78 THE BRUISED REED so much will in a sinful action, as may wonderfully waste our comfort afterward, and keep us long upon the rack of a disquieted conscience: God in his fatherly dispensation suspending the sense of his · love. So much as ·we give way to our wills in sinning, so far we set ourselves from comfort. Sin against conscience is as a thief in the candle, which wasteth our joy, and thereby weakeneth our strength. We must know therefore, that wilful breaches in sanctification, will much hinder the sense of our justification. What course shall such take to recover their peace ? They must give a sharp sentence against themselves, and yet cast themselves upon God's mercy in Christ, as at their first conversion. And now they had need to cleave to Christ the faster, as they see more need in themselves. And let them remember his mildness here, who will not quench the smoking flax. Ofttimes we see that after a deep humiliation, he speaks more peace than before, to witness the truth of this reconciliation, because he knows Satan's designs in casting down such lower ; and· because such are
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