i 7JfeZ, A Treatife o fConfcience. God. A man cannever go againft his confcience but he fin- nttb, T. Becaufe confcience is our guide : It is our inwardand our infeparable guide : we can never come by any direftion but by confcience ; we can never let in the Commandment of God but only by confcience : and therefore the Lord bath made it a very foveraign thing. 2. Becaufe we break a com- mandment through the loyns ofa finne, when we go againft confcience. 4jdax light upon a beaft and flew it : his confci- ence thought verily it was a man ; Kill it not, faith confcience, it is a man : he goeth againft his confcience and killeth it. His confcience here was in an errour, yet he as truly guilty of mur- der before God as if hehad indeed (lain a man,becaufe he flew a man throngh the loyns of this beaft : His bloody mind look- ed at a man, and [mote at a man, and flew a man. So when confcience is erroneous, and thinketh this is a Commandment. ofGod ; it is not fo, but he thinketh it fo in his confcience : if he do contrary hebreaketh aCommandment though it be none, becaufe theerrour ofhis confcience made it one to him. Was not Herod truly guilty of themurder of Chrift ? He thought in his confcience that Chrift had been among the infants {lain at Bethlehem. Thus confcience is a foveraign thing : It is always a finne to go againft it,erreor not erre ; and if it be a finne to go againft confciencewhen it erreth, what a finne is it to go a- gainft it, when it doth not erre. 11. This may ferve for a word of exhortation, to exhort men to beware left they finne againft confcience ; efpecially when confcience is in the right. Confcience is as Gods face in a man : whenconfcience looketh on thee, the Lord lookethon thee. It is true, the Lord looketh on thee always : but thou mayft fee the Lords looking upon thee when confcience look- eth on thee : And therefore thounever Gnneft againhl confci- ence but thou provokeft the Lord to his face, when not only God feeth thee, but thou feeft him. Thy confcience fheweth thee the Lord ; it prefenteth God before thine eyes, comman- dingor forbidding, Wilt thoudo theevil now? Wilt thon omit the goodduty now ? When confcience findeth fault thou doff now provoke
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