Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	body_n	death_n	sting_n	3,690	5	11.8999	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57597	Shlohavot, or, The burning of London in the year 1666 commemorated and improved in a CX discourses, meditations, and contemplations, divided into four parts treating of I. The sins, or spiritual causes procuring that judgment, II. The natural causes of fire, morally applied, III. The most remarkable passages and circumstances of that dreadful fire, IV. Councels and comfort unto such as are sufferers by the said judgment / by Samuel Rolle ...	Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Preliminary discourses.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Physical contemplations.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Sixty one meditations.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Twenty seven meditations.	1667 (1667)	Wing R1877; Wing R1882_PARTIAL; Wing R1884_PARTIAL; ESTC R21820	301,379	534

they have The Israelites in the Wilderness had but bread and water when for their murmuring they were destroyed of the destroyer 1 Cor. 10. Beware of grumbling at Manna and lusting after Quailes lest for so doing your carcasses fall in the Wilderness as theirs did If the end of life were to eat and drink it were another matter but if the end of eating and drinking be that we may live such food as will keep us alive and in health ought to be accepted with thankfulness what a feast would a belly-full of bread be counted in a time of famine How precious was an Asses head yea a cab of Doves dung in the famine of Samaria 2 Kings 6.28 Are we better than Lazarus who would have been glad of Dives his crums If that were a parable then Lazarus is there put not for one person but for every one that is such as he is described to have been namely defigned for Abraham's bosome and yet glad of crums in this World Let me here diet with Lazarus if the will of God be so may I but be sure hence-forth to lodge with him in the bosome of Abraham Do we make light of food and raiment for us and ours alas what more can this World afford us though we have ever so much of it Solomon complaining how the hearts of men are taken up with thoughts and cares of worldly things which is conceived to be the meaning of that difflicult expression Eccles 3.11 He hath set the World in their hearts showes what the benefit of the World and of the things therein is I know saith he that there is no good in them but for a man to rejoyce and to do good in his life And also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labours v. 12 13. I finde the rich man spoken of Luk. 16.19 distinguished from the beggar only by this that he are better meat and wore better cloaths For the Text saith That he was cloathed in Punple and fared sumptuously every day Now what great matter is it that our vile bodies should have every thing of the best What are our bodies especially if too much pamper'd but as so many reeking dunghils annoying our soules with ill steames and vapours or like dead carcasses joyned to living men a torture invented by Mezintius which are an unsufferable offence to them As it is said of Eve that she was first in the transgression and as she drew in her husband so our bodies many times like so much tinder do receive the first sparks of temptation or like the thatch of an house are first kindled and as that might set the whole house so do they the whole soul on fire Many sins begin at the body are occasioned or fomented or both by the over-sanguine or melancholy or cholerick temper or distemper thereof which shewes we are no debtors to the flesh to fulfill the desires thereof Moreover if we consider whence our bodies came and whither they are going it will appear there is no such cause to be greatly concerned for them that they should wear the finest wool and eat the sinest of the wheat Dust they were and to dust they shall teturn Why must they needs be sed so daintily which themselves must shortly become food for wormes when we feed our bodies too high what do we but feed our lusts yea feed diseases in our very bodies so that it is become a proverb that the English man digs his grave with his teeth Few kill their bodies by mortifying them but many by indulging them Christmat kills many more than Lent As the Ape is said to hug her young ones to death so many kill their bodies with too much kindness to them As over-pamper'd Horses oft times throw their riders and give them their deaths wound so are men too commonly thrown both in osickness sin and death it self by indulging their bodies over much The body as one saith well ought to be kept as not infra so neither supra negotium sed per negotio not too high for its work but equal to it Paul saith that he did keep under his body and brought it into subjection So far was he from cockring of it till it became his master as too many do There is no small danger in over-exalting our blood and natural spirits Job was never more afraid of his children than when they went a feasting from house to house Then did he offer a Sacrifice for each of them least they should blaspheme God or had done it A cheap and simple diet may preserve health and strength as well as the best dainties and costliest varieties Daniel and the three children who lived of pulse and water were fairer and fatter than all those which did cat the portion of the Kings meat Dan. 1.15 They are sometimes the leanest cattel which devoure the fat As for any service of God or men he shall be much more fit who having no pallatable diet eats but for necessitie and to satisfie his hunger than one that by the deliciousness of his fare is tempted to devoure more than he can well digest As for delight in meats and drinks he that brings but hunger and thirst enough to a course meale shall have more of that and those are sauces which the poor have usuallie most of than he that with balfe an appetite sits down to a great Feast Why then having a comperencie of wholsome food though but mean and ordinarie should we not be therewithall content Are we better then John the Baptist of whom it is said that his diet was Locusts and wilde Honey Some have found more sweetness in a draught of cold water such as their thirst hath been than in all the Wines and Spirits which they have drank at other times Why then may not a mean diet content us yea prove delicious to us as Salomon saith To the hungry soule every bitter thing is sweet Povertie brings such sawce with it as will make a dish of Tripe more savorie than a Venison Pastie is to a rich man Then as for Rayment if we have but that which may serve the turn to keep us warm and decent though it be course and plain why should we not be content therewith We read in Mark 1.6 John was cloathed in Camels-hair and with a girdle of a skin about his lo●ns which was as mean as could be do we not read of some of the primitive Christians that they wandred about in sheepe-skins and Goat-skins Heb. 11.37 Are we better than they would such habits become us worse than them Time was that God bid the Israelites to put off their ornaments that he might know what to do with them Exod. 33.5 Did God ever speak as if he knew not what to do with a people for want of ornaments Did he ever seem displeased that a people were not fine enough Why should that habit displease us that God may best like us in and know

the Vine-Tree which I have given to the fire for fewell so will I give the Inhabitants of Jerusalem They shall go out from one Fire and another Fire shall devour them Be the Fire there spoken of literal or analogical it may come all to one For what is Fire equivalently is as terrible as what is really so Now if I mistake not great unprofitableness was the sin for which God did threaten that Fire See v. 2. and so onwards What is the Vine-tree intending to compare the Jews thereunto shall Wood be taken thereof to do any work or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessell thereon v. 5. Behold when it was whole it was meet for no work how much less shall it be meet for any work when the Fire hath devoured it and it is burnt As if God had told them that they were become as useless and good for nothing as is a branch of the Vine cut off from the Tree and half burnt in the Fire Now for this it was that God told them he would give them for fewel to the Fire that were good for nothing but to burn May I presume to say and why should I not it being manifestly true London did swarm and a residue of England at this day doth swarm with useless persons who did and do drink in the former and latter rain of Gods good Ordinances and Blessings but have brought and do bring forth nothing but briars and thorns and concerning such ground the Scripture saith That it is nigh unto a curse and the end of it is to be burned Heb. 6.8 It will be enough for me to tell what persons may be justly reckoned unprofitable and then leave it to others to judge if there are not and were not many such in the midst of us of all sorts and conditions though blessed be God all were not such He is an unprofitable Christian whose converse edifies no body neither doth his communication minister grace to any that hear it He is an unpofitable master of a family or parent who takes no care with Joshua that his far●ily might serve the Lord nor doth command his children and houshold to keep the way of the Lord as God testifies for Abraham that he would do Gen. 18.19 or that with old Eli suffers those that are under his command to do what they list He is an unprofitable Magistcate that is neither a terror to evil doers nor an encouragement to them that do well but much more if vice versâ he doth worse than bear the sword in vain He is an unprofitable Minister that neither instructs the people by wholsome doctrine nor by a holy life that wants both Urim and Thummim that doth not calculate his Sermons for the good of souls that either shoots over peoples heads by too much profundity and ostentation of Learning such as they understand not or shoots under their feet by such weak and sensless discourses as make both his person and doctrine contemptible He that treats his people as if Non-sense were the only Nectar and Ambrosia for immortal people to feed upon as one phraseth it In a word he that studies only to provoke his soules by medling with what he should not or only to please them by not medling with what he should and lastly he that fleeceth the flock but feeds it not is an unprofitable Minister if he may so much as be called a Minister Again he is unprofitably knowing and learned that suffers no body to be the better or as we say the wiser for his knowledge and learning though he might To be useless out of necessity is but a mans misery but to be so out of choice is a very great sin and yet a greater sin it is to make many more useless as well as our selves by that old rule Quod efficit tale est magis tale The Pharisees who shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men neither going in themselves nor suffering others that would to enter Matth. 23.13 were worse than unprofitable Again they are unprofitably rich who have great estates but no hearts to do good with them or to make to themselves friends of the unrighteous Mammon or to lend to God in giving to the poor that they might be repaied with the most gainful interest Such as are spoken of Jam. 5.2 Whose riches are corrupted and their garments are moth-eaten their gold and silver is cankered and the rust of them is a witness against them But especially such who are so far from being merciful notwithstanding their great estates that they cannot finde in their hearts to be just Jam. 5.4 Behold the hire of the labourers which is of you kept back by fraud crieth God hath sent them great crops and they thought much to pay poor men for reaping of them The cries of them which have reaped are entred into the ears of the Lord God of Sabbaoth that is of Hosts who is pleased sometimes to fall upon such misers in a hostile way even by Fire and Sword and snatch that from them which they would not voluntarily part with to any good uses Moreover he is an unprofitable member of a Town County or Kingdom that only seeks great things for himself and cares not what becomes of the publick weale whereas we see that things without life as Aire and Water and such like will forsake their own centers and vary from their natural motion to comply with the good of the Universe by preventing a vacuum But worse than unprofitable are they who as our Proverb speaks Do set other mens houses on fire to rost their own egges that is do others the greatest mischief to do themselves a small courtesie Lastly he is an unprofitable member of the world who lives meerly to eat and drink and rise up to play The Apostle saith that the widdow who liveth in pleasure is dead whilst she liveth Seneca would say such men might be said to be or have a being but not to live People that have no calling nor know how to betake themselves to any but to be servants to divers lusts and pleasures to read Romances and Play-books and wanton Poems to run about to Play-houses to court Ladies to talk idly to women that love such discourse to pass the time in Cards and Dice and Wine and Jests when the weather constrains them to be within doors and at other times in Hunting and Hawking and Fishing and such-like divertisements Of such voluptuosoes if I may so call them we read Job 22.12 They take the Timbrel and Harp and rejoyce at the sound of the Organ They spend their daies in mirth c. and in a moment go down to the grave As they say it is a Proverb amongst thieves A merry life and a short life For many such persons do shorten their daies by their excess as to Wine and Women and ride post out of the world upon the back of those head-strong lusts which run away with them The

first so in heart Now if the hearts of many be such as their most fantastick and garish habits make show of those words of Solomon Eccles 9.3 Must needs be verified in them The heart of the Sons of Men is full of evil madness is in their heart whilst they live c. Yet for all this I would exercise charity concerning the habits of men and women though that be hard to do did not the common practise and course of this Age assure me that it is universally corrupt and degenerate and as it were expound the meaning of such suspicious habits It is no difficult thing to prove the sins of this Age because men now adayes declare their sins like Sodom and do as it were spread a Tent in the face of the Sun as did Absalom I am much mistaken and so are many more if the gross sins of swearing cursing Sabbath breaking drunkenness whoredome together with too great a connivance at and impunity to these and some others be not more chargable upon England at this day than they had wont to be Are not these the things which male-contents do alledge to justify their murmurings though neither are they or can they be thereby justified as I have plainly shewed in that Chapter in which I have discoursed of Rebellion against Moses and Aaron We must keep our stations and do our duties though other men should refuse to do theirs If a Wise play the harlot may her Husband in requital commit adultery no such matter This premised I may the more boldly say whatsoever the matter is and whence so ever it comes a very general corruption there is amongst us What is said of the soul viz. that it is Tota in toto tota in qualibet parte wholly in the whole body and wholly in every part may be applied to sin as if it were become the very soul that did animate and inform the Nation I was about to say I fear good men are generally not so good as they had wont to be and bad men are become a great deale worse the former having suffered like strong constitutions that have been impaired by bad aire and the other like unsound bodies which are almost brought to the Grave thereby And now let me say with Jeremy O that my head were a fountain of teares that I could weep day and night for the corruption as he said for the destruction of the daughter of my people and O that I could say with David mine eyes run down Rivers of teares because men keep not thy Laws at leastwise that with righteous Lot of whom it is said without the least hyperbole that he did vex his righteous soul with the conversation of the Sodomites so could I mine with the sins of England mine own and others O Lord thou seest how even the whole Mass of English blood is wofully corrupted by sin as it fareth with those that have had a Dart struck thorough their Liver in that sense Solomon is by some supposed to intend it viz. as a periphrasis of the fowle disease so that there is hardly any good blood in all our ●●ines and arteries outward applications whether of judgments or mercies of themselves cannot cure us Inwardly cleanse us we beseech thee by the inspiration of thy spirit and purge our Consciences from dead works to serve thee that thy wrath may no more burn against us as Fire but that at length thou maist call us Heptzibah a people in whom thy soul may delight MEDITATION XII Of God's bringing Fire upon a People for their incorrigibleness under other Judgments WE have already spoken of twelve several causes of God's contending with a people by Fire and yet there is one behind as much in fault as any of all the rest and that is the sin of incorrigibleness I could presently produce three sufficient witnesses as it were to depose what I say One is that text in Isaiah Chap. 1. vers 5 7. Compared together Why should yee be smitten any more yee will revolt more and more your Countrey is desolate your Cities are burnt with Fire The next is Isa 9.13 compared with the 19. The People turneth not to him that smiteth them Through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts shall the People be as the Fewel of the Fire But Amos speaks out yet more plainly if that can be Amos 4.6 I have given you cleanness of teeth yet have you not returned to me saith the Lord vers 8. I have with-holden the Rain from you vers 9. I have smitten you with blasting and mildew c. vers 10. I have sent among you the Pestilence after the manner of Egypt Now the burthen of all the Indictment is Yet have yee not returned to me saith the Lord. Then in the next verse he brings in God speaking thus I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah vers 11. And how was that but by fire So that you see the judgment of fire came as it were to avenge the quarrel of other abused judgments when Famine and Pestilence had done no good upon them then God used Fire which as being the worst was reserved to the last Most of the judgments denounced by Amos go under the notion of Fire Chap. ● 2. and incorrigibleness you see is one main reason rendered of Gods inflicting those judgment Now England hold up thy hand at the Bar and answer Art thou guilty or not guilty of the great sin of incorrigibleness and you dispersed inhabitants of that once famous City which now lieth in the dust little did I ever think to have called you by that name speak out and say were you guilty or not guilty of much incorrigibleness under other judgments before such time as God began to contend with you by that Fire which hath now almost consumed you Plead your innocency if you can Either prove you were never warned or sufficiently warned by preceding judgments or make it appear that you took warning and mended upon it That war by Sea which hath been as a bloody issue upon the Nation for several yeares past and is not yet stanched was that no warning piece That impoverishing decay of trade which hath made so many murmur was it no warning to us to repent and reform If it were a great judgment did it not call upon us to reform and if but a small one why did we so much repine at it That devouring pestilence which in one years time swept away above a hundred thousand in and about London was it not a sufficient warning to us from heaven Yet after all this how few did smite upon their thighs and said what have I done I doubt few have been the better for all these and many the worse who since God hath so smitten us have revolted more and more which is such a thing as if Jonah should have presumed to provoke God more than ever even then when he was in the great deep and

were purer then snow whiter then milk their visage was become blacker then any coal so to think how they that lived in great port and fashion are many of them as in the turning of a hand brought exceeding low they and theirs should much affect us The desolation of so many houses is a sad sight but the ruine of so many families as this fire hath ruin'd is yet a sadder consideration Surely it hath fallen heavy both upon rich and poor rich men in the loss of their estates poor men in the loss of their friends The rich man hath lost his talent and the poor man hath lost his steward that improved it for him in a way of relief and charity Is it not worth our adding and throwing into the ballance that this loss by fire trod upon the heels of two other greater losses viz. By war and pestilence the latter of which not only diminished our estates but which was worse deprived us of near and dear relations yea moreover that this judgement came before the other two were gone or either of them for is not the sword yet drawn and doth not the pestilence still devour so that these three judgements have appeared together like three terrible Comets or Blazing-stars threatning utter destruction and God hath come out against us riding as it were upon three several dreadful horses black red and pale to allude to what is spoken in the Revelations And as for what concerns mens estates it is well known that the sword and pestilence in several years hath not so much exhausted them as this fire did within a few days Meerly to avoid tediousness I shall here add but two things touching London's loss though otherwise much more might be added one is that it is Invaluable and the other that in the eye of reason it is Irreparable It is in the first place Inestimable namely how great the loss is for the present but more especially what sad products consequences it may draw after it for the future whither the tayl of the Comet as I may call it may reach It is a common and I believe a true saying amongst the sufferers by this fire that they have lost so much that they themselves cannot tell what they have lost Only he that can tell the number of the Stars and call them all by their names doth know what the sum total of this loss is and what are all the particulars of it and what influence this Judgement may have upon the times to come for certain it is the children which are yet unborn will in time fare the worse for it Who can estimate how great a dammage and confusion will arise first and last from one branch of this losse viz. the burning of Bills Bonds Leases Conveiances Books of Debts and Accompts and other Writings of great consequence which was all that many men had to shew for the greatest part of their Estates what contention and confusion this one loss may produce no heart can conceive who knows not that paper and parchment such as the contents thereof may be may be of greater value than Pearls and Diamonds How many had rather yea had better have lost thousands of pounds than some few sheets of paper that went to feed those flames O fire inestimably dear O loss unvaluable Could this loss be repaired the matter were not so great but it either is or seems to be irrepairable ●t leastwise in the memory of any man now living So that we may here take up the same complaint which the prophet did Lam. 2.13 Thy reach is great like the Sea Who can heal thee Or as he Jer. 30.15 Why criest thou for thine affliction thy sorr●w is incurable I question not the Omnipotency of God but according to what is usual with God to do in the world we can none of us expect to see that breach made up in many years which was made upon London in a few dayes Now put all these things together and then tell me if his heart be not harder then the nether Milstone that can see what London hath suffered and not mourn with a very great mourning If so a mazeing a Judgement will not awaken men they are like to sleep in their security till they come to wake in Hell where none can sleep for the smoke of their torment ascendeth continually and they have no rest day nor night But are there any that call themselves Englishmen that do not only not mourn over but rejoyce and triumph in the destruction of London Let them believe themselves to be legitimate if they can at leastwise let them not think that others will ever believe that there is one drop of true English Blood running in their veins Or let the parents of their Bodies be who they will I am sure that in another sense they are of their Father the Devil and his works they do If there could have bin mirth in Hell there would have been rejoycing there at the firing of London as there is in heaven at the Conversion of a sinner How worthy were they to have danced in those flames who if any such be have sung and danced at the remembrance of them But what if some not only rejoyce in this being done but had the heart to do it How long was it ere I could believe there was any such Monster in the World till I heard of one convicted for the same and that by his own sensible and persevering Confession Lord What mischief have they done Is there any sacrifice for their sin One would think if there were no Hell God would prepare one on purpose for such miscreants to burn them in who have burn't up the Estates and Livelihoods of so many thousands But Lord thou knowest it is not my desire they should nor is it my opinion that the blood of Christ laid hold on by faith is not able to save their souls And oh Though their bodies should be given as meat to the fowles of the air or fewel to temporal flames yet that their souls might be delivered from the wrath to come Let them rely upon no pardon from that triple crowned blasphemer of Rome who cannot so much as pardon his own sins and it is well the light of such men considered and how they hold the truth in unrighteousnesse if they be not unpardouable He that cheats men into sin let him not cheat them into Hell by causing them to rest upon his mock indulgences who is easie enough to pardon such peccadilloes in his account as are the burning of Protestant Cities yea can be willing to enroll them amongst his Saints I confess a red letter would do well before their names but onely in token of blood and cruelty But Lord I desire to look higher than those instruments of our late sire even unto thee Thou hast set us on fire round about and oh that we could lay it to heart as becometh us We would hold our peace because thou

death as to whom the sting of death is taken away and he from the noisome pestilence who is secured that the evill of it shall not come nigh him which is all that seems intended by that promise Psal 91.3 verse compared with the tenth David somewhere prayes that God would bring his Soul out of trouble and his Soul out of prison The Soul of a man is the man if that be brought out of trouble in whole or in part though his body his name estate relations are yet introuble the man himself is delivered A man may be sick and well at the same time as Baul was poor and yet rich at the same time according to that of the Prophet the inhabitants shall not say they are sick for their sins shall be forgiven them a man can be but well in Prosperity and it may be as well with us yea and better with us in adversity all things considered as David saith it was good for him that he was afflicted and in that case is not a man truly delivered even under affliction It may be God will be more with us in the water and in the fire than ●ver he was out of it As prospective-glasses do represent the object near at band though it be some miles distant so may this notion represent Deliverance at the very door or as that which may come the next mornine when sorrow came but the evening before viz. Deliverance in and under trouble which may be sufficient for us though Deliverance out of trouble may seem as far from us as the East is from the West thus may we hope in one kind whilst we despair in another and with Abraham in hope believe even against hope If outward calamity and misery might not confist with more real happiness and comfort than plenty and prosperity had wont to afford how could that promise of Christ be sulfilled that they who forsake all for him shal have a hundred-fold in this life and yet with persecution or in despight thereof Lord if my heart ceceive me not I had rather partake of those Deliverances which many of thy servants have had with and under great and sore trouble than of those Deliverances out of trouble into greates● earthly prosperity which thou hast sometimes vouchsafed to wicked men Thou who gavest to Paul and Silas imprisoned and in th● stocks songs in the night but didst make Belteshazzer tremble and his knees smite together in the midst of his ful cups and jovial company thou caust imbitter the best of earthly conditions and sweeten the worst Lord give me rather a bitter cup of thy sweetning than a sweet cup of thy imbittering As for all the troubles which at this day are upon my self or any of thy people if thou wilt never deliver us out of them thy will be done but oh faile not in such manner as hath been spoken and how else thou pleasest to save and deliver us under them that experience henceforth may tender it no paradox to me and others that there is real Deliverance under trouble as well as our of it that the snare of evil may not be visibly broken and yet thy people may be delivered DISCOURSE II. Of this that the life of man consists not in the abundance of what he possesseth SUrely it is from a vain conceit that the life of man consists in his abundance that those who have not an abundance of earthly comforts do so much covet after it and those that have do so much blesse themselves in it as some are brought in saying Zach. 11.5 Blessed be the Lord for I am rich those who have lost of their ab●ndance do mourn so inordinately for the want of it But whatsoever men think Christ assures us it is not so Luke 12.15 For there saith he the life of a man consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth I think at present of six or or seven instances wherein that saying of Christ is verified First The length or prolongation of mans life doth not consist in the abundance of what he possesseth The oyle of riches cannot feed the lampe of life Psal 49. from the 6. to the 11. verse They that boast themselves of their riches none of them can redeem his brother or give to God a ransome for him that he should still live for ever and not see corruption for he seeth that wise men dye and leave their wealth to others Look abroad and you will see more poor men that have lived to a great age than rich yea in proportion to the humber there is of one and of the other Some diseases which poor people generally escape out of and make but light of them how often do they prove fatal and deadly to them that are rich as if corruption were ambitious to claime kindred of them more than of others and the hungry wormes to feed upon their well fed flesh rather than that of others to allude to Job 17.14 I have said to corruption thou art my father to the worme thou art my mother and my sister poor men lengthen their lives by labour rich men too too often shorten theirs by Luxury Neither doth the end of mans life consist in possessing an abundance man was not sent into the world to load himself with thick clay or to adde house to house and land to land as if he meant to dwell alone upon the earth to possesse himselfe of so many hundreds or thousands by the year and so leave it to his posterity That these are trifles to the great end which man was sent into the world for appeareth by Acts 17.27 where Paul tels us that God hath set man upon the face of the earth to seek after God there is the end of life if nappily he might find him out Nor in the third place doth the Credit of a mans life consist in the meere abundance of the things which he possesseth they that have nothing to commend them but their riches though they are flattered by many are truly bonoured but by a few most men wil bow downe to those idols of Silver and of God as I may cal them because it is the fashion so to doe but when their backs are turned upon them they are ready to say of them as the Apostle concerning idols in the general 1 Cor. 8.4 we know that an Idol is nothing in the world we know such a one for all his brave outsides and the caps and knees that are given him to be a worthlesse person and to signifie just nothing He is like a rich tomb without which is so ill furnished within that it is not worth opening Fourthly Neither doth the usefulnesse of mans life consist in the abundance of what he possesseth Solomon tels of a poor man that by his wisdome delivered a City Eccles 9.15 That a rich man void of wisdom could not have done with all his wealth some do more good in the world with a little

concerning the Law of God taught by parents to their children Prov. 6.22 When thou goesh it shall lead thee when thou awakest it shall talk with thee So will a good conscience An evil conscience findes such discourse as men have not patience to hear like Micaiah it never prophesieth good but a good conscience commends without flattery and tells those stories than would not be grievous to a man to listen to from morning to night It speaks like God in his sentence of Absolution well done good and faithful Servant No man can frame a discourse so delightful as are the whispers of a good conscience speaking peace and pardon to us in the name of God Where such company and such discourse is there can want no mirth taking mirth in the soberest sense for comfort and refreshment yea it will make the heart more glad than they whose wine and oile increase And as for musick all the voices and instruments in the World cannot make such melody as a good conscience If a man had all those Men-singers and Women-singers that Solomon had Eccles 2.8 their best notes were not comparable to this Nor is it hard to make out how a good conscience can and doth give a man hearty welcome For as Christ in several senses is both Priest Altar and Sacrifice so is that both our feast and our Host our entertainer and our entertainment Conscience doth as it were grudge a wicked man both his meat and his mirth but to a good man it saith eat thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart for the Lord accepteth thy person Conscience bids much good may do him with all he hath and tells him in the name of God he is as welcome to it as his heart can wish and hath it with as good a will We count those men best able to feast that have as we say every thing about them and within themselves Corne Cattel Poultry all of their own Dove-houses Warrens Parks all within their own grounds Ponds affording several sorts of fish Trees yielding all sorts of fruits c. Such is he that hath a good conscience he hath all materials for feasting within himself and therefore may afford to do it Prov. 14.14 A good Man shall be satisfied from himself Viz. from the consciousness of his own integrity As Paul saith this is our rejoycing viz. the testimony of our conscience c. He that hath this hath meat to eat that the World knows not of and such meat as he would not exchange for all the rarities and varieties that are at Emperors Tables He blesseth himself or rather God when he thinks how much happeir he is than the World takes him for and how much better he fares than the World knows of whereas they do or may blush and inwardly bleed to think how much happier they are thought to be than indeed they are I might add he that feasts upon a good conscience hath that kinde of meat which is also sawce for every thing whereas others have the same sawce that spoiles all their sweet meat But possibly I cannot say more of the happiness of a good conscience than many can easily believe from the experience of a bad one and the misery they have felt by meanes of it A good conscience think they were an excellent feast indeed if we had it There is none like that but as Saul said the Philistims were come up against him and God was departed so they The Fire is come up against them and hath taken away what they feasted on before and as for a good conscience they wish they had it but they have it not Such a sound spirit would bear their infirmities but for want of it they are not able to bear them Were I sure such men were in good earnest to look after that good conscience which they confess and complain they want I would tell them for their encouragement that there is a way for a bad yea a very bad conscience to be made good as well as a good one to be made better Who can think that Paul had alwaies a good conscience the Scripture telling us that he was sometimes a persecutor an injurious person and a blasphemer yea that he did compell others to blaspheme Acts 26.12 considering that he had his hand in the death of many of Gods Saints Acts 26.12 Many of the Saints did I shut up in prison and when they were put to death I gave my voice against them But manifest it is that he had a good conscience afterwards therefore I say there is a way for a very bad conscience to be made very good and blessed be God there is so It is against Scripture to say that a conscience once deflowred can never recover its virginity He who himself was born of a virgin can reduce that conscience to a virgin state which hath been the mother of many hainous sins Hab. 9.14 If the blood of bulls and goats and the sprinkling the ashes of an heifer sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ sanctifie your conscience from dead works to serve the living God It is sin alone that defiles the conscience and makes it evil Now sin is either immediately against God or immediately against our neighbour that is against men and that also is against God ultimately though not firstly and only Therefore David confessing his sin in the matter of Vriah saith to God Against thee have I sinned He that would have a good that is a pure and peaceable conscience must if he be able satisfie men for the wrongs and injuries done to them as Zacheus resolved to do or if he be not able he must be sincerely willing and desirous so to do and fully purpose it in his heart if God shall ever make him able For nisi●restitutur oblatum is an old and a true rule that is either actually or intentionally non remittitur peccatum But as for the injury done to God by sin either immediately or mediately that no meere man is able to satisfie for though he could give thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of oile or would give the fruit of his body for the sin of his soul Therefore as to that there is no way to get our sins carried into the land of forgetfulness but by laying them by faith upon the head of Christ who was tipified by the Scape-goat under the Law no satisfaction to be tendered for them but that which Christ our surety hath made and intended for the use and benefit of them and them only who do or shall believe in him and by repentance turn from dead works to serve the living Go● Col. 1.14 In whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins When these things are once done namely when care hath been taken to satisfie men so far as we are able for the wrongs done to them when we have looked upon him whom

we have pierced by sin and truly mourned when we have confessed our sins and forsaken them both actually for the present and in sincere resolution for ever after and when we have lifted up all eye of faith to Christ as to the antitype of that brazen serpent which was lifted up in the wilderness as he that is able to take out the sting of sin out of the fiery serpent and by faith laid hold upon his grace as upon the horns of an altar I say when this is done then is that conscience which was bad become purely good and when we can reflect upon what we have done then do they become not only pure but peaceable and consequently good upon all accounts Now I see not what notion can be more comfortable to those that have brought a bad conscience into a bad condition than this that a conscience extreamly bad may be made good that which is impure may become very pure and that which is unquiet may become calm and peaceable yea full of joy and triumph This premised I think it no hard matter to tell many a man how he may be much more happie in a mean and impoverished condition than he had wont to be in midst of all his plenty and prosperity Get but a good conscience instead of a bad one Get but peace within viz. that peace which passeth all understanding get but the pardon of thy sins and the well-grounded perswasion of that pardon get but a vision of thy sins as drowned in the red sea of Christ his blood get but to look upon God as thy friend and father and upon death as none of thine enemie and where it is no enemy it is and will be a great friend get but the Spirit of God to witness with thy spirit that thou art the childe of God get but this for thy rejoycing which Paul had viz. the testimony of thy conscience c. and let me be miserable for thee if thou who hast wanted these things in times past when thou hadst the world at will when once possest hereof dost not become more happie in the enjoyment of meer food and raiment than ever thou wert formerly when waters of a full cup were wrung out unto thee Some have said Bread and the Gospel are good cheere It is as true that brown bread and a good conscience are so He that hath those two will finde no cause he hath to complain And as the Prophet speaks Isa 33.24 The inhabitant shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity so neither will men repine that they are poor and despicable and otherwise afflicted if they come but once to know for certain that they are pardoned The true reason why many men do want so many outward good things as namely so much wine so much company so much recreation c. is because they want better consciences had they more of a good conscience to cheare and to refresh them they would need less of other things If Saul had not been possessed with an evil spirit be had not wanted David to have plaied to him upon the Harp 1 Sam. 16.16 One saith that the life of a wicked man is a continual Dversion If men were not wicked they would not need the one half of those diversions which they betake themselves to as reliefs against the sting of an evil conscience Notable is that counsel of the Apostle Eph. 5.18 Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess but be ye filled with the spirit v. 19. making melody in your hearts to the Lord. When men want the comforts of Gods Spirit and melody in their own hearts they would supply that defect if they knew how with more than ordinary refreshments from those good comforts of God which do gratifie and entertain their senses and thence probably it is that St. Jude joines those two together Jude 19. Sensuel having not the Spirit They that frequently use Cordials are supposed to be apt to faintings for others had rather let them alone Wine is observed to be a narcorick or stupifying thing witness the proneness of men to fall asleep when they have drunk freely of it and it is to be feated that many do use it but as opium to conscience Now as Physitians say the body is much endangered by the over-frequent use of opiates natural opiates so is the soul much more by those things which cast it for the present into a dead sleep for they do but keep that worm from gnawing at the present which will afterwards gnaw so much the more and never die stupifying things remove not a disease but fix it so much the more I see then O Lord what men must do if they would not only think themselves happy but be so indeed if they would not be like hungry men that dream they eat but finde themselves empty when they awake or thirsty men that dream of drink but awake and finde themselves deceived Isa 29.8 If they would feast in good earnest it must be by means of a good and quiet conscience That men may want though they have houses full of Gold and Silver that men may have though Gold and Silver they have none Riches cannot give it poverty cannot hinder it I am or would be at a point whether my body feast at all more or less but for my soul I desire not only a good meale now and then but that continual feast of a conscience both pure and peaceable I prefer that to all the far fetcht and dear bought varieties of fish flesh and fowle which are at Princes tables I see then men need not bid adieu to feasting or reckon upon a bare commons after all the spoile this fire hath made They need only change their diet for that which is much better than they had wont to live upon and they may feast hereafter ten times for once they did heretofore and be said in a nobler sense than ever Dives was to fare sumptuouslie every day Peace of conscience is a feast of fat things full of marrow and of wines on the lees well refined as I may allude to Isa 25.16 DISCOURSE VII Of getting and living upon a stock of spiritual comforts AS it fareth with children whose nurses have milk enough in both breasts but one is much hardet to be drawn than the other they would willinglie lie altogether or mostlie at that breast which may be drawn with most ease so with many Christians who have an interest both in Spiritual and temporal things wherewith to solace themselves they are too too prone to live upon the breast of their worldlie comforts which may be suckt as it were by sense rather than upon that of their Spiritual priviledges and advantages which breast though much the sweetest and fullest can no otherwise be drawn than by the exercise of faith Now sad experience convinceth us that it is much more hard to exercise our faith than to use our