IX. And the truth is, the religion of the wicked is a lie: "there is no peace, saith the prophet, to the wicked." (Isaiah, xlviii. 22.) Indeed there can be none; they are reproved in their own consciences, and condemned in their own hearts, in all their disobedience. Go where they will, rebukes go with them, and oftentimes terrors too: for it is an offended God that pricks them, and who, by his light, sets their sins in order before them. Sometimes they strive to appease him by their corporeal framed devotion and worship, but in vain; for true worshipping of God is doing his will, which they transgress. The rest is a false compliment, like him that said he would go, and did not. (Matt. xxi. 30.) Sometimes they fly to sports and company, to drown the reprover's voice, and blunt his arrows, to chase away troubled thoughts, and secure themselves out of the reach of the disquieter of their pleasures; but the Almighty, first or last, is sure to overtake them. There is no flying his final justice, for those that reject the terms of his mercy. Impenitent rebels to his law may then call to the mountains, and run to the caves of the earth for protection, but in vain. His all-searching eye will penetrate their thickest coverings, and strike up a light in that obscurity, which shall terrify their guilty souls; and which they shall never be able to extinguish. Indeed, their accuser is with them, they can no more be rid of him than of themselves; he is in the midst of them, and will stick close to them. That spirit which bears witness with the spirits of the just will bear witness against theirs. Nay, their own hearts will abundantly come in against them; and, "if our hearts condemn us," saith the apostle John, "God is greater, and knows all things;" (1 John iii. 20;) that is, there is no escaping the judgments of God, whose power is infinite, if a man is not able to escape the condemnation of himself. It is at that day proud and luxurious Christians shall learn that God is no respecter of persons; that all sects and names shall be swallowed up in these two kinds, sheep and goats, just and unjust: and the very righteous must have a trial for it; which made that holy man cry out, "If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" (1 Pet. iv. 18.) If their thoughts, words, and works must stand the test, and come under scrutiny before the impartial Judge of heaven and earth, how then should the ungodly be exempted? No; we are told by him that cannot lie, many shall then even cry, Lord, Lord! set forth their profession, and recount the works that they have done in his name, to make him propitious, and yet be rejected with this direful sentence, "Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity; I know you not." (Matt. vii. 23.) As if he had said, Get you gone, you evil doers; though you have professed me, I will not know you; your vain and evil lives have made you unfit for my holy kingdom: get you hence, and go to the gods whom you