and then to carry on his Eye to a Future Judgement, as the Wife Preacher had long before practised, Ecclef. xi. 9. Know thou that for all these things God will bring thee to Judgement; and as was St. Paul's Method in the Text, is enough to make the Hardest Heart relent, and the ftouteft Sinner Tremble.

Little did the Governour of Judæa think, what he was about to do, when he brought forth his Prisoner to Divert him; No more than the Philiftines did, when they called forth Samfon to make them Sport: Little did he think that he had fent for him, to call him before the Judgement-Seat of God. He that was Supreme in all his Province, exalted above the Reach of Juftice, thought himself Secure and Uncontroulable ; but was now Struck with the Advertisement of a higher Tribunal, where Juftice could never be brib'd, nor overrul'd; where his Greatness could avail him Nothing, but he muft expect to be call'd to a Severe Account for all his Doings. However This was a fair Impreffion for the First Sermon; It was a Good Beginning, that might have bid fair for a Convert, if he could but have had the Courage to let the Apostle go on with the Happy Work. But fo long as he could not find in his Heart to part

with his Beloved Sins, he had no Mind to be farther disturbed with the Remembrance of his Guilt, nor terrified with the Apprehenfions of a Future Vengeance. Whilft therefore his Guilty Fears would not fuffer him to hear the Apoftle out; Nor his Vicious Appetites, that had fo long govern'd him, be brought to yield all on a fudden upon the firft Admonition, he fairly dismisses him, with Promise to take another Time to hear him farther. He was disturbed and uneafy upon the Apprehenfions that were now raised in his Mind, and was willing to adjourn the Melancholick Confideration to another Seafon. But being once got loose from his Prisoner, and having again charm'd his Confcience by the fresh Allurements of Sin, he never dar'd, as ever we can find, to make good his Promife, to hear him again on those Subjects, and fo loft the opportunity he might have had of making himself Happy.

Hitherto I have confidered only what lies Uppermoft in the Text; That is, I have confidered the Text as it hiftorically relates Felix's Particular Cafe; but I fhall now confider it as a General Cafe, for fo indeed it is, but the Counterpart of Many a Refolute Defperate Sinner's Cafe. Wherein I fhall confider

Ift. The Natural Power of Confcience, and its readiness to restrain and reclaim the Sinner.

IIdly. That Obftinate Sinners, who will not be Reftrained nor Reclaimed, are ready to Strive and Struggle all they can against their Confciences.

IIIdly. I fhall Confider the Grounds and Caufes of Mens dealing fo Unfaithfully with themselves, in matters of the Utmost Importance. And shall

Laftly, Conclude all with fome PraEtical Inference.

I. The Natural Power of Confcience, and its readiness to restrain and reclaim the Sinner.

As God has been pleased to give us a Law from Heaven for the Rule of our Lives, fo has he conftituted our Confcience as a Guardian-Angel over us, to look to us how we Obferve it, and to direct and keep us to the Obfervance of it. Some of the Antients look'd upon Confcience as a feo's voixos, a kind of Domestick God, or a God dwelling within them. But We Chriftians may well look upon it, though not as itself a God, yet as God's Vice-gerent in the

Heart.

Heart. And it is indeed a wonderful Faculty that God has planted in the Soul, enabling us to reflect and pass Judgement on our Actions: I do not mean Natural nor Animal Actions, (with which Confcience is not concerned,) but our Moral Actions, that is, all Actions that are in their Nature either Good or Evil, or of Good or Evil Tendency or Design.

And with relation to thefe, our Moral Actions, it is a very extraordinary Jurifdiction that Confcience exercises in

us.

As it is the Conftant Companion of our Lives, it must be a Witness of all our Actions: And it is not only a Witness, but a Judge and Cenfor of our Paft Actions; it is a Guard and Spy upon our Prefent Behaviour; A Guide and Director of our Future Conduct; and at All times a perpetual Monitor of our Duty to us. On all these our Actions both Paft and Prefent, or as yet but Design'd and Intended, Confcience deliberates, and paffes Judicial Sentence either of Approbation or Condemnation, approving, or disapproving them, as Good or Evil, according as it finds them Conformable, or Repugnant, to the Law of God, whither Written in our Hearts, or farther Revealed to us in his written Word, which is the Rule of its Judgement.

This, I fay, (the Law of God,) is the Rule, and only Rule of Confcience. For Conscience is not an Arbitrary Power: Though it is a Guide and a Judge to us, yet it is to Judge by Law and Rule, but is not itself a Law or Rule, to Us or our Actions, though it has often been made fo: Which has been a very Fatal Mistake, that has led Men into many Enormous Enterprizes, and furnished out Pleas to juftifie them. For not to mention those Unparallell'd Outrages that Men were hurried into by their furious Zeal and misguided Consciences in our late Times of Confusion, I do not question but that many of the Lu. xxiii. Betrayers and Murderers of the Lord of Acts iii. Life, had, as well as St. Paul when he 13.&c. perfecuted Chriftianity, the Suffrage of Acts xxvi. their Conscience in what they did, if a

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9. &c.

Mifguided Confcience had been fufficient to have juftified them in it: As the Approbation of Confcience, or a Perfwafion of the Lawfulness of the Thing, muft of itself be fufficient to juftifie whatever is done upon that Perfwafion, be it what it will, if Confcience were itself a Rule or Warrant for our Acti

ons.

But though Confcience is not a Rule, yet it is a Faithful Guide and Counsellour, and the best and Faithfullest Friend