it must speak all at once which who can bear Oh 't is heavy hearing all at once as falling all at once once for all when Conscience shall take up those words in Isaiah I have long Isa 42.14 time holden my peace I have been still and refrained my self now will I cry and destroy and devour at once And as it was in the Fable of the blinde Woman and the Physitian coming often to her house to cure her never departed empty but still carried away a portion of her best good so that by that time that her sight was recovered all her choisest goods were gone So this blinded charmed Conscience sees not the ransacking of the soul and spoyling of graces till it be left empty and then it sees and cries with Esau too late for a blessing And therefore though some wretched men by their wicked commissions of evils omissions of good and procrastinations of their repentance and conversions to God seem as destitute and void of Conscience as the very beasts that perish yet Conscience will stand forth and appear in due time and shew plainly that it was present with them every moment of their lives and privy to all their evil acts Psa 50.21 thoughts and ways by reproving and setting them in order before their eyes and making them say with David O Lord Conscience Psal 139.1 2 3. thou hast searched me and known me thou knowest my down lying and mine uprising and understandest my thoughts Thou compassest or winnowest my paths and art acquainted with all my ways And as Jesus to Nathanael before that Philip called thee John 1.48 when thou wast under the fig-tree I saw thee So will Conscience at last say to those ungodly men Before I now speak to you I saw you At such and such a time in such and such a place with such and such company about such and such ungodly deeds I saw you And all to shew it an impossible and therefore a vain thing to attempt the nulling or avoiding of Conscience 2. Because it were a thing unprofitable and distructive to man Hos 4.17 to be let alone without this Monitor and Corrector Psal 81.11 12. Prov. 20.27 Prov. 4.19 to be given up to the treachery of a beloved sin or to the tyranny of a raging lust without this controller to have this candle of the Lord put out which should search all the hidden parts of the belly to have a mans way as darknesse and not to know whereat he stumbles this were one of God's heaviest judgements on man on this side Hell Like a Body without a Pulse a City without Ward or Walls and an Army without a Watch Such or worse were a mans case without Conscience if it were possible but that divelish rage and practice is vain because impossible and unprofitable And thus for correction of three evil practises 3. For Instruction In a pure and precious point of righteousnesse about Conscience Prov. 4.23 To keep it with all diligence or with all keeping as men would keep their treasures their honours their lives This prime Christian Jewel as Instar omnium is to be sought with all seeking and to be kept with all keeping That it may be good and void of offence toward God and men in all actions spiritual Act. 23.1 Act. 24.16 moral civil natural after St. Paul's example making it our special businesse and dayly exercise to have and to hold and to use a good Conscience And that upon this consideration because Conscience is a thing inseparably annexed unto the soul of man there set and appointed by God never to leave him And now here I crave leave for a little digression to take some view of the sundry kinds sorts of Conscience as of lines drawn from the centre to declinate the several climates and regions of Conscience Which of old were thought to be wittily distributed into Four Bernard 1. Good but not Quiet 2. Quiet but not Good 3. Both Good and Quiet 4. Neither Good nor Quiet 1. An evill unquiet Conscience is bad but hopeful because some life is in it 2. An evil quiet Conscience is worst of all the most hopelesse temper that can be better to have a tormenting Tophet in the soul than a Fools paradise there It was better with Peter when he wept Mat. 26. â—5 than when he presumed 3. A good unquiet Conscience is good not simply but respectively of tendernesse and fearfulnesse to offend God 4. A good and quiet Conscience is best of all a paradise upon Earth a pregustation and prelibation of Heaven Heaven before the time Juge convivium Prov. 15.15 Heb. 1.14 Rev. 3.20 Rom. 14.17 Phil. 4.7 A mansion for the blessed Trinity to dwell in a continual feast at which the Servitors are Angels the prime guest God himself The cheer joy in the holy Ghost the Musick peace with the creatures with our Neighbours and with our selves yea and such peace with God in Christ as passeth all understanding The two good Consciences belong properly to the godly And the two bad to the ungodly Whose Consciences are Either too quiet being blinded or benummed or seared and so like a becalmed Ocean to famished Sea-men that kills with kindnesse and destroys with fair weather Perituros lactans Judg. 5.25 and like dissembling Jael offering Milk and Butter means of life but bringing Hammer and Nail instruments of death Or too unquiet being wounded enraged tormented and so like the troubled Sea that cannot rest So that Good and Bad comprehend all Consciences without more words and terms for rest and trouble are not essential but accidental to Conscience Now in the general a good Conscience is The seeing of an act according with the rule And in particular it is either legal or evangelical according to the rules of each A legal good Conscience compleat is A seeing of all our actions according with all the rules of the Law exactly And requires two things 1. A distinct and universal knowledge of every branch of the Law 2. A constant and universal obedience to every precept of the Law For he who is ignorant of the least tittle Jam. 2.10 and delinquent in any particle is guilty of all and so consequently hath not a compleat legall good Conscience But what is this to us this is none of ours as our case now stands therefore we may say and do with it as did the Tribes with Rehoboam 1 King 12.16 saying What portion have we in David c. And so departed For the compleat legal good Conscience is unto us as Saul's Armour was unto David Too heavy for him to bear therefore our surest safest way is denying and disclaiming all pretensions to compleat legal good Conscience to depart unto the Evangelical that we may be justified and saved Gal. 2.16 Heb. 7.19 these be your only Tents O Israel for if the Law as the case now stands with us be
should not sound as old and legal Rom. 3.27 2 Thes 1.8 but rather as new and evangelical For there is a law of Faith and a vengeance on the disobedience to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ Mat. 11.28 29 30. yea there is a yoak of Christ and which is more admirable a yoake that easeth O mirus reficiendi modus But whither run we out into particulars there is one comprehensive compendious thing most eminently and transcendently necessary to an evangelical good Conscience as all in all Namely 3. The Spirit of Faith in the blood of Jesus 2 Cor. 4.13 No good Conscience without Faith as it seems by their fast frequent conjunction together 1 Tim. 1.4 18 19. so obvious in holy Scripture Faith and a good Conscience 1 Tim. 3.9 yet not that poor livelesse fruitless faith which may be found in apostate men Jam. 2.15 and Divels Rom. 1.17 Rom. 5.1 Act. 15.9 1 John 5.4 Eph. 2.8 who are said to believe and tremble But that Faith which verisies and justifies and purifies and pacifies and conquereth and saveth This this is the Faith For the image of God wherein man was first created was not more necessary to the attaining of a legal good Conscience than this Faith so invested with such gracious properties is to the accomplishing of an evangelical For what availeth the knowledge of Law and Gospel and so much Faith as to give credence to the truth of the precepts and promises and threats without that personal peculiar proper Faith whereby Christ is applied in particular with all his benefits to each believing soul So that without Faith no evangelical good Conscience Whence here is the difference betwixt the compleatnesse of a legal and evangelical good Conscience That requireth many acts to perfect it Deut. 26.27 Jam. 2.10 one sinful commission or omission is enough to wrack and spoyl it This requires but one only to compleat it one act of believing uniteth to Christ by which union man is made partaker of the all-sufficient obedience of Christ which is the sole and absolute object matter of an evangelical good Conscience For as one act of Adam brake the whole Decalogue so one act of faith in Christ will perfectly fulfil it But not the habit without the act nor the act without the object maketh an evangelical good Conscience and justifies For the whole obedience of Christ typified by the whole Lamb to be eaten and accounted for Exod. 12.4 10. is it that satisfies the justice of the Law which when by faith we are conjoyned to him is made all ours And therefore Faith and Christ's blood Christ's Blood are here conjoyned in one as to an evangelical good Conscience As no good Conscience without faith So No good Conscience without Christ's blood A good Conscience is most beholding unto the blood of Christ for its goodness as the only price of it the material and meritorious cause of it yea and of our redemption the graces fore-mentioned are the means of application There sticketh to the Conscience of every man naturally a great deal of guile and filth which defileth and obscureth and hardens it and it hath contracted so much guilt and foulnesse that there is no room for peace till it be refined and cleansed Heb. 9.14 Act. 15.9 Rom. 5.1 and mollified which can no way be done without saith in Christ's blood Heb. 9.18 22. which is all in all For as in the old Law all dedications and purgings and remissions were by blood So in the new Law of Faith in the Gospel no good done about Conscience without blood It is Purged Purified Pacified all by this blood Conscience is 1. 1 Joh. 1.7 Purged and Cleansed -From the corruption of sin by the efficacy of Christ's blood From the guilt of sin by the merit of Christs blood 2 Tim. 1.3 2. Purified and Sanctified from the stain of sin 1 Pet. 3.21 by the purity of Christs blood 3. Pacified from the unquietness of sin Col. 1.20 by the attonement of Christ's blood In sin unrepented Isa 57.20 21. unpardoned unpurged unreformed there is no peace but like the troubled Sea it cannot rest A good Conscience may be like the troubled Air sometime disquieted but when the wind is still the Air can rest when the occasion is over the Conscience is quiet But a bad Conscience is like the troubled Sea that cannot rest through the inconstancy of its own natural motions fluxing and refluxing and the restlesnesse of its own waves as well as the boysterousnesse of external storms and winds so that the Sea remains unquiet when the storm is ended so do evil mens bad Consciences when the outward occasion of affliction is ceased and that trouble ended yet they have that within which denies their rest Such indeed is the guilt and filth of sin to the Conscience as Jonah to the Mariners and Achan to the Souldiers a dangerous and accursed thing or like an arrow-head and corrupt coar in a wound no safety or blessing ease or healing till out and gone And this can never be done but by the blood of Jesus Heb. 12.24 Oh that purging purifying pacifying blood of his that blood of sprinkling so called in allusion to that blood in the bason of the Passeover Exod. 12.22 wherewith the Lintel and the two side-posts were sprinkled and whereby this blood was prefigured Now although about the two side-posts some Interpreters are but little divided yet about the transome or lintel lesse most applying it to Conscience For the resemblance in ancient buildings of those Countreys contriving in or just over the lintel a place to look out at for the discovery of all that knock at door And such a thing indeed is Conscience through which we should look out upon all occurrences and occasions before we admit or open And this Lintel we must strike with the bunch of Hysop dipped in the blood of the Bason Conscience must be struck with faith in Christ's blood the blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things then that of Abel Better to God and better to Conscience Mark 4.39 and the voice which it speaks is peace and be still and that not because blood but because his blood who can quiet Consciences as well as Seas and Winds and that not without faith for no goodnesse or purity or peace to the Conscience without blood and no such blood for the Conscience without faith Therefore the unbelieving Conscience is a defiled Conscience and the defiled Conscience is a disturbed Conscience and the disturbed Conscience no compleat good Conscience Tit. 1.15 defiled and unbelieving are in conjunction by the holy Ghost Therefore as we love to have and to hold and to use a good Conscience in all our beggings beg we this faith of God in this blood For what can a man do with an old natural Conscience without a new inlightned one And
sufficient to give life then Christ's death was in vain Now therefore Act. 25.12 as Festus to Paul about appealing to Cesar so may I say to the Christian appealing to the Gospel Hast thou appealed unto Gospel unto Gospel shalt thou go And an evangelicall good Conscience is a seeing of an act according with the rule of the Gospel And now since we have left the common rode of Conscience in general and betaken our selves to a good Conscience in particular note we that Conscience is called good for a two-fold goodness 1. An old natural and essential goodnesse of veracity and so much good may be in a bad mans Conscience notwithstanding his depravation and corruption by the Fall as to know something of the true rule and to speak truth according to its knowledge The cursed Scribes and Pharisees John 8.9 Hypocrites even their Consciences were so good as to deal plainly and honestly with them and to tell them the truth of their state to their conviction convicted by their owne Consciences It is indeed the best thing a wicked man hath better then his Mind Heart Will or Affection there is more goodnesse in a wicked mans Conscience I speak not of primitive spiritual but of essential goodnesse than in any other of the powers of his soul besides hardlier seduced then any part in man his Conscience stands and speaks more for God his Servants Truth and Name then himself doth or will And therfore S. Paul durst appeal even unto their Consciences though not unto their speeches commending our selves to every mans Conscience in the sight of God 2 Cor. 4.2 And this is one goodnesse for which Conscience is called good 2. A renewed spiritual goodnesse of Conscience for if a man be renewed all the man is renewed all his mind Eph. 4.23 the spirit of his mind the most pure and spiritual part of his soul is renewed also The mind and the Conscience go together Tit. 1.15 in their soylings and washings in their corruptings and renewings And here might be distinguished again and again of this renewed good Conscience Either perfect not in degrees but in parts and conditions of goodnesse Or defective 1 Cor 8.7 failing in some condition of goodnesse weake and apt to be defiled and seduced The conditions of this goodnesse are principally two One Formal respecting its constitution Another Effective for execution whereby it is fitted and qualified for its proper acts and uses As that Clock may be called good which is made well and goes well Now to the constitution and execution of a good Conscience Amesius Honeste bona Rom. 14.17 Facate bona two specialties are required 1. Integrity and uprightnesse 2. Serenity and peace And here also might be discoursed of the several offices and properties acts and aspects of Conscience upon practice but that I am in a digression and must return to my point of instruction For the keeping of Conscience with all keeping that it may be good Therefore take we up and contract unto this evangelical good Conscience Three things are necessary 1. Rom. 2.15 The light of knowledge Of God his will and rule both Law and Gospel what is good and bidden us what bad and forbidden us of our selves whether we be such as God's rules require yea or no Both David's and Achan's Conscience had this light to walk by Psal 18.23 Josh 7.20 some knowledge of God and of themselves by this light is all the work cut out that Conscience hath to do No being or working for Conscience without knowledge of God and our selves 1. No work for Conscience without some knowledge of God's revealed will the only rule and bond of Conscience which makes it to be what it is and to do what it does Men might swear lye kill Rom. 7.7 steal prophane blasphem remorslesly without this light of knowledge 2. No work for Conscience without some knowledge of our selves for the knowledge of the rule doth but as tell Nathan's tale of two men and a sheep without the knowledge of our selves which doth as say Thou art the man Men might crucifie the Lord of glory Luke 23.34 1 Cor. 2.8 and Conscience say and do nothing without this knowledge O say we then with Solomon That the soul be without knowledge Prov 19.2 it is not good The ignorant soul cannot have a good Conscience for if Conscience be not truly informed and rightly principled it will be either idle or ill imployed as working in the dark either nothing or all things lawful working falsly and erroneously And oh Isa 5.20 Act. 26.9 Joh. 16.2 what a potent instrument for Satan is an erroneous and misguided Conscience That will make a man even kill his Brother his Father nay God's dearest Servants and perswade him that he doth God service Therefore beg we God the Father of lights Jam. 1.17 through the true Light to lighten our darknesse being our own natural lights are waxed dim John 1.9 and burn blew to set up another The light of his Word and another The light of his Spirit That the candle of the Lord within it may give light enough to search the inward parts of the belly Prov. 20.27 For the world is fuller of dangerous downfals than the valley of Siddim was full of slime-pits Gen. 14.10 wherein the Kings of Sodom and Gomorah fled and fell Here is desperate fearful going in the dark not knowing whither he goeth especially neer such horrible Precipices John 12.35 Therefore pray and again I say pray for inlightned Consciences for though some may go to Hell with it yet none can go to Heaven without it therefore labour to get it and be not without it for a world beseech God as he hath given us Consciences that we may not want guides so that he would give our consciences light Mat. 15.14 that our guides may not want eyes lest the blind lead the blind and both fall into the ditch Mat. 6.23 For if the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darknesse Another ingredient to this evangelical good Conscience The life of new obedience no good Conscience without universal constant sincere obedience knowledge obedience cannot be separated in a good Conscience therefore called The life of obedience For what is knowledge without obedience but as a model without a building Act. 24.16 and a cypher without a figure which stands for nothing therefore the Apostle who is upon sacred record the pattern of a good Conscience made it his dayly exercise to have and to hold and to use a good Conscience in all obedience the lack whereof in daring to act against God's rule or without God's warrant causeth shipwrack of Faith 1 Tim. 1.19 and of all good Conscience As in Hymeneus and Alexander Who hath more science than the Divel yet none worse Consciences for lack of obedience And obedience in Christian ears
what with an inlightned one without a purified and pacified one without a sanctified and saved one by the blood of Jesus O plead this blood but first beg it with more then Rachell's earnestnesse for children Gen. 30.1 Lord give it me or else I die And when we have gotten this good enlightned purified and pacified Conscience we were best keep it with all diligence keep the peace of it and not willingly offend it for a thousand worlds And that upon these considerations 1. That to sin against the cry of an illightned Conscience Isa 65.3 Ezek. 2.4 is to provoke God to his face like impudent children in the holy Prophets account for an illuminated Conscience is as the face of God in the soul of man where a man even sees God looking upon him commanding or forbidding 2. That to sin against the cry of an illightned Conscience is to draw upon a mans soul the horrible guilt of Herod's aggravation and huge addition unto all his sins and evils Luke 3.20 He added yet this above all that he shut up John in prison John 5.35 John was a burning and a shining light And such is an illuminated Conscience therefore to go against the burning and shining light thereof is to add yet this above all other evils to shut up our John in prison 3. That to sin against the cry of an illightned Conscience offends Gods deputy in the soul and provokes him oft times to stab the heart dead all duty discountenance faith and hope and discourage confidence in prayer If our heart condemn us not 1 John 3.20 21. Mat. 5.23 then have we confidence towards God and what we ask we receive c. But if it doth condemn us we may hold our peace for it is of greater danger then in case of an offended and irreconciled brother If thou bring thy prayer into God's presence and there remembrest that thine offended irreconciled Conscience hath ought against thee first go and by faith in Christ's blood and resolution of new obedience be reconciled unto thy Conscience and then come and pray for an irreconciled Conscience doth ever way-lay undermine and enter caveats against prayers Psal 66.18 no offering will be accepted till Conscience be satisfied be it for our selves or others bad Consciences much hinder prayer If I have a bad Conscience God will not heare my prayers saith David ye have good Consciences Heb. 13.18 therefore God will hear your prayers for us said Paul 4. That Conscience is ever to abide and dwell with us never to leave a man therefore to be kept with all diligence that it may be good and void of offence Two that were born and bred and must inseparably live together should take heed of offending one the other there is a parting time for all but a man and his Conscience there are none on Earth with whom we shall always live without any separation but our Consciences not always with Husbands or Wives with Parents or Children with Masters or Servants c. But with our Consciences ever therefore make you much of it In one of the Fathers we read a Parable to this purpose Greg. Mor. of a Man that had three friends two of whom he loved very intirely and the third but indifferently this Man being called in question for his life craved aid of his friends The first would only accompany him some part of the way and bring him going and no more The second would onely lend him some means and accommodate him for his journey and no more But the third whom he least expected and regarded would go all the way abide and appeare ever with him speak and plead for him and never leave him Now we are the man Flesh World and Conscience are our three friends And when death shall summon us to Judgement Our fleshly friends will bring us to our graves and decent burials so far going and there leave us Our worldly goods may help us to Shrouds Coffins Tombs and at most Epitaphs and there leave us But well fare a good Conscience this will live and die with us or rather live when we are dead awaiting our rising again to appear with us and stand for us before God at his judgement-seat And when neither of our other friends can do us good then a good Conscience will stand us in high and eternal stead Conscience I say FINIS
THE Deputy Divinity OR Inferiour Deity AND Subordinate God in the World Conscience I say 1 Cor. 10.29 A Discourse of Conscience Being the substance of Two Sermons delivered One of them at the Temple-church in London The other in the Countrey By HENRY CARPENTER Minister of the Gospel at Steeple-Ashton in Wilts London Printed for N. Webb W. Grantham at the Bear over-against the little North-door in Pauls Church-yard 1657. To the Truly RELIGIOUS AND Right Noble Lady THE LADY Dorothy Pakington The Promises of both lives Madam MY Gratefull Purposes long since engaged to your Ladyships service were never yet so Advantaged by opportunity as to make the World the witnesse of their sincerity Difficult and perplexed times occasion too much neglect of duty and make place for pardon This little Book and small Comment upon one of the greatest Books in the world whereof I humbly present you with the Dedication hath nothing to commend it up so high as your hands but the weight of the Subject and the simple integrity of the Author obliged not more to the memory of your dear Father my very good Lord and Patron of undefiled hands then to your own merits and excellencies whereof I had once the honour to be an unworthy Servant and have still the duty to be an observer and admirer As for my self I must know who I am but for this thing here in hand I may wish it laid to heart for a Jewel is a Jewel though wrapt up in plain leather or in brown paper Now that the God whom you serve in your spirit and Family would in blessing blesse you in all your Relations and that the same God who hath so begun to glorifie you in those graces wherewith he hath enriched your soule making you an eminent and unfeigned example of Goodnesse even in this Age will also Perfect and Crowne these graces with Glory Is the Prayer of Madam Your Ladiships Humble Faithful Servant For Jesus and Conscience-sake H. CARPENTER To the Reader Christian Reader THat which one spake of his learned Tractates Justus Lipsius Politicks B. King on Jonas Nihil egisine Theseis Et nihil nostrum omnia and another from him of his rich Lectures may the lesse mis-become me of this plain poor piece of mine That I have done little herein without good guides And though in one sense all may be mine own yet in another not much more then nothing For where I liked the waters of other mens wells I drank deep and elswhere I did but sip And as one observes of Ruth I have sometime but stood to glean Rab. Solom and sometime sitten down Here it is such as it is presented to thy good acceptance if here and there it give thee any new lesson blesse God for thy Instructor And where it doth but rub up the old despise not thy Remembrancer who hurts none by these but himself in the danger of the attempt changing Tongue into Pen and eares into eyes The severer of the two But that which discourageth many provoketh me of purpose to shew how hardy I dare seem rather then be ungratefull to those my many friends who have required this at my hands for thy good which if thou finde remember God in thy praise and me in thy prayers H. C. THE Deputy-Divinity OR Inferiour Deity AND Subordinate God in the world 1 Cor. 10.29 Conscience I say WHAT one said well of Lawes That many good Laws were made but there wanted one Law to make us put all those Laws in execution The like may we say of Books and Sermons Many good Books are written and many good Sermons preached but there wanteth one Book one Sermon to make us put all the other in practise and that were good indeed worthy of the reading and hearing And I know none more likely through God to do this thing than upon this subject of Conscience I may commend the Text though not the Sermon which being good as one said of Justice is a Synopsis and Epitomy of all vertues a medicine to cure all soul-diseases and to deject all book-surfeitings Conscience it self is a Book Rev. 20.12 one of those Books to be opened at the last day to which all men shal be put and by which they shall be tried and judged viz. The Book of the Creatures The Book of the Scriptures The Book of the Conscience A Book of Books for the Informing and Reforming whereof all other books should be Printed and Sermons Preached for indeed what should all Divinity-books and Law-books be but glosses and Comments upon this Text Maledicta Glossa quae corrumpit Textum And cursed be that Gloss which doth corrupt the Text viz. Goe against Conscience The wise man makes as if all other books and studies without this Eccle. 12.12 13. and in comparison of this were vain and endlesse of making many books there is no end True saith the Gloss upon it Of books that are written to no end There are great outcries made against places times and the World for being naught and bad But alas All places naturally are equal being but several parcels of the same common Earth and Air and all times naturally are equal being distinguished by the same constant and uniforme motion of the Heavens what aile places or times or the world They were all good if men were so and men were all good if their Consciences were so nothing maketh bad times but bad men and nothing maketh bad men but bad Consciences Ill Consciences are the springs and pipes from whence come all the evils that spoyl places times Mat. 15.18 19. and world And I know no remedy to that of Elisha's curing the naughty waters of Jerico for the cry there was for sound much the same The waters are naught 2 King 2.19 21 22. c. He cast salt into the spring and healed the waters The water-spring of all our actions good or evil is Conscience Prov. 4.23 and as mens Consciences are so are their actions as the spring is so is the issue The issues of life and death are out of the heart and Conscience The spring of all O that God would cast salt into the spring heale and mend Conscience and all will be mended For good Consciences make good men and good men will make good places times and World Conscience I say Here I find Conscience as in common and in general therefore shall not trouble you with particular context here where is intended no longer stay than while we have to do with Conscience in generall Conscience I say Wherein I propose unto my self and your attention for order sake this Method 1. The Truth of it That there is such a thing Though the Text be not divided by parts Yet the Discourse should be limited by bounds which is so called 2. The Nature of it What this thing is which is so called 3. The Original and condition Whence and what manner of thing
it is so called 4. The place and Situation of it Where this thing resides which is so called 5. The subject of it whose and with whom this thing it which is so called 6. The ground and reason Why there is at all such a thing which is so called Conscience I say 1. The Truth of it That there is such a thing in the general which is so called 1. Quod sit seemeth past all question not only by the writings of holy men of God inspired by the holy Ghost Dr. Hammond both in the New Testament two and thirty times under the particular expresse term of Conscience so frequent among the Evangelists and Apostles and in the Old Testament though but once by the Greek Translators under that notion Eccle. 10.20 Eccles 7.22 Dan. 7. yet often under the general terms of Heart Rom. 2.15 Rom. 8.16 1 Cor. 2.11 1 John 3.21 Soul Spirit and Thought and so the Hebrew ever you can hardly find the term Conscience with them but commonly one of these As St. John who so much abounded with Hebrewismes If our Heart condemn us c. meaning our Conscience Thus not only upon sacred Record but also by human writers Their Paedagogus their Genius their Guardant Angel and the like meaning Conscience Yea by very Heathen themselves in whom this light of Law and Nature is conserved there being no People so barbarous but that part of Conscience which is called Synteresis keepeth in them some sparks of the knowledge of good and evil which the most prophane man that ever was cannot though he would get utterly extinct and suffocate The Dictates of Conscience have apparent impressions in the most Miscreants on Earth Dictamen Conscientiae in whom Nature it selfe shrinks and sighs when it hath done ill joyes and elevates it self when it hath done well And what is all this but the act of Consc their Master-Phylosophers make the soul a building consisting of many rooms some higher some lower whereof the highest is the Vnderstanding and this again is either Speculative containing some general Notions and Principles of Truth Or Practical containing the like Principles and Axiomes of good things which at first were and still are in part left in the soul of man and this even in their judgement is called Conscience And now if the Testimony of an Adversary be strong for an Adversary Why may not this Theological Truth get some advantage by consent from Heathens in whom so much light of Nature and Law is reserved Who shall question a Deity if the very Heathens acknowledge it and who can deny a Conscience if the very Pagans confesse it Nay by unreasonable creatures themselves An irrational animal Conscience Dr. Hammond for there is some shadow of this in a beast as there is of reason some shadow I say whose secret instinct of nature which answers to the Heathens Dictamen Jer. 8.7 whereby the Stork Turtle Crane and Swallow c are inclined to do that which upbraids man is to them in place of that which is called Conscience to man And thus for the Truth of it That there is such a thing which is so called 2. 2. Quid sit The nature of it What in the general this thing is which is so called Conscience for we may with the Israelites ask what is it Exod. 16.15 being a kind of Manna too But let no man ask here of Conscience as Pilate did there of Truth John 18.38 what is it and go out but stay and attend a while For it is a word of great Latitude and of Infinit Dispute and it is a thing much talked of little known and less practised then understood Mllaem ut me reprehendant Grammtici quam ut non intelligant populi Therefore herein the best learning is to be most plain and so I may be profitable I care the less to seem artificial in regard of that we have in hand Conscience I say And note we now both Name Thing For things as well as men should be known by their name The name of it which according to the Etymology of the word 1. Quid nominis both in Greek and Latine is A joynt knowing or seeing together Syneidesis Conscientia Diversly to be taken subjectively if I may so speak anothers knowledge joyned with ours the joynt knowledge of two persons together two Secretaries Records and witnesses one on Earth the other in Heaven Job's witnesse in Heaven Job 16.19 and Record on high so that man can know nothing himselfe alone there must be another besides man's selfe and this other is God And therefore God and man are so joyned together in Conscience 1 Cor. 2.11 1 John 3.20 Rom. 9.1 which God hath deputed to give witnes and sentence with him and before him mans joynt knowledge with God's Conscience I say Objectively of one thing and another the joynt knowledge of two things together A Rule and an Act at once Science is of one simple object Conscience is of two laid together and then with one Act of the intellect apprehended joyntly whence likely it came by the name of Conscience I say Actively also Scientia cum alia Bernard two joynt knowledges together both one and another c. And thus for the name Conscience I say The thing and nature of it though better felt than described 2. Quid Rei yet may be thus conceived Conscience is a Divine thing a standing power in the soul of Man there set and appointed by God to take knowledge and give notice of its spiritual state and condition in what terms it standeth with God Or thus Conscience is the judgement of man upon himself as he is subject to the judgement of God Judge I pray betwixt me and my vineyard Judge our selves that is In our Conscience Isa 5.3 1 Cor. 11.31 Divines do usually expresse it by a practical syllogism as they call it Pro and Con Whereof The Major and proposition is made by Synteresis that is some knowledge of a Rule what we should do in the word The Minor and assumption is made by Syneidesis that is the knowledge of some Act in life what we have done The Conclusion by the act and office of Conscience with us or against us excusing or accusing absolving or condemning comforting or tormenting As for instance To be carnally minded is death Rom. 8.6 But I am carnally minded -Therefore I am in a state of death And so on the contrary As many as are led by the Spirit of God Rom. 8.4 they are the Sons of God this is from knowledge of the word of God But I am led by the Spirit of God this is from knowledge of a mans heart and life Therefore I am the child of God Thus Conscience is very rational and logical it can hold and urge an argument well in right mood and figure though Scholars only are
artificial yet Conscience inlightened is a good natural Logitian As the Apostle told the Christians at Rome who were scarce ever at Athens that they had Logick enough to argue themselves Dead unto sin and alive unto God Rom. 6.11 through Jesus Christ our Lord The original word means thus Exercise so much Logick in your selves and like good Logitians prove your selves c. And thus for the nature of it in general what this thing is which is so called 3. 3. Quale sit The original Quality and condition of it in general Whence and what manner of thing it is Conscience is of God and things only excellent are so termed of God Psal 36.6 Psal 51.17 I say A spiritual thing very sacred and divine much like God as in other respects so in this not easily comprehended A subordinate God Nay some good-natured Atheists have so Revered and Defined it as the only Deity in the world and in proportion fancied nothing but God-like of it Nothing indeed more God like and Divine as seeming to partake of the Immensity Infinitenesse and Omnipresence of God To illustrate the Quality and Condition of it the Holy learned of old time as well as new have many sayings and similitudes For transcendent things need many words for their conveyance unto common apprehensions One calleth Conscience A just and impartial Vmpire betwixt God and man speaking the truth and right Vmpire Another terms it An Authentick and Divine Eccho both of the Mercy and the Judgement-seat saying as God saith If it condemn Eccho 1 John 3.20 21. much more will God who is greater And if not neither doth God One of the Greek Fathers styls it The Souls Lanthorn by it to see her self and her sins Lanthorn But as spirits say some first make the lights to burn blew and at the last to go quite out So the Divel with his blast would blow this Candle of the Lord in the belly as Solomon calleth it out Prov. 20.27 that the soul should see nothing by it Another calleth it The Stomach of the Soul That whereas sin Stomach like the book in the Revelation which St. John was bid to eat sweet in the mouth Rev. 10.10 but bitter in the belly goeth glibly down as smooth as Oyl Conscience disdaineth and loatheth it Faâ—tum Infectum and fain would cast it up again but that a thing done cannot be undone yet it yeoxeth and reacheth and exhaleth many loathsome savors it upbraids the sinner One calleth it A secondary Law or Bible Book Bernard Chrysost hodex animae a living and walking Book annexed to the soul of man consisting of two parts or volumes The Law-book of Statutes And the Chronicle-booke of works one for Rule the other for Acts. Another calleth it A School-Master Monitor and Corrector of the soul Origen Paedagogus animae mind thoughts and ways and indeed they fare much alike at the unworthy hands of the misdeeming World for though a good School Master be one of the best members in Church and Common-wealth Quem Jupiter odit hunc Paedagogum facit yet hated and despised even to a Proverb not caring to be troubled with them So with Conscience It is styled by one The House of the Soul because there if anywhere House men may be properly said to be at home Pro. 23.7 and at home men are though not abroad what they are As he thinketh in his heart and Conscience so is he As when we receive Summons from Superiors the Messengers follow us not to our ideling places abroad but come to our houses supposing every man to be at home and there fasten their Scripts upon the door So God's Ministers and Messengers look for us with their Summons at the houses of our Consciences And oh how many Scripts have they fixed upon our doors And is it not pity that this our sumptuous house should lie waste ruined and decayed And by another God 's Secretary and Apparater His Commissary and Minister Preacher God's Preacher in our Bosomes And it is a most certain Rule That that man that will not regard the Preacher in the Bosome will hardly regard the Preacher in the Pulpit And the reason of the ones prositing so little is because the other is neglected so much And The Souls Looking-glasse clearer then Cristal Glasse Speculo Similis wherein by reflection we may see all of our selves and therefore the Conscience is called Anima reflexa The Soul reflecting and recoyling upon it self As St. 1 Cor. 4.4 Paul did to know by it self or A reflexive Knowledge Scientia Reflexiva First the mind thinketh or knoweth a thing which is either good or bad Then it reflecteth by thinking and knowing againe knowing that we know it to be good or bad As men say vulgarly I know what I know 1 Kings 2.44 And as the King to Shimei Thou knowest all that thine heart knoweth c. And this is the Act of Conscience this joyning of the second knowledge to the first giveth it the name of Conscience Resemblance of this we have in the eye that can see all visible objects all things that are to be seen and yet seeth not it self but by reflexion the help of a Looking-glasse So the mind of man that can look upon and into all creatures yet cannot behold it self but by Conscience which is The whole Soul with its eyes inward Forerunner of the last Judgement Another calleth it The Forerunner of the last Judgement the private before the publique Judgement day Praejudicium extremi Judicii as your Sessions before Assizes even the truest Almanack in our own brests and bosomes Tertullian foreshewing the weather of the future world and what shall become of us at the last day And thus for the quality of Conscience in general whence and what manner of thing it is 4. 4. Vbi sit The proper Place and Seat of it And here as between Christ and two of John's Disciples Master John 1.38 where dwellest thou Come and see the habitation is not the Body but the Soul not in the Face 1 Cor. 2.11 no other man can know it not in the Speech no hypocrisie or dissimulation of man can thrall it to justisie his words and deeds although a thousand times alledged It is the Deputy of God in the soul of man Ames and yet here all do not accord about it Some give it as belonging only to the will Barlow for the agent and working power of it as onely practick Some to the Mind for the understanding power of it as only Theorick Actus rationis applicans scientiam ad opus Aquin. Some to Reason for the discoursing power of it driving to issue by discourse Some call it an Habit others an Act others a Faculty with their several arguments Pro and Con This is that I told you before Men
hardly know what to make of it it is so divine But I decline the Casuists and School-men who speake most herein to mens heads of purpose to speak unto your Consciences Consciences I say Sure I am that the Apostle distinguisheth it both from the Mind and from the Will Tit. 1.15 1 Tim. 1.5 as a different and distinct thing and that for good Reasons 1. Because the mind dealeth most in generals and universals but Conscience medleth all in a mans own particular proprieties of thoughts words and deeds 2. Because Conscience is so far from being one of both or both in one that it sitteth in the soul as a controler over them both in their Acts of thoughts and desires 3. Because there is secret Jealousie and open Hostility between them the other powers of the soul taking Conscience to be but a Spie do what they can to sculk evade and hide from it to delude and deceive it to oppose or depose it Conscience on the other side striveth to keep its ground and to hold its own Self-reasonings conferences mutual Apologies and exceptions Rom. 2. till it be blinded or bribed proceeding in its office in despite of all opposition cites all the powers of nature sitteth upon them examineth witnesseth and judgeth even to execution So that the proper seat of Conscience is the whole Soul there placed next under God over all men Their ground seemeth too weak and their room too narrow that would confine Conscience to any part one or other of the soul It is in the soul of man Anima est indivisa tota in tota not as a part of a part for it is indivisible but as whole in the whole and in every part Not in the understanding alone or will alone or reason alone nor in memory or affections alone but it hath place office and acts in all and every part of the soul as the soul hath in every part of the body exercising seeing in the eye hearing in the ears c. In the understanding it sitteth as Judge In the Reason as Accuser In the Memory as Witness and Register In the Will and Affections as Gaoler and Executioner Accusing or Excusing Absolving or Condemning Comforting or tormenting And yet one of our Countrey-men hath appropriated unto each part of the soul a distinct Court or Office To the Sensitive part The Court of Common-Pleas To the Intellectual part The Court of Kings-Bench To the spiritual part The Court of Chancelry In this Court all causes are handled but still with special reference to God Here sits the Conscience as Lord-Chanceller and Synterests as Master of the Roles To this Court all the powers of man owe and pay homage what ever it be whether Act or Faculty whether of the practical understanding or judgement it is placed in the soul of most absolute power next under God over all in man And thus for the proper place and seat of it 5. The Subject of it 5. Quibus sit Whose and with whom it is which generally considered is a general thing common to Angels Divels and Men. To Angels as appears by the Angel's speech to John when he would have worshipped him See thou do it not The Angel had something within him that told him he was John's Fellow-Servant Rev. 19.10 and therefore not to assume divine Worship to himself and that was His Conscience To Divels by the Divels speech to our Saviour dispossessing them Art thou come to torment us before the time Mat. 8.29 even they had something within them that told them They had a time of greater torment to come and that was their Consciences To Men more properly to all Men generally There is in every man a Conscience such as it is good or bad A Conscience in the very Heathens bearing them witnesse Rom. 2.15 accusing or excusing A Conscience in Hypocrites John 8.9 Scribes and Pharisees being convicted in their Consciences A Conscience in good Men 2 Cor. 1.12 as Paul had The testimony of his own Conscience A Conscience in bad Men Tit. 1.15 Their Minds and Conscience being defiled Thus of the subject of it in general a common thing 6. 6. Quare sit The Grounds and Reasons of it God hath appointed this standing power in the soul of man for two special Reasons above many 1. For the honour of his Justice To shew how righteous a Judge the Lord is Psal 51.4 That he might be justified when he speaketh and cleared when he judgeth He commanded Earthly Judges not to judge without witnesse and himself will not though he might He does nothing without witnesse Acts 25.16 Mat. 22.12 but brings the Accusers face to face as Festus told Agrippa which much convinceth silenceth and confoundeth To be judged out of its own mouth like the wicked servant Job 15.6 Luke 19.22 and as Eliphaz told Job Therefore God for the honour of his righteousness in all his judicial proceedings hath not left himself without witnesse in any soul Act. 14.17 but placed a Conscience in every brest to bring in evidence Pro or Con before God so just cleare and righteous a Judge is the Lord For the honour of his Mercy to shew how good and how gracious a Father our God is in matching us with so neer a Friend so true a Counsellor in not leaving mans wonderful forgetfulnesse of God and himself and his own soul without a secret Monitor and Remembrancer a word and a voice behind him upon all occasions In all his omissions and commissions he cannot omit a duty Isa 30.21 or commit a sin but his Ear shall hear a word behind him when his Eye doth not see his Teacher Job 4.16 He shall hear a voice in silence his Conscience shall tell him of it remembring our mindlesness and spurring up our dulnesse against sinful omissions and Hedging up our way with thorns putting some thorny threat or other in every path of sin Hos 2.6 against sinful commissions making us say to Conscience as David did to Abigail 1 Sam. 25.32 33. Blessed be thou of the Lord that thou hast met me this day and blessed be thy advice c. And blessed be the Lord God who sent thee For believe it 't is not the severest and supreamest power of Magistrates and their highest Courts of Justice and Judgement-seats 't is not Justices Judges Kings Parliaments 't is not all the saddest and bloodiest instruments of execution of death and vengeance Swords Guns Blocks Halters nor any nor all of these that can keep men in order and the world in awe were it not for this mighty thing of God Rom. 13.5 subject for Conscience sake called Conscience without which the whole world would tumble into disorder and confusion become a Chaos again and lose the form of a world Conscience I say And thus for the doctrinal part in the six points of Conscience in general Now because
all Scripture given by Inspiration of God 2 Tim. 3.16 is profitable not only for doctrine but also for reproof correction and instruction c. So let this be used 1. For reproof Of three Errors in opinion 1. 1. Error That Conscience in general is not common to all as if some men had no Consciences whereas it is as possible for fire to be without heat as for any man to be without a Conscience The vulgar saying is Such a man hath no Conscience c. But the meaning is He hath no good Conscience for as good none as none good But every man hath a Conscience one or other such as it is good or bad For it is a standing Power created by God and unmoveably set in the soul of man abiding for ever with him whether he be on Earth in Heaven or Hell 2. 2. Error That Conscience is nothing but a sad mood or melancholy sit or heavy damp and dumps on the spirit of a man c. Erroneously mistaking the effect of the cause Whereas Conscience is a standard chained to man ever remaining with him when all his moods and fits of heats and colds of fears and joyes and jollities are over and gone Let Hypocrites and Epicures slabber it with their jollity and daub it with their formality yet their Consciences will be sure one time or other if not in the midst of their drunken carouses and riotousexcesses like those singers of a mans hand on Belshazzar's wall get in the end and bottome Dan 5.5 to sadden soure and spoyl all Prov. 14.13 yea even in their best services as in Cain's Sacrifice when his countenance was dijected there will be something if not in the midst Gen. 4.5 yet in the end to tell them That both their Acts and Persons are rejected That Conscience is hanged or drowned 3. Error dead and gone a great while a go c. But alas these are idle addle opinions Atheistical Proverbs and sottish imaginations had it been no more then this That Conscience hath lain long bedrid and speechlesse c. it had been enough yet it might be raised and recovered But that he is dead yea so shamefully and accursedly dead 'T is petty Atheism to say and think so No no Ahitophel can tell you That though a man hang himself 2 Sam. 17.23 yet he cannot hang his Conscience Saul can tell you 1 Sam. 31.4 That though a man kill himself yet he cannot kill his Conscience which is as immortal as his soul Judas could tell you Mat. 27.4 That no force or violence can suppresse or curb it for it made him carry back the price and decry his sin saying I have sinned Pharaoh could tell you That no earthly might or majesty can bash or dash it but that one time or other it will stare and flie in the sinners face for it did in his as great a King as he was and made him say I have now sinned The Lord is righteous Exod. 9.27 but I and my people are wicked Saul again could tell you That no Mirth or Musick can Charme or Conjure the evill spirit of it 1 Sam. 16.14 16. for his bad Conscience plaied the Divel with his wretched soul And Joseph's Brethren could tell you That time and years cannot expunge the writings nor obliterate or eat out the ingravings of it for twenty years after when there was no other Pursuer or Remembrancer it accused them Gen. 42.21 22. and made them look wistly upon one another and accuse themselves of their cruel unnaturall usage of him Nullum tempus occurrit Regi And they said one to another We are verily guilty concerning our Brother c. Therefore is this distresse come upon us and his blood required of us And now having mentioned twenty years 't is the lesse notable to speak of Pharaoh's Butler's Conscience remembring him about one year after Gen. 40.23 Gen. 41.9 I do now remember my faults this day And verily so it is That as many in youthful vanity and vain-glory do such violent wrongs in bulges and bruises to their bodies as forty or fifty years after they sadly remember in the Aches and Ailings of pained old Age So do many bear out insensibly for a time the bulges and bruises they have given their souls it may be thirty forty fifty years till the hand of the Lord be upon them either in some heavy crosse and sharp affliction or a Death-bed and then commonly Conscience remembers them For Conscience will keep a grudge a long time and is not so soon pacified as offended though it doth not always shew remorse yet it always keeps remembrance though in many men it sleep in regard of motion yet it never sleeps in regard of notice and observation And though not always speaking yet it is always writing taking Notes preparing Bills and Items against that day to come Nay death it self that dissolves all worldly knots and parts the neerest on Earth Man and Wife cannot part Conscience and Sinner but it remains in him as a worm that never dies Mar. 9.44 and as a fire that never goes out Isa 66.24 not on Earth no nor in Hell And thus for reproof of three errors and false opinions 2. For Correction Of three practical Errors and Misbehaviours of the World in point of Conscience 1. 1. Miscarriage In wrapping up Goliah's sword in a fair cloth behind the Ephod In hiding the monstrous miscarriages prodigious impieties and divelish practises of the World under that Religious name and specious mask of Conscience One man is of an erroneous opinion and Hetrodox judgement holds some false doctrine by means either of the authority of the Teacher or of the dignity of some eminent follower as having mens persons in admiration Jam. 2.1 Jude 16. and having the faith of Christ in respect of persons or of prejudice and prepossession sticking to his first perswasion pride and obstinacy denying place for retractation or truer information and this he calls his Conscience Another is of an irrefractory inclination of an heady headstrong humour and propension his senses not exercised to discern between his natural and spiritual disposition Heb. 5.24 the motion of his sensitive appetite and his diviner principle his lower and his upper soul and the former commonly is more obstreperous importunate and clamorous for satisfaction then the latter whereby a man thinks himselfe bound to do whatsoever he hath a strong mind will and humour to do and this he calls his Conscience Another is of a strong strange imagination and phantasie which is a kind of irrational animal conscience having the same relation to sensitive representations those Laws in the members which Conscience hath to intellectual those Laws of the mind Rom. 7.23 Aristotle And as phantasie supplieth the place of reason in unreasonable creatures so it doth of Conscience in unconscionable when a man is directed
by his own conceit and this he calls his Conscience Another is abundant in passions fears and animosities with all their crosse counsels and commands yea and ignorant zeal which though of God yet may be ranked with passion Rom. 10.2 if without knowledge and this he calls his Conscience too Another is possest with satanical suggestions diabolical delusions enthusiasmes and infusions of that black infernal spirit as upon trial of spirits will appear by the symptomes 1 John 4.1 fruits and products of flesh and Divel Adulteries Idolatries Gal. 5.19 20 21. Strifes Seditions Heresies Envyings Murthers c. And even these he calls his Conscience also And thus as Paul said of false gods in the world For though there be that are called gods as there be gods many 1 Cor. 8.5 6. and lords many but unto us there is but one God So may we say of Consciences There be that are called Consciences many falsly so called But oh that ever so sacred a thing and so divine a name as Conscience even among Christians should be prostituted and forced to yield favour respect and shelter to the vilest things as the errors humours phantasies passions and satanical delusions of men this is one of the worlds practical errors and misbehaviours which falls first under this correction And there is a second not inferiour to it 2. Miscarriage which the world is guilty of in three degrees of ill behaviour towards Conscience 1. One is by strange neglecting and slighting Conscience often in its offices of rebukes and Counsels and so estranging it that it takes it unkindly neglects its office and speaks faintly or not at all like that disregarded Prophetesse This good Cassandra will speak no more Conscience one while may be heard speaking to a man Judg. 9.7 Psal 34.11 as Jotham to the men of Shechem Hearken unto me that God may hearken unto you And as David to the little children Come and hearken unto me and I will teach you c. But if they will not come and hearken then another while conscience thus neglected despised and estranged will sit down as discontented see and hear all and hold its peace and for a long time speak no more 2. Another is by stubborn resisting and opposing Conscience in all its motions of perswasions directions and cautions by crosse contrary and contradicting practises still setting against Conscience in every thing at every turn And this Conscience takes very indignly as Moses when Pharaoh resisted so obstinately all his motions and mediums saying Get thee from me take heed to thy self see my face no more Exod. 10.28 29. c. Moses then answered Thou hast spoken well I will see thy face again no more Sembleably men may so long resist and outface their Consciences by obduracy impenitency and custome in sin that Conscience may sit down as abused and opposed look a long time on other way as if it had vowed to see a mans face again no more 3. Another is by Malignant impudent baffling decrying and beating down of Conscience in all its offices acts and operations of rebukes and admonitions by out ragious affronts and interruptions that the voice of Conscience may be drowned be it never so shrill by louder out-cries and sounds of Drums Trumpets and Bells as in those bloody sacrifices of Molech to drown the cries of the children of vain pleasures carnal company worldly jollity and riotous excesses wine Musick whereby even an importunate loud-speaking Conscience may be for a time as put out of countenance unto silence and this Conscience takes most hainously to be thus affronted abused and baffled and so seems to sit down as offended and seeing and hearing all and saying nothing 2 Cor. 2.11 A divelish devise of Satan and damnable practice of the world and this is another of the worlds practical errors and misbehaviours in those three degrees which falls in the second place under this correction And a third which comes not far behind it 3. Miscarriage is the worlds abominable and odious mad and ridiculous practice of misbehaviour against Conscience endevouring to suppresse and banish shut out and shake off Conscience as thinking to make away with it But 't is like that Heathenrage against God's Son Furious and vain Psa 2.1 3 A vain thing indeed in two respects 1. Because it is a thing impossible to be done totally finally though the acts may be intermitted and the degrees may be remitted for a time as if Conscience were put away yet it sticks so close 1 Tim. 1.19 that a man may as soon part with himself as his Conscience 1 Cor. 11.13 28. for Conscience is a mans self in Scripture-sense Judge in your selves that is In your Consciences Men may shift clothes places companies but not Consciences for a mans Conscience is most bold and familiar in his most private retirednesse like Ehud to King Eglon Judg. 3.20 21. it hath oft times a secret errand and message from God to a man when silence must be kept and all that stand by must go out and then it thrusts a dagger into the belly blade haft and all hardly pluckt out againe Though Conscience since the fall of man be grieveously corrupted and obscured yet it cannot be quite ejected and destroyed The vilest Atheists basest Wretches and most hellish Miscreants in the world 1 Tim. 4.2 though they may seem to choak and smother or blinde or bribe it obdurate or sear it by vicious practises and riotous out-rages as desirous to make away with it yet their fury is all vain Be men as senselesse and secure as sleepy and benummed as blinded and hardned in Conscience as the Divel and their own corrupt hearts can possibly make them for the present yet that Lion that lies at the door will be rouzed and that Sampson will be awakened to break in and pull down first or last in due time As it is said of evil men Their feet shall slide in due time either here or hereafter Conscience will be known and found Deut. 32.35 and the things that shall come upon them make haste If not in the day of life then to be sure at the day of death or of judgement when the heavy weights of sin shall be hung upon those lines then I say shall the hammer of Conscience strike thick and indistinctly with terror For as they say of Witches That their familiar spirits leaves them at the Gaol and will serve them then no longer So the Divel that hath charmed the Conscience all the life time that it could not do its office and perform its function well removes his spell at the approach of death to drive the sinner to despair by speaking all at once men were better hear Conscience when it would speak now a little and then a little as they can bear rather then by misbehaviours toward it to force it unto such long silence that at last