Well ! young men, if you will not betimes hearken to conscience, you shall at last hear conscience saying to you, as the probationer disciple said to Christ, ' Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest,' Mat. viii. 19 ; so saith conscience, Sinner, I have called upon thee many a thousand times, and told thee, that 1 must by commission be thy best friend, or thy worst enemy, but thou wouldst not hear ; and therefore now I will follow thee whither ever thou goest f fast, and I will follow thee, and fill thee with horrors and terrors ; feast, and I will follow thee, and shew thee such a handwriting upon the wall, as shall cause thy countenance to change, thy thoughts to be troubled, the joints of thy loins to be loosed, and thy knees dashed one against another, Dan. v. 5, 6 ; stay at home, and I will follow thee from bed to board ; go abroad, and I will follow thee into all places and companies, and thou shalt know that it is an evil and a bitter thing, that thou hast so often and so long neglected my calls, and disobeyed my voice, and walked con- trary to me ; how thou shalt find a truth in that saying of Luther, una guttula malai conscientice totum mare, &c, one drop of an evil conscience swallows up the whole sea of worldly joy.
Well ! young men, there is a day coming wherein a good conscience will be better than a good purse, for then the Judge will not be put off with a suit of compliments or fair words, nor drawn aside with hope of reward ; and therefore, as you would be able to hold up your heads in that day, make conscience of hearkening to the voice of conscience in this your day.
Direction (5). Fifthly, If you would be good betimes, then you must know betimes wherein true happiness lies.
For a man will never begin to be good till he begins to understand wherein his happiness consists.
The philosophers, speaking of happiness, were divided into two hun- dred and eighty-eight opinions, everyone intending something, and yet resolving nothing.3 Therefore the man in Plutarch, hearing them wrangle about man's summum bonum, chiefest good, one placing it in this, and another in that, he went to the market and bought up all that was good, hoping, among all, he should not miss of it, but he did. Many look for happiness in sin, others look for it in the creatures, but they must all say, It is not in us, Isa. lvi. 12, Job xxviii. 14 : Nil dat quod non Jutbet, nothing can give what it hath not. If the conduit pipe hath no water, it can give no water ; if a man hath no money, he can give no money ; if the creatures have no happiness, they can give
1 Jo. Wolf, lect mem. To. II. ad. an. 1547. [Augsburg. — O.]
4 Tolle conscientiam, tolle omnia, take away conscience, and take away all, said the heathen. 3 Quot homines, lot sentential : so many men, so many minds.
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no happiness. Now this jewel, this pearl, happiness, is not to be found in the breast, in the bosom of creatures. In a word, because I must hasten to a close, man's happiness lies,
First, In his communion with God, as experience and Scripture demonstrates. ' Happy is that people that is in such a case (but give me that word again), yea, happy is that people whose God is the Lord,' Ps. cxliv. 15. A man whose soul is in communion with God shall find more pleasure in a desert, in a dungeon, in a den, yea, in death, than in the palace of a prince, than in all worldly delights and contents, &c.
Secondly, In 'pardon of sin. ' Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered : blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile/ Ps. xxxii. 1, 2. It is not, blessed is the honourable man, but blessed is the par- doned man. It is not, blessed is the rich man, but blessed is the par- doned man. It is not, blessed is the learned man, but blessed is the pardoned man. It is not, blessed is the politic man, but blessed is the pardoned man. It is not, blessed is the victorious man, but blessed is the pardoned man. Do with me what thou wilt, since thou hast par- doned my sins, saith Luther.
Thirdly, In a complete fruition and enjoyment of God,, when we shall be here no more. ' Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, Mat. v. 8 ; ' Now they see him but darkly, but in heaven they shall see him face to face ; they shall know as they are known/ 1 Cor. xiii. 12. But of these things I have spoken largely elsewhere, and therefore shall satisfy myself with these hints.
Direction (6). Lastly, If you would be good betimes, then you must break your covenant with sin betimes.
You must fall out with your lusts betimes ; you must arm and fence yourselves against sin betimes, Isa. xxviii. 15-18. A man never begins to fall in with Christ till he begins to fall out with his sins. Till sin and the soul be two, Christ and the soul cannot be one. Now, to work your hearts to this, you should always look upon sin under these notions :
Notion (1). First, If you would have the league dissolved betwixt sin and your souls betimes, then look upon sin under the notion of an enemy betimes.
'Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul/ 1 Peter ii. 11. As the viper is killed by the young ones in her belly, so are poor sinners be- trayed and killed by their own lusts, that are nourished in their bosoms.1
Pittacus, a philosopher, challenged Phlyon2 the Athenian captain, in their wars against them, to single combat, carried a net privily, and so caught him, and overcame him ; so doth sin with poor sinners, the dangerous, pernicious, malignant nature of sin. You may see in the story of the Italian, who first made his enemy deny God, and then
1 Sms, especially against knowledge, are peccata imlneranlia et dcvastantia, wounding and wasting.
2 Rather, Plirynon ; the ahove feat is recorded by Diog. Laertius, i. 75 : Herodotus, v. 54, 95, &c, &c— G.
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stabbed him to the heart, and so at once murdered both body and soul. Sin betrays us into the hand of the devil, as Delilah did Samson into the hands of the Philistines.
Sugared poisons go down pleasantly. Oh ! but when they are down, they gall and gnaw, and gripe the very heart-strings asunder ; it is so with sin. Ah ! souls, have not you often found it so ?
When Phocas the murderer thought to secure himself by building high walls, he heard a voice from heaven telling him, that though he built his bulwarks never so high, yet sin within would soon undermine all.1
Ambrose reports of one Theotimus, that having a disease upon his body, the physician told him, that except he did abstain from intem- perance, drunkenness, uncleanness, he would lose his eyes ; his heart was so desperately set upon his sins, that he cries out, then, Vale lumen amicum, farewell, sweet light. Ah, how did his lusts war both against body and soul !