Yxiv I'he Epif?le all our moral a &ions ; neither are many, even of our na- tural a &ions, as circumftantiated, quite excluded from its concern) for that infenfibly weakens the voice, checks and rebukes of confcience in more momentuous matters, and may predifpofe and prepare to trifle with it in thefe too, and may provoke God, whole deputy confcience is, to enjoyn it filence, and to Puffer the man to go on fe- curely in fin without checkor challenge, while yet in the mean time he fecretly commands it to write up, and keep a record of all thefe Items againff him, and in due time to fet them all in order, to marshal, as it were, and draw them up in rank and file before him in a terri- ble manner, and to give him at once a molt furious charge : Challenges and accufations of confcience, that have been (mothered for the time, and flighted, after ly- ing long filent, have in force notable ftrait and difficulty arifen and got up upon men many years thereafter ; as thefe of fcjeph's brethren did on them, full twenty years at leaf} after their pitilefs, cruel, unnatural, in- humwñe and barbarous ufage of their poor innocent younger brother. A fecure, filent and non-challenging ill concience, is amongft the worft of ill coníkiences, and in force refpe& worfe than a turbulent, ftormy and roring ill confcience, (if it come not to the height of defpair) becaufe difpofing the man atheiftically to think, that becaufe God by himfelf, and his deputy the con- fcience, keeps filence, he is therefore like unto the man himfelf, and that neither he nor his deputy will ever fpeak again, nor reprove for thofe things, but that he hath quite forgotten them all, and will not any more call to a reckoning for them. O that fuch as forget God, and flight his challenges and reproofs by their own con- fcience, 2vould confider this, left he tear them in pieces, when there will be none to deliver ! It may alfo provoke him to fpeak that very angry and terrible word, Hof. 4. 17. more terrible force way, than if he íhould íày, Famine, fire, fword, peftilence, and wild beafts fall on the man ; he is joined to his idols (and fo ifraitly joined that he will lilfen to no challenges of his confcience checking him for maintaining the conjun&ion ; nor to any fuggeflion of it, perfwading him to divorce from them,
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