R0191.7 4. 21, dixfw. 2. d treatife of Confcience. Jbegin with thefirfl : Suppofeaman have peace of con- fcience, what muff he do to keep and maintein it ? J anfwer. Firfl, We mull labour to prevent rroublcs of conlcience by taking heed that we do nothing contrarie to conference. We mull not be drawn by friendlhip, or credit, or the love of any lull, to do that which conscience forbiddeth. Nothing fhould be fo dear unto us as the peace of confcience : nothing for the love of it fhrould make us do ought againfl our con cience. How mifcrable are thofe comforts, delights, fatisfadlions which we get to our (elves in filch courfès as our own hearts do con - demne ! However they Item comforts, for a while, and con - tentments for a while, and delights for a while, yet at lafl it will appear that miferable comforts are they all. Nothing that we get in any evil way will cheat and comfort us in a time of need. What lid Francis Spira at the time of his death, when fèeing his wife & children about him, and thinking on the goods and eflate which he had got for them by denying the truth which he liad before mainteined againfl the Romifh errours, he cried out in the horrour of his confcience, How terrible is the fight of theft unto me ! However before they had been comforts to him, yet now he could not endure the fight of them. O thought he , recanted feryour fake ; J yielded to fuperflition, and It. was long of you : Therefore 1 e abhorred now the figh, o them. Wretci.ed is he that alloweth himfelf in any courfe w hich his confcience findeth fault with. It is a good rule the Apefile giveth, Bleed is he that condemneth not,himfelf in that which he alloweth : that is, Bleflcd is he that bath not a condemning confcience, that alloweth not himlelfin any courfe wherein his contcience do:h condenine him. So that if we have peace of conscience, and deft re to maintein it, let us never allow our felves in any courfe that our confcience may con denine us in. That is the firfl anfwer. Secondly, If we will maintein our peace, we muff labour to have our hearts grounded in the afliirance ofthe love ofGod : alas, it will fail us else, and leave us in trouble and perplexitie in time ofgreatefl need. Oblérve how the Apoflle joyneth love and
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