Holy men have cause to retire to their own consciences, when they would rejoice against false imputations. So holy St Austin, what saith he to a Douatist that wronged him in his reputation ? ' Think of Austin what you please, as long as my conscience accuseth me not with God, I will give you leave to think what you will ' (kk).
If so bo that man's conscience clears him, he cares not a whit for reports ; because a good man looks more to conscience than to fame. There!bre if conscience tell him truth, though, fame lie he cares not much ; for he squares not his life by report, but by conscience. Indeed he looks to a good name, but that is in the last place.
For a good man looks first to God, who is above conscience ; and then he looks to conscience, which is under God ; and then, in the third place, he looks to report amongst men. And if God and his consscience excuse him, though men accuse him, and lay imputations upon him, this or that, he passeth little for man's judgment. So the witness of conscience, it comforts in all imputations whatsoever.
[2.] Again, ?Y coiiiforts in sickness. Hezekiah was sick. What doth he retire unto ? ' Kemember, Lord, how I have walked uprightly before thee,' Isa. xxxviii. 3. He goes to his conscience.
In sickness, when a man can eat nothing, a good ' conscience is a con- tinual feast,' Prov. xv. 15. In sorrow it is a musician. A good conscience doth not only counsel and advise, but it is a musician to dehght. It is a physician to heal. It is the best coi'dial, the best physic. All other are physicians of no value, comforts of no value. If a man's conscience be wounded, if it be not quieted by faith in the blood of Christ ; if he have not the Spirit to witness the forgiveness of his sins, and to sanctify and enable him to lead a good life, all is to no purpose, if there be an evil con- science. The unsound body while it is sick, it is in a kind of hell already.
[3.] Again, take a man in amj cross ivhatsoever, a f/ood conscience doth hear out the cross, it bears a man up ahvay. Because a good conscience, being a witness with God, it raiseth a man above all earthly things whatsoever. There is no earthly discouragement that can dismay a good conscience, because there is a kind of divinity in conscience, put in by God, and it witnesseth together with God. So that in all crosses it comforts.
So likewise in losses, in want, in want of fiiends, in want of comforts,
2l8 COMMENTARY ON
in want of liberty; wlmt doth the witiioss of a f^ood conscience in all these? In want of friends, it is a friend indeed ; it is an inward friend, a near friend to lis. Put the case that a man have never a friend in the world, yet he hath God and his own conscience. Where there is a f^ood conscience, there is God and his Holy Spirit alway. In want of liberty, in want of outward comforts, he hath the comfort of a good conscience.
A man on his death-bed, he sees he wants all outward comforts, but ho hath a good conscience. And so in want of liberty, when a man is restrained, his heart is at liberty.
A wicked man that hath a bad conscience, is imprisoned in his own hiaart. Though he have never such liberty, though he be a monarch, a bad conscience imprisons him at home, ho is in fetters, his thoughts make him afraid of thunder, afraid of everything, afraid of himself ; and though there be nobody else to awe him, j'et his conscience awes him. Where there is a conscience under the guilt of sin unrepented, [though] there is the greatest liberty in the world, there is restraint ; for conscience is the worst prison. Where there is a good conscience, there is an inward en- largement. A good man in the greatest restraint hath liberty. Paul and Silas, Acts xvi., in the dungeon, in the hell of the dungeon, in the worst place of the dungeon, in the stocks, and at the worst time of the day, of the natural day, I mean, at midnight, and in the worst usage, when they were misused, and whipped withal, they had all the discouragements that could be ; and yet they sang at midnight, these blessed men, Paul and Silas. Because their hearts wex'e enlarged, there was a paradise in the very dungeon.
As where the king is, there is his coiirt, so it is where God is. God in the prison, in the noisome dungeon, by his Spirit so enlarged their hearts, that they sang at midnight. Whereas if conscience be ill, if it were in paradise, conscience would fear, as we see in Adam, Gen. iii. 8. St Paul in prison was better than Adam in paradise, when he had ofiended God. Adam had outward comforts enough ; but when he had sinned, his con- science made him afraid of him from whom he should have all comfort ; it made him afraid of God, and hide himself among the leaves. Alas, a poor shift ! We see then, conscience doth witness, and the witness of it when it is good doth cause the soul to glory and rejoice, not only in positive ills, in slanders and crosses, but in losses, in want of fi'iends, in want of comforts, in want of liberty.