should bee and doe so and so as to Adam I should not have eaten the forbidden fruit I should have kept the Gen. 2. covenant of my God for hee said doe this and live to David I should not have committed adultery or contrived murther for God hath said thou shalt not doe so Secondly to apply by way 2 To apply of reflection upon themselvs what yee have beene or done I should have beene and done so and so but I am and have done thus and thus As to Adam I should not have eaten the forbidden fruit but I have done it to David I should not have committed adultery and murther but I have done them and to all of us I should have repented believed hoped loved but I have not done them as I ought 3 To pronounce Thirdly to pronounce impartiall judgement upon your persons actions as therfore I am a wicked man have done foolishly and am accursed 2 Sam. 24. or therefore I am in Christ have done uprightly and am blessed Thus David I Psal 119. Luke 1. 5. have gone astray like a lost sheep thus the prodigal I have sinned against heaven and before thee thus Paul I was a persecutor blasphemer oppressour thus Hezekiah I have walked before 2 Tim. 1. Es 37. thee with a perfect heart This work of conscience will make you runne out of Sodom with a showre of brimstone at your heeles or make you passe thorough the wildernesse under a cloud of comfortable protection therefore hold it Lastly the charge of conscience 4 Hold the charge of conscience must be held also It hath a large Diocesse over every secret and every manifest thing of yours in person or by communion It hath a charge over inclinations Davids conscience saw the inclinations pronenesse of his heart to cleave unto the dust and therefore hee flies to GOD encline my heart Psal 119. unto thy testimonies and not unto covetousnesse It hath charge over the understanding therefore Agurs conscience lookes upon that and complaines surely I am more brutish Pro. 30. 2 then any man and have not the understanding of Adam in mee It hath charge over the memorie therefore God presents memory to his people they remembred not the Lord Iud. 8. 34 Psal 106. 7 their God they remembred not the multitude of thy mercies that their consciences might worke accordingly It hath charge over thoughts wills affections Es 55. 7 and desires Let the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts saith God to conscience Math. 15. the thoughts defile a man saith Christ to conscience therfore how long shall your wicked Ier. 4 14. thoughts lodge within you yee Ioh. 5. will not come unto me that ye may bee saved saith Christ to conscience Oh how I love thy Psal 119. Psal 18. Psal 119. Psal 42. law yea I love thee dearly O Lord my God I hate all wicked waies saith David from conscience My soule longeth for thee as the hart panteth after rivers of waters I desire to be Phil. 1. dissolved to be with Christ say Davids and Pauls consciences but wicked mens consciences shall cry at last wee desired not the knowledge of Iob. 21. thy lawes Yea the charge of Conscience reacheth to your words and deedes Yee must give an account of every idle Math. 12. word to God and your consciences of every idle word that hath no naturall civill or religious end therefore Davids conscience pleaded against him that he said in his haste all Psal 31. 22. Psal 116. 11 men are lyars even Samuel himselfe in his message from God and Peters conscience lashed him to the purpose for his detestable words in the high-priests hall Davids conscience also comes to his deeds I have sinned greatly in that I have done I have done 2 Sam. 24. 10. very foolishly Ezra when he presented others consciences as well as his owne cried out and now what shall wee say Ezr. 9. 10 for wee have forsaken thy commādements O the large charge of Conscience As ye must hold the light of conscience the love of conscience and the worke of conscience so hold the charge of conscience that yee may doe as Paul would have you hold a good conscience Would you now know the grounds of holding a good 2 Why you must hold a good cōscience 1 If it bee gone God will be against us conscience Doe but marke these foure that follow First if conscience runne away from you GOD your own soules will be against you Gods eyes are purer then to behold iniquitie with approbation and when hee with rebukes doth correct man for sinne as a moath hee makes his beauty to Psal 39. 11 consume away hee doth not presently thunder out of heaven but secretly gnawes out the comfort of their hearts when hee is to Ephraim as a Hos 4. Ier. 20. 3 4 Pro 28 1 Levit. 26. 37 moath He makes them plagues to themselves magor missabib flying when none pursues at the sound of a shaking leafe making every moate a beame and every beame an whole house Yea by conscience he makes them an whole wildernesse of woe Hezekiah complained that God would breake all his Es 38. 13 bones that hee could not speak for anguish of spirit but chattered like a crane or swallow and mourned like a dove Iobs bitter Iob. 12. 26 things that God wrote against him made him cry out that the arrowes of the Almightie Iob. 6. 4. 8. Iob. 7. 14. 15. were within him scared him with dreames and visions and made his soule choose strangling and death rather then life Davids bones waxed old with roaring all the day long and his moysture was like the Psal 32. 3. 4. drought in summer when Gods arrowes stucke fast in him thorough the power of conscience Therefore hold a good conscience Secondly nothing will doe 2 Without it nothing will doe us good Psal 51. you good without a good conscience Have you all houses lands gold silver kingdomes Empires they will do you no good without this no nor faith it selfe for a pure heart 1 Tim. 1. 5 and a good conscience and faith unfayned will goe together they all worke one for another a good conscience riseth from a pure heart and faith unfained cannot bee without a good conscience There is a A fourefold sting in sinne fourefold sting in sin the guilt of sin the fruits of sin the service of sin the habits of sin Faith in Christ pulls out the two first a good conscience from Christ the two last If therefore yee would have any good of what you have hold a good conscience Thirdly with a good conscience 3 With it nothing can doe us hurt nothing can doe you hurt It stands out against all the world Let slanders come Paul sets the sentence of his conscience against them with me it is a very
Therefore Cleon of old when hee was delegated to the helme of the common wealth called al his old frinds into a chamber to him to dissolve all relations and respects of old frindship that he might looke upon all with impartiall eies And the old Ephe. 25. Bona est erga pauperem misericordia sed non contra Judicium Iob 31. Gen. 12. Gen. 18. Judges of Athens called Aâ—eopagitae did heare all causes in darkenesse where they could see no persons why should it not be thus still especially considering Gods saying thou shalt not respect a poore man in judgement Surely mercy to a poore man is good saith Saint Augustine but not against judgement this is an holy eye Secondly when the cause is searched out diligently As God in the case of Babel-builders and Sodomites came down to see whether the case were according to the cry so must all doe that looke towards judgement Philip the Macedonian sitting in jvdgement upon one Machetes was not attentive he was more ready to sleepe then Dormitabundas heare saith the Historian yet at the end of the pleading hee pronounced sentence against him Poore Machites cryed out I appeale To whom saith Philip A te ad te from thee halfe asleepe to thee whole awake with that Philip rowzed himselfe up and heard the cause againe And though hee would not reverse the sentence to discredit his publike judgement yet hee himselfe paid the fine to punish his owne sloath Heere is an image of an holy eye 4 By an holy mouth Lastly there must bee an holy mouth when nothing is spoken in judgement which doth not become an holy mouth Christ looketh upon himselfe as the Judge of the world and saith I can Ioh. 5. 30. Non per infirmitareÌ„ sed per integritatem faciendi sed per observantiam Iudicandi Examinat causae merita non mutat Ambrosi doe nothing of my selfe what nothing he saith not so for weakenesse but for integrity not for his impossibility of doing but for his uprightnes in judging And againe As I heare I judge not judging by pleasure but by the religion of right judgement He is not indulgent to his owne will but doth examine the deserts of causes and determines without alteration Heere is an holy mouth Againe wicked men had taken a wicked woman in adultery even in the very act Christ came not to judge as an earthly governour and therefore hee pronounced not sentence according to the law Hee doth measure them all as wicked persons and saith he that is guiltlesse throw the first Iohn 8. Put a vit lapidandaÌ„ sed non a lapidandis Ambros stone Hee though her worthy to bee stoned but not by them that would have done it they must pull the beame out of their owne eye before they undertake that in their brothers Here againe is an holy mouth Againe Mary Magdalen was not invited to Luk. 7. the Pharises house but yet shee came and pressed upon Christ while others intertained him with meate she did it with teares Christ coÌ„mands her not to be shut out of dores though shee troubled him at dinner no hee commandes Omnium horarum judex Iohn 3. Iohn 4. the grumblers to let her alone He is for all houres for Nicodemus that came to him by night and for her that interrupts him at meate It was meate and drinke to him to doe his fathers will Heere was an holy mouth Yet once more Publius Rutilius the Roman when a deare friend prest him hard with an unjust suite denied him His angry friend cryes out what neede I thy friendship if thou wilt not grant mee my request He should have beene a Christian that thus answered what neede I thy friendship if thou presse mee to sinne against lawe and justice Here is an holy mouth Right honorable Right worshipfull and beloved oh Application that all that are to deale in any passage of justice this day were thus good as that they had such hearts hands eyes mouthes then should the Lord the Judge judge in the judgements of men I confesse that justice as every other vertue is harder in practise then in contemplation for not onely the Minorites Hist of Councel of Trent but the Majorites are the objects of reformation high as well as low are two guilty and an oxe flayes hardest when he comes to the head Besides our vices Vitia sunt a dulta praevalida are not infants they are growne men and strong and as Livy of old complained of Neque vitia neque remedia ferre possumus Rome wee neither can indure faults nor their corrections so may we say of some popular and Epidemicall vices and sicknesses of the soule now This made David groane under the burthen of Ioab who had slaine Abner a prince and a great man in Israel when he could not doe as he would for the present I am this day 2 Sam 3. 38. 39. weake though a King and the sonnes of Zervjah are too hard Mar. 14. 18. In bonum vniversitatis for me yet if every one in his place doe what he could for the common good upon sound examining of witnesses with all circumstances which is that which doth bring the edge of the law upon offenders then the Lord the Judge judgeth But if it fall out that reason Iudicium legis est Iudicium solius rationis Iudicium hominis est Judicium rationis libidinis soundly regulated rule not for the judgement of law is the judgement of pure reason the judgement of the man is the judgement of reason and lust or if witnesse bee not truely weighed as in Pilates case who sentenced Christ to death though he might legally know he was innocent because Mar. 14. 59. the witnesses agreed not or if circumstances bee not 2 Sam. 1. well sifted as David did who justly put the Amalekite to death upon his owne confession that hee killed Saul for though Saul killed himselfe as at least after knowne yet considering these two circumstances first that his confession was not out of Phrensie and discontent with his life but out of full reason to claw David and secondly that his bad thoughts were discovered by himself against the Lords annoynted which justly make him an unworthy traytor his death was justly inflicted by David or if it fall out that conscience be not fully satisfied with the light of truth before verdict and judgement and so proceedings be precipitate and hasty which Nero himselfe could scarce endure in his first part and therefore being mooved to set to his hand to an execution he would say I would I Vtinam nescirem literas cauld neither reade nor write If either of these foure fall out then the Lord the Judge judgeth not Now I beseech you you having heard thus much both how you may drive God from draw God unto judgement seates preach the rest of this judge to your own hearts
Ninevites who were presently Ion. 3. 2 Chro. 34. 27. in sackcloth and Iosiah who rent his cloathes with weeping eies and melting heart Thus Davids flesh trembled for fear of God and Psal 119. 120. he was affraid of his judgments yee must looke to the promises of God as David who hid Psal 119. 11 them in his heart that he might not sinne against him Whatsoever is in the word ye must have an eie unto For though they doe not so immediately concerne you in the way of life and death as many Genealogies Chronologies Histories and Prophecies yet you must bee ready to understand Praeparatione animi them and their uses as God shall offer them yet yee must principally hold precepts to direct threatnings to humble and promises to allure and comfort ye must hold them by understanding what the will Eph. 5. 17 of the Lord is till if ye can yee come to all riches of the ful Col. 2. 2. assurance of understanding Yee must hold them by assenting to them yeelding to all the truth of them as Saint Luke to the storie of Christ whereof he was fully perswaded Yee Luâ—e 1. 1. must hold them by bringing your bodies and soules into subjection unto them For in Iesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith working Gal. 5. 6. by love This is the object of faith The act of faith is to say 3 The act of faith this is mine to adjudge and appropriate father sonne and holy Ghost unto your selves without this yee cannot feele any comfort of what you believe Therefore as David and Christ said My God My Psal 22. 1. Ioh. 20. 28 God as Thomas said My Lord and my God and as the Luke 1. 47 Blessed Virgine said my spirit that is the quintessence of my soule acted by the spirit of God rejoyceth in God my Saviour so by way of adherence when most times ye have no evidence yee must take God in Christ as your owne as hee offers himselfe I am the Lord Ex. 20. Ier. 31. thy God I will bee thy God This is the act of faith The power of faith is to make use of the riches of it The power of faith Psal 32. Psal 45. Rom. 4. Act. 15. Mal. 4. Eph. 3. Heb. 6. 2 Cor. 4. 13. for thy owne proper good Great is the power of faith and it prevaileth It covereth our sinnes by the garments of Christ our elder brother and so is imputed to us for righteousnesse It cureth our sinnes bringing Christ who hath healing under his wings to dwell in our hearts by faith It brings forth a world of the labour of love wee having the same spirit of faith believe speak and thinke and doe For by Eph. 2. 10. faith we are Gods workemanship created in Christ to good workes to walke in them And this affirme constantly that they that have believed in Tit. 3. 8. GOD be carefull to maintaine good workes This is the power of faith Now this ground of faith 2 Why yee must hold faith this object of faith this act of faith this power of faith you must hold upon these five Grounds First faith is our life wee live by faith not by sight and 1 Faith our life 2 Cor. 5. Hab. 2. every just man must live by his faith Not efficiently for so in GOD we live move and Act. 17. have our being Nor meritoriously for so saith Christ I am the way the truth and the life Nor by way of immediate Ioh. 14. application for so the holy ghost is a quickening spirit as Adams soule was the 1 Pet. 3 18. Gen. 2. breath of life But as a prime instrument of our life in Christ without this wee cannot have life either before God or in this miserable world This Rom. 1. 17 Heb. 10. 38 unites us to Christ and receives a quickning spirit as the vertue of Christ from the spirit of Christ in the meanes of salvation As men say of their trades and hands under God they are my living take away these and take away my life so say wee of faith it is your life therfore hold it Secondly faith is our power 2 Faith is our power of working of working to doe us our best good In a naturall man his reason is his power Hee is borne naked with abundance of bodily weaknesse a beast hath a great deale of bodily strength and if a lyon rationally knew how to use his pawes a dog his teeth a bullock or buck his hornes or an horse his hoofes how few men would there bee in the world But let man come in with his reason and hee subdues them all But in a believer his faith is his power and what is the power of reason to this As Christ said of miraculous faith it pulls up trees by the rootes and removes mountaines it makes sunne stand still and go backward so much more of this saving christian faith in another kinde It covers more sinnes then heaven and earth can cover Get the heavens to cover them our sinnes are more then the starres and are come up above the heavens Get the sea to cover them the sea can cover the sands at a full tide but our sins are more then the sandes of the sea Get the earth and all the creatures to cover them our sinnes over-top them all and make Rom. 8. the whole creation groane under the burthen But get faith and as love covers a multitude of sinnes in others so faith covers all sinnes in our selves It brings the garments of Christ and then wee cannot Apoc. 16. Phil. 3. Dan. 9. bee naked It brings the righteousnes of God the everlasting righteousnesse to dwel amongst men and then God cannot but be there where his righteousnesse is to give grace and Psal 84 16 glorie and every perfect gift It is your power to doe your best good and therefore hold it Thirdly faith is your workman 3 Faith is our workman Set faith about any work and what can it not doe Art thou at Gods Gen. 12. word to goe a great journey thou knowest not whither Faith did it for Abraham Art thou to fight against lyons Heb. 11. Gen. 22. beares Philistims and other puissant enemies Faith did it for David Sampson Gideon Barach and their fellowes Art thou to doe what nature abhorres Faith did it for Abraham in the sacrifice of his son Art thou to cleanse the uncleane stables of sinne Faith will take Christs spirit and arguments and doe it It cries out shall I that am dead to sinne yet live Rom. 6 therein Shall I sinne that grace may abound God forbid I will mortifie the deedes of the Rom. 8. flesh by the spirit Art thou to suffer persecution Faith will suffer it for thee in goates-skinnes and sheepes-skinnes Heb. 11. in the craggie wildernesse Art thou to overcome Death
conscience ye cannot advance your selves as you would for conscience Oh how it troubles you therefore ye wound it smother it stop the mouth of it and will not heare it though a good man might by it bee satisfied from Pro. 14 14. himselfe Is this to hold the love of conscience Do ye hold the worke of conscience 3 Try the worke of conscience Es 57. A good man will let it perfect its work in the feare of God He propounds fairly he that is broken hearted shall bee comforted he that is weary and pressed down with sinnes shal Math. 11. Apoc. 2. be refreshed he that fights the good fight of faith shall have the crown of life he that adds to his faith knowledge to his knowledge vertue so forth shall make his calling and election 2 Pet. 1. sure because he shal neither be barren nor unfruitfull hee that hath the fruits of the spirit Gal. 5. 22. 23. against him there is no law to condemne Hee applies as truely but I have a broken heart I am weary of sin I fight faithfully according to strēgth received I chaine my graces together in act as occasion is offered as I have them in habit and as I have the fruits of the spirit in me therefore hee concludes as necessarily therfore so long as I continue in this estate I shal have comfort heere and salvation hereafter A wicked man wil sometimes suffer conscience to work too according to light Abimelechs conscience will not let him wrong Abrahams wife which Gen. 20. comes not because the conscience is good out of faith unfained but good out of feare and awe But tell me doe yee suffer conscience to worke in all things Then would yee so powerfully conclude against your selves that yee must say 1 Cor. 6. 9. 10. I must amend or perish No unrighteous person what ever whether fornicator adulterer reviler drunkard covetous person extortioner shal inherit the kingdome of heaven but I am so and so therefore in this estate I shall never get heaven Hee that neglects the call of God shal call upon God and God will not heare but laugh Pro. 1. when his destruction comes but I have done so therefore God will deale so with mee Hee that being often reproved Pro. 29 1. hardneth his necke shall suddenly be destroyed without remedy but I have hardened my necke against all reproofes therfore what may I look for if I amend not but destruction Doe ye thus conclude for your amendment Doe ye not rather conclude quite otherwise Gods word saith so so but I do not so do or if I do otherwise God will save sinners and I shall escape Is this to hold the worke of coscience Lastly doe yee hold the 4 Try the charge of conscience charge of conscience What an universal bishopricke hath conscience over the whole man and all of man There is no inclination imagination power thought word or deed but it is under the power of conscience and do ye hold this Davids conscience looked to his inclinations I was Psal 18. 23 upright before God and kept my selfe from my wickednesse Agurs conscience looked to his understanding thoughts if thou hast done foolishly if Pro. 30. 21 thou have thought evill lay thy hand upon thy mouth Davids conscience looked to his words I will keepe my mouth with a bridle and to his deeds Psal 39. I said I will take heede unto my waies But as Christ did mourn within himselfe when he saw the multitude because they were as sheepe without a shepherd Mat. 9. 36. so may you for the neglect of conscience in all these Yee are inclined to every evil way yet conscience takes no notice How is your understanding overwhelmed with ignorance and stuffed with worldly vanity How are your memories charged with unprofitables and your affections lavished wickedly and yet conscience is silent your thoughts words and deedes are not visited by conscience as they should It neither viewes nor censures nor corrects as is meete Oh why doe you not hold conscience Let it looke to every secret and when it knows the duty let it looke about and apply it as need is to every part power of body and soule This will work amendment for the present and care for the time to come and so shall yee hold conscience It may be you will say how How to help to the holding of conscience shall I helpe my selfe forward to such a glorious work I answer Get a a rich mine of grace and duty into your hearts As a good man hath a good treasure in his heart so must you by laying up the word in your Deut. 16. Pro. 6. hearts and binding it to your hearts by a powerful impression Present this treasure to your consciences that it may make you smite your selves upon your thighes and say what have I done Then walke in the presence of God as David when I awake I Psal 139. am ever before thee and then the servant will worke when hee is before his master Next have a setled watchfulnesse over all your wayes covenanting with heart eyes tongue and hand not wilfully to sinne against God And lastly commit your waeyes to GOD by hearty prayers and hee will rectifie all by the bloud and spirit of your JESVS and so surely shall you hold both faith and a good conscience too to the comfort of your soules and to the Glory of your GOD to whom bee praise power and Glory now and for ever Amen FINIS Imprimatur Sept. 1. 1638. Tho. Wykes