*Nil confcire tibi, nulla pallefcere culpa,
Hic murus abeneus efto.

What comforted Hezekiah on his fuppofed death-bed but the fair teftimonial his confcience gave in of his integrity? 2 Kings ii. 3. "A good man (faith Solomon) fhall be fatisfied from himself; "but the backflider in heart fhall be filled with his own ways." Mark the oppofition, confcience gives the backflider his belly full of forrow, and the upright man his heart full of peace. He is fatisfied from himfelf, that is, from his own confcience, which though it be not the original spring, yet it is the conduit at which he drinks peace, joy, and encouragement.

2. Confcience wounded and abufed, will be our worst enemy; no poniards fo mortal as the wounds of confcience. "A wounded "fpirit who can bear ?" Prov. xviii. 14. Could Judas bear it, or could Spira bear it? What is the torment of hell, but the worm that dies not? and what is that worm but the remorse of confcience? Mark ix. 44. Oh, what is that fearful expectation mentioned, Heb. x. 27. See how you like that life defcribed, Deut. xxviii. 65, 66. The primitive Chriftians chofe rather to be caft to the lions than into the paws of an enraged conscience; ad leones, potius quam ad lenones. Every little trouble will be infupportable to a fick and wounded confcience, as a quart of water would be to your fhoulder in a great leaden veffel. ·

O, if men did but fear their own confciences, if they did reverence themselves, as the moralift fpeaks, if they did herein exercife themselves to have always a confcience void of offence, as Paul did, Acts xxiv. 16. then would you be clear of this great fin of holding the truth in unrighteoufnefs.

Direct. 3. If you would efcape the guilt, and danger of holding God's truths in unrighteoufnefs, then keep your hearts under the awful fenfe of the day of judgment, when every secret thing muft come into judgment, and confcience like a register-book, is to be opened and examined. The confideration of that day gives your confciences a feven-fold defenfative against fin. 1. It provokes every man to get real, folid grace, and not rest in an empty profeflion, Matth. xxv. and this fecures us from formal hypocrify, that we be not found foolish virgins. 2. It excites us to the diligent improvement of our talents, that we be not found flothful fervants, neglecting any duty God and confcience calls us to, Matth. xxv. 21. 3. It confirms, and establishes us in the ways of God, that we wound not confcience by apoftacy, 1 John ii. 28. 4. It is a loud call to every man to repentance, and not to lie

A good confcience is a wall of brass.

ftupid, and fenfelefs, under guilt, Acts xvii. 30, 31. 5. It is a powerful antidote against formality in religion, the general, and dangerous disease of profeffors, Matth. vii. 22, 23. 6. It excites holy fear and watchfulness, in the whole courfe of life, 1 Pet. i. 17. 7. It puts us not only to our watch, but to our knees in fervent prayer, 1 Pet. iv. 7.

And he that feels fuch effects as thefe, from the confideration of that day, is fortified against that fin my text warns of, and dares never hold the truths of God in unrighteoufnefs. It is our regardleffness of judgment to come, and ignorance of the nature of it which fo emboldens us to neglect known duties, and commit known fins, Amos vi. 3. 2 Pet. iii. 3, 4. If our thoughts and meditations, were engaged more frequently, and seriously, on such an awful fubject, you would rather chufe to die than to do violence to your confciences.

Direct. 4. Get right and true apprehenfions of the moral evil that is in fin, and of the penal evil that follows fin; then no temptation fhall prevail with you to commit a fin, to escape a prefent trouble, or neglect a known duty, to accommodate any earthly interest, and confequently to hold no truth of God in unrighteousness. It is fear of lofs and fufferings that so often overbears conscience; but if men were once made thoroughly fenfible that the leaft fin is worfe for them than the greatest affliction or fuffering, the peace of conscience would be well fecured. And that this is really fo, appears thus: 1. Afflictions do not make a man vile in the eyes of God. A man may be under manifold afflictions, and yet very dear, and precious, in God's account, Heb. xi. 36, 37, 38. but fin makes man vile in the eyes of God, Dan. xi. 2. 2. Afflictions do not put men under the curfe of God, bleffings and afflictions may go together, Pfal. xciv. 12. but fin brings the foul under the curfe, Gal. iii. 10. 3. Afflictions make men more like unto God, Heb. xii. 10. but fin makes us more like the devil, 1 John iii. 8. John' viii. 34. 4. Afflictions for confcience fake are but the creature's wrath inflamed against us; but fin is the inflamer of God's wrath against us, as in the text. 5. Afflictions are but outward evils upon the body, but fin is an internal evil upon the foul, Prov. viii. 36. 6. Afflictions for duties fake have many fweet promifes annexed to them, Mat. v. 19. but fin hath none. 7. The effects of fufferings for Christ are sweet to the foul, 2 Cor. vii. 4. but the fruits of fin are bitter; it yields nothing but fhame and fear. 8. Afflictions for Chrift are the way to heaven, but fin is the broadway to hell, Rom. vi. ult. 9. Sufferings for duty are but for a moment, 2 Cor. iv. 17. but fufferings for fin will be eternal, Mark.

ix. 44.

If fuch thoughts might be fuffered to dwell with us, now would

they guard the confcience against temptations, and fecure their peace and purity?

Direc. 5. Be thoroughly perfuaded of this great truth, that God takes great pleafare in uprightness, and will own and honour integrity amidst all the dangers that befal it, Pfal. xi. 7. Prov. xi. 20. When he would encourage Abraham to a life of integrity, he engages his Almighty Power for the protection of him in that way. Gen. xvii. 1. "I am God Almighty, walk thou before me, and be perfect." So Pfal. Ixxxiv. 11. « The Lord God is a fun and a "thield; he will give grace and glory, and no good thing will he "with-hold from them that walk uprightly."

An upright man is the boaft of heaven, Job i. 8. he is God's dar ling; and the reafon is, because he bears the image of God. Pfal. xi. 7. "The upright Lord loveth uprightness ;". yea, and if integrity brings them into trouble, they may be fure the Lord will bring them out. Pfal. xxxiv. 19. "Many are the afflictions of the righ"teous, but the Lord delivereth them out of them all." How fafely then may they leave themselves in the hands of his infinitewiflom, power, and fatherly care? Nay, God is not only the protecior, but he is alfo the rewarder of confcientious integrity, Pial. xviii. 20. and that four ways. 1. In the inward peace it yields them; Ifa. xxxii. 17. "The work of righteoufnefs fhall be peace, "and the effect of righteoufucfs, quietnefs and affurance for ever." But the effect of tinful fhifts and carnal policies are fhame and forrow. 2. In the fuccefs and iffue of it; it not only turns to God's glory, but it aufwers and accommodates our own defigns and ends far better than our finful projects can do, Prov. xxviii. 23. 3. Great is the joy, and encouragement refulting from it in the day of death, 2 Kings xx. 3. Pial. xxxvii. 37. 4 In the world to come, Pfal. xlix. 14. Were this duly confidered and thoroughly believed, men would chufe rather to part with life than the purity and peace of their own confciences. They would fuffer all wrongs and injuries rather than do confcience the leaft injury.

Dired. 6. Do not idolize the world, nor over-value the trifles of this life; it is the love of the world that makes men warp from the rules of their own confciences, 2 Tim. iv. 10. it is this that makes men ftrain hard to get loose from the ties and bonds of their own confciences. The young man was convinced, but the world was too hard for his convictions, Luke xviii. 23. the degree of his forrow was according to the degree of his love to the creature. It is not the having, but the over-loving of the world that ruins us; it is a worldly heart which makes men twist and turn, fhuffle and diffemble at that rate they do, in time of temptation. Could you once dethrone this idol, how fecure and fate would your confciences be! The church is defcribed, Rev.

xii. 1. as clothed with the fun, and the moon under her feet; the most zealous age of the church was the age of poverty. Try these few confiderations upon your hearts to loose them from the inordinate love of the world. 1. What good will the world do when you have loft your integrity for its fake, and peace is taken away from the inner man? What joy of the world had Judas, and what comfort had Spira? If you part with your integrity for it, God will blaft it, and it fhall yield you no joy. 2. Except you renounce the world, you are renounced by Chrift: difclaim it, or he will difclaim you, Luke xiv. 33. No man can be admitted into Chrift's fervice, but by fealing thofe indentures with him. 3. Whatever lofs or damage you fhall fuftain for Chrift and confcience fake, he ftands obliged to repair it to you, and that with an infinite overplus, Mark x. 29, 30. 4. In a word, all the riches, pleafures, honours, and liberties in the world are not able to give you that joy and heart-refreshing comfort that the acquitting and chearing voice of your own confciences can do. Settle thefe things in your hearts as defenfatives against this danger.

Direct. 7. Lastly, Beg of God, and labour to get more Christian courage and magnanimity; for want of this, confcience is oft overborne against its own light and conviction; Christian magnanimity is confcience's fecurity. It is excellent and becoming a Christian to be able to face any thing but the frowns of God and his own confcience. All the famous champions of truth, and witneffes for God, that came victorious out of the field with temptation, with fafe and unwounded confciences, were men of courage and refolu tion: See Dan. iii. 16. Heb. xi. 27. Acts xxi. 13. And what is this Chriftian courage but the fixed refolution of the foul to encounter all dangers, all fufferings, all reproaches, pains, and loffes in the ftrength of affifting grace, that shall affault us in the ways of our duty; and fo it ftands oppofed in fcripture to the Spirit of fear, Heb. xi. 27. to fhame, Mark viii. 38. to apoflacy, Heb. x. 39. He muft neither be afraid nor afhamed, nor lofe one inch of ground for the fake of whatfoever dangers he meets with, and that because he hath embraced Chriftianity upon thofe terms, and was told of all this before, John xvi. 1. because there is no retreating, but to our own ruin, Heb. x. 38. because he owes all this, and much more than this, to Chritt, Phil. i. 29. because he understands the value of his foul above his body, and of eternals above and beyond all temporals, Matth. x. 28. and, in a word, because he believes the promifes of God's affiftance and rewards, Heb. xi. 25, 26, 27.

O my friends, were our fears thus fubdued, and our faith thus exalted, how free, and fafe, would truth be in our confciences! he that owns any truth to live upon it, or accommodate a carnal intereft by it, will difown that truth when it comes to live upon him,

let confcience plead and fay what it will: but he that hath agreed with Chrift upon these terms, to be content to be miferable for ever if there be not enough in Christ to make him happy, this man will be a fteady Chriftian, and will rather lie in the worst of prifons, than imprison God's known truths in unrighteousness.

THE CONCLUSION.

I have now done my meffage. I have fet before you the Lord Jefus in the glory of his free grace and condescending love to finners; O that I had skill and ability to have done it better! I have wooed and expoftulated with you on Chrift's behalf; I have laboured according to my little measure of ftrength, to caft up and prepare the way by removing the ftumbling blocks and difcou ragements out of it. This hath been a time of conviction to many of you, fome have not been able to hold their convictions any longer under restraints, but many, I fear, do fo; and therefore I have in the close of all handled this startling and awakening fcripture among you, to fhew you what an horrid evil it is to detain God's truths in unrighteoufnefs. I have alfo, in the name and authority of God, demanded all the Lord's prifoners, his suppressed and restrained truths at your hands: if you will unbind your convictions this day, cut asunder the bonds of carnal fear, shame, &c. with which you restrain them; those truths you shall fo make free, will make you free: if not, but you will still go on stifling and fuppreffing them in your own bofoms, remember that there are fo many witneffes prepared to give evidence against you in the great day. And O that whilft you delay this duty, the found of this text may never be out of your ears, nor fuffer you to reft: "For "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodli"nefs and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrigh"teoufnefs."