wilt, relieve fuch or fuch a poor Chriftian, and therein express thy love to Chrift, yea, refresh the bowels of Chrift; do it, God will repay it if thou refufeft, "how dwelleth the love of God in thee?" 1 John iii. 17. This is the voice of God and confcience, but divers lufts are ready to lay hold on, and bind this conviction alfo as foon as it ftirs, viz.

1. The exceffive love of earthly things. The world is got fo deep in men's hearts, that they will rather part with their peace, yea, and with their fouls too, than part with it. Hence come thofe churlish anfwers, like that of Nabal, 1 Sam. xxv. 11. "Shall "I take my bread, and my water, and my flesh, and give it to "men whom I know not whence they be?"

2. Unbelief, which denies to give honour and due credit to Chrift's bills of exchangé drawn upon them in fcripture, and prefented to them by the hands of poor faints. They refufe, I fay, to credit them, though confcience protest against them for their noncompliance. Chrift faith, Mark ix. 41. "Whofoever shall give "you a cup of cold water to drink in my name, because ye belong "to Chrift, verily I fay unto you, he fhall not lofe his reward." He fhall gain that which he cannot lofe, by parting with that which he cannot keep.

3. The want of love to Jefus Chrift. Did we love Christ in fincerity, and were that love so fervent as it ought to be, it would make thee more ready to lay down thy neck for Chrift, than thou now art to lay down a fhilling for him. 1 John iii 16. It is our duty, in fome cafes, to spend our blood for the faints. So it was in the primitive times: behold (faid the Christians enemies) how they love one another, and are willing to die one for another. that fpirit is almoft extinguished in thefe degenerate days.

But

Inftance 6. How many stand convinced, by their own consciences, what a fin it is to spend their precious time fo idly and vainly as they do? When a day is loft in vanity, duties neglected, no good done or received; at night confcience reckons with them for it, and afks them what account they can give of that day to God, how they are able to fatisfy themselves to lie down and sleep under fo much guilt? And yet when the morrow comes, the vanity of their hearts carries them on in the fame course again the next day; and whilft they keep themselves in vain company, they are quiet, till confcience finds them at leisure to debate it again with them. Now the things which mafter thefe convictions are,

1. In fome men, their ignorance and infenfibility of the precioufnefs of time. They know it is their fin to spend their time fo vainly, but little confider that eternity itself hangs upon this little moment of time; and that the great work of their falvation will require all the time they have; and if it be not finished in

this fmall allotment of time it can never be finished, John

ix. 4.

2. The examples of other vain perfons that are as prodigal of their precious time as themselves, and entice them to spend it as they do.

3. The charming power of fenfual lufts and pleasures. O how pleasantly doth time flide away in plays, ale-houses, in relating or hearing taking ftories, news, &c.

4. Inconfideratenefs of the sharp and terrible rebukes of conscience for this on a death-bed, or the terrors of the Lord in the day of judgment.

In all these instances you fee how common this dreadful evil of holding the truth in unrighteousness is; yet these are but a few selected from among many.

Fifthly, In the next place I am obliged to fhew, how and why the imprisoning of convictions, or holding the truths of God in unrighteoufnefs fo dreadfully incenfeth his wrath. And this it doth upon feveral accounts.

1. Knowledge and conviction of fin is an excellent mean, or choice help to preserve men from falling into fin There be thoufands of fins committed in the world, which had never been committed if men had known them to be fins before they committed them. Every finner durft not make fo bold with his conscience as you have done. The apoftle tells us the reafon why the princes of this world crucified the Lord of glory, was, because they knew him not, I Cor. ii. 8. had they known him they would not have dared to do as they did. And fo it is in multitudes of lower and leffer fins than that, Satan blinds their eyes with ignorance, then ufes their hands and tongues in wickednefs; he is the ruler of the darkness of this world, Eph. vi. 12. But when men do know this or that to be fin, and yet venture on it, then an excellent antidote against fin is turned into a dreadful aggravation of fin, which highly incenfes the wrath of God.

2. Knowledge and conviction going before add prefumption to the fin that follows after it; and prefumptuous fin is the moft provoking and daring fin; from this way of finning David earneftly befeeches God to keep him, " Keep back thy fervant (faith he) "from prefumptuous fins." When a man fees fin, and yet adventures on it, in fuch finning there is a defpifing of the law of God a man may break the law whilft he approves, reverences, and honours it in his heart, Rom. vii. 12, 13. but here the commandment is defpifed, as God told David, 2 Sam. xii. 9. It is as if a man fhould fay, I fee the command of God armed with threatenings in my way, but yet I will go on for all that.

3. Knowledge and conviction leave the confcience of a finner na

ked and wholly without excufe or apology for his fin: in this case there is no plea left to extenuate the offence. Job xv. 22. "Now "they have no cloak for their fin." If a man fins ignorantly, his ignorance is fome excufe for his fin, it excufes it at least a tanto, as Paul tells us, thus and thus I did, but I did it ignorantly: here is a cloak or covering, an excufe or extenuation of the fin: but knowledge takes away this cloak, and makes the fin appear naked in all the odious deformity of it, nothing left to hide it.

4. Light or knowledge of the law and will of God, is a very choice and excellent mercy; it is a choice and fingular favour, for God to make the light of knowledge to fhine into a man's mind or understanding; it is a mercy with-held from multitudes, Pfal. cxlvii. 19. and thofe that enjoy it are under fpecial engagements to blefs God for it, and to improve it diligently and thankfully to his fervice and glory; but for a man to arm fuch a mercy as this against God, to fight against him with one of his choiceft mercies, this must be highly provoking to the Lord; It is therefore mentioned as a high aggravation of Solomon's fin, in 1 Kings xi. 9. that he finned against the Lord," after the Lord had appeared "unto him twice."

5. This way of finning argues an extraordinary degree of hardnefs of heart: it is a fign of little tenderness, or fenfe of the evil of fin. Some men, when God fhews them the evil of fin in the glass of the law, they tremble at the fight of it: fo did Paul, Rom. vii. 13. "When the commandment came, fin revived, and I "died;" he funk down at the fight of it. But God fhews thee the evil of fin in the glass of his law, and thou makeft nothing of it: O obdurate heart! When the rod was turned into a ferpent Mofes fled from it, was afraid to touch it; but though God turn the rod into a ferpent, and discovers the venomous nature of fin in his word, thou canft handle and play with that ferpent, and put it into thy bofom: this fhews thy heart to be of a strange complexion.

6. To go against the convincing, warning voice of conscience, violates and wounds a man's confcience more than any other way of finning doth; and when confcience is fo wounded, who, or what shall then comfort thee? it is a true rule, maxima violatio confcientia, eft maximum peccatum: the more any fin violates a man's confcience, the greater that fin is: the fin of devils is the most dreadful fin, and what makes it fo, but the horrid violation of their confciences, and malicious rebellion against their own light and clear knowledge; James ii. 19. They know and fin, they believe and tremble; so, they roar under the tortures of confcience like the roar of the fea, or the noife of the rocks before a ftorm.

O then, if there be any degree of fenfe and tenderness left in you, if any fear of God or regard of falvation; let go all God's prifoners which lie bound and are imprifoned in the fouls of any of you this day. Bleffed be God fome have done so, and are at ease and rest in their fpirits by fo doing: they could have no eafe till they unbound them, and yielded obedience to them. It is faid, Acts xvi. 38. That when the magiftrates at Philippi understood that thofe men whom they had bound and imprifoned were Romans, they feared; and well they might, for the punishment was great for any man that injured a citizen or freeman of Rome: but every conviction you imprifon is a meffenger of heaven, a commiffionedofficer of God, and woe to him that binds or abuseth it. Do you know what you do? Are you aware of the danger? Waft thou not afraid (faith David to the Amalekite) to ftretch forth thine hand to deftroy the Lord's anointed? So fay I, Art thou not afraid to destroy the immediate meffenger of God, fent to thy foul for good? Conviction is a kind of embryo of converfion; the converfion and falvation of thy foul would be the fruit of it, were it obeyed: thy ftriving with it caufes it to miscarry, renders it abortive, and thy life must go for it, except God revive and recover it again; as you know the law is for striking a pregnant woman, Exod. xxi. 22, 23. Loose then every man the Lord's prifoners, I mean your refrained, ftifled convictions, ftifle them no longer; you fee what a dreadful aggravation of fin it is, and that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, that hold the truth in unrighteoufnefs.

1. Ufe, for information.

Infer. 1. This will prove a fruitful doctrine to inform us, First, That knowledge in itself is not enough to fecure the foul of any man from

bell.

17.

No gifts, no knowledge, but that only which is operative and influential upon the heart and life, and to which we pay obedience, can secure any man from wrath. John xiii. "If you "know these things, happy are ye if you do them." The greateft fins may be found in conjunction with the greatest knowledge, as you fee in the fallen angels: light is then only a bleffing, when it guides the foul into the way of duty and obedience: there is many a knowing head in hell. Yet from hence let no man indulge himself in ignorance, or fhun the means of knowledge, that he may fin more freely and lefs dangerously; for you must account with God for all that knowledge you might have had, as well as for that you had; for the means of knowledge he gave you, as well as for that knowledge you did actually attain by them.

Infer. 2. What a fingular and choice mercy is a tender confcience! A confcience yielding obedience to conviction! A drop of fuch tenderness in the confcience is better than a fea of speculative knowledge in the head, 1 Cor. xii. 31. Many poor Chrif tians are afhamed to fee themfelves fo out-ftripped and excelled by others in gifts, and apt to be difcouraged; but if God has bleffed thee with a tender and obediential heart to the will of God, fo far as he is pleased to manifeft it to thee, thou haft no reafon to be difcouraged for want of thofe excellent gifts and parts others do enjoy. You cannot difcourfe floridly, or difpute fubtilly; but can you obey confcientiously, and comply with the manifested will of God tenderly? Then happy art thou. Oh! it is far better to feel a truth, than merely to know it. It was the high commendation of the Romans, that they obeyed from the heart that form of gofpel-doctrine which was delivered them, Rom. vi. 17. or rather into which they were delivered, as melted metals into the moulds. Two learned divines travelling to the Council of Conftance, were affected, even to tears, at the fight of a fhepherd in the fields, mourning and melting at the fight of a toad, and blesfing God that he had not made him fuch a loathfome creature; whereupon they applied Auftin's words to themfelves, furgunt indadi, &c. The unlearned will rife and take heaven from the learned. Thy little knowledge made effectual by obedience, is more fanctified, more fweet, and more faving than other men's; and therefore of much greater value. It is more fanctified; for the bleffing of God is upon it, Gal. iv. 16. It is more fweet; for you relifh the goodness, as well as difcern the truth of gofpel-doctrines, Pfal. cxix. 103. It is not an infipid, dry fpeculation. And then it is more faving, being one of thofe better things that accompany falvation, as it is, Heb. vi. 9.

Infer. 3. Learn hence, in the third place, What an uncomfortable life, knowing, but unregenerate men and women do live: They are frequently in wars and combats ruith their own confciences. Ifa. xlvi. 22. "There is no peace to the wicked, faith my God." They and their confciences are ever and anon at daggers drawing, they have little pleasure in fin, and none at all in religion; they have none in religion, because they obey not its rules; and little in fin, because their confciences are ftill galling and terrifying them for imprifoning their convictions.

It is true, fome men's confciences are feared as with an hot iron, 1 Tim. iv. 2. but moft have grumbling, and fome have raging, and roaring confciences; they feldom come under the word, or rod, but their confciences lash them: And when death approaches, the

*ες οι παρεδώθητε.