TWO TREATISES: THE ONE Of Good CONSCICNCE; Showing the Nature, Means, Marks, Benefits, and Necessity thereof.  
THE OTHER The mischief and misery of Scandals, both taken and given.  
Both Published. BY IER: DYKE, Minister of God's Word at Epping in Essex.  
The Sixth Edition corrected.  
LONDON, Printed by A. M. for Robert Milbourne. 1635.   

GOOD CONSCIENCE, OR, A TREATISE SHOWING THE Nature, Means, Marks, Benefit, and Necessity thereof.  
BY IER: DYKE, Minister of God's Word at Epping in Essex.  
The Sixth Edition corrected.  LUKE 10. 42. One thing is necessary. 
LONDON, Printed by A. M. for Robert Milbourne. 1635.   

TO THE RIGHT Worshipful, Sir FRANCIS BARRINGTON, Knight and Baronet, a Patron and pattern of Piety and good Conscience.  
RIGHT WORSHIPFUL,  
THat which the Apostle Paul speaks of a man's desire of the office of a Bishop, may be truly spoken of every one who desires to gain men to the love of a good Conscience, that he desires a worthy Work: Yea, it is the work which is, and aught to be made the scope and drift of the worthy work of the Ministry. And therefore it is, that he, that desires the calling of the Ministry, desires a worthy work, because of this worthy work of bringing mento 
Vnicuique liber est propria conscientia, & ad hunc librum discutiendun & emendandum omnes alij inventi sunt, Bern. de Cons.  good Conscience, A work at which all works and books should specially aim: Conscience is a book, one of those books that shall be opened at the last day, and to which men shall be put, and by which they shall be judged. Therefore to the directing, informing, and amending of this book should all other books specially tend. Yea Solomon seems to call men off from all other books, and studies, to the study of this so necessary a point, the keeping of a good Conscience: Of making many books, (saith he) there is 
Eccles. 12. 12, 13.  no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh; Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter, Fear God and keep his Commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. As if his advice tended to this, to neglect all studies in comparison of that study which aims at the getting & keeping of a good Conscience. It would be exceeding happy with us, if this study were more in request amongst us. We seem to live in those days foretell by the Prophet, wherein the earth should be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. We 
Isa. 11. 9  are blessed that live in so clear a Sunshine of God's truth, but yet the grief is, that through our own default, our Sunshine is but like the winter light, all light, little or no heat, and we make no other use of our light, but only to see by, not to walk and work by. In the first re-entrance of the Gospel amongst us, how devout, holy, zealous, and men renowned 
Antiqua sapientia nihil aliud quam facienda & vitanda praecepit, & tunc longe meliores erant viri. Postquam docti prodierunt, boni desunt. Simplex enim illa & aperta virtus in obscuram & solertem scientiam versa est, docerumque disputare non vivero, Seneo. epist. 56. Rom. 15. 14  for Conscience were our Martyrs, and our first Planters, Preachers, & professors of Religion? They had not generally the knowledge and learning, the world now hath, nor the world now the Conscience they then had. There be now better Scholars, there were then better Men: they were as excellent for Devotion, as our Times are for Disputation. It is an excellent sight to see such Christians as were the Romans; Full of goodness, filled with all Knowledge. It is pity that ever so lovely a pair should be sundered. Yet if they be parted, it is best being without that which with most safety may be spared. A good Conscience is sure to do well, though it want the accomplishment of Learning, and greater measures of Knowledge and Understanding. But take Learning from a good Conscience, and it is but a Ring of gold in a Swine's snout; or that which is worse, A thorn in a Drunkard's hand. Learning 
Prov. 26. 9  is to be highly apprized; Riches, Honours, and all other earthly blessings are vile to it. But yet though it take place of all other things, yet must it give good Conscience the wall and upperhand, as that which is fare before it in worth, use, and necessity. As Solomon of wisdom, so may it be said of good Conscience, She 
Prov. 3. 15.  is more precious than Rubies, and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her. Gold and Rubies cannot so enrich a man as good Conscience doth, and yet alas the blindness of men, how willing are they in this case, with a wilful poverty? Not Rubies, but handfuls of Barley, morsels of Bread, and Crusts are preferred before the invaluable treasure of a good Conscience.  
After the many worthy endeavours therefore of so many as have been before me in this work of labouring men to a good conscience: I have adventured also to lend my weak strength to the same work. If one or two witnesses prevail not, yet who knows what an whole cloud may do? Though Eliah and Elisha be the Horsemen and Chariots of Israel, yet the Footmen do their service in the battle, and Apollo may without offence water, where Paul hath planted.  
Now these my poor endeavours such as they are, I am bold to publish under your Worshipful name, and to put them forth under your Patronage, entreating you to countenance that in a Treatise, which you have so long countenanced in the practice. None so fit to be a Patron of a Treatise of good Conscience, as he that hath been a religious both professor, & protector of the practice thereof. To have a Nail fastened in a sure place, the antiquity 
Isa. 22. 25.  of a long standing Name, and Family, to be hewn out of the Quarry of the best Stocks of Parentage, to have fair Lines, and a fair lot in outward possessions, to be blessed with a fruitful Vine, and Olive plants, fairly grown and planted round about a man, all these are to be held high honours, and great favours from the God of heaven. And with all these hath the Lord honoured yourself. But yet your greatest honour that hath given lustre to all the rest, hath been your love to the Truth, Religion, and a good Conscience. Augustine repent him that he attributed more to Mallius Theodorus, to 
Displicetauten illic quod Mallio Theodoro, adquem librumipsum scripsi, quamvis docto & Christiano viro plus tribui quam deberem. Aug. Retr. lib. 1. cap. 2.  whom he wrote a book, than he should have done, though otherwise he were a learned and Christian man. A man may easily overshoot himself in the commendation of a good man, especially, if a great man. It shall suffice therefore to have said so little, and that to this end, that hereby, the World may know the reason of my choice of your Patronage of this Treatise. It would have been an incongruity to have had the name of a person of an evil Conscience, prefixed before a book of good Conscience. I desired a Patron suitable to my subject. I presume the very subject shall make the Treatise welcome to you: Be you pleased to afford your acceptance, as I will afford you my poor prayers, that the Lord who hath already set upon your head the crown of the Elders, 
Prov. 17. 6.  children's Children, and one Crown of glory here one earth, Age found in the 
Prov. 16. 1.  ways of righteousness, would also in his due time give you that incorruptible crown of righteousness, and eternal glory in the heavens, which that righteous Judge shall give to you, and to all those that in the ways of a good Conscience wait for the blessed appearance of the Lord jesus.  
Your Worships in all Christian observance: IER: DYKE.   

The Contents of this TREATISE.  
The Text contains thee Main Heads.  
The first main head. Paul's Protestation of a good Conscience, where five things are considered.  

1. What Conscience is.  
2. What a good Conscience is. It is good with a twofold goodness. 

1. With the goodness of Integrity, and this integrity is threefold. 

1. When being rightly principled by the Word, it sincerely judges and determines of good & evil.  
2. When it doth excuse for good, and accuse for evil.  
3. When it urges to good, & restrains from evil.    
2. With the goodness of Tranquillity, and Peace. Here are three sorts of Conscience discovered not to be good, viz. 

1. The Ignorant 

Conscience.    
2. The Secure  
3. The Seared      
3. The means of getting & keeping a good Conscience. 

1. To get and keep the Conscience good, peaceably, or with the goodness of peace, three things required, 

1. Faith in Christ's blood.  
2. Repentance from dead works.  
3. The conscionable exercise of Prayer.    
2. To get and keep the Conscience good with the goodness of integrity, and to have it uprightly good, five things required, viz. 

1. Walking before God.  
2. Framing once Course by the Rule of the Word.  
3. Frequent examination of the Conscience.  
4. Harkening to the voice of Conscience.  
5. In cases of questionable nature, to take the surest and the safest side.      
4, The marks and notes of a good Conscience: and they be seven. 

1. To make Conscience of all sins and duties.  
2. To make Conscience of small sins, & duties.  
3. To effect a Ministry that speaks to the Conscience.  
4. To do duties, and avoid sin for Conscience sake.  
5. Holy boldness.  
6. To suffer for Conscience.  
7. Constancy, and Perseverance in Good.    
5. The Motives to a good Conscience, and they are five. 

1. The incomparable comfort and benefit of it in all such times and cases as all other comforts fail a man, and wherein a man stands most in need of comfort. The Cases or times are five. 

1. The Time, and case of Disgrace and Reproach.  
2. The Time of common fear, & common calamity  
3. The Time of sickness, or other Crosses.  
4. The Time of Death.  
5. The Time and day of judgement.    
2. That a good Conscience is, 

1. A feast for 

1. Contentment and satisfaction.  
2. joy and Mirth.  
3. Society.    
2. Better than a feast for 

1. The Cotinuance.  
2. Independency.  
3. Universality.      
3. Without a good Conscience, all our best duties are nought.  
4. It is the Ship and Ark of Faith.  
5. The misery of an evil one 

1. In this world in respect of 

1. Fear.  
2. Perplexity.  
3. Torment.    
2. in the world to come.       
The second Main Head Ananias his insolent injunction Whereout is observed,  

1 What is the respect a good Conscience finds in the world.  
2. The impetuous injustice of the enemies of good conscience  
3. Who commonly be the bitteest enemies of good conscience  
4. That Usurpers are Smiters.  
5. What is a sad forerunner of a Nations Ruin.   
The third main head. Paul's Answer and Contestation Whereout is observed.  

1. That Christian patience muzzles not a good Conscience from pleading its own Innocence.  
2. The severity of God's judgements upon the Enemies and Smiters of good Conscience.  
3. The equity of God's administration in his execution of justice.    

GOOD CONSCIENCE.  ACTS 23. 
1. And Paul earnestly beholding the Council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good Conscience until this day.  
2. And the high Priest Ananias commanded them that stood by, to smite him on the mouth.  
3. Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee thou whited wall.  

CHAP. I.  
The Introduction of the Discourse following.  
THere is no complaint so general as this, that the world is naught. His experience is short and slender, which will not justify the truth of this complaint. And what think we, may the Cause be of the general wickedness of our Times? Surely nothing makes Ill Times, but Ill men, and nothing makes Ill men, but Ill consciences. Ill Conscience is the source, and fountain 
Hominum sunt istae non Temporum. Sonec. ep. 98.  from whence comes all iniquities, which makes times here so ill. How well should he deserve that could amend ill times? There is a course if it would be taken, that would do the deed, and so cease the common complaint. Elisha's course in healing the waters of jericho must be taken. They said of their waters, as we of our times, The water is naught, and the ground barren 2 King. 2. 19 What course now takes Elisha for healing of the waters? He went out unto the spring of the waters, and cast the Salt in there, ver. 21. So the waters were healed, ver. 22. The spring and fountain of all actions good or evil is the Conscience, and all actions & courses of men are as their Consciences. Out of the heart are the issues of life, Prov. 4. 23. the heart and Conscience is the fountain, every action of a man's life is an Issue, a little rivelet, and a water passage thence. Are these waters then that issue thence Naught? The way to heal them 
Non erit fructus bonus nisi arboris bonae. Mutacor, & mutabitur opus, Aug. de ver. Dom. Serm. 12.  is to cast the Salt into the spring. Mend the Conscience and all is mended. Good Consciences would make Good men, and Good men would make Good Times. Lo here a project for the reformation of evil times.  
Were this Project set on foot, and a good Conscience set up, how should we see profanation of God's holy Name, and Day, Injustice, Bribery, Oppression, Deceit, Adulteries, and Whoredoms, and all other Iniquities, how should we see all these as our Saviour saw Satan, falling down like lightning from heaven? How should we see them come tumbling down like so many Dagons before God's Ark, yea tumbled down, and broken to the stumps? The only Ark that must dash, and ding down these Dagons, is a good Conscience.  
And if we would well weigh the matter, what is there equally desirable with a 
Ecce quid prodest plena bonisarca cum sit inanis Conscientia Bona vis habere, & bonus non vis esse, tum quid est, quod vis habere malum? Nihil omnino, non uxorem, non filium, non ancillan, villam, tunicam; postremo non caligam, & tamen vis habere malam vitam. Rogo te, praepone vitam tuam, calige tuae (sic Conscientiam.) Aug. Ibid.  good Conscience? What is that men would have, but they desire to have it Good? And yet amongst all other things they desire to have Good, what little care to have the Conscience such? Wife, children, servants, houses, lands, air, food, raiment, who would not have these good? And yet that without which none of all these are good, nor will yield us any true good, that alone is neglected; and whilst men would have all other things good, yet their consciences & themselves are naught. Now alas, what good will all other goods do us whilst this one, and this main Good thing is wanting! How excellent is this Good above all other good things. A good wife, good children, good land, etc. these 
Vbi supra. Ipsae ergo divitiae bonae sunt, sed ista omnia bona a bonis & malis haberi possunt. Et cum bona sint bonos tamen facere non possuut. Aug. de verb. Do. Serm. 5.  may a man have, and yet he himself not Good; these find men sometimes Good, but make none so; these goods may a man have, and yet himself be naught. Not so with good Conscience, which no evil man can have, which whosoever hath, it makes him and all he hath Good. So great and so good a Good, why is it so much neglected?  
Try we therefore and let us assay if by any means, Gods good blessing giving assistance, we may be able to stir up men, and to work them to regard so great and excellent a good. It may be at least some few may be persuaded, and may set upon this work of getting a good Conscience. If but some few, if but one be wrought upon, the labour is not in vain. If none, yet our work is with our God, to whom we are a sweet savour in Christ, in them that are saved, & in them that perish, 2 Cor. 2. 15  
This portion of Scripture then which I have chosen for the ground of the following Discourse consists of three parts.  

1. Paul's sober and ingenious Profession, and Protestation, ver. 1.  
2. Ananias his insolent, and impetuous Injunction, ver. 2.  
3. Paul's zealous Answer and Contestation, ver. 3.   
1. The first is Paul's Protestation in these words, Men and brethren I have lived in all good Conscience until this day. With this Protestation of a good Conscience Paul gins his Plea. And however to distinguish ourselves from Papists, we bear the name of Protestants, yet we shall never be sound and good Protestants indeed till we can take up Paul's Protestation, that our care, endeavour, and course is to live in All good Conscience. A Protestant with a lose and a naughty Conscience hath no great cause to glory in his desertion of the Romish Religion. As good a blind Papist, as a halting Protestant. The blind and the halt were equally abominable unto the Lord.  
Paul was here brought forth to answer for himself before the chief Priests and the Council: And his Preface, as I said, to his intended Apology, if he had not been injuriously interrupted, is a Protestation of the goodness of his conscience, and this his good Conscience, or the goodness of his Conscience he sets forth;  
1. From his Conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, I have lived or conversed. A good conversation is a good evidence of a good Conscience indeed, there can be no good conscience, where there is not a Conversing in good. It is not some moods and fits in some good actions & duties, from whence conscience gains the reputation of goodness; but a good conversation, godly and religious in the general tenor thereof, proves the conscience worthy such an honour, as to be holden good. He may be said to have a good conscience that can be said to live in a good conscience. Many a man is frequent in the City, & yet cannot be said to live there. There a man lives where he hath his Converse & Residence. A man's life is not to be measured by some few actions, in which at sometime he may be found, but by his general course and conversation. God will judge every man not according to his steps, but according to his ways. It were overrigid censoriousness to condemn a righteous man, and to question whether his Conscience were good, because some steps of his have been beside the way. We know for the general, his way is good wherein he walks, and therefore according to his good way we judge his Conscience good. Contrarily when we see a man's way for the general to be evil, though sometime he may tread a right step or two, and chance to chop into the fair road for a rod or two, for this to judge a man's Conscience good, were a bottomless and a boundless Charity: Every man's Conscience is as his life is.  
2. From the Generality of his care and obedience, In all good Conscience. It must be All good, or it is no good Conscience at all. There be that live in some good Conscience; yea Herod seems to have much good Conscience, he did many things gladly, but yet Paul goes further, and lives not in some, not in much, but in All good Conscience.  
3. From the Sincerity and Integrity of it before God. Before men how many have their consciences exceeding good, & yet their consciences are fare short of goodness, because they are not good before God, the judge of Conscience. Whilst Conscience is made only of the Capitals of the second Table, or of the externals and ceremonials of the first, which duty is not done out of obedience to God and his Commandments; but a man's self either in his gain, or in his praise is sought, and base ends are the first movers to good duties, here the Conscience, what ever applause it hath from, or before men for it goodness; yet, of God shall not be so esteemed. For that is not a good conscience which is one outwardly, but which is one inwardly, whose praise is not of men but of God. And that hath its praise of God which is before God.  
4. From his continuance and constancy until this day. To begin a good life and course, and to live in all good conscience, & that before God, are excellent things; but yet one thing is wanting to make up this goodness complete. To be so for a day, or some days will not serve, but when a man can say at his last day, I have lived in all good Conscience until this day, that man may be safely judged to have a good Conscience indeed. Thus in these four particulars doth the goodness of Paul's Conscience appear. It is not my purpose to confine myself, and to keep me within those bounds alone: but to take a larger latitude, within the compass whereof I will bring both those forenamed, and all other material points which this Protestation doth afford.   

CHAP. II.  
Conscience described.  
THe main subject of this Protestation, and the aim of this following discourse being concerning a good Conscience, for the more orderly handling thereof, consider these specials.  

1. What Conscience is.  
2. What a good Conscience is.  
3. How a good conscience may be gotten and kept. The means of it.  
4. How a good Conscience may be known. The marks of it.  
5. The Motives to get and keep a good Conscience.   
1. What Conscience is: It may be thus described: Conscience is a power and faculty of the soul taking knowledge, and bearing witness of all a man's thoughts, words and actions, and accordingly excusing or accusing, absolving or condemning, comforting or tormenting the same. I know there be other definitions given by others more succinct, and neat, but I rather choose this, though it may be not altogether so formal to the rules of Art. The rules of love and profit many times may make bold to dispense with rules of Art. So I may be profitable, I care the less to be artificial. It may suffice that this description is answerable to that Auditory for whose sake it was first intended. A plain familiar description agrees well enough with such a people. For the better conceiving of it, let it be taken in pieces, and every parcel viewed severally.  
It is a faculty or power of the soul. It is therefore called the Heart, 1 joh. 3. 20. If our heart condemn us, Eccl. 7. 22. Thine own heart knows that thou thyself likewise hast cursed others, that is, thine own Conscience knows. It is also called the spirit of man, 1 Cor. 2. 11. For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him. And Rom. 8. 16. The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that is, with our Conscience. Not that Conscience is a spirit distinct from the subject of the soul, as Origen mistook, but because it is a faculty of the soul, therefore the name that is oft given to the soul, is given to it. If it be asked in what part of the soul this faculty is placed, we must know that Conscience is not confined to any one part of the soul: It is not in the understanding alone, not in the memory, will, or affections alone, but it hath place in all the parts of the soul, and according to the several parts thereof hath several Offices or acts.  
Taking Knowledge: Eccl. 7. 22. Thine own heart knows. Conscience is placed in the soul, as Gods spy, and man's superior and overseer, and inseparable companion that is with a man at all times, and in all places, so that there is not a thought, word, or work that it knows not, and takes not notice of. So that that which David speaks of God himself, Psa. 139. 3, 4. Thou compassest my heart, and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways, for there is not a word in my tongue, but lo thou knowest it altogether. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? If I ascend up to heaven, etc. The same may be also said of conscience, God's deputy; it is acquainted with all our ways, not a motion in the mind, nor a syllable in the mouth, to which it is not privy: yea it is thus inseparably present with us not only to see, but also to set down, to register, and to put down upon Record all our thoughts, words, and works. Conscience is God's Notary, and there is nothing passes us in our whole life good or ill, which Conscience notes not down with an indelible character, which nothing can raze out but Christ's 
Nam quocumque me verto vitia mea me sequuntur ubicunque vado conscienscia mea me non deserit, se praesens adsistit, & quicquid facio scribit. Idcirco quamquam humana subterfugiam judicia judicium propriae cons. ●ugere non valeo Et si hominibus celo quod egi, mihi tamen (qui novi malum quod gessi) celare nequeo. Bern. de inter. Com. cap. 31.  blood. Conscience doth in this kind, as job wishes in another, job 19 23, 24. Oh that my words were now written, Oh that they were printed in a book, That they were graven with an iron pen, & laid in the rock for ever. Conscience prints, and writes so surely, so indelebly, yea it writes men's sins as judah his sin was, with a pen of iron, with the point of a Diamond, and they are graven upon the Table of their hearts, jer. 17. 1. Conscience doth in our pilgrimage as travellers in their journey, it keeps a Diary, or a journal of every thing that passes in our whole course, it keeps a book in which it hath a man's whole life penned. In regard of this office conscience is placed in the memory, and is the Register and Recorder of the soul.  
And bearing witness. This we find. Rom. 2. 15. Their conscience also bearing witness. Rom. 9 1. My conscience also bearing me witness. 2. Cor. 1. 12. This testimony of our conscience. And this the end of the former office of the conscience. For therefore it is exact and punctual in setting down the particulars of a man's whole life, that it may be a faithful witness either for him, or against him. For a faithful witness cannot lie. Prou. 14. 5. This office it is ready to do, at all times 
Peccata mea celare non possum, quoniam quocumque vado consc. mea mecum est, secum portans quod in ea posui sive bonum, sive malum, servat vivo, restituet defuncto depositum quod servandum accepit. Bern. Med. de vot. cap. 14.  of trial, affliction, and most of all at the last day, the day of judgement, when it shall be more solemnly called in to give in evidence. Rom. 2. 15. 16. Their conscience bearing witness, etc. In the day when God shall judge secrets of men. At that day it shall especially witness either for or against a man, if our life and actions have been good, it will then do like the true witness, Pro. 14 25. A true witness delivers souls. If wicked & ungodly, it will deal with it as job complains God did with him. job 10. 17. Thou renewest thy witness against me. It will testify according to every man's deeds. And this testimony of conscience is without all exception, for in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall stand, and conscience (as our common saying is) is a thousand witnesses: for it is an eyewitness of all our actions, yea a pen-witnes, bringing testimony from the authentic Records and Register of the Court of Conscience. Concerning this testifying office of Conscience that place is worth the noting, Esa. 59 12. For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, & our sins testify against us, for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities we know them. By which place we may know the meaning of the word Conscience. Conscience is a knowledge together. How together? First, a knowledge together with another person, namely with God when God and a man's heart know a thing, there is Conscience, knowledge together Rom. 9 1. My conscience (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) Co-witnessing, witnessing together. How together? God knows it and witnesses, and my conscience together with him knows & witnesses. Secondly a knowledge joined together with another knowledge; for there is a double act of the understanding, First, that whereby we think or know a thing. Secondly, there is a reflecting act of the soul whereby we think what we think, and know what we know, and this is the action of the Conscience; and this joining of this second knowledge to the first, gives it the name of Conscience: As here in this place, As for our iniquities we know them, that is, we know that we have had evil thoughts, and our knowledge tells us, & witnesses to us, that we have done so. This agrees with Bernard's definition, that Conscientia est cordis scientia; Conscience is the knowledge of the heart, namely passively. It is the knowing of what the heart knows: which others in better terms have expressed thus, Conscience is the recoiling of the soul upon itself; Suitable to that of the Apostle 1. Cor. 4. 4. I know nothing by myself. As if he had said, I know not any thing that I know against myself, my Conscience doth not witness against me. And this second office of Conscience in bearing witness is also in the memory.  
And accordingly accusing or excusing, absolving or condemning] These acts of Conscience we find Rom. 2. 15. Their thoughts accusing or excusing one another. Rom. 12. 22. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that he allows. The ground of these acts is this; Conscience, before actions are to be done, determines of their lawfulness, and unlawfulness; judges of them whether they be good or evil. And if it judge them good, it invites, stirs up, urges, and binds to the doing of them. Rom. 13. 5. Ye must be subject for conscience sake; that is, because Conscience determines it to be good, & urges & binds thereunto. Hence that phrase in common speech, my conscience urgeth me to it, or he was urged in conscience to do it, and I am bound inconscience to do it. Certainly if it judge & determine actions to be evil & unlawful, than it binds from them. So much that speech implies, 1 Cor. 10. 27. Eat, ask no question for conscience sake. So that conscience hath a power to bind to, and to bind from.  
Now then when a man in his particular actions doth follow the Prescriptions, Dictates, Injunctions, Prohibitions, and Determinations of Conscience, and hearkens to the incitements thereof, then conscience excuses him, acquits and absolves him. But if in his actions he go against any of these, than Conscience accuses him of offence, & condemns him for that offence. The accusation of conscience hath respect unto a man's guilt, the condemnation of it unto a man's punishment. Accusation is an act of Conscience passing sentence upon a man's action, as when conscience tells him, This was ill done, this action was sinful. Condemnation is an act of conscience, passing sentence not only upon a man's action, but upon a man's person, as when it tells him, Thou deservest God's wrath for this Sin. Conscience in accusing shows what is the quality; in condemning what is the desert of a man's actions. And these actions of conscience are in the mind, and understanding part of the soul. The act of the conscience in the memory determins de facto, and tells us what we have done, or not done. The act of Conscience in the understanding determines de jure, and tells us whether we have done well or ill, and so accordingly either excuses or accuses, acquits or condemns.  
Comforting or tormenting the same] these be the last acts of conscience following the former. If Conscience determining, prescribing, and inciting to good, be harkened unto, than it excuses, acquits, & thereupon follows comfort, joy, hope, 2 Cor. 11. 2. This is our rejoicing, the testimony of our Conscience. Contrarily, if 
Sic in domo propria & ● propria familia habeo accusatores, testes, judices, & tortores, Accusat me conscientia testis est memoria, voluntas carcer, timor, torture oblectamentum tormentum. Bern. Med. de. vot. cap. 13.  the dictates of Conscience be not regarded, it accuses and condemns, and then torments with fear, grief, despair, and violent perturbations, in all which is that worm, Mar. 9 44. And these actions of the conscience are in the will, and in the affections. And thus according to the diverse parts of the soul, the acts and office of conscience are diverse. In the memory it hath the office of a Notary, Register, & Witness. In the understanding it hath the office of a judge, and an accuser, of a Felix and a Tertullus. In the affections either of a Comforter, or Tormenter.  
The sum of all may be thus knit up. Conscience contains three things: 

1. Knowledge practical.  
2. Application of that knowledge to our particular estates, and actions.  
3. Those affections which arise thereupon.    
Now the special work of Conscience consists in the second, in the applying our knowledge to our estates & actions. Now in this application it looks on things past, or present, simply as things, and so it witnesses of them to be done, or not done, Eccl. 7. 22. Or else it looks at the good or evil of things past, present, and to come. 
Super nos etiam posuit ad custodiendum si deliquissent qui accusarent, qui testificarentur, qui judicarent, qui punirent: consc. quip est accusatrix, memoria testis, ratio judex, timor carnifex. Bern. hom de vill. iniq.  If things past, or present, seem good, it excuses; if evil, it accuses, & bites, Rom. 2. 15. If things to be done seem good, it excites, urges, and binds to the doing thereof. If evil, it urges, and binds therefrom. Now according to these several acts there follow in us diverse affections, joy, hope, fear, grief, and the like. The whole process of the work of Conscience falls within the frame a of practical Syllogism, as for example.  
Every one that sins in betraying innocent 
Conscientia Synteresisest qua victi voluptatibus vel furore ipsaque interdum rationis decepti similitudine nos peccare sentinuis. Hieronym. in Eccl. ca 1. Synteresis est promptuarium principiorum seu regularum practicarum ejus officium est regulas legis divinae proffer, & consc. subministrare, ut illarum ope possit censorem agere de propriisactionibus. Alsted. Theol. Cas. cap. 2.  blood, is worthy of God's wrath.  
But I (saith judas) have sinned in betraying innocent blood, therefore I am worthy of God's wrath.  
Here the Major is knowledge practical, the rule & law by which conscience keeps her Court. This is Synteresis.  
The Minor that is Syneideses, the proper work of Conscience applying that knowledge, and general rule for a man's particular estate, or action. Here Conscience witnesses concerning the fact, judges of the quality of it, and accordingly accuses or excuses.  
The Conclusion is the sentence of conscience absolving or condemning, and accordingly cheering or stinging, comforting or tormenting a man.   

CHAP. III.  
A good Conscience what it is: false ones discovered.  
What Conscience is we have seen; The second thing considerable, is what a good Conscience is. The Conscience that is good, must be good with a double goodness.  

1. With the goodness of Integrity.  
2. With the goodness of Tranquillity.   
Uprightness, and Peace; these two are required to the constitution of a good Conscience.  
First, it is good with the goodness of Integrity, when it is an upright conscience. This is that which Paul calls A pure Conscience, 2 Tim. 1. 3. which Phrase a man would almost think in his conscience that the Holy Ghost used on set purpose, to stop the mouth of the iniquity of the latter times, that should seek to disgrace all good Conscience with the sarcasme of purity. Now the conscience is good with the goodness of Integrity and Purity three ways.  
1. When it being informed and rightly principled by the word of God, the only rule and binder of Conscience, it doth truly and sincerely judge and determine evil to be evil, and good to be good. As contrarily, the conscience is sinfully evil, when it doth not determine that to be evil which is evil, nor that to be good which is good, but call evil good, and good evil. Such as are the consciences of Ignorant persons, who wanting the knowledge of God's Word, and having their consciences blinded through ignorance, are not able to judge of good or evil, nor to discern and determine which is which. So that knowledge is necessarily required to the goodness of conscience. Rom. 15. 14. Ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge. The conscience cannot be good where the soul is naught, and that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good, Prov. 9 2.  
2. When it doth excuse for that which is good, and accuse for that which is evil, being sanctified by the spirit of grace: for the accusation of conscience, though it follow upon sin, yet it is not sinful and evil in itself, but only painful and troublesome, and so opposed to the goodness of peace, not to the goodness of uprightness, according to that trite distinction of Bernard of a good Conscience, and not quiet, & a quiet conscience, & not good. It is the property of a conscience uprightly good to accuse upon any sin committed. As contrarily the conscience is sinfully evil, when it doth not excuse for good, nor accuse for evil. The superstitious person, omitting his fopperies, should be excused by his Conscience, whereas he rather receives blame from his Conscience, therefore his Conscience is sinfully evil. The secure persons conscience is naught, because he having committed sin, his Conscience is silent, and lets him alone, and brings in no accusation against him, therefore it is sinfully evil. It is a witness that hath seen, and known evil, and doth not utter it, therefore it shall bear its iniquity, Levit. 5. 1.  
3. When it doth incite and urge us to do good, and doth stay and hinder from evil. It is uprightly good when it spurs to good, and bridles from evil, Heb. 13. 18. For we are assured that we have a good Conscience: viz. A conscience that is neither silent to persuade to that which is good, or dissuade from that which is evil. If a man go about or be ready to yield to any thing that is sinful, how will it muster up legions of Arguments? how will it wrestle and struggle with a man? It will say as Abner to joab, 2 Sam. 2. 26. know'st thou not that it will be bitterness in the later end? or as Abigail to David, 1 Sam. 25. 31. It shall be no grief, nor offence of heart unto thee another time, not to have done this evil. If a man be negligent, or careless and drowsy in good duties, it comes to him with that voice, Ephes. 5. 14. Awake thou that sleepest; or with that, Isa. 30. 21. This is the way, walk in it. When it doth thus, it is uprightly good. Contrarily, it is sinfully evil, when it doth not incite us to that which is good, nor hinder us from doing evil. This is a dead, and a seared conscience, 1 Tim. 4. 2. Having their consciences seared with an hot iron.  
2. It is good with the goodness of Tranquillity. And that is when the conscience is at peace, and doth not accuse us, because it hath not wherewith to accuse us, either because not guilty of such or such a particular fact, 1 Cor. 4. 4. I know nothing by myself; or else because it is assured of pardon in the blood of Christ, by which we come to have no more Conscience of Sins, Heb. 10. 2. That is, no more Conscience to accuse or condemn for Sin, it being done away in the blood of Christ: and this is the purged Conscience, Heb. 9 14. which brings Hope, joy, Comfort, and confidence with it, 2 Cor. 1. 12. This is our rejoicing, the testimony of our Conscience. Then is the Conscience good, when it is peaceable. As contrarily, than it is evil, painfully evil, when it is turbulent, and troublesome in the accusations thereof, and binds over to judgement, and so leaves us in shame, fear, perplexity, and grief, 1 joh. 3. 20. If our heart condemn us. This is a wounded, a troubled conscience. This is oft the evil conscience of evil men, Isa. 57 21. There is no peace to the wicked, saith my God. Yet may a man have his Conscience uprightly good, which is painfully evil; for a good man's Conscience may be unquiet and troubled. Thus than we see what a good conscience is, that which is uprightly honest, and quietly peaceable. This being so, it serves to discover the dangerous error of diverse sorts of people, that are in a dream of having good consciences, and yet having nothing less. There be three sorts of consciences, which because they are in some sort quiet, and sting not, their owners would have to go for good ones, and yet are stark naught, and they are, the Ignorant, the Secure, and the Seared Conscience.  
1. The Ignorant Conscience, Men judge of their ignorant consciences, as they do of their blind, dumb, and ignorant Ministers: Such neither do nor can Preach, can neither tell men of their sins, nor of their duties. Ask such a blind guides people, what their conceit is of him, & what a kind of man their Minister is, & ye shall have him magnified for a passing honest harmless man, and a man wondrous quiet amongst his neighbours. They may do what they will for him, he is none of those troublesome fellows that will be reproving their faults, or complaining of their disorders in the Pulpit; oh, such a one is a quiet good man indeed. Thus judge many of their Consciences. If their Consciences be quiet, and lie not grating upon them, and telling them that their courses are sinful, & damnable, and that their persons are in a dangerous condition; but rather by their silence, ignorance, and vain pretences do justify them, and tell them all will be well enough. Oh than what excellent good Consciences have these men! They make no Conscience of Family duties, once in the year to come to the Sacrament serves the turn; they are common swearers in their ordinary communication, make no conscience of sanctifying Sabbaths, etc. and their consciences let them alone in all these, do not give them one syllable of ill language, oh what gentle, & good natured Consciences think these men they have? But alas, what evil consciences have they? A good Conscience must be upright as well as peaceable. And an upright Conscience is enlightened with the knowledge of the Word, and by that light judges what is good, & what evil, & when it finds men's actions not to be good and warrantable, deals plainly, and lets them hear of it. A good Conscience hath good eyes, and is able to discern between good and evil. Now these men's Consciences are quiet, and have their mouths shut, but whence is it? Because their eyes are shut, and they are dumb, because they are blind. Right Idol Consciences, they want mouths to speak, because they want eyes to see. So that it may be said of such Consciences as the Prophet speaks of those Watchmen, Isa. 56. 10. His watchmen are blind, they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark. Their blindness bred dumbness, and their ignorance silence. Thus it is with ignorant Conscience. What is the reason they bark not, but are dumb, and are thus quiet? Merely because they are blind and ignorant.  
But yet as good as men account these consciences now, the time will come that it shall far with them as it did with Adam and Eve after they had eaten the forbidden fruit, Then their eyes were opened. So the time will come when these Consciences shall have their eyes opened, and then also shall their mouths be opened, yea wide, and loud opened, and these now quiet consciences shall both bark and bite too. Do not therefore flatter thyself in thine ignorance, as if thy condition and Conscience were good, because quiet. Never account that true Peace which is not joined with uprightness. Integrity and ignorance can no more stand together than light and darkness. Integrity of Conscience may be without Peace. Peace can never be without Integrity. Dumb Ministers go in the world for good Ministers, because quiet ones, but the day will come that men shall curse them for having been so quiet. So ignorant and tongue-tied consciences go for good ones, but the time will come that men will curse this peace of their Conscience, for bringing them so quietly to hell. The Mass goes for an excellent good Service, because Missa non mordet, honest toothless devotion, it never fastens fang in the hearers flesh. So many have Masse-like Consciences, toothless, and tongueless Consciences, but yet the time will come, that as Massmongers shall curse their toothless Mass, so ignorant persons that now glory in their peace, shall curse their toothless Conscience, yea they shall gnash their teeth, because Conscience had no teeth, and shall gnaw their tongues for anguish of heart, because their consciences wanted tongues to tell them of the danger of their wicked ways, that have brought them to so miserable a condition.  
2. The Secure Conscience. As the blind Conscience was like the dumb Minister, so the secure Conscience is like the flattering Minister, that (jer. 6. 13.) heals the hurt of his people with sweet words, and cries, peace, peace, where there is no peace. This Conscience wants not an eye, but only a good tongue in the head. It sees its master to do evil, and knows it to be evil, but either cares not to speak, or else is easily put off from speaking; sometime it cares not to speak, being sleepy, heavy, and drowsy, like those Prophets, Isa. 56. 10. They are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark. What is the Reason? Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. A sleepy, and heavy-eyed Cur, though he see one come into his master's yard, or house, that should not, yet barks not, as loath by his barking to disquiet himself. A sleepy secure conscience sees many a Sin to enter the soul that should not, and yet lies still and says nothing, is loath to break his sleep. And yet such Consciences men count good.  
Sometimes it may be it offers to speak, as a sleepy dog may open once, or twice at a stranger's entrance, yet is soon snibbed, the least word of the master of the house makes him whist, and quiet. So secure Consciences upon the green wound begin to smart, and upon the fresh commission of Sin begin to mutter, and to have some grudge, but their master answers them as the friend in his bed did his neighbour desiring to borrow three loaus, Luk. 11. 17. Trouble me not, for I am in bed. I pray thee be quiet, let us have no wrangling and brawling, it shall be so no more, I will cry God mercy, I will hereafter find a time for repentance, etc. and so Conscience being secure is easily put off with a few good words, and so closing her eyes and mouth again, gives her master liberty to take his rest. And thus the secure Conscience, because it is so easily hushed, and stilled, is counted a good Conscience, as Nurses counted them good children which though they are ready to cry at every turn, yet are easily quieted with some toy.  
But this Conscience is as far from a good Conscience, as Security is from Integrity. Sin indeed sleeps, but yet it sleeps but dog's sleep, yea though it sleep sound, yet it cannot sleep long. Gen. 4. 7. Sin lies at the door. Sin lies asleep in the Conscience as a Mastiff lies at the door. A place where a dog cannot sleep long. The door is the common passage into and out of the house, every one is passing to and fro that way, and keep such a clattering with the opening and shutting of the door, that there can be no sound, or at least, no long sleep. No better is the sleep of secure Consciences, which at length like mad band-dogs and fell mastiffs, will fly in the face of the sinner, ready to pluck out the very throat and heart of him.  
The secure conscience can be no good Conscience, because it hath neither uprightness nor peace, both which were before required to the temper of a good one, Uprightness hath it none, for it is not faithful in its office, it doth not witness, it doth not accuse, as it becomes an honest upright conscience to do. Peace it hath none. There is a great difference between a peace, and a truce: in peace there is a total deposition, both of Arms and Enmity, all hostile affections are put off: In a truce, there is but a suspension, and a cessation of Arms for a season, so as during the same there is still provision of more Force, and a preparation of greater strength. A truce is but a breathing time to fit for fiercer impressions. The truce being ended, the assaults are rather fiercer than they were before. The secure Consciences are quiet, not because there is peace, for there is no peace to the wicked, 
Quomodo tranquilla? cum mundi hujus prosperitas alludit, & illudit, cum laudatur peccator in desiderijs animae suae. Born. de Conse.  saith my God, Isa. 57 21. But because there is some truce, the world smiles upon them and they have outward hearts ease, and this brings them asleep, but if any affliction, cross, or sickness come, than they see how far they are from peace. Conscience is sometime at truce with secure sinners, but during this truce, Conscience is preparing Arms, and Ammunition against them, is levying of fresh forces against them, and as soon as the truce is ended, be it sooner or be it later, have at them with more violence, fury, & fierceness than ever before. And the truce once ended, it will easily appear what a wide breadth of difference there is between a secure and a good Conscience.  
3. A Seared Conscience. That which Paul speaks of, 1 Tim. 4. 2. A cauterised Conscience. That is, as Beza translates and expounds it. A Conscience cut off, as it were with a Chirugions Instrument. An arm, or a leg cut off from the body, stab it, gash it, chop it into gobbets, do what you will with it, it is insensible, it feels it not. Or else as our translation hath it, Having their Consciences seared with an hot iron. A comparison borrowed from chirurgery. When a limb is cut off, Chirugions use to sear that part of the Body from whence the other is taken, with an hot iron, and sometimes they do cures by searing the affected parts with hot irons. Now these parts upon their searing have a kind of crusty brawniness, which is utterly insensible, which though it be cut, or pricked, it neither bleeds, nor feels. Thus is it with many men's Consciences, commit they whatsoever sins they will, yet their hearts are so hardened through long custom in sin, that they feel no gripings, pinches, or bitings at all, but are grown to that dead, and dedolent disposition, Ephes. 4. 19 Who being past feeling, etc. It is with such men's consciences, as with labouring men's hands, which through much labour have a brawny hardness growing upon them which is without any feeling. One may thrust pins into it, pair it with a knife, and yet without any trouble or grief at all. Such callous Consciences have many, that though they be wounded, and gashed with never such foul sins, yet their consciences shrink not, feel not awhit. Their Consciences are like Galleyslaves backs, so bebrawned over with often lashing, that an ordinary lash will not make them so much as once shuck in their shoulders. You have many that can swear, not only your more civil oaths, of faith and troth, but those ruffianly and bloody oaths, of blood and wounds, and it never wounds their hearts awhit. You have many that can commit foul sins with less touch than others can hear of them. You shall have black Smiths that are used to the frequent and daily handling of hot iron, hold an hot firecoale in their hands, and laugh, whilst another would roar out. There be those that can be drunk day after day, that consecrate whole Sabbaths to Venus & Bacchus, and give themselves up to foul villainies, & yet not one twitch at the heart, not a snib, not a cross word from their Consciences. Estrich-like they can concoct iron and put it off as easily as another weak stomach can do jelly. They have brought their hearts to that pass the drunkard's body is in, Pro. 25. 35. They have stricken me, and I was not sick; they have eaten me, and I felt it not. Their seared Consciences have no more feeling than our sotted Drunkards have in their drunkenness, who though they have many a knock, and sore bruise, yet feel it not. To this fearful condition, and senseless and seared stupidity of Conscience many grow, and when they have thus crusted and brawned the same, than they have their Consciences at a good pass, because they hear them not brawling within them. Alas how fare are such from goodness of Conscience? In some sense, those have worse Consciences than the Devil himself, who believes and trembles, whose Conscience yet is not so seared, but it trembles at the thoughts of his deserved damnation.  
And howsoever these seared Consciences are quiet, yet there will come a day that this seared crustinesse shall be scaled off, and those Consciences which were not sensible of sin, shall be most sensible of pain: though they were past feeling in the committing of sin, yet they shall be all feeling in suffering punishment for sin. God will pair off that brawniness from their Consciences, and will pair them so to the quick, that they shall feel, and most sensibly feel, that which here they would not feel. Tremble therefore at the having of such a Conscience, in which there is neither uprightness, nor peace, neither integrity, nor tranquillity; but a senseless and fearful stupidity. Thus we have seen what a good Conscience is.   

CHAP. IU.  
Peace of Conscience how gotten.  
IT follows now to know how a man may get and keep a good one, which is the third point which was propounded to be handled. A point well worth our enquiring after. A good Conscience is the most precious thing that a Christian can have: a thing of that esteem that where it is wanting, we account a man without a Conscience. So of a man that hath an ill Conscience we use to say, he is a man of no conscience. Not that he hath no Conscience, the Devils themselves have a conscience, and happy it were for them they had none; but when a man hath not a good one, we esteem of him as having none at all. There is no greater good we can seek after than a good conscience. Let us inquire then how we may get, and keep this so great a good.  
A good Conscience then consisting in Peace and Integrity, these two being gotten and kept, we shall get and keep a good Conscience.  
First then to make the Conscience peaceably good, these things are required.  
1. Faith in Christ, and his blood. The conscience cannot be at peace till it be purged from its guilt. An impure conscience cannot but be an unquiet conscience, and every guilty Conscience is impure. Gild is the same to the Conscience that the winds are to the seas, Isa. 27. 20. 21. The wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt, there is no peace to the wicked. Now that which makes the sea so troublesome and ragingly restless, is the violence of the blustering winds that trouble & toss it to and fro. The winds are not so troublesome to the sea, as guilt is to the Conscience. Therefore as the way to calm the Sea, is to calm the winds; so the way to quiet and calm the Conscience, is to purge and take away the guilt. Gild is in the Conscience as jonas in the Ship, out with him, and Sea and Ship are both quiet. But how then shall the guilt be purged out of the Conscience? That we find, Heb. 9 14. How much more shall the blood of Christ purge our Consciences from dead works? We cannot have a good conscience till we be freed from an evil one. The way to be freed from an evil Conscience, is to have our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience, Heb. 10. 22. But what is that wherewith the conscience must be sprinkled to be made good with peace and quietness? the same which we find, 1 Pet. 1. 2. The sprinkling of the blood of jesus Christ, & Heb. 12. 24. The blood of sprinkling which speaks better things than that of Abel.  
So then the Conscience sprinkled with Christ's blood ceases to be evil, becomes good and peaceable. The same Christ that calmed the rage of the Sea by stilling the winds, Mar. 4. 39 He arose and rebuked the wind, and said unto the Sea, peace, and be still, and the wind ceased, and there was a great calm; the same Christ it is that stills the rage of the conscience, by taking and purging away the guilt thereof, with the sprinkling on of his blood. His blood speaks, Heb. 12. 24. And speaks not only to God, but speaks to the conscience. The voice which it speaks, is Peace and be still, the same voice which to his Disciples after his resurrection, Peace be with you; and then follows a great calm, and peace makes the Conscience good.  
But hear the Conscience will inquire how it may come to get this blood sprinkled upon it, to make it thus peaceably good, and what is it that applies this calming blood of Christ? I answer therefore, That it is the grace of faith, therefore it was said before, that faith in Christ's blood makes peace in the Conscience. Faith is the hand of the soul, and as the hyssop sprinkle, by which Christ's blood is sprinkled upon our Consciences, Heb. 10. 22. Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience. And being justified by faith we have peace towards God. Rom. 5. 1. Hence that conjunction of faith and a good Conscience, 1 Tim. 1. 5. of a good Conscience, and of faith unfeigned, and ver. 19 Holding faith and a good Conscience. For faith it is that makes a good conscience, by making a quiet conscience. Faith is not only a purifying grace, Act. 15. 9 but it is also a pacifying grace, Rom. 5. 1. It not only purges our corruption, by applying the efficacy of Christ's blood, but specially purges our guilt by applying the merit of his blood. So that no faith, no peace; and no peace, no good Conscience. A defiled Conscience can be no good Conscience, and what defiles the Conscience? See Tit. 1. 15. Unto them that are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but even their mind and Conscience is defiled. They that be defiled have their consciences defiled, but how come they and their Consciences so? To them that are defiled and unbelieving. Therefore an unbelieving Conscience is a defiled conscience, and a defiled conscience is no good conscience, because it can have no peace so long as it is clogged with defiling guilt. But contrarily, faith purifying not only from corruption, but from guilt, by the application of Christ's blood makes the conscience pure and peaceable both.  
There can be no peace of conscience but where there is the righteousness of the person. There is no peace to the wicked, Isa. 57 21. as if he should say, an evil unrighteous person cannot have a good conscience: where the person is evil, there the conscience cannot be good. Now faith in Christ's blood makes a man's person good, & so the conscience becomes good. It makes the person righteous, and the person being righteous, the conscience is at peace; for the work of righteousness, is peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness, and assurance for ever, Isa. 32. 17. with which that of the Apostle sweetly suits, Revel. 7. 2. First King of righteousness, and after that King of peace. Our persons must first find Christ a King of righteousness, by justifying them from their guilt, before our consciences can find him King of Salem, pacifying them from their unquietness. Our persons once justified by Christ's blood from their guilt, and unrighteousness, our consciences are pacified and freed from their unquietness.  
Wouldst thou then have a good conscience? Get the peace of conscience. Wouldst thou have Peace in thy conscience? Get faith in thy soul; Believe in the Lord jesus, and get thy soul sprinkled with his blood, and then Heb. 10. 2. Thou shalt have no more conscience of Sin, thy Conscience shall be at quiet, no more accusing thee, nor threatening thee condemnation for thy Sin.  
2. Repentance from dead works. Though Christ's blood be that which purges the conscience from dead works, and so works peace; yet that peace is not wrought in our apprehension; neither do we get the feeling of this faith without some further thing. Therefore to our faith must be joined our repentance, though not in the making of our peace, yet for the feeling of it. Many are ready to catch at Christ's blood, and if that will make a good conscience they are then safe enough. But as thou must have Christ's blood, so Christ will have thine heart also bleed by repentance, ere he will vouchsafe the sense of peace. A conscience therefore that would be a conscience having peace, must not only be a believing, but a repenting conscience, Mat. 3. 2. Repent ye, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand, the Kingdom of heaven shall be yours if you will repent, ye shall have it immediately upon your repentance. But wherein stands this kingdom offered to repentant consciences? The Kingdom of God stands in peace, and joy in the holy Ghost, Rom. 14. 17. Repent, and ye shall receive the gift of the holy Gbost, Act. 3. 38. And what may that gift be. The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, Gal. 5. 22. Which though it be to be understood of peace between man and man, yet also that peace which is between God and man is the fruit of the spirit, and the love of God shed abroad into our hearts by the holy Ghost, Rom. 5. 5. is the gift of the holy Ghost, which he gives to all, that by repentance seek to get a good conscience. Blessed are they that mourn, that is, which repent, for they shallbe comforted, Mat. 5. 4. they shall have the peace of a good conscience, which is the greatest and sweetest comfort in the world.  
Many do trust all to their supposed faith, as a short cut and compendious way to a good conscience, but he whose faith doth not as well purify the heart as pacify it, hath neither faith nor a good conscience. It is idle to hope for peace by faith, whilst thou livest impenitently in a sinful course. Thou canst have no peace of conscience so long as thou hast peace with thy sins. Peace with conscience will be had by war with sin, in the daily practice of repentance. It it is but a dream to think of a good conscience in peace, whilst a man makes no conscience of sin. They that have a good conscience by Christ's blood, may be indeed said to have no conscience of sin, as Heb. 10. 2. But yet there is a great difference between having no conscience, and making no conscience of sin. To have no conscience of sin, is to have a peaceable good conscience, not accusing of sin, being sprinkled with Christ's blood. To make no conscience of sin, is for a man impenitently to live, and lie in any sin. Now let any judge whether these two can stand together, that a man may live as he list, and make no conscience of any sin, and yet have such peace by faith as that he hath no Conscience of sin. It is an unconscionable thing in this sense to lay all upon Christ, an unconscionable request to have him take away our guiltiness, and yet we would wallow in our filthiness still. How shall faith remove the sting, when repentance removes not the Sin?  
Men seeking peace by faith in Christ's blood, & yet living and lying in their sins without repentance, God will give them jehues answer to jehoram, 2 King. 9 22. What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother jezebel, and her witchcrafts are so many? So what peace of conscience, so long as thine oaths, Sabbath-breaches, whoredoms, drunkenness, etc. do remain, and remain, unrepented of, and unreformed. It is true of all Sin, which is spoken of Romish Idolatry, Apoc. 14. 11. They have norest day nor night; that is, no peace of conscience to any of that religion; so of all that live in any Sin, they have no true rest day nor night; that is, as Isaiah interprets it, There is no peace to the wicked. Peace and wickedness live not together under one roof. Wouldst thou then have a peaceable heart? Get an humbled, a mourning and a repentant heart for Sin. The less peace with Sin, the more peace with God and our own Consciences.  
3. The constant and conscionable exercise of prayer. An excellent means to help us to the sense of that peace which makes the conscience good. He that hath a good conscience will make conscience of prayer. And prayer will help to make a good conscience better, Phil. 4. 7. In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, and mark what shall be the fruit thereof, And the peace of God that passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through jesus Christ. See job 33. 26. He shall pray unto God, and he will be favourable unto him, and he shall see his face with joy. It is many times with men's consciences, as it was with Saul, he was vexed and disquieted with an evil spirit; but David's Harp gave him ease: Prayer is a David's Harp, the music whereof sweetly calms, and composes a distempered and disquieted conscience, and puts it into frame again. As in other disquiets of the heart, after prayer David bids his soul return unto her rest. Ps. 116. 4. 7. So we may in these disquiets of conscience do no less.  
The way to get a good peaceable conscience, is to have acquaintance with God; and when we have acquaintance with him, then shall we have peace, job 22. 21. Acquaint thyself now with him, and be at peace. Now acquaintance is gotten with God by prayer. Zech. 13. 9 They shall call on my name, and I will hear them; I will say, it is my people; and they shall say, the Lord is my God. Lo how in prayer acquaintance is bred between God and his people, and acquaintance breeds love, and peace; and peace a good Conscience. judge then what piteous conscience they must needs have, that make so little conscience of seeking God in this duty; of wicked ones the Psalm speaks, They call not upon God, Psal. 14. as much as Isaiah says, There is no peace to the wicked, they are utterly void of good Conscience.   

CHAP. V.  
Integrity of Conscience how procured.  
ANd thus we have seen how the conscience may be good for peace. It follows to consider how it may become uprightly good, with the goodness of Integrity. The goodness of Integrity is gotten and kept by doing five things.  
1. Walk and live as Paul in this Text, Before God. Set thyself ever in all thy ways, as in the sight and presence of God, who is the judge and Lord of conscience. Of Moses it is said, that he saw him that was invisible, Heb. 11. 27. Therefore it is that men walk with such lose and evil consciences, because they think they walk invisibly. And they think that God sees not them, because they see not God. An upright conscience is a good conscience, and this is the way to get an upright one, Gen. 17. 1. Walk before me, and be upright. To have God always in our eye, will make us walk with upright hearts. So Psal. 119. 168. I have kept thy precepts, and thy testimonies, that is in effect, I have kept a good Conscience; but how came he to do it? for all my ways are before thee. Conscience, as we saw before, is a knowledge together, that is, together with God. Now then this is an excellent means to get and keep a good conscience, to be careful to do nothing, but that which we would be content God should know as well as ourselves. Think with thyself before every evil action: Am I content that God should know of this? But how then may a man bring himself to this? Set thyself always in God's presence, and see the invisible God, and see thyself visible in his eye, and know that thou dost nothing which he takes not notice of. This well thought upon, and laid to heart, would make men make much conscience of their ways. The contrary to this is rash walking, Leu. 26. when a man walks so loosely, and heedlessly, as if there were no eye upon him to view him in his actions.  
2. Frame thy whole Course by the 
Dirige gressus secundum verbum tuum. Quid est, Dirige secundum verbum tuum. Virecti sint gressus mei, quia rectum est verbum tuum. Ego, inquit, distortus sum sub pondere iniquitatis, sed verbum tuum est regula veritatis, me ergo distortum à me corrige tanquam ad regulam, hoc est, ad verbum tuum. Au. de ver. Apo. ser. 12.  rule, and shape it by the directions of the word of God. God's Word is the Rule of conscience, Gal. 6. 16. As many as walk according to this Rule. Men must then walk by rule, and the Word must be this rule, Ps. 30. 23. To him that order his conversation; all Christians must be regulars, and must live orderly. But what is that Rule by which their conversation must be ordered? That same, Ps. 119. 133. Order my steps in thy Word. He that order his course by that rule, which is the rule of conscience, shall be sure to keep and get a good conscience. He that will make good work will work by his rule, whereas he that works by guess must needs make but ill work. Whatsoever is not of faith is Sin, Rom. 14. 23. That is, whatsoever a man doth, and hath not warrant for it out of, and from the rule of the Word, makes a man's conscience in that particular to be evil. And therefore, v. 5. Let a man be fully persuaded in his own mind. How happy should men be in getting and keeping good consciences, if they would lay their lives & actions to the Rule. The want of this is it that makes men, men of so ill consciences. Some live by no Rule, some by false Rules; & hence come men's consciences to be so Anomalous. Some live by no Rule, but do whatsoever seems good in their own eyes, go as their lusts lead them, and follow his beck that rules in the Air. This is also to walk rashly, Leu. 26. He that doth things without rule, goes rashly to work. He that walks irregularly, walks rashly, and no marvel if men have crooked ways, and crooked consciences, when they will not live by Rule. Some again live by false Rules, and that not only Popish fictitious Regulars that live by superstitious Rules of their Dominick, Francis, etc. But amongst ourselves many have a Rule they do live by, but that Rule is not the Word, but some false Rules of their own devising. Such as are these; Great men's practice, or some learned 
Inter causas malorum nostrorum est, quod vivimus ad exempla, nec ratione componimur, sed consuetudine. Quod si pauci facerent nollemus imitari, cum plures facere coeperunt, quasi honestius sit, quia frequentius sequimur: & recti apud nos locum tenet error, ubi publicus factus est. Sen. Ep. 124.  man's opinion, the custom of times and places wherein they live, the example of the multitude, or some secret, blind and self-conceived principles which they keep to themselves, and by which they live. All which being crooked Rules, must needs make crooked Consciences, whereas if men would live by David's Rule, Ps. 119. 105. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path, and in every action would have an eye and a respect unto the Commandments, as he had, Psal. 119. 6. than should they make strait paths for their feet, Heb. 12. 13. and keep upright Consciences in every spiritual action; therefore have an eye to the Word, question it whether it be justifiable and warrantable by the Word or no, and meddle no further than that will authorise, and bear thee out. If this course were taken, such a good course would make and keep a good Conscience. And why should not men be willing to take this course; why will we not make that Word our Rule, which must be made our judge? The word which I speak shall judge you in the last day, joh. 12. 48. The Word shall judge our consciences, therefore let it rule, and order them. And if it have the ruling of our consciences, it will make them good consciences, and when they are good they need not fear what judge they come before, nor what judgement they undergo. In sum, if we would have good consciences, we must make more conscience than is commonly made of reading, and searching the Scriptures. The ignorance and neglect of this duty is it which banes so many consciences in the world. 
Integritatis tuae curiosus explorator vitam tuam in quotidiana discussione examina. Attend diligenter quantum pro●icias, vel quantum deficias, qualis sis in moribus, qualis sis in affectibus, quam simili● sis Deo, vel quam disimilis, qua prope, vel quam long etc. Red ergo te tibi, & si non semper vel saepe, a● saltem interdum. Bern. med. de vot. cap. 5.   
3. Keep a daily and a frequent Audit with thy conscience, often examination of the conscience conduces much to the goodness of it. The Prophet complains of his people, Every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle, jer. 8. 6. Here were men far from a good conscience; but what was the reason of it? He gives it in the former words, No man repenteth him of his wickedness, saying, what have I done? There was no examination of their consciences and courses, what they were, nor how they were, and from hence comes this mischief. This was David's course. Psa. 119. 51. I considered my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies. When a man's feet are in the ways of God's testimonies, than he walks with an upright conscience, and mark how David came to do so, I considered my ways, he used to examine his Conscience.  
The first step to get a good conscience, is for a man to know that his conscience before reformation is evil. How shall that be known without a search? When a search hath discovered what it is that makes the conscience, and course evil, then will Conscience be ready to labour a man to the reformation of that which is amiss, and will not cease to urge, and ply a man till it be done. Frequent examination as it helps to the making of Scholars, so to the making of Consciences good. Hence mens lying in so gross neglects of good duties, in so many great evils, because men and their consciences never reckon. Men take not themselves aside into their closerts and chambers, and there set not up a privy Sessions to make inquiry into their own hearts and ways, and therefore are their ways and consciences so much out of order. Many a man thinks his estate in the world to be very good, and thinks he grows rich and wealthy, when his estate indeed is weak, and grows every day worse than other. Now what is it that causes so great a mistake? Nothing but this, that he never looks over his books nor casts over his reckonings. If he had done this, he should have seen that his estate was not answerable to his conceit, and the knowledge of his misconceit would have made him have lived at a more wary, and thrifty rate, and have kept himself within such a compass as might have kept up his estate, whereas now the not examining his books, puts him into a conceit of wealth, and this conceit beggars and undoes him. It fares no better with too many in their Consciences. Laodicea thought well of herself, Thou sayest, I am rich. If she had examined her conscience, she should have seen that which Christ saw, that she was poor, blind, naked, and miserable, and the sight of this would have made her to have sought after that counsel which Christ there gives her, Revel. 3. Men would have far better consciences if they knew in what ill case their Consciences stand, and examination would help them to the knowledge of this. If men would but overlook the book of their Conscience, and see how many omissions of good, how many sinful commissions stand registered there, it would both make them marvellous solicitous how to get them wiped out, and wondrous wary how any more such Items came there. Often reckonings 
Omni die cum vadis cubitum, examina diligenter quid cogitasti, & quid dixisti; indy, & quomodo utile tempus & spatium quod datum est ad acquirendum vitam aeternam dispensasti. Et si bene transavisti, lauda Deum: si malè vel negligenter, lugeas, & sequenti die non differas confiteri. Si aliquid cogitasti, dixisti, velfecisti, quod tuam conscientiam multum remordeat, non comedas antequam confitearis. Bern. form. vit. honest. Suavius dormiunt qui relinquunt▪ curas in calceis.  would blot out, and keep off the score. Here is then wisdom for such as desire to keep good consciences. Do with the works of thy conversation as God did with the works of his Creation. He not only surveyed at the sixth days end the whole work of the week, but at each days end made a particular survey thereof. Do thou so, not only at the week's end, at thy lives end, search thine heart, and examine thy course, but at every day's end look back into the day past, and examine what thy carriage and behaviour hath been. This being done, a man shall find his works either good or evil. If good, how shall his conscience cheer him with its peace? If evil, then if conscience have any life, or breath in it, it will make a man fall to humiliation, and to a godly resolution of watching over his ways for the future, so shall conscience be much helped for integrity. David's counsel is good, Ps. 4. 5. Examine your hearts upon your beds; and his resolution is also good, vers. 8. of the same Psalm, I will lay me down and sleep in peace. Who would not be glad so to sleep, and to take his rest so? would we sleep upon David's pillow, sleep in peace? then harken we to David's counsel, to examine ourselves upon our beds. There is nothing makes a man's bed so soft, nor his sleep so sweet as a good conscience. It is with Sins as with Cares, both trouble a man's sleep, both are troublesome bedfellows, as they therefore sleep sweetly that leave their cares in their shoes, so they sleep with most peace that let not sin lie down to sleep with them, who are so fare from lying down in their sins, that by their good will, will not let the Sun go down upon their sin, but by examination ferret out the same. This being done, it may be said, as Prov. 3. 24. Thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet. Nay further, examine thy conscience upon thy bed, and thou shalt not only sleep in peace, but thou shalt awake and arise the next morning with an upright frame of heart, disposed to the more caution against Sin the day following. So much David seems to intimate in that forenamed place. Tremble and sinne not. That is, be afraid to sin, take heed ye sin no more. But what course may one take to come to that integrity of conscience, as to fear to sin? Take this course, Examine your hearts upon your beds.  
But alas how rare a practice is this, and therefore are good consciences so rare. Many think this an heavy burden, and a sore task, and count the remedy a great deal worse than the disease, there is nothing they tremble at more than a domestical Audit, and this reckoning with their consciences. They say of conscience as Ahab of Micaiah, and care as little to meddle with conscience as Ahab with Micaiah. I hate him; for he never speaks good to me, 1 King. 22. So they think the conscience will deal with them. They know their conscience will speak as job says God wrote, Thou writest bitter things against me. Conscience hath such a stinging waspish tongue, that by no means they dare endure a parley with it. It is with many and their consciences, as with men that have shrewish wives. Many a man when he is abroad, hath no joy at all to come home, nay he is very loath to come within his own doors, he fears he shall have such a peal rung him, that he had rather be on the house top, as Solomon speaks, or in some out house, and lodge as our Saviour at Bethlem in a cratch, or a Manger, than come within the noise of her clamorous, and chattering tongue. So many think conscience hath such a terrible shrewish tongue, that if they shall but come within the sound thereof, they shall be cast into such melancholy dumps, as they shall not be able in haste to claw off again. How much, and how seriously are they to be pitied that to prevent a few hours, or days supposed sorrow, and sadness, by which they might come to procure both peace and integrity of Conscience, will adventure the rack and eternal torture of conscience in Hell. Remember that there is no melancholy to the melancholy of Hell.   

CHAP. VI  
Two further means to procure integrity of Conscience.  
IN the fourth place, deal with thy conscience as God would have Abraham do by Sarah, Gen. 21. 12. In all that Sarah shall say unto thee, harken unto her voice. So here, if we would get and keep a good conscience, in all that it shall say unto us, being enlightened and directed by the word, harken unto it. Conscience being enlightened hath a voice, and no man but sometime or other shall hear this voice of conscience. Conscience is God's Monitor to speak to men when others cannot, or dare not speak. Sometimes men cannot speak as not being privy to other men's necessities and failings. Sometimes they may not be suffered to speak, as Ahab will not endure Micaiah to speak to him. Sometime if a man speak, he may have rough and angry answers, as the Prophet had from Amaziah, 2. Chron. 26. 16. Art thou made of the King's Counsel? forbear, why shouldst thou be smitten? God hath therefore provided every man even great men which may not be spoken to, he hath provided them a bosom Chaplein, that will round them in the ear, and will talk roundly to them, one that will be of their counsel in despite of them; one that fears no fists, dreads no smiting, yea, one that fears not to smite the greatest, 2 Sam. 24. 10. And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. It may be many there were about David that had not the hearts to smite David with a grave reproof, though he gives leave to the righteous to do so, Ps. 141. Let the righteous smite me, but yet whilst others, it may be, are fearful and timorous to do him that good office, conscience is at no demur upon the point, that fears not, but smites David for sin.  
God's Ministers are oft slighted, and light set by, preachers cannot be regarded, but God hath given men a Preacher in their own bosom, and this Preacher will make many a curtain sermon, will take men to task upon their pillow, & will be preaching over our Sermons again to them. And though many will not be brought to repetition of Sermons in their Families, yet they have a Repeater in their bosom, that will be at private repetitions with them in spite of them, and will tell them, This is not according to that you have been taught, you have been taught otherwise; you have been reproved for, and convinced of this sin in the public Ministry, etc. Why do not you hearken and reform? Thus then conscience having a voice, and doing the office of a Preacher unto us, if we would have conscience good, then in all things that conscience enlightened shall say unto us, harken unto it. More distinctly conscience hath a twofold voice.  
1. A voice of direction, telling us what is good or evil, what is lawful and unlawful, Isa. 30. 21. And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it. That is understood of 
Ita enim desuper in silento sonat quidam non auribus sed mentibus. August. in Psal. 42.  the voice of God's spirit in the secret suggestions thereof, and such is the voice also of conscience within us, dictating to us, and directing us what duties are to be done, what courses to be avoided. How many times doth conscience press us to repentance and to reform our ways? how often doth it call upon us to settle to such and such good courses? and so with David, Psal. 16. 7. Our reines do teach it in the night season.  
2 A voice of correction and accusation, checking and chiding, taking up and shipping us when we do amiss. So Psal. 42. 5. 11. and Ps. 43. 5. Why art thou cast down O my Soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? And Ps. 77. 10. whilst in the foregoing verses he was complaining, and using some speeches that might savour of some diffidence, see how Conscience doth her office by a correcting voice: And I said, this is my infirmity; as if he had said, whilst I was using such different expostulations, mine own conscience told me, I did not do well. Conscience so speaks to us, as the Lord to jonah, jon. 4. 4. 9 Dost thou well to be angry? So says conscience oft, Dost thou well to be thus earthly, thus eager upon the world, thus negligent and formal in holy duties? thus conscience gives her privy nips, and her secret checks. This is that of which job speaks, job 27. 6. My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live. Implying that conscience after sin hath a reproaching voice, as when it befools a man, as fool that thou art to do this, to lose thy peace with God for a base sinful pleasure. Thus David's conscience reproached him, 2 Sam. 24. 10. I have done very foolishly; yea, Ps. 37. 22. it puts the fool and the beast both upon him, So foolish was I and ignorant, I was as a beast before thee. This is the smiting of the conscience, 2 Sam. 24. 10. Conscience first points with the finger and gives direction, if that be neglected, it smites with the fist, and gives correction.  
Now than that which I aim at, is this; If we would get and keep a good conscience, then neglect not, nor despise conscience when it speaketh. Doth thy conscience press thee to any works of piety, to the care of family-worship, and private devotion, to the reading of the Scriptures, sanctification of the Sabbath, etc. In any case be so wise as to hearken to the counsels, to the urge, and to the injunctions which come out of the Court of Conscience. Harken in any case to this Preacher, whom thou canst not suspect of partiality, malice, ill will, as thou dost others, thereby giving way to satins policy, that hereby stops up the passages of thine heart, that the Word may not enter. Here can be no such suspicions; conscience cannot be suspected to be set on by others; though jeremy be charged to be set on by Baruch, jer. 43. 3. Therefore harken to the voice of this Preacher, and this will help thee to a good conscience. 
Ideo quantum potes, teipsum coargue, inquire in te, accusatoris primum partibus sungere, deinde judicis novissime deprecatoris: aliquando off●ndete. Senec. epist. 28.   
Again, doth thy conscience rebuke thee, doth it chide and check thee, doth thy heart reproach thee for thy ways? doth it say, dost thou well to live in such and such Sins? Doth it punctually reprove thee for thine evils? Do not answer conscience, as jonas answered God, frowardly, Yea I do well, but even close with conscience, and do thou accuse thyself as fast as it accuses, acknowledge thy folly, yield, promise, and covenant with thy conscience a present and speedy reformation. This if it were done, how happy should men be in getting and keeping a good conscience.  
But alas, how few regard the voice of Conscience, and once hearken to it, and the very want of this duty is it which breeds so much ill conscience in the world. Men in this case are guilty of a double wickedness. Either they deal as the jews with the Apostles, Act. 4. 18. and 1 Thes. 2. 16. They either stop consciences mouth, and labour to silence this Preacher, or else they deal with conscience as the jews did with Stephen, Act. 7. 57 They stopped their ears. If they cannot stop consciences mouth, they will at least stop their own ears.  
1 They labour to stop consciences mouth. If conscience begin to take them aside, and to say to them, as Ehud to Eglon; judg. 3. 19 I have a secret errand unto thee: they answer, but in another sense, as he did; Keep silence. If conscience offer to be talking unto them, they shufflle it off as Felix did Paul, they are not at leisure, they will find some other time when their leisure will better serve. Yea many when their consciences reproach them, they again reproach and reprove it, and answer it as the Danites did Micah, judges 11. 23. What aileth thee? and are ready to give reproachful language to their own conscience, that it cannot be quiet and let them alone.  
2 But yet Conscience will not of entimes be thus posted and shuffled off, will not be gagged, or suffer her lips to be sown up, but will deal with a man as the woman of Canaan did with our Saviour, Math. 15. She would not be put off with neglect, or cross answers, but she still presses upon our Saviour, and grows so much the more importunate. So oftentimes conscience when she sees men shuffle, grows the more importunate, and will dog and haunt men so much the more. Yea it deals like the blind men, Math. 20. 31. who when the multitude rebuked them, they cried the more. Now then when conscience grows thus clamorous, and will not be silenced, than they will stop their own ears, that if it will needs be prating, it shall but tell a tale to a deaf man. To this end men put a double trick upon their consciences.  
1 saul's trick. Saul is vexed with an evil spirit, what must be the cure? seek him out a minstrel. Thus many, when the cry of conscience is up, betake them to their merriments and jollities. They try whether the noise of the Harps, and Viols, and the roar of good fellows will not drown the voice and noise of conscience. They will try whether the din of an Alehouse, or the rattling and clattering of the Dice and Tables cannot deaf their ears against the clamours of conscience. Thus do many in the accusations of conscience, give themselves wholly up to all manner of pleasures and delights, that so their minds being taken up with them, there might be no leisure to give conscience any the least audience.  
2 cain's trick. Cain had a mark of God upon him, Gen. 4. 15. And what might that mark be? chrysostom thinks it was a continual shaking and trembling of his 
Chrys. in ●. ep. Cor. Hom. 7.  body. If that were his mark, why might not that trembling come from the horror of his guilty conscience, following him with a continual hue and and cry for murder, and reproaching him for a bloody murderer. However, no question but his conscience continually haunted him, and the cry of blood was ever in his ears. Now than what course takes he? ye shall see Gen. 4. 17. That he falls a building of Cities, betakes himself to a multitude of employments, that the noise of the saws, axes, and mallets, might be louder than the noise of his Conscience. If Conscience be out of quiet with them, & will not cease to urge and pinch them, then have among their sheep, and oxen, that their bleating, and bellowing may keep under the voice of conscience, they do so possess their heads and their thoughts, and so overload them with much dealings in the world, that there is no spare time wherein their ear can be free to hear the voice of conscience. The clutter of their many businesses make too great a noise for Conscience to have audience. They deal with their consciences as the Ephesians dealt with Alexander, Act. 19 33. 34. And Alexander beckoned with the hand, and would have made his defence unto the people. But when they knew that he was a jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. If Alexander had had never so good lungs, and strong sides he might have strained his voice till he had crazed the organs of language, and might have spoken till he had been hoarse again, before he could have been heard to have spoken one syllable, though he had spoken all the reason in the world. Such a noise of an outrageous bellowing multitude had been almost enough to have drowned the voice of a Canon. Thus deal men with their conscience, if she but prepare to speak and give but a beck with the hand, presently thrust themselves into a crowd of business that may outcry and over-cry the bawling noise thereof. It was an hideous noise that the shricking infants of Israel made when they were offered up alive in fire unto Moloch. Now lest their parents bowels should earn with compassion, and be affected with the shrieks of their poor babes, therefore they had their drums and trumpets struck up and sounded in the time of sacrifice, to make such a noise, that in no case the lamentable cries of the infants should be heard. The same trick do too many put upon their consciences, if they will be clamouring, they will have some Drum or other, whose greater noise may deaf their ears from hearing the cries of conscience.  
But alas what poor projects are these? The time will come when men shall have neither pleasures nor profits, neither delights nor business, to stop their ears. Though now men beat upon these Drumheads, and with the noise of their pleasures and profits keep conscience voice under from being heard, yet the day will come, when God will beat out these Drumheads, and then the cries and horrid and hideous shrieks of conscience shall be heard: God will one day strip thee of all thy pleasures and employments, and will turn thee single and lose to thy conscience, and it shall have full liberty to bait thee, and bite thee at pleasure. Oh how much better is it to be willing to hearken to the voice of Conscience here, than to be forced to hear it in hell, when the time of harkening will be past and gone. Harken to it now, and thou shalt not hear it hereafter. Harken to the admonitions and reproofs of it now; and thus shall thou get Integrity here, and shalt be free from hearing the doleful clamours of it in hell hereafter.  
5. To get and keep a good Conscience ever in cases of a doubtful and questionable nature, be sure to take the surest side. Many things are of a questionable nature, and much may be said on either side; in such cases, if thou wouldst have a good Conscience, take the surest side, that side on which thou mayst be sure thou shalt not sin. As for example. There be diverse games and recreations whose lawfulness are questioned, yet much may be said for them, and possibly they may have the judgement of diverse reverend and learned men for their lawfulness. Now what shall a man do in this case? Take the sure side. If I use them it is possible I may sin, it may be they are not sinful, yet I am not so sure of it that I shall not sin if I use them, as I am sure I shall not sin if I do not use them. I am sure that not to use such sports breaks none of God's commandments, a man may be bold to build upon that. 
Tutiores igitur vivimus si totum Deo daraus, non autem nos illi ex parte, & nobis ex parte committimus. Aug. de dono persev. cap. 6.  He that lives by this rule, shall keep his Conscience from many a flaw. He that sails amongst Rocks it is possible he may escape splitting, but he is not so sure to keep his vessel safe and whole as he that sails in a clear sea where no rocks are at all. It is good in matter of life and practice, to do as Augustine speaks in case of doctrine. We live more safely, saith he, if we attribute all wholly to God, and do not commit ourselves partly to God, and partly to ourselves. In doctrines it is good to hold the safest side wherein there can be no danger, yea, Bellarmine himself after his long dispute for justification by 
Propter incertitudinem propriae justitiae & periculum inanis gloriae, tutissimum est fiduciam totam in sola Dei misericordia & benignitate reponere. Bellar. de justific. lib. 5. cap. 7.  merit, comes to this at last, That by reason of the uncertainty of our own righteousness, and the danger of vainglory, it is the most safe way to repose our whole confidence in the mercy and goodness of God alone. Which way soever Bellarmine is gone himself, or any of his religion, I think common reason will teach a man so much wisdom to go the safest way to heaven, and that the safest way is the best way. The Lord that would have us make our calling and election sure, 2 Peter 1. 10. would not have us put so great a matter as the salvation of our souls upon Bellarmine's hazard, and confessed uncertainty of our own righteousness. Now as in case of doctrine, so in case of practise it is great wisdom, and a great means of keeping a good conscience, to do that wherein we may Tutioris vivere, and to take to that which Tutissimum est, to follow that which is safest, and to take to that side which is the surest, and the freest from danger.   

CHAP. VII.  
Two marks if a good Conscience.  
THus we see how a good conscience may be had; it follows we consider how it may be known, and be discerned to be had. The marks and notes by which a good conscience may be known, are seven.  
1. This in the Text. In all good conscience. 
1. Note of good conscience. Conscience in all things.  It is a good note of a good conscience, when a man makes conscience of all things, all duties, and all Sins. There be that have natural consciences principled by some general grounds of nature, and it may be, so fare as these rules carry them, may make some conscience, but their principles coming short, they must needs also come as short of a good conscience: I have lived, says Paul here, in all good conscience, and Heb. 13. 18. We trust we have a good Conscience in all things. It is a good conscience when a man's life, all his life is a life of conscience, when in all his life, and the whole tenor thereof he makes conscience of all that God commands, and forbids, Psal. 119. 6. Then shall I not be ashamed, (what breeds shame but evil conscience?) when I have respect unto all thy Commandments. When all are respected there is no shame, because where all are respected there is good conscience, and where good conscience is, there is no shame. That argued David's good conscience, Psal. 119. 101. I have refrained my feet from every evil way.  
Try men's consciences by this, and it will discover a great deal of evil conscience in the world. Many a moral man makes conscience of doing his neighbour the least wrong, he will not wrong or pinch any man, pays every man his own, deals fairly and squarely in his commerce, there is no man can say black is his eye, you shall have him thank God that he hath as good a conscience as the best. These are good things, and such things as men ought to make conscience of, but yet here is not enough to make a good conscience. A good conscience must be all good conscience, or it is no good conscience. Now indeed these men may have good consciences before men, but my Text tells us that we must live in all good conscience before God. And Paul joins them two together, Act. 24. 13. And herein I do exercise myself to have a good conscience void of offence towards God, and towards men. Now be it that these have good conscience before men, yet what have they before God? Alas they are miserably ignorant in the things of God, no consciences to acquaint themselves with his truth, no conscience of prayer in their families, of reading the Scriptures, no conscience of an oath, and as little of the Sabbath, and the private duties thereof. How far are these from good conscience?  
Others again seem to make conscience of their duties before God, but in the mean time no conscience of duties of Justice in the second Table, make no conscience of oppression, racking rents, covetousness, overreaching, etc. these are no better consciences than the former, neither are good because they live not in all good conscience. Thus may ● man discover the naughty consciences of most. jehu seems wondrous zealous for the Lord, and seems to be a man of a singular good conscience in the demolishing the Temple of Baal, & putting to death his Priests. I, but if jehu make conscience of letting Baal's Temple stand, why doth he not as well make conscience of letting jeroboams Calves stand? If jehu had had a good conscience, he would as ill have brooked jeroboam as jezebels Idolatry; he would have purged the land of all Idols.  
Herod seems to make some conscience of an Oath. Mark 6. 26. For his Oaths sake he would not reject her. It is joy of him that he is a man of so good conscience. I, but in the mean time why makes he no conscience of incest and murder? He fears, and makes conscience to break an unlawful Oath, but makes no conscience to cut an holy Prophet's throat. Who would not have thought Saul to have been a man of a very good conscience? see how like a man of good conscience he speaks. 1 Sam. 14. 34. Sin not against the Lord in eating with the blood. He would have the people make conscience of eating with the blood; and indeed it was a thing to be made conscience of. I, but he that makes conscience of eating the flesh of Sheep and Oxen with the blood, like a bloody hearted tyrant, as he was, he makes no conscience of sucking and shedding the blood of fourscore and five of God's Priests. Just the conscience of his bloodhound Doeg. 1 Sam 21. 7. Doeg was there that day detained before the Lord. How detained? either out of a religious conscience of the Sabbath, or by occasion of a vow, the man made conscience of going before the Sabbath were ended, or the days of his vow finished. A thing indeed to be made conscience of, men ought not to departed from God's house, till holy services be finished, a duty that even the Prince must make conscience of, Ezek. 46. 10. Who therefore would not judge this Edomite a conscionable Proselyte? I, but why then makes he no conscience of Lying? Psalm. 25. Why no conscience of being instrumental to saul's injustice in that barbarous villainy of slaying, not only innocent men, but innocent Priests of the Lord? such were the Consciences of the Chief Priests, Matth. 27. 6. How like honest conscionable men they speak: It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. Sure it is, great conscience ought to be made of bringing the price of blood into the Temple treasury; Are they not then men of good conscience, It is not lawful, ye see they will not do that which is not lawful. It is well, but tell me, is it not lawful to take the price of blood, and is it lawful to give a price for blood? Ought there 
Qualis haec innocentiae simulatio; pecuniam sanguinis non mit●●e in Ar●●●, et ipsum sanguinem mitie●e in Conscientiam August.  not a Conscience to be made of blood, as well as of the price of blood? They make a Conscience of receiving the price of blood into the Treasury, but make no Conscience of receiving the guilt of blood into their Consciences. Just such Consciences as they had, joh. 18. 28. They would not go into the judgement Hall, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover. Indeed a man should make great Conscience of preparation to the Sacrament, and take great heed that he come not thither defiled; but see their naughty Conscience, they make Conscience of being defiled by going into the judgement Hall, but make no Conscience of being defiled with the blood of an Innocent. Such was the conscience of the jews, joh. 19 31. they make Conscience of the body of Christ hanging on the Cross on the Sabbath, but with what conscience have they hanged it on the Cross at all? This was just like to those that Socrates speaks of, who made great conscience of keeping Holidays, yet made no conscience of uncleanness, that was but an indifferent thing with them. As if conscience were not rather to be made of keeping our vessels in holiness, our bodies, than days holy? Remarkable in this kind is that dealing of the jews with Paul, 2 Cor. 11. 24. Of the jews five times received I forty stripes save one. If we look into the Law, Deut. 25. 1, 2, 3. it runs thus, If there be a controversy, etc. and it shall be if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number, forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed. Now see the good consciences of these jews, they might give forty stripes, but not beyond that number might they go. Now they make so much conscience of exceeding the number of forty; that they give Paul but nine and thirty. Thus they make conscience of the number, but no conscience of the fact; They make conscience of giving above forty, but with what conscience do they give him any at all? The Text not only prescribes the number of stripes, but the condition of the person, namely, that he be worthy to be beaten, and he must be punished according to his fault. Now see these men make Conscience of the law for the number, but make no conscience of the Law, that will have only wicked men, and such as are worthy to be beaten, to be so used. These be the consciences of wicked men, they make seem of making conscience in some one thing, but make no conscience of ten others, it may be, of fare greater weight and necessity, and herein discover they the naughtiness of their consciences. The conscience therefore is not to be judged good for one, or some good actions. joab turned not after Absolom, but he turned after Adoniah. 1 King. 1. 28. Whereas a good conscience that turns neither to the right hand not the left, would have turned neither after Adoniah nor Absolom. A good conscience and a good conversation must go together. 1 Pet. 3. 16. Having a good Conscience, that they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation. One good action makes not a good conversation, nor a good conscience, but then a man's conversation may be said to be good, when in his whole course he is careful to do all good duties, and to avoid all sins, and such a good conversation is a sign of good Conscience. 
Nunc autem in hoc maior offensa est quod partem sententiae sacrae pro commodorum nostrorum utilitate deligimus, parrem pro dei iniuria praeterimus, Et maxime cum & terrestres domini nequaquam aequo animo tolerandum putent si iussiones suas serui ex parte audiant & ex parte contemnant. Si enim pro arbitrio suo servi dominis obtemperant, ne ijs quidem in quibus obtemperaverint, obsequuntur, etc. Savian. de Provide.   
To do some good things, and not all, is no more a sign of good conscience, then to do some things only which his master requires, and to neglect other some, is no sign of a good servant. A good servants commendation is to do all his Master's business he enjoins him. We would hold him but an holiday servant, and an idle companion, that when his master hath set him his several works to do, he will do which him pleases, and leave the other undone. This were not to do his masters, but to do his own will, and to serve his own turn rather than his masters: So for a man to make choice of duties, and to pick out some particulars, wherein he will yield obedience to God, and to pass by others as not standing with his profits, pleasures, and lusts, this will never gain a man the commendation of a good conscience, whose goodness must be known by making conscience of all things. Then have Gods servants good consciences, when it can be said of them, as Shaphan speaks of josiah his servants. 2 Chron. 34. 16. All that was committed to thy servants, they do it.  
2. To make conscience of small Duties, and small sins. This also rises out of the Text. All good Conscience. If of all things, then of small things. It might have been comprehended under the former, but yet for Conviction sake I distinguish them. The good conscience makes not conscience only of great duties and sins, but even of the least, knowing that as Gods great power and omnipotence is the same in the making of an Angel and a worm, so God's authority, wisdom and holiness is the same in the least Commandments, as in the greatest of them all. It makes conscience specially of Judgement, and the weighty matters of the law, but yet doth not therefore think itself discharged of all care in smaller things, doth not thereupon challenge a dispensation from obedience in meaner matters, as if it were needless scrupulosity, as too much preciseness to tie the Mint, Anise, and Cummin. A Cummin-seede indeed is but a small thing, a very toy, but yet as small a thing, and as light as it is, yet will it lie heavy upon a good conscience, being injuriously and fraudulently detained from the Levites. The Pharisees tythed Mint, Anise, and Cummin, but they neglected the weighty matters of the Law. It is no good conscience that looks to small, and neglects great duties, neither is it a good conscience on the other side, that looks after the great and weighty duties, and makes no reckoning of Mint and Anise. Our Saviour says both aught to be done. Pharaoh could be content that the people should go Sacrifice, but he cannot abide that Moses should be so peevishly precise, that not an hoof should be left behind. Alas, an hoof is but a toy, not worth the mentioning, what need Moses be so strict as to stand upon an hoof? Yet a good conscience will stand upon it, having God's Commandment, and will make conscience as well of carrying away hooves as of whole bodies of Cattles. It is with a good conscience as it is with the apple of the eye, of all the parts of the body it is the most tender, not only of some great shives, or splints under the eyelid, but even the smallest hair and dust grieves and offends it. It is so with a tender good conscience, not only beams, but also moats disquiet the eye of a good conscience, and not only greater, and fouler Sins, but even such as the world counts venial trifles do offend it. A good conscience strains not only at a Camel, but at a Gnat also. Neither doth our Saviour blame the Pharisees simply for straining at a Gnat, but for their hypocrisy, who would pretend conscience in smaller things, and mean while made none in the greater; for otherwise a good conscience indeed hath a narrow passage for a Gnat, as well as for a Camel. The least corn of gravel galls his foot that hath a straight shoe, but he that hath a large, wide shoe, slopping about his foot, it is no trouble to him. It is just so with consciences good and evil.  
A Gnat is but a small thing, yet Pope 
Bol. pag. of Pope's pag. 97.  Hadrian the fourth was choked with a Gnat, and one Fly, though but a small thing to a whole box of ointment, yet dead Flies, as small things as they are, cause the ointment of the Apothecary to send forth a stinking savour, Ec. 10. 1. and so doth a little folly, though but little, do a great deal of hurt. And therefore a good conscience lives by salomon's rule, Give not water passage, no not a little. And take not only the Foxes, but the little Foxes, which spoil not only the Vines, but the tender Grapes. Cant. 2. 15. It knows a little will make way for much. Pharaoh is content that the people, the men should go sacrifice, Ex. 10. but their little ones should not go; he knew if he had but their little ones with him, he should be sure enough of their return; therefore Moses will not only have the men go, but their little ones also. And therefore a good conscience deals with Satan, as Marcus Arethusius dealt with 
Putantes pauperem vel medietatem petebant pecuniarum, novissime vel paveum aliquid exigebant. Quibus ait nec obolum unum pro omnibus dabo. Hist. Tripart. lib. 6. cap. 12.  his tormentors, who having pulled down an Idolatrous Temple, and being urged by them to give so much as would build it up again, refused it; They urged him to give but half, he still refused, they urged him at last to give but a little towards it, but he refused to give them so much as one halfpenny, No not an halfpenny, says he, for it is as great wickedness to confer one 
Ad impietatem inquit obulum conferre unum perinde valet, ac si quis conferat omnia. Theodor. lib. 3. cap. 7.  half penny in case of Impiety, as if a man should bestow the whole. What was a poor halfpenny? it was a very small matter; specially considering in what torture he was, from which an halfpenny gift would have released him. Indeed an halfpenny is but a little, but yet it is more than a good Conscience dares give to the maintenance of idolatrous worship. A good conscience will not give so much as a farthing token to such an use, as little a thing as it is. For he that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much, and he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much, Luke 16. 10. Even the least things are as great trials of a good conscience, as the greatest. A good Conscience will not greatifie Satan, nor neglect God, no not in a little.  
Put men's consciences now upon this trial. Who cracks not of his good conscience? there be none, if they may be believed, but they have good Consciences. But why are they good? They can swallow no Camels. Well, yield them that, though if their entrails were well searched, a man might find huge bunch backed camels, that have gone down their gullets. They can swallow no camels, but what say they to gnats, can they swallow them? Tush, Gnats are nothing, whole swarms of them can go down their throats, and they never once cough for the matter. Fowl and gross scandals, such as are infamous amongst mere heathen, such Camels they swallow not, but what say they to unsavoury and naughty thoughts which their hearts prosecute with delight, what say they to them? Gnats do not swarm more abundantly in the fens, than such vile thoughts do in their hearts. The prodigious oaths of wounds, blood, the damned language of Ruffians, and the Monsters of the earth, Oh their hearts would tremble to have such words pass out of their mouths, but yet what say they to the neater, and civilified Compliments of Faith and Troth? Tush these are trifles, mere Gnats, alas, that you shall stand upon such niceties. To rob a man upon the high way, or to break up a man's house in the night, this is a monstrous Camel, but in buying and selling to overreach a neighbour a shilling or two, a penny or two, what say they to that? Oh God forbidden they should be so strictly dealt withal, that is a small thing, their throats are not so narrow, but these Gnats will go down easily enough. To bear false witness in an open Court of justice, or to be guilty of pillory-perjury, these be foul things, but to lie a little for a man's advantage or to make another man merriment, what think they of this? This is a very Gnat, they are ashamed to strain thereat. Tell many a man of his sin in which he lies, that his sin and a good conscience cannot stand together, what is his answer, but as Lot of Zoar, Is it not a little one. Gen. 19 20, But the truth is, that these little ones are great evidences of evil conscience. It is but a dream to think our consciences good, that make no conscience of small sins and duties.  
The conscionable Nazarite, now, did not only make conscience of guzzling and quaffing whole cups of wine, but of eating but an husk, and a kernel of a Grape. What a trifle is the kernel of a Grape, and yet a good conscience will care to please God as well in abstinence from the kernel, as from the cup. Indeed when David had defiled and hardened his conscience with his adultery, than he could cut Vriahs' throat, and his heart smites him not for it, but when under his affliction his conscience was tender and good, his heart smites him but for cutting saul's coat, 1 Sam. 24. 5. See the nature of a good conscience, it will smile not only for cutting saul's throat, but for cutting saul's coat, but for an appearance, upon a suspicion, and but a jealousy of evil.  
Paul speaks of a pure Conscience, 2 Tim. 1. 3. Now it is with the pure conscience as it is with pure Religion, jam. 1. 17. Pure religion and undefiled, is to keep á man's self unspotted of the world. It hates not only wallowing with the Sow in the mire, but is  of very spots, and hates not only the flesh, but the garment, not only that is grossly besmeared, but which is but spotted with the flesh, jude 23. according to that Ceremonial, Levit. 15. 17. And this is that which differences civility and a good Conscience, Civility shuns mire, but is not so trim as to wash off spots, this is the pure Religion of a pure Conscience. Pure Religion and nndefiled is to keep a man's self unspotted, therefore they who are not unspoted, are not undefiled, but if their consciences be but spotted, yet are they defiled. men's consciences are as their Religion is, and pure Religion is spotless.  
Yea to close this point, the greatest evidence of a good conscience is in making Conscience of small things. Whilst 
Probat enim etiam in majoribus si res exigat executorem se idoneum fore à quo minora compleantur. Salvian de provide. l. 3.  men fear great sins, or are careful of main duties, it may be their reputation and credits may sway them, which otherwise would be impeached. So that in them it may be a question, whether it be Conscience or Credit that is the first mover, but in smaller things where there is no credit to be had, nay, for scrupling whereof, a man may rather receive some discredit from the world, here it is more evident that good Conscience sets a man on. This then is a note of a good Conscience, to make Conscience, as of small duties, so of small sins; as he that fears poison, fears to take a drop, as well as a draught, and men fear not only when a firebrand is thrust into, but when a spark lights upon their thatch.   

CHAP. VIII.  
Three other notes of a good Conscience.  
A Third note of good conscience may be this. It loves and likes a Ministry and such Ministers as preach, and speak 
3. Note of good conscience: To love a Ministry that speaks home to the conscience.  to the Conscience. It likes such a dispensation of the Word as comes home to it, whether for direction or reproof. The Word is the rule of conscience, and a good conscience is desirous to know the rule it must live by. The Word must judge the conscience, this every good conscience knows, and therefore grudges not to be reproved by it, as knowing that if it will not abide the Words reproof, it must abide the Words judgement. Therefore a man with a good conscience speaks as Samuel, Speak Lord, thy servant hears. He can suffer the words of exhortation, and not count himself to suffer whilst it is done. He is of David's mind, Let the righteous smite me, and it shall be a kindness; let him reprove me and it shall be an excellent oil which shall not break mine head. Psal. 141. 5. It is with good conscience as with good eyes that can abide the light, and can delight in it, whereas sick and sore eyes are troubled and offended therewith. A sound heart is like sound flesh that can abide not only touching, but also rubbing and chafing, and yet a man will not be put into a chafe thereby; whereas contrarily if the least thorn or unsoundness be therein, 
Tu scis Deus noster, quod tunc de Alipio ab illa peste sanando non cogetaverim. At ille in se rapuit meque illud non nisi propter se dixisle credidit, & quod alias acciperet ad succensendum mihi▪ accepit honestus adolescens ad succensendum sibi, & ad meardentius diligendum. Aug. conf. lib. 6. ca 7.  a touch at unawares provokes a man, if not to smite, yet to angry words and language of displeasure. Unsound flesh loves to be stroked, and to be handled gently, the least roughness puts into a rage. That is the ingenuity of a good conscienence, which was the good disposition of Alipius, when he was unwittingly taxed by Augustine for his Theatrical vanities; he was so far from being angry with him, though he conceived him purposely to aim at him, that he was rather angry with himself, and loved Augustine so much the better.  
Put men's consciences upon this trial, and we shall see what the consciences of most men are. Let a man preach in an unprofitable manner, let him spend himself in idle curiosities and speculations, let him be in combat with obsolete or foreign heresies, so long their Minister is a fair and a good Churchman. But let him do as God commands Ezekiel to do, Ezek. 14. 4. Answer them according to their Idols, preach to their necessities, let him call them, and press them to holy duties, and reprove them for their unholy practices, and make known unto them what evil consciences they have: what then is 
Scio me offensurum quam plurimos qui generalem de vitiis disputationem in suam referunt contumeliam, & dum mihi irascuntur suam judicant conscientiam, multoque prius de se quam de me judicant. Hieron. ad Rustic. Monach.  their carriage and behaviour? Even that, Amos. 5. 10. They hate him that rebukes in the gate; and they abhor him that speaks uprighly. This Ministry that comes to the conscience will not down with them. It lets in too much light upon them, and Ahab hates Micaiah for drawing the curtains so wide open, he cannot endure such punctual and particular preaching that claps so close to his conscience. A plain sign that Ahab hath a rotten and an unsound Conscience. Micaiah could not be more punctual with Ahab, than Isaiah was with Hezekiah, Isa. 39 6, 7. And yet what says Hezekiah? Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken; as if he had said, a good Sermon, a good Preacher, all good. Whence comes this good entertainment of so harsh a message? Hezekiah had a good Conscience, and therefore though the message went against the hair, yet he could give good words, Let the righteous smite me, and it shall be a kindness, Psal. 141. I, but that is when the righteous smites the righteous, what if the Prophet smite Amaziah? he will threaten to smite him again, 2 Chron. 25. 16. Forbear, why shouldest thou be smitten? Why if Paul preach of a good Conscience, and so make Ananias his Conscience to smite him? Ananias will command the standers by to smite him on the mouth. Now let all the standers by judge whether Ananias have any good Conscience in him, who cannot brook the preaching of good Conscience. Let men profess they know God as long as they will, yet if they slight the word, or swell at it, or be disobedient to it when it is laid to their Conscience, Paul makes it a manifest sign of a defiled conscience, Tit. 1. 15, 16. Their mind and their conscience is defiled. How appears that? They profess they know God, but they are disobedient. When therefore the Ministry of the Word shall charge thee with duty, or reproove thee for sin, and then thou shalt charge the Minister with railing, and girding, and that this Sermon was made for the nonce for thee, & thou likest not that Ministers should be so particular, etc. In God's fear be advised to look to thy Conscience, and know it that thou hast a naughty conscience: when the Ministry of the Word smites thy conscience, then for thee to smite the Minister with reproachful and disgraceful terms, to smite him with thy mouth: How is thy conscience better than Ananias his, that commands to smite Paul on the mouth? he that cannot brook that God's Ministers should not discharge a good conscience in preaching to the conscience, be bold to challenge that man for a man of an evil conscience.  
4. That is a fourth note of a good conscience, 
4 Note of a good conscience. To do duty for conscience sake.  Rom. 13. 5. ye must be subject for conscience sake. To do good, or abstain from evil merely for conscience sake, is a note of a right good conscience indeed. Conscience, as we saw before, doth excite and stir up, and bind to the doing of good, and bind from the doing of evil. Now when the conscience upon just information from the Word, shall press, and forbidden, and then a man shall, because conscience forbids, forbear, or because it presses, perform obedience: thus to do good, or not to do evil, for conscience sake, is a note of a good conscience. It evidences a good conscience when the main weight that sets the wheels on work is conscience of God's commandment. When it is that, Ps. 119. 4. that sets a man on work, Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. The end of the commandment is love, 1 Tim. 1. 5. and love is the fulfilling of the commandment, Rom. 12. But what love? From a pure heart, and a good conscience, 1 Tim. 1. 5. When conscience of the commandment carries a man to the fulfilling of the end of it, then doth such love come from a good conscience. Salomons description of a good man, Eccl. 9 2. is that he fears an oath. He says not, that swears not; but that fears an oath. For a man not to swear may be the fruit of good education, and of the awe a man hath stood in of his Governors, but to fear an oath, argues that a man fears the commandment, Prov. 13. 13. and to fear the commandment is the note of a good conscience.  
Here let men's consciences be tried. Thou prayest in thy family, hearest the Word, keepest the Sabbath, etc. Now search thine heart, and make inquiry what it is that carrieth thee to these duties. Dost thou do them for conscience sake? Dost thou find conscience to urge and press thee, and to give satisfaction of the conscience, and obedience to the injunctions thereof. Are these things done? If so, it is a sign of a good conscience. But this discovers the naughtiness of men's consciences, who though they be sound in some good duties, or in the avoiding of some evils, yet is it not conscience that works them thereto. Ye must be subject, not only for wrath, that is, for fear of the Magistrates wrath and revenge, but for conscience sake, Rom. 13. 5. It is no good conscience when a man will be subject for his skin's sake, and lest he smart by the Magistrate's sword, but then a man's conscience is good, when in obedience to God's Word, and in conscience of his commandment he subjects. The like may be said of all by-ends. Ye must do good duties, not for profit, not for credit, not for vainglory, not for ●aw, but for conscience sake; or else evil consciences ye have in that ye do. The Shechemites receive circumcision, Gen. ●4. And is not circumcision God's Ordinance? And is it not joy of them that they will join to the Church, and profess the true Religion? Yes surely, if it were done for conscience. I, but it is not done for conscience sake. Alas no such matter, but for Hamors sake the Lord of the Town, and for Shechems' sake, their young Master, and for the hope of gains sake: Shall not their cattles, and their substance, and every beasts of theirs be ours? Gen. 34. 23. For the oxen sake, and not for conscience sake are the Shechemites circumcised. Shechem for Dinahs' sake receives the Sacrament. Oh the zeal and forwardness that some will profess on a sudden. What frequenters of holy exercises? But what, is it for conscience sake? No such matter, but Shechem is in hope of a match with Dinah, and all these shows of Religion are neither for God's sake, nor conscience sake, but all for Dinahs' sake, all under hope of preferment by a rich marriage. They were goodly shows of zeal, joh. 6. 22. 24. in seeking and following after Christ, but it was neither for Christ, nor conscience sake, but ver. 26. for the loaves, and the bread, and their bellies sake.  
Many of the heathens, Esth, 8. 17. turned jews. Was there not joy of such Proselytes? not a whit, for not the fear of God, but the fear of the jews fell upon them; as many frequent the public assemblies more for fear of the statute, then for fear of the commandment. The officers of the King helped the jews, Esther 9 3. Was it for conscience sake? Nothing less, but for wrath sake, and for fear, because the fear of Mordecai fell upon them.  
If the Pharises had done all that (Mat. 6.) for conscience sake, which they did for vainglory sake, they had had the glory of good consciences. Many preached the Gospel in Paul's days, Phil. 1. Does not so good a work argue a good conscience? Yes, if it had been done for conscience sake; but that was done for contention sake, not to add souls to the Church, but to add sorrows to Paul's afflictions.  
It is a note of a good conscience, when that which we do is done with a respect unto the commandment of God, Psal. 119. 6. and not with a squint respect unto our own private, for praise or profit. It 
Vtrine majores heretici? illine qui pictas & ligneas, an qui aureas & argenteas imagines è templis exigerent, & ad conflandam monetam igne adurerent? Dubro. hist. Bohe. l. 24.  was a good argument of those Bohemians good consciences in plucking down Images, that they beat down only painted and wooden Images, whilst Sigismond the Emperor pulled down silver and golden ones, to melt into money for pay of his Soldiers, as they plead for themselves, when they were held Heretics for their fact. If they had pulled down such Images as he did, they might have been thought to have done it for gain, and not for conscience sake.  
How great is often the zeal of many against fashions, and such vanities? How well it were if it were for conscience sake, and not for envy against some particular person, whom they do distaste, and so for the person, the vanity For if it be for conscience sake, how is it that those vanities, such great offences to their consciences found in some distasted persons, are yet no trouble to their consciences, being the very same, if not worse in their own favourites, and associates? judge whether such zeal come from conscience, or from corrupt affection, whether it be not more against the person, 
5. Note of a good conscience. Holy boldness. Bona conscientia prodire vult & conspici, ipsas nequitia tenebras timet. Senec. ep. 98. Qui non deliquit decet audacem esse & confidenter prose, & proterve loqui. Plaut. in Anth.  then against the sin.  
5. We have a fift note of a good conscience in the Text. And Paul earnestly beholding the Council. Here is a mark of a good conscience in his looks, as well as in his words; in his face, as well as in his speech. Paul is here convented before the Council, with what face is he able to behold them? And Paul earnestly beholding the Council. A good conscience makes a man hold up his head even in the thickest of his enemies. It can look them in the faces, and outface a whole rabble of them assembled on purpose to cast disgrace on it. That may be said of a man with a good conscience, which is spoken of some of David's men, 1 Chron. 12. 8. Whose faces were like the faces of Lions, for the righteous is bold as a Lion, Prov. 28. 1. Now might Paul truly have said, as David, Ps. 57 4. My soul is among Lions, I lie among them that are set on fire. And now how fares he? what is he all amort? looks he pale and blank? doth he sneak or hang down his head, or droop with a dejected countenance? No, Paul is as bold as a Lion, and can face these Lions, and earnestly fix his countenance upon the best of them. A good conscience makes a man's face as God had made Ezekiels, Ez. 3. 8, 9 Behold I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads. As an Adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead, fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks. Such heartening and hardening comes also from a good conscience. A good conscience makes a man go, as the Lord in another sense tells Israel he had done for them, Levit. 26. 13. I have made you go upright. A good conscience erects a man's face, and looks, it is no sneaking slinker, but makes a man go upright. As contrarily, guilt dejects both a man's spirits, and his looks, and unless a man have a Sodomitical impudency, Isa. 3. 9 or an whore's forehead, jer. 3. 3. which refuses to be ashamed, makes him hang down the head.  
Paul fixes his eyes here, and looks earnestly upon them, but what if they had looked as earnestly upon him? yet would not his good conscience have been outfaced. See Act. 6. 15. All that sat in the Council looked steadfastly on him; namely on Steven. If but the high Priest alone had faced him, it had been somewhat, but all that sat at the Council looked steadfastly on him. Surely one would think such a presence were able to have damped, and utterly to have dashed him out of countenance. But how is it with him? Is he appalled? Is he damped? They saw his face as it had been the face of an Angel, says the text. As wisdom, Eccl. 8. 1. so a good conscience makes the face to shine. A good conscience hath not only a Lions, but an Angel's face; it hath not only a Lion-like boldness, but an Angelical dazzling brightness, which the sick and sore eyes of malice can as ill endure to behold, as the Israelites could the shining brightness of Moses face. The face of a good conscience tells enemies that they are malicious Liars. And no wonder that a good conscience hath such courage and confidence in the face, standing before a whole Council, when it shall be able to hold up it head with boldness before the Lord himself, at that great day of the general judgement. Even than shall a good conscience have a bold face.   

CHAP. IX.  
Two other, and the last notes of a good conscience.  
A sixth note of a good conscience follows, namely that which we have, 
6. Note of conscience. To suffer for conscience.  1 Pet. 2. 19 When a man for conscience towards God endures grief, suffering wrong. A good conscience had rather that Ananias should smite, than itself should. Ananias his blows are nothing to the blows of conscience. Ananias may make Paul's cheeks glow, but conscience gives such terrible buffets, as will make the stoutest heart in the world to ache. That will pinch, and twitch and gird the heart with such griping throws, that all the blows, and tortures that Ananias his cruel heart can invent are nothing to them.  
Now therefore a man that sets any store by a good conscience, will not part with the Peace or Integrity thereof upon any terms. He rates the goodness of his conscience far above all earthly things. Wealth, liberty, wife, children, life itself, all are vile, and cheap in comparison of it. And therefore a man of a good conscience will endure any grief, and suffer any wrong to keep his conscience good towards God. Such a good conscience had Daniel, Dan. 1. 8. He proposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the King's meat. That is, he was fully settled and resolved in his conscience, come what would come, he would not do that which would not stand with a good conscience. But what if it could have gotten no other meat? without all doubt he would rather have starved than have defiled his conscience with that meat. He would have lost his life, rather than have lost the Peace, and Integrity of his conscience. It seems a question of great difficulty, which was put to the three Children, Dan. 3. Whether they will give the bowing of their bodies to the golden Idol, or the burning of their bodies to the fiery Furnace. But yet they find no such difficulty therein, they were not careful to answer in that matter, ver. 16. Of the two fires they chose the coolest, & the easiest. The fire of a guilty conscience is seven times hotter, and more intolerable than the fire of Nebuchadnezars Furnace, though it be heated seven times more than it is wont to be heated.  
If the question come between life and good conscience, that one of the two must be parted withal, it is an hard case. Life is wondrous sweet and precious. Skin for skin, and all that a man hath will he give for his life, job 2. 4. What then should a man do in such a hard case? Hear what is the resolution of a good conscience, Act. 20. 24. My life not dear unto me, so that I may fulfil my Ministration with joy. And wherein lay his joy, but in his good conscience, 2 Corinth. 1. 12. It is all one as if he had said, I care not to lose my life to keep a good conscience. A good conscience in that passage of the Apostle, 1 Tim. 1. 19 is secretly compared to a ship. Now in a tempest at Sea, when the question is come to this, whether the goods shall be cast out, or the Ship be cast away, what do the Mariners? See Act. 27. 18. 38. They lightened the Ship, and cast out the wheat into the Sea. The Mariners will turn the richest Commodities overboard to save the Ship, for they know if the Ship be cast away, than themselves are cast away. Thus it is with a man that hath a good conscience, when the case comes to this pinch, that either his outward Comforts, or his inward Peace must wrack, he will cheerfully cast the wheat into the sea: will part with all earthly commodities and comforts, before he will rush, and wrack his conscience upon any rock. He knows if the ship be wracked if his conscience be cracked, that then himself, and his soul is in danger of being cast away, and therefore he will throw away all to save conscience from being split upon the rocks, and being swallowed up in the sands.  
There is as great a difference between a good conscience, and all outward things even unto life itself, as is between the arm, and the head or heart. The brain and the heart are vital parts, therefore when the head is in danger to be cleft, or the heart to be thrust through, a man will not stand questioning whether he were best adventure his hand, or his arm to save his head, or his heart, but either of these being in danger, the hand and the arm presently interpose themselves to receive the blow, and put themselves in danger of being wounded, or cut off; rather than the head or heart should be pierced. A man may have his hand, or arm cut off, and yet may live, but a wound in the brain or heart is mortal. It is so in this case. A good conscience values its own peace above all the world. It is that wherein a Christians life lies, therefore he will suffer the right hand or foot to be cut off, and lose all rather than expose conscience to danger. A man may go to heaven with the loss of a limb, and though he halt, Math. 18. 8. but if a man lose his life, if conscience be lost, all is lost. A man may go to heaven though he lose riches, liberty, life, but if a good conscience be lost, there is no coming thither. All things compared to conscience are as far beneath it, as the least finger beneath the head. He were a mad man that would suffer his skull to be cleft to save his little finger, nay but the paring of his nail. And yet the world is full of such mad men, that suffer conscience to receive many a deep wound and gash, to save those things which in comparison of good conscience, are but as the nail parings to the head.  
Try men's consciences here, and we shall find them exceeding short. A good conscience will endure any grief, and suffer any wrong rather than suffer the loss of its own peace. God commands Amaziah, 2 Chron. 25. to put away Israel, oh! but what shall I do for mine hundred Talents? Tush, what are an hundred Talents? A good conscience in yielding obedience to God is a richer treasure than the East and West Indies. And yet how many be there that will craze their conscience an hundred times before they will lose one Talon by obedience to God, out of a care to keep a good conscience. A talon; nay, that is too deep, never put them to that cost, they will sell a good conscience, not for gaining, but for the taking of a farthing token. God and good conscience say, Sanctify the Sabbath. Possibly some halfpenny customer comes to a Tradesman's Shop on a Sabbath, and asks the sale of such, or such a commodity. Now the man's conscience tells him of the commandment, tells him what God looks for, tells him it cannot stand with his peace to make markets on that day, etc. But then he tells conscience, that if he be so precise, he may lose a customer, and if he lose his customers, he may shut up his Shop-windows. An Innkeepers conscience tells him that it is fit that he should be attending Gods service at his house on his day, than that he should be waiting on his guest. But then he replies to conscience, that then his take will be but poor, and this is the next way to pluck down his sign. So here lies a dispute between Conscience and Gain, which of these two must be parted with. If now in this case a man will grow to this resolution; By Gods help I am resolved to keep a good conscience in keeping God's Commandment and Sabbath, I will rather lose the best customer I have, and the best guest I have, than the peace of a good conscience. If I beg, I beg; I will say of my customers as jacob of his children, Gen. 43. 14. If I am bereft of them, I am bereft. I will trust God with my estate, before I will hazard my conscience; Give me such a man, such a Tradesman, and I will be bold to say he is a man of a good conscience. But contrarily, when men are so set upon gain, that so they may have it, they care not how they come by it, they will dispense an hundred times with their obedience to God if any thing be to be had, if these have good consciences let any judge. How would such lose their blood and lives, that will not lose such trifling gains for the safety of their conscience? We have not yet resisted unto blood, the more we own to God, that know not what that resistance means. Alas, how would those resist unto blood that set conscience to sale upon so base prices as they do.  
Peter speaks of a fiery trial, 1. Pet. 4. 12. If God should ever bring that trial amongst us, that a company of drossy consciences would it find out? We have no fiery trial, we have but an airy trial only, and yet how many evil consciences it discovers. Many a man could find in his heart to pray in his family, to frequent good exercises, and company, he is convinced in his conscience, that thus he should do, and conscience presses him to it. But why then are not these things done? A Lion is in the way. He shall lose the good word and opinion of the world, he shall have so many frowns, and frumps, and censures, and scoffs, that he cannot buckle to this course. Many are in Zedekiah his case; he was convinced in his conscience, that he ought, and it was his safest course to go out to the Chaldeans, questionless his conscience pressed him to it, and bids him go out. Why then goes he not? He is afraid, jer. 38. 19 that he shall be mocked. Such consciences as will not prefer their own good word, a comfort before the good or ill words of the world; Such consciences as more fear the mocks and flouts of men on earth, than they do the grinning mocks of the devils in hell; Such as will not prefer the peace of conscience before all other things, are mere strangers to good conscience.  
The seventh and last note remains. 
7. Note of a good conscience. Constancy in good.  And that is in the Text, Until this day. Constancy and Perseverance in good, is a sure note of a good conscience. Paul had been young, and now was old, and yet was old Paul still, still the same holy man he was. Time changes all things but a good conscience, and that is neither changed by Time, nor with Time; Age changes a man's favour, but not a good man's faith; his complexion, not his religion; and though his head turn grey, yet his heart holds vigorous still.  
Until this day.] And this day was not fare from his dying day. And how held he out to his last day? Hear as it were his last and dying breath, 2 Tim. 4. 7. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. He says not, I have finished my faith, I have kept my life, as many may, but I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. He kept his faith till he had finished his course, not only here, until this day, but there until his finishing day. So long he kept the faith, and therefore so long a good conscience, for as the losing of them go together, 1 Tim. 1. 19 so the keeping of them go together, therefore keeping the faith, he also kept a good conscience till he finished his days.  
Until this day.] And yet one would wonder that he should keep it to this day, considering how hardly he had been used before, until, and now at this day, the most of those things, 2 Cor. 11. 23. were before this day. Often under stripes, in prisons oft, and yet stands constant in the maintenance of the liberty of his conscience, vers. 24, 25. Thrice I suffered shipwreck, etc. and yet made no shipwreck of a good conscience, vers. 26, 27. in a number of perils, in peril of false brethren, and yet his conscience plays not false with God, neither is it weary of going on in a religious course.  
Here then is the nature of a good conscience, and the trial of it.  
A good conscience holds out constantly in a good Cause, without Deflection, and in a good Course without Defection.  
1. In a good cause. Let a good conscience undertake the defence of a good Cause, and it will stand rightly to it, and neither grow weary nor corrupt. It will not make shows of countenancing Paul's cause till he come before Nero, and then give him the slip, and give him leave to stand upon his own bottom, and shift for himself as well as he can. A conscionable Magistrate, and a judge, who cut of a conscience of the faithful discharge of his place, takes in hand the defence of a good, or the punishment of a bad cause, will not leave it in the suddes, will not be wrought by fear or favour, to let Innocency be thrust to the walls, and Iniquity hold up the neb, but will stand out stiff, and manifest the goodness of his conscience in his Constancy.  
2. In a good Course. A man that is once in a good course, having a good conscience, will neither be driven, nor be drawn out of that good way to his dying day. There be tentations on the right hand, and there be tentations on the left, but yet a good conscience will turn neither way, Pro. 4. 27. but keeps on fore right, and presses hard to the mark that is set before it; Try it with tentations on the left hand. Try it by the mockings and derisions, of others whom it sees in good ways will this stagger or stumble it, and make it start aside? not a whit, but it will go on with so much the more courage rather job 17, 6, 7, 8, 9 He hath made me also a byword of the people, and aforetime I was a Tabret. Was not this enough to shake others, to see such a prime man as job thus used, thus scorned and mocked? not a whit; for all this, The righteous shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands, be stronger and stronger.  
Try it by mockings and derisions personal, 
Si reddere beneficium non aliter quam per speciem injuria potero, oequissimo animo ad honestum consilium pe● medium infamiam ●endam. Nemo mihi videtur pluris virtutem, nemo illi magis esse devotus quam qui boni viri famam perdidit ne conscientiam perderet. Senoc. epi. 82.  by personal infamy and reproach, let a man's own self be derided, be defamed, this will go nearer than the former, what, will this move him out of the way? No: He will lose his good name, before his good conscience. See Ps. 119. 51. The proud have had me greatly in derision, yet have I not declined from thy Law. And though Michol, 2 Sam. 6. play the flouting fool, yet David will not play the declining fool, but if to be zealous, be to be a fool, he will be yet more vile. And though jeremy was in derision daily, and every one mocked him, yea, and defamed him, yet he was rather the more than the less zealous, jer. 20. 7, 9, 10. The righteous Psal. 135. 1. are like Mount Zion that cannot be removed, but abides for ever. What likelihood that a puff of breath should remove a Mountain? When men can blow down Mountains with their breath, then may they scoff a good conscience out of the ways of godliness and sincerity. Mount Zion, and a good conscience abide for ever.  
But these happily may be thought lighter trials, put a good conscience to some more smarting, and bleeding trials, than these pettier ones are, and yet there shall we find it as constant as in the former.  
Let the Lord give the Sabeans, Chaldeans, and satan leave to spoil job of his goods, and children, will not then job give up his Integrity? do ye not think that he will curse God to his face? So indeed the devil hopes, job 1. 15. But what is the issue? what gets the devil by the trial? only gives God argument of triumph against him in jobs constancy, job 2. 3. And still he holdeth fast his integrity. As if he had said, See for all that thou canst do, in spite of all thy spite, and mischievous malice, he holds fast his Integrity until this day. See the terrible trials, to which they were put, Heb. 11. 37. They were stoned, sawn asunder, etc. and yet all could not make them shake hands with a good conscience. The rain, floods, and winds, could not bring down the house founded upon the rock, Mat. 7. Notwithstanding all trials, a good conscience stands to it, and holds it own, and speaks as once Father Rawlins did the Bishop, Rawlins you left me, 
Acts and Mon.  Rawlins you find me, and Rawlins by God's grace I will continue.  
Try yet a good conscience farther, with the tentations on the right hand, which commonly have as much more strength in them above the other, as the right hand hath above the left, and yet we shall find the right hand too weak to pluck a good conscience out of its station.  
It was a sore tentation wherewith Moses was assaulted. The treasures, and pleasures, the honours, & favours of the Egyptian Court, & Princess. All these woo him not to go the people of God. Had that people been settled and at rest in Canaan, yet had it been a great tentation to prefer Egypt before Canaan. But the people are in Egypt, in affliction, in bondage, therefore so much the more strength in the tentation What will you be so mad to leave all for nothing, certain honours for certain afflictions? who can tell but you may be raised to this greatness to be an instrument of good to your people! You by your favour in the Court may be means to ease them of their bondage, and so you may do the Church service with your greatness, etc. Here was a tentation on the right hand, and with the right hands strength. Well, and how speeds it? Is Moses able to withstand it? See Heb. 11. 24, 25, 26. He refused to be called the Son of Pharaohs Daughter, etc. All would not do, nor stir him a whit. Those faithful Worthies before mentioned, could not be stirred with all the cruelties their adversaries could invent. I, but it may be a tentation on the right hand, might have made them draw away the right hand of fellowship from a good conscience. Well, their enemies therefore will try what good they can do that ways, Heb. 12. 37. They were tempted, that is, on the right hand they were solicited and enticed, and alured with fair promises of honours, favours preferments, as Bonner used to deal with the Martyrs, he had sometimes butter and oil, as well as fire and faggot, in his mouth. Thus were they tempted, but yet what availed these tentations? Just as much as their stones, saws, swords, prisons, all a like. They for all these tentations keep a good conscience to their dying day, and hold fast the faith and truth unto the end.  
A good conscience is of the mind of those trees, in jothams' parable, judg. 9 It will not with the Olive lose its fatness, nor with the Figtree lose its sweetness, nor with the vine its wine of cheerfulness, to have the fattest, and sweetest preferments and pleasures of the world, no though it were to reign over the trees.  
It was an excellent resolution of Benevolus 
Benevolo Iustina praecepit ut adversus fidem patrum imperialia decreta dictaret; Illo vero se impia verba prolaturum abnuente, celsiorem honoris gradum spopondit, si mandata perficeret: cui Benevolus, Quid mihi pro impietatis mercede altiorem promittis gradum? hunc ipsum quem habeo auferte, dunt in●gram fidei conscientiam tuear. Ac protonus cingulum ante pedes ejus abjecit. S●gon de occid. Imp. l. 1. pag. 200.  in his answer to justina the Arrian Empress, proffering preferments to him to have been instrumental in a service which could not be done with a good conscience. What do ye promising me an higher degree of preferment for a reward of impiety? yea even take this from me which already I have, so that I may keep a good conscience. And so forthwith he threw at his feet his girdle, the ensign of his honour. Thus doth a good conscience throw and trample honour and preferment under foot, to maintain its own integrity? Thus can nothing corrupt a good conscience. I have been young, and now am old, and yet never saw I the righteous forsaken, to wit, of God, Psalm. 37. David out of his experience could have said as much in this point, I have been young, and now am old, yet never saw I God, and godliness forsaken by the righteous, by the man that had a good conscience. But the man that had a good conscience when he was young, will hold out and have it when he is old. It is the great honour and grace of a good Conscience, which Walden thinks he spoke to the disgrace of Wickliff, Ita ut cano placeret, quod inveni complacebat, He was young and old, one and the same man. Old age decays the body, the strength, the senses, but conscience it touches not, that holds out sound to death. As of Christ in another sense. Heb. 13. So may it be said of a good conscience in this, Yesterday, and to day, and the same for ever. A good conscience is no changeling, but let a man's estate change from rich to poor, from poor to rich, or let the times change from good to evil, or from evil to worse; or a man's days change from young to old, let his hairs and head change, yet among all these changes a good conscience will not change, but hold it own until its last day.  
Now put men's consciences upon this trial, & their inconstancy either in good causes, or courses, will discover their naughtiness. In a good cause how many are like Darius? his conscience struggles a great while for Daniel, he knew he was innocent, he knows the action to be unjust, and therefore labours all day till the setting of the Sun for his deliverance, Dan. 6. 14. but yet overcome with the Precedents & Prince's urgency, ver. 16. he command's him to the Lion's den. Here was a natural conscience standing for equity and justice, but yet no good conscience, it holds but till Sun set, and his conscience went down with the Sun. His conscience yields & is overcome, though it know the act to be unjust.  
Pilat's conscience makes him plead for Christ. In his conscience he acquits him, and thrice solemnly professes that he finds no fault in him, and therefore cannot in conscience condemn him, yea withal seeks to release him, john 19 12. Is not here now a good conscience? Indeed it had been so in this particular fact, if his conscience had been inflexible, and had held out. But when Pilate hears them say, that if he be his friend, he is no friend to Caesar, john 19▪ 12. and whilst withal he is willing to content the people, Mark 15. 15. Now that there is fear on the one side, and desire to curry favour on the other, where now is his conscience? Now he presently delivers him to be crucified, though he knows in his conscience that there is no fault in him. What a good conscience hath many a judge, and Lawyer? How stiffly will they stand in, and prosecute a just case, till a bribe come and puts out the very eyes of their conscience. Their consciences are of so soft a temper, that the least touch of silver turns their edge presently. They hold out well till there come a tentation on their left hand, that is, in their right hand, Psal. 144. 8. Whose mouth speaks vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood. If once the right hand be a right hand of falsehood, the mouth will soon speak vanity, though before it speak conscience. Who would not have thought Balaam to have been a man of an excellent conscience? If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more, Num. 22. 18. But yet besides that faltering in those words I cannot go, whereas the language of a good conscience would have been, I will not go; besides that I say, before he ends his speech, see how the hope of promotions works, and works his conscience like wax before the fire, ver. 19 Now therefore I pray you tarry here also this night, that I may know what the Lord will say unto me more. A faltering inference: If his conscience had been good, it would have inferred strongly thus; Now therefore I pray get you gone, and trouble me no longer. He knew in his conscience the people ought not to be cursed, and that he ought not to go, and yet comes in with I pray tarry all night, etc. Truly Balak needed not to have been so lavish and so prodigal, as to offer an house full, one handful of his silver and gold will frame Balaams' conscience to any thing.  
The like trial may be made of men's consciences, by their inconstancy in good courses, and this will condemn three sorts, as guilty of evil consciences.  
1. Such as sometimes being convinced of the necessity of good courses, do set upon the practice of them, and begin to look towards Religion, and religious duties, till meeting with some of their supposed wiser neighbours, they be advised to take heed, they may bring themselves into greater note than they are ware of, they will incur sharper censures than they think of, etc. and suddenly all is dashed, all is quashed and quenched. There is a disease among beasts they call the Staggers, and it is a disease too frequent in men's Consciences, who sometimes are on, sometimes off, one day begin, and next day cease good courses. That may be said of many men's conscices, which jacob speaks of Reuben, Gen, 49. 4. Unstable as water. The water moves as the winds blow. If the wind blow out of the East, than it moves one way; if out of the west, than it moves another, the clean contrary, and upon every new wind a new way. So many, let them hear a convincing, and a good persuading Sermon moving to good duties, than they will set upon them; let them again hear either some mocks, or reproaches for those ways, or some sage advice from one they count wise, against the way of conscience, they are as far off again as ever. These staggering, irresolute, and watery Consciences are fare from good ones.  
2. Such as in their youth, or when the world was low with them, were very zealous and forward; But what are they now at this day? True downright Demasses, zealous when they were young, but now old and cold: zealous when they were mean, but now the world is come upon them, Demas-like they have forsaken goodness, and embraced the world, have gotten now worm-eaten, and world-eaten consciences. The zeal of God's house was wont to eat them up, but now the world hath eaten up them, and all their good conscience.  
3. Those that have made good the profane Proverb, Young Saints and old Devils, whose hatred of Religion and good conscience is greater than ever was their love thereto, as Ammon was towards Thamar, 2 Sam. 13. 15. They were zealous and forward frequenters of God's house and Ordinances; zealous enemies against Swearing, and Sabbath-breaking, etc. But what are they at this day? yesterday indeed zealous professors of holiness, but what are they to day? to day malicious scoffers of godliness, haters and opposers of goodness, the only swearers and drunkards in a country. What kind of consciences are these? none of Paul's conscience, I have lived in all good conscience until this day. What then? just the consciences of Hymenaeus and Alexander, 1 Tim. 1. 18, 19 They once made great profession of conscience, but now enemies to Paul, and blasphemers, men, as Paul speaks, that had put away good conscience, they did not through want of watchfulness let it slip, or steal away; but as if it would never have been gone soon enough, they put, and drove it away, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Beza translates it, Qua expulsa. They used their consciences as Ammon did Thamar after his lust satisfied, 2 Sam. 13. 15, 17. Arise, be gone, says he to her, and when she pleads for herself, he calls his servant, and says unto him, Put out this woman, and bolt the door after her, put her out so, as she may be sure not to come again. They dealt with their Consciences as Colleges deal with Rakehells, expelled them without all hope of reentry. Thus many profane Apostating backsliders cannot be content to lose good conscience, unless Ammon-like they may put it away with violence, and expel it. And how can they have good conscience that have put it away? He hath not his wife, that hath put her away, and given her a bill of divorce. In the days of Popery and darkness, the Devil it seemed walked very familiarly amongst them, and hence we have so many stories of Fairies, and of children taken out of cradles, and others laid in their rooms, whom they called Changelings. Since the light of the Gospel, these Devils and Fairies have not been seen amongst us, but yet we are still troubled with Changelings. Some, Priests and jesuites have changed; some, the world hath changed; some, Good-fellowship and the Alehouse hath changed. These have played the Fairies, have taken and stolen away goodly, forward, and fervent Christians, and have laid in their rooms Earthlings, Worldlings, Popelings, Swearers, Drunkards, Malicious scorners of all goodness. Thus have these Fairies in stead of fair and comely children, brought in these lame, blind, deformed and wrizzled faced Changelings, that any one may easily see them to be rather the births of some Hobgoblins, than the Children of God. If therefore we would evidence our consciences good, labour to hold to the last, and rest not in youth, but labour to have age found in the way of righteousness. This is a Crown of glory, and this is right good conscience to live therein until our dying day. All the former six are nothing without this last.   

CHAP. X.  
The comfort and benefit of a good conscience, in the case of Disgrace, and Reproach.  
We are now come to the fift and last point which was propounded: The Motives to persuade us to get good consciences. The Motives thereunto may be many, I will keep myself within the compass of five.  
1. Motive, The incomparable and unspeakable 
1. Motive to a good conscience.  comfort, and benefit thereof in such cases and times as all other comforts fail a man, and wherein a man stands most in need of comfort. These cases or times are five.  

1. The Time and Case of Disgrace and Reproach.  
2. The Time of Common fear, and Common calamity.  
3. The Time of Sickness, or outward crosses in a man's goods.  
4. The Time of Death.  
5. The Time and Day of judgement.   
In all these, or in any of these times it is good to have such a friend or companion that will stick to a man, and be faithful 
Interim elige socium qui cum omnia subtracta fuerint fidem servat dilectoribus suis nec recedit in tempore angustiae. Bern. de Conscience.  to him when all other things fail him. Such a friend, and such a companion, is a good conscience. A friend loves at all times, and a brother is borne for adversity. Proverb. 17. 17. But in some of these cases a brother and friend may be false, and will not, or may be weak and cannot help nor pleasure a man, but a good conscience is better than all friends and brethren whatsoever; when they will not, or cannot, or may not, yet then will a good conscience stick close to a man, and be a sure friend to him. Let us see in the particulars the truth of it.  
1. In the time and case of Disgrace, Infamy, Reproach, and wrongs of that 
The comfort of a good conscience in case of disgrace and reproach.  kind, the comfort and benefit of a good conscience is unspeakable. When a man shall be traduced, slandered, falsely accused and condemned, then in such wrongs will a good conscience do the office of a faithful friend, will stick to, and stand by a man, and will comfort and hearten him against all such injuries. Paul is here convented before the Council as a Malefactor, he hath an whole Council bend against him. What now is his comfort, and his defence against such an heap of accusers as do affront him? This it is, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience. As if he had said, Impeach, traduce, accuse and condemn me as you please, yet be it known unto you, that I have a good conscience, and this my good conscience is it which shall comfort and uphold me against all your injurious and unequal proceed. You may bring forth false witnesses against me, but my conscience doth, and will witness for me, you may condemn me, yet my conscience acquits, and absolves me. And thus doth Paul shelter himself under his good conscience.  
The like we may see in the next Chapter. Ananias and the Elders come and bring Tertullus, and he is feed to be Paul's accuser, and he lays heavy and heinous things to Paul's charge, vers. 5. We have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the jews throughout the world, a ringleader of the sect of the nazarenes, etc. Here be foul things, what will Paul be able to say to all this? Will not this bee enough to sink him down utterly, to see so many banded together, and such great ones combined to countenance such an accusation? How will he be able to subsist? Now then behold the benefit, and comfort of a good conscience. He holds up his former buckler, and smites Ananias, and the rest with his former weapon, vers. 16. Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence towards God, and towards men. Ananias and the Elders have a mercenary Tertullus to accuse him, Paul hath no man dares be seen to plead for him, none will be retained in his cause, but yet now conscience steps out, and stops the foul mouth of this slanderous Orator, and puts spirit, and heart into Paul to plead his own Cause against them all. Conscience seems on this manner to animate him; Fear not Paul the accusations of this Tertullus, I witness for thee thine Innocence. I justify it to the teeth of Tertullus, that he is one whose malice and covetousness hath made him set his conscience to sale; stand up therefore, and speak boldly for thyself, dread them not. Well far a good conscience yet, that will speak comfort to Paul, and make Paul speak with courage, when none else dare be seen in his cause.  
It was an ill case David was in, Psalm. 69. 20. 21. Reproach hath broken mine heart, and I am full of heaviness, and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none: they gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. A very hard case indeed. Where was now David's familiar friend, his acquaintance with whom he was wont to take sweet counsel, what was become of him now? Possibly some of his acquaintance were at this time like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint, Prov. 25. 19 Confidence in an unfaithful man is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint Others it may be that had professed him love, were ready to fasten a poisoned tooth in him. This was David's case, and this may be any man's case; but now at such a time, and in such a pinch appears the excellency and benefit of a good Gonscience. Though all a man's friends should prove jobs friends, like the Winter brooks of Teman, that in winter overswell the banks, but in the scorching heat of Summer prove dry ditches yet then, even then well far a good conscience. That will heal David's heart broken with reproach, that will cheer him up in his heaviness, that will sweeten the gall, and take away the sharpness of the vinegar, which his enemies have given him to drink.  
There is a generation, Prov. 30. 14. whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives; and Pro. 12. 18. that generation speaks as the piercing of a sword. There is a generation, whose words are wounds that go down into the innermost parts of the belly. Pro. 18. 8. These be dangerous generations. But what generation are they? Generations of vipers. Psal. 140. 3. Adder's poison is under their lips. junius translates it, Venenum ptyados, The poison of the spitting Serpent. They be then generations of spitting serpents, even of fiery serpents, that have their tongues set on fire from hell, and so they spit fiery poison in the faces of Innocents'. Now there is no man can live in this world, at whom these adders will not spit, no man can be free from the sprinkling of their poison. The disciple is not above the master; If these snakes have hissed at the Lord of the house; and if these spitting Serpents have cast their poison in his face, why would they fear to do it to the servants? But is there then no balm against this poison? No buckler against these swords? Yes, there is the sovereign balm, and the impenetrable buckler of a good conscience. It is a balsam that will allay the poison of these Adders, that it shall never burst a man's heart, or if these swords pierce the very innermost bowels, yet this will so salve these wounds, that they shall not rankle, nor become mortal? Oh! how mortal is this adders poison, how fatal are these swords, how keen their edge, and how full of pain their wounds, where inward guilt gives strength unto them? But integrity and goodness of conscience, is a precious balm of Gilead, that takes away the venom of this poison, & the stinging smart of the wounds of these swords.  
Let Paul live with ever so good a conscience before God, and man, Act. 24. 16. yet Tertullus will play the spitting adder, and he will spit, yea, spew forth his poison in his face, and in the face of an whole Court will not spare openly to slander him for an arrant varlet, a lewd, pestilent, and a villainous fellow. Such drivel will the malicious world spit in the face of Godliness. But mark now the benefit, and comfort of a good conscience▪ Either a good conscience with Stephen's Angelical face will dazzle, and shame the devils Orators, 1 Pet. 3. 16. Having a good conscience that they may be ashamed, or else like Paul it can shake off those vipers without swelling or falling down dead. Yea, if Satan's orators, will needs be opening their mouths against Paul; yet so good is his conscience, that as john Hus appealed from Pope Alexander to Pope Alexander, namely, from him in his anger to him in his cold blood, and better advised, so dares Paul appeal from Tertullus to Tertullus, David from Shimei to Shimei, from enemies to enemies, from their tongues to their hearts, from their mouths to their Consciences, as knowing their own integrity to be such, as that their enemies own hearts give their tongues the , and tells them that against their Conscienses possessed with mere malice they are hurried on in Satan's service. Tertullus knows he lies, and his own Conscience tells him he lies in his throat, that Paul is an honester man that himself, yea, and the comfort is, that Paul's Conscience comforts him, and assures him that Tertullus his Conscience assures him all this, So unspeakably sweet is the comfort of a good conscience.  
David complains of a great affliction, Psal. 35. 11. False witness did rise up, they laid to my charge things that I knew not. What should a man do in such a case, if he had not the comfort of a good conscience witnessing for him? But now at such a pinch appears the benefit of a good conscience; Let ever so many rise up falsely to witness against him, yet his conscience will witness as fast for him. My friends scorn me, says job, job 16. 20. They witnessed against him to be a wicked person, and an hypocrite, they censured and condemned him, but what was jobs comfort? That same, vers. 19 Behold my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high. That was one comfort, but that was not all, he had also a witness on earth, and his record below. Upon whose record, and witness, see with what solemnity and with what confidence he stands, job 27. 2, 6. As God liveth who hath taken away my judgement, and the Almighty who hath vexed my soul, All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, my lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit; God forbidden that I should justify you, till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me, my righteousness I will hold fast, and will not let it go, mine heart shall not reproach me so long as I live. As if he had said, As the Lord lives, whilst 
Nam si in his in quibus me criminantur, testimonium Conscientiae meae non stat contra me in conspectu Dei, quo nullus oculus mortalis intenditur, non solum contristari non debeo, verumetiam exultare & gaudere, quia merces mea multa est in coelis. Neque enim intuendum est quam sit amarum, sed quam falsum sit quod audio, & quam verax pro cujusnomine hoc audio. Aug. contra. lit. Petil. l. 3.  there is breath in my body, I will not yield unto your accusations, nor yet acknowledge myself guilty of that you do charge me withal. Urge me and press me what you will, yet I will never let go mine hold. Why what is it that makes job thus stiff, and resolute, what is it that supports him with such an excellent spirit? that ver. 6. Mine heart shall not reproach me so long as I live. Indeed you reproach, censure, and condemn me, you lay heavy things to my charge; But I have searched the records of my conscience, I have called that unpartial witness to testify the truth, and I find conscience witnessing strongly on my side, and therefore do what you can, you shall never bear me down. jobs friends may prove fickle, and false, but his own conscience will prove true to him, that will plead for him, animate him, and comfort him against all their calumnious and injurious reproaches, and give him cause of much joy and triumph. job then had his witness in heaven, and job had his witness on earth, God and his own conscience, two witnesses beyond all exception; and in the mouth of two witnesses every truth shall stand. Conscience is a thousand witnesses, and God is above conscience. And what Consciences witness concerning matter of fact, God himself will justify the same. He that hath a good conscience, hath a sure friend, that will never slink nor shrink at any hand. Nay he hath two good friends, and two substantial witnesses, whose testimonies, though secret, yet are such as sweetly solace the heart of man against open reproaches, slanders, false witnesses, and all wrongs and injuries of that kind whatsoever. The testimony of conscience is full of comfort, because of the undoubted certainty, and the unquestioned infallibility thereof, so that it voicing on a man's side, strangely cheers his heart, Pro. 27. 19 As in water face answers to face, so doth the heart of a man unto man; That is, as some expound it, As a man may see his face by looking in the water, so a man may set himself, and what he is by looking into his conscience. If a man should be told that he had some filth or bloach on his 
In speculo Conscientiae status interioris hominis & exterioris cognoseitur. Non immorito Conscientiam speculo comparavit, quoniam in e● tanquam speculo rationie oculus tam indecens quam quod decens in se ●st, claro aspectu appredere potest. Ber. de Conscience.  face, if he would go look into the water, or specially into a lookingglass, he should easily see whether it were so or no. And if looking into the water, or glass, he could not see any such filth in his face, though an hundred should offer to bear him down to the contrary, yet would he believe his own eyes before them all. So here when at any time foul mouths are open, and spare not to cast aspersions upon innocency, and to lay scandalous things to a man's charge, than a man by looking into his conscience can see himself, and can find whether he be guilty or not, and seeing himself in that water; or in that glass to be clear from that dirt and filth which malice would cast in his face, it so fills his heart with comfort, and confidence, as makes him tread all reproach, and false judgement of man under his foot.  
This appears by the contrary. Let man be praised, and magnified ever so, ●et ever so much good be spoken of him, and ever so much worth be attributed to him; yet if his own heart tell him, that all is falsely spoken of him, and there is indeed no such matter in him, he 
Non ideo bona est conscientia mea quia vos illam laudatis Quid enim laudatis quod non videtis? Aug. de ver. dom. ser. 49. Si autem non aurem solam percutit iracundia criminantis, verumetiam conscientiam mordet veritas criminis, quid mihi prodest si me continuis laudibus totus mundus attollat. Ita nec malam conscientiam sanat praeconium laudantis, nec bonam vulnerat conviciantis opprobrium. Aug. contra. lit. petil. l. 2. In omni quod dicitur semper tacite occurrere debemus ad mentem & interiorem testem, & judicem requirere. Quid enim prodest si omnes laudant & conscientia accusat? aut poterit obesse si omnes derogent, & sola conscientia defendit? Greg. sup. 125. hom. 6.  hath at all no true comfort in all the good words of the world, Prov. 27. 21. As the sinning pot for silver, the furnace for gold, so is a man to his praise, that is, a man is to try his praise that is given him, and if his conscience tell him it is undeserved, he is to separate this dross of flattery from himself. All the commendations, and admirations of the world what comfort can they yield, whilst a man's conscience tells him, that they are all but lying and glavering flatteries: what though the poor multitude feeling the sweat, and refreshment of a Pharisees alms, do canonize a Pharisee for a Saint, yet what is he the better, or what comfort hath he the more, whilst his own conscience reproaches, and reproves him, and tells him that he is a vainglorious hypocrite, and that though these whom he feeds, send him to heaven, yet he shall have his portion with hypocrites, and unbelievers. What is a man the better for a flattering Funeral commendation, whilst in the mean time he is under the reproach, and torture of his conscience, in the place of torment? How many a man is there that hath the good word of all men, no man speaks well of him, but yet in the mean time, his own heart gives him bitter words; and rates him to his face? How well contented would such a one be, and what an happy exchange would he hold it, to have all the world rail on him, and slander him, so his own conscience would but speak friendly and kindly to him? so he could find honey from his conscience, he would not care what gall he had from the world.  
Experience lets us see that such as have been malevolent and injurious against others innocence, though they have been abetted and borne out by their umpires, and advocates, that for handfuls of barley, and scraps, and crusts, have laboured to maintain ill Causes, and worse persons, yet they have had no peace nor rest of heart. Their advocates have bid them, sit down with rest and victory, the day is theirs, they have cheered them, and striven to deserve their fee, and yet their guilty Clients being nettled with the inward guilt of their consciences, have still been haunted with a restless and perplexed unquiet spirit, which others made guilty, and censured for offenders by such mercenary umpires, have possessed their souls in patience, and have been cheerful and merry-hearted, from the comfort of their own innocent and clear consciences.  
So that look as the naughty conscience can speak no comfort, though all the world speak well of it; so contrarily, though all the world reproach, censure, slander, etc. yet a good conscience 
Foelix conscientia non sibi in aliquo conscia, quae non proprium judicium nec alienum veretur. Bern. de Conscience. Beata plane quae non alienis aestimatur judiciis, sed domesticls percipitur sensibus tanquam sui iudex. Neque enim popularis opiniones pro mercede aliqua requirit, neque pro supplicio pavet. Ambros. de office l. 2. c. 1. Non possunt aliena verba crimen affigere quod propria non recepit conscientia. Ambros. in Psal. 38.  can, and will speak peace, and comfort to a man's heart.  
The Corinthians did exceedingly slight Paul, He was this, and he was that, but how was he affected with it? See how, 1 Cor. 4. 3, 4. But with me it is a very small thing, that I should be judged of you. I know full well what your censures are, and what sentence you pass upon me, but know ye that I no whit at all regard the same, I make no reckoning thereof at all. Why? might the Corinthians say, do ye count us so silly, and so injudicious? Nay, says Paul, I speak it not as if you were sillier than others, with me it is a small thing to be judged of you, or of man's judgement, let them be the most wise, and judicious that are in the world, or of man's Day, though by men convened in solemn manner for judgement; I pass not what their censure is, I regard not their mis-judging of me. I, but what makes Paul thus slight men's judgement of him? That in the fourth verse, I know nothing by myself, mine own conscience judges me not, nor sentences me, that lays no such thing to my charge, and therefore so long as my conscience is on my side, I regard not a whit what the world judges.  
Now then see what a Motive this is to get and keep a good conscience. As we would be glad to have comfort and confidence against the malice of opprobrious tongues, as we would have a counterpoison against their venom, so get a good conscience. Here is that which may make us in love with a good conscience. Reproach must full often be the portion of God's dear children. Israelites shall be for ever an abomination to Egyptians. And though the Egyptian dogs moved not their tongues against Israel, Exodus 11. 7. yet dogged Egyptians will move their tongues and their teeth too. The Apostles must be counted the filth of the world, and the off-scowrings of all things, 1 Corinth. 4. 13. The Lord jesus himself drank of this cup, Psal. 22. 6, 7. I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me, laugh me to scorn, etc. The way to heaven is a narrow way, and this narrow way is beset with snakes, spitting adders, barking, and biting, and mad dogs, and a man must pass to heaven through good and evil report, 2 Corrinth. 6. 8.  
Well then, it being so hard a passage 
Currentem attrites super aspidas & basiliscos decl●naresenem vipera non poterit. Prosp. do Aug. Conscia mens recti fama mendacia ridet, Sed nos in vitium credula turba sumus. Ovid.  how may a man get himself so armed that he may pass cheerfully through all these? get a good conscience, and thou shalt regard these snakes, serpents, vipers, and dogs, no more than a straw under thy foot. If thou have a good conscience, thou shalt laugh at the reproaches of enemies, as Eliphaz speaks of destruction. job 5. A good conscience will say unto thee, Go on cheerily in the ways of God, what ever discouragements the Devil raises by reproaches and slanders, fear them not, behold I acquit & excuse thee, I will bear thee out, I will witness at God's tribunal for thee. Lo, I give thee balm against their poison, a buckler against their swords. Let them curse, yet I will bless thee; let them reproach, yet I will comfort; let them condemn, yet I will absolve thee; let them defame thee, yet I will be thy compurgator; let them cast dirt in thy face, yet I will wash it off; let them disquiet, yet behold, I am ready to cheer thee. Oh the sweet and unconceivable comfort that a good conscience will speak, even in the midst of the cruel speakings of ungodly men, jude 15. that will speak comfortably when they speak cruelly, and most comfortably, when they speak most cruelly. Such is the benefit of a good conscience in case of reproach and disgrace.   

CHAP. XI.  
The comfort and benefit of a good conscience in the times of common fears and calamities, in the times of personal evils, as sickness, and afflictions, for conscience sake.  
IN the second place, let us see what 
2. The comfort of a good conscience in the times of common fears and calamities.  the benefit and comfort of a good conscience is, in the times of Common fears, and Common calamities. When the world is full of fears and dangers, and calamities break in, how fares it then with an evil conscience, in what taking are they that want a good conscience? They are absorbed with fears, and the very tidings puts them to such perplexities, Isa. 7. 2. Ahas is told of a confederacy between Syria, and Ephraim, and see in what fears he and his people were, His heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind. So deeply do reports and and evil tidings affect them, the trees in the wood are not so shaken with the blustering winds, as evil consciences are with evil tidings. When ill news, and ill consciences meet, there is no small fear. The signs that prognosticate sorrowful times, see how deeply they affect evil consciences, Luke 21. 25. There shall be signs in the Sun and the Moon, and in the stars, and upon the earth, distress of Nations with perplexity, men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming in the earth. But when calamity indeed comes, and not ill news, but ill times, and ill consciences meet, how are they then? They are then either in the case the Egyptians were in the famine, Gen. 47. 13. They were at their wit's end; or as those in a storm at Sea, Ps. 107. 26, 27. Their soul is melted because of trouble, They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and all their wisdom is swallowed up. Excess of fear puts them into as great distempers, as excess of wine, it utterly stupifies them, and they by fear, are as much bereft of the use of their senses, wit, and wisdom, as a drunkard is in his drunkenness. Yea, their fears make them not only drunk, but stark mad, Deut. 28. 34. Thou shalt be oppressed and cursed always, so that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see. The perplexities of an evil conscience in evil times, are unspeakeably grievous. Isay doth exceeding lively describe them, Isay 31. 7, 8, 9 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt, And they shall be afraid, pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them, they shall be in pain as a woman that travels, they shall be amazed one at another, their faces shall be as flames, etc. Hence that same strange question of the Prophet, jerem. 30. 6, Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travel with child? A strange question, what should make the Prophet ask it? Because he foresaw such strange behaviour amongst them, carrying themselves in the same fashion in the day of calamity, that women use to do in the extremity of the pangs of childbirth. Wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins as a woman in travel, and all-faces are turned into paleness? Alas, for that day is great, so that none is like it, it is even the time of jacobs' trouble. When such woeful days befall a man, all his riches will not yield him a jot of comfort, Pro. 11. 4. Riches avail not in the day of wrath. No, that will no whit cheer a man at such a time, They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed, etc. Ezek. 7. 19 This shall be the miserable pickle a man shall be in at such a time, that wants a good Conscience.  
But now look upon a man with a good conscience in such times, and how fares it with him? Let evil tidings and times come, how is he affected therewithal? He will not be afraid of evil tidings, for his heart is fixed, Psalm. 112. 7. Fe re he may, but yet his Heart shall be free from those restless, and perplexing distractions, wherewith all others are vexed, Luke 22. 9 When ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified. And Prov. 3. 25. Be not afraid of sudden fear. There is nothing so arms and resolves the heart against fears and evil tidings, as doth the peace and integrity of a good conscience. For let there be outward peace abroad in the world, and freedom from all fears of wars and combustions, yet little joy and comfort can a man have therein, whilst his conscience proclaims war against him, and as God's Herald summons him to battle. Those inward wars, and rumours of wars, woefully distract him in the midst of his outward peace. So contrarily let there be peace within in the conscience, and all wars, and fears of wars hushed there, and then what ever fears and troubles are like to be without, yet there will be a calm, a serenity, and a sweet security within.  
Be careful, and so fearful, for nothing, Phil. 4. 6. To be fearful in nothing, is indeed an excellent happiness of a well composed mind. How might one attain thereto? How might a man bring his heart to that fixed and established temper? See vers. 7. The Peace of God that passes all understanding shall guard your hearts and minds, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, shall keep with a guard, as Kings have their guards about them, to save their persons from violence; shall guard your hearts, that is, your affections, that they run not into extremities of impatience, distraction, desperation; when fears and terrors shall come, ye shall not be transported with such distracting thoughts as shall deprive you of the freedom of your minds, but that you shall have them to attend upon God in the greatest of your dangers. So that a man with a good conscience in the midst of all fears and combustions can sing with David, Psal. 116. 7. Return unto thy rest, O my soul. The peace of a good conscience is like the ballast of a Ship. Let a Ship go to Sea without ballast in the bottom, and every blast of wind is ready to overturn it, but being well ballasted, though the winds blow strong, yet it sails steadily and safely. Every blast of ill news, and tidings of fear, how full of terrible apprehensions it fills an ill conscience, it miserably unsettles and distracts it, whilst a good conscience, what blasts soever blow, hath its heart steady and at good command.  
Me thinks when I consider Noah in his Cabbine, or nest in the Ark, with what security and quiet of heart he sits there, notwithstanding the clattering of the raines upon the Ark, the roaring of the waters, and the hideous howling and outcries of those that were drowned in the flood, I see the Emblem of a good conscience. Tubalcain,- Lamech, jabal, jubal, with what horrid perplexities are their souls distraught. Some climb up this house top, some this high tree, others flee to some high mountain, and there in what horror and amazement are they, whilst one sees his Children sprawling, another his wife struggling for life upon the face of the merciless waters, but especially whilst they behold the waters rising by little and little, and pursuing them to the house tops, and threatening to sweep them off from the heads of the Mountains, to which they had betaken themselves. These fears and amazements were worse than an hundreth deaths. But now all this while how is it with Noah, he sits dry in his , and literally was the saying of the Psalm verified of him, Surely in the floods of great waters they came not nigh unto him, Ps. 32. 6. He hath his Ark pitched within, and pitched without, neither can the raines from above beat in, nor the waters from beneath leak in, let all fountains of the great deep be broken up, and the floodgates of heaven be opened, yet not one drop of water comes at him, and though the waters prevail fifteen Cubits above the high hills and mountains, so that they be covered, yet Noah he is out of all fear, let them rise as high as they will, yet shall he keep above them still. Just such is the condition, and happiness of a man with a good conscience in sad times. Whilst the high hills, and mountains are covered, the great and brave spirits of the world are overwhelmed with fear, are possessed with dreadful apprehensions, so as they know not which way to look, nor which way to take, even then a man with a good conscience hath a strange quiet of heart, is full of sweet security and resolution, and amids all the shrieks, howl, and wring of hands of earthly men, by patience possesses his soul, is master of himself, and composes his soul to rest. His Ark is pitched within and without. The peace of God, and the peace of a good conscience, keeps the water-floods from coming into his soul. The rain and the waves they beat upon the Ark, but yet they pierced it not. A man with a good conscience may fall into, and may be swept away with common calamites: yet how ever it far with his outward man, yet his soul is free from that horror; and those madding perplexities wherewithal wicked ones are overtaken. The peace of a good conscience shall keep off these distracting fears from his mind Though he cannot be free happily from the common destructions, yet shall be free from the common distractions of the world. There be two things in common calamities, The sword without, and terror within, Deut. 32. 25. and the latter of the two, is the worse by far. Now here is the benefit of a good conscience, though it doth not save always from the sword without, yet it delivers always from the terror within; which gives a terrible edge to the sword, and which being removed the sword is nothing so terrible. When the Canaanites were destroyed by Israel, there was a double sorrow and smart upon them. The sword of the Israelite, and God's Hornet, josh 24. 12. What was that Hornet? Nothing else but that distracting and perplexing fear and terror wherewith God filled their hearts, as appears, Exod. 23. 27, 28. There is no Hornet can so vex with his sting, as these terrors vex evil consciences in evil days. Now here is the privilege of good consciences, though they may smart with the sword, yet the Hornet shall not sting them, nor fill their hearts with that throbbing anguish, that these terrors in times of calamity put evil consciences to.  
A sweet motive to make any in love with a good conscience. Whilst we look upon the evils of the times, we cannot but look for evil times. Look we upon our sins, and God's administration abroad; upon the malice and policies of the adversaries of God's grace, and what do these but prognosticate heavy things. Now suppose a flood should come, would we not be glad of an ark, and such a  therein, as should keep out the waters from our souls? Get then the pitch of a good Conscience, and thou shalt fit like Noah, if not free from the waters, yet free from the fears of Lamech, and Tubalcain, which are worse than the waters. For the fears of such evils are more bitter and insufferable than the evils themselves. Suppose, I say, a flood should come, who would not give a kingdom for an Ark well pitched? Suppose calamity should come, who would not give a world for a good Conscience then? jabel, Gen. 4. 20. he is busy in building of tents, and he is among his flocks and cattles; and jubal, Genes. 4. 21. he is wholly upon his merry pins, as his Harp and Organs; He and his take the Timbrel and the Harp, and rejoice at the sound of the Organ, job 21. 12. And these jolly jovial lads give poor Noah many a dry flout, many a scornful scoff, whilst he is building his Ark, and ask what this brainsick & mad fellow means to make such a vessel, whether he meant to sail on the dry land, or to make a sea when he had made his ship? I, but when the flood is come, and the waters begin to be chin deep, then ask jabel whether building of tents, or building of an Ark be the wiser work? then whether is better Noah's Ark, or jubals Pipes? Now that the flood is come, & these come perhaps wading middle deep to the Ark side, and bellow and howl to Noah to open the ark to them: Now would not jabel give all his tents, and all his cattles, but to be where Noah's dog lies? would not jubal now give all his pipes and merriment, to have but the place that an hog had in the Ark. Now jubal, let us hear one of your merry songs, pipe now and make yourselves merry with gibing at Noah's folly, in making a ship to sail on dry land. What ailest thou jubal to howl & wring thine hands thus? where is thine Harp & Organs now? cheer up thy soul now with these vanities. Now the Flood is come, now Noah is in the Ark, now Sirs, you that are such men of renown, Gen. 6. 4. you that were the brave gallants of the earth, now tell me who is the fool, and who is the wise man now?  
How many in the days of peace make light of a good Conscience; yea if they see others to be but careful in rigging of their Ship, and pitching, and trimming up such an Ark, how ready are they to spend their biting scoffs, and their tart jests upon them, but if ever times of trouble & calamity, and a fire flood of God's wrath, Nah. 1. 6, 8. should break in, then would a good Conscience hold up the head with much comfort, and resolution, whilst those that formerly made a jest of a good conscience should have aching, and quaking hearts, by reason of those unmeasurable fears that shall seize upon them. A good conscience will make a man music; when jubal shallbe glad not only to put up, but with indignation and anguish of heart to throw away and curse his pipes. Well far a good conscience in evil days. Pitch and trim up this Ark, there is no such provision against evil days, as is a good conscience. It will do a man service, and support him, when all the brave spirits of the earth shallbe blank, and at their wit's end.  
In the third place, the benefit and comfort 
3. The comfort of a good conscience in time of Sickness.  of a good conscience, is conspicuous in the time of sickness, or a man's private and personal crosses in his estate, etc. A sick man with an hail conscience, is a cheery and a comfortable man, Prov. 13. 14. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; that is, the spirit itself being hail, and sound, it will enable him to bear any bodily sickness. But a wounded spirit who can bear; yea a wounded or a sick body, who can comfortably bear, if the spirit or conscience be sick? But let the conscience be good and sound; and it helps a man with great ease and comfort, to bear the sickness of the body. It is a shrewd burden to bear two sicknesses at once, to have a sick body, and a sick conscience. A man shall find enough of the easiest of them single and alone. But yet an hail conscience in an infirm body, sweetly helps our infirmity. Let a man have ever so hail and heathfull a body, yet if the conscience be naught, and withal awakened, falls to galling and gripping, he shall find but little joy in his bodily health; so contrarily, let a man's conscience be good; and though his body be sick and weak, yet it is a great deal of sweet refreshment that it shall receive from the conscience.  
Sickness in itself is exceeding uncomfortable, and in the time of sickness commonly all bodily comforts, the comforts of meats, drinks and sleep, fail; yea but then here is the benefit of a good conscience, that will not then fail, but as it is said, Eccl. 10. 9 Money answers all things, so a good conscience answers all things, the comfort of it supplies the wants of all other comforts. When in sickness the comfort of meat, drink, and sleep is gone, they are all found again in the comfort of a good conscience; that will be meat, and drink, that will be rest and sleep, that will make a man's sickbed soft, and easy, that shall be as the Angels were to Christ in his hunger in the Wilderness, they ministered unto him, and so will a good conscience minister comfort in the want of all other comforts, so that a man may say of a good conscience, as we use to say of some solid, substantial dish, that there are Partridge, Pheasants and Quails in it; so though outward comforts cease their office, and their work be suspended, yet a good conscience comes in its room, and in it are meat, drink, sleep, ease, refreshment, and what not? A good conscience is an Electuary, or a Cordial that hath all these ingredients in it. There is no such Cordial to a sick man, as the cordial of a good conscience. All Physicians to this Physician are but such Physians as jobs friends, job 13. 4. Yea are Physicians of no value. A motive of great weight to make men in love with a good conscience. Who can be free from sickness, and how tedious and wearisome a time is the time of sickness? Now who would not make much of a Cordial that might cheer him then, of a receipt that might feed him then? As than we would be glad of a cheerful and comfortable spirit upon our sick beds, so make much of a good conscience. Whence is it that most men in their sicknesses have such drooping spirits, lie groaning altogether under their bodily pains, or lie sottishly and senslesly, no sense of any thing but pain and sickness? Merely from the want of a good conscience, they have laid up no Cordial, no comfortable Electuary for themselves in their health time against the day of sickness. Indeed you shall have the miserable comforters of the world on this manner cheering them; why, how now man, where is your heart? Pluck up a good heart man, never fear for a little sickness, etc. True indeed, they should not need to fear, if they could pluck up a good heart. But they that will pluck it up when they are sick, must lay it up when they are well. He that hath a good conscience to get when he lies upon his sick bed, is like a man that hath his Aquavitae to buy when he is fallen into a swoon; A wise man that fears swooning, would have his hot-water-bottle hanging always ready at his beds-head. But as in other crosses by sickness and the like, so is the comfort of a good conscience, never more sweet, then when a man is under the cross for conscience sake, and suffers affliction and vexation to keep a good conscience. Then above all other times will conscience do the office of a Comforter, and will stand to him that will stand for it. When Nabuchadnezzar hears his Furnace seven times hotter than at other times, than a good conscience will speak comfort seven times sweeter than at other times.  
Are God's Saints for good conscience 
●on Acts and Mon. Omnis nobis vilis est poena, ubi pura comes est conscientia. Tiburt. apud. Baren. An. 168.  sake in prison? Good conscience will make their prisons delectable hort-yards. So doth Algerius an Italian Martyr date a comfortable Epistle of his, From the delectable hortyard of the Leonine prison, a prison in Venice so called. So that as he said, that he had rather be in prison with Cato, than with Caesar in the Senate house, so in this regard it was more comfortable to be with Philpot in the Coal-house, than with Bonner in his Palace. Bonner's conscience made his Palace a Cole house, and a Dungeon, whilst Philpots made the Coal-house a Palace.  
Are God's Saints in the Stocks? Better it is, says Philpot, to sit in the Stocks of the world, then in the stocks of a damnable conscience. Therefore though they be in the Stocks, yet even then, the righteous doth sing and rejoice, yea, even in the Stocks, and prison; Paul and Silas sang in the Stocks. Sing in the Stocks? Nay 
Hinc est quod è contrario innocens etiam inter ipsa tormenta fruitur conscientiae securitate, & cum de poena metuat de innocentia gloriatur. Hieron. ad Demetti. ad ●●. 1.  more; they can sing in the flames, and in the midst of the fires, Isay. 24. 15. Glorify God in the fires. And worthy Hawks could clap his hands in the midst of the flames. So great and so passing all understanding is the peace and comfort of a good conscience. So that in some sense that may be said of it which is spoken of faith, Heb. 11. 34. By it they quenched the violence of fire. God's servants were so rapt, and ravished with the sense of God's love, and their inward peace of conscience, that they seemed to have a kind of happy dedolency, and want of feeling of the smart of outward torments.  
Who knows what trials God may bring him to? We have no patent for our peace, nor his free liberty in the profession of the Gospel. Suppose we should be called to the stake for Christ's sake. Would we be cheerful, would we sing in the flames? Get a good conscience. The cause of Christ is a good cause, now with a good cause get a good conscience, and we shall be able with all cheerfulness to lay down our lives for Christ, and his Gospel sake.   

CHAP. XII.  
The comfort and benefit of a good conscience in the days of Death and judgement.  
IN the fourth place, The time of death is a time wherein the benefit and comfort of a good conscience is exceeding great. Death hath a ghastly look and 
4. The comfort of a good conscience at the day of Death.  terrible, able to daunt the proudest and bravest spirit in the world, but then hath it a ghastly look indeed, when it faces an evil conscience. Indeed sometimes, and most commonly, conscience in many, is secure at the time of death. God in his justice, so plaguing an affected security in life, with an inflicted security at Death. And the Lord seems to say as once to the Prophet, Go make their consciences asleep at their death, as they have made it asleep all their life, lest conscience should see and speak, and they hear, and be saved. God deals with conscience as with the Prophet, Ez. 3. 26. I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb; therefore they die, though not desparately as Saul, and Achitophel, yet sottishly without comfort, and feeling of God's love as Nabal. But if conscience be awakened, and have its eyes, and mouth opened, no heart can imagine the desperate and unsufferable distresses of such an heart, Terrors take hold of him, as waters, job 27. 20. Terrors make him afrai: on every side, job 18. 11. Then is that true, job 25. 23, 24. He knows that the day of darkness is ready at hand. Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid, they shall prevail against him, as a King ready to the battle. And no wonder, for he is now brought unto the King of Terrors, as Death is called, job 18. 14. A man that hath an ill conscience, if his eyes be opened, and his conscience awakened, he sees death in all the terrible shapes that may be. Sometimes he sees death coming like a merciless Officer, and a cruel Sergeant, to arrest, and to drag him by the throat to the prison and place of Torment, Psal. 55. 15. Let death seize upon them. They see it coming like that cruel servant in the Parable to his fellow, Math. 18. catching them by the very throat.  
Sometimes he sees death in the shape of some greedy Lion, or some ravening Wolf ready to devour him, and to feed upon his carcase, Ps. 49. 14. Death shall feed on them, even as a ravenous beast shall feed upon his prey. Imagine in what a terrible plight the Samaritans where in when the Lions set upon them, 2 Kin. 17. and by it imagine in what case an ill conscience is, when it beholds the face of death. It puts an ill conscience into that case in good earnest that David was in, in the case of trial, Ps. 55. 4, 5. My heart is sore pained within me, and the terrors of death are fallen upon me, fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me.  
Sometimes again he sees death as the Israelites the fiery serpents with mortal stings; Sometimes as a merciless landlord, or the Sheriff coming with a Writ of Firmae ejectione, to throw him out of house and home, and to turn him to the wide Common; yea he sees death as God's executioner and messenger of eternal death, yea, he sees death with as much horror as if he saw the Devil. In so many fearful shapes appears death to an evil conscience upon the deathbed. So as it is indeed the King of terrors to such an one that hath the terrors of conscience within. There is no one thought so terrible to such an one, as the thought of death, nothing that he more wishes to avoid. Oh, how loath, and unwilling is such an one to dye.  
But come now to a man that hath lived as Paul did in all good conscience, and how is it with him upon his deathbed? His end is peace; so full of joy and comfort; so is he ravished with the inward and unspeakable consolations of his conscience, that it is no wonder at all that Balaam should wish to dye the death of the righteous, the death of a man with a good conscience.  
The day of a men's marriage, is the day of the joy of a man's heart, Can. 3. 11. and the day of marriage is not so joyful a day, as is the day of death to a good conscience. There are but few that can marry with that joy wherewith a good conscience dies.  
It enables a man not only to look Ananias and the Council in the face, but even to look death itself in the face, without those amazing terrors, yea, it makes the face of death seem lovely, and amiable. He whose conscience is good, and sees the face of God reconciled to him in Christ, he can say as jacob did when he saw the face of joseph, Gen. 46. 30. Now let me dye, since I have seen thy face. It is the privilege of a good conscience alone, to go to the grave, as Agag did to Samuel, and to say that truly, which he spoke beside the book, 1 Sam. 15. 32. He came pleasantly, and he said, Surely the bitterness of death is past. He was deceived, and therefore had no such cause to be so pleasant, but a good conscience can, yea, cannot choose but be so pleasant, even when going out of the world, because the guilt of sin being washed away in Christ's blood; it knows that the bitterness of death is past, and the sweetness of life eternal is at hand.  
A man whose debts are paid, he dares go out of doors, dare meet and face the Sergeants, and the conscience purged by the blood of Christ, can look as undauntedly on the face of death. He that hath forgotten the sting, that is, the guilt of conscience, taken away by faith in Christ, he looks not upon death as the Israelites upon the fiery Serpents, but looks upon it as Paul doth, 1 Cor. 15. O death where is thy sting? Who fears a Bee, an Hornet, a Snake, or a Serpent, when they have lost their sting. The guilt of sin is the sting of conscience, it's the sting of death that stings the conscience. The sting of death is sin, 1 Cor. 15. Pluck then sin out of the conscience, and at once the conscience is made good, and death made weak, and disarmed of his weapon. And when the conscience sees death unstinged and disarmed, it is freed of fear, and even in the very act of death, can joyfully triumph over death, oh Death where is thy sting?  
A good conscience looks upon death, as upon the Sheriff that comes to give him possession of his Inheritance, or as Lazarus upon the Angels that came to carry his soul into Abraham's bosom, and therefore can welcome death, and entertain him joyfully. And whereas an ill conscience makes a man see death as if he saw the Devil, a good conscience makes a man see the face of death, as jacob saw Esau's face, Gen. 33. I have seen thy face, as the face of God; they see the face of death with unspeakable joy, ravishment of heart, and exultation of spirit.  
Well now, what a motive have we here, to make us labour for good conscience. Even Balaam himself would fain make a good end, and die in peace: and who wishes not his deathbed may be a mount Nebo, from whence he may see the heavenly Canaan? Lo here, Balaam, the way to dye the death of the righteous, I have lived in all good conscience until this day. They that have conscience in their life, shall have comfort at their death; they that live conscionably, they shall die comfortably; they that live in all good conscience till their dying day, shall departed in the abundance of comfort at their dying day.  
There will come a day wherein we must lay down these Tabernacles, the day of death will assuredly come. How lamentable a thing will it then be, to be so destitute, and desolate of all comfort, as to be driven to that extremity, as to curse our birth day? oh! what would Comfort be worth at our last hour, at our last gasp, whilst our dearest friends, shall be weeping, wring their hands and lamenting; then, then what would inward comfort be worth? Who would not hold the whole world an easy price for it then? Well then, would we then have Comfort and joy, oh than get a good conscience now, which will yield comfort, when all other comforts shall utterly fail, and shall be life in the midst of death. How happy is that man, that when the sentence of death is passed upon him, can say with Hezekiah, Is. 38. 3. Remember now O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. Indeed the text says, that Hezekiah wept sore, but yet, not as fearing death, for he could not fear death, who had thus feared God, but because the promise was not yet made good to him in a Son and Heir of his kingdom; hence came those tears. It is otherwise an unspeakable joy, that such a conscience as hezekiah's was, will speak to a man upon his deathbed.  
Every one professes a desire to make a good end: Here is the way to make good that desire, to live in all good conscience. Alas how pitiful, and miserable a condition live most men in; All the days of their life and health, they have no regard of a good conscience. Notwithstanding that men are pressed continually to this one care, by the instancy and importutunitie of God's Ministers, yet how miserably is it neglected? Well, at last the day of death comes, and then what would not they give for a comfortable end? If the gold of Ophir would purchase comfort, it should fly then. Then post for this Minister, and run for the other, as in the sweeting sickness in King Edward's days, then for God's sake but one word of comfort, then O blessed men of God, one word of peace. Now alas what would you have them to do? Are they or your own courses in fault, that you want comfort at your death? What would you have us do? We must refer you to your own consciences, we cannot make oil of flint, nor crush sweet wine out of sour Grapes, we dare not flatter you against your consciences. If you would give us a world, we cannot comfort you when your own consciences witness against you, that such comforts belong not to you. Do not idly in this case hope for comfort from Ministers, be it known unto you, you must have it from your own consciences. Many on their deathbed cry to the Minister, as she did to the King, 2 King 6. 26, 27. Help my Lord O King. But mark what he answers, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee, out of the barn floor, or out of the Wine press? So must we answer to such as cry, Help, help, O man of God: If God and your own consciences help you not, whence shall we help you? If there had been Corn within the barns, the King could easily have helped her, but he could not make corn: So if men have carried any thing into their consciences, if they themselves have inned any provision and comfort, by being conscionable in their lives, than we can help and comfort them, but otherwise do not think that we can make comforts, and make good consciences upon your deathbeds. If your consciences can say for you, that you have been careful in your life time to know God, to walk holily and religiously before him, etc. then we dare be bold to comfort and cheer you, then dare we speak peace confidently to you. But if your consciences accuse you of your ignorance, your oaths, Sabbath-breaches, worldliness, rebellion, uncleanness, oppression, drunkenness, etc. and finally, impenitency: What is it you would have us to do? What can we say, but as the Prophet to Zedekiah, jer. 37. 19 Where are now your Prophets that prophesied unto you, saying, the King of Babylon shall not come against you? So, where be those that in your life time told you, ye need not to be so careful and precise to keep good consciences, less ado will serve the turn, now what think ye of them? now what peace have you in those ways, what comfort can these give you now? Or else what can we say when men in anguish of conscience lie tossing upon their beds, but what Reuben said to his brethren when they were in distress, Gen. 42. 21, 22. Did not I warn you, saying, Sin not, etc. So must we, what do ye call to us for comfort? did not we warn you many a time and oft, saying, Sin not, nor live in those dangerous courses? Did not we warn you? Oh to have our consciences and Gods Ministers thus to grate upon us, what an uncomfortable condition will this be? Would we then prevent such sorrow, and be cheerful, and cheered at our latter ends? lay up a good conscience, then, lay in somewhat for conscience, and Gods Ministers to work upon, and from which they both may be able to raise comfort to you. Get a good conscience, and live in it all thy days, and then though thou shouldest want the benefit of a comforting Minister, yet thy conscience shall do the office of a comforting Minister, and shall be the same unto thee that the Angel was unto Christ in his agony, Luke 22. 43. and shall minister such comfort unto thee, as shall make thee ready to leap into the grave for joy. This shall be as another jacobs' staff for thee to lean & rest upon, when thou shalt be upon thy deathbed. If men knew but the worth of a good conscience at the hour of death, we should need no other motive to work men's hearts to be in love therewith.  
Fiftly and lastly, the benefit and comfort 
5. The comfort of a good conscience at the day of judgement.  of a good conscience is great at the day of judgement. Oh the sweet comfort and confidence of heart that a good conscience will yield unto a man at that day. What will become of all the Gigantean spirits, and the brave fellows of the earth then? Alas for their yell, and cursing of themselves, and their companions! what howling and crying to the mountains, as they did, Revel. 6. Hid us, Cover us, yea, dash and quash us in a thousand pieces. When an ill conscience is awakened, it is not to be imagined how small a thing will gastre it. The sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them, and they shall fly, as flying from a sword, and they shall fall when none pursues, Levit. 26. 36. A dreadful sound is in his ears, job. 15. 21. He hears nothing, but he thinks he hears always some terrible and dreadful noise. And then if a shaken leaf shall chase, and shall put them into a shaking fear, what case will such be in, when as job speaks job 26. 11. The pillars of heaven shall tremble, and when the powers of heaven shall be shaken, Luke 21. 26. When the heavens shall shake and flame above them, when the earth shall quake, and tremble under them, what case will they be in then? If mere imaginations fill their ears with dreadful sounds where there is no sound at all: Oh what a dreadful sound shall be in their ears when the Sea shall roar, Luk 21. 25. when the last trump shall sound, 1 Cor. 15. when they shall hear the shout and voice of an Angel, 1 Thes. 4. 16. what dreadful sounds will these be in the ears of ill consciences? How will these dreadful sounds confound their souls with horror and amazement.  
But now for a good conscience, how is it with it then? Even amiddst all these dreadful sounds it looks up, and lifts up the head, Luke 21. 28. and enables a man with a cheery confidence to stand before the Son of man, Luke 21. 36.  
The Malefactor who looks for the halter, how dreadful is the judges coming to the Assizes, attended with the troops of halberds, in his eye; but the prisoner that knows his own innocence, and that he shall be quit & discharged, his heart leaps at the judge's approach, how terrible soever he come attended to the bench, it glads his heart to see that day, which shallbe the day of his liberty & release. An hypocrite shall not come before him, joh. 13. 16. much less, shall look up, & lift up his head, or stand before him, Ps. 1. 5. But the righteous, and the man with a good conscience, he shall hold up, and cheerfully lift up his head, when all the surly, and proud Zamzummins of the earth, that here lifted up their heads and nebs so high, shall become howling and trembling suitors to the deaf mountains to hide them from the presence of the Lamb on the throne. Oh! they that fear the Lamb on the throne, how dreadful unto them will be the Lion on the throne?  
It will be with good and evil consciences in that day, as it was with Pharoahs' Butler, and Baker, on Pharaohs birthday. The Butler he knew he should be restored to honour, and go from the Prison to the Palace, therefore he comes out of the prison full of joy, & jollity, he holds up his head, and outfaces the proudest of his enemies. But the Baker he knows his head shall be lift from off him, and therefore when Pharaohs birthday comes, wherein all others are in jollity, yet he droops and hangs down the head, he knows it would prove an heavy day of reckoning with him.  
Such will the apparition of Christ unto judgement be, unto good and evil consciences, as was the apparition of the Angel, Math. 28. 2, 3, 4, 5. There was a great earthquake, for the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven, his countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow. Here was a terrible sight, but yet not alike terrible to all the beholders. For, for fear of him the keepers did shake, & became like dead men. But the Angel said unto the women, fear not ye, for I know that ye seek jesus. So at the last day when Christ shall come to judgement, evil consciences shall be as the Keepers, whilst all good consciences shall hear that comfortable voice, Fear not ye, for I know that you have sought for God, & all your days ye have sought to keep a good conscience. How effectual a motive should this be, how strongly should this work with us. As we should be glad to hold up our heads, when the glorious ones of the earth shall hang them down, to leap for joy, when others shall howl for bitter anguish of spirit, so now whilst we have the day of life and grace, labour we to get and keep good consciences.   

CHAP. XIII.  
A second motive, A good conscience is a continual feast.  
THus have we seen the first motive, 
The second motive to a good con-conscience.  from the benefit and comfort of a good conscience, in such cases, and times, as a man stands most in need of comfort. A second motive follows, and that is that we find, Prov. 15. 15. A good conscience is a continual feast. 1. It is a feast. 2. Better than a feast. It is a continual feast.  
1. It is a feast. The excellency of a good conscience is set forth by the same 
Quo enim melius epulantur animi quam bonis factis? aut quid aliud tam facile potest explere justorum mentes quam boni operis conscientia? Ambro. de office l. 1. c. 31.  thing, by which our Saviour sets forth the happiness of heaven, Luk. 14. And well may both be set forth by the same Metaphor, considering what a near affinity there is between heaven and a good conscience, and that there is no feasting in heaven, unless there be first the feast of a good conscience here on earth. But why a feast? A feast for three regards.  
1. For the self sufficiency, and sweet satisfaction and contentment that a good conscience hath within itself. Feasting and fasting are opposite. In fasting upon the want of food there is an emptiness and a griping hunger, which makes the body insatiably to crave. But at a feast there is abundance, and variety of all dishes and dainties, ready at hand to satisfy a man's appetite to the full, he can have a mind to nothing but it is before him. The very best of every thing that is to be had is at a feast. A feast of fat things, Isa. 25. 6. of fat things full of marrow. Such is the sufficencie of satisfaction, the abundance of sweetness, and contentment that is to be found in a good conscience. It is a table richly furnished with all varieties, and dainties. There is no pleasure, comfort, or contentment that a man's heart can wish, but it may be abundantly had in a good conscience; as at a feast there is a collection of all the dainties and delicacies that sea and land can afford.  
2. For the mirth and joy of it. A feast is made for laughter, Eccl. 10. 19 At a feast there is mirth, music, and delight in the comfortable use of the creatures. Heaviness of heart, pensiveness, and sorrow, these are banished from the house of feasting. Fasting and feasting are opposite, in fasting indeed there is weeping, mourning and sorrowing; but in a feast contrarily, there is mirth, merriment and joy.  
There were under the Law appointed solemn holy feasts anniversarily to be celebrated, and at those solemn feasts were the silver trumpets sounded, Num. 10. 10. and the sound of the trumpets was a joyful sound, Ps. 89. 15. For their Festivities were to be kept with special joy, Deut. 16. 10, 11, 13, 14, 15. Thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the Lord, etc. and thou shalt rejoice before the Lord, etc. Thou shalt observe the feast of Tabernacles seven days, etc. And thou shalt rejoice in the feast, etc. Therefore thou shalt surely rejoice. And that extraordinary feast on the fourteenth & fifteenth of Adar, in memorial of their deliverance from Haman, see how it was kept Esth. 9 19 22. They kept them days of gladness and feasting, of feasting and joy. Even such is the excellency of a good conscience. All the merriment and music, wine and good cheer, will not make a man's heart so light and so merry, as the wine which is drunk at the feast of a good conscience will do. This takes away all heaviness and sadness of spirit, and hath the like effects with natural wine. It makes a man forget his spiritual poverty, and remember that misery no more, Pro. 31. 7. Nay, as wine not only takes away sadness, but withal brings a natural gladness with it, Ps. 104. 15. Wine that makes glad the heart of man: so doth this wine at this feast, Psal. 97. 11, 12. Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart, Rejoice in the Lord ye righteous. None so glad an heart, as the upright in heart. Nay, such is the vigour and strength of this wine, at this feast, that it not only glads a man's heart, but makes a man as not able to contain, even to shout for joy, Psalm. 32. 11. Shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart, yea shout aloud for joy, Psal. 132. 16. That look as it is said of the Lord, Ps. 78. 65. The Lord awaked like a mighty man that shouts by reason of wine. So such is the plenty, abundance, sweetness, and strength of the wine of this feast, that it makes men in a holy jollity, even to break forth into shouting, and singing. This wine being liberally drunken, wherein there is no excess, fills a man's heart with such an overflowing exuberancy of joy, as he cannot hold, but he must needs show it in Psalms, Hymns and spiritual songs; and hence it is that the righteous do sing and rejoice, Pro. 29. 6. So that what joy a feast can yield, that can a good conscience yield much more, 2 Cor. 1. 12. This is our rejoicing, the testimony of our conscience. Yea and that joy commanded, Deut. 16. at the feast of Tabernacles what was it but a Type of that spiritual joy, that the faithful under Christ should have in keeping the feast of a good conscience? The feast of a good conscience is the true feast of Tabernacles, in which as in the other, there shall need no charge to rejoice, and be merry, this feast will put such spirit and life into a man, as shall make him sing, skip, and shout for joy.  
The feast of a good conscience is not like a funeral feast, where mirth and joy are unseemly, and unseasonable guests, there are heavy hearts and looks, tears, and mourning, (which by the way how well they suit with feasting let the world judge) but the feast of a good conscience is a nuptial feast, a marriage feast, and the day of marriage is the day of the joy of a man's heart, Cant. 3. 11. Such a feast, even a joyful marriage feast doth a good conscience make.  
Oftentimes these bodily feasts are but heavy feasts, many for all their good cheer, company, and music, cannot put away the heaviness of their hearts, but even in their feast are sad hearted, and Sampsons' wife wept all the days of the feast, judg. 14. 17. yea though a marriage feast. But in this feast of a good conscience here is no sorrow, heaviness, or sad melancholy, but all joy and gladness.  
3. For the society and company. A feast is a collection, and a convention of many good friends together, whose society and friendship is sweet each to other. There is no feast can afford the like company that a good conscience hath. Woe to him that is alone, Ecc. 4. that is the woeful and solitary condition of evil consciences. But a good conscience hath ever good company, is not alone, for the Father is with it, joh. 16. 23. yea, the Son is with it: and Christ, and the man with a good conscience, they sup, and feast together, Revel. 3. 20. yea, and the spirit is with it, 1 Cor. 13. 13. The Communion of the Holy Ghost be with you. What feast in the world can show such company? And good company is the chief thing in a feast. Thus a good conscience is a feast.  
2. It is better than a feast. And that in three regards.  
1. In regard of the continuance and perpetuity of it, A continual feast. Nabal made a feast, a feast like a King, 1 Sam. 25. but that feast lasted but one day. Samson at his marriage had a feast that lasted seven days, judg. 14. 17. but yet that feast had an end. Ahashuerosh his feast was the longest feast that ever we read of, Esth. 1. 4. He made a feast many days, an hundred and fourscore days. But yet v. 5. it is said, And when those days were expired. So this long feast had an end. It was continued for many days, but yet no continual feast, it had an end. The feast of a good conscience is not like an University Commencement feast. Great exceed, and extraordinary good cheer and company for one night, but the next morrow to their bare Commons again. Not like the feast of the Nativity, at which time there is great feasting, and great cheer every where for twelve days, but when those days are over, many a man is glad of bread and cheese, glad to skip at a crust. But this is a continual feast all the year long, all a man's life long. Therefore 1 Thes. 5. 16. Rejoice evermore, keep open house, and feasting all the year long. The joy of a good conscience was figured by the joy at the feast of Tabernacles. That feast lasted seven days. The joy must be as long. Seven the number of perfection, denoted the whole course of a man's life, and so their seven days joy, the continual joy and jollity of this continual feast of a good conscience.  
Conscience and a wife, as they agree in many things, be they good, be they ill, so in this also. If the conscience be evil, it is like an evil wife, and she a continual evil, Prov. 27. 15. A continual dropping in a very rainy day, and a contentious woman are alike. The contentions of a wife are a continual dropping, Prov. 19 13. A shrewish waspish wife, is a continual vexation and disquiet. Such is an evil conscience, a continual sorrow. Contrarily, a good conscience is like a good wife, a good wife is a continual comfort, a comfort in health, in sickness, in peace, in distress, Pro. 31. 12. She doth him good and not evil all the days of her life. Not some good, and a great deal of evil withal, but all good, good & not evil. Not good at sometime, and none at other times, but all the days of her life, she is a continual comfort. So is the comfort of a good conscience. It keeps holiday and feasting every day. It is all feast; a feast for ever; there is no Lent, or fasting days that interrupt this feast. This is the peculiar privilege of this feast to be continual; belly feasting cannot be so: for 1. A man cannot always feast though he would, a man's revenues would be exhausted, his expenses would soon sink his estate. Continual feasting would soon beggar and undo a man of good estate, Pro. 21. 17. He that loves Wine and Oil shall not be rich. It is not so here; the revenue of a good conscience is bottomless, it cannot be spent, and therefore is able to keep a rich and a full furnished Table all the year long. Here is a mystery in this feast, the larger expenses to day, the more laid in to keep the feast the better to morrow; a man grows rich by feasting.  
2. Suppose a man might be able to feast always, or might feed at another man's 
Voluptas tune cum maxime delectat extinguitur. Nec multum loci habet; iatque cito implet & taedio est, & post primum impetum marcet. Seneo. de vir. beat. c. 7.  Table continually, yet would it weary a man beyond measure. It would but gug and cloy a man. All earthly pleasures have a satiety, and breed a loathing by frequent use. But this is the admirable excellency of this feast of a good conscience, here a man may feed and eat with continual delight. At this continual feast, here is a continual fresh appetite, and fresh delights; here is continual feasting without loathing and satiety.  
3. Neither may belly feasting be continual. There be some times wherein it is inconvenient and unlawful. To speak with the fairest, that day which God hath sanctified for his service, is not so convenient for feasting. It may be no less dangerous to devour sanctified time, than sanctified things. And in this case hath that saying a truth, It is not meet that we should leave the Word of God, and serve Tables, Act. 6. 2. But now this feast without any doubt may be on the Sabbath, yea, it is the special festival, and high day of the week, wherein this feast is best kept. Again, there be times wherein God calls to solemn fasting and humiliation, as when the Church is either in danger or distress; but this feast is not hindered by fasting, it will stand well with it, and many a special dainty dish is served in to this feasting from a fast.  
4. Suppose a man could and might, feast always, yet were it a brutish thing, and hog-like always for a man to be cramming and crowding in belly cheer, always to be pauncing and gutting. It is that for which the rich Glutton is taxed, Luk. 16. That he fared deliciously every day. But here to feast at this Table every day, is that which makes a man every whit as Angel like, as belly-feasting every day makes a man swinelike. Here it is a man's happiness to be a holy Epicure.  
2. It is better than other feasts, in regard 
Nunquam credideris faelicem qui adventitio loetus est, exibit gaudium quod intravit. Se●●●. ep 9●.  of the Independency of this feast upon any other outward thing. This feast is able to maintain itself of itself, and within itself. A man that hath a good conscience, hath a feast, though he have nothing else but it. A good conscience, though it have nothing but brown bread and water, yet this hard fare mars not the feast; For this feast stands not in meats, and drinks, but in righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Ghost, Rom. 14. 17. Quietness and a dry morsel is better than an housefull of good cheer with strife, Pro. 17. 1. Though it be but outward quietness, when a man is free from  vexations, and the molestations of froward and contentious disposition, even such quietness makes a dry morsel good cheer, makes a feast of a crust. But when there is inward quietness of a good conscience, and a man's heart is at quiet from his peace with his God, what excellent cheer is a dry morsel, then? Though a man have ever so good fare, yet to have it sauced with the bitterness of contention, and to live in a continual wrangling with pevish people, what poor content would a well furnished Table afford such a man? And what poor cheer, especially, would all these feasts in the world make, where there is brawling and contention from the conscience? Here then is the excellency of this feast above all other feasts. This feast is able to subsist, and to maintain itself without other feasting; other feasting is nothing without this of a good conscience. Other feasting often hurts and hinders this feast, whilst men by their vain and licentious carriage therein, Feasting without all fear, jude. 12. Do make the conscience fast and starve; and whilst their Quails are between their teeth, Leanness enters into their soul. Psalm. 106. 5. So fare is bodily feasting from helping, that it hinders this feasting rather. Conscience, can have mirth enough without a feast, but little is the comfort and content that a feast can give, where the Conscience is not good. Men may 
Sed non est ista hilaritas longa. Observa, videbis cosdem in exiguum tempus atergime ridere, & acerrime rudere. Senec ep. 92.  set a face upon it and brag, laugh, and be jolly in their feasting, but yet in the midst of their laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness, Prov. 14. 13. Conscience awakened even in the midst of the greatest jollity, gives men many a bitter twitch at the heart, and in the midst of all their revel, gives them Vinegar and Gall to drink. A good conscience is it that sweetens and seasons all the dishes of a feast, that is the sauce that makes meat savoury, the sugar that sweetens Wine, that is the music that makes a man's heart dance.  
But let a man go to the most sumptuous, and delicious feasts without a good conscience, and how is it with him then? Just as with Belshazzar, Dan. 5. Where the hand writing on the wall marred all his mirth; or else it is in such a case, as it was with Haman. The fool brags that he alone is invited to ester's banquet with the King, Esth. 5. 12. Oh how happy a man was he, under how fortunate a Planet was he borne, to be the King and Queen's Favourite both? But see what little reason he had to brag, Chap. 7. 2. Even at the banquet of Wine, Esther gives him a cup of gall: at the banquet of Wine doth she accuse Haman to the King. Oh! how many glory in their banqueting, and their feasting, but how often do their consciences put esther's trick upon them, even accuse them to God, and gall and gird them in the midst of their wine? conscience serves many, as Absoloms' villains served Amnon, when his heart was merry at Absoloms' feast, than they stabbed him to the heart. Conscience deals with them, as the Israelites were dealt withal in their quail feast. They had their Quails, and their dainties, but a man would rather want their good cheer, than have their sauce. Their sweet meat had sharp sauce. Whilst the flesh was between their teeth, God's anger broke in upon them. So whilst many are chewing their dainties, conscience fills their mouth with gravel, and so sauces and spices their dishes, that they find but little content therein. So miserable are all feasts and merriments of this world, when a man wants the independent feast of a good conscience. So happy also are they that have the feast of a good conscience, although they never taste bit of other feast whilst they live, although they be denied the crumbs that fall under the feasting Gluttons table.  
3. It is better in regard of the Universality of it. As for belly feasts, it stands not with every man's condition and purse, to make them. It belongs only to the richer and abler sort to feast. Feasting is a matter of charge and cost, and so is out of the reach of the poorer sort. But here is the excellency of this feast. The poorest that is may make it, and the poor have as good privilege to make it as the rich, and the poor in this respect may keep as good an house as the best Nobleman, yea, for the most part the poorer sort keep this feast best. Nabal makes a feast like a king, but wretched man, in the mean time what feast keeps his conscience? It may be many a poor Carmelite neighbour of his that went in a poor russet coat, and lived in a poor thatched cottage, kept that feast abundantly & richly, whilst he poor sot had not the crumbs that fell from their tables. Lazarus could not have the crumbs that fell from the glutton's table, but how happy had it been with the glutton if in stead of this delicious fare he might have had but the reversions of Lazarus board. Lazarus may not come to his feast, no nor yet to his fragments, neither will Lazarus condition permit him to feast it as the glutton did, but yet this feast of a good conscience, Lazarus may make as well as he, and can, and doth keep it, whilst the glutton feels many an hunger-biting gripe. What an excellent feast is this above all other feasts, wherein the russet hath as much privilege as the velvet, the beggar as the King, the poor tenant, as the rich Landlord? The rich Landlord often so feeds upon, and eats up his poor tenant by oppression, that the tenant is kept low enough for feasting; It is well with him if he have food, he had not need think of feasting. But lo now the excellent feast of a good conscience: here may the Tenant keep as good cheer as the Landlord, yea, and it may be may feast, whilst the rich Landlord is ready to starve for want of this provision.  
Now than all this considered, what a Motive should it be to make us in love with a good conscience. How powerfully should this persuade us thereto? when God would persuade men to come to the joys of heaven, he uses no other argument than this, to invite them to a feast, as in the Parable, Luk. 14. Behold, here is the same argument, to move you to be in love with a good conscience, behold the Lord invites you to a feast, and to a feast where ye shall have sufficiency, without want, or loathing, where ye shall have wine, mirth, music, and good Company, to the full. The twelve days feast of the Nativity, how is it longed for before hand, & how welcomed when it is come? And what may the reason be? But only because it is a feasting time. This is counted a blessed good time: and why a blessed good time? As Christ was a blessed good man, & the prophet that should come into the world, and therefore should be made a King, because he had fed and filled their bellies, john 6. So the most make that a blessed time, not for the memorial of Christ's Incarnation, but because of the loaves Christ shall be a King, & because of the feast, the time is blessed. Well then, & is the world so desirous, and so glad of feasting? Are feasting times such blessed times? Lo than I invite you to a feast, to a blessed good feast indeed, that will make you blessed and truly happy. Not to a feast of twelve days, but to a feast that lasts all the twelve months of the year, to a continuing, and a continual feast. How glad are many when they may go to a feast? Lo a way to make feasts for yourselves. What a credit is it counted in the world for a man to keep a good, and great house, to keep feasting and open-house for all comers, during the Festivity of the twelve days? Would we have this credit of good housekeeping, not for twelve days but for all the year long? Get good consciences, keep good consciences. There is no such good housekeeper, as is the good conscience-keeper; for a good conscience is a feast, a continual feast.  
There is nothing that men desire more then to live merrily, and how many stumble at Religion, and keeping of a good conscience, under an idle conceit that it is the way to mar all their mirth, and to make a man lumpish and melancholy. Do not believe the devil, do not believe his lying agents? It is a profane Proverb, that Spiritus Calvinianus est spiritus melancholicus. A good conscience is a feast, a feast with all dainties, music, and wine. Can a man be melancholy at a feast, at so joyful, and so sweet a feast? doth feasting make men melancholy, or make men merry? make men weep, or laugh? If a man should cry down feasting with this argument, That it makes men melancholy, would not all men laugh him to scorn? And why then should a man fear melancholy more from a good conscience, than from a feast? There is none lives so merry a life as he that keeps a good conscience, he is every day at a feast, he is always banqueting. Yea, the worst dishes of this feast, even those at the lower end of the Table, are better than the most choice rarities of other feasts. The very tears that a good conscience sheds have more joy and pleasure in them, than the world's greatest joys. And if the tears of a good conscience be such, what is the mirth and laughter of it? If weeping be so sweet, what is singing? If the courser dishes be so dainty, what are the best services? Would we then live merrily, and pass our days jocundly indeed? Get a good conscience and thou keepest a continual feast, and that continual feast will keep thee in continual mirth, and continual joy. Yea, though thou be in affliction, and under crosses, so as thy days unto the world may seem exceedingly evil, shalt thou live merrily as at a feast. Yea, this is the scope of the Scripture, All the days of the afflicted are evil, namely, in the eye and judgement of the world: but a good conscience, namely, to the afflicted, is a continual feast. A good conscience feasts then, and turns fasting days into feasting days. A good conscience feasts a man in his poverty, in his sickness, in the prison, and cheers up a man with many a dainty bit. The wine of this feast makes them forget all their sorrow.  
Now than that we would be so wise as to hearken to God's invitation to this feast, Let us keep the feast with the bread of sincerity and truth, 1 Cor. 5. 8. Take heed now that we put not off God as those did, Luke 14. invited to the feast, with the excuses of Farms, Oxen and the like. So do many, urge them to the keeping of a good conscience, and their answer is, If they should be so precise, how should they live, they shall have but poor take if they take such a course, I pray have me excused, I must live. Thus they answer, as many good husbands, when invited to frequent feastings, do, No believe me it will not hold out, if I go every day a feasting, I may go one day a begging, I must follow my business, and let feasting go. And so say men here. But take heed of putting off God thus. The time will come that thou wouldst give all thine oxen to have but the scraps & crumbs of this feast, and thou shalt not have them, God will serve thee as he did them, Luk. 14. 24. None of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper. Those that care not to keep the feast of a good conscience, shall never come to God's feast in heaven. If you refuse to come to his feast now, God will at the last day thrust you out of doors, when you will be pressing and crowding in, and shall say to you, Get you hence ye despisers of a good conscience, you scorned the feast of a good conscience, and therefore now the feast and guests of heaven scorn you, here is no room for such to feast here, who have made their consciences fast heretofore.   

CHAP. XIV.  
A third and a fourth motive to a good conscience.  
Come we now to a third motive, that 
The third motive to a good conscience.  may yet help to stir up our minds to this necessary duty of getting and keeping of a good conscience. Besides what hath been said, it is worthy of our consideration, that without a good conscience all our actions, yea our very best services to God are so fare from goodness and acceptance, that they are abominable and distasteful unto the Lord. The formal goodness of every man's actions is to be judged and esteemed by the goodness of his conscience, which being evil and defiled, makes all a man's actions to be such, 1 Tim. 1. 5. The end of the commandment is love. But what kind of love doth the commandment require, will any shows or shadows of obedience serve the turn? will the bare dutydoing pass for currant? No, but such love to God and man, and such performance of obedience, as proceeds from a pure heart and a good conscience. So that let a man do all outward actions of obedience, yet if a good conscience be wanting, all is nothing, For the end of the Commandment is love out of a good conscience. As is a man's conscience, so are all his works, and therefore nothing acceptable that a wicked man doth, because he doth it with an ill conscience. To the pure all things are pure, but to the defiled their conscience is defiled, and that being defiled, it defiles all it meddles with, as under the Law the Leper defiled all he touched. The best meat, disht and dressed with defiled and dirty hands, is loathsome to us.  
The honest works of a man's calling are good works in themselves, but no good works to him that doth them without a good conscience, Pro. 21. 4. An high look, and a proud heart, and the ploughing of the wicked is Sin. The calling of Husbandry is counted the most honest calling of all others, yet where a good conscience is wanting, a man's very ploughing is Sin. Come to holy duties of Religion and God's service, and how is it with a man wanting a good conscience in them? That curse of david's, Psal. 109. 8. Let his prayer be turned into Sin, lies upon the services of all evil consciences. See Pro. 15. 8. The sacrifice of the wicked, that is, of him that hath an evil conscience, is an abomination: but the prayer of the upright, that is, of a man that hath a good and upright conscience, is his delight. Observe the opposition. He says not the prayer of the wicked, and the prayer of the upright, nor the sacrifice of the wicked, and the sacrifice of the upright; but the sacrifice of the wicked, and the prayer of the upright. A sacrifice had prayer with it, but yet it was more sumptuous & more solemn than single prayer. Now who would not think but such cost should make a man welcome, yet the single prayer of the upright is accepted, whilst his sacrifice is an abomination, yea, and that a vile abomination, Is. 66. 3. A man of evil conscience delighting in his abominations, makes his holiest services such. Let such an one come to the Sacraments, and how will it be with him there? even as in the former, To the impure, even the pure Sacraments are impure. Simon● Magus rather defiles the waters of Baptism, than they cleanse him, and it is not carnal baptism that avails any thing, without the answer and stipulation of a good conscience, 1 Pet. 3. 21. And for the Sacrament of the Supper, whether doth it profit an unclean conscience, or such a conscience pollute it? It may be judged by a like case resolved, Hag. 2. 11, 14. The unclean person by a dead body touching the Bread, or Wine, or Oil, makes these to be unclean. The ceremonial uncleanness by the touch of a dead body, typified the moral uncleanness of an evil conscience, unpurged from dead works. God looks specially at the conscience in all our services, and if he finds that foul and filthy, he throws the dung of men's sacrifices in their faces, that come with the dung of their filthy consciences, before his face. See therefore how Paul serves God, 2 Tim. 1. 3. Whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience. It is an impure service that is not performed with a pure conscience, as sleight as the world make of purity. How much more shall the blood of Christ purge your consciences from dead works, Heb. 9 14. But to what end are they purged? To serve the living God. Therefore mark, that till the conscience be purged and made good, there is no serving of God. So Heb. 10. 22. Let us draw near, that is, in prayer, and the like duties; But how? Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. Otherwise it is but a folly for us to draw near, for God will not be near when a good conscience is far off. And therefore we are bid to purify our hearts, when we are bid draw nigh to God, jam. 4. 8.  
Behold here then a special motive to make a good conscience beautiful in our eye. As we would be loath our services of God, our prayers and holy performances, should be abominable in God's eye, so labour for good consciences. As we would have comfort in alour duties of obedience, so labour to make our conscience good. It is a great deal of confidence that silly ignorant ones have in their good prayers, & their good serving of God, as they call it, yea it is all the ground of their hope of salvation, when they are demanded an account of their hope: now alas your good prayers, and your good serving of God why what do you talking of these things? Hath Christ purged your consciences from dead works? Have you by faith got your consciences sprinkled, and rinced in Christ's blood, and so have ye made them good? If not, never talk of good prayers, and good serving of God: your prayers cannot be good whilst your consciences are naught. An evil conscience before God, and a good service to God cannot stand together. But would you have your prayers good indeed, and your service acceptable indeed? then let your first care be to make your conscience good.  
Fourthly, let this work with us as a 
The fourth motive to a good conscience.  main motive to a good conscience: That it is the Ship and the Ark wherein the faith is perserved. The faith is a rich commodity, a precious fraught, and a good conscience is the bottom, and the vessel wherein it is carried. So long as the ship is safe and good, so long the goods therein are safe; but if the ship split upon the Rocks, or have but a leak therein, then are all the goods therein in danger of being lost and cast away. So long as a man keeps a good conscience, there is no fear of losing the faith, the integrity and soundness of the doctrine thereof. Constancy in the truth, is a fruit of good conscience, Psalm. 119. 54, 55. I have kept thy Law; he had not declined from, nor forsaken the truth of God, but what held and kept him? This I had, because I kept thy precepts. Keeping of a good conscience will keep a man in the truth: It is that which is the holy preservative to save from all errors, heresies, & false doctrines. The better conscience, the sounder judgement, the sounder heart, the sounder head. As the better digestion in the stomach, the sreer the head is from ascendent fumes that would distemper and trouble the same, john 7. 17. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God. How shall a man come to have a sound and a good judgement, to be able to judge what is truth, and what is not? Let him get a good conscience, and make conscience of doing the will of God, john 14. 21. He that hath my commandments and keeps them, etc. such a man hath, and keeps a good conscience. And what benefit shall such a one have by keeping of a good conscience? I will love him, and I will manifest myself unto him. And Ps. 50. 23. To him that order his conversation aright▪ will I show the salvation of God. God doth communicate himself and his truth to such as make conscience of their ways. The pure in heart shall see God, and the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.  
So that he that hath a good conscience, hath the only Antidote, the most excellent Amulet and plague-cake at his breast that is in the world, to save him from the pestilence, and infection of Popery, Arminianism, Brownism, Anabaptism, etc. So long as the Ship of conscience is whole, so long the jewel of faith is safe. Paul would have a Bishop to hold fast the faithful Word, and to be sound in doctrine, Tit. 1. 9 But yet mark it, that he would first have him be a man of a good conscience in the two foregoing verses. And 1 Tim. 3. 9 he would have the Deacons hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.  
Contrarily, nothing so endangers the loss of the faith and truth, and soundness of doctrine, as doth the loss of good conscience. A corrupt conscience soon corrupts the judgement, 1 Tim. 1. 19 Holding faith and a good conscience, which some having put away, concerning faith have made shipwreck. If the ship of conscience crack, how soon will the merchandise of faith wrack? If once the conscience crack, the brain will soon prove crazy; and an unsound conscience makes a fearful way for an unsound and rotten judgement, 2 Tim. 3. 8. They resist the truth, there is their corrupt conscience: what follows upon it? Men of corrupt minds, unsound in their judgement concerning the faith. How frequent a thing is it in experience to see men when they lose good conscience, together with it either to lose their gifts, as the unprofitable servant his Master's talon, or else, to lose the truth, and to fall into pestilent and dangerous errors. So those Prophets that made not conscience in faithful and holy execution of their office, see what was the fruit of their evil conscience, Micah 3. 5, 6, 7. Therefore night shall be unto you that ye shall not have a vision, and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine, and the Sun shall go down over the Prophets, and the day shall be dark over them, etc. Their darkness in life shall be plagued with darkness in judgement. To which purpose that is notable, Zach. 11. 17. Woe to the idol shepherd that leaves the flock. There is an unconscionable shepherd, a man that makes no conscience to attend his ministry. What becomes of him? The sword shall be upon his right eye, his best eye. And his right eye (shall not be purblind, or dimmed, but) shall be utterly darkened. The loss of good consciences brings upon men of knowledge and learning that reproach that Nahash the Ammonite would have brought upon all Israel, 1 Sam. 11. 2. It thrusts out the right eyes. Ill consciences not only make men look asquint, but it blinds them, and takes away their sight.  
And what is the reason that Popery gets ground so fast, and so many turn Papists so easily? Surely it is no wonder, how should it be otherwise, when men either having lost all good conscience, or making no conscience of their ways, but living loosely, viciously, and licentiously, have thereby prepared a way for Antichrist, and his Religion, to enter withal success. No wonder that men turn Papists so fast, when long since they have turned good conscience going. For that which Bellarmine speaks, is in the 
Cum ariae ventilari incipiunt, non frumenta sed paleae vento abripiente separantur ab area. Ita prorsus cum Ecclesia per Ethuicorum persecutiones, vel Haereticorum deceptiones, Deo permittente cribratur, aut ventilatur à Satana: non veri sancti, & garves, sed improbi leves, curiosi, lascivi ab Ecclesia avolantes ad Ethnicos haereticosue transfugiunt, nec fe●o solet accidere ut ante circa fidem aliquis naufraget, quam naufragere, caeperit circa mores. Bellarm. Orat. prefix. tom. 4.  general certainly true, though by him falsely, and maliciously applied, That they be not holy and grave men, but wicked, light, curious, wanton ones, that turn Ethnics, or Heretics, and that it seldom comes to pass, that any man makes shipwreck concerning the saith, that first makes not shipwreck concerning manners. See the truth of it in many of our backsliders to Popery, especially such as have been zealous propugners of the truth. Where began the first declension, where the first flaw? Had not their consciences first brushed upon some rock? was not the first leak there? and when they had first put away good conscience, than there was a speedy banishing of truth, and a ready entertainment of error. And for the common sort of their converts, consider if many times they have not been the very riffraff of our Church, swearers, gross profaners of the Sabbath unclean and debauched drunkards, such as our Church was sick of, and desired even to spew forth, and then when they have become a prey to all vicious courses, through want of conscience, through God's just judgement they have become a prey to Romish Locusts, whose commission is only to hurt such, and not those whom the sap of a good conscience keeps fresh and flourishing as the green grass, and trees of the earth, Apoc. 9 4. For as Solomon speaks of the bodily harlot, Eccle. 7. 26. so it is true of that spiritual Whore of Babylon. Her heart is snares and nets, her hands as bands, her delusions strong; who so pleases God, and hath a care to keep a good conscience shall escape from her; but the sinner, and he that makes no conscience of his ways, shall be taken by her.  
Well, let us think well upon this motive, we live in dangerous and declining days, wherein men with a greediness turn to their Romish vomit again. Besides the Factors of Antichrist are exceeding busy and pragmatical to draw men from the faith of Christ, and the Holy Ghost tells us they shall come with strong delusions. Now then all you that be the Lords people, save yourselves from this dangerous generation, all you that have or would be known to have the seal of God on your foreheads, save yourselves from the seduction of these Locusts. I, but how may that be done? The delusion is strong, and it may be, we are weak. Lo then here is a remedy against their danger. Get, and keep, a good conscience, live as Paul did, in all good conscience, & thou shalt be safe from all their delusions, I have kept the faith, says Paul, oh! let it be the care of us, that that may be our closing voice at our last day, and if we would keep the faith, let us keep a good conscience; He that in his life time can say, I keep a good conscience, he at his death shall be able to say, I have kept the faith. Faith, and a good conscience are both in a bottom. Hold one, and hold both.  
As therefore thou wouldst fear to turn Papist, or any other Heretic; so, be sure to hold a good conscience, to hold on a good, honest, and a conscionable man. So long as thou standest upon that ground, thou art impregnable, and the gates of hell shall not be able to draw thee from the faith of the Lord jesus, Prov. 6 20, 22, 24. My Son, keep thy Father's commandment, etc. And it will keep thee. So I may say here, keep a good conscience, and it will keep thee, it will keep thee sound in the faith, it will keep thee from being drawn away by the error of the wicked, and it will keep thee from the Wine of the fornications of the Whore of Babylon.   

CHAP. XV.  
The last Motive to a good conscience; The misery of an evil one.  
THe last Motive remains, and that is, 
The fift motive to a good conscience.  The horror and misery of an evil Conscience. If men did but truly know what the evil of an evil conscience were, and how evil a thing, and bitter it will be when conscience awakens here, or shall be awakened in hell, a little persuasion should serve to move men to live in a good conscience. We may say of the evil conscience, as Solomon speaks of the drunkard, Pro. 23. 29. Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath wounds, but not without a cause? Even the man whose conscience is not good, even he that life's in an evil conscience.  
An evil conscience, how miserable it is, we may see by considering the misery thereof, either in this world, or the world to come.  
1. In this life. When an evil conscience is awakened in this life, the sorrow and smart, the horror and terror is, as the joy of a good conscience, unspeakable. An evil conscience in this life is miserable, in regard of fear, perplexity, and torment. To live in a continual fear, and to have a man's heart always in shaking fits of fear, is misery of miseries. And such is the misery of an evil conscience. Prov. 28. 1. The wicked flees when none pursues. Only his own guilt pursues him, and makes him flee. His own guilt causes a sound of fear in his ears, job 15. 21. Which makes 
Proprium autem est nocentium trepidare. Male de nobis actum erat, quod multa seelera legem & judicem effugiunt, & scripta supplicia nisi illa naturalia & gravia de presentibus, solverent & in locum patientiae timor cederet. Sonec. ep. 91.  him shake at the noise of a shaken leaf, Levit. 26. 36. yea, that so scares him that terrors make him afraid on every side, and drive him to his feet, job 18. 11. Yea, there are they in great fear where no fear is, Ps. 53. 3. So that a man with an evil conscience awakened, may be named as Pashur is, jer. 20. 3. Magor-Missabib, fear round about, as being a terror to himself, and to all his friends, ver. 4.  
An evil conscience, even makes those fear fearful fears, of whom all other stand in fear. How potent a Monarch, and how dreadful a Prince was Belshazzar, who was able to put him into any fear, whom all the earth feared? And yet when his guilty conscience looks him in the face, awakened by the palm writing on the wall, see where his courage is then, Dan. 5. 6. Then the King's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another. Who would have had his fear to have had his kingdom? Let him now  himself with all his Majesty, let him look and speak as terribly as he can, let him threaten the vilest vassal in his Court, with all the tortures that tyranny can inflict, and let him try if he can for his heart put his poorest subject into that fright and fear that now his conscience puts him into, in the ruff, and midst of his jollity. But I pray what ails he to be in this fear, in this so extraordinary a fear? He can neither read, nor understand the writing upon the wall. Indeed it threatened him the loss of his kingdom, but he cannot read his threatening, he knows not whether they be bitter things that God writes against him, why may he not hope that it may be good which is written, and why may not this hope ease, and abate his fear? No, no. Though he cannot read nor understand the writing, yet his guilty conscience can comment shrewdly upon it, and can tell him it portends no good towards him. His conscience now tells him of his godless impieties, in profaning the vessels of the Temple of the true God, and that for this his sacrilegious impropriation, and abuse of holy things, God is now come to reckon with him. Thus can his conscience do more than all his wise men. All the wise men came in, but they could not read the writing, nor make known to the King the interpretation thereof. Dan. 5. 8. But his conscience is wiser than all his wise men, and when they are as puzzled, that interprets to him, that this writing means him no good, and though he cannot read the syllables, yet his conscience gives a shrewd near guess at the substance of the writing; and therefore hence comes that ecstasy of fear, and those paroxysmes of horror.  
It was better with Adam after his fall. After his Sin committed, we find him in a great fear, Gen. 3. 8, 10. and he hides himself for fear. Now observe how his fear is described from the circumstance of the time. They heard the voice of the Lord God, walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Luther lays the Emphasis of the aggravation of his fear, upon this word, the wind or cool of the day. The night indeed is naturally terrible; and darkness is fearful, whence that phrase, Ps. 91. The terrors of the night. But the day and the light, is a cheerful and a comfortable creature, Ec. 11. 7. Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the Sun. How is it then that in the fair day light, which gives courage and comfort, that Adam fears, and runs into the thickets? Oh, his conscience was become 
Gravis malae conscientiae, luxest. Senec. ep. 123.  come evil, and full of darkness, and the darkness of his conscience turned the very light into darkness, and so turned the comforts of the day into the terrors of the night. So that in this sense it may be said of an evil conscience, which of the Lord is said in another, Ps. 139. 12. Unto it the darkness, and the light are both alike. As full of fear in the light as in the dark. And beside, the Lord came but in a gentle wind, the cool breath of the day, now what a small matter is a cool wind, and that in the day time to, to put a man in a fear? Such small things breed great fears in evil consciences. In what a woeful plight would Adam (think we) have been, if the Lord had come to him, at the dead, and dark midde-night with earthquakes, thunder, and blustering tempest?  
We may see the like in Cain. After he had defiled his conscience with his brother's blood, in what fears, yea, what idle fears lived he? He is so haunted with fears, that though he had lived in Paradise, yet had he lived in a land of Nod, in a land of agitation, yea, of trepidation. judge what case his evil conscience made him in, by that speech, Gen. 4. 14. It shall come to pass, that every one that finds me shall slay me. Surely there could not be many yet in the world, and those that were in the world, were either his parents, brethren, sisters, or near kindred, his fear seems to imagine multitudes of people that might meet him, yea, and that every one he meets would murder him. What, will his Father or Mother be his executioners? What if any of his sisters meet him, shall they slay him? is not such a swashbuckler as he, able to make good his party with them? Lo what fearful, and terrible things a guilty conscience projects.  
As an evil conscience is miserable in its fears, so in those perplexities which this fear breeds. These perplexities do miserably and restlessely distract a man. Isay. 57 20. The wicked are like the troubled Sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. What is the reason of these trouble some perplexities? The want of peace of a good conscience, verse 21. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. The winds make the sea restless, and stir it to the very bottom, so as the waters cast up mire and dirt. See in the troubled Sea, the Emblem of a troubled conscience.  
But the Torment exceeds all, and the main misery of an evil conscience lies in that. It is a misery to be in fear, a misery to have inward turbulency, and commotions, but to be always on the rack, always on the Strappado, this is far more truly the suburbs of Hell, than is the Popish purgatory. Oh! the gripes, and girds, the stitches, and twitches, the throws, and pangs of a galling, and a guilty conscience. So sore they are, and so unsufferable, that judas seeks ease with an halter, 
Poena autem vehemens, & multo saevior illis. Quas & Ceditius gravis invent & Radamanthus. Nocte dieque suum gestare in pectore testem. juvenal. satire 3.  and thinks hanging ease in comparison of the torture of his evil conscience. All the racks, wheels, wild horses, hot pincers, scalding lead poured into the most tender, and sensible parts of the body, yea, all the merciless, barbarous, and inhuman cruelties of the holy house, are but flea-bite, mere toys, and May-games, compared with the torment that an evil conscience will put a man to, when it is awakened. It is no wonder that judas hangs himself, it had been a great wonder rather if he had not hanged himself.  
The Heathen fabled terrible things of their hellish furies, with their snakes and 
Nolite enim putare quenadmodum in fabulis saepenumero videtis, eos qui aliquid impie scelerateque commiserint agitari & perter●ori furiarum taedis ardentibus. Sua quemque fraus, & suus terror maximevexat, suum quemque scelus agitat amentiaque afficit. Suae malae cogitationes, conscientiaeque animi terrent. Hae sunt impiis assiduae, domesticaeque furiae, quae dies noctesque parentum poenas à consceleratissimis filiis repetant Cicero pro Rosc. Amor. Suum quemque facinus, suum scclus, sua audacia de sanitate, ac ment deturbat Haec sunt impiorum furiae, flammae, hae faces. Idem. L. Pison.  fiery torches, vexing and tormenting heinous, and great offenders. These their furies were nothing else, but the hellish torments of guilty conscience, wherewith wicked persons were continually haunted, as some of the wiser of themselves have well observed. All snakes and torches are but idle toys, and mere trifles, to the most exquisite torment of a guilty and accusing conscience.  
The sting of conscience is worse than death itself, Apoc. 9 5, 6. Their torment was as the torment of a Scorpion when he strikes a man; And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it, and shall desire to dye, and death shall flee from them. Popish ones tormented in their consciences by the terrible and uncomfortable doctrines of satisfactions, Purgatory fire, etc. which those Locusts do so terrify them withal, should rather choose death, than live in such an uncomfortable condition: The sting of death not so smart, as the sting of a Scorpion in the conscience. The sting of an accusing conscience, is like an Harlot, Pro. 7. 26. More bitter than death. And as Solomon there speaks of the Harlot, so may it be said of a tormenting conscience, Who so pleases God shall escape from it, but the sinner shall be taken by it.  
God's dear children themselves, many of them are not freed from trouble in their consciences, but they have their hells in this life, jon. ●. 2. Out of the belly of hell I cried unto thee. God for their trial speaks bitter things unto them, and not only denies them peace, but causes their consciences to be at war with them. Now when God puts his own children to these trials, and disquiets of conscience, they are so bitter, and so biting, that had they not the grace of God to uphold and preserve them, even they could not be saved from dangerous miscarriage. job was put to this trial, and his conscience apprehended God's anger, and we shall see what a case he was in, job 6. 8, 9 O that I might have my request, and that God would grant me the thing I long for, even that it would please God to destroy me, that he would let lose his hands, and cut me off. Nay, worse, job 14. 15. Thou scarest me with dreams, & terrifiest me through visions, so that my soul chooses flrangling, and death rather than life. God's grace preserves his Saints from self-murder, but yet not always from impatient wishes; job wishes strangling and chooses it of the two, but goes no further. What wonder then that judas doth strangle himself, when his conscience stairs him in the face, when as job, with whom God is but in jest in comparison, chooses strangling. If job wish it, what wonder that judas doth the deed. Conscience doth chastise the godly but with whips, but it lashes the wicked with scorpions. Now if the whips be so smarting to job, as makes him choose strangling, what wonder that the scorpions be so cutting, as makes judas seek relief at an halter.  
Yea, and that which adds to the misery of an evil conscience, being awakened, it is such a misery as no earthly comfort can assuage or mitigate. Diseases and distempers of the body though they be terrible, yet Physic, sleep, and rest upon a man's bed, yields him some ease, and some comfort. Sometime in some griefs the comfortable use of the creatures, yields a man some refreshments, Prov. 31. 6, 7. Give wine unto those that be of heavy hearts, let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more. But conscience being disquieted, finds no ease in these. Darius against his conscience suffers innocent Daniel to be cast into the Lion's den. What cheer hath he that night? He passed the night in fasting, Dan. 6. 18. Not in fasting, in humiliation for his Sin, but conscience now began to gall him, and he having marred the feast of his conscience, conscience also mars his feasting, none of his dainties will now down, his wine is turned into gall and wormwood, no joy now in any thing. He had marred the music of his conscience, and now he brooks not other music. The Instruments of music were not brought before him. His guilty conscience was now awakened, and now he cannot sleep; His sleep went from him. So job in his conflict for conscience hoped for ease in his bed, job 7. 13. My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint. But how was it with him? Either he could not sleep at all, ver. 3. 4. Wearisome nights are appointed unto me. When I lie down, I say, when shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossing to and fro unto the dawning of the day. Needs must he toss, whose conscience is like the Sea waves tossed with the winds, or else if job did sleep, yet did not conscience sleep, ver. 14. but even in his sleep presented him with ghastly sights and visions, When I say my bed shall comfort me, than thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions.  
At other times when conscience hath been good, God's people though their dangers have been great, yet neither the greatness, nor nearness of their dangers have broken their sleep, Ps. 3. 5. 7. I laid me down and slept, I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that have set themselves against me round about. And yet if we look to the title of the Psalm, A Psalm of David when he fled from Absolom his Son; one would think David should have had little list, or leisure to have slept. Peter thought to have been executed the next morrow by Herod, & though he also lodged between a company of ruffianly soldiers, that happily one would fear might have done him some mischief in his sleep, yet how sound sleeps he that night, Act. 12. And holy Bradford was found a sleep, when they came to fetch him to be burnt at the stake. These fears broke not these men's sleep. How might this come to pass? They did as Ps. 4. 8. I will lay me down in peace and sleep. He that can lie down in the peace of conscience, may sleep sound, whatsoever causes of fear there be otherwise. But contrarily, he that cannot lie down with the peace of conscience, will find but little rest and sleep, though his heart be free from all other fears. Evil conscience being awakened, will fill the heart with such fears, as a man shall have little liberty to sleep. Oh the sweet sleep that jacob had, and the sweet dream, when he lay upon the cold earth, and had an hard stone under his head for his pillow. An hard lodging, and an hard pillow, but yet sweet rest, and sweet communion with God. A good conscience makes any lodging soft and easy; but downe-beds, and down-pillowes, if there be thorns in the conscience, are but beds of thorns, and beds of nettles. The bitterness of an evil conscience distastes all the sweets of this life, as when the mouth and tongue is furred in an hot Ague, all meats and drinks are bitter to the sick party. This is the misery of an evil conscience awakened in this life.  
2. But it may be many never feel this misery here, there is therefore the more misery reserved for them in hell, in the world to come. Indeed more by many thousands go to hell like Nabal, than like judas; more die like sots in Security, than in despair of conscience. Death itself cannot awaken some consciences, but no sooner come they into hell, but conscience is there awakened to the full, never to sleep more; and then she lashes and gashes to the quick, and lets men learn that forbearance was no payment. Tell many men of conscience, and they are ready to slap one on the mouth with that profane proverb, Tush, conscience was hanged many years ago. But the time will come, that they who have lived in evil conscience, shall find the conscience which they have counted hanged, shall play the cruel hangman, and tormentor with them. They shall find conscience unhanged, when it shall hang them up in hell, when day and night it shall stretch them there upon the rack.  
The torments which an evil conscience puts the damned to in hell, are beyond the expression of the tongue, and the comprehension of man's conceit. There be two special things in the torments of Hell, we have them both thrice repeated together, Mark. 9 44, 46, 48. Where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched. There is an everliving worm, and never-dying fire. And mark that in all the three verses the worm is set in the first place, as it were to teach us, that the prime and principal torment in hell is the worm, rather than the fire. And what is the worm, but the guilt of an evil conscience, that shall lie eternally gnawing and grasping, twitching, and gripping, the heart of the damned in hell? Men talk much of hell fire, and it were well they would talk more of it; but yet there is another torment forgotten, that would be thought on too. There is an Hell worm, as well as there is an Hell fire. And it may be a question whether of the two is the greatest torment. And yet no great question neither. For as the Heaven of Heaven, is the peace and joy of a good, so the very Hell of Hell, is the guilt and and worm of an evil conscience. A man may safely say, it is better being in hell with a good conscience, than to be in heaven, if that might be, with an evil one. Heaven without a good conscience, what is it better than hell? Paradise was an heaven on earth, but when Adam had lost the Paradise of a good conscience, what joy did paradise, & the pleasures of the garden afford him more, than if he had been in some sad and solitary Desert? A good conscience makes a Desert a Paradise, an evil one turns a Paradise into a Desert. A good conscience makes Hell to be no Hell, and an evil one makes Heaven to be no Heaven. Both the happiness, and misery of Heaven and Hell, are from the inward frame of the conscience. The Hell of Hell, is the worm of Hell, and that worm is the worm of an evil conscience, which if it be not wormed out, and so the conscience in this life made good, it will be an immortal worm in Hell.  
The hellish despair wherewith the damned are overwhelmed, comes rather from this worm, than from the fire. Whose worm dies not, and whose fire is not quenched. The fire of Hell never quenches, because the worm of Hell never dies. If the worm of Hell would die, the fire of Hell would go out. For if there were no guilt, there should be no punishment. So that the very Hell of Hell, is that self-torment which an evil conscience breeds.  
Now than all this considered, how powerfully should it move us to labour for a good conscience. Thou that goest on in thine evil courses, and hatest to be reform and reclaimed, do but bethink thyself, if God should awaken thy conscience, in what misery thou shouldst live 
 ex cruditate febres nascuntur, & vermiss quando quis cibum sumit intemperanter, ita si quis peccata peccatis accumulet, nec deco quot ea poenetentia, sed misceat peccata peccatis, cruditatem contrahit veterum & recentium delictorum igne adu●etur proprio, & vermibus consumetur. Ignis est quem generat moestitia delictorum, vermis est eo quod irrationabilia animi peccata, mentem pungunt, & viscera exedant, vermiss ex unoque nascuntur tanquam ex corpore peccatoris, hic vermis non morietur, etc. Ambr. lib. 7. in Luk. c. 14.  here, what an hell to have a palsy conscience? what a hell on earth to be always under the accusations, inditements, and terrors of conscience, and to live Cain. like in the land of Nod, in a continual restless agitation.  
But especially as thou fearest that everliving and ever grabbing worm, so have a care to get a good conscience. Greene & raw fruits breed Chestworms, which if heed be not taken, will eat the very maw thorough. A dead body and a putrified corrupt carcase, breeds worms that lie gnawing at it in the grave. The forbidden and raw fruits of Sin, are those which breed Chestwormes in the conscience. The corruptions of the soul, and dead works are those that breed this living worm, take heed therefore of meddling with these fruits that will breed this worm, and get thy conscience purged from dead works, get this worm killed with the soon, for if thou lettest it live till thou die, it will never die at all, and will put thee to those exquisite torments, from which to be freed, thou wouldst willingly suffer ten thousand of the most cruel deaths that the wit of man were able to invent.  
As than I say thou fearest this worm of Hell, so get a good conscience. Drink down every morning a hearty draught of Christ's blood, which may make this worm burst. And when once this worm is burst and voided, and the conscience well purged by Christ's blood, take heed ever after of eating those raw fruits that will breed new worms. Led so holy, so upright, and so conscionable a life, that thou mayest not by thy fresh Sins clog thy conscience with fresh guilt. Get thy conscience purged by Christ's blood, and thy conversation framed by God's Word. Thy words were found by me, and I did eat them, jer. 15. 16. Do thou so, eat no more the unwholesome and worme-breeding fruits of Sin; but drink Christ's blood, and eat God's Word, and they both shall purify and scour thy conscience from all such stuff, as may breed and feed the Hell-worme of an evil conscience.   

CHAP. XVI.  
The portion and respect that a good conscience finds in the world.  
ANd thus have we hither to seen Paul's Protestation. The second point follows, namely, Ananias his insolent and impetuous Injunction. Verse 2. And the high Priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him, to smite him on the mouth.  
Paul had begun his defence in the former verse, and that by authority and special command, as appears in the former Chapter, at the 30. ver. But he had no sooner begun, but he is interrupted & cut off, and hath not only his mouth stopped, but stopped with Ananias fist, He commanded to smite him on the mouth. Out of which carriage and violence of his, we may observe diverse things. First learn;  
What is the Reward and portion of a good conscience from the world. It is the portion of a good conscience full oft to be smitten, either on the mouth, or with the mouth. Blows either with the fist, or with the tongue. To be smitten one way or other, is full often the lot of a good conscience. Smite him on the mouth, says Ananias. But let us a little expostulate the matter with Ananias. Smite him on the mouth? But yet as Pilate speaks in Christ's case, But what evil hath he done? or what evil hath he spoken? Smite him on the mouth? But as our Saviour answers, joh. 18. 23. If he have spoken evil, take witness of the evil, and proceed legally and formally: If he have spoken well, or no manner of evil, why commandest thou him to be smitten? What, hath he spoken any treason against Caesar, or the Roman government? If he have, then as the town-clark of Ephesus speaks, Act. 19 38. The Law is open, and there are Deputies, let them accuse him; and bring him to his answer. It is a base usage of an ingenuous person, to be smitten on the mouth in a Court of justice, a dishonourable usage of a Roman. Surely it should seem by such base and bitter usage, that Paul hath some way or other foully forgotten and overshot himself, that Ananias his spirit is thus embitered and provoked against him. What, hath Paul given him any exasperating and disgraceful terms, hath he given him any open and personal girds, before the whole Council? No, no: No such matter at all. Why what then is the matter that Paul must be thus basely, and thus despitefully used? Will ye know the cause? Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience? Lo here is the quarrel. He hath made a profession of a good conscience and for his good conscience sake are Ananias fists about his ears. There is nothing so mads men of wicked consciences, as the profession & practice of a good conscience doth. The very name & mention of a good conscience makes Ananias half mad, & like one besides himself he falls not only to foul words, but to blows also, and Paul must have it on the mouth for good conscience sake.  
Paul might have blasphemed the blessed name of Christ, and railed upon the odious Sect of the nazarenes, he might have been a drunkard, an adulterer, or a murderer, and none of all these things would have stirred Ananias his blood, for none of all these should Paul have been smitten; but let him but once speak, or treat of, or any way meddle with good conscience, and Ananias his blood is presently up, he cannot hold his hands, but Paul must have on the mouth, there is no remedy. So odious a thing is good conscience and the profession of it to wicked men. Therefore this is that which a good conscience must expect, even Ananias his dole, fists, blows, smiting hard & injurious measure from the world.  
This is no new thing. It was our Saviour's case before it was Paul's, joh. 18. 22. And when he had thus spoken, one of the officers which stood by struck jesus with the palm of his hand, etc. Lu. 22. 63, 64. And the men that held jesus, mocked him, and smote him, And when they had blindfolded him, they struck him on the face. He felt the weight of their fists for the same quarrel that Paul did. So it was foreprohesied of him, Isa. 50. 6. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. It was the kindness that Zidkiah could afford Micaiah, 1 King. 22. 24. He went near, and smote him on the cheek, & it was the thanks the Prophet was like to have for the discharge of a good conscience, 1 Chr. 25. 16. Forbear, why shouldst thou be smitten? It is that of which job complained so long since, job 16. 10. Mine enemy sharpens his eyes upon me, they have gaped upon me with the mouth, they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully.  
The same portion shall the Prophet jeremy meet withal, jer. 20. 2. Then Pashur smote jeremiah the Prophet. What was the quarrel? That in the former vers. He heard that jeremiah had prophesied these things. Only for discharging his conscience, for the conscionable dispensation of God's truth. And as sometime they smote him on the mouth, so sometime they smote him with the mouth, jer. 18. 18. Come let us devise devices against jeremiah, come let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words. And why would they smite him with the tongue? Only for his conscience, and fidelity in his Ministry.  
There is mention made of two false Prophets, against whom an heavy judgement is threatened, jer. 29. 21, 23. Ahab & Zedekiah, two base scandalous debauched persons, who committed villainy in Israel, and committed adultery with their neighbour's wives. The Prophet jeremy he out of conscience fulfils his Ministry, & see how light-fingred Pashur is, he hath fists for jeremies' face, and stocks for his heels; but in the mean time Ahab & Zedekiah they may whore, & play the villains, and they feel not the weight of his little finger. If his fingers must needs be walking, there is work for them, there he may strike, and stock with credit. But there is no such zeal against them. No such dealing with them. Zedekiah and Ahab may be in good terms of grace with Pashur, whilst jeremiah must have blows on the face, & lie by the heels. So well can wicked men brook villainy, and any wretched courses better than they can a good conscience: Pashur can better endure an aduletrous whoremaster, than an honest conscionable Prophet: villains may wall at liberty, whilst a good conscience shall sit in the stocks. Hear than is the portion a good conscience may look for from the world. The better conscience, the harder measure. For which of my good works do ye stone me? saith our Saviour, joh. 10. 32. A strange recompense for good works, and yet ofttimes the best recompense and reward that the world can afford good works, and a good conscience, stones and strokes. And if so be that fear of law, and happy government bind their hands, yet then will they be smiting with the tongue: and if the law keep them in awe for smiting on the mouth, yet then will they do what they dare, they will smite with the mouth.  
A fair Item to all that mean to undertake Use 1 the profession and courses of good conscience. Do as many do in case of marriage, before they affect the person, they first consider how they like the portion. So here before thou meddle with good conscience, think with thyself what is her portion, and if thou like not that, it is but a folly to think of a good conscience. Do as our Saviour advises, Luk. 14. 28. Sat down first & count the cost, and whether thou be able to endure that cost or no. Ananias hath a fierce spirit, and a foul heavy fist, Pashur is a club fisted fellow, and the spitting adders of the world will smite their sting deep. Suppose a good conscience may speed better, as having the protection of Christian government, yet this it must reckon upon, and it must account of the hardest. Therefore think before hand before you meddle with it, how you can bear the fists and blows of smiters if ever you should come under them.  
I may say here as our Saviour did to the Sons of Zebedeus, Mat. 20. 20, 21. Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptised with the baptism that I am baptised with? Many say they desire to enter the courses of a good conscience, but do not well know, nor well weigh what they desire. Consider with yourselves, Are ye able to drink of the cup that a good conscience shall drink of? Can ye be baptised with the baptism that a good conscience must be baptised with? Can ye endure the smart of Ananias blows? Can ye bear the load of Pashurs' club fist? Think upon this aforehand, and weight it well, this is that you must make account of, that will set upon the courses of a good conscience.  
Is this the portion of a good conscience? see than what a good measure of Christian Use 2 resolution they shall need to have, that take the profession of it upon them. Be shod with the shoes of the preparation of the Gospel, Eph. 6. 15. Grow marvellous resolute to harden thyself, and to harden thy face against all enemy's fists, & blows whatsoever, that though Ananias should dash thee on the face, yet he might not dash thee and thy good conscience out of Countenance. Thus did our Saviour, Is. 50. 6. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, I hide not my face from shame and spitting. But how was he ever able to endure all this? See vers. 7. I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. So must thou do that meanest to keep a good conscience. Get a face, and a forehead of flint, that enemies may as soon crack a flint with their knuckles, as by their violence and injuries drive thee from a good conscience. Get an Ezekiel's face, Ezek. 3. 9 Make thy forehead as an Adamant harder than a flint. Steel, and flint thy face with all heroical resolution. A face of flesh will never endure, but a face of flint will hold Ananias fist tack, let him strike while he will, he shall sooner batter a flint with his fist, than stir a resolved conscience out of its station.  
But believe me, these be hard things to Quest. undergo, who will be able to abide such hard measure, how therefore may one grow to such resolution, to abide the world's fists, & the smart of their smiting?  
1. Consider that conscience hath fists Answ. as well as Ananias, 1 Sam. 24. 5. & 2 Sam. 24. 10. David's heart smote him. And what are Ananias his blows on the face, to the blows of conscience at the heart? One blow on the heart, or with the heart, is more painful than an hundred on the face, and as Rehoboam speaks of himself, 1 King. 12. 10. so consciences little finger is thicker, heavier, and more intolerable than both Ananias his hands and loins. Now then here is the case. If Paul will stand to his conscience, than Ananias his fists will be about his ears. If Paul do forsake or flaw good conscience for fear, or for the favour of Ananias, then will consciences fist be about his heart. Now than if no remedy but a man must have blows, it is good wisdom to choose the lightest fist, and the softer hand, and to take the blow on that part that is best able to bear it with most ease. The face is better able to abide blows than the heart, and Ananias his blows are but fillips to the clubbing blows of conscience. We would scarce judge him a wise man, that to avoid a cuff on the ear, would put himself under the danger of a blow with a club. Here is that then that may make us to compose ourselves to patience, and to grow to an hardiness and a Christian resolution. Better ten blows on the face, than one on the heart. Better an hundred from Ananias, than one from conscience, that will lay on load; let the world smite, yet mine heart smites not, yea, that strokes and comforts, whilst the world strikes and threatens. Therefore being smitten in case of conscience, rather than give out, do as our Saviour bids in another case, Math. 5. 39 Whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek turn to him the other also.  
2. Consider that in the next verse, God shall smite thee. God hath smiting fists as well as Ananias. Let him smite, but yet there will come a time that God shall smite him? God will call smiters to a reckoning.  
3. Consider that of David, Psal. 3. 7. Thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone, thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly. God will not only smite the enemies of his people, but will smite them with disgrace, as it is a matter of vile disgrace to have a box on the cheek, and he will give them such a dust on the mouth as shall dash out their very teeth; he will lay heavy and disgraceful judgements upon them, as he did upon Absolom, of whom David speaks.  
May it ever be thy lot to see good conscience under the fists of smiters, be not discouraged, start not, stumble not at it. Be not ready to infer; It is in vain to cleanse a man's conscience, and wash his hands in innocence. But consider, that this hath been ever the world's madness, and the ancient lot of a good conscience, either to be smitten with adversaries hands, or varlets tongues.   

CHAP. XVII.  
The impetuous injustice, and malice of the adversaries of a good conscience.  
AS we have seen the entertainment a good conscience meets withal in the world, so we may here further see the inordinate violences that the enemies and haters of a good conscience are carried with. Therefore out of this insolent Injunction of Ananias, we may in the second place observe:  
The heady violence, and impetuous injustice Doct. 2 of the adversaries of good conscience. Smite him on the mouth. A man would not imagine that hatred and malice against goodness, should so transport a man as to make him run into so much, so open, so gross Injustice. Do but examine the fact, and you shall see a strange deal of injustice therein.  
1. Who is he that bids smite? The high Priest. He had a better Canon to live by, Mal. 2. 6. He walked with me in peace and equity. So Levi walked, & so should Gods Priests walk also. And that Canon of Paul for the Ministry of the Gospel, held no less good for the Ministry of the law, That he should not be soon angry, no striker, Tit. 1. 7. How haps it then that the High Priest is thus light fingered. Smite him on the mouth? Oh! shame that such a word should come out of a Priests, especially the High Priests mouth.  
2. Who must be smitten? Paul an Innocent. Fowl injustice. Questionless if Paul had offered such measure but to Ananias his dog, to have smitten him for nothing, but out of his mere spite, Ananias would have judged him a dogged fellow. And would Ananias use an innocent person as he would be loath a man should use his dog?  
3. Where must this blow be given? In open Court, where they were all convened to do justice. Still the worse. If he had commanded him to have been smitten in his private Parlour, it had been unjustifiable, but to smite him in open Court, and to do injustice in the place of justice, this is deep injustice. The place he sat in, the gravity of his person, God's High Priest, the solemnity of the administration of justice, all these might have manacled his hands, and have a little tempered and bridled his spirit. A foul indignity for the judge of Israel to be smitten on the cheek, Mic. 5. 1. As foul an iniquity for a judge of Israel to smite on the mouth wrongfully, and in an open Court of justice. What an indecent thing for a judge to go to cuffs on the Bench? What an intemperate and a vindictive spirit argues it? But what is the Indency to the Injustice? And what Injustice to that which was done upon the Bench? Of all wormwood that is the most bitter, into which justice is turned.  
4. For what is the blow given? For a good conscience. What? And hath God's High Priest no more conscience than so, his place teaches him to be a Protector, Defender, and an Incourager of good conscience. His whole office is matter of conscience, and will he that should teach, maintain, and encourage good conscience, will he smite men for good conscience? What is this but Is. 58. 4. To smite with the fist of wickedness?  
5. When is the blow given? When he is beginning to plead his own innocence, & to speak in his own defence. More injustice yet. Did not Nicodemus speak reason, joh. 7. 51. Doth our Law judge any man before it hear him? Nay, if Ananias have no regard to God's Law, as it seems he hath but a little, that will smite a man for good conscience, yet what will he say to Caesar's Law? Act. 18. 25. Is it lawful for you to scourage, and so to smite, a man that is a Roman and uncondemned, and unheard? To judge and condemn a man unheard, is deep Injustice, but far deeper to punish, and execute him. Will he hang a man, and then try him? Lo here indeed a right unrighteous judge, that fears neither God, nor man, that regards neither God's Law, nor Caesar's.  
To have done by Paul as Gallio did, Act. 18. 14, 16. When Paul was about to open his mouth, to drive him and the rest from the judgement-seat, this had been injustice, but when Paul opens his mouth to speak for himself, for Ananias to stop his mouth, and to stop it with his fists, to stop his mouth, and smite him on the mouth both, when he was to speak in his own defence, what greater depth of Injustice can we imagine? An hundred to one but Ananias was one of the Sanhedrim, which at the time when the officers not having apprehended Christ, fell a cursing the people, joh. 7. 49. This people that knows not the Law is cursed. Upon which speech Nicodemus seems to meet kindly with them, ver. 51. Doth our Law judge any man before it hear and know what he doth? As if he had said, Do you glory in the knowledge of the law, and are they cursed that know not the law, what then are they that knowing the Law go directly against it? are the people, Ananias, cursed that know not the Law, what art thou thyself then who know'st both God's Law and Caesar's, and yet through malice against Paul sinnest against both?  and malicious proceed, God will not let them have the honour so much as of the colour of formality, and legality in their courses. But they shall be so carried, that the madness and malice of them, may lie manifestly open to the view of all the world.  
6. By what authority is the blow given? Ananias commanded them. Yea but Mal. 2. 7. The Priest's lips should preserve knowledge, and they should seek the Law at his mouth. And should they that should seek the Law at his mouth, against all law at his command, smite men on the mouth? It was too much that Gallio did, and the holy Ghost leaves a deep disgrace upon him for it, Act. 18, that he would suffer others to smite Sosthenes, and not to care for it. It was too much that Ahab suffers Zidkiah to smite Micaiah, and to break the king's peace in the king's presence, he should have condemned him at least to lose his hand, for striking before the King. But here is a worse matter, he not only suffers it, but commands it to be done. Ananias commanded to smite. unjustice suffered by authority is too much, but unjustice commanded by authority, that is far worse.  
It shows the truth of Paul's phrase, 2 Thes. 3. 2. Unreasonable men, or absurd Use 1 
Non est crudelior in orbeterrarumira, quam Ecclesia sanguinaria & hypocritarum: Nam in politica ira est aliquid humani reliquum. Nullus tam immanis latro ad supplicium rapitur, quin aliqua commiseratione tanguntur homines: Sed cum falsa illa & sanguinaria Ecclesia in filium verae Ecclesiae inciderit, non s●●is ei est effudisse sanguinem, etiam male dicit, execratur, devove●, & in miserum cadaver saevit, it●que ira falsae ecclesiae, & suror pharisaicus est furor plane diabolicus Luther in Gen. cap. 4  men. Malice against the truth and the Gospel, so hurries adversaries, that it transports them beyond all bounds of common equity, common honesty, the gravity of their persons, and places; so as neither Law of God, nor law of man can restrain their violence, and impetuousness. No bounds can keep a malicious spirit within compass. It makes men forget common civility, and carries men beyond all Decorum, even that Decorum their place and office calls for. Bonner cannot content himself to judge, and condemn Gods servants to the fire, it satisfies him not to be their judge, but he must be taking the Beadles, or the Hangman's office out of his hand too, and must be whipping them with his own hands; And malicious Story forgetting the gravity of his Doctorship, must be throwing Faggots at the faces of the Martyrs, when bound to the stake to be burned. What is to be absurd and unreasonable, if this be not? Murderers, and bloody cut throats shall find more legal and formal proceed at their hands, than the maintainers of the Gospel, and God's truth shall do at their tribunals. To be sure, Barrabas shall find more favour; and less hatred than Christ.  
judge by this what may be looked for, if Use 2 ever the Romish Ananias should get head amongst us again. Ananias his spirit lives still in that chair of pestilence. If ever therefore we should come under his fingers, look neither for law, nor reason, honesty, nor equity, look for nothing but the weight of his fists.  
Thus have we seen the enemy's impetuousness in this point, and we may yet see a little more in the next. Therefore further in the third place observe.  
Ananias commands to smite Paul. A Doct. 3 false Priest to smite a true Apostle. Never do Gods faithful servants suffer harder measure than from such. Who smites Micaiah, but that counterfeit Enthusiast Zidkiah, 1 King. 22. Well might he come in with his horns. They were emblematical, & better signs of the malice of his heart, than of the truth of his prophecy. There be no such horned beasts that push so dangerously against God's true Prophets, as Satan's false prophets are, jer. 20. jeremy is buffeted and stocked, and who is the deed doer? Pashur the Priest. See jer. 26. 8, 11, 16. The prophet finds more reason & fair dealing from the Princes, and the people, than from the Priests, and the prophets. These were fiercely bend against him, & nothing would quench the wolves thirst, but the prophet's blood. Pilate can find no fault in Christ; yea seeks to deliver him; but the chief Priests & the Elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barrabas & destroy jesus, Mat. 27 20. How woeful a case was it, that more justice and equity should be in an heathen Pilate, than in the Priests? How well would it have become them to have sticked, and stood for Christ, if Pilate had sought his life, rather than that an Heathen should plead for him, whilst those that glory that they are the Priests of God, should seek the murder of Gods Son. What a pitiful case that Pilate should be the jew, and the Priests the Heathens? Therefore is Paul's Preface in his answer before Agrippa worth the noting. Act. 26. 2. I think myself happy King Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee. Why, what was Agrippa? He was an heathen man. Why then should he think himself happy to answer before him? Had he not been happier if he might have answered the matter before the high Priest? No; for Agrippa gives him liberty to speak for himself, Act. 26. 1. Then said Agrippa to Paul, thou art permitted to speak for thyself. But Ananias the high Priest lays him on the mouth, when having leave he gins to speak for himself. There is more hope of reason, and fair proceeding from heathen Agrippa, than from Ananias. There be no such virulent, and violent enemies against God's truth and servants as are degenerate, and counterfeit friends, and amongst those still they be the bitterest, whom it behoved to be the best. The bitterest enemies against the Church, are those within her own bowels.  
Ananias was an usurper of the office of Doct. 4 the Priesthood, and mark how he carries himself in the place. He commands Paul to be smitten. Usurpers commonly are smiters, and usurpation is usually attended with violence. Such as the entrance, such the administration. We see it true in Abimelech 
Integritas praesidentisi est salus subditorum, principatus autem quem ambitus occupavit, etiam si moribus, atque actibus non offendit, ipsius tamen initij sui est pernitiosus exemplo: & difficile est ut bono peragantur exitu, quae malo sunt inducta principio, ex Decret.  and Athalia. That as it is said of Pope Bonif. the eight, that he entered like a Fox, reigned like a Lion, etc. So was it with Ananias, he had a Fox's entrance, he came not to the Priesthood by an hereditary succession, but as the fashion than was by simony, bribery, and flattery, and now see how he reigns like a Lion, and commands Paul to be smitten on the mouth. An ill entrance into any place of office, in Church, or Commonwealth, cannot promise any good in the administration thereof.  
See what woeful times here were, what bitterness, what madness against a good conscience. Doct. 5 And these were the times that did a little forerun the fatal & fearful ruin and desolation of jerusalem, and the Nation of the jews. Ananias his deadly hatred of goodness, and good conscience, was a bud of the figtree, that the particular judgement of jerusalem was even at the doors. When the rod is blossomed, and pride hath budded, and violence, specially against good conscience is risen up into a rod of wickedness, then may it truly be said, Behold the day, behold it is come, The time is come, the day draws near, Ezec. 7. 10, 11, 12. By Bede describing the ancient destruction 
Odium in veritatis professores tanquam subversores omnia tela & odium in hos. Bed. hist. gent. Aug. l. 1. cap. 14.  of this kingdom of Britain, this is made a forerunner thereof, The hatred of the professors of the truth, as of subverters, all the spite and hate was against them. Our Saviour tells his Disciples, Luk. 21. 11. of fearful sights and great signs that should be from heaven, before the destruction of jerusalem. And so there was a fearful comet, & many other prodigious things before the same. Now if the jews had had hearts to have considered it, this cordial malignity on every hand against good conscience was as sad a Prognosticator of their approaching ruin, as any blazing star, or terrible sight whatsoever. It is an ill presage of a Nation going down, when once good conscience is fisted down.   

CHAP. XVIII.  
The severity of God's justice upon the enemies of a good conscience, and the usual equity of God's administration in his executions of justice.  
THus have we seen Paul fisted, and laid on the mouth. How doth Paul now take this blow at Ananias hands? He smites not again, nor offers to repel one violence with another, he had learned of Christ rather to have turned his other cheek to him. But yet though he smite him not with the fist, yet he smites with a check and a just reproof for his violence. And so may a man smite without transgression, and without revenge, Psal. 141. 5. Let the righteous smite me, it shall not break mine head. So may a man smite, and yet be a righteous man. These blows are not to break heads, as Ananias his blows are, but these are to break hard hearts. Thus Paul smites without transgression of the bonds of meekness and patience. And so we are now come to the third main point in the text, Paul's zealous answer, and contestation.  
Vers. 3. Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee thou whited wall.  
The contestation is contained in the whole verse. And in this contestation we have a denunciation of judgement, & that ha●ly by a Prophetical an Apostolical spirit, prophesying to him what should befall him; not an imprecation out of a private spirit stirred with a desire of revenge, God shall or will smite, not, I pray God smite, or I hope to see the day when God shall smite, but God shall smite. As if he had said, well Ananias, thou hast smitten me, hear now what thy doom from God is, I am sent to thee with heavy tidings: God will call thee to reckoning for this blow, and God's hand is over thine head to pay thee in thine own kind. So then from the whole learne thus much.  
Christian patience, though it bind a man's Doct. hands, yet doth it not always bind a man's tongue. Though it lay a Law upon a man to forbear violence, yet lays it not a Law upon him always to enjoin him silence. Though a man in Paul's case may not strike, yet he may speak. Though Religion pinion a man's arms from striking, yet doth it not sow & seal up a man's lips from speaking. Ananias hath smitten Paul on the face, and if it please him to have another blow, he will not resist him, he hath his other cheek ready for him, if his finger's itch to be doing; but yet for all this, though Paul hold his hands, he doth not hold his peace. Indeed Christ's precept is well known, Math. 5. 39 Turn the other cheek also, but yet for all that, see what his practice was when he was smitten, joh. 18. 23. jesus answered him, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil, but if well, why smitest thou me? And yet his precept and practice do not interfeire, nor cross shins. For though by his precept he forbids us to retaliate, or recompense injury with injury, out of the heat of a vindictive spirit, yet by his practice he warrants us in cases of injury to make a manifestation both of our own innocence, and others injustice. Religion binds no man to be a Traitor to his own innocence, and the justice of his cause, and by silence to abet others injustice. With a good conscience may a man speak, so long as he speaks as Paul did before Festus, Act. 26. 25. The words of truth and soberness. So a man answer truly, soberly, without tacks of gall, and impatient touches of revenge. Christ and Religion say to a man convented, and injuriously proceeded against, as Agrippa did to Paul, Act. 26. 1. Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. This in general, more particularly, in this Denunciation, Consider the judgement denounced, that is this, God shall smite thee. From which we may observe two things, First:  
See Gods judgements, and the severity of Doct. 1 his justice against the enemies of a good conscience, and his faithful servants. Ananias smites Paul, and for his good conscience, and what gets he by it? God will smite him, and give him as good as he brings. God will smite smiters. Ananias smites Paul, and Gods will smite Ananias; yea, and God did smite Ananias, for he was afterwards slain by Manaimus, one of the Captains of the jews.  
It is a dangerous thing not to smite when God commands, 1 King. 20. 35, 36. He that would not smite a Prophet when God commanded, was smitten with an heavy judgement. It is no less dangerous to smite when God forbids smiting; God hath an heavy hand for those that are so light fingered, and he will give them blow for blow that will be smiting his for a good conscience.  
Touch not mine anointed, and do my Prophets no harm, Ps. 105. 15. He that touches them, touches the apple of God's eye, Zach. 2. 8. So he that smites them, smites the apple of his eye. The eye is a tender place, and sensible of a little blow. God will not take a blow on the eye, nor bear a blow on his face at the hands of the proudest enemies of them all, and though we must turn the other cheek rather than smite again, yet the Lord to whom vengeance belongs, will take no blows at their hands, but if they will be smiting, they shall be sure to hear of him to their cost.  
You find Ex. 2. 11. an Egyptian smiting an Israelite. It becomes none better than Egyptians to be smiting Israelites. Moses spies an Egyptian smiting of an Hebrew. What gets the Egyptian in the end? See verse 12. God stirs up the spirit of Moses to smite him, and to slay him. Thus will God teach Egyptians to be meddling. Pashur smites jeremy, jer. 20. 2. What got he by it? The heavy stroke of God's hand upon himself and all his friends, ver. 3, 4, 5, 6. Herod was a smiter too, Act. 12. 1, 2. He stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the Church, and he killed james the Brother of john with the Sword. And what became of him in the end? See ver. 23. The Angel of the Lord smote him, & he was eaten up of worms, and he gave up the ghost. It is said of jonas his gourd that a worm smote it, and it withered, jon. 4. That was much that a worm should so soon smite the gourd. But when men will be smiting God's people, and his prophets for a good conscience, and when Herod will be so busy as to smite Apostles, God can send not only an Angel, one of his most glorious creatures, but even a base worm, even one of the weakest creatures to smite Herod, and eat him both. jeroboam stretches forth his arm against the Prophet, 1 Kin. 13. & his arm withers, he doth but threaten to smite, & God smites him. How much more when Herod stretches forth his hand to vex the Church, and to smite God's Ministers, will God not only whither them, but smite him, as Samson smote the Philistines, hip and thigh, and make him a rotten and a stinking spectacle to all malicious smiters to the world's end.  
Thus is that true which the Prophet implies in that speech, Isa. 27. 6. Hath he smitten him as he smote his smiter? Mark then Gods dealing, he uses to smite smiters.  
Neither is this true only of smiters with the fist, and with the sword, but it is also true of those smiters, jer. 18. 18. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue. Even such smiters will God smite also, as we may see there, ver. 21, 22, 23. Thus God met with Nabal, David sends for relief to him upon his festival day, and he in stead of an alms falls a railing on him, and calls him, in effect, a Rogue, and a Vagabond, and a runaway. Thus he smote David with his tongue. What follows? See ver. 38. And it came to pass about ten days after, that the Lord smote Nabal. And how smote he him? That he died. So Zach. 14. 12. Their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. What might the reason be of that judgement? Because haply many that cannot, or dare not fight with their hands, for fear of the law, yet fight against God's Ministers & his servants with their tongues: Well, God hath a plague to smite such sinners. Though they smite but with the tongue, yet God will smite them, and give them their portion with the rest of the adversaries of the Church. And if God will not spare such smiters, how much lessewil he spare such as smite with the sword?  
Terror to all smiters, either with hand Use 1 or tongue, Smite on, go on in your malicious courses, do so, but yet know that there is a smiter in heaven that will meet with you. Had Zimri peace who slew his master? So said jezabel to jehu, and so may it be said in this case. Search the Scriptures, search the Histories of the Church; Had ever any smiters' peace, which lifted up either hand, or tongue against any of the Lords people? Did smiters ever scape ? Had they any cause to brag in the end? Had they ever any cause to brag of the last blow? Did Herod prosper that smote james with the sword? did Ananias prosper that smote Paul? did the Egyptian prosper that smote the Hebrew? Did Doeg prosper who was a tongue-smiter, as well as an hand-smiter, Psa. 52. Oh consider this you that dare lift up your hands and tongues against a good conscience, & be afraid of Gods smiting hand, tremble to meddle in this kind. Learn to hold your hands and tongues, unless ye long to feel Gods smiting hand. Especially take heed of smiting Gods Ministers in any kind, Deut. 33. 11. Levi hath a strange blessing, Bless Lord his substance, & accept the work of his hand, smite through the loins of them that rise against him, and of them that hate him, that they rise not again. God saw, that of all others, Levi would be most subject to the blows of fists, and tongues, and therefore he is fenced with a blessing for the nonce, to make smiters fear to meddle with him, or if they will needs meddle, yet to let them see that it were better to wrong any other tribe than that; God would smite them, & smite them to the purpose, that shall offer to smite him.  
Here is that which may make God's people comfortably patiented under all the Use 2 wrongs & injuries of smiters in any kind. Here is that may make them by patience to possess their souls, & may make them hold their hands and their tongues from smiting. Smite not thou, God will smite smiters. Indeed when we will be smiting, we prevent Gods smiting, and so they have the easier blows by the means: For what are our blows to the Lords; Do as Christ's did, 1 Pet. 2. 23. Who when he was reviled, reviled not again; but committed himself to him that judges righteously. It is best leaving them to the Lords hand. Pray for thy smiters, that God would give them smiting hearts, that their hearts may smite them for their smiting; pray to God if he see it good they may be so smitten. This is a revenge will stand with charity. Yet if not, leave them to God who best knows how to smite smiters.  
It is great comfort against the sore afflictions Use 3 of God's Church at this present. The enemies of the Gospel have smitten God's Church with a sore blow. Well, yet let us not be out of heart, the time will assuredly come, that God will smite these smiters. The time will undoubtedly come, when God will smite that whited wall, that Romish Ananias, that scarlet Whore that animates and sets a work those smiters. It was low with David when he fled from Absalon, and was glad to receive relief from the children of Ammon, 2 Sam. 17. 27. But chap. 18. joab smites Absalon with three darts, and David returns in peace, and Ps. 3. 7. blesses God for smiting his enemies upon the cheek bone. How did the Egyptians oppress and smite the poor Israelites, Ex. 2. 11. and Ex. 5. 14? But at last Ex. 12. God smites the land of Egypt, and the first born, and Ex. 15. 6. dashes in pieces these smiters. See how hard it went with Israel, 1 Sam. 4. 10, 11. And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and there was a very great slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen, and the Ark of God was taken. Behold what a terrible blow here was given: The Priests slain, and the Ark captived, as if God himself had been taken prisoner, and yet at last, 1 Sam. 5. 6. God smites these smiters, But the hand of God was heavy upon them, and smote them with Emerods', yea as David sings, Psal. 78. 66. He smote his enemies in the hinder parts, he put them to a perpetual reproach. He smites them reproachfully. Sometimes he smites enemies on the cheek bone, Psal. 3. 7. Sometimes he smites them in the hinder parts, both are disgraceful and reproachful, but the later the worse, a disgraceful thing to be scourged and whipped like boys. Antichristian smiters do prevail, and haply may yet much more, and may give yet sorer blows, but yet as in Nebuchadnezars dream, Dan. 2. 34, 35. the stone cut out without hands smote the Image upon the feet, and broke them in pieces, so that the iron, brass, clay, gold, all became like the chaff of the Sommerthreshing flores; So will Christ in his good time smite these smiters, so that their place shall be no more found.  
God shall smite thee. Observe the marvellous Doct 2 equity of God's administration in the executions of his justice. God fits his punishments to men's Sins. Here we see the truth of that, Math. 7. 2. With what measure ye meet, It shall be measured to you again. If Ananias smite Paul, God will smite Ananias. Smiting was his Sin, smiting shall be his punishment. Paul says not, God shall judge thee, or plague thee, but God shall smite thee, to teach that God doth not only justice upon sinners, but that there is a Retaliation in God's justice, a recompensing with the like. That look as amongst the judicials of the jews there was a law of retaliation, Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand; that if a man wronged another with the loss of an eye, he was not only to be punished, but to be punished in the selfsame kind, to lose an eye himself; so the Lord for the most part follows the same course in dispensation of justice. If men smite, God will not only punish, but smite.  
That look as it is in the case of obedience, so is it in the case of Sin. When men yield obedience to God, he not only rewards their obedience with a recompense, but with a recompense of Retalation, Pr. 3. 9 Honouring God with the increase of the fruits, is honoured from God with the recompense of the increase of the fruits. Abraham spares not his seed, therefore God will multiply his seed, Gen. 22. 16, 17. It was in David's heart to build God an house, therefore God will build him an house, 2 Sam. 7. 2. 5. 11.  
Thus it is also in the case of Sin; this is the rule the Lord proceeds by often in his justice, to meet with wicked men in their kind. As with the merciful he shows himself merciful, so with the froward he will show himself froward; Ps. 18. 25, 26. And if men will walk contrary unto him, he will walk contrary unto them. Leu. 26. And he will cross them that cross him. And those that will not hear when he calls, he will not hear when they call, Pro. 1. 24. 28. For the better clearing of this point, we may see the truth of it in diverse particulars.  
1. God's punishments are in the same manner. The same manner of Sin, the same manner of punishment. Ananias smites Paul in a barbarous and a malicious manner, he himself was cruelly smitten, and slain. The Sin of the Sodomites was a Sin against nature, their punishment was after the same manner, fire descended from heaven. It is unnatural for fire to come downwards. They Sin unnaturally, fire comes down unnaturally. The Philistines not only smite Israel, but they do it with a spiteful heart, and merely for Vengeance, Ez. 25. 15. Therefore ver. 17. I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes. Vengeance forvengeance, manner for manner. Such was the late remarkable justice of God upon that Popish Conventicle in the City, many of that crew were fallen from God, & fallen from the truth; the Lord slaughters them by a fall. A fall was their Sin, a fall was their death, there was a fall for a fall.  
2. God's punishments are in the same kind. Look in what kind the Sin is, of the same kind is the punishment. Sodoms' Sin was in fiery lusts, they were in their Sin set on fire from hell. Their punishment was of the same kind; God raines down fire from heaven upon them. A fiery Sin, and a fiery punishment. Memorable in this kind was the justice of God upon that notorious & fiery persecutor Stephen Gardiner, who would not sit down to dinner till the news came from Oxford of the fire set to Ridley and Latimer; but before his meal was ended, God kindled a fire in his body, which ere long dispatched him, & made him thrust his tongue black out of his mouth. Such was God's justice upon Adonibesek, judges 1. 7. in the cutting of his thumbs and his great toes. Threescore and ten Kings having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my Table. As I have done, so God hath requited me. God hath met with me in mine own kind, he hath paid me with mine own coin. Thus was God's justice diverse ways upon the Egyptians. They threw the Israelites children into the waters, and stained the waters with blood, therefore God turns their waters into blood. To which that place alludes, Apo. 16. 4, 5, 6. And the third Angel poured out his vial upon the waters, and fountains of waters, and they became blood. And I heard the Angel in the water say, Righteous art thou O Lord, etc. because thou hast judged thus, for they have shed the blood of Saints and Prophets; and thou hast given them blood to drink. Where not only the justice of God, but also the equity thereof is magnified, not only because God had judged, but because he had judged thus. Again, the Egyptians destroy the males of the children, God meets with them in their kind, he smites the firstborn throughout all Egypt. The Egyptians drown the Israelites Infants in the waters, God pays them in their kind, he drowns the Egyptians in the waters of the Red sea, there is drowning for drowning, and waters for waters. Nadab and Abihu, Sin by fire, and Levit. 10. 2. There went out a fire from the Lord and devoured them.  
How many fires hath the Whore of Babylon kindled, wherein she hath consumed to ashes the Saints of God, God will plague her with an end suiting with her sin, Apo. 17. 16. she herself shall be burnt with fire. They shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. There is fire for fire, Apoc. 9 12. she there darkens the light of the truth, with the smoke of heresy and superstition; There arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace, and the Sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And Apoc. 18. 9 18. There we find the smoke of his burning. There is smoke for smoke. God will make her smoke in the end that hath brought such a deal of spiritual smoke into his Church: and as that Emperor said, Let him perish with 
Fumo pereat qui fumum vendidit.  smoke that sold smoke; so hath she perished with smoke at the last, that hath put out the eyes of so many thousands with the smoke of heresy and superstition. This was that justice of God which the Papists powder-Martyrs, Catesby, & some others of them were forced to acknowledge, when they who had thought to have blown up the State with Powder, were themselves spoiled with Powder, a spark of fire flying into it, as they were drying it, and preparing for their defence.  
Such is that justice of God threatened, Hab. 2. 15, 16. Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness. Thou art filled with shame for glory, drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered, the cup of the Lords right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory. A good place for drunkards to think upon, especially such whose glory is their shame, whose glory is to make others drunk. They shall have cup for cup, nakedness for nakedness, spewing for spewing. As they have made others spew and vomit, through oppression by drink, so will God give them such a draught of the bitter dregs, of the cup of his wrath, that shall make them spew their very hearts out, as jer. 25. 27. Drink and be drunken, and spew and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send amongst you. Of this kind was that justice of God upon David himself. He kills Vriah with the sword, therefore the sword shall not departed from his house; He defiles the wife of Vriah, therefore his Concubines are defiled by Absalon. This is that justice, Apoc. 13. 10. He that leadeth into Captivity, shall go into Captivity; he that killeth with the sword, must be killed with the sword. It was the most righteous hand of God upon Saul, that he that put Gods Priests to the sword should fall upon his own sword; and just with God that Elymas the Sorcerer, that would have kept the Deputy in spiritual, should himself be smitten with bodily blindness.  
3. God's punishments are oft in the same part and member of the body, wherewith men have offended. That look as renowned Granmer dealt with himself at his Martyrdom; That hand wherewith he had subscribed to the six Articles, that hand he first put into the fire, in an holy revenge upon himself; even so deals the Lord very often in his justice; That which men have made the Instrument of their Sin, God makes the subject of his judgements. Absaloms' pride, and his weakness lay where Sampsons' strength was. Absaloms' hair was Absaloms' pride, therefore Absaloms' hair, as it is conceived, was Absaloms' halter, and whilst he will needs spare the Barber a labour, he also spares the Hangman a labour. Such was God's justice upon Samson himself. He can find none to be the pleasure of his eyes, as the Prophet speaks of his wife, Ezek. 24. but Philistines, judg. 14. 2, 3. and chapter 16. 1. and so in the love of a Philistim, Dalilah, he abuses his eyes. What is the issue? At last the Philistines put out his eyes. God punished the abuse of his eyes with the loss of his eyes, and those eyes that loved Philistines, were plucked out by Philistines.  
Memorable in this kind was God's justice upon that French King Henry the second, who in a rage against a Protestant Counsellor committed him into the hands of one of his Nobles to be imprisoned, and that with these words, That he would see him burned with his own eyes. But mark the justice of God within a few days after, the same Noble man with a Lance put into his hands by the King, did at a tilting run the said King into one of his eyes, whereof he died.  
Of this kind was the justice of God upon Zachary, Luke 1. Offending with his tongue in that question, How can this be? he is punished with the loss of the use of his tongue, and speech for a time. The rich glutton's tongue had denied Lazarus a crumb, therefore it is denied a drop of water. The same glutton had abused his tongue in gluttony and therefore his tongue hath a peculiar torment in hell. So those Zac. 14. 12. had their tougues consumed in their mouths, like enough as with their hand, so with their tongues they had fought against jerusalem.  
Such was God's justice upon jeroboam, he stretches forth his arm against the prophet, and the Lord withers it. He with his arm threatens to smite, & God smites him in his arm. Like that justice which was done upon the Emperor Aurelianus, 
Euseb. lib. 7. cap. 29.  who when he was ready to subscribe, and set his hand to an Edict for the persecution of the Christians, was suddenly cramped in his knuckles, and so hindered from it by the judgement of God.  
I may not here omit that notable instance of God's justice upon Rodolph, Duke of Suevia, he whom the Pope stirred up against his lawful Lord and Sovereign, against his Oath to usurp his Crown and Empire. This Rodolph in his wars for the Empire, was wounded in the right hand, of which wound he died, and at his death acknowledged God's justice in these words; You see, saith he to his friends, here 
Videtis manum dexteram meam de vulnere sauciam. Hac ego juravi Domino meo Henrico ut non nocerem ei, nec insidiarer gloriae ejus, Sed jussio Aposto ica Pontificumque petitio me ad id adduxit ut juramenti transgressor hono em mihi indibitum usurparem. Quis igitur sinis nos es caeperit, videtis quia in manu unde juramante violavi mortale hoc vulnus accepe, etc. Morn. Mist. Iniq. p 259.  my right hand wounded; with this right hand I swore to my Lord Henry the Emperor. But the command of the Pope hath brought me to this, that laying aside the respect of mine Oath, I should usurp an honour not due to me. But what is now come of it? In that hand which hath violated mine Oath, I am wounded to death. And so with anguish of heart he ended his days. An example so much the rather to be marked, that men may see how God blesses the Pope's blessings, & his dispensation with Oaths, specially when they are given to arm men to rebellion against their lawful Sovereigns.  
4. The equity of God's justice appears in that, Pro. 26. 27. Who so diggeth a pit shall fall therein, and he that rolls a stone, it will return upon him. Such was God's justice upon Haman, he makes a gallows for his own neck. Hitherto we may refer the justice of God, when God turns men's beloved Sins into their punishments. Whoredom was the Levites Concubines Sin: judges 19 2. and Whoredom was her death, ver. 26. The Lord, Deut. 28. 27. threatens the botch of Egypt, and how frequently is the Sin of uncleanness smitten with the French botch, the fruit of the Sin? How frequent are the examples of God's justice upon drunkards: drunkenness their Sin, and drunkenness their death. And so that Proverb is often verified, Prov. 5. 22. His own iniquity shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his Sins.  
5. The equity of God's justice appears in this, when he makes the place of sin, the place of punishment. We have frequent examples of this in Scripture. This was threatened Ahab, 1 Kin. 21. 19 In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thy blood. And this was made good, 2 Kin. 9 26. In Tophet the place where they had slain their Sons & Daughters, would God slay the jews, jer. 7. 31, 32. And as their houses were the places of their sins, so should their houses be the places of their punishment, jer. 19 13. And because the Sabbath was profaned in the gates of jerusalem, therefore in the gates thereof would God kindle a fire, jerem. 17. 27. And remarkable is that, Ezek. 6. 13. Their slain men shall be amongst their Idols round about their Altars, and under every thick Oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their Idols. Such was the justice of God in that late blow upon the Popish company. In the very place where they used to dishonour God, the hand of God was upon them, they were slain, and their carcases crushed in the place of their Mass-worship, the first floor falling into their Massing place, & so they & their Crucifixes & Images, all dashed together, God doing with them as with the Egyptians, Num. 33. 4. not only smiting them, but also executing judgement upon their gods: yea not only so, but executed them and their gods, in the selfsame place, where God had been by them so much dishonoured.  
6. The equity of God's justice is to be seen in the time of his punishments. God oft makes that time wherein men have sinned the time of his judgements. At the time of the Passover did the jews crucify Christ, and at the time of the Passeover was jerusalem taken. Heavy is the calamity that is befallen the Churches beyond the seas, the time wherein the first blow was given is not to be forgotten. The first blow was upon the Sabbath, upon that day was Prague lost. What one thing have all those Churches failed in more, than in that point of the religious observation of that day; that day they neglected to sanctify by obedience, upon that day God would be sanctified in his justice upon them, & in the time would have them read one cause of their punishment. Neither is the time wherein God did that late justjce upon those popish persons to be forgotten. It is somewhat, that after their Roman account, it was upon their fift of Novemb. God would let those of that jesuited brood see how good it was to blow up Parliament houses, and happily would have them learn more loyalty and religion, than to scoff at our new holiday.  
Of this kind was God's justice upon one Leaver, who railing on the worthy Martyr & servant of Christ, Mr. Latimer, saying, that he saw that evil favoured knave, Latimer, when he was burned, and that he had teeth like an Horse, his Son the same hour, & at the same time as near as could be gathered, wickedly hanged himself. And the same was God's justice seizing upon Stephen Gardiner, the same day that Ridley and Latimer were burned.  
Since than there is such an equity in God's administration of justice, let it be our care and wisdom to observe the same. Learn to comment upon God's works of justice, and to compare men's ways, and Gods works together. God is to have the praise and glory of his justice upon others, as well as of his mercy to ourselves, now we shall then be best able to give God this glory, when we so observe his administration, that we may be able not only to say, The Lord is just, but the Lord is just in this, and that particular, when we can say, as Revel. 16. 5. not only Righteous art thou O Lord that judgest, but righteous art thou O Lord that judgest thus. Thus they sinned, and thus are they punished. It is good to observe all the circumstances of God's justice, that so not only the justice, but the wisdom and equity of God's justice may be seen; and this is to trace the Lord by the foot: Psal. 68 24. Especially we should be thus wise in personal evils that befall ourselves, that by our punishment, and the circumstances thereof, we might be led to the consideration of our sins, and so might say as Adonibesek; As I have done, so hath God rewarded me.  
Learn to give God the praise of his equity as of his justice. So doth David, Ps. 7. 15, 16, 17. I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness.  
Tremble and Sin not. Take heed how and wherein we Sin, lest by our Sins we teach God how to punish us. Take heed of abusing thy tongue in swearing, railing, scoffing, lest God lay some terrible judgement upon thy tongue here, or some peculiar torment upon thy tongue in hell hereafter. Take heed what measure thou measurest to others, lest thou teach God to measure the same to thyself. Take heed that thou make not thine house a den of spuing drunkards, lest God make thine house to spew thee forth: Take heed how thou use thy wits, thy strength; take heed of sinning in thy Children, or any thing else thou hast, lest God make the matter of thy Sin the matter of thy punishment.   
FINIS.   


A Table of the several Chapters of this Treatise.  
CHAP. I. THe Introduction of the discourse following. Fol. 1  
CHAP. II. Conscience described. 9  
CHAP. III. A good Conscience what it is. False ones discovered. 19  
CHAP. IU Peace of Conscience how gotten 35  
CHAP. V Integrity of Conscience how procured. 46  
CHAP. VI Two further means to procure Integrity of a good Conscience. 57  
CHAP. VII. Two marks of a good Conscience. 73  
CHAP. VIII. Three other Notes of a good Conscience. 90  
CHAP. IX. The two last Notes of a good Conscience. 103  
CHAP. X. The comfort and benefit of a good Conscience, in the case of disgrace, and reproach. 128  
CHAP. XI. The comfort and benefit of a good Conscience in the times of common fears and calamities, and in the times of sickness, & other personal evils. 147  
CHAP. XII. The comfort and benefit of a good conscience, at the days of Death and judgement. 165  
CHAP. XIII. A second Motive to a good conscience. That it is a continual feast. 180  
CHAP. XIV. A third & fourth Motive to a good conscience. 201  
CHAP. XV The last Motive to a good conscience, viz. The misery of an evil one. 213  
CHAP. XVI. The portion and respect that a good conscience finds in the world. 232  
CHAP. XVII. The impetuous injustice, and malice of the adversaries of a good conscience. 243  
CHAP. XVIII. The severity of God's justice upon the enemies of good Conscience, and the usual equity of God's administration in his execution of justice. 253   
FINIS.   

THE MISCHIEF And Misery of Sandals Both Taken, and Given.  
By IER. DYKE, Minister of Epping in Essex.  Wherefore let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. 1. Cor. 10. 12. Aug de verb. Dom. Serm. 53. Imo utinam terruerim, utinam aliquid egerim utinam qui sic filerat. vel quae sic fuerat non sit ulterius. utinam verba ista infuderim & non effuderim. 
LONDON, Printed by W. S. for R. Milbourne, in Paul's Churchyard at the Greyhound 1632.   

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE Lady, the Lady ELIZABETH, Countess of Winchelsey, his Noble PATRONESS.  
MADAM,  
IT is not unknown unto your Honour, what first occasioned me to meddle with this Subject. That which first moved me to preach it in mine own Charge, hath also induced me to make it more public. I conceived it might be a work well worth the while to vindicate, as much as in me lay, the Honour of God from that impeachment it commonly receives from Scandals, to heal the bleeding wounds they usually give to the profession of Godliness, to stop the mouth of iniquity which they set so wide open, and to give men notice of the great danger that both the taking, and giving of Scandal may bring them into.  
I observe, that men do with the Scandals of Professors, as the Levite did with the twelve parts of his Concubine, they send them 
judge 19 29.  through all the quarters of Israel. It were happy that such foul actions as trench to the dishonour of God, and Religion might be buried in eternal silence, and never be published, Publish it not in 
2. Sam. 1.  Gath: But since that is impossible, but that they will be published in Gath, What inconvenience is it that something be published in, and sent into the Coasts of Israel, that may stop the mouths of the men of Gath, that may salve the Honour of God, and Religion, and that may discover and prevent the danger of Scandalous evils.  
I confess, that when I considered how frequently Scandals have fallen out, and what a world of mischief hath been done by them, I wondered, that no man, for aught I know, or can learn, had hitherto meddled with this Argument so needful, and so useful, and therefore thought it would not be lost labour to do something in this kind.  
And what I have done, I now make bold to present unto your Honour, as presuming that that shall be welcome to you that pleads for the Honour of God, and his Truth. I acknowledge myself many ways deeply engaged to your Honour, and the many favours I have received from you, bind me to a thankful acknowledgement of them. May it please you therefore to accept of this small Treatise as a public testimonial of my thankfulness. Which if you shall please to do, I shall reckon it as a superadded favour to all the rest, and to my thankfulness to yourself, shall add my daily prayers to the God of all Grace, for his blessing upon your noble Family, both root and branch, and that he would not only continue to you the blessing of the left hand, Riches and Honour, 
Prou. 3. 16.  but give you the blessing of the right hand also length of days, and with them both, the best of his blessings, All spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ jesus. This shall be the daily suit of  
Your Honour's Servant in the Gospel of Christ jesus. Jer. Dyke.   

To the Reader.  
THere is not any one thing that Satan the professed enemy of Mankind labours, and endeavours more, than the hindrance of the salvation of man. There is but one way to Heaven, that which Peter calls the way of Truth, 2. Pet. 2. 2. which Solomon calls the way of good men, Prou. 2. 20. which isaiah calls the way of Holiness, Isai. 35. 8. which jeremy calls the old, and the good way, and the ancient paths, jer. 6. 16. 18, 15. Now Satan to keep men from Heaven, doth his utmost to make men stumble at, and from the ancient paths, that by taking offence at the ways of God, disliking, and distasting them, the salvation of their souls might become impossible.  
To effect their stumbling at those ways Satan lays many and sundry kinds of stumbling blocks in the ways of men. But yet amongst those many ones, I find there be some more dangerous than others, and by which the Devil prevails much more than by the rest. And those I observe and conceive to be specially these three.  
1. The Reproach, Contempt, and Obloquy, that by some men is usually cast upon Religion and the conscionable profession, and Professors thereof. Satan tells men that if they will needs go this way they shall have a deal of filth and dirt fling in the faces of them, that they must look to be scorned, and Reproached, as if they were the very Of scour of the earth. And this very thing starts and stumbles not a few. Some will better abide a stake, than some others can a mock. Zedekiah could happily have found in his heart to have harkened to the Prophet's counsel, but that this lay in the way, I am afraid of the jews, lest they deliver me into the Caldaeans hands, and they mock me, jer. 38. 19 It was death to him to be mocked. But all considered, we shall see how little reason any have for this to stumble at Religion. For do but consider who they are commonly that mock at Godliness. Do but observe their Character in the Scriptures, and you shall find them such as these. A company of Hypocrites. Hypocritical mockers, Psal. 35. 16. A crew of Drunkards, Psal. 69. 12. I am the song of Drunkards. A sort of vicious persons, following their lusts, There shall come scoffers walking after their own lusts, 2. Pet. 3. 3. A company of Abject persons, Psal. 35. 15. Like those enemies, Acts 17. 5. Lewd fellows of the base sort. A rout of profane godless irreligious Atheists that do no more know the Power, than Turks, and Heathens know the truth, of Godliness, The fool hath said in his heart there is no God, you have made a mock at the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his trust, Ps. 14. 1. 6. It is a shrewd suspicion, that he that is a Mocker is an Atheist, It well bacomes him to mock at Religion that denies a God, and it is a sign that he denies a God, that mocks at Godliness, And will any wise man stumble at Religion for such mens Mocks and Reproaches? What can be expected better from them? It was a good answer that that Orator gave Sallust, Neque enim 
Orat. in Sallust.  qui, ita ut tu, vixit, aliter quam tu loqui potest, It cannot be but that he that life's thy life, should speak thy language, and it is an answer will serve the turn in this case; To look for other language from men of so ill lives, were to expect to gather grapes of thorns. Let no man for such men's mocks and reproaches be stumbled at Religion, or think ever the worse of it. A man would choose his Religion by such men's enmity, and it is the great honour of Religion that it hath such Adversaries. 
* Consulite commentarios vestros, illic reperietis primum Neronem in hanc sectam tum maximae Romae orientem Caesariano gladio f●rocisse. Sed tali dedicatore damnationis nostrae gloriamur Qui enim scit illum, intelligere potest no nni si aliquod bonum grande à Nerone damnatum. Tentaverunt & Domitianus, etc.— Tales nobis semper Insecutores, Iniusti, Impij, Turpes quos & ipsi damnare consuestis, à quibus damnatos restituere soliti estis. Tertull. Apol. cap. 5.  It was that wherein the Primitive Christians used to glory that they had Nero their first Persecutor, and condemner of their persons and Religion, Inasmuch as they that knew him could not but know that it must needs be some great good which Nero did condemn. It was the honour of Christians, and their Religion that Nero and such as he was, unjust, , filthy persons, whom the Heathen themselves condemned were the sorest, and bitterest enemies they had. No wise man would have stumbled at Christian Religion, because it had such an enemy as Nero was, A wise man would have loved it the better. The case is the same here, It is the honour of Godliness, and Religion, that it hath Hypocrites, Drunkards, vicious followers of their lusts, base and lewd fellows, godless Atheists, for her scoffing Adversaries. It must needs be some great good which they hate, and scorn, I know scarce a better argument to persuade men to love and embrace it, then that such men hate and deride it.  
2. The Poverty, the mean, and homely outside of such for the most part, as receive & profess Christ, and his Gospel. What should you do looking this way, says Satan; Have any of the Rulers, or of the Pharisees believed on him? But this people, etc. john 7. 48. What a fond thing is it to follow this Christ whom none but a company of the meaner sort of people follow? The greater, and richer sort of the world they like not, nor look not this way, but only a few of the lower rank, and condition of men. And how ever many are stumbled at this, yet indeed little reason is there that any should in such a case be scandalised. So much the less reason because our Saviour hath so fore-armed and fenced us against this Scandal, Math. 11. 5. 6. The poor receive the Gospel. Why then, might some say, we will not receive this Christ, and this Gospel, which for the most part only the poorer sort receive. Therefore see what our Saviour adds to prevent such scandal. And blessed is he that is not offended in me, that is in me a Christ received and professed by the poorer sort. How could men like well of Godliness in gay apparel, and with a gold ring, but the vile raiment makes it vile in their eyes, who consider not that God hath chosen the vile things of this world, to confound the things that are mighty, that God hath chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised, jam. 2. 5. When 
* julianus dixit, & si Philosophorum ego Senatum aduocau●ro tu continuo sellularios opisices, omneque in nos vulgus accendas, Augustinus dixit. Contumeliosus es in infirma mundi quae elegit deus ut confunderet fortia. Aug contr. julian. Pelag li. 1.  julian the Pelagian gibed Augustine that he had not the wise sages, nor the learned Senate of Philosophers, but only a company of mean tradesmen, handicraftes men of the vulgar sort, that took part with him, he sweetly answers, Thou reproachest the weak things of the world, which God hath chosen to confound the things that are mighty. That one thing may suffice to keep men from stumbling at homely outsides. Specially if men had but an eye of faith in their heads. Carnal eyes that are dazzled with the glittering outsides of worldly glories are offended at such seeming baseness, but faith blinds itself against such fleshly Scandals, and will not see them, when it sees them, but looks through them, and sees glory through them. joh. 1. 14. And the word was made flesh, and we beheld his glory, as the glory of the only begotten son of the father, though his glory were obscured with the veil of the flesh, yet this veil hides not glory from the eye of faith, faith did look through this veil and easily discerned him the glorious, & only begotten son of the father, even in the abasement of his Incarnation. The wisemen that came from the East, when they saw Herod at jerusalem, happily in all his royal Robes, yet fall not down nor worship him; They come to Bethlehem and find Christ in a poor fashion, happily in little better than rags, & yet they fall down & worship him. Why fall they down before a mean poor Christ, and not before a Magnificent, & glorious Herod? Why rather are they not scandalised at Christ's baseness and poverty? This is the excellency of faith, In Christ's Infancy it saw Antiquity, in his baseness beauty, in his meanness majesty, and more glory in Christ's rags, then in Herod's Robes. So surely if men did live and walk by faith, and not by sight, never would Christ nor his Truth be stumbled at for the homely and poor outside of those that profess him. The purblind eye of flesh cannot pierce through these veils and clouds, And what wonder is it to see a blind man stumble?  
3. But yet the sorest and greatest stumbling block of all, is the scandalous sins and falls of such as profess religion, certain it is that these of all others are the most perilous stumbling blocks by which Satan causes multitudes of men to stumble at religion, and works them to the dislike of the ways of salvation. Afflictions and Persecutions for the Gospels' sake are dangerous stumbling blocks, and by reason of them many are so offended at religion, as that they turn their backs upon it, Math. 13. 21. When tribulation, or persecution arises because of the word, by and by he is scandalised. So that Persecutions cause Scandal. But yet the Scandals that come by the evil lives of professors are in some sense fare more dangerous and hurtful than those scandals that come from Persecutions. Though the scandal of persecution stumble & beat off many, yet have very many been gained to a love, and liking of Religion, by the Patience, Courage, & Constancy of the Saints of God in Persecution. But never were, nor willbe any gained thereunto by the scandalous falls of professors. Persecutions keep men off by fear, but Scandalous sins by Hardening men's hearts. There is far more hope, and possibility of gaining a man that is kept off by fear, then of such as are kept off by a settled, resolved Hardness of Heart. In scandals of the Cross men may have some secret like of the Truth, may have secret purposes in better times to own it, but in scandals of evil example, men grow to an open, and professed dislike thereof. In scandals of the cross, there is not always a dislike of Religion itself, but only of the hard terms, with which it must be received, but from scandals of evil life grows a dislike of Religion itself. Notwithstanding the scandal of the cross men may have an Honourable, and a good conceit of Religion, but scandals of evil life breed, and nourish a base and a vile esteem thereof in the hearts of men. So that persecutions do not do that mischief that scandalous falls do. Malicious persecutors in some sense do not that hurt that scandalous professors do.  
Now scandalous events being so mischievous & pernicious, and yet withal so common, & so frequent, why may it not be a work of charity to counterworke Satan, and to remove out of the way these dangerous stumbling blocks, at which so many fall to their utter ruin, and destruction.  
As Satan Balaam-like casts stumbling blocks in, so should it be our care to take up these stumbling blocks out of men's ways. It is not enough for us that we put not a stumbling block, or an occasion to fall in another man's way, as the Apostle advices Rom. 14. 12. But when others have done it, our endeavour should be, to take such a stumbling block out of the way. It is Gods own commandment we should so do, Isay 57 14. Take up the stumbling block out of the way of my people. It were happy if we could prevent scandals, but since that cannot be (for it must needs be that offences come) the next happiness is to prevent their mischief, that though they do come, yet they may come with as little hurt as may be. 
* Esto quod alius moverit scandalum, profecto compescere vos potestis. Nolle compescere sine culpa erit? Aut velle compescere sine gloria erit?— Si ergo vos scandalum cum possitis non tollitis, plane non impletis ministerium vestrum. Bernard. Epist. 200. add vulgar. Episco. Audegav.  The which thing who so will not, nor cares not to do, shall not be without blame, and who so endeavours to do shall not be without his reward. The which work who so doth not when occasion serves, fulfils not his ministry, and the which work who so doth, he doth an excellent and a worthy work, even the work of Angels. 
* Anon denique ministerium est Angelorum tollere scandala de regno Dei? Si dixeritis quid ad nos, etc. Bernard. ibid.  Is it not the work of Angels, says Bernard, to take scandals out of the Kingdom of God? Yea we find it to be so, Mat. 13. 41. The son of man shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather out of his Kingdom all scandals. It is therefore not only a Charitable, but an Angelical work to gather out scandals, and take up the stumbling blocks that Satan casts in men's way to heaven.  
The same spirit should be in all God's ministers which was in Paul, 2. Cor. 11. 29. Who is offended, or Scandalised, and I burn not? In cases of scandal he was all on fire, not only in regard of his grief for, but in regard of his zeal against them. He burned with an holy zeal, to remove the scandal and to prevent the mischief it might do. He burned with an holy fire of zeal to keep others from burning in the fire of Hell, wherewith scandals did endanger them.  
Upon these grounds have I been moved, & encouraged to the publishing of this following treatise, to try if by any means, either preaching, or printing, I might prevent the mischief of scandals. Were it that the fame of them did spread no farther than the places where they happen, this labour might have been spared, but 
* Sicut quod de alto cadit grandem sonum facit ut ita audiant omnes, sic & qui de alto gradu cadit ruina illius ubicunque auditur. Chrysost. in Matth.  as that which falls from an high place (it is Chrysostom's comparison) makes a great noise, so that all hear it; so men that fall from an high degree of profession, their falls are not without such a noise as is heard fare, and near. It was needful therefore to proportion the remedy to the disease, that the plaster should be as broad as the sore, and the medicine go as far as the poison. When I saw, says Paul, that they walked not uprightly, according to the truth of the Gospel, I said unto Peter before them all. Gal. 2. 14. But why before them all? Why had he no more regard to the Honour of Peter? Why was it not spoken to Peter privately, and by himself alone? Why speaks he that which might be to the discredit of Peter before them all? Hierome gives a good answer, 
* Dixi Cephaee Publicum scandalum non potuit priuate curari, Hieron. in Gal. 2.  A public scandal could not be healed privately. It is very fit that public evils, should have public remedies. If these endeavours of mine, such as they be, shall through God's blessing have such effect as to prevent any scandals for the time to come, to save any from the danger of such as are already come, or to bring any to repentance by whom offences have come, I shall have cause to think my time and pains happily bestowed.   


The several Chapters of this Treatise.  
CHAP. I. THe Coherence, and Resolution of the Text. pag. 1.  
CHAP. II. The Necessity of scandalous events in God's Church. pag. 7.  
CHAP. III. An Apology for Religion, and the Professors thereof, against the Scandal of Scandals. pag. 26.  
CHAP. FOUR That Scandals are woeful and fatal to the Scandalised World. p. 60.  
CHAP. V. How Scandals come to be so mortally Mischievous. pag. 77.  
CHAP. VI What little reason men have to triumph at, and what great reason to be cautelous in the event of Scandals. pag. 109.  
CHAP. VII. The sharp and severe justice of God upon such as give Scandal. p. 136.  
CHAP. VIII. Why God is so smart, and so severe in his justice against those by whom Scandals come. pag. 170.  
CHAP. IX. The great care we should have of giving scandal, and sorrow for them given, and the great cause of humiliation they have by whom offences come. pag. 206.    

The Mischief and Misery of SCANDALS Both Taken and Given.  MATH. 18. 7. Woe unto the world because of offences: for it must needs be that offences come: but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh. 

CHAP. I.  
The Coherence and Resolution of the Text.  
THE drift of our Saviour in his former Discourse was to exhort to the receiving of little ones. Verse 5. And who so shall receive one such little child in my name, receiveth me. A strong motive to receive such. The Apostles argument to hospitality, Heh. 13. 2 is strong. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained Angels unawares. But here the argument carries more strength, Be willing and ready to do all Christian Offices of love, and show tender respect to little ones, and so receive them, and you shall receive not Angels, but Christ himself. How willingly would men receive Christ? Receive these, and you receive him. And if little ones must be thus tenderly received and regarded, how wary should men be of doing any thing that may offend them? Therefore our Saviour doth not only advice to receive such, but also to take heed of doing any thing that may prove unto young believers, matter of offence & scandal. And so he takes occasion to enter upon a large discourse concerning scandal. This Verse is part of that discourse, and in it there be two principal points.  

1. The necessity of scandals.  
2. The mischief of scandals.   

1. The necessity of scandals, for it must needs be that offences come.  
2. The Mischief and the misery that comes by them. And that is a twofold woe.   
1. A woe to such as are scandalised, that do stumble and are offended; Woe to the world because of offences. Offences shall come, and must come, but to the sorrow, and smart of some men shall they come; They shall come to make way for the greater woe to some persons. Such events shall be, but yet they will prove events of woe to men of the world.  
2. A woe to such as do cause and give the offence. But woe to the man by whom the offence cometh. As if he had said. It is necessary that offences come, and infallibly they will fall out, but yet this necessity of the event shall no whit at all excuse, or protect the offender, but as a woe to them that take the offence, so a woe to them that give the offence, Woe to him by whom the offence cometh.  
To make way for what follows it is fit to consider what is here meant by Scandal or Offence. That we call a scandal, which is or may be in itself an occasion of falling unto another. Any thing whereby we so offend another, as that he is hindered from Good, drawn into, or confirmed in evil, is a scandal. Now a scandal may be. 1. First, in doctrine, and this is scandal given in heresies, false doctrines. Secondly, by the abuse or the unseasonable use of Christian liberty, of which kind of scandals the Apostle speaks, Rom. 14. 1. Cor. 8. 10. Thirdly, Scandal may be given by men's lives, when their lives and actions are such as cross, and thwart the Religion professed by us, and dishonours the Name of God, which we have taken up. As when a man professes the Name & Faith of Christ, and professes it zealously, and yet falls into uncleanness, drunkenness, into gross and notorious acts of fraud and cozenage, these be scandals and offences because they be occasions to make others fall, they hinder some from coming towards goodness and Religion, and they harden and confirm some in their sinful and evil courses. Thus David's murder and adultery, Noah's drunkenness, the incestuous Corinthians marriage were scandalous actions. Now though this text reach to offences of all kinds, yet I will only meddle with offences of this last kind, such as be the gross and foul courses and practices of any such as have taken upon them the profession of the Gospel, and the Name of Christ.  
To come then to the first point. The Necessity of scandals. It must needs be that offences come. There must and there shall assuredly fall out scandalous and offensive actions in the Church of God, even amongst those that profess Religion and godliness. For that our Saviour speaks of the sins of those that are in the Church, it is plain by that Verse 15. 16. 17. If thy brother shall trespass, etc. therefore he speaks of the offences of brethren. If he shall neglect to hear them tell it to the Church. Now if not of the Church, why should he be complained of to the Church. What hath the Church to do to judge those, and exercise discipline upon those that are without. And again scandals properly so called can be no where but in the Church, and amongst such as profess the Truth of God.   

CHAP. II.  
The Necessity of scandalous events in God's Church.  
THe point we have then first to handle is this. That there is a necessity of scandalous events in the Church of God. That scandalous events, and offences shall assuredly and infallibly fall out amongst those that profess the Name of Christ. It must be, and it must needs be that offences come. So, Luke 17. 1. It is impossible but that offences should come. And as the Apostle speaks of heresies, and of offences given in that kind, 1. Cor. 11. 19 There must be heresies, so is it true of these kinds of offences which are given by sinful and foul actions, that there must be scandals.  
This Necessity arises from a threefold ground:  
1. From the decree and council of God, and his secret, but most Just judgement; for God that brought light out of darkness, can bring good out of evil, and can work out his glory even from those things which in their events seem to make exceedingly to the impeaching and obscuring thereof. God can gather grapes of these thistles, and figs of these thorns, and therefore his pleasure it is, and so will he have it that such thorns, and thistles should grow, and come up in his garden. His ways are not as our ways, nor his thoughts as our thoughts. He can make that which for the present, and in our eye and apprehension is for the great dishonour and disgrace of his Name & Truth, to turn at the last to the greater honour, and glory of both. He by his permissive decree order all such scandalous events to work together to bring him in a great, and a rich return of glory. Therefore, Ezek. 3. 20. God is said to lay a stumbling block before a man, And I lay a stumbling block before him. God hath decreed that there shall be scandals. Not a Sparrow falls on the ground without our Father, Math. 10. 29. And therefore not a Professor of his Name falls into scandal without him. And therefore God having decreed that scandals shall be, there is a necessity of the event, It is impossible but that there should be offences. But yet this decree doth in no wise make God the author of these evils, because his decree hath no necessitating influence into the wills of men. It is a necessity of infallibility, and certainty of the event, but not a constraining, forcing necessity to make them to do that which shall give scandal. Scandals shall necessarily, that is infallibly come to pass, but yet such as give scandal, shall not be forced and necessarily constrained by the decree of God to do that they do. They shall work freely and voluntarily in that which they do, or else it were injustice in God to bring a woe upon him by whom an offence comes, if he by a Superior power from Heaven were forced and constrained to fall into scandal. What Gods holy ends are in that his Decree, we shall see after in the opening of the next point.  
2. From the malice of Satan. The malice of the Devil against God's Truth, and Man's Salvation is exceeding great, and out of his malice against both, he endeavours nothing more than to make men sin. He goes about like a roaring Lion, seeking whom he may devour. But yet though all be fish that comes to his net, yet his special malice is against those of God's Church, and those therein that most zealously profess his Name and Truth. He knows that if he can but draw such into his nets and snares, and make them fall into fowl and scandalous actions, this will in a great measure dishonour God and his Gospel, disgrace Religion and Godliness, and startle such as are but looking towards God, and wonderfully harden such in their sinful ways that are not so forward in the zealous profession of the Gospel, and therefore of all others he hath such in his eye, and uses all his power and policy to ensnare and supplant such more than a thousand others. He had rather catch one fish then a thousand frogs, rather fell one Cedar then a whole wood of shrubs. Satan sees that the sins and scandalous offences of such will be exceeding advantageous to the advancement of his kingdom, and will conduce to the strengthening of his party more than the falls of any other. Therefore he sets upon them with all his might and malice above others. Thou art, say they of David, worth ten thousand of us, And if the enemy had surprised David, it had been more advantage to him then to have surprised ten thousand other Israelites. So Satan reckons one zealous Professor of Religion if he can but entrap him worth ten thousand others for his turn. Such a man's fall would more blemish the Gospel, and make men more stumble at Godliness then if ten thousand others should do the like. Therefore life's he by the King of Syria his principle, Fight neither against small nor great, save only against the King of Israel, for let the King of Israel fall, and small and great fall with him. His policy therefore is to aim and level especially at such in whose falls he may ruin many, and by whose ruins he may raise his own kingdom. Other men's sins work nothing so much for his advantage. 
a Numquid tam reprehensibilis ebrietas Alamanni quàm ebrietas Christiani? aut tam damnabilis rapacitas Albani quam rapacitas Christiani? si fallat Hunnus, vel Gepida, quid mirum est? si peieret Francus, quid novi faceret? Salu. de prou. lib. 4.  Who wonders or staggers at it to see profane and irreligious godless persons to be vicious adulterers, to be brutish drunkards, to be artificial deceivers and defrauders. It is no new thing, they do but their kind. The wonder were, if they should be, or do otherwise. But when a man that professes Godliness and Religion shall fall into any of these fowl courses, how infinitely are thousands staggered and scandalised at it? How foully is Religion and Godliness blurred? How many are there who resolutely determine never to meddle with such Religion? And so the Devil hath his end, hath what he would have.  
Consider to this end that example, 1. Cor. 5. 1. There is fornication amongst you, and such fornication as is not once named amongst the Gentiles. Observe the horrible malice of Satan against the Church of God, and such as are within it, be they sound, or hypocritical professors of the Gospel. He labours to bring of them into fowler, and more notorious offensive evils, than the very heathens themselves are guilty of according to that, jeremy 18. 13. Ask now amongst the heathen who hath heard such things. The Virgin of Israel hath done an horrible thing. At that time Christians were called out from amongst the heathen, with whom they lived mingled together. Now the Devil did what in him lay to keep those heathen from receiving the Gospel, and Christian Religion, that by no means they might hearken to it. Now to bring this about what was Satan's project? He lays about him to ensnare some one of the Christian Corinthians, and to bring him into fouler fornication than was amongst the heathen. This the Devil effects, and what think we followed upon it? Now have the heathen occasion to cry down Christian Religion, and to say, Behold these be your Christians that talk so much of holiness, where did they ever see any of us whom they term heathens to commit so fowl an act of Incest as to marry his father's wife. What are our Adulteries, and fornications they so much judge us for to such fowl uncleanness as this? This is your Christian Religion, and these be your Saints forsooth, now God bless us from such a Religion, never will we be of such a Religion. How much better is it to be honest heathens, nay, Adulterous fornicating Pagans then Incestuous Christians? And thus questionless was many a Pagan mouth opened, and many an heathen heart stumbled, yea, many an one that before might be in some doubt of the evil condition of paganism was by this scandal kept off from looking towards Christian Religion. They liked not this Gospel, and new doctrine of these Christians. Such men's scandals therefore being of so great advantage for Satan's purposes, and he being so sedulous and industrious to seek and take all advantages for his own turn, hence it is that it cannot be but that offences come.  
How well did Satan foresee what he should gain by David's Scandal? Can he but get David in, and bring him to commit Adultery with Bathsheba, it would strike a greater stroke on his side, and do him more service than if a thousand such as Doeg, Shimei, or Achitophel should do the like. How many men would thereby be stumbled at David's zealous profession? How many hearts be thereby hardened in their evil ways? How many men's ways be blocked up for going to Heaven? How therefore in this case would, and did the Devil put on to get David down; and to cause him to fall so foully? The practices of the Carpocrasians, and the Gnostickes were stupendiously, and prodigiously filthy and impure. Never the like horrid Impurities practised or once heard of amongst the most godless heathen that ever were on the face of the earth.  
The Apostle speaks of the heathen, that it was a shame to speak of those things which they did in secret, but surely the most degenerate heathen that had put off nature, could not but think it a shame to speak of those things in secret which they did openly and familiarly, who took upon them the name and profession of Christians. 
b 
Quod hominum genus ad Ecclesiae Dei probrum, & scandalum adornasse & submisisse Satanas videtur: quip qui Christianorum sibi nomen indiderint, ut propter illos ofsense Gentes à sanctae Dei Ecclesiae utilitate abhorreant, nunciatanique veritatem obimmania illorum facinora, & incredibilem nequitiam repudient, ut inquam frequentibus illorum sceleribus animaduersis, eos quoque qui è sanctâ Dei Ecclesiâ sunt, tales essesibi persuadeant, atque ita à verissima Dei doctrina aures avertant, aut certè paucorum improbitate conspectâ in universos eadem maledicta conijciant. Atque ea demum causa est cur plerique Gentilium ubicunque istius sectae homines deprehenderint, nullam nobiscum velint neque dati acceptique, neque consilij, neque audiendi divini verbi societatem coniungere, acne aures quidem praeberesustineant, usque adeo nefarijs illorum flagitijs consternati ac deterriti sunt. Epiphan lib. 1. Haeres. 27.  
Ad detrectationem divini nominis & Ecclesiae à Satana praemissi sunt, uti quae sunt illorum audientes homines, & putantes omnes nos tales esse avertant auressuas à praeconio veritatis. Iraen. lib. 1. cap. 24.   Now what was the aim of Satan's malice in bringing those Carpocrasians and Gnostickes terming themselves Christians unto such more than heathenish Impurities? Surely none other but this, that upon the sight of their loathsome courses the heathen might abhor the Church of God; and might be so scandalised thereby that they might utterly reject the truth of God preached unto them. By their scandalous filthiness they took occasion to rail on Christian Religion, and so to judge all Christians of the same stamp that they would not only none of their Religion, but no manner of dealing with them, no not in civil commerce. So strongly by their scandalous lives did Satan hedge and fence up their way from coming into the Church, and unto Christ. With these thorns did the Devil hedge up their way from entering into the Church.  
3. From the corruption, falseness, hypocrisy and deceitfulness of men's hearts. There be in the Church of God, and in the number of such as profess the Name of God, two sorts of persons.  
1. Such as profess his Name hypocritically, such as make Religion but a mask and a cloak to hide and cover their rotten insides, and take upon them the profession of Religion for base and by-ends, only to advance their credit, and their profit, as the Shechemites would be circumcised for sheep, oxen, and substance. Some put on a 
c Quaenam sunt istae pelles ovium nisi nominis Christiani extrinsecus superficies? Tertull. de prescript. adverse. Haeret. Quae sunt vestimenta ovilia? species videlicet simulatae religionis, eleemosyna simulata, oratio simulata, ieiunium simulatum etc. Chrys. oper. imperf. in Matth. hom. 19  sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. Now when Religion is thus personated, and men do but act a part, corruption restrained will break out at last. Yea, and God in his justice will uncase, and discover such by giving them up to fowl and notorious gross evils. judas under hope of some temporal preferments both professed, and preached Christ, forsakes all, and follows him, and was as forward as the best of them. But because all this was in hypocrisy, therefore his corruption held in for a time under this violent restraint at the last breaks foully out, and because he foully takes God's Name in vain, he is by divine justice left to himself, and falls into that fearful scandal of betraying Christ. Observe that Matth. 7. 27. The house built upon the sand fell, and the fall of it was great: When Hypocrites fall, they fall not the ordinary falls of other men, Great was the fall of it, They fall into great and heinous scandals. As Moses speaks of those, Numb. 16. 29. If these men die the common death of all men, as every men dies, etc. So these men fall not the common falls of all men, not as every man falls, but when they fall their fall is great, with great and notorious scandal. Other men may fall on the ground, but they fall into the kennel, the puddle, into the very mire; The Sow that is washed to her wallowing in the mire. 2. Peter 2. 22. She lies not down in the dust, nor in the dirt, but in the mire, and not only lies down, or falls down into the mire, but wallows in the mire, and so becomes all over fowl and filthy. It is so with Hypocrites, they so fall, as if a man fell into and wallowed in the mire, so fowl and scandalous are their falls. Now, then, inasmuch as it cannot be avoided, and it is impossible, but that there will and shall be Hypocrites in the Church of God, and Satan will be standing amongst the children of God, job 1. and in as much as it cannot be but that rotten hypocrisy will break out, and in regard of God's justice must sometimes be discovered in this life, therefore there must needs be scandals, and therefore it is impossible but that offences should come.  
2. Such as profess sincerely, and in Truth. Now even in these there are yet great remaynders of corruption, the very best bear a body of sin and death about them. And because they are not so watchful as they should, to look so narrowly to their own hearts as they ought, therefore comes it to pass also that offences must needs come. The heart of man is deceitful above all things, jer. 17. therefore should Christians be watchful over it above all things. But because they trust their false and lose hearts to much, and grow remiss in their watch, thence comes it frequently to pass that offences must needs come. When they keep not their own Vineyard, their mother's children are angry with them, Cant. 1. 6. that is their natural corruptions 
Sic junius.  which they brought from their mother's womb with them, when they watch not, and look not to themselves do rebel, and overpower them, and so oftentimes carry them into offensive courses. David was a man after Gods own heart, and yet David fell into a fowl scandal. It is not always safe to judge a man to be an Hypocrite, because he gives scandal. God's dearest servants are not always freed and secured from falling into scandalous sins. Well, but what made David fall? All the while David was in his exile, and affliction all that while David was free enough. Afflictions kept him awake. But afterwards when David came to be King, and lived in a full estate at his ease, than began he to be more remiss, and therefore after his afternoon's nap when he was walking upon the roof, the Devil sets a snare, and his own remiss heart soon catches at the bait, and he is presently ensnared. We find, Math. 13. 27, 28. tares in the field amongst the wheat. Sir, didst thou not sow good wheat in thy field? Whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this! These tares are Scandals, Verse 40, 41. They shall gather out of his kingdom all scandals. We see whence these scandals come, Verse 28. An enemy hath done this. Satan hath a great hand in sowing these tares. But observe when this enemy sows these tares, Verse 25. But whilst men slept the enemy came, and sowed tares. The time of men's security is the Devil's seeds time, their sleeping time is his sowing time. So that because men sleep, even good men oftentimes fall asleep, and are not so watchful as would become them, hence comes it to pass, that tares must needs be sown, and that offences must needs come. Thus we see the grounds of the necessity of scandalous events in God's Church.   

CHAP. III.  
An Apology for Religion, and the professors thereof against the scandal of scandals.  
Give me leave now, for use of all that hath been said, to do that which all the children of wisdom are bound to do. Wisdom, that is Religion, is and aught to be justified of her children. Luke 7. 35. Give me leave to justify her, by whom I hope to be saved. Open thy mouth for the dumb, open thy mouth and plead their cause, Pro. 31. 8. 9 much more than open thy mouth, and plead the cause of condemned Religion. Never do scandalous events come to pass, but wisdom and her children do suffer, and Religion and religious ones are instantly condemned and cried down. But let this that hath been spoken serve to teach us not to be offended at offences, not to be scandalised at scandals. It is true indeed, that God should never be offended but it should deeply offend us. It should be a trouble to us when our brother is offended, 2. Cor. 11. 29. Who is offended and I burn not? How much more than when God is offended, and that by gross scandals! But my meaning is this, that we should not so take offence at the scandals of such as profess Religion, and godliness, whether they do it sincerely or hypocritically, as to be offended either at the Religion or the persons of all others professing the Truth and power of godliness. Two things here may stay us in this case.  
1. First, because our Saviour hath 
d Vnde te admoneo ne granius peturberis his scandalis quae ideo ventura praedicta sunt, ut quando venirent reminisceremur esse praedicta, & none eye valde commoveremur. Nam haec ipse Dominus ita praedixit, vae mundo à scandalis, etc. August. Epist. 209  foretold us that they should come, we are told of it before hand, and therefore nothing in such events falling out but what was before told, why should any start or stumble at them when they come to pass. Why should not this prevent scandal in this case as well as in the case of the Cross. Thus Christ prevents the scandal of the Cross and afflictions that should befall his Disciples, john 16. 1. 2. These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended, They shall put you out of their Synagogues etc. And thus also the Apostle, 1. Thess. 3. 3. 4. That no man should be moved by these afflictions, for verily when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation. So here our Saviour having 
e Non te ista conturbent fili dilectissime, haereses enim & scandala futura praedicta sunt, ut interinimicos erudiamur, ac sic fides & dilectio nostra possit esse probatior. Aug. Epist. 50.  told us before that scandals should come, why should we be offended thereat, as if some strange thing that had never been thought of had fall'n out. No man 
Atqui plures, ait Tryho, qui se jesum profiteri dicunt, & Christiani nominantur audio simulachris mactata manducare***. Cui respondens eo quoque inquam, quod eiusmodi extent viri qui se profitentur Christianos', & jesum crucifixum & Dominum, & Christum laudant, sed non illius doctrinas docent, nos qui purae & verae jesu Christi disciplinae sectatores sumus in spe ab ipso annunciatâ fide constantiores reddimur. Nam quae praedixit futura 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Dixit enim, etc. Iust. Mart. Dial. cum Tryphone judaeo.  should be moved with scandals so as to stumble at the event of them, because Christ when he was with us told us before that they should come, and therefore told us before, because we should not be stumbled and offended. Yea, these things being foretold that they should fall out amongst those of the Church, and of the true Religion, we should thereupon be so fare from being stumbled, that we should rather be so much the more established and confirmed in the truth of our Religion and Profession, because we see those things so truly fulfilled which the High Priest of our profession hath foretold.  
2. Secondly, because we see that there is a Necessity of them. Since there must be offences, and since there must be scandals, therefore should we not for scandals be so stumbled as to conclude that Religion to be false, and that profession to be naught where some Professors thereof give scandal. For to speak properly and truly there can be no scandal given but by those that are Professors of true Religion and godliness. A Turk, a Mahometan, a jew, a Papist cannot in proper and strict phrase of speech give a scandal, for there is scandal given where occasion of stumbling at the Truth and Power of godliness is given. So that scandal is only properly given by the Professors of Truth, whose sins are such as make the truth of God, and the saving profession thereof to be stumbled at. And therefore there only are scandals to be found, where Religion and Godliness are professed. And therefore when such scandal is given, we must not take offence at Religion because we see there is a necessity of scandalous events in the Church of God, and amongst such as do profess true Religion.  
Indeed when scandals do fall out this is the conclusion the Devil would have men infer upon them, and it is the thing he aims at in bringing men into scandals, to have men thereupon judge such Religion naught, and all of the same outward profession to be alike. 
f Ecce quales sunt qui Christum colunt, falsum plane illud est quod aiunt se bona discere, se sanctae legis praecepta retinere. Si enim bona discerent boni essent, talis profecto secta est quales & sectatores, hoc sunt absque dubio quod docentur. Mimesis Paganorum apud Salu. de Prou. lib. 4.  Do ye not see what they are? Are not of the very choicest and chiefest of them scandalous? As they are so are they All, As they are, so is their Religion they profess; Surely this Religion and the profession of it are not of God. But this is the Devil's Logic, and reasoning taught in the School of Hell.  
Here be two things inferred.  
First, Therefore their Religion is naught, and not to be trusted.  
Secondly, Thus they are all. That men may not thus stumble at scandals, consider the weakness of such inferences.  
1. They that profess Religion, fall into scandals, therefore their Religion and Profession is naught, etc. If this be a good reason the Religion that is from Heaven, and which is taught by God himself, must be damned for a false Religion, for here we see that amongst the Professors of true Religion, in the very Church of God there must be scandals. So that if men shall go this way to work, they will make but mad work of it. Let us but a little consider this kind of reasoning what validity it hath, or could have in such men's cases whose religion and profession were without question on all hands of God?  
Fowl and fearful was the scandal of David, And what was the issue? Presently the enemies of God and godliness began to lift up their heads, and to fall fowl upon David's religion. 2. Sam. 12. The enemies of God blasphemed the Name of God. And that happily on this, or the like manner. Oh this is he that was so grand a Zealot, that the zeal of God's house did eat him up. Psal. 69. 9 This is the man forsooth, that danced before the Ark out of his transcendent zeal, 2. Sam. 6. 14. This is he that prayed thrice a day, Morning, Evening, and at Noon, Psal. 55. 17. This is he that was so strict, and so precise in the government of his Family, Psal. 101. This your great precise Zealot, hath defiled the Wife, and murdered the Husband. Now you see what his religion is, Now you see what comes of this Profession of so much Holiness, and Godliness. Such as he is, such is his religion, nought both. Now was this think we fair reasoning? Was David's religion false because his scandal was fowl? Who dares justify David's fact, & yet who dares condemn his Religion and Profession?  
The fact of the Incestuous Corinthian was exceeding fowl, he marries his father's wife, uncleanness unparallelled amongst the Heathen. And how wide now think we were the Heathen Corinthians mouths opened? Certainly at that time they did as those, Psal. 59 7. Behold they belch out with their mouth, and as those, Psal. 73. 9 They set their mouth against the Heavens, and their tongue walks through the earth. So that Heaven and Earth seemed now to ring of them; 
g Vbi est lex catholica quam credunt? ubi sunt pietatis & castitatis praecepta quae discunt? Euangelia l●gunt & impudici sunt, Apostolosaudiunt & inebriantur, Christum sequuntur & rapiunt, vitam improbam agunt, & probam legem haberese dicunt. Mimesis Paganotum apud Salu. de Prou. lib. 4.  Now see, say they, what the God and the religion of these pure Christians is, These be the fruits of this Christian religion? Is not your religion a goodly religion? A clear case that their religion is naught. Thus the Heathens, and right like Heathens did they reason, and pity it is to hear such Heathen Logic in Christians mouths. Was the Religion of Christ preached and professed at Corinth naught, and false, because that Corinthian being a Christian proved so fowl? God forbidden. Here that hath a truth in this sense which Tertullian spoke in case of Heresies, 
h Quid ergo si Episcopus, si Doctor, si etiam Martyr lapsus à regula fuerit? ideo haereses videbuntur veritatem obtinere? ex personis probamus fidem, an ex fide personas? Tertul. de prescript. adverse. Haeret.  Do we try faith by men's persons, or men's persons by their faith? Even in this case may we not judge of faith by men's persons, as if because some persons professing religion prove scandalous, therefore their religion should be proved false. The religion of the Christian Corinthians was of God, though that man's incestuous practice were from Satan. We find a case, Mal. 2. 8. But ye are departed out of the way, ye have caused many to stumble at the law. It is spoken to the Priests, they should have been examples of holiness, and patterns of piety to the people, but they lived wickedly and scandalously, so that many of the people stumbled at the Law of God. They began to call the Law, and their Religion into question, and like enough were ready to say, Surely this Law is not of God, nor this Religion which the Priests preach and profess, is not from Heaven. For if this Law and Religion were from God, why live these Priests so lewldy, and basely. Thus the stumbled people reasoned. But was their reason good against the Law, and Religion, because the Priests were scandalous? Was the Law to be cried down, because they lived not according to that Law they preached and professed? Was the Law naught, because the Priests were so? Wherefore, says the Apostle, the Law is holy, and the Commandment is holy, and just, and good, Rom. 7. 12. Though they were unholy, yet the Law was holy, though they were unjust, yet the Law was Just, though they were naught, yet the Commandment was good. So that it was the people's great sin to stumble at the Law, though the Priests departed out of the way. It is not therefore a safe process to condemn, and cry down Religion from the scandals and offences of the Professors thereof. Is the Protestant Religion false, because, as the Papists reason, so many Protestants are scandalous Drunkards, Adulterers, etc. yea, let this reason stand good, & show me that Religion in the whole World that can be true; by this reason there is no true Religion at all on earth. For give me any Religion on the face of the earth, Turkish, jewish, Heathenish, Popish or Protestant, among the Professors whereof there may not scandalous persons be found. If then I will be no religion till I find one whose Professors are wholly free from scandalous and notorious offences, I must live and die an irreligious Atheist, and renounce all religion.  
I confess, there is a case wherein a religion may be cried down from the wicked, and lose lives of the Professors thereof, and that is when the principles and doctrines of it are such as open a gap, and give liberty to lose and dishonest practices. When men do not only break the Commandments of God, but according to the principles of their religiou teach men to do so, Mat. 5. 19 As for example, when the pharisees Disciples did swear, did seek revenge, did hate their enemies, did neglect their parents in their necessities, here a man might have said to them, This is your Religion, because the principles of Pharisaisme taught men so. When I see a Papist profane the Sabbath in hawking, hunting, bowling, carding, dicing, dancing, and going to plays, here I may fall upon his religion, because the doctrine of their religion is, that provided a man hear a Mass on the Sabbath he may spend the rest of the day in those things. When I see a Papist give himself to all lewdness, and vicious uncleanness, I may lay the blame upon his religion, because the principles thereof set open a gap thereto. For what need I care for drunkenness whilst it is made but a Venial sin, and a Venial sin is such, as our Rhemists say, is pardonable of it own nature, so slight 
Rhem. in Rom. 1. 32.  as a man need not make confession of it, such as makes no breach of friendship between God, and us, so small a trifle as may be pardoned by a knock on the breast, by the Bishop's Blessing, by the sprinkling of holy Water, & saying a Pater Noster, as they teach. Now I say if drunkenness be but a venial sin, and venial sins be such nothings, why by the principles of his religion should a Papist fear to be drunk. 
i Profligata Christi pietas & extincta quando quilibet pro modo pretij quod in merces illas expendit peccandi impunitatem sibi pollicetur. Hinc stupra incectus, adulteria, per iuria, homicidia, etc. originem traxerunt. Quod enim malorum amplius iam horrebunt mortales quando sihi peccandi licentiam & impunitatem nedum in hac vitâ, sed & post obitum aere licet immodieo comparari possepersuasum habent. Cent. Grau. Germ. art. 3.  So what need he care what sins he runs into, so long as rheir Priests have a judiciary power of Absolution, and the Church hath a treasury of Indulgences, and for small sums great Pennances and great sins may be remitted. There is no religion wherein a man can sinne so good cheap. Now therefore if we see those of that religion take liberty to lose and sinful courses, it is no injustice to lay the blame, and condemnation upon their religion, whose Principles and Doctrines are such as give men liberty enough.  
So if I should see a man of the Pelagian faith and profession to live licentiously, in the neglect of the means of grace, and to deny himself no carnal liberty, I would here condemn his religion from his life, because the Grounds and Principles of his faith are such as give men liberty to live as they lift. For if so be there be a power of Free will in me, that I may repent and believe if I will, and when I will, what need I then care what courses I take, what sins I run into, so long as I can be saved when I list, I will try such and such sins, and when I have taken my fill, at my pleasure I will repent and believe. So that in such a case it is not amiss to cry down a Religion from the scandalous courses of the Professors thereof, and in such a case a man may innocently say, This is your Religion. But on the contrary, when a Religion is pure Religion, jam. 1. 27. A Truth which is according to godliness, Tit. 1. 1. and the doctrine thereof according to Godliness, 1. Tim. 6. 3. When a religion teaches Godliness, Holiness, Purity, Fidelity, Just and upright dealing, and binds the Conscience to these things upon the pain of death eternal, if any Professor of such a religion fall into scandalous sins, here to cry down a religion that is Holy, Just and Good, because a Professor thereof does wicdedly, vilely and unjustly, this is the greatest Injustice, and the most unequal, and injurious dealing in the world. It is true that amongst the Professors of true religion scandals must be, but must they needs be from the grounds and doctrines of that religion? Must scandals needs be, because that religion teaches men to do so? Nay, doth not that religion teach the contrary, upon danger of Hell bind to  contrary? And why then is the religion condemned, and cried down? What fowl Injustice is this, that an innocent religion should suffer for a nocent Professor? If the religion they profess do 
k Quae si vera sunt, nulli vel sexui vel aetatiparcite, ad poenas rapite, cum uxoribus & liberis funditus extirpate. Athenag. legate. pro Christian.  principle and teach them to be Drunkards, Adulterers, to be Coozeners, Cheaters, Defrauders; throw dirt in the face of that religion, yea, stones at the head of that religion, and spare it not. Not reproaches, scoffs, squibs, taunts, but even the stake, and the fire is too easy a punishment for such a religion.  
But if religion and its Principles teach nothing but Holiness, and righteousness, nothing but Sanctity and Honesty, why must a good and holy Mother be smitten and wounded, and have her face spitted on, for the miscarriage of a degenerating, & ungracious child? If the Daughter play the Whore, and the lewd Filth, will it stand with any justice, or equity that the Mother a grave, sober, chaste Matron that hath instituted her better should be carted, and have filth and dirt thrown at her? And yet this is the equity and justice of the world's dealings. Because sometimes some of wisdom's children that should have been so wise by their godly and holy life to have honoured, and justified their Mother, because I say they do sometimes play the fools, the scandalous and notorious fools, therefore they cannot be content to scourge and cart these ungracious children, and to cast abominable filth upon them, as they deserve, but they must needs fall foul upon the poor and good Mother, and the keenest and sharpest of their teen must be wreackt upon her, and she must be lashed with the Scorpions of men's malignant tongues, even to the very bones.  
What is this but the ancient jewish 
l Non ut principes vestri vivimus, etc. Quod si quos etiam inter nos tales esse sciatis, non continuo ea de causa Scripturas & Christum maledictis proscindite. justin. Mart. Dial cum. Tryph. judaeo.  practice against Christian religion? Who if at any time any of the Christians fell into any scandalous evil, fell a railing upon Christ, and the sacred Scriptures? And will we call this justice? Why rather as in other cases learn we not to pity and lament the case of a good Mother in the miscarriage of a lewd ungracious child? It should be the wisdom of men to set the saddle upon the right horse, let every man have the blame and shame of his own evil actions, but take we heed that we do not fly in God's face by falling fowl upon religion for men's scandalous miscarriages. It is not the religions but the man's fault, if one professing religion miscarry, had he held him to the rule of his religion, that had kept him from that evil.  
That which was of ancient pleaded with the Heathen on the behalf of Christians had a great deal of reason in it. They desired but the same equity and moderation towards them which was used towards their Philosophers. 
m 
Si convicti fuerimus punimur, non propter nomen sed propter crimen. Hoc modo illos etiam qui philosophiam profitentur iudicari cernimus. Nemo eorum ante causam iudicio cognitam propter scientiam vel artem suam bonus malusue iudici esse videtur, sed postquam improbitas alicuius detecta fuerit paenas luit, nec ullum ex eo in philosophiam redundat crimen. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Ille enim malus qui non legitimè philosophatur, professio autem crimine vacat. Hoc ex aequo & nobis fieri cupimus. Athenag. legate. pro. Christian.  
Quemadmodum nihil ad philosophiam crimen Sophistarum, Epicureorum, Peripateticorum, aut quorumcunque falsa dogmata profitentium: ita in verum Christianismum non cadit crimen depravantium Euangilia. Origen contra Celsum. lib. 2.  
Si alïquis cui notum sit jesu praeceptum docentis temperantiam, & dicentis, Quicunque inspexerit mulierem ad concupiscentiam, etc. iam commisit adulterium in cordesuo, videret paucos aliquot pro Christianis habitos libidinoso vivere merito eis praevaricationem impinget, sed iniquissimè faceret, si doctrinae jesu imputaret eorum flagitia. Orig. con. Cells. l 3.   If any professing philosophy did commit any evil worthy punishment, after conviction and detection he was punished according to the desert of his fact, yet Philosophy received no impeachment thereby, and that was not presently cried out upon, when a Professor of Philosophy miscarried. Because they thus equally and wisely considered, That the wickedness was in him that was not a Philosopher aocording to his rule, but the profession itself was blameless, That it was the man's fault, and not his professions, that though the man were naught, yet his profession was good. This equity did the Christians desire the Heathen would show to them. And this equity I would Christians would show to those of their own religion, that the Heathen showed to Philosophers. Doth a man professing religion fall into any scandal? Learn to distinguish between the Man and his Profession, and let not the burden be laid upon religion and his profession, which is to be laid upon his own black. Learn thus to judge? that though the Man be deeply to be blamed, yet his Religion and Profession is blameless. We may justly in such cases blame the man, but we shall deal very unjustly to blame religion, because we know that nothing blames and condemns such courses more than that religion which they profess.  
We have a prophecy of the condition of the last times. 2. Tim. 3, 15 In which place the Apostle speaks not of Pagans, jews, Turks, but of Christians, and such Christians, Verse 5. That should have an outward form and profession of Godliness. Now will any conclude that the profession of godliness is naught because some that profess a form of godliness are covetous, boasters, proud, , etc. And shall I be  because some that have a form of godliness be so vile? or shall I distaste and condemn godliness, and all profession of it, because many professing godliness prove such and such? God forbidden. Yea, the Apostle sufficiently prevents the scandal when he says, Having a form of Godliness, but denying the power thereof, as if he should say, Let no man for these things stumble at religion and the profession of Godliness, for godliness and profession is not in the fault, but the fault is because there is but a form without power. It is not to be denied, but a man that hath the power of Godliness may fall into a scandal, and by violence of some strong tentation be rushed into some fowl action, but yet in that particular case, and at that time may want the power of Godliness. What is to be done then? Surely writing is not to be condemned because some Writers blot, and blur; nor Godliness to be condemned for some men's scandals, but formality and want of power. We may not resolve therefore that it is best not to meddle with godliness, but never to meddle with the profession of it, but joined with the power. Since therefore their must be scandals amongst such as profess godliness learn we to be wiser than for scandals to cry down & condemn religion.  
2. Come we now to the second inference. divers zealous Professors fall into scandals, therefore they be all such, all alike naught, and unsound, only they are not discovered as some are.  
This is no new thing, this was the old practice of the 
n Ad quid enim aliud sedent isti, & quid aliud captant, nisi ut quisquis Episcopus, vel clericus, etc. ceciderit omnes tales esse credant, iactent, contendant, sed non omnes posse manifestari. Cum de aliquibus qui sanctum nomen profitentur, aliquid criminis vel falsi sonuerit, vel veri patuerit, instant, saidgunt, ambiunt unde omnibus hoc credatur. Aug. Epist. 137  ancient enemies of the Church, and God's people long ago. It is that which Augustine in his time complains to have been their guise, That if any that made profession of the holy Name of God did fall into any sin, if either some true thing were discovered, or some false thing were reported, oh, how they laid about them, and laboured tooth and nail to persuade men, and make them believe that they were All such, though they were not all discovered.  
The same spirit life's in too many still, and nothing more usual than such language, and such censures in the like cases. Now ye may see what these men are, Never a barrel better herring, all naught, all alike. An Inference miserably uncharitable, which must necessarily make the Church of Christ a very den of Hypocrites. For here we see that in the very Church of Christ there must necessarily be scandals and scandalous persons.  
And if where some be such all be such, tell me what the Church of Christ shall be but a collection and confluence of rotten and dissembling Hypocrites. What is this but to do that which David in an other case was afraid to do? Psalm 73. 15. If I say, I will speak thus: behold I should offend against the generation of thy children. In speaking thus, let men consider how they can wash their hands from that guilt. Fare is such dealing from that sweet and gracious dealing of the Lords, Is. 65. 8. that casts not away the whole cluster, for some corrupt and evil grapes, fare are men from that Spirit, who because now and then some one grape proves rotten, and offensive, do thereupon reject the whole cluster, and cry out upon the rest of the grapes of the bunch, as if they were like jeremies' naughty figs. jer. 24. 2. Which could not be eaten they were so bad.  
To stop the mouth of Iniquity, in such a case, let but these things be seriously and sadly considered.  
1. That there must be such amongst those that powerfully and savingly profess the Name of Christ. And therefore we shall never find the most holy and happy 
o Quantum libet enim vigilet disciplina domus meae homo sum et inter homines vivo, nec mihi arrogare audeo ut domus mea melior sit quam arca No ubi tamen inter octo homines reprobus unus inventus est, aut melior sit quam domus Abrahae aut melior sit quam domus Isaac aut melior sit quam cohabitatio ipsius Domini Christi, in qua vndecom boni perfidem et furem judam toleraverint, aut melior sit postremò quam caelum unde Angeli cociderunt Aug, Epist 137.  societies to have been so happy as to be free from such. In Noah's Ark were but eight persons, yet one reprobate Cham, In Abraham's family, a bondwoman, and her son to be cast out; in Isaac's family a profane Esau; in jacobs' family an Incestuous Reuben; amongst David's children an Incestuous Amnon; a rebellious Absolom, in the sacred college of Christ's Apostles a judas a Thief. joh. 12. 6. a Traitor. Luk. 6. 16. a Devil. joh. 6. 70. Even in headen Gods own house, and habitation, were found such Angels in whom God found not steadfastness; such Angels as kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, and became Devils. Now then look back upon some of these Instances, and see if this kind of reasoning be safe. In Noah's Ark there was a graceless Cham, therefore all in the Ark were such as he. Amongst the twelve patriarchs Reuben was unclean, and Incestuous, therefore all your pillars of your Ancient Church were such also. Among the twelve Apostles of Christ the great professors, and preachers of his Name, judas was a thief, a traitor, a devil, therefore the whole company, is a college of thiefs, traitors and devils; Amongst the Angels in heaven, there were legions of Devils, therefore all of the same stamp, all alike; would not all men spit in that man's face that should thus reason? and yet how familiar is such reasoning in too many men's mouths. It is a sure thing that as 
p Simpliciter autem fateor charitati vestrae— quomodo difficile sum expertus meliores quam qui in monasterijs profecerunt: ita non sum expertus peiores quam qui in monasterijs ceciderunt. Aug. Epist. 137.  there cannot be found better men in the world, than amongst those in the Church, professing Christ's Name, and Truth, so neither can there be found some times worse than those that in the Church fall into heinous scandals. The which since it must so be, why should the filth of some particular persons miscarriages be fling in the faces of all. What is this but for the 
q Nolite ergo propter amurcam qua oculi vestri offenduntur, torcularia detestari, unde apothecae dominicae fructu olei luminosioris implentur Aug. Epist. 137.  lees, and the dregges to loath the presses from whence Gods storehouses are filled with oil?  
2. That though there be such, and that too many, yet fare many more there be of the same profession that are not such, what though Christ have one disciple that becomes a thief, a traitor, a devil, that brings scandal upon the Preaching, and profession, of his Master's Name, yet hath he not eleven others holy and right godly men, that live according to their profession, and do their profession honour and credit? What though one Christian Corinthian fall into the sin of Incest, yet why should the heathen Corinthians cast the disgrace of that his sin, upon all the Christian Corinthians? Are they so blind that they cannot see, that there be many Corinthians. Act 18. 8. and that God hath much people in that City. Act. 18. 10. Who are holy, gracious, mortified, and renowned for the power of Godliness, that do every way make good the religion they profess? what though, now and then we see a star falling from Heaven, yet see we not millions of those glorious lights of Heaven, keep their station and their lustre? And why have not men an eye as well to look at such, at the many such whose lifes suit with their holy profession, as they have an eye to look at such, at a few such as give scandal? why can they not see that 
r Quapropter & si contristamur de aliquibus purgamentis, consolamur tamen de pluribus ornamentis. Aug. Epist. 137  there are that shine as lights in the midst of a froward, and a crooked generation, and so shine that they be ornaments of the Church, as well as they can see such, as are the disgracers and dishonourers of religion? Surely because they are a froward and a crooked generation, and out of that perverseness of Spirit for one, and by one will injuriously judge and condemn all.  
3. If all such, how is it that such more than all do condemn such scandalous offenders. Who so sharp, and so severe against them, for their scandals as such as profess the same truth with them. Others triumph over them, scorn and deride them, but who so sadly, and so sharply reproves, censures, and condemns them, as do they of the same profession? Who so discountenances, and discardes them once lapsed till their public satisfactions, and their unquestioned repentance, and humiliations do in some measure wash off the blur of their scandals. Sufficient to such a man is this punishment which was inflicted of many 2. Cor. 2. 6. And sufficient was the infliction of that punishment, by those many to acquit them from being all such. If they had all countenanced him, held fellowship and communion with him, pleaded his cause, and justified his practice, than had there been some colour to have said they had been all such. But now that the Corinthian Christians, deal so severely with him, for his offence, it is clear that they are not all such, for if all such as he, than should he have found more favour at their hands then so. And this was Augustine's answer unto, and defence against the Manichees. It was their fashion it seems to disgrace the Church, and cast reproach upon it, and to besmear it with the mire of the fowl actions of scandalous professors of Christian religion. 
s No lite mihi colligere professores nominis Christiani, nec professionis suae vim aut scientes aut exhibentes. Novi multos esse qui luxuriosissimè super mortuos bibent. Novi multos qui renunciaverint verbis huic saeculo. Nunc vos illud admoneo ut aliquando ecclesiae catholicae maledicere desinatis vituperando mores hominum quos & ipsa condemnat, & quos quotidie tanquam malos filios corrigere studet. August. de moribus eccl. Cathol. 34.  He confesses that indeed there were many, that gave scandal by their lustful and luxurious lives, by their drunkenness, vile wordlines and earthliness, but yet gives them to understand that they were injurious, to reproach the Church with the condemning of the manners of those men whom the Church herself did condemn, and whom as evil children she daily endeavoured to reform. If indeed others of the Church professing the same Religion had winked at them, had slighted their offences, or had in any kind seemed to have countenanced their persons, or approved their courses, than might the Manichees have had some colour to have for their sakes condemned all professors, that they were all alike. But professors and the Church condemning and crying down their courses it was but malignantly and perversely done of the Manichees to twit and reproach the Church with such men's manners.   

CHAP. FOUR  
That Scandals are woeful and fatal events to the scandalised world.  
HItherto we have seen the Necessity, come we now to consider the Mischief of scandals. That mischief is twofold. The first is a woe to such as are scandalised that do stumble & are offended. Woe to the world because of offences. For the meaning of the words. To the world, that is to worldly and carnal men. Because of offences, or from offences. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, from offences, not for offences, not as if scandals were the cause for which the woe comes, as if God brought a woe upon men for their scandals, but that scandals are the means and the Instruments by which, and from which God brings woe upon some men's heads. So that these words are not to be understood as threatening of woe to such as give offence by falling into scandalous sins, who are threatened in the former verse, and in the end of this, but it is a threatening of woe to men of this world, wicked and  men taking offence at the scandalous actions of such as profess Religion, that these scandals should prove to such matters of woe and sorrow, and from, and by them should much mischief come to worldly men. Which words so opened, afford us this point.  That the scandalous and offensive Actions of such as profess the Gospel and Name of Christ are fatal, dismal, baneful and woeful events to wicked and worldly men. 
God that hath a providence in all events, hath an alwise and overruling providence in events of scandal, and he in that providence of his orders and appoints them so to come, that they make way for some great woe to worldly men. Every scandal is a stumbling block, and when a scandal is given, there is a stumbling block laid, and such a stumbling block, at which some men shall not only break their shins, but their necks. But who lays this stumbling block? This stumbling block God lays, Ezek. 3. 20. I laying a stumbling block before him he shall die. When God in his justice means to make sure work with some men that they shall die, he first in his providence disposes of a stumbling block to be laid in their way, at which they may stumble so as they may fall, and be ruined, so as they may die. Amongst many other stumbling blocks that God disposes to be laid in men's ways, this is a very frequent, and ordinary one, the scandalous actions of some Professors of Religion. And when such stumbling blocks are laid, woe to the world, they are fatal, and mortal, I laying a stumbling block that he may die.  
The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a scandal, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat propriè tigillum in instrumentis quibus capiuntur lupi, aut vulpes, aut mures. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Hesych. Melancth, ad Rom 14.  the Grammarians say it signifies the crooked piece in a trap to which the bait is tied, at which a Mouse, Rat, Wolf, or any other vermin biting, the trap falls down, ensnares, and catches the beast. So that in scandalous events God sets up a trap, a gin, a snare, by which he purposes to catch and ensnare such vermin as men in a reprobate condition be. That look as when a man sets up and baits a trap he may say, Now woe to Rats and Mice, woe to the Foxes, Wolves, and the baggage vermin, so when scandals fall out, woe to the world, God's trap is set up to ensnare such withal as are made to be taken, 2. Pet. 2. 12. And look as a man when he sets up a trap, he intends it purposely for the woe of vermin, so when God in his providence disposes of the events of scandals, he therein intends the woe, the ensnaring, the catching, kill, and destroying of such who had been happy, if they had been made the vilest vermin in the world.  
That which Solomon speaks of a wicked man's own sin, is also true of the scandalous sin of another, Prou. 29. 6. In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare, though he take a great deal of delight, and pleasure in it, yet it will prove a trhackling snare; so in the transgression, the scandalous transgression of a good man, or a seeming good man, there is a snare. Though evil men take a great deal of Content, and make themselves much mirth, and pastime at the falls, and scandals of such as profess religion, yet in that scandalous transgression there is a snare for them, a deadly, and a mortal snare; woe to the world because of offences.  
As it is in the case of Passive, so is it in the case of active scandals. Now in case of passive scandals it is true, woe unto the world from offences. Such offences work to worldly men's great smart, & sorrow. The Apostle speaks of Christ, 1. Pet. 2. 8. that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a rock of scandal, or offence. And Is. 8. 14. 15. the Prophet foretold that he should be for a gin, and for a snare to the inhabitants of jerusalem. So that it may be truly said of such, woe unto them that Christ the rock of scandal ever came into the world. For judgement and for woe, am I come into the world, john 9  
Thus also is it true in case of Active scandals, for judgement do they come into the world, and for judgement unto the world. Woe be to the world for the scandalous sins of Professors of Religion, for they be set up to be stumbling stones and rocks of offence, against which men of the world shall dash themselves, they be set for begins and for snares in which they shall be taken. In the case of passive scandals, where offence is only taken, there the trap is baited with the bread of life. In the case of Active scandal, where offence is given, there the trap is baited with bane, and poison, with deadly poison, death is in the trap. Now if woe to the world when the trap is baited with the bread of life, how much more woe to the world, when it is baited with rank, and deadly poison?  
Scandals and offences are dismal and fatal to wicked men, because God in his intention and administration disposes and orders them as the means that shall make way for the surer and sorer punishment of them for their unprofitableness under, and their contempt of the Gospel, the means of grace and the holy examples of such as are truly godly. Therefore are they fatal and woeful events because they are sent as executioners of divine vengeance upon the disobedient rebels against the Gospel. God gives men his word and the Ministry of it to convert, and save them, the holy examples of his children to guide, and lead them. Now neither one thing nor another will reclaim men of the world, nothing will do them good, still will they go on in their unbelief and hardness of heart, notwithstanding the light of the Word, and the light of holy examples, notwithstanding the shining light of both, they will love, and live in darkness still. So then God seeing this that nothing will better them, but to Hell they will go, and damned they will be, let his Ministers, and his people do what they can, he thereupon enters into a resolution to make sure work with them, and to take such a course as shall infallibly, and irrevocably make way for their eternal ruin, and to this end in his providence disposes of these scandalous events, as stumbling stones, and stumbling blocks; at which they may so stumble as they may fall, and be surely ruined. As if the Lord should speak on this manner. I have given you my Word and Gospel, it hath been preached amongst you plentifully, and powerfully, all the means notwithstanding, you have not been one whit the better, but rather worse, ye are more stubborn, more rebellious, more malicious, and to Hell ye will, do my Ministers what they can.  
Well then since there is no remedy, since ye will go, I will take an order to set you going surely. Behold, in my providence I will dispose of scandalous events to fall out that shall lie as stumbling blocks in your way; at which, stumble ye, and fall ye, and be ye remedilessly ruined. I gave you my word that you might have risen, but you would not be raised by it, I will therefore lay a stumbling block in your way, at which you shall be sure to fall. I gave you my word that you might have lived, but now I will lay a stumbling block that you may die, Ezek. 3. 20. You would not be drawn to Heaven by the holy examples and lives of my Saints, therefore shall ye be head-longed another way by the scandalous events that shall by my providence fall out. I sent my Ministers, whom I made fishers of men, with their nets and baits to catch you, but by no means would ye be caught in their nets, nor bite at their baits, nor be catcht with their hooks, therefore now will I dispose of scandalous events, which I will set as traps, and snares and begins for you: greedily and eagerly shall you come to them, & shallbe ensnared and held fast for ever getting out again. And thus do scandals come as messengers of wrath and death.  
God's dealing with wicked men in events of scandals, is clean contrary to his dealing with good men. Such as love the truth of God, and subject unto it, though scandals come shall not be ensnared by them, God will secure and save them from being ensnared, Psal. 119. 165. Great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them, or, they shall have no stumbling block. Such as love God's truth have great peace, great security when scandals fall out, they shall have no stumbling blocks, God himself will keep them, that they shall not dash their feet against these stones, they shall have no stumbling blocks to hurt them. But now on the contrary great danger and mischief shall they have that love not the Law, they shall have stumbling blocks, and therefore because they love not God's law shall they have them, that God may be avenged upon them for the neglect and contempt of his truth. And because they love not God's Law, therefore shall scandals come, that shallbe fatal stumbling blocks for them. That look as Solomon speaks of the Harlot, Eccl. 7. 26. I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands, who so is good before God shall escape from her, but the sinner shallbe taken by her; So may it be said of scandals. Mare bitter then death, (woe unto the world because of scandals) are scandalous events, for they are as snares and nets, who so is good before God, an holy and a godly man shall escape, and be delivered from being ensnared by them, but the sinner, the neglecter and contemner of God's grace shall be taken, and be ruined by them, and therefore woe unto the sinners of the world because of scandals. It is in this case between men of the world and scandals, as it was in Ahabs' case between him and his false prophets, 1. King. 22. 20, 21, 22. God had a purpose out of divine justice and vengeance that Ahab should fall, and be ruined. Now God enters into counsel what course shall be taken to bring it about that he may fall and perish, Verse 20. Who shall persuade Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead. There comes forth a spirit, Verse 21. and says, I will persuade him. The Lord asks, Verse 22. How or wherewith? He answers, I will go forth and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the Lord said, Thou shalt persuade him and prevail also, Go forth, and do so. The case is the very same here. God bestows his Word, and the Ministry of it upon a people, it works them not to Faith & Repentance. Hereupon is the Lord provoked to anger, and upon that he enters into a consult of revenge. Here be a company of men that have had the means of grace, but they will not be converted, and raised up, I am therefore resolved they shall fall into Hell for ever. But who will now take some course that they may fall. Then steps forth Satan, I will take a course to make them fall fatally. And the Lord says what course wilt thou take? Satan answers. I will go forth and draw some noted Professor of Religion into some gross and scandalous sin. And that scandal of his will be such a stumbling block at which they will so stumble, that I will warrant them fall fare enough, and deep enough for ever recovering out of the pit. And the Lord answers, Thou shalt effect it and prevail, Go forth and do so. Go Satan, prevail with such, and such a Professor of Religion to bring him into some fowl scandal. And let that scandal be a fatal stumbling block to make such fall, and assuredly perish, that would not be wrought upon by the word.  
So that look what the false prophets were to Ahab, that are scandals to the world, means of their fatal falls and ruins, woe to Ahab because of the false prophets, and woe to the world because of scandals that make way for their mischief, as the false prophets did for Ahabs. So that by all this we see that God's disposal of scandals, is an Act of divine vengeance, and justice plaguing men's unprofitableness under the means of grace, that by this means their righteous damnation might be sealed up, and made sure.  
And therefore this is a point well worth our observation. That where God sends most preaching, and the greatest means of grace, there commonly fall out the greatest and foulest scandals, and where little or no means, little or no scandal.  
Now what may the reason of this be? Not that the preaching of the Gospel makes men worse, as men of evil spirits are ready to slander and calumniate it in case of such events, but amongst many other reasons that might be given of it, this is one special one. Where God gives greatest means of grace, and salvation, there men's sin in their unprofitableness, impenitency, and unbelief is the greater. The greater men's sins are, the greater is God's wrath, and therefore out of the greatness of his wrath against men's great unprofitableness, God disposes it, that where the greatest means of grace are neglected and contemned, there shall be the greatest scandals, that so he may greatly plague great unprofitableness and contempt. God will have such as be unprofitable under great means, to have great falls, that they of all others may fall most lethally, and most dangerously, and fatally. Now a little stumbling stone causes but a little & an easy fall, but the greater the stumbling block is, the greater, and more woeful must the fall needs be. And therefore where greatest means not profited by, are, there are greatest scandals to bring the greater woe, and vengeance upon so great unprofitableness; therefore there the greatest stumbling blocks to fall by, where the greatest means to rise by, that such may not simply fall, but so fall that they may be dashed to pieces.   

CHAP. V.  
How Scandals come to be so woeful and Mischievous.  
NOw how Scandals make way for men's falls and ruins, and so for their woe will appear in these following particulars.  
1. In that they make way for their stumbling at Religion and godliness, the powerful and saving profession thereof. When men stumble at Religion and are so offended at Godliness as to dislike and reject it, and that with a peremptory resolution of spirit never to receive and embrace it, it must needs be confessed that such persons are in a woeful and miserable case. We find some that stumbled at Christ, 1. Pet. 2. 8. Some that stumbled at the word, 1. Pet. 2. 8. Some that stumble at the law, Mal. 2. 8. Some that stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, jere. 18. 15. Now to stumble at Christ, at the word, at the Law, at the ancient ways, at religion, this is a woeful thing. There is but one true religion in which a man can be saved, now therefore woe to him that stumbles at true religion, for there is no way but infallible damnation for such a man. There is no way of salvation but by Christ, There is no other name under heaven to be saved by, Act. 4. 12. Therefore woe to that man that stumbles at Christ, for that man puts himself out of possibility of salvation. The word, is the word of grace, Act. 20. 32. the word of life, joh. 6. 68 the word of the kingdom, Mat. 13. 19 therefore woe to that man that stumbles at the word, for he puts himself out of possibility of grace, eternal life, and the kingdom of God. The Law of the Lord is perfect, converting or restoring the soul, Psal. 19 7. therefore woe to him that stumbles at the Law, for he is out of possibility of being converted, and restored. The old and the Ancient ways are the good ways wherein a man shall find rest to his soul. jer. 6. 16. Therefore woe to that man that stumbles at and from the ancient ways, because what possibility hath he of finding rest to his soul?  
Now by scandals and offences stumbling blocks are laid to make men stumble at these, and so to bring woe upon their souls. When professors of religion, of Christ, of the word, of the law, of the Ancient ways fall into fowl scandals, thereupon men of the world take occasion to stumble at that Religion, at that Christ, at that word, at that law, at those Ancient ways which they profess, and grow to a resolution never to make or meddle with these, and so make way for their own woe by refusing, and resolving against the ways of salvation: for look what the force of holy example and good life is to stop men's mouths, and gain their hearts to a love and liking of the truth and religion, of that force on the contrary, is evil and scandalous life to keep men of Godly and holy life, good conversation makes evil speakers ashamed. 1. Pet. 3. 16. Well doing puts to silence the ignorance of foolish men, 1. Pet. 2. 15. that they cannot speak evil of Godliness and Religion. Religious conversation wins and gains those that are witbout and brings them to a love of religion, 1. Pet. 3. 1. So contrarily, scandalous carriages embolden the faces, and open the mouths of enemies, stumbles, and offends them, and works in them such a disallowance of religion and dislike of the profession of Godliness, that they utterly resolve against it.  
And that scandals, do make men thus stumble at Religion, the word, etc. how plain doth daily experience make it? let such an one as professes Christ, his word, his truth fall into any scandal, and what follows? Oh! Say men, this is their religion, this is their profession, do ye not see what persons they are that are of this same holy religion, and profession? Are there any worse than these, more dishonest, and deceiful? If this be their religion, God bless me from their religion, I am resolved never to be of such a religion, I now plainly see that it is nothing but errant hypocrisy, lying, cozening, & dissembling. And thus through divine vengeance punishing them for their unprofitableness under the word, they so stumble at these scandals, as to fall into an hatred, and dislike of saving religion, and saving powerful profession of it. Into which who so falls, how woefully falls he?  
That scandals do bring this woe upon the world, and prove ruining stumbling blocks thus to make them fall, is further clear by that, Mal. 2. 8. Ye are departed out of the way. It is a charge upon the Priests. The 
u Misera eorum conversatio plebis tuae miserabilis subversio est. Bernard in convers. Pauli ser. 1.  Priests that preached, & professed the law, they departed out of the way, they committed gross and fowl scandals what was the issue of it? A great deal of mischief followed upon it, namely, a woe, an heavy woe, unto the people from their scandals. But what was that woe? Ye have caused many to stumble at the Law, that, is to stumble at true religion, and the ways of God. When the people saw the Priests that professed and preached the Law, and who so great Zelots' for the Law as they, when they saw these Priests to live so loosely, and so scandalously they began to start at it, and to question happily whether this Law, this religion they preached, and professed were of God or no. And if this were their law, and their religion, for their parts they were resolved never to have to do with such a Law, with such a religion Thus their scandals did stumble them And thus did their scandals bring an heavy woe upon the people, for what a woeful condition was this, thus to stumble at the Law, at the true religion of God? what was this, but to seal up, and make sure their own damnation? for if they would none of the Law, they could none of Heaven, if shut out of Heaven, what remained but Hell? The Lord had, it is likely, a long while called upon the people by his Prophets, they would not hearken nor repent, nor embrace the truth of God. The Lord therefore in his justice resolves to be revenged upon them, by bringing a woe upon them. And what woe would God bring upon them! This woe of stumbling at religion that so he might make sure work with them, that since they would not be saved, when he offered them salvation, therefore now they should never be saved. But now what course will God take to effect this, and bring this woe upon them. He will in his wise providence lay the stumbling block of the Priests scandals in their way, at which they shall so stumble as to dislike the Law, and to fall into an utter distaste of religion, by which they should make sure work against their own salvation. And so woe was unto the people from the Priest's scandals.  
2. Scandals make way for woe in that they make way to occasion, men of the world to fall into the fowl and woeful sin of blapheming Gods holy Name. It is a woeful thing to fall into that sin, especially so to fall into it, as to make that the joy of our hearts which tends to the reproach and dishonour of his Name. The Name of God is a glorious and a fearful Name. Deut. 28. 50. and therefore how woeful and fearful a thing for a man to blaspheme that Name. What doth he better than cut himself off, from all communion with God that blasphemes his Name, that flies in his face, and triumphs in his reproach. It is said of the malicious jews. Act. 13. 45. that they spoke against Paul's doctrine contradicting, and blaspheming. And mark what follows, vers. 64. Seeing ye put the word of God from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo we turn to the Gentiles. See then when they blasphemed what they did, They put away the word from them, they judged themselves unworthy of life, they caused God to turn away the means of salvation from them. Such a case is a woeful case, and to this case will contradicting & blaspheming of God, and his truth, and Religion bring men. And therefore in this regard are scandals woeful events because they occasion men to blaspheme and speak evil of God and his truth. When David fell into that foul Scandal, what followed upon it? See 2. Sam. 12. 14. By this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme. Those amongst the people that were haters of true godliness, and enemies to the powerful profession thereof and so enemies of God when David fell into this sin, they fell into a woeful case, they presently fall a blaspheming of Religion, and speaking evil of godliness, and he that blasphemes godliness blasphemes God, and so by this means causes God in wrath peremptorily to turn from them. So Rom. 2. 23. 24. through you the name of God is blasphemed amongst the Gentiles. So that the scandalous sins of the jews were stumbling blocks to the Gentiles that made them fall into that fowl sin of blaspheming, that must needs make them unworthy of eternal life.  
3. Scandals make way for woe, in that they make way for the hardening of the hearts, and stiffening of the necks of sinful men in their evil ways. It is a very dangerous thing, for a man to be in a sinful way, but for a man to have his hand strengthened in his Iniquity, to be hardened in any sin, this is a woeful condition. It is the greatest woe, and curse that can be to have one's hart hardened. Lam. 3. 64. 65. Render unto them a recompense O Lord according to the work of their hands, Give them obstinacy of heart, thy curse unto them. Solomon speaks of the plagues in the heart. 1. King. 8. 38. The plague in the body, is a woeful disease, and what then is the plague in the heart. God threatens Pharaoh with this plague, Exod. 9 14. I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and see how God did it. Exod. 10. 2. Go into Pharaoh for I have hardened his heart. Therefore the Hardness, or Hardening of the heart is the plague of the heart. God sent ten plagues upon Pharaoh, but this plague of his heart, in the hardening of it, was ten times greater than all the plagues of Egypt. It is that which usually God premises, and fore-sendes when he means to prepare men to temporal destruction. When God means resolutely, to speed a particular person, or a whole nation, and to bring inevitable destruction upon them, God first makes way for it, by the hardening of men's hearts. Exo. 14. 17. When God would get himself honour in the destruction of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. I will saith he, harden their hearts, and they shall follow them, and I will get me honour upon Pharaoh. So Iosh. 11. 19 20. Not a City that made peace, with the children of Israel, save the Hivites the Inhabitants of Gibeon, They took all in battle. But why did not other Cities, do as the Gibeonites, why did not they submit, and seek their peace? Because God had a purpose, they should be destroyed, and to make the surer way for it, gave them up to an hardened heart, for it was of the Lord, to harden their hearts, that they should come out against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour but that he might destroy them. So that when God means that a man shall have no favour, but be utterly destroyed than God first gives men up to hardness of heart. Nay, it is that which is a woeful preparative to eternal wrath, it is that which locks men, and shuts them fast up, and keeps them sure for eternal vengeance. When God is so angry, as that he is peremptorily resolved that a man shall not be saved, but be damned without all peradventure, then God gives him up to the hardness of heart, under which he shall be surele reserved unto the day of wrath.  
When a Prince is resolved to put a man to death, he commands him first to be surely imprisoned, to be laid fast in fetters and irons. When Herod meant to execute Peter, see what sure work is made, He is delivered to four quaternions, of Soldiers to be kept, he lies between two Soldiers, bound with two chains, and the keepers before the doors keeping the prison, Act. 12. 4. 6. So that in reason there was an impossibility of his escape from death.  
So when God will make sure work with a man, and is peremptory for his execution, the Lord delivers him up to hardness of heart, and this hardness of heart will be as quarternions of Soldiers, as Chains, and Keepers, Locks, Bars, Bolts, and Fetters, to reserve a man sure for damnation. A man hath had the means of grace offered him, he hath slighted them, and he will go on, and he will do this and that, say all the Preachers what they will, and can to the contrary. When God sees this, he thus resolves. Here is a man that I would have saved, I offered him the outward means of grace, but he hath stubbornly and rebelliously stood out against the means, I am resolved he shall never be saved. I but perhaps the man life's still under the means of grace, and so long there is a possibility of his conversion, and if he be converted he must needs be saved. Therefore God to keep him from salvation will take a course sure enough to keep him from conversion. Now what course is that? God will have such a man's heart hardened. And if once the heart be hardened there is no possibility of Conversion, & is no Conversion, no Salvation. This process of Divine justice & vengeane we have. Is. 6. 10. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert and be healed. We see in the end of the Verse, that God's full and final resolution is that they shall not be healed, that is, they shall not be saved, as appears, Mark. 4. 12. But how will God keep them from being saved, they having, and hearing the Word? They shall not be converted. But how will he keep them from Conversion? They shall not understand with their heart, though they hear. But how will he keep them from understanding with their heart? Go make the heart of this people fat, that is, go harden their hearts. When the heart is hardened they cannot understand with the heart, when they cannot understand with the heart, they cannot be converted, when they cannot be converted, when they cannot be saved. And so the hardening of the heart is nothing else but the locking, and the shutting, and sealing of a man up, to keep him sure and fast for Hell. So that for a man to be given up to hardness of hearr is a sign, and a woeful sign that a man is such an one, as on whose soul God is resolved to show no mercy, and that a man is in the woeful state of reprobation. Therefore see how the Apostle speaks, Rom. 9 18. Therefore he hath mercy, on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardens. See how hardenings, and showing mercy stand in opposition. Whom he will he hardens, that is, he reprobates, and shows no mercy to. But why says he not, to whom he will show no mercy, he shows none, but it steed of that, whom he will he hardens? Because God makes way for the execution of his counsel of Reprobation by Hardening men's hearts. By all this than it is clear, that it is a woeful thing to be given up to the hardness of heart, woe to that man that hath his heart hardened.  
Now then Scandals are woeful events unto men of the world, because they be such snares and stumbling blocks, as make and occasion them to fall into this woeful condition of hardening their hearts. Therefore woe to the world because of scandals, because by scandals their hearts shallbe hardened, they shall have the woeful plague of the heart, they shall come under a woeful curse, be brought into a preparative condition for temporal and eternal ruin. For when men see such as make profession of godliness to fall into scandals, and heinous evils, it occasions them exceedingly to harden their hearts, and to bless themselves in their evil, &  ways, as if their ways were better than the ways of godliness, and their persons in a better estate and condition than theirs that make such ado with their profession.  
We may conceive the truth of this in the scandal of the Incestuous Corinthian, 1. Cor. 5. There were multitudes of Heathen Corinthians that had not yet received Christ, nor his Gospel. The Christian Corinthians had questionless been dealing with the Heathen Corinthians, to bring them to repentance for the sins of their Gentilism. What those sins were we may see, 1. Cor. 6. 10. Neither fornicators, nor Idolaters, nor Adulterers, nor effeminate, etc. nor Thiefs, nor Covetous, nor Drunkards, etc. And such were some of you. Namely, when they lived in their Heathen condition. Now out of these sins would not the Heathen residue be brought. Now when all means, and endeavours for their reclaiming were in vain, God in his justice would even give them up to that woeful condition of being hardened in those their sins.  
To this end in his providence a scandalous event is disposed to come to pass in the sin of the incestuous Corinthian, which could not but turn to the great hardening of the Heathens heart in their sins, Then began they to say and think in their hearts, They told us our estates, and our ways were dangerous and damnable, but to be sure, our ways are as good as theirs. We are better yet then these professors of Christ, we are honester at the hardest, then are they, The fornication and filthiness that is acted and committed amongst them is not once named amongst us.  
We will therefore even keep us in these ways, and go on in these courses still. For if such as these profess themselves to be, if your holy and strict Christians may do such vile things as these, than I trow it is not such an heinous thing for us that make no such profession to be Drunkards, Adulterers, Swearers, etc. And thus by occasion of this scandal did they confirm, hearten, and harden themselves in their iniquities. Suppose any of the Christians had after the falling out of this scandal, but offered to have reproved an Heathen Corinthian for Fornication, Drunkenness, &c▪ what answer was he like to have had but such an one as this. Oh Sir, it is no marvel, you should find fault with me, though now and then I may be drunk, or commit fornication, yet I am not such a beast, as such an one your fellow Christian, that made such ado with his holiness that hath now married his father's Wife, I would you should know it, I am as honest as he, and as good a liver as he for his heart. And so shaken they off all admonition and reproof, & hardened their hearts against all remedies by occasion of that scandal. And so was there a woe to many an Heathen Corinthian, from the scandal of that Incestuous Christian, because they stumbled at it & were ensnared by it, so as to harden themselues in their sinful courses, & so by that hardness were sealed up to assured wrath.  
There is nothing hardens men in their Iniquity more, then to justify them in their sinful ways. There is a Instification of a sinner from his ungodliness, and there is a justification of a sinner in his ungodliness.  
The first is a blessed thing, and makes a man happy, Psal. 32. 1. 2.  
The second is woeful, dismal, and dangerous. justification of a sinner from his sins is called a justification of life, Rom. 5. 18. But justification of a sinner in his sins is a justification of death, that seals up a man to damnation. justification of a sinner from sin is an Act of God's grace, & mercy, and so he justifies the , (Rom. 4. 5. on him that justifies the ) by acquitting, discharging, and absolving him from the guilt of his ungodliness. justification of a sinner in his sin is an act of Gods woeful vengeance punishing men for former ungodliness, and making way for the infallible ascertaining of his damnation. And for justification of a sinner in his sins is way made by scandalous events. And that scandalous events do justify  men in their sins, and so harden them therein, may appear by that, Ezek. 16. 51. Neither hath Samaria committed half thy sins, but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters in all their abominations which thou hast done. Samaria was one of judah's sisters; The Samaritans were an idolatrous wicked people, judah she professed herself the people of God. Now judah that professed herself God's people, fell into foul, and scandalous abominations. Samaria committed not half her sins. Upon this, Samaria gins to Saint herself, and to justify herself, being justified by judah. Which may be understood not only of the event, that Samaria was less unjust, and unrighteous in comparison of judah, but also of the effect or consequent of that event, because Samaria in comparing herself with judah, finding her self more just, that is less unjust, did thereby positively justify herself, as if she were in a good case, and a good way, because Iudah's abominations were so many and so great, and because judah is blacker than she, therefore she begins to imagine herself Lily white. I, says Samaria, it is no marvel that judah is so godly, so religious, so holy a people, and that I am so idolatrous, and so sinful, I am sure I am not half so bad as she. For all their godliness, and Religion they talk of, for any thing I see, my life, courses, dealings are as good, and honest, nay, more justifiable than theirs. And if judah that professes such singular holiness, do thus and thus I hope my ways being better than hers, my condition is better. I am therefore resolved to ride on in the old road still, I will not change lives and ways with judah for all her godliness and Religion. Thus questionless, did judah's abominations occasion Samaria to justify herself, and by such justifying of herself, she hardened and strengthened herself in her sins, and so were judah's scandals and abominations woeful events to Samaria, because thereby her heart was hardened to her destruction.  
It is with scandals as it was with those false Prophets, Ezek. 13. 22. Ye strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way. Men cannot be saved if they be not turned from their evil ways, men cannot be turned from their evil ways, if their hands be strengthened in them, and their hearts hardened. Now here was the mischief and the woe that came by those false Prophets, they strengthened men's hands, and hardened their hearts in their evil ways that they could not be saved. Such is the mischief and the woe of scandals, men cannot be saved, unless they return from their wicked way, they cannot return from their wicked way so long as their hands be strengthened, and woe to the world because of scandals, for they strengthen the hands of the wicked, and so make way for their fatal ruin.  
Scandals are that to the World, that those things were to the jews, Rom. 11. 9 Let their table be made a snare, a trap, and a stumbling block, and a recompense unto them. When no means of grace will soften hard hearts and bring them to Repentance, God in his justice disposes of scandals, and they are made snares, traps, and stumbling blocks, and a recompense unto them that God may recompense them for their unprofitableness; and by those scandals, occasion them to harden their hearts to their ruin, that would not be softened unto life.  
It is otherwise to the World from the scandals and falls of Professors, than it was to the Gentiles from the fall of the jews from Christ. The fall of the jews was for the happiness of the Gentiles. Rom. 11. 11. 12. Have they stumbled that they should fall? that is, fall quite and clean off, God forbidden, But through their fall, salvation is come unto the Gentiles, The fall of them is the riches of the world. But now in scandalous falls of Professors into foul sins it is contrary, Through their false damnation comes to many, and they are the mischief, misery and undoing of many. And that on this manner. God many times vouchsafes the means of grace and repentance to a people, in those means strives a long time with them, but strives in vain. Therefore he resolves thus, My spirit shall strive no longer with them, but since they will not, they shall not be saved, I will take a sure course for their damnation. I am resolved they shall not be saved, and because they shallbe sure never to be saved, I will make sure they shall never be converted, And that they may be made sure for ever being converted, I will take a course that they shall not understand the word they hear with their hearts, and that they may not understand the word they hear, I will take a course for the hardening of their hearts, & for the through hardening of their hearts some professor of religion shall fall into scandal, and thereby shall their hearts be hardened seven fold more than ever, they shall justify themselves in their sins, and so by an hard heart shall put themselves out of all possibility of Conversion, and so out of all possibility of salvation. How often would I have had you risen, and ye would not rise? therefore now shall you fall into hell, for he that hardens his heart shall fall into mischief, Prou. 28. 14.  
That therefore ye may fall into a mischief, and with a mischief; ye shallbe hardened, and that you may fall into greater hardness of heart, some man shall fall into scandal; his fall into scandal shall make way for a woe to fall upon your heads. His scandal shall harden you, that hardness shall make you fall into mischief. And thus woe to the world because of offences, because they come to stiffen, and harden their spirits, and as messengers of wrath to bind them sure, hand and foot, that they may be prepared, to be thrown out into utter darkness.  
Thus woe to the world, because of offences, because the world is occasioned by them, to reject the saving profession of Religion, to fall fowl on God's holy Name, to justify themselves in their sinnefall ways, and so by these things to make hell sure their own. So that the fall of a professor of religion, is as the fall of an oak upon underwood, and smaller trees, that be near it: woe to them, when the oak falls, because it mischiefs, brushes and breaks them in pieces by its fall. It is just in this case, at it was in the overthrow of that Army. jer. 46. 12. The mighty man hath stumbled against the mighty, & they are both fallen together, first one fell; he being fallen, another stumbles at him, and so they both lay on the ground together. Thus falls it out in scandals. First one falls into some great sin, others come and stumble at him being fallen, and so both fall, and the first man's fall is the last man's ruin. And therefore woe to the world because of scandals.   

CHAP. VI  
What little reason men have to triumph at, and what great reason to be cautelous in the event of scandals.  
ALl this well weighed, and duly considered will give us to understand two things: the little reason of joy, and the great reason of fear and caution in case of such scandalous events.  
1. It lets us see what little reason men of the world have to triumph, insult, and 
x 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Iust. Mart. Epist. ad Zen. & Seren.  rejoice as they use to do, in the falls and scandals of such as profess religion. When my foot slippeth they magnify themselves against me. Psal. 38. 16. If such an one do but tread awry, or his foot but slip, their enemies let not their slips slip, but take occasion from small slips to make great triumphs, And if they be so ready to magnify themselves against them, when they but slip, how much more when they fall, and fall into the puddle, into the mire? How do they magnify themselves against them then? The reproach and disgrace of their sinful falls yields adversaries such content that they project and lay on purpose for it. Neh. 6. 13. Therefore was he hired that I should be afraid, and do so & sin, and that they might have matter for an evil report, that they might reproach me. And therefore projecting for their falls, and laying plots before hand for them if it may, be no wonder that they so rejoice and triumph if at any time they fall into such sins, whereby they may have matter for an evil report that they may reproach them. So true is that which 
y Papistae calumniandi studio totam nostram conversationem observant. Si quid ergo humanipatimur, sicut profecto infirmi sumus, & patimur nostra incommoda, ibi demum tanquam famelici porci immergunt se in stercora nostra, & ex ijs delicias faciunt, dum infirmitatem nostram exemplo maledicti Ham aperiunt & traducunt, verè enim esuriunt & sitiunt scandala nostra, Luth. in Gen. 9  Luther speaks that they hunger and thirst, after the scandals of the Godly, and if at any time, through humane frailty they do fall into an evil, like hungry hogs they nuzzle in their excrements, and feast upon them as upon dainties, There being nothing that so glads their hearts, that so opens their mouths with so much insolency and triumph. And as Luther compares them in this regard to hogs, so 
z Hos ergo de nostris doloribus suavitatem suae malae linguae captantes; facile est ut illis canibus comparemus, st fort in malo intelligendi sunt, qui lingebant vulnera pauperis illius qui ante ianuam divitis iacebat etc. Aug. Epist 137.  Augustine to dogs, namely to the rich gluttons dogs that lay licking, and sucking Lazarus his sores and wounds. It pleased not those dogs so much to be licking Lazarus sores as it pleases some men to have their tongues in the scandalous wounds and sores of such, as profess godliness. As it is the sorrow, and grief of good hearts, and that which makes them droop and mourn to see Christ, his Gospel, and truth reproached, and disgraced by scandals; so contrarily, it is meat & drink to wicked ones, and the very joy of their hearts, when such events fall out. 
a Proinde charissimi in isto scandalo quö de Bonifacio presbytero non nulli perturbantur, non vobis dico ut non dolcatis. Qui enim ista non dolent, non est in eyes charitas Christi, qui autem de talibus gaudent, abundat in eyes malignitas diaboli. Aug. Epist. 137.  As such as are filled with the love of Christ, do grieve and mourn, so they that are filled with the malignity of the Devil, do rejoice in the event of scandals. Any thing that makes to the disgrace of God's Church, his cause, and religion, that sets and puts them into ecstasies of rejoicing. 2. Sam. 1. 20. Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. Why? what was it, that should make them triumph and rejoice? That verse 19 How are thy mighty fallen? Saul and jonathan were fallen, not by scandal, but by the sword, but that fall such as it was, made to the disgrace of Israel, to the reproach of the God of Israel, and hence their joy, and Triumph. Mark by the way, who they are that rejoice in such cases, uncircumcised Philistines, the sons and daughters of uncircumcised Philistines. And well becomes it such, and none but such to rejoice. And such do and will rejoice. Now truly all before considered, we see what little cause they have to be so over-ioyed, there is a great deal of joy, and merriment more than there is cause. All considered, we may truly say unto them, as jam. 4. 9 Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into heaviness. Woe unto the world because ofscandals. When scandals come into the world, a woe comes unto the world, messengers of vengeance to do executions of justice are sent by God. And will the world be so blind and witless, to rejoice and triumph in that which comes to be their bane and ruin, their sorrow and their smart? Hath the silly beast any cause to leap and frisk when he sees the trap set up and baited that will ensnare and murder him?  
It is probably thought that when Noah fell so foul and shamefully in his drunkenness that Canaan Cham's son first 
* Hebreus etiam id tradebat, & ratione confirmabat, primum Chanaan verenda avi sui vidisse, suoque solum patri narrasse tanquam de sene ridentem. Theodoret. Quaest. in Gens. 57  saw his grandfather in that case, and so went and told his father Cham of it: for else why should Noah curse Cham in his son Canaan rather then in any other of his sons. He had other sons beside, Gene. 10. 6. And the sons of Cham, Cush and Mizraim, and Phut and Canaan. Why therefore cursed be Canaan rather than Cush, Mizraim, or Phut? Like enough that Canaan as the jews probably conjecture first espied Noah in that case, and he being an ungracious youngster, one without all Religion, and possibly an hater of all goodness, one that had like enough been often sagely admonished, and sharply reproved by Noah. And little content did the holiness, austerity and religious carriage of Noah give either to Canaan or to Cham. Now therefore Canaan when he sees him in his drunkenness, and in that shameful pickle in his nakedness, he tells it to his father, and his father after to Shem and japhet, and that with joy and gladness, with mocking and derision: for otherwise for Canaan to have seen it occasionally and to have told it his father, or for his father to have seen it occasionally and have told it his brethren, had been no matter of offence, but quest: unless they both told it with much joy, and rejoicing. Like enough Canaan when he first espied it, came running to his father; with much joy in his face, Oh father I can tell you excellent News, the bravest News that can be, News that will do you good at the very heart, do but go along with me; and I will show you such a sight as you never saw. Look where that old Dotard lies drunk, and in what a base and shameful fashion? This is he that always telling me of my swearing, censuring me for my want of religion, this is he that was so holy, so full of his religion, and godliness, see there how like a beast he lies. And surely if Canaan did tell Cham of it, Cham's fact was exceeding unnaturally villainous. the text says. Gen. 9 22. And I'm the father of Canaan saw the nakedness of his father, not occasionally and at unawares, so might Shem, or japhet have done. But if Canaan did first tell Cham of it, as very probably he did, then I'm like an ungracious varlet as he was, could not be content to hear of it, but to rejoice, and glad his heart the more, he must go see the sight, he must go feed his eyes with it, and that he might be sure of it, and observing all the several circumstances he might have the more to make up his mouth. And then after this in scorn, and derision and with insulting insolency goes & reports it to Shem and japhet. So that what between an ungracious son, and a graceless grandchild there was sure no small jubilation, and exultation in Noah's scandal, and drunkenness. But now as merry and jocund as Cham and Canaan were, let us see a little what cause they had for it, and consider if their were not that in it, that was enough to mar their merriment, and to have turned their mirth into mourning. Alas all considered, full little cause had they to be thus upon their merry pins. It could not be but the scandal of Noah's drunkenness must come, but woe to Cham and Canaan because of that scandal. God had a purpose to bring a woe, and a curse upon Cham and Canaan and upon the Canaanites his posterity, that they should be rooted out, and cut off by the sword of Israel. But how now should way be made to bring this curse upon the heads of them? Noah shall fall into a scandal, thereby shall they be occasioned by reason of their naughty spirits to do as they did, and then no sooner shall Noah awake from his wine but he shall awake with a solemn curse in his mouth, which should be as the oracle of God, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And now I pray what cause have 
b Sed O miser, Ham quam beat●s e● qui nunc d●mi● invenisti quod quaerebas venenum scilicet insaluberrima rosa, Luther in Gen. 9  Cham, and Canaan so to rejoice at their father's fall? Woe be to them because of this offence, because in this offence of his there is a trap, and a snare set to catch them, and a way preparing to bring a sorrowful curse upon them both. And have they then think we any great cause of merriment? will any man that is in his wits rejoice at that event, whose errand purposely is to bring God's curse upon him. So little cause had Cham and Canaan to rejoice at Noah's fall. And every whit, as little cause hath the world to rejoice when scandals come, for then woe comes, God is setting his begins, and snares, & traps to catch some, he sends forth his messengers of wrath, to do severe justice upon persons that have been unprofitable under the Gospel.  
Suppose God should send the sword amongst men, would men rejoice and be glad at it? See Ezec. 21. 9 10. A sword, A sword is sharpened, and also furbished, It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter, it is fourbisht that it may glitter, should we then make mirth? I trow not. And why not make mirth in such a case? Because the sword brought woe and mischief with it, because it came to be dismal, and fatal, because it was a messenger of wrath and vengeance. And why then make men mirth at scandals when they come? May we not truly say of this laughter, Thou art mad, and of this mirth, what doth it? Eccl. 2. 2. Come not scandals with a woe as well as the sword? And it he not as mad that rejoiceth at the coming of scandals, as he is that rejoices at the coming of a sword? Say, a scandal a scandal, it is fowl and heinous, it is come with woe, to make a sore spiritual slaughter, should we then make mirth, and rejoice at it? God forbidden. Woe unto the world because of scandals, and shall we laugh, and sport with God's woes? This makes scandals doubly woeful.  
That same is good counsel which Solomon gives Prou. 24. 17, 18. Rejoice not when thine enemy falls, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbles. If a man have an enemy that hates him, if any cross or calamity befalls him a man may not rejoice at it, nor be glad of it not only when he falls, and God utterly ruins him, but if he do but stumble, and God lay but some smaller cross upon him. Now mark the reason, lest the Lord see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him, and so turn it upon thee. So that the sum of the reason is, lest God should be angry, and his wrath should be against thee. Mark then; If I may not rejoice at a man's outward stumbling and fall, then how much less may I rejoice in a man's spiritual stumbling and falling, how much more will that displease and anger God? If I may not rejoice at his outward fall lest God should be angry, then much less when in another man's spiritual stumbling and fall God is angry with me, and out of his anger against me disposes his fall. Little cause have I to rejoice at another's stumbling and falling, when God in wrath disposes of another man's stumbling to make me stumble, and of another man's fall to make me fall. What cause have I to rejoice at his stumbling & falling, who therefore stumbles and falls that I may stumble and fall at him. And thus is the very case here. Such as do give scandals do stumble that others may stumble at them, do fall that others may fall at them, jerem. 64. 12. The mighty man hath stumbled against the mighty: and they are both fallen together. It is spoken of the Egyptians ruined in war. It may be that one Captain that hated his fellow might see him fall by the sword of the enemy. Now though he were his enemy that he see fall, had he any cause to rejoice? Not any at all. Why so? Because God's providence disposed that the fall of the first should make way for the fall and ruin of the next. He that fell first should lie in his fellow's way as a stumbling block at which he should stumble and fall also. Thus we saw before that the falls of such as profess Religion, are but as stumbling blocks in other men's ways to precipitate them into ruin. And judge then what cause they have to rejoice thereat. If a man should see a stumbling stone, or a stumbling block laid on purpose at a pits brink to topple him headlong over into the pit, would that man rejoice that that block were laid there? I think not. This is the case here. Scandals are stumbling blocks laid at hell pits mouth to precipitate, and headlong worldly wicked men down into hell. So that to rejoice at scandals is to rejoice at the matter, and instrument of their own sorrow to rejoice at that which will surely send them to Hell. He that rejoices in such a case, Much good may his joy do him, I envy no man such joy.  
There fell out a scandal in the Church of Corinth, 1. Corinth▪ 5. Now whereas upon the event of it they should have been mourning and heavy, they were in another vein, Verse 2. 6. They were glorying, and rejoicing. They did not rejoice in, or at the scandal, that such a man that made such a profession was fallen, but they rejoiced in their own gifts, in the gifts of their Preachers. What Church had such Preachers, what people had such gifts? And rejoice they might in these things, but now it was unseasonable, they should now rather have been mourning, because of this scandal. Therefore the Apostle sharply takes them up, Verse 2, 6. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, your glorying, or rejoicing is not good. If then the Apostle reproves them thus for rejoicing when there was a scandal, though they rejoiced not at the scandal, how much more vehemently, and sharply would he have reproved them if they had rejoiced at, and for the scandal? How much more in this case would he have said, your rejoicing is not good. Woe to the world because of scandals, and yet many make these matters of woe laughing matters, but woe unto them that in such a cause laugh, for they shall weep, and aftertime, and afterwit will teach them, that never had they greater cause of weeping, then even then when they were upon their merry pins, because that at which they made themselves so merry, came with a woe unto them.  
2. Secondly, this lets us see what great cause of fear, wariness, and caution there is in case of scandalous events. Since they be such dangerous events, let men have a special care they be not ensnared, and entrapped by them. When scandals fall out, we see there is a trap, and a snare set, there is a stumbling block laid, therefore it should be a man's wisdom, and watchfulness that he be not caught in the trap, that he be not ensnared in the gin, that he stumble and fall not at the block. We see that God hath put that wisdom, wariness, and shinesse into some creatures, that if a trap, or a snare be set for them, they are very , & jealous of coming near it, or meddling with the bait, and out of a fear of being taken, they will decline and shun the snare, though tempted and alured thereto by such baits as otherwise they have a full good mind unto. Such, much more should be the shinesse, and wary jealousy of men in the case of scandalous events. Do we see at any time such as profess religion to fall into any fowl enils, then think thus with thyself. I had thought that when such events had come to pass, the danger of them had been only a personal danger to the party Delinquent, that it had been only for the discoverse, and for the disgrace of him, I never dreamt of any further matter, and therefore I thought I might have made a may-game of them, and have rejoiced and triumphed in their falls. But now I see there is a further matter in them then I was ware of, I see that they come to pass by Divine Providence, to bring a woe upon other men's heads. I see they come, that some may be occasioned to stumble at Religion, at the Law, at the Word, and from the ancient paths, that hereupon they should resolvedly reject & renounce saving Religion, and the saving powerful profession thereof to their own assured ruin for ever. I see now that they be disposed by a Divine Providence, that some men being occasioned to blaspheme God's Name, & Truth, may feel the weight of God's revenging hand. I now see there is a Divine finger in them, and that they come to occasion some men to harden their hearts so, as they may fall into mischief; and be put out of possibility, and the reach of mercy. These be great dangers and heavy woes, for I see now they be but stumbling blocks, at which some men shall break their necks into Hell. I confess, I did never conceive them to be half so dangerous events, I never apprehended them such dangerous traps and snares, as now upon the opening of this point I see they are. Believe it, I see it is good wisdom in such events to look about me, and to take heed how I come within the reach of these snares.  
Since Divine Providence sets them to make way for Divine vengeance, though such a man professing religion, have committed a foul scandal, 
c juxta semitas scandalum posuerunt mihi; non in semitis sed iuxta semitas. Semitae tuae praecepta Dei sunt. Illi scandala iuxta semitas posuerunt: tu noli recedere à semitis & non irrues in scandala: permisit Deus ponere scandala iuxta semitas ut tu non recedas à semitis. juxta semitas scandala posuerunt mihi & quid restat? Quid remedium inter tanta mala, in istis tentationibus, in istis periculis? Dixi Domino Deus meus es tu. Aug. Psal. 139. Ergo cum audis vae mundo à scandalis, noli terreri, dilige legem Dei, non tibi erit scandalum— teneamus indeclinabilem confessionem, diligamus legem Dei, ut evadamus quod dictum est, vae mundo à scandalis. Aug.  yet I will by God's grace take heed for all that of stumbling at Godliness, or thinking ere the worse of the profession of Religion; Nay, I will be so fare from flying off, that I will cleave the closer and the faster to God, and the ways of Truth. I will hold my profession so much the faster; and love that Word so much the more, that so I may avoid this heavy woe. Do in this case when scandals fall out, and so snares be set as David did when wicked men hid a Snare for him, and laid Nets to catch him, Psal. 140. 5. The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords, they have spread a net by the way side, they have set grins for me. And what doth David now do in this case? See Verse 6. Isaid unto the Lord, Thou art my God. So when scandals fall out, Snares and Nets, and Grinnes are laid: What shall we do then? Shall we distaste and dislike Godliness and Religion? No, by no means, that is the way to be ensnared and caught; But then specially say unto the Lord, Thou art my God, I will cleave close to thee and to thy Truth, these events shall not cause me to dislike of Godliness, and Religion, Say of wisdom, notwithstanding such events, that she is & shall be thy sister.  
Though 
d Illa (scilicet jobi uxor) scandalum erat sed illi non erat. Aug. in Psal. 141.  these persons be scandals, yet shall they be none to me, 
e Non egrediar à Christo, non incidam in muscipulam. Ibid.  I will not for all this go from Christ, Godliness, and Religion for then am I caught in the trap. I will take heed for all this of blaspheming God and his Truth, I will for all this take heed of justifying myself in any evil ways, and how I harden myself in my sins, for if I do thus, then am I in the trap, than I stumble at the stumbling block, then hath the woe of the scandal light upon and taken hold of me, God give me grace, and wariness to look to one.  
Because scandalous events are dangerous events, this should be therefore our wisdom, wariness, and caution when they happen. Surely, the more dangerous they are, the more cautelous should we be, and in their events be so far from being staggered, as to stick closer to religion, and to persevere the more resolutely. 
f Scandala non defutura praedixit quibus fidem nostram exerceri & porbari oporteret. Aitenim quoniam abundavit iniquitas, refrigescit charitas multorum, sed continuo subijcit, Quiautem perseveravit usque in finem saluus erit. August. Epist. 136.  Because Iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold, Math. 24. 12. It so commonly falls out that when iniquities, scandalous iniquities of such as profess the truth fall out, that many that (it may be) had some good affection to, and liking of goodness are started, and stumbled at religion, and their love grows cold. But how should it be with us in such cases? But he that endures to the end shallbe saved, Verse 13. As much as to say, that even great and foul scandalous inquities abounding, men's love, and liking to religion should not be abated, but they should for all that cleave close to it, and hold out and endure to the end, and not be started, and stumbled by scandals.  
Are scandalous events then woeful events? And when scandals come, doth woe come? Then be so wise, though thou couldst not prevent the scandal, yet to prevent the woe, that the woe it brings with it, may none of it light upon thine head. In every scandal there is a guilt, and a woe, a sin, and a curse. The guilt and the sin is the persons that offends, but the woe, and the curse falls upon others. Now when scandals do come, so look to thyself, that thou mayest have as little share in the curse and the woe, as thou hast in the guilt and the sin. Adders, Snakes, Serpents how  are men in meddling with them, and all because they are venomous, and have a sting? Every scandal caries a sting with it, a woe with it, and when they come they come to sting some men mortally to the very death.  
Scandals to many prove as those fiery Serpents to the Israelites, Numb. 21. 6. And the Lord sent fiery Serpents amongst the people, and they bitten the people, and much people of Israel died. Therefore concerns it men to carry themselves as warily when they meet with scandals, as if they met with Serpents, and be as much afraid of a Scandals woe, as of a Serpent's sting. Amongst the extraordinary signs the should follow them that believe, this is one, that they shall take up Serpents, and they shall not hurt them, Mark 16. 18. Now, such should our wisdom, and wariness be, that when these fiery Serpents come, we might so take them up as they might so not hurt us, that we might see the Serpent, but not feel the sting.  
Scandals are like Ezekiel's roll. Ezek. 2. 10. There was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe. Ezekiel he was commanded to eat the roll. Had it been a matter left to his own choice, like enough he would scarce have meddled with it. See how it fared with him when he had eaten it, Ezek. 3. 14. I went in bitterness; in the heat of my spirit. All Scandals when they come are rolls of woe, it is great wisdom for a man to take heed how he eats such rolls, lest a man get away with bitterness in the end. A wise man sees a plague, and bides himself, but fools go on and are punished, Prou. 22. When the plague comes how wary are men, how cautelous, and careful to look to themselves? And what makes them so, but only because it is a woeful, and a fatal disease. By the same reason should men be no less cautelous, and wisely wary in the event of Scandals, because when they come a woe comes with them, and therefore should people be as fearful of the woe that comes with a Scandal, as they would be of the infection that is in the plague.   

CHAP. VII.  
The sharp and severe justice of God upon such as give Scandal.  
ANd thus have we seen the first Mischief and Woe that comes by scandals, namely, that which comes to the scandalised World: now follows the second mischief and woe, that which is to the party's scandalising, and to such as give the offence, But woe to the man by whom the offence cometh, that is, A necessity there is of scandalous events, but that necessity shallbe no excuse, or protection to the offender, but as there is a woe for the taker, so there is a woe for the giver of the offence, woe be to him by whom the offence cometh.  
In which words take notice of.  The severe and smart justice of God upon all Scandalisers of the Gospel and Religion. 
God will assuredly be meet with such persons as break out, and fall into foul notorious scandalous Actions, and will meet with them sharply, and severely. Woe unto him by whom the offence cometh. God threatens Eli very sharply, I have told him that I will judge his house for ever, 1. Sam. 3. 18. But why would God deal so severely? Because (say some Translations) his sons run into a scandal, and he restrained them not, or frowned not upon them. If God would punish Eli for not punishing scandals, how much more will he punish them that give scandals. The practices of Elies' sons were monstrous scandalous, 1. Sam. 2. 22. and what did they by so doing? Because his sons bringing a curse upon themselves, So junius. So that by those Scandals they brought a curse upon themselves, A woe came upon them by their scandal.  
The woe that pursues such is threefold. First, Temporal. Secondly, Spiritual. Thirdly, An eternal woe.  
1. God will pursue such with temporal woes. And they are these three.  
1. With a woe upon them in their Name. A good Name is exceeding precious. For the worth and value of it preferred before Silver, Gold, and great riches, Prou. 22. 1. For the sweetness, comfort, and contentment of it before sweet ointment, Eccles. 7. 2. So that for a man to lose his good Name, is as great a loss as to lose a great estate of great riches. It would be judged a woeful condition for a man that had a great estate, and abundance of wealth, if God's hand should follow him, and consume him, and bring him to nothing. It is no less a woe to be bereft of ones good Name, and to have the smell of that ointment taken away. Now in this thing is there a woe to him by whom an offence and a scandal cometh. Not only the sweetness of this ointment is taken away, but that sweetness is turned into a loathsome and a noisome savour, Eccles. 10. 1. Dead flies cause the ointment of the Apothecary to send forth a stinking savour, so doth a little folly him that is in reputation, for wisdom and honour. Let a man have the honourable name of a wiseman, yea, of a godly, religious, zealous man, which give the greatest honour in the world to a man, yet, if he be guilty but of a little folly, that little folly impeaches his Name, as much as a dead fly will do a box of ointment. Let ointment be never so sweet & good, yet if but a dead fly, or two be in it, they do not only take away the sweetness of the ointment, but cause it to stink, and to have a vile favour, so that a man will not only not smell to it, but stops his nose at it.  
Now if a dead fly will do so much in a box of ointment, what will a dead dog, or some such filthy carrion do? If a little folly will stain a man's reputation what will a great deal do? Specially when it is folly in a high nature, not folly slipped into at unawares, but artificial, and deliberate folly, folly lain in and practised a long while, how much more will that stain, & make a man's name stink? That same speech of Thamar's (but that Lust hath no ears) had a great deal of weight in it, when Amnon was bend upon the commission of a foul scandalous fact, 2. Sam. 13. 13. And as for thee thou shalt be as one of the Fools in Israel. Indeed that had been enough to have stayed him, if his Lust would have given him the liberty of deliberation. It was as if she had said. If thou dost this thing, woe be unto thee. But what woe? Now thou art a man of some credit and esteem, but if thou do this scandalous Act, God will blast thy name and credit, Thou shalt be as one of the Fools of Israel. This is the just hand of God upon such, that they shallbe smitten with the loss of their credit and Name, and be counted of the number of the Fools in Israel. It is a vile disgrace to be a Fool any where, but to be a Fool in Israel, to be of vile, and base report, and repute in the Church of God, this is an heavy punishment. Amnon was afterward stabbed by Absoloms' Servants, had Amnon had but any sense left after that sin of his, the Sword of Absoloms' Servants could not be so cutting, and so piercing, as was this, There goes Amnon that base man, that vile person, There goes one of the Fools in Israel. When Amnon could not stir, nor be seen in the streets, could not be occasionally mentioned in ordinary talk, but one or other would be throwing the mire of his base action in his face, and the mention of him had been as the stirring of an unsavoury excrement, What He? Ah vile man, ah wretched fellow; Why, these things were fare more keen and cutting, than the very Swords that murdered him.  
We may see the truth of this, Mal. 2. 8, 9 The Priests were scandalous, and by their scandalous courses had caused many to stumble at the Law. Well woe be to them, God would meet with them for it. What woe doth God bring upon them? Therefore have I also made you contemptible, and base before all the people. God brought a woe upon them in their credit and esteem, that they were vile in the esteem of all, one and another, good and bad. And herein the Lord serves men but justly, and pays them with their own coin, By scandals God's Name is defiled, Gods Name disgraced, & blasphemed, therefore for their scandals God smites them in their Names, that in the woe lighting upon their Names, they may see what it was to dishonour, & pollute the Name of God; God will pollute their Names that pollute his, and will cause that pearl of theirs to be trod in the dirt, and mire. Yea, God so takes to heart the dishonour of his Name by scandals, that though there may be true Repentance, yet still some stain may lie upon the Name. David made his peace with God, and truly repent, so as the Prophet tells him his sin was forgiven him, and yet 1. King. 15. 5. after David is dead and gone, that fact of his is mentioned as some blur. David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, save only in the matter of Vriah the Hittite. David did other things that were sinful, the Numbering of the people, the giving of Mephibosheths Lands to Ziba, why then says the text, save in the matter of Vriah? Because though the other were sins, yet they were not scandalous sins. The other was a scandalous sin, and a scandalous sin is of that heinous nature, that though the guilt be taken away, yet after the wound hath done bleeding and is closed up, and healed, there will remain some scar in the Name, and credit. So that of foul scandalous offenders it may be said as of the Adulterer, Prou. 6 33. A wound, and dishonour shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away. So long as he life's his reproach will live with him, yea and outlive him too, his reproach will last as long as his memorial. And as jeroboam is seldom named in Scripture without dishonour, jeroboam that made Israel to sin, so such seldom be mentioned, but with the remembrance of their scandal, oh that was he that made such a profession of Religion, and yet played that heinous prank. We have a cause, Deut. 25. 9, 10. that when a man refused to do a brother's office, his brother's wife must lose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, And his name shall be called in Israel the house of him that hath his shoe loosed. Now all this was great disgrace, and matter of great reproach, But what was this to the reproach that comes by a scandal? How much more reproach is it to have all men ready to spit in ones face, to have it said, the house of him that had his conscience loosed, the man who deserved to have his face spit in, because he occasioned so many to spit on, and spit at religion and the Gospel.  
2. A second temporal woe which God will bring upon them, and follows upon the former is eiection and casting of them out of the society & communion of God's people. That which David complains of as injustice in his friends, shallbe their righteous portion. Psal. 31 11, 12. I was a reproach amongst all mine enemies, but specially amongst my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance, they that did see me without fled from me, I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind, I am like a broken vessel. Not only shall their enemies despise, and scorn them, but their neighbours, not ordinary neighbours, but their familiar acquaintance shall discard them, yea they shall be afraid and ashamed of them, and shall shun all society, and converse with them, as judging it a matter of discredit to be seen in their company. They shallbe as dead men out of mind, nay worse, for dead men may be mentioned with honour and regard, but they shallbe as dead men in regard of society, their society no more desired than the society of a dead man, which every man abhors. They are like a broken vessel. A vessel whilst it is whole is useful, and , and whilst whole, use is continually made of it, it is called for, enquired for, and is at every turn in request. But now let such a vessel be broken, it is thrown by, thrown out of doors, cast on the dunghill, none once meddles with it, nor looks after it. So whilst such persons are whole vessels, they are vessels of use, and honour they have the honour of communion and society, but if once such vessels get a knock, fall into scandal, & take such fowl falls as that they break their credits and their consciences, & so become broken vessels, they are then cast out of the hearts, out of the society, out of the fellowship of God's people. See how these go together jerem. 22. 28. Is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed. So that when a man becomes a vessel wherein there is no pleasure, than he is cast out. So was Coniah. And such is the case of scandalous persons, they become vessels wherein is no pleasure, and so are cast out. That same is threatened as an heavy woe to Israel. Hos. 8. 8. Now shall they be amongst the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure. When they were in their own country, they were  vessels, they were as vessels of silver and gold, as vessels of plate that are for service, set upon the table, had in great account, and precious esteem. But, now they should be carried amongst the Gentiles, and there should be as vessels wherein is no pleasure, that is, as base abject vessels, put to the most sordid services, such as God would make Moab to be. Psal. 60. Moab my washpot, olla lotionis meae: Now this was an heavy woe denounced against Israel, that he should be amongst the Gentiles as a vessel wherein there is no pleasure. If to be such a vessel amongst the Gentiles be a woe, and an heavy thing, what then is it to be such a vessel amongst the Israel of God, and amongst his people, to be a reiectitious refuse vessel, that a man hath no pleasure to meddle with-al? Salt is good, that is, whilst it is savoury, but if the salt have lost its savour, than it is cast out, no longer set upon the table, no nor suffered in the house but it is cast unto the dunghill. A scandalous person is salt, that hath lost his savour, unsavoury salt, not only wanting good but having a stinking savour, & therefore fit for the stinking dunghill, until his extraordinary, & deep humiliation have brought him to recover his savour again. Such is the case of scandalous ones. It is God's justice, and it is Gods command it should be so. If a man walk disorderly he is thus to be dealt withal. 2. Thes. 3. 6. We command you in the name of the Lord jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walks disorderly, and that disorderly walking, what it is, we see in the words following. It was living idly. Now if men must withdraw themselves out of the company of Idle disorderly persons, how much more than should they withdraw themselves from such as be scandalous? What is disorder to scandal? Therefore mark how punctual the Apostle is, Rom. 16. 17. Now I beseech you brethren mark 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, those that cause or commit scandals, or offences. And to what purpose should they mark them? That they might decline and shun their company, Mark them, and Avoid them. And therefore we see the Apostles severity, in the exercise of discipline in the case of the Incestuous Corinthian; In the name of God he doth excommunicate & cast him out not only from society in holy things, but makes a rule upon it; that if any that profess religion live in any scandalous course, that they should not afford him civil familiar converse. 1. Cor. 5. 11. If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an Idolater, or arayler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such an one no not to eat. It is not to be denied but upon good & sound evidences of true repentance a broken vessel may be mended, unsavoury salt may regain his savour, and so there may be an healing of their error, and a receiving of such into public and private communion again, for I press not 
g Marcianus se Novatiano coniunxit tenens haereticae praesumptionis durissimam pravitatem: ut seruis Dei poenitentibus, & dolentibus, & ecclesiam lachrymis, & gemitu, & dolore pulsantibus divinae pietatis paternae solatia, & subsidia claudantur, nec ad fovenda vulnera admittantur vulnerati, sed sine spe pacis, & communicationis relicti ad luporum rapinam, & praedam diaboli proijciantur. Cyp. Epist. 67.  Novitian rigidity, but yet till such repentance do appear, all scandalous persons though not touched with Church censures are to stand excommunicate out of the hearts, and familiar fellowship of all God's people. What difference between a leprous and a scandalous person, and the leper during his leprosy, till he were cleansed was to be shut up, and kept apart. If thy right hand scandalise thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee, Math. 18. 8. This hath a truth in this case. If a man that hath been dear & precious fall into scandal, yet spare him not but let him be cut off, and cast out of society till he be brought to such truth of repentance as becomes 
h Adeo non pudet aut piget admissorum, & tamen audent venire in ecclesiam sanctorum, audent missceri gregi Dominico. Tales interdum tolerat ecclesia ne provocati magis etiam perturbent populum Dei. Sed quid prodest, non eijci caetu piorum, si merueris eijci? Nam eijci remedium est, & gradus ad recuperandum sanitatem: eiectionem meruisse summa malorum est. Ac frustra miscetur caetui sanctorum etc. Cypr. de dupl. Martyr.  And however men fallen into some fowl scandal may escape the public censure of eiection, and excommunication, and by intrusion have fellowship in holy duties of worship yet little comfort shall such men's consciences have, so long as public satisfaction is not given to the Church of God, for what shall it profit a man, not to be cast out of the congregation of the faithful, so long as he deserves to be cast out: for for a man to be cast out, is a remedy and a degree towards the recovery of spiritual health. But to deserve casting out (as all scandalous persons do that will not, and do not subject to God's ordinance of public satisfaction and confession) is the height of all evil.  
Such was the ancient 
i 
Nam cùm in minoribus delictis poenitentia agatur iusto tempore, & exomologesis fiat inspect â vita eius qui poenitentiam agit, nec ad communicationem quis venire possit, nisi prius illi ab episcopo, & clero manus fuerit imposita, quanto magis in his gravissimis, & extremis delictis ante omnia & moderatè secun dum disciplinam Domini obseruari oportet? Nemo abhinc importuno tempore acerba poma d●cerpat, nemo nauem svam quassatam & perforatan fluctibus, priusquam diligenter refecerit, in altum denuo committat, Nemo tunicam scissam accipere & endure properet, nisi eam abartifice perito sartam viderit, & a fullone curatan receperit. Cypr. Epist. 12.  
Legimus literas— quod Victori Presbytere antiquam poenitentiam plenam egisset, temerè Therapius collega noster immaturo tempore & praepropera festinatione pacem dederit. Quae res nos satis movit, recessum esse à decreti nostri auctoritate ut ante legitimum, & plenum tempus satisfactionis, & sine petitu & conscientia plebis— pax ei concederetur. Cypr. Epist. 59   severity of discipline, that such as had given scandal were neither suddenly nor easily readmitted into Communion, but there was first public confession, & a time it seems of the trial of their repentance before they had a fresh admittance into Church-fellowship. Green apples too soon gathered, they thought, might set one's teeth on edge, and it was dangerous to set a ship to sea that had been cracked, & flawed, before it were thoroughly repaired again.  
Yea and it was strange to see the 
k O si possess frater charissime istic interesse ●ùm pravi isti & perver si de schismate revertantur, videres quis mihi labor sit persuadere patientiam fratribus nostris ut animi dolore s●pito recipiendis malis curandisque consenti●nt▪ vix plebi persuadeo, imò extorqueo, ut tales patiantur admitti. Cypr. Epist. 55.  ancient zeal of the people against such with how much ado they suffered such as had given scandal, and had not yet given sufficient evidence of their repentance, to be readmitted and received into the Church again.  
Nay further we shall find that in 
i Inter Christianae religionis professores ordinati sunt aliquot qui inquirunt in vias & mores accedentium, ut non concessa facientes candidatos religionis arceant à suis conventibus &c: peccantes, praecipuè libidine contaminatos è suâ republic â reijciunt nostri. rursum vero resipiscentes haud secus quam rediviuos recipiunt tandem, ea tamen conditione ut quoniam lap si sunt, excludantur in posterum ab omnibus dignitatibus & magistratibus ecclesiasticis. Origen. count. Cells. lib. 3.  origen's time there were some appointed to look into the ways and manners of the people professing christian religion, that if they carried themselves offensively, they might be kept out from the public meetings. And further if any were found sinning scandalously, especially, if defiled with lust and uncleanness, they cast them out of the Church. And when upon their repentance they were received again yet was it with this condition, that because they had fallen into scandal, they should be excluded for ever after from all ecclesiastical dignity and government. And we so that in 
m See Cyprian Epist. 64. 68  Cyprians time, also it went for good discipline, that a Bishop that had fallen into Idolatry, and defiled himself with that scandalous sin though he might communicate as Lay persons, yet might he have no more to do with Episcopal or Ministerial function. And this Discipline of theirs wants not foundation in Scripture; It seems to be the same thing that God himself constituted, Ezek 44. 12, 13. Because they ministered unto them before their Idols, they shall bear their iniquity, and they shall not come near unto me to do the office of a Priest unto me, nor to come near to any of mine holy things in the most holy place, but they shall bear their shame, and their abominations which they have committed. Upon their Repentance they were received again to some other places, Ver. 10. 11. but they must meddle no more after that scandal of Idolatry with the Priesthood. And this Discipline did josiah put in practice, 2. King. 23. 9 Some privileges upon their Repentance were granted unto the Priests of the high places, that had defiled themselves with Idolatry, but the office of Priesthood they were quite excluded from it. And this was the ancient Discipline against the givers of offence, and indeed such zeal, and such severity it did concern, and ever will concern the Church of God to show to scandalous delinquents. Facility, and an over easy readiness to comply with such, breeds a fresh scandal to the world, and gives them just cause to 
n Et quoniam and●o, Charissimifratres, impudentia vos quorundam premi, & verecundiam vestram vim pati, oro vos quibus possum precibus ut evangelij memores— vos quoque sollicitè et cautè petentium desideria ponderetis, utpote amici domini, & cùm illo post modum indicaturi, inspiciatis & actum & opera & merita singulorum, ipsorum quoque delictorum genera & qualitates cogitetis, ne si quid abrupte & indignè vel à vobis promissum vel à nobis factum fuerit, apud Gentiles quoque ipsos ecclesia nosira erubescere incipiat. Cypr. Epist. 11.  reproach the Church, and opens the mouth of iniquity to say, you be all such; Whereas discommoning, and discarding such from our familiar and private society, and when need and power is, from communion in holy things, gains the Church a great deal of honour and stops the mouth of iniquity from calumniating Gods people to be favourers, and countenancers of such persons. Such will be pressing in, to gain their credit and to recover their respect, but when such suddenly and easily get into credit it is no whit for the honour and credit of the Church.  
God will bring woes upon them in their outward state, their peace, their posterity. Elies' sons run into foul Scandals, 1. Sam. 2. 22. It was scandalous for private persons, much more for Priests to be unclean, and adulterous. It was scandalous to have done so  an act in any place, but to do it in a scared place with women coming thither upon devotion, this was egregiously scandalous. God therefore takes them to do, and does execution upon them, and cuts them both off in one day by the Sword of the Philistines, God brought the woe of the Sword upon them. Nay, when they ran into Scandal because Eli did not restrain them, see what God threatens upon his Posterity, 1. Sam. 2. 36. that he would plague them with such base beggary and misery that they should beg their bread. If God thus punish him for not restraining, how much more would he have punished him for the committing of a Scandal? If it go thus hard with Eli that restrains not, how hard will it go with Hophni and Phinehas that commit the scandal?  
We cannot have a more pregnant and full example in this kind, than David himself. He after his scandal committed was truly penitent, the guilt of his sin pardoned, a solemn absolution and discharge given him by the Prophet. And yet for all this we shall see how terribly this woe pursued him in temporal crosses in this kind. First, God smites his child with death, then follows his daughter Thamar's defilement by her brother Amnon, than Amnons' murder, than the treason of Absalon, in which the hand of God was exceeding smart, God turns him out of house and home. Whose heart would not earn, and bleed to see his doleful departure from jerusalem, 2. Sam 15. 30. And David went up by the ascent of mount Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered, and he went barefoot, and all the people that was with him covered every man his head and they went up weeping, as they went up. Who could have beheld so sad and so woeful a spectacle with dry eyes? But this was not all, his life is endangered, his Concubines defiled in open view on the house top. And what think we was the ground of all this? For the child's death we see, 2. Sam. 12. 13, 14. The Lord hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die, howbeit because by this thy deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the child also that is borne unto thee shall surely die. It is very much that fasting and praying can do, it can cast out devils, This kind goes not out but by fasting and praying, Mark. 9 29. And yet fasting and praying could not keep off this woe that David's scandal brings upon him in the child's death, woe unto David by whom that offence came, therefore shall his child die. And for all the rest of all those woeful sorrows 2. Sam. 12. 9 10. 11. 12. we see the cause of them all, these woes were upon David for his scandal. And if God's woe in these temporal, & outward calamities will thus pursue and follow a repenting, & an humbled scandalous offender, how much more will that hand of God pursue that man, upon whose scandal follows no Repentance and Humiliation. If David the man after Gods own heart must not escape, what then shall others look for? If a beloved David shall have his teeth on edge with his own sour grapes of his scandalous courses, who then shall think to go scotfree that is guilty of scandalous transgressions? what a sure & irresistible woe is that which Repentance itself cannot keep off from a man's children, his life, person and goods? And thus temporal woe is to him by whom offences come.  
2. God will pursue, and pinch such as give offence with spiritual woe. God will fill such men's hearts, specially if they belong to him, with much spiritual woe, and bitterness of soul. He will awaken conscience to smite, pinch and gripe them at the heart; He will so load, and burden their consciences that in the anguish and bitterness of their spirits they shallbe forced to cry out, woe is me vile wretch that I was borne, that ever I breathed thus to dishonour God. It is true that there is an happiness in this woe, and it is singular mercy that men are not seared, and hardened in their sin, but yet for all that there it a great deal of smart, & sorrow, and a great deal of woeful bitterness in the work of Repentance after a scandalous fall, And before such shall recover their peace with God, he will give them many a woeful gripe of Conscience, and many a bitter portion to drink. We have an example of it in the Incestuous Corinthian. He indeed recovered his peace, and his pardon, but yet how woeful was his case before it was done. 2. Cor. 2. 7. Lest such an one should be swallowed up of over much sorrow. See then in what a woeful plight he was even in a sea and gulf of sorrow, ready to be absorbed, and swallowed up therein. The Lord therefore plunged him into the deeps of bitter sorrow of spirit, and plunged him so deep as that he was ready to despair, and to be wholly cast away. Thus God would make his soul smart, and his heart ache for this scandal of his, would make him feel the truth of Christ's saying, woe unto him by whom the offence comes. It was David's case before him. When he had fallen into scandal, in the matter of Bathsheba, and Vriah, before he comes to a redintegration of his former condition, God brings him upon the rack. Ps. 51. 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, therefore that was taken away & gone, that sweet sunshine was overclouded, yea that sun was dreadfully eclipsed, and how fearful such eclipses be, they know that see them. It is no less woe for the present to lose the joy of ones salvation, then to lose salvation itself. But that was not all. See Verse 8. make me to hear joy, and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. God therefore not only taken away his joy, but God broke the bones of him. What an exquisite torture is the punishment of the wheel, when a Malefactor hath his bones broken one to day, another to morrow? Such is the woe that God will bring upon scandalous ones, specially if they belong to him, He will bring them to the wheel, he will crack and break their bones, he will have them to the rack, & fill their consciences with so much anguish, that they shall undergo as much woe as if all the bones in their bodies were broken in pieces, That the bones which thou hast broken. Yea their bones shallbe so broken, that they will not quickly, nor suddenly be healed again. Nathan in the Name of God did that which one would have thought might have set David's bones and given them ease, Thy sin is forgiven thee, and yet we see after this he cries out of his bones, It lay in his bones still.  
When men after Scandals are over-quickly whole again, crank, and jolly, it is to be feared, their bones were never broken to the purpose. Well thus we see what a woe there is for givers of offence, woe be to the man whose bones God will break, and therefore woe to him by whom the offence cometh. If he belong to God, God will break his bones, if he belong not to God, but were an hypocrite, God will then happily harden his heart that he may break his neck.  
3. God will bring eternal woe upon them. That is, if the person falling into scandal did before his scandal but act a part & personate religion, and were no better than an Hypocrite, then though possibly he may escape some of the former woes, yet God will pay him with advantage, and make up all forbearance with doubling, and trebling the principal. The greater his fall was here, the deeper shall his fall be into Hell. 
o Vniuscuiusque casus tanto maioris est criminis, quanto prius quam caderet maioris erat virtutis. Bern. de interior. Dom. cap. 50.  The higher the place is from which a man falls, the deeper a man plunges into the pit of mire into which he falls. A man that makes profession of Religion, is set higher than another man is, and if he profess in hypocrisy, and fall into scandal, he by reason of the height from whence he falls, falls deeper into wrath & hell, than another doth. At this happily our Saviour aims, Matth. 18. 6. It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.  
A man so used were but in an ill case, and yet it is a better case than the case of some scandalous person. A man cast into the Sea in any place of it is but in an ill case, for suppose he be not drowned, yet will he be shrewdly doused, & cannot but be in danger. But cast a man into the depth of the Sea, into the huge Deeps which cannot be bottomed and there is but little hope of such a man's life. But yet such a man may scape. jonas was cast into the deep, in the midst of the seas, the deptb closed him round about, jon. 2. 3. 5. and yet he escaped. A man by providence may meet with a plank or a piece of a mast in such vast depths and possibly may escape. But take a man and cast him not only into the Sea, but into the depth of the Sea, and not only into the depth, but cast him in with an heavy stone, specially a millstone, specially with such an heavy millstone as cannot be turned about with a man's hand, but must be turned about with the strength of a beast (and such a millstone some think is here intended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, mola asinaria, such a millstone as is turned about by the help of an Ass) and let him be cast into the depth of the Sea with it (as Hierome says some Malefactors in those Countries used to be served) and what possibility is there to escape drowning.  
Now this is the case of scandalous Hypocrites. If scandalous persons be Hypocrites then will their judgement, and woe be great, and inevitable. Their scandal is a great heavy millstone about their neck, with this millstone God casts them not into the shallow, but into the depth, the gulf of Hell. And this millstone sinks them, and this millstone holds them down for ever rising again. Millstones do not make surer work for the drowning, than Scandals do for the damning of personating gross Hypocrites.   

CHAP. VIII.  
Why God is so smart, and so severe in his justice against those by whom Scandals come.  
WE have seen how sharp, and severe the justice of God is in punishing such by whom offences come. Consider we a little, as we have seen the severity of his justice, so the justice of his severity, and why God doth deal thus roundly with offenders in that kind. I conceive there be four special reasons of Gods so dealing.  
1. Because by Scandals Gods holy and glorious Name is polluted, and blasphemed, and so God in a high measure wronged. God is a jealous God, and he will not hold him guiltless that takes his Name in vain, that is, he will surely meet with, and be revenged upon such as do it. It is a greater matter to pollute, and profane Gods Name than it is to take his name in vain. If therefore God will deal so severely with them that do but take his Name in vain, how much more will he make them smart that do pollute his Name, and cause it to be blasphemed by the malignant enemies of his truth. The defiling of God's Name is an heinous thing, we see how sharp God was with Moses and Aaron, they must both die, and not come into the Land of Canaan. But what was the reason? See Deut. 32. 51. Because ye trespassed against me amongst the children of Israel. But what was that trespass? Because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel. And must they die, and not enter Canaan because they sanctified not, what if they had polluted his Name? If it be so heinous not to sanctify, what is it to pollute, and defy God's Name? And this sin is 
p Numquid dici de Hunis potest. Ecce qua les sunt qui Christiani dicuntur? Numquid de Saxonibus aut Francis? Ecce quae faciunt, qui se asserunt Christi esse cultores? Numquid propter Maurorum efferos mores lex sacro-sancta culpatur? Nunquid Scythârum aut Gepidarum inhumanissimi ritus in maledictum. atque blasphemiam nomen Domini Saluatoris inducunt?— Hoc autem, ut dixi, malum peculialiter tantum Christianerum est, quia per eos tantummodo blasphematur Deus, qui bona dicunt, & mala faciunt. Salu. de Prou. Dei lib. 4.  proper and peculiar to the Professors of the Name of God, and Christ to defile his Name.  
Other men sin in those evils which they commit, but yet this sin they are not guilty of. They only commit the sin of polluting Gods Name, that do profess his Name. This is properly a Church-sinne, and befalls not such as are without. When men take the Name of God, and the profession of Religion upon them, and yet live lewdly and loosely, or fall into any scandalous practices, they do thereby defile the Name of God, and pollute it. We find the people charged with this sin, Ezek. 36. 20. That they profaned or polluted Gods holy Name amongst the Heathen whither they went. Now how could they pollute God's Name? That they did by that which follows in the same Verse. They profaned my Name amongst the Heathen when they said of them, These are the people of the Lord, and are gone out of his Land. The jews where ever they came professed themselves the people of God; that they had the God of Heaven for their God, and that they had his Law, and Oracles, and that they were an holy people, near unto him, hereupon the Heathen looked for some singular thing from them, singular holiness in their lives, singular fidelity in their dealings, etc. But when they observed their lives, many of them to be lose and scandalous, they began presently to open their mouths against God, and against his Truth, oh these be the people of the Lord, these be your holy people, that worship such an holy God, that have such an holy Law. No marvel their God, their Law, their Religion is so holy, for aught we fee by these men's lives, there is no more in their God, and Religion then in ours. Thus spoke the Heathen when they saw the wicked lives and practices of some of the people of the jews. And indeed it is an Heathenish trick in such cases to fall foul upon God and Religion, It is heathenish language to say, These be the people of the Lord, and this is their religion and their zeal.  
And thus by their evil life's occasioning the heathen to blaspheme God, and to throw the filth of their base actions upon Him and his Name, they thereby polluted his Name.  
Thus was Gods Name polluted by the Spaniards among the Indians: When they first came amongst the West Indians, the people enquired of them whence they came, and what they were? They told them that they were come down from Heaven, and that they were the sons of the God of Heaven. Whereupon the poor Saluages observing their covetousness, cruelty, and uncleanness, answered, that he could not be a good God that had such evil sons, and so was Gods Name polluted by their polluted lives. 
q Sicut enim nomen Dei glorificatur vita piorum hominum in quibus ipse per spiritum suum operatur quic quid faciunt boni: ita è diverso polluitur & infamatur malefactis eorum qui se Dei cultores profitentur. Cypr. de dupl. Mart. Postremò sancta à Christianis si erent, si Christus sancta docuisset. Aestimari itaque de cultoribus suis potest ille qui colitur. Quomodo enim bonus magister est, cuius tam malos videmus esse discipulos? Ex ipso enim Christiani sunt, ipsum audiunt, ipsum legunt. Promptum est omnibus Christi intelligere doctrinam. Vide Christianos', quid agant, & evidenter potest de ipso Christo sciri, quid doceat. Mimesis Pagan. Salu. de Providen. lib▪ ●  For look as an holy & honest conversation sanctifies, & glorifies the Name of God, 1. Pet. 2. 12. I beseech you abstain from fleshly lusts, Having your conversation honest amongst the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evil doers, they may by your good works which they shall behold glorify God in the day of visitation; So contrarily, God's Name is unhallowed, and polluted by the evil and scandalous lives of such as profess his Name. When Gods Name is blasphemed it is polluted, God's Name is blasphemed when the Truth is blasphemed. The truth comes to be blasphemed by reason of the evil lives of such as profess the Truth, 2. Pet. 2. 2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be blasphemed, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Now God will not put it up at men's hands that occasion others to pollute his Name. God is very tender of the glory of his Name. He hath prescribed, Hallowed be thy Name, to be the leading petition in our Prayers, and if therefore the glory of his Name be any way impeached by men's scandalous actions, he will repair and make his glory whole by his justice upon their persons who have by scandal wronged it. When men do pollute God's Name, God who is always ready to vindicate his own glory, will sanctify his own Name, and rescue it from the pollutions, and profanations wherewith scandalous persons have defiled it.  
That passage is worthy our observation, Ezek. 36. 20. 23. When they entered unto the Heathen whither they went, they profaned mine holy Name: And I will sanctify my great Name which was profaned amongst the Heathen, which they have profaned in the midst of them, and the Heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. See then that God will sanctify his Name when men pollute it, and he will one way or other take order to wash off that pollution, wherewith men have defiled it. God would be sanctified in them before the eyes of the Heathen.  
Now God's Name is sometimes sanctified in his works of Mercy, as Ezek. 20. 41.— and sometimes in the works of justice. Ezek. 38 22, 23. Now though in that forenamed place it is spoken of sanctifying his polluted Name by his works of Mercy in the eyes of enemies, yet it is also true that God will sanctify his polluted Name in the eyes of Adversaries by his works of justice, That is, he will do such exemplary justice, and such smart woe upon such as by their scandals polluted his Name, that he will recover himself as much glory in their punishment as they lost him by their sin, and so remarkably will he do it in enemies eyes, that they who before opened their mouths to dishonour his Truth, shall now open their mouths to acknowledge his glorious justice, and by that justice be drawn at least to a secret acknowledgement, that this Religion and this profession is the truth, the Scandalisers whereof God doth so severely punish.  
This we shall see in David, 2. Sam. 12. 14. There was no remedy, David though fast and pray, and seek the child's life, yea though David have repent, and Nathan have pronounced the pardon of his sin, yet no remedy but the child must die. 
r Quam gravis autem & piaculi singularis malum sit nomen divinitatis in blasphemiam Gentium dare etiam David beatissimi exemplo edo●emur qui— cum aeternam pro offensionibus suis poenam per unam confessionem meruerit evadere: huius tamen criminis veniam non per poenitentiam patrocinantem potuit impetrare. Nam cum ei proprios errores confitenti Nathan Propheta dixisset, transtulit Deus peccatum tuum, non morieris, subdidit statim veruntamen quia blasphemare fecisti inimicos Dei propter verbum hoc filius qui natus est morietur, & quid post haec? Deposito scilicet diadèmate, proiectis gemmis— fletu madidus, cinere sordidatus vitam paruuli sui tot lamentationum suffragijs peteret, & pijssimum Deum tanta precum ambitione pulsaret, sic rogans & obsecrans obtinerè non potuit, ex quo intelligi potest quod nullam penitus maioris piaculi crimen est quam blasphemandi causam Gentibus dare. Salu. lib. 4. de Provide.  What was the reason? Because by his scandal he had given great occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme. His scandal was great. Any scandal gives occasion of blaspheming, but great scandals give great occasion of blaspheming, therefore as he by his great Scandal hath polluted God's Name, so God by his great justice would sanctify his name in the eyes of those enemies that had blasphemed.  
We find a Law Deut. 22. 19 that a man in that case specified in the text, should be sharply amearced, and a good round fine set upon his head, and the reason is given because he hath brought up an evil Name upon a virgin of Israel. Now in cases of scandal there is an evil Name brought up not upon a virgin of Israel, but upon the God of Israel, upon his Gospel, and truth. If then God would have a man so severely punished, that should bring up an evil name upon a Virgin of Israel, how much more will God himself set smart fines upon their heads as bring, as do occasion the bringing up of an evil name upon the Religion, & the God of Israel. Amongst men, how ever other offences scape, yet how great is the severity of the Law in punishing Scandalum Magnatum. Now in scandalous offences of Professors, there is a right Scandalum Magnatum, in regard of the wrong, and injury that God's great Name suffers.  
No marvel, that God is so severe in punishing scandals. For where God suffers greatest wrong, there justice requires that men undergo severest punishments. Now no sins do God greater wrong than scandals. Other sins, and other men's sins are breaches of his Law, and pollutions of men's Consciences, but yet are not pollutions of God's Name. But scandals, and the notorious offences of Professors are not only breaches of God's Law, and pollutions of the offenders Consciences, but are pollutions of God's Name. What wonder then, that such severity follows scandals? It it but justice that where the guilt is 
s 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Basil. de Bapt. lib. 1. q. 10.  double in the offence, there should be a double, and a proportionable measure of punishment.  
Now in every scandal there is a double guilt.  
First, the guilt of breaking of God's Law, and polluting a man's own Conscience. And secondly, the guilt of profaning, and polluting Gods Name. And this latter is the fare greater, and more provoking guilt. God will worse brook the pollution of his Name, than the breach of his Law. And therefore it is a sure truth that he that commits a greater sin which yet is secret, shallbe less punished than he which commits a smaller sin, which breaking out proves scandalous. We have an instance, Numb. 11. 21. compared with Deut. 32. 51. We have in these two places two offences of Moses his committing. Let a man weigh them together, and questionless in their own nature compared, that offence Numb. 11. 21, 22. was the greater, there is in it not only unbelief as in the other, but a kind of murmuring contest with God, as it were to his face. The latter hath reference to that History, Numb. 20. 10. where we find Moses to contest with some impatience, and unbelief with the people. Is it not a greater sin to murmur and contest in unbelief and impatience with God, then to grow into passion with a rebellious people? Is it not a greater matter to have one's spirit stirred at God, then with sinful men? Consider both passages together, and any one will judge the first miscarriage in it own nature the greatest. And yet all that God says to the first is this, Is the Lord's hand now waxed short? Thou shalt see now whether my Word shall come to pass unto thee or not. What could have been said less? But now come to the other which in itself seems nothing so great, and see what follows upon it. Because ye believed me not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this Congregation into the Land. Numb. 20. 12. But shall die because ye trespassed, and sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel. Now then here may be a question, why the lesser sin hath the sharper reproof and the greater punishment.  
Is it equal dealing to wink at and pass by a greater, and to be so severe in the lesser? Yes most equal, for though the former sin in it own nature were greater, yet that was happily 
t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isid pelus. lib. 5. Epist. 161.  private between God and Moses, and so no scandal in it, but the latter was public before all the people, and so a scandal in it, God not sanctified, his Name dishonoured, and for the scandal sake the punishment so smart in this rather then in the other.  
A small sin scandalous hath a greater punishment than a great sin close, and secret, because there is in the scandal a pollution of God's Name, an Impeach of his honour, besides the guilt of the breach of his Law. So then therefore is God so severe in punishing scandals, because God is more wronged by them then by simple sin, because they pollute his sacred Name.  
2. God is thus severe in the punishing of scandals, because soule-bloud is not cheap with God. They that spill the blood of souls shall pay full dear for it, God will require it at their hands. Now in the commission of scandalous sins there is a great deal of spiritual 
u Si quis simplici ment & desiderio veniat ad Ecclesiam ut prosiciat, ut melior fiat: iste si videat nos qui multo iam tempore in side stetimus, vel non recte agentes, vel cum offendiculo loquentes efficimur nos illi lapsus ad peccatum, Cum autem peccaverit trueidatus est, & sanguis animae eius prostuit, omnis ob eo virtus vitalis abscedit— Scandalizati animae sanguis effunditur cum ceciderit in peccatum & propterea dixit, quia requi retur sanguis eius à fratre, frater tuus est qui fudit sanguinem tuum. Origen. in Psal. 36. hom. 3.  bloodshed, and murder. Paul speaking of Scandals of an inferior nature, such as are given to weak brethren in the use of Christian liberty, in the use of things in their nature indifferent makes them bloody and murtherour, Rom. 14. 15. Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died, 1. Cor. 8. 12. Through thy knowledge shall thy weak brother perish.  
If Scandals in such causes be so dangerous in their issue, & of such mortal consequence, then what are Scandals in a higher nature in the offensive, and evil lives of such as profess Religion? How much more are they of deadly consequence, and how much more is blood spilt by them? If a man may have his hand in the blood of souls by giving scandal in the doing of things in their own nature lawful, then how much more by giving scandal in the doing of such things as in their own nature are sinful and unlawful? There is a Law Exod. 21. 33, 34. that if a man open a pit, and cover it not, and an Ox or an Ass fall therein, the owner of the pit shall make it good. Now in every Scandal given there is a pit digged, and opened, every one that gives a Scandal opens, and digs a pit, into which many a soul falls headlong. If he that opened the pit must make good the Ox or Ass, that fell thereinto, that is, must pay the full price and worth of it to the owner, what must he do that opens a pit into which a soul falls? Surely God will require it at his hands, and it must be made good. Doth God, saith the Apostle, take care for Oxen? So here, will God require Oxen at their hands through whose default they fall into pits? then how much more doth he take care, and will he require souls of men at their hands, that by Scandals have opened pits into which they are fallen, and ruined? There is another Law in the same place worth our noting to this purpose, Exod. 21. 22. 23. If men strive & hurt a woman with child so that her fruit departed from her, & yet no mischief follow, he shall be surely punished, etc. And if any mischief follow thou shalt give life for life, or soul for soul, as the words originally are; If no mischief follow either to the woman or the child, yet a punishment was due in such a case, but if mischief followed, than life for life, soul for soul, Now in the case of scandals it is a sure thing that Mischief doth follow, we saw before what a deal of Woe, and Mischief they bring with them. He that gives a Scandal is as a man that smites or spurns a woman with child. He that doth so, a hundred to one but he causes mischief to follow.  
It may be there was a man that began to have some good in him, some hope that Christ began to be form in him. Now a man gives some heinous Scandal, and thereupon mischief follows, all these hopes are dashed, this man flies quite off, and casts off all thoughts of meddling any more with godliness, here is one with child spurned, and a mischief follows, therefore life for life, soul for soul will be required. 
* Vae illi qui scandalizaverit unum ex pusillis istis. Vae pregnantem calcanti. Ambros. in Psal. 118.  Woe be to him that spurns a woman with child, and causes mischief to follow, and therefore Woe to him by whom an offence comes, because by him mischief comes, mischief comes to many a soul, the mischief of rejecting religion, or the mischief of an hardened heart. And therefore is God thus severe in his justice upon such because they do bloody mischief, and therefore they must give 
z Qui scandali conscius est animam dabit pro anima eius quem scandalizavit, Origen,  soul for soul.  
It may be that many a man was like to be brought on to Religion, might have some 
a Factus sum opprobrium & vicinis meis nimium vicinis meis nimium opprobrium factus sum, id est, qui mihi (Ecclesiae) iam appropinquabant ut crederent: hoc est, vicini mei nimium deterriti sunt mala vita malorum & falsorum Christianorum. Quam multos enim putatis, fratres mei, velle esse Christianos', sed offendi malis moribus Christianorum. Ipsi sunt vicini qui iam appropinquabant, & nimium opprobrium illis visi sumus. Augustinus in Psal. 30.  thoughts of embracing, and receiving the truth, but now some Professor of Religion falling foul, he falls off and will none, all these thoughts are dampt, and so laid aside. There be so many souls lost, and kept out of Heaven by that Scandal, Here is the blood of souls spilt. How many might have come to have been godly and religious Christians, if it had not been for the Scandal of some one man professing godliness, and religion. Such a deal of mischief follows by such a scandal. And for this cause, was that woe, upon the Priests that they were base and contemptible, because they had caused many to stumble at the law, and to fly off from religion which was not without the mischieving of their souls for ever.  
It may be many a man's mouth was shut, and though he said no good, yet he could say no evil of the way of truth, now that a man falls into scandal, his mouth is opened against God, & against Religion, and he blasphemes full mouth. Now is this man's soul by his blasphemy miserably endangered, here is soul blood spilt. What a deal of mischief is done to his soul, but who is guilty of that mischief, but he that gave that scandal? and therefore the 
b Qui enim sine blasphemia aliorum graviter erraverit sibi tantum adfert damnationem: Qui autem alios blasphemare fecerit multos secum praecipitat in mortem, & necesse erit ut sit pro tantis reus quantos secum traxerit in reatum, Salu. lib. 4 de Provide.  blood of that blaspheming soul shallbe required at thine hands that gave the scandal which rushed him into that mischief.  
It may be many a man began to mislike his evil ways, many men's hearts began to misgive them, but now a scandal is fallen out, their hands are strengthened, their hearts are hardened, and so they sealed up to hell. Here is soul blood spilt again. Here be many stumbling & fallen into the pit of hell, I, but who laid this stumbling stone, that hath toppled them over? Here be a company of souls undone, and cast away, I but who hath undone, and cast them away? Here is mischief done, but who hath done it? Even he that hath committed such a scandal; he it is that hath done this mischief, he hath (as much as in him lies) damned and destroyed these souls. And is it nothing to damn souls? Is it any wonder that God should be so severe, when their sin is so bloody, when they have destroyed who knows how many souls? God will punish such as do not endeavour to 
c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Chrys ad Rom. Hom. 15.  save other men's souls what in them lies, what then deserve they at his hands, that cast away men's souls as scandalous sinners do. And what wonder that heavy justice follows heavy sins.  
Thou shalt not put a stumbling block before the blind. Levit. 19 14. But what if a man do it? Then shall a woe, and a curse fall upon him, Deut. 27. 18. Cursed be he that makes the blind to wander out of his way. Now when men do give scandal they do lay stumbling blocks in the way of many blind ones, they cause them to wander out of the way, and to stumble so that they fall into eternal ruin. And therefore is God so sharp with them. We shall see an heavy woe denounced against those false prophitesses. Ezek. 13. 18. Thus saith the Lord God, Woe to the woman that sow pillows to all armholes, etc. But why doth God threatuen a woe against them? See the reason, Verse. 22. Because with lies, ye have made the hearts of the righteous sad, and strengthened the hands of the wicked that he should not return from his wicked way. Now such as give scandal do both these things, they do grieve & sad the hearts of the righteous, and strengthen the hands of the wicked that they return not from their wicked ways. And therefore upon the same ground that the woe was threatened against the false prophetesses, is it due to the givers of scandals. They are guilty of the same evil, and therefore under the same woe. If the false prophetesses deserve a woe because by strengthening the hands, and hardening the hearts of wicked men, they were guilty of the blood of their souls, then because scandalous ones, are guilty of the self same evil, they righteosly come under the same woe.  
It is a dangerous thing to have an hand in other man's 
d I gitur & tu quoque si reliquis perditionis causa fueris, graviora patieris quam qui per te subver si sunt. Neque enim peccare tantum in se perditionis habet, quantum quod reliqui ad peccandum inducuntur, Chrysost. ad Rom. Hom. 25.  sins, and so in other men's damnations. A man's own personal guiit, will be heavy enough, he shall not need to load himself with other men's guilt. Now this is the case of scandalous persons, they stand answerable for others men's sins, as the causers of them, and many times the causers may smart as much, if not more than the committers of them.  
3. God is so severe in the punishment of scandals, because by them is brought a blur, a disgrace, and a Reproach upon a whole Church. As God is tender of his own, so is he also tender of the honour of his Church. It is not safe to bring disgrace but upon one good man, nay, we saw before that he must smart for it, that brought up an evil report, but upon one virgin of Israel, Deut. 22. Is God so tender of the honour, and ctedit of one virgin of Israel, what is he then of the honour of all Israel. If not safe to bring up an evil report up on one member of the Church, then much less to bring up an evil report upon a whole Church. We find Numb. 14. 37. some there that brought up an evil report upon the land, & what was the sequel? They died of the plague before the Lord. If God were so severe in his justice to smite them with present death that brought up an evil report upon the Land of Canaan, what severity may they expect that bring up an evil report upon his Church. What comparison between Canaan and God's Church? Now this all scandalours' offenders do. If the reproach of their actions, and the Infamy of their practices, were but only personal, the matter were not so great, they have but their just deserts, but the reproach of their scandals redounds to the disgrace of the whole 
e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. justin. Apol. 2. a pro Chistianis.  Church of God and the excrementitious filth of their actions is thrown in the face of the whole Church. David hath a prayer. Ps. 69. 5. 6. O God thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from thee, let not them that wait on thee O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake O God of Israel. As if he had said. Thou knowest O Lord, what heinous things mine enemies lay unto my charge, thou that knowest all my foolishness and sins, knowest that they lay them falsely upon me, But what ever sins they charge upon me, yet Lord keep me and preserve me, that I may not fall into any such scandalous sin, that may bring shame, & reproach upon thy people, Let me not so sin, that for my sake thy people should have any shame. Mark then that when any that profess the Name of God fall into any gross evil, it turns to the shame not only of him that falls, but it brings shame upon all that wait upon God, and seek him. All God's people suffer, and share in the reproach of one miscarrying. We have an example of it. 1. Cor. 1. It is reported commonly that there is fornication amongst you. 
f Pungit ac ferit et quo ad eius fieri potest commune profert probrum criminis Non dixit enim. cur ille, aut iste est fornicatus, sed auditur inter vos fornicatio, neut qui essent nulli reprehensioni affines, pigri essent ac socordes, sed utpote communi percusso, & in crimen vocat â ecclesia ita essent animi dubij & anxij. Nemo enim dicet inquit quod ille aut iste fornicatus est, sed quod in ecclesia Corinthiorum admiffum est illud peccatum. Chrysost. in locum.  He doth not say, men do report that such a man hath committed fornication, but the report goes that fornication is committed amongst you. If it had been reported that such a man had committed fornication, that had been but a personal reproach, and disgrace to that one particular man. But; It is reported that fornication is committed amongst you, so went the report. There is fornication amongst the Christians, and in the Church of Corinth, And so the reproach was general to the whole Church of Corinth, and common to them all, So that by his Incestuous fact he brought a reproach upon the whole body of believers. And the heathen questionless so reported it as to blur them all, as if they were all alike. So the whole Church of Corinth suffered by that one man's scandal. And this is the ordinary practice of enemies to disgrace all with one man's folly. Thus was it the Devil's policy and malice to raise up those Impure 
* His igitur diabolus usus est utigentibus qui erant à fide alieni ansam praeberent sacrosancto Dei verbo petulanter impieque obtrectandi: eo planè consilio ut fama de flagitiosa eorum vitae ratione passim dissipatâ turpemignominae notam universae Christianorum multitudini inureret, Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. 4. cap. 7.  Gnostickes, that the heathen might have occasion of speaking against the Gospel, and that the report of their flagitious courses being every where spread, he might brand the whole multitude of Christians, with the mark of their Ignominy. There is the same spirit reigns in all enemies that was in Haman, Mordecay had offended him, but it would not serve his turn nor, satisfy his malice to lay hands on Mordecay alone, for they had showed him the people of Mordecay, wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the jews, even the people of Mordecay. Esth. 3. 6. Mordecay had done him no wrong 
d Quid tam timendum quam cum vidit homo multos male viventes, & de quibus bene sperabatur in multis malefactis inventos? Timet ne tales sint omnes quos putabat bonos, & veniunt insuspicionem malam prope omnes honi. Qualis vir? Quomodo cecidit? Quomodo inventus est in illâ turpitudine in illo scelere, in illo facto malo? Putasnè tales sunt omnes?— Quanta mala dicunt in malos Christianos quae maledicta perveniunt adomnes Christianos'? Nunquid enim dicit qui maledicit aut qui reprehendit Christianos', Ecce quid faciunt, non boni Christiani? Sed ecce quid faciunt Christiani. Nonseparat non discernit. August. in Psal 30.  nor committed any offence, but when Hamans' choler was up, the quarrel is not at Mordecay alone, but at his people. So is it in cases of just offence, when scandals are given the shame and blame is not laid upon the offender alone, but upon his people, not upon that professor alone but upon all professors, not upon that member of the Church, but upon the whole Church. It is a true thing which ᵍ Augustine observes, that when some one man falls into some gross evil, that gave some hope, and made some show of goodness, that such as are without, are ready to judge others like them, and that an evil suspicion lies upon all good men. Oh what a man? say they. How foully is he fallen? how is he found in such a filthiness, in such a wickedness, in such a vile fact? do ye not think that they are all such? how great and foul evil things, saith he, do they speak against evil Christians, which evil sayings reach unto all Christians? for, doth he thus speak, that speaks evil of, or falls foul upon Christians, Behold what they do, that are not good Christians? No, but, Behold what the Christians do, he puts no difference at all. And so the scandals of one Christian, tends and trenches to the disgrace of all Christians, even to the dishonour of the 
h Sed quosdam audio inficere numerum vestrum, & lauden praecipui nominis prava conversatione destruere— Cum quanto enim nominis vestri pudore delinquitur quando alius aliquis temulentus & lasciviens demoratur, etc. Cypr. Epist. 7.  Christian name, the fall of one scandalous professor to the reproach all all.  
4. Lastly, God is so severe in punishing such as give scandal, because their sins therein are greater than other men's. Though other 
i Ex ipso utique deteriores sumus si meliores non sumus, qui meliores esse debemus. Criminosior enim culpa est ubi honestior status: si honoratior est persona peccentis, peccati quoque maior invidia, furtum quidem in homine est malum facinus, Sed damnabilius absque dubio si Senator furatur aliquando. Cunctis fornicatio interdicitur, sed, gravius multo est si de clero aliquis quam si de populo fornicatur. Ita & nos qui Christiani esse dicimur, si simile aliquid barbarorum impuritatibus facimus gravius: erramus atrociusenim sub sancti nomnis professione peccamus. Vbi sublimior est praerogativa, maior culpa, Ipso enim, errores nostros, religio quam profitemur, accusat. Criminosior eius est impudicitia qui promiserit castitatem foedius inebriatur, sobrietatem fronte praetendeus. Nihil est Philosopho turpius vitia obscaena sectanti, quia praeter eam deformitatem quam vitia in se habent, sapientiae nomine plus notatur, & nos igitur in omni humano genere philosophiam Christianam professi sumus, ac per hoc deteriores nos cunctis gentibus credi atque haberi necesse est, quia sub tam magno professionis nomine vivimus, & positiin religione peccamus. Salu. de Provide, lib 4.  men commit the self same sins they do, yet are they not so great in other men, as they are in such as profess religion. Their sins are greater than other men's, because theirs, because the sins of such as honoured with an high and holy calling to be the people of God, to be a people near unto him. And the greater a man's honour is, the more it aggravates his guilt in case of offence. Theft is foul in any man, but most foul in a Magistrate. It is a fouler offence for a Minister then another man to commit fornication. The dignity of the person adds to the foulness of the gult. So here, such whom God hath called with this high calling to be his peculiar people, have a dignity, & excellency above other men, & the dignity of their persons adds to the indignity of their facts. Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, when any man hath a running issue out of his flesh, because of his issue he is unclean, Leu. 15. 2. 4. But why, speak unto the children of Israel? Because they only were unclean, and made others unclean by running issues. Heathens as some observe out of the jewish Rabbins, did not make unclean by an issue, or childbirth &c: but Israelites did. An issue was an issue in an heathen, as well as in an Israelite, but in an Israelite only an unclean and a desiling issue. Sins are sins in other men as well as in professors of Religion, but in professors they be horirible sins, jer. 18. 13. Ask now among the Heathen, who hath heard such things? The Virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing. The sins of God's people are horrible sins, because 
k Quanto enim honoribus alios antecellunt, tanto quoque ipsorum peccatum, etiam si alioqui idem sit, gravius efficitur, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isid. pelus. lib. 4. Epist. 15. Quo grandius nomen, eo grandius scandalum Ber. Epist. 200.  their persons are honourable persons, Isai. 43. 4. As God speaks of the Prophets of Samaria and jerusalem, jer. 23. 13. 14. So it may be said of the people of both. I have seen folly in the Prophets of Samaria, I have seen also in the Prophets of jerusalem an horrible thing: and yet in effect the sins of both were the same, but the same sins diversely circumstanced may differ much, and so by reason of the persons one being Prophets of Baal, the other professing themselves the Prophets of the true God, that which was but folly in the Prophets of Samaria, was an horrible thing in the Prophets of jerusalem. So is the case amongst the people, that which is but folly in such as are ignorant, irreligious, and live without God in the World, is an horrible thing in a man that makes profession of Religion. And therefore hence, it is just with God to be so severe in the punishment of such, and God will be sanctified in them that come nigh unto him, and before all the people will he be glorified, Levit. 10. 3. If he be not sanctified by their singular and special obedience towards him, he will be sanctified by his justice upon them, and will be glorified before all the people, that is, publicly and openly, he will do such severe exemplary justice upon them, that all shall take notice of it. It suits with that, Amos 3. 2. You only have I known of all the Families of the earth, therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. How smart was God's justice upon jerusalem? Dan. 9 12. For under the whole Heaven hath not been done, as hath been done▪ upon jerusalem. Why so? for under the whole Heaven had not been done, as had been done in & by jerusalem. jerusalem was the holy City, Math. 4. 5. The City of the great King, Math. 5. 35. The City of God, Psal. 87. 3. Such she professed herself, so that she sinning, her sins were out of measure sinful, and therefore God most righteous, though most severe against her.  
It is in this case of the people's sufferings, as it was in the Priest's Offerings. We shall see that in some cases the people sinning, they might bring for their Offering a Kid of the Goats, Levit. 4. 23. 28. But still for the sins of the Priests there must be offered a Bullock, Levit. 4. 3. Levit. 16. 6. Exod. 29. 10. What might the reason of this be? The Priest's person being more excellent, and nigh unto God, their sins were greater than other men's, so much greater as a Bullock is greater than a Kid, and therefore whereas a Kid would serve another man, the Priest must bring a Bullock. So here in case of suffering justice. All that profess themselves God's people do profess themselves Priests unto God, and therefore their sins are as much above other men's, as is a Bullock above a Kid, and therefore when other men's punishment which they suffer shall be but the weight of a Kid, that punishment which they suffer shall be the weight of a Bullock. Woe, even a weighty, and an heavy Woe to him by whom the offence cometh.  
Profession of Religion gives no man a licence or dispensation, as if because men will own and countenance Religion, God were beholding to them, and they may take liberty to do what they please, but profession of Religion is the strongest 
l Religio autem est scientia Dei, ac per hoc omnis religiosus hoc ipso quod religionem sequitur Dei se voluntatem nosse testatur. Professio itaque religionis non aufert debitum, sed auget, quia assumptio religiosinominis sponsio est devotionis, per hoc plus quispiam debet opere quanto plus, promiserit professione. Saluian. contra. Auarit. lib. 2.  obligation, & the deepest engagement unto godliness & holiness that can be. That bond and obligation being broken, God will assuredly both sue the bond, and take the forfeiture to the utmost.  
And thus we see the reasons of Gods so sharp severity in punishing Scandals, and scandalous offenders.   

CHAP. IX.  
The great care we should have of giving scandal, and sorrow for them given, and the cause of humiliation they have by whom offences come.  
THe justice of God being thus smart and severe upon such as give offence, consider we for the close of all, what use may be made of it. It serves therefore to teach three things:  
1. God's justice being so severe against the givers of scandal, how wary and how careful should it make us, and with what fear and trembling should we walk, least at any time an offence should come by us. Let this Woe pronounced against all scandal-givers' be as the flaming Sword of the Cherubims to scare us, and make us afraid how ever we do any thing, or come near the doing of any thing that may prove offensive and scandalous. Since the Woe is so heavy and so smart, let it make us listen to that counsel, Rom. 14. 13. That no man put a stumbling block, or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. If Christ have denounced a Woe, and a Curse to him that lays a stumbling block in another's way, then as we fear that Woe, and that Curse to light on our heads: so take heed of laying a stumbling block for another man's feet.  
Let us learn to live by that rule, 1. Cor. 10. 32. Give none offence, neither to the jews nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God. Have a care so to carry ourselves, that neither the Church of God may be grieved, nor the enemies of the Church be either hindered from good, or hardened in evil to their ruin and destruction.  
We see, Reuel. 2. 14. That Balaam taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel. He did not himself cast the stumbling block, but he taught Balak to do it. And yet God met with Balaam, and taught him by his justice upon him, what it was to teach others to cast stumbling blocks in his people's ways, Numb. 31. 8. Balaam was slain by the Sword of Israel amongst the Midianites. He had taught Balak to make them stumble and fall, therefore God in his justice makes him fall by the Sword.  
Now, what if he had put stumbling blocks himself, how much more would God's justice have pursued and overtaken him? Now scandalous persons do themselves put stumbling blocks before men, and therefore, we know what Paul's resolution is, 1. Cor. 8. 13. Wherefore if meat scandalise my brother, and lay a stumbling block in his way, I will eat no flesh whiles the World stands, lest I scandalise my brother. What is eating of flesh to the works of the flesh, to the sins of uncleanness, fraud, and notorious deceit? And if Paul rather than he would give offence would not eat flesh, which was 
m Caeterum cum rem adeo for midabilem esse demonstratum sit in ijs quae in potestate nostra posita sunt fratrem scandalizare, quid de ijs dicendum erit qui rebus vetitis faciendis loquend●sue scandalizant. Basil. Si vero in licitis tale est iudicium, quid dicendum est de vetitis. Ibid.  lawful to do in in its own nature, how much more would he have resolved never to have given offence by foul and notorious practices? Surely he implies thus much more, I will never commit uncleanness, I will never be a fraudulent dishonest dealer whilst the word stands lest I give an offence, and lay a stumbling block in another's way. Why would Paul forbear flesh for ever, in case of Scandal? Certainly he had an eye to this Woe, and and therefore chose rather to eat no flesh then to eat it so sauced. It might prove no better than the Israelites Quails, Psal. 78. 27. 29, 30, 31. He reigned flesh also upon them as dust so they did eat and were filled, But while their meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them.  
A man had been as good have fasted as have had their dainties with that sauce. So Paul knew that meat eaten with Scandal, would have been sauced with a Woe, and therefore, wisely resouled rather never to eat flesh then to eat it on such terms. Upon the same ground since such a Woe follows upon giving offence, dread we to do any thing that may be scandalous, and resolve never to do it whilst the World stands.  
Our Saviour Christ was not bound to pay Tribute, or Custom, but yet he is willing to part with his right upon this ground, Math. 17. 27. Notwithstanding lest we should scandalise them, etc. To prevent Scandal he parts with his right, and rather works a miracle, than he would give them offence.  
How much more then; there being so heavy a Woe, should we be careful to avoid that which is sinful and unlawful, lest we should scandalise men, and lay ruining stumbling blocks in their ways. Woe to him by whom the offence comes.  
Now then as we would fear to meet with this woe, so take heed of giving any offence. As we would fear to have a Woe come upon us, so let us fear to have an offence come by us. This is the very use our Saviour makes of it, Luke 17. 1, 2, 3. Woe to him through whom offences come, Verse 1. But, why so? Because of that which follows, Verse 2. And thereupon infers that, Verse 3. Take heed to yourselves. As if he had said, since there is such a Woe follows upon giving offence, therefore let me advice you in any case to take wondrous heed to yourselves, that you give no offence, nor fall into any Scandal.  
It should be the care and endeavour of all God's people to do their best to remove all stumbling blocks and stones out of the way, Isa. 57 14. Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling block out of the way of my people, Isa. 62. 10. Prepare you the way of the people, cast up, cast up, the high way, gather out the stones. Therefore if they must gather out the stones, they must take heed of laying stones in the way, if they must take stumbling blocks out of the way of the people, then must they not lay stumbling blocks in their way. Woe unto him that doth not his best to take up a stumbling block out of the way, therefore much more a Woe to him that shall cast a stumbling block in the way.  
Quest. What may a man than do, and what course may one take to keep and preserve one's self from falling into Scandals.  
Answ. To save ourselves from falling into Scandals, do these things.  
1. Walk with Selfe-iealousie, and Selfe-suspition. In a conscience of our own frailty be we ever jealous and suspicious of ourselves. That which our Saviour speaks of securing ourselves in case of tentation, is to be done, to secure ourselves from the danger of Scandals. Watch and pray least ye enter into tentation, Math. 26. So watch and pray least ye fall into Scandals. Now nothing will keep our eyes open in watching, nor our mouths open in praying, more than a fear and an holy jealousy, and suspicion of ourselves by reason of our frailty, lest we be overtaken and ensnared.  
The profession of religion 
n Non quisquam miretur, dilectissimi fratres etiam de confessoribus quosdam ad ista procedere, inde quoque aliquos tam nefanda, quam gravia peccare. Neque enim confessio immunem facit ab insidijs diaboli, aut contra tentationes— adhuc in seculo positum perpetuâ securitate defendit Caeterum nunquam in confessoribus frauds, & stupra, & adulteria, post modum videremus, quae nunc in quibusdam vid●ntes ingemi scimus & dolemus. Cypr. de. unit Eccles.  secures no man from scandals, neither is it any protection from that danger. Men are deceived that so imagine. Nay, no men in more danger of fowl offences than such, & they in most danger that are men most eminent, and of greatest note for profession. We saw before what special reason Satan hath for it to seek the ensnaring of such. Profane, and irreligious persons are not so beset, nor haunted so with importunity of Satan's malice as those are & shallbe, that take upon them the profession of Godliness. Profane and Godless persons are his own sure enough already, and as he 
o Quidan pastoris fungens munere in pago Durwess circa Esweiler puellam nomine Helenam diaboli obsidione pressam liberare velle elato supercilio promittebat atque se operem ludere videns indignabundus tandem in haec verba erupit, quae non intellecturum doemonem fortasse sperabat. Si ullam habes, potestatem transmigrandi in Christianun sanguinem transmigra ex illa in me. Cui incunctanter latinè, & quidem iuridicè respondit Diabolus, Quem pleno iure in postromo die possidebo, quid opus est illum tentare. Wier de praest. Daemon lib. 5. cap. 24.  answered that exorcist taking upon him to dispossess a maid of the Devil, and adjuring him to come out of her into himself; What shall I need to tempt, and possess him of whom I shall have full possession at the last day, So what cares he to tempt those that he hath already possession of, and are taken and led captive at his pleasure. And besides nothing the advantage and gains comes in by such men's sins as do by the fowl, and notorious falls of such as profess religion. Therefore the Devil seeking a new possession, and withal the raising of his Kingdom by their falls, it is apparent that they are in greater dangers of Satan's malice then the other. It therefore concerns them out of the Conscience of this malice, of his, & their own frailty, to be very jealous and suspicious of themselves, and out of that fear and jealousy to watch and pray.  
Our hearts are false and fickle exceeding ready to close with Satan, therefore keep so much the more strict watch over them. We are exceeding weak and frail, look up to God, and beg his help. It is God that keeps the feet of his Saints, and the wicked shallbe silent in darkness. 1. Sam. 2. 9 Except the Lord keep the City the watchman watches in vain, and except the Lord keep the feet of his Saints, all their watching is in vain. Alas if we trust to our own keeping how soon will our feet be ready to slip, how fowl shall we fall, and into what scandals shall not we run? And then how fare would wicked ones be from being silent in darkness? Indeed when God keeps his Saints feet, he silences, & stops wicked men's mouths, because than they have nothing to say against Godliness. But if God keep not the Saints feet, how soon and how wide are wicked mouths opened to clamour and blaspheme? Therefore out of an holy fear and jealousy of our own weakness, let us daily petition God by prayer that he would keep us that our feet may not stumble, that he himself would take the charge of us that we dash not our foot against a stone. There is a promise jer. 31. 9 I will lead them, I will cause them to walk in a straight way wherein they shall not stumble. Now when men out of a fear and jealousy of their own infirmity and frailty, do daily look up to God, and beg guidance, and safe conduct from him, he will lead them and make them walk in a strait way wherein they shall not stumble. This was David's practice. Psal. 5. 8. Lead me O Lord in thy righteousness because of mine enemies, or mine observers, as junius renders it, make thy way straight before my face. He saw that he had many eyes upon him that observed, and watched him narrowly, he knows his own readiness to turn aside into by and crooked ways, his suit therefore to God is, that he would lead him. Whilst God hath a man by the hand how safe is a man from falling? And God that keeps the feet of his Saints. 1. Sam. 2. 9 hath his Saints in his hand. Deut. 33. 3. All his Saints are in thine hand. It is good daily by prayer to put our selves into God's hand. It is just with God to check selfe-confidence & to let such men slip & fall too, that by their falls they may know their frailty. 
q Laudo Petrum sed prius erubesco pro Petro. Quam prompto animo, sed nesciens se metiri. Aug de diverse. ser. 39  Peter's cause is well known, Though all, yet not I, he was of forward spirit, but knew not how to measure himself, if he had had more fear & jealousy he would have been more watchful, and have sought more to God, and would have said rather, If all men should, yet Lord by thy grace keep me that I may not deny thee. He had been more secure if he had been less secure. But now that he stands wholly upon his own legs, how soon, & how miserably falls he? The child that cares not to be led but will go of himself, gets many a knock, and many a shrewd fall, but the child that is fearful, and out of his fear will be in the mothers or nurse's hand, and will cry to be led, that child escapes many a broken face.  
2. Mortify your dearest lusts. A fostered and a cherished lust doth exceedingly endanger a man, puts him into great danger of falling into scandal. Let a lust be loved, and cherished and it will so befool, and bewitch a man that he will maintain, and sockle it though it be with the hazard of the credit of Religion, and the Gospel, it will grow so strong at the last that it will headlong him into some scandal or other. Therefore deal severely with these lusts, that will bring thee happily to do that which will cause God to deal severely with thee, be sure to make sure work with them by mortification, that is a good way to preserve thee from scandal. This is the very course our Saviour here prescribes. Having in this seaventh verse shown the woe that falls upon the givers of scandals, see what he infers, Verse. 8. 9 Wherefore if thine hand; or thy foot offend thee cut them off, and cast them from thee, etc. And if thine eye offend thee pluck it out, and cast it from thee. etc. Mark then what it is that makes men offend. Namely men's lusts, their right hands, eyes, feet. These be the scandal-breeders. If a man would be free from giving of offence he must out, & off with that which causes him to offend. Now lusts when they are made much of, when they be made dear, hands, and eyes, and right eyes, assuredly they will cause men to offend. Therefore the way to save ourselves that they cause not us to offend, is to offend them, the way is by mortification to cut off, and cast away, such hands, feet, and eyes as will cause us to offend. Were but this done how happily might many fowl scandals be prevented? If David had presently plucked out his wanton eye, and cast it away; how easily had he been secured from that great offence he gave?  
It may be many a man out of the great pride of his heart, and his abundant self-love makes his credit and esteem amongst men to be his right hand, his right eye, his very Idol. Now this is a lust that will cause a man to offend. A man in this pride and self-love to maintain and uphold his good opinion and esteem, runs into this and that secret evil practice, and rather than his esteem, and credit should sink in the world, uses a number of shifts, and dishonest courses, and a company of deceitful guiles to uphold his esteem, and runs so far in at last, that he come not off, without fowl scandal. Now mortification and self denial had prevented it. If such a man had plucked out this eye, cut off this hand & foot, he had not halted, nor stumbled nor fallen into scandal. The not cutting of this foot caused the stumbler the fall. One chop had saved and prevented all, for if he had but denied himself, and thus thought with himself, If it be God's will that I shall be low, and mean in the world, if he will have me come down and be in an inferior estate, his will be done, I will humbly submit to his pleasure, and I will not to uphold my credit in the world for a time hazard, and wound the credit of the Gospel, and religion, I will tread my credit under foot, rather than bring any discredit upon the Gospel; If thus by selfe-deniall a man could have submitted to God's wisdom and administration, & could have mortified his self-love, so as to have laid his credit and respect in the world at God's foot, how happily might a fowl scandal have been prevented? Every unmortified lust is a scandal that will cause a man to offend, so many lusts so many tares. Therefore burn, and fire those tares, gather out and cast out those scandals that will breed scandals and cause offences. Math. 13. 40. 41.  
3. Labour for sincerity, and fruitfulness in the ways of God. I dare not say that all that fall into scandal are Hypocrites, & barren. But yet sure it is, that God many times punishes these two things with scandalous falls. When men are not so sincere and so fruitful as they should be, God leaves them to themselves, that by such scandalous falls they may be humbled, for not walking so sincerely and so fruitfully as they should have done, and as their profession required at their hands. Therefore the more sincere, and fruitful we are, the more are we out of danger of scandals. See Phi. 1. 10, 11. That ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ, Being filled with the fruits of righteousness. So then the way to be without offence is to be sincere, and to be filled with the fruits of righteousness. So long as we adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour in all thing, we shall keep ourselves from giving offence. Now sincerity, fidelity, and fruitfulness do adorn the Doctrine of God, Tit. 2. 9 10.  
4. Think always upon those two texts. First that, Neh. 4. 9 It is not good that ye do, ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God, because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies? Are we by Satan tempted to any sinful course that specially may prove scandalous, think we thus with ourselves. It is not good that we are about to do, the thing is naught and sinful. If we do thus how will enemies of godliness and religion triumph, how will they reproach and scorn religion and therefore to prevent their reproach, and to prevent the opening of their mouths how ought we to walk in the fear of God. I will rather die then give them just occasion to reproach. If they will needs be reproaching, let them do it at their 
q Abundet hospitalitas vestra, abundent bona opera vestra Quod iubet Christus faciant, Christiani, & tantum suo malo blasphement pagani. Aug. Hom. 10 in append. serm.  own peril, they shall have no cause from me to open their mouths in reproachful wise. And this is the very argument the Apostle uses to persuade women to a godly, discreet, chaste, and obedient carriage, That the word of God be not blasphemed, Tit. 2. 4, 5. Secondly, consider the text, Neh. 6. 11. Should such a man as I flee? And who is there that being as I am, would go into the Temple to save his life? I will not go in. It were an happy thing in these cases if men would know themselves, what they are, and would stand upon it with Satan. Should such a man as I do thus? Nehemiah we see would not go into the temple to save his life, when he considered what he was, Such a man as I? Being as I am? It is no pride in these cases to stand upon what we are, but much safety were in it. Should such a man as I? Why what a man is he that professes religion? He is one that hath the Name of God called upon him, If my people on whom my name is called, 2. Chron. 7. 14. He is one that is called with an high calling. Phil. 3. 14. He is one that is called to Holiness. 1. Thes. 4. 7. He is one that is precious and honourable Isa. 43. 4. He is one of the Saints of the most high, Dan. 7. 18. 22. He is one of the Sons of God. 1. joh. 3. 1. And now shall such a man as he run into fowl and base actions? Who, being as he is, would not rather lose his life, then dishonour such a profession, then disgrace such and so many dignities? Why did jeremy so willingly subject to God's word? For thy name is called upon me O Lord God of hosts. jer. 15. 16. And should such a man as he not give all obedience to God? Why was Ezra ashamed to require of the King a band of Soldiers, and horsemen to help against the enemy? Because it would not stand with that profession he had made before the King, Because we had spoken unto the King saying, The hand of our God is for good upon all them that seek him, but his power & his wrath against all them that forsake him. 1. Ezra. 8. 22. He had made this profession before the King, and should such a man as he, that had made such a profession do a thing so contrary thereunto? What a fowl shame had that been? No wonder, having made such a profession, that he was ashamed to do it. If men would but seriously consider what kind of persons they are, and what kind of profession they make, oh how would they for shame not meddle with base actions. What was the reason that Mordecay, would not bow to Haman? They spoke to him daily, and he harkened not unto them. And what was his reason. Reason good enough, He told them that he was a jew. It would not stand with the religion he professed to bow to Haman as they bowed to him. He was a jew, one of the people of God, that professed the worship of the true God alone, and should such an one as he bow down to Haman, not only a mortal man but an accursed Amalekite? Who would being as he was, if it had been to have saved his life, have wronged not so much his nation as his religion, and profession as to have bowed to him. What made Abraham that he would not take any thing that was the King of Sodoms from a thread even unto a shoe latchet, but because the King of Sodom should not say, I have made Abraham rich. Gen. 54. 23. Like enough Abraham had upon all occasions, and in all places professed that God whose name he professed had made him so rich, therefore would he do nothing that might be any prejudice to that his profession, he had a care so to carry himself that the enemies of God should not have any thing to say that might disgrace his profession. Thus if a man would consider the highness of his calling, the honour of his profession, and would in all tentations unto fowl and shameful actions but think, should such a man as I do this? or who being as I am, would do this? how might he be preserned from many a foul scandal? Mordecay told them he was a jew, do thou in all tentations to foul actions, tell Satan thou art a Christian, and should such a man as thou do so?  
5. Look upon other men's 
r Propone nihil esse quod tibi accidere non possit. Vita foveam in quam vides alium coram te incidisse. Aliorum perditio tua sit cautio. Bern de Inter. Dom. cap. 45.  falls, and tremble, and take warning by them. Say not in the pride and carnal boasting of thy spirit, rather than I would have done as he hath done, I would have died a thousand deaths; To condemn such as fall scandalously, is not a thing to be condemned, who shall dare to justify such? But a comparative condemning of other men's evils, so to condemn them as to commend and brag of ourselves, what in such cases we would have done, and have been, so to condemn others, as thereby to raise our own praises, what good ones we are, and would have been to them, so to make others black, as to make ourselves show the whiter, this is very dangerous. This savours of much Pride, and in such causes it may be 
s Tamen si alieui tanta est siducia de immobilitate propriae infirmitatis saltem follicitis reformidet ne ipse sit scandalum visibus alienis, sed terreatur voce Domini comminantis, vae huic mundo àscandalis, Cypr. de singul. Cleric.  just with God, so to give us up to the power of our own corruptions, that we may fall into the selfsame evil so condemned.  
That Proverb of salomon's would be thought upon in all such events, Pro. 27. 19 As in water face answers to face, so the heart of man to man. Let a man look into the water, he sees in it a face in all points answering to his own, the same spots, Warts, Moulds, and blemishes that he sees in the face in the water, they are all in his own, there is face answering to face. So doth the heart of a man answer to a man.  
The same evils, corruptions, lusts, and sins that thou seest in another man's heart, breaking out in his life the very selfsame are in thine own heart, his heart to thine is but a face answering thy face, his heart is but as the face in the water to thy face, therein mayest thou see what is in thine heart. And therefore his heart being the very picture of thine own, look not upon his falls, but with fear & trembling, considering lest thou also thyself mayest be tempted, and fall as fowl as he. His heart naturally is as good as thine, and thine naturally as bad as his, and therefore no better course in the view of his fall, then to fear and tremble, lest thine heart may serve thee as slippery a trick as his heart hath done. Such humble fear and trembling will awaken to an answerable caution, and so may prove a good preservative against the danger of Scandals.  
2. A second thing, this point of God's severity may teach, is to stir us up to mourn and grieve when Scandals fall out. There be diverse grounds of mourning in such cases.  
As first in regard of the woe that is to the world from offences, and the great mischief that will be done by them, That so many will start at and fly from Religion, that so many will blaspheme the Name of God, that so many will be hardened to their own ruin, here is cause enough of mourning to all good hearts. There is a compassion and there be bowels to be shown to mankind, even to reprobate ones, and a sorrow should there be for the loss of their blood. And secondly, a sorrow should there be for God's dishonour, the Church's reproach. But thirdly, there is yet another ground of sorrow arising from this point, a sorrow there should be in such events in regard of the woe that will fall upon such by whom the offence comes. If their case be such that so many woes will pursue them, then how should men's bowels earn with compassion towards them, and out of Christian pity commiserate their condition? The course of the world is to rejoice, and insult over such.  
That is not lawful in sinless cases, Prou. 24. 17. Rejoice not when thine enemy falls, namely, into some outward affliction, neither let thine heart be glad when he stumbles; Therefore much more unlawful in cases of sin, and scandal. This highly displeases God. Others it may be rejoice not, are not glad, but in the mean time they mourn not, neither are they in sorrow for God's dishonour, or the offender's danger. Surely, as there is joy in Heaven when one sinner reputes, and rises, so should there be sorrow on earth, when one man professing Christ, sins, and falls fowl. This was the Corinthians fault, 1. Cor. 5. 2. And you are puffed up and have not rather mourned. They should therefore in that case have mourned, and sorrowed as for God's dishonour, so for the danger into which that man by his scandal had brought himself. And this being done might be a great help to stir up a man fall'n into a scandalous sin to mourn for himself. For when he shall see others lay his case to heart, and to be so sensible of his ill condition, how may it stir up himself to take his condition to heart much more. It is said that Samuel mourned for Saul, now when Saul should hear that Samuel mourned for him, if there had been any grace in his heart it could not but have made him mourn for himself. It must needs have thus wrought upon him. Doth Samuel mourn for me, and lies my case heavy at his heart? Alas than what cause have I to mourn for my self. It is I that have sinned, and it is I that must smart. What is it to Samuel, that I must undergo such woe, if therefore he, how much more should I mourn. Thus others sorrow might provoke such to mourn.  
3. Lastly, this severity of God's justice considered, it serves for the terror, and the humbling of such by whom offences come.  
Here is that which may break the hearts of them, and make them melt into godly sorrow. Woe unto him by whom an offence comes. Is an offence come by thee, and art thou fall'n into a scandal? behold here a woe out of Christ's mouth pursuing thee, and ready to arrest thee. Behold a woe posting after thee to blast thee in thy Name, to brand thee with Infamy and Reproach. A woe following thee to cast thee out of the hearts, and society of God's people, A woe following thee to smite thee with poverty and sickness, A woe to smite thy Family, thy Children. And shall not such a woe terrify, and mightily humble thine heart? How should the dread of such a woe hanging over thine head lay thee in the dust? If a man had no care of his own soul, or no care of his credit, or no care of society with the faithful, yet if a man had but any bowels of nature towards his poor children, here is that which may make his bowels earn and roll within him. Alas what have I done? I have brought a woe upon myself, and children. Ah, says David, These sheep what have the done? So mayest thou, Alas, these poor babes, and innocent Lambs what have they done? An heavy woe may overtake and smite them for my folly. Woe is me, the cause that my soul hath to be humbled, Oh the cause that I have to put my mouth in the dust? Here is that which should make a man hang down his head with sorrow to think of that woe, that is pursuing him at the heels. If a man had a Bailiff or a Sergeant always watching, and dogging of him at the heels, that he could not stir out of his doors, but he would be ready to have him by the back, in what a deal of fear would a man be in such a case? What a deal of care would he take to make his peace, and compound with his Creditors? Now when a man is fallen into a Scandal, presently a woe is sent out to pursue and attach such a sinner, oh then the fear, the depth of humiliation and sorrow, that the dread of this woe should work in such a man? It should make him do as in that case, Prou. 6. 3, 4. Go humble thyself, Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids, till thou hast made thy peace with God. 
t Grandi plagae alla & prolixa opus est medicina. Grande scelus grandem habet necessariam satisfactionem. Ambros. ad Virg. laps.  Go and do as Lam. 3. 28, 29, 30. He sits alone and keeps silence, he puts his mouth in the dust if so be there may be hope, He gives his cheek to him that smites him, he is filled full with reproach. Sat alone and keep silence, and never wonder, nor murmur that thou art left alone, but Levit. 26. 41. accept of thy punishment. And certainly, where a man is truly humbled he will do so. Sat alone? I cannot find fault with it, I deserve it, accept it. Oh put thy mouth in the dust, thou that hast laid thine honour in the dust, thou that hast laid the honour of religion in the dust. Give thy cheeks to him that smites. Art thou reproached, and filled therewith? take it as the due desert of thy ways, and say with Ecebolius lying, and howling at the Church door, 
u Calcate me salem insipidum. Socrat. lib. 3. cap. 11.  Trample upon me that am unsavoury salt. If at any time thou begin to have but a cheerful thought in thine heart, a cheerful look in thy face, a cheerful word in thy mouth, dash all cheerful thoughts, looks, words, and behaviours, dash them all with the thoughts of this Woe. Think still where ever thou art, what ever thou art doing, that thou hearest the sound of this text, and the sound of this Woe, ringing in thine ears, Woe to him by whom the offence comes. What, I laugh? I be merry and jocund? I be chearie and jolly, that have such a Woe hanging our mine head? Oh my soul! droop, and hang down thine head, and be in bitterness of spirit, and 
y Inhaere poenitentiae usque ad finem vitae. Ambros. ad virg laps.  never have one lightsome look, till the light of God's countenance shine upon thee. Who knows if God should see a man thus droop under the Conscience of his sin, thus laid low under the fear of this Woe, but God of his mercy might in some measure mitigate this Woe, at least might show mercy to the soul in its peace and pardon.   
FINIS.