Durham - BV4615 D87 1732

S6 Senaon 4. peace on any terms and by any means ; and therefore . whet" a challenge cometh clots and home to him, it is quit marred. It is on this ground that a tender foul will de- fignedly aggrege fin, and even foffer a,challenge, as David loth, Pal. 51. .Again(l thee, thee only bave I finned : NArhereas a Saul will defend his own finful practice, and feek to íhift the challenge ; as we may fee, i sam. 15. io. Yea, I have kept the commandment of the. Lord, faith that proud hypocrite. A 5th Chara &er or difference is, That a good Confci- ence maintaineth its peace both from the law and from the gofpel, and will needs have peace in force meafure in refpeE of both, elfe it will not be fatisfied : The evil 'onfcience again taketh its peace from the one, and not from the other, and fo taketh a wrong rule or ground for founding and trying of its peace. An honeff man, that bath a good Ccnfcience, bath refpe& to the law, and will not thwart it ; yea, the challenging and condemning part of it is welcomed, and the threatntngs of it have influ- ence on him to make him fear ; and, as he refpe&eth the law, fo he refpefteth the gofpel, and looketh well to believing, repentance, fell fearching, examination, me- diation, and to this manner of performing thefe, and Of all his other duties, that none of them come in the place of Chriff, or get any thing of that which is his due ; and than he feem to himfelf to have faith in Chriff, if he endeavour not to have holinefs going along with it, he dare not fpeak peace to himfelf : But, on the contrary, the legal man or law confcience, if it be in good terms,as he fuppofeth, with the law, it looketh not to the duties of the gofpel, whether the man be indeed fled to Chriff, or be in good terms with God through him ; and, on the other hand, the prefumptuous confcience, when it hear - eth the law, and the threatnings thereof, it tome way tufh- eth at thefe, and,under pretext of betaking itfelf to Chriff, it teareth (as it were) away the law ; and this miftaking, halving and dividing of the rule, maketh many men think that their confcience fpeaketh good to them, when it cloth not fo, but bath ,rather ground to fpeak evil and wo. And in the by, ye who think ye have good Confsiences,, try them by this mark, W ye walk humbly under Confei-

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=