the word of God as the Psalmist saith A young man may cleanse his way by taking heed to Gods Word Look how a raw and unskilful Composer may do well enough if he shall but follow the advice of an able and careful Corrector of the Press so may the Consciences of men produce a correct edition of their lives if they make but such amendments as the word of God doth direct Far be it from us to charge the holy God so foolishly as if he did suborn and instigate the Consciences of men to condemn them for what they ought to be commended or to commend them for what they ought to be condemned for shall not the judg of all the earth do righteously is not Jehovah a God that cannot lye This premised it must needs be said that God never did doth or can give to Conscience a Commission or command to smite when it ought not to smite or to strike when it ought rather to smile upon us but it cannot be denied but that God doth sometimes give such a permission as that to the Consciences of men and leaves them as he is free to do to mis-represent things according to their corrupt and perverse inclinations That passage in the first of Kings 22.22 which seemeth of all other Texts most pregnant to prove that God Almighty doth sometimes give forth his command and commission to instruments to do that which is evil as namely to lye c. will be found upon due examination to signifie just nothing to that purpose the words are these And the evil spirit said I will go forth and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his that is of Ahab's Prophets And he that is the Lord said thou shalt perswade and prevail also go forth and do so But upon due search it will be found that those words of God go forth and do so are not words of command and Commission but a bare permission and sufferance like those words of our Saviour to Judas John 13.27 And after the sop Satan entered into him That thou doest do quickly As if he had said now the fulness of time is at hand in which the Son of man is to be betrayed I will not hinder thee but suffer thee to do what I know is in thy heart to do as soon as thou pleasest Again I say the words forecited Go and do so signifie no more than did the words of Christ to the Devils who besought him to suffer them to go into the Herd of Swine Matth. 8.31 And he said unto them go ver 32. that is not I command and appoint but I permit and suffer you to do Moreover it is to be noted that so the Hebrew Language doth often put the Imperative Mood for the Future Tense as in Prov. 4.4 Keep my Commandments and live where vive is put for vives live instead of thou shalt live So Prov. 9.6 Forsake the foolish and live that is and thou shalt live of which there are many more instances in the holy Scriptures In like manner the words go forth and do so in the Text I am explaining signifie no more but this I will not be thy hindrance if thou wilt thou shalt for me thou shalt have my permission to go forth and do so By what I have said it doth plainly appear that unless God were bound as surely he is not to hinder all the sin that is or ever was or ever shall be possible for him to hinder that is all sin that ever was or shall be in the world there is no fault to be charged upon God for permitting and but barely permitting the degenerate purblind Consciences of men like Ahab's false Prophets to delude and deceive them When the Consciences of men have defiled and debauched themselves it is at Gods pleasure and liberty whether hewill or will not restore and rectifie them However this may serve for ever to stop the mouths of men that though their Consciences in this fallen state be not a light sufficient to guide them in all their ways that they turn not aside from God more or less to the right or to the left hand yet God hath given another auxiliary or supplemental light if I may so call it viz. the Holy Scriptures which are said to be profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnish'd unto all good works For as man could not plead ignorance after that God had given him the Ten Commandments written in Tables of Stone though he had defaced the Law which was at first written in his heart this new edition of the Law in Tables of Stone restoring to him what was obliterated in the stony table of his heart so neither now can men plead excuse for their sins from the misdirectings of their Consciences sith God hath given his holy Word as it were another Conscience and guide to men to show them the way in the which they ought to walk and to please God What if the torch of natural light or Conscience hath been well nigh blown out so long as there are the Sun Beams of Divine Revelation contracted in the holy Scriptures as in a Burning-glass wherewith to light it again Put Conscience and Scripture together and where they two meet there 's light enough to make a mans way plain to heaven and if he will but mind his Compass to bring him safe to the port of everlasting happiness So I have done with the doctrinal part of the first doctrine viz. that Conscience is a smiter or a thing that will smite men first or last if they give occasion I shall conclude this discousse with a few Corolaries or Vses Use 1. Then God hath not left himself without a witness in the breasts of men nor men without warning Sometimes Conscience witnesseth for God and against men other times Conscience witnesseth for men and with God so the Apostle speaks The Spirit of God witnesseth with our spirits that we are the children of God Conscience is Gods Ambassador lying leager in the souls of men by which God is wont to give men notice when he is whetting his sword bending his bow making ready his arrow upon the string and preparing for them instruments of death if they turn not as in Psalm 7.12 God doth not usually surprize men or come upon them unawares before such time as he hath shot off his warning-piece Nineveh had notice given it by the Prophet Jonah of its approaching ruine if Repentance prevented not God by the preaching of Noah warn'd the old world of that Flood which did await it and was to fall upon it not till a hundred and twenty years after God would have men forewarned that they might be fore-arm'd Amos 4.12 Thus will I do unto thee O Israel and because I will do this unto thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel God threatens that he may not smite wishing
thousand Witnesses that which makes it more dreadful is In the Court of Conscience a man becomes a thousand Witnesses against himself yea a Man becomes that Judge that passes the Sentence of eternal Death on himself as the Apostle saith Acts 13.46 Yea viz. Jews have put away the Gospel from you and judged your selves unworthy of everlasting Life Were there ever a Francis Spiro in our days as it is like some such there are he would tell you that all that I have said of the terror of a smitting Conscience were but one half of what is true yea but a Flea-biting to what he himself had felt that eye had never seen ear heard or it ever entered into the heart of man to conceive how terrible the smitings of Conscience sometimes are and that whereas 't is said that Deus Eternitas non patiuntur Hyperbolen id est that God and Eternity can admit of no Hyperboles or cannot be out-languaged The same may be truly said of a Conscience set upon smiting I shall conclude this Head with those words of Solomon The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmities but a wounded Spirit who can bear Prov. 18.14 Ninthly Come we now to speak of the ninth and last Query propounded to be spoken to viz. Quare Why it is that Conscience doth smite men when they do or have sinned against God I answer of that there are principally two reasons to be given first of all because God hath given Conscience a Command and Commission so to do saying to Conscience as to his Prophet of old Lift up thy voice like a Trumpet tell the people their transgressions Conscience is God's Attorney-General if I may so call it God's Advocate to plead for God against man to exhibit God's Indictments against man as the matter doth or shall require Conscience is also Gods Executioner God's Lictor if I may so call it and therefore must smite when God bids it smite it hath God's fasces and secures that is God's Rods and Axes in his hands and must not bear those ensigns of Authority in vain but do execution with them as the great Consul or Dictator of the world shall appoint So much for the first reason Secondly The next is this God hath every way fitted and framed Conscience in its own fabrick nature and constitution for such a work as this viz. to smite men in reference to sin Unto so doing it is conducted as it were by instinct from God as is the Sun to know its due time of Rising and Setting and several Creatures void of understanding to know their proper seasons yea things without life act according to that frame and make which Art hath given them so Clocks do strike and Alarms go and sound at such seasons as they are made to do But for smitings of Conscience there is further reason for Conscience is at once both a Law a Witness and a Judg appointed of God so to be and qualified accordingly As it is a Law of which the Apostle speaks Rom. 2.14 15. These speaking to the Gentiles having not the Law are a Law to themselves which law is Conscience that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Law written in their hearts Now Conscience as such is by Divines called Synteresis being a Store-house of Maxims and Principles informing us of the Eternae indispensabiles rationes boni mali which Divines do so much speak of engraven with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or common notions of good and evil Secondly Conscience is a witness yea a thousand witnesses as we learn from Rom. 2.15 by these words which show the works of the Law written in their hearts their Conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts mean while accusing or else excusing one another Now as Conscience is a witness Divines call it Syneidesis Lastly Conscience is a Judg and as such is by Divines called Crisis witness 1 John 3.20 21. If our hearts condemn us God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things if our hearts condemn us not then have we confidence towards God which words do show Conscience to be a Judg for it is the office of a Judg to pass sentence either of Condemnation or Absolution Moreover in those words are intimated that God hath given to Conscience as it were the power of the Keys and had said unto it as unto Peter and his Successors Matth. 16.19 I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven But now methinks I have to encounter with a very grand Objection namely this How can Conscience be said to be qualified as a reprover or smiter for sin sith it sometimes smites men for that which is no sin at other times when men do really sin against God it smites not at all but rather applauds and commends them as did the Conscience of St. Paul which told him he ought to do many things against Jesus of Nazareth and that it was true zeal in him to persecute the Churches of Christ Sith Conscience sometimes puts darkness for light and light for darkness evil for good and good for evil what matter is it for its smitings unless it were wiser and knew how at all turns never to justifie the wicked and condemn the righteous Can it be may some say that God should give a Commission to Conscience to smite those which ought not to be smitten or to chide those which ought rather to be comforted or to comfort and commend those who ought rather to be soundly chid and condemned If Conscience trifle at this rate may some say ought it not to be slighted like a perfidious Jury that brings in those guilty that are not guilty and those not guilty that are guilty This Objection seems to stand like a Mountain if not like Mount Sion it self which can never be removed yet wait but a while you may see it made a Plane if not turned into a Valley I premise a word or two by way of Concession namely that Conscience in this corrupt degenerate estate of all humane faculties doth sometimes mistake comforting those which it ought to chide and chiding those whom it ought to comfort but thanks be to God there is a way to prevent those mistakes Time was when Conscience might have serv'd as a Law to us and of it self a kind of regula pure regulans But now it is a regula regulata viz. a rule to be ruled by the word of God which is to Conscience as a light shining in a dark place to which the Consciences of men ought to take heed as to that which is a light to their feet and a lanthorn to their paths There is a crookedness which hath happened in part to the Consciences of men by Adam's fall and their fall in him but is such as may be rectified or made streight by attending to
Smiter or Reprover in every Mans Breast called Conscience I had almost said I appeal to every mans Conscience that there is a Reprover in his Breast which when he rusheth into Sin as the Horse into the Battle and drinketh in Sin as the Fish doth Water Curbs and checks him for so doing tells him he ought not to mispend his precious time to waste those golden sands of time which once run out can never be recalled Tells him that he ought to mind the Errand for which God sent him into the World and set all men upon the face of the earth viz. To seek after God if hapily they might feel after him and find him Acts 17. v. 27. And tells him in case he doth otherwise that he plays Jonah who set sail for Tarshish when God sent him to Nineveh and may justly expect that a storm of Divine Wrath will pursue him that he shall be cast into the Deep into the midst of the Seas and all Gods Billows and Waves shall pass over him as it is Jonah 2.3 Tells him that sith he names the name of Christ he should depart from all iniquity should deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts live righteously soberly and godly in the present world and that tribulation and anguish shall be upon every soul that obeys not the truth Vpon the Christian first and then upon the Heathen for this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil Now I doubt not but every man is capable of this Appeal to himself or to his Conscience or to that which the Quaker calls The Light within him Unless there be some few that have served their Consciences as desperate Persons sometimes do those Bayliffs and Serjeants which come to Arrest them in the Kings Name viz. kill them out-right which yet I think is hard to do by Conscience for thoughsome have laid their Consciences in Swanes and Trances or cast them into a dead sleep as did Herod in reference to Herodias with whom he lived in Incest yet they do generally awake and come to themselves again as appeareth by that famous instance of Herod Mark 6.16 of whom it is said When he heard of the fame of Christ he said It is John whom I beheaded he is risen from the dead Now to Scripture and Experience the two fore-cited witnesses I shall add a third viz. Reason That three-fold Cord can surely never be broken Hear then what Reason can say on the behalf of Conscience it being a Smiter I know saith Reason it must needs be so because the frame and make of Conscience is such as it is as well as I know that a keen Axe must needs be apt to cut because it hath so sharp an Edge Conscience is a Natural Logician Apta Natu that is naturally fitted to frame Syllogismes concerning which 't is a constant and infallible Rule That the Conclusion doth alwayes follow the worse and weaker part of the Premises Conclusio semper sequitur partem deteriorem If then Conscience shall thus syllogize as often it doth he that believeth not in the Lord Jesus Christ he that loveth not Jesus Christ sincerely and superlatively he that forsaketh not his Sins he that mortifieth not the Flesh with the Lusts and Affections thereof is condemned already and the wrath of God abideth upon him and then assumes or takes this for his minor Proposition But thou O my Soul believest not thou lovest not the Lord Jesus Christ thou hast not forsaken thy Sins c. Then will it be forced to fall foul upon a Man with this Conclusion Ergo or therefore thou art condemned already and the wrath of God abideth on thee I hope by this time I have proved the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Quod sit beyond all exception viz. that Conscience is a Smiter c. Which brings me to the third particular namely to the Propter quod or to shew what it is that Conscience doth usually smite men for In general it is for sin real or supposed most commonly real Now though Conscience doth many times wink at small faults though not alwayes so neither give me leave to tell you it seldome forbears to smite for great and crying Abominations such are first of all sins committed against the clear Light of Nature as well as of Scripture such as the Apostle chargeth them with Rom. 1. v. 32. Who knowing the Judgment of God that they who commit such things are worthy of death not onely do the same but have pleasure in them that do them When Christians venture to do those things which even Heathens know ought not to be done namely to do to others what they would nor others should do unto them to tell pernicious Lies to perjure or suborn Perjury to the undoing of others c. When Conscience smites for such faults as those will it not fetch blood and make every blow it gives pierce to the very heart Secondly Those sins whereto even corrupted Nature seems to have an antipathy aversation and abhorrence as namely Horrid ingratitude towards our best Friends recompencing Evil for Good as Christ saith I have done many good works among you for which of these do you go about to stone me John 10.32 Cruelty to a mans own Flesh and Blood as in Parents towards Children and Children towards Parents and in other near Relations one towards another Incest and the like When Conscience smites such Fools as these doth it not as it were Bray them in a Morter break them upon the Wheel put them upon a Rack give no Quarter and Refuse to â—â—ure for their much crying Thirdly Those sins which are at once a manifest breach of both the Tables of Gods Law and which either smite at men as it were through the Loyns of God Almighty or at God Almighty through the Loyns of Men As for Example When Jezebel suborned Witnesses to forswear themselves against Naboth that she might take away his Life What was that but a smiting of Naboth through the Loyns of God Almighty And on the other hand When wicked men have persecuted the Saints and Servants of God spilt their Blood as Water upon the Ground because they bore the Image of their Heavenly Father What was that but to smite at God himself through the Loyns of Men To crucifie our Saviour again in Effigie and to tell the World but that the Heaven of Heavens must contain him till the restitution of all things they would have done as much to him as they have done to his Friends and Followers Now Conscience is wont to stir up all its Wrath as it were to heat the Furnace of its Indignation seven times hotter than at other times when such Miscreants as these are to be cast into it Fourthly Those sins which are of dreadful and horred consequence which produce amazing and astonishing evil Effects which imbrew Nations in Blood and pluck down Divine
particularly with sharp stings and reflections of Conscience If any shall now ask me why God doth not punish all sins alike in this Life and every small transgression as severely as he did Davids numbering the People I might answer him by another Question namely Why do not Magistrates put to death all condemned Persons Thieves and others but onely transport some whilst they hang others and while some are executed within a day or two give others a long reprive and possibly in conclusion a pardon Is there any Injustice in so doing No surely for Justice and Mercy do not interfere but do sweetly accord and kiss each other whilst Mercy keeps within its Zodiack to allude to the motion of the Sun though it hath an Ecliptick Line which seems not so strait yet it trespasseth not upon the Bounds or Land-marks of Justice Take it in the case of Pharoah who though he hanged his Baker that had displeased him was not unjust though his pleasure was to lift up the Head of his Butler who possibly was in the same Transgression as well as in the same Prison with him not upon the Gallows as he did the Baker but in the Preferments of his Court A Creditor who having two Debtors shall cast one of them into Prison who all things considered deserves to be so dealt with is not unjust though at the same time he shall freely forgive the other as great or greater a Debt It is highly comporting with Wisdom and the ends of Government that small sins be sometimes severely punished especially at the first making Laws to give them sanction So God commanded him to be stoned to death who gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day and sent fire from Heaven to consume Nadab and Abihu for offering strange fire And it is on the other hand as agreeable to Wisdom and other Perfections that small faults should generally receive but small punishments that the work and reward as well bad as good should bear a manifest proportion each to other But the Riddle of all Riddles as it may seem to some is that which is yet behind namely Why doth God sometimes suffer the Consciences of men to be quiet and not to smite them at all after they have sinned with a very high hand when yet the Consciences of those very men are sometimes appointed by God to fall foul upon them for meer Peccadillo's Of which we have an instance in David whose Heart smote him not for the matter of Bathsheba and Vriah the two grand faults of his Life and greatest blot sin all his Escutheon till such time as Nathan the Prophet came to him which was supposed to have been one or more years afterwards and opened his Eyes with the Eye-salve of a Parable whereby he was honestly trapann'd if I may so say into giving sentence against himself There are principally two reasons which offer themselves to satisfie us in this point One taken from the Nature of great Sins the other from the Justice and Wisdom of God That from great Sins is this 'T is the nature and property of great sins to stun and stupisie the Consciences of Men and as it were to strike them dead as a great blow is apt to put a man past all feeling for the present to deliver him up to an Apoplexy whilst a small blow shall fill him with Smart and Pain 'T is commonly and truly said Leves loquuntur curae Ingentes stupent And it is most certain that all things which are a great deal too big and too much for us do naturally astonish and confound us be they Griefs or Joyes Fears or Hopes Good or Evil Things which sutes well with what Naturalists say viz. that Nimium sensible ledit sensorium As we see too much Light dazzles and blinds our Eyes though nothing so pleasing to the Eyes as that measure of Light which they can bear and too much noise though moderate sounds are the musick of the ear do not please but deafen us so it fareth with Men who by great sins have stun'd their Consciences and lain them as it were sprauling at their feet they become as the Apostle calls it Past feeling Ephes 4.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as it is expressed 1 Tim. 4.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is having their Consciences seared with a hot Iron Conscientias Cauterio resectas like Veins or Arteries burnt in two which have no more sense or perception of any thing Secondly The reason of this which is taken from the Justice of God may be thus explained 'T is a righteous thing with God when Men have slighted the frequent and earnest motions of their Consciences to give them up to their own hearts lusts and to say unto Conscience Let them alone as of old concerning Ephraim Ephraim is joyned to Idols let him alone Hosea 4.17 or as it is in the 14 of that Chap. I will not punish your Daughters when they commit Whoredom nor your Spouses when they commit Adultery c. Or as it is in Psal 11. v. 11 12. But my People would not hearken to my voice and Israel would have none of me so I gave them up to their own hearts lust and they walked in their own counsels c. This is now the soarest of all Punishments in this Life As nothing afflicts a Sick Man so much as to hear his Physician say Let him eat and drink what he will rise and go abroad when and where he will for then he concludes that he has given him over and looks upon him as past all cure and so an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or pleasant Passage out of the World is all he aims at for him I forbear to add a third reason viz. That Conscience when it has found it self often repulsed resisted and baffled begins to grow weary of admonishing takes pet and saith in effect as the words are Rev. 22.11 He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he that is filthy let him be filthy still or as God himself Isaiah 1.5 Why should you be stricken any more you will revolt more and more the whole Head is sick and the whole Heart is faint c. Let us now pass to the fourth thing which I propounded to speak of viz. The Quos or who they are that Conscience doth make bold to smite In answer to that let me tell you 'T is much easier to declare whom Conscience hath presumed to smite than whom it hath not for doubtless Conscience fears the Face of no man it hath smitten as Wise Men as ever were in the World not doubting to make good its charge against them witness Solomon for one if the Book of Ecclesiastes be his recantation as it is generally supposed to be It hath smitten as valiant Men and brave Souldiers as ever drew a Sword witness David who feared not the Face of Goliah that mighty amazing Gyant he who undauntedly encountered with a Lion and a Bear and gave Saul as a
again and give over smitting Now to that I reply No Man can tell there is no Prophet that in this case knows how long for it is with the smitings of Conscience as it is with the Diseases of the Body Sometimes it smites Men without any intermission and that from day to day and gives them no rest day or night but makes them cry out with David Their iniquity is alwayes before them or say with Job Chap. 7. v. 13 14. When I say my Bed shall comfort me and my Couch shall case my Complaint then thou scarest me with Dreams and terrifiest me through Visions Whereas others again have their hot and cold fits and between while their well days wherein they are perfectly exempted from the smitings of Conscience Again Some have onely now and then a fit or two of Conscience and away which some call their Dumps or Melancholies and they are up again the smiting of their Consciences is but as the Morning Dew or early Cloud which soon passeth away 't is but April with them now and then a Cloud and a Shower and then the Sun presently shines out again but in others the smitings of Conscience are like a Burning Hectick Feaver never off them Their Consciences seem to be implacable towards them and and resolve to admit of no reconciliation but to have War with Amalek for ever if I may so allude It were not hard it may be to tell you of those who have been under the smitings of Conscience Seven years together or more I think that was Mrs. Honywoods Case nay of those whose Consciences have killed them with smiting or provoked them so long and so lamentably till they kill'd themselves or those who leapt out of the flames of Conscience into those of Hell Neither can I say that some who have been none of the greatest Sinners nor guilty of any enormous Crimes have been kept a great while in the Furnace of a smiting Conscience witness Mrs. Honywood aforesaid though ordinarily I do suppose it is the lot and portion of sinners of the first and second rate to be so served rather than others witness those words Psal 39.11 When thou with rebukes doth correct Man for Iniquity thou makest his Beauty to consume away like a Moth as also those Ezek. 33.10 Thus ye speak saying If our Transgressions and our Sins be upon us and we pine away in them how should we then live Now Lord what shall we say to this if the smitings of Conscience be so sharp and the shortest of them be so long compared with Humane Corrections and even to be given not onely to Children but Malefactors who can bear them long and who can live when God does this unless supported by that Arm which keeps even the damned in Hell alive We now proceed to the Seventh query viz. the Quando namely When or at what times it is that Conscience doth use to smitein reference to sin Whereto I reply First of all Many times before a sin be committed when Men have as yet but sin in deliberation or are but sitting upon it like the Cockatrice upon her Eggs having yet hatch'd nothing and are yet but parling with the temptation and listning to the tempter even at that time of day 't is usual with Conscience to shoot off her Warning Piece and to bid men take heed what they do and to do by them as Pilate's Wife did by him Matth. 27.19 When he was sate down on the Judgment Seat sent unto him saying Have thou nothing to do with that Just Man for I have suffered many things concerning him in a Dream c. Yea it is not unusual with Conscience to smite Men meerly for parling with a temptation or lending their ears more or less to the tempter for looking at the bait though they have not yet bit of it much less received the hook into their mouths and to give such Counsel as Solomon doth Proverbs 23.31 Look not thou upon the Wine when it is Red when it giveth its Colour in the Cup when it moveth it self aright at last it biteth like a Scrpent and stingeth like an Adder Thus in my Text Davids Heart smote him but for entertaining a Thought of Killing Saul as some suppose he had done or but for lending an ear to those disloyal Miscreants who counselled him so to do Secondly Conscience sometimes smites men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the very act of sin as Zimri and Cosby were smitten by another hand Thus while Belshazzar was carousing in the Bowles of the Temple which he ought not to have so prophaned and probably debauched himself and his Nobles round about him at that very instant appeared the Hand-writing upon the Wall in these words Dan. 5. S5 Mene Mene Tekel Vpharsin c. They are much mistaken who think that great sins if long adoing are committed without great regret in the very doing of them Conscience poures in Gall and Wormwood into the stollen Waters which Men thought would have been altogether sweet imbittering them in the very drinking of them and mixeth Colliquintida which is a very bitter thing with that sweet bread as men hope to find it which is eaten in secret Conscience doth purposely disturb and interupt the pleasures of Sinners and to spoil their sport doth as it were set a Deaths-Head by them in the midst of their Feasting and Jollity and doth cast their Sins in their Dishes whilst they are Feeding without fear and maketh them now and then to drink a Cup of Astonishment and of the wrath of God and to be like the Citizens in Esop's Fables Who whilst they were Banqueting are represented scared and affrighted with the noise in the Key-hole viz. Some Creditor or Creditors came to attaque them Now Conscience seems to do this not onely to imbitter so much of the Sin as is past but to make Men break off presently like Souldiers quaffing and carousing when they hear the Drums and Trumpets of an approaching Enemy David seems to have been approaching towards the Murthering of Saul when he cut off his Skirt It seems to imply he was trying what his Conscience would permit him to do in that case but blessed be God he had such a check from hs God and his Conscience for doing but that that he durst proceed no farther Thirdly More especially Conscience is wont to smite Men after Sin committed and that sometimes sooner sometimes later I had almost compared Conscience to an Vsurer who though he long forbear his Money when it is well secured as by Motrgage of House and Lands yet at last will be sure to call for Principal and Interest yea for Vse upon Vse or to take the forfeiture of what is engaged for his security There are particular reasons to be given why Conscience sometimes doth not smite men either before the Commission of a great Sin or in the very Act nor yet presently after but as sure as Old Age will come upon Men I
rather to scare men than to hurt them and causeth Conscience to smite them that if that will serve the turn he may hold his hand for it is better to fall into the hand of Conscience than into the hand of God If God had not such a witness as Conscience is how could he convict men at the day of Judgment of secret sins as the Text saith God will bring every secret thing to light whether it be good or whether it be evil and in the 1 Corinth 4.5 is said God will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the heart What but Conscience can witness against Men at the day of Judgment their Heart Murthers Heart Adulteries as Solomon said to Shimei 1 Kings 2.44 Thou knowest all the wickedness which thy Heart is privy to Now Conscience is such a witness as none can withstand or deny its testimony If two credible witnesses are sufficient even in matter of Life and Death much more Conscience which is a thousand witnesses Hence it is that we read of him who coming to a Wedding Feast without a Wedding Garment that when the King said unto him Friend How camest thou in hither not having a Wedding Garment he was speechless Matth. 22.12 Hence also we read of Every Mouth being stopt and all the World becoming guilty before God Rom. 3.19 Hence it was that no reply was made to our Saviour when he said He that wâ—â— without sin let him cast the first stone at her for the Text saith John 8.9 They which heard it being convicted in their own Consciences went out one by one Now whereas some are brought in pleading thus for themselves at the day of Judgement When did we see thee Hungry and fed thee not Naked and clothed thee not Sick and in Prison and did not administer unto thee Matth. 25.44 The reason is because they knew not that which Christ tells them of in the next verse In as much as you did it not to one of the least of these you did it not to me If their Consciences had been sooner convicted of their unkindness to their Saviour expressed in their unkindness to his Disciples and Followers they would not have had one word to say for themselves or presumed to open their Mouths It can never be doubted whether the Message were left with those Persons whom Conscience was appointed to warn because Conscience alwayes speaks with the Parties themselves and leaves its errand in their own Breasts Indeed when Christ shall come to judge the World it is said He will come like a Thief in the night Yea when God comes to ruine Persons or Nations after fair warnings given but never taken he oft-times doth it suddenly Hence Destruction is said to come as a whirlwind or as sorrow upâ—n a Woman in Travel who are sometimes never better at ease or more light-some or cheerful than just before their Pains hence those words of Solomon Prov. 29.1 He that being often reproved hardeneth his Neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy There we read indeed of sudden destruction but of frequent reproof going before it Now Conscience is the great Reprover and a man is never throughly convicted as to himself till he be so of his own Conscience so I have done with the first use Second Vse The next Use or Corollary is this If Conscience be such a Smiter as hath been shewed then it is no argument that sinners scape scot-free or go unpunished because their sins do not go before to Judgment that is are kept secret from men and consequently exempted from Humane Punishment Pain and Shame because it is Punishment enough God wot for a Man to run the Gantlet and undergo the Rack of his own Conscience If God shall but say take him Conscience take him by the Throat clap Irons upon him throw him in thy Dungeon feed him with the Bread of Spiritual Affliction and give him those Waters to drink which are more bitter than the Waters of Marah If the great Judge shall thus deliver up a man to the severest of Jaylors and say throw him in Prison and give him no hope to come out till he pay the utmost farthing Handle him as thou didst Cain Judas Francis Spira for thou canst do it teach him as Gideon taught the Men of Succoth with Bryers and Thorns tear him in pieces and let none deliver him Psal 15.22 If such a sentence as that shall come forth from the great God he upon whom it is past needs no Poverty no loss of near and dear Relations no Bodily Sickness or Pain no Temporal Prison no Reproach or Disgrace from Men to make him miserable nay he shall be so in spight of Riches Honour Power the best of Wives and Children the kindest of Relations and Friends and what ever else this World can give him he shall tremble as did Belshazzar even when quaffing and carouzing with all his Friends about him he shall fit Uneasie and as it were upon Thorns though he sit upon a Throne with his Crown on his Head and his Scepter in his Hand and Thousands of Nobles standing bare before him he shall not be heartily merry though upon his Wedding day nor at the Birth and Baptizing of a brave Son long desired nor at a Prince-like Feast when he hath all his Kindred and Friends about him the rarest Wines shall not be able to make him merry till they have made him not himself and then how he can be said to be merry who is not himself I know not Wine commonly makes the Brute or Brutal part of Man merry but what is that to the Man or to the Soul of Man which is himself God knows if Conscience be wounded a Man can possess no Mirth but what is rather to be called Madness or like the Laughter or Dancing of those who are stung with a Tarantula and let the Beast or Beastial part of Man be never so Brisk and Jocond that which is properly called the Soul viz. The Humane rational Soul or Spirit of a Man intermeddles not with its joys which makes me think of the Apostles words The Widow which liveth in Pleasure is Dead while she lives for what is Death but a separation of Soul and Body and in this case Soul and Body are separated for her animated Body hath Pleasure but her Soul hath none Reader If thou hadst ever known what the smitings of Conscience mean I need not tell thee that they are sufficient to give a man a very Hell upon Earth whilst they who behold his outward Prosperity not knowing where the Shooe pinches him do think him as it were in Heaven if there be any such thing as Heaven upon Earth So I have done with the second Vse The Third Vse is this If Conscience be so great and terrible a smiter it must needs be great folly in Men needlesly to provoke and inrage it as too many do from day to
day for there are a sort of Men of whom David speaks Who are wont to transgress without a cause Psal 25.3 David speaks of some who were his Enemies without a cause Psal 7. and without Cause had hid their net for him in a Pit which without cause they digged for him Psal 35.7 May it not be said of some that they are Enemies to God and to the Peace of their own Minds by making work for Conscience and for Repentance without any considerable cause Of this sort are those who abound in needless Oaths and Execrations crying at every turn I will be hang'd if this or that be not so Yea here and there you have a Monster of a Man that fears not upon every slight occasion to cry God damn me as if he defied his maker and scorned that Tophet which was prepared of old for such as he which God hath made deep and large the Pile whereof is much Wood and the Breath of the Lord like a stream of Brimstone doth kindle it Isa 30.33 Or as if they could cheerfully drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God which is poured out with mixture into the Cup of his Indignation and endure to be tormented with Fire and Brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb and to have the smoak of their torment ascending for ever and ever and to have no rest day nor night Rev. 14.10 11. Or as if when the question is put Who can dwell with the consuming Fire who can dwell with everlasting Burnings as it is Isa 33.14 they could roundly answer That can we do If so they have stouter hearts than sinners in old time were wont to have for the Text saith The sinners in Zion are afraid fearfulness hath surprized the Hypocrites saying Who shall dwell with devouring Fire c. Methinks I can resemble these Persons to nothing so much as to the Priests of Baal spoken of 1 Kings 18.28 of whom it is said They cried aloud and cut themselves after their manner with Knives and Launces till the Blood guished out upon them Many who laugh at the Papist for whipping themselves on Good-Friday do worse for that Papists do in point of Devotion aiming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to beat down their Bodies as we translate it by beating them Black and Blew but Atheists slash and gash their Souls with severe stroaks for no good intent at all but out of meer Irreligion and wanton Prophaneness Lord I can but think how these men will look when Conscience shall come to reckon with them and they find themselves not able to answer it one of a thousand I can but think how pale they will look or rather how black in the Face with fear and astonishment what a dreadful eccho those Oaths and bloody Curses will have in Mens Ears when they come to be resounded upon a Sick-bed or Death-bed Or rather in what a pickle those men will be when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming Fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and they see themselves punished with everlasting Destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2 Thes 1.7 8 9. If it be so terrible as it is to hear but a zealous Minister warmly discoursing of the Torments of Hell especially if a Mans Conscience at the same time second what he saith and joyn issue with the Preacher as did the Conscience of Felix of whom it is said Acts 24.25 That when Paul reasoned of Righteousness Temperance and Judgement to come Felix trembled I say if the bare hearing of Hell be so terrible as to make a Heathen Judge upon the Bench tremble at the words of his poor Prisoner at the Bar standing there to await his Sentence how intollerable will it be to feel such things And who can chuse when in the midst of those Flames but cry out as did the Sinners and Hypocrites in Zion Who can dwell with devouring Fire Who can dwell with everlasting Burnings You would be loath constantly to sit under the Ministry of a Boanerges that would be alwayes thundring and lightning preaching of Hell and Damnation flashing Hell-fire in your Faces with every Sermon as if Mount Sinah were his Pulpit but were your Minister such you could make a shift and an excuse to go out of the Church as oft as he came to his use of terrour and stay out of his way till the storm were over but if you provoke your Consciences and make them burning as well as shining Lights within you as that phrase may be taken whether will you fly from those flames and whereunto will you betake your selves Go whither you will Conscience will follow you and if you have Ears to hear will make you hear yea will find you Ears if you make as if you had none yea speak loud enough to be heard though you were almost dead or were disposed to turn a deaf Ear upon it Conscience will have access to you at all hours even in the dead and still of the night it will come stealing upon you like a Thief in the night nay that it need not do neither for it will make bold with greatest noise to burst your Iron Bars break open your Doors and make a loud and forcible entrance upon you when it pleases and look upon it self to be always at home when it is where you are yea to be Master of the House and to have full authority to speak and do within your Breasts what it listeth Conscience is as it were every Mans Chamberlain and carrieth the Key of every Mans Breast as it were at his Girdle and therefore can go or get into a Man when it pleaseth and if they do as it were bolt or bar the Door on the inside it is able to make even Brass or Iron Grates to fly open before it for nothing can keep Conscience out Now Conscience being such a thing as I have described what Solomon saith viz. He that passeth by and medleth with strife that belongeth not to him is like one that taketh a Dog by the Ears may be applied to Conscience And therefore it must needs be folly and madness in any Man needlesly to provoke his Conscience and without great cause and temptation to make work for it as he were mad that would rouze up a sleepy Lion or Mastiff when he had no occasion so to do So much shall serve for the 3. Vse Fourth Vse shall be this Sith it is the office of Conscience to smite Men as in reference to sin it must needs behove us to keep our Consciences alwayes in smiting case I do not mean to give them cause to smite us for that we should by no means do but to keep them in an aptitude and fitness to smite us when just cause is given What is a Dog good for if he
these in one If any man put the Question What is Conscience as Pilate of old What is Truth Methinks I see Conscience it self stand ready to answer him Knowest not thou who and what I Conscience am whence I come and whether I would Art thou so much a stranger at home so much a stranger to thy self of whom I am part I am nearer to thee than he or she that is Flesh of thy Flesh and Bone of thy Bone than the Husband or Wife of thy Bosome I was brought up with thee in thy Nonage and was thy Bosome Companion from the time thou didst first know thy right hand from thy left I have been with thee early and late talked with thee many an hour in thy Bed and in the still and dead of the night I have kept thee waking many an hour when thou wouldst fain have slept calling thy sins to remembrance and seting them in order before thee Many a time have I made thee blush many a time have I made thee cry and water thy Couch with thy tears sometimes have I made thee quake and tremble and make thy very Bed to shake under thee And knowest thou me not all this while Other times have I spoken good and comfortable words to thee come to thee with an Olive Branch of Peace in my Mouth and said to thee in Gods Name whose vicegerent I am Well done good and faithful Servant Or as the Angel of God said to Cornelius in a Vision Acts 10.4 Thy Prayers and thy Alms are come up for a Memorial before God or as the words are Eccles 9.7 Go thy way eat thy Bread with joy and drink thy Wine with a merry heart for God now accepteth thy Works Sometimes have I made thee a Feast of Fat Things and of Wines refined on the Lees for a good Conscience thou knowest is a continual Feast of Fat Things full of Marrow of Wines on the Lees well refined Hence forward ask no body but thy self who I am Who should know the things of a Man but the Spirit of Man which is in him as the Apostle speaks And surely among the things of a Man I Conscience am the greatest I am that Spirit of Man which Solomon calleth the Candle of the Lord Searching all the inward parts of the Belly I am that great thing which some have called a god for it is an old saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though indeed I am but Gods Vice Roy or one of those that are called gods In a word I 'll say no more what I am for I am so inconsiderable when my Saviour is but once mentioned that I am not worthy speaking of yet I am not just nothing at all therefore let him that was writing of me proceed and tell you how it doth appear that I am that Smiter that Reprover that Bonarges that Son of Thunder that he has told you I am and that will bring him from the Quid to the Quod which is the next thing to be spoke to Secondly I am obliged in the next place to prove that which may as easily admit a proof as any thing yea indeed needs no proof at all viz. That Conscience is a faculty in the Soul of Man that will smite first or last if occasion be given I say it seems to need no proof for what need is there for any man to prove by Reason and Arguments that there is such a thing as the Gout Stone or Collick or that these things are painful when they seize People violently seeing the sense and woful experience of every man that has been under the smart discipline of all or any of these assures him that so it is What the Apostle saith of Afflictions may be applied to the chastisings of Conscience If you are without Chastisement whereof all are partakers ye are Bastards and not Sons The Scripture saith That by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word is confirmed We shall therefore alledge Three credible Witnesses viz. Scripture Experience and Sound Reason whereby ex abundanti to establish the point in hand It is none of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or things but once written in the Holy Scriptures That Conscience is a Smiter for this we find asserted over and over both in the Old and New Testament Witness first the famous instance of this truth in the first Adam Gen. 3. v. 10. And he said I heard thy voice in the Garden and I was afraid because I was naked and and hid my self The meaning whereof is That when Adam had eaten of the forbidden Fruit his Conscience did forthwith fly or spit in his Face and put him into a pannick fear and to a woful shame so that he could almost have buried himself alive or gone down to Hell could he there have been hid from the presence and displeasure of an angry God Our next instance shall be in Cain Did his Conscience smite him or did it not Yea almost as mortally as he smote his Brother Abel witness those words of his Gen. 4.13 And Cain said unto the Lord My punishment is greater than I can bear behold thou hast driven me out this day from the Face of the Earth and from thy Face shall I be hid and I shall be a Fugitive and a Vagaboud in the Earth and it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me v. 14. See here the doleful Bodings of a guilty smiting Conscience The Third Witness that we shall call shall be that passage in Gen. 42.21 And they viz. Joseph 's Brethren said one to another we are verily guilty concerning our Brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us A Fourth instance would be one more than I promis'd but you may have it in Judges 1.7 And Adoni-Bezek said threescore and ten Kings having their Thumbs and their great Toes cut off gathered meat under my Table As I have done so God hath requited me Let the famous instance of Judas bring up the Rear Matth. 27.3 Then Judas which had betrayed him viz. our Saviour when he saw that he was condemned repented himself saying I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood And he cast down the pieces of Silver in the Temple and went and hanged himself verse 4 5. If Conscience had not smitten him so as it were with fiery Scorpions surely his soul had not chosen strangling rather than life We have been already compassed about with a sufficient Cloud of Scriptural Witnesses In the next place you may find those Witnesses backt with Experience I mean the Experience not of one but of all Ages which need not be pressed but will come in in the Quality of Volunteers and offer its service to attest this truth That there is a God hath not more suffrages from the light of Nature and common Experience of Mankind then that there is a