Of a Confcience void of Offence. 167 exceeding mad agaiìj chriflians, compelling S ER M. them to blafpheme, furely a mind diffracted VIA with furious rage is in an unnatural (fate, and fuch as cannot be the genuine effect of religious virtue. By this time, I hope, we may be able to form a notion of what it is to have a con - fcience void of offence ; it is to have that Pelf- refleéting power, which in every hu- man mind, for itfelf, is veiled with the fovereign authority of judging what is right and wrong, and, accordingly, approving or condemning its own difpofitions, and actions, upon a calm, diligent, impartial confider - ation, and ufing the bell means in its power for being well informed; to have it free from the imputation and felf- reproach, not of all moral infirmity or failing, but of every habitual courfe of known evil, and even every fingle, allowed, wilful, wicked - nefs. It is the fame thing which the apoflle yohn expreffes by our heart not condemning us, ill Ep. iii. 2t. And which he repre- fents as the only folid foundation of con- fidence towards God; as, in fact it was the foundation of yob's confidence, yob xxvii. 5. and of Hezekiah, who, under the imme- diate apprehenfions of death, thus expreffes M4 in
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