contrite Spirit And therefore hearken dilligently to the Ministry of the Gospel as being a Word of Peace and a Word of Comfort And know this That it is your duty to receive comfort when it is offered upon good grounds as to do a duty commanded It is a great Sin to reject or despair of Mercy it is thought by some to be a greater Sin in Judas to despair of Mercy than it was to betray the Person of Christ into the hands of them who crucified him Oh therefore let not your stubborn Souls refuse comfort But when Gods Mercy appears to you in his Word Preached yield to the credit of it and be over power'd with the Authority of it let your Consciences be satisfied with those evidences that God hath made known in his Word and passed upon your Souls for your everlasting comfort Fifthly Give your selves unto Prayer Oratio sanat pestes mentis Prayer is a means to cure the Malladies of Diseased Souls Prayer is the Compass by which we sail When all is clouded no Star of comfort shining upon us this will hold us in the right Course till we again discover Mercy Out of the depth have I called unto thee and thou heardst me Psal 130. 1. Prayer is a means to obtain the pardon of Sin James 5. 14. And upon the pardon of Sin follows peace and comfort Be of good cheer thy sins are forgiven thee Mat. 9. 2. Let the consideration of Gods All-sufficiency his Faithfulness his Grace and Mercy his Readiness to Pardon and Comfort his rich Promises move you to pray in Faith in Humility and with Fervency that he would quiet your Spirits and stablish your Hearts And in your Prayer to the Lord Christ plead his humanity that He Himself did once live in your Nature on Earth as in a Veil of Tears and Misery and in the shadow of Death that He Himself was once cloathed on Earth with the Infirmities of mans common Nature that He Himself knows what it is to be tempted by Satan by Men both Friends and Enemies that He knows what it is to be in an Agony to lie under a Spiritual Desertion to have a Soul exceeding sorrowful and heavy even unto Death Entreat Him as being a Merciful High Priest and as being touched with the feeling of your Infirmities to have compassion upon you to relieve and succour you remember Him who cry'd out Thou Son of David have mercy on me Sixthly Labour after Righteousness in your dealings with men that is a way to obtain peace Say unto the righteous it shall go well with him A due Administration of Justice by Magistrates and Righteous dealing between man and man is a means to uphold Legem Regem and Gregem The Law the King and Country And it is a means to procure peace to your selves Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace Seventhly Set about the exercise of Charity It was David's enquiry 2 Sam. 9. 1. Is there any of the house of Saul left to whom I may shew kindness for Jonathan's sake And let it be your enquiry Are there no poor members of Christ to whom we may shew kindness for Christ's sake True Religion lieth much in this And therefore be not weary of well doing Do good to all men but especially to the houshould of faith This is a means to bring peace to you at the last The merciful shall enter into peace and shall rest in their beds Isai 59. 1. If in your Charity towards the poor members of Christ you have respect to the glory of God and the honour of Christ and shall rest upon his Approbation and Remuneration you shall find at last that Christ will own it as being done to himself and will so accept and reward it Mat. 25. But chiefly we must make sure of Christ when we have done all or else we may miss of peace and comfort We must have comfortable apprehensions of the fulness of Christ's Merits or else we can have no peace with God nor within our selves It was Luther's Observation Saith he I have seen among the Papists who have painfully travelled and upon meer Conscience have done much in Praying and Fasting and other Exercises for this End that they might get peace of Conscience and when they had done all they were smitten down with fear especially when death approached They were then saith he so fearful that I have seen many Murderers and other Malefactors condemn'd to death die more couragiously and more comfortably than they This was Luther's Observation in his time and there is reason for it for although good works are evidences of Faith and signs of a sanctified Life yet they can give no assurance of Gods favour by their own merit or worthiness It is impossible that the Conscience should be pacified as to God and itself by any good things found in man No not by Faith itself for the goodness or merit of it as being done by us but as being a grace given us to apprehend the fulness of merit onely in Christ And therefore when you have done all make sure of Christ by Faith In the Creation we find God above us In the Law we find God against us But in Christ we find God Emmanuel God with us O my dove that art in the clefts of the rock Cant. 2. 14. This was the Speech of Christ to the Church by the mouth of Solomon The Church was a Dove in the clefts of the Rock This Rock was Christ the Rock of Ages and those foramina Petrae were vulnera Christi These clefts of the Rock are the wounds of Christ The Church in the wounds of Christ is as a Dove in the clefts of the Rock quiet and safe from danger The Lord Christ was sent to bind up the broken hearted and to proclaime liberty to the captives and the opening of the Prison doors to them who were bound to give them beauty for ashes the oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness Isai 61. 1 3. He is that good sheperd that gathers his lambs and carries them in his bosome Isai 40. 11. The Lord Christ is that Sun of Righteousness that ariseth with healing in his Wings He is that Tree in the Revalation the Leaves whereof were for the healing of the Nations He is the great Physician of Souls He cures us of the guilt of Sin by Justification of the pollution of Sin by Sanctification of the trouble of Conscience by Consolation He is full of precious Ointment his Name Christ signifies so much He hath Oil and Wine to pour into your wounds Luke 10. 34. He hath the Oil of Gladness and the Oil of Love But his Soveraign Medicines are his own Flesh and Blood By his stripes we are healed Isai 53. He hath slain the enmity and hath reconciled us by the Cross Ephes 2. 16. We are reconciled to God by the death of his Son Rom. 5. 9 10.
that would not remove it Dan. 5. 2. Such men in the midst of their greatest delights Singing Dancing and Dalliance are tortured in their Souls As Lemnius speaks Nocte dieque suum gestant in pectore testem Night and day they carry their Witness and Accuser within their breasts So that outward pleasures and delights cannot more cure their Wounded Conscience than a Crown of Gold can cure the Head-ach or a Velvet Slipper cure the Gout A perplexed man in the midst of all outward pleasures riches and honours is like a Book of Tragedies fairly bound up without but black within the Leaves Gold and the Lines Blood no Friends nor Physick no Gold nor Silver nor Favour of Princes no Pleasures of the World can give comfort in such a case neither Crowns nor Kingdoms can give deliverance in such a case There is no Bodily Sickness but Nature by the means of Physick hath provided a Remedy no Sore but Chirurgery hath provided a Salve for it There is no outward misery but there may be some means to relieve it Friendship helps Poverty Hope of Liberty easeth Imprisonment Favour revokes Banishment Time wears away Reproach but none of all these things can relieve or comfort a distressed Soul Pierius makes a continually hot baking Oven the Hierogliphick of a gauled Conscience And the Egyptians made a Mill an Hierogliphick of the same both for continuance and torture A man so perplexed is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a self-Tormentor such an ones Conscience like Titius his Vulture doth continually knaw him That which was feigned of Promethaeus as being bound to a Pillar upon the Mountain Caucasus and an Eagle eating his Liver every day and that which was eaten in the day grew up in the night that there might be no decay of his torment is true in this case it is a Worm that never dieth Such an ones House may be compared to Trophonius his Den where were nothing but doleful Ecchoes and sad Complaints A perplexed wicked man may take to him Pashurs terrible Name mentioned in Jerem. 20. 3. Magor-missabib that is fear round about such an one is a terrour to himself and to all that are about him What shall I say more A troubled Conscience is an Epitomy of Hell an Extract a Quintesence a Compound a Mixture of all Malladies Tyrannical Tortures Plagues and Perplexities Fear Sorrow Fury Grief Pain Terrour Anger all these things come short of it Were I to write a full Description of a Troubled Conscience though I had Melpomene for my Muse and had a Pen of Iron droping Cruelty and had Ink and writing as Bloud yet I could not sufficiently delineate it And therefore in this case I shall do like Timanthes who when he was to draw out the Picture of Agamemnons Grief and was not able to perfect it covered it over with a Veil he Pictur'd Calchas sad Vlysses mourning and Menelaus more sorrowful than either of them but as for Agamemnon whose Daughter Iphiginia was to be sacrificed he conceived his grief and sorrow to be in summo gradu not to be deciphered by Art and therefore he covered his Face with a Veil and left every man to his own conceit about it So in this case being not able throughly to describe the misery of an Afflicted Conscience I shall break off abruptly as to the farther Explication of this point and shall leave every man to his own imagination about it I have done with the Tragical part And now I am apt to think that some drooping Spirits groaning under the pressure of Sin and ready to despond and despair by reason of some present guilt upon them for some foul facts committed are ready to say to me Must we part thus Are there no crumbs of comfort Shall we hear no word of peace Will you let your voice be still like the hoarse sound of a Trumpet in a dead march Shall your Sermon be like Dracoes Laws that begun and ended in death Is there no balme in Gilead Is there no Physician there Is there no way to be reconciled to God and to have a peace within our selves and to have our Wounded Spirits healed Why yes I shall by and by come to the Consolatory part and shall put you into a way to be at peace with God and to have peace within your selves and to have your Spirits calm'd and your Consciences quieted But before I come to lay down any Rules of direction or means to obtain this I shall lay down Motives to perswade you hereunto First God hath promised it The Lord will speak peace to his people Psal 85. 8. Peace shall be upon Israel Psal 125. I create the fruit of the lips peace peace to him that is far off and to him that is nigh Isai 57. 19. that is I will really accomplish that which I have promised in giving peace both to Jews and Gentiles Secondly Christ hath purchased our Peace The chastisement of our Peace was upon him there was a proclamation of Peace at Christ's coming into the World the great Design of Christ was to reconcile God to man and to pacifie mans Conscience Rom. 5. 25. 2 Cor. 1. 5. Thirdly Others have obtained Peace within themselves David who for three quarters of a year was in a Spiritual Lethargie being at length awakened was much perplexed yet was at length restored to the joy of Salvation Mr. Bilney for a whole Year was in such anguish of Spirit that he thought all the whole Scriptures were against him and founded out his condemnation but afterward he was indued with such Strength and Faith that he did not onely confess his Faith in the Gospel but suffered his Body to be burnt for the Gospels sake Luther about the year 1514 was in such an Agony of Spirit that he felt nothing but trembling and fearfulness especially when at Rome upon his bare Knees he was climbing up certain Steps of Pilate's Ladder which the Romanist feigned to be brought from Jerusalem when he was doing this in a Superstitious way as a means to purge his Sins and quiet his restless and troubled Minde by the illumination of the Spirit he came to a right understanding of that Scripture The just shall live by his faith and then he was exceedingly comforted and his mind was pacified and he set about the Reformation and became a wonderful Instrument of God through whom God hath opened the light of his Word to the World Such examples as these who have found peace with God and within themselves should encourage us Fourthly Consider the Misery of a Troubled Conscience A wounded spirit who can bear And a wounded spirit who can declare As the troubles of the Soul are insupportable so they are inexpressible A wicked mans Conscience is the greatest Tyrant and Persecutour to himself he needs no other fury to follow him this is both Accuser and Witness Law and Judge Executioner and Punishment to himself A Soul left to the temptations of the Devil and
lost and now is become altogether Evil. Every imagination of mans heart is onely evil continually Gen. 6. 5. And now mans evil Conscience showeth itself to be so two ways First In the defect of Trouble Secondly In the excess of Trouble First In the defect of Trouble When Sinners have upon them a Stoical Apathy a Spirit of slumber upon them as that they have no remorse at all in their Hearts they have no trouble for Sins past but have a setled purpose and resolution to continue in Sin Such a Conscience is called a seared Conscience 1 Tim. 4. 2. such a Conscience had they of whom the Apostle speaks Ephes 4. 19. that were past feeling and gave themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness Such a Conscience had Pharaoh such a Conscience had Ahab that sold himself to work wickedness Such as these have a Brow of Brass they know no shame Zep. 3. 5. Secondly An evil Conscience showeth itself to be so in the excess of Trouble When wicked men wanting Prayer and Repentance and Faith and Hope and the Pardon of Sin and the Inhabitation of the Spirit and the comfort of the Scriptures which should be supports to them are troubled above measure for that their Life is a burden to them In the Morning they wish that it were Night in the Night they wish it were Morning They are like the rageing Sea that continually casts up Mire and Foam this was the condition of Cain Judas and Spira Object Why but you will say Why should wicked men be thus descriminated and distinguished from others as being restless and unquiet Are not the best of men by the voice of Gods Word Law and Gospel and by the voice of Judgments and by the Acts of Conscience informing warning correcting and judicial in a perplexed Estate also Heman complains of troubles and terrours Psal 88. he was sensible of Gods fierce wrath of an overwhelming wrath a cutting killing and surrounding wrath v. 3 6 7 15 16. Yet Heman was one of the wisest men next after Solomon 1 Kings 4. 31. The condition of Job was like that of Heman he thought that God wrote bitter things against him Job 13. 24 26. He was scared with Dreams and terrified with Visions so that his Soul chose strangling and death rather than life Job 7. 14 15 20. He thought himself to be set up as a mark to shoot at he was a burden to himself he went mourning without the Sun Job 30. 28. Yet Job was a great and good man As for his greatness he was supposed to be the King of the Edomites and as for his goodness he was one that feared God and eschewed evil Job 1. David complains Psal 38. 6. I am troubled I am bowed down greatly I go mourning all the day long I am feeble and sore broken I have roared for the very disquietness of my heart Yet David was a man famous in his Generation for Piety and Holiness he was a man after Gods own heart 1 Sam. 13. 14. He is called the man of God Nehemiah 12. 36. Amiable and Delectable before God and Man So his name David signifieth Now for Answer to this We must note that the Troubles of Job Heman and David were Troubles not in the Conscience onely but also in the Affections and this occasioned a Godly sorrow as being an effect of Grace And they had the Use and Exercise of Prayer and Faith in the midst of their Distresses Job 42. 4. Psal 88. 1 2. Psal 19. 12. Psal 51. 9. 1 Sam. 24. 5. 2 Sam. 24. 10. So that the Issue of all their Troubles was glorious After an Eseck and a Sitnah there was a Rehaboth Gen. 26. 20 21 22. after the Wind Earthquake and Fire there came a still Voice 1 Kings 10. 11 12. after an Hectick Health after an Eclipse clear Light Sequitur post nubula Phoebus After Showers Sun-shine after a Wandering in the Wilderness a Canaans Rest They had secret Supports in their greatest Extremities and at the last had an answer of Peace and Comfort But the Troubles of Cain and Judas were no whit the Troubles of Affections but of Conscience onely and where there is a trouble of Conscience onely it is to be looked upon onely as a judicial Act of God upon the Conscience and it is not to be looked upon as an Effect of Grace but as a part of the Wages of Sin The Subject of Conscience is the Soul The Object of Conscience is Sin Now where the Conscience onely is awakened and enlightened by a common illumination so as to see Sin it is then in a condition to accuse and condemn and vex the Sinner That trouble in the Conscience which is onely a judicial Act consisting in Sense and Accusation God in Judgment brings upon the Transgressour When Instruction Direction Councels Cautions Threatnings and Checks do not keep men from sinning then God doth after Sin awaken the Conscience to accuse for Sinning and then the Soul is filled with bitterness and then the terrours of Hell do shake and confound the Soul Men so tormented long after Death and if it come not they search after it more than treasures and rejoyce when they can find the Grave Conscience works upon Sin and Sin frets and vexeth the Soul so that Conscience becomes as a Worm that never dieth Isai 66. 24. Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop Prov. 12. 15. By the sorrow of the heart the Spirit is broken Prov. 15. 13. Such an one is as one bruised between the Wall and the Door Nulla gravior poena poenâ conscientiae said Isiodorus There is no punishment more grievous than the punishment of a guilty Conscience The Rack and Wheel are and Vri virgis ferroque necari Burning and Scourging and all those bloudy cruelties invented by the Heathen Persecutors are short of this A wounded spirit who can bear Prov. 18. 14. Juvenal describes the sad estate of such men thus Cur tamen hos tu Evasisse putes quos diri conscia facti Mens habet attonitos surdo verbere caedit Occulto quatiente animo tortore flagellum They that are guilty of foul Facts are affrighted in their Conscience they are scourged and beaten with unknown blows Their Conscience like an Executioner whips bites and torments them an evil Conscience sits as a Judge and it is call'd in as a Witness nay more an evil Conscience is Judex Testis Carcer Tortor Judicat Accusat Damnat An evil Conscience is a Judge a Witness a Prison an Executioner it keeps Sessions within it self it accuseth judgeth and condemneth An evil Conscience is a plague which you can neither fugere nor fugare it is an Evil which a Sinner can neither flee nor fly from Cain put himself upon the building of a City to remove the troubles of his mind but that would not do it Gen. 4. 17. Belshazzar thought by his Cups to remove the trouble of his Spirit but