174 Of a Confcience void of Offince. S E R M. weaknefs and temptation, and that we are in VII. our prefent Rate impeded. The conduct of many, even chriftians, is quite otherwife ; they follow every appetite, every inclination they find in their nature, or propenfity they have contra&ed by cuftom and habit, without regard to confcience, or without examining whether it be agreeable to it or difagreeable. And tho' it is not in their power altogether to filence that monitor within themfelves, yet the feverity of its re- bukes is known to abate by a cuftomary tref -- paffing againft it ; nay, it becomes numm'd and infenfible, as it were, according to the apoftle's expreflion, feared with an hot iron. Studied amufements, and the pleafures of fin, divert its admonitions. Befides, me- thods are invented whereby finners deceive themfelves, reconciling their finful courfes, obftinately perfifted in, to the hope of ac- ceptance with God ; equivalents are put in the place of religious integrity and obedience to the moral precepts of God : great dili- gence in fulfilling one commandment mutt anfwer for defects in another ; and, particu- larly, great ftrictnefs in cbferving fome pofi- tive inffitutions, compenfates for moral im- purity, oppreßïon, fraud, or unmercifulnefs,. Thus
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