¿ern2on . mind of God, and what he Pays is wrong or right, it lays fo of it alto: So, in the epiftle to Ephefus, Rev. 2. as the Lord chargeth them, that they are fallen from their fir, love, to doth Confcience ; yet, as he telleth i them, that there is fomething right, n as far as they had laboured for his Name's fake, and hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which he hated, &c. to doth Confcience allo taffy the fame : And fo, in all the reft of the e- pitles to t'hefe (even Churches. As God is impartial in his teftrmony, fo is Confcience when right. idly, Ye would advert to the ground of Confcience its fpeaking, or to that on- account of which it teififies for you,, or againft you: For, as in our forbearing of one a&ion, and in our choo- liing of another, we are to forbear, or to choofe, and proceed according as Confcience holdeth out clear light and reafon for it ; fo, upon the back of any a &ion or duty performed, when we go to reflect we would try the ground, whether of Confcience its challenge, or of its good teffimony : If it challenge and accufe,try well whe- ther it be indeed a fin, for which it Both to ; if it approve, and Beak peace, try on what ground it doth fo ; Con/ci- will fomeway teifify of the a &ion, but ye would try if it be Iinful, or not according to the word of God 'hick fu pofeth knowledge in the thing, and of the nind pf God concerning it; wherein any, efpecially more confiderable defe&, even in confcientious and ten- der Chriffians, is waited with its own prejudice : Hence it came to pals (as the apoftle gives us an account, Rom. 14.) that many of the primitive Chriftians, through the rrveaknefs of their own knowledge, were made to judge fuch and such things to be wrong, as the eating of fuch and fuch meats, (their Confcience judging according to their knowledge) when yet indeed the matter was not wrong, tho' (as the apoftle there faith) 2"o him that e eemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean. 'I`'herefore we would be the more holily jealous over ourfelves, left we found our pcace,,on a deluded teftimony of our Con- f cience And, for preventing of that, we would put it to give its reafon for, and evidence of, what it teffifreth ; for, Confcience being but a fubordinate judge, we muff go to the Law and to thee `lirnoaiy, and fee if it fbeaketh accor- din
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