tr'eat%fe of Con,ffience. this of the wicked people in Corinth : St Paul faith he com- mendedhimself and the Oofpel to every mans confcience in the fight of God ; that is, He did fo preach, and fo live, that every mans confcience could not choofe but fay Certainly Paul preacheth the truth, and Paul liveth right, andwe tittufl live as hefpeakketh and doeth. He made their coniciences.fäy thus, and to tell theirs they werenot right ifthey did not. But mark what followeth : Some did not ice this : Why ? The god of this world, faith he, bath blinded their eyes. So the god of this world blindeth theeyes of thewicked, that what their coulci- ences Phew them theydo not fie it nor obferve it. So for Gods people ; Though- they be in a good and a bleffed of}ate, and their confciences can fay it, yet Satan oftentimes hindereth them that they do not perceive their owncomfort. 3. Men do not love confcience. We should love confcience better then the deareft friend we have under heaven. We woulddo much for a friends fake : but we should do a thou- fand times more for confcience fake : Obey MagifIrates for confcience fake ; fufïer disgrace, reproches, any thing, for con- fcience fake. It is better then all the friends in the world. But the wicked, they do not love confcience : let confcience fpeak, they care not to heare. They will heare friends, but they will not heare confcience. Let their lufis call, and their profits and pleafures call for this and that thing, they heare all : but they love not to heare confcience. Nay , many wicked men are angry to heare talk of it. When Paul had made mention of confcience, Ananias commanded he shouldbe fì»itten : Men and brethren, faith Paul, I have lived inallgood confcience be- fore God twill thisday. Smite him on the mouth, faith the high Prief} Ananias. He was angry to heare him talk of a goo:i confcience. This is rnof} certain ; men do not loveconfcience, nor te, be curbed by confcience, nor informed by conícienc : They had as lieve fee the devil as that their confciences fhould inform them of their efcates, and tell them thus and thus they are, They are told rightly, and yet they are miflaken, becaufe they do not love to heare confcieneeofthat theme, E e z Of I29 COr.4,s.. Rom. r 3.ç rQéïJ 2.3. T.
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