paigne, and Damvilliers, &c. In the first place, those losses and damages which have been caused by my orders or my troops ought to be repaired before all others, as being of my own doing. In the second place, I am responsible, very justly, for all the mischiefs which the general disorders of the war have produced, although they have been done without my having any part in them, provided that I have satisfied for the first. I owe no reparation to those who have been of our party, except they can make it appear that I have sought and invited them to it; and in this case, it will be just to restore first of all to those innocent persons who have had no part in my failings, before that any thing can be given to those who have been our confederates: The better to observe this distributive justice, I desire that my restitutions may be made in such a manner, that they may be spread every where; to the end that it fall not out, that amongst many that have suffered, some be satisfied and others have nothing. But since I have not riches enough for to repay at one time all those corporations and particular persons who have suffered, I desire, &c." and so decreed the method and order the payments should be made in; the whole of which, by his computation, would be discharged in twenty years; but if it so fell out, that the estate should be entirely sold, the whole payment was to

be made at once; and it was a marvellous recollection of particular oppressions, which he conceived might have been put upon his tenants by his officers, some whereof were not remediable by law, by reason of prescription, which he declared that he would not be defended by, but appointed that the original right should be strictly examined; and if his possession was founded in wrong, he disclaimed the prescription, and commanded that satisfaction should be made to those who had been injured, even by his ancestors, and before his own time; and required, that any doubts which might arise upon any of his instructions, or in the cases in which he intended satisfaction should be given, might and should be examined and judged by men of the strictest and most rigid justice, and not by men of loose principles.

I do not naturally, in discourses of this nature, delight in so large excursions in the mention of particular actions performed by men, how godly and exemplary soever, because the persons who do them are always without any desire that what they do should be made public, and because repentance hath various operations in minds equally virtuous: yet meeting very accidentally with this record, without having scarce ever heard it mentioned by any man in the country, where there is room enough for proselytes of the same nature,

and cause enough to celebrate the example, as I took great delight in examining and re-examining every particular, and not being an absolute stranger to the subject reflected upon, having been present in the same country at that time, I could not conclude this discourse more pertinently, than with such an instance at large; presuming that it may make the same impression upon others that it hath upon me, and make us the more solicitous to call ourselves to an account for all commissions, and to pray to God to give us the grace to repent in such a way, and to such a degree, as may be most for his glory, our own salvation, and the edification of others towards the attaining the same.

OF CONSCIENCE.

Montpellier, March 9, 1670.

THERE is not throughout the whole bible of the Old Testament, that term or word Conscience to be found; nor is it used in scripture till the eighth chapter of the gospel written by St John, when the Jews brought the woman that had been taken in adultery before our Saviour, whom they importuned to do justice upon her; and he, who knew their malice was more against him than the woman, said, "He that is without sin amongst you,

let him first cast a stone at her: and they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest even to the last," (ver. 7, 9). Nor is the Greek word vvidis, which throughout the New Testament signifies conscience, ever used by the Septuagint, (as some learned men affirm) except only in the 10th chapter of Ecclesiastes, ver. 20, which is thus translated, "Curse not the king, no not in thy thought." So that conscience seems to be the proper and natural issue of the Gospel, which introduced a stricter survey of the heart of man, and a more severe inquisition into the thoughts thereof, than the law had done. He who could not be accused by sufficient witnesses to have violated the law, was thought to be innocent enough; but the Gospel erected another judicatory, and another kind of examination, and brought men who could not be charged by the law, to be convicted by their own conscience; and therefore St Paul, in his justification before Felix, after he had denied all that the Jews had charged him with, and affirmed that he had broken no law, added, "And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and towards men," (Acts xxiv, 16.) his behaviour was so exact, that he did not only abstain from doing any man wrong, but from giving any man a just

occasion to be offended with him. It is a calamity never enough to be lamented, that this legitimate daughter of the gospel of peace should grow so prodigiously unnatural and impetuous, as to attempt to tear out the bowels of her mother, to tread all charity under foot, and to destroy all peace upon the earth; that conscience should stir men up to rebellion, introduce murder and devastation, licence the breach of all God's commandments, and pervert the nature of man from all Christian charity, humility, and compassion, to a brutish inhumanity, and delight in those acts of injustice and oppression that nature itself abhors and detests; that conscience, that is infused to keep the breast of every man clean from incroaching vices, which lurk so close that the eye of the body cannot discern them, to correct and suppress those unruly affections and appetites, which might otherwise undiscerned corrupt the soul to an irrecoverable guilt, and hath no jurisdiction to exercise upon other men, but it is confined within its own natural sphere; that this inclosed conscience should break its bounds and limits, neglect the looking to any thing at home, and straggle abroad and exercise a tyrannical power over the actions and the thought of other men, condemn princes and magistrates, infringe all laws and order of government, assume to itself to appoint what all