A bad conscience cannot joy in the midst of joy. It is like a gouty foot or a gouty toe covered with a velvet shoe. Alas ! what doth it ease it ? What doth glorious apparel ease the diseased body ? Nothing at all. The ill is within. There the arrow sticks.
And so in the comforts of the word, if the conscience be bad, we that are the messengers of comfort, we may apply comfort to you ; but if there be one within that saith thus, It is true, but I regarded not the word before, I regarded not the checks of conscience, conscience will speak more terror than we can speak peace. And after long and wilful rebellion, conscience will admit of no.comfort for the most part. Regard it, therefore, in time ; labour in time that it may witness well. An ill conscience, when it should be most comforted, then it is most terrible. At the horn- of death we should have most comfort, if we had any wisdom. When earthly comforts shall be taken from us, and at the day of judgment, then an ill conscience, look where it will, it hath matter of terror. If it look up, there is the Judge armed with vengeance ; if it look beneath, there is hell ready to swallow it ; if it look on the one side, there is the devil accusing and helping con- science ; if it look round about, there is heaven and earth, and all on fire, and within there is a hell. WTiere shall the sinner and ungodly appear ? ' If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the sinner and ungodly ap- pear,' 1 Pet. iv. 18, at that time ?
0 let us labour to have a good conscience, and to exercise the reflect* power of conscience in this world ; that is, let us examine ourselves, ad- monish ourselves, jiidge ourselves, condemn ourselves, do all in ourselves. Let us keep court at home first, let us keep the assizes there, and then we shall have comfort at the great assizes.
Therefore, God out of his love hath put conscience into the soul, that we might keep a comi at home. Let conscience, therefore, do its worst now, let it accuse, let it judge ; and when it hath judged, let it smite us and do execution upon us, that, ' having judged ourselves, we may not be con- demned with the world,' 1 Cor. xi. 32.
If we sufier not conscience to have its full work now, it will have it one day. A sleepy conscience will not alway sleep. If we do not suffer con- science to awake here, it will awaken in hell, where there is no remedy.
Therefore, give conscience leave to speak what it will. Perhaps it will tell thee a tale in thine ear which thou wouldst be loath to hear, it wiU pursue thee mth terrors like a bloodhound, and will not sufier thee to rest ; therefore, as a bankrupt, thou art loath to look in thy books, because there is nothing but matter of terror. This is but a folly, for at the last conscienc« will do its duty. It will awaken either here or in hell. Therefore, we are to hope the best of them that have their consciences opened here. There * That is, ' reflex.' — G.
2 CORINTHIANS CUAP. I, \'ER. 12. 225
is hope that they will make their peace with God, that * they will agree with their adversary while they are in the way,' Mat. v. 25. If thou suft'er con- science to be sleepy and drowsy till it be awaked in hell, woo unto thee ! for then thy estate is determined of; it will be a barren repentance. Now thy repentance may be fruitful, it may force thee to make thy peace with God. Dost thou think it will alway be thus with thee ? Thou bcsottest thy conscience with sensuality, and saycst, ' Go thy vvay, and come another time,' as he said to St Paul, Acts xxiv. 25. I will tell thee, this peace will prove a tempest in the end.
Conscience of all things in the world deserves the greatest reverence, more than an}- monarch in the world; for it is above all men, it is next unto God. And yet what do many men ? Regard the honour of their friends more than conscience, that inward friend that shall accompany them to heaven, that will go with them to death and to judgment, and make them lift up their heads with joy when other friends cannot help them, but must needs leave them in death. Now, for a man to follow the humours of men, to follow the multitude, and to stain conscience, what a foolish wretch ia he ! Though such men think themselves never so wise, it is the gi-eatest folly in the world to stain conscience to please any man, because conscience is above all men.
Again, those that follow their own humours, their own dispositions, and are carried away with their own lusts, it is a folly and madness ; for the time will come that that which their covetous, base lust hath carried them to, that shall be taken away, as honours, riches, pleasures, which is the fuel of that lust which makes them now neglect conscience ; all shall be taken away in sickness or in the time of despair, when conscience shall be awaked. Now, what folly is it to please thy own lust, which thou shouldst mortify and subdue, and to displease conscience, thy best friend ! And then when thy lust is fully satisfied, all that hath been fuel to it, that hath fed it, shall be taken away at the hour of death, or some special judgment, and conscience shall be awaked, and shall torment thee for giving liberty to thy base lusts and to thyself. And those eyes of thy soul that thy offence, delighted to shut up, there shall some punishment come, either in this life or in that to come, that shall open those eyes, as Adam's eyes were opened after his sin. Why ? Were they not open before ? He had such a strong desire to the apple, he did not regard them ; but his prnishment afterward opened those eyes, which his inordinate desire shut. So it shall be with every sinner. Therefore, regard no man in the world more than thy conscience. Regai'd nothing, no pleasure, no profit, more than con- science ; reverence it more than anything in the world. Happy is that man that carries with him a good conscience, that can witness that he hath said, nor done nothing that may vex or grieve conscience. If it be otherwise, whatsoever a man gains he loseth in conscience, and there is no comparison between those two. One crack, one flaw in conscience, will prove more disadvantageous than the rest will be profitable. Thou must cast up the rest again. ' They are sweet bits downward, but they shall bo gravel in the belly,' Prov. xx. 17.