012 AIs 24.. i6. confiderable exercife ere he come at it, and to no lets how to keep it: Herein do I exercife rnyfelf, &c. faith the apo-- file ; fecurity and negligence are no great tokens. There are thefe two things that a man of a good Confcience is exercifed in ; z. To prevent the ground of a challenge from his Confcience,by endeavouring to give it no offence; againff which the prefumptuous hypocrite finneth,who fan.. cieth that he hath peace, and,it may be, thinketh much of it, and yet is not troubled nor taken up how to prevent the giving of offence to his Confcience, nor his meeting with a challenge from it ; the legal hypocrite alfo fnneth here, in bounding and limiting his holinefs to fuch or fuch a fmall meafure of it, without fo much as aiming any further. 2. He is exercifed to fatisfy his Confcience when it is offended ; hence is the application to the blood of fprinkling, the exercife of repentance, the felf- lothingg and fliarpnefs of challenges, that Confcience bath with it until it recover, even fuch exercife as will in a manner break the bones,and turn the rrioi /lure into the drought of f ím- tner, as it is, Pfal. 5 1. and Pfal. 32. This good Confcience Cannot Iook on fin and not be troubled ; and therefore, they who ordinarily and habitually can look on fin with.. out trouble or forrow, and judge it a very eafy bufinefs to quiet and flop the mouth of their Confcience, who fpeak peace to themfelves when lying ffill under guilt , unrepented of and unremoved, carry about with than a fhrewd token of no good Confcience. The 2d chara &er, whereby it may be known, is, the mean and way that a man raketh to quiet his Confcience when it is wakned. A good Confcience, as it yieldeth a man peace,and teffifierh well concerning his flare; fo that peace rifeth not fo much from this, that he hath no fin, as from his fleeing to Jefus Chrift for the pardon of fin. He may have peace as to his fincere and univerfal aim at ho- linefs, and as to his honeft and ferious endeavour to ab- flain from every known fin, as it was with David, Pfal. i 8. 20, 2 r, 22. but, as to the fatisfying of Divine juffice,he hath no peace, but in reffing on Chriff's fatisfa &ion alone for, tho his way may be and is good, in refpe& of his fingle following of duty, for he readeth, prayeth, medi_ tateth, ic. yet corruption in a great meafure polluting F 2 a14
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