Durham - BV4615 D87 1732

072 z nor. T. I2. 2f9 Confcience, and fo fpeak peace to themfelves; as we fee in Micah, when he has made his 2"eraphim, Ephod and molten Image, and meets with a vagrant Levite coming a- long, who engages to flay with him ; Now (fays he) f know that the Lord will do me good, feeing I have a Levite to be my priefi : He looks on providence's furnishing him with a prieft, as God's approving of his making there images. We will allo find in Rachel and Leah, two in- fiances of this, Gen. 30. Rachel in her barrennefs gives Bilhah her maid to . facob ; and, when the had brought forth a fon, the lays, God loath judged me, and heard my voice: But Leah, when the hath given her maid to him is more exprefs and clear, while the fays, after Ziipab's bringing forth a fon, God bath given me my hire, becaufe f have given my maid to my husband. It is very rare for people, when they feem to be countenanced in fuch or fuch a particular, that they have a great mind for, fo to refle& on their way, as not fadly to miftake ; there may be fomething of this, even in believers, in fo far as they have unmortified corruption in them : All which lays, that we have great need, and are fo much the more con - cerned, to Rudy to be impartial and fingle in grounding the teftimony of our Confcience, that we miftake it not ; for providence countenancing us in a particular, will not, if there be no more, prove us to be right in it God not having given us that as our rule to walk by, but the law and teftimony, by which the Confcience being well informed, and giving its teftimony accordingly, that is the alone teftimany which can yield folid peace and joy. For the zd thing, viz. fome falte grounds (even be tide there) that men ufe to raft upon ; we fhall name there four, that are very unfound and unficker, and they are implied in the Text. The i ft is implied in godly fincerity ; for clearing of which ye would take "notice, that there may be a moral fincerity in mens pra &ices, that is not godly fincerity, which is oppofite to more grofs counterfeiting and diffembling : This we find to have been in Abimelech, Gen. zo. who faid to God, In the in- tegrity of my heart have I done this : The man faid not one thing when he intended another. This moral fincerity S will

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