Sayings of Wise and Learned Men, Part 2
Some choice Sentences, and Sayings concerning the Bleſſings, and Benefits which accompany a pure, peaceable and good Conſcience.
COnſcience is a Prime faculty of the reaſonable Soul, there ſet to give notice of its ſpiritual Eſtate, in what Terms it ſtands with God.
Conſcience (ſaith St. Auſtin) is like a Wife; the beſt of Comforts if good, the worſt of naughts if bad.
Deal friendly with Conſcience, and, next to God, it will prove thy beſt friend in the World.
Firſt, Thy trueſt Friend that will never flatter thee, but make thee know thy ſelf.
Secondly, The ſureſt Friend, that will never ſtart from thee: It wll Ride with thee; It will lye with thee; ſleep with thee; Wake with thee; It will Walk with thee; Be with thee in every place, beyond all times.
Thirdly, The ſweeteſt Friend in the World. If natural cheerfulneſs be ſo good an Houſe-keeper to a good man that it Feaſts him daily (as Solomon ſaith) Oh then what will be the Banquets of a Conſcience ſanctified, purified, and pacified! What joys thoſe that will carry a man above ground, and make him forget the beſt of Natures Comforts! what Comforts thoſe that will make him ſing under the Whip, in the Stocks, at the Stake in deſpite of the Fire! Oh what the ſtrength of Conſcience that can ſooner tyre the Tyrant than the Martyr! And can carry weak Strength (as weak as Water, as it were) in Triumph through a World of Bonds, Rods, Swords, Racks, Wheels, Flames, Strapadoes, and whatſoever elſe is moſt terrible! Theſe joys are impregnable, and unſpeakable indeed. This Peace is unconceivable, paſſes all underſtanding. This Friend is unmatchable. Let not ſuch an one ſo true, ſo faſt, ſo good, be ſlighted, or offended.
Therefore let us be of St. Paul's mind; ſet Conſcience at an high Price: Conſider what it will be worth in a day of Trouble, of Death, of Judgment: Weigh what the Price of Conſcience would be at in Hell if men might buy their Peace, and Rate it accordingly.
Look how chary a proud Woman is of her Beauty, a Wiſe-man of his Eye, a Weak man of his Stomach: So, and much more than ſo ſhould a Chriſtian be careful of his Conſcience: Of his Heart, Prov. 4. 23. Keep thy Heart with all diligence, &c. Pet. 23. 1. I have lived in all good Conſcience before God, until this day: Heb. 13. 18. We truſt we have a good Conſcience in all things, willing to live honeſtly.
Give Conſcience content and reſt, and it will pay thee an Hundred-fold. It will round thee in the Ear and ſay, this is well however it be taken, and therefore be not diſcouraged: This is naught however applauded and Painted: 'Tis ſtark ſtaring naught; 'Tis Pride, Hypocriſie, therefore amend it.
Other Friends go and come, and ſtand afar off, now at hand, now I know not where; But Conſcience is no ſtarter. 'Tis never from our ſides, out of our Boſoms.
A pacified Conſcience, what a Bleſſing is that? What joys be thoſe, which will carry a man out of the Earth, and make him ſay; Tho I have Wife, Children, Friends, Wealth, Houſe, Health, Eaſe, Honour, &c. after mine own Hearts deſire, yet theſe are nothing to my Comfort and Contentment within? Oh Conſcience! Thou haſt a ſpecial gift in Comforting, that canſt make the Patient laugh and rejoyce when the Spectators weep and mourn, and canſt carry frail Fleſh ſinging and rejoycing thorough a World of Miſeries: Theſe joys be ſtrong indeed, and paſs mans underſtanding, Phil. 4. 7.
Other Friends love not to come to a Sick-mans Bed-ſide; Or if they do, they cannot abide to hear his groaning, to ſee a Dead man; At the moſt, they can but follow him to the Grave: But Conſcience will make a mans Bed in his ſickneſs, and cauſe him to lye the ſofter: It will ſtand by him when he groans, and Comfort him: It will hearten him againſt Death when it's coming, and ſay, thy Redeemer lives: It will whiſper to him when departing, and ſay, Thy Warfare is accompliſhed: It will lodge the Body in the Grave as in a Bed; accompany the Soul into Heaven, and enable it to look God in the Face without any terror. So faſt a Friend is this, that when Riches, Husband, Parents, Friends, Breath, Life; Nay, when Patience, Hope, Faith have left us in ſome meaſure, this will not leave us.
That's the beſt Glaſs which ſhews the ſmalleſt ſpots: The brighteſt Light that ſhews the leaſt Motes: The fineſt Fleſh that is ſenſible of the leaſt pricking: So that Conſcience that is ſenſible of the leaſt Sin or failing, is the Perfection of Chriſtianity, whereunto we ſhould all endeavour to attain.
If you lay an heavy burden upon a ſound Shoulder, it goes away with it well enough: So if the Soul and Conſcience be ſound, and God enable a man to bear it, Diſeaſes, Impriſonment, Diſgrace &c, are eaſily born.
As the cleereſt Blood makes the beſt Spirits: So doth a good Life the quieteſt Conſcience. The pureſt air breeds the greateſt agility, and the pureſt Life the faireſt Hope.
A natural Conſcience ſhews only the danger of Sin; and ſo makes a man fear it; But a ſpiritual Conſcience ſhews the filthineſs and pollution of Sin, and ſo makes a man hate it.
A good Conſcience appears in the Countenance, and looks merrily out at the Windows of the Eyes. But this is not till Faith hath healed the Conſcience. This made Stephen to look like an Angel, Act. 6. 15. and the Apoſtles to rejoyce in their ſufferings, Act. 5. 41. This is Praemium ante praemium, even Heaven afore-hand: ſome Cluſters of Grapes of that Celeſtial Canaan.
A good Conſcience will not only ſtand under the greateſt preſſures, as we ſee in St. Paul, 2 Cor. 1. 9. 12. We had the Sentence of Death in our ſelves, that we ſhould not truſt in our ſelves, but in God which raiſeth the Dead. For our rejoycing is this, the Teſtimony of our Conſcience, that in ſimplicity and Godly ſincerity, not with fleſhly Wiſdom, but by the Grace of God, we have had our Converſation in the World. But goes as merrily to Dye, in a good cauſe, as ever he did to Dine, as we ſee in divers of the Martyrs. Be the Air cleer or Cloudy, he enjoys a continual ſerenity, and ſits always at the bleſſed Feaſt, whereat the Angels are continually the bleſſed Cooks and Butlers (as Luther phraſeth it) and the three Perſons of the Trinity are gladſome Gueſts.
A good Conſcience is a full Feaſt, a laſting Feaſt, not for a day, as was Nabal's: Nor for ſeven dayes, as was that of Sampſon: No nor for nineſcore dayes, as was of that Ahaſherus: But a durable Feaſt without intermiſſion of ſolace, or interruption of Society. Vis ergo (O Homo) ſemper epulari? Vis nunquam triſtis eſſe (ſaith Bernard) Bene vive. Would'ſt thou never be ſad? Would'ſt thou turn thy whole Life into a merry Feſtival? Get and keep a good Conſcience.
Prov. 17. 22. A merry Heart doth good like a Medicine. All true mirth is from the peace of Conſcience: When Faith hath healed the Conſcience, there is a Sabbath of reſt, and bleſſed tranquillity lodged in the Soul, and then the Body alſo is vigorous for the moſt part, and in good plight and healthful.
Eccleſ. 9. 7. &c. Go thy way (ſaith Solomon there to one that hath a good Conſcience) Eat thy Bread with joy, and drink thy Wine with a merry Heart—Let thy Garments be always White, and let thy Head lack no Oyntment, &c. That is, be merry at thy Meals, light-ſome in thy Cloaths, painful and cheerful in thy Calling, &c. all which do much further Health. Such ſhall renew their ſtrength: They ſhall mount up with wings as Eagles: They ſhall run and not be Weary: And they ſhall walk and not Faint, Iſa. 40. 31.
Let a man be ſound within, and at Peace with his own Conſcience, and he will be able bravely to bear up under unſpeakable Preſſures, as did St. Paul, 2 Cor. 1. 9. 12. as an old beaten Porter to the Croſs: Maluit toller are quàm deplorare: His ſtroak was heavier than his groaning, Job 23. 2.
Conſcience is frequently in Scripture called the Spirit of a Man, as being planted by God in every part of the reaſonable Soul, where ſhe produceth, occaſionally, ſeveral Operations, as being the Souls School-Maſter, Monitor, and domeſtical Preacher: God's ſpy, and Man's Over-ſeer: The principal Commander, and chief Controuler of all his Deſires, and doings.
Conſcience is a moſt Celeſtial gift▪ It is ſo of God and in Man, that it is a kind of middle thing between God and Man; leſs than God, and yet above man▪ It may be called our God, in the ſenſe that Moſes was called Pharaoh's God, having Power to controul and avenge our diſobedience with greater plagues than ever Moſes brought upon Egypt.
Many ſeek for knowledge, few care for Conſcience; yet is Conſcience got with more eaſe, and kept with more advantage than all our Science.
Keep Conſcience pure, and it will keep thee in Peace. Let men, the World, and the Devils do their worſt, they cannot hurt him that hath a good Conſcience, ſaith Bernard.
A good Conſcience is the Paradiſe that God walks in, the Throne that Chriſt ſits upon; the Temple that the holy Spirit dwels in; the Golden-pot wherein is kept the hidden Manna, &c.
Conſcience is the Book of Books; the ancienteſt piece of Scripture in the world. The firſt Tables of God's own hewing, and Hand-writing in the Heart of Man, for whoſe ſake all other Books ſince, yea, the Scripture it ſelf, was afterwards written on purpoſe to Comment upon it. This is the Book that every man ſhould be well verſed in. To ſtudy other Books will make thee a Schollar, but to ſtudy this will make thee a Chriſtian.
Peace of Conſcience is worth our utmoſt endeavour: It will make a man ſleep without a Pillow, yea, without a Bed. Hence it was that Jacob took ſuch good reſt upon a Stone: That Peter (loaden with Iron Chains) could ſleep ſo ſweetly tho (for ought he knew) he was to dye the next day: That Mr Philpot and his fellow Priſoners could rouſe as merrily in the Straw, in the B B of London's Colehouſe, as if they had been upon Down Beds in a Pallace. It is a Feaſt with any Food tho never ſo courſe and ſlender. It made thoſe bleſſed Martyrs in the Reign of Severus the Emperor (of whom Euſebius writes) that after long and hard impriſonment, being releaſed for a time, they appeared to the People as thoſe that came è Myrothecia non Ergaſtulo; rather out of Shops from among ſweet Oyntments▪ than out of filthy Priſons. They were brought forth (ſaith he) rejoycing in their Torments, and carrying in their Countenances a certain Divine aſpect This inward peace of Conſcience made the Prophet Iſay cheerfully to ſubmit himſelf to the Saw: Jeremiah to be ſtoned: Paul to the Sword: Peter to the Croſs: Lawrence to the Grid-iron, &c.
Prov. 28. 1.—The righteous is bold as a Lyon. Conſcintia pura ſemper ſecura. A good Conſcience hath a ſecure Confidence, and he that hath it, ſits (Noah-like) mediis tranquillus in undis: Quiet in the greateſt Combuſtions: Freed, if not from the common Deſtruction, yet from the common Diſtraction. For he knows whom he hath truſted, and is ſure that neither Life nor Dèath, nor things Preſent, nor things to come, can ever ſunder him from God's love in Chriſt, Rom. 8. 38, 39.
Tho Saul could not be merry without a Fidler: Ahab without Naboth's Vineyard: Nor Haman without Mordecai's curteſie: Yet he that hath a good Conſcience can be merry without all theſe: Yea, as the Lilly is freſh, beautiful, and looks pleaſantly tho among Thorns: So can ſuch an one exult in the midſt of troubles. St. Paul (tho no man out of Hell ever ſuffered more then he) yet did he not only Glory in Tribulations, but Over-abounded exceedingly with joy, 2 Cor. 7. 4.
There are four quiet Conſciences, and never a one of them good.
Firſt, The ignorant Conſcience, which (with the blind Man) ſwallows many a Fly, and know's it not, Ephe. 4. 18, 19.
Secondly, The Conſcience that was never yet well awakened: The ſleeping Conſcience: But Sin lyes at the Door. His Bones are full of the Sin of his youth, which ſhall lye down with him in the Duſt, Job 20. 11. This is worſe than a troubled Conſcience. Here the ſtrong Man armed keepeth poſſeſſion, and therefore all things are at Peace, Luke 11. 21.
Thirdly, The deluded Conſcience, that Dreams of nothing but Viſions of Peace, Lam. 2. 14. being deluded by Satan and his Inſtruments, as Ahab was by his falſe Prophets, 1 Kin. 22. 21, 22. Moſt men are in this condition, Zech. 1. 11.—Behold, all the Earth ſits ſtill, and is at reſt, Zeph. 1. 11.—I will puniſh the men that are ſetled on their Lees, &c. Theſe dye like Lambs and are accounted happy, Jer. 51. 40.
Fourthly, The obdurate Conſcience. Theſe Treaſure up wrath againſt the day of Wrath, Rom. 2. 5. Job 36. 13. There is no greater a Plague than ſuch a Conſcience.
David, before he was ſmitten, either by God's hand, or by the Prophet's reproof, his own ſanctified Conſcience did the Office of a faithful Monitor, and houſhold Chaplain; For his Heart preſently miſ-gave him, 1 Chron. 21. 8. 2 Sam. 24 10. Bee-Maſters tell us that thoſe are the beſt Hives that make the greateſt noiſe: Sure it is, that that is the beſt Conſcience that ſuffers not a man to ſleep in Sin. David's heart ſmote him for numbring the People; It was for his own, for a ſmall, for a ſecret Sin; For failing in the manner only; For he knew that a man might as well dye of an in ward bleeding, as of an outward Wound. The good Soul is often afflicted for it's failings in thoſe Duties which others applaud and extoll.
A good and a peaceable Conſcience (ſaith Bernard) eſt lectus Animae. The Bed on which the Soul takes ſweet repoſe.
Behold the Conſidence of a good Conſcience towards God, 1 Pet. 3. 21. when it is parling with God by Prayer, and bold interceſſion! It dares plead with God as Jeremy did, Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee: Yet let me talk with thee of thy Judgments, &c. Jer. 12. 1. And interrogates as St. Paul, Rom. 8. 33, 34, 35. Who ſhall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect? It is God that juſtifies: Who is he that Condemns, &c? And expoſtulates with God as David often did. When God ſeems to be aſleep he will awaken him: When to delay he will quicken him: When to have loſt his wonted kindneſs, he will find it for him.
In pure Water the Face may be ſeen, not ſo in muddy: So in a pure Conſcience Gods Face may be ſeen, and no where elſe in the Earth.
As Faith makes the Conſcience good before God, ſo Purity makes it good before men.
The unlearned man with a good Conſcience (ſaith St. Auſtin) will go to Heaven, when thou with all thy Learning ſhalt be caſt into Hell. Surgunt indocti & rapiunt Regnum Coelorum, &c.
Faith looks to Promiſes; Fear to threats; Hope to futures; Obedience to Duties; Repentance to Sins, &c. But Conſcience looks to all.
A good Conſcience will ſtand a Man inſtead when he appears before the great Tribunal of God, where Courage dares not ſhew it's Face; nor Eloquence open it's Mouth; nor Majeſty hath any reſpect; nor Greatneſs hath any favour; where Money bears no Maſtery (as that Martyr ſaid) To be feaſted with the Fruits of a good Conſcience is Angels food, and ſome of the Sweet-meats of Heaven, as a tormenting Conſcience is one of the greateſt miſeries of Hell.
No man can attain to a good Conſcience, but by a careful and diligent keeping of his Heart, ſaith Bernard. A good Conſcience hath ever one Eye upon God, to obſerve his Precepts, and the other up to God, by Prayer to begg his direction, and Aſſiſtance.
Every man would willingly live and dye Comfortably. No way ſo to do but by laying up a Foundation of Comfort in an holy Converſation: A wicked Man would gladly forget himſelf, and run away from himſelf: He cannot look backward, or inward to himſelf, without guilt and Horror: It was therefore good Counſel of an old Rabbi, Ne ſis impius coram te ipſo: Be not wicked in thine own ſight: Learn to reverence thy Conſcience. No ſuch good Companion as a good Conſcience: A man may then dare to be acquainted with himſelf, as ſome men have written the Hiſtory of their own Lives. A Leper cares not much for a Looking-Glaſs, becauſe he ſhall ſee by it nothing but his own Deformity. A Bank-rupt cannot abide to caſt up his account, becauſe he ſhall find himſelf worſe than nothing: But he that leads a holy Life is like to a man who hath Travelled over a beautiful Valley, and being on the top of the Hill, turns about with delight to take a View of it again.
A good Conſcience will be a Noah's Ark to ſave us from periſhing with the World: A Zoar to ſhelter us from Wrath to come. It will be a Simon to help us to bear our Croſſes. His Motto is, Miſer ſit qui miſer eſſe poteſt: Let who will be miſerable, he cannot.
To get, and keep a good Conſcience, we muſt diſlodg two home-bred Innmates:
1. Carnal delights. Reſt not in theſe; in Wealth; in Men: Rely not on Wines, Meats, Muſick, Pleaſures, Company &c. Theſe will deceive in times of Diſtreſs. Beſides, Nature ſoon putrifies and turns to Corruption, and ſo proves baneful.
2. Take heed of ſinful Luſts: Theſe War againſt the Peace and Comfort of the Soul, 2 Pet. 2. 12. Yea, they are ſo far from Comforting that they oppreſs. The end of ſuch Mirth is heavineſs of Spirit, Sorrow, Fear, Anguiſh, Tribulation, and Woe upon every Soul, that wallow's in ſuch ſenſual Sins. Conceive therefore of Sin (yea of every Sin) as of a Diſeaſe, a Wound, an Enemy to Peace, and Complain and ſtrive againſt it. Still walk in the Light, and keep thy ſelf in God's preſence, ſo Peace ſhall be upon thee, and thy Spirit ſhall be held up in cheerfulneſs.
Oh the power of Conſcience! As it makes an happy Eſtate miſerable if bad: So a miſerable Condition bleſſed if Good. As will fully appear in this rare Example.
Anno Chriſti, 1555. There was one Algerius, a Student in Padua, a young man of excellent Learning, who, having attained to the Knowledge of the Truth, ceaſed not by Inſtruction and Example to teach it to others; for which, being accuſed to the Pope, by his command he was caſt into Priſon, where he lay long, and during that time he wrote a moſt affectionate Letter to the diſtreſſed Saints, wherein, among many others ſweet expreſſions, he thus writeth: I cannot but Communicate unto you ſome Portion of my delectations, and joys which I feel and find: Who would believe that in this dark Dungeon I ſhould find a Paradiſe of Pleaſure? For in this place of Sorrow and Death dwells Tranquillity, and hope of Life: In an infernal Cave I have joy of Soul: I have found Honey in the entrails of a Lyon: Where others weep I rejoyce: Where others tremble I have ſtrength and boldneſs, &c. All theſe things the ſweet hand of the Lord doth miniſter unto me: He doth Comfort me, and fills me with gladneſs: He drives away all Sorrow, and ſtrengthens, encourages, heals, refreſhes, and advanceth me, &c.
Collected out of the Works of B P. Reynolds, Dr. Harris, Dr. Stoughton, &c. by S. C.