3. Do not smother it when God beginneth it. Oh, it is dangerous to stifle convictions or lose the benefit of them ; for either afterwards conscience is more stupified or terrified. First, More stupified. No iron is so hard as that which hath been oft heated and oft quenched ; so no heart so hard as that which hath outworn these convictions and compunctions. As God saith of outward strokes, ' Why should ye be stricken any more ? ' Certainly he that v/ill not take such warnings as God sends him is every day than other more unapt to be wrought to repentance. As water that hath been heated over the fire congealeth tlie soonest after it is taken off, so they that have felt the motions of God's Spirit freeze the soonest in the dregs and lusts of the flesh, and have their hearts extraordinarily hardened if once they forsake him. God ceaseth to renew and continue his former motions, and sin gets more strength ; conscience giveth over its office of checking, accusing, and awakening them. A wounded conscience neglected will prove a dead conscience ; as an ungracious child, after many corrections, is hardened thereby, and at length quite given over and cast off. Oh, therefore, when God cometh near, then call upon him : Isa. Iv. 6, ' Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near.' It is dangerous to slight these rebukes from God, and, when the waters are stirred, not to put in for cure : Prov. i. 23, ' Turn at my reproof.' Secondly, By slighting convictions, conscience is terrified ; it maketh way for anguish of soul. They will be terrified when they come to die : Prov. i. 26, * I will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your
VeR. 37.] SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. 251
fear cometh ; ' Prov. v. 11, 12, And thou mourn at last, when thy flesh and body are consumed, and say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof ? ' Oh, with what horrors and amazing thoughts will you be filled when conscience, which lay asleep in siu before, shall be awakened by the approaches of death and the fears of judgment to come, and your repentance shall not be repentance to life, but, like that of Judas, repentance to death, the beginnings of sorrow, or the pledge of the worm that shall never die. Oh, take heed then of smothering the work of God !
But when is this done ?
[1.] When you take up with other comforts on this side Christ. Your hearts are set a- work, and your thirst is increased, but you quench it at the next ditch, not at the fountain of living waters. You drown all this work in mirth, and pleasures, and meriy company. As Saul sought to cure the fit of the evil spirit by music, so these, when they are haunted with thoughts of sin, and guilt, and the world to come, think to put it ofi*, and do not turn it to a right use, which is to turn to the Lord ; or as a man arrested maketh the officer drunk that he may escape for that time ; and so, when it might have been a beginning of conversion, it is to them a means of further hardening their hearts. This is quenching the Spirit, 1 Thes. v. 17, by suppressing his motions. Guard the heart then against all comforts but those which God speaketh and alloweth : Ps. xciv. 19, 'In the multitude of my thoughts within me, thy comforts delight my soul.' This is a work that must end well. Take heed lest the good seed be choked as soon as it is cast into the heart.
[2.] When you easily return to former sins, and after this qualm can lick up your vomit again. You have smarted, and been wounded, and burdened, and will you take up your load again ? John v. 14, ' Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.' This is to run to hell again, when you have felt the smart of it. Pharaoh had his qualms, but as soon as the plague was off, he returneth to what he was : Exod. ix. 27, * And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time : the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.' Who could liave thought but Pharaoh would have been another man ? But when the qualm is over, Pharaoh is Pharaoh still, and there must be a new judgment to humble him. Ahab oppresseth Naboth, and God threateneth him, and Ahab humbleth himself and walketh softly, but afterward imprisoneth Micaiah, and then God slayeth him. Felix trembled, but still continueth his course. Many have their tears, and sighs, and sorrows, and after all this they relapse. Oh, this is dangerous !
Thirdly, We come now to the course they take for ease and relief : ' They said unlo Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do ? ' Observe here —
1, To whom they go, to ' Peter and the rest of the apostles.'
2. What they say, ' Men and brethren, what shall we do ? ' Where — [1.] Their civil compellation and form of address, ' Men and