on s 24. i6. 4r which plainly evidence, that there is fuch a thing in men : So Herod,when he heard ofChrift's miracles,his confcie.nce puts him in mind of Sohn theBaptiftt whom he had behead - ed,and difquiets him with fears that john might have been railed from the dead ; fomething of it appears likewife in Ahab, when it puts him to put on fackclorh : All which (I fay) plainlrevidence, that there is fuch a thing in men ; and betide, full fcripture-proof there are none, but, if they obferve, they will find their thoughts the mean while either accufing or elfe excufing them. For further clearing of this, we fhall (peak a little, To what this Confcience is, if it be poffible fatisfyingly to explain it. 2dly, To the ufe and ends of it, and why God bath placed this in man ; where we fhall thew the feveral forts of Confcience that are in men, good and evil. For the firft, to wit, What Confcience is ; we may, for coming to the underftanding of it, confider the name Con fcience, which lignifies a co- knowledge, or a knowledge going along with our knowledge; which we may confider, FFirf, As looking to God's knowledge going alongft with ours, and ours going alongft with hìs,and thus it implies, as his knowledge of all our thoughts, words and ways, fo our knowledge together with his of thefe, or our taking notice of them with refpe& to his knowledge. Secondly, We may confider it as a reflex knowledge joined with a dire& knowledge ; as for inftance,when a man hath a di_ rea knowledge of prayer as his duty,and a reflex know - ledge going along with the pra &ice or exercife of the du_ ty,whereby he fees and difcerns himfelf, either to behave fuitably in it,or to be faulty ; in this refpe& Confcience is a practical knowledge, taking notice by a reflex a& of a man's ways. idly, We may confider it as a comprehending a knowledge of God's law,and then it lignifies a knowledge of ourfelves, compared with the law : It lath knowledge of the rule, and fo of what is duty, and what is fin ; and , withal it bath in it the knowledge of ourfelvrs and of our conformity or difconformiry to the rule. Confcience then, in this refpe&, is a man's knowledge of God's will, and of himfelf as compared with it. 4thly, We may confider this co-knowledge as it it fuppofeth,befide the knowledge o f ou rfe vc s)thc knowledge of fomething taking notice of äu3
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