Demand 7. Lastly, Have none of you taken the vows of God upon you, to reform your course, and break off your iniquities by repentance, when you have been under dangerous sickness on shore, or dreadful tempests at sea ? Have you not said. Lord, if thou wilt but spare and save me this once, I will never live at the rate I have hved any more : try me, O Lord, this once ; and yet when that affliction hath vanished, your purposes and promises to God have vanished with it: you are the persons that hold the known truths of God prisoners in j^our souls ; and to all these seven sorts of sinners, this text may justly be as the hand-writing upon the wall once was, even a Alene Tekel, that may make thy very loins to shake.
This doctrine winds up and finishes in directions for the preven- tion of such presumptuous sins in men for time to come, that truth may have its free course through your souls.
Direction 1. And to this end my first counsel and direction is, that you fail not to put every conviction into speedy execution. Do not delay, it is a very critical hour, and delays are exceeding ha- zardous : convictions are fixed and secured in men's souls four ways. 1. By deep and serious consideration, Psal. cxix. 59. " I thought " upon my ways, and turned my feet to thy testimonies." 2. By earnest prayer; thus Saul, under his first convictions, fell presently on his knees. Acts ix. 11. Behold, he prayeih : The warm breath of prayer foments and nourishes the sparks of conviction, that they be not extinct. 3. By diligent attendance on the word. The word begets it, and the word can, through God's blessing preserve it.
AN APPENDIX TO ENCLAXd's DUTY. 801
James i. 23, 24. 4. Present execution, falling, witliout delay, on the duty thou art convinced of. James i. 24. " Be not forgetful " hearers, but doers of the word ; otherwise a man is as one that ^' looks into a glass, and straightway forgets what manner of man " he was.'^ Take the sense thus, a man looks into the glass in the morning, and there perhaps he sees a spot on his face, a dis- order in his hair or clothes ; and thinks with himself, well, I will rectify it anon ; but being gone from the place, one thing or other diverts his mind, he forgets what he saw, and goes all the day with the spot on his face, never minding it any more. O brethren, delays are dangerous, sin is deceitful, Heb. iii. 13. Satan is subtle, 2 Cor. xi. 3. and this way gains his point. This motto may be written on the tomb of most that perish, Here lies one that zms de- stroi/ed by delays. Your life is immediately uncertain, so are the strivings of the Spirit also. Besides, there is a mighty advantage in t\\e 2Jr'i'tnus impetus^ the first heat of the soul. When thy heart is once up in warm affections and resolutions, the work may be easily done ; as a hclU if once up, goes easily, but is hard to raise when down. See 2 Chron. xxix. 36. what advantage there is in a present warm frame ! Beside, the nature of these things is too serious and weighty to be postponed and delayed. You cannot get out of the danger of hell, or into Christ too soon. Moreover, every repetition of sin after conviction greatly aggravates it. For it is in sinning as it is in numbering, if the first be one, the second is ten, the third a hundred, and the fourth a thousand. And to conclude, think what you will, you can never have a fitter season than the present : the same difficulties you have to-day, you will have to-morrow, and it may be greater. Fall on presently, therefore, to execute your convictions.
Direct. 2. If you would be clear from this great wickedness of holding the truth in unrighteousness, then see that you reverence the voice, and stand in awe of the authority of your own con- sciences ; and resolve with Job, " My heart shall not reproach me " as long as I live,'** Job xxvii. 6. There are two considerations apt to beget reverence in men to the voice of their own con- sciences.
1. It is our best friend when pure and unviolated.
2. It is our worst enemy, when wounded and affronted.
1. Conscience obeyed, and kept pure and inviolate, is thy best friend on earth. 2 Cor. 1. 12. " This is our rejoicing, " the testimony of our consciences." The very Heathens could say,
fSf^ AX APPENDIX TO EXGLANd's DUTY.
* Nil conscire iibi, nulla paUescere culjya, Hie murus aheneus esto.
What comforted Hezekiah on his supposed death-bed but the fair testimonial his conscience gaA'e in of his integrity ? 2 Kings ii, S. " A good man (saith Solomon) shall be satisfied from himself; ^* but the backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways.'" Mark the opposition, conscience gives the backslider his belly full of sorrov,^, and tJie upright man his heart full of peace. He is satis- iie<l from himself, that is, from his own conscience, which though it be not the original spring, yet it is the conduit at which he drinks peace, joy, and encouragement.
2. Conscience wounded and abused, will be our worst enemy ; no poniards so mortal as the wounds of conscience. " A wounded ''spirit who can bear?'' Prov. xviii. 14. Could Judas bear it, or could Spira bear it.? What is the torment of hell, but the worm that dies not ? and what is that worm but the remorse of conscience ? ]\iark ix. 44. Oh, what is that fearful expectation mentioned, Heb. x. 27. See how you hke that life described, Deut. xxviii. Q5^ 66. The primitive Christians chose rather to be cast to the lions than into the paws of an enraged conscience ; ad Iccmes^ potius quam ad lenones. Every Uttle trouble will be insup- portable to a sick and wounded conscience, as a quart of water would be to your shoulder in a great leaden yessel.
O, if men did but fear their own consciences, if they did re- verence themselves, as the moi^alisf speaks, if they did herein ex- ercise themselves to have always a conscience void of offence, as Paul did, Acts xxiv. 16. then would you be ciear of this great sin of holding the truth in unrighteousness.
Direct. 3. If you would escape the guilt, and danger of holding God's truths in unrighteousness, then keep your hearts under the awful sense of the day of judgment, when every secret thing must come into judgment, and conscience like a register-book, is to be opened and examined. The consideration of that day gives your consciences a seven-fold defensative against sin. 1. It provokes every man to get real, solid grace, and not rest in an empty pro- fession, Matth. XXV. and this secures us from formal hypocrisy, that we be not found foolish virgins. S. It excites us to the diligent improvement of our talents, that we be not found slothful servants, neglecting any duty God and conscience calls us to, Matth. XXV. 21. 3. It confirms, and estabhshes us in the ways of God, that we wound not conscience by apostasy, 1 John ii. 28. 4. It is a loud call to avery man to repentance, and not to lie
* A good conscience is a wall of brass.
AN APPEXDix TO England's duty. SO^