Rather should we incline to suspect, that the monitor within has but faintly anticipated the judgment of him, who planted it there: and that, severe as the sentence may be, he will not fail to confirm it. On the other hand, it does by no means follow, that, when our heart has not cried out against us, we are then secure of our own rectitude. It is undoubtedly a just source of comfort and encouragement, that we feel no reproaches from within: but it may too easily happen, that conscience may be lulled to sleep, or charmed into acquiescence, either by the intoxication of present pleasure, or by the more gradual— and therefore more dangerous—influence of habit: and its silence is then a very insufficient voucher for our innocence; or rather, the want of its express testimony in our favour is, in itself, a ground of suspicion, that all cannot be right.

If, then, we seem to be acquitted, where, properly speaking* we have never been tried, that verdict affords little security for a like result at the bar of Divine Justice: but, if we already stand convicted by our own conscience, what hope can we have of an acquittal in that court, where no evidence can be withheld, and no inference ex plained away?

These considerations, my brethren, loudly call our attention to two objects of great and nearly equal magnitude: first, that we maintain, as far as possible, what the Psalmist calls "a pure and upright heart," or, in the language of St. Paul, "a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man:"" secondly, when "our heart condemns us," or, in other terms, when our own conscience convicts us of sin, that we duly avail ourselves of its admonitions; neither forgetting what it has suggested concerning our past conduct, nor endeavouring to stifle its remonstrances in future.

The former of these objects—that of maintaining a good conscience—may be said to embrace the whole moral duty of man: for how can any man's conscience, strictly speaking, be pure, who knows that he has, in any respect, violated the commands of his Maker? " Then," says David, "shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect

.. . "Acts xxiv. 16. 1. ,

unto all thy commandments."« Of unsinning obedience, however, we cannot believe man, in his present state, to be capable. If even our experience did not convince us of this melancholy truth, we might learn it from the Scriptures. Let us hear Isaiah. "All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way."* Well, therefore, might St. Paul declare to the Galatians, that "the Scripture hath concluded all under sin:"« and again, to the Romans: " We have before proved, both to the Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin."d But, while this fact entails upon us the necessity of perpetual repentance, it does not release us from the duty of a constant endeavour to resist our passions; especially, since we are permitted, nay required, to apply for "strength to help in time of need," to a source, from whence it is never withheld or denied.

And hence we may collect, in what degree, and by what means, it may yet be in our power, frail and fallible as we are, to obey that frequent injunction of St. Paul; who, with the fullest admis

* Psalm cxix. 6. * liii. 6. 'iii. 22. 'iii. 9.

sion of human infirmity, still urges us—and that, not by precept only, but by holding out to us his own example—to maintain a good conscience: "herein," says he, "do I exercise myself always; —to have a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man."" For, though it is but too plain, that no man can boast of that perfect obedience to the Divine laws, which alone, in the original and strict sense of the terms, could have established a clear and unsullied conscience;— nay, even—that not a single act of man can be free from all alloy of evil; yet, through the grace and mercy of our heavenly Father, whoever has truly repented of his sins, fully believing, that for Christ's sake, and through him alone, they are or can be forgiven; and, to his own best endeavours after amendment of life, has added his earnest prayers for support from above; may truly be said, according to the Christian scheme of acceptance with God, to have a " conscience void of offence." An offender, he may and must have been; but his Saviour has taken away his offences, "nailing them to his cross."*

■ Acts xxiv. 16. * Coloss. ii. 14.

But, before any man allows himself to acquiesce in the favourable testimony of his conscience, let him be well satisfied that it is not deceiving him. Many, I fear, are to be found, who, even in the most serious of all possible situations—under the immediate apprehension of death—are induced boldly to proclaim their own innocence, merely because their natural sense of right and wrong, instead of being strengthened and improved by the light of that Gospel, under which they have nominally lived, is either by disuse, or by their own positive endeavours to corrupt it, become torpid or perverse. It is to such men, that the phrase of the apostle is peculiarly applicable— "having their consciences seared with a hot iron:"" for, blameless as they declare themselves to be, they have no better ground for that pretence, than that they have not to reproach themselves with any gross or mortal crimes: while, in sober strictness, their conscience might remind them of a thousand minor offences, comparatively, perhaps, venial; yet such, as, if they be not timely repented,