43 / 378
on
s
24.
i6.
4r
which plainly evidence,
that there
is
fuch
a
thing
in men
:
So
Herod,when
he
heard ofChrift's
miracles,his
confcie.nce
puts him in mind
of
Sohn
theBaptiftt
whom
he
had behead
-
ed,and difquiets him
with
fears
that
john
might
have
been
railed
from
the
dead
;
fomething
of
it
appears
likewife
in
Ahab, when it
puts
him to
put
on
fackclorh
:
All
which
(I
fay)
plainlrevidence, that
there
is
fuch
a
thing
in men
;
and
betide,
full fcripture-proof there
are none,
but,
if
they
obferve,
they
will find
their
thoughts
the
mean
while
either
accufing
or
elfe
excufing them.
For
further
clearing
of
this,
we
fhall (peak
a
little,
To
what
this
Confcience
is,
if
it
be poffible fatisfyingly
to
explain
it.
2dly,
To
the
ufe
and ends
of
it,
and
why
God
bath placed this in
man
;
where
we
fhall
thew
the
feveral forts
of
Confcience
that
are
in
men, good and evil.
For
the
firft,
to
wit,
What
Confcience
is
;
we
may,
for
coming
to
the underftanding
of
it, confider the
name
Con
fcience,
which
lignifies a
co-
knowledge,
or
a
knowledge
going
along with
our
knowledge; which
we
may
confider,
FFirf,
As
looking
to
God's knowledge
going alongft
with
ours, and ours
going
alongft
with
hìs,and
thus
it
implies,
as
his
knowledge
of all
our
thoughts, words and
ways,
fo
our
knowledge
together
with
his
of
thefe,
or
our
taking
notice
of
them with
refpe&
to his
knowledge.
Secondly,
We
may
confider
it
as
a
reflex knowledge joined
with
a
dire&
knowledge
;
as
for
inftance,when
a
man
hath
a
di_
rea
knowledge
of
prayer
as
his
duty,and
a
reflex know
-
ledge
going
along with the
pra
&ice
or
exercife
of
the
du_
ty,whereby
he
fees
and difcerns
himfelf, either
to
behave
fuitably
in
it,or
to be faulty
;
in
this
refpe&
Confcience
is
a
practical
knowledge,
taking
notice by
a
reflex
a&
of
a
man's
ways.
idly,
We
may confider it
as a
comprehending a
knowledge
of
God's law,and
then
it
lignifies a
knowledge
of
ourfelves,
compared
with the
law
:
It
lath knowledge
of
the
rule,
and
fo
of
what
is
duty,
and
what
is
fin
;
and
,
withal
it
bath
in
it the
knowledge
of
ourfelvrs and
of
our
conformity
or
difconformiry
to
the rule.
Confcience
then,
in this refpe&,
is
a
man's
knowledge
of
God's
will, and
of
himfelf
as
compared
with
it.
4thly,
We
may
confider
this co-knowledge
as
it
it fuppofeth,befide
the
knowledge
o
f
ou
rfe
vc
s)thc
knowledge
of
fomething taking notice
of
äu3