the time to come ; and yet the defilement and polluti- on of Confcience lies on frill unremoved, becaufe they never betook themfelves to the right fountain to wafh at, to the blood of Chrifr to be purged. Hence, the ye ordi- narily betook themfelves to their facrifices, and legal wa- fhings and purifying.s ; when they finned, if they brought a bullock, calf, lamb or a goat, they thought they had done enough ; and therein had a fort of peace, fuck as it was : But, fays the apoftle, it was not that which made them perfe&, as pertaining to the Confcience ; none of thefe, nor all of there, could purge, or truly pacify it; becaufe they could not take away the quarrel betwixt God and them : And thus many profeffors of the gofpel betake themfelves to external ordinances, or outward performances of duties, and reft on thefe. I do not condemn nor diffwade from thefe duties,, which are good in themfelves, becaufe commanded by God, but your refting on them; and would have you to put a difference betwixt founding your peace on them, and the founding of it on the blood of Chrifr applied to the Confcience by faith : O reek not thus to bribe the Confcience ! for, as it will not be boafted, fo neither will it be bribed. 4thly, There is another way (that, being rightly made ufe of, bath its own commendablenefs in it) which is, when per- fons are under force trouble or difquiet of Confcience, they betake themfelves to conference, it may be, with force ex- ereifed Chriflians, holding out their cafe to them for force eafe and quietnefs; which (as I Paid) is good and . commendalkle in itfelf, and may thro' God's bleffing do good, if the end be, to be helped thereby to go to the fountain of Chrift's blood and wafh there ; but 'tis our fault, when, in the ufe of this mean of conference, we feek to have our Confciences difquieted by arguments, while, in the mean time, the blood of Chriff is not by faith had recourfe to, for cleanfing and calming of them. I fuppofe, the ableft of men, whether private Chriftians, or minifters of the gofpel, were fpeaking to us never fo convincingly and comfortably, and were holding out e- vidences to us, found in themfelves, of a good frate ; if (as I jufr now Paid) there be not believing application made to the blood of Quilt for taking dray the ground of
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