A j V 4ue7rnua L light ; hut 'tis an anfwer as having a truth in it that is drawn from fi.ich a ground warranting filch and fuch a praEtice "; Confcience looking on it, as God's mind, for dire&ing it in its duty, and on that account putting on to it. As to the zd Quefhony Hew the Confcience giveth this anfwer, or how it maketh its fenfe and language of things known ? In a f Bring to it we would be fober, and not curious, nor more particular than we have ground for. In fhort then, we conceive that there are thefe four ways, how, and whereby Confcience giveth its anfwer, to let people know when it is pleafed or dif pleafed. lilt, When it bindeth and tiéth fuch or fuch a word, importing fuch or fiach a duty on a man, that he can noway get himfelf rid of, nor it fhaken off; as when he is difputing and debating within himfelf, whether fuch a thing fhould be done or not done? Confcience anfwereth on good ground, and either biddeth him ab- ilain or do "; and hath a pufh with it, becaufe the word of God commandeth or forbiddeth it : And this is, not only becaufe there is a word for it, or againft it ; but clear light drawing a conclu ion from fuch a word, whereupon the Confcience bindeth it on the man, fo that it cannot be got fhifted, nor lhaken off: For we know that men may know many duties, and yet not do them ; and, upon the other hand, that men may be furred, or pufhed on to do that which 'tis not God's mind they Should do : So then it is the anfwer of Confcience, 'when the word and the conclufion of Confcience are connected and joined together, fo as the one is the ground of the other, and floweth from the other; and this is the molt fpecial way how Confcience maketh its fenfe of things known, the word of God being the rule of Confcience. A zol way, is, by force fecret difcon- tent, or reftlefnefs in the Confcience. If a man do fuch a thing as is not duty, or if he do not fuch a thing that is pointed out to him to be duty, either through ignorance or inadvertancy ; the Confcience then, as it were, hunt - eth 'the man with challenges, difquieteth and maketh him rèftlefs till he praEtife fuch a duty, or abftain from fuch a fin: And this we find to have been often in the faints" recorded in fcripture, they having had no refl. tin
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