prove a Remedy Will not this make the Wound to bleed so much the more To run into sinful Company when wounded in your Consciences will not this inflame the Reckoning Is not this to run so much the more upon the score with God O Sinners let me tell you all these Arrears must at the long run be reckoned for 2. Others they run to lawful Comforts and Enjoyments and so labour to stifle the Reflections of their guilty Consciences 3. Others they run to their lawful Employments as Cain did to build Cities so some go to their Trades to their Shops on purpose to drown the convictions of their own guilty Consciences 4. Others go to their sinful Recreations Carding and Dicing and Gaming 5. Others make Charms of their Duties and Forms as Papists go to their Pater Nosters and their Ave Marys nay may not this piece of refined Popery be in the Heart of such as call themselves Protestants But alas all these cannot bear down an awakened Conscience when God sets Guilt on The Third Use Is a word of Exhortation to poor guilty Sinners O! then yield an Ear to the Reflections of your own Consciences Many a Man's Conscience cannot be heard by him it checks him and chides him and reproves him but yet all this while the Sinner stops his Ear as the deaf Adder of which some write That she claps one Ear to the Earth and covers the other with her Tail O hear Sinners then what Conscience hath to say Hearken to the Preacher in your Bosoms Turn you about Sinners once before you die and listen to this Preacher 1. Sinners if you will not hear it now you must hear it whether you will or no hereafter And O how sad will it be to hear it there Where the Worm never dies and the Fire never goes out This Worm is the guilty Conscience which Sinners must hear in Hell if they will not hear it here Guilty Consciences preach in Hell and the Sermon is as long as Eternity it self Maak 9.44 and happy were the Damned if they could run away from these Sermons O Sinners you cannot stop your Ears in the other World against your guilty Consciences as you do in this 2. Sinners hearken to the Reflections of your own Consciences for your hearing them will be in order to the getting of your Sins pardoned Its Reflections are in order to your Repentance and your Repentance will be in order to your Remission They are both put together and preached in the Name of Christ together And would not you be glad to have your Sins pardoned Would not you be glad to have your Sins washed away in the Blood of Christ Would not you be glad to have this heavy and insupportable burden of Guilt removed off the back of your Consciences Are your Sins gone over your Heads as a Burden yea as too heavy a Burden for you to bear and would not you rejoyce to be led to Safety and Rest under all your Loads and Pressures 3. Be sure you attend to the Reflections of your Consciences for the Rod joyns issue with Conscience the Rod sets Conscience on work and they preach the same Doctrine Therefore we are called and strictly charged to hear the Rod. It may be Sinners Mic. 6.9 God hath tried other Preachers and they have done little good to make you sensible of your Guilt then God commissions these Preachers Conscience and the Rod. If a Man cannot come abroad and hear a Minister then Affliction shall preach to him at Home Now the Rod is assistant to Conscience Job 24.13 the Preacher in your Bosoms 4. Sinners be not deaf to the Reflections of your Consciences this is to sin against your Light nay to â—ebel against your Light And is not this sad and the guilt of this Rebellion you will be charged with another day 5. Poor Sinners Be not deaf to the Reflections of your own Consciences usually God follows such with his severest Judgments 1. Sometimes Temporal Many times God makes that threatning good upon such I will wound the hoary Scalp of every one that goes on in his Trespasses Psal 68.21 If Men will walk on in their Sins contrary to all checks and convictions of Conscience let them look for some severe blow of the Hand of God upon them sooner or later for tho the Sentence be not speedily executed it is not said it never shall Tho Execution day be for a while deferred yet it will come 2. Spiritual Judgments which are the worst and saddest of Judgments Many times Sinners deaf to their Consciences are given up to a seared Conscience to a reprobate Mind to vile Affection to their own Lusts to hardness of Heart And is not the judicially hardned Sinner the half-damned Sinner The Second Branch of Exhortation is To such as have Reflecting tender Consciences O then bless the Lord for such awakened Consciences It is a greater Mercy than you think of to have such a Monitor and Remembrancer in your Bosoms 1. Is it not a Mercy to be way-laid in a sinful Course To be prevented in Sin To be stopt in a Carreer and full Gallop for Hell This this is the end why God sets Conscience at work with a poor Sinner Had not many poor Sinners run headlong to utter Destruction and Damnation else May not many a poor Sinner say to Conscience as David did to Abigail Blessed be the God of Israel 1 Sam. 25.32 33. that sent thee this day to prevent me from shedding innocent Blood When thou hast had rebukes of Conscience hast thou not said Numb 22.34 as Balaam to the Angel in his way to stop him If my way be perverse before the Lord and displease thee I will get me back again And is not this a Mercy 2. Is it not a Mercy to be raised to Re entance after falling into Sin The Sinner's Sinning is his Fall the Sinner's Repentance is his Rising And are not all Conscience's Reflections when it is awakened in order to Repentance as hath been already hinted and is not this a Mercy to be pluckt as a Firebrand out of the midst of the burning O! how doth Conscience give many a pull at some Sinners to get them out of the Fire lest it should prove the Fire that never goes out 3. Is not this a Mercy to have thy Soul lie in the way of a Pardon Canst thou O poor Sinner expect Remission without Repentance Hast thou any Promise for it in all the Bible Produce it if thou canst O! whoever told thee so but Satan and thy own deluding Heart Do not all Offenders that receive Pardons from their Princes receive them upon their Knees Whither is it thy awakened guilty Conscience would send thee but to the King of Israel that Merciful King with Sackcloth upon thy Loins and an Halter about thy Neck in order to the receiving of thy Pardon Third Branch of the Exhortation O then bless the Lord for days of
you here reade A smiting checking Conscience is a very great Mercy tho little priz'd or esteemed by the most 3. Remember how bitter Sin was to you before you came to know what peace of Conscience meant how many a bitter Tear it fetched from your Eyes how many deep and bitter sighs from your Hearts yea even to the breaking of your Loins O what Gall and Wormwood was it to your Souls How often did you say will it not be bitterness in the latter end How often did you take up that Language to your own Souls This is thy way and thy doings because it is bitter it reaches to thy Heart c. But yet as you reade do you remember how sweetly all this ended in God's speaking peace to your Souls and you no more turning to Folly 4. Tremble to think of losing the Peace that God hath spoken to your Consciences under sense of Guilt when you meet with that guilt which concerns you O let the loss of your peace be like Hell to your Souls O blot not that Pardon your Redeemer hath written so legibly in his own Blood Blurring off your Pardon may cost you dear 5. Be afraid of the least Guilt the least Sin because it is Sin When Satan cannot prevail with you to venture upon greater Sins then he will tempt to lesser Sins But know you not that the least Sin is Soul defiling yea the least Sin is Soul damning unless the Blood of Christ sprinkle your Consciences How have many Souls groaned under the guilt of such Sins for many Years when God hath set them home upon your Consciences The third sort of Readers into whose hands this little piece may fall are such whose Consciences are seared such the Apostle mentions these are in sensible 1 Tim. 4.2 Truths make no impression upon them Ephes 4.19 they are be nummed The Apostle expresses it by being past feeling And when they are arrived at such an height of Sin what do such do The Text tells you They commit all Uncleanness with greediness Now to such I would say 1. The day is coming thy seared and insensible Conscience shall condemn and rise up in judgment against thee And O then who can stand before the witness of an awakned Conscience You may as well think to dwell with everlasting Burnings and tormenting Flames as avoid or evade the Testimony of a tormented and awakened Conscience Nay know that sometimes this Hell hath begun here Will not Cain tell you while he crys out My punishment is greater than I can bear No torment like the torment of a guilty Conscience Nay ask Adam and he will tell you when he was afraid and hid himself from the presence of God O Guilt you know cannot endure the presence of the Judge O doth not Pashur's case speak forth this truth What a terror to himself was he Did not Judas preach this Doctrine when he cri'd out I have finned in betraying innocent Blood Nero that Monster when he had killed his Mother Agrippina and his Wife and set Rome on fire after all this Guilt at last felt an Hell in his Conscience and could not rest Day nor Night so that when he died he cried out his Mother Wife and Father all will'd him to die Richard the 3d O what a guilty tormenting Conscience had he after the Murder of his Nephews in the Tower and the Night before he was slain at Bosworth he dreamed he thought all the Devils in Hell were halling him in most hideous and ugly Shapes What says Judge Morgan to this case after he had unrighteously passed Sentence upon the Lady Jane afterwards feeling an Hell in his Conscience cried out O take away the Lady Jane take away the Lady Jane Which made one say The Guilt which from unseen Pollution springs Pale sweating Horror in the Bosom brings 2. What tho your Consciences be seared upon the account of your Guilt being undiscovered Yet know God many times hath found out Guilt in an extraordinary way Providence treads not always the same Paths in discovering hidden Guilt Eccles 10. ult he can cause a Bird of the Air to carry the Voice and that which hath Wings to tell the matter He can reveal In quity from Heaven The Heavens shall reveal his Iniquity Job 20.7 and the Earth shall rise up against him One of our * Lord St. John Judges riding his Circuit of late Years met with this Passage One being Murdered and the Murderer not being discovered the Murderer being brought to the dead Corps the Corps opened his Eyes at the Murderer and fell into a Sweat This the Judge related to a godly Minister then living History is full of such Providential bringing hidden Guilt to light 3. Know poor Sinners while your Consciences are seared you are Satans marked Slaves In Ancient Times they used to mark their Slaves and the Holy Ghost alludes to it when we reade of the Mark of the Beast in the Forehead or in the Hand This Searing-Iron puts Satan's Brand upon you you are his And O poor Sinners did you but as you reade this believe it what restless Days and Nights would you have until you had some hopes of your escape from this House of Bondage Can you be content to live and die in the Devil's Drudgery Can you be content to be his bored and marked Slaves his Servants for ever Then you must have the Wages of such Servants and such a Service The Wages of Sin is Death Death Spiritual Death Eternal 4. Know poor Sinners there is not so much as one seared Conscience in Hell they are sadly awakened that are awakened with Hells flames about their Ears If you could hear the Crys and Shrieks of tormented Souls you would say Hell is full of sense of Guilt But alas now it is too late then Repentance is too late They are all saying This and this hath their own Ways and Doings procured unto them O it is bitter O it reaches to their Heart But O Sinners this should have been sooner 5. Know poor Sinners what you reade here if you go on in Sin you will feel another day for an aggravation of Sin yea and Condemnation too What reade what may prevent your Ruine and yet run on What split your Souls upon these Rocks and Sands you saw such Sea-marks before to keep you off O is not this to be wilful in your Perdition Is not this to run headlong to Destruction O Sinners hear God calling out of Heaven to you by his Servants Preaching to you Printing for you why will you die why will you perish why will you run on in Sin when you know that when Lust hath conceived it brings forth Sin Jam. 1.15 and Sin when it is finished bringeth forth Death O then poor Soul Reade and Hear and Pray that thou may'st prosit by all bless God for all and bring forth the Fruits of all Thus prays thy Servant for thy Soul J. R. Gen. 42.21
Did not I beseech thee not to do this abominable thing which God hates Did not I tell thee the sad effects of it but thou wouldst not hear 7. Aggravation it was their envy to their Brother They hated him because of his Dream of their Sheaves bowing to his and now they see the fruit of this their Envy O now when the aggravations of Sin are set home by God upon the Conscience O then Sin appears as the Apostle phrases it to be exceeding sinful Sin appears as a walking Ghost or Spectrum that haunts the Soul Now I shall proceed to the improvement of this Practical Truth Then 1. It affords us this Instruction that Sin leaves its sting behind it It may be the sting of Sin doth not appear at first It may seem to the Sinner to be an harmless thing but it always leaves some thing behind it that will torment the Soul at one time or another and this Sinners is a thing called Guilt There is a Worm that is bred by Sin and this is a guilty Conscience And the Worm O how terribly doth it gnaw No Torment like the gnawing of a guilty Conscience it is no less than an Hell on Earth it is to be in Hell's flames before-hand If you could ask Cain he would tell you what a Torment an awakened guilty Conscience is If you could ask Joseph's Brethren they would tell you If you could ask Francis Spira he would tell you If you could ask Judas he would tell you whether Sin after its commission doth not leave a sting behind it Nay to come down to your latter Times ask Butler the penitent Murderer Nay ask Savage and they will tell you that Guilt walks in the Conscience afterwards O how hath this sting of Guilt made many poor Souls cry out and roar again We all mourn like Doves and roar all like Bears What was the matter Isa 59.72 Their iniquities testified against them O what dispair it hath brought many into Therefore it was good Counsel of the Philosopher Look not upon Pleasure coming but going And as he said when askt so much for lying with a famous Harlot I will not buy Repentance at so dear a Rate O! Will not such Philosophers shame thousands of Christians O! What a dear bargain will your pleasurable or profitable Lusts be to you either here or hereafter 2. Learn we hence that though Conscience be dumb and silent now yet it will not always be so It may be thy silent Conscience is a seared Conscience but the day may come as silent as it is now it will open at thee though it now be a sleeping Lion yet it may be a Roaring Lion Joseph's Brethren had their Consciences silent many Years twenty Years together but now it speaks to them and charges their guilt home upon them and they could not stand before the Charge and Indictment but plead Guilty David's Conscience was strangely benummed for three quarters of a Year together as you have heard But when it was awakened O how it roared upon him Psal 38.8 I am feeble and sore broken I have roared by reason of the disquietness of mine heart 3. Learn we hence that the worst is not past because Sin at present is not discovered Many poor Sinners think O! their guilt is so secret and concealed that the World knows not of it their Christian Acquaintance know not of it their near and dear Relations know not of it by this they flatter themselves and think the worst is past O poor Sinners consider with your selves God knows of it and Conscience knows of it and it will and must come out sooner or later O then the worst is to come when Sin shall either be charged upon you by an awakened Conscience or by a Revenging God Ezek. 22.14 Ah Sinners What Hearts can endure or what Hands can be made strong in the day the Lord shall deal with you 4. Learn hence God is not only an Holy God but an Omniscient God he is Holy and by no means will he clear the Guilty This is a piece of his Name But he is also an Omniscient God knows where all the Sinners secret Guilt lies Psal 90.8 Our secret Sins are set before the Light of his Countenance The Lord saw all this secret Guilt of Joseph's Brethren it was as is said laid up with him Deut. 32.33 and hid amongst his Treasures What poor Sinners though your Relations see it not nor the World see it not yet God sees it Conscience sees it you can do nothing out of the sight of Conscience 5. Learn we hence the reason of that sorrow that many times follows Sin so that the Sinner knows not where to rest Thus Butler the penitent Murderer Thus poor Savage whose Case was the greatest Sermon ever preacht at Ratcliff-Gross The reason of this Sorrow is the guilt that sticks in the Conscience this fills the Soul with Horrour and Sorrow O now the Soul becomes a terrour to itself and it may be a terrour to all that are round about him When you are tempted to Sin O that you did but think this Sin will end in sorrow Will it not be bitterness in the latter end O how would this tend to the breaking of the power of a Temptation The 2d Improvement of the Truth is by way of Caution If Sin leave Guilt behind O then take heed of Sin Then poor Sinners this may well be a Sermon to you against Sin O then 1. Take heed of Sins that make deep Wounds in the Conscience such Sins as do Vastare Conscientiam make havock of Conscience sins against Light against the Light of Nature as thy own Conscience will accuse thee of if thou didst not sit under the Light of the Gospel Joseph's Brethrens was such a Sin David's was such a Sin And O how did it therefore break his Bones What are your secret Drunkennesses Uncleanness your secret Night-haunts will they not all come out one day and be brought to light Are they not sins against Light Yea against the Light of Nature Could you sin without controul of Conscience if youâ— did not put your Finger in the Eye of Nature 2. Take heed then of secret Sins also be they never so hidden they will walk in your Consciences another day Take heed of the works of Darkness they will come to light Did Joseph's Brethren think when they sold their Brother it would have come out thus Let not Satan and your own Hearts flatter you to think your sins will always be hid because at present they are so 3. Take heed of being hardened in sins Because God seems by his Providence to â—ink at it Many do so Psal 50.22 Because says God I kept siâ—nce thou thoughtst I was altogether like thy self Like â—â—nose Eccles 8.11 that Because Sentence â—â—as not speedily executed their â—â—â—rts were fully set in them to 〈◊〉 Whereas they should â—nake this use of it God's forâ—â—earance is to
can you stand under his Anger According to thy Power so is thine Anger 2. Conscience reflects upon the Soul's Pollution and Defilement another sad effect of Sin That a Soul which came out of the Hand of God so pure so spotless a Being should be so deformed and defiled O how sad is this 3. Another sad effect of Sin that the awakened Conscience reflects upon in a day of Affliction is the withdrawment of God's comfortable Presence from the Soul O! how did the Spouses Conscience Reflect when she said My Beloved hath withdrawn himself Sin makes God hide himself from his dearest Children And O what temptations are God's Children exposed unto when their Father is withdrawn O how easily then are they drawn in to think hardly of God to be jealous of God to question his Promise I might name many other sad Effects and Consequences of Sin that awakened Consciences Reflects upon But I will forbear The Third Query is this What kind of Reflections these Reflections of awakened Consciences are 1. These Reflections are home Reflections O Sinners when Conscience Reflects and charges it home this was the case of my Text it was a home charge Verily we are guilty concerning our Brother O how quick was Conscience now with them And so when David reflected upon his Sin charged upon him by Nathan Thou art the Man says Nathan I have sineed says David It may be for the present your Consciences say little to you are very silent but stay until God shall awaken them O then until your Sin be pardoned it will be a Terror to you and cause you to mediate Terror What though this Lion sleep day will come that God will rouze him up and then he will be a Roaring Lion O what an home Reflection was that of Judas I have sinned in betraying innocent Blood And surely Peter's Conscience charged him home when he went out and wept bitterly 3. These Reflections of awakened Consciences they are just and righteous Reflections O! Conscience doth not reflect without a Cause doth not accuse or sting without a Cause Was then not a Righteous Cause for this Reflection in the Consciences of Joseph's Brethren Was there not great Guilt a the bottom Did Cain's Conscience afright him without a cause had not he killed hâ— Brother Abel Did David Conscience smite him with out a cause when he cried out I have sinned Did Judâ— his Conscience torment him without a cause when he cri'd out I have sinned in betraying Innocent Blood Oh Sinners When you look into your past Lives and turn over the Book of your Conversations Page by Page Leaf by Leaf and observe Page and Margin well you will sind both full of causes for these Reflections May not you charge your selves for this Sin and the other for this unknown Guilt to the World and the other O then you will say it is a righteous thing that Conscience should Condemn and that the Sentence thereof is a just and righteous â—entence We reade of him that had not on the Wedding Garment his Mouth was stopt he stood speechless So will it be in this Day with all poor guilty Sinners they will not have a word to say for themselves why Sentence should not be Executed upon them Rom. 2.19 Every Mouth must be stopt that all the World may become Guilty before God 3. These Reflections are full of Horrour and Dread Fear naturally results from them and you know Fear hath Torment in it These Reflections become great Torments to guilty Consciences the inward gnawings of this Worm are very terririble Alas what can arise out of Guilt Sinners but Dread and Horror Guilt we say makes a Man affraid of his own Shadow O what a torment is this when a Man â—omes to be dogg'd and haunted where-ever he goes with with his own guilty Conscience He needs no other Executioner or Tormentor The â—ase of Spira is a dreadful â—anding Instance Herod heard â—f the Fame of Jesus and â—id unto his Servants Mat. 14.2 3. This 〈◊〉 John Baptist he is risen â—â—m the Dead therefore might Works do shew themselves in 〈◊〉 What was the matter â—ith Herod that he was thus â—â—â—tled and crys it was â—â—hn He had killed John â—â—d now John though dead â—â—lk'd in his guilty Conscience and as a Spectrum â—eadfully affrighted him 4. These Reflections of â—â—ty awakened Conscience are not easily quieted Conscience is not easily pacified Luther hath this passage It is as hard a thing tâ— comfort an afflicted Conscienceâ— as it is to create a World God says he Isa 57.19 created the fruits of the Lips Peace peace viz. in his Minister's Mouths when they are Barnabasses Sons of Consolation to troubled Souls O! Who caâ— speak Peace to a Woundeâ— Conscience but God Hâ— only can say to poor Souls iâ— danger of being Shipwrackâ— with these Storms of Conscience's Troubles Peace and bâ— still The Lord Jesus can only command these Wind and Storms to obey him Thus it was with David thâ— the Lord had sent Nathaâ— the Prophet to him to teâ— him God had put away hâ—â— Sin yet all this would not do until the Lord told him so himself which occasioned that Prayer of his Lord make the Bones which thou hast broken to rejoyce Psal 51.8 Make thou me to hear the Voice of Joy and Gladness 5. These Reflections of awakened Consciences are such as constrain the Sinner to seek out for ease Poor Souls now dwell in little ease they are disquieted and distressed and therefore look out for a Remedy A wounded Spirit who can bear Wounded Men you know groan for ease So do these wounded Souls Hence it was that Cain under the horrour of his awakened Conscience begins to build Cities to divert the rage of his throbing Conscience Many Sinners when awakened and troubled they go to the Musick with Saul to play the evil Spirit down It is said of Charles the 9th King of France after that dreadful Massacre in Paris which was in his Reign He never durst awake out of his sleep without Musick So many go to sinful Company and sinful Recreations to make use of them as a sleepy Sop to allay the rage of an accusing tormenting Conscience as tho they had a design to Conjure down the Guilt that walks in their Consciences But now when a poor Soul is truly awakened with a clear sight of Guilt in the Glass of the Gospel O then he begins to pray to seek out after Christ to enquire what he shall do to be saved to be pardoned O! how do such poor Souls like the stung Israelites under the smart and pain of the Wound run up and down to look towards the Brazen Serpent for Healing And like those prickt in the Heart cry out Men and Brethren what shall we do First Reason Why Conscience in a day of Affliction is quick at Reflections Because days of Affliction are days of Remembrance Conscience sets Memory now at work and now