brought into a deep sense of them. Light in a direct beam heats not, nor doth knowledge swinmiing in the brain affect. Most under the gospel know that unbelief is a damning sin, and that there is no name to be saved by but the name of Christ ; yet how few of those know this convincingly, so as to apply this to their own consciences, and to be affected with their own deplorable state, who are the unbelievers andChristless persons ! As he is a convicted drunkard in law, who, in open court, or before a lawful authority, upon clear testimony, and deposition of witnesses, is found and judged to be such : so he, scripturally, is a convinced sinner, who, upon the clear evidence of the word brought against him b}' the Spirit, is found by his own conscience (God's officer in his bosom) to be so : speak now, poor creature, did ever such an act of the Spirit of God pass upon thee as this is? which that thou niayest the better discern of, try thy- self by these few characters of a convinced person.
First, A sinner truly convinced is not only convinced of this sin or that sin, but of the evil of all sin. It is an ill sign when a person seems in a passion to cry out of one sin, and to be senseless of another sin. A parboiled con- science is not right, — soft in one part, and hard in another ; the Spirit of God is uniform in its work. Secondly, The convinced sinner is not only convinced of acts of sin, but of the state of sin also. He is not only affected with what he hath done, this law broken, and that mercy abused, but with what his state and present condition is. Peter leads Simon Magus from that one liorrid act he committed, to the consideration of that which was worse, the dismal state that he discovered him to be in: 'I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity,' Acts viii. 23. Many will confess they do not do as they should, who will not think by any means so ill of themselves, that their state is naught, a state of sin and death ; whereas the convinced soul freely piits himself under this sentence of death, owns his condition, and dissembles not liis pedigree. ' I am a most vile wretch,' saith he, ' a limb of Satan, full of sin, as the toad is of rank poison ; my whole nature lies in wickedness, even as the dead, rotten carcass doth in its slime and putrefaction. I am a child of wrath, born to no other inheritance than hell flames ; and if God will now tread me down thither, I have not one righteous syllable to object against his proceedings, but there is that in my own conscience which will clear him from having done me any wrong in my doom.' Thirdly, The con- vinced sinner doth not only condemn himself for what he hath done and what he is, but he despairs of himself as to anything he can now do to save himself. Many, though they go so far as to confess they are vile wretches, and have lived wickedly, and for this deserve to die ; yet when they have put the rope about their necks by a self-condemning act, they are so far from being convinced of their own impotency, that they hope to cut the rope with their repentance, reformation, and I know not what bundle of good works, which they think shall redeem their credit with God, and recover his fovour, which their former sins have unhappily lost them. And this comes to pass, because the plough of conviction did not go deep enough to tear up those secret roots of self-con- fidence, with which the heart of every sinner is wofully tainted ; whereas every soul thoroughly convinced by the Spirit is a self-despairing soul; lie sees himself beyond his own help, like a poor condemned prisoner, laden with so many heavy irons, that he sees it impossible for him to make an escape with all his skill or strength out of the hands of justice. O friends, look whether the work be once gone tluis far in your souls or not. Most that perish, it is not their disease that kills them, but their physician ; they think to cure them- selves, and this leaves them incurable. Speak, soul ; did the Lord ever ferret thee out of tins burrow, where so many earth themselves? Art thou as nuich at a loss what to do, as sensible of what thou hast done ? Dost thou see hell in thy sin, and despair in thyself? Hath God got thee out of this Keilah, and convinced thee, if thou shouldst stay in the self-confidence of thy repentance, reformation, aiul duties, they would all deliver thee up into the hands of God's justice and wrath, when they shall come against thee ? then, indeed, thou ha t esca; ed one of the finest snares that the wit of hell can weave. Fourthly, Tl-.e convinced sinner is not only convinced of sin, so as to condemn himself, and despair of himself, but he is convinced of a full provision laid up in Christ for self-condemned and self-despairing ones, John xvi. : * lie shall convince the
446 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH.