)o tstrrraUïl 4. Wife in this world, to iudy to be wife in this great point of wifdom : If ye want this teftimony when it comes to the taft reckoning, ye will be for ever undone, and will never, through all eternity, once f'mile for joy, but weep and gnaíh your teeth, for the gnawing pain that the never-dying worm of an evil Confcience fhall caufe to you. idly, Obferve, That a man that would be throughly ac- quainted with his way, and clear in the teftimony of his Confcience concerning it, would be particular in the ex- amination thereof; or thus, He would not content him - felf with a general confuted trial of it, altogether at once, and in the bulk, but he would try it by parts and parcels. Thus it was with the apofle here : When he fays that he had the teflimony of his Confcience, that his converfation was not with ffffhly wifdom, but by the grace of God, in the world; he fubjoins, and more abundantly to you- wards ; and fo defcends to the particular that was in con - troverfy betwixt him and thefe big - talking do&ors, that made it their great bufinefs in the Church of Corinth, to derogate from the jell repute of his perfon and miniftry, and tells them, That he had the teftimony of his Confci.. ence concerning his upright and faithful carriage in preaching the gofpel to them in particular. When I fay, that perfons would try their way by parts or pieces, I mean, that they would try their particular anions and behaviour in fuch and filch places, at fuch and fuch par - ticular times of their life, becaufe, by this means, they come to a more diflinc`1 knowledge of their carriage and way ; and it is impofhible otherwife, when men take up their way together by the lump (as it were) that they can win to dtftin &nefs, which they muff needs be at, in force meafure, ere they have a well grounded teftimo - mony of their Confcience, from folic' and clear grounds. Again,there are force things wherein a man cannot have a good teftimony from his Confcience ; as when he re- fleEtS under thong temptations on the holy, wife and fo vereign providence of God, as if he governed not the world and his people therein aright ; as Elihu chargeth Yob fomeway to have done, when he Pays to him, Chap, 33. 1z. Behold1in this am art not juß ; Tho' yob will not take
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