2I0 Sermon I. there' be iniquity in my hands, if I have rewarded evil to him, &c. Pfal. z6. z. Examine me, O Lord, and prove me, try my reins and my heart: And, Pfal. 139. 23. Search vie, O Lord, (faith he) and know my heart, try me, and know my thoughts, and fee if there be any wicked way in me : All which fuppofeth his own trial accomplifhed in and of his Confcience to have gone before. Yea, not only the believer, but the believer in the tendereft frame, is moft in this work : Therefore, in the molt ferious ex- ercife of repentance, under the greateft manifeftations of God's pretence, and the molt abundant pourings out of his Spirit, and when neareft to death, they are molt rea- dy to refle& on Confcience ; which fheweth, that not on- ly we fhould do it, but that, the more tender perlons be, they will be the more in this duty : And there is alfo good reafon for it ; for, 1. A Man cannot know his con- dition, except he refle& and fearch what his Confcience hath to fay of it; and it is not the bare remembring of the a &ion, but the confidering of it, by bringing it be- fore, and trying it by the rule of the word in the court of Confcience, fo as to have its approbative teífimony, that maketh it pals for current. z. Becaufe, as a man know- eth not how to judge of what is paft, fo neither how to carry for time to come ; what he bath to repent of, or what he hath to amend in his way, except he take a re- view and back -look of it, as to the time pall ; 'tis the find- ing of fuch a thing to be wrong that maketh him fay, This I had need to repent of, and this I had need to watch againft for time to come ; therefore thefe two are put together, Pfal. 119. 59, 69. 1 thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy teftimonies ; I made hafe, &c. The examination of his bygone way, helped him to go on right for the time . to come. 3. Becaufe hardly will a tender man come to prayer without this : He knoweth not what to confefs, nor what to Peek, except he refle &, and confider what he hath to confefs unto, or to feek from God; and lure a man cannot be tender, if he pray not : Therefore thefe two are joined together, Zech. i2. io. I will prr (faith the Lord) upon the houfe of David, and the inhabitants of Jerufalem, the Spirit cf grace and f ipplications3 and they ¡ball look upon him whom they have pier-
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