ATreatife o f Confcience. then, and they go about to flake it off. Alas ! why do you go about that which is utterly impotlible ? Ye may fùppreffe it for a while, and gagge it for a while : but ye can never (hake it off. Confcience flicketh fo clofc that a man may afloon (hake off himfelf as his confcience. And indeedhis confcience is him felf : Coc. Leta manexamine himfelf, that is, in his confcience. 71,sdge in z8. your felves,that is, Judge in your confciences. verle r;. Thirdly, this confuteth that drunken opinion. That conici- Vie 3. ence is nothing but a prefent fit ofmelancholy. No : it caufeth it may be the prefent melancholick fit, but it is not it. Con. fcience is afianding power in a man that isevermore with him, andwill evermore judge him and condemnehim if he be guil- ty beforeGod. It will be with him when his dumpifh tit is over. Let him laugh andbe merry ; yet confcience lies at the bottome ofall, and will fpoil all the mirth. Let the drunkard be never fo jovial ; I will not believe but confcience in the midi}of that drunken mirth caufeth fome fadneffewithin, and Prov 1 .. telleth him this is a very wicked life. Let the carnal hypocrite 13 daub up the matter with good duties, and good Prayers, and good hopes; I cannot believe but there is a confcience lieth at the bottome and telleth him he is rotten for all this. You may fee this in Cain; He had been at a good duty facrificing to the Lord ; but his countenance fell whenhe had done, con- Gen. 4.5'. fcience did lie at the bottome,and did tell,himGoddid not ac- cept him. Confcience is with evil men at Church, at Sermon, at Sacrament, and telleth them fecretly that they are not the perfons to whom the blefiing of thefe ordinances be- long. Lafily, this may be for exhortation to the godly; That they Vie 4 would confider this, that they have ever a confcience within them, and that therefore they would labour always tokeep it void of offence : which was Pauly exercife, As 24. i6. Take heed you offend not your confciences in duties of piety towards God,inyour prayings,hearings,&c.no nor inyour cal. brigs, eating, drinking, liberties, recreations = Look always to your confciences that you offend them not, becaufe they are D 2 ever
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