Page:Black book of conscience, or, God's great and high court of justice in the soul (2).pdf/15

Rh will keep a juſt account of them, and ſo be a witneſs either for or againſt the ſoul, at the day of judgement. What was it that made the apoſtles ſo joyful in all their troubles and preſecutions? Was it not the witneſs of their conſciences! See 2 Cor. i. 12. ‘Our rejoicing is this,’ ſaith St. Paul, ‘the teſtimony of our conſciences.’ What was it that made Paul and Silas ſing in priſon for joy? Was it not, that their conſciences told them that they were happy and bleſſed men, notwithſtanding all their ſufferings and reproaches.

Now what conſcience is, I ſhall briefly ſhow you, and ſo conclude. Conſcience is a thing with which God endued the ſoul of man by creation, and is for our comfort, if we live as we ought to do; but will be a dreadful terror to them that live and die in their ſins. For this conſcience was in Adam before the fall, tho’ not as a condemner till his fall; for where there is no ſin, what needeth an accuſer? So long as Adam kept the commandments of God, there was no cauſe of conſcience to condemn him: But, as ſoon as Adam trangreſsed, it ſlew in his face, which made him flee from the face of God, as you may ſee, Gen. iii. 7. 8. ‘The eyes of them both were opened,’ their