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
will yet if they slight the word or swel at it or be disobedient to it when it is laid to their Conscience Paul makes it a manifest signe of a defiled conscience Tit. 1. 15 16. Their mind and their conscience is defiled How appeares that They professe they know God but they are disobedient When therfore the Ministry of the Word shall charge thee with dutie or reproove thee for sinne and then thou shalt charge the Minister with railing and girding and that this Sermon was made for the nonce for thee thou likest not that Ministers should be so particular c. In Gods feare bee advised to looke to thy Conscience and know it that thou hast a naughtie conscience when the Ministry of the Word smites thy conscience then for thee to smite the Minister with reproachfull and disgracefull tearmes to smite him with thy mouth How is thy conscience better then Ananias his that commands to smite Paul on the mouth he that cannot brooke that Gods Ministers should not discharge a good conscience in preaching to the conscience be bold to challenge that man for a man of an evill conscience 4. That is a fourth note of a good conscience 4 Note of a good conscience To doe duty for conscience sake Rom. 13. 5. ye must be subject for conscience sake To doe good or abstaine from evill meerly for conscience sake is a note of a right good conscience indeed Conscience as we saw before doth excite and stirre up and bind to the doing of good and bind from the doing of evill Now when the conscience upon just information from the Word shall presse and forbid and then a man shall because conscience forbids forbeare or because it presses performe obedience thus to doe good or not to doe evill for conscience sake is a note of a good conscience It evidences a good conscience when the maine weight that sets the wheeles on worke is conscience of Gods coÌ„mandement When it is that Ps 119. 4. that sets a man on work Thou hast coÌ„manded us to keep thy precepts diligently The end of the commandement is love 1 Tim. 1. 5. and love is the fulfilling of the commandement Rom. 12. But what love From a pure heart and a good conscience 1 Tim. 1. 5. When conscience of the commandement carries a man to the fulfilling of the end of it then doth such love come froÌ„ a good conscience Salomons description of a good man Eccl. 9. 2. is that he fears an oath He saies not that swears not but that feares an oath For a man not to sweare may be the fruit of good education and of the awe a man hath stood in of his Governours but to feare an oath argues that a man feares the commandement Prov. 13. 13. and to feare the commandement is the note of a good conscience Here let mens consciences be tried Thou prayest in thy family hearest the Word keepest the Sabbath c. Now search thine heart and make inquirie what it is that carrieth thee to these duties Doest thou do them for conscience sake Doest thou find conscience to urge and presse thee and to give satisfaction of the conscience and obedience to the injunctions thereof Are these things done If so it is a signe of a good conscience But this discovers the naughtinesse of mens consciences who though they be sound in some good duties or in the avoyding of some evils yet is it not conscience that workes them thereto Yee must be subject not onely for wrath that is for feare of the Magistrates wrath and revenge but for conscience sake Rom. 13. 5. It is no good conscience when a man will be subject for his skins sake and lest hee smart by the Magistrates sword but then a mans conscience is good when in obedience to Gods Word and in conscience of his commandement he subjects The like may be said of all by-ends Ye must doe good duties not for profit not for credit not for vaine-glory not for â—aw but for conscience sake or else evill consciences ye have in that ye doe The Shechemites receive circumcision Gen. â—4 And is not circumcision Gods Ordinance And is it not joy of them that they will joyne to the Church and professe the true Religion Yes surely if it were done for conscience I but it is not done for conscience sake Alas no such matter but for Hamors sake the Lord of the Towne and for Shechems sake their young Master and for the hope of gaines sake Shall not their cattell and their substance and every beasts of theirs be ours Gen. 34. 23. For the oxen sake and not for conscience sake are the Shechemites circumcised Shechem for Dinahs sake receives the Sacrament Oh the zeale and forwardnesse that some will professe on a sudden What frequenters of holy exercises But what is it for conscience sake No such matter but Shechem is in hope of a match with Dinah and all these showes of Religion are neither for Gods sake nor conscience sake but all for Dinahs sake all under hope of preferment by a rich marriage They were goodly shewes of zeale Ioh. 6. 22. 24. in seeking and following after Christ but it was neither for Christ nor conscience sake but ver 26. for the loaves and the bread and their bellies sake Many of the heathens Esth 8. 17. turned Iewes Was there not joy of such Proselytes not a whit for not the fear of God but the feare of the Iewes fell upon them as many frequent the publicke assemblies more for feare of the statute then for fear of the commandement The officers of the King helped the Iewes Esther 9. 3. Was it for conscience sake Nothing lesse but for wrath sake and for feare because the feare of Mordecai fell upon them If the Pharises had done all that Mat. 6. for conscience sake which they did for vaine-glory sake they had had the glory of good consciences Many preached the Gospel in Pauls daies Phil. 1. Does not so good a worke argue a good conscience Yes if it had beene done for conscience sake but that was done for contention sake not to adde soules to the Church but to adde sorrowes to Pauls afflictions It is a note of a good conscience when that which we doe is done with a respect unto the commandement of God Psal 119. 6. and not with a squint respect unto our owne private for praise or profit It Vtrine majores heretici illine qui pictas ligneas an qui aureas argenteas imagines è templis exigerent ad conflandam monetam igne adurerent Dubro hist Bohe. l. 24. was a good argument of those Bohemians good consciences in plucking downe Images that they beate downe onely painted and wooden Images whilst Sigismund the Emperour pulled downe silver and golden ones to melt into money for pay of his Souldiers as they plead for themselves when they were held Heretikes for their fact If they had pulled downe such Images as
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
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
way to a good conscience but he whose faith doth not as well purifie the heart as pacifie it hath neither faith nor a good conscience It is idle to hope for peace by faith whilst thou livest impenitently in a sinfull course Thou canst have no peace of conscience so long as thou hast peace with thy sins Peace with conscience will be had by war with sin in the daily practise of repentance It it is but a dreame to think of a good cōscience in peace whilst a man makes no conscience of sin They that have a good conscience by Christs bloud may be indeed said to have no conscience of sin as Heb. 10. 2. But yet there is a great difference betweene having no conscience and making no conscience of sin To have no conscience of sin is to have a peaceable good conscience not accusing of sin being sprinkled with Christs blood To make no conscience of sin is for a man impenitently to live and ly in any sin Now let any judge whether these two can stand together that a man may live as he list and make no conscience of any sin and yet have such peace by faith as that he hath no Conscience of sin It is an unconscionable thing in this sense to lay all upon Christ an unconscionable request to have him take away our guiltinesse and yet wee would wallow in our filthinesse still How shall faith remove the sting when repentance removes not the Sin Men seeking peace by faith in Christs blood yet living and lying in their sins without repentance God will give them Iehues answer to Iehoram 2 King 9. 22. What peace so long as the whoredomes of thy mother Iezebel and her witchcrafts are so many So what peace of conscience so long as thine oathes Sabbath-breaches whoredomes drunkennes c. do remain and remaine unrepented of and unreformed It is true of all Sin which is spoken of Romish Idolatry Apoc. 14. 11. They have norest day nor night that is no peace of conscience to any of that religion so of all that live in any Sin they have no true rest day nor night that is as Isaiah interprets it There is no peace to the wicked Peace and wickednesse live not together under one roofe Wouldst thou then have a peaceable heart Get an humbled a mourning and a repentant heart for Sin The lesse peace with Sin the more peace with God and our owne Consciences 3. The constant and conscionable exercise of prayer An excellent meanes to helpe us to the sense of that peace which makes the conscience good Hee that hath a good conscience will make conscience of prayer And prayer will helpe to make a good conscience better Phil. 4. 7. In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made knowne unto God and marke what shall be the fruit thereof And the peace of God that passes all understanding shall keepe your hearts and minds through Iesus Christ See Iob 33. 26. He shall pray unto God and he will be favourable unto him and he shall see his face with joy It is many times with mens consciences as it was with Saul hee was vexed and disquieted with an evill spirit but Davids Harpe gave him ease Prayer is a Davids Harpe the musicke whereof sweetly calmes and composes a distempered and disquieted conscience and puts it into frame againe As in other disquiets of the heart after prayer David bids his soule returne unto her rest Ps 116. 4. 7. So we may in these disquiets of conscience do no lesse The way to get a good peaceable conscience is to have acquaintance with God and when wee have acquaintance with him then shall we have peace Iob 22. 21. Acquaint thy selfe now with him and be at peace Now acquaintance is gotten with God by prayer Zech. 13. 9. They shall call on my name and I will heare them I will say it is my people and they shall say the Lord is my God Loe how in prayer acquaintance is bred betweene God and his people and acquaintance breedes love and peace and peace a good Conscience Iudge then what pitious conscience they must needs have that make so little conscience of seeking God in this duty of wicked ones the Psalme speakes They call not upon God Psal 14. as much as Isaiah sayes There is no peace to the wicked they are utterly voyd of good Conscience CHAP. V. Integrity of Conscience how procured ANd thus we have seen how the conscience may be good for peace It followes to consider how it may become uprightly good with the goodnesse of Integrity The goodnesse of Integrity is gotten and kept by doing five things 1. Walke and live as Paul in this Text Before God Set thy selfe ever in all thy wayes as in the sight and presence of God who is the Iudge and Lord of conscience Of Moses it is said that he saw him that was invisible Heb. 11. 27. Therfore it is that men walke with such loose and evill consciences because they think they walke invisibly And they think that God sees not them because they see not God An upright conscience is a good conscience and this is the way to get an upright one Gen. 17. 1. Walke before me and be upright To have God alwayes in our eye will make us walke with upright hearts So Psal 119. 168. I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies that is in effect I have kept a good Conscience but how came he to doe it for all my wayes are before thee Conscience as we saw before is a knowledge together that is together with God Now then this is an excellent meanes to get and keepe a good conscience to be carefull to doe nothing but that which we would be content God should know as well as our selves Think with thy selfe before every evill action Am I content that God should know of this But how then may a man bring himself to this Set thy self alwayes in Gods presence and see the invisible God and see thy selfe visible in his eye and know that thou doest nothing which he takes not notice of This well thought upon and laid to heart would make men make much conscience of their wayes The contrary to this is rash walking Lev. 26. when a man walkes so loosely and heedlesly as if there were no eye upon him to view him in his actions 2. Frame thy whole Course by the Dirige gressus secundū verbum tuum Quid est Dirige secundum verbum tuum Virecti sint gressus mei quia rectum est verbum tuum Ego inquit distortus sum sub pondere iniquitatis sed verbum tuum est regula veritatis me ergo distortum à me corrige tanquam ad regulam hoc est ad verbum tuum Au. de ver Apo. ser 12. rule and shape it by the directions of the word of God Gods Word is the Rule of conscience Gal. 6. 16. As many as walk according to
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
and so fearefull for nothing Phil. 4. 6. To bee fearefull in nothing is indeed an excellent happinesse of a well composed minde How might one attaine thereto How might a man bring his heart to that fixed and stablisht temper See vers 7. The Peace of God that passes all understanding shall guard your hearts and mindes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall keepe with a guard as Kings have their guards about them to save their persons from violence shall guard your hearts that is your affections that they run not into extremities of impatience distraction desparation when feares and terrours shall come yee shall not be transported with such distracting thoughts as shall deprive you of the freedom of your minds but that you shall have them to attend upon God in the greatest of your dangers So that a man with a good conscience in the middst of all feares and combustions can sing with David Psal 116. 7. Returne unto thy rest O my soule The peace of a good conscience is like the ballast of a Ship Let a Ship goe to Sea without ballast in the bottome and every blast of wind is ready to overturne it but being wel ballasted though the winds blow strong yet it sayles steddily and safely Every blast of ill newes and tidings of feare how full of terrible apprehensions it fils an ill conscience it miserably unsettles and distracts it whilst a good conscience what blasts soever blow hath its heart steddy and at good command Mee thinkes when I consider Noah in his Cabbine or nest in the Arke with what security and quiet of heart hee sits there notwithstanding the clattering of the raines upon the Arke the roaring of the waters and the hideous howling and out-cryes of those that were drown'd in the flood I see the Embleme of a good conscience Tubalcain Lamech Iabal Iubal with what horrid perplexities are their soules distraught Some climbe up this house top some this high tree others flee to some high mountaine and there in what horror and amazement are they whilst one sees his Children sprawling another his wife strugling for life upon the face of the mercilesse waters but especially whilst they behold the waters rising by little and little and pursuing them to the house tops and threatning to sweepe them off from the heads of the Mountaines to which they had betaken themselves These feares and amazements were worse then an hundreth deathes But now all this while how is it with Noah hee sits dry in his cabbin and litterally was the saying of the Psalme verified of him Surely in the floods of great waters they came not nigh unto him Ps 32. 6. He hath his Ark pitcht within and pitcht without neither can the raines from above beat in nor the waters from beneath leake in let all fountaines of the great deepe be broken up and the flood-gates of heaven be opened yet not one drop of water comes at him and though the waters prevayle fifteene Cubits above the high hils and mountaines so that they bee covered yet Noah hee is out of all feare let them rise as high as they will yet shall hee keepe above them still Iust such is the condition and happinesse of a man with a good conscience in sad times Whilest the high hils and mountaines are covered the great and brave spirits of the world are overwhelmed with feare are possest with dreadfull apprehensions so as they know not which way to looke nor which way to take even then a man with a good conscience hath a strange quiet of heart is full of sweet security and resolution and amids all the shrikes howlings and wringing of hands of earthly men by patience possesses his soule is master of himselfe and composes his soule to rest His Arke is pitcht within and without The peace of God and the peace of a good conscience keepes the water-floods from comming into his soule The raine and the waves they beat upon the Arke but yet they pierced it not A man with a good conscience may fall into and may be swept away with common calamites yet how ever it fare with his outward man yet his soule is free from that horrour and those madding perplexities wherewithall wicked ones are overtaken The peace of a good conscience shall keepe off these distracting feares from his minde Though he cannot be free happily from the common destructions yet shall be free from the common distractions of the world There be two things in common calamities The sword without and terror within Deut. 32. 25. and the latter of the two is the worse by far Now here is the benefit of a good conscience though it doth not save alwaies from the sword without yet it delivers alwaies from the terror within which gives a terrible edge to the sword and which being removed the sword is nothing so terrible When the Canaanites were destroyed by Israel there was a double sorrow and smart upon them The sword of the Israelite and Gods Hornet Iosh 24. 12. What was that Hornet Nothing else but that distracting and perplexing feare and terrour wherewith God filled their hearts as appeares Exod. 23. 27 28. There is no Hornet can so vex with his sting as these terrors vex evill consciences in evill dayes Now here is the priviledge of good consciences though they may smart with the sword yet the Hornet shal not sting them nor fill their hearts with that throbbing anguish that these terrors in times of calamitie put evill consciences to A sweet motive to make any in love with a good conscience Whilest we look upon the evills of the times wee cannot but looke for euill times Looke we upon our sinnes and Gods administration abroad upon the malice and policies of the adversaries of Gods grace and what doe these but prognosticate heavy things Now suppose a flood should come would we not be glad of an arke and such a cabbin therein as should keepe out the waters from our soules Get then the pitch of a good Conscience and thou shalt fit like Noah if not free from the waters yet free from the feares of Lamech and Tubal-cain which are worse than the waters For the feares of such evills are more bitter and insufferable than the evils themselves Suppose I say a flood should come who would not give a kingdome for an Arke well pitcht Suppose calamitie should come who would not give a world for a good Conscience then Iabel Gen. 4. 20. he is busie in building of tents and he is among his flockes and cattell and Iubal Genes 4. 21. hee is wholly upon his merry pins as his Harpe and Organs He and his take the Timbrel and the Harpe and rejoyce at the sound of the Organ Iob 21. 12. And these jolly joviall lads give poore Noah many a drie flout many a scornfull scoffe whilest hee is building his Arke and aske what this brainsicke mad fellow meanes to make such a vessell whether he meant to sayle on the
dry land or to make a sea when he had made his ship I but when the flood is come and the waters begin to bee chin deepe then aske Iabel whether building of tents or building of an Arke bee the wiser worke then whether is better Noahs Arke or Iubals Pipes Now that the flood is come these come perhaps wading middle deep to the Arke side and bellow and howle to Noah to open the arke to them Now would not Iabel give all his tents and all his cattell but to bee where Noahs dog lyes would not Iubal now give all his pipes and merriment to have but the place that an hogge had in the Arke Now Iubal let us heare one of your merry songs pipe now and make your selves merry with gybing at Noahs folly in making a ship to saile on dry land What ailest thou Iubal to howle wring thine hands thus where is thine Harpe Organs now cheere up thy soule now with these vanities Now the Flood is come now Noah is in the Arke now Sirs you that are such men of renowne Gen. 6. 4. you that were the brave gallants of the earth now tell me who is the foole and who is the wise man now How many in the dayes of peace make light of a good Conscience yea if they see others to be but carefull in rigging of their Ship and pitching and trimming up such an Arke how ready are they to spend their byting scoffes and their tart jests upon them but if ever times of trouble calamitie and a fire flood of Gods wrath Nah. 1. 6 8. should breake in then would a good Conscience hold up the head with much comfort and resolution whilest those that formerly made a jeast of a good conscience should have aking and quaking hearts by reason of those unmeasurable feares that shall seize upon them A good conscience will make a man musick when Iubal shal be glad not only to put up but with indignation and anguish of heart to throw away and curse his pipes Well fare a good conscience in evill dayes Pitch and trim up this Ark there is no such provision against evill dayes as is a good conscience It will do a man service and support him when all the brave spirits of the earth shal be blank and at their wits end In the third place the benefit and comfort 3. The comfort of a good conscience in time of Sicknesse of a good conscience is conspicuous in the time of sicknesse or a mans private and personall crosses in his estate c. A sicke man with an hayle conscience is a cheary and a comfortable man Prov. 13. 14. The spirit of a man will sustaine his infirmity that is the spirit it selfe being hayle and sound it wil enable him to bear any bodily sicknesse But a wounded spirit who can beare yea a wounded or a sicke body who can comfortably beare if the spirit or conscience be sicke But let the conscience bee good and sound and it helpes a man with great ease and comfort to beare the sicknesse of the body It is a shrewd burthen to beare two sicknesses at once to have a sicke body and a sicke conscience A man shall find enough of the easiest of them single and alone But yet an hayle conscience in an infirme body sweetly helpes our infirmitie Let a man have ever so hayle and heathfull a body yet if the conscience be naught and withall awakened fals to galling and griping he shall find but little joy in his bodily health so contrarily let a mans conscience be good and though his body be sicke and weake yet it is a great deale of sweet refreshment that it shall receive from the conscience Sicknesse in it selfe is exceeding uncomfortable and in the time of sicknesse commonly all bodily comforts the comforts of meates drinkes and sleepe faile yea but then here is the benefit of a good conscience that will not then fayle but as it is said Eccl. 10. 9. Money answers all things so a good conscience answers all things the comfort of it supplies the wants of all other comforts When in sicknesse the comfort of meat drink and sleepe is gone they are all found againe in the comfort of a good conscience that will be meat and drinke that will be rest and sleep that will make a mans sick-bed soft and easie that shall be as the Angels were to Christ in his hunger in the Wildernesse they ministred unto him and so will a good conscience minister comfort in the want of all other comforts so that a man may say of a good conscience as we use to say of some solid substantiall dish that there are Partridge Phesants and Quailes in it so though outward comforts cease their office and their worke be suspended yet a good conscience comes in its roome and in it are meat drinke sleepe ease refreshment and what not A good conscience is an Electuary or a Cordiall that hath all these ingredients in it There is no such Cordiall to a sicke man as the cordiall of a good conscience All Physicians to this Physician are but such Physians as Iobs friends Iob 13. 4. Yea are Physicians of no value A motive of great weight to make men in love with a good conscience Who can be free from sicknesse and how tedious and wearisome a time is the time of sicknesse Now who would not make much of a Cordiall that might cheare him then of a receipt that might feed him then As then we would bee glad of a chearfull and comfortable spirit upon our sicke beds so make much of a good conscience Whence is it that most men in their sicknesses have such drooping spirits lye groaning altogether under their bodily paines or lye sottishly and senslesly no sense of any thing but paine and sicknesse Meerely from the want of a good conscience they have laid up no Cordial no comfortable Electuary for themselves in their health time against the day of sicknesse Indeed you shall have the miserable comforters of the world on this manner cheering them why how now man where is your heart Plucke up a good heart man never feare for a little sicknes c. True indeed they should not need to feare if they could plucke up a good heart But they that will plucke it up when they are sicke must lay it up when they are well Hee that hath a good conscience to get when he lyes upon his sicke bed is like a man that hath his Aqua-vitae to buy when hee is fallen into a swoune A wise man that feares swouning would have his hot-water-bottle hanging alwayes ready at his beds-head But as in other crosses by sicknesse and the like so is the comfort of a good conscience never more sweet then when a man is under the crosse for conscience sake and suffers affliction and vexation to keepe a good conscience Then above all other times will conscience doe the office of a Comforter and will
stand to him that will stand for it When Nebuchadnezzar heares his Furnace seaven times hotter than at other times then a good conscience will speak comfort seven times sweeter than at other times Are Gods Saints for good conscience â—on Acts and Mon. Omnis nobis vilis est poena ubi pura comes est conscientia Tiburt apud Baren An. 168. sake in prison Good conscience will make their prisons delectable hort-yards So doth Algerius an Italian Martyr date a comfortable Epistle of his From the delectable hortyard of the Leonine prison a prison in Venice so called So that as he said that hee had rather be in prison with Cato than with Caesar in the Senate house so in this regard it was more comfortable to be with Philpot in the Cole-house than with Bonner in his Palace Bonners conscience made his Palace a Cole house and a Dungeon whilst Philpots made the Cole-house a Palace Are Gods Saints in the Stocks Better it is sayes Philpot to sit in the Stocks of the world then in the stocks of a damnable conscience Therefore though they be in the Stocks yet even then the righteous doth sing and rejoyce yea even in the Stocks and prison Paul and Silas sang in the Stocks Sing in the Stocks Nay Hinc est quod è contrario innocens etiam inter ipsa tormenta fruitur conscientiae securitate cum de poena metuat de innocentia gloriatur Hieron ad Demetti ad â—â— 1. more they can sing in the flames and in the middst of the fires Isay 24. 15. Glorifie God in the fires And worthy Hawks could clap his hands in the middst of the flames So great and so passing all understanding is the peace and comfort of a good conscience So that in some sense that may be said of it which is spoken of faith Heb. 11. 34. By it they quenched the violence of fire Gods servants were so rapt and ravisht with the sense of Gods love and their inward peace of conscience that they seem'd to have a kind of happy dedolencie and want of feeling of the smart of outward torments Who knowes what trialls God may bring him to Wee have no patent for our peace nor his free liberty in the profession of the Gospel Suppose we should be cald to the stake for Christs sake Would we be chearful would we sing in the flames Get a good conscience The cause of Christ is a good cause now with a good cause get a good conscience and wee shall be able with all chearfulnesse to lay downe our lives for Christ and his Gospel sake CHAP. XII The comfort and benefit of a good conscience in the dayes of Death and Iudgement IN the fourth place The time of death is a time wherein the benefit and comfort of a good conscience is exceeding great Death hath a ghastly looke and 4. The comfort of a good conscience at the day of Death terrible able to daunt the proudest and bravest spirit in the world but then hath it a ghastly looke indeed when it faces an evill conscience Indeed sometimes and most commonly conscience in many is secure at the time of death God in his justice so plaguing an affected security in life with an inflicted security at Death And the Lord seemes to say as once to the Prophet Go make their consciences asleepe at their death as they have made it asleepe all their life lest conscience should see and speake and they heare and be saved God deales with conscience as with the Prophet Ez. 3. 26. I will make thy tongue cleave to the roofe of thy mouth that thou shalt be dumbe therefore they die though not desparately as Saul and Achitophel yet sottishly without comfort and feeling of Gods love as Nabal But if conscience be awakened and have its eyes and mouth opened no heart can imagine the desparate and unsufferable distresses of such an heart Terrours take hold of him as waters Iob 27. 20. Terrours make him afrai on every side Iob 18. 11. Then is that true Iob 25. 23 24. Hee knowes that the day of darknesse is ready at hand Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid they shall prevaile against him as a King ready to the battell And no wonder for hee is now brought unto the King of Terrours as Death is called Iob 18. 14. A man that hath an ill conscience if his eyes be opened and his conscience awakened he sees death in all the terrible shapes that may bee Sometimes he sees death comming like a mercilesse Officer and a cruell Sergeant to arrest and to drag him by the throat to the prison and place of Torment Psal 55. 15. Let death seize upon them They see it comming like that cruell servant in the Parable to his fellow Math. 18. catching them by the very throat Sometimes he sees death in the shape of some greedy Lyon or some ravening Wolfe ready to devour him and to feed upon his carkasse Ps 49. 14. Death shall feed on them even as a ravenous beast shall feed upon his prey Imagine in what a terrible plight the Samaritans where in when the Lyons set upon them 2 Kin. 17. and by it imagine in what case an ill conscience is when it beholds the face of death It puts an ill conscience into that case in good earnest that David was in in the case of triall Ps 55. 4 5. My heart is sore pained within me and the terrors of death are fallen upon me fearfulnesse and trembling are come upon mee and horrour hath overwhelmed me Sometimes againe he sees death as the Israelites the fiery serpents with mortall stings Sometimes as a mercilesse landlord or the Sheriffe comming with a Writ of Firmae ejectione to throw him out of house and home and to turne him to the wide Common yea he sees death as Gods executioner and messenger of eternall death yea hee sees death with as much horrour as if hee saw the Devill In so many fearfull shapes appeares death to an evill conscience upon the death-bed So as it is indeed the King of terrors to such an one that hath the terrors of conscience within There is no one thought so terrible to such an one as the thought of death nothing that hee more wishes to avoid Oh how loath and unwilling is such an one to dye But come now to a man that hath lived as Paul did in all good conscience and how is it with him upon his death-bed His end is peace so full of joy and comfort so is hee ravished with the inward and unspeakable consolations of his conscience that it is no wonder at all that Balaam should wish to dye the death of the righteous the death of a man with a good conscience The day of a mens mariage is the day of the joy of a mans heart Can. 3. 11. and the day of mariage is not so joyfull a day as is the day of death to a good conscience There are but
good consciences upon your death-beds If your consciences can say for you that you have beene carefull in your life time to know God to walke holily and religiously before him c. then wee dare be bold to comfort and cheere you then dare wee speake peace confidently to you But if your consciences accuse you of your ignorance your oathes Sabbath-breaches worldlinesse rebellion uncleannesse oppression drunkennesse c. and finally impenitencie What is it you would have us to doe What can wee say but as the Prophet to Zedekiah Ier. 37. 19. Where are now your Prophets that prophesied unto you saying the King of Babylon shall not come against you So where be those that in your life time told you ye need not to be so careful and precise to keep good consciences lesse ado will serve the turne now what think ye of them now what peace have you in those wayes what comfort can these give you now Or else what can we say when men in anguish of conscience lye tossing upon their beds but what Reuben said to his brethren when they were in distresse Gen. 42. 21 22. Did not I warne you saying Sin not c. So must wee what doe ye call to us for comfort did not wee warne you many a time and oft saying Sinne not nor live in those dangerous courses Did not wee warne you Oh to have our consciences and Gods Ministers thus to grate upon us what an uncomfortable condition will this be Would wee then prevent such sorrow and be cheerfull and cheered at our latter ends lay up a good conscience then lay in somewhat for conscience and Gods Ministers to worke upon and from which they both may be able to raise comfort to you Get a good conscience and live in it all thy dayes and then though thou shouldest want the benefit of a comforting Minister yet thy conscience shall doe the office of a comforting Minister and shall be the same unto thee that the Angel was unto Christ in his agony Luke 22. 43. and shall minister such comfort unto thee as shall make thee ready to leap into the grave for joy This shall be as another Iacobs staffe for thee to leane rest upon when thou shalt be upon thy death-bed If men knew but the worth of a good conscience at the houre of death wee should need no other motive to worke mens hearts to be in love therewith Fiftly and lastly the benefit and comfort 5. The comfort of a good conscience at the day of Iudgment of a good conscience is great at the day of judgement Oh the sweet comfort and confidence of heart that a good conscience will yield unto a man at that day What will become of all the Gigantean spirits and the brave fellowes of the earth then Alas for their yellings and cursing of themselves and their companions what howling and crying to the mountaines as they did Revel 6. Hide us Cover us yea dash and quash us in a thousand pieces When an ill conscience is awakened it is not to be imagined how small a thing will gastre it The sound of a shaken leafe shall chase them and they shall fly as flying from a sword and they shall fall when none pursues Levit. 26. 36. A dreadfull sound is in his eares Iob. 15. 21. Hee heares nothing but he thinkes he heares alwaies some terrible and dreadfull noise And then if a shaken leafe shall chase and shall put them into a shaking feare what case will such be in when as Iob speakes Iob 26. 11. The pillars of heaven shall tremble and when the powers of heaven shall be shaken Luke 21. 26. When the heavens shall shake and flame above them when the earth shall quake and tremble under them what case will they be in then If meere imaginations fill their eares with dreadfull sounds where there is no sound at all Oh what a dreadfull sound shall be in their eares when the Sea shall roare Luk 21. 25. when the last trumpe shall sound 1 Cor. 15. when they shall heare the shout and voyce of an Angel 1 Thes 4. 16. what dreadfull sounds will these be in the eares of ill consciences How will these dreadfull sounds confound their soules with horrour and amazement But now for a good conscience how is it with it then Even amiddst all these dreadfull sounds it lookes up and lifts up the head Luke 21. 28. and enables a man with a cheery confidence to stand before the Son of man Luke 21. 36. The Malefactor who looks for the halter how dreadful is the Iudges cōming to the Assises attended with the troopes of halberds in his eye but the prisoner that knowes his owne innocencie and that he shall be quit discharged his heart leaps at the Iudges approach how terrible soever he come attēded to the bench it glads his heart to see that day which shal be the day of his liberty release An hypocrite shall not come before him Ioh. 13. 16. much lesse shal look up lift up his head or stand before him Ps 1. 5. But the righteous and the man with a good conscience he shall hold up and cheerfully lift up his head when all the surly and proud Zamzummins of the earth that here lifted up their heads and nebs so high shall become howling and trembling suitors to the deafe mountaines to hide them from the presence of the Lambe on the throne Oh! they that feare the Lambe on the throne how dreadfull unto them will be the Lyon on the throne It will be with good and evill consciences in that day as it was with Pharoahs Butler and Baker on Pharaohs birth-day The Butler he knew hee should be restored to honour and go from the Prison to the Palace therefore he comes out of the prison ful of joy jollity he holds up his head and outfaces the proudest of his enemies But the Baker hee knowes his head shall be lift from off him and therefore when Pharaohs birth-day comes wherein all others are in jollity yet hee droopes and hangs downe the head hee knowes it would prove an heavie day of reckoning with him Such will the apparition of Christ unto judgement be unto good and evill consciences as was the apparition of the Angel Math. 28. 2 3 4 5. There was a great earthquake for the Angel of the Lord descended frō heaven his countenance was like lightening and his rayment white as snow Here was a terrible sight but yet not alike terrible to all the beholders For for feare of him the keepers did shake became like dead men But the Angel said unto the women feare not ye for I know that ye seek Iesus So at the last day when Christ shall come to judgment evill consciences shall be as the Keepers whilst all good consciences shall heare that comfortable voice Feare not yee for I know that you have sought for God all your daies ye have sought to keepe a good
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
to the defiled their conscience is defiled and that being defiled it defiles all it meddles with as under the Law the Leaper defiled all he touched The best meat disht and dressed with defiled and dirty hands is loathsome to us The honest works of a mans calling are good workes in themselves but no good workes to him that doth them without a good conscience Pro. 21. 4. An high look and a proud heart and the plowing of the wicked is Sin The calling of Husbandry is counted the most honest calling of all others yet where a good cōsciēce is wanting a mans very plowing is Sin Come to holy duties of Religion and Gods service and how is it with a man wanting a good conscience in them That curse of Davids Psal 109. 8. Let his prayer be turned into Sin lies upon the services of all evill consciences See Pro. 15. 8. The sacrifice of the wicked that is of him that hath an evill conscience is an abomination but the prayer of the upright that is of a man that hath a good and upright conscience is his delight Observe the opposition Hee sayes not the prayer of the wicked and the prayer of the upright nor the sacrifice of the wicked and the sacrifice of the upright but the sacrifice of the wicked and the prayer of the upright A sacrifice had prayer with it but yet it was more sumptuous more solemn then single prayer Now who would not thinke but such cost should make a man welcom yet the single prayer of the upright is accepted whilst his sacrifice is an abomination yea and that a vile abomination Is 66. 3. A man of evill conscience delighting in his abominations makes his holiest services such Let such an one come to the Sacraments and how will it be with him there even as in the former To the impure even the pure Sacraments are impure Simon◠Magus rather defiles the waters of Baptisme then they clense him and it is not carnall baptisme that availes any thing without the answer and stipulation of a good conscience 1 Pet. 3. 21. And for the Sacrament of the Supper whether doth it profit an uncleane conscience or such a conscience pollute it It may be judged by a like case resolved Hag. 2. 11 14. The uncleane person by a dead body touching the Bread or Wine or Oyle makes these to be uncleane The ceremoniall uncleannesse by the touch of a dead body typified the morall uncleannes of an evill conscience unpurged from dead works God looks specially at the cōscience in all our services and if hee finds that foule and filthy he throws the dung of mens sacrifices in their faces that come with the dung of their filthy consciences before his face See therefore how Paul serves God 2 Tim. 1. 3. Whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience It is an impure service that is not performed with a pure conscience as sleight as the world make of puritie How much more shal the blood of Christ purge your consciences from dead workes Heb. 9. 14. But to what end are they purged To serve the living God Therfore marke that till the conscience be purged and made good there is no serving of God So Heb. 10. 22. Let us draw neere that is in prayer and the like duties But how Having our hearts sprinkled from an evill conscience Otherwise it is but a folly for us to draw neere for God will not be neere when a good conscience is far off And therfore we are bid to purifie our hearts when wee are bid draw nigh to God Iam. 4. 8. Behold here then a speciall motive to make a good conscience beautifull in our eye As we would be loath our services of God our prayers and holy performances should be abominable in Gods eye so labour for good consciences As we would have cōfort in alour duties of obedience so labor to make our conscience good It is a great deale of confidence that silly ignorant ones have in their good prayers their good serving of God as they call it yea it is all the ground of their hope of salvation when they are demanded an account of their hope now alas your good prayers and your good serving of God! why what do you talking of these things Hath Christ purged your consciences from dead workes Have you by faith got your consciences sprinkled and rinced in Christs blood and so have ye made them good If not never talke of good prayers and good serving of God your prayers cannot be good whilst your consciences are naught An evill conscience before God and a good service to God cannot stand together But would you have your prayers good indeed and your service acceptable indeed then let your first care be to make your conscience good Fourthly let this worke with us as a The fourth motive to a good conscience maine motive to a good conscience That it is the Ship and the Arke wherein the faith is perserved The faith is a rich commoditie a precious fraught and a good conscience is the bottome and the vessell wherein it is caried So long as the ship is safe and good so long the goods therin are safe but if the ship split upon the Rocks or have but a leake therein then are all the goods therein in danger of being lost and cast away So long as a man keeps a good conscience there is no feare of losing the faith the integrity and soundnes of the doctrin therof Constancie in the truth is a fruit of good conscience Psalm 119. 54 55. I have kept thy Law he had not declined from nor forsaken the truth of God but what held and kept him This I had because I kept thy precepts Keeping of a good conscience will keepe a man in the truth It is that which is the holy preservative to save from all errors heresies false doctrins The better conscience the sounder judgment the sounder heart the sounder head As the better digestion in the stomach the sreer the head is from ascēdent fumes that would distemper and trouble the same Iohn 7. 17. If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God How shall a man come to have a sound and a good judgement to be able to judge what is truth and what is not Let him get a good conscience and make conscience of doing the will of God Iohn 14. 21. Hee that hath my commandements and keepes them c. such a man hath and keepes a good conscience And what benefit shall such a one have by keeping of a good conscience I will love him and I will manifest my selfe unto him And Ps 50. 23. To him that orders his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God God doth communicate himselfe and his truth to such as make conscience of their wayes The pure in heart shall see God and the secret of the Lord is with them that feare