A commentary

Name: A commentary
Author: Nicholas Byfield

A commentary: or, sermons upon the second chapter of the first epistle of Saint Peter wherein method, sense, doctrine, and use, is, with great variety of matter, profitably handled; and sundry heads of divinity largely discussed. By Nicholas Byfield, late preacher of God's Word at Isle-worth in Middlesex.A commentary: or, sermons vpon the second chapter of the first epistle of Saint Peter vvherein method, sense, doctrine, and vse, is, with great variety of matter, profitably handled; and sundry heads of diuinity largely discussed. By Nicholas Byfield, late preacher of God's Word at Isle-worth in Middlesex.

Nicholas Byfield 1579–1622London: printed by Humphrey Lownes for George Latham, 1623London: printed by Humfrey Lownes for George Latham, 1623

[16], 922, [6] p. · 245k words · STC 4211 · ESTC S107078

Title page typeset from the transcription.

AN EXPOSITION of the Second Chapter of the first Epistle general o… › Verses 19. and 20. For this is thank-worthy, if a man for conscienc…: Verses 19. and 20. For this is thank-worthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure…AN EXPOSITION of the Second Chapter of the first Epistle generall o… › Verses 19. and 20. For this is thank-worthy, if a man for conscienc…: Verses 19. and 20. For this is thank-worthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure…

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.

[ Earlier:3158–3173 of 3,895

:3158p. 757

For the first: Conscience judgeth of the actions of men, by virtue of certain principles (as I said before) which it findeth in the understanding, gathered either from the Law of Nature, or from experience of God's providence, or from the Scriptures.

For the first: Conscience iudgeth of the actions of men, by vertue of certain principles (as I said before) which it findeth in the vnderstanding, gathered either from the Law of Nature, or from experience of God's prouidence, or from the Scriptures.

:3159p. 757–759

Now, the manner how it proceeds in judgement, is, in form of reasoning, as I said before: for, in the mind the Conscience finds, as it were, a Book of Law written, which is in the keeping of ⟨p. 758⟩the faculty; they call it in schools, Synteresis: from hence the Conscience takes the ground of reasoning; and from the memory it takes evidence of the fact or state of the man that is arraigned; and then by it self it judiciously concludes, and passeth Sentence: and so it proceeds, whether it condemn or absolve. In the Judgement of condemnation, it proceeds thus: First, it cites or calls for the soul to be tried: then it accuseth in this form, out of the body of the law kept in the mind: it takes the conclusion it means to work upon, and then useth the memory to testify of the fact; as for instance: Every murderer is an offender; thou art a murderer, therefore thou art proved to be an offender. Then comes the Sentence in the same order; He that commits murder without repentance, shall be damned: thou committest murder without repentance, and therefore art a damned creature. So likewise it proceeds in absolving. For evidence, it proceeds thus: He that hath such and such marks, as, godly sorrow, the love or fear of God, &c. he is a child of God; but thou hast these marks, therefore thou art a child of God: and then it goeth to Sentence; He that is the child of God, shall be saved: but thou art proved to be the child of God, therefore thou shalt be saved. Nor doth it rest in the Sentence, but immediately doth it self begin the execution: for, laying hold upon the guilty person, it presently buffets him, and terrifies him, and pricks him at the very heart, and gnaws him many times with unspeakable torments and tortures. And so contrariwise, in the Sentence of

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