on Acts 2, 4. z6. 93 wooed them fo much into that error ; and yet they cooled in their afe &ion to him, and were fond on them. A. fifth Chara&er is, That a deluded Confcience is ordinarily bitter and cruel in the effe&s of it : As it is proud and vain, fo it will perfecute to the death them it differeth from ; hence were the perfecutions of the apoftles, and of Paul efpecially. And we have feen it in poor deluded fouls, who have thought themfelves ob- liged to flay all that were againft them, or differed from them in thefe their delufions : Somewhat of this bitter fpirit accompanied the delufion of the Galatians ; there- fore the apoftle faith to them, chap. 5. 15. If ye bite and devour one another, &c. And fames fpeaketh to the fame purpofe of fuch perfons, chap. 3. 14. If ye have bit- ter envying and frife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not againfl the truth ; this wifdonz defcendetb not from above. Bitter zeal and flrife is an evil token, and a bitter Con - fcience is readily no good Confcience : When a man,fup- pofing himfelf to be in the right, is carried on with a fpirit of bitternefs (though, in other cafes, bitternefs through the power of corruption may kyth, yet it is na- tive to delufion) it floweth from pride in fuch perfons, exalting themfelves above all others ; therefore, as loon as they are deluded and go wrong,they muff have a church by themfelves, and will join with no other perlons, in Chrifli- an communion, but fuch as are of their miftaken opinion. But a third queflion arifeth here on occafion of the for - mer;. viz.Whether believers in Chrift need to be afraid of a deluded Confcience ? And whether they may not be per - fwaded , and that with a fort of delight and fatisfa &ion, that they are right, when yet they are wrong ? (the lat- ter branch of the queftion neceffarily fuppofeth the for- mer, which needed; not therefore to be particularly fpoken to.) We anfiver with a diítin &ion,That a believ- er may be miftaken and deluded in a particular, but can- not be deluded as to his gracious flare ; becaufe, being indeed a believer, iris a molt true and certain conclulionr which he draws concerning his being in a gracious flare. Tho' poffibly, as to force of the grounds whence he de- duceth it, he may be milaken, or he may draw it from wrong
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