naked and wholly without excuse or apology for his sin : in this case there is no plea left to extenuate the offence, Job xv. 22. " Now " they have no cloak for theii' sin." If a man sins ignorantly, his ignorance is some excuse for his sin, it excuses 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 excuse or extenuation of the sin : but know- ledge takes away this cloak, and makes the sin appear naked in all the odious deformity of it, nothing left to hide it.
4. Light or knowledge of the law and Mali of God, is a very choice and excellent mercy ; it is a choice and singular favour, for God to make the light of knowledge to shine into a man's mind or understanding; it is a mercy with-held from multitudes, Psal. cxlvii* 19. and those that enjoy it are under special engagements to bless God for it, and to improve it diligently and thankfully to his service and glory ; but for a man to arm such a mercy as this against God, to fight against him Avith one of his choicest mercies, this must be highly provoking to the Lord ; it is therefore men- tioned as a high aggravation of Solomon's sin, in 1 Kings xi. 9* that he sinned against the Lord, " after the Lord had appeared '' unto him twice."
5. This way of sinning argues an extraordinary degree of hard- ness of heart : it is a sign of little tenderness, or sense of the evil of sin. Some men, when God shews them the evil of sin in the glass of the law, they tremble at the sight of it : so did Paul, Rom. vii. 13. " When the commandment came, sin revived, and I " died ;" he sunk down at the sight of it. But God shews thee the evil of sin in the glass of his law, and thou makest nothing of it : O obdurate heart ! When the rod was turned into a serpent Moses fled from it, was afraid to touch it ; but though God turn the rod into a serpent, and discovers the venomous nature of sin in his word, thou canst handle and play with that serpent, and put it into thy bosom : this shews thy heart to be of a strange com- plexion.
6. To go against the convincing, warning voice of conscience, violates and wounds a man's conscience more than any other way of sinning doth; and when conscience is so wounded, who, or what shall then comfort thee ? it is a true rule, maxima violatio ccm- sciential, est maximum peccatum : the more any sin violates a man's conscience, the greater that sin is : the sin of devils is the most dreadful sin, and what makes it so, but the hoiTid violation of their consciences, and malicious rebellion against their own light and clear knowledge ; Jam. ii. 19. They know and sin, they be- lieve and tremble ; (j^^nscagi^ they roar under the tortures of con- science like the roar of the sea, or the noise of the rocks before a storm.
£90 A:^J appendix to esglaj^d's duty.
O thcn^ if there be any degres of sense and tenderness left ih you, if any fear of God or regard of salvation ; let go all God's prisoners which lie bound and are imprisoned in the souls of any of you this day. Blesssd be God some have done so, and are at ease and rest in their spirits by so doing : they could have no ease till they unbound them, and yielded obedience to them. It is said, Acts xvi. 38. That when the magistrates at Philippi understood that those men whom thev had bound and imprisoned were Romans, they feared ; and well they might, for the punishment was great for any man that inj ured a citizen or freeman of Rome : but every conviction you imprison is a messenger of heaven, a commissioned-officer of God, . and woe to him that binds or abuseth it Do you know what you do ? Are you aware of the danger ? Wast thou not afraid (saith David to the Amalekite) to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the Lord's anointed ? So say T, Art thou not afraid to destroy the im- mediate messenger of Godj sent to thy soul for good ? Conviction is a kind of embryo of conversion ; the conversion and salvation of thy soul would be the fruit of it, were it obeyed : thy striving with it causes 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 prisoners, I mean your restrained, stifled con- \ictions, stifle them no longer ; you see what a dreadful aggravation cff sin it is, and that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and um*ighteousness of men, that hold the truth in unrighteousness.
I. Vse,Jvr Injbrmation.
Lifer. 1. This will prove a fruitful doctrine to inform us, Pirst^ That knoxcUdge in itself Is not enough to secure the soul of any man from hell.
No gifts, no knowledge, but that only which is operative an^ influential upon the heart and life, and to which we pay obedience, can secure any man from wrath, John xiii. 17. " If you know these •' things, happy are ye if you do them." The greatest sins may be foimd in conjunction with the greatest knowledge, as you see in the fallen angels : light is then only a blessing, when it guides the soul into the way of dutv and obedience : there is many a knowing head in hell. Yet from hence let no man indulge himself in ignorance, or shun the means of knowledge, that he may sin more freely and less dangerously ; for you must account with God for all that know- ledge 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.
Ak APPENDIX TO England's duty. S91