The Marrow of Divinity, To the reader
TO THE Christian Reader.
Christian Reader,
IT hath been long and often complained of, that our English Divines, who of all others are judged the fittest, and ablest to write Cases of Conscience, in regard of their manifold experiences in this kind, have yet done so little. The Friers and Jesuites have written many large Volumes of this Subject, which yet are rather so many dunghills, then so many Gardens of sweet smelling Flowers, and tend rather to the corruping of, then to the satisfying of troubled soules, as may be amply seen in a book lately taught to speake English, called the Mystery of Jesuitisme.
I have long expected, and hoped, that some abler pen would have undertaken this work of such great tenderness, and vast extent, the rather because it hath been the desire, and request of all the Forraign Protestant Churches that some such thing should be done, at least by our London Ministers. And truly the work is too great, and the burden too heavy for one mans shoulders: Yet seeing that none else would set about it, I, who am the most unfit, and least able for such an Herculean labour, have adventured to publish these my first Essayes: and being conscious to my own insufficience, have made the greatest part of it, rather a Collection out of others writings, than any thing spun out of my own brains. Yet, besides the paines in making choice of, and going through so many Authors, I have taken liberty to contract where it might well be done, and to vary the phrase (not thinking fit wholly to tye my self to other mens words) Sometimes to add, and others sometimes to leave out, where my judgement did not concur with theirs.
I presume, I need not tell you the usefulnesse of this Subject. How necessary it is to get and keep a good Conscience: To be acquainted with our Spirituall Estate, and condition: To be directed in that great duty of self-examination: To have rules prescribed for the right ordering of our thoughts, Words, and Actions. To have our sins discovered that we may avoid them; and our Errors laid open that we may amend them. For as the clearest blood makes the best Spirits, and the purest Aire breeds the greatest agility, so the holiest life yeelds the soundest comfort, and the tenderest Conscience the most unspotted life. Yea, a good Conscience will appear in the Countenance, and look merrily out at the windows of the eyes. It made Stephen look like an Angell of God, Act 6.15 It is praemium ante praemium: Heaven aforehand: Some clusters of Grapes of the Caelestiall Canaan. Its like Sampsons haire, that will make a man invincible. It will stand under the greatest pressures: It made the Apostles to go away rejoycing when they had been beaten, for that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christs sake, Act. 5.40, 41. It made many of the Martyrs to go as merrily to dye as to dine. Be the Aire cleere, or cloudy, he that hath a good Conscience enjoyes perpetuall serenity of soule, and sits continually at that blessed Feast, where the holy Angels are Cooks, and Butlers (as Luther phraseth it) and the three persons of the Trinity are gladsome Guests. Let a man be sound within, and at peace with his own Conscience, and he will bravely bear up under unspeakable pressures. Paul (though no man out of Hell suffered more) Yet did he not only glory in Tribulation, but overabound exceedingly with joy, 2 Cor. 7.4. As an old-beaten Porter to the Crosse, Malluit tollerare, quam deplorare: His stroake was heavier then his groaning, Job 23. 2. Premat corpus, fremat Diabolus, turbat mundus, ille semper erit securus, saith Bernard. Let Men, the World, and the Divels doe their worst, they can never hurt him that hath a good Conscience. Conscientia pura, semper secura. A good Conscience hath a sure confidence, he that hath it sits (Noah-like) Mediis tranquillus in undis: quiet in the middest of greatest combustions. It will make a man sleep without a pillow, yea without a bed. It made Jacob take such good rest upon a stone: Peter to sleep so sweetly, though laden with Iron Chains, and (for ought he knew) to die the next day. Philpot, and his fellow Prisoners to sing Psalms, and to rouse as merrily in the straw in the Bishops Colehouse, as if they had been upon down beds in a Pallace. Its a Feast with any food, though never so course and slender. Hence its excellently said: In minimo maximum est bona mens in corpore humano: quae si adsit, delicio…ius vivit, etiam is qui teruntium non habet in orbe, quam si in unum hominem sexcentos confles Sardanapalos. Its a full Feast, a lasting Feast: not for a day, as was Nabals: nor for seven dayes, as was Sampsons; no nor for nine score dayes as was that of Ahashuerus: but a durable Feast without intermission of solace, or interruption of societie. Vis ergo (O homo) semper epulari? vis nunquam tristis esse? (saith Bernard) bene vive. Wouldest thou never be sad? would'st thou turn thy life into a merry Festivall? Get, and retain a good Conscience: and then I may say to thee in Solomons words, Eccles. 9.7, 8, 9. Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy Wine with a merry heart: For God now accepteth thy works. Let thy Garments be alwiaes white, and let thy head lack no ointment: Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest, &c.
Thus you see what are the benefits, and priviledges of a good Conscience, which should move and quicken us to the study of Cases of Conscience, whereby we may be enable to keep a Conscience void of offence towards God, and toward man, Act. 24.16. and that we may be the further provoked hereunto, let us on the other hand consider the mischiefs, and inconveniences of an evill Conscience, one small drop whereof troubleth a whole Sea of outward comforts, and contentments, a whole confluence whereof would no more ease a wounded Spirit, then a fair sho…e a gouty foot, or a silken stocking a broken legg. Indeed its a burden insupportable, which is able to quaile the courage, and crush the shoulders of the strongest man upon Earth: Hence Job preferred, and Judas chose strangling before it: Daniel chose rather to be cast to the Lions, then to carry a Lion, and enraged Conscience in his bosome. Its an ever-gnawing worm that is bred in this life of the f…oth of filthy lusts, and flagicious courses, and lyes gnawing upon mens inwards, many times in the ruff of all their jollity. It was this that made Saul call for his musick: Belteshazzar for his carousing cups: Cain for his workmen to build him a City, &c. and this they did to put by the pangs of their wounded Spirits, and throbbing Consciences: And yet all this many times will not serve turn, as we see in Nero, after he had killed his Mother, and Wives: In Otho, when he had slain Galba, and Piso: In Herod the great, after he had caused his Wife Mariamne to be put to death: In our Richard the third, after he had murthered his two innocent Nephews: In Spira: Latomus, &c. all which were so grubbed with this worm, that they could not be at rest neither night nor day, till being utterly tired with continuall vexation of Spirit, they either desperately slew themselves, or were dreadfully dispatched by others. Hence Plutarch (though a Heathen) thought that the very life of a wicked man was punishment enough without, either God or mans revenging hand. For (saith he) if they examine their lives, they finde themselves empty of grace, destitute of hope, loaden with fear, sadnesse, unchearfulnesse, and suspition of what will follow after: their lives are therefore worse then the life of a Dog: for a Dog lives without mentall sufferings, and dies, and there is an end of him: but a wicked man is alwayes upon the wrack whilest he lives, and is never free from the lashes of an evill Conscience. Quid prodest bonis plena arca, si inanis sit Conscientia? saith St. Austin, what good is there in a chest full of goods, when the Conscience is empty of goodnesse: Such an one is like Naaman, a rich man, but a Leper: or like Jesabel, that (no doubt) had a cold heart under a painted face: Such an one in the middest of his mirth hath many a secret gripe, and little knows the world where his shooe pincheth him. Every Fowle that hath the beautifullest Feathers, hath not the sweetest flesh: nor doth every tree that beareth a goodly leaf, bear good fruit? and many things glister besides Gold: So is it with wicked men, in the fulness of their sufficiency they are in straits, &. Job 20.22, &c.
But I will enlarge no further: I shall only tell you that in ordering these Cases of Conscience, I proceed (as you may easily perceive) Alphabetically, according to the method which I used in my Mirror, where you may finde Examples sutable for these severall heads, and by that little progresse which I have already made, you may judge how much is yet behind: which were enough to deter an old man, as I am, being in the sixtieth y…ar of my age, but that, I hope, I am doing the Lords work, and if my Master call me away before I have finished it, I shall not much faile of St. Austins wish, who often desired that when the Lord came, he might finde him aut precantem, aut praedicantem, either praying, or preaching. I have one request more to the godly judicious, that wherein they observe my failings, they would be pleased either by Word or Letter to inform me of them, that I may rectifie them for the time to come: and if I finde these my poor labours usefull, and acceptable to the Church of Christ, I shall be encouraged, whilst God continues life, and health to go on in the same: I am also to acquaint you, that the Bookseller hath so ordered the Printing hereof, that whosoever pleaseth, may put in fair paper between each Chapter, to make larger Additions to the same. Thus begging thine earnest prayers for a blessing upon my Labors both publick, and private, I rest
From my study in Thrid-needle-street, London, Mar. the 22. 1658/9. Thine, and the Churches servant SA. CLARKE.