S4 csl Difcourfeof truehappinefse. 2 cafes, you may conceive,. Pith beefwayes the corruptionsof the time,Gth he rules and raignes in the hearts and affeaions of the moil men; and is ever the arch-plotter in all Simonia- call, indirea, corrupt and unconfcionable confultations and compa&s. The fecond reafon of the flourifhing ofthe wicked in this life,is their large & unlimited confciences:Forifa man once have fo hardened his heart,by often grieving the good Spirit of God,and repellinghis holy motions, ifhee have once fo darkened the eieofhis confcience,by offering violence to the tenderneffe, andnegle&ing the checkes thereof, that hee can now entertaineand digeft without temple or delu&ation, a- ny meanes,thoughnever fo indire&; anycondition, though never fo bafe; any advantage,thoughnever fo unconfciona- ble or difhonorable it will be eafie enough for him to thrive in the world and raife himfelfe. For what,Ipray you,were not the Papifsnow able todo, who have enlarged their confciences like hell ?nay,theyhave f}retched them beyond the whole compafie of all hellifh darkeneffe, even into a vault of their owne; what,I fay, werenot theyable todoe, except theywere countermanded by that irrefragable, eternall, andparticular Decree ofGod, that Babylonmutt nowdowne as irrecoverably, as-the great milftone in the Revelation cart with violence into the fea? Why certainly they wereableby theirpolicies & principles, not onely to re- efcablifh their former Antichriflian tyranny, but to cart the whole Chriftian world,nay,this and the ether world,& the whole frame ofnature into combuftion, darke- neffe,andconfufion.And nomarvel' ; for thefefellowes con- fciences can without remark digeft even the facred bloud ofKings , and fwallowdownewith delight the ruines and defolations of whole kingdomes. Their bloudy fuperftition Bathfoquite andfearefully extinguifht all fenfe otcommon honeftie, and put out the light of naturali equitie, and the common notions of right and wrong; that they broach with bold faces the curfedpoyfon of Equivocation , the devils old impofture in Oracles , a very ftraight paflage to damned Atheifine,
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