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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A18036	The conscionable Christian: or, The indeuour of Saint Paul, to haue and discharge a good conscience alwayes towards God, and men laid open and applyed in three sermons. Preached before the honourable judges of the circuit, at their seuerall assises, holden in Chard and Taunton, for the county of Somerset. 1620. By Richard Carpenter, Doctor of Diuinity, and pastor of Sherwell in Deuon.	Carpenter, Richard, 1575-1627.	1623 (1623)	STC 4681; ESTC S107676	65,416	130

towards men a good conscience requireth and inioyneth as well as the other of holinesse filiall feare and religious worship towards God and so requireth and exacteth both in all that it will not haue either the one to wit Holinesse to be snuffing Mal. 1. 13. puffing short-winded and out of breath as theirs was Mal. 1. Or the other to wit Righteousnesse to be as a morning cloud soone scattered Hos 6. 4. and dissolued as theirs was Hos 6. But both lasting and induring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alwayes for all the dayes of our life that in an holy kinde of righteousnesse and a righteous kind of holinesse we serue God from day to day as long as there is a day left to serue him in and that so we may bee pure and without offence vntill the Day of the Lord filled with the fruits of Righteousnesse and Holinesse which are by Iesus Christ vnto the glory and praise of God Phil. 1. 11. So then to make a corollary of the premises and a recollection of that which at diuers times before you hath beene deliuered concerning the hauing and discharging of a good conscience alwayes towards God and men I will now for your better instruction and edification humbly commend to your sanctified memories obseruation and imitation too this Summary conclusion as a liuely Character of a sound conscionable Christian A sound conscionable Christian is he who The Character of a conscionable Christian hauing his conscience inlightened by sauing knowledge in Gods Word and purged by faith in Christs Blood from the guilt and punishment of sinne and from dead workes to serue the liuing Lord walketh cheerefully and constantly in the way of life which God hath chalked foorth vnto him not wishing it to bee wider or smoother but going on therein vprightly and freely neither stooping vnder the burthen of a willing sinne nor fettered with the gieues of vniust scruples He alwayes pondereth his paths and ordereth his wayes aright not regarding so much to be applauded of men as to bee approoued of God not looking so much to what hee might doe by his power as what he ought to doe for his praise being neither voluntary Agent nor forced Instrument in that which is vnlawfull to bee done but holding all his sences and members within Couenants for their good behauiour in that behalfe If his wisedome and vertue aduance him to any place or office of command and authority he glorieth not therein as in a Chaire of State or Farme of commodity but is glad thereof onely as a meanes of furthering his reckoning and pleasuring his Countrey wherein he wisely and worthily demeaneth himselfe so cherishing and countenancing wheresoeuer hee comes and hath to doe religious sober and honest liuers that hee dares not affoord a good looke to naughty Varlets and notorious offenders Hee waigheth all matters not according to the common beame of custome and opinion but at the golden Standard of Gods Sanctuary Truth hee exerciseth as well in the censure of persons as iudgement of things and will not iustifie the wicked through bribery or flattery neither condemne the righteous through malice or enuy for a world Being called therunto he giueth plaine testimony to the truth as well for smal as great stranger as brother and oweth so much to the Author of truth that he will not paint potsheards and say Falshood is truth or truth falshood Good euil or euill good for any feare or fauour whatsoeuer According to his meanes and ability he keepeth his house well and therein is mercifull and bounteous but his Church better and therein is deuout and religious hee looketh so to the Church that the Common-wealth receiues no detriment and so maintaines holinesse and piety in the one that he neglects not vpright dealing and equity in the other turne him what way soeuer you will hee is euer the same and will doe well turne him to God to his neighbour to company to himselfe alone put him in office out of office turne him loose to all occasions references and occurrences hee holds his owne and walkes honestly honourably warily worthily praise-worthily in all things and wil not to gaine any thing though neuer so precious leape ouer the pales or goe out of the Paradise of a good conscience In a word all his dealings are square and aboue the boord in his promises and payments hee keepeth day and touch his word is his parchment his yea his oath which he will not violate for any feare or losse hee is a faithfull Clyent of truth and honesty and in the plaine way thereof goeth on confidently and will either triumph in his integrity or suffer with it To conclude his soule is euery day dilated and inlarged to receiue God and goodnesse and is so taken vp with heauenly contemplation and contentments that he lookes often as one displeased on earthly pleasures and preferments he is very well prouided for both worlds and is sure of peace and comfort here and of glory and a glorious Kingdome hereafter This this is the sound Christian which hath gotten the inestimable treasure of an vpright conscience that true Diamond which flings beames of solace vpon the soule This is the conscionable man whose praise and reward is of God though the diuell and world storme and burst for enuie Such a one be he Minister or Magistrate be he Witnesse Iuror Clerke or Aduocate whatsoeuer his place or calling be as Dauids souldiers said of him is worth a 2. Sam. 18. 3. thousand of the common sort who feare to haue a name to feare God and to bee charged with sincerity Such a one as you haue heard the elect vessell of grace and lowd Clarion of the Gospell Saint Paul was and according to my Text indeuoured still to be Oh then that in vs the fire of ●●le for imitation of him could so bee enkin●●●d that herein and therein conscionably comporting our selues in our seuerall vocations we might euery one for himselfe bee inabled to say truly as well as he Herein doe I indeuour my selfe to haue alwayes an vpright conscience towards God and men Which that wee may all Fathers and Brethren both say and doe let vs humbly and heartily beseech Amighty God of his abundant grace and mercy to grant and for this end to giue to that which hath been deliuered such a generall blessing according to our particular necessities that thereby such consciences as are dead and dull may be quickened such as are blind and erronious may bee inlightened such as are in a slumber may bee awakened such as are tender confirmed such as are heauie and pensiue comforted and all some way or other bettered through the powerfull operation of his gracious Spirit to the eternall praise of his glorious Name in Iesus Christ his onely Sonne and our onely Sauiour to whom with the Father and the holy Ghost bee ascribed all glory and honour now and for euer Amen FINIS

the Blood Rom. 5. 1. of Christ saith S. Paul wee haue peace with God Rom. 5. And againe The Blood of Christ Heb. 9. 14. once offred by his eternall Spirit without fault purgeth our consciences from dead workes Heb. 9. Yea so purifieth and pacifieth them that it leaues no remorse of sin accusing or condemning in them Nothing else in this world hath this vertue saue Christs Blood alone there is no pacification of the soule without remission Ioh. 3. 1. Heb. 9. 22. Heb. 10. of sinne no remission of sin without blood no blood expiatory for sinne but Christs no application of this expiation but by faith The consequence then is vndenyable therefore by faith in Christs Blood shed for the remission of sinne we attaine peace of conscience No perfumes of the Sanctuary or charmes of Oratory can relieue it no straines of Musicke or Songs of Angels can reioyce it All other merriments and outward refreshments whatsoeuer haue no more power to cure and quiet it then popish holy-water hath to coniure the diuell This this is the honour royalty and peculiar dignity of Christs blood by the hand of faith applyed to the soule for the full remission of sinnes This alone can pacifie and make good the conscience and fully effect it whereas otherwise all the glittering appearances of happinesse which dazle the eyes of doting worldlings cannot bring it to passe The superstitious Papist troubled in conscience for sinne runnes vp and downe for reliefe like an Hart with an Arrow in his side Se rotat in vulnus transsixam circuit hastam hee sends to the god of Ekron for helpe hee buyes a pardon 2. King 1. 2. goes to shrift lasheth and launceth himselfe as the Priests of Baal did posteth to a Masse passeth 1. King 18. on in pilgrimage to a woodden worme-eaten Lady or painted Image and all this while as an aguish man that drinkes water his disease increaseth no shift of place or change of aire can relieue him being dogged and attended on by the hellish hag of his conscience Quae surdo verbere caedit which whips him in secret and in silence telles him Omnibus vmbra locis adero dabis improbe poenas The prophane worldling likewise being vexed and perplexed in mind with the horrour of his offensiue life and the blood-hound of his guilty conscience hunting dry-foot on the sent Prou. 28. 1. of his former sinnes proiecteth fearfull things ambulat in circuitu walkes in a restlesse round or maze like a sea-sicke wretch from the ship to the boat and so backe againe and as Saint Augustine passionately describes it runnes like Aug. in 45. Psa a Male-content ab agro in vrbem c. from the field into the City out of the City into his house from the common roomes thereof to his bed-chamber from thence to his study or closet and then out againe to seeke for a merry companion to see if hee can play away his trouble and remooue the melancholy qualme as carnall men account it from the stomake he eates profusely drinkes profoundly sports profanely and all to lull the conscience asleepe and to drowne her accusing voyce by 2. King 23. 10. the clamours of needlesse imployments But all in vain he doth but loose his chaine that it may be tyed straighter and smother the fire for a time which will afterwards breake forth with greater violence a seeming truce he may haue true peace he cannot haue for Nocte diéque suum gestat in pectore testem yea pestem hee carries night and day his bane in his bosome and of all earthly refreshments may truly say as Iob of his Iob 16. 2. friends Miserable comforters are ye all But as for the godly Christian who is willing to illuminate and regulate his conscience by Gods sacred Word and the diuine Oracles of eternall truth when scruples and troubles of conscience doe arise whereby hee is somewhat distracted or distressed leauing all humane conclusions vntryed vntrusted he forthwith goes to God in prayer for direction powres forth his soule in supplication to him imbraceth all good meanes of instruction and edification layes fast hold by a liuely faith on Christ Iesus for reconciliation and so finding Christ the great Physician of soules or rather being found of him findes with all peace and tranquillity his doubts resolued his griefe remoued his feare cancelled his heart confirmed in well-doing his soule as it were rauished with the sweet sauour of his precious oyntments so that Flammas licet hic ille iaculetur polus fractus illabatur orbis impauidum ferient ruinae though the heauens and earth crack and fly off the hinges and the Mountaines be remoued yet therewith he cannot be appalled to him being in Christ and feeling it to be so there is no condemnation or remurmuration of conscience for sinne and therefore with glory to God in excelsis he sings De profundis a requiem to his soule You see then by that which hath been said how that the conscience which Gods Word actuated by the Spirit inlighteneth and perswadeth and the blood of Christ Iesus applyed by the hand of faith purgeth and pacifyeth is the onely good conscience Know also that truly to beleeue well according to the tenour of Gods sacred Word and to indeuour duly to liue well in a cheerfull obedience to his holy will is both mother and nurse of the same It is the pure inmost blood which breeds and the radicall moysture which feeds the bright Lampe of the soule a good conscience Whereof for a conclusion to the premises and an induction to that which followes this plaine and pregnant definition proued by direct passages of Scriptures offers it selfe to your Christian obseruation Doct. 4 A good or vpright a Prou. 15. 15. conscience is a diuine b Rom. 2. 16. power and principall part of Gods Image in man whereby he doth most resemble the selfe-sufficiency of God which being c Ephes 1. 7. inlightened by Gods Word and purged by d Rom. 5. 1. Heb. 9. 14. faith in Christs blood from the guilt and punishment of sinne and from dead workes to serue the liuing Lord speaketh e Phil. 4. 7. peace with Gods allowance is a f Iob 33. messenger of good things betwixt God and vs and cheereth vp the heart with g 1. Pet. 1. 8. ioy vnspeakable and glorious In which Definition you may easily perceiue how that knowledge and faith repentance and obedience peace and ioy haue their concurrence to make vp the precious odoriferous balme or oyntment of a good conscience First knowledge and faith is requisite thereunto lest it should be blind and erronious Secondly repentance and constant obedience lest it should be secure and licentious Thirdly peace and ioy lest it should bee stirring galling and needlesly tender and timorous To touch the tops of these perswasions first Iudg. 7. 1. Knowledge it is by too lamentable

THE CONSCIONABLE CHRISTIAN OR THE INDEVOVR OF SAINT PAVL TO HAVE AND DISCHARGE a good conscience alwayes towards God and men laid open and applyed in three Sermons Preached before the Honourable Judges of the Circuit at their seuerall Assises holden in CHARD and TAVNTON for the County of Somerset 1620. By RICHARD CARPENTER Doctor of Diuinity and Pastor of Sherwell in Deuon Acts 23. 1. I haue in all good conscience serued God vntill this day 2. Cor. 1. 12. This is our reioycing the testimony of our conscience c. Aug. cont Petil. Conscienti●n● malam laudant is ●●●●●nium non sa●at Bona● cal●mniantis conuitiam non vulnerat Imprinted at London by F. K. for Iohn Bartlet and are to be sold at the signe of the gilded Cup in the Goldsmiths Rowe in Cheapside 1623. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL HIGH SHERIFE OF SOMERSET IOHN TREVELIAN of Nettlecom Esquire c. The Authour wisheth what the worke describeth the singular comforts of a Conscionable Christian in this life and in that to come blessed immortality SIR Your worth shineth in so high a Sphere of dignity being now the worthily honoured high Sheriffe of the County that if I should indeuour to hold foorth a Candle to any to behold the brightnesse thereof I might iustly bee censured of folly or flattery But I haue no such proiect and in truth it is not your annuall acquired greatnesse and eminency of office and place but your continually inspired goodnesse and life of grace appearing in your practice of piety charity and hospitality farre beyond many of your ranke and quality which hath as it were by a secret forcible influence drawne me vnto you and this discourse of a Conscionable Christian from me Which as it resembles you much so desires to honour you long so much the more to honor you as you shall the more desire and indeuor to resemble it and proceed in some competent proportion to expresse and represent the lines limbes lineaments thereof in the future course of your life and conuersation Wherof I conceiue no small hope hauing been an often eye-witnesse of the manifold graces of God shining in you and occasionally inforced to take notice of your exemplary integrity in the faithfull discharge of your publike Magistracy heretofore and at this time in managing wisely and worthily this important Office whereunto your vertues haue aduanced you from which I doubt not but you will come off commendably and comfortably without any gash or galling of your conscience Which that you may the better doe giue me leaue whom you haue chosen at your seuerall Assises to be a Monitor to many to bee also now a Remembrancer vnto you that you put your soule to that noble imployment of reflecting vpon it selfe and recollecting the particular knowne-passages of your well-neere ouerpast Magistracy with an vndazeled and vndissembling eye that so thorowly trying discrying what you haue done and finding vpon serious examination of your wayes words and workes that as another Moses and Samuel you haue wittingly and willingly done no man wrong neither been voluntary Agent nor forced instrument in the doing of any thing vniustly you may hereupon rest assured and secured of this that you haue carefully and conscionably accomplished your Office and duty Whereof the Countrey makes thankfull report and I cannot but heere to my knowledge giue publike testimony thereunto being also desirous that the tender of this poore Paper-present should be if it may be a perpetuall acknowledgement how much I stand bound to you in generall for your many Christian fauours vouchsafed to mee in particular I haue long I confesse run on the score so that the interest of your loue exceeds the principall of my abilities But yet if verball payment may satisfie for reall benefits and goe for currant I hope hereby at length to strike out some part of my debt At this present let it please you to accept this little monument of that great respect which I deseruedly beare vnto you what propriety you iustly haue both in the worke and in the Author it is well known to all which know vs. I need say no more but this At your instance and intreaty these Sermons were preached by your best deuotion they were attended and in testification of my dutifull loue towards you they are now published You were the chiefe meanes and motiue to bring these meditations to the hearing of many and therfore cheerfully they runne to your hands and are bold vnder your name to offer themselues to the view of all And so humbly commending them to your gentle acceptation and heartily committing you to the Almighties gracious protection and to the Word of his grace which is able to keep Act. 20. 32. you from falling to build you further and to giue you an inheritance with them that are truly sanctified I rest euer prest to be proued Your louing Sonne-in-law in all Christian obseruancy truly deuoted RICH. CARPENTER Loxford the 20. of Septemb. 1620. TO THE READER CHristian Reader In these later and looser times wherein as the Heathen of old complained Malunt disputare homines quàm viuere Men delight rather to argue and discourse of piety and Religion then seriously to reduce the principles thereof into practice and action It is much to bee feared that we all feare God too little and it may iustly be suspected that too many stand so affected in these dayes of long peace as the Romans did in the time of their ciuill warres Then some followed Caesar and they were weakest some Pompey and they were thought wisest some Crassus and they were accounted worst So now some follow the flesh and are led by her corrupting allurements some are Fauorites and Minions of the world carried away with its glittering preferments some are meere Factors for the diuell fulfilling his crafty-cruell designements all are set on worke but vnder the Commander of this cursed Triumvirate for the most part so wickedly that euery where there is a consumption of grace through the corruption of sinne piety complaining that shee is sicke charity neere dead good workes buried prayer and preaching neglected honesty and sobriety derided iustice and equity abandoned truth and plaine-dealing imprisoned faith and a good conscience banished and driuen out of the Countrey For the recalling whereof from banishment or rather for the inciting of Christians to giue thereunto better entertainment I had I confesse some extraordinary calling to those places where these Sermons were preached and therefore more then ordinarily laboured to worke by them powerfully on the consciences of my Auditors that they might be truly inlightened and inliued To this purpose my desire and study was as the circumstances of persons time and place required to lay the Axe of Gods Word close to the root and to apply my doctrine home to the heart and so to set conscience it selfe aworke Now the whole and intire worke of conscience to giue by the way some light to the ignorant

Isa 57. 21. is no peace to the wicked saith my God no true peace either in life or death Lateri haeret laethalis arundo The griping gnawing and neuer dying Worme of an accusing conscience euery where tormenteth them and executeth the sentence of remedilesse condemnation vpon them so that being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 selfe-condemned Tit. 3. 11. through the guilt of their sinnes as Cain Iudas Herod and Felix were and as credible Histories Acts 24. declare Bessus for secret killing of his father Bassianus of his brother Orestes of his mother and Richard the third of his nephewes to haue beene they leade heere a life euer-dying and feele as it were a death neuer-ending which is no other but a fore-runner of that supreme and finall doome which God who will iustifie the sentence and execution of conscience shall in that great Day of Iudgement passe peremptorily on all the wilfully-disobedient transgressors of his Commandements Vse Take we heed then that wee neglect not the checks of conscience when wee are bent vnto sinne nor despise the iudgement of conscience when we haue sinned but make haste by repentance in faith to be reconciled to God and it for otherwise God will ratifie the sentence of conscience at the last Day on all impenitent sinners and albeit now many such by their wealth and hearts ease are rockt asleepe by iesting merry tales eating drinking and gaming are cast into a spirit of slumber yea although the vnruly perturbations of their worldly lusts and affections be now so lowd that the voyce of their conscience condemning their wicked wayes and workes cannot bee heard yet the Day shall come and it will be a dreadfull Day for them when these worldly negotiations shall cease and all fleshly perturbations shall be silent and conscience shall be so shrill that they shall both heare it and be thryld at it and gnash Reuel 16. 11. with their teeth and gnaw their tongues for indignation to see how God taketh part with it against them O what horrour and confusion shall then couer the faces of such as by a multitude of carnall pleasures and worldly cares and affaires drowne and cry downe the voyce of conscience by which their euill wayes and workes are condemned as the Drums and Tabrets 2. King 23. 10. in the sacrifices of Molech did the cry of the infants which in Tophet were burned But on the other side O what honour and exaltation shall crowne the heads of those which heare and obey the voyce of conscience by the light of Gods Word rightly informed which lend their eares whilest this good Cassandra spends her tongue and by her in all their actions are willingly guided and directed And so much if not too much may suffice to haue beene spoken generally of conscience it selfe as in her nature properties and offices in her power command and Soueraignty she is considered to bee great Now by Gods assistance vnder the conduct 2. Part. of his feare and your fauour I will proceed to commend to your view and entertainement especially an vpright conscience as in her causes and effects her proiects and priuiledges she is found to bee singularly good and that 1. Bernard Bona conscientia turbata 2. Bona conscientia tranquilla not as she is in continuall conflict with the flesh rebelling against the Spirit and so afflicted with the sanctified dolours of the new birth but as it is after regeneration quieted with the sence of remission of sinnes and reconciliation to God in Christ and so excusing cleering chearing and comforting the soule of the sound Christian In respect whereof some call it The Paradise of the soule The Iubile of the heart Laetitia cordis quasi latitia A surpassing inward solace so dilating and inlarging the heart for some good in possession more in expectation that the ioy thereof cannot well bee suppressed or expressed And hence in a common popular apprehension it is said to bee a ioyfull remembrance of a well led life ioyned with an hopefull expectation of a comfortable death and glorious resurrection S. Paul in respect of the mindes tranquillity Phil. 4. 7. inioyed thereby termeth it a peace which passeth all vnderstanding like to the hidden Manna and white stone wherein a name was written which no man knoweth but hee that inioyeth it Reuel 2. 17. Salomon that kingly Reu. 2. 17. Preacher pointing at the peerelesse pleasure and immutable comfort of a good conscience compares it to a continuall feast farre excelling Pro. 15. 15. Mishteh tamid the royall feast of Ahashuerus which lasted but nine-skore dayes for this feast of a good conscience whereat the Angels are Cookes and Butlers and the blessed Trinity gladsome ghests as Luther boldly speakes without intermission Luth. in Gal. of solace or interruption of society is a continuall feast A feast in life and health refreshing the soule with dainty cates of diuine comforts A feast in sicknesse when worldlings hopes hang downe their heads like a Bulrush and lag like a Ruffians starcht Ruffe in a storme of raine yea in death a feast when comfort is worth a world and all worldly comforts and comforters forsake vs yea in the Day of Resurrection and after that Day when all these shaddowes shall flie away a feast for euermore No maruell then that Saint Bernard being rapt and rauished heerewith breaketh foorth into the singular commendation of the admirable endowments thereof saying Bona conscientia est Be● in form hon vit titulus religionis templum Salomonis ager Benedictionis hortus deliciarum gaudium Angelorum c. A good conscience is the Title and Crowne of Religion the Temple of Salomon the field of Benediction the Garden of delight the ioy of Angels and Sanctuary of the holy Ghost c. But because these the like allusiue notions of a good conscience frequent in the Fathers are magis sloridae quàm solidae more pregnant for wit then profitable for present vse I will say to them as Iehu to the messenger of Iehoram 2. Kin. 9. 18. 2. King 9. Turne behind me and will take hold of that more sound description thereof by Isiodore affirming that a cleere or inoffensiue conscience is such a one Quae nec de praeterito iustè accusatur Isiod in 2. l. soli loq nec de praesenti iniustè delectatur nec de futuro sollicitè perturbatur that is which is neither iustly accused for things past nor vnlawfully delighted with things present nor anxiously troubled for things to come This clearing chearing conscience and that Note perfectly good Adam only had in his Creation whilest in Paradise hee walked with God without sinne and without feare in the state of innocency But now there is no way to come to it to attaine and haue a quiet conscience and that but imperfectly good after regeneration but onely by the mediation and reconciliation of Christ Being iustified by faith in