who shall therefore walk in white for they are worthy these we may call the Phaenixes of the World The good Conscience saith Bernard is Rara Avis in Terris sed quò rarior apud homines eò charior apud Deum These men are the Noahs Lots Calebs and Joshuahs of their Generations for whom the World fares the better and of whom God takes special care when times are worst These are indeed the Chariots and Horsmen of Israel How happy is he that can say with Hezekiah Remember O Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart 2. Kin. 20. 3. and have done that which was good in thy sight Or with Paul My rejoycing is this the Testimony 2. Cor. 1. 12. of my Conscience that in simplicity and godly sineerity I have had all my Conversation in the World I can stand up and say I have corrupted no man defrauded no man circumvented no man Let all the world stand up and say whose Oxe or Asse I have taken Premat corpus Secura cum corpus morie ur Secura cum anima coram Deo praesentabitur Secura cum utrumque in die judicij ante terrisicâ—m judicis Tribunal statuitur De Consc c. 3. Bern tremat mundus fremat Diabolus illa semper erit secura This man hath his house built on a Rock he remains secure whatsoever winds blow and when the rain falls and the flouds arise He is secure in Sicknesse and secure in Death when body and soul are dissolved He is secure in Judgement when Heaven and Earth shall be dissolved and secure to Eternity when the wicked are destroyed He hath the Ark pitcht within and without he hath the Hid Manna and the white Stone He hath bread to eat others know not of His Candle goâ—s not out by night His Gleanings better than the Worldlings Vintage His dry morsel sweeter than a house full of Sacrifices with strife and contenton His Corner of the house top or Wildernesse more delightfull than the fair and large house where that clamourous and contentious Shrew the unquiet scolding Conscience is continually dropping or scalding rather This man his walks are in the wood dropping with Hony his dwellings upon the mountains of Myrrhe his lodging upon beds of Spices This man hath the best fare and merriest life in the 〈◊〉 1â— 15 16. World A continual Feast Feasting yoâ— know is not ordinary fare it is for no manâ— ease to Feast every day Some great meâ— have Feasâ—ed may be once a year as rich Nabal Kings and Princes on their Birth-dayes as Pharaoh and Herod Job had a great State to set out his Children withal they Feasted often but not every day at the same house but took their turns Ahasuerus had a Feast of an hundred and fourscore dayes lasting the longest that we read of yet he was King of an hundred twenty and seven Provinces God appointed his People should Feast of old yet but three times in the year except it were the Sabbatical year and the Jubile then all was Festival the whole year throughout and in the Jubile for two years one after another No man ever Feasted alway but that Glutton Luk. 16. 19. This man exceeds them all he hath not one great Dinner as at a Christmas Feast or one good Supper as at an Vniversity Commencement and away But every day is Festival with him his whole life is a Sabatical or Jubile life He is ever either Feasting or Feasted at home or abroad Either he is Feasted abroad and Supping with Christ or Feasting at home Christ Supping with him Yea this good Conscience is to Jesus Christ and to the Soul too both the feasting room and the feasting fare it is the Chamber and it is the Chear Christ will come into no other room but this This Sit Conscientia pura ut Deum perducat aâ— hospitium nostrum Bern. de iu. domo is his Vpper Chamber furnished and made ready where Christ will sit down with his Disciples and Servants and this the fare Give me thy heart saith he The Purity of Conscience is our best Dishwhich we can Feast him withal and the Peace of Conscience is Christs best Dish which he Feasts us withal Thus you see what a good House-keeper the good Conscience-keeper is He hath a continuall Feast saith Solomon Pro. 15. 15. And in the two following verses he answereth two Objections of the worldly mans making First they ask Hath he so much feasting I pray you what is his State first And secondly What good Chear hath he at his Table To the first he answereth ver 16. He may be but a poor man to see to yet he keepeth such a good house for Better is his little with the Fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith And for his good Chear on his Table it may be it is but homely yet his Dinner of Herbs where Love is the Love of God is is better than a stalled Oxe and Hatred therewith So that Solomons meaning in those three verses is that a Good Conscience is a Feast alone and Riches alone and Mirth alone and that all good is contained in a good Conscience which is a most comprehensive good CHAP. XXIV Of the Vse of Examination HAving already shewed what good Conscience is in general what his Nature what his Offices what is the Excellency Necessity Utility Benefit Comfort and Happinesse of it what the several kinds of good Conscience in particular are and what their Marks and Characters and what is the Mischief and Misery of an ill Conscience and what the Difficulties of getting and keeping the good and escaping the bad Let it now be every mans care to Try and Examine himself how much of Consciis in him and what the constitution of his Conscience is How much of Faith Purity Sincerity Tendernesse Quick-sightednesse Well-spokenness Honesty Inoffencivenesse Passivenesse and Charity is in his Conscience that he may take his part in the Promises Comfort Happinesse and Priviledges belonging to the good Conscience or whether he never had yet any good Conscience at all or have lost what he had or whether that he takes for good be not bad whether he be not the man that hath onely a natural Conscience or an ill troubled or an ill quiet whether his Conscience be not an erroneus or scrupulous or stupid or Lethargick or seared Conscience And so whether those former Reproofs Terrors Threats and miseries are not like to pursue and overtake him I shall not need here to come to any more new marks of discovery if you have well attended what was spoken all along in handling those particular good Consciences with their properties whereto I now refer you Only let every one remember that of the Prophet Malachie Therefore take heed to Mal. 2. 15. your Spirit saith he let evey one be well versed in himself There are three Books well studied and compared one with
encroachers their appropriated Tithes and set maintenance detained by dunghill-minded Professours whose Gain is all their Godliness and who would maintain it may be there was nothing due to them Jure divino They must labour with their hands as well as others The service of the House of God was neglected the Levites through such discouragements taken off from their Ministerie and diverted to Mechanick Emploiments They were fled every one to his field that is they were fain to shift for themselves as they could there was Neh 13. 10 11 12 13. no Publick Church maintenance for them what doth Nehemiah now in such a Case He doth not go to the common people whose hand and heart was in it they would all have cried out No more tithes no more Priests Ease us of this charge The temporal things we sow upon our Priests are above all the spiritual fruits we reap or ever look to reap by them Cannot Religion be upheld without these Priests cannot these Priests afford their service to God and his Church gratis and of free-cost or at least be content to live upon the voluntarie Contributions of the Church He doth not go to these I say Reason is not to be exspected among the multitude but he goes to the Nobles and chief Representatives he contended and expostulated with them Neh. 13. 11. Why is the House of God forsaken Shall our return out of Babylon be honoured and our Reformation bear date and be made famous for our laying aside Sabbath and Publike Church-worship Church-men and Church-maintenance Then I contended with the Nobles saith he Why is the House of God forsaken What a reproach will this be to our Reformation The Nobles it seems were either too forward as well as others to keep back and take away Church maintenance or put the people upon such designs or else the Nobles were too backward to compel the people to pay their duties They made not such provision for the Ministers livelihood and subsistence as they should but now Nehemiah takes care to see it amended ver 12. 13. So his detestation of their Vsury and Extortions and the Nehem. 5. 9 10 11 12 13. means he used for Reformation and Restitution you may read in the fift Chapter By this you see a godly man observes what are the prevailing sins of the times and he sets himself against them when another now of no Conscience thinks it a principall point of Prudence to give way to that which is like to take and obtain the upper hand yea to sit still connive keep silence and it may be against his Conscience and Judgement to comply as Peter once did while he was in the high Priests Palace he saw all spake against Christ there and therefore thought it was to no purpose for him to speak for him nor was it safe But it cost him dear Yea some account it a Note of singular Pietie to be forward in promoting such a way and opinion as it at present the prevailing way and rising opinion though they see no weight of Reason leading thereunto Herein many dealing with their understanding and poor Consciences as they did with their bodies when Eutropius the Eunuch was in that Power and Greatness in the Emperours Court and favour that he could raise and prefer whom he would yet would he never prefer any but those who were like himself and first made Eunuchs whereupon many were so mad as to gain his favour and attain their ambitious ends they did voluntarily geld themselves and were content to Cease to be men that they might be more capable of an Office or a great place So do not we see men of low spirits ordinarily to obtain a great place and esteem in the world abase themselves even to hell as the Prophet speaks and Isai 57. 9. stoop to Nahashes conditions for a quiet life and Eutropius his Terms for preferment to part even with their right minde and to castrate themselves of the best member they have their Consciences ceasing to be Christians that they may become some body in the world These are a fourth sort and a new Order of Eunuches besides those three reckoned by our Saviour who are made Eunuches by men for the kingdom of earths sake Mat. 19. 12. 7. The tender Conscience must fly as well all sinfull Occasions as Actions He must keep out of the way and company of the Psal 1. 1. wicked man out of the chair of the scorner he must not come into the chamber of the wicked woman whose eyes are snares whose Eccles 7. 26. hands bands nor neer her doors he knowes that evil words corrupt good manners and evil Companie soon corrupts good Natures Set cold water over the fire it growes fire-hot Can Prov. 6. 27 28. you carry coals in your bosome and not be burnt How soon did Nebuchadnezzar degenerate into a beast by conversing with them when he was driven from men and had his dwelling Dan. 4. among the wilde beasts of the earth Bury a man in the earth he soon becomes earth Judas took no hurt among the Disciples leaving them and going to the High Priests he was for ever lost Peter in the garden took no hurt in the palace was ensnared Austin tels how his friend Alipius having resolved formerly against beholding their wicked plaies and sports once yeelding through importunitie of friends to go along but with a purpose not to be a beholder though he were upon the place He went he sate down he staid he kept his eyes fast closed till at last hearing the loud shout and acclamation of the people he was not able to forbear opening his eyes he returned a lover of those vanities which S. Austin did much bewail and lament in him Et non erat jam Aug. Conf. l. 6. cap. 8. ille qui venerat sed unus de turba ad quam venerat Quid plura Spectavit clamavit exarsit abstulit secum inde insaniam quâ stimularetur redire non cum illis sed prae illis alios trahens How many have utterly undone themselves brought their friends to shame and grief their states to beggery their lives to untimely ends their souls to hell and their posteritic to infamie by the wicked companie they have kept nothing so infectious as this nor hath made more fall among Gen. 34. 1 2. men Dinah walking out to see the daughters of the Hivites and Sampson to see the daughters of the Philistines neither of them returned so well as they went out And Judg. 14. 1 2. again How many by leaving Ministers Ordinances Assembling together c. have made themselves a prey to seducers and have been corrupted They went out from us therefore it followes they were not of us saith S. John for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us c. 1 Joh. 2. 19. Eighthly he must not onely fly what is simply evil but whatsoever
2. 2 3 4. but now are cloven tongues and cloven hearts too Their cloven Tongues spake the same things to diverse Nations that they might unite gather congregate and Head all into Christ to make a Mystical Bodie and a Citie compact together the joy of the whole earth We speak in one Language diverse things whereby we divide scatter loose and Est jam serpentum major concordia Juv. Sat. 15. disgregate and thereby endanger more the setting up of a new and literal Babel in England then the pulling down of the old and Mystical Babylon in Italy That we may sadly complain that the world was never so wofully and universally divided since the dayes of old Peleg as now Gen 10. 25 Their cloven Tongues were set on fire from heaven and spake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our fire is taken from Elias harth Luk. 9. 54. or Joshuah's Censer My Lord Moses forbid them if not Num. 11. 28. Jam. 3. 6. lower as James saith set on fire of hel There the winde filled onely the house but the holy Ghost filled their hearts Act. 2. 4. Here the winde fills the head and heart and the fire the house But did our Saviour pray that we might all be Perfect in one as hee and the Father are One and shall we imagine our Perfection Joh. 17. 21 22 23. lies in division Shall we not suffer this Praier to take place any where but in Heaven Is it the Perfection and glorie of the Church Triumphant to be One and Harmonious and is it our perfection to be ever militant and jarring When all prophecie and speak the same thing the ignorant man comes in is convinced and crieth out God is in you of a truth 1 Cor. 14. 25. But when all speak with differing and divers tongues the ignorant and unsettled man goes out and cries They are mad as it is ver 23. Nor are we to wonder that God hath such a Controversie with his People in this land and hath poured out such a Viall of contempt upon them breaking us with breach upon breach We may read our sin in the judgement we can impute it to nothing more then to our unnecessarie and unkinde Controversies among our selves whereby we have cast contempt upon his truth and made breach upon breach in his Church When the father sees such a wrangling and froward disposition in his children that they are still Quarrelling he takes them all in hand and gives them enough of fighting till they see their folly It hath been many times observed by godly Ecclesiasticall Writers that when the Christians have abused Peace Libertie and Fulness of Gospel Blessings to unkinde Contentions one with another and to wantonness in Opinions and carriages God hath raised up some enemie to scourge and still them Cyprian gives Cyprian lib. 4. ep 4. this for the reason why God let loose that bloudie Decius to be so bitter a persecutor Patrimonio lucro studentes superbiam sectantes amulationi â—c dissensioni vacantes simplicitatis fidei negligentes seculo verbis solis non factis renuncianâ—es unusquisque sibi placentes omnibus displicentes Vapulamus itaque ut meremur Confessores non tenent disciplinom Quosdam insolenter extollit Confessionis suae tumida Jactatio c. and waster of the Christians as hee was God is righteous saith he that our flocks are scattered and all spoiled by this persecution Our sins have procured all Jesus Christ obeyed the will of his Father but we obey it not We minde saith he our pride and profit we studie divisions and differences we contemne faith simplicitie and plain dealing we disclaime the world in words but not in our deeds Every one will please himself none careth to please other May not the same and worse be said of this Generation and the Professours in it It is very observable that of all the Places where Israel provoked and offended God The waters of strife were the most famous for greatest provocation therefore had that name given them There were two such Places the one in Rephidim the other in Kadesh Exod. 17. 7 Num. 20. 13 Psal 95. 8. Deut. 33. 8. Both were called Meribah and both Massah All waters of Bitterness are Provoking and Tempting waters There all offended They chode with Moses and he as meek as he was chode with them at the latter They strow one with another and all strove with the Lord Numb 20. 13. Here it was that God was angrie with Moses here did this holy mortified Saint speak unadvisedly in his Passion Hear now ye Rebels The worst word that ever he spake which cost him dear even kept him and Aaron from entering Canaan How many chiding Meribahs have we drunk of Bitter waters which have been unto God wrath-provoking Massahs even Moses and Aaron have not been free from too much faultiness Tertullian saith In the Primitive times the Heathens were wont to say with indignation See how these Christians love one another they are readie to die one for another But is it not a just scandal now to them that are without to see the contrarie who may say Behold how these Christians hate and maligne one another how they bite devoure and seek to destroy one another But to draw to an end of this complaint and Subject We may take up the words of Job in his Parable speaking of wisdom and with a sad and sorrowfull Allusion apply it to our good Conscience of Charitie Where is saith he and where is again the place of wisdom and where is understanding to be found Job 28. 12 20. So may we say Where is Charitie to bee found and where is the place of this good Conscience Man knoweth not the price thereof neither is it to be found saith hee in the land of the living It cannot be valued with the gold The price thereof is above Rubies England may say It is not in me Professours must say It is not in us Our children may say they have heard the fame thereof Our selves may say We have seen the Departure and Funeralls of it which we have traced leaving us as the Glorie of the Lord departed by degrees from the Sanctum Sanctorum into the wilderness at last Ezek. 11. 23. That we may Ezek. 9. 3. 10. 18. 11. 23. crie out in the words of Elisha when he saw the last of his Master Elijah or that King who came to see Elisha and found him sick upon his bed and readie now to leave the world Oh my father my father the Charets of Israel and the horsmen thereof So may wee 2 Ki. 2. 12. 13. 14. say Oh my mother my mother the Leah and Rachel of Israel the nurse and breasts the beautie and strength of Israel We have parted with the Power and Spirit of Elias and the Presence of the Prophet and have onely caught up a Mantle How sad is it that this Holy fire should bee wanting in the
set at liberty them that are bruised to proclaim the acceptable yeare of the Lord. And withall to proclaim the day of vengeance of our God But it is noted of them that blessed the people they caused them to erre and they who were so blessed were destroyed Christ commanded repentance to be preached and Es 9. 16. then remission of sinnes to be promised And Lu 24. 47 Acts 20. Paul tells us all his Doctrine was bound up in two Chapters The first repentance towards God The second faith in Jesus Christ But Luther tells us he observed two sorts Theologus Crucis dicit id quod res est Theologus gloriae dicit malum bonum bonum malum of Divines in his time there was one the poore Divine whom he called Theologus Crucis the Divine for the Cross he saith Luther preacheth plainly and tells men how things stand The other Divine is Theologus Gloriae the Divine for the Crowne for preferment Praise The Glorious Divine This saith he is a dangerous and unsound Divine he calls evill good and darknesse light And Luthers prayer was that God would deliver his Church from such glorious A theologo gloriae pastore contentioso â—nutilibus questionibus liberet suam Ecclesiam Dominus Luther Divines The men of thy peace said Obadiah v. 7. Have deceived thee and prevailed against thee they of thy bread have laid a wound under thee c. See therefore if thou wishest well to thy soul whom thou must chuse for thy minister him that is most faithfull most powerfull whose fan is in his hand who is a conscience-convincing a Conscience-scouring and searching man such a one is like to be well skilled in the art of curing and comforting Conscience who seekes to discover the diseases and maladyes of Conscience Affect that ministry then that speaketh more to thy heart then to thy fancy that preacheth more to thy Conscience then thy concupiscence and whose Preaching driveth more at Purity then Liberty But in these dayes how few are found who at all stand upon the ministry of the Word what it is whether Preaching or non-Preaching whether sound or unsound Preaching Heretofore the question was Where dwels the Seer Now a dayes if any be to make a remove and to change his 1 Sam. 9. 9 18. dwelling They make Lots choice enquiring what the Earth is for their Cattle not Gen. 13. 10 what the Ayre is for their Soules and so prefer a Sodom before a Canaan or doe as the Num. 32. 4. 5. Reubenites who because of their Cattle and little ones desired to sit downe on the other side of Jordan though they were further off from the Tabernacle and Temple preferring a Bashan before Jerusalem And if any doe at all regard the Preaching Minister yet how doe they then for the most part make choice of that Ministery that will prophecie to them of Peace and speake smooth things In the first dayes of the Gospell when Christ was new borne there were some Mat. 2. Christian-Gentiles the wise men who that they might finde our Saviour observed diligently the direction of that moving Star of Heaven which went before them and when that not seene enquired for further directions from the standing Stars on Earth the Scriptures they followed both and so were conducted to the place where Christ was whom they found saw and worshipped But now in these last dayes of the Gospel wee have some whom we may call Gentile-Christians who neither regard the moving Stars the Ministers or the standing fixed Stars the Scriptures But without both these Rev. 2. 1. finde out new wayes and follow strange new lights as those who when the Son of man was to be betrayed into the hands of men followed a false Apostle with Lanthorns Torches Fire-brands and weapons as if they meant not to worship but apprehend Christ The former did finde these lost Christ They did honour these put him to open shame they Deify These Crucifie him they Adore these Destroy him They opened their Treasures and give him all they had these strip Christ of all he hath They usherd him into his Kingdome and into the hearts of the Godly these drive him out of the world they prefer'd an Infant obscure Christ before a King before Herod these prefer before a Grown Known and a now famous Messias an Infamous flagitious Barabas About a seven yeares agoe both Parliament and people came in the language of Act. 16. 9. Macedonia to the Godly Ministers come over and helpe us and then they were received Jam. 5. 35. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Joh. Baptist among the Jewes or S. Paul among the Galathians as an Angell of God or as he and Barnabas at Act. 14 12 Lycaonia once one was Jupiter another Mercury The double honour was then thought but due There is since a sad change som where that the same men should be looked upon as the chiefe troublers of Israel now made a spectacle to the world Angels 1 Cor. 4. 9 11 12 13. and Men esteemed rather disesteemed as the off scouring of all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is well enough The disciple is no worse yet then his master nor the servant then his Lord. Yet if dust might speak to dust and the Thistle in Labonon say any thing at all to the Cedar in Lebanon I would say that there seemes to me to be more danger to the men of this Generation from the silent dust of the feet of the despised Godly ministers who Jer. 17. 16 neither fight nor threaten nor yet desire the evill day then from all the armed hands and enraged hearts of the most desperate malignants which though they breath out slaughter and cruelty have been but like the Es 7 4 smoaking Tayles of easily quenched fire-brands 4 Take great heed to him whom thou makest thy bosome freind know him well and Oh nimis inimica amicitia Aug. know him to be good Mans wisedome is not seen in any one thing more then in making choice of his company and friend Ill acquaintance hath undone many The instance in the Text tells us how one sinner destroyes much good One corrupt man corrupts another Hymenaeus and Alexander coupled Vvaque livorem conspecta ducit ab uvâ. together They had one infected the other Hymeneus and Philetus 2 Tim. 2. 17. Phygellus and Hermogenes More ill couples still Alexander it is likely marred Hymenaeus Hymenaeus marres Philetus and so comes the Gangrene Gen. 7. 2 to spread Evill persons and seducers as Noabs unclean Beasts go together in couples Simeon Levi brethren in evill Ananias and Sapphira conspire together Amnon had never accomplished his bestial unclean Lust if he had not had the head of Jehonadab to set him in the way Jehonadab was a very subtle man it 2 Sam 13. 3 is said Oh come not into the way of the sinner nor enter