Motive 10. Lastly, consider what a choice mercy it is to be under such calls and convictions of conscience as are yet capable of being obeyed : it is not so with men's convictions after this life. Conscience convinceth in hell as well as here, but all its convictions there are for torment, not recovery. O it is a choice mercy your convictions are yet medicinal, not pwely pe?ial ; that you are not malo objirmati, so fixed in the state of sin and misery as the damned are, but yet enjoy the saving benefit of your convictions ; but this you mil not enjoy long, therefore I beseech you, by all that is dear and valuable in your eyes, reverence your consciences, and let go the Lord's pri- soners that lie bound within you.
I next come to expostulate the matter with your consciences, and propound a few convictive queries to your souls this day : I cannot but look upon this assembly with fear, jealousy, and compassion. I am afraid there be many of you in this wretched case, men and women, that hold the truths of God in unrighteousness, though the wrath of God be revealed from heaven against all them that do so. Let me demand.
Demand 1. Do not some of you stand convinced by your own consciences this day, that your hearts and lives, your principles and practices, are vastly different from the people of God among whom you live, and whose characters you read in Scripture.'^ Do not your own consciences tell you, that you never took that pains for your salvation you see them daily take ; that there be some it may be in your families, nay, possibly in your bosoms, that are serious and heavenly, whilst you are vain and earthly ; that are in their chambers upon their knees, wrestling with God, whilst you are in your beds, or about the things of the world ? And doth not con- science sometimes whisper thus into thine ear, Soul, thou art not right ; something is wanting to make thee a Christian ; thou want- est that which others have ; and except something further be done upon thee, thou wilt be undone for ever ? If it be so, let me advise thee to hearken diligently to this voice of conscience : do not dare to venture to the judgment-seat of God in such a case : ponder that text, Mat. xxi. 32. and let the disparity your conscience shews you betwixt your own course and that of others, awaken you to more diligence and seritjusness about your own salvation : how canst thou come from the alehouse, or thy vain recreations, and find a >vife or child in prayer, and thy conscience not smite thee ? It may
AN APPENDIX TO ENGLAND'S DUTY. S99
be they have been mourning for thy sins, whilst thou hast been committing them. It may be there hves not far from thee a godly, poor man, who out of his hard and pressing labours redeems more time for his soul in a week, than ever thou didst in thy life. O hearken to the voice of thy conscience ! else thou art he that boldest truth in unrighteousness.
Demand 2. Did thy conscience never meet thee in the way of sin, as the angel of the Lord met Balaam, with a drawn sword, brandishing the threatenings of God against thee ? Did it not say to thee, as a captain once said to his soldiers about to retreat, he cast himself down in their way, saying. If you go this way, you shall go over your captain, you shall trample him first under your feet .'' Stop, soul, stop, said thy conscience ; this and that word of God is against thee : if thou proceed, thou must trample upon the sovereign authority of God, in this or that command ; yet thy impetuous lusts have hurried thee forward : thou wouldst not fairly debate the case with thy conscience ; and then did not thy con- science say to thee, as Reuben spake to his brethren, Gen. xlii. 22. " Spake I not i.mto you saying, Do not sin against the child, " but you would not hear ; therefore also his blood is required of " you .''"" If this has been your course of sinning, verily you are the persons that have held the truths of God in unrighteousness, and against you the wrath of God is revealed from heaven.
Demand 3. Have you not seen the wrath of God revealed from heaven against other sinners that have gone before you in the very same track and course of sin in which you now go, and yet 3^ou persist in it, notwithstanding such dreadful warnings ? Thus did Belteshazzar, though he saw all that the God of heaven had done to his father, Dan. v. 20, 21, 22. You have seen great estates scattered, and their owners that got them by fraud and oppression reduced to beggary ; and yet when a temptation is before you, you cannot forbear to take the advantage (as you call it) to get the gain of oppression. You have seen drunkards clothed with rags, and brought to miserable ends : adulterers severely punished, their names and estates, souls and bodies blasted, and wasted by a secret, but just stroke of God. Have you taken warning by these strokes of God, and hearkened to the monitions and cautions your con- sciences have thereupon given you ? If not, thou art the man that boldest the truth of God in unrighteousness.
Demand 4. Do not you inwardly hate, and do not your hearts rise against necessary and due reproofs given you by those that love your souls better than yourselves ? If you hate a faithful re^ prover, though you know you justly deserve the reproof, and are guilty of the sin he reproves ; if you recriminate, or deny in such
cases, yoii arc certainly so far confederates with Satan against your own souls, and imprison your own convictions.
Demand 5. Have not some of you apostatized from your first pro- fession, and are not those hopeful blossoms that once appeared upon your souls blasted and gone? You had quick convictions, and melting affections, tenderness in your consciences, and zeal for duties: but all is now vanished ; your aifections are grown cold, your duties pmitted, though conscience often bids you remember from whence you are fallen, and do your first works. You are the persons guilty of this sin.
Demand 6. Do none of you presume upon future repentance, and so make bold with your consciences for present, thinking to compound that way vAth it? This argues thee to be a self-condemned man, ^nd one that boldest truth in unrighteousness : thy sin is present and certain, thy repentance but a peradventure, 2 Tim. ii. 25. This is an high and a daring way of presumptuous sinning.