find, except they repent, the wrath of God to be according to, yea, and far above their fears of it. If the wrath of a king be as the messengers of death, what tl;en is the wrath of the great and terrible God ? This wrath is here said to be revealed, AcroxaXjcVjra/^ discovered, or made manifest ; and so it is divers ways : It was re- vealed to them by the hght of nature, their own consciences gave them notice and warning of it. Thus it was revealed to them by an internal testimony, a witness ^dtliin them ; and it was also revealed to them by the instances and examples of strokes and punishments of sin in all ages by the immediate hand of a justly incensed God. They came not by chance, but Divine direction : therefore it is added, «S7' }£oavii,Jrom heaven y or from God in heaven.
2. Here is the objeef, or impulsive cause of this revealed and in- flicted wrath, it is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Ecr/ 'zaeav aGzZztav -/mi abixiav. The former aGiZiia, ungodliness, compriseth all sins against the first table ; the irrehgious lives and practices of men, living in the neglect of the duties of religion : the other word abma, unrighteousness , compri- seth all sins agamst the second table, acts of fraud, uncleanness, &:c. against men. And because these two general comprehensive words are branched out into many particulars, therefore he saith, *' the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrigh- " teousness.'^ There is not one of the many sins into which un- godliness and unrighteousness are branched out, but incenseth the Ix)rd's ^^Tath : and though he only mentions the sins in the abstract, we are to understand the abstract put here for the concrete ; the sins for the sinners that commit them, or. God'*s punishing these sins upon the persons of the sinners.
3. Lastly, We have here before us the special aggravation of these sins, or that which made them much more provoking to God than otherwise they had been. And it was this, that whilst they committed these sins, or omitted those duties, they held the truth in unrighteousness : -/.anyv^rm^ the word signifies to detain, stop^ hinder^ or put a Remora in that way of the truth of God, or those common notions they had of his being, power, goodness, truth, &c. as also of his worship, and the difference between good and evil. These truths struggled in their consciences ; conscience in- stigated them to duty, and laboured to restrain them from sin ; but all in vain, they overbear their own consciences, and keep those senti- ments and convictions prisoners, though they struggled for liberty to break forth into practice and obedience. Their convictions were kept down under the dominion and power of corruptions, as a prisoner is shut up by his keeper. Their lusts were too hard for their light. Thus you have both the scope and sense of the text. The point from it is this^
Doct. That the wrath of God is dreadfully incensed against nil those that live in any course of sin ^ against the light and dic^ tates of their own consciences*
Sins of ignorance provoke the wrath of God, yet are they not of so heinous a nature as sins against Hght and conviction are, nor shall they be punished so severely, Luke xii. 47. " That servant *' which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither " did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.*"
It excuses, a tanto^ in some measure, when a man can say. Lord, had I known this to be a sin, I would not have done it: but when the conscience is convinc'ed, and strives to keep us from such an act or course of sinful actions, and we stop our ears against its voice and warnings ; here is a high and horrid contempt of God and his law, and gives the sin a scarlet dye or tincture. Sins of ignorance cannot compare with such sins as these, John iii. 19- John xvL S2. To open this point, let me. 1. Shew you what conscience is. % What the light of conscience is, and what its kinds are.
3. How this light binds the conscience, and makes it strive- in us.
4. Then instance in some cases wherein it doth so.
5. And, Lastly, how and why the imprisoning of these con- victions so dreadfully incenseth the wrath of God.
First, It will be needful to speak a little to the nature of con- science in general. Conscience (as our Divines well express it) is the judgment of man upon himself, as he is subject to the judg- ment of God. A judgment it is, and a practical judgment too; it belongs to the imderstanding faculty, 1 Cor. xi. 13. If we would judge ourselves^ t^*c. This self-judgment is the proper office, of the conscience, and, to enable it for this its work and office, there are (as is generally observed) three things belonging to every mane's conscience.
1. A knowledge of the rule or law, according to which it is to judge, called the Synteresis, which is a treasury of rules and prin- ciples, without which conscience can no more do its work, than an artificer that wants his square or level can do his.
2. Knowledge of the facts, or matters to be judged, called the Syneidesis. The conscience of every man keeps a register of his actions, thoughts, and the very secrets of the heart.
3. An ability or delegated authority to pass judgment on our- selves and actions, according to the rule and law of God, called Crisis, judgment. Here it sits upon the bench as God's vicegerent, absolving or condemning, as it finds the sincerity or hypocrisy of the heart upon trial, 1 John iii. 20, .^1.
27» AS APPENDIX TO EXGLAND S DUTY.