4. 5. My heart is sore pained within me and the terrors of death are fallen vpon mee fearefulnes trembling are come vpon me and horrour hath over whelmed me Sometimes again he sees death as the Israelites the fiery Serpents with mortal stings Sometimes as a merciles Landlord or the Sheriffe comming with a Writ of Firmae eiectione 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 he sees death with as much horrour as if hee saw the Diuell In so many fearefull shapes appeares death to an evill conscience vpon the death-bed So as it is indeed the King of Terrors to such an one that hath the Terrours of Conscience within There is no one thought so terrible to such an one as the thought of death nothing that he more wishes to avoyd Oh! how loath and how vnwilling is such an one to dye But come now to a man that hath liued as Paul did in all good conscience and how is it with him vpon his death-bed His end is peace so full of ioy comfort so is he ravished with the inward and vnspeakable 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 mans marriage is the day of the ioy of a mans heart Cant. 3. 11. and the day of marriage is not so ioyfull a day as is the day of death to a good conscience There are but fewe that can marry with that ioy wherwith a good conscience dyes It enables a man not onely to looke Ananias and the Councell in the face but even to looke death it selfe in the face without those amazing terrours yea it makes the face of death seeme louely and amiable He whose conscience is good and fees the face of God reconciled to him in Christ he can say as Iacob did when he saw the face of Ioseph Gen. 46. 30. Now let me dye since I haue 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 truely which he spake besides the booke 1 Sam. 15. 32. He came pleasantly And he sayd Surely the bitternesse of death is past He 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 gilt of sin being washed away in Chists bloud it knowes that the bitternes of death is past and the sweetnesse of life eternall is at hand A man whose debts are paid he dares goe out of dores dare meete and face the Sergeants and the conscience purged by the bloud of Christ can looke as vndaūtedly on the face of death He that hath gotten the sting that is the guilt of cōscience taken away by faith in Christ he lookes not vpon death as the Israelites vpon the fiery Serpents but lookes vpon 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 haue lost their sting The guilt of sinne is the sting of Conscience is the sting of death that stings the conscience The sting of death is sinne 1 Cor. 15. Plucke then sinne out of the conscience and at once the conscience is made good and death made weake and is disarmed of his weapon And when the cōscience sees death vnstingd and disarmed it is freed of feare and even in the very act of death can ioyfully tryumyh over death oh Death where is thy sting A good Conscience lookes vpon death as vpon the Sheriffe that comes to giue him possession of his Inheritance or as Lazarus vpon the Angels that came to carry his soule into Abrahams bosome and therefore can wellcome death and entertain him ioyfully And wheras an ill conscience makes a man see death as if he saw the Devill a good conscience makes a mā see the face of death as Iacob saw Esaues face Gen. 33. I haue seene thy face as the face of God they see the face of death with vnspeakable ioy rauishment of heart and exultation of spirit Well now what a motive haue wee here to make vs labor for a good conscience Even Balaam himselfe would faine make a good end dye in peace and who wishes not his deathbed may be a Mount Nebo from whence he may see that heavenly Canaan Lo here Balaam the way to dye the death of the righteous I haue liued in all good Conscience vnto this day They that haue conscience in their life shall haue comfort at their death They that liue conscionably shal die comfortably They that live in all good Conscience til their dying day shall depart in the abundance of comfort at their dying day There will come a day wherein we must lay downe these Tabernacles the day of death will assuredly come How lamentable a thing will it then be to be so destitute 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 whilest our dearest friēds shall be weeping wringing their hands and lamenting then then what would inward cōfort be worth Who would not hold the whole world an easie price for it then Well then would wee then haue Comfort and Ioy oh then get a good cōscience now which wil yeeld comfort when all other comforts shall vtterly faile and shal be life in the middest of death How happy is that man that when the sentence of death is passed vpon him can say with Hezekiah Isa 38. 3. Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I haue walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and haue 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 vnspeak able ioy that such a Conscience as Hezekiahs was will speake to a man vpon his death-bed Euery one professes a desire to make a good ende Here is the way to make good that desire to live in all good cōscience Alas how pittifull and miserable a condition live most men in All the dayes of their lifes healths they haue no regard of a good Conscience Notwithstanding that men are pressed continually to this one care by the instancy and importunity of Gods Ministers yet how miserably is it neglected Well at last the day of death comes then what would they not giue for a comfortable end If the gold of Ophir would purchase comfort it should fly then Then poast for this Minister
heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the coole of the day Luther layes the Emphasis of the aggravation of his feare vpon this word the winde or coole of the day The night indeed is naturally terrible and darkenes is fearefull whence that phrase Ps 91. The terrors of the night But the day and the light is a cheerefull and a comfortable creature Eccl. 11. 7. Truely the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the Sunne How is it then that in the faire day light which giues courage and comfort that Adam feares and runnes into the thickets Oh his Conscience was become Grauis malâ— Conscientiae lux est Senec. ep 123. evill and full of darkenes and the darknesse of his conscience turned the very light into darknesse and so turned the comforts of the day into the terrours of the night So that in this sense it may be said of an evill Conscience which of the Lord is sayd in another Psal 139. 12. Vnto it the darknes and the light are both alike As full of feare in the light as in the darke And besides the Lord came but in a gentle wind the coole breath of the day now what a small matter is a coole winde and that in the day time to to put a man in a feare Such small things breede great feares in euill consciences In what a woefull plight would Adam thinke wee haue bin if the Lord had come to him at the dead and darke mid-night with earth-quakes thunder and blustring tempest We may see the like in Gain After hee had defiled his Conscience with his brothers blood in what feares yea what idle feares liued he Hee is so haunted with feares that though hee had liued in Paradise yet had he liued in a land of Nod in a land of agitation yea of trepidation Iudge what case his euill Conscience made him in by that speech Gen. 4. 14. It shall come to passe that euery one that findes 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 kinred His feare seems to imagine multitudes of people that might meet him yea that euery one he meetes would murther him What will his Father or Mother bee his executioners What if any of his sisters meete him shall they slay him is not such a swash-buckler as he able to make good his party with them Loe what fearfull terrible things a guilty conscience proiects As an euill Conscience is miserable in its feares so in those perplexities which this feare breedes These perplexities doe miserably and restlesly distract a man Is 57. 20. The wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast vp mire and dirt What is the reason of these troublesome perplexities The want of the peace of a good Conscience vers 21. There is no peace saith my God to the wicked The windes make the sea restles and stirre it to the very bottome so as the waters cast vp mire and dirt See in the troubled Sea the embleme of a troubled Conscience But the Torment exceedes all and the main misery of an euill conscience lies in that It is a misery to be in feare a misery to haue inward turbulencies commotions but to be alwayes on the racke alwayes on the Strapado this is farre more truely the suburbs of Hell then is the Popish Purgatory Oh! the gripes and girds the stitches and twitches the throws pangs of a galling and a guilty Conscience So sore they are and so vnsufferable that Iudas seeks ease with an halter and thinkes hangging Poena auteÌ„ vehemens et multo saeuior illis Quas et Ceditiuâ— grauis invenit RhadamaÌ„ thus ease in comparison of the torture of his euill Conscience All the rackes wheeles wilde 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 Nocte dieque suum gest are in pectore testem Iuvenal Satyr 3. house are but flea-bitings meere toyes and May-games compared with the torment that an euill conscience will put a man to when it is awakened It is no wonder that Iudas hangs himselfe it had beene a great wonder rather if he had not hanged himselfe The Heathens fabled terrible things Noliteenim putare quemadmodum in fabulis saepenumero videtis eos qui aliquid impie scelerateque coÌ„miserint agitari perterreri furiarum taedis ardeÌ„tibus Sua quemque fraus et suus terror maxime vexat suum quemque scelus agitat a mentiâ—que afficit Suae malae cogitationes Conscientiaeque animi terrent Hae sunt impiis assiduae domesticaeque furiae quae dies noctesque parentum poenas à consceleratissimis filiis repâ—tant Circer pro Rosc A mer. Suum quemque facinus suum scelus suae audatia de sanitate ac mente deturbat Haec sunt impiorum furiae flammae hae faces Id. m L. Pison of their hellish Furies with their snakes and fiery torches vexing tormenting haynous 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 themselues haue well obserued 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 then death it selfe Apoc. 9. 5. 6. Their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when he strikes a man And in those dayes shall men seeke death and shall not finde it and shall desire to dye death shall flee from them Popish ones tormented in their consciences by the terrible and vncomfortable doctrines of satisfactions Purgatory fire c. which those Locusts should so terrifie them withall should rather choose death then liue in such vncomfortable 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 Prov. 7. 26. More bitter then death And as Salomon there speakes of the Harlot so may it be sayd of a tormenting Conscience Who so pleases God shall escape from it but the sinner shall be taken by it Gods deare children themselues many of them are not freed from trouble in their Consciences but they haue their hells in this life Ion. 2. 2. Out of the belly of hell I cryed vnto thee God for their tryal speaks bitter things to them and not onely denyes them peace but causes their consciences to be at warre with them Now when God puts his owne children to these trials and disquiets of Conscience they are so bitter so biting that had they not the grace of God to vphold and preserue them even they could not bee saved from dangerous miscariages Iob was put to this triall
and accept the worke of his hand smite through the loynes of them that rise against him of them that hate him that they rise not againe God saw that of all others Levi would bee most subiect to the blowes of fists and tongues and therefore hee is fenced with a blessing for the nonce to make smiters feare to meddle with him or if they will needs meddle yet to let them see that it were better to wrong any other Tribe then that God would smite them and smite them to the purpose that shall offer to smite him Vse 2 Here is that which may make Gods people comfortably patient vnder all the wrongs iniuries of smiters in any kinde Here is that may make them by patience to possesse their soules and may make them hold their hands and their tongues from smiting Smite not thou God will smite smiters Indeed when wee will be smiting wee prevent Gods smiting so they haue the easier blowes by the meanes For what are our blows to the Lords Do as Christ did 1 Pet. 2. 23. Who when he was reviled reviled not againe but committed himselfe to him that iudges righteously It is best leaving them to the Lords hand Pray for thy smiters that God would giue them smiting hearts that their hearts may smite them for their smiting pray to God if hee see it good they may be so smitten This is a revenge will stand with charity Yet if not leaue them to God who best knowes how to smite smiters Vse 3 It is great comfort against the sore afflictions of Gods Church at this present The enemies of the Gospell haue smitten Gods Church with a sore blow Well yet let vs not bee out of heart the time will assuredly come that God will smite these smiters The time will vndoubtedly come when God will smite that whited wall that Romish Ananias that scarlet whore that animates and sets a worke those smiters It was low with Dauid when he fled from Absalom and was glad to receiue reliefe from the childreÌ„ of Ammon 2 Sam. 17. 27. But chap. 18. Ioab smites Absalom with three darts and David returnes in peace and Psal 3. 7 blesses God for smiting his enemies vpon the cheeke bone How did the Egyptians oppresse and smite the poore Israelites Exod. 2. 11. and Exod. 5. 14. But at last Exod. 12. God smites the land of Egypt and the first borne Exod. 15. 6. dashes in peeces these smiters See how hardit went with Israel 1 Sam. 4. 10. 11. And the Philistims fought and Israel was smitten and there was a very great slaughter for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen and the Arke of God was taken Behold what a terrible blow here was given The Priests slaine and the Arke captived as if God himselse had beene taken prisoner and yet at last 1 Sam. 5. 6. God smites these smiters But the hand of God was heavy vpon them and smote them with Emerods yea as Dauid sings Psal 78. 66. Hee smote his enemies in the hinder parts he put them to a perpetuall reproach Hee smites them reproachfully Sometimes he smites enemies on the cheeke bone Psalm 3. 7. Sometimes he smites them in the hinder parts both are disgracefull and reproachfull but the latter the worse a disgracefull thing to be scourged and whipt like boyes Antichristian smiters doe prevaile and happely may yet much more and may giue yet sorer blowes but yet as in Nebuchadnezzars dreame Dan. 2. 34. 35. The stone cut out without hands smote the Image vpon the feet and brake them to pieces so that the iron brasse clay gold all became like the chaffe of the summer threshing floores So will Christ in his good time smite these smiters so that their place shall be no more found Doct. 2 God shall smite thee Obserue the maruelous equity of Gods administration in the executions of his iustice God fits his punishments to mens sinnes Here we see the truth of that Math. 7. 2. With what measure yee mete it shall be measured to you againe If Ananias smite Paul God will smite Ananias Smiting was his sin smiting shall be his punishment Paul sayes not God shall iudge thee or plague thee but God shall smite thee to teach that God doth not only iustice vpon sinners but that there is a retaliation in Gods iustice a recompensing with the like That looke as amongst the Iudicials of the Iewes there was a law of retaliation Eye for eye tooth for troth hand for hand That if a man wronged another with the losse of an eye he was not onely to bee punished but to be punished in the selfe-same kinde to loose an eye himselfe so the Lord for the most part followes the same course in dispensation of Iustice If men smite God will not onely punish but smite That looke as it is in the case of obedience so is it in the case of sin When men yeeld obedience to God hee not onely rewards their obedience with a recompence but with a recompence of Retaliation Prov. 3. 9. Honouring God with the increase of the fruits is honoured from God with recompence of the increase of the fruites Abraham spares not his seed therefore God will mulâ—iply his seed Gen. 22. 16. 17. It was in Dauids heart to build God an house therefore God will build him an house 2 Sam. 7. 2. 5. 11. Thus it is also in the case of sinne this is the rule the Lord proceeds by often in his Iustice to meet with wicked men in their kinde As with the mercifull he shewes himselfe mercifull so with the froward hee will shew himselfe froward Psal 18. 25. 26. And if men will walke contrary vnto him he will walke contrary vnto them Leuit. 26. And hee will crosse them that crosse him And those that will not heare when he cals he will not heare when they call Pro. 1. 24. 28. For the better cleering of this point we may see the truth of it in divers particulars 1. Gods punishments are in the same manner The same manner of sinne the same manner of punishment Ananias smites Paul in a barbarous and a malicious manner he himselfe was cruelly smitten and slaine The sinne of the Sodomites was a â—inne against nature their punishment was after the same manner fire descended from heauen It is vnnaturall for fire to come downwards They sinne vnnaturally fire comes downe vnnaturally The Philistims not onely smite Israel but they doe it with a spightfull heart meerely for Vengeance Ezek. 25. 15. Therefore ver 17. I will execute great vengeance vpon them with furious rebukes Vengeance for vengeance manner for maner Such was the late remarkable Iustice of God vpon that popish Conventicle in the Citie many of that crue were fallen from God and fallen from the truth the Lord slaughters them by a fall A fall was their sinne a fall was their death there was a fall for a fall 2. Gods punishments are in the same kinde Looke
this be he is punished with the losse of the vse of his tongue and speech for a time The rich gluttons tongue had denyed Lazarus a crum therfore it is denyed a drop of water The same glutton had abused his tongue in gluttony and therefore his tongue hath a peculiar torment in hell So those Zach. 14. 12. had their tongues consumed in their mouths like enough as with their hands so with their tongues they had fought against Ierusalem Such was Gods Iustice vpon Iere boam hee stretches forth his arme against the Prophet and the Lord withers it He with his arme threatens to smite and God smites him in his arme Like that iustice which was done vpon the Emperour Aurelianus who when hee was ready to subscribe and seâ— Euseb lib. 7. cap. 29. his hand to an Edict for the persecution of the Christians was suddenly cramped in his knuckles and so hindred from it by the iudgment of God I may not here omit that notable instance of Gods Iustice vpon Rodolph Duke of SVEVIA hee whom the Pope stirred vp against his lawfull Lord and Soueraign against his Oath to vsurpe his Ctowne and Empire This Rodolph in his Warres for the Empire was wounded in the right hand of which wound hee dyed and at his death acknowledged Gods Iustice in these words You see saith he to his friends here my right hand wounded with this right hand I sware to Videtis manum dexteram meam de vulnere sauciam Haec ego iurauis Domino meo Henrico vt non nocereÌ„ ei nec insidiarâ—r gloriae eius Sed iussio Apostolicae PontificuÌ„que pâ—titio nâ—e ad id adduxit vt turamcntt transgressor honereÌ„ mihi indebitum vsurpareÌ„ Quis igitur finis nos exceperit videtis quiain manu vnde iurameâ—ta violaui mortale hoc vulnus accepi c Morn Myst â—niq p. 256 my Lord Henry the Emperour But the command of the Pope hath brought me to this that laying a side the respect of mine Oath I should vsurpe an honour not due to me But what is now come of it In that hand which hath violated mine Oath I am wounded to death And so with anguish of heart he ended his daies An example so much the rather to be marked that men may see how God blesses the Popes blessings and his dispensations with Oathes especially when they are giuen to arme men to rebellion against their lawfull Soueraignes 4. The equitie of Gods Iustice appeares in that Prou. 26. 27. Who so digeth a pit shall fall therein and hee that rolles a stone it will returne vpon him Such was Gods Iustice vpon Haman he made a gallowes for his owne necke Hitherto we may referre the iustice of God when God turnes mens beloved sinnes into their punishments Whoredome was the Leuites Concubines sinne Iudg. 19. 2. and Whordome was her death verse 26. The Lord Deu. 28. 27. threatens the botch of Egypt and how frequently is the sinne of vncleannesse smitten with the French botch the fruit of the sinne How frequent are the examples of Gods Iustice vpon drunkards drunkennesse their sinne and drunkennes their death And so that Proverbe is often verified Prou. 5. 22. His owne iniquities shall take the wicked himselfe and he shall bee bolden with the cordes of his sinnes 5. The equitie of Gods Iustice appeares in this when he makes the place of sinne the place of punishment Wee haue frequent examples of this in Scripture This was threatned Ahab 1 King 21. 19. In the place where dogges licked the bloud of Naboth shall dogs licke thy bloud And this was made good 2 King 9. 26. In Tophet the place where they had slaine their Sonnes and Daughters would God slay the Iewes Ier. 7. 31. 32. And as their houses were the places of their sinns so should their houses bee the places of their punishment Ier. 19. 13. And because the Sabbath was profaned in the gates of Ierusalem therefore in the gates thereof would God kindle a fire Ier. 17. 27. And remarkeable is that Ezek. 6. 13. Their slaine men shall bee amongst their Idols round about their altars and vnder euery thicke Oake the place where they did offer sweet sauour to all their Idolls Such was the Iustice of God in that late blowe vpon that Popish Company In the very place where they vsed to dishonour God the hand of God was vpon them they were slaine and their carkases crushed in the place of their Masse-worship the first floore falling into their Massing place and so they and their Crucifixes Images all dashed together God doing with them as with the Egyptians Numb 33. 4. Not onely smiting them but also executing iudgements vpon their gods yea not onely so but executed them and their gods in the selfe-same place where God had been by them so much dishonoured 6. The equity of Gods iustice is to be seene in the time of his punishments God oft makes that time wherein men haue sinned the time of his iudgements At the time of the Passe-over did the Iewes crucifie Christ and at the time of the Passe-over was Ierusalem taken Heauy is the calamity that is befallen the Churches beyond the Seas the time wherein the first blow was given is not to be forgotten The first blow was vpon the Sabbath vpon that day was Prague lost What one thing haue all those Churches fayled in more then in that point of the religious observation of that day That day they neglected to sanctifie by obedience vpon that day God would be sanctified in his iustice vpon them and in the time would haue them reade one cause of their punishment Neither is the time wherein God did that late iustice vpon those Popish persons to bee forgotten It is somewhat that after their Roman accouÌ„t it was vpon their fift of Nouember God would let those of that Iesuited brood see how good it was to blow vp Parliament houses and happily would haue them learne more loyaltie and religion then to scoffe at our new holyday Of this kind was Gods iustice vpon one Leaver who rayling on that worthy Martyr and seruant of Christ Mr. Latimer saying that hee saw that evill fauoured knaue Latimer when hee was burned that he had teeth like an horse his sonne the same houre and at the same time as neere as could bee gathered wickedly hanged himselfe And the same was Gods Iustice ceazing vpon Steven Gardiner the same day that Ridley and Latimer were burned Since then there is such an equitie in Gods administration of iustice let it be our care and wisdome to obserue the same Learne to Coment vpon Gods works of Iustice and to compare mens wayes Gods workes together God is to haue the praise and glory of his Iustice vpon others as well as of his mercy to ourselues Now we shal then be best able to giue God this glory when we so obserue his administratioÌ„ that we may bee able not onely to say The Lord is iust but the Lord is iust in this and that particular when we can say as Reuel 16. 5. not onely Righteous art thou O Lord that iudgest but righteous art thou O Lord that iudgest thus Thus they sinned and thus are they punished It is good to obserue all the circumstances of Gods Iustice that so not onely the iustice but the wisdome and equity of Gods Iustice may bee seene and this is to trace the Lord by the foote Psal 68. 24. Especially we should be thus wise in personall evills that befall our selues that by our punishment and the circumstances thereof we might bee led to the consideration of our sinnes and so might say as Adonibezek As I haue done so hath God rewarded me Learne to giue God the prayse of his equitie as of his iustice So doth Dauid Psal 7. 15. 16. 17. I will praise the Lord according to his righteousnesse Tremble and sinne not Take heede how and wherein we sinne least by our sinnes we teach God how to punish vs Take heede of abusing thy tongue in swearing rayling scoffing least God lay some terrible iudgement vpon thy tongue here or some peculiar torment vpon thy tongue in hell hereafter Take heede what measure thou measure to others least thou teach God to measure the same to thy selfe Take heede that thou make not thine house a den of spuing drunkards least God make thine house to spue thee forth Take heede how thou vse thy wits thy strength take heede of sinning in thy Children or any thing else thou hast least God make the matter of thy sinne the matter of thy punishment FINIS