on 2 Cor. /. 12. 277 kerning grounds, without any folidity or reality. 2. I {hall thew what grounds will not bear this teflimony of agood Confcience. 3. I {hall Thew what grounds may bear it, or what may be the chara6ters of a warrantable and well- grounded teflimony of a good Confcience, rnoft of all which we will find to be in this text, to our difcourfes on which we refolve at this time to put an end. For the frfl, viz. That people may fuppofe that they have the teffimony of a good Confcience without a ground, or on but feeming grounds ; which is incident, not only to natural men, but even fometimes to believers them - felves in fome refpe &. Men may gather a conclufion of peace from unfound grounds, and fpeak peace to them -- elves, when God has not fpoken peace to them : There is a generation, fays Solomon, Prov. 3o. 12. that are pure in their own eyes, and yet are not wafhed from their filthineff ; a generation that foolithly fancy themfelves to be right, when yet they are quite wrong: Which we fuppofe comes to pafs ordinarily in thefe four cafes, or from thefe four grounds 1. When men halve holinefs, and do a piece or part of their duty and work, but go not flitch through with it, thinking they need not to be fo full, fo exaCl= and fo precife, as the command calls for (which it may he they fecretly judge to be too fevere and rigid) as it was with king Saul, who, when Samuel came to him after the {laughter of the .4malekites, 1 Sam. 15. goes out to meet him, and lays to him, Bleffed be thou of the Lord, I have performed the commandment of the Lord ; and when Samuel anfwers him, What means then the bleating of the fheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear ? Saul replies, They have brought them from the Amale- kites to be a facrifice to the Lord. He thought that he had fúfficiently kept the commandment of the Lord, tho' he had preferved an .4gag, and force few of the heft beaffs, efpecially for fuch an ufe. Thus often na- tural men, if they do (as it were) two parts, or half of their duty, think they have done enough, and that they may have peace on that ground. 2. When perfons think that they mean well, and have an honeft aim and defign, znd will (it may he) be ready to difpute on that ground 3 with
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=