the sacred writer brings against the moralists of antiquity, are much more forcibly levelled against their perverted conceptions of the moral than of the natural perfections of God. And where was the justice of this charge, unless the accused had possessed the means of becoming acquainted with God's moral character? That they did possess them is evidently implied in the reasoning of the apostle. The question,' however occurs, in what part of the creation do we find this manifestation of those attributes of the eternal Godhead, on which the apostle thus argues? It cannot be in the mere world of matter, or even of irrational life. Stones and trees speak not to us of the righteousness of their artificer. Brutes as well as men, are wonderfully made, and show forth the wisdom and skill of him who formed them, but they suggest nothing as to a moral author of the world.'. . . . ' If we pursue our way along the apostle's argument, we have not far to seek for that which we thus require. As we advance in the next chapter, we find him telling us clearly, that the heathen which have not the revealed law of God, have a corresponding law written in their hearts; that they are created with a conscience which bears witness to this law; that their thoughts accuse or excuse them in conformity with it; and therefore it is, that he concludes (in the third chapter of this epistle,) that all, Gentile and Jew, are under sin.'. . . .' There is a world within the heart of man, as well as a world without. There

are in the mind internal powers, a natural bearing of parts, a fixed constitution, which are most important works of our Maker's hand, and which demand our most serious consideration.'

'Surely God appears in far greater majesty when we view him as the ruler and lawgiver of the moral world, than when we contemplate the earth as his footstool, and the sky as his canopy. He sits enthroned, not only among clouds and lightnings, stars and planets; but also in the wider and deeper world of thought and will, of passion and action, his government is felt, his strength and wisdom are seen. There he has not only a throne, but a sanctuary. He has erected a tribunal in the human heart, so that though a man may do evil, he cannot knowingly approve it. On this tribunal, on this sanctuary we may well look with reverence; and as we read the sublime lesson of a great and wise God, in the wide page of the external world, we decypher in the moral constitution of man, a testimony no less significant, and even more touching and solemn, of his holiness and righteousness, his love of good and hatred of iniquity.'

92

II. While conscience conveys to us instructive lessons respecting the being and character of God, it cannot fail to apprize us, in many important particulars, of our relation to Him, and of the solemn obligations which that relation involves.

1 Foundations of Morals, p. 19.

2 Ibid p. 21. See also Chalmers' Works, Vol. I. p. 323.

C

With the same emphasis of argument by which it inculcates the existence of God, does it also inculcate lessons of humble reverence, of entire dependence, of absolute subjection to his authority and obedience to his will.

The language of conscience in reference to the supreme Being is, "It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves, we are his people and the sheep of his pasture." That constant reference to him "in whom we live, and move, and have our being," which an enlightened conscience would dictate, cannot fail to produce the most solemn and reverential awe of the divine majesty. When we behold him wielding at will the mighty, the subtle, and the complicated world of mind-directing or overruling, prompting or restraining, prospering or thwarting the thoughts and purposes of man, and governing, as easily as he moves the masses which compose the material universe, those intellectual elements, whose operations seem to us regulated by no laws, and reducible to no definite system of administration, we must confess that "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence by all them that are about him!" We cannot possess a deep consciousness of what God is in himself, and of what he is to us, without being solemnly affected with the consideration of his greatness and our own meanness, and when thus affected, we no longer wonder at the awe which rested on the spirit of Job and compelled him to exclaim; "I have heard

of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes!"

Yet awe is not the only practical lesson which conscience enjoins on us in reference to God. It teaches us to regard ourselves as standing not only in the relation of creatures to their Creatorfeeble creatures to an omnipotent Creator-but also in that of children to their parent, dependent children to a parent whose hand is able, and whose heart is disposed to supply all their wants. Entire dependence on him as the author of all our blessings, as the boundless ocean which feeds all the springs of life and enjoyment, as "the God of the spirits of all flesh," without whom "we can do nothing," and "from whom all good things do come," this unreserved dependence on a God of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, is what conscience, when suffered to speak, when free from ignorance, illusion, and prejudice, when rightly exercising its important functions, most decisively enjoins. When those delusive objects of confidence which too often withdraw the heart from God, stand arrayed in all their tinselled glory before the imagination, and invite our attachment and our trust, how often does conscience interpose, and directing our eyes heavenward, pronounce in our ears the affecting remonstrance, "Is not he thy Father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee and established thee?" 1 • Wilt thou

1 Deut. xxxii. 6.

lean on a bruised reed rather than on omnipotence? Wilt thou believe an earthly, and cast a look of cold distrust upon a heavenly friend? Shall all thy dependence be on an arm of flesh, and wilt thou refuse to confide in that arm which is alike sufficient to protect and to destroy the universe of created things?' Surely conscience would prompt us to acknowledge God as the supreme object of our confidence, and to say, "Now, O Lord, thou art our Father; we are the clay and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand." For, let it be observed, that the dependence of man upon his God, is intimately connected with absolute subjection to the authority, and obedience to the will of heaven. It is said of creatures beneath man in the scale of being "These all wait upon thee, that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. That thou givest them, they gather; thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good." But this waiting is not the waiting of voluntary subjection to the authority, nor of cheerful obedience to the will of the Great Giver. Man alone is capable of such waiting upon God; and conscience tells him that it is his first, his highest duty to yield himself with all his powers, a willing sacrifice to God, and thus to fulfil the only "reasonable service" of an intelligent and accountable creature. By absolute subjection to divine authority,

1 Isaiah lxiv. 8.

2 Psalm civ. 27, 28.