Balm from Gilead to Recover Conscience, Part 4 – Title page 2
The last part.
But oh Lord, who beleeues our …eport? or to whom is the benefit …nd excellencie of this creature of … reuealed? Oh Lord, to whom …hall we speake & apply what hath …een said? You the sonnes of men …aue …ost your hearing, charme we …euer so wisely, thunder we neuer … earnestly, you despise vsus Mini…ers. You thinke we come hither to play our prizes, to speake out of forme, and not of Conscience, or to speake out of choller and passion.
Besides, if you would heare vsus, wee are Strangers to your secrets, to your hearts and wayes; we are confined to our Cells and Studies, and are not acquainted with the Tythe of the worlds villanies: besides, when the Houre-glasse is out, wee can say no more to you, and perhaps shall neuer see you againe; but your Consciences know you, though happily you be strangers to them, they compasse your pathes, your lying downe, and accustomed wayes.
I will therefore turne my speech (as the Prophet to the Earth and Heauen) to your Consciences. Hearken oh Consciences, heare the word of the Lord. I call you to record this day, that it's your office to preach ouer our Sermons againe, or else all our Sermons and labours are lost. You are the cuds of the Soule, to chew ouer againe, against your reproofes, and against your secret and faithfull admonitions what exception can any take, your Balme is precious, your smitings break not the head, nor bring any disgrace. GOD hath giuen you a faculty to worke wonders in priuate and solitude. Follow them home therefore, cry aloud in their eares, and bosomes, and apply what hath now, and at other times beene deliuered.
Conscience. If the house and owner where thou dwellest be a Sonne of Peace, let thy Peace, and thy Masters Peace, abide and rest on him: that Peace which the world neuer knowes, nor can giuegive, nor take away. Be thou propitious, and benigne, speake good things, cherish the least sparks and smoake of Grace: if thou findest desire in trueth, and in all things, bid them not feare and doubt of their Election and Calling: With those that desire to walke honestly, walke thou comfortably; handle the tender and fearefull gently and sweetly: be not rough and rigorous to them, binde vp the broken-hearted, say vntounto them, Why art thou so disquieted and sad? when thou seest them Melancholy for losses and crosses, say vntounto them in cheere, as Elkanah to Annah: What doest thou want? am not I a thousand Friends, Wiues, and Children vntounto thee?
Clap them on the backe, hearten them in well doing, spurre them on to walke forward, yea winde them vp to the highest pitch of Excellencie, and then applaud them: delight in the Excellent of the earth.
Be a light to the blind and scrupulous.
Be a Goad in the sides of the dull ones.
Be an Alarum and Trumpet of Iudgement to the Sleepers and Dreamers.
But as for the Hypocrite, gall him, and pricke him at the heart; let him well know, that thou art Gods Spie in his bosome, a secret Intelligencer, and wilt be faithfull to God.
Bid the Hypocrite walke in all things.
Bid the Ciuill, adde Piety to Charity.
Bid the wauering, inconstant, and licentious, walke constantly.
Bid the luke-warme and common Protestant, for shame amend, be zealous, and walke honestly.
But with the Sonnes of Belial, the prophane Scorners, walke … wardly with them, haunt and molest them, giuegive them no rest till they repent, be the gall of bitternesse vntounto them; when they are swilling and drinking, serue them as Absolons seruants did Amnon, stab him at the heart: yet remember so long as there is any hope, that thine office is to be a Paedagogue to Christ, to wound and kill; onelyonly to the end they may liue in Christ, not so much to gaster and affright, as to leade to him; and to that purpose, to be instant in season and out of season, that they may beleeue and repent.
But if they refuse to heare, and sinne against thee, and the Holy Ghost also: then shake off the dust off they feete, and either fall to torment them before their time, and driue them to despaire; or if thou giuegive them ease here, tell them thou wilt flie in their throat at the day of hearing, when thou shalt and must speake, and they shall and must heare.
Conscience, thou hast Commission to goe into Princes Chambers and Counsell Tables: be a faithfull man of their Counsell. Oh that they would in all Courts of Christendome set Policie beneath thee, and make thee President of their Counsels, and heare thy voyce, and not croaking Iesuites, Sycophants and Lyers; thou mayest speake to them; Subiects must pray for them, and be subiect for thy sake, to honour and obey them in the Lord.
Charge the Courtiers, not to trust in vncertaine fauours of Princes, but to be trusty and faithfull, as Nehemiah, Daniel, Ioseph, whose Histories pray them to reade, imitate, and beleeue, aboue Machiauels Oracles.
Tell the Foxes and Polititians, that make the Maine the by, and the by the Maine, that an ill Conscience hanged Achitophell, ouerthrew Haman, Shebna, &c. Tell them it's the best policie, and Salomons, who knew the best, to get and keepe thy fauor, to exalt thee, and thou shalt exalt them, be a shield to them, and make them as bold as the Lion in the day of trouble, not fearing the enuie of all the beasts of the Forrest, no, nor the roaring of the Lyon, in righteous causes.
Conscience, Thou art the Iudge of Iudges, and shalt one day iudge them; in the meane while, if they feare neither God nor man, be as the importunate Widdow, & vrge them to doe Iustice, Oh that thou satest highest in all Courts, especially in such Courts as are of the Iurisdiction, and receiue their Denomination from thee: su…er not thy selfe to be exiled, make Foelix tremble, discourse of Iudgement to them.
To the iust Iudges, bid them please God and thee, and feare no other feare: assure them for what …u…r they doe of partialitie or popularitie thou wilt leaue them in the lurch; but what vponupon thy suite and command, thou wilt beare them out in it, and be their exceeding great reward.
If thou meetest in those Courts, & findest any such Pleaders as are of thine acquaintance and followers, be their fee and their promoter, tell them if they durst trust thee, and leaue Sunday workes, bribing on both sides, selling of Silence, pleading in ill Causes, and making the Law a nose of waxe, if they durst pleade all and onelyonly rightfull Causes, thou hast riches in one hand, and Honour in the other to bestow on them.
As for the Tribe of Leui, there mayest thou be a little bolder, as being men of God, and men of Conscience by profession. Be earnest with them to adde Con to their Science, as a number to Cyphars that will make it something worth.
Desire them to preach, not for filthie lucre or vaine-glory, but for thy sake; wish them to keepe thee pure, and in thee to keepe the mysterie of Faith: assure them thou art the onelyonly Ship and Cabbinet of Orthodoxall Faith, of which if they make shipwracke, by lazinesse and couetousnesse, they shall be giuen ouer to Poperie and Arminianisme, and lose the Faith, and then write bookes of the Apostasie and Intercision of Faith, and a good Conscience, which they neuer were acquainted withall, nor some Drunkards of them euer so much as seemed to hauehave.
And whereas thou knowest that many of all sorts are discouraged with the taxation and slaunders; some that conferre, some that are fearefull and doubtfull, if they doe it to the Lord and thee (as who knowes but God?) bid the world as Paul doth here, turne censuring into praying; and if they will not, let them as they preach thee, so regard thee in all godly simplicity,foreign. and expect their reward at the hand of the great Shepheard.
For the Citie, get thou into the high places, into the Pulpits, into the Entries and gates of the Citie; crie aloud, and vtter thy words in the streetes: Oh that thou wert free of it, and hadst freedome of speech and audience in all their Courts and Companies, and that for thy sake they would make and keepe wholesome Constitutions for the Sabbath, and orderly keeping of it, and see that well executed and obserued, which is the Nurse of all Piety and Conscience.
Charge them that are rich Citizens, and in their Thousands, that they lay no weake Foundation, no three halfe-penny Foundation, but be bountifull to pious vses, to the poore, and to the Ministery of the Citie, that they take away the scandall of the times, and vpbrayding of the Romish Penninuah, against the Anna of our times: Let the Hospitall, Widdowes and Orphanes, taste of their bountie; with such Sacrifices (if they come from Faith and a good Conscience) God is pleased. Bid them not trust in the shaddow of siluer and gold, which will wither as Ionahs Gourd; but in thy shelter. Goe home with them this day, I inuite thee to their Table; if I had liberty (as they say it's a courtesie for the Preacher to inuite a guest,) Conscience, thou shouldest be my guest. Deferre not till to morrow, lest businesse hinder thee. This day reckon and walke with them, and talke with them: Bid them lay aside all … Bookes, and reckon … and often reckoning will make you friends.
Be at their elboes when they vse false weights and Ballances, and giuegive them priuie nips: let the mutuall profit of Buyer and Seller be the rule of buying and selling, and not the gaine of the one of them alone. Assure them that are hourders by fraud, that they hatch as the Hen, the Partriges Egge, that hath wings and will flie away; and that they heape vp wrath against the day of wrath, and are in the meane time selfe-condemned; whereas thou wouldst make them rich, and adde no sorrow, nor grauelly greet in their mouth, but such gaine as will stand with content and selfe-sufficiencie.
If thou meetest with Simonaicall Patrons, tell them, they and their money shall perish: for selling thee and the Soules of the people.
I hauehave not, as Ezechiel, a Map of the Citie, but thou knowest all the lurking Dennes, Stewes, and infinite Bookes. I send thee to preach and cry vntounto them.
Roare and thunder in the eares of the roaring Boyes, of all the swaggering Crue, and tell them they must for all these come to Iudgement.
To the Fashion-mongers, both the statelier sort, and the light-headed yellow-banded Fooles, tell the one, that the richest lining and inside, is a good Conscience: And for the other, if thou wilt vouchsafe, tell them, that plaine apparell and a good Conscience, will doe them more honour, then all these Apes-toyes.
As for the Players, and sesters, and Rimers, and all that rablement, tell them, thou wilt one day be in earnest with them, & though thou suffer them to personate thee vponupon their Stages, and shew their wit, and breake their Iests on thee now, thou wilt owe it them, till they come vponupon the great Stage, before God, and all the world: Where my sides, memorie, and knowledge faile, adde, enlarge, and apply: Print it in the hearts of as many as thou canst, and the Lord grant thee Grace and Audience in their eares, that they may suffer the words of Exhortation, and so I end with the Prayer after my Text, which is like a rich garment, that hath facing, gards, and seluage of it owne.
The God of peace, that brought againe from the dead our Lord Iesus, the great Sh…pheard of the Sheep, through th… b…ood of the euerlasting couenant, make you perfect in all good workes, to … his will, &c.
… O Lord, that hast wonder … planted and formed our Con…ci…nces within vsus, that onelyonly know stand searchest our Consciences, …hat hast thy Chaire in the Heauens, & onelyonly art able to teach them, & purifie them. Thou which woundedst, and healedst 3000. at one Sermon, whose hand is not shortned: stretch out thine arme, & doe the like in these latter times.
Forgiue the Sinnes against thee and our Consciences, and the frequent checkes of it and thy Spirit.
Ouertbrow the man of Sinne, that Tyrant and Vsurper of Conscience.
Mollifie and enlighten the obstinate Consciences of the Iewes, Turkes, and Pagans.
Illuminate and sanctifie all Christian Princes, especially our Soueraigne, and …ill the royall treasure of his Conscience full of excellent comfort: and that he may as much excell in Conscience all other Kings of the Earth, as hee doth in Science, without all comparison.
Comfort the aflicted, direct the doubtfull and scrupulous, and remoue all snares and scandals of weake Consciences, which thou hast not planted, and which thou knowest are not for the peace of thy Sion.
The grace of our Lord Iesus Christ, and the louelove of God our Father, and the comfortable fellowship of the Holy-Ghost, and the peace of a good Conscience, be with you all now and euer. Amen.
FINIS.
IETHRO'S IVSTICE OF PEACE. A SERMON PREAched at a generall Assises held at BVRY St. EDMVNDS, for the Countie of Suffolke.
By SAMVEL WARD Batchelour of Diuinitie.
LONDON, Printed by Augustine Mathewes, for Iohn Marriot and Iohn Grismand, and are to be sold at their Shops in Saint Dunstones Church-yard, and in Pauls Alley at the Signe of the Gunne. 1621.