ease in these Darius against his conscience suffers innocent Daniel to be cast into the Lyons den What cheere hath hee that night He passed the night in fasting Dan. 6. 18. Not in fasting in humiliation for his Sin but conscience now began to gall him and hee having marred the feast of his conscience conscience also marres his feasting none of his dainties will now downe his wine is turned into gall and wormewood no joy now in any thing He had marred the musick of his conscience and now he brookes not other musicke The Instruments of musicke were not brought before him His guilty conscience was now awakened and now he cannot sleepe His sleepe went from him So Iob in his conflict for conscience hoped for ease in his bed Iob 7. 13. My bed shall comfort me my couch shall ease my complaint But how was it with him Either he could not sleep at all ver 3. 4. Wearisome nights are appointed unto me When I lye downe I say when shal I arise and the night be gone and I am full of tossing to and fro unto the dawning of the day Needs must he tosse whose conscience is like the Sea waves tossed with the winds or else if Iob did sleepe yet did not conscience sleepe ver 14. but even in his sleepe presented him with ghastly sights and visions When I say my bed shall comfort me then thou scarest me with dreames and terrifiest mee through visions At other times when conscience hath beene good Gods people though their dangers have beene great yet neither the greatnesse nor neernesse of their dangers have broken their sleepe Ps 3. 5. 7. I laid me downe and slept I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that have set themselves against mee round about And yet if wee looke to the title of the Psalme A Psalm of David when he fled from Absolom his Son one would thinke David should have had little list or leasure to have slept Peter thought to have been executed the next morrow by Herod though hee also lodged betweene a company of ruffianly soldiers that happily one would feare might have done him some mischiefe in his sleep yet how soundly sleeps he that night Act. 12. And holy Bradford was found a sleepe when they came to fetch him to be burnt at the stake These feares brake not these mens sleepe How might this come to passe They did as Ps 4. 8. I will lay me downe in peace and sleep He that can lie downe in the peace of conscience may sleepe soundly whatsoever causes of feare there be otherwise But contrarily he that cannot ly downe with the peace of conscience will find but little rest and sleepe though his heart bee free from all other feares Evill conscience being awakened will fill the heart with such feares as a man shall have little liberty to sleep Oh the sweet sleep that Iacob had and the sweet dreame when he lay upon the cold earth and had an hard stone under his head for his pillow An hard lodging and an hard pillow but yet sweet rest and sweet communion with God A good conscience makes any lodging soft and easie but downe-beds and down-pillowes if there be thornes in the conscience are but beds of thornes and beds of nettles The bitternesse of an evill conscience distastes all the sweets of this life as when the mouth and tongue is furred in an hot Ague all meates and drinks are bitter to the sicke party This is the misery of an evil conscience awakened in this life 2. But it may be many never feele this misery here there is therefore the more misery reserved for them in hell in the world to come Indeed more by many thousands go to hell like Nabal than like Iudas more die like sots in Security than in despaire of conscience Death it selfe cannot awaken some consciences but no sooner come they into hel but conscience is there awakened to the full never to sleep more and then she lashes and gashes to the quick and lets men learne that forbearance was no payment Tel many men of conscience and they are ready to slap one on the mouth with that profane proverbe Tush conscience was hanged many yeares agoe But the time will come that they who have lived in evill conscience shall find the conscience which they have counted hanged shall play the cruell hangman and tormentor with them They shall find conscience unhanged when it shall hang them up in hell when day and night it shall stretch them there upon the racke The torments which an evill conscience puts the damned to in hell are beyond the expression of the tongue and the comprehension of mans conceit There be two speciall things in the torments of Hell wee have them both thrice repeated together Mark 9. 44 46 48. Where their worme dies not and the fire is not quenched There is an ever-living worme and never-dying fire And marke that in all the three verses the worme is set in the first place as it were to teach us that the prime and principal torment in hell is the worme rather than the fire And what is the worme but the guilt of an evill conscience that shall lye eternally gnawing and grasping twitching and griping the heart of the damned in hell Men talke much of hell fire and it were well they would talke more of it but yet there is another torment forgotten that would be thought on too There is an Hell worm as well as there is an Hell fire And it may be a question whether of the two is the greatest torment And yet no great question neither For as the Heaven of Heauen is the peace and joy of a good so the very Hell of Hell is the guilt and and worme of an evill conscience A man may safely say it is better being in hell with a good conscience than to be in heaven if that might be with an evill one Heaven without a good conscience what is it better than hel Paradice was an heaven on earth but when Adam had lost the Paradice of a good conscience what joy did paradice the pleasures of the gardē afford him more than if he had beene in some sad and solitary Desert A good conscience makes a Desert a Paradice an evill one turnes a Paradice into a Desert A good conscience makes Hell to be no Hell and an evil one makes Heaven to be no Heaven Both the happines and misery of Heaven and Hell are from the inward frame of the conscience The Hell of Hell is the worm of Hell and that worm is the worm of an evill conscience which if it be not wormed out and so the conscience in this life made good it will be an immortall worme in Hell The hellish despaire wherewith the damned are overwhelmed comes rather from this worm than from the fire Whose worm dies not and whose fire is not quenched The fire of Hell never quenches because the worme of Hell never
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
meaning of the word Conscience Conscience is a knowledge together How together First a knowledge together with another person namely with God when God and a mans heart know a thing there is Conscience knowledge together Rom. 9. 1. My conscience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Co-witnessing witnessing together How together God knows it and witnesses and my conscience together with him knowes witnesses Secondly a knowledge ioyned together with another knowledge for there is a double act of the vnderstanding First that wherby wee thinke or know a thing Secondly there is a reflecting act of the soule wherby we thinke what we thinke and know what we know and this is the action of the Conscience and this ioyning of this secōd knowledge to the first giues it the name of Conscience As here in this place As for our iniquities wee know them that is we know that wee have had evill thoughts and our knowledge tels vs witnesses to vs that we have done so This agrees with Bernards definition that Conscientia est cordis scientia Conscience is the knowledge of the heart namely passively It is the knowing of what the heart knowes which others in better termes have expressed thus Conscience is the recoiling of the soule vpon it self Sutable to that of the Apostle 1. Cor. 4. 4. I know nothing by my selfe As if he had said I know not any thing that I know against my selfe my Conscience doth not witnesse against mee And this second office of Conscience in bearing witnesse is also in the memory And accordingly accusing or excusing absolving or condemning These acts of Conscience we finde Rom. 2. 15. Their thoughts accusing or excusing one another Rom. 12. 22. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that he allows The ground of these acts is this Conscience before actions are to be done determines of their lawfulnesse and unlawfulnesse iudges of them whether they be good or evill And if it iudge them good it inuites stirres vp vrges and bindes to the doing of them Rom. 13. 5. Ye must be subiect for conscience sake that is because Conscience determines it to be good vrges bindes thereunto Hence that phrase in common speech my conscience vrgeth me to it or he was vrged in conscience to do it and I am bound inconscience to doe it Certainly if it judge determine actions to be evill unlawfull then it binds from them So much that speech implies 1 Cor. 10. 27. Eate asking no question for conscience sake So that conscience hath a power to bind to and to bind from Now then when a man in his particular actions doth follow the Prescriptions Dictates Injunctions Prohibitions and Determinations of Conscience and hearkens to the incitements therof then conscience excuses him acquits and absolves him But if in his actions he go against any of these then Conscience accuses him of offence condemns him for that offence The accusation of conscience hath respect unto a mans guilt the condemnation of it unto a mans punishment Accusation is an act of Conscience passing sentence upon a mans action as when conscience tels him This was ill done this action was sinfull Condemnation is an act of conscience passing sentence not onely upon a mans action but upon a mans person as when it tels him Thou deservest Gods wrath for this Sin Conscience in accusing shewes what is the quality in condemning what is the desert of a mans actions And these actions of conscience are in the mind and understanding part of the soule The act of the conscience in the memory determins de facto and tels us what wee have done or not done The act of Conscience in the understanding determines de jure and tels us whether we have done well or ill and so accordingly either excuses or accuses acquits or condemns Comforting or tormenting the same these be the last acts of conscience following the former If Conscience determining prescribing and inciting to good be hearkned unto then it excuses acquits thereupon followes comfort joy hope 2 Cor. 11. 2. This is our rejoycing the testimony of our Conscience Contrarily if Sic in domo propria ◠propria familia habeo accusatores testes judices tortores Accusat me conscientia testis est memoria volūtas carcer timor tortor oblectamentum tormentum Bern. Med. de vot cap. 13. the dictates of Conscience be not regarded it accuses and condemnes and then torments with feare griefe dispaire and violent perturbations in all which is that worme Mar. 9. 44. And these actions of the conscience are in the will and in the affections And thus according to the divers parts of the soule the acts and office of conscience are divers In the memory it hath the office of a Notary Register Witnesse In the understanding it hath the office of a Iudge and an accuser of a Felix and a Tertullus In the affections either of a Comforter or Tormenter The summe of all may be thus knit up Conscience containes three things 1. Knowledge practicall 2. Application of that knowledge to our particular estates and actions 3. Those affections which arise thereupon Now the speciall worke of Conscience consists in the second in the applying our knowledge to our estates actions Now in this application it looks on things past or present simply as things and so it witnesses of them to be done or not done Eccl. 7. 22. Or else it looks at the good or evill of things past present and to come Super nos etiam posuit ad custodiēdum si deliquissent qui accusarent qui testificarentur qui judicarent qui punirent consc quippe est accusatrix memoria testis ratio judex timor carnifex Bern. hom de vill iniq If things past or present seeme good it excuses if evill it accuses bites Rom. 2. 15. If things to be done seeme good it excites urges and bindes to the doing thereof If evill it urges and binds therefrom Now according to these severall acts there follow in us divers affections joy hope feare griefe and the like The whole processe of the worke of Conscience fals within the frame a of practicall Syllogisme as for example Every one that sins in betraying innocent Conscientia Synteresisest qua victi voluptatibus vel furore ipsaque interdum rationis decepti similitudine nos peccare sentinuis Hieronym in Eccl. ca. 1. Synteresis est promptuarium principiorū seu regularum practicarum ejus officium est regulas legis divinae proferre cōsc subministrare ut illarum ope possit censorem agere de propriisactionibus Alsted Theol. Cas cap. 2. bloud is worthy of Gods wrath But I saith Iudas have sinned in betraying innocent bloud therefore I am worthy of Gods wrath Here the Major is knowledge practicall the rule law by which conscience keeps her Court This is Synteresis The Minor that is Syneidesis the proper worke of Conscience applying that knowledge and generall
ye see they will not doe that which is not lawfull It is well but tell me is it not lawfull to take the price of blood and is it lawful to give a price for blood Ought there Qualis haec innoceÌ„tiae simulatio pecuniaÌ„ sanguinis non mitâ—â—e in Arâ—â—â— et ipsum sanguinem mitieâ—e in ConscientiaÌ„ August not a Conscience to bee made of blood as well as of the price of blood They make a Conscience of receiving the price of blood into the Treasury but make no Conscience of receiving the guilt of blood into their Consciences Iust such Consciences as they had Ioh. 18. 28. They would not go into the Iudgement Hall lest they should bee defiled but that they might eate the Passover Indeed a man should make great Conscience of preparation to the Sacrament and take great heede that he come not thither defiled but see their naughty Conscience they make Conscience of being defiled by going into the judgement Hall but make no Conscience of being defiled with the blood of an Innocent Such was the conscience of the Iewes Ioh. 19. 31. they make Conscience of the body of Christ hanging on the Crosse on the Sabbath but with what conscience have they hanged it on the Crosse at all This was just like to those that Socrates speaks of who made great conscience of keeping Holy-dayes yet made no conscience of uncleannesse that was but an indifferent thing with them As if conscience were not rather to be made of keeping our vessels in holinesse our bodies then dayes holy Remarkable in this kind is that dealing of the Iewes with Paul 2 Cor. 11. 24. Of the Iewes five times received I forty stripes save one If we looke into the Law Deut. 25. 1 2 3. it runs thus If there be a controversie c. and it shall be if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten the Iudge shall cause him to lye downe and to be beaten before his face according to his fault by a certaine number forty stripes hee may give him and not exceed Now see the good consciences of these Iewes they might give forty stripes but not beyond that number might they goe Now they make so much conscience of exceeding the number of forty that they give Paul but nine and thirty Thus they make conscience of the number but no conscience of the fact They make conscience of giving above fortie but with what conscience doe they give him any at all The Text not onely prescribes the number of stripes but the condition of the person namely that he be worthy to be beaten and he must be punished according to his fault Now see these men make Conscience of the law for the number but make no conscience of the Law that will have onely wicked men and such as are worthy to be beaten to be so used These be the consciences of wicked men they make seeme of making conscience in some one thing but make no conscience of ten others it may be of farre greater weight and necessity and herein discover they the naughtinesse of their consciences The conscience therefore is not to be judged good for one or some good actions Ioab turned not after Absolom but hee turned after Adoniah 1 King 1. 28. Whereas a good conscience that turnes neither to the right hand not the left would have turned neither after Adoniah nor Absolom A good conscience and a good conversation must goe together 1 Pet. 3. 16. Having a good Conscience that they may be ashamed that falsly accuse your good conversation One good action makes not a good conversation nor a good conscience but then a mans conversation may be said to be good when in his whole course he is carefull to do all good duties and to avoyd all sinnes and such a good conversation is a signe of good Conscience Nunc autem in hoc maior offensa est quod partem sententiae sacrae pro commodorum nostrorum utilitate deligimus parrem pro dei iniuria praeterimus Et maxime cum terrestres domini nequaquam aequo animo tolerandum putent si iussiones suas serui ex parte audiant ex parte contemnant Si enim pro arbitrio suo servi dominis obtemperant ne ijs quidem in quibus obtemperaverint obsequuntur c. Savian de Provid To doe some good things and not all is no more a signe of good conscience then to doe some things onely which his master requires and to neglect other some is no signe of a good servant A good servants commendation is to do all his Masters businesse hee enjoynes him Wee would hold him but an holy-day servant and an idle companion that when his master hath set him his severall workes to doe hee will doe which him pleases and leave the other undone This were not to doe his masters but to doe his owne will and to serve his owne turne rather then his masters So for a man to make choyce of duties and to picke out some particulars wherein hee will yeeld obedience to God and to passe by others as not standing with his profits pleasures and lusts this will never gaine a man the commendation of a good conscience whose goodnes must bee knowne by making conscience of all things Then have Gods servants good consciences when it can be sayd of them as Shaphan speaks of Iosiah his servants 2 Chron. 34. 16. All that was committed to thy servants they doe it 2. To make conscience of small Duties and small sinnes This also rises out of the Text. All good Conscience If of all things then of small things It might have beene comprehended under the former but yet for Conviction sake I distinguish them The good conscience makes not conscience onely of great duties and sinnes but even of the least knowing that as Gods great power and omnipotence is the same in the making of an Angell and a worme so Gods authority wisedome and holinesse is the same in the least Commandements as in the greatest of them all It makes conscience specially of Judgement and the weighty matters of the law but yet doth not therefore thinke it selfe discharged of all care in smaller things doth not thereupon challenge a dispensation from obedience in meaner matters as if it were needlesse scrupulosity as too much precisenesse to ty the Mint Anise and Cummin A Cummin-seede indeede is but a small thing a very toy but yet as small a thing and as light as it is yet will it ly heavie upon a good conscience being injuriously and fraudulently detayned from the Levites The Pharisees tythed Mint Anise and Cummin but they neglected the weighty matters of the Law It is no good conscience that lookes to small and neglects great duties neither is it a good conscience on the other side that lookes after the great and weighty duties and makes no reckoning of Mint and Anise Our Saviour sayes both ought to bee done Pharaoh could bee content that
hee did they might have beene thought to have done it for gaine and not for conscience sake How great is often the zeale of many against fashions and such vanities How well it were if it were for conscience sake and not for envy against some particular person whom they doe distaste and so for the person the vanity For if it be for conscience sake how is it that those vanities such great offences to their consciences found in some distasted persons are yet no trouble to their consciences being the very same if not worse in their owne favourites and associates Iudge whether such zeale come from conscience or from corrupt affection whether it be not more against the person 5. Note of a good conscience Holy boldnesse Bona conscientia prodire vult conspici ipsas nequitia tenebras timet Senec. ep 98. Qui non deliquit decet audacem esse confidenter prose proterve loqui Plaut in Anth. then against the sinne 5. We have a fift note of a good conscience in the Text. And Paul earnestly beholding the Councell Here is a marke of a good conscience in his lookes as well as in his words in his face as well as in his speech Paul is here convented before the Councell with what face is hee able to behold them And Paul earnestly beholding the Councell A good conscience makes a man hold up his head even in the thickest of his enemies It can looke them in the faces and out-face a whole rabble of them assembled on purpose to cast disgrace on it That may be said of a man with a good conscience which is spoken of some of Davids men 1 Chron. 12. 8. Whose faces were like the faces of Lions for the righteous is bold as a Lion Prov. 28. 1. Now might Paul truely have said as David Ps 57. 4. My soule is among Lions I ly among them that are set on fire And now how fares hee what is he all amort lookes he pale and blanke doth he sneake or hang downe his head or droope with a dejected countenance No Paul is as bold as a Lion and can face these Lions and earnestly fixe his countenance upon the best of them A good conscience makes a mans face as God had made Ezekiels Ez. 3. 8 9. Behold I have made thy face strong against their faces and thy forehead strong against their foreheads As an Adamant harder then flint have I made thy forehead feare them not neither be dismaid at their lookes Such hartening and hardening comes also from a good conscience A good conscience makes a man goe as the Lord in another sense tells Israell he had done for them Levit. 26. 13. I have made you goe upright A good conscience erects a mans face and lookes it is no sneaking slinker but makes a man goe upright As contrarily guilt dejects both a mans spirits and his lookes and unlesse a man have a Sodomiticall impudencie Isa 3. 9. or an whores forehead Ier. 3. 3. which refuses to be ashamed makes him hang downe the head Paul fixes his eyes here and lookes earnestly upon them but what if they had looked as earnestly upon him yet would not his good conscience have beene outfaced See Act. 6. 15. All that sate in the Councel looked stedfastly on him namely on Steven If but the high Priest alone had faced him it had beene somewhat but all that sate at the Councell looked stedfastly on him Surely one would thinke such a presence were able to have damped and utterly to have dashed him out of countenance But how is it with him Is hee appalled Is hee damped They saw his face as it had beene the face of an Angell sayes the text As wisedome Eccl. 8. 1. so a good conscience makes the face to shine A good conscience hath not onely a Lions but an Angels face it hath not onely a Lion-like boldnesse but an Angelicall dazling brightnesse which the sicke and sore eyes of malice can as ill indure to behold as the Israelites could the shining brightnesse of Moses face The face of a good conscience tels enemies that they are malicious Lyars And no wonder that a good conscience hath such courage and confidence in the face standing before a whole Councell when it shall be able to hold up it head with boldnesse before the Lord himselfe at that great day of the generall Iudgement Even then shall a good conscience have a bold face CHAP. IX Two other and the last notes of a good conscience A Sixt note of a good conscience followes namely that which we have 6. Note of conscience To suffer for conscience 1 Pet. 2. 19. When a man for conscience towards God endures griefe suffering wrong A good conscience had rather that Ananias should smite then it selfe should Ananias his blowes are nothing to the blowes of conscience Ananias may make Pauls cheekes glow but conscience gives such terrible buffets as will make the stoutest heart in the world to ake That will pinch and twitch and gird the heart with such griping throwes that all the blowes and tortures that Ananias his cruell heart can invent are nothing to them Now therefore a man that sets any store by a good conscience will not part with the Peace or Integrity thereof upon any termes Hee rates the goodnesse of his conscience far above al earthly things Wealth liberty wife children life it selfe all are vile and cheape in comparison of it And therefore a man of a good conscience will endure any griefe and suffer any wrong to keepe his conscience good towards God Such a good conscience had Daniel Dan. 1. 8. Hee proposed in his heart that hee would not defile himselfe with the portion of the Kings meat That is he was fully setled and resolved in his cōscience come what would come he would not do that which would not stand with a good conscience But what if it could have gotten no other meat without all doubt he would rather have starved than have defiled his conscience with that meat Hee would have lost his life rather than have lost the Peace and Integrity of his conscience It seemes a question of great difficulty which was put to the three Children Dan. 3. Whether they will give the bowing of their bodies to the golden Idoll or the burning of their bodies to the fiery Furnace But yet they find no such difficulty therin they were not carefull to answer in that matter ver 16. Of the two fires they chose the coolest the easiest The fire of a guilty conscience is seven times hotter and more intolerable than the fire of Nebuchadnezzars Furnace though it be heated seven times more then it is wont to be heated If the question come betweene life and good conscience that one of the two must be parted withall it is an hard case Life is wondrous sweet and precious Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life Iob 2. 4. What
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
in and prosecute a just case till a bribe come and puts out the very eies of their conscience Their consciences are of so soft a temper that the least touch of silver turnes their edge presently They hold out well till there come a tentation on their left hand that is in their right hand Psal 144. 8. Whose mouth speakes vanity and their right hand is a right hand of falshood If once the right hand be a right hand of falsehood the mouth will soone speake vanity though before it speake conscience Who would not have thought Balaam to have beene a man of an excellent conscience If Balak would give mee his house full of silver and gold I cannot goe beyond the word of the Lord my God to doe lesse or more Num. 22. 18. But yet besides that faltering in those words I cannot goe whereas the language of a good conscience would have beene I will not goe besides that I say before hee ends his speech see how the hope of promotions works and works his conscience like wax before the fire ver 19. Now therfore I pray you tarry heere also this night that I may know what the Lord will say unto me more A faltering inference If his conscience had beene good it would have inferred strongly thus Now therefore I pray get you gone and trouble me no longer Hee knew in his conscience the people ought not to be cursed and that he ought not to goe and yet comes in with I pray tarry all night c. Truly Balak needed not to have beene so lavish and so prodigall as to offer an house full one handfull of his silver and gold will frame Balaams conscience to any thing The like triall may be made of mens consciences by their inconstancie in good courses and this will condemne three sorts as guilty of evill consciences 1. Such as sometimes being convinced of the necessity of good courses doe set upon the practice of them and begin to looke towards Religion and religious duties till meeting with some of their supposed wiser neighbours they be advised to take heed they may bring themselves into greater note then they are aware of they will incur sharper censures then they thinke of c. and suddenly all is dasht all is quasht and quencht There is a disease among beasts they call the Staggers and it is a disease too frequent in mens Consciences who sometimes are on sometimes off one day begin and next day cease good courses That may be said of many mens conscices which Iacob speakes of Reuben Gen 49. 4. Vnstable as water The water moues as the winds blow If the wind blow out of the East then it moves one way if out of the west then it moves another the cleane contrary and upon every new winde a new way So many let them heare a convincing and a good perswading Sermon moving to good duties then they will set upon them let them againe heare either some mocks or reproches for those wayes or some sage advise from one they count wise against the way of conscience they are as far off againe as ever These staggering irresolute and watry Consciences are farre from good ones 2. Such as in their youth or when the world was low with them were very zealous and forward But what are they now at this day True downeright Demasses zealous when they were young but now old and cold zealous when they were meane but now the world is come vpon them Demas-like they have forsaken goodnes and embraced the world have gotten now worme-eaten and world-eaten consciences The zeale of Gods house was wont to eat them up but now the world hath eaten up them and all their good conscience 3. Those that have made good the prophane Proverb Young Saints and old Devills whose hatred of Religion and good conscience is greater then ever was their love thereto as Ammon was towards Thamar 2 Sam. 13. 15. They were zealous and forward frequenters of Gods house and Ordinances zealous enemies against Swearing and Sabbath-breaking c. But what are they at this day yesterday indeed zealous professors of holines but what are they to day to day malicious scoffers of godlinesse haters and opposers of goodnes the only swearers and drunkards in a country What kind of cōsciences are these none of Pauls conscience I have lived in all good conscience untill this day What then just the consciences of Hymenaeus and Alexander 1 Tim. 1. 18 19. They once made great profession of conscience but now enemies to Paul and blasphemers men as Paul speaks that had put away good conscience they did not through want of watchfulnesse let it slip or steale away but as if it would never have been gone soone enough they put and drave it away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beza translates it Qua expulsa They used their consciences as Ammon did Thamar after his lust satisfied 2 Sam. 13. 15 17. Arise be gone sayes hee to her and when shee pleads for her selfe hee cals his servant and sayes unto him Put out this woman and bolt the doore after her put her out so as shee may be sure not to come againe They dealt with their Consciences as Colleges deale with Rake-hels expelled them without all hope of re-entry Thus many prophane Apostating backsliders cannot be content to lose good conscience unlesse Ammon-like they may put it away with violence and expell it And how can they have good conscience that have put it away Hee hath not his wife that hath put her away and given her a bill of divorce In the dayes of Popery and darknesse the Devill it seemed walked very familiarly amongst them and hence we have so many stories of Fayries and of children taken out of cradles and others laid in their roomes whom they called Changelings Since the light of the Gospell these Devils and Fayries have not beene seene amongst us but yet we are still troubled with Changelings Some Priests and Iesuites have changed some the world hath changed some Good-fellowship and the Ale-house hath changed These have played the Fayries have taken and stolne away goodly forward and fervent Christians and have layd in their roomes Earthlings Worldlings Popelings Swearers Drunkards Malicious scorners of all goodnesse Thus have these Fayries in stead of faire and comely children brought in these lame blind deformed and wrizzled faced Changelings that any one may easily see them to be rather the births of some Hobgoblins then the Children of God If therefore we would evidence our consciences good labour to hold to the last and rest not in youth but labor to have age found in the way of righteousnesse This is a Crowne of glory and this is right good conscience to live therein untill our dying day All the former sixe are nothing without this last CHAP. X. The comfort and benefit of a good conscience in the case of Disgrace and Reproach VVEe are now come to the fift and last point which was propounded
dry land or to make a sea when he had made his ship I but when the flood is come and the waters begin to bee chin deepe then aske Iabel whether building of tents or building of an Arke bee the wiser worke then whether is better Noahs Arke or Iubals Pipes Now that the flood is come these come perhaps wading middle deep to the Arke side and bellow and howle to Noah to open the arke to them Now would not Iabel give all his tents and all his cattell but to bee where Noahs dog lyes would not Iubal now give all his pipes and merriment to have but the place that an hogge had in the Arke Now Iubal let us heare one of your merry songs pipe now and make your selves merry with gybing at Noahs folly in making a ship to saile on dry land What ailest thou Iubal to howle wring thine hands thus where is thine Harpe Organs now cheere up thy soule now with these vanities Now the Flood is come now Noah is in the Arke now Sirs you that are such men of renowne Gen. 6. 4. you that were the brave gallants of the earth now tell me who is the foole and who is the wise man now How many in the dayes of peace make light of a good Conscience yea if they see others to be but carefull in rigging of their Ship and pitching and trimming up such an Arke how ready are they to spend their byting scoffes and their tart jests upon them but if ever times of trouble calamitie and a fire flood of Gods wrath Nah. 1. 6 8. should breake in then would a good Conscience hold up the head with much comfort and resolution whilest those that formerly made a jeast of a good conscience should have aking and quaking hearts by reason of those unmeasurable feares that shall seize upon them A good conscience will make a man musick when Iubal shal be glad not only to put up but with indignation and anguish of heart to throw away and curse his pipes Well fare a good conscience in evill dayes Pitch and trim up this Ark there is no such provision against evill dayes as is a good conscience It will do a man service and support him when all the brave spirits of the earth shal be blank and at their wits end In the third place the benefit and comfort 3. The comfort of a good conscience in time of Sicknesse of a good conscience is conspicuous in the time of sicknesse or a mans private and personall crosses in his estate c. A sicke man with an hayle conscience is a cheary and a comfortable man Prov. 13. 14. The spirit of a man will sustaine his infirmity that is the spirit it selfe being hayle and sound it wil enable him to bear any bodily sicknesse But a wounded spirit who can beare yea a wounded or a sicke body who can comfortably beare if the spirit or conscience be sicke But let the conscience bee good and sound and it helpes a man with great ease and comfort to beare the sicknesse of the body It is a shrewd burthen to beare two sicknesses at once to have a sicke body and a sicke conscience A man shall find enough of the easiest of them single and alone But yet an hayle conscience in an infirme body sweetly helpes our infirmitie Let a man have ever so hayle and heathfull a body yet if the conscience be naught and withall awakened fals to galling and griping he shall find but little joy in his bodily health so contrarily let a mans conscience be good and though his body be sicke and weake yet it is a great deale of sweet refreshment that it shall receive from the conscience Sicknesse in it selfe is exceeding uncomfortable and in the time of sicknesse commonly all bodily comforts the comforts of meates drinkes and sleepe faile yea but then here is the benefit of a good conscience that will not then fayle but as it is said Eccl. 10. 9. Money answers all things so a good conscience answers all things the comfort of it supplies the wants of all other comforts When in sicknesse the comfort of meat drink and sleepe is gone they are all found againe in the comfort of a good conscience that will be meat and drinke that will be rest and sleep that will make a mans sick-bed soft and easie that shall be as the Angels were to Christ in his hunger in the Wildernesse they ministred unto him and so will a good conscience minister comfort in the want of all other comforts so that a man may say of a good conscience as we use to say of some solid substantiall dish that there are Partridge Phesants and Quailes in it so though outward comforts cease their office and their worke be suspended yet a good conscience comes in its roome and in it are meat drinke sleepe ease refreshment and what not A good conscience is an Electuary or a Cordiall that hath all these ingredients in it There is no such Cordiall to a sicke man as the cordiall of a good conscience All Physicians to this Physician are but such Physians as Iobs friends Iob 13. 4. Yea are Physicians of no value A motive of great weight to make men in love with a good conscience Who can be free from sicknesse and how tedious and wearisome a time is the time of sicknesse Now who would not make much of a Cordiall that might cheare him then of a receipt that might feed him then As then we would bee glad of a chearfull and comfortable spirit upon our sicke beds so make much of a good conscience Whence is it that most men in their sicknesses have such drooping spirits lye groaning altogether under their bodily paines or lye sottishly and senslesly no sense of any thing but paine and sicknesse Meerely from the want of a good conscience they have laid up no Cordial no comfortable Electuary for themselves in their health time against the day of sicknesse Indeed you shall have the miserable comforters of the world on this manner cheering them why how now man where is your heart Plucke up a good heart man never feare for a little sicknes c. True indeed they should not need to feare if they could plucke up a good heart But they that will plucke it up when they are sicke must lay it up when they are well Hee that hath a good conscience to get when he lyes upon his sicke bed is like a man that hath his Aqua-vitae to buy when hee is fallen into a swoune A wise man that feares swouning would have his hot-water-bottle hanging alwayes ready at his beds-head But as in other crosses by sicknesse and the like so is the comfort of a good conscience never more sweet then when a man is under the crosse for conscience sake and suffers affliction and vexation to keepe a good conscience Then above all other times will conscience doe the office of a Comforter and will
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
blood in what feares yea what idle feares lived hee Hee is so haunted with feares that though he had lived in Paradice yet had he lived in a land of Nod in a land of agitation yea of trepidation Iudge what case his evill conscience made him in by that speech Gen. 4. 14. It shall come to passe that every one that finds me shall slay me Surely there could not bee many yet in the world and those that were in the world were either his parents brethren sisters or neere kindred his feare seemes to imagine multitudes of people that might meete him yea and that every one hee meets would murther him What will his Father or Mother be his executioners What if any of his sisters meet him shal they slay him is not such a swash-buckler as he able to make good his party with them Lo what fearfull and terrible things a guilty conscience projects As an evill conscience is miserable in its feares so in those perplexities which this feare breeds These perplexities doe miserably and restlessely distract a man Isay 57. 20. The wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt What is the reason of these trouble some perplexities The want of peace of a good conscience verse 21. There is no peace saith my God to the wicked The winds make the sea restlesse and stirre it to the very bottome so as the waters cast up mire and dirt See in the troubled Sea the Emblem of a troubled conscience But the Torment exceeds all and the maine misery of an evill conscience lies in that It is a misery to be in feare a misery to have inward turbulencie and commotions but to be alwayes on the racke alwayes on the Strapado this is far more truly the suburbs of Hell than is the Popish purgatory Oh! the gripes and girds the stitches and twitches the throwes and pangs of a galling and a guilty conscience So sore they are and so unsufferable that Iudas seeks ease with an halter Poena autem vehemens multo saevior illis Quas Ceditius gravis invenâ— Radamanthus Nocte dieque suum gestare in pectore testem Iuvenal Satyr 3. and thinks hanging ease in comparison of the torture of his evill conscience All the racks wheeles wild horses hot pincers scalding leade powred into the most tender and sensible parts of the body yea all the mercilesse barbarous and inhumane cruelties of the holy house are but flea-bitings meere toyes and May-games compared with the torment that an evill conscience wil put a man to when it is awakened It is no wonder that Iudas hangs himselfe it had been a great wonder rather if hee had not hangd himselfe The Heathen fabled terrible things of their hellish furies with their snakes and Nolite enim putare queÌ„admodum in fabulis saepenumero videtis eos qui aliquid impie scelerateque coÌ„miserint agitari perterâ—ori furiarum taedis ardentibus Sua quemque fraus suus terror maximevexat suum queÌ„que scelus agitat amentiaque afficit Suae malae cogitationes conscientiaeque animi terrent Hae sunt impiis assiduae domesticaeque furiae quae dies noctesque parentum poenas à consceleratissimis filiis repetant Cicero pro Rosc Amor Suum quemque facinus suum scclus sua audacia de sanitate ac mente deturbat Haec sunt impiorum furiae flammae hae faces Idem L. Pison fiery torches vexing and tormenting hainous and great offenders These their furies were nothing else but the hellish torments of guilty conscience wherewith wicked persons were continually haunted as some of the wiser of themselves have well observed All snakes and torches are but idle toyes and meere trifles to the most exquisite torment of a guilty and accusing conscience The sting of conscience is worse than death it selfe Apoc. 9. 5 6. Their torment was as the torment of a Scorpion when hee strikes a man And in those dayes shall men seeke death and shall not find it and shall desire to dye and death shall flee from them Popish ones tormented in their consciences by the terrible and uncomfortable doctrines of satisfactions Purgatory fire c. which those Locusts doe so terrifie them withall should rather chuse death than live in such an uncomfortable condition The sting of death not so smart as the sting of a Scorpion in the conscience The sting of an accusing conscience is like an Harlot Pro. 7. 26. More bitter than death And as Salomon there speaks of the Harlot so may it be said of a tormenting conscience Who so pleases God shall escape from it but the sinner shall be taken by it Gods deare children themselves many of them are not freed from trouble in their consciences but they have their hels in this life Ion. â— 2. Out of the belly of hell I cryed unto thee God for their triall speaks bitter things unto them and not only denies them peace but causes their consciences to be at war with them Now when God puts his owne children to these trials and disquiets of conscience they are so bitter and so biting that had they not the grace of God to uphold and preserve them even they could not be saved from dangerous miscarriage Iob was put to this triall and his conscience apprehended Gods anger and we shall see what a case he was in Iob 6. 8 9. O that I might have my request and that God would grant me the thing I long for even that it would please God to destroy me that hee would let loose his hands and cut me off Nay worse Iob 14. 15. Thou scarest me with dreames terrifiest me through visions so that my soul chooses flrangling and death rather than life Gods grace preserves his Saints from selfe-murther but yet not alwayes from impatient wishes Iob wishes strangling and chuses it of the two but goes no further What wonder then that Iudas doth strangle himselfe when his conscience stares him in the face when as Iob with whom God is but in jest in comparison chuses strangling If Iob wish it what wonder that Iudas doth the deed Conscience doth chastise the godly but w th whips but it lashes the wicked with scorpions Now if the whips be so smarting to Iob as makes him chuse strangling what wonder that the scorpions be so cutting as makes Iudas seek reliefe at an halter Yea and that which addes to the misery of an evill conscience being awakned it is such a misery as no earthly comfort can asswage or mitigate Diseases and distempers of the body though they bee terrible yet Physick sleep and rest upon a mans bed yields him some ease and some comfort Sometime in some griefes the coÌ„fortable use of the creatures yields a man some refreshments Prov. 31. 6 7. Give wine unto those that be of heauy hearts let him drinke and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more But conscience being disquieted finds no
Prophet when God commanded was smitten with an heavie judgement It is no lesse dangerous to smite when God forbids smiting God hath an heavie hand for those that are so light fingred and he will give them blow for blow that will bee smiting his for a good conscience Touch not mine anoynted and do my Prophets no harm Ps 105. 15. He that touches them touches the apple of Gods eye Zach. 2. 8. So hee that smites them smites the apple of his eye The eie is a tender place and sensible of a little blow God will not take a blow on the eye nor beare a blow on his face at the hands of the proudest enemies of them all and though we must turne the other cheek rather than smite againe yet the Lord to whom vengeance belongs wil take no blows at their hands but if they will be smiting they shall be sure to heare of him to their cost You find Ex. 2. 11. an Aegyptian smiting an Israelite It becomes none better than Aegyptians to be smiting Israelites Moses spies an Aegyptian smiting of an Hebrew What gets the Aegyptian in the end See verse 12. God stirs up the spirit of Moses to smite him and to slay him Thus will God teach Aegyptians to be medling Pashur smites Ieremy Ier. 20. 2. What got he by it The heavie stroke of Gods hand upon himselfe and all his friends ver 3 4 5 6. Herod was a smiter too Act. 12. 1 2. He stretched forth his hands to vexe certain of the Church and he killed Iames the Brother of Iohn with the Sword And what became of him in the end See ver 23. The Angel of the Lord smote him he was eaten up of worms and he gave up the ghost It is said of Ionas his gourd that a worme smote it and it withered Ion. 4. That was much that a worme should so soone smite the gourd But when men will be smiting Gods people and his prophets for a good conscience and when Herod will be so busie as to smite Apostles God can send not onely an Angel one of his most glorious creatures but even a base worme even one of the weakest creatures to smite Herod and eate him both Ieroboam stretches forth his arme against the Prophet 1 Kin. 13. his arm withers he doth but threatē to smite God smites him How much more when Herod stretches forth his hād to vexe the Church and to smite Gods Ministers wil God not only wither them but smite him as Sampson smote the Philistims hip and thigh and make him a rotten and a stinking spectacle to all malicious smiters to the worlds end Thus is that true which the Prophet implies in that speech Isa 27. 6. Hath hee smitten him as hee smote his smiter Marke then Gods dealing hee uses to smite smiters Neither is this true only of smiters with the fist and with the sword but it is also true of those smiters Ier. 18. 18. Come and let us smite him with the tongue Even such smiters will God smite also as wee may see there ver 21 22 23. Thus God met with Nabal David sends for reliefe to him upon his festivall day and he in stead of an almes fals a railing on him and cals him in effect a Rogue and a Vagabond and a run-away Thus hee smote David with his tongue What follows See ver 38. And it came to passe about ten dayes after that the Lord smote Nabal And how smote he him That he died So Zach. 14. 12. Their tongue shall consume away in their mouth What might the reason be of that judgment Because haply many that cannot or dare not fight with their hands for fear of the law yet fight against Gods Ministers his servants with their tongues Wel God hath a plague to smite such sinners Though they smite but with the tongue yet God will smite them and give them their portion with the rest of the adversaries of the Church And if God will not spare such smiters how much lessewil he spare such as smite with the sword Terror to all smiters either with hand Vse 1 or tongue Smite on goe on in your malicious courses doe so but yet know that there is a smiter in heaven that will meet with you Had Zimri peace who slew his master So said Iezabel to Iehu and so may it bee said in this case Search the Scriptures search the Histories of the Church Had ever any smiters peace which lifted up either hand or tongue against any of the Lords people Did smiters ever scape scot-free Had they any cause to brag in the end Had they ever any cause to brag of the last blow Did Herod prosper that smote Iames with the sword did Ananias prosper that smote Paul did the Aegyptian prosper that smote the Hebrew Did Doeg prosper who was a tongue-smiter as well as an hand-smiter Psa 52. Oh consider this you that dare lift up your hands and tongues against a good conscience be afraid of Gods smiting hand tremble to meddle in this kind Learne to hold your hands and tongues unlesse yee long to feele Gods smiting hand Especially take heed of smiting Gods Ministers in any kind Deut. 33. 11. Levi hath a strange blessing Blesse Lord his substance accept the worke of his hand smite through the loynes of them that rise against him and of them that hate him that they rise not again God saw that of al others Levi would be most subject to the blowes of fists and tongues and therefore he is fenced with a blessing for the nonce to make smiters feare to meddle with him or if they will needs meddle yet to let them see that it were better to wrong any other tribe than that God would smite thē smite them to the purpose that shal offer to smite him Here is that which may make Gods people comfortably patient under all the Vse 2 wrongs injuries of smiters in any kind Here is that may make them by patience to possesse their soules may make them hold their hands and their tongues from smiting Smite not thou God will smite smiters Indeed when we will be smiting wee prevent Gods smiting and so they have the easier blows by the meanes For what are our blowes to the Lords Do as Christs did 1 Pet. 2. 23. Who when hee was reviled reviled not againe but committed himself to him that judges righteously It is best leaving them to the Lords hand Pray for thy smiters that God would give them smiting hearts that their hearts may smite them for their smiting pray to God if he see it good they may be so smitten This is a revenge will stand with charity Yet if not leave them to God who best knows how to smite smiters It is great comfort against the sore afflictions Vse 3 of Gods Church at this present The enemies of the Gospel have smitten Gods Church with a sore blow Wel yet let us not bee out