41 Sermon r. them ; therefore they are given up to the groffefl things without check or challenge : Hence it is thus, in part at leaft, with many profeffors within the vifible Church, for thwarting with Confcience. And indeed a filent and dumb' Confcience is a great plague : For,if it ceafe to be a repro_ ver, and fpeak not, men, nay, even godly men, may, and will fleep on; as David, after the going over the bet. ly of his light, and blunting the Edge of his Confcience, ílept long enough, till Confcience at laft roufed him up. Hence alto the apoflle fpeaketh of force Conf iences which mere feared with an hot iron ; which is not fo to be un- derftood, as if Confcience were flefh, or of a fiefhly fub4 fiance ; only he maketh the comparifon, that, as a man's flefh is fenfible of, and afeeted with the prick of a pin, fo is Confcience with fin, while tender : But, as the flefh of a man or beaft, when it is feared or burnt, a confia° derable thruft will not much, if it at all, affe& it ; fo is Confcience, when ftupified and made fenflefs by mul- tiplied fins againft light, it groweth fo cauterized and feared, that hardly any fin, or challenge for fin, is felt. 3. Men want not a Confcience, tho' they hear it not al- ways fpeaking ; for Confcience may often be fpeaking when they take not heed to it ; as is abundantly clear in David and yofeph's brethren : For, that which is the death -evil of a natural man, may fometimes be the fore and dangerous ficknefs and diflemper of a child of God; and, tho Confcience may fpeak but foftly for a time, yet thereafter it will fpeak louder, and make it known, that it fpoke when it was not liflned unto. The day cometh, when the books will be opened, and Confcience will fpeak plainly, fmartly, and home ; and it concerns you all to know, that Confcience is not abfent when it is quiet, but that it will fpeak, and fpeak to purpofe in due time; and that, as a party with whom there is no tryfting till it come before the great Judge, and then it will give in what it hath to fay ; and it will then be evidently known, that there was a Confcience in the prophaneff perfon, who moll cauterized it, by going over the belly of its light and fuggeftions. The zd ufe fpeaketh to you that live at random, taking lrcat liberty and latitude to yourfelves befide the rule e O 1 to
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