A09339:4203
A Golden Chain
A golden chain: or The description of theology containing the order of the causes of salvation and damnation, according to Gods word. A view whereof is to be seen in the table annexed. Hereunto is adjoined the order which M. Theodore Beza used in comforting afflicted consciences.A golden chaine: or The description of theologie containing the order of the causes of saluation and damnation, according to Gods word. A view whereof is to be seene in the table annexed. Hereunto is adioyned the order which M. Theodore Beza vsed in comforting afflicted consciences.
Cambridge: printed by John Legat, 1600Cambridge: printed by Iohn Legat, 1600
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Thus we see how good conscience is gotten: and because it is so precious a ⟨p. 903⟩jewel, I wish all persons, that as yet never laboured to get good conscience, now to begin. Reasons to induce men thereto may be these: I. you seek day and night from year to year for honours, riches, and pleasures, which ye must leave behind you: much more therefore ought you to seek for renewed and reformed consciences, considering that conscience will be with you in this life, in death, at the last judgement, & for ever. II. He that wants a conscience purged in the blood of Christ, can never have any true and lasting comfort in this life. Suppose a man arrayed in cloth of tissue, set in a chair of estate, before him a table furnished with all dainty provision: his servants, Monarchs, and Princes; his riches the chiefest treasures and kingdoms in the world: but withal suppose one standing by, with a naked sword to cut his throat, or a wild beast ready ever and anon to pull him in pieces: now, what can we say of this mans estate, but that all his happiness is nothing but woe and misery? And such is the estate of all men that abounding with riches, honours, and pleasures, carry about them an evil conscience, which is as a sword to slay the soul, or as a ravenous beast ready to suck the blood of the soul, and to rend it in pieces. III. He which wants good conscience can do do nothing but sin: his very eating and drinking, his sleeping and waking, and all he doth, turns to sin: the conscience must first be good, before the action can be good; if the root be corrupt, the fruits are answerable. IV. An evil conscience is the greatest enemy a man can have, because it doeth execute all the parts of judgement against him. It is the Lords sergeant. God need not send out process by any of his creatures for man: the conscience within man will arest him, and bring him before God. It is the gayler to keep man in prison in bolts and irons, that he may be forth coming at the day of judgement. It is the witness to accuse him, the judge to condemn him, the hangman to execute him, and the flashings of the fire of hell to torment him. Again, it makes a man to be an enemy to God: because it accuseth him to God, and makes him ••ie from God, as Adam did when he had sinned.
Thus we see how good conscience is gotten: and because it is so pretious a ⟨p. 903⟩