6. You that have had some slight, ineffectual, and vanishing convictions upon you formerly ; the Lord Jesus once more renews his call : Will you now at last hear his voice ? It is an infinite mercy to have a second call. I doubt not but there are many among you, whilst you have sat under the word, have had such thoughts as these in your hearts : Sure my condition is not right, nor safe ; there must another manner of work pass upon my soul, or 1 am lost for ever. External duties of religion I do perform, but I am a stranger to regeneration. Such inward convictions as these were the knocks and calls of Christ, but they passed away and were forgotten : your convictions are dead, and your hearts the more hardened ; for it is in putting a soul under conviction as it is in putting iron into the fire, and quenching it again, which hardens it the more. You have been near the kingdom of God, but the more miserable for that, if you be shut out at last. The quickening of your convictions is the right way to the saving of your souls. The Lord make you this day to hear his voice.
7. Such as have come hither upon vile or vain accounts, for mere novelty or worse ends; to catch advantages, or reproach the truths of God ; scoffing at the most solemn and awful voice of Christ. The word that you have slighted and reproached, the same shall judge you in that great day, except the Lord will give you repentance unto hfe, and make the heart tremble under it that hath scoffed at it. " Be not mockers, lest your bonds be made strong,'^ Isa. xxviii. 22.
8. To conclude ; let all whose hearts the Lord hath opened this day, for the enjoyments of the gospel, the blessed instrument of
268 AN APPENDIX TO EXGLAXd's DUTY.
their salvation, bless the Lord that hath made it a key by regeneration to open the door of salvation to your souls. And as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.
JTor the wrath of God is revealed Jrom heatmi against all ungod- liness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in un^ righteousness.
iN all the foregoing sermons I have been pleading and wooing for Christ. And as Abraham's servant, to win the damseVs consent, told her what treasures his master's son had, so I have laboured to shew you some part of the unsearchable riches of Christ, if by any means I might allure your hearts, and be instrumental to close the happy match betwixt him and you ; and (as the apostle speaks) espouse you to one husband, even to Christ.
But alas ! How few stir towards him ? The most seem to be im- moveably fixed in their natural state, and sinful courses. All our ar- guments and entreaties return to us again, and effect nothing. It is amazing to think what is the matter, that souls which have in them the inbred hopes and fears of the world to come, and self-reflecting powers cannot, for all this, be prevailed with to quit the way of sin, and to embrace the way of holiness, though their consciences mean while stand convinced, that eternal damnation is the issue and re- sult of the one ; life, peace, and eternal joys of the other.
This hath put me upon a serious search what may be the cause and reason of this fixed and unreasonable obstinacy ; and in this it seems evidently to lie with most that live in an unregenerate state under the gospel, that they put a force upon their own consciences, and do imprison and hold the truth in unrighteou-sness, though the wrath of God be revealed from heaven against all that do so.
If by this discourse I can but set truth at hberty^ and loose the
AN APPENDIX TO ENGLAXd's DUTY. 269
Jjord's prisoners which lie bound in your souls, I shall not doubt the value of Christ will quickly rise among you, and free convic- tions will make the work of your ministers much more easy and successful than they now find it. It is hardly imaginable but the things you have heard must leave your souls under convictions : but if you suppress and stifle them, they produce nothing but aggrava^ tions of sin and misery. Now, in order to the free and effectual working of all your convictions, and begetting that reverence which is due to them from every soul, as to the voice of God, I have chosen this scripture, the scope and sense whereof I shall next give you.
The true scope and aim of- this context is to prove the justifica- tion of sinners to be only by the imputed righteousness of Christ in the way of faith. To make this evident, he distributes the whole world into Gentiles and Jews ; the one seeking righteousness by the dim light of nature, or the law written in their hearts ; the other, viz. the Jews, by the works of the law, or external confor- mity to the law of Moses : But that neither can find what they seek, he distinctly and fully proves. He proves it first upon the Gentiles from this verse to the 17th verse of the second chapter ; and then he proves it upon the Jews also from thence to the end of the third chapter. As for the Gentiles, he acknowledges that they had inbred notions of God imprinted in their nature ; they had also the book of the creatures before them, enough to leave them without excuse, ver. 20. they have no pretence of ignorance : But these common notices of God, and of good and evil, they did not obey and put in practice, but acted against the very light and dictates of their natural consciences. For which cause the wrath of God was revealed from heaven against them, as the text speaks. Wherein note,
1. A clear and dreadful revelation of Divine wrath.
2. The object or impulsive cause thereof, ungodliness and un- righteousness.
3. The special aggravation of this ungodliness and unrighteous- ness, that they held the truth in uni'ighteoiisness.
1. Here is a clear and dreadful revelation of Divine wrath, the " wrath of God (saith the apostle) is revealed from heaven ;" ooy7\ 0s», the indignation or vengeance of God. It is a word of deep and dreadful signification ; the damned that feel the weight of it, have the fullest sense of it. It is said. Psalm xc. 11. " Who '' knows the power of thine anger ? According to thy fear, so is " thy wrath.'' That is, the fears of an incensed Deity are no vain bugbears, nor the effects of ignorance and superstition as atheists fancy ; but let men's fears of it be what they will, they shall
270 AX APPENDIX TO ENCIAXD*'s DUTY,