' 3o Concern. tog a good confcience treatife of Confcience. Ofa good and 6ad Conference. E have heard concerning the witneffe- bearing ofconicience about our eflates. The next thing to be fpoken of is that vvel-knovrn dillimaionof aGood and a Bad confcience. This diflinetton we reade of in Scripture : Concerning a good con- fcience, fee Heb. i 3. i8. We troll whom: asood confcience. Concerning a bad confcience fee Heb. io. z/. Having our hearts fprinkled from ,en evil confcience. There be both the members of the diflin6tion. Ofthem both briefly and in order; and firfl ofa good confcience. The goodneffe of confcience is two-fold; naturali, and re- newed. r. The naturali goodneffe of confcience conlifletlf in thofe reliques of goednefTe which it retaineth fence the crea- tion. Ye know man depraved and corrupted his confcience by his fall : yet there be Tome reliques left, as reafon, and know- ledge, and reflexion. Jdo not mean reliques of any fpirituall goodneffe in confcience : For as there is no ipirituall goodneffe left in the other faculti:s of the foul, fo neither in confcience. But the naturali goodneffe which J mean is nothiag elle but theveracity of confcience, whereby it is infbrced according to the knowledge it hath to tell the truth. Thus every wicked manbath a good confcience : Their confcience isgood in that fenfe ; their confcience hash this naturali goodneffe that it . telleth them the truth how it is with them. Nay, it is effentialf to confcience to be good in this fenre. It is the etfentiall pro- pertyof confcience to fpeak according to its knowledge. It is thebell faculty a wicked man hath : it is better then his mind, or heart, or will. There is more goodneffe in a wicked mans confcience then in any other of the powers of his foul His confcience fpeaketh more for God then himfelfdoth, and (land- ed' more for God then himfelf will. Not but that as all the i powers of the foul are defperately corrupted by finne, fo confci- ence is defperately corrupted as well as any öf them : but J . fpeak of the efhentiall goodneffe of it, which can never be loll. .,The
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