TIM. How then do they differ?

PHIL. Exceeding much in God's intention: gashing the wicked, as malefactors, out of justice; but lancing the godly, out of love, as a surgeon his patients. Likewise they differ in the issue and event of the wound, which ends in the eternal confusion of the one, but in the correction and amendment of the other.

TIM. Some have said, that in the midst of their pain, by this mark they may be distinguished, because the godly, when wounded, complain most of their sins, and the wicked of their sufferings.

PHIL. I have heard as much; but dare not lay too much stress on this slender sign, (to make it generally true,) for fear of failing. For sorrow for sin, and sorrow for suffering, are ofttimes so twisted and interwoven in the same person, yea, in the same sigh and groan, that sometimes it is impossible for the party himself so to separate and divide them in his own sense and feeling, as to know which proceeds from the one and which from the other. Only the all-seeing eye of an infinite God is able to discern and distinguish them.

TIM. Inform me concerning the nature of wounded consciences in the wicked.

PHIL. Excuse me herein: I remember a passage in St. Augustine, who inquired what might be the cause that the fall of the angels is not

* Angelicum vulnus verus medicus qualiter factum sit indicare noluit, dum illud postea curare non destinavit. De Mirab. Scrip. lib. 1. c. 2.

Of

plainly set down in the Old Testament, with the manner and circumstances thereof, resolves it thus: God, like a wise surgeon, would not open that wound which he never intended to cure. whose words, thus far I make use, that as it was not according to God's pleasure to restore the devils, so, it being above man's power to cure a wounded conscience in the wicked, I will not meddle with that which I cannot mend: only will insist on a wounded conscience in God's children, where, by God's blessing, one may be the instrument to give some ease and remedy unto their disease.

DIALOGUE II.

What use they are to make thereof, who neither hitherto were, nor haply hereafter shall be, visited with a wounded Conscience.

A

TIMOTHEUS.

RE all God's children, either in their life or at their death, visited with a wounded conscience?

PHIL. O no: God invites many with his golden sceptre, whom he never bruises with his rod of iron. Many, neither in their conversion, nor in the sequel of their lives, have ever felt that pain in such a manner and measure as amounts to a wounded conscience.

TIM. Must not the pangs in their travel of the new birth be painful unto them?

PHIL. Painful, but in different degrees. The

Blessed Virgin Mary (most hold) was delivered without any pain; as well may that child be born without sorrow, which is conceived without sin. The women of Israel were sprightful and lively, unlike the Egyptians.* The former favour none can have, in their spiritual travel; the latter some receive, who, though other whiles tasting of legal frights and fears, yet God so preventeth them with his blessings of goodness,† that they smart not so deeply therein as other men.

TIM. Who are those which commonly have such gentle usage in their conversion?

PHIL. Generally such who never were notoriously profane, and have had the benefit of godly education from pious parents. In some corporations, the sons of freemen, bred under their fathers in their profession, may set up and exercise their father's trade, without ever being bound apprentices thereunto. Such children whose parents have been citizens of new Jerusalem, and have been bred in the mystery of godliness, oftentimes are entered into religion without any spirit of bondage seizing upon them, a great benefit and rare blessing where God in his goodness is pleased to bestow it.

TIM. What may be the reason of God's dealing so differently with his own servants, that some of them are so deeply, and others not at all, afflicted with a wounded conscience?

PHIL. Even so, Father, because it pleaseth

* Exod. i. 19.

+ Psalm xxi. 3.

Gal. iv. 26.-Eph. ii. 19.-Heb. xii. 22.

T

thee. Yet in humility these reasons may be assigned, 1. To shew himself a free agent, not confined to follow the same precedent, and to deal with all as he doth with some. 2. To render the prospect of his proceedings the more pleasant to their sight who judiciously survey it, when they meet with so much diversity and variety therein. 3. That men, being both ignorant when, and uncertain whether or not God will visit them with wounded consciences, may wait on him with humble hearts in the work of their salvation, looking as the eyes of the servants to receive orders from the hand of their master ;* but what, when, and how, they know not, which quickens their daily expectations and diligent dependance on his pleasure.

TIM. I am one of those whom God hitherto hath not humbled with a wounded conscience: give me some instruction for my behaviour.

PHIL. First, be heartily thankful to God's infinite goodness, who hath not dealt thus with every one. Now because repentance hath two parts, mourning and mending, or humiliation and reformation, the more God hath abated thee in the former, out of his gentleness, the more must thou increase in the latter, out of thy gratitude. What thy humiliation hath wanted of other men, in the depth thereof, let thy reformation make up in the breadth thereof, spreading into an universal obedience unto all God's commandments. Well may he expect more work to be done by thy

*Psalm cxxiii. 2.

hands, who hath laid less weight to be borne on thy shoulders.

TIM. What other use must I make of God's kindness unto me?

PHIL. You are bound the more patiently to bear all God's rods, poverty, sickness, disgrace, captivity, &c. seeing God hath freed thee from the stinging scorpion of a wounded conscience.

TIM. How shall I demean myself for the time to come?

PHIL. Be not high minded, but fear; for thou canst not infallibly infer, that because thou hast not hitherto, hereafter thou shalt not taste of a wounded conscience.

TIM. I will therefore, for the future, with continual fear, wait for the coming thereof.

PHIL. Wait not for it with servile fear, but watch against it with constant carefulness. There is a slavish fear to be visited with a wounded conscience, which fear is to be avoided, for it is opposite to the free spirit of grace, derogatory to the goodness of God in his gospel, destructive to spiritual joy, which we ought always to have, and dangerous to the soul, racking it with anxieties and unworthy suspicions. Thus to fear a wounded conscience, is in part to feel it antedating one's misery, and tormenting himself before the time, seeking for that he would be loath to find: like the wicked in the gospel,* of whom it is said, Men's hearts failing them for fear, and looking for those

* Luke xxi. 26.