on Acs 24 I6. i7 dead and hardned Confciences ; the teftimony of thefe is little worth ; neither is every thing Confcience, that many men think to be fo. Confcience muff a& according to the word, elfe it wíthdtaweth it felf from that due fubordination it ftandeth in to God, and to his law ; Confcience is obliged to abide and f}and by God's tefti- mony, but God is not obliged to ftand by its teftimony. We would therefore beware of miftaking Confcience; more particularly, in the zd place, A natural man may have fomething like a good Confcience, and may come the length of thefe four Reps according to his light, i. He may have a negative good Confcience, that is, a Con- fcience which doth not a &wally challenge him, yea, a Confcience that hath no grofs thing to challenge him for; he is, it may be, no murderer, no adulterer; he de- ligneth no oppreffion nor deceit in his dealing, &c. and on this ground he pofibly thinketh that he bath a good Confcience, tho' he bath no pofitive teftimony of a good Confcience all this while. 2. He may fome- way have a good Confcience, in refpe& of fuch or fuch a particular aft, in refpe& of being free of a challenge on account of a wrong defign, of doing fuch or fuch a thing, or in refpe& of moral fincerity and ingenuity ; fuch as was in thefe men that followed Abfalom in the fimplicity of their heart ; and in Abimelech, who, in taking Ara- ham's wife, meaned no evil, nor any thing but what was lawful, and therefore he faith, That in the integrity cf his heart he did it, that is, he had a moral honeft de- fign,.and was free from grounds of challenge about what others might have been ready to charge him with, as to that a &ion. 3. He may come a great length, as to the duties of the fecond table of the law, fo as he may not wrong his neighbour in word nor deed ; he may defign no man's hurt, he may wifh evil to no man : Thus very probably it wds with that Pharifee, who came to Chriff and faid, All thefe have I kept from my youth ; the poor man fpeaks as he thought, not knowing the fpiritual meaning, and extent of the law : Therefore, when he its bidden fell all, and give ro the poor, he went away .grieved, he had no grofs finifter defign ; 'tis alfo faille that Chrift loved himror pitied him as a civil man And
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