Iustitia praeueniens a preuenting Iustice to encourage to vertue and by timely punishments to keepe from greater mischiefes The second is Iustitia puniens punishing iustice to cut downe vice with extremity when the wound is growne incurable Psal 201.1 The first is mercy the second iudgement The first hath place in criminall the second in capitall offences Of the first many a one may say and that truly Periissem nisi periissem I had perished vnlesse I had perished if I had not beene punished for idlenesse drunkennesse or prophanenesse I had beene punished for theft or murder or worse impieties And of the second many a one hath said and that as truly Si periissem non periissem If I had beene punished by my parents or gouernours or magistrats for lesser faults I had not now been punished with this shamefull death for so foule and horrible a wickednesse this you may often heare if you bee present at the execution of such Malefactors So that as many a man doth suffer death for his owne offences so is many a man hanged for the negligence of his Parents or Masters or Gouernours who should by timely punishments haue preuented such danger Thankes bee to God we haue many worthy Iudges in this Kingdome who are carefull and zealous for the execution both of the one and other Iustice But the care of them is not sufficient without the helpe and assistance of others For though they be Gods yet are they not Omniscient they cannot see all offences nor know all offenders There bee many sinnes which cry for Vengeance and yet the cry of them is eyther stopped before it commeth to their Eares or else the sins themselues like painted Harlots are so guilded ouer with colours of deceit that their vgly countenances cannot bee seene and by this meanes they escape vnpunished I must now therefore turne my speech vnto you who are Assistants and Helpers in the Execution of Iustice And for such who are of a Higher Order appoynted as Iudges in priuate Sessions for punishment of lesser offences and to binde ouer the rest to the Examination and Tryall of this Greater Assises I may speake it with Ioy for the Honour and credit of this Countrey In which I am yet but a stranger I know some and I haue heard of many Honorable Worshipfull Learned and Religious Iustices whose care and Conscience is dayly published in their seuerall Circuits by their seuerall actions And I pray God yee may goe on in sincerity of soule and Conscience knowing for certaine yee shall not lose your reward when the Bookes shall bee opened and that day of Refreshing shall come Acts 3.19 Last of all for Inferiour Officers who are either to informe the Court by their Presentments according to Oath and Articles giuen in charge or else to prosecute and see Iustice executed when information and sentence is giuen I doubt not but amongst these also there are many honest religious and conscionable men who will doe their best both for preuenting and punishing Iustice But if all bee such what meaneth then this bleating of the Sheepe lowing of the Oxen voyce of King Agag which still sound in our eares as Samuel told Saul 1. Sam. 15.14 whence is there so many impieties that still lurke in Corners oftentimes daring to Out-face the Law and in spite of reprehension continue amongst vs Similitude This sheweth plaine that as there is Iustitia the free course of Iustice amongst such who are friends of Conscience and Equity so there is Iustitiam a stay and stoppe of the Current of Iustice amongst those who for feare or affection or corruption Wiliel 〈…〉 Linwood de purgatione Canonica spare to punish impiety There is a rule in the Canon Law that if a man bee Defamed apud bonos graues amongst good and graue men being presented to the Ordinary hee may be enioyned his purgation Cum Sexta manu honestorum virorum with six of his honest Neighbours and if hee faile in this be put to his Penance It it much to bee feared that if some inferiour Officers were put to this Tryall they would faile in purgation and for their Periury haue Penance enioyned them And happie were they if this might wash out the blots of their Consciences yea seuen yeares penance as was long since decreed in the Ancient Canons Canon Fabian for such kinde of Offenders But woe bee to that soule whose Conscience is spotted with that soule impurity The stay of Iustice is like the stay of a current or running streame it will on a sudden ouerflow the bankes and if it haue not passage spoyle a whole Countrey It were farre better that one rotten member should be cut off from the body then the whole body perish and much more profitable that one corrupt Officer should be seuerely punished then that Execution which is the Life of Law should be put to death I haue heard of a complaint in some Countryes remote that when the Churchwardens haue presented offenders they haue beene called to the Court and paying their Fees the Chancellors or Officials or their Deputies or Surrogates haue presently dismissed them and so the businesse ended no reformation no penance enioyned no satisfaction to the Congregation And the Constables and inferiour Officers haue complained as much of Temporall proceedings But I hope there is no such complaint can iustly be taken vp in these parts of the world Omnia venalia Romae Al things are vendible at Rome but for Bribery Periury let them not be heard of in our Land for both are abhominable and Periury aboue all is a crying wickednesse I haue read of an excellent law amongst the Turkes that If any man did sweare his tongue should bee shaued and washed in vineger If all false swearers amongst Christians had receiued this punishment wee should not heare a complaint of so many knaues of the post who are not ashamed to say one to another Lend my friend an oath this Assises and I will lend thy friend an oath the next A fearefull saying for while they lend an oath to their friend they forfeit their soules to the Deuill A watchword to the Iurymen Take heed of this all you who are called to giue in euidence or who are empannelled on any Iury either for tryal of rights or of life and death which is most dangerous let not feare nor fauour draw you from iustice but stand out boldly with courage in a rightfull cause Sinne not against your Conscience for though the Papists may tell you M. Parsons Reckon cap. 4. Sect. 11. Pag. 265. pag. 64. Bulla â—ii Quin. confirmed by Greg. 13 against Qu. Elizabeth that Aequiuocation is lawfull or the Iesuits preach that the Pope can absolue from an Oath yea the Oath of Alleageance that a Subiect may take armes against his Prince or by treason murther a Magistrate who is not of their Religion yet Christ Iesus taught no such doctrine nor his Apostles nor the ancient Fathers of the Church nor doth the Church of England approue it Deceiue not your selues therefore but informe your consciences aright and giue euidence thereafter Conclusion And to conclude all Zech. 5.2 3 4. Read at your leasures that fift Chapter of the Prophecy of Zechary the second third and fourth Verses And thinke on that fearefull curse which shall remaine in the house of the false swearer and consume it with the timber and stones thereof And remember this vision a part of which is my Text that as certainly as there is now a particular Assises wherein you are now to giue euidence or verdict and to assist in the iudgment of others so the time shall come when there shall bee a generall Assises wherein Christ Iesus that Prince of righteousnesse shall be the Iudge wherein you your selues shall bee the Prisoners for none are excepted wherein the Bookes shall bee opened the Booke of Gods prescience the Booke of euery mans particular Conscience and the Booke of Life And the Dead both small and great yea both dead and liuing euery man and euery woman that are or haue beene or shall be hereafter in the world they shall all stand before God and bee iudged of those things which are written in the Bookes according to their workes In the feare of God therefore labour earnestly to get and preserue a good Conscience in all your actions and pray with feruency for the assistance of Gods gracious Spirit and my prayer shall be the same for you all which S. Pauls once was for his Christian Thessalonians That the very God of peace will sanctifie you throughout 1 Thes 5.23 and I pray God that your whole spirit and soule and body may bee preserued blamelesse vnto that comming of our Lord Iesus Christ To whom with the Father and the blessed Spirit bee ascribed all honour and power and glory all might and maiesty and dominion now and for euer AMEN Blessed are all they who remember that last great and generall Assises when those Bookes shall bee opened and endeauour to get and preserue a good a pure and a peaceable Conscience in all their thoughts words and workes The grace of our Lord Iesus Christ the loue of God the Father and the sweet and comfortable fellowship of God the Holy Spirit bee with vs blesse preserue and keepe vs and euery one of his Saints and Seruants both in bodies in soules in estates and good names from all dangers and from all our enemies both spirituall and temporall the rest of this day and for euermore AMEN FINIS Gloria Trin-uni Deo
THE ANATOMIE OF CONSCIENCE OR A THREEFOLD REVELAtion of those three most secret Bookes 1. The Booke of Gods Prescience 2. The Booke of Mans Conscience 3. The Booke of Life In a Sermon preached at the generall Assises holden at Derby in Lent last 1623. By Immanuel Bourne Master of Arts and Parson of Ashouer in the County of Derby Acts 24.16 And herein doe I exercise my selfe to haue alwayes a Conscience voyd of offence towards God and towards men LONDON Printed by G. E. and M. F. for Nathaniel Butter and are to be sold at his shop neere S. Austins Gate at the Signe of the Pyde Bull. 1623. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE AND RIGHT REVEREND Father in God Iohn Lord Bishop of Lincolne Lord Keeper of the great Seale And one of his Maiesties most Honorable Priuie COVNCELL The true Honour of a good Conscience in the Church Militant and the reward of true Honour in the Church Triumphant SO many are the Bills of Complaint Right Honorable of those who are dayly petitioners vnto your Lordship for your graue and Conscionable Iudgment in matters of Equity that there needeth no further testimonie to perswade the Consciences of all those who mourne for the iniquities of the Times That eyther Conscience is fled already from Earth to Heauen as it was long since complained of Iustice or else the most of men are euen now plotting to banish her out of the world exercising themselues contrary to the practice of S. Paul to haue alwayes their Consciences not voyd but full of offences both towards God and towards men But praised be the Lord of mercy who hath shewed kindnesse towards his Seruants and placed your Honor as the Lord-protector of Conscience in these perillous times of her persecution Amongst diuers others whose hearts-desire is bent to manifest their thankefulnesse to God for his Grace already shewed and to pray for a dayly encrease of happinesse vnto your Lordship I am emboldened to send this Anatomie of Conscience to be reuiued with the warmth of your Honorable fauour in this cold and frozen Age of the world It was at first preached before the Honorable and worthy Iustices of Assise for the County of Derby Sir Henry Hobart Sir Edward Bromely the memory of whose free Approbation with the rest of that worthy Auditory hath since emboldened mee to cast an eie ouer it once againe and that I might satisfie the desire of some few to publish it for the benefit of many And now if it please your Lordship to vouchsafe vnto it a shadow of Protection I shall not cease to pray in priuate as I doe in publike That the Lord will so guard you with his glorious Angels guide you by the direction of his gracious Spirit That all your Counsels and Actions may tend to the Glory of his holy Name the Reliefe and Comfort of the oppressed the good and benefit of this Church and Common-wealth And thus commending you to the safe Tuition of the great Lord-Keeper of Israel I rest London Iuly 14. 1623. Your Honors most humble and dutifull Chaplaine IMMANVEL BOVRNE THE ANATOMIE OF CONSCIENCE REVELATION 20.12 And the Bookes were opened and another booke was opened which is the Booke of Life Preface SAint Basil the great who was Magni nominis in Ecclesia of great account in the Church of God expounding those words of the Prophet Esay 1.17 Discite benefacere Learne to doe well hee giueth this excellent admonition worthy to bee followed of euery Christian Habete in oculis terribilem judicii diem tanquam Pedagogum Haue alwaies before your eies that terrible day of Iudgment as a Pedagogue or Schoolemaster not onely to instruct but by an awfull respect to keepe you in well doing And if that great and generall Assises when wee must all appeare before the tribunall Seat of Christ be a meditation fitting for euery Christian and that at all times and in all our actions as S. Basil intimates then certainly it must needs be verbum in tempore a word not vnfitting for the time and season to speake of iudgment and the preparation to iudgment at a time of iudgment to speake of that generall in this particular in this present of that for to come And rather because there is an Analogie a resemblance a similitude betweene them For the Spirit of God to declare that loue of God to man describing in sacred Scriptures the things of God oftentimes descends to mans capacity and as in other so in this portion of Scripture For being to shew Iohn the day of Iudgment and the manner of Christs preparation hee takes a similitude from earthly Iudges whose place of iudgment is commonly a Throne or Seat made more conspicuous then the rest set forth in state conuenient for so high an Action vpon which the Iudge ascendeth being clothed with Roabes and ornaments of iustice wisely ordained by antiquity as emblems of that grauity sincerity and maiestie of a Iudge the very sight of whom is and should bee both a ioy and comfort to the innocent and a feare and terrour to the nocent the Iudge being set with his Assistants and in a readinesse next are the Prisoners brought vnto the Barre and then the books are opened examination taken and euidence giuen and last of all the sentence is pronounced to acquit the innocent and condemne the guilty This is the forme of temporall iudgment And in a manner not much vnlike to this if you cast your eyes vpon this vision you may find the proceedings shall bee in that last and generall Assises The diuision of the Vision For first S. Iohn beheld a Throne most white and pure in which no spot of foule iniustice could be seene and him that sat thereon euen Christ that righteous Iudge both God and man from whose maiesticke face The earth and heauen did flye away as the Spirit speakes in the first part of the Vision Next this appeared the Prisoners The dead both small and great all people from all quarters none excepted and these all Did stand before God as ready to receiue their tryall So it followeth in the immediate words before my Text. Thirdly the Iudge proceeds to examination of euery person and euery action and this in the words that I haue read The Bookes were opened and another booke was opened which is the Booke of life Lastly examination being taken and euidence giuen the Sentence is prâ—â—â—unced accordingly this you may see in the words adioyning And the Dead were iudged of those things which were written in the Bookes according to their workes When I first cast mine eyes vpon this Vision I saw it was not vnfitting for this time But is too much to bee comprehended within a regular houre as S. Bernard calleth it and therefore resolued onely on the words of my Text. And the Bookes were opened and another booke was opened which is the Booke of life This is the preparation vnto the Sentence and indeed the rule and square of
old louing kindnesse towards thee keeping thee from many dangers deliuering thee from former troubles shewing thee many fauours which he hath denied to others this may perswade thee that though hee hide his face from thee for a time yet hee will not finally forsake thee for whom hee loueth once he loueth him for euer in Christ Thirdly the diligent attendance to the blessed meanes to the Word and Sacraments vsing them religiously with prayer fasting meditation and practice in thy life and conuersation Fourthly the priuate conference with the learned and religious Pastour of thy soule and other good Christians whose prayer counsell and experience may bee a comfort vnto thee in thy spirituall desertion when thou wantest the feeling of this blessed peace and ioy of conscience Lastly the often confession of thy sinnes before God and renewing of thy repentance 1 Ioh. 1.18.9 Prou. 28.13 more seriously asking pardon and forgiuenesse and in all humility desiring reconciliation in Christ Thus haue the Saints of God and thus with the blessing of God maiest thou recouer this peace A request to the conscionable Reader And here for this last point let me beg one request at thy hands it is but a little one say me not nay I desire it for the loue of God 2 Cor. 13.5 and good of thine owne conscience Once a weeke at least if not once a day shake off that dead security in which the world lyeth buried and spend one hower in examination of thy selfe in opening the booke of thy conscience in confessing thy selfe to God and humbling thy soule before him Mat. 5.4 goe into thy closet and shut the doore after thee and weepe in secret for thy owne sinnes and for the sins of others that God may bee mercifull vnto thee And if thy hard heart will not bee humbled looke backe into thy life past and call to remembrance thy old impieties yea forget not the sinnes of thy youth which Dauid prayeth God not to remember but spread them all before the Lord Psal 25.6 and aggrauate them by the seuerall circumstances that thou maist see how farre thou hast erred from the law of God which is a glasse to shew thee thy sinnes yea iudge thy selfe for them that thou maiest not bee condemned of the Lord. And when thy Conscience hath found thee guilty then remember the direfull vengeance and fearefull iudgements of God due to sinne thinke how many hells thou hast deserued if God should enter into iudgement with thee And if this will not humble thee meditate further vpon that vnspeakeable loue of God to thee in Christ how when thou wast a most vile and wicked miscreant wallowing in the gore blood of thy sinfull corruption Ezeck 16.4 5 6 defiled with the pollution of naturall and actuall transgressions when none eve pittied thee nor had compassion on thee yet Christ beholding thy misery tooke pitty on thy estate and spared not his owne life but shed his precious blood to the death yea endured the wrath of his Father and suffered vnutterable torments to procure thy peace Luc. 22.44 his Agony was a witnesse to testifie the terrour of his Soule his sweat like drops of blood trickling downe to the ground Mat. 27.29 his blessed head crowned with thornes his holy cheekes buffeted with fists his backe whipped with scourges his hands and feete nailed to the Crosse and his side pierced with a speare that the dearest blood of his most precious heart gushed out amaine yea his Passion so intolerable that he cryed out in the bitternesse of his soule My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee Mat. 27.46 And consider that all this did this blessed Lambe suffer to purchase thy peace And if this will not moue thee Isaiah 5.4 5 6. adde thy owne vnthankefulnesse the abusing of those many and good graces both spirituall and temporall which God hath giuen thee the often crucifying of Christ againe by thy sinnes and grieuing the good Spirit by whom thou art sealed to the day of redemption And if thy heart bee not more hard then Adamants certainly these meditations may breake it in peeces But if all this doth not humble thee then as before thou oughtest to prepare thy selfe for this exercise by fasting and prayer so leaue not off fasting and praying and crying vnto God Ioel 2.12 13. till thy heart melt with sorrow and thy eies gush out with riuers of waters This oughtest thou to doe for thine owne sinnes and for the sinnes of the Time And thus shalt thou be marked in the time of vengeance with the marke of Gods fauour Ezekiel 9.4 and when the wicked shall perish in the common destruction thou shalt haue peace And to draw towards a conclusion of this let nothing hinder thee from this examination and humiliation of thy soule But bee sure to put it in practice whosoeuer thou art or how great soeuer thy calling or occasions bee for the greater thou art the more neede hast thou of familiar acquaintance with God of often conference with him in this kinde for thy good because God is greater then all Neglect it not therefore whether thou be old or young high or low Magistrate or Minister noble or ignoble rich or poore man or woman of what state or calling or condition soeuer thou bee especially forget it not then when thou art to draw neare vnto God in receiuing of the holy and blessed Sacrament the Communion of the body and blood of Christ for the worthy partaking whereof 1 Cor. 11.28 29 thou oughtest to prepare thy selfe as thou wouldest doe if thou wert that hower to die and to passe either to heauen or hell to eternall ioy or eternall woe Be sure at that time therefore to put in practice this examination and humiliation of thy soule that vpon thy confession and contrition thou maiest haue absolution at the hand of God or of his Minister if thou finde it needefull to procure thy peace Passe it not ouer sleightly but presse it to the full till the good Spirit make thee to cry Abba father with confidence in Christ Iesus Rom. 8.15 16. and witnesse to thy spirit that thou art the child of God for by this the league of peace between thy God and conscience shall bee renewed and preserued And Conscience thus made quiet is as a Castle of defence or wall of brasse vnto the Saints 1 Cor. 1.12 This made S. Paul speake boldly and in middest of miseries reioyce in this the testimony of his conscience Augustinus lib. cont Secundin Manichaeum Sentiasde Augustino quicquid libet sola in oculis dei conscientia non accuset This was a comfort vnto good S. Augustine accused by Secundinus that he had forsaken Paganisme and followed Christ for hope of temporall preferment I care not saith the Father what other men doe say because my conscience cleareth mee Lastly this moued the holy Martyres most willingly to vndergoe such cruell