humbled a mourning and a repentant heart for Sin The lesse peace with Sin the more peace with God and our owne Consciences 3. The constant and conscionable exercise of prayer An excellent meanes to helpe us to the sense of that peace which makes the conscience good Hee that hath a good conscience will make conscience of prayer And prayer will helpe to make a good conscience better Phil. 4. 7. In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made knowne unto God and marke what shall be the fruit thereof And the peace of God that passes all understanding shall keepe your hearts and minds through Iesus Christ See Iob 33. 26. He shall pray unto God and he will be favourable unto him and he shall see his face with joy It is many times with mens consciences as it was with Saul hee was vexed and disquieted with an evill spirit but Davids Harpe gave him ease Prayer is a Davids Harpe the musicke whereof sweetly calmes and composes a distempered and disquieted conscience and puts it into frame againe As in other disquiets of the heart after prayer David bids his soule returne unto her rest Ps 116. 4. 7. So we may in these disquiets of conscience do no lesse The way to get a good peaceable conscience is to have acquaintance with God and when wee have acquaintance with him then shall we have peace Iob 22. 21. Acquaint thy selfe now with him and be at peace Now acquaintance is gotten with God by prayer Zech. 13. 9. They shall call on my name and I will heare them I will say it is my people and they shall say the Lord is my God Loe how in prayer acquaintance is bred betweene God and his people and acquaintance breedes love and peace and peace a good Conscience Iudge then what pitious conscience they must needs have that make so little conscience of seeking God in this duty of wicked ones the Psalme speakes They call not upon God Psal 14. as much as Isaiah sayes There is no peace to the wicked they are utterly voyd of good Conscience CHAP. V. Integrity of Conscience how procured ANd thus we have seen how the conscience may be good for peace It followes to consider how it may become uprightly good with the goodnesse of Integrity The goodnesse of Integrity is gotten and kept by doing five things 1. Walke and live as Paul in this Text Before God Set thy selfe ever in all thy wayes as in the sight and presence of God who is the Iudge and Lord of conscience Of Moses it is said that he saw him that was invisible Heb. 11. 27. Therfore it is that men walke with such loose and evill consciences because they think they walke invisibly And they think that God sees not them because they see not God An upright conscience is a good conscience and this is the way to get an upright one Gen. 17. 1. Walke before me and be upright To have God alwayes in our eye will make us walke with upright hearts So Psal 119. 168. I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies that is in effect I have kept a good Conscience but how came he to doe it for all my wayes are before thee Conscience as we saw before is a knowledge together that is together with God Now then this is an excellent meanes to get and keepe a good conscience to be carefull to doe nothing but that which we would be content God should know as well as our selves Think with thy selfe before every evill action Am I content that God should know of this But how then may a man bring himself to this Set thy self alwayes in Gods presence and see the invisible God and see thy selfe visible in his eye and know that thou doest nothing which he takes not notice of This well thought upon and laid to heart would make men make much conscience of their wayes The contrary to this is rash walking Lev. 26. when a man walkes so loosely and heedlesly as if there were no eye upon him to view him in his actions 2. Frame thy whole Course by the Dirige gressus secundū verbum tuum Quid est Dirige secundum verbum tuum Virecti sint gressus mei quia rectum est verbum tuum Ego inquit distortus sum sub pondere iniquitatis sed verbum tuum est regula veritatis me ergo distortum à me corrige tanquam ad regulam hoc est ad verbum tuum Au. de ver Apo. ser 12. rule and shape it by the directions of the word of God Gods Word is the Rule of conscience Gal. 6. 16. As many as walk according to
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
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
yet all could not make them shake hands with a good coÌ„science The raine floods and winds could not bring downe the house founded upon the rocke Mat. 7. Notwithstanding all trials a good conscience stands to it and holds it owne and speakes as once Father Rawlins did the Bishop Rawlins you left mee Acts and Mon. Rawlins you find me and Rawlins by Gods grace I will continue Try yet a good conscience farther with the tentations on the right hand which commonly have as much more strength in them above the other as the right hand hath above the left and yet we shall find the right hand too weake to plucke a good conscience out of its station It was a sore tentation wherwith Moses was assaulted The treasures and pleasures the honors favors of the Aegyptian Court Princesse All these wooe him not to goe the people of God Had that people been setled and at rest in Canaan yet had it beene a great tentation to prefer Aegypt before Canaan But the people are in Aegypt in affliction in bondage therfore so much the more strength in the tentation What will you be so mad to leave all for nothing certaine honours for certaine afflictions who can tell but you may be raised to this greatnesse to be an instrument of good to your people You by your favour in the Court may bee meanes to ease them of their bondage and so you may doe the Church service with your greatnesse c. Here was a tentation on the right hand and with the right hands strength Well and how speeds it Is Moses able to withstand it See Heb. 11. 24 25 26. He refused to be called the Son of Pharaohs Daughter c. All would not doe nor stir him a whit Those faithfull Worthies before mentioned could not be stirred with all the cruelties their adversaries could invent I but it may be a tentation on the right hand might have made them draw away the right hand of fellowship from a good conscience Well their enemies therefore will try what good they can do that wayes Heb. 12. 37. They were tempted that is on the right hand they were sollicited and inticed and allured with faire promises of honours favours preferments as Bonner used to deale with the Martyrs hee had sometimes butter and oyle as well as fire and faggot in his mouth Thus were they tempted but yet what availed these tentations Iust as much as their stones sawes swords prisons all a like They for all these tentations keepe a good conscience to their dying day and hold fast the faith and truth unto the end A good conscience is of the mind of those trees in Iothams parable Iudg. 9. It will not with the Olive lose its fatnesse nor with the Fig-tree lose its sweetnesse nor with the vine its wine of cheerfulnes to have the fattest and sweetest preferments and pleasures of the world no though it were to raigne over the trees It was an excellent resolution of Benevolus Benevolo Iustina praecepit ut adversus fidem patrum imperialia decreta dictaret Illo vero se impia verba prolaturum abnuente celsiorem honoris gradum spopondit si maÌ„data perficeret cui Benevolus Quid mihi pro impietatis mercede altiorem promittis gradum hunc ipsum quem habeo auferte dunt inâ—gram fidei conscientiam tuear Ac protonus cingulum ante pedes ejus abjecit Sâ—gon de occid Imp. l. 1. pag. 200. in his answer to Iustina the Arrian Empresse profering preferments to him to have beene instrumentall in a service which could not be done with a good conscience What doe ye promising mee an higher degree of preferment for a reward of impiety yea even take this from me which already I have so that I may keepe a good conscience And so forthwith hee threw at his feet his girdle the ensigne of his honour Thus doth a good conscience throw and trample honour and preferment under foot to maintaine its owne integritie Thus can nothing corrupt a good conscience I have beene young and now am old and yet never saw I the righteous forsaken to wit of God Psalm 37. David out of his experience could have said as much in this point I have beene young and now am old yet never saw I God and godlinesse forsaken by the righteous by the man that had a good conscience But the man that had a good conscience when hee was young will hold out and have it when he is old It is the great honour and grace of a good Conscience which Walden thinks he spake to the disgrace of Wickliffe Ita ut cano placeret quod inveni complacebat He was young and old one and the same man Old age decayes the body the strength the senses but conscience it touches not that holds out sound to death As of Christ in another sense Heb. 13. So may it be said of a good conscience in this Yesterday and to day and the same for ever A good conscience is no changeling but let a mans estate change from rich to poore from poore to rich or let the times change from good to evill or from evill to worse or a mans dayes change from young to old let his haires and head change yet among all these changes a good coÌ„science wil not change but hold it owne untill its last day Now put mens consciences upon this triall their inconstancie either in good causes or courses will discover their naughtines In a good cause how many are like Darius his coÌ„scieÌ„ce struggles a great while for Daniel he knew he was innoceÌ„t he knows the action to be unjust and therfore labours all day till the setting of the Sun for his deliverance Dan. 6. 14. but yet overcome with the Presidents Princes urgencie ver 16. he coÌ„mands him to the Lions den Here was a natural conscience standing for equity and justice but yet no good conscience it holds but till Sun set and his conscience went downe with the Sun His coÌ„science yields is overcome though it know the act to be unjust Pilats conscience makes him plead for Christ In his conscience he acquits him and thrice solemnly professes that hee finds no fault in him and therefore cannot in conscience condemne him yea withall seekes to release him Iohn 19. 12. Is not here now a good conscience Indeed it had beene so in this particular fact if his conscience had beene inflexible and had held out But when Pilate heares them say that if he be his friend he is no friend to Caesar Iohn 19 12. and whilest withall hee is willing to content the people Marke 15. 15. Now that there is feare on the one side and desire to curry favour on the other where now is his conscience Now hee presently delivers him to be crucified though he knowes in his conscience that there is no fault in him What a good conscience hath many a Iudge and Lawyer How stiffely will they stand
stand to him that will stand for it When Nebuchadnezzar heares his Furnace seaven times hotter than at other times then a good conscience will speak comfort seven times sweeter than at other times Are Gods Saints for good conscience â—on Acts and Mon. Omnis nobis vilis est poena ubi pura comes est conscientia Tiburt apud Baren An. 168. sake in prison Good conscience will make their prisons delectable hort-yards So doth Algerius an Italian Martyr date a comfortable Epistle of his From the delectable hortyard of the Leonine prison a prison in Venice so called So that as he said that hee had rather be in prison with Cato than with Caesar in the Senate house so in this regard it was more comfortable to be with Philpot in the Cole-house than with Bonner in his Palace Bonners conscience made his Palace a Cole house and a Dungeon whilst Philpots made the Cole-house a Palace Are Gods Saints in the Stocks Better it is sayes Philpot to sit in the Stocks of the world then in the stocks of a damnable conscience Therefore though they be in the Stocks yet even then the righteous doth sing and rejoyce yea even in the Stocks and prison Paul and Silas sang in the Stocks Sing in the Stocks Nay Hinc est quod è contrario innocens etiam inter ipsa tormenta fruitur conscientiae securitate cum de poena metuat de innocentia gloriatur Hieron ad Demetti ad â—â— 1. more they can sing in the flames and in the middst of the fires Isay 24. 15. Glorifie God in the fires And worthy Hawks could clap his hands in the middst of the flames So great and so passing all understanding is the peace and comfort of a good conscience So that in some sense that may be said of it which is spoken of faith Heb. 11. 34. By it they quenched the violence of fire Gods servants were so rapt and ravisht with the sense of Gods love and their inward peace of conscience that they seem'd to have a kind of happy dedolencie and want of feeling of the smart of outward torments Who knowes what trialls God may bring him to Wee have no patent for our peace nor his free liberty in the profession of the Gospel Suppose we should be cald to the stake for Christs sake Would we be chearful would we sing in the flames Get a good conscience The cause of Christ is a good cause now with a good cause get a good conscience and wee shall be able with all chearfulnesse to lay downe our lives for Christ and his Gospel sake CHAP. XII The comfort and benefit of a good conscience in the dayes of Death and Iudgement IN the fourth place The time of death is a time wherein the benefit and comfort of a good conscience is exceeding great Death hath a ghastly looke and 4. The comfort of a good conscience at the day of Death terrible able to daunt the proudest and bravest spirit in the world but then hath it a ghastly looke indeed when it faces an evill conscience Indeed sometimes and most commonly conscience in many is secure at the time of death God in his justice so plaguing an affected security in life with an inflicted security at Death And the Lord seemes to say as once to the Prophet Go make their consciences asleepe at their death as they have made it asleepe all their life lest conscience should see and speake and they heare and be saved God deales with conscience as with the Prophet Ez. 3. 26. I will make thy tongue cleave to the roofe of thy mouth that thou shalt be dumbe therefore they die though not desparately as Saul and Achitophel yet sottishly without comfort and feeling of Gods love as Nabal But if conscience be awakened and have its eyes and mouth opened no heart can imagine the desparate and unsufferable distresses of such an heart Terrours take hold of him as waters Iob 27. 20. Terrours make him afrai on every side Iob 18. 11. Then is that true Iob 25. 23 24. Hee knowes that the day of darknesse is ready at hand Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid they shall prevaile against him as a King ready to the battell And no wonder for hee is now brought unto the King of Terrours as Death is called Iob 18. 14. A man that hath an ill conscience if his eyes be opened and his conscience awakened he sees death in all the terrible shapes that may bee Sometimes he sees death comming like a mercilesse Officer and a cruell Sergeant to arrest and to drag him by the throat to the prison and place of Torment Psal 55. 15. Let death seize upon them They see it comming like that cruell servant in the Parable to his fellow Math. 18. catching them by the very throat Sometimes he sees death in the shape of some greedy Lyon or some ravening Wolfe ready to devour him and to feed upon his carkasse Ps 49. 14. Death shall feed on them even as a ravenous beast shall feed upon his prey Imagine in what a terrible plight the Samaritans where in when the Lyons set upon them 2 Kin. 17. and by it imagine in what case an ill conscience is when it beholds the face of death It puts an ill conscience into that case in good earnest that David was in in the case of triall Ps 55. 4 5. My heart is sore pained within me and the terrors of death are fallen upon me fearfulnesse and trembling are come upon mee and horrour hath overwhelmed me Sometimes againe he sees death as the Israelites the fiery serpents with mortall stings Sometimes as a mercilesse landlord or the Sheriffe comming with a Writ of Firmae ejectione to throw him out of house and home and to turne him to the wide Common yea he sees death as Gods executioner and messenger of eternall death yea hee sees death with as much horrour as if hee saw the Devill In so many fearfull shapes appeares death to an evill conscience upon the death-bed So as it is indeed the King of terrors to such an one that hath the terrors of conscience within There is no one thought so terrible to such an one as the thought of death nothing that hee more wishes to avoid Oh how loath and unwilling is such an one to dye But come now to a man that hath lived as Paul did in all good conscience and how is it with him upon his death-bed His end is peace so full of joy and comfort so is hee ravished with the inward and unspeakable consolations of his conscience that it is no wonder at all that Balaam should wish to dye the death of the righteous the death of a man with a good conscience The day of a mens mariage is the day of the joy of a mans heart Can. 3. 11. and the day of mariage is not so joyfull a day as is the day of death to a good conscience There are but
him So that he that hath a good conscience hath the onely Antidote the most excellent Amulet and plague-cake at his brest that is in the world to save him from the pestilence and infection of Popery Arminianisme Brownisme Anabaptisme c. So long as the Ship of conscience is whole so long the Iewell of faith is safe Paul would have a Bishop to hold fast the faithfull Word and to be sound in doctrin Tit. 1. 9. But yet marke it that he would first have him be a man of a good conscience in the two foregoing verses And 1 Tim. 3. 9. he would have the Deacons hold the mysterie of the faith in a pure conscience Contrarily nothing so endangers the losse of the faith and truth and soundnesse of doctrine as doth the losse of good conscience A corrupt conscience soone corrupts the judgement 1 Tim. 1. 19. Holding faith and a good conscience which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwracke If the ship of conscience cracke how soone will the merchandize of faith wrack If once the conscience crack the braine will soone prove crazie and an unsound conscience makes a fearefull way for an unsound and rotten judgement 2 Tim. 3. 8. They resist the truth there is their corrupt conscience what followes upon it Men of corrupt minds unsound in their judgement concerning the faith How frequent a thing is it in experience to see men when they lose good conscience together with it either to lose their gifts as the unprofitable servant his Masters talent or else to lose the truth and to fal into pestilent and dangerous errours So those Prophets that made not conscience in faithfull and holy execution of their office see what was the fruit of their evill conscience Micah 3. 5 6 7. Therefore night shall be unto you that ye shall not have a vision and it shall be darke unto you that ye shall not divine and the Sun shall goe downe over the Prophets and the day shall be darke over them c. Their darknesse in life shall be plagued with darknesse in judgement To which purpose that is notable Zach. 11. 17. Woe to the idoll shepheard that leaves the flocke There is an unconscionable shepheard a man that makes no conscience to attend his ministery What becomes of him The sword shall bee upon his right eye his best eye And his right eye shall not be pore-blind or dimmed but shall be utterly darkened The losse of good consciences brings upon men of knowledge and learning that reproach that Nahash the Ammonite would have brought upon all Israel 1 Sam. 11. 2. It thrusts out the right eyes Ill consciences not only make men look asquint but it blinds them and takes away their sight And what is the reason that Popery gets ground so fast and so many turne Papists so easily Surely it is no wonder how should it be otherwise when men either having lost all good conscience or making no conscience of their wayes but living loosely viciously and licentiously have thereby prepared a way for Antichrist and his Religion to enter withall successe No wonder that men turne Papists so fast when long since they have turned good conscience going For that which Bellarmine speakes is in the Cum ariae ventilari incipiunt non frumenta sed paleae vento abripiente separantur ab area Ita prorsus cum Ecclesia per Ethuicorum persecutiones vel Haereticorum deceptiones Deo permittente cribratur aut ventilatur à Satana non veri sancti garves sed improbi leves curiosi lascivi ab Ecclesia avolantes ad Ethnicos haereticosue transfugiunt nec feâ—o solet accidere ut ante circa fidem aliquis naufraget quam naufragere caeperit circa mores Bellarm. Orat prefix tom 4. generall certainly true though by him falsly and maliciously applyed That they be not holy and grave men but wicked light curious wanton ones that turne Ethnickes or Heretickes and that it seldome comes to passe that any man makes shipwracke concerning the saith that first makes not shipwracke concerning manners See the truth of it in many of our backsliders to Popery especially such as have beene zealous propugners of the truth Where began the first declension where the first flaw Had not their coÌ„sciences first brusht upon some rocke was not the first leake there and when they had first put away good conscience then there was a speedy banishing of truth and a ready entertainment of errour And for the common sort of their converts consider if many times they have not beene the very riffe-raffe of our Church swearers grosse profaners of the Sabbath vncleane and debauched drunkards such as our Church was sicke of and desired even to spue forth and then when they have become a prey to all vicious courses through want of conscience through Gods just judgement they have become a prey to Romish Locusts whose commission is only to hurt such and not those whom the sap of a good conscience keepes fresh and flourishing as the greene grasse and trees of the earth Apoc. 9. 4. For as Salomon speakes of the bodily harlot Eccle. 7. 26. so it is true of that spirituall Whore of Babylon Her heart is snares and nets her hands as bands her delusions strong who so pleases God and hath a care to keepe a good conscience shall escape from her but the sinner and he that makes no conscience of his wayes shall be taken by her Well let us thinke well upon this motive we live in dangerous and declining dayes wherein men with a greedinesse turne to their Romish vomit againe Besides the Factors of Antichrist are exceeding busie and pragmaticall to draw men from the faith of Christ and the Holy Ghost tels us they shall come with strong delusions Now then all you that be the Lords people save your selves from this dangerous generation all you that have or would be knowne to have the seale of God on your foreheads save your selves from the seduction of these Locusts I but how may that be done The delusion is strong and it may be we are weake Lo then here is a remedy against their danger Get and keep a good conscience live as Paul did in all good conscience thou shalt be safe from all their delusioÌ„s I have kept the faith sayes Paul oh let it bee the care of us that that may be our closing voice at our last day and if we would keep the faith let us keep a good conscience He that in his life time can say I keepe a good conscience he at his death shall be able to say I have kept the faith Faith and a good conscience are both in a bottome Hold one and hold both As therefore thou wouldest feare to turne Papist or any other Heretick so be sure to hold a good conscience to hold on a good honest and a conscionable man So long as thou standest upon that ground thou art impregnable and the gates of hel
shall not be able to draw thee from the faith of the Lord Iesus Prov. 6 20 22 24. My Son keep thy Fathers commandement c. And it will keep thee So I may say here keep a good conscience and it will keepe thee it will keepe thee sound in the faith it will keepe thee from being drawne away by the error of the wicked and it will keepe thee from the Wine of the fornications of the Whore of Babylon CHAP. XV. The last Motive to a good conscience The misery of an evill one THe last Motive remaines and that is The fift motive to a good conscience The horrour and misery of an evill Conscience If men did but truly know what the evill of an evill conscience were and how evill a thing and bitter it will be when conscience awakens here or shall bee awakened in hell a little perswasion should serve to move men to live in a good conscience We may say of the evill conscience as Solomon speakes of the drunkard Pro. 23. 29. Who hath woe who hath sorrow who hath contentions who hath wounds but not without a cause Even the man whose conscience is not good even he that liues in an evill conscience An evill conscience how miserable it is we may see by considering the miserie thereof either in this world or the world to come 1. In this life When an evill conscience is awakened in this life the sorrow and smart the horror and terror is as the joy of a good conscience unspeakable An evil conscience in this life is miserable in regard of feare perplexity and torment To live in a continuall feare and to have a mans heart alwaies in shaking fits of feare is misery of miseries And such is the misery of an evill conscience Prov. 28. 1. The wicked flees when none pursues Onely his owne guilt pursues him and makes him flee His owne guilt causes a sound of feare in his eares Iob 15. 21. Which makes Proprium autem est nocentium trepidare Male de nobis actum erat quod multa seelera legem judicem effugiunt scripta supplicia nisi illa naturalia gravia de presentibus solverent in locum patientiae timor cederet Sonec ep 91. him shake at the noise of a shaken leafe Levit. 26. 36. yea that so scares him that terrours make him afraid on every side and drive him to his feet Iob 18. 11. Yea there are they in great feare where no feare is Ps 53. 3. So that a man with an evill conscience awakened may be named as Pashur is Ier. 20. 3. Magor-Missabib feare round about as being a terror to himselfe and to all his friends ver 4. An evill conscience even makes those feare fearefull feares of whom all other stand in feare How potent a Monarch and how dreadfull a Prince was Belshazzar who was able to put him into any feare whom all the earth feared And yet when his guilty conscience lookes him in the face awakened by the palme writing on the wall see where his courage is then Dan. 5. 6. Then the Kings countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joynts of his loynes were loosed and his knees smote one against another Who would have had his feare to have had his kingdome Let him now cloath himselfe with all his Majestie let him looke and speak as terribly as he can let him threaten the vilest vassall in his Court with all the tortures that tyranny can inflict and let him try if he can for his heart put his poorest subject into that fright and feare that now his conscience puts him into in the ruffe and middst of his jollity But I pray what ayles he to be in this feare in this so extraordinary a feare Hee can neither reade nor understand the writing upon the wall Indeed it threatned him the losse of his kingdome but hee cannot reade his threatning hee knowes not whether they be bitter things that God writes against him why may he not hope that it may bee good which is written and why may not this hope ease and abate his feare No no. Though he cannot reade nor understand the writing yet his guilty conscience can comment shrewdly upon it and can tell him it portends no good towards him His conscience now tells him of his godlesse impieties in profaning the vessels of the Temple of the true God and that for this his sacrilegious impropriation and abuse of holy things God is now come to reckon with him Thus can his conscience doe more than all his wise men All the wise men came in but they could not reade the writing nor make knowne to the King the interpretation thereof Dan. 5. 8. But his conscience is wiser than all his wise men and when they are as puzzeld that interprets to him that this writing meanes him no good and though he cannot reade the syllables yet his conscience gives a shrewd neere guesse at the substance of the writing and therefore hence comes that extasie of feare and those paroxysmes of horror It was better with Adam after his fall After his Sin committed we find him in a great feare Gen. 3. 8 10. and hee hides himselfe for feare Now observe how his feare is described from the circumstance of the time They heard the voyce of the Lord God walking in the garden in the coole of the day Luther layes the Emphasis of the aggravation of his feare upon this word the wind or coole of the day The night indeeed is naturally terrible and darknesse is fearfull whence that phrase Ps 91. The terrors of the night But the day and the light is a cheerfull and a comfortable creature Ec. 11. 7. Truly the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the Sun How is it then that in the faire day light which gives courage and comfort that Adam feares and runs into the thickets Oh his conscience was become Gravis malae conscientiae luxest Senec. ep 123. come evill and full of darknesse and the darknesse of his conscience turned the very light into darknesse and so turned the comforts of the day into the terrours of the night So that in this sense it may be said of an evill conscience which of the Lord is said in another Ps 139. 12. Vnto it the darknesse and the light are both alike As full of feare in the light as in the dark And besides the Lord came but in a gentle wind the coole breath of the day now what a small matter is a coole wind and that in the day time to to put a man in a feare Such small things breed great feares in evill consciences In what a wofull plight would Adam thinke we have beene if the Lord had come to him at the dead and darke midde-night with earth-quakes thunder and blustring tempest We may see the like in Cain After he had defiled his conscience with his brothers
this Rule Men must then walke by rule and the Word must be this rule Ps 30. 23. To him that orders his conversation all Christians must be regulars and must live orderly But what is that Rule by which their conversation must be ordered That same Ps 119. 133. Order my steps in thy Word Hee that orders his course by that rule which is the rule of conscience shall be sure to keepe and get a good conscience Hee that will make good worke will work by his rule wheras hee that workes by guesse must needs make but ill worke Whatsoever is not of faith is Sin Rom. 14. 23. That is whatsoever a man doth and hath not warrant for it out of and from the rule of the Word makes a mans conscience in that particular to be evill And therefore v. 5. Let a man be fully perswaded in his owne mind How happy should men be in getting and keeping good consciences if they would lay their lives actions to the Rule The want of this is it that makes men men of so ill consciences Some live by no Rule some by false Rules hence come mens consciences to be so Anomalous Some live by no Rule but doe whatsoever seemes good in their owne eyes goe as their lusts lead them and follow his beck that rules in the Ayre This is also to walk rashly Lev. 26. He that doth things without rule goes rashly to worke Hee that walkes irregularly walkes rashly and no marvell if men have crooked wayes and crooked consciences when they will not live by Rule Some againe live by false Rules and that not onely Popish fictitious Regulars that live by superstitious Rules of their Dominick Francis c. But amongst our selves many have a Rule they doe live by but that Rule is not the Word but some false Rules of their owne devising Such as are these Great mens practice or some learned Inter causas maloruÌ„ nostrorum est quod vivimus ad exeÌ„pla nec ratione coÌ„ponimur sed coÌ„suetudine Quod si pauci facerent nollemus imitari cum plures facere coeperunt quasi honestius sit quia frequentius sequimur recti apud nos locum tenet error ubi publicus factus est Sen. Ep. 124. mans opinion the custome of times and places wherein they live the example of the multitude or some secret blind and self-conceived principles which they keepe to themselves and by which they live All which being crooked Rules must needs make crooked Consciences wheras if men would live by Davids Rule Ps 119. 105. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path and in every action would have an eye and a respect unto the Commandements as he had Psal 119. 6. then should they make straight paths for their feet Heb. 12. 13. and keepe upright Consciences in every spirituall action therefore have an eye to the Word question it whether it be justifiable and warrantable by the Word or no and meddle no further than that will authorize and beare thee out If this course were taken such a good course would make and keep a good Conscience And why should not men be willing to take this course why will we not make that Word our Rule which must be made our Iudge The word which I speak shall judge you in the last day Ioh. 12. 48. The Word shall judge our consciences therfore let it rule and order them And if it have the ruling of our consciences it will make them good consciences and when they are good they need not feare what Iudge they come before nor what judgement they undergoe In summe if we would have good consciences we must make more conscience than is commonly made of reading and searching the Scriptures The ignorance and neglect of this duty is it which banes so many consciences in the world Integritatis tuae curiosus explorator vitam tuam in quotidiana discussione examina Attende diligenter quaÌ„tum proâ—icias vel quantum deficias qualis sis in moribus qualis sis in affectibus quam similiâ— sis Deo vel quam disimilis qua prope vel quam longe c. Redde ergo te tibi si non semper vel saepe aâ— saltem interdum Bern. med de vot cap. 5. 3. Keep a daily and a frequent Audit with thy conscience often examination of the conscience conduces much to the goodnes of it The Prophet complains of his people Every one turned to his course as the horse rusheth into the battel Ier. 8. 6. Here were men far from a good conscience but what was the reason of it He gives it in the former words No man repenteth him of his wickednesse saying what have I done There was no examination of their consciences and courses what they were nor how they were and from hence comes this mischiefe This was Davids course Psa 119. 51. I considered my waies and turned my feet unto thy testimonies When a mans feet are in the wayes of Gods testimonies then hee walkes with an upright conscience and marke how David came to doe so I considered my wayes he used to examine his Conscience The first step to get a good conscience is for a man to know that his conscience before reformation is evill How shall that be knowne without a search When a search hath discovered what it is that makes the conscience and course evill then will Conscience be ready to labour a man to the reformation of that which is amisse and will not cease to urge and ply a man till it be done Frequent examination as it helps to the making of Scholars so to the making of Consciences good Hence mens lying in so grosse neglects of good duties in so many great evils because men and their consciences never reckon Men take not themselves aside into their closets and chambers and there set not up a privie Sessions to make inquiry into their own hearts and wayes and therefore are their wayes and consciences so much out of order Many a man thinks his estate in the world to be very good and thinkes hee growes rich and wealthy when his estate indeed is weak and growes every day worse than other Now what is it that causes so great a mistake Nothing but this that hee never lookes over his bookes nor casts over his reckonings If he had done this he should have seene that his estate was not answerable to his conceit and the knowledge of his misconceit would have made him have lived at a more wary and thrifty rate and have kept himselfe within such a compasse as might have kept up his estate whereas now the not examining his books puts him into a conceit of wealth and this conceit beggers and undoes him It fares no better with too many in their Consciences Laodicea thought well of her selfe Thou sayest I am rich If she had examined her conscience she should have seene that which Christ saw that she was poore blind
few that can marry with that joy wherewith a good conscience dies It enables a man not onely to looke Ananias and the Councel in the face but even to look death it selfe in the face without those amazing terrours yea it makes the face of death seeme lovely and amiable Hee whose conscience is good and sees the face of God reconciled to him in Christ hee can say as Iacob did when he saw the face of Ioseph Gen. 46. 30. Now let me dye since I have seene thy face It is the priviledge of a good conscience alone to goe to the grave as Agag did to Samuel and to say that truly which he spake besides the booke 1 Sam. 15. 32. Hee came pleasantly and hee said Surely the bitternesse of death is past Hee was deceived and therefore had no such cause to be so pleasant but a good conscience can yea cannot chuse but be so pleasant even when going out of the world because the guilt of sinne being washed away in Christs blood it knowes that the bitternesse of death is past and the sweetnesse of life eternall is at hand A man whose debts are paid he dares goe out of doores dare meet and face the Sergeants and the conscience purged by the blood of Christ can look as undauntedly on the face of death He that hath forgotten the sting that is the guilt of conscience taken away by faith in Christ he lookes not upon death as the Israelites upon the fiery Serpents but lookes upon it as Paul doth 1 Cor. 15. O death where is thy sting Who feares a Bee an Hornet a Snake or a Serpent when they have lost their sting The guilt of sinne is the sting of conscience it s the sting of death that stings the conscience The sting of death is sinne 1 Cor. 15. Plucke then sin out of the conscience and at once the conscience is made good and death made weake and disarmed of his weapon And when the conscience sees death unstinged and disarmed it is freed of feare and even in the very act of death can joyfully triumph over death oh Death where is thy sting A good conscience lookes upon death as upon the Sheriffe that comes to give him possession of his Inheritance or as Lazarus upon the Angels that came to carry his soule into Abrahams bosome and therfore can welcome death and entertaine him joyfully And whereas an ill conscience makes a man see death as if he saw the Devill a good conscience makes a man see the face of death as Iacob saw Esau's face Gen. 33. I have seene thy face as the face of God they see the face of death with unspeakeable joy ravishment of heart and exultation of spirit Well now what a motive have wee here to make us labour for good conscience Even Balaam himselfe would faine make a good end and die in peace and who wishes not his death-bed may be a mount Nebo from whence he may see the heavenly Canaan Lo here Balaam the way to dye the death of the righteous I have lived in all good conscience untill this day They that have conscience in their life shal have comfort at their death they that live conscionably they shal dy comfortably they that live in all good conscience till their dying day shall depart in the abundance of comfort at their dying day There will come a day wherein wee must lay downe these Tabernacles the day of death will assuredly come How lamentable a thing will it then be to be so destitute and desolate of all comfort as to be driven to that extremity as to curse our birth day oh what would Comfort be worth at our last houre at our last gaspe whilst our dearest friends shall be weeping wringing their hands and lamenting then then what would inward comfort be worth Who would not hold the whole world an easie price for it then Well then would wee then have Comfort and Ioy oh then get a good conscience now which will yield comfort when all other comforts shall utterly faile and shall be life in the middst of death How happy is that man that when the sentence of death is passed upon him can say with Hezekiah Is 38. 3. Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Indeed the text sayes that Hezekiah wept sore but yet not as fearing death for hee could not feare death who had thus feared God but because the promise was not yet made good to him in a Son and Heire of his kingdome hence came those teares It is otherwise an unspeakable joy that such a conscience as Hezekiahs was will speake to a man upon his death-bed Every one professes a desire to make a good end Here is the way to make good that desire to live in all good conscience Alas how pittifull and miserable a condition live most men in All the dayes of their life and health they have no regard of a good conscience Notwithstanding that men are pressed continually to this one care by the instancie and importutunitie of Gods Ministers yet how miserably is it neglected Well at last the day of death comes and then what would not they give for a comfortable end If the gold of Ophir would purchase comfort it should flie then Then poast for this Minister and run for the other as in the sweating sicknesse in King Edwards dayes then for Gods sake but one word of comfort then O blessed men of God one word of peace Now alas what would you have them to doe Are they or your own courses in fault that you want comfort at your death What would you have us doe Wee must referre you to your owne consciences we cannot make oyle of flint nor crush sweet wine out of sowre Grapes we dare not flatter you against your cōsciences If you would give us a world we cannot comfort you when your owne consciences witnesse against you that such comforts belong not to you Doe not idely in this case hope for comfort from Ministers be it knowne unto you you must have it from your owne consciences Many on their death-bed cry to the Minister as she did to the King 2 King 6. 26 27. Helpe my Lord O King But marke what hee answers If the Lord doe not helpe thee whence shall I helpe thee out of the barne floore or out of the Wine presse So must wee answer to such as cry Helpe helpe O man of God If God and your owne consciences helpe you not whence shall we help you If there had beene Corne within the barnes the King could easily have helped her but he could not make corne So if men have carryed any thing into their consciences if they themselves have inned any provision and comfort by being conscionable in their lives then we can helpe and comfort them but otherwise doe not thinke that we can make comforts and make
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