Now, all thefe fad and woful evidences and eft-efts being put together, it is beyond all doubt, that there is at this tame among us much negleet of this duty of felf -exa.. urination ; by the confcientous difcharge whereof, thefe dreadful effeets might he removed. Thefe evidences of the neae, leet of this duty being pal- pable, we come now in the fecond place clots to the re- proof of it, and expoffulation for it ; and is there not juft ground for both ? I dare fay, If many of you were asked about this duty, it would be found to he an un- known duty to you ; a duty that ye walk not under the convi &$ion of its neeeflity ; a duty that ye are not mourn- ing for; the negleft of, nor irrployin!e Jefus Chrift for grace to get it fuitably performed : And can that, think ye, be a tender walk, that is fo very fhort and defeetive in fo main a duty, and in fo great a piece and part of a tender walk ? when efpecially perfons are not duly fen - fible of it, nor fuitably affeeted with it. Let me but ask fuch of you, who make little account. of the negleet of this duty, thefe few queftions ; iß, Do ye think that there is fuch a thing fpoken of in the word cf God, and that there is inch a thing within you,as a Confcience ; and, if ye think ye have Confciences, have ye them for no end nor ufe ? or will ye let them (as it were) be in you, and ly by you, as things given you to no purpofe ? zdly, I ask you, Is there nothing an your cafe, or way, that needeth a review ? Is all right, and nothing out of or- der ? Will ye own thefe to be truths r If not, ought not this mean to be ufed for helping you to find out what is wrong, and what is right, if any thing be right ? It were a ftrange thing for a profeft Chriflian, to think, or fay, that he is altogether right, and that he needs not to examine himfeif; and yet he muff either think this, or elfe he fays, on the matter, that he cares not whe- ther he be right or wrong, which indeed the pra&ice of many fays plainly ; or he mutt examine to find out what is right, and what is wrong. idly, I would .ask you, Do you think that your Confcience will be always quiet, becaufe ye command it not to fpeak ? or rather, as there not a dine coming, when it will (peak, whe- ther
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