A Christian Library, Chapter 12
CHAP. XII.
SEventhly, To the former miseries which a cruel Miser is justly plagued withall, this may be added; the dolefulness of his conscience; for the sin of oppression lyes upon the soul as heavy as lead; yea as the shaddow does ever follow the body, so fear and desperation in all places, and at all times, do wait upon an evil conscience. Sin armes a man against himself, & our peace ever ends with our innocency. A Pithagorean bought a pair of shoos upon trust, the Shoomaker dyes, he is glad, thinks them gained, but a while after his conscience twitches him, and becomes a continual chider; he hereupon repairs to the house of the dead, casts in his money with these words, There take thy due, thou livest to me, though dead to all beside. Micha stole from his mother eleven hundred shekels of silver, but his complaining conscience made him to accuse himself and restore it again, Iudg. 17. Il gotten goods lye upon the conscience, as raw meat upon a sick stomack, which will never let a man be well, or at ease, untill he hath cast it up again by restitution.
Means ill gotten, is to the getter, as the Angels book was to Saint Iohn, When he eat it, it was in his mouth as sweet as hony, but when he had eaten it, it became in his stomack as bitter as gall, Rev. 10.10. The which is notably illustrated Iob 20.12. to 20. which together with the whole Chapter, is marvellous good for cruel and unmerciful men to read; for I may not stand here to repeat it. Sweetness is promised in the bread of deceit, but men finde it as gravel, crashing between their teeth.
Nor will his troubled conscience suffer him to steal a sound sleep: yea he sleeps as unquietly, as it his pillow were stuft with Lawyers per-knives.
I may give ye a hint of these things from the word, but onelyonly God and he can tell, how the remembrance of his forepast cozenages and oppression, occasions his guilty conscience many secret wrings and pinches, and gives his heart many a sore lash, to increase the fear and horror of his soul every time he calls the same to remembrance, which is not seldom: As, O poor wretches! what do they indure? how are they immerged in the horrors of a vulned conscience? there is more ease in a nest of Hornets, then under the sting of such a tormenting conscience. He that hath this plague, is like a man in debt, who suspecteth that every bush he sees, is a Sergant to arest and carry him away to prison. It was Gods curse upon Cain, when he had slain his brother Abel, to suspect and fear, that every one he met would kill him: yea it makes him so afraid of every thing, that a very Maulking frights him, and it is much, that he dares trust his Barber to shave him. Dionysius was so troubled with fear and horror of conscience, that not daring to trust his best friends with a razor, he used to findge his beard with burning coals, as Cicero records. He is much like a Malefactor in prison, who though he fare well, yet is tormented with the thought of ensuing judgement. It is the hand-writing on the wall, that prints bloody characters in Belshazzars heart.
So that if any should deem a man the better, or happier, for being the richer, he is very shallow; as many looking on the outer face of things, or see but the one side (as they used to paint Antigonus, that they might conceal his deformity on the other side) see not how they smart in secret, how their consciences gripe them. Nor does any one know, how the shoowrings the foot, but he that wears the same.
Or admit the best that can come, as suppose they can stop consciences mouth for a time, or with the musick of their mony play it asleep for the present; yet when they lye upon their death-beds, it will sting them to the quick. For when death besiegeth the body, Satan will not fail to beleagure the soul; yea then he will be sure to lay on load; for as all corrupt humors, run to the diseased and bruised part of the body; so when conscience is once awakened, all former sins, and present crosses joyn together to make the bruise or sore more painful. As every Creditor falls upon the poor man, when he is once arested. Or let it be granted that his con…cience never troubles him on his sick bed, and that he have no bonds in his death, as the Psalmist speaks Psal. 73. — but departs likes a Lamb, which is not onelyonly possible but probable; for more by many thousands go to hell like Naball, then like Iudas; more dye like sots in security, then in despair of conscience: yet all this is nothing, for the sting of conscience here, though it be intollerable, is but a flea-biting to that he shall endure hereafter, where the worm of conscience dyeth not, and where the fire never goeth out.
This is part of sins wages, and Satans reward: We have sinned, therefore our hearts are heavy, Isa. 59.11, 12. The sorrows of them that offer to another God (as do the covetous) shall be multiplyed says holy David, Psal. 16.4. Yea Seneca an heathen could say, that an evil life causeth an unquiet minde; so that Satans government, is rather a bondage then a government, unto which Christ giveth up those that shake off his own.
What his government is, you may partly guess at by the servile slaveries he puts his subjects upon. As O the many hard services which Satan puts his servants upon, and what a bad Master is he: when we read that Origen at his onelyonly appointment, made himself an Eunuch. Democritus put out his own eyes, Crates cast his money into the Sea, Thracius cut down all the Vines, whereas David did none of these, Ahaz made his son to pass through the fire, Jephta sacrificed his onelyonly daughter, as the text seems to import. Wicked men think they do God good service in putting his children to death: but where do we finde any Religious Israelite, or servant of God, at such cost? or when did God require this of his servants? The Prophets and Apostles never whipt nor lanced themselves, but Baals Priests did this and more. And so of the Papists, those hypocrites of late yeers, and the Pharisees of old. How many sleepless nights, and restless dayes, and wretched shifts, treacherous and bloody plots and practises, does covetousness and ambition cost men? which the humble and contented Christian is unacquainted with. How does the covetous mans heart droop wish his Mammon? How does he turmoile and vex his spirit, torment his conscience, and make himself a very map of misery, and a sink of calamity? it is nothing so with Christs servants.