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
experience well known that for want of knowledge in Gods Booke and of faith in the Gospell offering forgiuenesse of sinnes onely by Christs blood many sottish soules liue in ignorance and darknesse and in the very shadow of death not able to discerne by reason of their blind nature and naturall blindnesse the things which concerne their peace but thinking all religions will saue or a good meaning serue the turne or a Lord haue mercy at last cast be sufficient Alas many a Fly doe these swallow many a sinne vnseene vnsorrowed for doe they digest and in many things do they erre as Christ told the Sadduces Mark 12. because they know not the Scriptures Mark 12. 24. and the power of God The ignorance whereof as Chrysostome noteth is the mother of Chrysost in 3. Coloss all mischiefe and therfore he earnestly exhorteth all secular persons to get them Bibles the physicke of their soules to labour to bee more Iob 22. 21. acquainted with God in his Word that they may grow vp therby in grace and in the knowledge 2. Pet. 3. 13. of our Sauiour Christ without which sauing knowledge and faith grounded thereon which the Hebrewes by an excellency call Shekel Mekodesh sanctifying wisedome the conscience 2. Faith cannot be vpright It is sufficient vnto sin to doe against conscience as Saint Paul in Rom. Rom. 14. Augustine 14. sheweth whereunto that of Saint Augustine agreeth Quicquid sit contra conscientiam aedificat ad Gehennam But it is not sufficient to duty and obedience to doe according to conscience except it bee inlightened and rectified by the Word without which information and illumination conscience often resolues where it should restraine acquits where it should condemn and so erreth and offendeth diuers waies First by an erronious acceptation and entertainment of the lawes fashions and traditions of men for the precepts of God which is the errour of superstition incident to ignorant arrogant Papists who make the Popes Dictates their practicall principles and seeing if they see at al thorow the false spectacles of their purblind guides shew their obedience in those things to wit in the adoration of Images inuocation of Saints meritorious obseruation of dayes and meates and celebration of Pilgrimages and Masses c. for which they can shew no commandement All whose Religion in these and the like poynts of Purgatory of prayer for the dead of satisfactory seruices and sacrifices of their owne inuention may easily be swept away with the Prophets besome Esa Esa 1. 12. 1. Who required these things at your hands Secondly by a vaine assumption of false principles and a misprision of good for euill of euill for good and this is the errour of prophannesse frequent amongst our common people who inlarge their consciences to the vttermost bounds of any pleasure or profit and vnder pretence of not being booke-learned will not suffer their consciences to prooue good Lawyers in Gods Booke but liue in darke corners vnder blind Sir Iohns and so take quid pro quo Chalke for Cheese riches for righteousnesse policy for piety who accounting gaine godlinesse and maintaining bad opinions to iustifie base affections doe hereupon in the errour of their iudgement practise commonly swearing prophaning of the Sabbath Vsury Lying Lottery Legerdemaine without any regret of conscience at all Thirdly by false application of good principles as when from those approued grounds and true propositions Religious adoration is not to be giuen to creatures and likewise Christians haue liberty in things indifferent these vnwarrantable conclusions are deduced Therefore we may not kneele in the Act of receiuing the Communion Therefore we are not bound to obey the Magistrate in things indifferent Which errour of conscience I may call the errour of too much singularity and precisenesse arguing their indiscretion who in their ouerweening curiosity will bee ouer-pleasing God with better deuices then his owne and take vpon them to teach the Spirit to speake according to the consonants of the Alphabet so long till their wit turne to madnes and end in mischiefe as appeareth by the course and condition of Separatists Anabaptists and Arminians at this day For the auoyding of all which errours of superstition prophanenesse and precisenesse let vs heare and obey our Sauiours counsell Search Ioh. 5. 39. the Scriptures Ioh. 5. for they beare witnesse of me the Way the Truth the Life they giue best testimony both of Gods will concerning his own seruice and of his good will in Christ to all his faithfull seruants Let this Word of God dwell plentifully in vs as Saint Paul prescribeth Col. 3. 16. Col. 3. and that not in some but in all wisedome that we may thinke speake and doe wisely in all things And for the better sharpening of our dimmed sight in matters diuine let vs not refuse the eye-salue of our better inlightened guides but gladly accept thereof that so by all these and other good meanes our consciences being rightly informed we may expresse the goodnesse of them by doing or not doing confidently what God hath commanded or prohibited And to this end that our hearts Col. 2. 2 16. may bee comforted and established in euery good saying and doing wee are to lay fast hold on that euerlasting consolation and good hope through grace which the Father hath giuen vs Colos 2. 2 16. and by all spirituall aliments to preserue and cherish that sauing faith in vs whereby we are perswaded that our sinnes are pardoned and God in Christ reconciled to vs. This indeed is the root of a good conscience as hath been already shewed and this Beleeue in Christs blood is the gracious powerfull Word whereby all consciences are now stilled as the Luk. 19. Act. 16. consciences of Mary Magdalen Zacheus Lydia and that Iaylor were suddenly and soundly thereby quieted Now for the cherishing and confirming of this faith the daily exercises of repentance and obedience are requisite and therefore to make vp the vprightnesse of a good conscience wee are in the second place to speake of these ingredients as most necessary thereunto to wit of repentance and obedience Of repentance in mind altering the thoughts from the approbation of sinne of repentance in heart sorrowing for the committing of sinne of repentance in mouth reprouing and controlling sin of repentance in the whole man remoouing whatsoeuer is knowne to be amisse and bringing forth fruits of amendment of life c. This is a worke impossible to nature without grace and so slow in the working of grace through the contradiction of our nature that howsoeuer many professe it yet few practise it but being rightly practised it will make such a diuision betwixt our persons and our sinnes that by the repairing of the Image of God more and more in vs we shall haue comfortable furtherance in the way to saluation This therefore must not be wanting to him or scanting in him that desireth a good conscience For where
of all other things is most precious and yeelds sweetest and durablest contentment and that you may so haue it that you may also hold it fast and be confirmed in the same put in daily practice these few rules First in respect of God labour and indeuour by all holy exercises of Rules for the preseruing of a good conscience Prayer of hearing the Word of God by conference and Meditation to find the fruition of his sweet presence renewed in you Secondly in respect of your selues and your actions you must resolue by a secret vow passed betwixt God and the soule to refraine from all occasions of dipleasing his Maiesty to performe Canonicall obedience in all required duties and to doe nothing doubtfully with intricate suspension of mind And lastly in respect of your estate it behooueth you wholly to roll your selues and relie on the prouidence of the Highest and to consider whatsoeuer comes vnto you that it commeth from a Diuine hand whose Almighty power is guided by a most wise prouidence and tempered with a fatherly loue and so to be perswaded the estate wherein you are to be best of all for you because he willeth it who foresees and effects what is best for his These as a threefold cord diuinely twisted are sufficiently able to strengthen in vs and to confirme vnto vs the hold-fast of a good quiet conscience To the which generall rules these particular helpes are subordinate which the conscionable Christian may and must vse for his surer footing and better furtherance in the way to heauen First his holy care must bee so to heare the 1. Helpe Word as with a settled purpose to yeeld obedience from the heart to the forme of doctrine Rom. 6. 17. whereunto he is deliuered not talking as many doe in a dreame of the Kingdome of God and righteousnesse thereof or walking as others doe with respect to their profit or preferment in some good duties as Herod did but with an heart inlarged by grace running in all the wayes of Gods Commandements blessing Psalm 119. God for the day-light of the Gospell and the opportunity offered thereby of casting off the workes of darknesse and putting on the armour of light imbracing at all times the sound of the Word not onely when it commeth in a still and soft voyce gently admonishing vs to auoyd the quagmires of voluptuousnesse the thorny copse of couetousnesse and the stickle path of Prou. 3. 17. pride and to walke precisely in the pleasant and prosperous wayes of wisedome but also when as a Trumpet it soundeth the Alarm of iudgement against secure and impenitent sinners that so he may be kept in awe and say with the Prophet O Lord I heard thy voyce and was afraid Hab. 3. 2. Psal 119. 120. my flesh trembleth for feare of thy iudgments Secondly with the faithfull Esa 26. he is so to wait for the Lord in the way of his iudgements Vers 8 9. with his soule desiring him in the night and with his spirit seeking him in the morning that thereby he may not onely be terrified but as the Prophet there speaketh learne righteousnesse and behold the high hand of God as well in protecting the vertuous and compassing them about with a wall of brasse for their defence Ezek. 5. as in punishing the vicious which in the Land of vprightnesse doe wickedly for their destruction Thirdly that his profession and practice may be no way mimicall and grounded only on occasion and confined by limitation but sincere and intire without dodging and reseruation he must bind himselfe with Dauids vow and make Psal 119. 106. a couenant betwixt God and his soule that hee will performe his righteous iudgements and be as the Clocke in the house where hee liueth in the company where he conuerseth awaking others to doe their duties and to this end must daily edifie himselfe in his most holy faith Iude vers 20. praying in the holy Ghost that God who in his conuersion rowzed him out of the sleepe of sinne would by the neuer-ceasing influence of that grace which first awaked him keepe alwayes his heart awake and not suffer him to sleepe as others doe and let slip opportunity of grace but preserue him watchfull and sober 1. Thes 5. 6. that so continuing the spirituall motion of prayer thankesgiuing meditation and examination of his heart and life he may be preserued in his spirit and not transgresse Mal. 2. and Mal. 2. 16. more and more strengthen in himselfe the good things which else would bee ready to dye Reu. 3. 2. Reuel 3. Fourthly he must with all diligence auoyd that repletion of worldly desires and carnall delights which our Sauiour shewes to bee an especiall enemy to Christian watchfulnesse and with the wise Steward Luk. 16. must be content Luk. 21. 34. to sit downe and write fifty for an hundred Luk. 16. that is to abridge himselfe of many profits and pleasures yea by seasonable abstinence he is to bring his flesh into subiection and by perpetuall sobriety to fence the City of his soule that by any rout or riot of voluptuousnesse the walls thereof be not broken downe Fifthly he is with the Israelites Numb 9. to keepe the watch of the Lord and as they fixed Numb 9. 23. their eyes on the pillar of a cloud by day and of fire by night that according thereto they might rest or remooue so the conscionable Christian is to marke and obserue diligently Gods workes and dealings with others and himselfe and when hee calles to feasting or mourning is to haue his eyes opened and his senses awaked to entertaine the Lords mercies or iudgements with ioy or sorrow as hee hath appoynted Contrary to the disposition of Amos 6. 8. those retchlesse rebellious persons by the Prophets Ier 5. 3. condemned Amos 6. Ier. 5. Esa 22. Lastly that hee may constantly stand on the guard of faith and a good conscience hee is seriously to meditate on and daily to expect Christs comming to Iudgement that whether Luk. 12. 35. he come at euening or morning or midnight he may be ready with his Lampe burning and loynes girded to entertaine him and finally for the full and finall preseruation of his conscience from ruine hee is in humble prayer to Psal 127. commend the keeping thereof to the neuer-sleeping Keeper of Israel that hee making his Watch-tower therein it may bee preserued through faith vnto eternall life Beleeue mee then Fathers and Brethren the procuring and preseruing of this true Diamond which flings beames of comfort vpon the soule of this true Rubie which carryes in her face the colour of vertue of this soueraigne cordiall of a good and quiet conscience requireth an excellent exercised man well skild in the pure and pious trade of Christianity c. Vse 1 Wherefore whilest the Wizards of this world like to that couetous Cardinall which preferred his portion in Paris before
the hauing and holding of an vpright conscience within you Doe all things as in Gods presence cherish true sauing-faith by often hearing and reading of the Word and the frequent practice of Prayer and true repentance inure your selues by religious exercises to a kind of familiarity with God that the assurance of his loue in Christ and the comforts thereof be not interrupted walke carefully in your particular callings to the glory of God and the common good auoyding as serpents couetousnesse and ambition which make men set their consciences on tenters and stretch like cheuerill and because at the great and generall Assises sentence shall passe and Iudgement be awarded according to the things written in the Booke of euery mans conscience take we heed Reu. 20. 13. that these Bookes of account bee kept vnblurred vnpolluted pure and cleane from presumptuous sinnes which are the cut-throate of the soule and offensiue in Gods sight In a word let this be your wish aboue all wishes and herein make sure worke come of the rest what will that by the effusion of Christs Blood for you and infusion of his Spirit into you you may inioy this pleasant and peaceable portion of a good conscience which is more highly to bee esteemed of and held at a dearer rate then the Merchants precious Pearle for which as it is Mat. 13. 46. in the Parable he sold all that he had in comparison whereof the things that are in the worlds eye most aduantageable vnto vs are to be accounted losse and iudged as dung that we Phil. 3. 7. may win it Let others say Who wil shew vs any good Yet Lord lift thou vp the light of thy Psal 4. countenance vpon vs. Let others content themselues with a portion in this life whose bellies Psal 17. 14 15. thou fillest with thy hid treasure but let vs O Lord behold thy face in righteousnesse and in the glasse of a good conscience heere on earth so when we awake in the day of Resurrection we shall be satisfied with thine Image rauished with seeing and secured for retaining thy glorious presence in heauen All earthly ioyes and treasures without this of a good conscience are but as so many ponderous waights to giue poize to the soule to sinke it to hell But with this all outward helpes for present maintenance are as so many Promooters and Proctors for the future inheritance giuing vs not onely wings of a Doue or an Eagle but of an Angel to ascend into heauen With this heauenly treasure then of an vpright conscience whosoeuer amongst vs O that there were many such is really possessed to speake plainely in the phrase of the holy Ghost he is without controuersie richly yea royally blessed * Sola conscientia virtutum praestat gaudium verum perpetuum Caeterae hilaritates frontem remittunt cor non implent Sen. in Ep. 23. Hee need not enuy the rich Corne-hoorders barnes inlarged and goods increasing or the Gluttons purple rayment and delicious feeding or the greatnesse of the greatest Potentate arrayed in robes of State powdered with Pearle and boasting with Nebuchadnezzar of his power and stately building No Hee need not enuy the magnificent pompe and vsurped Oecumenicall power of that triple-crowned ruffling Priest of Rome that Meridianus Daemon as Bernard calls Antichrist who to giue life to the image of the Beast seekes as Reu. 13. 15. much as in him lieth to make the Lord of life exhaeredem vineae exhaeredem vitae riding on mens shoulders treading on Emperours necks and swimming in his Orcipotent Sea with the bladders of intolerable pride and insolency No no Vix vnius assis Nec pretio pluris mundana haec omnia ducit For carryed in the triumphant Chariot of a cleare conscience and aduanced farre aboue these painted Pageants of things sublunary and perishing with Gods leaue and loue he inioyeth a selfe-sufficient happinesse in health and sickenesse in life and death and after death euer-induring Vse O happy then and thrice happy we if as S. 1. Cor. 1. 12. Pauls was so our reioycing and glory bee in the testimony of a good conscience if in truth wee can doe as in all his tryalls he did hold foorth this testimony as a shield of defence and flag of defiance against all scandalous imputations and Acts 23. 24. 25. aspersions if we can truely say as he said Wee are assured that we haue a good conscience desiring in all things to liue honestly Heb. 13. 18. or duely indeuour as hee in my Text indeuoured to haue a good conscience alwayes towards God Text. 3. part and men Which words importing the latitude or extent of a good conscience in respect of time and the obiects thereof come now very fitly to bee handled wherein I will labour to preuent your wearinesse First of the time and duration of the Apostles indeuour and exercise to haue a good conscience namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alwayes being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Alwayes Scholiast hath it being in all things euery manner of way so farre as humane frailty did not let inoffensiue and vnblameable indeuouring at all times through the whole tenor of his life Non pro vsura exigui temporis aut pro primis Caluin tantum diebus sed omnibus diebus vitae post conuersionem as Caluin renders it to bee vprightly conscionable conscionably vpright Doct. 8 So that this word Alwayes imports constancie and equality without remissenesse or partiality In the life of man and course of his calling there are many turnings references occurrences opportunities importunities and diuers respects in all which at euery turne to bee the same man requires the strength of a good conscience A child or weakeling may take two or three steps well and walke somewhat euenly but to turne hither and thither vp and downe with actiuenesse and dexterity and to maintaine the thorow pace or race with settled constancie and alacrity argues the metall and making of a very strong man Such an one was our Apostle in the race of Christianity after his conuersion as appeareth by his Triumphant Epinichion 2. Tim. 4. I haue fought a good fight 2. Tim. 4. 7. kept the faith finished my course c. and by his confident protestation Acts 23. 1. I haue Acts 23. 1. serued God with a good conscience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thorowout vnto this day Alwayes without stumbling without offence as it is in my Text c. Which is not so precisely to bee vnderstood Reas double as if he had beene alwayes indowed with an equall good disposition to godly duties and had neuer slipt or slept through humane infirmity For as the Spouse of Christ confesseth Cant. 5. ◠of her selfe I sleepe but my heart waketh and so condemneth her drowzinesse in the flesh notwithstanding her watchfulnesse in the Spirit So S. Paul Rom. 7. complaineth on himselfe Rom. 7. 19. that
in regard of the combate which is betwixt the flesh and the Spirit in the most Regenerate he did sometimes the euill hee would not and did not at other times the good hee would and so was vnwillingly defectiue through natures frailty and weaknesse but yee not wittingly offensiue through sins malignity and peruersenes For the power of a good consciēce preserued him so vpright that as a square Cube or homo quadratus he was the same which way soeuer he were turned to God or man to company or himselfe alone vpon all occasions and occurrences he held his owne and desired alwayes in all things to walke honestly Heb. 13. 18. Vse It is farre otherwise God knowes and experience shewes in too many now adayes which haue weake crazy consciences and as distempered braines their turbida lucida interualla their good and euill dayes who like Mercury amongst the Planets are of a variable constitution fast and loose strict in some things loose in other godly in one company and prophane in another vp and downe off and on in and out almost at euery turne who can indifferently brooke all companies and conuerse with all manner of persons If they be ruffians blasphemers drunkards they can play the good fellowes with them If they be good men which feare God they will discourse of poynts of Religion and adioyne themselues to their society as if there were good agreement betwixt light and darknesse righteousnesse and vnrighteousnesse God in the one and Belial in the other To speake to the present occasion In the cause and case of Titius their kinsman or rich friend and neighbour they can be precise and peremptorily forward by all meanes to promote it But in as good a suite and iust a cause of Sempronius a stranger or meane-stated-man they will bee retchlesse and remisse not caring how hee bee wronged in it I would to God the consciences of more then a good many of our Magistrates were not such but commonly such they are who though they professe and pretend that in places of Iudicature they will heare the suites of poore and rich with equall patience and attention examine and censure all controuersies indifferently without preiudice partiality and needlesse protraction yet when it comes to proofe they prooue farre otherwise and like in truth to a fishing rod which standeth straight when a Menow or Gogin or smal fish is taken but boweth and bendeth and the line sometimes breaketh too when a Peale or great fish is to be drawne vp So when the Law hath canuased and caught a poore man being persecuted by the rich then iust Iudgment proceedeth speedily but when the rich and mighty ones are haply taken in their ouer-takings and lawlesse dealings and brought within compasse of the Lawes censure then O cruell pity there is much yeelding bending bowing and sometimes breaking too to free them from the penalty and vigour of the Law c. Neither is this the fault only of some chiefe Magistrates and ministers of iudgement but the vsuall preuarication of many mercenary Lawyers Iurors witnesses and such like instruments of Iustice whose weake consciences at the command of gaine or greatnesse as at the view of Medusaes stupifying head either stretch as Chiuerell in the raine or shriuell vp as parchment against the fire and so giue way if not warrant to the works of iniustice whereby innocency is wronged good lawes are deluded godly men dis-heartened and God himselfe dishonoured And here I could open a mystery of iniquity and shew quibus apicibus appendicibus iuris innocens torquetur à causidico dum causa torquet nocentem that is with what quirkes and trickes the innocent party is by the Lawyer wrung and put to the worst notwithstanding the goodnes of his cause and the Law it selfe hath driuen his aduersary to the wall Yea I could iustly inueigh against the dreadfull licence of inferences amongst our English pleaders in cases criminall whereby it often comes to passe that vpon very nice poynts innocents haue bin condemned as Edward Earle of Warwick was in Henry the seuenths dayes and the Duke of Somerset in Henry the sixths c. Yea I could here exhibit a bill of wofull complaint in the name of many poore impotent innocent men and women First against those aduocates which with their Clyents great cost and their owne small conscience maintaine contentions because contentions maintaine them and by English delayes worse then Spanish Strapados Marnix protract their suits in Law till they bee non-suted of life Secondly against those Iurates and witnesses which without heed-taking to their hearts that they conceiue no malice to their hands that they receiue no bribes to their eares that they heare no false accusation to their eyes that they see no wrong to their feet that they be not swift to shead blood as if all these outward senses of the body and the inward powers of the soule too were wholly corrupted doe without care or conscience feare of God or reuerence of man giue either Prou. 19. 28. vniust verdict in the cause or false euidence against the persons of their brethren and neighbours euen as by their passions they are ouerswayed 1. Kin. 21. or ouerwaighed by the purse or by their friends intreated or by their fellowes in Exod. 23. 2. euill perswaded These are sores which had need to be lanced that in time they might bee cured But because your Honours haue proceeded in some degrees of roundnesse against these inormities as you meet with them in your Circuit resounding onely in your eares what the Smith did in the Lantsgraues when he thought him too mild Durescite durescite for immedicabile vulnus-Ense recidendum est ne pars syncera trahatur I here refraine from further agitation of them or exclamation against them in particular not ceasing yet to admonish in generall all such as finde themselues guilty of so corrupt dealings and cursed doings that they blot out of the booke of conscience their sinnes by repentance and by vnfained sorrow of humbled contrite hearts deprecate the iudgements due vnto them for the same and for the time to come beware of doing more harme to a man for a little pelfe then euer they can doe him good againe with all their policy or power Beware of cutting asunder the sinewes of the Common-wealth and of poysoning the pure breath it drawes by peruerting Iustice and abuse of the Lawes Take heede by the bloody end of Ahab and his seed that yee seeke 1. King 21. 20. not vnder colour of Law to rob your neighbour of his field and life For though Naboth thy neighbour be dead and cannot be reuenged of thee yet thy conscience the Lords Ambassadour will meet thee as Elias did Ahab and tell thee Thou hast sold thy selfe to worke wickednesse abominable and bring thee tidings of vengeance vnauoydable Be warned by the tragicall issue of Iudas his treason that either to Math. 27. 5. please