96 / 164
d
treatz
fe
of
Confcience,
yet
they go
on,
at
'aft
they
come to have
Cecret
defpairs
in their
heart,
that
God
now will not look
towards
th:m
;
whereas
if
yet they had
a
mind to ¡loop
to Jeliis Chrifl,
they
might
be
forgiven.
2.
A.
(second
caufe
of
deiparring
is
multitude
of
temp-
tations.
Indeed the
godly
(should
not
be
fo
apt to think them-
gg
(elves forfakert
of
God
by reafòn
of
temptations
as fòmetimes
they
are
:
they
(should
rather
comm.
it
jay,
as
James
fpeakerh,
chap.
i
.
2.
But
yet
many
of
the wicked
defpair
finally
by this
means
:
Becaufe they do
fo
often fall
into temptations, there-
fore
they concludethey
are forfhken
of
God.
3.
Ignorance
of
Gods
w
ord.
When
the guiltincífc
of
fame
meetci:hwith minds
not
inftru6
ed
in
the
doarine
of
free
grace and reconciliation by
Chrifl
;
this
is
a
caufe
Of
defpair.
4.
So
a11ó
inured
cuflome
offinning
is another caufe.
When
men
are often
quickned,
and
grow
dead again
;
then quickned again for
a
fit,
and then
hardned again
:
in
the
end they
fall
to
defpair.
Theft
and the
like
are
the
caufes
of
delpairing
confciences,.
And
thus
I
have
(hewed
alto'
the
(second
thing_
propounded ,tò'be handled; name-
ly,
the fundry
degrees
of
troubled
confciences.
III.
The
third thing
is
the
difference
between the
troubled
confeience in the godly. and
in
the
wicked.
The
confciences
of
Gods
children
may
be
troubled,
and are
many
times;
and
the
confciences
of
the
wicked
they
are
troubled too
:
now the
queflion
is,
How
do they
differ
?
I
anfwer,
t
.
That
trouble
in
the
con
lcience
of
wicked
mere
is
accom-
panied
with
impenitency.
and
fonietimes
with
bl:ifp
emy
:
.7
would
I
were able
to
re
rft
God,
faith
Francis
S
pira
:
like
thole
in
the Revelation,
who blifphomed
God
beeaufe
of
their
tor-
ments. Sometimes
it
is
accompanied winccurfïngs,
as
Ifai,
.2r.
fometimes
with
infinite
murmuring. But
in
Gods
children
it
is
not
fo
:
When
their confeience
is
troubled, they p.flrfie
God,
and
clear
God,
and give him
the glory
ofall,
and
fubmit under
his
hand,
and
fubdue
their hearts
unto him
:
as
David
in
his
trouble
did
not
fret
and
murmure
againfl
God,
but
faith he,
If
2
Sara.i
i.
God
have
no
pleafssre
in
me,
la
here
.7 errs
:
let
km
do
with
26.
me
what
femeth
him
good. So
that
the
trouble
of
confcience
in