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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A14732	Balme from Gilead to recouer conscience In a sermon preached at Pauls-Crosse, Octob. 20. 1616. By Samuel Ward, Bach. of Diuinitie, and preacher of Ipswich.	Ward, Samuel, 1577-1640.; Gataker, Thomas, 1574-1654.	1618 (1618)	STC 25036; ESTC S119469	52,024	176

blew after fourteene daies want of meat and light when the Marriners despayred how couragious he was but I wonder as much and more to see his Conscience passe with top-saile banners displayed through the Sea and waues of good report and bad report to see him singing praying at midnight in the Dungeon all manacled fettred in a wounded skinne but whole and merry Conscience Censures and rumors the world is full of who escapes Not Paul himselfe yet is aboue them and giues a secret Item to all such as censure him that they wronged him in iudging a good Conscience The fashion is to iudge and c●nsure all courses wee reach not or sauour not and so we smite many a good Conscience In this respect what neede haue wee all of good Consciences seeing tongues spare none● There be three dayes especially the day of Sicknesse of Death of Iudgement in which Comfort is worth a world and then all worldly comforts and comforters like run-away Seruants and drunken Seruing-men are to seeke when one hath most vse and neede of them as Iob complaineth of the Brooks of Teman in the drought of Summer which makes the triumph of the wicked Iob 20. momentany and as a ●●ght Vision when as the Prophet said One dreames of bread and wakes hungry In these times you shall see the merry and iolly worldling hang the head like a Bul-rush and the Ruffians brags lagge like a starcht Ruffe in a storme How doe such droope euen in old age and say the dayes are come wherein there is no pleasure The storme comes after the raine that which is worst an ill Conscience like a Blood-hound hunts dry-foot and brings the scent of sins of his youth wheras the Conscience of a well-passed life is the staffe of age Pabulum senile better then all the Sacke and Sugars and such pittifull comforters When the stomacke failes and the grinders waxe few and appetite ceaseth this is a continuall feast In the decay of sleepe this is a Downe-pillow In all our tribulation this Simon helps vs to beare our crosses In all our euill daies it 's at hand It sustaines the infirmities of the body When Princes sat in counsell against Dauid this was his Ionathan to solace him When the Lyon roares the righteous is bold as the Lyon and feares not what man can doe vnto him But if once Death begin to looke vs in the face how doth Naball dye like a stone How doe Achitophel and Iudas dye the death of cowardly Harts and Hares pursued with the full cry of their sinnes which makes them dead in the ne● before they dye then a kingdome for a good Conscience Then send as in the Sweating sicknesse and the Plague for Mr Minister but alas he is come hee can but speake to the eare and all in vaine vnlesse God open the Conscience to heare and be quiet to heare and imbrace comfort But when speech failes all thy Senses shut vp their doores and windowes then who or what can auaile but a good Conscience When thy Wife thy friends doe augment thy griefe with parting and loath to depart as Pauls friends broke his heart with weeping then this onely and alone dies or rather liues with thee and seeing Land approaching bids thee be of good comfort More cheerefully haue I seene it make some dye then other wed All the Martyrs from Stephen the Proto martyr down to the last that suffered are clouds of witnesses it hath inabled them to imbrace their stakes clap their hands leape as Doctor Taylor did within two stiles of the stake or as hee said of his home and Fathers house Lastly at the Last day and after the last day when all these shadowes shall flye away this substance shall abide A good Wife is a good thing but Sarah must part with Abraham and these relations shall cease in Heauen but a good Conscience attended with good workes shall follow and the better it hath beene here the better in degree it shall be there the wider entrance and entertainment it shall finde there When all Bookes shall perish and Heauen melt like a Parchment scrole this Booke shall be of vse when all Diuels and damned shall tremble and wish the hils to couer them this shall lift vp thy head for thy redemption approcheth when neither friends nor a full purse shall pleade nor the wicked stand vpright in iudgement then then well-fare a good Conscience then shal conscience haue it mouth opened tongue vntied God will bid it speake Happy hee then that hath an excusing one miserable he that hath it an accusing aduersary Yet still further Faith and Hope are excellent things here in this valley these shall cease but Conscience abides A good one was a petty heauen vpon earth a mount Tabor a glimpse of glory here a bad one was a Hell a Purgatory or Limbo at the least tasting of the flashes and smoak of hel but hereafter how intollerable shall be the horror of the one and how inconcei●eable the ioyes of the other Without this worm that dies not hell should not be hel without this continual Feast heauen should not be heauen Next the happy vision of God shall be the company of a good Conscience and next to that ●he Societie of Saints and Angels The last part But oh Lord who beleeues our ●eport or to whom is the benefit ●nd excellencie of this creature of 〈◊〉 reuealed Oh Lord to whom ●hall we speake apply what hath ●een said You the sonnes of men ●aue ●ost your hearing charme we ●euer so wisely thunder we neuer 〈◊〉 earnestly you despise vs Mini●●ers You thinke we come hither to play our prizes to speake out of forme and not of Conscience or to speake out of choller and passion Besides if you would heare vs wee are Strangers to your secrets to your hearts and wayes we are confined to our Cells and Studies and are not acquainted with the Tythe of the worlds villanies besides when the Houre-glasse is out wee can say no more to you and perhaps shall neuer see you againe but your Consciences know you though happily you be strangers to them they compasse your pathes your lying downe and accustomed wayes I will therefore turne my speech as the Prophet to the Earth and Heauen to your Consciences Hearken oh Consciences heare the word of the Lord. I call you to record this day that it 's your office to preach ouer our Sermons againe or else all our Sermons and labours are lost You are the cuds of the Soule to chew ouer againe against your reproofes and against your secret and faithfull admonitions what exception can any take your Balme is precious your smitings break not the head nor bring any disgrace GOD hath giuen you a faculty to worke wonders in priuate and solitude Follow them home therefore cry aloud in their eares and bosomes and apply what hath now and at other times beene deliuered Conscience If the house

of God which Dauid hauing found true in his life a little before his death recordeth to al ages The spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue The God of Israel spake to me the strength of Israel sayd thou shalt beare rule ouer men being iust and ruling in the feare of God Euen as the morning light when the sunne riseth the morning I say without clowds so shall mine house be and not as the grasse of the earth is by the bright raine For God hath made with mee an euerlasting couenant perfect in all poynts and sure Let the Diuell the world storm and burst with enuy one of these is worth a thousand of the common sort though men will see no difference but say Are not all honest and sufficient men Let men talke of their quiet and peaceable neighbours and good house-keepers good Common-wealths men though these be good things yet if religion com not in as a number to make them of some value they are but all as cyphers in Gods account Now if God thinke so meanely of these who are either meere ciuil and politique men or idle pleasurable Gentlemen what reckoning doe we thinke hee makes of such prophane vncircumcised vice-gods as I may in the worst-sense best terme them that sell themselues to work wickednesse that giue themselues to all good fellowship as they call it and to all excesse of riot as the Apostle calls it and that hate to be reformed such I meane as hold religion a disparagement to Gentry and feare nothing more then to haue a name that they feare God who thinke when they haue gotten an office they may swear by authority oppresse by licence drinke and swill without controll What shall I say of such are these Gods and children of the most high or the charracters of his most holy Image Diuels are they rather then Deputies for him Imps of his Kingdome farre better becomming an Ale-bench then a Shire-bench and the barre then ● Iudgement seat But what shall I say to such mock-god-like Esau's● shall I take vp the words of Moses if thou wilt not feare this glorious name The Lord thy God I will make thy plagues wonderfull and of great continuance Or those of Dauid which perhaps will fit them better and these times of imminent changes They know not and vnderstand nothing they walke in darknes albeit the foundations of the earth be mooued I haue sayd ye are Gods but yee shall die like men and fall like others Or wil they suffer the Prophets exhortation who art thou that dreadest a mortall man whose breath is in his nostrils whom the moth shall eat like a garment and the worme like wooll And forgettest thy maker that hath spred the heauens laid the foundations of the earth that giueth the first and latter raine that hath set the bounds to the sea c. Or will they heare Salomons end of all Feare God that will bring euery secret to iudgement or a greater yet then Salomon Feare him that is able when he hath killed the body to destroy the soule also in hell fire for euermore Well the Lord cause them to heare that hath planted the eare and plant his feare in their hearts where it is not increase it where it is that there may bee more holy Magistrates and that the holy may yet be more holy And then we hope the other two properties following will more abound and we shall spend the lesse time and labour about them For men fearing God truely will be also Men of truth Without which shew of religion is but lying vanity a glorious profession but plaine hypocrisie And courage if it bee not for the truth and in the truth is but either Thrasonicall audacity or wicked impudency And therefore this character added to the former ioynes those which are in the forme of Iurates and ought to bee in all Offices good men and true This stile men of truth admits two interpretations both compatible with the text and theme A man of truth is either a true Israelite a true Nathaniel voyd of guile as truth is opposed to hypocrisie or else a louer of the truth as truth is opposed vnto falshood One that in particular cases suites controuersies betweene man man counts it his honour to sift out the truth maintaine the truth stick to it not suffering himselfe to be misinformed by Tale bearers Prompters and Sycophants nor misled and peruerted by the false pleading and colouring of consciencelesse Counsellors But brings iudgement to the ballance and rule of righteousnesse delights as the hound doth naturally in senting out the hare to search and trace out the truth out of all the thickets and dens of iuggling conueyance labouring as much to boult it out by examination in Hypothesi as the philosophers by disputations in Thes● being of his temper that worthily sayd Plato is my friend Socrates my friend but the truth is my dearest friend Or like Iob who couered himselfe with Iustice to whom Iudgement was as a robe crowne who when he knew not the cause sought it out diligently And for this purpose a man of truth keeps men of truth about him and with Dauid abandons all lyers out of his houshold whereas of a Prince that harkneth to lies all his seruants are Liers And of such Iustice which is in truth and for truth I say as of old it was sayd neither the euening nor the morning star equalls it in brightnesse But withall I must complaine as o● old that truth is fallen in the streets and vtterly perished from among men Iudgement failes and stands a farre off equity enters not The cōmon trade of the times being to weaue hes in all cases esepecially against the true seruants of God And the common weaknesse of the times to receiue the slāders which are broa●hed and bruited by tongues set on fire from hell so that he that refraines from cunning makes himselfe a prey the Latin whereof was all that Lewis the eleuenth would haue his sonne to learne and is al● the policy that most ●udy and practise Insomuch that the common by words are that when men sweare by faith and truth they swea●e by Idols that are not names they are and notions things they are not nor substances Iewels they are but such as vse them ' die beggers honourable Ladies and Mestresses they are but such as follow them close at the heeles may haue their teeth dashed out of their heads Well let deceiuers thus deceiue themselues let cunning heads and glozing tōgues make as much as they wil of Tiberius his Art or the Diuels rather the father of the Art of dissimulation In the end they shall proue it to bee most pernicious to the Students and Masters of it Let the children of truth iustifie their mother which hath the reward of honour in her right hand and of wealth in the

The legs and feet of iron and clay or mire Indeed the very mire dirt of the Countrey the Bayliffs Stewards of small liberties Bum-Bayliffs laylours c. if Beelzebub wanted officers he needed no worse then some of these what misteries haue they to vex the poore Countrey-men with false arrests and by vertue of that Statute tying euery Free holder of forty shillings per annum to attend the Assises but I list not to stirr this sediment of the countrey too vnsauoury to be taken vp in a sermon Oh that some Iehosophet would 〈◊〉 reforme or that you Iudges in th●se your dayes of visitations wold redresse some part of these greeuances and reduce all to this Ideae of lethro's which indeede would make an Heauen vpon earth amongst vs. An Vtopia I feare some will say too good to be true obiecting to me as to Cat● that he not discerning the times hee liued in looked for Plato's Common-wealth in the dreggs of Romulus And so that these Magistrates thus limbed ou● might be found in Moses golden age of the world but not in these lees of time To which I answere that if Iethr● were now to giue aduice hee would double the force of it If Dauids r●a●son bee true it is now high time for God to worke for men haue destroyed his Law Was there euer more 〈◊〉 of courage then now when sin 〈◊〉 audacious of truth when 〈◊〉 of religion when hypocrisie i●iquity of contentation when the 〈◊〉 of the world so abounds The onely way to repayre these ruines of the dying world is to renew gouernmēt to the primitiue beauty of it the f●ce whereof I haue now shewed in this excellent Mirrour or Looking-glasse so you goe no● away and forget both the comlinesse and sports it hath shewed you but wash and bee cleane and such as it would haue you to bee There being nothing else remaining ●o your perfection the peace of the Common-wealth but this one Item following in my text requiring assiduity and diligence Let ●hem iudge the people at al times c A most needefull 〈…〉 in times that loue ease and priuate employments with neglect of publique Sitting in the gate is perpetually needefull Diligence in hearing and ending ca●ses would preuent that greeuance of delayes which occasioned Iethro his discourse How doe you thinke it would haue affected him to haue seen six or seuen I haue heard sixteene sums set vpon one suit These our English delayes being as Marnixius complayned worse then the Spanish strapadoes And it is fit though publique and generall courts haue their termes yet 〈◊〉 particular audience of petty gree●ances should haue no vacation Many are the suits and controuersies many are the criminall offences that neede continuall inspection Let him therefore that hath an office attend to his office with cheerefulnesse hee that hath no leisure to heare his neighbours causes Let him as the woman said to Philip haue no leisure to beare office Cursed is he that doth the worke of the Lord negligently withholdeth his hands there from You Gentle-men complaine often of Idoll shepheards dumb dogs c. in the Ministery But how many such in ●he Magistracy Som in commission that neuer sit on the Bench but for fashion Constables that are but cyphers in their place Forsooth they will be no pragmatical fellowes no busiebodies to trouble the Countrey Is there no mean between busi-bodies and tell-clockes between factotum and fay't neant From this neglect comes that wrong and iniury to the Assises that such petty causes tribling actions and complaints trouble these graue and reuerend personages which a meane Yeo man were Iudge fit enough to end in a chaire at home when the whole Shire must be troubled to heare and iudge of a curtesie made out of the path or a blow giuen vpon the shoulder vpon occasion of a wager or such like bawble-trespasses which I shame to mention And to punish euery petty larceny euery small ryo● or disorder which lighter controuersies and faults if perticular Office●s wold comprimize redresse in their Spheares these greater Orbs should not be troubled with them Then indeed would that follow which Iethro assures Moses of in the last part of my Text ver 23 If thou do this thing God so commanding thee then shalt thou thy people endure al this people shal go quietly to their place An admirable emolument of Magistracy sufficient reward of all the paines of it that they and the people may goe home in peace sit vnder their vines and fig-trees follow their callings and that which is the cheefe Iewell of all may lead their liues in al godlines and honesty That the gold blew purple silke might shine and glister within the Tabernacle the out side was couered with red skins and goats haire such a shelter is Magistracy to Gods Church and Religion Nebuchadnezzar was a great tree euery particular Magistrate a little one vnder whose boughs people build sing bring vp their young ones in religious nurture euen foster fathers ●s Ioseph in Aegypt Such were the rich religious ●imes vnder Dauid Salomon vnder such as are described Esa. 32. which whole chapter is worth the reading as a iust Commētary vpon this poynt setting foorth the felicity quietnesse plenty vertue and piety of iust gouernours as are hiding places from the winde and refuges from the tempest riuers of waters to dry places and as raine to the new mowen grasse c. Such also were the times enioyed by the Church vnder Constantine deciphered as I take it Reu●la 8. when there was silence in the heauen about halfe an houre the golden vialls filled with sweet odors the prayers of the Saints ascending as a pillar of smoke vp to heauen Of these times see Panegyricall Sermōs and Encomiasticall discourses storied of old and one of them at large recorded by Eusebius which whole booke is nothing but an Elogium of those peaceable dayes wherin the Church was edified multiplied The Common-wealth being to the Church as the Elme to the Vine or as the garden to the Bees the flourishing of the one the thriuing of the other and the disturbance of the one the disquiet of the other How can men either attend Gods seruice or their owne worke when they are molested at home with drunkards barretors quarrelous persons when hurried vp to London with suits As I haue knowne a Constable molested with fiue or six actions for an act o●●●stice in punishing vice according to his office With what bitternesse of spirit do men groāe vnder delayed and peruerted Iustice when it is turned into Hemlocke and turnes them out of their wits some of them swouning at the sight of their orders as I haue heard from credible eye-witnesses others ready to destroy themselues their aduersaries yea sometime their Iudges Oh the benefit of good Magistrats It is an vnknowne good as the Country-man in an ancient