in the Old Testament and a Cauterized Conscience by Saint Paul in the New Testament The sick man is then in a deplorable condition when he feeles no pain and so is the Conscience of a sinner when it feeles not the worm Secondly I say Doe not a boast till the putting off thine armour No man b knowes what the evening of his life may bring forth I have seene the wicked flourish like a greene bay-tree both in outward prosperity and inward peace and I have seen him also ere he have gone off the stage not able to put to silence the voice of despaire Thirdly thou that with thy loud musick of carnall mirth canst deafe and out-voy Conscience tell me truly Is not sometimes even in laughter thy heart sorrowfull doth not the flea of Conscience sometime awaken thee yes I warrant thee If Democritus had but the anatomizing of thee he would find melancholy in thee too that is c Conscience Now these more light and seldome gnawings are but as a Prologue before a Tragedie or the first fruits before the whole or as some drops before a showre Fourthly if God deal so severely with thee mercifully thou callest it and laughest at me for thinking otherwise as to let thee have thine heaven here that thou maiest have thine hell hereafter know that as women which commonly breed the best beare the worst so conscience c. It is then in its owne sphere of activity of that place it is properly spoken the worme that never dyeth and the fire that never goeth out Fifthly and lastly I exhort thee with that holy Father Mordeat hic ut moriatur illic muzzle not the mouth of the oxe silence not the voice of Conscience either by the pleasures or employments of the world which as the fall of Nilus doth the adjacent inhabitants deafeâ—â—â— conscience but let it admonish here that it condemne not hereafter let it bite here that it devoure not hereafter let it live here that it may dye hereafter Thus have I according to Salomons counsell answered a fool according to his folly lest he were wise in his one conceit The second Case Secondly now to satisfie the godly mans complaint whose objection pincheth upon himselfe thus I endeavour my selfe constantly both to refuse the evill and choose the good I set before mine eyes ever the word of God the law of conscience There is no sinne so small but I account it to defile and none of Gods commandements so little but I hold necessary to be done I both desire and endeavour to sly the very appearances of evill and yet I find not these sugred joyes and divine consolations whereon conscience feasteth but goe on in a kind of drinesse of spirit and fear I shall doe so ever not knowing well what to think of mine own estate To him I say First that as before a conscience may be troubledly evill and yet honestly good A certaine man some years afflicted in conscience said his continuall agonie were as great as a mans ready to dye and then he felt such small comfort in Gods countenance that he would willingly have suffered his body to have lived in burning fire till the appearance of Christ so he might then be assured of Gods favour towards him yea his greatest comfort was that though God should condemne him yet he hoped therein of Gods favour to have his torments mitigated with those that suffered least in all which troubles notwithstanding no world of reward nor terrour of tyranny could cause him willingly doe the least thing displeasing God so there is a conscience most troubledly evill and yet vertuously good Secondly absence of sensiblenesse of devotion and wonted consolations is often without any fault of ours or at least may be so as no other cause may be assigned but divine dispensation which being an infinite vertue worketh not alwayes after the same manner but that his providence might the more appeare after very many sundry wayes I opened to my Beloved but my Beloved was gone I sought him but I could not find him I called him but he answered me not Cant. 5. 6. signifying as S. Gregory on that place that she did both what she could and what she ought and yet she found him not because God so often disposeth it and that for good and holy ends Thirdly Absence of spirituall consolations are to be referred to the evill of smart rather then of sin they are our crosses and afflictions not our sins and offences and the having of them is rather part of Gods reward then our duty Fourthly God doth this oftentimes to lead on his children to a further degree of perfection for spirituall consolations are the â—ood of infants and milke for babes by the sweetnesse whereof God calleth us from the pleasures and allurements of this world For such is our weaknesse that we could never be brought to renounce one love unlesse we found another more sweet for which cause we see often that the comforts of yong beginners and probationers in Religion are often greater and more sensible then greater proficients are but afterward God leaves us or rather promotes us from an estate more sweet to an estaâ—e more strong from one more fervent to one more stedfast from one greater after the flesh to another greater after the spirit And yet fifthly know it is dangerous to dis-esteem and contemn divine consolations for though for the sustaining of those that are religious and of scrupulous consciences it be said truly that Grace consists not in spirituall consolations but in vertue that they are rather part of our reward then of our duty yet if there be any that through negligence sloâ—h doe make small account of spirituall consolations to them be it as truly said That it is a miserable thing not to taste how sweet the Lord is and the Saints have thought more bitter then death these tedious absences of the Comforter And though Sanctity and Godlinesse consist not in them yet are both of them great encouragements to a reformed life great helps therein And therefore we are to walke betweene two extremes viz. when they are absent not to discourage our selves nor distrust God nor on the other hand to be too secure and carelesse This is to be knowne Now what is to be done or practised in the absence of spirituall consolations â— Thus First still be exercising thy self in keeping a good Conscience though thou finde no sweetnesse therein The sick man must eate though he find no savour take heed of crying at the gates of the flesh for ayde that is in the want of spirituall consolations to fly to the support of worldly and carnall as Saul to the witch and Cain to building of Cities It is easie to follow CHRIST for the Loaves it is easie to love a good Conscience for its good cheere but when it feasts nor then to exercise the keeping of it is truly praise-worthy Secondly
practise patience and resolve with as little distemper as thou canst to wait on the Lord till light break forth and till he give thee the garments of joy for the spirit of heavinesse Thirdly practise fervent and frequent prayer that God will restore to thee the comfort of thy salvation againe and stablish thee with his free Spirit Fourthly the Sun may be risen and yet not seen because under a cloud there may bee fire for blowing so may there be the Comforter come and yet not perceived or felt for want of stirring up divine consolations by meditation and prayer and therefore 2 Tim. 1. 6. Stirre up the grace of God that is in thee Fifthly and lastly observe diligently whether the absence of divine consolations have befallen thee through divine dispensation onely to preserve thy humility and to try thee and which if it be so then thou canst doe no more but in the use of holy meanes and constant walking with God waite still for the season of his Grace not appointing a time for the mercy of the Lord nor setting downe a day when he should deliver thee as the holy widow Judith Chap. 8. If otherwise that thou hast been a cause thereof by provoking the Lord to anger then art thou to the former rules to adde the practise of true repentance 1. Seeking out as diligently as Joshua did for Achan that sin which did occasion thy woe and then washing that staine out of thy soule with the Fullers Sope of Contrition remembring ever to follow the streame up to the fountaines head that is to bewaile the generall corruption of thy nature as well as that particular sin Thus have I laboured to minister a word in due season to him that is ready to perish If I have been long in this point of the festivals of a good Conscience let this excuse me that men use not to eate feasts as the Israelites the Passeover with a staffe in their hand and shoes on their feet but to stay at them And so much concerning the third point viz. That a Conscience thus qualified with the goodnesse both of Integritie and tranquillitie is a Feast The fourth Point This feast of Conscience ☜ is a continuall feast AS Goodnesse was the Adjunct of Conscience so Continuance is the Adjunct of the FEAST Wherein this Feast excels all the sumptuous and prodigall feasts of Nero Heliogabalus Caesar Bargia Mark Anthony Cleopatra or whosoever else either divine or humane pennes have storyed on for their most prodigious and luxurious riots when they made both sea and land contribute their utmost to furnish their tables The longest feast that I find recorded any were is that of Ahasucrus which he made in the third yeare of his raigne to all his Princes and Servants a feast of an hundred and fourescore dayes but what 's that to a continuall feast how much short is that to him who like the rich glutton in the Gospell fareth deliciously every day Let us state the point The Theame to be spoken on is this that The testimony of a good Conscience comforteth and refresheth a man at all times and in all conditions of life A good Conscience is a Pillow if a man lye down a Cushion if a man sit a Staffe if a man walke an Arbour or Gourd if a man would shade himselfe If a man be sick 't is a Physician if in suit it is a Lawyer if wrongfully accused it is a true witnesse if unjustly condemned it is a righteous Judge If a man bee thirsty it is a refreshing river if hungry it is a plentifull feast In a word it is a mans Sun by day and his Moone by night There is no state or condition of life can befall a man either so prosperous or so adverse but in it a man shall find the joyes and delights of a good Conscience Consult the Oracle and you shall find instances in the severall stations and conditions of life as First in inward tentation by the Examples of Moses Exod. 14. 15. and of Hannah 1 Sam. 1. 17. Secondly in outward trouble by the Example of Job Chap. 27. ver. 5. and of Abimelech Gen. 20. 5. Thirdly in life by the Example of Saint Paul 2 Cor. 1. 12. Fourthly in death by the Example of Hezekiah 2 Kings 20. 3. Fifthly at judgment when Conscience shall be triumphant upon the word of admission Come good and faithfull Servant receive the prepared Kingdome Enter into thy Masters joy Lastly after judgement in heaven for then and there all imperfections of the Peace of Conscience shall be taken away all perfection thereof shall be added There shall be no more interruptions intermissions or intercisions of tranquillity of mind but as in hell to the wicked their ill Conscience shall be a most perfect and continuall worme so to the godly their good Conscience shall be a most perfect and continuall feast It was a good Conscience made the three Children rejoyce in their fiery fornace Daniel in the Lions den Paul and Silas in the stocks the Martyrs at the stake and those Primitive Worthies catalogued Heb. 11. 35. which would not be delivered That they might obtaine a better resurrection In summe if Conscience be truly good that is first honestly good and then peaceably good accordingly as was before distinguished it feasteth and banquetteth the heart at all places and at all times Contiguously and Continually Yet are there certaine speciall seasons of God's comfortable Visitation wherein hee doth more fully and largely dispense Divine Consolation then he doth at other times namely 1. At a Christians first Conversion unto God as we may see in both those famous Converts Lydia and the Jaylor Act. 16. And this God doth to set and knit the weake joynts of a Christian and to give him a taste and antepast that he shall not lose but only exchange joyes such as are dilute and grosse for such as are sincere and pure 2. After some good performed especially if it have come off well in regard of matter manner and end After a good worke so done God useth extraordinarily to cheere the Conscience which is both part of the Performers Merces and Reward and withall an earnest and pledge that the whole shal follow and be all paid in 3. Upon evill suffered also no lesse then upon good done for under the crosse God hath often after a very eminent manner shed his consolations into the heart Paul and Silas sung in the Jayle Philip Landgrave of Hess long a prisoner under Charles the fift for the cause of Religion being asked what had supported him during his whole trouble answered he had felt the divine consolations even of the Martyrs themselves all that while And a cloud of witnesses have said the like that under the crosse suffered for a good Conscience they have felt those sensible comforts which they were never partakers of all their life besides either before or after 4. After the brunt of some sore tentation
And that faith is but equivocall faith and no true justifying salvificall faith which doth not work by love love to God in holinesse love to man in righteousnesse and love to our selves in sobrietie These are the severall ingredients into this balme of Gilead according to the dispensatory of Divinity These are the severall degrees of this Ladder whose foot like Jacob's standeth upon earth and the top reacheth heaven Let us recollect them by an analyticall methode and so conclude this point I. Practise charity and that 's a signe of true faith 2. Have faith and you shall be able to apply on your part what God imputes on his 3. Apply and what is sufficient in it selfe shall be effectuall to you 4. Nothing is sufficient but Jesus Christ 5. The reason of his sufficiencie is from the dignitie and excellencie of his person 6. Nor yet were his person of sufficient dignity if it were not in him an infinite dignity 7. And being infinite the ransome and satisfaction is proportion to the fault 8. And upon this satisfaction must needs follow remission 9. And having remission there followes also reconciliation with God 10. And being reconciled with God we shall have tranquillity of mind and peace of Conscience passing all understanding The third Point Conscience thus qualified with the goodnesse both of Integritie and tranquillitie is a Feast NOt any phantasticall feast as if a man should dreame of a furnished table and be hungry when he wakens nor any Tropologicall Metaphoricall feast a feast by way of similitude and proportion onely as Christ is called the a bread of Life and the holy Ghost the b water of Life but a true reall feast a feast properly so called junketting both the minde and the body and presenting them both with cheer becoming a feast First it feasteth the mind with the desireable food of Contentation Peace Joy Comfort Hope and the like Secondly it feasteth and fatneth the body also for as Conscience of evill done causeth feare and expectation of some evill to be suffered and that feare againe causeth many a thought-sick houre indigestive meale lancke cheekes trembling joynts marrowless bones restless nights c. so Conscience of good done makes a c cheerfull and a merry heart and a cheerfull heart causeth good health Prov. 17. 22. and maketh a cheerfull countenance Pro. 15. 13. and not onely this but when night comes which is the one d halfe of our life that we are to lay us downe and take our rest then also consciousnesse of a day well spent rocks us and drops a sleepy silence upon our eyes and sleep you know is the stay the prop of the Microcosme it is thoughts charme it is digestions carefull nurse c. It is a rule in Art and we see it true in hourely Experience Contraries placed together do mutually illustrate each other Venus her mole was a foile to her beauty The tender eyes of Leah did the more commend the beauty of Rachel unto Jacob The seven leane kine in Pharaoh's dreame did eate up the seven fat kine So the ill-favoured raw-bon'd leanenesse the biting and gnawing of an ill Conscience will let us better see the festivity of a good Conscience An evill Conscience is a e WORME a brest-worm gnawing upon the soule with the teeth of bloodless fear of wrinckled sorrow of self-consuming care and of sad despaire and this worme is not like that which St Paul shooke off into the fire it is a Salamander and will live and gnaw in the fire of hell it s a worme that never dyeth a continuall worme and that 's the gall of bitternesse wormewooding even hell it self Well were it with wicked men if as Herod Acts 12. 23. and Antiochus a Macc. 9. 9â— were devoured and eaten up with wormes this worme would dispatch them But it is that f sanguisuga ever sucking and never full ever gnawing but never killing ever eating but never devouring and that with a deadly tooth too every bit worse then ten thousand deaths and yet g not unto death Compare now these two texts together A good Conscience is a FEAST An ill one is a WORME a good one a plentifull feast an ill one an hungry gnawing worme a good one a continuall feast an ill one a continuall a never dying worme and do they not answer one another as in water face answereth faceâ— And these two points 1. That an ill Conscience is a worme and 2. a good Conscience a feast being thus entorted wreathed together Let us stretch out the further illustration of them by enquiring into the learning and Confessions of the Heathen who had no inky Divinity no other books of Theologie but the books of Conscience no other law but the Law written in their hearts For be it granted that the word is best when it is pure and not dilute or mingled or if mingled then with nothing but h faith and that humane learning being brought to illustrate divine is for the most part but as painture in Church-windowes making the glasse lesse cleare and transparent yet some points there are and this is one of those some wherin it perswades much to shew that Divinity is the same with the law of nature 〈◊〉 will only gleane an handfull out of an whole field And I will begin with the greek proverbe {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. conscience is the strappado and bastinado of the soule it doth whip and lash her with secret but more smarting stroaks the whip of cords that Christ made is not to be compared to it all the discipline on a good Friday in the Church of Rome comes short of it before sinne it is k fraenum a bridle after sinne it is flagrum a whip Secondly the significant fable of Prometheus may have the next place Prometheus stole fire from heaven his punishment was that he was tied to the mountaine Caucasus where a rapacious Eagle did day and night feed upon his heart The morall is Prometheus represents every sinner that is injurious against heaven his affixing to the mountaine Caucasus sheweth that it is as possible to carry away the mountaine as to escape the vengeance of God when he will punish the Eagle feeding upon his heart is the angor of conscience which doâ—h l eate and devoure the very heart of man as a Gangrene in the flesh Thirdly let us remember the three m snake-tressed sisters Alecto Megera and Tisiphone three dismall Elves which the Poets make the daughters of Nox and Acheron and call them Furies which indeed are nothing else but the n torments of a wicked mind when the pains and throws of conscience are upon it Fourthly we will call in the example of Orestes in the Tragedy o O wretched Orestes saith an interlocutor in the Tragedy what disease afflicteth thee Orestes makes answer upon the stage Conscience quoth he O the
grievous disease of Conscience is upon me Now contrarily for a good conscience Fifthly Bias the Philosopher and one of the wise men of Greece being asked the way to a p life without feare and trouble gave this answer A q right conscience Sixthly Periander who was one of them being asked what was the r greatest freedome and liberty answered thus A s good conscience Seventhly Socrates the wisest man of them all all three mentioned by Stobaeus being asked how men might most live without t disquiet and trouble answered If they were conscious of no evill within themselves Now these all were Grecians Let us enquire into the Latines and see what they say Even the very same Eighthly then Horace u Hic â—urus aheneus este Nil conscire sibi A wall of brasse it is To be conscious of nâ—ught amisse Ninthly let Tully speak for all the rest * An upright Conscience is the greatest consolation in adversitie to his friend Torquatus in his familiar Epistles Again x To be innocent and without fault is the greatest solace And again y Conscience of a well-spent life and of many good deeds is the sweetest thing in the world Let us heare him speake once more z Great is the force of Conscience both wayes so as neither can they feare who have done nothing amisse nor those that have sinned want punishment ever before their eyes Thus have I gathered you some few instances out of many from the mouths of the very heathen who also must be heard when they speake truth to declare that the dictates of the law of Nature and Divinitie are all one in averring that An ill conscience and facinorous is an * heavie burthen a ‖ lash an a ulcer in the flesh b a worme And that a good conscience is a c great Theater a d wall of brasse a continuall feast â— Application Let us e keep the feast as the Apostle exhorteth us You know how ill it was taken in the Gospel that those that were bid to the feast did make f excuses and did not come And how ill alos it was taken that Vasthi refused to g come to Ahasueruâ— his feast It is no better then rude unmannerliness to sit sullen at a feast and not to feed liberally A man may have great riches and yet not use them but only live poorely that he may die rich so may a man questionlesse have a good and upright Conscience and yet not feed and feast so on it as he might do if the fault was not wholly his owne Why what is this feasting and how is it performed It is when a man by thinking and meditating and praying and such like doth * stir up those heartâ— cheering joyes of a good conscience which lie consopite and buryed under the ashes either of naturall or religious melancholy and which do as duly belong and of right appertain to a good Conscience as an inheritance to the owner And therefore on the other side if God measure out earthly contents unto us with a more thrifty and sparing hand and deny us our desires in some and perhaps many things yet if he have given unto us upright and peacefull consciences we have reasonâ— acknowledge that Goâ— hath dealt bountifully and gratiously with his servants for that is a thing worthy of all acceptance although it should come alone it is a feast and what repining nature is that which will not be satisfied with a feast A good conscience hath all the chiefe requisites to a feast in it for First Jesus Christ is the i Master and Governour of this feast and so deserves to be for by his bloud is the Conscience both h purified and pacified Secondly the Ministers of the Word such as to whom God hath given the â—ongue of the Learned to minister a word in due season are those appointed by God to invite to this feast and to attend the guests called the l Maydens in Wisdomes feast and m Servants in the Mariage-feast Thirdly the Viands and dishes to feed on are such as these a plerophory of Faith a holy complacence with a mans estate divine consolations peace which passeth all understanding sweet raptures and admirations that God should so regard us fixed hopes and longings for further both purity and peace of conscience trust in God joyned with watchfulnesse in our selves that the conscience so established be not againe either defiled or disquieted with sinne flaming affections of love and thankfulnesse to God who hath given us sense of a present and hope of a future good Conscience Lastly singular delight which it takes in Saint Pauls n exercise to keep a good conscience in all things c. Fourthly the musick oâ— minstrelsie of this feast is not upon the o harp-strings but upon the heart-strings This is our p rejoycing even the testimony of a good Conscience So that in all things it holds the condition of a feast Which being so what art thou O more then desperate man who canst or darest account either the least sin small or one sin few seeing that as one leak sinks a ship one fly spoiles a box of oyntment one gourd a whole pot of pottage one Achan trouble all Israel one lick of hony endanger the life of Jonathan one would kill Goliah as well as three and twenty did Caesar one Dalilah doe Sampson as much despight as all the Philistines so one sin wittingly and willingly committed may exceedingly both defile and disquiet the Conscience And of such an one though it be but one may truly be said that of the q Poet No number but more then a number yet Potentially in all and all in it Root of all number and of infinite Cases of Conscience It remaines now that I satisfie two cases that may here be put the one by a wicked the other by a godly man The former saith My conscience I am sure is wicked and yet for all that it is not troubled I use not to sticke at those sinnes which are called r sins wasting Conscience and yet I feele not this worme The latter saith I labour with Saint Paul to have a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men and yet I taste not of this feast The former boasts of the calmenesse of a vitious conscience and the other complaines of the trouble of an honest Conscience I will satisfie both First then to the Hardy-Cnute whose heart Leviathan-like Job 41. 22. is as hard as stone and as firme as the nether milstone esteeming iron as straw and brasse as rotten wood that is either feeles not or acknowledgeth not the worm of Conscience To him I say First he counteth that a favour which is a punishment let him think what he will I am sure an hard heart is reputed a great punishment by * Moses
is over Satan out-wrestled a spirituall conflict ended a desertion over-blowne then God also useth to refocillate the minde and supple the nerves and weary joynts of the Christian Combatant upon consideration that his Grace was sufficient for him that he had taught his hands to war his fingers to fight and that the soule had marched valiantly 5. Lastly at the houre of death after a good and well-spent life then the Conscience begins to lift up his Crests and to boast in the putting off of his armour Then will Adolphus Clarebachius say I beleeve there is not a merrier heart in the world then mine this day Then will Fannius answer to one objecting CHRISTS sadnesse against his mirth I Christ was sad that I might be merry Then will St Cyprian say Amen when the sentence of death is pronounced against him Then will St Paul say I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of glory c. Application of the Point Labour not therefore for the meat that perisheth but for that which endureth for ever for a continuall feast If a poore mendicant Lazarus who had been accustomed all his life to cleannesse of teeth were taken from the rich mans gate and carried to as great a feast as ever plenty and curiositie devised served up in Dishes of Achate studded with gold and pretious stones what better were he to morrow save that the remembrance of it would aggravate his present hunger and be as sauce to his appetite which now standeth in need of meat I had rather have everlasting brasse then fading gold If I were to goe a journey of a thousand miles I had rather have onely necessaries till my journeys end then be carried in coaches and have all abundance and superfluities nine hundred miles and be put to beg my viaticum the last hundred If I were as sure to live an hundred yeeres as Hezâ—kiah was of his fifteene I would choose rather for the whole terme to have no more then a lowly cottage to sleep in be clad with course and home-spun cloth feed upon Lentils and green herbs then to have for fourescore of those yeeres Manna from heaven for my food apparell as rich as Aarons Ephod a house as stately as Nebuchadnezzars Palace and then like him for the last twenty be driven out of all naked poore and hungry and harbourlesse I had rather live for ever here on earth in this vale of teares where even those we call happy live under an equinoctiall of sorrow and joy then now presently be rapt up into heaven as Elias was and after a thousand yeeres fall from thence with the lapsed Angels Oh! t is these words Eternall Everlasting Perpetuall Continuall For ever c. which in evils make light things heavie and heavie things insupportable and in good things make small things great and great things incomprehensible Hell were not hâ—ll if the torments of it were not as endlesse as they are easlesse And Heaven were not Heaven if the joyes thereof were not lasting as they are incomprehensible I whet my stile on purpose both to bring you out of taste with carnall and mundane pleasures which are but transitory and to raise up the appetite to this feast of a good Conscience which is Continuall It were then likely to be well with us indeed if we did not prize things temporall as if they were eternall nor undervalue things eternall as if they were temporall I am just now in Demosthenes his strait * who was troubled with a short breath and yet used long Periods So in the last gasp of time allotted for this Sermon I am fallen to discourse of Duration and Eternity I will close up this short speech of Eternity with a very patheticall expressioÌ„ of this thing which I will translate hither both out of a another booke and another language And this it is Thinke with thy selfe a thousand thousand thousand thousand thousand thousand thousand thousands of millions of yeeres Think so many yeeres were to be transacted in fire but withall thinke that though this whole space of time were doubled tribled c. yea centuplicated that it is not so much as the very beginning of Eternity neither after the revolution of so many yeeres can Eternity be said to have a beginning Except these thoughts make us more holy we are no better then beasts and stones yea even then steele it self Nothing will move him which is not moved by Eternitie Eternitie I say that immensurate interminate everlasting perpetuall infinite enduring from age to age as long as God shall live so long the damned shall dye But oh immortall death oh mortiferous life I know not whether I shall call thee by the name of death or of life If thou beest life why art thou more cruell then death if thou beest death why dost thou not end thy cruelty I will not honour thee with either the Name of life or death for even they both have some goodnesse in them There 's rest in life ‖ and in death an end these two affords comfort in all evils But thou eternity neither hast rest nor end What art thou therefore thou art both the evill of life and the evill of death from death thou hast torments without end and from life thou hast immortality without rest The particular Application to the City of LONDON I have done serving up the severall courses of this feast of Conscience and would now take away if it were not the solemne custome of these {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} EASTER-Spittle-Sermons That the Preacher should in speciall manner address himself to this great City-Audience 'T is said John chap. 7. ver. 37. that Jesus stood up in the great and last day of the feast and cryed saying If any man thirst let him come unto me and drinke This is the last day of this {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Lo I stand up in the roome of my Lord and Master and cry Ho if any here be an hungry let them come to this feast of a good conscience and feed freely My Lord Major and all you the rest of the Citizens of this famous City from the Scarlet to the Blue give me leave I pray you to use that liberty and freedome of speech which becomes a faithfull Preacher of the Gospel 'T is true we are called Ministers that is Servants and so we are but it is because we are Servants of God not of men or if of men it is to serve your Salvation not your humours Here is no danger in these Sermons of the Silver-Squinancie or bos in lingua The Preacher may here speake rashly and unadvisedly but not corruptly for it is well known these Spittle-Sermons differ from those at the Crosse and others about this City that these are
without any fee or reward other then that of Honour and good Acceptance They are the farre better to be liked for that They are the more hopefull for you the Auditors because all danger of our merchandizing the Word is hereby taken away And they are nor the lesse hopefull to us the Preachers for if we be faithfull in this our dispensation we shall have a greater reward then any you can give us And here I doe pause a little and not rashly but upon due deliberation do wish with all my heart both for my selfe and all my brethren of the Ministerie that the portion of the Clergie were so set out and their maintenance so provided for that it might prove Balaams wages for any one either to accept or expect any recompence Shekell or talent Homer or Epha great or small from the hand of any person whether high or low for any part of the worke of the Ministery whether publique or private Then should you see sinners otherwise reproved the wounds of Conscience which are but now skinned over with sweet words otherwise searched into and healed up great persons otherwise over-awed the Ladies spots and the Lords blots otherwise pointed at death-beds and sick couches otherwise visited then to give the decumbent such a peace as he may carry along to hell with him funerall Sermons otherwise preached then to be meere Panegyricks and commendatory orations of them whom the whole Congregation knowes were no such persons as the Mercenary tongue of the Preacher pourtrayes forth Then certainely this City would not have been so much wronged as of late especially it hath with so many of such Sermons as Saint Paul cals * wind of doctrine whereby Christians are blown and carried about from the stedfastness of the truth The Authour of the Epistle to the Hebrewes Chap. 13. and 9. censures them to be new and strange doctrines and implies that the hearts of them who preach and abet them are not established with grace Doctrines of devils they are 1 Tim. 4. 1. in regard of him who inspires them doctrines of men they are in respect of the instruments by which he breaths them That Noble and Learned Gentleman before mentioned one of the standing Honours of the Law in generall and of Grayes-Inne in particular observes that if the choyce and best of those observations that have been made dispersedly in Sermons within this Kingdome by the space of fortie yeeres and more had beene set downe in a continuance it had been the best work in Divinitie which had been written since the Apostles time I am about to say another thing That if men of undoubted judgement and integrity were but to bring in all those absurdities which they have heard vented in Pulpits within and about this Citie for these 18. months last past they would make such Miscellanies of Divinitie as your Pulpits had need of all their rich Velvet and Embroydered cloths which they have to cover their shame And I wish that Ignorance were the worst root from which these things have sprung but I doubt much that when some of these mens Consciences are awakened they shall be as a thousand witnesses to tell them that out of designe and out of wry and by-ends they * have led captive simple women laden with sins and led away with divers lusts women ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth And therefore I cannot but much commend the ingenuity of Mr Alexander Hendersam who whilst he was here a Commissioner did with great liberty of speech taxe and reprove what in this kind he both saw and heard of in this City But to divert no further I will in speaking unto you labour to keepe an even path betwixt detraction and flattery and first briefly but faithfully reprove what I think at this time most reproveable and then as candidly commend what is in you commendable that so those faults amended and these vertues being retained you may partake of this feast of a good Conscience And for the first of these twaine I will search none of your old sores at this time but onely note unto you two faults which have of late rendered this City blame-worthy both to God and man The first is the great schismes and dis-unions which have lately burst forth amongst you one of you being very Ishmaels to another whereas a City should be at unitie in it selfe and is the very Prototype and Copie of Concord and Unitie That Vnitie is omnipotent is one of Scaligers subtleties to be undevided and indivisible is the chiefe and first Excellencie of the blessed Trinitie Therefore the Pythagoreans call the number of two an infamous number because it first discedeth from Unitie Nothing more divine then Vnitie nothing more â—atanicall then division The second is your City-tumults tumults in the City and tumults from the City just like that Ephesian-tumult Acts 19. Confused and the more part not knowing wherefore they were come together Concerning which I will only aske you this one question What fruit have you now of those things Have you thereby trow ye pleased God No sure but rather highly offended him for God is the God of Order not of confusion Have you pleased the King you know how high his complaints runne Have you pleased the Parliament they doe by no meanes own your disorders Have you helped trade I trow not and pity it were it should be helped by these wayes lest prosperous folly should be accounted wisdome and prosperous wickednesse be accounted vertue Let me but aske one question more Have you hereby got the feast of a good Conscience I think there is a great deale more cause why in this case Conscience should be a WORME then a FEAST I have done my reprehension and comming to you with a rod I will now come to you with the spirit of meeknesse and praise you where you are truly praise-worthy for your Charity towards orphans the poore the blind the lame the self-lame sluggard c. or rather praise the Grace of God who hath made you both valentes and volentes able and willing hereunto And here I wil limit your attention to these three heads viz. 1. To shew you a good Rule of Almes and Charitie 2. A good Embleme thereof And lastly a good Example For the first all the best Rules of Almes are united and concentred in that one Text of the Preacher Eccles. 11. 1. Cast thy bread upon the waters for thou shalt finde it after many dayes Let us such the Text 1. In the first word CAST lye closely three distinct Eleemosynarie Rules that is 1. We ought to give Almes bountifully and liberally to sow plentifully 2. Cheerfully also and with a ready alâ— critie of minde 3. Speedily and seasonably whilest now the necessity presseth the receiver and summoneth the Almoner for without all these we doe but drop or sprinkle or lay down we do not sow or cast our Almes 2. In the