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41
Sermon
r.
them
;
therefore they
are given
up
to
the
groffefl things
without check
or
challenge
:
Hence
it
is
thus,
in
part
at
leaft,
with
many profeffors
within the
vifible
Church,
for
thwarting
with
Confcience.
And indeed
a
filent
and dumb'
Confcience
is
a
great plague
:
For,if
it
ceafe to
be
a
repro_
ver,
and
fpeak not, men, nay,
even
godly
men, may,
and
will
fleep
on;
as
David,
after the
going over
the bet.
ly
of
his
light,
and
blunting the
Edge
of
his
Confcience,
ílept
long enough,
till
Confcience
at
laft
roufed
him up.
Hence
alto the apoflle
fpeaketh
of
force
Conf
iences
which
mere
feared with
an
hot iron
;
which
is
not
fo
to
be
un-
derftood,
as
if
Confcience
were flefh,
or
of
a
fiefhly
fub4
fiance
;
only he
maketh the
comparifon,
that,
as
a
man's
flefh
is
fenfible
of, and
afeeted
with
the
prick
of
a
pin,
fo
is
Confcience
with
fin,
while
tender
:
But,
as
the
flefh
of
a
man
or
beaft, when
it
is
feared
or burnt,
a
confia°
derable
thruft
will
not
much,
if
it
at
all,
affe&
it
;
fo
is
Confcience,
when
ftupified and made
fenflefs
by
mul-
tiplied
fins
againft
light,
it
groweth
fo
cauterized
and
feared,
that hardly
any fin,
or
challenge
for
fin,
is
felt.
3.
Men
want not
a
Confcience,
tho'
they hear
it
not
al-
ways fpeaking
;
for
Confcience
may often
be
fpeaking
when
they
take not heed to it
;
as
is
abundantly
clear
in
David
and
yofeph's
brethren
:
For,
that
which
is
the
death
-evil
of
a
natural
man, may fometimes
be
the
fore
and dangerous
ficknefs
and
diflemper
of
a
child
of
God;
and,
tho
Confcience
may
fpeak but foftly
for
a
time,
yet
thereafter
it
will
fpeak
louder,
and make
it known,
that
it
fpoke when
it
was
not
liflned unto.
The
day cometh,
when
the
books will
be
opened,
and
Confcience
will
fpeak
plainly, fmartly,
and home
;
and
it
concerns
you
all
to
know,
that
Confcience is
not abfent when
it
is
quiet,
but
that
it
will
fpeak,
and fpeak to
purpofe
in
due time;
and that,
as
a
party
with
whom
there
is
no
tryfting
till
it
come
before
the
great
Judge,
and
then
it will
give
in
what
it hath
to
fay
;
and
it
will
then
be
evidently
known,
that
there
was
a
Confcience
in the
prophaneff
perfon,
who
moll
cauterized
it,
by
going over the belly
of
its
light
and fuggeftions.
The
zd
ufe
fpeaketh
to
you that
live
at
random,
taking
lrcat
liberty and latitude
to yourfelves befide the rule
e
O
1
to