on Romans 9. I. 209 be frequent in it, and intermix all our a&ions with !hart ejaculations to God, and always keep ourfelves in a praying frame : So, tho' we cannot always be a&ual- 'y putting Confcience to it, yet frequently we Mould, and more efpecially if we be about a duty that is more difficult and tickle, and wherein we are very ready to go wrong, and fo to lay the ground of a challenge ; or wherein God's honour is fomewhat more than ordinari- ly concerned. 3. 'Tis required here, that we ferioufly endeavour to keep things right, and be weeding out (as it were) what is wrong, as we find Confcience hinting to us; for the frame of our hearts (as bath been faid) is very unflable and fickle, we would therefore be often mending and righting it, as a man loth with a watch that is eafily diftempered, he often looks to it, and puts it right : Or it is here as it is with a pilot who ffeer- eth a veflel that is very eafily by a little wind put by her courfe, he beareth up dole in the eye of the wind, and, when he finds her never fo little, off her courfe, he fleers about again till he fet her right : Or to hold us at the former comparifon of an inftrumenr, to preferve which in tune, it muft not only be at firft tempered to a jut and harmonious found, and ftruck upon to give out that found ; but, when a man bath played a while upon it, he muft b° tempering and tuning it among hands (to fay fo) fcrewing up this and that and the other peg, as the firings flack their benfil, .elfe it will not be kept in tune Even fo, while we are endeavouring to keep a good Confcience, fome one peg or other (fo to fpeak) will readily ffi.11 be a-unfixing, and we would fludy to bring things back to their right temper, and watching that carnalnefs creep not in upon us. The ufe of the do&rine in a word is, partly to re- prove for negle& of this walk, partly to exhort to the diligent and tender pra &ice of it, even carefully to ad- vert to Confcience, and to endeavour to be In good terms with it in performing every a &ion, in eating, drinking, in bargaining, buying, felling, in riding a journey, in hearing, praying, &c. and not only to hear what Confcience hath to fay, but to walk ib as Çonfçience may fpeak good to us, and give us its ap pro.
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