Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n
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A03104
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The mirror of pure devotion: or, The discovery of hypocrisie Delivered in sixe severall sermons, in the Cathedrall Church of Chichester, by way of an exposition of the parable of the Pharises and the publican. By R.B. preacher of the word, at Chidham in the county of Sussex.
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Ball, Robert, fl. 1635.
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1635
(1635)
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STC 1323; ESTC S113587
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64,577
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210
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in the furrow and tillage as those that to day are bad but to morrow may be good as was this Publican and they which presume to day that they are perfect to morrow may bee found agraine too light as was this Pharisee And therefore sine utrosque crescere let them both grow together untill the harvest Then the great husband-man shall come with his fanne in his hand to purge his floore thorowly the Wheate hee shall carry into his barne but burne up the chaffe with unquenchable fire In the meane time let no sublunary distraction slacken thy happy progresse to the Temple but ascend in body and ascend in spirit For this purpose Temples were anciently scituated upon hils as that at Ierusalem upon mount Sion a faire place and the joy of the whole earth Our father 's worshipped in this mountaine said the woman of Samaria And many of our Temples are so scituated at this day And most of them have certaine steppes or ascents to Quires and Chancels to teach thee to ascend in spirit aswell as in body to ascend from the blindnesse of nature to the light of grace from the old Adam of sinne to the new man of righteousnesse from affection to perfection forsaking thy selfe and following thy Saviour And when thou art come up into the Temple stand not up proudly to justifie thy selfe as did this Pharisee neither squot downe unmannerly in thy seat to sleepe as too many in this drowzy age but fall low on thy knees with this Publican to pray The Temple was not made to prate in or to sleepe in but to pray in Pray then and be sure to pray as thou oughtest to pray Pray humbly pray heartily pray devoutly pray faithfully and waver not Feare not the two men that are about thee or without thee they can neither helpe nor hinder thy devotion but let all thy care bee when thou commest into the Temple to pray that there be not duo homines as and homine two men in one man within thee Consider where thou art in the Temple Consider wherefore thou commest thither to pray Consider to whom thou speakest by prayer to to him that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a searcher of thy very heart and reines and a discerner of thy secret thoughts long before thy selfe and therefore will not be doubled or dissembled with all O consider all this thou that forgettest God and thy selfe too much when thou goest up into the Temple to pray First take Salonion for thy counsell Be not rash with thy mouth nor let thine heart bee hastie to utter a thing before God Then take Moses and David for thy Presidents Put off the uncleane shoes of thy polluted affections for the ground whereon thou treadest is holy ground First be able to say Paratum est cor meum Domine My heart is ready O God my heart is ready and then wash thine hands in innocency and so compasse Gods altar THE THIRD SERMON Luke 18. 11. The Pharisee stood and prayed with himselfe thus c. WEE are past the Preface and have made an entrance into the Parable it selfe so farre as the behaviour of the two men whom it principally concernes the Pharisee and the Publican is expressed joyntly in the Temple where for a time we left them at theiâ— devotion together and now have found them at it againe severally and apart and first the Pharisee for still hee will be first Who though he came into the Temple with the Publican yet being come he prayes by himselfe apart Whose devotion proclaimes him a presumptuous hypocrite both in the manner and in the matter In the manner by standing up so pert and by standing apart In the matter which was nothing but meere braggery bumbasting his petitions first with odious commendations of himselfe privative and positive God I thanke thee I am no extortioner no unjust man no adulterer but I fast twice in the weeke and I give tithe of all that I possesse Secondly by a malicious contempt of others generall and speciall I am not as other men are nor as this Publican The very manner of his devotion plucks away the vale from his face and fets him apparently up to the view of the whole world that folly may blush and wisdome be nothing ashamed And first it discovers the woodden head of selfe-confidence which hath three parts The first is his division or departing from the Church taxed in this word Phâ—â—ifee which is derived from the Hebrew Phares and Phareth to divide 80 signifies the name of King Pharaoh whose regiment consisted of two forts of people Hebrewes and Egyptians So Thamars â—â—btwins the younger â—â—â—eth but the elder called Pharez beon use he first opened the wombe So in that hand-writing against Balthazar MENâ— TEKEL PHARES or PERES Thon and thy kingdome are humbred weighed and divided to others The second part of selfe confidence is wilfull resolution or oâ—firmation of judgement neither mooved by reason nor removed by argument intimatâ—â— in the word Standing The third part of selfe-confidence is either heresie or any other imperfection of doctrine implyed in these words praying with himselfe Three notable notes and manifest markes of a compleat Pharisee First the rending and sequestring of a mans selfe from the Congregation if it be in matters of faith it is called heresie if in matter of order or Ceremony it is called Schisme Both which fall under the compasse of Saint Iohns virge They went out from us because they were not of us for if they had beene of us they would have continued with us But this comes to passe that it might appeare they are not all of us These two vipers and pestilent brood of their mother Confusion have from the very beginning either snatched at the heeles or flowne into the face of the true Church of God The one like those men of Iabes Gilead will conclude no peace with Israel except they may plucke out their right eyes The other like the young prince Ammon shave away halfe the beard and cut off by the buttocks the garments of Davids Embassadours So unmercifully is the Church crucified betwixt these two malefactors The one doe disrumpere charitatis vincula D. Boys untie the bonds of peace the other doe corrumpere fidei dogmata undoe the unitie of the spirit The first are different in things indifferent the second almost indifferent in matters different and both spurne at the poore Church as at a common football Of all the world like Sampsons Foxes severed in their head but tyed together by the tayles with fire-brands betwixt them able to set a whole State in an uproare and a combustion The Church is called in Scripture a pillar from whence they are fallen like a tottering roofe A Ship out of which they have wilfully leaped to bee drowned making shipwracke of their faith The hill of Sion from whence they have tumbled and broken the necke of a good conscience And the Spouse of Christ whose
love they have forsaken like vow-breakers and adulterers They can be content to acknowledge this to bee the true Church and yet in a pharisaicall humour they will not sticke to cut themselves from it Some for filthy lucre teaching such things as they ought not as the Priest of Bell and Hyminaeus and Philetus and Demas departing for the love of this present world And as Paulus Samosatenus gaping for preserment from Zenobia Queene of Arabia Some for ambition as Donatus because he could not get a Bishoprickei â—n Carthage And Novatiâ— missing the cushion for another in Italy And Arrius greatly stomacking the matter because his schoole-fellow Eustathius was Ierome in 13. Zach consecrated Bishop of Pontus and not he Some as sicke as ever they can hold of selfe-love their very conceit is their Idol The covetous man worships his money and the Hereticke his opinion both like to the Athenians worshipping an unknowne God Simon Magus said hee was the great power of God the Father to the Samaritans the Sonne to the Iewes and the Holy Ghost to the Gentiles Some amongst us like the Manichees Tertul. who take their name from Manna all that they say is Angels food Some like Montanus who said he was the Comforter none edifie but they Some like Novatus calling himselfe Moses and his brother Aaron their Pastor and Elder Some like Donatus there is no Clem. Alex. Church but in their Affrica causing our charitie to wither like grasse on the house top and truth to bee disguised like Ieroboams muffled wife hardly to be known and our concord to fall in pieces like sand and to be cut in the head like the greeke letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There was an harlot you know would not suffer Salomon to cut in pieces her living child yet these miscreants can indure to divide their ever-living Saviour Some hold of Paul some of Apollos some of Cephas who if they had any grace might at length heare their Saviour to complaine I was torne with speares rent with nailes shed my blood and laide downe my life ut te mihi conjungerem Aug. con Ar. tu dividis me to joyne thee to my selfe and thou dividest mee Christ is the head of the Church and the Church is the fulnesse of his body as they are not to be divorced so they should not bee divided The Olive Tree must be left with her fatnesse the Iudg 9. 9. Fig-tree with her sweetnesse the Vine with her wine that cheereth the heart of man and the bramble bush forsooth must bee annointed King that men may trust under the shadow of her branches As if wee could gather grapes of thornes or figges of thistles It is impossible to gather wholesome grapes sound doctrine good life true worship dutifull subjection of thornes mutinous mindes turbulent spirits throats full of adders poyson feete swift to shed blood Or figges of thistles bread for hungry soules certaine for doubting spirits comfort for pined consciences they are both full of stinging prickes malice and melancholly humours and rumours conceit and deceit disorder and discord madnesse and badnesse Thistles indeed that have in their tops flowers like wooll but are tossed to and fro of every winde Their libels are more then standerous their scoffes more then histrionicall and their calumniations more then Sycophanticall They would bee petty Popes in their parishes Princes in their priviledges and Neroes after their five and few yeeres governement Vtinam abscindantur say I with the Apostle I wold to God they were even cut off that thus disquiet you They pretend that the zeale of Gods house hath even eaton them up when indeede the zeale of their owne houses would eate up Gods house Zealous Peter would faine build three tabernacles one for Christ one for Moses and one for Elias In that hee wot not what hee said hee was wrapt Zealous Boanerges Iames and Iohn those Sonnes of thunder at one time would faine have commanded lightning from heaven to destroy the unbeleeving Samaritans at another time they desired to sit the one at the right hand the other at the left hand of Christ in his Kingdome In neither of which knew they of what spirit they were or what they asked Christ grants his Disciples no such busie warrants as Antichrist Et ad quid perditio isthaec said Iudas in his thriftie zeale This oyntment might have beene sold and given to the poore But wee all know he was a purse-bearer Zealous Iewes crucifie the Lord of light as a blasphemer making himselfe the Sonne of God And zealous Pharises will part his Garment amongst them even that tunicam inconsutilem that seamelesse coate the Vnity of the faith and pretend all conscience without science they will loose life and living and yet not for righteousnesse sake These are the strongest bolts they shoote upon the suddaine and the choisest arrowes in all their quiver All things they Rom. 11. say are lawfull for them but all things are not expedient Which being spoken by the Apostle of things indifferent nothing at all concerne matters of necessity Fides docet quid debet charitas quid decet Our faith shewes us what is lawfull our charity what is expedient And therefore the ordinances of the Church are necessary quoad benè esse being the fosterers of faith and cherishers of charity The second arrow which is feathered with folly shafted with errour and armed with blindnesse is this Stand fast in the liberty which Gal. 5. yee have received in Christ Iesus and bee brought no more into the bondage of beggerly rudiments Let them proove that they are the traditions of men unwashed hands the bondage of the world and not the wholsome discipline of the true Church of God inspired by the holy-Ghost warranted by Scriptures admitted by Councels and approoved by presidents and wee shall quickly yeeld Otherwise it will bee told them their colorable insinuations and metaphoricall shaddowes à dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter The ceremonies Leviticall of the Law are abolished Ergo our Injunctions are abhominable Such men such matter It is well knowne the Aple speakes there of justification by workes and faith and not of the ceremonies of the Gospell And yet forsooth these men in substance of religion can come and build with us as did the men of Samaria by Zerubbabel But to steale away the hearts of the people as Absolon did Proclaiming fasts as did Iezabel but to massacre Naboth Devouring Widdowes houses in pretence of long prayer they kisse like Iscariot but they kill like Iudas If reasonable and judicious men would not willfully suffer themselves to be hood-winked and flattered in their folly they might easily discerne these Gibeonites for all their rent sackes old shooes dryed and moulded bread I beare them record they have a zeale indeed but not according to knowledge I could rather wish they would have an inoffensive conscience both towards God and Man then