few that can marry with that joy wherewith a good conscience dies It enables a man not onely to looke Ananias and the Councel in the face but even to look death it selfe in the face without those amazing terrours yea it makes the face of death seeme lovely and amiable Hee whose conscience is good and sees the face of God reconciled to him in Christ hee can say as Iacob did when he saw the face of Ioseph Gen. 46. 30. Now let me dye since I have seene thy face It is the priviledge of a good conscience alone to goe to the grave as Agag did to Samuel and to say that truly which he spake besides the booke 1 Sam. 15. 32. Hee came pleasantly and hee said Surely the bitternesse of death is past Hee was deceived and therefore had no such cause to be so pleasant but a good conscience can yea cannot chuse but be so pleasant even when going out of the world because the guilt of sinne being washed away in Christs blood it knowes that the bitternesse of death is past and the sweetnesse of life eternall is at hand A man whose debts are paid he dares goe out of doores dare meet and face the Sergeants and the conscience purged by the blood of Christ can look as undauntedly on the face of death He that hath forgotten the sting that is the guilt of conscience taken away by faith in Christ he lookes not upon death as the Israelites upon the fiery Serpents but lookes upon it as Paul doth 1 Cor. 15. O death where is thy sting Who feares a Bee an Hornet a Snake or a Serpent when they have lost their sting The guilt of sinne is the sting of conscience it s the sting of death that stings the conscience The sting of death is sinne 1 Cor. 15. Plucke then sin out of the conscience and at once the conscience is made good and death made weake and disarmed of his weapon And when the conscience sees death unstinged and disarmed it is freed of feare and even in the very act of death can joyfully triumph over death oh Death where is thy sting A good conscience lookes upon death as upon the Sheriffe that comes to give him possession of his Inheritance or as Lazarus upon the Angels that came to carry his soule into Abrahams bosome and therfore can welcome death and entertaine him joyfully And whereas an ill conscience makes a man see death as if he saw the Devill a good conscience makes a man see the face of death as Iacob saw Esau's face Gen. 33. I have seene thy face as the face of God they see the face of death with unspeakeable joy ravishment of heart and exultation of spirit Well now what a motive have wee here to make us labour for good conscience Even Balaam himselfe would faine make a good end and die in peace and who wishes not his death-bed may be a mount Nebo from whence he may see the heavenly Canaan Lo here Balaam the way to dye the death of the righteous I have lived in all good conscience untill this day They that have conscience in their life shal have comfort at their death they that live conscionably they shal dy comfortably they that live in all good conscience till their dying day shall depart in the abundance of comfort at their dying day There will come a day wherein wee must lay downe these Tabernacles the day of death will assuredly come How lamentable a thing will it then be to be so destitute and desolate of all comfort as to be driven to that extremity as to curse our birth day oh what would Comfort be worth at our last houre at our last gaspe whilst our dearest friends shall be weeping wringing their hands and lamenting then then what would inward comfort be worth Who would not hold the whole world an easie price for it then Well then would wee then have Comfort and Ioy oh then get a good conscience now which will yield comfort when all other comforts shall utterly faile and shall be life in the middst of death How happy is that man that when the sentence of death is passed upon him can say with Hezekiah Is 38. 3. Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Indeed the text sayes that Hezekiah wept sore but yet not as fearing death for hee could not feare death who had thus feared God but because the promise was not yet made good to him in a Son and Heire of his kingdome hence came those teares It is otherwise an unspeakable joy that such a conscience as Hezekiahs was will speake to a man upon his death-bed Every one professes a desire to make a good end Here is the way to make good that desire to live in all good conscience Alas how pittifull and miserable a condition live most men in All the dayes of their life and health they have no regard of a good conscience Notwithstanding that men are pressed continually to this one care by the instancie and importutunitie of Gods Ministers yet how miserably is it neglected Well at last the day of death comes and then what would not they give for a comfortable end If the gold of Ophir would purchase comfort it should flie then Then poast for this Minister and run for the other as in the sweating sicknesse in King Edwards dayes then for Gods sake but one word of comfort then O blessed men of God one word of peace Now alas what would you have them to doe Are they or your own courses in fault that you want comfort at your death What would you have us doe Wee must referre you to your owne consciences we cannot make oyle of flint nor crush sweet wine out of sowre Grapes we dare not flatter you against your cōsciences If you would give us a world we cannot comfort you when your owne consciences witnesse against you that such comforts belong not to you Doe not idely in this case hope for comfort from Ministers be it knowne unto you you must have it from your owne consciences Many on their death-bed cry to the Minister as she did to the King 2 King 6. 26 27. Helpe my Lord O King But marke what hee answers If the Lord doe not helpe thee whence shall I helpe thee out of the barne floore or out of the Wine presse So must wee answer to such as cry Helpe helpe O man of God If God and your owne consciences helpe you not whence shall we help you If there had beene Corne within the barnes the King could easily have helped her but he could not make corne So if men have carryed any thing into their consciences if they themselves have inned any provision and comfort by being conscionable in their lives then we can helpe and comfort them but otherwise doe not thinke that we can make comforts and make
Propter incertitudinem propriae Iustitiae periculum inanis gloriae tutissimum est fiduciam totam in sola Dei misericordia benignitate reponere Bellar. de Iustific lib. 5. cap. 7. merit comes to this at last That by reason of the uncertainty of our owne righteousnesse and the danger of vaine-glory it is the most safe way to repose our whole confidence in the mercie and goodnesse of God alone Which way soever Bellarmine is gone himselfe or any of his religion I thinke common reason will teach a man so much wisdome to go the safest way to heaven and that the safest way is the best way The Lord that would have us make our calling and election sure 2 Peter 1. 10. would not have us put so great a matter as the salvation of our soules upon Bellarmines hazard and confessed uncertaintie of our owne righteousnesse Now as in case of doctrine so in case of practise it is great wisedome and a great meanes of keeping a good conscience to doe that wherein we may Tutioris vivere and to take to that which Tutissimum est to follow that which is safest and to take to that side which is the surest and the freest from danger CHAP. VII Two markes if a good Conscience THus wee see how a good conscience may be had it followes we consider how it may be knowne and be discerned to be had The markes and notes by which a good conscience may bee knowne are seven 1. This in the Text. In all good conscience 1. Note of good conscience Conscience in all things It is a good note of a good conscience when a man makes conscience of all things all duties and all Sins There be that have naturall consciences principled by some generall grounds of nature and it may bee so farre as these rules carry them may make some conscience but their principles comming short they must needs also come as short of a good conscience I have lived saies Paul here in all good conscience and Heb. 13. 18. Wee trust wee have a good Conscience in all things It is a good conscience when a mans life all his life is a life of conscience when in all his life and the whole tenour thereof he makes conscience of all that God commands and forbids Psal 119. 6. Then shall I not be ashamed what breeds shame but evill conscience when I have respect unto all thy Commandements When all are respected there is no shame because where all are respected there is good conscience and where good conscience is there is no shame That argued Davids good conscience Psal 119. 101. I have refrained my feet from every evill way Try mens consciences by this and it will discover a great deale of evill conscience in the world Many a morall man makes conscience of doing his neighbour the least wrong hee will not wrong or pinch any man payes every man his owne deales fairly and squarely in his commerce there is no man can say blacke is his eye you shall have him thank God that he hath as good a conscience as the best These are good things and such things as men ought to make conscience of but yet here is not enough to make a good conscience A good conscience must be all good conscience or it is no good conscience Now indeed these men may have good consciences before men but my Text tels us that we must live in all good conscience before God And Paul joines them two together Act. 24. 13. And herein I doe exercise my selfe to have a good conscience voyd of offence towards God and towards men Now be it that these have good conscience before men yet what have they before God Alas they are miserably ignorant in the things of God no consciences to acquaint themselves with his truth no conscience of prayer in their families of reading the Scriptures no conscience of an oath and as little of the Sabbath and the private duties thereof How far are these from good conscience Others againe seeme to make conscience of their duties before God but in the meane time no conscience of duties of Justice in the second Table make no conscience of oppression racking rents covetousnesse over-reaching c. these are no better consciences then the former neither are good because they live not in all good conscience Thus may ◠man discover the naughty consciences of most Iehu seemes wondrous zealous for the Lord and seemes to be a man of a singular good conscience in the demolishing the Tēple of Baal putting to death his Priests I but if Iehu make conscience of letting Baals Tēple stand why doth he not as well make conscience of letting Ieroboams Calves stand If Iehu had had a good conscience hee would as ill have brookt Ieroboams as Iezebels Idolatry he would have purged the land of all Idols Herod seemes to make some conscience of an Oath Marke 6. 26. For his Oaths sake hee would not reject her It is joy of him that hee is a man of so good conscience I but in the meane time why makes hee no conscience of incest and murther Hee feares and makes conscience to breake an unlawfull Oath but makes no conscience to cut an holy Prophets throate Who would not have thought Saul to have beene a man of a very good conscience see how like a man of good conscience hee speakes 1 Sam. 14. 34. Sinne not against the Lord in eating with the blood Hee would have the people make conscience of eating with the blood and indeed it was a thing to be made conscience of I but he that makes conscience of eating the flesh of Sheepe and Oxen with the blood like a bloody hearted tyrāt as he was he makes no conscience of sucking and shedding the blood of fourescore and five of Gods Priests Iust the conscience of his blood-hound Doeg 1 Sam 21. 7. Doeg was there that day deteined before the Lord. How deteined either out of a religious conscience of the Sabbath or by occasion of a vow the man made conscience of going before the Sabbath were ended or the dayes of his vow finisht A thing indeed to be made conscience of men ought not to depart from Gods house till holy services bee finisht a duety that even the Prince must make conscience of Ezek. 46. 10. Who therefore would not judge this Edomite a conscionable Proselyte I but why then makes hee no conscience of Lying Psalm 25. Why no conscience of being instrumentall to Sauls injustice in that barbarous villany of slaying not onely innocent men but innocent Priests of the Lord such were the Consciences of the Chiefe Priests Matth. 27. 6. How like honest conscionable men they speake It is not lawfull for to put them into the treasury because it is the price of blood Sure it is great conscience ought to bee made of bringing the price of blood into the Temple treasurie Are they not then men of good conscience It is not lawfull
yet all could not make them shake hands with a good coÌ„science The raine floods and winds could not bring downe the house founded upon the rocke Mat. 7. Notwithstanding all trials a good conscience stands to it and holds it owne and speakes as once Father Rawlins did the Bishop Rawlins you left mee Acts and Mon. Rawlins you find me and Rawlins by Gods grace I will continue Try yet a good conscience farther with the tentations on the right hand which commonly have as much more strength in them above the other as the right hand hath above the left and yet we shall find the right hand too weake to plucke a good conscience out of its station It was a sore tentation wherwith Moses was assaulted The treasures and pleasures the honors favors of the Aegyptian Court Princesse All these wooe him not to goe the people of God Had that people been setled and at rest in Canaan yet had it beene a great tentation to prefer Aegypt before Canaan But the people are in Aegypt in affliction in bondage therfore so much the more strength in the tentation What will you be so mad to leave all for nothing certaine honours for certaine afflictions who can tell but you may be raised to this greatnesse to be an instrument of good to your people You by your favour in the Court may bee meanes to ease them of their bondage and so you may doe the Church service with your greatnesse c. Here was a tentation on the right hand and with the right hands strength Well and how speeds it Is Moses able to withstand it See Heb. 11. 24 25 26. He refused to be called the Son of Pharaohs Daughter c. All would not doe nor stir him a whit Those faithfull Worthies before mentioned could not be stirred with all the cruelties their adversaries could invent I but it may be a tentation on the right hand might have made them draw away the right hand of fellowship from a good conscience Well their enemies therefore will try what good they can do that wayes Heb. 12. 37. They were tempted that is on the right hand they were sollicited and inticed and allured with faire promises of honours favours preferments as Bonner used to deale with the Martyrs hee had sometimes butter and oyle as well as fire and faggot in his mouth Thus were they tempted but yet what availed these tentations Iust as much as their stones sawes swords prisons all a like They for all these tentations keepe a good conscience to their dying day and hold fast the faith and truth unto the end A good conscience is of the mind of those trees in Iothams parable Iudg. 9. It will not with the Olive lose its fatnesse nor with the Fig-tree lose its sweetnesse nor with the vine its wine of cheerfulnes to have the fattest and sweetest preferments and pleasures of the world no though it were to raigne over the trees It was an excellent resolution of Benevolus Benevolo Iustina praecepit ut adversus fidem patrum imperialia decreta dictaret Illo vero se impia verba prolaturum abnuente celsiorem honoris gradum spopondit si maÌ„data perficeret cui Benevolus Quid mihi pro impietatis mercede altiorem promittis gradum hunc ipsum quem habeo auferte dunt inâ—gram fidei conscientiam tuear Ac protonus cingulum ante pedes ejus abjecit Sâ—gon de occid Imp. l. 1. pag. 200. in his answer to Iustina the Arrian Empresse profering preferments to him to have beene instrumentall in a service which could not be done with a good conscience What doe ye promising mee an higher degree of preferment for a reward of impiety yea even take this from me which already I have so that I may keepe a good conscience And so forthwith hee threw at his feet his girdle the ensigne of his honour Thus doth a good conscience throw and trample honour and preferment under foot to maintaine its owne integritie Thus can nothing corrupt a good conscience I have beene young and now am old and yet never saw I the righteous forsaken to wit of God Psalm 37. David out of his experience could have said as much in this point I have beene young and now am old yet never saw I God and godlinesse forsaken by the righteous by the man that had a good conscience But the man that had a good conscience when hee was young will hold out and have it when he is old It is the great honour and grace of a good Conscience which Walden thinks he spake to the disgrace of Wickliffe Ita ut cano placeret quod inveni complacebat He was young and old one and the same man Old age decayes the body the strength the senses but conscience it touches not that holds out sound to death As of Christ in another sense Heb. 13. So may it be said of a good conscience in this Yesterday and to day and the same for ever A good conscience is no changeling but let a mans estate change from rich to poore from poore to rich or let the times change from good to evill or from evill to worse or a mans dayes change from young to old let his haires and head change yet among all these changes a good coÌ„science wil not change but hold it owne untill its last day Now put mens consciences upon this triall their inconstancie either in good causes or courses will discover their naughtines In a good cause how many are like Darius his coÌ„scieÌ„ce struggles a great while for Daniel he knew he was innoceÌ„t he knows the action to be unjust and therfore labours all day till the setting of the Sun for his deliverance Dan. 6. 14. but yet overcome with the Presidents Princes urgencie ver 16. he coÌ„mands him to the Lions den Here was a natural conscience standing for equity and justice but yet no good conscience it holds but till Sun set and his conscience went downe with the Sun His coÌ„science yields is overcome though it know the act to be unjust Pilats conscience makes him plead for Christ In his conscience he acquits him and thrice solemnly professes that hee finds no fault in him and therefore cannot in conscience condemne him yea withall seekes to release him Iohn 19. 12. Is not here now a good conscience Indeed it had beene so in this particular fact if his conscience had beene inflexible and had held out But when Pilate heares them say that if he be his friend he is no friend to Caesar Iohn 19 12. and whilest withall hee is willing to content the people Marke 15. 15. Now that there is feare on the one side and desire to curry favour on the other where now is his conscience Now hee presently delivers him to be crucified though he knowes in his conscience that there is no fault in him What a good conscience hath many a Iudge and Lawyer How stiffely will they stand
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
him So that he that hath a good conscience hath the onely Antidote the most excellent Amulet and plague-cake at his brest that is in the world to save him from the pestilence and infection of Popery Arminianisme Brownisme Anabaptisme c. So long as the Ship of conscience is whole so long the Iewell of faith is safe Paul would have a Bishop to hold fast the faithfull Word and to be sound in doctrin Tit. 1. 9. But yet marke it that he would first have him be a man of a good conscience in the two foregoing verses And 1 Tim. 3. 9. he would have the Deacons hold the mysterie of the faith in a pure conscience Contrarily nothing so endangers the losse of the faith and truth and soundnesse of doctrine as doth the losse of good conscience A corrupt conscience soone corrupts the judgement 1 Tim. 1. 19. Holding faith and a good conscience which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwracke If the ship of conscience cracke how soone will the merchandize of faith wrack If once the conscience crack the braine will soone prove crazie and an unsound conscience makes a fearefull way for an unsound and rotten judgement 2 Tim. 3. 8. They resist the truth there is their corrupt conscience what followes upon it Men of corrupt minds unsound in their judgement concerning the faith How frequent a thing is it in experience to see men when they lose good conscience together with it either to lose their gifts as the unprofitable servant his Masters talent or else to lose the truth and to fal into pestilent and dangerous errours So those Prophets that made not conscience in faithfull and holy execution of their office see what was the fruit of their evill conscience Micah 3. 5 6 7. Therefore night shall be unto you that ye shall not have a vision and it shall be darke unto you that ye shall not divine and the Sun shall goe downe over the Prophets and the day shall be darke over them c. Their darknesse in life shall be plagued with darknesse in judgement To which purpose that is notable Zach. 11. 17. Woe to the idoll shepheard that leaves the flocke There is an unconscionable shepheard a man that makes no conscience to attend his ministery What becomes of him The sword shall bee upon his right eye his best eye And his right eye shall not be pore-blind or dimmed but shall be utterly darkened The losse of good consciences brings upon men of knowledge and learning that reproach that Nahash the Ammonite would have brought upon all Israel 1 Sam. 11. 2. It thrusts out the right eyes Ill consciences not only make men look asquint but it blinds them and takes away their sight And what is the reason that Popery gets ground so fast and so many turne Papists so easily Surely it is no wonder how should it be otherwise when men either having lost all good conscience or making no conscience of their wayes but living loosely viciously and licentiously have thereby prepared a way for Antichrist and his Religion to enter withall successe No wonder that men turne Papists so fast when long since they have turned good conscience going For that which Bellarmine speakes is in the Cum ariae ventilari incipiunt non frumenta sed paleae vento abripiente separantur ab area Ita prorsus cum Ecclesia per Ethuicorum persecutiones vel Haereticorum deceptiones Deo permittente cribratur aut ventilatur à Satana non veri sancti garves sed improbi leves curiosi lascivi ab Ecclesia avolantes ad Ethnicos haereticosue transfugiunt nec feâ—o solet accidere ut ante circa fidem aliquis naufraget quam naufragere caeperit circa mores Bellarm. Orat prefix tom 4. generall certainly true though by him falsly and maliciously applyed That they be not holy and grave men but wicked light curious wanton ones that turne Ethnickes or Heretickes and that it seldome comes to passe that any man makes shipwracke concerning the saith that first makes not shipwracke concerning manners See the truth of it in many of our backsliders to Popery especially such as have beene zealous propugners of the truth Where began the first declension where the first flaw Had not their coÌ„sciences first brusht upon some rocke was not the first leake there and when they had first put away good conscience then there was a speedy banishing of truth and a ready entertainment of errour And for the common sort of their converts consider if many times they have not beene the very riffe-raffe of our Church swearers grosse profaners of the Sabbath vncleane and debauched drunkards such as our Church was sicke of and desired even to spue forth and then when they have become a prey to all vicious courses through want of conscience through Gods just judgement they have become a prey to Romish Locusts whose commission is only to hurt such and not those whom the sap of a good conscience keepes fresh and flourishing as the greene grasse and trees of the earth Apoc. 9. 4. For as Salomon speakes of the bodily harlot Eccle. 7. 26. so it is true of that spirituall Whore of Babylon Her heart is snares and nets her hands as bands her delusions strong who so pleases God and hath a care to keepe a good conscience shall escape from her but the sinner and he that makes no conscience of his wayes shall be taken by her Well let us thinke well upon this motive we live in dangerous and declining dayes wherein men with a greedinesse turne to their Romish vomit againe Besides the Factors of Antichrist are exceeding busie and pragmaticall to draw men from the faith of Christ and the Holy Ghost tels us they shall come with strong delusions Now then all you that be the Lords people save your selves from this dangerous generation all you that have or would be knowne to have the seale of God on your foreheads save your selves from the seduction of these Locusts I but how may that be done The delusion is strong and it may be we are weake Lo then here is a remedy against their danger Get and keep a good conscience live as Paul did in all good conscience thou shalt be safe from all their delusioÌ„s I have kept the faith sayes Paul oh let it bee the care of us that that may be our closing voice at our last day and if we would keep the faith let us keep a good conscience He that in his life time can say I keepe a good conscience he at his death shall be able to say I have kept the faith Faith and a good conscience are both in a bottome Hold one and hold both As therefore thou wouldest feare to turne Papist or any other Heretick so be sure to hold a good conscience to hold on a good honest and a conscionable man So long as thou standest upon that ground thou art impregnable and the gates of hel
blood in what feares yea what idle feares lived hee Hee is so haunted with feares that though he had lived in Paradice yet had he lived in a land of Nod in a land of agitation yea of trepidation Iudge what case his evill conscience made him in by that speech Gen. 4. 14. It shall come to passe that every one that finds me shall slay me Surely there could not bee many yet in the world and those that were in the world were either his parents brethren sisters or neere kindred his feare seemes to imagine multitudes of people that might meete him yea and that every one hee meets would murther him What will his Father or Mother be his executioners What if any of his sisters meet him shal they slay him is not such a swash-buckler as he able to make good his party with them Lo what fearfull and terrible things a guilty conscience projects As an evill conscience is miserable in its feares so in those perplexities which this feare breeds These perplexities doe miserably and restlessely distract a man Isay 57. 20. The wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt What is the reason of these trouble some perplexities The want of peace of a good conscience verse 21. There is no peace saith my God to the wicked The winds make the sea restlesse and stirre it to the very bottome so as the waters cast up mire and dirt See in the troubled Sea the Emblem of a troubled conscience But the Torment exceeds all and the maine misery of an evill conscience lies in that It is a misery to be in feare a misery to have inward turbulencie and commotions but to be alwayes on the racke alwayes on the Strapado this is far more truly the suburbs of Hell than is the Popish purgatory Oh! the gripes and girds the stitches and twitches the throwes and pangs of a galling and a guilty conscience So sore they are and so unsufferable that Iudas seeks ease with an halter Poena autem vehemens multo saevior illis Quas Ceditius gravis invenâ— Radamanthus Nocte dieque suum gestare in pectore testem Iuvenal Satyr 3. and thinks hanging ease in comparison of the torture of his evill conscience All the racks wheeles wild horses hot pincers scalding leade powred into the most tender and sensible parts of the body yea all the mercilesse barbarous and inhumane cruelties of the holy house are but flea-bitings meere toyes and May-games compared with the torment that an evill conscience wil put a man to when it is awakened It is no wonder that Iudas hangs himselfe it had been a great wonder rather if hee had not hangd himselfe The Heathen fabled terrible things of their hellish furies with their snakes and Nolite enim putare queÌ„admodum in fabulis saepenumero videtis eos qui aliquid impie scelerateque coÌ„miserint agitari perterâ—ori furiarum taedis ardentibus Sua quemque fraus suus terror maximevexat suum queÌ„que scelus agitat amentiaque afficit Suae malae cogitationes conscientiaeque animi terrent Hae sunt impiis assiduae domesticaeque furiae quae dies noctesque parentum poenas à consceleratissimis filiis repetant Cicero pro Rosc Amor Suum quemque facinus suum scclus sua audacia de sanitate ac mente deturbat Haec sunt impiorum furiae flammae hae faces Idem L. Pison fiery torches vexing and tormenting hainous and great offenders These their furies were nothing else but the hellish torments of guilty conscience wherewith wicked persons were continually haunted as some of the wiser of themselves have well observed All snakes and torches are but idle toyes and meere trifles to the most exquisite torment of a guilty and accusing conscience The sting of conscience is worse than death it selfe Apoc. 9. 5 6. Their torment was as the torment of a Scorpion when hee strikes a man And in those dayes shall men seeke death and shall not find it and shall desire to dye and death shall flee from them Popish ones tormented in their consciences by the terrible and uncomfortable doctrines of satisfactions Purgatory fire c. which those Locusts doe so terrifie them withall should rather chuse death than live in such an uncomfortable condition The sting of death not so smart as the sting of a Scorpion in the conscience The sting of an accusing conscience is like an Harlot Pro. 7. 26. More bitter than death And as Salomon there speaks of the Harlot so may it be said of a tormenting conscience Who so pleases God shall escape from it but the sinner shall be taken by it Gods deare children themselves many of them are not freed from trouble in their consciences but they have their hels in this life Ion. â— 2. Out of the belly of hell I cryed unto thee God for their triall speaks bitter things unto them and not only denies them peace but causes their consciences to be at war with them Now when God puts his owne children to these trials and disquiets of conscience they are so bitter and so biting that had they not the grace of God to uphold and preserve them even they could not be saved from dangerous miscarriage Iob was put to this triall and his conscience apprehended Gods anger and we shall see what a case he was in Iob 6. 8 9. O that I might have my request and that God would grant me the thing I long for even that it would please God to destroy me that hee would let loose his hands and cut me off Nay worse Iob 14. 15. Thou scarest me with dreames terrifiest me through visions so that my soul chooses flrangling and death rather than life Gods grace preserves his Saints from selfe-murther but yet not alwayes from impatient wishes Iob wishes strangling and chuses it of the two but goes no further What wonder then that Iudas doth strangle himselfe when his conscience stares him in the face when as Iob with whom God is but in jest in comparison chuses strangling If Iob wish it what wonder that Iudas doth the deed Conscience doth chastise the godly but w th whips but it lashes the wicked with scorpions Now if the whips be so smarting to Iob as makes him chuse strangling what wonder that the scorpions be so cutting as makes Iudas seek reliefe at an halter Yea and that which addes to the misery of an evill conscience being awakned it is such a misery as no earthly comfort can asswage or mitigate Diseases and distempers of the body though they bee terrible yet Physick sleep and rest upon a mans bed yields him some ease and some comfort Sometime in some griefes the coÌ„fortable use of the creatures yields a man some refreshments Prov. 31. 6 7. Give wine unto those that be of heauy hearts let him drinke and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more But conscience being disquieted finds no
ease in these Darius against his conscience suffers innocent Daniel to be cast into the Lyons den What cheere hath hee that night He passed the night in fasting Dan. 6. 18. Not in fasting in humiliation for his Sin but conscience now began to gall him and hee having marred the feast of his conscience conscience also marres his feasting none of his dainties will now downe his wine is turned into gall and wormewood no joy now in any thing He had marred the musick of his conscience and now he brookes not other musicke The Instruments of musicke were not brought before him His guilty conscience was now awakened and now he cannot sleepe His sleepe went from him So Iob in his conflict for conscience hoped for ease in his bed Iob 7. 13. My bed shall comfort me my couch shall ease my complaint But how was it with him Either he could not sleep at all ver 3. 4. Wearisome nights are appointed unto me When I lye downe I say when shal I arise and the night be gone and I am full of tossing to and fro unto the dawning of the day Needs must he tosse whose conscience is like the Sea waves tossed with the winds or else if Iob did sleepe yet did not conscience sleepe ver 14. but even in his sleepe presented him with ghastly sights and visions When I say my bed shall comfort me then thou scarest me with dreames and terrifiest mee through visions At other times when conscience hath beene good Gods people though their dangers have beene great yet neither the greatnesse nor neernesse of their dangers have broken their sleepe Ps 3. 5. 7. I laid me downe and slept I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that have set themselves against mee round about And yet if wee looke to the title of the Psalme A Psalm of David when he fled from Absolom his Son one would thinke David should have had little list or leasure to have slept Peter thought to have been executed the next morrow by Herod though hee also lodged betweene a company of ruffianly soldiers that happily one would feare might have done him some mischiefe in his sleep yet how soundly sleeps he that night Act. 12. And holy Bradford was found a sleepe when they came to fetch him to be burnt at the stake These feares brake not these mens sleepe How might this come to passe They did as Ps 4. 8. I will lay me downe in peace and sleep He that can lie downe in the peace of conscience may sleepe soundly whatsoever causes of feare there be otherwise But contrarily he that cannot ly downe with the peace of conscience will find but little rest and sleepe though his heart bee free from all other feares Evill conscience being awakened will fill the heart with such feares as a man shall have little liberty to sleep Oh the sweet sleep that Iacob had and the sweet dreame when he lay upon the cold earth and had an hard stone under his head for his pillow An hard lodging and an hard pillow but yet sweet rest and sweet communion with God A good conscience makes any lodging soft and easie but downe-beds and down-pillowes if there be thornes in the conscience are but beds of thornes and beds of nettles The bitternesse of an evill conscience distastes all the sweets of this life as when the mouth and tongue is furred in an hot Ague all meates and drinks are bitter to the sicke party This is the misery of an evil conscience awakened in this life 2. But it may be many never feele this misery here there is therefore the more misery reserved for them in hell in the world to come Indeed more by many thousands go to hell like Nabal than like Iudas more die like sots in Security than in despaire of conscience Death it selfe cannot awaken some consciences but no sooner come they into hel but conscience is there awakened to the full never to sleep more and then she lashes and gashes to the quick and lets men learne that forbearance was no payment Tel many men of conscience and they are ready to slap one on the mouth with that profane proverbe Tush conscience was hanged many yeares agoe But the time will come that they who have lived in evill conscience shall find the conscience which they have counted hanged shall play the cruell hangman and tormentor with them They shall find conscience unhanged when it shall hang them up in hell when day and night it shall stretch them there upon the racke The torments which an evill conscience puts the damned to in hell are beyond the expression of the tongue and the comprehension of mans conceit There be two speciall things in the torments of Hell wee have them both thrice repeated together Mark 9. 44 46 48. Where their worme dies not and the fire is not quenched There is an ever-living worme and never-dying fire And marke that in all the three verses the worme is set in the first place as it were to teach us that the prime and principal torment in hell is the worme rather than the fire And what is the worme but the guilt of an evill conscience that shall lye eternally gnawing and grasping twitching and griping the heart of the damned in hell Men talke much of hell fire and it were well they would talke more of it but yet there is another torment forgotten that would be thought on too There is an Hell worm as well as there is an Hell fire And it may be a question whether of the two is the greatest torment And yet no great question neither For as the Heaven of Heauen is the peace and joy of a good so the very Hell of Hell is the guilt and and worme of an evill conscience A man may safely say it is better being in hell with a good conscience than to be in heaven if that might be with an evill one Heaven without a good conscience what is it better than hel Paradice was an heaven on earth but when Adam had lost the Paradice of a good conscience what joy did paradice the pleasures of the gardē afford him more than if he had beene in some sad and solitary Desert A good conscience makes a Desert a Paradice an evill one turnes a Paradice into a Desert A good conscience makes Hell to be no Hell and an evil one makes Heaven to be no Heaven Both the happines and misery of Heaven and Hell are from the inward frame of the conscience The Hell of Hell is the worm of Hell and that worm is the worm of an evill conscience which if it be not wormed out and so the conscience in this life made good it will be an immortall worme in Hell The hellish despaire wherewith the damned are overwhelmed comes rather from this worm than from the fire Whose worm dies not and whose fire is not quenched The fire of Hell never quenches because the worme of Hell never
dies If the worme of Hell would die the fire of Hell would go out For if there were no guilt there should be no punishment So that the very Hell of Hell is that self-torment which an evill conscience breeds Now then all this considered how powerfully should it move us to labour for a good conscience Thou that goest on in thine evill courses and hatest to be reformed and reclamed do but bethinke thy selfe if God should awaken thy conscience in what misery thou shouldst live Vt ex cruditate febres nascuntur vermes quaÌ„do quis cibum sumit intemperanter ita si quis peccata peccatis accumulet nec deco quot ea poenetentia sed misceat peccata peccatis cruditatem contrahit veterum recentium delictorum igne aduâ—etur proprio vermibus consumetur Ignis est queÌ„ generat moestitia delictorum vermis est eo quod irrationabilia animi peccata mentem pungunt viscera exedant vermes ex unoque nascuntur tanquam ex corpore peccatoris hic vermis non morietur c. Ambr. lib. 7. in Luk. c. 14. here what an hell to have a palsie conscience what a hell on earth to be alwayes under the accusations inditements and terrors of conscience and to live Cain like in the land of Nod in a continuall restlesse agitation But especially as thou fearest that everliving and ever grabbing worme so have a care to get a good conscience Greene raw fruits breed Chestworms which if heed be not taken will eate the very maw thorow A dead body and a putrified corrupt carcasse breeds worms that ly gnawing at it in the grave The forbidden and raw fruits of Sin are those which breed Chestwormes in the conscience The corruptions of the soule and dead workes are those that breed this living worme take heed therfore of medling with these fruits that will breed this worme and get thy conscience purged from dead works get this worme killed with the soonest for if thou lettest it live till thou dye it will never die at all and will put thee to those exquisite torments from which to be freed thou wouldst willingly suffer ten thousand of the most cruell deaths that the wit of man were able to invent As then I say thou fearest this worme of Hell so get a good conscience Drink downe every morning a hearty draught of Christs blood which may make this worme burst And when once this worm is burst and voyded and the conscience well purged by Christs blood take heed ever after of eating those raw fruits that will breed new wormes Lead so holy so upright and so conscionable a life that thou mayest not by thy fresh Sins clog thy conscience with fresh guilt Get thy conscience purged by Christs blood and thy conversation framed by Gods Word Thy words were found by me and I did eate them Ier. 15. 16. Do thou so eat no more the unwholesome and worme-breeding fruits of Sin but drinke Christs blood and eate Gods Word and they both shall purifie and scoure thy conscience from all such stuffe as may breed and feed the Hell-worme of an evill conscience CHAP. XVI The portion and respect that a good conscience finds in the world ANd thus have we hither to seen Pauls Protestation The second point followes namely Ananias his insolent and impetuous Injunction Verse 2. And the high Priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth Paul had begun his defence in the former verse and that by authoritie and speciall command as appeares in the former Chapter at the 30. ver But he had no sooner begun but he is interrupted cut off and hath not onely his mouth stopt but stopt with Ananias fist He commanded to smite him on the mouth Out of which carriage and violence of his wee may observe divers things First learne What is the Reward and portion of a good conscience from the world It is the portion of a good conscience full oft to be smitten either on the mouth or with the mouth Blowes either with the fist or with the tongue To be smitten one way or other is full often the lot of a good conscience Smite him on the mouth sayes Ananias But let us a little expostulate the matter with Ananias Smite him on the mouth But yet as Pilate speaks in Christs case But what evill hath he done or what evill hath hee spoken Smite him on the mouth But as our Saviour answers Ioh. 18. 23. If he have spoken evil take witnesse of the evill and proceed legally and formally If he have spoken well or no manner of evill why commandest thou him to be smitten What hath he spoken any treason against Caesar or the Roman government If he have then as the town-clark of Ephesus speaks Act. 19. 38. The Law is open and there are Deputies let them accuse him and bring him to his answer It is a base usage of an ingenuous person to be smitten on the mouth in a Court of Iustice a dishonourable usage of a Roman Surely it should seeme by such base and bitter usage that Paul hath some way or other fouly forgotten and overshot himselfe that Ananias his spirit is thus embitered and provoked against him What hath Paul given him any exasperating and disgracefull termes hath he given him any open and personall girds before the whole Councell No no No such matter at all Why what then is the matter that Paul must be thus basely and thus despitefully used Will ye know the cause Men and brethren I have lived in all good conscience Loe here is the quarrell He hath made a profession of a good conscience and for his good conscience sake are Ananias fists about his eares There is nothing so mads men of wicked consciences as the profession practice of a good conscience doth The very name mention of a good conscience makes Ananias halfe mad like one besides himselfe he fals not onely to foule words but to blowes also and Paul must have it on the mouth for good conscience sake Paul might have blasphemed the blessed name of Christ and rayled upon the odious Sect of the Nazarens hee might have beene a drunkard an adulterour or a murtherer and none of all these things would have stirred Ananias his blood for none of all these should Paul have been smitten but let him but once speak or treate of or any way meddle with good conscience and Ananias his blood is presently up hee cannot hold his hands but Paul must have on the mouth there is no remedy So odious a thing is good conscience and the profession of it to wicked men Therefore this is that which a good coÌ„scieÌ„ce must expect even Ananias his dole fists blowes smiting hard injurious measure from the world This is no new thing It was our Saviours case before it was Pauls Ioh. 18. 22. And when he had thus spoken one of the officers which stood by strucke
III. A good Conscience what it is False ones discovered 19 CHAP. IV. Peace of Conscience how gotten 35 CHAP. V. Integrity of Conscience how procured 46 CHAP. VI. Two further meanes to procure Integrity of a good Conscience 57 CHAP. VII Two marks of a good Conscience 73 CHAP. VIII Three other Notes of a good Conscience 90 CHAP. IX The two last Notes of a good Conscience 103 CHAP. X. The comfort and benefit of a good Conscience in the case of disgrace and reproach 128 CHAP. XI The comfort and benefit of a good Conscience in the times of cōmon feares and calamities and in the times of sicknes other personall evils 147 CHAP. XII The comfort and benefit of a good conscience at the dayes of Death and Iudgement 165 CHAP. XIII A second Motive to a good conscience That it is a continuall feast 180 CHAP. XIV A third fourth Motive to a good cōscience 201 CHAP. XV The last Motive to a good conscience viz. The misery of an evill one 213 CHAP. XVI The portion and respect that a good conscience finds in the world 232 CHAP. XVII The impetuous injustice and malice of the adversaries of a good conscience 243 CHAP. XVIII The severity of Gods justice upon the enemies of good Conscience and the usuall equity of Gods administration in his execution of Iustice 253 FINIS THE MISCHIEFE And Miserie of Sandals Both Taken and Giuen By IER DYKE Minister of Epping in Essex Wherfore let him that thinks he stands take heed least he fall 1. Cor. 10. 12. Aug de verb. Dom. Serm. 53. Imo vtinam terruerim vtinam aliquid egerim Vtinam qui sic filerat vel quae sic fuerat non sit vlterius Vtinam verba ista infuderim non effuderim LONDON Printed by W. S. for R. Milbourne in Pauls Church-yard at the Greyhound 1632. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE Ladie the Ladie ELIZABETH Countesse of Winchelsey his Noble PATRONESSE MADAM IT is not vnknowne vnto your Honour what first occasioned mee to meddle with this Subiect That which first moued me to preach it in mine owne Charge hath also induced mee to make it more publique I conceiued it might bee a worke well worth the while to vindicate as much as in mee lay the Honour of God from that impeachment it commonly receiues from Scandals to heale the bleeding wounds they vsually giue to the profession of Godlinesse to stop the mouth of iniquity which they set so wide open and to giue men notice of the great danger that both the taking and giuing of Scandal may bring them into J obserue that men doe with the Scandals of Professours as the Leuite did with the twelue partes of his Concubine they send them Iudg 19. 29. thorough all the quarters of Israel It were happie that such foule actions as trench to the dishonour of God and Religion might be buried in eternall silence and neuer be published Publish it not in 2. Sam. 1. Gath But since that is impossible but that they will be published in Gath What inconuenience is it that something bee published in and sent into the Coasts of Israel that may stop the mouthes of the men of Gath that may salue the Honour of God and Religion and that may discouer and preuent the danger of Scandalous euils J confesse that when I considered how frequently Scandals haue fallen out and what a world of mischiefe hath beene done by them I wondred that no man for ought I know or can learne had hitherto medled with this Argument so needfull and so vsefull and therefore thought it would not be lost labour to doe something in this kind And what I haue done I now make bold to present vnto your Honour as presuming that that shall be welcome to you that pleades for the Honour of God and his Truth I acknowledge my selfe many wayes deeply engaged to your Honour and the many fauours I haue receiued from you binde mee to a thankefull acknowledgement of them May it please you therefore to accept of this small Treatise as a publike testimoniall of my thankefulnesse Which if you shall please to doe I shall reckon it as a superadded fauour to all the rest and to my thankefulnesse to your selfe shall adde my daily prayers to the God of all Grace for his blessing vpon your noble Family both roote and branch and that he would not onely continue to you the blessing of the left hand Riches and Honour Prou. 3. 16. but giue you the blessing of the right hand also length of dayes and with them both the best of his blessings All spirituall blessings in heauenly places in Christ Iesus This shall bee the daily suite of Your Honours Seruant in the Gospell of Christ Iesus Jer. Dyke To the Reader THere is not any one thing that Satan the professed enemie of Mankind labours and endeauours more then the hindrance of the saluation of man There is but one way to Heauen that which Peter cals the way of Truth 2. Pet. 2. 2. which Salomon cals the way of good men Prou. 2. 20. which Isaie cals the way of Holinesse Isai 35. 8. which Ieremie cals the old and the good way and the ancient pathes Ier. 6. 16. 18 15. Now Sathan to keepe men from Heauen doth his vtmost to make men stumble at and from the ancient pathes that by taking offence at the waies of God disliking and distasting them the saluation of their soules might become impossible To effect their stumbling at those wayes Sathan layes many and sundrie kinds of stumbling blocks in the wayes of men But yet amongst those many ones I find there bee some more dangerous then others and by which the Deuill preuayles much more then by the rest And those I obserue and conceiue to be specially these three 1. The Reproach Contempt and Obloquie that by some men is vsually cast vpon Religion and the conscionable profession and Professours thereof Sathan tels men that if they will needs goe this way they shall haue a deale of filth and dirt flung in the faces of them that they must looke to be scorned and Reproached as if they were the very Of scourings of the earth And this very thing starts and stumbles not a few Some will better abide a stake then some others can a mocke Zedekiah could happily haue found in his heart to haue hearkened to the Prophets counsell but that this lay in the way I am afraid of the Iewes least they deliuer me into the Caldaeans hands and they mocke me Ier. 38. 19. It was death to him to be mocked But all considered we shall see how little reason any haue for this to stumble at Religion For doe but consider who they are commonly that mock at Godlinesse Doe but obserue their Character in the Scriptures and you shall finde them such as these A company of Hypocrites Hypocriticall mockers Psal 35. 16. A crue of Drunkards Psal 69. 12. I am the song of Drunkards A sort
persons be found If then I will bee no religion till I find one whose Professours are wholy free from scandalous and notorious offences I must liue and die an irreligious Atheist and renounce all religion I confesse there is a case wherein a religion may bee cried downe from the wicked and loose lifes of the Professours thereof and that is when the principles and doctrines of it are such as open a gap and giue libertie to loose and dishonest practices When men doe not onely breake the Commandements of God but according to the principles of their religiou teach men to doe so Mat. 5. 19. As for example when the Pharisies Disciples did sweare did seeke reuenge did hate their enemies did neglect their parents in their necessities here a man might haue said to them This is your Religion because the principles of Pharisaisme taught men so When I see a Papist prophane the Sabbath in hawking hunting bowling carding dicing dancing and going to playes here I may fall vpon his religion because the doctrine of their religion is that prouided a man heare a Masse on the Sabbath he may spend the rest of the day in those things When I see a Papist giue himselfe to all lewdnes and vitious vncleannesse I may lay the blame vpon his religion because the principles thereof set open a gap thereto For what neede I care for drunkennesse whilest it is made but a Venial sin and a Venial sinne is such as our Rhemists say is pardonable of it own nature so slight Rhem. in Rom. 1. 32. as a man need not make confession of it such as makes no breach of friendship betweene God and vs so small a triffle as may bee pardoned by a knocke on the breast by the Bishops Blessing by the sprinkling of holy Water saying a Pater Noster as they teach Now I say if drunkennesse be but a veniall sin and veniall sins bee such nothings why by the principles of his religion should a Papist feare to bee drunke i Profligata Christi pietas extincta quando quilibet pro modo pretij quod in merces illas expendit peccandi impunitatem sibi pollicetur Hinc stupra incectus adulteria per iuria homicidia c. originem traxerunt Quod enim malorum amplius iam horrebunt mortales quando sihi peccandi licentiam impunitatem nedum in hac vitâ sed post obitum aere licet immodieo comparari possepersuasum habent Cent. Grau Germ. art 3. So what neede hee care what sinnes he runnes into so long as rheir Priests haue a iudiciarie power of Absolution and the Church hath a treasurie of Indulgences and for small summes great Pennances and great sinnes may be remitted There is no religion wherein a man can sinne so good cheape Now therefore if wee see those of that religion take libertie to loose and sinfull courses it is no iniustice to lay the blame and condemnation vpon their religion whose Principles and Doctrines are such as giue men libertie enough So if I should see a man of the Pelagian faith and profession to liue licentiously in the neglect of the meanes of grace and to denie himselfe no carnal libertie I would here condemne his religion from his life because the Grounds and Principles of his faith are such as giue men libertie to liue as they lift For if so be there be a power of Free will in me that I may repent and belieue if I will and when I will what neede I then care what courses I take what sinnes I runne into so long as I can be saued when I list I will trie such and such sins and when I haue taken my fill at my pleasure I will repent and belieue So that in such a case it is not amisse to crie downe a Religion from the scandalous courses of the Professors thereof and in such a case a man may innocently say This is your Religion But on the contrarie when a Religion is pure Religion Iam. 1. 27. A Truth which is according to godlinesse Tit. 1. 1. and the doctrine thereof according to Godlinesse 1. Tim. 6. 3. When a religion teaches Godlinesse Holinesse Puritie Fidelitie Iust and vpright dealing and binds the Conscience to these things vpon the paine of death eternall if any Professour of such a religion fall into scandalous sinnes here to crie downe a religion that is Holy Iust and Good because a Professour thereof does wicdedly vilely and vniustly this is the greatest Iniustice and the most vnequall and iniurious dealing in the world It is true that amongst the Professors of true religion scandals must bee but must they needes bee from the grounds and doctrines of that religion Must scandals needs be because that religion teaches men to doe so Nay doth not that religion teach the contrarie vpon danger of Hell binde to tht contrarie And why then is the religion condemned and cryed downe What fowle Iniustice is this that an innocent religion should suffer for a nocent Professour If the religion they professe doe k Quae si vera sunt nulli vel sexui vel aetatiparcite ad poenas rapite cum vxoribus liberis funditus extirpate Athenag legat pro Christian principle and teach them to bee Drunkards Adulterers to be Coozeners Cheaters Defrauders throw dirt in the face of that religion yea stones at the head of that religion and spare it not Not reproaches scoffes squibs taunts but euen the stake and the fire is too easie a punishment for such a religion But if religion and its Principles teach nothing but Holinesse and righteousnesse nothing but Sanctitie and Honestie why must a good and holy Mother be smitten and wounded and haue her face spitted on for the miscarriage of a degenerating vngracious child If the Daughter play the Whore and the lewd Filth will it stand with any iustice or equitie that the Mother a graue sober chaste Matrone that hath instituted her better should be carted and haue filth and dirt throwne at her And yet this is the equitie and iustice of the worlds dealings Because sometimes some of wisdomes children that should haue beene so wise by their godly and holy life to haue honoured and iustified their Mother because I say they doe sometimes play the fooles the scandalous and notorious fooles therefore they cannot bee content to scourge and cart these vngratious children and to cast abhominable filth vpon them as they deserue but they must needs fall foule vpon the poore and good Mother and the keenest and sharpest of their teene must bee wreackt vpon her and shee must bee lasht with the Scorpions of mens malignant tongues euen to the very bones What is this but the ancient Iewish l Non vt principes vestri viuimus c. Quod si quos etiam inter nos tales esse sciatis non continuo ea de causa Scripturas Christum maledictis proscindite Iustin Mart. Dial cum Tryph. Iudaeo