6o r. A ten. derconfci. ente. r Saat. 24.S. r Sam.6. Numb rS 3:a.;6. x, A flee- pY coü2i- ence. A Tr eatifè O f ii 071 f CZe12Ce. in the difcharge of thefe offices; and they are foure : t. A tender confcience ; 2. A fleepie confcience,, 3. A benumbed confcience; 4. A feared confcience. Firft, a tender confcience; that is , a confcience touched with the leaft finne, and checking us for the leap finne; as for vain thoughts, exorbitant partions, idle words, and the like. Such wasDavids confcience,which (mote him for cutting off the lap of Saals garment. Such was Zactheeu his confcience, which troubled him for fuppofed finnes : If I have wronged any man, faith he. He did not know; but his confcience was fo tender that it made him careful! of Ifs. This tender confcience is a fin- gutar bleftìng of Cod : And if we delire to attain unto it we muff labour to fee the odioufnefle of finne, yea the malignity and exceeding evil there is in the iealt finne : this will make us tender of it. Secondly, we muff labour to mourn for every fin though it feem little : this alto will Keep our confciences tender. And we have great caufe to prize a tender confcience. What &òt the Bethihemites by not being tender in confcience ? They looked into the Ark, and becaufe they duri venture upan it,the Lord (mote fifty thoufand of them at once. What got the man that gathered flicks on the Sabbath for not being tender in con- fcience? He was atoned to death. Confcience fhould tender the leaft commandment of God,and fo be tender of the commit- ting the lean finne. This confcience is a great blefïing. The fecond affeetion of confcience is (leepineffe, A fleepy confcience is not fo quick in finking us as it ought : either it checks not, or elfe with fuch faintne(fe that it worketh hot up.. on us,it maketh us never the more watchfull againit finne. This we fee by many who can commit fuch firmes without trouble or difquiet as would bring others on their knees and make them walk heavily long after,This sleepy confcience is very dangerous: it makech men as ready to fall into the tame fines to morrow as to day, and next day as to morrow : it letteth.them fee their faults, but amendeth none ; becaufe this is fuch a confcience as doch not caufe men to feel the burden of their lines. A man . can never come to Chrift as long as he bath a fleepy confcience; becaufe
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