The application of redemption

What a […] kind of falseness, and foolish wiliness of spirit is this, to […] the passage and power of the Truth, mine own conviction, and peace, by a wilful […] filly mistake of a word? And thus […] […] deal with their sins; as […] such as be […] ⟨p. 632⟩with Traitors, deal with the search and enquiry after them; instead of helping others to seek and find them, they by their wiliness lead aside the Officers, and make them over-look the secret conveyances which are most suspicious, and most likely to receive them; which shows they are of the pack of the Conspiracy, and intend rather to hide the Rebels, than to pursue and attach them: The sinner truly distressed, is of another temper; in an easy kind of plainness lays open his heart to any […] of light, that may discover his evil without any shifting and doubling. He is suspicious of the evil of his own spirit, and as willing to see them as any man besides, because they more hazard his well-fare, and therefore he is willing to welcome any light that any one brings him to that end; Nathans Accusation, and Davids Confession, are as the Voice, and the Echo, I have sinned against the Lord, 2 Sam. 12. 13. he needed not to bring in the great Inquest for the Trial: So it was with Judah, when Tamar his Daughter was found to play the Harlot, and was now brought to her examination, and so to her punishment, she sends the Message to her Father in Law; By the man whose these are, am I with Child: And she said, discern I pray thee whose these are, the Signet, the Bracelet, and the Staff: Mark his return, how easily he yields, would not so much as traverse the cause, or call for a proof, when the thing was plain without any brabbling or cavilling, confesseth the thing, ceaseth any further suit, no not a debate; Judah […], and said, She is more righteous than I, Gen. 38. 25. In the things that are doubtful, it's usual, and no more but what Conscience and Command requires, to debate to see, the Truth; but when the fault and offence is plain, then to maintain debates and eavils, is indeed to devise ways how to darken the discovery of the Truth by confused quarrelling, to make an escape out of a fault, as a Malefactor to convey himself away in a crowd: Thus false-hearted Saul, when he pretended ⟨p. 633⟩