A 7reatife o f Confcience. t 35 godly d mansconfcience fmiteth him, and ftirreth him very kindly, fo that he meiketh before God. When David had numbred the People, the text faith, His heart Inside him. The word fignifieth it (mote him kindly, gave him a loving blow, made him fpread forth himfelf before God. d huAifwicknd f 11 n confcience giveth him a dead blow, blow. 2. A godly mans confcience ftirreth him up reciprocally : He ftirreth up his confcience,and his confcience ftirreth up him; he fpeaketh to his confcience, and his confcience fpeaketh to him : The ftirring is reciprocal. Commune with your hearts, What haft thou done 0 my foul ? Thus and thus have 1 done, faith the foul. Wheras a wicked mans confcience fpeaketh to him,but he cannot endure to fpeak to his confcience: his confcience ftir- reth him, but he bath no will to {titre his confcience ; nay, he doth all he can to keep it quiet : But the godly as his confcience fmiteth him, fo he fmiteth upon his confcience : I (mote upon my thigh, faith Ephraim. The godly, when confcience ftirreth them,they ftirre it and provoke it to fpeak out all it bath to fay, Commune with your own heart,and be frill: They are Rill to give it full audience, and call upon it to fpeak on ; what haft thou more to fay confcience ? w 3.A godly mans confcience ftirreth him to good;and he is re- folved to go to the utmoft of what confcience ftirreth him un- to : that with Jo6, hie confcience may not reproch him all his days for not following it : Whereas it is otherwife with the wicked. 3. The third ufe is this ; Seeing confcience is appointed by God to be our guide and our counfellour, it fhould be our pra- dice in every thing we do to ask counfell of confcience whether we were bell do it or no. I fay that confcience is Gods ora- cle : Whatfoever we are to do we should (as David) enquire , Prav i of Gods oracle, May I go this way to work, or (hall I take an- 9. other courfe ? Hear counfel and receive inftrufhion, faith Solo- mon, that thou mayeft be wife at thy latter end. Confcience is a faithful counfèllour; hear it. It is the great merde of God that thou haft filch a privie counfel : Thou canft go no where F z r Sam,z4. 10. P fa1.4. 4. Jct.; t. r9 Job 27.6. vfe3. r Sam.t3.
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