of faith in a pure conscience To conclude this point Happy is hee who when God speaketh to his conscience by the ministery of the word whether it be for peace or for warre receiveth it with an honest and good heart and is ready to say as once David did to Abigail when she met him Blessed 1 Sam. 25. 32. be the Lord God of Israel which hath sent thee this day to meet mee and blessed be thine advice so they Blessed be the Lord who hath sent thee this day to speak home to my conscience and blessed be thine instructions which make mee to look back to him from whom I was like a prodigall estrayed Thus much concerning Gods manifesting himselfe to the conscience by the ministery of the word Secondly God manifesteth himself to man by the checks of conscience after sin committed and thus both to the godly and to the wicked First to the godly What was it that made Adam hide himself from the presence of God but the Gen. 3. 8. check of his conscience for the guilt of his sin in eating the forbidden fruit The check of conscience is called the smiting of the heart so we reade that when David had cut off the skirt of Sauls garment 1 Sam. 24. 5. his heart smote him that is his conscience checkt him The like smiting David had after his 2 Sam. 24. 10. numbring of the people And to this end doth God reprove man by the check of his own conscience even to awaken him from sin lest hee sleep the sleep unto death The Prophet complains that there was no rest in his bones by reason of his sins untill Psal 32. 3. his heart was purged from sin hee could feel no rest within his soule for conscience is a part of the understanding determining all actions either with or against it either accuseth man for good omitted or evill committed or else excuseth him in assurance that his person is accepted as righteous before God Secondly to the wicked For there is none so notoriously wicked in committing any villany but hee hath sometimes a sting wounding his conscience and telling him of a supreme and just revenger sometimes his heart smites him and humbles him though but for a time and though not for effectuall conversion yet some gripings there are such as Cain Ahab Belshazzar and Herod had these I say lasted but for a time for the Preacher observeth that because sentence against an evill work Eccles 8. 11. is not executed speedily therefore the hearts of the sons of men is fully set in them to doe evill Yet in all both in good and bad Conscience will doe her duty for shee is like the poise of a clock which being wound up sets all the wheeles a going even so Conscience being wound up by the hand of Gods justice sets all the members on work makes the tongue confesse the eyes weep the heart throb the knees smite one against another the fist strikes upon the brest no part but acts its part And now Beloved judge when the conscience of a man findes that shee hath to deale with an angry God Job 13. 26. one that writes as Job complaines bitter things against Psal 139. 7. her and that shee knowes not where to betake her selfe for to flee from his presence shee cannot how shee is perplexed especially if she cannot feele God reconciled unto her and herself unto God No marvell that David mourned through the disquietnesse of his heart saying to God Thou Psal 30. 7. hiddest thy face and I was troubled To a deep sense Matth. 26. 75. of misery was Peter brought after hee had denyed his Lord and forswore his Christ till his Master looking back upon him brought to his remembrance his by-past sin then went he out and wept bitterly And to such a sense of restlesnesse was Judas Matt. 27. 3 4 5. brought after hee had betrayed his Master though hee found not the like comfort as the others did On some the horrour of conscience works repentance unto salvation whereas it drives others to the gulfe of despaire Certes it was not without divine providence that the very heathen termed the terrours of a wicked conscience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the searcher out and punisher of sin sometimes called Furiae the furies of hell or worm of conscience sometimes also called Intemperiae the tortures of the minde and sometimes per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eumenides the daughter of Acheron and Nox that is Hell and Darknesse hereby Qâ—â—d minimè sinâ— benignae insinuating the wofull bitternesse and extreme horrour wherewith the wicked are perplexed And if the heathen stiled them by such horrid termes how should we dread to harbour in us such snakes And our Saviour tels us of an unquenchable fire so also of a never-dying worm such a worm there is of conscience and it is so called because as a worme lyeth eating and gnawing that wood in which shee abideth so the worm of conscience lying within us gripeth and tormenteth us by bringing to our memories all the causes of present and future calamities as our wilfull negligences whereby wee lost our first enjoyed felicities at every of which considerations she giveth us a deadly griping as also all our occasions offered to escape those miseries in which wee are now plunged adde to these all those opportunities for redeeming that glory which we have now hazzarded as also how ungraciously wee have quenched the good motions of Gods holy Spirit by which wee might have been reclaimed adde further how vain those worldly trifles are which we have too eagerly followed and lastly how wee our selves are become worldly fooles and others spiritually wise whereas we dream'd otherwise From whence wee may observe that A secure sinner is an enemy unto himselfe for if there be no fulnesse of joy but in the presence of God then certes in a wofull condition are they who wallowing in their sins against the curb of conscience deprive themselves of this happinesse Thus you see that an accusing conscience manifesteth a Deity and that the law of God is written Rom. 2. 15. in the hearts of men You see also that both good and bad have sometimes these checks of conscience which like that voice mentioned by the Prophet Isaiah calleth to them saying This is the way Isa 3. 21. walk in it when they turn to the right hand or when they turn to the left pointing out another way then what they formerly trod awry in to which voice of conscience if men will listen and obey then shall it goe well with them for they shall not onely know that there is a God but they shall in some measure see him and be acquainted with him but if they shall harden their hearts and labour to quench the good spirit of God which at that time 1 Thess 5. 19. Revel 3. 20. knocks at the door of their hearts and seeks admission for
of God but those books which are received for and commonly called Canonicall contained in the Old and New Testaments commended unto us from the Prophets and Apostles times even untill now through the power providence and mercy of God which also are not of any private 2 Pet. 1. 20 21. interpretation For prophecie came not in old time by the will of man but holy men spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost and therefore are not to be wrested to please the strange humours and opinions or to make for the private ends of either Papists Hereticks or Schismaticks much lesse to be corrupted in the text by any but construed according to the true sense and meaning of the holy Ghost Perverters there were of the word of God in the Apostles dayes the Apostle Peter speaks of some who wrested the writings of his beloved brother 2 Pet. 3. 16. Paul and other Scriptures also unto their own destruction I could wish there were not some such in these our dayes but because there are some such I shall advertise you in the words of the same Apostle Beware seeing that yee know these things before lest Vers 17. ye also be led away with the errour of the wicked and fall from your own stedfastnesse Quest But some may say How then shall I know that Scripture which is commended unto us to be the very true word of God Answ The holy Scripture takes not its authority from the penmen who wrote the same for they for the most part were unlearned men as shepherds plow-men fisher-men and the like But the authority of the Scriptures ariseth First From the majesty of him who inspired the writers to pen things so sublime in such a familiar stile and simplicity of words and yet such is the majestie of the stile that it is unutterable being more powerfull in matter then in words which none could doe save only that God who is cloathed with Majesty Secondly The matter it selfe being of that efficacy that it divideth assunder the soule and the spirit Heb. 4. 12. and is a discerner of the thoughts and intentions as it strikes terrour into the hearts of the greatest adversaries that despight it so it works an aversion from evill and a conversion to good in them that love it yea the comfort that some have taken in it hath made them abandon all sublunary things and yeeld their lives as a prey into the hands of mercilesse men rather then disclaime it so that what by convincing and converting what by affrighting and delighting all have been forced to acknowledge it to be not the invention of mortall man but the true word of immortall God Thirdly The events of the prophecies as of the promised seed the calling of the Gentiles the deliverance of the Israelites from the Egyptian thraldome c. How doth Isaiah prophesie of Christ to come as if hee then were already in the flesh Unto us a childe is born c and the same Isa 9. 6. Prophet fore-telleth the freedome of the Jewes from captivity by Cyrus naming him whereas Isa 45. 1. Cyrus was born about 100. yeers after so another Prophet that cried against the altar at Bethel 1 King 13. 2. named Josiah and what hee should doe upon that altar whereas Josiah was born above 300 yeers after In the New Testament S. Paul telleth us of seducing spirits of doctrines of divels forbidding to 1 Tim. 4. 1 2. marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanks-giving and this is fulfilled in that Antichristian Romish Church so Peter fore-telleth of scoffers walking 2 Pet. 3. 3. after their owne lusts and have not wee some who scoffe at Religion and hate the work of Reformation I wish we had not Thus the events of the Prophecies prove the truth of the word to be the word of Truth Fourthly The admirable consent of the pen-men all pointing at the same Messiah though living in severall ages Adde to this the consent of the Spirit mentioned by Paul and saith Peter in 1 Cor. 2. 12 13. the behalf of himself and the rest of the Apostles Wee have a more sure word of prophecie 2 Pet. 1. 19. Fifthly The wisdome of God in the penning of his Law No law of man could ever be so exactly devised but some offender might finde a shift to evade the penaltie of that law mans law therefore requires to be reviewed and amended but this law of God remaines as at first it was made and no delinquent can finde the least way to escape the judgement threatned and this also proves it to be the very word of the invisible God And if any desire to be satisfied yet farther concerning the Scriptures whether they are the very word of God let him doe this compare Scripture by Scripture and place by place let the letter and the sense goe together then let him yeeld himselfe obedient to the Spirit of truth and that Spirit of truth shall witnesse unto him the truth of the Spirit and let as many as be perfect be thus Phil. 3. 15. minded and if in any thing yee be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you But if any one will not be content to suck the wholesome milk from the breasts of the Scriptures let him continue still like the swine to feed upon the husks that he so much doth relish But as for you my brethren of whom I hope Hebr. 6. 9. better things and such as accompany salvation Receive I humbly beseech you with meeknesse sobrietie James 1. 21. and thankfulnesse this pure word of God which is the truth of God proceeding from the fountaine of Truth it selfe which is onely able to make you wise unto salvation and which will open the eyes of your understanding cleerly to see God and as for others no marvell if they never attaine unto the true and perfect knowledge of God who either know not the Scriptures at all or else knowing them search them not diligently nor reade them with a single eye Christ reproved the Sadduces concerning the resurrection You erre saith hee not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God He reproved also the Jews for their ignorance of knowing him when he proved by the testimony of his Father of John of his works and John 5. 17 32 36. of the Scriptures who hee was and therefore hee counselleth them to search the Scriptures for they Vers 39. testified of him Scrutamini Scripturas It was the honour of the Bereans in that they received the word Acts 17. 11. with all readinesse of minde and searched the Scriptures daily whether the things spoken by Paul were so or not and as it was their honour so it will be your blessednesse to be studious in the Scriptures which so evidently reveal God to you For meditation in the word of God is that key that openeth the door to
laborious oxen or not yea then it shall appear whether their seed be pure wheat which may yeeld a plentifull crop fit to be stored up in Gods granary or tares fit only to be cast into the fire Nor is it Right Worshipfull that I have adventured out of any conceit of worth in my selfe to expose this ensuing Discourse to the view of the world in this censorious age but partly to satisfie the requests of some who were auditors of the chiefe points thereof delivered in a Sermon in the Abbey in Westminster and partly to expresse a gratefull heart to this Honourable Committee whom my selfe with many others are bound to honour for your vigilancy and care Solomon tels us that hee that hath friends must shew himself Prov. 18. 24. friendly for there is a friend that sticketh closer then a brother And which way can I expresse my respects and service I owe you any other wayes then by imparting unto your Worships some of my weak labours Greater gifts you need not higher prized I cannot I may say with the Apostles Peter and John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I humbly crave pardon Act. 3. 6. for my presumption in fleeing to the arms of this Honourable Court for patronage of this small Tract whom I know to be religiously devoted to religious exercises and to accept of this mite thrown into Gods treasury God gave liberty where ability was wanting to offer under the Law in stead of a lamb a paire of turtle doves or two young pigeons It may through Gods blessing enrich as well those who shall read it as I hope it hath those who have heard it It is not clothed with the rich embroiderings of humane eloquence and wisdome of words I rather choose the Scripture phrase as best suting to the capacitie and conscience of my countrey Auditory amongst whom I have enlarged it and of such as may read it Vouchsafe it I humbly intreat your protection and you shall sufficiently reward him whose prayers to God for you shall be that you may be filled with a large measure of grace in this life and rewarded with a full measure of glory in the life to come this he cordially wisheth who is devoted to be Your Wor ps to be commanded in all Christian service CH. ANTHONY West-Hoadligh in Com. Sussex GODS PRESENCE MANS COMFORT CANT 2. 9. Behold hee standeth behind our wall hee looketh forth at the window shewing himselfe at the lattesse MOst worthily is this Book called Cantica Canticorum not because it was penned by the wisest of men that ever was born of a woman by a natural generation but because in it is set down in a most patheticall and mutuall colloquie the unspeakable love betwixt Christ and his Church under the similitude of a Beloved and his Spouse In the verse foregoing the Text as also in the former part of this verse the Church compares her Beloved for his care love and diligence in hasting to bring comforts unto her to a Roe or yong Hart Behold saith shee hee cometh leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hils In the words of the Text shee rejoiceth in that shee enjoyeth his presence thereby pergustans suavitatem amoris Lyra. future ae beatitudinis having got a relish of his love and a taste of her own future happinesse though not so fully and perfectly as shee would or as shee desired nor as hereafter shee shall yet in that she hath as it were a glimpse of his person whom she longed to enjoy shee exulteth in the words of the Text Behold he standeth behind our wall c. In which words without wresting flow these five particulars 1. God cannot be seen by the eye of mortall man because of the wall of his flesh 2 Yet God is pleased to exhibite himselfe to man four wayes 1. By voice 2. By the book of the creatures 3. By the book of the Scriptures 4. By the book of conscience 3. In these it is but hieroglyphically enigrnatically obscurely darkly 4. Yet so that the soule of a true Christian by the eye of unblemished faith may be sure that shee seeth him in them 5. That being thus assured that shee doth see him shee may rejoice and desire a greater union and communion with him I shall not need to insist long to prove whether there be a God or no I hope there is none so Atheisticall as to deny it at least-wise with their tongue although I feare there are some as bad in Ephes 2. 12. their heart such as are without God in the world Now of Atheists there are three sorts First Atheists Psal 14. 1. 53. 1. in thought The fool hath said in his heart there is no God that is as else-where the Kingly Psal 10. 11. Prophet explaineth it Hee hath said in his heart God hath forgotten God will not require it Secondly Ver. 13. Atheists in words who speak of God as of no God How doth God knew Is there knowledge in the Psal 73. 11. Job 21. 14 15. most High Thus the seventy ancients of the house of Israel did horrible things every man in the chambers of his imagery and said The Lord seeth us not Ezek. 8. 12. Thirdly Atheists in conversation these are they that so live as if there were no God They professe Tit. 1. 16. that they know God but in their works deny him Certes did these truely know that there is a God and that hee seeth all their abominations and will at the last day call them to a strict account and severely punish them it would make them tremble even in this life but they are altogether corrupt Supra abominable and to every good work reprobate To omit School-distinctions Utrum Deum esse Aquin. 1. qu. 2. art 2. sit demonstrabile these arguments following shall sufficiently prove 1. That excellent order of nature seen both in that Microcosme or little world Man as also in that Megacosme the greater world or whole Universe in the disposition of parts and succession of motions and actions which could not be nor subsist were there not an Omnipotency to rule and order it which Omnipotency must needs be Psal 8. 19. 104. 135. 136. 147. 148. God as appeareth by the places quoted in the margent 2. That excellencie of humane understanding Man alone being above all other creatures rationall Reason Knowledge Wisdome c. being that image of God in man and in this sense Saint Paul hath it when he saith We are his off-spring Acts 17. 28. 3. The nature of man acknowledgeth a Deity for no Nation under heaven is so barbarous but worshippeth a supreme power either * 2 Kin. 17. 16. creatures or else the workmanship of their own hands 4. The sting or worm of Conscience even in the most reprobate either in the very act of sin or at least after sin committed proves a Deity and that
their salvation then are they guilty of their own damnation Wouldest thou O man then know whether thou art a childe of God or not know then that there is a conscience First Good yet not quiet and this is in the godly when they are restlesse in themselves for sins as yet unrepented of Thus was it with that kingly Prophet David after his committing of murther and adultery how doth hee in perplexitie of his soul being awakened by the Prophet Nathan cry out that God would according to the multitude Psal 51. 1. of his tender mercies blot out his transgressions c. So also when God had laid his hand heavie upon him how doth hee mourn There is no soundnesse Psal 38. 3 4. in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there any peace in my bones by reason of my sin For mine iniquities are gone over mine head as an heavie burden they are too heavie for mee The sicknesse of his body put him in minde of the sin of his soule that which hee did endure did put him in minde of what hee did deserve which galled his conscience with the remembrance of his particular slips and failings both by omission and commission Secondly There is a conscience quiet yet not good and this is in the wicked as namely when after sin committed their hearts remain still obdurate cauterized senselesse they sleep so soundly in sin that they never feele the sting of conscience wounding them they are so delighted in sin that they never regard when they sin nor how they sin nor against whom they sin nor before whom they sin The shew of their countenance doth Isa 3. 9. testifie against them they declare their sin as Sodom they hide it not therefore wo to their souls for they have rewarded evill unto themselves S. Paul excellently decyphereth them They have their understanding Eph. 4. 18 19. darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindnesse of their heart Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousnesse to work all uncleannesse with greedinesse Thirdly There is a conscience both good and quiet and this is proper onely to the elect namely when God speaks peace to their soules by assuring them of the free pardon of all their sinnes and the Spirit of God testifies to their spirits that they are the sonnes of God and shall be made partakers of life everlasting in the heavenly Canaan Fourthly There is a conscience neither good nor quiet and this accompanieth onely the reprobate namely when through sense of sin horrour of conscience and Gods wrathfull yet just indignation such a dreadfull trembling seizeth on them that they know not where to betake themselves From this perplexity no incorrigible sinner can exempt himselfe neither Kings nor great Rev. 6. 15. ad finem men nor rich men nor mighty men nor bond nor free men According to these observations examine thou thy selfe and thou shalt easily finde whether thou belongest to God or not And if thy conscience hath wounded thee so that thou canst without any flattery assure thy selfe that thou hast throughly repented thee of all those sins which like Zecharia's talent of lead on the mouth of the ephah Zech. 5. 7 8. pressed thee even to the pit of hell and that thou findest God to be a reconciled God to thee in the face of his Son then is thy condition happy and the brightnesse of Gods countenance hath shined upon thee otherwise if thou wert never sensible of thy sins nor hast yeelded to the checks of conscience then is it an evident signe that if ever thou didst confesse thy sins yet it was but a meer orall confession hypocritically performed and so thy condition is most miserable And now Beloved conceive within your selves what an horrour it is to have an accusing and tormenting conscience alwayes pursuing a sinner nay not onely pursuing him but alwayes harbouring in his brest like an Erynnis quae indagatrix est gravissimorum flagitiorum which is the Inquisitor and hunter out of the grossest crimes to be his bosome companion and yet alwayes pleading guiltie so that the sinner shall not know where to repose himselfe for feare the very shaking of a leafe shall make him to tremble and be at his wits end Such a comrade had that fratricide Cain after hee had spilt his brothers bloud when he said Behold thou hast driven mee out this day from the face Gen. 4. 14. of the earth and from thy face shall I be hid and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth and it shall come to passe that every one that findeth mee shall slay mee The sting of death is sin saith Saint Paul yea and the sting of conscience is sin also which so overwhelms some with an horrible dread that they flee when none pursueth It is the nature of sin to Pro. 28. 1. pursue the sinner and a wounded conscience who can Prov. 18. 4. beare Moses told the Israelites that they should be sure that if they sinned against the Lord their sin would finde them out and Evill pursueth the sinner Numb 32. 23 Pro. 13. 21. saith Solomon Now although God speaketh thus to the conscience of the wicked yea although the sting of conscience doth as it were make their ears to tingle 1 Sam. 3. 11. 2 King 21. 12. as the Lord speaks although it awakens them by sounding an alarm of Gods judgements in their ears yet veternum excutere nolunt they will not be roused from their sottishnesse but with Solomons fool A little more sleep a little more slumber Pro. 6. 10. a little longer basking in sin till at last that grim sergeant Death arrests them and layes them in the prison of the grave there to remain till the great and generall Assizes This evidently appeares in that they labour to quiet and appease the gnawings of this worm of conscience then whose bite nothing smarts more then whose sting nothing galls more and then whose torment nothing frets more and yet they fain would hush and still it that it may not affright and appall them But conscience will not be corrupted but as shee keeps a true register of all sins so shee gives in a true evidence against all sinnes Doe the wicked what they can God hath said that their worm shall never die and that no peace shall Mark 9. 44. Isa 57. 20. be to the wicked but they shall be like the raging sea whose waters cast up mire and dirt Adde to these inward torments of the conscience those outward plagues by which God shall Psal 2. 5. vexe them in his sore displeasure and by which at last they shall be enforced to confesse him just whom willingly they would not acknowledge to be at all Wherefore Beloved labour to gain a quiet yet a tender conscience which as it is a continuall feast so it is a