,ermoa 4, proved, and made out, before you can quietly and con, fidently reif on Confcience's teftimony, as to any part or piece of your way ; whether it be in reference to the fan&ification of the fabbath, to conferring on a fpiritual fubje &, to prayer, to praife, to reading, to hearing, to eating, to drinking, to buying, to felling, to building, to planting, &c. But we (hall here reftri& the enquiry :notfly, at leaff, to religious things, or a &ions that are re- ligious in their own nature. .F'ir j then, Confcience muff be fatisfied in this, Whether that which ye have done, be on the matter approven of God, or not: It is certainly true, ye will fay, that prayer in itfelf is appro- ven, and fo it is ; but, was fuch and fuch an expreffion that ye uttered, and fuch a word that ye fpoke, and the arguments that ye made ufe of in prayer, right before God ? If the matter be not right, Gonfcience cannot (peak for you ; tho' a man fhould be as warry and cir- cumfpe& as may be, in cheating, circumveening and deceiving his neighbour, 'tis impoffìhle for Conference to give him a good teffimony anent it, or anv other fuch a &ion, becaufe 'tis on the matter finful : Ye muff once then be fire and clear in this, that what ye fpeak, or do in prayer, or any other thing, is, as to its matter, accor- ding to the will of God. 2diy, Gonfcience muff be fatisñed in this,, not only whe- ther the thing be lawful in itfelf, but allo whether it be a thing lawful to you at fuch ,a time, and that to which ye are particularly called ; for many things are lawful, which are not expedient ; and many things may be expe- dient at one time, which will not be expedient at ano- ther : Take it in the inftance of prayer, wherein Confci- enee will not approve us, tho' we be right in it on the ;natter, if it be not rightly timed, or if we be not then called to it. This is to be taken heed to, efpecially in the things that are on the matter indifferent, and in the timing of fuch commanded duties, to which God hath not let and fixed a particular precife time, but left them to Chriftian prudence to be gone about by perlons at thefe times which are molt feafonable, and as they are called to them. idly, When ye are thus clear, as to the matter, feaforá and -
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