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
TVVO TREATISES THE ONE Of Good CONSCICNCE Shewing the Nature Meanes Markes Benefits and Necessitie thereof THE OTHER The mischiefe and misery of Scandalls both taken and given Both Published BY IER DYKE Minister of Gods Word at Epping in Essex The Sixth Edition corrected LONDON Printed by A. M. for Robert Milbourne 1635. GOOD CONSCIENCE OR A TREATISE SHEVVING THE Nature Meanes Markes Benefit and Necessitie thereof BY IER DYKE Minister of Gods Word at Epping in Essex The Sixth Edition corrected LVKE 10. 42. One thing is necessarie LONDON Printed by A. M. for Robert Milbourne 1635. TO THE RIGHT Worshipfull Sir FRANCIS BARRINGTON Knight and Baronet a Patron and pattern of Pietie and good Conscience RIGHT WORSHIPFVL THat which the Apostle Paul speakes of a mans desire of the office of a Bishop may be truly spoken of every one who desires to gaine men to the love of a good Conscience that hee desires a worthy Worke Yea it is the worke which is and ought to bee made the scope and drift of the worthy worke of the Ministery And therefore it is that he that desires the calling of the Ministerie desires a worthy worke because of this worthy worke of bringing mento Vnicuique liber est propria conscientia ad hunc librum discutiendū emendandum omnes alij inventi sunt Bern. de Cons good Conscience A worke at which all workes and books should specially ayme Conscience is a book one of those books that shall be opened at the last day and to which men shall be put and by which they shall be judged Therefore to the directing informing and amending of this booke should all other bookes specially tend Yea Salomon seemes to call men off from all other bookes and studies to the study of this so necessary a point the keeping of a good Conscience Of making many bookes saith he there is Eccles 12. 12 13. no end and much study is a wearinesse of the flesh Let us heare the conclusion of the whole matter Feare God and keep his Commandements for this is the whole dutie of man As if his advice tended to this to neglect all studies in comparison of that study which aimes at the getting keeping of a good Conscience It would be exceeding happy with us if this study were more in request amongst us Wee seeme to live in those dayes fore-told by the Prophet wherein the earth should bee filled with the knowledge of the Lord. We Isa 11. 9. are blessed that live in so cleare a Sunne-shine of Gods truth but yet the griefe is that through our owne default our Sun-shine is but like the winter light all light little or no heate and we make no other use of our light but onely to see by not to walke and work by In the first re-entrance of the Gospell amongst us how devout holy zealous and men renowned Antiqua sapientia nihil aliud quam facienda vitāda praecepit tūc longe meliores erant viri Postquā docti prodierunt boni desunt Simplex enim illa aperta virtus in obscuram solertem scientiam versa est docerumque disputare non vivero Seneo epist 56. Rom. 15. 14 for Conscience were our Martyrs and our first Planters Preachers professors of Religion They had not generally the knowledge and learning the world now hath nor the world now the Conscience they then had There bee now better Scholers there were then better Men they were as excellent for Devotion as our Times are for Disputation It is an excellent sight to see such Christians as were the Romanes Full of goodnesse filled with all Knowledge It is pitty that ever so lovely a paire should be sundred Yet if they be parted it is best being without that which with most safetie may be spared A good Conscience is sure to doe well though it want the accomplishment of Learning and greater measures of Knowledge and Vnderstanding But take Learning from a good Conscience and it is but a Ring of gold in a Swines snout or that which is worse A thorne in a Drunkards hand Learning Prov. 26. 9. is to bee highly apprized Riches Honours and all other earthly blessings are vile to it But yet though it take place of all other things yet must it give good Conscience the wall and upper-hand as that which is farre before it in worth vse and necessitie As Salomon of wisdome so may it be said of good Conscience Shee Prov. 3. 15. is more pretious than Rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her Gold and Rubies cannot so enrich a man as good Conscience doth and yet alas the blindnesse of men how willing are they in this case with a wilfull povertie Not Rubies but handfulls of Barley morsels of Bread and Crusts are preferred before the invaluable treasure of a good Conscience After the many worthy endeavours therefore of so many as have bin before me in this worke of labouring men to a good conscience I have adventured also to lend my weake strength to the same worke If one or two witnesses prevaile not yet who knows what an whole cloud may doe Though Eliah and Elisha bee the Horsemen and Chariots of Israel yet the Footmen do their service in the battell and Apollo may without offence water where Paul hath planted Now these my poore endeavours such as they are I am bold to publish under your Worshipfull name and to put them foorth under your Patronage entreating you to countenance that in a Treatise which you have so long countenanced in the practise None so fit to bee a Patron of a Treatise of good Conscience as he that hath bin a religious both professor protector of the practise therof To haue a Naile fastned in a sure place the antiquity Isa 22. 25. of a long standing Name and Family to be hewen out of the Quarry of the best Stocks of Parentage to have faire Lines and a faire lot in outward possessions to be blessed with a fruitfull Vine and Olive plants fairely growne and planted round about a man all these are to bee held high honors and great favours from the God of heaven And with all these hath the Lord honoured your selfe But yet your greatest honour that hath given lustre to all the rest hath bin your love to the Truth Religion and a good Conscience Augustine repented him that he attributed more to Mallius Theodorus to Displicetautē illic quod Mallio Theodoro adquem librumipsum scripsi quāvis docto Christiano viro plus tribui quam deberem Aug. Retr lib. 1. cap. 2. whom he wrote a booke than he should have done though otherwise hee were a learned and Christian man A man may easily overshoot himselfe in the commēdation of a good man especially if a great man It shall suffice therfore to have said so little and that to this end that hereby the World may know the reason of
my choice of your Patronage of this Treatise It would have bin an incongruity to have had the name of a person of an evill Conscience prefixed before a booke of good Conscience I desired a Patron sutable to my subject I presume the very subject shall make the Treatise welcome to you Be you pleased to afford your acceptance as I will afford you my poore prayers that the Lord who hath already set upon your head the crowne of the Elders Prov. 17. 6. Childrens Children and one Crowne of glory here one earth Age found in the Prov. 16. 1. wayes of righteousnes would also in his due time give you that incorruptible crowne of righteousnes and eternall glory in the heavens which that righteous Judge shall give to you and to all those that in the wayes of a good Conscience waite for the blessed appearance of the Lord Iesus Your Worships in all Christian observance IER DYKE The Contents of this TREATISE The Text containes thee Maine Heads The first maine head Pauls Protestation of a good Conscience where five things are considered 1. What Conscience is 2. What a good Conscience is It is good with a twofold goodnesse 1. With the goodnesse of Integritie and this integrity is threefold 1. When being rightly principled by the VVord it sincerely judges and determines of good evill 2. VVhen it doth excuse for good and accuse for evill 3. VVhen it urges to good restraines from evil 2. VVith the goodnesse of Tranquillitie and Peace Here are three sorts of Conscience discovered not to be good viz. 1. The Ignorant Conscience 2. The Secure 3. The Seared 3. The means of getting keeping a good Conscience 1. To get and keepe the Conscience good peaceably or with the goodnesse of peace three things required 1. Faith in Christs blood 2. Repentance from dead workes 3. The conscionable exercise of Prayer 2. To get and keepe the Conscience good with the goodnesse of integrity and to have it uprightly good five things required viz. 1. VValking before God 2. Framing ones Course by the Rule of the VVord 3. Frequent examination of the Conscience 4. Hearkning to the voice of Conscience 5. In cases of questionable nature to take the surest and the safest side 4 The markes and notes of a good Conscience and they be seven 1. To make Conscience of all sinnes and duties 2. To make Conscience of small sinnes duties 3. To effect a Ministery that speakes to the Conscience 4. To doe duties and avoid sin for Conscience sake 5. Holy boldnesse 6. To suffer for Conscience 7. Constancie and Perseverance in Good 5. The Motives to a good Conscience and they are five 1. The incomparable comfort and benefit of it in all such times and cases as all other comforts faile a man and wherein a man stands most in need of comfort The Cases or times are five 1. The Time and case of Disgrace and Reproach 2. The Time of common feare cōmon calamity 3. The Time of sicknesse or other Crosses 4. The Time of Death 5. The Time and day of Iudgement 2. That a good Conseience is 1. A feast for 1. Contentment and satisfaction 2. Ioy and Mirth 3. Societie 2. Better than a feast for 1. The Cotinuance 2. Independency 3. Vniversalitie 3. Without a good Conscience all our best duties are nought 4. It is the Ship and Arke of Faith 5. The misery of an evil one 1. In this world in respect of 1. Feare 2. Perplexitie 3. Torment 2. in the world to come The second Maine Head Ananias his insolent injunction Whereout is observed 1 What is the respect a good Consciēce finds in the world 2. The impetuous injustice of the enemies of good consciēce 3. Who cōmonly be the bitteest enemies of good conscience 4. That Vsurpers are Smiters 5. What is a sad fore-runner of a Nations Ruine The third maine head Pauls Answere and Contestation Whereout is observed 1. That Christian patience muzzels not a good Conscience from pleading its owne Innocencie 2. The severitie of Gods Iudgements upon the Enemies and Smiters of good Conscience 3. The equity of Gods administration in his execution of Iustice GOOD CONSCIENCE ACTS 23. 1. And Paul earnestly beholding the Councell said Men and brethren I have lived in all good Conscience untill this day 2. And the high Priest Ananias commanded them that stood by to smite him on the mouth 3. Then said Paul unto him God shall smite thee thou whited wall CHAP. I. The Introduction of the Discourse following THere is no complaint so generall as this that the world is naught His experience is short and slender which will not justifie the truth of this complaint And what think we may the Cause be of the generall wickednes of our Times Surely nothing makes Ill Times but Ill men and nothing makes Ill men but Ill consciences Ill Conscience is the source and fountaine Hominum sunt istae non Temporum Sonec ep 98. from whence comes all iniquities which makes times here so ill How well should hee deserve that could amend ill times There is a course if it would be taken that would do the deed and so cease the common complaint Elisha's course in healing the waters of Iericho must be taken They said of their waters as wee of our times The water is naught and the ground barren 2 King 2. 19. What course now takes Elisha for healing of the waters He went out unto the spring of the waters and cast the Salt in there ver 21. So the waters were healed ver 22. The spring and fountaine of all actions good or evill is the Conscience and all actions courses of men are as their Consciences Out of the heart are the issues of life Prov. 4. 23. the heart and Conscience is the fountaine every action of a mans life is an Issue a little rivelet and a water passage thence Are these waters then that issue thence Naught The way to heale them Nō erit fructus bonus nisi arboris bonae Mutacor mutabitur opus Aug. de ver Dom. Serm. 12. is to cast the Salt into the spring Mend the Conscience and all is mended Good Consciences would make Good men and Good men would make Good Times Lo here a project for the reformation of evil times Were this Project set on foot and a good Conscience set up how should we see prophanation of Gods holy Name and Day Injustice Bribery Oppression Deceit Adulteries and Whoredomes and all other Iniquities how should wee see all these as our Savior saw Satan falling downe like lightning from heaven How should we see them come tumbling downe like so many Dagons before Gods Arke yea tumbled downe and broken to the stumps The onely Arke that must dash and ding downe these Dagons is a good Conscience And if we would well weigh the matter what is there equally desirable with a Ecce quid prodest plena bonisarca cum sit inanis
latitude within the compasse whereof I will bring both those forenamed and all other materiall points which this Protestation doth afford CHAP. II. Conscience described THe maine subject of this Protestation and the ayme of this following discourse being concerning a good Conscience for the more orderly handling thereof consider these specialls 1. What Conscience is 2. What a good Conscience is 3. How a good conscience may be gotten and kept The meanes of it 4. How a good Conscience may be knowne The marks of it 5. The Motives to get and keepe a good Conscience 1. What Conscience is It may be thus described Conscience is a power and faculty of the soule taking knowledge and bearing witnesse of all a mans thoughts words and actions and accordingly excusing or accusing absolving or condemning comforting or tormenting the same I know there be other definitions given by others more succinct and neat but I rather chuse this though it may be not altogether so formall to the rules of Art The rules of love and profit many times may make bold to dispence with rules of Art So I may be profitable I care the lesse to be artificiall It may suffice that this description is answerable to that Auditory for whose sake it was first intended A plaine familiar description agrees well enough with such a people For the better conceiving of it let it be taken in pieces and every parcell viewed severally It is a faculty or power of the soule It is therefore called the Heart 1 Ioh. 3. 20. If our heart condemne us Eccl. 7. 22. Thine own heart knows that thou thy selfe likewise hast cursed others that is thine own Conscience knowes It is also called the spirit of man 1 Cor. 2. 11. For what man knowes the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him And Rom. 8. 16. The spirit it selfe beares witnesse with our spirit that is with our Conscience Not that Conscience is a spirit distinct from the subject of the soule as Origen mistooke but because it is a faculty of the soule therefore the name that is oft given to the soule is given to it If it be asked in what part of the soule this facultie is placed we must know that Conscience is not confined to any one part of the soule It is not in the understanding alone not in the memory will or affections alone but it hath place in all the parts of the soule and according to the severall parts thereof hath severall Offices or acts Taking Knowledge Eccl. 7. 22. Thine owne heart knowes Conscience is placed in the soule as Gods spy and mans superiour and overseer and inseparable companion that is with a man at all times and in all places so that there is not a thought word or worke that it knowes not and takes not notice of So that that which David speakes of God himselfe Psa 139. 3 4. Thou compassest my heart and my lying downe and art acquainted with all my wayes for there is not a word in my tongue but loe thou knowest it altogether Whither shall I goe from thy spirit If I ascend up to heaven c. The same may be also said of conscience Gods deputy it is acquainted w th al our waies not a motion in the mind nor a syllable in the mouth to which it is not privy yea it is thus inseparably present with us not only to see but also to set downe to register and to put downe upon Record all our thoughts words and works Conscience is Gods Notary and there is nothing passes us in our whole life good or ill which Conscience notes not downe with an indeleble character which nothing can raze out but Christs Nam quocuÌ„que me verto vitia mea me sequuntur ubicunque vado conscienscia mea me non deserit se praesens adsistit quicquid facio scribit Idcirco quaÌ„quam humana subterfugiam judicia judiciuÌ„ propriae cons â—ugere non valeo Et si hominibus celo quod egi mihi tamen qui novi maluÌ„ quod gessi celare nequeo Bern. de inter Com. cap. 31. bloud Conscience doth in this kind as Iob wishes in another Iob 19. 23 24. Oh that my words were now written Oh that they were printed in a booke That they were graven with an iron pen laid in the rock for ever Conscience prints and writes so surely so indelebly yea it writes mens sins as Iudah his sin was with a pen of iron with the point of a Diamond and they are graven upon the Table of their hearts Ier. 17. 1. Conscience doth in our pilgrimage as travellers in their journey it keepes a Diary or a journall of every thing that passes in our whole course it keepes a booke in which it hath a mans whole life pend In regard of this office conscience is placed in the memory and is the Register and Recorder of the soule And bearing witnesse This we find Rom. 2. 15. Their conscience also bearing witnesse Rom. 9. 1. My conscience also bearing me witnes 2. Cor. 1. 12. This testimony of our conscience And this the end of the former office of the conscience For therefore it is exact and punctuall in setting downe the particulars of a mans whole life that it may bee a faithfull witnesse either for him or against him For a faithfull witnesse cannot lie Prou. 14. 5. This office it is ready to doe at all times Peccata mea celare non possum quoniam quocuÌ„que vado coÌ„sc mea mecum est secum portans quod in ea posui sive bonum sive malum servat vivo restituet defuncto depositum quod servanduÌ„ accepit Bern. Med. de vot cap. 14. of triall affliction and most of all at the last day the day of iudgement when it shall be more solemnly called in to give in evidence Rom. 2. 15. 16. Their conscience bearing witnes c. In the day when God shall iudge secrets of men At that day it shall especially witnes either for or against a man if our life and actions have beene good it will then doe like the true witnesse Pro. 14 25. A true witnes delivers soules If wicked ungodly it will deale with it as Iob complaines God did with him Iob 10. 17. Thou renewest thy witnesse against me It will testifie according to every mans deeds And this testimonie of conscience is without all exception for in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall stand and conscience as our common saying is is a thousand witnesses for it is an eye-witnesse of all our actions yea a pen-witnes bringing testimonie from the authentique Records and Register of the Court of Conscience Concerning this testifying office of Conscience that place is worth the noting Esa 59. 12. For our transgressions are multiplied before thee our sins testifie against vs for our transgressions are with vs and as for our iniquities we know them By which place wee may know the
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
are not so troublesome to the sea as guilt is to the Conscience Therefore as the way to calme the Sea is to calme the winds so the way to quiet and calme the Conscience is to purge and take away the guilt Guilt is in the Conscience as Ionas in the Ship out with him and Sea and Ship are both quiet But how then shall the guilt be purged out of the Conscience That we find Heb. 9. 14. How much more shall the bloud of Christ purge our Consciences from dead works We cannot have a good conscience till we be freed from an evill one The way to be freed from an evill Conscience is to have our hearts sprinkled from an evill Conscience Heb. 10. 22. But what is that wherewith the conscience must be sprinkled to be made good with peace and quietnes the same which we find 1 Pet. 1. 2. The sprinkling of the blood of Iesus Christ Heb. 12. 24. The blood of sprinkling which speaks better things than that of Abel So then the Conscience sprinkled with Christs bloud ceases to be evill becomes good and peaceable The same Christ that calmed the rage of the Sea by stilling the winds Mar. 4. 39. He arose and rebuked the wind and said unto the Sea peace and be still and the wind ceased and there was a great calm the same Christ it is that stils the rage of the conscience by taking and purging away the guilt thereof with the sprinkling on of his bloud His bloud speakes Heb. 12. 24. And speakes not only to God but speakes to the conscience The voyce which it speakes is Peace and be still the same voyce which to his Disciples after his resurrection Peace be with you and then followes a great calme and peace makes the Conscience good But heare the Conscience will inquire how it may come to get this bloud sprinkled upon it to make it thus peaceably good and what is it that applies this calming bloud of Christ I answer therfore That it is the grace of faith therfore it was said before that faith in Christs blood makes peace in the Conscience Faith is the hand of the soule and as the hyssope sprinkle by which Christs bloud is sprinkled upon our Consciences Heb. 10. 22. Let us draw neere with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evill Conscience And being justified by faith we have peace towards God Rom. 5. 1. Hence that conjunction of faith and a good Conscience 1 Tim. 1. 5. of a good Conscience and of faith unfayned and ver 19. Holding faith and a good Conscience For faith it is that makes a good conscience by making a quiet consciēce Faith is not only a purifying grace Act. 15. 9. but it is also a pacifying grace Rom. 5. 1. It not onely purges our corruption by applying the efficacie of Christs bloud but specially purges our guilt by applying the merit of his bloud So that no faith no peace and no peace no good Conscience A defiled Conscience can be no good Conscience and what defiles the Conscience See Tit. 1. 15. Vnto them that are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure but even their mind and Conscience is defiled They that be defiled have their consciences defiled but how come they and their Consciences so To them that are defiled and unbelieving Therefore an unbelieving Conscience is a defiled conscience and a defiled conscience is no good conscience because it can have no peace so long as it is clogged with defiling guilt But contrarily faith purifying not onely from corruption but from guilt by the application of Christs bloud makes the conscience pure and peaceable both There can be no peace of conscience but where there is the righteousnesse of the person There is no peace to the wicked Isa 57. 21. as if he should say an evill unrighteous person cannot have a good conscience where the person is evill there the conscience cannot be good Now faith in Christs bloud makes a mans person good so the conscience becomes good It makes the person righteous and the person being righteous the conscience is at peace for the worke of righteousnesse is peace and the effect of righteousnesse quietnesse and assurance for ever Isa 32. 17. with which that of the Apostle sweetly sutes Revel 7. 2. First King of righteousnesse and after that King of peace Our persons must first find Christ a King of righteousnesse by justifying them from their guilt before our consciences can find him King of Salem pacifying them from their unquietnesse Our persons once justified by Christs blood from their guilt and unrighteousnesse our consciences are pacified and freed from their unquietnesse Wouldst thou then have a good conscience Get the peace of conscience Wouldst thou have Peace in thy conscience Get faith in thy soule Believe in the Lord Iesus and get thy soule sprinkled with his bloud and then Heb. 10. 2. Thou shalt have no more conscience of Sin thy Conscience shall be at quiet no more accusing thee nor threatning thee condemnation for thy Sin 2. Repentance from dead workes Though Christs bloud be that which purges the conscience from dead works and so workes peace yet that peace is not wrought in our apprehension neither do we get the feeling of this faith without some further thing Therefore to our faith must be joyned our repentance though not in the making of our peace yet for the feeling of it Many are ready to catch at Christs bloud and if that will make a good conscience they are then safe enough But as thou must have Christs bloud so Christ will have thine heart also bleed by repentance ere he wil vouchsafe the sense of peace A cōscience therefore that would be a conscience having peace must not onely be a believing but a repenting conscience Mat. 3. 2. Repent ye for the Kingdome of heaven is at hand the Kingdome of heaven shall be yours if you will repent ye shall have it immediately upon your repentance But wherein stands this kingdome offered to repentant consciences The Kingdome of God stands in peace and joy in the holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. Repent and ye shall receive the gift of the holy Gbost Act. 3. 38. And what may that gift be The fruits of the Spirit are love joy peace Gal. 5. 22. Which though it be to be understood of peace betweene man and man yet also that peace which is betweene God and man is the fruit of the spirit and the love of God shed abroad into our hearts by the holy Ghost Rom. 5. 5. is the gift of the holy Ghost which he gives to all that by repentance seeke to get a good conscience Blessed are they that mourne that is which repent for they shal be comforted Mat. 5. 4. they shall have the peace of a good conscience which is the greatest and sweetest comfort in the world Many doe trust all to their supposed faith as a short cut and compendious
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
then should a man do in such a hard case Heare what is the resolution of a good conscience Act. 20. 24. My life not deare unto me so that I may fulfill my Ministration with joy And wherein lay his joy but in his good conscience 2 Corinth 1. 12. It is all one as if hee had said I care not to lose my life to keepe a good conscience A good conscience in that passage of the Apostle 1 Tim. 1. 19. is secretly compared to a ship Now in a tempest at Sea when the question is come to this whether the goods shall be cast out or the Ship be cast away what doe the Marriners See Act. 27. 18. 38. They lightned the Ship and cast out the wheat into the Sea The Marriners will turne the richest Commodities over-board to save the Ship for they know if the Ship be cast away then themselves are cast away Thus it is with a man that hath a good conscience when the case comes to this pinch that either his outward Comforts or his inward Peace must wrack hee will cheerfully cast the wheat into the sea will part with all earthly commodities and comforts before he will rush and wrack his conscience upon any rock He knowes if the ship be wrackt if his conscience be crackt that then himselfe and his soule is in danger of being cast away and therefore hee will throw away all to save conscience from being split upon the rocks and being swallowed up in the sands There is as great a difference between a good conscience and all outward things even unto life it selfe as is betweene the arme and the head or heart The braine and the heart are vitall parts therefore when the head is in danger to be cleft or the heart to be thrust through a man will not stand questioning whether hee were best adventure his hand or his arme to save his head or his heart but either of these being in danger the hand and the arme presently interpose themselves to receive the blow and put themselves in danger of being wounded or cut off rather than the head or heart should be pierced A man may have his hand or arme cut off and yet may live but a wound in the braine or heart is mortall It is so in this case A good conscience values its owne peace above all the world It is that wherin a Christians life lyes therfore he will suffer the right hand or foot to be cut off and lose all rather than expose conscience to danger A man may go to heaven with the losse of a limbe and though he halt Math. 18. 8. but if a man lose his life if conscience be lost all is lost A man may goe to heaven though hee lose riches liberty life but if a good conscience be lost there is no comming thither All things compared to conscience are as far beneath it as the least finger beneath the head He were a mad man that would suffer his skull to be cleft to save his little finger nay but the paring of his naile And yet the world is full of such mad men that suffer conscience to receive many a deepe wound and gash to save those things which in comparison of good conscience are but as the nayle parings to the head Try mens consciences here and we shall find them exceeding short A good conscience will endure any griefe and suffer any wrong rather then suffer the losse of its owne peace God commands Amaziah 2 Chron. 25. to put away Israel oh but what shall I doe for mine hundred Talents Tush what are an hundred Talents A good conscience in yielding obedience to God is a richer treasure than the East and West Indies And yet how many be there that will craze their conscience an hundred times before they will lose one Talent by obedience to God out of a care to keepe a good conscience A talent nay that is too deepe never put them to that cost they will sell a good conscience not for gaining but for the taking of a farthing token God and good conscience say Sanctifie the Sabbath Possibly some halfe-penny customer comes to a Tradesmans Shop on a Sabbath and askes the sale of such or such a commoditie Now the mans conscience tels him of the commandement tels him what God lookes for tels him it cannot stand with his peace to make markets on that day c. But then he tels conscience that if hee be so precise hee may lose a customer and if hee lose his customers he may shutte up his Shop-windowes An Inne-keepers conscience tels him that it is fitter that hee should bee attending Gods service at his house on his day than that hee should be waiting on his guest But then he replies to conscience that then his takings will be but poore and this is the next way to pluck downe his signe So here lyes a dispute between Conscience and Gaine which of these two must be parted with If now in this case a man will grow to this resolution By Gods helpe I am resolved to keepe a good conscience in keeping Gods Commandement and Sabbath I will rather lose the best customer I have and the best guest I have then the peace of a good conscience If I beg I beg I will say of my customers as Iacob of his children Gen. 43. 14. If I am bereaved of them I am bereaved I will trust God with my estate before I will hazard my conscience Give me such a man such a Tradesman and I will be bold to say he is a man of a good conscience But contrarily when men are so set upon gaine that so they may have it they care not how they come by it they will dispense an hundred times with their obedience to God if any thing be to be had if these have good consciences let any judge How would such lose their blood and lives that will not lose such trifling gaines for the safety of their conscience Wee have not yet resisted unto blood the more we owe to God that know not what that resistance meanes Alas how would those resist unto blood that set conscience to sale upon so base prices as they doe Peter speakes of a fiery triall 1. Pet. 4. 12. If God should ever bring that triall amongst us that a company of drossie consciences would it find out Wee have no fiery tryall we have but an airy tryall onely and yet how many evill consciences it discovers Many a man could find in his heart to pray in his family to frequent good exercises and company hee is convinced in his conscience that thus he should doe and conscience presses him to it But why then are not these things done A Lyon is in the way Hee shall lose the good word and opinion of the world he shall have so many frowns and frumps and censures and scoffes that he cannot buckle to this course Many are in Zedekiah his case he was convinced in his
this poyson No buckler against these swords Yes there is the soveraigne balme and the impenetrable buckler of a good conscience It is a balsome that will allay the poyson of these Adders that it shall never burst a mans heart or if these swords pierce the very innermost bowels yet this will so salve these wounds that they shall not ranckle nor become mortall Oh! how mortall is this adders poyson how fatall are these swords how keene their edge and how full of paine their wounds where inward guilt gives strength unto them But integrity and goodnesse of conscience is a precious balme of Gilead that takes away the venome of this poyson the stinging smart of the wounds of these swords Let Paul live with ever so good a conscience before God and man Act. 24. 16. yet Tertullus will play the spitting adder and hee will spit yea spue forth his poyson in his face and in the face of an whole Court will not spare openly to slander him for an arrant varlet a lewd pestilent and a villanous fellow Such drivel will the malicious world spit in the face of Godlinesse But mark now the benefit and comfort of a good conscience Either a good conscience with Stephens Angelicall face will dazle and shame the devils Oratours 1 Pet. 3. 16. Having a good conscience that they may be ashamed or else like Paul it can shake off those vipers without swelling or falling downe dead Yea if Satans orators will needs be opening their mouthes against Paul yet so good is his conscience that as Iohn Hus appealed from Pope Alexander to Pope Alexander namely from him in his anger to him in his cold blood and better advised so dares Paul appeale from Tertullus to Tertullus David from Shimei to Shimei from enemies to enemies from their tongues to their hearts from their mouthes to their Consciences as knowing their owne integritie to bee such as that their enemies owne hearts give their tongues the ly and tels them that against their Conscienses possessed with meere malice they are hurried on in Satans service Tertullus knowes he lyes and his owne Conscience tells him hee lyes in his throate that Paul is an honester man that himselfe yea and the comfort is that Pauls Conscience comforts him and assures him that Tertullus his Conscience assures him all this So unspeakably sweet is the comfort of a good conscience David complaines of a great affliction Psal 35. 11. False witnesse did rise up they layd to my charge things that I knew not What should a man do in such a case if he had not the comfort of a good conscience witnessing for him But now at such a pinch appeares the benefit of a good conscience Let ever so many rise up falsly to witnesse against him yet his conscience will witnesse as fast for him My friends scorne mee sayes Iob Iob 16. 20. They witnessed against him to be a wicked person and an hypocrite they censured and condemned him but what was Iobs comfort That same vers 19. Behold my witnesse is in heaven and my record is on high That was one comfort but that was not all hee had also a witnesse on earth and his record below Vpon whose record and witnesse see with what solemnitie and with what confidence he stands Iob 27. 2 6. As God liveth who hath taken away my judgement and the Almighty who hath vexed my soule All the while my breath is in me and the spirit of God is in my nostrills my lips shall not speake wickednesse nor my tongue utter deceit God forbid that I should justifie you till I dye I will not remove mine integrity from me my righteousnesse I will hold fast and will not let it goe mine heart shall not reproach me so long as I live As if he had said As the Lord lives whilst Nam si in his in quibus me criminantur testimonium Conscientiae meae non stat contra me in conspectu Dei quo nullus oculus mortalis intenditur non solum contristari non debeo verumetiam exultare gaudere quia merces mea multa est in coelis Neque enim intuendum est quam sit amarum sed quam falsum sit quod audio quaÌ„ verax pro cujusnomine hoc audio Aug. contra lit Petil. l. 3. there is breath in my bodie I will not yield unto your accusations nor yet acknowledge my selfe guilty of that you doe charge mee withall Vrge mee and presse me what you will yet I will never let goe mine hold Why what is it that makes Iob thus stiffe and resolute what is it that supports him with such an excellent spirit that ver 6. Mine heart shall not reproach me so long as I live Indeed you reproach censure and condemne mee you lay heavie things to my charge But I have searched the records of my conscience I have called that unpartiall witnesse to testifie the truth and I find conscience witnessing strongly on my side and therefore do what you can you shall never beare mee downe Iobs friends may prove fickle and false but his own conscience will prove true to him that will plead for him animate him and comfort him against all their calumnious and injurious reproches and give him cause of much joy and triumph Iob then had his witnesse in heaven and Iob had his witnesse on earth God and his owne conscience two witnesses beyond all exception and in the mouth of two witnesses every truth shall stand Conscience is a thousand witnesses and God is above conscience And what Consciences witnesse concerning matter of fact God himselfe will justifie the same He that hath a good conscience hath a sure friend that will never slinke nor shrinke at any hand Nay he hath two good friends and two substantiall witnesses whose testimonies though secret yet are such as sweetly solace the heart of man against open reproaches slanders false witnesses and all wrongs and injuries of that kinde whatsoever The testimony of conscience is full of comfort because of the vndoubted certaintie and the vnquestioned infallibility thereof so that it voycing on a mans side strangely cheares his heart Pro. 27. 19. As in water face answers to face so doth the heart of a man unto man That is as some expound it As a man may see his face by looking in the water so a man may set himselfe and what hee is by looking into his conscience If a man should be told that hee had some filth or bloach on his In speculo Conscientiae status interioris hominis exterioris cognoseitur Non immorito Conscientiam speculo comparavit quoniam in eâ— tanquam speculo rationie oculus tam indecens quam quod decens in se â—st claro aspectu appredere potest Ber. de Consc face if he would goe looke into the water or specially into a looking-glasse hee should easily see whether it were so or no. And if looking into the water or glasse hee
could not see any such filth in his face though an hundred should offer to beare him downe to the contrary yet would hee beleeve his owne eyes before them all So here when at any time foule mouths are open and spare not to cast aspersions upon innocency and to lay scandalous things to a mans charge then a man by looking into his conscience can see himself and can find whether he be guilty or not and seeing himselfe in that water or in that glasse to be cleare from that dirt and filth which malice would cast in his face it so fils his heart with comfort and confidence as makes him treade all reproach and false judgement of man vnder his foot This appeares by the contrary Let man bee praised and magnified ever so â—et ever so much good be spoken of him and ever so much worth be attributed to him yet if his owne heart tell him that all is falsely spoken of him and there is indeed no such matter in him he Non ideo bona est coÌ„scientia mea quia vos illam laudatis Quid enim laudatis quod non videtis Aug. de ver dom ser 49. Si autem noÌ„ aureÌ„ solam percutit iracundia criminantis verumetiam coÌ„scientiam mordet veritas criminis quid mihi prodest si me coÌ„tinuis laudibus totus mundus attollat Ita nec malam coÌ„scientiam sanat praeconium laudaÌ„tis nec bonam vulnerat conviciantis opprobrium Aug. contra lit petil l. 2. In omni quod dicitur semper tacite occurrere debemus ad mentem interiorem testem judicem requirere Quid enim prodest si omnes laudant conscientia accusat aut poterit obesse si omnes derogent sola conscientia defendit Greg. sup 125. hom 6. hath at all no true comfort in all the good words of the world Prov. 27. 21. As the sining pot for silver the furnace for gold so is a man to his praise that is a man is to try his praise that is given him and if his conscience tell him it is undeserved hee is to separate this drosse of flattery from himselfe All the commendations and admirations of the world what comfort can they yield whilest a mans conscience tels him that they are all but lying and glavering flatteries what though the poore multitude feeling the swette and refreshment of a Pharisees almes doe canonize a Pharise for a Saint yet what is he the better or what comfort hath hee the more whilest his owne conscience reproaches and reproves him and tells him that hee is a vain-glorious hypocrite and that though these whom hee feeds send him to heaven yet hee shall have his portion with hypocrites and unbelievers What is a man the better for a flattering Funeral commendation whilst in the meane time he is under the reproach and torture of his conscience in the place of torment How many a man is there that hath the good word of all men no man speakes well of him but yet in the meane time his owne heart gives him bitter words and rates him to his face How well contented would such a one be and what an happy exchange would he hold it to have all the world raile on him and slander him so his own conscience would but speake friendly and kindly to him so he could find hony from his conscience he would not care what gall he had from the world Experience lets us see that such as have beene malevolent and injurious against others innocencie though they have been abetted and borne out by their umpires and advocates that for handfulls of barley and scraps and crusts have laboured to maintaine ill Causes and worse persons yet they have had no peace nor rest of heart Their advocates have bid them sit downe with rest and victory the day is theirs they have cheered them and striven to deserve their fee and yet their guilty Clients being netled with the inward guilt of their consciences have still beene haunted with a restlesse and perplexed unquiet spirt which others made guilty and censured for offenders by such mercenarie umpires have possessed their soules in patience and have been cheerfull and merry-hearted from the comfort of their owne innocent and cleare consciences So that looke as the naughty conscience can speake no comfort though all the world speake well of it so contrarily though all the world reproach censure slander c. yet a good conscience Foelix conscientia non sibi in aliquo conscia quae non proprium judicium nec alienum veretur Bern. de Consc Beata plane quae non alienis aestimatur judiciis sed domesticls percipitur sensibus tanquam sui iudex Neque enim popularis opiniones pro mercede aliqua requirit neque pro supplicio pavet Ambros de offic l. 2. c. 1. Non possunt aliena verba crimen affigere quod propria non recepit conscientia Ambros in Psal 38. can and will speake peace and comfort to a mans heart The Corinthians did exceedingly slight Paul Hee was this and hee was that but how was he affected with it See how 1 Cor. 4. 3 4. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you I know full well what your censures are and what sentence you passe upon me but know ye that I no whit at all regard the same I make no reckoning thereof at all Why might the Corinthians say do ye count us so silly and so injudicious Nay sayes Paul I speake it not as if you were sillier than others with me it is a small thing to bee judged of you or of mans judgement let them be the most wise and judicious that are in the world or of mans Day though by men convened in solemne manner for judgement I passe not what their censure is I regard not their mis-judgings of mee I but what makes Paul thus slight mens judgement of him That in the fourth verse I know nothing by my selfe mine owne conscience judges me not nor sentences mee that layes no such thing to my charge and therefore so long as my conscience is on my side I regard not a whit what the world judges Now then see what a Motive this is to get and keepe a good conscience As we would be glad to have comfort and confidence against the malice of opprobrious tongues as wee would have a counterpoison against their venome so get a good conscience Here is that which may make us in love with a good conscience Reproach must full often be the portion of Gods deare children Israelites shall be for ever an abomination to Aegyptians And though the Aegyptian dogges moved not their tongues against Israel Exodus 11. 7. yet dogged Aegyptians will move their tongues and their teeth too The Apostles must be counted the filth of the world and the off-scowrings of all things 1 Corinth 4. 13. The Lord Iesus himselfe dranke of this cup Psal 22. 6 7. I am a
conscience How effectuall a motive should this bee how strongly should this work with us As we should be glad to hold up our heads when the glorious ones of the earth shall hang them down to leape for joy when others shall howle for bitter anguish of spirit so now whilest wee have the day of life and grace labour we to get and keepe good consciences CHAP. XIII A second motive A good conscience is a continuall feast THus have wee seene the first motive The second motive to a good con-conscience from the benefit and comfort of a good conscience in such cases and times as a man stands most in need of comfort A second motive followes and that is that we find Prov. 15. 15. A good conscience is a continuall feast 1. It is a feast 2. Better than a feast It is a continuall feast 1. It is a feast The excellencie of a good conscience is set forth by the same Quo enim melius epulantur animi quam bonis factis aut quid aliud tam facile potest explere justorum mentes quā boni operis cōscientia Ambro. de offic l. 1. c. 31. thing by which our Saviour sets forth the happinesse of heaven Luk. 14. And well may both be set forth by the same Metaphor considering what a neere affinitie there is between heaven and a good conscience and that there is no feasting in heaven unlesse there be first the feast of a good conscience here on earth But why a feast A feast for three regards 1. For the selfe sufficiencie and sweet satisfaction and contentment that a good conscience hath within it selfe Feasting and fasting are opposite In fasting upon the want of food there is an emptinesse and a griping hunger which makes the body insatiably to crave But at a feast there is abundance and variety of all dishes and dainties ready at hand to satisfie a mans appetite to the full he can have a mind to nothing but it is before him The very best of every thing that is to be had is at a feast A feast of fat things Isa 25. 6. of fat things full of marrow Such is the sufficencie of satisfaction the abundance of sweetnesse and contentment that is to be found in a good conscience It is a table richly furnisht with all varieties and dainties There is no pleasure comfort or contentment that a mans heart can wish but it may be abundantly had in a good conscience as at a feast there is a collection of all the dainties and delicacies that sea and land can afford 2. For the mirth and joy of it A feast is made for laughter Eccl. 10. 19. At a feast there is mirth musick and delight in the comfortable use of the creatures Heavinesse of heart pensivenesse and sorrow these are banisht from the house of feasting Fasting and feasting are opposite in fasting indeed there is weeping mourning and sorrowing but in a feast contrarily there is mirth merriment and joy There were under the Law appointed solemn holy feasts anniversarily to be celebrated and at those solemn feasts were the silver trumpets sounded Num. 10. 10. and the sound of the trumpets was a joyfull sound Ps 89. 15. For their Festivities were to be kept with speciall joy Deut. 16. 10 11 13 14 15. Thou shalt keepe the feast of weekes unto the Lord c. and thou shalt rejoyce before the Lord c. Thou shalt observe the feast of Tabernacles seven dayes c. And thou shalt rejoyce in the feast c. Therefore thou shalt surely rejoyce And that extraordinary feast on the fourteenth fifteenth of Adar in memorial of their deliverance from Haman see how it was kept Esth 9. 19. 22. They kept them dayes of gladnesse and feasting of feasting and joy Even such is the excellencie of a good conscience All the merriment and musick wine and good chear will not make a mans heart so light and so merry as the wine which is drunke at the feast of a good conscience will doe This takes away all heavinesse and sadnesse of spirit and hath the like effects with naturall wine It makes a man forget his spiritual poverty and remember that misery no more Pro. 31. 7. Nay as wine not only takes away sadnes but withal brings a naturall gladnesse with it Ps 104. 15. Wine that makes glad the heart of man so doth this wine at this feast Psal 97. 11 12. Light is sowne for the righteous and gladnesse for the upright in heart Rejoyce in the Lord ye righteous None so glad an heart as the upright in heart Nay such is the vigour and strength of this wine at this feast that it not onely glads a mans heart but makes a man as not able to containe even to shout for joy Psalm 32. 11. Shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart yea shout aloud for joy Psal 132. 16. That look as it is said of the Lord Ps 78. 65. The Lord awaked like a mighty man that shouts by reason of wine So such is the plenty abundance sweetnesse and strength of the wine of this feast that it makes men in a holy jollity even to break forth into shouting and singing This wine being liberally drunken wherein there is no excesse fils a mans heart with such an overflowing exuberancie of joy as hee cannot hold but hee must needs shew it in Psalmes Hymnes and spirituall songs and hence it is that the righteous do sing and rejoyce Pro. 29. 6. So that what joy a feast can yield that can a good conscience yield much more 2 Cor. 1. 12. This is our rejoycing the testimonie of our conscience Yea and that joy commanded Deut. 16. at the feast of Tabernacles what was it but a Type of that spirituall joy that the faithful under Christ should have in keeping the feast of a good conscience The feast of a good conscience is the true feast of Tabernacles in which as in the other there shall need no charge to rejoyce and be merry this feast will put such spirit and life into a man as shall make him sing skip and shout for joy The feast of a good conscience is not like a funerall feast where mirth and joy are unseemely and unseasonable guests there are heavie hearts and lookes teares and mourning which by the way how well they suit with feasting let the world judge but the feast of a good conscience is a nuptiall feast a marriage feast and the day of marriage is the day of the joy of a mans heart Cant. 3. 11. Such a feast even a joyfull marriage feast doth a good conscience make Oftentimes these bodily feasts are but heavie feasts many for all their good cheere company and musicke cannot put away the heavinesse of their hearts but even in their feast are sad hearted and Sampsons wife wept all the dayes of the feast Iudg. 14. 17. yea though a marriage feast But in this feast of a good cōscience here
not in meates and drinks but in righteousnesse peace and joy in the holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. Quietnesse and a dry morsell is better then an housefull of good cheare with strife Pro. 17. 1. Though it be but outward quietnesse when a man is free from vnjust vexations and the molestations of froward and contentious disposition even such quietnesse makes a dry morsell good cheere makes a feast of a crust But when there is inward quietnesse of a good conscience and a mans heart is at quiet from his peace with his God what excellent cheere is a dry morsel then Though a man have ever so good fare yet to have it sawced with the bitternesse of contention and to live in a continuall wrangling with pevish people what poore content would a well furnisht Table afford such a man And what poore cheere especially would all these feasts in the world make where there is brawling and contention from the conscience Here then is the excellencie of this feast above all other feasts This feast is able to subsist and to maintaine it selfe without other feasting other feasting is nothing without this of a good conscience Other feasting often hurts and hinders this feast whilest men by their vaine and licentious carriage therein Feasting without all feare Iude. 12. Doe make the conscience fast and starve and whilest their Quailes are betweene their teeth Leannesse enters into their soule Psalm 106. 5. So farre is bodily feasting from helping that it hinders this feasting rather Conscience can have mirth enough without a feast but little is the comfort and content that a feast can give where the Conscience is not good Men may Sed non est ista hilaritas longa Observa videbis cosdem in exiguum tempus atergime ridere acerrime rudere Senec ep 92. set a face vpon it and bragge laugh and be jolly in their feasting but yet in the middest of their laughter the heart is sorrowfull and the end of that mirth is heavinesse Prov. 14. 13. Conscience awakened even in the middest of the greatest jollitie gives men many a bitter twitch at the heart and in the middest of all their revellings gives them Vineger and Gall to drinke A good conscience is it that sweetens and seasons all the dishes of a feast that is the sawce that makes meat savoury the sugar that sweetens Wine that is the musicke that makes a mans heart dance But let a man goe to the most sumptuous and delicious feasts without a good conscience and how is it with him then Iust as with Belshazzar Dan. 5. Where the hand writing on the wall marred all his mirth or else it is in such a case as it was with Haman The foole brags that he alone is invited to Esters banquet with the King Esth 5. 12. Oh how happy a man was he under how fortunate a Planet was he borne to be the King and Queenes Favorite both But see what little reason hee had to brag Chap. 7. 2. Even at the banquet of Wine Esther gives him a cup of gall at the banquet of Wine doth she accuse Haman to the King Oh! how many glory in their banquetting and their feasting but how often doe their consciences put Esthers tricke vpon them even accuse them to God and gall and gird them in the midst of their wine conscience serves many as Absoloms villaines served Amnon when his heart was merry at Absoloms feast then they stabd him to the heart Cōscience deales with them as the Israelites were dealt withal in their quaile feast They had their Quailes and their dainties but a man would rather want their good cheere than have their sawce Their sweet meat had sharpe sawce Whilst the flesh was between their teeth Gods anger brake in upon them So whilst many are chewing their dainties conscience fils their mouth with gravell and so sawces and spices their dishes that they find but little content therein So miserable are all feasts and merriments of this world when a man wants the independent feast of a good conscience So happy also are they that have the feast of a good conscience although they never taste bit of other feast whilst they live although they be denied the crums that fall under the feasting Gluttons table 3. It is better in regard of the Vniversality of it As for belly feasts it stands not with every mans condition and purse to make them It belongs onely to the richer and abler sort to feast Feasting is a matter of charge and cost and so is out of the reach of the poorer sort But here is the excellencie of this feast The poorest that is may make it and the poore have as good priviledge to make it as the rich and the poore in this respect may keepe as good an house as the best Nobleman yea for the most part the poorer sort keep this feast best Nabal makes a feast like a king but wretched man in the mean time what feast keepes his conscience It may be many a poore Carmelite neighbour of his that went in a poore russet coat and lived in a poore thatcht cottage kept that feast abundantly richly whilst he poore sot had not the crums that fell from their tables Lazarus could not have the crums that fell from the gluttons table but how happy had it been with the glutton if in stead of this delicious fare he might have had but the reversions of Lazarus boord Lazarus may not come to his feast no nor yet to his fragments neither will Lazarus condition permit him to feast it as the glutton did but yet this feast of a good conscience Lazarus may make as well as hee and can and doth keepe it whilst the glutton feeles many an hunger-biting gripe What an excellent feast is this above all other feasts wherein the russet hath as much priviledge as the velvet the beggar as the King the poore tenant as the rich Landlord The rich Landlord often so feeds upon and eates up his poor tenant by oppression that the tenant is kept low enough for feasting It is well with him if hee have food hee had not need thinke of feasting But loe now the excellent feast of a good conscience here may the Tenant keep as good cheere as the Landlord yea and it may be may feast whilst the rich Landlord is ready to starve for want of this provision Now then all this considered what a Motive should it be to make us in love with a good cōscience How powerfully should this perswade us therto whē God would perswade men to come to the joyes of heaven hee uses no other argument than this to invite them to a feast as in the Parable Luk. 14. Behold here is the same argument to move you to be in love with a good conscience behold the Lord invites you to a feast and to a feast where ye shall have sufficiencie without want or loathing where ye shal have wine mirth musick and good
Company to the full The twelve dayes feast of the Nativitie how is it longed for before hand how welcommed when it is come And what may the reason be But only because it is a feasting time This is counted a blessed good time and why a blessed good time As Christ was a blessed good man the prophet that should come into the world and therefore should be made a King because hee had fed and filled their bellies Iohn 6. So the most make that a blessed time not for the memorial of Christs Incarnatiō but because of the loaves Christ shall be a King because of the feast the time is blessed Well then is the world so desirous and so glad of feasting Are feasting times such blessed times Lo then I invite you to a feast to a blessed good feast indeed that will make you blessed and truly happy Not to a feast of twelve daies but to a feast that lasts al the twelve moneths of the yeare to a continuing and a continuall feast How glad are many when they may goe to a feast Lo a way to make feasts for your selves What a credit is it counted in the world for a man to keep a good and great house to keep feasting and open-house for all commers during the Festivity of the twelve dayes Would we have this credit of good hous-keeping not for twelve dayes but for all the yeare long Get good consciences keepe good consciences There is no such good house-keeper as is the good conscience-keeper for a good conscience is a feast a continuall feast There is nothing that men desire more then to live merrily and how many stumble at Religion and keeping of a good conscience under an idle conceit that it is the way to marre all their mirth and to make a man lumpish and melancholly Do not believe the devill do not believe his lying agents It is a prophane Proverbe that Spiritus Calvinianus est spiritus melancholicus A good conscience is a feast a feast with all dainties musick and wine Can a man be melancholly at a feast at so joyfull and so sweet a feast doth feasting make men melancholly or make men merry make men weepe or laugh If a man should cry downe feasting with this argument That it makes men melancholly would not all men laugh him to scorn And why then should a man feare melancholly more from a good conscience than from a feast There is none lives so merry a life as hee that keepes a good conscience hee is every day at a feast hee is alwayes banquetting Yea the worst dishes of this feast even those at the lower end of the Table are better than the most choice rarities of other feasts The very teares that a good conscience sheds have more joy and pleasure in them than the worlds greatest joyes And if the teares of a good conscience be such what is the mirth and laughter of it If weeping be so sweet what is singing If the courser dishes be so dainty what are the best services Would wee then live merrily and passe our dayes jocundly indeed Get a good conscience and thou keepest a continuall feast and that continuall feast will keepe thee in continuall mirth and continuall joy Yea though thou be in affliction and under crosses so as thy dayes unto the world may seeme exceedingly evill shalt thou live merrily as at a feast Yea this is the scope of the Scripture All the dayes of the afflicted are evill namely in the eye and judgement of the world but a good conscience namely to the afflicted is a continuall feast A good conscience feasts then and turnes fasting dayes into feasting dayes A good conscience feasts a man in his poverty in his sicknesse in the prison and cheeres up a man with many a dainty bit The wine of this feast makes them forget all their sorrow Now then that we would be so wise as to hearken to Gods invitation to this feast Let us keep the feast with the bread of sincerity and truth 1 Cor. 5. 8. Take heed now that we put not off God as those did Luke 14. invited to the feast with the excuses of Farmes Oxen and the like So doe many urge them to the keeping of a good conscience and their answer is If they should be so precise how should they live they shall have but poore takings if they take such a course I pray have me excused I must live Thus they answer as many good husbands when invited to frequent feastings doe No believe mee it will not hold out if I goe every day a feasting I may goe one day a begging I must follow my businesse and let feasting goe And so say men here But take heed of putting off God thus The time will come that thou wouldst give all thine oxen to have but the scraps crums of this feast and thou shalt not have them God will serve thee as hee did them Luk. 14. 24. None of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper Those that care not to keep the feast of a good conscience shall never come to Gods feast in heaven If you refuse to come to his feast now God will at the last day thrust you out of doores when you will be pressing and crowding in and shall say to you Get you hence ye despisers of a good conscience you scorned the feast of a good conscience and therefore now the feast and guests of heaven scorne you here is no roome for such to feast here who have made their consciences fast heretofore CHAP. XIV A third and a fourth motive to a good conscience Come wee now to a third motive that The third motive to a good conscience may yet helpe to stir up our minds to this necessary duty of getting and keeping of a good conscience Besides what hath beene said it is worthy of our consideration that without a good conscience all our actions yea our very best services to God are so farre from goodnesse and acceptance that they are abominable and distastefull unto the Lord. The formall goodnesse of every mans actions is to be judged and esteemed by the goodnesse of his conscience which being evill and defiled makes all a mans actions to be such 1 Tim. 1. 5. The end of the commandement is love But what kind of love doth the commandement require will any shewes or shadowes of obedience serve the turn will the bare dutydoing passe for currant No but such love to God and man and such performance of obedience as proceeds from a pure heart and a good conscience So that let a man doe all outward actions of obedience yet if a good conscience be wanting all is nothing For the end of the Commandement is love out of a good conscience As is a mans conscience so are all his workes and therefore nothing acceptable that a wicked man doth because hee doth it with an ill conscience To the pure all things are pure but
in the place He commands Paul to be smitten Vsurpers commonly are smiters and usurpation is usually attended with violence Such as the entrance such the administration We see it true in Abimelech Integritas praesidentisi est salus subditoruÌ„ principatus auteÌ„ quem ambitus occupavit etiam si moribus atque actibus non offendit ipsius tamen initij sui est pernitiosus exemplo difficile est ut bono peragantur exitu quae malo sunt inducta principio ex Decret and Athalia That as it is said of Pope Bonif. the eight that he entred like a Foxe raigned like a Lyon c. So was it with Ananias hee had a Foxes entrance hee came not to the Priesthood by an hereditary succession but as the fashion then was by simony bribery and flattery and now see how he raignes like a Lion and commands Paul to be smitten on the mouth An ill entrance into any place of office in Church or Common-wealth cannot promise any good in the administration thereof See what wofull times here were what bitternesse what madnesse against a good conscience Doct. 5 And these were the times that did a little fore-run the fatall fearfull ruine and desolation of Ierusalem and the Nation of the Iewes Ananias his deadly hatred of goodnesse and good conscience was a bud of the fig-tree that the particular Iudgement of Ierusalem was even at the doores When the rod is blossomed and pride hath budded and violence specially against good conscience is risen up into a rod of wickednes then may it truly be said Behold the day behold it is come The time is come the day drawes neere Ezec. 7. 10 11 12. By Bede describing the ancient destruction Odium in veritatis professores tanquaÌ„ subversores omnia tela odium in hos Bed hist gent. Aug. l. 1. cap. 14. of this kingdome of Britain this is made a fore-runner therof The hatred of the professors of the truth as of subverters all the spite and hate was against them Our Saviour tels his Disciples Luk. 21. 11. of fearfull sights and great signes that should be from heaven before the destruction of Ierusalem And so there was a fearfull comet many other prodigious things before the same Now if the Iewes had had hearts to have considered it this cordiall malignity on every hand against good coÌ„scieÌ„ce was as sad a Prognosticator of their approaching ruine as any blazing star or terrible sight whatsoever It is an ill presage of a Nation going down when once good conscience is fisted downe CHAP. XVIII The severity of Gods justice upon the enemies of a good conscience and the usuall equity of Gods administration in his executions of justice THus have wee seene Paul fisted and laid on the mouth How doth Paul now take this blow at Ananias hands He smites not againe nor offers to repell one violence with another he had learned of Christ rather to have turned his other cheeke to him But yet though hee smite him not with the fist yet he smites with a checke and a just reproofe for his violence And so may a man smite without transgression and without revenge Psal 141. 5. Let the righteous smite me it shall not breake mine head So may a man smite and yet be a righteous man These blows are not to breake heads as Ananias his blowes are but these are to breake hard hearts Thus Paul smites without transgression of the bonds of meeknesse and patience And so we are now come to the third maine point in the text Pauls zealous answer and contestation Vers 3. Then said Paul unto him God shall smite thee thou whited wall The contestation is contained in the whole verse And in this contestation we have a denunciation of judgement that haâ—ly by a Propheticall an Apostolicall spirit prophesying to him what should befall him not an imprecation out of a private spirit stirred with a desire of revenge God shall or will smite not I pray God smite or I hope to see the day when God shall smite but God shall smite As if he had said well Ananias thou hast smitten me heare now what thy doome from God is I am sent to thee with heavie tydings God wil call thee to reckoning for this blow and Gods hand is over thine head to pay thee in thine owne kind So then from the whole learne thus much Christian patience though it bind a mans Doct. hands yet doth it not alwayes bind a mans tongue Though it lay a Law upon a man to forbeare violence yet layes it not a Law upon him alwayes to enjoyne him silence Though a man in Pauls case may not strike yet hee may speake Though Religion pinion a mans armes from striking yet doth it not sow seale up a mans lips from speaking Ananias hath smitten Paul on the face and if it please him to have another blow he will not resist him hee hath his other cheeke ready for him if his fingers itch to be doing but yet for all this though Paul hold his hands hee doth not hold his peace Indeed Christs precept is well known Math. 5. 39. Turne the other cheeke also but yet for all that see what his practice was when he was smitten Ioh. 18. 23. Iesus answered him If I have spoken evill beare witnesse of the evill but if well why smitest thou me And yet his precept and practice doe not interfeire nor crosse shinnes For though by his precept hee forbids us to retaliate or recompence injury with injury out of the heat of a vindictive spirit yet by his practice he warrants us in cases of injury to make a manifestation both of our own innocencie and others injustice Religion binds no man to be a Traytour to his own innocencie and the justice of his cause and by silence to abet others injustice With a good conscience may a man speake so long as hee speakes as Paul did before Festus Act. 26. 25. The words of truth and sobernesse So a man answer truly soberly without tacks of gall and impatient touches of revenge Christ and Religion say to a man convented and injuriously proceeded against as Agrippa did to Paul Act. 26. 1. Thou art permitted to speak for thy self This in generall more particularly in this Denunciation Consider the judgement denounced that is this God shall smite thee From which we may observe two things First See Gods judgements and the severity of Doct. 1 his justice against the enemies of a good conscience and his faithfull servants Ananias smites Paul and for his good conscience and what gets hee by it God will smite him and give him as good as hee brings God will smite smiters Ananias smites Paul and Gods will smite Ananias yea and God did smite Ananias for he was afterwards slaine by Manaimus one of the Captaines of the Iewes It is a dangerous thing not to smite when God commands 1 King 20. 35 36. He that would not smite a
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