in danger of forgetting, that without it faith is dead. And the apostle of my text confirms the same sentiment, when, in writing to Timothy, he says, "That very charge by the authority, which belongeth to me as a teacher, I commit unto thee, son Timothy, that thou mightest fight under it the good warfare, keeping to faith and a pure conscience; remembering that "the end of the commandment is charity: out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned."

And happy were it, if this doctrine, entering so essentially into the very nature of religion, had been kept in view. It is to the forgetfulness of this truth that we must ascribe some of the most serious practical errors that have prevailed in the church. Men have overlooked the principle, that faith is an instrument, and not an end-the means of virtue and holiness, and not virtue itself; that a man may have all faith, and the truest faith, and as far as speculation goes,faith perfect and entire, wanting nothing; and yet that faith be held with an ill conscience and a wicked life. Now, the doctrine of my text is that a faith, thus held, is of no avail.

1. In the first place, there must be a good conscience in regard to the manner of forming it.

The soundest faith may be a mere prejudice, if it come only through education, parentage, the influence of early instruction, the force of mere authority, or any of those nameless undefinable, but all-powerful influences, to which every man from infancy to manhood, and through the successive period of his life, is exposed. If he take up his faith only as it come to him from his fathers, with the teachings of the nursery, with the associations of early childhood, from the contagion or sympathy of example, because it is the faith of others, who choose that it should be his also, from hope of man's favor or fear of man's displeasure, in fine, from any other source than personal conviction; then that faith is to him a mere prejudice, and however correct it may be as a speculation, it is nothing more and nothing better than a speculation to the individual who thus holds it.

He, therefore, who would satisfy his conscience in the forming of this faith, must draw that faith from the word of God, and not from the traditions or commandments of men. He must examine for himself, and not be satisfied with a prejudice or an impression. In regard to the fundamental doctrines, or what are commonly called the essentials of religion, he is happily not in danger of greatly erring, nor obliged to submit to a very tedious process of examination; yet his faith, even upon these, few and simple as they are, he does not hold

with a good conscience, unless he builds them upon his own personal investigation. He owes it to the greatness and importance of the subject; and to his own interest in the great salvation, not to receive even truth blindly or ignorantly. The being and perfections of God, the mission of his Son, Jesus Christ, the divine authority of his religion, the doctrines he inculcated, and the duties he enforced, should all be the subjects of his investigation. Otherwise, they may fail of being to him, whatever they may be to others, of any practical value. He is bound as a creature of God to employ his reason on the faith offered to his acceptance; to improve the means of knowledge that are put within his reach; he must compare the weight of testimony; and whenever there appears sufficient evidence to command his belief, that belief must be yielded. He must neither, on the one hand, reject what is true, nor yield himself blindly to what is false.

Nor let this spirit of honest investigation be confounded for a moment with a spirit of indifference, and still less with a spirit of scepticism, that disposes a man to doubt of every thing; the offspring, as will be found, of ignorance and vanity; of ignorance that is too blind to discern the nature or the strength of evidence, and of vanity, intent so fondly upon self, that it neither cares for, nor is willing to find the truth. For from this union of vanity and ignorance, as has been well exposed, is to be traced much of the infidelity, that at all different periods has lifted itself up among men. There are

those who love the distinction of differing from others; of showing themselves superior to the prejudices and superstitions of the multitude; who disdain, forsooth, to be led by priests; who read and hear, not to enquire, but to cavil and deny; as if mere doubting were an evidence of superior sagacity and intellectual skill.

2. We must hold our faith charitably. The very end and scope of the commandment is charity. It is not enough, as we have seen, that it be a sound faith; or that it be the result of a thorough and impartial investigation. We must connect with it so much distrust of ourselves, and such conviction also of the possibility, after all, of our being in an error, that we shall regard with great tenderness and courtesy the impressions, and what to us may seem even the errors of others. We . shall not feel ourselves justified under any pretence of zeal for the truth, by any clearness of conviction or assurance of faith, as to our own views, in condemning our brother, in denying him the Christian name, in withholding from him the charities, which independently wholly of his faith we owe him, as a

partaker of a common nature, as a child of God, and as a brother of the great family of man; as one, moreover, for whom Christ Jesus died. For in doing this, we walk not charitably. We forget that the very end of the commandment is charity, out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned.

3. Nor, thirdly, is it sufficient that we hold our faith with the approbation of our conscience: for that conscience may be erronecus; it may be a mistaken or perverted conscience, and may betray us into fatal errors. How many faults, nay, brethren, how many crimes, foul and dreadful crimes, have been committed in the name and for the sake of conscience. The whole history of the Christian Church, specially of the persecutions its faithful disciples have in different periods endured, is the history of the errors of a deceived or misguided conscience. The murderers of the Lord Jesus, at the very moment they were plotting with wicked hands and baser hearts to slay him, would not enter within Pilate's Hall, lest, forsooth, they should be defiled, and unfit to eat the Passover. Murder was in their hearts, but they were afraid to tread with their feet a Roman tribunal, because that would unfit them for sacrifice. Well did the Master say, "I will have mercy and not sacrifice;" and the knowledge of God rather than burnt-offerings. Even the beloved disciple, who for his mild and gentle spirit Jesus loved, could call down fire from heaven. upon those Samaritans, who would not receive his Lord. Peter, in a transport of well-intended, nay, generous passion, lifted his sword against one of the servants of the High Priest. And what, says Paul, the servant, the faithful Apostle, of his own rash but conscientious zeal, "I verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth: which things I also did at Jerusalem, and many of the disciples did I shut up in prison, and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities. Yet did he say; "Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience even to this day." "I was zealous towards God, even as ye all." And doubtless we must concede (the judg ment of charity, which is a judgment according to truth, demands it) that many things contrary to the spirit and even letter of the religion of Jesus; many bitter reproaches and cruel tortures have been inflicted under the misguidings of a deluded conscience. It is not enough, therefore, that we act from conscience. We must take care to enlighten it, we must not suffer pride, prejudice, interest, real or imaginary, to obscure or prevent it. We must pray, "Lord, open mine eyes, that I

may see. What is dark do thou enlighten, and what thou commandest, help me to obey.

4. And fourthly, having taken care to enlighten conscience, we must act in fidelity to its commands. We must not attempt to evade them. If it shows us a duty, that duty must be performed. If it calls from us a sacrifice, we must not only feel willing to make, but we must go forth and make it. We must not think to deceive or to deal craftily in so sacred a matter. There must be simplicity, even the simplicity that was in Christ, first, that we may learn, and then that we may follow the suggestions of conscience. We must be enabled to say, with the chosen people, "Whatsoever the Lord commandeth, that we will do." "Here, Lord, are we, do with us as seemeth good in thy sight."

And here I cannot but remark, that in interpreting the moral law, or in our enquiries in any given case for the way of duty, whether we consult the simple suggestions of reason, or the surer dictates of inspired truth, it will be safest to adopt the first and most obvious sense, that, I mean which offers itself first before interest or passion has warped our judgment or corrupted our hearts. For as the great law of equity commends itself at once to the unperverted mind, and the precepts of our religion find a ready sanction in every breast, so the first views of moral distinctions are most likely to be correct. A man, therefore has reason to suspect himself, when he finds himself hesitating in any particular instance as to the course of duty. I do not mean that there are no doubtful or difficult cases, where the most conscientious and faithful may not honestly pray, "Show me the way in which I should walk." But how seldom are we at a loss when we are called to judge of the duty of another: and when a man pretends that he cannot determine what is his own, it may not uncharitably be suspected, that it is his inclination struggling with his conscience, and his interest or his passions, unwilling to submit themselves to the law of God. You may imagine cases of conscience, and they may exercise, if you please, as they did in days that are gone, the skill of the casuist, but God hath set, written, his own monitor in the human breast. He hath showed thee, O man, what is good. The Gentiles, who have no written law, still show the work of the law written in their hearts; "The way of life to the wise, that he may depart; and the way of life is a high-way, so that none need err therein.

5. Yet further, if we would hold our faith with a good conscience, we must be faithful and true in the fulfilment of all our relative duties. In order to this, we must have truth in

the inward parts, and on our lips there must be no guile. This is our rejoicing, says the apostle, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world. And if we would be partakers of the same joy, we must do injury to none. We must defraud no man; we must render to all their due; we must speak the truth to our neighbor from the heart. No man holds his faith with a good conscience, though he understand all mysteries, and have all knowledge, if he withhold his just dues from his brother; if he neglects, when he is able, to discharge his just debts; if he be faithless to the trust reposed in him; if he permit himself in any species of deception or fraud.

But it is not enough that we abstain from wrong, it is not enough that we are righteous only. We must fulfil the whole law of love. If we would have the answer of a good conscience, we must put away all bitterness and wrath, and evil speaking, and be kind one to another, tender hearted. He that would hold his faith acceptably to God and approved of men, must be candid in his judgments, moderate in his censures, and more ready to forgive than to revenge. He must abstain from ungenerous suspicions, from evil surmises, from malicious reports. He must not so much as render evil for evil, but ever follow that which is good towards all men.

In truth, it will be found, that the habitual exercise of the kind and generous affections is essential to the answer of a good conscience. He must be a stranger to the true peace of the soul, who gives indulgence to his resentments, to bursts of anger, or habitual ill-will.

And if, through the imperfection of our nature, the weakness of our principle, or the strength of temptation, we have transgressed, then doubtless it is indispensable to the quieting of our conscience, that we make all the reparation in our power. We can never say, "return unto thy rest, O my soul," after we have gone astray, till we have sought pardon from God, and from our fellow creature. If we have sinned wilfully against God, we must expiate it by deep contrition, by humble confession, by supplication for pardon, and by holy vigilance for the time to come. If the offence be against our brother; the reparation must be proportioned to the injury. The duty of restitution is the undeniable dictate of justice. In vain shall we look for peace with God, while we suffer ourselves in enmity against our fellow men. No prayers, however frequent or fervent, no charities, however bountiful, can find acceptance or blessing, as long as we retain what is not