Renewing of the Confcience. Mercy from God. So ~he Apoftle tells us,_ Heb: ro. 22. Let m, fays he, draw near in full ttffurance of Fauh. Bow we may gam thts full affurance, when we draw near to God? How, fays he? \Vhy, by. having o~r Het~r~s fprjnJ:Jed from 11 m NJil · Confcitnct; get but a pure and clear Confctence, ano that wdl enable you to draw near to God in full a(furance of Faith. And fo in the like parallel place 1 'John 3- 21· Beloved, if our Heart; condemn m not, then have we confidenct towards God. If Confcience be not evil to accufe us, then have we confidence towards God: \Vhen the Face of a Man's Confcience looks ehearful and bath no Frowns and Wrinckles upon it, tbis makes us joyfully to apprehend that God's Face to us is calm and ferene too, and that we fhai1 be welcom at all times into our Father's prefencc; this Confcience fuggcfts to us, and makes us come with a holy, yet with an awful boldnefs unto God. (4.) Fourthly, :4 ~lettr Confcience i! theJmeeteft bofo.m Frimd with which we v:ay 11t ,-t i-1 t/;e 4IJ time.s freeLy and mttmtttely conwrfe. WICked Men mdeed of all Company m the fwwrjt World, do moft hate [hemfelvcs for Companions; they have a lowring and a B>f?n ~umbling Confcience at home that a~ ways. threatens and d.ifquiet~ them, and there- :;;n;bi&h tore they lO\•e to keep abroad. SohloqUics and Hearc-d1fcovenes are a very Tor- wem:y.n ment to them, and they wonder tbat the Pft4lmijllhou1d ever bid them Commune aY rimes with their own Heart.s and be flill, as it is in Pfal. 4· 4 Why alas, they are never frce_Jy and lefs fti\1 than whe~ they difcourfe with their own Hearts and ~nfciences, which :!~:;;j2' are grown fo peeviih and quarrelfom, that they thunder O'Jt nothmg but Woes and Curfes againft them, hurling about them Swords and Firebrands and Death, that they dare not fo much as once lo?k within J.?oors..But now a Chriftian w~ofeConfcience is calm and clear) he finds It the beft Companton of the World : In hrs folitary Retirements from the crowd and noife of the World, with what Delight doth he call his Heart afide, and ~here are .they ~weetly a~d- pca~eably c~>nferring together! And God ufually comes 111 as a thrrd Fnend and JOillS hunfelf m Society with them, and here pafs mutual Endearments between t hem ; the Sou l embraces and clafps about God with the Arms of Faith and Depend:lllce, aud God embraceth the Soul in the Arms of his everlafting Love. Here arc mutllal illlbofomings of Secrets; the Soul unlocks its Secrets before God, and God again reveals the Secrets of his Love unto the Soul: Here are mutual Rejoycings; the Soul rejoycetb in God its Saviour, and God rejoyceth over the Soul to do it good; and under thefe Intcrcourfes of Love and Sweetnefs, the Soul is ready to faint away and dilfolve with Joy. This is that continual Feaft, as the wifc Man calls it, that a good Confcience entertains a Chriftian with, where all is tranfafted with a frill and noife.. lefs Mirth. ( s-J Fifthly, .A clear Confcience is tht beft comfort anJ fuppoYt, when Fears, TYoijb/es It u rh: and Dangen are on every fide encompaffing us about . It is a bletTed Thing when we bcfl Cornhave Trouble without, to have Peace within in our own Bofoms, then to have forund . Peace with God and Peace with our felv~s. And t.bereforc fays Chr_ifr, 1ohn 16. 33· ~~PJ::Jft':, Thcfe Thing1 have~ /poker. unto Jf1U, that m me ye '!''.tht h.tve Pe~ce.; ~~ tiJe J!Vorld )'Du Dl111gerJ, fba!J h.cve 'TYibulatron: A ftrange Paradox; but mdeed a Chnfban ts made up of fuch ftrange Paradoxes , M Sorrowful , yet dlWA}J Rrjoycing ; IU Poor himfelf, yet makirzt many Rich; as having Nothing, and yet Poffrffing alJ Things, as the Apo!tle fpeaks 2 Cor. 6. 10. Here is Tribulation in the World, and yet here is Peace alfo. When once the great and bloody Quarrel betwixt God and the Soul is taken up and compounded, when we are reconciled to God, and thereby our Confciences become reconciled to us; all the Enmity and Perfecution of the World arc but little peltring Differenc.cs, th_at cannot difturb that folid a.nd inviolable Peace that a Chriftian enjoys: Thts IS that Peace that as the Fnendfhtp of the World cannot give, fo neither can t.he Enmity of the World ever take away. M~ Peace I leave wit~ you, my Peace I gwe URto you, let .not youy HMrts be troubled. }t IS obferveable of 16fiah, 2 King.s 22. 20. God promtfed there by the Mouth of Huldah a:he Prophete{s that he lhould be gathtYed to bU Grave in Peace; and yet in the next Chapt:r, Verfe 29. it is faid t.here, '11utt he w.u ]lain. rh~ War which he ~nw dertook againft Pha1oah Necho Kmg of Egyp~; ~e was flalll. 10 War, and .YCE d1ed in Peace, and no wonder; for whofoever d1es m Peace With God and In Peace with his own Confcience, dies peaceably, though he dies in the midft of Wars and Tumults. Ppppp 2 (G.) A
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