The Truth Held in Unrighteousness
“THE WRATH OF GOD IS REVEALED FROM HEAVEN AGAINST ALL UNGODLINESS, AND L^RIGHTEOUSNESS OF MEN, WHO HOLD THE TRUTH IN UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.” Rom. 1:18.
In all the foregoing discourses, I have been pleading and wooing for Christ. And as Abraham’s servant, to win Rebekah’s consent, told her what treasures his master’s son had, so I have labored to show you some part of the unsearchable riches of Christ, if by any means I might allure your hearts, and be instrumental to close the happy union between him and you; and, as the apostle speaks, espouse you to one husband, even to Christ. 2 Cor. 11:2.
But alas, how few move towards him. The most seem to be immovably fixed in their natural state and sinful course. All our arguments and entreaties return to us again, and effect nothing. It is amazing to think that souls which have in them the hopes and fears of the world to come, and self-reflecting powers, cannot be prevailed upon to quit the way of sin and to embrace the way of holiness, though their consciences stand convinced that eternal damnation is the result of the one, and life, peace, and eternal joys of the other.
This has put me upon a serious search what may be the cause of this fixed and unreasonable obstinacy; and it seems evident that most who live in an unregenerate state under the gospel, put a force upon their own consciences, and imprison and hold the truth in unrighteousness, though the Vvrath of God be revealed from heaven against all that do so
If by this discourse I can but set truth at liberty, and loose the Lord’s prisoners which lie bound in your souls, I shall not doubt that the estimate of the value of Christ will quickly rise among you, and free convictions will malie the work of your ministers more easy and successful than they now find it. It is hardly imaginable but that the things you have heard must leave your souls under convictions; but if you suppress and stifle them, they produce nothing but aggravations of sin and misery. Now, in order to the eflectual working of your convictions, and awakening the reverence which is due to them from every soul, as to the voice of God, I have chosen this scripture, the scope and sense whereof I shall endeavor to give you.
The true scope and aim of this context is to prove the justification of sinners to be only by the imputed righteousness of Christ in the way of faith. To make this evident, he divides the whole world into Gentiles and Jews: the one seeking righteousness by the dim light of nature, or the law written in their hearts; the other, the Jews, by the works of the law, or external conformity to the law of Moses. But that neither can find what they seek, he distinctly and fully proves. He proves it first upon the Gentiles from this verse to the seventeenth of the second chapter; and then he proves it upon the Jews also, from thence to the end of the third chapter. As for the Gentiles, he’ acknowledges that they had some notions of God imprinted in their nature; they had also the book of creation, giving them knowledge enough to leave them without excuse. But this knowledge of G od, and of good and evil, they did not obey and put in practice, but acted against the dictates of their consciences. For which cause the wrath of God was revealed from heaven against them, as the text speaks. Wherein we notice,
1. Here is a clear and dreadful revelation of divine wrath, “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven;” bpyri Qeov, the indignation or vengeance of God. It is a word of deep and dreadful signification; the damned who feel its weight, have the fullest sense of it. It is said, Psa. 90: 11, “Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.” That is, the fears of an incensed Deity are no vain imaginings, nor the effects of ignorance and superstition, as atheists fancy; but let men’s fears of it be what they will, they shall find, except they repent, the wrath of God to be according to, yea, far above their fears of it. If the wrath of a king be as the messenger of death, what is the wrath of the great and terrible God? This wrath is here said to be revealed, discovered, or made manifest; and so it is in various ways. It was revealed to them by the light of nature, their own consciences gave them notice and warning of it. Thus it was revealed to them by an internal testimony, a witness within them; and it was also revealed to them by the instances of punishment of sin in all ages by the immediate hand of a justly incensed God. They came not by chance, but divine direction; therefore it is added, “from heaven,” or from God in heaven.
2. Here is the cause of this revealed and iyiflicted wrath: it “is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” The former word, ungodli7iess, comprises all sins against the first table of the law; the irreligious lives and practices of men, living in the neglect of the duties of religion: the other word, unrighteousness, comprises all sins against the second table, such as acts of fraud, uncleanness, lying, and other sins, against men. And because these two comprehensive words are branched out into many particulars, therefore the apostle says, “The wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.” There is not one of the many sins into which ungodliness and unrighteousness are branched out, but incenses the Lord’s wrath; and though he only mentions the sins, we are to understand them as put for the sinners that commit them, or God’s punishing these sins upon the persons of the sinners.
3. We have here before us the sjoecial aggravation of these sins, or that which made them more provoking to God than otherwise they had been. And it was this: that while
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they committed these sins, or omitted those duties, they “held the truth in unrighteousness:” the word signifies to detain or hinder the truth of God, or the knowledge they had of his being, power, goodness, and truth, as also of his worship, and the difference between good and evil. These truths acted on their consciences; conscience labored to excite them to duty, and restrain them from sin; but all in vain, they overbore their own consciences, and kept those sentiments and convictions prisoners, though they struggled for liberty to break forth into practice and obedience. Their convictions were kept down under the dominion of corruption, as a prisoner is shut up by his keeper. Their lusts were too hard for their light. Thus you have both the scope and sense of the text. The doctrine taught by it is this,
The wrath of God is dreadfully incensed against all those who live in any course of sin, against the light a7id dictates of their own consciences.
Sins of ignorance provoke the wrath of God; yet they are not of so heinous a nature as sins against light and convictions are, nor will they be punished so severely. “That servant which knew his Lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.” Luke 12: 47. It excuses a man in some measure, when he can say, Lord, had I known this to be a sin, I would not have done it. But when the conscience is convinced, and strives to keep us from such an act or course of sinful actions, and we stop our ears against its voice and warnings, here is a high and horrid contempt of God and his law, and it gives the sin a scarlet dye. Sins of ignorance cannot compare with such sins as these. Jolm 3:19; 15: 22. To open this point, let me show what conscience is; what the light of conscience is; and how this light binds the conscience and makes it strive in us; then instance some cases wherein it doth so; and lastly show how and
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why the imprisoning of these convictions so” dreadfully incenses the wrath of God.
I. It will be needful to speak of the nature of conscience in general. Conscience is the judgment of man upon himself, as he is subject to the judgment of God. A judgment it is, and a practical judgment too; it belongs to the understanding. “If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.” 1 Cor. 11: 31. This self-judgment is the proper office of the conscience, and to enable it to fulfil its office, there are three things belonging to every man’s conscience.
1. A knowledge of the rule or law according to which it is to judge; without which conscience can no more do its work, than an artificer without his square or level can do his.
2. Knowledge of the facts or matters to be judged. The conscience of every man keeps a register of his actions, thoughts, and the very secrets of the heart.
3. An ability or delegated authority to pass judgment on ourselves and actions according to the rule and law of God. Here it sits upon the bench as God’s vicegerent, absolving or condemning, as it finds the sincerity or hypocrisy of the heart upon trial. 1 John, 3: 20, 21.
Conscience, therefore, is a high and awful power; it is next to and immediately under God our Judge. Concerning conscience, God says to every man, as he once did to Moses with respect to Pharaoh, “See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh.” Exod. 7:1. The voice of enlightened conscience is the voice of God, What it binds or looses on earth, is bound or loosed in heaven, 1 John, 3: 20; the greatest deference and precise obedience is due to its command. Its consolations are of all the most sweet, and its condemnations, excepting those by the mouth o{ Christ in the last judgment, most terrible. Zuingle spoke not without ground, when he said, “What death would I not rather choose; what punishment would I not rather hear; yea, into what a profound ahyss of hell would I not rather enter, than to witness against my conscience?” It is likely he had felt the terrors of it to be more bitter than death. How many have chosen strangling, rather than life, under the terrors of conscience. Wherever you go, conscience accompanies you; whatever you say, do, or but think, it records, in order to the day of account. When all friends forsake thee, yea, when thy soul forsakes thy body, conscience will not, cannot forsake thee. When thy body is most weak, thy conscience is most vigorous and active. Never is there more life in the conscience than when death makes its nearest approach to the body. When it smiles, acquits, and comforts, 0 what a heaven does it create within a man. And when it frowns, condemns, and terrifies, how does it becloud, yea, benight all the pleasures and delights of this world. 0 conscience, how glad would the damned be to have taken their last farewell of thee, when they bade this world and its inhabitants farewell at death. And what had become of all the martyrs, when shut up from friends in dungeons, had it not been for the cheering cordials and comforts thou didst administer to support them? It is certainly the best friend or the worst enemy in the whole creation. This is conscience, these are its powers and offices.
II. Our next inquiry must be into the light of conscience, and the various kinds of that light. The Lord did not frame such an excellent structure as the soul of man, without windows to let in light, nor does he deny the benefit of light to any soul; but there is a twofold light which men have to inform and guide their consciences.
1. There is the common light of natural reason, called by Solomon, the candle of the Lord: “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.” Pro v. 20: 27. This is affirmed by him who had an extraordinary portion of intellect, a brighter lamp of reason and wisdom than other men; and this is not only true of the soul in general, but of that special power of it which is called conscience, which is God’s witness, and man’s overseer. The heathen had this light shining in their minds and consciences; some of them, by the help of this natural light, made wonderful discoveries of the mysteries of nature; yea, they found its efficacy and power great in their consciences, to raise their hopes or fears, according to the good or evil they had done. Ovid says, “As is every man’s conscience, so are his hopes and fears.” And to the shame of many who are called Christians, some among the heathen paid great reverence to their own consciences. “Principally revere thyself,” says one; “tempted to any base action, dread thyself, even when there is no other witness.” The generality of the heathen, however, did not so, and are charged with this in the text; besides, this light can make no discoveries of Christ, and of the way of salvation by him. The most eagle-eyed philosophers among them were in the dark here. And therefore,
2. God has afforded men a more clear and excellent light to shine hito their ‘minds and consciences, even the light of the gosjiel, which compared with the light of natural reason, is as the light of the sun to the dim moonlight. “He showeth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation; and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord.” Psa. 147: 19, 20. Every creature has the name of God engraven on it, but he has magnified his word above all his name. Psa. 138: 2. God, who best knows the value of his own mercies, accounts this a singular favor and privilege to any nation. Without revelation we could never have known the cause of our misery, the fall of Adam, or the only way of our recovery by Christ: by this a people are lifted up to heaven, Matthew 11: 23, in respect to the means of salvation; and consequently, the neglect of such light and love will plunge the guilty into proportionable misery. “This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darluiess rather than light.” John 3:19.
Moreover, God not only affords the light of reason and gospel revelation to some men in an eminent degree, but to these he adds the internal illumination of his Spirit, the clearest and most glorious light in the world. He shineth into their hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Cor. 4: 6. These are the three sorts of light God makes to shine into the souls and consciences of men to guide them; the first a common and general light, the two last the most clear and transcendent in excellency, especially that of the Spirit with the gospel. For though the sun be risen, yet men may draw the curtains about them, and lie in darkness; but the Spirit enlightens the soul,
III. HoAV this light shining into the consciences of men LEADS THEM TO OBEDIENCE, and how Hicn’s lusts Struggle against the obligations of an enlightened conscience, is the next thing to be considered.
It is beyond all controversy, that an enlightened conscience lays strong and indispensable obligations on the soul to obedience; for the will of God is the supreme law; it is the will of “the only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords.” 1 Tim. 6: 15. And the promulgation and manifestation of it binds the conscience to obedience, so that no authority on earth can loose the bands. For conscience, as God’s vicegerent, in his name requires obedience, and the man that hears the voice of God from the mouth of his own conscience thereupon becomes a debtor, Rom. 1: 14, and is put under a necessity. 1 Cor. 9:16.
Now conscience, by reason of the light that shines into it, feeling itself under such strong bands and necessities, stimulates and urges the soul to obedience, warns, commands, and presses the soul to its duty against the contrary inclinations of the flesh; and hence arise those conflicts in the bosoms of men. Sometimes conscience prevails, and sometimes lusts and corruptions prevail, and that with great difliculty; for it is not alike easy to all men to shake ofl or burst the bands of their consciences. What a hard task had Saul to conquer his conscience. “I forced myself,” saith he, 1 Sam. 13: 12; he knew it belonged not to him to offer sacrifice, his conscience plainly told him it would be sin; but the fear of the Philistines being stronger than the fear of God, he ventured upon it against the plain dictates of his conscience. Thus Herod gave sentence to put John to death: “The king was sorry; nevertheless, for the oath’s sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her.” Matt. 14: 9. His honor weighed more than his fear of sin, his own word more than God’s word. No man is so perplexed between two vices, but he may find an issue without falling into a third.
Pilate’s conscience was convinced of Christ’s innocence, Matt. 27: 18, 19, yet the fear of Cesar hurried him on to the greatest wickedness, even to give sentence against innocent blood, yea, the blood of the Son of God. Darius, in like manner, knew that Daniel was not only an excellent person, but that he was entrapped by the nobles merely for his conscience, and that to put him to death was to sacrifice him to their malice. This he and his conscience debated, and many encounters he had with it; for the record saith, he “was sore displeased with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him; and he labored till the going down of the sun to deliver him,” Dan. 6:14; but after a day’s contest between him and conscience, sin prevailed against light and returned victor in the evening. So it was with poor Spira, a sad apostate; he seemed to hear, as it were, an in-Miii’d voice, Do not write, Spira, do not write. But the love of his estate, wife, and children, drew his hand to the paper, though conscience struggled hard to hold it back.
% Thus, as the restless sea strives to beat down or break over its bounds, so do impetuous lusts strive to overbear light and conviction. As the E-oman poet has said,
... “Video meliora proboque,
Deteriora sequor.”
“I see the right and must approve; and yet
The wrong pursue.”
They know this or that to be sin, and that they hazard their souls by it; yet they venture on it, and rush into sin as the horse into the battle.
IV. I promised to give some instances of the conflict
BETWEEN men’s CONSCIENCES AND THEIR CORRUPTIONS, wherein conscience is vanquished and overborne, and by what weapons the victory over conscience is obtained. The convictions of men are twofold: general, respecting their state; and particular, respecting this or that action.
1. There are general convictiofis given to some men by their consciences, that their state of soul is neither right nor safe — that they want the main thing which constitutes a Christian, namely, regeneration, or a gracious change of heart. They hear and read the signs and effects of this change, but their consciences plainly tell them that these evidences are not to be found in them — that they enjoy the external privileges of the saints, but belong not to them — that something is still wanting, and that the main thing too. “0 my soul, thou art not right; thou hast gifts, thou hast a name to live, but for all that thou art dead; some further work must be done upon thee, or thou art undone to eternity: thou passest for a good Christian among men, but woe to thee if thou die in the state thou art.” These, and such as these, are the whispers of some men’s consciences in their ears; and yet they cannot so yield themselves up into the hands of their convictions, as to confess and bewail their hypocrisy and gross mistake, and seek for a better foundation to build their hope on. Felix’s conscience gave him such a terrible monition as this, and made him tremble while Paul reasoned with him of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. Acts 24: 25. It whispered hi his ear such language as this: “0 poor soul, how shall such an oppressor, such an intemperate wretch as thou art, stand before God in this day of judgment, which Paul proves is certainly to come?” For, as Tacitus says of him, he was an insatiable gulf of covetousness. So it was with Agrippa; he stood unresolved what to do: he saw the heavenly doctrine of Christianity evidently confirmed by doctrines and miracles, his conscience pleaded hard wdth him to embrace it, and had almost prevailed; almost, or within a little as the word is, thou persuadest me to be a Christian. Acts 24: 27. But Agrippa had too much wealth and honor to forsake for Christ; the love of the present world overbore both the hopes and fears of the world to come. And thus that excellent fisher for souls, who had thoroughly converted so many to Christ, came short of securing Agrippa: almost is a great deal for so great a person. The gospel is a net, and encloses all sorts, whole Christians and half Christians. The conscience is caught, and the will begins to incline; but 0 the power and prevalence of sin, which, like the rudder, commands all to a contrary course.
Let us come a little nearer, and inquire what are those hinderances that stop conscience in its course, bind and imprison, stifle and suppress its convictions; so that although a man strongly suspect his foundation to be but sand, and his hopes for heaven a strong delusion, yet will he not throw up his vain hopes, confess his self-deceits, and begin all anew. What is it which overbears conscience in this case? Let men impartially examine their hearts, and it will be found that three things bind and imprison these convictions of conscience, and hold the truth in unrighteousness.
(1.) Shame. Men who have been professors, and of good esteem in the world, are ashamed the world should know the mistakes and errors of all their life past, and what deluded fools and self-deceivers they have been: this is a powerful restraint upon conviction; how shall they look their acquaintances in the face? what will men think and say of them? “How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another?” saith Christ. John 5: 44. What, you Christians, and yet not able to endure a censure or a, scoff upon your names I you who stand more upon your reputation than your salvation, how can you believe?
0 what madness and folly appear in this case I men will choose rather to go on, though conscience tells them the end of that way will be death, than make a just and necessary retraction, which is not their shame, but their duty and glory. You who are so tender of the shame of men, how will you be able to endure the contempt and shame that shall be cast on you from God, angels, and men, in the great day? Luke 9: 26. It is no shame to acknowledge your mistake; but to persist in it, after conviction, is shameful madness.
1 knew an excellent minister, who proved an eminent instrument in the church of God, who, in the beginning of his ministerial course, was not upon the right foundation of regeneration. He had excellent natural and acquired gifts, and could preach of regeneration, faith, and heavenly-mindedness, though he felt nothing of these things in his own experience. His life was unblamable, and he had no mean esteem, among good men. It pleased the Lord, while he was studying an excellent spiritual point to preach to others, that his conscience first preached it in his study to himself, and that with such a close and rousing application, as made him tremble; telling him, that though he had gifts above many, and sobriety in his conversation, yet one thing, and that the main thing, sanctifying grace, was wanting. Hereupon the pangs of the new birth seized his soul, and the Lord made him a most searching, experimental minister. and crowned his labors with unusual success. This minister, to his dying day, was not ashamed in all companies to acknowledge his mistake, and bless God for his recovery out of it; and in most of his sermons, he would endeavor to convince false professors of the necessity of a second conversion.
(2.) Fear is another drawback which withholds men. from executing the convictions of conscience, and obeying its calls in this grand concern of the soul. They are easy under the external profession and duties of religion, and are afraid of throwing up their vain hopes, and engaging themselves heartily and thoroughly in religion. There are two things which alarm them.
The troubles of spirit attending the new birth; which they have read and heard of, and seen the effects in others. 0 it is a dreadful thing to lie under the terrors which many have felt I and thus it is with them as with one that hath a bone ill-set, who, if he have any ease, will rather endure a little daily pain, and be content to halt all his life, than undergo the pain of another fraction or dislocation in order to a perfect cure.
They are afraid of external sufferings. The form of godliness leaves men a liberty to take or leave, according as the times favor or frown upon the ways of religion; but the power of godliness will engage them beyond retreat. They must stand to it, come what will. But, soul, let me tell thee, if the just fears of hell and eternal wrath of God, to which thou art exposed by thy formality, were upon thee, all these fears of inward or outward troubles would vanish the same hour.
(3.) Pride of heart suffers not this conviction of conscience to work out its effects, but holds the truth in unrighteousness, to the ruin of many souls. Men that live upon their own duties and self- righteousness, are not easily brought to renounce all this, and live upon the righteousness of Christ alone for justification. Proud nature will rather
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venture the hazard of damnation than practise such self-denial, E-om. 10:3; as you see it common among poor people to live on coarse fare of their own, rather than upon the alms and bounty of another.
But if once the day of God’s power come, and a man feels the commandment come home to his conscience as Paul did, E-om. 7: 9, when he comes to reaUze the world to come, the value of his soul, and the danger it is in, then all these hinderances are as easily swept away, as so many straws by the rapid course of a mighty torrent. Then let men say or think what they please, I must not throw away my own soul to maintain a vain estimation among men. Let inward or outward sufferings be ever so great, it is better for me to feel them, than to suffer the everlasting wrath of the great and terrible God. Let my own righteousness be what it will, all is but dung and dross to the pure and perfect righteousness of Christ.
2. As this general conviction with respect to men’s condition is held in unrighteousness, and they go with troubled consciences and frequent inward fears by reason of it; so there are msmy 2^cirticidar convictions bound and imprisoned in men’s souls — particular convictions both as to sins committed and known duties omitted against both tables of the law of God, called in the text ungodliness and unrighteousness. Conscience labors and strives to bring men to confess, bewail, and reform them, but cannot prevail; contrary lusts and interests overpower them, and detain them in unrighteousness. What these are, and how they are withheld by those lusts, I shall give in some instances. And first, for convictions of ungodliness.
Instance 1. There are many wdio call themselves Christians, whose conscience tells them that God is to he dailij %vorshi’p’ped by them, both in family and closet yrayer. It sets before them Joshua’s pious practice: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24: 15. They
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know God is the founder, the owner, the master of their families; that all family blessings are from him, and therefore he is to be acknowledged and sought in daily family prayers and praises. It tells them that the curse of God hangs over prayerless families, Jer. 10 :25; and that they live in the inexcusable neglect of these duties, seldom worshipping God with their families or in their closets, and that therefore they live without God in the world. Dreadful will the reckoning be at the great day for their own souls, which they have starved for want of closet prayer, and for the souls committed to their charge, which perish for want of family duties. This is the case of many who yet pass for professors of Christianity.
Lord, how sad a case is here. How can men live in the neglect of so great, so necessary a duty? Certainly it is not for want of light and conviction; the very light of nature, if we had no Bibles, discovers these duties. But three things hold this truth of God dictated by men’s conscience in unrighteousness.
(1.) The love of the world chokes this conviction in the souls of some; and they think it enough to plead for their excuse, the want of opportunities and the many encumbrances they have, which will not allow them time for these duties. The world is a severe taskmaster, and fills their heads and hands all the day with cares and toils. And must the mouth of conscience then be stopped with such a plea as this? No; God and conscience will not be answered and put ofi so. The greatest number of persons in the world fiom whom God has the most spiritual and excellent worship, are of the poorer class. Psalm 74: 21; James 2:5. And it is highly probable your necessities had been less, if your prayers had been more. And what sweeter outlet and relief for all these troubles can you find than prayer? This would sweeten all your labors and sorrows in the world.
(2.) Consciou&ness of icant of gifts restrains this conviction in others. Should they attempt such duties before others, they shall but expose their own ignorance and shame. But this is a vain pretence to shake ofF duty. The neglect of prayer is a principal cause of the inability you complain of; gifts as well as graces grow by exercise. “Unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance.” Matt. 25: 29. And besides, it is the fruit of pride, and argues your eye to be more upon your own honor than God’s. The Lord regards not oratory in prayer; your broken expressions, yea, your groans and sighs please him more than all the eloquence in the world.
(3.) But the principal thing which restrains men from obeying their convictions as to family and closet prayer, is a disinclined heart; that is the root and true cause of these sinful neglects and omissions. You savor not the sweetness of these things; and what a man tastes no sweetness in, or finds no necessity of, is easily omitted.
But woe to you that go from day to day self- condemned for the neglect of so known, so sweet, and so necessary a duty. If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart. 1 John, 3: 20. He who lives without prayer is dead while he lives; and let men say what they please of secret communion with God, I am sm-e, if religion thrives in the closet, it will never be banished from the family. The time is coming when death will break up your families, separate the wife from the husband, the child from the parent, the servant from the master; and then where you will find relief and comfort who have spent your time together so sinfully and vainly, I cannot tell; nor what account you can give to God in the great day. Think seriously on these things, they are worth thinking of.
Instance 2. A second instance of ungodliness under the convictions of conscience, informality in the external duties of religion and ordinances of God. Have not the consciences of some of you often and plainly told you, that though you are often engaged in the public duties of hearing, prayer, and other ordinances, yet your hearts are not with God in those duties? They do not strive after communion and fellowship with him therein. It is nothing but the force of education, of custom, and the care of reputation which brings you there.
Such a conviction as this, could it do its work thoroughly, would be the salvation of thy soul; were power added to the form, as conscience would have it, thou wouldst then be a real Christian, and out of the danger of hell. The want of this thy conscience sees will be thy ruin, and accordingly gives thee plain warning of it. 0 what pity is it such a conviction as this should be held in unrighteousness. But so it is in very many souls, and that on several accounts.
(1.) Because hypocrisy is so odious and abominable a sijt that men are loath to own and acknowledge it, how guilty soever they be of it. What, dissemble with God, and play the hypocrite with him? It is so foul a crime that men cannot easily be brought to charge themselves with it. They may have the infirmities which are common to the best of men, but they are not hypocrites. Thus, pride of heart casts a chain upon conviction, and binds it, that it cannot do its work.
(2.) It is a cheap and easy way to give God the external worship of the body, but heart-icork is hard work. To sit or kneel an hour or two is no great matter; but to search, humble, and break the heart for sin, to raise earthly affections into a spiritual, heavenly frame, this will cost many a hard effort. It is no severe task to sit before God as his people, while the fancy and thoughts are left at liberty to wander where they please, as the thoughts of hypocrites use to do, Ezek. 33: 31; but to set a watch on the heart, to retract every wandering thought with a sigh, and to fix the thoughts on God, this is difficult, and the difficulty overpowers conviction of duty.
(3.) The atheism of the heart quenches this conviction in men’s souls. FormaUty is a secret sin, not discernible by man; the outside of religion looks fair to man’s eye, and so long it is well enough, as if there was not a God who trieth the hearts and the reins. Thus, when a beam of light and conviction shines into the soul, a cloud of natural atheism overshadows and darkens it.
But, poor self-deceiving hypocrite, these things must not pass so; thy conscience, as well as the word, tells thee it is not the place of worship, but the spirituality of it that God regards, John 4: 23, 24; that they are hypocrites in scripture account who have God in their mouths, while he is far from their reins, Jer. 12:2; and that hypocrites will have the hottest place in hell. Matt. 24: 51.
Instance 3. A third instance of convictions of ungodliness held in unrighteousness, is in declining or denying to confess the known truths of God, which we ourselves have professed, when the confession of them exposes us to danger. In times of danger, conscience struggles hard with men to appear for the truths of God, and on no account whatever to dissemble or deny them; and enforces its counsels and warnings upon us with such awful scriptures as these: “No man having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9: 62. “But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” Matt. 10:33. In this case conscience useth to struggle hard with men, yet is many times overborne by the temptations of the flesh, k s,
(1.) By carnal fears. The fear of suffering gets ascendency over the fear of God; men choose rather to venture their souls upon wrath to come, than the present wrath of incensed enemies. They vainly “hope to find mercy with God,” but expect none from men. Thus the fear of man bringeth a snare, Prov. 29: 25; and so the voice of conscience is drowned by the louder clamors and threats of adversaries,
(2.) As the fear of man’s threatenings, so the distrust of Gods 2^’oniiscs defeats the design of conscience. If men believed the promises, they would never be afraid of their duties; faith in the promises would make men bold as lions, if such a word was in mind as this: “Of whom hast thou been afraid or feared, that thou hast lied, and hast not remembered me?” Isa. 57: 11. Men would say, as Zuingle in the like case, What death would I not rather choose to die; what punishment would I not rather undergo; yea, into what vault of hell would I not rather choose to be cast, than to witness against my own conscience?
(3.) The inordinate love of the icorld overpowers conscience, and drowns its voice in such an hour of temptation. So Demas found it. 2 Tim. 4:10. 0 what a dangerous conflict is there in an hour of temptation, between an enlightened head and a worldly heart.
(4.) The examioles of others who embrace the sinful terms of liberty to escape the danger, embolden men to follow, and Satan will not be wanting to improve their examples. “Do not you see such and such men travelling the road before you? Learned and prudent men, who, it may be, have less heart but more wisdom than you. Why will you be singular, and hazard all for that for which others will hazard nothing?”
But certainly such sins as these will cost you dear: it is a dreadful thing to betray the truth and honor of God for base, secular ends; and you will find it so when you and your consciences shall debate it together in a calm hour.
There are also sins of unrighteousness against the second table, in which many live against the plain dictates and warnings of their own consciences, though they know the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all un-
368 CHRIST KNOCKINa AT THE DOuE,.
righteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
Instance 4. And here let me instance the sin o{ defrauding others, in our dealings with them; overreaching and cheating the ignorant or unwary, who, it may be, would not be so unwary as they are, did they not repose confidence in our deceitful words and promises. Conscience cannot but startle at such a sin, the light of nature reveals it, and even the sober heathen abhor it; but we who live under the gospel cannot but feel some terror and trembling in our consciences when we read such an awful prohibition, backed wdth such a dreadful threatening as that in 1 Thess. 4:6: “That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter; because that the Lord is the avenger of all such.” The Greek word imports that no man overtop, that is, by power, or by craft and policy. To this sin a dreadful threatening is annexed, “the Lard is the avenger of all such.” This word is but once more, that I remember, used in the New Testament, E,om. 13:4, and is there applied to the civil magistrate, who must see execution done upon malefactors; but here the Lord himself says he will be this man’s avenger. This rod, or rather this axe, conscience shows to men, and gives w’ arning of the danger, and yet its convictions are overpowered and bound as prisoners by,
(1.) The excessive love of gain. “But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.” 1 Tim. 6: 9. When a resolution is made for the world, men will be rich by right or wrong; this powerfully arms the temptation. Set gain before such a man, and he will break through the law of God and convictions of conscience, but he will have it; this drowns them in destruction and perdition, that is, it surely, thoroughly, and fully ruins them. He is a dead man who is only drowned; but to be drowned in destruction, yea, in destruction
THE Sm OF STIFLINa CONVICTION. 369
and perdition too, this must needs make his ruin sure; and so all shall surely find who persist in such a course.
(2.) Necessities and straits overbear conscience in others; necessity has no ears to attend the voice of the word and conscience. Here conscience and poverty struggle together, and if the fear of God is not exalted in the soul, it now falls a prey to temptation. This danger the wise Agur foresaw, and earnestly entreated the Lord for a competency to avoid the snare of poverty. Prov. 30: 8, 9. How much better were it for thee to endure the pains of hunger than those of a guilty conscience. Such gains may be sweet in thy mouth, but bitter in thy bowels.
(3.) The examples of others who venture on such sins without scruple, and laugh at tender consciences. This emboldens others to follow them, Psa. 50: 18, and thus the voice of conscience is drowned, and convictions buried for a time; but conscience will thunder at last, and thy buried convictions will have a resurrection, and it shall be out of thy power to silence them again.
Instance 5. The truth of God is held in unrighteousness, lohen onen’s lusts will not suffer them to restore what they have unjustly gotten into their hands. This sin resting on the consciences of some men, makes them very uneasy, and yet they make a hard shift to rub along under these regrets of conscience. Now those things which make a forcible entry into the conscience, take the truths of God prisoners and bind them, that they cannot break forth into the duty of restitution, are,
(1.) The shame which attends and follows the duty to which God and conscience call the soul. It is a shame and reproach, they think, to get the name of a cheat; loath, loath they are, that these works of darkness should come to the open light; men will point at them, and say. There goes a thief, a cheat, an oppressor. This keeps many from restitution. But dost thou not here commit a greater cheat than 370 CHUisT knockinct at the door.
the former? “Yhich is the greatest shame, thinkest thou, to commit sin, or to confess and reform it? To bind the snare upon thy soul by commission, or loose it from thy conscience by repentance and restitution; to be the derision of “wicked men, for none else will deride thee for thy duty, or be the contempt and derision of God, angels, and all good men for ever; to attain inward peace at this hazard, or to lie under the continual lashes and wounds of thy own conscience?
(2.) Poverty is sometimes pleaded to quiet the troubled conscience; and indeed this is a just, and very frequent blight of God on ill-gotten goods; the curse of God is upon them, and they melt away. 0 in what a snare have you now entangled your souls. Once you could, but would not restore; a worldly heart would not part with unjust gains: now you would, but cannot. Thus a worldly heart and an empty purse hold you first and last under the guilt of a known sin. A lamentable case.
(3.) Vain jyuiyoses often suppress and silence convictions. My condition may alter’; I may be in a situation hereafter when I can better spare it than at present; or I will do it in my last will, and charge xny executors with it. Thus do mien bribe their consciences to get a little quiet, while they continue under known guilt, and cannot tell how soon death shall summon therai to the awful bar of a just and terrible God.
Sirs, as you value your peace, and which is more, your souls, release the Lord’s prisoner which lies bound within you with cords and chains of Satan’s making; do it, I say, as you hope to see the face of God in peace. You know that without repentance there can be no salvation, and without restitution no repentance; for how can you repent of a sin you still knowingly continue in? Repentance is the soul’s turning from sin, as well as its sorrow for sin. You cannot therefore repent of sin and still continue in it: “How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” E,om. 6:2. Trust Providence for the supply of your wants and the wants of those dependent on you in the way of duty and righteousness. “A little that a righteous man hath is better t];ian the riches of many wicked.” Psa. 37: IG. You will have more comfort in bread and water with peace of conscience, than in full tables with God’s curse. You will lie more at ease on a bed of straw, than on a bed of down with an accusing conscience.
Instance 6. How many lie under the condemnation of their consciences, for the lusts of uncleanness 17i tvhich they live. They read, and their consciences apply to them such scripture as 1 Cor. 6: 9, 10: “Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous,, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” A dreadful sentence! And this, “Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.” Heb. 13: 4. Yet convictions are overborne and stifled by,
(1.) The 177ipetuous violence of carnal lusts, which permit not calm debates, but hurry them on to the sin, and leave them to consider the evil and dangerous consequences afterward. Thus they go, “as an ox to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks.” Prov. 7: 22. Lust besots them. To give counsel now is but to give medicine in a paroxysm, or counsel to him who is running a race. Lust answers conscience as Antipater did one that presented him a book treating of happiness, I have no leisure to read such discourses.
(2.) Others would fain solve their scruples with the failings of good men, as David, Solomon, and others; not considering what brokenness of heart it cost David, Psa. 51, and Solomon sorrow more bitter than death, Eccl. 7: 26. This is a presumptuous way of sinning, and how dreadful that is, see in Num. 15: 30.
Instance 7. Truth is often held in unrighteousness by sinful silence, in not reproving other men’s sins; thereby making them our own. We are sometimes cast into the company of ungodly men, where we hear the name of God blasphemed, or the truth, worship, or servants of God reproached; and have not so much courage to appear for God, as others have to appear against him: in such cases conscience is wont to stir up men to their duty, and charge it home upon them in the authority of such a scripture as this: “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart; thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him.” Lev. 19: 17. 0, says conscience, thy silence now will be thy sin; this man may perish for want of a seasonable, plain, and faithful rebuke; thy silence will harden him in his wickedness. No soonel’ does such a conviction stir in the conscience, but many things are ready to lay hold on it. As,
(1.) A spirit of coicardice which makes us afraid to displease men, and chooses rather that the wrath of God should fall on them, than their wrath fall on us. We dare not take as much liberty to reprove sin as others do to commit it. They glory. in their shame, and we are ashamed of what is both our glory and our duty.
(2.) DeiJendence on, or near relation to the person sinning. It is a father, a husband, a superior, on whose favor I depend, and should I displease him I may ruin myself; this is the voice of the flesh. Hence duty is neglected, and the soul of a friend basely betrayed; our interest is preferred to God’s, and thereby frequently lost; for there is no better way to secure our own interest in any man’s heart, than to fasten it in his conscience by our faithfulness and by being willing to hazard it for God’s glory. The Lord blesses men’s faithfulness above all their sinful, carnal policy. “He that rebuketh a man, afterwards shall find more favor than he that flattereth with his lips.” Prov. 28: 23.
(3.) Men’s own guilt silences them. They are ashamed and afraid to reprove other men’s sins, lest they should hear of their own. Fear of retort keeps them from the duty of reprehension. Thus we fall into a new sin for fear of reviving an old one. “He that reproveth a scorner, getteth to himself shame; and he that rebuketh a wicked man, getteth himself a blot.” Pro v. 9:7. But this is the fruit of our pride and ignorance. What we fear, might turn to our benefit. The reproof given is duty discharged; and the retort in return is a fresh call to repentance for sin past, and a caution against sin to come.
Instance 8. Another instance of conviction of unrighteousness imprisoned in men’s souls is, not distributing to the necessities, of others, especially such as fear God, when it is in the power of our hands to do it, and conscience as well as Scripture calls us to our duty. Men cannot be ignorant of that text where charity to the saints is by the Lord Jesus Christ put for the whole of obedience, and men’s eternal states are fixed according to their observance of this command. Matt. 25: 40, 41; though I fear few, very few study and believe it as they ought. Thou canst, says conscience, if thou wilt, relieve such or such a poor Christian, and therein express thy love to Christ: do it, God will repay it; if thou refusest, how dwelleth the love of God in thee? 1 John, 3:17. This is the voice of God and conscience, but divers lusts are ready to seize and bind this conviction also as soon as it stirs.
(1.) The excessive love of earthly things. The world is so deep in men’s hearts, that they will rather part with their peace, yea, and their souls too, than part with it. Hence come those churlish answers, like that of Nabal, “Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh, that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men whom I know not whence they be?” 1 Sam. 25: 11.
(2.) Unbelief; which denies honor and due credit to
Christ’s bills of exchange drawn upon them m Scripture, and presented to them by the hands of poor saints. They refuse to credit them, though conscience protest against their non-compliance. Christ says, “Whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.” Mark 9:41. He shall gain that which he cannot lose, by parting with that which he cannot keep.
(3.) The want of love to Jesus Christ. Did we love him in sincerity, and were that love fervent as it ought to be, it would make us more ready to lay down our necks for Christ, than we now are to lay down a shilling for him. 1 John, 3:16. It is our duty, in some cases, to spend our blood for the saints. So it was in the primitive times: Behold, said the Christian’s enemies, how they love one another, and are willing to die one for another. But that spirit is almost extinguished in these degenerate days.
Instance 9, How many stand convinced, by their own consciences, what a sin it is to spend their precious time so idly and vainly as they do. When a day is lost in vanity, duties neglected, and no good done or received, at night conscience reckons with them for it, and asks what account they can give of that day to God, how they can satisfy themselves to lie down and sleep under so much guilt. And yet, when the morrow comes, the vanity of their hearts carries them on in the same course again the next day; and while they keep in vain company they are quiet, till conscience finds them at leisure to debate it again wdth them. Now the things which overpower these convictions are,
(1.) In some men, their ignorance and insensihility of the preciousness of time. They know it is a sin to spend their time so vainly, but little consider that eternity itself hangs upon this little moment of time; that the great work of their salvation will require all the time they have; and if it be not finished in this small allotment of time, it can never be finished. John 9:4.
(2.) The examples of vain ‘pers.on?> who are as prodigal of their precious time as themselves, and entice them to spend it as they do.
(3.) The delusive power oi se7isual pleasures. 0 how pleasantly does time slide away in theatres and taverns, in relating: or hearing stories, news, and other such matters.
(4.y Inconsiderateness of the sharp and terrible rebukes of conscience for this on a death-bed, or the terrors of the Lord in the day of judgment.
In all these instances yon see how common is this dreadful evil of holding the truth in unrighteousness; yet these are but a few selected from many.