which we deceive our confciences, is to fet one duty against another. Hence fin is generally committed under the appearance of fome virtue, and hence the greateft crimes which have ever troubled the world, have been committed under the name, and under the fhew of religion. Such was the crime which we are now confidering. The obfervance of an oath has, among all nations, been regarded as a religious act; and here a fair opportunity offered itself to one who only waited for fuch an opportunity, to make religion triumph at the expence of virtue. If Herod had no inclination to destroy the Prophet, and no interest in his death, his confcience would have told him that murder was an atrocious crime, which no confideration could alleviate, nor excuse; it would have told him that vows, which it is unlawful to make, it is also unlawful to keep; but Herod was already a party in the caufe; he determined to get quit of his enemy; he fatisfied his confcience with fome vain pretences, and gave orders to behead the Baptift. But were all his anxieties and forrows buried with the Prophet?

No:

No: The grave of the Prophet was the grave of his peace. Neither the fplendour of majefly, nor the guards of state, nor the noise of battle, nor the shouts of victory could drown the alarms of confcience. That mangled form was ever present to his eyes; the cry of blood was ever in his ears. Hence, when our Saviour appeared in a public character, and began to teach and to work miracles, Herod cried out in the horrors of a guilty mind, "It is John "the Baptift whom I flew; he is rifen " from the dead."

How great, my brethren, is the power and dominion of confcience! The Almighty appointed it his vicegerent in the world; he invested it with his own authority, and faid, "Be thou a God unto "man." Hence, it has power over the courfe of time. It can recal the past; it can anticipate the future. It reaches beyond the limits of this globe; it vifits the chambers of the grave; it reanimates the bodies of the dead; exerts a dominion over the invifible regions, and fummons the inhabitants of the eternal world to haunt

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haunt the flumbers, and shake the hearts of the wicked. Tremble then, O man, whofoever thou art, who art 'confcious to thyfelf of unrepented fins. Peace of mind thou shalt never enjoy. Repose, like a falfe friend, fhall fly from thee. Thou fhalt be driven from the presence of the Lord like Adam when he finned, and be terrified when thou heareft his voice, as awful when it comes from within, as when it came from without. The spirit of a man may fuftain his infirmity, but a spirit wounded by remorse who can bear?

The second thing propofed, was to shew you the deliverance which the Gospel gives us from remorse, by means of the "blood of fprinkling." This expreffion alludes to the ceremonial method of expiating fin under the Old Testament, by offering facrifices, and sprinkling the blood of the victim upon the altar. But as this was in itself only typical of Chrift, How welcome to the foul is the glad tidings of the Messiah, who did what these facrifices could not do,-actually save his people from their fins? By the atonement

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G and blood of Chrift, the fins of men

have been completely expiated. It is the voice of the Gofpel of Peace, "Take, eat, "and live for ever." What relief will it give to the wounded mind, to hear of the blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel! The Gofpel being published to the world, and the offers of mercy through a Redeemer being made to all men, the fincere penitent accepts thefe offers, and flies for refuge to the hope fet before him. Then Jefus faves his people from their fins, he heals the mind which was wounded by remorse, and bestows that peace which the world cannot give, and cannot take away. There is joy in heaven we are told, over a finner that repenteth, and the joy of the heavens is communicated to the returning penitent. When he beholds God reconciled to him in the face of his Son; when he hears, in fecret, the bleffed Jefus whispering in fweet ftrains to his heart, "Son, be of good cheer, thy fins are for"given thee," he is filled with with joy; with peace which passeth all understanding; with joy which is unspeakable

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peace

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speakable and glorious. His fins being forgiven, he is accepted in the Beloved. He is an heir of immortality, and his name is written in heaven; to him is opened the fountain of life. He has a title to all the pleasures which are at God's right hand; to the treasures of heaven, and to the joys of eternity. He looks forward with a well grounded hope to that happy day, when he fhall take poffeffion of the inheritance on high; he anticipates the delights of the world, to come; and breaks forth into ftrains of exultation, fimilar to those transports of affurance uttered by the Apostle, "Who fhall lay any "thing to the charge of God's elect? It "is God that juftifieth; who is he that

condemneth? It is Chrift that died, yea "rather, that is rifen again, and who now "fitteth and intercedeth for us at God's right hand."

SER