God when it is only their owne proud and lying spirit Ezek. 13.3 They are foolish prophets that follow their owne spirit and have seen nothing i. e. they do medle with prophecying of their owne proper motion being driven thereunto by their owne carnall affection and declare nothing but their owne vaine imagination and frothy inventions They would be accounted Physicians for sick soules and wounded consciences but as Job saith they are Physicians of no value For they heale the hurt of Gods people slightly saying peace Jer. 8.11 when there is no peace they preach generally freedome and liberty as freedome from confession of sin and freedome to the commission of sin but whilst they thus preach liberty unto others they themselves are the servants of corruption beware of such And beg of God Pastors according to his owne heart that may feed you with wisdome and true understanding whose lips may preserve knowledge Jere. 3.15 and ye may sack it at their mouth who may be ensamples unto the flock in life and doctrine faith and love spirit and purity England could glory she had such Prophets such Pastors and blesed be God she can yet say she hath such still true it is they lie under a cloud but it is not many yeares since that they were highly esteemed thought worthy of double honour and consulted with upon matters of greatest importment both in Church and State yea Parliament and People invited them to come into Macedonia namely London to help on the great worke of Reformation but now are cast aside as of no value and by many accounted Antichristian and enimies to the Kingdome of Christ and to the power and purity of the Gospel A sudden and strange change but we will lay it upon that envious one whose rage is specially against Gods faithfull Ministers You therefore that love a good conscience make much of such and have them in high esteeme for their works sake because it is the Lords Thus far of having 2. Holding now followes the holding of a good conscience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Thes 5.2 The Spirit of God doth frequently presse us to this holding Try all things and hold fast that which is good i. e. try exactly all doctrines concerning faith or manners and as thou findest them sound and saving so hold them Tit. 1.8 9 Againe hold fast the faithfull word Heb. 4.14 hold fast your Profession hold fast till I come hold fast lest another take thy crowne Rev. 3.11 i. e. the honour and glory promised to such as shall persevere So say I ye not I but the spirit of God hold faith and a good conscience 1 Tim. 1.19 yea above all hold these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hold against all adversaries that would withhold Reasons 1. R. Because the labour is as great in holding as having non minor est virtus quà m quaerere parta tueri It cost Paul deare to get a good conscience and so it did to hold it T was his daiely exercise to keep a good conscience void of offence toward God and man Act. 24.16 2. R. Because many have made shipwrack of conscience as Hymeneus and Alexander who giving the reines to a licentious course of life against the dictates of their owne conscience God punished them accordingly by taking away the light of his spirit that in the middest of their course they should lose their most precious spiritual merchandise and be drowned in error and heresy 1 Tim. 1.19 20. as those who in a sea-tempest suffer ship-wrack 3. R. Because the world cannot abide a good conscience as we may see in Zedekiah his behaviour toward Micaiah and Pashur toward Ieremie how uncivilly and rudely do these men carry themselves 1 King 22 24. Zedekiah he smites Michaiah on the cheeke impudently and reproachfully before the King and whole assembly saying unto him which way went the spirit of the Lord from me to speake to thee pretending that himselfe had the spirit of God and thereupon inferres that Micaiah had it not because it could not be shewed how it should passe from the one unto the other So Pashur smites Ieremie and puts him in the stocks and herein shewes himselfe a prime instrument of Sathan perpetrating that against the Lords Prophet which neither King nor Princes nor people durst formerly attempt Jer. 20.2 Thus Amaziah the priest with Amos and Ananias with Paul commands them that stood by to smite Paul on the mouth Am. 7.10 what was the cause of this their rage and fury had these men cōmitted any grosse offence surely no it was only the goodnesse of their conscience that did thus exasperate their rage against them These were the faithfull servants of the Lord that boldly declared the mind and will of God unto them as in conscience they were bound and therefore could not endure them There is an irreconcileable Antipathy between the men of the world and the Saints of God they can no sooner mingle then oyle and water nor better agree then light and darknesse The Spirit that is in you the world cannot receive saith Christ John 14.17 they are convinced that they are conscientious men but as they were wont to say in former times CAIUS SEIUS was a good man but he was a Christian So now Caius Seius bonus virsed Christianus such are good men but they are too strict too conscientious and therefore cannot away with them Thus you see how the men of this world cannot endure a good conscience 4. R. Because the Devill doth more envie a good conscience then any other thing Let men be never so high in honour great in wealth abound in wit and policy the Devil dislikes it not he knowes the better how to make use of them to serve his turne as we sind in Pharaoh Zenacherib Achitophel Herod and others who in their Pomp and power were higher then their brethren by head and shoulders and accordingly more active and ready to do his work That man I say have abundance of these outward things it doth not disquiet but please Satan But when any have a good a pure and a tender conscience this madds the Divel and makes him to set all his instruments on worke to bereave such of their Heartjswell namely a good conscience we may see this in Luther his pure conscience did vex both Pope and Devill Melchior Adam in vitâ Luth. what would not they have done to have strangled his conscience if honour wealth preferment or any outward thing could have prevailed the Pope would have collated all these upon him but one tells the Pope that all these would not doe for saith he Germana illa bestia aurum non curat that German beast meaning Luther will not be won by any or all of these And at another time when great gifts were sent to him he refused them with this most brave and excellent speech Valdè protestatus sum me nolle sic
in battell-array to fight with those strong subtile sedulous Goliahs which come out to upbraid Gods little Champion They I meane the Divell and his Agents viz the world and the flesh will not only rage but raigne not only assault but take your soules captive at their will Therefore as you love your owne soules and the welfare of them unto all eternity Get unto you the whole armour of God Eph. 6. 13. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might Give no faire Quarter unto foule tempations make up speedily every Breach between God and your owne consciences and let not conscience loose its Tendernesse but shun every evill and the appearance of it 6. Let thy life be the life of faith Saith Paul the life that we now live in the flesh we live by the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave himselfe for us Keep fresh the sense of his love and alwaies acknowledge a continuall need of his Bloud Spirit and Intercession and how much you are beholding and ingaged unto him Labour to draw and derive from Christ by the powerfull attractive force of faith spirituall ability sufficient for every dayes worke Act your faith dayly in the promises of grace and strength Go unto Christ still for his wisdome to counsell you for his righteoussness to cover you for strength to resist temptations for the shoulder that must beare our Crosses for ability to performe all duties as duties 7. Resolve with david Ps 101. that you will not know a wicked person i.e. approve of him If out of your families have not fellowship with them but reprove them if in your families let them not abide within your doores but remove him or her as persons most infectious and dangerous We have sins enough and too too many of our owne therefore let us not encrease them by a base connivency at others mens sins Especially avoid that generation of men whose grand designe it is to undermine the Gospell to ruine the Ministry and to robb them of that maintenance which is due unto them by the law of God and by the Law of Nature and by the law of Nations These croaking frogges have overspread our Aegypt so that they have made it stinke with their damnable Opinions devilish practises They creep into houses and lead aside silly women 2 Tim. 3.11 and by their faire speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Rom. 16.18 And shall if it were possible deceive the very elect Mark 13.22 8. Affect a faithfull and powerfull Minister who doth carefully look both to himselfe and his Doctrine Adscribe neither too much nor too little to your Teachers Neither despise them nor deify them as the manner of some is Esteeme him not as a principle Author but as a subordinate Actor not as a Lord but a Steward not as a Master but a Minister and yet account him more then an ordinary Servant even a man of God A servant of the most high God that sheweth you the way of Salvation Look on him not only as a Seer but Over-seer a Steward of Gods high secrets a messenger of the Lord of Hostes by whose Embassage peace is concluded and reconciliation ministerially made up between God and man He is Gods mouth to you by preaching and your mouth to God by praying On that in speciall place standeth before God and ministreth to him upon earth as the Angels do it in heaven Woodnots Aphorisms 1. Cens. p. 42. The Jewes say that he that dieth in the displeasure of his Rabbi shall never be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come i.e. of his teacher that hath the charge of his soule Therefore take heed you fall not out with your Teacher whome the most wise God hath thought fit to make your Pastor forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest upon the earth Deut. 12.19 Doe not desire such a Teacher as thou mayest rule him but such as may rule you Magistrates are chosen to governe the people not the people to governe them So Ministers you are not to command them but obey them Therefore obey them that have the Rule over you Heb. 13.17 And submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give an account that they may do it with Joy and not with greife I beseech you in the bowels of Christ let Death and Judgement possesse your most serious thoughts waite for the one and provide for the other Dye daiely with Paul and you shall dye well Have thine end ever in thine eye and sweeten the bitter cup of Death by a dayly preparation Get your tackling all in readinesse that you may faile over the Sea of mortall miseries in safety and security to the Port of happinesse You shall all of you ere long lye gasping for death on your dying beds and there lye grappling with the King of feares attended with Terrors Therefore as you love your soules let the whole course of your lives be a conscionable preparative to dye comfortably Look on every day as your last So live that you may say with David Though I walke through the Valley of the shaddow of death I will not feare Oh that you would be wise and consider your latter end before you go downe to the chambers of death whence you shall never returne Would you dye willingly would you dye well Then get a part in Christ a Title to him an Interest in him Worke out your salvation with feare and trembling Give all diligence to make your calling and election sure So live that you may not be ashamed to die So number your dayes that you may apply your hearts to true wisdome So cast up your Accounts that you may give them up with joy and not with greife Judge your selves for your daiely Deviations and you shall not be judged condemne your selves and you shall not be condemned 10 Lastly Let this little Book be in your hands heads and hearts Let a good conscience be written on your soules with Characters indelible never to be razed out so that when death shall appeare thou mayest be able to say I have lived in all good conscience before God untill this day Now whereas dull spirits are more quickned by Examples then Precepts This place hath had a great advantage above other places adjacent Mr. John Southmead who is now a glorious Saint in heaven and his Soule made happy with the Spirits of just men made perfect You know he was an old Disciple and served his Master faithfully in his generation for many yeares zealously striving for the inlargment of the Kingdome of Christ and demolishing the Kingdome of Satan A great Curb he was to prophanesse witnesse his great paines and travell in overthrowing those Heathenish sports and pastimes which were too common even upon the Lords day God made him the Instrument to abolish Wakes Revells Maypoles and May-games with their Apurtenances Fidlers and superfluous Ale-houses not only in
his owne but in many other Parishes adjacent So that not only the Practice but even the Name of these sinfull Vanities is almost forgotten Againe as he was a strong Curb to prophanesse so was he as sharp a spurr unto holinesse Witnesse his great cost and paines in getting a faithfull Teacher to instruct the people Very carefull abroad to warne the unruly to comfort the feeble minded 1 Thes 5.14 and to support the weake And at home in his Family in repeating Sermons reading opening and applying Scriptures unto such as were under him constantly praying for a Blessing on them and as carefull in returning Praise to God for every Blessing both publick and private But at last when the evill dayes came on him so that the Keepers of the house began to tremble Eccle. 14.3 4. the strong man to bow the grinders to cease and the windowes to be darkened he was willing for a Desolution very ready to goe hence often saying It is time for mee to be gone my Master hath no more worke for me to do here upon earth Now shall we forget such a worthy servant of God by no meanes Let his memory be ever blessed and his Name as precious oyntment powred forth And let us honour his remembrance in an holy imitation of his vertues But should we forget him yet his God would not forget his place his person his zeale his labour of love The Lord shall count when he writeth up his people that this man was borne there Ps 87.6 even in the family of Wrey within the Parish of Morton and in the County of Devon Now you having such an excellent Patterne and President let it be your earnest desire and endeavour to run on and not be weary walke on and not be faint in those waies paved i th holinesse in which he hath walked that so your end may be everlasting life To conclude looke on this small Tract as a Dowry which your dying Pastor hath bequeathed unto you whom he loves in the Lord. Receive this provision which he hath made for you of wholsome meat not caring for concealed Cookery or the vaine enticing words of mans wisdome As it was intended for your Instruction delivered to your Attention so let it be digested by your Meditation and practised in your Conversation So both Pastor and People shall behold each others face with joy at the Barr of Christ and have a most happy admission into his most glorious presence where there is fulnesse of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore Amen Your most affectionate though unworthy Teacher FRANCIS WHIDDON To the READER Christian Reader HEre is presented unto thine eye a little small Tract which in it's front doth promise great things as precious Stones and Jewels Possibly if thou with an humble heart shalt call and cry seek and search thou mayest find that which will be better theÌ„ Gold more excellent then refined Silver namely a good Conscience Let not any prejudice of person or partes cause thee to cast it aside as not worthy thy view neither cry thou Tush what is this Pamphlet unto those many large and learned Volumes of those able and holy men that have forâ—erly written upon this subject I doe ingenuously confesse it is very meane my vintage lesse then others gleanings But what of that if thou be an humble Christian thou wilt acknowledge that Paul and Apollos are but iustruments and can do nothing without their principall Efficient also we find by dayly experience that the lesse of man the more of God he can worke as well by the weakest as ablest instrument draw as strongly with an hair as with a Cable rope I must acknowledge the discourse is very short and very plaine and both very needfull in these full and surfeiting times who seeth not that great volumes are little regarded large discourses are easily laid aside men find much reading to be wearisome to the flesh I therefore affect brevity with perspicuity Should I be long in my discourse I am confident thou wouldest not read it over But in so much as it is very short an houres labour or so I may have hopes that thou wilt read it over and over and the oftner the better As for plainenesse of the stile I would have thee to know the Author is a very plaine man and hath written it for a very plaine people in his owne Congregation This was never intended to go abroad into the world but to be confined to the place and people where it was first preached a people that desire the plaine evidence of the Spirit not the vaine enticing words of mans wisdome Therefore if thy Braine run over with vain speculations high notions frothy expressions and wilt be wise above what is written 1 Cor. 4.6 remember that of Austin Multi propter arborem scientiae amittunt arborem vitae Many with Adam so eagerly strive for the tree of knowledge that they lose the tree of life A good caveat for such as are all for new discoveries new lights but not new lives To you therefore that with the Athenian cry quid novi what new thing I must answer nec nova nec novè Theophilus here is nothing new but vetus veritas iisdem verbis iisdeÌ„ syllabis The old truth in its owne words and syllables If this do not like you then lay it gently aside and it will not harme you But unto you that heartily desire to have and to hold to use and exercise alwaies in all things and to all persons a Conscience void of offence if you want better helps take this for present And because this little Book must with little Benjamin Gen. 43.14 be sent into Egypt I shall with old Jacob desire that it may find favour where it comes If others desire the like with mee I hope that neither they in Reading nor I in Writing shall lose our labour Thine as thou art Christ's F.W. June 11. 1656. Imprimatur GERARD LANGBAINE Pro-Vicecan OXON The TOPAZ HEB. 13.18 For we trust we have a good Conscience Willing in all things to live honestly I Find it reported of Saint Austin long since that a great desire possessed him of hearing Paul to Preach Another like affected with him seconds his desire with this of his own which was that his Theam or Text might be Conscience Doubtlesse these good men were friends to Conscience they saw how the Cause stood with her namely that she was in a languishing condition and ready to die what their thoughts were we can onely guesse but in these dayes of ours these last and worst dayes if we ponder the wayes and workes the opinions and practises of the most we have just cause to complaine that Conscience is not onely sick and dying but dead and buried in the grave of habituall sin with the stone of hardnesse rolled on the grave and that she hath laid so long in the dust of oblivion