himself, with whatever force he may put down all conscientious scruples, to whatever state of obduracy he may succeed in reducing the moral principle, it will re-assert its dominion, and, perhaps when it is too late to effect any real good, will pierce the soul through, with many and with intolerable sorrows.

Not even kings in the full triumph of power, and in the unbridled indulgence of their own wishes, are, in any degree, more free from the inward torments of a guilty conscience, than was the traitor Judas. The depth of colouring in which Tacitus represents the crimes of Tiberius, is only to be exceeded by that in which he paints the wretchedness of the tyrant's mind. In the midst of his licentious pleasures at Capræ, the dissolute but distracted emperor thus opens his mind, in a letter to the senate- What I shall write to you, O conscript Fathers, or in what terms I shall express myself, or what I shall altogether omit writing at this crisis, may the gods and goddesses visit me with a destruction more dreadful than the wretchedness I daily feel, if I know.' The historian then proceeds to assert that the very crimes of this wretched monarch had proved his torturers; fulfilling the declaration of Socrates, that if the minds of tyrants were laid bare, we should see them lacerated with cruelties and lusts; that neither the elevation of fortune, nor the shade of solitude could protect Tiberius from the agonies of an accusing conscience, but

the confession was extorted from him, that in his own breast he carried his perpetual tormentor. 1

An important use to be made of this peculiar property of conscience remains to be noticed. If we find, that even in the present life, conscience has such power to break in upon and to disturb the sinner's repose; what shall we think of its power in that future state of existence, to which both the word of God, and the moral faculty itself direct us to look forward. When we see, that increasing guilt produces an increased capacity for suffering even here; when we find, that sinners become so miserable under the vehement remonstrances of conscience, as "to choose strangling rather than life," and to rush headlong into the unknown horrors of eternity, as a refuge from the known and felt terrors of an agonized conscience; how reasonable is the conclusion, that such terrors will be inconceivably augmented, in that awful state, where the mind shall be endowed with a greater capacity of knowing, judging and feeling, than it can possibly, in its present condition, possess. Could we heap mountains on the crater of this volcano, to smother for a while its fires, the flames would but burst forth with greater fury in the end, converting the means used to restrain them, into instruments of a wider and more dreadful devastation. In eternity the conscience of the sinner will prove

1 Quippe Tiberium non fortuna, non solitudines protegebant, quin tormenta pectoris suasque ipse pœnas fateretur.-Tacit. Annal. Lib. VI. c. 6.

"the worm that dieth not." Distressing thought! that the supreme among man's natural faculties, the noblest portion of his nature, the angel (if the term may be allowed) within his breast, should be transformed into the gnawing worm which will never cease,—by bitter remembrances of past mercies slighted, of privileges unimproved, of talents abused, of golden opportunities for ever lost,-to torment the fallen soul of the impenitent transgressor.

Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." For they who seek in this world, a scene of enjoyment and not a field of duty' will surely make conscience their enemy; and if conscience be their enemy, then, though they may be able to turn aside its early remonstrances, they will heap up treasures of remorse for future days. Even in this life, the soul will often sink under satiety in the midst of its momentary pleasures; and in this state of imbecility produced by indulgence, conscience will arise to vindicate its long-resisted claims, to avenge its insults, and to exact the severest penalties for its wrongs. And woe be unto that man who obstinately refuses to meet these just demands and to bear these righteous chastisements; for if the voice of conscience be not heard when it exhorts to penitence, it will be heard when it awakes to reiterate the just and final judgment of

1 Whewell's Foundations of Morals, 46.

the Almighty. May all who have hitherto permitted themselves to trifle with its remonstrances, be warned by such considerations as these, to repent of this their sinful negligence, before they are compelled despairingly to exclaim, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved!"

CHAPTER XI.

A CONSCIENCE CONVINCED OF SIN.

Christian charity requires a faithful exhibition of the true state of

mankind, and then the application of the remedy.-Conversion is a solemn crisis in the history of a human being, a change wrought through the humbling process of conviction of sin.-The distinguishing properties of genuine conviction, are 1. Godly sorrow which causes the soul humbly to acquiesce in divine judgments-2. An unfeigned hatred of sin as an offence against God.-3. The referring of all outward acts of evil to the state of the heart. The source of this conviction is the Holy Spirit.-Barrow--The means by which it is produced are-1. The Holy Scriptures.-2. The preaching of the Gospel, and religious ordinances.-3. The various events of divine providence. The immediate consequences of true conviction are a sense of danger, wretchedness, and poverty, and an earnest desire for deliverance.

We have seen, in a former chapter,1 that conscience is deeply injured and degraded by the original transgression, and we have further had occasion to remark, in the chapter just concluded, that this radical evil of our nature is confirmed and aggravated by corrupt practices, till the conscience becomes first defiled, and then seared, through the exceeding sinfulness of unrestrained and unresisted sin.

1 Chap. VII.