Page:Black book of conscience, or, God's great and high court of justice in the soul (2).pdf/20

20 of conſcience! it is God’s vicegerent in the ſoul: When conſcience ſpeaks threatening language, to many, for ſuch and ſuch ſins, they ſeek to turn conſcience out of doors. But becauſe they cannot poſſibly do this, they ſtrive to ſtop his mouth, by running wilfully into ſins, like men that deſperately give up their ſouls to the devil, and ſo make ſhipwreck of faith, conſcience, ſoul and all for ever. And then followeth (what we have ſeen by woeful experience, ſelf-ſtabbing, ſelf-hanging, drowning, or poiſoning, or ſome ſuch like accurſed end. O conſider this, all ye that forget God, and make no conſcience of your ways; you undermine your own ſalvation.— Men deal with conſcience as Felix did with Paul, Acts xxiv.

15. They will hear conſcience ſo long as he ſpeaks groſs; but, when conſcience tells them roughly of their ſins, their darling ſins; then they have enough of conſcience, and ſo put him off till they be at better leiſure.

When there was no king in Iſrael, every man did what was good in his own eye; ſo, where there is no conſcience alive in the ſoul, men live as they lift. But yet for all this, conſcience will ſpeak home at laſt.

If thou art a drunkard, or an adulterer, or an unjuſt dealer, or whatſoever ſin it is