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A57599 Loyalty and peace, or, Two seasonable discourses from I Sam. 24, 5 viz., David's heart smote him because he cut off Saul's skirt : the first of conscience and its smitings, the second of the prodigious impiety of murthering King Charles I, intended to promote sincere devotion and humiliation upon each anniversary fast for the Late King's death / by Samuel Rolls. Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. 1678 (1678) Wing R1880; ESTC R25524 110,484 255

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thousand Witnesses that which makes it more dreadful is In the Court of Conscience a man becomes a thousand Witnesses against himself yea a Man becomes that Judge that passes the Sentence of eternal Death on himself as the Apostle saith Acts 13.46 Yea viz. Jews have put away the Gospel from you and judged your selves unworthy of everlasting Life Were there ever a Francis Spiro in our days as it is like some such there are he would tell you that all that I have said of the terror of a smitting Conscience were but one half of what is true yea but a Flea-biting to what he himself had felt that eye had never seen ear heard or it ever entered into the heart of man to conceive how terrible the smitings of Conscience sometimes are and that whereas 't is said that Deus Eternitas non patiuntur Hyperbolen id est that God and Eternity can admit of no Hyperboles or cannot be out-languaged The same may be truly said of a Conscience set upon smiting I shall conclude this Head with those words of Solomon The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmities but a wounded Spirit who can bear Prov. 18.14 Ninthly Come we now to speak of the ninth and last Query propounded to be spoken to viz. Quare Why it is that Conscience doth smite men when they do or have sinned against God I answer of that there are principally two reasons to be given first of all because God hath given Conscience a Command and Commission so to do saying to Conscience as to his Prophet of old Lift up thy voice like a Trumpet tell the people their transgressions Conscience is God's Attorney-General if I may so call it God's Advocate to plead for God against man to exhibit God's Indictments against man as the matter doth or shall require Conscience is also Gods Executioner God's Lictor if I may so call it and therefore must smite when God bids it smite it hath God's fasces and secures that is God's Rods and Axes in his hands and must not bear those ensigns of Authority in vain but do execution with them as the great Consul or Dictator of the world shall appoint So much for the first reason Secondly The next is this God hath every way fitted and framed Conscience in its own fabrick nature and constitution for such a work as this viz. to smite men in reference to sin Unto so doing it is conducted as it were by instinct from God as is the Sun to know its due time of Rising and Setting and several Creatures void of understanding to know their proper seasons yea things without life act according to that frame and make which Art hath given them so Clocks do strike and Alarms go and sound at such seasons as they are made to do But for smitings of Conscience there is further reason for Conscience is at once both a Law a Witness and a Judg appointed of God so to be and qualified accordingly As it is a Law of which the Apostle speaks Rom. 2.14 15. These speaking to the Gentiles having not the Law are a Law to themselves which law is Conscience that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Law written in their hearts Now Conscience as such is by Divines called Synteresis being a Store-house of Maxims and Principles informing us of the Eternae indispensabiles rationes boni mali which Divines do so much speak of engraven with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or common notions of good and evil Secondly Conscience is a witness yea a thousand witnesses as we learn from Rom. 2.15 by these words which show the works of the Law written in their hearts their Conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts mean while accusing or else excusing one another Now as Conscience is a witness Divines call it Syneidesis Lastly Conscience is a Judg and as such is by Divines called Crisis witness 1 John 3.20 21. If our hearts condemn us God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things if our hearts condemn us not then have we confidence towards God which words do show Conscience to be a Judg for it is the office of a Judg to pass sentence either of Condemnation or Absolution Moreover in those words are intimated that God hath given to Conscience as it were the power of the Keys and had said unto it as unto Peter and his Successors Matth. 16.19 I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven But now methinks I have to encounter with a very grand Objection namely this How can Conscience be said to be qualified as a reprover or smiter for sin sith it sometimes smites men for that which is no sin at other times when men do really sin against God it smites not at all but rather applauds and commends them as did the Conscience of St. Paul which told him he ought to do many things against Jesus of Nazareth and that it was true zeal in him to persecute the Churches of Christ Sith Conscience sometimes puts darkness for light and light for darkness evil for good and good for evil what matter is it for its smitings unless it were wiser and knew how at all turns never to justifie the wicked and condemn the righteous Can it be may some say that God should give a Commission to Conscience to smite those which ought not to be smitten or to chide those which ought rather to be comforted or to comfort and commend those who ought rather to be soundly chid and condemned If Conscience trifle at this rate may some say ought it not to be slighted like a perfidious Jury that brings in those guilty that are not guilty and those not guilty that are guilty This Objection seems to stand like a Mountain if not like Mount Sion it self which can never be removed yet wait but a while you may see it made a Plane if not turned into a Valley I premise a word or two by way of Concession namely that Conscience in this corrupt degenerate estate of all humane faculties doth sometimes mistake comforting those which it ought to chide and chiding those whom it ought to comfort but thanks be to God there is a way to prevent those mistakes Time was when Conscience might have serv'd as a Law to us and of it self a kind of regula pure regulans But now it is a regula regulata viz. a rule to be ruled by the word of God which is to Conscience as a light shining in a dark place to which the Consciences of men ought to take heed as to that which is a light to their feet and a lanthorn to their paths There is a crookedness which hath happened in part to the Consciences of men by Adam's fall and their fall in him but is such as may be rectified or made streight by attending to